Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Musk wins a round and leaves Chump bloodied

The big Musk story, I guess, remains Epstein.  Gregory Svirnovskiy (Politico) reports:


Some of President Donald Trump’s top MAGA supporters — and his one-time friend Elon Musk — are stewing at the administration’s decision to not release any more information about the criminal case and death of Jeffrey Epstein, focusing their rage on Attorney General Pam Bondi and other senior law enforcement officials.
The Trump administration announced Monday night that a Department of Justice and FBI review found no evidence of an incriminating client list or history of blackmail from Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019.

The anger from some of Trump’s most ardent backers — whose support for the president was bolstered by his administration’s openness to engage in conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein — has been fierce. The rift, along with fissures over U.S. involvement in the Middle East and Ukraine, could threaten to destabilize the close relationship between the president and his base.
“Blondi should be fired,” far-right activist Laura Loomer said in a text message to POLITICO, using a derisive nickname for Bondi. “I think she’s trying to protect herself from her own horrible record and Epstein’s crimes, which trace back to her time as AG of Florida.”
Bondi has taken perhaps the most heat. She’s long faced pressure from both sides of the aisle to release Epstein’s alleged “client list,” especially after suggesting in a February Fox News interview that the relevant documents were “sitting on my desk right now.” But the administration announcement Monday said there was no client list.

“My response was, it's sitting on my desk to be reviewed. Meaning the file, along with the JFK and MLK files,” Bondi said at a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday.


If you missed it, Megyn Kelley is trying to prop up her failing podcast by sucking up to the MAGA influencers and saying how unfair it was for Pam Bondi to invited them last February to her office and have them hold 'binders' with Epstein info in them and now say that there's no client list.  At Newsweek,  Nick Mordowanec notes:


Kyle Seraphin, a former FBI agent and federal whistleblower, predicts that the Bureau will have a major shake-up in the coming year, due in part to how Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have dealt with the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"I think Bongino's gone at the end of the year," Seraphin told Infowars' Alex Jones on Monday. "I think that was true before this. I think that Patel doesn't make it past midterms if they decide to switch over."


For those who don't know, Party Boy Kash spent years accusing people of being on the client list that Pam Bondi now says doesn't exist and Dan did podcast after podcast before taking his FBI job about the 'coverup' and how it was murder (Epstein, he has publicly stated before joining the FBI, was murdered and did not commit suicide).  Shortly after joining the FBI this year both Dan and Kash came out with new stories saying it was suicide and no cover up.

Musk, of course, said last month that the Epstein files weren't going to be released and that this was because Chump is in them.  With the new announcement of "no list exists or ever existed," Musk's MAGA profile is rising while Chump's is falling.  Janna Brancolini (The Daily Beast) reports:


MAGA podcaster Patrick Bet-David blasted the Trump administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files as its worst error so far.

News broke this week that the Justice Department and the FBI had formally concluded there was no evidence the convicted sex offender kept a “client list,” blackmailed his associates, or was murdered in his prison cell while awaiting trial for sex trafficking in 2019.
The declaration, in a two-page memo, left many members of the MAGA faithful reeling, after Donald Trump’s team had spent months teasing the release of troves of new information in the case.

“Epstein” quickly became the No. 1 trending hashtag on the social media platform X, with more than 2 million posts on the topic, Bet-David said Tuesday during an interview with Fox News.

It's chaos for Chump.  Musk has not won many rounds but he has won this one.  Chump wasn't releasing the client list and was acting like he had done everything he said he would.  With one Tweet last month, Musk exposed him as a liar and it continues to be a problem for Chump.  


Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan (Reuters) note, "President Donald Trump's Justice Department scrambled on Tuesday to answer questions after its leadership concluded there was no evidence to support a number of long-held conspiracy theories about the death of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged clientele."  And Steve Benen (Maddow Blog, MSNBC) notes:

Now, they’re trying to put that fire out, telling the right that the conspiracy theories aren’t true, and rank-and-file conservatives clearly aren’t pleased with the reversals.

It was against this backdrop that the president held another White House Cabinet meeting, where a reporter asked about the controversy. As NBC News reported, Trump tried his best to shut down the entire line of inquiry.

The president went on to suggest that the reporter was wasting time with his question, given that there were more important things to talk about.

It was a curious response. For example, the idea that the Q&A should focus exclusively on more pressing matters was contradicted by Trump using the same gathering to talk about Joe Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal four years ago and his thoughts on interior decorating at the White House.


Donald Trump branded a question about Jeffrey Epstein a “desecration” amid rising criticism after the Department of Justice stated that there was no “client list”.

Taking questions following a meeting with his Cabinet on Tuesday (8 July), the president exclaimed “are we still talking about this guy?” when a journalist asked about the disgraced financier.

Just as Attorney General Pam Bondi was about to respond, Mr Trump interrupted to say: “This guy has been talked about for years, we have Texas, we have this [referring to the Ukraine war], and people are still talking about this creep?”


If you're still doubting that Musk won this round, Rebecca Beitsch (The Hill) reports, "Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the Mar-a-Lago investigation as well as any of the Epstein files that reference President Trump, accusing Attorney General Pam Bondi of shielding potentially damaging information."  So again, this round has to go to Musk.  He drew blood and it continues to pour out of Chump.  There's one other thing, but I passed it over to C.I. -- one other thing on Musk -- because I think she can address it better.  


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


Wednesday, July 9, 2025.  Does Dementia Donald even know what decade this is?

He doesn't understand the economy, he doesn't understand production requires factory?  

He doesn't understand how much the US needs tourism for its economy.


He understands nothing.  Nada.  Not a damn thing.


Let's start with Lawrence from MSNBC last night.




To be a Chump is to be a fool -- a despised fool.  Kate Plummer (NEWSWEEK) reports:


President Donald Trump's approval rating has declined after Congress passed his "One Big Beautiful Bill."

According to a new Morning Consult poll, Trump's approval rating has fallen by 2 percentage points in the last week. This decline comes after Congress approved his budget plans.
The narrow passage, 218-214, on Thursday of Trump's massive tax and spending package—nicknamed the "One Big Beautiful Bill"—in the House of Representatives, after months of infighting, highlights the legislation's divisiveness within the electorate at large. Though the decline in approval rating is within the margin of error, it could signal some dissatisfaction with Trump's policies.
The poll of 2,203 registered voters, conducted between July 3 and July 6 showed that 45 percent of people approve of Trump while 52 percent disapprove. It has a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points.

When the pollsters last surveyed Americans, from June 27 to June 29, they found that 47 percent approved of the president while 50 percent disapproved.



In addition, Amanda Castro (NEWSWEEK) notes another poll, "President Donald Trump's popularity has fallen below that of former President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to a recently released YouGov ranking the most popular politicians in the second quarter of 2025."  That poll led Ruth to offer last night:


You know what that means, right?  Hillary Clinton is UGE, Joe Biden is UGE.Everyone loves them.  They are bigger than anyone ever.  

If you did not catch on, I was trying to say what Mr. Chump would say about himself but about them since they are so much more popular than Mr. Chump.



This follows last week's bad polling news for Chump.  Martha McHardy (NEWSWEEK) noted polling on Republicans only, "The latest Overton Insights/Targoz Market Research poll, conducted between June 23 and 26 among 1,200 registered voters, shows a notable decline. In June, Trump's approval stood at 79 percent with 19 percent disapproving, yielding a net approval of +60. This marks a drop from March, when his approval rating was higher at 86 percent, with only 13 percent disapproving, resulting in a net approval of +73."   


You would think — based on the priorities in President Trump’s budget, tax and policy bill approved last week — that immigration is the greatest threat to our health and security.

It’s not.

But billions of dollars have been added for border and ICE agents while billions more have been trimmed from medical, climate and weather-related resources.

On Monday morning, federal agents on horseback and in armored vehicles descended on MacArthur Park in a show of force. Children playing in the park were ushered to safer ground, Mayor Karen Bass said at a news conference.

“Frankly it is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in our parks,” Bass said, adding that she didn’t know if anyone was even detained.

“It’s a political agenda of provoking fear and terror,” she said.

The event “looked like a staging for a TikTok video,” said City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson.


Chump is the Chump -- of all time.  He's destroyed the economy.  For months now, he's flipped flopped constantly on his tariffs.  He and his administration at times have insisted this will help jobs in the US because the US will invest into manufacturing.  On MSNBC, Stephanie Ruhle has long noted that there's no investment in factories going up here and that building a factory is not a quickie project.  In addition to that, what's been happening is factories in the US shutting down since January.  Erin Higa (THE COCONUT MAMA) reports:


The “Made in America” label used to mean something.

But now factory lights are going out. Jobs are disappearing. And the country’s food manufacturing backbone is being quietly dismantled.

Five major plants have just shut down – permanently.

Here’s what closed, why it happened, and what it means for all of us…
Pillsbury’s 67-year-old plant in New Albany is no more.

The facility – famous for cranking out cinnamon rolls, crescent dough, and pizza crusts – has gone dark as General Mills pulls the plug.

More than 200 workers are out of a job. The company cited “efficiency” and a shift to other plants.

Translation? It’s cheaper elsewhere.

After two decades of production, TreeHouse Foods shut down its Lakeland plant in March.

This plant produced store-brand crackers and snacks for supermarkets across the country.

The reason? “Network optimization.”

Which really means: Lakeland didn’t make the cut in their cost-cutting plans.
In a blow to the small town of Federalsburg, Kraft Heinz shuttered its frozen food plant in early 2025.

The plant made Smart Ones and Budget Gourmet meals – once staples in American freezers.

Kraft is consolidating operations to a new automated facility in the Midwest.

Fewer jobs. More robots.


And on and on it goes. 


It's as though Chump's dementia and cognitive decline have led Grandpa with the mistaken impression that it's the 1980s.  He's an idiot.  With a staff of idiots 



Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick is in the clip above prattling on, "We need to bring copper back home, bring copper production back home "  And there's no plan, just words, bad and empty words not unlike the social media post Chump served up that Stephanie and her panel tried to decipher. 


We've been noting for some time how Chump has destroyed tourism to the US.  He's fat and ugly and hated around the world and that's enough to stop some from visiting.  He's also cheap and common and people don't spend money to travel to a country run by trash.  Then we get into all of his attacks on various counties and nationalities, his war on immigrants, his was on the LGBTQ+ population, every repulsive thing about him and people don't want to come.


That is a huge financial blow to this country.  Tourism generates so much money -- travel, lodging, food, souvenirs, etc.   This morning, Bailey Schulz (USA TODAY) reports:


Las Vegas’ hotel-casino operators are all about the deals this summer.

Resorts World is offering up to 40% off room rates and a $75 daily resort credit, plus free self-parking through Aug. 28. The Strat's summer value package includes room rates starting at $49, plus a $25 daily dining credit. Other operators are dropping prices for locals to boost staycations.

The discounts come at a time when international and budget-conscious travelers are hesitating to book their next trip to the Strip.

May was the fifth consecutive month Las Vegas has seen a year-over-year decline in tourism traffic, with visitor volume down 6.5% to just under 3.5 million people for the month, according to figures from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

“I think there’s an uptick (in deals) due to the environment we’re in,” said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the LVCVA. "The operators here have the ability to turn a number of dials based on demand, and we’re – like the rest of the United States – down a little bit from where we were the past couple of years.”



The American tourism industry is being brought to its knees by President Donald Trump.

According to NBC News, foreign travel to the United States has fallen by 10 percent since Trump took office, and it's already having measurable effects on the U.S. economy.

"Oxford Economics estimates spending among international visitors to the U.S. will fall $8.5 billion this year, as negative perceptions of the U.S. tied to trade and immigration policy lead travelers to other destinations."

All of this was forecast in a grim report earlier this year, which showed Trump's tariffs alone could cause $90 billion in losses from international tourism boycotts of the United States.

But one area that's being hit especially hard, the report noted, is LGBTQ tourism.

"Bookings for queer-friendly housing accommodations in the U.S. on the LGBTQ+ travel platform misterb&b saw a 66% decline among Canadian users and a 32% decline among European users from February to April, compared with the same period last year."


Today is day 90.

Huh?

90 deals in 90 days.  Chump's promise.  He was going to have 90 trade deals in 90 days.  


And, no surprise, he doesn't have them.


He really has zero but those grading on a curve and feeling embarrassed for him can say he got three.  Trade deals take months and months.  Chump promised 90 days in 90 deals and he failed to meet his promise.  He fails all the time.  He's now kicked the tariff dates back yet again.




"They said it really was TACO Tuesday and I'm not talking about ground beef," Stephanie observed last night on MSNBC's THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE. TACO = Trump Always Chickens Out.  





Trump was caught saying the quiet part out loud. He slipped up and said exactly what he meant. Let me explain.

Last week, President Donald Trump toured his new immigration detention facility at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport inside Big Cypress National Preserve. This facility is in a part of Florida called the Everglades and is surrounded by “alligator and python-infested waters.” That is why the President refers to the facility as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The Trump Administration’s hardline approach to immigration was met with protests in L.A., that he simply shrugged off. The people who caught his attention were farmers and hotel owners who said their businesses relied on illegal immigrants. They urged the president to come up with a way for them to keep those employees while he attempts to keep the promises he made on the campaign trail.

His solution? Slavery.

You may think I’m being hard on our Commander in Chief. So let’s look at  what he actually said:

 “We have a lot of cases where ICE would go into the farm, and these are guys that are working there for 10 to 15 years, no problem…The farmers know them. It’s called ‘farmer responsibility’ or ‘owner responsibility,’ but they’re going to be largely responsible for these people.”

Let’s demystify what the man said. He is saying with his whole chest that in order for the illegal immigrants who work in these spaces to stay in the country, the farmers and hotel manager that employee them must personally take responsibility for them.

They will essentially oversee them, hence the President using the phrase ‘owner responsibility.’ Let’s talk about why this is a terrible idea. 

 Trump is saying that his solution to the concerns raised about his hardline illegal immigration policy is a situation where the people who employee them must take responsibility for them being in the country. This could result in a horrific situation where people are scared to leave their current job for a higher paying one because they are afraid they would be deported from the country.  

But let’s go further. Who would put it past these employers, now that they have all this power, to start cutting back their employee’s pay? Or to demand the work longer hours for the same amount of pay? Who could the workers turn to in that situation?


 How does this help immigrants?  It doesn't.


More to the point, Chump is insisting criminal activities are taking place.  Compare it to prostitution.  If you just arrest the prostitute, you're not doing justice.  What about the john?

And if you're going to round up immigrants for coming to this country to work, why aren't you rounding up businesses and bosses?


No one wants to talk about that and I understand.  Immigrants need jobs and, on the left, we don't want to harm their chances of employment.  But immigrants are being imprisoned and deported to other countries and to gulags.  What bout the employers?  


Why are they getting a pass?  How is that fair?


You start busting the heads of business and you better believe even the US Supreme Court's going to find a more sympathetic approach to addressing immigration. 



Images of masked, heavily armed immigration agents pulling people off Colorado streets and out of courthouses in unmarked cars have left many shocked and wondering: Is all of this legal?

It is — at least for now.

Why it matters: Since its post-9/11 creation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has operated with broader powers and fewer restrictions than local police — rules designed to help the FBI identify and detain terror suspects

  • But under the Trump administration, those tools have been redirected to target unauthorized immigrants, potentially millions of them, and critics say ICE has become the closest thing the U.S. has to a secret police force.

Zoom in: ICE agents aren't required to wear body cameras, can hide their identities, use unmarked cars and detain people without judicial warrants — as long as they suspect someone is in the U.S. illegally.

  • They're not supposed to detain U.S. citizens, but some have been caught in the dragnet due to ICE errors.

This would be a good time to again note Josh Kovensky's TPM report on how Chump now wants to explore deporting citizens:


Throughout the campaign, Republicans teased an idea: the next Trump government would start to remove the citizenship of naturalized Americans.

Stephen Miller suggested it; the idea appeared in Project 2025. Online fever-swamp entrepreneurs, like Claremont Institute donor Charles Haywood, pushed a national “review” of everyone naturalized since 1965.
Now, the DOJ has taken the first real step towards expanding the government’s efforts to strip citizenship from those who applied for it and received it — and has suggested it will be doing so for explicitly political reasons. It came in a June 11 memo dryly titled “Civil Division Enforcement Priorities,” written by Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate.

Last on the list of five priorities is denaturalization. The memo directs the government to “maximally” go after denaturalization cases, and ranks which kinds of cases should receive the most attention. At the top of the list are cases against those who “pose a potential danger to national security, including those with a nexus to terrorism.”

Recently, denaturalization cases have dealt with a narrow set of circumstances. Perhaps someone lied on their citizen application, or failed to disclose something significant enough that, had it been disclosed, the government would have declined to grant the person citizenship. The DOJ finds out, and files a civil lawsuit in federal court to revoke the person’s citizenship. In many cases, this has been applied to war criminals and people who otherwise concealed crimes that they were in the process of committing as they applied for citizenship.
But the June DOJ memo’s language around terrorism and national security threats is incredibly broad. In the world of the memo, “pos[ing] a potential danger to national security” is enough to merit a review of your citizenship application. It raises concerns that the DOJ will seek to use claims that a person poses such a danger to accuse naturalized Americans of omitting key information on their citizenship applications, which ask about ties to groups that commit terrorism or advocate for the overthrow of the U.S. government. In the Alien Enemies Act removals, the Trump administration twisted the definition of “invasion” to summarily deport people it cast as invaders to CECOT; Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk’s pro-Palestine op-ed in a student newspaper was enough for the administration to accuse her of supporting Hamas and revoke her visa.

The question is whether the administration will apply this kind of nihilistic legal maneuvering to claim that a naturalized American who failed to disclose support for, say, a pro-Palestine group misled the government through the omission.


Let's wind down with this press release from Senator Alex Padilla's office:

Padilla also leads 13 Democrats in letter to DHS requesting information about ICE’s use of unidentified plainclothes agents

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced new legislation to require immigration enforcement officers to display clearly visible identification during public-facing enforcement actions. The Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement (VISIBLE) Act of 2025 would strengthen oversight, transparency, and accountability for the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate and alarming immigration enforcement tactics that have terrorized communities across California and the nation.

Under the Trump Administration’s mass deportation agenda, civil immigration enforcement operations have increasingly involved Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers engaging with the public while wearing unmarked tactical gear, concealing clothing, and face coverings that obscure both agency affiliation and personal identity. Without visible badges, names, or insignia, members of the public often have no way to confirm whether they are interacting with legitimate government officials.

This lack of transparency endangers public safety by causing widespread confusion and fear, especially in communities already subject to heightened immigration scrutiny. It also increases operational and safety risks for law enforcement personnel by creating an opportunity for immigration enforcement impersonators and compounding uncertainty in high-stress situations. Clear, consistent, visible identification helps reduce miscommunication during enforcement encounters, strengthens officer credibility, and improves public cooperation, all of which are vital to mission success. The VISIBLE Act would place a critical check on the government’s power, ensuring basic transparency safeguards that protect public trust and legitimacy in immigration enforcement operations.

“When federal immigration agents show up and pull someone off the street in plainclothes with their face obscured and no visible identification, it only escalates tensions and spreads fear while shielding federal agents from basic accountability,” said Senator Padilla. “Immigration agents should be required to display their agency and name or badge number — just like police and other local law enforcement agencies. The VISIBLE Act’s commonsense requirements will restore transparency and ensure impersonators can’t exploit the panic and confusion caused by unidentifiable federal immigration enforcement agents.”

“For weeks, Americans have watched federal agents with no visible identification detain people off the streets and instill fear in communities across the country. Reports of individuals impersonating ICE officers have only increased the risk to public and officer safety. The lack of visible identification and uniform standards for immigration enforcement officers has created confusion, stoked fear, and undermined public trust in law enforcement,” said Senator Booker. “The VISIBLE Act is a necessary response grounded in law enforcement best practices that will prohibit immigration enforcement officers from wearing face coverings and require them to display their name or badge number and the agency they represent. We must act to maintain trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, and this legislation is a necessary step toward a more transparent, accountable, and safe immigration enforcement system.”

“This bill is an important step toward keeping immigration enforcement officers and all the people in America safe. Masked, plainclothes officers create an unreasonable risk of escalating violence and unnerve everyone who sees them,” said Scott Shuchart, Former ICE and DHS (Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties) Official. “As much as the cop in blues is a staple of American life, the masked bandit is a symbol of fear, and having government agents dressed like paramilitaries is un-American. Based on my experience in government, the VISIBLE Act makes good sense and would be straightforward for DHS officials to implement.”

The ongoing immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles County by unidentified federal agents have stoked fear and uncertainty throughout the region amid President Trump’s unprecedented escalation of militarized tactics. Recently at Dodger Stadium, plainclothes immigration agents parked outside of the stadium lot without identifying themselves. In Bell, masked agents wearing fatigues detained at least three people at a car wash, and in Pasadena, an agent exited an unmarked vehicle in the middle of the road and aimed his pistol at a group of pedestrians without identifying himself. From June 6 to June 22, immigration enforcement agents — many lacking identifying information — arrested 1,618 immigrants for deportation in Los Angeles County and surrounding areas.

Specifically, the VISIBLE Act:

  • Requires immigration enforcement officers — including DHS personnel such as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), federal agents detailed to immigration operations, and deputized state or local officers — to display clearly legible identification, including their agency name or initials and either their name or badge number, in a manner that remains visible and unobscured by tactical gear or clothing;
  • Prohibits non-medical face coverings (such as masks or balaclavas) that obscure identity or facial visibility, with exceptions for environmental hazards or covert operations; and
  • Requires DHS to establish disciplinary procedures for violations, report annually to Congress on compliance, and investigate complaints through its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

The bill does not apply to covert or non-public facing operations, nor does it prohibit face coverings when necessary for officer safety. It also does not apply to enforcement actions conducted solely under criminal authority.

The VISIBLE Act is cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

The bill is endorsed by the ACLU and Public Counsel.

A one-pager on the bill is available here.

Full text of the bill is available here.

Senator Padilla also led 13 Democratic Senators in a letter criticizing ICE for engaging in counterproductive, theatrical enforcement activities — including raids on courthouses and restaurants — and requesting information from the agency on its mask and uniform policies. The Senators argued that these tactics are designed to sow fear and chaos and that allowing masked, plainclothes officers to engage in public raids creates situations where bad actors can commit crimes while claiming to be ICE agents.

In addition to Padilla, the letter was also signed by Senators Blumenthal, Booker, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Hirono, Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Murray, Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Schiff, Smith, Van Hollen, Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Welch, and Wyden.

Full text of the letter is available here.

Senator Padilla has been outspoken in criticizing Trump’s mass deportations and unprecedented militarization and escalation of tensions by deploying National Guard troops and active-duty U.S. Marines to respond to overwhelmingly peaceful protests in Los Angeles. Padilla recently led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty servicemembers to American cities. Padilla spoke on the Senate floor following his forcible removal from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s press conference, where he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed after attempting to ask a question. He has spoken at a spotlight hearing and on the Senate floor multiple other times to blast President Trump for manufacturing a crisis by launching indiscriminate ICE raids across Los Angeles and using that crisis to dramatically expand executive power. Padilla is also leading legislation to restrict the President’s authority under the 217-year-old Insurrection Act and limit the domestic deployment of military troops for law enforcement purposes.

###







The following sites updated:





on No comments:

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Epstein, Bondi, Musk, big mess

So Pamikins Bondi is insisting that there's no client list for Jeffrey Epstein.  This after saying on air on Fox "News" back in February that she had the list, it was sitting on her desk and she was looking it over before releasing it.  Pam's created a wounded howl among MAGA.  It's harming a lot of the loons.  For example? JD Vance, our cross dressing vice president, is in trouble over Epstein.  And domestic partners Kash Patel and Dan Bongino have Chump rushing in to vouch for them as MAGA gets angrier.  



To know anything about contemporary conservative politics and the MAGA movement within the Republican Party is to acknowledge one thing: Conspiracy theories are the currency that drives, motivates, animates and inspires the right’s rank-and-file members.

The list of conspiracy theories embraced by contemporary conservatives is not short, but near the top is an obsessive focus on the late millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who died behind bars in 2019 while facing federal charges of child sex trafficking, and allegations that he maintained a secret “client list.”
As The New York Times reported, Team Trump now wants its adherents to believe that list does not exist — after having already said the opposite.

“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” the DOJ memo said. “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

The same memo added, “No further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”

In theory, this might seem sufficient. Donald Trump’s followers wanted a thorough investigation; Trump-appointed officials claim to have conducted just such a review; and the Trump administration is now effectively telling its base, “Move along, there’s nothing to see here.”
In practice, however, the apparent conclusion of the investigation has not been well received. On the contrary, as NBC News reported, much of the MAGA movement expressed outrage in response to the Justice Department’s memo. Indeed, the reaction wasn’t limited to the right: Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said online that Bondi’s handling of this mess “reeks of a coverup.”

Like Victoria Williams sang in "Crazy Mary" on her Loose album:


That what you fear the most
Could meet you halfway
That what you fear the most
Could meet you halfway


In other news, Liam O'Dell (Indy 100) reports on reaction to Alien Musk's proposal that he's going to start a third political party in the US, "the America Party" and my favorite is this one, "Except social media users have pointed out a number of problems surrounding Musk’s announcement, including the 'staggering' irony of a man born in South Africa launching the America Party."  And Chris Isidore (CNN) reports:

Tesla’s troubles go far beyond CEO Elon Musk’s recent dust-up with President Donald Trump, who accused the former “first buddy” of going “completely ‘off the rails’” in a social media slap fight over the weekend.

But while the battles between Musk and Trump are getting all the attention, the outlook for Tesla’s revenue and bottom line have has gotten notably worse. And the company could even be back to losing money, for reasons unrelated to Musk’s personal politics.
Musk was Trump’s largest financial supporter during the 2024 campaign, and was a mainstay at Mar-a-Lago and the White House at the start of Trump’s second term, with his role in slashing the federal workforce at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But Musk has since announced he was starting a new political party due to his displeasure with the tax and spending bill signed by Trump on Friday — and the barbs on their respective websites have only increased since then.

Shares of Tesla closed Monday down 6.8%, as investors were concerned about the implication of Musk’s latest political moves, despite his promises to re-focus on the company.

I have to mea culpa one more time.  Back in 2024, when C.I. outlined the crash and burn she believed Musk was in for, I thought she was wrong.  I am so glad that I'm the one who was wrong.  It's good to see Musk suffer.


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


Tuesday, July 8, 2025.  Chump can't make it to Texas but he can spend days golfing and, last night, dining at the White House with Netanyahu, the economy worsens, everything Chump touches fails.  




Let's start with this from THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE om MSNBC last night.



That's about Chump and Musk.  Over thirty e-mails to the public account are not pleased that yesterday's snapshot didn't focus on Musk.

I don't usually focus on Musk.  Early on, I did.  On immigration or South Africa, I'll weigh in here.  But this is one site in this community and Ann long ago took over the Musk beat.  Over the weekend, I most likely to cover Musk because Ann usually wraps up on Friday or early Saturday unless she's doing a group post.   If it's DeSantis, you're usually going to find it covered by Mike, if it's the Supreme Court, you're usually going to find it covered by Betty . . .  So here are Ann's four most recent posts and the titles alone make clear she's addressing Musk:






Texas suffered tragedy over the long holiday weekend starting with Friday the Fourth's floods and the aftermath.  This morning,  Jeanine Santucci (USA TODAY) reports the death toll has risen:

Search and rescue operations in central Texas entered their fifth day on Tuesday after heavy rainfall overwhelmed the Guadalupe River, sending floodwaters through homes and summer camps and killing over 100 people.

The death toll stood at at least 104, including at least 27 children and counselors from the beloved Camp Mystic, a storied Christian girls camp in Kerr County, where flooding hit the hardest beginning on July 4. In Kerr County, at least 56 adults and 28 children were killed. Ten Mystic campers and one counselor remain unaccounted for.

The flooding came in the early morning hours, with rainfall causing the nearby Guadalupe River to surge over 26 feet in less than an hour, according to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. The rain didn't let up, with the flood risk ongoing and impacting many communities in the central part of the state over the next few days.



JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

And I'm Juana Summers in central Texas, where today saw more efforts to recover victims of last week's flooding. Scores of people are known to have died. Officials say they don't know how many are still missing. Many hundreds of emergency workers and volunteers are combing through mud, downed trees and debris along more than 60 miles of the Guadalupe River. NPR's Greg Allen reports it is a painstaking process that may take weeks.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: Loyd Thornton has been involved in many other search and recovery efforts in the past, but few as challenging as this one.

LOYD THORNTON: There is debris fields up to 35 feet in the air trapped on huge cypress trees. And there are places to where campgrounds were totally wiped out, washed downstream and totally destroyed.

ALLEN: Thornton, a volunteer with Texas EquuSearch, has had a crew out searching debris piles along the river using an airboat.

THORNTON: We're climbing over small islands and debris fields, so we're able to go where a regular boat really has a hard time going.

ALLEN: Thornton has three other EquuSearch volunteers along in his boat. He says that gives him four sets of eyes scan the river and the piles of debris.

THORNTON: The boat and search - we're doing a lot of visual searching now, low speed, searching high up in the trees. Remember the water we saw in places was at least 35 feet high.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: All right, we ready? Let's do it.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yup.

(SOUNDBITE OF ENGINE STARTING)

ALLEN: Not far away, in the town of Hunt, Brad Phillip (ph) today was beginning the hard work of gutting his house. It's high up on the banks of the river but was still flooded out. He says the first thing he did after the flood was search the riverbanks for survivors or victims. One was recovered on an island just a few hundred yards from his house.

BRAD PHILLIP: Someone got over there and flagged me down. I flagged a sheriff down. And within minutes, there was a Black Hawk and drones and people over there, and they were able to get a body out.

ALLEN: Today more victims were recovered near the town of Ingram. One of the crews involved in the recovery effort there is from Mexico. It's a nonprofit group that works with several Texas fire departments, Fundacion 911. Jorge Fuentes is with the group.

JORGE FUENTES: Today they went to the river to do some groundwork on the river, and they did find a body just, like, 30 minutes ago.

ALLEN: Fuentes says it was one of two victims recovered from the side, an extremely large debris field.

FUENTES: This area seems to be, like, on a bend. So lots of debris, lots of trash and some of the mobile homes that got that swept down the river got stuck in this area.

ALLEN: Fuentes' group is working with local fire departments. His members' expertise, especially in water searches, is proving invaluable to the search effort. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice says the operation is still in what he calls the primary phase of the search mission. There are more than 60 miles of river to search, he says, and even with large crews, checking a single mile can take several hours.

On THE NEWSHOUR (PBS) last night, they also covered rescue and recover efforts:



  • Amna Nawaz:

    So, I just can't say enough how much our thoughts are with you and with everyone in the community.

    I understand you actually knew personally some of the leaders at Camp Mystic and others who were tragically lost in these floods. We're so sorry for your loss. Is there anything that you want to share with us about them and what they meant to this community?

  • Austin Dickson:

    Thank you.

    Yes, that is my experience. And my experience is emblematic of so many people in our community. Kerrville is a town of about 25,000 people in a county of Kerr County of 50,000 people. Everybody knows everybody. And so in a tragic event like this, we're all connected to people who have been lost.

    I was personal friends with three people who were swept away and have been identified as deceased at this time. And I'm also family friends with someone who lost one of their granddaughters who was a camper at Camp Mystic.

    My contacts who were swept away that I knew, one was our high school soccer coach. He and his wife and two children were swept away. I also worked very closely on many projects with a pillar of our community, Dick Eastland, who was an owner and director of Camp Mystic, who died during the flood saving campers on his property.

    And I also knew Jane Ragsdale, who was the director and owner of Heart O' the Hills Cam, another summer camp in the Hunt area. These folks are just a few of the names of people who have died, pillars of the community, have given their all to our area and to Texas, and ultimately lost their lives in this flood.

  • Amna Nawaz:

    Austin, we're so very sorry for your loss and for everyone else's there. And we should share that your home, thankfully, your family are safe amid all of this. But we have seen from the pictures how deep and how devastating the damage is.

    We heard Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick earlier saying this is the toughest disaster he has ever been a part of in the state of Texas. Do you agree with that? What is it like on the ground right now?

  • Austin Dickson:

    Words are hard to find to describe what it is that we're seeing. And so I — the lieutenant governor has a broader sense of what he has seen in our state certainly that I have. I know that I crossed the Guadalupe River multiple times a day between work and home.

