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Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Trump gets even worse on the topic of immigrants

A multi-married rapist who tried to overthrow democracy is not ever gong to be mistaken for a Christian. So it's no surprise that Trump just gets more disgusting. If Jesus walked onto our shores right now, Trump would be sicking ICE on him. Trump has no humanity and he has no decency. He's disgusting and he'll rot in hell as he deserves to.

Aaron Parnes (MEDIASTOUCH NEWS) reports:

According to new reporting from NBC News, the Trump Administration is preparing to roll back longstanding immigration policy that restricts the ability of ICE Agents to detain undocumented migrants in sensitive areas. These areas include at or near hospitals, schools, and places of worship. The areas further include events like weddings and funerals.

As it currently stands, ICE agents would need to get approval from supervisors to be able to conduct an arrest of an individual at these sensitive areas, and there are limited exceptions for when such an arrest can actually occur. These exceptions include possible terror threats or other threats to national security.

In an effort to streamline his mass deportation policy, Trump is expected to roll back this policy, allowing a free for all deportation policy for ICE agents. In the event the policy is rescinded, agents would no longer need supervisor approval to conduct arrests in these sensitive areas.

Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) adds:

“Immigration enforcement has always required a balance," said Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. "In the past, presidents of both parties have recognized that merely because it may be lawful to make arrests at hospitals and schools doesn’t mean it’s humane or wise public policy."

Again, Trump is disgusting. He has no decency and he has no respect for religion.

MAGA dupes are idiots. They think Trump likes them and that he's a man of God. He likes no one and he doesn't believe in God.

A person who believes in God does not put their own name on a BIBLE. How stupid is MAGA?

I guess they were all home schooled.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Wednesday, December 11, 2024. MAGA crazy -- can it propel a cult member into an "intelligence" job?

Let's start with Trashy Garbage. This is the weirdo that Satan Trump wants to be the new Director of National Intelligence -- a development that, for the first time, brought the name Tulsi Gabbard and the term intelligence into the same sentence. Nick Grube (HONULULU CIVIL BEAT via RAW STORY) reports on the latest news:

A former member of a secretive Hawaiʻi religious sect is warning members of Congress about the potential dangers of confirming Tulsi Gabbard as President-elect Donald Trump’s next director of national intelligence.

Anita van Duyn says she spent 15 years inside the Science of Identity Foundation, a fringe offshoot of Hare Krishna that was formed in the 1970s and has been described by defectors as a cult.

Van Duyn has sent letters to Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, detailing Gabbard’s deep ties to the organization and its reclusive founder, Chris Butler, who still resides in a multimillion-dollar beachfront home in Kailua.

[. . .]

The van Duyn letters outline what she says are Butler’s long-standing political ambitions and the ways he groomed and supported his disciples in their pursuit of public office while promoting his own ideologies, which include a long history of espousing anti-gay rhetoric.

Van Duyn says she worries that Gabbard is still under Butler’s influence, which could compromise national security, noting in her letter that she suspects that any sensitive intelligence Gabbard is privy to will be “communicated to her guru.”

She's a cult member -- we've long noted that and noted her devotion to "Guru" Chris. Christine Gralow (SPY TALK) fills in some details:

I also learned that Gabbard, then in her mid-30s, had grown up in, and appeared to remain socially and politically immersed in, Science of Identity, whose devotees worship a man named Chris Butler (born Kris, with no middle name). Although today she typically dodges questions about Butler, Gabbard had publicly celebrated him as her “guru dev” at a 2015 gathering of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON, or Hare Krishna). And she has never disavowed him or spoken critically of him. I also came across pictures and video clips posted by Butler followers on social media that placed Gabbard at more recent, private Science of Identity events in Windward Oahu. Most Gabbard congressional staffers were also followers of Butler, as are her parents, sister, ex-husband, current husband, mother-in-law, and others close to her.

Early in my research, Science of Identity struck me as just another benign ISKCON copycat sect. As an L.A. teen in the ‘90s, I’d become familiar with the Hare Krishnas through their Venice Beach and LAX presences. I attended maybe 10 events at their Culver City temple for its free vegetarian food. The community seemed kind, but didn’t appeal to me beyond its diet. So, initially, I didn’t find it newsworthy that Gabbard was tied to Science of Identity. Yet there were red flags: its expressed homophobia was virulent, its finances suspect, and its guru politically power-hungry. Despite this, Gabbard’s ties to the group appeared staunch.

Perusing decades of Hawaii news archives, I learned Butler had been claiming guru status in Hawaii since his late teens, in the 1960s, under a multitude of names. He told the Honolulu Advertiser in 1977 that he was expelled from Kailua High School. (One clue as to possibly why: As he wrote in his 1970 self-published booklet, “Sai Speaks,” he was “very familiar with mind-expanding chemicals.”) I also learned he is the son of the late Dr. Willis P. Butler, Jr., a Hawaii plantation doctor and Communist-leaning non-interventionist. Dr. Butler wrote in his 2006 book about his late wife, “Barbara: Memoir of a Love Affair,” that Chris declined to attend his mother’s funeral because he “would not care for any event at which he was not the center of attention.”

In July 1970, Honolulu Advertiser religion writer Janice Wolf interviewed Butler, then 22, and two female followers—“Boni,” 21, and “Tulsi,” 18. Wolf reported that Boni and Tulsi said they did everything Butler told them to do. They told Wolf they would kill themselves if Butler said to, and “they would kill anyone who tried to attack” him. Wolf described Butler as the group’s “spiritual leader—and dictator.” She reported that several followers “seemed completely hypnotized.” Wolf was careful to differentiate Butler’s budding group from ISKCON. Later, in 1970, Wolf reported that ISKCON’s founder had denounced Butler as a fraud. Butler then briefly joined and split from ISKCON, after being accused of selling a temple and pocketing the money. He was at that time known as Siddha-svarupa.

In a 1977 series, Advertiser investigative reporter Walter Wright exposed Butler’s grooming of about a dozen early followers to run for local political office with their new party, Independents for Godly Government. In 1992, Honolulu Weekly revealed that then-Hawaii State Sen. Rick Reed was a Butler devotee and that Honolulu Magazine journalists had been stalked and threatened while reporting on Butler and Reed. Butler also reportedly spent a lot of time unsuccessfully suing Hawaii news media.

Family Ties

Gabbard’s father, Mike, is a Hawaii State Senator. Her mother, Carol, is a former Hawaii State School Board Member. Both have been extreme Butler loyalists since the early 1980s, when Tulsi was born. They ran a Science of Identity (then “Identity Institute”) school on Oahu called Ponomauloa School. Per its former students, the Gabbards taught children, among other things, to worship Butler, hate homosexuals, and fear Muslims. (Ponomauloa School is still listed in Mike’s bio on his website, under professional experience, the only tie to Butler he hasn’t yet whitewashed.) Mike was also Butler’s personal secretary for years, and Carol was president of Science of Identity’s Arizona branch, according to documents and local reporting.

Mike and Carol reportedly home-schooled Tulsi and sent her for two years to one or more Science of Identity girls’ boarding schools in the Philippines, where the Butler followers are also active. I located five ex-Science of Identity sources, two quite vocal online, all of whom said their Butler-devoted parents sent them to a similar boys’ boarding school in Baguio, the Philippines. They provided overwhelming evidence that their parents were Butler followers, and they all said that, while in the Philippines, they were isolated and heavily indoctrinated to serve Butler. Some also attended the Gabbards’ school.

I wasn’t the only journalist digging into this at the time. My sources told me The New Yorker’s Kelefa Sanneh was also contacting them. In his October 2017 profile of Tulsi Gabbard, Sanneh, the only journalist Butler has agreed to speak with in recent decades, assessed that, “Gabbard’s life would be unrecognizable without Butler’s influence.” Butler told Sanneh he was not Hindu, but he encouraged Gabbard to use the term for political expediency. Butler and Gabbard both told Sanneh that Science of Identity is not a religious organization, but it is in fact registered as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt church, which arranges religious visas for non-U.S. citizens to travel to Kailua to serve on Butler’s extensive kitchen and laundry teams.

Home schooled. That makes so much sense. First off, it is where the bigotry is being taught in the US. Second, she cant say "Islamist" correctly. There a lot of words she mispronounces -- with an undue confidence so many of the extremely ignorant possess.

In part two of her reporting, Christine Gralow notes:

Local activists had demanded that Gabbard hold the open meeting, since she’d been evasive with constituents and journalists on almost everything, particularly the controversial Syria trip. Once seated, I recognized nearly half of the town hall attendees as followers of Chris Butler, the once charismatic, now reclusive leader of Science of Identity.

Gabbard's husband Abraham Williams, who, like Gabbard, was a second-generation Butler follower, weaved through the crowd with high-end video equipment, filming his wife and the crowd. Another man born into the Science of Identity group, Prahlad Strickland, was his soundman. Gabbard’s chief of staff, Kainoa Penaroza, whose father William chaired Butler’s political party in the 1970s, controlled the mic. As Gabbard talked, Butler’s followers applauded her, as if on cue. Anytime someone critically questioned her, her fans hissed in disapproval and at times shouted over them. Meanwhile, John Bishop, a Butler devotee since the '70s and husband of Science of Identity President Jeannie Bishop, seemed to be there to surveil Gabbard critics. The man was not subtle about it, zooming in on the faces of constituents asking tough questions, including me. He ignored Gabbard’s fans.

"Cult-staged, cult surveilled," I thought.

When I got up to use the bathroom, Bishop blatantly followed me. Another constituent inadvertently caught Bishop’s chilling behavior in an hour-long video (which I still have). I was later told by a highly reliable ex-Science of Identity source that Butler had also assigned Bishop and others as “undercover photographers” at Honolulu gay pride parades. As I explained yesterday in Part One, and had previously reported, Butler’s messaging was blatantly anti-LGBTQ.

Gabbard was questioned about her odd Syria sojourn, to which she responded with regime propaganda absolving it of war crimes (which had been thoroughly documented). Eventually, though, she begrudgingly opened the town hall to critical questions about her trip.

Tempers flared. A near physical fight broke out between a Gabbard loyalist and a constituent concerned by Gabbard’s frequent appearances on Fox News, which was then heavily parroting Trump’s stolen election falsehoods. I took the opportunity to politely demand the mic.

I questioned Gabbard about the people who set up and escorted her to her meeting with Assad in Damascus. They were Ohio-based members of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. I cited a 1987 article from the Atlantic Monthly magazine about the party's terrorist history, including its role in the 1986 TWA bombing over Scotland. A video taken by another attendee shows I was exceedingly civil to Gabbard as I stood up and addressed her, yet her staff accused me of "disrupting the town hall” when I asked, "Did you vet these men before you allowed them to arrange your trip to Syria?"

Gabbard did not answer the question. The moment was featured on local TV news programs that night.

The next afternoon, Feb.26, as I left my Kailua home to walk my dog, I found myself within approximately 20 feet of a man I knew from my research to be deeply affiliated with Science of Identity, Gabbard, and her husband. He was parked immediately outside my home, sitting behind the driver’s wheel of a white pick-up truck. A man I didn’t recognize was in the passenger seat. The driver appeared extremely tired. When he saw me, I heard him say to his partner, “Ok. Now what?” I scowled at them, my big dog barked, and off they sped. I reported this and subsequent incidents via email to the police.

That turned out to be the opening chapter in well over a year of stalker-like surveillance, defamation, cyberattacks, false police reports, false arrests, manufactured restraining orders, and legal harassment by members of Butler’s cult. Science of Identity was using the same attorneys as Scientology to try to silence journalists and former members.

This is not Hinduism, which Science of Identity purports to teach. It’s the practice of a psychologically abusive cult.

With even BAPTIST NEWS GLOBAL noting her membership in the cult, it's no surprise that so many senators are hearing from their constituents that they don't want a cult member in the administration.

Satan Trump wants to staff his administration with the stupid and the stupider. That includes Dr. Oz. Senator Elizabeth Warren's office issued the following:

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) sent a letter to Dr. Mehmet Oz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), raising stark concerns about his advocacy to eliminate Traditional Medicare and his deep financial ties to the private health insurers that would benefit from that move.

In June 2022, ahead of his campaign for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Dr. Oz outlined his vision for the Medicare program, in which he advocated to eliminate Traditional Medicare and instead lean on private insurers that run Medicare Advantage, a private health care program that drastically overcharges for care. Non-partisan estimates project that these insurers overcharged CMS $88 billion in 2024 alone, especially through the practice of “upcoding,” in which private insurers exaggerate the health conditions of their enrollees on paper to secure higher payments from CMS – even if enrollees receive no treatment for those conditions.

Notably, Dr. Oz has at least $550,000 invested in UnitedHealth Group, the largest private insurer in Medicare Advantage. Under Dr. Oz’s plan, UnitedHealth Group’s revenue from Medicare Advantage would roughly double to $274 billion annually – a glaring conflict of interest.

“As CMS Administrator, you would be tasked with overseeing Medicare and ensuring that the tens of millions of seniors that rely on the program receive the care they deserve, including cracking down on abuses by private insurers in Medicare Advantage,” wrote the lawmakers. “The consequences of failure on your part would be grave. Billions of federal health care dollars – and millions of lives – are at stake.”

“Given your financial ties to private insurers, combined with your view that the traditional Medicare program is “highly dysfunctional” and your advocacy for eliminating it entirely, it is not clear that you are qualified for this critical job,” concluded the lawmakers.

Senator Warren is a leading voice on reining in abuses in Medicare Advantage and protecting patients:

In May 2024, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), responding to the agency’s request for information (RFI) on Medicare Advantage (MA) data and raising concerns that CMS does not collect adequate data to determine when vertically integrated insurance companies in MA may be using anti-competitive tactics to raise health care costs and pocket extra profits.
In May 2024, at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Warren called out private insurers in Medicare Advantage for accelerating the rural hospital crisis.
In March 2024, Senators Warren and Brown led their colleagues in a letter to HHS and CMS that urged the agencies to protect seniors by holding insurance companies accountable for abuses in Medicare Advantage.
In January 2024, Senator Warren and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) sent a letter to CMS, urging the agency to take administrative action to curb billions in overpayments to MA insurers.
In December 2023, Senators Warren, Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) sent a letter to the CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, raising concerns about shortfalls in CMS’s data collection and reporting practices for MA plans, and urging CMS to close data gaps to strengthen oversight of MA plans and improve care for Medicare beneficiaries.
In November 2023, Senators Warren, Cortez Masto, Cassidy, and Blackburn introduced bipartisan legislation to improve transparency of MA plans and ensure these plans are best serving the health care needs of America’s seniors. The Encounter Data Enhancement Act would require Medicare Advantage plans to report important information about how much they are actually paying for patient services and how much patients are responsible for paying out-of-pocket.
In November 2023, Senators Warren and Braun urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General to determine if vertically-integrated health care companies are hiking prescription drug costs, evading federal regulations.
In November 2023, at a Senate Finance Committee markup of the Better Mental Health Care, Lower-Cost Drugs, and Extenders Act, Senator Warren highlighted the need to do more to prioritize hearing health for seniors and strengthen transparency in Medicare Advantage, and secured commitments from Senate Finance Committee leadership to prioritize these proposals in future packages.
In October 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren called out giant MA insurers for using deceptive marketing tactics to lure seniors into the wrong plans and drown out competition from smaller insurers that may offer better coverage. Senator Warren called on CMS to act within the fullest extent of its authority to crack down on MA insurers that game the system to overcharge the government and to ensure insurers publish accurate data on patient care and out-of-pocket costs.
In May 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren highlighted the prevalence of ghost networks in Medicare Advantage plans and called for stronger oversight of the program.
In March 2023, Senator Warren sounded the alarm on a new analysis by policy experts showing that all Medicare beneficiaries – including those enrolled in Traditional Medicare – are paying higher premiums due to overpayments in MA. She sent a letter to CMS and called on the agency to finalize its proposed rule to ensure payments to MA plans accurately reflect the cost of care.
In March 2023, U.S. Senators Warren and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) sent letters to the top seven MA insurers – Humana, Centene, UnitedHealthcare, CVS/Aetna, Molina, Elevance Health, and Cigna – regarding their questionable claims that CMS’s 2024 proposed Medicare Advantage payment rules would hurt beneficiaries.
In March 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren defended CMS’s proposed adjustments to the Calendar Year 2024 MA payment rates, pushing back against giant insurance companies and their lobbyists who are peddling misinformation to protect their billions in profits and scare beneficiaries into opposing the rule.
In April 2022, Senator Warren and Representatives Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) led their colleagues in sending a letter to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure highlighting concerns about overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans that line the pockets of big insurance companies.
In February 2022, chairing a hearing of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth, Senator Warren delivered remarks about strengthening Medicare and cracking down on pharmaceutical and insurance companies’ corporate greed to pay for expanded coverage.

###

In other news, Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reports:

President-elect Donald Trump's proposed new arrangement for any company looking to expand in America garnered immediate suspicion and criticism Tuesday on social media.

In a post to his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, Trump said: "Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!!!"

This idea drew scorn and doubt from some commenters, who saw it — along with Trump's billionaire-run blue ribbon committee to advise on how to slash government programs — as the surrender of America to an oligarchy.

[. . .]

The reception on rival platform Bluesky was similar.

"A government of oligarchs that will exist to solely serve the interests of oligarchs while distracting working people with culture wars," wrote former GOP adviser turned anti-Trump strategist Ron Filipkowski.

"A government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, for the billionaires," wrote history professor Aviel Roshwald.

Tacky Trump and his tag sales on America. The corruption gets paired with the gluttony.

Over 60% of respondents on a recent poll of X owner Elon Musk favored "deleting" the funding of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The poll came after remarks from Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, who urged Congress to release $20 billion in withheld IRS funding, warning that without it, the agency may face operational challenges. Adeyemo said, "The IRS is going to potentially have to make dramatic decisions about stopping hiring and starting to budget for a world which they don't have $20 billion which will stop a lot of their progress."

Do away with oversight. Haven't we seen this? Season ten, episode 21 of FAMILY GUY -- "Tea Peter." "Freedom" from government leads Peter and the gang to learn that oversight and regulation are actually required and that without oversight and regulation, corporations will rip everyone off and destroy our world.

Elon Musk is a danger and you grasp that unless you're an idiot like Jon Stewart and Bernie Sanders.

Greg Sergent (THE NEW REPUBLIC) reports:

We have now learned, belatedly, that billionaire Elon Musk spent at least $250 million to help billionaire Donald Trump win the White House. One key part of that spending came in the form of the $20 million Musk dumped into a brazen pro-Trump propaganda campaign. The move highlights with new urgency what you might call the “information gap” -- the deficit Democrats face in the info wars, which the next Democratic National Committee chair must have a comprehensive plan to address.

Musk lavished that $20 million on a shadowy outfit called the RBG PAC, named after the late liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The PAC’s mission was to soften Trump’s position on abortion by absurdly suggesting it’s akin to RBG’s. How many low-information voters this reached is unknown. But it’s another sign that Musk -- who also transformed X/Twitter into a sprawling right-wing disinformation machine -- and the pro-Trump forces have found potent new ways to swamp the system with propaganda and communicate compellingly with politically unengaged Americans, helping cost Democrats the election and leaving them badly disarmed going forward.

So what do the candidates for DNC chair have to say about this disastrous situation? I put the question to three leading hopefuls: Wisconsin state party Chair Ben Wikler, Minnesota state Chair Ken Martin, and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley.

And this is the sort of thing we need to know. Greg's done a great job, use the link and read in full, because it's not really about what your hot button issue -- the DNC chair. It is about how you're going to address elections -- that's messaging, that's voter turnout.

As I said last week, if you agree with me on every political issue, that's great. But that's not what you'll be overseeing as DNC chair and we need to be sure that we're not falling for spin and p.r. but are instead focused on is the person qualified to chair and does the person have clear and concise answers addressing what need to do to move forward. Too often, in the past, we've been deceived by what we thought we saw from a campaign. Greg's laying down markers and he and the three hopefuls are getting at what they could do and what they need to do. As I said last week, I'm not endorsing anyone in the race.

And I am not endorsing garbage passed off as news. Meaning? I don't give a s**t -- nor should you -- what Jon Stewart did with this one in the running or how they chuckled or -- That's not what the position is about.

I'm looking one person in particular -- the one who in 2004 tried to seel us on DLC Simon Rosenberg for DNC chair. And now, twenty years later, the same idiot has learned nothing and now wants to act as though a breezy interview on THE DAILY SHOW means you're qualified to lead as DNC chair.

As bad as things get, some refuse to even try to rise to the moment. Instead they present garbage and pretend they've imparted wisdom.

So much awful is coming and the chuckle boys will be giggling while we're all dying. Mira Lazine (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Republicans in Congress have hijacked a bill authorizing national defense spending for the coming year by forcing a ban on any medical treatment for “gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization” for those under 18 under the military’s health insurance plan, TriCare. The provision could prevent military members from getting safe, effective transitional care for their transgender children.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is an annual act published by Congress that regulates how the military budget is spent; it also regulates additional military facets beyond the budget. The GOP added a provision in this year’s NDAA that regulated any gender-affirming care for minors. However, in a bipartisan compromise meeting, the aforementioned provision against gender-affirming care was revealed instead.

This version awaits a vote from the House and Senate, and will go to President Joe Biden’s desk, where he may veto or pass it. If he passes it, this would be the first federal statute restricting the LGBTQ+ community since the infamous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of the 1990’s which heavily restricted LGBTQ+ people’s membership in the military.

Chuckle boys say what? Nothing -- at least nothing of value.

But on Sunday, US House Rep Adam Smith released the following:

Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, issued the following statement regarding the release of the text of the final negotiated language for the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (FY25 NDAA).

“For the 64th consecutive year, House and Senate Armed Services Committee Democrats and Republicans worked across the aisle to craft a defense bill that invests in the greatest sources of America’s strength: service members and their families, science and technology, modernization, and a commitment to allies and partners.

“Rooted in the work of the bipartisan Quality of Life Panel, the bill delivers a 14.5 percent pay raise for junior enlisted service members and 4.5 percent pay raise for all other service members. It includes improvements for housing, health care, childcare, and spousal support. House Armed Services Democrats were successful in blocking many harmful provisions that attacked DEI programs, the LGBTQ community, and women’s access to reproductive health care. It also included provisions that required bipartisan compromise. And had it remained as such, it would easily pass both chambers in a bipartisan vote.

“However, the final text includes a provision prohibiting medical treatment for military dependents under the age of 18 who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong. This provision injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills. Speaker Johnson is pandering to the most extreme elements of his party to ensure that he retains his speakership. In doing so, he has upended what had been a bipartisan process.

“I urge the Speaker to abandon this current effort and let the House bring forward a bill—reflective of the traditional bipartisan process—that supports our troops and their families, invests in innovation and modernization, and doesn’t attack the transgender community.”

Click here to view a summary of the FY25 NDAA final text compiled by House Armed Services Committee Democrats.

###

Abby Monteil (THEM) notes:

Congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat representing California and a fellow member of the House Armed Services Committee, confirmed that he would also vote no on the measure in a statement to journalist Erin Reed’s newsletter Erin In The Morning.

“This year’s NDAA also includes harmful provisions that would attack the dignity and well-being of trans people by prohibiting coverage of medically necessary healthcare,” Khanna said. “At the same time, Congress has failed to expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) for active-duty military members and their families. We must do better to support all military families and reject these harmful policies.”

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to Fellow Democrats: Don't Throw Trans People Under the Bus

“As governor, I have vetoed numerous anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice bills, yet I still beat Mr. Trump’s handpicked candidate last fall,” Beshear said.

In a December 9 statement, Mike Zamore, the ACLU’s national director of policy and government affairs, described the provision as “a dangerous affront to the dignity and well-being of young people whose parents have dedicated their lives to this country’s armed forces.”

“Medical care should stay between families and their doctors, but this provision would baselessly and recklessly inject politics into the health care military families receive,” Zamore said. “Nobody should have to choose between serving the country and ensuring their child has the health care they need to live and thrive.”

Trans people are being scapegoated by the ignorant. People like Naomi Wolf, for example, who has no ethics and took a Phd that she didn't deserve. Her research got everything wrong. (Which is why the publishers pulped the book she tried to turn her dissertation into.) Oxford just wants to forget the whole thing -- because she didn't just get it wrong, so did the dissertation committee that ignorantly signed off on her made up research. When you're that stupid, you need someone else to hate, you need it really badly.

And that's why former feminist Naomi Wolf now attacks trans people -- it's also why she got on board the MAGA bus. And it's why she Tweets idiotic things like this:

Beng trapped RIGHT NOW in a NYC subway car underground full of women, men and and at least one toddler while a meth addict is heedlessly masturbating, is one more reason if we need one that I don’t want men in women’s bathrooms.

Huh?

What type of bathrooms does that nut job go into?

She's in a subway car with men and women (! oh, the horror, Naomi) and there's a toddler (pre-op, Naomi, is that what has you in a panic) and there's a meth addict present (Naomi's husband) who is "heedlessly" masturbating. Is that really the term you meant to use, Naomi? It's kind of a weak and non-descriptive term to hook up with masturbating. We'd ask her more questions but having become Just Another Pig for MAGA, she appears to have the 'meth addict' in a chokehold.

How does she know the person is a meth addict. And are we just supposed to stereotype the person she accuses of being a meth addict and of masturbating as a man?

Times like this make you wish Camille Paglia had punched the s**t out of Naomi in the 90s.

Punched the s**t out of her heedlessly?

Hey, remember, if you can locate a copy of Naomi's laughable PROMESCUITIES, you can read all about how in college, she was hanging at the frat and, next morning, eating breakfast and she'd heard the rape and heard about it but Naomi was such a tramp she didn't go to campus security but instead just laughed and started at the 'Cinderella slipper' the rape survivor left behind -- no, Naomi didn't call it that because she's a really bad writer. Maybe she can re-edit the bad book and add "Cinderella slipper"? And if you want to really experience her racism, read Naomi's FIRE WITH FIRE and pay close attention to how she describes Black women. She was always a racist and always defending men who were accused of rape. She was never really a feminist and that's why, when she attempted to take down Harold Bloom, so many refused to stand with her.

But for the biggest laugh of all, just look at her picture below.

Even at her best, she was gruesome. Not unlike Tara Reade, in fact. Although I'm not sure Tara Reade has Naomi's facial hair problem. When we started calling Naomi out years ago, people didn't realize what she was. They do now. And her grifting off the actual academic work of Judith N. Shklar is now widely known.

Speaking of trash, how is this considered ethical or, for that matter, legal:

MAGA Republicans often threaten members of their party with primary challenges if they stand up to the president-elect. And far-right MAGA attorney Mike Davis, during an interview for Politico's Playbook column, threatened non-compliant Senate Republicans with another tactic: hiring private investigators to probe their backgrounds.

Politico's Adam Wren, in a Playbook column published on December 8, reports that Davis is "mobilizing his Article III Project to become the tip of the spear in building pressure from the base on Republican senators to confirm" former Fox News host Pete Hegseth (Trump's pick for defense secretary).

You are going to research someone? No problem there. But you're going to use the information to blackmail -- and that is the term -- a sitting member of Congress to vote the way you want them to vote?

That would be blackmail.

Which is a crime and the MAGA nut has confessed publicly to his intent.

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "It's All About The Recounts" went up last night. The following sites updated:

Tabitha Speaks, Hegseth whimpers, hate fuels Trumpers

First up, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "It's All About The Recounts"

Ha ha. Is that Isaiah's first Kari Lake comic? I knew it was her the second I saw it. :D

Speaking of nominees, Josh Wingrove (BLOOMBERG NEWS) notes:

Pete Hegseth said President-elect Donald Trump urged him to “keep fighting” in his quest to become the next secretary of Defense, as a key meeting appeared to bolster his path to confirmation.

“The left is trying to turn this into a trial in the media, a show trial, and we’re not going to let that happen,” Hegseth said in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Monday night. “This is not a trivial process.”

What a liar. The thrice married jerk has a record of assaulting women. That's not "trivial." He had a booze problem. He's not qualified for the office.

He can't even be man enough now and own up to it and instead, like the wittle bitty baby he is, he blames the left.

Go hide behind Mommy's skirt again, Petey.

What a piece of garbage, what a sorry excuse for a man.

It is just further proof that he is not qualified.

Although the first clue he wasn't qualified? That Trump nominated him in the first place. Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reports:

President-elect Donald Trump managed a narrow electoral victory in a sharply divided country — and it's unclear exactly what voters brought him in to do. Many voters have cited inflation as their driving factor. But not all of them have.

In conversation with a New York Times focus group released on Tuesday, many voters who backed Trump specifically said he has a mandate to remove immigrants from the country.

Trump, said Kentucky house cleaner Direnda, 66, has been elected to "get rid of all these immigrants that have come into major cities and have caused problems."

She added, "My father is from Iceland. He came here. He was in the military. He spent four years in the American military. He became a citizen, and he worked for it. He didn’t sneak in to do it. I have seen a lot of theft and crime, and it revolves around people that are not documented."

Asked if she wants to see mass deportation, she replied, "I really do, because it does throw the United States in a whirlwind."

Nicholas, a 20-year-old driver from New York, agreed, saying Trump was elected "to defend the people of our country. Illegal immigration, now, that is something that does affect me personally. I live in South Brooklyn, where we have the infamous Floyd Bennett Field migrant shelter. And during a snowstorm or a storm last year, the migrants were brought to my former alma mater to sleep there for the night, and people could not go to school the next day because we had to house them."

What a hateful bunch of trash. Let's start with the old woman who wants you to know her daddy served in the military. Did you? Then STFU. She was born in 1958. She could have enlisted in 1978 at the age of 20 if the military was so damn important to her. You have never heard me bring up my family's military service or the fact that about half of my family is either police or fire.

Then you've got the whiny baby who missed a day of school. Wah! The people were homeless. Did you learn nothing of Christian charity in your pathetic and weak ass life.

I have no sympathy for hate merchants nor do I have any tolerance. My Church works on this issue and has since before I was born. I was raised to understand that part of being an American is helping others. Clearly a lot of people go to a 'church' that's actually run by the devil.

Be sure to read Ava and C.I.'s "Media: An idiot says he'll sue over art evaluation, two other idiots defend Trump's nominees." And I think Betty's "We got a lemon here in the US" pairs well with this video.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Tuesday, December 10, 2024. Satan Trump and the bad people he wants to install in his administration.

That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Mama Hegseth" and it went up yesterday. Mommy Hegseth is on the world stage defending her baby boy because he can't fight his own battles. Grasp that, because the world does. No one has ever seen anything like it. A nearly 50 year old man hiding behind Mommy's skirt.

I think we last noted this issue in Thursday's "Iraq snapshot" but it's only gotten worse.

How much of an adult are you if you're hiding behind your Mommy? And is he on a bender now? He clearly has serious issues with, at best, problem drinking. Being the joke of the entire world, is that pushing him to drink?

Robert McCoy (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:

Hegseth is currently facing a raft of scandals: He was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017. (Hegseth was not charged but paid the woman a financial settlement.) His drinking habits as a co-host of Fox & Friends reportedly concerned his Fox News colleagues. The New Yorker recently covered a whistleblower report detailing Hegseth’s excessive drinking and financial mismanagement while running a veterans nonprofit.

“Yeah, look. I think that Pete is a good man,” Marshall said. “He is a man of integrity now. He absolutely has my support. I think that these anonymous character assassinations by the media are way over-reported—”

“But some of them weren’t anonymous,” Roberts cut in. “Well, the ones that I’ve seen are anonymous,” said Marshall, before diverting the topic away from Hegseth’s scandals.

Marshall’s emphasis on the anonymity of the accusations echoes similar defenses of Hegseth by Senators Lindsey Graham and Rick Scott, who last week attempted to minimize the allegations plaguing Hegseth by pointing to their anonymous sources.

Pushing back against this, MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin wrote a blog post last week, noting that anonymous sources are integral to the functioning of the free press. The identities of anonymous sources are, after all, “known to the journalists reporting them,” and the accusations are independently verified or corroborated.

“And, of course,” Rubin wrote, “at least one of the anonymous people featured in reporting about Hegseth isn’t anonymous to Hegseth: The Jane Doe who has accused him of rape and with whom he signed an agreement.”

Not all of the revelations against Hegseth are anonymously sourced, either. As The New York Times reported last month, Hegseth’s mother in 2018 called her son “an abuser of women,” whose “abuse over the years to women (dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling) needs to be called out,” in a private email to him that she now disavows.

Lawrence O'Donnell addressed the nomination last night on MSNBC.

Meanwhile how to combat crazy? Supporting free speech. Illinois's legislature and Governor JB Prtizker have already taken steps to protect free speech from book bannings and now another state is stepping up. Lexi Lonas Cochran (THE HILL) reports:

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed a law Monday prohibiting book banning in state libraries and schools.

The law says school boards and the governing boards of public libraries need to create standards for how books are removed from shelves and how complaints are addressed.

Books will not be allowed to be removed based on “+the origin, background, or views of the material or of its authors,” nor can books be censored based “on a disagreement with a viewpoint, idea, or concept, or solely because an individual finds certain content offensive, unless they are restricting access to developmentally inappropriate material for certain age groups.”

The governor is also providing legal protections for librarians from civil or criminal lawsuits around book banning.

“The Freedom to Read Act cements New Jersey’s role on the forefront of preventing book bans and protecting the intellectual freedom of our educators and students. Across the nation, we have seen attempts to suppress and censor the stories and experiences of others. I’m proud to amplify the voices of our past and present, as there is no better way for our children to prepare for the future than to read freely,” Murphy said in a statement.

One of the biggest opponents to free speech is hate merchant Tulsi Gabbard whom Satan Trump has announced he wants to be the Director of National Intelligence -- that would put the unqualified crackpot over 18 agencies and over our national intelligence.

At LGBTQ NATION, Daniel Villarreal does a look at Tulsi Gabbard's record on LGBTQ+ issues. I'm not really impressed. He calls it a "mixed record" and based on his sources it is. Her record is far worse than he grasps. He did a good survey out of existing articles on this topic. Most people have ignored her as she's become nuttier and nuttier. Imane Khelif is the female boxer that the fright-wing spread lies about a few months back. Over a month after the lie was exposed as a lie -- lies that Imane was not born a woman -- Trashy Garbage was Tweeting the lie -- after it was known to be a lie. She does crap like that all the time now, for over two years, while the media has ignored her hatred and her garbage. She's a trashy whore who has spent her life lying about who she is. She lied that she was anti-war. She's not. Iraq Veterans Against the War? An anti-war group. Tulsi throughout 2019 posed as anti-war. And she tricked a lot of people. But someone who's anti-war? They'd take a moment or two to note the Iraqi people and how they suffered in the illegal war. We pointed this out about the liar back in 2019.

She's a trashy liar. And her freaky life includes not just the fact that she's in a cult but also that she keeps sticking her nose into parents' business. She wants to tell parents what they can and can't do. This single woman with no kids. She's obsessed with America's children. Makes me wonder if the cult she's in has a history of sexually abusing children.

Many cults do and you'll usually find members of such cults pretending to want to 'save' children -- but the reality is that they're sexually abusing them.

She's 43 and she has no kids. But she's obsessed with kids. Obsessed. What's going on there, Tulsi?

Lauren Sforza (NEW JERSEY ADVANCED MEDIA) notes Bret Stephen's most recent NYT Column:

Trump has been quickly announcing his picks for his second administration, causing a stir among GOP lawmakers who believe some of his picks are controversial and underqualified. Stephens said in a new column published Monday that the “gold medal” for the worst Trump pick so far goes to Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic lawmaker who was tapped last month to be Trump’s Director of National Security.

In his weekly conversation with The New York Times’ Gail Collins, Stephens labeled Gabbard as the “director of national idiocy” if she is to be confirmed.

“Tulsi Gabbard is my gold medalist. Nominating an apologist for former Syrian dictator and current Russia resident Bashar al-Assad as director of national intelligence means that if confirmed in the job, we’d need to rename her job title “’director of national idiocy,’” he said.

Gabbard has been under fire for weeks after Trump revealed his pick for the top role. She has especially been criticized amid the ongoing conflict in Syria, where the government of Bashar Assad has collapsed in recent days. She has faced backlash for her 2017 meeting with Assad, who is backed by Russian, Iranian and Iranian-allied forces.

VoteVets highlights this statement from retired Maj Gen Paul Eaton:

“Putting Tulsi Gabbard in charge of our intelligence, which keeps Americans safe here and abroad, is dangerous and reckless. In Gabbard, Trump has a complete and total loyalist who will use and wield our intelligence to Trump’s benefit, not to protect America and our Constitution.

“In combination with many of Trump’s other appointments and nominations, we see a picture coming together of an administration made up of unqualified, marginal zealots who will constantly be trying to please their leader rather than fulfill their oath to put the Constitution and the safety of the American people above the president’s ego. Many warned that Trump would dispense of all guardrails in a second term, so every whim of his would be carried out without question or protest. We are now seeing exactly what that looks like.”

She is a security risk. Rhian Lubin (Independent) reports:

Ex-Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger joked that Tulsi Gabbard could offer ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad “safe harbor” in her home.

Kinzinger, who made the jibe the day before Assad’s regime fell, has been outspoken about Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence following a 2017 visit to Syria, where she met with the tyrant when she was a Democratic House member.

“Wonder if @TulsiGabbard will offer Assad safe harbor at her house?” the former Illinois representative quipped on X. “They are great friends.”

When Assad’s whereabouts were unknown after he fled, Kinzinger said: “Someone check @TulsiGabbard[’s] house.”

After Assad’s 50-year regime was toppled on Sunday, Kinzinger claimed that it was “Tulsi’s nightmare scenario.” “Her hearing for DNI will be BRUTAL and she won’t get in,” he said in another post.

And then there's Junior. Satan wants to install Junior as the Secretary of Health Human Services. Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following regarding that announcement.

Murray, a longtime congressional leader on health care who has led hearings on addressing vaccine hesitancy, spoke out forcefully against RFK Jr.’s nomination

***PHOTOS and BROLL of the roundtable HERE**

Seattle, WA —Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, held a roundtable discussion at UW Medicine on the importance of scientific research and vaccines—especially for children—and spoke about how Trump’s pick of RFK Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would threaten Americans’ health and safety. As Murray made clear, RFK Jr. has expressed countless views that run counter to basic truth, facts, and scientific evidence—and there is much he could do as HHS Secretary to create total chaos and cause real harm to families, from firing top scientists and researchers, to ripping away the approval—or insurance coverage—of all kinds of vaccines and medicines, to ending our focus on infectious disease research, as he has threatened to do.

Participants at the roundtable included: Dr. Beth Ebel, professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, attending physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and adjunct professor in the Department of Epidemiology; Dr. Helen Chu, a UW Medicine physician and professor of Medicine and Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and an adjunct assistant professor of Epidemiology; Dr. Marion Pepper, Chair of UW Medicine’s Department of Immunology; and Samantha Kunze Garcia, a mom and nurse at Intergalactic Pediatrics. Prior to the roundtable, Murray also toured the Cell Analysis Facility at UW Medicine.

“Thanks to vaccines, policies that require insurance to cover vaccines, and programs that make sure children can get vaccinated at no cost, we have saved countless lives. But dangerous misinformation and conspiracies have led to backsliding in recent years,” Senator Murray said. “If we don’t stop the misinformation and ensure people trust vaccines we have used for years, we will see more outbreaks. But in DC, we are seeing trust in vaccines become political—and we are seeing anti-vax conspiracy theorists be nominated to some of our most critical public health posts.”

“Elevating RFK Jr. to Health Secretary won’t just give dangerous anti-vaccine conspiracies an unprecedented platform, it will give him real power to undermine vaccines. He could rip away approval for medicines, including vaccines—and directly influence the board that decides which vaccines must be covered by insurance. He has threatened to end crucial infectious disease research. He plans to fire top scientists and researchers—setting lifesaving cures back decades. And could empower political appointees who share his dangerous views,” Murray continued. “We can’t let the conspiracy theorists drive this debate and undermine public health. That’s why I want to make sure the conversation includes the voices of parents in Washington state who don’t want to see vaccine access undermined, and experts who can speak to how vaccines are safe, effective, and lifesaving.”

When President-elect Donald J. Trump announced his intention to select Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of HHS, Murray immediately and forcefully condemned the move. As a longtime appropriator and member of the Senate HELP Committee, Murray has long fought to boost biomedical research, strengthen public health infrastructure, and make health care more affordable and accessible. Over her years as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, she has secured billions of dollars in increases for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, and during her time as Chair of the HELP Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her PREVENT Pandemics Act to advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. As Chair of the HELP Committee, Murray was also instrumental in crafting the American Rescue Plan including its landmark investments in public health and health care. Senator Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments. Murray is also the lead sponsor of the Public Health Infrastructure Saves Lives Act (PHISLA), legislation to establish $4.5 billion in dedicated, annual funding for a grant program to build up and maintain the nation’s public health system across the board.

In 2019, Senator Murray co-led a bipartisan hearing in the HELP Committee on vaccine hesitancy and spoke about the importance of addressing vaccine skepticism and getting people the facts they need to keep their families and communities safe and healthy. Ahead of the hearing, as multiple states were facing measles outbreaks in under-vaccinated areas, Murray sent a bipartisan letter with former HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) pressing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health on their efforts to promote vaccination and vaccine confidence.

###

Those are three people that Trump wants to see approved. This follows the failure of the Matt Gaetz and Mike pointed out how Gaetz punked Trump on that:

In news of another Trump would be, THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS' editorial board offers:

Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress last month after representing the Florida Panhandle for eight years in order to forestall the House Ethics Committee from publishing a likely damning report about his behavior involving a sexual relationship with an underage girl and for paying for sex. That Donald Trump said he wanted Gaetz to be the U.S. attorney general (a truly horrible idea) was just a convenient way for Gaetz to stop the report.

The ethics panel report still must be published and two failed close votes on the House floor Thursday evening only means we still have to wait.

The explanation of Gaetz’s departure comes from former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who went on national TV Wednesday. McCarthy, who Gaetz toppled from power, has no love for Gaetz, but says he’s not alone, as “I don’t know who really likes him.”

The ex-speaker said Gaetz “wanted an excuse to resign” as the bipartisan ethics panel was due to release its findings on Nov. 15, a Friday: “I blame Matt for lying to the president because Matt needed to get out of Congress before the ethics report came out on Friday. I don’t believe he told President Trump that.”

Trump tapped Gaetz two days before, on Wednesday, Nov. 13, and Gaetz immediately submitted a letter of resignation. Neither his hasty exit from Congress nor having his AG nomination explode should stop the publication of the report.

I thought the report should have been released. I'm not surprised he managed to trick Donald Trump but the fact that he did means the report should be released. Joanne Haner (THE HILL) adds:

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) accused former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) of lying to President-elect Trump about an unreleased report about him compiled by the House Ethics Committee.

“No one thought that [the nomination] would pass,” McCarthy said Sunday on Fox News. “I blame Matt Gaetz for lying to the president about his ethics report. People know that. That’s why he made the motion against me. People know.”

Guess MAGA only pretends to care about Trump. Gaez punks Trump and gets Trump off to a bad start and MAGA rolls over like the dog they really are and refuse to demand Gaetz face punishment by Congress releasing the report.

The following sites updated: