Wednesday, March 4, 2026

He's put a price tag on everything

Grifter Donald Chump is in the news.  Nicole Charky-Chami (Raw Story) reports:

Questions have mounted over whether President Donald Trump has sold off pardons in exchange for donations to his MAGA allies.

The controversy surrounding these presidential pardons has "just got louder," wrote Steve Benen, producer of “The Rachel Maddow Show” and editor of MaddowBlog, in an analysis published Monday.
Trump has rewarded "generous donors with clemency," which was revealed in a Wall Street Journal report in December that detailed some of the alleged inner workings that have "spawned a pardon-shopping industry where lobbyists say their going rate is $1 million. Pardon-seekers have offered some lobbyists close to the president success fees of as much as $6 million if they can close the deal, according to people familiar with the offers.”

Benen pointed to Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-Italian banker who was facing felony bribery and other charges, and the recent donations from his daughter, Isabela Herrera, who donated $2.5 million to MAGA Inc.
In exchange for the move, "Herrera agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor campaign finance charge, disappointing career prosecutors who had pushed for a harsher sentence," according to The New York Times.
"Two months later, Isabela Herrera donated another $1 million to MAGA Inc., culminating in a pardon from Trump late last week. (The White House claimed the political contributions did not lead to the pardon)," Benen wrote.

He has placed a price tag on everything.  He is the most disgusting and cheapest and tackiest president the United States has ever had.  


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


Wednesday, March 4, 2026.  Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee and makes clear that she's not running anything, she's not overseeing cases that cause problems for DHS, she's not overseeing spending on projects, she's just posing for photo-ops endlessly. 


Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee conducted an oversight hearing on Homeland Security.  Appearing before them was Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.  Homeland Security has terrorized the American people and behaved with no oversight at all.  It wasn't until the January killings of US citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti that the repulsion grew so great against ICE's actions that Noem and others were forced into realizing that there are checks and balances in this system.  Renee and Alex were killed in Minnesota.  Senator Amy Klobuchar is one of that state's two US senators so we'll start by noting her. 


Senator Amy Klobuchar:  Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed. They should be alive today.  In fact, in one month in the city of Minneapolis, when you look at the three fatalities that were results of shooting, 2 of 3 were committed by federal agents.  Are you aware of that?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Yes, I am. 

Senator Amy Klobuchar: So your agents not only their actions resulted in the deaths of two innocent American citizens but they repeatedly violated my constituents First Amendment rights to assemble.   You say you believe in the Second Amendment right to bear arms but Alez Pretti was criticized repeatedly by officials in the administration for hvaing a lawful permit to carry and having a gun.  Your agents violated the Fourth Amendment rights of my constituents by ramming through doors of innocent people's homes, innocent citizens' homes without any kind of a warrant and violated the Fifth Amendment right to due process.  So, as I've shared with my colleagues, if you believe in federalism, in freedom and in liberty, you should be horrified by what the Department of Homeland Security did in Minnesota.  So my first question is, having spoken to Mr. [Tom] Homan [White House Border Czar], what is the eact number of DHS agents still in Minnesota? 

Secretary Kristi Noem: Well I believe that there is still close to 650 there counting the investigators that are there working to get to the bottom of the unprecedented fraud that has been found in the Medicaid funding

Senator Amy Klobchar: As you know, I am all in on prosecuting fraud.  I put in place the US Attorney who exposed the fraud under the Biden administration and brought the bulk of the prosecutions and also recommended to Mr. [Todd] Blanch [Deputy Attorney General] that Joe Thompson be the acting US Attorney who led those prosecutions and now has left the office because the Department of Justice asked him and many others to investigate Renee Good's wife instead of doing their jobs, doing fraud.  So what I want to know is when are you going to get down to the original footprint as promised to us. 


Secretary Kristi Noem:  We're continuing to work at that although those investigators will continue to stay there to get to the bottom of that fraud to make sure that those vulnerable people that rely on those programs actually get services from those federal dollars that are spent, that it's not stolen by criminals and used by individuals to enrich themselves and send it out of the country.  

Senator Amy Klobuchar: Secretary, Chong Li Tao.  Are you aware that agents bashed in the door of a US citizen with no criminal record?

Secretary Kristi Noem: I can't speak to the specifics of that.

Senator Amy Klobuchar: Did you see the photos of that man being dragged out of his house in crocs and in his underwear?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Yes, I did.

Senator Amy Klobuchar: Did you believe that he was involved in fraud?

Secretary Kristi Noem: I do not know where that status of that investigation is.

Senator Amy Klobuchar: Are you aware that he is a son of a beloved nurse that treated our soldiers in Vietnam?

Secretary Kristi Noem:  I believe that we have laws in this country that need to be enforced and need to be applied equally to everyone of enforcing the laws and following the laws.  

Senator Amy Klobuchar: Did they have a judicial warrant when they rammed through an American citizen's store?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Our law enforcement officers follow the same protocols and procedures that all law enforcement --

Senator Amy Klobuchar: Are you aware that he tried to show his identification, to show that he was an American citizen, and they didn't want to see it?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Again, these officers, uhm, conduct themselves in processes.  If something was done inaccurately then certainly we will make sure that we corrected and rectify it in the future. 

Senator Amy Klobuchar: Are you aware that the person they were looking for was in prison and had been in prison for years?


Secretary Kristi Noem:  Yes, I am.  That's a target -- Yes, we do target operations going after and looking for --

Senator Amy Klobuchar: Do you agree that it is unacceptable for your agents to ram in someone's door and drag someone out in their underwear in below zero temperatures when they have the wrong guy? 

Secretary Kristi Noem:  Our officers conduct targeted operations and utilize the law processes that are given to them in the tools --

Senator Amy Klobuchar:  You are not answering that you think that's wrong.

Secretary Kristi Noem: They need to identify that individual and, uh, that individual --

Senator Amy Klobuchar:  They couldn't identify him by looking at his identification?  Instead, they had to drag him out, throw him in a car and drive him around for an hour?  How about pulling off off-duty police officers, Madam Secretary, every single one of whom made clear who they were.  They were people of color, off-duty police officers.  In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, the chief described how one off-duty police officer -- someone of color, a US citizen -- was stopped and confronted by ICE agents with their guns drawn demanding her proof of citizenship.  As Chief [Mark] Bruley said, "I wish I could tell you that this was an isolated incident but other chiefs said it had happened to their own officers.  Why were these officers stopped?

Secretary Kristi Noem:  We have thousands of law enforcement operations that we do every single day --

Senator Amy Klobuchar:  Do you think they were stopped because they were people of color?  Were they racially profiled -- Ms. Noem ?

Secretary Kristi Noem:  When I look at these American families who've been victimized by criminals that we have removed from cities and communities, I'm grateful for the work that our ICE officers do.  And by your only focus on --

Senator Amy Klobuchar: Are you defending stopping off-duty police officers  of color and dragging a Mung elder out of his home?

Secretary Kristi Noem: -- when you only talk about these situations like this that we are conducting and you don't talk about the good work that they do to protect people from being victimized, right?  People that are in this country that want to conduct violent crimes against them or take advantage against them, uh, the law need to apply to everyone and we're out there enforcing --

Senator Amy Klobuchar:  I am a former prosecutor, Ms. Noem, and I have always worked with our police well.  But that's not what was going -- these ICE agents were not following police procedures.  After the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, when I spoke to Alex's parents, they told me that you calling him "a domestic terrorist."  This was directly from them the day after he was killed -- a nurse in our VA, Alex -- one of the mos thurtful things they could ever imagine was said by you about their son.  Do you have anything you want to say to Alex Pretti's parents?  

Secretary Kristi Noem:  We were relying in the hours after that incident that was so horrific, um, on information we were getting from our agents --

Senator Amy Klobuchar  I just asked if you had anything you wanted to say to the parents or to the family of Renee Good after you called them domestic terrorists?

Secretary Kristi Noem: That's what I am doing --

Senator Amy Klobuchar:  You called them domestic terrorists.

Secretary Kristi Noem:  -- is I can't even imagine what they have gone through in the loss of their son and the loss of their family members and 

Senator Amy Klobuchar: But how about specifically calling them domestic terrorists without any evidence of that? 

Secretary Kristi Noem: Sir, ma'am, I did not call him a domestic terrorist.  I said it appeared to be an incident of.  

Senator Amy Klobuchar:  I think the parents saw it for what it was.  After the killings, the federal government refused to cooperate with state law enforcement agents, blocked Minnesota investigators from accessing the scene.  I know because I got directly calls from the mayor.  I tried to call the DOJ.  I tried to do everything I could because they were very worried about what was going to happen immediately -- especially after Alex Pretti's death.  Do you think that blocking local law enforcement from the scene of a shooting makes people safer?  Yes or no?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Actually our HSI law enforcement officers risked their lives on that scene preserving evidence and keeping the violent rioters away from the evidence so that it could --

Senator Amy Klobuchar: It was Alex Pretti's life that was lost at the scene, Secretary Noem.

Secretary Kristi Noem: Yes, I am aware.  


Kristi had nothing to say to the families of Renee or Alex when asked by Senator Klobuchar.  Molly Sprayregen (LGBTQ NATION) notes that she had nothing to say on the topic elsewhere in the hearing as well:

While testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem refused to admit she was wrong for announcing that the two people killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis were “domestic terrorists” in the immediate aftermath of their deaths.

“We have ample video evidence and eyewitness testimony proving you were wrong,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) told her. “Your statements caused immeasurable pain to these families.”

Durbin also brought up teacher’s assistant Marimar Martinez, who survived being shot five times by ICE agents in Chicago and was also accused by the federal government of being a domestic terrorist.

He then said he wanted to give Noem “an opportunity to do the right thing” and asked, “Do you retract these statements identifying these individuals as domestic terrorists?”

Noem did not, instead giving a long-winded answer about her heart breaking for the families of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. She justified her actions by claiming “agents at the scene” told her the victims were terrorists and that the situation was “chaotic.”

Noem continued to skirt the issue, prompting Durbin to ask, “Is it so hard to say you were wrong?”


Yes, it apparently is too hard for Noem to admit she was wrong.  

On Renee Nicole Good, Molly Sprayregen also reports:

Senate Judiciary Democrats have accused FBI Director Kash Patel of shutting down the FBI investigation into the death of Renee Good at the hands of ICE agents because he did not want the warrant to call her a “victim.”

The group posted on social media on Monday that a “credible whistleblower” revealed that “FBI forensic experts were ordered to stand down from processing the scene where Renee Good was killed, because Kash Patel did not want Good referenced as a ‘victim’ in the warrant.”

