Alien Musk grew up in South Africa and learned his racism there and from his parents. He left South Africa when apartheid was falling because he couldn't take living in a country where Blacks would be equal. He's been vested in the lie, the last few years, that Whites in South Africa were being terrorized. It's part of the panic the scared White man lives under. Sophie Clark (Independent) notes:
Elon Musk
has spent the past six months posting more than ever about race and
claims such as “white genocide” on his X social media platform,
according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
The Trump-supporting CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X, who left his DOGE role in May 2025,
has posted 850 times in approximately 182 days. Six percent of those
posts are about race, and half of those posts include the word “white,”
according to the Post.
[. . .]
While his post received a lot of supportive comments, some followers were seemingly left exasperated by it.
“You
would have been banned for tweeting stuff like this and now the owner
of this platform is reposting White Nationalist content,” one wrote.
Recalling that salute, one follower replied to his September X post by saying: “Ah so it was a hitler salute after all.”
Now, his frequent posts seem to be turning off some previously ardent supporters.
One
former Tesla fan account on X posted in support of a rival car
manufacturer in December, saying, “Rivian: focused on autonomy and their
next vehicle Elon: focused on the percentage of white people in New
Zealand.”
Alien Musk is a racist and a con artist. Speaking of con artists, the Jackson family. Bound and determined to bleed Michael for every cent they can, they're now pimping the film Michael. Tom Murray (Independent) notes:
Dan Reed, the filmmaker behind the explosive 2019 Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland, has hit out at the new biopic starring Jaafar Jackson as his uncle.
“It says that people don’t care that he was a child molester. Literally, people just don’t care,” Reed told The Hollywood Reporter of the film in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I
think a lot of people just love his music and turn a deaf ear. And
short of having actual video evidence of Michael Jackson engaged in
sexual intercourse with a seven-year-old child, I don’t know what would
be sufficient to change these people’s minds.”
Exactly. We all know that Michael was a pervert. We all know he hurt the children he took to bed with him. Stan's covered this garbage film repeatedly this week:
Friday, April 24, 2026. Chump tries to claim that the Iran War has only
gone on for five and a half weeks, everyone in the administration
appears to be leaking, The Epstein Scandal continues and gets a
watchdog, Howard Lutnick faces questions regarding his own ever changing
story of him and Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell wants a pardon, Senator
Elizabeth Warren gives an update on the Democrats year long battle to
save Social Security, and much more.
The Iran War continues as Ben notes this morning on MEIDASTOUCH NEWS.
Donald Trump would get around to ending the bloody conflict in Iran, but come on—we all deserve a break once in a while!
That
was essentially what the president told reporters on Thursday when
asked about the ongoing war. After Trump falsely claimed the United
States had been involved with Iran for only “five and a half weeks,” a
reporter piped up.
“It’s [been] eight weeks that the U.S. now has been involved with Iran,” the reporter said. “You initially had said it would be four to six weeks and it would be over.”
“Well, I hoped that, but I took a little break,” Trump retorted. “I gave them a break.”
If
true, the idea that Trump took a two-week-long break from dealing with
the war is pretty insane. What was he doing during that period? Watching
TV? Brushing up on his figure drawing? DoorDashing McDonalds to the White House? (He actually did do that last one.)
He just lies and lies and the war drags on. And drags the economy with it.
We noted Chump's cabinet yesterday.
A lot of people are talking to the press, some of them may be current
or former cabinet members. Let's start with a non-Cabinet member. Tom Latchem (THE DAILY BEAST) reports:
President
Donald Trump has been privately venting his anger over FBI Director
Kash Patel’s embarrassing boozy Olympics antics, according to a new
report.
The president, 79, is said to be fuming
about the parade of bad headlines triggered by viral footage of his
hockey-mad FBI chief celebrating Team USA’s gold medal win over Canada
in Milan by slamming beers in the men’s locker room.
While Trump has publicly defended Patel, 46, behind the scenes, he has been griping to confidants
about both the locker-room performance itself and the embarrassing
coverage that followed, sources familiar with the conversations told
CNN.
The Daily Beast had previously reported that the president had also raised the controversy with Patel directly.
With
three Cabinet members ousted by Donald Trump since March 5, a handful
of Republican senators are growing anxious for several reasons that the
firing hammer is about to drop on more, in part because the president is
in a “bad mood” with his administration flailing.
According to a report from Politico’s Jordain Carney, four GOP lawmakers are anticipating a purge
in part because the midterms are coming up and, should the GOP lose
control of the Senate, confirmation hearings under a Democratic majority
would be problematic at best.
The
timeline is becoming critical. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer's
departure this week follows Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and
Attorney General Pam Bondi out the door — a pattern that has GOP
lawmakers reconsidering the Senate's already compressed legislative
calendar.
Tillis
is urging Trump to move quickly on any remaining Cabinet changes. A
group of Republican senators believes the president should make further
personnel moves sooner rather than later — before the midterms
potentially shift Senate control to Democrats. Waiting, they fear, could
mean confirmation delays or complete obstruction if Democrats take
over.
Yes,
it will be much harder after mid-terms to get Chump's picks through the
rubber stamp Republicans who have refused to vote anyone down -- anyone
who's made it to a vote. Matthew Rozsa notes one who didn't make it to a vote:
President
Donald Trump’s pick to lead a top US security agency withdrew his
nomination on Wednesday after more than a year of controversy —
including from his own Republican Party.
Sean
Plankey, Trump's pick to lead the government’s civilian cyber defense
agency, withdrew himself from consideration after his candidacy
languished in the Senate, wrote Politico's John Sakellariadis and Dana Nickel on Wednesday,
adding that Plankey informed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne
Mullin (R-Okla.) and confirmed the information to POLITICO.”
