Rebecca Purington

Living the surf and turf life in Fernandina Beach, Florida and Franklin, TN.

[Eh, what’s up Doc  @rabbitSZN2]

Who saw this a while back and just KNEW this was not gonna end well?

Trump made his motorcade drive down the reflecting pool before it was sealed.

The contractor didn’t clean up the motor oil and tire dust, they just painted right over it.

The paint failed exactly as predicted.

By June, massive gashes of blue lining were peeling off in the exact shape of the motorcade’s path. The oil trapped underneath stopped the paint from sticking.

Surface prep 101.

Six innocent people arrested.

[The Kobeissi Letter @KobeissiLetter]

BREAKING: May CPI inflation rises to 4.2%, the highest level since April 2023.

Core CPI inflation also rises to 2.9%, the highest since September 2025.

Inflation in the US is officially back above 4% and more than double the Fed's target.

Odds of Fed rate hikes are rising.

[Bob @RunFast79]

@TheRickWilson

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

NEW: MAGA evangelical leaders gather in Mar-a-Lago to bless and dedicate a gold statue dedicate to Donald Trump.

[John Harwood @JohnJHarwood]

"shot in the head because they're out protesting" hmmm

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

BREAKING: A DC pollster just texted me “it’s over” after Donald Trump’s speech today where he called “affordability” a “line of bullshit.”

There is not one Republican lawmaker who is up in 2028 that didn’t just shit their pants. He just gave Democrats the perfect ad.

[Rebecca Purington @purington]

Excellent questions, horrible answers. Especially at the end.

[Rebecca Purington @purington]

Smart.

[AnatolijUkraine @AnatoliUkraine]

Hegseth didn’t miss a warning.

He walked past it.

Troops were sent where drones could hit and defenses couldn’t answer.
Then came the funerals.

This isn’t a “mistake.”

It’s command failure with dead Americans attached to it.

[Lynda G Wonn👍 @islagiatt4]

@gtconway3d @TrueFactsStated The same adm that brought you Epstein, an unwarranted war, breathtaking corruption, defiled air & water, $5/gal gas, unaffordable groceries, massive layoffs, escalating credit card debt, mortgage defaults & destroyed alliances brings you lawfare by imbeciles & a goddamn ballroom.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Trump is about to hit REM on camera during an Oval Office event. It's just incredible.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Tariff refunds will total billions of dollars.

Now, you might reasonably ask who looked at all this and cheered.
Good question. Allow me to introduce you to them.

Two thirds of Trump’s voters in 2024 did not have a college degree. That is not an insult. That is a Pew Research finding. The gap between college graduates and non-graduates voting Republican was 13 points in 2024, wider than in 2020, and wider again than in 2016. It is a chasm that keeps getting bigger. 

These are the people who watched a man promise that China would pay America’s bills, nodded thoughtfully, and voted for him anyway. Twice. In some cases three times, if you count the primaries.

States where fewer adults hold a college degree are almost all reliably red. States above that threshold are almost all reliably blue. It is, at this point, the single most reliable predictor of how a county votes. More reliable than income. More reliable than religion. More reliable, frankly, than common sense.

And when the bill arrived, when $166 billion turned out to have been paid by American businesses and passed directly onto American families through higher prices on strollers, brake pads, and olive oil, these same voters did not pause for reflection. They went on social media and explained that actually, the deep state had rigged the Supreme Court.

One in four Trump voters agreed that God had personally ordained his election victory.  Not metaphorically. Literally divinely appointed. This is the electorate that was asked to evaluate a 50-page trade policy and determine whether tariffs are paid by the exporter or the importer.

They got it wrong, obviously.
But here is the thing about Trump’s genius, and I use the word with the generosity I normally reserve for describing a broken lawnmower as “retro.” He did not need them to understand the policy. He needed them to feel it. And what they felt was that someone, finally, was sticking it to the foreigners. The details were irrelevant. The foreigners were laughing. He was going to make them stop.

The foreigners are still laughing.
The Americans paid $166 billion to fund that particular fantasy, and are now watching Walmart collect the refund.

You really cannot make this up. Though apparently, you can make them vote for it.

Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

[Rebecca Purington @purington]

@atrupar Somehow, not that surprising.

[George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway3d]

Florida should be illegal

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

I cannot unsee this.
I've been watching Trump answer questions for years. The confidence. The certainty. The way he shuts down a room. I genuinely thought he was one of the sharpest communicators alive.
Then one day I caught myself finishing his sentence before he said it.
Not guessing. Knowing. Word for word. Before he said it.
So I pulled the transcripts.
Press conferences. Interviews. Sprays. Egg prices. Greenland. January 6th. Military strikes. Different years. Different reporters. Completely different topics.
Same thing every time.
Every single time Trump is asked a question — any question — he runs the exact same 7 steps. In the exact same order. Without exception.
This is not personality.
This is not confidence.
This is not charisma.
This is a deliberate repeatable formula. And I can prove it.
His actual words. Public record. Verify every single one yourself.
📷 STEP 1 — KILL THE QUESTION
(First thing every time — make the question itself the problem.)
📷 "That's a stupid question." / "Fake news."
📷 STEP 2 — KILL WHO ASKED IT
(Destroy the source so the question has nowhere to stand.)
📷 "Your ratings are terrible. Nobody watches your network."
📷 STEP 3 — INSERT HIMSELF
(Every topic. Every time. Without fail. It always lands here.)
📷 "Nobody has ever done what I've done."
📷 STEP 4 — SCALE IT TO THE BIGGEST CLAIM POSSIBLE
(Not good. Not great. The greatest. Ever. In history. Every single time.)
📷 "More than any administration — by far." / "Nobody has ever had crowds like I've had — in history, for any country."
📷 STEP 5 — UNNAMED PEOPLE AGREE
(Faceless. Countless. Unverifiable. Always there.)
📷 "Smart people are saying it. Great people. A lot of people."
📷 STEP 6 — VAGUE THREAT
(Something bad will happen. Never specified. Always implied.)
📷 "All hell will break out." / "They know it. Believe me."
📷 STEP 7 — LOOP BACK TO HIMSELF
(Different words. Same destination. Formula complete.)
📷 "It's been an amazing period of time. Page after page of accomplishments."
The question was never answered.
The formula just ran.
Go back and watch any clip.
Any year. Any topic. Any reporter.
Count the steps.
I'll wait.
This is the part nobody wants to sit with:
Real conviction engages with the actual question. It sometimes stumbles. Sometimes says I don't know. It changes shape based on what's in front of it.
A formula runs the same 7 steps whether the topic is war or egg prices.
Which means the response was never built for the question.
It was built for you.
To feel powerful. To feel certain. To stop you from noticing that nothing was actually answered.
And it worked.
For years it worked.
Pull any transcript. Public record. Count the steps yourself.
This isn't about politics.
This is about what you were never supposed to notice.
I've found the same deliberate pattern running in another major figure in this administration. Different slots. Same principle. Same effect.
Next post I break it down.
Follow or miss it. VIA~~ Jamie Hoo

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

Trump just set the clock.

10 AM tomorrow. The blockade goes into effect.

“Iran will not be able to sell oil. That will be very effective.”

Other nations working — but Britain already said no.

The 30-nation coalition has no confirmed members. The UN Charter prohibits blockades of neutral shipping without Security Council authorization.

China, India, Japan, and South Korea move their oil through that strait.

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

Australia just said no.

Britain said no. Australia said no.

America’s two closest Five Eyes allies — the countries that have followed Washington into every military engagement for 80 years — just publicly refused to join the Strait of Hormuz blockade.

Australia’s statement didn’t just decline. It delivered a verdict:

“The best way to get lasting peace — and to ensure petrol prices come down for Australians — is a negotiated settlement.”

That is a direct rebuke of Trump’s blockade strategy from an allied government.

[Mary L Trump @MaryLTrump]

The silence of Republicans as their president threatens to commit genocide is deafening.

They're all complicit.

[Andrew Bates @AndrewBatesNC]

.@axios today: "The wartime spike in gas and oil prices will likely push food prices even higher in the coming weeks"

@JDVance in 2024: "Vote for Donald Trump" if you want "low inflation and affordable groceries" and to return the world to peace and stability"