On Second Thought

Justa Coupla Dictators Chatting

By Michael Woyton

I hope that Kim Jung-un wasn’t watching C-Span this morning or tomorrow morning or whatever time is in North Korea.

There was a real love fest going on Monday between wannabe dictator President Donald J. Felon and real-life self-proclaimed “coolest dictator” Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele.

During their Oval Office meeting a question came up from a reporter about the United States returning a Maryland man from an El Salvador prison.

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Kilmar Abrego Garcia was illegally deported from the U.S. to El Salvador and the administration believes that the recent Supreme Court order does not compel them to do anything to bring him back.

The grifter-in-chief’s facilitators have admitted Abrego Garcia was deported in violation of a 2019 immigration court order barring deportation to that country, according to Politico.

During Monday’s White House meeting, AG Pam Bondi again called Abrego Garcia a member of MS-13, something he and his lawyer continue to deny, and said that it was up to El Salvador to decide whether to return the man.

That is not what the courts have been saying, even though the White House keeps saying the Supreme Court unambiguously ruled in its favor.

Bukele, basking in the warmth of the mayor of Mar-a-Lago — maybe that was just the glow of all the gold paint that has recently been applied in the Oval — emphatically said he would not release the man.

Presidential advisor ~~Temu Goebbels~~ Stephen Miller said on Fox News Sunday that getting the Maryland man back to the U.S. would be an invasion of El Salvador’s sovereignty and would be considered a kidnapping.

So we’ve sent Abrego Garcia — by mistake, admittedly — to a hell-hole prison and no one — NO ONE — can do anything about it?

This is a cruel game the rapist-in-chief is playing, and combined with the reports of people, including a Boston a lawyer who is a U.S citizen, getting emails telling them they must immediately self-deport, can only be described as a terrifying game.

The person occupying the Oval Office doesn’t care about anyone but himself. After all, he ran for a second term only to stay out of prison. Unfortunately, he is surrounded by people who only seem skilled in creating havoc and breaking laws.

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File this under “Trump Now Even Hates Red States”:

After spending hours during the campaign saying that President Biden and FEMA weren’t sending any help to North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene, the 34 times convicted felon is denying the state matching disaster aid.

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Former member of the U.S. National Security Council Fiona Hill said this country is “definitely on a path toward full-on state repression.”

So many women warned us, Hillary and Kamala included.

When are we ever going to listen?

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Lead art: Screen grab from C-Span.org

Don’t Be Fooled by Tariff ‘Pause’

By Michael Woyton

If you’ve looked at your stock ticker or favorite stock app, no doubt you’ve noticed that people who buy stocks aren’t that happy about the “pause” on tariffs that President Donald J. Felon announced Wednesday.

That’s because, sorry about the all caps, THERE ARE STILL TARIFFS IN EFFECT.

So if you read or heard that the grifter-in-chief paused tariffs which corrected the market drop, you haven’t been given all the information.

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Yes, the adjudicated rapist blinked when he finally realized — or someone was able to get him to understand — that “stocks going down and bonds going up” was a terrible thing for him — not for the country or you and me.

Most likely someone said the magic words “Trump Recession” and that scared the orange makeup off of him.

In any case, the mayor of Mar-a-Lago paused the higher targeted tariffs for 90 days, but did not pause the 125 percent tariffs on China or the 10 percent across-the-board tariffs, according to NBC News.

NOTE: CNBC clarified Thursday morning that the actual tariffs on China are now 145 percent.

To put it another way, the current occupant of the Oval Office decided not to go through with the additional tariffs he trotted out on a big display the other day in the Rose Garden. You know, the one where he was putting an additional tariff on a couple of islands in the southern hemisphere that were only occupied by penguins.

That’s enough on the seesawing stock market for today. I don’t know what the Mad King will next say that will send Wall Street into a frenzy.

What I can say is that, yes, my 401(k)s did go back up yesterday, but it’s no where near where it was on Jan. 20. And if the Dow continues to drop today, it will probably go back down.

Congress could stop this madness if they wanted to.

If you have Republicans representing you in Congress, it’s worth giving them a call or sending them a message. Call the Democrats, too.

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Some Democrats in the Senate are going to look into whether all the market fluctuations led to some financial shenanigans.

Sens. Adam Schiff, D-California, and Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, have accused the president of facilitating insider trading, according KEYE, a CBS affiliate in Austin, Texas.

The two senators wrote a letter to the Office of Government Ethics and White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles asking “whether President Donald Trump, his family, or other members of the administration engaged in insider trading or other illegal financial transactions, informed by advance knowledge of non-public information regarding his changes to tariff policy, yesterday or at any time during this administration.”

Of note, Schiff and Gallego pointed out an 18 percent surge in the price of Tesla stock and the presidential social media posts such as “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.”

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At the ASU+SGSV Summit Tuesday in San Diego, Education Secretary Linda McMahon lived up to the legacy of Betsy DeVos while speaking at one of the panel discussions on “AI in the Workforce.”

As can be heard in the clip below, which is cued up to the moment McMahon was speaking (about 2:06:00), she said, not once but twice, how great it will be that even the youngest school children will be able to take advantage of “A1” technology.

Perhaps McMahon should try using AI technology to find out that it stands for artificial intelligence and not the tasty steak sauce.

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And in addition to slashing Medicaid to help pay for tax cuts for billionaires, the Mad King wants to put tariffs on prescription drugs.

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Lead art: Screen grab from CNBC

Is U.S. Headed Toward Police State, or Are We There?

By Michael Woyton

“Due process” must be important because it’s in the Constitution in the fifth and 14th amendments.

It, of course, prevents the government from depriving a person of life, liberty or property by having to follow the law.

There is more and more evidence that the current administration of Mad King-wannabe isn’t so interested in “due process” for anyone except himself.

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We are awaiting a decision from the Supremes as to whether or not any person regardless of status can be stopped on the street by plainclothes “law enforcement” and taken away to a foreign country never to be heard from again.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that immigration officials can use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to quickly depart people the government believes are gang members, according to CNN.

However, the administration wasn’t given free rein in the deportations, saying that “going forward, people who are departed should receive notice they are subject to the act and an opportunity to have their removal reviewed by the federal court where they are being detained,” CNN reported.

The three liberal justices on the court dissented, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joining in the dissent on a couple of items.

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that “even the majority today agrees and the federal government now admits, that individuals subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act are entitled to judicial notice and review before they can be removed,” NPR reported.

Sotomayor said that should have been the end of the matter, but went on to say that the government has continued to subvert the judicial process throughout and should not be rewarded for its efforts to erode the rule of law.

The court’s ruling seems to be based on the belief — at least for the majority of the justices — that the government will operate in good faith.

That is something that they have up to now chosen not to do.

Immigration officials are more than willing to, without warning, sweep in and take someone off the streets, accuse them of breaking the law and disappear them. And if the officials make a mistake, well, that’s too bad.

The case in point, which the Supremes will also be deciding, is about returning a Maryland father, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported March 15 because of an “administrative error,” NBC News reported.

Administration officials claimed the man is an MS-13 gang member. His lawyer disputes that and said Abrego Garcia came to this country in 2011 fleeing gun violence and death threats from gang members and has no criminal record.

A United States district judge ordered the man returned by midnight Monday, but the Supreme Court paused that order, pending a review of the case.

Basically, the government said mistakes happen, but there is no way to bring the man back.

Newly installed U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer wrote that the district court “has no juridiction over the Government of El Salvador and thus no authority to order Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States.”

Imagine being surrounded by people who are not wearing law enforcement uniforms, some wearing masks and some not, and then being physically taken while handcuffed to an unmarked car and driven who knows where.

That happened March 25 to Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk in the Boston suburb of Somerville. She was then flown to an ICE detention center in Basile, Louisiana, the Associated Press reported.

Ozturk’s situation, and that of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil who was taken into custody as his wife recorded the incident on her phone, brought back memories for people who have lived in countries that snatch their citizens off the street.

In an opinion piece that appeared in the New York Times Wednesday, M. Gessen wrote, “Those of us who have lived in countries terrorized by a secret police force can’t shake a feeling of dreadful familiarity.”

She spoke with people who remembered arrests that were arbitrary and being afraid every time the doorbell rang.

Gessen said that citizens of a police state “live with a feeling of being constantly watched. They live with a sense of random danger. Anyone — a passer-by, the man behind you in line at the deli, the woman who lives down the hall, your building’s super, your own student, your child’s teacher — can be a plainclothes agent or a self-appointed enforcer.”

She said people then live in growing isolation and with the feeling of low-level dread, “and these are the defining conditions of living in a secret-police states.”

Gessen ends by saying that the U.S. has indeed become a secret-police state. “Trust me, I’ve seen it before,” she wrote.

Now it’s up to the Supreme Court, a body that has shown it seldom cares what is really best for the country, but rather what is best for special interests, including the president of the United States, to determine if we really do still have the rule of law and constitutional due process.

Will the justices decide that even citizens can be disappeared?

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Lead art: Screen grab from Google Maps

‘Hands Off!’ Protests Set for Saturday

By Michael Woyton

Since the Mad King was inaugurated and he unleashed DOGE on the federal government, here have been protests all over the country — at Social Security offices, Tesla dealerships, post offices, business boycotts and more.

Next, on Saturday, April 5, people in hundreds of cities in every state of the union will be gathering to send a message to President Donald J. Felon, Elon Musk and all their henchmen in the current administration.

The message is “Hands Off!”

From the Hands Off! website:

“They’re dismantling our country. They’re looting our government. And they think we’ll just watch.

“On Saturday, April 5th, we rise up with one demand: Hands Off!

“This is a nationwide mobilization to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history. Trump, Musk, and their billionaire cronies are orchestrating an all-out assault on our government, our economy, and our basic rights — enabled by Congress every step of the way.

“They want to strip American for parts — shuttering Social Security offices, firing essential workers, eliminating consumer protections, and gutting Medicaid — all to bankroll their billionaire tax scam. They’re handing over our tax dollars, our public services, and our democracy to the ultra-rich.

“If we don’t fight now, there won’t be anything left to save.”

Organizers said the core principle behind Hands Off! is a commitment to nonviolent action, and all participants are expected to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with its values.

There is a ton of information about the mobilization on the website, with ways to host, social media to share and signs that can be printed out and displayed during the protest.

The protest in Washington, D.C, is expecting 20,000 people to show up, according to the Washingtonian.

It will be held on the National Mall and will serve as the flagship event, organizers said.

Speakers include Reps. Don Beyer, Jamie Raskin, Maxwell Frost and Ilhan Omar, along with officials from the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Indivisible and the American Federation of Government Employees.

A livestream of the protest will be available on the HandsOff2025.com and MoveOn’s YouTube channel beginning at noon.

To find an event near you, search via this webpage.

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Lead art: Screen grab from Hands Off! website

Tariffs Lead to Tanking Stocks Thanks to Felon-in-Chief

By Michael Woyton

For all of those who voted for a man who was convicted of 34 felonies, a man who has bankrupted a casino and more, a man who has nothing but scorn for veterans and admiration for people who beat up cops on Jan. 6, you voted for this and you own it.

It should have not come as a surprise that the morning after President Donald J. Felon announced massive tariffs on U.S. imports that Wall Street isn’t send flowers and fruit baskets to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Stocks tumbled Thursday morning at the opening of Wall Street, after global markets slumped overnight, according to reporting in the New York Times.

Around 11 a.m., the S&P 500 fell more than 4 percent, “a huge drop for the index,” the Times said, “echoing sharp declines in Asia and Europe as investors balked at the tariffs.”

“Balked”? Sounds more like the investors did a lot more than balk.

The Dow fell 1,500 points, per CNBC, with the NASDAQ dropping more than 5 percent, before midday.

Even the 10-year Treasury yield fell to its lowest level since October after the tariffs were unveils.

Full disclosure: I’m definitely not well-versed in the financial market, but I sure as hell can tell red from green when I look at the Stocks app on my iPhone.

At this point, it seems as if the grifter-in-chief’s “Liberation Day” will only liberate more money from people’s pocketbooks.

On Wednesday, the tariffs were announced in a Rose Garden ceremony. All countries will have at least 10 percent tariffs, with higher rates for 60 countries or trading blocs with high trade deficits with the United States, CNN said.

China will be the hardest hit, with a 54 percent tariff. It is the second top exporter to the U.S. behind Mexico and has vowed to retaliate.

Again, for those in the nose-bleed seats, tariffs will have an effect on what consumers pay for goods; tariffs will, either in part or entirely, come out of Americans’ pockets, according to economists.

That is a far cry from what the president has been saying all along, that the countries and companies importing their goods and products will pay the tariffs and the government will just reap the benefits.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that he believes the new tariffs will be the “largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history” and “could cost families up to $3,500 a year,” AL.com reported.

Of course, the sycophants in the administration are all over the TV machine saying how brilliant the mayor of Mar-a-Lago is and how it will all work out in the end, never mind the short- or long-term pain it causes anyone other than the super wealthy.

Commerce Secretary Howard “Seniors Won’t Complain If They Miss A Social Security Check” Lutnick said the country is going to see “a whole lot of growth” in the fourth quarter.

We just started the second quarter, FYI. So there’s going to be a time lapse?

If the goal of the “mad king” is to tear down the government and the economy — likely both from Putin’s playbook — then he is right on target.

He is also being helped by a Congress the majority of whose members are more than willing to turn their responsibilities over to the executive branch.

Congress must rein in the felon-in-chief soon or this country will be in a recession or worse.

And the wound will be self-inflicted.

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Lead art: Screen grab from CNBC

Booker Makes ‘Good Trouble’ on Senate Floor

By Michael Woyton

As we wait for the grifter-in-chief’s announcement of “temper tariffs,” as Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-California, called them, let’s reflect on the remarkable 25-plus hours that Sen. Cory Booker spent on the floor of the Senate.

The New Jersey Democrat talked for more than a day about the “grave and urgent” threat to the nation that is President Donald J. Felon.

Booker’s filibuster bested the record of Sen. Strom Thurmond, who gave a speech in the Senate that last 24 hours, 18 minutes in 1957, according to NBC News.

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The New Jersey senator, a Black man, spoke for 25 hours, four minutes about making things better for the country while Thurmond, a white racist Democrat from South Carolina, spent his time trying to prevent the Civil Rights Act of 1957 from ever becoming law.

Ending with “It’s not left or right; it’s right or wrong,” Booker said as the clock approached 8:04 p.m. Tuesday, “Let’s get in good trouble.”

The senator’s TikTok account, which was showing a live feed of his speech, had more than 350 million likes, per Booker’s office, and more than 28,000 voicemails of encouragement were received.

Booker wasn’t alone during his effort, which demanded he remain standing and in the chamber until he relinquished the floor.

Of the 47 Democratic senators, at least 39 joined him, according to Joan Walsh of The Nation, not including John Fetterman or Bernie Sanders. Some of the senators who showed up asked him questions, giving Booker a chance to rest his voice briefly.

Walsh mentioned in her column something that occurred toward the end of the filibuster, when Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto told Booker about the massive layoffs of Health and Human Services personnel that happened Tuesday while he was otherwise occupied.

In response, the senator from New Jersey told a personal story about having to help his father, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, to use a public restroom.

Walsh wrote, “When he said, ‘There is no much heartbreak in this country now,’ it resonated with me and and hundreds of other people on social media, because it’s true.”

Booker used his time throughout giving voice to Americans who stand to be or are being harmed by the current administration.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette D. Clarke, D-NY, said in a statement that the caucus was proud “of the profound fortitude of our friend and colleague, Senator Cory Booker, who, in the spirit of ‘good trouble,’ has now held the longest speaking filibuster in history by a lone Senator to disrupt Republicans’ agenda and defend our communities from the corruption and abuse of the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans.”

She said that Booker understands that the president, Elon Musk and the GOP have “made it their mission to dismantle the federal government and cut programs that are the difference of life and death for millions of Americans like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and SNAP,” and that “we must challenge extremism with unconventional measures.”

Booker accomplished what he set out to do: calling attention to the abnormality and cruelty of what is happening in the United States.

“This is not a partisan moment,” he said. “It is a moral moment. Where do you stand?”

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Turns out $25 million doesn’t get ya what it used to.

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Lead art: Screen grab from C-Span.

Felon-in-Chief Takes Ambassadorship Away from Toady

By Michael Woyton

In 2018, pundit and political strategist Rick Wilson wrote a book titled “Everything Trump Touches Dies.”

If it were practical and financially feasible to do daily updates, it would be interesting to see if there were already an appendix on Elise Stefanik, the now former ambassdor-designate to the United Nations.

Someone at the headquarters of GOPmaga Inc. finally woke up to the realization that there might very well be some dissatisfaction with the Trump/Musk/Mike Johnson shenanigans going on in Washington, D.C. BTW: How’s your 401(k) doing?

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Besides the town hall protests, the Tesla protests and the economic boycotts, where better for the voting public to express their displeasure than at the ballot box?

Newsweek reported on a new poll Wednesday that down in Florida Democrat Josh Weil is within five points of overtaking Republican Randy Fine to fill the House seat that WhiskeyLeaks national security advisor Mike Waltz vacated to become best phone buddies with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg.

That district voted for President Donald J. Felon by 30 points in 2024, so it shouldn’t really be a competitive seat when the voting is completed April 1.

Democrat Gay Valimont is seeking to fill the congressional seat left empty when Matt Gaetz was nominated for attorney general, and we all know how that turned out for him.

She’s running against Republican Jimmy Patronis, who doesn’t even live in Florida Congressional District 1 and said that where he lives won’t be an issue for the voters, according to reporting from WKRG-TV.

These two races could mean the difference in whether the House and Speaker Mike Johnson continue to have a slim margin or no margin at all.

But back to the congresswoman from upstate New York. No special election was set by Gov. Kathy Hochul because Speaker Johnson wanted to keep Stefanik on the House rolls due to the fact that he needs every single possible Republican vote to get anything passed.

Imagine Stefanik’s surprise when she found out that the golfer-in-chief decided Thursday to withdraw her nomination to be the U.N. ambassador, meaning she doesn’t get to live in the ambassador’s New York City apartment and has to go back upstate and pretend she cares about her constituents.

Also imagine what must have been going through Stefanik’s head remembering all the sucking up and ass-kissing she had to do to get that Cabinet position.

Now she has to stay in Congress — and she still has to ass-kiss and suck up, not only to the grifter-in-chief but to Johnson who said she will be welcomed back into the already filled leadership.

Wilson was right: Everything Trump touches dies.

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Proud to be a New Yorker.

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Lead art: Screen grab from ABC News.

Group Chat Shows Trump, Et Al. Can’t Be Trusted with Nation’s Security

By Michael Woyton

The fallout continues in what is being referred now as #WhiskeyLeaks, the unbelievably stupid revelation to an editor of a major news magazine of United States government plans to bomb another country.

It is beyond anyone’s imagination to say the group chat of administration higher-ups that happened on a commercial messaging app did not contain classified information when Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic published text messages stating what times and where missiles will be launching and exploding in Yemen.

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And then to say “no war plans” were discussed when the text message states “THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP.”

OK, maybe we didn’t declare war on Yemen, but we did intentionally drop explosives on some of their citizens.

Potato, potahto.

All this started Monday when Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, published a story describing how he was mistakenly included in a group chat with members of President Donald J. Felon’s administration while they were discussing plans to bomb Houthi militants in Yemen, NBC News reported.

Goldberg said he followed the chat for a while even though he was initially skeptical about whether it was real, but eventually came around to believe it was.

Besides Goldberg, the group chat included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, State Secretary Marco Rubio, national security advisor Michael Waltz and others.

Almost immediately after the article was published, the administration began disparaging Goldberg and implying he somehow hacked his way into the group chat which was being held via Signal, a commercially available encrypted app.

On Tuesday, Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. director of national intelligence, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee and were grilled about the group chat news.

Unfortunately for our country’s security, Gabbard could not remember whether specific targets were mentioned — the group chat ended March 15, BTW, and she couldn’t remember the details back that far. Ratcliffe said his communications in the chat did not include classified information, but that sounds more as if he was trying to cover his own ass.

Hegseth told reporters that no one was texting war plans, and even the grifter-in-chief said there was no classified information in the chat.

With the publication of the plans outlining the bombings Wednesday, Goldberg basically called the administration’s bluff that there was no classified information in the chat.

“The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump—combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts—have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions,” he wrote.

Goldberg makes the point that, had the information fallen into the wrong hands during the timeline explicitly stated in the chat, “American pilots and other American personnel could have been exposed to even greater danger than they ordinarily would face.”

Said another way, American soldiers could have been killed because of this administration.

FYI, Steve Witkoff, the administration’s top Middle East negotiator, was in Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin the same day he was added to the group chat. The same group chat that was likely taking place on unsecured devices. In Russia. Meeting with Putin.

Can this get any worse?

The adjudicated rapist in the Oval Office characterized the whole situation as “a minor transgression,” the New York Times reported, and also called Goldberg a “sleazebag.”

Waltz, who created the group chat, said on Fox News Tuesday that he takes full responsibility, but maintained later that he’s never met nor communicated with Goldberg.

People, this is how our government is being run now — not only by an unelected billionaire who is determined to loot the coffers of Social Security and other vital offices that provide services and stability to Americans and others around the world, but by people who shouldn’t be trusted to collect trash much less watch over our nation’s defenses.

This administration is dangerous.

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You gloss over someone’s personal history during confirmation hearings and you get these questions.

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The director of national intelligence doesn’t remember what country she was in at the time.

— — — — —

The Russians know. These people travel with security personnel and are never far from a SCIF.

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Lead art: Screen grab from C-SPAN

AG’s Job Description Includes Threatening Member of Congress

By Michael Woyton

The attorney general of the United States threatened a sitting member of Congress for comments about the world’s richest man.

On Sunday during an appearance on ~~state television~~ Fox News, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett should “tread very carefully,” after Crockett suggested “Elon Musk should be ‘taken down’,” according to Fox News.

“She is an elected public official, so she needs to tread very carefully because nothing will happen to Elon Musk, and we are going to fight to protect all the Tesla owners throughout this country,” Bondi said to Maria Bartiromo, making clear that Musk and Tesla owners were going to be protected from what she called “domestic terrorism.”

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The congresswoman was speaking to a Tesla Takedown group about an upcoming nonviolent protest and said that all she wanted to have happen on her birthday was for “Elon to be taken down,” adding that the only language some people understand was money.

Crockett appeared on MSNBC shortly after Bondi made her comment and was asked for a reaction, Daily Beast reported.

She said she has never promoted violence and also never made an excuse for those who rioted at the Capitol Building after Trump lost the 2020 election.

“So Pam Bondi, if you have an issue with terrorism, maybe you should talk to your boss about locking back up those guys that he let out that participated in January 6,” Crockett said.

Nice to know that some people in the U.S. under this administration still have a protected status and won’t be rounded up and disappeared for no reason whatsoever.

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Here’s another “oopsie” that I’m sure that White House comms director Steven Cheung will likely not be addressing any time soon.

Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic penned an article that showcased the competency of the administration of President Donald J. Felon.

The headline reads, “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.” The subhead say, “U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.”

Over a couple of days around mid-March, Goldberg was receiving text messages via group chat to which he was subscribed by someone. Identifying initials and/or names led him to believe that group included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, State Secretary Marco Rubio and many others, and they were discussing the possible bombing of Houthi targets in Yemen.

While he was concerned it was a possible disinformation campaign or an AI simulation, he eventually “recognized that his conversation possessed a high degree of verisimilitude.”

It wasn’t until that realization that “this story became truly bizarre,” Goldberg wrote.

Read the entire article. I’m sure you will be picking your jaw up off the floor several times as I did.

Things to consider: the use of the Signal app which is not approved for sharing classified information, federal records law may have been violated and how the hell did a reporter’s phone number get added to the group chat.

Truly this is the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, but also truly, there is the possibility for a ton of friendly fire.

So much for Hillary’s private email server.

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Lead art: Screen grab from Fox News

Town Hall Shows WY Rep Who’s the Boss

By Michael Woyton

Who won Wyoming in the 2024 election? No question that it was Donald J. Felon.

Voters in the state gave the adjudicated rapist more than 72 percent of the total count, with Vice President Kamala Harris getting a touch more than 26 percent.

Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming was reelected to the House in November by more than 70 percent of the vote over her Democratic opponent.

If all that sounds like Wyoming is a solid red state, then how do you explain this video clip from Hageman’s recent town hall that took place Wednesday?

Hageman, who is the only congress person for the state of Wyoming, is heard saying that “Doge is not dismantling Social Security,” adding that even with reconciliation lawmakers are not allowed to touch it. The crowd was not amused.

There was also continuous chanting of “Deport Elon!” from the crowd.

During a Q&A portion, a woman attending the event said she was one of the employees mass fired from the USDA a month ago, despite having high performance marks. She asked Hageman what she will do to help Wyoming farms in rural communities that are being decimated by cuts from the administration.

Hageman’s reply: “I disagree. I disagree. I come from the ag community. I’m well aware what kind of programs are out there,” as the audience continued loudly booing her.

At one point in the clip, Hageman actually said, “It’s so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with federal government,” which led the audience to again erupt into raucous shouts and cat calls.

The shouting was so loud that Hageman couldn’t continue what she was saying, but eventually said, “Calm down” and laughed nervously.

The video clip ends with the two-term congresswoman telling her constituents that their hysteria was really over the top. Way to read the room, congresswoman.

While one can give props to Hageman for actually showing up to an announced town hall — in spite of being warned not to by North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee — it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that she had no clue how her constituents were feeling about what is actually happening in Washington, D.C.

Hageman’s town hall was held in Laramie, Albany County, which flipped from Democratic to Republican in November.

The county is surrounded by deep red communities, but I’m sure that the turnout will be downplayed by the GOPmagas in D.C. as payed-by-Soros plants.

Contrast that event with one held Wednesday in the city of Poughkeepsie, New York, by Rep. Pat Ryan. His District 18 is comprised of all of Orange County and most of Ulster and Dutchess counties. Orange voted Republican (54-46) in the presidential election, while Ulster and Dutchess voted Democratic (59-41 and 53-47, respectively).

More than 800 people attended Ryan’s town hall, with thousands more watching a livestream, according to his office.

The congressman began the event by bringing out people who have been affected by the policies coming out of the administration.

They included a veteran who was concerned about the lack of staffing at the region’s only VA hospital, a woman who has been put through ringer by the medical care system and a mother whose housing could be jeopardized by the disappearance of funding.

Those in attendance were enthusiastic and concerned, with questions ranging from voter restrictions through the SAVE Act, how tariffs will affect electricity prices and whether the country is going through a constitutional crisis when the president choose to ignore a judge.

Ryan responded to the constitutional crisis question by telling the audience that they should not discount what they were doing Wednesday night and that he hoped they continue to participate.

“Do not think that that doesn’t matter,” he said. “It matters a lot. Do not go quietly into the night as these harms are being inflicted and the Constitution is being challenged.”

In response to a question from a medical doctor about how cuts of up to $880 billion to Medicaid would cause untold harm to people in the district, Ryan made reference to the congressman of the 17th congressional district to the south, without mentioning the name Mike Lawler, who voted in favor of the proposed budget plan.

“I would be happy to help you connect with them,” he said to the doctor, “and if we all do that, it would bolster us, too.”

Ryan said he doesn’t think people should feel powerless about this “and let the cruelty and the dehumanization carry the day.”

He noted that, across the country, House Republicans “are getting absolutely skewered at events like this.

“And that matters,” Ryan said.

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Reupping this article because time’s running out to help the two Democratic candidates in the Florida House special elections. Josh Weil and Gay Valimont, if they win, could close what is already a tiny gap in the House of Representatives.

Please consider contributing in some way to help them get their messages out.

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Lead art: Screen grab from Rep. Pat Ryan’s town hall.