Like Maria Said Paz: 2025-04-13

Thursday, April 17, 2025

Crazy Marjorie, Crazy Junior

Did Marjorie Taylor Greene finally show her ass enough to lose her seat in Congress? I hope so. Alexandria Jacobson (RAW STORY) reports:

A chaotic town hall for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Tuesday ended in the arrests of two men — who were tased by local police — and a woman arrested on a "vulgar language" charge, all spending the night in jail, a protest organizer told Raw Story.

Andrew Russell Nelms, 40, and Johnny Keith Williams, 45, were arrested at Greene's town hall at the Acworth Community Center in Acworth, Georgia, on Tuesday, on two charges — simple battery of a law enforcement officer and obstruction of a law enforcement officer — and Kiyana Davis, 28, was arrested on a city ordinance charge for "vulgar language," according to a news release published by the Acworth Police Department.

All three were constituents who registered to attend the town hall and were not affiliated with the protest organized by the Cobb County Democratic Party, Essence Johnson, chair of the Cobb County Democratic Party, told Raw Story. Williams remained in jail as of Wednesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Johnson said.

She needs to go and terrorizing constituents, abusing them, should be the final straw that breaks her burly back For good. From one nut job to another, let's go check in on Little Junior. David Hudson (QUEERITY) notes:

A teacher, who happens to be gay and has autism, has gone viral with his clapback against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke yesterday at a news conference on autism. RFK Jr. said the condition was a growing and “preventable” “epidemic” in the US. He says he wants to quickly identify potential environmental causes or toxins that he believes are fuelling the increase in autism.

His views have been criticized by many experts in the field. They believe the increase is largely due to a better diagnosis of the condition.

Among his comments yesterday, Kennedy said, “These are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job … never play baseball … never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”

Unsurprisingly, this comment upset many people with autism. This includes Tell Williams, a pre-K teacher with over 4 million followers across TikTok and Instagram.

Kennedy’s comments about autism infuriated Williams. He reshared them and offered his own take.

Williams points out he’s a teacher, married, with a master’s degree in clinical social work, “and I definitely didn’t ruin my family’s lives.”

“What an incredibly problematic thing you just sh-t out of your mouth,” Williams continued. “First of all, I would think that someone in your position would know that autism is … a neurodevelopmental condition that falls under a spectrum and presents differently in everyone that has it.”

He says RFK’s words promote further harmful stereotypes and stigmatize people with autism further.

I wish Marjorie looked a little more feminine. Maybe then she could team up with Junior? That way they wouldn't be corruption innocent people and could just join an unholy alliance of hate and anger.

"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS)::

Thursday, April 16, 2025. Senator Chris Van Hollen goes to El Salvador, David Hogg has a new advocacy plan, Chump continues to destroy the economy, and much more.

Let's start this morning with THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW's interview last night with Senator Chris Van Hollen.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is in El Salvador still. This despite the fact that the Supreme Court has ordered the White House to facilitate Kilmar's return home to the United States. Kilmar is one of the senator's constituents. He traveled yesterday to El Salvador and requested to meet with Kilmar but was denied.

US Embassy staff told Senator Van Hollen that they were not working in any way on this issue, that no one in the administration had told them to. As the senator explained to Rachel, "It's pretty clear that the Trump administration has not lifted a finger to implement that court order."

The senator met with the vice president of El Salvador but he was not allowed to meet with Kilmar.

Rachel had noted the GOP Congress members and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had been able to get into the prison and do photo ops that they then post and circulate to the media "and make social media content" and she's right but what stood out to me when she was noting these Abu Ghraib type photos were the faces.

Why are their faces exposed?

I'm not talking about the MAGA trash. I'm talking about the prisoners. And since Kristi is posing for them with an inane grin on her face -- in what could be photographic evidence in an international trial for War Crimes, these are apparently some of the 300 Venezuelans that Chump tossed out of the country even when the courts had ordered that these people could not be removed from the country, that they had a right to due process.

So what's the excuse for MAGA trash like Kristi to be posting these people's faces online?

The senator was not allowed to even speak with Kilmar over the phone.

The corrupt government of El Salvador denied him any access at all to his constituent. He's not the first to be denied. The War Criminal in charge of El Salvador also refused to allow the UN access in January of last year.

Let's pause for just a moment here. Yesterday's snapshot noted Rachel Maddow's interview with a whistleblower Tuesday night. And we noted that MSNBC hadn't posted it on YOUTUBE -- this despite all the praise the segment received on BLUESKY and despite the importance of the interview. An e-mail to the public account passed on that MSNBC hadn't posted it but someone else has.

Daniel Berulis risked a great deal to come forward and inform our Congress and We The People about suspicious activity that DOGE has carried out and how someone with a Russia IP address repeatedly tried to log on to a new account just created by DOGE -- the person had the user name and the password and, were it not for their IP address being in Russia -- they would've gotten into the system. This is a major story. If you haven't already caught Rachel's interview, please stream it now.

Klaus Marre (WHO WHAT WHERE) reports on Harvard University's refusal to scrape and bow before Chump:

In a letter to the administration, the university’s attorneys note that these demands not only violate the First Amendment but also require “unsupported and disruptive remedies for alleged harms that the government has not proven through mandatory processes established by Congress and required by law.”

In addition, the letter also objects to the government’s coercive tactics.

“No less objectionable is the condition, first made explicit in the letter of March 31, 2025, that Harvard accede to these terms or risk the loss of billions of dollars in federal funding critical to vital research and innovation that has saved and improved lives and allowed Harvard to play a central role in making our country’s scientific, medical, and other research communities the standard-bearers for the world,” they write.

Predictably, the administration almost immediately froze $2 billion in federal funds for Harvard.

But Trump didn’t stop there.

In true mobster-like fashion, he also threatened the university with revoking its tax-exempt status and taxing it as a “Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness.”

What does it mean? Who knows; but it is clearly a threat.

But why are we telling you this? After all, it’s not exactly news when Trump tries to blackmail or coerce someone to get what he wants.

That’s right, and this article isn’t actually about that.

Instead, it is about Trump not coercing someone… and that someone is El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

If the US president had any interest in bringing Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man his administration illegally deported to El Salvador, back to the US, then he could surely compel his counterpart to produce him.

Exactly. And he could certainly do something as simple as stop payment on the $6 million US tax payers are having to fork over to El Salvador for the 300 people Chump sent there. On that money, Ariana Figueroa (BALTIMORE SUN) reports:

The U.S. State Department is paying El Salvador $6 million to house hundreds of immigrants deported from the United States in an immense and brutal prison there, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT.

But a U.S. law bars the department’s financial support of “units of foreign security forces” — which can include military and law enforcement staff in prisons — facing credible allegations of gross human rights violations. That has led those who wrote what’s known as the Leahy Law and enforced it for years to question the legality of the $6 million payment made as President Donald Trump carries out his campaign of mass deportation.

The Trump administration on March 15 sent 261 men to CECOT, after invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to apply to Venezuelan nationals 14 and older who are suspected members of the gang Tren de Aragua.

On March 30, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said an additional 17 nationals from El Salvador were sent to CECOT, again alleging gang ties. On Sunday, Rubio said 10 more men were sent to the prison in El Salvador, and noted how “the alliance between” the U.S. and El Salvador “has become an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere.”

Tim Rieser, the main author of the Leahy Law while a longtime foreign policy aide to former U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said the $6 million payment for those migrants’ incarceration for up to a year is likely a violation of the law.

“Sending migrants who have not been charged or convicted of any crime to the maximum-security terrorism prison in El Salvador, where they have no access to lawyers or their families, where they have no rights of due process, and with no idea if they will ever be released, held in cruel and shockingly degrading conditions, would certainly appear to violate the Leahy Law,” Rieser told States Newsroom.

Let's note this from Amnesty International:

Against the backdrop of President Nayib Bukele’s official visit to the White House on 14 April, Amnesty International released a public statement warning of the deepening human rights crisis in El Salvador and the complicit stance now taken by the United States by partaking in repressive practices that violate international law.

In the light of the recent arbitrary expulsion of Venezuelan nationals from the United States to CECOT, a Salvadoran mega prison, which has not only worsened the human rights situation in El Salvador, but also sets an alarming precedent of repressive cooperation between governments leading to the enforced disappearance of 261 individuals, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, said:

“El Salvador is implementing a systematic state policy of massive and arbitrary deprivation of liberty. After three years, more than 85,000 individuals remain behind bars without sufficient admissible evidence, the victims of a judicial system now transformed into a tool for collective punishment and widespread repression. Attempts to export this policy to the situation of Venezuelan migrants and refugees in the United States highlights the lack of protection and the risk that hundreds of thousands of people now face of having their human rights violated by not one, not two, but three different states.

“This repressive cooperation has now led to the enforced disappearance of more than 200 Venezuelan nationals arbitrarily deported to El Salvador’s CECOT. This situation further entrenches the vulnerability of the victims, who have been deliberately deprived of their right to a defence, to due process and contact with their relatives and lawyers, causing deep distress to both those detained and their families. Cooperation between states must be centred on improving the living conditions of the population, not on dismantling their human rights.”

Amnesty International called on the Salvadoran and US authorities to bring an immediate end to these actions, ensure full respect for human rights, restore due process, guarantee the right to asylum and the principle of non-refoulement, and effectively protect all detainees from torture, incommunicado detention and enforced disappearance.

Piquer concluded: “We remind the authorities in El Salvador and the United States of America that the rights to freedom, a fair trial, asylum, legal defence and protection against torture and enforced disappearance are not privileges, but rather obligations that their governments must uphold at all times. Security cannot be built on the ashes of justice, nor can models that replace the violence of criminal organizations with institutional violence be considered a success.“

Human Rights Watch covers El Salvador and the War Criminal leading the nation here and we'll note this from it:

Local and international human rights groups have documented mass arbitrary detention, torture, and, in some cases, sexual violence against women and girls in detention, and enforced disappearances. Authorities have not reported charging, indicting or convicting any police or military officers in connection with these abuses. In a September report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), found “reports” of “widespread and systematic human rights violations” and urged authorities to “end the state of emergency.”

Many detainees have no apparent connections to gang-related violence. Arrests often appear to be based on the detainees’ appearance and anonymous complaints, rather than on evidence. Security forces routinely fail to present warrants or provide reasons for arrests. Many detentions appear to have been driven by a policy of “quotas” imposed by commanders of the National Civil Police.

Mass imprisonment has raised El Salvador’s prison population to an estimated 108,000 detainees, exceeding the prison capacity by 38,000, and worsening already poor prison conditions. An alarming 1.7 percent of the country’s population is now detained.

At least 261 detainees have died in prison during the state of emergency, Cristosal, a human rights group, reported in July. Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado said in June 2023 that 142 investigations into deaths in custody had been closed.

In January, El Salvador rejected a request for a visit by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

Grasp that Chump sent those 300 Venezuelans to a country where checks and balances have been destroyed, where the War Criminal just won re-election despite the law barring him from legally running, where prison abuse is rampant and where the prisons are overcrowded.

Dirty MAGA freaks, you feeling good about Chump now? Still pretending to be Christians, though, right?

If you missed it, Ava and I addressed the Chump supporters Christian Nationalist 'movement' in "MEDIA: YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS and your non-friends too!" and we noted that the reason they're lying about Jesus and empathy is because you can't be MAGA and have empathy. So they lie and distort while pretending to be disciples of the Christian faith. In other times, they perverted Christianity for greed.

That's the thing about Chump and his chumps, there is no compassion, there is only evil and hate. That's what they run on. They are The Politics of Destruction and they will destroy this country if they are not reigned in and if they do not receive strong pushback.

Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

The recent raid by federal agents on two homes owned by a China-born cybersecurity professor has shocked his community and struck fear through fellow academics.

Xiaofeng Wang had been questioned by his employers at Indiana University in December about alleged undisclosed payments from China for a project that also received U.S. federal research grants, and though he hasn't been charged with any crimes, he was fired on the same day as the raids in an apparent violation of the school's own policy, reported The Guardian.

[. . .]

Other Asian American academics fear that Trump is taking aim against them.

“[It] brings chills to our spines," said Gang Chen, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “What is particularly troubling in this case is that Indiana University fired him and his wife without due process, presuming guilt instead of innocence."

Chen, who has dual American and Chinese nationality, was charged by the DOJ in January 2021, during the final weeks of Trump's first term, for allegedly failing to disclose links to Chinese organizations on a grant application for a federally funded project, but those charges were dismissed a year later.

“The investigations on Professor Wang and his firing creates huge fear among researchers of Chinese descent, especially students and postdoctorates from China," Chen said. "It is clear that such events, together with legislation and hostile rhetoric, are driving out talents. I learned that many Chinese students and postdoctorates here are considering leaving the U.S.”

No one is safe. And it's just getting worse. We have got to speak out, we have got to push back. At THE ALANTIC, Nick Mirnoff notes in "We’re About to Find Out What Mass Deportation Really Looks Like:"

The Trump administration is working hard to convince the public that its mass-deportation campaign is fully under way. Over the past several weeks, federal agents have seized foreign students off the streets, raided worksites, and shipped detainees to a supermax prison in El Salvador using wartime powers adopted under the John Adams administration.

The tactics have spread fear and created a showreel of social-media-ready highlights for the White House. But they have not brought U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement much closer to delivering the “millions” of deportations President Donald Trump has set as a goal.

“We need more money,” Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” told me in an interview. “We won’t fail if we get the resources we need.”

Using the budget-reconciliation process, Republican lawmakers are now preparing to lavish ICE with a colossal funding increase—enough to pay for the kind of social and demographic transformation of the United States that immigration hard-liners have long fantasized about achieving.

Although GOP factions in the House and Senate have squabbled over the contours of the bill, spending heavily on immigration enforcement has bicameral support. The reconciliation bill in the Senate would provide $175 billion over the next decade. A House version proposes $90 billion.

To put those sums in perspective, the entire annual budget of ICE is about $9 billion.

Didn't have to be this way.

But you had the Rashida Tlaibs working overtime, posing as Democrats on garbage like DEMOCRACY NOW!, and trashing Kamala Harris. There are things every day that I could write about. Sometimes I don't because I want to see first if anyone else does. Chump inferred in the only debate with Kamala that she was a whore. And I waited and waited to see who was going to step forward, what lefty media or MSM, and call it out. None did.

It was sexist and it was racist. But too many on the left were indulging in their own sexism and racism to notice what Chump was doing.

'A Black woman? Oh, that's not happening' -- that was the attitude. The way that they savaged her -- I'm talking about people on the left, Socialists and Gaza Freaks among others -- that had never been done to a man before nor was it done to any woman -- not even Hillary in 2016. But a Black woman, that was too much for them. That Black woman wasn't going to do what she wanted, she wasn't go to do what she proposed, no, she was going to do what they said or they would destroy her.

You need to grasp that.

This was a visceral reaction for some people because they can't have a Black woman in charge. They don't respect and they're not going to recognize. The hatred spewed at her?

Look, I supported John Kerry -- and I know John -- but, honestly, I supported him in part because he was bland but electable. The Iraq War? John was all over the map -- he supported it before he didn't ("I was for the Iraq War before I was against it." -- did we tell him do this, do that, have this speaker, have that or we're not voting for you!

No, we didn't. And we had boots on the ground in Iraq. And Iraqis were dying not because the US shipped some weapons but because the US declared war on Iraq. When Barack ran he said troops home in ten months but then he waffled on it. And everyone looked the other way -- including Tom Hayden -- we had a huge fight over that.

I can provide many other examples.

No male candidate for president on the Dem side has ever faced what Kamala had to face from the left. No one.

We did it to her, we didn't do it to any of the hims. As a country, we wouldn't presume to speak to a man that way. Which, by the way, continues to this day as evidenced by the fact that genocide isn't a charge CODESTINK and the others want to make against Donald though they were happy to happy to make it against Kamala who wasn't the president.

They would never treat a man the way they treated Kamala.

And even now, when their panic should have subsided since they got what they wanted (the scary Black woman's not in the Oval Office), they won't acknowledge that they held her to a different standard and treated her differently because as a woman and as Black person, they didn't feel the need to respect her and they damn well couldn't see her as the boss of this country. It was just too much for them -- and, again, we're talking about the left.

I've pointed out Tim Walz's b.s. of trashing Kamala. John Edwards didn't do that to John Kerry. No v.p. nominee has attacked the top of the ticket.

But fat ass Tim thought he could.

We're all supposed to pretend that this break with convention has nothing to do with the fact that Kamala's a woman and a woman of color?

The left is not free of racism. You'll find lots of on the fringes. That's how a Matt Taibbi or Aaron Mate, for example, is able to move from the far left over to the right-wing.

You couldn't see a Black woman in the ultimate position of power in the US. Your racism was too great -- again, I'm talking about the left right now.

So you put Chump in the White House and now you want to pretend like you didn't and you want to pretend like we didn't see your racism and sexism.

We saw. We witnessed. It's why so many Black women have chosen to sit out protests.

I do not blame them and there are so many days when I'm tempted to do the same.

Like when a fat ass Tim Walz -- in all his fat Whiteness -- thinks he can attack Kamala for the 'crime' of saying she told you so.

She did tell everyone so.

You know who else did? Taraji P. Henson. She, more than anyone, put Project 2025 on the minds of Americans. But she was attacked for it -- by the right? Yeah, but I'm talking about the left. Or are we all supposed to ignore that Nina Turner -- who reads White -- attacked Taraji for that.

Now I'm not Taraji's biggest fan. She should have shut her damn mouth about money ahead of the release of THE COLOR PURPLE. That was not going to help her (and it didn't) and it wasn't going to help the film (it harmed the film). Brenda Russell's work alone deserved a wider audience. And most of us, most Black people in the entertainment field, are fully aware of what happens when Black people are the leads in a big budget film and it doesn't reach a certain mark. That film becomes an excuse for the studios -- which really don't want to make films with a large cast of Black people to begin with. So Taraji never should have talked about that until, if she had to talk about it, after the film left theaters.

So don't think I'm some huge Taraji-does-no-wrong person.

But her standing on that stage and talking Project 2025 was major and important and she deserved only applause for that.

She didn't get much of it from the left. Again, like Kamala, Taraji's a woman and she's Black.

I don't know how much disrespect Tim Walz and others think we're going to endure, Black women, before we just say "F**k you all" and turn on our heels and walk?

I don't need it, I don't want it. I'm not going to put up with it. Or with the continued attacks on Kamala (make a point to read Betty's "Kamala for governor of California? Absolutely!" and grasp that even when the polling data is on Kamala's side, she's being attacked and told not to run for governor.)

It's really funny how the left so often tries to use us as props and they utter praise that they don't really mean. How many times has Socialist Laura Flanders cited us and encouraged others to be like us? But there was Laura ripping into Kamala Harris. I don't think we came up with the phrase "Vote Like A Black Woman" but some on the left did. So it was vote like a Black woman -- as a dictate -- up until a Black woman was running.

'We can never get over the scars and shame of slavery' -- insist some White leftists. They'll tell us 'I support reparations.' Really? Because voting for a qualified Black woman to be president -- especially when she's running against a convicted felon who you know is a danger to the planet? -- to me that's where you start with reparations -- putting the qualified Black woman into the Oval Office.

Let's move over to the topic of Chump's disastrous economy. Lori Aratani (WASHINGTON POST) reports:

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner jet is a multinational concoction, made of parts from around the globe. Wings from Japan. Doors from France. Portions of the fuselage are built in Italy before they are shipped to the United States to be assembled by workers in South Carolina.

It’s an arrangement made possible by a nearly 50-year-old trade agreement that allowed Boeing and other players in the U.S. aerospace industry to sell airplanes and buy parts from anywhere in the world, duty-free.

Now President Donald Trump’s global tariffs threaten to disrupt this interlocking supply chain. For the first time in nearly half a century, Boeing will pay a levy to import those wings, doors and other components. For now, there is a new 10 percent tax on most imports. But that levy could rise depending on what the president decides during a 90-day reprieve he declared before stiffer tariffs land on most countries.

While Trump has said his sweeping protective tariffs will reduce the U.S. trade deficit, the levies on Boeing’s parts supply line will tax a company that is America’s biggest exporter of goods. About 80 percent of Boeing’s multimillion-dollar planes are shipped to overseas customers.

“These tariffs and trade restrictions have unleashed chaos in the global aerospace and airline industry,” said Ken Quinn, a partner at Clyde & Co and former general counsel at the Federal Aviation Administration. “It’s only harmful and destructive.”

Need more examples of how Chump's tanking the US economy? Rob Wile (NBC NEWS) reports, "Stocks sank Wednesday after computer chipmaker Nvidia announced it was recording a $5.5 billion charge to comply with a new Trump administration rule on tech-related exports. Shares of Nvidia fell more than 5% soon after markets opened, causing the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell as much as 1.7%. The S&P 500 declined as much 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 0.4% or about 150 points." Jonathan J. Cooper (AP) notes, "Trump was elected with a promise to improve the economy, lower taxes and control inflation, addressing voters who said overwhelmingly that the economy was the top issue facing the country. But for retirees like [Susan] Hemphill, the Republican president's economic stewardship has been defined by the roller coaster of the stock market and fears his tariffs will lead to higher inflation." Rachel Siegel (WASHINGTON POST) reports:

President Donald Trump’s tariffs are “highly likely” to spur a temporary rise in inflation, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell said Wednesday, cautioning that those effects could end up being longer-lasting — prompting markets to slide and extend day-long losses.

Speaking before the Economic Club of Chicago, Powell said more persistent risks to inflation depend on how much tariffs end up affecting the economy and how long it takes trade policy to pass through to prices. Investors grew nervous throughout Powell’s remarks, especially because there is so much uncertainty around how long the inflation could last, triggering a market sell-off.

By market close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down roughly 700 points, or 1.7 percent, and the S&P 500 had fallen 2.2 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index, which has born the weight of the trade war in particular, was down 3 percent. Chipmakers Nvidia and AMD said in company filings that Trump’s recent executive orders would result in major write-downs of the value of chips. Nvidia and AMD both saw their share prices fall roughly 7 percent in trading.

At what point does even the most extreme of Chumps for Chump have to admit just what a destructive force Donald is? Will Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) report do it:

President Donald Trump's social media company is marketing "America First" accounts that would allow him to personally benefit from the tariffs that have been roiling the stock market and lopping value off the dollar.

Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of the social media platform Truth Social, announced Tuesday that it was marketing a series of actively managed investment accounts to allow investment in companies that benefit from the president's agenda, and independent journalist Judd Legum reported that his tariff policies could be used to manipulate the value of those accounts.

"TMTG said the new investment accounts would 'offer investors access to curated, thematic investment strategies rooted in American values and priorities,'" Legum wrote on his Popular Information newsletter. "Among the themes are 'Made in America,' which presumably would focus on companies that would benefit from tariffs on competitors who make goods abroad and import them to the United States."

At what point is the corruption and destruction just too much?

We've been covering the way Chump's destroying tourism -- see Tuesday and Wednesday's snapshots -- and Lauren Peacock (IRISH STAR) reports:

The United States economy is projected to lose $90 billion in revenue this year given President Donald Trump's behavior and polices as president.

The billions lost are expected to come from lost tourism and export revenue, including the boycotting of American products, according to Goldman Sachs. Bloomberg reports that many internationals are avoiding taking a trip to the United States given Donald Trump's newest policies as the 47th President of the United States.

Tourists are worried about coming into the country due to potential problems at the border given the Trump administration's strict crackdown on immigration while others are simply boycotting America and it's product to protest Donald Trump's newest tariffs, his treatment of international allies, and more. It comes after Trump suffered a mental collapse after a 'senile' moment last week and came up with a ludicrous way to make himself look taller.

From Tuesday's snapshot:

Other damage he's doing? The United States makes a lot of money from foreigners traveling here for various events, conventions and sight seeing journeys. Dallas, TX? A magnet for people around the world who want to remember President John F. Kennedy. And a ton of people do because President Kennedy was a monumental and historical figure -- unlike his nephew Tiny Balls Junior who is an embarrassment. Florida? The incredible beaches. Key Largo, Key West. DISNEY WORLD, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS FLORIDA THEME PARK, Daytona Beach, The Dahil Museum, etc, etc. California? DISNEYLAND Park, the wineries, the film studios, the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, Alcatraz Island, Pier 39, the beaches, the San Diego Zoo, Catalina Island, Big Sur, Joshua Tree, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Santa Monica Pier, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mission San Juan Bautista . . . New York has the Statue of Liberty, the Museum Of Modern Art, Central Park, Empire State Building, Time Square, Grand Central Terminal . . . That's just a few things in a few states. Most of the states have major tourist attractions. And tourists from outside the US coming here accounts for a lot of money each year.

Do you get how much money that is? How many industries that impacts? You've got the airline industry, you've got the car industry if the visitors rent a car, you've got taxis and Ubers, you've got hotels and motels, you've got eateries, you've got bars, many of the points of interest have fees visitors have to pay, you've got the clothing industry since travelers often purchase an outfit or two (or a t-shirt or two) in addition to what they've packed, you've got shops -- souvenir and regular shops.

Or it did.

Do we grasp how much money Chump's running off?

In 2023, international travelers poured an estimated $213 billion -- billion -- into the US economy. That amounted to approximately $584 million a day.

And now Chump's making us pariah around the world. See, sending people to a gulag in El Salvador doesn't really argue for freedom and democracy. And since Chump declares these deportations and imprisonments require no trials, if you're in Paris, you really think Las Vegas or whatever is worth seeing when, while you're visiting the US, you might accidentally get caught up in one of Chump's dragnets and end up being taken not back to France but a to prison -- one where the are no rules or guidelines and people are tortured.

Chris Hayes covered the topic last night on his MSNBC show.

We've got one more issue we need to squeeze in. David Hogg. WBUR reports:

Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg says he wants to fund primary challenges against Democratic lawmakers who he feels are “asleep at the wheel” and not fighting President Trump hard enough.

“What we're looking for are people who are effective leaders to fight back against Donald Trump,” Hogg, the founder of Leaders We Deserve, said. “And I think good examples of what that looks like are like what our senator from Maryland is doing by going to El Salvador to say we need to do something about the fact that Donald Trump is disappearing people, members of families, for example, and taking them to El Salvador. And what we're trying to do right now is make sure that we rally our base and that we make sure that we have effective Democrats in our solid seats and we want to help win majorities as well in Congress, which is why we're not challenging people in more competitive races.”

Many people are in a panic and many people are thrilled.

David might need to step down from his DNC post. I'm not saying he has to but I'm saying he might need to consider that because this does come off as a conflict.

I'm not saying not to pursue his desired action. I see the need for it but it does seem in conflict with DNC rules and guidelines.

Some are slamming him and saying he's too young and doesn't know this and doesn't know that.

They are right about one thing: He is young.

And we need young blood in the party. And we need to be open to fresh ideas.

He also needs to be open to sharing.

"Progressive." You mean Socialists? You're not going to find a lot of support for that after DSA rat-f**ked the Democratic Party in 2024. Their campaing against Kamala will not be forgotten nor forgiven.

"Progressive." You damn well better define it.

Because that's the only guidance you've provided. What is progressive? You have to define it. Is it supporting Medicare For All, for example?

What is it?

We don't need an airy label that so many have hidden behind.

You're announcing you're doing this, then you need to explain exactly what this is.

And if this not about actual Democrats getting into office, you need to resign your post.

I'm fine with him pursuing his advocacy and holding his post -- unless this is a move that intendes to push Democrats out of office to replace them with non-Democrats. If that's the case, he doesn't need to part of the DNC.

I think he has every right to explore this topic and to do his advocacy. And if it's not in opposition to the Democratic Party, no problem he should be able to do both the advocacy and hold DNC office.

I think a conversation should have been started about this and not an announcement. It's too late for that now, so we're left with it being out of order timeline wise but we still need the conversation.

That includes how this could help the party -- and it could.

It also includes noting things like Joe Lieberman.

We wanted him out. He was a War Hawk. We donated to Ned Lamont who primaried Joe. Ned won the primary. Joe then ran in the general election as an independent. And Joe remained in the Senate.

What are the aims of David's proposal?

What do we think the cost of a heated primary that might leave somone David objects to still on the ballot but deeply wounded ahead of the general election?

There's a lot to talk about. The discussion needs to be had.

I support David as long as this is about Democrats and not about we-all-pretend-Socialist-Rashida-is-a-Democrat and we oust an actual Democrat from office.

He's put this option on the table. He needs to address it at length. He needs to comment and others need to comment back to create a real and honest conversation.

Some are already screaming for his head. I am not. I think this is a needed conversation and I hope he goes into greater detail what he's attempting.

The following sites updated:

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Zuckerberg is SUCKERberg

Zucky Zuckerberg, what have you done? You made a fool of everyone. Especially yourself. Do you need a good laugh? All the sucking up the Zucker did to Chump was in vain. Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) reports:

In a deep dive into Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's face-off with the Federal Trade Commission anti-trust investigation over his acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the controversial founder of Facebook placed a bet that Donald Trump would intervene -- and it never happened.

According to the Journal's Dana Mattioli, Rebecca Ballhaus and Josh Dawsey, the FTC is in the process of getting Zuckerberg to admit he bought the two apps in an effort to "neutralize" them as a threat to his core business and is seeking up to $30 billion in penalties.

Instead, Zuckerberg offered up $450 million which former FTC Chair Lina Khan derided as "delusional" in an interview with the Journal, adding, "Mark bought his way out of competing, so I’m not surprised that he thinks he can buy his way out of law enforcement, too. His proposed remedy, like his market strategy, is: ‘let my illegal monopoly keep monopolizing.’”

The report notes that it appears Zuckerberg thought his paltry offer would get him off the hook with Trump also weighing in on his behalf.

According to the report, Zuckerberg contacted FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson in March with his lowball offer with the Journal adding, "On the call, Zuckerberg sounded confident that President Trump would back him up with the FTC, said people familiar with the matter. The billionaire Facebook co-founder had been developing closer ties to Trump—his company donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and settled a $25 million lawsuit—and had been pressing the president in recent weeks to intervene in the monopoly lawsuit."

Zucky Zuckerberg, the "Sexy Sadie" of today, the ultimate fake ass.

He threw it all away betting on Chump. David Gardner (THE DAILY BEAST) reminds,

He’d paid $1 million into Donald Trump’s inaugural fund. He’d settled a lawsuit the president launched over being blackballed by Facebook for a whopping $25 million. He sat in Trump’s box at the inauguration and shuttled between the White House and Mar-a-Lago to ingratiate himself with his new friend.

FACEBOOK and META were garbage products but he rode their popularity to what passed for fame and prestige. He lost both and so much more when he got in bed with Chump. He's been exposed for the hack he is and he's harmed the image of FACEBOOK.

ATLANTA BLACK STAR PRESS notes:

In Menlo Park, pedestrians are hearing a recording claiming to be Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

“Hi this is Mark Zuckerberg, but real ones call me the Zuck,” the voice announces. “You know, it’s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcibly insert AI into every facet of your conscious experience. And I just want to assure you — you don’t need to worry because there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. Anyway, see ya.”

Meghan Horrigan-Taylor, chief communications officer for the city of Palo Alto, said that tampering likely occurred last Friday. City employees first noticed the voice message Saturday morning.

In all 12 intersections were “malfunctioning,” said Horrigan-Taylor.

“City staff have disabled the audible feature until further repairs can be made,” she told NBC-7. “Other traffic signals in the City were checked and the impact is isolated. Signal operations are otherwise unaffected, and motorists are reminded to always exercise caution around pedestrians.”

Everyone laughs at Zuck. David Gardner (THE DAILY BEAST) reminds, "He’d paid $1 million into Donald Trump’s inaugural fund. He’d settled a lawsuit the president launched over being blackballed by Facebook for a whopping $25 million. He sat in Trump’s box at the inauguration and shuttled between the White House and Mar-a-Lago to ingratiate himself with his new friend." He threw it all away.

Don't miss Ava and C.I.'s "MEDIA: YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS and your non-friends too!,"Marcia's "Tara Reade update," Stan's "Ted Kotcheff," Betty's "Kamala for governor of California? Absolutely!" and Ann's "Musk and Chump and their nasty bro-cest."

"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, April 16, 2025. Whistle blower Daniel Berulis comes forward with disturbing reports on DOGE, Chump continues to wreck the economy and the American dream, MSNBC's web team is still asleep this morning so could someone please wake them, Dems in Congress talk of going to El Salvador to investigate what's going on, and much more.

Let's start with Alien Musk's DOGE which has existed with no real authority and certainly no oversight. We've trusted Musk with access to this country's most sensitive information despite the fact that he's a security risk due to his drug usage, despite the fact that he's depended on huge amounts of money from China and despite the fact that he's not an American citizen (he's first a citizen of South Africa, then Canada and then the US). From yesterday's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR):

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency team, or DOGE, appears to be collecting sensitive data from all over the government. A whistleblower has come forward by filing an official disclosure to Congress. The disclosure is over concerning activity at one independent federal agency - the National Labor Relations Board. NPR's Jenna McLaughlin spoke to that whistleblower. He described to NPR what he saw and how DOGE appeared to go to great lengths to try to cover its tracks.

JENNA MCLAUGHLIN, BYLINE: It was a Friday afternoon in February when Daniel Berulis got a call from his boss. DOGE, the new federal cost-cutting unit, effectively led by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk, would be arriving soon.

DANIEL BERULIS: I was working on a spreadsheet for some budgeting stuff, and I got a call from my boss saying, hey, it's possible DOGE will show up.

MCLAUGHLIN: The following week - according to his official disclosure to Congress - Berulis and his colleagues watched a black SUV with a police escort pull into the parking garage of the National Labor Relations Board in Southeast Washington, D.C. The small, independent federal agency investigates and adjudicates complaints about unfair labor practices. It stores reams of potentially sensitive data, such as private legal notes in ongoing labor investigations or confidential lists of union organizers.

Most of that data lives on the Cloud, a virtual computer system that can be accessed remotely. It's Berulis' job to watch over the cloud and make sure no single user has access to data or systems they don't need. But for DOGE, those policies and guidelines didn't seem to apply, Berulis says. They had a very specific request.

BERULIS: Do not log the accounts. Don't log the access and stay out of our way.

MCLAUGHLIN: That was just the start for Berulis and his colleagues.

BERULIS: That was a huge red flag. That's something that you just don't do. It violates every core concept of security and best practice.

MCLAUGHLIN: After his suspicions were raised, Berulis was able to hunt down a few details about what took place while DOGE had access. In his disclosure to Congress, there's a ton of complicated technical detail. But here's what it says.

There's clear evidence DOGE got the highest level of access to the system, that a big chunk of data left the agency's internal case management system, followed by another chunk of data leaving the agency itself and that whoever had done those things had turned off security tools and network monitoring logs. They deleted records and appeared to try and disguise the chunks of data leaving the agency as routine web traffic. And after the DOGE accounts were created, someone with an IP address in Russia started trying to log in to the NLRB system, using a username and password that DOGE had created. Even though the attempts were blocked, Berulis says that made him worried the system was more vulnerable now.

The NLRB tells NPR the agency did not authorize DOGE to access their systems, and that there's no record of DOGE requesting it. They also said there was a recent internal investigation that ruled out a breach. However, the disclosure includes forensic evidence and records of communications that seem to tell a different story.

BERULIS: Why was that done? And that's a purposeful effort. That doesn't just happen. Logs don't just disappear. Tools don't just turn themselves off randomly. Everything in a computer has a cause and effect. That means it has to have a trigger.

MCLAUGHLIN: NPR has talked to 10 outside cybersecurity experts - embedded in companies, government agencies and the private sector - who reviewed Berulis' claims. They say the activity is suspicious and that there's no reason a legitimate user would act this way or remove data that is protected by multiple federal laws, including the Privacy Act. They say it is hard to definitively prove what happened without further access to the NLRB systems or without an investigation by agencies with more resources, like the FBI. But from what they can see, none of this behavior is normal. They told NPR the shadowy tactics described in the disclosure are the kinds of things criminals and hackers from China and Russia like to do. Meanwhile, several labor law experts who spoke to NPR say they believe there's no possible reason why DOGE should have had access to or removed NLRB's sensitive labor data.

SHARON BLOCK: There is nothing that I can see about what DOGE is doing that follows any of the standard procedures for how you do an audit that has integrity and that's meaningful and that will actually produce results.

MCLAUGHLIN: Sharon Block is the director of Harvard Law School Center for Labor and a Just Economy. She has held key labor policy jobs in multiple administrations, including as a member of the National Labor Relations Board. She said she thinks DOGE's statements about cutting waste and its behavior don't match up.

BLOCK: That mismatch between what they're doing and what we know the established professional way to do what they say they're doing - that just kind of gives away the store - that they are not about actually finding more efficient ways for the government to operate.

Last night on THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW (MSNBC), Rachel spoke with the whistle blower and with his attorney. We'd embed the video here but MSNBC's internet team appears to be sleeping on the job and not understanding the importance of breaking news.

David Ingram and Megan Lebowitz (NBC NEWS) note:

The whistleblower report, which NBC News has reviewed a copy of, comes as DOGE and Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk continue to face multiple lawsuits questioning their access to computer systems across the federal government.

Berulis, who works at the labor board, wrote in the declaration that within days of DOGE staffers arriving in March, he noticed a series of “anomalous” events in the board’s computer systems. Those included changes to the use of multi-factor authentication, which is a widely used security protocol, and internal alerting systems being switched off, he wrote in the 14-page statement.

He also wrote that he tracked what appeared to be the outbound transfer of around 10 gigabytes or more of data — “the equivalent of a full stack of encyclopedias” if the data were all text files, he wrote. He wrote that the removal was “extremely unusual because data almost never directly leaves NLRB’s databases.”

The database accessed by DOGE contained personally identifiable information of “claimants and respondents with pending matters before the agency” as well as confidential business information gathered during investigations, he wrote.

e added that after DOGE gained access to the labor board’s systems, there was an increase in attempted logins from locations outside the United States including from a user with an internet protocol (IP) address in Russia. He wrote that the person with the Russian IP address appeared to have a correct username and password, created minutes earlier by DOGE engineers, and was blocked from logging in only because of their location.

“Those attempts were blocked, but they were especially alarming,” Berulis wrote.

Berulis included in his disclosure several screenshots from a computer workstation that he says are evidence of data being transferred. He wrote that he has almost two decades of experience in his field and that he has held a Top Secret security clearance.

Liam Archacki (THE DAILY BEAST) adds:

Musk is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the NLRB over the agency’s ability to enforce labor law. Attorneys for Musk’s SpaceX argued before a court in November that the NLRB’s structure is unconstitutional.

A ruling against the agency could severely diminish its power.

The legal battle began after the NLRB accused SpaceX of illegally firing employees who had publicly criticized Musk.

The nonprofit Whistleblower Aid, which is representing Berulis legally, passed along his sworn disclosure in a letter to Sens. Tom Cotton and Mark Warner, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, respectively. It asked the committee to probe the matter.

The letter describes DOGE’s actions as possibly constituting a “significant cybersecurity breach that likely has and continues to expose our government to foreign intelligence and our nation’s adversaries.”

It also claims that ”someone physically taped a threatening note to Mr. Berulis’ home door with photographs – taken via a drone – of him walking in his neighborhood” as he prepared to make his disclosure. The note, which Berulis declined to share with Reuters, specifically referenced the impending disclosure, the letter says.

The spying and intimidation attempts? They started before he went public. Daniel Berulis' attorney explained that to Rachel Maddow last night. Which means that DOGE is also spying on government employees. Yesterday on CNN, Jake Tapper reported on this story and spoke with Daniel.

Alex Shephard (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:

It’s worth underlining the caveat that no one quite knows where the data allegedly pilfered from the NLRB is going—if indeed it has left the agency at all. But the information allegedly leaving the NLRB would be extraordinarily valuable to corporate titans like Musk looking for a leg up on rivals, as well as a window into the inner workings of the labor unions they despise. It would also explain why Musk is involved with DOGE to begin with. As a number of his companies, especially Tesla, struggle, the government systems DOGE now controls could provide invaluable information.

The theft of personal information also points to another more nefarious motivation for Musk and DOGE. It’s already abundantly clear that the group will not reduce the deficit. It likely will not even decrease federal spending, which is already $100 billion higher under Trump than it was under Biden at this point in his term. Instead, the group’s slashing of regulations and bureaucracy is aimed not at reducing “waste” but at cutting the many governmental layers that exist to fight risk—and fraud.

In another sense, it really doesn’t matter if this information is being used for nefarious corporate reasons at all. What matters is that unaccountable coders with close ties to the world’s richest man have their mitts on the personal information of millions of Americans—that’s bad no matter what they’re doing with it.

Some reaction on BLUESKY.

Be really great if MSNBC could get Rachel's interview with Daniel uploaded to their YOUTUBE channel this morning.

Moving over to the topic of the economy, the elephant in the room is the breasty Donald Chump who continues to wreck the US economy. David J. Lynch (WASHINGTON POST) reports that, since January 20th, the US dollar is on the decline having lost 10% of its value during that time period -- 5% of the decline occurred in the last few weeks as Chump's tariff scheme was implemented. "Bad news," Lynch explains, "for Americans traveling abroad and could also aggravate inflation by making foreign goods more expensive."

On the topic of the economy, we noted yesterday that Chump was destroying travel to the US and the billions of dollars that this travel results in:

Or it did.

Do we grasp how much money Chump's running off?

In 2023, international travelers poured an estimated $213 billion -- billion -- into the US economy. That amounted to approximately $584 million a day.

Will Vitka (PREDICITION NEWS) noted yesterday afternoon:

7.1 million visitors entered the U.S. Jan–March 2025, down 3.3% from 2024.

A consistent downward trend began in early 2025, tied to trade rhetoric and visa delays.

The sharpest declines were seen in Canada, UK, France, Mexico, and Germany.

Expected to hit $198 billion in 2025, down from early 2024 projections.

Let's zoom in on one state. Jason Weisberger (BOING BOING) reports on California:

Ignoring the many tales of horror inflicted upon innocent tourists to the United States, California Gov. Gavin Newsom encouraged Canadians to visit the Bear Republic. Canadians said no.

California depends on international tourism, and the Trump administration's new Draconian policies will hit the state hard. In 2024, nearly 1.8 million Canadians visited California, contributing around $3.72 billion to the state's economy. Only Mexico boasts higher international tourism numbers than the Golden State, and you can be sure they will enthusiastically not visit either. In an attempt to build some confidence in potential international travelers, Newsom took to TikTok with an invitation. Canadians politely shoved it back in his face.

Janna Brancolini (THE DAILY BEAST) points out, "President Donald Trump’s policies could cost the U.S. economy $90 billion this year in lost tourism and export revenue, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs. Many foreign visitors are avoiding the U.S. over concerns about increased hostility at the border, including reports about European tourists being detained for weeks in U.S. immigration centers. Others are angry about Trump’s trade wars and his treatment of U.S. allies -- particularly Canada -- and are boycotting U.S. travel and products."

This topic was also addressed on THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE when Stephanie spoke with Wilfred Frost about the upcoming series -- Sunday, April 27th -- on his father journaist David Frost -- a six part docuseries entitled DAVID VS. Stephanie and Wilfred looked at the countries and the drop in travel to the US with Wilfred noting that Denmark had one of the highest fallen rates on travel to the US since Chump was sworn in on January 20th.

Love to post the video but, guess what -- That's right MSNBC's web team just sleeps on the job. We will note this discussion Stephanie had last night at the start of her program.

Staying on the topic of the economy,

Brad Bannon (THE HILL) explains, "President Trump has just reached a crucial stage early in the second term of his presidency. Sandwiched between his abject capitulation on tariffs and the bitter fight over his tax breaks for fat cats and plutocrats, he now owns this creaky economy." Andrew Stanton (NEWSWEEK) elaborates, "A growing number of Americans are blaming President Donald Trump, rather than former President Joe Biden, for the state of the economy, according to two recent polls." And what's the conclusion to the growing feeling of mistrust toward Chump and his GOP tariff boosters? Maria Villarroel (LATIN TIMES) explains, "As the Trump administration continues defending tariffs and the uncertainty they have created in the global economy, voters are reacting, with more saying they trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle the economy for the first time since 2021, a new poll shows. The poll in question was conducted by Morning Consult among 2,203 registered U.S. voters across the country between April 11-13. It found that more trust Democrats in Congress more than their Republican counterparts to handle the economy (46% to 43%)." More bad news for Chump via Miles Klee (ROLLING STONE):

New polling from the University of Massachusetts Amherst reveals that after almost three months in office, a majority of respondents disapprove of Trump's actions in office. Just 27 percent said they "Strongly Approve" of his job performance, with another 17 percent indicating they "Somewhat Approve" of him so far in his second term, for total favorables of 44 percent. By comparison, 44 percent "Strongly Disapprove," and 7 percent "Somewhat Disapprove," for an unfavorability rate of 51 percent.

Trump is also underwater on every issue apart from immigration. At least 40 percent of respondents said he has handled jobs, foreign affairs, civil rights, inflation, and trade "Not Well At All," with the president receiving especially poor marks on the latter two economic fronts: a combined 62 percent unfavorable on inflation and 58 percent on trade, presumably as the cost of household necessities hasn't budged, while Trump's messy tariffs plans have roiled international markets and investment portfolios.

Again, Chump has killed the American dream and few people want to travel into a den of iniquity. His trashy ways have tarnished the country's image around the world. And, as we noted yesterday, people don't want to travel to some country that might deport them -- accidentally or intentionally -- to a prison in El Salvador. Daniel Hampton (RAW STORY) notes:

A civil rights attorney sounded the alarm Monday afternoon, warning the Trump administration is essentially engaged in what he called "human trafficking."

Trump publicly said he would like to deport American citizens who are violent offenders to El Salvador, where they would then serve their prison sentences under a deal with the Salvadoran government. Trump made the remarks during a White House meeting with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele.

[. . .]

The idea has been widely challenged by legal experts, including civil rights attorney Scott Hechinger, who took to X on Monday to blast the president.

"Pay attention: This is human trafficking. President Trump is already paying to ship humans to El Salvador & now wants to expand his slave trade. US military contractors like Eric Prince are salivating, now negotiating to privatize deportations/imprisonment to make billions," warned Hechinger.

In a separate post, he called the deportation effort a "clear assault on civil liberties and due process rights."

"It also represents an arguably darker milestone: 'The US government is now in the business of trafficking migrants on the global market.'"

A darker milestone? Travis Gettys reports that historian Timothy Snyder is also making that argument:

"Yesterday the president defied a Supreme Court ruling to return a man who was mistakenly sent to a gulag in another country, celebrated the suffering of this innocent person, and spoke of sending Americans to foreign concentration camps," Snyder wrote.

"This is the beginning of an American policy of state terror," he added, "and it has to be identified as such to be stopped."

Snyder, who is leaving Yale University for the University of Toronto in the fall, said both Stalinists and Nazis both referred to their own people as "criminals" and "terrorists," as both Trump and Bukele did at the White House, to justify their authoritarian abuse and escape from the law.

"It is that anti-constitutional escapism that enables abuse," Snyder wrote. "State terror involves not just the malignant development of state organs of oppression, such as masked men in black vans, but also the withdrawal of the state from its role as a guardian of law. What aspiring tyrants present as 'strength,' the ability to terrorize innocent people, rests on what might be seen as a more fundamental weakness, which is the withdrawal of the state from the principle of the rule of law. When we have law, we are all stronger; when we lack law, everyone is weaker except for the very few who can direct the coercive power of the state against the rest of us."

In the face of all of this, Democrats can't afford to be a cowardly James Carville. People want to see leadership and they want to see that some elected official actually gives a damn. Phillip M. Bailey (USA TODAY) reports:

Democratic lawmakers say if a wrongly deported man sent to a supermax prison in El Salvador isn't brought back to the U.S., they will visit the central American country, adding further pressure on the Trump administration for his release.

President Donald Trump met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office on Monday, where he praised the foreign leader for opening his country's notorious prison system to alleged gang members and detainees the U.S. wants out of the country.

[. . .]

"I've been clear: if President Bukele doesn't want to meet here in D.C., then I intend to go to El Salvador this week to check on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's condition and discuss his release," Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-MD, said in an April 14 post on X.

"Kilmar was illegally abducted and deported by the Trump (administration). He must be brought home now."

Other members of Congress say they plan to join Van Hollen's trip, including Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fl., who described Garcia's detention as a "kidnapping and illegal detention."

"We need answers now," said Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., who reshared Van Hollen's post on Monday.

This needs to happen.

Brian Taylor Cohen discussed this Congressional trip last night with US House Rep Robert Garcia.

Again, this needs to happen.

And Lawrence Tribe discussed this last night. Let's post that video. Oh. Wait. We can't. He did that on MSNBC speaking with Lawrence O'Donnell. Again, MSNBC's web team is sleeping on the job.

Marjorie Taylor Greene? She's got some conditions. Maybe it's because of her recent 'winnings' -- see Elaine's "Lock up MTG?" from last night -- but she is holding a town hall her way. David Badash reports:

Jake Gittes: I wouldn't extort a nickel from my worst enemy. That's where I draw the line.

Loach Jr.: Well, I'll tell you, Jake. I knew a whore once. For the right amount of money, she'd piss in a guy's face But she wouldn't s**t on his chest. You see, that's where she drew the line.

Jake Gittes: Well, Junior, all I can say is: I hope she wasn't too much of a disappointment to you.

Oh, wait, it just sounds like they're talking about Marjorie. That's actually from the Jack Nicholson film THE TWO JAKES (script by Robert Towne). Here's David Badash writing about Marjorie:

In a social media video, Congresswoman Greene stated, “this is a town hall that’s strictly for constituents. That means you have to live in my district, and you had to sign up on the sign up link. That’s important. Make sure you bring your ID, as we will be verifying that you actually live in the district and have signed up to be in the town hall.”

Greene, under scrutiny over recent stock purchases she allegedly made, is holding the town hall in a county Vice President Kamala Harris carried in November by 15 percentage points, according to Fox News. The GOP Congresswoman established additional rules, namely, no protesting—despite First Amendment protections.

“Also, this is important for everyone attending the town hall,” she said. “You need to understand this is not a place to protest. This isn’t a place to stand up and scream and yell. This is a place to sit and listen, and we have your questions if you signed up.”

Huh? Isn't this the same bull dog who went after AOC? Stuck her ugly face in the mail slot of AOC's office? I understand Marjorie stuck her face in a lot of slots over the years. But this is when the burly girl was making her way through the halls of Congress. And burly butch wasn't one of AOC's constituents.

Poor Marjorie, she can't handle an honest interaction with her constituents. Listen to what I just said. "With her constituents." As if. Marjorie can't handle an honest interaction with anyone. But last night, she had them tossed out of the meeting, had them tasered and much worse. Let's hope they all remember when the midterms approach.

The following sites updated: