The
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have claimed significant
involvement in Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral campaign, while
Mamdani’s campaign has denied involvement. Mamdani’s public stance
emphasizes his independence and commitment to a broader working-class
coalition. DSA organizer Daniel Goulden stated that they helped develop
Mamdani’s platform and are closely integrated with his team.
Mamdani’s
campaign spokesperson, Lekha Sunder, indirectly denied claims related
to the DSA. Sunder said, “From the day he entered this race, Zohran has
been running to win — and nothing demonstrates that quite like the
latest polls, which have us less than nine points away from defeating
Andrew Cuomo.” Mamdani’s campaign denies that its goal is to build the
DSA. Analysts say the truth likely lies in a mix of Mamdani’s strategic
use of DSA resources while maintaining an independent campaign.
DSA
claims to have collaborated with Mamdani’s campaign in support of his
plans to designate New York City as an “LGBTQIA+ Sanctuary City.” The
proposal includes a $65 million allocation for free gender-affirming
care, extending services to out-of-state individuals.
Huh?
Why
is he drawing a line between his campaign and DSA? And is he trying to
use "independent" instead of "Socialist." He's a Socialist who is DSA
and gladly accepted DSA's endorsement.
Is he now to trying to run from it?
The
only thing his campaign had going for it nationally was possibly
showing that NYC could support a Socialist and using that to make the
argument that the country could -- AOC for president. Otherwise this is just a mayor's race only getting (too much) coverage because it's set in the media base of NYC. If he's not even
going to make it as a measure stick for a potential AOC race, what's the point of him running?
The
country doesn't need another "independent." It's a shame so many
Socialists in the US elect to live in . . . shame. Embarrassed, hiding
in political closets. I'll never forget Bernie Sanders being elected to
the US Senate and Laura Flanders, on AIR AMERICA RADIO, insisting that
she didn't want to hear or read "Independent" Bernie elected to the
Senate, she wanted to hear and read "Socialist" Bernie Sanders. Because
that's what he was -- and what she is. And now, when a Socialist
running, really could make a difference, there's this rush to draw a
line between himself and the DSA while also use the term "independent"?
I
tell this story a lot -- have for years. ______ was a big Democratic
Party operative and she was on TV a lot. No one, not even FOX "NEWS,"
would put her on TV today. It was 1986. In fairness to her, she was
speaking to a group behind me and not to the group I was in. But there
she was yammering away in that airhead-with-a-degree manner about how
this "ridiculous" person thought she was going to get to pose with this
or that politician or celebrity. (The biggest politician present would
have been Tom Hayden.) What was this self-important idiot yammering on
about? The "ridiculous" person, turns out was a lesbian. And she had
kept her from coming into the main room because, you know, lesbian. I
grabbed the woman's arm, roughly, spun her around and asked her where
she'd taken (seated) the woman to keep her out of the main room? I
brought the woman into the main room.
Tom
and the CED -- and certainly Jane Fonda who was the money behind the
CED (later Campaign California) -- had no problem with lesbians (or gay
men) but here was this self-important woman playing gatekeeper and then
having the nerve to brag about how she'd kept a lesbian out of the main
room.
That woman belonged
in the room as much as anyone else did. And we sat her with my group.
I think Jane heard about it and came over and made a point to welcome
the woman (but that might have just been Jane coming over to greet
everyone). I know Tom heard about it because I griped about it to him
and he did make sure the woman was welcomed and I believe she went on to
become a valued part of the CED.
The
Democratic Party was big enough -- tent wise -- for LGBTQ+ people in
the 80s. It is certainly big tent enough for Socialists -- even DSAers
(I'm more inclined to the SEP).
I
don't understand those gatekeepers who try to sideline others. I am
not the DSA cheerleader. But I do believe we can big tent and I do
believe that if people are serious about wanting to see AOC make a real
run for the party's presidential nomination, we don't treat Socialism as
a dirty word or something to run from.
I
like Ned Lamont. He's not a Socialist, he's a Democrat (as am I). But
Ned could have been in the US Senate but a great primary campaign
became a weak general election campaign as he backed away from various
earlier stances. I hope that's not what's happening to Zohran Mamdani's campaign.
It's a little late in the game to start pretending Zohran is not a Socialist. He is one and he's got to come off authentic in order to win. If they water him down, the way Ned got watered down in the general, he'll lose the same way Ned did. (Would that make Cuomo the new Joe Lieberman?)
Chump is working hard on distracting from his long friendship with convicted pedophiles Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Lawrence O'Donnell addressed that last night on MSNBC.
So far, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, is the only one of the many public figures drawn into the orbit of Jeffrey Epstein
to have had his life essentially destroyed as a result. In a disastrous
2019 BBC interview, during which he displayed no contrition or empathy
for his late friend’s victims, Andrew said he would forever rue the day
he met Epstein. It would have been more accurate for him to have invoked
the day he met Ghislaine Maxwell, who led him to Epstein.
In
fact, it now emerges that Maxwell was far more than Epstein’s main
procurer and accomplice in the trafficking of young women for abuse —
the idea that she was merely a useful sidekick rather than an equal. On
the contrary, she was the true orchestrator of the whole Epstein
operation. It was she who brought to him the skills to entice powerful
and celebrated public men into becoming regular guests of his in New
York, Palm Beach, New Mexico, and his private island in the Caribbean.
All this becomes incrementally clear through the narrative of a devastating new biography of Andrew, Entitled,
by royal historian Andrew Lownie. And the resulting portrait of Maxwell
gives new gravity to her importance as the last keeper of the sex
offender’s secrets — a kind of personalized walking-and-(maybe)-talking
“Epstein file” that could have enormous potential consequences for many
people, including President Donald Trump.
It
turns out that the duke played an unwitting role in enhancing Maxwell’s
influence. One of her most effective techniques was to dangle the
chance of meeting him as bait for people who would be impressed simply
by being in the same room as him. (Something apparently true of Woody
Allen, who, according to a New York Timesreport, was wide-eyed at seeing Andrew at Epstein’s New York mansion.)
Lownie
cites a friend of Andrew’s warning: “Ghislaine is manipulating him and
he’s too naïve to realize it. She’s his social fixer and he’s going
along with it — why? Because I think Epstein’s fantastically impressed
by it all. It’s all very premeditated.” Lownie himself agrees. Epstein,
he tells me, was socially gauche and in awe of Maxwell’s success in
landing big fish.
Maxwell is not an innocent. She destroyed lives and did so intentionally. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In prison. Not in Camp Fed. Rachel Maddow used Maxwell and others to demonstrate how soft on crime the Convicted Felon Donald Chump truly is.
A rebel Republican congressman has invited
multiple victims of Jeffrey Epstein to a press conference at the U.S.
Capitol as part of a bipartisan push to force the release of legal files
linked to the late pedophile.
Rep. Thomas
Massie of Kentucky, a thorn in Donald Trump’s side for his frequent
objections to the president’s spending bills and foreign policies, said that he and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna will be co-hosting the Sept. 3 conference.
The event will feature survivors of abuse by Epstein and his associate
Ghislaine Maxwell, several of whom “will be speaking out for the first
time,” according to the two lawmakers.
Massie and Khanna will also provide an update on
their discharge petition which would force a House vote on releasing the
Epstein files, as well as discuss their Epstein Files Transparency Act
which, if passed, would require Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all documents related to the billionaire financier in a “searchable and downloadable format.”
“The survivors deserve justice and Americans deserve transparency,” Massie and Khanna both posted on X.
Chump doesn't care about survivors. He doesn't care about the truth or justice. Which is why he's taken over DC. From last night's THE NEWSHOUR (PBS).
Amna Nawaz:
Welcome to the "News Hour."
President Trump
announced today a federal takeover of Washington, D.C.'s police
department and a deployment of its National Guard in order, he says, to
crack down on crime. The move invokes rare, but legal presidential
authorities, but local officials say he's wrong to say that crime has
spiraled out of control.
Donald Trump, President of the United States: This is liberation day in D.C., and we're going to take our capital back.
Amna Nawaz:
Today, a renewed promise from the president to tackle what he says is a crime and homelessness problem in the nation's capital.
Donald Trump:
Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and
bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs
and homeless people, and we're not going to let it happen anymore.
Amna Nawaz:
Flanked by his Cabinet and federal law enforcement, the
president declared a public safety emergency, announcing his attorney
general will take control of D.C.'s police force, the National Guard
will deploy hundreds of troops in the city and threatening the use of
active-duty troops.
Donald Trump:
You're going to have a lot of essentially military — and we will bring in the military if it's needed, by the way.
Amna Nawaz:
Today's actions mark a major escalation of a federal
crackdown already under way. Over the weekend, over 100 federal agents
including FBI, Secret Service and U.S. Marshals, patrolled D.C. streets,
a heightened presence that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said was wholly
unnecessary.
Muriel Bowser (D), Mayor of Washington, D.C.: While
this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can't say that,
given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we're totally surprised.
When we think of emergencies, it usually involves surges in crime.
Amna Nawaz:
Despite the president's claims, violent crime in D.C. hit
a 30-year low in 2024, and, this year, violent crime has dropped
another 26 percent, according to D.C. police statistics.
The
president has stepped up calls for federal forces in the nation's
capital since an administration staffer, Edward Coristine, was assaulted
in D.C. last week while trying to stop an alleged carjacking.
(Chanting)
Amna Nawaz:
It's not the first time Trump has used this authority.
During his first term, he ordered National Guardsmen and federal
enforcement to forcibly clear largely peaceful protests after the police
killing of George Floyd.
