Marie: If there is a possibility you are transporting a few kilos of illegal drugs, Pete Hegseth will order your immediate execution (story linked below). However, if you are a major player in a huge international drug trafficking ring, Pete's boss Donald Trump will pardon you: ~~~
CONGRATULATIONS TO JUAN ORLANDO HERNANDEZ ON YOUR UPCOMING PARDON... MAKE HONDURAS GREAT AGAIN! -- Donald Trump, social media post sent right after playing golf at one of his Florida resorts ~~~
~~~ Annie Correal, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump announced on Friday afternoon that he would grant 'a Full and Complete Pardon' to a former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who, as the center of a sweeping drug case, was found guilty by an American jury last year of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. The news came as a shock not only to Hondurans, but also to the authorities in the United States who had built a major case and won a conviction against Mr. Hernández. They had accused him of taking bribes during his campaign from Joaquín Guzmán, the notorious former leader of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico known as 'El Chapo,' and of running his Central American country like a narco state. The judge in his case, P. Kevin Castel, had called Mr. Hernández 'a two-faced politician hungry for power' who masqueraded as an antidrug crusader while partnering with traffickers. And prosecutors had asked the judge to make sure Mr. Hernández would die behind bars, citing his abuse of power, connections to violent traffickers and 'the unfathomable destruction' caused by cocaine.
“Mr. Trump’s vow to pardon such a high-profile convicted drug trafficker appeared to contradict the president’s campaign to unleash the might of the American military on small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that his administration says, without evidence, are involved in drug trafficking. That campaign has so far killed more than 80 people since it began in September.” ~~~
~~~ Josh Boak & Christopher Sherman of the AP: “The president explained his decision on social media by posting that 'according to many people that I greatly respect,' Hernandez was 'treated very harshly and unfairly.'” ~~~
~~~ Guardian & Agencies: “The post was part of a broader message from Trump that backed Tito Asfura for Honduras’ presidency in upcoming elections, with Trump saying the US would be supportive of the country if he wins. But if Asfura loses the election this Sunday, Trump posted that 'the United States will not be throwing good money after bad, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results to a country, no matter which country it is.'... Hondurans go to the polls on Sunday to vote in an election that remains a toss-up....”
~~~ Marie: Trump is an unrepentant criminal, and he admires other highly successful criminals. It doesn't matter what the crime is, either. It may be drug trafficking (Hernandez); it may be sex trafficking (Epstein); it may be murder (MBS).* My best guess is that Hernandez' associates paid Trump off with piles of drug money. Whether or not that is the case, the Congress should impeach and convict him for abuse of the pardon power.
*(When ABC News reporter Mary Bruce asked MBS about "orchestrating" the murder of WashPo journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump dressed her down, accusing her of "insubordination" for not showing proper deference to MBS, a "highly respected ... guest." You see in that exchange how Trump differentiates between a wealthy murderer and a working reporter. The reporter, who is not among the people Trump considers to be elite is therefore "subordinate" to the designated elite person and is obligated to show him respect, even if he is a murderer. Trump also suggested it was all right to murder Khashoggi -- also a non-elite journalist -- because "a lot of people didn't like" him.)
Chris Michael & Lucy Campbell of the Guardian: “Donald Trump has declared he intends to cancel most of the executive orders signed by Joe Biden.... In a post on social media, Trump claimed baselessly that Biden had not signed off on the orders himself, saying that 'the radical left lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him' by signing his name using an autopen – a signature machine that has commonly been used by US presidents since the device’s invention. 'The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States,' Trump said, baselessly alleging that it was operated by other people without Biden’s approval and claiming that 'approximately 92%' of all executive orders were therefore invalid. 'Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: According to a January 2025 NPR report, President Biden announced he would commute "the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes who are serving far longer sentences than they would receive today.... [He also] commuted the death sentences of 37 federal prisoners to life in prison without parole. He also commuted 1,500 prison sentences and pardoned 39 people in what the White House called the largest act of clemency in a single day in modern presidential history." I'd guess that almost all of these commutations actually were signed by autopen, though obviously with Biden's knowledge & under his direction. I know Trump is crazy, but does he really think he can undo all these commutations and send these people back to prison?
Trump Makes Official His Attacks on the Press. Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “The White House launched a page on its website Friday devoted to naming and shaming media outlets and reporters that publish stories it disagrees with. 'Misleading. Biased. Exposed,' the site reads, naming the Boston Globe, CBS News and the Independent as 'media offenders of the week' for allegedly misrepresenting President Donald Trump’s call for six Democratic members of Congress to be hanged for a video saying that military personnel should not follow illegal orders. It also lists an 'Offender Hall of Shame' that features The Washington Post, CBS News, CNN and MSNBC — the former name of the cable network MS NOW. The page shows a database of news articles from these publications and others, the names of the reporters who wrote them and categories of offenses, including 'bias,' 'lie' and 'left wing lunacy.'...
“The White House’s new website page is the latest expression of Trump’s criticism of the mainstream media, expressed in ongoing lawsuits against the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, high-profile settlements with ABC and CBS, and a barrage of insults about news organizations he has long called the 'enemy of the people.' In recent weeks, Trump has directed a string of personal insults at female reporters.” MB: This Webpage may seem like comical whining, but it is more serious than that. It is another step toward formalizing an authoritarian state. Trump is not merely lashing out at female reporters and mewling about unfavorable press coverage, he is now "codifying" his complaints in an official governmental online document.
Mariana Alfaro, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Afghan national accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House this week underwent thorough vetting by counterterrorism authorities before entering the United States, according to people with direct knowledge of the case.... One of the individuals said Lakanwal was vetted years ago, before working with the CIA in Afghanistan, and then again before he arrived in the U.S. in 2021. Those examinations involved both the National Counterterrorism Center as well as the CIA, the person said.... Lakanwal was also granted asylum earlier this year [during the Trump administration], a process that would have brought its own scrutiny....
“Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and other senior Trump officials claimed, without evidence, that [Rahmanullah] Lakanwal was never vetted and laid blame for his presence in the U.S. on former president Joe Biden.... Vice President JD Vance, also in an X post, said Lakanwal and other Afghan refugees like him came into the U.S. 'unvetted' and that 'they shouldn’t have been in our country.' FBI Director Kash Patel, when asked by reporters if the Biden administration should not have admitted the suspect into the country, claimed that there had been 'zero vetting' of the individual.”
~~~ Marie: Right after asking these blowhards how the Trump administration can justify exposing these young Guardsmen to potential danger as part of a political stunt, reporters should ask said blowhards if they're not ashamed of shooting from the hip and lying to the American people when they falsely accused the Biden administration of not vetting the shooter.
Josh Boak of the AP: “... Donald Trump says he wants to 'permanently pause migration' from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the United States by revoking their legal status. He is blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages as part of 'social dysfunction' in America and demanding 'REVERSE MIGRATION.'... The president said on Truth Social that 'most' foreign-born U.S. residents 'are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels' as he blamed them for crime across the country that is predominantly committed by U.S. citizens.... Trump’s threat to stop immigration would be a serious blow to a nation that has long defined itself as welcoming immigrants.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: The headline for this story is now, “Trump says he wants to ‘permanently pause’ migration to the US from poorer countries.” It was, “Trump vows to ‘permanently pause’ migration from poor nations in anti-immigrant social media screed.” I guess calling a screed a screed does not meet the AP's journalistic standards.
Mission Fail. Jenny Gathright, et al., of the Washington Post: “National Guard troops patrolling in D.C. will be paired with local law enforcement personnel, at least temporarily, in the wake of the Wednesday attack that killed one troop and critically injured another, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post and two D.C. police officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning that is still in progress.... Trump administration officials have credited the troops for helping reduce crime in the city — in part, they argued, because the troops’ presence at Metro stations and on National Park Service lands frees up law enforcement to police other areas of the city. Diverting local police to accompany Guard members would do essentially the opposite by siphoning them from other tasks in D.C. neighborhoods.”
No one shld lose sight of the fact that the Guard was only in DC as part of an extended political messaging stunt. The shooter is guilty for the attacks/carnage. Donald Trump is responsible for them. This is the collateral damage of Trump abusing his powers as President. -- Josh Marshall (thanks to RAS for the link) ~~~
~~~ Marie: In general, we should put the ultimate responsibility for a crime on the criminal, not on the factors that may have led him to commit the crime. Yet in law and in fact there is sometimes a mitigating factor: the "attractive nuisance." If you leave a rickety ladder perched against a swing set in a public playground and a child falls off your ladder, you are responsible for any injury he incurs. You should have known better. In placing kitted-out National Guardsmen on the streets of D.C. (and other American cities) where they were not welcome, Donald Trump invited violence against them. He should have known better. I think he did know better and welcomed violence against them because that violence suited his political purposes and personal prejudices. But whatever his motivations, Trump put those Guardsmen in harm's way. And for no good reason. Juliet Kayyem elaborates: ~~~
~~~ Juliet Kayyem in the Atlantic: “Before an Afghan refugee, Rahmanullah Lakanwal..., shot ... two National Guard members who had been deployed by ... Donald Trump to Washington, D.C., military commanders had warned that their deployment represented an easy 'target of opportunity' for grievance-based violence. The troops, deployed in an effort to reduce crime, are untrained in law enforcement; their days are spent cleaning up trash and walking the streets in uniform. Commanders, in a memo that was included in litigation challenging the high-visibility mission in D.C., argued that this could put them in danger. The Justice Department countered that the risk was merely 'speculative.' It wasn’t. There are costs to performatively deploying members of the military—one of which is the risk of endangering them.” Read on. This is a gift link via RAS.
Mark Berman & Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “The Afghan national accused of shooting two National Guard members in D.C. will face a murder charge after one of them died, and more counts are likely to follow, the top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital said Friday, raising the possibility that the suspected attacker could face the death penalty in the case.... Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said her office was upgrading an assault charge facing Lakanwal to murder in the first degree. Pirro’s office also said Lakanwal faces three counts of possessing a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. 'There are certainly many more charges to come,' Pirro added in a Fox News interview Friday morning without elaborating on what those charges could be.”
More evidence of the necessity for the six members of Congress to remind the military not to follow unlawful orders:
Pete Hegseth Is a War Criminal. Alex Horton & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: Before the U.S. military struck the first boat suspected of carrying drugs, “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive.... 'The order was to kill everybody,' [a source] said.... [After they hit the vessel, ] for minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar ... said. The two men were blown apart in the water. Hegseth’s order ... adds another dimension to the campaign against suspected drug traffickers.
“Some current and former U.S. officials and law-of-war experts have said that the Pentagon’s lethal campaign — which has killed more than 80 people to date — is unlawful and may expose those most directly involved to future prosecution. The alleged traffickers pose no imminent threat of attack against the United States and are not, as the Trump administration has tried to argue, in an 'armed conflict' with the U.S., these officials and experts say. Because there is no legitimate war between the two sides, killing any of the men in the boats 'amounts to murder,' said Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised Special Operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign. Even if the U.S. were at war with the traffickers, an order to kill all the boat’s occupants if they were no longer able to fight 'would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime,' said Huntley, now director of the national security law program at Georgetown Law.” Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
~~~ ABC News: "According to The Washington Post, the Sept. 2 boat strike initially left two survivors clinging to the boat. The Post alleges Adm. Mitch Bradley, head of Special Operations Command, then ordered a second strike in order to comply with Hegseth's orders and to ensure the survivors couldn't call on other traffickers to retrieve them and their cargo.... If true, it is unclear why Bradley wouldn't have ordered troops to collect the survivors and their cargo from the water, as the military did in a subsequent strike when two survivors were taken aboard a Navy ship via helicopter. Those survivors were later repatriated to Ecuador and Colombia, although some legal experts said the survivors could have been prosecuted in federal court for smuggling narcotics.... Under the Geneva Conventions, wounded or sick combatants are to be collected and cared for by either side in a conflict."
Kim Barker & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: “President Volodymyr Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, resigned on Friday in the highest-level political realignment in Ukraine since Russia’s all-out invasion nearly four years ago. The departure of Mr. Yermak, who had headed Ukraine’s negotiating team in peace talks with the Trump administration, put in doubt the future of the latest round of diplomatic efforts by the United States, Ukraine and European nations to end the war. It also cost Mr. Zelensky a longtime close ally who had been a behind-the-scenes operator, a political enforcer and, as Ukraine’s fortunes in the war slumped, a lightning rod for criticism over much of what had gone wrong, including allegations of theft from state companies. Mr. Yermak stepped down amid a spiraling, $100 million embezzlement scandal that has already led to the dismissal of two cabinet ministers and even threatened to topple Mr. Zelensky’s entire cabinet.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Whatever corruption Yermak was involved in, I imagine it pales in comparison to Donald Trump's grifts. Ukraine has an unfortunate history of corruption; we supposedly do not.
Jeanna Smilek, et al., of the New York Times: “When [the Trump/Putin plan to carve up Ukraine] surfaced, [European officials] realized that Europe had been cut out of the Trump administration’s efforts to end the continent’s biggest land war since World War II.... This account of how Mr. Trump sidelined Europe in discussions about its own backyard, based on interviews with 16 officials with knowledge of the diplomatic wrangling, paints a picture of a continent squeezed between competing powers, its leaders grasping for influence in a world their nations once dominated.... In the days since the plan was leaked, European leaders ... have worked frantically to ... nudge Mr. Trump’s administration toward a position that they considered more acceptable.... That huge diplomatic effort, mounted across major European countries and institutions, meant that by Sunday evening, Europe’s leaders had managed to forestall some of what they saw as the worst excesses of the Trump plan for Ukraine.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I remain baffled as to why European leaders let Trump get in the middle of this in the first place. Why are they trying to "nudge" Trump now to a "more acceptable" position? The "more acceptable" position to nudge him to is off the stage and out of sight.
Dan Diamond & Rachel Roubein of the Washington Post: “The nation’s top vaccine regulator on Friday laid out a stricter approach for federal vaccine approvals, citing his team’s conclusion that coronavirus vaccines had contributed to the deaths of at least 10 children, according to an internal Food and Drug Administration email obtained by The Washington Post. Vinay Prasad, an FDA official whose approach to vaccine policy has been championed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., told agency officials that the FDA will rethink its framework for annual flu shots, examine whether Americans should be receiving multiple vaccines at the same time and require vaccine makers to show far more data to prove the safety and value of their products. For instance, Prasad said that pneumonia vaccine makers must demonstrate that their products reduce pneumonia, rather than just generate antibodies to fight infections.”
Another Sell-out. Michael Bender of the New York Times: “Northwestern agreed to pay $75 million to the federal government in a deal reached on Friday with the Trump administration that restores hundreds of millions in research funding and closes multiple investigations into antisemitism on campus. The deal was the sixth agreement that the Trump administration had reached with an elite university, and the second-highest payment, since the White House began blocking research funding from major colleges that it viewed as out of step with its policy agenda for academia.” Politico's story is here.
~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ Maryland Congressional Race. Taking on Trump. Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: “Jonathan White fought the first Trump administration’s efforts to separate migrant families, doing bureaucratic battle with officials such as Stephen Miller while working to reunite children with their parents. He managed to keep his federal job, even after testifying to Congress that ... Donald Trump’s family-separation policies had harmed thousands of children, a headline-grabbing public rebuke of a president known for prizing retribution.... Now 56 and freshly retired from the Department of Health and Human Services, White says he has a new mission — challenging Democrats that he believes aren’t doing enough to fight the Trump administration. He’s starting with an unlikely bid to unseat his own popular, two-term congressman, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Maryland).”
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel/Palestine, et al. Adam Rasgon, et al., of the New York Times: “Israeli security forces shot dead two Palestinians in the West Bank on Thursday after they appeared to surrender, according to videos released by an international news agency and two Arab television networks. The Israeli authorities said in a statement that they were examining the shooting and that the two men were involved in militant activity. Palestinian officials condemned the killings as a 'field execution.' The shooting came amid days of extensive Israeli military operations and raids in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank. It prompted fresh accusations from Palestinian officials that Israel was using excessive force there.”
20 comments:
"...contributed to the deaths of at least ten children," say the new vaccine tsars.
Now that's the kind of precision we've come. to expect from scientists, isn't it? Numbers vague and mechanism undefined. And no mention of who many lives the vaccines saved....
It's almost as if it's another shakedown. Launch loud, non-sensical broadsides against your perceived enemies, leaving them always in the position of having to prove a negative, then settle for some kind of payout like Northwestern just did to get the govmint off its back.
Wonder what the vaccine payout is? More "evidence" for private lawsuits against vaccine producers, which is the trough RFK, Jr rooted so successfully in before he was crowned head of the nation's health?
Another reason flying has become less pleasureable... Niraj Chokshi, for The New York Times, describes the software update required for thousands of airbus A320 jets. gift link: Airbus emergency directive
"In a statement, the European aircraft manufacturer said that “intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls” on its A320 family of jets, the most popular series of passenger airplanes in the world.
The issue will not affect every A320 plane, but about 6,000 are affected globally. In most cases, the issue can be addressed relatively quickly by reverting to a previous software version. About 1,000 older planes will need new hardware installed, and that will take more time."
Since Trump authorized and briefly encouraged the covid vaccines does that mean he helped kill those ten children? Did RFK Jr just accuse his boss of contributing to the death of those children? RFK Jr's number of children's death contributed to with his anti measels advocacy is still higher at the moment. But they both own the consequences of shutting down medical research, the patient studies, and undermining of our national healthcare.
You know who could clear up the so called uncertainty of the Biden autopen signings? Joe Biden. Biden should release a video declaring that he supported and intended his signature to be on all of the documents that MRI Don has been calling into question. Biden can offer to publicly or on camera re-sign those documents so that Fat Hitler can see his true intention once again. Also I will just point out that Trump half the time admits in public that he does not know what orders or bills he is signing. "What is this?" is a common refrain heard from Trump when he is being handed a paper to scribble on in front of the cameras.
The anti-drug president* showing again how anti-drug he is.
Will the media ever bother to repeat the very long list of people connected to the drug trade that have been given pardons by Fat Hitler? Because they are always more than happy to uncritically repeat his lies about his war on drugs.
Roger Stone has apparently been working on Juan Orlando Hernández's release. How much that cost or if FH got his cut is doesn't seem known at this time, but it was drug money well spent.
If Lakanwal actually was not vetted this year when he was granted asylum that would be because Fat Hitler and his then buddy Elon were busy destroying the functions of the federal government. They fired and rehired thousands, putting them in limbo. They reassigned thousands from jobs they were good at and prepared for to others that they didn't know and had to learn on the fly. They pushed out and fired people with countless years of institutional knowledge. Also the people left were overworked and demoralized by the actions of FH's administration and the DOGE kids running roughshod through our institutions. There is a fair chance that Lakanwal could have fallen through the cracks while the reckless attacks on our government were coming from the White House. Even if he didn't, the manic dismantling of federal institutions probably contributed to not just Lakanwal getting the go ahead when he shouldn't have. Destruction of our institutions have predictable consequences. They were warned. They did not care.
All Democrats should be calling for Hegseth's firing and prosecution for war crimes from these latest reports. The commander who gave the order to fire the second missle should be being court marshalled as we speak. Their supposed reasoning would justify murdering any US soldier under any circumstances. Once again they are making us all less safe as they shred international order.
"...the Congress should impeach and convict him for abuse of the pardon power. "
I assume this prospect, in general, has been discussed in the last few years, but it is time for the country to think about this abuse, in general.
The pardon power is given to the president in plain language in the Constitution. So it is one of those for which the president has immunity from prosecution.But does he have immunity from impeachment , conviction, removal and prohibition from office?
Probably he is not so immune.
Is there a useable definition of pardon abuse that can be classified as high crime, misdemeanor. Treason or bribery? Probably.
Some senior senator should investigate possible bribery with DiJiT's pardons, and House leadership be ready to impeach the day a new House is sworn in assuming the evidence is there.
If we ever get rid of Hogsbreath, he would make an excellent employee of a pest company. "Kill them all" would be his rallying cry and a logo. There needs to be a "regrettable" accident happen to this murdering POS. It does not matter to anyone in this "cabinet" who lives or dies.
Boss-man's response to the death of the person he ordered to DC was predictable-- when asked if he planned to honor the funeral for Sarah, he said he won West Virginia more than mortal man has ever-- when do we successfully 25th this psychopath? He's so far guilty of causing more deaths than any president ever. You can start by adding up the Covid and measles deaths, then go to the USAID deaths, then the 80 people Hogsbreath has gleefully shot. Then this kid forced to go to "war" in DC... He IS CRAZY and demented, also stupid and ignorant and has so far sent our country down so far we may never get up again. He hates successful women, LGBTQ folks, persons of color, science, education, research, universities he could not have been accepted by, government workers, reporters, especially woman reporters (nothing new, of course--)germs, world leaders, golf he doesn't win even while cheating, words he never heard of, etc etc etc. He loves himself, money, golf, underage women and girls, especially if he deems them beautiful, criminals and rich criminals, and cheap gold trash. Hello, useless congress and mostly useless high court: He is a demented despot, and you don't care, so we need to get rid of all of you also.
What a guy.
Patrick asked "Is there a useable definition of pardon abuse that can be classified as high crime, misdemeanor. Treason or bribery?"
Definitely. As long as the president in office is a Democrat. And don't worry, should a Democrat pardon some Mother Teresa character for running a red light in the middle of the night, the Traitors will initiate a $50 million investimagation in an attempt to paint him as a Pardon Abuser, punishable by impeachment, hanging, decapitation, and burial in an unmarked grave somewhere near the Arctic Circle.
@Patrick & @Akhilleus: Here's what Google's Art Intel says about the meaning of "high crimes and misdemeanors": "'High crimes and misdemeanors' refers to serious misconduct by public officials, especially those in high office, that constitutes a violation of public trust. This can include both actual crimes like bribery and treason, as well as non-criminal acts of abuse of power, corruption, or dereliction of duty. The term is used to describe impeachable offenses, meaning serious actions that warrant removal from office."
This has been my understanding for some time; that is, that "high crimes and misdemeanors" are what Congress says they are. If evidence can be gathered -- and it can -- that Trump is using the powers of his office -- like the pardon power -- for direct personal gain, then I would say that "constitutes a violation of the public trust." This is particularly true when such acts are against the public interest, like when he pardons unrepentant criminals who have paid little or none of their debt to society.
This is true of other acts, too, like when there appears to be a direct quid pro quo in a financial arrangement. There are already a number of examples of that. or instance, where Trump filed a ridiculous lawsuit against "60 Minutes," and CBS "settled" for $16MM, after which the FCC immediately approved Skydance Media's $8 billion bid to acquire Paramount, the parent company of CBS. Maybe there's no proof beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime, but that certainly is an abuse of power.
I'm confused. These payouts, from Columbia, Northwestern, etc. for supposed anti-semitism, that doesn't come close to the sort of bigotry embedded in the MAGA core...how are they made out, and where does that money go? Into Trump's pocket? Northwestern is forking over $75 million? To whom? And for what, exactly. Because if this is some kind of penalty for racism, it's amazing that it's going to the most racist administration in living memory. Tokyo Rose Garden keeps whinging about how transparent this criminal enterprise is. Yeah, about as transparent as seven foot thick cement wall.
You know that foundation that grants seriously ill children their wish, the Make a Wish Foundation?
Well, that's the FBI's interrnal name for the seriously (mentally) ill Kash and Carry Patel.
Why? Say a kid is granted a wish to go to Disneyworld or the Super Bowl. The Make a Wish people arrange for that kid to fly to those destinations. The Make a Wish Director flies himself all over the country to see wrestling matches, play golf, boink his girlfriend, take his buddies to Scotland to go golfing. Now this Mediaite story on Kash and Carry, sez he reimburses that government for these luxury flights. Not true. According to Marc Fisher who published a profile on Patel in the New Yorker, he forks over what would be the minimum rate available on a commercial flight. A Southwest flight to Nashville to see his girlfriend sing a few dittys might cost $200. A government 757 with full complement of security personnel, snacks, drinks, etc., could likely cost $400,000. I don't think Patel's check for $200 is gonna cover that.
But Director Make a Wish will continue to bounce around the country while we pay for it.
Another useless, incompetent, MAGA grifter and chiseler.
Oops, forgot the link to that piece on Kash and Carry. Here it is.
These Fat Hitler moochers like Patel and Drunk Pete and Cosplay Kristi might not know anything about their actual jobs, might be criminally incompetent, and might not have the qualifications of a raw recruit on her first day, but they all know where the company credit card is.
Regarding
Oops: Regarding the D. C. assassination: Has anyone commented on the possibility that the shooter's time in the U. S. during the Pretender's second term had something to do with his behavior.
I'm thinking it's a mistake to assume that people are static, that they don't change, and that this month's shooter was attitudinally the same man as the one who was vetted before he was allowed into the country.
Thanksgiving, Trump Style
The authoritarian wave of hatred and greed now crashing in on us occasionally offers a glimpse of the Trumpy bravado mixed with bovine stupidity. At his Thanks4me shindig at his gaudy Florida mausoleum, the Marred a Lardo faces, the fascist wannabes, and venal vultures chowed down with Louis XVI-Marie Antoinette food bags. stuffing their stupid faces while in the background the song "We are the world" provided a stark contrast to the avarice and self-satisfied callousness of the gathered throng.
'We are the world", as you all no doubt recall, came about as part of a fund raiser for victims of the Ethiopian famine of the mid-80s.
The original lyrics:
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day, just you and me
And while those words played as background music. for the Trumpy fascists, hundreds of thousands in Africa have already died because of his gutting of USAID funding, something the self absorbed pigs at Marred a Lardo could not have cared less about. And here in this country, Fatty starved American families to win political points, while pounding down Big Macs and gulping his ubiquitous Diet Cokes, or whatever the fuck he slurps to keep his blubber from growing exponentially.
The Trump approved lyrics:
We own the world
We are the MAGAts
We are those who deserve it all, so let's keep taking.
There's a choice we're making
We're killing those we hate
It's true we'll make their lives a hell, just us and Don.
Somewhere, a new circle of hell awaits these gluttonous, murderous rats.
“He’s a Heavy Metal Musician, and Taiwan’s New Envoy to Finland”
"Diplomatic appointments do not usually excite the world’s metalheads. But when Taiwan on Monday named the frontman for a band known as “the Black Sabbath of Asia” as its envoy to the heavy metal mecca of Finland, rockers on multiple continents rejoiced."
"Taiwanese ambassador to Finland performs with his metal band at Taiwan-Finland cultural event!"
Ken,
I agree that it is probable that the DC shooter was radicalized more recently. The attacks on immigrants by the Trump administration during this year have been horrific enough for a white citizen like me. It has to be even more worrying for a migrant of color from the Middle East no less. I have to wonder what was said and what hoops he was forced to jump through during his April asylum check. Or what kind of messages he has received from this administration since he was supposedly granted his asylum. Doing everything the right way does not mean someone is protected by the law anymore and having official papers does not mean they will be recognized anymore. All that is liable to radicalize even some of the most reasonable people.
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