Zachary Levi was a little nothing plucked from obscurity via WARNER BROTHERS when they cast him as Captain Marvel in the SHAZAM franchise. He was on the low rated TV show CHUCK that never was renewed based on ratings. Fans had to launch a save-the-show effort for all five seasons. That's really it. I mean, he was perfect as the gay guy on LESS THAN PERFECT but he wasn't the star of that show -- or even the main supporting star. They gave him SHAZAM and it was a hit.
It was.
But the follow up was a monster bomb. The first one sold $147 million -- ticket sales -- in North America while the second one flopped with only $57 million in North American ticket sales.
While the first SHAZAM was his only hit film as a live action actor, the second one was only one of many flops.
THE MAURITANIAN flopped with $7 million NA ticket sales, AMERICAN UNDERDOG flopped with $26 million, HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON with $32 million, THE UNBREAKABLE BOY with $7 million. Get it? He's claiming his 'politics' have hurt his career.
His 'politics'? Does he mean posing as straight and that desperate marriage last year?
I men, sure, iv he'd put on the Shazam costume without the cape and rip the seam out of the back of the pants to expose his bussy, I'm sure he could be very big in gay porn.
If he means his support of Junior and Trump? That started in 2024. By then his carer was already over and his record of flops had ensured that. Insisting he's really straight let's the fright-wing continue to cast him in 'religious' films.
Nobody wants him in an actual studio film. The smartest thing he could do at this point is start an ONLYFANS account, get a good web camp and a couple of prostate massagers.
Friday, November 11, 2025. The first to flee in a time of need will
always be Robert Kennedy Junior as we saw yesterday, all the lies in the
world can't hide Chump's tanking of our economy, having told far too
many lies to various courts this year our own government departments
have a credibility problem, and much more.
Let's start with a basic: What the hell are we doing?
Zohran
Mamdani won the race for Mayor of NYC and we've noted that here. We've
also attempted to let him have his moment. By that I mean, his success
or failure in the job will impact more than just him. If AOC wants to
run in 2028 for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, how he
does as mayor and how he's perceived will impact her chances. Both are
Socialists.
Again, this is his moment so we're not dwelling on the impact that he could have with regards to AOC.
However . . .
Are we stupid? When the GOP is singing from the same hymnal we don't even notice now?
Repeatedly
since the election, Republicans are deliberately lying. That's Chump
and Speaker of the Closet Mike Johnson for starters.
Communist.
That's
what they keep calling Zohran. And I see a lot think pieces and a lot
of fantasy pieces popping up in left media none of which correct this
lie.
Zohran is a Socialist. He is not a Communist. They are different ideologies.
Why, on the left, as Zohran is having his moment are we not at least pushing back on this lie?
We
can't count on the mainstream media. Even if they want to be accurate,
they're largely general studies majors who honestly don't know the
difference between Communism and Socialism. And more and more they're
being taken over by idiots or right wingers or both -- Bari Weis being a
good example.
We need to push back and we need to refute.
Maybe
someone with animation skills could do a little clip of Zohran in
animated form and call it ZOHRAN MAMDAMI: YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD
SOCIALIST? Otherwise, the right-wing's doing all the defining and we're
over here silent.
Moving over to MEIDASTOUCH NEWS where they are covering Chump's latest con job.
The
day after Democratic election victories, Trump assured the public,
“Affordability is our goal.” That was followed by a related online rant:
“2025 Thanksgiving dinner under Trump is 25% lower than 2024
Thanksgiving dinner under Biden, according to Walmart. My cost [sic] are
lower than the Democrats on everything, especially oil and gas! So the
Democrats [sic] ‘affordability’ issue is DEAD! STOP LYING!!!”
Whether the president understands this or not, Walmart lowered the cost
of its Thanksgiving dinner by reducing the number of items included in
the package and replacing brand-name products with value products. It
was not, in other words, the result of the White House’s awesomeness.
The
2024 dinner included two pies -- a pumpkin pie you made from
ingredients and a Marie Callender's Southern Pecan Pie. The 2025
version? No pecan pie and, though you can still make the pumpkin pie,
you'll do so without topping it with whipped cream because whipped
topping is on longer party of the dinner -- they've also switched to
cheaper pie crust. Anyone who cooks or shops for groceries can look at
the two dinners and see how shabby the 2025 list is. They've got both lists posted in JD Wolf's MTN article. Chump keeps lying about the economy and Mike noted last night:
Chump
doesn't know hardship and never has. Every blow cushioned. He's such
an idiot, he was speaking yesterday -- or it was on the news yesterday
-- saying that we had to do away with absentee voting and that every
where you went to you had to show your i.d. even the gas station, even
the grocery store.
Huh?
He's
a damn fool. Or a heavy smoker. If you're burying smokes or booze at
the grocery store or gas station, you have to show i.d. He knows
nothing about the average person's experience. And it shows
He
doesn't know anything about the average person's experience and he
proved that as well when he was bragging on Walmart's 2025 Thanksgiving
dinner which offers so much less.
In 2024, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump made inflation the centerpiece of his campaign.
The
"price of eggs" being too high became a rallying cry against the
incumbent presidential administration as Trump seized on a very real
pain point for many Americans.
U.S. inflation rate by month [2025]
January: 3%
February: 2.8%
March: 2.4%
April: 2.3% (Liberation day April 2)
May: 2.4%
June: 2.7%
July: 2.7%
August: 2.9%
September: 3%
"Starting
on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to
bring down the prices of all goods," he said at a rally in Bozeman,
Montana on August 9, 2024.
Affordability?
Senator Elizabeth Warren, speaking on behalf of elected Dems in
Congress, wants to deliver on it.
