Justine Fernandez (BLUSHER ME) reports, "New
data is raising concerns about the strength of the US labor market,
delivering a stark warning for Donald Trump as confidence among workers
continues to decline. Surveys and economic indicators suggest that
Americans are growing increasingly uneasy about job security and future
employment prospects."
And guess what? That's about as close as Chump comes to good news.
"Lies!" proclaimed First Lady Melania Chump from the White House yesterday. "Lies!' Donald Judd (CNN) reports:
First
lady Melania Trump blasted “lies linking me to the disgraceful Jeffrey
Epstein” in remarks from the White House Thursday, attempting to
distance herself from the convicted sex offender while calling on
Congress to hold hearings allowing his victims to testify on Capitol
Hill.
“I have never been friends
with Epstein. Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein
from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New
York City and Palm Beach,” the first lady said in remarks to reporters.
“To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice,
[Ghislaine] Maxwell.”
Her
call for allowing the survivors to testify? A good call. Would have
been better to have called for Pam Bondi to honor her subpoena and
appear before the House Oversight Committee. As for her relationship
with Epstein and Maxwell? There are many photos of her with Epstein.
All have Donald in them as well. So maybe she was the reluctant
girlfriend going out on a foursome with someone she didn't care for and
ignored during dinner. Could be. But she and Maxwell? We do have the
e-mail. Where she wrote Maxwell a gushing note and called her "G." And
if she truly was avoiding Epstein, that would mean she'd be talking to
Maxwell when the foursome was out on the town.
"Lies"? It appears there are lies -- even at least one coming from Melania's mouth.
Trump
also said “Epstein was not alone,” hinting at other potential abusers.
She noted that several prominent executives resigned over their
relationships with Epstein.
“Of course, this doesn’t amount to guilt,” Trump said. “But we still must work openly and transparently to uncover the truth.”
THE DAILY DIGEST notes, "On
March 17th, The Telegraph reported that recent findings from the
left-leaning, new media organization Zeteo found that over half of
people in the United States believed that Trump started the war with
Iran to distract the country from the Epstein files scandal."
Turning to the Iran War, David Edwards (RAW STORY) reports:
U.S.
military service members claimed the Pentagon was not telling the truth
about Iran's deadliest attack on America's troops during President
Donald Trump's most recent war.
CBS News reported that survivors of the attack that killed six and wounded 20 were "left dangerously exposed" when they were attacked in Kuwait.
According
to the surviving members, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was wrong when
he said they were attacked by a drone "squirter," which squirted
through defense systems.
"Painting a picture
that 'one squeaked through' is a falsehood," one injured soldier told
the network. "I want people to know the unit … was unprepared to provide
any defense for itself. It was not a fortified position."
Was Pete drunk? Is he back on the sauce? He promised, during his confirmation hearing, that he'd lay off the booze if confirmed.
Has he not done that? Or is this just another example of him lying?
Treating the American people like one of his wives he cheated on?
Adding to Pete's troubles -- and maybe to his return to drinking -- Filip Timotija (THE HILL) notes:
A
simmering battle for influence between Pete Hegseth and the Army
Secretary Dan Driscoll has reached new heights with the Defense
secretary’s purge of senior Army officials last week.
Tensions
flared when Driscoll was picked last year by President Trump to
negotiate with Ukrainian officials in hopes of ending the Russia-Ukraine
war, according to two former U.S. officials familiar with the
dynamics. A current U.S. official said Hegseth’s “paranoia” has been
heightened in recent weeks as the president has fired two Cabinet
officials.
[. . .]
Hegseth’s firing of Driscoll’s widely respected chief of staff,
Gen. Randy George, along with two other senior military officials last
week, stunned defense officials as the U.S. is engaged in a war against
Iran, the current official said. The firing came on the heels of the
Pentagon chief ending the suspension of the Army crew who flew a pair of
military helicopters near Kid Rock’s house in Tennessee, undercutting
an Army investigation into the incident.
The ouster of George prompted some Republicans to rally behind the decorated general,
who deployed in support of Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi
Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. On Capitol Hill, it has shaken
some GOP lawmakers who have largely backed Hegseth despite a series of
scandals during his tenure, according to the first former U.S. official,
who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Or maybe Pete's panicking over the possibility that Chump just wants to fire him? Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) notes:
Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth’s continuing over-the-top press conferences
about the Iran war are not doing Donald Trump any favors due to his
childish behavior, leading MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough to suggest the
president may want to put an end to Hegseth's "humiliating" antics.
Reacting to the Wednesday Pentagon press conference,
where the former Fox News personality boasted about the president’s
ceasefire agreement that was already in the process of falling apart,
the “Morning Joe” host compared Hegseth repeatedly to a grossly immature
elementary school student.
Speaking
with co-hosts Willie Geist and Mika Brzezinski, Scarborough exclaimed,
“To see [Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General] Kaine have to stand
there while Pete Hegseth is doing all of this, like third-grade chest
thumping, like he's out on the back on the playground –– and then
General Kaine having to say, ‘Well, you know, we're still still
basically at war and Americans could still die here,’ it's just, again, I
just, I'm just shocked.”
“I really am, that
Donald Trump, at this late stage with Pete Hegseth humiliating him and
the administration every day with his stupid routine,” he added.
“Third-grade routine; I'm just shocked he's still allowed to go out
there in front of a microphone because he just embarrasses himself and
he sets Donald Trump and this administration and this country up for
continued humiliation at the hands of the Iranians.”
He's still allowed to go out there in front of a
microphone? He just embarrasses himself? He sets Donald Trump and this
administration and this country up for continued humiliation? Maybe
not for much longer if he gets fired. Christopher Sharp (THE MIRROR) reports on speculation as to who might be the next person Chump gives a pink slip to:
Michael
J Montgomery, a former US diplomat and lecturer at the University of
Michigan-Dearborn, identifies two potential candidates – United States
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and United States
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, reports the Mirror.
This
speculation emerged after Trump's threats to eliminate a "whole
civilisation" on his Truth Social platform earlier this week, prior to
agreeing to the ceasefire.
Explaining why these
two officials could face termination next, Michael told Reach: "If this
goes bad as I suspect it will, Tulsi Gabbard will be next out the door
because Trump is much more prone to firing women than men
"Hegseth
is likely to follow shortly thereafter - especially if the career
military people don't implement each and every Trump order no matter how
illegal or deranged."
While Trump ultimately
didn't bring about the end of civilization, Michael maintained his
belief that Hegseth and Gabbard would be the next to exit.
He
elaborated: "Trump takes the blame for nothing himself and those two
are the logical fall people in the event of poor intelligence or poor
execution undermining his war on Iran."
Trump takes the blame for nothing himself? True. On MEIDASTOUCH NEWS this morning, Ben notes how Chump's cease-fire is crumbling and how Chump spent the night on social media attacking everyone he could.
Chump is a terrorist. And among those targeted outside this country? The Pope. Troy Matthews (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) reports:
The
Vatican has cancelled a papal visit to the U.S. for the 250th
anniversary celebration after Pentagon officials appeared to threaten
the leader of the Catholic Church for speaking out against Trump's
foreign policy.
Pope Leo XIV—the first American
Pope in history—strongly condemned U.S. actions in Iran though not by
name in his Easter message, stating that God "does not listen" to world
leaders who wage war.
Leo had already criticized
Trump's actions on Venezuela and his threats against Greenland and
Canada in a speech on January 9th stating, "a diplomacy that promotes
dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a
diplomacy based on force."
In response,
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal
Christophe Pierre—the Vatican ambassador to the U.S.—to a meeting. In
diplomatic parlance, an ambassador being summoned to meet with
government officials for a lecture is the first stage in disciplinary
action that can lead to a break off of diplomatic ties.
It
is being reported by The Free Press that in the meeting Colby told
Pierre, "The United States has the military power to do whatever it
wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side."
Someone
in the meeting then reportedly mentioned the Avignon Papacy to Pierre.
This refers to a 14th century attack on the Vatican by the French king,
in which Pope Boniface VIII was murdered by assassins and the Vatican
was forced to relocate to Avignon where it could be controlled by the
French crown for the next 67 years.
The
controversy surrounding the meeting is likely to further inflame
religious pushback to an unusual wave of spiritual saber-rattling by
President Donald Trump’s administration — particularly surrounding the
U.S. government’s military actions in Iran, which the president himself
has suggested are the will of God. Combined with his other incendiary
remarks about the war, the increase in faith-filled militaristic
rhetoric is pitting Trump and his administration against a growing list
of faith leaders, ranging from local clergy to the pope.
Faith
leaders have reacted with frustration to the administration’s penchant
for invoking the divine when discussing the Iran war, which was on full
display earlier Wednesday when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth led a
press briefing at the Pentagon on the five-week-long war with Iran.
After insisting Tuesday evening’s fragile ceasefire deal between the
U.S. and Iran was evidence of a broader military victory, the secretary
intimated the pause in fighting was the result of divine intervention.
Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) notes that the story was addressed Thursday on MS NOW's MORNING JOE:
After
MS NOW host Willie Geist reported on the exchange, contributor Mike
Barnicle, a lifelong Catholic, made a compelling case that the president
and his underlings created a massive and enduring problem for themselves.
“What do you make of what you're hearing here?” Geist prompted his guest.
“I
went to parochial school for eight consecutive years, and I got thrown
out nearly every year by the nuns. You know, every grade — you deserve
early stuff like that,” he recalled. But the one thing that you get to,
to hold on to when you're raised Catholic, born Catholic, raised
Catholic, especially by my mother, we used to call her 'my mother, the
nun.' The one thing you retain, I would think, is that the theory of the
Catholic church is rooted in a simple phrase: the least among us.”
“So
if you look at the Trump administration's behavior toward the least
among us, it is almost criminal,” he accused. “It is certainly a sin
because they don't care for the least among us, and that we should all
care for the least among us. Because when we care for them, we care for
ourselves.”
In the wake of the meeting, the Pope reportedly refused Trump's invitation to attend the nation's 250th anniversary events.
Instead
of spending July 4th in the U.S., the Pope will instead visit
Lampedusa, a small Mediterranean island that has become an entry point
for African migrants attempting to reach Europe.
A Vatican official speaking to The Free Press said the Pope has no plans to visit the U.S. while Trump is in office.
“The Pope may well never visit the United States under this administration," the official reportedly said.
Pope Leo has called out the war on Iran and he has called out the US war on immigrants. Earlier this week, we noted Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez:
The
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Sacramento was launching a
probe Tuesday after a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agents and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers near San
Jose, California.
KNTV reported that the Tuesday morning shooting shut down on- and off-ramps on Interstate 5 and Sperry Avenue in Patterson, California. Lauren Mascarenhas (CNN) adds, "Immigration
and Customs Enforcement agents were involved in a shooting that sent
one person to the hospital while they were conducting a targeted traffic
stop in California’s Central Valley, the agency said Tuesday." Uwa Ede-Osifo (GUARDIAN) reports that the man shot was Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez:
Hernandez was hospitalized after the shooting. A spokesperson for the
Stanislaus county sheriff’s office, which has jurisdiction over
Patterson, declined to comment on Hernandez’s condition.
We ignored the assertions made by DHS because DHS has a known history of lying. And now the things DHS claimed? Not seeming very accurate at all. Terry Chea and Christopher Weber (AP) report:
An
attorney for a man shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agents during an arrest in central California said Wednesday that his
client did not try to run over officers with his car and disputed claims
that he has a warrant out for his arrest in El Salvador.
[. . .]
Attorney
Patrick Kolasinski, who is representing Mendoza and his family, said
during a news conference that his client has been stopped for minor
traffic infractions but has no criminal record in the U.S. and is not
the subject of an arrest warrant in El Salvador, where he was acquitted
of murder.
Kolasinski said he has found no
evidence his client was part of any street gang but he added he has not
had the chance to talk to him to confirm that.
“If
he was released after being acquitted, with no other holds on him, he
cannot have a warrant,” Kolasinski said. “So that information must be
either erroneous or completely made up. And only DHS knows what they’re
looking at.”
According to a Oct. 25, 2019 court
document from a judge in El Salvador, Mendoza, who was 29 at the time,
was acquitted after being accused of murder and ordered immediately
released. The document lists 10 others who were convicted of various
crimes from aggravated robbery to murder, and mentions at least one of
them was a member of the 18th Street Gang. But there is no mention of
Mendoza belonging to a gang or being accused of carrying out gang
activity in the document.
As
we noted before, DHS has a history of lying to the public and to the
courts. This has taken place for over a year now. We do not take DHS
seriously in their statements as a result of their repeated lies.
Whether they will get honest under the new Secretary of Homeland
Security Mark Mulllin remains to be seen but their reputation is bad and
they earned it. Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) notes how
A
federal judge has paused the Trump administration's decision to
terminate temporary protected status (TPS) for Ethiopians who came to
the United States, ruling that former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi
Noem didn't follow the legal procedure for doing so.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Massachusetts penned a scathing analysis of the decision
to eliminate TPS under the Trump administration, finding that it
certainly wasn't appropriate in the case of Ethiopia, where people would
still face substantial danger if forced to return there.
"As
of the date of the executive order, entitled 'Protecting the American
People Against Invasion,' seventeen countries had TPS designations. In
the twelve months between the issuance of the order and filing of this
suit, Secretary Noem announced the termination of twelve TPS countries —
every single TPS country for which she conducted a periodic review
during that period," wrote Murphy. "Perhaps it has been a banner year
for disaster recovery and geopolitical stability worldwide. The
evidence, and common sense, suggests otherwise."
Indeed,
he wrote, "The administrative record is replete with evidence,
including reports by DHS itself from as recent as August and September
of 2025, that armed conflict and natural disasters continue to create
dangerous conditions in Ethiopia."
So
you get it? Kristi lied. That's what the judge is saying. Kristi, as
Secretary of Homeland Security, lied. As she did daily. As her
spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin did.
Let's wind down by noting this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
ICYMI: Murray on Trump’s Budget Request: “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… 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.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement the day after a ceasefire deal was announced between the United States and Iran:
“The President of the United States cannot threaten genocide. That kind of brinksmanship is catastrophically dangerous and goes against everything we stand for as Americans.
“I am relieved that American servicemembers were not asked to
commit war crimes in this President’s name, but none of us should
forgive the unacceptable escalation and erratic behavior of this
President—or the lasting damage he has already done to America’s
standing across the globe. Nor should we assume he has fully abandoned
his pattern of reckless escalation that puts our servicemembers—and
millions of innocent civilians’—lives at risk. We have to put him in
check, before he ever pushes us so close to the brink again.
“This
President made the unilateral decision—without Congress or the American
people—to plunge this country into a costly foreign war of choice.
Trump’s actions have already cost us tens of billions in taxpayer
dollars, left our international credibility in shreds, and left thirteen
servicemembers dead with hundreds more wounded. America is poorer,
weaker, and less respected thanks to Trump’s recklessness. Congress
needs to immediately vote to put a permanent end to this war and rein in
this president—and I will keep pushing to ensure that happens.
“Where Congress should be a natural check on Trump’s every
abuse of power—this Republican Congress is shamefully absent, even when
he threatens to wipe out an entire country. Americans will vote in the
fall, and our democracy is desperately counting on a new Congress that
will hold this President accountable. Every American should
recognize—your voice and your vote matter and that’s exactly why this
administration wants you to believe you are powerless.
“As a
voice for Washington state in the United States Senate, I intend to use
my vote to oppose this President’s warmongering and destructive agenda
every step of the way.”
###
And let's note this from THE BLACK COMMENTATOR:
BlackCommentator.com April 9, 2026 Issue 1082 |
| Our email address is BlackCommentator@gmail.com Our voicemail number is 856.823.1739 |
The following sites updated:
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Chump loses power and support7 hours ago
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Things will get better8 hours ago
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Non-prince Andrew conned everyone8 hours ago
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Job Growth on ICE1 day ago
