Saturday, July 18, 2026

Chump's incompetence continues

Remember June 14th?  Remember what Chump was doing then?  He wanted good press so he was lying and claiming to have ended his war with Iran with a cease-fire.  AP reported that day, "President Donald Trump marked turning 80 on Sunday by hailing an agreement to end the war in Iran hours before a birthday celebration that once would have seemed unfathomable: a cage-fighting show on the storied South Lawn of the White House."

And tonight?

John Ismay, Aaron Boxerman and Leily Nikounazar (NE W YORK TIMES) report:


Two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third service member was missing after an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan on Friday, the U.S. military said. The American troop deaths were the first from hostile fire since a truce in early April.

The Jordanian base came under fire from Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, according to a statement on Saturday from U.S. Central Command. Sixteen U.S. service members have been killed since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran in February.

 

Greg Jaffe, Julian E. Barnes and Jonathan Swan (NEW YORK TIMES) observe:


The Iranian attack that killed two U.S. soldiers and left one service member missing on Friday was the fourth in five days on U.S. forces in Jordan, multiple American officials said. Taken together, the attacks have wounded dozens of U.S. service members and damaged a number of helicopters.

The flurry of attacks and the losses they have caused are a sign that Iranian forces not only still have ample missile stocks but have also become more adept at evading U.S. air defense systems, said the U.S. officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

Jordan, which hosts major U.S. air bases, grew in importance in the run-up to and the early days of the war, as the Pentagon shifted a number of troops from Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to relatively more secure locations in Jordan and Israel. The country’s role in U.S. operations has only increased as other American allies in the region have restricted Washington’s ability to base troops in and fly aircraft over their territories, the U.S. officials said.

Chump is an idiot who risks the lives of millions.  He's unqualified for the office and that's before we get into the increased dementia.  This is the man who chose to surround himself with corruption and crooks  Trashy Garbage, for example.  He named her head of the DNI and she wasn't qualified and she was compromised because 'guru' Chris controlled her.  He told her what to do and what to say.  And we now know for a fact that he did that when she was in Congress.  We will find out later that he did it while she was the Director of National Intelligence.  Oh, and another Tulsi scandal?  Alexander Willis (RAW STORY ) reports:


Batarti Gabbard, the 55-year-old brother of former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, was arrested Friday for allegedly trying to lure children to a hotel room in Honolulu, Hawaii using “gum and money,” the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Saturday.

[. . .]

Recent reporting revealed that much of Tulsi Gabbard’s decision making – from what she said to what bill she supported – may have been heavily influenced by Chris Butler, the leader of a group countless ex-members have described as a “cult.”


And some of the whispers about that cult have included that children were sexually assaulted.  What is it with Chump?  Sexual assault clings to him and his cabinet. You've got Linda McMahon still facing allegations about the Ring Boy scandal.  You've got Hegesth who forced a woman to sign an NDA, you've got Junior accused of forcing himself on a nanny, you had Lori Chavez-DeRemer who has left as Secretary of Labor in part because her husband was accused of sexually harassing Labor Dept employees, Kristi Noem is no longer Secretary of Homeland Security in part because of her 'special relationship' with Corey Lewandowski.  Oh, and there's Howard.


Howard Lutnick.  Secretary of Commerce.  Last fall, he gave a podcast interview to Miranda Devine and insisted that he'd cut off all ties to Epstein in 2005 after he and his wife visited Epstein's home and found Epstein to be disgusting.  Oops.  Turned out Howard and his wife visited Jeffrey on his island in 2012.  Oops.  Turned out Jeffrey and Howard did business together.

And now?  

Today, Alexander Willis (RAW STORY) notes:

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was exposed recently for having attended yet another previously undisclosed event “alongside Jeffrey Epstein,” writer Bekah Day reported Friday.

Last year, Lutnick claimed to have cut off all ties with Epstein in 2005, insisting that from that point on, he was “never in the room with [Epstein] socially, for business, or even philanthropy.” After the release of millions of Epstein-related files, however, it was revealed that Lutnick had met with Epstein on his private island in 2012 and maintained contact through at least 2018.

Earlier this week, Lutnick appears to have been exposed for lying during his 2025 interview with The New York Post, and potentially while testifying under oath to a Senate committee earlier this year.

“Now, the internet has discovered that [Lutnick] may have not only lied to the public, but also under oath… repeatedly. Yet another event where Howard Lutnick spent the evening surrounded by Jeffrey Epstein and his friends has been uncovered through the unyielding powers of the internet,” Day wrote in an analysis published Friday on her Substack.

“A user on the online forum r/Epstein discovered an archive from Eva and Glenn Dubin’s December 10, 2012, gala honoring the Dubin Breast Center, which was held in New York City. Obviously, by 2012 Jeffrey Epstein was not just the subject of rumors and controversy. He had already [pleaded] guilty and served a light 13-month sentence in Florida for the procurement of teenage girls for sex.”

Described by Day as a “forgotten photo archive,” the collection of photographs includes several showing Epstein having attended the 2012 event. While not photographed together, the collection also appears to show at least two photographs of Lutnick at the same event.


This week Chump's acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee (see Thursday snapshot).  Sabrina Haake makes a strong case against Toad being confirmed:


In May of this year, Todd Blanche signed a one-page order under seal of the U.S. Department of Justice, declaring that the U.S. government hereby “FOREVER DISCHARGES” Donald Trump and his family from pending and viable federal tax claims, and that the federal government is “FOREVER BARRED AND PRECLUDED” from pursuing those claims. Blanche’s order, if a federal judge hadn’t just voided it, would likely have cost taxpayers up to $650 million in lost penalties and back payments.

Although Blanche’s order would have allowed a sitting president to defraud the U.S. treasury with impunity, the outrage quickly passed. It’s just another episode of corruption under the most corrupt administration our country has ever seen, what’s another few hundred million between friends?

But the legal contortions behind Blanche’s order, the unethical legal jujitsu that brought it into existence, are lasting. By orchestrating this deal, Blanche acted in his former client's personal interest, at great cost to his current client—the American public. What Blanche tried to rig up for Trump was a major ethical violation under any legal code of ethics. Even during his confirmation hearings on Wednesday, Blanche seemed confused about who his client was, explaining that, as part of the Executive branch, he serves the president. The U.S. Attorney General, for the record, serves the people, and was created to do so by the Judiciary Act of 1789. Blanche’s confusion over this most fundamental aspect of his role as AG could not be more corrosive to the rule of law Blanche has vowed to uphold.

In overseeing the Department of Justice, any US Attorney General is legally entrusted to enforce our laws in a fair and evenhanded manner, and to use its “investigatory and prosecutorial powers” in a manner that is “free from partisan consideration.” This duty requires, above all else, an Attorney General’s commitment to honor and protect the law above both his personal interests and those of the President who nominated him.

Blanche, after blatantly protecting Trump’s personal, illegal interests over the public’s legal interests, perjured himself when he testified Wednesday in his Senate confirmation hearing. When directly asked if he would resign rather than carry out an illegal or unethical order from Trump, Blanche answered ambiguously, "I'm not going to violate my oath to the Constitution." But he already has, and not just by trying to gift Trump $650 million in waived tax penalties, along with $1.8 billion to reward J6 rioters.

Far worse than the amount of the attempted theft was the way Blanche tried to go about it: by contriving a completely fake federal lawsuit, then trying to hoodwink a federal judge by dismissing the suit after she questioned how one party could be on both sides, then defrauding the American public by claiming there had been a “settlement” of a case that never existed. On July 13, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued a scathing order concluding that the whole scheme was an attempt to “manipulate the judicial process” in an effort to lend the “court’s legitimacy” to collusion between Blanche, the IRS, and Trump to enrich the Trumps. She slammed Blanche for abdicating his responsibility to the public, and referred him for formal sanctions by the commission holding his law license.


In other news, Chump protects his big business pals. Dave Michaels and Sadie Gurma (WALL STREET JOURNAL) report: 


The Trump administration has moved sharply away from charging companies over the wrongdoing of employees, recently closing a string of criminal investigations with lenient resolutions or no charges at all.

In matters involving Alibaba, EagleBank and Abbott Laboratories, the department declined to charge companies even when prosecutors thought executives or managers were involved in the wrongdoing. In those cases, the department didn’t charge any individuals.

Corporate investigations and prosecutions that were happening a few years ago “have pretty much been dialed way back,” said Evan T. Barr, a former federal prosecutor now with the law firm Reed Smith. “So if you’re in the world of financial services or a large public company, you can breathe a lot easier.”

Charging companies is the strongest weapon in the Justice Department’s arsenal for punishing businesses that violate the law. Convictions can send a strong message that wrongdoing carries public consequences. But businesses say they can also hobble a firm’s ability to get financing or compete for federal contracts, and other critics say that tends to hurt shareholders and employees more than executives. 


His friends aren't just buying planes as he's said this week, they're also skirting the law. 


And now to ICE, Chump's killing machine that is also harming protestors.  Alex Nguyen (MOTHER JONES) reports:


An ICE detention center employee shot a woman on Thursday night after a protest outside an ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado, according to an Aurora Police Department statement released Friday afternoon. The center is operated by the private prison firm GEO Group, the largest recipient of private contracts with ICE to run immigration detention centers.

A GEO Group employee, Brandon Booth, was arrested on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder and other charges. The woman, who investigators said was part of the protest, was injured and taken to the hospital but is expected to survive. Another woman who was with her was not hurt.

According to the Aurora Police Department, Booth and other GEO Group staff were unable to enter the facility due to the protest. The two women argued with the employees and began walking away after taking photos of their cars. Booth then took out a personal firearm and fired one shot at the two women, hitting one of them in her lower body, before getting back into his car and driving away.


Josh Marcus (INDEPENDENT) notes:

He was subsequently arrested on probable cause on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing and unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon.

[. . .]

Magistrate Judge Kyle Martelon set Booth’s bond at $500,000.

“To say this is a grave risk to our community would be a vast understatement,” Martelon reportedly said in court. 


Elaine covered ICE Friday night in ":"

ICE has not had any standards.  Not in training, not in hiring, not since Chump was sworn in.  That is how you get all these abuses and, in fact, one whistle blower has noted that they are trained to ignore the Constitution.  So we have had three deaths this month as a result of ICE.  In the most recent one, Florida, a man ran out into the street to avoid ICE and was run over.  In Texas and Maine, ICE shot two people dead in their cars.  On the Maine shooting, Dan Gooding (INDEPENDENT) reports:

An Army veteran with a history of violence and serious mental health issues was the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who fatally shot a 25-year-old Colombian man in Maine on Monday, the Associated Press (AP) reports, citing court records and interviews with his family.
David Brouillette acknowledged in a Facebook call that he killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, his ex-wife Ashley Brouillette told the AP.

Their 18-year-old daughter, Madison Brouillette, also told the AP that her father also told her that he fired the shots that killed Durán Guerrero in the Colombian national’s car near his home in the coastal city of Biddeford.

Ashley Brouillette said her ex-husband has a long history of psychiatric issues and was physically abusive following the birth of their daughter. When he told her late last year he had been hired by ICE, she assumed he was experiencing a mental health episode and didn’t believe him, she told the AP.

Family court records obtained from the Augusta District Court clerk’s office detail years of allegations of physical and verbal abuse raised by his second ex-wife on behalf of herself and his daughters, the AP reported.

You may remember that ICE said Johan was attempting to use his car as a weapon to ram them with.  Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) notes:

ICE initially tried to run with this account of what happened, but this was contradicted by video evidence that clearly showed the agents were walking alongside Guerrero's car as it moved at slow speeds, and at no point did he attempt to run them down with it. They dragged his body out of the vehicle after shooting him and placed handcuffs on it.


Ava and C.I. began calling out the lies of ICE like this in May of last year at THIRD. C.I. has noted with the three deaths this month that ICE has lost the benefit of the doubt and that, due to their pattern of lying, every one of their statements must be treated as suspect unless proven otherwise.  



Democratic members of Congress demanded answers about Homeland Security's vetting and training of immigration enforcement agents after it was disclosed Thursday that the ICE officer involved in a deadly shooting this week in Maine had a history of mental health issues and violent behavior.
[. . .]
The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said Brouillette’s history of violence and mental health issues, as well as the death in Maine, “directly call into question the supposed vetting and training ICE does of its recruits.”

“This senseless tragedy must be investigated and the officer responsible should be taken off our streets and face justice for his actions,” Thompson said in a statement to the AP.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who led a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year as Democrats tried to impose restraints on immigration enforcement operations, said the consequences of failing to put guardrails on ICE are now being measured in lives.


Winding down with this from Senator Alex Padilla's office:


WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee, which oversees federal elections, released the following statement on President Trump’s continued unfounded election denial claims during a primetime address to the nation:

“Let me lay out the facts: Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Period. Despite his false claims, there is no evidence of any widespread voter fraud in that election and we heard nothing new today. Remember, Donald Trump was President at the time and even his own Administration said the election was safe and secure. It’s been more than half a decade, with numerous audits, recounts, and more than 60 court cases, each finding no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Clearly, this is no longer about an election Donald Trump lost six years ago. It’s about him laying the groundwork to try to ‘take over the voting’ in the upcoming midterm elections. Donald Trump is desperate to pass the anti-voter SAVE Act and sow doubt in our elections because Republicans will have to face voters in November — and voters are ready to hold them accountable for Trump’s unauthorized war in Iran, higher prices for gas, groceries, rent, and healthcare, and Trump’s shameless corruption.

“As California Secretary of State for the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, I oversaw safe and secure elections with record voter participation — the sign of a strong democracy. Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories about the integrity of our elections are false. We cannot and will not let him erode trust in American democracy.”

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