Jesus, Joseph, & Mary!

I spent one day off the doom machine, and, as for each day since Trump went to the White House, that day was worse than all the ones before it.  

Trump is talking about ethnic cleansing of Gaza - but more than that - about going in to "take ownership" of the Strip!  What in blue blazes!  The man is a certified madman.  Is he perhaps syphilitic?  Just asking questions.

Let's see.  What else did I learn last night?  He's also cleaning out the CIA.  He's shutting down the Department of Education and NOAA, the weather service!

Trump insanely said the US is going to occupy Gaza at a joint press conference with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu tonight: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip - and we will do a good job with it too. We’ll own it. We’ll level the site.” He then said we are going to go in there and develop it with new properties - it is oceanfront property after all.

When asked by a reporter if he was talking about a permanent occupation of Gaza by the US: “I do see a long-term ownership position” for the US. He then said he would use military force if necessary.

Trump in the Oval Office earlier today: “The Gaza has not worked. It has never worked. I think they should get a good fresh piece of land. I don’t know how they could want to stay. It’s a demolition site. If we could find the right piece of land or numerous pieces of land and build them some nice places - could be Jordan, could be in Egypt.”

  Meidas Touch

Hmmmm...kind of like moving the decimated Jewish populatios to a piece of land and calling it Israel? ("The Gaza.")

Earlier today, demented Trump said if Iran assassinates him he “left instructions” to “obliterate” their country. He said this from the Oval Office while announcing new sanctions against Iran and warning them not to try and retaliate that way: "If they did that, they would be obliterated. I left instructions.”

An honest to goodness madman. Joined in federal office by other madmen...

But Trump’s new right-wing white nationalist conspiracy theorist State Department Spokesman Darren Beattie said last September that he really thinks our own intelligence agencies have been trying to have Trump killed, not Iran: “It's more likely that the intelligence officials telling Trump that Iran is behind assassination attempts are actually the ones behind the assassination attempts, than it is for Iran being behind the assassination attempts.”

[...]

Axios reported that about 20,000 federal employees have accepted the buyout offered to them last week by Musk, which is only about 1% of the federal government workforce. That number is way lower than he expected, as Musk reportedly predicted that 5-10% would accept the offer. However, the offer is open until this Thursday so we will see if more people fall for this.

Total insanity. And if those people think they're going to get paid without going to court, god bless 'em.

Trump nominated right-wing podcaster Sean Parnell to be Pete Hegseth’s Chief Pentagon Spokesperson and Asst. Sec Def. Trump endorsed Parnell for Senate in PA in 2022, but he dropped out of the race when he lost custody of his children after his wife testified in court that Parnell abused her and their children by choking her and pinning her down, and also struck one of their children in a fit of rage.

Trump's type.

Hegseth announced that the first flights of migrants to Guantanamo Bay started today. Trump’s executive order allows for up to 30,000 to be housed there while their deportation cases are litigated.

[...]

Trump said that he wants other countries to start housing our prison inmates, and President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador said he is willing to accept the offer: "We have offered the US the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system. We are willing to take in convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee. The fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable."

What a fantastic idea! Holy Mary, Mother of God.

Immigration Law expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “Okay, but that's not a thing. I don't care what Bukele says, the US cannot legally banish Americans - such authorities died centuries ago and are the relic of a time of terra nullius. It just is not legal under any modern international laws either.”

You people need to find some other cry. Illegal! is't working. He just keeps doing illegal - and unconstitutional - shit.

Canadian MP Charlie Angus told Meidas Touch that Trump lost the tariff battle: “He blinked. He choked. Two days ago, he was telling us that if we didn’t give up our nationhood, the tariffs would stay on. Then we hit him with $125 billion in tariffs. We pulled KY booze off our shelves. Then we said, ‘You’re getting another $25 billion right after that.’ The market started to tank, and suddenly, he said, ‘Oh, didn’t you guys already have a plan to deal with the border back in December? I love that—I’ll take that.’ This is Mr. Art of the Deal.”

[...]

WaPo columnist Catherine Rampell on CNN: “Trump is trying to repackage the status quo as a victory. That's what the leaders of these foreign countries are learning. You don't actually have to give Trump anything. You just have to let him announce victory on TV.”

[...]

NYT reports that a DC judge just awarded the Proud Boys’ trademarks to the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. Proud Boys can’t legally use the name and the church can seize the proceeds of any merchandise sold with that name or logo. The church sued the Proud Boys after they destroyed Black Lives Matter signs outside their building. They got a $1 million judgment which PBs refused to pay, so the judge ordered this as an alternative.

Well, thank whatever gods there be for one small bit of good news. Oh, and this...

Italian Green Party politician Andrea Zanoni filed a complaint with a court in Italy accusing Donald Trump Jr. of illegally killing an endangered Ruddy Shelduck bird near Venice, Italy during a recent hunting trip. Local environmentalists and Italian MPs have joined the formal complaint and called for an investigation.

Lock him up and keep him. You'll be protecting the world.

Do we get to know which ones those are?

Are we sure Elon is not simply implementing Project 2025 for Russ Vought and Stephen Miller?  

At any rate, it does seem like the country is being hijacked by a vengeful madman and a Bond villain.  

YOU own this, Rand Paul.  You and your greedy, soulless colleagues in the GOP Congress.

ASSHAT.

Do Democrats STILL not get it?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 05:58 pm:

Chicago, What the...?

Chicago Public School students who want to graduate will have to show proof that they have a plan after high school—such as providing an offer letter for a job or acceptance into college or military service, under a plan expected to be approved next month.

The initiative, pitched by former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and carried by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, is targeted at encouraging students to plan for life after high school.

  WSJ

It couldn't possibly have the effect of making kids drop out of school altogether in the alternative, could it?

“The goal here is to no longer have 12th grade be the end of our responsibility,” Mr. Emanuel said in an interview. “The economy and business today require a minimum of two years post-high school.”

Surely a more rational approach would be to explore ways to improve "the economy and business" to former levels where a high school diploma was worth something  would it not?

Exemptions would be available for undocumented students and those with life challenges, such as criminal records.

Now I'm just confused.

Are you a senior and still unable to provide proof of a job or acceptance to college or the military? Hey, why not commit a crime and get an exemption?

Are you an undocumented student?  Ha.  Trick question.  As soon as that comes out, you're going to be deported under new federal laws.

The Chicago Board of Education will consider the proposal next month. Mr. Emanuel assured that the board, which he appoints, would pass the measure.

Old style Chicago politics. But hey, why bother with a Board of your personal appointees? Just sign an edict, Rahm.

Mr. Emanuel said the plan would pass legal muster and brushed aside a question on what would happen to those students who don’t have a plan. He said Chicago students have shown that they will adhere to graduation requirements.

Or what? Be shot?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Take a Hike

I absolutely agree they need to go, but why would Hillary be the one to tell them?

[Hillary] should come right out and ask for the resignations of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Democratic National Committee Chair — and Florida congresswoman — Debbie Wasserman Schultz. In one masterstroke, she could separate herself from two of the most prominent of all corporate Democratic elitists.

  Bill Moyers

Why would she do that? She herself is one "of the most prominent of all corporate Democratic elitists."

As Democratic National Committee chair [Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz] has opened the floodgates for Big Money, brought lobbyists into the inner circle and oiled all the moving parts of the revolving door that twirls between government service and cushy jobs in the world of corporate influence.

She has played games with the party’s voter database, been accused of restricting the number of Democratic candidate debates and scheduling them at odd days and times to favor Hillary Clinton, and recently told CNN’s Jake Tapper that super delegates — strongly establishment and pro-Clinton — are necessary at the party’s convention so deserving incumbent officials and party leaders don’t have to run for delegate slots “against grassroots activists.”

And, then there's Rahm.

Rahm Emanuel first came to prominence as head of the finance committee for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, browbeating ever-increasing amounts of money out of fat cat donors, and following Clinton into the White House as a senior adviser attuned to the wishes and profits of organized wealth. Few pushed harder for NAFTA, a treaty that would cost a million or more working people their livelihood, or for the “three-strikes-and-you’re-out” crime bill which Clinton later admitted was a mistake. After alienating most of Washington with his arrogance and bluster Emanuel left in 1998 and went into investment banking in Chicago, making more than $16 million in less than three years.

Yeah, and eventually Obama appointed him Chief of Staff. You can't tell me Obama didn't know who Rahm Emanuel was when he did that.

Now, he's Chicago's shame.

Remember that shocking dashcam video of a black 17-year-old named Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times by a Chicago policeman while he was walking away?

[...]

Only after [Emanuel's] re-election [as mayor] was the cover-up of the murder revealed.

[...]

The  [...]  murder is just one of the scandals on Emanuel’s watch: crime and abuse by police run rampant, the city’s public schools are a disaster, the transit system’s a mess. Yet while Emanuel has devoted little of his schedule to meeting with community leaders, [historian Rick] Pearlstein reminds us that he did, however, “spend enormous blocks of time with the rich businessmen, including Republicans, who had showered him with cash…” Now many of them have deserted him, including one of his richest Republican — yes, Republican — contributors, multimillionaire Bruce Rauner, who became governor of Illinois.

There's a top layer to the Democratic party that harkens back to the old days of elite rule by hook and by crook, and mostly by money.  Hillary is a top player.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Chicago Is Still Chicago

[Chicago officials] prevented the public from viewing crucial incriminating evidence [in the first-degree murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald] — first one police car’s dashboard camera video; now, we learn, five such videos in total. And these senior officials turned a blind eye to the fact that 86 minutes of other video surveillance footage of the crime scene was unaccountably missing.

The Cook County prosecutor, Anita Alvarez, must have had probable cause to indict Officer [Jason] Van Dyke for the Oct. 20, 2014, shooting death of Mr. McDonald the moment she viewed the police dash-cam video, after her office received it two weeks later.

[...]

But the timing, in late 2014, was not good.

[...]

The video of a police shooting like this in Chicago could have buried [Rahm] Emanuel’s chances for re-election.

[...]

And so the wheels of justice virtually ground to a halt. Mayor Emanuel refused to make the dash-cam video public, going to court to prevent its release.

[...]

Then the city waited until April 15 — one week after Mr. Emanuel was re-elected — to get final approval of a pre-emptive $5 million settlement with Mr. McDonald’s family, a settlement that had been substantially agreed upon weeks earlier. Still, the city’s lawyers made sure to include a clause that kept the dash-cam video confidential.

[...]The city spent thousands of dollars in legal expenses to keep the video under wraps. And it would probably have continued to do so, had Judge Franklin Valderrama of the Cook County Circuit Court not ordered its release.


  NYT

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Rahm Emanuel - Doing Chicago Proud

Rahm Emanuel, political genius and mayor of Chicago, has stepped into it up to his eyeballs. In the same week he's planning to shut down 54 schools and six mental-health centers, Emanuel has proposed to hand DePaul, and its extraordinarily mediocre basketball program, $100 million in taxpayer money in order to build a new building in which they can be mediocre.

  Charlie Pierce

Not only is this wrong and unfair, it is nigh onto insane. Say DePaul plays 18 men's games in the new arena. That only leaves 357 days of emptiness. Sure, there would be some other games held there - I don't know, maybe dodgeball and mud wrestling - but this is such a guaranteed money-loser that it boggles this little scribe's rapidly balding head. Maintenance alone would bankrupt a small town. Plus, Chicago already has the United Center, which seats almost 22,000. It's a much better facility than DePaul's current Allstate Arena home court, which is 15 miles away in Rosemont. The United Center is much closer to DePaul than McCormick Place is. It does about 200 events a year, has a nice hockey rink and wooden hoops floor, clean washrooms, and it already offered itself to DePaul for 10 years, rent-free. No deal. DePaul likes this Emanuel idea more. And why shouldn't it? If you're at the trough, you're going to waddle over to the feeding spot with the most slop rolling down the flume. In Chicago, this is known as business as usual. Of course, everything's a game in Chicago, run by people who have power, people we don't interact with doing things [...] that we only become aware of when we catch up to the rusty can that has been kicked down the road and find out we've cut our feet badly and we're bleeding away. Or our taxes abruptly resemble shakedowns.

  Chicago Sun Times

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Another Bankster at the White House

When President Obama last January announced the departure of Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff, many liberals were furious that his replacement was the Midwest Chairman of JP Morgan and Boeing Director William Daley, who was also an opponent of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a critic of Obama’s health care bill as too leftist.

[...]

Yesterday, the White House announced Daley’s departure — he will now co-Chair Obama’s re-election campaign, which basically means raising huge amounts of money from his Wall Street friends.

  Glenn Greenwald

You can’t say President #Compromise isn’t forward thinking when he chooses his appointments.

So let’s have a look at the new Chief of Staff, Jacob Lew (previously serving as a top aide to Hillary Clinton).

President Barack Obama's choice to lead the White House budget office oversaw a Citigroup unit that profited off the housing collapse and financial crisis by investing in a hedge fund king who correctly predicted the eventual subprime meltdown and now finds himself involved in the center of the U.S. government's fraud case against Goldman Sachs.

[...]

[His unit made] investments in a hedge fund that bet on the housing market to collapse -- a reality suffered by millions of American homeowners.

[...]

That sounds pretty nasty, doesn't it?" said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a group that monitors the budget office. "Any activity and any player that contributed to the economic calamity needs to be looked at.

"We already got enough players in this administration that certainly were key players in the economic malaise that we currently have," Bass continued. "Why shouldn't we have another one?" he said with a slight chuckle.

But Bass added that he thought Lew was an otherwise excellent choice for the position, noting that as budget director Lew has a proven track record (he held the position during part of the Clinton administration).

  Huffington Post

Sure. Crooks can be good at their regular jobs, can’t they?

"Obviously, Jack has been through a vetting process before," [WH Press Sec Robert] Gibbs told a reporter who had asked whether Obama ever questioned Lew about his work at Citigroup. Gibbs eventually said he didn't know.

Asked if Lew's time at Citigroup was "relevant" and whether it would be "relevant" during his next confirmation hearing, Gibbs said that "those questions have been dealt with."

Indeed.

And, as a result of Lew’s unit’s losses, Citi got that huge bailout ($45 billion) from the taxpayers, Lew himself receiving a $1 billion salary and a $900,000 post-bailout bonus.

And why would Obama question Lew about his work at Citigroup? He already knows. They just shuffle these guys around amongst themselves up there in the Big House.

In case you’ve forgotten, Mother Jones listed the banksters and financial fraudsters who were brought directly from their roles in the financial collapse into the Obama administration. You can read it here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.