Today in Stupid: Epstein ‘Hoax’ Edition

By Michael Woyton

So now Jeffrey Epstein is a hoax, so says President Donald J. Felon. Maybe I’m confused but isn’t Ghislaine Maxwell serving a 20-year sentence for this hoax?

I guess he’s cutting his “PAST supporters” loose, because he doesn’t need them anymore.

And for someone who tells us to stop talking about Epstein, it seems he won’t shut up about it.

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Sure an 830 percent increase in assaults on ICE thugs sounds bad on paper. And it sounds bad when ICE Barbie says in on Fox News.

We now know that an “830% increase” is an increase from 10 assaults in 6 months to 93 assaults in 6 months, at a time when DHS has *massively* increased at-large arrests and officers deployed in the community.For comparison, NYPD is averaging 194 assaults on officers per MONTH.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2025-07-15T20:06:55.459Z

Someone needs to ask her what she considers “an assault.” 

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Evil or chaos?$800K worth of high-nutrient biscuits destined for hungry children in Afghanistan and Pakistan through USAID will be burned instead.They passed their expiration date due to cuts made by the Trump administration.Cost to destroy the biscuits: an additional $130k

Laurie Loves Data (@laurelann.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T11:44:46.372Z

My vote is definitely evil. 

Perfectly good food worth $800,000 destroyed at a substantial cost rather than distributed.

Can’t let the hungry children be less hungry, can we?

Project 2025, my friends, and this administration is all about cruelty.

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Death threats targeted a journalist who drew an editorial cartoon concerning the deadly floods in Texas.

The threats against Adam Zyglis caused an event in support of local reporting to be postponed, the Associated Press reported.

Zyglis, who is a Pulitzer Prize winner, depicted a man in a MAGA cap being swept away by the floodwaters. He is seen holding up a sign that says “HELP” while a speech bubble floating downstream reads: “Gov’t is the problem not the solution.”

Adam Zyglis, Buffalo News. Zyglis faced death threats from Texas Republicans over this cartoon.

Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) 2025-07-14T13:23:25.635Z

The event, sponsored by the Buffalo Newspaper Guild, was planned to highlight the need for local journalism at a museum exhibit of Zyglis’ work.

AP said the event will be rescheduled. There is no word when common sense or common decency will be back.

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Lead art: Screen grab from ABC News (Australia) via YouTube

Connecting the Dots Using an Orange Crayon

By Michael Woyton

Connecting the dots has never been easier, especially because in the administration of President Donald J. Felon the dots are huge and the pencil doing the connecting is one of those big-ass pencils kindergarteners used to use.

Now that I think about it, maybe the people in this administration should be using crayons, because they’ve shown they can’t be trusted with anything sharp.

Keeping in mind that all the dots will lead to the Florida Man, we can start the connecting with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “Dog Killer” Noem and the tragic, deadly flooding in central Texas that resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives with many people still unaccounted for.

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It was originally reported that Noem required that she must personally approve DHS expenses exceeding $100,000 which delayed Federal Emergency Management Agency search and rescue operations.

A report in the New York Times found that policy left FEMA call centers without staffing to handle thousands of emergency calls because hundreds of contractors were fired when their contracts lapsed on July 5.

ICE Barbie called that “fake news,” obviously following the lead of the golfer-in-chief. Never admit you’ve made a mistake; always call the reporting fake no matter how on the nose it is.

Why does Kristi Noem still have a job?

Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan.bsky.social) 2025-07-13T15:44:01.648Z

Another series of dots so easily connected begins with one that involves Jeffrey Epstein and “files” that may or may not exist.

The adjudicated rapist’s administration promised to release information about Epstein, who was a longtime friend of Trump as evidenced by being frequently photographed with him.

Denizens of magaworld are obsessed with Epstein and many of them expected United States Attorney General Pam “Bribe Taker” Bondi to bring full transparency to the table.

When the AG recently announced there was no “client list,” even though she said it was on her desk, and the conclusion that Epstein died by suicide in jail, with the evidence being a likely doctored video, the magas have called for Bondi to be fired, Newsweek reported.

Even former advisor Steve Bannon warned the administration that it stands to lose 40 House seats if the Epstein files aren’t released.

During a cabinet meeting last week, Bondi was asked a question about Epstein and the elderly golfer interrupted her response by saying to the reporter, “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years. You’re asking — we have Texas. We have this. We have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep?”

That “your friend, the creep,” Mr. President.

And yes, we do have all of “the things.” It’s just that some of us can wonder about more than one thing at once.

Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein Epstein

Hoodlum 🇺🇸 (@nothoodlum.bsky.social) 2025-07-14T15:18:42.641Z

So get your crayon out and draw a line from Epstein to, wait for it, Rosie O’Donnell, with the line going right through the mayor of MaraTACO.

Lo and behold on Saturday the former daytime talkshow host and now Ireland resident was the subject of post on the ironically named Truth Social by the president who announced he was “giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,” Vanity Fair reported.

In the post, he said O’Donnell was a “Threat to Humanity” and “is not in the best interests of our Great Country.”

Aside from the fact that the convicted felon does not have the Constitutional authority to do what he was saying, it was jarring at the least to have an American president write and mean those words.

Alas, his powerless threat did not do what he expected it to accomplish, which was to divert attention from the Epstein spotlight.

It was wonderful seeing Rosie’s response to what she called “a dangerous old soulless man with dementia who lacks empathy compassion and basic humanity.”

She said she was everything he feared: “a loud woman a queer woman a mother who tells the truth.”

O’Donnell is certainly not alone in living rent-free in Trump’s head. 

Considering that Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, James Comey, Robert Mueller, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, to name just a few, occupy space at Chez Brainrot, the parties must be fabulous.

One dotted line that is still in the process of being connected involves the Supreme Court, Robert Kennedy Jr. and Linda McMahon, along with the Health and Human Services and Education departments.

McMahon, as education secretary, wants to eliminate her department as does Trump. SCOTUS said Monday, sure go ahead, overruling a preliminary injunction by a district court.

Shutting down the Education Department will likely have broad implications for the quality and quantity of learning across the nation if the states cannot or will not take over the loss of funds.

In layman’s terms, getting rid of education is going to lead to a lot of stupid.

For example, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, who was chosen for the gig by medical-fraud RFK Jr., actually said on television that he has “data” from families that their children behave better when they aren’t allowed to have foods with petroleum-based dyes.

Makary: "We have a lot of data and it may not necessarily be the traditional 50 year randomized control trial follow up. It's data from families that say their kids have been acting with bad behavior … and they eliminate the petroleum-based food dyes and the behavior improves. That is data."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-07-14T21:52:28.030Z

Oh, the stupid. That is not data, Marty, those are anecdotes.

Have you been swimming with RFK Jr. lately?

Project 2025 outlined the dissolution of the Education Department and heralded a disrespect for science-based science.

With people like Makary spouting nonsense and making it palatable, we are fast seeing the results of the choices made by a president who doesn’t care what havoc he creates and should never have been elected in the first place. 

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Lead art: Screen grab from New Jersey Herald. Cartoon by Dave Granlund.

HBO Doc Accuses Jordan of Lying; FEMA Not Going Away?

By Michael Woyton

A new documentary on HBO is accusing maga Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan of lying about sexual abuse at Ohio State.

The congressman declined to be interviewed for the doc called “Surviving Ohio State, the Ohio Capital Journal said, but former Ohio State wrestlers and a referee “frequently” brought up his name. 

At least 177 male victims between 1979 and 1996 said they were abused by Dr. Richard Strauss who was a physician for the university’s athletics department at the time.

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Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State from 1987 to 1995.

A spokesperson for the congressman said Jordan “never saw or heard of any abuse, and if he had, he would have dealt with it.”

During a press gaggle with Ohio reporters in 2018, Jordan denied knowing anything about the abuse, adding that he talked to other coaches and they didn’t know about any abuse.

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Despite having called for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be shut down, it seems President Donald J. Felon’s administration is now not so keen on shuttering it completely.

The Washington Post cited a senior White House official in saying “[n]o official action was being taken to wind down FEMA, and changes in the agency would probably amount to a ‘rebranding’ that would emphasize state leaders’ roles in disaster response,” Reuters reported.

Great. Maybe that will give Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a chance to learn how to manage FEMA, instead of waiting three whole days to get search and rescue teams on the ground in Texas.

Speaking of incompetent leaders, FEMA’s acting administrator, David Richardson, as of Thursday, has not been to Texas to personally see the nation’s deadliest floods in the past 25 years, Politico said.

The Dallas Morning News does not mention Richardson’s name regarding a planned trip Friday to Texas by the grifter-in-chief. Just FYI.

A reminder that Project 2025 — which the president said he knew nothing about — called for gutting FEMA.

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ICE officers are being told they can detain anyone “based on … physical appearance.”

Think about that.

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Love the snarky final comment from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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Lead art: Screen grab from HBO app

OMG, the Stupid. It burns!

By Michael Woyton

We’ve known for a long time that President Donald J. Felon was not one of Wharton’s brightest, but lately the evidence keeps piling up — and it seems to continue to infect the rest of the administration.

How we laughed during the COVID crisis when the first-term Oval Office occupant suggested injecting bleach or inserting light into the body as a cure.

To this day, I look forward to my morning cup of covfefe and remain ever grateful I no longer have to flush the toilet 15 times.

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Recently though I’ve wondered what goes through the minds of foreign leaders and the people who help prep them for meetings with the mayor of MaraTACO.

For example, Liberian President Joseph Boakai met with the convicted felon Wednesday in the White House, the New York Times reported, with the occasion being lunch in the State Dining Room with leaders of five African nations.

It was then that the golfer-in-chief heard Boakai speak.

“Mr. Trump was impressed by what he heard,” the Times said. ” ‘Such good English,’ he remarked after Mr. Boakai spoke.”

The Florida man went on to ask the Liberian president where he learned to speak so beautifully and where he was educated.

America’s representative to the world — yes, I’m still talking about the guy in the orange makeup — was unaware that English is the official language of the nation of Liberia.

It has been reported that the man with his fingers on the nuclear button does not read his daily briefings on any regular basis.

Can we assume he doesn’t bother with any briefing notes presented to him prior to meetings? I think that’s a safe assumption.

It’s also a safe assumption that Trump’s lack of intelligence is why there won’t be any MacArthur genius grant nominees coming from his administration’s general population.

Consider that Jeanine Pirro, Pete Hegseth, Sean Duffy, Tulsi Gabbard, Mike Huckabee, Tom Homan are among the 20 or so Fox News employees or contributors who were called to work in the administration.

Duffy, who apparently is doing such a bang up job as transportation secretary, has been tapped by Trump to be interim NASA chief.

Is it because Elon Musk wasn’t blowing up enough rockets lately?

The opening to be filled is because of Musk. Jared Isaacman’s nomination was rescinded after the Tesla genius and Trump had a public falling out.

Speaking of Musk, he and his chainsaw-like DOGE staffers laid waste to employees at the Social Security Administration.

So no one should be surprised that the agency, which services 73 million retirees, cannot keep up with customer service.

Now, according to the Washington Post, the SSA is temporarily reassigning around 1,000 customer service reps from field offices to work the overburdened, understaffed toll-free phone line.

Forbes is reporting that red tape put in place by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delayed Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the horrific flooding disaster in Texas.

Deployment of federal search and rescue crews was delayed by 72 hours due to a requirement that Noem herself must sign off on any spending request more than $100,000.

Was she too busy cosplaying as an ICE agent somewhere with bad phone service?

And we’ll end this latest episode of “Name the Stupid” with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Mr. “I Never Met a Childhood Disease I Didn’t Love” continues to deny the efficacy of vaccines, as measles cases reach a 33-year record high.

The man in charge of the United States’ healthcare — who believes that healthier diets are key — steps in it again by promoting a food company that makes ultraprocessed meals that are delivered to Medicaid and Medicare enrollees.

A review of Mom’s Meals showed that their $7 meals “are the type of heat-and-eat, ultraprocessed foods that Kennedy routinely criticizes for making people sick.”

It’s been said before and I’ll say it again, this administration is going to kill us.

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Lead art: Screen grab from The Economic Times via YouTube.

Felon’s USDA Wants Medicaid Recipients Picking Vegetables

By Michael Woyton

Where’s Grannie? She’s out in the fields picking strawberries. Hope she took her oxygen canister with her.

On Tuesday, the United States agriculture secretary said the migrant farm workers who are being rounded up for deportation could be replaced by automation and Medicaid recipients who will be required to get a job under the recently passed GOPmaga budget bill.

At a news conference with Republican governors, Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins said the administration “would rely on ‘automation, also some reform within the current governing structure,’ and pointed to ‘34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program‘ as potential workers,” The Guardian reported.

“There are plenty of workers in America,” she was quoted as saying.

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According to the agriculture department, more than half of farm workers in the U.S. are undocumented immigrants and slightly less than 70 percent are foreign-born.

Agriculture and economics experts “have repeatedly warned that neither automation nor welfare reforms can realistically replace the migrant workforce that dominates American farming,” The Guardian said.

Rollins said that the president’s promise of having a 100 percent American workforce is a reality, even though the golf-in-chief told Fox News last week exemptions for undocumented farm workers were being considered.

The new Medicaid work requirements are set to take effect by the end of 2026 — after the midterms, of course — but according to 2022 data from the Census Bureau, many Medicaid recipients are already employed or are unable to work.

This is insane: do they really believe that being on Medicaid means being unemployed? Only 3% of those receiving Medicaid are in the category of able-bodied and long-term unemployed.

Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) 2025-07-08T14:39:28.459Z

Then there’s the matter of automation.

The method of harvesting — hand versus mechanical — can significantly impact the quality and shelf life of fruits and vegetables, according to Agriculture.Institute.

There are, naturally, advantages and disadvantages to both methods.

Aside from the significant initial investment of machinery, one major disadvantage of mechanized harvesting is “damage to the produce, particularly delicate fruits and vegetables, leading to bruising and reduced quality.”

Additionally, machines can’t yet tell the difference between what is ripe and not ripe, which would result in a harvest that requires additional sorting.

There is also soil compaction and other environmental concerns that could impact the farm’s health.

It seems that, if both the technical and economic aspects of mechanical harvesting were feasible on a large-scale basis, farmers would already be using it.

And I feel the need to bring the fact that Rollins suggested that raising your own chickens in your backyard would be a good solution to rising egg prices.

Seriously, there are two things to remember about President Donald J. Felon and his braintrust administration: 1) They aren’t really very smart in their solutions to problems and 2) They make up for it with overwhelming cruelty.

Brooke Rollins wants Grandpa & Grandma picking crops.

Will🇺🇸📎✌️🌲 (@econaturalist.bsky.social) 2025-07-08T20:06:46.266Z

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Is anyone else as disturbed as I am by the reality of ICE agents and the National Guard performing a practice maneuver in downtown Los Angeles?

Just what are they practicing for?

I encourage you to read this great reporting by Ken Klippenstein on the buffoonery which took place in Los Angeles today. Even the "military" participants (if that's what they actually are) appear embarrassed to be participating in such a massive failure.

🏴‍☠️Øracle 671⚓️🌻 (@ssnbubblehead.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T23:25:23.206Z

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Lead art: Screen grab from Forbes Breaking News via YouTube

States Will Have to Pick Up Slack; Lying About the Budget

By Michael Woyton

Now that both the Senate and the House have passed President Donald J. Felon’s gift to the ultra wealthy budget, more details are emerging.

It is increasingly clearer that “the burden for health care, food assistance and other programs” that states depend on will be shifted onto them — if they still want their constituents to have them, reporting in the New York Times said.

One economist explained that states basically have three options to deal with the federal spending package.

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Investments in health and food assistance affected by the new law can be scaled back, insuring that people will have to do without. Money could be shuffled from other state resources to keep health insurance, cutting, say, education or law enforcement. Or there could be tax increases on the state level.

It has been estimated that the budget contains nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts by 2034 and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has been sharply curtailed.

Long story short: If the grifter-in-chief and his toadies in Congress don’t want to pay for something you need, it’s going to have to come out of your pocket one way or another.

All this needs to be kept in mind as the 2026 midterms get closer and closer.

The link to the full New York Times article is free.

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I’m sure those of you who have had any dealings with the Social Security Administration received the email Thursday with the headline “Social Security Applauds Passage of Legislation Providing Historic Tax Relief for Seniors.”

Usually emails from the SSA are utilitarian and provide basic information, like how to contact them, what their hours are, what changes to compensation might be coming up, etc.

But this one, man, it was totally kissing the ass of the golfer-in-chief and, not surprising, was totally a lie.

“The Social Security Administration has sent a misleading email to beneficiaries stating that President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cuts and spending law eliminates taxes on Social Security benefits for most recipients,” NBC reported.

Social Security used to be a completely non partisan organization, not anymore. The SSA just sent out an email that is a bald faced lie. Social Security is taxed. Trump's abomination of a bill did NOTHING to remove taxes on social security. http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru…

Texas Paul (@realtexaspaul.com) 2025-07-05T01:42:05.496Z

The budget does extend expiring tax cuts enacted in 2017 and creates a temporary tax deductions for tips and overtime earnings.

However, NBC explains, it does not totally eliminate federal taxes on Social Security.

There is a temporary tax deduction of up to $6,000 for seniors 65 and older or $12,000 for married seniors. Availability is limited based on adjusted gross incomes.

Remember that word “temporary.” The deduction will expire at the end of 2028.

The Center for American Progress said eliminating taxes on Social Security in the bill was  “impossible” because there’s a congressional restriction that limits what can be included in a reconciliation bill in the Senate.

So is it any surprise that this administration is lying about how wonderful the most unpopular piece of legislation will be for the American public?

This, too, needs to be kept in mind as we get closer to the midterms in 2026.

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Lead art by Michael Woyton

Declaring Independence from Tyranny Still Needed

By Michael Woyton

At one point during his record-breaking speech on the floor of the House of Representatives Thursday, Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries said that the Declaration of Independence “reads like an indictment against an out-of-control king.”

He also called the Republican budget “an immoral document,” but we’ll talk about that another time.

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I’ll admit I hadn’t read the Declaration of Independence in quite a while, so after Jeffries’ speech was over and the abomination of a spending bill — cutting million of people from health care and giving billions of dollars of tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy — was gleefully passed by the House, I called up a transcript of the declaration from the National Archives.

It really is an indictment of the tyrannical king who the Founding Fathers were willing to risk life and limb to get rid of.

She has not read the Declaration of Independence.

Craig Harrington (@craigipedia.bsky.social) 2025-07-03T18:54:37.063Z

Obviously, Rep. Nancy Mace only thinks of the declaration as saying “we are now independent — yippee!” 

The truth is, the Founding Fathers laid out a case against the then-king of England, and I found many parts of it to be incredibly applicable to our current situation — all these 249 years since the Declaration of Independence was written and shown to the world.

For example, the king was accused of “cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.” Sound familiar?

The king “has made Judges dependent on his Will alone.” Sound familiar?

And most damning, the king has deprived colonists, “in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.” Does that sound familiar with hundreds of people being taken off the streets by roving bands of masked, unidentified thugs?

For those reasons — and many more — the Founding Fathers declared the colonies “Free and Independent States,” and “Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown.”

I implore you to take a few minutes and read the entire Declaration of Independence.

Maybe you, too, will come to the realization that we might very well need a new declaration of independence from a new tyrant. 

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In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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Lead art: Screen grab from Google Maps.

Will House Make Massively Unpopular Budget Even More Unpopular?

By Michael Woyton

The Senate just passed one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation ever — the magaGOP budget bill — that will increase the national debt more than $3 trillion and remove health care for at least 17 million Americans, while giving billionaires a massive tax cut.

Granted, the bill only passed because Shady Vance broke the 50-50 tie, and it’s being said that it is uncertain whether the House will be able to pass the revised budget, but come on.

Does anyone doubt that the magaGOPs in the House will find a way to murkowski their way into rationalizing a “yes” vote and then scamper back to their districts to say to their constituents that it’s a good thing many of them will see their Medicaid and food assistance funds disappear?

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Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska actually can go back to her state and say that her vote in favor of the budget will benefit her constituents.

She got carveouts including a special tax deduction for captains of whaling boats that allowed her to screw over the rest of America by voting for the budget.

I’m certain the 2.3 million Californians, the 1.6 million Texans, the 1 million New Yorkers and many, many others in the United States who will lose their health care will be content with blubber prices staying reasonable.

And Murkowski had the gall to say post-vote that she thought the bill was “not good enough” for the country.

Then why the hell did you vote for it, Murkowski? Shame on you.

This 20-second moment in time is what’s galling to me. Murkowski acts blindsided that she’s actually getting called out. What did she expect to happen?Anyway, she ain’t seen nothing yet.

Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) 2025-07-02T12:50:35.915Z

Hell, even Sen. Susan “I’m Concerned” Collins voted against it.

Now is the time to start making those phone calls and writing those emails — especially if your congress person is an R, but also if she or he isn’t. Find your representative here.

According to CNN, an average of four recent polls found the budget bill was 24 points underwater, with 55 percent of Americans opposing it and 31 percent supporting it.

We need to let our representative know that we know they know how bad the bill will be for pretty much everyone in the country except for about 100 of the ultra-wealthy among us who need to be able to rent a few more gondolas for their resort wedding.

I have no faith in this Congress — please prove me wrong.

It’s too bad the magaGOPs don’t love their constituents more than they fear President Donald J. Felon.

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Speaking of the Mad King, he’s going to be getting a whopper of a check from Paramount for $16 million, which is a win in his lawsuit railing against 60 Minutes for its Kamala Harris interview.

He is also selling another round of “fragrances” for men and women called “Victory 45-47,” with each 3.3 ounce bottle costing $250. So much for the price of eggs. The scents are part of his licensing deals that are said to worth more than $7 million.

And he still has time to threaten the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor.

The grifter-in-chief on Tuesday said he might throw Zohran Mamdani, who defeated former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and others for the nomination, in jail. For what? Mamdani said he won’t help federal officials enforce immigration laws.

In a social media post Wednesday the president said, “As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York.”

welp, I guess the nation's largest city is no longer free to elect a mayor of its choosing

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-07-02T12:52:44.973Z

The golfer-in-chief “claimed that he will exert his influence over New York City’s direction should Mamdani become mayor,” AL.com reported.

He posted, “Rest assured, I hold all the levers, and have all the cards. I’ll save New York City, and make it ‘Hot’ and ‘Great’ again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”

BTW, 33,000 jobs were lost in the private sector in June, according to payrolls processing firm ADP.

Dow Jones had polled economists who forecast an increase of 100,000 jobs for the month. Oops.

So much winning.

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Call it what it is: a concentration camp in America.

The Grand Opening of an American Concentration CampThe Republicans are proudly calling it “Alligator Alcatraz.” Let’s call it what it is.

Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) 2025-07-02T13:15:04.641Z

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Lead art: Screen grab from “The Handmaid’s Tale” via Hulu.

How Much Longer Will We Have a Constitution?

By Michael Woyton

We don’t have to imagine a country where a woman in one state can receive safe, effective and legal reproductive health care but if she travels a couple of states away she may not be able to receive the same care.

The United States Supreme Court made that decision in 2022 and we are living in that country now.

Today, the Supreme Court seems to have cleared the way for that same woman — if she happens to have been born in the U.S. to parents who are not citizens — to find herself an American citizen in some states but not in others.

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The court ruled 6-3 that the felon-in-chief’s executive order declaring that the children of parents who enter the U.S. illegally or on a temporary visa are not entitled to automatic citizenship could not be stayed nationwide by a single court’s ruling.

The court did not rule on the constitutionality of the order itself.

According to U.S. Attorney General Bondi, until SCOTUS makes a ruling on birthright citizenship, supposedly in October, she said, if someone, say, in Oregon gets a lower court ruling in his or her favor will it only apply in that one case. Anybody else wanting to make the same argument will have to do so in an entirely different case. No such thing as precedence.

If it was not clear before, it is undeniable now: the President, Congress, and Supreme Court no longer support and defend the Constitution.

50501 New York (@50501newyork.bsky.social) 2025-06-27T16:11:42.971Z

Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissent said that the court’s decision “is nothing less than an open invitation for the Government to bypass the Constitution.”

She explained that the executive branch “can now enforce policies that flout settled law and violate countless individuals’ constitutional rights, and the federal courts will be hamstrung to stop its actions fully.”

How could those unlawful actions be stopped? Sotomayor said that every person affected by the president’s actions would have to become party to a lawsuit in order to get relief. Fat chance.

Sotomayor wraps up her dissent by saying, “The rule of law is not a given in this Nation. It is a precept of our democracy that will endure only if those brave enough in every branch fight for its survival.”

She said the president, with a stroke of a pen, has made a “solemn mockery” of the Constitution.

The court, Sotomayor said, has chosen not to stand firm, but to give way — once again — to the president.

Obviously, this administration wants to usher in white supremacy — to begin with. After that takes hold, what is to prevent President Stephen Miller Felon from issuing a new executive order that declares all registered Democrats are no longer American citizens?

This is a monstrous court that has decided that it agrees with Stephen Miller that America is a nation by and for white people and everyone else is just a guest whose invite can be rescinded at their leisure

Adam Serwer (@adamserwer.bsky.social) 2025-06-27T14:27:30.891Z

Once SCOTUS decides that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” are not necessarily “citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside” all bets are off.

My mind is reeling just thinking of the myriad subclasses of citizens at whom the hatred of this president and his sycophants could targeted.

Do we really want this white supremacist president, this Christian Nationalist Congress and this corrupt Supreme Court to hand pick who can and cannot be American citizens?

We are — literally — in the next midterm elections voting for the existence of this country.

Do we as voters choose to stand firm or give way?

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Lead art: Screen grab from Google Maps.

How Much Do I Loathe Thee, Pam

By Michael Woyton

Some things that are pissing me off today.

Man, if the administration of the felon-in-chief needs someone to be its face of obnoxiousness, I nominate Pam “Trump University Rocks” Bondi.

I don’t think “loathe” is a strong enough word to describe what I feel about her.

Listen to this exchange between the attorney general and Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley.

MERKLEY: When Trump held his dinner for 220 who purchased his memecoin, were there foreign interests there?BONDI: I would think that you'd want to talk about *looks at notes* the leader of the Sinaloa cartel who was living in Oregon … we're doing everything we can to help your liberal state

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-06-25T15:42:08.234Z

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Proving citizenship is something I’m thinking about more and more, especially when the roving bands of masked, unidentifiable thugs are being pressured to meet their daily quotas of kidnappings immigrant roundups.

This piece by Mike Madrid has an example of a United States citizen who was held in immigration detention for more than 1,200 days because he wasn’t entitled to a court-appointed lawyer since the Constitution does not guarantee legal representation to anyone being held in ICE detention.

Why are so many US citizens being arrested by ICE and what happens to them once detained? open.substack.com/pub/greattra…

Mike Madrid (@mikemadrid.bsky.social) 2025-06-24T15:14:26.718Z

Papiere bitte.

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The disgraced former governor of New York state doesn’t have to move New York City.

I’m still chuckling at the fact that the New York Times article about a “stunned” Andrew Cuomo election night watch party can be listened to in 1 minute 56 seconds.

The free link is above. Time yourself reading it; I’m sure you can do it faster.

What a legacy Cuomo has left himself.

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The U.S.’s top health official doesn’t believe that germs cause disease.

Germ theory was proven in the 19th century.

RFK Jr. is going to kill people.

Your periodic reminder that RFK Junior, America's top health official actually rejects germ theory. This is not hyperbole, he wrote this in a book. Excellent report by @bethmariem.bsky.social arstechnica.com/health/2025/…

Matthew Sheffield (@matthew.flux.community) 2025-06-23T21:48:53.690Z

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6/25/2025- The Seal http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/ju…If you missed Trump dropping the F-bomb on live TV this morning, you can see what happened here-nymag.com/intelligence…

Clay Bennett (@claybennett.bsky.social) 2025-06-24T23:05:54.551Z

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Lead art by Michael Woyton