#how old is pam bondi

[sohan121]

3 takeaways from Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing Reed More

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

John Buss

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 9, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Feb 09, 2025

On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”

In fact, it is the right to vote for the lawmakers who make up our government that is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.

The United States Constitution that establishes the framework for our democratic government sets out how the American people will write the laws that govern us. We elect members to a Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. That congress of our representatives holds “all legislative powers”; that is, Congress alone has the right to make laws. It alone has the power to levy taxes on the American people, borrow money, regulate commerce, coin money, declare war, “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper.”

After Congress writes, debates, and passes a measure, the Constitution establishes that it goes to the president, who is also elected, through “electors,” by the people. The president can either sign a measure into law or veto it, returning it to Congress where members can either repass it over his veto or rewrite it. But once a law is on the books, the president must enforce it. The men who framed the Constitution wrote that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” When President Richard Nixon tried to alter laws passed by Congress by withholding the funding Congress had appropriated to put them into effect, Congress shut that down quickly, passing a law explicitly making such “impoundment” illegal.

Since the Supreme Court’s 1803 Marbury v. Madison decision, the federal courts have taken on the duty of “judicial review,” the process of determining whether a law falls within the rules of the Constitution.

Right now, the Republicans hold control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court. They have the power to change any laws they want to change according to the formula Americans have used since 1789 when the Constitution went into effect.

But they are not doing that. Instead, officials in the Trump administration, as well as billionaire Elon Musk— who put $290 million into electing Trump and Republicans, and whose actual role in the government remains unclear— are making unilateral changes to programs established by Congress. Through executive orders and announcements from Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” they have sidelined Congress, and Republicans are largely mum about the seizure of their power.

Now MAGA Republicans are trying to neuter the judiciary.

After yet another federal judge stopped the Musk/Trump onslaught by temporarily blocking Musk and his team from accessing Americans’ records from Treasury Department computers, MAGA Republicans attacked judges. “Outrageous,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted, spreading the lie that the judge barred the Secretary of the Treasury from accessing the information, although in fact he temporarily barred Treasury Secretary Bessent from granting access to others. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said the decision had “the feel of…a judicial” coup. Right-wing legal scholar Adrian Vermeule called it “[j]udicial interference with legitimate acts of state.”

Vice President J.D. Vance, who would take over the office of the presidency if the 78-year-old Trump can no longer perform the duties of the office, posted: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

As legal scholar Steve Vladeck noted: “Just to say the quiet part out loud, the point of having unelected judges in a democracy is so that *whether* acts of state are ‘legitimate’ can be decided by someone other than the people who are undertaking them. Vermeule knows this, of course. So does Vance.” Of Vance’s statement, Aaron Rupar of Public Notice added: “this is the sort of thing you post when you’re ramping up to defying lawful court orders.”

The Republicans have the power to make the changes they want through the exercise of their constitutional power, but they are not doing so. This seems in part because Trump and his MAGA supporters want to establish the idea that the president cannot be checked. And this dovetails with the fact they are fully aware that most Americans oppose their plans. Voters were so opposed to the plan outlined in Project 2025—the plan now in operation—that Trump ran from it during the campaign. Popular support for Musk’s participation in the government has plummeted as well. A poll from The Economist/YouGov released February 5 says that only 13% of adult Americans want him to have “a lot” of influence, while 96% of respondents said that jobs and the economy were important to them and 41% said they thought the economy was getting worse.

Trump’s MAGA Republicans know they cannot get the extreme changes they wanted through Congress, so they are, instead, dictating them. And Musk began his focus at the Treasury, establishing control over the payment system that manages the money American taxpayers pay to our government.

Musk and MAGA officials claim they are combating waste and fraud, but in fact, when Judge Carl Nichols stopped Trump from shutting down USAID, he specifically said that government lawyers had offered no support for that argument in court. Indeed, the U.S. government already has the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent, nonpartisan agency that audits, evaluates and investigates government programs for Congress. In 2023 the GAO returned about $84 for every $1 invested in it, in addition to suggesting improvements across the government.

Until Trump fired 18 of them when he took office, major departments also had their own independent inspectors general, charged with preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, misconduct, and mismanagement in the government and promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in government operations and programs.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation also investigates corruption, including that committed by healthcare providers.

According to Musk’s own Grok artificial intelligence tool on X, the investigative departments of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as USAID, have all launched investigations into the practices and violations of Elon Musk’s companies.

But Trump has been gutting congressional oversight, apparently wanting to make sure that no one can oversee the president. Rather than rooting out waste and corruption in the government, Musk and his ilk have launched a hostile takeover to turn the United States of America into a business that will return huge profits to those leaders who, in the process of moving fast and breaking things, are placing themselves at the center of the lives of 332 million people. Breaking into the U.S. Treasury payment system puts Musk and his DOGE team at the head of the country’s nerve center.

The vision they are enacting rips predictability, as well as economic security, away from farmers, who are already protesting the loss of their markets with the attempted destruction of USAID. It hurts the states—especially Republican-dominated states—that depend on funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education. Their vision excludes consumers, who are set to lose the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as protections put in place by President Joe Biden. Their vision takes away protections for racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities, as well as from women, and kills funding for the programs that protect all of us, such as cancer research and hospitals.

Musk and Trump appear to be concentrating the extraordinary wealth of the American people, along with the power that wealth brings, into their own hands, for their own ends. Trump has championed further tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, while Musk seems to want to make sure his companies, especially SpaceX, win as many government contracts as possible to fund his plan to colonize Mars.

But the mission of the United States of America is not, and has never been, to return huge profits to a few leaders.

The mission of the United States of America is stated in the Constitution. It is a government designed by “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Far from being designed to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a single man, it was formed to do the opposite: spread wealth and power throughout the country’s citizenry and enable them to protect their rights by voting for those who would represent them in Congress and the presidency, then holding them accountable at the ballot box.

The people who think that bearing arms is central to maintaining American rights are the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election by storming the United States Capitol because they do not command the votes to put their policies in place through the exercise of law outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[mugiwara-lucy]

You libtards stopped a Kennedy from even running in the primary, denied him secret service protection and told Big Tech to censor and ban him when all he ever wanted was healthier food and safer medicine but don't you worry Pam Bondi will set you all straight and help get revenge on everyone who ever wronged him :) MAHA! Oh and I hope you like Vance because after 2029 Vance will be President for eight years and then once he's done Barron Trump will be your president :)

Fuck Pam Bondi. That bitch is a corrupt witch like the rest of MAGAs who helped cover up fraud at Shitbreak's university.

And yeah how dare people get pissed over an Anti-Vaccine quack that got 80+children killed with his Anti-Vax bullshit as well as saying black people need to be "resilient" to racism (while ignoring white people being racist) and opposed Confederate soldiers' statues coming down.

Fuck this insane old quack and he needs to put better make up on his face 😂

And fuck that creepy potential future rapist. Shitbreak's approval rating is dying DAILY and people don't really like his dumb ass children.

[misfitwashere]

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

FEB 10

On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”

In fact, it is the right to vote for the lawmakers who make up our government that is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.

The United States Constitution that establishes the framework for our democratic government sets out how the American people will write the laws that govern us. We elect members to a Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. That congress of our representatives holds “all legislative powers”; that is, Congress alone has the right to make laws. It alone has the power to levy taxes on the American people, borrow money, regulate commerce, coin money, declare war, “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper.”

After Congress writes, debates, and passes a measure, the Constitution establishes that it goes to the president, who is also elected, through “electors,” by the people. The president can either sign a measure into law or veto it, returning it to Congress where members can either repass it over his veto or rewrite it. But once a law is on the books, the president must enforce it. The men who framed the Constitution wrote that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” When President Richard Nixon tried to alter laws passed by Congress by withholding the funding Congress had appropriated to put them into effect, Congress shut that down quickly, passing a law explicitly making such “impoundment” illegal.

Since the Supreme Court’s 1803 Marbury v. Madison decision, the federal courts have taken on the duty of “judicial review,” the process of determining whether a law falls within the rules of the Constitution.

Right now, the Republicans hold control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court. They have the power to change any laws they want to change according to the formula Americans have used since 1789 when the Constitution went into effect.

But they are not doing that. Instead, officials in the Trump administration, as well as billionaire Elon Musk— who put $290 million into electing Trump and Republicans, and whose actual role in the government remains unclear— are making unilateral changes to programs established by Congress. Through executive orders and announcements from Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” they have sidelined Congress, and Republicans are largely mum about the seizure of their power.

Now MAGA Republicans are trying to neuter the judiciary.

After yet another federal judge stopped the Musk/Trump onslaught by temporarily blocking Musk and his team from accessing Americans’ records from Treasury Department computers, MAGA Republicans attacked judges. “Outrageous,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted, spreading the lie that the judge barred the Secretary of the Treasury from accessing the information, although in fact he temporarily barred Treasury Secretary Bessent from granting access to others. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said the decision had “the feel of…a judicial” coup. Right-wing legal scholar Adrian Vermeule called it “[j]udicial interference with legitimate acts of state.”

Vice President J.D. Vance, who would take over the office of the presidency if the 78-year-old Trump can no longer perform the duties of the office, posted: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

As legal scholar Steve Vladeck noted: “Just to say the quiet part out loud, the point of having unelected judges in a democracy is so that *whether* acts of state are ‘legitimate’ can be decided by someone other than the people who are undertaking them. Vermeule knows this, of course. So does Vance.” Of Vance’s statement, Aaron Rupar of Public Notice added: “this is the sort of thing you post when you’re ramping up to defying lawful court orders.”

The Republicans have the power to make the changes they want through the exercise of their constitutional power, but they are not doing so. This seems in part because Trump and his MAGA supporters want to establish the idea that the president cannot be checked. And this dovetails with the fact they are fully aware that most Americans oppose their plans. Voters were so opposed to the plan outlined in Project 2025—the plan now in operation—that Trump ran from it during the campaign. Popular support for Musk’s participation in the government has plummeted as well. A poll from The Economist/YouGov released February 5 says that only 13% of adult Americans want him to have “a lot” of influence, while 96% of respondents said that jobs and the economy were important to them and 41% said they thought the economy was getting worse.

Trump’s MAGA Republicans know they cannot get the extreme changes they wanted through Congress, so they are, instead, dictating them. And Musk began his focus at the Treasury, establishing control over the payment system that manages the money American taxpayers pay to our government.

Musk and MAGA officials claim they are combating waste and fraud, but in fact, when Judge Carl Nichols stopped Trump from shutting down USAID, he specifically said that government lawyers had offered no support for that argument in court. Indeed, the U.S. government already has the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent, nonpartisan agency that audits, evaluates and investigates government programs for Congress. In 2023 the GAO returned about $84 for every $1 invested in it, in addition to suggesting improvements across the government.

Until Trump fired 18 of them when he took office, major departments also had their own independent inspectors general, charged with preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, misconduct, and mismanagement in the government and promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in government operations and programs.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation also investigates corruption, including that committed by healthcare providers.

According to Musk’s own Grok artificial intelligence tool on X, the investigative departments of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as USAID, have all launched investigations into the practices and violations of Elon Musk’s companies.

But Trump has been gutting congressional oversight, apparently wanting to make sure that no one can oversee the president. Rather than rooting out waste and corruption in the government, Musk and his ilk have launched a hostile takeover to turn the United States of America into a business that will return huge profits to those leaders who, in the process of moving fast and breaking things, are placing themselves at the center of the lives of 332 million people. Breaking into the U.S. Treasury payment system puts Musk and his DOGE team at the head of the country’s nerve center.

The vision they are enacting rips predictability, as well as economic security, away from farmers, who are already protesting the loss of their markets with the attempted destruction of USAID. It hurts the states—especially Republican-dominated states—that depend on funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education. Their vision excludes consumers, who are set to lose the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as protections put in place by President Joe Biden. Their vision takes away protections for racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities, as well as from women, and kills funding for the programs that protect all of us, such as cancer research and hospitals.

Musk and Trump appear to be concentrating the extraordinary wealth of the American people, along with the power that wealth brings, into their own hands, for their own ends. Trump has championed further tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, while Musk seems to want to make sure his companies, especially SpaceX, win as many government contracts as possible to fund his plan to colonize Mars.

But the mission of the United States of America is not, and has never been, to return huge profits to a few leaders.

The mission of the United States of America is stated in the Constitution. It is a government designed by “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Far from being designed to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a single man, it was formed to do the opposite: spread wealth and power throughout the country’s citizenry and enable them to protect their rights by voting for those who would represent them in Congress and the presidency, then holding them accountable at the ballot box.

The people who think that bearing arms is central to maintaining American rights are the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election by storming the United States Capitol because they do not command the votes to put their policies in place through the exercise of law outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

—

[gwydionmisha]

Cabinet Nominee Senate Hearing Action Items: Week of 1/27/25 - 1/31/25

Please contact your senators and ask them to reject dangerous and unqualified cabinet picks. I don't have a lot of hope at this point, but better to fight than roll belly up. If nothing else ask them to resist Pam Bondi, RFK Jr., Russel Vought, Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel.

Usually they just log for or against. If they want a reason, I've listed some below. Use reason for Democrats. For Republicans: Stress military readiness, national security, and the integrity and morale of the military, law and order, etc..

All of these are terrible. Complain about whatever you have energy for (most important in red):

WEDNESDAY:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Heath and Human Services. He murdered hundreds of children in Samoa and plans to scale that up in the US, buy completely outlawing vaccines and dismantling our entire infectious desease response infrastructure. I beg of you, fight this one. Plenty of Republicans are old enough to remember how bad polio was. McConnell is a polio survivor. We have a chance here. Push hard.

"How would RFK Jr. handle bird flu? His record on vaccines has experts on edge:" https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/01/16/nx-s1-5254733/rfk-vaccine-bird-flu-trump-cabinet-picks

(RFK Jr, has a second hearing later in the week.)

Kelly Loeffler, Small Business Administration nominee, is wildly corrupt.

This is from December, but I'm putting it up as a refresher:

"Kelly Loeffler’s Conflict of Interest Is Even Worse Than Reported: The senator had power over regulators whose work directly affected her own financial interests.:" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/12/kelly-loefflers-conflict-of-interest-is-even-worse-than-reported/

THURSDAY:

Kash Patel, FBI. He published an enemies list and has promised to purge all the honest people with ethics out of the FBI, replacing them with Trump loyalists, so he can weaponize the FBI to persecute anyone Trump doesn't like. No innocent person will be safe.

Tulsi Gabbard, Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She is in the bag for Russia and has ties to Bashar al-Assad. She is generally considered a major intelligence threat. None of our secret intelligence or that of any allies foolish enough to share information with us will be safe. I beg of you fight this one.

Files detail bid to contain fallout from Tulsi Gabbard meetings with Assad

[arcticbunn]

The retreads keep reappearing in the new administration …

Having failed to twist GOP arms hard enough to get Matt (Breathalyzer Boy) Gaetz into the Attorney General job, don-OLD trump has turned to a Golden Oldie for the job: Pam Bondi, former Attorney General for Florida. Bondi reached national notoriety for being in the position to join a lawsuit against Trump University for grifting citizens out of their hard-earned money to learn how to invest in real estate. Associating with this “university” (if by “university” you mean a non-accredited fake school run by a group of people interested in getting money out of students) would cost prospective land barons $1,495 for seminars up to a $35,000 "Gold Elite" program. When confronted with this suit against the Republican candidate for president, Ms. Bondi decided that the $25,000 offered by the future crook-in-chief would soothe the conflict between her job as the attorney of the people and not ruffling the feathers of the leader of her party.

So, if we have someone who can be bribed so easily in a position where bribery can be made, what other decisions will Ms. Bondi overlook – or perhaps look too hard – to increase her personal wealth?

But there is a more humorous aspect to Bondi being in Washington, D.C.: her former main squeeze, Rick Scott, serves as senator for Florida. Back when Bondi and Scott were in Tallahassee, there were strong rumors of the two canoodling on the sly, ending only as both moved on from state governance. Indeed, we have this picture of Scott leering at Bondi:

What a smooth operator.

It’s bad enough that we have shady people filling positions in this new administration, including someone willing to take bribes (not to mention rapists), but we should consider passing a law that prospective lawmakers prove that they were born on this planet, to avoid aliens like Rick Scott from getting elected:

[bills-bible-basics]

EPSTEIN CASE, JFK, RFK, MLK JR., UFOs

It is my understanding that the flight logs were ALREADY publicized quite some time ago. That being the case, how is this anything new?

Unless Pam Bondi’s department releases the actual FULL client list, and unless there are actual prosecutions followed by prison terms for all of the guilty parties, this amounts to nothing more than the same old political stonewalling and pointless grandstanding which we have seen for the past 60-70 years, ever since some of these events occurred.

I think people who are putting there faith in this need to wake up. They need to stop being so naive and gullible.

Furthermore, I believe that as long as any of the guilty parties are still breathing and alive, this information will NEVER be fully released, simply because these people are too powerful.

They may possibly throw a few people under the bus to try to quell the public’s desire to know the full truth, but it won’t be everything.

I think people are going to be disappointed by what is released tomorrow. It will be a lot of hot air which SEEMS to say a lot, but which in reality will say little or nothing new.

Remember the Congressional UFO/UAP hearing with David Grusch and others? How did that turn out? What new facts were revealed that weren’t already known?

So again, this may just be another boring case of wash, rinse and repeat.

I hope Pam Bondi and her department prove me wrong. We will know soon enough.

[yourreddancer]

Heather Cox Richardson

February 9, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Feb 10

On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “protecting Second Amendment rights.” The order calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all gun regulations in the U.S. to make sure they don’t infringe on any citizen’s right to bear arms. The executive order says that the Second Amendment “is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.”

In fact, it is the right to vote for the lawmakers who make up our government that is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans.

The United States Constitution that establishes the framework for our democratic government sets out how the American people will write the laws that govern us. We elect members to a Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. That congress of our representatives holds “all legislative powers”; that is, Congress alone has the right to make laws. It alone has the power to levy taxes on the American people, borrow money, regulate commerce, coin money, declare war, “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper.”

After Congress writes, debates, and passes a measure, the Constitution establishes that it goes to the president, who is also elected, through “electors,” by the people. The president can either sign a measure into law or veto it, returning it to Congress where members can either repass it over his veto or rewrite it. But once a law is on the books, the president must enforce it. The men who framed the Constitution wrote that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” When President Richard Nixon tried to alter laws passed by Congress by withholding the funding Congress had appropriated to put them into effect, Congress shut that down quickly, passing a law explicitly making such “impoundment” illegal.

Since the Supreme Court’s 1803 Marbury v. Madison decision, the federal courts have taken on the duty of “judicial review,” the process of determining whether a law falls within the rules of the Constitution.

Right now, the Republicans hold control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court. They have the power to change any laws they want to change according to the formula Americans have used since 1789 when the Constitution went into effect.

But they are not doing that.

Instead, officials in the Trump administration, as well as billionaire Elon Musk— who put $290 million into electing Trump and Republicans, and whose actual role in the government remains unclear— are making unilateral changes to programs established by Congress. Through executive orders and announcements from Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” they have sidelined Congress, and Republicans are largely mum about the seizure of their power.

Now MAGA Republicans are trying to neuter the judiciary.

After yet another federal judge stopped the Musk/Trump onslaught by temporarily blocking Musk and his team from accessing Americans’ records from Treasury Department computers, MAGA Republicans attacked judges. “Outrageous,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted, spreading the lie that the judge barred the Secretary of the Treasury from accessing the information, although in fact he temporarily barred Treasury Secretary Bessent from granting access to others. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said the decision had “the feel of…a judicial” coup. Right-wing legal scholar Adrian Vermeule called it “[j]udicial interference with legitimate acts of state.”

Vice President J.D. Vance, who would take over the office of the presidency if the 78-year-old Trump can no longer perform the duties of the office, posted: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

As legal scholar Steve Vladeck noted: “Just to say the quiet part out loud, the point of having unelected judges in a democracy is so that *whether* acts of state are ‘legitimate’ can be decided by someone other than the people who are undertaking them. Vermeule knows this, of course. So does Vance.” Of Vance’s statement, Aaron Rupar of Public Notice added: “this is the sort of thing you post when you’re ramping up to defying lawful court orders.”

The Republicans have the power to make the changes they want through the exercise of their constitutional power, but they are not doing so. This seems in part because Trump and his MAGA supporters want to establish the idea that the president cannot be checked. And this dovetails with the fact they are fully aware that most Americans oppose their plans.

Voters were so opposed to the plan outlined in Project 2025—the plan now in operation—that Trump ran from it during the campaign. Popular support for Musk’s participation in the government has plummeted as well. A poll from The Economist/YouGov released February 5 says that only 13% of adult Americans want him to have “a lot” of influence, while 96% of respondents said that jobs and the economy were important to them and 41% said they thought the economy was getting worse.

Trump’s MAGA Republicans know they cannot get the extreme changes they wanted through Congress, so they are, instead, dictating them. And Musk began his focus at the Treasury, establishing control over the payment system that manages the money American taxpayers pay to our government.

Musk and MAGA officials claim they are combating waste and fraud, but in fact, when Judge Carl Nichols stopped Trump from shutting down USAID, he specifically said that government lawyers had offered no support for that argument in court.

Indeed, the U.S. government already has the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent, nonpartisan agency that audits, evaluates and investigates government programs for Congress. In 2023 the GAO returned about $84 for every $1 invested in it, in addition to suggesting improvements across the government.

Until Trump fired 18 of them when he took office, major departments also had their own independent inspectors general, charged with preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, misconduct, and mismanagement in the government and promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in government operations and programs.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation also investigates corruption, including that committed by healthcare providers.

According to Musk’s own Grok artificial intelligence tool on X, the investigative departments of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as USAID, have all launched investigations into the practices and violations of Elon Musk’s companies.

But Trump has been gutting congressional oversight, apparently wanting to make sure that no one can oversee the president. Rather than rooting out waste and corruption in the government, Musk and his ilk have launched a hostile takeover to turn the United States of America into a business that will return huge profits to those leaders who, in the process of moving fast and breaking things, are placing themselves at the center of the lives of 332 million people. Breaking into the U.S. Treasury payment system puts Musk and his DOGE team at the head of the country’s nerve center.

The vision they are enacting rips predictability, as well as economic security, away from farmers, who are already protesting the loss of their markets with the attempted destruction of USAID. It hurts the states—especially Republican-dominated states—that depend on funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education. Their vision excludes consumers, who are set to lose the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as protections put in place by President Joe Biden. Their vision takes away protections for racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities, as well as from women, and kills funding for the programs that protect all of us, such as cancer research and hospitals.

Musk and Trump appear to be concentrating the extraordinary wealth of the American people, along with the power that wealth brings, into their own hands, for their own ends. Trump has championed further tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, while Musk seems to want to make sure his companies, especially SpaceX, win as many government contracts as possible to fund his plan to colonize Mars.

But the mission of the United States of America is not, and has never been, to return huge profits to a few leaders.

The mission of the United States of America is stated in the Constitution. It is a government designed by “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Far from being designed to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a single man, it was formed to do the opposite: spread wealth and power throughout the country’s citizenry and enable them to protect their rights by voting for those who would represent them in Congress and the presidency, then holding them accountable at the ballot box.

The people who think that bearing arms is central to maintaining American rights are the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election by storming the United States Capitol because they do not command the votes to put their policies in place through the exercise of law outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

[cueburstnews]

How Old Is Pam Bondi? Former Florida Attorney General’s Age Now – Hollywood Life

Image Credit: Getty Images Pam Bondi has been in the political world for years, but she’s reached new strides in her career following her nomination to be the next potential U.S. attorney general. After Donald Trump‘s original AG nominee, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his bid in late 2024, Bondi quickly made headlines. In January 2025, she attended her confirmation hearing in front of the Senate…

[cheapandawesome]

How Old Is Pam Bondi? Former Florida Attorney General’s Age Now

Learn more about President Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. Attorney General, who was recently confirmed by the Senate. https://hollywoodlife.com/feature/pam-bondi-age-5362436/

[blackfreethinkers]

Harold Newton did something that took guts.

An African American artist from Georgia, Newton in 1955 walked through the front door of a well-known white artist’s home in Fort Pierce, Florida, to ask A. E. Backus for advice.

“Backus had a reputation here in town for being inclusive and open to people no matter their gender, no matter their beliefs, no matter their race,” said J. Marshall Adams, Executive Director of the A.E. Backus Museum and Gallery in Fort Pierce. “Backus was very encouraging of his work, gave him critiques, gave him demonstrations, gave him art supplies to help encourage him.”

Newton soaked up everything Backus taught him.

Selling paintings along the highway

But Newton had one more hurdle to overcome if he wanted to sell his own landscape paintings.

“He couldn’t set up his own gallery, his own space in those segregated times and attract white clientele to a black studio so he had to figure out a way to get his art to his clients, to his customers,” Adams said.

Newton's solution: sell his paintings out of his car along U.S. 1. That method spread and was adopted by more than two dozen artists in the area, leading to more than 200,000 paintings and a vibrant African American art scene up and down the Treasure Coast. The artists were later given the name: Highwaymen.

Alfred Hair wasn't the first Highwaymen artist, but he was seen as the African American art movement's charismatic leader whose hustle to sell art out of the trunk of his car led to a successful career before his life was cut short when he was shot and killed at a local hangout in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Historical and museum photos of Florida's Highwaymen Artists

Alfred Hair wasn't the first Highwaymen artist, but he was seen as the African American art movement's charismatic leader whose hustle to sell art out of the trunk of his car led to a successful career before his life was cut short when he was shot and killed at a local hangout in Fort Pierce, Florida.1 of 47 Highwaymen artist Al "Blood" Black with one of his paintings in 2014.

Highwaymen artist Curtis Arnett with Attorney General Pam Bondi, left, and curator Jeanna Brunson at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee in 2011.

Fort Pierce Highwaymen Artist James Gibson brings one of his paintings into the Sunrise Theater to be hung in preparation for the 2007 Highwaymen Florida Artist Hall of Fame Artist Award Celebration held in November 2007.

R.L. Lewis standing in front of his Highwaymen art in 2008.

Mary Ann Carroll, the only woman of the 26 Highwaymen artists in the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, poses for a photo in her garage studio at her home on Oct. 7, 2014, in Fort Pierce. Vero Beach painter Ray McLendon shares a laugh with fifth-grade students on March 2, 2017, at Beachland Elementary School as he signs autographs after giving a talk about Florida Highwaymen art. Florida Highwaymen painter, R. L. Lewis puts finishing touches on painting while attending the Tallahassee Museum's (Jr. Museum) annual Market Days fund raiser held at the North Florida Fairgrounds in 2006.

Highwaymen artist James Gibson at the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science's annual Market Days fund raiser at the Leon County Fairgrounds in 2007.

Highwaymen artist R.L. Lewis painting at the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science's annual Market Days fund raiser at the Leon County Fairgrounds in 2007.

A. E. "Bean" Backus working on one of his paintings sometime in the 1980s.

Robert Butler, Highwayman Artist, working on a painting at the Old Capitol - Tallahassee, Florida, in 2006.

Each year the A.E. Backus Museum in Fort Pierce holds an exhibit celebrating the works of the Florida Highwaymen artists. Backus is credited for giving lessons to Harold Newton and Alfred Hair, two original Florida Highwaymen artists. The 2020 exhibit looked at the art of the Hair, who was considered the charismatic leader of the African American art movement in the area.

The A.E. Backus Museum in Fort Pierce celebrates the work and life of one of the great early Florida landscape artists. Backus also is credited for giving lessons to Harold Newton and Alfred Hair, two original Florida Highwaymen artists.

Doretha Hair Truesdell, widow of original Florida Highwaymen artist Alfred Hair, with Marshall Adams, the executive director of the A.E. Backus Museum, in Fort Pierce. Alfred Hair was considered the charismatic leader of the African American group of artists from Fort Pierce and the surrounding areas. The Backus museum has a permanent display of Highwaymen art.

The Florida Highwaymen were a group of African American artists, generally from Fort Pierce and the surrounding areas, who drove up and down U.S. 1 selling the landscape art during the 1950s and 60s.

The A.E. Backus Museum in Fort Pierce has a permanent display of Highwaymen art, and each January into February, expands that collection to encompass much of the museum. This is part of the expanded 2020 exhibit called "Driving Force."

The story of Alfred Hair

One of the artists considered to be the scene's leader was Alfred Hair. When Hair was 14 years old, he, like Newton, fell into Backus' orbit.

Hair went to the nearby segregated school in Fort Pierce — Lincoln Park Academy. It was Hair’s teacher who suggested Backus take him under his wing.

Backus taught Hair how to paint landscapes and how to make frames. Hair started to believe he could turn painting into a career, something unheard of for blacks of the time.

"The only jobs you could get was working in the fields, that was your job, in the orange groves," said Hair’s widow, Doretha Hair Truesdell. "Alfred didn’t see himself doing that. He said painting is what I’m going to do. This is my job. This is my employment."

Doretha Hair Truesdell, widow of original Florida Highwaymen artist Alfred Hair, with Marshall Adams, the executive director of the A.E. Backus Museum, in Fort Pierce. Alfred Hair was considered the charismatic leader of the African American group of artists from Fort Pierce and the surrounding areas. The Backus museum has a permanent display of Highwaymen art.

As Hair grew in the industry, he knew he would have to do things differently from his white mentor, who could set up in galleries and share his paintings with mass audiences.

So Hair came up with his own business model.

A new business model

“What he could do is lean into his talents, and one of those talents was painting fast,” Adams said. “If he could learn how to paint faster and paint more volume he would have more to sell — he would sell them for a less expensive price point than an established artist — but at the end of the day make as much money.”

Soon, Hair took a page from Newton’s playbook. He began driving up and down the highway selling his paintings.

It worked. During the early part of the 1960s Hair, and many other artists with a similar painting style, thrived.

“On Oct. 16, 1965, we moved into our house that we had built from those paintings,” said Hair Truesdell. “When we moved into that house that’s when we really exploded. We could produce about 20 paintings a day. We hired salespeople. Some of the people that are Highwaymen now were our salespeople. They sold for us, so we were really making a lot of money for that time.”

Hair and Newton’s practice of selling art out of their cars came to be used by many African American artists along the U.S. 1 corridor on Florida’s Treasure Coast.

Many found success.

More: Harry T. Moore helped thousands of blacks register to vote. It led to his assassination on Christmas night

More: Mary McLeod Bethune was born the daughter of slaves. She died a retired college president

When everything changed

However, in 1970, the African American art scene lost its charismatic leader when Hair was gunned down in a bar. He was only 29.

“Overnight, everything dies," said Hair's widow. "Nothing is left.”

Many of the African American landscape artists continued to paint, but waning interest after Hair's death coupled with new tastes and styles in the 1970s and 1980s saw much of the success fade away.

“We survived it all,” Hair Truesdell said. “We’re still living. Still standing and still we have the memory and we will always have the memory of Alfred, of his vision.”

In the mid-1990s Jim Fitch, a Florida art historian, discussed the African American painting movement of the 1960s in the St. Petersburg Times, using a label to describe their art.

How the 'Highwaymen' came to be

“That term is ‘The Highwaymen,’” Adams said. “The name came from the artery of U.S. 1 being the chief way to go up and down and sell your works of art. So it’s easy for us to, now that we have a term, to describe these artists.”

This created a new interest in their art, which is estimated to include 200,000 paintings.

One of the distinctive things that make the Highwaymen art unique is the frames and vibrant colors of the landscapes.

Especially early on, because they lacked the resources and supplies, Hair and others would paint on upson board. They framed paintings with crown molding and brushed them with gold or silver to give them a rustic look.

“I really think the board that we painted on, I just think it gave it vibrancy that you don’t get from canvas,” Hair Truesdell said. “Also, we shellacked our board, and then we put a sealant on the board, and then the paint just adhered to that sealant and I just think that it gave it life.”

The true number of Highwaymen artists has been debated, with some being considered second or third generation Highwaymen.

However, in 2004, the number of identified Highwaymen was set at 26 when they were inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.

They include: Curtis Arnett, Hezekiah Baker, Al "Blood" Black, brothers Ellis Buckner and George Buckner, Robert Butler, Mary Ann Carroll, brothers Johnny Daniels and Willie Daniels, Rodney Demps, James Gibson, Alfred Hair, Isaac Knight, Robert Lewis, John Maynor, Roy McLendon, Alfonso "Pancho" Moran, brothers Sam Newton, Lemuel Newton and Harold Newton, Willie Reagan, Livingston "Castro" Roberts, Cornell "Pete" Smith, Charles Walker, Sylvester Wells and Charles "Chico" Wheeler.

“Even though they might be painting similar subjects in a similar manner they each have their own individual viewpoints,” Adams said. “I think it’s important to honor these individual artists as well as the collective group. The collective story is really important, but it shouldn’t obscure the idea that these are individuals who are looking at subjects and painting with their own style. If you look closely you can see a wide range of different perspectives of how they approached a single subject.”

The A.E. Backus Museum in Fort Pierce celebrates the work and life of one of the great early Florida landscape artists. Backus also is credited for giving lessons to Harold Newton and Alfred Hair, two original Florida Highwaymen artists.

Highwaymen paintings can be seen at the A.E. Backus Gallery & Museum in Fort Pierce, as well as the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee.

Many can be purchased at various websites in their honor.

There are also some pieces on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

“It’s wonderful that these artists are being recognized today and they’re continuing to be recognized,” Adams said. “These works have a timeless beauty. They are of a certain time and there were certain social and political and cultural forces that shaped how they were made and how the people made them, were able to make them. They really speak beyond that.”

[berniesrevolution]

JACOBIN MAGAZINE

Nobody is quite sure how to understand Donald Trump.

A group of twenty-seven American psychiatrists and mental health experts made a long list of personality disorders — narcissism, delusional disorder, paranoia, unbridled and extreme present hedonism, and more — shortly after he came into office. Some might be accurate. But psychological designations aren’t the best way to wrap your mind around Trump. To fully examine him as a political actor, we must root his personal characteristics in the US social structure.

Trump is a capitalist. That isn’t a surprise to anyone. But he is a particular kind of capitalist: a lumpen capitalist.

A Career of Skullduggery

In his Class Struggles in France. 1848–1850, Marx wrote that the finance aristocracy of that time “in its mode of acquisition as well as in its pleasures, is nothing but the rebirth of the lumpenproletariat on the heights of bourgeois society.” Marxist scholar Hal Draper clarified that Marx’s “finance aristocracy” did not refer to the finance capital that plays an integral role in bourgeois economy, but to the “vultures and raiders” who swing from speculation to swindling and who are the near criminal or extralegal excrescences from the body social of the rich just like the “lumpen proletariat” proper are excrescences from the poor.

Marx referred again to this upper-class “lumpen proletariat” after the fall of the Paris Communein 1871, as enjoying their leisure in “the Paris of the Boulevards, male and female — the rich, the capitalist, the gilded, the idle Paris, now thronging with its lackeys, its blacklegs, its literary bohême, and its cocottes.”

The essence of Trump’s lumpen capitalism is expressed in many ways, beginning with his shady, illegal (or bordering on the illegal) financial operations. “Normal” capitalists will often take illegal shortcuts in pursuit of profit — like avoiding paying taxes, violating government regulations, illegally smashing union drives — all in the course of managing otherwise “normal” capitalist enterprises. For lumpen-capitalist Trump, however, those shortcuts are the principal strategy for his profit-making.

Examples of this abound, starting with the skullduggery that pervades his financial operations. “Normal” capitalists may regularly borrow money from banks and other financial institutions to run their businesses; they only resort to bankruptcy occasionally, usually as a last resort. But as the “king of debt,” Trump’s businesses have gone into bankruptcy no less than six times, five times for his casinos and once for New York’s Plaza Hotel.

According to business historian Gwenda Blair, in 1990, Trump secretly met with representatives of several big American banks to find a way out of his staggering $2 billion in bank debt that included personal liability on guarantees and unsecured loans amounting to $800 million, as well as more than $1 billion in junk bonds on his casinos. As Blair put it, in less than a decade, Trump had become what Marie Brenner in Vanity Fair called the “Brazil of Manhattan,” with annual interest payments of approximately $350 million exceeding his cash flow. Only two of his assets, his half of the Grand Hyatt Hotel and the retail component of Trump Tower, had at that time any chance of making a profit.

The lawsuits against his Trump University have further exposed the extent of his shady financial operations. He founded this for-profit “university” with a couple of partners in 2005 to offer courses in real estate and asset management among other subjects. It was not accredited; neither did it give grades, confer university credits, or grant degrees. A few years after it was founded, it was investigated by the New York Attorney General and sued for illegal business practices. Two class-action suits were also filed against it in federal court, alleging that its students were the victims of misleading marketing practices and aggressive sales tactics. After he was elected president, Trump paid the victims $25 million and settled the case, even though he had repeatedly promised not to do so.

Like Trump University, these types of institutions typically have very poor records in degree completion and job placement but are efficient machines for exacting profits off the fat of the federal government’s loans and subsidies to their overwhelmingly poor and minority adult students. After the Obama administration’s attempts to curb some of their worst abuses, Trump’s administration sharply went the other direction: under the direction of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, it has given them the green light to proceed with their fraudulent practices.

His Trump Foundation is another case in point. As the New York Times wrote in a recent editorial, “the Trump Foundation, is not a generous and ethical charity, but just another of his [Trump’s] grifts.” As the editorial pointed out, the largest donation reported by the foundation, for the amount of $264,631, was used to refurbish the fountain in front of Trump’s Plaza Hotel in New York City. Other questionable activities included its 2013 illegal contributions to the reelection of Pam Bondi, Florida’s attorney general.

On October 2, 2018, the New York Times published a devastating investigative report on Trump debunking his claim that his father Fred Trump had “only” lent him $1 million to start his business career. In fact, as the report shows, Donald Trump received from his father at least $60.7 million, ($140 million in today’s dollars). The report also details the numerous dubious and outright illegal ways in which Donald avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in gift and estate taxes.

Most telling of Donald’s character is the finding that he tried, in 1990, to take total control of his then-eighty-five-year-old father’s business and fortune behind his back. Donald’s attempt was foiled by Trump Sr himself, who, with the help of his daughter, federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, had him legally stripped from any attempt to take over his father’s businesses. According to sworn depositions by members of the Trump family, Fred told them that Donald’s takeover would put “his life’s work at risk,” and that he feared his son would use his father’s businesses as collateral to rescue his failing businesses.

(Continue Reading)

[yourreddancer]

Today in Politics, Bulletin 43. 1/8/25

Today in Politics, Bulletin 43. 1/8/25 Ron Filipkowski Jan 9 … Merrick Garland announced that he will release Jack Smith’s complete report on the J6 case but will not release the report to the public on the classified documents case since there are still pending charges against Trump’s co-defendants. This appears to be how Garland has decided to deal with Judge Aileen Cannon’s illegal attempt to block all reports from being made public.

… So, Garland will release the report dealing with the most important work Jack Smith did with the greatest amount of evidence and testimony that has never been seen before by the public - the J6 case - and ignore Cannon order on that since she clearly has no jurisdiction over it and just continues to go rogue.

… The biggest thing I want to see is Mike Pence and Mark Meadows’s testimony. I’m going straight to that, because that is going to be the good stuff. I would bet money that Meadows has been dreading this day because he BURIED Trump in his proffer, which he doesn’t want anyone to know about. Nobody knows what he said, but I guarantee you that Mark Meadows was interested in saving Mark Meadows’s ass, not Trump’s.

… Garland is, however, taking steps to ensure that the classified documents case report and evidence isn’t disappeared by Trump’s incoming AG Pam Bondi. Politico reports that he is providing a full copy of the report of that investigation to the House and Senate Judiciary Committee’s Chairs and Ranking Members. That means that Dick Durbin and Jamie Raskin will have that full report before Trump takes office.

… That lowered my blood pressure a few points.

… DOJ also filed an appeal with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals today of Judge Cannon’s ridiculous order. Again.

… President Biden gave a lengthy interview to USA Today as he winds down the final days of his presidency and 50+ year career in politics. He said that he has been considering preemptive pardons for people that Trump and MAGA have targeted for baseless criminal prosecutions, such as Liz Cheney and Dr. Fauci.

… Biden said in his meeting with Trump in the Oval Office that he asked Trump not to go there on his Retribution & Revenge Tour: “I tried to make it clear that there was no need, and it was counterintuitive for his interests to go back and try and settle scores.” Biden was asked what Trump’s response to that was. It was silence: “He just basically listened.”

… My blood pressure went back up. I knew it wouldn’t last.

… Biden was asked if he thought he would have won if he stayed in the race: “It’s presumptuous to say this, but I think yes.” But when asked if he would have been able to serve out his full 4 year term he said: “I don’t know. I wasn’t looking to be president when I was 85-86 years old. So I did talk about passing the baton. But I don’t know. Who the hell knows?”

… Finally, Biden was asked how he hopes history will remember his presidency: “I hope that history says that I came in and I had a plan how to restore the economy and reestablish America’s leadership in the world. That was my hope. And I hope it records that I did it with honesty and integrity, that I said what was on my mind.”

… He was asked if his domestic policy agenda was too ambitious: “How in the hell in a changed world can America lead the world without having the finest infrastructure in the world, without having the best education system in the world, without the best health care system in the world? They’re just things I though were necessary.”

… But he said he was frustrated that his Admin didn’t get credit for infrastructure projects because it took too long for them to start: “Historians will talk about how great the impact was, but it didn’t have any immediate impact on people’s lives. I think we would’ve been a hell of a lot better off had we been able to go much harder at getting some of these projects in the ground quicker.”

… Rep. Hakeem Jeffries was asked by Punchbowl if he agreed with Biden that he probably would have beaten Trump if he stayed in: “We’re looking forward, not backward.”

… Sen. Tom Cotton: “Whether or not Biden pardons the disgraced Tony Fauci, we still need to get to the bottom of Fauci’s relationship with China.” I guess lowering egg prices isn’t front and center anymore.

… Politico’s Alex Isenstadt has a book coming out called, ‘Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power’. He conducted over 300 interviews for the book and acquired internal memos and recordings from the Trump campaign. He reveals that Trump got the questions in advance from Fox before his big Town Hall with Bret Baier, which is something Trump always accuses Democrats of, going all the way back to his debates with Hillary Clinton.

… From the book: “About 30 minutes before the town hall was due to start, a senior aide started getting text messages from a person on the inside at Fox. Holy shit! the team thought. They were images of all the questions Trump would be asked and the planned follow-ups, down to the exact wording. Jackpot! This was like a student getting a peek at the test before the exam started.” He says the Trump team then started giving him suggested answers for each of the questions they received.

… Fox responded to the report by saying it has “no evidence” that this happened but it “will investigate.” Right. And OJ looked for the real killer.

… That was a time when Trump was on the campaign trail ranting and raving that he was going to get “retribution and revenge” on his enemies - a message that was polling badly but he couldn’t help himself. And Baier was planning to bring that up and press him on it. And Trump probably would have given a very bad answer to that question if he didn’t know it was coming. But his team prepared a line for him to deliver: “My retribution will be my success, that is how I will get my revenge - by doing a good job for the American people.” An answer he NEVER would have given on his own.

… This is one of a million reasons why no Democratic candidate should ever agree to participate in any debate where Fox is the host. Fox is an arm of the Republican Party and their campaigns - not a news organization, and no Democrat should ever consider giving it any credibility as anything other than that.

(NOTE: FUX NOISE IS AN ARM OF RUSSIAN STATE TV!!!!)

… The book also revealed that Trump was dead set on picking Fox host Maria Baritromo as his running mate over JD Vance, but his inner circle talked him out of it. Trump reportedly wanted her because “she was great with the big-donor Wall Street types and she knew how to do TV.”

… Rudy Giuliani filed a motion with the court to appear virtually instead of in-person at the next hearing on the contempt of court motion on Friday, where he is likely to receive his punishment or sanctions. He complains that he can’t make it because his knee has a chronic and “severe knee condition” and is in a lot of pain.

… Oh, and “a lung condition that requires an inhaler.”

… Oh, and he “has had two heart stents.”

… Oh, and Iran is trying to assassinate him: “There have been a number of credible death threats against Mayor Giuliani. As one of the most outspoken critics of the current Iranian regime, a time of heightened terrorism concerns following the recent events in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, it is reasonable to take extra precautions for Mayor Giuliani’s safety.”

… I couldn’t make this shit up on my best day.

… Republicans were all over Fox and Newsmax talking about Trump’s insane press conference yesterday by adding a few layers of lunacy to it. Tommy Tuberville: "We've gotta take the Panama Canal back. We've gotta do something because if we were to happen to go to war with China over Taiwan and they were to shut the Panama Canal down, we'd have to go 8-10,000 miles just to get things back to the war zone."

… Sen. Rick Scott was asked this on Fox: “Taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal isn't a realistic proposal, is it? It's just a negotiating tactic, isn't it? Scott: “Well, it would be pretty exciting.”

… I really want one of those aliens in a drone to take me to another planet.

… Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) told Fox he is introducing a bill to buy the Panama Canal: “I think this is a Teddy Roosevelt moment. And frankly, America used to run this canal, and it was very well run under American leadership.”

… House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was asked by Fox what he thought about Johnson’s proposed bill: “Dusty who?”

… A strung-out looking Candyman Ronny Jackson was on paid Russian asset Benny Johnson’s podcast to talk about it: “NATO, Europe, Denmark - they should all be applauding our efforts to be involved in Greenland, to take over Greenland.”

… Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) on Fox: If I'm a Greenland citizen, I would love to be under the banner of the greatest country in the world. It's also a very strategic for us, given the relations that we are dealing with with Russia and other European countries and our adversaries. And by the way, naming the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America’ again, as an American, that's one hell of an idea.”

… Trump’s former NSA Keith Kellogg: “When you look at what the president’s doing, he’s really kind of thinking out of the box.”

(NOTE: MORE LIKE OUT OF HIS FUCKING MIND!!!)

… Fox host Ainsley Earhardt, who recently announced her engagement to Sean Hannity, had this to say this morning on Fox & Friends: “Greenland, strategically it makes sense because it’s the halfway point between our country and the UK. So it would make sense to have that for war purposes if we ever got to that point.”

… My head hurts.

… Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) on Fox: "Listen, I think that the people of Panama, I think that the people of Greenland, I think that the people of Canada for that matter should be honored that President Trump wants to bring these territories under the American fold. Trump is bringing us into a golden age of America. This is the new Manifest Destiny. Reacquiring the Panama Canal, acquiring Greenland, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. This is the light of America expanding.”

… It hurts more.

… Don Jr reports everyone in Greenland came up to him (big strong men with tears in their eyes) during the couple of hours he flew in and had lunch there: “So many of these young kids coming up and telling us, ‘when we go to Denmark we’re treated like 2nd and 3rd class citizens.’ There seems to be quite a bit of racism in Denmark. From what I saw on the ground, everyone was really into this concept. They loved it. They loved America. They love MAGA. They love Trump.”

(NOTE: THEY BRIBED HOMELESS PEOPLE WITH A MEAL TO WEAR MAGA HATS!!!!)

… I just got made a very strong cocktail. There is no other way to get through this.

Onward!

… Sen. Majority Leader John Thune makes it obvious that this foolishness is the last thing he needs right now. To CNN: “I expect to hear more about it in the days ahead. Obviously, there are a number of issues that he’s raised that we’ll get a chance to consider.” That’s basically the new version of, “I didn’t see the tweet.”

 But former Republican Senator Chuck Hagen wasn’t amused. He told WSJ: “We just haven’t seen anything like this, at least in my lifetime, from a president of the US. This is very, very autocratic, and that is why it is so concerning what Trump is saying and how he’s acting. When our strongest allies and partners lose confidence in us, no good is going to come from all of that. China and Russia are looking at all this, like, ‘Go ahead, Mr. Trump, keep talking.’”

… MAGA talk show host David Reilly, representing many right-wingers who don’t get what Trump is doing right now: “Nobody asked for Greenland. Nobody asked for Canada. Nobody asked for Panama. We asked for a wall. We asked to deport them all. We asked for America First. Hello? Bueller?”

… Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum went on TV to talk about how Mexico was now going to refer to the southwestern United States, which used to part of Mexico: “We are going to call it, ‘Americana Mexicana.’ It sounds pretty, no?”

… Ontario Premier Doug Ford was asked about Trump wanting to take over Canada: “You know something, to the president - I’ll make him a counter-offer. How about if we buy Alaska and Minnesota? I know he likes to make these comments, but I take this seriously. Under my watch, that will never, ever happen.”

… Rep. Eric Burleson (R-MO) talked to Fox about his bill co-sponsored by Lauren Boebert to abolish the ATF, which was created in 1886: “The Constitution makes it very clear that when it comes to the federal government, there shall be no laws restricting firearms.”

 Federal prosecutors filed an objection to former Rep. George Santos’s attempt to delay his sentencing next month, where he is facing significant prison time. The excuse he is using is that the money he is making from his new podcast and Cameos will allow him to pay off all $600,000 in restitution if he just gets another 6 month delay. The truth is that he wants the delay to give him time to work on his contacts close to Trump for a pardon.

… Prosecutors say that Santos made $400,000 last year from Cameo, plus his $174,000 salary from Congress, plus $400,000 for the rights to his life story to a documentary company, and they want to know what happened to all that money while the victims have gotten nothing from him: “He fails to provide any accounting of his current financial condition and fails to offer any explanation of his dissipation of assets (including personal spending) in the months since his guilty plea.”

… That’s a fancy way of saying he spent it all on himself or has it stashed away somewhere.

… Late in the day, Santos filed his response: “The government’s motion reads more like a press release - replete with references to sensational media coverage and personal attacks, yet devoid of any sound or legal factual basis to reject a straightforward scheduling request. The government seeks to rush to sentencing. Its abrupt pivot is nothing short of disingenuous, politically motivated, and antithetical to actual justice.”

… I apologize. I’m willing to take the abuse. But Santos cracks me up. I still want him to go to prison next month, but he has me laughing all the way to his cell.

… Republicans are blaming Democrats for the devastating wildfires in CA. Unfortunately for LA Mayor Karen Bass, she was on a trip to Africa when this happened, which they using against her. Rick Caruso, who lost the mayor’s race to Bass in 2022, told local Fox 11: "This is like a 3rd World country. There’s no water in the Palisades. There’s no water coming out of the fire hydrants. This is an absolute mismanagement by the city. We’ve got a mayor that’s out of the country, and we’ve got a city that’s burning, and there’s no resources to put out fires."

… Trump, who revels in seizing upon every opportunity to score political points in the wake of a tragedy, blamed Gavin Newsom: “He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water, but didn’t care about the people of CA. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is to blame for this. No water for fire hydrants, no firefighting planes. A true disaster!”

… Don Jr blamed it on the LA Fire Department having a gay Chief: “Can we rename DEI to DIE, since that’s what seems to happen to the people downstream of those who place woke virtue signaling far above competency!!!”

… Trump posted on Truth Social: “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA. THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!”

… Elon Musk blamed it on Ukraine, citing the fact that we have provided firefighting equipment to them over the years: “What about California?”

… Movie/TV Critic Peg Aloi: “The reason there is ‘no water’ available in fire hydrants in LA is because the water lines have been broken or burned by the fire, so there is no water pressure, in addition to low water pressure due to 8 months of drought. Resist politicized accusations and conspiracy theories. Loss of power means that pumping stations don't have electricity which also is needed for water pressure. People blaming the Mayor (like racist ignoramus Elon Musk and the real estate mogul who lost the mayoral race) are just stupid, uncaring people with agendas.”

… Rep. Jasmine Crockett (R-TX): “I’m so heartbroken at the devastation that’s continuously inflicted upon our country and the world, and elected ‘leaders’ are ignorant, impotent, or just incompetent to doing the smart thing - which is to acknowledge that climate change is real and start to solve it. CA, stay safe. First responders, we thank you for your selflessness. I join the chorus of prayers for all, but as an elected, I want to actually work!”

… MAGA actor James Woods, whose house burned down: “This fire is not from ‘climate change,’ you ignorant assholes. It’s because liberal idiots elect liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass. One doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management and the other can’t fill the water reservoirs.”

NOTE: WHAT A FUCKING MAGA MORON!!

… The Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Matt Gaetz is considering a run for governor of FL in 2026. Gaetz took a shot at Desantis in the story: “I have a compelling vision for the state. I understand how to fix the insurance problem, and it’s not to hand the keys to the state over to the insurance industry. If I run, I would be the most pro-consumer candidate on the Republican side.”

… Gaetz was asked whether he thought the House Ethics report would hurt him if he runs: “Those lies have been told about me for years. They’ve never affected my ability to win elections.”

… Gaetz’s district in NWFL is overwhelmingly Republican. Literally anyone with an R next to their name on the ballot would win it by 30 points. Plus, Gaetz’s daddy was a State Senator in the district for many years and Gaetz used his name and vast fortune to put his flunky nepo baby Matt in Congress. So this isn’t exactly a flex. But he acts like he is wildly popular outside his district in the rest of Florida when he is not.

… Gaetz said, “I will address this report on my show tonight.” And that is exactly what this is about. He isn’t running - this is all BS. He’s just desperate to get people to ...

[furrywolflover]

There are some strong word choices in that article you posted, seems a little disheartening for some of your followers unless you feel the same way.

I’ll put my stance on this bluntly, change NEEDS to happen.

Civilians have no need to own a AR-15, and people use the second amendment too strongly.

Someone who isn’t even old enough to drink should not be aloud to buy a weapon designed to kill people.

A lot of the article I agree to a point, I don’t agree that EVERYONE in the party is that way, but a good amount are.  

“How heartless do you have to be to block common sense gun regulation right in the faces of the students who recently survived a mass shooting?  Civilians do not need an AR-15. Anyone who believes that the 2nd Amendment means owning absolutely ANY weapon you want is childish and emblematic of white male entitlement. And yeah, I’m keying in on white men. They’re the overwhelming majority of mass school shooters. And no, I’m not worried about “being nice” or hurting a gun owner’s delicate little, snowflake feelings. It’s past time for all of that.Keep in mind: Florida’s Governor Rick Scott and Florida’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi - they both pushed to lower the age requirement for buying AR-15s. The Parkland mass shooter was 19-years old. Not old enough to buy liquor, but old enough to buy a lethal weapon of mass destruction in the state of Florida. And Donald Trump’s federal budget cuts funding for mental health services and also cuts funding for background checks“

This is the part that is the strongest agreement from me, we need to change this, we have school shooting more then anywhere else in the world, and the same thing always happens, it happens, people talk about it and discourse, nothing happens, people forget, then another shooting happens.  After we had ONE shooting should have been enough to show the government changes needed to happen.

I’m sorry for the long text post, but this is something that needs to be said and responded too

[opedguy]

Trump Names Impeachment Dream Team

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Jan. 17, 2020.--Gearing up for his Senate impeachment trial, 73-year-old President Donald Trump has lawyered up, pulling out big legal guns in his impeachment fight with Democrats.  House Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Intelligence Committee Director Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and House Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.), accuse Trump of (1) abuse of power and (2) obstruction of Congress.  All three claim they want a fair trial but robbed Trump of due process in 12 weeks of impeachment hearings, refusing to allow Trump’s lawyers to cross-examine a group of cherry-picked witnesses all saying that Trump engaged in a quid pro quo with 40-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Schiff produced a so-called “whistleblower” who claimed  he had second-hand information about a July 25, 2019 phone call Trump had with Zelensky.

           Schiff’s “whistleblower” claimed Trump withheld $391 million Congressionally-approved military aid in exchange for information on former 77-year-old Vice President Joe Biden and his 50-year-old son, Hunter.  Hunter got a job on Ukraine natural gas company Busima Holdings’ Board while Joe ran former President Barack Obama’s anti-corruption task force, earning from $50,000 to $150.000 a month, making millions over a three year period.  Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) all demand that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) allow new witnesses and documents, accusing McConnell of bias for saying he was “coordinating” with the White House Dec.13 on impeachment matters.  House Democrats know they met their burden of proof in 12 weeks of  impeachment hearings against Trump with extreme prejudice.

            Sworn in as jurors Jan. 18 by Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, Senate Democrats and Republicans promised to uphold the U.S. Constitution, something that doesn’t rule out political bias..  Unlike a normal criminal trial, Senate Democrats and Republicans aren’t screened by the presiding judge in what’s called voir dire, or questioning to rule out bias in prospective jurors.  All Democrats and Republicans carry extreme bias into the impeachment proceeding with most, if not all, Democrats wanting Trump convicted and tossed out of office.  Most Republicans, on the other hand, want Trump acquitted.  Everyone knows this but Pelosi hammered McConnell as “biased” because he said he’s “coordinating” with the White House. McConnell isn’t the one picking Trump’s counsel to defend him in next week’s impeachment trial, slated to begin Tuesday, Jan. 21.

            Trump’s legal team will be headed by his chief White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who’s more backstage detail-oriented lawyer, not the P.T. Barnum showman expected to cross-examine Democrat witnesses.  Trump plans to have his media-savvy private lawyer Jay Sekulow, emeritus Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, former Clinton Special Prosecutor Ken Starr and Florida Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi take the lead in the Senate for oral arguments, while Miami-based criminal defense Atty. Jane Raskin works behind the scenes.  Letting Sekulow and Dershowitz play to the cameras gives Trump the best chance of vindication in the public’s eye.  “He’s been impeached forever.  They can never erase that,” Pelosi said gleefully Jan. 15.   Pelosi hasn’t had her impeachment case subjected to scrutiny, getting the mainstream press to rubber stamp her case against Trump. Her “ironclad” case is about to be tested.

            House managers, led by Schiff, have already presented their case to press and American public for the last three months. There’s nothing new that will be presented in Trump’s impeachment trial, even if House managers get new witnesses and documents.  All new testimony and documents only corroborate the House’s case against Trump, but add nothing to the bottom line:  Did Trump commit high-crimes-and-misdemeanors. Republicans believe that Trump did not commit high-crimes-and-misdemeanors in his July 25, 2019 conversation with Zelensky.  Democrats used their Article 1 authority to lower the bar on impeachment, voting out two articles that don’t meet the Constitutional test for impeachment. Democrats have not accused Trump of “treason, bribery or other high-crimes-and-misdemeanors” as specified in the Constitution, in effect weaponizing the House impeachment process.

            Trump’s legal team plans to mount a vigorous defense, challenging every fact in Democrats’ impeachment case.  Pelosi and Schumer want to introduce new witnesses, including Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-Soviet-born businessman who worked for Trump’s personal attorney, former N.Y., Mayor Rudy Giuliani trying to ascertain Ukraine’s involvement in helping former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2016 election.  Parnas and his partner Igor Fruman were arrested Oct. 9, 2019 for trying to bribe politicians to influence U.S.-Ukraine relations.  Seeking Parnas’ testimony shows how desperate House Democrats are to prove their case.  House managers want former National Security Adviser John Bolton, Chief of Staff Mick Mulaney and OMB official Michael Duffey to testify Whether that happens or not, Trump’s dream team is waiting to pounce on Democrats’ impeachment case.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.