Donald Chump does not have a clue.
And in Chump Land, where we are at the mercy of a dementia plagued
failure, things just get worse. Farrah Tomazin (DAILY BEAST) notes job layoffs:
Layoffs
in the U.S skyrocketed in October to their worst monthly level for 22
years, with Americans now facing the type of job cuts typically seen
during recessions.
Despite President Donald
Trump repeatedly touting that the US economy “has never been hotter,” a
new report has fueled concerns about a labor market slowdown with more
people out of work.
The data, according to
outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, shows that company
layoffs soared last month to more than 153,000, marking the worst
October for job reductions since 2003.
US
employers have also announced 1.1 million layoffs so far this year - the
biggest number of layoffs since the pandemic and on par with job cuts
during the global financial crisis.
Donald
would love for you say, "Thanks, Chump. I have so much free time.
Can't do anything with it because you've destroyed the job market and
our economy, but thanks for the free time."
Steve Kopack (NBC NEWS) adds that "even
firms that are not actively cutting jobs have warned that they do not
plan to add to their headcount in the near-term, with several pointing
directly to AI’s impact on their personnel needs." Paul R. La Monica (BARRON'S) notes, "Economists
for the Indeed Hiring Lab, the research arm for the popular jobs site,
said in another report Thursday that job postings are now at their
lowest level since 2021 and that wage growth is slowing as well." Garrett Owen (SALON) reminds that, " Prior
to the report, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the American
economy was nearing a 'golden age' under the Trump administration, and
said that 2026 'would be a great year'."
Mary Jones (PENNY GEM) adds,
"October 2025. In a span of just several months, 427 Michigan workers
lost their jobs as five automotive suppliers filed WARN notices. The
news ripples through the auto industry, with Dana Thermal Products
shutting its Auburn Hills plant, NPR of America slashing its workforce,
and DP World Logistics losing its only customer. These companies are all
linked to Michigan's crucial automotive sector, and each has cited a
sharp decline in business, sending shockwaves throughout the region.
What led to this series of layoffs? And why now? The unfolding impact is
just beginning."
The
economy is bad and that's Chumps fault. And his attack on SNAP? His
ignoring judges orders on SNAP? That's him again and we need to ask the
question of why the GOP hates our military personnel? They're
continuing Donald's shutdown and they're continuing this as Pretty Boo
Hegseth pretends to be a Secretary of Defense and does so at a time when
US military memebers and their family are being told to start using
food banks. Grasp that. Pretty Boo put his on hair and make up salon
into the Pentagon. He fought for that. But he can't fight to feed the
people serving in the US military? Very revealing. Michael Moran (THE MIRROR) reports:
Amid
what is now the longest government shutdown in US history, the
approximately 37,000 US service personnel stationed in Germany have
reportedly been advised to seek help from food banks if their wages are
not paid in November.
Military personnel
reportedly received their October salaries thanks to emergency funding
drawn from multiple sources: $2.5 billion from summer tax cut
legislation, $1.4 billion from military procurement accounts, and $1.4
billion from research and development.
US Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessent told CBS News: "I think we'll be able to pay
them beginning in November, but by 15 November our troops and service
members who are willing to risk their lives aren't going to be able to
get paid." It comes as Trump issued a SNAP benefits ultimatum with a
brutal warning amid the government shutdown.
Last
night, Lawrence O'Donnell covered many topics in his opening
monologue. He covered the economy, he covered how the administration
was filled with people out of touch with the every day life of the
American people, he covered the tariffs and the Supreme Court, he
covered the nonsense of pretending a sandwich was a weapon.
He also covered how unfeeling Chump is.
Novo Nordisk's Gordon Findlay felt
dizzy and ended up on the floor in the Oval Office, legs in the air as
Lawrence pointed out, and Chump's not helping and just staring off into
space.
It's another powerful moment of Lawrence cutting through the crap and connecting the dots.
But
if you stream that video, note one other thing about that incident.
The minute Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Junior
looks over and sees a man is collapsing, Junior panics and runs out of
the room.
I guess that's what you have to do.
I
mean, I guess if you don't believe in vaccines and someone's passing
out, you run like crazy because maybe it's measles, maybe it's polio,
but whatever's going on, you can't rsik being around the person because
you're not vaccianted so you're not protected.
Our
countrys President John F. Kennedy wrote PROFILES IN COURAGE. Junior
practices PROFILES IN SAVE YOUR OWN ASS - EVERYONE IN NEED LEFT BEHIND
and he made that clear yesterday as man feeling faint sent Junior
fleeing from the room.
Now let's
drop back to February 11, 1985, on CBS that night, the 15th episode of
the second season of KATE & ALLIE aired -- "Rear Window" written by
Stu Hample, directed by Bill Persky. Susan Saint James played Kate,
Jane Curtin played Allie and Frederick Koehler played Allies son Chip.
The moment we're focusing on is seventeen minutes into the video below.
Allie: Have you ever heard the story about the little boy who cried wolf?
Chip: Yeah, it's about a little boy show cried wolf.
Allie:
A shepherd. The little shepherd went into the field one day and he got
bored so he cried "wolf!" and all the villagers came running.
Kate: Right. And when they saw that there was no wolf, they got really mad and went home.
Allie: And the net week, he went into the field and he got bored again and he cried wolf again.
Kate: And all the villagers came and when they saw there was no wolf, there, they really got mad and went home again.
Allie:
But the next time, there really was a wolf and the little boy cried
wolf but nobody came. And the wolf ate the little boy.
And the wolf ate the little boy.
As
we have noted repeatedly this year, over and over, the Justice Dept and
Homeland Security repeatedly lie to US courts. Non-stop lying. And
you lie to the judge? You get a reputation -- a bad one. That
reputation is now starting to stick. AP's Christine Fernando and Sophia Tareen report:
A
federal judge in Chicago on Thursday issued an extensive injunction
restricting federal agents' use of force, saying Thursday that a top
Border Patrol official leading an immigration crackdown repeatedly lied
about threats posed by protesters and reporters.
The
preliminary injunction came in response to a lawsuit filed by news
outlets and protesters who allege federal agents have used excessive
force during the operation that has netted more than 3,000 arrests and
led to heated clashes across the nation’s third-largest city and its
many suburbs.
“I see little reason for the use of force
that the federal agents are currently using,” said U.S. District Judge
Sara Ellis. “I don’t find defendants’ version of events credible."
And they aren't credible.
Again: And, the wolf ate the little boy.
That's
why you don't lie in court. You lie once and the judge has no reason
to believe you again. You were under oath and you lied. That helps a
juge decided that they don't "find defendants' version of events
credible."
They brought it on themselves and for this to happen is shameful and embarrassing.
An
Afghan man who has been detained for nearly four months, despite being
charged with no crime, will remain behind bars indefinitely after his
asylum case was delayed once again last week.
Though
the man has lived in the United States for more than four years and
been repeatedly vetted by federal authorities, a Department of Homeland
Security attorney announced in court that the government has not
finished his background check and could not estimate when it would.
Investigators have now asserted he poses a “potential threat” to
national security.
At the Friday hearing in
Virginia, a frustrated immigration judge acknowledged that, by law, she
doesn’t have the option to grant the father of two asylum without a
finalized check.
“The department’s going on a
fishing expedition trying to dig up whatever they can,” his lawyer, Amin
Ganjalizadeh, argued in court.
“I share counsel’s concern,” the judge told the government’s attorney, Joseph Dernbach. “You can’t give me a timeline.”
In
what world is that appropriate? In what world is the government
allowed to insist that they cannot provide timeline. In other
troubling news, Patrick G. Eddington (MS NOW) reports:
According
to stunning reporting by Joseph Cox at 404 Media, federal agents appear
to be roaming around Chicago using mobile facial recognition
technology, or FRT, on people to determine whether they should be
deported.
And according to internal Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, emails viewed by 404 Media, ICE has
been using the Mobile Fortify app, which “can identify someone based on
their fingerprints or face by simply pointing a smartphone camera at
them.” A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection confirmed its
use of Mobile Fortify to 404 Media, saying, “This is one of many tools
we are using as we enforce the laws of our nation.” A DHS spokesperson
told MSNBC, "While the Department does not discuss specific vendors or
operational tools, any technology used by DHS Components must comply
with the requirements and oversight framework."
Let's wind down with this from Senator Adam Schiff's office:
Washington, D.C. — Today, a majority of Senate
Republicans voted to block U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Adam Schiff
(D-Calif.), and Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.)resolution that
would have prevented the administration from using military force
against Venezuela without authorization by Congress. The resolution also
emphasizes the importance of Congress asserting its power to declare
war and the need to avoid getting the United States embroiled in another
war.
The resolution fell just two votes short of passage.
The vote follows at least 16 unauthorized military strikes on
unidentified vessels resulting in 67 deaths and military buildup in the
region and numerous threats by the administration of attacks on
Venezuela. Senators Kaine and Schiff previously forced a vote on their
War Powers Act Resolution, which received bipartisan support, to
prohibit the unauthorized and illegal strikes in the Caribbean and
Eastern Pacific.
Background: Prior to today’s vote, Kaine and Schiff forced a vote on their resolution in
early October to reassert Congress’ sole constitutional authority to
authorize use of military force. Despite garnering bipartisan support,
the vote failed. In light of continued unauthorized boat strikes,
Senator Schiff posted his reaction here.
Read the transcript of his remarks as delivered below:
I am proud to join my colleagues Senator Kaine and Senator Paul
in introducing this War Powers Resolution that provides that we have not
authorized the use of force against Venezuela. We meet at a precarious
moment, when we might be at the precipice of war with that country.
Today, in the Caribbean or on its way to the region are the following military assets:
Three Arleigh Burke class destroyers: the USS Gravely, Jason Dunham, and Sampson.
The USS Lake Erie, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser
The USS Newport News, a nuclear attack submarine with torpedoes and Tomahawks.
The USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship equipped with a flight deck for F-35s, Ospreys, and attack helicopters.
The MV Ocean Trader, a floating base designed for special operations.
The largest aircraft carrier ever built, the USS Gerald R Ford,
is on its way right now from the Mediterranean. This means we will see
upwards of an additional 2 dozen additional Super Hornets, and 2 dozen
additional F-35s. This warship will be accompanied by three additional
destroyers, bringing at least 10 of America’s best naval war ships
within striking distance of Caracas.
All told, there will be more than 400 missiles and other vertical
launch systems on Nicolás Maduro’s doorstep. One hundred and fifteen
Tomahawks alone, with an additional 70 coming with the Ford. Are we
supposed to believe this is only about striking speed boats? If so, why
will there be ten thousand American servicemembers in the vicinity? Why
fly three B-52s from the United States to the region? Why have B-1
supersonic bombers flown off the coast of Venezuela in just the last few
weeks for so-called “Bomber Attack Demonstrations?” That’s not my
definition of the mission. That’s what the Pentagon called it. Bomber
attack demonstrations – for what, to blow up fishing vessels?
