Let's start with natural disaster and failure Pete Hegseth who, for no rational reason, remains the Secretary of Defense. At least for now. Yasmeen Hamadeh (DAILY BEAST) notes:
The Pentagon inspector general has reportedly expanded an investigation
into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the encrypted messaging app
Signal. Citing a congressional aide and a source familiar with the
inquiry, The Wall Street Journal
reported Thursday that acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins plans
to widen his investigation to include a second Signal chat Hegseth made
that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer. Stebbins initially
announced the launch of the investigation last month, and stated it
would examine a Signal group chat Hegseth and other top officials were a
part of. That chat became public after then-National Security Adviser
Mike Waltz accidentally added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.
The inquiry will now include a probe into the second group chat as
well, and could pose trouble for Hegseth—who has repeatedly denied ever
using the app to send classified information.
Tim Parlatore is a personal attorney
and top adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. At the same time,
he’s suing the Navy and defending private clients against the U.S.
government.
Parlatore, who represented Donald
Trump in a criminal case two years ago and rejoined the Navy Reserve in
March to aid Hegseth, was recently tapped to coordinate the leak
investigation that led to chaos at the Pentagon.
The probe was publicly tied to the firings of top advisers and preceded
further revelations that Hegseth was careless with classified
information. Parlatore was also reportedly in the Signal group with Hegseth’s wife and brother in which the Defense secretary shared details of a strike on Yemen.
But
despite Parlatore’s deep involvement at the Pentagon, he is pursuing
litigation against the Navy. A review of federal court records shows
Parlatore listed as an attorney on 11 cases — though a few appear to be
dormant and not all involve the U.S. government. Often his clients are
retired military personnel.
The
business of Washington is built on government officials leaving their
jobs to trade access for private clients and using their connections to
achieve client goals. While Parlatore insists his arrangement is above
board, it’s highly unusual for a sitting top adviser for a Cabinet
secretary to be working in the government while at the same time
representing clients suing the government, or working for clients as
they fight off the feds.
On Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced an end to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Program. In a post on
X, Hegseth wrongfully attributed the program to Biden, saying “WPS is
yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that
overburdens our commanders and troops,” and is a distraction “pushed by
feminists and left-wing activists.” In fact, President Trump signed the
first WPS Act into law in 2017. WPS promotes the participation of women in peace and security efforts, which has been shown to improve outcomes, including the durability of peace agreements. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who championed the WPS Act in Congress, criticized the
Secretary’s decision, saying it was short-sighted and unlawful. “WPS is
law; the Secretary cannot unilaterally terminate the program Congress
passed because he doesn’t understand how the inclusion and participation
of women in mediation and negotiation make a measurable difference in
preventing, mitigating and resolving violent conflicts and keeping
America safe.” Experts worry that eliminating the WPS program will also
impact the military's ability to recruit and retain a capable and
prepared force.
Remember, Pete Hegseth had a woman say he assaulted her. Pete rushed to pay her off, remember. And claims he was innocent. But would not waive the NDA the woman signed as part of the settlement so that the woman could testify during his Senate confirmation hearing.
When you remember that, you understand what propmted him to make such a stupid and idiotic move. This is an attack on people assaulted, an attempt to silence them. Kelsey Baker (BUSINESS INSIDER) notes:
Retired
Marine Corps Lt. Col. Kate Germano, author of the book "Fight Like a
Girl," told BI that "it seems that those who are at the bottom of the
pecking order will be the most adversely impacted by the [latest] change
— especially women and people of color."
A
Marine officer who has led investigations told BI the new memo seems
"part and parcel with their effort to weaken participation of
underrepresented groups."
He's so damn stupid. And so damn crooked. And people can't stop laughing at him.
People are laughing about that DoD image that Hegseth approved of himself. Not because Pete's trying to be Diana Ross -- Stop in the name of love! But because no one caught that they forgot his pinky!
Another simply asked
“can we have Mattis back, please?” That was a reference to former
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who served more than four decades in the
Marine Corps before taking the civilian post in the first Trump
administration.
Duffle Blog, the Onion-style military satire blog, even has merchandise based on the jokes,
including a "Whiskey Leaks" drinking glass and a bottle of hand wash
with the label "Clean on OPSEC," another reference to Hegseth's comments
on the unsecured Signal chat about Yemen strikes that was inadvertently
made public.
Hegseth also routinely uses the phrase "warfighter"
to refer to American troops, a phrase that itself has long been met with
eyerolls within the military community, which is known for its
signature gallows humor and scoffing at anyone being overly serious.
Forget Hegseth, though, make way for Kash Patel because "the champion of dance, his moves will put you in a trance."
A former FBI boss has claimed that the bureau’s director Kash Patel has been spotted in nightclubs more regularly than he has been seen at work.
Former counter-intelligence official Frank Figliuzzi said on Morning Joe Friday that President Donald Trump’s man is a bit of an anomaly in the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C.
He
has however been spotted elsewhere, according to Figliuzzi, who was
appointed as assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence
Division by Robert Mueller in 2011.
“Reportedly,
he’s been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the
seventh floor of the Hoover building,” Figliuzzi told Morning Joe co-host Jonathan Lemaire.
“And there are reports that daily briefings to him have been changed from every day to maybe twice weekly.”
Oh. What. Wow.
Well now we know why he only lasted from February 24th to April 9th, as the acting director of the ATF and why, by March, he'd stopped showing up for the job.
Many Americans might not have felt major effects from President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs -- until now.
That’s
because a major shipping loophole expired at one minute past midnight
on Friday. The de minimis exemption, as it’s known, allowed shipments of
goods worth $800 or less to come into the United States duty-free,
often more or less skipping time-consuming inspections and paperwork.
The
loophole helped reshape the way countless Americans shop, allowing
ultra-low-cost Chinese e-commerce sites like Shein, Temu and AliExpress
to pour everything from yarn to patio furniture, clothes to photography
equipment and more into US homes.
Its
impending end has rung alarm bells across social media, with a baseline
tariff as high as 145% depending on the carrier set to take effect on
Chinese imports, potentially more than doubling the cost for all those
cheap products deal-hungry Americans scooped up.
He's wrecked the economy. People are about to really suffer. But what's on his mind right now? Golfing. And a military parade in his honor -- a military parade for a man who, when his country was at war, lied, LIED, to get out of serving. But he believes he has a right to a military parade.
Despite the title of the clip, it actually has a third song, kicks off with Ray's version of Melanie Safka's "What Have They Done to My Song Ma." Barbra has a new duets album which will be released June 27, PARTNERS II. Big news there? She duets with the man who signed to Columbia many, many years ago. He and Barbra were not like by many in the executive suites and were labeled Goddard's folly -- Goddard Lieberson signed them both to COLUMBIA -- because the execs didn't think they would sell albums or have broad appeal (they'd appeal to only gays -- they used the f-word -- and radicals). Bob Dylan's who I'm talking about.
So the two finally duet.
Bob's first album did not sell. It still doesn't sell over sixty years later. But his second album was a hit as was Barbra's first album -- both released in 1963.
All but two of Bob's albums have been released by COLUMBIA (one live album and PLANET WAVES were released by David Geffen's ASYLUM in the 70s). All of Barbra's studio and live albums have been released on COLUMBIA. Two soundtracks were not. CAPITOL had the rights to FUNNY GIRL -- the original Broadway cast album. COLUMBIA did release the film soundtrack of FUNNY GIRL which eventually outsold the Broadway version -- helped by the film and by "My Man" being part of the film's soundtrack. FUNNY was another album COLUMBIA missed out on -- the soundtrack to FUNNY LADY which ARISTA released.
If PARTNERS II makes it to number one on BILLBOARD's album sales list, she will hold a new record -- a number one album in each decade for seven decades. She currently holds the record on that with one number one in every decade for six decades. No one's done that before. Someone might match that, maybe not. But if she gets to number one with this one, no one will probably match that, not for a very long time if ever. WIKIPEDIA says she has 52 gold albums and 31 platinum. I believe that's wrong. First off, 31 albums is correct. But it's 53 if you count soundtrack albums. 38 is the number of albums -- studio, live, collections and soundtracks -- Bob has that have gone gold with many also going platinum.
Friday, May 2, 2025. Chump Land just got crazier and who thought that was possible? He's now attacking PBS and NPR, his lies are lies on top of lies -- including that eggs are now costing only 63 cents or so a dozen, all that and so much more including a new Signal screw up.
Let's start with Lawrence O'Donnell from his MSNBC program last night.
That makes sense. The above makes sense. Lawrence sticks with facts and logic but now we have to walk through Chump Land and, heads up, nothing's going to make much sense.
Yesterday, JD Wolf (MEIDASTOUCH NETWORK) reported, "According
to the White House daily schedule and press guidance issued to the
press pool, Trump appears to be once again cutting his work week short,
departing Washington on Thursday evening, setting up a long weekend at
his private Mar-a-Lago club. After commencement remarks at the
University of Alabama Thursday night, Trump will land in Palm Beach just
before 11:15 PM—marking yet another early departure from the capital as
major domestic and international issues demand attention."
When the stock market was climbing in January 2024, Donald Trump knew exactly who deserved credit: He did.
Nearly a year before his return to the White House, he declared on his Truth Social platform that investors were celebrating his lead in the polls against President Joe Biden.
When the stock market fell Wednesday on news that the American economy had gone backward during the first three months of 2025, Trump knew exactly who to blame: Biden.
“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,’’ he posted, adding that Biden “left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!’’
Trump
also said, “Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden
'Overhang.' This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS.”
Yet
for economists puzzling out how prices and hiring will change in the
coming months, or businesses struggling with a starkly uncertain future,
Trump's massive and unpredictable import taxes on almost every country
do in fact bear much of the blame. Rarely have a new president's
policies had such a sharp, immediate impact on the economy.
The economy is in shambles because of him. His actions did this. And instead of sitting his fat ass down and doing the job he lied his way into, the job he had his boytoy Alien Musk buy him into, Dumpy Chump is oozing his way back to the golf course. As Ruth noted earlier this week in "The Convicted Felon spent a quarter of his time golfing," he's already spent 24 out of his first 100 days golfing.
He's golfing again. He's fled the White House again. Sticking taxpayers with the bill again. Not to mention destroying the environment. People are talking rightly about the costs of Trump going 'home' to Florida each weekend because he's not paying that bill, we are. But let's talk about that decision to fly to and from Florida each week and how it stands with all Chump's other actions and executive orders to destroy the planet.
And I get it, I do. He needs to flee to Florida because he's not as stupid as we all think he is -- no one can be that stupid. He's not. He grasps that he's not liked in DC. He's the president. And he's not liked in DC. There are no good parties at the White House. No one's dropping by for a fashionable dinner party. Chum's fat and ugly with a mind that never developed. No one wants to have fun with him. Only whores wanting transactional deals are going to show up at the White House.
Joe Biden had a legion of friends in DC. He worked there his whole life. Barack Obama was a true celebrity, people wanted to be around him and wanted to attend state dinners and White House functions.
But no one wants to see Chump unless they can get something from him.
And Chump recognizes that. He grasps it. It's been the story of his whole life. He had no friends in school. He was nursing his abuse from childhood and hoping someone would be his friend. But no one wanted to. And it's still true today. In all of DC, Chump has no real friend.
And it hurts so that's why he has to flee to Florida every weekend. That way he's the one leaving and not the one being left alone. The 78 year old oddity flees to Florida and whimpers that he doesn't care that he's all alone and nobody likes him.
Alien Musk told a story this week about the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House and ice cream. The night would be getting late and Chump would turn to Musk with pleading eyes and ask in a whimper if Alien would stay overnight, he could stay in the Lincoln Bedroom! And he could have ice cream late at night!
Even with the supreme suck up Alien Musk, Chump knew he had to bribe him in order to have a kid over for the night because without the bribes no one is coming to visit.