In a follow-up post, the Democrats clarify that Patel “wanted to falsely spin Renee Good as a threat to law enforcement.” The post included a screenshot explaining information from a credible whistleblower that the FBI’s Forensic Response Section was initially called to the scene of Good’s death to access Good’s car and gather evidence. 


Senator Adam Schiff also raised the murders of Renee and Alex in the hearing. 


Senator Adam Schiff: […] Madam Secretary I want to ask you about one of the first claims you made in the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. You accused them both, I think, within hours of engaging in domestic terrorism. You have testified earlier that you did so based on preliminary field reports. Who told you that these two victims were engaged in domestic terrorism? Where did you get that information from?   

Secretary Kristi Noem: I have said before and will repeat again for you Senator, that those reports were coming from on the ground agents that were there. It was a chaotic scene.  

Senator Adam Schiff: So, you spoke to agents on the ground who told you they were domestic terrorists?   

Secretary Kristi Noem: Yes, my team was working with me, talking to those agents on the ground to relay as much information as possible that we could to the American people.   

Senator Adam Schiff: So, your team told you that people in Minneapolis said they were domestic terrorists. Did they tell you whether they had any basis for that claim within either minutes or hours of the shooting of Alex Pretti and Renee Good?   

Secretary Kristi Noem: Sir, if you look back at the day of January 24, there was a press conference earlier in the day and then I held one hours later. And we were also talking –  

Senator Adam Schiff: I’m asking you, did you determine whether there was any basis for the sensational claim, a claim that proved to be utterly false, that these two victims were engaged in domestic terrorism?   

Secretary Kristi Noem: There is an investigation ongoing. The FBI is leading --   

Senator Adam Schiff: I’m aware of that. I’m asking you --   

Secretary Kristi Noem: -- there is also internal investigations that are ongoing –   

Senator Adam Schiff Schiff: What I’m asking about though is not the investigation that’s ongoing […] I’m asking about your statements in the immediate aftermath of these shootings. Your statements based on completely unvetted information. Information that if it was even provided to you, proved to be utterly false. That you were content to tell the whole country. Do you have any concern about misleading the whole country? Don’t you think in the immediate aftermath of a shooting that you should provide only vetted information to the public? How do you imagine you are going to gain the trust of the American people if you’re pushing out false information about the shooting of American citizens? 

Senator Richard Blumenthal's line of questioning is also worthy of note.  Noem knew the hearing was scheduled, she was briefed ahead of time by various people on her staff so she would be ready and prepared to answer questions.  But she still couldn't. 

Senator Richard Blumenthal:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here today, Madam Secretary. For a year, you maintained that no U.S. citizens have been arrested or detained by ICE or CBP. After hearings I conducted in the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations as the Ranking Member, you admitted finally in a letter written to me just last month, that in fact U.S. citizens have been detained and arrested. I’m going to ask, Mr. Chairman, that that letter be entered into the record. Thank you. You put the number at 38. Far more American citizens have been arrested by ICE and CBP, probably in the hundreds, perhaps the thousands. Have you met with any of the American citizens who have been detained or arrested by your agency?

Secretary Kristi Noem: The individuals that may have been detained and arrested were individuals that could have been obstructing law enforcement operations --

Senator Richard Blumenthal: You haven’t met with them, correct?

Secretary Kristi Noem: -- and committing crimes that way, and that we would have been detaining individuals until their identity was confirmed.

Senator Richard Blumenthal: I would like to introduce you to three of them. Leo, Javier, and Marimar, would you please stand? These three individuals, Madam Secretary, were arrested by your agency. Leonardo Venegas, Javier Ramirez, and Marimar Martinez.  Do you know what your agents did to Leo Venegas? I’ll tell you. On May 21 of last year, they entered the private property at a house that he was constructing without consent, without a warrant, illegally. Again, on June 12, they entered private property, a home where he was doing construction. He is a United States citizen, born in Florida. They seized him and ignored and disregarded his proof of citizenship. Wouldn't you agree with me that no U.S. citizen simply working lawfully should be arrested?

Secretary Kristi Noem: In law enforcement operations across the country, there are times when U.S. citizens --

Senator Richard Blumenthal: It’s a simple yes or no.

Secretary Kristi Noem: -- may be arrested or detained until their identity is confirmed and that they haven’t committed a crime.

Senator Richard Blumenthal: Would you agree with me, Madam Secretary, that U.S. citizens should not be arrested when they are obeying the law, they have no criminal record, and they are engaged in lawful activity?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Sir, in situations where law enforcement, regardless of the agency, across the country, when there is probable cause an individual --

Senator Richard Blumenthal: Let me tell you about Javier Ramirez.  Do you know what your agents did to Javier Ramirez? He was on his own private property when he was assaulted by masked agents—his own property—without a warrant, without consent. They said, “Get him, he's Mexican.” He was violently slammed into the ground while being handcuffed and taken into custody, despite telling officers that he is a United States citizen and even showing them his passport. And when he was asked what he was being arrested for, you know what they said? “We don’t know.” Wouldn’t you agree that targeting someone just because he is, or looks like he is, Mexican, when he is a United States citizen, is wrong?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Senator, we do not target people based on their race or ethnicity. We do targeted operations based on criminal backgrounds and information that we have.

Senator Richard Blumenthal: This story goes on, Madam Secretary. Javier was detained for over four days. He was denied medicine that he needed for severe diabetes. He lost consciousness. He had severe hypoglycemia. Wouldn't you agree with me that medical treatment should have been provided to him? He was denied.

Secretary Kristi Noem: Senator, medical treatment is provided to individuals in our detention centers --

Senator Richard Blumenthal: Well, it wasn’t for him. Wouldn’t you agree that was wrong?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Within 12 hours, they have a medical examination, and we get them the prescriptions and medications that they need. They also have a full evaluation, including --

Senator Richard Blumenthal: Will you commit to take action and to look into why he was denied medical treatment?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Yes, I will look into that case specifically for you, Senator.

Senator Richard Blumenthal: Marimar Martinez is with us as well. She is standing right behind you. She was on her way to donate clothing at her church when she came across an unmarked car. The agents sideswiped her car. Three masked agents in camouflage stormed out. One of them pulled out his gun and fired at her moving vehicle, hitting her five times. She almost bled to death. Wouldn't you agree that shooting Marimar Martinez, a United States citizen from Chicago, on her way to donate clothing at her church is wrong?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Sir, I don’t know the situation or the case. I’ll look into it to ensure that all the procedures were followed properly.

Senator Richard Blumenthal: Well, I’m glad you’ll look into it.  Marimar, by the way, was falsely charged with impeding law enforcement, but the case actually fell apart. The judge dismissed it as being trumped up. He dismissed it with prejudice. In fact, the agent who shot her—I’m not going to name him, but you know who he is—was quoted on social media the day or so afterward, and he said, “I fired five rounds, and she had seven holes. Put that in your book, boys” and “Cool, I'm up for another round of f--- around and find out.” Will you join me in condemning that agent?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Sir, that situation I don’t know the details of, but I will look into that.

Senator Richard Blumenthal: I don’t know why you can't join me in saying it was wrong to shoot Marimar, almost cause her death, and then brag about it.  
Wouldn’t you agree with me that it was wrong?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Sir, the way that you have portrayed it, it appears to be, but let me look at the case so I can speak to the specifics of it.

Senator Richard Blumenthal: Apparently, contrary to what you just said, you actually supported the agent who shot Ms. Martinez five times. He is quoted as saying, when he was asked, “Everyone has been supportive, including Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Secretary Noem, and El Jefe himself,” referring presumably to President Trump. Is the agent who shot Ms. Martinez still on the job?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Sir, our law enforcement officers conduct operations every day according to procedures and training and experience they have. Whenever something is not done properly --

Senator Richard Blumenthal: Is the agent who shot Ms. Martinez still on the job, carrying a gun?

Secretary Kristi Noem: I don’t know the details. I will find out and get that information to you.

Senator Richard Blumenthal: Would you agree that he shouldn’t be on the job?

Secretary Kristi Noem: I will look into this case and get back to you on the details. I’m not familiar with it.

Marimar Martinez.  The country knows her name and story.  But Krisi Noem will have to "look into this case and get back to you"?  Marimar's case has received a ton of press attention and yet Kristi Noem, who heads Homeland Security, is not versed in it?  Do her photo ops take up all of her time?  She's the head of the department.  ICE attacked Marimar.  Marimar's lucky to be alive.  And yet Kristi hasn't bothered once to look into what happened ("I don't know the details").  

She doesn't know much.  We'll note Senator Cory Booker next and pay attention for the section where he brings up the cost of a building DHS recently purchases -- the cost they paid versus the cost of the building's actual market value. 


Senator Cory Booker:  Secretary Noem, you're in charge of your agency, the buck stops with you -- correct? 

Secretary Kristi Noem: I'm in charge of my agency.  Yes, correct. 

Senator Cory Booker: And you had to swear an oath to the Constitution before you took this jor, right?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Correct.

Senator Cory Booker: So one of the most sacrosanct ideas of our nation -- enshrined in our Constitution -- is freedom, is liberty.It is an idea that the government has a very high standard should they take away liberty and freedom from an American citizen?  How many US citizens has DHS detained as of last October? 

Secretary Kristi Noem: Senator, if you're talking about detained and arrested, is that those that have been violating and obstructing our law enforcement operations?  If that what you're referencing because it could be hundreds and hundreds   We have faced violent riots across the country.  

Senator Cory Booker:  You are specifically in Portalnd and in only people you've detained are committing crimes, but you and I both know that's not true.  So then how many people have you detained? 

Secretary Kristi Noem:  Can't give you an accurate number because we've literally detained and arrested many for those obstruction of law enforcement operations and also other records that -- 

Senator Cory Booker: Let me tell you what my - my staff researched.  May I, may I continue?  Public records are showing that over 170 incidents of your agency unlawfully taking away the liberties and freedoms of American citizens.  This includes 20 children -- 20 American kids -- that your agency detained.  How long can your agency detain an American citizen?

Secretary Kristi Noem:  We don't -- we don't detain children and separate them from their parents.   

Senator Cory Booker:  Those parents have chosen -- you're telling me -- to keep their child with them?  I just want to be clear.  You're telling me under oath right now that your agency has not detained American children? 

Secretary Kristi Noem: Those parents have chosen to keep their children with them.  We don't separate families like the Biden administration did -- We keep them together and parents have the option on if they want their child with them or not with them.  

Senator Cory Booker: When you detain an American citizen, how long do they last?

Secretary Kristi Noem: We don't detain American citizens and when there's probable cause --

Senator Cory Booker:  Let me --  because you're not speaking truthfully under oath.   Isaias Pena Salcedo, a US citizen living in California, was detained more than 70 hours -- almost 3 days -- even after he showed ICE agents his passport.  My colleague Senator Blumenthal gave you example after example.  He brought people here who had something else we Americans consider sacrosanct, our home, our property.  Your masked agents jumping out of unmarked cars have broken into -- considerable property damage occurring in American citizens' homes.  Case after case of this and you sit here before me and claim the buck stops with you.  But you don't even know the names of these individuals.  I ran New Jersey's largest municipal police department.  When my officers engaged in misconduct, you can be damn well sure I knew about it and I investigated it.  And yet you have situations where your officers are violating the sanctity of people's homes, arresting and detaining them and holding their children and you're acting as if you don't know about it and saying that under oath. Marimar Martinez -- who is here right now -- on her way to church, an American citizen going to church, not just to worship but to donate clothing -- your officers shot her multiple times.  The case was thrown out of court and you represent here that you don't know about it.  In New Jersey, are you aware of your officers' activities in places like schools?  Are you aware of your officers' activities at our public schools?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Sir, we don't go into schools and do targeted law enforcement operations.  We do targeted law enforcement operations like other agencies and 

Senator Cory Booker:  ICE officers entered the grounds of a high school in Minneapolis.  That's a fact.  Elementary school children in New Jersey are terrified of your agents.  When they came up a school bus top, they fled.  Another school, higher education, Columbia University. your agents reportedly lied to students, told them they were searching for a missing person to gain access to private spaces, to non public areas of campus.  Secretary Noem, these are kids.  They're terrified in our communities.  How do you think that affects them when children in my stage go running, fleeing and often you will pursue children throwing them to the ground, getting on their backs,putting them in handcuffs.  I want to talk to you about this incredible empire of for-profit companies that are profiting at rates we've never seen and the way you're using money.  Let's -- let's drill down on the warehouses, the DHS has been buying over the last several months, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.  Are you familiar with the acquisition of a warehouse DHS recently bought in Roxbury Township, New Jersey?  

Secretary Kristi Noem: Yes.

Senator Cory Booker:  You are familiar with that.  

Secretary Kristi Noem: I'm familiar.

Senator Cory Booker: How much you spent of it?

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

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

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

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

Secretary Kristi Noem: Yes, we do comply with agency --

Senator Cory Booker: Do you comply with court orders?

Secretary Kristi Noem: Yes, we have.  We -- we comply with the federal court orders.

Senator Cory Booker: You were saying under oath that you do and yet we know in January, the Chief Judge, Republican appointee for the federal district of Minnesota found that ICE had violated nearly 100 court orders since January 1st alone.  In my state of New Jersey last month, the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General admitted in my state  to the New Jersey District Court that the government had violated 52 separate court orders -- all involving cases where immigrants successfully challenged the legality of their detention.  So this again is a Constitution that you swore an oath to and one of the most important ideas is that no one is above the law.  You are violating the separation of powers, violating court orders and routinely violating the Civil Rights of Americans. This is a reckless and out of control agency that you are responsible for.  You seem to have no situational awareness whatsoever of some of the most egregious examples of Americans being completely attacked, violated, undermined in accordance with our laws by their own government.  And this is what is phenomenal to me -- is immigration was your president's number one issue, overwhelmingly popular with the American people.  But  now it's overwhelmingly unpopular and it's not because you are deporting dangerous people that everybody here wants out of our country.  No, it's because you're going into our schools.  You're terrorizing out children.  You're detaining children.  You're arresting Americans.  You're breaking into our homes. You're terrorizing out streets.  You're violating our rights to peacefully protest again and again and again. [. . .]  Either you are utterly incompetent or you are violating laws with impunity.  You should step down from your position.  If you odn't, you should be removed by this president. And if not, Congress should impeach you.  


Worth 62 million dollars but the US government spent $129 million of our taxpayer dollars to purchase it.  DOGE was always a con job.  The spending -- certainly at Homeland Security -- has been off the charts and it has been wasteful spending.  Kristi Noem is the Secretary of Homeland Security.  Americans need to be asking what she's doing with her time and our money. 



We'll wind down with two things on the war on Iran.



Ben with MEIDASTOUCH NEWS reports that Chump is running low on . . . weapons.  Friday there will be an emergency meeting.  Way to plan, Donald, way to plan.  Lara Seligman (WALL STREET JOURNAL) reports:

U.S. troops working at a tactical operations center at a commercial port in Kuwait on Sunday had no warning that a deadly Iranian drone was headed straight toward them.

Flying slow and low to the ground, the one-way attack system evaded U.S. air defenses and hit the Shuaiba port on the Persian Gulf, according to two U.S. officials, killing six American servicemembers and seriously wounding others.
The facility struck was a large trailer with walls protected by concrete slabs, but wasn’t fortified from the top, according to a third person briefed on the attack.

Their deaths highlight the risks posed by Iranian drones to tens of thousands of American military personnel serving in the Middle East after President Trump, who campaigned on bringing U.S. troops home from endless wars in the region, launched a massive military campaign against Iran on Saturday.

While the Pentagon has used sophisticated air defense systems to great effect for decades against Iranian missiles, military officials have struggled to solve the challenge posed by small drones that fly low to the ground and evade traditional detection methods. In a similar attack just over two years ago, three U.S. soldiers were killed when an Iranian Shahed drone struck a small installation at Tower 22 in Jordan.



The following sites updated:

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

Sarah's been a grifter all along

Sarah Ferguson.  She's always been a grifter.  Marrying into the royal family made her think she was set for life.  Erin Hill and Simon Perry (People) report:

Andrew’s arrest has revealed a family shielded by privilege, putting Sarah Ferguson under scrutiny and raising questions about Beatrice and Eugenie's future
When former Prince Andrew was arrested on the morning of Feb. 19, the shock spread quickly through a family long insulated from consequence, an institution conditioned to contain damage and a public no longer willing to accept royal privilege as a shield.

What began as a legal crisis for Queen Elizabeth’s long-favored son — detained for 11 hours on suspicion of misconduct in public office, linked to allegations that he improperly shared information as a U.K. trade envoy with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — became something broader: a moment of exposure for the palace culture that protected him and his family for decades.

“They thought they’d be able to operate like this under the radar,” Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story. “They’re clearly up to their necks in exploiting their royal status.”
For years, the Yorks occupied a peculiar space inside the monarchy — prominent enough to trade on status, peripheral enough to avoid sustained scrutiny. Andrew’s sense of entitlement was not simply indulged; it was reinforced from childhood. Raised when Queen Elizabeth had settled into her reign and found time to be a more present mother, Andrew, 66, grew up protected and rarely corrected.

“He has been pampered all the way through his life, in this bubble,” Lownie says. “Status is everything to him — it’s his only sense of identity.”

That extended to Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, 66, who was repeatedly welcomed back into the royal fold even as she sought to monetize her proximity to it. Meanwhile, their daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie were raised with extraordinary privilege and shaped by the expectation that royal protection would endure.


And, in the article, we get reminded of Sarah's greed getting her in trouble a few years back:

“They turned a blind eye,” Lownie says.

That arrangement was tested in 2010, when Ferguson was filmed in a News of the World sting, appearing to offer access to Andrew in the form of meetings and introductions in exchange for cash. She withdrew from public view, only to resurface later — forgiven and treated as a stabilizing presence in Andrew’s life. Now the system that once allowed such recoveries has collapsed. The release of new Epstein-related material has renewed focus on Ferguson’s actions, including her efforts to maintain contact with Epstein after his 2009 release from prison amid her financial struggles.

“This time no one is going to give her the airspace,” says royal author Ingrid Seward.



The turning point came in 1996 after Ferguson released her first memoir.

"It was tragic that the relationship between them disintegrated after the publication of Sarah's autobiography, My Story, in 1996," Burrell wrote. "Although Diana supported Sarah's decision to go public and become an independent woman, her support came with conditions."
In the aftermath, the former Duchess of York and the Princess of Wales stopped speaking directly, instead communicating through letters. At least until one exchange pushed things too far again.

In his book, Burrell described the moment a letter arrived, appearing to be from one of Ferguson's young daughters, Princess Eugenie, with the envelope addressed to "HRH The Princess of Wales" in a child's handwriting.
"Diana said to me, 'Look at this,' as she held the letter head high," he wrote. "'She is now using her children to intervene. It's her last resort?' Diana was incandescent with rage. The relationship was terminated for good, and they never spoke again."

According to Burrell's book, "Diana's last words to Sarah were that when it came to honesty, perhaps she shouldn't resort to using her child to address envelopes to Diana and that Diana was happier than she had ever been."

By the time Diana tragically died in the wake of a Paris car accident in the summer of 1997, she and Fergie had not spoken in months.

Sarah's been a grifter all along. 

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


Tuesday March 3, 2026.  The death toll in Iran increases -- for Iranian civilians, for US service members -- as Chump tries to distract from The Epstein Files with his war of choice. 



The war over Iran engulfed more of the Middle East on Monday as strikes intensified, Iran-backed groups stepped up attacks and a sixth U.S. service member was killed in action.

Trump has said his administration expects the conflict to go on for "four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that."

The Iranian Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization, said at least 555 Iranians have been killed since the beginning of the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign on Saturday.




Videos shared by Iranian state media and independently verified by The New York Times showed thousands of people attending a funeral procession in the southern town of Minab on Tuesday for victims of a strike on an elementary school. The school was in session on Saturday when an airstrike hit it, killing 175 people, Iranian officials and rights groups said.

Some of the funeral-goers held photographs of victims aloft as group prayers were recited, and a large vehicle carried small coffins draped in the Iranian flag through the crowd. Other videos showed people in the crowd chanting “Death to Israel” and proclamations of support for the Islamic Republic.


Today on MORNING JOE, David Ignatius spoke with Joe and Mika about how this is not another Venezuela with Iran calling this "a war of endurance."



Last night on MS NOW, Rachel Maddow noted how FBI Director Ka$h Patel had made the US less safe.


Patel "fired a dozen FBI agents and staff last week for their role in the classified documents investigation of Donald Trump, he targeted an elite counter espionage unit that investigates threats from foreign adversaries and specializes in Iran, according to more than a half dozen sources with knowledge of the firings." 

And it's not just Ka$h getting things wrong as Rachel notes in the segment below. 




One of the reasons for Chump's war on Iran is to distract from The Epstein Files. It's not working.  Rasmussen Poll notes:

Even after the release of millions of documents related to the late Jeffrey Epstein, a majority of voters still suspect the Trump administration of trying to conceal evidence of the president’s association with the disgraced finance mogul.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 54% of Likely U.S. Voters believe it’s likely that administration officials are engaged in a cover-up to hide Donald Trump’s involvement with Epstein – including 40% who consider a cover-up Very Likely. Forty percent (40%) say it’s not likely administration officials are engaged in a cover-up, including 26% who consider it Not At All Likely. Last July, 60% thought it was likely that the administration was covering up a Trump-Epstein scandal. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Last month, the Department of Justice published more than 3 million pages of documents related to the case of Epstein, who died in custody in 2019 amid sex-trafficking accusations. However, only 43% of voters are confident that the public now has access to the full truth about the Epstein case, including just 18% who are Very Confident the full truth is known. Nearly half (49%) are not confident they have the full truth about Epstein, including 24% who are Not At All Confident.

People are right to wonder about what hasn't been released when so much remains unreleased and unexplained.  Matthew Rozsa notes

President Donald Trump said he was going to expose the deep state and end America’s regular warmaking, and yet according to a former Republican congressman, Trump is supporting the deep state and waging unconstitutional wars.

“If you're a Trump supporter right now, you're a Trump voter right now, you're Mr. or Mrs. MAGA right now, man, your head's gotta be swimming, baby,” former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said in a Substack post on Monday. “You got to be dizzy, baby, because not only do you know now MAGA, not only do you know now Trump voter, that Donald Trump is actually on the side of the deep state — and that's been so tough for you to grasp, and it has been, because I engage with hundreds of Trump voters every single day, and Donald Trump keeping doing what he can do to keep the Epstein files hidden, and man, the disillusionment I've heard from MAGA, the confusion I've heard from MAGA is off the charts.”

PBS' AMANPOUR & COMPANY featured NPR's Stephen Fowler who broke the news of the Justice Dept hiding documents of a witness detailing -- three times -- that Donald Chump assaultedher. 



Again, people are right to wonder.  Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling (THE NEW REPUBLIC) reports:

The state of New Mexico attempted to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s state residence in 2019. Then the Trump administration got involved.

Epstein’s Zorro Ranch, located roughly 30 miles south of Santa Fe in the high desert, was rumored to be a hotbed of illicit activity. Some of the notorious child sex offender’s victims, including Virginia Giuffre, claimed they were trafficked at the New Mexico estate, and emails issued by ranch staffers allege that the bodies of at least two girls were killed and buried under the building by Epstein’s order, according to documents made public by the Justice Department via the Epstein files. Epstein even contemplated turning the estate, which he purchased in 1993, into a headquarters for genetic engineering experiments.
Yet somehow, the property—dubbed “Playboy Ranch” among locals—has never properly been investigated, according to New Mexico officials.

A report by The New York Times, published Monday, revealed that state officials had every intention to do so—until the first Trump administration intervened in 2019. The government ordered New Mexico to turn over its probe to federal prosecutors, but then they closed the case, according to recently unsealed records obtained by the Times.

Grasp that.  Chump covered for Epstein then.  Just like he covers for Epstein now.  Howard Lutnick is in The Epstein Files and has repeatedly lied to the American people.  A photo of him at Epstein Island popped up and then the Justice Dept disappeared it. Friday, Janna Brancolini (DAILY BEAST) reported:

Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice has offered a questionable explanation for the removal of a photo of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick from its public library of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The photo, which was found in a downloaded cache of Epstein files but was later removed from the DOJ’s dedicated site, appears to show Epstein and Lutnick walking on Little St. James, the Caribbean island where many of Epstein’s crimes took place.
It also shows three other unidentified men, all wearing baggy shorts and T-shirts or button-down shirts, while Epstein is dressed in a white T-shirt and pants.

In a statement to the Daily Beast, a DOJ official said the image was “part of a batch of files that had been flagged for nudity.”

“The batch of thousands of images was pulled for review and is being uploaded with necessary redactions on a rolling basis,” the official said. “No files are being deleted.”

All of the men in the photo are fully clothed.

The picture was located by “jmail,” a site run by two tech workers who have created a searchable version of Epstein’s Gmail inbox by downloading all of the latest releases.

The DOJ’s explanation for its removal was particularly shameless, given that more than 100 explicit photos of Epstein’s victims were accidentally uploaded to the portal before being removed and redacted.


Catherine Lucey (BLOOMBERG NEWS) provides the recap of how Lutnick lied to the American people:

Howard Lutnick has so far defied Beltway predictions of his ouster as commerce secretary, but his appearance in the Jeffrey Epstein files has put him in his toughest spot yet.

During an awkward appearance before a Senate panel recently, the billionaire former chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP sought to explain a 2012 trip to the disgraced financier’s private island. The visit with the notorious sex offender came years after his conviction for procurement of minors for prostitution — and during a period in which Lutnick had claimed he had no contact with Epstein.

Lutnick repeatedly insisted he “barely had anything to do” with Epstein and stressed that his wife, four children and nannies were with him for the island visit.

He may not be done with his explanations. House Oversight Chairman James Comer told reporters Thursday it was possible Lutnick would be called to testify in the chamber’s Epstein probe. Comer added that there was a “possibility that his name will arise in some questioning today,” as he prepared to depose former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton.




Pam Bondi, Attorney General and all around fool, played dumb last month when asked by the House Judiciary Committee, about the prison transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell.  That's not going over well.  Arthur Delaney (HUFFINGTON POST) reports:

The Justice Department has to explain why Jeffrey Epstein’s sole convicted co-conspirator won a transfer to a cushy federal prison camp last year, Democrats told U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a letter on Monday. 

