Bruce Springsteen has a new box release due out shortly. Jenna Fanelli (WOMAN'S WORLD) reports:
Be sure to read Elaine's "If you don't know about Fleetwood Mac, don't write about them" -- she's calling out an idiot who decided to write about Fleetwood Mac's RUMOURS without even knowing what songs were on the album -- and the idiot got paid for that piece of bad writing.
Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"
Friday, April 4, 2025. Chump tanks the economy, right wing conspiracy nut whispers in Chump's ear, protests gear up for tomorrow, and much more.
Starting with news of an action. This Saturday. Tyler, Texas will be participating in the Hands Off action at the intersection of Broadway and Shiloh Road -- where the Barnes & Noble parking lot is, people will be gathering at 3:00 pm to tell the government hands off. You can visit this webpage for more information:
Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. We are fighting back!
They're taking everything they can get their hands on—our health care, our data, our jobs, our services—and daring the world to stop them. This is a crisis, and the time to act is now.
🚨 On Saturday, April 5th, we're taking to the streets to fight back with a clear message: Hands off! 🚨
This mass mobilization day is our message to the world that we do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies. Alongside Americans across the country, we are marching, rallying, and protesting to demand a stop the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country.
A core principle behind all Hands Off! events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.
These actions will be taking place across the country. Mike noted the action at his website last night and added, "I loved being in Texas and campaigning. I loved the people of Texas. Tyler was a great place and I spent a week there while speaking in Tyler, in Kilgore and in Longview. I'm so glad that Tyler's going to show their strength on Saturday. I applaud you and I'm there with you in spirit."
If you think about politics traditionally, Trump’s tariffs don’t make sense. Presidents’ political fortunes are generally tied to the strength of the economy, so they can be expected not to take actions that almost all economists predict will cause economic pain, both short and long term. So if Trump is willing to hurt the economy, he must be getting something he wants even more in return.
That thing is power. With tariffs, Trump can exercise a kind of corruption that the country hasn’t experienced in some 150 years—a kind of control that is ultimately incompatible with both democracy and prosperity.
Even those close to Trump see this trade for what it is. “Tariffs are a tool the president enjoys because it’s personal power,” Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who served in Trump’s first-term cabinet, told HuffPost Tuesday. “It’s personal―he doesn’t have to go through Congress. He can exercise personal power.”
But history shows that an economy run on favors and grievances is ultimately a poor one. “If you look around the world, it’s really clear that the places that are rich have good governments,” says John Joseph Wallis, an economic historian at the University of Maryland. “What Trump is doing is not governing well. He’s like a third world dictator. He’s trying to behave that way.”
Wallis’ research focuses on understanding why fairer political systems tend to create the strongest economies. His conclusion is that the answer lies in allowing everyone to operate by the same set of rules—what are known as impersonal or general laws. Just as American democracy was only truly realized by the 14th Amendment’s promise of equality and the expansion of voting rights to all citizens, an advanced capitalist society requires that every person and company operate under the same set of financial rules. The rules do not necessarily have to be unbound, laissez-faire capitalism without redistribution, but the rules and regulations must be evenly enforced.
Wall Street was engulfed in chaos today as a wave of panic selling erased $2.8 trillion in market value, triggered by escalating fallout from the Trump administration’s aggressive new tariff regime. Investors fled equities in droves, hammering every major index and dragging the U.S. dollar back to pre-election levels.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average cratered 1,642 points, or 4.7%, marking one of the steepest one-day point drops in history. The Nasdaq Composite nosedived 1,022 points, or 5.4%, while the S&P 500 shed 4.8%, its worst session since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020.
Leading the rout was the KBW Bank Index, which tumbled 9.9%, its steepest plunge since the 2023 regional banking crisis. Financials, already reeling from rising default risk and narrowing margins, bore the brunt of the downturn as bond yields collapsed and credit spreads widened.
Adding to the market stress, the U.S. dollar plunged in foreign exchange markets, erasing all gains made since Trump’s re-election victory on November 5, 2024. Analysts point to growing fears of a global trade war, weakening investor confidence in the U.S. economy, and expectations of imminent Federal Reserve intervention as key drivers of the dollar's reversal.
The Trump administration has fired the director and deputy director of the National Security Agency, the United States’ powerful cyber intelligence bureau, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation, members of the Senate and House intelligence committees and two former officials familiar with the matter.
The dismissal of Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also leads US Cyber Command — the military’s offensive and defensive cyber unit — is a major shakeup of the US intelligence community which is navigating significant changes in the first two months of the Trump administration. Wendy Noble, Haugh’s deputy at NSA, was also removed, according to the former officials and lawmakers.
The top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committee, Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes, denounced the firing of Haugh, who served in the roles since February 2024, in statements on Thursday night.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Adam Schiff's office:
Letter Follows Reporting that National Security Waltz and His Team Set Up At Least Twenty Chats on Signal and Used Gmail
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles requesting new information to determine the full scope of and damage to national security by the repeated use of unclassified messaging applications, like Signal and Gmail, by senior White House officials and members of President Trump’s cabinet.
The Senators, all of whom have deep experience in defense, intelligence, and diplomacy, emphasized the severe national security consequences of what appears to be an extensive pattern and practice of using unsecured commercial apps for sensitive national security communications. Recent reporting indicates that there are at least 20 such chats.
“New reporting indicates that the “Houthi PC small group” chat established by Mr. Waltz was not an isolated incident. According to recent reporting, Mr. Waltz and his team “regularly set up chats on Signal to coordinate official work on issues including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe, according to four people who have been personally added to Signal chats.” This may have included “at least 20” such chats, which participants in the chat say included “instances of sensitive information being discussed.” As one alleged participant in at least some of the group chats commented: “Waltz built the entire NSC communications process on Signal,”’ wrote the Senators.
“Mr. Waltz’ first message to the group on March 11, 2025, referenced an earlier meeting in the “Sit Room” (White House Situation Room), a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) equipped to handle the nation’s most sensitive information and the appropriate venue for communicating and coordinating on matters of national security. None of the at least 18 participants in the group chat interjected when others provided clearly classified or operationally sensitive information, or requested that they be removed at any time during the conversation, even though Mr. Waltz adjusted the settings at the beginning of the chat to auto-delete all of group’s messages after a week and then changed the auto-delete setting to 4 weeks shortly after Defense Secretary Hegseth provided specific classified details on the impending military strikes,” the Senators continued.
The Senators demanded specific details on the full scope of national security-related communications using such commercial messaging applications and that the White House take all steps to preserve and recover records, as required by federal law.
Read the full text of the letter here and below.
Dear Ms. Wiles,
As Senators with deep experience in defense, intelligence, and diplomacy, we are writing to express grave concern and request information necessary to determine the full scope of and damage caused by the use of unclassified commercial applications, like Signal and Gmail, by senior White House officials and members of the President’s Cabinet to conduct classified and sensitive national security activity and communications.
In a grave breach of national security, senior White House officials and members of the President’s Cabinet, including National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, appear to have engaged in an extensive pattern and practice of using unsecure commercial messaging applications to undertake sensitive national security deliberations and discussions, in violation of federal criminal laws and other requirements designed to safeguard classified and other sensitive national security information and preserve presidential and federal records.
New reporting indicates that the “Houthi PC small group” chat established by Mr. Waltz was not an isolated incident. According to recent reporting, Mr. Waltz and his team “regularly set up chats on Signal to coordinate official work on issues including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe, according to four people who have been personally added to Signal chats.” This may have included “at least 20” such chats, which participants in the chat say included “instances of sensitive information being discussed.” As one alleged participant in at least some of the group chats commented: “Waltz built the entire NSC communications process on Signal.”
This follows earlier reporting that Mr. Waltz “created and hosted multiple other sensitive national security conversations on Signal with cabinet members, including separate threads on how to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine as well as military operations.” Another recent report indicates that one or more messaging chats initiated by Mr. Waltz involved Somalia. This same report alleges, moreover, that Mr. Waltz used his personal email account to conduct government business, while a senior aide to Mr. Waltz used the same “commercial email service for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems related to an ongoing conflict […].
These revelations are shocking, but not surprising, in light of the Signal group chat that Mr. Waltz established ahead of military attacks in Yemen. When Mr. Waltz initiated the messaging group on March 11, 2025, none of the invited participants, including you, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, expressed surprise, confusion, or unease at having been added to such a group on a commercially-available messaging application that is downloaded for use on unclassified electronic devices.
Mr. Waltz’ first message to the group on March 11, 2025, referenced an earlier meeting in the “Sit Room” (White House Situation Room), a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) equipped to handle the nation’s most sensitive information and the appropriate venue for communicating and coordinating on matters of national security. None of the at least 18 participants in the group chat interjected when others provided clearly classified or operationally sensitive information, or requested that they be removed at any time during the conversation, even though Mr. Waltz adjusted the settings at the beginning of the chat to auto-delete all of group’s messages after a week and then changed the auto-delete setting to 4 weeks shortly after Defense Secretary Hegseth provided specific classified details on the impending military strikes.
The destruction of presidential or federal records is illegal. To ensure that the Senate can fulfill its constitutionally mandated oversight duties, and to inform future remedial legislation, we seek and expect your full cooperation by Thursday, April 10, 2025, with the initial requests below.
- Please take immediate action to (1) preserve all national security-related communications involving White House officials that have occurred since January 21, 2025, on commercial messaging platforms, like Signal or Gmail; (2) prevent the destruction of such records, including through autodelete settings, and take all necessary and possible measures to retrieve communications that may have been deleted on some devices but that may still be visible on others; and (3) issue a directive to all senior White House officials and Cabinet Members to cease immediately the use of unclassified, non-government communications platforms to conduct national security communications.
- In addition, as we begin our inquiry, please provide full and
truthful answers to the following, including in classified form, if
necessary:
- Please identify and itemize in precise detail all other national security-related communications that Mr. Waltz or other senior White House officials initiated or participated in using Signal, Gmail, or other commercially available platforms, to include messaging groups to discuss diplomatic or military activity.
- Relatedly, please identify all military operations or activities
that Mr. Waltz or other senior White House officials discussed using
Signal, Gmail, or other commercially available platforms, including
whether those discussions referred to, among others:
- the U.S. military’s January 30, 2025, airstrike in Syria targeting a senior operative in Hurras al-Din, an al-Qaeda affiliate;
- a March 14, 2025, military operation in Iraq that targeted the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) chief of global operations, which occurred three days after Mr. Waltz established the “Houthi PC small group” Signal chat on March 11, 2025, and one day before Secretary of Defense Hegseth disclosed classified information about the military strikes in Yemen; or
- air strikes in Somalia, which U.S. Africa Command has undertaken several times since January 21, 2025.
- Please clarify whether any senior White House officials and Cabinet officials, to include Mr. Waltz, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, used their personal devices for any of the communications described above.
- Please clarify whether any senior White House officials and Cabinet Officials were on foreign travel while participating or included in any national security-related messaging groups or communications on Signal or other commercially-available platforms. If so, please explain which officials were on foreign travel, where they were located, whether they used Signal or other platforms on their personal or work devices, and who in the White House authorized the platforms’ use.
- Have any relevant communications been irretrievably destroyed, including through the use of an auto-delete function, such that they cannot be recovered, reproduced, or copied to government systems, as required by federal records retention laws and policies? If so, please clarify which communications can no longer be retrieved with as much specificity as possible.
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