Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Grifter Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Grifter Bruce Blakeman

A grifter in the administration that I always mean to cover but have only had time to cover once so far in the last year is Lori Chavez-DeRemer.  She is our Secretary of Labor and she is one hot mess after another.  Zachary Folk (Forbes) reports:

In January, the New York Post first reported Chavez-DeRemer was under investigation by the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General for having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate and “abusing her position.”

One day later, the Post published further details about the investigation and the allegations—including that she allegedly took employees to a strip club in April 2025, and that her chief of staff and deputy chief of staff were instructed to “make up” official trips.
The investigation also reportedly discovered a stash of alcohol Chavez-DeRemer kept in her office, and the investigation was looking into claims of her drinking on the job.

Chavez-DeRemer also faced questions about her alleged misconduct from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bloomberg Law first reported in January.

Chump's entire Cabinet is a scandal, a boatload of unqualified embarrassments.  



The identities of several members of the militia created by New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman have reportedly been revealed.

Blakeman’s quest to stand up a force of armed and deputized citizens in his capacity as Nassau County executive — to help with purported “emergencies” — has garnered comparisons to Nazi brownshirts. The Long Island militia has also been likened to the Ku Klux Klan and slave patrols during the era of chattel slavery, both of which deployed militias filled with civilians to terrorize Black people.
A onetime umbrella-holder for Donald Trump and a devout MAGA loyalist, Blakeman has said he will never disagree with Trump in public. He also has said that his militia of “special deputies” — which could be unleashed at his whim — might be used to quell civil rights demonstrations, saying it would be available “if there was a riot.”

Democrats have sounded the alarm that some of the militia members were unqualified and, in some cases, had run into issues with the law themselves. Such fears were seemingly confirmed by a recent court filing by Democrats who are suing to thwart the militia, as reported by Newsday.

The list of deputies includes Zachary Cohen, a nephew of Blakeman’s who, according to Newsday, “has no law enforcement or military experience.”

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


Tuesday, April 7, 2026.  One of Chump's 'deadlines' looms (though he's already spoken of hw he may change it), he spent a great deal of time yesterday . . . insulting Joe Biden, his call for War Crimes results in a lot of attention, and much more.




President Trump said on Monday that a cease-fire proposal put forth by mediators between the United States and Iran was a “significant step,” but he warned that it was “not good enough” as his deadline of Tuesday evening for a deal approached.

Iran, for its part, rejected any proposal for a cease-fire, mandating that any peace plan include a complete end of hostilities. Diplomatic talks coordinated by Pakistan and other regional countries were continuing, officials said, even as there appeared to be little agreement on what any cessation of hostilities would look like.

If Iran does not agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern time, Mr. Trump has threatened to launch a massive attack targeting bridges, power plants and other civilian facilities that would, in his words, send Iran “back to the Stone Ages.” But the president has also extended self-imposed deadlines in recent weeks, and diplomats around the world were asking whether Mr. Trump would find an off-ramp again or if he would follow through this time with what could be a gigantic conflagration.

At MEIDASTOUCH NEWS this morning, Ben explains that Iran's response is to mock him.



Ben notes that last night  Chump "was telling AXIOS that he may hold off on tomorrow's strikes against civilian infrastructure in Iran."

Today on MORNING JOE, Mika noted the changing deadline(s) from Chump. 



They touch on War Crimes in the segment above.  THE NEWSHOUR (PBS) did a segment on the War Crimes aspect last night.


Amna Nawaz:

For perspective now on President Trump's talk about bombing all of Iran's bridges and power plants and whether that's legal under international law, we turn to retired Lieutenant Colonel Rachel VanLandingham. She spent 20 years in the Air Force and is now a professor at Southwestern Law School.

Welcome back to the show.

You heard in our reporting there the repeated threats by President Trump to bomb Iranian infrastructure. He said specifically there's a plan to decimate every bridge in Iran, to destroy every power plant. You have heard the concerns, Colonel, about this potentially being a war crime.

Based on your expertise, is it?

Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham (ret.):

He's both threatening a war crime and he's engaging in a war crime through that rhetoric itself. And I will explain that.

First of all, the law of war, that's not just international law. It's U.S. law. And our military members are deeply trained and steeped in this law. The law of war prohibits measures of intimidation against a civilian population, including threats of violence whose primary purpose is to sow terror amongst that civilian population.

Those civilians whose electricity ensures that there's refrigeration for their medicine for those that are dependent on refrigerated medicine, that provides electricity to hospitals, where there are lifesaving operations ongoing, where babies are being born, whose electricity is helping ensure that the water is purified and clean, they are terrified.

It's reasonably foreseeable to believe that such rhetoric will sow terror amongst the civilian population, and, therefore, one can infer that that's what President Trump intends. So he's committing a war crime just through that language.

