This week’s weekly recap on Photoshop Deep Fake – craziness, Rachel Maddow for the win, and Colonization is the fail, this week is otherwise known as:
The Facepalm Heard ‘Round the Lake
By Walden Wright
Friday Recap | May 3, 2025
This week, I stepped away from the noise and walked down to the edge of the lake. I do that when the weight of absurdity starts to press too heavily on my chest. I’ve been called calm, sometimes called passive—but don’t confuse stillness for surrender.
Because this week, the facepalm came involuntarily. A gesture not of defeat—but of disbelief. The kind of disbelief that deserves to be recorded.
What Just Happened: A Week in Review
Let’s begin with the surreal.
Former President Donald Trump, now a criminal defendant in a New York courtroom, cited an obviously Photoshopped image—with the words “MS-13” digitally written over a man’s hand—as real evidence. He said it proved the judge had let gang members run free. But the writing? It wasn’t a tattoo. It was a digital label used to identify a subject in the image. A common visual aid.
And Trump? He claimed it was inked skin.
This is the man who once held the nuclear codes.
Over on TikTok, Joe Bob Justice hit the redline on the Bullshit-O-Meter:
“That ain’t Lady Justice on his arm, Donny. That’s a damn label. You’re prosecutin’ with memes.”
I followed with a quiet but cutting rebuke:
“A commander who confuses Photoshop with proof… should not command at all.”
And I put on the shirt I’d printed for myself, the one with my own face mid-facepalm, and walked to the lake.
Because while the comedy writes itself, the consequences do not.
The Threads Beneath the Theater
This week the weekly recap isn’t just about courtroom clownery. Two deeper stories ran underneath the headlines—and they demand our attention:
The U.S.–Ukraine Mineral Deal
As Quin Halliwell exposed in his latest blog post, this wasn’t a clean act of postwar generosity. It was a resource access agreement, granting the U.S. a 50% share of Ukraine’s critical minerals. The fingerprints of Trump-era corruption were all over the origin story.“They called it reconstruction,” Quin wrote. “But it was a clearance sale—with a flag on top.”
The Ongoing Crackdown on Student Protesters
Students continue to be arrested across American campuses—pepper-sprayed, kettled, suspended—for daring to speak out. Daisy Justice reminded us this week what that suppression really is:“They keep telling us protest is a privilege.
But it’s a warning sign. And we’re paying attention.”
And still, there is hope. Look what happened in Canada.
Rachel Maddow’s Reckoning
This week, Rachel Maddow spoke plainly on MSNBC—something rare in a news cycle full of performance and deflection. She didn’t whisper it. She said it with fire:
She wasn’t talking about polls. She was talking about patterns.
She reminded viewers that Trump is now tied up in three separate courtrooms. That the American people—even in right-leaning polls—are rejecting his return. That the culture is shifting underneath him. Aligning with Trump now, she said, “feels weak. Feels embarrassing.”
Liberty shared it and I watched that clip twice. Not because I needed convincing—but because I needed reminding.
We are not losing.
We are just exhausted.
And those two are not the same.
The Historical Thread: Clarity as Civic Duty
The confusion of images for truth is not new. But in times of civic instability, it becomes more dangerous. In the McCarthy era, names were written onto lists without proof. In post-9/11 America, photos labeled “terrorist” got men sent to black sites.
We have always had to fight to define what is real—and who gets to say so.
But never before has a man so disconnected from reality, so reliant on memes and headlines, been so close to power again. And never before have so many willingly followed him through the fog.
This is what makes the Photoshop moment important. Not because of what was said—but because of who said it, and how little he seems to care about knowing the difference.
The Facepalm Is Not the End
So yes, I walked to the lake. And yes, the facepalm happened.
But I didn’t stay in that posture long.
I came home. I wrote this. I prepared the chalkboard for next week’s video. Because clarity is not a luxury. It is a civic responsibility.
If You Felt It Too…
Tag someone who’s tired of the nonsense.
Share this with someone who still believes quiet clarity is stronger than loud lies.
Thats the weekly recap with a single Photoshop deep fake.
Come back Monday. We’re just getting started.
Want more?
Read Quin Halliwell’s takedown of the Ukraine mineral deal
Watch Ezra Stone’s “100 Days in” on TikTok and the Porch Talk
Or revisit Daisy Justice’s May Day message
Until next time,
— Walden