Things that made me laugh this week - 6/5/26
+ a Brazil update.
Hello from Rio de Janeiro! My dog and I made it here alive, though the journey was harrowing. An update on week one is below the fold + some photos, as promised!
But first: We catch up on the week in news and the best of the internet.
Hunter Biden disarming MAGA with his god-tier posting
Former President Joe Biden’s prodigal son came crashing back into public life this week when he joined X and started posting rather frankly about his former crack addiction (he’s 7 years in recovery) and his laptop scandal in a way that seems to be low-key charming even the worst MAGA trolls.
It’s funny because Hunter Biden is the ultimate symbol of corruption of degeneracy for Republicans, but they really seem kinda caught off guard when he engages with them and owns up to his issues in an honest and endearing way.
The Hunter Biden “scandal,” if you can even call it that—(he earned $11 million over 5 years from jobs he got because of who his dad was, basically)—looks like peanuts compared to the Trump family enriching itself to the tune of billions of dollars from this presidency. And Hunter is really neutering the whole “what about Hunter Biden” retort that MAGA uses every time they’re confronted with Trump’s corruption by throwing into stark relief how utterly incomparable the two situations are. No one can insult Hunter harder than he’s willing to insult himself, but this is not a man making billion-dollar deals with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
Don Jr., by contrast, will never be admitting his own coke addiction, which is equally as obvious.
Trump had to cancel his birthday concert after all the artists dropped out
Martina McBride, Bret Michaels, Millie Vanilli, The Commodores, Young MC, and two other random bands dropped out of Trump’s “Great American State Fair” this summer, meant to celebrate America’s 250th birthday (as well as Trump’s), because they weren’t told when they initially agreed to it that it was going to be all about Donald Trump rather than a nonpartisan event. And the MAGA brand has become career-ruining toxic.
Trump initially responded by canceling the concert in a longwinded rant saying he was going to be the featured performer instead—perhaps not realizing how pathetic it is for a president to position himself a second string backup attraction to replace Milli Vanilli, a 90s band best known for its lip syncing scandal.
But Trump’s tantrum about the humiliation has raged on, and today he announced that he’s hired a tenor to perform “Nessun Dorma,” an opera song popularized by Pavarotti, at the concert in lieu of sole remaining performer Vanilla Ice. Yes, the president has chosen an Italian song that Pavarotti’s family has demanded multiple times he stop using as the entertainment for America’s 250th birthday celebration. Incredible.
Speaking of Trump being a queen—
He posted this on Truth Social, perhaps thinking it would make him look tough and popular, at the beginning of Pride Month ?
Queerbaiting? Oiled up dudes with pompoms? I really don’t know what’s going on here.
Marco Rubio denied that he’s wearing clown shoes to please the president
He’s lying. They’re too big.
A Pennsylvania mayor flipped out about a Love Island contestant, an actual cop who calls himself “Officer Sexy Pants,” leaving his job to join the show
I beg this man to get a grip.
Taylor and Travis getting married at…Madison Square Garden?
Please tell me this isn’t real. I genuinely can’t think of a less romantic venue.
…
In less funny news, Bari Weiss’s newly-tapped boss of “60 Minutes” has fired correspondent Scott Pelley for calling out her bullshit in front of the staff. Pelley then blew the whistle about Weiss in a statement, claiming he’s been instructed “to inject falsehoods and bias” and unverified assertions into his reporting since she took over at CBS News. Fuuuuuuuuuuck.
