Saturday, November 29, 2025

BRIDE HARD

BRIDE HARD is on HULU.  It is a Rebel Wilson comedy and well worth watching.  We ate left overs Friday evening and were looking for something to watch.  I would have cut out some of the scenes after the first action sequence -- in fact, when Rebel's removed from the bride's maids post, I would have moved immediately to her showing up at the wedding.  But that is my only complaint -- about seven minutes I would have taken out.

Ms. Wilson plays a spy and her friends do not know her occupation.  One of the is marrying a man from a wealthy family.  The wealthy family is targeted by terrorists and she is the only hope for the wedding guests.  Again, the film is on DISNEY+ and HULU+.

News?  Charl Wright (IRISH STAR) reports:


CNN viewers have slammed Donald Trump on social media after he revealed his plans for Venezuela.

Speaking during a video call with members of the military on November 27, President Trump revealed that the United States is preparing to take further action against alleged drug traffickers in the South American nation. During his Thanksgiving chat, the 79-year-old remarked that efforts for strikes on Venezuelan land will be starting "very soon."


He has never been about peace and his war on Venezuela is really only just one example.


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


Friday, November 28, 2025. Convicted Felon Donald Chump continues to waste his time on our dollar, he and Pete Hegseth continue in their indigotic attempts to try to punish Senator Mark Kelly for stating the law, two National Guard members are shot in DC proving yet again that he and his unqualified security officials do not have their eyes on the ball when it comes to protecting the country,  Kristi Noem continues to be both a failure and an embarrassment, and so much more to cover.

On THE FLIP WILSON SHOW, Flip and George Carlin once did a sketch where they were news anchors and noted that then-President Richard Nixon "has not reduced crime but, thanks to his policies, we all have less money."

With that in mind, we should be thinking about fat boy Chump who is sweating like a pig as he tries to make it around the track in year one of what's supposed to be a four year presidency.  Every day, we cover how destructive he is.  He's ruined the economy, for example, he's trying to ruin American healthcare, he's destroying lives, just go down the list.

But's let pull back for a moment.

The awful job he's doing there?  You can at least argue that they are presidential duties.  He's performing them very poorly but they are presidential duties.

Miss Donald Chump is not content with his role as president.

Apparently, he's finally now able to achieve the fantasy he's nursed for 34 years: To be the new Suzanne Sugarbaker following Delta Burke's 1991 firing from DESIGNING WOMEN. 

This is no doubt why he's overseeing (poorly) the remodel of the East Wing of the White House and why he's making threats about altering The Lincoln Monument.  These aren't presidential duties.  This is something you might announce you've formed an exploratory committee on and they'll prepare a report for Congress.  But Chump wouldn't get to sashay around playing Suzanne Sugarbaker, right?

Instead, Donald's wasting time he should be using for presidential duties to focus on remodeling.  Ben notes more on the topic in this morning's video.

 
 


And now Donald and Pete Looselips Hegseth are attempting to gin up a court-martial . . . of someone who retired from the military 14 years ago.  

When does Chump focus on his real duties?

And, as SOUTHPARK rightly noted this week, Pete has confused Secretary of Defense -- his legal title which he can't even get correct -- with social media content creator while repeatedly stating, "Hit 'like' and 'subscribe'" and "Be sure to 'like' and 'subscribe'."  See Stan's "SOUTHPARK, STRANGER THINGS, whiny Elizabeth Olsen."

It was social media, Twitter, in fact, that Hegseth took to to announce he was going after Senator Mark Kelly and five other Democrats in Congress -- Senator Elissa Slotkin (Mich.), and Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Chris Deluzio (Pa.) and Maggie Goodlander (N.H.)  -- following a video they did in which they stressed the Uniform Code of Military Justice which notes that no US service member should follow an illegal order.  Phil Stewart (REUTERS) explains:

"The video made by the 'Seditious Six' was despicable, reckless, and false," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X.

"Encouraging our warriors to ignore the orders of their Commanders undermines every aspect of 'good order and discipline.'"


Hegseth is an idiot -- one who installed his own personal beauty salon at the Pentagon.  At DAILY KOS, rflctammt rightly notes that Mark Kelly and the other five did nothing wrong and that the issue of not following illegal orders is the basis to the Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore 90s hit A FEW GOOD MEN.  rflctammt explains:

Yeah, I remember this hit movie.  America loved it.  Truth, justice and the American way meeting the bully and facing him in court, until the truth stood naked for the country to see.

Yep.  We loved that justice.  Until we elected the bully president.  IN REAL LIFE!  And now?  

The lawmakers who are standing up to him and his and informing other soldiers of the LAW that states they do not (must not?) follow illegal orders...are receiving death threats?

Military personnel have a legal and ethical duty to refuse unlawful orders, as outlined in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

Understanding Unlawful Orders

  1. Definition of Unlawful Orders: An unlawful order is one that requires a service member to commit an act that is illegal, violates the Constitution, or contravenes federal law or international obligations. Examples include orders to target civilians, commit acts of torture, or falsify documents. 

  2. UCMJ Guidelines: Under Article 92 of the UCMJ, service members are required to obey lawful orders. However, they also have the duty to refuse orders that are manifestly illegal. This means that if an order is clearly unlawful, service members must not comply with it. 

  3. Legal Consequences: Following an unlawful order can expose a service member to criminal liability. The law emphasizes that service members are not only permitted but required to refuse illegal orders, as obeying such orders can lead to serious legal repercussions. 

I know we can connect the dots, but can they?


Probably not.  Because they're idiots who wallow in stupidity.

For me, this was a dead issue on Tuesday.  Mark Kelly did nothing wrong, the law backs him up -- both UCMJ and the Constitution-- and that should have been the end of it -- the embarrassing end of it for the White House.  

But this is a nation of many idiots -- and Chump's destruction of the Dept of Education will only create more idiots -- so we continue to have to cover this issue.  

Idiots like Senator Dave McCormick can't help but try to twist it:

The Democrats’ video is wrong and extremely inappropriate. I didn’t hear any of these calls to defy orders when Democrats were using lawfare against President Trump, giving outlandish pardons, or intimidating tech companies to stop free speech. President Trump can speak for himself, but as I’ve said repeatedly, there is no place in either party for violent rhetoric and everyone needs to dial it down a notch.


