FIFA
President Gianni Infantino skipped his own congress to meet with Donald
Trump in Qatar and Saudi Arabia - sparking a walkout by European
officials. Now some are even suggesting the unthinkable - a boycott of
the 2026 World Cup.
Critics say the relationship between Trump and Infantino highlights corruption and deep ties to authoritarian regimes, with UEFA accusing Infantino of abusing power for political gain.
Qatar hosted the last World Cup and even more controversially, Saudi Arabia won the bid to host the 2034 World Cup unopposed.
Minky
Worden, the director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch said
that Infantino's trip was indicative of the lack of "meaningful
accountability" at the highest level of soccer and called on him "to
detail precisely what it achieved for football and human rights".
The
controversy comes on top of fears that Trump's hardline immigration
policies will deter fans from traveling to the US after recent detention
horror stories from tourists.
That's Chump, destroying everything. Even the World Cup.
His hatred rots everything and his hatred is his motivation for deportations. They're cruel and they rip apart people's lives. They're often illegal and result in many mistakes. For example, Catherine Bouris (DAILY BEAST) reports:
In the latest in an ever-growing line of errors that have plagued the Trump administration’s immigration
crackdown, ICE officers have now admitted a software error may have
resulted in a man being deported to Mexico, despite fear of persecution.
The revelation emerged as the result of a class-action lawsuit filed by a Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico in March despite fears he would face persecution there on the basis of his sexuality.
Initially, the administration argued that the man himself had told them he wasn’t afraid to be sent to Mexico, but in a Friday court filing, they conceded that this argument was based on inaccurate information.
Retracting
their previous assertions, ICE officials have now said they have no
record of the man telling anyone that he was unafraid of being sent to
Mexico. They attributed the error to software known as the “ENFORCE
alien removal module,” which tracks deportations and allows ICE
employees to add comments.
The deportations shouldn't be taking place at all but they definitely do need court supervision -- as does Chump. Martha McHardy (NEWSWEEK) notes:
O.C.G.'s
case is part of a broader legal challenge to the administration's use
of so-called "third-country" deportations, a policy that allows
immigrants to be sent to countries other than their own if their native
governments refuse to accept them or if they fear persecution at home.
Murphy has blocked such deportations without prior notice, ruling that
individuals must be given a meaningful opportunity to contest their
transfer and raise claims of torture or persecution.
O.C.G.,
who fled Guatemala in April 2024, said he faced persecution at home and
endured rape and captivity in Mexico for being gay. In February, an
immigration judge granted him protection from deportation to Guatemala.
But ICE deported him to Mexico soon after — without notice and allegedly
in violation of due process.
Judge
Murphy cited O.C.G.'s case in his ruling halting third-country
deportations without notice. Although he expressed skepticism about the
government's claim regarding O.C.G.'s supposed statement to ICE, the
disputed nature of the evidence led him to hold off on ordering the
man's return. It is unclear if the administration's new admission will
alter that stance.
What he's doing is awful and inhumane. What he wants to do is even worse: Racially profiling newborn infants. At USA TODAY, Louie Villalobos explains how Chump would follow up if allowed to strip citizenship from some of those born in this country:
How
do you think Trump and his Republican enablers expect to enforce the
removal of birthright citizenship from the U.S. Constitution? I'm not
talking about the legal procedure. I'm not naive enough to see how this
administration works and expect Republicans to care about procedure or
even, honestly, the Constitution.
I'm talking about actually making sure that babies born in America to undocumented immigrants aren't given citizenship.
You know what? I'll just let Justice Brett Kavanaugh ask the questions.
This is a short transcript of Kavanaugh asking U.S. Solicitor General
D. John Sauer how the Trump administration expects to know which babies
are citizens if the executive order were to go into effect.
Kavanaugh: "What do hospitals do with a newborn? What do states do with a newborn?"
Sauer: "I don't think they do anything different. What the executive order says
in section 2 is that federal officials do not accept documents that
have the wrong designation of citizenship from people who are subject to
the executive order."
Kavanaugh: "How are they going to know that?"
Sauer: "The states can continue to ... The federal officials will have to figure that out."
Kavanaugh: "How?"
Sauer: "So, uh, you could imagine a number of ways that the federal officials could..."
Kavanaugh: "Such as?"
Sauer:
"Such as, they could require a showing of, you know, documentation
showing legal presence in the country. For a temporary visitor, for
example, they could see whether they're on a B-1 visa, which would
exclude the kind of birthright citizenship in that context."
Kavanaugh: "For all the newborns? Is that how it's going to work?"
Sauer: "Again, we don't know because the agencies were never given the opportunity to formulate the guidance."
In case you don't see it or hear it, the "how" is very loud in that exchange. Since the Trump administration couldn't answer that question, Justice Kavanaugh, I will. Real quick, though: they won't do it for all the newborns.
No, not for all. What they'll do is racially profile newborn.
At the National Institutes of Health, six directors — from institutes focused on infectious disease, child health, nursing research and the human genome — are leaving or being forced out.
At the Federal Aviation Administration, nearly a dozen top leaders, including the chief air traffic officer, are retiring early.
And at the Treasury Department, more than 200 experienced managers and highly skilled technical experts who help run the government’s financial systems chose to accept the Trump administration’s resignation offer earlier this year, according to a staffer and documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Across the federal government, a push for early retirement and voluntary separation is fueling a voluntary exodus of experienced, knowledgeable staffers unlike anything in living memory, according to interviews with 18 employees across 10 agencies and records reviewed by The Post. Other leaders with decades of service are being dismissed as the administration eliminates full offices or divisions at a time.
The first resignation offer, sent in January, saw 75,000 workers across government agree to quit and keep drawing pay through September, the administration has said. But a second round, rolling out agency by agency through the spring, is seeing a sustained, swelling uptick that will dwarf the first, potentially climbing into the hundreds of thousands, the employees and the records show.
At this rate, before it's all over, Pam Bondi will be covering the AG post and the DMV. Federal employees are needed. They've been needed throughout our history. And as services fail and citizens can't get the issues resolved and addressed, we're all going to see just how much Chump has destroyed.
Oliver O'Connell (INDEPENDENT) notes, "The latest polling from Strength in Numbers/Verasight
may make for some tough reading for President Trump, showing him
underwater with American voters on every single issue, with the
exception of border security. According to the poll,
40 percent of people either strongly or somewhat approve of Trump's
overall handling of the presidency, while 56 percent disapprove, split
by the same modifiers, putting him 16 points underwater."
It's a sad time for Chump as even he finally realizes that the bulk of the country actively hates him and is counting the days until he's gone while praying that the country survives to January 2029.
He's getting angry and more hateful. He's very unhappy.
You can see it in his nonsense on social media.
If Chump thought his Friday attack on Bruce Springsteen was going to silence Bruce, Chump -- as he has been all his life -- was wrong. Ashley Iasimone (BILLBOARD) notes Bruce returned to the topic of Chump yet again:
In my home, they're persecuting people for their right to free speech
and voicing their dissent. That's happening now. In America, the
richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world's poorest
children to sickness and death. That's happening now. In my country,
they're taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal
American workers. They are removing residents off American
streets without due process of law and deploying them to foreign
detention centers as prisoners. That's happening now. The majority of
our elected representatives have utterly failed to protect the American
people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.
They have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American.
Bruce is right. Friday, Chump attacked him and attacked Taylor Swift. On the latter, I have no idea why. No one does. Taylor -- like most Americans with a heart and a mind -- doesn't like him and has made that clear in the past but as far as we all know, she hadn't made any public comment this week. But there was Chump attacking her yet again.
The American Federation of Musicians issued the following:
American Federation of Musicians International President
Tino Gagliardi issued the following statement in response to Donald
Trump’s attacks on members Bruce Springsteen, member of Local 47 (Los
Angeles, CA) and Local 399 (Asbury Park, NJ), and Taylor Swift, member
of Local 257 (Nashville, TN):
“The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada will not remain silent as two of our members 00 Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift -- are
singled out and personally attacked by the President of the United
States. Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift are not just brilliant
musicians, they are role models and inspirations to millions of people
in the United States and across the world. Whether it’s Born in the USA
or the Eras Tour, their music is timeless, impactful, and has deep
cultural meaning. Musicians have the right to freedom of expression, and
we stand in solidarity with all our members.”
People wonder about Chump's late night crazy online.
They shouldn't. He's up. And he's gotten up or stayed up that late at night for one reason. He's trying to masturbate so he's gone online and nothing he can find helps him -- a 78 year-old man -- get an erection. He just doesn't get hard ons anymore.
It's just life.
By the age of 70, over 70% of men can no longer get erections.
So there's Chump, all alone at two in the morning, angry and chafed because he's pulled and pulled and rubbed and rubbed but that soft penis just won't stiffen. So he goes to Truth Social and rages.
He's impotent.
And don't bring up Viagra. Drugs like that require blood circulation in order to work and Chump -- due to his morbid obesity -- does not hav enough blood flowing to his penis and that's before we address the heart medications noted on his recent health exam.
He's an angry old man who can't pull out an orgasm anymore because he can't get hard.
And that's very frustrating for him.
And he worries what his base will think of him when they grasp how he's aged out of sex. That can be very scary for elderly celebrities.
Chump can't satisfy a woman. He can't even satisfy his right hand.
Great Grandpa is now a sexual neuter.
He hopes that doesn't change the way he's seen but of course it will.
That is what's behind the rage and why he's so miserable.
Oh, look, Scott wanted to sport his stupidity! There was no reason to bring up Demi Moore to begin with. But he chose to.
And then he chose to mispronounce her name. It is not DEMMY Moore. Her first name does not rhyme with Emmy. Stop being a damn idiot.
Demi's been famous since the 80s. In the 80s, Bruce Willis was on THE TONIGHT SHOW and when Johnny Carson mispronounced her name, Bruce corrected him -- good for Bruce.
The mispronouncing is so well known it was a joke in MODERN FAMILY.
Phil above, "And unless she was lying to the good ladies of THE VIEW, it's Demi, not Demmy!"
And THE VIEW gets Demi's name right every time . . . except when dumb ass Elizabeth Hasselbeck was part of THE VIEW. There's an interview, I'm not searching for it, where she gets Demi's name wrong over and over throughout the segment -- it's a segment with Demi, Alicia Keys and Jennifer Aniston as guests promoting their film FIVE.
So Scott's now Elizabbeth Hasselbeck. I first met Demi when she was doing GENERAL HOSPITAL. It took me one second to grasp how to pronounce her name. If, at this late date, you don't know how to pronounce her name, don't talk about her, don't bring her up. You're disrespectful and you're sporting your stupidity.
The video has many important things in it but I'm not posting it without calling out a host who chooses to bring up an actress who is film star and has been for decades, who was the first actress to ever be paid over $12 million dollars for a film role., someone who has produced some amazing movies including the AUSTIN POWERS franchise, MORTAL THOUGHTS (an underrated classic), IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK, GI JANE and NOW AND FOREVER, and the host can't get her name right.
Her other film credits include: GHOST, THE SEVENTH SIGN, PASSION OF THE MIND, A FEW GOOD MEN, DISCLOSURE, CHARLIE'S ANGELS FULL THROTTLE, INDECENT PROPOSAL, MARGIN CALL, WILD OATS, THE BUTCHER'S WIFE, THE JUROR, FLAWLESS, BOBBY, DECONSTRUCTING HARRY, WISDOM, ABOUT LAST NIGHT, ST. ELMO'S FIRE and her Academy Award nominated role THE SUBSTANCE.
She has acted alongside Shirley MacLaine, Jessica Lange, Robert Redford, Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Swayze, CCH Pounder, Elizabeth Perkins, Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy, Alec Baldwin, Michael Caine, Woody Allen, Emilio Estevez, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard, Glenne Headly, Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Michael Biehn, Ving Rhames, Parker Posey, William Hurt, Lisa Andoh, Robert Duvall, Gary Oldman, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Tom Cruise, Morris Chestnut, Anne Bancroft, Viggo Mortensen, Melanie Griffith, Rosie O'Donnell, Anne Heche, Sinead Cusac, Kevin Kline, Rip Torn, Ellen Barkin, Stanley Tucci, Jeremy Irons, Kiefer Sutherland, Zoe Kravitz, Scarlett Johansson, Diane Lane, Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Hamm, John Candy, Jon Cryer, John Cusack, Tim Robbins, Mary Steenburgen, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel, Kevin Costner, James Gandolfini, Rita Wilson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lindsay Crouse, Lambert Wilson, Keke Palmer, Nicholas Cage, Tony Goldwyn, Tom Hollander. . .
Exactly what does she have to do at this point to get educated people to pronounce her name correctly?
Friday, May 16, 2025. Chump disgraces the country in his Middle East Whore, Walmart's announcement will effect more than just Walmart, Pete Hegseth may need to visit the Clinique counter for a new make over, and much more.
President Donald Trump's tariffs may affect your daily grocery trips.
Walmart says
it must raise prices due to tariff costs after posting solid first
quarter sales, the Associated Press reported. In the quarter one
earnings call Thursday, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said that even at reduced levels, higher tariffs will result in higher prices.
I half-watched a report on this last night. I wasn't impressed with the report which basically just stated what the above does and then moved on.
Maybe they assumed everyone gets how important the above is? I don't think everyone does.
Walmart isn't just a minor store that a few states have. It is global. But let's just focus on the US aspect because it's all over the United States with an estimated 95% of Americans shopping there at least twice a year. Let's note DEMANDSTAGE's stats:
Walmart Statistics 2025: Top Highlights
Walmart attracts 255 million customer visits each week.
Walmart has 10,660 stores globally.
The U.S. has 4,606 Walmart stores and 600 Sam’s Club locations.
Walmart operates 5,454 stores internationally.
Walmart’s revenue reached $500.4 billion in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2025.
Walmart employs around 2.1 million people worldwide.
How Many Customers Does Walmart Have?
Walmart sees 255 million customer visits each week across its global network.
This is a notable increase from 2023, when 240 million customers
visited weekly, reflecting a rise of 15 million visits between January
2023 and January 2024.
The following table displays the number of weekly customer visits to Walmart stores worldwide over the years.
Here are some additional statistics about Walmart Customers:
Nearly 19 out of 20 Americans visit Walmart at least twice a year.
The average Walmart shopper makes 67 trips annually, including visits to Sam’s Club.
On average, Walmart shoppers spend $54 on 13 items per trip.
The typical Walmart customer is a white baby boomer with an annual income of less than $80,000.
Walmart earns over $1.56 billion daily by serving millions of customers.
Every second customer worldwide spends an average of $15,288 at Walmart.
Does that impress upon you how many people this is going to impact?
We're not done.
People shop at Walmart because its cheap.
Walmart increasing prices does not mean people are going to go elsewhere for cheaper groceries.
That's not how it works.
When Walmart increases their prices, every one else will be following.
That's how it works.
There are a lot of liars in advertising -- and doing paid content as well. You'll see, for example, the lie that Aldi is cheaper than the other grocery stores. No, it actually isn't. I'm sure there are some Mom and Pop grocery stores that haven't closed yet that may have cheaper specials each week, but Walmart is cheaper than all the other chains. Go to InstaCart and use Walmart+ at the same time and look up the items and grasp that Aldi is not cheaper.
Walmart is the national store that's the cheapest and if it goes up everyone will have to follow.
Groceries are something people cannot do without. In addition, Walmart carries many other products. Some, like food, most people are going to need at some point -- that might be motor oil, that might be socks, underwear, what have you.
So Walmart all by itself increasing prices means a lot of Americans are going to be out of a lot more money even if they shop solely at Walmart. It also means that Kroger will go up, Albertsons will go up, they all will go up.
Mainly it means that Donald Chump screwed up our economy.
He railed against Joe Biden on the campaign trail. He trashed the economy.
And dumb people went along with him.
Those who actually knew about the economy were well aware that Chump and the pandemic wrecked it from 2017 through 2021. Joe came in at the start of 2021 and had the task of addressing the economy which he did. That's why we had a strong economy post-pandemic, one that was the envy of all the world.
Our economy was recovering, it had rebounded. If Joe had gotten a second term or if Kamala had been elected last November, we would have seen continued improvement.
Instead, a con artist lied repeatedly and was allowed to get away with it. Isn't that what the debates were about? Miss Sassy JD Vance basically hissed at the moderators of his debate, "I was told there would be no fact checking."
That was the first clue that the team had problems.
Our economy is in the toilet now.
That's not Joe Biden's fault.
Donald Chump is Tariff Queen. He has wrecked our economy.
Walmart's press release is nothing but a roll out, advance notice, from what's going to happen across the country at one retail outlet after another.
This is not a one-off story. This is not something minor. This is very serious and it's going to impact a lot of people -- the majority of Americans.
We're going to take a pause to deal with e-mails for a second.
'You didn't note so and so and they're my favorite and wah wah wah.'
One of those e-mailers is referring to a segment done by a YOUTUBER who we regularly note. That e-mailer is upset because the YOUTUBER had a member of Congress on and they did not get noted.
I wouldn't piss on that woman if she was on fire.
I'm the one stuck writing the bulk of what goes up here.
I can draw the line and I do.
A member of Congress should never applaud physical violence. Never.
The witch (I'm being kind) did. She applauded a public attack.
I question her sanity and values.
But what gets her banned forever?
That was an attack against my friend: Chris Rock.
If Karen Hunter's off on one of her I-Hate-Chris-Rock tears, we don't highlight that Karen video. That's my right. But I never heard Karen applaud the attack.
This member of Congress did the night of the attack. Now, yes, baldie realized she was wrong. She didn't apologize. She just deleted the Tweet.
Her name may pop up here in a press release we note where she's one of 20 other Democrats calling for something but I don't type her name and I don't highlight her.
I think that would be true of any member of Congress who applauded physical violence. But it is certainly true of her who not only applauded it but also applauded it against a friend of mine.
She didn't have the character to apologize for it but she knew it was wrong and that's why she deleted her Tweet.
