“Some of the remarks made during the US president’s trip to the region aren’t even worth responding to,” Khamenei said. “The level of the statements is so low that they are a source of shame for the speaker and a source of shame for the American people.”
Even the world’s worst ogre gets one right every now & then!
Several major law firms have stepped up to challenge the Trump administration. District Judge John Bates recently expressed skepticism about the legality of a Trump executive order targeting the law firm Jenner & Block. He raised concerns that the order primarily serves a punitive purpose. The court recently granted a temporary halt to the order and is now considering a request for a permanent injunction.
Legal arguments center on whether the order aims to deter clients from working with Jenner & Block by restricting their access to federal resources. The order refers to the firm’s previous employment of Andrew Weissmann, who served on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
Michael Attanasio, attorney for Jenner & Block, contended that the executive order is punitive and unconstitutional, targeting the firm due to its affiliations. Bates rejected Justice Department claims that the sanctions on Jenner & Block and other firms were not punitive.
Bates said, “It’s trying to punish Jenner by stopping the flow of money to Jenner.” He questioned, “Isn’t it logical that clients are going to be reluctant to engage Jenner & Block if they know there’s a real chance that Jenner and Block isn’t going to be able to go into a federal building or talk to federal agencies?”
An undocumented Honduran woman living in Florida has been fined over $1.82 million by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for failing to depart the country following a 2005 removal order.
The fine, issued in a May 9 notice by ICE’s civil fines department, charged the woman $500 for each day she remained in the United States since the order was issued, totaling $1,821,350. The woman, a mother of three U.S.-born children, is being represented by immigration attorney Michelle Sanchez, who said this is the first time she has seen such a high civil penalty imposed.
“This is ICE terrorizing individuals without even having to go pick them up,” Sanchez told CBS News. “They are terrorizing them by sending these notices where they are fining individuals an exorbitant amount of money that a person sometimes doesn’t even make that amount in their lifetime.”
https://www.latintimes.com/undocumented-florida-woman-fined-182-million-ice-20-year-overstay-583222
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem [Bimbo #2], FBI Director Kash Patel and other far-right MAGA Republicans are calling for an investigation of former FBI Director James Comey in response to an Instagram post that depicted seashells in the sand forming the numbers “8647.”
The slang expression “eight-six” means to “remove” or “eject,” and Donald Trump is the 47th president of the United States. Noem [Bimbo #2], in a May 15 post on X, formerly Twitter, claimed that Comey was promoting violence against President Trump.
Noem [Bimbo #2] tweeted, “Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS Trump. DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.”
But Noem’s [Bimbo #2’s] critics are reminding her that the term “eight-six” doesn’t automatically have a violent connotation. When restaurant workers, for example, say that they need to “eight-six” an order, it means cancel the order. Or a bar might “eighty-six” a customer who has had too much to drink.
Liberal firebrand and former MSNBC host Keith Olberman, in response to Noem’s [Bimbo #2’s] tweet, posted, “Listen, you lying witch, he didn’t call for assassinating anyone. Since you murdered your daughter’s dog maybe you ought to S— about this.”
The Episcopal Church rejected the Trump administration’s request for assistance, saying it would not help the 59 South African refugees that arrived in the U.S. on Monday.
The church’s presiding bishop, Sean Rowe, took it a step further and said the Episcopal Migration Ministries would be terminating its 40-year-old partnership with the U.S. government, according to a statement from the church published Monday.
“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step,” Rowe’s statement read.
“Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government,” Rowe said.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order largely suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, a program the church participated in, to control the immigration crisis created by the Biden administration.
“Then, just over two weeks ago, the federal government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees,” Rowe said in his Monday statement.
President Donald Trump went into a childish sulk over a gift handed to him as he left the United Arab Emirates Friday.
In video posted to X by Trump’s special assistant Margo Martin, the president finished his first foreign diplomatic trip by accepting the present.
He immediately mocked it — to his host’s face.
The gift was a glass container holding a small amount of oil. It was handed to Trump by the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., Sultan Al Jaber.
Ungrateful boor!
President Donald Trump warned Walmart on Saturday against raising its prices, writing on Truth Social that he will “be watching.”
“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
“I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!”
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-issues-new-warning-message-walmart-2073638
What does seem genuinely new, even by the standards of America’s warped history, is the unabashed corruption. No president, really, has favor-traded like Trump. No president has ever tried to blatantly enrich himself like this while in office. No president has ever hung a for-sale sign over the White House — not like this, anyway. Trump is poised to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, which feels like something of a capstone to his latest corruption binge. He would be able to use the plane while in the White House and transfer it to his presidential foundation when he’s out of office. Trump’s inaugural committee also gobbled up $239 million from wealthy business interests who are desperate to curry favor with such a nakedly transactional president. The amount far outstrips the $107 million Trump raised for his committee back in 2017, and since there is no way to spend so much cash on dinner and events, it appears Trump might have a slush fund for the rest of his life.
And then there’s his crypto hustle ….
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/qatar-plane-trump-corruption.html
“Trump is now threatening Supreme Court justices who ruled against him,” Democratic influencer Harry Sisson said on Saturday.
That is just one of the notable people who over the weekend accused the president of lobbing indirect threats at the members of the mostly conservative Supreme Court, many of whom Trump himself appointed.
The allegations stem from a Trump Truth Social post on Saturday, when the president shared a comment made by a MAGA attorney.
Former GOP staffer Mike Davis has made headlines for his social media comments in the past, and was rumored to be on Trump’s list for attorney general. Recently, he posted a plan to get back at the Supreme Court justices for not ruling in line with MAGA.
“The Supreme Court still has an illegal injunction on the President of the United States, preventing him from commanding military operations to expel these foreign terrorists,” Davis wrote. “The President should house these terrorists near the Chevy Chase Country Club, with daytime release.”
Chevy Chase Club is “an elite country club that counts Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. among its members,” the Washington Post reports.
https://www.rawstory.com/unhinged-trump-threatening-supreme-court
Hundreds of parents and children separated under the “zero-tolerance” border policy during President Donald Trump’s first term — who were later reunited and protected by a 2023 settlement — are at risk of being separated again due to a lapse in legal services, lawyers argue.
Under the 2023 court-approved settlement agreement, reached as a result of a class-action lawsuit filed in 2018, the federal government agreed to provide certain services to an estimated 5,000 people — families and children separated under the 2017-2018 “zero tolerance” policy — including behavioral health services and immigration legal services.
However, the ACLU says a recent decision made by the Trump administration to gut and then abruptly terminate a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice violates that agreement, leaving hundreds of migrants in legal limbo. The nonprofit organization is the main contractor that oversees services provided to separated families, such as helping them apply for parole and other benefits they’re “mandated” to receive at the government’s expense, the American Civil Liberties Union argues.
