Lloyd e-mailed to note Air Fryer Fanatics' Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower:
Ingredients
4 Cups Cauliflower Florets
4 Tbsp Butter Melted
1/2 Cup Buffalo Sauce
1 Cup Gluten-Free or Regular Bread Crumbs
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Pepper
Olive Oil Spray
Instructions
In a large bowl, whisk together the butter and buffalo sauce.
Add in the cauliflower and coat well.
In another bowl combine the bread crumbs, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
Place each cauliflower floret in the bread crumb mixture to coat.
Spray the basket of the air fryer with olive oil spray.
Place
the cauliflower evenly in the air fryer basket, this will need to be
done in 2 batches, this should fit half the cauliflower.
Cook
for 12-15 minutes at 350*F until the cauliflower is golden brown and
cooked through, looking crispy. If you prefer, you can add another coat
of olive oil spray to the top to give it a more crisp look and texture.
(I suggest checking in on it at 12 minutes, if not fully cooked, cook
until 15 minutes.)
Once done, carefully remove and cook the additional batch.
Serve with sides of your choice like celery and ranch dressing.
Lloyd
said more air fryer recipes please. The heat's killing him and his
grandkids. So if you see an air fryer recipe you enjoy, e-mail it to
me.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's estimated cost last week for President Donald Trump's senseless and ceaseless war in Iran got me thinking about priorities.
Hegseth, testifying in Congress on July 21, said five months of war had cost America $37.5 billion, and he was asking for an additional $67 billion to keep fighting Iran.
I have a reflexive question when I see colossal numbers like that in government spending: What could that have paid for instead?
Here's the answer: Millions of Americans could have kept their health insurance.
Trump,
who campaigned in 2024 on a promise of making health care more
affordable, sided with his Republican allies in Congress in allowing
federal subsidies in place since 2021 for the Affordable Care Act –
known as Obamacare – to expire at the end of 2025.
The Congressional Budget Office in September predicted that keeping those subsidies in place would increase the deficit by about $350 billion over a decade – so $35 billion per year – and also would have added 3.8 million Americans enrolled in Obamacare.
Chump
is an idiot, a con artist and a grifter. We will always remember him
as a crook who destroyed our country. Even after we've managed to
rebuild, we will remember him as the crook he was.
This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for Thursday:
Thursday, July 30, 2026. Chump's war on Iran continues and now he wants
help from Iraq (which can't address the issue) and from Europe (the
countries he's been attacking since he got back in the White House), ICE
continues to lie and then lie some more as they terrorize American
immigrants and those Americans that they wrongly suspect are immigrants,
Todd Blanche's vote today on the Senate Judiciary Committee has been
called off, and much more.
The
recent missile attacks are part of a broader confrontation between the
United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has expanded
beyond direct military exchanges to now include attacks by
Iranian-backed militias across the Middle East. Everything from shipping
to energy flows has been disrupted because of the ever-expanding war.
Marisol, 25, had recently self-deported to
be with her husband, Pérez Paz, who was deported by the ICE. Their
14-month-old daughter, Giovanni, was found crying beside her mother.
Giovanni was suffering from dehydration when she was first found and
medical personnel took her to a medical center where is currently
recovering, according to St. Louis Public Radio.
[. . .]
[. . .]
[. . .]
"You do not have the cards, Donald." That's the message Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) says Iran is sending Chump.
Over the weekend, President Trump rejected a return to full-scale war. But as he tries to find a way out of a conflict he started, Iran has proved a stubborn enemy.
On Tuesday evening, Iran fired multiple missiles on American bases in Jordan. The U.S. military intercepted the missiles with apparent ease, but the incident has drawn Mr. Trump once again back into fighting.
[. . .]
The war, which Mr. Trump has been trying to bring to a diplomatic conclusion since April, is now threatening to grow bigger at the very moment the United States wants to move past it.
“When Trump started the war, he thought he could control it,” said Vali Nasr, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “The Iranian response is to extend the battlefield much, much wider, so the United States has to defend a broader battlefield.”
Experts said that at this stage in the war, which the United States launched with Israel five months ago, Iran wants to demonstrate the military adage that the enemy always gets a vote.
“Iran wanted to demonstrate that they are not going to sit back and wait for the U.S. or Israel to strike at a time of their preference,” said Jason Campbell of the Middle East Institute. “They are trying to seize the initiative, or at the very least keep the U.S. and Israel on their back foot.”
The Middle East teetered on the brink of an expanded war on Thursday, after Iran and the United States reignited their hostilities and conflicts on other fronts threatened to draw in more countries.
For the first time since the conflict began in February, the authorities in Egypt said Thursday that the country had come under attack, stating that an explosion at one of its ports the previous day had been caused by an unidentified drone. Earlier, Saudi Arabia also acknowledged direct involvement in the war for the first time, after conducting joint strikes with U.S. forces on Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on Wednesday.
As the scope of the fighting widened, U.S. Central Command said Thursday morning that it had completed another “heavy wave” of strikes on Iranian targets, including military command centers and missile and drone facilities. The Jordanian military later said it had shot down five missiles launched from Iran. Iran has not publicly claimed responsibility for that attack.
For months, the government in Baghdad has sought to curb the Iran-backed militias that have long operated in Iraqi territory, struggling to meet the Trump administration’s demands that it bring them under state control, disarm them and cut off their funding.
A wave of U.S.-Saudi airstrikes that targeted the militias early Wednesday now risks upending those efforts. The attacks, which killed at least 20 people, have provided a new justification for Iran’s allies in Iraq to hold on to their arms and claim that they are the forces best positioned to protect the country’s sovereignty. And for Iran, the violence presents a chance to encourage these allied militias to join the regional war.
“The era of shedding Iraqi blood with impunity is over,” Mohammad Tamimi, leader of the Iran-aligned militia al-Waad al-Sadeq, said. “Our response will not be mere statements. It will be actions on the ground to enforce the equation: a bombing for a bombing.”
Iraqi political leaders on Wednesday questioned the wisdom of the sweeping attack, which was carried out, they said, without coordinating with the Baghdad government. In a statement, Iraq’s National Security Council vowed to try to rein in the militias on its own. It condemned the violation by the United States and Saudi Arabia of Iraqi sovereignty and warned the airstrikes could stoke further chaos.
Iraq?
It's not going to be able to do what the US government is ordering.
Even when serious attempts were made by the Iraqi government to address
the Iranian-linked militias, it was never able to do so. And at the
present time, when Iran is under attack from the US -- the same
government that destroyed Iraq -- you're not going to find a lot of
desire in Iraq to address the Iranian-linked militas.
According
to US Central Command, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
initiated a wave of ballistic missile strikes from Iraq on Tuesday
night. US regional defenses intercepted many of the attacks, with
CENTCOM describing the IRGC missile attacks as an “attempted surprise
attack.”
CENTCOM did not issue any further details.
[. . .]
Tuesday’s
interception suggests the US defensive networks remain capable of
countering at least limited missile salvos despite months of sustained
operations across the region.
The question remains: how long can the US defenses in the region remain operational under increased strain and diminishing arsenals?
Consider this: US defensive stockpiles have been depleting at record levels,
causing concern among national security professionals. Both offensive
and long-range guided munitions are depleting, as are those critical
defensive interceptors. The Pentagon insists that there are plenty of
systems available to them and they rightly point to the purported
successful interceptions of the last 24 hours.
Every
once in a while, President Trump delivers a campaign rally so
bafflingly stupid that one has to wonder whether he isn’t secretly in on
the joke. That was certainly the case in Detroit this week, where the
president took the stage to tout Detroit’s “thriving” American auto industry — thanks, supposedly, to hard-working Republicans in Washington.
Trump’s hallucinatory victory lap comes as tariffs have devastated the nation’s auto industry suppliers, to the tune of more than 60,000 job cuts since 2025, and led to more than 3,300 layoffs
at automaker General Motors last year. Back in April, Ford executives
pleaded with the White House for relief from tariffs that had decimated
sales of the F-150, America’s best-selling truck for almost 50 years.
Following Trump’s decision to gut tax credits for electric vehicles,
carmaker Stellantis posted a staggering $26.3 billion loss, its first since 2021.
If
this is what Republicans think thriving looks like, Detroit’s
beleaguered automakers would like to get off Mister Trump’s Wild Ride.
Trump’s
blindness to the pain of Detroit’s auto workers is only rivaled by his
arrogance. “I’ve done more for you than your parents, okay?” Trump lectured employees
at GM’s Milford Proving Ground, despite presiding over a 3.5 percent
decline in auto parts manufacturing jobs in just the last year. “It’s
amazing what tariffs will do for General Motors, and what the election
has done.”
GM employees would likely agree, though they probably aren’t very happy about it.
At the core of Trump’s surreal message is his fundamental inability to admit that his tariffs were both illegal (so said the Supreme Court this summer)
and disastrous to an American auto industry that had only recently
found its footing after a shaky few years. But with Trump’s ego
intimately wrapped up in his signature policy, don’t expect to see the
president acknowledge just how big a misfire his taxes on consumers
really were. The more Trump tries to make his case for tariffs past,
present and future, the more voters are reminded just how badly Republicans screwed them at the cash register.
And Chump's actions with regards to Iraq always impact the US economy.
Global
oil prices surged on Wednesday, July 29, after President Donald Trump
threatened a forceful response to what he described as an attempted
Iranian attack on US forces, raising fears of further escalation in the
Middle East.
Brent crude rose 5.8% to $86.82 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 6.4% to $84.30 per barrel.
The
geopolitical tensions also weighed on Wall Street, with Dow futures
falling 330 points, or 0.6%. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq
100 each slipped about 0.1%.
Investors
recently got some bad news about President Trump's economy: As of July
28, oil prices have risen 30% month to date amid renewed hostilities
between the U.S. and Iran, and the market now anticipates two interest
rate hikes from the Federal Reserve this year.
History suggests that a shift in monetary policy will drag the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite into correction territory.
Chump is looking for help. It's not coming. Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) reports:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is running into a brick wall as he begs U.S. allies for support, according to a new report.
After
months of browbeating European nations to join his Iran war, Hegseth is
now desperately seeking their assistance—only to discover that his previous bullying has consequences, Politico reported Wednesday.
The Defense Secretary is proposing an international coalition that will patrol the Strait of Hormuz, according to Politico.
"Hegseth
is urging the U.K. and France to help lead the naval coalition,"
according to the report. "But even with the assistance of U.K. Defense
Minister Wes Streeting, he’s facing skepticism across Europe, according
to four British officials and one U.S. official."
Europe?
Chump has been verbally attacking Europse since he got back into the
White House. France? The French government has plans in place to defend
Greenland should Chump try to take it -- as he's maintained for over a
year that he wants to do. Spain? Do we not remember just a little
while ago when he was attacking Spain? Italy? He's been arguing with
the country's prime minister for weeks now. The UK? Does he still not
realize that King Charles' address to the US Congress was a strong
rebuke of Chump? There's no one he hasn't alienated.
Moving over to ICE, Hazel Gandhi (THE MIRROR) reports:
A
St. Louis couple who had recently deported from the U.S. to Guatemala
was shot dead and bound in a sugarcane field in Guatemala.
Nixon
Giovanni Pérez Paz and Glendy Marisol González de la Cruz had left the
U.S. a while ago from Missouri and were discovered dead in southern
Guatemala.
The
National Civil Police of Guatemala said that the couple had been gagged
and had their hands and feet tied, and both showed signs of physical
trauma. Their death came months after financial hardship struggles and
clashes with immigration officials in the U.S.
Chump's
responsible for those deaths. Perez worked here in the US, came here
with his brother to escape violence. He had no criminal history (though
Homeland Security lied and said he did, he only had a $200 fine for
driving without his license on him). He was not 'the worst of the
worst.' But he was sent back to Guatemala -- a place he fled due to
violence. Keep that in mind as the Crooked Supreme Court has okayed
Chump sending Haitians and others back to Haiti and ending their
temporary protection. Two adults who would be alive today were it not
for Chump's actions. Two parents who would be able to take care of
their infant daughter were it not for Chump.
President Donald Trump is planning a brutal crackdown on a class of immigrants who have never broken any laws, warned an expert.
This term, the Supreme Court ruled
the president can summarily choose to end temporary protected status
for Haitians, plowing over congressional language making clear that TPS
only ends when conditions in the home country become materially safe,
which even Trump's own State Department does not believe.
As
of today, the Trump administration has officially canceled that status,
and while many migrants who previously qualified for TPS could
theoretically apply for other forms of residency, American Immigration
Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said on X the intent is
clear: it's open season on deporting them.
He pointed to
reporting from the Washington Examiner that Immigration and Customs
Enforcement activity is immediately surging to communities with large
Haitian populations, like portions of Queens and Brooklyn.
These
are not criminals. These are important workers. And they're being
scapegoated so that Chump can meet his target and continue his lying.
Any of the ones deported who end up killed? Those will be more deaths
on Chump's hands. When the State Dept does not believe it is safe in
Haiti but Chump moves to deport people there, he is acting as a
murderer. Let's again note, Camilo Montoya-Galvez (CBS NEWS) reports:
Republican
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told CBS News the Trump administration's plan to
ramp up arrests and deportations of Haitian migrants is a "mistake,"
arguing the move could bruise the state's economy and risk putting
Haitians in danger in their home country.
More than 300,000
people from Haiti are set this week to lose Temporary Protected Status, a
humanitarian immigration program that protects them from deportation
and allows them to work, after the Supreme Court upheld the Trump
administration's plan to end the policy for Haitians. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement has drawn up plans to launch a deportation blitz
focused on Haitian migrants as early as this week, CBS News reported
Sunday.
The operations could focus in part on the thousands of
Haitians who live in Ohio, many of whom have settled in the city of
Springfield in recent years. During the 2024 campaign, President Trump
claimed, without evidence, that Haitian immigrants in the city were
eating cats and dogs.
In an interview on Monday in Columbus,
DeWine said the planned deportation operations would be "a blow to
Springfield" and "a blow to the state of Ohio."
"These
are people who have helped Springfield really come back," DeWine said,
pointing to Haitians who have filled jobs and opened businesses in an
economically challenged city. "The Haitians who are living there and
employed there, they came there to work, and they came there because
there were jobs that were not being filled by other people."
ICE is built around racism and Chump fuels it. Uwa Ede-Osifo (GUARDIAN) reports:
ICE
agents deployed last summer to the Los Angeles area referred to the
subjects of their immigration operations with racial slurs, according to
newly released court documents.
On 4 July
2025, an unidentified agent wrote in a text chain, “btw tonks everywhere
selling food for the 4th festivities in long beach right now”, invoking
an anti-immigrant slur, which the US border patrol has previously warned against.
In
a different string of messages sent on 2 July 2025, an agent wrote:
“Some of these people are stupid. Why would you post on social media
that you’re w[*]t,” using the abbreviated version of a slur long used to
denigrate undocumented Mexicans who cross into the US by the Rio
Grande, a river stretching from Colorado into the Gulf of Mexico.
“To[**]s” and “w[*]t” also appeared in other correspondence.
The
slurs were made public on Monday in a motion filed for a case five men
brought against the Trump administration in June 2025, alleging that the
stop-and-arrest practices of ICE agents during the Los Angeles raids
were unlawful.
Lawyers for the men have requested that a federal judge bar any further detention stops based on race or socioeconomic status.
In
June 2025, three of the men filing the lawsuit were arrested while
waiting at a bus stop to be picked up for work. A fourth plaintiff had
his arm twisted and was pushed against a gate during questioning by
masked immigration agents, even as he explained he was a US citizen.
Hispanics
and Latinos have been the most targeted throughout the US. That
includes the nun, in nun clothing, arrested by ICE in June. Sister Leticia Ugboaja spoke at a press conference last Thursday:
A
nun who was taken into immigration custody last month in Texas said
Thursday that she went into a cold sweat as two armed men approached her
while she walked to Sunday Mass in her habit, thinking about the day's
Bible readings and carrying little more than her rosary and cellphone.
"Honestly,
in that moment, I did not understand what was going on, what was
happening to me," Sister Leticia Ugboaja said at a news conference at
Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen, where she spoke out for the first
time since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested
her on June 28.
Ugboaja's attorney says she has
for years been granted protection from removal to her native Nigeria
because she was likely to face torture there.
Ugboaja,
56, was released several hours after being detained while on her way to
church near the U.S.-Mexico border. Parish officials' posting about her
on social media brought attention to her case, and Congress members
ultimately intervened on her behalf. President Donald Trump made mass
deportations a central promise of his second administration, with his
immigration crackdown leading to unusually aggressive tactics that have
faced scrutiny.
[. . .]
Her
attorney, Carlos M. Garcia, sat next to Ugboaja at the news conference
and provided details about her immigration case. He said that in 2019 an
immigration judge denied her application for asylum but granted her
protection from removal to Nigeria because she likely would be tortured
there. Garcia said Ugboaja, who is a nurse, has complied with everything
required of her and had permission to work in the U.S.
When
ICE detained Ugboaja in June, she wasn't given much explanation as to
why she was taken into custody, her attorney said. But the U.S. planned
to remove her to a third country, he added.
Ugboaja
is part of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy and volunteered as an
Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, a
spokesperson for the Diocese of Brownsville has said. Ugboaja is also a
registered nurse at South Texas Health System and worked previously for
10 years as a certified nursing assistant in Edinburg, the spokesperson
said.
Ugboaja said that on the day she was
taken into custody, she begged the officers to let her attend Mass and
receive Holy Communion, but was told she could not.
"For me, a nun, not to go to Mass on Sunday, not to receive Communion, it was very, very heartbreaking for me," she said.
A
nun and a nurse. And she was taken in by ICE. And you'd think they'd
be ashamed, the people who detained her all the way up to Chump. But
they aren't capable of shame. They live in a hate machine. Which is
why Sandra Sanchez (NEWS NATION) reports:
A
Catholic nun from Nigeria who was arrested while walking to church in
McAllen and briefly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
in June, has been allowed to remain free.
At a
check-in on Tuesday in Harlingen, ICE officials said they would allow
Sister Leticia Ugboaja, affectionately known as Sister Letty, to remain
in the community instead of being detained with other immigrants.
Garcia
said government officials indicated Tuesday they are pushing to have
Ugboaja deported to a third country, not her native Nigeria.
“Which is very concerning for us,” he said. “That is obviously not what we want.”
It
should be concerning for everyone. She's not a criminal, returning to
her home country would leave her open to violence. Chump doesn't care.
I told you yesterday he was not a person of faith. He has no respect
for people of faith. He has no respect for anyone.
This week in California, activists drew attention to the mistreatment of immigrants. Hannah Poukish and Stephanie Zappelli (SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY TRIBUNE) report:
More
than two dozen activists gathered outside the San Luis Obispo County
Government Center on Tuesday morning dressed in black and holding signs
etched with the dates they say people were taken by ICE at or near the
County Jail.
The protesters held a sit-in
throughout the county Board of Supervisors meeting, lining the walls
while gripping signs that said “Abolish ICE,” “Abolish Trump’s secret
police” and “Remember the dates.”
On Tuesday morning, the Indivisible SLO Coalition said ICE agents had taken 79 people into custody from the jail in 2026.
“Every
one of these individuals was slated for release,” the coalition said in
a news release. “Every one of them deserved to walk out that door and
back to their families, friends and community.”
Activist
Del O. held a sign with the date June 18, 2026 - the day she witnessed a
man being taken by ICE agents at the SLO County Jail. She declined to
share her full last name to protect herself from retaliation by the
federal government.
Del O. said he was held beyond the time he was supposed to be behind bars.
“I was there for him, but I couldn’t save him,” she told The Tribune. “He should have been released.”
[. . .]
Diversity Coalition San Luis Obispo County executive director Rita Casaverde joined the protest on Tuesday.
“People
who have been taken without due process have probably been our
neighbors for a long time,” she said, referencing a 2025 study that
showed 82% of the county’s immigrant population has lived here for 15
years or more.
“We don’t want to normalize that
our neighbors are being taken,” Casaverde said. “We don’t want to
normalize that we have masked federal agents taking over our county.”
Yesterday's snapshot included:
A court-appointed doctor
charged with investigating the standard of medical care at California's
largest ICE detention center issued a searing indictment of the
facility's health care system in a report released Monday, opening the
way for litigation to continue.
The review,
ordered by a federal judge as an impartial and systemic analysis of
whether California City Detention Facility met eight basic criteria of a
functional health care system, concluded that "the facility lacks a
reliable system to consistently provide adequate health care, placing
individuals at serious risk of both immediate and long-term harm."
The detention facility was found to be non-compliant on all eight criteria, which included:
Adequate staffing
Timely approval and access to medical specialists
Timely and responsive emergency services
Timely access to prescribed medications
A responsive "sick call" system
The
court-appointed medical review is the first-of-its-kind for an ICE
detention center. It resulted from a November class action lawsuit filed
by seven people detained at the Mojave Desert facility, who alleged
inhumane conditions and medical neglect.
THE GUARDIAN and UPI have also covered the story in the time since. On another ICE issue, AXIOS notes:
A
Lakeview homeowner is suing the U.S. government after Customs and
Border Protection agents entered his property without a warrant,
assaulted workers installing windows and took one away last October, his
lawsuit alleges.
Why it matters: This marks one of the few formal legal actions a Chicagoan has taken following Operation Midway Blitz, during which, state officials say, federal agents routinely broke the law.
Zoom in: Represented by the Institute for Justice,
Lakeview resident Leo Feler filed the suit for unspecified damages in
the Northern District of Illinois on Tuesday based on the Federal Tort Claims Act, which covers damage by federal employees in the course of their duties.
Feler is also suing the individual CBP agents who entered his property.
And ICE loves to lie. Steve Benen (MS NOW) reports:
About
a year ago, California Gov. Gavin Newsom was poised to deliver remarks
in Los Angeles about redistricting plans when the Democratic governor
confronted something unexpected: Federal immigration agents suddenly showed up outside the venue.
At
the time, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said
that the agents were “focused on enforcing the law, not on [Newsom].”
We now know that wasn’t true.
MS
NOW reviewed new court filings that reveal what actually happened: DHS
agents testified under oath that the raid on the governor’s press
conference was “purely political” and intended as a “political stunt” to
target the California Democrat.
A Homeland
Security Investigations agent specifically texted another HSI agent to
complain that Border Patrol “essentially raided” the Newsom event.
“We
got pulled off the [Home Depot] and car wash to run this stunt,” the
agent wrote. “We’re told to assist with targeted enforcement. … That is
not target enforcement.” The agent added, “That was just a political
agenda.”
They lie. Homeland Security down through ICE and up to Chump. They lie. Sarah K Burris reports:
A new court filing from ex-CNN host Don Lemon was filed Wednesday, alleging that a Department of Homeland Security officer lied under oath in a statement to the judge in his case.
Lemon
is included with several other journalists charged by the Department of
Justice, which claims that Lemon and other reporters were protesting
when they were filming at a Minnesota church where one of the pastors
was coordinating with immigration agents.
National security expert Marcy Wheeler noted
that this is the second time the Justice Department has asked Judge
Douglas Minko to accept a complaint from an ICE agent who watched the
video of the church broadcast and testified to what was in it.
According to Lemon's filing, the agent made false claims about the journalists joining in the chanting from protesters.
"That
sworn allegation about Mr. Lemon was false," the filing states. "The
government did not produce the draft complaint affidavit until July 17,
2026. At the July 24 hearing, the government explained that it submitted
the affidavit to the Court in late January, but the Court did not sign
it. The government then 'took Chief Judge Schiltz's advice' and obtained
a grand jury indictment on January 29, 2026. Thus, only two days before
securing the indictment, the government submitted a complaint affidavit
falsely alleging that Mr. Lemon and the other journalists joined in the
chanting. The timing strongly suggests that the government presented
the same false account of the journalists' conduct to the grand jury."
On
Friday, in a rare move, Judge Minko ordered that the Justice Department
turn over all testimony and evidence presented to the grand jury at the
time. Their specific request is to find whether this sworn statement
and any others were used to secure a grand jury indictment.
The
proceedings for a grand jury are typically kept secret, but in recent
events, judges have allowed that information to be released to the
defense in trial courts. In a recent Chicago case, the Justice
Department was found to have misled the grand jurors and even dismissed
jurors that they felt wouldn't give them the indictment they sought.
That case involved six political leaders and activists protesting outside of an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. The charges have been dropped and the accused have asked for a special counsel to investigate the incident.
Judge
Minko said that he wanted to examine the information himself first.
However, Matthew Ebert, who represents freelance journalist Georga Fort,
said that the government has made false claims about his client
already, including in sworn affidavits, Minneapolis Public Radio reported last week.
They lie. They made that clear throughout 2025 and they've continued to make it clear this year.
Speaking
of liars, Todd Blance, that acting attorney general. Acting. Lying.
Today was supposed to be the Judiciary Committee's vote on Blanche
becoming Attorney General. However, the Committee is postponing today's
vote. Yesterday evening, Committee Chair Charles Grassley postponed
today's vote when it became obvious that there were not enough votes on
the Committee currently to send Blanche to the floor for ahte senators
-- not just those on the Committee -- to vote.
Republicans on Wednesday night postponed a critical vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general after two key G.O.P. senators threatened to derail it over a deal he cut to settle President Trump’s lawsuit against the I.R.S.
The senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who are not returning to Congress next year, accused Mr. Blanche of refusing to put on paper his promise to kill aspects of the deal.
In June, Mr. Blanche said he would drop a proposed $1.8 billion fund to compensate purported victims of Biden-era actions by the Justice Department but said a provision shielding Mr. Trump and his family from tax investigations would remain in place.
The tax provision emerged as the biggest sticking point on the eve of a scheduled Judiciary Committee vote. Mr. Cornyn, a former state judge who lost a primary to a Trump-backed challenger, Ken Paxton, said he had received no written assurances from Mr. Blanche that the audit shield would not apply to future tax liabilities or be extended to a wider circle of people.
The Senate did hold an Epstein related vote yesterday. Hans Nichols (AXIOS) notes:
The
Senate unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday declaring that
Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker who aided Jeffrey
Epstein's abuse of underage girls, should never receive a presidential
pardon.
Why it matters: Democrats wanted to put every Republican senator on record as opposed to a potential pardon.
By
failing to object to Sen. Jacky Rosen's resolution, Republicans agreed
that the president "should not grant a pardon, commutation, or any other
form of executive clemency to Ghislaine Maxwell," according to the
resolution.
"The Senate stands with the victims of sexual
exploitation and trafficking and affirms its commitment to justice,
accountability, and the protection of children."
Senate
resolutions like these are symbolic and non-binding. Last week, the
Senate passed a similar resolution about any pardon or clemency for FTX
founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Zoom out: President Trump has never
categorically ruled out a pardon for Maxwell, but he has not given any
indication that he plans to issue one.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Six companies distanced themselves from the controversial agreement; several companies most closely tied to Trump family refused to respond
Text of Kalshi Response (PDF) | Text of Polymarket Response (PDF) | Text of Kaz Resources Response (PDF) | Text of Powerus Response (PDF) | Text of ABTC Response (PDF) | Text of TMTG Response (PDF)
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, released new responses from Trump-affiliated companies regarding President Donald Trump’s corrupt deal with the Treasury Department (Treasury) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The responses came as a result of the investigation Warren launched alongside Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, earlier this month.
The senators sent letters to eleven organizations. Six — Trump Media and Technology Group, Polymarket, Kalshi, American Bitcoin, Powerus, and Kaz Resources — responded by suggesting they were not involved with or granted immunity by the controversial order. Five companies, including the Trump Organization, World Liberty Financial, and 1789 Capital — organizations with very close ties to Trump or his family — refused to respond.
“Several Trump-tied companies failed to respond to our basic questions about this corrupt agreement, raising real concerns that they plan to use it as a get-out-of-jail-free card,” said Senator Warren. “Americans deserve answers and accountability now.”
In January 2026, President Trump, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and the Trump Organization sued Treasury and the IRS over leaks of tax information by a contractor during President Trump’s first term in office. In May, the Justice Department announced an order that appears to bar Treasury and IRS from auditing or otherwise pursuing enforcement actions against Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, the Trump Organization, and “related or affiliated” businesses. The Department of Justice and the Trump Administration have repeatedly refused to provide written answers clarifying the scope of this immunity agreement.
The agreement has been a key focus throughout the process of Todd Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general. Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on whether to advance Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate.
This month, after a federal judge stated that the DOJ’s order attempting to shield President Trump, his family, and his businesses from tax audits “directly contravenes” federal law, Senators Warren and Wyden pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chief Executive Officer of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Frank Bisignano to cease implementation of the order.
In April, Senator Warren, joined by Minority Leader Schumer and Representatives Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, and Dave Min, introduced the Ban Presidential Plunder of Taxpayer Funds Act, a bill to ban presidents and vice presidents from abusing their power to steal taxpayer funds.
Senator Warren has led the fight to root out corruption and hold the Trump administration accountable:
- In June 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), along with Representatives Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.), pressed White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles following reports that the White House interfered to deliver a lucrative Department of Defense (DoD) contract to Vulcan Elements, a key Trump Jr.-linked company.
- In May 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed the Acting Director-Designate for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), David Venturella, on his decades-long revolving door career between ICE and the private prison industry and his reported use of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel and resources for personal or political favors.
- In May 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) introduced the Banning Lobbying And Safeguarding Trust (BLAST) Act, a bipartisan bill to impose a lifetime ban on lobbying by former members of Congress.
- In February 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.), along with Representatives Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) pressed the Inspectors General (IGs) of 16 key agencies to open investigations into senior Trump officials who were recently lobbyists or “shadow lobbyists” and may be using their roles to benefit their former employers and clients.
- In January 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.),pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on potential conflicts of interest surrounding the awarding of multiple lucrative Department of Defense (DoD) contracts and loans to companies associated with President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
- In December 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) pressed the Trump administration to follow through on promises to limit defense companies’ stock buybacks and incentivize them to increase research and development spending.
- In December 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called for then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to recuse herself from the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s review of any Warner Bros. merger due to potential conflicts of interest related to her former employer, lobbying firm Ballard Partners.
- In September 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee,wrote to Donald Korb, nominee for Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), ahead of Korb’s confirmation hearing, pressing him on his stark conflicts of interest and urging him to make ethics commitments to mitigate these conflicts.
- In July 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote to former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin seeking an explanation and further information on his recent decision to start a strategic advisory firm. Austin had publicly promised Senator Warren during his 2021 confirmation process that he would not become a lobbyist after his government service ended.
- In July 2023, United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Personnel, and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and United States Representatives Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) introduced the Retired Officers Conflict of Interest Act– a bill that would require public reporting on retired service members working on behalf of foreign governments and creating civil penalties if they break the law.
- In December 2020, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) reintroduced the Anti-Corruption & Public Integrity Act to strengthen ethics laws and crack down on government officials’ conflicts of interest across the government.
###
The following sites -- plus Stan's "The liar Kelsey Grammer, a Joan Crawford film out of circulation since 1936 returns on Bluray," Kat's "Glen Hansard, Paul McCartney, Carly Simon, Shaun Cassidy, Noah Kahan," Rebecca's "disgusting todd blanche (and general hospital)" and Elaine's "Junior the corrupt" -- updated:
Renée Fleming & Béla Fleck: Tiny Desk Concert
3 hours ago
The Crooked Court
7 hours ago
Max Miller
7 hours ago
When the Chips Are Down
1 day ago