    I know that I kayak on the river. And like many people, I woke up on the Fourth of July with in-laws in town visiting, with plans for a barbecue and board games and a fun day. We were thinking about actually maybe going down to the river because it was mild temperatures. And everything changed.

    And now the devastation is something that, I mean, it looks like something from a movie. We have got over 20 miles of downed trees throughout the river, floodplain. A lot of these trees are called bald cypress trees. Some are 200 years old, very, very thick and beautiful. And they have been snapped like twigs. We have got refrigerators and washing machines, cars, boats, all sorts of stuff that is stuck up in the trees because the water rose so high.

    The cleanup is going to be massive once the authorities in place at the federal, state and local level finish the search-and-rescue operations looking for anybody who is alive in the rubble.


    • The flooding was a natural disaster but the response -- including lack of -- was manmade and it is an injustice.  This morning, Rachel Frazin (THE HILL) observes, "The deadly Texas floods are drawing renewed scrutiny to Trump administration cuts at the nation’s weather and climate research agencies."  She explains:

    The incident spurred questions about the preparedness of federal agencies such as the National Weather Service (NWS) and others like it as they face the administration’s crosshairs.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which houses NWS, lost hundreds of staffers to Trump administration cuts, and positions within the Weather Service were among them.

    The Austin/San Antonio Weather Service office’s warning coordination meteorologist, who organizes alerting the outside world about agency forecasts, took a Trump administration buyout in April. The office’s Science Operations Officer, who implements new technology and data, also retired around the same time.



    At the federal level, the Trump administration has sought to conceal its own culpability for the disaster, claiming that the cuts to the National Weather Service imposed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency did not hinder the agency from issuing timely warnings in the hours before the flash flood struck.

    There is no doubt that National Weather Service personnel recognized the danger and did everything they could to sound the alarm. Trump is now hiding behind the dedication and self-sacrifice of the very workers he and Musk were denouncing as parasites and bureaucrats only months ago.

    But the efforts of workers were severely hampered by budget cuts, which had forced the early retirement of the warning coordination meteorologist in the San Antonio office—whose primary role was to liaise with local disaster management agencies. At the time of the flood, the San Antonio office had six vacancies out of 26 positions, and the San Angelo office had four unfilled roles out of 23.

    Trump has already forced out 20 percent of career employees at FEMA and announced plans to disband the agency after the 2025 hurricane season, turning its functions over to the states. He has denounced climate change as a Chinese-inspired “hoax” and waged war on virtually every federal agency tasked with addressing science, environmental degradation and public health.




     US President Donald Chump was too busy golfing in New Jersey all weekend to visit the site and offer comfort.  He's still too busy. He's got to rest after golfing.  But he thinks he might be able to drag his fat ass to Texas on Friday.  In the meantime, Reanna Smith (US MIRROR) noted yesterday:


     
    Donald Trump has been accused of putting "Israel first" as he's set to have dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while rescuers continue their desperate search for victims of catastrophic flooding in Texas that has killed more than 80 people.

    During his first inauguration speech in 2017, Trump warned the world that ''from this day forward, it's going to be only America first, America first." It's a pledge that he vowed to continue to deliver on during his second term.
    But critics have accused Trump's "America First" policy of going out the window as he works to support Israel in their war against Iran. On Monday, Trump is set to sign executive orders at the White House before greeting Netanyahu and hosting him for a dinner in the blue room.
    But critics have accused Trump's "America First" policy of going out the window as he works to support Israel in their war against Iran. On Monday, Trump is set to sign executive orders at the White House before greeting Netanyahu and hosting him for a dinner in the blue room.



    No, making time to dine with Netanyahu does not translate as "America first."  

    Please note that the Gaza Freaks of the feckless CODEPINK did not stage a protest last night.  They will do one today, protesting Congress.  But they're too scared to protest at the White House or to protest Chump.  They had no such reluctance when it came to Joe Biden, you may remember.  Feckless.

    Last night, Rachel Maddow addressed the cutbacks and firings that left so many vulnerable to a natural disaster.




    Chump's failures never end.  Tomorrow is July 9th.  And the US will not see 90 deals in 90 days.  Stephanie Ruhle addressed this last night.


    The tariffs are fees the American consumer will pay.  Chump continues to lie or just doesn't understand basic math.  He's lying again.  The markets do not like his TACO-ing.  Small business are being hit hard as they try to plan for this economy that Chump appears not to grasp and not to care about.

    Confidence is slipping as a result.  

    This is all on him.  Just like that budget bill that robs from the average American to make the rich richer doesn't help anyone. 


    The budget bill -- now law -- was addressed on ABC THIS WEEK  Sunday.


    STEPHANOPOULOS: Selina Wang, thanks very much.

    Want to get more on this now from former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Also the former president of Harvard University.

    Larry, thank you for joining us this morning.

    In "The New York Times" this week, you and Robert Rubin, who also served as president -- as Treasury secretary, called this bill dangerous, said it “posed a huge risk to the economy.”

    What are those risks?

    FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY LARRY SUMMERS: George, just to start with, what your people have been describing is the biggest cut in the American safety net in history. The Yale Budget Lab estimates that it will kill, over 10 years, 100,000 people. That is 2,000 days of death like we've seen in Texas this weekend. In my 70 years, I’ve never been as embarrassed for my country on July 4th.

    These higher interest rates, these cutbacks in subsidies to electricity, these reductions in the availability of housing, the fact that hospitals are going to have to take care of these people and pass on the costs to everybody else, and that's going to mean more inflation, more risk that the Fed has to raise interest rates and run the risk of recession, more stagflation, that's the risk facing every middle-class family in our country because of this bill.

    And for what? A million dollars over 10 years to the top tenth of a percent of our population. Is that the highest priority use of federal money right now? I don't think so. This is a shameful act by our Congress and by our president that is going to set our country back.

    STEPHANOPOULOS: Part of the president's argument is that economic growth sparked by the bill will alleviate the dangers that you talk about here. The chair of the Council of Economic Advisers is up next, and his council issued a report this week projecting $11 trillion in deficit reduction from growth, higher tax revenue and savings on debt payments.

    How do you respond to that?

    SUMMERS: It is respectfully nonsense. None of us can forecast what's going to happen to economic growth. What we can forecast is that when people have to hold government debt instead of being able to invest it in new capital goods, new machinery, new buildings, that makes the economy less productive.

    What we can forecast is that when we're investing less in research and development, investing less in our schools, that there is a negative impact on economic growth. There is no economist anywhere, without a strong political agenda, who is saying that this bill is a positive for the economy. And the overwhelming view is that it is probably going to make the economy worse.

    Think about it this way. How long can the world's greatest debtor remain the world's greatest power? And this is piling more debt onto the economy than any piece of tax legislation in dollar terms that we have ever had.

    STEPHANOPOULOS: But, Larry, as you know, experts in the past have raised alarm bells about the deficits, and the economy seems pretty resilient in the face of that.

    SUMMERS: George, the best period we have had in the economy was the economy that -- was the period that Secretary Rubin and I wrote about when we served President Clinton and by acting responsibly on the deficit by listening to the CBO rather than expressing contempt for it, we reduced the deficit, set off a virtual -- virtues circle of increased investment, more growth, lower deficits, lower interest rates, and then around the cycle again.

    Experts warn about risks. And I can't tell you whether the financial crisis is going to come this year or whether the financial crisis is going to come five years from now. And I'm not going to do cry wolf rhetoric. By the way, I was the one who was saying for a decade after 2010 that deficit reduction didn't need to be a national priority.

    But anybody who looks at the numbers sees that we've never had deficits remotely like this or the prospect of debts remotely like this at a moment when the economy was strong and we were at peace anytime in our history. This is a risk that we don't need to run, and for what? To give $1 million a year to the top-tenth of a percent while, in effect, sentencing 100,000 poor Americans to death over the next 10 years because they can't get access to necessary medical procedures, because they can't get driven to a hospital, because their family members can't get supported? This is just wrong.

    STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally --

    SUMMERS: Look, there are lots of things, George, that you argue about, and Democrats, Republicans have different perspectives. This is that very rare instance where everybody outside of a mainstream sees something very dangerous happen.

    STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, the president's team argued that tariff revenue is going to help make up some of the shortfall. What's your response?

    SUMMERS: Yeah, it probably will collect some revenue at the cost of higher inflation for American consumers, less competitiveness for American producers. 60 times as many people use -- work in industries that use steel as work in the steel industry, and every one of them is less competitive because of the president's tariffs. So, higher prices, less competitiveness, and not really that much revenue relative to what's being given to the very wealthy in this bill.

    STEPHANOPOULOS: Larry Summers, thanks very much.


    The economy is not sound and cracks are emerging that people should be noting.  Daniel Johnson (BLACK ENTERPRISE) reports:


    The general unemployment rate has been steady during the past year for every group of workers, every group of workers that is, except for Black women, which some economic experts warn is a sign of bad things for the overall economy after the latest jobs report was released on July 3.
    According to The 19th News, over the last three months, the unemployment rate for Black women has been somewhere around six percent—that figure is twice the unemployment rate of white workers–and this points to potential problems for the overall economic outlook.

    Jessica Fulton, a senior fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank focused on Black Americans, indicated to the outlet that due to the presence of systemic racism and inequity in the labor market, Black workers are always the first ones affected by any underlying issues with the labor market.

    "Black workers, and particularly Black women, show up as a canary in the coal mine, giving a picture of what may happen to everyone else later," Fulton said.

    To her point, the overall Black unemployment rate rose to 6.8% in June, after posting a 6% rate in May, a sharp increase that was driven by the increase in Black women’s unemployment, as the unemployment rate of Black men has been consistently above 6% since February, but the overall rate of Black unemployment was somewhat tempered by Black women’s lower unemployment rate.


    The solid monthly job gains that the White House is touting as the “Trump effect” are in danger of fading as the president’s hardline immigration policies chip away at the supply of foreign-born workers.

    That risk is rising because the GOP's “Big, Beautiful Bill” contains $150 billion to ramp up border security and deportations.
    The foreign-born workforce contracted again in June, the government reported Thursday, marking the third straight month it has fallen even as employers defied expectations and added 147,000 overall jobs.

    White House officials insist that the decline won't dent the economy because the megabill will encourage more Americans to enter the workforce. Many economists disagree, predicting that the immigration crackdown will hurt the labor market.

    Now, as President Donald Trump's deportations start to show up in the economic data, we're about to find out who's right.

    Economists believe that the labor market’s breakeven rate — the number of jobs that businesses must add to keep unemployment in check — will decline with the abrupt end of the Biden-era immigration surge. Even if the jobless rate stays near its current level of 4.1 percent, a slowdown in payroll growth would pose a hurdle for the economy, they say. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is among those recently warning that economic growth could diminish.




    We need to wrap up so let's wind down with Lawrence O'Donnell.  




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