Author Archives: M

Axios World: Trump administration accepts Qatari 747 to serve as Air Force One

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The U.S. accepted Qatar’s gift of a Boeing 747 to serve as the new Air Force One, the Pentagon said Wednesday, despite the ethical quandaries and potential constitutional violations it entails.

President Trump has brushed off any concerns about the appearance of accepting the $400 million gift despite objections from Democrats and some Republicans.

Trump scoffed at the criticism, saying it would be “stupid” to turn down a new Air Force One.

The Grifter-in-Chief gets what the Grifter-in-Chief desires.

The big question now is, “When will the Qataris call in the favor, and what will they want?”

Trump administration accepts Qatari 747 to serve as Air Force One
Trump scoffed at the criticism, saying it would be “stupid” to turn down a new Air Force One.

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/21/trump-qatar-boeing-747-plane-accepted

The Times: James Comey on Trump: ‘He’s the monster in a horror sequel’

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The former FBI director was sacked in 2017, four months into Donald Trump’s first term of office. Now James Comey is at the centre of an extraordinary row about his ‘86 47’ Instagram post

When I speak to James Comey about his past battles with Donald Trump, the state of America and his new novel about free speech and its consequences, the former director of the FBI is on holiday at the beach. He is in a relaxed mood, with no reason to suspect that within hours he will be engulfed in a fresh storm.

Comey, who was sacked by Trump in his first term in dramatic circumstances, had warned before the election that the idea of Donald back in the White House “bent on retribution and destroying the system is chilling”. So I ask if he had experienced any of that retribution.

“Well, not in Trump 2.0. But with the interviews I’m doing around the launch of this book, maybe I’ll get my own executive order. We’ll see,” he says lightly. “I dealt with most of my retribution in Trump 1.0, where I was investigated repeatedly. I had the most aggressive tax audit imaginable, and they ended up owing me $347, but it cost me thousands of dollars to get to that. I went through it in Trump 1.0. I was on the enemies list before there was an enemies list. Nothing so far in 2.0, but it’s early yet.”

A few hours later, he is under investigation by the Trump administration and the Maga world is alight with calls for his arrest and jailing. This comes as a consequence of a walk on the beach and a photograph posted to Instagram — then quickly deleted — of some shells arranged to form the numbers “86 47”.

James Comey on Trump: ‘He’s the monster in a horror sequel’
The former FBI director was sacked in 2017, four months into Donald Trump’s first term. Now James Comey is at the centre of a row about his ‘86 47’ Instagram post

https://www.thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/james-comey-fbi-interview-donald-trump-monster-in-horror-sequel-sbgd9t60g

CNN: Vance says Roberts is ‘profoundly wrong’ about judiciary’s role to check executive branch

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Vice President JD Vance called Chief Justice John Roberts’ comments earlier this month that the judiciary’s role is to check the executive branch a “profoundly wrong sentiment” and said the courts should be “deferential” to the president, particularly when it comes to immigration.

“I thought that was a profoundly wrong sentiment. That’s one half of his job, the other half of his job is to check the excesses of his own branch. And you cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they’re not allowed to have what they voted for,” Vance told New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat on the “Interesting Times” podcast, which was taped on Monday.

This idiot J.D. Dunce has a law degree?

Did he even pass civics in high school?

Vance says Roberts is ‘profoundly wrong’ about judiciary’s role to check executive branch | CNN Politics
Vice President JD Vance called Chief Justice John Roberts’ comments earlier this month that the judiciary’s role is to check the executive branch a “profoundly wrong sentiment” and said the courts should be “deferential” to the president, particularly when it comes to immigration.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/politics/jd-vance-john-roberts-judiciary-role

New York Times: If We Can’t Prosecute Trump’s Foes, We’ll ‘Shame’ Them, Justice Dept. Official Says

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Few, if any, of those singled out have done anything to invite conventional prosecutorial scrutiny, much less committed crimes to warrant an indictment under federal law.

President Trump has kept up a steady bombardment of suggestions, requests and demands to arrest, investigate or prosecute targets of his choosing — the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, various Democrats, officials who refuted his election lies, Beyoncé, the Boss.

But Mr. Trump’s directives have so far hit a stubborn snag. Few, if any, of those singled out have done anything to invite conventional prosecutorial scrutiny, much less committed prosecutable crimes to warrant an indictment under federal law.

But a Trump loyalist, given new, vague and possibly vast power, has found a workaround.

In recent days, Ed Martin, the incoming leader of the Justice Department’s “weaponization” group, made a candid if unsurprising admission: He plans to use his authority to expose and discredit those he believes to be guilty, even if he cannot find sufficient evidence to prosecute them — weaponizing an institution he has been hired to de-weaponize, in the view of critics.

In other words, if they can’t prosecute their target, they’ll engage in character assassination.

So much for a professional Department of Justice!

https://archive.is/SLN1j#selection-707.0-730.0

MSNBC: Budget office: Republicans’ megabill would give to the rich and take from the poor

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If GOP officials are looking for good news in the Congressional Budget Office’s new report on the party’s reconciliation package, they won’t find any.

Common sense might suggest that congressional Republicans would want to know basic details about their giant reconciliation package, such as how much it would cost and the practical implications of its provisions. GOP lawmakers are, after all, federal policymakers. It stands to reason that they’d care enough about governing to want to legislate with open eyes.

But that’s not the case. Just as Republicans scrambled in 2017 to pass massive tax breaks without waiting for a score from the Congressional Budget Office, GOP lawmakers decided to do the same thing in 2025, deliberately choosing willful ignorance about their own legislation.

That did not, however, stop congressional Democrats from asking the CBO to scrutinize the House Republicans’ proposal, and as The Associated Press reported, the nonpartisan budget office’s findings were quite brutal.

Budget office: Republicans’ megabill would give to the rich and take from the poor
If GOP officials are looking for good news in the Congressional Budget Office’s new report on the party’s reconciliation package, they won’t find any.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/budget-office-republicans-megabill-give-rich-richer-take-poor-rcna208175

New York Times: Official Pushed to Rewrite Intelligence So It Could Not Be ‘Used Against’ Trump

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An assessment contradicted a presidential proclamation. A political appointee demanded a redo, then pushed for changes to the new analysis, too.

New emails document how a top aide to Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, ordered analysts to edit an assessment with the hope of insulating President Trump and Ms. Gabbard from being attacked for the administration’s claim that Venezuela’s government controls a criminal gang.

“We need to do some rewriting” and more analytic work “so this document is not used against the DNI or POTUS,” Joe Kent, the chief of staff to Ms. Gabbard, wrote in an email to a group of intelligence officials on April 3, using shorthand for Ms. Gabbard’s position and for the president of the United States.

In other words, their idea of “intelligence” is to write what they think Trump wants to hear in a way that won’t inconvenience him, rather than to provide a realistic assessment of what’s happening in the world.

Typical sycophants!!!

gabbard-intelligence-venezuelans-tren-de-aragua-trump.html

Reuters: Exclusive-Hacker who breached communications app used by Trump aide stole data from across US government

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A hacker who breached the communications service used by former Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz earlier this month intercepted messages from a broader swathe of American officials than has previously been reported, according to a Reuters review, potentially raising the stakes of a breach that has already drawn questions about data security in the Trump administration.

Reuters identified more than 60 unique government users of the messaging platform TeleMessage in a cache of leaked data provided by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a U.S. nonprofit whose stated mission is to archive hacked and leaked documents in the public interest. The trove included material from disaster responders, customs officials, several U.S. diplomatic staffers, at least one White House staffer and members of the Secret Service. The messages reviewed by Reuters covered a roughly day-long period of time ending on May 4, and many of them were fragmentary.

?url=httpswww.reuters.comworldushacker-who-breached-communications-app-used-by-trump-aide-stole-data-across-us-2025-05-21

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hacker-who-breached-communications-app-used-by-trump-aide-stole-data-across-us-2025-05-21

Miami Herald: Supreme Court ruling on TPS stuns South Florida, leaves Venezuelan families in fear

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A U.S Supreme Court ruling that allows the Trump administration to strip deportation protections and work permits from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans — including many Miami area residents — sent shock waves through South Florida and across the Sunshine State on Monday.

“That the U.S. would terminate the protections for Venezuelans now, when nothing has improved back home, is just unbelievable,” said Betsy Diaz, a Venezuelan-American in Hialeah whose two daughters, five grandchildren and several other relatives will lose the protections.

In a two-paragraph order, the nation’s highest court on Monday granted an emergency request from the White House to roll back a lower court judge’s order that kept in place Temporary Protected Status for about 350,000 Venezuelans. It was part of an ongoing lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco challenging the Trump administration’s February decision to revoke the protections granted to Venezuelans and other nationals from certain countries in turmoil.

The court provided no explanation for why it had lifted the lower court judge’s order, which prevented the Trump administration from removing the protections while the litigation is ongoing.

Supreme Court ruling on TPS stuns South Florida, leaves Venezuelan families in fear
“Unbelievable,” said a Venezuelan American grandmother in Hialeah

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article306751681.html

MiBolsillo Colombia: SSA’s DOGE phone policy led to delays with minimal fraud caught

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The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), established by Elon Musk’s team, entered the Social Security Administration (SSA) with a mission to cut costs and eliminate perceived widespread fraud. DOGE believed that much of this fraudulent activity occurred over the phone. Despite not being a Cabinet-level agency, DOGE’s influence led to the implementation of a controversial phone policy aimed at fraud detection.

At DOGE’s request, a security verification process was developed to detect allegedly fraudulent claims made by phone. This involved a three-day hold on all phone claims while personnel verified the caller’s background. The system mirrored internet claim verification, where claims remain in a database for days before processing. Despite internal skepticism about its necessity, the policy was implemented due to fears of job loss if DOGE’s demands were not met.

The three-day security verification was abandoned due to its ineffectiveness in identifying fraud. It only flagged a couple of potential fraud cases out of 110,000 calls reviewed.

SSA’s DOGE phone policy led to delays with minimal fraud caught
SSA’s fraud-prevention phone policy, backed by DOGE and Elon Musk’s team, caused major delays and few results, drawing widespread criticism

https://www.mibolsillo.co/news/SSAs-DOGE-phone-policy-led-to-delays-with-minimal-fraud-caught-20250518-0030.html

Newsweek: Why do MAGA Republicans hate Europe?

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In May 1988, Republican President Ronald Reagan spoke from the Oval Office in an address not targeted at the American people, but the citizens of Western Europe. The president was planning a trip to meet with Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and wanted to make his commitment to Europe clear.

Staring directly at the camera, Reagan said: “Shared [moral] standards and beliefs tie us to Europe today. They are the essence of the community of free nations to which we belong.”

Thirty years later, in July 2018, while sitting for an interview with CBS at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Republican President Donald Trump was asked to name America’s top global foe. “Well, I think we have a lot of foes,” Trump said. “I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now you wouldn’t think of the European Union, but they’re a foe.”

Why do MAGA Republicans hate Europe?
The Trump administration’s stance on Europe has grabbed headlines, but the Republican Party’s icy posture toward internationalism goes back decades.

https://www.newsweek.com/maga-republicans-donald-trump-jd-vance-europe-2071814