Wednesday, July 09, 2025

The Snapshot

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

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

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


He understands nothing.  Nada.  Not a damn thing.


Let's start with Lawrence from MSNBC last night.




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


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

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

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



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


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

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



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


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

It’s not.

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

Five major plants have just shut down – permanently.

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

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

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

Translation? It’s cheaper elsewhere.

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

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

The reason? “Network optimization.”

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

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

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

Fewer jobs. More robots.


And on and on it goes. 


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



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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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


Today is day 90.

Huh?

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


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


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




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





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

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

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

His solution? Slavery.

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

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

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

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

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

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


 How does this help immigrants?  It doesn't.


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

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


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


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


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



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

It is — at least for now.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Specifically, the VISIBLE Act:

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

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

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

The bill is endorsed by the ACLU and Public Counsel.

A one-pager on the bill is available here.

Full text of the bill is available here.

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

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

Full text of the letter is available here.

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

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