Cory Booker broke the filibuster record set by Dixiecrat racist Strom Thurman when he filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957. It’s only fitting. And he didn’t just read “Green Eggs and Ham”, he talked about what’s actually happening, right now, with passion and commitment.
Senator Booker: What kind of man is in the white house that makes fun of the disabled, who lies so much that the fact checkers lose count, that minimizes the pain and the suffering pic.twitter.com/yENAcc7sTm
"I don't want a Disney vacation of our history! I don't a whitewashed history, I don't want a homogenized history. Tell me the wretched truth about America, because that speaks to our greatness" — 20 hours into his speech, Cory Booker is spitting absolute 🔥 pic.twitter.com/IXxRaT5vKE
There are a lot of lefty types on social media pooh-poohing this as “performative” and I think that’s unfair. They’ve had to postpone votes because of it, it’s getting lots of attention and it’s driving the MAGA people crazy. It’s also energizing the Democrats in Congress which is a really important thing.
Ruben Gallego has put a hold on all VA nominees and Republicans in the House had to cancel votes for the rest of the week because the Democrats took down the rule (with the help of a few Republicans) and have ground legislation to a halt. Democratic Senators announced a “Social Security War Room” and while I don’t know what it adds up to, I do know that it’s vitally important to highlight that issue if they have any hope of defeating Republicans. I’m sure they can do more but at least they are doing something.
As Tim Miller has been saying for the last two months, Democrats should just stop worrying about what “strategy” they should use and go out and try things! They have no idea what’s going to work or what might be the inspiration that gets the party and the voters to realize that we are in a crisis.
A massive wave of job cuts got underway at US health agencies Tuesday, with some employees receiving early-morning emails saying their jobs were eliminated and some unable to access the building when they arrived at work.
It was not immediately clear how many employees had received notice Tuesday morning. The US Department of Health and Human Services has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said last week that 10,000 full-time employees would be cut on top of thousands who had already left and probationary employees currently on leave. He said the changes would make fighting chronic disease the priority and reduce “bureaucratic sprawl.” Kennedy promised that the department would do more with less.
After weeks of worry from agency staffers, job cuts — known as a reduction in force, or RIF — were sweeping across offices at multiple agencies, hitting leadership, longtime staffers, scientists, administrators and communications staff.
“It’s a bloodbath,” one US Food and Drug Administration employee said.
The have given some people living in the DC area the opportunity to take jobs at the bureau of Indian Affairs in Alaska, so that’s nice.
Bobby Jr is as bad as Musk at this point and the ramifications may be even more serious.He is a brainworm addled weirdo who truly believes that modern medicine must be destroyed and we should all “b build immunity” by getting deadly illnesses. If our immune systems aren’t up to the task, well, that’s just how it goes.
I don’t think you can overestimate the damage this monster is doing to our country and the world. It is monumental.
Members of President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, including White House national security adviser Michael Waltz, have conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post and interviews with three U.S. officials.
The use of Gmail, a far less secure method of communication than the encrypted messaging app Signal, is the latest example of questionable data security practices by top national security officials already under fire for the mistaken inclusion of a journalist in a group chat about high-level planning for military operations in Yemen.
A senior Waltz aide used the commercial email service for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict, according to emails reviewed by The Post. While the NSC official used his Gmail account, his interagency colleagues used government-issued accounts, headers from the email correspondence show.
Waltz has had less sensitive,but potentially exploitable information sent to his Gmail, such as his schedule and other work documents, said officials, who, like others, spoke on thecondition of anonymity to describe what they viewed as problematic handling of information. The officials said Waltz would sometimes copy and paste from his schedule into Signalto coordinate meetings and discussions.
The use of personal email, even for unclassified materials, is risky given the premium value foreign intelligence services place on the communications and schedules of senior government officials, such as the national security adviser, experts say.
But his numbers on the economy are at 43% approve and 56 disapprove. On inflation it’s even worse. Only 40% approve and 58% disapprove.
Considering those economic numbers you’d think he’d be much lower, wouldn’t you? I mean, I’ve been told in no uncertain terms over and over again that “it’s the economy stupid” and that nothing NOTHING matters more than the kitchen table issues.
Ah yes. It seems people do care about something other than money. 56% apparently LOVE the random cruelty and dystopian Sci-fi images that Trump and his minions send around for their S&M pleasure. That’s what’s keeping Trump’s approval ratings somewhat aloft (even though he’s a point underwater.)
The aggregated polls show that Trump is at about 47% which is similar to his first term numbers. This despite the fact that his “shock and awe” campaign makes his first administration look like nursery school. I don’t know if it’s that they don’t really know what he’s doing (aren’t paying attention or don’t understand the full scope of it) or if they genuinely like it. But it’s clear that so far at least, his cult and quite a few others are fine with all of it.
The Trump administration acknowledged in a court filing Monday that it had grabbed a Maryland father with protected legal status and mistakenly deported him to El Salvador, but said that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to order his return from the megaprison where he’s now locked up.
The case appears to be the first time the Trump administration has admitted to errors when it sent three planeloads of Salvadoran and Venezuelan deportees to El Salvador’s grim “Terrorism Confinement Center” on March 15. Attorneys for several Venezuelan deportees have said that the Trump administration falsely labeled their clients as gang members because of their tattoos. Trump officials have disputed those claims.
But in Monday’s court filing, attorneys for the government admitted that the Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was deported accidentally. “Although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” the government told the court. Trump lawyers said the court has no ability to bring him back now that Abrego Garcia is in Salvadoran custody.
The reason he went to the U.S. in the first place was to escape the MS-13 gang with whom he’s now imprisoned in that gulag. If he manages to survive, I’d assume he will be required to join them now.
This is not the first “mistake” they’ve made but it’s the first they’ve admitted to. Not that it will make any difference. They’ll almost certainly claim that because he is a Salvadoran citizen they have no jurisdiction over him. It’s beyond a catch-22.
And then there’s this. He is the King, after all:
Trump administration attorneys told the court to dismiss the request on multiple grounds, including that Trump’s “primacy in foreign affairs” outweighs the interests of Abrego Garcia and his family.
This is your dangerous criminal:
Abrego Garcia, who is married to a U.S. citizen and has a 5-year-old disabled child who is also a U.S. citizen, has no criminal record in the United States, according to his attorney. The Trump administration does not claim he has a criminal record, but called him a “danger to the community” and an active member of MS-13, the Salvadoran gang that Trump has declared a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
That’s the “administrative error.”
This is getting so bad that even some of our country’s most important and revered leaders are speaking out:
Joe Rogan: “That’s horrific…Innocent gay hairdressers gettin’ lumped up with the gangs? Like, how long before that guy can get out? Can we figure out how to get him out? Is there any plan in place to alert the authorities that they made a horrible mistake, and correct it?” pic.twitter.com/kkCL7CxltW
“My comment is that according to the court document you apparently didn’t read, he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here. My further comment is that it’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize.”
No he was not. But the right is all high fiving this supposed put-away shot and calling it all a fake news “sob-story.”
There are a whole bunch of these so-called “sob-stories” emerging because Kristi noem’s ICE is obviously just picking up any Venezuelan or Salvadoran male with a tattoo and calling them a gang member.
One of the documents contained in Friday’s filing titled Alien Enemies Act: Alien Enemy Validation Guide, provides a checklist of 20 observations divided into six categories. The categories include judicial outcomes, criminal conduct and information and symbolism.
Each observation has an assigned value ranging from two points, up to 10 points. According to the document, migrants who have a total score of eight points or higher “are validated as members of TDA,” and will be issued a “Notice and Warrant of Apprehension and Removal Under the Alien Enemies Act.”
“Aliens scoring 6 or 7 points may be validated as members of TDA; you should consult with a supervisor and (Office of the Principal Legal Advisor), reviewing the totality of the facts, before making that determination,” the checklist instructions state.
Homeland Security Investigations, and local law enforcement agencies such as the Texas Department of Public Safety, have said Tren de Aragua members have tattoos showing a variety of images, including AK-47s, trains, clocks, crowns, stars, and the Jumpman logo, used to promote the Air Jordan basketball sneakers.
You know who does have some very disturbing tattoos? The Secretary of Defense:
The AK 47 under the flag is very special message. And Deus Vult is a far-right extremist war cry, taken from the medieval Christian crusades.
But they’re sending people to a gulag for having a soccer ball tattoo.
NEW: China, Japan, and South Korea agree to “closely cooperate” in response to U.S. tariffs
Anyone with half a brain & a basic understanding of the world could see that Trump’s relentless attacks on our allies will only isolate America & strengthen China pic.twitter.com/BS3ppL6BTz
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) March 31, 2025
This is what happens when you just shut your eyes and cross your fingers that larding the health system with nothing but conspiracy theorists and fringe weirdos in the medical profession doesn’t result in a catastrophe. Everyone with any sense is girding themselves for the inevitability:
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary signed off on the ouster of top vaccine official Peter Marks shortly after being quietly sworn in as the agency’s new leader late last week, four people familiar with the matter told POLITICO.
The forced removal was Makary’s first major act as commissioner and sent a powerful signal to a stunned Washington that was already anxious about the role vaccine skepticism would play under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Health and Human Services Department. Makary and Kennedy had previously agreed to push out Marks, who led the FDA’s vaccine division for more than eight years, as part of a broader overhaul of HHS leadership.
The decision has alarmed lawmakers and the pharmaceutical industry, who see it as an effort by Kennedy to lay the groundwork for remaking the government’s approach to vaccines after years of sowing doubts about the shots.
For some reason they kept Makary’s swearing in a secret. I wonder why?
Makary’s involvement in the decision was not widely known even within the FDA, which has yet to acknowledge that he’s already been sworn in as head of the agency. On the agency’s website, Sara Brenner is still listed as the acting commissioner of food and drugs.
Even Marks appeared unaware of Makary’s status on Friday, addressing his resignation letter to Brenner and using his parting words to take aim at Kennedy. Marks declined to comment.
“I was willing to work to address the Secretary’s concerns regarding vaccine safety and transparency,” Marks wrote. “However, it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”
I’ve written about the hostility to the mRNA research by Luddite freaks like RFK Jr which will inevitably delay or completely stop progress into this incredibly important new field that looks as though it could be a lifesaving treatment for various cancers. It sure saved a lot of lives during the pandemic.
But Bobby thinks that if we had all been eating organic produce (which I do already) there would have been no problem fighting off COVID 19 so there’s that. Maybe after Trump is finished with his tariffs he’ll get the agriculture department to find a magic way to make organic fruits and vegetables available and affordable for everyone and we will only need the “cures” from the 19th century to keep us healthy. You know, like they did then when life expectancy was in the late 40s.
The visual was kind of hard to miss. The vice president of the United States, flanked by American soldiers in combat fatigues, talking about turning Greenland into an America possession.
And he did this from the ground in Greenland.
There’s no way to read this except as an act of belligerence. Perhaps not quite at the level of Vladimir Putin publishing “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” in 2021. But in the same basic category.
Putin argued that Ukraine had historic ties to Russia; was vital to the security needs of Russia; and had been compromised by an evil political leadership who forced Russia to act.
Vance argued that Greenland has historic ties to the United States; that Greenland was vital to the security needs of the United States; and that Greenland had been compromised by feckless political leadership in Denmark.
This is how expansionist powers talk. They don’t say, “We want it.” They say that they have historical claims; that the coveted territory is vital to their “security”; that they’re just trying to keep the peace. That someone else is forcing their hand.
That was literally Putin’s rationale for sending troops into Luhansk and Donetsk in February 2022: “peacekeeping duties.” A couple days later those peacekeeping duties became a full-scale invasion.
I’ve made this point before but it’s worth reiterating. Trump wants Greenland because it’s in North America and he wants to claim the hemisphere for America and put himself on Mt Rushmore. But he sees Putin’s move on Greenland as a model for how to do it. It’s exactly as Last says. He fatuously insists he is just trying to provide security and keep the peace, even though there is really no threat and even if there were there are many ways to deal with it other than annexation.
Trump wants Greenland (and Canada) for the same reason Putin wants Ukraine (and the rest of Eastern Europe.) They see themselves as conquerors who will go down in history as leaders who expanded their empires. They are both out of their minds.
Last makes a number of important points about the fact that Europe is required to take all this very seriously, arm up and expand their own nuclear umbrella. What could be better than having many more nukes all over the world? I’m sure nothing will go wrong.
China, Japan and South Korea agreed to jointly respond to U.S. tariffs, a social media account affiliated with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday.
The comments came after the three countries held their first economic dialogue in five years on Sunday, seeking to facilitate regional trade as the Asian export powers brace against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Japan and South Korea are seeking to import semiconductor raw materials from China, and China is also interested in purchasing chip products from Japan and South Korea, the account, Yuyuan Tantian, said in a post on Weibo.
At this point, who could we consider an ally? I think North Korea, Hungary and Argentina might be the only ones. Well, Russia too as long as Putin has his puppet in the White House anyway.
But at least Donald Trump feels like a big strong man. That’s really all that matters.
Trump: I haven’t heard that term in years. I don’t know anything about it.. this country is going to boom. We’re going to have boomtown. We’re going to boom pic.twitter.com/Ajo5RUOoaa
Economic growth has flatlined so far this year. Inflation has picked up. And consumers expect both to get worse in the months ahead.
Why it matters: For the moment, it adds up to Wall Street’s least-favorite “s-word,” stagflation — stagnant growth mixed with elevated inflation.
That pattern, most vividly seen in the 1970s, is particularly painful because it means people experience pain from both lack of job opportunities and higher prices.
It also leaves the Fed and other economic policymakers with less ability to cushion the blow because a move that might address one side of the problem could worsen the other.
The big picture: The takeaway, from a slew of recent data, is that President Trump inherited a shakier economy than it seemed and is risking something worse with aggressive policy moves.
State of play:Â The backward-looking data lately has been distinctly stagflationary. Consumer spending in the first two months of 2025 has been soft, coming in 0.6% below its December rate (when adjusted for inflation).
A real-time estimate of GDP published by the Atlanta Fed is now pointing to economic activity shrinking at an 0.5% rate in Q1, which ends Monday (after adjusting for gold inflows that distort economic data).
Meanwhile, the inflation measure favored by the Fed has risen at a 4.1% annual rate in the first two months of 2025, the highest in a year.
That all helps explain why, following a steep selloff Friday, the S&P 500 is now 9% below its Feb. 19 high.
Reality check:Â The GDP number appears to be depressed by a one-time surge of imports as companies try to get ahead of tariffs. Inflation has been on a bumpy path for years
Gosh I wonder what happened about four months ago that collapsed the American economic trajectory? I can’t think of anything.
Trump truly believes that the tariffs are going to change everything “and it’ll happen so fast it’ll make our heads spin.” He’s right. But not in a good way. His nutty “adviser” who’s feeding his fantasy says that the tariffs are going to raise 6 trillion for the government, replacing something like a third of the budget. If that’s true then most of that 6 trillion is going to be borne by American consumers making it the biggest tax hike in world history.
