Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Smothered Chicken in the Kitchen

Lucy loves smothered chicken and doesn't believe there's ever been a recipe for it here.  There hasn't.  I don't even need to think about that.  I love smothered chicken and make it quite often.  But it can be a lot of steps.  Lucy's recipe is from The Cozy Cook:


Ingredients
5 strips thick cut bacon
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup Vegetable oil, for frying.
Chicken Dredge
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup breadcrumbs, plain or Italian
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
¾ teaspoon black pepper
Gravy
4 Tablespoons Butter
4 Tablespoons Flour
2.5 cups chicken broth, consider low sodium
1 beef bouillon cube, or 1 tsp beef better than bouillon
1/3 cup half and half, (half milk, half cream)
1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce, can sub Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
¼ teaspoon ground sage
2-3 drops Kitchen Bouquet, optional

Instructions
Prework: Add chicken dredge ingredients to a large plate and toss to combine. Set aside. Measure out gravy ingredients prior to beginning.
Cook the Bacon: Fry bacon over medium-low heat until crispy on both sides. Remove from pan and pour grease into a heat-safe bowl. Reserve 2-4 Tablespoons of clear bacon drippings. Wipe any black residue from the pan if needed.
Slice & Pound the Chicken: While the bacon cooks, slice each chicken breast in half lengthwise to create 2 thinner slices. Place saran wrap over them and use a meat tenderizer to pound them to about 3/4 inches thick. This gives them a little more texture for the flour dredge to hold on to. They’ll plump up more when cooked.
Coat the Chicken: Wipe the chicken dry and coat generously in the flour mixture, get in every nook and cranny.
Cook the Chicken: Add the reserved bacon drippings to the clean pan and enough vegetable oil to cover the chicken by half. Heat over medium-high heat. Once heated and glistening, add the chicken. Fry 2 at a time for 4-5 minutes per side, until they have a nice golden sear. Set aside on a plate. Adjust heat down slightly and back up throughout cooking as needed.
Drain the oil: Remove the oil from the pot and use a paper towel to remove any black spots from the pan, but leave any brown remnants. This is called ‘fond’ and will give the gravy a nice flavor.
Make the Roux: Melt the butter over medium heat and use a silicone spatula to “clean” the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the flour gradually, whisking continuously, until a paste forms.
Add the Broth and Half and Half: Add the liquid in small increments, whisking constantly. It will thicken up in between each splash of liquid. If you add it all at once, you’ll “break” the roux and it won’t be thick. 
Add remaining gravy ingredients: Slowly add the beef bouillon, soy sauce, and seasonings.
Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add a few drops of kitchen bouquet if a darker color is desired.
Add the chicken back to the pan along with any juice from the plate.
Chop up the bacon and add it to the top of the chicken.
Cover partially and cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes. The internal temperature of the chicken should reach 165 degrees prior to serving.
Garnish with parsley and serve with mashed potatoes.


Do you see what I mean about a lot of steps?  My recipe that I use has a lot more steps, however (and more ingredients including white wine) so let's Lucy's suggested recipe and I can say "We noted it at least once!" if anyone else writes in.

News?  Aaron Blake (CNN) reports

Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s plea for people to stop turning [The Demagogue]’s assassination into a political food fight appears to have fallen on deaf ears among many on the right.

President Donald Trump and his MAGA allies have continued casting the event as proof that political violence is the domain of the left — much more so than the right.

“When you look at the problems, the problem is on the left,” the president told reporters Sunday. “It’s not on the right.”

“While our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies, it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far left,” Vice President JD Vance said Monday while guest hosting [TD]’s podcast.

It’s valid to look for potential politics in the killer’s motivations. And there are pieces of evidence that link suspect Tyler Robinson to the left, even as the fuller picture is still being pieced together and remains opaque.

But Trump and his allies are cherry-picking evidence and misleading about recent violent episodes. They’re also casting stones from a glass house when it comes to the potential role of political rhetoric in such tragedies.

In fact, Trump has spent the last decade saying conspicuously violent things and often flirting with the prospect of justified violence by his supporters – including as recently as Friday.

The first thing to note is that Democratic figures have also been targeted by violence and the right wing has also risen in violence.

In June, two Democratic Minnesota state lawmakers were shot, one of whom died. In April, there was an arson attempt at the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, another Democrat. And in December 2022 and January 2023, a former Republican candidate paid people to shoot up the homes of Democratic officials in New Mexico. Also in 2022, Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, was the victim of a brutal hammer attack by a man who said he’d been looking for the then-speaker. There was also the plot to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.

And perhaps most notably, some Trump supporters rose up in violence to try and overturn the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021.

All these incidents happened in the last five years.

This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for Monday:


Monday, September 15, 2025.  The media continues to be about Whites speaking to Whites about White people, those of us who are Black should note that and let them try to sort out their own issues -- and if you're glorifying someone who was racist, homophobic, sexist and so much more then you clearly have issues, Chump has finally succeeded on one goal -- destroying the US economy, he's still working on that war on immigration, and much more.


Let's ease in by noting an e-mail to the public account this morning bemoaning that Ava and I covered the hysteria (from the press and politicians) around the death of the demagogue last week instead of NETFLIX's two-part documentary of Charlie Sheen.  I like Charlie Sheen and know him; however, shortly after the second installment beganI turned it off  because I can only take so many lies.  There's also this:

 Probably not a good idea to build a "family sitcom" (no matter how leering) around a man more famous in the nineties as a client of Heidi Fleiss than for anything he did onscreen. In fact his rap sheet is far more impressive than his filmography. Let's just deal with the most recent "hits:" Arrested for assault in 1996, arrested for battery in 1997, hospitalized for an overdose in 1998 and fresh off probation as the decade began, Sheen's colorful, not so distant past may have blotted away memories of the zombie walk through performances of Major League II, Terminal Velocity, The Arrival and the lot but they didn't make him a good actor.


That's from 2005 when we reviewed TWO AND A HALF MEN.  In other words, we've covered it already.  The eventual implosion that shocked the country didn't shock us.

Now let's move from one mentally challenged man to another.  Bernie Bro John Fetterman never should have been elected to the Senate to begin with.  Fettycrap (as Mike long ago named him) is the joke that never shuts up.  He's in the news again:

Fetterman echoed calls for Democrats to tone down criticism of the second Trump administration. Many on the right have accused Democrats of contributing to the spread of political violence in the United States that claimed the life of conservative activist [TD] earlier this week. Fetterman urged his party “to turn the temperature down.”

“Don’t ever compare anyone to Hitler, and those kinds of extreme things. Look what happened to Charlie Kirk—a man was shot,” the Senator said. “We can’t compare people to these kinds of figures in history.”


Where do you start?

With the fact that his most recent press cycle a little while ago was his staff and former staff telling the press that Fettycrap was more manic because he refused to take his prescribed medicine?

Or do we drop back to how he was sworn into the Senate in January 2023 and immediately trotted off to a facility for mental care -- a facility he remined in for months?

Or maybe you drop back to how he lied to the American people about his health and fitness?

Or, since he's calling for a more civil tone, do we drop back to when NBC's Dasha Burns reported accurately on him and Bernie Bros online and on podcasts ripped her apart and called her a liar.  Not one of those Bernie Bros has ever gone back and said, "Oops!"  And, more to the point, when this was going on, Fettycrap and his wife fully supported the attacks on Dasha Burns.

Who knows where to start?  But here's where you can end "Media: The canonization of a demagogue." As Ava and I note in that, Democrats and the media have already done enough harm and given Chump help in attacking the left.

Fettycrap is unstable but even he should grasp that if you don't want to be called Hitler, it's not that hard not to act like Hitler.  

Now Chump's long been a Hitler devotee.  But as president this go round, he's sporting his Hitler like tendencies even more.  And one historian after another has explained that.  

This is a danger to the country and he needs to be called out.

It's amazing that last week he called the left "terrorists" and even worse and has given threats to punish people for exercising their First Amendment rights and Fettycrap doesn't call that out.  No, he just stumbles around in those dirty, smelly clothes (speak to his staff) and goes deeper and deeper into his mental problems.  

Chump has preached violence repeatedly and his remarks have led to violence -- most obviously with the attack on our government on January 6, 2021.  


TD (The Demagogue) was not a nice person.  He embraced racism, for example.  He attacked Black people, he attacked Jews, he attacked Muslims, he attacked women, he attacked the LGBTQ+ community.  

