Trina's Kitchen: Whole Roasted Snapper with Citrus, Red Pepper and Olive Relish in the Kitchen

Jenny e-mails that she's Catholic like me and always looking for new fish recipes for fish Friday. I hear you, if you observe fish Friday, you can go through every fish recipe you have and still want more. Or you can cook the same thing every Friday which no one in my family would stand for. Lindsay is a company that sells olives and they have recipes including Jenny's new favorite, Whole Roasted Snapper with Citrus, Red Pepper and Olive Relish:

Ingredients

For the relish:

1 small blood orange
1 small lemon
½ cup Lindsay Organic Pitted Green Olives, thinly sliced
¼ cup roasted red pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly cracked black pepper

For the fish:

One 2 pound whole snapper, cleaned
½ blood orange, sliced ½ lemon, sliced
2 fresh bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh oregano
1 bulb fennel, sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly cracked black pepper

Cooking Directions

Using a microplane, remove the zest from the blood orange and lemon. Using a sharp knife, peel the bitter white pith from the oranges and lemon. Working over a bowl, cut in between the membranes to release the sections.
Add the grated orange and lemon zests, olives, red pepper, parsley, garlic, olive oil to the bowl. Squeeze the juice from the segmented citrus. Season with salt and pepper and toss gently.
Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Cut away the fennel stalks close to where they connect to the bulb and reserve the fennel fronds. Cut the bulb in half and trim away the bottom of the bulb. Cut the halves into 1/2-inch wedges.
Add the fennel to a 12-inch cast-iron skillet, toss with 1 tbsp olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Rinse the fish under cold water and pat dry. Place the fish on a clean work surface and make 2 or 3 parallel 3-inch-long slashes on each side of the snapper, slicing almost through to the bone.
Season the cavity of the fish with salt and pepper and stuff with the citrus wheels and 2 sprigs of fresh oregano. Drizzle the outside of the fish with oil and season with salt and pepper.
Lay the fish in the skillet on top of the fennel. Roast until the flesh of the fish just flakes, about 25-30 minutes or an internal temperature of 140 degrees F. Transfer the fish and roasted fennel to a platter and spoon the relish over the fish. Garnish with the reserved fennel fronds. Serve immediately.

If you like olives, Lindsay has many olive recipes.

News? Matt Ford (The New Republic) explains:

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution requires public school districts to allow parents to opt out of any curriculum or instructional material for their child that runs counter to the parents’ religious beliefs. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for a 6–3 majority in Mahmoud v. Taylor, drafted an expansive rule for lower courts to enforce against school districts.

“A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill,” he wrote for the court, citing the 1972 ruling Wisconsin v. Yoder. “And a government cannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents’ acceptance of such instruction.”

Alito and his colleagues framed the decision as a victory for religious freedom and for the diversity of faiths in America. While the ruling will certainly benefit parents who do not wish to expose their children to certain ideas, I am skeptical that it will be a net positive for American religious pluralism. The decision is instead likely to create a two-tier approach in public schools that will benefit larger religious groups and ostracize smaller ones.

Mahmoud centered around a dispute over LGBTQ-related books in public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland. In 2022, the elected Montgomery County School Board added five books featuring LGBTQ characters to its English curriculum that are designed for pre-K students through fifth graders. The board’s move was driven by its desire to “fully reflect the diversity of [Montgomery County Public Schools] families,” among whom are both LGBTQ students and children raised by LGBTQ parents.

At first, the school district allowed parents to opt out from lessons that included the books, but it changed course after a significant number of parents withdrew their students from class during the lessons, creating major administrative burdens for the schools and teachers. After the district eliminated the opt-out policy during the 2022–2023 school year, a group of Christian and Muslim parents sued the school board to force the policy’s reinstatement on First Amendment religious freedom grounds.

A federal district court judge declined to grant the parents a preliminary injunction, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. The panel held, in a 2–1 vote, that the record was too “threadbare” to support the courts’ intervention at this stage. The judges noted that the parents had provided no accounts of how the books are actually used by teachers in the classroom, as well as “how often the storybooks are actually being used, what any child has been taught in conjunction with their use, or what conversations have ensued about their themes.”

Public schools, like any other governmental entity, are generally required to respect their students’ religious beliefs. Teachers obviously cannot coerce students into following religious practices that are not their own. The Fourth Circuit noted that the parents had provided no evidence of coercion in this case, and that neither the parents nor students claimed that they had “been asked to affirm views contrary to their own views on gender or sexuality, to disavow views on these matters that their religion espouses, or otherwise affirmatively act in violation of their religious beliefs.”

The Supreme Court did not really care. It held that the mere presence of the books was enough to justify a court’s intervention. In Yoder, the case cited by Alito, the Supreme Court held that the state of Wisconsin could not require Amish children to attend school beyond the eighth grade, deferring to their parents’ assertions that vocational education at home was a core tenet of their faith.

That ruling was a slap in the face to democracy. The Supreme Court is corrupt and we are going to have to address that. We could be doing that right now, in fact. Kamala Harris would have addressed it and followed up on the recommendations made to Joe Biden. We could be addressing it right now; however, the Rashida Tlaibs and Jill Steins knew so much better what the country needed -- or thought that they did.

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

Thursday, July 3, 2025. Donald Chump sweats as his disaster bill has yet to pass the House and as the Labor Dept is about to release a jobs report, he continues his war on immigrants, Cuban Americans need to wake up and grasp that the MAGA controlled GOP is no longer their party and that they have been betrayed, plus much more.

Let's start with Chump's attack on the economy. Under Joe Biden's leadership, the US economy was rebounding and considered the strongest globally. In six months time, Chump has destroyed it. Instead of stopping inflation, he has allowed it to continue. He lies about prices because he's a liar, a cheap, little liar. Paul Berger (WALL STREET JOURNAL) reports:

In the first major speech to Congress of his second term, President Trump vowed to resurrect American shipbuilding.

Four months later, Trump’s ambitious plans to reverse decades of maritime-industry decline are sputtering.

Government efficiency teams have paused food-aid programs that provide needed cargoes for the U.S.-flagged Merchant Marine. A senior Republican senator is warning of cuts to the proposed budget for military shipbuilding. The staff at a newly created office to coordinate maritime policy has been cut to two people from seven.

[. . .]

U.S.-flagged carriers say cuts to food aid programs are hurting the industry. The closure by the Department of Government Efficiency of the U.S. Agency for International Development effectively shut down the Food for Peace program, which provided much-needed cargo—and revenue—for U.S.-flagged ships. Some industry officials warn that if the program isn’t resurrected under another government department soon they will have to start laying up ships and laying off seafarers.

The Trump administration has no plans to rescue the program. A senior administration official said the program was wasteful and that the State Department “is committed to responsibly winding down” the program despite efforts in Congress to transfer Food for Peace to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

He's just a failure, like his father always told him,

AP's Paul Wiseman and Aniruddha Ghosal report some 'good' news for Chump, "President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam Wednesday that would allow U.S. goods to enter the country duty-free. Vietnamese exports to the United States, by contrast, would face a 20% levy." Good? Well he promised 90 treaties in 90 days and the 90 days ends July 9th. That's six days from now.

This is where we'd insert a clip of THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE because she had several important discussions on this topic last night. In the two hours she did last night. She did her regular hour and then she did another hour to continue the coverage of the House vote or 'vote' on Donald's bill.

If you're generous Vietnam is the third 'understanding' Chump has with another country. 90 in 90s days. We're six days away from the deadline. The one he imposed upon himself.

Stephanie noted that the mad push by him, this must be done by July 4th!, is an attempt to distract from so many things, so many broken promises, and failures.

At NAVIGATION RESEARCH, Ian Smith writes:

This Navigator Research report covers the latest perceptions of President Trump and Congressional Democrats and Republicans in the House Battleground.

The economy continues to lead as the top overall issue, with 41 percent of battleground constituents identifying either “inflation and the cost of living” or “jobs and the economy” as a priority.

In a newly added question, we tested “government corruption” as a top concern. It now ranks just behind threats to democracy and the economy — making it the third-most prioritized issue overall (28 percent).

Trump’s standing has declined slightly among battleground constituents and persuadables — even in a sample that leans slightly more Republican than the national electorate. In February, his favorability was roughly even; today, he is four points underwater (48 percent favorable – 52 percent unfavorable). This decline mirrors his approval on the economy, which now sits seven points underwater (46 percent approve – 53 percent disapprove).

So DOGE -- "government corruption" -- wasn't that important either. (See Ann's "Musk & Chump Round Two: The catfight continues" and "Musk has no empathy in his racist heart" for more on Musk.) The economy's tanking. DOGE led to massive protests across the country. Chump's not gong to have 90 deals by his July 9th deadline.

Nick Mordowanec (NEWSWEEK) observes:

The Vietnam agreement comes amid a broader administration push to finalize trade deals ahead of Trump's self-imposed "90 in 90" deadline—a period of 90 days for 90 targeted trade deals or renegotiations globally.

In June, after a trade agreement with China, Trump indicated that "around 15 countries" were negotiating under the threat of significant tariffs being imposed if deals are not struck in time.

Covering the Vietnam deal itself, Sarah K. Burris (RAW STORY) reveals it's nothing to brag about:

As foreign affairs journalist Olga Nesterova explained, Trump is taxing Americans 20-40% while Vietnam gets products for free.

However, the country's economy, cost of living and salaries are vastly different from those in the United States. For example, Numbeo data shows the cost of a 12-ounce bottle of soda is about 50 cents. The monthly cell phone bill with at least 10 gigabytes of data is under $6. A one-bedroom apartment in the City Centre averages under $400 a month.

As political and media researcher Craig Harrington explained, "Our trade relationship with Vietnam was growing before Trump, but we still only exported $13.1 billion worth of goods to Vietnam in 2024 (they exported $136.6 billion to us). Tariffs aren't the reason we don't export much to Vietnam, it's because they are poorer than we are."

Meanwhile, University of Michigan professor of public policy and economics, Justin Wolfers, noted on X, "'New' trade deal just dropped: US businesses get tariff-free access to the Vietnamese market, just as they were offered 8 years ago in the TPP, but Trump refused to sign. In addition, Trump's imposing a 20% tax on Americans who import goods from Vietnam."

The increase is on the US consumer's side. That's how Chump 'helps' American buyers. Again, the man's an idiot and he's wrecking the economy. You are not helping the American people with a 20% increase that will make them pay more for the product.

Alex Harring (CNBC) has more troubling news for Chump:

Private sector hiring unexpectedly contracted in June, payrolls processing firm ADP said Wednesday, in a possible sign that the economy may not be as sturdy as investors believe as they bid the S&P 500 back up to record territory to end the month.

Private payrolls lost 33,000 jobs in June, the ADP report showed, the first decrease since March 2023. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecast an increase of 100,000 for the month. The May job growth figure was revised even lower to just 29,000 jobs added from 37,000.

And everyone's awaiting the release today of the job's report. Rob Wile (NBC NEWS) notes:

The U.S. economy continues to send mixed signals. On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will report job figures for June that may help clear up the picture.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast that 110,000 new payrolls were added in June. That would be the fewest since February, and it would be the fourth monthly decline in the past six months. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, was expected to have climbed to 4.3%, the highest since October 2021.

THE NEW YORK TIMES is live blogging the release of the report -- already ahead of the release, they've done several posts this morning.

At AXIOS, Emily Peck notes the effects on the economy from Chump's war on immigrants:

President Trump's immigration crackdown is hitting key pockets of the economy, disrupting workplaces and communities around the country.
Why it matters: The sharp fall in immigration this year threatens to slow down economic growth, particularly in the sectors and cities that relied on newcomers to the U.S. in recent years.

What they're saying: With the push against immigration, "the economy will find itself slightly diminished in the long run and inflation will run a touch higher," economist Bernard Yaros writes in a report for Oxford Economics.

There will be fewer workers to produce goods and services, slowing down growth and putting pressure on wages.

Most people -- those with a functional brain -- would look at how the assault on immigration was harming the economy and scale back deportations. But Chump is a senile old man and we all suffer because, as Mike noted last night, "Because Chump can't get an erection anymore, the whole world has to suffer." Nothing does it for him anymore due to the meds he's on and the age he's reached and his obesity. He's impotent in bed . . . and becoming impotent outside of bed. So it's never enough for a Convicted Felon like Donald Chump. Josh Kovensky (TPM) notes the morbidly obese Chump now wants to explore deporting citizens:

Throughout the campaign, Republicans teased an idea: the next Trump government would start to remove the citizenship of naturalized Americans.

Stephen Miller suggested it; the idea appeared in Project 2025. Online fever-swamp entrepreneurs, like Claremont Institute donor Charles Haywood, pushed a national “review” of everyone naturalized since 1965.

Now, the DOJ has taken the first real step towards expanding the government’s efforts to strip citizenship from those who applied for it and received it — and has suggested it will be doing so for explicitly political reasons. It came in a June 11 memo dryly titled “Civil Division Enforcement Priorities,” written by Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate.

Last on the list of five priorities is denaturalization. The memo directs the government to “maximally” go after denaturalization cases, and ranks which kinds of cases should receive the most attention. At the top of the list are cases against those who “pose a potential danger to national security, including those with a nexus to terrorism.”

Recently, denaturalization cases have dealt with a narrow set of circumstances. Perhaps someone lied on their citizen application, or failed to disclose something significant enough that, had it been disclosed, the government would have declined to grant the person citizenship. The DOJ finds out, and files a civil lawsuit in federal court to revoke the person’s citizenship. In many cases, this has been applied to war criminals and people who otherwise concealed crimes that they were in the process of committing as they applied for citizenship.

But the June DOJ memo’s language around terrorism and national security threats is incredibly broad. In the world of the memo, “pos[ing] a potential danger to national security” is enough to merit a review of your citizenship application. It raises concerns that the DOJ will seek to use claims that a person poses such a danger to accuse naturalized Americans of omitting key information on their citizenship applications, which ask about ties to groups that commit terrorism or advocate for the overthrow of the U.S. government. In the Alien Enemies Act removals, the Trump administration twisted the definition of “invasion” to summarily deport people it cast as invaders to CECOT; Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk’s pro-Palestine op-ed in a student newspaper was enough for the administration to accuse her of supporting Hamas and revoke her visa.

The question is whether the administration will apply this kind of nihilistic legal maneuvering to claim that a naturalized American who failed to disclose support for, say, a pro-Palestine group misled the government through the omission.

He's a fool and he's a fool whose dementia is getting worse which makes him a very dangerous fool.

On immigrants, Nadine El-Bawab (ABC NEWS) reports:

The federal government attempted to deport a stateless Palestinian woman on Monday for the second time, despite a court order barring her removal from a Texas district, according to court documents.

The attempted deportation also came just days after the first stage of her green card application was approved, her husband Taahir Shaikh told ABC News, opening up a potential pathway for her to obtain permanent residency.

Ward Sakeik -- a 22-year-old who is married to a U.S. citizen -- was detained by the government in February on her way home from her honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Sakeik's family is from Gaza, but she is legally stateless and has lived in the U.S. since she was 8 years old. Her family had traveled to the U.S. on a tourist visa and applied for asylum, according to Shaikh.

Chump and Noem have ignored the U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade's order not to remove Taahir from the district. And lives are being destroyed. "I feel nowhere is safe" -- read THE BOSTO GLOBE article. People are afraid to go out. Businesses are suffering and some are closing. Denise Chow (NBC NEWS) notes:

On a typical weekend, 20,000 people stream through the metal gates at Broadacres Marketplace, thronging the aisles of the outdoor “swap meet” to hunt for the best deals, savor snacks and sip micheladas under the desert sky.

Until late June, Broadacres’ familiar bustle had cemented its place as the heart of this city’s Latino community. That has been replaced with an eerie quiet. Hundreds of booths stand barren behind a chain-link fence, mostly stripped to their skeletal remains and covered in fabric or tarp.

Save for one security guard at the main gate, there’s no one in sight.

Broadacres Marketplace announced that it would temporarily close on June 21 because of the threat of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a statement online, the market’s management said the decision to close was made “out of an abundance of caution and concern for our community.” Broadacres’ owner, Greg Danz, is president and CEO of Newport Diversified Inc., a company that also owns two other swap meets in California.

“We don’t want any of our customers, vendors, or employees to be detained at our business or for us to be a beacon of shopping and entertainment while our federal government is raiding businesses and detaining its people,” the statement read, adding that management does not yet have a planned date to reopen.

In the state of Washington, a festival's been cancelled due to the assault on immigrants. B-TOWN BLOG reports:

The organizers of the 4th annual Pacific Northwest Folklórico Festival – set for Saturday, July 26, 2025 at Burien Town Square Park – announced they are canceling the 2025 event, citing immigration enforcement activity and a broader political climate they say threatens the safety and wellbeing of immigrant communities.

In an email to supporters, including The B-Town Blog, Joyas Mestizas, the Burien-based folklórico dance organization announced the decision to cancel its upcoming event “in light of the current political climate,” citing strong opposition to recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

“We are angry at the ICE raids and racist immigration policies that tear families apart, and in canceling our event we commit to prioritizing the safety of our community,” the group wrote.

And we should all be angry at these raids -- carried out by a secret gestapo force -- using private contractors and unleashing on the streets of America -- allowing them to be masked. US House Rep . Pramila Jayapal has angered the Murdoch Outrage Empire by calling these people "terrorists." Guess what, she's exactly right. This is not how we do law enforcement. And we expect trained people, trained in the rights that people have in this country, to be law enforcement. Instead, Kristi Noem and Donald Chump are hiring bullies and telling them to do whatever, to violate any law, that it doesn't matter and that they're masked so they can be punished later on. Wendy Fry and Sergio Olmos (CAL MATTERS) explain:

A lawsuit filed Wednesday by civil and immigration rights groups accuses federal authorities of unleashing an unconstitutional siege by snatching workers and U.S. citizens off Southern California streets and denying them food, water and the right to speak with an attorney.

The federal class action lawsuit aims to immediately stop immigration agents from conducting military-style raids across L.A. that prioritize “numbers, pure numbers,” according to the complaint. It also seeks to get access to counsel for those arrested who are now being held in overcrowded “dungeon-like” facilities where the conditions are deplorable and unconstitutional, the filing says.

Federal agents in combat gear, some masked and armed with rifles, have stormed swap meets, car washes, bus stops, and churches since early June, grabbing people off sidewalks and dragging away mothers, workers, day laborers, and U.S. citizens without explanation, the complaint alleges. Civil rights groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, say the raids have been part of an illegal mass-arrest campaign driven by the Trump administration’s nationwide deportation quota policy.

“Such seizures look less like lawful arrests and more like brazen, midday kidnappings,” the lawsuit states.

Exactly.

On TABITHA SPEAKS POLITICS, Tabitha likes to play a clip of Florida Hispanics -- largely Cuban Americans -- dancing around before the 2024 election while singing, "I will vote for Donald Trump."

And how did that work out for them? Cuban Americans are being targeted too. So much so that you have two Republican members of the House now calling out the targeting of immigrants. Elizabeth Kuebel (WSSU) reports:

Right now, the family of a Cuban immigrant doesn't know what will happen next, as he sits in an ICE facility.

Yandy Gomez Rodriguez was detained when he showed up to his ICE appointment in downtown New Orleans.

It comes at a time that the federal government is cracking down on illegal immigration. But Yandy's wife and attorney argue that he has really been trying to do everything right.

"We've reached a dead end where we don't know where else to turn, because at this point I can't say for sure what's going to happen to him," said Robert W. Goeke, with Casey Cowley attorneys.

Goeke says the Kenner resident has been in ICE custody for more than a month now, since May 16th.

"He was scheduled to show up to ICE on the sixteenth of May, he showed up to that appointment, as he had done close 10 times in the past, and ICE chose to take him in," Goeke said.

Goeke says 8 years prior, Yandy arrived at the border. He's since married a US citizen, who applied to get him legal status, and together they have a two-year-old daughter.

Yandy has no criminal record, per his attorney, and worked in the heating and AC business.

"My daughter is asking all the time, when is my daddy coming, or when she's talking to him, she says, 'oh come on daddy, come on, come take me,' or things like that," said his wife, Dianna Heredia.

It's time for Cuban Americans to grasp that MAGA is not their friend. Maybe they can fight to take control of the Republican Party and send MAGA back to its on inbred trailer park, but MAGA is not their friend and will never be their friend. Again, I'm not asking them to come over to the Democratic Party. But I am pointing out that Cuban Americans across the country -- but especially in Florida -- have turned out repeatedly for the Republican Party and now that the MAGA wing has seized control of that party, Cuban Americans are being spit on.

For your own families, you need to stop voting MAGA -- they are not the Republican Party that appreciated your support. Latinos across the country are grasping that and should be grasping it. But, again, Cuban Americans have given the Republican Party Florida. Year after year. And now MAGA spits on them, spits on their family. Fidel Castro may be dead, but Cuban Americans continue to see relatives coming to the US. And in their minds, people leave Cuba due to being persecuted. When Fidel was alive, the GOP was happy to use and platform Cuban Americans in their was with Castro. Castro's dead and MAGA doesn't give a damn about Cuban Americans or Cubans coming to this country. I can't think of a bigger betrayal by a political party then what the MAGA wing has done to Cuban Americans.

Again, all Latinos are aware of the targeting taking plce. Gustavo Arellano (LOS ANGELES TIMES) offers:

The Pew Research Center is one of the most trusted polling firms in the country, especially when it comes to Latinos. Last week, it published findings that should have been a victory lap for Donald Trump and his tortuous relationship with America’s largest minority.

According to Pew, Trump won 48% of Latino voters in the 2024 presidential election — the highest percentage ever recorded by a Republican presidential nominee and a 12 percentage point improvement from his 2020 showing.

Latinos made up 10% of Trump’s coalition, up from 7% four years ago. Latino men went with a Republican for the first time. Trump even improved his share of support among Latinas — long seen by Democratic leaders as a bulwark against their macho Trumpster relatives — by a 13-point margin, a swing even greater than that of Latino men.

These stats prove what I’ve been warning about for years: that Latinos were souring on illegal immigration — even in blue California — and tiring of a Democratic Party too focused on policies that weren’t improving their lives. This gave Trump a chance to win over Latino voters, despite his years-long bloviations against Mexico and Central American nations, because Latinos — who assimilate like any other immigrants, if not more so — were done with the Democratic status quo. They were willing to take a risk on an erratic strongman resembling those from their ancestral lands.

Pew’s findings confirm one of Trump's most remarkable accomplishments — one so unlikely that professional Latinos long dismissed his election gains as exaggerations. Those voters could have been the winds blowing the xenophobic sails of his deportation fleet right now.

All Trump had to do was stick to his campaign promises and target the millions of immigrants who came in illegally during the Biden years. Pick off newcomers in areas of the country where Latinos remain a sizable minority and don’t have a tradition of organizing. Dare Democrats and immigrant rights activists to defend the child molesters, drug dealers and murderers Trump vowed to prioritize in his roundups. Conduct raids like a slow boil through 2026, to build on the record-breaking number of Latino GOP legislators in California and beyond.

Trump has done none of that. He instead decided to smash his immigration hammer on Los Angeles, the Latino capital of the U.S.

MAGA appreciates no one. They make that clear with the budget plan from Donald Dearest.

Here's Lawrence O'Donnell from MSNBC last night.

As of right now, Donald's bill has still not passed. It is an ugly bill that will destroy lives, that attacks the poor and working people, that attempts to decimate whatever's left of the middle class while handing out huge give aways to the already rich. It does so many horrible things. Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reports on one thing it will do that I haven't seen covered elsewhere:

An expert with the libertarian Cato Institute sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" to slash taxes on the wealthy and cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid, food stamps, and green energy subsidies, highlighting a lesser-known provision that could codify one of the president's most controversial deportation policies — and turbocharge it into overdrive.

Specifically, posting on X, David J. Bier pointed to a subsection on page 529 of the bill that deals with the increase in funding for immigration enforcement.

"In the case of an unaccompanied alien child who has attained 12 years of age and is encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the funds made available under subsection (a) shall only be used to conduct an examination of such unaccompanied alien child for gang-related tattoos and other gang-related markings," said the section.

In other words, wrote Bier, "You've heard about how ICE deported a bunch of adults to a Salvadoran torture prison based on their tattoos. Did you know that the Big Beautiful Police State Act includes $40 million to identify 'gang kids' the same way?"

The vote is in the House now. The bill has yet to pass. Here's Senator Tammy Baldwin's office on why the senator voted against the bill

In Wisconsin, the bill will terminate at least 250,000 people’s health care, reduce or eliminate 90,000 Wisconsinites’ food assistance, and threaten to close rural hospitals

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) released the following statement after she voted against the Republicans’ budget bill:

“Today, I voted against rigging our tax code in favor of the biggest corporations and ultra-wealthy – all on the backs of working families who are just trying to get by and want a fair shot at success. As I travel across Wisconsin, I hear from families who are worried about paying for groceries, covering the cost of their medications, and keeping the lights on. Instead of standing up for these working families, my Republican colleagues jammed through a bill that guts Medicaid, kicks 17 million Americans off their health insurance, shutters rural hospitals, and takes food from families in need. And why? All to rig our already unfair tax code even more to help the rich get richer. This bill does not solve the problems that Wisconsin families are facing – in fact, it makes them worse. I am disappointed. I am disgusted. But, I am also fired up and ready. Ready to keep fighting alongside every Wisconsinite who believes we can do better to give hard-working families a fair shot and stop tilting the scales for the wealthy and well-connected. It’s not the people in Washington with power; it’s the people across this country. The people who keep speaking up and speaking out, who are emailing and calling, who are marching in the streets, and who are telling their stories. This fight isn’t over, and together, we can still beat this thing.”

Senator Baldwin introduced the following amendments to the bill to block cuts to Medicaid that would rip away health care from Americans and also close a tax loophole that allows Wall Street investment managers to often pay almost half the tax rate compared to most other Wisconsin workers:

Preventing seniors from having their health care ripped away, including those in nursing homes;
Preventing children from having their health care ripped away, including those on the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP);
Preventing health care for those battling addiction and substance use disorder from being ripped away;
Preventing cuts to funding for rural Americans, including essential funding for hospitals;
Preventing pregnant women from having their health care ripped away; and
Closing the carried interest loophole that benefits wealthy money managers on Wall Street, something that President Trump also supports.

The Republicans’ bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of [51-50], will terminate health care for 17 million Americans, including 250,000 Wisconsinites. In Wisconsin, Medicaid provides care for more than 1.2 million people, including four in seven nursing home residents, one in three children, and one in three adults with disabilities. While over 12 million rural Americans rely on Medicaid for health care, severe cuts to Medicaid will also jeopardize rural hospitals and clinics’ ability to keep their doors open.

The legislation also makes the largest cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history. Approximately 700,000 Wisconsin residents rely on SNAP for food assistance.

Over the past several months, Senator Baldwin has been speaking out against the harmful impact this bill will have on Wisconsinites – in the press, on the Senate floor, and in Wisconsin communities.

Senator Baldwin hosted roundtables in La Crosse, Milwaukee, Wausau, Eau Claire, Green Bay, Racine, Waukesha, Superior, Beloit, and twice in Madison, convening Wisconsinites whose health care coverage is in jeopardy under the Republicans’ plan to slash Medicaid to pay for corporate tax breaks.
VIDEO: Senator Baldwin spoke on the Senate floor, condemning the Republicans’ budget bill.
VIDEO: Senator Baldwin held a virtual press conference with impacted Wisconsinites ahead of Senate Republicans bringing up their bill for a vote.
VIDEO: Senator Baldwin highlighted Congressional Republicans’ efforts to barrel ahead with a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood on the Senate floor.
Senator Baldwin slammed republicans’ planned cuts to Medicaid, which will devastate our country’s fight against the opioid and fentanyl epidemic and jeopardize treatment for thousands of Wisconsinites.

###

Stephanie Ruhle did a good job covering the bribery aspects of PARAMOUNT's payout to Chump last night on MSNBC -- again, they haven't posted anything from her two hour broadcast last night. We'll note this from Senator Eliabeth Warren's office:

Warren: “This could be bribery in plain sight.”

“I will soon introduce new legislation to rein in corruption through presidential library donations.”

Washington, D.C. – Today, in response to the news that Paramount Global (Paramount) settled President Trump’s “meritless” lawsuit against 60 Minutes for $16 million paid to his future presidential library, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released the following statement:

“With Paramount folding to Donald Trump at the same time the company needs his administration’s approval for its billion-dollar merger, this could be bribery in plain sight. Paramount has refused to provide answers to a congressional inquiry, so I’m calling for a full investigation into whether or not any anti-bribery laws were broken."

“This settlement exposes a glaring need for rules to restrict donations to sitting presidents’ libraries. I will soon introduce new legislation to rein in corruption through presidential library donations. The Trump administration’s level of sheer corruption is appalling and Paramount should be ashamed of putting its profits over independent journalism.”

In May 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote to Shari Redstone, Chair of Paramount, with concerns regarding whether Paramount may be engaging in potentially illegal conduct involving the Trump Administration in exchange for approval of its megamerger with Skydance Media (Skydance).

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Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "MAGA Loves The Stink Of Him" went up last night and the following sites updated: