3 -4 heirloom tomatoes, small to medium, in assorted colors, cored and cut into 1 inch chunks
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 cup watermelon, seedless flesh (red or yellow)
1 Hass avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tablespoon herbs, fresh, chopped (mixed in any combination ( basil, tarragon, chives, and cilantro)
1⁄4 teaspoon coriander seed
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar
kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
directions
In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, cucumber, watermelon, avocado, and herbs.
In a spice grinder, grind the coriander seeds to a fine powder. Add the ground coriander to the tomato mixture and toss gently.
In
a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt
and pepper to taste. Pour over the tomato mixture and toss to coat
evenly. Taste and adjust the seasoning before serving.
I love recipes that include watermelon. Let's note our previous salad recipes from this summer, last summer and the summer before that:
It’s
even worse that they aim to “fix” trans kids by using political and
legal force to stop them from living a trans life, forcing them to
instead accept the birth sex that gives these teenagers clinically verified distress.
It is the official government position that a person’s sex at birth is
the right and natural order that dictates the rest of their lives: how
their face and body looks, the gender role they should adopt in life and
even how they play sports.
But if living as
your birth-assigned sex is as natural and obvious as they make it out to
be, why do we need to devote so many government resources to discourage
trans people from existing?
When this news
broke Tuesday, I took a moment to think about May Pollard, an Idaho
trans teenager who took her own life in January. As the NBC News story
about her says, suicide is complex, but Pollard’s life was not helped
by the conservative politicians in her state who on the federal level
decided that they knew better than her, her doctor and her parents.
“In
Idaho alone, within the last few years of May’s life, state legislators
proposed more than four dozen bills aimed at LGBTQ rights, and Gov.
Brad Little signed 15 into law,” NBC News noted. “Many targeted youth,
banning trans minors from getting treatments like puberty blockers and
hormone therapy and prohibiting classroom instruction on sexual
orientation or gender identity in public K-12 schools.”
Those
legislators, along with Oz and Kennedy, all claim to be protecting
children with their actions, but instead, they are endangering all of
them.
I thought too of another trans teen who took their own life 12 years ago. News of Leelah Alcorn’s passing and subsequent suicide note left on Tumblr
went viral at the time, and genuinely got society to take the plight of
trans youth seriously for the first time. “My death needs to mean
something. Fix society. Please,” her note famously read. Alcorn was
raised by very religious, conservative parents in Ohio, who, like
today’s conservative leaders, believed Alcorn was rejecting her sex, and
sent her to multiple rounds of conversion therapy before her death.
Her passing touched former President Barack Obama
and led his administration to begin the process to cover
gender-affirming care for trans youth on Medicaid and CHIP in the first
place.
Chump has led targeting of trans individuals, he actively encourages hate against them. This is hatred aimed all trans people -- not just children, to be clear. He's a hateful man. But to aim his hate at children? That goes beyond hi stupidity, that goes beyond his ignorance. He is a monster. Adults can handle a lot more. That's true regardless of the issue. Whether it's Chump's war on immigrants, for example, or his war on trans people.
He pretends he wants to protect children but anyone who did would not take them from their families or add to their stress by mocking them and refusing to see them as they are. He's a monster.
Thursday, August 13, 2026. Inflation remains high as noted in
yesterday's economic report that so many try to talk up despite the
reality of it, Hegseth is an abject failure as Secretary of Defense, ICE
agents aim a gun at an unarmed woman in a car, family detention gets a
serious exploration by MS. MAGAZINE, and much more.
Inflation
as measured by the consumer price index rose 0.1% from June to July,
the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday, showing that costs
broadly remained elevated for consumers amid volatile energy prices.
From a year ago, inflation dropped slightly to 3.4% from 3.5%.
But in a troubling sign for consumers, it remains above the rate of wage growth, which as of last month was pacing at 3.2%, according to the BLS. Average hourly earnings slipped 0.2% from a year earlier, as well, the agency said Wednesday.
Inflation
has been wiping out wage gains for the past four months, Heather Long,
chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote on X.
“For middle-income and lower-income Americans, this is the key issue,” Long wrote.
As
the Middle East conflict has dragged on, gasoline prices have popped up
again, and averaged $4.06 nationwide in early August, according to AAA.
Overall energy costs fell 1.5 percent in July, but they are still
nearly 15 percent higher than they were at this time last year. The
war’s impact on fuel costs was also visible in airline fares, which
jumped 2.2 percent since June and are up 25.5 percent over the past
year.
The elevated costs come at a time when hiring has slowed dramatically
and Americans are seeing slower wage gains. The overall annual
inflation rate for July remains above the 3.2 percent increase in
average hourly earnings over the same period, which means that workers
are still losing ground in their spending power.
Anders Bylund (THE MOTLEY FOOL) notes, "Oil
prices could also throw a spanner in the works, depending on how
negotiations in the Iranian conflict work out. Today, President Trump
claimed 'total control' over the Strait of Hormuz. The oil market, which
votes with money rather than adjectives, barely budged." And that's
because neither Chump nor the US have "total control" of the region. David Goldman (CNN) explains,
"President Donald Trump has routinely claimed that the United States
controls the Strait of Hormuz, a claim belied by the notion that
military escorts are needed to shuttle commercial vessels in and out of
the Persian Gulf and Iran has attacked 64 vessels transiting the strait,
resulting in 17 seafarer fatalities and 35 injuries." Christopher Rugaber (LOS ANGELES TIMES) reminds that "prices
are still rising more quickly than average wages, underscoring the
struggle many Americans have had with more expensive groceries, gas, and
healthcare, trends that have taken on a high profile in the
fast-approaching midterm elections." And Madison Hoff (BUSINESS INSIDER) points out, "Food
price increases looked similar to June; food away from home rose 3.4%
year over year again, and food at home rose 2.7% again. Overall food
prices increased 3%, like they did in June." The bottom line's delivered by Steve Kopack (NBC NEWS), "The
rate of inflation likely outpaced growth in Americans’ wages last
month, according to projections, even as energy prices moderated
slightly."
A man whose been
involved in repeated bankruptcies can't be counted on to steer the US
economy in a successful manner. We've seen that. We should grasp it.
There are no writers for this 'reality' show to make Chump come off as
anything but the bumbling grifter that he is.
Republicans
on the Senate's Joint Economic Committee posted a series of numbers
trying to sell yesterday's report as good news. Again, it wasn't. And
if you doubt it, note this number that they posted:
Consumer Price Index
From July 2025 to July 2026:
Headline CPI-U inflation was 3.36 percent.
Food price inflation was 2.98 percent.
Energy price inflation was 14.73 percent.
Core CPI-U inflation was 2.48 percent.
Let's look at another of his
'successes' -- the USS LINCOLN. For months now, the lack of food
available for sailors on the vessel has been in the news. Also well
covered was the extreme length of the tours being asked of those serving
on the ship. Ellie Cook (NEWSWEEK) now reports:
At
least two U.S. Navy sailors have attempted to jump overboard on the USS
Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, according to family members of the
crew, after concerns were raised during an extended deployment for the
war with Iran.
The aircraft carrier left the
U.S. in November and was rerouted from the Pacific to the Middle East as
the White House prepared to launch its war on Tehran at the end of
February.
Relatives of the roughly 5,000 sailors
and Marines who have spent more than eight months aboard the Lincoln
have raised the alarm over supply shortages, long work schedules and
fears over the potential for self-harm, in multiple reports published in
the past week.
More than 200 family members of
the sailors met last week with Hung Cao, the acting secretary of the
Navy, according to the specialist media outlet Stars and Stripes.
A
second meeting, which took place virtually, between top Navy officials
and loved ones of the sailors and Marines on the Lincoln also discussed
concerns over mental health and safety, according to recordings seen by
MS Now.
Cao said the Lincoln would be relieved
by the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier group but did not specify when,
the outlet reported.
Speaking to the Military Times,
the partners of sailors onboard the ship have spoken of multiple
incidents of service members attempting to take their own lives.
Annabelle
Loma told the outlet she had been told by the ombudsman that her
husband had attempted to jump overboard. She said she has only been able
to speak to him a handful of times since, and that he was now in a
medical hold.
“He’s scared,” she said. “He thinks
he’ll get a dishonorable discharge, and just because he was burnt out,
his 13-year career is ruined, just like that. That’s not fair, that’s
not right. That’s not what he should be worrying about right now.”
Their
deployment began in November and was due to end in May, making its
current service the longest of a U.S. carrier in the modern era. No
return date has been made public at the time of writing.
It
is not yet “Mutiny on the Bounty”, but the crew aboard the USS Abraham
Lincoln and their families back home are making it clear to Pete
Hegseth, the Secretary of War, and other Pentagon officials that one of
America’s most iconic warfighting vessels is plagued with a potentially
deadly morale problem. Back in April, barely a month into Donald Trump’s
war with Iran, sailors serving on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
started grousing on social media about dwindling food supplies. Images
sent to spouses and parents were leaked to the media and appeared to
support claims that the ship’s supplies were coming under growing
pressure. Some “meals” consisted of little more than a handful of boiled
carrots and two dried-out slices of unidentifiable meat. Sailors aboard
the nearby USS Tripoli were also lodging similar complaints.
At
the time, Hegseth denied any problems existed, claiming that the
vessels had more than 30 days of food supplies for their crews. “Our
sailors deserve and receive the best,” he said. But four months later,
the crisis has intensified. This week, sailors’ families confronted top
Pentagon officials at what military newspaper The Stars and Stripes
described as “intense town hall meetings” held in San Diego, where the
Lincoln is based. Families reportedly warned acting secretary of the
navy, Hung Cao, that they were increasingly fearful of suicides among
the men and women serving aboard the carrier, which has been at sea for
more than 250 consecutive days, more than 40 of them engaged in combat
with Iran. (Photo: Getty)
Chump
never served and didn't appreciate those who did. He then elected to
nominate a drunken failure to be Secretary of Defense. And here we
are. A Secretary of Defense who installed a beauty salon in the
Pentagon so he can get his touch ups and foundation to try to cover his psoriasis
and who spends more time arguing to be called the Secretary of War
(can't be called that legally) and insisting he's over the Department of
War (also can't be called that legally). What Hegseth isn't doing and
hasn't done is taking care of the service members. Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) observes, "Trump,
for his part, seems either unaware of how dire things are among
servicemembers or simply doesn’t care. He touted the U.S. naval blockade
on the Strait of Hormuz Wednesday and bragged about how successful it
is."
Earlier today on MS NOW's MORNING JOE, the gang addressed the issue.
Let's move over to ICE. They've managed to disgust the nation yet again.
New
video shows an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent pulling a gun
on a Northern Virginia woman who was driving her car in Falls Church
Monday afternoon. The agents accused the woman of trying to run them
over. But the woman says she didn’t put them in danger.
Carolina Molina shared dashcam and cellphone videos of the interaction with News4.
Madaleine Rubin (NEW YORK TIMES) notes, "The
agents repeatedly accused her of trying to run them over with her car
and threatened to arrest her. But in videos captured from several
angles, there is no indication that Ms. Molina had tried to harm the
agents." Billal Rahman (NEWSWEEK) quotes
Carolina Molina stating, "Something should be done about these thugs
who can get away with pointing a gun at someone for absolutely no reason
and killing others. I don’t understand why the White House isn’t doing
anything about them. They’re unhinged and emotional. Maybe they need
therapy resources." And what many Americans may not understand is why
ICE (a) thought they could get away with lying that someone was trying
to attack then with their car (Carolina's dash cam and cell phone
footage demonstrated she had not done that) and (b) why ICE thought they
could pull a gun on an unarmed person?
They
act that way because they haven't been trained and because they are
often the dregs of society -- hired due to a need not as a result of
qualifications.
Immigration
agents on Friday detained a father in New Jersey, with his neighbors
rallying around the family and raising thousands of dollars to try to
help his legal fight.
Tonny Quesada-Ramirez’s
detention in South Orange is the latest case involving U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detaining immigrants with pending
legal status applications—a gray area that has seen agents avoid arrests
until a decision is made.
A GoFundMe set up for
Quesada-Ramirez, known to his community as Tony, quickly surpassed the
$25,000 target and sat at over $36,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.
Neighbor
Shuly Adams, who started the fundraiser, wrote: “He was kind. He was
easy to work with. He lit up when talking about his family, most of all
his two sons, the older of whom has Down’s syndrome.”
Earlier
this year, a 16-year-old student at a Los Angeles high school was
looking forward to starting his junior year, where he planned to try out
for the school’s varsity tennis team. His parents were both college
psychology professors.
But in April, U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested the family, who
immigrated from Iran more than a decade ago, after U.S. Secretary of
State Marco Rubio told immigration officers to revoke their permanent
legal status. ICE separated the family, sending them to two different
Texas detention centers.
For
the past 123 days, the teen and his mother have lived in an immigrant
detention facility in Dilley, where he and other detainees share their
rooms with swarms of cockroaches, spiders and mosquitoes, he wrote in a
sworn affidavit. Meanwhile, his father is at the South Texas ICE
Processing Center in Pearsall.
“We have been
put through hell for the past four months, and our physical and mental
health have deteriorated in ways that might not be reversible for
years,” Maryam Tahmasebi, his mother, wrote in The Nation on Tuesday.
“We are only allowed to speak with my husband for 10 minutes every two
weeks, under supervision.”
The
teen is one of at least 60 children who the Trump administration has
held in the Dilley detention center for 100 days or more — far exceeding
the 20-day limit for detaining immigrant children — according to a
Texas Tribune analysis of federal government data.
On
average, children in the Dilley detention center spend 25 days there —
but in a six-month period ending in December, that average peaked at 47
days, according to the Tribune’s analysis.
The teen,
who is only identified by his initials — S.M.H. — in court documents,
said in a sworn declaration that being arrested and detained was
“terrifying” and he has lost 10 pounds since his arrest.
On Aug. 6, just days after the Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14160,
which aimed to remove birthright citizenship for children of
undocumented parents and temporary visitors, the president signed two new executive orders targeting birthright citizenship and so-called birth tourism.
The second order, “Ending Birth Tourism,”
denies visas to women suspected of misrepresenting their reason for
traveling to the U.S. in order to give birth on U.S. soil.
These
executive orders are the administration’s latest attempt to police
American identity, punish migrant women for entering the U.S. and
ultimately regulate their reproduction. Beyond the issue of birthright
citizenship, immigrant women and children continue to be targets of a
hostile immigration system that seeks to control them through detention,
family separation and deportation.
Trump’s
efforts to criminalize and punish women, including mothers and pregnant
women, have been expanding since his first term, when he signed Executive Order 13768,
“Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States in 2017,”
removing protections for pregnant women to allow for their frequent
detention in immigration facilities. This EO ensured pregnant women
could be held in detention centers, despite the fact that they require
specialized healthcare, access to medical labs and high-quality
ultrasounds that are not readily available in these facilities.
Immediately following this order, more than 2,100 pregnant women were detained, many of whom were detained upwards of weeks or months.
In 2018, Trump implemented a “zero tolerance”
policy that resulted in the separation of more than 5,000 families and
the incarceration of children as young as 4 months. These children were
housed in abhorrent conditions
and without basic amenities, including a blanket, toothbrush and
something to eat. Images of children held behind chain-link fencing
sparked public outrage on both sides of the political spectrum and the
family separations eventually ended, though as of 2024 as many as 1,360 children still had not been reunited with their families.
Family
detention differs from the earlier zero tolerance policy that resulted
in children being separated from their parents, but it’s no less
traumatic. It is a practice designed to detain whole families in
immigration facilities while they await hearings.
While halted under Biden, many people don’t know that the Trump administration reinstated family detention in March 2025 and reopened two family detention centers in Texas:
the Karnes Family Civil Detention Center in Karnes County, which can
house 830 people, and the South Texas Family Residential Center in
Dilley, which has space for 2,400 people. Both the Karnes County and
South Texas facilities are run by private companies: CoreCivic and GEO Group, respectively.
Family
detention allows the administration to get around the optics of
separating families while ramping up immigrant detention and undermining
the rights of families and children. In fact, since 2025, “the number
of families in detention centers has more than tripled,” according to a report by the Children’s Equity Center,
“detaining children of all ages, starting in infancy.” These facilities
function like civil detention centers or prisons and are unsuitable for
stays of any duration.
In addition, minors are being held in residential centers much longer than the 20-day limit set by the Flores Agreement, a 1997 law which outlines basic standards of care for minors in immigration detention.
And let's note this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), alongside Senators Chris
Murphy (D-CT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Catherine
Cortez Masto (D-NV), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly
(D-AZ), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA),
Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA),
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy, Jr. demanding he explain why the Trump administration planned
to award a no-bid contract to a Trump-aligned law firm with no apparent
immigration law experience, allowing them to represent
unaccompanied children who are in the care and custody of the Office of
Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
“Given the political connections between the firm’s senior
leadership and the Trump administration, we have concerns about why you
sidestepped the competitive bidding process to select this firm to
provide legal services for children who are in ORR care and custody, and
demand transparency into whether all federal procurement processes were
followed,” the senators wrote. “Children deserve
competent representation by attorneys who practice at the intersection
of child welfare and federal immigration law, but Americans also deserve
to know why their federal dollars are being doled out to Trump’s
friends and allies.”
The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),
through ORR, has an obligation to ensure that unaccompanied children are
provided competent legal aid as they navigate the immigration process.
Despite this, Secretary Kennedy has cut legal service funding for 26,000
unaccompanied children, proposing to shift funding to the Trump-aligned
Burke Law Group, despite the firm’s lack of experience protecting the
rights of immigrant children.
“The firm appears to have little relevant experience with the
legal and practical challenges that children face, raising serious
concerns about the firm’s ability to provide not just representation but
adequate, zealous representation,” the senators added. “Within
hours of the notice in the Federal Register, the firm appears to have
updated their website to include content about immigrant youth that
didn’t exist on the website the previous day. At best, this is
concerning, and at worst, it is a part of a coordinated scheme to paper
over the firm’s lack of experience.”
Burke Law Group’s inexperience in the area of the law they would be
contracted to perform could result in serious harm for the nearly 2,000
children in ORR’s care. The firm itself employs 26 people in total,
adding an additional concern about the firm’s capacity to provide
adequate legal representation to innocent children, let alone its
competency to do so. Instead, the only clear outcome of this contracting
award is that another Trump-aligned business will receive millions from
the Trump administration.
In the letter, the senators demanded that Secretary Kennedy provide
transparency as to why the Burke Law Group was considered for this
contract and details about the firm’s plans to provide legal assistance
to unaccompanied children.
Full text of the letter is available HERE and below:
Secretary Kennedy,
We are alarmed by the recent news that the Trump administration
intends to award $150 million to a Houston law firm with close ties to
President Trump and no apparent expertise in immigration law, to provide
legal representation to unaccompanied children. Given the political
connections between the firm’s senior leadership and the Trump
administration, we have concerns about why you sidestepped the
competitive bidding process to select this firm to provide legal
services for children who are in the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s
care and custody, and demand transparency into whether all federal
procurement processes were followed. Children deserve competent
representation by attorneys who practice at the intersection of child
welfare and federal immigration law, but Americans also deserve to know
why their federal dollars are being doled out to Trump’s friends and
allies.
Most Americans agree children should not be forced to navigate the
complex immigration process without adequate counsel, and Congress has
enacted several provisions and funded counsel for these children for
many years. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act
(TVPRA) directs the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS), through the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), to
“ensure, to the greatest extent practicable . . . that all unaccompanied
alien children . . . have counsel to represent them in legal
proceedings or matters and protect them from mistreatment, exploitation,
and trafficking.” Recently, ORR moved to withhold funding from over 100
legal services providers that had provided counsel to children for
decades, which essentially cut off all funding for representation of
approximately 26,000 unaccompanied children currently navigating the
immigration court process.
Yet, seemingly overnight, ORR bypassed the competitive bidding
process entirely, awarding the Burke Law Group (“the firm”) a one-year
single-source cooperative agreement. We are awaiting final details, but
the new agreement appears to cover around 1,800 children currently in
ORR custody.
