Friday, May 15, 2026

Chump's losing it, Taco Bell already has lost it

wiles banks

 

From about an hour ago, that's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Susie Wiles Frets Over Mike Banks." 


Crazy Chump and crazy Taco Bell.  Let's start with Chump.  Sarah Ewall-Wice (The Daily Beast) reports:

President Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior and repetition are raising red flags with medical experts who have sounded the alarm that the president is showing signs he’s mentally unfit for office.

“This is not normal. This is dangerous. And worse, this is a man who has access to nuclear weapons,” said Dr. Henry David Abraham, professor of psychiatry emeritus at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Abraham has been looking into Trump’s appearances over the past 40 years for mental abnormalities.
While he described the president, 79, as always narcissistic and sociopathic, he believes Trump has been exhibiting regression in his ability to manage language and is deeply concerned that Americans do not have a full picture of the president’s health.

Abraham observed that the president’s speeches have gotten shorter and that he’s introduced a “pathological technique of perseveration,” which is the repetition of actions or verbal patterns.

Trump has taken to frequently returning to the same lines from his attacks on perceived political foes to frequently touting his own cognitive tests, among other brags.

We all know he's losing it.  We see it with our own eyes.  The only question is: Will he be able to finish his term or will he be removed from office early? 

Taco Bell.

You know, I was so happy when they brought back some stuff -- even though it was only temporary.  So I was thinking we'd get some Taco Bell last night and I went there.  To order and take home.  But there was nothing I wanted.  

Crunchwraps?  Those things have been disgusting since they were first introduced.  It's this huge tortilla folded into a shape like a stop sign.  And on some corners, it hasn't cooked all the way.  And even if it has cooked all the way, it's still just a bad taste.  

Looking at those attempts at sandwiches and other things on the menu and all the various chicken nuggets, I just thought, "Oh, okay.  They don't want to be Taco Bell anymore.  They're transitioning to some sort of Jack 'N The Box format." 

I loved Taco Bell in the 90s and maybe they're bringing back the 90s menu for a little bit raised my hopes and expectations?  Could be.  But I am really not impressed with Taco Bell of late.  They seem to be about everything except the food that put them on the map. 


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


Friday, May 15, 2026.  Chump underwhelms in China, Todd Blanche was told to recuse himself from cases involving Chump (but didn't do that), US House Rep Dan Goldman questions what Chump and the Justice Dept are hiding from The Epstein Files, and much more. 

Midterms are in November and Convicted Felon Donald Chump does not believe in democracy or rule of law, he's now plotting ways to steal the 2026 mid-terms.  Thom Hartmann notes:

We have shocking news this week from CNN: Trump is preparing to illegally purge tens of millions of Democratic voters from voter rolls nationally, just in time for the election. Just like Modi did to win overwhelmingly in India, following the GOP’s playbook.

This follows John Roberts and Sam Alito blatantly using phony, cooked numbers to justify eviscerating the Voting Rights Act, lying to our faces and then laughing at us like they did with the Dobbs decision and Citizens United.
Russian dictator Joseph Stalin is often quoted (perhaps apocryphally) as saying:

“It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.”

Today’s GOP version of that could be:

“It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s how many people we can remove from the voting rolls that will decide the election.”

In this year’s iteration, the Trump Department of Justice has demanded that all states turn over their voting rolls, complete with names, addresses, driver’s license and social security numbers, voting history, and date of birth.

They’re also requiring states to sign a “Memorandum of Understanding” that says the states will then purge from their voting rolls anybody who Republican partisans within the Trump administration — once they’ve dug into the state’s voter data — find to be a “concern”:

Robert Davis (RAW STORY) points to another alarming potential development:

President Donald Trump may be laying the groundwork to deploy secret presidential directives that no court has ever reviewed, no Congress has ever examined, and that any sitting president can rewrite at will to interfere in the midterm elections, a State Department insider warned on Wednesday.

Known as Presidential Emergency Action Documents, or PEADs, the directives were designed to bypass traditional Congressional authorization during national emergencies. They were initially contemplated as a way to ensure continuity of government during a crisis, and documents authorized actions like seizing private property or arresting citizens that would face legal challenge only after they had already been carried out.
Jonathan Winer, a former U.S. special envoy during the Obama administration who reviewed declassified materials at the National Archives, warned during an interview on the podcast "The Court of History" that Trump may try to use them to stifle the upcoming elections.

"The key thing about PEADs is they've never been reviewed by Congress or anyone outside administration," Winer said. "They can be rewritten based on any administration's point of view as to what's necessary in an emergency. And they would be tested legally and constitutionally only after they're used."

Meanwhile, Chump has completed his trip to China.  It was underwhelming as was he.  

The signs were there early on.  Bennito L. Kelty (RAW STORY) notes:

CNN anchor Erin Burnett was stunned to see the level of uninhibited mockery China has been hurling at Trump during his visit.

"Trump is about to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping tonight, a high-stakes meeting which is being mocked across China," Burnett explained. "Beijing's strict censors are letting the ridicule go viral, which is a statement in and of itself."
"America has lost its swagger. They're nothing but a paper tiger," one of those viral posts read. "The U.S. economy is in bad shape. Trump has been blustering Iran for so long."

"They will look up to us from now on," read another post that Burnett shared. "Trump came to China! We won the tariff war!" read another.


And Xi Jinping made it clear to Chump that Taiwan wasn't even to be discussed.  Troy Matthews (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) reports:

Donald Trump looked visibly shaken and rattled after emerging from a two-hour meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a historic China visit on Wednesday. When asked by reporters how the meeting went, Trump only responded "China is beautiful." Trump was then asked twice if he and Xi had discussed Taiwan, and refused to respond both times.
According to Chinese media, Xi warned Trump in the meeting not to interfere with Chinese policy towards Taiwan—which Beijing considers a renegade province, but who has a close economic relationship with the United States—saying that such an intervention could lead to "clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy."


Donald Trump refused to say whether he had spoken to Xi Jinping about Taiwan when repeatedly asked by a reporter during his trip to China on Thursday.

"How were your talks, sir?" one reporter asked as Trump, whose worrying three-word confession about his son was exposed by a lip reader, wrapped up his tour of the Temple of Heaven following his talks with Xi. The US president hesitated before responding: "Great - a great place. Incredible. China is beautiful."
Another reporter could then be heard asking Trump, "Did you talk about Taiwan Mr President?" He did not respond. Trump was asked the same question twice more, but continued to ignore it. After posing for photos with Xi, he turned to walk away, and security personnel ushered the press away. 

That's right, big mouth had nothing to say.  The man who can't stop yammering had nothing to say about Taiwan.  He shut up on the topic like it was Epstein related.   He grew smaller on the world stage and everyone saw it.   At THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, Jackie Calmes offers:


However the Trump-Xi meeting ends, Trump is no Achilles going into this match. In fact, in the six decades of U.S.-China relations, perhaps no American president has entered the summit arena in a weaker position than Trump, the would-be strongman and artiste of the deal. Worse, his weakness — and by extension his country’s — is mostly self-inflicted.

Trump had postponed what was intended as an early April meeting in hopes of striding triumphantly into Beijing as the conqueror of Iran, a China ally. Instead China is receiving him as a “giant with a limp,” in the phrase of its Communist Party-controlled Global Times newspaper.

Trump’s Mideast war, the sort he’d promised never to start, lingers for a third month in a costly stalemate — $29 billion and counting — that has humiliated the president in the public words of Germany’s chancellor and the private thoughts of many more global leaders, Xi likely among them. Trump can’t “project the same arrogance” as he did visiting China in 2017, a former Chinese army officer, Yue Gang, told the New York Times.

At home, the conflict has caused gasoline prices and inflation to spike while tanking Trump’s already depressed polls. A newly released CNN poll conducted April 30 to May 4 had 65% of Americans disapproving of his overall job performance and a whopping 70% against his handling of the economy — the issue that arguably got him elected. With experience, American consumers and soybean farmers now know that they, not the Chinese, have paid for Trump’s beloved tariffs.
The president’s standing at home could hardly have been helped by his parting words to reporters at the White House. Asked “to what extent are Americans’ financial situation motivating you to make a deal” with Iran, Trump blithely replied, "Not even a little bit.” He added, in the sort of political gaffe that journalist Michael Kinsley defined as telling the truth: “I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody.”

And while Chump was meek and acquiescent to  Xi Jinping's face and after in his remarks to FOX "NEWS," Xi and China are dismissing Chump and the US.  Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) notes:


A damning leaked intelligence report has revealed the extent to which China is using Donald Trump’s war in Iran to try to diminish the U.S.’s standing on the world stage.

The confidential Pentagon report, which two U.S. officials relayed to The Washington Post, reveals how Beijing is exploiting the deeply unpopular Middle East conflict to its advantage on key issues such as diplomacy, its economy, and plotting potential future military endeavors.
This includes portraying the U.S. as an increasingly weakened global power, forming stronger ties with other countries affected by the Strait of Hormuz crisis, and planning how the war may impact China’s own future military operations.

The leaked intel arrives at a particularly sensitive time, with Trump meeting for crunch talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, where hot-button issues such as Iran, trade, and Taiwan are taking center stage.









He looks weak and corrupt.  And that's how he appears in the US as well.  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

The Department of Justice is dropping Biden-era bribery charges against an Indian billionaire after he hired one of President Donald Trump's personal lawyers.

Gautam Adani was indicted weeks before the end of Joe Biden's presidency for his alleged role in what prosecutors described as an “elaborate” bribery scheme involving “corruption and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors."
But the New York Times reported that the case may be dismissed after he hired attorney Robert J. Giuffra Jr. and made an offer to the government.

"Mr. Giuffra’s efforts on Mr. Adani’s behalf culminated in a previously unreported meeting last month at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, according to people familiar with the meeting," the Times reported. "Mr. Giuffra ticked through about 100 slides outlining why prosecutors lacked basic evidence, as well as the jurisdiction even to bring the case, one of the people said."
"Another slide also offered the government a sweetener: If prosecutors dropped the charges, Mr. Adani would be willing to invest $10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000 jobs, echoing a pledge he made in the wake of Mr. Trump’s election," the report added.


Under Todd Blanche, justice is for sale.  You just offer a pay off and you can skate on any charge.  Provided you align yourself with Convicted Felon Donald Chump.  The hypocrisy is so thick around the White House, it's surprising everyone's not gasping for air as they choke on the sanctimony wafting out from the Oval Office. 


Todd Blanche does not follow the law which makes him a lousy 'acting' Attorney General.  He lies.  He's corrupt.  And he's forever working not for the US government but instead for Citizen Chump.  And that's a problem. But it's even more of a problem when he's been ordered to stop doing that.  Katelyn Polantz, Evan Perez and Hannah Rabinowitz (CNN) report:

It was less than two weeks after Todd Blanche took on his role of deputy attorney general in March 2025 when the Justice Department’s top ethics lawyer delivered some straightforward yet inconvenient news: His recusal from legal cases that involved President Donald Trump in his personal capacity was necessary.

The official conducting the briefing, Joseph Tirrell, handed Blanche and his then-top deputy Emil Bove, who was also in the conference room, a printed PowerPoint presentation on ethics, according to a former senior Justice ethics official who described the meeting to CNN.

The meeting, which hasn’t previously been reported, is the first time Blanche was formally informed he would need to recuse himself from cases involving Trump. Around the same time, the department’s top career lawyer advised that Bove potentially had a conflict of interest by being involved in firings of DOJ lawyers.
Recusal, however, is a word that comes with treacherous consequences in the Trump era — including in the case of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions who Trump tormented after he recused himself from overseeing what eventually became the Mueller investigation. Blanche’s choice is either to oversee investigations the president cares deeply about but risk damaging their viability in court or to recuse himself and risk incurring the president’s wrath.

Now serving as acting attorney general, Blanche finds himself in an ethical quandary. His previous role representing Trump in criminal prosecutions brought by the Justice Department means that he is switching sides, overseeing the department’s investigation of the former government officials whom Trump claims unfairly used the criminal justice system to target him.
That includes some who were connected to the prosecutions of Trump for mishandling classified records in Florida after his first term, and allegedly conspiring to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election. Blanche was Trump’s primary defense lawyer in both federal court cases, which were dismissed prior to being fully resolved in court.

Blanche signed the department’s ethics pledge laid out to him by Tirrell, according to the former ethics official who spoke to CNN and a document submitted to the Office of Government Ethics. That pledge included requirements for Blanche to not participate for at least a year in any of the department’s matters involving past clients of the Blanche Law Group, the small private law firm Blanche used to represent Trump in the criminal cases. The department’s regulations also prohibit his participation “in any criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship” with anyone who was involved in or has an interest in that investigation or prosecution.


Joseph Tirrell was fired.  Guess what?  CNN reports:

Two weeks after the firing of Tirrell, Blanche took the unusual step of interviewing convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, a former partner of the late Jeffrey Epstein, while she serves time in prison. In that interview, Blanche asked Maxwell about her interactions with Trump many years before he became president, and she said Trump had done no wrong.



On Ghislaine Maxwell, we noted Erin Burnett's interview with Noella Turnage who worked at the prison Ghislaine is now at.  FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE notes:


Turnage shared the emails with CNN. In an interview with anchor Erin Burnett, Turnage stated, “What I can tell you is that the things that were being done for her were not common for any of the other inmates, not even the other high-profile inmates.” According to Turnage, Maxwell wrote an email to her brother shortly after being transferred to FPC.

In the message, she expressed happiness over the facilities available to her in the prison. “The food is legions better. The place is clean. The staff is responsive and polite. I feel like I have dropped through Alice in Wonderland's looking glass. I am much happier here and more importantly, safe,” the email read.

In another email to her brother, Maxwell said he would also receive special treatment when he visits her in prison. “I believe they will provide some water, coffee and snack. You will not go without anything after flying all the way from the UK. Also, you will arrive at the front like everyone else. But there will be a corn off area for you. Only you will go there. They will be waiting for you from 8 AM,” she allegedly wrote.

Turnage highlighted that none of the other inmates’ visitors were provided with coffee or snacks in prison. “The only option the other inmates or their visitors had were the overpriced vending machines and visitation. They weren't given anything,” she told Burnett.

The emails also disclosed that Maxwell was constantly in touch with the prison warden, which is highly unlikely for other inmates. “I checked with the warden, and she would rather that I send all the updates through her,” Maxwell wrote to her lawyer.

The Committee has released testimony it took from Gateway's Ted Waitt.  Anna Betts (GUARDIAN) reports: 

“I never would’ve spent six years in a romantic relationship with her,” Waitt said in his opening statement before the committee on 30 April, according to the transcript released on Wednesday. His testimony provided new details about his relationship with Maxwell, and he also disputed Maxwell’s previous statements that their relationship ended after a mysterious blackmail attempt related to Epstein’s civil cases.

The two split in 2010 and Ghislaine is a tacky whore who took over $7 million from him.  They were not married but that's the bill for her services.  In fact, she complained that he wasn't giving her more money when he broke up with her.  

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick remains in the administration because he's a liar and corrupt.  But people are paying attention.  Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) reports that former US Attorney Joyce Vance discussed Lutnick's recent appearance before the House Oversight Committee yesterday on MS NOW with anchor Erielle Reshef: 



“Lutnick now says that he was only speculating when he suggested that Epstein blackmailed people,” Reshef prompted her guest. “What did you make of that part of his testimony, and how does that fit into the larger investigation here?”

“Well, let me put my prosecutor hat on, my former prosecutor hat on, and talk about how I would deal with a witness like Lutnick during a criminal investigation, which I think is a pretty good approach here,” Vance began. “When someone tells multiple inconsistent stories, you sit them down, hopefully just during an interview, but if necessary, under oath in front of a grand jury, and you get them to explain the lie. People don't lie for no reason. You know, here there are a lot of plausible excuses. Lutnick could have just been trying to avoid embarrassment telling convenient stories, and this would have been an appropriate opportunity for him to say that — to say that he was trying to soften it. He never did anything wrong, but he now is embarrassed.”
“In hindsight, the fact that that wasn't the testimony I think is telling,” she cautioned. “And the reality is that because this is happening in a formal oversight hearing setting where you don't get that sort of a grilling, that one gets in a prosecutorial setting, he's never been confronted squarely and forced to concede the lie.”

“I think that there's still more miles to go with Mr. Lutnick,” she suggested. “This is in many ways unsatisfying testimony. As you say, there's no insinuation that he committed crimes, but he appears to be part of this larger cover-up that permitted Epstein to continue to operate unchallenged.”

She then added, “The final telling point about Lutnick is that the relationship continues after Epstein's conviction in Florida — after he's a registered sex offender — he's still, you know, it's not just a lunch that he attends on Epstein's island. He puts his family in a boat to get there. So I think all in all, this is very telling that this is not the final act here.”


Lutnick needs to be placed under oath and he needs to answer serious questions.  He has misled the public repeatedly.  He should have been forced to resign as Commerce Secretary over this. 


Democrats on the House Oversight Committee went to Florida on Tuesday and held a hearing with those who survived the assault of Epstein and Maxwell.  ATLANTA BLACK STAR NEWS reports:


In a searing hearing held this week in West Palm Beach, Florida, by House Oversight Committee Democrats, Rep. Lois Frankel condemned the systemic failures that allowed Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes to continue for years — calling the handling of the case “an abomination.”

The seven-term Florida congresswoman opened her remarks on May 12 by acknowledging the Epstein survivors who attended the session.
“Thank you for your strength. Thank you for your resilience, and thank you for your determination to tell the truth, even when the system failed you,” she said, her voice heavy with emotion. “This hearing is long overdue.”

Frankel, who once served as mayor of West Palm Beach, recounted how the first Epstein investigation collapsed under the weight of influence and negligence.
“It is right here, folks, right here in Palm Beach County more than 20 years ago that the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes were first denied justice,” she said, referencing the work of then–Police Chief Michael Reiter.

“The police did their job. They listened to the survivors. They built a serious case. Then they brought it to then–State Attorney Barry Krischer… But instead of filing charges—” she paused, “was it overwhelmed by the power, by the wealth?”

Frankel’s criticism grew sharper as she detailed how prosecutors “shockingly minimized the abuse, limited the witnesses, and treated vulnerable young girls as if they were criminals.”

The result, she said, was “jaw dropping — solicitation of prostitution, punishable by up to 60 days in jail. How crazy and wrong, an abomination if you ask me.”

She then turned her fire on federal authorities, citing former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Alexander Acosta’s 2008 “secret” and “shameful” non-prosecution deal with the financier.

Lutnick is only one connection that Chump shares with Epstein.  Chump was his friend from the 80s forward.  He and Epstein shared so much and partied together all the time.  Now let's talk David Venturella.  Who?  Alex Reimer (QUEERTY) explains:


The sleazy tentacles of D*nald Tr*mp’s close association with Jeffrey Epstein now reach the agency that most reflects his administration’s gross authoritarianism. It appears David Venturella, who was just named the new director of ICE, reportedly played a key role in orchestrating the deportation of a model who was brought to the U.S. by Epstein himself.
Now back in her native Brazil, the woman is threatening to expose what Melania knew and when.

Last month, the enigmatic First Lady made a rare public appearance and addressed her relationship with Epstein. The statement came out of nowhere: with Tr*mp’s illegal war brewing in Iran, the Epstein story had been shifted to the back burner. Despite Melania’s social ties to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, she was always a side character in the sordid story, anyway.

That is, until she spoke at the White House in April and denounced the lies “linking” her to the “disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein.” She said the falsehoods needed to “end today,” though she didn’t offer specifics.
In the aftermath of Melania’s random statement, observes were left with a single question: why? (No, seriously, why?!)

The explanation appears to be Melania’s relationship with the aforementioned Brazilian model. Epstein brought Amanda Ungaro to the U.S. on his plane when she was 17. Later that year, Ungaro met the man who brought Melania stateside when she was a model in Slovenia. They wound up dating for decades and having a kid together before an ugly separation that ended with her deportation, which we’ll get to!


And another Epstein mutual friend was partying with Chump last weekend.  Malcolm Ferguson (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:

Jeffrey Epstein associate and former child actor Brock Pierce was a guest at one of Donald Trump’s Florida golf courses last week, helping to unveil a golden statue of the president.

Pierce was a business partner and friend to Epstein for nearly a decade, helping him invest in the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase while emailing him about women. In 2012 Pierce told Epstein, “I had a great time with the girls. Hope they had fun too. Thanks.”

[. . .]

This is the man who was cutting the ribbon for the golden statue at the president’s resort last week. 


Meanwhile Charlie Nash (MEDIAITE) reports US House Rep Dan Goldman went on THE DAILY BEAST podcast and questioned the Justice Dept's release of documents:

I want to know what’s in those 2.5 million files that have not been released. Based on the way that they released and poorly and illegally redacted, as well as what they covered up even within those documents, it is clear that the Department of Justice is covering up for Donald Trump.

I went to the House floor and exposed one document in particular that they claimed was privileged, and they redacted it from the public, but then they allowed Congress– members of Congress who went to see the files to actually see it, and there was nothing in there that should have been redacted. They made up some bogus explanation of attorney-client privilege. It is not anything approximating attorney-client privilege, and instead it’s using these privileges, using the various different mechanisms that they are falsely using, to cover up.


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

ICYMI: Senator Murray on President Trump’s FY27 Budget Request

***WATCH: Senator Murray’s full questioning***

Washington, D.C. — Today—at a Senate Appropriations Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on the FY27 budget request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)—U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pressed Secretary Scott Turner on his efforts to dismantle key homelessness programs and the president’s request to gut funding to increase housing supply and keep Americans housed while seeking a half trillion dollar increase in defense funding.

[CONTINUUM OF CARE]

Senator Murray began by pressing Secretary Turner on when HUD will renew Continuum of Care grants that expire this year, as required by the FY26 funding bill. Thousands of organizations across the country rely on the grants to help reduce homelessness.  

MURRAY: Mr. Secretary, you know, addressing the homeless crisis is a top priority for my state and for many states across the country. And I am really concerned because your department has ignored the law and done the opposite. HUD is required to prioritize proven strategies to reduce homelessness, including permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing.

But last year, you limited our local governments’ use of federal grants for those exact proven solutions—at least until a federal judge and Congress stopped you. And, in my state, you could have cut the federal funding to house people who are homeless by more than half! Nationwide, your changes could have put more than 170,000 households on the streets. So, we required you to renew grants and get this money out the door, and I have to tell you communities are still waiting far too long.

Can you commit to us that you will move quickly to renew every Continuum of Care grant that expires this year as required by the language in our [FY]26 appropriations bill?

TURNER: Well, thank you, Senator Murray, Vice Chair Murray, it’s good to see you again. And as you know we have got quarter one and quarter two funds out, and quarter three and quarter four funds also will go out. But I will say–

MURRAY: From last year?

TURNER: Yes ma’am. I will say that we do have a different approach to this, and I believe that the housing first model is a failed model. I believe that the housing first model, part of it—to house people—is important but we can’t stop there. We have to get the root of housing and homelessness, and that is mental addiction, drug addiction, domestic violence, and things of this nature. So, I believe we have to treat people, get them transformed and back out to a life of self-sustainability.

MURRAY: Well, Mr. Secretary, our bill requires you to get this money out, and I’ll just tell you—all of the data, all of the research shows that economic factors are driving homelessness. It’s not because of housing first. If every American is feeling the strain on housing, it’s really hard to believe that those with the least, struggle the most, which is what’s happening.

And housing first isn’t housing only. There’s case management, there is substance use, there is mental health, there’s employment services. That’s all part of the housing first model too, which you’re ignoring. So, I think it’s really important that we don’t demonize the people who are struggling today in this country for very real reason and work on building more housing.

[ILLEGAL FUNDING DELAYS]

Senator Murray continued by questioning Secretary Turner about HUD’s compliance with court orders to stop requiring local governments and non-profits to comply with unacceptable grant conditions.

MURRAY: So let me move on, because I want to ask you about another thing. Under your leadership, local governments, and non-profits in my state and actually in the country have been left to navigate illegal, and in many cases, really bizarre new grant conditions, like requiring a housing provider to say they don’t believe trans people exist. Last year, as you know, a federal court prohibited you from requiring or enforcing the grant conditions. But you are continuing to insert illegal conditions into every grant agreement and entities cannot access these grant funds until agreeing to illegal terms.

So, how exactly is that complying with the court’s order?

TURNER: At HUD ma’am we will be in accordance with every order from the court, we will enforce and uphold the law, we will work with Congress, but we also will enforce the Fair Housing Act in the way we’ve been called to enforce it, as the laws are written on the book. And that’s my job as secretary to ensure we are enforcing the Fair Housing Act.

MURRAY: Well, I just have to tell you, I don’t see how these conditions are complying with the court order, so I have a big disagreement with that. But I also want you to know that our nonprofits who are trying to serve these communities, it is their goal, are wasting a lot of time trying to understand the shifting legal landscape and the bizarre requirements out there.

And, you have refused to sign agreements or release notices of funding opportunities for funds that expire five months from now, running down the clock is what it feels like to everybody out there. And all of this comes after you pushed out over a third of the HUD employees last year so there’s less people to be able to get these grants out. It appears to a lot of people who are talking to me that you’re breaking the department, not making sure that people get housing.

TURNER: Well, if I may ma’am, and I have to correct you. We did not push out anyone, we had volunteers–

MURRAY: Okay we’re going into semantics. Okay, a lot of people left your department, we’ll disagree about why.

TURNER: It was voluntarily, the DRP program, and people took it. The people that want to be at HUD, are at HUD and I’m happy to have them–

MURRAY: Would you agree that you have a loss quite a few people at HUD to do the work?

TURNER: But also, the government shutdown has kept us from getting these NOFOs out. Our team is working tirelessly every day to get these NOFOs out and we will get them out. And we have an adequate, sufficient well-working team at HUD across our agency–

MURRAY: We have a lot fewer people at your department for whatever reason you want to talk about, Mr. Secretary and that is causing a lot of people to not get their grants along with all this confusing language.

TURNER: No ma’am, it’s not because our people. We have the right people in the right place doing the right thing.

MURRAY: Okay, we have a disagreement.

TURNER: Okay.  

[COST OF WAR]

Senator Murray then addressed President Trump’s proposal to blow $1.5 trillion on his war budget instead of helping families afford housing.

MURRAY: You said in your opening statement that: “taxpayer dollars are finite.” But President Trump’s budget, his whole budget, actually sends war funding through the roof as we all know.

So instead of blowing a half a trillion dollars more on war funding, I want to ask you, if we weren’t doing that how many more units of housing could we build?

TURNER: Vice Chair Murray, the president is very intentional and very precise on what his national security directors are – my job is to run HUD–

MURRAY: No, yes, I know I just–

TURNER: That’s what I’m focused on is housing affordability. With all due respect, the president is clear on what he wants to do, my job is to run HUD and to take down the regulatory environment, which I hear from the industry experts as I travel, the regulatory environment are crippling building in our country.

MURRAY: You have a different view than I do, and I just want you to know that if we use that money for housing, we could build 1.1 million affordable housing units. That is a huge dent in the seven million units of housing that you yourself say that our country needs. But your budget actually cuts housing. So, let me ask it a different way, can you help more families with housing with $84 billion or with $73.5 billion?

TURNER: Here’s what I’ll say—here’s what I say—in the previous years before we got here, housing affordability was not at an all-time high. Mortgage rates–

MURRAY: This is the go-to answer for every secretary, is go back to Biden – and I’m asking you about your administration, sir.

TURNER: It’s not the go-to answer, as the secretary, I’m just giving you the facts. Mortgage rates were up, interest rates were up, inflation was up, the regulatory environment was crippling. It doesn’t matter the administration, these are the facts, ma’am. And I’ve been dealing with these facts, ma’am, to bring mortgage rates down, interest rates down, to build affordable housing.  

MURRAY: You can go back to the Biden administration—it’s the go to answer for every secretary—I’m asking you about your administration. I’m asking you about what you could do with this housing and how we address the number one issue facing many of my constituents and many people in the country. And the answer is you could do a lot more work and help families with funding that went to housing and not $1.5 trillion for a war.

###





The following sites -- plus Mike's "Chump and his gang lie about a judge" --  updated:

Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, May 14, 2026

Sickly Chump


At this point, any photo of Donald Trump should come with a trigger warning.

The president and his team think his blue suit, comb-over hairstyle, and dizzying remarks distract from his physical transformation — in reality, they draw attention to everything he tries to hide.

Trump’s odd orange-stained complexion has become normalized, but brutal close-ups continue to raise red flags.
The 79-year-old brags that he aces cognitive tests and is convinced makeup is concealing unsightly discolorations.

But none of it trumps the true story being told in unedited pictures.

Recently, Trump shrugged and waved off the press during a walk to Marine One on the White House’s South Lawn on May 11.

A singular snapshot of his right hand went viral amid headlines about his planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.



The administration retired from trying to explain away Trump’s worsening condition blemishes.

Although, the public remains eagle-eyed, not letting a single observation fall through the cracks.


Chump?  We all know he's winding down before our eyes.  And Brian Linder (Penn.Live) reports:


Donald Trump is heading back to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and, as tends to be the case when the president makes that trip, the rumors are swirling.

There is no evidence that Trump is in any immediate danger when it comes to his health. In fact, he says his trip, scheduled for May 26, will be for his annual dental and medical evaluation. 

But Trump will turn 80 in June, and this is his third trip to the dentist this year, and so the conspiracy theories are growing. Part of the issue with his trip to Walter Reed for dental services, per HuffPost, is that the White House has a dental suite.

The announcement comes on the heels of a 55-post onslaught that the president unleashed on Truth Social late Tuesday night. The spree included accusations that former President Barack Obama is a traitor and is a “DEMONIC FORCE” among other things. Left-leaning influencer Harry Sisson called it one of Trump’s “worst mental health episodes yet.”

Tom Joseph shared the White House’s announcement that Trump would be at Walter Reed on X and wrote, “Trump’s health is cratering and his doctors are caught in the lie of trying to hide his severe and worsening dementia. Every dementia patient except Trump is out of the public eye long before this stage. His behavioral and cognitive issues are obvious. Expect a medical event soon.”


Leigh Kimmins (Daily Beast) notes Chump in China:

One Getty Images photo from outside the Great Hall of the People shows Trump crowing about something or other as he haughtily grabs Xi’s hand, raising his elbow higher than his counterpart’s in an apparent attempt to project dominance.

This classic from Trump’s playbook, which he also tried on Britain’s King Charles last month, was hampered slightly by the purple bruising peeking out from beneath a thick layer of foundation on his right hand. But it was an opening salvo from Xi that did the most damage, as he warned Trump that the Taiwan issue could push their two countries into “conflict” if mishandled.

After a few minutes of tussling, the two leaders went inside the first round of bilateral talks.

Trump appeared uncharacteristically subdued afterward. Standing with his counterpart outside the Temple of Heaven, Trump was asked how the talks, which lasted just over two hours, went. With a flat expression, he replied: “It’s great—a great place. Incredible. China is beautiful.”

Both the president’s dominant right hand and non-dominant left—his “good” hand—were slathered in concealer earlier this week as he led a maternal healthcare event in the Oval Office and a celebration of NCAA champion footballers, the Indiana Hoosiers.


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


Thursday, May 14, 2026.  Chumps continues his war on the economy and he continues to fail at everything, most recently the US Army suddenly has a budget crisis and Homeland Security has wasted billions, Senator Elizabeth Warren gets some answers about billions wasted on immigration, and much more. 



Just three months ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) touted the “tangible, immediate benefits” of the GOP’s policies.

“We made promises, we’re keeping our promises by every conceivable metric,” he said, pointing to lower inflation, interest rates, and gas prices. “Americans are better off today under Republican governance than they were under the Democrats. And these trends are only going to continue.”
While the economy’s performance already didn’t justify Johnson’s exuberant rhetoric at the time, and Americans had long soured on Donald  Trump’s job performance, especially with regard to his inability to lower their cost of living, things then were merely bad for Republicans.

Now they are much, much worse.

On Tuesday, the Department of Labor announced that the consumer price index had soared to 3.8 percent in April, the highest level in nearly three years, and that inflation outpaced real wage gains for the first time since early 2023.

In addition, the price of gasoline has skyrocketed 50 percent since Johnson proclaimed that “the tangible, immediate benefits of our policies are indisputable.”

What is indisputable is that the war in Iran and Trump’s tariffs are to blame for higher prices, even though Republicans would love to pass the buck to his predecessor Joe Biden.

Klaus is 100% correct.  And the American people know it with most able to publicly admit it.  Sarah Davis (THE HILL) notes, "A majority of Americans blame President Trump for heightened consumer costs, according to new polling.  A new CNN survey released on Tuesday found that 77 percent of U.S. adults believe the president’s policies have increased the cost of living in their communities. Eight percent said his administration has decreased costs, while 16 percent believe these policies have had 'no effect'."  Rebecca Schneid (TIME) reports:

The war in Iran, a devastating drought, and President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff regime have combined to send the prices of basic goods and staples soaring for Americans, according to new figures from the Labor Department. 

Inflation surged to a three-year high of 3.8% by the end of April, according to the Consumer Price Index on Tuesday, rising faster than wages, which grew by 3.6%. 
The primary cause of the rise has been the ripple effect from skyrocketing fuel prices resulting from the war in Iran, which has sent the world into global energy rationing and caused increases throughout the U.S. domestic supply chain. 

Responding to a question about rising inflation on Tuesday, President Donald Trump told reporters that the “only thing” that matters when discussing Iran is its potential for a nuclear weapon.

“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody,” he said. 

 
 “Not even a little bit‚” Trump said when asked how much “Americans’ financial situations” are motivating him to reach a deal to end the war in Iran. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”


That's Donald's  clear screw-you to American consumers. 


MS NOW’s Morning Joe crew seized on remarks made by President Donald Trump on Tuesday that he “doesn’t think about” working Americans’ war-pinched financial woes when he pushes for a deal with Iran, as the hosts roundly trashed the president for being “obsessed” with “nonsense” vanity projects with ballooning costs.

[. . .]

“‘I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.’ President Trump, with that admission to a reporter yesterday,” co-host Mika Brzezinski said.

Host Joe Scarborough interrupted, stunned: “I mean, really? Come on. Like Democrats are now going, wait, is he –”

“Is he saying that openly?” Brzezinski finished.

Co-host Willie Geist weighed in, describing the moment as a “clip and save for Democrats throughout this campaign season.”

Geist continued: “He’s been showing that he doesn’t care about Americans financial situations since the beginning of this war, as gas prices and food prices have risen. Now he’s just saying it out loud – ‘I actually don’t care.’”

“I was thinking back to like, all those times where you had to interpret or spin a president being out of touch, George H.W. Bush misreading the grocery scanner or whatever. And now you have a president just saying, I don’t care about your financial situation,” he added.

Scarborough then jibed that the “financial situation” for Americans was “getting so bad” that Trump had “lost” Fox Business host Larry Kudlow.

“It’s just this is how Americans live, and an overwhelming polls like, man, this isn’t Democrats saying it, it’s not independent. It’s everybody saying it, man.” Scarborough said.

“Like 70% of Americans, 75% of Americans say everything costs too much. We’re in a terrible situation,” he continued, adding: “And the president picks that day to go out there while he’s worried about golden arches and he’s worried about golden ballrooms. And we find out about this Trump gold phone scam, well, you know, and he’s worried about crypto, and he’s worried about their family making billions and billions of dollars and says, ‘Yeah, well, you know, we’re doing great, but we don’t really care about how you and your family are doing.’”



All around the economy, everything is being impacted.  Elijah Nicholson-Messmer (BARRON'S) notes:

Consumers have reckoned with higher gasoline prices for months, but the impacts of the Iran war have quietly begun rippling through other sectors of the economy.

In March, prices for polyethylene, the most commonly used plastic globally, rose to their highest point in nearly four years. That’s a problem for companies that need the material for their products, as they try to navigate what experts say is a “historic” plastic market.
“This is different than anything we’ve seen for the world, for the North American market,” said Joel Morales, vice president of polyolefins Americas at Chemical Market Analytics.

Plastic prices previously spiked after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine drove oil past $100 a barrel. As a rule of thumb, every $10 rise in oil adds about five cents per pound to polyethylene, according to Morales. Put another way, a 10% increase in oil prices typically lifts polyethylene prices by roughly 3.5%, according to a Barron’s analysis of the past five years of price data.



The largest parcel carrier in the United States just hit senders with a surcharge — and it's not USPS. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), which delivered 6.7 billion packages last year (1), has announced a 3.5% fuel and logistics-related surcharge starting on April 17.

The stated cause for the surcharge is rising fuel prices from the Iran war, and while this surcharge will directly impact sellers, consumers could feel it, too, as price increases almost always flow downstream.
Amazon isn't the only delivery service making changes. The USPS is rolling out an 8% price increase for specific products on April 26 that will remain in place until January 17, 2027 (2). UPS has been operating with a variable surcharge structure (in the double digits) since April 13 (3) and FedEx added a 26.5% fuel surcharge on April 6 which is subject to weekly adjustment (4).



The war in Iran is causing supply issues globally, with constrained gas and oil supplies due to the closure of the strait of Hormuz being the ones that hits home for most people. But we're also starting to see impacts on the supply of different materials which, on top of a memory shortage, aren't looking too good for the global technology supply chain.

I've spoken to a few different technology supply chain experts to figure out exactly which materials are affected and why. And perhaps more importantly, I asked them what they think the prospects are for the semiconductor and component manufacturing market, as well as for end-consumers such as PC gamers like you and I.

Unfortunately, the answer isn't the prettiest, as I discovered that the effects are broad and wouldn't be resolved even if the strait re-opened right away, as plenty of damage is already done. But it's not all hopeless, as I learned what companies are already doing to deal with the supply issues caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
Helium is probably the most crucial material for PC tech that we've seen affected by the conflict. It can get incredibly cold (up to -269 °C) without turning into a liquid, which makes it very useful for keeping things cool during different parts of manufacturing processes. Perhaps most importantly, it keeps chips cool while they're having their circuitry etched onto them during fabrication.

Exiger SVP of Product Level Intelligence Derek Lemke tells me: "Helium is not optional in semiconductor manufacturing. It is used in wafer cooling, etching, and EUV lithography processes, and there is no substitute. That makes it essential for GPU and CPU production and increasingly for DRAM."
Qatar produces about a third of the world's supply of helium, and in addition supplies being blocked by the closure of the strait of Hormuz, Iranian attacks on Qatar energy sites have effectively completely shut down helium production from the country.

"Clearly the helium example coming out of Qatar is disastrous," Jonathan Colehower, Managing Director, Global Operations & Supply Chain Practice at UST, tells me bluntly. "And unfortunately there's not a substitute."



US consumer beef prices surged to new all-time highs, adding urgency to the Trump administration’s efforts to tackle inflation.

Average ground beef prices in April broke the $7 per pound threshold for the first time, while steak surged past $13 a pound, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday.
The White House has been trying to tamp down prices of the protein ahead of the midterm elections, though the complexities of the cattle supply chain are poised to keep prices elevated for longer.


After weeks of warnings that the Iran war would drive up U.S. food prices, the numbers are finally in: According to data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the category it calls “food at home,” otherwise known as your grocery store bill, rose 0.7% in April. That increase marked the biggest one-month jump in grocery prices in nearly four years.
Overall, grocery store prices have risen 2.9% over the past year — an across-the-board jump that continues to pressure everyday Americans.

But that pressure increased significantly in recent weeks. In March, food at home prices actually fell by 0.2%, making April’s stark reversal all the more significant.

Driving that increase were substantial price hikes for things like fresh veggies. On an annualized basis, fresh vegetable prices are more than 44% higher today than they were three months ago.







Paul Wiseman (AP) observes, "Prices are rising at a time when Americans are already frustrated by the high cost of living. Affordability is likely to be a key issue when voters go to the polls Nov. 3 to determine whether President Donald Trump’s Republican Party maintains control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives."  And this awareness comes after Chump and Republicans in Congress gutted the safety net last year and have gutted funding for public spaces as well.  Economist Paul Krugman writes:

Other problems with the US way of life — like our lack of walkable cities, access to public transportation, and feasibility of living without a car — are harder to summarize with simple numbers. But they are real failings.

I don’t mean to suggest that everything is worse in the U.S. We do, in fact, have substantially higher GDP per capita than European nations, and this is reflected in our material standard of living. For example, we live in bigger houses, which is nothing to sneer at, and drive bigger cars. And as people who have lived on both sides of the Atlantic can attest, “getting stuff done” — everything from finding a place to live to finding a plumber on a weekend — is often much easier in America.

But there are many ways in which America’s quality of life is much worse than one would expect given the nation’s wealth. And we should always remember that economic growth is supposed to be the foundation of a better life. A nation that has high GDP per capita but whose citizens live worse than their counterparts in other countries is not a success story.
And many Americans would, I believe, be angry if they realized how much worse our lives are in many ways than those of our counterparts abroad.

Why are American lives so often nastier, more brutish, and shorter than those of citizens of other advanced nations? That’s a complicated story, but much of it comes down to the fact that US politics has for decades been dominated by a party that is fiercely opposed to any concept of shared responsibility, of caring for our fellow citizens, and that foments a deep level of distrust that makes it ever harder to operate as a society.

As a result, we don’t guarantee healthcare. We underfund public services. We promote private consumption — including driving — while neglecting the provision of public goods. We don’t assure basic health and safety, including for children, which in the long run will make us poorer. It’s not an accident that America began to fall behind other rich countries in many ways around 1980, that is, around the time the election of Ronald Reagan marked a sharp rightward turn in U.S. politics and policy.


A war on immigrants is where Chump loves to throw money.  Waste money.  Bennito L. Kelty (RAW STORY) notes:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave a $12.2 million no-bid contract to a company that appears to have fabricated staff and was originally founded to hold its founder's sailboat, according to a new report.

ICE contracted with Edge Ops LLC for a program called Project SAFE HAVEN, an AI surveillance tool that tracks immigrants' daily routines, habits, and real-time locations and categorizes them as potential threats. But reporting by The Lever found a series of fabrications on the company's website.
On the company's website, the headshot for the lead computer scientist turned out to be a stock photo, according to The Lever.

"The original image is still on offer for royalty-free use on the Dreamstime website," The Lever reported.


What idiot fell for that?  Who okayed that contract?  Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reports:


The highly controversial tent detention facility for immigrants in Florida, known as "Alligator Alcatraz," will shut down, according to The New York Times, though the Department of Homeland Security has publicly denied seeking immediate closure of the site.

This comes after the state-run facility, which has been plagued with problems ranging from insect infestations to flooding risk, was found to be in severe financial difficulties, with DHS finding it too expensive to keep funding.
"Vendors were told that detainees would be moved from the facility by the start of June and that the center would be broken down over the following weeks, the three people said. The three people and the federal official all requested anonymity to discuss the closure, which has not yet been made public," said the report. "It is unclear where the detainees would go; the federal government runs many other detention centers, including in Florida. The Everglades center, which is run by the state, held about 1,400 detainees as of last month, according to ICE data."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has boasted that the facility, which reportedly costs $1 million a day to operate, takes the relief off the Trump administration and houses the "worst of the worst." However, reporting has shown that detainees have included DACA recipients, people with no criminal record, and individuals sent there after minor traffic stops. A Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times analysis found that over 250 detainees were being held solely on immigration violations with no criminal convictions or pending charges in the U.S.


It's a mess that has destroyed lives and ripped families apart.  And it's wasted a ton of US tax dollars.  Tom Latchem (DAILY BEAST) reports:

The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog has launched a probe into a $38 billion warehouse-to-megajail scheme pushed by ousted Secretary Kristi Noem and her alleged lover Corey Lewandowski.

Noem, 54, was unceremoniously turfed out of her Cabinet job in late March after a string of catastrophic appearances on Capitol Hill and the unmasking of a $220 million taxpayer-funded vanity ad campaign featuring her on horseback that President Donald Trump, 79, publicly disavowed.
The DHS inspector general is now set to announce an “audit of ICE’s acquisition of detention space” on Wednesday—a sweeping review of every property purchase made under the so-called ICE Detention Reengineering Initiative, The Wall Street Journal reports. The program, a plan to snap up vacant industrial buildings across the country and retrofit them into vast immigration prisons holding up to 8,000 people at a time, was one of Noem and Lewandowski’s “signature” policies, the outlet said. The New York Post has subsequently confirmed the OIG action.

Of the $38 billion funded by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, DHS has so far blown more than $1 billion on nine of the 11 warehouses it scooped up in just a couple of months over the winter, the Journal reported. ICE paid between 11 and 13 percent above the market rate for comparable properties, according to real-estate analytics firm CoStar, the newspaper said—and on several deals, it paid eye-watering sums far above that.
In Salt Lake City alone, DHS forked over $145 million for a warehouse appraised at just $97 million, The Atlantic reported last month, while a Roxbury, New Jersey site valued at $62 million was scooped up for $129 million. A property in Social Circle, Georgia, appraised last year at $26 million was bought for the same $129 million figure—a markup of nearly 400 percent.





Senator Cory Booker:  I want to talk to you about this incredible empire of for-profit companies that are profiting at rates we've never seen and the way you're using money.  Let's -- let's drill down on the warehouses, the DHS has been buying over the last several months, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.  Are you familiar with the acquisition of a warehouse DHS recently bought in Roxbury Township, New Jersey?  

Secretary Kristi Noem: Yes.

Senator Cory Booker:  You are familiar with that.  

Secretary Kristi Noem: I'm familiar.

Senator Cory Booker: How much you spent of it?

Secretary Kristi Noem: No, sir.  I do not.  

Senator Cory Booker: $129.3 million.  Do you know how much it was assessed for in New Jersey?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Sir, we're purchasing centers across the country to build efficiency into our detention system.  Efficiency so that we can --

Senator Cory Booker:  As a person who's run tight budgets before and had taxpayer dollars.  You paid $129.3 million for a facility in my state that was assessed at less than half of that at $62 million to work for a president that says he's a great dealmaker.  I can't believe he thinks that you're a great dealmaker.  But what's worse than that is that the Roxbury Township Council comprised entirely of Republicans voted unanimously early this year to oppose that facility.  My office tried to facilitate a meeting between DHS and local officials so that ICE could hear their concerns.  Yet DHS did not even respond.  That is unacceptable.  That you all would enter a town, you wouldn't even follow environmental reviews or have conversations with local officials about the resources from emergency resources to fire resources and more that you're going to pull down.  You didn't even have a conversation.  So, you know, do you comply with court orders?


And then there's the money wasted on court costs and legal filings and lying to judges.  Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) reports:

Judges across the country are overwhelmingly rejecting President Donald Trump’s hopes to indefinitely detain immigrants as part of his mass deportation plans.

Analysis from Politico found that there have been more than 10,000 examples of federal judges ruling against ICE’s controversial mandatory detention policy, compared with just 1,200 cases in which they sided with the Trump administration.
Judges are also routinely voicing their frustrations with the Trump administration for continuing to detain people suspected of living in the country illegally without the possibility of release on bond or an opportunity to plead their case, even after being repeatedly rebuffed in court.

The aggressive tactics of ICE agents during immigration raids have also come under strong condemnation from judges ruling against the mass-detention policy.
“Across the interior of the United States, agents of the federal government—masked, anonymous, armed with military weapons, operating from unmarked vehicles, acting without warrants of any kind—are seizing persons for civil immigration violations and imprisoning them without any semblance of due process,” West Virginia Judge Joseph Goodwin wrote in a February ruling.


Dementia Donald has failed at the economy, has failed on human rights, has failed on oversight, has failed on any issue you want to consider.  He's failing on the war on Iran.  Sam Kiley (INDEPENDENT) reports:


Iran’s missile arsenal is mostly intact and still capable of attacking America’s allies beyond the Gulf states, two months into a joint US-Israeli bombing campaign.

The White House has repeatedly claimed that Iran’s military capacity has been “decimated” and wiped out, but Nato sources have told The Independent this is not true.
“Whatever anyone is saying in public, we estimate that the Iranians have at least 60 per cent of their missile capability. How else can you explain, for example, how they can continue to attack Gulf nations with missiles and drones?” said a senior Nato source in Europe.

This is the latest blow to American claims to have somehow won a war that has achieved none of its stated aims and shown the limits of US power at a time when Donald Trump is heading to China, hoping to be perceived as first among equals.

“Everybody knows that Trump and Hegseth are talking nonsense when they make claims to have destroyed Iran militarily,” the source continued.


Lying neither changes nor fixes anything.  And how in the world did he end up with a budget crisis in the US Army?  Steve Beynon (ABC NEWS) reports:


The Army is grappling with a sudden budget crunch and scrambling to slash training costs across broad swaths of the force, according to internal documents reviewed by ABC News and multiple U.S. officials.

The move is to make up for a shortfall of some $4 billion to $6 billion, according to one of the officials, as the service has drastically expanded its operational footprint at home and abroad.

The cuts, which range from elite schools to unit-level training, have triggered a wave of abrupt cancellations and unusually aggressive spending scrutiny months before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
The service's multibillion-dollar shortfall is the product of a widening set of operational demands and rising costs across the force.

Major drivers, a U.S. official noted, have been costs associated with the Iran war and an expanding mission securing the southern U.S. border.

Additionally, expansive National Guard missions, including the ongoing deployment in Washington, D.C., which alone is projected to cost roughly $1.1 billion this year, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.


Turning to Chump's dead buddy Jeffrey Epstein.  The two became roll dogs in the 80s.  In 2002, Chump noted, "I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."  Yes, he did like them underage.  And Chump knew about it.  Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were sexual traffickers. In July of last year, Chump insisted he had kicked Epstein out of Mar a Largo in October of 2007.  

Last week, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick was 'interviewed' by the House Oversight Committee.  Committee chair and stooge James Comer did not put Lutnick under oath and also did not tape the session.  QUEERTY notes:


Lutnick was open on a 2025 New York Post podcast episode about the fact that Epstein taped massage sessions given to powerful men by girls he trafficked to use as blackmail. But when pressed on the subject during last week’s hearing, Lutnick told House Democrats that he “take[s] it back.”

When asked why he took the blackmail claims back, Lutnick said, “I talked to administration officials.”

Democrats pressed Lutnick on who exactly he spoke to in the Tr*mp administration, at which point Lutnick completely reversed course. “I just learned about this in public,” he said. “I didn’t talk to the administration officials.”

So which is it, exactly?

Epstein Files Transparency Act co-author Ro Khanna was not buying Lutnick’s story. “I think he’s covering up for the administration,” he said during the deposition. “Secretary Lutnick said on the podcast that there was blackmail going on. Then he says to my inquiry, ‘well, no, no, no, I was just speculating.’”

Lutnick may not know it, but he’s opened a fresh can of worms for the Tr*mp administration by waffling on his Epstein claims. Despite claiming that he cut contact with his neighbor in 2005, we know that in addition to visiting Epstein Island in 2012, he entered into a business partnership with Epstein in 2013, and that the relationship continued well into 2018.

In the 2025 New York Post podcast interview, Lutnick mentions knowing about Epstein’s penchant for “special” massages from the minute he meets him, and claims that “his MO [for trapping powerful people] was… ‘get a massage, get a massage.’ And what happened in that massage room, I assume, was on video… This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever. He blackmailed people. That’s how he had money.”

We know that the primary source of Epstein’s wealth stems from his management of other billionaires’ money, such as Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner. But considering Epstein’s ability to move in privileged political and financial circles in the ’90s and 2000s, blackmail seems quite plausible. It also lends an interesting flavor to the infamous email where Epstein describes Tr*mp as “the dog that hasn’t barked.”

What appears to have happened during Lutnick’s testimony is that Khanna caught the Secretary of Commerce in a lie that leads directly back to Tr*mp, who has his own Epstein problems to worry about. “In many ways,” says former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki in a recent podcast, “Lutnick is the perfect symbol of Trump’s Epstein problem: One day he’s playing to the base, talking about how disgusting Epstein is, and the next day he’s dodging questions about his own ties to Epstein and hoping it all just goes away.”


Tuesday, Democrats on the Oversight Committee went to Florida and held a hearing with Epstein survivors as the witnesses.  One of the witnesses was Roza (first name only).  Amy Walker (BBC NEWS) reports:


Roza, who was recruited from Uzbekistan as a teenager by Epstein's associate and modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, spoke publicly for the first time alongside a number of victims in a field hearing that was organised by House Democrats.
Roza, whose first name was only given in the hearing, said she was 18 when she met the late Brunel in 2008 and "promised a modelling career beyond my dreams".

"Coming from a financially unstable background I was a perfect target for coercion," she added, during the tearful testimony.

By May 2009, she was in New York City on a visa, and in July she met Epstein at his house in West Palm Beach while he was under house arrest, Roza said.

Epstein then offered her a role at his Florida Science Foundation - where he had worked during an initial arrangement that allowed him to leave custody for up to 16 hours a day, six days a week, following his 2008 conviction.

"One day his masseuse called me into his room where I was molested for the first time by Jeffrey," Roza told the hearing. "For the following three years I was subject to ongoing rape."



“Jeffrey was under house arrest for the molestation of underage girls at the exact time he was abusing me,” she said, in tears.

Florida law enforcement investigated Epstein in 2005 after an underage girl who had been hired to give him a massage at his home told her family he had sexually abused her.

Investigators eventually compiled a 53-page indictment using evidence from 34 victims, only for the predator to be granted a non-prosecution agreement by federal attorneys as part of a “sweetheart” plea deal that enabled him to sidestep federal sex trafficking charges.

Instead, Epstein pleaded guilty to the lesser state offense of soliciting a minor under 18 for prostitution, registered as a sex offender, and paid compensation to the victims.
[. . .]
She also attacked the Department of Justice for leaving her name, and those of other survivors, unredacted in the Epstein files released in December and January, saying her’s appeared more than 500 times while those of the pedophile’s alleged accomplices were blacked out, which she claimed had been a “choice,” not a “mistake.”


During the hearing, lawmakers asked survivors what justice looks like. Roza, an Epstein victim trafficked from Uzbekistan under a fraudulent visa who endured three years of abuse, gave a sobering response. “I appreciate you asking that question, but I don’t know. It’s your job. You guys have to figure out how to make justice, not me,” she said.

She’s right. It’s Congress’ job to deliver justice, not ask survivors to define it.

Epstein survivor Courtney Wild, who has spent over a decade fighting the federal government over a non-prosecution agreement, made a similar point. “We did not fight so that this could turn into something political, or so that our rights would be violated once again,” she said.
Wild ended her testimony by telling committee members: “Make the Crime Victims Rights Act matter.”





"All of this raising very serious questions about why a convicted child sex offender was not only serving time at a minimum security facility but also allegedly receiving this kind of treatment."  That's Erin Burnett in the video below. 

 


Ghislaine Maxwell.  Chump's friend.  Convicted over her sex trafficking work with Epstein.  Chump's friend spoke to Todd Blance last July.  By August she had been moved to Club Fed in Bryan, Texas.  And the benefits and extras she's receiving in prison make the whole thing a sick joke. 

Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren:

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, released new answers from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the Department of Defense (DoD), revealing the Pentagon’s financial support for the Trump administration’s cruel immigration agenda is far higher than initially reported by DoD.

Senator Warren and Representative Garamendi’s (D-Calif.) December 2025 investigation found that DoD had committed at least $2 billion to support immigration enforcement, including nearly $55 million to detain non-citizens at Guantanamo Bay.

"While the prices of groceries, rent, and health care skyrocket, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are wasting billions in taxpayer funds on a cruel immigration agenda,” said Senator Warren. “Congress must refuse to give this administration another penny for these political stunts."

“When President Trump diverts military resources to immigration enforcement, our armed forces suffer. Critical training is delayed, flight hours are lost, and funds are pulled from military family housing and readiness priorities,” said Representative John Garamendi. “These diversions weaken the training, modernization, and maintenance our forces need to stay prepared and mission-ready.”

In new answers to Questions for the Record, Secretary Hegseth revealed DoD’s projected support for Guantanamo Bay operations is now roughly $73 million — nearly $20 million more than initially reported by DoD — for a facility with a maximum capacity of just 50 detainees. Despite the limited capacity at the facility, Secretary Hegseth reported that DoD has deployed 522 department personnel to Guantanamo Bay.

New reporting from CBS reveals the Trump administration has detained a total of 832 people at Guantanamo Bay, and that government employees outnumber detainees 100 to 1, raising concerns about the Department’s massive spending on the Guantanamo Bay detention.

Meanwhile, DoD has revealed that some financial support for immigration enforcement is coming at the expense of updates to barracks, maintenance hangers, and military construction projects in the Pacific. Reporting from ABC today revealed the Army is making major training cuts to offset a budget deficit of $4-6 billion, partially due to the military’s support for immigration enforcement.

In the coming weeks, Congress will consider providing the Trump administration a further $72 billion to fund the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for four years.

Senator Warren has led the fight to hold the Trump administration accountable for mishandling military funds to pursue its cruel immigration agenda and political stunts:

  • In April 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), along with Representative Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) and Representative Troy Carter (D-La.), urged the Inspectors General of the Departments of Homeland Security and State to open an investigation into the Trump administration’s attempts to deport people to countries they have no ties to. These deportations use the military to conduct the international deportation flights and detaining noncitizens on U.S. military bases within the United States and overseas.
  • In March 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) led 52 members of Congress in a new investigation into potential corruption in government contracts stemming from the White House’s fast-tracked expansion of inhumane warehouse-based immigration detention facilities using a Navy contracting vehicle.
  • In January 2026, following a new report by the Congressional Budget Office revealing Trump’s domestic deployments of the National Guard and Marines have cost at least $589 million — more than double what Senator Warren’s bicameral investigation previously found — she called for the Trump administration to “answer for wasting more than half a billion taxpayer dollars.”
  • In December 2025, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Trump’s nominee to be Army General Counsel, on the deployment of the National Guard and reports that senior Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers have been sidelined after raising legal concerns about military operations.
  • In December 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative John Garamendi (D-Calif.) co-led the release of a new report, along with 11 other members of Congress, revealing the Trump administration diverted more than $2 billions of military funds and resources from the Pentagon to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for immigration enforcement, and its impact on readiness and morale. The report also revealed that the diversion of funds was happening at the expense of updates to barracks, maintenance hangers, and military construction projects in the Pacific.
  • In September 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) led more than 60 members of Congress in opening a new investigation into the Trump administration’s practice of detaining and sending immigrants to countries where they have no citizenship or connections of any kind. These deportations use the military to conduct the international deportation flights and detaining noncitizens on U.S. military bases within the United States and overseas.
  • In February 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the military’s deployment of active-duty forces to the southern border and Guantanamo, and the Department of Defense’s (DOD) new involvement in immigration detention and deportation.

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The following sites -- plus Ann's "Katie Phang has an important video," Stan's "Tom Cruise, Brooke Shields" and Elaine's "Publicity junkie Ka$h Patel" -- updated:


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