FAM 18: Open Corruption Is Still Corruption

Trump Grift Continues | Cruel Republican Budget Advances | Who's The Boss?

I wrote a very long essay broadly documenting Donald Trump’s corruption last week. It was sparked by the Grift Force One story, but it laid the groundwork, and hit the bit coin schemes and a number of other blatant acts of corruption. If you missed it, you can read that here.

I tried to keep it to Trump 2.0, but the Trump grift and corruption is the hallmark, the through-line, the North Star of Donald Trump.

That, and sexual abuse.

From decades of screwing over virtually every contractor he hired, to the ghost-written books, a sham university, and steaks, and vodka, and wine, and charities — and that’s all pre-politics when he was barely treading water — a fake reality star billionaire open shady Russian investment.

Between administrations it was just a joke that became even sicker. NFTS, gold shoes, a Trump-branded bible, China-merch at every turn, his 180 on crypto and the rise of Trump bitcoin.

He makes P.T. Barnum look like St. Peter.

Given all that, one thing I mentioned — but purposefully avoided — was the probability of stock manipulation as he took fake Emergency Powers and personally starting wielding tariffs like a global economic Dictator.

Right off the bat there were questions about shady stock sales by MGT. Next up was AG Pam Biondi:

Now, there’s more reporting and more stories from solid sources that confirm that yes, of course, it was happening. A choice quote from Pro Publica:

Two days before that so-called “Liberation Day” announcement on April 2, a State Department official sold as much as $50,000 in stock, then bought a similar investment as prices fell.

And just before Trump made another significant tariff announcement, a White House lawyer sold shares in nine companies, records show.

More than a dozen high-ranking executive branch officials and congressional aides have made well-timed trades since Trump took office in January, most of them selling stock before the market plunged amid fears that Trump’s tariffs would set off a global trade war, according to a ProPublica review of disclosures across the government.

Congressional aides.

I’ve written about people getting their beaks wet in this regime. That’s an old-timey, 30s mob term that usually applies to middle mob management — the boss making sure that underlings get in on the grift to keep them happy and loyal. That even aides are getting stock tips — what used to be known as Insider Trading — is perfectly on brand here.

I can only imagine the scope of this stock manipulation — Trump likely gave the tip to tons of friends and business leaders alike. If and when we take back oversight this has to be investigated and justice served to all those who participated in the illegal and widespread fraud on our markets.

When a Dictator comes to power he doesn’t do it alone. And not everyone is a true believer. They are shamed or paid. They get fully on board, or they are always suspect and get thrown overboard.

The abject corruption — starting with Trump — is so broad, so brazen, so in the open, that a half-century of normal has all been burned to the ground. Our media is too scared or shocked to report on the magnitude of the corruption because it’s happening right out in the open.

That blatantly continued last week with:

The South African Shakedown

The headlines coming out of this meeting were all based on personality and identity politics. They were that. It was another gross Oval Office ambush. But, it was much more corrupt.

This was a shakedown in the open — with a Musk Starlink contract as the prize. I break it down here.

A Warning From Scott Pelley

CBS journalist Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes is an old-school reporter in the best sense of the word. He’s honest, fair, and takes his role in the Fourth Estate seriously. That role of journalists is to — first and foremost — tell the truth — not to force an obvious slide into Dictatorship into traditional political reporting.

I looked for the full clip of this graduation speech but have yet to find it. Well worth a click to see this clip from Democratic Wins Media. You can watch it here.

The Budget Is Coming! The Budget Is Coming!

After some last minute negotiation to make the bill worse for the vast, vast majority of Americans, House Republicans passed the One Big, Beautiful Act (they actually named it that for Dear Leader) known in reality as Reconciliation.

Now that legislation goes to the Senate where a number of Republicans have balked — mainly because it blows up the deficit by around $4 trillion. Could it improve around the margins before ultimate passage? Maybe. But, don’t count on it.

I’m not going to get into the details until we get them, but in the macro sense this is an abomination of historic proportions. This budget will cut hundreds of billions from vital programs relied on by millions and millions of hard-working Americans. And of course the most vulnerable in our society — because, you know, Christ was really all about punishing them.

It is the biggest transfer of wealth from the bottom to top in our history:

In 2026 this cruel and fiscally unsound budget with haunt every single member of Congress who votes for it.

Tick tock, Republicans.

CULTURE CLUB: The Studio Review | Springsteen Review & Spotify Mix

One of my all-time favorite movie scenes happens at the opening of Robert Altman’s great Hollywood satire The Player.

Fred Ward’s studio security chief is talking to someone about the cut, cut, cut of modern movies. It’s near the beginning of an impressive one shot and as the camera comes upon Ward he’s actually talking about another famous one shot in Orson Well’s Touch of Evil.

I had just recently seen Touch of Evil and immediately got the inside joke. Ever since I’ve always kept an eye out for one shots — a scene filmed in a single, uninterrupted take.

There’s been some great one shots since The Player, but I can’t think of one better or more insider than the one in Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s The Studio.

The shot in question is in the pilot — a one shot of a director shooting a one shot. A homage to an homage, if you will. It’s not the only one shot in the first season and it’s not the only reference to The Player.

Bryan Cranston, who plays fictional studio CEO Griffin Mill has the same character name as Tim Robbins in The Player — as if it’s the same character thirty-odd years later.

Specifics aside, The Studio bears favorable comparisons to The Player in tone, cinematic flair, great acting, sets, guest spots, and overall quality. While it might not always reach the heights of its mentor, it does so more often than not.

Rogan plays a new studio head who has to maneuver the intersection of commerce and art — from trying to trick Martin Scorsese to shoot a move about the Kool Aide Man because the IP (Intellectual Property) could be the next Barbie to a one-episode detective noir caper with director Olivia Wilde. There’s also a great episode with Ron Howard playing himself and honestly doing his best acting work ever.

My only real problem with The Studio comes in the middle episodes.

They’re all perfectly fine, I guess, as one-off episodes — but the narrative arc of the season is almost totally lost, and the totality of the season suffers for it.

But, just when I was starting to think the series was fatally flawed the last two episodes totally redeem those missteps.

Not only did the narrative arc of the season return, but it did so with a dark Golden Globes-based satire punctuated with pity and a finale set at CinemaCon a Las Vegas that features almost the entire main cast stones out of their gourds — most notably Cranston, who gives an Emmy-worthy performance.

The Studio has rightfully been picked by Apple+ for a second season. While already really good, I hope Rogan and Goldberg keep the arc more in mind and make it a real blockbuster.

Tuesday Mix: Western Stars Review + Bruce 25 in 2025

I’ve got to again thank Trump for recently attacking Springsteen and putting Springsteen on my listening radar. I’ve been on a bit of a tear ever since and decided to write a review of his Western Stars album that came out in 2019 — a semi-regular thing I do that usually isn’t included in my newsletters. It is high on my list of favorite Springsteen albums ever. You can read that review here.

The mix I made includes a number of songs from Western Stars and a few others from more recent albums. I tried to stay away from some of the monster hits from his long career and focus on some that are a little lesser known. Hope you enjoy!