The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues (Part 2)

[Monty]

@Gatopescado

I write Movie Reviews and Obituaries for the local rag.

That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think. I mean, if you don’t like a movie, just saying so should be sufficient.

President Obama calls it.

Former President Obama on Wednesday said he thinks President Trump has an “obsession” with him, existing in a “suite in his head.”

“All the Smoke” podcast co-host and former NBA player Matt Barnes spoke with Obama about Trump being “very fascinated with you and your family,” but did not name the 47th president. He praised Obama for meeting Trump’s “negativity and racism with class” before he asked if Obama ever wants to “cuss his a– out sometimes?”

“The thing about it is –– look, you’ve got to ask him what it is ––” Obama said before Barnes added, “The obsession.”

“The obsession,” Obama repeated. “I obviously have a room in his head, a suite in his head.”

The former president later added that during his presidency, thinking about former President George W. Bush was “the last thing I had time to… worry about.”

“They’re gone,” the former president continued, referring to his predecessors. “I’ve got work to do. The idea that I’d be worrying about somebody who came before and me trying to measure like, ‘what’s he done today?’ Constantly worrying about that is a strange thing to me. It shows me somebody who is not focused on the American people and the job they’re supposed to do.”

Fed judge told the felon that he cannot ever order proof of citizenship for voters.

A federal judge in Boston has permanently blocked a key part of Donald Trump’s administration’s first executive order on elections, which sought to require documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration.

U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper’s decision converts a preliminary injunction, issued a year ago to temporarily halt many of the administration’s electoral overhaul efforts, into a permanent ban.

Casper rejected the administration’s argument that the lawsuit, filed by Democratic state attorneys general, was premature, as the rules had not yet been implemented.

Instead, she agreed that the Constitution grants states and Congress the authority to regulate elections, finding that Trump’s requirements violated the separation of powers.

Yet another “Don’t look behind that curtain!” moment, literally.

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday ordered U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to ‌explain why it placed a tarp over the Kennedy ‌Center’s façade after the Republican leader’s name was removed from the building under ​a court order.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said the administration must report by July 31 “the purpose and status of the tarp and scaffolding” now in place at the iconic building.

The tarp was ‌installed as workers stripped ⁠Trump’s name in a predawn operation this month following an order from Cooper that the Trump administration ⁠unlawfully added his name to the facade in December.

The White House and Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to requests for ​comment.

The felon is giving orders to a senator.

President Trump’s meeting with Republican senators on Wednesday turned testy, and at one point, he sternly told Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy to sit down, after questions arose about the War Powers Resolution, according to sources directly familiar with the meeting.

Cassidy had been trying to respond to the president, telling the president he should sit down — but Cassidy later relented, saying he would be seated, but not at Mr. Trump’s behest.

“He raised his voice. I lost my temper. That’s not appropriate. It’s the Irish in me, but I again matched his tone and his volume,” Cassidy told reporters after the meeting.

Earlier this year, Mr. Trump supported Rep. Julia Letlow in the Louisiana Republican Senate primary. Cassidy did not advance to the runoff, likely ending his political career, a point Mr. Trump highlighted in his remarks.

“I make no apologies for standing up to the president,” Cassidy said. “I am sticking up for the American people, even if I’m speaking to the president.”

What is it with the pubbies and dogs?

Anyone who vandalizes Donald Trump’s Reflecting Pool should be forced to sell their homes, cars, and even pets to pay for repairs, one MAGA congressman said.

Texas Republican Troy Nehls has parroted the 80-year-old president’s narrative that recent issues with the Reflecting Pool were caused not by the hasty $16 million renovation that he ordered, but by nefarious saboteurs conspiring against him to damage his pet project.

With chunks of blue sealant peeling off from the bottom of the pool and algae turning the water green, Trump has claimed vandals with “razor blades and knives” are responsible and has grown so angry that he ordered the pool be drained for a second round of renovations.

To pay for the second Trump-ordered renovation, Rep. Nehls told TMZ that the imaginary vandals should sell off all their belongings.

“I would take their homes, if they have a home, if they have a car. Hell, if they have a dog,” a visibly angry Nehls said. “I’d make them sell everything to fix it.”

“Absolutely,” he added.

Welcome to the People’s Democratic Republic of Felonia!

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday defended a plan demanded by President Donald Trump to require states ‌to provide lists of voters who received mailed ballots.

U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner ‌said at a U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing that, under the proposal, USPS would not ​deliver ballots in states where officials refuse to comply.

“The proposed rule basically coerces states to conform to these new requirements and hand over their absentee voter rolls, or face the consequences of not being able to vote by mail,” said Senator Gary Peters, the top Democrat on ‌the committee. “That’s unacceptable.”

Steiner argued the ⁠plan would be more efficient and mirror what many states are currently doing. USPS is making sure “we match the ballots that a state believes ⁠they’re sending out to what actually gets sent out.”

The proposal would require states to provide the USPS the names and barcodes tied to their mail-in ballots for federal elections. It would also require ​states ​to provide unique barcodes applied to the outbound ​and return ballot mail envelopes, saying ‌it “will help determine adherence to federal law and facilitate law enforcement efforts.”

All 47 Democratic senators wrote a letter to the Postal Service on Wednesday, urging the agency to drop the plan, calling it an “unconstitutional and illegal attempt to transform USPS into an election administration agency controlled by the White House and President Trump.”

Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin said Steiner is a “pawn” in ‌Trump’s obsession to take over elections. “You are being used (by ​President Trump),” Slotkin said. “He does not believe elections that ​he loses are valid elections.”

And now you know why the felon is “in love with” Kim Jong Un.

Guess who says the felon’s narrative on his brand new Reflecting Sewer is nonsense!

Donald Trump’s $16.4 million Reflecting Pool liner is peeling up like a sunburned sophomore on a Cabo spring break, but the president wants the nation to believe it was sabotage.

Trump’s claims that the Reflecting Pool’s issues were caused by a vandal who managed to slash a supposed gash the length of a football field into the pool without being seen by a single tourist or law-enforcement officer is absurd on its face. Despite dozens of reporters, influencers, and thousands of tourists venturing to the Reflecting Pool in the past days to check out the algae-infested, sloughing mess in front of the Lincoln Memorial, not a single person has managed to document evidence of this, nor has Trump or the White House been able to provide any. Now, to no one’s surprise, new documents obtained by The New York Times confirm that the White House’ claims of vandalism causing the Reflecting Pool’s sealant to peel up and water to turn green are what we all knew them to be: bullshit.

The documents, which came from the National Parks Service, show that virtually immediately after the pool was refilled following the installation of Trump’s “American Flag Blue” epoxy lining, issues began to arise. Maintenance workers discovered cuts in the specialized foam that fills expansion joints between the concrete slabs of the pool, peeling caulking, and other holes and cracks. The documents describe the slashes in the foam as two cuts, each approximately 171 feet long. These are perhaps the cuts that Trump is referring to, but the documents obtained by the Times make clear that the issues with the foam are unrelated to the peeling of the coating Trump had installed.

Yeah, that pile of rubble on the White House grounds is so beautiful.

Donald Trump defended his costly White House ballroom project and troubled renovations to the nation’s capital as he delivered a rally-style speech to kick off weeks of celebrations for America’s 250 years of independence.

“For many years, our country was ruled by politicians who let America and its capital fall into decline and total disrepair. The city named in honor of General George Washington was turned into a national disgrace, but not anymore,” Trump told a crowd of supporters Wednesday night on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The felon and Killer Kennedy pulled a fast one on Mother’s Day. (The bolding is mine.)

A group of 11 senators have sent a letter to Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy urging them to remove a federal website and “cease using federal resources to direct people to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers”.

On Mother’s Day this year, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched Moms.gov, a resource they claim is for “new and expecting mothers” and “offers guidance and information to support the health and wellbeing of mothers and their families”.

The administration said the site “supports expecting parents who are navigating difficult or unexpected pregnancies” and “features information about pregnancy centers, federally qualified health centers, nutritional guidance”.

In their Wednesday letter, senators – including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, Ron Wyden and Tammy Duckworth – criticized the site and noted that it "directs pregnant women to unregulated and often non-medical anti-abortion facilities known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs)", which they said “raises profound concerns about the health, safety and privacy of people who access this government website at a time when women’s health and reproductive rights face increasing attacks”.

Real soldiers say the secretary of war crimes lied about their injuries.

On Wednesday, CBS News reported that two American soldiers wounded in the Iran war say the Pentagon minimized the severity of their injuries, despite suffering shrapnel wounds, traumatic brain injuries, hearing and vision loss, and requiring months of recovery.

As noted in the report, in March, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “almost 90%” of the roughly 400 American service members wounded during the conflict with Iran suffered only minor injuries and had already returned to duty. Two of those soldiers and their families are now disputing that characterization, telling CBS News their injuries were far more severe than the military’s public descriptions suggested.

Among them is Chief Warrant Officer Rodney Bearman, who was wounded on March 1 when an Iranian drone struck his workstation at Port of Shuaiba in Kuwait. According to CBS News, medical records show Bearman suffered shrapnel wounds, a concussion, hearing and vision loss, and lung damage. Despite those injuries, the Army classified him as “not seriously injured.”

“That assessment is unacceptable,” his wife, Amy Bearman, told the outlet.

Another survivor of the same attack, Sergeant First Class Cory Hicks, told CBS News that Army officials similarly minimized his condition after he suffered extensive shrapnel wounds requiring multiple emergency surgeries.

“They said your husband was injured, he has a minor jaw injury, and he’s going to be returned to duty,” Hicks said his wife was told. Asked whether he believed military leaders attempted to soften the reality of the attack, Hicks responded, “Absolutely.”