Mikey Likes It!: 2025

Friday, June 06, 2025

Markwayne, Markwayne, you got no brain

Linda McMahon always sounds like she just fell of the turnip truck but if there's anyone dumber than her, it's Markwayne Markwayne Mullin. And when they met . . . it was murder . . . of the English language. Remember HART TO HART? Linda and Markwayne are the yokel version of that -- as Jen Psaki noted Wednesday night.

"What was we ranked nationally?"

Oh, Markwayne, Markwayne, learn the English language. Every third grader in the country knows it's "What were we" not "what was we" -- he's so stupid.

Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) notes:

Sen. Markwayne Mullin scrambled to defend why Egypt was left off Donald Trump’s newly announced 12-country travel ban, despite the president citing a recent attack allegedly committed by an Egyptian national as justification.

In an interview Wednesday with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on The Source, the Oklahoma Republican argued that Trump mentioned the Boulder, Colorado, attack only to highlight visa and vetting issues, not to suggest Egypt should be added to the ban.

“He didn’t specifically say Egypt, he said it underscores the reasons why we need to do this,” Mullin said. “He’s using it as an example, because it’s fresh on people’s minds. That doesn’t mean Egypt has to be on it. Egypt was never being considered at this level for a travel ban.”

[. . .]

Collins pressed Mullin on the inconsistency of referencing the Boulder attack but excluding Egypt from the list.

“This is explaining why we’re doing it, but this isn’t the reason why it was done,” Mullin replied vaguely.

When asked directly whether the Boulder attack was “part of the reason” for the ban, Mullin said, “I wouldn’t say that.”

Collins concluded: “I think people might just wonder—if the concern is vetting people who come into the United States on visas and overstay those visas—that is exactly what the suspect here is accused of doing.”

Oh, Markwayne, Markwayne, you got a throbbing pain -- right where the rest of us have brains. Poor Markwayne, Markwayne.

David Oliver (USA TODAY) reports:

Nick Matson's July wedding is fast approaching. A hundred people sent in their RSVPs. He and his fiancé hired a choreographer for their first dance, picked a cake. But there's a problem – one that many LGBTQ+ people face.

Matson's father and stepmother aren't planning on attending the ceremony. A gut punch, but not a surprising one for the 32-year-old gay man.

"When I told them I proposed to Mike, they did not give me a single emotion, a congrats, a happy for you," the influencer, who goes by AuthenNick, says over a Zoom call, recalling the dead silence. Ultimately, they've since told him they'll come to the reception but not the ceremony, citing their religious objections.

Matson made a viral TikTok video about the situation, which has almost 100,000 likes and nearly 14,000 comments. Support poured in: "its not a gay wedding, its just their son’s wedding, its on them if they don't understand." "Their son should be first above anything. Sorry they are causing you pain." "I’ll send my parents. They’re always down for a wedding."

If you scrolled through TikTok the last few years, that sentiment might sound familiar. Back in 2021, a stranger offered to stand alongside same-sex couples on their wedding day, if they didn't have their biological parents' support. That initial invitation grew into a Facebook group of more than 60,000 people and an app launched in October 2024 called "Stand in Pride" (now a nonprofit organization) that aims to connect LGBTQ+ people and allies. It has a similar number of users.

It's Pride month. Happy Pride. I'm so sorry that Nick Matson's parents don't appreciate him. I hope he has a great wedding. I need to do a Pride post this month. I'm always playing catch up, though. You can read Marcia's "It's Pride and we've got a lot of hate merchants in the country," Betty's "Happy Pride to one and all," Ruth's "Coming out stories from an old woman" (which may make you cry -- like Nick's being mistreated by his parents, Ruth writes about another young man whose mother just rejected him) and Ava and C.I.'s "MEDIA: Happy Pride."

Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Thursday, June 5, 2025. Chump now wants the FBI to spy on parents and kids regarding medical treatment, he continues his war on immigrants and the economy, and someone needs to tell ICE that masks will not be able to hide any of the shame that they are feeling internally -- not today, not ten years from now.

Happy Pride and goodbye democracy. Why? June is Pride month. Goodbye democracy? That's when you have crooks in government who don't understand medical privacy let alone the rights of parents.

What are we talking about?

Kash Patel. With him and his monkey Dan Bongo having failed to deliver the 'truth' about the death of Epstein -- you remember him, right? the sweatiest of The Sweathogs -- and having angered 'Truth' 'Patriots' in the best Sally Langston manner, the two are desperate to get back in good with the hateful haters of MAGA. So what to do.

What to do.

Oh, right.

ATTACK TRANS PEOPLE!

That is their fall back pose over and over.

Scripps News Group reports:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is encouraging the public to report health care professionals who provide gender-affirming care to minors.

In a post on X on Monday, the agency said, "As the Attorney General has made clear, we will protect our children and hold accountable those who mutilate them under the guise of gender-affirming care."

It encouraged people to report "hospitals, clinics, or practitioners performing these surgical procedures on children."

Gender-affirming care includes mental health care, treatments like puberty blockers or hormone therapy and, in rare instances, surgery for those diagnosed with gender dysphoria. But it's something that is hardly ever done with children and handled on a case-by-case basis.

It's not illegal to receive gender-affirming care, but there are some states that restrict access to it for minors.

Doctors who spoke with the Scripps News Group in the past said providers will not consider gender-affirming medical treatment for kids who have not begun puberty. At most, they can offer family counseling or support.

"No one is walking into a visit and then walking out with the hormone prescription that same day. The other thing that takes time is actually getting into the clinic," said Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd, Medical Director of Children's Minnesota Gender Health Program, in a previous interview with the Scripps News Group. "Just to have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, you have to have symptoms or be experiencing distress for six months or longer. So at a minimum, it's a months-long process. But I would say in many cases a years-long process."

SCRIPPS is doing half-assed reporting.

Where's the law?

There's no law.

There's no law but the FBI is wasting time on this. No law has been broken. But the FBI is wasting time on this. They're supposed to be focused on federal law.

There's no federal law.

This isn't their business. It's the business of the parents. No one else. Not even the child. The child's not an adult yet. The parents are responsible. That's been my position here from day one. I don't need you or anyone else to tell me what kind of treatment my child may or may not receive. I've noted before that if my children were kids -- they're adults now -- and one came to me and said they were transgender, we'd discuss with the doctor what the options were and we'd make a decision -- not strangers, not FBI agents, not closet cases in the US government.

It's no one else's damn business outside of the doctor, my child and me as the parent. And if they're 18 or over (or an emancipated minor), it's not even my business.

The FBI has more than enough to do without spying on people because they might be doing legal medical treatments.

Kash, what you gonna do when you fail us yet again?

The FBI is diverting their attention from being a federal law enforcement agency to spying on American citizens to determine what medical care they may or may not be receiving. And, repeating, the 'suspect' behavior is not against the law.

