Sunday, August 03, 2025

Idiot of the Week

First up, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Caring and Compassionate Chump" 


caringcompassionatechump


That's from Friday.  Had a lot to do this weekend, sorry.  

Markwayne Markwayne.  One of the country's biggest idiots -- and possibly the biggest idiot in the US Senate.   What's crazy Markwayne Markwayne done this time?  Sarah K. Burris reports:


Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) violated federal law by dodging reporting requirements for lawmakers to reveal their stock trades, according to a new report.

Mullin waited over 2 1/2 years before revealing he violated federal financial conflicts of interest disclosure laws, Dave Leventhal wrote for NOTUS.
Lawmakers are required to file when they make such trades within 45 days, but in the past, some lawmakers have significantly delayed submitting their filings. No lawmaker has ever been prosecuted for violating the disclosure law, however.
Mullin's staff claimed it was just like filing someone's taxes, where sometimes they forget to claim hundreds of thousands of dollars on the forms.

In other news of the deeply corrupt, Mohar Battacharjee reports:


Donald Trump and controversy go hand in hand. At this point, he’s practically synonymous with bold headlines, polarizing policies, and viral moments that light up social media. Whether it’s a press conference gone sideways or an executive order that sparks furious debate, Trump is no stranger to public scrutiny. And this time, it’s not something he said, but something from his own past, that’s got everyone talking.

Donald Trump has made it his mission to crack down on immigration. Since starting his second term in January, he’s pushed forward plans to deport millions and even limit birthright citizenship for kids born in the U.S. to immigrant parents.
But this time, critics have come back with something that’s caught fire online: a reminder of where Trump’s own family came from.

A viral video is resurfacing the fact that Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was actually born in Scotland, not the U.S. She moved to America in 1930, worked as a domestic servant, and eventually married Fred Trump, whose parents had also come to the States from Germany. So yeah… both of Donald Trump’s parents were immigrants.
Now, people are pointing out the obvious: if Trump’s new rules had applied back then, he might not be a citizen either. “Oh so you’re telling me he benefited from the very birthright citizenship he is so desperately trying to get rid of??” one person wrote on Instagram.

Another added, “Trump needs to be deported too. According to him, it doesn’t matter if you are born here. Technically he is not a citizen of the US.”


Deport him.  Sick ICE on him and deport him already.  

Idiot of the Week?  

It's a group this week.  Ben Blanchet (HUFFINGTON POST) reports:


Fox News has appeared to feature more talk of Sydney Sweeney’s controversial American Eagle ad in recent days than it has discussed the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, per a new report by Media Matters for America.

The conservative network mentioned Sweeney — whose “great jeans” ad has generated backlash amid accusations that it glorified whiteness and nods to eugenics — on 62 occasions with a total of 85 minutes of coverage from Monday to midday Thursday, according to the nonprofit media watchdog.
Epstein received 14 mentions and was “often brought up in passing or short headline reports,” adding up to a total of under three minutes of coverage, per the report.

The analysis also found that CNN, Newsmax and MSNBC mentioned Epstein overwhelmingly more than Sweeney in the same timespan, with the latter outlet not referring to the “Euphoria” actor whatsoever.

The fixation on Sweeney marked a departure from covering the fallout of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files in the same week that the president didn’t rule out pardoning the late sex offender’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

The president has also recently implied that Epstein “stole” Virginia Giuffre — one of his most prominent accusers — from his Mar-a-Lago spa, comments that her family has since described as “shocking.”

MMFA’s latest findings arrive a week after its report that Fox News turned its attention toward a “familiar boogeyman” in Barack Obama instead of covering Epstein, mentioning the ex-president three times more than the disgraced financier from July 18 to midday July 23.


So the winner is FOX "NEWS" and they are betting hard that there is one group of people more stupid than they are:  Their viewers!!!!!


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


Friday, June 1, 2025.  Donald Chump platforms a registered sex offender at te White House yesterday, he floats the notion of pardoning sex trafficker and rapper Piss Panties and he continues to float pardoning convicted pedophile and sex trafficker Maxwell.  His remarks are offending the victims of Epstein and Maxwell but that doesn't bother him.  So when exactly are people going to catch on that he's not someone who cares about the victims of assault?

Let start with some great news. Marni Rose McFall (NEWSWEEK) reports:

The MeidasTouch Podcast, which is often critical of President Donald Trump, has surpassed popular podcaster Joe Rogan on YouTube.

Newsweek has contacted MeidasTouch and a representative for Rogan for comment via email.

Podcast charts have long been dominated with conservative or pro-Trump voices—such as Rogan, Shawn Ryan and Ben Shapiro, who frequently appear in the top 10. Trump himself appeared on some of those podcasts during his 2024 bid for the presidency as he eschewed traditional media outlets.
However, since Trump returned to office in January, The MeidasTouch Podcast has consistently topped charts, emerging as one of the country's most-listened-to shows. The success of MeidasTouch through the first six months of Trump's administration indicates a potential shift in what resonates with Americans and what they want to listen to.

YouTube data for July 21 to 27 shows The MeidasTouch Podcast as the top podcast on the platform in the United States, with The Joe Rogan Experience in second place.

According to Podscribe data captured from June 7 to July 7, MeidasTouch was the No. 1 podcast by downloads and views per month.

Podscribe reported that MeidasTouch amassed 124 million views in that month. The same rankings had Rogan at No. 2, having amassed 39.2 million views in that period.

MeidasTouch was founded by three brothers: Ben, Brett and Jordy Meiselas. It is described on its website as a "Pro-democracy news network" and began with viral videos and political ads that opposed Trump and supported Democratic candidates.


Now let's go to Ben's fresh post this morning.


There's a lot Ben's covering in the video above, but when I want to zoom in on is the man arrested multiple times for drugs and who also had sex with a 16 year old.  Registered sex offender Lawrence Taylor.  Had sex with a 16-year-old.  His defense?  He was just paying a prostitute, he didn't know how old she was.

That's who Chump brings into the White House.

The country needs to stop for one damn moment and all absorb this together.  He is a registered sex offender and Chump brings him to the White House 

Taylor has twice been arrested regarding his registered sex offender status.  In 2021 and in July of last year -- he moved both times and failed to update his address in the sex offender data base.

This is who Chump brought to the White House yesterday.  


Taylor has appeared on stage with Trump at campaign rallies in the past. But his attendance at the White House on Thursday comes as Trump faces increasing pressure over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender who authorities say died by suicide in a federal jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The president is facing an outcry over his administration's refusal to release additional records related to Epstein, despite earlier promises of transparency. He has tried to deflect questions about the case, expressing annoyance that people are still talking about it even as some of his allies continue to promote conspiracy theories about it.

Trump told reporters this week that Epstein "stole" Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's most well-known accusers, from his Mar-a-Lago club, where she worked in the summer of 2000 when she was 16. That raised questions, including from Giuffre's family, about how much Trump knew about Epstein's crimes given he continued to associate with Epstein after 2000. Trump said on Thursday that he didn't know why Epstein was taking young employees from Mar-a-Lago, and that it caused him to cut ties and ban Epstein from the club.

[. . .]

Taylor's presence at the White House sparked a backlash on social media.

"Trump literally had Lawrence Taylor, a registered sex offender who raped a 16-year-old, featured at the White House as he announced his 'President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition' initiative for kids," social media personality Brian Krassenstein wrote on X, formerly Twitter. He described this as "Sickening!"


And it is sickening and tasteless and does go to his character and how assault doesn't really bother him.  

Let's turn to lying trash.  I don't like "P" "Diddy" or whatever the omni-sexual predator calls himself and that's been made clear repeatedly over the years to his face.  Here?  I've ignored him until he lied about a friend.  Will Smith wanted to be a little bitch and slap Chris Rock.  But like most little bitches, Will Smith didn't want to take the consequences for his actions.  Piss Panties is not Chris Rock's friend.  But damned if that liar didn't show up immediately after the slap to say everyone needed to look away, Chris Rock wanted the whole thing forgotten, he knew it because he was friends with Chris and he talked to Chris.  And I got on the phone and called my friend Chris Rock and asked WTF?  No, he had not spoken to Piss Panties.  Piss Panties was, as usual, running interference for his buddy -- down low buddy? -- Will Smith and he was lying.

Other than that, I gornoed Piss Panties and his hideous 'musical' career.  But if you missed it, Dominic Patten (DEADLINE) reports:

Donald Trump is heavily weighing giving Sean “Diddy” Combs a full presidential pardon ahead of the convicted Bad Boy Records founder’s sentencing later this year. 

Nearly two months after Trump publicly entertained the notion of a Diddy pardon in an Oval Office gaggle, a comprehensive get out of jail card for Combs is being “seriously considered,” an administration source tells Deadline.

Convicted of sex trafficking but Chump's considering pardoning him.

Registered sex offender Lawrence Taylor invited to the White House and celebrated.

I think Chump's being very clear to everyone -- even MAGA and Qanon -- on where he stands and that's with sex offenders.  That's where he stands.  

That's why he keeps floating a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell.  

Chump doesn't want to release the files -- the ones that he's named in -- but he is floating releasing the convicted pedophile and sex trafficker Maxwell.

How stupid is MAGA?  How insane is Qanon?  They can't pull this together on their own?  

Virginia Giuffre's life was destroyed by sex trafficking.  Now Chump makes comments about her that are gross and offensive.  And her family is speaking out to the media about it. 

 

 
 
 

 

 

Let's move over to the topic of immigration. Last week, Ava and I wrote "Media: Why America's turned on Chump's war on immigrants:"


FADE IN

INT SQUAD CAR - DAY

Tension and energy fill the squad car as OFFICER NOLAN looks at DETECTIVE LOPEZ.  

NOLAN: Ready?

Lopez nods.  The two pull dark masks over their faces and throw open the doors of their squad car

EXT. TREE LINED STREET -- DAY

Nolan and Lopez run towards a 2024 blue Ford Crown Victoria.

INT. CROWN VICTORIA - DAY

MASON, 25, sits in parked car listening to music and finishing some french fries when a big thud is hear.

EXT. TREE LINED STREET - DAY

NOLAN: Roll down the window!!!

Nolan and Lopez stand beside the parked car yelling.

NOLAN:  Roll down the window!

Lopez looks at Nolan.  He nods.  He breaks the window with his gun, reaches inside and grabs Mason by the t-shirt collar.  Lopez reaches in and grabs Mason by the neck, joining Nolan in pulling a scared Mason out of the car.


MASON: What's going on!  What did I do?  

DETECTIVE HARPER runs over towards them as Nolan and Lopez hurl Mason to the ground.

LOPEZ:  Down!  Stay down!

MASON: Who are you?

NOLAN: Shut up!

Lopez begins tazing Mason while Nolan and Harper kick him.


Would you accept that scene on THE ROOKIE?


How about this on a STARSKY & HUTCH reboot?
 

INT - 1975 FORD GRAN TORINO - DAY

STARSKY scrolls through his cell phone while Hutch drums on the dashboard.

STARSKY:  These dating apps are wack.

HUTCH:  Ever think maybe it's you?

STARSKY: [Muttering] Maybe it's you, maybe it's you.


EXT - STREET - DAY

A FORD MINI-VAN drives slowly past Starsky's TORINO.  We see SULTAN in the driver's seat of the van.

INT - 1975 FORD GRAN TORINO - DAY

Hutch leans over and swats Starsky on the arm repeatedly.  Starsky shoots him a look and starts the car.

EXT - STREET - DAY

Starsky's car closely follows the mini-van as it turns off the street into a school parking lot.  

INT - MINI-VAN - DAY

Sulton drives slowly to the front of the school while talking to his five-year-old son DANNY in the back seat.

SULTON: So what you going to learn today?

DANNY: Everything!

SULTON: You're going to learn everything?

DANNY: Yep!

SULTON: Well if you learn everything today, why would you come back tomorrow?

DANNY: To teach!

Sulton and Danny laugh.

EXT - OUTSIDE SCHOOL - DAY

The mini-van comes to a stop and Starsky immediately brakes as well.

INT - MINI-VAN - DAY

Through the car windows, we see Starsky and Hutch running up alongside the mini-van but Sultan and Danny do not.

SULTAN: Okay, buddy, we're here. 

DANNY: Yea! 

SULTON: Yea! 


Starsky begins bangind on the door of the mini-van on the driver's side.

STARSKY: Get out!  Get out!

Danny looks around scared.  Sulton rolls down his window part-way.

SULTON: Can I help you?

STARSKY:  Out of the car!  Now! Out of the car!

Sulton: Who are you?

Starsky: I said out of the car, asshole!

Starsky begins hitting the driver door window with his gun until he breaks it while Danny screams.

HUTCH: Out of the car!  He said out of the car!

SULTON: It's okay, Danny.  It's okay.

Starsky pulls open the door and pulls Sulton out of the mini-van.  Sulton lands on the ground on his back.  Hutch and Starsky stand over him with guns drawn while Danny screams.

HUTCH: Shut up, brat!  I said shut up!

FEMALE PRINCIPAL comes running up.

FEMALE PRINCIPAL:  What is going on here?  I'm calling the police.

STARSKY: Ma'am, ma'am, we're going to need you to step back.

FEMALE PRINCIPAL: What are you doing to Mr. Rahi?  Mr. Rahi, are you okay?

Hutch walks over to the woman menacingly.

HUTCH: He told you to step back.  

Only now do Starsky and Hutch register that every child going to the school, as well as teachers and and some other parents have witnessed the assault on Sultan.



TV is bad.  It's not that bad yet.  We haven't gotten to the point where that would be acceptable. 

So why are we treating it as acceptable on our streets, in our communities?

ICE agents want to be seen as heroes.  Heroes don't act out the scenes above.  But they took place on our streets in the United States.

Donald Chump is a convicted felon.  A crook.  And he doesn't have any respect for due process.  But while we need to call out the lack of due process once arrested, we also need to be calling out the procedures by which immigrants are being taken into custody.

When you are taken into custody in the United States, it generally works something like this: 1) An officer of some enforcement body utilizes probable cause -- a crime has taken place, is taking place or is about to commence.  2) If a crime has taken place, a warrant for someone's arrest has been obtained.  If a crime is taking place or is about to take place, an arrest does not require a warrant.  3) The officer must inform the suspect of their rights (basic Miranda Rights).  4) The arresting officer must use the minimum force required to carry out the arrest.  5) Would be where Due Process -- as most mean the term -- would kick in.  Appearing before someone in the judiciary, etc.
 
Why are we allowing Chump to destroy our procedures in place for decades in order to carry out cruelty.
 
And this is cruelty aimed at immigrants, yes.  But also at US citizens.  
 
THE ROOKIE scenario above?  
 
George Retes.  That's the name of the man this actually happened to.  In California.  And he's not an immigrant.  He's a US citizen and, in fact, an Iraq War veteran.  And when ICE began attacking him, they didn't listen and they didn't care.  Olga R. Rodriguez (AP) notes 


"It took two officers to nail my back and then one on my neck to arrest me even though my hands were already behind my back," Retes said.
[. . .]
Retes was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where he said he was put in a special cell on suicide watch and checked on each day after he became emotionally distraught over his ordeal and missing his 3-year-old daughter's birthday party Saturday.

He said federal agents never told him why he was arrested or allowed him to contact a lawyer or his family during his three-day detention. Authorities never let him shower or change clothes despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, Retes said, adding that his hands burned throughout the first night he spent in custody.

On Sunday, an officer had him sign a paper and walked him out of the detention center. He said he was told he faced no charges.

"They gave me nothing I could wrap my head around," Retes said, explaining that he was met with silence on his way out when he asked about being "locked up for three days with no reason and no charges."
 
When Americans see these tactics being used, they rightly recoil. 


From MSNBC yesterday. 

 






A month into the new Trump administration, on the predawn streets of suburban Maryland, a high-ranking ICE official stood alongside a Mazda sedan that his officers had just stopped.

The official told a local TV reporter at the scene what was about to happen. “He can either give us a license,” he said, “or we’ll smash the f**king window out and drag him out.” Then, as the driver refused to exit the car, officers broke the glass.

It was one of nearly 50 documented instances of immigration agents breaking vehicle windows that ProPublica has identified from social media, local news accounts, lawsuits and interviews since President Donald Trump took office six months ago. Using the same methods, we found just eight in the previous decade. Neither number is comprehensive. The government releases no relevant statistics.

Use-of-force experts and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement insiders say the tactic was rarely used during previous administrations. They say there is no known policy change greenlighting agents’ smashing of windows. Rather, it’s a part of a broader shattering of norms.

There are arrest quotas, and they are increasingly aggressive. “There’s been an emphasis placed on speed and numbers that did not exist before,” says Deborah Fleischaker, who served as ICE chief of staff under President Joe Biden.

Officers who break glass aren’t being disciplined — they’re being promoted. The official from Maryland, Matthew Elliston, now occupies a senior position at headquarters and oversees field operations on the East Coast. On the other side of the country, a Border Patrol chief who also embraced the tactic, Gregory Bovino, was put in charge of sweeps in Los Angeles. (Neither answered ProPublica’s questions.)

ICE says its officers use a “minimum amount of force” when making arrests. You can judge for yourself.

Use the link to check out the videos.  These are horror stories and there are many, many more of them.




A devastated Pennsylvania family has spoken out demanding the release of Jesus Teran, a Venezuelan asylum-seeker who was arrested at an immigration check-in earlier this month.

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Teran’s aunt, Yasmily Luft, told The Independent of her nephew, who was reportedly detained after a July 8 check-in at the Pittsburgh field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Teran fled violence in Venezuela and came to the U.S. seeking asylum in 2021, joining his family in the town of Imperial, on the outskirts of Pittsburgh.

Though he had training as a civil engineer, Teran initially lacked English skills and worked at convenience stores, DoorDash, and as a carpenter’s apprentice to provide for his wife, Liseth Carvajal, and their children, Kamila, 14, and Lukas, 5.

“Everyone is devastated, especially his daughter,” Luft added.

“[Carvajal] is home alone with the kids,” she continued. “At the moment, she is not working. He was the one providing for the family and working.”

Community members said Teran was a dedicated churchgoer who helped spruce up a community garden in the hopes of bringing together members of different English- and Spanish-speaking churches in the area.



Teran, 35, reportedly has no criminal record and was briefly sent to Northern Regional Jail in Moundsville, West Virginia, before being moved to Moshannon Valley Processing Center, according to local newspaper Observer-Reporter. The facility is operated by a private contractor, the GEO Group, in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania, three hours away from his home.

Teran's case highlights scrutiny of U.S. immigration enforcement practices, especially regarding individuals integrated into their communities without criminal records. Teran arrived in the United States in 2021, fleeing turmoil in Venezuela and seeking asylum to reunite with his family. He was initially denied entry in 2015 but successfully entered the U.S. six years later.

The ICE database did not include any record of Teran as of Wednesday afternoon. Newsweek reached out to ICE via email for comment.
Teran's arrest has galvanized a local Catholic church community and supporters, who have organized to aid his family and seek his release.

The local response, led by St. Oscar Romero Parish and supported by nonprofit entities, highlights increasing concern over family separation and community impacts resulting from immigration policies. Terano and his family regularly attend Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Meadow Lands for services.

"It's been a heartbreaking experience," Reverend Jay Donahue, senior parochial vicar at St. Oscar Romero Parish, told the Observer-Reporter. "He's been faithfully appearing at ICE appointments for more than four years, he was following the protocols of ICE, he was complying with everything he's supposed to do. All of a sudden, he's detained."




Another horror story.  Carla Gloria Colomé (EL PAIS) notes:

Pedro Lorenzo Concepción’s voice seems to be sinking, shipwrecked among the vast wetlands populated by mosquitoes, pythons and alligators that inhabit the Everglades. He picks up the phone from Alligator Alcatraz itself, the feared migrant detention center that the Republicans built in Florida’s backyard. Asked how he’s feeling, he answers that he is obviously not well; today marks nine days of his hunger strike.

“I feel weak, with a lot of heartburn,” says Pedro from the bottom bunk in the cell where he remains with 31 other inmates, some of whom help him get up, hand him a bottle of water, and open it for him, because his strength is running out, as much or more than his patience.

Four days ago he was taken to the hospital. His wife Daimarys Hernández, 40, found out because the partner of another detained migrant called to inform her. Scared, Daimarys immediately called almost every hospital in Miami, where she repeated the same questions: if they knew about him, a 44-year-old Cuban migrant detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and transferred to Alligator Alcatraz prison, who had refused to eat since July 22.

Every medical center responded that they had no news of a patient with those characteristics. They even denied his presence at Kendall Hospital, where she later learned Pedro had been handcuffed for three days while doctors tried to convince him to eat something. Pedro refused. He was offended when they suggested he drink a juice, now that “no one was watching.” He turned around and said, “Do you know why I can’t do that?” he now says, his voice cracking. “Because I have to respect myself and everyone who’s with me.”


Again, Cuban Americans have given their heart and souls to the Republican Party in huge numbers.  It is outrageous that Florida Republicans -- especially Cuban Americans in the House of Representatives -- are not standing up and halting this targeting.  Way to kick longterm supporters in the face.  


Here's another horror story.  A friend or a family members goes to run an errand.  They don't come back.  You're worried and freaking out.  You go to the police and file a missing person's report only to learn that your friend or family member was kidnapped by ICE.   WTVR CBS 6 reports:

The news release says officers consulted with ICE agents who confirmed the man reported missing was in custody.

Police then contacted the person who reported the man missing to inform them that he was in federal custody.

"RPD did not participate in the activity of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as is standard practice for the Richmond Police Department," the release added.

Police did not say if any other people were taken into custody by ICE.

A statement from Councilwoman Nicole Jones, who represents the city's 9th District, says:

"My heart is heavy today. I am saddened by the reports of an ICE raid that took place in our 9th District. The 9th District is a place of rich and cultural diversity, where everyone regardless of immigration status deserves to feel safe, living with dignity and without fear. I stand with our immigrant neighbors. You are not alone. I see you! We are actively working to ensure that resources and support are available immediately and ongoing. Let's respond with solidarity-showing up for one another with reassurance and care."


The sky was calm and overcast on the afternoon of July 22 as Julio drove his Chevy Silverado pickup southbound on State Route 51, a trailer of paint supplies rumbling over the pavement in his wake. He’d just finished one paint job and was heading into central Phoenix for another when he heard a thud on the passenger side of the truck.

Another driver had side-swiped the truck, leaving a “big dent on the fender,” Julio told Phoenix New Times. Both drivers pulled off the freeway at the Glendale Avenue exit to assess the damage and exchange contact information. Following the advice of his brother and for insurance purposes, Julio also called 911 so that a law enforcement officer could file a report.

What transpired next brought Julio — who requested that his last name be withheld from publication because he is undocumented and fears retaliation — uncomfortably close to deportation. A literal fender bender, for which he was not at apparent fault, ended with an Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The trooper even briefly detained (but didn’t handcuff) the 30-year-old so that ICE could have the chance to pick him up.

“I can't even trust the police anymore to do their jobs. How can I feel safe now just calling the cops in any situation?” Julio told New Times. “I didn’t cause the accident. All I was trying to do was the right thing, sticking to the law.”

[. . .]
“(Immigrant communities) are afraid to report crimes because they could get deported,” said Clarissa Vela, a paralegal and organizer with People First Project. “If the police are going to ask us to try to improve public trust… how are we supposed to do that if they have officers who are engaging in racist policing?”
 All over the US, you will find these horror stories.  And abuse and neglect take place in these detention centers/gulags.  One way to prevent that is to have Congressional oversight.  But the vile and disgusting Donald Chump is refusing to let Congress carry out their oversight role.  Pema Levy (MOTHER JONES) reports:

Over and over again, Democratic members of Congress have attempted to enter Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities to investigate the conditions inside—and again and again they have been turned away, even though federal law guarantees them access to ICE detention facilities in order to conduct oversight. The Trump administration’s decision to keep lawmakers out created a Constitutional showdown.
Now, the issue is heading to court. On Wednesday, 12 Democratic House members sued for access to ICE detention facilities, in accordance with the law. The case is important to US immigration policy, and to the Trump administration’s goal of detaining immigrants without oversight into conditions in those facilities. It also raises a larger question: Can the executive branch turn off an oversight duty that is not just implicit in Congress’ powers but that it specifically inscribed in law?

Since 2019, Congress has included language in its bills funding the Department of Homeland Security that guarantees members of Congress access to inspect ICE detention facilities without prior warning, so as to get an unvarnished view of conditions inside. This came as a direct result of members of Congress being turned away from DHS facilities holding minors during the first Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents.

As detailed in Wednesday’s lawsuit, over the past few months ICE has come up with new reasons to deny entry to members of Congress and their designated staff. Though federal law allows for unannounced visits by lawmakers and 24 hours notice for their staff, ICE unilaterally instituted a seven-day notification requirement. But even when lawmakers provide a week’s notice, they have been turned away. In June, for example, despite giving seven days notice, New York Reps. Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman found themselves denied entry to a detainee holding space in Manhattan by an ICE official wearing a novelty Guinness shirt with the top buttons undone -- an indelible image of an agency with no respect for the first branch of government.
According to the lawsuit, filed by the legal groups American Oversight and Democracy Forward, Goldman and Nadler were turned away because ICE insisted the 10th floor of its New York field office was not a detention facility. Even though ICE was holding people there, some for more than two days, the agency claimed that it fell outside the scope of Congress’ authority to enter ICE facilities “used to detain or otherwise house” detainees.

The lawsuit alleges multiple legal violations on the part of DHS and asks a federal district court in Washington, DC to compel the agency to comply with their oversight requirements.



Driving the news: The suit, which names the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Secretary Kristi Noem as well as ICE and acting Director Todd Lyons, says the lawmakers were all turned away when trying to visit various ICE facilities over the past two months.

The Congressional members called the new oversight visit policy "unlawful," and said the "illegal actions have harmed" their right to conduct oversight.
"These harms are significant, irreparable, and ongoing as long as Defendants continue to block such visits pursuant to their unlawful policy," the suit states.
What they're saying: "Oversight is a fundamental responsibility of Congress, Rep. Jason Crow (D-Co.) said in a statement. "Since President Trump was elected, this administration has denied Members of Congress access to immigration detention facilities and tried to intimidate us from doing our jobs."


When everything is masked and hidden by a government, the usual reason why is that the government has something to hide.  Chump tries to hide ICE's actions because the actions are so appalling.  Heather Digby Parton (SALON) explains:


One of the desired effects of Donald Trump’s “flood the zone” strategy is to make it impossible for the news media to focus on anything long enough to fully capture the public’s attention before the next atrocity is revealed. The administration’s executive orders and drastic policy changes — including, most recently, the EPA’s intention to eliminate a 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions are dangerous to people and the planet — have proven to be successful distractions and diversions from the worst actions of Trump 2.0. None of them have created more human misery than White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s heartless mass roundup and deportation program.
When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), along with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), first started rousting day workers at Home Depots throughout Los Angeles County in early June, the actions garnered widespread coverage — particularly once people started protesting at a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles. The protests were the normal kind usually held in big cities; the Los Angeles Police Department was handling them easily. But Trump decided it was time to flex his strongman muscles by usurping the authority of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (and showing the president’s hypocrisy on the issue of federalism) by activating the state’s National Guard. Excited by the sight of 2,000 men in military garb on the streets of an American city he hates, the president doubled the number, and then ordered 700 active duty Marines to join them.
Trump’s actions led national news coverage for days, including the spectacle of California Sen. Alex Padilla being wrestled to the ground and handcuffed when he tried to ask Homeland Security Secretary Krisi Noem a question at a press conference in L.A. As the media focused on immigration and civil liberties issues raised by the presence of ICE, CPB and the military, it appeared that the mass deportation program might get the kind of sustained treatment that could exert pressure on lawmakers and possibly force a change in policy. After all, that happened during Trump’s first term, when people protested his “Muslim travel ban” and the media’s intense coverage forced the administration to retreat and regroup.

In L.A., media attention largely dissipated following a laughable, staged show of force in and around MacArthur Park. The National Guard troops were reduced by half and the Marines were quietly sent home. But ICE and CPB raids have continued apace, and they have picked up in other cities as well. New York will likely be next; Noem and Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, have promised to step up the agencies’ presence in the Big Apple, which may refocus attention on the issue due to the proximity to national media outlets.




Hundreds of immigrant workers at a meatpacking plant in Iowa have lost their jobs and face deportation risks after their work authorizations, which were tied to their immigration status, were revoked following the Trump administration's termination of a series of legal immigration programs.

More than 200 employees at a JBS pork production facility in the city of Ottumwa began receiving letters of termination six weeks ago and having individual meetings with their employer, according to Otumwa Mayor Rick Johnson and Brian Ulin, a member and spokesperson of the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 230, which represents JBS workers in Ottumwa.

In the meetings, JBS told the affected employees that their “status was being rejected” by the company's verification system, Ulin told NBC News on Tuesday. "It said that they were no longer eligible to work in the U.S.”

Many of the employees lost their legal immigration status and thus their accompanying work authorizations following the Trump administration's termination of programs such as the CHNV parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, as well as various types of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, according to the mayor, Ulin and Paulina Ocegueda, vice president of Ottumwa’s chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the nation's oldest Hispanic civil rights organization.

The programs gave temporary legal status to eligible immigrants from certain countries who have undergone natural disasters or political turmoil. 

 "They came here legally and they were doing it the right way," Ocegueda told NBC News.

 


Congressional oversight is needed, as noted above.  But it also might be needed to determine  who is profiting from Chump's war on immigrants.  Juliana Vandermark (THE RICHMONDER) reports:


On July 18, the Acquisition Logistics Company received a contract worth a reported $1.26 billion from the federal government for the construction and operation of an immigrant detention center in El Paso County, Texas at the Fort Bliss Army base.

That contract alone would make the Acquisition Logistics Company one of Richmond’s largest businesses, but it’s not a household name. It doesn’t even have an office: its listed headquarters is a residential house located in Henrico’s Tuckahoe neighborhood.

The Acquisition Logistics Company was founded in 2008 by President and CEO Kenneth Wagner, a veteran and systems engineer.

According to the company’s website, Wagner “has successfully provided senior leadership to logistics, systems engineering, and program management initiatives in the Federal Government.”

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

GAO finds Trump illegally impounded funding for K-12 schools across America to make energy efficiency upgrades—lowering schools’ costs and upgrading students’ classrooms

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on another Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision announced this morning, which concludes that President Trump has—in violation of the Impoundment Control Act (ICA)—illegally impounded funding provided by Congress for the Renew America’s Schools program, which was created on a bipartisan basis in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law:

“It’s a day that ends in y—and that means President Trump is breaking the law to block funding that helps families and communities across the country.

“I don’t think a person in America was clamoring to cut off funding Congress provided on a bipartisan basis for schools to make upgrades to students’ classrooms—but that’s exactly what President Trump has done.

“Denying schools funding for energy efficiency upgrades that save them money isn’t just illegal, it’s stupid and harmful—and it’s time President Trump stop blocking this funding alongside all the other key investments he’s holding up.”

In its decision, GAO also highlighted how the Trump administration’s decision to pull down a public website detailing its spending decisions inhibited its ability to conduct its investigation—yet more evidence that claims by this administration of a commitment to radical transparency are a farce and another reminder of the importance that the website get restored, as the law requires and a court recently required the administration to do.

In its decision today, the GAO concluded that:

“Congress in IIJA created a grants program at DOE for energy efficiency improvements at public school facilities. …. DOE has obligated 17 percent of its FY 2025 funding and expended 0 percent. …. For FY 2026, OMB proposed canceling nearly $196 million ‘from unobligated balances made available for fiscal years 2022 through 2026 in the ‘Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’ account provided for Grants for Energy Efficiency Improvements and Renewable Improvements at Public School Facilities. …. We conclude that DOE violated the ICA by delaying the obligation of FY 2025 funds appropriated by IIJA for the Schools Program. …. The Constitution grants the President no unilateral authority to withhold funds from obligation.”

Presidents do not wield the power to unilaterally withhold or block investments that have been enacted into law through “impoundment.” This foundational principle has been affirmed time and again. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 makes this plain and establishes limited procedures the president can and must follow to propose delaying or rescinding enacted funding. The ICA also charges GAO with the responsibility of investigating and reporting to Congress when the president illegally withholds funding.

The GAO has now acknowledged that it has opened 46 impoundment investigations and counting.

Today’s announcement follows:

The ICA authorizes the Comptroller General to file suit when the president illegally impounds funding.

Since his first hours in office, President Trump has illegally blocked funding owed to communities across the country through a variety of different means. Senate and House Appropriations Committee Democrats have been tracking Trump’s illegal funding freeze and found that, as of June 3, President Trump is blocking at least $425 billion in funding owed to the American people.

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The following sites updated:






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