Friday, July 25, 2025

Chump enabler Diane Brady tries a new lie to cover for Chump

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS  "Damsel In Distress Donald" and it went up last night. 


trumpandsassy


Love that comic. 

Air head and journalistic dabbler Diane Brady (FORTUNE) types:


I thought of that this week after speaking to someone in Trump’s circle about the president’s desire to distance himself from any mention of his name next to Jeffrey Epstein. This associate framed the issue as one of personal branding. It didn’t matter if Trump’s association with Epstein was before the financier was accused of sex trafficking, this person argued. “Epstein will forever be a loser in people’s minds and Donald Trump doesn’t hang out with losers,” they said. “It’s off-brand.”


Ms. Brady does not seem very bright (read before my excerpt) and she appears to be a suck up to Mr. Chump (ibid).  But is this to be the new lie?

Mr. Chump was not friends with Mr. Epstein because Mr. Chump does not hang out with losers?

I believe Mr. Chump considers Mike Pence to be a "loser" now; however, Mr. Pence was his running mate in 2016 and then, for four years, was Vice President of the United States.   I am sure Mr. Chump considers Michael Cohen a "loser" today but for over 10 years the attorney worked for Mr. Chump. That is, in fact, the pattern of his life.  He has a hissy fit at some point and breaks with everyone.  Or have we all forgotten the messy end of his bromance with Alien Musk.

So if Ms. Brady thinks she is reporting, she is very sadly mistaken.  All the more so, if she believes that this is the loop hole the frees Chump. 


The news Wednesday that Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump back in May that his name appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files isn’t that surprising, in context.

We’ve known the two men had a relationship dating back decades, and we’ve seen Trump’s name appear in various previously released Epstein-related materials. Being in the documents isn’t proof of any wrongdoing.

But the news is significant in another way: It adds to questions about precisely why the administration changed its tune on the Epstein files.

That doesn’t mean there’s been a cover-up of any actual Epstein-related misconduct by Trump; there remains no real evidence of that. But the administration clearly started downplaying the Epstein information – in a rather abrupt shift – around the same time Trump was told his name appeared in the files.

What’s more, sources familiar with the review told CNN the files appeared to include several unsubstantiated claims about Trump and others that the Justice Department found not to be credible.

In other words, extensive disclosures could have at least created problems for Trump. And the administration appeared to abruptly move away from such disclosures.



Mr. Chump's name pops up repeatedly in the files, Attorney General Pam Bondi says she will be releasing information and does not, Ms. Bondi informs Mr. Chump that his name is in the files, and suddenly there is nothing to see here, everyone move along?



Donald Trump is fuming.

As the president marked six months in office this week, the MAGA civil war over the Epstein files continued to dominate the news cycle, leaving the White House scrambling to find a way to stave off a growing political firestorm.

It was a sharp contrast from a few weeks ago, when Trump almost couldn’t stop winning. Among other things, he had secured the numbers in Congress to pass the so-called “big beautiful bill”; launched a bold military strike on Iran; and strong-armed CBS owner Paramount to settle a multi-million dollar lawsuit.
[. . .]
“He has bigger fish to fry,” the official told the Daily Beast. A few hours later, Trump fired off another angry post about Epstein on his Truth Social account.

Part of the problem, insiders admit, is that Trump is at loggerheads with his base, who want the Epstein files released and fear that there’s a cover-up to protect others who may have been involved in his heinous child sex network.
That makes it much harder to change the narrative, even for a president who has made an art form of flooding the zone and moving on to the next big drama.

This is -- and has always been -- a problem of his own making.  He stirred up support with lies about pedophile rings and presented himself as the protector of children.  But his neighbor and his friend, Mr. Epstein, was the head of the pedophile ring and now, to try to throw everyone off his tracks, he wants to pardon Mr. Epsteins co-conspirator.   It is not playing well with the American people.  Martha McHardy (NEWSWEEK) reports:

New polling reveals that the fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues to cast a shadow over Donald Trump and his administration—particularly Attorney General Pam Bondi's Justice Department—as doubts about the government's handling of the case deepen among voters.

According to the latest Wall Street Journal/Fabrizio, Lee & Associates poll, 76 percent of voters believe the Justice Department is hiding important information about its Epstein investigation, with nearly half saying they have "no confidence" in the department's handling of the case. Another 21 percent say they have little confidence, while fewer than one in four expressed any real trust in the probe.

Does that mean that Ms. Bondi will have to be forced out to silence the story?  

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

Friday, July 25, 2025.  Chump's Justice  Dept plays footsie with a convicted pedophile, victims come forward to speak of how they are being effected, pieces of the late Epstein's past continue to float to the surface, Chump's war on immigrant is a war on all of us, and much more.


Ben and MEIDASTOUCH NEWS get us up to speed on Donald Chump and his circle jerk buddy dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. 



Alison Durkee (FORBES) offers these bullet points:

*DOJ officials are interviewing Maxwell at a courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Maxwell’s attorneys reportedly arriving around 9 a.m. EDT on Thursday morning.

*Blanche previously said the agency wanted to speak with her to find out “information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims.”

*The interview comes as the DOJ has controversially refused to otherwise release documents about its investigation into Epstein, and as Maxwell serves a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted on charges of sex trafficking and transporting minors to participate in illegal sex acts.

*Maxwell is also still in the process of appealing her conviction, most recently asking the Supreme Court to take it up, and critics and legal experts have expressed concern she could use the interview to her own benefit to get a more lenient sentence from the federal government.

*Those fears have been amplified by Maxwell’s history of alleged perjury, as the socialite was charged with perjury in 2020 based on allegedly lying during a 2016 deposition in a civil lawsuit about Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse.

*Maxwell was never tried or convicted of perjury: The charges were separated from her other counts prior to her 2021 trial, and when she sought a retrial of her sex trafficking charges, prosecutors offered to drop the perjury charges as long as her conviction on the other, more serious, counts was allowed to stand.


Chump still has his lawsuit filed against THE WALL STREET JOURNAL over their report on his birthday greeting to Epstein two decades ago, insisting it wasn't him.  On MSNBC this week. Lawrence O'Donnell broke the news that the birthday book still exists -- as do copies of it -- and he continued to report about it on his show last night.



While Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche disgraced himself, his position and the US government yesterday supplicating himself before convicted pedophile Jizzy Pants Maxwell, yesterday Jen Psaki used her time to instead speak with and focus on the women and girls exploited by Epstein and Maxwell.




As Maria Farmer asked last night on MSNBC, "Why would Maxwell be given a voice when she is a convicted pedophile?"  

Todd Blanche disgraced everyone yesterday as he rushed to a prison to meet with the convicted pedophile Maxwell -- to meet with her and her attorneys.  

As Lawrence has pointed out, Maxwell had plenty of times to speak.  She chose not to.  When she was on trial, she refused to take the stand.  But she'll talk to a Deputy Attorney General now?  When her testimony is apparently needed to protect Chump and back up his lies?


At NPR, Domenico Montanaro surveys the terrain:


Where do things stand and what's the latest?

Justice Department interview of Ghislaine Maxwell: Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal attorney of President Trump's, interviewed Ghislane Maxwell in prison on Thursday. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. What new information the DOJ is seeking or what it would learn — and what Maxwell could get out of it, if anything, is unclear.

Whether anyone can believe what Maxwell winds up sharing is another question. Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig told NPR's Morning Edition that if he were Maxwell's lawyer he'd advise her to share nothing and invoke the Fifth Amendment, which gives people the right to not self-incriminate.

"Even though she's already been tried and convicted and sentenced, she still could at least theoretically have other exposure to additional crimes," Honig said.

Grand jury transcripts: The government, encouraged by Trump, also sought to release grand jury transcripts from the Epstein case. A federal judge denied one of those requests. Two others are pending.

