27 February—The first (public) meeting of Trump’s Second Cabinet of Unqualified Misfits (SCUM) was staged yesterday. It showed us one thing for sure: Donald Trump and Elon Musk (who isn’t even officially in the SCUM) are like two narcissistic ham actors (that’s a pleonasm) doing their level best to upstage one another while trying not to make it too obvious.

On the subject of Elon Musk, why, every time we see him mentioned in the media (not just the political press, mind you), is he “billionaire Elon Musk”? We know it already, godammit! Just like we know that many of the other Trump coterie or cadre (take your pick) are billionaires or close to it and out to feather their own nests through the good offices of their pal and messiah in the White House, who’s out to grow his own relatively meager fortune, too, legally or otherwise.

That’s what oligarchy is all about, after all. And the SCUM clearly has nothing to do with meritocracy, anyway, just unconditional loyalty to the messiah. While that’s not unique to the Trump 47 administration, it’s never been so unashamedly, arrogantly blatant. And harmful and embarrassing to the United States.

Back to billionaire Elon Musk, then, here’s a picture that appeared in yesterday’s Republican-American:

And here’s the blurb as set (typed) and printed: “lon Musk, left, receives a chain saw from Argentina’s President Javier Milei, right, as they arrive speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 20 in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Associated Press” [Verbatim with emphasis added]

The picture wasn’t flipped horizontally. So what happened? No cynical observations on AP and/or RA and/or Hearst not knowing left from right. Or people in the news, for that matter. But while Hearst has modified the Republican-American to a certain extent, to suit its corporate convenience and satisfy the corporate bean counters, it certainly doesn’t appear to have been for the better. Very sad and not at all encouraging . . .