Second of all, he's threatening to make our military engage in war crimes and therefore stain their honor and their soul and come back with moral injury. Why? Because threatening to destroy every bridge and every single power plant in the entire state of Iran is called an indiscriminate attack. That is a war crime.

Why? Because the law of war says we don't engage in total war for anymore. We don't believe that children are the enemy and that civilians are the enemy. The law of war says, look, we're going to divide the battlefield, which in modern days is often a city like Tehran, into civilian objects, and they're protected, and civilian people, they're protected.

And then there's military targets, lawful military objectives that make an effective contribution to military action and whose destruction provides a definite military advantage. We divide the world into those two camps. By saying we're just going to bomb everything, bomb every single bridge, every single power plant that serves civilians, that is threatening indiscriminate attack.

And it is one of the most horrible war crimes there are because it brings us back, straight back down the slippery slope to total warfare.

Amna Nawaz:

Well, Colonel, let me ask you, if I may, if the military and their lawyers can argue that, yes, the power plants provide electricity to civilians and they use these bridges, but that the regime also gets electricity from these power plants, that these same bridges are used by members of the Iranian military forces, does that justify making them targets?

Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham (ret.):

You have to make an individual case-by-case analysis of each bridge and every power plant that is being considered to be a lawful military objective, because, first of all, just saying, by its use or intended use, has to make an effective contribution to military action, not the regime in general, but to military action.

Second -- and so a bridge, therefore, like the bridge that was destroyed last week, a bridge could make an effective contribution to military action because it's being used as a resupply line. Logistical lines are often a legitimate lawful military objectives in war, despite the fact that they also have a civilian use.

Their destruction at the time has to provide a definite military advantage, but that's not the end of the analysis. The law of war goes even further to say, OK, once you have determined that there's some kind of military connection here, there's a connection to military action, and this destruction or disablement will produce a military advantage, then you have to look at, will civilians be harmed?

And, of course, by taking out power plants that are civilian in nature, civilians will be harmed, because civilian power plants provide civilians electricity to their homes, to water purification plants, to hospitals, you name it, right?

This is why the United States strongly condemned Russia and our State Department concluded that Russia was engaged in war crimes of indiscriminate attacks because it was taking out power plants, electrical infrastructure in Ukraine during the dead of winter, in which Ukrainians were plunged into life-threatening cold without the definite military advantage.

Amna Nawaz:

So, Colonel...

(crosstalk)

Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham (ret.):

So, the next step that you -- go ahead.

Amna Nawaz:

If I may, let me just ask you this then. At this point in time -- we have a minute or so left -- what would your advice be to U.S. military commanders if they receive these kinds of orders? What's your message to them?

Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham (ret.):

Follow your oath to the Constitution and to the law. Follow, trust your training. Ensure that there's discrete analysis done on every single power plant that's on a targeting list, on every single bridge to ensure that, not only it's a lawful military objective, but that proportionality, that the harm to civilians, right, is not excessive compared to the direct and concrete military advantage to be gained.

And that means that most of these indeed will not pass that test. And that's what our military professionals are trained on. And I really hope they go back to that training and that they're taking these threats of war crimes given by the commander in chief and filtering them through their own training and their own conscience and their own legal obligation to follow the law of war.

Because these are war crimes that they don't follow those steps. And those war crimes do not have a statute of limitations. And many of our -- and it has universal jurisdiction. And so many of our allies could -- if you want to travel to Europe, ensure you don't get engaged in a war crime.





Chump is no longer merely a convicted felon, he's now someone who is  a lame duck with fading power.   Michael Tomasky (THE NEW REPUBLIC) observes:


The presidency of Donald Trump is now officially in collapse. His war is not exactly a disaster, but it sure isn't the cakewalk he envisioned when he sprang it on the American people and the world with no notice on February 28. His firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi because she wasn't sycophantic enough indicates a man who is utterly incapable of understanding anything about how democracy is supposed to work. His economy is a wreck and may well get worse. His proposed budget, especially the half-trillion-dollar increase to the Pentagon, is wildly out of whack with the priorities of the public.
I could go on—and on. But on top of all that, Trump’s purchase on reality, tenuous at the best of times, is slipping fast. Think about what it takes for the “leader of the free world” (a phrase we are now obliged to tuck inside irony quotes) to wake up on Easter morning—the day of the resurrection of the same Jesus Christ in whose name “War Secretary” Pete Hegseth says we are killing Iranians—and post this unhinged and inflammatory comment on social media: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F[**]ckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell -- JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
The sentence with the three expletives will catch the notice of most Western eyes, but I have a feeling it’s the next one, and its schoolyard-level sarcastic mockery, that will get the lion’s share of the attention in Iran and across the Muslim world. And that wasn’t even his low point of the past week. His speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday was an embarrassment, rife with conspiracies, self-pitying grievance riffs, tasteless “jokes,” and bile spewed at the usual targets—again, on a venerated day on the Christian calendar, Maundy Thursday, the last full day of Jesus Christs’s mortal life. Trump rendered a supposedly solemn occasion profane in the way only he can do.

A rickety house often stands longer than we imagine it will. The support structures are surprisingly sturdy. But finally one day, something comes along—a hard rain, a mighty wind—against which the beams and foundation are no match.

Donald Chump is losing it.  He is disgracing himself (and this country) on the world stage.  In response to his remarks on Sunday, CAIR issued the following:


“President Trump’s deranged mocking of Islam and his threats to attack civilian infrastructure in Iran are reckless, dangerous, and indicative of a mindset that shows indifference to human life and contempt for religious beliefs. 

“These statements are not made in a vacuum. They follow a long pattern of anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies that have dehumanized Muslims at home and abroad. The casual use of ‘Praise be to Allah’ in the context of violent threats reflects a disturbing willingness to weaponize religious language while simultaneously denigrating Islam and its followers.

“Congress must not remain on vacation while the President openly promises to commit war crimes that could trigger even more regional and global conflict. Lawmakers have a duty to reconvene and to reassert their authority over matters of war and peace, and to ensure that no president can unilaterally drag our nation into war.”

Last week, CAIR said President Trump’s Threat to bomb Iran “Back to the stone ages” was “anti-Muslim, racist, and dehumanizing.”

CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.       

Chump is disgusting and is disgusting in public.  Hazel Gandhi (THE MIRROR) reports:


Donald Trump said Kim Jong Un referred to former President Joe Biden as a "mentally re------ person," repeating a disturbing slur by the North Korean dictator.

The president was speaking to reporters to provide an update on the U.S. and Israel's war on Iran today. During this address, he was heard talking about how several allies like South Korea and Japan failed to help the U.S. during the war.

Trump said that Kim, whom he got along with "very well," referred to Biden in a conversation as "mentally re-----." Trump added that Kim said "very nice things" about him.



“Do you notice, he said very nice things about me. He used to call Joe Biden a mentally re{***]ded person, OK? So, don’t tell me about your stuff,” the president said. “[Of] Joe Biden, he said, ‘He’s a mentally retarded person.’ He was so nasty to Joe Biden, it was terrible. But to me -- he likes Trump.”


He's a butcher to his people.  Kim Jong Un liking you is nothing to brag about.  And repeating his real or imagined (who knows with Chump's dementia whether it was said or not) insults about another US president?

Whose side are you on, Donald Chump?

It sure isn't America's side.  America first was the lie you told to get back in the White House.  America first is not "Let me have Netanyahu's back as he attacks Iran."  

Donald has lost it.  The 25th Amendment needs to be invoked.  Paul Krugman called for it to be invoked over the weekend.





Sarah Ewall-Wice (THE DAILY BEAST) reports that he also attacked Joe in front of children at Monday's Easter Egg Roll:

The president, 79, was participating in activities at the annual Easter Egg Roll on Monday, but he couldn’t keep his mind on the holiday spirit and resorted to political attacks while mingling with children.

Trump was sitting at a table with a group of young children and started signing autographs.

“Biden would use the autopen,” he told the kids.
“What?” one confused kid could be heard responding. It wasn’t clear whether he was too young to know about the former president or didn’t know what an autopen was.

“He’d have an autopen follow him, Joe Biden,” Trump told the group. “He didn’t sign. He was incapable of signing things, so they’d follow him around with a big machine. You know what it was called? An autopen.”
But the president was not done talking about the autopen as the children continued with their activities.

“And he’d have the autopen sign for him. He’d take the paper, hand it to his guys. Sign it with an autopen. Give it back,” Trump told the confused children. “Not too good, right?”

As he spoke, some of the children looked around, as if they were no longer interested in hearing what the president had to say.


His vile Sunday comments -- on Easter Sunday, no less -- were beneath the office of the President.  Pablo O'Hana (METRO) observes:


Trump’s Republican Party is dead. Not only in its soul, but in the essential qualities that once defined it. While it may still win seats in the Midterms and retain the loyalty of millions, what truly matters has been lost. The capacity for independent judgment, for institutional self-respect, for the basic reflex of saying ‘No, not this’, is gone. Donald Trump’s Easter Sunday post, in which he threatened to bomb Iranian power plants, dropped the f-word into the public record, and signed off with ‘Praise be to Allah’, is not an opportunity to wake up Republican Party officials, members and voters. It is simply more evidence that they may be breathing, but in reality they’re dead inside. We have been here so many times before that Trump reaction commentary has become its own genre, with its own predictable arc. Something happens. Jaws drop. A Republican or two issue carefully worded statements expressing concern. The news cycle moves on. Nothing changes.


The words are not just shocking. They are unhinged.

“Power Plant Day… Bridge Day… Open the f***in’ Strait… you crazy b*******… or you’ll be living in Hell.” Posted in a frenzy, laced with threats, profanity and mockery, it reads less like the considered voice of the leader of the free world and more like the rant of a barroom bully spoiling for a fight.

