Thursday, July 17, 2025

Things get even worse for Chump

The drama queen Donald Chump is forever one scandal after another.  Let me start with Rebecca Falconer (AXIOS):

Almost two-thirds of U.S. voters disapprove of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files and the vast majority of Americans believe it should release all files in the case, according to two new polls.

Why it matters: President Trump has made clear that he wants people to move on from the Epstein case, after his administration's conclusion that there's no evidence to suggest the disgraced financier was murdered or kept a "client list."
However, a Quinnipiac University poll published on Wednesday found 63% of voters don't approve of the administration's handling of the case and just 17% approve.
Zoom in: Republicans appear split, with 40% approving and 35% disapproving in the survey of 1,290 survey of self-identified registered voters that took place nationwide from July 10-14.

83% of Democrats disapproved, as did 71% of independents.
The big picture: The poll that has a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points comes on the heels of two others indicating many people's dissatisfaction with the administration over the Epstein files.


Every day we see more erosion and more distrust.  Mr. Chump brought it on himself.  Including the report from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL tonight that everyone is talking about.





Let me take a moment to say thank you to everyone in the community who was able to grab some news of Mr. Chump to post about while I covered public media ("Chump continues his attack on NPR, PBS and Native Americans").  Thank you especially to Ann for "Epstein, Dumpy Chumpy and Jizzy Pants" and to Mike for "Chump attacks his own base."   

Our Convicted Felon is being called out by everyone.  Ryan Grenoble (HUFFINGTON POST) notes:

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) can’t believe President Donald Trump and a handful of other Republicans are trying to sweep the Epstein files under the rug after they spent years talking them up.

In an interview with Charlotte’s WBT News Talk on Wednesday, the outgoing senator offered a blunt assessment of his party’s bizarre eagerness to move on.
“Maybe I’m just getting old, but I could’ve sworn that we had people campaigning and [saying], ‘If I get elected, we’re going to release the files,’ right? Release the damn files! Get over it!” he told the hosts of “Good Morning BT.”

“There’s one of two outcomes that occur,” he predicted. “One outcome is that it’s a nothing-burger and people should be embarrassed by making it a something-burger when running for election. The other outcome: It is a something-burger and people should go to prison.”

Tillis then called out Trump directly for attempting to dismiss the actions of Epstein, a disgraced billionaire and convicted sex offender who died under suspicious circumstances while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, as “boring.”

“I have to disagree with the president,” he said. “I don’t think human trafficking of young teenage girls being exploited by billionaires on a private island is boring.”

And that was before THE WALL STREET JOURNAL's report published tonight. 

David Jolly is a Republican who served in the U.S. Congress and he called Mr. Chump out on MSNBC.  Kelly Rissman (INDEPENDENT) notes that former Vice President Mike Pence is calling Mr. Chump out:

Former Vice President Mike Pence has joined the sea of Republicans calling on the Trump administration to release the Epstein files.

President Donald Trump’s MAGA followers erupted after the Department of Justice released a memo stating there was no evidence to support a “client list” of associates whom some claim Epstein blackmailed over their alleged involvement in his trafficking scheme.
Prominent Congressional Republicans — and now Trump’s former vice president — have joined the calls for increased transparency related to the disgraced financier.

"I think the time has come for the administration to release all of the files regarding Jeffrey Epstein's investigation and prosecution," Pence told CBS News on Wednesday. "It's important that we protect the names of the victims. They should be excluded from any disclosure."

“I think that anyone who participated or was associated with this despicable man ought to be held up to public scrutiny,” he continued. "I just think we ought to get the facts to the American people, and I've always believed in transparency.”


Need another example?  Tara Suter (THE HILL) reports:


Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) on Wednesday discussed the ongoing uproar over files related to an investigation on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and President Trump’s recent pushback, saying it is “not a good moment.”

“This is not a good moment. And I think that, you know, so I’m open if the President has information that we do not have, I want to hear it,” Burlison told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.”

“But I think the — the American people right now, they expected these files to be released. And I think, look, we’ve got how many victims, right? Hundreds of young girls were victimized. And I think the American people and these victims deserve to have some kind of clarity,” he added. 
 
David Moye (HUFFINGTON POST) reports on yet another Republican:

Trump, once a longtime friend of Epstein’s who has been rumored to be named in the FBI’s file on the financier, said on Truth Social that his followers who are interested in the release of the alleged files are “weaklings” doing the work of the Democrats.

