The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues

[jsc1953]

@Monty

A source told CBS News in May that the plane needs to be checked for security and spying devices before it is accepted. Renovations that could cost hundreds of millions will need to be done before the plane is ready to be used as Air Force One, the Air Force secretary said last month.

According to the NY Times and Rachel Maddow: Trump transferred $900 million from the budget for badly-needed maintenance of our 60-year-old nuclear missile silos and gave it to the renovation of his “free” plane (that he plans to keep when he leaves office).

[Johnny_L.A]

@Monty

This isn’t creating wealth. It’s taking money from the consumer and then returning that same money to the consumer.

I thought I read that the Trump Tax would cost families $1,200 per year. So they’re taking money from consumers, and propose to give them half back.

Anyway, I’m still waiting for my $5,000 DOGE check.

[dasmoocher]

@Just_Asking_Questions

@Johnny_L.A

Jeffrey stopped hanging out with Trump after he realised Trump was a crook.

How bad of a crook does one have to be to upset a procurer of underage sex workers? People like trump are his prime clientele.

I remember reading an article about this. Epstein apparently wanted to acquire a property in FL and asked Trump for advice about real estate and to assess the property’s worth. Epstein told Trump what he was thinking of offering for it. Trump then took that info and outbid Epstein and got the property. Something like that, IIRC.

I guess taking advantage of someone and betraying their trust was a bridge too far for Epstein. Oh, wait…

ETA–this might be it: Remembering the auction that pitted Trump against Jeffrey Epstein for a Palm Beach estate

The bankruptcy auction of a Palm Beach oceanfront estate in 2004 is often cited as the reason President Donald Trump fell out with the late convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein, a split that happened more than a decade before the disgraced financier died in a New York jail cell.

A dozen years before he first won the White House, Trump — then a real estate developer — emerged victorious in the bankruptcy auction, in which the prize was a 6-acre oceanfront estate on a stretch of coastal road that locals sometimes refer to as the North End’s Billionaire’s Row.

[Robot_Arm]

@jsc1953

According to the NY Times and Rachel Maddow: Trump transferred $900 million from the budget for badly-needed maintenance of our 60-year-old nuclear missile silos and gave it to the renovation of his “free” plane (that he plans to keep when he leaves office).

He also pressured Jerome Powell over cost overruns on the renovations at the Federal Reserve.

[LurkMeister]

@Monty

Also, why is the GOP going all in with this North Korean style adoration?

But the Great Leader must be properly honored!

[DesertDog]

And the first one to stop applauding was arrested and sent to Ecuador.

[LurkMeister]

Harrumph!

[Coriolanus]

Yeah. Go ahead and abuse the Justice Department to prosecute Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen. Revoke that commie fucker Neil Young’s citizenship. Get the Attorney General to fire the head of Paramount. And his replacement, and his replacement till South Park is banned forever. Never will everyone worship you like a King, even though you’ll stay in the White House till you’re wheeled out horizontally.

Woke is Dead. MAGA is Dead.

[DWMarch]

@jsc1953

According to the NY Times and Rachel Maddow: Trump transferred $900 million from the budget for badly-needed maintenance of our 60-year-old nuclear missile silos and gave it to the renovation of his “free” plane (that he plans to keep when he leaves office).

I bet he’ll keep the money for himself and tell the military to just take the costs out of the “wokeness” budget. There’s got to be enough money if the US Military just stops performing transgender surgeries on soldiers, right?

[Coriolanus]

Dunno that the USA should make it clear that the nukes are about as good as old incandescent bulbs, though who has top of the line nukes. I reckon whatever the USA has will ruin everyone’s day.

“Free” planes. I’d prefer quicker boarding yet most of the planes I fly don’t have unused gyms for fat-asses,

Will it at least be a 747? I was impressed by how many Scots showed up, I guess partly to see AF1, yet 747’s are the best.

He cannot keep it. Thomas Jefferson wrote that into the Declaration of Independance.

[Johnny_L.A]

@Coriolanus

He cannot keep it. Thomas Jefferson wrote that into the Declaration of Independance.

What’s that got to do with anything? Who’s going to tell Trump he can’t keep it? And who’s going to take it away from him?

[not_what_you_d_expect]

Not Thomas Jefferson.

sorry

[Coriolanus]

Trump has more than once, in press conferences motioned to at least (I hope) a copy of the Declaration of Independence as if it’s Constitutional Law.

If Trump wants to get Boeing to build an 888 that he can keep forever, there’s nothing in the Constitution (or the DOI) to prevent it.

[Johnny_L.A]

@Coriolanus

Trump has more than once, in press conferences motioned to at least (I hope) a copy of the Declaration of Independence as if it’s Constitutional Law.

There are 27 grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence. Trump is committing 16 or 17 of them. (They’re enumerated in a thread from a couple of months ago.)

Trump neither cares, nor does he believe he’s bound by the Constitution of the United States of America. He believes, and so far is, above the law.

[Coriolanus]

As he pretty much owns Congress and the SC, he really is above the pesky Constitution. The Constitution itself doesn’t say “It ought not be this way” yet I reckon the DoI does. Yet (not a lawyer) I dunno if that document can actually be cited as precedent by the Supreme’s than the Magna Carta.

He has certainly reached the level of unimpeachable, and are we really gonna take it to the streets and overthrow this government? It’s been done a number of times (other countries and once in the 13 Colonies). Yet this fucker is coming back to England next month to meet the King?

An overthrow of the people in power would be majorly historic,

Yet it’s gonna end with fat-ass being (horizontally) flown on Marine One or … I do not know.

[Broomstick]

@Coriolanus

As he pretty much owns Congress and the SC, he really is above the pesky Constitution. The Constitution itself doesn’t say “It ought not be this way” yet I reckon the DoI does. Yet (not a lawyer) I dunno if that document can actually be cited as precedent by the Supreme’s than the Magna Carta.

The Declaration of Independence does not have the force of law. It is an important document, but not a legal one.

It’s the constitution that’s the legal document, and Trump has gotten away with using it as toilet paper.

[dougrb]

@Coriolanus

Marine One or … I do not know.

Golf Force One would be the most appropriate.

[kenobi_65]

@Broomstick

The Declaration of Independence does not have the force of law. It is an important document, but not a legal one.

Exactly. The Declaration of Independence, in essence, simply says, “we quit you, and here’s why.” It’s the Constitution which lays out the rights of the population, and how the government can, and cannot, operate.

[Monty]

@Coriolanus

If Trump wants to get Boeing to build an 888 that he can keep forever, there’s nothing in the Constitution (or the DOI) to prevent it.

The constitution is the basis of our laws–it even says so. The Declaration of Independence is not a law nor the basis of our laws. The DOI states that a governed people have a right to replace a governing authority and then goes on to list the reasons why the people of the United States are doing so.

Prior Planning Perpetuates Poor Performance.

White House officials and a close circle of conservative lawyers are preparing for President Donald Trump to be able to hit the ground running if a Supreme Court vacancy opens up during the remaining three and a half years of his second term, according to sources inside and outside the White House.

The discussions are in early stages and focus on finding a nominee in the mold of Samuel Alito, 75, and Clarence Thomas, 77, the two oldest justices, both of whom are considered stalwart conservative jurists who have taken narrow interpretations of the Constitutional text while backing an expansive view of Presidential power. Shortlists of judges are circulating among Trump allies as they debate who can be best trusted to stick with the Court’s conservative wing during an appointment that could last decades.

“We are looking for people in the mold of Alito, Clarence Thomas and the late Scalia,” said a White House official familiar with the process, referring to Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016. The official said it was “premature” to say the White House was getting ready for a vacancy.

If the felon hits the ground, there won’t be any running involved. It’ll be more like a bunker buster crater. That being said, of course that’s the kind of person the felon wants in there. The closer he can get to a large majority on the SCOTUS, the closer to the façade of the USSR’s government he will have.

The felon admits he knows nothing but still blathers on anyway.

President Donald Trump issued a hearty dose of advice on British immigration policy—even as he admitted he has no idea what he’s talking about.

As he greeted U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer outside his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Trump fielded questions from reporters about the contentious “small boats” debate—a reference to the small vessels undocumented immigrants have used to cross the English Channel from France to claim asylum.

“I know nothing about the boats,” the president began before holding forth on the issue.

“If the boats are loaded up with bad people, and they usually are because, you know, other countries don’t send their best; they send people that they don’t want, and that’s stupid people, and they send the people that they don’t want, and I’ve heard that you’ve taken a much stronger stance,” he said.

I guess I do have to agree with him on one point. The US didn’t send our best to the United Kingdom; we sent him.

Just in case you thought ICE cares about rights.

Immigration officers were caught on video celebrating proudly after using chokeholds and a stun gun to arrest two undocumented immigrants in Florida. The owner of the video, an 18-year-old American citizen, was threatened and charged after he refused to delete the footage revealing the harsh tactics used by immigration authorities to meet the Trump administration’s mass deportation goals.

Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio was on his way to work on the morning of May 2 with his mother and two other men in North Palm Beach, Florida, when the vehicle was pulled over by a Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) officer, reported The Guardian . The initial reason for the stop is unclear, but after the FHP called in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, the peaceful traffic stop quickly turned violent.

Laynez-Ambrosio began recording when CBP agents arrived, and a female officer can be heard asking if anyone in the car is an undocumented immigrant. One of Laynez-Ambrosio’s friends answered that he was. “That’s when they said, ‘OK, let’s go,’” Laynez-Ambrosio told The Guardian . Before anyone was able to exit the vehicle, CBP officers became aggressive. “[One officer] put his hand inside the window,” he said, “popped the door open, grabbed my friend by the neck and had him in a chokehold.”

In the video, he can be heard telling the officers, “You can’t grab me like that,” while three officers pull the second man from the van, and tell him to “get your fucking head down, on the ground.” When the man lands on his feet while being pulled from the vehicle, officers push him to the ground and then pull him back to his feet while one officer keeps him in a headlock. Laynez-Ambrosio, who was also forced to the ground, can be heard yelling, “That’s not how you arrest people. If y’all going to arrest people, y’all have to arrest people regular.” He then tells his friend, in Spanish, “Don’t resist. Don’t resist.” The commotion ends when an officer uses his stun gun on Laynez-Ambrosio’s friend, who falls to the ground, crying out in pain.

“You’re scaring the dude,” Laynez-Ambrosio says to an officer shortly after. “That’s not how you arrest people.” “Why?” an officer callously responds. After asserting his “rights to talk,” an officer tells Laynez-Ambrosio, “You’ve got no rights here. You’re a migo, brother.”

The recording continues after the three men are in custody and captures the officers’ candid remarks. A couple of officers can be heard cracking jokes about how one man smells and bragging about the stun gun use. One officer remarks on how “they’re starting to resist more now.” Another responds, “We’re going to end up shooting some of them… because they’re going to start fighting.”

“Just remember, you can smell that [inaudible] with a $30,000 bonus,” one officer says amidst post-arrest celebrations.

After his arrest and six-hour detention at a CBP station, Laynez-Ambrosio told The Guardian he was threatened with charges if he didn’t delete the exposing video. When he refused, he was charged with obstruction without violence for having allegedly interfered with CBP officers’ arrest—a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and one year of incarceration. He was ultimately sentenced to 10 hours of community service and a four-hour anger management course. The two undocumented men were transferred to the Krome detention center in Miami. Laynez-Ambrosio “believes they were released on bail and are awaiting a court hearing, but said it has been difficult to stay in touch with them.”

Chokeholds, racist slurs, and threats if evidence against the CBP is not destroyed. That actually does track.

Why am I not surprised the felon’s mouthpiece is a lawbreaker?

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt owes $326,370.50 in the aftermath of her failed 2022 congressional campaign, according to a new disclosure filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Her campaign committee, Karoline for Congress, didn’t raise any money during April, May, or June of this year, failing to pay off a dime of her mountainous debt, according to the disclosure. The majority of the debt is the result of accepting illegal campaign contributions that exceeded federal limits, the bulk of which she has not yet returned, reported OpenSecrets.

The minute is no longer on the milk carton!

The “missing minute” from the surveillance video at the Manhattan Metropolitan Correctional Center where Jeffrey Epstein died in 2019 may not be missing after all, CBS News has learned.

When the Justice Department and FBI released nearly 11 hours of footage earlier this month, the time code on the screen jumped forward one minute just before midnight, prompting questions about the one-minute gap. The video shows part of the area near the cell where Epstein was being held the night he died in what the medical examiner ruled a suicide.

A government source familiar with the investigation says the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice inspector general are all in possession of a copy of the video that does not cut from just before 11:59 p.m. to midnight of the night Epstein died by suicide in his cell.

It’s no longer the Roberts court; it’s the Felon’s court.

Ever since Chief Justice John Roberts swore in Donald Trump at the US Capitol January 20 – with the eight other Supreme Court justices looking on – the question has been whether they would restrain a president who vowed to upend the constitutional order.

The answer, a half-year later, is no.

That was underscored this month by the court’s decisions allowing Trump to fire another set of independent regulators, to dismantle the Department of Education and to deport migrants to dangerous countries where they have no citizenship or connection.

Meanwhile, the fissures among the nine have deepened. They have condemned each other in written opinions and revealed the personal strains in public appearances.

The conservative majority that controls the court has repeatedly undercut the US district court judges on the front lines who’ve held hearings, discerned the facts, and issued orders to check Trump actions.

In the most significant case so far related to Trump’s second term, touching on birthright citizenship, Justice Amy Coney Barrett pointedly addressed the role of lower court judges, saying they have a limited ability to block arguably unconstitutional moves.

The Second Felonial Era is raring to ignore the constitution. (The bolding is mine.)

After months of avoiding details about a divisive plan to end birthright citizenship, President Donald Trump’s administration is rolling out a series of new documents that offer a stark glimpse into how it would implement an executive order that upends the century-old understanding about the benefits of being born in the United States.

The trove of documents from half a dozen federal agencies in recent days are a direct result of a blockbuster Supreme Court decision last month that allowed the administration to develop plans for ending birthright citizenship – even though the effort has once again been placed on hold.

Under those guidance documents, parents of newborns – including US citizens – might be required to jump through additional hoops to verify their own immigration status to obtain a passport or Social Security number for their children.

Among the documents made public in recent days is one from the State Department that explains how officials would be required to “request original proof of parental citizenship or immigration status” to proceed with processing a passport application. “This information will be necessary to determine if those applying for a passport are U.S. citizens,” the three-page document reads.

The Social Security Administration issued similar guidance as well.

“With respect to citizenship, an SSN applicant may currently demonstrate U.S. citizenship by providing a birth certificate showing a U.S. place of birth,” the document says. “Once the EO takes effect, a birth certificate showing a U.S. place of birth will not be sufficient documentary evidence of U.S. citizenship for persons born after the EO takes effect.”

It continues: “To comply with the EO, SSA will require evidence that such a person’s mother and/or father is a U.S. citizen or in an eligible immigration status at the time of the person’s birth.”

Accomplice Hegseth has to stop using polygraphs. You’ll love the reason why.

The White House has put a stop to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s alleged use of polygraph tests in an attempt to root out leakers to the press, according to a new report.

As Hegseth became embroiled in the Signalgate scandal, his team began administering polygraph tests in April to those in his inner circle, U.S. officials, and others with knowledge of the matter, according to The Washington Post.

The White House’s intervention came after Hegseth’s senior advisor, Patrick Weaver, raised concerns to officials that he could be the next target of the defense secretary’s polygraph campaign, the sources said.

Weaver, who held posts in the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Council in Donald Trump’s first administration, allegedly grew irate after learning he might be ordered to take a polygraph test.

Weaver remains an adviser to Hegseth, according to The Post.

Co-conspiracist Kennedy is on a roll.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday he is working to overhaul the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), which is aimed at compensating people who have been injured by vaccines.

“The VICP is broken, and I intend to fix it. I will not allow the VICP to continue to ignore its mandate and fail its mission of quickly and fairly compensating vaccine-injured individuals,” Kennedy wrote in a lengthy post on social platform X.

Kennedy has long targeted the VICP, and his X post echoed many of his previous arguments.

He has previously said he wants to expand the program, making it easier for claimants to qualify for awards based on adverse events he claims are associated with vaccines but are not currently part of the program.

Amazing. The felon can chew gum and kick a golfball at the same time.

The Trump administration has frozen $108 million in federal funding for Duke Health, according to a senior administration official, after asserting a day earlier it was investigating “systemic racial discrimination” in the university’s healthcare system.

The federal funding encompasses Duke University School of Medicine and the overall health research and health care system at Duke.

The freeze, first reported by Fox News, comes one day after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a letter to top Duke officials expressing concerns about “racial preferences in hiring, student admissions, governance, patient care, and other operations.” Those officials included Duke University President Vincent Price, board Chairman Adam Silver, and Duke Medicine Dean Mary Klotman.

He’s managed to put the war on education and the war on public health into one battle. And here I am, thinking he wasn’t competent at anything.

I’ve always loved the sound of bagpipes. Now I love the insturment even more!

On Monday, Trump met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at one of his golf courses.

Naturally, there were bagpipes there

The rest of the article is a collection of comments on Xitter. My favorite one is this:

How disrespectful, talking while they’re playing bagpipes.

[Q.Q.Switcheroo]

@ekedolphin

The Orange Menace just released a memo seeking to shield federal employees from disciplinary action for engaging other employees in religious talk and “trying to convince the other employee that their religion is correct”.

It also protects their right to display crosses, crucifixes, mezuzahs, and even aggressive religious posters at work.

Protecting the right of Jews to convince others that their religion is correct? That’s like protecting the right of Jews to eat ham sandwiches.