We all need to see that this has quickly become so much bigger,
and so much more dangerous. And maybe that was the point. To focus the
narrative on drug trafficking, so we don’t recoil from what may be right
around the corner with Venezuela, and that is the use of force to
achieve the goal of regime change.
Now, I understand the president this weekend said he was not
inclined along those lines. But I urge my colleagues to look at the
administration’s actions, and not merely its’ words. Because if it walks
like a military buildup and talks like a military buildup – it might
very well be a military buildup.
Two weeks ago, the president said: “We are certainly looking at
land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control.” And now we
have the buildup I just described. People may be putting a lot of stock
into the President’s most recent words, saying he wouldn’t strike
Venezuela when he was on “60 Minutes” on Sunday.
But when asked if the leader of Venezuela’s days were numbered?
He also answered, “Yeah, I think so.” That’s what our Commander in Chief
said with the largest warship the United States has, sailing close to
Venezuela. If any other world leader moved this kind of firepower to
another country’s doorstep, we know what we would believe was taking
place.
And the bottom line is this: Americans do not want another war.
They do not want American servicemembers put in harm’s way, either
flying missions or with boots on the ground for a war not authorized by
Congress.
Mothers and fathers of American sailors, Marines, soldiers, or
pilots, do not want to lay awake at night wondering if their kids will
be the ones who have to be deployed to yet another armed conflict, this
time in South America.
Last month, we came to this body with a resolution to end the
unlawful strikes that this administration had been taking against boats
in international waters. And we came up a few votes short. But while we
remain concerned about those ongoing strikes, this debate is about a
different resolution.
This resolution is tailor-written to stop one thing: war with the
nation of Venezuela. The administration has not asked Congress to
authorize such a war. But the administration appears to be laying the
groundwork for one anyway. If they believe a war is necessary, let them
come to the Congress to make the case for one. Maduro is a murderous
dictator. He is an illegitimate leader having overturned the last
election by use of military force. He is a bad actor.
But I do not believe the American people want to go to war to
topple his regime, in the hopes that something better might follow. If
the administration feels differently, let them come to the Congress and
make the case. Let them come before the American people and make the
case. Let them seek an authorization to use force to get rid of Maduro.
But let us not abdicate our responsibility. Let us vote to say no to war without our approval.
We do not have to wait, nor should we wait, for that war to begin
before we vote. The War Powers Resolution very clearly and
intentionally gives Congress the ability to prevent a President from
going to war in the first place.
The legislative history of the War Powers Act makes that
abundantly clear. My colleagues might object: well, these aren’t yet
hostilities and yet people are already dying. They might object: well,
this is not yet imminent. And yet, with the kind of military force being
brought to the region with a danger to our sailors, our Marines, our
soldiers, as Senator Kaine outlined, because if Venezuela believes that
we are on the precipice of war, they have the capability and might take
action against our ships. It clearly meets the definition of imminent.
Our predecessors in Congress designed this law precisely to
respond to this very type of military build-up that we see here and act
in advance of the U.S. being dragged into another war without Congress’
authorization.
We in this body serve our constituents, who have told us for
years, now for decades. No more war. No more use of military force for
regime change. We must reassert our Constitutional power. Our duty to
have the sole decision when American lives could be on the line, when
war is on the line.
I share my colleague, Senator Kaine’s concerns, having read the
opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel. But regardless of what people
view of the merits of that opinion, what we’re talking about here is a
wholly another matter. What we’re talking about here is potential war
with Venezuela. What we’re talking about here is a massive military and
naval build up in the region. When hostilities may be imminent under
circumstances clearly contemplated by Congress when it passed the War
Powers Resolution.
I have debated Senator Kaine whether this is our most important
power, that is the power to declare war or to refuse to declare war, or
whether it is the power of the purse. It may indeed be a bit of both, in
the sense that one way of cutting off a military campaign is by cutting
off support for that military campaign, but we have already so
abdicated our power of the purse in this institution. Should we also
abdicate our responsibility to declare war and allow the administration,
or any administration, any president, to usurp that authority? It would
be antithetical to what the Founders intended and what they wrote.
As the founders wrote, “The power was given to the legislative
branch to declare war, because the power to make war was something that
an executive might grow too fond of.” So, the power was given to
Congress, to this legislative body. Let’s use that power. Let’s reassert
authority. Let’s say, through this resolution, if the president or the
administration want to go to war for the purposes of regime change or
any other purpose, that it must come to Congress and make the case to us
and to the American people.
The US Supreme Court will allow the
Trump administration to require all new passports to display an
individual's biological sex at birth, for now.
The
conservative-majority court on Thursday froze an order from a lower
court in Massachusetts that had stopped the US government from changing
its policy, while the legal process played out.
"Displaying
passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection
principles than displaying their country of birth," the court said.
Why?
How is that relevant?
It's not.
It's just another effort from hateful dying man to try to drag everyone down with him.
Yes, Donald, you're going to hell and, yes, you deserve to.
But you're not dragging us down with you.
Your hatred kills you a little bit more every day. That's your own damn fault.
There is no reason in the world for this policy It's an attempt to harass and harm transgender people. There's no other point to it.
Thursday, November 6, 2025. Why do elected Republicans hate our
veterans, why does Chump attack Christians, some observations on
Tuesday's elections and much more.
We're going to start
with Senator Patty Murray because we live in a country where too many
Republicans in office slander and attack those receiving SNAP benefits.
As the senator made clear yesterday, many veterans receive SNAP
benefits as well.
At Hearing, Senator Murray Slams Trump and Republicans for
Abandoning Veterans Who Rely On SNAP, Discusses Support for Veterans’
Transition to Civilian Life
Trump is refusing to allow SNAP benefits to flow despite available funding—1.2 million veterans rely on SNAP, 40 percent of whom are disabled
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s exchange at the hearing***
Washington, D.C. — Today, at a Senate Committee on
Veterans’ Affairs hearing to examine efforts to support transitioning
servicemembers, veterans and their families, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA)—a former chair and senior member of the committee—emphasized how
veterans who rely on SNAP are being hurt by President Trump blocking
SNAP benefits despite available funding, and questioned witnesses on how
the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) can provide better support
to veterans during their transition to civilian life.
Appearing at the hearing as witnesses were: Jason Galui, Lieutenant
Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.), Director, George W. Bush Institute; Mike
Hutchings, CEO, Combined Arms; Jared Lyon, National President & CEO,
Student Veterans of America; Barbara Carson, Colonel (Ret.), U.S. Air
Force Reserve Managing Director, D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and
Military Families at Syracuse University; Elizabeth O’Brien, Director,
Hiring Our Heroes; and Holly Hermes, Yale University Liaison for Veteran
and Military Affairs.
[TRUMP BLOCKING SNAP, HURTING VETERANS]
“Let me echo something Senator Blumenthal talked about, and
really point out something that I think has not gotten enough attention,
and that is that 1.2 million veterans rely on SNAP. That is, about a
third of them are over the age of 65, and forty percent are disabled.
“We know right now that President Trump is blocking them from getting the SNAP benefits they need so they don’t go hungry.
“The money to fund SNAP exists. Trump has chosen not to use
that funding, and his administration said they’re going to do partial
benefits—they’d be late—and then he posted yesterday on Truth Social
that he’s decided to block benefits altogether.
“So now we are, of course, hearing reports of veterans
flocking to food banks. They’re not sure where their next meal is going
to come from.
“Mr. Chairman, my family was one of those families. My dad
was a veteran. He got multiple sclerosis, and we had to rely on food
stamps for a while, so this is not something we should tolerate.
“The money exists. It is supposed to go out, and I hope every
member of this committee lets the administration know that they need
that money to get out.”
Senator Murray continued by asking Jared Lyon, National President
& CEO of Student Veterans of America, about the impact that
President Trump’s refusal to fund SNAP benefits is having on student
veterans in particular: “So Mr. Lyon, let me just ask you about
that. What are you hearing from your members who do rely on SNAP, and
tell me why it’s so important to student veterans in particular?”
“At Student Veterans of America, we leverage a lot of
research, and basic needs has been something that we’ve been looking
into for the better part of the last five years. Food and housing
insecurity are remaining challenges for veterans in higher education,” Mr. Lyon replied.
“The GI bill is designed for a single person that heads back to school,
and when you look at the modern student veteran, over half are married
or in a committed relationship with children when they head back to
school. Another 20 percent of us are single parents when we’re back in
school, and over 75 percent of us are working full-time while we are in
school, just trying to make ends meet. It is very difficult to
transition without a military pension, without health care for life, and
that is what the average veteran is doing when they head back to
school. So, it’s no surprise to see benefits like SNAP and other things
being relied on while you’re back in school and trying to make ends
meet. When those benefits go away, veterans are impacted—and more than
that, their family members that rely on these benefits are impacted as
well.”
“Thank you for sharing that. And again, I urge all of our
committee members to let the Administration know that money’s there.
They’re legally required to obligate it. Get it out. We have people who
need that,” Senator Murray replied.
[BARRIERS FACING WOMEN VETERANS]
Senator Murray continued her questioning by asking Colonel Hermes
about the barriers female veterans face when seeking civilian
employment: “Let me ask about, Colonel Hermes, about women
veterans. They are the fastest-growing demographic of veterans. And I
personally have heard from many women veterans that when they return
home to civilian life, people don’t respect their service or assume that
they are a military spouse, not the actual veteran. And it is
disturbing that we now have a Secretary of Defense who takes every
opportunity to insult women who’ve been in the military. And that
really, I believe, adds to the barriers that women face now when they
return to civilian life. So, talk to us a little bit
about some of the barriers that women veterans in particular face when
they come home and seek civilian employment.”
“That is a very important question for our society to wrestle with,” Colonel Hermes replied.
“In our group of enlisted student veterans… we have a very small number
of women, and I even say parents, or families, because it is very
difficult, just like Mr. Lyon mentioned, to support a family while
you’re going to college. The GI benefits, the federal benefits that
we’re able to give even institutionally, can’t support some families as
they leave the military. So that’s a huge challenge, and I think that’s
something that our society needs to keep wrestling with. And we could
talk to the VA about programs that could support that in the future
nationwide, not just at one school or another.”
“Thank you very much. I have run out of time, but this is
something I’m very concerned about—when we hear discussions about DEI,
and then it impacts women who we need in our in our military. And not
just then, but when they come home and they are veteran, they actually
don’t want to identify as a veteran, or don’t see themselves as a
veteran, and they then don’t get the services and benefits that they’ve
earned,” Senator Murray said.
Senator Murray was the first woman to join the Senate Veterans’
Affairs Committee and the first woman to chair the Committee—as the
daughter of a World War II veteran, supporting veterans and their
families has always been an important priority for her. Senator Murray
has been a leading voice in the Senate speaking out forcefully against President Trump and Elon Musk’s mass firing of VA employees and VA researchers across the country and Elon Musk and DOGE’s infiltration of the VA, including accessing veterans’ sensitive personal information. After pressing Doug Collins
on EHR and protecting women’s access to VA health care, including
lifesaving abortion care, at his nomination hearing, Senator Murray
voted against Doug Collins’s nomination to be VA Secretary—sounding the alarm
over Elon Musk and DOGE’s activities at the VA and making clear that
the Trump administration’s lawlessness is putting our national security
and our veterans at risk. Senator Murray released a report
earlier this year on how Trump’s mass firings at VA are hurting
veterans’ services and health care in Washington state and across the
country. And in August, Senator Murray slammed
the Trump administration’s move to ban abortion care at VA, even when a
veteran’s pregnancy is putting their health at risk or is the result of
rape or incest.
###
Why do elected Republicans have to attack veterans? Do they not support our veterans?
Moving on . . .
When Chump speaks, am I the only one who hears Margaret Cho doing her Kim-Jung Un impersonation on 30 ROCK?
In
the MEIDASTOUCH NEWS video below, when Chump starts lying and saying
food prices are down, doesn't he come off like Cho's characterization?
Big difference being, Margaret was aiming to make people laugh, Chump's just a joke and can't evade the laughter.
The Democratic Party’s blowout wins on Tuesday night underscore a
fundamental reality about the Donald Trump era: Anti-Trump politics is affordability politics, and affordability politics is
anti-Trump politics. It’s not just that there is no need to choose
between attacking Trump’s lawlessness and addressing the “price of
eggs,” in the hackneyed shorthand for costs and inflation. It’s that the
two missions are inseparable from one another.
In the weeks leading up to the elections—in which Democrats Abigail
Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill won the Virginia and New Jersey
gubernatorial races by 15 points and 13 points,
respectively—a strange, contrary media trope took hold. Various news
analyses suggested that Spanberger and Sherrill were erring by obsessing over Trump rather than focusing on what actually matters to voters. Some Democrats fretted that while attacking Trump was “seductive,” an opportunity was being missed to offer a substantive “alternative.”
Start with this finding in the updated exit polls: Both Spanberger
and Sherrill entirely erased the GOP advantage with voters who lack a
four-year degree. Spanberger tied her Republican opponent among them,
with each getting 50 percent, a huge swing from four years earlier, when Glenn Youngkin won them by 59 percent to 40 percent. Meanwhile, Sherrill also tied her GOP opponent among non-college voters by 50 percent to 49 percent.
And
here’s a striking nuance: While both Democrats lost non-college white
voters by large amounts—a demographic the party continues to struggle
with—Spanberger did reduce that margin relative to 2021. Critically,
both made up for that by winning huge margins among non-college nonwhite
voters: The spreads were 85–15 for Spanberger and 75–23 for Sherrill.
Given that Trump’s 2024 victory unleashed a hurricane of analysis about
his inroads with the nonwhite working class, those margins are
heartening indeed.
On the one hand, when voters in Virginia and New Jersey were asked by
exit pollsters for their views of the Democratic Party, they weren’t
exactly effusive. In New Jersey, 47 percent said they had a favorable
impression; 50 percent said their impression was unfavorable. In
Virginia, it was 45 percent favorable and 52 percent unfavorable.
And yet—and yet—Tuesday was a great day for Democrats, and more
important, a great day for America, or at least, an America that hopes
to overcome the rule of a tin-pot megalomaniac.
Those Virginia voters elected Democrat Abigail Spanberger to be their
governor by a 14-point margin over her Republican opponent. They
elected a full slate of down-ticket Democrats, too, including their
attorney general candidate whose years-old tweets would have defeated
him had state voters not been furious at the presumptuous misrule of
Donald Trump.
Those New Jersey voters elected Democrat Mikie Sherrill to be their
governor by a 13-point margin over her Republican opponent. Pennsylvania
voters returned all three Democratic state Supreme Court justices—who’d
rejected Trump’s machinations to skew their state toward MAGA
injustices—by 20-point margins. Georgia voters ousted two Republican
members of the state’s Public Service Commission in favor of two
Democrats—the first Democrats to win statewide nonfederal offices in
decades. In California, voters passed by a nearly 2-to-1 margin Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s Democratic redistricting map, which would offset the
Republican one enacted in Texas. And in New York City, voters gave
majority support to a democratic socialist Democrat and a tribune for a
struggling, largely immigrant working class to be their next mayor.
The results dispelled fears that the drift of Black and Latino voters
into the Republican column that characterized the 2024 presidential
election would continue. Spanberger carried Virginia Latinos by a 64
percent to 35 percent margin, and she won the vote of the state’s
nonwhite working class (that is, voters without college degrees) by a
56-percentage-point margin. Sherrill won New Jersey’s Latino voters by a
2-to-1 (64 percent to 32 percent) margin, and carried the state’s
nonwhite working class by a 48-percentage-point margin.
Something big happened in New Jersey Tuesday — namely, Hispanic
voters made a major voting reversal. Last year, across the country
Hispanics swung Republican in a significant departure from past voting
patterns, helping propel Trump to victory. But yesterday, in New Jersey,
they swung back hard to the Democrats. And I’m going to go out on a
limb and make a prediction: They won’t be going back to the G.O.P. for a
very long time.
Jonathan V. Last
very helpfully focuses on Union City, N.J., an overwhelmingly Hispanic
area. Donald Trump got only 19 percent of the vote there in 2016. But in
2024 he received more than twice that share, 41 percent. This pattern
was replicated across the country, leading ebullient Republicans to tout
a widespread, durable realignment of Hispanic voters toward their
party.
Durable, that is, until it wasn’t. The Republican
candidate for New Jersey governor, Jack Ciatarelli, received only 15.1
percent of Union City’s votes on Tuesday. What happened?
In this
case, the simple answer is the right one — it’s the economy, stupid. The
2021-2022 surge in prices infuriated many Americans, particularly
working class Americans who have little surplus to spare. Biden
economists pointed out until they were blue in the face that this was
not Biden’s fault – that inflation had surged everywhere. They also
pointed out that wages had risen too, so much so that workers’
purchasing power was higher in 2024 than it had been before the
pandemic. It didn’t matter: making these statements was interpreted as
tantamount to denying people’s felt reality. Economics comparisons are
abstract while the price of eggs is not. Furthermore, workers believed,
as they always do during wage-price spirals, that they had earned wage
increases that were being unfairly snatched away by inflation.
So
many voters turned to Trump, believing his promises that he would bring
prices down to pre-Covid levels. They remembered the low inflation, low
mortgage rates and full employment that prevailed on the eve of the
pandemic and let themselves be persuaded that Trump would turn back the
clock.
But, equally important, the 2024 Hispanic swing to the Republicans was also a function of what voters chose not to believe.
Namely, many Hispanics chose not to believe warnings that a second
Trump administration would be an era of racial profiling and mass
deportations, of Hispanic communities terrorized by ICE agents.
After
all, the reasoning went, that didn’t happen during Trump’s first term.
So many Hispanic voters brushed aside dire warnings from Democrats that
an emboldened Trump II would be very different.
Moving
over to a different topic, Chump is threatening Nigeria as Ben pointed
out at the top in the MEIDASTOUCH NEWS video. "Guns a blazing," Chump
threatened. He wants to attack Nigeria where, he says, Muslim
terrorists are attacking Christians.
Has Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu threatened to attack the US? Over an Orange Faced Terrorist who attacks Christians in the US?
Faith
leaders denounced Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security for rejecting access to give Communion
to immigrants being held at an Illinois facility over the weekend.
The
Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL), a Catholic and
Christian-rooted nonprofit, organized a Mass by the immigration
processing center on All Saints Day and Día de los Muertos, or the Day
of the Dead.
Organizers estimate some 2,000 people attended on Saturday, as many prayed, sang and held signs protesting ICE.
"Operation
Midway Blitz has caused chaos and mayhem in our city," Michael
Okińczyc-Cruz, the executive director of CSPL, told ABC News, referring
to the immigration crackdown in Chicago.
"It's
creating such fear and trauma for so many of the families that we work
with and that are members of our coalition," he said.
Okińczyc-Cruz
said that CSPL formally submitted a letter requesting access more than a
week in advance and took numerous steps for ministers to give Communion
to migrants in the Broadview facility. This is the second time they
were denied entry since their first attempt on Oct. 11, he told ABC
News.
We need to
grasp this and what it means. Does it mean Chump's the anti-Christ?
Possibly, I have no idea. But it does mean he's neither a Christian nor
a religious person. He's garbage trash in fact because he's violating
the Constitution which guarantees Freedom of Religion. That's in this
country. Gitmo isn't in this country but the US still provided prayer
mats and prayer beads and copies of the Quran for Muslims held there.
But, within the US, the government is not allowing Communion for those
people they are holding in ICE gulags? Interesting. And, again,
telling. Chump is not a friend to religious people. He's the snake
that pretends to be, that lies. But you need to face it because he's
showing you yet again who he is: No friend to anyone truly religious.
Two
Catholic bishops who sit on or advise President Donald Trump’s
Religious Liberty Commission are voicing criticism of the
administration, arguing immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement should have access to religious services such as
Communion.
“It is important
that our Catholic detainees are able to receive pastoral care and have
access to the sacraments,” Bishop Kevin Rhoades, who oversees the Fort
Wayne-South Bend Diocese in Indiana, told Religion News Service in an
email on Monday (Nov. 3). “Their religious liberty, part of their human
dignity, needs to be respected.”
The comments
from Rhoades, who serves as an adviser to the president’s Religious
Liberty Commission, were in response to an RNS inquiry about a pair of
religious freedom concerns emerging at an ICE detention center in
Broadview, Illinois. Last week, attorneys filed a class-action lawsuit
alleging widespread mistreatment of detainees at the facility, such as
denial of their religious rights, citing testimony from faith leaders
who have “provided religious services at Broadview for years but are now
denied the ability to provide pastoral care under Defendants’ command.”
At least three public efforts to offer Communion to detainees have been
denied by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in recent weeks,
including two Catholic-led efforts, one of which occurred this past
Saturday and featured participation from Chicago Auxiliary Bishop José
María Garcia-Maldonado.
Pope
Leo XIV urged U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to respect the
spiritual rights of individuals in ICE detention after Catholic clergy
members said they were prohibited from giving Communion to immigrants at
a Chicago-area facility.
On Nov. 1, ICE
officials refused to let a group of clergy members led by Bishop José
María Garcia-Maldonado, of the Archdiocese of Chicago, bring Communion
to detained immigrants at ICE's facility in Broadview, which has come
under scrutiny for its conditions, according to the Coalition for
Spiritual and Public Leadership.
Their
efforts came during an All Saint's Day mass organized by the religious
organization that was held outside the center. It was the second time in
three weeks that ICE had refused clergy members from delivering
Communion to immigrants, according to the group.
The evening of Nov. 4, from outside Castel Gandolfo, the papal palace in Italy, a reporter asked Pope Leo,
a Chicago native, about the Communion refusals at Broadview and what
kind of rights immigrants should have while under detention.
The pope expressed that immigrants should be allowed to receive Communion.
An
Episcopal priest and immigrant who was legally employed by the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice is in the custody of Immigration and
Customs Enforcement in Conroe after being detained last month, the
Episcopal Diocese of Texas said.
The diocese
said it's unclear why the Kenyan man, the Rev. James Eliud Ngahu Mwangi,
was detained while returning from his job Oct. 25.
Pope
Leo XIV has urged for a "deep reflection" in the United States
regarding the treatment of detained migrants at the hands of Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
He
urged US authorities to take action saying: “The authorities must allow
pastoral workers to assist with the needs of these people. Many times
they have been separated from their families and no one knows what
happens."
He stated: "Many people
who have lived for years and years and years, never causing problems,
have been deeply affected by what is going on right now."
Leo, originally from Chicago, cited Matthew's gospel, chapter 25.
"Jesus
says very clearly at the end of the world, we're going to be asked, you
know, how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and
welcome him or not? And I think that there's a deep reflection that
needs to be made in terms of what's happening," the pontiff said.
"Many
people who've lived for years and years and years, never causing
problems, have been deeply affected by what's going on right now," he
added.
Leo, the first U.S. pope, has previously
decried the federal government's treatment of immigrants caught up in a
hard-line crackdown that has roiled cities across the country.
A
federal judge reviewing conditions at an immigration enforcement in the
suburbs called detainees' accounts of the facility "disturbing,"
"disgusting" and "unconstitutional."
U.S.
District Judge Robert W. Gettleman’s Nov. 4 review of the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the suburb of Broadview,
Illinois, comes nearly two months into President Donald Trump’s
immigration enforcement crackdown known as Operation Midway Blitz.
Gettleman is examining conditions in response to a lawsuit brought by
detainees who said they were not allowed to contact attorneys, were
coerced into signing deportation papers and were left in squalid
conditions.
The facility
lies at the heart of the blitz operation. Immigration authorities
process detainees at the site before moving them out of Illinois.
Accounts of conditions inside have spurred frequent protests.
"It’s
a disturbing record," Gettleman said near the close of around six hours
of testimony. "People sleeping shoulder to shoulder, next to
overflowing toilets and human waste, that’s unacceptable."
A federal judge
said Wednesday that immigration officials must provide bottled water,
clean bedding, hygiene products and access to lawyers at a suburban
Chicago detention center that detainees have described as squalid and
unsanitary.
The judge, Robert W.
Gettleman, said conditions at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement
facility in Broadview, Ill., “don’t pass constitutional muster.” He gave
federal officials until midday Friday to submit a report on how they
were meeting 15 requirements that he imposed in a temporary restraining
order.
And we stop there. Why? Dept of Homeland Secuirty's Tricia McLaughlin. She's a known liar, she's a serial liar.
And here's where the media keeps
failing us. Homeland Security officials have been caught in one lie
after another. It's so bad that judges can't really take their claims
seriously at this point. But the media too often repeats claims
regarding ICE without noting the long pattern of lies from them this
year.
We were all taught about the little boy who cried
wolf. You don't lie because you'll be known as a liar and the time will
come when you need to be believed but you're known as a liar.
A
lesson we're taught as children is too much for ICE and the officials
over ICE to grasp. That might be shocking if we hadn't already addressed
the relaxed 'standards' when it comes to hiring ICE agents.
The
media needs to, if they quote her, note how one claim she's made to the
public after another has turned out to be a falsehood.
Back to the article after the serial liar has been quoted:
Judge Gettleman, who was nominated by
President Bill Clinton, said in his order that holding cells must be
cleaned twice a day, that detainees must be allowed to shower at least
once every other day and that detainees should be allowed to communicate
with their lawyers by phone.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs praised the judge’s order in a statement.
“These
are urgent and necessary measures to protect these detainees and
preserve their basic human rights,” said the lawyer, Alexa Van Brunt of
the MacArthur Justice Center.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Ron Wyden's office:
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden
said today he is leading a letter with his Senate colleagues, including
Oregon U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, slamming Trump for his failure to
address rising health care costs for American families.
Wyden, Merkley, and the lawmakers highlighted the worsening
affordability crisis, especially for health care — the crux of the fight
surrounding Donald Trump and Republicans’ ongoing government shutdown.
“Over
90 percent of American voters say it is important for Congress and the
President to lower health care costs,” the lawmakers wrote to Health and
Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “We
urge the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans to join us
to lower Americans’ health care costs and reopen the government.”
The senators explained that Trump has raised health care costs for Americans in the following ways:
An estimated 154 million Americans with employer-sponsored health
insurance will face the biggest premium increase in over a decade
because of Trump’s policies;
More than 24 million Americans who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act
will see their premiums skyrocket next year, and families receiving
enhanced premium tax credits will face the largest price hike in history
if the tax credits expire;
About 15 million Americans will get kicked off of their health
insurance because of Trump and congressional Republicans’ budget law,
and millions more with Medicaid will face new, higher out-of-pocket
costs;
An estimated 15 million Americans with $49 billion in medical debt
are being denied federal relief, while 15 million more are at higher
risk of accruing medical debt; Millions of Americans will have to pay
“hundreds of dollars more in out-of-pocket costs” for Affordable Care Act coverage due to the Trump administration’s final Marketplace rule; and
Millions of Americans will pay more for prescription drugs due to
Trump and congressional Republicans’ nearly $9 billion handout to Big
Pharma.
In addition to Wyden, the letter was led by U.S. Senator Elizabeth
Warren, D-Mass., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. In
addition to Merkley, the letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Angela
Alsobrooks, D-Md., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.,
Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Tammy Duckworth,
D-Ill., Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., John
Hickenlooper, D-Colo., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Andy
Kim, D-N.J., Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., Patty Murray, D-Wash., Alex
Padilla, D-Calif., Gary Peters, D-Mich., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Bernie
Sanders, I-Vt., Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Tina
Smith, D-Minn., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and
Peter Welch, D-Vt.
