Thursday, May 29, 2025

Egg-Drop Noodle Soup in the Kitchen

Kara is a new cook and she's getting comfortable with recipes using eggs because the only thing she knew how to cook two months ago was scrambled eggs.  She's moved on to poached eggs, boiled eggs and fried eggs.  This week, she mastered Country Living's Egg-Drop Noodle Soup:

 

Ingredients

    1/2 tsp. salt

    3 package ramen noodles

    10 1/2 cups chicken broth

    1 piece ginger

    3 cloves garlic, lightly smashed

    1 Tbsp. soy sauce

    3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

    1 Tbsp. sesame oil

    3 large eggs

    6 small scallions

Directions


        Step 1 In a large pot over high heat, bring 6 cups salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook for 3 minutes. Drain noodles and set aside. Rinse pot.

        Step 2 In the same pot over medium-high heat, bring chicken broth, ginger, garlic, and soy sauce to a simmer. Add carrots and all but 2 tablespoons scallions, and cook until vegetables are tender, about 3 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove ginger and garlic.

        Step 3 In a medium bowl, lightly beat together eggs, sesame oil, and salt. Gently stir broth, then pour seasoned eggs into pot. Let sit undisturbed until eggs are cooked, 40 to 60 seconds. Stir with a wooden spoon to break up eggs. Return noodles to pot and cook for 1 minute. Divide soup among 6 bowls and garnish with remaining scallions. Serve immediately.



Good going, Kara.  You're doing a great job and building up recipes that you will use for years.  I'm really excited for you.


Donald Trump's conspiracist base is restless these days, still irate that they never got the "Epstein files" they were promised. Futile efforts to keep the conspiracists happy have seemingly become the full-time job of multiple top-level law and intelligence figures in the administration. Over the weekend, FBI director Kash Patel and deputy director Dan Bongino tried to distract the MAGA masses by promising FBI investigations into a baggie of cocaine found at the White House in 2023 and, more disturbingly, the pipe bombs planted at DNC and RNC headquarters on January 6, 2021. Their efforts are about fueling baseless right-wing myths that President Joe Biden used drugs or that the FBI was trying to frame the January 6 rioters. Still, there is little reason to believe Patel and Bongino can do much to keep the MAGA base happy, especially as their "investigations" are unlikely to produce the desired evidence for the conspiracy theories. 

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. Her latest foray in generating red meat to stoke the paranoia of Trump supporters isn't just dishonest, but downright dangerous. Late last week, without the mainstream media noticing, Gabbard started pushing the flat-out lie that President Joe Biden was labeling Americans as "terrorists" because they opposed COVID-19 mitigation measures like masks and vaccines. Biden did no such thing, but by pushing this lie, Gabbard is, whether she intends to or not, encouraging the radicalization that does lead to domestic terrorism. 

Gabbard started stoking this conspiracy theory by declassifying a memo from federal law enforcement detailing the role that COVID-19 disinformation played in encouraging domestic terrorism. For those who bother to read the 2021 memo, the report isn't surprising, but simply stating the obvious fact that far-right extremists "threatened or plotted violence against the healthcare sector and state and local government officials" in 2020. The memo anticipated that there could be another round of such violence in 2021 in response to the COVID-19 vaccine. But far from equating all anti-vaccine folks with terrorists, the memo was specific about the threat, noting that members of organized militias and white supremacist groups have been using anti-vaccine sentiment as an excuse for violent threats. The average anti-vaccination MAGA rube is not part of this memo. They may be disease vectors, but no, the FBI did not think they were terrorists. 

Gabbard knows that Trump voters aren't exactly the reading types, and they will never bother to read this memo. So she and her minions in the MAGA press have been pretending this document was a pretext by the Biden administration to go after Republican voters who didn't break the law. On Fox News on Friday, she told Will Cain that this was an "ominous" plot by the Biden administration to target people for "using their First Amendment rights" and to label them a "domestic terror threat."

This is a lie. The memo explicitly states, "The mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophical embrace of violent tactics may not constitute violent extremism and are constitutionally protected." The document highlights the way that COVID-19 conspiracy theories are being used to encourage violence, so law enforcement is aware of the threats to schools, government officials, and healthcare providers to protect them. 


Trashy Garbage.  She's not fit to serve in the government.  She never was.  She needs to get back to her cult. 


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


Wednesday, May 28, 2025.  Chump's deportation dementia continues as he attacks the wife of a US military service member, a young kid supporting his family, a gay man who came to the US as a refugee, and so many more while ignoring Pete Hegseth's claim of carrying out an illegal wire tap.




Let's start with a view of Chump Land.  Isabel Keane (INDEPENDENT) reports:


An Australian woman who was deported from the US after visiting her American husband stationed in Hawaii says she was detained in prison overnight alongside murderers before getting sent home.

Nicolle Saroukos, 25, of Sydney, says she was held in federal prison overnight after trying to enter the country with her mother so the two could visit her husband, Matt, a US army lieutenant stationed on Oahu, Hawaii News Now reported.
Saroukos, who has visited three times since getting married last December, said things quickly turned chaotic after border officials at Daniel K Inouye International airport flagged her for extra screening.

The officer checking passports “went from completely composed to just yelling at the top of his lungs, telling my mother to go stand at the back of the line and to excuse my language, ‘shut up’,” Saroukos recalled.

“So I automatically started crying because that was my first response,” she said.

After Saroukos and her mother were taken to a holding room where their bags and phones were searched, she was bombarded with questions, including about her former work as a police officer and whether her tattoos were gang-related to her marriage to an American.

“When I did say that I was married to somebody in the US army, the officers laughed at me. They thought it was quite comical. I don’t know whether they thought I was telling the truth or not,” she said.


That is how this great country is now seen around the world thanks to the criminal doofus Donnie Dementia.  And it impacts everything including travel to this country, including spending in this country.  Hotels are suffering, airlines are suffering, eateries, rent-a-car places, you name it.   

We used to be seen as a land of dreams.  

People came here in need, they came her for safety.  John Russell (LGBTQ NATION) reports on one such person:

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to return to the U.S. a gay asylum-seeker it wrongfully deported.

In his Friday, May 23, ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, noted that the man, identified only by the initials O.C.G., has no known criminal history and was the victim of multiple violent anti-LGBTQ+ attacks in his home country of Guatemala prior to seeking asylum in the U.S. last year. As the Guardian reported, a U.S. immigration judge ruled earlier this year that O.C.G. would likely face persecution and torture if sent back to his home country and granted a withholding of removal protecting him from deportation to Guatemala. But two days later, with no warning, the Trump administration loaded O.C.G. onto a bus to Mexico, a country where he said he has also experienced violence.

Murphy noted that during previous immigration proceedings O.C.G. had expressed fear of being sent to Mexico, presenting evidence that in April 2024, while traveling through the country to reach the U.S., he was raped and held for ransom there.

“The immigration judge told O.C.G.—consistent with this Court’s understanding of the law—that he could not be removed to a country other than his native Guatemala, at least not without some additional steps in the process. Those necessary steps, and O.C.G.’s pleas for help, were ignored,” Murphy wrote.

Given the choice to remain in Mexico or return to Guatemala, O.C.G. chose to return to his home country.

As Advocate reported, in a declaration submitted to the court last week, O.C.G. said that for over two months he has been essentially living in hiding in Guatemala, largely staying indoors and relying on family to bring him groceries and other necessities for fear of being recognized by those who had previously attacked him.



Need another example?  Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) notes 'tough' guy Chump deported a young man who's carrying his family on his back:
 

A New York City high school student who managed to get his Venezuelan family off the streets through hard work was unexpectedly arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and had his asylum-seeker protections revoked during a routine immigration hearing, The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday evening.

The student's mother, identified only as Raiza, said her 20-year-old son Dylan "had done everything right when he came to America from his native Venezuela," according to the report. "Dylan arrived at the U.S. southern border in April 2024 and was permitted legal entry through a program established by the Biden administration. He applied for asylum and was granted protected status while awaiting a court date, which allowed him to apply for a work permit and a driver’s learner permit," according to Chalkbeat New York.
"Dylan graduated from high school in his home country but still enrolled at a school in the Bronx that caters to older newcomers, as he was determined to attend college in America eventually, his mom said," per the report. He managed to find work as a part-time delivery driver while going to the English Language Learners and International Support (ELLIS) Prep Academy, all while acting as a parental figure for his two siblings in elementary school. According to Chalkbeat, his income let him “scrape together enough money to move the family out of a city-run homeless shelter and into their own apartment.”

However, when Dylan showed up to the Manhattan courthouse for what was supposed to be a routine hearing, "A judge dismissed the deportation case against him at the hearing — something that initially appeared as good news. However, Dylan quickly learned the dismissal meant the government could now open an 'expedited removal' case against him, thrusting him into a sped-up deportation process with fewer legal checks."

Despite having no criminal record according to Raiza, he was immediately ordered against the wall by ICE agents, then escorted into an unmarked car with his family powerless to help him, according to The Beast: "She said it has been hard to get in contact with Dylan since his arrest because he has been transferred around the country, including stops in New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. What will happen to him next is unclear."


A large number of Latinos voted for Chump.  And some whine now that they didn't know Chump would deport like this.  They insist that they just thought it would be the 'criminals.'

Sorry to break it to you, but it is the criminals.

Any immigrant that did not come in per code is seen as "illegal" by Chump.  Illegal means criminal.  You never should have trusted Chump to begin with and that's on you.  Let's hope you're learning a lesson and never get fooled like that again.  But the reason they refer to undocumented immigrants as "illegal immigrants" is because Chump and his cronies translate "illegal" as "criminal" when it comes to immigration.  If, however, they were White anglo sheriffs that carried out actual illegal actions, Chump would be rushing in with pardons. 


And they're not backing down.  Brittany Gibson and Stef W. Kight (AXIOS) report this morning:

In a tense meeting last week, top Trump aide Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanded that immigration agents seek to arrest 3,000 people a day, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.

Why it matters: The new target is triple the number of daily arrests that agents were making in the early days of Trump's term — and suggests the president's top immigration officials are full-steam ahead in pushing for mass deportations.

  • The increased pressure on agents comes as border-crossing numbers have plummeted in Trump's first four months. It signals an increasingly aggressive approach to making arrests in non-border communities nationwide.
  • It also comes as the Trump administration's heavy-handed tactics in rounding up unauthorized immigrants — and in some cases, legal residents and even U.S. citizens — appear to have contributed to President Trump's slipping poll numbers on immigration.

Zoom in: Miller, the White House's deputy chief of staff and leading architect of President Trump's immigration policy, laid into top immigration officials during the May 21 meeting at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in D.C., according to four people familiar with the meeting.




Dog Eat Dog
On prime time crime the victim begs
Money is the road to justice
and power walks it on crooked legs
Prime Time Crime
Holy hope in the hands of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
and big wig financiers

Where the wealth's displayed
Thieves and sycophants parade
And where it's made
the slaves will be taken
Some are treated well
In these games of buy and sell
And some like poor beasts
Are burdened down to breaking

Dog Eat Dog
It's dog eat dog ain't it Flim Flam man
Dog eat dog you can lie cheat skim scam
Beat' em any way you can
Dog eat Dog
You'll do well in this land of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
You could get to be
a big wig financier

Land of snap decisions
Land of short attention spans
Nothing is savored
Long enough to really understand
In every culture in decline
The watchful ones among the slaves
Know all that is genuine will be
Scorned and conned and cast away
-- "Dog Eat Dog," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her DOG EAT DOG album



The US was seen as a place of promise and freedom.  Now Chump has sullied our image on the world stage and it you're not worried about our image?  Maybe you'll worry over the financial damage.  Now we're seen as petty and crooked as Convicted Felon Donald.  And that's having an impact.  Christy Bieber (MONEY WISE) notes:


There's a long-standing tradition of Canadians crossing the border to shop at outlets and malls in the U.S.

This is especially true in Erie and Niagara County, which are located near the border and feature top shopping destinations such as the Walden Galleria Mall and the Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls.
But unfortunately, things have changed. Cars traveling across the border into the U.S. are down significantly in 2025, and counties like Erie and Niagara are paying the price through a drop in sales tax revenue.

In February and March of 2025, 35,619 fewer cars crossed the Peace Bridge that connects Canada to Buffalo, NY, compared to the number of cars that crossed the bridge during the same months in 2024. During the same period, 29,537 fewer cars crossed the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls.


And that's another way Chump is harming the economy.  We warned about it repeatedly.  From the April 15th snapshot:

 
Other damage he's doing?  The United States makes a lot of money from foreigners traveling here for various events, conventions and sight seeing journeys.  Dallas, TX?  A magnet for people around the world who want to remember President John F. Kennedy.  And a ton of people do because President Kennedy was a monumental and historical figure -- unlike his nephew Tiny Balls Junior who is an embarrassment.  Florida?  The incredible beaches.  Key Largo, Key West.  DISNEY WORLD, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS FLORIDA THEME PARK, Daytona Beach, The Dahil Museum, etc, etc.  California?  DISNEYLAND Park, the wineries, the film studios, the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, Alcatraz Island, Pier 39, the beaches, the San Diego Zoo, Catalina Island, Big Sur, Joshua Tree, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Santa Monica Pier, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mission San Juan Bautista . . .  New York has the Statue of Liberty, the Museum Of Modern Art, Central Park, Empire State Building, Time Square, Grand Central Terminal . . .  That's just a few things in a few states.  Most of the states have major tourist attractions.  And tourists from outside the US coming here accounts for a lot of money each year. 

Do you get how much money that is?  How many industries that impacts?  You've got the airline industry, you've got the car industry if the visitors rent a car, you've got taxis and Ubers, you've got hotels and motels, you've got eateries, you've got bars, many of the points of interest have fees visitors have to pay, you've got the clothing industry since travelers often purchase an outfit or two (or a t-shirt or two) in addition to what they've packed, you've got shops -- souvenir and regular shops.

Or it did.

Do we grasp how much money Chump's running off?

In 2023, international travelers poured an estimated $213 billion -- billion -- into the US economy.  That amounted to approximately $584 million a day.

And now Chump's making us pariah around the world.  See, sending people to a gulag in El Salvador doesn't really argue for freedom and democracy.  And since Chump declares these deportations and imprisonments require no trials, if you're in Paris, you really think Las Vegas or whatever is worth seeing when, while you're visiting the US, you might accidentally get caught up in one of Chump's dragnets and end up being taken not back to France but a to prison -- one where the are no rules or guidelines and people are tortured.

 
What's the slogan these days?  "Come to America!  You may have a great time!  Or you might get kicked out of the country?  We might disappear you in a facility in Louisiana or disappear you to a prison in El Salvador!  Come roll the dice! It's just your life!"

Americans are registering Chump's inhumane actions.  Here's a letter to the editors of THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:

To the editor: The human cruelty displayed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, under orders from the Trump administration, in arresting immigrants as they leave a courtroom with their family after having a case against them dismissed is beyond the pale of what should occur in any law-abiding nation (“Father ripped from family as agents target immigration courts, arresting people after cases dismissed,” May 24). Has our current government sunk so low that due process is ignored, court orders repeatedly violated, while the will of one man’s executive orders become the law of the land?
It seems apparent that the executive branch itself is the one acting lawlessly, creating its own orders in disregard of due process. Its arrogance is exceeded only by the human suffering that it is willfully imposing on others.

Bill Hessell, Culver City


Let's move on to Pete Hegseth.  It wasn't enough that he risked national security by repeatedly using the Singal app and repeatedly revealing top secret information on this unsecure app, now he's supposedly illegally wiretapped.




Ongoing investigations into leaks at Pete Hegseth’s Department of Defense have led to mistrust between the Pentagon and the White House, per a new report from The Guardian. 

Last month, three high-level Pentagon staffers were removed from their posts due to their suspected involvement in leaks surrounding military plans to retake the Panama Canal. All three men denied any wrongdoing in a joint statement. An investigation into the firings unearthed an even more alarming detail: the aides had been outed by a warrantless wiretap.

Unnamed White House advisers who spoke with the Guardian said they raised the issue with aides close to Vice President JD Vance, only to find that the wiretap story was bunk. The outlet said the advisers "complained that they were being fed dubious information by Hegseth’s personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore," the man in charge of the leaks investigation. 

The Guardian reports that wiretap claims have harmed the credibility of Hegseth's office, saying the back-and-forth "fueled a breakdown in trust between the Pentagon and the White House," where Trump advisers "no longer have any idea about who or what to believe." One adviser reportedly told Hegseth that he didn't believe a word of the Cabinet member's justifications for the firings, alleging that the former Fox News host cooked up the story to win an intra-office struggle.

Trump’s national security team has been awash in controversies throughout the early months of his second term. Hegseth and others famously discussed classified war plans for Yemen in a group chat that included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, a scandal that became known as “Signalgate.” The Defense head allegedly sent classified military plans in a separate chat channel that included his wife and brother.







We'll wind down with this from Senator Tammy Baldwin's office:


4 out of 5 veterans are worried about cuts impacting care

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) released a new report on how President Donald Trump’s reckless cuts to staff and services are hurting our veterans.

“When Americans serve and sacrifice for our freedom, it’s our duty to have their back when these brave men and women return home,” said Senator Baldwin. “As we spend this weekend remembering those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for us and honoring the families of the fallen, we also recommit ourselves to taking care of those in uniform, those who returned home, and the loved ones of our troops. I will work with anyone to do right by our veterans and survivors but this Administration is failing to keep their end of that sacred promise.”

President Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE are enacting deep cuts across the federal government that continue to cost veterans their jobs and jeopardize essential care through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that veterans and their caregivers rely on every day. VA Secretary Doug Collins announced they plan to cut 83,000 jobs, slashing the essential workforce by over 17 percent at the federal agency. These cuts come on top of staffing shortages at the VA, including having 66,000 vacancies across the health system, and further outlined in a 2024 report that found that 137 of 139 VA health centers nationwide report a severe staffing shortage in at least one area, particularly nursing and psychology.

NPR found that 11,273 VA employees nationwide have applied for deferred resignation, which the Trump administration is offering as part of its DOGE initiative to cut the VA's workforce. The top positions across all networks that are requesting deferred resignation are nurses (about 1,300), medical support assistants (about 800), and social workers (about 300). In a recent poll by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, more than 4 out of 5 veterans said they are concerned that recent federal cuts could impact veteran benefits and health care.

Veterans are also being hit hard by cuts across the federal agencies, where they make up 30 percent of the nearly 2.3 million civilian federal workforce. DOGE’s stated goal to eliminate 75 percent of the federal workforce could mean that up to 500,000 veterans could lose their jobs.

Read the full report.

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