From last night's THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE

Stephanie Ruhle: President Trump's focus on immigration has meant calling on members from other agencies to assist. But NBC NEWS has reported that's been a source of tension from some officials who feel that they've been taken off their core national security missions.

And now FBI resources and time are going to be diverted into spying on Americans to see if any legal medical treatments are taking place?

I believe David Spade said it best in REALITY BITES, "If you got time to lean, you got time to clean." So if FBI agents now have so much time on their hands, let's give them a broom and dustpan.

They do have a job to do and if Chump were any decent president, he would want to ensure that the FBI was tasked with their actual mission and not diverted off into spying on Americans medical needs.

But Chump is a lousy president and the dementia's only making that worse.

Look at his immigration 'policy.' People are kidnapped off the street. And ICE agents wear masks. Not for safety but because they're humiliated by what they're being asked to do. This isn't how it's done and they know it. They wear masks hoping to hide from what's being done. Masks or not, people know what's going on and they know it's wrong. You don't send people to gulags in El Salvador. If you're part of doing that, you can look at being a whistle-blower or look at the other two options: Kill yourself or self-medicate with pills or booze. Those are the two options because you know what you're doing is wrong and inhumane and you know people are being tortured because of what you've done.

Masks won't hide that, not from others and not from yourselves.

Maryam Khanum (LATIN TIMES) reports:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has voiced that he is devoted to ensuring the return of a Venezuelan man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador after the Department of Homeland Security requested it.

The deported man, who has been identified in court documents only as "Cristian", would be the first individual to be returned to the US after being deported to the high-security prison Salvadoran Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, in El Salvador. He was deported despite court-ordered protections giving him legal status to remain within the US.

The Trump administration announced that Rubio was personally working on the case on Monday. Rubio, who has a long-standing relationship with El Salvador's president Nayyib Bukele, is currently negotiating Cristian's release with Bukele.

"Based on his deep diplomatic experience with El Salvador and the secretary's familiarity with political and diplomatic sensitivities in that country, he is personally handling the discussions with the government of El Salvador regarding persons subject to the court's order detained in El Salvador," the State Department said in a statement included in the filing.

Furthermore, the statement says Rubio has "read and understands this court's order and wants to ensure the court he is making prompt and diligent efforts" to comply.

So Chump and his Cabinet of Fools got that one wrong. Conrad Hoyt (LAW AND CRIME) notes:

A request for jurisdictional discovery from a Venezuelan immigrant locked up in a notorious Salvadoran prison has been granted, opening the door for the release of revelatory details into the Trump administration’s detainment deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

In a wide-ranging immigration case that intersects with others that have captured national interest, a petitioner referred to as E.D.Q.C. — reportedly previously identified as Edicson David Quintero Chacon, 28, argued he was not given prior notice of his planned deportation to El Salvador, a country with which he has no affiliation, and thus unable to raise concerns of being tortured at the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, otherwise known as CECOT, which is accused of ill-treatment.

Middle District of Georgia U.S. Magistrate Judge Amelia Helmick ruled that if such allegations of a lack of notice are true, E.D.Q.C.’s transfer to and imprisonment in CECOT is “likely unlawful.” She also firmly rejected arguments by the Trump administration that certain “privileges” exist barring them from releasing information into their deal with the Salvadoran government, saying that “the only reason El Salvador has even entered the conversation in this case” is because the U.S. government sent the petitioner there.

“For Respondents to now assert that the terms of such relocation and potential detention should be shielded from Petitioner and the Court is disingenuous,” Helmick wrote in her Tuesday filing. “That is not to say that the entire panoply of relations between the United States and El Salvador is open to discovery, but the narrow matter of the terms under which Petitioner is held in El Salvador, the degree to which the United States is entitled to determine his ultimate disposition, and what involvement, if any, the United States continues to have in seeking his possible eventual repatriation to Venezuela is discoverable.”

So they got that one wrong too. What a bunch of idiots. A lot of people think Chump and his Merry Band of Fools are wrong regarding Maurilio Amizael Ambrocio Mendez as well. We've noted him before. Billal Rahman (NEWSWEEK) reports:

A Florida pastor who has lived in the United States for more than two decades was detained by federal agents during his annual immigration check-in.

Maurilio Amizael Ambrocio Mendez, 42, from Guatemala, was detained at the ICE field office in Tampa on April 17 at around 9 a.m., according to his family. He is currently being held at the Glades County Detention Center.

Ambrocio Mendez had been attending annual ICE appointments for the past 12 years under a court-issued "stay of removal," a form of supervision allowing him to remain in the country despite a deportation order.

According to his daughter, 19-year-old Ashley Ambrocio, Ambrocio Mendez had always complied with the conditions of his supervision.

"It's truly horrible. These people are going to their appointments to make it right. If they were the 'real criminals' Trump is supposedly deporting, they wouldn't be representing themselves to a judge," Ashley told Newsweek.

"My father's lawyer told my dad the chance was high he could be detained, but my father decided to go because he knew he was doing the right thing and obeying," she said.

So he was doing everything he was supposed to and then some. And Chump's trying to kick him out of the country. That's how you know -- if you still haven't figured it out -- that Chump is not a Christian. Christians don't work overtime to deport pastors who've broken no laws.

The article notes:

Ashley said that during the first few days following her father's arrest, she became ill from the stress of what happened; she couldn't eat for three days and struggled to sleep. She's concerned over her father's treatment while in ICE detention and said she is feeling anxious about their future together, especially if he ends up being deported.

"My family is devastated. It isn't the same without him; they miss him and wish he would come back," she said. "My mom didn't just lose the father of her children but also her partner. She gets lonely.

"Despite all this, I have faith, and that's what keeps me going."

That's his daughter. He has five adult children. They're suffering. Think about that. Grasp that the one being held in detention is suffering but so are his family and his friends. Ryan Adamczeski (THE ADVOCATE) reports:

A federal judge has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to deport a transgender immigrant after officers arrested her during her asylum hearing — but her attorneys say they still haven't been able to contact her.

O.J.M., known only by her initials out of concerns for her safety, was leaving a courtroom during her asylum hearing on Monday when she was detained by ICE agents, who demanded that the court dismiss her case. She was then taken from the courthouse in Portland, Ore. and forcibly moved across state lines to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash.

ICE did not inform O.J.M.'s attorneys, from the immigration law firm Innovation Law Lab, of her location after her arrest, prompting them to file a habeas petition. The filing, obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting, accuses ICE officials of committing "a deceptive sleight of hand" in an effort "to eject O.J.M. from her own asylum case, detain her, and transfer her away from the District of Oregon so that they can rapidly deport her.”

“Only nearly two years after O.J.M. was released from [immigration] custody and months after she applied for asylum, [officials] commenced removal proceedings against her in immigration court where she could present her asylum claim under the due process rights,” the petition reads. “O.J.M. had properly filed her asylum application, but ICE appears to be attempting to place her in expedited removal, a rapid deportation process with minimal protections."

Masks are not going to hide ICE agents from their guilt. And as Nazis learned, just doing your job is not a valid excuse when it comes to crimes against humanity. You're 28 right now? 20 years from now when your grandkid asks, "When you worked for ICE, you weren't art of rounding up and harassing people, sending them off to gulags to be tortured, were you?"

And maybe you'll lie to your grandkid but it's only going to remind you yet again what a vile person yuo were and are and what a War Criminal you are.

WSWS started calling ICE agents out on day one. I didn't. I'm comfortable doing it now. They've had time to see what's actually happening. If they're aware and continuing to carry out these crimes against humanity, they don't deserve sympathy. They've had plenty of 'wait and see' time. They're now just as guilty as Chump and the guilt's not going to go away by them conducting business as usual.

You know the lives that are being destroyed, you know that the courts keep objecting, you know what you're doing is wrong. If you continue down this road, your options are limited and you guilt will not go away even if you try to silence it with drugs. You will be haunted forever by the actions you are taking now.

At WSWS, Jacob Crosse writes:

Every day in the United States, heavily armed, militarized, and masked immigration agents—often operating without warrants or even the pretense of due process—are seizing workers, students, parents and long-time residents as part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing mass deportation campaign.

Under the guise of combating “terrorism” and “criminal gangs,” the ongoing raids overwhelmingly target workers and their families, many of whom have filed for asylum and completed every legal requirement for seeking residence in the United States.

In the first 100 days of Trump’s second term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported arresting 66,463 people and deporting 65,682. By mid-May, nearly 49,000 individuals were being held in immigration detention centers—most of them privately run, for-profit facilities scattered across the United States.

To meet a White House-imposed quota of 3,000 arrests per day—set by Trump’s fascist-minded senior advisor Stephen Miller—masked immigration agents are appearing at courthouses, worksites, and other public spaces to capture “illegal” immigrants.

If their “target” is not present, the immigration Gestapo is encouraged to carry out “collateral arrests”—detaining anyone they encounter whom they suspect of being “illegal,” regardless of whether that person was the intended target.

In line with these directives, the right-wing New York Post—owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp—reported that “2,200 illegal migrants” were arrested in a single day on Tuesday. This came after a Monday press conference by ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, who gloated that immigration agents had detained 1,461 people in Massachusetts in May alone as part of “Operation Patriot.”

Trump and his ruling class allies have repeatedly claimed that those being targeted for deportation are the spearhead of an invasion force aimed at destroying America. This lie is disproven every day.

On Wednesday, CNN reported that the Trump administration is reviving its notorious child separation policy and has already taken approximately 500 children into government custody—removing them from previously vetted family sponsors. During Trump’s first term, more than 5,500 children were separated from their parents in a cruel and inhumane effort to deter immigrants and asylum seekers. As of 2024, according to Human Rights Watch, over 1,000 of those children had still not been reunited with their families.

Every day brings new outrages. On Tuesday, KTLA in Los Angeles reported that Martir Gracia Lara, a fourth-grade student at Torrance Elementary School, and his father attended an immigration hearing in Houston, Texas, at which point both were detained and separated by ICE agents.

There is growing popular opposition to the Trump administration’s vicious assault on immigrants and their families. Demonstrations against the administration’s policies are becoming more frequent and militant, reflecting a deepening mood of resistance.

And if you're an ICE agent, you know about that opposition because you feel it in your heart. You know what you're doing is wrong and disgusting and vile. You know this isn't how you were raised to be. That's why you need the masks, to try to hide from yourself, from the voice inside that tells you right from wrong.

Chump's not going to help you, he's not even going to defend you.

As Lawrence O'Donnell noted last night on MSNBC, Dementia Donnie is silent with regards to the attacks he is now getting from Musk.

Why?

Because Chump is a coward.

Because Chump is a fake.

Because Chump is a fraud.

He's a poor man with a mountain of debt and he needs the world to believe he's huge -- huge -- hugely wealthy.

Wealthy people don't have to leave NYC because society turned a back on them. But that's what happened. Chump's seen as the money grubber he truly is and the con artist he's always been. He had to move to Florida -- Jimmy Buffett land -- in order to have a social life.

Everything about him is fake.

And right now, as his tough guy' pose crumbles in front of the nation, Chump stays silent as he tries to calculate whether or not he's lost Musk forever. He needs the money, Chump always needs the money. And he'll act the little bitch on the national stage for it.

In the meantime, Chump continues his war on the economy. Lauren Lewis (DAILY BEAST) reports:

Trump said his aggressive program of tariffs would spark a manufacturing boom but he appears to have been wrong. U.S. manufacturers are warning that the president is creating a crisis akin to the disruption the COVID pandemic caused with his tariffs. Manufacturers have reported longer lead times for supplies, higher prices, and disruptions to production—even as demand dries up, Axios reported. Some of the the slowdown has been fueled by the on-again, off-again nature of Trump’s levies which have left some suppliers either delaying deliveries or scrapping them altogether.

Donald Chump's motto has always been, "If I can't tell the truth, I can at least hide it." Marcia Brown (POLITICO) reports:

Trump administration officials delayed and redacted a government forecast because it predicts an increase in the nation’s trade deficit in farm goods later this year, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The numbers run counter to President Donald Trump’s messaging that his economic policies, including tariffs, will reduce U.S. trade imbalances. The politically inconvenient data prompted administration officials to block publication of the written analysis normally attached to the report because they disliked what it said about the deficit.

It’s not clear when or if the written analysis portion will be released.

The previous forecast, published in February, projected a deficit of $49 billion for the current fiscal year, an increase from the November 2024 report. The new analysis revises the projection to a record $49.5 billion, beating the previous record of $31.8 billion in fiscal 2024.

Republicans used the quarterly report’s rising trade deficit projections during the Biden administration to accuse then-Secretary Tom Vilsack of not doing enough to promote U.S. farm exports. Agriculture secretaries historically have used the forecasts to promote policy initiatives.

The May report reflects Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs, the people said. The president has announced sharply higher tariffs on China and “reciprocal” levies of at least 10 percent on most U.S. trading partners.

Sahil Kapur (NBC NEWS) explains:

The sweeping Republican bill for President Donald Trump's domestic agenda is projected to add $2.4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, according to a new estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

It is slightly higher than an earlier version of the bill, which the CBO projected to add $2.3 trillion in new debt.

The long-awaited new score factors in a series of last-minute revisions GOP leaders made to placate holdouts before the House passed the legislation last month. The changes include a higher state and local tax (SALT) deduction and a provision that triggers the Medicaid work requirements sooner than the original legislation did.

Overall, CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation found that over a 10-year period, the legislation would decrease revenues by $3.7 trillion, while cutting net spending by $1.3 trillion — for a total of $2.4 trillion in new red ink.

The legislation would also increase the number of people without health insurance by 9.1 million by 2034, CBO projected. That includes 7.8 million fewer covered due to the Medicaid changes.

Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) notes:

Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey was slapped with 18 health code violations, Forbes reported on Wednesday — including some truly gross ones.

Overall, the facility scored just 32 out of 100 in its health inspection, the lowest grade in all of Somerset County. Moreover, nine out of the 18 violations were deemed to be the most serious category, posing an "unacceptable health risk" to people at the establishment.

Among the violations at the Bedminster club were failing "all three requirements in the 'food protected from contamination' category, with violations including expired milk, raw meat stored improperly and a dishwasher that may not reach the required temperature," noted the report. "The inspector also cited four separate hand-washing violations, including sinks without soap or paper towels, one lacking a required sign and another used to store a sanitizer bucket."

If you're not getting it, he's a slum lord. That's why, despite years of trying, he couldn't buy his way into NYC society and has to nurse his wounds in Florida. It's why I worry for Vietnam when I find out they're going to be doing construction with him.

Does no one remember the coverage of Chump's casinos? How they fall apart and never get fixed. Leaky roof? Put a buck out to catch the water -- year after year. He's a slum lord. That's all he's ever been and all he ever will be.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

Murray: “You didn’t do an actual analysis to determine what the effects of this would be?”

McMahon: “No.”

***WATCH: Senator Murray’s Q&A with Sec. McMahon***

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, questioned Department of Education (ED) Secretary Linda McMahon at a Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on the president’s fiscal year 2026 budget request for the Department. Senator Murray pressed Secretary McMahon on the indiscriminate mass firings of employees across the Department, the lack of transparency from the Department as it illegally withholds funds that were already appropriated by Congress, and how the Trump administration talks a big game about tackling antisemitism in schools but is actually dismantling the very office charged with investigating it and enforcing federal civil rights laws for students.

In opening comments, Vice Chair Murray said:

“Good morning, Secretary McMahon. You know, President Trump has made clear that he wants to abolish the very department that you lead. And we know here that you cannot eliminate the Department of Education without an act of Congress—but I’m afraid that has not stopped you from preventing the Department from actually doing its job.

“You have indiscriminately shuttered offices and pushed out half of the Department’s staff. And under your leadership, we have seen critical research to improve student outcomes axed overnight—and funding for mental health services and teacher training, among a whole lot, abruptly cut off and discontinued.

“Now, today you come before this Committee to request massive funding cuts that do, in my opinion, nothing to help improve opportunities for students in our public schools throughout the country. You are proposing to slash Pell grants and much more.

“Now, you and the president say this isn’t about cutting education funding but all about ‘returning education to the states.’ But actually, that couldn’t be farther from the truth—because the reality is this administration is actually taking unprecedented steps to extort schools and universities, and hold federal funding hostage if they don’t conform with your agenda.

“So, it’s pretty clear that ‘returning education to the states’ actually means letting states, colleges, and local communities pick up the tab. And I just don’t believe that’s how things should work in America—I don’t believe that’s good for our students and I don’t believe it is good for our families.”

[MASS FIRINGS AT ED]

Senator Murray began by pressing Secretary McMahon on the indiscriminate mass firings across the Department: “Secretary McMahon, as I mentioned, you have set out to eliminate nearly half of your Department’s workforce. And that includes pushing out the door more than half of the staff at the Office for Civil Rights, the entire staff responsible for managing grant operations and contract procurement, and employees who actually prevent students from getting ripped off by predatory colleges. The Department cannot do its basic job to execute the law given how many staff have been pushed out. And it is our students and our teachers who will suffer the consequences. So, I want to know from you: before you cut that much staff, did you conduct any analysis to assess whether or not it would degrade support and services for students and our schools? Or how the Department would still be able to execute the law after losing so many employees?”

Secretary McMahon responded, “Yes, we did talk to the Department itself, OCR.”

“But did you do an actual analysis?” Senator Murray pressed.

“What we looked at across was, how can we restructure the Department so that we can maximize the use of the people who are there? So, what we did was in, like, training manuals and things of that nature, to look at it and say, okay, we can better operate if we focus on—” SecretaryMcMahon replied.

“So, this was a conversation. You didn’t do an actual analysis to determine what the effects of this would be?” Senator Murray clarified.

“No,” replied Secretary McMahon.

“So, no study was done. They were just fired, and you assumed that it would work?” Senator Murray asked.

Secretary McMahonreplied, “No, obviously not. I have been in the private sector and done restructuring before in companies, and it’s painful to do.”

“It is painful, but normally companies look ahead and say: what are our goals and what will be the impact if these employees are gone from this Department? That’s why I asked. But you’ve not done an analysis, and my time is short, so let me continue,” said Senator Murray.

[REFUSAL TO DETAIL HOW ED IS SPENDING FUNDING]

Senator Murray turned to the lack of transparency from the Department about how it is spending funding that has already been provided: “You were required—by law—to submit an operating plan 45 days after enactment of the full-year CR detailing exactly how you are spending funding Congress provided this year. You didn’t do that. The purported ‘operating plan’ that you did submit told us virtually nothing about how you are spending taxpayer dollars right now, at this very moment. And that really raises concerns about when—and actually if—you are going get funding that Congress did provide for FY25 out the door. For example: your FY26 budget request zeroes out dedicated funding for literacy education programs, and your operating plan for this year describes this funding as ‘unallocated.’ So, will you allocate the $220 million for literacy programs that Congress appropriated for FY25?”

Secretary McMahon refused to commit to spending the funding Congress provided for literacy programs, stating: “Well, Senator, as I mentioned earlier, we are looking at the unallocated dollars now to determine which of those programs we can best spend those dollars on. And I would be happy to get back to you. And we want to work with Congress on those unallocated dollars to see where they could be spent the best.”

Senator Murray pressed on whether ED will release the funds: “Well, what is your plan to make sure that, that funding actually gets to the schools and students is intended to support? We’re running out of time here.”

“Well, to look at those programs and then to allocate them to the states. If those programs, we believe is the best interests…” said Secretary McMahon.

“Those funds were appropriated by Congress. Your department was to allocate them, and it really looks to me like the Department is illegally impounding funding that would help our students succeed with plans that don’t exist—and just day after day going by here. And that’s our concern,” saidSenator Murray.

Secretary McMahon replied, “Well, let us work more with you as we update those allocations, as we did before.”

“When do you plan to have those funds out by?” pushed Senator Murray.

“Well, the funds that we are approving will go out in this year,” Secretary McMahon responded.

Senator Murray replied, “Like in this next month, or..?”

“In the fiscal year,” saidSecretary McMahon.

“You’re running out of time. So, we need to see what the plan is if you can provide it,” said Senator Murray.

Senator Murray and House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought last week calling out the Trump administration’s lack of transparency about how it is spending funds provided by Congress for this year—noting the complete inadequacy of the spend plan, required by law, that the Department of Education submitted.

[DISMANTLING THE OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS]

Senator Murray then addressed how the Trump administration has been dismantling the Office for Civil Rights, which is the office charged with enforcing federal civil rights laws in schools and investigating discrimination, noncompliance with federal law and more. Under Secretary McMahon’s leadership, half of OCR’s staff have been eliminated and investigations have been hamstrung, and President Trump has requested a nearly 36% cut to OCR’s budget. She began: “Secretary McMahon, the Administration says that one of its priorities is tackling antisemitism in our schools—that’s correct, right?”

“Correct,” replied Secretary McMahon.

“Well, the Office for Civil Rights at your Department takes the leading role in preventing antisemitism and enforcing our nation’s civil rights law. It is really an important mission. But as you hopefully know, that office is under water. What is the current backlog at OCR, can you tell us that?” inquired Senator Murray.

Secretary McMahon said, “We inherited about a 20,000 backlog from the Biden administration. One of the things that we found is some of those cases were like one-page complaints, and we’ve really been able to get rid of many of them and we are fulfilling…we absolutely are fulfilling all of our statutory requirements—have not failed to do any of those. And not only are we reducing the backlog, but we are keeping up with the current amount with a reduced staff because we are doing it efficiently.”

“If you don’t have the staff, you can’t do them,” Senator Murray pressed.

“If you have an efficient staff that has changed programs and you are addressing all of the issues, then you are being successful. So, I am answering your question by completely answering it,” replied Secretary McMahon.

“Actually, Madam Secretary, my question is what is the current backlog?” asked Senator Murray.

Secretary McMahon replied, “The current backlog is probably about—let’s see I’m looking at my numbers now—about 25,000 cases.”

“25,000, and how many are you processing per month? Do you have any sense?” Senator Murray asked.

“Well, we’re catching up with the backlog. And keeping current on the ones that are coming in,” dodged Secretary McMahon.

Senator Murray pressed, “But you don’t know how many you are processing every month? You can’t tell us so we can get an idea?”

“I can get back to you with that,” said Secretary McMahon.

“Would you? If you could commit to giving us quarterly reports so we can know whether OCR is simply dismissing these cases or doing its job,” replied Senator Murray.

Secretary McMahon responded in part, “I would be happy to do that.”

###

Last night, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Linda McMahon Answers Senator Jack Reed" went up. The following sites updated:

Wednesday, June 04, 2025

The next James Bond and what's next for FettyCrap?

First up, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Linda McMahon Answers Senator Jack Reed."

Love it!!!! Now let's move to Bond, James Bond. Tori Brazier (METRO) reports:

Pierce Brosnan has given an indication as to who his pick for the next James Bond is, calling the actor ‘wonderful’.

The 72-year-old star, who held 007’s licence to kill from 1995’s GoldenEye to 2002’s Die Another Day – making four films in total as the suave spy – was initially reluctant to say.

‘I have no picks. I shall leave it open to the powers that be,’ he initially began, adding: ‘It’s a very exciting moment in the history of James Bond. Now that Barbara [Broccoli] and Michael [G Wilson] have relinquished the reins of it.’

However, when The Hollywood Reporter asked how his MobLand co-star Tom Hardy could do in the role, Brosnan laughingly changed his tune.

‘Oh! Tom would be wonderful,’ he agreed.

I think Tom Hardy would be a great pick and have said that here before many, many times.

I also think most people would be. That's not an insult to Tom. I've been noting him as the best choice forever. But it's me realizing that we don't really know until we see them in the role. Michael Keaton is the best Batman. But my dad would tell me that before the first Batman came out everyone was saying Tim Burton was crazy for casting Michael Keaton and it would never work.

What won't work right now is anyone 55 or over. Daniel Craig is 57 right now. If you're not going at least 10 years younger (Tom is 47) then why are you recasting?

It would also help if people who want the part would try to look the part. Meaning it's James Bond, not Ethan Hunt. Tom Cruise's ridiculous hair styles would not work for James Bond. And I've seen some guys suggested who have hair even longer than Tom at his longest in a MI film.

Moving over to the political world, Ross Barkan (INTELLIGENCER) reports:

How long will John Fetterman last in the United States Senate?

That is, above everything else, the operative question right now. Since suffering a stroke in 2022, Fetterman’s mental and physical health has deteriorated, according to his current and former staffers. He routinely misses votes and doesn’t appear to be performing his basic Senate duties. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board recently rebuked the Pennsylvania senator, telling its readers that “it’s time for Fetterman to serve Pennsylvanians, or step away.” Few Democrats have rushed to his defense — it doesn’t help that Fetterman, on the issues of immigration and Israel, has become sharply combative with his own party, gravitating to hawkish Republicans.

Fetterman has said he will not resign, and he doesn’t really have any incentive to leave. Senators who have been more incapacitated, like the late Dianne Feinstein, have continued to serve even as their cognitive functions fall off precipitously. It will not be a glorious few years, but Fetterman can persist until his term ends in 2028. It’s not as if his fellow Democrats will try to expel him.

For now, Fetterman will be most appreciated by Republicans, because he’ll cross party lines and he’ll be vulnerable come reelection time. It’s hard to remember now, but the pre-stroke Fetterman was a true national star, the sort of populist rural Democrat who seemed destined to run for president in the near future. Those days are gone for good. Progressives revile Fetterman, but they also feel burned by Joe Biden and do not want to risk another struggling standard-bearer in an important election. There’s a reason few Democratic elected officials are rallying, openly, around Fetterman: They know he’s not a long-term political solution for them.

A few thoughts. Fetterman was Bernie, for those who have forgotten. DSA was deployed online and off (Democratic Socialists of America) to attack anyone who raised questions about Fetterman -- that's especially true of raising questions about his health.

Those of us who raised questions -- that includes me -- were right to raise those questions. He is not fit to serve in the Senate. Mentally, he is not fit.

Are we ever going to have an honest discussion about how Socialist Fetterman transitioned to MAGA fanboy?

These are questions that need to be answered and answered now. DSA pushed Fetterman into the nomination while working to destroy Conor Lamb. Fetterman should have dropped out for health reasons and Lamb should have been the nominee.

Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Wednesday, June 4, 2025. Dementia Donald continues to wreck the economy while making plans for blaming it on others, Homeland Security and ICE tell one lie after another, Glenneth Greenwald's kink shame desires that led him to dress up as a maid say a great deal about his hatred of women, and much more.

Let's open with a PSA.

You should see THELMA and if you have a loved one who is older and lives by themselves, you should get them to see it. It's a good movie, yes. But in southern California yesterday, a 93 year old woman would still have $10,000 dollars if she'd seen the movie. We were getting ready to speak with a group when I noticed someone was really bothered. I went over to say hello and make sure everything was okay. His mother was calling asking for $20,000 on questions asked. He couldn't figure it out. I told him about THELMA, just making conversation and how she's told over the phone that her grandson is in trouble and to send money to this address. It's a scam. While we were talking and taking questions, I saw the man step out to take a call. When he came back in, I asked if everything was okay? He said, "It's like that movie you were talking about." His mother got a call and she was told that her grandson was hurt -- and apparently someone was moaning in the background. and she thought it was her grandson The caller could help but it was going to take $30,000 with ten thousand right now. She went to her bank and took the money out and a man came by to pick it up. She only had a couple hundred over ten thousand. So now she needed to borrow 20,000. She thought it was real because the caller knew about her grandson, knew about her daughter (grandson's mother), knew all of this stuff. People can find everything out on social media but, in her case, her son thinks it's because a local paper did a profile on her about three weeks ago. She's 93, she's a fitness instructor, she's a human interest story. He told everyone assembled to make sure that their loved ones saw the movie I had told him about. Again, it came out last year, it's THELMA. A 93 year old rushed to save her grandson -- a great thing -- but it was a con and she's now out of ten thousand dollars. Hopefully, she'll go to the police. The son says there are security cameras all over the place where she lives so hopefully someone caught the man's face on camera. So that is your PSA.

On we go into Chump Land. Thibault Spirlet (BUSINESS INSIDER) states the obvious:

The US and global economy are losing steam, and a key forecaster said President Donald Trump's trade tariffs were part of the reason.

In its latest Economic Outlook, released on Tuesday, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development cut its forecast for US economic growth in 2025, pointing to the fallout from the administration's trade policies. The 2.8% rate it predicted in March has now been reduced to 1.6%.

The OECD warned that these tariffs, which have pushed the effective US import rate to 15.4% — the highest since 1938 — were not only affecting US growth but reverberating across the global economy too.

Global growth was now projected to slow to 2.9% in both 2025 and 2026, down from 3.3% in 2024.

The OECD said the slowdown in growth was concentrated in the US, Canada, Mexico, and China. Growth in China, the world's second-largest economy, was expected to fall to 4.7% in 2025, down from 5% last year, and come in at 4.3% in 2026.

As of May 27, a blanket 10% tariff applies to all goods imported into the US, with some limited exemptions.

Last night, the topic was addressed on MSNBC's THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE

And Paul Krugman observes:

Why are markets beginning to treat America as unreliable? It’s not just the debt numbers. Yes, we have large debts, but we’re an immensely wealthy country that, among other things, has lower average taxes than most of our peers. So we certainly have the resources to honor our debts.

But do we have the political will? Maybe even more important, do we have the political seriousness?

Like many economists, I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing the substance of Trump’s tariffs — how much they are likely to raise prices and reduce trade volumes. I’ve also written about the impacts of policy uncertainty, about how hard it is for businesses to make plans when they have little idea what tariff rates will be even a few months from now, let alone over the next few years.

But I wonder whether we’ve spent enough time looking at the policy process — how decisions get made in Trump’s America. Consider: On April 2, “Liberation Day,” Trump announced extremely high tariffs on many countries, the biggest tariff hike in U.S. history. The tariff rates — which differed hugely from country to country — were determined by a formula universally panned as stupid and ridiculous. And this tariff announcement was made with so little planning and forethought that it included taxes on imports from remote islands inhabited only by penguins.

Then, a week later, these tariffs were replaced by a completely different set of tariffs. How did that happen? Two of Trump’s cabinet members were able to beard him in the Oval Office while Peter Navarro, responsible for the original tariffs, was in another meeting.

Does this sound like policymaking in a serious country?

While he's destroying the US economy, Chump's working hard to Make China Great Again. Rhian Lubin (INDEPENDENT) explains:

President Donald Trump’s trade tariff policy has seen America’s favorability plummet while China’s has risen, a new global analysis has found.

Since Trump entered office in January, “the overwhelming majority of countries simultaneously exhibit worsening views of the United States and improving views of China,” according to the analysis by technology research firm Morning Consult, and first reported by Axios.

America’s drop in favorability among the 41 countries surveyed comes as fewer visitors are traveling to the U.S. in part because of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies.

The analysis as of the end of May found China had an 8.8 net favorability rating versus –1.5 for the USA. By comparison, in January 2024 the U.S. was above 20 while China was in the negative.

He's destroying the US economy. But he's not worried. No, he has no plan to fix the economy. But he is plotting how to blame his failures on other people. Klaus Marre (WHO WHAT WHY) reports:

Donald Trump is a master at making his own achievements — no matter how unremarkable they are — sound like they are the most amazing accomplishments in history; taking credit for the successes of others; and blaming everybody but himself for his own failures.

That is how an average US economy during his first term became the “greatest in history,” which is a claim so laughable that one look at any statistical category shows that it is false.

Of course, when you brag about being the greatest, and then find yourself in the Oval Office again, you have to deliver.

And that’s Trump’s current dilemma because, while he inherited a robust economy from Joe Biden, his erratic tariff policies are posing a real threat to everything from gross domestic product growth, unemployment, and inflation.

So far, the economy is still cruising along in some of those areas. However, most of the tariffs have also not yet gone into effect, and there is a very real chance that they will do great harm to the economy and, by extension, the American people.

Plenty of warning signs are already flashing. The US just lost its perfect rating from Moody’s, growth is stagnating, and consumers are concerned.

In addition, if congressional Republicans further balloon the debt by passing Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” there is a good chance that bond markets will react poorly, which is going to add to the current economic uncertainty.

He will blame it on others because that's what he always does. He will not take accountability. Even with all the people publicly warning him for months now that he is destroying the economy, Chump doesn't care in part because he thinks he'll evade responsibility for his actions. Alex Henderson files a dispatch from Chump Land:

On Friday afternoon, May 30, President Donald Trump held a media event in the White House Oval Office to thank Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk for his work with his administration and the South African centibillionaire's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But critics of the mass layoffs of federal government workers being carried out by the Trump administration with DOGE's help are not feeling thankful. As they see it, layoffs at the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other agencies are a recipe for major problems — not something to celebrate.

Another agency experiencing major layoffs is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In an article published on June 2, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Jason Nark details the problems that Army Corps cuts are having in Pennsylvania thanks to campsite closings along Raystown Lake in Huntingdon County.

"The lake's Seven Points, Susquehannock, and Nancy's Boat-to-Shore Campgrounds — all popular and often booked out far ahead of summer — were closed, and the Army Corps began refunding campers who had made reservations," Nark reports. "In addition, farther north in Tioga County, Tompkins Campground on Tioga-Hammond and Cowanesque Lakes also closed, along with its swim beach and boat ramp. Tompkins has approximately 125 sites."

Nark points to 81-year-old Judy Norris, who has owned Seven Points Bait & Grocery for 49 years, as an example of a Pennsylvania business owner who is hurting because of Army Corps cuts and campsite closings. According to Norris, business was way down on Memorial Day Weekend.

The American Dream was a great tourism attraction. Democracy. Freedom. People came to this country to sight-see. Now it's a fright-see and travel is down. People aren't eager to come here because they're worried what could happen. Maybe Chump sicks ICE on them and they end up deported -- but not back home to, say France, no, instead to a gulag in El Salvador. A lot of Americans depend upon the income tourism brings this country. But even on the border towns to the north, tourism is down, Canadians aren't rushing to come into our country. This is the Chump effect and it's destroying the economy as surely as it destroys our image.

EL PASO MATTERS reports:

Two young men emerged from the Richard C. White Federal Building in Downtown El Paso on Thursday, laughing together as they turned left onto San Antonio Avenue. It was 1:50 p.m. and 99 degrees.

As they reached the corner of South Florence Street just a few steps away, a group of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents converged on them and grabbed Yasmir Marquez by the elbow. The two men were quickly surrounded by more federal law enforcement agents, one of whom showed Marquez a document. He turned to give his friend a hug before he was hustled into a waiting white van. Once inside, he was handcuffed.

Within three minutes, the other man stood alone on the sidewalk under the blazing sun watching in disbelief as the van drove away with his friend inside. “What the f— just happened?” asked the man, who was not arrested.

The courthouse arrests are a new tactic under the Trump administration’s efforts to scale up deportations, targeting migrants at immigration courts immediately after their court-ordered hearings. The migrants are ordered deported or have their cases dismissed and are then arrested by immigration agents as they leave the courtroom or the buildings, which allows for swift removal, the New York Times reported last week.

The Times obtained an internal ICE memo circulated on May 20 that the news organization reported instructed government prosecutors to help deportation officers with the operation to identify people whose pending immigration court case could be dismissed. Without their case pending in court, the migrants could be subject to expedited removal that doesn’t require a hearing before a judge.

Marquez’s arrest was the same day that a video from a San Antonio immigration court showing families arrested outside immigration court and their hands zip-tied went viral. Many more videos emerged showing similar ICE arrests at federal courthouses in Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle, Miami and Las Vegas.

[. . .]

“This strategy is becoming more prevalent now, especially since this administration did away with the sensitive location protections,” said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights group in El Paso. “This is very troubling because now these people need to make a decision about whether to comply with a court order or not.”

Garcia referred to the Trump administration reversing a policy that, since 2011, put sensitive areas such as churches, schools and courthouses largely off limits to immigration enforcement actions. The protections were lifted when Trump took office Jan. 20.

The cruelty emerges from the top. And, by the way, I've figured out who Stephen Miller looks like -- Jim Rash -- the guy who played Dean Craig Pelton on COMMUNITY. Pedro Camacho (LATIN TIMES) reports:

Top Trump administration officials are unhappy about how ICE officials are currently enforcing the highly publicized immigration crackdown, according to a new report by the Washington Examiner.

The outlet quoted sources who took part or talked with people who were in a tense meeting between White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and dozens of senior U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Washington in late May.

The meeting in question had been reported last week by Axios, which confirmed its combative tone and noted that that Miller and Noem demanded ICE target 3,000 arrests per day—triple the daily average from early in Trump's first term. Two sources added back then that Miller's tone left attendees feeling their jobs could be at risk if goals weren't met. A third source characterized the tone as an attempt to motivate.

According to the Examiner, Miller "eviscerated everyone," telling the room: "you guys aren't doing a good job," and "you're horrible leaders." One official said Miller asked , "Why aren't you at Home Depot? Why aren't you at 7-Eleven?"

See, people build on their strengths. And immigrants and homeless men are often approached at Lowe's, Home Depot and 7-11 by adult White men who want to 'hire' the males for some bedroom 'fun.' Either 'fun' with the wife or solo. Clearly, cuck Stephen Miller was using his own data base built up by who knows what to offer suggestions on where to lurk.

Still on immigration, US House Rep Dan Goldman has attempted to get an answer as to why ICE is wearing masks in public. He's even asked them and been lied to by one who said because it was cold -- in the building. Whether it's true or not, a new explanation has emerged. M.B. Mack (LATIN TIMES) reports:

ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons defended the use of masks by federal agents during immigration enforcement operations, citing a sharp rise in online harassment and threats against officers and their families.

At a Monday press conference in Boston, officials announced that nearly 1,500 people had been arrested across Massachusetts in May alone. There, Lyons said agents have been "doxed," stalked online and targeted with death threats, according to the Associated Press.

The press conference had largely wrapped up when a reporter asked why ICE officers frequently wear masks during arrests. Lyons returned to the podium to answer directly.

"They are wearing those masks because we ran an operation with the Secret Service where we arrested someone that was going online, taking their photos, posting their families', their kids' Instagram, their kids' Facebooks and targeting them," he said.

The claim also insists that attacks on ICE agents have significantly increased. Real attacks or Alina Habba lies where she claims members of Congress and mayors attack ICE agents? They tell so many lies there's no reason for anyone believe any statement from that department. Secret Service is not wearing masks. Nor should they be. This is the administration that is outraged when protesters on campuses wear masks or even just some traditional scarf coverage reflecting religious beliefs. You can't have it both ways and you shouldn't.

ICE agents need to be hidden away?

Seems they're in the wrong line of work.

They put everyone at risk when they wear masks. Your face is supposed to be visible and you're supposed to be able to prove to the public that you're part of law enforcement.

Though Chump would love one, we don't have a secret police in this country. Nor are we going to start one.

I'm not the only one refusing to buy the lie. L eigh Kimmins (DAILY BEAST) reports:

Conservative commentator and longtime political strategist Bill Kristol blasted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for wearing masks during recent operations, calling the practice a tool of fear—not protection.

Appearing on CNN’s NewsNight on Monday, Kristol—best known for serving as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle under President George H. W. Bush—dismissed ICE’s justification for the coverings, dismissing the practice as “ridiculous” and “pathetic.”

“I mean, it’s pathetic to pretend that, ‘Oh, we’re so concerned about their safety, they have to wear masks,’” Kristol, the co-founder of the nonprofit Defending Democracy Together, said.

“I grew up in New York City—40,000 cops, extremely dangerous circumstances. None of them were masked except in extremely rare occasions when they were going after some gang leader who might have relatives who go after them. ICE agents have functioned in this country. They didn’t wear masks. They shouldn’t wear masks.

“It’s total nonsense, and it’s for intimidation. It’s not really for their protection. It’s ridiculous.”

And repeating, ICE and Homeland Security and Alina Habba all lie so much, no one should believe a word out of their trashy mouths.

Doubt it?

Mike Balsamo, Scott Bauer and Adriana Gomez Licon (LOS ANGELES TIMES) report:

A claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that an immigrant threatened the life of President Trump has begun to unravel.

Noem announced an arrest of a 54-year-old man who was living in the U.S. illegally, saying he had written a letter threatening to kill Trump and would then return to Mexico. The story received a flood of media attention and was highlighted by the White House and Trump's allies.

But investigators actually believe the man may have been framed so that he would be arrested and deported from the U.S. before he got a chance to testify in a trial as a victim of assault, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The person could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Law enforcement officials believe the man, Ramon Morales Reyes, never wrote a letter that Noem and her department shared with a message written in light blue ink expressing anger over Trump’s deportations and threatening to shoot him in the head with a rifle at a rally. Noem also shared the letter on X along with a photo of Morales Reyes, and the White House also shared it on its social media accounts. The letter was mailed to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office along with the FBI and other agencies, the person said.

As part of the investigation, officials had contacted Morales Reyes and asked for a handwriting sample and concluded that his handwriting and the threatening letter didn’t match and that the threat was not credible, the person said. It’s not clear why Homeland Security officials still decided to send a release making that claim.

Why? Because they are liars. They are not interested in serving the American people -- they're not interested in doing their job -- instead they want to lie and try to frighten people into submission. They're liars. And they think lying protects and shields them. It does not. It only makes it clear that they cannot be trusted. Glenn Kessler (WASHINGTON POST) explains:

“We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors, and that our seniors and people that we love rely on. Believe it or not, government databases list … 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129, 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. And money is being paid to many of them.”

— President Donald Trump, in a speech to Congress, March 4

This is an example of how, even after falsehoods are exposed, the spin machine keeps working.

By the time Trump delivered his speech to Congress falsely saying that millions of people above the age of 120 were getting Social Security payments, The Washington Post on Feb. 19 had already published a detailed article that documented how claims of such payments — originally circulated by billionaire Elon Musk, then head of the cost-cutting U.S. DOGE Service — were wrong. (We never rated them, but they’re worthy of Four Pinocchios.)

Social Security databases rely on COBOL, a nearly 70-year-old computer programming language, and COBOL doesn’t have a standardized way to store dates. So a default date, such as 1875, was chosen for people lacking birth information. But when Musk’s team entered Social Security’s systems, they were shocked to find people listed in the system with absurd ages because of the limitations of an old programming language.

The problem was well known to people familiar with Social Security’s systems. In fact, since 2015, the Social Security Administration has automated the termination of benefits to people once they reach age 115 — and no American has ever lived to be 120 years old. Moreover, a 2023 report from the administration’s inspector general found that the vast majority of beneficiaries who lacked a birth date had died.

The IG in 2023 recommended a cleanup of the system so that the deaths were permanently recorded. But the Social Security Administration rejected the idea, saying that “correcting records for non-beneficiaries would divert resources from work necessary to administer and manage its programs,” especially because doing so “would have limited or no benefit to the administration of SSA programs, and would be costly to implement.” Errors might also be introduced in the process, the agency said.

They lie and then they lie again.

Next topic . . .

What? Doesn't every guy want to dress up as the TV maid Hazel as part of a sex fantasy? Yes, we've arrived at Glenneth Greenwald. What about the porn? One e-mail after another asks about that. And I actually think there's more than one reason to note it again and in depth.

First, the told you so dance -- one minute and thirty seconds in.

So Glenneth was paying a man to dominate and humiliate him. Hmm. I seem to recall us noting several times here the rumor that Glenneth was doing just that online with a MAGA mether who actually went behind bars for his part in the January 6th insurrection. Don't confuse him with a porn star. He wasn't. He was an online 'finmasster' and he is ugly and was ugly then. Looked like he needed a flea dip. And that's who Glenneth was interested in. So let's do the told-you-so dance.

In the video, Glenneth is paying for this behavior. He's trying to pass it off as just two consenting adults. Well one was consenting. Glenneth was paying.

Third, he's wearing a plaid skirt.

A plaid skirt.

So there's the cross dressing aspect. And the cross dressing aspect from a gay man who hates trans women and trashes them nonstop, from a freak who's part of the LGB-no-T movement.

A plaid skirt. I'm a woman and I don't own a plaid skirt. Most of us don't. They're usually uncomfortable and not something you'd want to be wearing if you had to be on the floor for an extended period of time (because he's on the floor as he licks the man's feet). Glenn had to have spent significant time picking that little outfit.

We have noted her for decades that Glenn is a disgusting sexist.

And he is.

But at various times people have tried to defend him and insist that he's not.

He is.

And that goes to that little fantasy of his.

He wants to be humiliated.

Okay.

But how is he humiliated?

By wearing a skirt and being treated (in his sick mind) as a woman.

That's what he thinks women should get.

Again, he's a sexist.

It's the Israeli government!!!!!

Glenn's fellow whores are lying like crazy that this video has been released to silence him regarding Gaza and it was released by the Israeli government!!!!!

Gaza?

Check the news cycle, no one really cares. Not to report on it, not to protest it.

Glenn's claiming he's a victim (and probably beating off while he makes that claim since humiliation is his kink).

Mary, when you let the man you're with film your act, you're not a victim.

You may be stupid (Glenneth certainly is that) but you're not a victim. What goes before the camera usually comes out at some point.

Glenneth's living in shame and every month is Shame Month and every month is Shame Year. His friends are embarrassed for him so they rush forward to invent lies about this being a government plot and blah blah blah.

Own your s**t. Own your kink.

Don't be an embarrassment like Glenneth Greenwald.

Happy Pride.

In "MEDIA: Happy Pride," Ava and I note various attacks on the LGBTQ+ community and how those attacks are out of step and destined to fail. Progress has come and the country's not going to return to letting hate merchants dictate thought.

We note in our piece, and I'll note here now, this from the VFW:

WASHINGTON -- June is Pride Month, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) stands with our fellow Americans honoring the invaluable contributions and sacrifices of all who have served our nation, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) veterans.

It is estimated that there are a little more than 1 million LGBTQ veterans in the United States. They are among us, counted with us and are one of the less than 1% of us who serve or have served our great nation. Our veterans, regardless of their background or identity, have stepped forward to protect our country, bravely defending the freedoms we all cherish. Their dedication, courage and selfless commitment are foundational to our nation's strength and security.

The VFW believes that the bond forged in service transcends all differences. Our mission remains steadfast: to foster camaraderie among veterans, to advocate for their earned benefits, and to perpetuate the memory and history of our fallen brothers and sisters-in-arms. We are dedicated to ensuring that every veteran feels valued and has access to the resources and community they deserve.

This June, the VFW encourages all Americans to reflect on the diverse tapestry of service members and veterans who have contributed to our nation's defense. It is through recognizing and valuing the service of all who have served that we truly uphold the ideals of liberty and justice for everyone.

The more than 1.4 million members of the VFW and its Auxiliary salute all LGBTQ veterans, past, present, and future, and say “thank you” for your service to our great nation.

The hate merchants are doing their last gasps as they die out. Their desperation attacks go to the fact that they have lost. It's already over, they just don't know it.

If you're LGBTQ+, know that you are part of this country and part of the world and you always have been. We've progressed enough as a society to realize that and embrace it. Celebrate this month and celebrate yourself.

The following sites updated: