Friday, July 18, 2025. Chump's war on immigrants, his war on NPR and PBS, everything is tied to the reality that Donald Chump is a slave serving the super wealthy -- a detail that some in MAGA are finally waking up to.
We're starting with public media which is under attack from Donald Chump.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have passed legislation on a narrow,
party-line basis to eliminate all federal funding for public
broadcasting for the next two years. That's $1.1 billion previously
approved by the Republican-led Congress and President Trump. The
reversal is notionally due to the need to cut funds to help pay for new
Republican priorities, including an expansion of immigration enforcement
and extension of Trump's prior tax cuts.
Yet Trump had
campaigned on retribution and made the news media a core element of his
grievance. Public broadcasting has offered a ready target, given the
government funding, and he has repeatedly claimed NPR and PBS
demonstrate ideological bias.
NPR and PBS -- and other public media -- do have a bias -- they are anti-stupidity.
An administration that's purged climate change from all federal government pages, can't handle science. An administration that puts a fool in charge of public health -- a fool who thinks vaccines cause autism -- can't handle science.
If NPR and PBS were like FOX "NEWS" and just told lies, Chump wouldn't claim they had a bias. The threat to Chump is that NPR and PBS and other public media are science-based and fact-based.
We need NPR and we need
PBS. The cloven hoofed Jonathan Turley would beg to differ but he is a
turncoat and a liar. In fact, he is a work write-up waiting to
happen. Tick-tick-tick-tick.
NPR
gives us news and it gives us explorations. I am not a Terry Gross fan
but she can have a guest that makes me tune in. And I really do not
like her. When she has a great guest though, she is worth listening to
even for me because you have a real exploration of a topic and not just
silly soundbytes. PBS? We get THE NEWSHOUR which remains America's
strongest news hour or news half hour. No one does the evening news
better. In addition, we get documentaries and we get NOVA and AMERICAN
MASTERS and children's programming and cooking shows and gardening shows
and some great dramas and, if we are lucky, Britcoms. I do not have
Britcoms currently. I do have a movie on Saturday nights (AIRPLANE! is
this weekend). AMANPOUR & COMPANY and LIDIA'S KITCHEN. Sometimes I
will watch AUSTIN CITY LIMITS based on the musical guest. My PBS
station (CPTV) offers BBC NEWS as well. I love POV. I could honestly
live with just PBS.
I
have YOUTUBE TV. I dropped cable years ago. I went with YOUTUBE TV
because of Stan's praise for it. Which includes, I can watch a program
and pull up the schedule to see what else is on. Or I can watch a
program and pull up the things I have recorded to see if there is
something else I want to watch. Try to do that on HULU LIVE TV and the
program you are watching stops. I also like YOUTUBE TV because many of
the streaming TV services do not offer PBS.
But
if I had only over air TV, I could survive on just PBS because it
offers so much. And I am someone who will fold laundry in front of the
TV, chop vegetables in front of the TV. If I am home and not reading, I
have the radio on -- or radio via the internet -- or a record on the
stereo or PBS on as I go through the house doing chores. And I dust and
vacuum daily, by the way. My family makes fun of me (kindly) about
that. That is how I did it raising the kids and it is how I do it now.
But, no, I do not expect that from other people and their homes and I am
fully aware that most people did not have eight hours a day to
straighten and clean their homes to begin with.
So when they attack PBS and NPR, they are really attacking us.
I
encounter people sometimes who hate PBS and do not watch it or hate NPR
and do not listen to it. And I will speak with them and find out their
interests and usually be able to recommend one show that they should
catch. The reality usually is that people who do not watch it or listen
to it do not really know what it offers. Once they do, they tend to
find something of value because it is "public" TV and "public" radio --
meaning that it serves us.
As bad as the attack on PBS and NPR is, it goes beyond that. Margery A. Beck (AP) reports, "Dozens
of Native American radio stations across the country vital to tribal
communities will be at risk of going off the air if Congress cuts more
than $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according
to industry leaders." There are 59 tribal stations in the US. Native Public Media notes, "Native
stations play a vitally important role in the communities they serve.
Native stations serve as an essential source of news, deliver critically
important health information, provide a forum for discussion and debate
around the issues that affect their communities, broadcast life-saving
information in times of emergencies, air extensive cultural content,
promote language preservation, and provide jobs as part of the local
economy." NPM president Loris Taylor writes:
Tribal
radio stations operate on tight budgets. Most cannot apply for
competitive federal energy grants while also maintaining daily broadcast
services. Asking them to pivot to climate funding, without a clear and
dedicated pathway, sets them up to fail.
We
call on Congress to reject any measure that would eliminate or reduce
CPB funding for Tribal media. Instead, we urge lawmakers to follow
Senator Rounds’ lead in recognizing the importance of Tribal stations
and take it further. Rather than replace CPB, strengthen it. Protect
this cornerstone of Tribal sovereignty, cultural preservation, civic
engagement, and emergency response.
The future of Tribal media and the communities it serves depends on it.
Francene
Blythe-Lewis, Eastern Band of Cherokee, Navajo and Sisseton Wahpeton
Oyate, is the president and chief executive officer of Vision Maker
Media. Her father, Frank Blythe, founded the nonprofit organization in
1976 with seed money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and
wanted to bring contemporary Native storytelling to public television.
“At
the time, public leaders and programmers and station managers, they
were all wanting the iconic Indian history, Indian Wars, Indian chief
stories and biographies,” she said. “And so he really fought hard to set
a precedent of bringing the lives and experience of Native Americans in
the times that we are in to public television.”
The
impending proposal to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
would “almost virtually eliminate” Vision Maker Media and be “extremely
tragic.”
Without organizations like Vision
Maker Media, Blythe-Lewis said new generations would lose awareness of
Native people, cultures and communities.
“That
is the tragic part, because we’re very much a part of civil society.
We’re very much part of political influence. We’re very much a part of,
you know, this whole fabric of American culture and so too, because
we’re the original peoples to the land, our history is critical to
remain sort of the foundation of finding and founding of America.”
This was money well spent to inform and educate. But as Mammy Yokum Linda McMahon makes clear daily, the administration doesn't do public education. Instead they are at war with it.
The above re: public media? It's the same as THE WALL STREET JOURNAL report, the same as everything going on with this crooked administration.
On THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE, Stephanie and her guests discussed THE WALL STREET JOURNAL's report last night about Chump's birthday greeting (obscene birthday greeting) to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Leigh Ann Caldwell's excellent analysis above noted the betrayal MAGA was feeling due to the lies from Chump and the administration regarding Jeffrey Epstein. It goes to the heart of the lies he's told since 2015 repeatedly. He was going to be the savior who ended pedophile rings. When he first started saying that, Epstein was alive and Chump's good friend. While Chump was president, Epstein was arrested and imprisoned and died in jail. After Chump loses the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Chump begins portraying himself as a truth teller who will release documents -- he tells FOX "NEWS" as a candidate in 2024 that he'll release the JFK assassination files and the Epstein files and blah blah blah.
And then last week, Americans are greeted with a lie that there are no documents to release.
David Jolly: But there's also the theme of a ruling class in America -- the super wealthy. People who can escape accountability. The law applies to them differently than the law applies to someone who maybe gets picked up off the streets for maybe, for instance right now, during an ICE raid. And so we have the disparity, we have the victims who are also being lied to. Look, this is a moment where the American people -- regardless of party -- the numbers are wild, Stephanie -- they're demanding transparency and accountability. Some surveys show that 90 percent of the American people want transparency and accountability.
He is the Deep State. Chump is now the deep state denying the files.
Alicia Menendez did a great job on THE BRIEFING last night but I can't find the two segments I wanted to highlight on YOUTUBE (there's less than two minutes of one segment that is posted on BLUESKY -- BLUESKY took away the embed option months ago which is why we no longer rush to note BLUESKY).
Lawrence O'Donnell did a great job last night as well.
But it's really the combination of Leigh Ann Caldwell's analysis and David Jolly's comments that captures it. Donald Chump rages against the Deep State and presents as the hero of the people. But he's not. He's the servant of the super wealthy.
That's what's going on with Epstein his admirers fear.
It's certainly what went down with his 'big' 'beautiful' bill that steals billions from the American people and hands them over to . . . the super wealthy.
Native Americans are going to suffer due to his attack on public media but they don't matter. Only the super wealthy matter to Chump.
He is their servant.
And that's why the Epstein matter is so important to MAGA and outraging them. His attempts to bury evidence regarding Epstein's crimes make clear that he is not about We The People, he is not about working people, he is just about serving the super wealthy.
Stephanie noted at the top of her segment that there were all these things going on but it was Epstein that was outraging Chump's supporters.
Because that's what they can't deny to themselves. They can pretend that the tax bill isn't as bad as it really is because it's not gone into effect yet. They can pretend regarding the econoy and a lot of other things. But on Epstein?
He promised them he would release the files. Now he won't.
And he's tried everything including his usual attempt to blame Joe Biden.
There's no one to blame for this but Chump. And it goes to the heart of the matter that he was not a change agent, he was not going to shake things up, he's just a tool of -- a slave to -- the super wealthy.
A toddler in a red and white dress told me she was four years old. Her family told me she was here for her court date.
A series of young men were granted a court date by a
judge, a moment of relief, only to be ambushed by a gang of ICE agents
before they’d even cleared the doorway. One was violently manhandled.
Another collapsed into the corner, head in his hands.
These men were pulled down an unmarked hallway and
into anonymity, possibly to be trafficked toward a deadly prison in El
Salvador or South Sudan or Florida for the crime of coming to America
for a better life, and expecting better of us.
And lining every hallway, a masked force of anonymous goons looming over
the proceedings and ready to pounce, under the guise of “just doing my
job” and the cover of a total lack of accountability. Who care more
about keeping order than keeping a conscience.
It’s not clear whether the people being seized always know
what’s being said to them in these moments of arrest, and very clear
they don’t know why. They are being thrust unaware into the most
traumatic experience of their lives – alone.
A frantic woman was asking anyone she could for any sign of
her partner who had come for his lawful hearing. Forty-five minutes
later, her six year old daughter heard the truth – her father had been
kidnapped by the government, without cause or a chance to say goodbye.
Still she asked us, “Where is my daddy?” up to the moment of an anxiety
attack that sent her to the hospital.
Words can’t convey the panic of a New Yorker suddenly
pinned to the wall, the dread that hangs over the waiting room, the
desperation of a mother and daughter begging for information about their
family.
I can’t get these sickening sights and sounds out of my head – and maybe that’s a good thing.
I witnessed these scenes in Manhattan over a matter of
hours – but what I saw is happening on a constant loop in buildings just
out of sight of the Statue of Liberty.
And I don’t blame people for not knowing that.
Intentionally or not, our minds and media are often
vague about the Trump administration’s crimes against our neighbors and
rights. People hear about an “immigration crackdown,” maybe one that’s
gone far beyond the so-called “criminals,” but it is in the details that
the grotesque reality is revealed.
These aren’t vague issues –they’re specific cruelties. It’s
not just an abstract overreach or a constitutional question. It’s an
extra-legal abduction racket, the kind we’d hope the government would
root out – but the government are the perpetrators.
Here the goons are in NYC. Little bitch boys and cowards in masks.
Secret Service doesn't need masks. Constables don't need masks. CIA agents don't even need masks. But bitch boys and cowards need masks. But even with masks, they can't hide from themselves and their own actions will haunt them forever -- and should. They're destroying lives.
Public
approval of President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration has
dropped to its lowest level since his return to the White House, as
Americans express a growing unease with his aggressive enforcement
tactics.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on
Wednesday shows an outright majority of Americans—51 percent—now openly
disapprove of the president’s hardline approach to immigration
enforcement, marking a dramatic shift from earlier this year when it was
seen as his strongest issue.
Two
things here. The more Americans see what's taking place, the more they
reject Chump's war on immigrants. Second, that's another reason Mark
Cuban's ridiculous notion (see Wednesday's snapshot) needs to be
rejected. It's not our job to save Chump or his policies. Democrats
came up with immigration plans and Republicans shot them down. Chump pushed this policy through -- illegal and inhumane -- and now that
the public has decisively turned against it, we do not need to kiss
Chump's boo boo and make it better. What he has done is outrageous and
horrifying. Democrats should not now try to normalize it just because
Cuban thinks that's a 'quick fix.' We can't normalize this and the
American people don't want it normalized.
The
cruelty of Chump's inhumane practices are something he and the GOP need
to own. We shouldn't sully ourselves to help him look better and shame
on Cuban for pretending we should. They're the ones being cruel and
they like being cruel. Michael Luciano (MEDIAITE) notes:
Sen.
Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) advised U.S. citizens to avoid associating with
undocumented immigrants, lest they be arrested during an immigration
raid by federal agents.
The Trump
administration is carrying out scores of raids across the country at
factories, farms, restaurants, schools, and other locations to enact the
president’s mass deportation policy. President Donald Trump’s handling
of immigration, which was once seen as his strongest or second-strongest
issue, is polling at its lowest level of the term so far, according to a
Reuters/Ipsos survey released on Wednesday. Just 41% of Americans
approve, and only 28% agreed with the statement that “immigration
arrests at places of work are good for the country.”
I believe the phrase we're all thinking right now is: "What the literal f**k!"
He's stoking fear, othering and justifying -- so very Mark Cuban of him -- what's being done to immigrants.
The
administration's actions are not excusable but that's what an idiot
elderly man named "Tommy" thinks. Chicken Hawk Tommy never served. We
grasp that, right? He didn't sign up to go to Vietnam nor did he
protest it. Little Chicken Hawk Tommy might need to meet George
Retes. We noted George in yesterday's snapshot. He's a veteran of the
US military. He's 25. Glass House Farms was raided by ICE gestapo
agents. At least one person is dead. George is a security guard at
Glass House Farms and when ICE Nazis came crawling, he identified
himself from inside his car as that and as a US citizen. It made no
different as they busted his window, pepper sprayed him and hit him with
tear gas because, well, they can and then they dragged him from his
car. This passes for how they carry out arrests these days. Olga R. Rodriguez (AP) notes
"It
took two officers to nail my back and then one on my neck to arrest me
even though my hands were already behind my back," Retes said.
[. . .]
Retes
was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles,
where he said he was put in a special cell on suicide watch and checked
on each day after he became emotionally distraught over his ordeal and
missing his 3-year-old daughter's birthday party Saturday.
He
said federal agents never told him why he was arrested or allowed him
to contact a lawyer or his family during his three-day detention.
Authorities never let him shower or change clothes despite being covered
in tear gas and pepper spray, Retes said, adding that his hands burned
throughout the first night he spent in custody.
On Sunday, an officer had him sign a paper and walked him out of the detention center. He said he was told he faced no charges.
"They
gave me nothing I could wrap my head around," Retes said, explaining
that he was met with silence on his way out when he asked about being
"locked up for three days with no reason and no charges."
This is America right now. Under the Chump Reich, this is America.
And
if you're feeling sorry for cowardly Tommy who couldn't enlist, please
note that when he offered his 'brilliant' advice that we noted earlier,
he was informed veterans were being arrested by ICE. Back to Michael
Luciano's report:
So Senator, do you care if U.S. citizens accidentally get detained in ICE raids?” Manríquez asked.
“If U.S. citizens?” Tuberville said, seeming surprised.
“Yeah, it’s been happening a lot,” the reporter replied. “It’s been having a lot with veterans in particular.
“Well,
first of all, don’t put yourself in a situation where that happens,”
Tuberville responded. “And I’m sure with all the illegals we have in
this country, you’re gonna probably have some mistakes happen. That’s
gonna happen. But again, as long as we take care of it the right way,
understand they are our system, let them go. But again, if you’re gonna
be hanging around people that are not citizens of this country, some
things like that are gonna probably happen.”
That's 70 year old Tommy Girl for you. Yellow streak down his back and vengeance in his eyes, headed to hell for eternity.
Tommy's got a pal he can scissor in hell with, one Ralph Norman. Ailia Zehra reports:
Rep.
Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) are facing
backlash over their responses to a reporter asking whether they “care if
U.S. citizens accidentally get detained in [Immigration and Customs
Enforcement] ICE raids.”
"No, I'm not concerned about that," Norman said in response to the question asked by a reporter on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
"I
am concerned about law and order," he said. When the reporter pressed
him about U.S. citizens getting detained and said "it's happening a
lot," Norman said: "I don't believe that."
Just for the idiot Norman, let's note Aretha's version of "What A Fool Believes."
Fortunately,
not everyone is as butt-ass-stupid as Tommy and Ralph. In fact, even
some Republicans have caught on to the damage Chump is doing --
including damage to this country's economy. Michael Luciano reports:
Rep.
Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump’s
mass deportation plan, stating that if the administration tries to
deport every undocumented immigrant, the economy will crash.
[. . .]
On
Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal relayed remarks from a pair of House
Republicans who expressed concern at the ongoing raids on businesses in
the food industry.
The Journal said Stutzman
took out his phone to reveal a message from a poultry farmer in his
district. Stutzman stated that he has received several such messages.
“I
have people they call me. They’re like, ‘I’m not sure if my crew is
going to show up for work Monday morning, because if there’s a raid, or
something like that, right?” the lawmaker said. “If you try to deport
all of them, you’re gonna crash the economy.”
This is not the United States, this is not democracy. These are gestapo tactics and they have no place in this country. Lives are being destroyed. Ailia Zehra reports:
Delegates
at the United Church of Christ’s (UCC) 35th General Synod
overwhelmingly passed an emergency resolution this week, condemning the
ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids as “domestic
terrorism” and accusing President Donald Trump's administration of
“weaponizing the Constitution.”
Religious
News Service reported Tuesday that the resolution targets immigration
enforcement operations “carried out by ICE agents working without
uniforms, wearing masks or refusing to identify themselves,” condemning
these tactics as threatening and abusive.
Titled
“Responding to the federal government’s attack on immigrants, migrants,
and refugees,” the resolution urges the church to divest from
for-profit private detention firms, specifically naming CoreCivic, GEO
Group, and Management and Training Corp.— while allowing congregations
to go further if they choose, according to the report.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Mark Kelly's office:
Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Alex Padilla (D-CA) led a group of 21 Senate Democrats in pressing
the Trump administration on its recent initiatives to weaponize
immigration court hearings as an inhumane trap to arrest immigrants—who
are just trying to follow the law—by terminating their immigration court
cases and deporting them without adequate due process.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, and Immigrations and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons, the senators condemned
these actions as an affront to due process.
“We are extremely concerned by reports of a recent initiative to
arrest and detain noncitizens at their immigration court hearings, and
in many cases, dismiss their immigration cases without advance notice
and while hiding the government’s intent to arrest them,” wrote the senators.
“These actions prevent noncitizens from having their fair day in court
and raise serious legal and due process concerns. They also make clear
that this Administration is not targeting the worst criminals and
threats to public safety, instead redirecting staff and resources away
from drug trafficking and human trafficking and towards these operations
targeting noncriminal immigrants who are following the law and showing
up for their day in court.”
The senators then admonished the misuse of expedited removal (ER) as part of the Trump Administration’s efforts:
“ER historically has applied only to a noncitizen who ‘is arriving in
the United States’ and certain other noncitizens apprehended close to
the border less than 14 days after arrival in the United States […]. ICE
is now expanding the application of ER to noncitizens in the interior
of the United States who have developed significant ties to the United
States, including by lawfully working and attending school. Arresting
law-abiding individuals and placing them in ER deprives them of the
opportunity to have their fair day in court with the due process
protections in immigration court proceedings.”
The senators then raised serious due process concerns:
“Due process requires notice that is reasonably calculated, under all
the circumstances, to apprise interested parties and that affords[s] a
reasonable time to make an appearance. Here, it appears that the ICE
attorneys are being told to dismiss immigration cases and place
noncitizens in expedited removal. At the same time, immigration judges
are being told that they may dismiss such cases without any briefing or
opportunity to respond. In addition, often noncitizens have not been
notified of the purpose of their dismissal, in order to respond or
contest the dismissal of their immigration cases, or the placement of
their case into expedited removal. Taken together, these actions raise
serious due process concerns.”
The senators concluded by articulating the horrible situation this puts immigrants in with no benefit to our country:
“These actions also place noncitizens in an impossible position. If
noncitizens who fear arrest do not attend their immigration court
hearing, they may receive an in absentia removal order that
will newly subject them to swift detention and removal. If they do
attend, they risk arrest, detention, and a swift deportation, possibly
to South Sudan, Libya, or El Salvador—countries they may have no
connection to. This manipulation of existing laws to enact this
Administration’s mass deportation agenda is creating chaos in our
immigration system while doing nothing to make our communities safer.”
In addition to Kelly, Durbin, and Padilla, the letter is signed by
Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard
Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV),
Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Martin Heinrich (D-NM),
John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ben Ray
Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray
(D-WA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris
Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