The firm appears to have little relevant experience with the legal
and practical challenges that children face, raising serious concerns
about the firm’s ability to provide not just representation but
adequate, zealous representation. Within hours of the notice in the
Federal Register, the firm appears to have updated their website to
include content about immigrant youth that didn’t exist on the website
the previous day. At best, this is concerning, and at worst, it is a
part of a coordinated scheme to paper over the firm’s lack of
experience. Furthermore, the firm’s senior leadership has political ties
to the Trump administration. One of the founders of the firm was a
Trump appointee – to an agency with no involvement in either child
welfare or immigration law – and still another founding partner now
serves as Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of
Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) for Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and has a questionable connection to harms perpetuated
against detainees at immigration detention centers.
Consistent with the TVPRA, Congress has funded, and ORR administered,
robust legal services to unaccompanied children under past Republican
and Democratic administrations alike. Counsel for children should have
at a bare minimum, experience and knowledge of the complex laws,
policies, and dynamics of the intersection of immigration and child
welfare law. Beyond the professional duty of legal competence, there is
long-standing concern about adequate representation by qualified counsel
for this vulnerable population, which is why Congress authorized and
funded the program originally. HHS has yet to clarify how a 26-person
Houston-based law firm will be able to adequately satisfy the TVPRA’s
mandate to provide representation for unaccompanied children in ORR’s
care and custody.
For these reasons and our deep concern regarding the treatment and
protection of unaccompanied children, we call for an independent,
timely, transparent, and public investigation at both the state12 and
federal level into this award, with the full cooperation of ORR and HHS.
We request the following information and responses to questions by August 25, 2026.
Please provide:
Names of all legal services providers considered for this
cooperative agreement. Please include the type of provider (e.g., law
firm, nonprofit) and their qualifications.
A copy of the firm’s application for the award.
A copy of the cooperative agreement and justification for single-source funding.
All communications between employees of the firm and agency personnel at ORR and HHS.
Copies of the merits determination for this agreement and the
compliance justification for why the agreement is in line with the
grants policy agreement.
Questions:
Nothing in this agreement discusses how children who were already
represented will be supported by the firm or how such children will be
transferred to attorneys of the firm.
What is the firm’s plan to ensure adequate continuity, experience,
and knowledge in taking these cases, including its anticipated
case-per-attorney ratio?
What, if any, subcontractors will the firm employ or plan to employ to handle the workload?
Describe the firm’s coordination, if any, with the supplemental
cooperative agreement awardee, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and
Immigrants.
There are currently only two attorneys at the firm listed as having
any immigration experience. How is the cooperative agreement expected to
ensure proper legal representation of approximately 1,800 children in
ORR custody?
Will firm attorneys be required to convey a represented child’s
sensitive personal information, or information of the represented
child’s family members or prospective sponsors, to ORR or DHS without
specific and credible reason to believe such information-sharing is in
the best interest of the represented child?
Please explain what the firm is expected to share with ORR or HHS,
including who will have access to such information, the cadence by which
that information will be shared, and the purpose of such
information-sharing.
Please also explain how the firm will be in compliance with ABA
Model Rule 1.6 and Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct 1.05
and 1.06, involving a client’s informed consent.
How will this firm be handling ‘Know Your Rights’ presentations and
legal consultations? How will they be providing these services to
children not in Texas? Please clarify whether these services will be
provided in-person or virtually.
Todd
Blanche may have scraped through his Senate nomination (just), but The
Swamp has uncovered documents exposing a major lie he appears to have
missed during his controversial questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Far
be it from us to suggest that Blanche’s Ghislaine grilling was a way to
ensure she didn’t reveal anything unseemly about the president’s
friendship with Jeffrey “Kryptonite” Epstein. But it seems the British
socialite who was conveniently moved to a cushy hotel prison after
talking to Blanche misled the new attorney general about her own
relationship with Trump.
Maxwell told Blanche
on July 24, 2025, that she met Trump in 1990 when she flew to New York
to help her media mogul father, Robert Maxwell, with “some advertising
issues with the New York Daily News.
“And in fact, I met—I may have met Donald Trump at that time, because my father was friendly with him and liked him very much,” she continued.
“And I think it should be said that he also very much liked Ivana,
because she was also from Czechoslovakia, where my dad was from. So I
don’t—I don’t remember if I did meet him or not in 1990 with my dad, but
I knew that that’s how I knew about—about Mr. Trump.”
Maxwell
went on to make the point that she didn’t meet Epstein until the
following year, adding that her father never met the child predator who
killed himself/was murdered exactly seven years ago last Monday.
The
only problem is that The Swamp has unearthed a newspaper clipping from
the May 17, 1989 issue of the New York Daily News which reports how both
Trump and Ghislaine were guests at a party on board her father’s
yacht—named Lady Ghislaine—with “caviar flown in from Paris on the
Concorde and salmon served from the vessel’s stores by shoeless
waiters.”
Also on board were John Tower, the former
senator whose defense secretary nomination was shot down over his
thrifting and heavy drinking, literary agent Mort Janklow and Peter
Kalikow, then owner of the New York Post.
The
report said Maxwell insisted his well-heeled guests took off their shoes
before boarding his yacht. Trump, it said, had a “much bigger yacht and
was happy to discuss them with Maxwell.”
The
report, by gossip columnists Phil Roura and Tom Poster, was not just in
the New York Daily News; it was syndicated nationwide.
The
obvious question for Trump’s then deputy attorney general and now his
top lawman is this: If Ghislaine was able to snow him so easily with
this lie, how much else should we believe about her account of her and
Epstein’s relationships with the president?
The
British socialite and Epstein's former girlfriend had pushed to keep
federal grand jury materials out of the public following the Trump
Justice Department’s request to unseal them, Courthouse News Service reported. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska granted the release of the documents.
In her opinion, Preska outlined her decision.
"As
noted above, Maxwell has lodged a veritable kitchen sink of objections
to the government’s request to publish the sealed materials in
compliance with the Act," Preska wrote.
"The
court finds that all of Maxwell’s objections are meritless and that, in
light of the Act, any remaining materials in the Government’s possession
should become part of the public record, subject to any
victim-protecting redactions authorized by the Act," Preska wrote.
Epstein
and Maxwell enabler Todd Blanche was called out yesterday in a press
release by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee:
Washington,
D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform, released the following statement after
the Department of Justice published an Office of Legal Counsel memo
declaring that the President could claim executive privilege over
communication with his “private advisers.” This unprecedented memo has
major implications for any investigation into Trump Administration
officials, including the Epstein investigation, shady government
contracts, and grifting projects by the President and his family.
“In
one of his first acts as Attorney General, Todd Blanche launched a plan
to hide Donald Trump’s crimes and corruption from the American people,
and obstruct our Epstein investigation. This dubious expansion of
executive privilege to cover Trump’s outside advisors is a clear attack
on Congress’s oversight powers, and creates an environment ripe for
corruption that protects only the President and his friends. We are
ready to fight to uphold our power and authority,” said Ranking Member
Robert Garcia.
In July 2026, Ranking Member
Garcia and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin urged
the Senate to reject Blanche’s nomination ahead of his confirmation
hearing for his failed handling of the Epstein files and his personal
involvement in moving Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security prison. In
June 2026, following the transcribed interview of former Attorney
General Pam Bondi, Ranking Member Garcia demanded the Committee bring in
Blanche for a transcribed interview regarding the Epstein
investigation. In January 2026, Ranking Member Garcia condemned Blanche
after the Department of Justice (DOJ) had released only half of the
Epstein files after months of defying the Oversight Committee subpoena
and Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Set
aside the reserved half of the chopped cucumber, tomatoes, red pepper
and green onions and place the remaining half in a blender. Add the
watermelon, garlic, basil, vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and jalapeño
pepper, if using. Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Pour into a large bowl (or small individual jars, as pictured) and stir in the reserved chopped vegetables.
Chill for 3 to 4 hours or overnight.
Drizzle with olive oil and garnish with diced avocado and/or micro greens, if desired, before serving.
So there we go, a watermelon recipe before summer's over.
The
World Health Organization(WHO) is "concerned" about the Trump
administration's recent executive order that pushes back on school
vaccine mandates.
WHO director-general Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the global health organization is
“concerned that recent changes to US immunization policy are not aligned
with decades of evidence that show when children are most vulnerable to
disease.”
Ghebreyesus added that vaccine science is clear: "vaccines – including the MMR vaccine – are safe and do not cause autism.”
“Vaccination
policy should be guided by rigorous, independent, and transparent
review of the best available science, not by political influence,” he
warned in a post on X.
Agreed.
And as Elaine noted yesterday in "Chump decides to share his 'knowledge'," the only thing scarier than Secretary of Health and Human Services Junior Kennedy sharing his thoughts on vaccines is Chump sharing his thoughts.
Wednesday, August 12, 2026. Chump grows more unpopular, his cowardly
actions are noted, he continues his war on immigrants and on reality,
two cry babies who voted to support Todd Blanche becoming Attorney
General now want to pretend that they ave backbones, and much more.
The threat to Air Force One was seen as so dire that they sneaked President Trump off the jet
in a catering container to keep him safe. But the same dire threat did
not stop them from then sending Air Force One into the skies anyway with
a planeful of senior officials, government employees, reporters and
military personnel serving as decoys, some unwittingly.
If
the Iranians were trying to shoot down the presidential plane last
month, as U.S. officials concluded at the time, then the subterfuge in
Ankara, Turkey, that protected the president also may have made targets
of dozens of others who flew aboard the jet, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the senior aides Stephen Miller and Steven Cheung.
The government has on rare occasions engaged in sleight of hand
to safeguard presidents from possible jeopardy, particularly for
journeys to hazardous locations, such as when George W. Bush or Barack
Obama flew to Iraq during days of war or when Bill Clinton made a brief
visit to Pakistan with its history of terrorism. The Trump team’s ruse
in Ankara, however, stands out not only for its misdirection but also
for the way it shifted the evident peril to others and was kept secret
long after Mr. Trump was out of harm’s way.
“They
just didn’t seem to give a second thought to anybody but the president
and the few people who were with him,” said Joe Lockhart, who served as
White House press secretary to Mr. Clinton during his 2000 trip to Islamabad,
the Pakistani capital. “We went out of our way to make sure the maximum
number of people, especially civilians, were protected and not human
shields. They didn’t even think about it. And to me, that’s the big
difference.”
Republican
Sen. John Cornyn is raising concerns about the Trump administration’s
construction of a border wall through national and state parks in his
state.
In a letter
released on Tuesday, Cornyn warned that the border barrier’s
construction could disrupt natural beauty, indigenous sites, wildlife
and tourism at Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park,
both of which are located in Texas.
“Many residents
that live and work around the parks are also concerned that a physical
wall, which would be accompanied by lighting systems, access roads, and
maintenance corridors, would (1) ruin the beauty, landscape, and
wildlife of the park, (2) threaten culturally significant Native
American sites, (3) disrupt wildlife migration, (4) limit access to the
Rio Grande River, and (5) significantly harm the local economy as
tourism is a major economic driver for the region,” he wrote.
So?
What do you want us to do, Cornyn?
You're the one who said that you,
as a senator, didn't have the power to rein in Chump. That's what you
said as you explained voting for Todd Blanche to become Attorney
General.
So you wrote a letter? Like one of your constituents might do? You have no power because you don't know how to exercise power.
In related news, former US Vice President Kamala Harris has spoken out against Chump's SAVE America Act. Ryan Mancini (THE HILL) reports Senator John Kennedy spoke to Sean Hannity about Harris' statements:
“No
disrespect, but Vice President Harris is no longer relevant. She had a
shot and she missed. She can cozy up to the Lulu Lenins all she wants
to,” Kennedy said, referring to Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir
Lenin. “But she has me confused with somebody who cares what she thinks.
I mean, she’s yesterday.”
No,
disrespect, Kennedy, but you are no longer relevant. You've been voted
out of the Senate, stabbed in the back by Chump. Yet you voted for
Todd Blanche to become Attorney General. And in January 2025, you voted
for Robert Kennedy Junior to become Secretary of Health and Human
Services.
Now Kamala was a
senator like you once. But she went out as vice president. Makes her
much more relevant than you ever will be and you can blame your cry baby
self for that.
Cry
babies is all that MAGA's produced from the GOP. The biggest one of
all is, of course, Donald Chump and America has grown weary of his
constant crying and whining. Fernando Cervantes Jr. (USA TODAY) reports:
President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to yet another low since his return to the White House, according to a new Economist/YouGov poll, which also found that just 1 in 3 Americans approve of his job performance.
The survey, released Aug. 11, found that 33% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance, down 3 percentage points from the previous week. This marks the lowest approval rating the president has seen in YouGov tracking since he returned to office in 2025.
Apart
from his continued slump in the polls, a majority of Americans, 60%,
said they perceived the president as "not honest and trustworthy".
According to the newest poll, 65% of respondents said the country is
headed in the wrong direction, up 2 percentage points from the Economist/YouGov’s poll in late July.
65% of Americans feel that "te country is headed in the wrong direction." The country's rejecting Chump.
And
this poll was taken before the country learned of Chump's cowardly
action of switching planes and leaving reporters and White House staff
at risk of an attack on the plane that they were in.
What
should have happened, if he had to be whisked away in a catering truck,
was that he ot on the third plane and flew off and it was announced
that the plane Rubio, reporters, et al were on had some sort of a
mechanical issue and was not departing just yet. And when Chump was
safely in England, it could be announced that due to the mechanical
problem, he flew on another plane. Then the plane that would carry
Rubio, et al, could take off and anyone wanting to bomb it because Chump
was on it would know Chump was not in the air.
And that's what he should have insisted upon.
Instead, he risked the lives of others. He put other people at risk. That's not a leader.
An important inflation report Wednesday could give the Federal Reserve a little breathing room in its battle against inflation.
The
consumer price index, due at 8:30 a.m. ET from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, is expected to show only a modest increase for July — 0.1%
on the all-items headline number and 0.2% for the all-important core
reading that excludes volatile food and energy prices, according to the
Dow Jones consensus. On an annual basis, they are expected to show 3.4%
and 2.5% respectively, both down 0.1 percentage point from June.
While
that will still keep annual inflation rates well above the Fed's 2%
goal, two straight muted monthly readings could help buy Federal Open
Market Committee policymakers a little time before making a move on
interest rates.
Oil
prices bounced around before finishing higher Tuesday while global
stocks were mixed as markets awaited a key inflation report expected to
influence upcoming monetary policy decisions.
Crude
prices initially rose more than two percent on hardening rhetoric
between the United States and Iran on the prospects for reopening the
Strait of Hormuz, which is vital to the world's flow of petroleum
shipments.
[. . .]
All eyes will be on Wednesday's consumer price index report for July.
"It's
a wait-and-see day," said Sam Stovall of CFRA Research, who sees the
most recent lackluster jobs data as denting the odds of an imminent
interest rate hike.
As the economy continues to tank under Chump's leadership, voters reject Chump and, yes, embrace SNAP. Aliss Higham (NEWSWEEK) notes:
Democratic
and Republican voters across a series of politically competitive states
and congressional districts broadly agree that Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits should be increased, new polling shows, as grocery prices continue to put pressure on household budgets.
Surveys
conducted across 11 states and 28 competitive congressional districts
found that a majority of voters from both major parties supported higher
SNAP benefits for people living alone. Most Democrats also backed
increased assistance for single mothers, while Republican support for
raising those benefits was more mixed.
The
findings come as Americans continue to contend with food prices that are
significantly higher than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic,
despite a slowdown in inflation in recent years.
SNAP, commonly known as food stamps, is the largest federal food assistance program in the United States and provides monthly grocery benefits
to households with low or no income. The new surveys indicate there is
considerable bipartisan appetite for increasing that assistance.
Democratic
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar says a Homeland Security Investigations agent was
outside her monthly town hall meeting in Richfield, Minnesota, on
Thursday.
Omar posted a letter she sent to
Michael McCarthy, interim special agent in charge of HSI's office in St.
Paul, Minnesota, regarding the incident on social media Monday
afternoon. The document said a Richfield police officer noticed a young
woman sitting in a Ford Explorer as people arrived at an area community
center, where the meeting took place, and "became suspicious of the way
she was monitoring the building."
According to
Omar's letter, the officer then ran the plates attached to the Ford and
found they were registered to a different vehicle. They then approached
the woman in the SUV.
"I understand that she
initially identified herself as security, and after Richfield Police
confirmed with my security team that she was not part of our operation,
she called her supervisor and explained that she was an HSI agent and
was outside the community center as part of an undercover drug operation
in the area," Omar said in the letter.
The woman left the property after speaking with her supervisor, according to Omar's letter.
"Instead
of monitoring the area for those who might wish harm to me and my
constituents, Richfield Police were required to devote time to
investigating why an HSI agent was outside of a Congressional event in a
vehicle with mismatched plates," Omar said in a written statement on
Monday. "It also raises serious and uncomfortable questions about the
purpose of HSI's presence outside of my event."
Now Homeland Security is spying on political townhalls led by members of Congress?
Chump's
war on immigrants is a very ugly and very mean-spirited action. It's
impcating all areas of the country -- including the decrease in travel
to the US by foreigners who kept the hospitality industry -- among
others -- rolling in the money until Chump's war. The crackdown on
immigrants is impacting the economy. Pedro Camacho (LATIN TIMES) reports:
Industry
groups representing construction, agriculture and other labor-dependent
sectors are warning the Trump administration that its immigration
crackdown is worsening worker shortages and could conflict with other
economic priorities, including lowering housing costs and maintaining
food production.
Representatives
have raised their concerns directly with the White House and the
departments of Homeland Security, Labor and Agriculture, CNN reports.
The administration's effort to end deportation protections for roughly
1.3 million people who had been authorized to work in the U.S., combined
with increased immigration enforcement, has intensified existing labor
shortages, industry groups said.
"These
two things might be working against each other at the moment," Jim
Tobin, president of the National Association of Home Builders, said of
Trump's immigration and housing agendas. The residential construction
industry is already short between 200,000 and 400,000 workers, he told CNN.
Foreign-born
workers accounted for more than a quarter of the U.S. construction
workforce in 2024 and more than half of workers in several trades,
including roofing, drywall installation and painting. "The more we
squeeze labor, the more we're going to increase home prices," Tobin
said.
The concerns have contributed to internal
debate over worksite enforcement. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne
Mullin has called for changes to employment visa programs while
maintaining that undocumented workers should be deported, drawing
criticism from immigration hardliners.
Agricultural
groups have raised similar concerns, particularly about industries
requiring year-round labor that cannot rely on existing seasonal visa
programs. Republican lawmakers have also urged changes to the H-2A
agricultural visa system.
Evidence of broader economic effects has emerged elsewhere. A Los Angeles County analysis published in February found widespread business losses following immigration enforcement operations, while studies of Houston and Chicago have linked enforcement surges to reduced employment and disruptions in construction-heavy labor markets.
Leaders
of enemy nations seeking to harm the U.S. economy and worsen the
affordability crisis plaguing American families would love to deprive
our country of hundreds of thousands of essential workers.
Fortunately
for our enemies — but unfortunately for our country — this is exactly
what President Trump is doing with his irrational anti-immigration
policies, which primarily keep out and deport hardworking immigrants of
color.
The latest example of this is the Trump administration’s move to revoke the legal status of more than 300,000 Haitian immigrants and about 50,000 immigrants from other countries living lawfully in the U.S. under a program called Temporary Protected Status.
A Supreme Court ruling
in June said the government could revoke the work permits of these
temporary status recipients and begin deportation proceedings against
them July 27. The ruling overturned a lower court decision that found
the move to curtail the status was “in part” based on “racial animus.”
As
a result of the Supreme Court decision, employers have already begun
firing Haitian employees who have lost the protection of Temporary
Protected Status.
Trump has demonized
unauthorized immigrants for years and claimed in an executive order on
the first day of his second term that they are staging a dangerous
“invasion” of the U.S.
The
president even said such immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our
country.” He later denied knowing that Adolf Hitler used the same
language about the 6 million Jews his Nazi regime murdered in the
Holocaust.
Despite the Supreme Court upholding birthright citizenship, Chump's issued an executive order targeting it.
Civil rights groups that successfully fought President Donald Trump’s first attempt to curtail birthright citizenship are targeting his latest effort.
The
American Civil Liberties Union and other groups asked a federal judge
on Aug. 11 to make it “unquestionably clear” that Trump’s new directive
can’t be enforced.
“Trump's
executive orders are a ham-handed attempt to distract the American
people from the Supreme Court’s clear holding: that birthright
citizenship is protected by our Constitution,” Carol Rose, executive
director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement.
In June, the Supreme Court affirmed
that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully
or temporarily present in the country are citizens at birth. The few
exceptions to birthright citizenship are for children of foreign
diplomats or babies born to enemies in occupied territory.
ICE plans to spend up to $20m (£15m) to purchase
thousands of gloves for officers and agents that can deliver painful
electric shocks by March, according to a notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security.
The
devices, called Glove (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter), are
manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky.
According
to the manufacturer, “the discomfort associated with the stimulation is
usually effective in bringing individuals into compliance in less than
three seconds and leaves no burns, marks or scars”. The company has
advertised the device as a “humane, low-optics, de-escalation solution
for many situations facing our men and women in uniform”.
On ICE, let's note this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Senate investigation
revealed ICE has attempted to deport 282 veterans and their relatives;
could be violating law that prevents the use of military against
civilians
“Service members must have
confidence that their sacrifices will be honored, not used against them
or to target their loved ones.”
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.),
along with Representatives Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Maggie Goodlander
(D-N.H.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), and Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) led a
bicameral letter pressing the Department of Defense (DoD), the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S.
Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) on their efforts to coordinate to arrest, and detain, and deport
hundreds of veterans and military families.In April 2025, U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rescinded its long-standing policy that
treated military service a “significant mitigating factor” when
deciding whether to pursue immigration enforcement, and replaced it with
a new policy stating that military service alone “does not automatically exempt” non-citizens from enforcement actions.
In September 2025, Senator Warren opened an investigation into the
impacts of these policy changes on military families. The investigation
revealed that ICE has attempted to deport 282 veterans and their
relatives. But DHS refused to disclose the number of active-duty troops
and their families who have been threatened by the administration’s
policy.
But new reports indicate that DoDand DHS appear to be coordinating to
convert military bases into “traps” for individuals this administration
deems deportable and has detained non-citizens during routine
check-ins, visits, and drop-offs at or near military installations. At
the same time, DoD has continued to recruit new service members with the promise of immigration protections.
Recent reporting by the Associated Press reveals
that, since January 2025, more than 50 parents and spouses of
active-duty service members have been detained, and at least six have
been deported. ICE’s statistics show that the agency has arrested 16
non-citizen armed forces members since the beginning of Fiscal Year
2026. Some service members have reportedly needed to take leave or delay
deployment because ICE detained their families.
“These efforts imperil military readiness, weaken service members’
morale, and betray America’s promises to the people who put their lives
on the line for our nation,” wrote the lawmakers. Alarmingly,
DoD has been reportedly targeting individuals at military
installations, detaining them on military property, and turning them
over to ICE — effectively converting military bases into “traps” for
noncitizens. For example, a 22-year-old military wife was recently detained while
attempting to obtain a military spouse I.D. Military officials
allegedly called DHS and held her in a room until ICE agents arrived to
take her to a detention center.
“DoD’s participation in civil immigration enforcement activities
raises both ethical and legal concerns, including potential violations
of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using the armed forces of
the military for civilian law enforcement,” wrote the lawmakers.
The coalition warned that if service members were to be swept up in
any of these enforcement actions, it could separately constitute a
violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which provides
protections to all members of the United States military on active duty,
including non-citizens, from civil actions—such as immigration
proceedings—that interfere with their military duties.
“Service members must have confidence that their sacrifices will be
honored, not used against them or to target their loved ones,” wrote the lawmakers. “DoD’s
new anti-immigrant practices risk deterring future recruits and
damaging the credibility of military recruitment efforts—which promised
to care for service members even after their time in uniform.”
The lawmakers requested that the agencies explain the enhanced
coordination between DoD and DHS, restore long-standing immigration
protections for family members of service members, and explain what
steps they are taking to protect troops, veterans, and their families
from unjust immigration enforcement by August 23, 2026.
The letter was signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Michael
Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie
Hirono (D-Hawaii), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ed Markey
(D-Mass.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla
(D-Calif.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock
(D-Ga.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
The letter was endorsed by the Immigration Defenders Law Center, the
Seattle Clemency Project, Common Defense, Repatriate Our Patriots, and
League of United Latin American Citizens.
“It is hard to imagine a more profound betrayal than targeting
service members, veterans, and military families for deportation,” said
Jennie Pasquarella, interim executive director of the Seattle Clemency
Project. “This
administration is abandoning decades of bipartisan policies that
recognized a simple truth: protecting those who serve makes our military
stronger and our nation safer. Targeting the very communities that have
sacrificed for this country is not just morally indefensible, it is a
direct attack on military readiness, recruitment, and trust.”
“This administration has made a conscious decision to abandon its
promises to military families and fail those who put their lives on the
line for our nation,” said Amanda Schuft, director of legal services at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. “We
have seen the devastating human cost firsthand. Our client, the father
of an active-duty Army service member, was detained by ICE despite
suffering from terminal renal failure, forcing his son to take leave
from military service to plead for his release and provide evidence of
his grave medical condition. The government ignored those pleas. After
his health deteriorated in detention, our client was eventually
released, only to die within weeks.”
“Family readiness directly impacts mission readiness. Behind every
military spouse or parent in detention is a servicemember who could
deploy at any moment. Without a strong homefront, we cannot have a ready
force. Our government must honor its commitments to those who serve,”
said Danitza G. James, MSW, President, Repatriate Our Patriots.
Senator Warren has led the fight to hold the Trump administration
accountable for mishandling military funds to pursue its cruel
immigration agenda and has continuously fought for the safety and
well-being of our servicemembers and veterans:
In May 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released new answers from
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the Department of Defense
revealing the Pentagon’s financial support for the Trump
administration’s cruel immigration agenda was far higher than initially
reported by DoD.
In April 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chris Van
Hollen (D-Md.), along with Representative Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) and
Representative Troy Carter (D-La.), urged the Inspectors General of
the Departments of Homeland Security and State to open an investigation
into the Trump administration’s attempts to deport people to countries
they have no ties to. These deportations use the military to conduct the
international deportation flights and detain noncitizens on U.S.
military bases within the United States and overseas.
In March 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) led 52 members of Congress in a new investigation into
potential corruption in government contracts stemming from the White
House’s fast-tracked expansion of inhumane warehouse-based immigration
detention facilities using a Navy contracting vehicle.
In March 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released new data obtained
from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealing that the Trump
administration has attempted to deport hundreds of veterans and their
family members after promising immigration protections at the time of
recruitment.
In January 2026, following a new report by the Congressional Budget
Office revealing Trump’s domestic deployments of the National Guard and
Marines have cost at least $589 million — more than double what Senator
Warren’s bicameral investigation previously found — she called for the Trump administration to “answer for wasting more than half a billion taxpayer dollars.”
In December 2025, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Trump’s nominee to
be Army General Counsel, on the deployment of the National Guard and
reports that senior Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers have been
sidelined after raising legal concerns about military operations.
In December 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative John Garamendi (D-Calif.) co-led the release of a new report,
along with 11 other members of Congress, revealing the Trump
administration diverted more than $2 billion of military funds and
resources from the Pentagon to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
for immigration enforcement and its impact on readiness and morale. The
report also revealed that the diversion of funds was happening at the
expense of updates to barracks, maintenance hangers, and military
construction projects in the Pacific.
In October 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) joined colleagues in requesting that
CBO provide an independent assessment of the projected costs associated
with the Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard to
U.S. cities.
In September 2025, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy
Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), along with Representatives
Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), and Delia C.
Ramirez (D-Ill.), led 55 members of Congress in opening a new investigation into
the Trump administration’s arrest, detention, and deportation of
non-citizen service members, veterans, and military families.
In September 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) led more than 60 members of Congress in opening a new investigation into
the Trump administration’s practice of detaining and sending immigrants
to countries where they have no citizenship or connections of any kind.
These deportations use the military to conduct the international
deportation flights and detain noncitizens on U.S. military bases within
the United States and overseas.
In February 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) pressed Secretary
of Defense Pete Hegseth on the military’s deployment of active-duty
forces to the southern border and Guantanamo and the Department of
Defense’s (DOD) new involvement in immigration detention and
deportation.
###
Meanwhile Chump's having a fit that his false claims got rebuked and fact checked. Thomas Kika notes:
President
Donald Trump lashed out with a new social media tantrum this week,
taking aim at a think tank report that offered a sharp rebuke of his National Guard deployments, per a report from The Hill.
Trump's
post was in response to a July report from the liberal-leaning Center
for American Progress, which found that his deployment of the Guard to
Washington D.C., had "failed to reduce violent crime despite its claims
of success." His attack came after the report's author, Chandler Hall,
discussed its findings during an appearance on C-SPAN.
Trump's
extended post went so far as to threaten the group with a lawsuit, all
while also attacking numerous entities he claimed to be funding it, from
Walmart to Apple to Goldman Sachs.
[. . .]
The report, published on July 13,
argued that "The second Trump administration is trying to take credit
for the historic drop in violent crime across America," even though this
trend has been ongoing for years, well before Trump's return to the
White House. The administration has tried to use that preexisting trend
to "justify expanding policies that are unpopular, ineffective and
costly."
On Aug. 3 last year, the assault and attempted carjacking of Edward Coristine,
a 20-year-old programmer known online as “Big Balls” who had worked for
Elon Musk’s now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, became a
flashpoint for President Donald Trump’s argument that Washington, D.C.,
had spiraled out of control.
Eight
days later, Trump mobilized roughly 800 National Guard troops to the
capital, an extraordinary use of military personnel on U.S. soil. He
cast the deployment in dire terms, describing a city overwhelmed by
violence and disorder and promising that federal intervention would
restore control, even as violent crime in Washington had fallen to its lowest level in 30 years, according to the Department of Justice.
The
deployment, dubbed “Make DC Safe and Beautiful,” quickly expanded. Some
4,000 troops from states and territories across the country are now
deployed to the capital, down from a summer surge for America's 250th
anniversary that pushed the force to roughly 5,000. That number is
expected to decline further in the coming weeks, with the mission
typically hovering between 2,500 and 3,000 troops.
But even as the force shrinks from its summer peak, the deployment is expected to remain a fixture in D.C. through the remainder of Trump’s term, ABC News was first to report.
The
mission is unprecedented in its scale and duration. The deployment is
projected to cost an additional $1.4 billion, a staggering price tag
even as its effectiveness remains murky. Two soldiers were also killed
in an attack near the White House last year. Meanwhile, the Guard is
juggling competing demands, with thousands of troops deployed to the
Middle East amid the war with Iran and others serving on missions around
the world.
Keeping
the National Guard in DC through the end of Chump's term? $1.4 billion
dollars. He's really spending (wasting) US tax dollars. Hugh Cameron (NEWSWEEK) notes:
According
to preliminary figures from the MPD, accurate as of August 10, total
crime is down 20 percent in the year-to-date compared with 2025, with
property crime seeing a decline of 23 percent driven by a 53-percent
drop in motor vehicle theft and a 37 percent decline in “Theft from
Auto”—the act of taking property or parts from a vehicle.
However,
while homicides are down 31 percent, violent crime has seen a slight
increase of 3 percent. This is thanks to a significant increase (41
percent) in the number of assaults with a dangerous weapon that have
been recorded, as well as a 2 percent increase in cases of sex abuse,
despite a 15 percent decline in the number of robberies.
John
Roman, director of the Center on Public Safety & Justice at the
National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago,
said establishing whether the reduction seen in overall crime rates in
D.C. would require corroboration from FBI data and comparison with other
cities.
He told Newsweek that the available
figures pointed to “among the largest declines in street crimes that a
National Guard presence could reasonably be expected to effect,” noting
the drop in robberies and homicides. However, he noted that other cities
in the United States had experienced similar declines without any
National Guard presence.
David Weisburd, a
professor at George Mason University’s Department of Criminology, Law
and Society, told Newsweek that “establishing a causal relationship
between the National Guard deployment and crime is virtually impossible
without careful controlled research.”
[. . .]
“Crime,
like in U.S. cities that were not subject to the deployments, was
actually already decreasing prior to the National Guard deployment in
D.C., and this is especially the case for violent crime,” Alex Piquero, a
professor of Criminology at the University of Miami, told Newsweek.
“And
while property crime, especially auto-related crimes, may have seen
some decreases during that time in D.C., it is difficult to link the
deployment with actually causing any crime change since the deployment
appears to have been targeted at tourist areas,” he said.
Piquero,
a former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)—the primary
federal agency for recording crime figures—said that the evidence from
other cities that experienced deployments “show no effect on crime,” as
this was already decreasing in those cities before the deployment began.
“It
is important to also note that cities without guard deployments also
saw crime decreases, which tends to suggest that the crime decline in
the U.S. was a more general phenomenon,” he said.
This
was the conclusion reached by the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) in a
recent analysis, which found that, nationwide, nine of the 13 examined
crimes fell in the first half of 2026, part of a long-running trend that
has left shoplifting as the only offense now sitting above 2019 levels.
Yet Chump intends to waste $1.4 billion dollars on this.
