Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Our bodies, our rights



Abortion is already illegal in Texas, but a battle is brewing between factions of the anti-abortion movement over whether lawmakers should go even further, by banning in vitro fertilization and punishing women who get abortions. 

At this month's Texas GOP convention, delegates added both policies to the party platform, calling IVF "destructive" and saying anyone who has an abortion should face criminal penalties.
The push for more hardline restrictions shows how the state's most extreme anti-abortion groups, known as "abolitionists," are gaining sway.

The new platform also puts the party at odds with some of its top leaders, including Vice President JD Vance and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who declared in recent days that he is a "strong supporter of IVF." And it comes as Texas Republicans have moved to soften a strict abortion ban that women said put their lives in danger.


Oh to return to the days before DOBBS -- back when ROE V WADE was settled law and all the judges on the bench currently swore they respected precedent.  


Senate Democrats held a press conference Wednesday morning, marking four years since the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that repealed federal abortion protections. 

"Today is a grim day for America because it's been four years since Trump's right-wing, anti-women, MAGA Supreme Court stole a woman's right to control her own body with the Dobbs decision -- a decision that has had deadly consequences, [made] all the worse by Republicans' cruel and unrelenting assault on reproductive freedom," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said during the presser. "Republicans created this horror story, Democrats won't stand for it." 
Schumer led the press conference alongside Democratic Sens. Patty Murray (Wash.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Angela Alsobrooks (MD). The senators were joined by women impacted by abortion bans as well as advocates from the reproductive health field who highlighted women who have died because they were denied abortion care, women who were delayed life-saving miscarriage care, and physicians who have been criminalized for simply doing their jobs. 

"I'm not a talking point," Amanda Zurwaski, a Texas woman who was denied a lifesaving abortion until she was at death’s door, said at the presser. "My pain wasn't hypothetical. I was a real, terrified woman dying in a hospital bed, begging for the care that I needed."

Our bodies, our right.  At some point, abortion will be legal nation wide again.  As it should be. 


"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, June 24, 2026.  Chump lies desperately to avoid admitting he lost the war, the American people have had enough and the bulk of them say the Iran War was not worth it, they also look down on Chump as three new polls document, our courts can no longer take the Justice Dept at its word, Epstein remains an issue, Senate Democrats call out the Republican assault on reproductive rights, and much more. 


Ben notes on MEIDASTOUCH NEWS this morning Chump losing it early this morning on social media again.


Chump lost the war and is now trying to spin it -- and everything else -- into a win.


President Trump was eager on Tuesday morning to announce the latest concession that he says his negotiators extracted from Iran, writing on social media that the country had agreed to allow the “highest level Nuclear Inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!).”

But he omitted the fact that as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran is required to allow in international inspectors. And his statement came after the Iranians had insisted that there were no plans to allow inspectors into the three major nuclear sites the United States bombed a year ago — and where just about all the nation’s enriched uranium is stored.

The previous day, Vice President JD Vance, leaving the negotiating site at a Swiss resort, said Iran had agreed that if Iranian assets were unfrozen, the United States and Qatari officials would oversee the process and the money would be used to buy American farm products. The Iranians denied that, too, saying that the 14-point memorandum of understanding they had signed with the Americans did not require them to do so.

Negotiating with Iran has always been an extraordinary challenge. But until recently, one rule of diplomatic bargaining has usually held: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” That is how the United States and Iran traditionally have left themselves some trading space, and fine-tuned wording to satisfy the many critics at home who will have to be sold on any agreement. In 2015, when details of the inner-sanctum negotiations leaked, American officials complained bitterly, saying that the news reports were making it harder to get to a final deal.



As the war continues, the cost increases.  And Congressional Republicans appear to struggle with what they would be voting on.  Daniel Hampton (RAW STORY) explains: 

House Republican appropriators are publicly breaking with the Trump White House over what they call a "risky and uncoordinated" strategy to fund the U.S. military, warning that the administration is trying to push critical defense spending through a party-line reconciliation bill that may never reach the president's desk.
In an official addendum to the chamber's defense funding bill obtained by Politico, House appropriators warned that the White House is attempting to fund critical efforts, including weapons and military equipment, through the reconciliation process rather than using it to supplement regular government funding bills. The two vehicles operate on "entirely separate tracks, with different timelines, committees of jurisdiction, and approval processes," appropriators noted.
The rebuke singles out Trump's decision to split funding for the F-35 fighter jet, the most expensive weapons program in Pentagon history, between the annual government funding bill and the reconciliation package.
Analysts said last month the Pentagon's decision to split defense spending between the base budget and a reconciliation package has left members of Congress uncertain about what they're even voting to fund, with one expert calling the situation "symbolic of the disorder and chaos."


Alexander Bolton (THE HILL) notes Republicans in the Senate are not confused:

President Trump and Republican senators are headed for a collision Wednesday, when they will be meeting on Capitol Hill to discuss two major sources of strain: the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act and the Iran peace deal.

Republican senators are bracing themselves for an unpredictable, and potentially heated, discussion as tensions have been building with the president for weeks.
The meeting will give Trump’s critics within the GOP conference a chance to air their grievances like they did during an explosive meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche last month.




The Iran War further destroyed the US economy.  And Americans have noticed.  Alicia Civita (LATIN TIMES) notes:

Most Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump's handling of the war with Iran, according to a new poll released by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, even as his overall job approval rating remains largely unchanged.

The survey comes at a pivotal moment in the conflict, as Trump has shifted from threatening military action against Tehran to suggesting that a new agreement with Iran has been reached. Despite that diplomatic opening, public opinion remains overwhelmingly negative regarding the administration's management of the war.
According to the poll, 65% of U.S. adults disapprove of Trump's handling of issues involving Iran, highlighting widespread skepticism about the conflict that began on Feb. 28. The findings underscore the political challenges facing the president as he attempts to reshape public perceptions of the war while simultaneously pursuing negotiations with Tehran.
[. . .]
Americans' views on Iran closely mirror their broader assessment of Trump's presidency. The AP-NORC survey found the president's overall approval rating stands at 37%, essentially unchanged from previous polling.



A new national poll shows President Donald Trump‘s approval rating at 30 percent, the lowest level recorded in the survey’s recent trend and a figure that, if reflected more broadly, would place him in territory historically associated with difficult midterm environments for incumbent presidents.
The June 16-20 American Research Group survey found that 66 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s job performance, while just 30 percent approve. The poll of 1,100 adults carries a theoretical margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The findings come as economic pessimism deepens across the electorate and as both parties begin positioning themselves for the 2026 midterm elections, where voter perceptions of the economy are expected to play a central role.


 Jason Lange (REUTERS) notes a third poll -- still with bad news for Chump:

 Just one in four Americans believes President Donald Trump's war with Iran was worth its costs and a majority worry that a truce with Tehran is unlikely to last, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

The five-day poll, which closed on Monday, also showed the war weighing heavily on Trump's popularity, with his approval rating dropping to 34%, a return to the lowest level of the Republican's second term that was last touched in an April survey.
[. . .]
Only 24% of Americans think the war with Iran was worth the costs, the Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. Half of poll respondents said the conflict was not worth it and the rest were unsure.

Some 63% of Americans think it unlikely that the deal Trump signed will lead to lasting peace between the two countries. About half of Republicans and eight in 10 Democrats said the deal was unlikely to deliver peace. Just 18% of Americans — including 10% of Democrats and 34% of Republicans — see lasting peace as likely.




Americans see the damage Chump has done.  They know he lost the war, they know we suffer because of the war he started.  Heather Digby Parton (SALON) notes that Chump's looking for a win to distract from his failures with the Iran War: 


As the smoke from the agreement clears, a consensus has emerged — even among MAGA media, as Salon’s Sophia Tesfaye has explained — that the U.S. has suffered a profound defeat. This is largely because Trump had no strategy beyond assuming that bombing Iran and killing some members of the nation’s leadership would instantly lead to unconditional surrender and new leadership, which would then welcome Western businesses eager to build resorts on the Strait of Hormuz. For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently assumed that once Trump was committed to the war, he would not back off and would instead escalate as necessary to achieve the goal of regime change. Neither of them understood who and what they were dealing with, and the result is that the U.S. is weaker, Iran is stronger and Israel is even more isolated.
With peace talks having concluded in Switzerland, American delegation’s leader, Vice President JD Vance, proclaimed them a “successful foundation” for a comprehensive agreement. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced waivers so that Iran could immediately resume selling its oil. But will any of this really mean anything? Both the U.S. and Iran know that, at this point, neither country’s signature on a treaty is worth the paper it’s printed on. 
For his part, Trump has already declared victory. He is clearly eager to move on from what is undoubtedly the worst foreign policy failure of his presidency — and one of the worst in U.S. history. But since his psyche is so fragile, he will not be able to admit that to himself. Trump will need to bag himself a “win” as soon as possible to erase his defeat in the minds of the MAGA faithful — and to quiet the voices in his head screaming that he has screwed up once again. 
 
Senators are saying that they need to review and sign off on any 'deal' or 'treaty' or 'memo of understanding' or 'chain letter' that Chump signs with Iran.  Chump will probably attempt to blow them off.  But it's getting harder for him to get away with doing that.  For example, Kaia Hubbard (CBS NEWS) reports:

The Senate on Tuesday approved a House-passed resolution aimed at reining in President Trump on Iran, marking the first time such a measure has made it through both chambers and signifying a rare rebuke of the president's handling of the conflict.
In a 50 to 48 vote, four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky — joined the bulk of Senate Democrats in support of the measure. One Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, opposed. Two Republicans — Mitch McConnell and Dave McCormick — did not vote.
The resolution directs the president to "remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran," unless Congress declares war or authorizes the use of military force. But the measure is a concurrent resolution, which doesn't carry the force of law and doesn't require the president's signature, meaning it is largely symbolic.



Some Democratic senators, including Tim Kaine, have argued that passage of a war powers resolution is necessary, even after the US reached an agreement with Iran and amid ongoing negotiations with Tehran.
“I think it’s a good time to have the vote to say, ‘Hey, if we’re really in a period of maybe some stability here, let’s not just allow it to start up again without Congress being involved in that decision,” he told reporters last week.










America is not on board with the deranged and demented Donald Chump.  John Avlon (ROLLING STONE) observes:

As our 80-year-old Mad King goes on midnight social media revenge benders from the White House, attacking the pope after attacking Iran, enriching his family by billions and comparing himself to Jesus, some of his supporters are now panicking and asking, "Who could have seen this coming?" 
The answer, of course, is any sentient being not blinded by partisanship who lived through the first four years of Trump's presidency, which included more than 30,000 lies, a mismanaged pandemic that killed a million Americans, and culminated with his attempt to overturn an election on the back of a big lie that led to an attack on our Capitol.  
The dangers were so obvious that even the Founding Fathers could see them coming a quarter of a millennium ago. 
The U.S. Constitution was designed to protect the rights of the people against the rise of a would-be tyrant. The founders understood they were embarking on a rebellious project that had never succeeded before. As John Adams scowled, "There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." Their aim was to build a structure that could withstand the forces that destroyed democracies in the past. 
That's why the founders explicitly warned about the dangers of a demagogue, the poison of hyperpartisanship, the corrosive effects of corruption and foreign influence, the politicization of religion, and the erosion of the separation of powers. 


Chump is a liar and he's turned the federal government into liars.  Homeland Security lied over and over about who they were taking in and why and they broke the law and lied about that.  The Justice Department is no longer believed in court.  Todd Blanche has said that the 'weaponization' slush fund is dead.  He's said that publicly and to Congress.  Yet because of the lies this administration has repeatedly told the courts, a judge is demanding that he provide a sworn statement, in writing, that the slush fund is dead and not coming back to life.  And he won't do it.  Because he's lying.  They're planning to bring back the 'weaponization' slush fund.  Todd Blanche is a liar.  And under Chump, he fits right in with the rest of the administration.  Leah Berenson (THE AMAZING TIMES) writes:

Federal judges don’t usually ask the government to prove itself. For most of American legal history, they didn’t need to. When a Department of Justice attorney stood before a court and made a statement, that statement carried a kind of institutional weight – the word of the United States government, delivered by lawyers who understood their ethical obligations ran to the court as much as to their client. That assumption held through administrations of both parties, through wars, political scandals, and constitutional crises. It has not held through this one.
Over the past eighteen months, something has shifted in federal courtrooms across the country. Judges in Virginia, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Florida, Manhattan, and Washington, D.C., have stopped treating the Justice Department’s representations as a reliable baseline. They are demanding paperwork. They are ordering preservation of internal communications. They are referring DOJ attorneys for disciplinary proceedings. Some are raising the possibility of contempt. The unwritten compact between the courts and the executive branch’s lawyers, that the government says what it means and means what it says, is under active pressure in ways that legal observers say have no recent precedent.
The most visible flashpoint right now involves a $1.776 billion fund, Trump legal documents, and a Virginia federal judge who is not satisfied with words.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, sitting in the Eastern District of Virginia, extended her block on the Trump administration’s nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund in mid-June 2026, while simultaneously requesting that the Department of Justice submit a sworn declaration indicating it was not moving forward with the fund, signed by both the acting attorney general and the Treasury secretary.
The fund itself was controversial from the moment it was announced. The Justice Department set up the $1.776 billion fund, overseen by a five-member commission, to dole out payments to those who could show they were victims of “lawfare” and “weaponization,” terms Trump and his allies have used to describe investigations and criminal cases against them. The roughly 1,500 January 6 rioters Trump pardoned upon his return to the White House in 2025 are among those most likely to profit from the fund, which Trump’s DOJ established as part of a settlement stemming from the president’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had told Congress that the fund was not moving ahead, but Judge Brinkema said the Justice Department would have a week to confirm that assertion with a sworn statement if it wanted to halt her injunction. The judge’s reasoning was straightforward. Brinkema expressed concern over Trump’s own public comments and Blanche’s refusal to commit to rescinding the fund in writing, noting that the president’s statements “carry a lot of weight” and represent “a pretty good indicator that there will be some incentive or motive to make it happen.”
Blanche had already refused to make that commitment in writing when asked to do so by Democratic lawmakers, and Trump repeatedly expressed his support for the concept of the fund, prompting questions about whether the administration was actually abandoning it.

We need to all grasp this.  The Justice Dept cannot be trusted.  The courts can't trust it.  They have lied non-stop over and over to the courts -- and to the grand juries -- and this has happened with no remorse on the part of the president of the United States.  Chump is not fit to be president.  

And it is a mark of shame that our own federal government cannot be trusted by the courts at present.  They have lied repeatedly.  It is outrageous.  




Twenty-three state attorneys general filed a scathing brief Monday calling Trump's settled IRS lawsuit a "collusive sham" that fraudulently used the courts to funnel taxpayer money to the president's allies and immunize the Trump family from federal investigations.
The brief, filed in the Southern District of Florida and led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, urges the court to reopen the case and grant "all necessary and appropriate relief" to "rectify the fraud perpetrated upon the Court and deter future misconduct by those who have sworn to faithfully uphold and support the rule of law."
The attorneys general argued that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's own former personal lawyer, rushed the settlement through two days before the parties were due to answer a judge's questions about whether the lawsuit was even a legitimate dispute. Rather than respond, they say, Blanche executed agreements creating a $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" and a sweeping immunity addendum that bars the government from ever investigating the Trumps' tax returns, then kept both documents off the court docket until after the case was closed.
"Put simply, the parties’ conduct has revealed that the litigation was nothing more than a corrupt effort to 'defile the court itself' through a collusive sham lawsuit," the brief stated.



The US Justice Department made an illegal deal with President Donald Trump to immunize him, his family and his businesses from audits or other federal probes related to past filings, a group of tax experts and former Internal Revenue Service officials told a judge.
The settlement, part of a broader agreement to resolve Trump’s controversial $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over a leak of his private data, violates a clause in the Constitution barring presidents from receiving any non-salary compensation, the group said in a filing Monday in federal court in Miami.
“The termination of tax audits alone could save his businesses $100 million or more,” according to the group, which includes former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and former Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division Kathryn Keneally. “This appears to be a special deal just for President Trump, as DOJ is continuing to defend other cases involving similar leaks of taxpayer information.”
US District Judge Kathleen Williams, who had earlier closed the case after it settled, is considering reopening it to investigate whether the president and the Justice Department defrauded the court by filing a “collusive” lawsuit. It’s the latest fallout from the Justice Department’s controversial settlement with Trump, the first president to sue his own government.



Let's turn to news of the late Jeffrey Epstein -- pedophile and friend of Donald Chump for many decades.





