Monday, July 28, 2025

Chump keeps suing people for 'lying' while he lies non-stop

nancymeetsastranger



That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Nancy Meets A Stranger

Loved Beyonce in Vegas.  One of the best concerts of the year.  Daniel Dale (CNN) notes Chump's been attacking her and lying about her:

President Donald Trump called Saturday for the prosecution of music superstar Beyoncé – based on something that did not actually happen.

Trump claimed in a social media post that Beyoncé broke the law by supposedly getting paid $11 million for her endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris during an October 2024 event in Houston. But there is simply no basis for Trump’s claim that Beyoncé received an $11 million payment related to the Harris campaign, let alone for the endorsement in particular.
Federal campaign spending records show a $165,000 payment from the Harris campaign to Beyoncé’s production company, which the campaign listed as a “campaign event production” expense. A Harris campaign spokesperson told Deadline last year that they didn’t pay celebrity endorsers, but were required by law to cover the costs connected to their appearances.

Regardless of the merits of this particular $165,000 expenditure, it’s far from an $11 million one. Nobody has ever produced any evidence for the claim of an eight-figure endorsement payment to Beyoncé since the claim that it was “$10 million” began spreading last year among Trump supporters on social media. Fact-check websites FactCheck.org and PolitiFact looked into the “$10 million” claim during the campaign and did not find any basis for it.


He's a damn liar.  A filthy liar.  And he sues people who he claims lies about him.  But he thinks he can get away with lying.  


Trash Hogan (not his real name) thankfully died last week -- see "A racist and homophobe dies."  At LGBTQ NATION, Daniel Villareal reports on how Trash Hogan and bizarre plastic surgery victim Peter Thiel conspired to attack the press and how it led us where we are today:


Nine years after the lawsuit, Thiel has used his billions to help support the current presidential regime. Billionaire Amazon-owner Jeff Bezos now owns The Washington Post, too, and is arguably using his influence to make the publication more sympathetic to billionaires and conservatives who aid them.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk now owns the large social media platform X (previously Twitter) and has used litigation to bully watchdog organizations and advertisers who don’t want their content to appear next to the website’s proliferating neo-Nazi hate speech. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated $1 million to the current president’s inauguration fund while rolling back moderation and fact-checking that once helped restrain the real-world harm caused by the president’s conspiracy theories and lies.

Many mainstream publications have been cowed — under legal threats from the current presidential administration — from accurately describing the president’s numerous illegal, unconstitutional, and corrupt actions… including his many moves to de-regulate artificial intelligence (allowing it to train its limited language models on stolen writing and artworks while outputting “anti-woke” responses to user questions) and also the cryptocurrency industry, from which the president stands to make hundreds of millions.

In short, Gawker may have overstepped its right to report on Bollea’s sex tape, but the sort of oversight that Gawker helped exercise over tech billionaires is needed now more than ever.


Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Monday, July 28, 2025.  Chump accuses four prominent Black people of crimes in his latest attempt to distract from all the times he and Jeffrey Epstein went after females together, Tulsi Gabbard flames out as most cult members tend to do, if Donald's so interested in prosecutions over politicians buying endorsement he might want to examine how he got Junior's endorsement, and much more.


Over the weekend, Convicted Felon Donald Chump raged in that empty and pathetic ways of his.  This time he targeted former Vice President Kamala Harris, Rev Al Franken, media mogul Oprah Winfrey and singer-songwriter-actress Beyonce.  Hmm.  What do all four have in common?  Oh, that's right: Black skin.


Chump is losing his base over his longterm friendship with dead and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his friendship with Jeffrey's convicted sex trafficking partner Ghislaine Maxwell and his efforts to deny the relationships and cover them up as well as his sending Deputy Attorney General Todd Blache to meet with the convicted Maxwell in prison for two days last week a


Over the weekend, more news broke there.  Sasha Morris and Ellie Hook (THE MIRROR) reported:


CNN abruptly cut to breaking news about US President Donald Trump in a major twist involving Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and one-time confidante of the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

Anchor Erin Burnett greeted viewers as she plunged into the unfolding story, announcing, "Good evening, tonight we begin with the breaking news that we are just learning in this hour that Jeffrey Epstein's ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was granted limited immunity in order to talk with Trump's personal attorney turned deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche."

She elaborated on the implications of this limited immunity, explaining, "What does this mean, this limited immunity? Well, it allowed Maxwell to provide information without any fear that anything she said that is truthful can be used against her in the future." It comes as Trump takes no chances in an armored golf buggy as protesters storm streets across Scotland.

Possibly that's the news Chump was trying to distract from by attacking four Black people for his racist MAGA base.


According to Trump, you can't pay anyone for an endorsement.  Remember that.  He then lies that Kamala, in the 2024 presidential race, paid Al, Oprah and Beyonce for their endorsements.  Al Franken's a livelong Civil Rights activist and a Democrat he was never going to endorse anyone but Kamala.  Oprah the same and Oprah let's also add that, unlike Chump, she's not a craven whore.  She's not put her name on Bible or any other tacky thing that Chump does to try to raise money.  No, Oprah earned her money and built an actual empire.  Chump filed bankruptcies.  In 2008, Oprah endorsed Barack Obama.  It's no surprise that in 2024, Oprah endorsed Kamala.  Which leaves Beyonce.  Many people love Beyonce, not just her most devoted fans known as the Beyhive.  Those predominantly Black woman would have given her a serious case of side eye had she endorsed Chump.  Her mother would have whooped her ass.   But Beyonce and Jay Z, again unlike Chump, have earned actual money and, unlike Chump, they're not going around with their hand out looking for donations.


But there was bribery on 2024 endorsements.  One happened in front of our eyes and maybe Chump can refer that one to the Justice Department?


In the lead up to Robert Kennedy Junior 'ending' his failed campaign, he made overtures to the campaign of Donald Chump and to the campaign of Kamala Harris.


What did he want?

The promise of a position in their administration.  Whomever would make that promise would get his public endorsement.  


August 14th,  and CNN) reported:

      

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign reached out to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign to arrange a meeting about a possible role in her administration if he drops out of the race and endorses her, a Kennedy campaign official and a Democratic official told CNN.

The approach from Kennedy’s team occurred last week, and no meeting between the two candidates materialized, the Kennedy campaign official told CNN.

The effort to meet comes weeks after Kennedy and former President Donald Trump met in person during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where the two discussed a possible role for Kennedy in a potential Trump administration in exchange for an endorsement.

Kennedy campaign staff also attempted to reach out to intermediaries for Ron Klain, former White House chief of staff for President Joe Biden, but those efforts were fruitless, the Kennedy campaign official said.      


August 23rd, , , , and

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed former President Donald Trump Friday afternoon during a lengthy speech putting to rest his tumultuous independent presidential campaign.

Kennedy's campaign first confirmed the endorsement in a court filing in Pennsylvania before he took the stage for the speech in battleground Arizona. Trump has his own event in nearby Glendale later Friday, where Kennedy will speak, according to three sources familiar with the planning — the culmination of weeks of talks.

Kennedy’s decision to back Trump comes after weeks of back-channel courtship. One person familiar with the discussions said that Donald Trump Jr. had been looking to engineer a Kennedy endorsement of his father for six months, with another source noting that Trump Jr. had long felt that Kennedy’s presence in the race was hurting the GOP campaign.

For a time, polling was unclear about that question. But it changed dramatically after Harris took over as the Democratic presidential candidate and the polling landscape shifted. It's a reality the Trump campaign acknowledged in a memo from pollster Tony Fabrizio sent to reporters after Kennedy's announcement, which argues its polling shows that Kennedy's vote "breaks for President Trump" in every key state.

Still, the initial conservations started earlier, about a week before the Republican convention, with right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson connecting Trump Jr. with Kennedy.

From there, Trump Jr. and donor Omeed Malik served as go-betweens to help close the deal. The two sources familiar with the talks said that Kennedy is expected to play a role on the campaign trail going forward.

In an interview, Malik said Kennedy has not been promised a Cabinet position in exchange for his endorsement, though that's something Kennedy running mate Nicole Shanahan suggested when speaking on a podcast earlier this week. (Shanahan did not appear at Friday's event.)

But, Malik said, "I think both President Trump and JD Vance have said as much in the last 24 hours, that should they be successful, there are plenty of roles, and I think the area of health is one," where Kennedy could serve. 

Junior sought to sale his endorsement.  He'd endorse either campaign.  Provided that if he endorsed the winner, he would be given a role in the administration.  


Donald Chump is right.  You're not supposed to buy endorsements.  So maybe the Justice Dept should look into that.  I can remember when someone sleeping over in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House was a scandal.  Chump selling a cabinet level position apparently is not supposed to be a scandal?


MAGA trash doesn't know how to stop lying.  Take the ridiculous buffoon from Oklahoma who stumbled into the Senate.   Mike picked the fool for "Idiot of the Week" and writes:


Time for Idiot of the Week.  It was a hard one.  But Markwayne Markwayne, step on down and claim your prize.  The Dunce Senator sees his job as lying for Chump.  That's bad.  What's worse?  Not grasping that you're not supposed to admit that publicly.  Carl Gibson reports:

During a Thursday speech on the U.S. Senate floor, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) openly said the goal of his party was to "cover" for President Donald Trump over the Jeffrey Epstein controversy.

Earlier on Thursday, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee blocked an effort by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to attach an amendment to legislation that would have compelled the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release evidence pertaining to its investigation of the convicted pedophile. Mullin proposed a resolution of his own on Thursday that would essentially outsource the job of releasing Epstein documents to the courts, whereas Democrats have taken the approach of forcing the DOJ to publish its troves of evidence on the longtime friend of President Donald Trump, which, according to ABC News, the FBI has had in its possession since 2019. 

In his floor speech, Mullin characterized Democrats' Epstein-related resolutions as "political theater" while arguing that his own effort would suffice for full transparency. However, the Oklahoma Republican also said during his speech that Republicans' goal was to "cover" for the administration.

"I'm sure this would be handled just like any other thing they trued to go after like the baseless impeachments, or the baseless special counsels. Or the unbelievable amount of charges they tried to file against the president. I'm sure this will be handled the exact same way," Mullin said. "What we're simply wanting to do here is give [Trump] cover."

Mullin's remarks were met with outrage and lack of surprise on social media. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) tweeted from her personal account: "Yes, it's pretty clear that['s] what y'all are doing." Former CNN reporter John Harwood quipped that Mullin was "not the smartest senator."

No, he is not.  And he is a previous Idiot of the Week winner.  I have a feeling he'll end up to Idiot of the Week what Katharine Hepburn is to the Oscars -- a multiple winner. 


Even the conservative WASHINGTON EXAMINER is getting in on the fun of revealing Markwayne Markwayne's stupidity.  Their correspondent Annabella Rosciglione notes:

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) claimed former President Barack Obama oversaw disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s 2008 plea deal when Epstein first came into legal trouble under former President George W. Bush. 

"In 2009, there was a sweetheart plea deal that was made under the Obama administration with Epstein,” Mullin said, adding, “That sweetheart has not been exposed."

"No, that's not right. It was 2008. The U.S. attorney at the time was Alex Acosta. He was a Bush appointee. He went on to become President Trump's secretary of labor,” CNN’s Jake Tapper replied on State of the Union.

Mullin continued, however, to claim incorrectly that the case was handled in 2009 under Obama. 

In 2008, Epstein struck a plea deal with then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Alex Acosta, who was appointed to that role and several others in the Bush administration.


Markwayne Markwayne is the biggest idiot in the Senate and that's really saying something. 

The equally stupid Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard flamed out with her attempt to attack Barack.  She's now back to hiding in her office as others in the administration wonder about this childless cat lady and whether or not her failure to produce children is rooted to the cult she's a member of?  Is her Guru Chris denying to sign off on a pregnancy because he wants the cult to proceed deeper into the federal government?  Only Tulsi and her MaxiPad, all white outfits can answer that. 


Last night on HBO, LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER aired it's latest episode.  I transcribed the opening for a post last night.  I was hoping that by this morning, the clip would be up on YOUTUBE but it's not yet.  Here's a rush -- and rough -- transcript of Oliver's spot-on commentary:



John Oliver:  We're going to focus on developments concerning Jeffrey Epstien, once again voted Horniest Resident by DEEPEST CIRCLE OF HELL QUARTERLY.  Very basically, three weeks ago,  ago after repeatedly promising to release information on Epstein the Trump Administration then promptly announced "no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted" and released a video claiming to disprove there was any foul play in his suicide.  But when a reporter pointed out a problem with that video, Trump's answer wasn't great.


CNN live footage of White House cabinet meeting camera focused on Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio seated next to her and Donald Chump seated next to Marco. 


Reporter: Can you say why there is a minute missing from the  jail house tape on the night of his death?


Pam Bondi: Yeah.  Sure -- 

Donald Chump: Could I just say -- 


Pam Bondi: Sure


Donald Chump: Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?  That is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time on -- do you feel like answering?


Pam Bondi: I don't - I don't mind answering.

Donald Chump: I mean, I can't believe you're asking a question on Epstein at a time like this when we're having some of the greatest success -- and also tragedy with what happened in Texas.


John Oliver: Okay. Nothing about that is reassuring -- from Chump suspicioualy scrambling to try to change the subject to Marco Rubio quietly mourning the loss of his last shred of integrity which -- much like part of Epstein's prison video -- seems to have disappeared. That glib dismissal, understandably, didn't go down well especially given that Trump and his inner circle had been actively stoking this story in February conservative influencers were summed to the White House and handed binders labeled Epstein Files Phase One which turned out to contain virtually no new material -- this despite  the covers containing the phrase "The Most Transparent Administration In History" -- a claim which is not aging great.  And Trump has been struggling to move past this as new revelations keep coming out -- including a WALL STREET JOURNAL report about a gross letter Trump allegedly wrote for a book for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday. 


INSIDE EDITION journalist: THE JOURNAL describes the letter as "several lines of typewritten text" and the hand drawn "outline of a naked woman"  "The future president's signature is a squiggly 'Donald' below her waist."  Trump allegedly signed off with the words "A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret." 


John Oliver: Okay.  There is a lot there.  First, "may every day be another wonderful secret" is absolutely what would be inside a Hallmark card if they had a subcategory called "BIRTHDAY FOR PROLIFIC SEX TRAFFICKERS."  Second, the squiggly "Donald" below her waist was, in THE JOURNAL's words, "mimicking pubic hair" which is obviously gross but also -- and I know this isn't the point -- why the f**k is this Trump's signature?  Donald Trump has eleven letters, not four hundred  'M's.  His signature looks less like pubes and more like the polygraph result when he's asked if he's ever been friends with Jeffrey Epstein. Now, I have to tell you, Chump sued THE JOURNAL for defamation and strongly denied writing that letter which is understandable given it allegedly contains the line "We have certain things in common, Jeffrey." He also tried to brush it off by claiming "I don't draw pictures."  The problem is people very quickly pointed out, he very much does do that.  He basically spent this week desperately trying to draw people's attention anywhere else.  He threatened the Washington Commanders stadium deal unless they revert to their old name.  He posted an inexplicable three minute highlight reel of old internet clips like a woman grabbing a snake with her bare hands and various jet ski tricks and accused Obama of treason for trying to steal the 2016 election.  And in case it wasn't obvious, that was a flagrant attempt to deflect attention from the Epstein story, Trump basically admitted it.  


CBS MORNINGS clip of Chump speaking.


CBS journalist: At the White House, the president urged fellow Republicans to help change the subject.


Donald Chump: Every time they give you a question that's not appropriate, just say, "Oh, by the way, Obama cheated on the election."  


John Oliver: Yeah.  It's that easy and if they keep asking, just say, "Hillary shot JFK, Rosie O'Donnell did 9/11 and Nancy Pelosi f**ked a bat and that's how we got COVID. And no further questions."  And while distraction is usually one of Chump's greatest secret weapons it doesn't appear to be working here.  Even his sudden dumping of thousands of files related to MLK's assassination didn't do it. And King's daughter responded by posting this image captioned "Now, do the Epstein files" which is excellent.  In terms of internet clapback that is up there with Wendy's asking is we can send Katy Perry back into space ["Can we send her back" [replying to POP CRAVE's post "Katy Perry has returned from space"]. I don't say that lightly.  And so the harshest criticism is actually coming from Trump's most fervent supporters.  ven the Qanon Shaman posted, "F**k this stupid piece of s**t... What a fraud..."  And once you've lost dip-s**t Daniel Boone here, you are in trouble.  And it's understandable why Trump's struggling to get even his own base to take his word for there is nothing to see here -- because to do so, you essentially have to believe everything we've learned about Trump over the years is irrelevant or sheer coincidence.  All Trump did was repeatedly host Epstein at Mar-a-Lago, have him at his wedding, hang out with him at Victoria's Secret fashion shows, get listed as a passenger on his plane eight times, joke with him at a party while pointing out hot women and saying something into his ear that got the most grotesque smile in the history of human expressions, tell a reporter "I've known Jeff for fifteen years.  Terrific guy . . . he likes beautiful women as much as I do and many of them are on the younger side," and allegedly host "a 'calendar girl' competition" where "other than the two dozen or so women flown in to provide the entertainment . . . the only guests were him and Jeffrey Epstein."  You also have to forget about Trump bragging about his ability to grab women's genitals and claiming he can "go backstage" to beauty pageants while women were getting undressed -- something he was accused of doing by five Miss Teen USA contestants, and once remarking of his own daughter Tiffany, "She's got Marla's legs.  We don't know whether or not she's got this [gestures towards chest] yet but time will tell."  Beyond that, though, there's nothing there.  Except -- except for a jury finding him liable for sexual abuse.  But other than that, there's nothing to see.  And I should note that Trump denies the Epstein letter, the calendar girls contest and the claims of walking in on Miss Teen USA contestants changing.  He also says he broke off ties with Epstein before he was convicted of soliciting sex from a minor and he's repeatedly denied being told his name was in the Epstein files despite reports Pam Bondi told him months ago that his name was in there.  I guess, ideally, Trump would have Epstein on tape vehemently denying that connection. Fortunately, what he's got instead is this moment in Epstein's 2010 deposition.


Attorney: Have you ever socialized with Donald Trump in the presence of females under the age of 18?

Jeffrey Epstein:   Though I'd like to answer that question, at least today, I'm going to have to assert my Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, sir.


John Oliver: Yeah, no great.  If the answer's "no," just say taht. Instead, Epstein started listing amendments like he was ordering off the value menu.  'I'll have the number five, six, 14, 10, 12, 3 and which ever else means I don't have to break bro code.' Who knows where we go from here?  On Thursday, the Deputy AG Todd Blanche -- Trump's former personal attorney -- went to talk to Ghislaine Maxwell and it's not hard to imagine someone serving a 20 year sentence that only one man can commute coming up with whatever story serves his interest.  But even if that happens, I'm not sure it will stop the questions because people aren't letting this go.  When DHS and the White House posted this video announcing the TSA's new shoes on policy, comments on it included "Awesome.  So Cool.  What about the Epstein files??" and "TSA needs to check your shoes, they might find the Epstein files there."  And this White House post about Trump's AI initiatives got comments like "Where's the list donny" and "Captain Cankles...where's the list?"  And look maybe those files show nothing more than that Trump and Epstein are two creeps who enjoyed one another's company.  Do I personally think that's possible?  Though I'd like to answer that question, I think I'll plead the fourth, twelfth and twenty-second amendments.  But even if that's the case and Trump still  eventually ends up consumed by a conspiracy monster he cynically helped create and now can't control?  Then at least that will be a sliver of something that's frankly been in short supply in this whole Epstein story and that is actual justice 



There are Chump's lies and then there is his dementia.  Nikki McCann Ramirez (ROLLING STONE) addresses the continued decline in Chump's cognitive abilities:


  Earlier this month, while addressing attendees at a Pennsylvania energy summit, Trump told a bizarre story about his uncle, former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor John Trump. 

"[Ted] Kaczynski was one of his students," Trump claimed, referring to the prodigal mathematician turned hermit and serial mass murder known as the "Unabomber." 

"That's a smart man. Kaczynski was one of his students. Do you know who Kaczynski was?" Trump said. "There's very little difference between a madman and a genius. But Kaczynski, I said, ‘What kind of a student was he, Uncle John?' - Dr. John Trump. He said ‘seriously good,' he said he'd go around correcting everybody. But it didn't work out so well for him." 

Basically nothing about this story - outside of Trump's uncle being an MIT professor - was true. 

  Earlier this month, while addressing attendees at a Pennsylvania energy summit, Trump told a bizarre story about his uncle, former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor John Trump. 

"[Ted] Kaczynski was one of his students," Trump claimed, referring to the prodigal mathematician turned hermit and serial mass murder known as the "Unabomber." 

"That's a smart man. Kaczynski was one of his students. Do you know who Kaczynski was?" Trump said. "There's very little difference between a madman and a genius. But Kaczynski, I said, ‘What kind of a student was he, Uncle John?' - Dr. John Trump. He said ‘seriously good,' he said he'd go around correcting everybody. But it didn't work out so well for him." 

Basically nothing about this story - outside of Trump's uncle being an MIT professor - was true. 

 Trump built a career on firing people. He loves it, it gives him a thrill. There's one man in D.C. he apparently cannot fire: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. And it's driving him up the walls. 

Powell was appointed to his position as Fed chair in 2018 by Donald Trump, and ushered the American economy through the turmoil of the Covid-19 pandemic, and a subsequent period of persistent inflation that battered consumers. Despite the Fed having mostly gotten a handle on inflation, Trump has been publicly fuming (and threatening to fire) Powell for months now over his refusal to cut down interest rates - partially in response to Trump's inflationary tariffs and pinball economic policies. 

Earlier this month, Trump complained that Powell was "a terrible fed chair." 

"I'm surprised he was appointed, I was surprised, frankly, that Biden put him in and extended him," he added. 

Biden did reappoint Powell - but it was Trump who initially appointed him.  At this point, though, it seems that blaming his predecessor is so reflexive for Trump that he's erased his own appointments from his memory. 


THE IRISH STAR's Jack Hobbs also covers this terrain:


Concerns about President Donald Trump's health continue to swirl after the president struggled to understand a reporter's question during a meeting with European Union President Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland.

During the meeting, Trump seemingly struggled to hear a reporter's question in the ballroom of his resort. "Should Israel be doing more to allow food in Gaza?" asked the reporter.

"Say it," Trump responded while gesturing to the woman. The reporter then reasked her question, which the president did not seem to hear once again, forcing him to ask someone sitting next to him, "What is she saying?" It comes as Trump made 'disturbing remarks' about his daughter in a resurfaced clip.

"Should Israel be doing more to allow food in Gaza?" the unidentified man says off-camera. It's then that the president snaps back into his normal chatty self.

"You know, we gave $60 million to Israel and nobody even acknowledged it for food," the president said. "And it's terrible. You know, you really at least want to have somebody say thank you."

"No other country gave anything," the president remarked. "We gave $60m for food for Gaza."

Users of the social media site X were quick to point out the president's hearing issue. "Trump's age is showing. Biden would never be able to get away with this," one person wrote.

"Omg, he can't even hear! Put grandpa on the porch and leave us alone," a second commented. "Pure cognitive decline," a fourth added.  


Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:


According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 60,000 public schools and about 30 million K-12 students were left without a dedicated civil rights investigator due to Trump's cuts at ED.

Warren: “It’s disgraceful that Secretary McMahon is firing the people responsible for protecting our students with disabilities.”

Video of Exchange (YouTube)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in a forum held by Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), “Robbing Our Students’ Futures: The Indefensible Attacks on Public Education,” highlighted the consequences of President Donald Trump and Secretary Linda McMahon’s cuts to the Department of Education (ED) for students with disabilities and their families.

“It’s disgraceful that Secretary McMahon is firing the people responsible for protecting our students with disabilities,” said Senator Warren. “This forum is a valuable opportunity to speak out and stand up against these horrible cuts so we can start building a better future for our nation’s children.”

In the hearing, Senator Warren slammed Secretary McMahon for her broken promise to “make sure that our students with special needs are taken care of.” In March, Secretary McMahon fired half of the staff at ED’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which is responsible for protecting students facing discrimination in school, and closed down 7 out of OCR’s 12 regional offices, including the one in Boston. Nearly half of all OCR complaints involve discrimination against students with disabilities, and following these cuts, OCR has begun dismissing complaints at an unusually high rate.

Dr. Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, testified that due to the cuts at OCR, 60,000 public schools and 30 million K-12 students were left without a dedicated civil rights investigator, with OCR dismissing 30% more cases last year than in the previous year. She warned it would be “improbable, if not impossible” for OCR to sufficiently resolve incoming disability discrimination cases with staff cut in half.

Senator Warren also highlighted the story of G, a student with an intellectual disability whose mom filed a complaint with OCR after G was allegedly locked in a padded room at her school repeatedly, despite not posing a danger to herself or others. The Trump administration fired the lawyer assigned to investigate G's case, leaving G without any support. Ms. Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, stressed the importance of making the public aware of the impact of cuts to public education by sharing stories like G's. She described ED as an “opportunity engine” for providing educational oversight and funding for various education programs, which are crucial for students with disabilities.

“We are in this fight because we believe that the future of this nation lies with our children. We speak out, we fight back, and we do not pass budgets that leave the door open for more cuts for the education of our children,” concluded Senator Warren.

Senator Warren launched the Save Our Schools campaign in a coordinated effort to fight back against President Trump’s attempts to abolish the Department of Education:

  • On July 17, 2025, Senator Warren released a new 23-page report, “Education At Risk: Frontline Impacts of Trump’s War on Students,” highlighting warnings from 11 major national education and civil rights organizations on the impact of the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the Department of Education (ED), slashing support to millions of American students, primary and secondary school teachers, administrators, parents, and student loan borrowers.
  • On July 15, 2025, Senators Warren and Sanders, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, urging her to reverse the interest hike on student loan borrowers in the SAVE forbearance.
  • On July 14, 2025, Senator Warren joined a letter to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, and Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, demanding that the Department of Education stop blocking nearly $7 billion in funds for K-12 schools, including for afterschool programs.
  • On July 3, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in submitting an amicus brief for NAACP v. US, arguing to the United States District Court District of Maryland that President Trump’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education violate separation of powers and lack constitutional authority.
  • On June 10, 2025, Senator Warren met with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and delivered over 1,000 letters to McMahon that the senator had received from people in all 50 states who were worried about the Secretary’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.
  • On June 9, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in pushing the Acting Inspector General of the Department of Education to open an investigation into new information obtained by her office, revealing that DOGE may have gained access to two FSA internal systems, in addition to sensitive borrower data.
  • On May 20, 2025, Senator Warren and 27 other senators pushed for full funding for the Office of Federal Student Aid.
  • On May 14, 2025, Senator Warren led a Senate forum entitled “Stealing the American Dream: How Trump and Republicans Are Raising Education Costs for Families,” highlighting the consequences of Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education and President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” for working- and middle-class students and borrowers.
  • On May 13, 2025, Senator Warren agreed to meet with Education Secretary Linda McMahon and promised to bring questions and stories from Americans across the country to highlight how the Trump administration’s attacks on education are hurting American families.
  • On May 6, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted the consequences of President Trump and Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education for American families in a Senate forum.
  • On April 24, 2025, Senator Warren launched a new investigation into the harms of President Trump’s attacks on the Department of Education, seeking information on the impact of the Trump administration’s actions from the members of twelve leading organizations representing schools, parents, teachers, students, borrowers, and researchers.
  • On April 10, 2025, following a request led by Senator Warren, the Department of Education’s Acting Inspector General agreed to open an investigation into the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.
  • On April 2, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mazie Hirono, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon regarding the Department of Government Efficiency’s proposed plan to replace the Department of Education’s federal student aid call centers with generative artificial intelligence chatbots.
  • On April 2, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren launched the Save Our Schools campaign to fight back against the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and highlight the consequences for every student and public school in America.
  • On March 27, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led a letter to Acting Department of Education Inspector General René Rocque requesting they conduct an investigation of the Trump Administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.
  • On March 20, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders led a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon regarding the Trump Administration’s decision to slash the capacity of Federal Student Aid to handle student aid complaints.
  • On February 24, 2025, in a response to Senator Warren, Secretary McMahon gave her first public admission that she “wholeheartedly” agreed with Trump’s plans to abolish the Department of Education.
  • On February 11, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim sent Linda McMahon, Secretary-Designate for the U.S. Department of Education, a 12-page letter with 65 questions on McMahon's policy views in advance of her nomination hearing.

###


The following sites updated:

 

Friday, July 25, 2025

Matty Healy's mom treats him like he's an itty bitty baby boy

trumpandsassy

 

That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS  "Damsel In Distress Donald" and it went up last night.

This is brief.  And early.  Kirsty Hatcher (PEOPLE) reports:



Matty Healy’s mom isn’t mincing her words when it comes to her son’s short-lived romance with Taylor Swift!

During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Thursday, July 24, Denise Welch opened up about the pair’s relationship after host Andy Cohen quizzed her about Swift’s latest album The Tortured Poets Department.
The record detailed the duo’s brief romance as Swift seemingly sang about The 1975 frontman, 36, on tracks including "Guilty as Sin?" "Fresh Out the Slammer," "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" and "loml.

