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Monday, May 12, 2025

Senate report

Let's start with an important video from Coach D.

Starting with good news:

Senate Democrats are trying to force a vote in response to reports that President Trump will accept a luxury jet from Qatar that will be retrofitted as the next Air Force One.

Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are pushing a measure that would target the gift, which is valued at $400 million, over questions about foreign influence and national security.

“The Constitution is clear: elected officials, like the president, cannot accept large gifts from foreign governments without consent from Congress. Air Force One is more than just a plane — it’s a symbol of the presidency and of the United States itself,” the quartet said in a statement, arguing that it “creates a clear conflict of interest and undermines public trust in our government” on top of influence and national security issues.

“No one — not even the president — is above the law,” they said. “This week, we will ask the Senate to vote to reiterate a basic principle: no one should use public service for personal gain through foreign gifts.”

Let's see some real action on this. Still on Senate Democrats, Alexander Bolton (THE HILL) reports:

Democratic senators are having private conversations about how to help Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) in the wake of an explosive report that the first-term Pennsylvania senator is behaving erratically and in a way that may pose a danger to himself or others, according to sources familiar with those discussions.

Two Democratic senators told The Hill they are talking with colleagues about how to best help Fetterman, who they fear is struggling to cope with the emotional rigors of serving in Congress, a stressful job even for the fittest individuals who often find themselves the targets of political attacks.

“Every time I see him, I’m worried about him,” said a Democratic senator who requested anonymity.

The senator cited a recent report in New York Magazine that Fetterman’s former chief of staff alerted the senator’s doctor at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that he was “on a bad trajectory” and might not “be with us for much longer” unless something changes.

“I know we’re all in touch with each other having conversations about how to intervene. I haven’t heard anybody say they’re not worried about it,” the senator said of the discussions among senators about how to help Fetterman.

Are they being for real? If they are, just revealing that much to the press is going to tick FettyCrap off.

Staying with Senate news, Lisandra Gomez-Tate (2PARAGRAPHS) reports:

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is criticizing President Donald Trump for saying he would accept a luxury jumbo jet (valued at $400 million) as a gift from Qatar, and for reportedly accepting $2 billion from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) via the Trump cryptocurrency.

In the Oval Office today, when asked about ethical concerns regarding the acceptance of the plane from a foreign country, Trump said that only someone “stupid” would turn down such an offer.

He said: "I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person say, ‘No, we don't want a free, very expensive airplane.' But it was - I thought it was a great gesture."

Chris Murphy wrote on X: “I will block any arms sale to a nation that is doing direct personal business with Trump. We should have a full Senate debate and vote. UAE’s investment in Trump crypto and Qatar’s gifting of a plane is nuclear grade graft. An unacceptable corruption of our foreign policy.”

By the way, I already have my "Idiot for the Week." I don't see how anyone can top X who has already embarrassed himself like no one else could ever do.

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

Monday, May 12, 2025. Chump wants to suspend habeas corpus, he's not arresting mayors, and threatening to arrest members of Congress, he's taking a multi-million dollar gift from a foreign government, and so much more.

Just a reminder to start the day, "According to a recent ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, 45% of respondents give him a failing grade, while only 23% view his presidency positively."

Donald Chump is a failure. A corrupt and crooked failure. Yesterday, the world was rocked by the news of just what a whore Donald Chump actually is. Peter Wade (ROLLING STONE) reports:

The Trump administration is getting ready to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar to replace Air Force One until Donald Trump's second term ends, when ownership of the plane will be shifted to his presidential library foundation, ABC News reported, citing sources familiar with the agreement.

Trump is scheduled to visit Qatar next week where the gifted plane - which has been described as "a flying palace" worth $400 million - is anticipated to be announced. If the deal goes through, it would be the most expensive gift ever offered to the United States by a foreign government. Trump personally toured the plane in February when it was at West Palm Beach International Airport.

The emoluments clause of the Constitution bars federal officeholders from "accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State" without approval from Congress. But administration lawyers have given the gift the green light.

That's what happens when someone slaps a ten cents sticker on Chump's saggy, fat ass.

No real president has ever done that, nor would they. Because in the past, we've never had such a cheap, dirty whore in the Oval Office. He degrades the country with his very presence. His greed knows no bounds. Everything is for sale with this whore.

Yasmeen Hamadeh (THE DAILY BEAST) notes both Dems and Republicans in Congress are outraged by the Slut In Chief and Chump paused in the midst of his Walk of Shame to to ran and rave but whatever he had to say was ignored as everyone noticed the semen leaking out of his ass.

Chump responded with nonsensical anger that no one could understand. That might have been in part due to Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth douching him at the time in an effort to thwart a pregnancy after Chump spread for Qatar. Maybe Karoline Levitt can update us all on that this afternoon?

In the meantime, Sarah Fortinsky (THE HILL) quotes US House Rep Jamie Raskin stating, "Trump must seek Congress’ consent to take this $300 million gift from Qatar." Yamiche Alcindor, Gordon Lubold, Vaughn Hillyard and Garrett Haake (NBC NEWS) quote US House Rep Richie Torres, "Rather than enforcing ethics, the Attorney General has affixed the Department of Justice’s seal of approval to a transaction that flagrantly violates both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause." Franco Ordoñez (NPR) quotes Senator Chris Murphy, "This isn't a good idea even if the plane was being donated to the U.S. government. But Trump GET TO KEEP THE PLANE??? It's simply a cash payment to Trump in exchange for favors. Just wildly illegal." Julianne McShane (MOTHER JONES) adds:

Obviously, despite the administration’s apparent self-delusion that they are not running afoul of any laws or ethics guidelines, questions abound about the ethics of the gift of the new plane—and what Qataris will expect in return. The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, for example, prohibits any person holding elected office from accepting gifts “from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Several Democrats—including those on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.)—pointed to that rule as evidence that accepting the gift would be illegal. Kathleen Clark, a law professor at the Washington University School of Law, told the Associated Press the news is “outrageous,” adding that the gift is the “logical, inevitable, unfortunate consequence of Congress and the Supreme Court refusing to enforce” the Emoluments Clause.

But as we well know by now, the possibility of breaking laws does not seem to deter the president—who was found guilty on 34 felony counts in the hush-money case in which he covered up payments to Stormy Daniels—from doing whatever he wants.

The Democratic National Committee issued the following:

Donald Trump is preparing to accept a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar — possibly “the most valuable gift” ever extended to a U.S. president. While working families brace for higher costs and empty shelves, Trump is still focusing on enriching himself and his billionaire backers.

NEW: Donald Trump is set to receive a luxury jet from Qatar — which may be the “biggest foreign gift ever.”

ABC News: “In what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government, the Trump administration is preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar — a gift that is to be available for use by President Donald Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement told ABC News.

“The highly unusual — unprecedented — arrangement is sure to raise questions about whether it is legal for the Trump administration, and ultimately, the Trump presidential library foundation, to accept such a valuable gift from a foreign power. …

“According to aviation industry experts, the estimated value of the aircraft Trump will inherit is about $400 million …”

Trump gutted anti-corruption enforcement on Day One and installed a loyalist in key oversight positions, while enriching himself and his billionaire Cabinet.

Associated Press: “[Trump is] opening his second term by rolling back prohibitions on executive branch employees accepting major gifts from lobbyists, and ditching bans on lobbyists seeking executive branch jobs or vice versa …

“Trump issued a Day 1 executive order that rescinded one on ethics that former President Joe Biden signed when he took office in January 2021.”

CBS News: “President Trump on Monday removed the director of the Office of Government Ethics, the independent agency responsible for overseeing ethics rules and financial disclosures for the executive branch. …

“Mr. Trump [tapped] Doug Collins, a Republican former member of Congress and current Department of Veterans Affairs secretary, to be the acting director of OGE.”

Vox: “Trump’s for-profit presidency”

New York Times: “The move by Mr. Trump and his family was immediately condemned by ethics lawyers who said they could not recall a more explicit profiteering effort by an incoming president.

“‘It is literally cashing in on the presidency — creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office’ said Adav Noti, executive director of Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit ethics group. ‘It is beyond unprecedented.’”

Many Americans who bought Trump’s meme coin are losing money — while Trump and his billionaire friends profit off them.

Washington Post: “At least 67,000 new or small-time crypto investors like Davis have bet on Trump’s meme coin, pouring $15 million into the volatile venture endorsed by Trump and benefiting his personal wealth, a Washington Post analysis found.

“But virtually all of them bought near the coin’s peak, just before the inauguration, and 80 percent of them have seen the value of their holdings nosedive, The Post’s analysis shows. One buyer who spent $10,000 has already lost, on paper, more than $8,000. …

“The firm [Chainalysis] told The Post that 58 investors have so far made more than $10 million each in profits from the coin, for a total of roughly $1.1 billion — but that 764,000 other investors, most of whom had small holdings, have lost money on the coin. …

“Three Trump-affiliated wallets have received about $43 million in fees since the coin’s debut, according to a Post analysis of data from Flipside. Those wallets have also made roughly $312 million in crypto sales.”

When he whored as a private citizen, that was one thing. When Chump whores as president of the United States, it turns the entire country into a whore house. He's disgusting. Simon Tisdall (GUARDIAN) explains:

Donald Trump is accustomed to getting his own way. That could change next week when he’s confronted by the mess he’s making in the Middle East. As he begins a three-day trip to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, the US president is promising great things. As ever, he’s delusional. The reality is that reckless, incoherent and neglectful US regional policies are failing across the board. A fundamental course correction is urgently required.

Gulf leaders have the leverage to set Trump straight, if they decide to use it. He relies on them to an unprecedented degree – far more than on Europe – as diplomatic interlocutors, security partners and financial backers. His approach to Palestine, which is on the brink of a second Nakba (catastrophe), is a mix of prejudice, cruelty and sheer ignorance. Without Arab help, the US and Israel may remain trapped indefinitely in a destructive policy cul-de-sac.

Trump knows he cannot afford to ignore the views of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and his Gulf counterparts on Gaza, Syria and Yemen. They oppose war with Iran, as previously threatened by the US and Israel. Trump needs them as allies in his trade and tariff feud with China. Gulf diplomats hosted the Ukraine-Russia peace talks he personally promoted. He is desperate to keep oil prices low. And he covets multibillion dollar Middle East investment deals and arms sales.

Remember, Gulf leaders, Chump puts out!

For foreign leaders, anyway. Not for the American people. He just screws them over. Peter Aitken (NEWSWEEK) notes, "Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick hit the Sunday morning talk shows to reassure Americans that President Donald Trump's tariff plan is going to work out in the long term as dock workers and truckers report job cuts due to falling imports. [. . .] Lutnick dismissed concerns about lost jobs and long-term economic outlook and pointed to a recent agreement with the United Kingdom as proof that Trump's plan is working -- slowly, but surely." That deal was already in place. And is Lutnick or Chump going to cover your bills while you wait for the economy to turn around -- while you wait for the economy Chump destroyed to turn around?

Christopher Bucktin (IRISH STAR) observes:

Donald Trump has decided to cease his trade war with China following warnings from American business leaders that US store shelves could be empty within weeks. This reversal comes as the White House is increasingly pressured over the economic impact of its tariffs.

Trump's assault on foreign trade had nearly halted activity at major US ports and left retailers scrambling to secure goods for the crucial summer season. In a joint statement today, the US and China declared a 90-day suspension of mutual tariffs while negotiators attempt to reach a more comprehensive deal.

As part of this agreement, America will lower tariffs on Chinese goods from 145 per cent to 30 per cent, and China will reduce its duties on American imports from 125 per cent to 10 per cent. This action follows urgent pleas from US CEOs, who have recently warned Trump that supply chains are freezing up and that store shelves could start going empty within a month.

Kaitlan Collins, Samantha Waldenberg and Tierney Sneed (CNN) report:

President Donald Trump has been personally involved in discussions inside the administration over potentially suspending habeas corpus, a legal procedure that allows people to challenge their detention in court, two people familiar with the consideration told CNN.

One of Trump’s top aides, Stephen Miller, confirmed publicly Friday that the administration was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, adding that it “depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.”

Both the private discussions and Miller’s public comments show this is under serious consideration inside the West Wing.

Shania Shelton (CNN) explains:

Lee Kovarsky, law professor at the University of Texas and expert on habeas corpus, said it would be a “national historical disaster.”

“The executive could just detain you, and there would be no recourse,” he said. “Obviously they would do it to try to detain certain non citizens, but there’s no reason why it’s limited to them.”

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Friday the administration was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus and it “depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.”

But the Constitution allows habeas corpus to be suspended only when “in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

“The Constitution makes clear that suspension of habeas corpus is to be reserved for actual rebellion or invasion posing the most dire threats to public safety. And Congress has never passed a law authorizing deportations without any court involvement, as Miller suggests,” CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig said.

Kovarsky said the reason why suspension of habeas corpus is so restricted “is precisely because it’s so severe.”

“You have no right, to a court, to say that you’re being unlawfully detained. So in a way, the cash value of your substantive rights is zero if you don’t have a judge to evaluate them,” he said.

In other news, Donald Chump's no longer just arresting judges, he's now arresting mayors. Former US Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the latest crisis on MSNBC.

And here is Mayor Ras Baraka speaking on his arrest.

Not only did they arrest the mayor, they are threatening to arrest members of Congress. Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) reports:

During an appearance on CNN Saturday morning where she was tasked with defendingthe questionable arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka by a mob of armed ICE agents outside of an DHS facility, a spokesperson for the agency stated there are plans to arrest more lawmakers in the coming days.

Speaking with host Victor Blackwell, Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at DHS and former advisor to failed GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, kept insisting that Mayor Baraka was arrested for "storming" the facility despite video showing him being taken into custody outside the chain-link gate.

After she grimly recited that the mayor and members of Congress who were also in attendance "put law enforcement at risk, this actually put the detainees, as well, at risk," she added more arrests would be forthcoming.

This is Chump Land where Alien Musk's Nazi salute becomes a little more common with each day.

Meanwhile, meet the Enemy? As we asked Saturday, exactly what outlet on the left is for Democrats? We know it's not JACOBIN, we know it's not THE NATION, we know it's not IN THESE TIMES, we know it's not THE PROGRESSIVE, we know it's not COMMON DREAMS. Those are all Socialists outlets.

So what does that leave us?

THE NEW REPUBLIC?

Good guess but there's a name on the masthead that's DSA. And despite being DSA, before he joined THE NEW REPUBLIC, he worked for SLATE where, unknown to his editors, he was also DSA. That matters because? He took money to write about DSA and did so without ever disclosing he himself was DSA. In fact, he pretends he's not DSA in the 'report' he wrote for SLATE.

Well that's just one person. Right?

Right?

You know as a feminist, I try to be supportive women but I've never liked women who are overgrown girls that fall in love with their much older professor and marry them.

Wait! Did someone just say Liza Featherstone!

That Democratic Socialist of America has already been deployed for 2028.

Liza's a curious satellite of her more famous husband Doug Henwood. Professor Doug Henwood. A professional scold who's had a very little listened to PACIFICA RADIO program for decades.

If you don't know Liza, consider yourself lucky. She's a 'feminist.' She says she is, anyway.

But she's only deployed to attack women.

THE NEW REPUBLIC has her attacking Kamala Harris.

When you read her column -- no link to trash -- you may recall THE YOUNG TURKS' Ana going off on the same rant. Again, what all the people -- all of them -- covering THE YOUNG TURKS never tell you in all the hours they spend covering TYT is the Ana and Cenk were Socialists. That's why Ana was the host of the JACOBIN podcast.

MAGA is not a hard transition for DSAers. Which is why John Fetterman might just be the next to transition.

Liza wants you to know -- as Ana did before -- that it's a 'hell no!' to a second run for Kamala.

As a feminist, you understand, Liza's against her.

All she does is attack women. That's her whole con job. She's Alan Colmes on FOX "NEWS" but her act is to attack women. She was never more cited and published than in 2016 when she was used non-stop to attack Hillary Clinton.

Read her column in vain for the part where she discloses that she's not a Democrat, she's a Socialist.

Ask yourself why THE NEW REPUBLIC is publishing a Socialist attack on Kamala that's presented as a Democratic attack on Kamala?

Ask yourself why?

Who benefits from that?

Readers?

No, readers are lied to yet again.

And Liza pops up yet again to start attacking women so that the men she serves can then hide behind her and lie with something like, "As feminist Liza Featherstone has noted . . ."

She's a con artist.

The following sites updated:

Friday, May 09, 2025

Idiot of the Week

Idiot of the week? Sometimes it is rough. There are so many idiots in public life. But some weeks, you get a moron who is so far beyond the others, that the choice is easy.

Easy? I think this week's pick has been called that many times. Nicole Shanahan, come on down.

No, no, Nicole. No. Stop. Listen to me, I said, "Come on down," I didn't just say, "Come!" Put your skirt down, walk up here and accept your award.

Who is Nicole Shanahan? The original model for Kanye's "Gold Digger."

She came from nothing and didn't have work skills. So she decided, I'm on my back in bed anyway, might as well earn some money.

She married well but divorced better. And skipping through a daisy chain of rich men left her rich with money -- but short on self-respect.

She got dressed and stepped on the national stage when lunatic Robert Kennedy Junior picked her to be his running mate. Grasp that Tulsi Gabbard -- who my mom has rightly dubbed Trashy Garbage -- had already turned Junior down. Grasp that. Tulsi -- of all people -- was smart enough to turn Junior down. Nicole wasn't.

And she then started investing her 'pin money' into the campaign.

She quickly revealed herself to be a raging lunatic. How much of a lunatic?

MAGA Woody Harrleson's her friend. People do know that, right? Woody's a creep and anti-vax? That he's a MAGA nut? I see him with closet case Matthew doing commercials and I always wonder, do their fans know? Because they're both MAGA boys who try to hide it but everyone in their industry knows. (I live at C.I.'s, I hear all the gossip).

So crazy Nicole was in the news after the failed campaign only once. It was when she started threatening senators that if they didn't vote for Junior to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, she would use all that money she made on her back to fund opponents who would defeat them.

Poor Nicole. She though the laughable run had made her respectable.

It hadn't. Then a number of women in California society who are respectable black balled her across the board. Black balled her with the left, the center and the right. Pointed out that Nicole's actually cash poor of late due to some bad investments and, hey, she usually makes her money stealing a rich man from a woman. And all doors closed in Nicole's face.

Maybe that's why she no longer cares about how she looks?

She looked crazy before but now she's bat s**t insane. She's upset that Chump pulled his nomination of Casey Means for Surgeon General. Fenit Nirappil (WASHINGTON POST) reports:

Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s running mate during his presidential campaign, said she was promised that the siblings would not work in health agencies if she backed Kennedy for the health secretary role.

“I don’t know if RFK very clearly lied to me, or what is going on. It has been clear in recent conversations that he is reporting to someone regularly who is controlling his decisions (and it isn’t President Trump),” Shanahan posted on X. “With regards to the siblings, there is something very artificial and aggressive about them, almost like they were bred and raised Manchurian assets.”

Insane. You heard that nonsense from Chump supporters . . . when he was out of office. Now he's in office and even having their Big Fat Mommy Chump in the White House doesn't stop their whack job conspiracies.

Did Junior lie to her? She doesn't know. But she knows he 'reports' to someone -- a controller!!!! And it's not Chump!!!!

For more on the Idiot of the Week, see the group post Wally, Cedric, Betty, Ann, Isaiah and C.I. did last night:

Thomas Friedman is a Great Man

Nicole Shanahan thought someone needed to hear from her

The World Today Just Nuts

The dream team's breaking up!!!

Cedric's Big Mix

She steps away from her street corner to work the press

Ann's Mega Dub

Maybe her pimp will protect her?

The Common Ills

A backwater deal -- was it a bribe?

The Daily Jot

THIS JUST IN! LOOK WHO CRAWLED OUT FROM UNDER MATTRESS!

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

Friday, May 9, 2025. Two -- count 'em -- two Chump nominees flame out in the same day, Chump admits how weak and tired he truly is yet pulls it together long enough to try to con people on 'deals' he's making, and much more.

Lawrence O'Donnell broke down reality last night on MSNBC.

Lawrence O'Donnell: And today Donald Trump surrendered and withdrew his choice for confirmation of that position. And while he was at it, Donald Trump admitted that, in effect, that he's just too old and too weak to do his job.

Donald Chump: I can only lift that little phone so many times in a day

Lawrence O'Donnell: That's how Donald Trump explained his inability to get the fifty votes he needs from Republican senators plus the vice president to achieve the senate confirmation. And, you know, he only had to make one phone call to get that nomination through the Senate. That would be a phone call to Republican Senator Thom Tillis on the Senate Judiciary Committee who publicly came out and defied Donald Trump as we reported to you here last night. Because Donald Trump is now so politically weak among Republicans in the United States Senate, Thom Tillis said no publicly -- "I will not vote for Donald Trump's choice." And today, Donald Trump just publicly and meekly surrendered to Thom Tillis -- to that one Republican senator who stood in his way with Donald Trump saying "I can only lift that little phone so many times in a day." The singelest stupid explanation a president has ever for being unable to achieve a Senate confirmation.

To be clear, Lawrence was not talking about Janette Nesheliwat. That was his nominee for Surgeon General. Was.

Because yesterday, he withdrew her nomination and is currently going with Casey Means.

That move resulted in low-rent courtesan Nicole Shanahan crawling out from under her semen encrusted mattress to rail at Chump and Robert Kennedy Junior. See the group humor post from last night:

Thomas Friedman is a Great Man

Nicole Shanahan thought someone needed to hear from her

The World Today Just Nuts

The dream team's breaking up!!!

Cedric's Big Mix

She steps away from her street corner to work the press

Ann's Mega Dub

Maybe her pimp will protect her?

The Common Ills

A backwater deal -- was it a bribe?

The Daily Jot

THIS JUST IN! LOOK WHO CRAWLED OUT FROM UNDER MATTRESS!

Nicole is spitting mad.

What made Chump and Junior think she would just swallow this?

Past behavior?

Well not this time, fellows, this time she's spitting it out of her mouth. And she's accusing Junior of lying to her -- his former running mate from his failed presidential bid. He lied to her. She explain that there was a deal in place: Janette Nesheliwat gets named Surgeon General and she, Nicole, uses all of her 'power' to back Junior for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

All of her 'power'?

Oh, Nicole, did you learn nothing from Heidi Fleiss? Please, please tell us you didn't also keep a black book with clients' names in it.

Janette, like Matt Gaetz before her, is now a failed Chump nominee. And, as Lawrence O'Donnell was noting, so now is Ed Martin.

As Kat notes in "Nazi Ed Martin keeps lying," Ed couldn't stop lying. And this time, the Senate just wasn't in the mood for it. Dan Friedman (MOTHER JONES) observes:

As US attorney, Martin fired, demoted, and investigated January 6 prosecutors, threatened to prosecute congressional Democrats for hyperbolic political statements, suggested his office would investigate DOGE critics and former prosecutors faulted by Trump, and harassed medical journals, Wikipedia and Georgetown’s law school with threats to punish them over their speech.

Martin’s remarks at the community meeting justified these actions as merely the GOP-version of what Democratic prosecutors did under Biden. I don’t know if Martin really believes that, but it’s not true.

US attorneys do pursue the policies of presidents who pick them, but within legal and normative limits set by the Constitution, Congress, and longstanding practice. No US attorney, until Martin, volunteered to use his office against critics of government policies, including those who “acted simply unethically” and “chase them to the end of the Earth to hold them accountable.” No other US attorney has reportedly attempted to present a grand jury with evidence for a criminal case against the Minority Leader of the US Senate based on five-year-old criticism of the Supreme Court. Nor has a US attorney personally attempted to use criminal investigative power to seize money from environmental groups awarded contracts by the past administration without having any evidence of a crime.

Martin’s Democrats-did-it-first rationalization for debasing his office is not just his. It is the lie justifying Trump’s broader effort to weaponize the Justice Department and turn the entire federal government into an instrument of his personal interest.

Martin, though only an acting US Attorney, got a torrent of negative press coverage in part because he loudly volunteered himself as the leader of Trump’s crusade to use the DOJ against his political enemies. As we wrote in a March: “In a new administration defined by a mixture of malevolence and ineptitude, Martin has emerged as an avatar: a typo-spewing henchman of the moment, eager to help Trump transform the Justice Department into a political tool—and unable to shut up about it.”

The evident defeat of Martin’s nomination is a loss, though by no means a death knell, for proponents of the unitary executive theory’s claim that Justice Department prosecutors are the president’s lawyers, and have always been.

Meanwhile, the economy remains in the toilet where Chump dropped it. So Chump's lied about a deal with the UK. Stephanie Ruhle addressed the reality last night on THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE.

"Pure theater." "Just a show." Also see Paul Krugman's "Will Trump Pretend to Fix What He Broke?."

Returning to a topic from yesterday . . .

Only a fool, radical Socialist, MAGA or idiot -- or a working of multiples of the prior listing -- would look at DOGE as a good thing. It has destroyed so much and it did not achieve anything but destruction. Bryan Metzger (BUSINESS INSIDER) notes:

Bill Gates sharply criticized Elon Musk in an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday, calling out the Tesla cofounder's role in cutting foreign aid as part of his Department of Government Efficiency initiative.

The Microsoft cofounder said that cuts made to foreign aid, particular programs administered by the now-shuttered US Agency for International Development, were "stunning."

"He's the one who cut the USAID budget. He put it in the wood chipper, because he didn't go to a party that weekend," Gates told the Times of Musk. "The world's richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world's poorest children."

Gates also referred to an instance early in President Donald Trump's term in which administration officials said that the US had been sending condoms to Gaza via foreign aid. In reality, the US had been providing contraceptives to a province in the African country of Mozambique.

"They cut the money to Gaza Province in Mozambique. That is really for drugs, so mothers don't give their babies HIV," Gates said. "But the people doing the cutting are so geographically illiterate, they think it's Gaza and condoms. Will they go meet those babies who got HIV because that money was cut? Probably not."

This is what Ben Cohen is applauding. See Marcia's "MAGA and Jerry ice cream? Pass and pass on the hideous Ben Cohen" and grasp how disgusting Ben Cohen has become. DOGE was a fake ass scheme to destroy jobs, to destroy needed government oversight, to destroy the economy and to allow Chump to go after the safety net. It was all smoke and mirrors. Jessica Riedl (THE ATLANTIC) notes realities on 'savings' from DOGE:

Musk initially promised that he would eliminate $2 trillion of the $7 trillion federal budget, before scaling back his ambitions to $1 trillion, and then $150 billion. Even that revised target is highly improbable.

Precisely measuring the budgetary effects of the Musk experiment remains difficult, but we can begin by looking at the claims made by DOGE itself. In late February, its website claimed to have achieved $55 billion in annual-spending reductions. However, its “wall of receipts” detailed only $16.5 billion of this total. Half of that figure came from a typo claiming $8 billion in savings from terminating an $8 million contract. As The New York Times has reported, that was far from the only accounting error. Once such mistakes as false contract cancellations, triple counts of the same reform, and the inclusion of contracts that expired decades ago were fixed, verified budget savings stood at just $2 billion.

The DOGE website now claims $165 billion in savings. However, it still details only a fraction of the supposed cuts, and earlier accounting errors have given way to new ones. A common sleight of hand is canceling a “blanket purchase agreement”—in which the recipient had been given the equivalent of a credit limit to incur necessary costs on a project—and then claiming savings of the full credit limit rather than the (in many cases substantially lower) amount that was actually spent. Even assuming that the website’s stated savings have become twice as accurate as they were in February, annual savings would reach perhaps $15 billion, or 0.2 percent of federal spending.

Fortunately, more reliable sources than DOGE’s self-reported figures exist. The best is the Treasury Department’s monthly accounting of spending by agency and program. Any true DOGE spending reductions should show up in these budget totals, as should the results of other White House initiatives, including cuts to public-health spending and the ongoing efforts to eliminate USAID and the Department of Education.

These spending data do not flatter the Musk project. Total federal outlays in February and March were $86 billion (or 7 percent) higher than the levels from the same months a year ago, when adjusted for timing shifts. This spending growth—approximately $500 billion at an annualized rate—continues to be driven by the three-quarters of federal spending allocated to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, veterans’ benefits, and interest costs. These massive expenses have been untouched by DOGE’s focus on small but controversial targets such as DEI contracts and Politico subscriptions.

We can see this by looking at Treasury’s breakdowns of monthly spending by agency. Short-term program spending can fluctuate greatly, and sustained trends might not be fully apparent for several months, but the early data are nonetheless revealing. Perhaps the highest-profile cuts under the Trump administration so far have been to public-health spending and foreign aid. And yet, even here, the numbers are rounding errors in the context of the federal budget. Public-health spending, previously about $8.2 billion monthly, fell to $7.1 billion in March, led by cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the Health Resources and Services Administration, the latter of which funds state and local health grants to serve underprivileged families.

Monthly spending on targeted foreign-assistance programs has fallen from $2.4 billion to $1.4 billion. This includes spending on “Global Health and Child Survival” programs—which includes highly effective funding to combat HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and other illnesses in less developed countries—falling in half to $400 million a month. Payments to “International Organizations and Conferences,” such as the United Nations, have fallen to zero. And monthly USAID spending has fluctuated wildly but overall declined by one-third in the first quarter of 2025.

These cuts have already been highly disruptive to beneficiaries, contractors, and employees, and they threaten immense long-term harm. And yet, their total monthly savings have totaled just $2.1 billion. At the Department of Education, another shutdown target, spending has remained steady aside from the early termination of post-pandemic funding that was already scheduled to phase out over the next year.

Cost reductions from laying off federal employees have been too small to show up in the data. This is not surprising, because even laying off one quarter of the 2.3 million federal civilian employees would shave off just 1 percent of federal spending. To be fair to DOGE, more savings will materialize in October, when the salaries of the 75,000 federal employees who took a buyout come off the books. That should save Washington $10 billion a year, or 0.1 percent of federal spending—except even that is an overestimate, because Washington will surely end up hiring contractors to perform at least some of the work previously handled by those civil servants, and many contractors cost more than employees.

DOGE was destructive and it destroyed many people's lives. DOGE motivated Americans across the country to take to the streets and protest. That is the strength of democracy. I point that out -- and do so at the start -- to remind those of us on the left that Socialist Ben Cohen is not our friend. See Marcia's "." Grasp that he's gone to the other side. He was a believer in The Politics of Destruction so it was easy for him to turn around and hop onto The Politics of Destruction and praise DOGE at his Twitter side, at the Twitter handle he created just for DOGE and at the pro-DOGE website he started. He is not our friend. He is not a friend of democracy.

In 2024, The Politics of Destruction made the call that it was more important that Kamala Harris lose. So you got those working against We The People like Jill Stein going on any outlet that would have her and attacking Kamala non-stop while going easy on Donald Chump. Amy Goodman was part of that campaign and played footsie with her in a ridiculous interview. Mehdi Hasan did actual journalism and those who attacked him for that exposed themselves for the fake asses that they were. The people who worked to stop Kamala are not to be trusted.

This country is in crisis right now because Chump is back in the White House. I try to dole out a little reality at a time here because it is overwhelming. The midterms matter so much. Democrats need one house of Congress. I am pulling for both. Donald Chump is a threat to the country and those of you on the left who refused to pull together better STFU about us pulling together for your pet cause. You don't matter right now if you worked to put Chump in the White House. You made that choice. So Palestine or whatever you've lept onto in the minutes since the election? Doesn't matter.

What matters is saving this country. To do that we need control of at least one house of Congress.

I don't care that you want universal healthcare. I want that too. But that's not what 2026 is about. 2026 is about getting control of at least one House so that we can push back against Chump.

That's all it's about.

Rashida Tlaib and her groupies betrayed this country.

We don't have time for their right now. People of color are under attack in this country. People who are immigrants -- with the paperwork or without -- or look like they could be immigrants are under attack. LGBTQIA+ people are under attack.Seniors are under attack. You betrayed all of those communities by working to put Chump back in office. You had the gall to object to Adam Kinzingler and Liz Cheney campaigning for Kamala. The gall. As we in the Black community have repeatedly noted you got a different standard for Bernie. You had your pet issue and you screwed the whole damn country.

Guess what? Everything's on hold now. This is not Poppy Bush is in the White House, this is not Ronald Reagan is in the White House. This is not about someone we disagree with on basic issues. This is a deranged convicted criminal who openly defies the Constitution and the court system.

The house is on fire. This is not the time for you to worry where you'd like to put the new couch. This is the time to put out the fire. And we do that only by taking control of at least one House.

So if that means incumbent Center Centerist who is in love with the Israeli government gets re-elected, that's what it means.

The house is on fire. We do not have time right now to focus on renovations. We have to stop the fire.

You didn't take the threat of Donald Chump seriously in the lead up to 2024. So sit your ass down now because we can't afford more of your 'help' or more of your 'brilliance.'

Wasting 20 million dollars to defeat Democratic Party incumbents? We can't afford your bulls**t, White boy. You're putting us a risk, not yourself. Sit your ass down.

All money going to the Democratic Party should be about defeating Republicans. That means you take that 20 million and you donate to incumbent Dems and you take that money and you donate to people like the Democratic candidate in Arizona's sixth district. They will be running against a weak Republican incumbent.

Arizona has six districts. Four of those districts went to Republicans. Andy Biggs won with 60.4% of the vote, Eli Crane won with 54.5% of the vote, David Schwelikert won with 51.9% of the vote and Ciscomani won with 50.0% of the vote.

He is the easiest to pick off. Until the Democratic incumbent decided not to run for re-election in 2022, the seat was held by a Democrat. He is the weakest Republican Arizona has in the House. He got even less votes than Chump. Mid-terms are usually change elections if the same party controls the House and the White House.

Currently the candidates for 6th district's Democratic Party primary are Johnathan Burma, Chris Donat, Mo Goldman, JoAnna Mendoza and Samantha Severson. You want to weigh in on a primary, you can help with that one. That's how the money needs to be spent. Not challenging incumbent Democrats but picking off the weakest Republicans and pouring money into their opponents.

Again, the house is on fire. I think David Hogg's strategy is a losing strategy but get Chump out of the White House and you can do whatever you want and I honestly won't care. If you hadn't screwed us all over in 2024, I wouldn't care now. If we had Kamala in the White House, you could do whatever crazy scheme you wanted no matter how many times it has failed in the past. But we don't have that luxury, you ensured that when you didn't vote for Kamala in 2024.

We can't afford you right now. In 2023, I announced here that I would be voting for the Democratic Party's presidential candidate whomever it was. And that's because some of us are smart enough to know that a convicted felon who has already attempted an insurrection in his first term is a clear and present danger to our country. You weren't smart enough to grasp that or you just didn't care. So you really need to sit your asses down because 'all you did' in 2024 (which was more than enough) was hurt the country. In 2026, you might hurt yourself -- yes, even you White Karens -- male and female -- could be harmed. Most of you haven't been yet which is why you can be so cavalier to think that the best use of campaign donations would be to target incumbent Democrats. But we lose in 2026 and even the various privileges your White skin brings you might get revoked.

In the meantime, AP reported yesterday, "Russia and Ukraine both reported attacks on their forces Thursday on the first day of a 72-hour ceasefire called by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian lawmakers unanimously approved a landmark minerals deal with the U.S." Don't know what to tell you there except when you put a Chump in the White House, Putin's going to make a chump of the Chump.

The world laughs at Donald Chump and his terrible twos -- one crying fit after another as he does his second term as president. Waaah! Waaah! cries Chump and the world responds, "Just let him wear himself out. We're using the Ferber method."

Unlike David Hogg, I'm not the queen of tiddly winks. While I'm not a sports fan, I did go to my children's games and root for their teams. So I know at least that you don't decide in the middle of the game to toss out all the plays that you've practiced and instead just have everyone do whatever they feel like.

Hogg has no plan. He has only a sketch and he wants to ignore reality and past performance and history because he just knows he's right. We can't afford his lack of education or lack of experience. He needs to go find a closet, hide in there and text and make videos. He can handle that, if nothing else.

ZorrolittoTheElder / Melissa

‪@zorrolittotheelder.bsky.social‬

Dear David Hogg, white men, ProHammies, SJD, far left populists and antisemites:

‪Sean Herrala‬ ‪@seanherrala.bsky.social‬

· 3d

“Now isn’t the time for infighting! We need to join together!” Wait, so before anything affected you, that was the time for infighting? You felt no need to join together until you needed help, and now that the impending crisis is here, we should all pile in the back of our own car so you can drive?

May 6, 2025 at 7:51 AM

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

Trump administration abused Death Master File to purge at least 6,300 Social Security numbers, including children and seniors

Letter to SSA Acting Commissioner | Letter to SSA Assistant Inspector General for Audit

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and 11 Senate Democrats, slammed the Social Security Administration (SSA) for transferring thousands of Social Security numbers associated with immigrants to the SSA’s Death Master File, marking them as dead to pressure “self-deportation,” and demanded the agency’s watchdog launch a full investigation into the decision.

Exploiting Social Security’s Death Master File to terminate the SSN of living individuals without full due process violates bedrock constitutional rights. The Trump administration’s actions, which amount to falsifying government records, also violate the Privacy Act. Even Trump’s lawyers reportedly agreed.

“This decision will result in the ‘financial murder’ of living individuals improperly placed in the file, with everything from their credit cards and banking to their ability to access healthcare and housing being ripped out from under them,” wrote the senators.

The senators also called on the SSA Office of the Inspector General to launch a full investigation into the agency’s decision to begin using the Death Master File for this purpose, including how an individual gets targeted, who at the agency has decision-making authority, and how those who have had their SSNs nullified through this process can get it fixed if there is a mistake.

The Trump administration’s abuse of Social Security and its flagrant violation of constitutional guarantees of due process set a precedent that could endanger the rights of all Americans. It also undermines the accuracy of the Social Security Administration’s data, which could lead to more mistakes that limit a person’s access to benefits, regardless of their immigration status.

“The purpose of SSA is to provide for the welfare of number-holders and their dependents, not to serve as an arm of President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda. This move degrades the solvency, reliability, and accuracy of SSA systems and programs. It is as cruel as it is thoughtless—the impact will be felt in communities across the country and in the future of SSA programs themselves,” concluded the senators to Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek.

The letter was signed by Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai’i), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Angus King (I-Maine), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

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Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Stop Fingering My Corn Bread" went up last night. The following sites updated: