Ann's Mega Dub

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Will Musk let Chump punk him again?

Problems? I'm sure I have some, I'm sure you do too. But it's not like we've watched our fortune sink after throwing our lot in with Convicted Felon Chump. Alien Musk was respected -- maybe even feared. Now he's let Chump turn him into a joke. Jennifer Sor (Business Insider) reports:

Elon Musk has returned to bashing the GOP budget bill in recent days, and in doing so, has reignited his fight with President Donald Trump.

In one long-time investor's view, it's bound to create even more challenges for the company, which just reported another quarter of weak vehicle deliveries.

Ross Gerber, the CEO of Gerber-Kawasaki Wealth Management and an early backer of Musk's car company, said he believed the Tesla CEO's fight with President Donald Trump was another overhang for the company.

Tesla shares are down 22% year-to-date. Gerber thinks that while the feud is bad news, the company is also struggling against a lofty valuation and uncertainty in its various business units, including core auto sales, but also initiatives like robotaxis.

Gerber speculated that the stock could fall as much as 50% if the market revalues Tesla. The stock was trading around $316 on Wednesday.

Maybe they'd take him seriously if he actually did something? Remember when, for about 18 hours, he was demanding that the Jeffrey Epstein files be released and noting Chump was in them? And then he backed down? That hurt his reputation. Has he learned anything? Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) notes:

Elon Musk is demanding the full release of files related to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while continuing his feud with Donald Trump over the president’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

On Thursday morning, just hours before the House was expected to vote on the spending bill, Musk replied “yes” to a post from conservative activist Scott Presler calling for the release of the “unredacted Epstein files.”

Musk previously claimed that Trump’s name appears in the Epstein files, and that is why they have not been released by the Justice Department yet, during his spectacular falling out with the president in June.

The Tesla boss later said some of his social media posts attacking Trump “went too far” and seemed willing to move on from the feud, even deleting the post linking Trump to Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting federal sex trafficking charges.

So he chickened out before and started it back up today. Is he going to chicken out again? That's what everybody thinks. Now maybe everyone's wrong. Maybe Musk will stick to his guns this time?

As it is, Chump's mocking him. Rhian Lubin (Independent) reports:

President Donald Trump said he “dropped a dime” on Elon Musk’s alleged drug taking to the New York Times, according to biographer Michael Wolff.

As the feud between Trump and Musk reignited this week, Wolff claimed the president has been calling contacts to badmouth his former “first buddy.”

Musk denied claims that he was using drugs when he entered the White House after The Times broke the story in May, shortly before he exited Washington. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said he didn’t have any “concerns” about the allegations at the time.

“To be clear, I am NOT taking drugs! The New York Times was lying their a** off,” he said in a post on X at the time. “I tried *prescription* ketamine a few years ago and said so on X, so this not even news. It helps for getting out of dark mental holes, but haven’t taken it since then.”

Now Wolff said that Trump is “claiming credit” for The Times report, which was based on interviews with “more than a dozen people who have known or worked” with Musk.

“I was tracking some Trump phone calls on Monday night. And it’s sort of worth explaining here that over a long period of time, I’ve gotten to know and cultivated a lot of people who Trump regularly speaks to,” Wolff told the Daily Beast Podcast host Joanna Coles during Thursday’s episode.

Be sure to read Marcia's "Dr. Phil loses like the loser he is." This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Thursday, July 3, 2025. Donald Chump sweats as his disaster bill has yet to pass the House and as the Labor Dept is about to release a jobs report, he continues his war on immigrants, Cuban Americans need to wake up and grasp that the MAGA controlled GOP is no longer their party and that they have been betrayed, plus much more.

Let's start with Chump's attack on the economy. Under Joe Biden's leadership, the US economy was rebounding and considered the strongest globally. In six months time, Chump has destroyed it. Instead of stopping inflation, he has allowed it to continue. He lies about prices because he's a liar, a cheap, little liar. Paul Berger (WALL STREET JOURNAL) reports:

In the first major speech to Congress of his second term, President Trump vowed to resurrect American shipbuilding.

Four months later, Trump’s ambitious plans to reverse decades of maritime-industry decline are sputtering.

Government efficiency teams have paused food-aid programs that provide needed cargoes for the U.S.-flagged Merchant Marine. A senior Republican senator is warning of cuts to the proposed budget for military shipbuilding. The staff at a newly created office to coordinate maritime policy has been cut to two people from seven.

[. . .]

U.S.-flagged carriers say cuts to food aid programs are hurting the industry. The closure by the Department of Government Efficiency of the U.S. Agency for International Development effectively shut down the Food for Peace program, which provided much-needed cargo—and revenue—for U.S.-flagged ships. Some industry officials warn that if the program isn’t resurrected under another government department soon they will have to start laying up ships and laying off seafarers.

The Trump administration has no plans to rescue the program. A senior administration official said the program was wasteful and that the State Department “is committed to responsibly winding down” the program despite efforts in Congress to transfer Food for Peace to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

He's just a failure, like his father always told him,

AP's Paul Wiseman and Aniruddha Ghosal report some 'good' news for Chump, "President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam Wednesday that would allow U.S. goods to enter the country duty-free. Vietnamese exports to the United States, by contrast, would face a 20% levy." Good? Well he promised 90 treaties in 90 days and the 90 days ends July 9th. That's six days from now.

This is where we'd insert a clip of THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE because she had several important discussions on this topic last night. In the two hours she did last night. She did her regular hour and then she did another hour to continue the coverage of the House vote or 'vote' on Donald's bill.

If you're generous Vietnam is the third 'understanding' Chump has with another country. 90 in 90s days. We're six days away from the deadline. The one he imposed upon himself.

Stephanie noted that the mad push by him, this must be done by July 4th!, is an attempt to distract from so many things, so many broken promises, and failures.

At NAVIGATION RESEARCH, Ian Smith writes:

This Navigator Research report covers the latest perceptions of President Trump and Congressional Democrats and Republicans in the House Battleground.

The economy continues to lead as the top overall issue, with 41 percent of battleground constituents identifying either “inflation and the cost of living” or “jobs and the economy” as a priority.

In a newly added question, we tested “government corruption” as a top concern. It now ranks just behind threats to democracy and the economy — making it the third-most prioritized issue overall (28 percent).

Trump’s standing has declined slightly among battleground constituents and persuadables — even in a sample that leans slightly more Republican than the national electorate. In February, his favorability was roughly even; today, he is four points underwater (48 percent favorable – 52 percent unfavorable). This decline mirrors his approval on the economy, which now sits seven points underwater (46 percent approve – 53 percent disapprove).

So DOGE -- "government corruption" -- wasn't that important either. (See Ann's "Musk & Chump Round Two: The catfight continues" and "Musk has no empathy in his racist heart" for more on Musk.) The economy's tanking. DOGE led to massive protests across the country. Chump's not gong to have 90 deals by his July 9th deadline.

Nick Mordowanec (NEWSWEEK) observes:

The Vietnam agreement comes amid a broader administration push to finalize trade deals ahead of Trump's self-imposed "90 in 90" deadline—a period of 90 days for 90 targeted trade deals or renegotiations globally.

In June, after a trade agreement with China, Trump indicated that "around 15 countries" were negotiating under the threat of significant tariffs being imposed if deals are not struck in time.

Covering the Vietnam deal itself, Sarah K. Burris (RAW STORY) reveals it's nothing to brag about:

As foreign affairs journalist Olga Nesterova explained, Trump is taxing Americans 20-40% while Vietnam gets products for free.

However, the country's economy, cost of living and salaries are vastly different from those in the United States. For example, Numbeo data shows the cost of a 12-ounce bottle of soda is about 50 cents. The monthly cell phone bill with at least 10 gigabytes of data is under $6. A one-bedroom apartment in the City Centre averages under $400 a month.

As political and media researcher Craig Harrington explained, "Our trade relationship with Vietnam was growing before Trump, but we still only exported $13.1 billion worth of goods to Vietnam in 2024 (they exported $136.6 billion to us). Tariffs aren't the reason we don't export much to Vietnam, it's because they are poorer than we are."

Meanwhile, University of Michigan professor of public policy and economics, Justin Wolfers, noted on X, "'New' trade deal just dropped: US businesses get tariff-free access to the Vietnamese market, just as they were offered 8 years ago in the TPP, but Trump refused to sign. In addition, Trump's imposing a 20% tax on Americans who import goods from Vietnam."

The increase is on the US consumer's side. That's how Chump 'helps' American buyers. Again, the man's an idiot and he's wrecking the economy. You are not helping the American people with a 20% increase that will make them pay more for the product.

Alex Harring (CNBC) has more troubling news for Chump:

Private sector hiring unexpectedly contracted in June, payrolls processing firm ADP said Wednesday, in a possible sign that the economy may not be as sturdy as investors believe as they bid the S&P 500 back up to record territory to end the month.

Private payrolls lost 33,000 jobs in June, the ADP report showed, the first decrease since March 2023. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecast an increase of 100,000 for the month. The May job growth figure was revised even lower to just 29,000 jobs added from 37,000.

And everyone's awaiting the release today of the job's report. Rob Wile (NBC NEWS) notes:

The U.S. economy continues to send mixed signals. On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will report job figures for June that may help clear up the picture.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast that 110,000 new payrolls were added in June. That would be the fewest since February, and it would be the fourth monthly decline in the past six months. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, was expected to have climbed to 4.3%, the highest since October 2021.

THE NEW YORK TIMES is live blogging the release of the report -- already ahead of the release, they've done several posts this morning.

At AXIOS, Emily Peck notes the effects on the economy from Chump's war on immigrants:

President Trump's immigration crackdown is hitting key pockets of the economy, disrupting workplaces and communities around the country.
Why it matters: The sharp fall in immigration this year threatens to slow down economic growth, particularly in the sectors and cities that relied on newcomers to the U.S. in recent years.

What they're saying: With the push against immigration, "the economy will find itself slightly diminished in the long run and inflation will run a touch higher," economist Bernard Yaros writes in a report for Oxford Economics.

There will be fewer workers to produce goods and services, slowing down growth and putting pressure on wages.

Most people -- those with a functional brain -- would look at how the assault on immigration was harming the economy and scale back deportations. But Chump is a senile old man and we all suffer because, as Mike noted last night, "Because Chump can't get an erection anymore, the whole world has to suffer." Nothing does it for him anymore due to the meds he's on and the age he's reached and his obesity. He's impotent in bed . . . and becoming impotent outside of bed. So it's never enough for a Convicted Felon like Donald Chump. Josh Kovensky (TPM) notes the morbidly obese Chump now wants to explore deporting citizens:

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

Stephen Miller suggested it; the idea appeared in Project 2025. Online fever-swamp entrepreneurs, like Claremont Institute donor Charles Haywood, pushed a national “review” of everyone naturalized since 1965.

Now, the DOJ has taken the first real step towards expanding the government’s efforts to strip citizenship from those who applied for it and received it — and has suggested it will be doing so for explicitly political reasons. It came in a June 11 memo dryly titled “Civil Division Enforcement Priorities,” written by Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate.

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

Recently, denaturalization cases have dealt with a narrow set of circumstances. Perhaps someone lied on their citizen application, or failed to disclose something significant enough that, had it been disclosed, the government would have declined to grant the person citizenship. The DOJ finds out, and files a civil lawsuit in federal court to revoke the person’s citizenship. In many cases, this has been applied to war criminals and people who otherwise concealed crimes that they were in the process of committing as they applied for citizenship.

But the June DOJ memo’s language around terrorism and national security threats is incredibly broad. In the world of the memo, “pos[ing] a potential danger to national security” is enough to merit a review of your citizenship application. It raises concerns that the DOJ will seek to use claims that a person poses such a danger to accuse naturalized Americans of omitting key information on their citizenship applications, which ask about ties to groups that commit terrorism or advocate for the overthrow of the U.S. government. In the Alien Enemies Act removals, the Trump administration twisted the definition of “invasion” to summarily deport people it cast as invaders to CECOT; Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk’s pro-Palestine op-ed in a student newspaper was enough for the administration to accuse her of supporting Hamas and revoke her visa.

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

He's a fool and he's a fool whose dementia is getting worse which makes him a very dangerous fool.

On immigrants, Nadine El-Bawab (ABC NEWS) reports:

The federal government attempted to deport a stateless Palestinian woman on Monday for the second time, despite a court order barring her removal from a Texas district, according to court documents.

The attempted deportation also came just days after the first stage of her green card application was approved, her husband Taahir Shaikh told ABC News, opening up a potential pathway for her to obtain permanent residency.

Ward Sakeik -- a 22-year-old who is married to a U.S. citizen -- was detained by the government in February on her way home from her honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Sakeik's family is from Gaza, but she is legally stateless and has lived in the U.S. since she was 8 years old. Her family had traveled to the U.S. on a tourist visa and applied for asylum, according to Shaikh.

Chump and Noem have ignored the U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade's order not to remove Taahir from the district. And lives are being destroyed. "I feel nowhere is safe" -- read THE BOSTO GLOBE article. People are afraid to go out. Businesses are suffering and some are closing. Denise Chow (NBC NEWS) notes:

On a typical weekend, 20,000 people stream through the metal gates at Broadacres Marketplace, thronging the aisles of the outdoor “swap meet” to hunt for the best deals, savor snacks and sip micheladas under the desert sky.

Until late June, Broadacres’ familiar bustle had cemented its place as the heart of this city’s Latino community. That has been replaced with an eerie quiet. Hundreds of booths stand barren behind a chain-link fence, mostly stripped to their skeletal remains and covered in fabric or tarp.

Save for one security guard at the main gate, there’s no one in sight.

Broadacres Marketplace announced that it would temporarily close on June 21 because of the threat of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a statement online, the market’s management said the decision to close was made “out of an abundance of caution and concern for our community.” Broadacres’ owner, Greg Danz, is president and CEO of Newport Diversified Inc., a company that also owns two other swap meets in California.

“We don’t want any of our customers, vendors, or employees to be detained at our business or for us to be a beacon of shopping and entertainment while our federal government is raiding businesses and detaining its people,” the statement read, adding that management does not yet have a planned date to reopen.

In the state of Washington, a festival's been cancelled due to the assault on immigrants. B-TOWN BLOG reports:

The organizers of the 4th annual Pacific Northwest Folklórico Festival – set for Saturday, July 26, 2025 at Burien Town Square Park – announced they are canceling the 2025 event, citing immigration enforcement activity and a broader political climate they say threatens the safety and wellbeing of immigrant communities.

In an email to supporters, including The B-Town Blog, Joyas Mestizas, the Burien-based folklórico dance organization announced the decision to cancel its upcoming event “in light of the current political climate,” citing strong opposition to recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

“We are angry at the ICE raids and racist immigration policies that tear families apart, and in canceling our event we commit to prioritizing the safety of our community,” the group wrote.

And we should all be angry at these raids -- carried out by a secret gestapo force -- using private contractors and unleashing on the streets of America -- allowing them to be masked. US House Rep . Pramila Jayapal has angered the Murdoch Outrage Empire by calling these people "terrorists." Guess what, she's exactly right. This is not how we do law enforcement. And we expect trained people, trained in the rights that people have in this country, to be law enforcement. Instead, Kristi Noem and Donald Chump are hiring bullies and telling them to do whatever, to violate any law, that it doesn't matter and that they're masked so they can be punished later on. Wendy Fry and Sergio Olmos (CAL MATTERS) explain:

A lawsuit filed Wednesday by civil and immigration rights groups accuses federal authorities of unleashing an unconstitutional siege by snatching workers and U.S. citizens off Southern California streets and denying them food, water and the right to speak with an attorney.

The federal class action lawsuit aims to immediately stop immigration agents from conducting military-style raids across L.A. that prioritize “numbers, pure numbers,” according to the complaint. It also seeks to get access to counsel for those arrested who are now being held in overcrowded “dungeon-like” facilities where the conditions are deplorable and unconstitutional, the filing says.

Federal agents in combat gear, some masked and armed with rifles, have stormed swap meets, car washes, bus stops, and churches since early June, grabbing people off sidewalks and dragging away mothers, workers, day laborers, and U.S. citizens without explanation, the complaint alleges. Civil rights groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, say the raids have been part of an illegal mass-arrest campaign driven by the Trump administration’s nationwide deportation quota policy.

“Such seizures look less like lawful arrests and more like brazen, midday kidnappings,” the lawsuit states.

Exactly.

On TABITHA SPEAKS POLITICS, Tabitha likes to play a clip of Florida Hispanics -- largely Cuban Americans -- dancing around before the 2024 election while singing, "I will vote for Donald Trump."

And how did that work out for them? Cuban Americans are being targeted too. So much so that you have two Republican members of the House now calling out the targeting of immigrants. Elizabeth Kuebel (WSSU) reports:

Right now, the family of a Cuban immigrant doesn't know what will happen next, as he sits in an ICE facility.

Yandy Gomez Rodriguez was detained when he showed up to his ICE appointment in downtown New Orleans.

It comes at a time that the federal government is cracking down on illegal immigration. But Yandy's wife and attorney argue that he has really been trying to do everything right.

"We've reached a dead end where we don't know where else to turn, because at this point I can't say for sure what's going to happen to him," said Robert W. Goeke, with Casey Cowley attorneys.

Goeke says the Kenner resident has been in ICE custody for more than a month now, since May 16th.

"He was scheduled to show up to ICE on the sixteenth of May, he showed up to that appointment, as he had done close 10 times in the past, and ICE chose to take him in," Goeke said.

Goeke says 8 years prior, Yandy arrived at the border. He's since married a US citizen, who applied to get him legal status, and together they have a two-year-old daughter.

Yandy has no criminal record, per his attorney, and worked in the heating and AC business.

"My daughter is asking all the time, when is my daddy coming, or when she's talking to him, she says, 'oh come on daddy, come on, come take me,' or things like that," said his wife, Dianna Heredia.

It's time for Cuban Americans to grasp that MAGA is not their friend. Maybe they can fight to take control of the Republican Party and send MAGA back to its on inbred trailer park, but MAGA is not their friend and will never be their friend. Again, I'm not asking them to come over to the Democratic Party. But I am pointing out that Cuban Americans across the country -- but especially in Florida -- have turned out repeatedly for the Republican Party and now that the MAGA wing has seized control of that party, Cuban Americans are being spit on.

For your own families, you need to stop voting MAGA -- they are not the Republican Party that appreciated your support. Latinos across the country are grasping that and should be grasping it. But, again, Cuban Americans have given the Republican Party Florida. Year after year. And now MAGA spits on them, spits on their family. Fidel Castro may be dead, but Cuban Americans continue to see relatives coming to the US. And in their minds, people leave Cuba due to being persecuted. When Fidel was alive, the GOP was happy to use and platform Cuban Americans in their was with Castro. Castro's dead and MAGA doesn't give a damn about Cuban Americans or Cubans coming to this country. I can't think of a bigger betrayal by a political party then what the MAGA wing has done to Cuban Americans.

Again, all Latinos are aware of the targeting taking plce. Gustavo Arellano (LOS ANGELES TIMES) offers:

The Pew Research Center is one of the most trusted polling firms in the country, especially when it comes to Latinos. Last week, it published findings that should have been a victory lap for Donald Trump and his tortuous relationship with America’s largest minority.

According to Pew, Trump won 48% of Latino voters in the 2024 presidential election — the highest percentage ever recorded by a Republican presidential nominee and a 12 percentage point improvement from his 2020 showing.

Latinos made up 10% of Trump’s coalition, up from 7% four years ago. Latino men went with a Republican for the first time. Trump even improved his share of support among Latinas — long seen by Democratic leaders as a bulwark against their macho Trumpster relatives — by a 13-point margin, a swing even greater than that of Latino men.

These stats prove what I’ve been warning about for years: that Latinos were souring on illegal immigration — even in blue California — and tiring of a Democratic Party too focused on policies that weren’t improving their lives. This gave Trump a chance to win over Latino voters, despite his years-long bloviations against Mexico and Central American nations, because Latinos — who assimilate like any other immigrants, if not more so — were done with the Democratic status quo. They were willing to take a risk on an erratic strongman resembling those from their ancestral lands.

Pew’s findings confirm one of Trump's most remarkable accomplishments — one so unlikely that professional Latinos long dismissed his election gains as exaggerations. Those voters could have been the winds blowing the xenophobic sails of his deportation fleet right now.

All Trump had to do was stick to his campaign promises and target the millions of immigrants who came in illegally during the Biden years. Pick off newcomers in areas of the country where Latinos remain a sizable minority and don’t have a tradition of organizing. Dare Democrats and immigrant rights activists to defend the child molesters, drug dealers and murderers Trump vowed to prioritize in his roundups. Conduct raids like a slow boil through 2026, to build on the record-breaking number of Latino GOP legislators in California and beyond.

Trump has done none of that. He instead decided to smash his immigration hammer on Los Angeles, the Latino capital of the U.S.

MAGA appreciates no one. They make that clear with the budget plan from Donald Dearest.

Here's Lawrence O'Donnell from MSNBC last night.

As of right now, Donald's bill has still not passed. It is an ugly bill that will destroy lives, that attacks the poor and working people, that attempts to decimate whatever's left of the middle class while handing out huge give aways to the already rich. It does so many horrible things. Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reports on one thing it will do that I haven't seen covered elsewhere:

An expert with the libertarian Cato Institute sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" to slash taxes on the wealthy and cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid, food stamps, and green energy subsidies, highlighting a lesser-known provision that could codify one of the president's most controversial deportation policies — and turbocharge it into overdrive.

Specifically, posting on X, David J. Bier pointed to a subsection on page 529 of the bill that deals with the increase in funding for immigration enforcement.

"In the case of an unaccompanied alien child who has attained 12 years of age and is encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the funds made available under subsection (a) shall only be used to conduct an examination of such unaccompanied alien child for gang-related tattoos and other gang-related markings," said the section.

In other words, wrote Bier, "You've heard about how ICE deported a bunch of adults to a Salvadoran torture prison based on their tattoos. Did you know that the Big Beautiful Police State Act includes $40 million to identify 'gang kids' the same way?"

The vote is in the House now. The bill has yet to pass. Here's Senator Tammy Baldwin's office on why the senator voted against the bill

In Wisconsin, the bill will terminate at least 250,000 people’s health care, reduce or eliminate 90,000 Wisconsinites’ food assistance, and threaten to close rural hospitals

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) released the following statement after she voted against the Republicans’ budget bill:

“Today, I voted against rigging our tax code in favor of the biggest corporations and ultra-wealthy – all on the backs of working families who are just trying to get by and want a fair shot at success. As I travel across Wisconsin, I hear from families who are worried about paying for groceries, covering the cost of their medications, and keeping the lights on. Instead of standing up for these working families, my Republican colleagues jammed through a bill that guts Medicaid, kicks 17 million Americans off their health insurance, shutters rural hospitals, and takes food from families in need. And why? All to rig our already unfair tax code even more to help the rich get richer. This bill does not solve the problems that Wisconsin families are facing – in fact, it makes them worse. I am disappointed. I am disgusted. But, I am also fired up and ready. Ready to keep fighting alongside every Wisconsinite who believes we can do better to give hard-working families a fair shot and stop tilting the scales for the wealthy and well-connected. It’s not the people in Washington with power; it’s the people across this country. The people who keep speaking up and speaking out, who are emailing and calling, who are marching in the streets, and who are telling their stories. This fight isn’t over, and together, we can still beat this thing.”

Senator Baldwin introduced the following amendments to the bill to block cuts to Medicaid that would rip away health care from Americans and also close a tax loophole that allows Wall Street investment managers to often pay almost half the tax rate compared to most other Wisconsin workers:

Preventing seniors from having their health care ripped away, including those in nursing homes;
Preventing children from having their health care ripped away, including those on the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP);
Preventing health care for those battling addiction and substance use disorder from being ripped away;
Preventing cuts to funding for rural Americans, including essential funding for hospitals;
Preventing pregnant women from having their health care ripped away; and
Closing the carried interest loophole that benefits wealthy money managers on Wall Street, something that President Trump also supports.

The Republicans’ bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of [51-50], will terminate health care for 17 million Americans, including 250,000 Wisconsinites. In Wisconsin, Medicaid provides care for more than 1.2 million people, including four in seven nursing home residents, one in three children, and one in three adults with disabilities. While over 12 million rural Americans rely on Medicaid for health care, severe cuts to Medicaid will also jeopardize rural hospitals and clinics’ ability to keep their doors open.

The legislation also makes the largest cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history. Approximately 700,000 Wisconsin residents rely on SNAP for food assistance.

Over the past several months, Senator Baldwin has been speaking out against the harmful impact this bill will have on Wisconsinites – in the press, on the Senate floor, and in Wisconsin communities.

Senator Baldwin hosted roundtables in La Crosse, Milwaukee, Wausau, Eau Claire, Green Bay, Racine, Waukesha, Superior, Beloit, and twice in Madison, convening Wisconsinites whose health care coverage is in jeopardy under the Republicans’ plan to slash Medicaid to pay for corporate tax breaks.
VIDEO: Senator Baldwin spoke on the Senate floor, condemning the Republicans’ budget bill.
VIDEO: Senator Baldwin held a virtual press conference with impacted Wisconsinites ahead of Senate Republicans bringing up their bill for a vote.
VIDEO: Senator Baldwin highlighted Congressional Republicans’ efforts to barrel ahead with a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood on the Senate floor.
Senator Baldwin slammed republicans’ planned cuts to Medicaid, which will devastate our country’s fight against the opioid and fentanyl epidemic and jeopardize treatment for thousands of Wisconsinites.

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Stephanie Ruhle did a good job covering the bribery aspects of PARAMOUNT's payout to Chump last night on MSNBC -- again, they haven't posted anything from her two hour broadcast last night. We'll note this from Senator Eliabeth Warren's office:

Warren: “This could be bribery in plain sight.”

“I will soon introduce new legislation to rein in corruption through presidential library donations.”

Washington, D.C. – Today, in response to the news that Paramount Global (Paramount) settled President Trump’s “meritless” lawsuit against 60 Minutes for $16 million paid to his future presidential library, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released the following statement:

“With Paramount folding to Donald Trump at the same time the company needs his administration’s approval for its billion-dollar merger, this could be bribery in plain sight. Paramount has refused to provide answers to a congressional inquiry, so I’m calling for a full investigation into whether or not any anti-bribery laws were broken."

“This settlement exposes a glaring need for rules to restrict donations to sitting presidents’ libraries. I will soon introduce new legislation to rein in corruption through presidential library donations. The Trump administration’s level of sheer corruption is appalling and Paramount should be ashamed of putting its profits over independent journalism.”

In May 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote to Shari Redstone, Chair of Paramount, with concerns regarding whether Paramount may be engaging in potentially illegal conduct involving the Trump Administration in exchange for approval of its megamerger with Skydance Media (Skydance).

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Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "MAGA Loves The Stink Of Him" went up last night and the following sites updated:

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Musk has no empathy in his racist heart

A few hours ago, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "MAGA Loves The Stink Of Him"

Yes, MAGA does love the stink of him and if they could get the cologne into The Dollar Store, it might sell to his hillbilly and in-bred supporters.

Ay-yi-yi.

We're on Alien Musk again. He has a ton of children. Because he's racist. He's so afraid the world doesn't have enough White people. Jamie Marsella (Teen Vogue) explains:

Pronatalist policies attempt to encourage people to have more children, including by offering incentives or appealing to a sense of civic or social duty. In March, billionaire and then-Trump advisor Elon Musk, who has fathered at least 14 children with at least four women, told Fox News anchor Bret Baier that if birth rates do not increase, “civilization will disappear.” In 2021, then-Senate candidate J.D. Vance claimed that childless adults (seemingly referring to those without biological children) don’t have the same direct stake in the future of the country as people with children.

At the same time, though, the Trump administration has also made it clear that not all children are welcome. In March, NBC News reported that US immigration agents were planning to target families without criminal histories for detention and deportation. Since then, the administration has even deported several US citizen children along with their parents.

In addition, the National Institutes of Health has cut funding for research on topics the administration deems related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which scientists worry will stifle their ability to address critical issues like racial disparities in maternal- and infant-health outcomes.

Critical children’s programs are also in jeopardy. In March, the United States Department of Agriculture ended pandemic-era programs that provided $660 million for local food for children at schools and childcare centers to help ensure that kids received nutritious meals. This week, Senate Republicans passed what the Trump administration has called the "One Big, Beautiful Bill," which would slash the federal budget for Medicaid by more than $1 trillion over a 10-year span and cause about 11.8 million to lose their health insurance, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office. Medicaid provides health care coverage to children more than any other age group. After narrowly passing in the Senate, the budget bill is back in the House.

All of these proposals and actions have the effect of incentivizing some families to expand while removing access to support and care for others. They are part of a deeply intertwined history of American eugenics and pronatalism that is fueled by anxieties about gender, race, and immigration.

It's racism pure and simple. Meanwhile, Wajeeh Khan (Barchart) reports:

Investors are glued to Tesla (TSLA) at writing following reports that its billionaire chief executive, Elon Musk, will personally oversee European sales after firing Omead Afshar – the company’s vice president of manufacturing and operations – last week.

Musk is seizing operational control at a time when the EV maker is scrambling to stabilize sales in Europe. According to the latest data, TSLA registrations were down 61.5% in Denmark and 64.4% in Sweden last month.

Continued declines in European sales is a major red flag for Tesla investors given the region is the company’s second-largest market and a key pillar of the global EV demand.

TSLA shares slipped on Tuesday because registrations down 60%-plus in both Denmark and Sweden signals intensifying competition, particularly from its Chinese rivals.

The aforementioned weakness is significant given EV adoption at large is growing at an exciting pace across the continent – suggesting Tesla is losing share.

He refuses to grasp that he's the one who tanked his own company. MAGA is against electric cars. The people buying them were on the left. And he turned around and daily spit on the left and daily harmed the left and now he's surprised that the left no longer wants to buy his cars?

Sarah Fortinsky (THE HILL) reports:

Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday reflected on his decision to wield a chain saw on stage in February to tout government spending cuts, saying the move “lacked empathy.”

Musk’s remark came in response to criticism from a social media user who pushed back on Musk’s claim that “Hitting the debt ceiling is the only thing that will actually force the government to cut waste and fraud.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have taken the chainsaw on stage and acted a fool,” the user said in a post on the social platform X, which Musk owns. “Maybe you could have gotten more done if you weren’t so worried about looking cool.”

Musk replied directly: “Valid point.”

“Milei gave me the chainsaw backstage and I ran with it, but, in retrospect, it lacked empathy,” Musk continued, referring to Argentine President Javier Milei.

He is such a little liar. He has no empathy. He has attacked empathy as a concept. Let me note this from Ava and C.I.'s "Media shocks (Ava and C.I.):"

When you hear Hegseth lie and Chump lie, you wonder why? They just keep repeating lies. Why?

PBS viewers might have gotten an answer last week with the latest installment of AMERICAN MASTERS which featured a documentary entitled HANNAH ARENDT: FACING TYRANNY. It examined Arendt's work documenting that crimes of the Nazis and how they got support for their crimes. Arendt noted that they lied and lied some more and knew they were lying but they were creating this lie that motivated and excused. Did anyone really believe the lie or was just the excuse they needed, the 'noble lie' told to garner support for a genocide.

One part that especially stood out?

This passage from Arendt:

Banality was a phenomenon that really couldn't be overlooked. The more one listened to him, the more obvious it became that his inability to speak was closely connected with his inability to think Namely to think from the standpoint of someone else. There's nothing deep about it, nothing demonic. That's simply the reluctance ever to imagine what the other person is experiencing. That is the banality of evil.

She's referring to the fact that the Nazis conducted a genocide and got away with it because of people who lacked empathy.

And that's why the right-wing's been attacking empathy (see our "MEDIA: YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS and your non-friends too!" from April) because MAGA can't get it's way if people have empathy. So they portray it as a bad thing. They pretend to be Christians while attacking the very idea of empathy that Jesus Christ taught. At THE ATLANTIC, Elizabeth Bruenig explained today:

Five years ago, Elon Musk told Joe Rogan during a podcast taping that “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit.” By that time, the idea that people in the West are too concerned with the pain of others to adequately advocate for their own best interests was already a well-established conservative idea. Instead of thinking and acting rationally, the theory goes, they’re moved to make emotional decisions that compromise their well-being and that of their home country. In this line of thought, empathetic approaches to politics favor liberal beliefs. An apparent opposition between thought and feeling has long vexed conservatives, leading the right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro to famously declare that “facts don’t care about your feelings.”

But the current ascendancy of this anti-empathy worldview, now a regular topic in right-wing social-media posts, articles, and books, might be less a reasonable point of argumentation and more a sort of coping mechanism for conservatives confronted with the outcomes of certain Trump-administration policies—such as the nightmarish tale of a 4-year-old American child battling cancer being deported to Honduras without any medication, or a woman in ICE custody losing her mid-term pregnancy after being denied medical treatment for days. That a conservative presented with these cases might feel betrayed by their own treacherous empathy makes sense; this degree of human suffering certainly ought to prompt an empathetic response, welcome or not. Even so, it also stands to reason that rather than shifting their opinions when confronted with the realities of their party’s positions, some conservatives might instead decide that distressing emotions provoked by such cases must be a kind of mirage or trick. This is both absurd—things that make us feel bad typically do so because they are bad—and spiritually hazardous.

This is certainly true for Christians, whose faith generally counsels taking others’ suffering seriously. That’s why the New York Times best seller published late last year by the conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey, Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion, is so troubling. In her treatise packaging right-wing anti-empathy ideas for Christians, Stuckey, a Fox News veteran who recently spoke at a conference hosted by the right-wing nonprofit Turning Point USA, contends that left wingers often manipulate well-meaning believers into adopting sinful argumentative and political positions by exploiting their natural religious tendency to care for others. Charlie Kirk, the Republican activist who runs Turning Point USA, said that Stuckey has demolished “the No. 1 psychological trick of the left” with her observation that liberals wield empathy against conservatives “by employing our language, our Bible verses, our concepts” and then perverting them “to morally extort us into adopting their position.” Taken at face value, the idea that Christians are sometimes persuaded into un-Christian behavior by strong emotions is fair, and nothing new: Suspicion of human passions is ancient, and a great deal of Christian preaching deals with the subject of subduing them. But Toxic Empathy is not a sermon. It is a political pamphlet advising Christians on how to argue better in political debates—a primer on being better conservatives, not better Christians.

It's very distressing but people are standing up and speaking out.

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

Wednesday, July 2, 2025. Since "we're all going to die," the GOP decides to rob the American people before they're in the grave.

Donald Chump's desire to rob from the poor to give to the rich bill has passed the Senate and has gone back to the House which is expected to vote for it today so that they can rush home to their districts where they will continue to ignore their constituents while sleeping in their own beds. Edith Olmsted (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes, "A survey by The Washington Post found that 42 percent of Americans opposed the bill, while only 23 percent supported it, leaving the legislation with a net favorable rating of -19 -- and that was the most positive that the results got. A Pew Research Center poll found that the bill had a net favorable rating of -20, Fox News found a net favorable rating of -21, Quinnipiac found a net favorable rating of -26, and KFF found a net favorable rating of -29."

The American people are not being listened to and this is going to harm the GOP in next year's midterm elections. Some grasp that and are bailing with announcements right now that they won't be seeking re-election. Most others will be shown the door by others.

Yesterday, Andrew Keshner (MARKET WATCH) reported:

America’s social safety net is poised to become thinner if the Republicans’ massive tax and spending bill crosses the finish line, at a time when low-income consumers are struggling and recession fears linger.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed its version in a 51-50 vote. Vice President J.D. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. The version that passed the Senate included last-minute adjustments to try strengthening the finances of rural hospitals, which treat many Medicaid enrollees. Next the bill goes back to the U.S. House of Representatives for a final vote.

If President Donald Trump signs the megabill into law, it would result in stingier subsidies and tighter eligibility rules for government-funded healthcare. It would potentially create more requirements for people to qualify for food stamps, and those benefits would do less to keep up with grocery prices over time. The bill would also create more paperwork for people who want to keep using these anti-poverty programs and tax credits.

“Overall, we would be left with an economic security system that barely functions in the best of economic times and will be completely overwhelmed when we encounter our next economic downturn,” said Indivar Dutta-Gupta, a distinguished visiting fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Medicaid is in the center of the debate on whether to scale back government aid and how to do it. But the proposed Medicaid cuts are only one of the ways the megabill will touch safety-net programs that Americans have relied on for decades. The nearing overhaul also targets other programs including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, and tax subsidies for people who buy their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s exchange.

For anyone not getting it, Yasmeen Abutaleb (WASHINGTON POST) explains:

The Senate version of President Donald Trump’s massive tax and immigration spending plan would wipe out many of the strides made by the Affordable Care Act in reducing the number of uninsured Americans, resulting in at least 17 million Americans losing their health coverage, according to nonpartisan estimates and experts.

The bill, which narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday and now heads back to the House, would effectively accomplish what Republicans have long failed to do: unwind many of the key components of the ACA, President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement that dramatically increased the number of Americans with access to health insurance.

To start, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Senate version of the bill would result in 11.8 million more uninsured in 2034, mostly because of Medicaid cuts, compared with 10.9 million if the House version became law.

In addition, both versions of the bill would allow pandemic-era enhanced subsidies for health insurance through ACA marketplaces to expire at the end of the year, sharply raising out-of-pocket costs for millions of Americans. The CBO estimates that 4.2 million people would lose insurance as a result. An additional 1 million are likely to become uninsured because of a combination of other Trump administration cuts and the Republican legislation, according to the CBO.

The bill also includes other, less-noticed changes that over several years would make it harder for states to maintain the ACA’s Medicaid expansion at existing levels, which currently cover some 20 million Americans, according to KFF, a health policy research organization.

“This bill-- if passed, and if the enhanced subsidies expire -- will be a very effective undermining of the vision of the Affordable Care Act to move the United States to a country where universal coverage is in sight,” said Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. “This was the 100-year fight to get to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.”

Senator Patty Murray is the longest serving Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee. Her office issued the following:

In Washington state, at least 328,695 people will lose health care under Republican bill; 900,000 Washingtonians could see SNAP benefits reduced or eliminated; 14 rural hospitals will be at risk of closure

ICYMI: In Senate Floor Speech, Murray Rails Against Republican Bill That Rips Away Health Care, Nutrition Assistance, Abortion Access & Balloons National Debt to Fund Tax Cuts for Billionaires; VIDEO HERE

ICYMI: On Senate Floor, Murray Again Slams Republicans for Using Deceptive Tactics to Hide True Cost of Deficit-Busting Tax Cuts for Billionaires

ICYMI: Republicans Block Murray Amendment to Stop Republicans’ Big Ugly Betrayal Bill From Defunding Planned Parenthood

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement on Senate Republicans passing their partisan reconciliation bill—the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”—by a vote of 51-50 on Tuesday, with Vice President Vance voting with Republicans to break the tie, after an overnight “vote-a-rama” where Democrats forced Republicans to take dozens of tough votes on a wide array of issues, from protecting rural hospitals to preserving food assistance for families to extending expiring tax credits that help millions of families afford health care. The nearly 30-hour vote-a-rama came after Democrats forced more than 10 hours of debate and a full reading of every word of Republicans’ 940-page bill that will kick 17 million Americans off their health care and make the largest cuts to Medicaid and nutrition assistance in history to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.

Senator Murray put forward an amendment to strike a provision of the legislation that achieves anti-abortion extremists’ long-sought goal of “defunding” Planned Parenthood by cutting off Planned Parenthood health centers from receiving federal Medicaid funding for the care they provide for millions of low-income women across the country—including birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and wellness exams. Republicans blocked the amendment, 51-49.

“This monstrosity of a bill is about one thing: Republicans’ insistence on passing more tax breaks for billionaires and giant corporations while they kick working people off their health care, rip away nutrition assistance, and make it harder for struggling families to get by. It’s about taking away programs that give American families a hand up in hard times, to pay for a handout for the people who need it the least.

“This should be obvious: if a bill is so bad that you have to exempt entire states from its consequences to win the votes you need—just don’t pass the bill!

“Republicans’ legislation will mean 17 million Americans will lose their health insurance, including more than 328,000 people in Washington state who rely on Apple Health and Affordable Care Act coverage. Families will lose the SNAP benefits they rely on to afford food because of new Republican red tape positively meant to keep people from getting the benefits they are eligible for. Rural hospitals in Central and Eastern Washington that are already operating on the tightest of margins will be forced to close their doors, ripping away health care access from entire communities. Planned Parenthood health centers will shutter and women will be left with nowhere they can go to get birth control, cancer screenings, and other preventive care they can actually afford.

“When it comes to the all-out assault on clean energy in this bill, even Elon Musk understands the plain facts of the matter—Republicans’ cuts are ‘utterly insane and destructive’ and will ‘destroy millions of jobs in America.’ Republicans are also ripping away tens of millions of dollars for critical NOAA facilities in Washington state as part of this bill.

“This fight is not over—this bill is not yet law and I am not going to stop raising my voice and making sure the American people know exactly what is in it. Communities in Eastern and Central Washington will be among the hardest hit by these gigantic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP—now is the time to raise your voices and tell your Republican Members of Congress to vote NO. Republicans in the House need to listen to the American people and abandon this disaster of a bill.

“In the end, every Republican who votes for this bill will have to explain to their constituents why they voted to shutter local hospitals and punish struggling families to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”

Earlier on Sunday, Senator Murray delivered a lengthy speech on the Senate floor where she laid out in detail how Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act will rip away health care from millions of Americans, shutter the doors of hospitals and health care clinics across the country, make the largest cuts to Medicaid and nutrition assistance in history, and blow up the national debt—all so Republicans can fund massive tax breaks for billionaires. Murray also spoke out repeatedly during debate on the Senate floor against Republicans’ use of a so-called “current policy baseline” to hide the true cost of their deficit-busting tax cuts for billionaires.

Republicans’ 940-page bill, which they released in the dead of night, cuts more than $900 billion from Medicaid—$100 billion more than the House bill. That means about 17 million Americans will lose their health care, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and more than 300 rural hospitals and over 500 nursing homes could close because of the legislation. The legislation makes the largest cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history and will rip away nutrition assistance entirely from more than 5 million Americans and shift tens of billions of dollars in costs to states. The legislation also increases the debt by nearly $4 trillion dollars—nearly a trillion more than the House bill. About two in three Americans oppose the bill.

In Washington state, 1.95 million people rely on Apple Health, Washington state’s Medicaid program, and over 300,000 Washingtonians access coverage through the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace (Washington Healthplanfinder). The Joint Economic Committee estimates that at least 328,695 people in Washington state would lose their health insurance under the Republican legislation—that includes 198,050 people who would be kicked off Medicaid and 108,262 people who would lose their coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Among other things, Republicans’ bill would institute work reporting requirements for Medicaid, which have been proven not to increase employment and just strip health care coverage from people who are already working or exempt—this would put more than 620,000 Washingtonians at risk of losing their health care coverage or having it delayed. Fourteen rural hospitals in Washington state would be at risk of closure under the Republican bill. The legislation also “defunds” Planned Parenthood for the next year, threatening the closure of up to 200 health centers across the country—90 percent of them in states where abortion is legal. 11 percent of Washington state residents rely on SNAP, and the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services estimated that more than 900,000 people across the state could their see SNAP benefits reduced or eliminated under the House bill—the Senate bill is just as extreme.

Senator Murray has held constant recent events—including multiple events in Washington state—to sound the alarm on Republicans’ devastating reconciliation bill and encourage constituents to raise their voices and call on their Members of Congress to oppose the legislation.

###

The bill has been sent back to the House, it has not yet been passed. Many are urging people to contact their House Representatives and urge them not to vote for the bill.

Paul Krugman explains:

Does anyone remember the 1995 government shutdown and why it happened? Basically Newt Gingrich, fresh off a big Republican victory in the midterm election, was trying to force Bill Clinton to make big cuts in Medicare. He failed, in large part because Medicare was and is an immensely popular program.

A decade later, George W. Bush tried to privatize Social Security. But he, too, failed, because Social Security is also immensely popular.

But the Republican quest to rip up as much of the social safety net as possible never ends. And for the past 15 years or so that has meant steering clear, for now, of Medicare and Social Security, which are middle-class programs, and going after Medicaid instead. If the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which is, incredibly, the legislation’s actual name — goes into effect, Medicaid will be cut by around a trillion dollars over the next decade. (As of this morning, the fate of that bill remains uncertain.)

What is Medicaid? Like Medicare, it’s government-provided health insurance. But unlike Medicare, it’s “means-tested”: your income has to fall below a certain level before you’re eligible. This makes Medicaid a program for the poor or near-poor — and that, for many on the right, suggests a political opportunity.

Ostensibly, the right attacks Medicaid because it costs too much. I mean, it’s a government program, which means that it must be riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse, right? And surely there must be millions of lazy people getting health care through Medicaid who should be getting up off their couches and going to work.

The reality is that none of this is true.

MSNBC this morning states the GOP can only afford to lose three votes in the House.

As more facts come out, Nikki McCann Ramirez (ROLLING STONE) notes that liars like the vice president rush to weigh in:

President Donald Trump and the GOP's so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" is far from beautiful and deeply unpopular with the public. Battling concerns from voters about increased barriers to accessing programs like Medicaid and food assistance; massive transfers of wealth from less fortunate Americans to corporations and the rich; and the mass deregulation of industries like crypto and AI, Vice President J.D. Vance is attempting a new tactic to persuade the hesitant: ignore all of that and focus on how much money the bill is giving to ICE.

"The thing that will bankrupt this country more than any other policy is flooding the country with illegal immigration and then giving those migrants generous benefits. The [One Big Beautiful Bill] fixes this problem. And therefore it must pass," Vance wrote Tuesday on X.

"Everything else - the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy - is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions," he added.

The millions of people who are expected to lose access to their health insurance as a result of the legislation would likely beg to differ.

I think Miss Sassy's confused. Millions losing health insurance, JD, is not "minutiae." Minutiae is actually that lifeless, little extension in the front of your pants.

Governor Gavin Newsom's office issued the following two weeks ago:

With the risk of catastrophic wildfire on the rise as peak fire season sets in across California, the state’s firefighting and prevention resources are facing new strain resulting from President Trump’s actions.

President Trump’s illegal militarization of Los Angeles is cutting into valuable firefighting resources. As a federal judge noted yesterday in ruling that President Trump’s actions are illegal and should be halted, five of California’s 14 National Guard fire crews – who staff Joint Task Force Rattlesnake – are now understaffed due to the federalization and diversion of 300 California National Guard (CalGuard) soldiers from those crews to armories in the Los Angeles region. That represents three-quarters of CalGuard’s fire response and prevention resources.

Trump is endangering communities across California. He’s pulling National Guard members off of critical wildfire prevention and response missions for his political stunt in Los Angeles. And this is on top of his dangerous cuts to the Forest Service.

It’s critical that Trump heeds his own advice: restore funding to the Forest Service, support federal firefighters and Make America Rake Again.

Governor Gavin Newsom

The National Guard impact is on top of the Trump administration’s dangerous cuts to the U.S. Forest Service, which also threatens the safety of communities across the state. The U.S. Forest Service has lost 10% of all positions and 25% of positions outside of direct wildfire response – both of which are likely to impact wildfire response this year. The cuts come as the President issued an executive order yesterday on wildfire response – another order that rings hollow given the President’s actions.

“In just the first five months of 2025 California has experienced more than 2,300 wildfires,” said CAL FIRE Director and Fire Chief Joe Tyler. “Having the necessary firefighting apparatus and personnel is critical to our mission at CAL FIRE.”

Now Gen Gregory Guillot is asking for 200 to be returned to him to continue the California wildfire mission. No one wanted to address the needs to fight the wild fires -- not even the Supreme Court. Fighters needed for that effort have been sent to Los Angeles where they slept on floors and waited around for something to do. Wasted resources.

Moving over to Florida, Josh Fiallo (DAILY BEAST) notes:

A Florida city welcomed President Donald Trump to the state Tuesday by making life harder for his ICE goons.

Hours before Trump touched down at Florida’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz,” city commissioners in Key West voted 6-1 in favor of scrapping an agreement requiring local police to coordinate with federal immigration officials.

The vote “basically invalidated the city’s most recent agreement with ICE,” which was reached in March, reported Local 10.

“People who are seeking political asylum are important members of our community,” Commissioner Samuel Kaufman said, according to WLRN. “We have thousands of them here, by the way. And they deserve the respect that anybody else does.”

On the deathcamp that Chump and Doo-Doo DeSantis are creating, Alex Leary and Meridith McGraw (WALL STREET JOURNAL) report:

President Trump traveled to the steaming hot heart of the Everglades for a tour of a newly constructed migrant detention center—and a reunion with one of his fiercest political rivals.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has worked over the past year to mend a tattered relationship with the president after challenging him in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. DeSantis has sought to make Florida a proving ground for Trump’s policies. And he is selling a nickname for the detention facility that has caught Trump’s eye: Alligator Alcatraz.

“That’s not a place I want to go hiking any day soon,” Trump said Tuesday. “We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is really deportation.” The president added, “It might be as good as the real Alcatraz.”

As we noted yesterday, attacks on immigrants is big business and a lot of trash is getting rich on these attacks. Andrew Perez and Nikki McCann Ramirez (ROLLING STONE) note just how big the business is:

As it turns out, two contractors who worked to quickly build out Alligator Alcatraz, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has called a "one-stop shop" for detention, adjudication, and deportation of migrants, have been significant donors to DeSantis and Trump.

Trump and DeSantis, who were bitter rivals in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, toured Alligator Alcatraz together on Tuesday alongside Kristi Noem, who leads Trump's Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "Ron worked beautifully with Kristi and all of the people at Homeland Security and got it done in how many days, Ron?" Trump marveled.

Earlier Tuesday, Bloomberg News identified several contractors working on Alligator Alcatraz - a group of disaster relief firms selected by Florida's Division of Emergency Management, which is part of DeSantis' administration.

Among the contractors is CDR Companies, which Bloomberg reported "will run medical services and did some site preparation." CDR's president Carlos Duart and businesses affiliated with his firm have made significant donations to DeSantis and Trump, as well as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

CDR Enterprises donated $1 million in December 2023 to Fight Right Inc., a super PAC that supported DeSantis' presidential campaign. Late last year, DeSantis announced he was appointing Duart to the board of trustees at Florida International University, and named his wife, Tina Vidal-Duart, to the Florida Atlantic University Board of Trustees.

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Debbie Downers of the Dining Set" went up yesterday.

Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "The Debbie Downers of the Dining Set." Pray they never crash your dinner party. Border czar and War Criminal Tom Homan sighs, "People die." Senator Joni Ernst heaves, "We're all going to die." The hostess complains, "No one wants to sit next to them!" While the host asks, "Who invited them?" Isaiah archives his comics at THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS.

A person dies in Florida detention and Homan says, "People die." That's at least the fourth immigrant who has died in detention in Florida since the start of the year and Holman's response is "People die." Senator Joni Ernst is confronted by her own constituents who do not want these cuts to Medicaid, who point out to her the people will die as a result and Joni Phoney's response? "We're all doing to die."

Those are the GOP slogans: "We're all going to die" and "People die." That explains why they take no action on climate change.

Why bother because "People die" and "We're all going to die." It's their excuse for doing nothing to help the American people or anyone else.

Fight back. That's the only answer. In "Media shocks (Ava and C.I.)," Ava and I noted the various shocks last week and concluded with this:

It's very distressing but people are standing up and speaking out.

And with that in mind, last week actually contained one more shock. Chump was threatening to sue various outlets -- one of which was THE NEW YORK TIMES. In response to his ranting and raving, the paper's deputy general counsel David McGraw stated, "No retraction is needed. No apology will be forthcoming. We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so."

Contrast that response with the caving on the part of ABC NEWS and the expected caving on the part of Sheri Redstone on behalf of CBS NEWS and McGraw's stance is a very happy shock.

Ahmad Austin Jr. (MEDIAITE) reports:

CNN fired back at President Donald Trump on Tuesday for threatening to prosecute the network over its reporting of a new ICE-tracking app.

The day before, CNN ran a segment about the creation of ICEBlock, an app used to track the movements of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the area. At the time of the reporting, there were more than 20,000 users on the app — with a large portion of users the users in Los Angeles.

Hours after that report, Trump Border Czar Tom Homan called for the Justice Department to investigate CNN for “pushing” the app. He also called the segment “disgusting.” The CNN report on the app made clear that it was “controversial.”

The next day, Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed that they intend to prosecute CNN over the reporting. Those comments were made during a visit to “Alligator Alcatraz,” the new migrant detention center located in the Florida Everglades.

Ailia Zehra notes Chump backed down after raging at another media outlet:

President Donald Trump has quietly withdrawn his lawsuit against prominent Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register.

The lawsuit, initiated in December 2024 under Iowa's Consumer Fraud Act, accused Selzer and the newspaper of “brazen election interference” after her final pre‑election poll showed former Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump by three points in deep‑red Iowa — a poll that ultimately missed the mark by approximately 16 points, as Trump won the state by 13 points.

However, the craven always collapse. Sara Fischer (AXIOS) reports this morning:

CBS parent Paramount Global on Tuesday said it would pay $16 million to settle a voter interference lawsuit filed by President Trump last October, even as press freedom advocates warned the company was buckling to political pressure.

Why it matters: A settlement likely clears the way for Paramount Global to merge with Skydance Media.

Paramount and Skydance agreed to merge in a deal worth more than $8 billion last July.
The deal is largely seen as an escape valve for owner Shari Redstone, who has faced pressure from shareholders to offload the legacy TV asset while it still has value.

We'll wind down with this press release from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

Watch the Video (YouTube)

Washington, D.C. — In a new video reacting to the passage of President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) slammed Senate Republicans for “cheer[ing] over taking away health care from around 17 million people… giving huge tax breaks to a handful of billionaires.”

On Tuesday, the Senate completed 26 hours of debate on the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” following Democrats' successful delay of the bill’s passage. Despite Republicans’ efforts to rush the bill through, it only passed after Vice President JD Vance broke the 50-50 Senate tie.

During the debate and amendment process, Senate Democrats successfully pushed to strike provisions that would have devastated the deployment of clean energy and prohibited the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) at the state level for ten years.

“[W]e proved why we stay in the fight, because actually, there are pieces of this bill that we got better…It's always the reminder: all of those calls matter,” said Senator Warren.

The bill now heads back to the House of Representatives for consideration of the Senate’s amended version of the bill.

Senator Warren urged people across the country to continue fighting back as the bill continues to make its way through Congress.

“We stay in it not because it's an easy fight, not because we're guaranteed to win every time. We stay in it, because it's the right fight,” Senator Warren concluded.

Transcript: Senator Warren’s Reaction to Senate Passage of the “Big, Beautiful Bill”
July 1, 2025

Senator Elizabeth Warren: I’m leaving the Senate now at the end of the vote. When the Republicans won, they cheered.

They cheered over taking away health care from around 17 million people. They cheered over giving huge tax breaks to a handful of billionaires. They cheered over running up the national debt by another three and a half trillion dollars.

You know, this bill is bad. It's bad economically, it's bad morally. This bill is just wrong.

But, we stay in the fight. We stay in the fight. And we proved why we stay in the fight, because actually, there are pieces of this bill that we got better.

We got the tax on solar and wind knocked out, and that's going to help with clean energy. We got a few different pieces and made them better. So that's reason number one. It's always the reminder: all of those calls matter.

Reason number two is: it’s still not over. The bill has now got to go back over to the House, and there are a lot of Republicans who are feeling really squeamish about this bill at this point, so that means we got to stay in the fight.

And reason number three is: yeah, they may do this now, but come November 2026, they're going to have to face the voters. They're going to have to face the people, the families of the people whose health care they took away, and they're going to have to explain exactly what they just did just now on the floor of the United States Senate and whatever they do next.

So, this is hard, but damn, we stay in the fight. We stay in it not because it's an easy fight, not because we're guaranteed to win every time. We stay in it, because it's the right fight.

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