Tag Archives: united states

Daily Beast: Pam Bondi Toys With Axing DOJ’s Public Corruption Unit

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The Justice Department is considering scrapping a key safeguard that prevents politically motivated prosecutions of Congress members.

Attorney General Pam Bondi is reportedly considering doing away with a critical Justice Department safeguard designed to prevent politically motivated prosecutions of elected officials, according to multiple officials familiar with a proposal circulated last week.

The change would remove the requirement of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section (PIN), a Watergate-era department responsible for reviewing and approving prosecutions of public officials and signing off on federal prosecutors’ indictments of lawmakers. Instead, Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys would have the power to bring corruption charges without centralized oversight.

PIN also handles voting-related matters. In the case of a contested election, they would determine how the DOJ would intervene.

The damage has mostly been done already as the office effectively has been gutted:

Since Trump took office, PIN has already been hollowed out, as have other DOJ offices. The 30 prosecutors working in the office at the end of the Biden administration have been cut to fewer than five. Several have resigned, been reassigned, or were fired after clashing with Bondi and other Trump appointees.

Pam Bondi Toys With Axing DOJ’s Public Corruption Unit
The Justice Department is considering scrapping a key safeguard that prevents politically motivated prosecutions of Congress members.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pam-bondi-toys-with-axing-dojs-public-corruption-unit

Washington Post: Trump orders the government to stop enforcing rules he doesn’t like

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Critics say the administration is breaking the law and sidestepping the rulemaking process that presidents of both parties have routinely followed.

Critics say the administration is breaking the law and sidestepping the rulemaking process that presidents of both parties have routinely followed.

At the Transportation Department, enforcement of pipeline safety rules has plunged to unprecedented lows since President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Trump recently ordered Energy Department staff to stop enforcing water conservation standards for showerheads and other household appliances. And at one Labor Department division, his appointees have instructed employees to halt most work related to antidiscrimination laws.

Across the government, the Trump administration is trying a new tactic for gutting federal rules and policies that the president dislikes: simply stop enforcing them.

Note that most, if not all, of these rules are required to be created to fully implement acts of Congress. By not enforcing the regulatory side of legislation, he is in effect refusing to comply with the laws as passed by Congress and signed by Presidents.

Trump orders the government to stop enforcing rules he doesn’t like
Critics say the administration is breaking the law and sidestepping the rulemaking process that presidents of both parties have long followed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/05/18/trump-enforcement-halt-regulations-laws

Telegraph: ‘It’s open season for corruption’: How Trump turned the White House into a cash cow

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Naked profiteering by the US president and his family has triggered alarm bells in the Maga movement

Most.

Corrupt.

President

Ever!

Donald Trump caught his first sight of the so-called “palace in the sky” in February as he climbed the red-carpeted steps of the Boeing 747-8.

The Qatari plane was parked at Florida’s West Palm Beach International Airport, and offered a chance for the president to see what a newly refitted Air Force One could look like, easing his frustration with the long-delayed Boeing project.

In the event, it appears to have been more of a test drive. His administration’s plan to accept the $400m (£300m) luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, which he is expected to use after his presidency, is the latest example of what many view as an increased disregard for ethics in Washington under his second term.

During his first term in the White House, foreign governments buying meals and block-booking rooms at Trump hotels set alarm bells ringing.

Yet now the president has created even more opportunities for those looking to curry favour with him – and his children. From pay-to-dine cryptocurrency schemes, a new social media platform that carries advertising and the expansion of their property empire, it has never seemed easier for the Trump family to line their pockets.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/05/18/trump-turned-white-house-cash-machine

Guardian: Oklahoma high schools to teach 2020 election conspiracy theories as fact

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State superintendent Ryan Walters tapped chief of Heritage Foundation, key player behind Project 2025, for curriculum

As part of the latest Republican push in red states to promote ideologies sympathetic to Donald Trump, Oklahoma’s new social studies curriculum will ask high school students to identify “discrepancies” in the 2020 election results.

The previous standard for studying the 2020 election merely said: “Examine issues related to the election of 2020 and its outcome.” The new version is more expansive: “Identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”

The revised curriculum standard comes at the behest of Ryan Walters, the state school superintendent, who has publicly voiced his support for Trump. In October, Walters lauded Trump in an interview, saying that “Trump’s won the argument on education”.

Walters, who has also advocated for ending “wokeness” in public schools, went on to say: “We have education bureaucrats that are left-wing, elitist, that think they know best for families, and they have become so radicalized that our families are going: ‘What is going on here?’”

Oklahoma’s new social studies standards for K-12 public school students, already infused with references to the Bible and national pride, were revised at Walters’ direction. The Republican official has spent much of his first term in office not only lauding Trump but also feuding with teachers’ unions and local school superintendents.

“The left has been pushing left-wing indoctrination in the classroom,” Walters said. “We’re moving it back to actually understanding history … and I’m unapologetic about that.”

History according to whose warped pathetic viewpoint?

ATTENTION & WARNING, employers, colleges, and universities: Students from Oklahoma may require extension remedial coursework to mitigate ill effects of institutionalized Trump derangement syndrome.

Oklahoma high schools to teach 2020 election conspiracy theories as fact
State superintendent Ryan Walters tapped chief of Heritage Foundation, key player behind Project 2025, for curriculum

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/17/oklahoma-high-schools-election-conspiracy-theories

Stock futures fall after Moody’s strips U.S. of its top credit rating

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Last of major ratings firms strips top rating more than 13 years after S&P was first to downgrade U.S. from triple-A

Just when the stock market had clawed back all the losses sparked by the panic over President Donald Trump’s tariff plans, investors face another round of debt-related angst as markets slid Sunday after Moody’s Ratings stripped the U.S. government of its last triple-A credit rating.

Strategists warned the move, announced after the market close on Friday, could spark some near-term selling in stocks and Treasurys.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell more than 250 points, or 0.6%, by Sunday evening. S&P 500 futures also dropped 0.6% while Nasdaq-100 futures sank 0.7%. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index, a gauge of the dollar’s value relative to major rivals like the euro, was down 0.4%.

?url=httpswww.marketwatch.comstoryinvestors-brace-for-reaction-after-moodys-strips-u-s-of-its-top-credit-rating-2bbe0b5d

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/investors-brace-for-reaction-after-moodys-strips-u-s-of-its-top-credit-rating-2bbe0b5d

Bloomberg: Iran’s Khamenei Brands Trump a Liar in Escalation of Rhetoric

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“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!

https://archive.is/IUjpG#selection-1509.0-1509.254

Latin Times: Undocumented Florida Woman Fined $1.82 Million by ICE for 20-Year Overstay

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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.”

Undocumented Florida Woman Fined $1.82 Million by ICE for 20-Year Overstay
A 41-year-old undocumented Honduran woman living in Florida has been fined $1.82 million by ICE for failing to leave the country following a 2005 removal order

https://www.latintimes.com/undocumented-florida-woman-fined-182-million-ice-20-year-overstay-583222

Alternet: BUSTED: James Comey’s cryptic ‘8647’ doesn’t mean what Trump voters say it means

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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.”

BUSTED: James Comey’s cryptic ‘8647’ doesn’t mean what Trump voters say it means

https://www.alternet.org/comey-86-noem-trump

Western Journal: Ruling South African Party Furious After White Refugees Escape to US; Want ‘Accountability for Historic Privilege’

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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.

Ruling South African Party Furious After White Refugees Escape to US; Want ‘Accountability for Historic Privilege’
After 40 years, in which it settled nearly 110,000 refugees, the Episcopal Church ended its refugee agreement with the federal government.
Ruling South African Party Furious After White Refugees Escape to US, Wanted to Impose ‘Accountability for Historic Privilege’

Newsweek: Donald Trump issues new warning message to Walmart

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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!!!”

It’s not surprising that Trump got this so wrong, give that he has bankrupted SIX businesses over the years.

A corporation has a fiduciary duty to maximize its profits for the benefit of its SHAREHOLDERS, not to cater to the whims of a corrupt self-serving narcissistic political apparatchik in Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump issues new warning message to Walmart
The president told the retail giant to “EAT THE TARIFFS!”

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-issues-new-warning-message-walmart-2073638