Somethings I just never understand. Carly Simon sings
that in "You Know What To Do To Me" (written by Carly, Jacob Brackman,
Peter Wood and Mike Mainieri for the HELLO BIG MAN album) and I feel
that way often. Like the nonsense an idiot House Committee Chair's
pulling these days. Simon Marks (THE PAPER) reports:
Republicans
in the House of Representatives delivered Donald Trump a wakeup call on
Tuesday. The good news for the White House: they voted to subpoena,
among others, former president Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary
Clinton, compelling them to testify before the House of Representatives
Oversight Committee as it investigates the Jeffrey Epstein affair.
But
they simultaneously delivered devastating news, sending a subpoena to
Trump’s own Department of Justice in a fresh effort to force the White
House to release Epstein-related documents and other evidence that many
core Republican supporters suspect are being covered up.
Publicly,
congressman James Comer of Kentucky – the pro-Trump bulldog who chairs
the committee – is vowing to haul the Clintons over the coals within the
next 10 weeks. In a pugnacious social media posting, he announced that
Hillary Clinton will be deposed by the Committee on 9 October, with her
husband following on 14 October.
I
get it. James Comer probably has a micro penis. It's probably gotten
smaller over the years and it's probably just a tiny little mushroom.
That's made him bitter so he does things like the above.
If
you want to subpoena Bill Clinton, by all means do. But if you're also
issuing a subpoena for Hillary Clinton, realize that we all grasp that
you are suffering from some psycho sexual problems.
There's
no reason to subpoena Hillary Clinton. You're obsessed with her, we
get it. You're a fat 52 y.o. joke of a man and she's your great white
wale that you and all the other Republican losers have never been able
to honestly lay a hand on or prove a rumor about. It's driven you crazy
and made you impotent. So we watch and we laugh as you repeatedly go
after Hillary.
You've
spent how many decades whispering she's a 'cold fish' but now you've
got a sex trafficking case and you just know she's involved. It makes no
sense. She's not been accused of traveling with Epstein. She's
certainly not been accused of procuring young girls from him. But this
is who the important, fat, stupid and under-educated Comer issues a
subpoena to Hillary Clinton -- not one to Alex Acosta who is responsible
for the sweet heart deal Epstein got in Florida when he should have
been buried in a prison and not Donald Chump who, as a sitting
president, should be at the top of the list since he claims now that he
knew Epstein was trafficking and that Epstein stole underage employees
from Chump and what the hell were 16 year old girls doing at Chump's
resort giving grown men massages? None of it make sense. None of it
has ever made sense.
But,
James Comer, we get it, you are both a failure as a human being and a
failure as a man and that harassing Hillary is the only thing that
provides meaning to his otherwise worthless life. And, yes, Comer, your
father was disappointed when you failed to become a medical doctor and
instead majored in ag but not as disappointed as he was when you reached
maturity and still had that girlish voice. What did he used to say,
"Take the cock out of your mouth when you speak so I can understand
you?"
I
read that and loved it and turned on MSNBC while doing some dusting and
saw -- different terms -- similar points being made. And Tom Boggioni reports:
Plans
by Rep. James Comer (R-KY) to use his position as the chair of the
House Oversight and Reform Committee to calm the waters around the
Jeffrey Epstein files will fail before he even starts, former prosecutor
Dave Aronberg explained on MSNBC on Thursday morning.
During
the segment on "Morning Joe," Aronberg claimed there are too many
hurdles for the Kentucky Republican to overcome that range from
subpoenaed witnesses likely to refuse to give depositions to problems
with the courts releasing testimony that could hamper convicted sex
trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal headed to the Supreme Court.
According
to the former prosecutor, even if Comer can maneuver the minefield he
has entered, it still won't satisfy the hard-right base that wants
complete Epstein transparency.
Pointing to
Comer's target list of people he wants to testify, the ex-prosecutor
stated he doesn't believe anyone gave legal advice to Comer.
"I
think this list was developed by political advisor," he told the hosts
before joking, "It just looks like Comer threw darts at a list of
Trump's enemies from both sides of the aisle."
"Like,
why is Hillary Clinton on the list? What does she have to do with
this?" he asked. "Bob Mueller, Bob Mueller! Who Trump hates, he was the
FBI director at the time, but he had nothing to do with the [Epstein]
non-prosecution agreement. You know who did? [Former US Attorney] Alex
Acosta, but he's not on the list as you correctly noted. Of course,
Trump's not on the list either."
Why
is Hillary Clinton being called on to testify? She has nothing to do
with this. It really is just the Republicans trying to work out all
their grudges while avoiding accountability. Mr. Acosta and Mr. Chump
both need to be testifying.
Independent
journalist Roger Sollenberger uncovered an old New York Post article
this week that appeared to refute President Donald Trump’s story about
when and why he booted convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from his
Mar-a-Lago club.
“Epstein denies he is banned
from Mar-a-Lago and says, in fact, he was recently invited to an event
there,” Sollenberger noted on Tuesday, adding it is a “Crazy line from
an Oct. 15, 2007, NYPost piece confirming that Trump only canceled
Epstein’s membership two weeks after he agreed to plead guilty.”
Trump
replied, “I don’t know. I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I
think that was one of the people, yeah. He stole her. And, by the way,
she had no complaints about us, as you know, none whatsoever.” Giuffre,
who sought civil and criminal action against Epstein and his accomplice
Ghislaine Maxwell, and accused Prince Andrew of sexual abuse, killed
herself in April of this year.
Trump’s comment
raised eyebrows at the time as it called into question the known
timeline surrounding Trump barring Epstein from his club. Ryan Goodman, a
NYU law professor and legal analyst, shared the clip online and noted,
“Here’s the very disturbing part of this.” He added:
The timing and Trump’s knowledge:
Year 2000: Epstein-Maxwell ‘took’ Virginia Giuffre from Mar-a-Lago
2002: Trump said most infamous line about Epstein being a “terrific” friend and liking “younger” ones
2004: Trump rupture with Epstein
Epstein later pleaded guilty to underage sex offenses in June of 2008.
Goodman
wasn’t the only one to note the timeline surrounding Trump and
Epstein’s falling out. S.V. Dáte, the White House correspondent at
HuffPost, added, “Trump on AF1 confirms that one of the people Epstein
“stole” from him at Mar-a-Lago was Virginia Giuffre. That was in 2000.
He told NY mag in 2002 that he admired Epstein’s taste in women. The
break from Epstein wasn’t for another 2 years.”
Early
in President Donald Trump’s second term, plenty of ink was spilled on
the question of whether his 2024 voters regretted their votes. The
verdict – including my own – was generally that this theory was
overblown.
There were anecdotes, yes, but it didn’t seem to be an especially measurable phenomenon.
More than six months in, that could be changing, at least somewhat.
It’s
probably still too simple to say that lots of Trump supporters regret
their votes. But to appropriate a phrase you might have heard from your
parents once upon a time: Many Trump voters aren’t mad (or fully
regretful); they’re just disappointed.
A new poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst is one of the best gauges of this to date.
It found just 69% of 2024 Trump voters agreed that they are “very confident that I made the right choice.”
That’s
fewer than the 78% of Kamala Harris voters who said the same of her.
It’s also down slightly from the 74% of Trump voters who said they were
very confident in their vote back in April.
Thursday, August 7, 2025. Chump continues to be leader of the Grand Old
Pedophile party, Epstein survivors are not going away, redistricting
Texas is Chump's attempt to avoid a third impeachment, he should be
impeached for Alligator Alcatraz alone, and much more.
Somethings I just never understand. Carly Simon sings
that in "You Know What To Do To Me" (written by Carly, Jacob Brackman,
Peter Wood and Mike Mainieri for the HELLO BIG MAN album) and I feel
that way often. Like the nonsense an idiot House Committee Chair's
pulling these days. Simon Marks (THE PAPER) reports:
Republicans
in the House of Representatives delivered Donald Trump a wakeup call on
Tuesday. The good news for the White House: they voted to subpoena,
among others, former president Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary
Clinton, compelling them to testify before the House of Representatives
Oversight Committee as it investigates the Jeffrey Epstein affair.
But
they simultaneously delivered devastating news, sending a subpoena to
Trump’s own Department of Justice in a fresh effort to force the White
House to release Epstein-related documents and other evidence that many
core Republican supporters suspect are being covered up.
Publicly,
congressman James Comer of Kentucky – the pro-Trump bulldog who chairs
the committee – is vowing to haul the Clintons over the coals within the
next 10 weeks. In a pugnacious social media posting, he announced that
Hillary Clinton will be deposed by the Committee on 9 October, with her
husband following on 14 October.
I
get it. James Comer probably has a micro penis. It's probably gotten
smaller over the years and it's probably just a tiny little mushroom.
That's made him bitter so he does things like the above.
If
you want to subpoena Bill Clinton, by all means do. But if you're also
issuing a subpoena for Hillary Clinton, realize that we all grasp that
you are suffering from some psycho sexual problems.
There's
no reason to subpoena Hillary Clinton. You're obsessed with her, we
get it. You're a fat 52 y.o. joke of a man and she's your great white
wale that you and all the other Republican losers have never been able
to honestly lay a hand on or prove a rumor about. It's driven you crazy
and made you impotent. So we watch and we laugh as you repeatedly go
after Hillary.
You've
spent how many decades whispering she's a 'cold fish' but now you've
got a sex trafficking case and you just know she's involved. It makes no
sense. She's not been accused of traveling with Epstein. She's
certainly not been accused of procuring young girls from him. But this
is who the important, fat, stupid and under-educated Comer issues a
subpoena to Hillary Clinton -- not one to Alex Acosta who is responsible
for the sweet heart deal Epstein got in Florida when he should have
been buried in a prison and not Donald Chump who, as a sitting
president, should be at the top of the list since he claims now that he
knew Epstein was trafficking and that Epstein stole underage employees
from Chump and what the hell were 16 year old girls doing at Chump's
resort giving grown men massages? None of it make sense. None of it
has ever made sense.
But,
James Comer, we get it, you are both a failure as a human being and a
failure as a man and that harassing Hillary is the only thing that
provides meaning to his otherwise worthless life. And, yes, Comer, your
father was disappointed when you failed to become a medical doctor and
instead majored in ag but not as disappointed as he was when you reached
maturity and still had that girlish voice. What did he used to say,
"Take the cock out of your mouth when you speak so I can understand
you?"
[R]epeatedly
in recent days and weeks, those victims and allies have stepped forward
to raise serious questions about the Trump administration’s handling of
the matter. They’ve complained about favorable treatment of convicted
Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. They’ve objected to the lack of
disclosure. They’ve complained about the administration’s treatment of
them.
They’ve invoked the phrase “cover-up” on at least three occasions. Others have more subtly pointed in that direction.
Victims
have raised concerns about the government’s handling of the matter for
years – in particular focusing on a favorable non-prosecution agreement
Epstein landed in 2007 and the years before he was later charged – but
their complaints are now directed squarely at the Trump administration.
All of which makes it much more difficult for the administration to just move on, as the president would clearly prefer.
Last
week, family members of one of Epstein’s and Maxwell’s most prominent
accusers, Virginia Giuffre, cited Trump’s recent admission that he had
been aware that Epstein recruited Giuffre from Mar-a-Lago. They cited
other evidence that Trump was aware of Epstein’s affinity for young
girls and women and said, “It makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey
Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal actions.”
(Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year.)
In
another letter, Giuffre family members and other accusers also cited
the still-unexplained prison transfer of Maxwell to a lower-security
prison camp that sex offenders like her don’t appear eligible for,
without a waiver. That news came shortly after Maxwell, who’s serving a
20-year sentence, was interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd
Blanche. And it comes as Trump has dangled the possibility of pardoning
Maxwell, who’s appealing her conviction.
The
survivors and their families have had enough with Donald Chump and his
gifts and favors to Maxwell. Virginia Giuffre's family spoke yesterday
on CBS MORNINGS.
In
1997, Alicia Arden became the first known victim to file a police
report for assault against Jeffrey Epstein. Yesterday, she and attorney
Gloria Allred held a press conference calling for an end to the US
government ignoring the survivors and an end to the new perks Chump
wants to give convicted pedophile Maxwell.
The
family of Virginia Giuffre is speaking out following a report that Vice
President JD Vance is hosting a “strategy session” on the Trump
administration’s handling of the so-called Epstein files.
Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent sex trafficking accusers, died by suicide earlier this year.
CNN reported that Vance planned to convene top Trump administration officials at his home in Indiana.
"Missing
from this group is, of course, any survivor of the vicious crimes of
convicted perjurer and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey
Epstein," Giuffre's family said in a statement obtained by Scripps News.
"Their voices must be heard, above all."
The
meeting was supposed to be a secret but it began leaking Tuesday night
(we noted it in yesterday's snapshot). The meeting became a public
relations disaster. Nandita Bose (REUTERS) explains,
"A dinner for senior administration officials at Vice President JD
Vance's residence to discuss topics including the Trump administration's
handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case has been canceled after news of it
leaked, a source familiar with the matter said."
Lawrence weighed in last night on Epstein and many other topics including Chump's potty mouth.
In
Texas, Donald Chump's minions want to redistrict the state -- again.
It's already taken place after the 2020 census. But Chump wants more
Republicans in Congress so he's called on Governor Greg Asshole and the
rest to ignore the law, ignore the costs and redistrict.
After the Census Bureau released detailed population and demographic
data from the 2020 census, states and local governments began the
once-a-decade process of drawing new voting district boundaries known as
redistricting. And gerrymandering — when those boundaries are drawn
with the intention of influencing who gets elected — followed.
The latest redistricting cycle was the first since the Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling
that gerrymandering for party advantage cannot be challenged in federal
court. Here are six things to know about partisan gerrymandering and
how it impacts our democracy.
Gerrymandering is deeply undemocratic.
Every
10 years, states redraw their legislative and congressional district
lines following the census. Because communities change, redistricting is
critical to our democracy: maps must be redrawn to ensure that
districts are equally populated, comply with laws such as the Voting Rights Act,
and are otherwise representative of a state’s population. Done right,
redistricting is a chance to create maps that, in the words of John
Adams, are an “exact portrait, a miniature” of the people as a whole.
But
sometimes the process is used to draw maps that put a thumb on the
scale to manufacture election outcomes that are detached from the
preferences of voters. Rather than voters choosing their
representatives, gerrymandering empowers politicians to choose their
voters. This tends to occur especially when line drawing is left to
legislatures and one political party controls the process, as has become
increasingly common. When that happens, partisan concerns almost
invariably take precedence over all else. That produces maps where
electoral results are virtually guaranteed even in years where the party
drawing maps has a bad year.
There are multiple ways to gerrymander.
While
legislative and congressional district shapes may look wildly different
from state to state, most attempts to gerrymander can best be
understood through the lens of two basic techniques: cracking and
packing.
Cracking splits groups of people with similar
characteristics, such as voters of the same party affiliation, across
multiple districts. With their voting strength divided, these groups
struggle to elect their preferred candidates in any of the districts.
Packing is the opposite of cracking: map drawers cram certain groups of
voters into as few districts as possible. In these few districts, the
“packed” groups are likely to elect their preferred candidates, but the
groups’ voting strength is weakened everywhere else.
Some or all of these techniques may be deployed by map drawers in order
to build a partisan advantage into the boundaries of districts. A key
note, however: while sometimes gerrymandering results in oddly shaped
districts, that isn’t always the case. Cracking and packing can often
result in regularly shaped districts that look appealing to the eye but
nonetheless skew heavily in favor of one party.
Gerrymandering has a real impact on the balance of power in Congress and many state legislatures.
In 2010, Republicans — in an effort to control the drawing of congressional maps — forged a campaign to
win majorities in as many state legislatures as possible. It was wildly
successful, giving them control over the drawing of 213 congressional
districts. The redrawing of maps that followed produced some of the most
extreme gerrymanders in history. In battleground Pennsylvania, for
example, the congressional map gave Republicans a virtual lock on 13 of
the state’s 18 congressional districts, even in elections where
Democrats won the majority of the statewide congressional vote.
Nationally, extreme partisan bias in congressional maps gave Republicans a net 16 to 17 seat advantage for
most of last decade. Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania alone —
the three states with the worst gerrymanders in the last redistricting
cycle — accounted for 7 to 10 extra Republican seats in the House.
On the state level, gerrymandering has also led to significant partisan bias in maps. For example, in 2018, Democrats in Wisconsin
won every statewide office and a majority of the statewide vote, but
thanks to gerrymandering, won only 36 of the 99 seats in the state
assembly.
Though Republicans were the primary beneficiaries of
gerrymandering last decade, Democrats have also used redistricting for
partisan ends: in Maryland, for instance, Democrats used control over map-drawing to eliminate one of the state’s Republican congressional districts.
Regardless
of which party is responsible for gerrymandering, it is ultimately the
public who loses out. Rigged maps make elections less competitive, in
turn making even more Americans feel like their votes don’t matter.
Gerrymandering affects all Americans, but its most significant costs are borne by communities of color.
Residential
segregation and racially polarized voting patterns, especially in
southern states, mean that targeting communities of color can be an
effective tool for creating advantages for the party that controls
redistricting. This is true regardless of whether it is Democrats or
Republicans drawing the maps.
The Supreme Court’s 2019 decision in Rucho v. Common Cause
greenlighting partisan gerrymandering has made things worse. The Voting
Rights Act and the Constitution prohibit racial discrimination in
redistricting. But because there often is correlation between party
preference and race, Rucho opens the door for
Republican-controlled states to defend racially discriminatory maps on
grounds that they were permissibly discriminating against Democrats
rather than impermissibly discriminating against Black, Latino, or Asian
voters.
Targeting the political power of communities of color is
also often a key element of partisan gerrymandering. This is especially
the case in the South, where white Democrats are a comparatively small
part of the electorate and often live, problematically from the
standpoint of a gerrymanderer, very close to white Republicans. Even
with slicing and dicing, discriminating against white Democrats only
moves the political dial so much. Because of residential segregation, it
is much easier for map drawers to pack or crack communities of color to
achieve maximum political advantage.
Gerrymandering is getting worse.
Gerrymandering
is a political tactic nearly as old as the United States. In designing
Virginia’s very first congressional map, Patrick Henry attempted to draw
district boundaries that would block his rival, James Madison, from
winning a seat. But gerrymandering has also changed dramatically since
the founding: today, intricate computer algorithms and sophisticated
data about voters allow map drawers to game redistricting on a massive
scale with surgical precision. Where gerrymanderers once had to pick
from a few maps drawn by hand, they now can create and pick from
thousands of computer-generated maps.
Gerrymandering also looks
likely to get worse because the legal framework governing redistricting
has not kept up with demographic changes. Before, most people of color
in the country’s metro areas lived in highly segregated cities. Today,
however, a majority of Black, Latino, and Asian Americans live in diverse suburbs.
This change has given rise to powerful new multiracial voting
coalitions outside cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston that have
won or come close to winning power. Yet the Supreme Court has not
granted these multiracial coalition districts the same legal protections
as majority-minority districts, making them a key target for
dismantling by partisan map drawers.
Federal reform can help counter gerrymandering — so Congress needs to act.
The Freedom to Vote Act,
a landmark piece of federal democracy reform legislation that has
already passed the House, represents a major step toward curbing
political gamesmanship in map drawing. The bill would enhance
transparency, strengthen protections for communities of color, and ban
partisan gerrymandering in congressional redistricting. It would also
improve voters’ ability to challenge gerrymandered maps in court.
With redistricting now beginning in many states, the need for Congress to pass reform legislation is more urgent than ever. Fair representation depends on it.
With
Texas Republicans using every lever of power in their attempt to give
themselves five new House seats, state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer told
Salon that it’s time for national Democratic leaders to either “do
something — or get out of the way.”
Earlier
this week, Democrats in the Texas state legislature left their homes
behind in order to deny Republicans the quorum needed to force through
new House maps, maps which would deliver Republicans five new, safe
Republican seats in the 2026 midterms.
To prevent
Republicans from pushing through the new maps, state Democrats have fled
the state, breaking quorum, and preventing the Texas House from taking
up business while they are gone. Many of the state representatives have
gone to states like New York and Illinois, where local leaders have
promised to help them as much as they can.
In
response, Gov. Greg Abbot threatened to bring bribery charges against
Democrats who left the state and ordered their arrest. The Republicans
in the Texas House have proceeded to issue civil arrest warrants for the
Democrats who left the state.
Chump
very publicly wants to gerry mander Texas districts to lower the impact
Democrats can have. He wants few Democrats coming out of Texas to the
US Congress. And this is how he thinks he can make it happen. A
functioning Supreme Court would have already stopped him and protected
voting rights. But we don't have a functioning Supreme Court We have a
court that has been misled by Chief Justice John Roberts for about two
decades now.
He will go down in history as the worst chief justice ever and as the enemy of democratcy that he truly is.
A
growing number of blue-state House Republicans — at risk of being drawn
out of their own seats — are speaking out against their party's
mid-decade redistricting efforts.
Why it
matters: Their comments represent a sharp break with President Trump and
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who have both endorsed efforts in Texas
and other states to carve out more Republican House seats.
Democrats in states like California and New York have threatened to respond in-kind by attempting to redo their maps.
Caught
in the crossfire are a cohort of blue-state Republicans, who tend to be
more moderate than the average House Republican and often represent
swingier districts.
Driving the news: Rep. Kevin Kiley
(R-Calif.), a swing-district member, took a shot at Johnson on Tuesday,
saying in a Fox News interview that he "needs to step up and show some
leadership" on the issue.
"This is not
something that is popular among members of our conference," added Kiley,
who has introduced legislation to ban mid-decade redistricting in all
states.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said Monday that he will
introduce similar legislation after saying in PBS News interview over
the weekend: "I don't think Texas should do it."
Rep. Nicole
Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) said in a Bloomberg interview: "I don't care if
it's the Republicans or the Democrats that are doing it — it's wrong and
it should not be done."
“I
think it’s wrong, what Texas is doing,” he said of Texas Republicans’
release of the new map during a Tuesday evening appearance on CNN. “I
don’t support it. I think it is wrong.”
Lawler
compared the situation to the situations in Illinois and New Jersey,
which have also been criticized for doing the same, in some cases even
seeing their maps struck down because of it.
“We have to actually have neutral districts across this country,” he said. “It would serve the country better.”
Lawler
mentioned that he plans to introduce legislation to “outright ban
gerrymandering,” a term coined more than 200 years ago in the U.S.
that’s used to describe political manipulation in legislative mapmaking,
according to The Associated Press.
“This is
fundamentally why Congress is broken,” he continued. “You do not have
competitive districts, and so most members are focused on primaries and
not actually engaging in a general election.”
It's so hilarious to hear Chump fall back on 'elections have consequences'
You know what else has consequences?
Bad legislation.
Legislation
that rips apart the safety net and destroys Medicaid and schools to
give tx breaks for the super wealthy, for the most corrupt in this
country.
Donald lied to Republicans in the House that voting for his 'big beautiful bill' would not have negative consequences.
The
town halls continue to be brutal for House Republicans. Chump lied to
them. And now he tries to save his own ass -- he's afraid of another
impeachment -- by getting states to redistrict.
The
White House is driving the showdown between Texas Democrats and
Republicans over a gerrymandering scheme to protect President Donald
Trump from getting impeached for a third time, according to a reporter
from a conservative publication.
Texas Gov.
Greg Abbott has asked the state Supreme Court to remove state Rep. Gene
Wu from office as the so-called "ringleader" of the Democrats who fled
the state to deprive the Republican-led legislature of a quorum needed
to pass a controversial redistricting plan, and National Review
correspondent Audrey Fahlberg told "CNN This Morning" why the
president's team was pushing the move.
"The
White House is driving this because clearly they are worried about
losing the midterms," Fahlberg said. "They're convinced that if House
Democrats flip the House, that Trump is going to get impeached again,
right. The 'big beautiful bill' is not polling super well right now, so
they're going on offense here. They're driving this into motion in
Texas. They're looking at other states, as well. We may see this
continue in states like Florida, Indiana. Vice President [JD] Vance is
meeting with state legislators there and their Republican governor."
I'm
not for redistricting when it's already been done in the decade. But
I'm also not for standing on high ground while the other side breaks
every rule in the book. What California Governor Gavin Newsom and other
Democrats are proposing is self-defense at this point. And it's the
only way to save this country.
Donald is a huge
liar. But even he grasps that the Republicans are not going to pull
off the mid-terms via the voters. So he's calling for redistricting in
an attempt to grab five extra seats in Texas, X in Indiana, go through
the list. It's about rigging the system and cheating.
Vice
President JD Vance is being sent to Indiana to try to convince the
state’s legislative leaders to redraw its congressional map in the
latest gerrymandering battle.
Vance will arrive
in the Hoosier state on Thursday for an RNC fundraiser in Indianapolis
and also will meet with Gov. Mike Braun, House Speaker Todd Huston, and
Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, where the topic of trying to
give the GOP any advantage it can ahead of the 2026 midterms is expected
to come up, the Indianapolis Star reports.
Both
Vance and Braun are being coy about what the Republicans plan to
discuss during their meeting. A spokesperson for Vance told the Daily
Beast that the vice president will meet with Braun and “other state
officials to discuss a variety of issues.”
The
governor told Indiana’s statehouse the issue of redrawing the
congressional map is “exploratory” but there have been “no commitments
made.”
NBC6 is only using her first name because she worries about her family’s privacy and possible online harassment.
“It's inhumane the way that they're keeping their residents,” she told NBC6.
Lindsey provided NBC6 documentation that shows she arrived at the
so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" on July 6 and worked at the controversial
detention center for about a week before she caught Covid and had to
isolate.
From the beginning, she told NBC6 the situation was tough.
“When I got there, it was overwhelming,” she said. “I thought it would get better. But it just never did.”
Lindsey provided NBC6 with her State of Florida credential, which lists her position as a “corrections officer.”
She says she was told the job would be five days on, two days off.
Lindsey also provided a copy of her contract with GardaWorld Federal
Services, a security company reportedly one of the vendors at "Alligator
Alcatraz."
A job posting on the company’s LinkedIn account shows they were
hiring for the position a month ago and offered $26 an hour for the
job.
“I was aware that it was going to be the Alligator Alcatraz,” said
Lindsey, who added that while she knew she would be living in a shared
trailer, she said the conditions were rough for everyone there.
“We had to use the porta-johns. We didn't have hot water half the time. Our bathrooms were backed up,” she said.
NBC6 has reported similar accounts of conditions inside from advocates, detainees and their families.
When talking about the space where detainees are being held, Lindsey said it look like “an oversized kennel.”
She says each tent had eight large cages, which hold 35 to 38 inmates, which means each tent holds close to 300 detainees.
“They have no sunlight. There's no clock in there. They don't even
know what time of the day it is,” Lindsey said. “They have no access to
showers. They shower every other day or every four days.”
She added: “The bathrooms are backed up because you got so many people using them.”
On rainy days, she said, water pours into the tents. She described
the conditions as miserable, not to forget — the constant battle with
mosquitos.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
“[W]e have concerns that
President Trump’s interests in Trump Mobile could lead him, his business
partners, or his appointees in his administration to improperly
interfere with regulators at the expense of consumers and competitors.”
“Trump Mobile offers yet another avenue for tech and telecom companies to purchase influence with President Trump…”
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.) led Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Adam Schiff
(D-Calif.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), along with Representatives
Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) and Greg Casar (D-Texas), in writing to federal
agencies to ask how they plan to mitigate potential conflicts of
interest involving the new wireless service offered by Trump Mobile.
President Trump stands to reap profit from Trump Mobile, while as
President he has significant influence over the agencies that oversee
the venture and its competitors. The letter was sent to the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the
Department of Commerce, the Department of the Treasury, the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), and the United States Trade Representative.
“We write because we have concerns that President Trump’s interests
in Trump Mobile could lead him, his business partners, or his appointees
in his administration to improperly interfere with regulators at the
expense of consumers and competitors,” wrote the lawmakers.
In June, Trump Mobile, the Trump Organization, and Donald Trump’s
sons announced T1 Mobile LLC and the flagship $499 “made in USA” T1
smartphone, since backtracking on the “Made in the USA” claims to say
that the smartphones are “[d]esigned with American values in mind.” The
Trump Mobile site uses the Trump name under a trademark license, which
is managed by a corporation fully owned by President Trump, who earned more than $6.6 million from his various licensing deals in 2024 alone.
“It is crucial for agencies tasked with upholding laws and
regulations for wireless services to be able to do so unimpeded,” said
the lawmakers.
The agencies named in the letter are responsible for overseeing the
different parts of the marketplace that the T1 Mobile venture could
affect. The FCC is responsible for regulating and enforcing the laws
around interstate and international communications which includes mobile
virtual network operators (MVNOs) like Trump Mobile. The FTC is
responsible for ensuring that companies like Trump Mobile do not make
false or misleading claims when marketing products. The FDA is in charge
of regulating medical devices, software, and mobile medical
applications, which Trump Mobile appears to plan to integrate
through telehealth services provided by Doctegrity and its proprietary
medical device, LifeVitals. The Departments of Commerce and Treasury,
along with the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, help oversee tariff
policy, which presents another venue for administration officials to
potentially favor Trump Mobile over other competitors.
“Trump Mobile heightens the risk that President Trump could expect
preferential treatment from your agencies for this company and those
that partner with it—or expect you to penalize competitors,” wrote the lawmakers.
Analysts have already raised concerns that the FCC
and other regulators are favoring companies that support the
President’s policies rather than evaluating mergers and other matters on
the merits.
“It is critical that federal regulators continue to evenhandedly
enforce competition and consumer protection laws against Trump Mobile
and any companies with which it works, especially in the face of this
opportunity for corruption and self-dealing for President Trump,” concluded the lawmakers.
The members of Congress asked the agencies to respond to a series of
questions by September 5, 2025, including: whether they have discussed
the venture with President Trump, the Trump Organization, or Trump
Mobile; their plans to avoid undue political influence; and whether they
would allow President Trump to intervene in the agencies’ decisions
related to Trump Mobile.