I don't care that you're bald, I don't care if it was by choice because you shaved it, I don't care if it was by disease, I don't care if it was -- as is usually the case -- you being too cheap to get a good weave and all those pennies you saved did was destroy your hairline. I don't care what the reason is. You're bald and nothing's changing it. Someone makes a joke? That doesn't give anyone the right for a physical attack.
Simon Rosenberg. Slimey Simon was one of the first we called out when this site started. I think it went Victoria Nuland, Dexter Filkins and then Simon. And we called him out for a reason and I stand by everything I said. But that was 20 years ago and people can change. I am viewing videos that people forward. He does seem wiser now and I don't think he would now attack reproductive choice or the LGBTQIA+ community. He hasn't in many years. People can change, people can grow. We will probably be working him in at some point.
At present, I'm still a little leery. But give it two or so more weeks and we'll probably be noting him again.
A number of e-mails are about how I didn't call out this or I didn't call out that.
Yesterday, I noted a small list of people I thought were qualified for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2028. That wasn't a full list. I also noted I'd vote in the general election for whomever got the nomination. If the election were this year, those might be the nominees, however, the election is many years off and other names will emerge. On this topic, the best e-mail was asking about people who aren't in Congress or are not governors.
That's my go-to pool always. They have the experience.
No offense to Oprah, but I wouldn't say she should run. Michael Moore's made a fool of himself since 2004 insisting she should. I'm not big on celebrity as a skill or educator for politics.
But of non-elected politicians, there is one person I would gladly support.
2024 was an important year for one person politically in my opinion: Michelle Obama.
Michelle found her voice.
She gave more rousing speeches than her husband -- someone many consider to be the best speaker of this century.
Michelle Obama spoke to and for our country.
People have suggested her before and I've always rolled my eyes.
She was basically put on restrictions in 2008 because she made a remark that upset people (for the first time in my life --). After that the handlers were all over her about how to dress and how to speak. And that was a mistake. If someone was actually offended by the remark, not upset in the moment or not pretend upset, letting Michelle speak in her true voice would have been great because people would have seen, "Oh, that's just how she speaks. There's no ill will there."
Instead, they hijacked her and it limited her.
Like all of us, she's also grown.
Michelle is something to be reckoned with.
2024 was her year and she demonstrated that.
She is a known person -- known completely, there's no baggage that'll emerge. We know her, the whole country. She's an attorney who understands the law. She's worked on many boards and charities. She knows the campaign trail. If she wanted to run, I don't think anyone else would get my support in the primaries. In the general, I'd vote for whomever got the nomination but if Michelle ran? I'd speak anywhere at anytime to get the word out on her campaign and how great she could be for our country.
I do find it telling -- sexism is all over the left -- that we keep analyzing 2024 (without ever getting honest about how 'uncommitted' was a DSA movement that lost interest in Gaza after they helped defeat Kamala) and no one else outside of this community makes the observation about how Michelle became a heavy hitter and someone who could really deliver in 2024. She really is the success story of last year.
Instead of noting that, we just get sexism.
Joe Biden.
There's a book about him. I've not read it. I'm supposedly covering up for him by not mentioning it, I'm supposedly someone who knew about his decline, I'm also somehow in league with Jake Tapper and this and that and it's this circular beast of rumors in the e-mails to the public account.
Jake Tapper. Jake's fair. He can be wrong. But he's fair.
He also is someone that if you tell him, "This was wrong," he's going to look at it. He may agree with you after he considers it, he may not. But he does take in criticism and weigh it.
I like Jake Tapper. He's not God. I'm not a groupie. But I like him and I like his work because he does try to be fair. Don't give me all your Gaza-works-the-refs nonsense, I'm not in the mood. You don't know him and you really don't know his work.
I don't think I'd like the book. I'm not interested in it. It's all been covered before. I'm sure he and his co-author go deeper and good for them but it's not something I'm focused on. Joe's not running again. We're dealing with Donald Chump now who's destroying our country. If I did read it and did a review with Ava or by myself, it probably wouldn't be a good review. I don't give A+. If you get a C for your book from me, you've gotten a good grade. If I'm going to take the time to write about a book, that means addressing its errors -- and far too many books are not being fact checked these days -- that means wrestling with the text, the conclusions, all of it.
We may at some point read it, Ava and I, and do a piece on it at THIRD or I might do it here.
But right now? It has no practical use for me. Joe is out of office. Joe is not running again. We are under threat right now from Chump.
I'm not highlighting any articles or YOUTUBE videos on the book. Our house is on fire, that's my focus.
I did not know Joe was in that kind of decline. I even was okay with the debate. Go back to the archives here, I defended him. I defended him with Ava at THIRD. A week later, Joe did his ABC interview with George. This is covered at other sites. We watched that at my house, Mike, Elaine, Betty and others were present.
As soon as the interview ended, Ava and I caught each other's eye and walked out of the room. We then discussed what we had just seen and knew we had to write about it. That was a Friday night and Sunday, at THIRD, we called for Joe to step down: "Media: It's Time For Joe To Go."
That was because the media had imposed the narrative and it was not going to go away. Joe made that happen in the ABC interview. That's where the decline was obvious. He couldn't take the topic (the debate) and spin it to another topic. Joe's done that for years. Instead, George kept asking (that's his job, I'm not slamming George and we didn't in our piece at THIRD) and Joe kept responding to the same question over and over and over.
I'm the one who thought Joe wouldn't make it to the general, yes. That's why in 2023, I said I'd vote for the nominee whomever it was. That's why as late as June 2024, I was still saying that here. I thought it was going to be a health issue like his heart that was going to make him step aside. But I never thought Joe was going to make it to the 2024 general election.
Sexism.
We need to talk about Jill Biden.
WTF?
Sam Seder did a segment entitled that.
No, we don't.
We don't need to talk about Joe Biden, we have more important things to focus on right now.
But we never need to talk about Jill.
I don't care if she did everything in the world to keep Joe's presidency alive. She's his wife, so back the hell off. She wasn't president. She held no elected office.
Her obligation was to Joe Biden, her husband.
I find it very sexist of Sam to do that segment.
I find if very off putting in terms of race as well.
We need to talk about?
That's a phrase popularized by the Black community -- a community under represented on Sam Seder's MAJORITY REPORT. So I do find it off putting that he can steal language from our culture but really can't bring us on to actually speak.
That's an example of things I don't write about immediately. I do wait to see if someone else is going to address it. Usually, they don't.
It's a funny kind of circle jerk that keeps them all indebted to one another.
Indebted and silent.
There are so many things on any given day that we could cover and there are so many more things that I do not know about. If you feel something's being missed, feel free to say so. But I'm never going to be able to cover everything and I'm not interested in 2024. I'm tried of being honest while others get to lie. I'm tired of being attacked repeatedly for telling the truth but making the mistake of doing so several weeks before the truth has caught up with the general public.
And
while Trump continues to sell out his country, it isn’t the entire
story. It certainly isn’t the most egregious part of the story.
Donald
Trump stood up in Saudi Arabia and lavished praise on Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He called him “an incredible man” and a
“great guy” and declared that he liked him “too much.”
MBS,
sitting in the first row of attendees while Trump made his speech,
smiled and waved. Let the record show that the CIA named MBS as the
mastermind behind the murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal
Khashoggi. Joe Biden wouldn’t meet with the man, but Trump is making
deals right and left with the guy he likes “too much.” The press? We’ve
pretty much ignored that unsettling fact. Almost like we’ve been cowered
into submission by Der Leader.
So much for
free speech and the right to dissent. Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen
Miller (who some in the White House refer to as “Pee Wee German”) told
us last week the administration is eliminating the Department of
Education so we can teach young American children the right way to
think. No one is talking about Khashoggi’s right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness, however. He’s dead, buried and apparently
forgotten.
Presidential Pep Secretary Karoline
Leavitt, meanwhile, suffered her latest humiliation as she talked
herself into a knot trying to defend Trump’s yard sale. Sure, she said,
“The president is abiding by all conflict of interest laws,” but he’s
obviously not. She can say that it’s “ridiculous” to suggest that
“President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit,” but that’s
obviously his first concern. He’s leveraging the Middle East to pad his
own pocket. The question remains: Will he change U.S. policy to favor
his bottom line? It’s not a question that requires a lot of deep
thought. Trump has spent a lifetime in his narcissistic pursuit of doing
what’s best for him at the expense of everyone else.
There’s plenty of evidence to show us what the yard sale is doing for Trump.
Within
the last month, Eric Trump announced plans for an 80-story Trump Tower
in Dubai, the UAE’s largest city. He also attended a recent
cryptocurrency conference there with Zach Witkoff, a founder of the
Trump family crypto company, World Liberty Financial, and son of Trump’s
envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
He was a public disgrace. He broke bread with terrorists, with murders and did so to line his own pockets. In a review of what was and wasn't accomplished by Chump and his trip, Shahram Akbarzadeh (NATIONAL SECURITY JOURNAL) notes:
Trump
skirted the ongoing tragedy in Gaza and offered no plans for a
diplomatic solution to the war, which drags on with no end in sight.
The
president did note his desire to see a normalisation of relations
between Arab states and Israel, without acknowledging the key stumbling
block.
While Saudi Arabia
and United Arab Emirates have no love for Hamas, the Gaza war and the
misery inflicted on the Palestinians have made it impossible for them to
overlook the issue. They cannot simply leapfrog Gaza to normalise
relations with Israel.
In his first term, Trump
hoped the Palestinian issue could be pushed aside to achieve
normalisation of relations between Arab states and Israel. This was
partially achieved with the Abraham Accords, which saw the UAE and three
other Muslim-majority nations normalise relations with Israel.
Trump
no doubt believed the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreed to just before his
inauguration would stick – he promised as much during the US election
campaign.
But after Israel unilaterally broke
the ceasefire in March, vowing to press on with its indiscriminate
bombing of Gaza, he’s learned the hard way the Palestinian question
cannot easily be solved or brushed under the carpet.
The
Palestinian aspiration for statehood needs to be addressed as an
indispensable step towards a lasting peace and regional stability.
On
a trip to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, President Donald Trump heaped praise
on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, years after the U.S. intelligence community found that the prince ordered the assassination and dismemberment of a Washington Post journalist.
At
the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum held at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh,
many of the world’s powerful CEOs, like Tesla’s (and presidential
advisor) Elon Musk, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and BlackRock‘s Larry Fink,
were in attendance, CNBC reported.
Trump walked onstage while Len Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American”
played on. The president then began a 50-minute speech focused on
domestic affairs and his friendship with the crown prince, the network
wrote. Trump called him Saudi Arabia’s “greatest representative.”
“Mohammed,
do you sleep at night?” Trump at one point asked. “How do you sleep?
Critics doubted that it was possible, what you’ve done, but over the
past eight years, Saudi Arabia has proved the critics totally wrong.”
In response, Bin Salman smiled and placed his hand over his heart, CNBC wrote.
“And
if I didn’t like him, I’d get out of here so fast,” Trump continued.
“You know that, don’t you? He knows me well. I do — I like him a lot. I
like him too much. That’s why we give so much, you know? Too much. I
like you too much."
The man Chump's praising ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Who? BBC NEWS:
For more than two weeks, Saudi Arabia consistently denied any knowledge of Khashoggi's fate.
Prince
Mohammed told Bloomberg News that the journalist had left the consulate
"after a few minutes or one hour". "We have nothing to hide," he added.
But in a change of tune on 20 October, the Saudi government said a
preliminary investigation by prosecutors had concluded that the
journalist died during a "fight" after resisting attempts to return him
to Saudi Arabia. Later, a Saudi official attributed the death to a
chokehold.
[. . .]
What does Turkey say happened?
Turkish
officials said that a team of 15 Saudi agents, assisted by three
intelligence officers, arrived in Istanbul in the days before the
murder, and that the group removed the security cameras and surveillance
footage from the consulate before Khashoggi's arrival.
Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Irfan Fidan, said on 31 October 2018 that
the journalist was suffocated almost as soon as entered the consulate,
and that his body was dismembered and destroyed.
Writing
in the Washington Post on 2 November, Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan declared it had been established that Khashoggi "was killed in
cold blood by a death squad" and "that his murder was premeditated".
"Yet
there are other, no less significant questions whose answers will
contribute to our understanding of this deplorable act" he added. "Where
is Khashoggi's body? Who is the 'local collaborator' to whom Saudi
officials claimed to have handed over Khashoggi's remains? Who gave the
order to kill this kind soul? Unfortunately, the Saudi authorities have
refused to answer those questions."
That is who Chump praised, the man who ordered Khashoggi's murder.
Chump is a disgrace, a money grubbing whore with no ethics. He disgraced the country on the international stage and left the impression that, like him, we are all for sale to the highest bidder.
Several
Democratic senators are questioning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over
President Trump’s acceptance of a jet from Qatar, stressing in a letter
the national security risks and counterintelligence concerns inherent
in such a transaction.
“The American people
deserve to understand this administration’s plans for securing this
aircraft, the vulnerabilities its use will present to our national
security and the price tag they will be asked to pay for President
Trump’s decision to integrate this aircraft into our most sensitive
fleet,” the group of lawmakers, led by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)
wrote in the letter dated Wednesday.
Earlier this
week, Trump said he would accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jet from the
Qatari government. The aircraft would be received by the Defense
Department in what the president described as a “very public and
transparent transaction.”
But the move has been met with criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.
Democrats,
in the letter, deemed it “unconstitutional” and expressed concerns
about threats to the president’s safety. The group of lawmakers argued
it “provides a dangerous opportunity to exploit for foreign intelligence
agencies and adversaries seeking to do harm to the United States.”
“An unsecure and unprotected Air Force One presents clear dangers to our national security,” the lawmakers continued.
Pete
Hegseth is being slammed online after telling American troops at an air
base in Qatar that they're "in the business of warfighting" despite the
U.S. not currently being directly involved in any active conflicts
around the world.
He took the opportunity to
rail against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as well as
political correctness and climate change as he told troops they should
only be focusing on four things — "accountability, standards, warriors
and lethality."
He went on to
screech, "We're restoring the warrior ethos!" How he thinks he's doing
that wearing more make up than Tammy Faye and Boy George combined is a
mystery. Maybe it's hypocrisy? Maybe it's Maybelline?
House Republicans’ radical new budget planproposes
requiring states to implement Medicaid work reporting requirements for
adults enrolled through the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid
expansion. Under this proposal, nonpregnant, nondisabled, noncaregiver
adults ages 19 to 64 would be required to document at least 80 hours per
month of work or qualifying activities (such as volunteering) in order
to maintain their Medicaid coverage. Otherwise, they would need to seek
approval for a qualifying exemption.
Nearly everyone with Medicaid coverage who is able to work already is. Data from KFF
shows that 92 percent of adult Medicaid enrollees in 2023 were either
working; in school; serving as a caregiver; or unable to work due to
illness or disability. As a result, evidence from prior state-level
implementations show that bureaucratic paperwork requirements do not
increase employment but do result in large-scale coverage losses—even
among those who are working or should be exempt from the requirements.
Work reporting requirements would have an outsized impact on women, the
vast majority of whom work full- or part-time or have caregiving
responsibilities that should allow them to be exempt.
The consequences of such coverage losses, however, are not just
administrative: For thousands of Americans, they would be deadly. New
estimates from the Center for American Progress show that 6.9 million
people losing coverage by 2034 as a result of congressional Republicans’
proposed paperwork requirements would lead to more than 21,600
avoidable deaths nationally each year. This translates to lives lost in
every congressional district with Medicaid expansion enrollees. In some
districts, such as Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District and New York’s
11th Congressional District, the annual death toll could reach into the
hundreds as a result of House Republicans’ proposed Medicaid work
reporting requirements.
According to estimates
from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), if Congress
imposes paperwork requirements for Medicaid expansion enrollees ages 19
to 64*, 6.9 million
people across Medicaid expansion states would lose coverage by 2034.
CBPP based these estimates on Arkansas’ experience implementing
paperwork requirements and assumed that 72 percent of expansion
enrollees not automatically exempted would lose coverage due to the
policy. CBPP’s analysis also assumes that parents would be exempt.
A 2017 study
by health economist Benjamin D. Sommers found that Medicaid expansion
was associated with “one life saved annually for every 239 to 316 adults
gaining insurance.” Applying the more conservative end of Sommers’
range to CBPP’s coverage loss projections, CAP estimates that imposing
work reporting requirements as proposed by the House Energy and Commerce bill
would lead to avoidable deaths in each congressional district with
Medicaid expansion enrollees—as many as hundreds in some. For example,
each year, 212 avoidable deaths would occur in Nevada’s 2nd
Congressional District; 187 avoidable deaths would occur in Delaware’s
only congressional district; and 130 avoidable deaths would occur in New
York’s 11th Congressional District.
The
Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the official organization of the
Democratic Party, and the vice chairs are essentially the leadership
team. If the DNC’s chair is the CEO, then the vice chairs are the board
members. Hogg serves alongside Artie Blanco, a Latina, and 34-year-old
Malcolm Kenyatta, the first openly gay Black man elected to the
Pennsylvania legislature.
After taking his
seat, Hogg was asked to sign a “neutrality pledge.” Basically, anyone in
a leadership role is supposed to remain neutral on the party’s
political candidates. If two Democrats seek the same seat, the party is
not supposed to put its thumb on the scale. While neutrality is
antithetical to Hogg’s entire mission, it's not like he was forced to
serve as vice chair because he was a first-round pick in the Democratic
Party draft lottery; he volunteered for the role.
But while he is not related to Boss Hogg, he is white, so the rules don’t apply to him.
Hogg refused.
What does it have to do with Jim Clyburn?
The
Democrats’ new, young, diverse leadership team signaled a change from
old-head Democratic power brokers like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
However, during a recent appearance on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher,
Hogg angered many Black Democratic voters.
Apparently
intoxicated from inhaling white, liberal, know-it-all secondhand
smugness from Bill Maher, Hogg mentioned a few Democrats who need to
“get over themselves” and retire from public service.
Second, Anthony Conwright. He made an important video and in a comment I left yesterday, I noted that I'd note it here.
I made a video about David Hogg @davidhogg.bsky.social @malcolmkenyatta.bsky.social and the vote for DNC Vice Chair. First video outlines rules that were violated. Full video below.