The six were commenting as former military and intelligence members.  Exactly what does the UMCJ have to do with Chump being prosecuted for his actions, "pardon, or intimidating tech companiesto stop free speech"?  Not one damn thing.

Here's the statement Senator Mark Kelly issued earlier this week:
 

“When I was 22 years old, I commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy and swore an oath to the Constitution. I upheld that oath through flight school, multiple deployments on the USS Midway, 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, test pilot school, four space shuttle flights at NASA, and every day since I retired – which I did after my wife Gabby was shot in the head while serving her constituents.

“In combat, I had a missile blow up next to my jet and flew through anti-aircraft fire to drop bombs on enemy targets. At NASA, I launched on a rocket, commanded the space shuttle, and was part of the recovery mission that brought home the bodies of my astronaut classmates who died on Columbia. I did all of this in service to this country that I love and has given me so much.

“Secretary Hegseth’s tweet is the first I heard of this. I also saw the President’s posts saying I should be arrested, hanged, and put to death. 

“If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.”



Former White House adviser Steve Bannon urged the Trump administration to speed up the investigation against Democratic Senator Mark Kelly for telling military and intelligence officers to reject unlawful orders.

Speaking during his "War Room" Podcast, Bannon claimed that President Donald Trump "says no games" and outlined a scenario where that premise would materialize.

"President trump says no games. Here's no games: recall Kelly today. Tell the flag officers there will be no long Thanksgiving weekend. Friday you're going to convene a court martial. Let's get a verdict by Sunday. Let's go to Leavenworth and throw him in prison by Monday. The other five will wet themselves, then we'll start rolling them up," he added, in reference to the Democratic lawmakers who also appeared in the video aimed at military and intelligence members.
The issue continues to dominate the conversation, particularly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a top military official a hard deadline to provide updates on the investigation started after the video was published.


What's the end game here? 

Where does Pete hope this ends?

With him receiving a bare-assed spanking from Senator Lindsey Graham?

His desire for public humiliation is on clear display.

The law backs Mark Kelly.  

There should be no Article 32 hearing.

Were one to take place, Kelly has the law on his side via the Constitution and UCMJ.  

In addition, Hegseth has provided Kelly with another reason for an Article 32 to refuse to allow the process to continue.   Frank Yemi (INQUISITR) explains:

But in trying to turn Kelly into a cautionary tale, Hegseth may have handed the senator a powerful legal shield.

By repeatedly accusing Kelly in public of violating the UCMJ, legal experts say, Hegseth has almost certainly tainted any future military case with what is known as unlawful command influence. In military justice circles, unlawful command influence is sometimes called the “mortal enemy” of a fair court-martial, the idea that a senior leader has improperly shaped or appeared to shape the outcome of a trial.

Everyone in the Defense Department ultimately works for Hegseth. When the secretary of war announces on social media that a specific retired officer’s conduct “brings discredit upon the armed forces and will be addressed appropriately,” and labels him part of the “Seditious Six,” it sends a clear message about what result he expects. A superior commander making comments that lean on subordinates to reach a certain outcome is a textbook example of unlawful command influence under the military’s own training materials.

If Kelly were ever recalled and charged, his lawyers would almost certainly argue that Hegseth’s statements poisoned the pool of potential convening authorities and panel members. Any officer asked to assemble or sit on a court-martial would know the boss has already publicly pronounced the underlying conduct disgraceful and hinted that punishment is coming. That is exactly the kind of scenario military judges have thrown out in past cases.

A coalition of former and retired military judge advocates has already gone on record warning that recalling Kelly for a court-martial would be partisan, legally baseless, and compromised from the start by unlawful command influence, per CNN. They have pointed out that Kelly and the other lawmakers were actually citing the UCMJ in their video, not encouraging troops to ignore legal commands.



This is a waste of time and resources.

And while Chump focuses on this and other things that are not needed, our country suffers.  Our next 9/11?  

West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom has passed away.  She and National Guard member Andrew Wolfe were shot in DC on Wednesday.  She was 20.  Wolfe is 24 and remains in critical condition.  Nadine Yousif (BBC NEWS) notes, "Both were shot at close range near Farragut Square in downtown just after 14:00 EST (19:00 GMT) on Wednesday. Police have arrested one suspect in the shooting, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old from Afghanistan."  Yousif also notes:


Ms Beckstrom and Mr Wolfe were among those who were deployed in August, the West Virginia National Guard confirmed to BBC News.

National Guard troops are a reservist force that can be activated to serve as military troops, but have limited power as they cannot enforce the law or make arrests.

The location of the shooting, just blocks from the White House, meant a number of law enforcement officials were quickly on the scene to treat the two victims and apprehend the gunman.

The suspect was shot four times while he was apprehended, law enforcement sources told CBS News.


The suspect is Rahmanullah Lakanwal.  He is from Afghanistan.  In April of this year, the Chump administration granted him asylum.  Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) notes, "FBI Director Kash Patel refused to answer a question about whether the Afghan suspect accused of shooting two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., was granted asylum by the Trump administration."  Again, in April of this year, he was given legal asylum.  As someone who worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, he was allowed into the country in 2021.  His remaining here was based on the outcome of his vetting.  In April of this year, the Chump administration completed the vetting and offered him asylum.  Ka$h doesn't want to say that.  Mainly because it puts the blame on Chump and also because yesterday found Chump immediately trying to blame this on Joe Biden.

In fact, Chump only stopped his latest round of blame others when MEIDASTOUCH NEWS and other outlets began noting it was Chump, not Joe Biden, who granted the suspect asylum. 

 


Julian E. Barnes (NEW YORK TIMES) notes, "Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had requested additional information about the suspect from the C.I.A. after its director, John Ratcliffe, said he had been allowed into the United States due to his prior work with the agency."

Today, Chump got push back to his face when he lied again this time insisting that, under Joe Biden, there was no vetting.  


PBS NEWSHOUR:

Reporter: Your Justice Department inspector general reported this year that these Afghans who were brought into the U.S. were thoroughly vetted by DHS and the FBI. So why do you blame the Biden administration?

President Donald Trump: "Because they let him in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came in on a plane, along with thousands of other people that shouldn't be here, and you're just asking questions 'cause you're a stupid person."
 
 
 


No, the stupid person is the 79 year old man in make up, with the fat ass, stuffing his fat mouth with fast food despite the fact that he weighs well over 300 pounds and has swelling issues.  The stupid person is the one raging at THE NEW YORK TIMES for their article noting that he's got energy level problems and is falling asleep in public -- not just one time.  He's not up to the job.

And that's why he's lying yet again.  His administration granted asylum in April.  He was sworn in on January 21st.  He picked his administration, he even fired career officials.  This is on him and no one else.

I don't think you can be posting to social media in the early morning hours and still provide the needed supervision to those you've delegated responsiblities too.  And when the people appointed to secure our nation -- Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, John Radcliffe (8 months as DNI is not really experience, don't kid), Ka$h Patel, etc -- are not experienced or qualified for the job, you appointing them means you have to supervise them even more.


He is derelict in his duty.  He has put the nation at risk with his security picks all by itself.  But he does not focus on what he's supposed to.  He's delcared some form of war this week on The Lincoln Monument which again begs the question is Miss Donald the presidnet of the United States or the fat and flabby interior designer from Doral, Florida which is infamous for its poor taste?


We're stuck in situations like this because Fat Ass Chump does everything but his job.  It is not his job to persecute or question Senator Mark Kelly when Mark Kelly repeats the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  Yet he and Hegseth -- instead of doing their jobs -- are attacking Kelly.  I've said since he made these crazy nominations that we could have another 9/11 and if we do, America needs to call him out because he has not done his job and he has put our security at risk.  We see that now with the DC shooting.  

 
Let's focus now on Notorious H*A*R*L*O*T Kristi Noem.  Kay Banks' report for NIKISWIFT.COM is headlined "Kristi Noem & Corey Lewandowski's Rumored Affair Is On The Verge Of Blowing Up His Career" and notes:

Kristi Noem is still married to her husband, Byron Noem, even though their living situation is beyond weird. But that hasn't stopped speculation about her alleged affair with a former Trump campaign manager from taking over the internet. The affair rumors surrounding Noem and Corey Lewandowski are affecting his job too. According to CNN, key members of President Donald Trump's administration aren't happy with his role as a special government employee within the Department of Homeland Security, which was naturally bestowed upon him by Noem, and are hoping to get rid of him in the new year. A source described the political strategist as someone quick to fire or reprimand employees, despite not having an official status himself. Trump, apparently, knows this and isn't happy about it, despite his fondness for Noem. As an insider disclosed, "It has been brought to his attention that [Lewandowski] is a problem, and the agency is being mismanaged because of it."


Poor Kristi.  No doubt, she's working on her on-brand book MAGA WOMEN: BOTCHED AND BETTER where she will share how, fifty years ago, some women grappled with a career or marriage but in these complex times, a MAGA woman has to grapple with a career and/or a husband and/or a lover and/or an active fantasy life where an ugly 53-year-old woman pretends she's a top model by doing cos-play photo shoots.  To really drive book sales, she promises collector editions will be leather bound with parts of the hide of Cricket  (the 14 month old puppy she gleefully shot dead).  


When not setting fire to conservative family values, Noem can be found breaking the law.  Gary Grumbach (NBC NEWS) reports:


The Justice Department said Tuesday that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was the Trump administration official behind the decision not to comply with a federal judge’s order to halt the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.
In a court filing, the Justice Department said administration officials conveyed U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s March 15 oral order to return alleged Venezuelan members of the Tren de Aragua gang to the United States, as well as the subsequent written order the same day that blocked the federal government from removing members subject to the Alien Enemies Act under President Donald Trump’s invocation of the 18th century law.

The filing said Justice Department officials relayed the order and provided legal advice to the acting general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, who conveyed that advice, as well as his own, to Noem. Noem then decided that detainees under the Alien Enemies Act who were removed from the United States before the court’s order could be transferred to El Salvador.



She ignored the judge's order.  She refused to comply.  Why is she still holding office?  

Apparently just for the corruption as she steers tax payer monies to her friends.  Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski (PRO PUBLICA) explain:

In recent days, five U.S. senators and two representatives requested documents from the Department of Homeland Security and a formal investigation into how a firm closely tied to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ended up receiving money from a $220 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign.

The demands came in response to a ProPublica story this month that revealed that the Republican consulting firm had been secretly working on the ads, which star Noem. The company, called the Strategy Group, has long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. Its CEO is married to Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS.

Under Noem, DHS bypassed the normal competitive bidding process when awarding the contracts — allocating the majority of the money to a mysterious Delaware LLC that was created days before the deal was finalized. The Strategy Group does not appear on public documents about the deal.

“The public deserves to know that government officials are not using taxpayer dollars to enrich themselves and their friends on the backs of hardworking Americans,” four Senate Democrats on the homeland security committee wrote in a letter to the DHS inspector general. They called for the inspector general to investigate whether DHS officials had violated federal laws and contracting regulations “designed to prevent self-dealing.” 



As the Trump administration’s immigration dragnet intensified in June, a nurse in Portland, Oregon, left work one midafternoon and drove to a nearby detention facility to voice his opposition. Federal agents had set off smoke grenades, driving away many protesters at the front of the facility, but Vincent Hawkins lifted his megaphone anyway.
“You should stop and think about what you’re doing!”

The shot came seconds later, a silver projectile launched through the small facility’s closed gate, hitting him in the face. The tear gas canister shattered his glasses, ripped apart his brow, crushed against his eye and concussed him. In video footage, the projectile can be seen bouncing off his face and arcing back toward the unknown Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fired it.

Hawkins, a 25-year veteran of the emergency room, was rushed to one, bleeding and wondering if he’d ever see through his left eye again. A frequent demonstrator, he knew the risks. He’d seen friends struggling to breathe through toxic chemical clouds, others pelted with pepper balls. But Hawkins was undeterred.

“I have things to say,” he said. “And if it means being wounded to do it, then here I am.”

The 55-year-old said he’d be blind in one eye if not for the shielding effect of his glasses. He’s regained most of his vision but suffers from dizziness and vertigo, sometimes causing him to miss work.

How many Americans is the H*A*R*L*O*T of Homeland Security going to be allowed to attack?


Two things to wind down with.  First, this from Senator Adam Schiff's office:

Trump administration has sought to evade accountability by repeatedly thwarting congressional Democrats’ constitutional authority to conduct routine oversight

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Friday submitted a batch of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Department of Justice seeking records of various episodes of potential executive branch misconduct or corruption.  
 
FOIA provides a statutory right for the public to request and receive government records.  Members of Congress typically need not resort to seeking records through FOIA because the Constitution grants Congress broad oversight authority that includes the power to obtain information relevant to their legislative responsibilities.  The Senators filed these FOIA requests after parallel inquiries and requests have been summarily ignored or met by incomplete answers from recalcitrant Trump administration officials despite Congress’s constitutional oversight power. 
 
“It is Congress’s constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight of the executive branch, but under Donald Trump, the administration has either stonewalled or outright refused to answer many of the questions the American people are asking,” said Senator Schiff.  “Under Senator Whitehouse’s leadership, my colleagues and I are filing these FOIA requests to finally get answers on some of the administration’s most egregious actions.”

“The ‘no transparency’ Trump administration has repeatedly thumbed its nose to my many legitimate oversight requests.  For Democrats, there’s plenty of dripping contempt, insults, and stonewalling of Congress’s constitutional oversight authority.  But for Republican priorities, there’s a fast-track for document dumps,” said Senator Whitehouse.  “FOIA requests are our last resort to get answers to questions that are important to the American public.”
 
“We’re filing these FOIA requests because we’ve been stonewalled and slow-walked by the Trump Administration for too long.  By resisting and preventing our efforts for oversight, this Administration is allowing corruption, deception, and misconduct to take hold and fester within our government.  Congressional oversight is needed to root out fraud and abuse— trademarks of this Administration.  These FOIA requests are an attempt to bring about desperately-needed accountability and transparency,” said Senator Blumenthal.
 
A summary of the twelve topics about which the Senators filed FOIAs requests is below: 
 
Emil Bove OPR Complaint: The Senators requested records related to Senators Whitehouse and Blumenthal’s ethics complaint to the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility concerning then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s conduct in dismissing pending federal charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.  The FOIA requests can be viewed here.
 
Judicial Communications: The Senators requested records related to the delay of contempt of court proceedings implicating Emil Bove, which prevented the Senate Judiciary Committee from obtaining information about Bove’s conduct in court proceedings prior to his judicial nomination hearing and confirmation vote.  The FOIA requests can be viewed here.
 
Jeffrey Epstein SARs: The Senators requested records related to federal anti-money laundering suspicious activity reports (SARs) that showed more than 4,725 wire transfers totaling $1.08 billion involving Jeffrey Epstein and his associates between 2003 and 2019.  The FOIA requests can be viewed here.
 
Ghislaine Maxwell: The Senators requested records related to the transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted child sex trafficker and associate of Jeffrey Epstein, from Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee to Federal Prison Camp Bryan.  The FOIA requests can be viewed here.
 
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: The Senators requested records related to the Department of Justice and FBI’s investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.  The FOIA requests can be viewed here.
 
Tom Homan: The Senators requested records related to White House Border Czar Tom Homan reportedly accepting $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents in exchange for future government contracts.  The FOIA requests can be viewed here.
 
Kleptocracy: The Senators requested records related to Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanding the Justice Department’s anti-kleptocracy initiatives, including Task Force KleptoCapture, the Kleptocracy Team, and the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.  The FOIA requests can be viewed here.
 
U.S. Marshals Judicial Threats Investigations: The Senators requested records related to the online orchestration of threats against federal judges who have ruled against the Trump administration.  The FOIA requests can be viewed here.
 
Kash Patel Grand Jury Testimony: The Senators requested records related to FBI Director Kash Patel’s grand jury testimony in an investigation into possible misconduct by President Trump and Patel’s invocation of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.  In two hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patel made conflicting statements about whether a court order prevented him from describing the testimony he gave, which grand jury witnesses are normally free to do.  The FOIA requests can be viewed here.
 
Qatari Plane: The Senators requested records related to President Trump accepting an airplane as a gift from Qatar in likely violation of the Emoluments Clause and AG Bondi’s role in advising on the legality of the gift.  The FOIA requests can be viewed here.
 
White House Contacts Policy: The Senators requested records related to DOJ’s White House contacts policy.  The FOIA request can be viewed here.
 
Jared Wise: The Senators requested records related to DOJ hiring Jared Wise, a Jan. 6 rioter who encouraged rioters to kill Capitol Police officers.  The FOIA requests can be viewed here.

###


And from THE BLACK COMMENTATOR:


The Black Commentator

 Issue #1065

 is now Online

November 27, 2025

Read issue 1065

Our email address is BlackCommentator@gmail.com

Our voicemail number is 856.823.1739

 
The Black Commentator | P.O. Box 2635, A weekly publication dedicated to economic justice, social justice and peace.,
Tarpon Springs, FL 34688-2635




The following sites updated:

Posted by at

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Chump the eternal liar

If I start a GO FUND ME for Daniel Dale, will people contribute?  I'm sure he makes a reasonable wage (or I hope he does) but it just seems like he does more than anyone should have to.  I have noted that before when mentioning the CNN journalist and it just feels like we should all be kicking in for a solid vacation for Mr. Dale or something else nice.  Marco Margaritoff (HUFFINGTON POST) explains:


President Donald Trump on Sunday made numerous false claims about Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and besieged leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with one allegation so easily disproven that CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale couldn’t help but debunk it.

“Trump’s claim is not even close to accurate,” Dale wrote late Monday night on CNN.com.
The Trump administration has given Ukraine until Thursday to approve its proposal to end the conflict with Russia or lose U.S. military support, with Trump claiming on social media that “UKRAINE ‘LEADERSHIP’ HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS.”

Dale noted in his extensive column Monday that Zelenskyy has done so numerous times since Russia launched its invasion in 2022, citing a whopping 78 examples spanning from January of that year to this past Sunday — after Trump criticized Zelenskyy as ungrateful.

“Zelensky has said it on social media, sometimes tagging Trump’s account,” wrote Dale. “He has said it to Trump face-to-face. He has said it to Trump appointees and members of Congress. He has said it in Ukraine, in the US, and in other countries.”

He continued, “In fact, Zelensky said it last week.”


Again, thank you to Mr. Dale.  Mr. Chump?  The Convicted Felon is just a liar.  And a grifter.  And a con artist.  Alex Griffing (MEDIAITE) notes:

Bloomberg News stunned the political world on Tuesday by releasing the leaked transcript of a call between Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian foreign-policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, which took place on Oct. 14.
The transcript shows Witkoff coaching his Russian counterpart on how to flatter President Donald Trump in order for him to be more amenable to Russia’s wants in the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

The transcript also included Witkoff telling the Russians, “ I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere. But I’m saying instead of talking like that, let’s talk more hopefully because I think we’re going to get to a deal here. And I think Yuri, the president will give me a lot of space and discretion to get to the deal.”

Bloomberg also published an October 29 “phone call between Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s most senior foreign-policy adviser, and Kirill Dmitriev, an economic adviser to the Russian president.”

During that call, Dmitriev appeared to suggest that the draft of the recent peace plan came from Russia. “ No, look. I think we’ll just make this paper from our position, and I’ll informally pass it along, making it clear that it’s all informal. And let them do like their own. But, I don’t think they’ll take exactly our version, but at least it’ll be as close to it as possible,” Dmitriev. The Trump-backed proposal was quickly derided as offering too many concessions to Russia, including by many GOP members of Congress.

That speaks so poorly for Mr. Chump and for the administration.   You would think he would be so embarrassed at this point that he would not even show his face in public.  James Ball (THE I PAPER) adds:

But, of course, we are not living in normal times. Our latest reminder of that is the publication by Bloomberg of the full telephone transcript between Donald Trump’s special envoy for peace, his billionaire pal Steve Witkoff, and Vladimir Putin’s top aide on foreign policy, Yuri Ushakov. 

If nothing else, it’s fascinating to see how much these ultra-rich and ultra-powerful men flannel one another even in private. As the call – which took place on 14 October, shortly after Israel and Hamas agreed a US-brokered ceasefire – opened, Ushakov fell over himself to praise Witkoff for his role in that deal.

Witkoff, in turn, gave Ushakov extensive advice on how he should make sure to flatter and praise Trump over the deal, and how he could leverage that flattery – and Trump’s ensuing good mood – to try to net a favourable deal for peace between Russia and Ukraine.

“Just reiterate that you congratulate the President on this achievement, that you supported it, you supported it, that you respect that he is a man of peace and you’re just, you’re really glad to have seen it happen,” Witkoff said, per Bloomberg’s translation of the call. “So I would say that. I think from that it’s going to be a really good call.”


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

Wednesday, November 26, 2025.  Chump's war on immigrants continues and snares the mother of Karoline Leavitt's nephew, Chump who did not serve continues to try to overcompensate for his micro penis by attacking Senator Mark Kelly, and much more.


The bullies of Chump's gestapo forces never tire of intimidating and harassing people.  A court is hitting back at the lawless force.  Taylor Dolven (COLORADO SUN) reports:


Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ conduct during arrests in Colorado has been “unlawful,” a federal judge ruled Tuesday  in an order that restricts how immigration officers can arrest people in the state.

The preliminary injunction ruling is a significant victory for immigrants rights groups, who sued ICE last month to stop “indiscriminate” arrests and detentions. The lawsuit alleges that ICE agents are arresting and detaining people in Colorado because of their skin color, accent or perceived nationality, without determining flight risk, to fulfill arrest quotas set by the Trump administration.

ICE must repay the bond money posted by three named plaintiffs in the case, all immigrants arrested in Colorado, remove their ankle monitors and stop making warrantless arrests in the state without determining and documenting each person’s flight risk, according to the the ruling by U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson in Denver.

“ICE’s hubris and violent behavior have been on national display for months,” said Hans Meyer, owner of the Meyer Law Office and an immigration attorney for the plaintiffs. “But as Judge Jackson’s decision makes clear, no one — including ICE — is above the law.”



Let's drop back to Monday for this from THE NEWSHOUR (PBS).


Amna Nawaz:

A sweeping new investigation by the Associated Press is raising serious questions about what's happening inside America's immigration courts.

White House correspondent Liz Landers has more on how the administration has circumvented the asylum process.

Liz Landers:

Every day, all across the country, asylum cases are being tossed out, and asylum seekers exit the courtroom into the waiting arms and cuffs of immigration officers, that according to a new report from the Associated Press headlined "Migrants thought they were in a court for a routine hearing. Instead, it was a deportation trap."

One of its authors, Josh Goodman, joins us now.

Josh, thank you for joining the "News Hour."

Josh Goodman, Associated Press:

Thank you.

Liz Landers:

In reporting this story, you and your colleagues went to 21 immigration courts. Can you describe the scene as you watch migrants walk into court and then walk out into a legal snare?

Josh Goodman:

Yes, we witnessed multiple arrests over several months. This was a routine practice by which government attorneys would go before a judge, dismiss a case, which would typically be a good outcome for someone trying to stay in the United States.

And as soon as they would leave the courtroom, they would be arrested by ICE agents or federal agents, frequently with masks. Nationwide, it's estimated that there were over 2,000 arrests in this manner. Some of the courts were quite chaotic, arresting people in hallways. People were being trapped in elevators. Journalists were being rough-handled, scenes of fathers being torn from their children, women begging federal agents to let their husbands go.

These are people who wanted to follow the rules. They didn't have a criminal record. They were making an asylum claim and going through all the stages that are required and were completely blindsided by what happened to them.

Liz Landers:

What has changed in these immigration courts under this new Trump administration?

Josh Goodman:

So these immigration courts were kind of structurally flawed from the very beginning. They are not part of the independent judiciary in the way that tax court or federal court or any multiple courts around the United States are.

They are part of the executive branch. They actually are part of the Justice Department. They had a degree of professionalism over time that was built up. And these judges were allowed to really rule like any other court. But they were always very vulnerable to some sort of takeover.

What we have seen now under the second Trump administration, they are effectively exploiting those vulnerabilities, issuing new orders about what judges can and cannot rule on. And they're really narrowing the scope that these judges have to decide the cases.

Liz Landers:

How do the attorneys and judges within the immigration court system feel about the role that they're playing under this new Trump administration tactic?

Josh Goodman:

What I found is that overall these are people who are very patriotic. They signed up to work in the immigration system because they wanted to protect America's borders, root out the true people who need asylum from some of the people who are claiming it for nonlegal reasons or economic refugees, for example.

And they did not sign up for this at all. One of the judges I talked to said, this is really like deciding death penalty cases in a traffic court environment, because they have so few tools to actually mete out justice that — and they have such a huge docket — that they are rushing through these cases without giving them the due consideration that they need.

And I noticed in some of the text messages between the federal agents and the attorneys a great deal of empathy and people kind of saying to themselves, this is cruel and we don't really want to be a part of this.

Liz Landers:

I was struck by that in your reporting, that these attorneys who are arguing in front of these judges are in direct contact, it seems, with the ICE agents who are waiting outside.

Josh Goodman:

This process starts about two weeks in advance. Every attorney is assigned a number of people, like maybe 40 cases that day. They have to come up with a list for the client — the client here is ICE — of people who they would — quote, unquote — call "amenable" to detention.

And then, on the day of the hearings, the attorney and the ICE officer in the hallway are coordinating almost in real time so that they can identify what the individual looks like, what kind of shirt, black shirt, a white shirt, whatever they're wearing, as well as if indeed the judge dismissed the case, because that was the hook.

If the judge didn't dismiss the case, they couldn't arrest these individuals. If they're trying to reach a quota every day, it's a lot easier to pick up people at court.

Liz Landers:

One of the stated reasons that the Trump administration has adopted this new policy is to work through the asylum system's yearslong backlog. Is it affecting the backlog and is it affecting other systems?

Josh Goodman:

That's a great question. The backlog is a huge challenge. It has been for many, many years. It keeps growing. The numbers themselves are not 100 percent clear.

The government has said that they have managed to reduce the backlog from about 4.2 million to 3.8 million cases, which is still mind-boggling for only 600 judges nationwide. But they're also benefiting from the fact that the border itself is sealed. In other words, there's not a lot of new people coming in and clogging up the system.

But every time that there are arrests in the streets, any time there are major roundups, those people also get sort of thrown back into the system, and they can actually increase the numbers. So, it's not entirely clear, but I think, at a very minimum, what we can say is that the backlog is not growing as fast as it once was.

Liz Landers:

So you find in this reporting that a number of these judges, these immigration court judges have been laid off. You guys profile in your story a judge in Ohio who had been fired.

Why are immigration judges getting fired right now if there is such a backlog to process these cases?

Josh Goodman:

Yes, I mean, this is a great conundrum. There's about 90 judges that have been fired since February. And the government, Trump administration, very clearly says that they are not targeting anyone from a viewpoint perspective.

But the data speaks for itself. These judges were more favorable to migrants than the national average.



Let's look at some of the people targeted.  Robert Birsel (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Immigration authorities detained a University of Oklahoma professor of Iranian studies on Saturday while he was on his way to an academic conference in Washington, D.C., despite having a valid H-IB visa, a colleague said.

He was released this week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Newsweek on Tuesday.
“This Iranian national was detained for standard questioning. He’s been released,” a DHS spokesperson said via email.

Violent criminals?  And this person even had paperwork to prove he was all checked off to stay in the country.  Gestapo thugs.  Untrained menace let loose on the streets of America.  Guess we now understand what Blackwater did in Baghdad.  


Leaked Immigration and Customs Enforcement data show that nearly three-quarters of detainees have no criminal conviction, undermining President Donald Trump’s promise to remove “millions and millions of criminal aliens.”

The figures, leaked to the libertarian Cato Institute, expose the gulf between the administration’s rhetoric and results, as Trump’s top enforcer, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, insists the dragnet is targeting America’s “worst of the worst.”

Since Oct. 1, 73 percent of people booked into ICE custody had no criminal conviction, while nearly half had neither a conviction nor pending charges, according to the Cato analysis. Just 5 percent had a violent conviction.

Good for Cato but this has been the pattern -- as Cato itself has previously pointed out -- and now we know it remains the pattern.  


And look who ICE snared now:  a relative of Propaganda Pig.  Tara Prindiville and Dennis Romero (NBC NEWS) report:

Officials have detained the mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's nephew amid the Trump administration's ramped-up immigration enforcement efforts, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took the woman into custody in Revere, Massachusetts, this month, the source said.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Bruna Caroline Ferreira is a "criminal illegal alien from Brazil" who overstayed her tourist visa, which expired in June 1999.

The woman has an arrest on suspicion of battery, the spokesperson said. It’s not clear how the case was resolved.


So they have an 11 year old son, Michael Leavitt and Bruna.  They were engaged and lived in a condo together until he won  a million dollars.  Karoline, Michael's sister, had to troll old men to find her a sugar daddy, but Michael won his earnings.  And, if you're not following, the woman arrested is the mother of Karoline's nephew.  I don't know why the reports struggle on the connection.  She's also very pretty -- unlike the porker Michael chose to marry.  Karoline apparently hates Bruna and you have to wonder if Homeland Security's been used by Karoline to 'ease family tensions' by getting Bruna out of the country?  Homeland Secuirty's got all these neagtive things to say about the woman but no outlet can even find where charges have ever been filed against her.  Alexx Altman-Devilbiss (KFOX 14) adds:


Ferriera's sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, stated on a GoFundMe page to help with legal costs that Ferriera was brought to the United States by her parents in 1998 and "has done everything in her power to build a stable, honest life."

"She has maintained her legal status through DACA, following every requirement, and has always strived to do the right thing," Rodrigues continued. 

 

We've talked about the lies Homeland Security keeps telling.  Grace Hall (MIAMI HERALD) notes:



U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis criticized testimony from a top ICE official about efforts to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, calling it unhelpful and inconsistent with his affidavit.

Abrego Garcia, returned to El Salvador in March and later brought back to the U.S., faces human-smuggling charges and is fighting repeated attempts to deport him to various countries, including Liberia, instead of Costa Rica, which he prefers.



Now let's return to the topic of US Senator Mark Kelly.  








Hence on Monday, the Pentagon announced that it would perform a “thorough review” of “serious allegations of misconduct” against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). The Pentagon said Kelly could be recalled for active duty “for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures.”

Kelly is a popular senator in Arizona, a state Trump won. He also served in the U.S. Navy as a captain and as an astronaut — he flew four space missions and his identical twin brother Scott is also a retired NASA astronaut — before he ran for Senate in 2020 after his wife, then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head in a political assassination attempt in 2011. Kamala Harris had him on her shortlist to be her running mate.

But he sent Trump into a rage last week when he – along with fellow Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Democratic Reps. Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, Maggie Goodlander and Chris DeLuzio – released a video telling active duty U.S. servicemembers that they could refuse to obey illegal orders.
Trump responded by calling the behavior seditious and said that it could be punishable by death. Republicans either outright defended Trump’s words or they pretended not to see it.

This case will likely fall apart in the same manner Trump’s attempts to prosecute Comey and James.

And it will likely cause just as much backlash and make Kelly a hero among Democrats the same way that Gavin Newsom did after Trump sent the National Guard and Marines into Los Angeles without the governor’s permission.

Kelly for his part does not seem bowed by Trump’s attack on him. But it is just another example of how Trump is using the federal government to exact revenge against anyone he perceives as his political enemies and equating his enemies with the country’s enemies.


We're back in on this.  I was hoping we were out; however, a lot of 'experts' and reporters on military matters do not know what they're doing.  Not a bit.  I watched in shock, at Lt Ehren Watada's court-martial after Judge Toilet (John Head -- two-time toilet) ended the court-martial in his illegal attempt to give the government a do over.  I was elated.  And yet I'm watching all these 'experts' -- even one from the National Lawyers Guild give their expertise to the media and they're all saying this is going to be tough when they do it over with the next court-martial -- WHAT!  As I said then there is no next time.  Judge Toilet was prodding and coaching the government prosecutors and they still couldn't make a winnable argument so he stopped the case.  Double jeopardy had attached.  There's no do over.  

And there wasn't.  

Or take the Status Of Forces Agreement Bully Boy Bush pushed through on Thanksgiving of 2008 and all the liars who said and wrote that it ends the Iraq War and forces US troops out of Iraq in three years.  No.

Did you read it?  Because I did.  In full on Thanksgiving day and we did an Iraq snapshot about it that day.  We usually take Thanksgiving and Christmas and July 4th and Memorial Day off -- am I forgetting one? -- but this was important so we had to do a snapshot.

And then idiots pretended it ended the Iraq War.  It didn't.  Some -- not all -- US troops left at the end of 2011.  It was a drawdown, not a withdrawal.  (The 2,500 currently in Iraq are supposedly going to leave by the end of this year.)  The drawdown would not have happened if Nouri al-Maliki -- US puppet and despot -- had gotten what he wanted.  He insisted on a larger number of troops than Barack was offering.  .Iraq wanted US troops out of Iraq.  That and the UN's refusal to continue to provide fig leaf cover to the illegal war is why the US government moved to a SOFA.  It replaced the UN mandate (each country keeping troops in Iraq had to do their own version of a SOFA because the UN mandate was expiring and the UN was not going to extend them.  Each year, Nouri would sign it -- after lying to the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people that he wouldn't -- and it would extend foreign troops' presence in Iraq.  He no longer had the power to do this yearly -- he would be toppled trying that.  So the SOFA covered 3 years and was renewable.  If Barack had agreed to more solider, Nouri would sign the SOFA.  The US military was what kept him in place.  He conveyed that to Senators John McCain, Joe Liberman and Lindsey Graham.  They were not silent about the request, they spoke of it in an open meetings of Congress.  

People need to stop pretending they know what they're talking about when they don't.

One of the few commentators worth listening to on military law is Eugene R. Fidell.  He is almost always right (in fact, I can't think of a time when he was ever wrong).  He's been cited here over and over since 2006 for that reason.  October 19, 2020, he wrote "Wrestling with Legal and Illegal Orders in the Military in the Months Ahead" (JUST SECURITY):

Good order and discipline are the familiar watchwords of military forces around the world. A disciplined force is one in which comprehensible, lawful orders are given and promptly followed. But must all orders be obeyed? If not, what is a soldier to do? These questions are not new, but they are particularly timely given the concerns many understandably feel about the possibility that the Trump administration will employ the armed forces in questionable ways before, during, and even after the 2020 election, even though Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has firmly stated that the armed forces will not be involved in the election.

American military law is about as clear as it can be as to when orders must be followed and what sanctions are possible in the event of disobedience. No one could have predicted some of President Donald J. Trump’s dismaying conduct and treatment of the armed forces, and there is no guarantee that future administrations will be steadier, although it would be difficult for them not to be. Given what we’ve witnessed over the last few months, armed forces should critically review their training for both judge advocates and commanders, including the development and analysis of hypotheticals that explore possible scenarios arising from domestic unrest and possible use of the Insurrection Act.

What does military law say about orders, and what can happen if a soldier disobeys?

The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) is America’s criminal code for the armed forces. It is an Act of Congress and applies not only to those on active duty in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard, as well as reservists, but also to personnel of the National Guard and Air National Guard when they have been called into federal service. National Guard and Air National Guard on state orders are subject to state codes of military justice that largely replicate the federal statute. For federal military personnel, the UCMJ’s implementing regulations can be found in the Manual for Courts-Martial, which is an executive order issued and amended from time to time by the president, as well as service-specific regulations issued by each branch of the armed forces. All of these have the force of law.

The UCMJ’s “punitive articles” criminalize the disobedience of lawful orders given by military superiors. These may be oral or in writing.  Usually, a servicemember cannot be prosecuted for violating a lawful order unless it can be proved that he or she actually knew about it. “General orders,” on the other hand, are different. These orders from senior officers are like statutes and regulations: Everyone is deemed to have notice of them if they have been properly disseminated.

There are potentially severe penalties for disobeying lawful orders. A disobedient soldier might simply be “chewed out” or given nonjudicial punishment if the commander considers the disobedience a minor offense. But disobedience of a lawful order can, depending on the circumstances, lead to the death penalty in time of war and in peacetime to confinement for up to five years, a stigmatizing punitive discharge (dishonorable or bad-conduct for enlisted personnel, dismissal for commissioned officers), loss of pay, and other sanctions.

Only lawful orders have to be followed. This is what the Manual for Courts-Martial says about the lawfulness of orders:

(i) Inference of lawfulness. An order requiring the performance of a military duty or act may be inferred to be lawful, and it is disobeyed at the subordinate’s peril. This inference does not apply to a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime.

(ii) Determination of lawfulness. The lawfulness of an order is a question of law to be determined by the military judge.

(iii) Authority of issuing officer. The commissioned officer issuing the order must have authority to give such an order. Authorization may be based on law, regulation, custom of the Service, or applicable order to direct, coordinate, or control the duties, activities, health, welfare, morale, or discipline of the accused.

(iv) Relationship to military duty. The order must relate to military duty, which includes all activities reasonably necessary to accomplish a military mission, or safeguard or promote the morale, discipline, and usefulness of members of a command and directly connected with the maintenance of good order in the Service. The order may not, without such a valid military purpose, interfere with private rights or personal affairs. However, the dictates of a person’s conscience, religion, or personal philosophy cannot justify or excuse the disobedience of an otherwise lawful order. Disobedience of an order which has for its sole object the attainment of some private end, or which is given for the sole purpose of increasing the penalty for an offense which it is expected the accused may commit, is not punishable under this article.

(v) Relationship to statutory or constitutional rights. The order must not conflict with the statutory or constitutional rights of the person receiving the order.


That's an excerpt.  Eugene is an expert.  Pete Hegseth?  A man who pays a woman to drop assault charges is not a man who respects the law.  He is a piece of trash who thinks he can buy his way out of anything, but he is not someone who respects the law -- further demonstrated by his repeatedly billing himself as the Secretary of War when there has no such position since FDR was president and only Congress can change the title from Secretary of Defense.  Looselips Hegseth is not just targeting Senator Mark Kelly, he's also targeting the Boy Scouts.  Katie Hawkinson (INDEPENDENT) reports:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants the U.S. military to cut all ties with Scouting America, the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts, according to a new report.

Hegseth said the military is planning to sever ties with the organization, claiming it is no longer a meritocracy and is designed to “attack boy-friendly spaces,” according to a draft memo to Congress obtained by NPR. Scouting America, which “aims to prepare young people for lives of impact and purpose,” was founded in 1910 and has more than one million youth members, according to its website.


Is there a bigger bunch of babies?  The only thing bigger than these babies is the huge chips that they carry around on their shoulders.  A life of resentment is all they've lived and they've played the victim over and over.  Petey may not realize it but he's at the height of his life.  He's not going to have another job where can create his own beauty salon the way he's done at the Pentagon.  This is it.  And he has nothing but hatred to project right now.  That was true even on Easter. 

I wasn't planning on covering this topic again but a friend in the House asked me to saying the media was being so-so on the coverage and the right wing was rabid.  "So you need a bitch on this one?"  Apparently yes. So this is a topic we'll be covering regularly.  It would be more in depth today but that call asking me to cover it came in ten minutes ago. 

 

 



Cowardly weak sister Chump is going after Senator Mark Kelly.  He already screwed over this country when he refused to go to Vietnam and lied about having bone spurs, now he thinks he can go after those who did serve?  No, no, no, no.  Get your little pampered ass back in your lane, fatso.  No one's buying the lies and attacks you're spreading.  Shame on you, Donald Chump. 


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

Bicameral introduction follows Trump administration’s shutdown chaos and effort to strip food assistance from millions of Americans; 1 in 9 Washingtonians rely on SNAP benefits to put food on the table

ICYMI: Senator Murray Statement on House Passage of “Big, Ugly Betrayal” Cutting Health Care & SNAP for WA State Families to Fund Tax Cuts for Billionaires

Senator Murray briefly relied on food stamps as a child and has always fought to fully fund SNAP benefits; Murray fiercely opposed Republicans when they passed the largest cuts to SNAP in American history this summer by passing their Big Ugly Bill.

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and other Democratic colleagues in introducing the Restoring Food Security for American Families and Farmers Act of 2025. The legislation would repeal all the devastating cuts made by Republicans to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” the partisan Republican reconciliation bill that was signed into law in July. U.S. Representatives Jahana Hayes (D-CT) and Angie Craig (D-MN) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Republicans’ partisan One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the largest SNAP cuts in history—breaking a 50-year bipartisan commitment—in order to fund new tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy. Congressional Republicans approved cuts that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will eliminate $187 billion in food assistance over the next decade—as grocery prices rise and President Trump’s tariffs raise costs on Americans across the board. These Republican SNAP cuts will take meals from millions of Americans, including children, seniors, veterans, workers, and people with disabilities, while harming farmers, ranchers, small businesses, and grocers who rely on SNAP dollars. Additionally, the Republican legislation creates a massive unfunded mandate on state governments that could force deep cuts or even eliminate SNAP entirely in some states. SNAP is a lifeline for over 42 million Americans, including 16 million children, 8 million seniors, 4 million people with disabilities, and 1.2 million veterans. In Washington state, over 888,000 residents received SNAP benefits in Fiscal Year 2024—approximately 11 percent of the state’s population, or one in nine Washingtonians.

“SNAP is an investment in people and a commitment we make that, in the richest country on earth, kids and families should not be forced to go hungry,” said Senator Murray. “But Republicans broke that commitment with their Big Ugly Bill that made the largest cuts to SNAP in history—taking food away from families who need it the most, to fund new tax breaks for billionaires who need them the least. And during the Republican shutdown, the Trump administration did everything they could to deny SNAP benefits to struggling families—even going to court to block benefits from reaching people who needed them. I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing this bill to fully repeal Republican cuts to SNAP and I will keep doing everything in my power to speak out and fight back against these terrible cuts to programs Americans rely on to meet their basic needs.”

Additionally, nearly 1,500 national, state, and community-based organizations joined a letter voicing support for this effort.

In addition to Senators Murray, Luján, Klobuchar, and Merkley, and Leader Schumer, the legislation is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA.), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angus King (I-ME), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The full text of the bill can be found HERE.

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