Getting out of Dodge: In Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson had Congress get out of town early for its August recess rather than take a vote aiming to force the Trump administration to release the Epstein files.

House Oversight Committee seeks Maxwell interview, too: After a subcommittee vote in which Republicans joined Democrats to approve a subpoena to compel Maxwell to speak to the committee, committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican, issued a subpoena for an interview to occur Aug. 11.

"While the Justice Department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to your and Mr. Epstein's cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government's enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of you and Mr. Epstein," Comer wrote in a letter to Maxwell released by the committee. "In particular, the Committee seeks your testimony to inform the consideration of potential legislative solutions to improve federal efforts to combat sex trafficking and reform the use of non-prosecution agreements and/or plea agreements in sex-crime investigations."

Trump knew his name was in the files in May, according to the Wall Street Journal and others: The Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy briefed Trump two months ago, letting him know that his name appeared in the Epstein files.

NPR has not confirmed that reporting, and the appearance of Trump's name alone is not an indication of wrongdoing. He and Epstein were friends for years; they were seen on video partying together; and Trump was even on flight logs for Epstein's plane before a falling out over a property dispute.

Honig told Morning Edition that it was highly unusual for an attorney general in the modern era to tell a president the details of an investigation it is conducting, particularly when it involves the president himself.

"Not at all," it's not normal for an attorney general to do so, Honig said. "And the question that this begs to me is, why? Why would the attorney general go and tip off the president — 'Hey, you're named in these criminal, closed criminal investigative files,' whatever 'named' may mean. That is highly abnormal, and if we look back at the history of attorneys general, through both parties, that would be seen as a breach of the attorney general's independence."

We're going to move over to the topic of Chump's War on Immigrants because we've got a lot there to cover.  I hope there will be time and space after that for Loose Lips Hegseth but we may have to put Pete on hold for next week's snapshot.  Chump's war on immigrants never ends.  Priscilla Alvarez (CNN) reports:


The Trump administration is moving to rapidly deport some migrant children who arrived in the US without a parent or guardian by having federal agents ask teens whether they want to voluntarily depart the country, according to two Homeland Security officials and a source familiar with the discussions.

The latest directive, which comes as the administration seeks to ramp up deportations, marks a departure from long-standing protocol which required that federal authorities turn over most unaccompanied children to the Health and Human Services Department, the agency charged with their care. Up until now, federal authorities didn’t ask unaccompanied kids from countries other than Mexico and Canada if they wanted to self deport.

This week, US Customs and Border Protection personnel were directed to ask children they encounter in immigration enforcement operations across the country whether they want to voluntarily depart the United States, the officials said. If the child agrees, agents will turn that child over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation. But if ICE doesn’t pick them up from CBP custody within 72 hours, agents will refer them to HHS.


[. . .]

While existing policy generally allows for the swift removal of children arriving from Mexico and Canada because they’re contiguous countries, that’s not true for children of other nationalities. And the targeting of those kids from other countries — many of whom are living in the US with family — marks an escalation of the administration’s deportation efforts.

“A child is in no position to understand the consequences of self-deporting, particularly without the guidance of an attorney,” said Neha Desai, managing director of Children’s Human Rights at the National Center for Youth Law. “Unaccompanied children are being used as pawns in an effort to deport as many people as possible, regardless of the human toll it takes on the most vulnerable members of our community.”


The question for Chump remains: Have you no shame?  Grasp that there's not even a pretense here, when it comes to deporting children, that the deported are criminals.  He uses that lie over and over to cover up deporting innocent adults.  But he offers no justirication for deporting children.  He's just cruel and fat headed.  Robert Davis notes DHS is insisting this is "fake news."
\
Chump's administration really has become the little boy that cried wolf, haven't they?  At this point, "Fake news!" from the Chump administration is basically a confirmation that the report is true.

Esteban L. Hernandez (AXIOS) notes ICE is bragging over an 8-day operation in Denver where they claim to have arrested 243 immigrants. ICE insists that they are all criminals but ICE tends to lie.  Back in March, for example, Chump was bragging about the 230 'violent criminal' immigrants that they were sending to the concentration camp in El Salvador.  However, yesterday a joint-investigation by PROPUBLICA, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE and ALIANZA REBELDE INVESTIGA revealed, "We obtained internal data showing that the Trump administration knew that at least 197 of the men had not been convicted of crimes in the U.S. — and that only six had been convicted of violent offenses. We identified fewer than a dozen additional convictions, both for crimes committed in the U.S. and abroad, that were not reflected in the government data."  And remember this month's  California operation that led to them beating Iraq War veteran and American citizen George Retes and ICE  holding him for three days?   Julie Watson, Amy Taxin and Olga R. Rodriguez (AP) note, "The government said four of the 361 arrested had prior criminal records, including convictions for rape and kidnapping."  The government says they nabbed 361 people.  And the government says four "had prior criminal records."

Again, they lie.  Over and over, they lie. George shared the details of ICE's assault on him to CBS EVENING NEWS this week.
 
 
 


ICE officials live to lie.  Sabrina Moreno (AXIOS) reports:

ICE agents are increasingly showing up at Richmond-area courthouses and arresting immigrants at routine check-ins once considered safe, local immigration lawyers tell Axios.

The big picture: ICE arrests at the Chesterfield courthouse have put a spotlight on the county in the past month, sparking concerns from some county leaders and conservative Sheriff Karl Leonard, who told WTVR it's straining efforts to build trust with immigrant communities.

But it's not happening only in Chesterfield. Henrico's Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor told Axios there have been three instances since June where federal agents showed up at Henrico's courthouse.
While Richmond's Commonwealth's Attorney Colette McEachin told Axios that ICE hasn't been spotted at city courthouses yet, "victims have expressed concerns about coming to court."
McEachin also says defense attorneys have begun calling her office asking if there are any ICE agents "in or near Richmond's three courthouses."
Zoom in: Then there are the arrests happening at routine check-ins in ICE's Midlothian field office — something Richmond-based immigration attorney Miriam Airington-Fisher says she hadn't seen before in her 16 years of practice.

These required check-ins are scheduled appointments for people with pending immigration cases where officers confirm their address and that they haven't had any criminal charges.
Airington-Fisher says even people with no criminal history who have "done everything right" are getting detained.
She's now advising clients to not attend these check-ins without an attorney.


You are not safe taking care of a legal matter in a court.  In America, you are no longer safe doing that.  Grasp that.  Grasp the black eye our legal system has now.
 
This is not protecting anyone.  This is destroying communities and families, inflicting unnecessary pain.  Horror story?  Rosanne Skirble (MARYLAND MATTERS) reports:


Daniel Fuentes Espinal has been pastor of Iglesia del Nazareno in Easton since 2015 — he is also an undocumented immigrant who fled the violence in his native Honduras in 2001 and put down roots on the Eastern Shore where he has ministered and raised a family.

Fuentes Espinal has no criminal record and has been trying to get approval to become a U.S. citizen, said his daughter, Clarissa Fuentes Diaz.

The unpaid pastor works construction to support his family, Fuentes Diaz said Wednesday. She said her father was on a routine errand to the hardware store for building materials when he was arrested by unidentified agents Monday.

“I’ve heard stories about [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] at Lowe’s in the morning, picking up whoever seems to fit their narrative or racial profiling,” she said.

[. . .]

Len Foxwell, a longtime Easton resident and family friend, said the pastor led his congregation as a volunteer and regularly provided food, shelter, clothing and toys to those who needed help.

“He is known for his unconditional generosity to those who are the most vulnerable,” he said.

“It’s personal for me. Our sons were best friends,” Foxwell said, in the wake of his 18-year-old son’s death last month in a car accident. “Pastor [Fuentes] Espinal was at my son’s deathbed and spoke at his funeral.”



Horror stories like that emerging day after day.  And most are not covered on the news.  But though these stories may fall through the media cracks, in the neighborhoods and communities impacted, the horror stories are known.  Americans feel revulsion over what Chump is doing, over the innocents being kidnapped, over the assault on our freedoms and on our legal system. 

Yet all Chump wants to do is increase the miseries he's inflicting.  Lauren Villagran (USA TODAY) reports:


The U.S. Army has hired a contractor to build the nation's largest ICE detention center, the latest move by President Donald Trump to use the military to deliver his promised mass deportations.

Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC will erect a temporary immigration detention center on Fort Bliss, in El Paso, Texas, near the southern border, with 5,000 beds, under a $232 million contract, according to the Department of Defense.
The cost will likely rise. A similar tent city built to house unaccompanied migrant children on Fort Bliss in 2021 during the Biden administration ballooned within months to nearly $1 billion.

Think about that.  And think about this from USAFacts:

Around 23 out of every 10,000 Americans -- 771,480 people --experienced homelessness in January 2024 according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) annual point-in-time report, which measures homelessness across the US on a single night each winter. That’s an 18% increase from the same report in 2023.

He's never been motivated to help the homeless.  He's never given a damn.  But he'll build bigger prisons for immigrants.  

He is divorced from reality and refuses to grasp how he is repeatedly harming this country.  We started noting months ago that his actions were going to impact tourism.  

We've been noting for some time how Chump has destroyed tourism to the US.  He's fat and ugly and hated around the world and that's enough to stop some from visiting.  He's also cheap and common and people don't spend money to travel to a country run by trash.  Then we get into all of his attacks on various counties and nationalities, his war on immigrants, his was on the LGBTQ+ population, every repulsive thing about him and people don't want to come.


That is a huge financial blow to this country.  Tourism generates so much money -- travel, lodging, food, souvenirs, etc.   At the start of this month, Bailey Schulz (USA TODAY) reported:


Las Vegas’ hotel-casino operators are all about the deals this summer.

Resorts World is offering up to 40% off room rates and a $75 daily resort credit, plus free self-parking through Aug. 28. The Strat's summer value package includes room rates starting at $49, plus a $25 daily dining credit. Other operators are dropping prices for locals to boost staycations.

The discounts come at a time when international and budget-conscious travelers are hesitating to book their next trip to the Strip.

May was the fifth consecutive month Las Vegas has seen a year-over-year decline in tourism traffic, with visitor volume down 6.5% to just under 3.5 million people for the month, according to figures from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

“I think there’s an uptick (in deals) due to the environment we’re in,” said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the LVCVA. "The operators here have the ability to turn a number of dials based on demand, and we’re – like the rest of the United States – down a little bit from where we were the past couple of years.”



The American tourism industry is being brought to its knees by President Donald Trump.

According to NBC News, foreign travel to the United States has fallen by 10 percent since Trump took office, and it's already having measurable effects on the U.S. economy.

"Oxford Economics estimates spending among international visitors to the U.S. will fall $8.5 billion this year, as negative perceptions of the U.S. tied to trade and immigration policy lead travelers to other destinations."

All of this was forecast in a grim report earlier this year, which showed Trump's tariffs alone could cause $90 billion in losses from international tourism boycotts of the United States.

But one area that's being hit especially hard, the report noted, is LGBTQ tourism.

"Bookings for queer-friendly housing accommodations in the U.S. on the LGBTQ+ travel platform misterb&b saw a 66% decline among Canadian users and a 32% decline among European users from February to April, compared with the same period last year."



There has been no improvement and the damage he has done to tourism just grows more obvious.  Yesterday,  STYLE ON MAIN reported:


The United States is experiencing a clear and measurable decline in its dominance of the travel industry. This is a financial gut-punch, not hyperbole or economic scare tactics. The collapse of America's inbound tourism industry is expected to cost up to $29 billion in 2025 alone, with repercussions for local economies, transportation, and hospitality. While other countries are setting new records, the United States, one of 184 economies, is seeing a complete drop in foreign visitor spending. This isn't a statistical anomaly. Policy, perception, and the psychology of foreign tourists who are collectively opting to spend their money elsewhere are all contributing factors to this dramatic reversal.

Geopolitical tensions, shifting global alliances, and competitive destinations that have taken advantage of America's current difficulties are some of the underlying factors that go beyond simple economic conditions. The effect spreads further into the service sectors that depend significantly on foreign visitors, escalating regional inequalities and compounding losses in sources of income that have historically been thought of as steady. 



According to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority data, the first four months of this year showed a decrease in the overall number of visitors. Mark Wayman, a recruiter for executives in the gaming and casino industries, told Business Insider in May that Las Vegas bookings through the summer are “the worst I’ve ever seen.”


He is destroying our country, our economy and our image. 

It's the cruelty and the hate that comes out of the Chump administration and that hate is embraced by a minority of Americans.  That hate exists to take advantage of immigrants, to harm them.  So if, for example, they speak out about poor living conditions, hate mongers try to have them deported. Josh Marcus (THE INDEPENDENT) reports:


A Los Angeles area family of Latino renters suing their landlord over a 2024 eviction claim they were met with a thinly veiled threat that they would be picked up by immigration agents, amid the ongoing, high-profile campaign of raids across the city.
“It’s not fair for him to take advantage of that,” former tenant Yicenia Morales told The Los Angeles Times. “I was born here. I have a birth certificate. I pay taxes.”
“I was already depressed over the eviction,” she added. “Now I’m hurt, embarrassed and nervous as well. Will he really call ICE on us?”

“It’s racist,” her attorney, Sarah McCracken, added in an interview with the paper. “Not only is it unethical and probably illegal, but it’s just a really wild thing to say — especially since my clients are U.S. citizens.”

The controversy stems from a June message from attorney Rod Fehlman, whom Morales and her lawyers at the firm Tobener Ravenscroft said they saw in state records was the legal point of contact for landlord Celia Ruiz and her real estate agent David Benavides.


This is not funny.  Stephen Miller probably thinks it is.  We've all seen his video from high school where he's giggling about torture and making it clear why he never had any friends and still doesn't.  Mia Maldonado (OREGON CAPITAL CHRONICLE) reports:

Threatening to call federal immigration authorities on employees after they raised concerns about their working conditions is considered illegal retaliation, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries is warning employers. 
Oregon law prohibits employers from discriminating or retaliating against workers because of their national origin, which includes actions that target workers based on their immigration status, ethnicity, language, ancestry or cultural traits. 

While the federal government is cracking down on immigration enforcement across the country, the state of Oregon has policies protecting people living and working in Oregon regardless of their immigration status. State agencies including the labor bureau and Department of Justice have pledged to take “aggressive action” to enforce the law in these cases. 

The agency did not immediately specify how many complaints it received involving threats to call Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. 

“Intimidating and silencing workers who simply want to be treated fairly by threatening or actually calling immigration officials on them is one of the most egregious forms of retaliation,” agency commissioner Christina Stephenson said in a July 16 statement. 

Again, don't be a bottom feeder like Stephen Miller and don't act like any 'jokes' about this being done to someone is funny. Chump has worked very hard to normalize hate.  He wants to terrorize.  Don't help him do that. 

Chump and company are terrorizing immigrants -- those with green cards and those without.  They're inflicting very real harm and destroying lives.  Don't help them normalize their cruelty.  Patricia Lopez (BLOOMBERG) notes:


Mandatory detention is the newest and potentially most powerful weapon in the White House’s arsenal for turbo-charging deportations. Once arrested, immigrants without legal status will, with few exceptions, be held in custody until they are deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That means they are no longer eligible, as in the past, to post bond at a hearing and have an immigration judge decide their fate. ICE alone will be the decider.

That threatens to transform temporary detention centers into long-term prisons - and to strip immigrants of the constitutional rights that are due to every person in the US, regardless of legal status.
Acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons wrote in a July memo obtained by the Washington Post that immigrants should be detained “for the duration of their removal proceedings,” a process that can stretch out for months, or even years, given judicial backlogs. That could affect millions of immigrants.

It is an aggressive move from an agency that is becoming increasingly reckless in its handling of immigrants. The policy is already expected to draw a court challenge questioning the constitutionality of sidestepping judges.

David Bier, director of immigration studies for the libertarian Cato Institute, told me it is part of a strategy to gain “total control” over the removal process. “Judges make an independent determination based on facts,” he said. “They’re not going to just do what ICE wants.” Once the norm, such independence now seems to strike this administration as an intolerable act of defiance.


Judges do that which is why Chump is trying to use JAG and why he is firing judges.  Margaret Kadifa (MISSION LOCAL) reported last week:

Judge Ila Deiss, who had been working for San Francisco’s immigration court since 2017, was fired Thursday, according to the San Francisco Immigration Court.

Judges Roger Dinh, Elisa Brasil and Jami Vigil were all fired in April, according to the San Francisco Immigration Court. That was one month shy of the standard two-year probationary period which, for all three judges, would have ended in May 2025.

That leaves a total of nine vacancies across 26 courtrooms, according to the San Francisco Immigration Court.


This should frighten everyone.  This inhumane and cruel.  It's already happening to immigrants as well as to a few US citizens.  This is not the way the law is supposed to work; however, if you silently go along with it, grasp that this is how all US citizens will be treated because we are on a very slippery slope.  



Agents from the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, are carrying out part of Trump's campaign promise of mass deportations by arresting people suspected of being in the country without authorization.

It’s a tactic that has been met with growing alarm by the Republican president’s critics.

In Lansing Thursday, a group of Democratic state lawmakers introduced legislation to ban local, state and federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks.

State Representative Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City) said the law would apply to all levels of law enforcement, but is specifically in response to ICE’s tactics.

“We must have clear, transparent practices by law enforcement. Our constituents demand it,” Coffia told reporters, “Anonymity makes enforcing accountability, enforcing the law and protecting civil rights damn near impossible.”

In this week's "Media: Why America's turned on Chump's war on immigrants," Ava and I served up two mythical sequences from cop dramas to underscore how what ICE is doing is not the arrest procedure that has been worked out over years within the United States.  But grasp that it can become the new procedure if we don't speak out.  If we go along with these kidnappings and these assaults as normal when the victims are immigrants, it won't be long before the same tactics are openly used on US citizens.  You speak up now or you risk losing whatever's left of democracy. 



Masked federal agents in unmarked vehicles have stoked fear in the immigrant community, with fewer people frequenting grocery stores and businesses, emptier streets in East San Jose and sparse showings for community events. Some undocumented residents are choosing to self-deport.

The operations have also given rise to ICE impersonators, including reported incidents at a Philadelphia university, the arrest of an impersonator in North Carolina for sexually assaulting a woman and an impersonator in Florida conducting a traffic stop and asking people for their documents, among others.


And it's not just ICE agents attempting to hide, Cassandra Burke Robertson (THE CONVERSATION) reports:


Something unusual is happening in U.S. immigration courts. Government lawyers are refusing to give their names during public hearings.

In June 2025, Immigration Judge ShaSha Xu in New York City reportedly told lawyers in her courtroom: “We’re not really doing names publicly.” Only the government lawyers’ names were hidden – the immigrants’ attorneys had to give their names as usual. Xu cited privacy concerns, saying, “Things lately have changed.”
When one immigration lawyer objected that the court record would be incomplete without the government attorney’s name, Xu reportedly refused to provide it. In another case, New York immigration Judge James McCarthy in July referred to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, attorney as merely “Department” throughout the hearing.

New York immigration Judge Shirley Lazare-Raphael told The Intercept that some ICE attorneys believe it is “dangerous to state their names publicly.” This follows a broader pattern of ICE agents wearing masks during arrests to hide their identities.

This secrecy violates a fundamental principle that has protected Americans for centuries: open courts. 

That is not acceptable.  None of it is.  And what they do to immigrants today, they will try to to citizens at a later date.

The government can not hide in the shadows in a democracy.  That's not how it works. 


The longer these attacks continue, the more inhumane the attacks get.  Now they want to treat immigrants like cattle.  Douglas MacMillan and Silvia Foster-Frau (WASHINGTON POST) report: 


U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has directed personnel to sharply increase the number of immigrants they shackle with GPS-enabled ankle monitors, as the Trump administration widens surveillance of people it is targeting for deportation, according to an internal ICE document reviewed by The Washington Post.
In a June 9 memo, ICE ordered staff to place ankle monitors on all people enrolled in the agency’s Alternatives to Detention program “whenever possible.” About 183,000 adult migrants are enrolled in ATD and had previously consented to some form of tracking or mandatory check-ins while they waited for their immigration cases to be resolved. Currently, just 24,000 of these individuals wear ankle monitors.

One exception would be pregnant women, who would be required to wear wrist-worn tracking devices, Dawnisha M. Helland, an acting assistant director in the management of non-detained immigrants, wrote in the letter. “If the alien is not being arrested at the time of reporting, escalate their supervision level to GPS ankle monitors whenever possible and increase reporting requirements,” Helland wrote.

The new ankle monitor guidance, which has not been previously reported, marks a significant expansion of a 20-year-old surveillance practice steeped in controversy. While tracking devices are cheaper and arguably more humane than detention, immigrants and their advocates have long criticized the government’s use of the bulky black ankle bands, which they say are physically uncomfortable, impose a social stigma and invade the privacy of the people wearing them, many of whom have no criminal record or history of missed court appointments.


This is still a democracy and this is still our country.  If you don't speak out, that might not be the case for much longer.  Again: We have to turn out in the mid-terms in November (and October for early voters) of 2026 and put Democrats in charge of Congress.  


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


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 illegally impounded funding provided by Congress for Head Start programs across America, in violation of the Impoundment Control Act (ICA):

“Today, a top government watchdog confirmed what we’ve known for months: President Trump has illegally held up vast sums of funding for Head Start programs across America—blocking funding that working families count on every day for pre-K and so many critical services Head Start offers.

“Because of Trump’s illegal impoundment of this funding that Congress provided, we have seen Head Start centers temporarily close, families scramble to make alternate plans, and needless stress and panic in communities nationwide—including in Washington state.

“Stealing money from preschool programs? No President in modern history has demonstrated such contempt for working and low-income American families as Donald Trump.

“Trump has signaled he would like to eliminate Head Start—but that’s not his choice to make. Congress delivered this funding for Head Start on a bipartisan basis, and instead of trying to destroy preschool programs and breaking our laws to hurt working families, President Trump needs to ensure every penny of these funds get out in a timely, consistent way moving forward—and he must also finally get out the rest of the investments he has been robbing the American people of.”

In its decision, GAO also highlighted the Trump administration’s complete unwillingness to provide any explanation or justification for their actions, which, in this case, impact hundreds of thousands of children and families in Head Start programs across the country. This is further evidence that claims by this administration of a commitment to radical transparency are a farce—as this administration continues to try to hide what it is doing, and how it is spending taxpayer dollars, from the American public.

In April, Senator Murray raised alarm bells about how President Trump was withholding nearly $1 billion in Head Start funding, and she led her colleagues in demanding that the funds get moving. A Head Start center in Lower Yakima Valley, Washington state, was forced to temporarily close because of the chaotic delays. Senator Murray has also consistently warned of how President Trump’s dismantling of the Office of Head Start is hurting families nationwide.

In its decision today, the GAO concluded that:

“As explained below, we conclude that HHS withheld these funds from expenditure in violation of the ICA. The Head Start Act requires the Secretary to prescribe procedures to assure that ‘financial assistance under this subchapter shall not be suspended, except in emergency situations, unless the recipient agency has been given reasonable notice and opportunity to show cause why such action should not be taken’. HHS’s actions here were inconsistent with this legal requirement. … As of 2024, there were approximately

1,600 grant recipients across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, five territories, and Palau. Grant recipients, known as Head Start agencies, can generally receive federal funds that cover up to 80 percent of the approved costs of an agency’s Head Start program. ….  The Constitution grants the President no unilateral authority to withhold funds from obligation. …. In addition, plaintiffs in numerous cases before federal district courts reported Head Start agencies’ inabilities to access Head Start grant funding. While we accept that the rate of an agency’s obligations or disbursements of a given appropriation may vary from year to year, we expect that an agency’s obligations and expenditures, at any time throughout the fiscal year, will reflect a ‘reasonable attempt by the agency to carry out the purposes of the appropriation.’ Moreover, we would not expect substantial variations in disbursement rates in this case, where disbursements are directed by the Head Start Act. …. If the Administration wishes to make changes to the appropriation provided for Head Start, it must propose legislation for consideration by Congress.”

Presidents do not wield the power to unilaterally withhold or block investments that have been enacted into law through what’s known as “impoundment.” This foundational principle has been affirmed time and again. The Impoundment Control Act (ICA) of 1974 makes this plain and establishes limited procedures the president can and must follow to propose delaying or rescinding enacted funding. The Impoundment Control Act also charges the 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 GAO’s first decision in May in one of its ongoing investigations, which concluded Trump is illegally impounding funding for electric vehicle charging, and a subsequent investigation in June concluding Trump is illegally impounding funding for museums and libraries across America. 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.

###


Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Tulsi Wants You To Help Save Our Girl"  and "Damsel In Distress Donald" went up last night.  The following sites updated:


Posted by at

Thursday, July 24, 2025

These days, Chump provides the laughter

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Tulsi Wants You To Help Save Our Girl"



tulsi

I love it.  


Sometimes we all need a good laugh.  And I got one when reading Jonathan Allen's NBC report:

Jeffrey Epstein is dead, but the White House can’t seem to kill his story.

President Donald Trump and his aides have settled on silence as a strategy to stamp out criticism of his refusal to release files detailing the federal government's investigation of Epstein, according to a senior administration official and Republicans familiar with the White House's thinking.
For weeks, stories about Epstein, the financier and pal to political luminaries who died by suicide awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, have been making headlines.

In a break from Trump’s usual crisis communications template — which emphasizes an all-hands-on-deck approach to defending him on television and on social media — the Epstein case has been met with more restraint from the White House.

Trump himself has signaled that he doesn’t want members of his administration talking about the matter nonstop, a person close to the White House told NBC News. And White House aides have made it clear that no one in the administration is allowed to talk about Epstein without high-level vetting, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.


Are you laughing too?  Maybe, like me, you just cannot picture Mr. Chump laying off late night social media rage posting?  Or maybe you are laughing because it really does not matter at this point whether the president makes a comment or not, details continue to emerge.  

We are in week three.  The story continues to not just live, it continues to thrive. Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) continues the thread of the White House clampdown: 

President Donald Trump is hoping the outrage surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein files will eventually blow over if his administration just stops talking about it, according to a report.


Read that one more time:

President Donald Trump is hoping the outrage surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein files will eventually blow over if his administration just stops talking about it, according to a report.


Some have tried to dispute that Mr. Chump is in serious cognitive decline.  Reading that statement ("President Donald Trump is hoping the outrage surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein files will eventually blow over if his administration just stops talking about it, according to a report."), I do not believe the matter can be disputed any longer.  



Donald Trump is learning the hard way how fostering conspiracies can come back to bite you — and now his political future is uncertain.

That is the opinion of conservative polling guru Karl Rove, who wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the Jeffrey Epstein files imbroglio that is swamping his administration will likely have no happy ending in store for the president.
Written before the Journal dropped the bombshell that the president was told in May his name appears in the files on the accused pedophile, Rove wrote that the Trump rode to victory in 2024 in large part by promising to expose the clients of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

Now Trump is scrambling as a substantial number within the MAGA mob aren't taking it well and, in their anger and disappointment, may decide to give up on politics altogether.

Writing, "Team Trump is now in damage control mode. They’ve also fought among themselves. That will leave scars," Rove suggested, "One possibility is the Trump administration unleashes not facts, but fresh unsupported claims to 'prove' what they’ve said is true. Another possibility is that Team Trump makes no definitive statements. Neither would be enough and the outcome might cause conspiracy backers to view Mr. Trump and his administration as tools of the Deep State, in on it from the beginning."


It is not going away.  Even so, it is easy to picture it being the end of September and Mr. Chump still acting as though he can ignore this scandal. Stephen Collinson (CNN) observes:

The Jeffrey Epstein morass surrounding President Donald Trump is deepening amid growing defiance by some Republicans and despite the administration’s most inflammatory attempt yet at distraction.

New reports Wednesday that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that his name appeared in documents related to the case of Epstein, an accused sex trafficker, offered a plausible explanation for the president’s growing fury over the drama.


The fury can already be felt in districts across the land.  J.D. Wolf (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes:

On Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told a reporter that the pressure from constituents over the Epstein case is overwhelming and not going away:

Reporter: Do you think this could become a political issue for Republicans—or just Trump—if it's not dealt with in a satisfactory way?

Marjorie Taylor Greene: I think all of it is a political issue—not only for the... well, the president’s not running again. But yeah, for Republicans. You can ask my colleagues. They're getting beaten up at home in their districts. Yeah, they are. They really are.

Reporter: So you think people do care about this issue?

Greene: I’ll tell you this. Since I became a freshman member of Congress—this is fascinating—I’ve tracked the calls to my office.

I have a whole spreadsheet my staff maintains. They track all the calls coming in from the district and from outside the district. We categorize the issues, from past ones to current ones. The call volume on Epstein has been almost 100%—district and out of district—since this started. They’re demanding transparency.

Reporter: And the volume is high?

Greene: High. Very high. Extremely high. That’s calls to both my offices—district and D.C.“This is it,” Greene said. “They’re getting beaten up at home in their districts.” She revealed that calls to her congressional offices have been almost entirely about Epstein, both from constituents and people outside her district. “The call volume on Epstein has almost — it’s almost been 100% since this started,” she said. “They are demanding transparency.”

Good.  They need to hear from their constituents. 



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


Thursday, July 24, 2025.  Chump's mess of lies only gets worse, his playing damsel in distress appear to be impacting his polling numbers, his war on immigrants now includes a snitch program, and much more.



Where are we this morning?  Ben breaks it down.



Are you exhausted after all those developments?  This isn't going away.  Every day for three weeks now. Chump's been convinced that it's going away.  It's not happening.  Speaker of the Closet Mike Johnson might have called a Congressional recess to try to shut this topic down for six weeks but that didn't work.  Nothing is working.  


Johnson was called out today on MORNING JOE.




Chump gets exposed more and more each day.  The conversation is not dying down, the talk is not going away.  




Chump lies and tries to blame Barack Obama but he's the liar exposed.  You saw it above yourself.  Attorney General Pam Bondi told him in May that he was in the files and you saw him lying on camera saying that didn't happen.  As Max Matza (BBC NEWS) notes, "That contradicts an account given earlier this month by the president, who responded 'no, no' when asked by a reporter whether he had been told by Bondi that his name appeared in the files."


Sadie Gurman,  Annie Linskey,  Josh Dawsey and  Alex Leary (WALL STREET JOURNAL) reported yesterday on Bondi informing him in May.  As Mike noted last night, "Chump was informed back in May that he was in the Epstein Files.  That's why Pam Bondi went from February telling everyone in a FOX "NEWS" appearance that she was going to be releasing them shortly to not releasing them and then waiting until slow news day July 4th to try to sneak out an announcement claiming that she'd never had the Epstein files. "  


It's one lie after another and they keep getting exposed for the liars that they are. 


Today on NPR's MORNING EDITION, this was noted:


Michel Martin:  Is it normal for the Attorney General to share that kind of information with the President?


Elie Honig: Not at all.  And the question that this begs to me is why would the Attorney General go and tip off the President that, "Hey, you're named in these closed criminal, criminal investigative files"?  Whatever "named" may mean.  That is highly abnormal. And if we look back at the history of attorney generals through both parties that would be seen as a breach of the Attorney General's independence. 


POLITICO  hails the Bondi news  as "the biggest story in Washington: the WSJ’s report that the Justice Department told President Donald Trump in May that his name was among many included in the Jeffrey Epstein files."


This is not going away.  And grasp that there is so much more than what Ben covered above.  Yes, even with all that he covered -- a ton -- in the video above, there is still more.  Marcia, for example, noted that Epstein's brother is making the media rounds and she noted  Ashleigh Fields (The Hill);s report:


Mark Epstein, the older brother of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, refuted the White House’s claims that President Trump never visited the disgraced financier at his office. 

“That’s just another blatant lie,” the older Epstein said during a Tuesday appearance on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.” 
“Because he was there. People that worked for Jeffrey in his office, they could testify that they saw Trump in Jeffrey’s office on numerous occasions,” he continued, “So for him to say he wasn’t there, all I can say is that’s just just another lie.”

 

Donald Chump plays the damsel in distress and lies to his supporters trying to get them to be the big brave men who'll stand up for his honor.  He is not the victim.  The victims are women and girls that Epstein exploited -- that maybe Chump exploited.  On MSNBC, Lawrence O'Donnell tried to do a media rest there on his show last night.


"Real people were hurt here."  


Donald Chump can play the victim all he wants, he can go coquettish and girlish to try to get others to defend his pathetic ass.  But he is not the victim and he was not the victim.


He's someone credibly accused of assaulting multiple women.  


But he's playing the victim yet again.


Question: When, if ever, does Donald Chump play a grown man?


Is that the only thing he can't pretend to be?


Is his non-stop wallowing in victimhood the reason men are turning against him in the polls?  Martha McHardy (NEWSWEEK) reports:


President Donald Trump's approval rating among men has dropped to a second term low, according to one poll, marking a significant shift in a demographic long seen as a pillar of his political base.

According to new CBS/YouGov polling, just 47 percent of men said they approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 53 percent disapprove—putting the president 6 points underwater among the key demographic.

The drop coincides with Trump's slipping in approval among the voting bloc on his handling of the economy, inflation and immigration—three central issues in his winning campaign in 2024.

Men have traditionally been one of the strongest bases of support for Republicans. And in 2024, 55 percent of male voters supported Trump.


Apparently, they don't like Chump lying or hiding behind the skirts of Pam Bondi and Trashy Garbage (Tulsi Gabbard).  Apparently, that's not a look that screams "leadership."

Chump's an embarrassment who lies and lies and gets caught and then lies some more.  D. Earl Stephens rightly notes:


The President of the United States posted a FAKE VIDEO TO THE ENTIRE WORLD Sunday night, of a kneeling Barack Obama being placed in handcuffs, and we are supposed to go along like it is just another day in America.

This has got to stop, before we wake up one day soon to find it is already too late.



No sentient being -- real or artificial -- believes Chump's lies about Barack.  Rachel Raposas (PEOPLE) notes:

As Trump faces increasing pressure to publicize evidence in Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking case, the administration has been looking for ways to change the conversation
Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, has denounced Donald Trump's new allegations against Barack Obama as an "unsubstantiated" deflection.

Amid increasing pressure on the Trump administration to release all files related to Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking case, the president and his national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, have focused their attention on accusing Obama of conspiring against him in 2016, according to a report Gabbard released on Friday, July 18.

The next day, after a user on X asked Grok if the report was based in fact, or if the Trump administration is "just trying to distract from Jeffrey Epstein," the chatbot replied that none of the claims against Obama appeared to have merit.

"No credible evidence exists that Barack Obama committed any crimes; allegations of a 'treasonous conspiracy' in 2016 are unsubstantiated and refuted by bipartisan reports confirming Russian interference," Grok wrote in a reply. "Gabbard's claims appear politically motivated to distract from Epstein file scrutiny."

The cries to release the files only grow louder each day.  Malcolm Ferguson (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:


Outgoing Republican Senator Thom Tillis just wants President Trump to “release the damn files” in regard to Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased pedophile and Trump’s former friend.

“The promise to release the files during the campaign was either overplayed and we got a nothingburger if the files get released, or it’s something really disturbing and that’s actually an even more compelling reason to release it,” Tillis said at an Axios event on Wednesday.


Last night on THE NEWSHOUR (PBS), guest Faiz Shakir talked about how this relates to Chump's actions as president:


And some of that narrative, I think that behooves Democrats at this point is, well, you did Medicaid cuts, you did tax cuts for the rich, you did some tariffs, you did all these things on DOGE, all these things you're doing, what's the narrative? What's the framework by which we should think about what you're doing? And Epstein provides it, a sense that, when it's wealthy and well-connected people, we go to the mat to protect them.  And when it's not, oh, we go to war against them. And I think Epstein is going to help feed this narrative, help it make it clear to a lot of people who Donald Trump fights for most aggressively. It happens to be people like Jeffrey Epstein.


He works for the super wealthy.  That's the boil down.  He is not concerned with We The People.  He is not bothered by girls being molested.  He exists to be the biggest rat in the swamp and fight to protect the super wealthy.  

Let's move over to immigration.  Senator Ron Wyden's office issued this press release:


Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., slammed the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice for massively expanding the DNA collection of immigrant children and adults to permanently store in a national criminal database that could be weaponized by the Trump administration. 

Wyden demanded answers from the Trump administration, which has failed to explain why it has vastly expanded DNA collection from immigrants by 5000%. Department of Homeland Security agents fail to clearly notify immigrants their DNA is being taken, fail to follow the department's own policies, and often threaten individuals with arrest or criminal charges if they refuse to give their DNA, according to reports.  

“Governments exercising such broad discretion to involuntarily collect and retain DNA are repressive authoritarian regimes also engaging in gross human rights violations, such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, torture, and more,” Wyden wrote in a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. “In fact, the U.S. Government has condemned the involuntary collection of DNA by the People’s Republic of China and has sanctioned entities engaged in this practice, yet this practice appears to be ongoing on our own soil.”

The collection of samples includes more than 133,000 children as young as four years old, whose DNA will be used by law enforcement for every potential future investigation. 

Legal experts have warned that the Administration's secret, mass-collection of immigrant DNA may also violate constitutional due process rights. The Trump administration has green lighted DHS agents’ ability to detain and collect samples from immigrants without prior judicial authorization. 

In order for Congress and the American people to understand the Trump administration’s collection of DNA from immigrants, Wyden requested answers to the following questions by August 1, 2025:

  1. What is the United States Government’s interest in collecting and retaining DNA from noncitizens in the course of immigration detention and enforcement?

  2. Which agencies, including DHS subcomponent agencies, has the Attorney General authorized to participate in the collection of DNA from noncitizens?

  3. Please describe in detail how DHS is able to access and utilize DNA samples and related information collected in the course of immigration detention and enforcement once the samples and information are retained in CODIS and any other databases.

  4. Please describe in detail how DOJ is able to access and utilize DNA samples and related information collected in the course of immigration detention and enforcement once the samples and information are retained in CODIS and any other databases.

  5. When DHS or subcomponent agencies collect DNA material from individuals in immigration detention and enforcement, where are DNA samples stored following collection?

  6. To date, how many adult noncitizens have DHS officials collected DNA from during immigration detention and enforcement activities? Further, how many DNA samples from adult noncitizens have been collected by DHS since January 2025?

  7. To date, how many minors (18 years old and younger) have DHS officials collected DNA from during immigration detention and enforcement activities in the last five years?

  8. Further, how many DNA samples from minors have been collected by DHS since January 2025?

  9. What Department-wide guidance and/or agency-specific guidance is provided to DHS officials regarding the collection of DNA from noncitizens?

  10. How often is DNA collected by DHS, without judicial authorization, being used in criminal investigations and prosecutions?

  11. Does DHS policy prohibit intimidation, coercion, or the threat of criminal prosecution to compel a noncitizen to provide a DNA sample?

  12. Does DHS or any subcomponent currently have a process in place to expunge DNA and related information stored in CODIS that were collected in the course of a noncitizen’s detention?

  13. Does DHS by practice or policy notify individuals whose DNA and related information have been collected during immigration detention?

  14. What information are DOJ and DHS, respectively, able to extract from the DNA they retain? Is DNA accessed to determine any ethnographic or racial information about the individual?

Wyden has consistently advocated in the Senate for humane immigration reform.  In July, he criticized the Trump administration’s hostile immigration policies and joined colleagues to introduce a bill to require immigration enforcement agents to display clear identification. In March, he slammed the Trump administration for its resurrection of a draconian immigration order that requires immigrants to register with the federal government and carry proof of their registration at all times. In April, he reintroduced legislation to guarantee legal representation for unaccompanied children in immigration court. In June, he reintroduced legislation to protect TPS and DED recipients from Trump’s attacks on immigrants.

The text of the letter is here.

###


There remains no real oversight of what Chump is doing as he declares war on immigrants.


That Donald Chump would be known for a snitch program should come as no surprise. Snitching is what gutter trash like Donald will do when they get caught in their own crimes.  Josh Marcus (INDEPENDENT) reports:

The Department of Homeland Security is encouraging Americans to report abusive ex-partners to immigration officials, touting the case of an individual who went “from domestic abuser to deported loser.”

The comments, shared in a post on X featuring a link to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement tip line, were in response to a previous post from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.
The Florida official, an outspoken backer of the Trump administration's immigration agenda and the force behind the state’s now-infamous “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention center, described taking a tip about an abusive individual who overstayed their visa and steering the accused toward deportation.

“We recently got a tip from someone whose abusive ex overstayed a tourism visa. He is now cued up for deportation,” Uthmeier wrote. “If your ex is in this country illegally, please feel free to reach out to our office. We’d be happy to assist.”


They're not helping survivors of abuse and they know it.  They're liars.  They are calling for anyone miffed at an ex to claim that he or she abused them.  Then they will have their so-called 'probable cause' to terrorize someone.  They're not investigate the claim, they're not going to put the accused in front of a court to determine guilt or innocence.  They're just going to use the claim to terrorize more people.


Shame on you if you lie on anyone.  During Bully Boy Bush's first term occupying the White House, immediately after 9/11, a number of people offered 'tips' (lies) on people that they didn't like.  A lot of those people got rounded up.  There's a man that killed himself because he was responsible for 5 people being rounded up and he thought it was funny for about a year and a half.  Then the guilt kicked in.  They're counting on your desire for vengeance kicking in and overruling common sense.

ICE wants to be able to hide their faces and their names because they know what they're doing is shameful, inhumane and wrong.  Trevor Hughes (USA TODAY) reports:


Immigration agents are increasingly hiding their faces behind masks, a move that is drawing new criticism as the White House ramps up detention and deportations and prepares to dispatch more officers.

A group of Democratic attorneys general have now asked Congress to pass a law forcing ICE agents to routinely operate without masks, arguing the policy of letting agents operate anonymously has sparked multiple police impersonators. Democratic members of Congress have also pushed the administration to make ICE agents more readily identifiable.
Federal authorities say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents need to conceal their identities to protect their families from retaliation as they execute President Donald Trump's orders to conduct the largest mass deportation in history.


Bulls**t.  Police officers patrol the streets every day and do so without hiding their faces. 

Let's note reality via this press release from Senator Alex Padilla's office.

Highlighted testimony from Alejandro Barranco — a veteran and the son of Narciso, who was violently detained by masked CBP agents in Orange County

WATCH: Padilla criticizes Trump and Republicans for backtracking on pledge to target violent criminals

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, joined a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing to set the record straight on President Trump and Stephen Miller’s cruel mass deportation campaign, blasting the Administration for intentionally stoking fear and scapegoating immigrants.

Padilla emphasized that far from the Trump Administration’s stated plan to target violent criminals, less than 10 percent of immigrants whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has taken into custody have serious criminal convictions, and there has been a staggering 500 percent increase in the number of arrests of noncitizens without criminal records. He stressed that these ICE sweeps often illegally profile and target people based on their race, accents, or occupation, while hurting the economy by ripping away farm workers, service industry employees, and other essential workers.

Padilla called out Republicans for attempting to distract from the sharp turn in public opinion away from the President’s immigration policy by relitigating complaints from the Biden presidency more than six months into Trump’s second term. An all-time record 79 percent of Americans believe immigration is a good thing for the country.

He also criticized the $150 billion funding surge to carry out Trump’s enforcement agenda in Republicans’ billionaire-first reconciliation bill, underscoring that ICE’s budget is now larger than the budget of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); U.S. Marshals Service, and Bureau of Prisons combined.

“It’s clear why we’re here today: we’re here because Donald Trump is scapegoating immigrants,” said Padilla in committee. “It’s always been his outlet. This is their break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option when public sentiment turns against them and their agenda. It hasn’t been about only targeting violent criminals and it’s certainly not about fixing or modernizing our immigration system.”

Padilla questioned three witnesses on the Trump Administration’s harmful immigration enforcement. He asked Deborah Fleischaker, a former ICE Acting Chief of Staff and longtime Department of Homeland Security official, to set the record straight that the Biden Administration encouraged ICE to do its job to detain violent criminals. He also highlighted the need for additional funding beyond immigration enforcement to support the hiring of more immigration judges and asylum officers.

Padilla heard further from Alejandro Barranco — a Marine veteran and the eldest son of Narciso Barranco, who was violently detained by masked Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in Orange County — about the dangers of indiscriminate immigration enforcement, including sweeping up hardworking people with no history of violent crime.

  • PADILLA: The way they present it, the way they talk about President Biden’s administration and prior Democratic administrations is like it was never a priority for Democratic administrations to go after criminals, and that Democrats and Democratic administrations just didn’t care about the presence of dangerous people in our communities. Simply not true. … Ms. Fleischaker, you were in ICE leadership. In your view, in your experience, did the Biden Administration ever restrain ICE from pursuing serious criminals?
  • FLEISCHAKER: We absolutely did not stop ICE agents from enforcing the law and going after public safety threats. In fact, we encouraged them to do so. We very much want to want to find and arrest public safety threats in the community. […]
  • PADILLA: I don’t think anyone here would disagree with the idea of rooting out the ‘worst of the worst,’ even if we disagree over what immigration policy should be, but I believe it’s unacceptable that these raids are so indiscriminate that they end up sweeping up people with no history of violent crime, hardworking people trying to give their children a better life, like Alejandro’s father, Narciso. Alejandro, question is for you. … Is there anything else that you would like to share about the cruelty with which your father was treated or what your family’s gone through?
  • BARRANCO: I think that the way they treated him and the way they handled that situation was very unprofessional. It showed men who were not trained. It doesn’t seem like it. … They were running with guns in their hand, with fingers on the trigger, pointing it at civilian vehicles. And honestly, I don’t think that’s for the best of public safety, and I believe that they should have better training and go out and chase after the real criminals.
  • PADILLA: Well, I couldn’t agree more, and the more resources, personnel, funding, and otherwise that’s directed at again, just broad-based enforcement is less focus, less prioritization of those violent criminals that we know are out there, the Administration knows are out there, but they’re not the clear priority or focus.

Padilla also expressed concern about indiscriminate immigration raids creating widespread fear, keeping people home from work, businesses, church, and public spaces, while limiting the reporting of crimes. He heard from Dr. Giovanni Veliz, a retired Minneapolis Police Department Commander, about the importance of building trust with immigrant communities to combat crime and keep police officers safe.

Video of Senator Padilla’s opening remarks is available here, and his questions are available here.

More information on the hearing is available here.

###


Horror stories.  If you follow the news, you seem over and over.  Billal Rahman (NEWSWEEK) reports on theater teacher Fernando Alves-Rocha kidnapped by ICE in Monroe, Washington.  The 48 y.o. had been in the US since 2018, gainfully employed, paying taxes.  But, sure, let's pretend he's a criminal. Teo Armus, Samantha Schmidt, Helena Carpioa and Arelis R. Hernández (WASHINGTON POST) report on Julio González Jr.:

Julio González Jr. had agreed to be deported to Venezuela. When the 36-year-old office cleaner and house painter boarded the flight in Texas in March, he assumed it would take him back to his home country.

Instead, the plane landed in El Salvador.

“The horror movie started there,” González said Tuesday.

When the shackled men refused to get off the plane, González and two other detainees told The Washington Post that they were yanked by their feet, beaten and shoved off board as the plane’s crew began to cry. Dozens of migrants were forced onto a bus and driven to a massive gray complex. They were ordered to kneel there with their foreheads pressed against the ground as guards pointed guns directly at them.

“Welcome to El Salvador, you sons of b-----s,” a hooded figure told them, González recalled. They had arrived at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. The United States has paid the Salvadoran government of President Nayib Bukele $6 million to hold hundreds of migrants rounded up in President Donald Trump’s mass removals — many without ties to El Salvador, many without criminal charges — at the world’s largest prison.

In the four months they spent there, the detainees said, they were beaten repeatedly with wooden bats. González was robbed of thousands of dollars, he said, and denied access to lawyers or a chance to call his family. Joen Suárez, 23, was taken several times to a dark room known as La Isla — or “the island” — and beaten, kicked and insulted. Angel Blanco Marin, 22, said he was hit so hard he lost half of a molar. He asked for painkillers and medical attention but was given none for more than a month.

The three men returned to their family’s homes in Venezuela this week, among the 252 Venezuelans released from CECOT and taken to the South American country in a deal between the U.S. and Venezuelan governments. They arrived on two flights in exchange for the release of 10 American citizens and permanent U.S. residents imprisoned in Venezuela.

These are the crimes committed by our government.  I didn't vote for the piece of crap, but he's president of the United States and he's responsible for these War Crimes.  

Let's note this CNN video.



Yes, classified material was shared.  We're going to pick up the topic tomorrow hopefully.  If not, let me just note that Marc Short's a damn liar. 


Winding down, Senator Elizabeth Warren's office issued the following:


“The Paramount payoff is part of a corrupt pattern of Trump exploiting the power of the presidency both to profit personally and to punish his perceived enemies.”

“The moment we turn a blind eye to these deals is the moment we start to lose our democracy.”

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) published an op-ed in Variety making the case that the Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s cancellation may be another one of Donald Trump’s attempts to get big corporations to buy his favor and bow down before him.

Senator Warren has been leading the charge to determine if Paramount is bribing President Trump in exchange for approval of its multi-billion-dollar megamerger with Skydance, and has fought relentlessly across the board against President Trump's corruption.

Read the full op-ed here and below:

Variety - Elizabeth Warren on Colbert's 'Late Show' Cancellation: Is the Paramount Trump Payoff a Bribe?
July 23, 2025

President Donald Trump and CBS parent company Paramount want you to think that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was canceled for “purely financial” reasons. Really?

During the 2024 election, Donald Trump sued CBS, making claims CBS called “meritless.” Legal experts could see from a mile away that Trump’s claims were bogus. Paramount seemed ready to fight the allegations, and it looked like they’d win that fight handily. Then Trump took office in January 2025.

From the first moments of his presidency, Trump quickly made it clear that he was happy to use his executive power to enrich himself. He was eager to hand out favors — for the right price — and threaten punishment for those who pushed back. There’s a reason that billionaire CEOs paid millions of dollars to get front-row access to his inauguration.

This is where questions about a Paramount payout to Trump come in. Right now, Paramount is trying to merge with Skydance, another huge media company. This deal is worth $8 billion – and, by the way, it could raise prices for millions of viewers. But here’s the kicker: this merger can only go through if it’s approved by the Trump administration.

Instead of fighting Trump on his “meritless” lawsuit, Paramount settled, handing $16 million to Trump’s presidential library. This looks like bribery in plain sight, and that’s exactly what Stephen Colbert said on his show: “This kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: it’s 'big, fat bribe.’” Three days later, Paramount-owned CBS canceled Colbert’s show. And Trump didn’t waste a moment before celebrating the news.

Was it a coincidence that CBS canceled Colbert just three days after he spoke out? Are we sure that this wasn’t part of a wink-wink deal between the president and a giant corporation that needed something from his administration? If CBS made this decision for "purely financial" reasons, why the timing? And why did Trump say "I hope I played a major part in" getting Colbert fired? These are fair questions, and ones that I have asked Paramount and Skydance.

The Paramount payoff is part of a corrupt pattern of Trump exploiting the power of the presidency both to profit personally and to punish his perceived enemies.

ABC News handed over $15 million to Trump’s presidential library in a settlement for another questionable defamation lawsuit. Trump was even more direct with Mark Zuckerberg, reportedly telling him that the price for being “brought in the tent” of the new Trump administration was to settle another doubtful lawsuit. Zuckerberg immediately bowed down, ending Meta’s fact-checking program and dumping $22 million into the Trump library. And Trump is running the same play again: immediately after Paramount folded, Trump sued the Wall Street Journal over an article that exposed details about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

As Trump works to dampen any criticism in the media, he has also launched attacks on other independent institutions. In his first few months in office, Trump has aggressively threatened both universities and law firms in an effort to force them to bend to his will. The pattern is the same: Trump threatens to bring down the weight of the federal government on a single institution, and, too often, the targets feel they have no option but to bow down to an all-powerful Trump.

And for everyone in the free press, the academic world and the legal system, Trump has delivered his message with ruthless bluntness: If you criticize him, you could be forced to pay dearly.

The wealthy and well-connected have long had outsized influence in Washington, but Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history. He is using that corruption to gain control over independent organizations and people who might hold him to account. Every threat, use of intimidation, and potential bribe undermines our democracy as it moves Trump closer to absolute control.

I recently introduced my Presidential Library Anti-Corruption Act to close at least one bribery loophole. This bill would block anyone from dumping tens of millions of dollars into a president’s library slush fund while that president still sits in the Oval Office. It would mean Paramount couldn’t funnel nearly $16 million to Trump’s library while it seeks favors from his administration. It would mean Qatar couldn’t “gift” Trump a $400 million private jet destined for some future library. This is a basic, common-sense reform that would help ensure that the government works for the American public, not just for people willing to pay for presidential favors. But that’s just Step One.

Trump and his billionaire friends may think they can turn the power of the federal government into a tool they can deploy to make themselves richer while the rest of us stand quietly by. But we understand that the moment we turn a blind eye to these deals is the moment we start to lose our democracy.

In the coming weeks, months, and years, all of us must show Trump that we see his march toward authoritarianism and we will not be silenced. Democrats need to embrace the fight against corruption as a top priority. Republicans need to grow a spine and get behind common-sense anti-corruption measures. All Americans need to speak up. Because yes, it’s a shame that CBS canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but it is a threat to all of us that the top late-night show in the country may have been canceled in order to curry favor with a wannabe king.

###


The following sites updated:




Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)