And yet this is Donald Trump, the President of the United States, broadcasting to the world. This is what American leadership looks like now. The post lays bare something far more dangerous than bluster. It shows a man losing control of events, of strategy, and increasingly of himself.

 

There is no telling how bad the war and the economy will get, but one thing is starting to become certain: The war in Iran and the escalating economic damage from it is getting in the way of Trump’s true love, which is waging culture wars that stir up the ugliest impulses within the MAGA base. The president desperately wants everyone to stop talking about oil prices, bombed schools and the Strait of Hormuz, and get back to stoking racist hysteria and leading revenge campaigns against his perceived enemies.

Trump’s desperation to refocus attention on his obsessions and grievances was on full display over the weekend. For nearly two days, the White House avoided press questions about the downed fighter jet, presumably to shut down any discussion of the rescue mission that was underway. Instead, the president bellowed a few of his incoherent threats at Iran on Truth Social, but largely focused on his usual obsessions: complaining about ABC News and the New York Times, posting misleading polls to convince himself he’s popular and repeating white nationalist slogans about non-white immigrants. It was only after both Air Force servicemen were recovered that Trump deigned to acknowledge the situation — and of course, to take credit for their rescue.

Trump and his allies are working in tandem to redirect attention away from the war and onto their culture war fixations. On Wednesday, as the Supreme Court was hearing arguments about birthright citizenship, White House staffers and some of the more odious members of Congress fanned out on X, cheerleading for the justices to strip children born to immigrants of their citizenship. Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called the 14th Amendment ” the gravest and most preposterous of all constitutional abominations.” On Truth Social, Trump tailored the sentiment to his vocabulary level, calling the constitutional guarantee “STUPID.” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, one of the most compulsive MAGA social media users in Congress, tweeted, “The Constitution isn’t a national suicide pact.” The following day, Trump kept whining after realizing the Supreme Court looks likely to rule against him. “Kangaroo Court!!!,” he posted on Truth Social, along with a Fox News video claiming birthright citizenship is a “constitutional wrong.” 

Despite the administration’s hyperbolic efforts to portray a 158-year-old amendment as an immediate threat to civilization itself, Trump and his allies could not turn media attention away from the very real disaster that is the Iran war. Thursday’s headlines were dominated by the surge in oil prices that followed Trump’s failure of a speech. It’s not that the press ignored the birthright citizenship case, but most coverage outside of Fox News focused on how skeptical the justices were of the president’s position.




Turning to Chump's Mini-Me Pete Hegseth, Steve Mollman (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Retired Army Major General Randy Manner warned that the Pentagon is heading into a “very dangerous” moment after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired senior Army officers, arguing the move risks silencing honest military advice during the Iran war.

Manner made the remarks during an appearance on Alex Witt Reports on Sunday, as the decision continues to draw criticism from former senior military leaders and Republican lawmakers with deep defense credentials.
The firings have raised alarm about civil‑military relations at a time when the United States is engaged in conflict and facing high‑stakes decisions that rely heavily on experienced military judgment. Critics say abruptly removing senior officers without clear public explanations risks undermining morale, discouraging a breadth of views, and weakening confidence among troops.

Manner warned that the consequences could be immediate and severe.

“That is an extremely dangerous situation to be in,” he said on Alex Witt Reports. “Only two other leaders in the world have seen that, and that was Stalin and Hitler, who purged the best officers that they had before each of the wars they engaged in."


Let's wind down with this from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's office:


Read NBC’s Story Here

Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), demanded more information following reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked or delayed promotions for over a dozen Black and female senior officers across all four branches of the military. 

Gillibrand’s letter to SASC Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) requests a closed hearing concerning Secretary Hegseth’s actions to examine whether they may have been motivated by politics or inappropriate bias.

The full letter can be found here or below:

Dear Chairman Wicker,

I am writing to request a closed hearing concerning the Secretary of Defense’s decision to withhold promotions for officers selected for promotion to general officer. Public reports allege that these holds may have been motivated by political ideology, inappropriate bias, or immutable and constitutionally protected characteristics rather than merit. Military advancement must remain strictly meritocratic and based on performance.

As a former Chair of the Personnel Subcommittee, I know that there are many appropriate reasons for withholding promotions, and examining the basis of the holds often involves sensitive or adverse information that warrants certain privacy safeguards for the officers in question. It is critical that we both assert the constitutional oversight role of the Senate and ensure that our military is selecting the best candidates for promotion to general officer based solely on merit, free of unlawful bias or prejudice. A closed hearing will ensure that we can protect the privacy of these officers while gathering information to understand the justification for withholding their promotions, with the goal of demonstrating to our colleagues in the Senate and to the American people that they can remain confident in a military promotion system based on individual merit and demonstrated performance.

Sincerely,

###


The following sites updated:

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Monday, April 6, 2026

Grifter Chump


Last week, Betty covered the Supreme Court case Donald Chump has created with his attempt to overthrow the 14th Amendment:


And that made me think of Chump's grifting.  Svante Myrick (The Hill) notes:

When President Trump returned to the White House last year, he made it clear in many ways that he was determined to do whatever he wanted without regard for the law or the Constitution.  
One was his first-day executive order claiming to eliminate birthright citizenship, a core constitutional principle enshrined in the 14th Amendment, adopted after the U.S. Civil War: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”  
For more than 150 years it has been widely understood, and repeatedly confirmed by courts, that people born in the U.S. are American citizens, with a few very specific exceptions like children of foreign diplomats or invading armies. 
In our country, citizenship doesn’t depend on who your parents are or where they came from. It’s part of what makes America, America. It’s part of the Constitution. It is supported by two-thirds of Americans. 
Trump doesn’t like what the Constitution says: that all children born here are citizens. There’s a process for changing it, but Trump doesn’t have the patience or discipline for that kind of work. So instead, he pretended he could alter the Constitution by decree. This “it’s the law if I say it is” attitude is why “No Kings” is the theme of pro-democracy rallies that have drawn millions of Americans to events in every state. 

He's so stupid.   And people aren't afraid of him.  They see how stupid he is.  He can't even give one reason for the war with Iran.  It's over a month old and yet he still keeps changing his story on it.  And what's really clear is that the mind is gone.  He was stupid in his first term.  In his second term?

He's stupid and suffering from dementia.  

For example?  Matthew Rozsa explains how another grift won't work:

President Donald Trump and his Republican supporters have “played” themselves in their latest attempt to rig the 2026 midterm elections, according to a key conservative critic.
Because Trump’s executive order is likely to fail in court, “Trump’s latest and most madcap executive order on mail-in voting isn’t just a policy pivot; it’s a full-frontal assault on the plumbing of American democracy, delivered with the Cromwellian subtlety of a sledgehammer to a stained-glass window,” wrote Rick Wilson, a former adviser to Trump’s fellow Republican, President George H. W. Bush. “It’s classic Trumpism: find a functioning, if unglamorous, part of the civic infrastructure, set it on fire because arson is your only tool when electoral reality is bearing down.”
He added, “But it’s also among the dumbest ideas to slither out of the wet-brained claque of Trump’s advisors and lackeys, and that’s a very, very high bar.” After all, as he noted, many Republicans vote using mail-in ballots. If the executive order is overturned but MAGA voters still hesitate about mail-in ballots because of Trumpian propaganda, then “the MAGA voter now says, “Well… can’t do that mail-in ballot. George Soros has a secret army of gnomes in the mailbox to change my vote and make me trans!’”
Wilson added, “In the words of the poet and philosopher DJ Kahled: ‘Congratulations. You played yourself.’” 


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

Monday, April 6, 2026.  ICE agents exposed as lying about an attack, ICE agents go on to a US military base and kidnap a service member's wife, Chump makes crazed threats over the weekend on social media while largely hiding out, his budget request for next year must be denied, Senator Tammy Baldwin reports some of the wounded from the Iran War are not receiving appropriate medical treatment, and much more.  


Friday, a US fighter jet was shot down in Iran with two service members on the plane.  While one was recovered quickly, another one was missing on Friday and for most of Saturday.  Greg Jaffe, Eric Schmitt and Helene Cooper (NEW YORK TIMES) report: 

An Air Force officer whose fighter jet had been shot down in Iran was rescued by U.S. Special Operations forces in a risky Saturday night mission that took commandos deep into enemy territory, said current and former U.S. officials briefed on the operation.

The rescue followed a life-or-death race between U.S. and Iranian forces that stretched over two days to reach the injured airman. As U.S. forces converged on the downed airman, a firefight erupted, a former senior military official briefed on the operation said. In the end, the United States extracted the officer in an operation that involved hundreds of special operations troops.


At least 13 US service members have been killed in the war so far with over 300 injured.  Senator Tammy Baldwin raised the issue of some of the wounded who have madeit home not getting the needed care that they are supposed to be receiving:


Senator Baldwin demands action from Trump Administration, care for impacted servicemembers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) demanded action from the Trump Administration after Wisconsin servicemembers contacted her office and reported they were not getting the care they needed for injuries they sustained in the opening days of President Donald Trump’s war in Iran.

“I have heard directly from constituents serving in our military who were injured in the war and are now experiencing delays and gaps in medical care at Ft. Hood,” wrote Senator Baldwin in a letter to Vice Adm. Darin K. Via, Director of the Defense Health Agency. “I believe that you would agree that such a delay of care is unacceptable, and I urge you to ensure that all servicemembers injured in the war with Iran receive appropriate and timely medical care—including necessary care for traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).”

In recent weeks, Senator Baldwin’s office has received reports from members of the 103rd Sustainment Command of the Army Reserve who were injured in the March 1 Iranian drone attack on their facility in Kuwait. Tragically, six members of the unit were killed in that strike and dozens more were injured. Since returning to the United States, the members of the 103rd have been at Ft. Hood where they reportedly endured days and weeks of delays to be properly evaluated for potential injuries and see medical specialists, like neurologists and behavioral health specialists. After hearing from impacted Wisconsinites, Senator Baldwin went directly to Defense Health Agency (DHA) leadership to demand these cases be reviewed and expedited.

In the letter, Senator Baldwin demanded additional action to immediately address this lapse in care and ensure this delay does not impact more returning servicemembers, including:

  1. Review DHA policies and procedures regarding the evaluation and diagnosis of TBIs for servicemembers returning from wars like that with Iran.
  2. Ensure that servicemembers diagnosed with TBIs immediately receive access to specialists, like neurologists and behavioral health specialists.
  3. Evaluate the procedures for determining returning servicemembers medical status to ensure that servicemembers with potential non-visible injuries like TBIs are not being placed in a lower priority status.
  4. Review policies and practices at Ft. Hood and across DHA to ensure reservists temporarily on active duty receive the same standard of medical care as active-duty members.

A full version of this letter is available here and below.

Dear Vice Admiral Via,

I write to you today to express serious concerns that servicemembers injured in the Administration's war with Iran may not be receiving adequate medical care and evaluations after returning from the Middle East. I have heard directly from constituents serving in our military who were injured in the war and are now experiencing delays and gaps in medical care at Ft. Hood. I believe that you would agree that such a delay of care is unacceptable, and I urge you to ensure that all servicemembers injured in the war with Iran receive appropriate and timely medical care—including necessary care for traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).

I have heard stories from members of the 103rd Sustainment Command of the Army Reserve who were injured in the March 1 Iranian drone attack on their facility in Kuwait. Tragically, six members of the unit were killed in that strike and dozens more were injured. Many of these injured servicemembers, however, could not be evacuated from Kuwait for days due to the ongoing fighting. Since returning to the United States, the members of the 103rd have been at Ft. Hood where they endured days and weeks of delays to be properly evaluated for potential injuries and see medical specialists, like neurologists and behavioral health specialists.

This delay in receiving adequate evaluations and care is particularly concerning because these servicemembers may be suffering from TBIs as a result of the Iranian drone strike. Despite TBIs being one of the leading injuries from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Department of Defense (DoD) has historically underdiagnosed servicemembers’ TBIs and provided them insufficient treatment for the trauma they suffered. While you and your predecessors at the Defense Health Agency (DHA) have made improving the evaluation and treatment of TBIs a top priority, the stories I am hearing out of Ft. Hood lead me to believe DoD is not doing enough.

While I appreciate DHA’s commitment to providing the members of the 103rd Sustainment Command with prompt medical care, I am concerned these issues are more widespread. Reporting indicates that TBIs are quickly emerging as the leading injury sustained by U.S. servicemembers in the war with Iran. DHA must take immediate steps to close gaps in screening and care to ensure that no servicemember with a potential TBI falls through the cracks. DoD has a responsibility to ensure that systems are in place to prevent failures seen in prior conflicts from recurring.

Therefore, I request you immediately do the following:

  1. Review DHA policies and procedures regarding the evaluation and diagnosis of TBIs for servicemembers returning from wars like that with Iran.
  2. Ensure that servicemembers diagnosed with TBIs immediately receive access to specialists, like neurologists and behavioral health specialists.
  3. Evaluate the procedures for determining returning servicemembers medical status to ensure that servicemembers with potential non-visible injuries like TBIs are not being placed in a lower priority status.
  4. Review policies and practices at Ft. Hood and across DHA to ensure reservists temporarily on active duty receive the same standard of medical care as active-duty members.

Thank you for your prompt review of these issues and your commitment to providing every servicemember high-quality medical care.

Sincerely,

###


That a US senator has to note this is appalling.  Chump has, as usual, used the military as a toy and has no real connection to it and no real concern for those serving.  


The plane that we noted above, the one that went down Friday, was not the only one.  Andre Damon (WSWS) notes:


A second aircraft, an A-10 Thunderbolt, was shot down in a separate incident the same day. The pilot ejected over Kuwaiti airspace and was rescued. Two HH-60G rescue helicopters sent to recover the F-15E’s crew were also hit by Iranian fire, injuring US personnel aboard before returning to base. In all, four American aircraft were struck in a single day—the worst losses of the five-week war.

The shoot-downs came two days after Trump addressed the nation in a prime time speech in which he threatened to destroy Iranian society. “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said Wednesday. “We are going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong.” He threatened to hit “each and every one of their electric generating plants,” and said he had not yet struck Iran’s oil only because doing so “would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding.”

“We are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said in the same speech. “They have no antiaircraft equipment. Their radar is 100 percent annihilated. We are unstoppable as a military force.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared on March 31: “Iran knows that, and there’s almost nothing they can militarily do about it.” Forty-eight hours later, Iran shot an American fighter jet out of the sky.