So off he's gone to Florida again this week. Because the answer for him is not hunker down and do some work.
No, his answer is to again flee the White House -- sticking taxpayers
with another huge bill for his travel -- and play golf.
But don't worry, he has a plan.
To fix things?
Oh, hell no. He is the personification of The Politics of Destruction.
His plan is to lie. That's all he's done his whole life. He destroys something and then he lies.
And he's already prepared his next lie about the economy.
Kevin Breuninger (CNBC) spotted that, "President Donald Trump on Wednesday blamed former President Joe Biden for the U.S. economycontracting in the first quarter of 2025 — and suggested he will blame Biden again for the second quarter’s results."
That's his plan. Destroy the economy and blame Joe and run off to Florida because the next quarter report he can blame on Joe as well.
And he can.
He can do that.
No one's going to believe him but he can lie again.
Most people didn't believe him this week when he tried the lie of blaming it on Joe.
Now
this would have made perfect sense had Trump taken office with anything
like a normal transition and Day One agenda. He could have eased into
another Trump era as the president-elect most swing voters seemed to
have wanted: one who would restore the smoothly operating economy and
immigration-enforcement procedures the Biden administration had screwed
up. That might have extended the public-opinion honeymoon every new
president enjoys, giving his appointees and the new Republican trifecta
in Congress plenty of runway to carefully plan their first exercises of
power, and ensuring that any turbulence could be attributed to the
lingering effects of the previous regime’s mis-government. It was really
a no-brainer.
But as we now know,
that’s not how Trump 2.0 began. The normally placid-if-busy transition
period was full of trumpet blasts from Mar-a-Lago indicating incessantly
that there was a new sheriff in town, with most Cabinet-level
appointees being chosen precisely for their hostility to the status quo
mission of the agencies they would run. The wildly disruptive DOGE
initiative, almost scientifically engineered to signal that the Biden
administration was long gone, began blowing things up the moment Trump
took office, taking speed and radicalism as its governing motifs. And
the 47th president himself, of course, insisted on an absolute blizzard
of executive actions the minute he was inaugurated, most proclaiming a
new era in which past inhibitions on presidential power would be
instantly and contemptuously put aside. Throughout the Trump
administration, official utterances took on a strange new tone of
ideological fervor and Orwellian inversions of every conventional
wisdom; one of my colleagues observed that “every memorandum or press
release sounds like it was composed by Stephen Miller.” Norm-breaking
became the norm everywhere you looked.
Rarely
if ever, and certainly not since FDR, has a new administration taken
office more determined to own the country, its policies, and its overall
direction. That was clearly a deliberate choice. It’s fair to speculate
as to why that choice was made. Perhaps they wanted the multiplier
effect of shock and awe to demoralize federal employees and the new
team’s perceived enemies. Plausibly they wanted to get as much done as
possible before judicial orders and midterm elections undermined their
power. There was also something almost pornographic in Team Trump’s
desire to thrill the MAGA base by nihilistically breaking as many
things, and hurting as many people, as possible, all at warp speed.
But
any way you look at it, the decision to make the first 100 days of
Trump 2.0 an extension of his megalomanic personality isn’t compatible
with blaming the previous long-gone administration of Joe Biden for
anything happening right now. It will become even more ludicrous as
mishaps clearly attributable to Trump’s radical change of direction
occur down the road. That’s particularly true in economic policy where
the “soft landing” of inflation-free growth was within reach and perhaps
in hand when the 47th president took office — a placid and benevolent
condition of things that Trump blew up as quickly and violently as he
could with a trade war nobody but him seemed to want.
Liar. That's all he is and the thing about a liar is that people stop believing you because you can't stop lying. Let's go to Ben and MEIDASTOUCH NETWORK for some logic and sanity.
This week, I filled in for Kat at her site with "Due Process matters (C.I. filling in for Kat)." In there, I noted Chump's lying in the interview ABC NEWS' Terry Moran did with him.
Here's the exchange where he just can't stop lying:
MORAN: I’m not saying he’s a good guy. It’s about the rule of law. The order from the Supreme Court stands, Sir.
TRUMP: He came into our country illegally.
MORAN. You could get him back. [pointing to Resolute Desk] There’s a phone on this desk.
TRUMP: I could.
MORAN:
You could pick it up, and with all the power of the presidency, you
could call up the president of El Salvador and say, “Send him back right
now.”
TRUMP: And if he were the gentleman you say he is, I would do that.
MORAN: But the court has ordered you to facilitate that– his release.
TRUMP: I’m not the one making this decision. We have lawyers–
MORAN: You’re the president!
TRUMP: –that don’t wanna do this.
MORAN: But the buck stops in this office.
TRUMP:
No, no, no, no, no. I follow the law. You want me to follow the law. If
I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I’d probably keep
him where he is.
MORAN: The Supreme Court says what the law is.
TRUMP:
Listen, I was elected to take care of a problem that was– it was a
unforced error that was made by a very incompetent man, a man that
turned out to be incompetent that you always said was wonderful. A great
genius, right? And now you find out, all of the media, they’re saying
what a mistake they made.
It’s
not often that an interview perfectly encapsulates a politician’s
relationship with reality, but Donald Trump’s recent sit-down with ABC
News’s Terry Moran gives us exactly that—a window into Trump’s
expectation that the press should simply bend to his version of events,
regardless of whether they’re true.
During
the interview, Trump repeatedly insisted that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the
man mistakenly deported to El Salvador despite a protective order, had
“MS-13” tattooed on his knuckles. When Moran correctly pointed out this
wasn’t true, Trump became increasingly agitated.
“On his knuckles -- he had MS-13,” Trump insisted.
“He had some tattoos that are interpreted that way,” Moran responded accurately.
Trump doubled down: “It says M-S-one-three.”
When
Moran explained that the letters “MS-13” were digitally added to the
images Trump was referencing, the former president lost his cool. In
perhaps the most revealing moment of the exchange, Trump literally
demanded that Moran abandon journalistic integrity and just lie: “Why
don’t you just say, ‘Yes, he does,’ and, you know, go on to something
else?”
That single line tells us everything we
need to know about how Trump views the press’s role: not to report facts
or challenge lies but to simply affirm whatever narrative he’s pushing.
Parker is exactly right, Chump does not want a press that reports facts or challenges lies which explains his latest attack on the press. David Folkenflik (NPR) explains:
President Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board of directors to "cease
federal funding for NPR and PBS," the nation's primary public
broadcasters. Trump contends that news coverage by NPR and PBS contains a
left-wing bias. The federal funding for NPR and PBS is appropriated by
Congress.
The executive order, like many that have been signed by the president, could be challenged in court.
"Which
viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter," the executive order
says. "What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate
or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens."
Donald Chump lied this week so many times but for me the big one was that egg prices have come down 87%
When Chump was sworn in back in January, the average price for a carton of eggs in the US was between $4.80 and $4.95.
Now I can do money. My math is something that I need to stop and think about and may still get it wrong. Unless it's money.
And I think most people can do money -- probably calculate much better than I do.
He lies on camera to a room full of people that egg prices had dropped. They haven't. The lie's even worse because he claimed the price had dropped 87% under him.
That's about $4.31 -- an 87% drop would be a reduction of four dollars and thirty-one cents -- if we round up and if we use the higher figure of $4.95 for a carton of eggs.
Do you see the problem with lie. I have a hard time believing no one attending his speech grasped the lie. Maybe not during it. Maybe not in the applause that followed. But maybe that night, as they brushed their teeth, maybe then they grasped that if the price of eggs had dropped 87% from $4.95 that would mean the cost for a carton of eggs, one dozen eggs, would have to be 64 cents.
Where in the United States are you finding stores that are selling a carton of eggs for 64 cents?
The average price of one dozen eggs hit a record high in March, costing a whopping $6.22 and hitting Americans’ wallets every time they go to the grocery store.
The cost of one dozen Grade A eggs has grown a staggering 84 percent since the beginning of 2024, according to the consumer price index. The current price surpassed the previous record set in January 2023, when the average price was $4.82.
Chump needs to kill NPR and PBS and any other real media because real media educates, fact checks and informs. Chump needs to be able to count on the stupidity bred into his MAGA followers -- excuse me, inbred into his MAGA followers -- and he needs that stupidity to spread like herpes, hence his attacks on the media.
Without the federal funding, some local stations could be
forced off the air, especially in rural areas that are Republican
strongholds. In many cases “these are the last locally owned
broadcasters in these communities,” Ed Ulman, the CEO of Alaska Public
Media, told CNN last month.
Earlier this week, the CPB filed a lawsuit against the Trump
administration after three of its five board members were terminated by
email. The three board members who received the emails — Laura G. Ross,
Thomas E. Rothman and Diane Kaplan — were appointed by then-President
Joe Biden in 2022 (Ross was originally appointed by Trump in 2018 and
then reappointed by Biden).
Congress specifically set up the corporation as a private
entity “to afford maximum protection from extraneous interference and
control,” according to a law passed in 1967. The legislation expressly
forbids the government from exercising “any direction, supervision, or
control over educational television or radio broadcasting.”
This time yesterday the US had a National Security Advisor in the administration. Not a competent one but they had one. Now Marco Rubio who is already under water trying to run the US State Dept is also now having to be the National Security Advisor. No that does not make sense.
It has been a whirlwind day here in Washington so let's try to catch you up on how it all went down:
This morning, we began hearing whispers that Mike Waltz was leaving his position as national security adviser
Our reporter asked for clarity but White House press officials declined to comment. President Trump also didn't mention it while he gave remarks at a prayer service in the Rose Garden
The president said he would by nominating Waltz as ambassador to the United Nations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio would take over Waltz's national security portfolio in the interim, he said
Waltz created the Signal group chat, to which a journalist was inadvertently added last month, where high-ranking officials planned military strikes in Yemen
After the announcement, Waltz said he was "honoured" to continue to serve Trump
To assume the UN ambassador role, Waltz will need to undergo a Senate confirmation hearing,
which Democratic opponents of the administration could use to raise
questions about Waltz's competence following the Signalgate scandal
That's one of the items that Lawrence was addressing in the video at the top of this snapshot. Mike Waltz is out. After the unsecure Signal chat that Waltz apparently unknowingly brought Jeffrey Goldberg of THE ATLANITC in on, Waltz is out of his job but he gets to fail upward and move over to another job -- if he can get confirmed by the US Senate.
After letting Goldberg in the chat. After taking part in a chat on Signal which isn't a secure app.
After being part of this huge security breach where details of an impending strike were discussed in a nonsecure group chat after Waltz had invited a reporter into it.
A day before President Trump removed him from his job as national security adviser, Michael Waltz checked his phone during a White House cabinet meeting — perhaps forgetting that there were cameras in the room.
A photographer for Reuters captured the moment on Wednesday, with Mr. Waltz seen from the side, seated with other suited officials around a table. When zoomed in, the photograph clearly shows what was on his phone screen: a list of his conversations on what appears to be a modified version of the messaging app Signal.
The contents of the screen, first reported by 404 Media on Thursday, indicate that Mr. Waltz had been in conversation with several top Trump administration officials: Vice President JD Vance; Tulsi Gabbard, the national intelligence director; Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to the Middle East; and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, who was announced as Mr. Waltz’s interim replacement on Thursday. Snippets of some messages are visible.
His nomination to be UN Ambassador -- the face saving move Chump was giving him -- should now be over. In a world where logic ruled, it would be.
The
messaging app Signal has made headlines after it emerged it had been
used to discuss war plans at the highest levels of the US government.
In
March, the White House confirmed it was used for a secret group chat
about air strikes against the Houthi group in Yemen, to which the
editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently
added.
In April, the New York Times and others reported
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared information about the same
military action in a second private Signal group, which his wife,
brother and personal lawyer were members of.
Signal's creator Matthew Rosenfeld - who is better known by the pseudonym Moxie Marlinspike - has joked
the "great reasons" to join the platform now include "the opportunity
for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add
you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations".
But
others are not seeing the funny side, with Democrat Senate leader Chuck
Schumer calling it "one of the most stunning" military intelligence
leaks in history and calling for an investigation.
But what actually is Signal - and how secure or otherwise were the senior politicians' communications on it?
[. . .]
Data
expert Caro Robson, who has worked with the US administration, said it
was "very, very unusual" for high ranking security officials to
communicate on a messaging platform like Signal.
"Usually
you would use a very secure government system that is operated and
owned by the government using very high levels of encryption," she said.
She said this would typically mean devices kept in "very secure government controlled locations".
The
US government has historically used a sensitive compartmented
information facility (Scif - pronounced "skiff") to discuss matters of
national security.
He has lost his job because of the March Singal chat. And he's still using it to communicate -- as are Tusli and JD apparently.
He is as ass backward as Chump. He is unable to learn from mistakes. That makes him an even bigger threat to our security than was earlier suspected.
And what does it say about the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that she's still using this and not a secure government app to communicate with other members of the government?
JD's a moron but he's got one more excuse: he was voted into office.
Tulsi wasn't. And she shouldn't have been confirmed. She makes that clear with her continued use of Signal.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office.
60 Minutes: U.S. sent 238 migrants to Salvadoran mega-prison; documents indicate most have no apparent criminal records
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s remarks on the Senate Floor***
Washington, D.C. – Today U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, took to the
Senate floor to deliver a speech on President Trump’s lawless
immigration policy. Senator Murray highlighted the absence of any
semblance of due process for—in many cases—legal residents with no
criminal record being detained and deported—and even sent to a prison in
El Salvador with no outside contact and no end date. She also discussed
how Trump’s crackdown has caused confusion for international students,
fear among farmworkers, and led to U.S. citizens being detained, having
their homes raided, and even to some U.S. citizens who are children
being deported with their parents.
Emphasizing the complete lack
of transparency from the Trump administration on why the people sent to
El Salvador are being detained and what is being done to bring them
home, Senator Murray demanded more information from the Trump
administration about its recent actions—from the full details of the
secret agreement with El Salvador, to the names of all the individuals
sent to El Salvador, their current status, what sort of evidence and
process has been afforded them, and what sort of contact they can make
with lawyers and family. She also pressed for a good faith effort to
follow Supreme Court orders, to return everyone wrongly sent to El
Salvador, and to establish lines of communication for individuals to
speak with their lawyers and families.
“I heard from one of my Republican colleagues say last week
‘I don’t see any pattern here.’ Well, I ask him now—I ask everyone
now—to pay attention to the full picture. Because of course you won’t
see the pattern if you just look at one case and you ignore the many,
many others,” said Senator Murray. “There is the case
of Andry Hernandez Romero, he’s a barber who came here legally, he has
no criminal record. There is the case of Arturo Suárez Trejo, he’s a
musician, he came here legally, he has no criminal record. There is the
case of Merwil Gutiérrez, who—you guessed it—came here legally, no
criminal record. In fact, he was apparently grabbed by mistake. One
officer reportedly said ‘No, he’s not the one,’ and another said, ‘Take
him anyway.’ Trump sent them all to a maximum-security prison in El
Salvador—with no trial. Disappeared. They have no contact with their
lawyer. No contact with family. We do not know if they are alive, and
they don’t know if anyone is even advocating for them. How hopeless that
must feel. How dark. So, is that enough of a pattern for my Republican
colleagues? Do you still need more?”
Senator Murray has championed comprehensive and humane immigration reform throughout her Senate career, repeatedly pushing for legislative solutions that
would offer a fair pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million
undocumented immigrants living in America, including Dreamers,
farmworkers, and those with Temporary Protected Status. During Trump’s
first administration, Senator Murray helped lead the charge in pushing
back against Trump’s appalling treatment of migrant children and
families at the southern border— cosponsoring the Fair Day in Court for Kids Act, which
would require unaccompanied children and vulnerable individuals to be
provided with legal assistance during immigration court proceedings,
the Stop Cruelty to Migrant Children Act to end family separations at the border, and legislation
to prevent the separation of families at sensitive locations such as
schools, religious institutions, and hospitals, among many other
efforts.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below, and video is HERE:
“Thank you, M. President.
“Over the past month we have seen a wave of righteous outrage across
the country in response to President Trump’s completely lawless move to
disappear hundreds of people to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador,
without even the barest semblance of due process.
“And as I join my colleagues in calling for the Trump Administration
to abide by the Supreme Court ruling, and facilitate the release of
Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a man they said, in court, was sent to El Salvador
by mistake—I have to emphasize, his case is one of many where Trump has
completely shredded our norms and laws. In addition to Garcia, Trump
sent off some two hundred people—including innocent people who were in
our country legally—to a foreign prison without any due process
whatsoever.
“And they did it all on the basis of some arrangement negotiated in
secret and paid for with millions of taxpayer dollars. What we do know,
is that many of these people were sent there without any criminal
conviction—the Administration actually admitted that! In their own court
filing the Trump Administration acknowledged that many of these people
have no criminal records in the U.S. And yet, all of these people have
now been imprisoned in a foreign country with no end date in
sight—unconstitutional doesn’t even begin to cover that.
“There are so many questions, basic questions, about this that we all
should be demanding answers to. At the barest, smallest, slimmest
minimum, and I mean as a starting point, the Administration must release
more details about this secret agreement where it is paying El Salvador
with our taxpayer dollars to imprison people without a trial. Details
like: who all is being imprisoned, how long is El Salvador holding these
people with Trump’s orders, how many people is El Salvador going to
imprison under this agreement, what outside contact is possible for
those people, and how do we learn their status and condition—are they
alive, are they healthy? What are those details?
“Most of these details we do have are from reporting—and news reports
say the deal was only for El Salvador to take convicted criminals—so
why did Trump send people with no criminal record? And importantly:
where in the world is this money coming from? Does anyone here remember
voting to pass a single dollar in appropriations to fund a torture
prison in El Salvador? Because I sure don’t! And last I checked Congress
has the power of the purse.
“You know what else we don’t know? We still don’t know the names of
everyone they did this to. Think about that. We don’t even have their
names! That information should be released immediately. Today. Because
there are families who still have no confirmation where their loved ones
are, and the only list we have right now was not even released by the
Administration! It was reported by the press.
“Some families only learned their son was gone, their husband was
gone, their father was gone, through photos of them being marched into a
torture prison. This is the first, last, and only update we have on
just about all of those people. We don’t know if they are alive. We
don’t know if they are being treated decently. We don’t even know if
they have been moved. Even their lawyers can’t reach them.
“Here’s what we do know: there are many names on the El Salvador list
of people who were here legally, who had no criminal record. That seems
to be getting lost in the debate for some of my Republican colleagues.
This is not about any one case, or any one person, it is about a lawless
system for the President to deny due process. And when you cut out due
process, you put innocent people in harm’s way.
“I heard from one of my Republican colleagues say last week ‘I don’t
see any pattern here.’ Well, I ask him now—I ask everyone now—to pay
attention to the full picture. Because of course you won’t see the
pattern if you just look at one case and you ignore the many, many
others.
“There is the case of Andry Hernandez Romero, he’s a barber who came here legally, he has no criminal record.
“There is the case of Arturo Suárez Trejo, he’s a musician, he came here legally, he has no criminal record.
“There is the case of Merwil Gutiérrez, who—you guessed it—came here
legally, no criminal record. In fact, he was apparently grabbed by
mistake. One officer reportedly said ‘No, he’s not the one,’ and another
said, ‘Take him anyway.’
“Trump sent them all to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador—with
no trial. Disappeared. They have no contact with their lawyer. No
contact with family. We do not know if they are alive, and they don’t
know if anyone is even advocating for them. How hopeless that must feel.
How dark.
“So, is that enough of a pattern for my Republican colleagues? Do you still need more?
“Because there’s also Jerce Reyes Barrios, he’s a soccer player, he came here legally. Again—no criminal record.
“There’s Gustavo Aguilera, a food delivery driver. Legally here. No criminal record.
“Or Anyelo Sarabia. Here legally. No criminal record.
“I mean, how many more before my colleagues can actually admit this
is a pattern? How many people have to be disappeared with no due process
before it becomes a problem? Because for me—one is too many. And the
pattern isn’t even over yet. Trump was reportedly ready to disappear
even more people to El Salvador—before the Supreme Court put its foot
down. In this latest round, the Trump Administration was preparing to
disappear a man who came here legally, had no record, except traffic
violations!
“Another was a young man accused of being a gang member because of a
photo with a toy water gun. That is the level of so-called ‘evidence’
that gets you locked away in a foreign torture prison under President
Trump. And I will keep saying it Mr. President, most of the people they
disappeared have no criminal records, and many were even here legally.
They came here for a better life, and Trump disappeared them based on
nothing more than tattoos that say ‘mom’ and ‘dad,’ or that they
celebrate soccer teams, or a daughter’s birth, or autism awareness.
“And Mr. President, I realize, I keep hammering home that—many of
these people are not criminals—and many of these people came here
legally. But I do want to remind my colleagues, this question is not
whether someone who was vanished to El Salvador without a trace is good
or bad, the question is whether everyone in this country—including
American citizens—have the rights they were promised in our
Constitution.
“At the end of the day, this is not about who these people are, it is
about who we are—whether we are a country of due process, or not. A
country of laws, or not.
“Trump has said where he stands. He literally said ‘We don’t have
time’ to give them due process. If the Trump Administration think’s
someone is a criminal, if they are really bad and dangerous, prove it in
court. Prove it! Just simply prove it! It shouldn’t be hard. That is
how this works. Everyone in this country understands that.
“You can’t just say ‘criminals don’t get due process’—when due
process is how you determine who is a criminal in the first place! I
mean, in the case of one person they sent to El Salvador, not only did
the government’s file against him show no criminal record, it also got
his name wrong several times, and used two different identification
numbers! Those are pretty major errors to make when you are locking
someone away. The kind of errors that due process helps to avoid.
“That’s not some theory—we are seeing that happen in another case
right now. There is a couple that Trump is saying are part of a gang,
but instead of just disappearing them with no trial to speak of, the
Administration was forced to prove it, to prove it in court. And you
know what happened? The government failed. The judge found the
government’s claims, ‘completely and wholly unsubstantiated’ and ordered
the couple to be released.
“That just goes to show, if we ignore our laws, if we tear down the
guardrails that saved that couple, it’s not criminals who pay the price,
it is innocent people. Because due process protects them too! Due
process allows us to confirm whether people are lawfully present. Due
process lets us confirm whether Trump is about to send them to a foreign
prison. Due process lets us confirm whether people are guilty—instead
of going off how they look, or what tattoo they have.
“And at the end of the day, due process means they get an actual
determination of guilt or innocence, instead of getting disappeared with
a question mark. But no one here was told they are facing ‘X’ years in a
foreign prison.
“There is no end date in El Salvador! Because there was no sentence!
Because there was no trial! There was just Trump, ignoring our laws,
ignoring our courts, and sending people to gulags to rot, to die, to
never be heard from again. How can anyone ignore that outrageous breach
of our laws—of our values!
“And M. President—as a co-equal branch of this government, I want to
impress upon my colleagues: It is not just due process that is getting
trampled here, it is basic checks and balances. Trump is imprisoning
these people under the Alien Enemies Act. He is using a war power. We
are not at war! Everyone here should know that. After all, Congress, we,
have to vote to declare war. I remember every war vote we have taken in
my time here in Congress—and I can tell you—there has never been a vote
on this so-called war Trump declared all on his own.
“As if that weren’t enough, earlier this month the National
Intelligence Council, the National Intelligence Council, determined that
Venezuela is not directing an ‘invasion’ by gangs. That directly
undercuts what Trump claimed when he announced his illegal end run
around Congress. Here’s a simple question for everyone, there is no
invasion, there is no war, so why is Trump invoking a wartime authority?
“But add on top of that—that Trump has reached some secret,
multi-million-dollar deal to pay El Salvador to imprison these people
without a trial. I’m Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee—I can
tell you, we did not include a single cent—not one penny!—for running
torture prisons in El Salvador in our last funding bill.
“Congress
has the power of the purse, but Trump is picking our pockets to fund
his own personal gulag. And by the way, while we talk about checks and
balances, let’s not forget how the Trump Administration is arresting
judges, his allies and advisors are attacking judges publicly and
calling to impeach those who disagree with him, and of course, Trump is
blatantly ignoring the courts. And worse than that, the White House is
in open defiance of the Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court wrote the Administration must facilitate Mr.
Garcia’s release. The White House wrote that he is never coming back.
“The Supreme Court wrote people being targeted under the Alien
Enemies Act must have a reasonable opportunity to file for habeas
corpus. The Trump Administration said, ‘no—we will give them 12 hours.’
“Foreign policy is not an end run around the courts or the
constitution. The President cannot just be given unilateral authority to
cut completely unethical deals with foreign nations. What happens when a
President negotiates in secret to have his political rivals detained
abroad? Is that allowed? Can he argue the courts can’t require him to
call such a deal off? Or maybe he just denies it and says any agreements
are state secrets? Does that work?
“If President Trump said he would pay El Salvador $6 million to
assassinate his rivals—I think we would all agree that is blatantly
unconstitutional. And if the court said he had to facilitate a reversal
of that deal, and he said ‘well.. it’s a sovereign nation… I can’t stop
them from assassinating anyone,’—I think we all would have a huge
problem with that. So, do we want to say that is wrong now—or are we
going to have to wait until he tries it?
“What are we waiting for? We cannot just all stand by silent as
the President pries open a pandora’s box that is all together
unprecedented—and that poses a direct threat to our Republic. And let’s
cut through this BS where Trump and El Salvador are both trying to
pretend there is no way to facilitate the return of people sent there
wrongly.
“Cause here’s the thing: El Salvador has already sent back people
that Trump tried to disappear. El Salvador immediately sent back a
Nicaraguan individual. And they sent back women—yeah, Trump tried to
disappear women to their all-male torture prison in El Salvador. If
anyone wants to try and pretend this was some careful vetting process,
pleaseexplain that to me. So it’s not like El Salvador can’t send people
back—they have already done that.
“The Administration should be making clear—one: that these people
were wrongly sent, and two: that, as with others wrongly sent, they need
to be returned. Though, I want to keep in mind of course, that ‘wrongly
sent’ is still an enormous understatement. The reality is these people
were completely denied due process. The reality is President Trump is
not just disappearing these people to El Salvador, he is disappearing
our most basic constitutional rights, and he is doing it in plain sight.
“Not just in El Salvador either! Right here, in America, his
immigration crackdown is upturning lives, and overturning some of our
most basic values, like freedom of speech. We have people who are here
legally—who are being detained and threatened with deportation. Not for
any crime, not for any violence, but for speech, for protest, for things
as simple and fundamental as writing an op-ed the Administration
disagreed with.
“In America, the land of the free and the land of free speech, is
dissent the bar for deportation now? Is that what this country has come
to? What next? How far does Trump’s new standard apply? Can you get
deported for saying we shouldn’t invade Canada? Can you get detained for
an op-ed saying Greenland is not going to be a state? Are you going to
have legal status revoked for admitting Biden won the 2020 election?
“Because that may seem outrageous—but it also seems perfectly in line
with Trump’s new policy which amounts to—disagree with the President
and your rights are gone. That is fundamentally un-American.
“And beyond people who are being targeted for protest, there are
thousands of students in this country, that Trump is trying to push out
over minor issues; fishing citations, jay walking, speeding tickets,
even charges that were dismissed. So far, some 1,800 foreign students
are having their visa revoked with little to no explanation, to say
nothing of due process.
“That includes students in Washington state, my homes state, at the
UW, at Gonzaga, at Shoreline Community College—where I once worked—my
alma mater WSU, and more! It’s not clear whether these students have
done anything wrong, and it’s not clear in some cases—what exactly they
are supposed to do next. Because when the Administration can’t revoke
visas—it has been trying to remove students’ records—something courts
have already ruled against.
“One of the judges really put it best. And I want to read this and
quote it to you. This is a judge. ‘I’ve got two experienced immigration
lawyers on behalf of a client who is months away from graduation, who
has done nothing wrong, who has been terminated from a system that you
all keep telling me has no effect on his immigration status, although
that clearly is BS. And now, his two very experienced lawyers can’t even
tell him whether or not he’s here legally, because the court can’t tell
him whether or not he’s here legally, because the government’s counsel
can’t tell him if he’s here legally.’
“M. President, the point seems to be, if we can’t deport you, we can
scare and confuse you. And to add even more confusion, DOJ announced
they were reversing course on some of this, only to then say they are
still working on a plan to push out all these students. And by the way,
we are only still scratching the surface of just how inhumane Trump’s
immigration crackdown has become.
“Trump is slashing funds to ensure 26,000 migrant kids have legal
assistance—meaning more four-year-olds are being marched in front of
immigration judges, expected to make their own legal case with a plushy
toy. Trump is also trying to mass cancel protected status for people who
came here who were fleeing harsh conditions and dictators. Trump is
sending Christian refugees and women back to live under the
Taliban—where they will face near certain persecution. Trump is sending
ICE officials to elementary schools, where they have tried to gain
access by lying about having permission from parents to speak with their
kids.
“ICE officials are arresting people with maximum violence and
lawlessness—showing up without a judicial warrant, since the Trump
Administration says it is fine to storm into someone’s house without
one, showing up in masks, grabbing people off the streets without any
badge or identification to distinguish them from a kidnapper, whisking
people away in unmarked cars, and even smashing in windshields.
“M. President, back in my home state of Washington—I have heard from
folks who saw that firsthand. Last month, ICE aggressively detained
Lelo, a farmworker in my state—and it appears he may have even been
targeted because of his advocacy for better working conditions for his
fellow farmworkers. They are still denying him bond—despite no criminal
charges. I spoke with his wife last week—who watched in horror as they
arrested her husband shortly after he dropped her off at work. She told
me through tears about how officers broke his window and pushed him
against the car. And how, Lelo wants to be free so he can take care of
his brothers and sisters and work so they can study. He wants to
continue doing his work in the community and with the union. And they
are working right now to try and get bond—something I strongly support.
This is not someone M. President, with a dangerous record—it is someone
with a record of hard work, and of trying to make his community better.
“Skagit County is known for its agricultural industry—and that
industry doesn’t survive without the immigrant farmworkers who help
power that local economy. Period.
“More than that, we are talking about many families who have been
here for decades. They are part of our community—they’re not just the
people who feed this country. These people work hard, they follow the
law. They should not be terrorized as if they were violent criminals.
Last week, I met with farmworkers there who told me there have been days
they have been afraid to go to work, because an unmarked vehicle was
seen in their neighborhood. They are absolutely terrified of being
grabbed off the street by ICE and locked up with no semblance of due
process, regardless of their legal status.
“And this situation is not unique to Skagit County or even to my
state. It’s happening across the country. Let’s not forget, Trump is
trying to deport a cancer researcher to Russia where she fears
retaliation for protesting the war in Ukraine. Sending her away would
both put her in danger and completely upend groundbreaking cancer
research—her colleagues say her role is irreplaceable.
“But it’s not just cancer research, Trump also deported a little
girl, a U.S. citizen, who was on her way to get cancer treatment! She
was with her mother, an undocumented immigrant—who was forced to choose
between being separated from her 10-year-old daughter or being sent away
together. What an unthinkable choice to force on a mother. What an
unthinkable thing to do to a child, a citizen, a citizen who is fighting
cancer.
“And Trump has done that twice. That’s right twice, he has deported a
mother—along with a kid who is fighting cancer—a kid who is an American
citizen. And he is doing that without giving these parents any
meaningful time to talk to a lawyer, or a spouse, to figure out what is
best for their child. We know that because Trump deported another U.S.
citizen last week—that’s right another one. Trump deported a
two-year-old, an American citizen. They refused to tell this kids’
father where his wife and kid were being held. They refused to let him
talk to his wife for more than a minute. They even forced him to hang up
the phone when he tried to give his wife their lawyer’s number. And
then, as the judge put it, they seem to have ‘deported a U.S. citizen
with no meaningful process.’
“And now we are hearing about a family in Oklahoma—U.S. citizens who
recently moved in who had their home raided by ICE. A mom and her
daughters—forced out of their house, in the rain, in underwear. ICE
agents seized phones, laptops, even their full life savings—and didn’t
leave so much as a number they could call to get their stuff back. That
happened to U.S. citizens, who did nothing but move into a new house.
“These horror stories underscore something important—Trump’s
cruel war on immigrants is hurting American citizens too. U.S. citizens
are having their spouses ripped away, even servicemembers are seeing
their families targeted. They are having their parents ripped away. They
are having their lives turned upside down.
“And—let’s not forget—U.S. citizens are even being detained by this
administration. We have several instances now—where American citizens
have been caught up in Trump’s immigration crackdown. American citizens
have been detained and wrongly locked up—even after someone showed them
their birth certificates. Even for days! And let’s keep in mind—if you
are a citizen who is mistakenly detained, and you are being denied due
process, and you can’t reach someone to show your birth certificate, how
are you supposed to get released? What if you are put on the next plane
to El Salvador before you get the chance to set the record straight?
And let’s not pretend that’s far-fetched.
“Not when citizens havealready been mistakenly detained. Not when the
government hasalready admitted it sent some people to El Salvador by
mistake. Now when Trump has already disappeared some people who were
here legally, and many people who had no criminal record—with no due
process. And not when Trump hasalreadysaid he wants to send U.S.
citizens to El Salvador prisons. He was caught on mic telling the
President of El Salvador he needs to build more jails, telling him the
‘homegrowns’ are next. What happens when you get sent there, and you
can’t contact a lawyer? These are serious questions—what happens?
Because if there is nothing we can do for the people there now, what
precedent does that set for the people that are sent there next?
“M. President—I’ve been speaking for a while now and I’ve posed a lot
of questions, and I hope my colleagues think about this carefully. So, I
am going to wrap it up, but I will end now with just one more.
“Where will Republicans draw the line? Because we are well past the
bounds of law—and we are well past the bounds of basic humanity. So, I
hope more of my colleagues will join me in saying enough is enough. And
in demanding transparency, accountability, and justice from the Trump
Administration. That starts with some very basic things.
“First—accurate, up-to-date information on the names of people who
are being detained in, and deported from, ICE facilities across the
country—including by the way, the Northwest ICE Detention Center in
Tacoma, so that their loved ones and community members can at least know
where they are!
“And we need a clear list of every person who was disappeared to El
Salvador, along with what evidence—if any—the government has. As well as
the full terms of whatever agreement the Trump administration has
negotiated with El Salvador’s dictator.
“But it doesn’t stop there. We need to see clear, good faith efforts
to abide by court orders, and to bring back everyone wrongfully,
unjustly sent to a foreign prison. We need to have lines of
communication so these people can talk to their lawyers, or talk to
their loved ones, and let us know if they are okay.
“And we need due process—with evidence, with judges, and a meaningful
opportunity for people to present a defense. Let’s be clear we are not
saying everyone is innocent. We are saying no more than what the
constitution says, no more than what the courts have said time and
again: Everyone, in the United States of America, gets due process.
