Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Shrimp Pasta Recipe in the Kitchen

 Gwen e-mailed to note a pasta recipe she found at McCormick Seasonings:

Ingredients


Directions:
  1. Mix tomatoes, tomato paste, water, sugar, basil, garlic powder, oregano, salt, and red pepper in a large saucepan. Bring to boil on medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. Meanwhile, cook pasta as directed on the package, adding shrimp during the last 3 minutes of cooking. Drain. Return pasta and shrimp to saucepot.
  3. Pour tomato sauce over shrimp and pasta. Toss gently to coat well. Serve immediately with shredded Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Well that messed everything up on my end.  Hope you can see it on your end.  I'm going to stop here before it gets worse on my end -- lines are overlapping on my end but I think I got it fixed.






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








Monday, July 21, 2025.  Though he keeps trying to shake it, Epstein continues to stick with Donald Chump.


AP explains, "President Donald Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch Friday, a day after the newspaper published a story reporting on his ties to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein." Yes, two weeks later and Epstein remains in the news cycle despite Chump's best efforts to distract and change the topic.  Friday on NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, Ailsa Chang wondered, "Who would have thought that a suicide in federal lockup during President Trump's first term would be a major speed bump six years later in Trump's second term? "  Not Chump, that's for sure.  And he's done everything in his playbook including getting outrageous (I might just strip Rosie O'Donnell of her citizenship!) and more outrageous (Barack Obama is guilty of treason!).  Yet no matter how outrageous and bitchy he gets, the news cycle does not change.


Tom Boggioni notes, "According to NBC's Brandy Zadrozny while some MAGA influencers are tempering their criticism over how Donald Trump's administration is handling the Jeffrey Epstein files, he has a rough road ahead with his far-right supporters."  It'll be a rough road for a lot of people -- mainly Chump. Stephen Collinson (CNN) writes:

Even President Donald Trump doesn’t seem to think his angry and chaotic efforts to end the renewed storm over convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will work.

He warned in a weekend social media post that “nothing will be good enough” to satisfy what he claims are leftists and troublemakers fanning the uproar.

In reality, however, the controversy was heightened by Trump’s defensive outbursts following his aides’ clumsy efforts to quell conspiracies they fueled before the 2024 election over Epstein’s death in prison and a supposed celebrity client list.


The story didn't die over the weekend as someone stepped forward to explain Chump had been specifically named to the FBI while Epstein was alive.   Emell Derra Adolphus (DAILY BEAST) reports:

Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s first accuser says she warned the Federal Bureau of Investigation on two occasions to look into President Donald Trump’s conduct as an associate of the disgraced sex offender.

In an interview with The New York Times, Maria Farmer, who in 1996 was the first to report Epstein’s sexual offenses, recalled a 1995 encounter with Trump after she was summoned to see Epstein at his luxurious Manhattan offices. 

Farmer, who was preparing to do some work for Epstein, said she was wearing running shorts when she turned up at the building to find Trump in a suit. Farmer told the Times that she started feeling scared as Trump allegedly stared at her bare legs, but Epstein came into the room and broke the tension. Farmer said Epstein reportedly said to Trump, “No, no. She’s not here for you.”


Rhian Lubin (INDEPENDENT) adds:


Farmer’s account is among “the clearest indications yet” of how Trump may appear in the Epstein files, the Times notes, though the White House disputed the alleged encounter.

“The president was never in [Epstein’s] office,” said White House communications director Steven Cheung. “The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep.”

It follows a turbulent few weeks for the Trump administration after MAGA outrage over the Epstein files boiled over last week. Despite campaigning on a promise to release the files, Trump’s Justice Department announced in July that no further evidence in the case would be released, unleashing turmoil among the president’s MAGA supporter base. 


Graeme Massie (INDEPENDENT) offers more:


The piece goes on to describe Trump hosting “a party at Mar-a-Lago for young women in a so-called calendar girl competition, Mr. Epstein was the only other guest.”

It states that the party was organized by Florida businessman George Houraney.

“Mr. Houraney recalled being surprised that Mr. Epstein was the only other person on the guest list,” it states.

“I said, ‘Donald, this is supposed to be a party with V.I.P.s,” Mr. Houraney told the newspaper about the party in 2019. “You’re telling me it’s you and Epstein?’”



All weekend, like Chump's done for two weeks now, he tried to scrape Epstein off his shoe.  But it just won't scrape off as Ben notes at MEIDASTOUCH.




Donald said nothing to see here.  Sort of as dangerous as sailing around on a boat named Monkey Business after encouraging the press to look into your personal life.  

 

It's not going away.  Today, Steve Inskeep (MORNING EDITION) observed, "The president is trying to quiet the criticism and he even sued THE WALL STREET JOURNAL over a story last week.  The topic still dominated news shows on Sunday." 

Lunatic Tulsi Gabbard spent the weekend trying to distract by issuing lies about former US President Barack Obama and, appearing on CBS' FACE THE NATION, US House Rep Jim Himes tied her crazy into the crazy that Chump and other stoked on Epstein for over a decade:


REPRESENTATIVE JIM HIMES: Here's the test. This is Epstein all over again. Criminal referrals. We're going to prosecute Barack Obama. You know, treasonist and seditious. Here's the thing. And I hope that four, five, six weeks from now. Don't take it from this Democrat. Four or five, six weeks from now, let's see if this administration, Tulsi Gabbard accusing a former president of treason, let's see if they bring charges. They won't. They won't, because there's not a judge in the land, not a single judge, who will treat this with anything other than laughter that will be heard from the Atlantic to the Pacific in this country.

So, the test of this is, four, five, six weeks from now, is the DOJ bringing charges.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

REPRESENTATIVE JIM HIMES: And the answer to that is no. And now we're going to be in Epstein world. We're like, wait a minute, treasonist conspiracy by a former president. Why isn't the Department of Justice bringing charges? And the answer to that question is that it is a lie.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood.

 


On Sunday's ABC THIS WEEK Martha Raddatz spoke with US House Rep Tim Burchett:


RADDATZ: And our thanks to Rachel.

I'm joined now by GOP Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who has called for more transparency in the Epstein case.

Good morning, Congressman.

You’ve co-sponsored the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, which would force the House to vote on whether or not to release all government files on Epstein.

What exactly do you think the government is withholding here?

REP. TIM BURCHETT, (R) TENNESSEE: Well, that’s the million-dollar question, ma’am. I -- I applaud the president and Attorney General Bondi for wanting to release the grand jury files. I believe that will pretty much cover everything. But I would give everybody a caveat or a -- that’s a big word, but a warning that just because somebody flew on a plane doesn’t mean they’re a daggum pedophile, you know. I -- I'm -- I have a lot of wealthy friends. I -- I aspire to be wealthy, but I've taken a vow of poverty because of my daughter rides horses.

So -- but I have a lot of wealthy friends, and they fly on people’s planes. And their plane will be down, and they’ll say, hey, we’re going somewhere, and we’ve got an extra seat, do you want to go? And they don’t even know the person on the plane.

So, you know, that’s one of the things I worry about, too, because I -- you know, President Trump admitted that he flew on his daggum plane. And so, I worry about some innocent people. I worry about -- there’s over 1,000 people that this dirtbag apparently offended. And currently, I believe the devil’s dealing with him. But --

RADDATZ: But, Congressman --

BURCHETT: I worry about some of those innocent names being out on that, too as well.

Yes, ma’am. Go ahead.

RADDATZ: So, Congressman, you think unsealing the grand jury records is enough for you now?

BURCHETT: I think it’s a start. I don’t think we’re ever going to get to the bottom of anything -- every -- all of it, ma’am.


Burchett also appeared on CNN"S STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH where he repeated more or less the same remarks plus Tim Burchett's dramatic line reading of, "You know this town buries secrets. This town does not give up its secrets easy.”


At SLATE, Ben Mathis-Lilley offers his take on why Epstein hasn't faded away in a news cycle:


That might have something to do with the fact that Trump socialized with Epstein and has been accused of numerous sexual assaults himself, or it could be about cognitive dissonance: If Epstein is “a hoax” that everyone needs to let go now that it’s served its purpose of getting Trump elected, that might imply that the entire QAnon universe of theories was also a bunch of below-average fan faction that Trump encouraged because it got his dumb voters riled up. (We’re still working on finding the German word for "coming around to admitting an uncomfortable truth in order to maintain a much larger set of beliefs about things that are definitely still not true.") In any case, this was all starting to make non-MAGA observers wonder if the president has something to hide, even before the publication of a bombshell late-Thursday Wall Street Journal article which reported that Trump appears to have written Epstein a 50th-birthday card featuring a drawing of a naked woman and a poem that includes the phrases “We have certain things in common” and “may every day be another wonderful secret.” (Trump denied having made the card, telling the Journal, “I never wrote a picture in my life,” which does not appear to be accurate.)


Senator Dick Durbin is asking for answers and has made public three letters he's sent:

For a PDF of the letter to Attorney General Bondi, click here.

For a PDF of the letter to Director Patel, click here.

For a PDF of the letter to Deputy Director Bongino, click here.


This is from the Bondi letter:

Dear Attorney General Bondi:
On July 7, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released an unsigned memorandum regarding the Trump Administration’s “exhaustive review of investigative holdings relating to Jeffrey Epstein.” This memorandum made two official findings: (1) “[t]his systemic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list’”; and (2) “[a]fter a thorough investigation, FBI investigators concluded that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on August 10, 2019.”1
The first finding directly contradicts public statements you have repeatedly made. On February 21, 17 days after your confirmation as Attorney General, you were asked directly by Fox News’ America Reports host John Roberts: “DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients; will that really happen?”2 Your response was: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.”3 On February 27, you released binders of documents related to Epstein to conservative influencers and commentators,4 but despite the major media event the White House staged around this release, these files were largely already publicly available.5 After intense blowback from this incident, you appeared on another Fox News show, Life Liberty Levin, and claimed that a “whistleblower” told you that “New York SDNY [was] sitting on thousands of pages of documents”; that “we will get everything”; that you were “assured” there was more; and that the country would eventually see “the full Epstein files.”6
According to information my office received, you then pressured the FBI to put approximately 1,000 personnel in its Information Management Division (IMD), including the Record/Information Dissemination Section (RIDS), which handles all requests submitted by the public under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act, on 24-hour shifts to review approximately 100,000 Epstein-related records in order to produce more documents that could then be released on an arbitrarily short deadline. This effort, which reportedly took place from March 14 through the end of March, was haphazardly supplemented by hundreds of FBI New York Field Office personnel, many of whom lacked the expertise to identify statutorily- protected information regarding child victims and child witnesses or properly handle FOIA requests.
My office was told that these personnel were instructed to “flag” any records in which President Trump was mentioned. Notably, in 2002, Mr. Trump said of Mr. Epstein, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy, He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”7 Just yesterday, it was reported that the Department previously reviewed a “leather-bound album” comprised of dozens of letters from Mr. Epstein’s friends in celebration of his 50th birthday in 2003.8 The letters were collected by Mr. Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell and included one from President Trump that allegedly “contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker … and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist.”9
Despite tens of thousands of personnel hours reviewing and re-reviewing these Epstein- related records over the course of two weeks in March, it took DOJ more than three additional months to officially find there is “no incriminating ‘client list,’” and the memorandum with this finding includes no mention of the whistleblower or additional documents, the existence of which you publicly claimed on February 27.

A whistleblower is also mentioned in the letter to Patel.  David McAfee reports:


Reports that federal workers were tasked with reviewing Jeffrey Epstein files to flag any mention of Donald Trump are indeed true, according to a legal expert on Sunday.

Legal analyst Allison Gill, better known as Mueller, She Wrote, did a little investigating of her own after it was reported that FBI agents were instructed to "flag" any mention of Donald Trump in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

"When I saw that over one thousand people had been put to work reviewing the Epstein files, I put a call out on my BlueSky account," the legal expert said as she explained her request for anonymous details from members of the FBI who were tasked with the assignment.

She adds, "In the 24 hours since, I’ve received several messages, including from a former analyst that was assigned to review the files, and a few things stood out to me."

According to Gill, "First, approximately 1,000 personnel in the Information Management Division (IMD) and the FBI New York Field Office were assigned to this task, confirming the whistleblower account made to Senator Durbin’s office. I can also confirm that a log exists tracking the mentions of Donald Trump in the files, and that there were approximately 100,000 files containing roughly 300,000 pages. Individual analysts were told to flag mentions of Trump by document and page number by logging them in an Excel spreadsheet, then they’d hand in their spreadsheet at the end of their (sometimes 24 or even 48-hour) shift. But it’s important to note that the agents were not told to flag Trump until later in a process that began mid-March."


Saturday, US House Rep Jasmine Crockett spoke with Alex Witt.


Are Republicans -- who give some lip service on the importance of Epstein -- going to join with Democrats?


US House Rep Jasmine Crockett:  We saw a bunch of Republicans that just skipped a vote this week so I don't anticipate that we will get to any resolution on this.  I think they again want to straddle the fence, they want to show that they are loyal to this -- I don't even know what to call him, I've called him so many things -- this wannabe Hitler, for sure. They want to pledge their loyalty to him and they know that he does not want this released. I think they also are concerned about the damage it may do.   e if he's trying to hide it, they understand that he is most likely problematic for him as well as the as the MAGA brand as well as the Republicans.  So I did not anticipate that they will be on board for doing anything that may harm them or their fearless leader.  


We'll wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren:

Warren analysis reveals at least half a billion dollars in monetary contributions, gifts, in-kind donations flowing into Trump Presidential Library

Donations come while Trump makes critical decisions that may impact donors; raises serious concerns about bribery, influence-peddling

Report (PDF) 

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a new report exposing how companies, special interests, and foreign governments may be pledging donations to President Trump’s future Presidential Library as a corrupt tool to secure favorable outcomes from his administration. 

“Donald Trump may be using his presidential library as a tool for corruption and bribery while still in office. We could be seeing giant companies like Paramount and Meta and foreign countries like Qatar pay Trump off in plain sight,” said Senator Warren. “Government should work for the American people, not just whichever giant company or foreign government can dump the most money into the president’s future library.”

Senator Warren’s new analysis reveals that companies seeking favorable outcomes from the Trump administration have pledged to funnel at least $63 million into Trump’s future presidential library. Other gifts and in-kind donations — including a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar, expensive candlelight dinners at Mar-a-Lago, leftover inauguration donations, and more — bring the total value of gifts flowing into Trump’s library to at least half a billion dollars. 

Presidential Libraries are used to honor a president’s legacy and allow scholars and the public to learn about their time in office. This new report details how giant corporations, special interests, and at least one foreign government are promising donations to President Trump’s future library while his administration makes decisions on mega-mergers, the preservation of a U.S. military base in Qatar, Big Tech regulation, and more. 

Just weeks ago, Paramount settled President Trump’s lawsuit against CBS’s 60 Minutes for $16 million, with the money funneling straight into Trump’s library. Paramount is currently vying for approval by the Trump administration of its proposed megamerger with Skydance.

In December 2024, ABC News settled a defamation lawsuit with Donald Trump by agreeing to pay $15 million toward his Presidential Library.

Past presidents have also accepted suspicious donations while in office — such as the Clinton Foundation accepting a $450,000 donation from a woman pushing for a presidential pardon for her ex-husband, which President Clinton later granted, or a Bush Administration advisor soliciting Presidential Library donations in exchange for arranging meetings with top administration officials.

“But Trump is doing so at a magnitude that makes glaringly clear the need for common-sense guardrails around donations,” said Senator Warren’s report. 

Unlike donations to presidential campaigns or inaugural committees, there are almost no restrictions on donations to Presidential Libraries. Even while in office, presidents can solicit unlimited, undisclosed donations from anyone — including foreign nationals, lobbyists, federal contractors, individuals seeking presidential pardons, and corporations with business before federal agencies.

###


 
Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Another Message of Hope and Love from Virginia Foxx,"  The following sites updated:







Posted by at

Monday, July 21, 2025

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

gds

 

From Friday, that's  Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Another Message of Hope and Love from Virginia Foxx"


I'm doing a quick post.  I'm really ticked about something and I'm not able to talk about it.  It's a 'work' thing would be wrong because it didn't happen at my clinic.  It did happen at a Boston facility I don't work at.  A friend brought her niece over to tell me about it on Saturday.  And I'm advising on how to handle it -- including pairing them with an attorney.  


But it's really all I can think about.  Sorry.


So instead let me write about my husband and our grandkids.  I just was not in a good mood this weekend -- see above -- and the grandkids ended up bored on Sunday.  My husband had an answer!!! Pluto had on a series of Abbott & Costello movies on their Universal channel.  I said that they weren't going to want to watch it because they didn't know A&C, because the Abbott & Costello meet the monster movies really aren't their funniest and because the films were in black & white. 

I was right.  I got the kids back in front of the TV, put on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, went to make the popcorn I promised them if they'd sit still, came back with popcorn and they were already lost in the movie.


It's a musical so it moves quickly and that catches a child's attention, it's Marilyn Monroe who is remembered when so many are forgotten because she connects through the camera, it has a lot of color to it to catch the eye.

I love the movie.  It's not my favorite Marilyn Monroe movie -- that's Some Like It Hot -- but it is my second favorite and I think Jane Russell and Marilyn made a great comedy duo. 


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

Friday, July 18, 2025.  Chump's war on immigrants, his war on NPR and PBS, everything is tied to the reality that Donald Chump is a slave serving the super wealthy -- a detail that some in MAGA are finally waking up to. 


We're starting with public media which is under attack from Donald Chump.



David Folkenflik (NPR) notes one of the week's big developments:

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have passed legislation on a narrow, party-line basis to eliminate all federal funding for public broadcasting for the next two years. That's $1.1 billion previously approved by the Republican-led Congress and President Trump. The reversal is notionally due to the need to cut funds to help pay for new Republican priorities, including an expansion of immigration enforcement and extension of Trump's prior tax cuts.

Yet Trump had campaigned on retribution and made the news media a core element of his grievance. Public broadcasting has offered a ready target, given the government funding, and he has repeatedly claimed NPR and PBS demonstrate ideological bias.


NPR and PBS -- and other public media -- do have a bias -- they are anti-stupidity.

An administration that's purged climate change from all federal government pages, can't handle science.  An administration that puts a fool in charge of public health -- a fool who thinks vaccines cause autism -- can't handle science.  

If NPR and PBS were like FOX "NEWS" and just told lies, Chump wouldn't claim they had a bias.  The threat to Chump is that NPR and PBS and other public media are science-based and fact-based.

Earlier this month, Ruth wrote about how important NPR and PBS are in "Chump attacks NPR and PBS:"


We need NPR and we need PBS.  The cloven hoofed Jonathan Turley would beg to differ but he is a turncoat and a liar.  In fact, he is a work write-up waiting to happen.  Tick-tick-tick-tick.  

NPR gives us news and it gives us explorations.  I am not a Terry Gross fan but she can have a guest that makes me tune in.  And I really do not like her.  When she has a great guest though, she is worth listening to even for me because you have a real exploration of a topic and not just silly soundbytes. PBS?  We get THE NEWSHOUR which remains America's strongest news hour or news half hour.  No one does the evening news better.  In addition, we get documentaries and we get NOVA and AMERICAN MASTERS and children's programming and cooking shows and gardening shows and some great dramas and, if we are lucky, Britcoms.  I do not have Britcoms currently.  I do have a movie on Saturday nights (AIRPLANE! is this weekend).  AMANPOUR & COMPANY and LIDIA'S KITCHEN.  Sometimes I will watch AUSTIN CITY LIMITS based on the musical guest.  My PBS station (CPTV) offers BBC NEWS as well.  I love POV.  I could honestly live with just PBS.  

I have YOUTUBE TV.  I dropped cable years ago.  I went with YOUTUBE TV because of Stan's praise for it.  Which includes, I can watch a program and pull up the schedule to see what else is on.  Or I can watch a program and pull up the things I have recorded to see if there is something else I want to watch.  Try to do that on HULU LIVE TV and the program you are watching stops.  I also like YOUTUBE TV because many of the streaming TV services do not offer PBS.  

But if I had only over air TV, I could survive on just PBS because it offers so much.  And I am someone who will fold laundry in front of the TV, chop vegetables in front of the TV.  If I am home and not reading, I have the radio on -- or radio via the internet -- or a record on the stereo or PBS on as I go through the house doing chores.  And I dust and vacuum daily, by the way.  My family makes fun of me (kindly) about that.  That is how I did it raising the kids and it is how I do it now. But, no, I do not expect that from other people and their homes and I am fully aware that most people did not have eight hours a day to straighten and clean their homes to begin with.

So when they attack PBS and NPR, they are really attacking us.  

I encounter people sometimes who hate PBS and do not watch it or hate NPR and do not listen to it.  And I will speak with them and find out their interests and usually be able to recommend one show that they should catch.  The reality usually is that people who do not watch it or listen to it do not really know what it offers.  Once they do, they tend to find something of value because it is "public" TV and "public" radio -- meaning that it serves us. 


"Public media."  We say that because, as Ruth noted earlier this week "Chump continues his attack on NPR, PBS and Native Americans" -- Native American media is being attacked by Chump and by GOP members of Congress:


As bad as the attack on PBS and NPR is, it goes beyond that.  Margery A. Beck (AP) reports, "Dozens of Native American radio stations across the country vital to tribal communities will be at risk of going off the air if Congress cuts more than $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to industry leaders."  There are 59 tribal stations in the US. Native Public Media notes, "Native stations play a vitally important role in the communities they serve. Native stations serve as an essential source of news, deliver critically important health information, provide a forum for discussion and debate around the issues that affect their communities, broadcast life-saving information in times of emergencies, air extensive cultural content, promote language preservation, and provide jobs as part of the local economy."  NPM president Loris Taylor writes:

Tribal radio stations operate on tight budgets. Most cannot apply for competitive federal energy grants while also maintaining daily broadcast services. Asking them to pivot to climate funding, without a clear and dedicated pathway, sets them up to fail.


We call on Congress to reject any measure that would eliminate or reduce CPB funding for Tribal media. Instead, we urge lawmakers to follow Senator Rounds’ lead in recognizing the importance of Tribal stations and take it further. Rather than replace CPB, strengthen it. Protect this cornerstone of Tribal sovereignty, cultural preservation, civic engagement, and emergency response.


The future of Tribal media and the communities it serves depends on it.



Francene Blythe-Lewis, Eastern Band of Cherokee, Navajo and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, is the president and chief executive officer of Vision Maker Media. Her father, Frank Blythe, founded the nonprofit organization in 1976 with seed money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and wanted to bring contemporary Native storytelling to public television.

“At the time, public leaders and programmers and station managers, they were all wanting the iconic Indian history, Indian Wars, Indian chief stories and biographies,” she said. “And so he really fought hard to set a precedent of bringing the lives and experience of Native Americans in the times that we are in to public television.”

The impending proposal to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would “almost virtually eliminate” Vision Maker Media and be “extremely tragic.”

Without organizations like Vision Maker Media, Blythe-Lewis said new generations would lose awareness of Native people, cultures and communities.

“That is the tragic part, because we’re very much a part of civil society. We’re very much part of political influence. We’re very much a part of, you know, this whole fabric of American culture and so too, because we’re the original peoples to the land, our history is critical to remain sort of the foundation of finding and founding of America.”


This was money well spent to inform and educate.  But as Mammy Yokum Linda McMahon makes clear daily, the administration doesn't do public education.  Instead they are at war with it. 

 

The above re: public media?  It's the same as THE WALL STREET JOURNAL report, the same as everything going on with this crooked administration.  

 

On THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE, Stephanie and her guests discussed THE WALL STREET JOURNAL's report last night about Chump's birthday greeting (obscene birthday greeting) to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.



Leigh Ann Caldwell's excellent analysis above noted the betrayal MAGA was feeling due to the lies from Chump and the administration regarding  Jeffrey Epstein.  It goes to the heart of the lies he's told since 2015 repeatedly.  He was going to be the savior who ended pedophile rings.  When he first started saying that, Epstein was alive and Chump's good friend.  While Chump was president, Epstein was arrested and imprisoned and died in jail.  After Chump loses the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Chump begins portraying himself as a truth teller who will release documents -- he tells FOX "NEWS" as a candidate in 2024 that he'll release the JFK assassination files and the Epstein files and blah blah blah.

And then last week, Americans are greeted with a lie that there are no documents to release.  

David Jolly:  But there's also the theme of a ruling class in America -- the super wealthy.  People who can escape accountability.  The law applies to them differently than the law applies to someone who maybe gets picked up off the streets for maybe, for instance right now, during an ICE raid.  And so we have the disparity, we have the victims who are also being lied to.  Look, this is a moment where the American people -- regardless of party -- the numbers are wild, Stephanie -- they're demanding transparency and accountability.  Some surveys show that 90 percent of the American people want transparency and accountability.   


He is the Deep State.  Chump is now the deep state denying the files.  

Alicia Menendez did a great job on THE BRIEFING last night but I can't find the two segments I wanted to highlight on YOUTUBE (there's less than two minutes of one segment that is posted on BLUESKY -- BLUESKY took away the embed option months ago which is why we no longer rush to note BLUESKY).

 Lawrence O'Donnell did a great job last night as well.




But it's really the combination of Leigh Ann Caldwell's analysis and David Jolly's comments that captures it.  Donald Chump rages against the Deep State and presents as the hero of the people.  But he's not.  He's the servant of the super wealthy.

That's what's going on with Epstein his admirers fear.

It's certainly what went down with his 'big' 'beautiful' bill that steals billions from the American people and hands them over to . . . the super wealthy.

Native Americans are going to suffer due to his attack on public media but they don't matter.  Only the super wealthy matter to Chump.

He is their servant.

And that's why the Epstein matter is so important to MAGA and outraging them.  His attempts to bury evidence regarding Epstein's crimes make clear that he is not about We The People, he is not about working people, he is just about serving the super wealthy.

Stephanie noted at the top of her segment that there were all these things going on but it was Epstein that was outraging Chump's supporters.  

Because that's what they can't deny to themselves.  They can pretend that the tax bill isn't as bad as it really is because it's not gone into effect yet.  They can pretend regarding the econoy and a lot of other things.  But on Epstein?

He promised them he would release the files.  Now he won't.

And he's tried everything including his usual attempt to blame Joe Biden.

There's no one to blame for this but Chump.  And it goes to the heart of the matter that he was not a change agent, he was not going to shake things up, he's just a tool of -- a slave to -- the super wealthy.

Let's turn to immigration.  At AMNY, Jumaane D. Williams observes:
 

A toddler in a red and white dress told me she was four years old. Her family told me she was here for her court date.

A series of young men were granted a court date by a judge, a moment of relief, only to be ambushed by a gang of ICE agents before they’d even cleared the doorway. One was violently manhandled. Another collapsed into the corner, head in his hands.

These men were pulled down an unmarked hallway and into anonymity, possibly to be trafficked toward a deadly prison in El Salvador or South Sudan or Florida for the crime of coming to America for a better life, and expecting better of us. 

And lining every hallway, a masked force of anonymous goons looming over the proceedings and ready to pounce, under the guise of “just doing my job” and the cover of a total lack of accountability. Who care more about keeping order than keeping a conscience.

It’s not clear whether the people being seized always know what’s being said to them in these moments of arrest, and very clear they don’t know why. They are being thrust unaware into the most traumatic experience of their lives – alone.

A frantic woman was asking anyone she could for any sign of her partner who had come for his lawful hearing. Forty-five minutes later, her six year old daughter heard the truth – her father had been kidnapped by the government, without cause or a chance to say goodbye. Still she asked us, “Where is my daddy?” up to the moment of an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital.

Words can’t convey the panic of a New Yorker suddenly pinned to the wall, the dread that hangs over the waiting room, the desperation of a mother and daughter begging for information about their family. 

I can’t get these sickening sights and sounds out of my head – and maybe that’s a good thing.

I witnessed these scenes in Manhattan over a matter of hours – but what I saw is happening on a constant loop in buildings just out of sight of the Statue of Liberty.

And I don’t blame people for not knowing that. 

Intentionally or not, our minds and media are often vague about the Trump administration’s crimes against our neighbors and rights. People hear about an “immigration crackdown,” maybe one that’s gone far beyond the so-called “criminals,” but it is in the details that the grotesque reality is revealed.

These aren’t vague issues –they’re specific cruelties. It’s not just an abstract overreach or a constitutional question. It’s an extra-legal abduction racket, the kind we’d hope the government would root out – but the government are the perpetrators. 


Here the goons are in NYC.  Little bitch boys and cowards in masks.  



Secret Service doesn't need masks.  Constables don't need masks.  CIA agents don't even need masks.  But bitch boys and cowards need masks.  But even with masks, they can't hide from themselves and their own actions will haunt them forever -- and should.  They're destroying lives.  




Public approval of President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration has dropped to its lowest level since his return to the White House, as Americans express a growing unease with his aggressive enforcement tactics.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Wednesday shows an outright majority of Americans—51 percent—now openly disapprove of the president’s hardline approach to immigration enforcement, marking a dramatic shift from earlier this year when it was seen as his strongest issue.


Two things here.  The more Americans see what's taking place, the more they reject Chump's war on immigrants.  Second, that's another reason Mark Cuban's ridiculous notion (see Wednesday's snapshot) needs to be rejected.  It's not our job to save Chump or his policies.  Democrats came up with immigration plans and Republicans shot them down.  Chump pushed this policy through -- illegal and inhumane -- and now that the public has decisively turned against it, we do not need to kiss Chump's boo boo and make it better.  What he has done is outrageous and horrifying.  Democrats should not now try to normalize it just because Cuban thinks that's a 'quick fix.'  We can't normalize this and the American people don't want it normalized.


The cruelty of Chump's inhumane practices are something he and the GOP need to own.  We shouldn't sully ourselves to help him look better and shame on Cuban for pretending we should.  They're the ones being cruel and they like being cruel.  Michael Luciano (MEDIAITE) notes:

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) advised U.S. citizens to avoid associating with undocumented immigrants, lest they be arrested during an immigration raid by federal agents.

The Trump administration is carrying out scores of raids across the country at factories, farms, restaurants, schools, and other locations to enact the president’s mass deportation policy. President Donald Trump’s handling of immigration, which was once seen as his strongest or second-strongest issue, is polling at its lowest level of the term so far, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey released on Wednesday. Just 41% of Americans approve, and only 28% agreed with the statement that “immigration arrests at places of work are good for the country.”


I believe the phrase we're all thinking right now is: "What the literal f**k!"  


He's stoking fear, othering and justifying -- so very Mark Cuban of him -- what's being done to immigrants.  


The administration's actions are not excusable but that's what an idiot elderly man named "Tommy" thinks.  Chicken Hawk Tommy never served.  We grasp that, right?  He didn't sign up to go to Vietnam nor did he protest it.  Little Chicken Hawk Tommy might need to meet George Retes.  We noted George in yesterday's snapshot. He's a veteran of the US military.  He's 25.  Glass House Farms was raided by ICE gestapo agents.  At least one person is dead.  George is a security guard at Glass House Farms and when ICE Nazis came crawling, he identified himself from inside his car as that and as a US citizen.  It made no different as they busted his window, pepper sprayed him and hit him with tear gas because, well, they can and then they dragged him from his car.  This passes for how they carry out arrests these days.   Olga R. Rodriguez (AP) notes 


"It took two officers to nail my back and then one on my neck to arrest me even though my hands were already behind my back," Retes said.
[. . .]
Retes was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where he said he was put in a special cell on suicide watch and checked on each day after he became emotionally distraught over his ordeal and missing his 3-year-old daughter's birthday party Saturday.

He said federal agents never told him why he was arrested or allowed him to contact a lawyer or his family during his three-day detention. Authorities never let him shower or change clothes despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, Retes said, adding that his hands burned throughout the first night he spent in custody.

On Sunday, an officer had him sign a paper and walked him out of the detention center. He said he was told he faced no charges.

"They gave me nothing I could wrap my head around," Retes said, explaining that he was met with silence on his way out when he asked about being "locked up for three days with no reason and no charges."





This is America right now.  Under the Chump Reich, this is America.

And if you're feeling sorry for cowardly Tommy who couldn't enlist, please note that when he offered his 'brilliant' advice that we noted earlier, he was informed veterans were being arrested by ICE.  Back to Michael Luciano's report:

So Senator, do you care if U.S. citizens accidentally get detained in ICE raids?” Manríquez asked.

“If U.S. citizens?” Tuberville said, seeming surprised.

“Yeah, it’s been happening a lot,” the reporter replied. “It’s been having a lot with veterans in particular.

“Well, first of all, don’t put yourself in a situation where that happens,” Tuberville responded. “And I’m sure with all the illegals we have in this country, you’re gonna probably have some mistakes happen. That’s gonna happen. But again, as long as we take care of it the right way, understand they are our system, let them go. But again, if you’re gonna be hanging around people that are not citizens of this country, some things like that are gonna probably happen.”


That's 70 year old Tommy Girl for you.  Yellow streak down his back and vengeance in his eyes, headed to hell for eternity. 


Tommy's got a pal he can scissor in hell with, one Ralph Norman.  Ailia Zehra reports:


Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) are facing backlash over their responses to a reporter asking whether they “care if U.S. citizens accidentally get detained in [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] ICE raids.”

"No, I'm not concerned about that," Norman said in response to the question asked by a reporter on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
"I am concerned about law and order," he said. When the reporter pressed him about U.S. citizens getting detained and said "it's happening a lot," Norman said: "I don't believe that."


Just for the idiot Norman, let's note Aretha's version of "What A Fool Believes."






Fortunately, not everyone is as butt-ass-stupid as Tommy and Ralph.  In fact, even some Republicans have caught on to the damage Chump is doing -- including damage to this country's economy.  Michael Luciano reports:


Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan, stating that if the administration tries to deport every undocumented immigrant, the economy will crash.

[. . .]

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal relayed remarks from a pair of House Republicans who expressed concern at the ongoing raids on businesses in the food industry.

The Journal said Stutzman took out his phone to reveal a message from a poultry farmer in his district. Stutzman stated that he has received several such messages.

“I have people they call me. They’re like, ‘I’m not sure if my crew is going to show up for work Monday morning, because if there’s a raid, or something like that, right?” the lawmaker said. “If you try to deport all of them, you’re gonna crash the economy.”



This is not the United States, this is not democracy.  These are gestapo tactics and they have no place in this country.  Lives are being destroyed.  Ailia Zehra reports:


Delegates at the United Church of Christ’s (UCC) 35th General Synod overwhelmingly passed an emergency resolution this week, condemning the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids as “domestic terrorism” and accusing President Donald Trump's administration of “weaponizing the Constitution.”

Religious News Service reported Tuesday that the resolution targets immigration enforcement operations “carried out by ICE agents working without uniforms, wearing masks or refusing to identify themselves,” condemning these tactics as threatening and abusive.

Titled “Responding to the federal government’s attack on immigrants, migrants, and refugees,” the resolution urges the church to divest from for-profit private detention firms, specifically naming CoreCivic, GEO Group, and Management and Training Corp.— while allowing congregations to go further if they choose, according to the report.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Mark Kelly's office:

Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Alex Padilla (D-CA) led a group of 21 Senate Democrats in pressing the Trump administration on its recent initiatives to weaponize immigration court hearings as an inhumane trap to arrest immigrants—who are just trying to follow the law—by terminating their immigration court cases and deporting them without adequate due process. 

In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons, the senators condemned these actions as an affront to due process. 

“We are extremely concerned by reports of a recent initiative to arrest and detain noncitizens at their immigration court hearings, and in many cases, dismiss their immigration cases without advance notice and while hiding the government’s intent to arrest them,” wrote the senators. “These actions prevent noncitizens from having their fair day in court and raise serious legal and due process concerns. They also make clear that this Administration is not targeting the worst criminals and threats to public safety, instead redirecting staff and resources away from drug trafficking and human trafficking and towards these operations targeting noncriminal immigrants who are following the law and showing up for their day in court.” 

The senators then admonished the misuse of expedited removal (ER) as part of the Trump Administration’s efforts: “ER historically has applied only to a noncitizen who ‘is arriving in the United States’ and certain other noncitizens apprehended close to the border less than 14 days after arrival in the United States […]. ICE is now expanding the application of ER to noncitizens in the interior of the United States who have developed significant ties to the United States, including by lawfully working and attending school. Arresting law-abiding individuals and placing them in ER deprives them of the opportunity to have their fair day in court with the due process protections in immigration court proceedings.” 

The senators then raised serious due process concerns: “Due process requires notice that is reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances, to apprise interested parties and that affords[s] a reasonable time to make an appearance. Here, it appears that the ICE attorneys are being told to dismiss immigration cases and place noncitizens in expedited removal. At the same time, immigration judges are being told that they may dismiss such cases without any briefing or opportunity to respond. In addition, often noncitizens have not been notified of the purpose of their dismissal, in order to respond or contest the dismissal of their immigration cases, or the placement of their case into expedited removal. Taken together, these actions raise serious due process concerns.” 

The senators concluded by articulating the horrible situation this puts immigrants in with no benefit to our country: “These actions also place noncitizens in an impossible position. If noncitizens who fear arrest do not attend their immigration court hearing, they may receive an in absentia removal order that will newly subject them to swift detention and removal. If they do attend, they risk arrest, detention, and a swift deportation, possibly to South Sudan, Libya, or El Salvador—countries they may have no connection to. This manipulation of existing laws to enact this Administration’s mass deportation agenda is creating chaos in our immigration system while doing nothing to make our communities safer.” 

In addition to Kelly, Durbin, and Padilla, the letter is signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). 

Read the full letter here. 



The following sites updated:


Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)