Pearl e-mailed to note The Kitchn's Easy Gazpacho recipe:
Ingredients
Basic Ingredients:
1 1/2 to 2 pounds ripe tomatoes
2 thick slices day-old bread
1 medium cucumber
1 medium shallot
1 to 2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Optional ingredients:
Whiz
these into the soup or chop them up for garnishing the top: 1 red or
green bell pepper, 1 fennel bulb, 3 to 4 tomatillos, 1 avocado, 1 cup
corn kernels
Instead of Bread: handful of almonds or other nut
Instead
of Sherry Vinegar: 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons red
wine vinegar, juice from 1 orange, juice from 1 to 2 lemons, juice from 2
to 3 limes
Spices & Herbs (2 to 3 teaspoons): cumin, smoked paprika, basil, marjoram, tarragon, chile powder
Other Flavoring Extras: splash red wine, splash white wine, splash hot sauce
Instructions
Quarter
1 1/2 to 2 pounds tomatoes and remove the stems. Tear 2 thick slices
day-old bread into large chunks. Peel and coarsely chop 1 medium
cucumber, 1 medium shallot, and 1 to 2 cloves garlic. Coarsely chop or
measure any extra ingredients being added. Set aside some of these
vegetables for garnishing the finished gazpacho if desired.
Place
the bread into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade
attachment or blender. Squeeze the tomato quarters over the bread then
add them to the bowl. Let sit for about 20 minutes to give the bread
time to absorb the tomato juices and soften. If you prefer a thinner
gazpacho, omit the bread and continue to the next step.
Pulse
the tomatoes and bread until they form a rough porridge. Add the
cucumber, shallots, garlic, 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar, and 1/2
teaspoon salt. If you are using any other extra ingredients, add them in
this step. Process continuously until the ingredients are liquified. A
food processor will make gazpacho with more texture; a blender or
immersion blender will make the gazpacho smoother.
With the blender running, stream in 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil. This helps it emulsify more evenly into the soup.
Taste the soup. Add more salt or vinegar to taste. If you'd like it thinner, blend in a little water.
Transfer
the soup to a storage container and refrigerate until chilled. This
soup often tastes better the second day after the flavors have had time
to settle with each other. Serve the soup garnished with the reserved
vegetables.
Pearl notes that she
loves the soup and loves it because it is served cold "on a hot summer
day." She wondered if I didn't like gazpacho because I've never noted
it. I don't make it. My sister-in-law does. I eat it on July 4th each
year when she makes it and brings it to the potluck. She might bring
it over to the house on another day and I'd eat it then. But in terms
of noting it here, no one's ever e-mailed -- in all these years -- to
highlight this soup. But again, I do like it. My sister-in-law makes a
great version of it.
The
top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is calling on Goldman
Sachs to sever all remaining ties with Kathy Ruemmler, the firm’s former
chief legal officer, following her testimony last month about her
relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
In a letter
sent on Friday to Goldman CEO David Solomon, Democratic Rep. Robert
Garcia called Ruemmler’s testimony before the committee “nothing short
of shocking” and said that she was “clearly demonstrating a refusal to
take accountability for her conduct.”
“Ms.
Ruemmler should not serve as a Goldman Sachs executive in any
capacity,” Garcia wrote. Ruemmler initially announced her resignation
from the bank in February after a series of reports, including from CNN,
detailing the extent of her relationship with Epstein in the years
before he died in 2019.
While Ruemmler
initially said she intended to leave the bank on June 30, she has since
remained in an advisory role, reportedly at the behest of Solomon, while
the firm seeks to replace her.
Garcia also
called on the bank to commit that its next chief legal officer have no
connection to either Epstein or his convicted accomplice Ghislaine
Maxwell after Ruemmler declined to promise so in her closed-door
interview last month. The bank is under no obligation to respond.
If you read C.I.'s July 31st snapshot covering Ruemmler recently, you would know Robert Garcia is correct to make the points he does. In fact, let me pull that section:
Kathryn Ruemmler. Disgraced attorney for sex
trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. She was going to part with Goldman Sachs
because she brought shame to the institution but instead she found a new
role to hang on in. She's a liar and she's garbage. She appeared
before the House Oversight Committee on July 15th. AnnaMaria Andriotis and Maya Davis (WALL STREET JOURNAL) report:
Ruemmler, whose name appeared thousands of times in Epstein documents
from 2014 to 2019, has said they had a professional relationship and
she didn’t know about any ongoing criminal activity. Epstein gave her
gifts, listed her as backup executor at one point and called her when he was arrested in 2019.
Ruemmler
responded “I don’t know” when asked whether she believed Virginia
Roberts Giuffre was a victim of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s
longtime associate.
The lawyer said she was “inherently skeptical” of some of Giuffre’s allegations that she thought “lacked inherent credibility.”
Giuffre,
one of Epstein’s main accusers, previously testified that she was
abused as a teen by both Epstein and Maxwell, and trafficked to other
people. Giuffre died by suicide in 2025.
Ruemmler
has no legal background in sex trafficking but felt the need to share
that she didn't find Virginia Giuffre's actions to be the statements of
someone who was sex trafficked "typically."
Back to the article:
House
committee members pressed Ruemmler about emails with Epstein where she
referred to him as “darling” or “Uncle Jeffrey” and alluded to
sexualized massages and his female staff.
Question:
“So you were just saying that you were making a joke, an offhand joke,
about Mr. Epstein trading one of his Russian assistants to Ken Griffin
in exchange for your compensation?”
Ruemmler: “Yes…And as I said, I regret emailing him. And this is a—this is a joke that certainly doesn’t land very well today.”
In
another exchange, she was asked about an email in which she replied to
Epstein about a spa gift, writing, “Best massage ever but not your kind
of massage.”
[. . .]
Ruemmler
said she saw Epstein as a prostitution customer who didn’t
intentionally target minors and believed his account because it was
consistent with his nonprosecution agreement and charges in Florida.
Really?
And that's why, in a series of e-mails labeled "Attorney Client," she
advised him on things such as how to discredit the survivors? Talked to
him about setting up a "perjury trap" on his accusers? And she labeled
these e-mails "Attorney Client"? Yet she claims she was never his
attorney?
In February, Rob Copeland, Maureen Farrell, Lauren Hirsch and Duy Nguyen (NEW YORK TIMES) reoirted:
She educated him on how the law differentiates between underage victims of sex crimes and adult prostitutes. “I think the point is that if she was underage, she could not legally consent to engaging in prostitution,” Ms. Ruemmler wrote to Mr. Epstein in 2015.
She offered advice on how to knock down the credibility of one of his accusers, writing in one email that Mr. Epstein’s lawyer could push the woman into a “perjury trap.”
Ms. Ruemmler signed some emails “xoxo” and swapped photos. She joked with Mr. Epstein about the weight of visitors at New Jersey rest stops and speculated about the sexual orientation of a well-known hedge fund billionaire.
And over a series of meetings, she sought his advice on personal and professional matters, (“men aren’t interested in women my age,” one email lamented).
In 2019, while interviewing for the job at Goldman, Ms. Ruemmler told Mr. Epstein that she was wearing gifts from him. “Am totally tricked out by Uncle Jeffrey today!” she wrote.
She didn't believe it was minors? She willingly and knowingly looked the other way.
Back to THE WALL STREE JOURNAL article:
Ruemmler
said the last time she communicated with Epstein was when he called her
after he was arrested in July 2019. Ruemmler said, “It was a very short
conversation, probably less than a minute.”
“He
seemed to me to be in a state of shock. And as I—I was shocked. I was
stunned and didn’t understand what the guy could possibly have been
arrested for, again, just based on my understanding,” Ruemmler said.
Ruemmler
said she declined to join Epstein’s defense team because the 2019
indictment alleged that he had enticed and recruited minors “and that
was a wholly different, worse, and more sinister conduct than I had
understood. I had no interest in being involved in the defense.”
"I
understand why, you know, sitting here in 2026, the emails can come
across as if there is callousness to victims. That's not what I intended
at the time. It wasn't my state of mind at the time," she said when
asked about an email where she wrote, "victim's rights, my ass."
"Victim's
rights, my ass." She knew what she was writing. She knew she was
writing it to a man who'd gone to prison for sex with underage girls. `
Ruemmler
was pressed by lawmakers about her casual and friendly emails with
Epstein, in which she referred to him as "Uncle Jeffrey" and compared
him to a brother.
"He was extremely arrogant.
He was a mansplainer. He was pushy. He was avuncular," Ruemmler said.
"I, sort of, in a teasing way, referred to him, you know, as 'Uncle
Jeffrey,' in a way to not be -- to sort of call him out for the way that
he could be quite patronizing."
Really?
And when she called him "darling" in a March 2015 e-mail, was that her
tyring "to sort of call him out" as well? When she said he was like a
brother? When she called him "sweetie"? She's a liar who lied
throughout her testimony and whose publicist is lying now saying that
Ruemmler wasn't calling Virginia a liar when that is exactly what she
was doing.
In a statement to CNN, Virginia's brother Sky and sister Amanda Roberts issued the following statement:
The
only person who lacks credibility is Kathy Ruemmler, who is trying to
get people to believe she didn't know Jeffrey Epstein waas actively
engaged in sex trafficking.
To attempt to cast doubt
on Virginia, whose bravery was the reason so many other survivors
stepped forward, resulting in more than 50 people from having to step
down from their positions of power, is reprehensible. She should be
ashamed of herself.
Kathy Ruemmler enriched herself
while girls and young women suffered and had their lives destroyed
because she enabled their abuser.
Shame on Goldman Sachs for keeping her in its employ.
-------- end of excerpt of C.I.'s July 31st snapshot ------------------
Ruemmler is disgusting, she's a liar and she enabled Jeffrey Epstein.
This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for Friday:
Friday, August 7, 2026. Chump squeals "treasonous leaks" thereby
confirming that the leaks are true regarding the decimation of
stockpiles of US weapons, his war on immigrants continues, Pete Hegseth
continues to fail in his role as Secretary of Defense -- and it's
failure in one way after another, Senator Patty Murray notes that a
vote to confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General is a vote to destroy
reproductive rights, and much more.
Trump
still has a strong grip on the Republican voter base, but the party
needs a plan for what happens after he leaves office in 2028. There's no
better time to start building it than heading into a likely November
beatdown.
This writer is a Los Angeles County supervisor.
U.S. District Judge Darrin P.
Gayles issued the order after hearing oral arguments in Miami federal
court on the Journal's motion to dismiss Trump's amended complaint. In a
paperless order entered later that day, Gayles stayed, or paused, all
discovery pending his decision on whether the lawsuit can proceed.
"The bottom line is they're
not cooperating," Torrez said. "They're stonewalling this
investigation, and that's why we had to take legal action today."
On the sixth day of the war with Iran, Donald Trump made a curious comment at a White House event.
“Yesterday, my administration announced decisive action to help keep down the oil prices,” the president declared. Moments later, the Republican went on to say oil prices “have pretty much stabilized.”
It’s
never been clear what “decisive” actions the president was referring
to. And while a variety of words come to mind when describing oil prices
of late, “stabilized” isn’t one of them.
In
fact, exactly five months to the day after Trump’s misplaced boast, he
delivered remarks in Las Vegas and warned American consumers about the
possibility of renewed volatility.
After noting
recent improvements in oil prices, the president told his audience, “We
may have to send it up again. We may have to — you know what happens
when we send it up. But we hope we don’t have to.”
Chump's
telling his followers that oil prices might need to increase again?
Does he really not get how many Americans are struggling in the wrecked
economy that he created?
The view from the cliffs must have been exciting
And up to the peaks you were bound
Now you're stranded alone
And the path is unknown
And there is no easy way down
No, it isn't very easy
When you're left on your own
No, it isn't very easy
When each road you take
Is one more mistake
And there's no one to break your fall
And lead you back home
-- "No Easy Way Down," written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, she first recorded the song for her album WRITER
Dace Potas (USA TODAY) notes the reality:
Donald Trump is unpopular. Just 39% of Americans have a favorable view of the president a year and a half into his second term.
Worse
yet, Republicans are poised to lose big in the November midterm
elections. Trump seems more interested in fighting with Senate
leadership than in helping Republicans hold their majorities, and that
fight is leaving some in his own party open to moving away from him.
His popularity has imploded. It's gone. It's not coming back. Nick Hilden notes more bad news for the Chump:
On
Wednesday, the National Review – the preeminent conservative magazine
since 1955 — called it: President Donald Trump has done the
“impeachable.”
“There is no plausible defense of Trump's TruthSocial scheme,” declared
National Review Senior Editor Charles Cooke. “It is flagrantly corrupt.
It is impeachable. Congress should intervene. (It won't, I know.)” He
posted this assertion over his latest article, entitled “Truth Social’s Early-Access Scheme Is Indefensible.”
As
he explains, over the weekend, the Trump Media & Technology Group
announced the creation of a “real-time feed on the Truth Social website
that will give paying institutions early access to certain high-profile
posts for between $60,000 and $100,000 per month.” Cooke doesn’t hold
back with his assessment of the scheme, writing, “There is no credible
defense of this. The only reason that anyone would want priority access
to Truth Social is to gain priority access to President Trump’s
pronouncements on that platform. And the only reason that anyone would
want priority access to President Trump’s pronouncements on that
platform is to act on them for pecuniary gain.”
As
Cooke elaborates, “Trump often uses Truth Social as the primary forum
for his announcements — announcements that include changes to personnel,
the imposition or rescission of tariffs, key foreign policy decisions,
and more. These announcements are extremely useful to financial
institutions, and, in the age of high-speed trading, the faster those
financial institutions can obtain them, the more money those financial
institutions can make. Facilitating this access is not a byproduct of
Truth Social’s API offering; it is its core — perhaps its sole —
purpose. Simply put: President Trump is charging Americans a fee — a fee
that, in part, goes into his family’s pockets — for the privilege of
receiving news about his official actions earlier than those who do not
pay.”
According to Cooke, it
is “obvious how unequivocally corrupt this setup is. Technically
speaking, the beneficiaries will not gain the information they seek
directly from Trump himself, but indirectly, via an API (Application
Programming Interface) whose output will be processed by a bunch of
semi-autonomous servers and acted upon according to a set of
predetermined parameters. But the results will be the same as if Trump
had personally picked up the phone.”
There is "no easy way down" for Chump as he continues his descent. Sarah K. Burris notes:
Voters who elected President Donald Trump are not happy.
John
Gannon, a lifelong Republican and Texas businessman, who voted for
Trump, told CBS News the president's administration is "destroying
families, jobs." His fiancée was detained by ICE. "They are picking up
law-abiding citizens," he told the report.
The couple was headed to Las Vegas for a convention when Gannon's fiancée was nabbed by plainclothes federal agents.
"After
leaving the United room, eight officers, ICE agents, swarmed Yasmin and
detained her. (They) didn't tell us why and wrestled her off into a
car," he recalled of fiancée Yasmin Suarez Reyes.
Trump
said throughout the 2024 campaign that he was only going to deport the
"worst of the worst" and "criminals." The reality has been something
different. Top Trump advisor Stephen Miller, at one point, put a quota
on ICE to arrest at least 3,000 people daily. Politico reported that the White House then began to backtrack on the demand.
"Go
after the criminals. We're all for that. But leave the mom and pops and
the kids alone. Man, he's destroying families," Gannon added.
His war on immigrants awoke the nation and led to nation wide protests. A letter to the editors of THE LOS ANGELES TIMES makes it clear how fake and harmful his round ups are:
Thank
you to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California for
exposing the truth about President Trump’s Immigration and Customs
Enforcement raids (“Racial slurs and a Google search for car washes: What court records reveal about L.A. immigration raids,” July 29). The claim that they targeted dangerous criminals was always a sham — and ICE agents’ own texts prove it.
They
weren’t methodically tracking known criminals. They were Googling the
nearest Home Depots, targeting any Latinos they saw, pulling stunts for
social media and behaving like they are above the law.
We’ve
seen it firsthand. Last June, I responded to an ICE raid in Huntington
Park where then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had an entire
camera crew — complete with a hair and makeup team — while families were
left terrified.
The Harbor Area Peace Patrol documented ICE
agents on Terminal Island swapping license plates and even removing them
from their vehicles all together.
These raids have been the
most sickening abuse of government power in my lifetime. We are a long
way away from accountability — but the ACLU’s work has helped bring the
truth to light.
Janice Hahn, San Pedro
On the Los Angeles raids, Ashleigh Fields (THE HILL) notes legal action:
A federal judge held the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in contempt following the agency’s
delay in complying with an order to release digital copies of
communication on the cellphones of more than 800 immigration agents,
according to an order unsealed Tuesday.
District
Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, an appointee of former President
Biden, ordered DHS to provide imaging from agents’ personal cellphones
in January following several immigration raids in Los Angeles last
year.
In the order, plaintiffs alleged the
cellphone communications had evidence to support racial profiling
allegations against immigration officers.
The
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Public Counsel and other
immigration advocacy groups also accused agents of using racial slurs
during interactions and argued that access to cellphone data would
provide evidence to support their claims.
Chump's
given free reign to crazies like the now gone Gregory Bovino and the
still present Stephen Miller to attack and terrorize immigrants (and
people mistaken for immigrants). That was always how it was going to be
and that's why some of us noted the importance of supporting Kamala
Harris (while others, like Amy Goodman on DEMOCRACY NOW!, did "two
[segments] slamming Kamala, two saying Kamala and Chump were the same
and one focusing on what Chump did in his first term" -- see Ava and my
"Media: How Amy Goodman harmed immigrants and helped elect Chump"). We knew
that it invited racial profiling. It invited targeting. And it would
target immigrants with no criminal background while also targeting US
citizens. Nicole Charky-Chami (RAW STORY) notes:
An
11-year Army soldier said he felt shocked and betrayed after ICE agents
stormed into his wife's green card interview and detained her, Newsweek reported on Thursday.
Staff
Sergeant Alexis Jaramillo, 43, described the disbelief after his wife,
Maisa Lopes Eliaser, 32, was ripped from his side during what he, his
wife, their son and translator thought was an adjustment-of-status
appointment on July 8 in Montgomery, Alabama, according to Newsweek.
Lopes Eliaser is a Brazilian national with no criminal record.
"I
feel really betrayed," Jaramillo told Newsweek. "I serve this country.
And I deserve some security with my family. We were very excited because
we knew we were doing the right thing and complying with the
government. Then two people came and told me she was going to be
detained."
[. . .]
Recent
Associated Press reporting shows more than 50 parents and spouses of
active-duty service members have been detained since President Donald
Trump's second term began in January 2025. At least six have been
deported and one self-deported.
Pete Hegseth can't stand up for the troops the way
a real Secretary of Defense would do. Prissy Pete's too busy trying to
be one of the boys. In the process, he's failing the troops. Another
example? Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) notes:
Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth is accused of deliberately obscuring the true
human cost of the war with Iran – and potentially depriving benefits
from the families of service members killed in the conflict.
Sen.
Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) publicly called out the Pentagon for quietly
removing recent casualty figures from an internal tracking system and
reclassified them under a vaguer category, saying the move was "an
ongoing manipulation by the Trump administration to hide the true cost
of the war in Iran to the American people," reported MS NOW.
“For
the purposes of the VA, for example, when you become a veteran, you get
a different pension based on whether or not you are a combat-connected
injury, or whether your injury was just in operational service,”
Duckworth said, calling the reclassification “a slap in the face to our
Gold Star families.”
“We actually have folks
who have been killed," she added, "and we have one who is still missing
in action, that the Gold Star families now don’t have real answers from
the Trump administration as to what has happened to their loved ones."
The
Illinois Democrat, an Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient,
plans to introduce the Honoring the Sacrifice of Troops in War Act in
the Senate on Thursday, legislation aimed at forcing transparency in how
the Defense Department tracks and reports casualties from military
operations, and restoring all casualty records tied to Iran operations
dating back to Feb. 28.
It's
a shame that Duckworth has to go through the trouble of introducing
legislation for this. But that's what happens when a preening Pete
becomes Secretary of Defense. All the make up in the world can't hide
the psoriasis and all the make up in the world can't make him look like a warrior either.
U.S.
Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and the entire New Mexico
congressional delegation are demanding answers from Defense Secretary
Pete Hegseth after revelations that a Department of Defense GPS jamming
exercise contributed to a medical plane crash that killed four crew
members and ignited a wildfire that burned nearly 32,000 acres.
In
a letter obtained exclusively by MeidasTouch, Heinrich was joined by
Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández, Melanie
Stansbury, and Gabe Vasquez, all Democrats, in pressing Hegseth for
accountability over the Pentagon's role in the May 13 crash in Lincoln
County.
Just before midnight that night, a
Beechcraft King Air medical transport plane carrying two pilots and two
flight nurses took off from Roswell bound for Sierra Blanca Regional
Airport in Ruidoso to pick up a patient for transport to Albuquerque.
According to the lawmakers, the aircraft's GPS was jammed by a scheduled
military test event in the area, causing the routine medical flight to
overshoot its landing pattern by 10 miles. At 12:15 a.m. on May 14, the
plane slammed into the side of the Capitan Mountains, killing all four
crew members instantly and sparking a wildfire that burned for three
weeks before crews could contain it.
And
yet the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States
stayed silent about it for months and months. They didn't apologize to
families of the four killed, they didn't own up to the American people
what had taken place. And they still haven't. They seem to think no
one will know if they just continue to ignore what took place.
Hegseth's failures just keep piling up. In yesterday's snapshot, we noted the conditions on the USS LINCOLN and Bruce Golding (INDEPENDENT) reports:
Morale
is plummeting on an American aircraft carrier that's running short of
food and other supplies as its exhausted crew wages President Donald
Trump's war against Iran, worried family members say.
Sailors
and Marines serving on the USS Abraham Lincoln have told relatives
about being served a half-cup of rice and two tortillas for a meal, and
said the ship's store often lacks soap, deodorant and toothpaste, MS NOW
reported Wednesday.
Crew
members are also worn out by working long, grueling shifts, with some
rarely getting a day off, and described broken toilets, moldy showers
without hot water and no laundry service for weeks at a time, relatives
said.
“The morale is not good,” said Bonnie
York, whose stepson is aboard the Lincoln. “Apparently, the ship’s
doctor or therapist said they need to hit port soon or people are going
to start, you know, losing their minds.”
On the food issue, Cybele Mayes-Osterman (USA TODAY) reported back on April 16th:
Dan
F. was alarmed when his daughter, a Marine aboard the USS Tripoli, a
warship deployed to fight the Iran war, sent him a photo of a meal
served on the ship. A lunch tray, two-thirds empty, carried one small
scoop of shredded meat and a single folded tortilla.
A
picture of a mid-April dinner on the USS Abraham Lincoln, shared by a
service member with his family, was similarly unappetizing – a small
handful of boiled carrots, a dry meat patty and a gray slab of processed
meat.
Dan and other military family members
worried that their loved ones deployed to the Middle East are going
hungry are filling boxes with items they hope could help service members
ride out prolonged deployments in the Middle East – homemade fudge,
Jolly Ranchers, crossword puzzle books, playing cards, toothpaste, Girl
Scout cookies and fresh socks.
But mail
delivery to military ZIP codes across the Middle East has been
indefinitely suspended as of April, and packages in transit now hang in
limbo.
Dan asked to go by his first name only to protect his daughter from retaliation.
Both the Navy and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth denied reports of food problems.
"My
team confirmed the logistics stats for the Lincoln & Tripoli,"
Hegseth said in a post on X. "Both have 30+ days of Class I supplies
(food) on board. NavCent monitors this everyday, for every ship. Our
sailors deserve -- and receive -- the best."
Well,
Pete, doesn't seem like you're ensuring that the troops have the best.
Not if the issue is still being raised over three months later. In
fact, that would appear to indict you as a lying, do-nothing who wants
the title of Secretary of Defense but doesn't want to do any actual work
that comes with the position. Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, Lloyd Austin,
Leon Panetta -- even Donald Rumsfeld -- would have been publicly
raising hell if they found out that sailors on US carrier didn't have
adequate provisions. Adam Lynch notes MS NOW's Priya Sridhar reporting:
“Deployment
was extended for a second time, and they're concerned that this could
lead to accidents that could potentially turn deadly,” said Sridhar. And
then on top of that, … they're telling me that the sailors and the
marines can't take hot showers, that the toilets are nonoperational,
that for weeks at a time, there are no access to working laundry
facilities, and that they're having to stand in lines to get into the
ship's store for 1 to 2 hours. And when they get there, there are no
basic hygiene items like toothpaste, deodorant or soap.”
The
families’ frustration, added Sridhar, is that they’re hearing about the
nation’s winnowing stockpiles of munitions and weapons, which Trump and
his defense secretary keep blowing on Iran, and a $67 billion
Department of Defense request, and they want their loved ones to be part
of the conversation too.
Winnowing stockpiles of munitions and weapons? Oh, yeah, the reality that has Chump hissing "treason." Edith Olmsted (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:
President
Donald Trump is crashing out about a report that he confronted Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth over the U.S. military’s depleted munitions
stockpile.
Trump took to Truth Social within the first hour of Thursday to hit back at The Washington Post for reporting
that tensions between Hegseth and the president had “boiled over” on
the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting at Camp David last week.
“The
U.S. has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types,”
Trump wrote. “Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and
shipped to the U.S. as needed. Defense companies are building the
largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history.”
“The
‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long
term jail sentences will be sought!” Trump wrote. Notably, Trump didn’t
deny unloading on Hegseth.
This isn’t the first time
the Trump administration has challenged reports that the country’s
weapons stockpile is low, and still managed to threaten the leakers with
jail time. If the story is false, then why would it be treasonous to
tell it?
Steve Benen (MS NOW) addresses Chump's 'treasonous' response:
The
first problem with this is that Trump’s efforts to downplay the
depleted stockpiles contradict comments he made last week, when the
Republican acknowledged the problem he now seems eager to paper over.
The
second problem is that Trump’s online statement contradicts itself: The
president can argue that the latest reporting is false, or he can argue
that the reporting is based on “treasonous leaks.” But to argue both at
once doesn’t make sense. As Mother Jones’ David Corn recently summarized in response to a different story, “It’s only a leak if it’s true.”
Using
publicly available data, the Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS), a national security think tank, estimated that by the
end of July, the US had between 759 and 827 Patriot missiles left, down
from 2,330 before the conflict began.
It also estimates the US
has now used around 60% of terminal high altitude area defense (THAAD)
missiles, which are deployed to intercept strikes, Mark Cancian, a
retired Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at CSIS, said on
Wednesday.
And Joe DePaolo (MEDIAITE) notes Joe Scarborough's response to the news:
Joe
Scarborough was off from Morning Joe on Thursday — but still managed to
deliver a hot take that’s sure to get people talking in Washington and
beyond.
In a fiery post on X on Thursday, Scarborough sounded off about the blockbuster Washington Post report about President Donald Trump clashing at Camp David
with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over what The Post characterized as
“extreme munitions shortages that now threaten to limit military
options with Iran.”
Scarborough called it an “unforgivable blunder” compounded by Hegseth’s refusal to acknowledge the shortage.
“When
Hegseth attacks media questions on this extreme munitions shortage as
“fake news,” he makes this unforgivable blunder worse,” Scarborough
wrote. “Congress needs to take action. Americans need the truth. Hegseth
can’t give it. He needs to go.”
Turning to Chump's former roll dog, the late Jeffrey Epstein, Brett Meiselas (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes:
President Donald Trump's plan to haul Rupert Murdoch into a deposition just hit a wall.
A
federal judge on Wednesday granted The Wall Street Journal's request to
freeze discovery in Trump's defamation lawsuit over the newspaper's
reporting on Jeffrey Epstein, a significant procedural victory that came
just hours after lawyers argued over whether the case should be
dismissed altogether.
The
decision means Trump cannot force Murdoch, or anyone else connected to
the case for that matter, to sit for depositions while the judge decides
whether the lawsuit survives. If Gayles ultimately dismisses the case
with prejudice, as the Journal has requested, Murdoch may never have to
answer Trump's questions under oath.
Stunned may describe Chump's reaction to that Mother Tucker Carlson. Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) explains:
The
former Fox News host invoked the late sex offender – and former Trump
pal – Jeffrey Epstein as a symbol of the elite class to which the
president belongs and has failed to hold accountable, and Carlson
seemingly took a step toward a possible 2028 presidential bid by
outlining his "America First" priorities, reported The Daily Beast.
The
57-year-old broadcaster has spent months building a dissident wing
within MAGA, teaming with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, 52, who
resigned from Congress earlier this year after a bitter split with Trump
over what she called broken campaign promises.
Both
accuse Trump, 80, of abandoning "America First" principles by
entangling the U.S. in the Iran war, deferring to Israel on foreign
policy, and mishandling the release of the Epstein files.
New
Mexico’s attorney general sued the Trump Administration’s Department of
Justice and acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche this week over
the DOJ’s refusal to share un-redacted documents from its files on
Jeffrey Epstein. The state is investigating crimes that took place at
Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in Stanley, New Mexico (pictured above, located in
Santa Fe County). The ranch, which Epstein purchased in 1993, is
mentioned more than 10,000 times in the files.
“New
Mexico has a duty to protect survivors and investigate crimes committed
in our state so that perpetrators can be held accountable,” New
Mexico’s Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement. “We asked the
Department of Justice to cooperate by providing access to records that
may be critical to identifying victims, witnesses, and additional
criminal conduct at Zorro Ranch. Their delay is actively hurting our
criminal investigation and delaying justice Epstein survivors deserve.”
The lawsuit (which can be read here)
was filed in federal court in Washington, DC yesterday, and argues that
the DOJ’s refusal to provide the documents “violates the Administrative
Procedure Act and unlawfully interferes with New Mexico’s sovereign
authority to investigate and prosecute crimes committed within its
borders.”
CNN's Jake Tapper was stunned to hear New Mexico's attorney general suggest that a Trump official lied under oath.
During
an interview with Tapper on Wednesday, New Mexico AG Raul Torrez
discussed the Department of Justice's handling of records related to
dead sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch. Torrez filed a lawsuit against the DOJ on Wednesday after it ignored a deadline to hand those records over.
"They've
never worked with us," Torrez said. "We asked for this information as a
law enforcement agency. It's a very common practice for us to reach out
to federal prosecutors and investigators and ask for the kinds of
investigative files that are at issue here."
Torrez
said that the DOJ directed them to the District of New Mexico, "which
was odd," and he "knew full well" that that office "didn't have the
whole range of files that we were looking for." Torrez complied
nonetheless but was still unable to get unredacted files that he needed
to investigate Zorro Ranch.
Tapper
pointed out that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who currently
heads the DOJ, told Congress under oath that the DOJ would cooperate
with the New Mexico Department of Justice and help it get the
information that it needed. What Torrez was describing suggested that
this wasn't true and that Blanche was refusing to cooperate with the New
Mexico AG.
"I'm just stunned because you're
suggesting that he lied to Congress when he said that under oath,"
Tapper said. "Lying to Congress is obviously illegal."
MS NOW notes that the Senate is wrapping up business today before going on their planned recess which starts Saturday.
One of the things that they want to do is confirm
Todd Blanche as Attorney General. And on that, let's note this from
Senator Patty Murray's office:
Murray: “Mr. Blanche told us all exactly what he plans to do if Senators confirm him. His goal was to make the Dobbs decision ‘permanent in every single state.’ Every. Single. State.”
Murray: “This isn’t just a confirmation vote anymore—it’s a roll-call vote on which Senators endorse banning abortion in all 50 states from the federal level. I’m voting NO.”
ICYMI: At Hearing with Acting AG Blanche, Senator Murray Blasts Outrageous Creation of $1.8 Billion MAGA Slush Fund, Presses for Apology to Epstein Victims
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s remarks***
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke on the Senate floor ahead of the vote to confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General. Murray condemned Blanche for his disqualifying track record and outright corruption. Murray also sounded the alarm on Blanche’s recent comments made during a private call where Blanche says he will work to make the Dobbs decision “permanent in every single state.”
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
“M. President, I was never going to come out here and support Todd Blanche for a long list of reasons. I believe he is one of the most corrupt Justice Department officials in our country’s history, for one. He was Trump’s former personal lawyer—and it seems that he never quit!
“The only difference now is that the taxpayers are signing his checks instead of Trump. He was the one who negotiated a $1.8 billion slush fund to pay off violent insurrectionists, and who cut a backroom deal to give the President and his entire corrupt family immunity from IRS investigations.
“Not to forget, Todd Blanche is the guy who botched the Epstein files so badly that survivors had their names and faces exposed, while the names of alleged abusers were hidden. This is a man, who wouldn’t meet with survivors until Senators put him under a tremendous amount of public pressure. And when the meeting eventually got on the books, survivors made it crystal clear that Blanche didn’t listen to them. He was more interested in checking a box than hearing their stories or bringing them justice.
“All of that is of course absolutely unacceptable and disqualifying. But I come here today to sound the alarm on some of the most disturbing comments I have ever heard from our nation’s top law enforcement official. M. President, I guess Todd Blanche thought no one was listening.
“Because on a private call with anti-abortion activists Mr. Blanche told us all exactly what he plans to do if Senators confirm him.
“His goal was to make the Dobbs decision ‘permanent in every single state.’ Every. Single. State. Not just Texas or Idaho. He wants to ban abortion in Washington state. California. New York. In every state.
“He told them, ‘We will have victory, and victory will be soon, and it will be permanent.’ Victory over what, exactly? Victory over women who just want to make their own health care decisions? Victory over patients in states where abortion is legal?
“Where voters have said, over and over, at the ballot box: keep your hands off our rights.
“Now, a DOJ spokesperson tried to clean up Blanche’s words. Saying he was only focused on restricting access to medication abortion in all 50 states—as if that’s somehow better.
“Well, I’m here to say I believe the tape. I believe Todd Blanche’s own words.
“So let’s be crystal clear about what this vote is. A vote to confirm Todd Blanche is a vote to endorse his fight to ban abortion in all fifty states. Whatever happened to this is states’ decision? So every Republican who votes yes is voting for exactly that—his words, not mine. And any Republican who votes to confirm him will own that. In every state. In every election.
“So, M. President, this isn’t just a confirmation vote anymore—it’s a roll-call vote on which Senators endorse banning abortion in all 50 states from the federal level. I’m voting no.”
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The following sites updated:
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Zucky takes a hit7 hours ago
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Musk lost $87 billion yesterday7 hours ago
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Chumps lies and incompetence7 hours ago
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Praying James Carville is right7 hours ago
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