Trump
tapped Plankey last year in March. Although Plankey was initially
viewed as a non-controversial choice, but he quickly ruffled feathers.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) reportedly objected to Plankey’s policies
regarding a Coast Guard shipbuilding project and resisted advancing
Plankey’s renomination earlier this year.
“During
Trump’s first term, Plankey served in cybersecurity roles on the
National Security Council and the Energy Department,” Sakellariadis and
Nickel reported. “Plankey’s withdrawal is the latest leadership shakeup
at the top cyber defense agency, which has lost around one-third of its
personnel since Trump returned to office. The agency has also cycled
through interim leadership, with former acting CISA Director Madhu
Gottumukkala reassigned in late February after a series of mishaps that
alarmed current and former agency officials.”
Alana Loftus (THE MIRROR) notes, "This
week, four GOP senators anonymously spoke to Politico about who they
believe will be fired from the Trump administration next. Three top
Trump officials stood out: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick,
Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and FBI Director Kash Patel."
Tulsi Gabbard? Alana Loftus (THE MIRROR) reports:
Trump
has urged the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to
resign before the midterm elections later this year, according to
reports.
Trump’s cabinet has been undergoing a
serious purge this year. Some of the most notable figures have been
ousted in shock exits, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Labor
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi
Noem. According to two sources who spoke to Sherwood News in recent
weeks, the White House has made it clear to Gabbard, who once got a sickening compliment from Trump in a room full of people, that they want her gone before the midterms.
At this point, her departure remains unconfirmed and the timing of any potential exit from Trump’s cabinet remains vague.
And
the leaks continue. Why? Because people are angry. Some are angry
because they've been let go, some are angry because of talk that they'll
be let go, some are just fed up with all the nonsense that has been
Chump's second administration. After awhile, the corruption becomes too
much for even some insiders to take, the lawlessness grates on even
those who support it to a degree. And they talk to reporters. Ewan Gleadow (RAW STORY) notes:
Heather
Delaney Reese claims that Trump's team is slowly but surely leaking
information to cover themselves as cabinet members and White House
insiders worry for their future.
Reese
wrote, "The cabinet he promised would be the tightest, most loyal
operation in history, is hemorrhaging. Kash Patel is now suing The
Atlantic over a deeply reported story about his excessive drinking,
which claims his staff has trouble waking him up when he was seemingly
intoxicated.
"In the past couple of months,
three cabinet members have been fired or forced out: Kristi Noem, Pam
Bondi, and Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Every single one of them a woman.
"Every
one of those leaks came from someone who is scared. People do not risk
their careers and their clearances to talk to reporters because things
are going well. They talk because they cannot stay quiet anymore.
Because the fear of staying silent has finally overtaken the fear of
him.
"And once that starts, it does
not stop. Because what they are seeing is serious enough that the fear
of staying silent has finally overtaken the fear of him. That is a
shift. A real, documentable shift. And once it starts, it does not
stop."
Thomas Kika notes one of the Chumpsters employed at Homeland Security:
A
deputy assistant secretary in President Donald Trump's Homeland
Security Department finds herself embroiled in a messy new debacle,
according to new reports, with allegations surfacing that she has been
using a "sugar daddy" website to pick up men.
The story, originating in the Daily Mail,
concerns 29-year-old Julia Varvaro, a deputy assistant secretary for
counterterrorism, who has allegedly maintained a profile on Seeking.com.
The Daily Beast described
the site as one "that is often used by young, attractive singles
looking for older, wealthier partners to help fund their luxury
lifestyles."
The profile, listed under the name
"Alessia," used the same profile photo as Varvaro's Instagram account
and boasted about working for a U.S. government agency, while also
promising prospective partners "seductive sophistication." The account
also described her as "flirty, fun, and fond of sultry spaces,” as well
as “drawn to a masculine man who’s attentive, protective and quietly
playful for mutually beneficial experiences.”
The
Daily Mail cited accusations from a man, "Robert B.," whom the report
described as an "executive." Robert B., a divorced father, claimed to
have dated Varvaro after finding her profile on a different site, Hinge.
He further claimed to have "spent $40,000 on her over the course of
three months, including first-class trips to Aruba and Italy."
Former
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has continued using a
waterfront house on a military base in Washington, D.C., that she took
over as a cabinet member, according to people familiar with the matter.
A
black Suburban SUV typically used by Noem was seen parked in front of
the house earlier this week, those people said, and U.S. Coast Guard
officials have spotted Noem on the base in recent days.
Noem
moved into the house on Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, which is
typically designated for the commandant of the Coast Guard, after
President Trump last year fired Linda Fagan, the commandant at the time.
The Coast Guard generally falls under the purview of the Department of
Homeland Security.
Noem has continued to use the house since Trump ousted her from DHS in early March. She officially left the job after Markwayne Mullin was confirmed as the new secretary.
Noem
is now serving as Trump’s special envoy for the Shield of the
Americas—Western Hemisphere, a security initiative created by the
administration at the State Department.
Turning to
Chump's pal Jeffrey Epstein. Yesterday's snapshot noted James Comer
Pyle, Chair of the House Oversight Committee, insisting his Committee
was split on a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell -- Epstein's accomplice.
The fact that Comer Pyle and the other Republicans on his Committee are
apparently wasting time on this discussion (Congress can't pardon
anyone) goes to how Comer Pyle will do anything to avoid addressing Pam
Bondi's refusal to be deposed by the Committee -- a committee, please
remember, that deposed former Attorney General Bill Barr. ATLANTA BLACK STAR NEWS notes:
Robert
Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, rejected the idea
outright, saying there is no internal debate on his side of the group.
“That
would be a huge step backwards, and, quite frankly, so disrespectful to
the survivors,” Garcia said. “She is a known abuser. She is a known
liar.”
He went further, framing any potential deal as something far more troubling.
“If
the DOJ or Oversight Republicans are out there trying to negotiate some
sort of pardon that is … not only a huge slap in the face to this
investigation, to anyone, to the American public,” he said. “It’s a part
of a massive cover-up.”
Outside Washington,
public reaction has already been unforgiving, with many questioning the
true motive behind any potential deal. Critics argue the exchange may
have less to do with uncovering the truth and more to do with
controlling it.
“This is vile,” one critic
voiced on X. “She participated and encouraged the girls. She is a
predator, and anyone who is okay with pardoning her should be removed
from office. Also, there is a 100% chance they are all republicans.”
Another
person tagged Comer directly: “@RepJamesComer she would be getting a
pardon to keep her mouth shut. Folks, this piece of sh-t thinks the
American people are this kind of stupid.”
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) sent a Wednesday letter
to the Department of Justice (DOJ) strongly opposing the possibility of
a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime partner and accomplice of
convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I am
writing to express my disgust at the Department of Justice’s (DOJ)
reported willingness to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell,” Krishnamoorthi wrote
in the letter.
“Last week, David Oscar Markus,
Maxwell’s attorney, said, ‘There’s a good chance and for good reason
that [Maxwell] would get a pardon,’” the Illinois lawmaker added, citing
reporting from Politico.
The
U.S. Department of Justice is facing an audit of its compliance with
the law passed by Congress that required it to release the Epstein
files.
In an announcement on Thursday, the
DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said it was initiating an
audit to determine whether the Trump administration had complied with
the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Deputy Inspector General William Blier said in a written statement,
“Our preliminary objective is to evaluate the DOJ’s processes for
identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as
required by the Act.”
“If circumstances
warrant, the OIG will consider addressing other issues that may arise
during the course of the audit,” Blier said.
The OIG “will issue a public report with the audit’s results when our work is complete,” he concluded.
Republican
officials, especially in the White House, have made it abundantly clear
that they’re desperate to see the Epstein scandal fade from the news,
especially as the midterm elections draw closer. The inspector general’s
new investigation suggests, however, that scrutiny into the
administration’s handling of the matter is going to last a while longer.
Survivors and lawmakers have commented that the DOJ still has documents it hasn't released but should have, CNN reported in March.
These include over 50 pages of FBI interviews and FBI notes taken by
agents about one of the accusers of President Donald Trump, NPR reported in February.
The young woman, who was a minor at the time, was interviewed by the
FBI four times about her story. Of that, only a summary of her interview
was made public.
"NPR reviewed multiple sets
of unique serial numbers appearing before and after the pages in
question, stamped onto documents in the Epstein files database, FBI case
records, emails and discovery document logs in the latest tranche of documents
published at the end of January," the report said. "NPR's investigation
found dozens of pages that appear to be cataloged by the Justice
Department but not shared publicly."
[. . .]
It
has been less than a month since former Attorney General Pam Bondi was
ousted from her post and her deputy, Todd Blanche, took over until a
replacement could be confirmed.
Blanche told
Fox News, “I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part
of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of
anything going forward."
Blanche
is a joke and he's Chump's boy, put in place to protect Chump. Howard
Lutnick is the Secretary of Commerce and isn't doing a very good job in
that position as evidenced by the US economy; however, Thursday morning
he appeared before the House Appropriations Committee and his lies about
Epstein were raised. David Edwards (RAW STORY) reports:
Rep.
Madeleine Dean (D-PA) called out Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick
after he misrepresented his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
During
a Thursday hearing before the House Appropriations Committee, Dean
noted that Lutnick falsely claimed he had never spoken to Epstein again
after a single meeting in which his wife was present.
"After
speaking with the survivors, I again went to the Department of Justice
to review the unredacted Epstein files to seek accountability and
justice for the victims, the more than 1,000 victims and survivors,"
Dean explained. "And today, Secretary Lutnick, I have some questions for
you about what I saw."
"Let's start with your
relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein," she continued. "In
October, you told the New York Post with colorful narration that the
last time you saw Jeffrey Epstein was in 2005 when you took a tour of
his house, which happened to be right next door to yours... You swore
you would never go back."
Dean pointed out that Lutnick's statement to the Post "was a lie."
"You
were forced to admit that you had visited Epstein's private island in
2012," she explained. "Four years after, Epstein pled guilty to
soliciting a minor for prostitution and was labeled a sex offender."
Even that wasn't the "whole truth," Dean said.
"It
turns out that five days after visiting his island, you and Epstein
signed a business deal together as co-investors in a digital advertising
company," she remarked. "Secretary Lutnick, why did you lie to the New
York Post about your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein?"
For
his part, Lutnick declined to answer questions about Epstein because he
had agreed to talk to the House Oversight Committee about the matter.
"I
do not accept that answer," Dean snapped. "We are our own committee. We
have our own reason to test your credibility and veracity. Please
answer the question. Why did you lie to the Post?"
Lutnick refused to answer the question.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Warren: “We’re keeping up the
fight to protect — and expand — Social Security to make sure it’s here
for generations of Americans to come.”
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democrats’ Social Security War Room,
led by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), published a new report
highlighting how, in its first year, it has fought to protect Americans’
Social Security benefits.
“Since Day One, Donald Trump’s attacks on Social Security have made
it harder for Americans to get their benefits. We launched our Social
Security War Room a year ago to fight back and stop Trump’s damage, and
that’s exactly what we’ve done,” said Senator Warren. “We’re
keeping up the fight to protect — and expand — Social Security to make
sure it’s here for generations of Americans to come.”
Breaking his campaign promises to “not touch” Social Security, Donald
Trump has taken a wrecking ball to the Social Security Administration
(SSA), jeopardizing Americans’ access to their hard-earned benefits.
President Trump and his SSA Commissioner, Frank Bisignano, have slashed
thousands of employees and upended critical services at field offices
and on the agency’s customer service phone line — resulting in backdoor
benefits cuts for Americans.
Senate Democrats launched
the Social Security War Room one year ago to fight for seniors, draw
attention to this customer service chaos President Trump and
Commissioner Frank Bisignano have caused at SSA, and counter their
relentless attacks on the agency and Americans’ benefits. One year
later, the War Room has succeeded in stopping many of President Trump’s
harmful policies in their tracks, including:
Launched Investigations Revealing True Metrics:
Since its launch, the Social Security War Room has exposed the Trump
Administration’s attacks on Social Security and initiated nearly two
dozen investigations and reports – some of which forced the
Administration to reverse course on harmful policies. When Americans
reported waiting hours on the phone to talk to a SSA representative
while the agency listed conflicting metrics online, Democrats conducted
an investigation that revealed the truth about long wait times. The
investigation found the average call wait time was over ten times higher
than what the SSA claimed online – if the call was even answered at
all.
Debunking Myths and Misinformation: When the
administration put out inaccurate statements that misled the public
about the state of Social Security, the War Room was quick to respond,
fact-checking the administration’s statements and debunking its myths.
This included the Trump administration’s baseless claims of rampant
fraud, along with its outright lies about the impact of Trump and
Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill on Social Security benefits.
Secured Key Commitments from Social Security Head: After
a personal meeting with Senator Warren, the Social Security War Room
secured key commitments from Commissioner Bisignano to better protect
Americans’ benefits, including that he would not make it easier to fire
SSA workers by shifting them to Schedule F, would ensure Americans who
can only access benefits through paper checks would still be able to get
them, and importantly, would cooperate with an independent Inspector
General investigation of Social Security data and metrics. During the
meeting, the Commissioner also admitted he was responsible for a blast
email that went out to all SSA beneficiaries inaccurately describing how
President Trump’s OBBBA would affect benefits.
Introduced Bills to Support and Expand Social Security: Members
of the Social Security War Room have led the charge to introduce
legislation to safeguard Social Security and reverse the Trump
administration’s disastrous cuts, including introducing the Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act.
Protecting Social Security also means ensuring future generations can
access the program and expanding benefits for seniors and people with
disabilities. In the fall, Democratic senators in the War Room also
introduced the Social Security Emergency Inflation Relief Act,
which would temporarily expand Social Security benefits to ensure they
can meet the moment and cover the increased cost of living older
Americans are facing under the Trump administration. Later, Social
Security War Room leaders reintroduced the Supplement Security Income Restoration (SSI) Act,
which would make long-needed updates to the program to ensure
beneficiaries can live with dignity and are not trapped in poverty.
President Trump’s policies and Commissioner Bisignano’s disastrous
leadership continues to threaten Americans’ benefits, including by
haphazardly shifting employees and limiting field office services to
cover over the administration’s catastrophic staff cuts. And Trump
administration officials and Republicans in Congress have floated
alarming proposals that would weaken Social Security – including raising
the retirement age.
As the Trump administration, Commissioner Bisignano, and Republicans
in Congress continue to undermine Social Security, the War Room will
sound the alarm and fight back, preventing the administration from
gutting the agency and working to increase Social Security benefits and
ensure the program is here for generations to come.
###
And we'll close with this from THE BLACK COMMENTATOR:
Duchess no more Sarah is a con
artist for our ages. Just a sweet and caring person -- when not
e-mailing Jeffrey Epstein and congratulating him on this and that and
explaining to him that she only called him out for being a pedophile
because she had to in order to save her own image, and wanting him to
loan her money and wanting him to marry her and anything for a buck. Favour Adegoke (The Blast) reports:
Ferguson
has been seen in public for the first time in about seven months,
reportedly staying at an upscale ski resort in Austria, where she is
said to be keeping a deliberately low profile amid ongoing scrutiny and
speculation about her personal and financial circumstances.
The
former Duchess of York, who lost her royal title last year along with
her Freedom of the City of York honor, was photographed on April 15
dressed casually in a jacket and blue cap while trying to keep a low
profile.
According to reports from The Times, she is believed to be staying at a luxury chalet that can cost around $2,700 per night.
Royal commentator Helena Chard suggested that Ferguson may be receiving financial help from close friends during this period.
“Incognito,
anxious Fergie is keeping a low profile. She cannot believe how low she
has sunk, although, contrary to people’s thoughts, she is not
destitute. Friends have stepped in to whisk her away from her stress,”
Chard told Fox News Digital.
She's
keeping a low profile because when she called out Epstein out publicly
and announced she was done with him it turned out that she wasn't done
with him and continued to have a relationship with him including asking
him for money. She was revealed as a 100% fake who would say or do
anything to promote her latest grift. She is a con artist and now that
she's been exposed, she's gone away hoping that she will emerge in a few
months hoping everything has been forgotten. Spoiler alert: Nothing
will be forgotten.
Thursday, April 23, 2026. Chump destroys the country and its economy
and does so with the help of one of the most dishonest, crooked and
unqualified cabinets the country has ever seen.
He also posted (and later deleted) an AI-generated photo of himself as Jesus, on the heels of a screed aimed at Pope Leo XIV,
who Trump said “should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense,
stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a
Politician.”
What’s
absent for long stretches in the president’s social media presence and
from his discourse more generally of late is the economy — an issue
Trump rode to the White House in 2016 and 2024.
“Trump’s original deal with the American people was ‘I’m a boorish
lout and kind of embarrassing, but I know how to run the economy.’ And
they believed that because they remember the economy being good in
2016,” said Mike Murphy, an anti-Trump former Republican strategist and co-host of the “Hacks on Tap” podcast with David Axelrod.
Critics
and concerned Republicans say Trump isn’t making the economy enough of a
priority with this year’s election just over six months away, though he
has attempted to shift the focus back to cost-of-living issues in the last week.
But
even when Trump does bring up the economy, his words often don’t
reflect the reality many Americans are feeling. He recently said gas
prices — which are 27% higher than a year earlier according to AAA — are “not very high,” and he has called affordability a “Democratic hoax.”
Chump's
run the American economy into the ditch and seems oblivious when it
comes to that reality. And voters are noticing this face. Kathryn Palmer (USA TODAY) reports:
A new national poll found the country's youngest
eligible voters are heading into the 2026 midterm elections burdened by
deep economic anxiety and grappling with a growing belief that they are
unable to effect change.
The Harvard Youth
Poll, conducted among 18- to 29-year-olds by the Institute of Politics
at Harvard Kennedy School, concluded that economic pressure is a
defining concern for young Americans. It's a sentiment reflected in
months of national polls that surveyed voters across age groups, who have similarly identified cost-of-living concerns, economic mobility and inflation as their North Star issues.
Roughly half of young Americans said that they are affected “a lot” by
inflation, and 45% said they are struggling to make ends meet. And over
the last five years, fewer young Americans believe they will be better
off financially than their parents. In 2021, 38% said they expect to be
better off than their parents. In the recent spring poll, 29% said that.
Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index dropped to -38 this month from -27 in
March, as Americans grew more negative about both current economic
conditions and the economy’s direction. This is the lowest index reading
since November 2023 (-40), though still above the recent low of -58 in June 2022 during a period of high inflation and record gas prices.
The April 1-15 poll was conducted amid ongoing tensions between Iran
and the U.S. and Israel, which have been at war since Feb. 28. The
conflict has interrupted commercial shipping through the Strait of
Hormuz, driving global oil prices and U.S. fuel costs higher.
Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index
has a theoretical range of -100, if all Americans rate current economic
conditions as poor and thought the economy was getting worse, to +100,
if all Americans rate current conditions as excellent or good and
believed the economy was getting better. The all-time-high reading was
+56 in January 2000, while the record low was -72 in October 2008.
Americans More Negative About Current Economy and Its Trajectory
Nearly half of U.S. adults, 47%, describe current economic conditions
as “poor,” up from 40% in March. Meanwhile, 21% believe the economy is
“excellent” or “good,” not meaningfully changed from 23% last month. The
last time evaluations were worse was in November 2023, when half rated
conditions as poor.
Chump has done this and he's done it with the help of his embarrassing and unqualified cabinet.
“The Court finds that Figliuzzi’s
statement is rhetorical hyperbole that cannot constitute defamation,”
U.S. District Court Judge George Hanks Jr. wrote in his decision. “Accordingly, Dir. Patel has failed to state a claim against Figliuzzi, and his lawsuit must be dismissed.”
The case he lost was against ex-MSNBC analyst and columnist Frank
Figliuzzi, a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the
FBI. While appearing last year on MSNBC’s (now MS NOW’s) “Morning Joe,”
Figliuzzi said Patel had “been visible at nightclubs far more than he
has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building.”
Patel
argued Figliuzzi’s statement was defamatory, while Figliuzzi argued a
reasonable viewer would have seen it as a “sarcastic, hyperbolic quip
about the media narrative surrounding” Patel at the time. The FBI
director countered that a reasonable viewer would have understood the
remarks to be factual.
Rejecting
Patel on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge George Hanks called Figliuzzi’s
statement “rhetorical hyperbole that cannot constitute defamation.” In
his opinion dismissing the FBI director’s suit, the Obama-appointed
judge in Texas wrote
that a person of reasonable intelligence and learning “would not have
taken his statement literally: that Dir. Patel has actually spent more
hours physically in a nightclub than he has spent physically in his
office building.”
Ka$h
remains disgraced publicly. The video footage of him with the US men's
hockey team clearly showed a frenzied Ka$h -- not a person applauding a
victory but a crazed and drunken fool who confused himself with a
member of the team itself. He was out of control. The reports of his
drinking indicate that this is a normal phase for him. He wasn't
qualified to be the FBI Director. At some point, in the near future,
Republicans will have to answer for how they approved Chump's nominees,
how they voted for this group of unhinged and unqualified losers and of
how they then covered for them month after month.
Take
Trashy Garbage aka Tulsi Gabbard. The unqualified Tulsi was made
Director of National Intelligence. From that post, she does nothing
with regards to the Iran War because Chump has shut her out there.
Instead, she wastes her time and out intelligence resources on
'investigations' into things that took place over ten years ago as she
tries to prove Chump's crazed conspiracies for him. David Corn (MOTHER JONES) reports:
Last summer, she did this by releasing highly classified intelligence
documents that she claimed proved that President Barack Obama, his CIA
chief John Brennan, and other Deep Staters had committed “treason”—a
crime punishable by death. She accused them of falsifying intelligence
to show that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had covertly intervened in
the 2016 election in part to help Trump. The memos clearly did not show that.
(Investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller, the Justice
Department, and the bipartisan Senate intelligence committee have
confirmed Putin attacked that election to boost Trump.)
Gabbard’s stunt was a despicable act of immense gaslighting. And she
and Trump each called for Obama, Brennan, and others to be prosecuted.
Trump went so far as to post an AI-generated video of FBI agents
violently handcuffing and arresting Obama and tossing him into a prison
cell. In the video, Obama is on his knees before Trump. Never has
intelligence been so abused by an administration for purely political
purposes. Gabbard’s move led the Justice Department to mount a criminal
investigation of Brennan and others that is ongoing.
At the time, Gabbard also declassified and made public a secret
report that cited Russian intelligence material from 2016 that claimed
Hillary Clinton suffered from “intensified psycho-emotional problems,”
was on a daily regimen of “heavy tranquilizers,” and had schemed to set
up the Trump-Russia scandal to distract from her email controversy. But
US intelligence analysts and FBI agents had previously judged this
Russian material to be unreliable and possibly disinformation. So here
was the top US intelligence official deploying unsubstantiated or phony
Russian material—over the objections of CIA officials who worried its
disclosure could compromise sources and methods—to smear an American
politician. It was disgraceful.
[. . .]
Last week, she released a
handful of documents that she asserted exposed “a coordinated effort by
elements within the Intelligence Community (IC), including a former
Inspector General (IG), to manufacture a conspiracy that was used as the
basis to impeach President Trump in 2019.” She insisted these records
show that Atkinson “did not follow standard IG procedures and relied
upon politicized, manufactured narratives” and that he took “actions to
weaponize the Whistleblower process and exceed his statutory
jurisdiction.”
Once more, she insisted that Trump was the victim of a nefarious cabal: “Deepstate
actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative
that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and
impeach the duly-elected President of the United States.”
Yet again, Gabbard is pulling a big con. The materials she released do not back up the charge that
Atkinson mishandled this case, and they certainly don’t prove a
narrative was manufactured. In fact, the whistleblower’s complaint was
largely confirmed when the Trump White House, under pressure, released a
summary of his call with Zelenskyy. And that summary played a more
critical role in the impeachment proceedings than the whistleblower’s
complaint. During the Trump-Ukraine controversy, Maguire testified that the whistleblower “did the right thing.” Maguire also testified that Atkinson’s handling of the whistleblower complaint was done “by the book” and consistent with the law.
While
Trashy Garbage wastes her time on these conspiracy threads, who is
doing her job? Who is going through the international information and
protecting the country from perceived and from real threats?
We
are in the midst of a war, after all. And then there's Pete Hegseth.
The Secretary of Defense keeps running through staff in the midst of a
war. Army Chief of Staff Randy George was only the most recent until
yesterday. Adam Mockler weighed in on yesterday's departure.
Navy Secretary John Phelan was fired on
Wednesday after months of infighting with senior Pentagon leaders and
disagreements over how to revive the Navy’s struggling shipbuilding
program.
Mr. Phelan is leaving the
Pentagon and the Trump administration effective immediately, wrote Sean
Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, in a terse statement.
In
his role leading the Navy, Mr. Phelan had championed the “Golden
Fleet,” a major investment in new ships including a “Trump-class”
battleship. But Mr. Phelan’s leadership was marred by feuds with senior
leaders in the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and
Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, Pentagon and congressional
officials said.
Mr. Phelan is the
first service secretary to leave the administration, though he is the
second one to clash with the defense secretary. Mr. Hegseth also has
butted heads with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll over promotions and a
host of other issues. Mr. Hegseth fired the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, earlier this month.
Any
of the firings are eye brow raising but to fire the Secretary of the
Navy when the US is battling over the Strait of Hormuz is especially
shocking.
Hegseth is out of control. Again, the
Republicans who voted for these nominees -- which also include the now
departed Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi and Lori Chavez-DeRemer -- will have to
answer for what they did. They didn't confirm qualified nominees.
They confirmed unqualified people for posts that were beyond their
abilities and experience and did so because these were MAGA wack jobs.
These were people like Robert Kennedy Junior who should be nowhere near a
Health and Human Services cabinet let alone the Secretary of it.
It’s hard to overstate the damage that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to
the public health infrastructure of the United States in his first year
as head of the Department of Health and Human Services. An exhaustive
list of these crimes could—and likely will—fill books.
In the first three months of 2026, America logged roughly 1,600 measles
cases — nearly as many as the total number for all of 2025, which was
by far the worst year we’ve seen for the highly infectious virus in
decades. In fact, because we’ve had more than 12 straight months of continuous measles spread, the nation should soon lose the measles elimination status we achieved back in 2000.
I say “should” because Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was granted a delay
of the April 13 meeting of the Pan American Health Organization, where
officials were expected to reach that embarrassing conclusion, until its
annual meeting, which is scheduled for after the midterm elections. A
coincidence, no doubt.
It’s disgraceful and dangerous that
instead of acting to prevent the spread of preventable diseases like
measles, the secretary and his cadre of mad scientists are playing
politics and spreading misinformation — and putting American lives at
risk.
As Kennedy faces rounds of congressional
hearings, including before two Senate committees that include four
Republican doctors, measles cases are still rising across the country.
During an appearance before a House committee on Tuesday, he declined to support
the vaccine guidance of Dr. Erica Schwartz, President Donald Trump’s
nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who is
an advocate for immunizations.
Kennedy also rebuffed
Democrats’ claims that he bore responsibility for the country’s ongoing
measles outbreak. There have already been 17 separate outbreaks in 2026.
South Carolina has reported
around 670 cases of the virus that have forced hundreds to quarantine
or isolate. In Utah, nearly 600 people, most of whom are children, have been diagnosed since an outbreak began last summer.
Measles cases are spiking because the
share of Americans who’ve received the measles, mumps and rubella
vaccine — which protects 97% of people from getting the virus when
exposed to it — has declined
below the critical threshold recommended for community protection.
Under the vaccine skeptic Kennedy’s leadership, vaccination rates for
other diseases are also trending downward, and could soon fall below
their own respective thresholds, opening the door for all sorts of
previously eliminated diseases to make a dangerous comeback.
Our public health system isn’t ready
for these infectious diseases. Experts are already sounding alarms about
underreporting, inconsistent data collection and delayed responses due
to a lack of coordination between government centers and agencies, and
weakened surveillance systems.
Junior's not
qualified to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services and his time
in the office has harmed the country -- and will continue to harm it
for many years to come.
These are Chump's nominees,
his picks, and they are a disaster for this country. That's before you
get to the Howard Lutnicks who hung out with Jeffrey Epstein and before
you get to the Linda McMahons accused of their own sexual impropriety
(see the Ring Boy Scandal
for which is still moving through the courts and for which she is
accused of participation). We've had Kristi Noem and her boy toy
Corey, all of this scandal, non-stop. And then there's racist Pete
Hegseth.
Jen Psaki addressed him last night on MS NOW.
The video shows Senator Cory Booker speaking on the floor of the Senate.
Senator
Cory Booker: And what is this body doing? Nothing. Republican
leadership? It's called no open hearings, no sufficient accountability,
no substantive oversight. They are kowtowing to a president and
allowing him into a reckless war with grave consequences and a shredding
of our Constitutional attention by our founders.
Cory
then joins her to speak of the firing of the Navy commander with Cory
saying of Hegseth, "Today is just another testament to his
incompetence."
A top United Nations
official on Tuesday warned that there is a real risk of a global food
crisis if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to shipments of
fertilizer.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), said
in an interview with UN News that roughly one-third of global
fertilizer shipments flow through the Strait of Hormuz, and its closure
has caused “a massive disruption in the supply chain of fertilizers,”
and “clearly we are seeing a crisis emerging” in the agricultural
industry.
The UN official also emphasized the need for a fast
resolution to the crisis to prevent catastrophic food shortages as
tensions continued to escalate in the strait in recent days, with both
the US and Iran seizing vessels in the area.
Chump
has spent more time in office trying to bury The Epstein Scandal than
he has pondering the needs of the American people. Chump and Epstein go
back to the 80s when they first hooked up. Epstein of course died in
jail awaiting trial for his predatory actions -- this followed his 2008
conviction. He was Chump's buddy and Chump boasted of him to the
press. Chump also hung around with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's right
hand who procured women and girls for him and who engaged in sex with
them. As The Epstein Scandal heated up throughout last year, Chump sent
Deputy AG Todd Blanche to speak with Ghislaine Maxwell and, shortly
afterwards, she was transferred to a lower level security prison -- a
Club Fed of prisons -- in Bryan, Texas. Chump takes cares of his
friends.
Jeffrey
Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell sent a mystery USB drive to the
Justice Department days after Melania Trump sought to distance herself
from the pair’s heinous sex crimes.
The
disgraced former socialite sent the USB on April 16 in a fresh attempt
to quash her criminal conviction and 20-year jail sentence for helping
Epstein recruit and abuse women and girls.
While
the details of the electronic files are not known, the timing of
it—seven days after the first lady delivered a surprise statement about
Epstein and Maxwell—raised eyebrows across Washington.
In
her April 9 statement, Melania Trump denied any ties to Epstein’s
crimes and demanded that “lies” being spread about her must end.
Reading
from prepared remarks at the White House, she told reporters that she
went to the same parties as Epstein “from time to time, since
overlapping in social circles is common.”
Just before that news conference earlier this month, former model Amanda
Ongaro came forward about her former partner, ID Models owner Paolo
Zampoli, who she said she met while underage. Ongaro has since been
deported and is accusing Zampoli, who is now a member of the Trump
administration, of orchestrating her arrest over custody issues.
Ongaro
also alluded in various now-deleted social media posts that she has
information on President Donald Trump and Melania Trump relating to
Epstein. Both the president and first lady have denied any nefarious
involvement with Epstein.
Meanwhile,
Epstein's interest in fashion was not in the business itself, but in
leveraging the industry to gain access to young women who were hoping to
grow their modeling careers.
Lisa
Phillips was introduced to Epstein at age 21 while on a modeling shoot
near his island. She endured years of abuse that she says she did not
fully recognize until she was introduced to other survivors.
"The modeling industry was like, it was like a foundation of Epstein's orbit," Phillips told Scripps News.
The press has followed The Epstein Scandal and has unearthed many details that the Dept of Justice has attempted to hide. Henry Giardina (QUEERTY) notes the work of Bekah Day:
Since
the second Epstein files release in January, we’ve discovered so many
bombshells that have exposed sinister networks, powerful figures, and
deep corruption across the worlds of finance, politics, modeling, and
even retail.
For
most citizens, the continuing fallout is exhausting. But for poster
Bekah Day, who has been tirelessly sifting through every last file to
make sure no details go unnoticed, it’s all in a day’s work.
Day’s
peerless detective work around the Epstein files has beaten several
major publications to the punch lately, including the story about Brazilian model (and ex-Melania bestie) Amanda Ungaro, whose Paolo Zampoli connection has put Tr*mp in hot water in recent weeks.
But
as usual, the mad king has managed to find enough distractions to keep
him busy… until now. Day just discovered a set of photos that put Tr*mp
at the scene of a very scandalous gathering devoted to celebrating
Epstein’s 50th birthday party… which allegedly took place at Mar-a-Lago.
That’s right! Remember last year when the Wall Street Journal
discovered a Tr*mp doodle solicited by Ghislaine Maxwell as part of a
tribute book for Epstein’s 50th? And remember how Tr*mp denied the whole
thing and said that he never draws things and then everyone started
sharing Tr*mp’s many, many doodles online? Yeah, well that was
apparently just the tip of the iceberg, according to Day’s findings.
Pulling
up a file set labeled “JE 50 Bday” Day shows us a series of photos
featuring Epstein surrounded by the usual cadre of young girls, as well
as Ghislaine Maxwell and some other big players. As usual, of course,
the photos are heavily redacted, in some cases to protect Epstein
survivors, in other cases… definitely not for that reason. But we can
see plenty of victims on display in these photos, and we can also very
clearly see Mar-a-Lago’s gilded interiors in the background.
“If
we are to believe that all of the redacted figures are victims,” Day
says, “the number of known survivors of [Epstein] that went through
Mar-a-Lago…keeps growing.”
Curiouser
and curiouser, especially considering that all the photos labeled “JE
50th bday” show Mar-a-Lago’s very recognizable interior.
Harry Sisson covered Maxwell and the House Oversight Committee last night.
Members on the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee are divided over whether President Donald Trump should
pardon Jeffrey Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in
exchange for her cooperation in the panel’s Epstein investigation, Chair
James Comer said in an interview Wednesday.
Maxwell,
who was deposed by the Oversight Committee as the sole convicted
accomplice in the Epstein sex trafficking scheme, previously invoked her
Fifth Amendment right in declining to answer the panel’s questions. Her
lawyer has said that she would only speak if granted clemency — a power
available solely to Trump, who has not ruled out the prospect of a
pardon.
When asked whether he believed it was a
favorable deal to issue a pardon in return for Maxwell’s testimony,
Comer said, “A lot of people do.”
“My
committee’s split on that,” he added, declining to name who on the panel
supported granting a pardon. “I don’t speak for my committee.”
[. . .]
Rep.
Robert Garcia of California, the Oversight panel’s top Democrat,
emphasized that committee Democrats unanimously opposed a pardon for
Maxwell.
“That would be a huge step
backwards, and, quite frankly, so disrespectful to the survivors,” he
said in an interview. “She is a known abuser. She is a known liar.”
“If
the DOJ or Oversight Republicans are out there trying to negotiate some
sort of pardon that is … not only a huge slap in the face to this
investigation, to anyone, to the American public,” he added. “It’s a
part of a massive cover up.”
Congress
can't pardon a convicted felon. A president can. Comer Pyle insists
he himself isn't for the pardon but he's a known liar and does Chump's
bidding.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
Murray: “The budget
that was sent to us is not MAGA budget. It is not a MAHA budget. It is a
war budget—no one can call it anything other than that.”
ICYMI: Senator Murray on President Trump’s FY27 Budget Request
Washington, D.C. — Today, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing on
the FY27 budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS), U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former
chair of the HELP Committee, grilled HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
on cuts to important HHS functions, and broken promises and lies to
Congress.
[MURRAY SLAMS RFK Jr. FOR GUTTING CDC AND BREAKING PROMISES]
MURRAY: Yesterday when we talked, you went on a very
long tangent about how you were just cancelling woke grants. But I want
to for the record put the numbers here: you cancelled 17, at least 17
maternal health grants, $4 million—because apparently any research
involving women is woke. You cancelled 58 grants for vaccine research,
$94 million. 59 for Alzheimer’s research, that was $33 million dollars.
And a whopping 108 cancer research grants—$29 million dollars’ worth!
I just have to say cancer is not woke. Neither is Alzheimer’s, or
women who die in childbirth. These are deadly issues, they deserve
serious research. I am appalled that it was tossed in the shredder. And
meanwhile as I said, we are shoveling money on war spending.
So, I
just want to be clear: that the budget that was sent to us is not MAGA
budget. It is not a MAHA budget. It is a war budget—no one can call it
anything other than that
Why on earth would we take from researchers, and rural health
care, and maternal health care. You justified these cuts because of a
need to reduce the debt yesterday, this budget actually proposes to
increase the debt for more war.
So, we’re shoveling more money at Defense contractors, but we’re
slashing NIH by more than five billion dollars, fewer patients getting
life-saving treatment. Cutting CDC by a third so we can’t respond to
dangerous outbreaks. Slashing investments in mental health and addiction
treatment, people will fall through the cracks. And not investing in
child care, families will have to decide between child care, and health
care, and putting food on the table.
So, I know my time is almost up. And Mr. Chairman, for the record, I
am concerned about the promises that have been broken. And I have some
items that I do want to submit for the record, and I ask unanimous
consent to include these articles:
“RFK Jr. breaks promise to senators, guts CDC vaccine panel of independent experts.”
“RFK Jr. Breaks His Promises About the CDC on Vaccines and Autism.”
“Firing of CDC’s vaccine advisers puts spotlight on RFK Jr.’s promises to Cassidy.”
I have one that is titled: “RFK Jr. Made Promises in Order to Become Health Secretary. He’s Broken Many of Them.”
“Bill Cassidy extracted a promise from RFK Jr. Now he sees what that promise is worth.”
Two more: “A Republican Senator Who Voted for RFK is Airing His Concerns. It’s Too Late Now.”
And an article that is entitled: “GOP Senator Refuses to Face Reality About RFK Jr. After Being ‘Lied’ To.”