One such follower ― former national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn ― posted a public message on social media hoping to get Trump to stop claiming that the Epstein case is fake.

It’s a subject quite personal to Flynn, who has long promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory that claimed so-called operatives in the “deep state” are involved in satanic rituals and sex trafficking.

Flynn began his lengthy post by admitting that he “hesitated to write this however, with the utmost respect and deference to you for all you’ve withstood” while noting that “few know it better than me what the ‘deep state’ can do when they want to turn on a person.”
But he then insisted that “The EPSTEIN AFFAIR is NOT about who killed him or if he committed suicide ― personally, I’m glad this known pedophile is dead,” and added, ”But neither is this a hoax.”

Flynn also insisted that “if there are elites inside of our country that committed crimes against CHILDREN (shame on them) and they MUST be held ACCOUNTABLE.”

Flynn then suggested with his “strongest recommendation” that Trump get his team to “figure out a way to move past this.”


It looks as though Mr. Chump is losing the general.  Who else could he lose?  Apparently crazy Alex Jones.  But  Oliver O'Connell (THE INDEPENDENT) reports on an even bigger potential loss: 

As the fallout continues over the Department of Justice’s decision not to release the Epstein Files, with the MAGA base appearing to fracture over the issue, President Donald Trump could lose the support of a key component of the coalition that put him in power, pundits warned.

The “Manosphere,” typically identified as Joe Rogan and a group of fellow podcasters, is not pleased with the administration's handling of the Epstein case, wondering what happened to the conspiracy theories propagated by Trump and others now in his administration.

The backlash against the president’s attempt to suppress conspiracy theories about deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein grew to calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s firing, amid a reported feud with FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who is said to have threatened to resign in protest.

While Trump has tried to move on from the issue, anger among this core part of his base appears to show no sign of abating.

In an appearance on The Jim Acosta Show on Substack, veteran pundit Matt Lewis spoke with host Jim Acosta about the danger for Trump that those supporters could move on, and that could prove “dangerous.”

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


Thursday, July 17, 2025.  Chump continues to tank the economy, Hunter Biden pops up trying to rewrite history, Chump's working overtime to prevent people from voting in the mid-terms, US House Rep Dan Godlman shines a light on Chump's concentration camps for immigrants as horror stories of Chump's attacks on immigrants increase,  and don't let Chump claim he gives a damn about children because when you let ICE goons kidnap a parent at a school's morning drop off, you've made clear that you don't give a damn about children. 


Let's start with Hunter Biden to get him over with.  Marita Vlachou (HUFFINGTON POST) reports:

Hunter Biden has offered his assessment on why President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, claiming that Democrats “literally melted down” by giving up on his father.

In an interview with Jaime Harrison as part of the former Democratic National Committee chair’s new podcast “At Our Table,” set to debut on Thursday, Biden suggested Democrats were wrong to pressure Joe Biden to exit the 2024 presidential race.
“We lost the election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party,” Biden said, according to experts shared with multiple outlets in advance of the show’s release. “That’s my position. We had the advantage of incumbency. We had advantage of an incredibly successful administration and the Democratic Party literally melted down.”
Harrison appears to share Hunter Biden’s view, telling Semafor the outcome of the election would have been different if Democrats had the loyalty “Republicans have for Donald Trump.”

Does Harrison share it?  Don't think so.  Hunter's talking about Democratic Party officials -- including members of Congress. Harrison appears to be talking about Democratic voters.  No, there was no loyalty to Joe from Democratic Party voters.  Should there have been?  That's another question.

But let's deal with reality. To start with, Hunter didn't deal with reality.  He was a drain on his father's presidential campaign from day one. He should have wrapped up his own problems -- by admitting guilt -- early on.  But let it drag out and drag out.  And his refusal to take care of his daughter Navy Joan did not help nor did his latest marriage.  He was a mess and he was an embarrassment.  He was the fact of unethical corruption.  

That did not emerge after the 2020 election.  From the October 4, 2019 snapshot:


Last week, Sarah Chayes, "Hunter Biden’s Perfectly Legal, Socially Acceptable Corruption" was published by THE ATLANTIC.  Yesterday on MORNING EDITION (NPR), Sarah spoke with David Green:

 DAVID GREENE, HOST:
The impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump is drawing attention to the questionable activities of more than one major political family. Former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter are under scrutiny for Hunter's work in the Ukrainian energy industry.
The writer Sarah Chayes is the author of the book "Thieves Of The State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security" (ph). And she argues this scrutiny is a good thing.

 SARAH CHAYES: You know, when the son of a vice president gets a job in a field he knows nothing about while his father is vice president in a country that just had a revolution that, you know, typically, in that part of the world, post-revolution, all the oligarchs steal all the crown jewels, and the industry is one of the crown jewels - that is to say, gas - since when is that doing nothing wrong?

 GREENE: Now, wrong does not necessarily mean illegal, Sarah Chayes told me. But she said too often these days, people with political ties or prominent political names are getting involved where they shouldn't be.

 CHAYES: Almost any senior name that I start researching, I run into practices like this. It is extraordinarily widespread. And that's my question. How did we all convince ourselves that this isn't corrupt? And it seems to me that we're not going to recover, you know, even an approximation of the ideals on which we were founded as a nation unless each of us, as citizens, begins to make it less comfortable for our political and economic leaders to behave this way.

 GREENE: Well, let me ask you this, then. If it is not unusual, why focus on this case of Hunter Biden and Joe Biden specifically?


 CHAYES: Because it's in the news and because of the word that I kept seeing apply in this context, which is, no wrongdoing, or, they didn't do anything wrong. And I'm looking at that, saying, what? And if we can say that now, in this context, then there's something awry.
From her article at THE ATLANTIC:

When allegations of ethical lapses or wrongdoing surface against people on one side of the aisle, they can always claim that someone on the other side has done far worse. But taken together, all of these examples have contributed to a toxic norm. Joe Biden is the man who, as a senator, walked out of a dinner with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Biden was one of the most vocal champions of anticorruption efforts in the Obama administration. So when this same Biden takes his son with him to China aboard Air Force Two, and within days Hunter joins the board of an investment advisory firm with stakes in China, it does not matter what father and son discussed. Joe Biden has enabled this brand of practice, made it bipartisan orthodoxy. And the ethical standard in these cases—people’s basic understanding of right and wrong—becomes whatever federal law allows. Which is a lot.


To quote THELMA & LOUISE, "You get what you settle for."  Is that what we're willing to settle for as a society?  Corruption and lack of ethics?  Or do we have standards that we apply across the board?  Basic expectations from our public servants?



He did more harm to his father's image than anyone.  And this continued after the election.  He had no ethics at all.  

And then he coasted off to where?  No one's really sure but Joe does poorly in the debate and suddenly Hunter's back and advising on this and that.  Hunter, you should have been there before the debate.

Hunter -- who I do know -- thinks the debate wasn't that bad.

I happen to agree.  It was bad but I felt Joe won -- see "And the winner was . . . Joe Biden (Ava and C.I.)" which went up the night of the June 27th debate .  He had some good moments, but it was bad.  I did not call for Joe to step down after the debate.  I defended him here.  It was one week later, July 7th,  when Ava and I called for him to step down -- see "Media: It's Time For Joe To Go" -- and that was when, a week after the debate, he did his Friday interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC.  George did his job.  He repeatedly asked about the debate.

Joe didn't do his job.  Joe, in better times and days, was able to answer a question and move the conversation where he wanted to.  Joe didn't have that skill.  He was tired.  He was responding, not leading.  He wasn't up to a campaign race.  And in that interview, he fed the media narrative.

That Joe was too tired to run for president was something obvious to many during and right after the debate.  It wasn't obvious to me (and they may have been right).  What was obvious was the media narrative was now tired and old Joe. And that first interview had to end that talk.  But it didn't.  And if after a week's worth of no appearances, that long to rest, and Joe couldn't reassure?  He was never going to reassure.  And prior to the debate, Dems were already in trouble.  He was tanking the ticket in all the polls.  

(Which is why members of Congress up for re-election in 2024 especially did not want him to run.)

Joe, in 2020, had floated the idea that he might be a one-term president.  He should have stuck with that. 

That said, Joe did accomplish a lot.  We haven't had time to celebrate him.  If Hunter wants to talk about that, he should do so.  

Joe deserves to be celebrated.  Kamala deserves to be celebrated -- including for the amazing campaign she ran.  Donald did not get a majority of the vote.  She had to hit the ground running.  And most people were saying the race was over when Chump got shot.  Iconic! they hollered like trained monkeys.  Kamala was targeted with sexism and racism -- and that was just at COMMON DREAMS, THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE, etc.  A Black woman?  The left thought they disrespect her and order her around and belittle her.  This country never saw a campaign from the left so determined to attack and disrespect a candidate.  

But I don't have time for it. Applause to Joe and applause to Kamala.  But I've got to focus on the now and that means doing my part to ensure that the mid-terms are about Democratic victories.  

The mid-terms should be a cakewalk.  Historically, the party in power loses power in the mid-terms.  And Chump grows ever more unpopular every day. That should be a good portent.  As should:  Ariel Edwards-Levy (CNN) notes, "Roughly 6 in 10 Americans say they oppose the GOP domestic policy bill that President Donald Trump recently signed into law, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS."  And Leigh Kimmins (DAILY BEAST) notes, "President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating has hit a new high for his second term as those outside his MAGA base steadily desert him, according to a new poll. A survey conducted over the weekend by the Economist/YouGov shows that Trump’s overall disapproval rating has climbed to the dizzying new height of 55 percent. Forty-one percent of the 1,680 U.S. adults who responded still approve of the job Trump is doing, down from 42 percent in the same poll a week earlier, when Trump’s disapproval rating sat at 53 points."


So that should say: Breeze.

But I don't think it's going to be a breeze.  And certainly Chump is already attempting to steal the 2026 election.  Patrick Marley and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez (WASHINGTON POST) report:

The Trump administration and its allies have launched a multipronged effort to gather data on voters and inspect voting equipment, sparking concern among local and state election officials about federal interference ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The most unusual activity is happening in Colorado — a state that then-candidate Donald Trump lost by 11 points — where a well-connected consultant who says he is working with the White House is asking county clerks whether they will allow the federal government or a third party to physically examine their election equipment. Federal agencies have long offered technical assistance and cybersecurity advice to election officials but have not examined their equipment because election laws tightly limit who has access.
Separately, the Justice Department has taken the unusual step of asking at least nine states for copies of their voter rolls, and at least two have turned them over, according to state officials.

In addition, two DOJ lawyers have asked states to share information about voters to implement a Trump executive order that would shift some power over elections from the states to Washington. Courts have temporarily blocked key provisions of that order, including changing mail ballot deadlines and requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship. The DOJ attorneys have asked to talk about a different provision, which has not been halted by the courts, focused on sharing information.

Colorado Weld County clerk Carly Koppes (Republican) tells THE POST, "That's a hard stop for me.  Nobody gets access to my voting equipment, for security reasons."

In addition, Chump's attempting to force -- with Texas AG Ken Paxton's help -- a redistricting in Texas.  Ja'han Jones (MSNBC) explains:

Donald Trump appears to be leading the most blatant election-rigging scheme in American history.

In the wake of The New York Times’ report last month on the Trump administration’s redistricting efforts in Texas, more details have emerged about the attempt to pressure the state’s leaders into a potentially unlawful — and certainly illiberal — mid-decade redraw of its congressional districts in order to shore up the GOP’s chances in next year’s midterms. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has instructed his state’s Republican-led legislature to craft a redistricting plan this summer, in a move my MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown aptly assessed as a mockery of the Voting Rights Act.
Trump’s civil rights-averse Justice Department has specifically targeted four House seats with sizable Black and Latino populations for redraws, according to The Texas Tribune.

And on Tuesday, Trump openly told reporters that he’s pushing for a “very simple redraw” so that Republicans pick up five seats. He added that other states could undergo redistricting as well.

Roland Martin discusses this attempt to destroy voters rights in the video below.



Think that's bad?  We're not done yet.  Nora Mable (MONTANA FREE PRESS) reports:


A group of tribes in Montana alleges a new election law will disenfranchise Native voters and has moved to join a lawsuit challenging it.
On June 24, the ACLU of Montana, American Civil Liberties Union nationally and Native American Rights Fund filed a motion to intervene in an existing case on behalf of a group of tribal plaintiffs, including the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Blackfeet Nation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Fort Belknap Indian Community and Western Native Voice.
In their complaint, the group of tribal plaintiffs argues the changes to Election Day voter registration outlined in Senate Bill 490 disproportionately harm Native Americans in rural and tribal communities who already face significant barriers to voting.
Sponsored by Sen. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka, SB 490 changes the deadline for registering to vote or changing voter information. Where previously anyone in line by 8 p.m. on Election Day could register to vote and then cast a ballot, the new law, signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte on May 5, closes voter registration at noon on Election Day (generally Tuesdays) and ends the ability to register on the Monday before an election. State lawmakers who supported the legislation argued it would curb long lines and benefit election workers; opponents said it was unconstitutional.
“[SB 490] disproportionately burdens Native voters compared to non-Native voters due to inequities in mail delivery service, internet access, access to post offices and post office boxes, and increased burdens on Native voters due to disproportionate rates of poverty and lack of vehicle access,” tribal plaintiffs allege in their complaint.
Northern Cheyenne Tribal President Gene Small called SB 490 “anti-democratic.”
“When you live miles and miles from the nearest polling place, and the roads are snowed in all morning, taking away eight hours of Election Day registration creates real life problems for everyday voters,” he said in a statement.

So there are efforts around the country to suppress turnout.

We lost in 2024.  Why?  Because Amy Goodman and others worked overtime to trash Kamala Harris -- remember, Amy did segments telling her audience that Kamala and Chump were the same on immigration -- and the point was missed by all the deluded -- Amy was part of Uncommitted and Uncommitted was committed to trashing Kamala.  They put Chump in the White House.

You need to grasp that.  We don't have time for your stupidity or fan worship -- a combination of the two -- again.  Democrats have the numbers.  When we turn out, we win.  Goodman and others attacked Kamala to suppress turnout.  And the succeeded.  And that's how Chump ended up in the White House.

Again, when we turn out, we win.  

Here's Thom Hartmann discussing Chump's efforts to strip us of our voting rights.



One more time, when we turn out, we win.  

Chump's a stupid idiot but even he grasps that.  Which is why he's working so hard to ensure that we aren't able to vote. He's trying anything and everything.  Jen Fifield (VOTE BEAT) reports:


The Republican Party is challenging the voting eligibility of some U.S. citizens who have always lived abroad, in what they’re calling a broader strategy ahead of next year’s midterms to clean up voter rolls and improve voter confidence.
But Democrats see the effort as a blatant attempt to disenfranchise eligible Democrats in key swing states.

The GOP terms the voters they are targeting as “never residents” because they are U.S. citizens but haven’t lived in the United States. Most frequently, they are children of U.S. citizens who have been in the military, or lived overseas for other reasons. Three-quarters of states have laws on the books allowing such citizens to vote by absentee or mail ballot in the same state where their parents or other relatives last lived or are registered.

Arizona is one of these states, and allows such expatriates to vote in federal, state, and local elections.

Republican lawmakers tried to change the law this year to disqualify citizens overseas who haven’t lived in Arizona, but Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, vetoed the proposal in May. Now, the Republican National Committee and Arizona Republican Party have filed a lawsuit alleging that the current law conflicts with the state constitution’s residency requirements for voting.


Get it?  Chump's trying to prevent as many people as he can from voting.  He's scared of voters -- and considering his policies, he should be scared of them.

We need to be aware of what's going on.  We also need to be checking registration for ourselves and our friends and families.  I don't mean the day before you vote.  I'd argue you need to check before the deadline to register to vote.  If you're dropped from the voter rolls and only learn of that on election day?  In most areas of the United States, you're out of luck.  You could request a provisional ballot but that brings up 101 other issues.  We need to be prepared.  This is about the future of democracy -- whether it will exist anymore in the US or not.  We have got to be prepared.

Being prepared also means after the election.  For example, I want Congress to have serious hearings on voting.  I want Greg Palast in there offering his expert testimony on how many people are getting dropped from the voter rolls.  We need a Congressional hearing (probably several) so that we can strengthen voting rights. 


On the economy, THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE addressed Chump's tariffs and other nonsense.




Let's turn to Chump's war on immigrants which is one horror story after another as he destroys one life after another.  Horror story?  Alex Woodward (INDEPENDENT) reports:


Four American-born siblings and their mother have been held inside a border patrol facility for more than two weeks after her arrest by federal law enforcement agents near the U.S.-Canada border.

Kenia Jackeline Merlos, her nine-year-old triplets and seven-year-old son, were visiting her sister at Peace Arch State Park in Washington state on June 28 when U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents took them into custody.
Merlos’ mother, who joined the family on the trip, was also detained, but it remains unclear where she is being held.

The Department of Homeland Security accused Merlos of “attempting to smuggle illegal aliens” into the country, according to a statement. Merlos had requested that her children stay with her during her detention, the agency said.

Merlos’ husband Carlos was detained several days later outside the family’s home in Portland, Oregon. He is currently being held inside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Tacoma, Washington. The couple’s immigration status is unclear.

“What began as a simple family trip to Peace Arch Park — a place Jackie had safely visited in the past to visit family in Canada — has turned into a devastating immigration nightmare,” according to a statement from family friends helping raise money for the family’s legal defense.
Merlos’ sister, a legal resident of Canada, had stepped across the boundary while saying goodbye, “which triggered this unfounded accusation,” they said.

The family’s arrest and detention has alarmed legal advocates and members of Congress who are pressing Donald Trump’s administration for their swift release from custody. Customs and Border Protection policy largely prohibits holding people in custody for more than 72 hours.


Tuesday, US House Rep Maxine Dexter's office issued the following regarding the above horror story:


PORTLAND, OR —Today, Congresswoman Maxine Dexter, M.D. (OR-03), along with U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, announced that a federal judge granted an emergency temporary restraining order preventing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from removing the Merlos family from the court’s jurisdiction.

Dexter, Wyden, and Merkley released the following joint statement: 

 “Our constituents, including four U.S. citizen children, were detained without due process by their own government. This case is as urgent as it is egregious. This emergency ruling is a legal lifeline to provide critical protection to the Merlos family. 

“We are gratified with this temporary win as a necessary step toward justice. In the coming days, we will be watching with unwavering attention to make certain due process is followed and this family is treated with the dignity every Oregon family deserves.

“This fight is every single Oregonian’s fight. If we allow this—citizen children detention, neighbors disappeared, due process ignored—we surrender not just our country but our conscience. That is an outcome we refuse to accept.”

On Sunday, Dexter, Wyden, Merkley, Congressman Rick Larsen (WA-02), and other lawmakers sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security and CBP setting a deadline of 10:00 a.m. PT on Monday, July 14 to grant the family access to their attorney. The lawmakers condemned the egregious, prolonged detention of U.S. citizen children in facilities that are not equipped or intended for the long-term custody of anyone.

Last week, Dexter personally traveled to the Bellingham Border Patrol Station, where the Merlos family was detained. CBP refused to allow her to speak with the family or connect the family with legal counsel. 

###




Federal immigration officers arrested a 38-year-old Iranian man outside his child’s preschool in Beaverton on Tuesday, according to school and law enforcement officials.

The man was arrested by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during morning dropoff at Guidepost Montessori School. The incident has deeply shaken the school community, which went into “soft lockdown to ensure the safety of all students and staff,” according to a message sent to parents.

OPB is not naming the man because his family was not immediately reachable and his immigration attorney did not return a request for comment.

The incident marks the first confirmed case of an immigration arrest at an Oregon school amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Historically, certain locations – including schools and houses of worship – have been largely off limits to immigration enforcement.

According to an ICE spokesperson, the man lawfully entered the United States in 2017, but overstayed his student visa.

Caroline Medeiros is an immigration attorney who is consulting with the family and the school. Medeiros’ child attends the same Montessori school. She said the man ICE arrested works as a chiropractor and she disputed the agency’s claim he was not in the U.S. lawfully.

“He married a U.S. citizen and his U.S. citizen wife filed a green card application for him,” Medeiros told OPB. “He attended his green card interview with his wife and they were just simply waiting for the green card to come through.”


Let's drop the pretense once and for all that Donald Chump cares about children because -- unless they're underage girls that Epstein supplied him with -- he doesn't care.  You can't care about children and do that.  That upset not only that man's children, it upset the entire school. 

Some children saw it happen.  Every child heard about it.  A parent whisked away.  Don't pretend you give a damn about children when you carry out an operation like that.  Those kids must have been frightened and worried.  But there's Chump and is gestapo force doing whatever they want with no regard for the law.  

The father's not a criminal.  And unless ICE is made up of the brain dead, they knew he wasn't a criminal before they staged the kidnapping.  If you thought the man was a violent criminal, I don't believe you'd try to arrest him with children around thereby putting their lives at risk.


Let's note another horror story.  Walter Morris (NEWS4) reports:

The family of a Maryland man who’s lived in the United States for decades is looking for answers after they say he was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last month while walking his dog.

Loved ones said Reza Zavvar came to the U.S. from Iran as a student when he was 12, eventually got a green card and is now facing deportation to a country he has no connection to.

Firouzeh Firouzabadi, Zavvar’s mother, recounted the terrifying moments on June 28 when she said ICE agents took the 52-year-old into custody, just feet from their Gaithersburg home.

She said minutes after Zavvar left to walk his dog, Duke, strangers in uniform arrived at her front door holding the leash.

“I was shaking,” Firouzabadi said. “My brother was behind me holding me, and a lot of questions were coming, but the first thing that came to my mind was that maybe a car hit him and he’s on the floor, that’s why they brought him, Duke, to me. That was the first thing that hit me. It was hard.”

The mother said that was the beginning of their family’s nightmare.

“You just have to be a mom to understand what I’m talking about,” Firouzabadi said.

Zavvar's family said he was first taken to a facility in Baltimore, where he was questioned. He is currently being held at a detention center in Texas, according to online ICE detention records.

At last update, family members said the government has given orders to deport him to Romania or Australia, but gave no further explanation.

"I can’t sleep at night, I just can’t,” his sister, Maryam Zavvar, said.


This is not America.  It's something out of Nazi Germany and we shouldn't pretend otherwise. 




Since President Donald Trump returned to office, his campaign to deport thousands of immigrants has created headlines in Maryland after dispatching federal agents to sweep the streets, raiding worksites and, in one case, removing a mother from her vehicle.

Now, government records reveal the scale of these efforts: Arrests by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers have more than doubled in the state under Trump, a Baltimore Banner analysis of ICE data found.

Increasingly, according to the data analysis, the campaign has targeted immigrants without criminal charges or convictions.

This is despite Trump promising his mass deportation campaign would go after violent criminals, whom the president has called “the worst of the worst.” The data shows that since the president’s Jan. 20 inauguration, 60% of immigrants arrested in Maryland have never been convicted of crimes. Only 13% committed violent crimes.

After reviewing The Banner’s findings, Adina Appelbaum, program director at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, said the findings show the deportation campaign “is not about public safety.”

“It’s about systemic punishment, racial profiling and the dehumanizing political exploitation of our immigrant neighbors,” Appelbaum said.


Other horror stories?  AP reports, "Immigration authorities are demanding that landlords turn over leases, rental applications, forwarding addresses, identification cards and other information on their tenants, a sign that the Trump administration is targeting them to assist in its drive for mass deportations."   Sam Levin (IRISH EXAMINER) reports: 35-year-old Irish citizen Thomas visited his girlfriend in West Virginia and got sick which caused him to overstay by three days, "he was detained by Ice in three different facilities, ultimately spending roughly 100 days behind bars with little understanding of why he was being held – or when he’d get out."  Thomas is now back in Ireland and states, "Nobody is safe from the system if they get pulled into it."


And the horror stories continue when Chump's Nazis put the immigrants into gulags and concentration camps.  Didi Martinez, Julia Ainsley and Laura Strickler (NBC NEWS) report:

Immigrants being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers in at least seven states are complaining of hunger, food shortages and spoiled food, detainees and immigration advocates say. They say some detainees have gotten sick; others say they have lost weight. In one facility, an incident involving detainees reportedly broke out in part because of food.

The food problems come amid overcrowding at ICE facilities tied to the Trump administration’s push to quickly ramp up immigration arrests. While capacity data isn’t publicly available for every ICE detention facility, nationwide figures on the availability of beds show a system beyond its overall capacity. As of mid-June, ICE was detaining nearly 60,000 people, almost 45% above the capacity provided for by Congress.
Although many of ICE’s detention centers are run by private contractors, the problems are happening all over the country regardless of who’s running a given facility, advocates say. A former ICE official told NBC News it is difficult for a facility to stay stocked with the right amount of food when, on any given day, it may face an unexpected surge of new detainees. While the agency can move money around to cover the cost of detaining more immigrants, planning for unexpected daily spikes can be difficult for facilities and could lead to food being served late or in small quantities, the former ICE official said.

On top of that, there are now fewer avenues for detainees to submit concerns while they are in ICE custody, advocates say, pointing to recent job cuts to an independent watchdog within the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency.


Let's wind down with this from US House Rep Dan Goldman's office:



VIDEO, PHOTOS, TRANSCRIPT: REP. DAN GOLDMAN, STATE SENATOR GOUNARDES CALL FOR END TO ICE DETENTION AT NOTORIOUS FEDERAL PRISON 
 
Rep. Goldman: “The Trump Administration is now sending non-criminal, non-charged, nonviolent immigrants, many of whom have ongoing asylum cases, to be detained in this place where federal judges will not send convicted criminals.” 
 
MDC Brooklyn is Notorious for Violence, Understaffing, Power Outages, Extended Lockdowns, and Solitary Confinement 
 
Watch the Press Conference Here 


Washington, D.C. — Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10), State Senator Andrew Gounardes, and Assemblymember Bobby Carroll today hosted a press conference outside the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn to call for an end to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) usage of the facility to detain over 100 immigrants. Federal judges have recently called the prison ‘barbaric’ and refused to send convicted criminals there, citing its chronic understaffing, extended use of solitary confinement, unsanitary conditions, routine power outages, and lack of access to medical care and legal counsel.  
 
Last week, the Congressman sent an oversight letter of inquiry to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) demanding answers on their interagency agreement with ICE to house more than 100 immigration detainees at the Brooklyn MDC. 
 
Watch the press conference here
 or read a rough transcript below: 
 
Rep. Dan Goldman:  Thank you all for joining us today. I’m Congressman Dan Goldman, and I'm here with my colleagues in the State Senate and State Assembly, Andrew Gounardes and Bobby Carroll, as well as our friends from Mixteca.  
 
We are here to bring attention to what is an increasingly urgent and dangerous situation now that relates entirely to the militarized ICE efforts to arrest immigrants who are here lawfully, and to whisk them down south for expedited deportation. That would break the law. 
 
One of the things that this new policy has done is create a shortage of places to hold these non-criminal, nonviolent civilians who are trying to immigrate to this country, as so many have before. So what we have learned is that ICE and the federal government, in coordination with the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons, are relocating immigration detainees here to MDC. 
 
Now, this is not the first time we've been out in front of the MDC, which has a very well-established record of being incredibly unsafe, inhumane, cruel – even to the point where federal judges call the conditions in the MDC barbaric and have refused to send convicts and criminals here because those conditions are so bad. And yet the Trump Administration is now sending non-criminal, non-charged, nonviolent immigrants, many of whom have ongoing asylum cases, to be detained in this place where federal judges will not send convicted criminals. 
 
They're doing this because there is no room anywhere else for this disgusting mass deportation policy that once again, is not targeting convicted criminals, but is targeting so many community members, spouses of citizens, parents of citizens, people trying to immigrate to this country to pursue the American dream and trying to do it the right way under the law.  
 
Last week, I wrote a letter to the head of the Bureau of Prisons demanding answers and asking for an immediate suspension of all transfers of ICE detainees to the MDC and to any other federal prison. And to understand what exactly the agreement is between ICE and the Bureau of Prisons. Who is paying for the staffing for these ICE detainees?  
 
Part of the reason why the MDC has been in such terrible, terrible condition is that it is grossly understaffed. And because it's understaffed, it is unable to keep everyone safe. It has required numerous lockdowns just simply because of a shortage of staffing. 
 
The Biden Administration added a 35% retention bonus at the end of that administration, to increase the staffing significantly here and made the conditions much better. When Donald Trump came in, his administration yanked that retention bonus, and staffing has now gone down.  
 
So, who's paying? Because the Bureau of Prisons doesn't have money to pay for its own staff, for its own detainees, much less ICE detainees? 
 
We want answers to those questions, and we want to know where the money will be coming from now that the Republicans jammed through a bill that takes health care and food benefits from millions and millions of Americans, but increases ICE's budget for detention by $45 billion.  
 
Who is going to pay for this? This is just yet another example of ICE's lawless, un-American, inhumane treatment of people trying to seek the American dream, trying to immigrate to this country like so many of New Yorkers have – 40% – and so many of our ancestors and descendants have. This is dangerous. It's lawless and it's unacceptable. So we are here out in front of the MDC to demand answers from the Bureau of Prisons, from the Department of Justice, from the Department of Homeland Security. They owe us answers. They owe me, as a member of Congress, answers as I conduct oversight, both constitutionally authorized and statutorily obligated oversight. 
 
But they mostly owe answers to New Yorkers and to the American people for what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how they are doing it.  
 
Let's remember. Immigrants are our neighbors. They are parents, they are workers working here with work authorization, paying taxes, paying into the Social Security fund, and they are community members who deserve to be treated with dignity. 
 
If immigrants have committed a crime, they should be deported. But that is not what is happening. These are our community members being yanked from their families, unsuspectingly and deceptively. And it must stop.  
 
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The following sites updated:





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