As the Intercept noted, “Neither the White House nor the Pentagon responded to requests for comment on how Iran could down an advanced US aircraft when the country supposedly no longer possesses anti-aircraft weaponry.” The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for the shoot-down.


Alexander Ward and Michael R. Gordon (WALL STREET JOURNAL) point out:

Just 48 hours after President Trump had all but declared Tehran was militarily defeated and looking for a deal to end the war, Iran downed two American warplanes.

Trump’s repeated declarations that the war is nearly over are colliding with the gritty battlefield reality, some U.S. officials and analysts said.


Sunday, Edward Wong (NEW YORK TIMES) reported:


Power plants, desalination stations, oil wells, roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

They are the foundations of civilian life in Iran, and their destruction by American and Israeli forces would cause widespread suffering among the country’s 93 million people — and in most cases would be considered a war crime under international law.

Yet President Trump has repeatedly threatened to do exactly that, with the aim of sending Iran “back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” as he put it in a speech on Wednesday.

On Easter weekend, he wrote online that “all Hell will reign down” on the Iranians unless they met a deadline of Monday to make concessions or open up the Strait of Hormuz to ship traffic, adding, “Glory be to GOD!”

The president was emphatic about the targets in a follow-up post: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F**kin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah.”


MEIDASTOUCH NEWS' Ben notes this morning how Chump's psychotic threats increase as his timeline slows down.



Michael D. Shear (NEW YORK TIMES) notes the impact Chump's constantly changing and constantly conflicting statements are having on the entire planet:

The world is on edge.

One minute, President Trump says the war in Iran is nearly over. The next he says it will continue for weeks. He brags that Iran has been “eviscerated,” but then vows that the fighting will go on. A huge bombardment, he says, might begin in five days, or 10 days, or on Tuesday at precisely 8 p.m. Eastern.

If the president means what he says, the world could be about 24 hours from a devastating escalation in the war. But like the producer of a television cliffhanger, Mr. Trump seems determined to keep everyone off balance.

On that, at least, he is succeeding.

In capitals around the world, presidents and prime ministers have spent almost six weeks seeking a way to prevent the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran from spiraling out of control. Diplomats from more than 40 countries gathered for a video call on Thursday that concluded with few concrete proposals. Leaders across Europe, Asia and beyond are exasperated, angry and more than a little spooked about what could be around the corner.



Chump hid out on Saturday (leading to false rumors that he'd been checked in Walter Reed) and on Sunday.  This allowed him to avoid speaking about his request for the next defense budget which he wants increased by approximately 42% to $1.5 trillion further called his previous insistence to be opposed to never-ending wars into question.  In his speech on Wednesday night, he got wrong Iran's capabilities, yes, but he also was wrong the federal government when he said in the speech that the US government cannot afford to fund child care or Medicaid or Medicare because the government must focus on military spending.  


Senator Alex Padilla's office has issued the following on Chump's budget plan


WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement after President Trump announced his official Fiscal Year 2027 budget request:

“Donald Trump has raised the cost of housing, groceries, and health care, taken our country into war, and now he’s asking families to foot the bill for his disastrous agenda.

“With his proposed budget, Trump is asking Congress to cut critical programs that millions of Americans depend on: health care for veterans, scientific and medical research, education for children across the country, housing assistance, and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Notably, he wants to cut Election Security Grants and decimate the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which would put our elections infrastructure at risk.

“Meanwhile, his unprecedented $1.5 trillion defense budget proposal — a 50 percent increase from last year — is so large that some Pentagon officials worry they won’t know what to do with it.

“Congress must reject this budget and fight for one that reflects our values, not the whims of Donald Trump.”

###


And Senator Patty Murray's office issued this:

Trump proposes slashing domestic investments while increasing defense spending by half a trillion dollars more

ICYMI: Trump on Wednesday: “It’s not possible for us to take of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare … We have to take care of one thing: military protection.” 

Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray, Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on the release of President Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget request, which proposes increasing defense spending by roughly half a trillion dollars while slashing and even defunding key domestic programs that American families count on every day.  

“The vision President Trump has outlined for America in his budget is bleak and unacceptable. President Trump wants to slash medical research to fund costly foreign wars. It doesn’t get more backward than that, and the only responsible thing to do with a budget this morally bankrupt is to toss it in the trash.  

“After passing the largest cuts to health care in American history, all to fund billionaire tax breaks and give ICE more money than most militaries, President Trump now wants Congress to defund dozens of programs that help students so that he can send other people’s kids to fight a war with no justification. And after sending prices skyrocketing with his stupid tariffs and reckless war, President Trump is now proposing to eliminate programs that help families afford the basics—like LIHEAP. 

“This week, President Trump said that our country cannot afford to help families with child care or health care—but his own budget proves what a ridiculous farce that is. Imagine how many families we could help if, instead of giving the Pentagon more money than they can even figure out what to do with, we cut people’s heating bills in half and made child care affordable for every family in America. 

“Our national defense budget should not be dictated by a president who is sending servicemembers into harm’s way in reckless foreign wars—and who woke up one day and decided to send his aides scrambling to figure out how on earth they could spend half a trillion dollars more, which the Pentagon can’t possibly spend responsibly. Donald Trump might be happy to spend more money on bombs in the Middle East than on families here in America—but I am not.   

“Last year, I said I’d rip up President Trump’s budget and make sure Congress wrote a new one instead—that’s exactly what we did and will do again. The American people want their tax dollars going toward investments that help everyone and make life more affordable—the basics like utilities and child care. Those are the investments I am going to fight for. Trump wants to build a ballroom—I want to build more affordable housing, and only one of us sits on the Appropriations Committee.” 

President Trump’s budget proposes slashing domestic investments by $73 billion while massively increasing the defense budget by roughly half a trillion dollars more (through both annual appropriations and reconciliation) in order to achieve an unprecedented $1.5 trillion defense budget that dwarfs all other non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending. This sum does not include a separate supplemental funding request expected for the Iran war.

  • President Trump arbitrarily announced on Truth Social in early January that he wanted a $1.5 trillion defense budget—and sent his aides scrambling to produce a request that met his topline.  
  • Trump’s budget seeks to dramatically cut back on domestic investments as American families struggle to make ends meet with higher costs, and as there are already immense strains on the non-defense budget, which has been roughly flat for three successive fiscal years, while defense spending has continued to grow. Non-defense programs will be further strained with the expiration at the end of fiscal year 2026 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which has supported key non-defense priorities with tens of billions of dollars in funding each year.

President Trump’s budget proposes a $404 million cut in funding for the Hanford nuclear clean-up site—and proposes eliminating contingency funding for the Office of River Protection’s High Level Waste (HLW) facility.

On President Trump’s proposed budget for Hanford, Senator Murray said:

“Hanford is the largest nuclear cleanup site in our country, and it is not only dangerous, but costs more in the long run to cut corners on nuclear waste cleanup. Trump’s proposed budget is a slap in the face to the Tri-Cities, threatening the Hanford cleanup mission and the community with this absurd budget request. This proposal is completely unacceptable. I’ll be doing everything I can to set this president straight on the importance of the Hanford cleanup—and if he still doesn’t get it, I’m going to make sure Congress funds it anyway. The federal government has a moral and legal obligation here—and as long as I help lead the appropriations committee, Congress is going to meet that obligation.”  

More toplines on President Trump’s budget request will be distributed later today and made available HERE.  

###



Turning to immigration,  Miriam Jordan (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:

A U.S. Army staff sergeant and his wife arrived at his base in Louisiana last week, expecting to begin their life together as newlyweds.

The couple checked in at the visitor center, identification in hand, ready to complete the steps that would allow her to move into his home on the base.

Within hours, that plan had unraveled.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the base and detained his wife, an undocumented Honduran immigrant who was brought to the U.S. as a toddler. By nightfall, she was in a detention facility with hundreds of women facing deportation as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The detention came just days after Annie Ramos, 22, a college student with no criminal record, and Matthew Blank, 23, celebrated their marriage with family and friends. Sergeant Blank, who enlisted more than five years ago, is assigned to a brigade at Fort Polk, La. that is set to begin training at the end of the month for deployment.


Wow.  This is how the administration treats those who serve.  They knew Matthew was set to deploy shortly and they knew he was on the base and that's where they went to kidnap his wife 


Almost immediately after an immigration agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis this winter, the federal government cast the injured man as an attempted murderer and the agent as the victim of a brutal beating.

That version of events began unraveling when prosecutors dropped felony charges against the injured man, Julio C. Sosa-Celis, and one of his housemates, Alfredo A. Aljorna, who had fled from immigration agents.

Yet video footage of the shooting, newly obtained by The New York Times, raises questions about why it took weeks for the government’s case to fall apart.

The video contradicts the agent’s claim that three assailants had beaten him with a shovel and broom for roughly three minutes before he opened fire. Instead, the confrontation depicted in the video lasts about 12 seconds and shows two men struggling with the agent. It shows no sustained attack with a shovel.

The federal government had access to that video within hours of the shooting on Jan. 14, the Minneapolis police chief said. Yet prosecutors did not watch the footage, an official said, until nearly three weeks after they filed charges against the two men.

“Bare due diligence would have shown that the agents were lying,” Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said in a recent interview, shortly after he watched the video for the first time.

The shooting was a rare instance in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Trump administration ultimately acknowledged a serious lapse. The agency’s acting director, Todd Lyons, said after the charges were dropped that two agents had appeared to have lied under oath about the events, adding that they had been placed on leave and could end up facing criminal charges.



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