And it's really amazing how that gets swept away by the likes of Fettycrap and Chump.  But remember, Ezra Klein and others spent last week White washing TD,   Ezzie Klein made clear that White people will band together over skin -- even if they disagree on politics.

They will rush to the front of the room to excuse away a hate monger because, 'hey, Whitey's got my skin color.'

And when those of us who are Black call it out, they'll pretend it was about something else.

They can pretend because they really weren't targeted by TD.  Their children weren't at risk because of TD.

This morning, Ben on MEIDAS TOUCH started in with nonsense.  Love, you, Ben, but it's nonsense: 'We have to condemn this.'

Uh, Ben the country condemned violence years ago.

 

Someone was shot and they died  That event happens multiple times a day.  And multiple times a day, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders and so many other elected Dems do not feel the need to go before microphones or release statements saying "That's bad.  That's wrong."

But there they were showing up in public, wearing hairshirts, self-flagellating as though it was a sexual turn on.

 

It's murder.  We've made it a crime as a nation because we believe it's wrong.   


So this pretense that we all have to weigh in on the violence that took  TD's life  is nothing but a pretense.  I'm not hearing lefties justifying or minimizing the violence.  It's US House Rep Nancy Mace, a Republican, who last Wednesday was calling for the death penalty for the shooter until she found out he came from a MAGA family and then insisted that we needed understanding.

I'm not posting Ben's video.

I liked most of it.

But I'm Black and I'm not using my space to promote a racist.  I'm appalled by the coverage and it's really something to see online that those of who are truly appalled and have been calling it out are  basically just Black America.  

We get a candy covered portrayal of TD and we get told we're supposed to feel this way and speak that way.  I'm sorry, White America -- and that includes the left -- do you think we're still working on your plantation?

Stop giving us orders. Stop telling us what to do.

You've done far too little in the last few years to address the increase of racism in this country.

It's really past time for you to get the broom and start cleaning up this country.

But if you're too damn lazy to do that, at least don't try to lecture those of us who are Black about what you -- in all your Whiteness -- think we need to do to 'mourn' the death of a racist.

I'm not in mourning.

Nothing TD ever said or did spoke to me, uplifted me or made this country better.  

Did I throw a celebration?

No.

Again, murder is a crime.

Unlike Convicted Felon Chump, I believe in the law.

I also believe in truth.  And here's some truth MSNBC and others better start hearing, you can't just wait for the weekend to roll around and then use your predominately Black staff to clean up your mess after days of glorifying a racist.

Something from MEIDASTOUCH NEWS might go up tonight.  I don't have time to stream at lunch.  I'll be having lunch in public and that means people will be stopping at the table to say hi and do selfies.  So I don't have the time to go through each video before posting.  So no MEDIAS this afternoon.

I have yet to see any White person deliver the kind of commentary Lurie Daniel Favors did last week.


You want to be in this with us?  Then stop looking the other way when White people attack us.  And stop minimizing their attacks on us.  There was no reason to DISENY-FY TD last week.  

He's a racist and a hate monger.  

B-b-but he was killed!  Didn't make him a better person, did make him a victim of crime and we have laws to address murderers for a reason.


Let's turn to a Chump triumph.  We're not even done with Chump's first year in this second term and he's already destroyed our economy.  Yes, he's finally won one of his wars -- he's destroyed the American economy.  Mary Anthony (MARKET REALIST) reports:

President Trump's tariffs have become the most talked-about trade policy move not just in America but on a global scale. They're set to affect everything from diplomatic relations to the grocery basket of an average American household. Now, a recent economic indicator has revealed that the poverty rate is expected to rise to 10.7% after President Trump imposes strict tariffs on other nations. This will unexpectedly lead to a catastrophic situation where more than one million Americans will be forced to downgrade their lifestyle.
[. . .]
A recent report by The Budget Lab at Yale stated that over 875,000 Americans will be living below the poverty line in 2026 due to Trump's imposed tariffs. The revelation also indicates that a staggering 375,000 children belonging to low-income brackets will be struggling to survive on basic needs. This shift has been determined by the Official Poverty Measure, which also states that lower-class families are among the hardest hit. Consumers belonging to this bracket tend to purchase more imported goods than higher-income households, according to industry analysts. “Tariffs are a tax on American families,” John Ricco, associate director of policy analysis at The Budget Lab, told CNN, before adding, “Because tariffs are a tax on goods and services, instead of income, they hit harder on people who spend a higher percentage of income than they save.”


The analysis assumes that incomes from jobs will remain steady despite higher tariffs. It also accounts for government programs, such as Social Security, that adjust payments based on inflation.

Yale economists say the current U.S. tariff rate is 17.4%, the highest since 1935. The report projects that the average U.S. household will lose about $2,300 a year because of tariffs.

Tariffs are taxes charged to companies importing products into the United States. The rate varies depending on the country of origin and the type of product.

While some companies tried to absorb the cost of tariffs early in Trump’s presidency, more now say those costs will ultimately be passed on to consumers.


Chump is destroying the economy before our eyes.  He's incompetent and he's a fool who went into bankruptcy four times so he certainly should not have been handed control of our economy.  He's destroying everything.  Brendan Murray (BLOOMBERG NEWS) notes Chump's tarries:

 

“Unfortunately, small and medium-sized businesses are bearing the brunt of the trade war,” said Adam Lewis, president of Clearit Customs Brokerage. “Unlike larger corporations, they don’t have the same insulation or sophistication to absorb frequent tariff changes, currency swings, and rising costs.”

Almost 60% of respondents said Washington’s policies have weakened the US’s standing as a trading partner, compared with 6% who said it’s been strengthened. Almost a quarter said the impact has been mixed depending on the country and industry, with 5% seeing no meaningful change and 7% saying it’s too soon to draw conclusions, according to Freightos.


Look around the country at the Chump economy.  Georgia?  Zoe Evans (PENNY WISE) reports,  "Five paper mills prepare permanent shutdowns across southeast Georgia through September 2025, according to multiple independent reports. International Paper and Georgia-Pacific caught officials off guard with announcements affecting over 1,700 workers, The Current GA reports, citing international trade barriers and declining wood demand. The shutdowns eliminate millions of tons of annual production capacity while devastating communities dependent on steady industrial employment for generations."  This as 744,000 workers have had been laid off from their jobs, the worst numbers since the start of the pandemicMike Winters (CNBC) notes the increase in prices including, "Take bananas, for example. Prices climbed 4.9% from April through August --  equivalent to an annualized pace of about 15% -- a notable jump for a category that rarely sees much inflation. Virtually all U.S. supply comes from Central and South America and is now subject to a 10% tariff."  Alex Henderson explains:


President Donald Trump and his MAGA allies continue to insist that he inherited a badly broken economy from former President Joe Biden but quickly turned the economy around.

In fact, the U.S. enjoyed record-low unemployment during Biden's years in the White House, but widespread frustration over inflation, according to polls, helped Trump pull off a narrow victory in the 2024 election. And almost eight months into Trump's second administration, the economy remains a source of frustration among many voters.

In an article published on September 13, Politico's Megan Messerly stresses that Trump is having a hard time convincing voters that the economy is performing well under his watch.

"President Donald Trump, this week, insisted Americans are experiencing the 'best economy we've ever had," Messerly explains. "Privately, White House officials acknowledge people just aren't feeling it…. Polls show Americans remain anxious about high prices, and there are signs the economy's resilience is starting to fray, making it harder for the (Trump) Administration to close the delta between how the economy looks on paper and how people feel."

Messerly adds, "The Congressional Budget Office also said Friday, (September 12) that (Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill) will have little effect on economic growth before the 2028 election, its gains blunted by the president’s tariffs and immigration crackdown."


He's destroyed the economy.  Give him credit for that.  He's been busy with so many things, like attacking immigrants, but he still managed to destroy the economy.  On immigration . . . 


Ian Gordon (MOTHER JONES) noted over the weekend:


When it passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in June, Congress handed nearly $75 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some $30 billion of that money will be spent on enforcement and deportation—hiring spree incoming—and another $45 billion will go toward new detention centers, including 50 by the end of the year.

The OBBB immediately supercharged President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, which already had been terrorizing immigrant communities and sending asylum seekers to a hellish prison in El Salvador. But an important part of the detention state ramp-up has flown under the radar: ICE’s increased cooperation with local law enforcement agencies.

On Friday, ICE hit a new milestone: The agency has now signed more than 1,000 so-called 287(g) agreements nationwide. These agreements, which deputize local police and jails to perform certain immigration enforcement functions, have exploded under Trump. At the end of the Biden presidency, ICE had just 135 287(g) deals in place; now there are 1,001—a 641 percent increase.

About half of these agreements are what ICE calls task force agreements, which allow state and local cops to essentially act as immigration agents while fulfilling their regular police duties. If these sound familiar—and familiarly problematic—it’s because they were discontinued in 2012, following a Department of Justice investigation the year before that found widespread racial profiling by Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, then led by the notorious Joe Arpaio. The Trump administration brought task forces back this year, and ICE has signed more than 500 of these particular agreements across 33 states.


It takes millions to ramp up mass abuse.  Shame on the Congress.  Shame on them for failing to protect us -- that's Democrats and Republicans and independents and Socialists in Congress.  Dems should have been holding hearings right now -- yes, they can do that without the GOP.   You do that by holding what's known as a shadow hearing.  

B-b-b-but what's the point.  It probably won't get media attention!!!!


What's the point?  The point is getting it on the record.  The point is showing the people that you're willing to fight.  You hold the hearing and you get it on the record.  Media?  Invited podcasters to the hearing if you're that worried.  Invite names to speak, celebrities.  


Or did we all miss this:


America Ferrera got emotional while reacting to the recent Supreme Court decision on immigration stops while appearing on Thursday’s episode of The View.

On Monday, the Supreme Court lifted a restraining order from a judge that had restricted immigration agents from stopping people around L.A. solely based on their race, language, job or location. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was quick to criticize the decision and argued it could lead to officials targeting “anyone who looks Latino.”

When The View panelist Sara Haines asked Ferrera her reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision, the Barbie actress responded, “First of all, thank God for Justice Sotomayor.”   

  Ferrera, who is an activist for immigration rights, went on to say she was grateful for “people who still speak with a voice of reason and the values we recognize as American values” amid the decision.

“As an American, I’m angered and terrified to watch our constitutional rights be eroded by the Supreme Court. Everyone should be angered and terrified by it,” she said. “If any American can get pulled over because of the language they speak or the color of their skin or because they work in a low-wage job, who’s safe? So, as an American, I’m pissed off.”


Good for America, but she's hardly the only one speaking out.

When Jessica Lange, for example, spoke at hearings on the farming crisis, she didn't go into those hearings thinking, "I'm the biggest expert in the country on this whole issue."  She went to speak in defense of American farmers because she knew her doing so would attract some cameras and some coverage.


So this has just been a very upsetting week and it's been a very disappointing week.


A gestapo force goes around kidnapping people and disappearing them into gulags and Democrats and Socialists and other lefties spend too much time glorifying a racist.  Fortunately, those not in Congress or writing nonsense are much smarter.

Chase Woodruff (COLORADO NEWSLINE) reported:


A crowd of more than 100 people stood outside the gates of an empty prison in Hudson on Saturday, protesting reported plans by the Trump administration to turn it into Colorado’s newest immigrant detention facility.

“I see people from all walks of life here today, and that’s truly, truly beautiful,” said Julian Camera, an organizer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. “We’re going to overcome this. We’re going to keep fighting.”

The dormant Hudson Correctional Facility is owned by a real estate investment trust and was formerly leased to private-prison company The GEO Group, which operated the prison for a span of just five years after its 2009 opening, during which the facility housed inmates from Alaska. The prison has a capacity of about 1,200 beds — only slightly less than the population of the town of Hudson, about 30 miles northeast of Denver on Interstate 76.

[. . .]

Protesters at Saturday’s demonstration carried signs that likened ICE detention centers to concentration camps. Speakers especially objected to the opening of a new facility in a remote rural area, where detainees’ families and legal aid groups would find it more difficult to visit.


There are people doing actual work. As the protesters above demonstrate. And there's history -- that we all should have learned -- that tells us how shameful what's taking place was before and indicates how shameful it will be in the near future.  

Victoria Namkung (GUARDIAN) notes:


Mass expulsion, babies born behind barbed wire, intrusive medical exams for newcomers, families torn apart: these aren’t scenes from Donald Trump’s promised second-term immigration crackdown, but from the US’s extensive history of xenophobic immigration policy.

While so many Americans watched in horror at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s military-like raids across Los Angeles this summer, US cruelty and violence towards immigrants is nothing new, from the Chinese Exclusion Act to the mass deportation of Mexican Americans during the Great Depression. As the Trump administration escalates its attacks on immigrants – or those perceived to be immigrants – survivors of previous eras of xenophobia say it’s more important than ever to remember the past. The harms done to them and their families have lasted generations, and what’s happening now threatens to do the same.

The Guardian spoke with four Californians who have lived through, or whose parents lived through, some of these dark moments in US history. They shared how these episodes shaped their lives, what it’s like to see these chapters of history repeat themselves today – and what gives them hope.

When Christine Valenciana, 75, watched footage of armed, masked Ice agents in unmarked vehicles snatching people off the streets across southern California this summer, rounding up gardeners, car wash workers, veterans and US citizens, it recalled a familiar time in her own family’s history.

In the 1930s, under the economic pressures of the Great Depression, nearly 2 million Mexican Americans – more than half US citizens – were forced out of their homes and unconstitutionally deported to free up jobs for “real Americans”. Valenciana’s mother’s family was among them.

“The raids that took place at the time were not unlike now,” said Valenciana, 75.

Mexican “repatriation”, which Valenciana prefers to call “expulsion”, consisted of military-style raids, mass deportations, scare tactics and public pressure that terrorized Mexican communities and broke up countless families. For American children like Valenciana’s mother, who was born in 1926 in Los Angeles’s Boyle Heights neighborhood, the trauma was layered: leaving their home and country, adjusting to a new culture in Mexico and eventually returning to the US years later. 

Emilia Castañeda, Valenciana’s mother, was seven when her own mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died less than a year later on the day of Emilia’s first communion. “She told me what bothered her the most about having to leave was that she wouldn’t be able to visit her mother’s grave,” remembered Valenciana, now an associate professor emeritus at the department of elementary and bilingual education at California State University, Fullerton. “They went to the train station and she and other people were crying.” 

She told Valenciana that the girls in her school in Mexico referred to her as “repatriada”, which was meant as a put-down. “My mom was pretty miserable,” said Valenciana. By age 12, Emilia worked as a live-in babysitter, but at times she was not paid or given a decent bed or blanket, according to her daughter. Emilia was desperate to come back to Los Angeles once the repatriation period ended. During the second world war, she made the journey alone by train right before her 18th birthday with the help of her godmother, who gave her a place to live.

Along with Valenciana’s husband, Francisco Balderrama, who co-authored a seminal book on Mexican repatriation, Emilia eventually went on to become an advocate for others to learn about this previously hidden chapter in US history. In her 70s, she helped pass legislation that led to a formal apology from the state of California in 2005 and a monument in downtown Los Angeles in 2012. Emilia passed away in 2020 at age 94.

While Valenciana sees parallels between the 1930s and today, there’s one big difference, she says: “There’s much more support for people who are being kidnapped and tortured today as opposed to the 1930s where people either didn’t know or care.” She says she better understands what her mother and others like her experienced when she sees members of her community leaving the US voluntarily or living in hiding, fearful of going to church or the market because of Ice.

“I’m not just heartbroken,” she said. “I’m sad and angry. Racism is deeply rooted in this country.”


People are allowing Chump to trash our country, to trash our image, to trash our reputation.  But, don't worry, last week was all about those who should be standing up for this country instead attempting to Whitewash a racist.  Kevin Reed (WSWS) reports:


Silverio Villegas González, a 42-year-old Mexican immigrant and father of three, was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Franklin Park, Illinois, late on Wednesday afternoon.

According to authorities, González was initially stopped by ICE agents who claimed that his vehicle matched the description of one purportedly involved in a prior immigration-related investigation.

Friends and family contested this account, emphasizing that González’s only offense was a minor traffic infraction—an expired license plate sticker—in the quiet suburb just west of Chicago.

The shooting of González took place within days of President Trump’s immigration crackdown campaign launched in the Chicago area. Although Cook County officials did not identify him, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Mexican consulate in Chicago identified the ICE victim as Silverio Villegas González.

Eyewitness accounts taken down and reported by WBEZ Chicago said events escalated rapidly after ICE agents approached González, whose fear and panic were clearly visible to everyone nearby.

The WBEZ quoted several people who were on the scene. Maria Martinez, a neighbor, told reporters, “He was just sitting in his car when two men came up out of nowhere, shouting at him in English. Silverio looked scared—he didn’t understand everything they were saying. We heard them yelling, then, all of a sudden, I heard gunshots.”

Another onlooker, Samuel Ramos, recalled: “After the first shot, Silverio tried to get out of the car, but he stumbled into the street. The officers kept shouting at him—telling him to ‘stay put’—but he was holding his hands up, trying to talk. People started gathering, screaming for help, but we were pushed back by the officers.”

The WBEZ account describes confusion and fear among local residents, many of whom did not realize the men in plain clothes were federal agents until after the incident. María Santiago, who resides across the street, said: “Nobody knew they were ICE. They didn’t identify themselves clearly. It looked like a robbery at first, but then they started dragging Silverio away and blocking anyone from getting close.”

As in every act of police brutality that workers are all too familiar with in American cities, ICE released a statement Thursday morning, claiming González “failed to comply with lawful orders” and “acted in a manner that posed a threat to officers.”


And they claim threats by shoving people around -- shoving them into ICE agents so they can then claim the person assaulted an ICE agent. It's been captured on camera.

Let's drop back to Thursday's snapshot:


Let's move over to immigration.  Yesterday on MEIDASTOUCH NEWS, Ben addressed Chump's gestapo police.

 



They shove, they attack citizens.  I have noted for months now that these people will destroy their own lives in the coming years, they'll turn to booze and drugs to self-medicate or they'll take their own lives out of guilt over the families they've broken up and the lives they've destroyed.  That said, I didn't include the asshole factor.  Not only will the coming years find them ashamed of their actions, it's also going to find them disgraced and others attacking them.  If they're lucky, a decade from now they'll just get their house tee-peed.  But it could be much worse because they are breaking the law and they are being violent.  That has a way of coming back on you.

Will the big money they make right now at this moment still seem worth it five or so years from now when the country and the government turn against them? 

Now let's be honest about what we saw in the video Ben played.  With regards to the US citizen who is a Latino-American?  He was shoved.  And ICE can -- and did -- lie but we saw what happened.  And it was not because he wasn't cooperating.  He was being questioned by a man in front of him and he was answering the question.

The ICE thug shoved the man to try to get him on an assault charge.

That's what these pathetic cowards do.  Over and over. They shove people.  And then they whine assault. It's a gestapo tactic and that they use it -- and do so while people are recording -- demonstrates that they are human garbage.  

They've not been properly trained and there is no real oversight.  

Especially when it comes to our former Supreme Court which has now become The Crooked Court as Betty regularly notes.  The lack of oversight and the inability to follow existing laws that we see in the videos Ben reported on above?  Time to bring in The Crooked Court.  John Fritze (CNN) reports:


Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s breezy suggestion this week that Americans who are roughed up by ICE can sue agents in federal court is drawing pushback from civil rights attorneys who note the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has in recent years made those cases nearly impossible to win.

Writing to explain the court’s emergency ruling Monday that allowed the Trump administration to continue “roving” immigration patrols in Southern California, Kavanaugh brushed aside concerns that masked ICE agents had pushed, shoved and detained Hispanics – in one instance throwing a US citizen against a fence and confiscating his phone.

“To the extent that excessive force has been used,” Kavanaugh wrote in a 10-page concurrence, “the Fourth Amendment prohibits such action, and remedies should be available in federal court.”
But in a series of recent decisions – including two that involved incidents at the border – the Supreme Court has severely limited the ability of people to sue federal law enforcement officers for excessive force claims. Kavanaugh, who was nominated to the court by Trump during his first term, was in the majority in those decisions.
“It’s bordering on impossible to get any sort of remedy in a federal court when a federal officer violates federal rights,” said Patrick Jaicomo, a senior attorney at the libertarian Institute for Justice who has regularly represented clients suing federal agents.

Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said that it can be incredibly difficult for a person subjected to excessive force to find an attorney and take on the federal government in court.

“What we’ve seen is, term after term, the court limiting the avenues that people have available to sue the federal government,” Bonds told CNN.


Democrats need to call for hearings -- and make them shadow hearings if they have to -- in order to determine the training the ICE gestapo is receiving and the accountability and oversight that's being carried out.  Maybe we'll get it?  If so, it'll be because politicians from Illinois aren't 'performative,' they really pursue justice, not just make videos on YOUTUBE:


Gov. JB Pritzker issued a statement on the incident as well, shared below:

"I am aware of the troubling incident that has unfolded in Franklin Park. This is a developing situation and the people of Illinois deserve a full, factual accounting of what’s happened today to ensure transparency and accountability," Gov. Pritzker said. 

Sen. Tammy Duckworth said she is "deeply disturbed" by what unfolded in Franklin Park: 

"I am deeply disturbed by and closely monitoring the truly awful incident that occurred in Franklin Park today. As the situation develops, our community deserves the full, unvarnished details of what happened," Sen. Duckworth said. 

"I am calling for a full investigation of what led to this fatal shooting. I want, I want I'm calling for all of the videotapes and all of the evidence that exists to be released and for all the facts to be made public," Representative Jesús "Chuy" García said.

"The blood that was spilled today will be a stain on the history of our nation, a stain on our Constitution, which protects us and says that we have rights, that we have the right to be in front of a judge, and that we are innocent until proven guilty," State Sen. Karina Villa said. 


Chump's gestapo thinks there are no checks on them.  Sarah Lazare and Ari Bloomekatz (IN THESE TIMES) note:

Willian Gimenez, a day laborer, was reportedly abducted outside of a barbershop in Little Village, a neighborhood in southwest Chicago, by ICE agents on Friday. The Latino Union of Chicago and Raise the Floor Alliance organized a news conference with immigration rights advocates, public officials and labor groups there in solidarity like Arise Chicago, the Chicago Workers Collaborative and Workers Center for Racial Justice, who all gathered with Gimenez’s friends and family outside of an ICE facility in Broadview to demand his release.

Gimenez, who is in his late 30s and is from Venezuela, is one of five migrant day laborers involved in a federal lawsuit claiming that, among many other things, they endured physical violence at the hands of off-duty Chicago Police Department officers” who were working as security officers for Home Depot, according to the complaint. The lawsuit also alleges a conspiracy to criminalize day laborers’ attempts to find work in Chicago.”

Speakers at a Saturday morning news conference organized by workers’ advocates said they believe he was intentionally targeted because he is a plaintiff in that suit. (An ICE spokesperson, after In These Times and Workday requested comments about the abduction, defended the arrest but would not say where Gimenez was taken or being held.)

It was unclear if Gimenez was being held at the Broadview facility or elsewhere. No one at the news conference, where the mood was somber, appeared to know where he is. His disappearance also came on the same day an ICE officer shot and killed an undocumented man in the Chicagoland suburb of Franklin Park.


AP quotes US House Rep Chuy Garcia stating at the news conference, "These incidents make us all ask, if ICE can kill one of our neighbors in broad daylight … if they can arrest someone for joining a lawsuit or simply for being Latino, what's to stop them from getting any one of us?"

What to stop them period?  What is protecting anyone?


Nicole Chang (AMERICAN COMMUNITY MEDIA via ASAMNEWS) reports:


joint report released by UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center and the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge found that in the first week of June 2025 alone, arrests of Asians were nearly nine times higher than during the same period a year earlier — a clear sign that ICE enforcement has intensified to unprecedented levels.

The report comes on the heels of the largest ever raid conducted by ICE on a Hyundai plant in Georgia, where agents arrested more than 300 Korean nationals on September 4. The operation has stoked anger in South Korea and has strained relations between the two countries.

Signs of increased enforcement are also evident in the Korean American community in Los Angeles. On the morning of June 3, ICE agents raided a Korean-owned car wash on Olympic Boulevard in Koreatown. Without a warrant, they searched the premises, checked workers’ immigration status, and reportedly detained about five employees.

[. . .]

According to the report, Asian arrests, which numbered about 700 in 2024, jumped to more than 2,000 in just one year. By state, California accounted for 19% of arrests, followed by New York and Texas with 11% each, then Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma. Together, the top five states represented half of all arrests.


Again, this extra-legal gestapo force is conducting attacks with no oversight.   Matthew Cunningham -Cook and Arn Pearson (THE AMERICAN PROSPECT) attempt to reassure us:


On Wednesday, a federal district court judge in Los Angeles issued a sweeping preliminary injunction barring Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers from “dispersing, threatening, or assaulting” journalists or legal observers, or using crowd control weapons on or shooting projectiles at anyone who doesn’t “pose a threat of imminent harm.”

The Los Angeles area has been rocked by protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids since June 6, when the Trump administration first targeted it for a crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

DHS officers have “unleashed crowd control weapons indiscriminately and with surprising savagery” in “retaliation” for those “constitutionally protected” protests and the related activities of journalists and observers, Judge Hernán Vera, a Biden appointee, stated in his ruling.

DHS does not have “carte blanche to unleash near-lethal force on crowds of third parties in the vicinity. Indeed, under the guise of protecting the public, federal agents have endangered large numbers of peaceful protestors, legal observers, and journalists—as well as the public that relies on them to hold their government accountable,” Judge Vera wrote. “The First Amendment demands better.”

The judge concluded that “federal agents’ indiscriminate use of force … will undoubtedly chill the media’s efforts to cover these public events and protestors seeking to express peacefully their views on national policies.”


Applause for the federal court and its decision but let's cut the b.s.  It doesn't mean a damn thing.  Not when the Supreme Court continues to overturn legal and accurate rulings by the federal courts in order to cover for convicted felon Donald Chump.


It you're just not getting it, refer to Gabriel Buelna and Enrique M. Buelna's "Supreme Court Gives ICE License To Hunt Mexicans" (LA TACO) in which they note:


On Monday, Sept. 8, the U.S. Supreme Court did the unthinkable: it gave the Trump administration the power to use race as a “relevant factor” in stopping and detaining people in Los Angeles. To be clear, as Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh likes to say, ethnicity—especially of the “Mexico and Central America” variety—is fair game for roundups, detentions, brutal takedowns, and arrests. But no need to worry, the good justice assures us: ICE is legally bound to target only the “bad guys.” If you are legal, everything is fine. But this pie-in-the-sky assurance couldn’t be farther from the truth.

For years, conservatives on the court have claimed to be “colorblind.” They struck down affirmative action, insisting that race has no place in education or public policy. Yet when it comes to criminalizing our communities, suddenly race matters. This is the contradiction at the heart of the Roberts Court: no race in college admissions, but race is admissible in immigration stops.

The real problem in this Sept. 8 decision is that the Supreme Court justices are now saying the quiet part aloud: Brown skin is a problem to be policed. And that leaves us with a dangerous question—can a country built on such contradictions hold together when its highest court openly sanctions racism against millions of its own people?

We write this from Los Angeles, a city where nearly half the population is Mexican, Chicano or Central American. That means almost every family here has someone—citizen or not—who could now be targeted under this ruling. Families who could be harmed physically, emotionally, and financially. We know what it means to be pulled over because you “look like” someone who does not belong. And now the Roberts Court has made that legal again.

As Chicanos working in law and academia, we know the score. This decision ignores both history and plain facts on the ground. Selective amnesia seems to be the illness of choice. Native-Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Mexicans have all felt the sting of second-class status. And our memories are quite intact. Think of Plessy v. Ferguson, every broken treaty and legislative act denying Native Americans citizenship, Japanese internment, Chinese exclusion, and the failed promises of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. And this is just the tip of the historic iceberg. The story is always the same: the law used as a weapon to keep communities in their place. And now again, the Supreme Court has done it again. 

This decision is galling in its scope and dangerously disconnected from the sheer terror that such a scheme will unleash. Kavanaugh’s concurrence stands as the centerpiece of the ruling. He writes that ICE officers may take into account the fact that many immigrants in Los Angeles gather at bus stops, day-labor corners, and car washes; that they work in landscaping, agriculture, or construction; that they speak Spanish or accented English; and that they come from Mexico or Central America. But, careful to burnish his civil-rights credentials, he adds: “To be clear, apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion…” At first glance, he sounds like a reasonable man. Yet just eight words later, he reveals his true colors: “however, it can be a
‘relevant factor’ when considered along with other salient factors.” The doublespeak is thick; his arrogance unmistakable.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court’s only Latina ever, issued a fiery dissent: “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job.” She warned that this ruling makes all Latinos “fair game” for detention. But even her powerful words did not go far enough. What the majority embraced was not only a deep-seated anti-immigrant sentiment—it was a reaffirmation of this nation’s long history of anti-Mexicanism. In practical terms, it means anyone who is Brown carries a target on their back, just as it was in the so-called good old days.


It's an important article and it's a shame the media -- including MSNBC -- made last week wall-to-wall canonization of a dead racist instead of standing up for real issues.  No wonder Chump thinks he can get away with anything -- he watches so many on the left and 'left' act like idiots and wimps.




The following sites updated:




  • Friday, September 12, 2025

    Olive Tapenade in the Kitchen

    Tamara e-mailed that if anyone needs a good office take along this fall, they should consider Love and Lemon's Olive Tapende:

    Ingredients

    1½ cups pitted olives, mix of kalamata and green olives

    4 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes

    3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

    1 tablespoon capers

    ½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice

    1 garlic clove

    ⅓ cup fresh basil or parsley

     

    Directions

  • In a small food processor, combine the olives, sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, capers, lemon juice, and garlic.
  • Pulse until combined but still chunky. Add the fresh herbs and pulse again.

  • I've never made olive tapenade.  The recipe seems straight forward.  Will on Will & Grace supposedly made a great Olive Tapenade.  We never saw it but in the first episode with Vince, Will's teaching Karen to drive and Vince pulls them over and gives Karen a ticket which Will tries to fight in court.  As he's making his argument in court, Vince says wait.  He says he's Vince friends of Joe & Larry.  Joe and Larry have been trying to fix Will and Vince up.  Will asks if he's the Vince who makes lotions and Vince says Will's supposed to make a great olive tapenade.  


    News?   AP reports on a shooting last week that kind of got ignored as people rushed to glorify a racist:


    A teenager suspected in a shooting attack at a suburban Denver high school that left two students in critical condition appeared fascinated with previous mass shootings including Columbine and expressed neo-Nazi views online, according to experts.

    Since December, Desmond Holly, 16, had been active on an online forum where users watch videos of killings and violence, mixed in with content on white supremacism and antisemitism, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism said in a report.

    Holly shot himself following Wednesday’s shooting at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County. He died of his injuries. It is still unclear how he selected his victims. The county was also the scene of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that killed 14 people.


    Here's the ADL:


    Months before Desmond Holly opened fire at a Colorado high school, he developed a deep fascination with mass shooters. Online, he expressed neo-Nazi views and was active on a violent gore site. Offline, he began to amass tactical gear.

    The deeply disturbing specifics of this case follow a pattern recently discovered by ADL Center on Extremism, which its analysts have found in at least four school shootings committed by young people over the past year.

    On September 10, 2025, 16-year-old Holly opened fire at Evergreen High School, wounding two students before shooting himself. During a September 11 press conference, a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson shared that investigators had learned Holly had been “radicalized by some extremist network,” but did not elaborate further.

    Research by ADL Center on Extremism indicates that Holly spent substantial amounts of time in online spaces featuring extremist ideologies and violent content, ultimately adopting extremist views himself.

    Holly had an account on the gore forum WatchPeopleDie, where he had commented on posts about shootings in Parkland (2018),  Buffalo (2022) and at a Quebec City mosque (2017).

    Holly appears to have joined the gore site on December 26, 2024, during the month window between the school shootings at Abundant Life Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, and Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee.

    Holly is one of several mass attackers who have been active on the platform.

    Groundbreaking research from ADL Center on Extremism in August 2025 revealed that Natalie Rupnow and Solomon Henderson, the perpetrators of the Madison and Nashville school shootings, also used the site. As an example, in August, a Moroccan teenager announced plans to livestream a mass stabbing and shared a manifesto on WatchPeopleDie, as well as X and 8kun.

    Holly also collected tactical gear, adorned that gear with extremist symbols and posted content emulating former shooters such as Rupnow and the 1999 Columbine High School shooters. Like many attackers, Holly assembled his gear in a piecemeal fashion, drawing inspiration from the equipment used by previous mass shooters. For example, Holly posted a now-deleted TikTok video in which he modelled a tactical helmet and a gas mask; the post’s background music featured a Serbian folk song that Brenton Tarrant played while livestreaming the 2019 Christchurch Mosque shootings.


    This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for Friday:

    Friday, September 12, 2025.  Chump continues his war on immigrants while MSNBC continues it's wall-to-wall canonization of a right-wing racist, BLOOMBERG NEWS breaks news on Epstein and Maxwell, the economy dives into the toilet, and much more.


    As Ruth noted last night,  "Chump's delivering . . . destruction of the economy and country."  Has anyone ever come in and so quickly destroyed the economy?  Mike Crisolago (MONEYWISE) notes:


    In January, President Donald Trump declared “tariffs” to be “the most beautiful word,” adding that his sweeping tariff plan would “bring our country's businesses back.”

    But Jeff Bowman, CEO of Colorado-based Cocona Labs, doesn’t see that happening in his own industry — textiles — or manufacturing in the U.S. more generally.
    Like Trump, he attended the Wharton School of Business, but told Bloomberg he suspects the president skipped the tariff class.

    “The empirical history shows that when you impose tariffs, the net effect is that you reduce the amount of business that takes place,” he said. “And we’re seeing that happen already. Costs go up, consumers pay the price eventually.”

    Bowman is already experiencing it.

    Cocona Labs produces a compound used in sustainable thermoregulation fabrics, but doesn’t manufacture the fabrics themselves.

    Instead, the company ships batches of the compound to manufacturers around the world that produce the finished fabrics and products — from high-performance sports apparel to bedding. In turn, those countries export the textiles and fabrics back to the U.S. or sell them to their own domestic consumers.

    The problem is, the manufacturers are all in countries like China that Trump has hit with tariffs. In turn, those countries have imposed reciprocal tariffs on U.S. products — like Cocona Labs’ compound.


    And MAGA sings:

    It's the Chump fat rump for us
    It's the Chump fat rump for us

    'Stead of treated
    We get tricked

    'Stead of kisses
    We get kicked

    It's the Chump fat rump for us
    It's the Chump fat rump for us


    How's that 2024 election working out for you, MAGA?  And how's Chump's ass taste?


    Sarah Sharkey (MONEY WISE) explains, "Moody's economist Mark Zandi recently said that the U.S. economy is on the edge of recession, writing on X that 'states making up nearly a third of U.S. GDP are either in or at high risk of recession, another third are just holding steady, and the remaining third are growing'."  Martha McHardy (NEWSWEEK) reports:

    For the first time, more Americans blame Republicans than Democrats for rising inflation, according to a new Cygnal poll.

    Last year, Democrats carried the bulk of the blame for inflation, with nearly half of Americans (46.3 percent) in September 2024 saying they were most responsible.
    That number has since dropped to 36.5 percent as of September 2025. In the same period, blame for Republicans has risen steeply, from just 25.5 percent to 39.6 percent, overtaking Democrats.

    Peter Loge, director of George Washington University's Project on Ethics in Political Communication, told Newsweek the poll is "bad news for Republicans."

    "Inflation hurts presidents. A lot of voters use elections to punish people who they think are failing. Elections are ways to fire the people in charge if voters don't like what's going on. Many people view politics like plumbing, they just want it to work. If your sink is leaking, you don't hire three plumbers who stand around and argue about PVC piping. If your sink is leaking you hire a plumber to fix it, if the plumber doesn't fix it you fire them and hire a new plumber," he said.


    Inflation?  Christopher Rugaber (AP) reports, "Inflation rose last month as the price of gas, groceries and airfares jumped while new data showed applications for unemployment aid soared, putting the Federal Reserve in an increasingly tough spot as it prepares to cut rates at its meeting next week despite persistent price pressures."  Alicia Wallace (CNN) adds:

    The cost of living continues to increase for Americans at a time when the job market appears to be on shakier footing.

    Consumer prices rose 0.4% in August, driving the annual inflation rate to 2.9%, the highest since January, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Thursday.
    The latest reading from the closely watched Consumer Price Index marks an acceleration from the 2.7% increase seen in July, with price hikes seen in some of the most common places in daily life.

    Grocery and fuel prices shot higher in August after falling the month before. Food at home prices rose 0.6% — the highest monthly jump in nearly three years — and gas prices climbed by 1.9% after falling 2.2% the month before.

    The housing-related shelter category, which is the heaviest-weighted in the CPI, was the leading contributor of August’s monthly increase; however, on an annual basis, shelter inflation continued to slow from pandemic-era highs to 3.6%, its lowest rate in nearly four years.

    Max Pierson (PENNY WISE) notes of the job market, "America’s largest employers are driving an historic wave of layoffs, reshaping both local job markets and national economic forecasts.  According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, US job cuts have already surpassed 806,000 in 2025—a 75% jump over last year, and the highest since the COVID pandemic."  Taylor Telford (WASHINGTON POST) explains the poor job market is already registering with Americans:


    In the seven months since he was laid off from his position as a lead training specialist for TikTok, Ryan Marrero has applied to more than 150 jobs, which have netted him six recruiter calls and only four interviews. He’s recently started applying to customer service roles, even though it would be “a step backward” for his career.
    Before this, the last time Marrero, 40, was on the job market was in 2021. It was tough going then, too, but “at least then I was getting recruiter calls,” he said. Now, the whole process feels “a lot less personal and a lot more mechanical.” Despite spending hours each day tailoring resumes and applications to get past artificial intelligence screening tools he knows many employers are using, Marrero estimates that he hears nothing back from 90 percent of the places he applies. All the ghosting, rejection and living in limbo is taking a toll on his mental health.

    “It doesn’t seem like anybody’s hiring new people.” Marrero said. “It’s almost like there’s nothing out there.”

    Marrero’s struggles reflect the frustrating realities for those braving the most stagnant labor market the United States has seen in years. A rare and vexing blend of forces — low unemployment and job quits, slowly rising layoffs, and sluggish hiring — means there are fewer opportunities, resulting in some of the toughest job-hunting conditions since the 2008 financial crisis.
    Fresh data released by the New York Federal Reserve this week underscores the hardship in the labor market: Job seekers are feeling the worst about their prospects since 2013, when its Center for Microeconomic Data first started studying the trend. Job-finding sentiment plummeted by 5.8 percentage points in a single month to 44.9 percent in its August survey of consumer expectations.

    Allison Shrivastava, an economist with the job site Indeed, said those with jobs are sticking with them. “But if you’re trying to get a different job or enter the labor market for the first time, you’ve probably not been feeling great for a while now,” she said.

    Currently, the labor market is “frozen, a deer in the headlights,” Shrivastava added. “Everything is just staying put.”

    That's Chump.  He's destroyed our economy.  Promised to deliver on day one.  And, please note, he was president from January 2017 to January 2021.  Back in elementary school, I was class president.  I ran on all these promises.  Guess what?  I achieved none of them.  I honestly thought that if I was president I could, for example, add an extra 15 minutes to the daily lunch.  As is the case with Chump today, I was a child then (and he was an angry child in 2024).  But unlike Chump, I had not held the position before.  I honestly thought I would be able to do what I promised.  Chump had served four years as president already when he was making promises in 2024 that he knew he couldn't deliver on.  (Remember the war on Ukraine was going to stop immediately, remember that promise from him?)  He lied throughout 2024.  And he has destroyed our economy and instead of attempting to set us back on the right course, he wants to lead us further astray and make things even worse.






    Vegetables cost almost 40% more than they did 12 months ago, Today reported.
    Bulk purchasing expenses for homegrown produce shot up 38.9% in July when measured against July 2024, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    These expenses are what retailers pay before marking up products for customers. This spike sets a record for summertime price jumps going back nearly a century.

    NBC senior business correspondent Christine Romans discussed the trend on Today.

    "This spike [...] reminds people that the cost of living is still issue No. 1 and there are still some significant pressures in terms of the prices we're paying every day for everyday items," Romans explained. "You can't swap out vegetables. Vegetables are a pretty important part of the menu."

    And of course this downward turn comes as Chump has gutted so much of the safety net.  Keerthi Eraniyan (CONTRA COSTA YOUTH JOURNALISM) reports:


    THE SHELVES at the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano are getting harder to keep stocked these days. In fact, nonprofits and programs across the country are feeling the pinch of higher prices linked to tariffs - a financial strain that could limit critical community services.
    Under President Donald Trump's 2025 trade policy, reciprocal tariffs as low as 15% - and as high as 50% for some countries - have or are expected to go into effect this year. American industries and organizations reliant on imported goods will be affected by these increases. This includes food banks and shelters that are expected to feel higher prices for essential supplies, as well as bulk groceries, medical items and hygiene products.
    Additionally, funding cuts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, previously known as food stamps) are expected to impact food-based nonprofits, including those in Contra Costa County.

    The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano works to provide essential and emergency food to those in need throughout the county. Rising food costs are affecting the Concord-based food bank's ability to provide enough food for the community.



     Let's note THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE.





    A segment on the economy.  

    It's needed much more than the garbage MSNBC has shoved off on us for two days now.  It's to the point that I'm thinking we may need to take a long break from MSNBC.

    When Chump was shot, the media did their usual bullls**t and I had to talk to numerous Democrats in office about how they needed to shut their damn mouths.   There is news coverage and there is mythology.  By getting Dems to shut up on the topic, it forced the media to move on.

    A shooting took place, someone died.

    And?

    As Paul Krugman notes this morning:

    At this point what do we know about who killed [. . .], and why?

    Nothing. And we may never know anything. 


    In the last 24 hours, MSNBC has posted 28 videos about _______ to their YOUTUBE page.

    For comparison, yesterday was 9/11.  Only two videos posted to the page were noting that anniversary.  Then you had a lawsuit against Kash Patel -- one video.  Two videos on BLOOMBERG NEWS' big Epstein-Maxwell story (we'll get to that in a moment).  Stephanie's economy segment that we have posted above. 

    Six videos about things other than the shooting and 28 about the shooting.

    Who is MSNBC working for?  

    We know "nothing," Paul Krugman points out.  Nothing.  But damned if you're not using all your time to waste our time. 

    I'm not in the mood for your bulls**t.

    Now on gun violence, if you're late to the party.  That's not my story, that's not my topic.  There was a school shooting August 27th.  I didn't write about it.  The only thing we had up here about it was Senator Amy Klobuchar making a statement.  I didn't even stream it before I posted it.  Why?  Amy's got common sense.  I had no fears that she would say anything uncaring or outrageous.  But that's all that went up here.

    If you've been around this site for any length of time, you know I do not politicize shootings and I tend to look down on those who do.  You also know I'm not calling for The Second Amendment to be overturned.  My attitude here -- one later stolen by _________ -- has always been, "You want us to give up our guns?  Let's see the police do the same."  I don't own a gun.  I've lived with men who did.  Especially in more radical times.  Elaine's noted before at her site several times that in one relationship -- with a political activist who most would describe as a radical -- he had guns all over our home.  You'd reach under the couch for a catalogue (this is back in the seventies) and you'd nudge a gun.  You went to the bathroom and moved towels around, you'd find a gun.  

    I'm not scared of guns.  I don't own one.

    If we want to have a calm discussion about guns and gun violence, I'm for that.  I'm not for the screaming and yelling that tends to ensue whenever there's a high profile shooting.

    I think there is sensible gun control that we could have right now if we could speak calmly on the topic.  

    So we never spend time here on gun violence.  And that could change.  I'm probably closer right now than I've ever been in terms of thinking about helping on that issue.  Mainly because I keep seeing them screw up their presentations and, as a result, turning away the people they're trying to woo to their side.

    Too many of you -- especially at MSNBC -- do not know what you're doing.

    That's why your ratings are always low.

    You don't know how to program.  You don't grasp what host doesn't belong in prime time.  You don't know what you're doing.

    When you spend a 24 hour period posting 28 videos about _____ what do you think that says?

    What do you think the takeaway is?

    Are you so stupid that you don't get you're building him up?  

    I'm not even mentioning the racist's name.  I'm not promoting him.  But damned if MSNBC isn't glorifying him.

    You're shooting the left in the foot.

    There is no new information.  There is no reason for you to be wall-to-wall with coverage of a vile and disgusting man.  FOX "NEWS" and other outlets exist for that.  

    If you're going to destroy the left, MSNBC, I'm not promoting you.  I have better things to do.

    Related, please read Marcia's "Racist Jill Filipovic is in another panic" -- well known racist Jill Filipovic is pissing her panties as she tries to tell the country -- including Black people -- how we should speak of a dead racist.  Jill's always hated Black women -- and did you miss the fact that in 2019 when she was forced to (slightly) own up to her years of racism, she didn't apologize.

    MSNBC, you are harming the left with your garbage right now.  You're also insulting those of us who are Black, those of us who are women and those of us who are LGBTQ+ (in Marcia's case, all three).  You really need to look at the coverage you're doing because it's turning a minor figure into a celebrity.  It's, in fact, trying to make him the next Princess Diana.  His death has certainly gotten more US media coverage than the death of Pope Francis.


    Let's move over to immigration because we certainly can't count on MSNBC to cover it this week.  Evann Gastaldo (NEWSER) reports:


    An immigration raid at a construction site near the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, took a dramatic turn Wednesday when construction workers bolted from the site and headed straight for the agency's heavily fortified campus. According to sources familiar with the situation who spoke to the New York Times, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers swooped in unannounced at the site, prompting workers to scatter. Some attempted to vault over the CIA's outer perimeter, only to face an even larger fence guarding the facility.
    The surprise influx triggered a lockdown at the intelligence compound, causing a traffic jam and leaving some CIA staff stranded outside for over an hour, NBC News reports. ICE reportedly did not alert the agency beforehand, compounding the confusion. A CIA spokesperson acknowledged the security event and confirmed law enforcement responded, but offered no further details. ICE did not immediately comment on the incident.

    Chump can't oversee anything correctly.  Maybe if he'd nominated better people, qualified people, he wouldn't have so many basic problems. 

    If you're not getting how truly incompetent and how truly evil these people are, read Alex Woodward's report for THE INDEPENDENT:


    A secret memo between the United States and El Salvador reveals the Trump administration’s $5 million deal for Nayib Bukele’s government to jail dozens of Venezuelan immigrants deported from the country earlier this year.

    According to a term sheet made public in court filings this week, the Trump administration agreed to pay the Salvadoran government $4.67 million to detain deportees at the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a brutal prison that human rights groups have condemned as a “tropical gulag.”

    Under terms of the deal, El Salvador was prohibited from using the money to support drug traffickers and “mass-migration caravans” to the U.S.-Mexico border — as well as abortion care and support for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

    But the deal does not explicitly prohibit immigrants from being tortured, experiencing abuse or being held indefinitely inside one of the western hemisphere’s most notorious jails, where more than 250 Venezuelan immigrants deported by the Trump administration spent more than four months before they were sent back to their home country.

    Torture was not a concern -- even though it's a War Crime and Chump's actions were War Crimes.  If Chump doesn't die from a stroke before his term is up, let's hope that he faces a world court for his actions.  They might not be as indulgent as The Corrupt Court in declaring that a president can break any law and get away with it (see Betty's latest on that body "").  In fact, maybe we could get John Roberts in front of a world court. John Scum Of The Earth Roberts says racial profiling is legal.  Of course, he does.  Chump's war on immigrants was always about his fear of non-Whites (read Ava and my "").   Ja'han Jones (MSNBC) reports


    The Trump administration has unveiled a plan to boost white immigration to the United States, in stark contrast with its efforts to expel immigrants from largely nonwhite countries as varied as Nepal and Nicaragua.

    On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in South Africa announced that a group called Amerikaners will serve as an official “referral partner” to help select candidates for settlement in the U.S., following Trump’s bogus portrayal of white Afrikaners, who are primarily of Dutch descent, as victims of racist oppression by South Africa’s government.
    Amerikaners appear to have branded its organization specifically to appeal to a Trump administration that has demonized nonwhite immigrants, non-Christian immigrants and immigrants with poor English-speaking abilities. As Reuters noted Tuesday, a memo the group sent to President Donald Trump in May identifies itself as ​​“mainly Christian, conservative, and English-speaking,” while boasting about “a strong Western cultural orientation.”

    The organization also pushed bogus claims of systemic anti-white racism in the memo, including the allegation that government-backed programs designed to subvert the lasting impact of South African apartheid — which has left the country’s white minority with a hugely disproportionate amount of the country’s wealth — are discriminatory.

    According to the U.S. Embassy’s announcement, Amerikaners will help “consider eligibility for U.S. refugee resettlement for people who are of Afrikaner ethnicity or a member of a racial minority in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.” As you may recall, earlier this year Trump signed an executive order calling for the prioritization of white Afrikaner immigration to the U.S. after forcing South Africa’s president to watch a misinformation-filled video at the White House that Trump falsely claimed was evidence of anti-white genocide in South Africa.

    As NPR noted in May, claims of white genocide in Africa — whether in South Africa or in other nations, such as Zimbabwe — have been peddled by white supremacists for decades.


    Don't worry, though, Chump will always keep the US a haven  for White racists.  Pedro Camacho (LATIN TIMES) reports on Chump shredding due process:


    An original investigation by The Guardian has uncovered that the Trump administration is moving immigrants around the U.S. in increasingly complex and opaque ways, with record numbers of deportation flights, widespread detainee transfers, and growing obstacles to legal representation.

    According to The Guardian, leaked flight manifests and passenger data from Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX)—a Miami-based charter company contracted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—provide a rare look into the scale of ICE's operations between January and May 2025. The data covers more than 44,000 immigrants and documents over 1,700 flights, the majority between U.S. cities.

    Nearly 3,600 immigrants were moved repeatedly, boarding five or more flights each, while others experienced up to 20 transfers between detention facilities. Many detainees were relocated without advance notice, often to facilities far from family, legal counsel, and their assigned courts. Attorneys cited in the report say these practices have resulted in "apparent violations of constitutional due process rights."


    The Guardian found that nearly 1,000 children were transported during this period, including 22 infants and nearly 500 under the age of 10. In some cases, detainees were allegedly pressured into "voluntary" deportation after being threatened with separation from family members or transfers to distant facilities. "You end up in a continuous state of unknown for an indefinite period of time," said Faisal Al-Juburi of the legal aid group Raíces. "Families are being put into a purgatorial state."


    This is what Chump is doing to families while sending out fundraising requests claiming he wants to get into heaven.  Well, Chump, want in one hand and you know what you can do in the other -- we both know which hand will fill up first.


    Chabeli Carrazana (THE 19TH NEWS) zooms in on one family being destroyed:


    Her first night in the bunks, she thought about how this place might change her. Would her sons in the beds above and beside her see their father again? What would she have to do to protect them? And did she have the strength?

    The rooms on this side of the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas, near San Antonio, housed only women with their children. Nicolle Orozco Forero and her boys, ages 5 and 7, arrived there on an afternoon in June, awaiting a deportation she was sure would come. 
    When she woke up from a nightmare around 9 p.m., she turned to see if her husband was beside her. He had been separated from her when they arrived, as her boys cried. “We want to stay in papa’s room,” they said. 

    She cracked open a Bible and landed on a verse: “So do not fear, for I am with you.” 

    A day earlier, Orozco Forero and her husband, Juan Sebastian Moreno Acosta, arrived at their routine monthly meeting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expecting to make some progress on their case. 

    The family, originally from Colombia, had been living in Seattle for two years, where Orozco Forero worked as a child care provider for children with disabilities. Her eldest son, Juan David, has a serious kidney issue and was being treated at Seattle Children’s Hospital. His nephrologist had written a letter to ICE requesting he remain in the country to receive a biopsy and further treatment. 
    But the mood at the appointment that morning was different. An officer shadowed them. Their case worker looked at them anxiously. When she called them in and said, “There is nothing more we can do for you,” Orozco Forero knew. 

    They were soon handcuffed, stripped of their belongings and shuffled to the back of the building. Orozco Forero said she showed an ICE officer a letter from Juan David’s doctors approving a biopsy; the officer tore it apart, she said. “This no longer works,” the officer told her. 


    The cruelty and the inhumanity are all hallmarks of Chump and his administration.  His gestapo carries out his orders.  We should all remember that -- especially if we're lucky enough to force Chump to stand before a tribunal someday. 


    Let's move over to Chump and his buddies Ghislaine Maxwell and the late Jeffery Epstein.  



    President Donald Trump is finding that the scandal surrounding his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein is refusing to fade.

    This week, Jeffrey Epstein's name came back to the fore with the release of a birthday note allegedly sent by Trump to the disgraced financier, published by The Wall Street Journal and circulated by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
    Trump's authorship of the note - scrawled inside the sketched outline of a woman's body - was immediately disputed by the White House. "As I have said all along, it's very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it. President Trump's legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation," press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Trump himself told NBC News on Tuesday that the matter was a "dead issue."

    But for a growing number of Americans—including many in Trump's own base—the issue is anything but over.

    Trump's association with Jeffrey Epstein dates back to the early 1990s, when both men moved in the same social and business circles in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York City. Photographs from the period show them together at parties, and Trump even noted Epstein's taste for younger women. In a 2002 interview with New York Magazine, Trump described Epstein as a "terrific guy" who "likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."


    He can't outrun his past -- especially considering his weight and age.  Ailia Zehra reports:


    Rep. Thomas Massie (R‑Ky.) strongly challenged on Thursday President Donald Trump’s claim that the renewed attention on convicted sex Jeffrey Epstein is a political “hoax,” pointing instead to a diplomatic upheaval in the United Kingdom as proof that there’s more to emerge.

    Earlier Thursday, the British government dismissed Peter Mandelson as its ambassador to the United States after newly revealed emails and letters showed a deeper and more supportive relationship with Epstein than had previously been disclosed.

    “If it's a hoax, why did the British government just fire their ambassador to the United States? It’s because more is coming out on the Epstein files and they see what's coming down the pike,” Massie told CNN journalist Manu Raju Thursday.

    The emails, part of a cache of more than 18,000 obtained by Bloomberg News, show that Maxwell and Epstein were closer, in many respects, than either publicly admitted. Maxwell opened at least one foreign bank account using one of his addresses, was a named director on one of Epstein’s main revenue-generating companies and traded stock in a company they were both invested in, details that haven’t been previously reported. The pair discussed undergoing a shared fertility procedure, long after Maxwell claims she largely disassociated from him. They corresponded about discrediting women who raised allegations against them, including in one exchange where Maxwell said she planned to circulate compromising information on one of Epstein’s sexual-abuse victims.

    The emails include a spreadsheet itemizing nearly 2,000 gifts, luxury items and payments totaling $1.8 million, with notations indicating they were intended for Epstein’s friends, business associates and victims. The spreadsheet, which was created by one of Epstein’s accountants, includes a $35,000 watch that was earmarked for a former Bill Clinton aide; a $71,000 purchase at a Lexus dealership for one of Epstein’s lawyers; and other items, such as lingerie and chocolates, some for teenage girls who later lodged sexual abuse complaints against Epstein and Maxwell. The spreadsheet indicates that Maxwell helped Epstein arrange many of the items; it doesn’t specify whether the intended recipients were ever offered or actually accepted the gifts.

    Maxwell has maintained she was kept in the dark about details of Epstein's initial sexual abuse case in the mid-2000s. Yet the emails demonstrate her deep knowledge of the legal jeopardy he faced and show how she helped him strategize over even the most consequential details.

    “Question,” Epstein wrote to Maxwell on May 23, 2008. “Which one do you prefer,,, lewd and lscivious conduct ,, or procuring minors for prostituion.”

    At the time, he and his star-studded team of defense lawyers were closing in on a generous plea deal with federal and state officials in Florida, and Epstein was trying to negotiate the state charges to which he’d plead guilty. Maxwell’s response was matter-of-fact: "I suppose Lews and lecivious conduct . . I would prefer lewd and lescivious conduct w/a prositute if possible 
    A month later Epstein pleaded guilty to two Florida state charges: felony solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors to engage in prostitution. He also registered as a sex offender.


    We don't have to utilize MSNBC to note the BLOOMBERG exclusive.  They can continue their hours and hours spent on canonizing the racist while we focus on reality.  Some video reports.

     


    "Epstein's Inbox" is the title of BLOOMBERG NEWS' exclusive report by Jason Leopold, Ava Benny-Morrison, Jeff Kao, Dhruy Mehrotra, Suray Mattu, Harry Wilson and Max Abelson,


    Let's wind down with this:

    The Black Commentator Issue #1054 is now Online
     
    September 11, 2025

         

    Read issue 1054

    Our email address is BlackCommentator@gmail.com

    Our voicemail number is 856.823.1739

    The Black Commentator | P.O. Box 2635A weekly publication dedicated to economic justice, social justice and peace.,
    Tarpon Springs, FL 34688-2635


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