The National Guard says this time their
functions will be limited to administrative duties and physical presence
in support of law enforcement. Meanwhile, in California, a trial gets
under way on whether Trump's recent National Guard deployment there
violated the law. But, unlike in California, Washington, D.C., is a
federal district, placing the D.C. National Guard firmly under the
president's control.
Protesters:
No justice, no peace!
Amna Nawaz:
And on D.C. streets today, protesters railed against the president's actions.
Protester:
If they can place us under military control without our
consent, they will carry this playbook to every community that dares to
push back in the United States of America.
Amna Nawaz:
A notion the president didn't knock down.
Donald Trump:
We have other cities that are very bad. We're not going to lose our cities over this. And this will go further.
Amna Nawaz:
For more on the legality behind this action and what this
means for the future of D.C., I'm joined by Steve Vladeck. He's
professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Steve, it's good to see you. Thanks for joining us.
Steve Vladeck, Georgetown University Law Center:
Thanks for having me, Amna.
Amna Nawaz:
So, when it comes to the president's legal authority,
D.C., is different. But let's just make it clear. Are the president's
actions today legal? And can he do in other cities what he's doing in
D.C.?
Steve Vladeck:
So the short answer to the first question is,
technically, yes. The more important answer to the second question is
almost certainly no.
And so, to break that apart, Congress has
exerted more control over the District of Columbia than any other place
in the country, including other federal territories, really going all
the way back to the founding of D.C. in 1801. That includes the two
powers President Trump invoked today, the power to use the D.C. National
Guard without federalizing it, the power to take over, at least for 30
days, some assets within the Metropolitan Police Department.
We
have never seen, Amna, a president use those authorities in this kind of
factually dubious context. But I think the most important point is,
these are D.C.-specific powers that could not be used, for example, for
similar moves in New York or Chicago or anywhere else in the country.
Amna Nawaz:
So we know there's a legal challenge under way in
California about the legality of the president's deployment of National
Guard troops there. Could his deployment in D.C. be met with a similar
legal challenge?
Steve Vladeck:
It could, Amna, but, again, I think the legal issues are different.
So,
in California, President Trump purported to federalize the National
Guard. So he took the state National Guard and tried to basically drop
them into federal authority. In D.C., he doesn't have to do that. The
president is actually already the commander in chief of the D.C.
National Guard. It's the only National Guard for which that's true.
And
so D.C. is the only place in the country where actually we don't have
the question that's arisen in California about the validity of a
federalization. Here, the president can act without any trigger. It's
part of why I think folks were so critical of President Trump for not
using the D.C. National Guard back on January 6.
Amna Nawaz:
We did mention the president's use of the National Guard
in his first term as well. Just put the use of this authority into some
bigger context for us. How frequently have we seen it used in this way?
Steve Vladeck:
So, Amna, I think we have to break out two pieces here.
So the first is the use of the National Guard. We have seen that before,
including from this president, including both earlier this term in
California and in D.C.
What's really novel about what we're seeing
today is the use of the D.C. Police Department. This provision for the
president to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department for up
to 30 days, it was put into the Home Rule Act back in 1973, but it's
never been used.
And so I think part of what we're really going to
need to watch out for is, how exactly is the Metropolitan Police
Department's day-to-day work over the next days and weeks different from
what it was doing over the first eight months of 2025? I mean, I think
that's part of the issue here.
And, again, I think the real key is
for folks to not get desensitized to the radicalism of using
federalized police, using federalized military authority for ordinary
law enforcement contexts in a setting in which the facts don't seem to
support it.
Amna, that might be legal in the historically and
constitutionally unique context of Washington, D.C. It doesn't make it
right. And it would be a very dangerous precedent if we started to see
efforts to build on that in other parts of the country.
Amna Nawaz:
So it's expected to be a 30-day takeover. How do you see this playing out? Could it be extended beyond that?
Steve Vladeck:
You know, the statute is at least a little bit ambiguous.
It seems to contemplate that, at the end of 30 days, the authority
expires.
President Trump might, Amna, try to declare a second
emergency at the end of those 30 days to trigger and start a new 30-day
clock. I suspect, if that's what happens, that is when we will see this
be taken into court. And that's when I think there will be very serious
arguments that the president is abusing these authorities, not just
politically, but legally as well, authorities again that really are
meant to deal with only the very unique problems that might arise in the
nation's capital.
Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following on Chump's attack on DC:
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the
following statement on the Trump administration’s move to deploy
National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. and take control of the city’s
police department.
“Public safety really matters, but Trump’s authoritarian
takeover of Washington, D.C. is not a serious effort to make our
nation’s capital safer. It’s a dangerous escalation that is based on a
total fiction—there is no sudden surge of violence that would require
the National Guard be deployed; in fact, violent crime in DC is at a
30-year-low. As usual, Donald Trump doesn’t have a clue what he’s
talking about and is weaponizing baseless lies to try and justify an
unprecedented takeover of local law enforcement. It’s clear Trump is
trying desperately to change the subject from his connection to the
Epstein files, weak jobs numbers, and the skyrocketing costs that are
hitting every family because of his tariffs.
“The irony is rich: the most violent episode in D.C. in
recent history was the deadly riot at the Capitol that Donald Trump
himself incited—and as soon as he took office, he pardoned the violent
criminals who beat cops within an inch of their lives. This is not
someone who cares in the slightest about public safety.
“What we saw at Trump’s news conference this morning was a
rambling and incoherent wannabe dictator who is trying to turn D.C. into
his personal police state. Whether it’s Washington, D.C. or anywhere
else, deploying the National Guard over the wishes of local leaders and
law enforcement is not only counterproductive—it is a dangerous
overreach of executive authority, and a massive waste of taxpayer
dollars and our servicemembers’ time.”
###
Paul Krugman explores the difference between the truth and Chump's lies in a new column:
Ever since that latest weak jobs report, Trump has been frantically
trying to convince the American public that the economy is doing great.
He is failing, and predictably so. Experience shows that trying to talk
up the economy when people don’t perceive it as good never works, even
if the data are favorable. It’s even less likely to work when the data
actually aren’t good, and calling people who point out economic weakness
BUMs isn’t likely to help.
On the other hand, telling people things are bad even when they’re actually good can work. This is sometimes true when it comes to the economy. It’s definitely true when we’re talking about crime.
In his press conference announcing that he was seizing power in the District of Columbia, Trump declared that
Our
capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty
criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless
people.
He forgot to mention deranged bums.
Anyway, the media were in general pretty good at pointing out that crime
in DC has in fact been falling rapidly. According to the U.S.
attorney’s office, violent crime is at a 30-year low. The invaluable Jeff Asher has a chart:
Source: Jeff Asher
As
I understand it, there are some technical data issues for 2022. But the
basic picture is that DC is safer than it has been since the 1960s. The
same is true for the nation as a whole:
But
will Trump be universally ridiculed for his absurd claims? Will people
understand that what we’re seeing, aside from an attempt to seize even
more power, is an attempt to change the subject from the weakening
economy and the Epstein affair?
I’m not sure.
Residents of
DC will surely notice that Trump’s description of a violence-ridden
dystopia bears no resemblance to the city they actually inhabit. But we
know that crime is an issue on which people tend to believe that things
are getting worse even when they are getting markedly better.
As
you can see from the chart above, there was a truly epic decline in
crime from the early 1990s to the mid-2010s. Yet throughout that period,
according to Gallup, a large majority of Americans said that crime was getting worse. What’s going on?
One
possible answer is that there are lies, damned lies and statistics.
Maybe official crime numbers are, as Trump would say, RIGGED — although
that would be really hard to do with murders, which are kind of hard
either to fabricate or to conceal, and have fallen even more than
overall crime. Or maybe people’s lived experience just doesn’t match
what the crime data say.
But I don’t buy that explanation, among
other things because I’m a New Yorker. Much of the nation sees the Big
Apple as a dystopian hellhole, but anyone who actually lives there can
tell you that the city feels quite safe — certainly safer than at any
earlier point in my adult life.
Or if you don’t consider me a
reliable narrator, look at actual behavior. According to Trump
officials, people are afraid to ride the subway because they’re
terrified of crime. But actual subway ridership has been soaring since
Covid. It’s still somewhat depressed on weekdays, in part because remote
work means fewer commuters, but weekend ridership — which mostly means
people who could choose not to take the subway if they were terrified of
crime — is rising fast:
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), along with
Representatives Lou Correa (D-Calif.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) led 48
Congressional Democrats in writing to the Department of Homeland
Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), Office of Civil
Rights and Civil Liberties, and Office of the Immigration Detention
Ombudsman, urging them to launch an investigation into the Department’s
stops, arrests, detentions, and deportations of U.S. citizens.
“Sweeping enforcement operations by Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) agents — particularly within Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) — threaten the safety, due process, and civil liberties of
Americans around the country,” said the lawmakers.
ICE policy makes clear
that, by law “ICE cannot assert its civil immigration enforcement
authority to arrest and/or detain a U.S. citizen.” Yet, in recent
high-profile cases, ICE has arrested U.S. citizens, even appearing to use violent physical force. ICE has also detained citizens in immigration detention facilities, sometimes for over a week.
ICE has even deported U.S. citizens, including children, along with their undocumented parents, reportedly against the families’ wishes.
“Particularly in Latino and Native American communities, Americans
increasingly fear that their citizenship will not protect them from
being swept up in DHS’s immigration enforcement activities,” wrote the lawmakers.
Agents are also failing to attempt to verify citizenship and ignoring citizens’ offers to show proof of citizenship, even though ICE policy directs them to “handle these matters with the utmost care and highest priority.”
ICE’s erroneous enforcement actions against U.S. citizens are not new, and have long been acknowledged by the agency. But under the second Trump administration, this rare practice is becoming more frequent. Experts warn
that “citizens are becoming increasingly vulnerable in a system moving
faster and operating with fewer safeguards.” The number of impacted
citizens may continue to grow, as ICE engages in indiscriminate raids to
triple daily arrest numbers to 3,000 while gutting due
process—including by firing immigration judges, expanding expedited
removal, and exploiting the Alien Enemies Act. ICE has reminded field
offices to update citizenship data in agency databases, but it is
unclear whether agents are complying with that directive.
“When immigration agents arrest Americans without sufficient cause or
simply because they are near an enforcement action, detain them without
access to counsel, or ignore proof of citizenship, DHS fails in its
core duty to protect the public and undermines trust in its operations,”
the lawmakers concluded.
The members of Congress asked the agency to provide, by September 5,
2025, clarity on its policies and guidelines related to arresting or
detention of U.S. citizens, along with: data on stops, arrests,
detentions, and deportations of citizens this year; information about
how agents are trained to verify citizenship status; and any ongoing
reviews of wrongful detentions of citizens.
U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.),
Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) joined in signing
the letter.
Representatives Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Donald S. Beyer Jr. (D-Va.),
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), Maxine Dexter
(D-Ore.), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Greg Casar (D-Texas), Judy Chu
(D-Calif.), Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Laura
Friedman (D-Calif.), Jesús G. "Chuy" García (D-Ill.), Sylvia Garcia
(D-Texas), Al Green (D-Texas), Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), Jared Huffman
(D-Calif.), Jonathan L. Jackson (D-Ill.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Ro
Khanna (D-Calif.), Timothy M. Kennedy (D-N.Y.), Raja Krishnamoorthi
(D-Ill.), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), Sarah McBride (D-Del.), Grace Meng
(D-N.Y.), Dave Min (D-Calif.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Delia
Ramirez (D-Ill.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.),
Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Dina Titus
(D-Nev.), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Ritchie Torres
(D-N.Y.), Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), and
Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) joined in signing as well.
Monday, August 11, 2025. PARAMOUNT tries to smear Colbert, Donald Chump goes to war on homeless people, though he scrapes his shoes repeatedly Epstein remains stuck to the bottom of them, his war on immigrants continues to see massive pushback, how does Musk know what he knows about Epstein, and much more.
Whores always reveal themselves. They have to because they're whoring for a living so they have to advertise that they're open for business. Erik Swann of CINEMA BLEND is nothing but a cheap whore. Stephen Colbert is not losing support from "fellow stars." That's a hit piece that PARAMOUNT spent last week shopping around and everyone said "pass." Until it was offered to Erik Swann who moved in to grab it like the dirty whore he is. He knows it's not true and he knows who shopped it to him (I do as well).
This an attempt to downgrade Colbert. We've gone over this for years. When a network wants to devalue a talent. We charted the effort in depth when NBC tried to undermine Katie Couric's reputation enough so that CBS wouldn't want her. Erick Swann sold out to be a corporate whore.
Colbert is actually stronger right now with "fellow stars" than he has ever been.
PARAMOUNT is bothered by the support he continues to have and they're also aware that the merger that's supposed to take place will means heads roll. Mergers like this always leave positions redundant. And when Colbert is gone from PARAMOUNT and the new suits are in charge, the question will be, "What the hell did you do?" Because what's been done, the firing of Colbert, makes PARAMOUNT a much weaker property. The merger/buy out should be stopped immediately. PARAMOUNT is not the successful venture its been portrayed as. Their assets are over valued and greatly misunderstood
I am advising a friend who's part of Colbert's legal team so I am an not going to be discussing any of that here. But this is something we've long covered, how when an outlet is losing talent and realize it's their mistake, they work to devalue the talent.
US
President Donald Trump has said homeless people must "move out" of
Washington DC as he vowed to tackle crime in the city, but the mayor
pushed back against the White House likening the American capital to
Baghdad in Iraq.
The Republican
president has also trailed a news conference for Monday about his plan
to make the city "safer and more beautiful than it ever was before".
Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said: "We are not experiencing a crime spike."
Trump
signed an order last month making it easier to arrest homeless people,
and he last week ordered federal law enforcement into the streets of
Washington DC.
"The Homeless have to move out,
IMMEDIATELY," Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social on
Sunday. "We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The
Criminals, you don't have to move out. We're going to put you in jail
where you belong."
Alongside photos of
tents and rubbish, he added: "There will be no 'MR. NICE GUY.' We want
our Capital BACK. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
The
specifics of the president's plan are not yet clear, but in a 2022
speech he proposed moving homeless people to "high quality" tents on
inexpensive land outside cities, while providing access to bathrooms and
medical professionals.
