With Pritzker having sent Trump a bill for the mayhem costs Illinois/Chicago citizens were subjected to, we await the Minnesota invoice for compensation, or for lawsuit damages, whichever. The siege's litigation will continue into and well past the November 2026 election season. May it have a giant weight in a Democratic Blue Wave. And may the federal murderers of Renee Good and Alex Pritti be held to punishment for their crimes, as may be proven in Minnesota courts, under Minnesota law. Those prosecutions should be done. And they will be done. DHS and FBI cooperation or not, the perps will face prosecutions.
(Is there a betting market on those perps facing Minnesota State justice?)
I did not watch it. Wise choice I'd guess. Bloviating and in that irritating style that is Trump's. If JD had delivered it it likely would have come across as less offensive. Less dreadfully tedious.
But having not watched it, a likely somewhat biased review is online, by GOP blogger Gary Gross. I link to that, with the opinion Gary is a nice enough guy, but he's dead wrong about something I did not think worth watching:
Gary highlighted it had its blame-Biden dimension. He excerpted in larger print a quote of a speech segment, that of all things, started by blaming Biden then indulging in falsehoods or partial truths while citizens pay exorbitant tariff pass-throughs and are getting soaked by outrageously inflation-tainted supermarket prices they struggle to afford. If you agree with Gary, that's how politics gets parsed. If you did not watch it, you are with me and Robert Reich.
I am not bothering to find any online critical review. I presume some have been published and that readers can find one agreeing with whatever view they hold.
My bet, the poll numbers stay under water and "the Peace President" gets us mired into something with Iran because Bibi told him what he should do and Putin agreed.
Anonymous Republican insiders started talking to a variety of sources
after the speech had concluded. Although they insisted that it was a
rousing, successful address to their sources — and Trump certainly did
look healthier and sound more forceful than he has done in weeks — they also said they’d ideally have wanted some specifics about how he’s actually planning to improve the economy as it relates to normal people.
Even the MAGA faithful were muted for MAGA faithfuls. Kevin McCarthy tweeted about “America’s
greatness” as shown by “war heroes” and Olympic champions”. Fox News
claimed the president had left “Democrats seething”, with no actual
examples. Chip Roy, bless his heart, called it a “home run”. Those
boilerplate reactions really show how little the president gave them to
work with: few specifics as they relate to voters, no new attack lines
that are landing reliably. Others stuck to generic lines — a “bold vision” laid out for the future, “dominance” for America, and all that jazz — before pivoting into talking about their own agendas.
There
was no takeaway line for the party to rally around. As the confetti
settled, it became clear that Republicans had done their duty and little
more.
Absolutely no one was expecting this State of the Union
speech to be normal. What we underestimated was how weird that would
become in a midterm year when his approval rating looks increasingly
shaky. Trump now looks both out-of-touch and boring: two fatal political
flaws for a man whose strength is wresting control of the attention
economy and claiming he’s looking out for the people outside the swamp.
Further Independent coverage, here and here. There was that one quoted early coverage sentence saying Trump looked in better health than at other recent times, i.e., the dementia guesses could be wrong. We should hope so. Dementia is not something one would wish on a worse enemy. Age takes a toll, but many die still cogent, and we all hope that will be our personal ending.
On Tuesday, it was one thumb in the eye of Trump after another. More than a dozen House Democrats invited survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to
be their guests, centering on a topic Trump has been loath to speak
about and has explicitly asked the country to move on from.
"How about those Epstein files?" Tlaib yelled at Trump during his speech.
Other
Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California,
wore pins calling on the Trump administration to release all of the
files.
And as Trump delivered
a speech of record-breaking length, the Democratic gallery was
partially empty. Dozens of Democratic lawmakers attended or spoke at
alternative events
Specific words which are absent-from-the-transcript words: elon miller bondi epstein files renee alex pretti investigation putin netanyahu bibi refugee crypto pardon(s) underage pedophile pedophilia survivor(s) = do the word search, each word, if you doubt. Those are words which will not go away, but words he might have choked on. The word "good" was used, but not as a proper noun, a person's name, dead or alive.
MSN carries an [unpaywalled] item originally published today [paywalled] by Minnesota's Star Tribune. The item unkindly but aptly calls out MN CD6's delinquent Rep. Tom Emmer's counterproductive decision making during the siege:
As Minnesotans endured weeks of brutal, chaotic federal immigration enforcement, Minneapolis Foundation CEO R.T. Rybak was a vocal and consistent cheerleader for everyone trying to protect their neighbors.
[...] He
closed by calling out Republican U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of
Minnesota‘s Sixth District, saying that Emmer alone could end the
incursion by talking to President Donald Trump.
“If
he simply said this is wrong,” Rybak wrote, and if Emmer “simply stood
up for people he represents and [said] they should not be treated
differently because of their state, this would end tomorrow.”
[...] Emmer, a lawyer,
had been fueling the fire for weeks, spreading misinformation, fanning
division and fear among residents, and vilifying the state leaders who
were working night and day to keep the peace.
I’d
like to ask Emmer how it is that he, as someone sworn to uphold the
Constitution, could support the smothering, heavy-handed approach to
immigration we saw here.
Simple answer. He did it because he's an asshole.
The item continues:
Despite
being in Congress since 2015, Emmer runs and hides from challenging and
uncomfortable questions with mainstream news organizations.
Absent
an interview, I turned to Emmer’s social media posts to understand his
thinking these past few weeks. I’ll give him credit for consistency. He
kept up a steady stream of invective to stir the boiling pot without
regard for who was getting burned.
Since
Renee Good was shot by a federal agent in south Minneapolis on Jan. 7,
through the shooting of Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 and until the Trump
administration’s announcement of the drawdown earlier this month, Emmer
has blamed and trolled Democrats.
He
did not raise concerns about the flood of ill-trained, trigger-happy
federal agents on the streets or probe the false pretext behind Trump’s
siege of this state.
On Jan. 12, Emmer verbally attacked Attorney General Keith Ellison as a “sorry excuse for an attorney general” because he had filed a lawsuit seeking to get the agents out of Minnesota and curb the siege.
The next day, Emmer roasted
“so-called leaders, like Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison
and Mayor Jacob Frey, [who] would rather go to war with the Trump
administration than get criminal illegal aliens out of our communities
and expose the fraud that’s been allowed to run rampant on their watch.”
That sure does help the situation, doesn't it? Frey said to ICE, "Get the fuck out of Minneapolis," and Emmer lacks the minimal sense to have said, "Right on, bro!" Instead he dumps, making things worse. Because he's an Emmer. I did say that already, didn't I? The item continues:
Walz issued a direct plea to Trump on Jan. 15, asking the president to stop the retribution campaign.
In
a hopeful sign, Walz spoke privately with Trump on Jan. 27. Emmer
wasn’t ready to play anything close to nice. He went on Fox News the
same day and falsely accused
the governor and Frey of “fomenting all of this nasty rhetoric and
frankly inviting these organized protesters and agitators into our state
and causing all of this violence and destruction.”
[,,,] Emmer pushed it much too far by seeking
arrests on fuzzy, bizarre allegations of illegalities that aren’t
supported by facts. Emmer suggested that Walz not only should resign, a
prospect the governor is not entertaining, but should leave office in handcuffs and that Ellison should be disbarred, kicked out of office and indicted.
Asshole!
At
least Emmer didn’t pretend to be on a quest for the common good. He’s a
bully who wants to divide, conquer and gain a personal political
advantage for his side.
When he played college hockey I bet he was a big time quentisential "hocky goon." Showing that kind of personality all the way to Congress and party whip. Baked into the DNA. Shown regularly. A crypto booster, like Trump is.
But I digress. The item continues:
[...] His fortunes may not rise, or potentially
fall, with Trump, but it’s clear he’s willing to take whatever positions
are necessary to stay in favor without regard to how they play in
Minnesota.
Consider
Emmer’s pettiness before the men’s U.S. Olympic hockey team gold medal
game against Canada early Sunday. As Minnesotans settled in at their
early-morning watch parties, Emmer proposed a deal to Canada: “We win, you become the 51st state. You win, we give you Timmie Walz.”
I did say asshole. I meant to. The item continues:
[...] Was Rybak’s proposition true? Could Emmer have single-handedly ended the siege by talking to Trump?
We
can’t say for certain, but what we do know is that when Minnesota was
down and needed his help, Emmer was focused only on his political
future.
Minnesota Dems will be caucusing this week to endorse a successor to Emmer, so stay tuned.
The item ends:
He kept his back turned to Minnesota to maintain his A-plus grade with
the president, the audience of one whose favor matters most to the
congressman.
And he doesn't hold any in-person in-district townhalls anymore. Or too few. Either he's fearful or he's smug that way.
I did say asshole, didn't I? I meant to. I really did. I also said a Dem successorship will be on the ballot this coming November. Or I meant to.
MN CD6. Vote the rascal out. Sucking up to Trump's vanity is his MO, damn the rest. And that's a hell of a well written editorial about playing shabby politics instead of helping the State and the district. The editorial, deserves being unpaywalled. It is better than anything I could have written. But we build standing on the shoulders of others.
_____________UPDATE____________
Emmer is also allied with Stauber in an effort to force sulfide mining in northern Minnesota where pristine waters are at great risk of irreparable harm. He also is a climate science denier. That's as bad a record on environmental issues as is possible. He relishes it. No shame. Keeping his back turned to sane land management.
"As the lawmakers sit in the House chamber listening to Trump’s agenda for the year ahead, the moment is an existential one for the Congress, which has essentially become sidelined by his expansive reach, the Republican president bypassing his slim GOP majority to amass enormous power for himself.
First term, Trump 45, Pelosi tore up the paper she held. Speaker Johnson likely will be more a lackey in sitting w/o display. Will it be raucous? Will MTG shout out?
Will it be dreary and tediously longer than needed? And meandering?
Readers obviously can independently search and find more - but if there is a betting market, let's hope administration people, and families, restrain from unseemly stuff.
Possibly the transcript was AI generated. It is linked above without having read it. It is there for readers. AI transcription tools are fairly good, if not perfect.
My initial reaction is/was grounded in my dislike of the man, his actions, and his style of speaking. With that clear, he was, in a personal view, as cogent as ever, which is not very cogent, as a personal opinion. Online opinion of dementia may be overstated or a hope more than a reality.
Having never thought much of the Trump delivery, but admitting it got him votes from somewhere, some part of the electorate, I found his reaction an abomination, but not different in style and delivery that he's used in his political career. He simply said SCOTUS be damned, he liked the Kavanaugh part about other stuff he could pull as an argued basis to keep doing as he's been doing. Tariff war still on as it's been.
It was not ambiguous. It was a clear statement, much of it delivered from prepared text. With interjections related to what he'd just said, saying it, in effect, again, but that's been Trumpspeak since he came down the escalator.
So the day after the SCOTUS presentation, the following Trump presentation leaves ambiguity, but an impression he's not going to alter any conduct. And it's not been steady policy, it's been peicemeal disjointed and tuned to daily things that riled the man to make up numbers in response, with no rhyme or reason.
Leave it there for now. It was a DC Friday, (which is not a compliment).
UPDATE: The SCOTUS/POTUS sequence is a reminder, another NO KINGS rally is due, or even arguably overdue.
It would be easy to say, no excerpt - it speaks for itself.
THE TRUTH: No excerpt - I have to go to the toilet and vomit after watching the Trump presser on the SCOTUS opinion where he said he liked the Kavanaugh part and intends to not change a thing but might. In a more aggressive/stupid way or set of ways.
Retch on in uncertainty, nation and world. It will be as it turns our. Reason subverted to - you name it.
Citizens of the USA paying more at the store. And then some. Ain't it is not over until 2028, when JD gets a due comeuppance.
____________UPDATE____________
There's a link in the EmptyWheel reporting where you follow it and get full access to an item behind a subscription wall, but where the pre-wall teaser says enough.
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER
12: (L-R) Brandon Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald,
Howard Lutnick, US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and
Daniel LaVecchia attend Annual Charity Day hosted by...MORE
This is not new. But I at least hadn’t heard any of these dots
connected. I wasn’t even aware of the dots. A friend mentioned to me
over the weekend that he’d heard about Wall Streeters buying up the
rights to tariff refunds from big corporate importers. So the idea is
that a Wall Street firm goes to an importer and says, you’ve now paid
$10 million in tariffs. I’ll pay you $2 million right now for the right
to collect the refund if courts ever end up deciding the tariffs were
illegal. My friend had also heard that one of the most aggressive buyers
was Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm until recently headed by Commerce
Secretary Howard Lutnick and now run by Lutnick’s sons. Twenty-something
Brandon Lutnick, pictured above on the left in a 2016 photo, is the
current chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald. (He must be hella talented!)
Damn, I thought: That’s a hot story, crooked as the day is long. But
I’m not sure how I or we would track it down without better finance
world sources. Still, it was worth some quick googling. It turns out
this is happening and Cantor’s role has already been reported. Wired and others reported this more than a month ago.
In mid-July, according to Wired, Cantor was buying up the rights to
your potential tariff refund at between 20 and 30 cents per dollar. [...]
Business as usual, among some. If you think it stinks, how did you vote, 2024; Harris or the other of the two party candidates?
For me it was another of those lesser evil elections and I went with Harris. When I say "those" I mean every presidential election since I reached voting age. Each time going Dem. Clinton, Obama on those two even thinking it a positive choice - at least for the first term, each, but not the second term, each, where it was good old lesser evil one more time. It has been where at some point I came to fully understand the low approval values citizens in polls gave to Congress. Gave, give, and will give.
FURTHER: I also came to think Malcolm was a stronger voice than King, and was proven right by the fact he was shot dead sooner.
In Texas, Jasmine Crockett will try to win and push through true reform, including healthcare reform. With the guy Colbert boosted, you get Jesus reform, a dump on the Christian nationalists, but nothing else but same old insurance company love of the old cash flow.
That said, weigh Carville as correct on sniping at Trump when he does that, but wrong on same-old do nothing Dem candidates being best for you. Know your casual friends from your true friends who want the best for you. The casual ones want the best for themselves, and make good money from it. Think of it that way.
Says he's not a TACO, more or less. We suffer. He reads his speech. Did Stephen Miller write it? Who? 2028 is a number with promise.
He seems to be saying the citizens getting the pass through hurt from his mischief is something he intends to continue under a repaint. We take it in the gut, gut punched by a fraud in the White House, while the importers await their lawsuits outcomes.
He says "billions that have come into our country." That's us, via the pass through, taking the hit. Not overseas people, they mark up the goods. Not the importers, they mark up the goods. Go figure what the bloviating reduces to. Why can't we buy Chinese electric cars that a better and cheaper than an Elon Musk Tesla. Figure that one out, as to whether Elon and Trump are anything but tight like-minded fascists, left hand washing the right.
He'll be his own Albert Speer. Already there with the White House stuff. Jackie's rose garden done in, and the ballroom-envy thing he has after dining with the Brits.
And internal gold-plated White House super-kitsch.
For suitable background context; See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe875iKBmrw --- That YouTube statement fleshes out time and place, of a key church/ICE protestor speaking about the issue of the protest and it's motivating factors, in her view.
Lemon contends he was not part of any planning of the event, but had prior notice and hence reported it, as news. As contending freedom of the press, set that apart from Levy Armstrong, solely contending freedom of speech.
In the past a bill was passed in Congress, against impeding access to abortion clinics and some congress critters tacked on "Churches too."
That's the bill the "conspiracy to disrupt" prosecution of the protesters is based.
IS IT CONSTITUTIONAL TO PUT CHURCHES ABOVE ANY OTHER PLACE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, SUCH AS A RESTAURANT?
That likely will be the key question arising from the protest of the ICE pastor's being protested inside the church. Had it been outside picketing the church without impeding entry, on the sidewalk, not inside, it would have gotten less coverage and likely would have not been prosecuted - picketing peacefully outside an abortion clinic without impeding entry (churches too?) is allowed. Free speech.
Now, presume ICE pastor whats-his-name was inside a restaurant, where he dined, and many entered the restaurant and chanted and interrupted his diner and were arguably a nuisance to other diners under local law, chanting and milling about in large numbers. Nothing to make a federal case about it, local nuisance law would be at play.
So if church and state are to be separate, that fucking church was no different than a publicly open restaurant. No notice of "members only" an unlocked door, no posting of "MEMBERS ONLY - TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED." A public facility. (Not open 24/7 but when open, open to the public in all appearances even if not so open in fact.)
But A CHURCH! Well, so what? The First Amendment gives me freedom from religion, it's nothing to me but something others do, and they're free to do so, as long as they don't force themselves onto me and don't think themselves special over having a religion I don't, be it Hindu, Christian, Judaism, Mormon, or Islam or whatever. The Native American Church with Peyote rites; Rastafarians with their herb.
Freedom of religion means there is no State religion. Nothing imposed. Nothing curtailed. But it's also freedom from religion having any special status, or rights they have but I would not have if believing in the divinity of a redwood tree. (Since tree worship is not a recognized religion - lacking critical mass, such as that numerically behind the Mormon church - which historically been persecuted as a cult when with lower numbers and headquartered in the Midwest when Joseph Smith lived).
If it goes to the Supreme Court, they gave us Hobby Lobby, a public place for shopping I would never enter to buy a thing there, but somehow special because of Jesus or whatever. Bad law. Bad Court. But a precursor suggesting the type of opinion to expect if Ms. Levy Armstrong takes her case that far and cert is granted.
And - if Levy Armstrong wins at District and Circuit level, cert will be granted, whereas if she loses it's uncertain. This bunch, cert would be granted if she wins and has the Church part of the abortion clinic protection law held Unconstitutional by lower courts.
Because of separation of church and state. In it's logical form an opinion should take. Nothing special, it was a church and not a restaurant, nuisance and trespass local law covering both equally. This SCOTUS pack, rogue as it is, enough said.
Minnesota prosecutors are demanding that federal officials share
evidence in the killing of Alex Pretti and the shooting of Julio Cesar
Sosa-Celis by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced she issued the
“Touhy” demands, which she compared to subpoenas in state court, during a
news conference on Wednesday.
“Hiding evidence and obstructing our investigation is unacceptable
and indicates a total lack of confidence in their agents’ actions,”
Moriarty said.
Moriarty said they gave the federal government until March 3 to meet
their demands for information, including the names of the federal agents
involved; videos and photographs recorded by federal agents; statements
by federal agents; medical records and physical evidence, including
firearms, cartridge casings and uniforms.
“We are prepared to take further legal action should the Department
of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice fail to meet our
deadline and continue to obstruct our investigations,” Moriarty said.
Moriarty’s office has already issued a demand for evidence in the
killing of Minneapolis resident Renee Good by an ICE officer but has not
received anything from federal officials despite giving them a deadline
of Feb. 17.
Emails to the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security were not immediately returned.
The BCA has historically investigated shootings by law enforcement
officials but has been blocked from participating in the investigations
of federal immigration agents killing Pretti and Good, both U.S.
citizens, and shooting a Venezuelan national in the leg, in three
separate January incidents in Minneapolis during “Operation Metro
Surge.”
They, the locals, have the published video evidence, both murders, and available experts to go frame by frame to a jury. They also have put out a public request for witnesses and any publicly held additional evidence, so a good guess is they know the individuals to prosecute, and could without federal involvement get convictions.
Things like Bovino's emails, that would be nice to get, but are not essential. The video publishing has already convinced Congress critters and the general public that the administration lied like a rug and failed to get away with it, because of the video proof of big-time lying. Crabgrass is unaware of online copies of any specific local Touhy request papers.
for putting online a reasonably clear and detailed explanation, which speaks for itself.
From that .../touhy-request link, above, you can gain as much knowledge as Crabgrass has about such a request being the chosen method at law to blast stuff from a federal agency, such as DHS and/or DOJ. Subpoena power is superceded by a body of law on Tohey requests, and as noted in excerpting, Moriority has been stiffed on the Good murder, and will have to litigate to get federally withheld evidence, so it is likely her office will be stiffed too on the Pretti murder.
Your federal government. Trump's minions. I sure as fuck had no roll in putting that bunch of bastards into power, I bit the bullet and voted Harris, but they now hold the power and act as bullshit as they do. Elections are coming soon.
That item is for how the Postal Office handles requests for info -- § 230.10 Demands for records or testimony. It is representative enough to show that each agency may have a CFR posting of procedural and substantive Rules it has promulgated - CFR = Code of Federal Regulations, for those not already aware of the abbreviation.
Readers should be able to find online similar DOJ and DHS stuff via reasonable search skills. Crabgrass did not take that further step of slogging through the CFR, where the LII site is where it would have been done.
Or if you've not the time, you've not a mind. You can find somebody's boots to lick.
Fair notice, the final part of this hour has been separately posted on YouTube and has been linked to, in that exceprted form, in an earlier post about the Talerico candidacy in Texas. When you hit that, you will notice.
But the advice, watch it all in context, and see if what you may be feeling is touched by HCR's survey.
__________UPDATE__________
HCR begins her analysis by mention of a Marco Rubio speech in Munich. It is online here.
Rubio has always seemed to me to be a pompous bullshitter and sophist. That speech cemented the view and I could only take less than four minutes of it.
However, for those caring to see the item HCR analyzes, the link is given.
I really have no tolerance for pompous bullshitters and sophists.
Rubio would not be my first choice for anything. Nor second, nor third.
It is her Presidents' Day braodcast, so, quite recent.
It is a serious and informative look at a number of things, and she mentions neither, Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, JD Vance, nor Hegseth. Just, reporting things.
She gives context, then at 4 min into it, Talarico!! Discussed, not a guest.
Why Trump administration is more concerned about James Talarico, Texas Dem US Senate candidate, than being concerned about Jasmine Crockett. She dissects that "Why?"
Talarico - my word how anti-Trump/Hegseth narrative - disses Christian Nationalism as un-Christian. Enough to make Trump load his pants. Blasphemy. Ask Hegseth, he'll show you his Jerusalm Cross Tattoo and say, "See!" So - what next?
MSNow, not yet Colbert, wait, be patient. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vawt9DsW3yk = more table setting. "MS NOW's Lawrence O'Donnell discusses why it would be impossible for Talarico's appearance on 'The Late Show' to trigger the FCC equal time rule." That's from the blurb YouTube puts under the video, before viewer commentary. It's part of the context of the story of Trump's FCC lackey's HS leaning on CBS, with its merger hopes, to stiffle Talarico's dissing Trump's Christian Nationalist exploitation as fundamental MAGA base, wear-the-hat folks, need-that-vote after the ICE/Border Patrol Minnesota approval rating kill.
Okay - the link we've all been waiting for - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTJ7Pz_59A
And if you think, why did Trump so fear this that he had his FCC lackey murder the segment on network viewing to where it had to YouTubed to the masses, it's not that big a thing - join the list. Trump is TACOing again, chickening out of letting Talarico be seen, except there was a bit of blowback. The blurb under the video said. as of the time I accessed it where the number might climb,
Stephen Colbert hosts Texas State Rep. James Talarico for an online-exclusive interview that touches on the issues raised in Talarico's campaign for the Democratic nomination for Senate including the separation of church and state, the dangers of consolidated corporate-owned media, and the fabricated culture wars pushed by Republicans in states like Texas. If you're curious why this interview with James Talarico was an online-exclusive, click here to watch Stephen Colbert explain: • Why CBS Didn't Broadcast Stephen Colbert's... .
Yeah, a real brain fart to make a big thing of it. But it's Trump, you know, and there are the mumblings about dementia. Plus, dementia aside, he's a classic asshole.
So enough words. Watch the video troika series linked to above, and decide, who'd be dumb enough to have a toady try to silence such an innocuous thing. (It was Trump, possibly with Stephen Miller's advice, who was that dumb, really.)
Bless the stupid, when they step on their own body part.
But, you know, the other Texas Dem US Senate candidate IS Jasmine Crockett, and there's a lot of reason for Trump/toady choosing to not give her a boost, so is the phrase "dumb like a fox" at play? We'll have to watch there, to see who wins that Dem primary. And, be good, Love thy neighbor.
_______________UPDATE____________
Telarico is a formidable person, but the Crabgrass choice is Crockett. That said, Telarico appears better placed as a white male to win Texas, where a black woman has a bigger push to do it. One thing about Crockett, when James Clyburn of South Carolina pushed Biden to put a black woman on the second spot, it is a crying shame that Crockett was not yet a person with national credibility established. The Crabgrass view is that Crockett is a more appealing person than Harris. The Crabgrass view is that Clyburn and Willie Brown did a disservice to the breaking down of racial bias by advancing careers of exceptionally talented and appealing people. The idea of a black woman on a Presidential ticket is now not solely a hypothetical, but choices of winners and losers is a fundamental requirement.
Harris was the choice in 2024 when Biden quit, but not the best among black women for the role. Crockett is a progressive, and well spoken in being that. The Harris campaign never grounded itself for what it's vision and standards were.
Crockett would not have any such problem, or has shown a lot to base that outlook upon. What you see is what you get. A committed woman who is clear on what-where her politics are grounded. No waffle.
From the report press release, per the headline and the opening link above:
The 30-page report, titled “At What Cost? Inside the Trump
Administration’s Secret Deportation Deals,” is the first Congressional
report examining the issue of third country deportations under the Trump
Administration and is informed by a ten-month review of agreements,
known deals and third country deportations through January 2026, staff
travel to relevant countries and meetings and communication with current
U.S. officials, foreign government officials, human rights
organizations, deportees and attorneys. This report finds that the Trump
Administration has expanded and institutionalized a system in which the
United States urges or coerces countries to accept migrants who are not
their citizens, often through arrangements that are costly, wasteful
and poorly monitored. It catalogs the costly and ineffective operations,
waste of taxpayer funds through unnecessary removals, concerning lack
of oversight on U.S. funds to foreign governments and secret deals that
do not serve American interests. Taken together, these actions have
created an expensive and dangerous form of shadow diplomacy that
prioritizes the appearance of toughness over the security of Americans.
“This
report outlines the troubling practice by the Trump Administration of
deporting individuals to third countries—places where these people have
no connection—at great expense to the American taxpayer and raises
serious questions,” said Ranking Member Shaheen. [...]
The report comes as the Administration is aggressively
seeking to strip hundreds of thousands of migrants of legal status in
the United States through the ending of temporary protected status and
humanitarian parole, among other avenues, increasing the risk of
expanded third country deportations.
This report identifies six
central ways in which the Administration’s use of third country
deportations has undermined U.S. interests:
Expensive and Ineffective Operations: The
Administration has spent tens of millions of dollars to move a
relatively small number of migrants to third countries, in some cases
paying more than one million dollars per person, with little measurable
impact on its deportation agenda.
Needlessly Wasting Taxpayer Funds: In many cases,
migrants could have been returned directly to their home countries,
avoiding costly third country deportations. As of January 2026, more
than eighty percent of the migrants sent to third countries paid by the
United States to take them in have already returned to their country of
origin or are in the process of doing so. [...]
Providing Money to Corrupt Governments Without Oversight:
The United States has sent more than thirty-two million dollars to
foreign governments in direct connection with third country deportation
deals, including those with records of corruption, human rights abuses
and human trafficking, without monitoring how the money is used or
whether taxpayer funds are being used to facilitate corruption, human
rights abuses or human trafficking. It is unclear how much additional
U.S. funding is being redirected to indirectly support these deals.
Failure to Monitor and Enforce Agreements: The
State Department is not tracking foreign government compliance with
diplomatic assurances or enforcing agreement terms, [...]
Secret Deals That Do Not Serve American Interests:
Third country deportation agreements have become a central feature of
U.S. bilateral relations, involving cash payments, political concessions
and coercion, without transparency about the full extent of what the
United States is giving in return or the pressures it is exerting. In
addition, the Administration is making secret deals with adversarial
regimes such as Iran, to accept their nationals back.
Circumventing U.S. Immigration Law:Evidence suggests
the Administration is using third countries to carry out removals that
U.S. law would otherwise prohibit, such as sending protected individuals
onward to countries where they may face persecution or death.
I do not even know the major language there. Or how I'd be accepted. Kicked off a plane, "Fend for yourself, Charlie." It is an unsettling thing, done in secret.
Magyar, a former insider in Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party, burst onto Hungary’s political scene in 2024 after breaking with his political community and quickly forming the center-right Tisza party.
After taking around 30% of the vote in European Parliament elections
in June 2024, he has grown Tisza into the most formidable political
force Orbán has faced during his 16 years at Hungary’s helm. Most
independent polls show Tisza with a significant lead before the April 12
vote, an advantage which has held steady for more than a year.
“We’re standing on the threshold of victory with 56 days left to go,” he told supporters [...]
____________UPDATE___________
Bootlicking per word to do so from Trump, or an epiphany on the way to Damascus?
How RFK Jr.’s “MAHA” Quackery Is Making Flu Season Worse
Across the country, the staggering costs of vaccine denialism are piling up, to deadly effect.
Last month, cases of flu reached their highest levels
in the United States in 25 years. Many hospitals were unprepared for
the surge; as emergency wards filled with flu patients, health care
workers were left to weather the impacts. As of February 6, there have
been at least 22 million reported cases, 280,000 hospitalizations, and
12,000 deaths from flu so far this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of those afflicted are being hospitalized due to severe postviral complications, such as pneumonia, antibiotic-resistant staph, and even fatal brain swelling.
And while rates have since subsided, we’re not out of the woods yet, with flu B now on the rise. As epidemiologist Marisa Donnelly said, “We’re still in the thick of the season.”
What explains why recent flu seasons have been so severe? There are several factors.
However, a less discussed aspect behind the high rates of flu and disease severity is a slew of recent research finding that prior Covid-19 infections can damage immune responses—and most Americans have been infected with Covid at least once by now.
“It
is clear that at least some of what we’re seeing right now is likely
related to that immunity problem from Covid-19 infections,” Dr. Ziyad
Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis,
and co-author of a study on the subject, told The New Republic.
He’s
not the only doctor to connect these dots. According to Dr. Monica
Verduzco-Gutierrez, chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
at the University of Texas, El Paso, “Prior Covid-19 infection can lead
to persistent immune dysfunction, which may increase susceptibility to
subsequent influenza infection and severity of disease.”
Despite
this, there is a “pervasive nonchalance” about the surge in flu and
spread of other respiratory viruses like Covid among the public, as
Al-Aly put it—and RFK Jr.’s moves at HHS are in part to blame, he said.
On top of that, hospitals are refusing to adequately staff
their wards or protect health care workers from infection, increasing
the burden of disease and putting the public at risk. And this week, the
FDA decided not to consider Moderna’s application for a new mRNA-based flu vaccine—a decision handed down by the agency’s notorious anti-vaxxer Vinay Prasad.
Overall,
under Kennedy’s watch, there has been more chaos, more confusion, and
less vaccination—and the consequences have been deadly.
And, the ultimate responsibility? Trump's. He appointed the quack. Knowingly, Trump did it because Kennedy Jr. dropped his Presidential run and endorsed Trump. It had nothing to do with anything else, and ignored Kennedy's incompetence for the job.
Trump only thinks "Trump" and that is a dark area of thought.
(In fairness, the "far, far more" of the headline is an expectation, a guess, without second-source pinning down any numbers. Crabgrass does not even know if, under Kennedy, reliable numbers have been tabulated or released, but in the opening paragraph above, 12,000/month is highlighted. The item did start out stating "record numbers" of flu cases, suggesting it likely the 12,000 deaths resulting from infections also is peaking to a 25 yr high. Also, Noem's goons actions, prior to their publicized invasion of Democrat cities, are not reliably publicized, or believed not to be. How many deaths along the border were caused by Border Patrol, i.e., what their kill rates were in non-public contexts without phone video documentation - make your guess. The guess here is greater cruelty and license taken along the border, and Bovino's consistency is a fact. As a guess, it is presumed that the border area Noem death-rate is in the thousands, However, flu whacked 12,000 in a month, so make your own guesses. Crabgrass stands on the far, far more headline. Prove me wrong.)
Okay, is it a case of "What took you so long," or not?
Did he loose faith in Bondi, only after the hearing; or did he say he's lost faith after the hearing, while having lost any/all faith well before the hearing when he had to cosponsor a bill to force the intransigent official off the dime to FULLY release the Epstein Files.
You could read it either way, but really, having to blast that bill through is an indication of loss of faith prior to the point of bill sponsorship.
The screen capture shows the ambiguity in the headline and in the part of the opening paragraph shown.
What is certain, the "he said" was after the hearing, that's as reported, but the Crabgrass bet is that any/all faith ever in Bondi was error.
If you pay attention often there is an ambiguous referent in online content, but where one reading fails, in context, to make sense. Crabgrass feels that's almost the case here. Massie's bill cosponsorship is clearly from months before the hearing, since the Bondi banter was a stupid event, but well after any sentient person would have held a "no faith" opinion in Bondi from the Trump University monkey-business, i.e., from the start, beyond belief in the troubling fact she is/was/will be a Trump syncophant to the grave.
It pays her bills. It enlarges her narcisstic self-esteem. She needs that sycophancy as a fundamental part of being Pam Bondi - The AG of the USA. Whoopie!
Bondi
sent a legally required report to Congress on Saturday in compliance
with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandated the DOJ supply
lawmakers with a summary of all redactions made, including the legal
basis for doing so, and a list of government officials named in the
documents.
In
the letter, Bondi cited “deliberative-process privilege” as one
justification for redacting certain documents, a common-law principle
that allows the federal government to withhold documents revealing
internal decisionmaking.
“The
problem with that is the bill that Ro Khanna and I wrote says that they
must release internal memos and notes and emails about their decisions
on whether to prosecute or not prosecute, whether to investigate or not
investigate,” Massie said on ABC. “It’s important they follow that,
because then we could find why they didn’t prosecute Leslie Wexner. What
was the decision tree there?”
The
release of unredacted prosecutorial and investigative documents could
also shed light on the 2008 plea deal under which Epstein avoided severe
federal charges and pleaded guilty to lesser state charges in Florida,
Massie added.
The
Kentucky Republican also criticized Bondi for refusing to face several
victims of Epstein’s abuse who attended the hearing. When Rep. Pramila
Jayapal (D-Wash.) asked Bondi to turn around
and apologize to the victims for what the Justice Department had put
them through during the hearing, Bondi replied: “I’m not going to get in
the gutter for her theatrics.”
At
one point, Jayapal also asked the victims if they had not been able to
meet with the Justice Department to share their stories, and each of
them raised their hand.
In short, Bondi is a heartless and mean spirited blond dragon, as well as AG of the USA!
Rome had ceased to be the capital of the empire by the beginning
of the 4th century and a multitude of cities served as the capital of
the western empire.[7]
Sack
The Vandals landed at Ostia, located at the mouth of the Tiber
only a few miles southwest of Rome. Maximus tried to flee Rome, but was
spotted by an angry mob and stoned to death before being thrown into
the Tiber.[11] Before approaching, the Vandals knocked down the aqueducts that supplied water to the city.[12]Pope Leo I was able to convince Gaiseric to spare those who did not resist, protect buildings from fire, and to not torture captives.[13] [...]
The Vandals sacked the city for two weeks[13]
before returning to Africa, during which the imperial government of the
Western Roman Empire was effectively paralysed. They marched south
through Campania, devastating the region, and attempted to sack Neapolis but failed as the city had better defences.
Aftermath
[...] The two-week Vandal sack of 455 is generally considered more destructive than the three-day Visigoth sack of 410.[18]Victor of Vita records that several shiploads of slave captives arrived in Africa from Rome, who were then divided between the Vandals. Deogratias, the Bishop of Carthage, bought the freedom of some of the Romans by selling all of the valuables from his church. Deogratias hosted and fed them in larger churches in Carthage until they could be repatriated back to Rome.
So, a bare two week siege, not what Minnesota suffered, two months in length.
Slaves taken. Transported. Some church actions lessened the plight of some of those seized.
Moving on, PiPress carried an NYT post about the mess after, and, what goals of the marauding Vandals were met. (No paywall.) See, also, carried postings here and here.
The public grieving spots echo the community-driven memorial to George Floyd, who was murdered in 2020
Crabgrass does support such two monuments to what was done, with a suggestion. Each should include a bronze plaque, headlined, "TRUMP KILLED - THEN LIED" and then being followed by detail, including a clear statement that it was a naked act of politics to invade Minnesota with barbarians because Minnesota at the time was a Democratic State and had voted each of three times for whoever was running against Trump; 2016, 2020 and 2024. Beyond that, further detail is less essential. But it should include the fact that Trump lied about the deaths and citizen observation proved the lie beyond any doubt; and that JD in particular said egregious things
When asked about Super Bowl snacking the headline gives Sec. Kennedy's answer. See, e.g., here and here.
He mentioned yogurt. But ferments is bigger than that. My question is would he consider sauerkraut for his Super Bowl friendship group?
And, can we call him "a Kraut?" Or "a Kimchi?"
I'd like to do that, if it's appropriate. I'd even like to call him "an ignorant Kraut." The "ignorant" part is an opinion and the Kraut part would be by admission.
Not a trick question. The single shooter event was premeditated, Ross silently walking around the auto and placing himself in a position where he could bleat "self-defense" when the agency protocol said not to do so, and then the second and third shots into the passing auto; that was premeditated murder, or do you infer differently from the total of online video we've seen.
The Pretti shooting was gross. This is not to say otherwise. But premeditation can arguably be said to have been absent in that senseless killing.
Beyond those paragraphs, the end of the story will be written other than here.
Enough has already been said, so closing Trump is a fascist narcissist. In apparent mental decline toward incapacitating narcissistic dementia. Let's close on that. The thing curiously in parallel with his pulling Bovino out of Minnesota and sending Homan was his crashing in polling, to where one can infer but for the polls, Bovino would still be strutting town in his particularized way. Prove me wrong. If you can.
It is a nice day outside. There is cause to enjoy it. More posting in following days.
• Why CBS Didn't Broadcast Stephen Colbert's... .