The Epstein Files Transparency Act specifically requires the government to release all documents related to Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in Epstein’s *** abuse schemes. The text of the statute doesn’t distinguish between documents from her criminal case and anything more recent.  
That means the Justice Department is legally required to put out any documents “related to her transfer to a minimum-security prison camp where she has been granted numerous unusual special privileges,” Reps. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said in a letter to Bondi. 

The Bureau of Prisons, which is part of the Justice Department, transferred Maxwell from a low-security facility in Florida to a minimum security prison camp in Texas. The transfer happened days after Deputy U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche conducted an unusual interview with Maxwell last year in which she said she never witnessed President Donald Trump behave improperly when she, he and Epstein were all partying together in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

People are right not to trust Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche and Donald Chump.  All have been caught lying too often on this topic.  And the release of the files has not taken place as it was supposed to.  There are files that have still not been released.  Those include the files regarding the woman accusing Donald Chump of assault when she was a teenager.  They have been highly selective in what they've released.  

People aren't crazy.  They see what's going on and they know a cover up when they see one.  Laura Esposito (DAILY BEAST) notes:


Rep. Thomas Massie issued a pointed reminder on Sunday that war won’t distract him from his push to force the Department of Justice to release all documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein.

“PSA: Bombing a country on the other side of the globe won’t make the Epstein files go away, any more than the Dow going above 50,000 will,” the Kentucky libertarian wrote on X.
Massie is one of several Trump critics who have accused the president of staging foreign policy crises and other White House controversies to deflect scrutiny from his historic relationship with Epstein, particularly as new Justice Department documents related to the late sex trafficker’s crimes are released.

In January, critics also alleged that the administration’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro served as a temporary reprieve from bipartisan pressure surrounding Trump’s ties to Epstein, who once described himself as Trump’s “closest friend.”


It's not going away.  He doesn't have Bill Barr to help him hide it this go round.  He's got Pam Bondi and she's an idiot.  In fact, she created the problem for him.  She wanted some easy press so she said she had the files on her desk.  Told that to FOX "NEWS."  And Chump called her out on it.  Because she hadn't looked at the files and didn't know what was in them.  But Chump did. And all these months later, her incompetence has kept it in the news.  








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


Bondi, Wiles reportedly met with Netflix CEO mere hours before Netflix dropped out of bidding war

“If Paramount Skydance’s deal with Warner Bros. goes through, one family will become a dominant force in American entertainment…Federal antitrust law is designed to prevent mergers that would create massive conglomerates like this, which are bad for our economy and for Americans.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Representative Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.), and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on their role in Netflix abandoning its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (Warner Bros.), and whether political influence with the Trump administration helped Paramount Skydance (Paramount) win instead. Bondi and Wiles reportedly met with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos hours before the company dropped its bid, and President Trump reportedly favored Paramount to buy Warner Bros.

“Your conversations with Mr. Sarandos…rais[e] suspicions that the Trump administration’s DOJ is making merger review decisions based on politicized favoritism rather than the law or the facts,” wrote the lawmakers.

On February 26th, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos reportedly met with Bondi, Wiles, and Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust officials in an attempt to dissuade the administration from blocking the Netflix-Warner Bros. merger on antitrust grounds. Hours later, Netflix bowed out of the Warner Bros. bidding war, leaving Paramount as the apparent winner of the contest to purchase the company.

From the beginning, President Trump reportedly favored Paramount’s bid to take over Warner Bros. As a result of its merger with media giant Skydance in 2025, Paramount is owned by Trump ally David Ellison. Ellison’s allies have reportedly suggested Paramount “is the only buyer who would pass muster with Trump administration regulators,” and made “Trump’s implicit support for the deal … their number one talking point” in negotiations. Just last week, Ellison attended the State of the Union address as a guest of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

“[Your reported meetings with Mr. Sarandos] look even more disturbing because the meetings occurred just days after the politicized ouster of Antitrust Division Chief Gail Slater and amidst increasing lobbyist influence over DOJ’s antitrust work,” wrote the lawmakers.

Public reporting indicates DOJ leadership has been meeting with lobbyists and influence-peddlers for companies involved in merger discussions, and has repeatedly overridden antitrust concerns in order to approve massive deals. One such lobbying firm is Ballard Partners, hired by both Netflix and Paramount. Federal law requires executive branch officials to recuse themselves from matters of former employers they worked for in the past year, but Bondi and Wiles, who both worked for Ballard Partners, “appear to be heavily involved in politicized discussions about the merger.”

David Ellison is the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison, who recently acquired a stake in TikTok. If Paramount successfully merges with Warner Bros., the Ellison family will own Warner Bros., Paramount+, HBO, CBS News, CNN, TNT, TBS, Food Network, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, HGTV, among other media properties, and have partial ownership of TikTok’s U.S. business. Paramount is expected to derive $6 billion in “synergies” from the deal, which could come largely from firing workers and cutting content.

“Federal antitrust law is designed to prevent mergers that would create massive conglomerates like this, which are bad for our economy and for Americans,” wrote the lawmakers.

“The American people deserve to know what Mr. Sarandos was seeking in your meetings, what you said to him, and how your discussions may have contributed to Netflix backing out of the bidding war,” the lawmakers concluded.

The lawmakers asked Bondi and Wiles to provide details about their conversations regarding the Warner Bros. merger, including any communications with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and Paramount CEO David Ellison, by March 16, 2026.

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The following sites updated: