DOD Sec. Hegseth: Advocates with Christian Right Women No Right to Vote

       He supports Christian nationalist church 

Story Headline: "Pete Hegseth reposts video of pastors saying women shouldn’t be allowed to vote"

Story link is here from FOX 5 WASH DC from the AP news story:

Details at the link from the article (emphasis is mine and formatted to fit the blog from the report).

The Brief:

*  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposed a video on X supporting the idea that women should no longer be allowed to vote.

*  The video featured a pastor from a well-known white Christian nationalist church advocating the repeal of women’s right to vote from the Constitution.

* The move illustrates the Hegseth's deep and personal connection to the pastor with notably extreme views on the role of women.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The man who oversees the nation’s military reposted a video about a Christian nationalist church that included various pastors saying women should no longer be allowed to vote.

What we know: The extraordinary repost on X from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth illustrates his deep and personal connection to a Christian nationalist pastor with extreme views on the role of religion and women.

In the post, Hegseth commented on an almost seven-minute-long report by CNN examining Doug Wilson, co-founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC). The report featured a pastor from Wilson’s church advocating the repeal of women’s right to vote from the Constitution, and another pastor saying that in his ideal world, people would vote as

households. It also featured a female congregant saying that she submits to her husband.

Note: Church co-founder Wilson told CNN: "I’d like to see the nation be a Christian nation, and I’d like to see the Christian world."

Hegseth wrote in his post that accompanied the video: "All of Christ for All of Life."  

Hegseth’s post received more than12,000 likes and 2,000 shares on X. Some users agreed with the pastors in the video, others expressed alarm at him promoting Christian nationalist ideas.

Dig deeper: Doug Pagitt, pastor and executive director of the progressive evangelical organization Vote Common Good, said: "The ideas in the video are views that small fringes of Christians keep that it was very disturbing that Hegseth would amplify

them."

Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell told The AP: "Hegseth is a proud member of a church that is affiliated with CREC. He very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings."

FYI: In May, Hegseth invited his personal pastor, Brooks Potteiger, to the Pentagon to lead the first of several Christian prayer services that Hegseth has held inside the government building during working hours. DOD employees and service members said they received invitations to the event in their government emails.

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My 2 Cents: The more information and actions by and from Hegseth, the worse they seem to get. The fact of the matter is that he should have never been confirmed for this high level critical position. 

Each incident about him is worse that then the one before or so it seems. This one is pretty awful - implying that women should not be allowed to vote. I wonder what's next?

FYI: Some more background info that led up to his confirmation senate hearing here from ABC News, and issues with his brother in this article from THE INDEPENDENT.

Thanks for stopping by.

MAGA Conspiracies: Trump's Loony Bin Grows With Three New Nuts Added

 

Conspirators Kash Patel; Tulsi Gabbard; John Ratcliffe  

Story headline from THE NY POST: “Patel finds burn bags of Trump-Russia documents in secret room!!!"

NOTE: RELATED ARTICLE HERE from Kash Patel's girlfriend and the subject matter below. 

This story is related to the two articles below (ALL edited and formatted to fit the blog - a big subject matter).

First is Gabbard's first nonsense article here:

Gabbard's second crazy article is here:

Gabbard and AG Bond connected articles are here:

WASHINGTON — FBI Director Kash Patel says he found burn bags filled with thousands of documents” dating back to the bureau’s Trump-Russia, Russia, Russia probe during the 2016 campaign (source told The Post).

One of the documents, discovered in a purported secret room at the FBI’s DC headquarters, is a classified annex to the 2023 report by then-special counsel John Durham that scrutinized the original probe, code-named “Crossfire Hurricane.”

The 29-page appendix to the Durham report, which has never been publicly released, includes details of the intelligence he reviewed, according to Fox News Digital, which first reported on the discovery. 

In official parlance, “burn bags” refer to containers that hold classified documents that are meant to be destroyed after a certain period of time.

It was not immediately clear whether the documents found by Patel had yet to reach their destroy date or were preserved due to an oversight by officials. The annex will be declassified and turned over to Senate Judiciary Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) for eventual public release, a source confirmed to The Post. NOTE: Grassley’s office didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry about when the documents would be released.

Fox News Digital reported the annex includes information that foreign sources warned members of the intelligence community that the FBI would help spread a narrative that the 2016 Trump campaign illegally colluded with the Kremlin to win the election before the bureau launched “Crossfire Hurricane” in July 2016. 

Those involved in examining the papers include Patel, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard, AG Pam Bondi, and acting NSA Director William Hartman. 

Trump said: “I want everything to be shown. You know, as long as it’s fair and reasonable, I think it will be shown.”

The FBI investigation culminated in the release of S/C Robert Mueller’s report in March 2019, which found that there were links between the Russians and Trump, but that there was no evidence that Trump conspired with the Kremlin.

Former AG Bill Barr assigned Durham to investigate the origins of Crossfire Hurricane in October 2020, after congressional investigators discovered the FBI had lied in statements when obtaining warrants to surveil then-Trump adviser Carter Page.

NOTE: Durham’s final report concluded that  “Crossfire Hurricane was seriously flawed, and had no basis in evidence.”

At the time of the Robert Mueller's special investigation, Patel was chief investigator for then-House Intelligence Committee along with former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), launched an investigation into the conduct of “Crossfire Hurricane” in 2017.

Patel hinted at the discovery in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan and said: “When I first got to the bureau, I found a room that former FBI Director James Comey and others hid from the world in the Hoover Building, full of documents & computer hard drives that no one had ever seen or heard of. They locked the key and hid access and just said: No one’s ever gonna find this place.”

Earlier this month, Gabbard released evidence that she called a “treasonous conspiracy” by former President Obama's officials to undermine his successor, a claim former CIA Director John Brennan and ex-DNI James Clapper called “patently false.”

A key finding released by Gabbard is that the Obama administration was prepared to conclude that Russia played no role in influencing the 2016 election results before Comey’s FBI pulled rank. 

In a New York Times op-ed published, Brennan and Clapper insisted that Moscow did influence the election by shaping voter preferences before the voting booths — even if they didn’t change the numbers directly. 

They wrote: "The real politicization is the calculated distortion of intelligence by administration officials, notably Trump’s DNI and the CIA, positions that should be apolitical. We find it deeply regrettable that the administration continues to perpetuate the fictitious narrative that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election. It instead should acknowledge that a foreign nation-state — a mortal enemy of the United States — routinely meddled in our national elections and will continue to do so unless we take appropriate bipartisan action to stop it.”

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My 2 Cents: Please note how all this ties into a classic bait and switch and cover-up and distraction tactics by Trump and his team as mentioned above and the articles below with their links of the truth from those now serving as his DNI, CIA, NSA, FBI, and other high ranking officials ... 

Trump and his MAGA mob always have a new twist and turn and backdoor to avoid the facts and truth as outlined. All this is classic Trump and his historical MO.

Thanks for stopping by.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard: She Again Opens Wide the GOP Conspiracy Loony Bin

 

         Gabbard asks DOJ to go after Obama

"We have evidence to prosecute Obama for 2016 election narrative" - DNI Tulsi Gabbard says.

Full article is here from the WASHINGTON EXAMINER:

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard claims there is evidence to prosecute former President Barack Obama for his administration's intelligence assessment of Russia’s 2016 election interference. 

Gabbard declassified documents and claimed it proved: “That the Obama administration’s intelligence officials manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for the FBI’s later investigation into Russian ties to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.”

Gabbard on FOX NEWS said she was referring documents from Obama officials to the DOJ as a criminal matter. She added: “We’re going to provide everything that we have, everything that we will continue to gather to DOJ for that directs intent and purpose. There must be indictments for those responsible, no matter how powerful they are and were at that time, no matter who was involved in creating this treasonous conspiracy against the people, they all must be held accountable. I’m not a lawyer, but in my view, we have evidence to move and to prosecute and to indict all those responsible.”

History on this: The Obama administration at the time, however, did not conclude what Gabbard is now saying she has. A bipartisan report in 2020 from the Senate Intelligence Committee supported the intelligence community’s assessment at the time of Russia’s sole role in the interference of the 2016 election that favored Trump over Hillary Clinton. 

NOTE: The Mueller report (seen here .pdf 448 pages) basically proves that point beyond any reasonable doubt - no blame on Trump but a ton on Russian intelligence and their operatives.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called Gabbard’s threat to refer Obama's administration officials to federal law enforcement for prosecution “dangerous and there was absolutely no legal basis for any prosecution.”

On FACE THE NATION Himes said: “When you start throwing around language like sedition and treason, somebody is going to get hurt. The intelligence community is full of very, very good people who do their jobs every single day, and now they're watching their leader do something that each and every one knows is dishonest.”

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My 2 Cents: This story underscores the contention that Tulsi Gabbard was and remains unqualified for the job as DNI. She is a full-ledged conspiracy nut and the above story makes that clear. She is way in over head and in fact is a danger to the full idea of honesty and truth fullness in the art of intelligence reporting to help protect the country. 

The opposite is true and she should be removed from office would be my estimate and ASAP is the better for our safety and common sense in the critical position that she now holds.

Thanks for stopping.

Trump to Prioritize Denaturalization: Revoke Citizenship for Lies, Deceit, Crimes

Trump to DOJ: Prioritize denaturalization cases

A topic that needs close scrutiny but won't get it reported on here from PBS is ICE paying attention I wonder (doubtful):

Trump's memo to DOJ is here from SLATE.com. 

The claim that Melania Trump was in the U.S. on an "illegal visa" is not accurate, but there are some credible reports and questions surrounding her immigration history. Here's a breakdown of the information and the related questions on the TOPIC OF: Reports of working on a tourist visa.

According to an AP report, documents indicate that Melania Trump was paid for modeling jobs in the United States between September 10 and October 15, 1996. 

During this period, she was in the U.S. on a B1/B2 tourist visa, which generally allows individuals to be in the country to look for work but not to perform paid work. This suggests that she may have been working illegally during that time.

According to her attorney, Melania Trump obtained an H-1B work visa on October 18, 1996, which would have allowed her to work legally in the U.S. as a model.  The "Einstein Visa" and Permanent Residency: Melania Trump later obtained a green card (permanent residency) through an EB-1 visa, sometimes referred to as the "Einstein visa." 

This visa category is intended for individuals with "extraordinary ability" in their field, and questions have been raised about whether she met the criteria for this visa. 

Immigration lawyers state that the requirements for the EB-1 visa is subject to interpretation. 

Melania Trump became a U.S. citizen in 2006.

Potential Consequences: If it were found that she had deliberately misrepresented facts during her immigration process, her citizenship theoretically could be revoked, although this is considered highly unlikely and reserved for egregious cases. 

While Melania Trump did not enter the country on an illegal visa, there are credible reports suggesting that she may have worked illegally while in the U.S. on a tourist visa before obtaining the appropriate work visa. That lack of full complete and transparency surrounds her overall immigration documents has led to the questions and speculation.

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My 2 Cents: A simple Rick Perry oops might now  suffice ... but time will tell and well what would Trump tell ICE to pursue? Another oops.

The law for the process to take away someone's citizenship is outlined here (.pdf format 27 pages).

Thanks for stopping by.

 

No Kings Protests Peaceful: 250th Army Birthday OK - Trump's Birthday a Flop

 

"Old bone spurs" himself nasty about our fallen Vets

(Documented Trump quotes)

Here from CARDINAL AND PINE is a list of six times (out of many times noted) that Trump insulted veterans and active duty military members. 

2015: He disparaged John McCain’s POW experience. During a 2015 appearance in Iowa, Trump criticized then-Arizona Sen. John McCain’s service in Vietnam, specifically calling out McCain’s time as a POW saying: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” 

McCain died in 2018 after a battle with brain cancer. McCain said in 2017 that he never received an apology from Trump for his disparaging comments. McCain was famously critical of Trump prior to his death, calling out Trump for everything from praising Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to Trump’s alleged lewd and inappropriate behavior with and about women. And who can ever forget when McCain came on Senate chamber floor and gave his thumps down on the vote to kill the ACA (Obama-care) that Trump wanted to kill because Obama created and passed it.

2016: He publicly insulted a Gold Star family: Ahead of Trump’s 2016 election, the parents of a slain Muslim US soldier shared their criticism of the then-candidate during a speech at the DNC Khizr and Gahala Khan —Pakistani Americans whose son, Humayan, died during the Iraq war in 2004 — called out Trump for his public attacks on Muslims and implied that Trump had never read the Constitution. In a subsequent interview with ABC News, Trump suggested that Khizr Khan made the entire speech because his wife “wasn’t allowed” to speak, drawing on implications that all Muslim women are subservient to their spouses. In reality, the Khans said in a follow up interview, Gahala Khan chose to remain silent because speaking about her son’s death was too painful. Trump also told ABC News that Humayan Khan “would be alive today” if he’d been president, also suggesting that the U.S never would have entered a war with Iraq under his leadership. Trump’s comments drew widespread criticism from Gold Star families, the VFW, and even fellow Republicans, including Trump’s then running mate, Mike Pence, who said in a statement that “Army Captain Humayun Khan is an American hero and his family, like all Gold Star families, should be cherished by every American.” No public apology to Khizr and Gahala Khan was ever made by Trump, though he did later released a statement that called Humayan Khan “a hero” and doubled down on his plans to stop “radical Islamist terrorists” from entering the U.S. 

2017: He expressed distaste for wounded veterans in an interaction with his then-chief of staff John Kelly, Trump reportedly requested that wounded veterans not be included in a 4th of July military parade. Trump’s alleged comments were detailed in a 2022 book by Peter Baker of the New York Times and Susan B. Glasser of the New Yorker entitled “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021.” The then-president was reportedly inspired by a 2017 military parade he witnessed during a visit to France and requested that a similarly opulent parade be planned for the 4th of July in Washington, DC. The catch? Trump asked that wounded veterans be excluded from the parade, telling Kelly that France’s parade had featured vets with visible injuries or in wheelchairs saying: “Look, I don’t want any wounded guys in the parade. This doesn’t look good for me.” Kelly pushed back on Trump’s request and defended the heroic actions of many wounded veterans, only for Trump to repeat his desire to exclude them. 

2018: He called WWI casualties “losers and suckers” during a visit to an American military cemetery in France. He referred to American soldiers killed in World War I as “losers and suckers.” Senior defense officials reported that Trump made the comments ahead of a canceled visit to Aisne-Marne American Military Cemetery outside Paris, stating that he didn’t want to visit the cemetery because it was “filled with losers.” Aisne-Marne is the final resting place for more then 2,000 American soldiers who died in WWI. Trump then reportedly doubled down on his offensive comments later during the same trip to France calling 1,800 U.S. Marines “suckers” for being killed during the battle of Belleau Wood in 1918. Administration officials and Trump himself vehemently denied the comments, though allies and former Trump White House Chief of  Staff, General John Kelly, later corroborated the initial reports. 

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My 2 Cents: That is a documented short list from Donald J. "Bone Spurs" Trump against Vets. 

BTW: Trump paid the doctor to write up his bone spurs reason for him dodging the draft, and it worked.  Proof proof from the MD's daughters and is reported on here from NEWSWEEK. 

Trump is despicable as outlined above - all of witch he disputes but the record is clear. 

 

He is plainly a horrible president, CINC to all the military, and he cannot duck or doge the facts. The record is clear. He is anti-Vet regardless of how he lies over and over to to cover up the insults and real truth outlined above at least for now.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

President Trump Out of Control: Blames everyone every day except himself

 

U.S. SUPREME COURT MAIN ENTRANCE

The motto inscribed on the Supreme Court building is "Equal Justice Under Law." This phrase is prominently displayed above the main entrance. Is is above above the west façade , which faces the Capitol that bears the motto. The east has a different inscription: "Justice the Guardian of Liberty." It's been that way since built and opened in 1935.

That is our justice system and the foundation of law for every person in the United States, citizen, guest, legal immigrant, or a person here illegally but not a lawbreaker nor a criminal per se unless proven so for crime after due process.

More from these two sites: 

From the FREE PRESS here this short summary. 

 

The first 90 days of Trump’s second term have been marked by a series of aggressive legal maneuvers. Among them: (1) shaking down law firms the president regards as “anti-Trump;”  (2) threatening to revoke tax-exempt status from Harvard; (3) the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, and (4) green-card holders on campus; and much, much more.

Regarding the deportation of  Venezuelan gang members, the Supreme Court ordered a hold on other Trump plans, writing in their 9-0 opinion: “The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from 

the United States until further order of this Court.” (Note based providing due process to all).

Many critics argue that the administration’s actions stretch the limits of executive power. Others argue they are outright unconstitutional and quite frankly are building on a daily basis most built on PROJECT 2025 from the Heritage Foundation.

The Trump White House and its defenders say that this is hysterical — and that the president is only using the powers of the presidency arrogated since the Obama administration. In the case of deporting illegal immigrants, to choose one example, they say he is doing nothing less than restoring the rule of law that the Biden administration flouted.

From THE BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE here: 

Just weeks in, the Trump administration has violated rules, laws, and the Constitution. 

Briefly this extract: Thomas Paine wrote at our founding: “In America, the law is king.” Amid today’s governing and constitutional crisis, we are finding out whether that is still true. 

We’ve been astonished and appalled by how the president and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, assaulted much of the government. It can be hard to tell if this is a concerted attack on the rule of law or just a bunch of people running around saying “what happens if I push this button?”

There is a bright thread running through, beyond bombast, ego, and desire to smash government, any government.

Over and over, their actions violate the law — either the Constitution, or statutes, or both. Some moves may be designed to dare the courts to sanction these power grabs. More likely, it seems increasingly clear, they don’t care.

Take Elon Musk’s lightning war on the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government’s principal body providing humanitarian assistance around the world. USAID has always been a stellar example of “soft power,” the reputational idea that the wealthy United States can be a force for good in the poorest parts of the world.

Musk’s aides took over the agency and froze most foreign aid, threatening the provision of medical care and the safe operation of refugee camps. They accessed its confidential data. They shut down its website. Staff was ordered to stay away from the office. Musk announced their plan is to “shut down” the agency. 

He says the agency is a “criminal organization,” while Trump now claimed it was led by “radical lunatics.” 

Then Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the agency was guilty of “insubordination” and it would now be part of the State Department. All this is illegal. 

USAID was established as an independent entity in a law passed by Congress in 1998. Congress could shut it down or move it, but a roving billionaire adviser to the president cannot.

See more from the Brennan Center site linked above.

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My 2 Cents: As a summary my personal view of President Donald J. Trump - a man totally out of control. Hard to keep up with all his nonsense and quite frankly his out of control views. 

MAGA and Trump do not trust our legal system of justice - they believe in only the kind of justice that they define and thus follow. Here is Trump's belief about any issue or question of justice and the law of the land. 

Trump will: Duck, Dodge, Deny, Delay, Deflect, or Distract on any issue or question of law that he does not believe in or trust, or that he has to follow, period. 

His actions, words, and appointments to those close to him prove my point. The law is what he says it is or that he believe it is and nothing else.

Thanks for stopping by.

Immigrant Newborn DNA in Database: For Future Criminals We Guess Oops...

 

Immigrant newborn DNA into database for future 

The United States government has collected DNA samples from upwards of 133,000 migrant children and teenagers — including at least one 4-year-old — and uploaded their genetic data into a national criminal database used by local, state, and federal law enforcement, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.

The records, quietly released by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) earlier this year, offer the most detailed look to date at the scale of CBP’s controversial DNA collection program. They reveal for the first time just how deeply the government’s biometric surveillance reaches into the lives of migrant children, some of whom may still be learning to read or tie their shoes, yet whose DNA is now stored in a system originally built for convicted sex offenders and violent criminals.

The DOJ argued that extensive DNA collection activity at the border provides “an assessment of the danger a migrant potentially poses to the public, and will essentially help solve crimes that may be committed in the future.” 

Experts say that the children’s raw genetic material will be stored indefinitely and worry that, without proper guardrails, the DNA dragnet could be used for more extensive profiling in the future.

Article source is from WIRED here. 

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My 2 Cents: Talk about utter craziness of the Trump administration run amok - boy, this is it. 

Words cannot even begin to describe the utter nuttiness of this latest from Trump's empire.

Thanks for stopping by.

"Liar-in-Chief" Shows False Pics:: Photos of White Farmers Killed by Blacks

 

Not real photos of White South Africans murdered by Blacks 

Short and sweet message of classic proof, 100%, that shows once again that President Donald J. Trump is the "Liar-in-Chief" NOT the duly elected president of all the people showing a dignified Oval Office guest false photos of the guest's native country.

That story is posted here from REUTERS News with this headline:

Trump's image of dead 'white farmers' came from Reuters footage in Congo, not South Africa 

Simple message summary from the article:

*  In meeting with South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa. Trump showed article with picture of body bags that Trump said bodies were those of white South Africans killed in that country by blacks.

*  Picture was a screenshot of a Reuters video taken in Democratic Republic of Congo in February and NOT South Africa

Trump said as he showed a screenshot of Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented on Wednesday (May 21) as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans.

Trump added, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by the picture during a contentious Oval Office meeting:  "These are all farmers that are being buried."

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My 2 Cents: This story stands on its own.

Thanks for stopping by.

Trump Sent Elon Musk to Track Fraud at SSA: Musk Found No Fraud - Oops!!!

 

Elon Musk: DOGE Crap Gladiator

Elon Musk & DOGE claimed that 40% of phone calls to Social Security were fraud. He set up a system to track calls. 

Musk found no fraud,  but he did delay Social Security processing for clients. 

Source of this story is from the NEW REPUBLIC here.

Highlights: After months of baseless claims about “extreme levels of fraud” within the SSA - even going so far as calling it the “biggest Ponzi Scheme of all time” —Musk & DOGE found only two likely fraudulent claims out of over 110,000 at SSA as reported to Nextgov.

Musk instructed the SSA agency to install anti-fraud checks for benefit claims made over the phone. That policy impeded the agency’s retirement claim processing, while finding less than 1% of calls were potentially fraudulent. 

The two likely fraudulent cases make it a rate of .0018%. Thus, Musk & DOGE found virtually no fraud yet made the system integral to our country’s inner workings less efficient in the final outcome.

The SSA is now weighing changing the policy entirely stated in their internal document: “No significant fraud has been detected from the flagged cases.” 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told Nextgov: “The Trump-Musk Social Security takeover has only meant more chaos and confusion for Americans. Every one of DOGE’s so-called ‘mistakes’ is a backdoor cut to people’s benefits. There’s nothing efficient about making it harder for people to access the checks they’ve earned and are owed.”

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My 2 Cents: The only fraud in this whole Trump directed Musk-DOGE government clean-up act is the mess that they are leaving behind. 

The massive firings and Agency shutdowns and such have achieved only one thing: A COMPLEE CHAOTIC MESS of our total Federal Government structure and system.  

We will long regret that this was allowed to happen and the blame lies squarely on Trump and the 

scaredy-cats in the GOP House and GOP Senate that did not intervene and stop his total inflicted  disarray, disorder, and pandemonium from day-one. 

We may recover but the damage in between then and now will cost billions and numerous lives as well. 

“The Art of Con” is in full bloom.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Trump Retribution Targets: Sights Falsely on Two Former First Term Officials

Chris Krebs & Miles Taylor 

Shocking story from POLITICO shows and proves Trump's retribution promise is fully underway with this headline story:

Trump orders investigation of two first-term administration aides who criticized him

Trump signed EO's targeting Miles Taylor and Christopher Krebs, in escalation of his retribution campaign.

Trump directed the DOJ to investigate two former aides who criticized him by stripping their security clearances and opening federal probes of their tenures.

The directives that Trump signed orders DOJ to scrutinize former senior DHS official Miles Taylor and Christopher Krebs, who was Trump’s Director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). 

The two critics are the latest to be swept up in Trump’s expansive retribution campaign, where he seeks federal powers in unprecedented ways to punish political opponents, law firms, universities, and others that he believes have wronged him.

Taylor authored a high-profile anonymous op-ed in 2018 that criticized Trump and offered: "A scathing firsthand account of his decision making."

He later authored a on-line post under the name of  "Anonymous" that laid out the chaos inside the Trump White House, before revealing his identity and endorsed Joe Biden in the days before the 2020 election. 

Trump called Taylor a “traitor,” even as he insisted that the former DHS official played a minimal role in is first administration. Then Trump called Taylor treasonous.

Krebs said the 2020 election: "Was the most secure and safest election ever." 

Trump fired Krebs the very next day.

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My 2 Cents: Trump referred to himself in 2024 as the revenge candidate who "was your retribution." 

Now he is proving it with these two men.

In my opinion, SCOTUS must step up and stop this craziness from Trump for the sake of the country without any doubt whatsoever that will protect and preserve our judicial system on an equal and fair basis.

Thanks for stopping by.

North Korean Shenanigans:Clever Money Making Scheme by Kim Jong-Un

  

Kim Jong Un: North Korean third Supreme Dictator 

FORTUNE news story headline is very seriously concerning as well: 

Thousands of North Korean IT workers have infiltrated the Fortune 500, and they keep getting hired

Fortune 500 companies have unwittingly hired thousands of software engineers who claim to be American developers but are actually North Korean citizens using stolen or fake identities. 

Through legitimate employment, the IT workers are illegally funneling their salaries to Kim Jong Un’s regime to fund prohibited WND and ballistic missile programs that the U.S. Treasury; State Department; and FBI collectively estimate the IT workers scam has generated hundreds of millions each year since 2018.  

About 95% of the résumés Harrison Leggio gets in response to job postings for his crypto startup G8keep from North Korean engineers pretending to be American. He even once interviewed a job seeker who claimed to have worked at the same Manhattan-based cryptocurrency exchange as he did, during the time he worked there.

Leggio said: "Turns out it was all a ruse. The programming languages the engineer said the company used were incorrect, and he claimed to have floated among teams rather than embedding in a single group, which wasn’t a thing there. Fortune won’t even set up an interview with a candidate who seems promising on paper unless they agree to one final step. The first time I ever did it, the person started freaking out." 

The UN estimates the North Korean IT worker scam has generated $250 million to $600 million every year since 2018. As a result, cybersecurity experts of all stripes have banded together to share information about the strategies, profiles, VPNs, and signs to watch for. 

But AI has emboldened the North Korean scheme, allowing the IT workers to develop scripts so they can hold down as many as six or seven jobs at a time, disguise their appearance, and even alter their voices so they don’t have an accent, or they sound like a woman instead of a man. 

Experts predict the scope and scale will expand in 2025, moving across Europe and Asia with well-honed social engineering tactics paired with more aggressive job hunting at European defense and government companies.

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My 2 Cents: This is precisely how North Korea acts and has for decades in order to make millions of U.S. dollars and convert and use that

money to produce weapons then sell them to make even more money for their allies wordwide. It's rather routine and SOP for them, and as 

not in the FORTUNE article, they are good at it, too.

Thanks for stopping by.

Trump Cancelled 2015 Iran Nuke Deal: Now He Threatens Them for His New Deal

 

Trump Cancelled the Working JCPOA World Deal

(Now he wants his brand or will bomb  Iran)

HOT TOPIC BACK IN THE NEW  WITH THIS STARK NEWSWEEK STORY:

Iran Rejects Direct Negotiations With U.S Over Trump Nuclear Deal

During his first term, Trump pulled out of a 2015 agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or simply as the Iran nuclear deal. 

Now: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said  that Tehran had rejected direct negotiations with Washington after Trump penned a letter to the regime pushing for fresh talks on a nuclear deal.

Related proposal with the U.S. in this story from PBS. 

Why It Matters: Trump said earlier this month he had reached out to Tehran and expressed his hope that its senior officials would negotiate with the U.S. on Iran's nuclear program. 

Trump said: "If we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing for them."

Iran says its nuclear development, which has been curbed by lapsed JCPOA restrictions, is peaceful and not intended to make nuclear weapons.

But Iranian officials have in recent months publicly floated whether Tehran should abandon this track, and analysts say it would not be difficult for Iran to take the final step toward weaponizing its nuclear program.

The agreement relaxed sanctions leveled against Iran in exchange for new limits on Tehran's nuclear program, as officials involved at the time tried to limit weapons sales to and from Iran, as well as the country's ballistic missile development. Iran then abandoned the JCPOA.

In late February, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, said Tehran upped its almost weapons-grade uranium production, increasing its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% by nearly 93 kilograms.

Lower percentages of enriched uranium, up to the 3.67% allowed under the JCPOA, were used for nuclear power. 

Percentages between around 20% and the high 90%, however, can be used to make nuclear weapons. 

The higher the percentage, the more efficient a nuclear weapon would be. Uranium enriched to 60% could theoretically be used for a nuclear weapon, albeit an inefficient one by most standards.

Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to make several relatively low-yield nuclear bombs experts contend.

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My 2 Cents: I have said since 2017 when Trump withdrew from plan that was signed by: China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, and United States in 2015 (and was working according the IAEA as well) was an awful decision that the world would regret. Now in Trump 2.0 regret meet world.

Trump is a silly man to think Iran will relent and now agree to his crappy deal or face his wrath. This is #1 on the Trump list of insane ideas threats, and the most dangerous, too. We shall see - so, hang on tight.  

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Musk's Control: GOP Scared of Musk's $100M to Trump for Use Against Them

 

 Most common white supremacist hand sign in the world

(Heil Trump)

WASHINGTON − Billionaire Elon Musk, who has been cutting thousands of federal workers as the head of DOGE reposted a message on X saying: “Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Public sector employees did.”

The Musk post read: “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.” 

(My insert: That's why Musk hates American federal workers across all agencies).

Musk's X post, which now appears to be deleted, drew furious reactions from a labor union and the Anti-Defamation League. 

Lee Saunders,  president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, fired back: “America’s public service workers — our nurses, teachers, firefighters, librarians — chose making our communities safe, healthy and strong over getting rich. They are not, as the world’s richest man implies, genocidal murderers.”

Historical facts: 

1. Nazi leader Adolph Hitler led to the murders of six million European Jews in the Holocaust and caused the deaths of millions more civilians in World War II. 

2. Dictator Josef Stalin killed between six and nine million Soviet citizens through executions, starvation, and imprisonment. 

3. Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong's policies are estimated to have killed between 30 million and 45 million people through starvation and disease.

________________________________________

My 2 Cents: Why is Trump cutting funding for all the Federal agencies? Why does he stick to and stand by Musk? As outlined by the executive orders, Trump recently elected seven agencies he determined to be unnecessary. Now nearly all 15 in total, and independent agencies as well.

Trump has signed an executive order that aims to eliminate seven more federal agencies, including ones that focus on media, libraries, museums, and ending homelessness. 

The president directed the government entities to “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” insisting they “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel.”  

It ordered the heads of each entity to submit a report to the OMB (Russell Vought (PROJECT 2025 guru) confirming full compliance within seven days. 

The president targeted the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which is the parent company of Voice of America (VOA), as well as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an agency that supports libraries, archives and museums in every state. 

He also dismantled the Interagency Council on Homelessness, which aims to prevent and end homelessness in the U.S; the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, an agency focused on preventing, minimizing and resolving work stoppages and labor disputes; the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which aims to expand economic opportunity for underserved communities; and the Minority Business Development Agency, which promotes growth of minority-owned businesses.

Amid questions over the future of VOA, Trump has picked Kari Lake to lead the outlet. Lake, Trump ally said at the Conservative Political Action Conference: “It won’t be Trump TV” under her watch.

A White House Fact Sheet outlines that DOGE led by Musk had identified those agencies worth slashing. 

That fact sheet states: “Cutting these governmental entities will save taxpayer dollars, reduce unnecessary government spending, and streamline government priorities.”

The Trump administration did not immediately respond for comment about the order when contacted by USA TODAY.

From the COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Finally, how can any American stick with Trump and Musk?

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Constitutional Republic to Tyrant Trump: No other way to explain America now

For Dictator Don - just like he says 24/7

Super excellent opinion article in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution with this headline (formatted to fit the blog):

“The great overreach: Trump’s executive orders tilt toward tyranny”

The administration is rushing the electorate with orders that essentially say: “This is the law because I say so.” But, that’s not the case.

BACKGROUND: On January 31, the EEOC staff received a new directive from its Trump-appointed acting chair. 

The directive instructed staff to halt the processing of EEOC charges alleging sexual orientation discrimination or discrimination based on gender identity and that all charges so alleging should be sent to national headquarters for review to make sure they “Comply with applicable executive orders to the fullest extent possible.”

That directive flies in the face of the United States Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County, a 2020 (6-3 majority decision) penned by Trump-appointed Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, in which the Supreme Court found that discrimination based on sexual orientation or based on gender identity is illegal sex discrimination under Title VII. 

It is unconstitutional to defer or delay these charges simply because they are brought by employees this administration prefers not to protect. The law as stated by the Supreme Court requires that these employees be treated fairly and equally. The charges should be processed timely, just as with any other charge.

The president does not have the authority to overrule the Supreme Court by executive order or otherwise. 

It is a bedrock principle of our constitutional democracy that there are three co-equal branches of government: (1) the Legislative; (2) the Executive; and (3) the Judicial.

When Trump seeks to overrule a Supreme Court case, he is ignoring our constitutional democracy and, instead, making a power grab, overreaching his authority.

It is up to the officials at the EEOC to ignore this illegal directive or challenge this directive in a court of law. 

To do otherwise would be to not only bow to an illegal Trump mandate but also to ignore illegal sexual orientation or gender-based discrimination, which has been recognized as actionable by the High Court.

Separate and apart from the illegality of a new administration’s directive, is also the cruel marginalization of two groups of people who, in recent times, were recognized as equal under the laws of this country.

By directing the EEOC to delay or defer the processing of charges from these two groups, the Trump administration is sending a not-very subtle message to employers: Discriminate at will against gay and transgender employees. 

Of course, the other side of that coin is that gay and transgender employees will live in fear in the workplace, operating with the belief that they are no longer protected by Title VII.

Executive Order 14183, is captioned “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” and it rescinds Executive Order 14004, which permits military service regardless of gender identity. 

Again, Trump chose to marginalize this minority group. It is an open question as to whether under Bostock such marginalization is illegal under Title VII.

More broadly speaking, it appears the Trump administration is promulgating a rash of illegal executive orders that fly in the face of the Constitution and other well-established laws. 

This appears to be an effort to flood our country with illegal orders to overwhelm those who would oppose such actions and fracture and destroy the rich and diverse human family in our country. 

Other examples of his executive order are these two: (1) Outlawing birthright citizenship (a clear violation of the 14th Amendment, already struck down by one court), and (2) the sudden termination of numerous federal employees in violation of civil service laws and due process and procedures to remove any “merit-based career employee” (not political appointee).

I add this Federal law rule insert: Outlines the process from the Civil service regulation for removal from office: 

Notice 

1    The employee must be notified of the charges against them and the reasons for the removal.

2    The employee must be given a copy of the charges and a reasonable time to respond.

3    The employee must be given a written decision about their response.

Reasons

1    The removal must be for a cause that promotes the efficiency of the service. 

2    The removal must be for a reason that is given in writing. 

3    The removal must be for a reason that is consistent with merit system principles. 

Appeals 

1    The employee has the right to appeal the removal to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

2    The employee must be informed of the time limit for appealing and the MSPB office to which to appeal.

3    The employee must be given a notice of decision that includes the reasons for the removal and the effective date of the removal.

Other factors that may be considered when determining whether to remove an employee include: 

·     Gross mismanagement

·     Abuse of authority

·     Incompetency

·     Inefficiency

·      Neglect of duty

·      Substantial-Specific danger to public health or safety

Trump is rushing the electorate with a series of orders that essentially say: “This is the law because I say so. It is not. He does not have that authority. We are still a government of, by, and for the people, governed by a Constitution that recognizes three distinct branches of government that is a check on each other.”

These orders and other efforts to overstep the Constitution must be opposed vigorously by litigation or legislation. This needs to happen immediately lest we lose our republic to tyranny.

An example of justice at work against Trump’s moves:

Federal judge blocks freeze on federal grants & loans 

White House rescinds EO freezing federal grants after confusion

My 2 Cents: The opinion article above from Attorney Ed Buckley expresses my view of the Trump-Musk whatever we call it precisely 100%.

More and more people in the legal business and concerned about the antics of Trump & Musk are the guardrail we so desperately need at this dangerous time in our country to stop and curtail those two and the “Trump-Musk Empire” they seek” taking us from our current form of government based on constitution with the three branches of government of, by, and for the people with checks and balances and rule of law and justice for all to that Trump-Musk are dragging us into a one branch: Trump’s branch with no checks or balance and oversight by Congress – only one that does what he tells it to do.

That’s the direction I see Trump-Musk dragging us into now. What about your view – what do you think?

Well, that’s my view. Hopefully it’s yours, too.

Thanks for stopping by.