Chump has lied that this is due to an increase in crime.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser says no spikes are taking place.
Chump is refusing to address homelessness in this country. You can't make it illegal for someone to be homeless. You have to provide living spaces and, no, tent cities are not living spaces. When Tulsi Gabbard was still pretending to be a Democrat and to care about people, she made a big show about how tiny homes might be a serious housing answer and something that the government could focus on -- she even went on Joe Rogan's program to discuss this.
So grasp that even if Chump doesn't know better, members of his administration do.
The post was illustrated with four photographs, all apparently taken
from the president’s motorcade along the route from the White House to
his golf course. Two of the images showed a total of 10 tents pitched on
the grass along a highway on-ramp
just over a mile from the White House. The third image showed a single
person sleeping on the steps of the American Institute of Pharmacy
Building on Constitution Avenue. The fourth image showed the line of vehicles that whisk Trump to his golf course passing a small amount of roadside litter on the E Street Expressway, near the Kennedy Center.
Trump’s post promoted a previously announced news
conference on Monday, which he has promised, “will, essentially, stop
violent crime” in the capital district, without explaining how. In a
subsequent post, he said that the news conference at 10am Monday, “will
not only involve ending the Crime, Murder, and Death in our Nation’s
Capital, but will also be about Cleanliness”.
The Free DC movement, which advocates for self-determination, immediately scheduled a protest on Monday to coincide with Trump’s news conference.
Despite Trump’s claims, there is no epidemic of homelessness or violent crime in the capital.
According to the Community Partnership, which works to prevent homelessness in Washington DC, on any given night
there are about 800 unsheltered persons sleeping outdoors in the city
of about 700,000 people. A further 3,275 people use emergency shelters
in Washington, and 1,065 people are in transitional housing facilities.
Trump’s
repeated claims that it might be necessary to federalize law
enforcement in the city to make it safe also ignores data collected by
the Metropolitan police department, released in January
by the federal government, which showed that violent crime in
Washington DC in 2024 was down 35%
“We are not experiencing a crime spike,” Washington DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, told MSNBC
on Sunday. “We have spent over the last two years driving down violent
crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low.” She added that
Washington DC police statistics show that violent crime is down a
further 26% so far this year.
Trump's use of his authority to deploy National Guard troops to D.C.
now to deal with "crime and beautification" contradicts his claim that
he was unable to deploy troops on January 6th while insurrectionists
attacked the Capitol Building.
The announcement comes just days after a Trump executive order implementing
a national treatment-first approach to homelessness, which essentially
provides grant funds for municipalities to forcibly institutionalize
unhoused individuals in mental health and alcohol and drug abuse
treatment centers.
In other news, this is week six of the Epstein news cycle. Donald Chump remains unable to shake the story of his 15 year friendship with the late Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted pedophile.
On
January 31, 2024 during his presidential campaign, Donald Trump posted a
link on Truth Social to a video interview between Tucker Carlson and
Megyn Kelly in which Carlson defended Trump’s legal troubles by invoking
the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
“They protect Epstein until they have to murder him in his cell,”
Carlson said, comparing the alleged cover-up around Epstein’s death to
what he claimed was political persecution against Trump. “The charges
against Trump are not real… It’s insane, and it’s all on public
display.”
Just a reminder that Epstein died in prison on Trump’s watch. Trump
offered no pushback — instead, he amplified the message as part of his
2024 campaign, once again using the lack of Epstein transparency to
deflect attention from his own indictments.
Yet in 2025, Trump has done nothing to advance the transparency he once
implied was missing. He refuses to call for the release of the FBI’s
Epstein files, has attacked supporters demanding accountability, and has
shifted focus to grand jury materials that are harder to access.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s convicted accomplice, has been moved to a
minimum-security prison to the shock of Epstein’s sex trafficking
victims and their families.
President
Donald Trump’s shocking defense of a champion boxer who raped a teenage
girl has resurfaced as the president faces intense scrutiny of his
relationship with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
In
a 1992 clip from Late Night with David Letterman being circulated
online, the future president tells the show’s host that he doesn’t think
Mike Tyson ought to have been sentenced to six years in jail for the
rape of beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington, who was 18 years
old at the time.
“It’s ridiculous,” Trump says, referencing
the fact the crime took place late at night after Washington had been
“dancing” for Tyson.
[. . .]
A second clip from Trump’s appearance the same year on The Charlie Rose Show features him questioning Washington’s account of the crime itself, saying she “was raped perhaps, perhaps not.”
Both videos have resurfaced at a time the president is facing public
backlash over his administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
It is alarming that Trump’s former personal lawyer
met with convicted sex trafficker (of minors) Ghislaine Maxwell while
she is in prison. Why? This is not necessary. Just release all the
files, immediately.
If we’re against corruption
and want to drain the swamp, then that must include everyone, at all
levels, left or right. This is about protecting children.
Sheboyganites
don’t always agree on politics, but we strive to do our best, to tell
the truth and do the right thing, even when it’s tough. Step up, call
your representatives: U.S. senators Tammy Baldwin (202-224-5653) and Ron
Johnson (202-224-5323), and U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (202-225-2476),
and tell them to release all the Epstein files. No exceptions. Let the
chips fall where they may.
Ryan Holzem, Ph.D.
Maxwell. The ugliest evidence against Chump. He ignores the victims but sends a Deputy AG to meet with the convicted liar. Anahita Dua (MSNBC) observes:
Indeed, amid the news of a prison transfer for Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and the latest developments over whether documents will be unsealed,
the victims are still suffering all the same. While much of the focus
lately has been on the prominent figures that may have taken part in the
sex trafficking scheme, we must never forget to focus on the health of
the victims. We must confront more than criminal wrongdoing; we must
also reckon with the lifelong physical and psychological devastation
wrought on the victims.
The stories of survivors and those trafficked by Epstein and his
accomplices cannot be reduced to scandalous headlines or footnotes in
celebrity exposés. Their experiences demand national reckoning and
action to protect future children and bring justice to the victims.
One Jane Doe, speaking in court in 2019, testified that she and the other victims “will always carry irreparable damage and pain throughout our lives after this.”
Victims
typically enter exploitation during critical stages of their physical,
emotional and cognitive development. Many children are targeted simply
because they are children: young, naive and vulnerable. Young girls who
become victims of sex trafficking have been tricked or forced into
sexual exploitation by acquaintances, employers or even family members.
Epstein’s victims were coerced by wealthy and influential men and women.
Staggering power imbalances make self-escape nearly impossible. In the
case of Epstein’s victims, that is adult versus child, man versus girl,
wealthy versus poor.
Reportedly,
some of these Trump officials have been resisting the idea of releasing
the transcripts in favor of simply letting the story die on its own.
The problem with this strategy is that the administration was incredibly
vocal about how much transparency they were creating by interviewing
Maxwell.
By refusing to release the transcripts, they are
only making the administration seem increasingly guilty of covering for
pedophiles (in the minds of those who believe in the conspiracy) despite
the fact that the transcripts are unlikely to contain any interesting
information.
The plan's to let the story die
out? This is week six, they grasp that, right? And the victims will be
heard. Chump wants this over but it's not over. It's not going away this week. And it might be time to start asking about Alien Musk.
Alien Musk's most recent bread crumbs tossed to the public were about how records might be on computers. Flight records maybe.
And that begs the question of how does Musk know this?
It's a good guess.
But is that all this has been -- just good guesses on Musk's part?
He's known a lot more than should have been shared with him. Where did the info come from? Did his employees pull it in when they were being allowed to rummage through US government computers with no oversight at all?
That would be the most likely explanation as to how Musk knows what he knows. Is it time for Congress to start asking that question -- and revealing to the country just how much our national security was put at risk by Donald Chump giving Musk free and full access to government computers and data bases?
Immigrations
and Customs Enforcement officers on Thursday arrested a group of
farmworkers near Woodburn as they headed to harvest blueberries,
according to Oregon for All, an immigration rights advocacy group.
The
incident marks the first publicly known ICE arrests of fieldworkers in
Oregon since President Donald Trump took office for his second term.
Last month, immigration authorities arrested a parent as he was dropping off his child at a Beaverton daycare, and in June ICE agents arrested workers from a Yamhill County vineyard services company.
“These
tactics will only scare folks from working during the peak harvest,”
said Reyna Lopez, executive director of PCUN, Oregon’s farmworker union.
“This not only affects farmworkers’ ability to support their families,
but also the many growers who rely on migrant labor and our collective
ability to put food on our tables.”
Guembes
said she learned about the arrests around 9:30 a.m. Thursday and
immediately contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials
to locate the group.
This just gets
worse and worse each day. It has nothing to do with national security.
It has nothing to do with the law. It has to with revenge and fear.
Hate mongers foster it and Chump has to court the hate mongers because
thinking people -- Democrats or Republicans -- long ago rejected the
Convicted Felon.
Lives are being destroyed.
And around the country more and more people are standing up and calling this cruelty out. The National Nurses Association issued the following:
National
Nurses United condemns the detainment of fellow registered nurse,
Amanda Trebach, by federal agents. We call for her immediate release and
a full dismissal of all the charges brought against her.
All
over the country, people have been standing up to the Trump
administration’s immoral and unjust immigration raids, which have sowed
intense fear and chaos in immigrant and migrant communities. In the
absence of due process that protects Constitutional rights, people like
Amanda Trebach – a RN and former member of California Nurses
Association, an affiliate of National Nurses United – have taken up the
essential role of monitoring ICE and Border Patrol, to protect the
rights of community members and observe and document abductions by
masked officers. While Amanda was participating in a community patrol Thursday morning,
she was confronted by masked individuals believed to be ICE agents,
pushed to the floor face-down, and violently detained. Her arrest is a
direct and intentional attack against the constitutional right to
protest.
“As nurses, we advocate for our patients both at the bedside and beyond. Like all the violent escalations we have seen this year – including, but not limited, to using hospitals as a site for ICE law enforcement and arresting labor leaders and elected officials for demanding due process – they are meant to silence concerned Americans into accepting these authoritarian tactics,” said Sandy Reding, RN,
who is a president of California Nurses Association and a vice
president of National Nurses United, which is the nation’s largest union
of registered nurses. “We refuse to stand by and watch as our patients
and our community members are caught in the dragnet of the Trump
administration’s cruel deportation schemes. Amanda must come home, and
so must all the innocent people whose lives and whose families’ lives
have been devastated by this administration.”
National
Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional
association of registered nurses in the United States with more than
225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses
Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association,
Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York
State Nurses Association.
Some horror stories register a lower emotional reading. Maybe even cause some to chuckle?
When
someone supports cruelty aimed at hundreds-of-thousands it's only
fitting that the cruelty be turned on them. It's the whole point of the
phrase F**k Around and Find Out. Matt Durr (MASS LIVE) reports:
One
of the owners of the controversial Trump Burger restaurant franchise is
facing deportation from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Despite his perceived allegiance to President Donald Trump, ICE arrested
Roland Mehrez Beainy on May 16 and placed him in detention, The Hill
reports.
Beainy
came to the U.S. in 2019 from Lebanon on a non-immigrant visitor visa.
However, it is alleged that he overstayed his visa and is now subject to
deportation. Beainy was supposed to leave the U.S. in 2024, according
to ICE.
Since coming to the U.S., Beainy helped open a small chain of burger
restaurants in Texas known for stamping “Trump” into the top of its
burgers. The menu and decor of the restaurants all heap praise on the
president. The company recently opened its fourth location in Texas.
Maybe
when he's deported to Lebanon, he can take comfort in the fact that his
fellow hate mongering Chump supporters are happy his life got destroyed
too. You know, the way he was happy to root on the destruction of
other immigrants? That's if they remember him at all. His landlord has
already seized the greasy burger joints (saying Beainy wasn't making
the payments on the lease) and renamed them to MAGA burgers. Ramon Antonio Vargas (GUARDIAN) notes:
Trump Burger gained national attention after Beainy opened the original location in Bellville, Texas,
in 2020, the same year Trump lost his bid for a second presidential
term to Joe Biden. Replete with memorabilia paying reverence to Trump as
well as politically satirical menu items targeting his enemies,
Beainy’s chain expanded to other locations, including Houston.
Trump won a second presidency in January, and his
administration summarily began delivering on promises to pursue mass
deportations of immigrants. Political supporters of Trump in the US
without papers, at least in many cases, have not been spared.
One case
which generated considerable news headlines was that of a Canadian
national who supported Trump’s plans for mass deportation of immigrants –
only for federal authorities to detain her in California while she
interviewed for permanent US residency and publicly describe her in a
statement as “an illegal alien from Canada”.
In another instance, Ice reportedly
detained a Christian Armenian Iranian woman who lost her legal
permanent US residency, or green card, after a 2008 burglary conviction
and incarcerated her at a federal detention facility in California
despite her vocal support of Trump. Her husband, with whom she is
raising four US citizen children, subsequently blamed the couple’s
plight on Biden’s “doing for open borders”, as Newsweek noted.
They
cheered it on until it happened to them. Now they refuse to face
reality with one idiot even blaming Joe Biden. That's the sickness in
America, the stupidity that drags us all down. Even when slapped across
the face by reality, some people prefer to delude themselves.
The
operations took place around 7:35 a.m. and then again at 11:50 a.m.
outside the Home Depot on Roscoe Boulevard, according to Maegan Ortiz,
executive director of Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de
California, which runs a resource center for day laborers directly next
to the store.
[. . .]
A
number of unmarked white vans started circling the parking lot and
immigration agents began "grabbing people first and then asking people
for ID" said Ortiz, adding that her organization has confirmed 10 people
were taken.
"[The
agents] came straight for the day labor center," Ortiz said. "It is
very clear they are targeting day laborers and they are targeting the
organization."
Ortiz
said immigration agents conducted another raid near a Home Depot in
Cypress Park on Saturday. Ortiz said she was aware of a half-dozen
arrests during the incident. Further details were not immediately
available.
On Saturday, dozens lined the
streets in Overland Park in support of the immigrant community after
recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the
metro.
This was a ‘No ICE’ protest, including Indivisible and Boots on the Ground Midwest. Protest organizers says the rally extended from 80th to 103rd street with about 1,000 people involved.