“Obviously, on pain of death can I talk about that episode, but being her mother-in-law is a role that I am glad that I lost,” the actress and Loose Women panelist, 67, said to gasps from the studio audience.

To which I say, "Oh shut up."  I don't think you have to be a Taylor fan to be ticked off at Mommy Welch.  Taylor wasn't her daughter-in-law.  Taylor dated her son.  Her 36 year old son.  Cut the apron strings, Mommy Welch, and let the boy unlatch.  (That means stop breast feeding him.)  

I feel embarrassed for Matty, he looks like a child now.  He needs to tell his mother to stop talking about his love life.

That's all from me.  I'm posting (a) to note Isaiah's comic and (b) to post.  But I'm in Las Vegas.  As noted here a month or two ago, we're seeing Beyonce in concert and celebrating a friend's birthday.  So I'm in the hotel room.  I'm about to shower and get the weekend started.  But I did make sure to post before that happened. 


Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Friday, July 25, 2025.  Chump's Justice  Dept plays footsie with a convicted pedophile, victims come forward to speak of how they are being effected, pieces of the late Epstein's past continue to float to the surface, Chump's war on immigrant is a war on all of us, and much more.


Ben and MEIDASTOUCH NEWS get us up to speed on Donald Chump and his circle jerk buddy dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. 



Alison Durkee (FORBES) offers these bullet points:

*DOJ officials are interviewing Maxwell at a courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Maxwell’s attorneys reportedly arriving around 9 a.m. EDT on Thursday morning.

*Blanche previously said the agency wanted to speak with her to find out “information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims.”

*The interview comes as the DOJ has controversially refused to otherwise release documents about its investigation into Epstein, and as Maxwell serves a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted on charges of sex trafficking and transporting minors to participate in illegal sex acts.

*Maxwell is also still in the process of appealing her conviction, most recently asking the Supreme Court to take it up, and critics and legal experts have expressed concern she could use the interview to her own benefit to get a more lenient sentence from the federal government.

*Those fears have been amplified by Maxwell’s history of alleged perjury, as the socialite was charged with perjury in 2020 based on allegedly lying during a 2016 deposition in a civil lawsuit about Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse.

*Maxwell was never tried or convicted of perjury: The charges were separated from her other counts prior to her 2021 trial, and when she sought a retrial of her sex trafficking charges, prosecutors offered to drop the perjury charges as long as her conviction on the other, more serious, counts was allowed to stand.


Chump still has his lawsuit filed against THE WALL STREET JOURNAL over their report on his birthday greeting to Epstein two decades ago, insisting it wasn't him.  On MSNBC this week. Lawrence O'Donnell broke the news that the birthday book still exists -- as do copies of it -- and he continued to report about it on his show last night.



While Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche disgraced himself, his position and the US government yesterday supplicating himself before convicted pedophile Jizzy Pants Maxwell, yesterday Jen Psaki used her time to instead speak with and focus on the women and girls exploited by Epstein and Maxwell.



Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Maxwell’s attorneys reportedly arriving around 9 a.m. EDT on Thursday morning.




As Maria Farmer asked last night on MSNBC, "Why would Maxwell be given a voice when she is a convicted pedophile?"  

Todd Blanche disgraced everyone yesterday as he rushed to a prison to meet with the convicted pedophile Maxwell -- to meet with her and her attorneys.  

As Lawrence has pointed out, Maxwell had plenty of times to speak.  She chose not to.  When she was on trial, she refused to take the stand.  But she'll talk to a Deputy Attorney General now?  When her testimony is apparently needed to protect Chump and back up his lies?


At NPR, Domenico Montanaro surveys the terrain:


Where do things stand and what's the latest?

Justice Department interview of Ghislaine Maxwell: Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal attorney of President Trump's, interviewed Ghislane Maxwell in prison on Thursday. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. What new information the DOJ is seeking or what it would learn — and what Maxwell could get out of it, if anything, is unclear.

Whether anyone can believe what Maxwell winds up sharing is another question. Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig told NPR's Morning Edition that if he were Maxwell's lawyer he'd advise her to share nothing and invoke the Fifth Amendment, which gives people the right to not self-incriminate.

"Even though she's already been tried and convicted and sentenced, she still could at least theoretically have other exposure to additional crimes," Honig said.

Grand jury transcripts: The government, encouraged by Trump, also sought to release grand jury transcripts from the Epstein case. A federal judge denied one of those requests. Two others are pending.

Getting out of Dodge: In Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson had Congress get out of town early for its August recess rather than take a vote aiming to force the Trump administration to release the Epstein files.

House Oversight Committee seeks Maxwell interview, too: After a subcommittee vote in which Republicans joined Democrats to approve a subpoena to compel Maxwell to speak to the committee, committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican, issued a subpoena for an interview to occur Aug. 11.

"While the Justice Department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to your and Mr. Epstein's cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government's enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of you and Mr. Epstein," Comer wrote in a letter to Maxwell released by the committee. "In particular, the Committee seeks your testimony to inform the consideration of potential legislative solutions to improve federal efforts to combat sex trafficking and reform the use of non-prosecution agreements and/or plea agreements in sex-crime investigations."

Trump knew his name was in the files in May, according to the Wall Street Journal and others: The Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy briefed Trump two months ago, letting him know that his name appeared in the Epstein files.

NPR has not confirmed that reporting, and the appearance of Trump's name alone is not an indication of wrongdoing. He and Epstein were friends for years; they were seen on video partying together; and Trump was even on flight logs for Epstein's plane before a falling out over a property dispute.

Honig told Morning Edition that it was highly unusual for an attorney general in the modern era to tell a president the details of an investigation it is conducting, particularly when it involves the president himself.

"Not at all," it's not normal for an attorney general to do so, Honig said. "And the question that this begs to me is, why? Why would the attorney general go and tip off the president — 'Hey, you're named in these criminal, closed criminal investigative files,' whatever 'named' may mean. That is highly abnormal, and if we look back at the history of attorneys general, through both parties, that would be seen as a breach of the attorney general's independence."

We're going to move over to the topic of Chump's War on Immigrants because we've got a lot there to cover.  I hope there will be time and space after that for Loose Lips Hegseth but we may have to put Pete on hold for next week's snapshot.  Chump's war on immigrants never ends.  Priscilla Alvarez (CNN) reports:


The Trump administration is moving to rapidly deport some migrant children who arrived in the US without a parent or guardian by having federal agents ask teens whether they want to voluntarily depart the country, according to two Homeland Security officials and a source familiar with the discussions.

The latest directive, which comes as the administration seeks to ramp up deportations, marks a departure from long-standing protocol which required that federal authorities turn over most unaccompanied children to the Health and Human Services Department, the agency charged with their care. Up until now, federal authorities didn’t ask unaccompanied kids from countries other than Mexico and Canada if they wanted to self deport.

This week, US Customs and Border Protection personnel were directed to ask children they encounter in immigration enforcement operations across the country whether they want to voluntarily depart the United States, the officials said. If the child agrees, agents will turn that child over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation. But if ICE doesn’t pick them up from CBP custody within 72 hours, agents will refer them to HHS.


[. . .]

While existing policy generally allows for the swift removal of children arriving from Mexico and Canada because they’re contiguous countries, that’s not true for children of other nationalities. And the targeting of those kids from other countries — many of whom are living in the US with family — marks an escalation of the administration’s deportation efforts.

“A child is in no position to understand the consequences of self-deporting, particularly without the guidance of an attorney,” said Neha Desai, managing director of Children’s Human Rights at the National Center for Youth Law. “Unaccompanied children are being used as pawns in an effort to deport as many people as possible, regardless of the human toll it takes on the most vulnerable members of our community.”


The question for Chump remains: Have you no shame?  Grasp that there's not even a pretense here, when it comes to deporting children, that the deported are criminals.  He uses that lie over and over to cover up deporting innocent adults.  But he offers no justirication for deporting children.  He's just cruel and fat headed.  Robert Davis notes DHS is insisting this is "fake news."
\
Chump's administration really has become the little boy that cried wolf, haven't they?  At this point, "Fake news!" from the Chump administration is basically a confirmation that the report is true.

Esteban L. Hernandez (AXIOS) notes ICE is bragging over an 8-day operation in Denver where they claim to have arrested 243 immigrants. ICE insists that they are all criminals but ICE tends to lie.  Back in March, for example, Chump was bragging about the 230 'violent criminal' immigrants that they were sending to the concentration camp in El Salvador.  However, yesterday a joint-investigation by PROPUBLICA, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE and ALIANZA REBELDE INVESTIGA revealed, "We obtained internal data showing that the Trump administration knew that at least 197 of the men had not been convicted of crimes in the U.S. — and that only six had been convicted of violent offenses. We identified fewer than a dozen additional convictions, both for crimes committed in the U.S. and abroad, that were not reflected in the government data."  And remember this month's  California operation that led to them beating Iraq War veteran and American citizen George Retes and ICE  holding him for three days?   Julie Watson, Amy Taxin and Olga R. Rodriguez (AP) note, "The government said four of the 361 arrested had prior criminal records, including convictions for rape and kidnapping."  The government says they nabbed 361 people.  And the government says four "had prior criminal records."

Again, they lie.  Over and over, they lie. George shared the details of ICE's assault on him to CBS EVENING NEWS this week.
 
 
 


ICE officials live to lie.  Sabrina Moreno (AXIOS) reports:

ICE agents are increasingly showing up at Richmond-area courthouses and arresting immigrants at routine check-ins once considered safe, local immigration lawyers tell Axios.

The big picture: ICE arrests at the Chesterfield courthouse have put a spotlight on the county in the past month, sparking concerns from some county leaders and conservative Sheriff Karl Leonard, who told WTVR it's straining efforts to build trust with immigrant communities.

But it's not happening only in Chesterfield. Henrico's Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor told Axios there have been three instances since June where federal agents showed up at Henrico's courthouse.
While Richmond's Commonwealth's Attorney Colette McEachin told Axios that ICE hasn't been spotted at city courthouses yet, "victims have expressed concerns about coming to court."
McEachin also says defense attorneys have begun calling her office asking if there are any ICE agents "in or near Richmond's three courthouses."
Zoom in: Then there are the arrests happening at routine check-ins in ICE's Midlothian field office — something Richmond-based immigration attorney Miriam Airington-Fisher says she hadn't seen before in her 16 years of practice.

These required check-ins are scheduled appointments for people with pending immigration cases where officers confirm their address and that they haven't had any criminal charges.
Airington-Fisher says even people with no criminal history who have "done everything right" are getting detained.
She's now advising clients to not attend these check-ins without an attorney.


You are not safe taking care of a legal matter in a court.  In America, you are no longer safe doing that.  Grasp that.  Grasp the black eye our legal system has now.
 
This is not protecting anyone.  This is destroying communities and families, inflicting unnecessary pain.  Horror story?  Rosanne Skirble (MARYLAND MATTERS) reports:


Daniel Fuentes Espinal has been pastor of Iglesia del Nazareno in Easton since 2015 — he is also an undocumented immigrant who fled the violence in his native Honduras in 2001 and put down roots on the Eastern Shore where he has ministered and raised a family.

Fuentes Espinal has no criminal record and has been trying to get approval to become a U.S. citizen, said his daughter, Clarissa Fuentes Diaz.

The unpaid pastor works construction to support his family, Fuentes Diaz said Wednesday. She said her father was on a routine errand to the hardware store for building materials when he was arrested by unidentified agents Monday.

“I’ve heard stories about [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] at Lowe’s in the morning, picking up whoever seems to fit their narrative or racial profiling,” she said.

[. . .]

Len Foxwell, a longtime Easton resident and family friend, said the pastor led his congregation as a volunteer and regularly provided food, shelter, clothing and toys to those who needed help.

“He is known for his unconditional generosity to those who are the most vulnerable,” he said.

“It’s personal for me. Our sons were best friends,” Foxwell said, in the wake of his 18-year-old son’s death last month in a car accident. “Pastor [Fuentes] Espinal was at my son’s deathbed and spoke at his funeral.”



Horror stories like that emerging day after day.  And most are not covered on the news.  But though these stories may fall through the media cracks, in the neighborhoods and communities impacted, the horror stories are known.  Americans feel revulsion over what Chump is doing, over the innocents being kidnapped, over the assault on our freedoms and on our legal system. 

Yet all Chump wants to do is increase the miseries he's inflicting.  Lauren Villagran (USA TODAY) reports:


The U.S. Army has hired a contractor to build the nation's largest ICE detention center, the latest move by President Donald Trump to use the military to deliver his promised mass deportations.

Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC will erect a temporary immigration detention center on Fort Bliss, in El Paso, Texas, near the southern border, with 5,000 beds, under a $232 million contract, according to the Department of Defense.
The cost will likely rise. A similar tent city built to house unaccompanied migrant children on Fort Bliss in 2021 during the Biden administration ballooned within months to nearly $1 billion.

Think about that.  And think about this from USAFacts:

Around 23 out of every 10,000 Americans -- 771,480 people --experienced homelessness in January 2024 according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) annual point-in-time report, which measures homelessness across the US on a single night each winter. That’s an 18% increase from the same report in 2023.

He's never been motivated to help the homeless.  He's never given a damn.  But he'll build bigger prisons for immigrants.  

He is divorced from reality and refuses to grasp how he is repeatedly harming this country.  We started noting months ago that his actions were going to impact tourism.  

We've been noting for some time how Chump has destroyed tourism to the US.  He's fat and ugly and hated around the world and that's enough to stop some from visiting.  He's also cheap and common and people don't spend money to travel to a country run by trash.  Then we get into all of his attacks on various counties and nationalities, his war on immigrants, his was on the LGBTQ+ population, every repulsive thing about him and people don't want to come.


That is a huge financial blow to this country.  Tourism generates so much money -- travel, lodging, food, souvenirs, etc.   At the start of this month, Bailey Schulz (USA TODAY) reported:


Las Vegas’ hotel-casino operators are all about the deals this summer.

Resorts World is offering up to 40% off room rates and a $75 daily resort credit, plus free self-parking through Aug. 28. The Strat's summer value package includes room rates starting at $49, plus a $25 daily dining credit. Other operators are dropping prices for locals to boost staycations.

The discounts come at a time when international and budget-conscious travelers are hesitating to book their next trip to the Strip.

May was the fifth consecutive month Las Vegas has seen a year-over-year decline in tourism traffic, with visitor volume down 6.5% to just under 3.5 million people for the month, according to figures from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

“I think there’s an uptick (in deals) due to the environment we’re in,” said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the LVCVA. "The operators here have the ability to turn a number of dials based on demand, and we’re – like the rest of the United States – down a little bit from where we were the past couple of years.”



The American tourism industry is being brought to its knees by President Donald Trump.

According to NBC News, foreign travel to the United States has fallen by 10 percent since Trump took office, and it's already having measurable effects on the U.S. economy.

"Oxford Economics estimates spending among international visitors to the U.S. will fall $8.5 billion this year, as negative perceptions of the U.S. tied to trade and immigration policy lead travelers to other destinations."

All of this was forecast in a grim report earlier this year, which showed Trump's tariffs alone could cause $90 billion in losses from international tourism boycotts of the United States.

But one area that's being hit especially hard, the report noted, is LGBTQ tourism.

"Bookings for queer-friendly housing accommodations in the U.S. on the LGBTQ+ travel platform misterb&b saw a 66% decline among Canadian users and a 32% decline among European users from February to April, compared with the same period last year."



There has been no improvement and the damage he has done to tourism just grows more obvious.  Yesterday,  STYLE ON MAIN reported:


The United States is experiencing a clear and measurable decline in its dominance of the travel industry. This is a financial gut-punch, not hyperbole or economic scare tactics. The collapse of America's inbound tourism industry is expected to cost up to $29 billion in 2025 alone, with repercussions for local economies, transportation, and hospitality. While other countries are setting new records, the United States, one of 184 economies, is seeing a complete drop in foreign visitor spending. This isn't a statistical anomaly. Policy, perception, and the psychology of foreign tourists who are collectively opting to spend their money elsewhere are all contributing factors to this dramatic reversal.

Geopolitical tensions, shifting global alliances, and competitive destinations that have taken advantage of America's current difficulties are some of the underlying factors that go beyond simple economic conditions. The effect spreads further into the service sectors that depend significantly on foreign visitors, escalating regional inequalities and compounding losses in sources of income that have historically been thought of as steady. 



According to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority data, the first four months of this year showed a decrease in the overall number of visitors. Mark Wayman, a recruiter for executives in the gaming and casino industries, told Business Insider in May that Las Vegas bookings through the summer are “the worst I’ve ever seen.”


He is destroying our country, our economy and our image. 

It's the cruelty and the hate that comes out of the Chump administration and that hate is embraced by a minority of Americans.  That hate exists to take advantage of immigrants, to harm them.  So if, for example, they speak out about poor living conditions, hate mongers try to have them deported. Josh Marcus (THE INDEPENDENT) reports:


A Los Angeles area family of Latino renters suing their landlord over a 2024 eviction claim they were met with a thinly veiled threat that they would be picked up by immigration agents, amid the ongoing, high-profile campaign of raids across the city.
“It’s not fair for him to take advantage of that,” former tenant Yicenia Morales told The Los Angeles Times. “I was born here. I have a birth certificate. I pay taxes.”
“I was already depressed over the eviction,” she added. “Now I’m hurt, embarrassed and nervous as well. Will he really call ICE on us?”

“It’s racist,” her attorney, Sarah McCracken, added in an interview with the paper. “Not only is it unethical and probably illegal, but it’s just a really wild thing to say — especially since my clients are U.S. citizens.”

The controversy stems from a June message from attorney Rod Fehlman, whom Morales and her lawyers at the firm Tobener Ravenscroft said they saw in state records was the legal point of contact for landlord Celia Ruiz and her real estate agent David Benavides.


This is not funny.  Stephen Miller probably thinks it is.  We've all seen his video from high school where he's giggling about torture and making it clear why he never had any friends and still doesn't.  Mia Maldonado (OREGON CAPITAL CHRONICLE) reports:

Threatening to call federal immigration authorities on employees after they raised concerns about their working conditions is considered illegal retaliation, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries is warning employers. 
Oregon law prohibits employers from discriminating or retaliating against workers because of their national origin, which includes actions that target workers based on their immigration status, ethnicity, language, ancestry or cultural traits. 

While the federal government is cracking down on immigration enforcement across the country, the state of Oregon has policies protecting people living and working in Oregon regardless of their immigration status. State agencies including the labor bureau and Department of Justice have pledged to take “aggressive action” to enforce the law in these cases. 

The agency did not immediately specify how many complaints it received involving threats to call Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. 

“Intimidating and silencing workers who simply want to be treated fairly by threatening or actually calling immigration officials on them is one of the most egregious forms of retaliation,” agency commissioner Christina Stephenson said in a July 16 statement. 

Again, don't be a bottom feeder like Stephen Miller and don't act like any 'jokes' about this being done to someone is funny. Chump has worked very hard to normalize hate.  He wants to terrorize.  Don't help him do that. 

Chump and company are terrorizing immigrants -- those with green cards and those without.  They're inflicting very real harm and destroying lives.  Don't help them normalize their cruelty.  Patricia Lopez (BLOOMBERG) notes:


Mandatory detention is the newest and potentially most powerful weapon in the White House’s arsenal for turbo-charging deportations. Once arrested, immigrants without legal status will, with few exceptions, be held in custody until they are deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That means they are no longer eligible, as in the past, to post bond at a hearing and have an immigration judge decide their fate. ICE alone will be the decider.

That threatens to transform temporary detention centers into long-term prisons - and to strip immigrants of the constitutional rights that are due to every person in the US, regardless of legal status.
Acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons wrote in a July memo obtained by the Washington Post that immigrants should be detained “for the duration of their removal proceedings,” a process that can stretch out for months, or even years, given judicial backlogs. That could affect millions of immigrants.

It is an aggressive move from an agency that is becoming increasingly reckless in its handling of immigrants. The policy is already expected to draw a court challenge questioning the constitutionality of sidestepping judges.

David Bier, director of immigration studies for the libertarian Cato Institute, told me it is part of a strategy to gain “total control” over the removal process. “Judges make an independent determination based on facts,” he said. “They’re not going to just do what ICE wants.” Once the norm, such independence now seems to strike this administration as an intolerable act of defiance.


Judges do that which is why Chump is trying to use JAG and why he is firing judges.  Margaret Kadifa (MISSION LOCAL) reported last week:

Judge Ila Deiss, who had been working for San Francisco’s immigration court since 2017, was fired Thursday, according to the San Francisco Immigration Court.

Judges Roger Dinh, Elisa Brasil and Jami Vigil were all fired in April, according to the San Francisco Immigration Court. That was one month shy of the standard two-year probationary period which, for all three judges, would have ended in May 2025.

That leaves a total of nine vacancies across 26 courtrooms, according to the San Francisco Immigration Court.


This should frighten everyone.  This inhumane and cruel.  It's already happening to immigrants as well as to a few US citizens.  This is not the way the law is supposed to work; however, if you silently go along with it, grasp that this is how all US citizens will be treated because we are on a very slippery slope.  



Agents from the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, are carrying out part of Trump's campaign promise of mass deportations by arresting people suspected of being in the country without authorization.

It’s a tactic that has been met with growing alarm by the Republican president’s critics.

In Lansing Thursday, a group of Democratic state lawmakers introduced legislation to ban local, state and federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks.

State Representative Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City) said the law would apply to all levels of law enforcement, but is specifically in response to ICE’s tactics.

“We must have clear, transparent practices by law enforcement. Our constituents demand it,” Coffia told reporters, “Anonymity makes enforcing accountability, enforcing the law and protecting civil rights damn near impossible.”

In this week's "Media: Why America's turned on Chump's war on immigrants," Ava and I served up two mythical sequences from cop dramas to underscore how what ICE is doing is not the arrest procedure that has been worked out over years within the United States.  But grasp that it can become the new procedure if we don't speak out.  If we go along with these kidnappings and these assaults as normal when the victims are immigrants, it won't be long before the same tactics are openly used on US citizens.  You speak up now or you risk losing whatever's left of democracy. 



Masked federal agents in unmarked vehicles have stoked fear in the immigrant community, with fewer people frequenting grocery stores and businesses, emptier streets in East San Jose and sparse showings for community events. Some undocumented residents are choosing to self-deport.

The operations have also given rise to ICE impersonators, including reported incidents at a Philadelphia university, the arrest of an impersonator in North Carolina for sexually assaulting a woman and an impersonator in Florida conducting a traffic stop and asking people for their documents, among others.


And it's not just ICE agents attempting to hide, Cassandra Burke Robertson (THE CONVERSATION) reports:


Something unusual is happening in U.S. immigration courts. Government lawyers are refusing to give their names during public hearings.

In June 2025, Immigration Judge ShaSha Xu in New York City reportedly told lawyers in her courtroom: “We’re not really doing names publicly.” Only the government lawyers’ names were hidden – the immigrants’ attorneys had to give their names as usual. Xu cited privacy concerns, saying, “Things lately have changed.”
When one immigration lawyer objected that the court record would be incomplete without the government attorney’s name, Xu reportedly refused to provide it. In another case, New York immigration Judge James McCarthy in July referred to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, attorney as merely “Department” throughout the hearing.

New York immigration Judge Shirley Lazare-Raphael told The Intercept that some ICE attorneys believe it is “dangerous to state their names publicly.” This follows a broader pattern of ICE agents wearing masks during arrests to hide their identities.

This secrecy violates a fundamental principle that has protected Americans for centuries: open courts. 

That is not acceptable.  None of it is.  And what they do to immigrants today, they will try to to citizens at a later date.

The government can not hide in the shadows in a democracy.  That's not how it works. 


The longer these attacks continue, the more inhumane the attacks get.  Now they want to treat immigrants like cattle.  Douglas MacMillan and Silvia Foster-Frau (WASHINGTON POST) report


U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has directed personnel to sharply increase the number of immigrants they shackle with GPS-enabled ankle monitors, as the Trump administration widens surveillance of people it is targeting for deportation, according to an internal ICE document reviewed by The Washington Post.
In a June 9 memo, ICE ordered staff to place ankle monitors on all people enrolled in the agency’s Alternatives to Detention program “whenever possible.” About 183,000 adult migrants are enrolled in ATD and had previously consented to some form of tracking or mandatory check-ins while they waited for their immigration cases to be resolved. Currently, just 24,000 of these individuals wear ankle monitors.

One exception would be pregnant women, who would be required to wear wrist-worn tracking devices, Dawnisha M. Helland, an acting assistant director in the management of non-detained immigrants, wrote in the letter. “If the alien is not being arrested at the time of reporting, escalate their supervision level to GPS ankle monitors whenever possible and increase reporting requirements,” Helland wrote.

The new ankle monitor guidance, which has not been previously reported, marks a significant expansion of a 20-year-old surveillance practice steeped in controversy. While tracking devices are cheaper and arguably more humane than detention, immigrants and their advocates have long criticized the government’s use of the bulky black ankle bands, which they say are physically uncomfortable, impose a social stigma and invade the privacy of the people wearing them, many of whom have no criminal record or history of missed court appointments.


This is still a democracy and this is still our country.  If you don't speak out, that might not be the case for much longer.  Again: We have to turn out in the mid-terms in November (and October for early voters) of 2026 and put Democrats in charge of Congress.  


Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:


Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on another Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision announced this morning, which concludes that President Trump has illegally impounded funding provided by Congress for Head Start programs across America, in violation of the Impoundment Control Act (ICA):

“Today, a top government watchdog confirmed what we’ve known for months: President Trump has illegally held up vast sums of funding for Head Start programs across America—blocking funding that working families count on every day for pre-K and so many critical services Head Start offers.

“Because of Trump’s illegal impoundment of this funding that Congress provided, we have seen Head Start centers temporarily close, families scramble to make alternate plans, and needless stress and panic in communities nationwide—including in Washington state.

“Stealing money from preschool programs? No President in modern history has demonstrated such contempt for working and low-income American families as Donald Trump.

“Trump has signaled he would like to eliminate Head Start—but that’s not his choice to make. Congress delivered this funding for Head Start on a bipartisan basis, and instead of trying to destroy preschool programs and breaking our laws to hurt working families, President Trump needs to ensure every penny of these funds get out in a timely, consistent way moving forward—and he must also finally get out the rest of the investments he has been robbing the American people of.”

In its decision, GAO also highlighted the Trump administration’s complete unwillingness to provide any explanation or justification for their actions, which, in this case, impact hundreds of thousands of children and families in Head Start programs across the country. This is further evidence that claims by this administration of a commitment to radical transparency are a farce—as this administration continues to try to hide what it is doing, and how it is spending taxpayer dollars, from the American public.

In April, Senator Murray raised alarm bells about how President Trump was withholding nearly $1 billion in Head Start funding, and she led her colleagues in demanding that the funds get moving. A Head Start center in Lower Yakima Valley, Washington state, was forced to temporarily close because of the chaotic delays. Senator Murray has also consistently warned of how President Trump’s dismantling of the Office of Head Start is hurting families nationwide.

In its decision today, the GAO concluded that:

“As explained below, we conclude that HHS withheld these funds from expenditure in violation of the ICA. The Head Start Act requires the Secretary to prescribe procedures to assure that ‘financial assistance under this subchapter shall not be suspended, except in emergency situations, unless the recipient agency has been given reasonable notice and opportunity to show cause why such action should not be taken’. HHS’s actions here were inconsistent with this legal requirement. … As of 2024, there were approximately

1,600 grant recipients across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, five territories, and Palau. Grant recipients, known as Head Start agencies, can generally receive federal funds that cover up to 80 percent of the approved costs of an agency’s Head Start program. ….  The Constitution grants the President no unilateral authority to withhold funds from obligation. …. In addition, plaintiffs in numerous cases before federal district courts reported Head Start agencies’ inabilities to access Head Start grant funding. While we accept that the rate of an agency’s obligations or disbursements of a given appropriation may vary from year to year, we expect that an agency’s obligations and expenditures, at any time throughout the fiscal year, will reflect a ‘reasonable attempt by the agency to carry out the purposes of the appropriation.’ Moreover, we would not expect substantial variations in disbursement rates in this case, where disbursements are directed by the Head Start Act. …. If the Administration wishes to make changes to the appropriation provided for Head Start, it must propose legislation for consideration by Congress.”

Presidents do not wield the power to unilaterally withhold or block investments that have been enacted into law through what’s known as “impoundment.” This foundational principle has been affirmed time and again. The Impoundment Control Act (ICA) of 1974 makes this plain and establishes limited procedures the president can and must follow to propose delaying or rescinding enacted funding. The Impoundment Control Act also charges the GAO with the responsibility of investigating and reporting to Congress when the president illegally withholds funding.

The GAO has now acknowledged that it has opened 46 impoundment investigations and counting. Today’s announcement follows the GAO’s first decision in May in one of its ongoing investigations, which concluded Trump is illegally impounding funding for electric vehicle charging, and a subsequent investigation in June concluding Trump is illegally impounding funding for museums and libraries across America. The ICA authorizes the Comptroller General to file suit when the president illegally impounds funding.

Since his first hours in office, President Trump has illegally blocked funding owed to communities across the country through a variety of different means. Senate and House Appropriations Committee Democrats have been tracking Trump’s illegal funding freeze and found that, as of June 3, President Trump is blocking at least $425 billion in funding owed to the American people.

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