The top news story every day should be that JD “Vladimir Futon” Vance led a secret staff meeting in the SITUATION ROOM nearly a year ago to discuss how to better cover up the Epstein Files to protect Trump, rather than seeking justice for any of the victims and survivors. Aside from the egregious misuse of the Situation Room, we know the entire administration is involved.
Of course, that’s kind of tough with so much of the media under Trump’s sway while he continues to bully anyone who dares to tell the truth about him or ask any questions that might force him to think about things he doesn’t want to think about.
We now know that FBI was told that Trump Tower was a “hunting ground” for “recruiters” to find young women for him to have sex with. And thanks to yet more bombshell reporting, we’ve also learned that at least three million more pages of Epstein documents are still being held back by acting AG Todd “Trumpsimp” Blanche, who seems super excited to be the first to go to prison for Trump.
Blanche will once again face questioning by the Senate, and I was fortunate to grab a moment with my Senator, Ron Wyden (D-OR), on Friday after a press conference centered around Juneteenth and Pride.
“Sen. Chutzpah” is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and also sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, among his many other responsibilities. He promised me last year that he’d never give up on Epstein, and he continues to deliver on that promise, as evidenced by his most recent questioning of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He also ripped Bessent over the latest Trump grift that was created to enrich his two older adult sons.
As Wyden and I walked out of the press conference, I quietly asked him about the Situation Room meeting. “Wasn’t that something?” he replied.
“So, what people want to see is accountability,” I said. “Do we have to wait until Democrats get the majority back before that happens?”
“Nope!” Sen. Chutzpah immediately responded. He then told me that more hearings were coming, and specifically mentioned Blanche.

In other Epstein news, Robert Davis (RAW STORY) notes:

A legal expert claimed to have uncovered a "clear admission" by President Donald Trump's Department of Justice that it broke the rules to help convicted sex criminal Ghislaine Maxwell get into a minimum security prison.
Liz Oyer, a former Obama administration pardon attorney, argued in a new Substack essay that Trump's DOJ deliberately changed long-standing Bureau of Prisons policies on inmate classifications, thereby allowing Maxwell to communicate directly with the Attorney General's office. She described the change as "highly sus," given how closely Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Maxwell seemed to work together to facilitate the transfer.
"In doing my research for this post, I came across what sure looks like a clear admission that rules were broken," Oyer wrote, adding that the Change Notice associated with the new Bureau of Prisons policy was "pretty incredible" to read.
"It empowers the Attorney General 'to designate or redesignate the place of a prisoner’s imprisonment' at his discretion. In other words, the AG can simply direct BOP staff to place a specific prisoner in a specific facility—without regard for any of the established rules," Oyer surmised. "That means that Blanche now has the authority to send Maxwell to any prison in the country (if this holds up against legal challenges). He could potentially even transfer her to home confinement or a halfway house in the community."



The horrors that took place on Epstein Island are a matter of record, but this year, we’ve learned so much more about Epstein’s other covert trafficking property where men, women, and children were abused and at least two foreign women went missing.
New Mexico’s Zorro Ranch is home to many secrets, but despite Tr*mp’s best efforts at allegedly derailing the investigation into the property, the New Mexico DOJ is going all the way in.
Last week, members of the legislative subcommittee to probe into Zorro Ranch sent a number of subpoenas to high-level banks, warning that even the richest and most powerful Epstein clients and associates will be called to task as the investigation continues.
The property known as “Playboy Ranch” saw victims pass through for over 20 years with no one the wiser, thanks to the ranch’s remote location near the state border. When an initial investigation into the 8,000 acre territory was shelved in 2019 after New York prosecutors took the case over from New Mexico state investigators, the site laid fallow for years… until this February, when New Mexico House of Representatives formed the New Mexico House Truth Commission, a bipartisan subcommittee determined to seek answers around Epstein’s crimes specifically at Zorro Ranch.
Epstein associates Ghislaine Maxwell and Lesley Groff have remained tight-lipped about what went down at Playboy Ranch, but the New Mexico DOJ is taking a different route with these subpoenas: they’re following the money.
Not only are JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank getting subpoenaed: investigators are also calling on Google, Peter Thiel’s PayPal, travel booking site Expedia, and phone companies AT&T and Verizon to lock down any records having to do with Epstein’s New Mexico property.
In light of the continuing cover-up concerning Epstein’s personal relationship to Tr*mp, investigators are making a smart move. Individuals might be able to be persuaded—or threatened—into walking back testimony (*cough* Howard Lutnick) but bank statements don’t lie.


Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

***WATCH: Video of full forum***

***WATCH and READ: Senator Murray’s opening remarks***

Washington, D.C. — Today — ahead of the four-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning the constitutional right to abortion—U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) hosted a spotlight forum titled Post Dobbs Chaos: Republicans’ War on Reproductive Health Care. At the forum, Senate Democrats heard from panelists who have suffered the consequences of the Dobbs decision and subsequent Republican abortion bans firsthand. They discussed how the Trump administration and Republicans are sowing chaos for women and health care providers across the country through ongoing attacks on reproductive rights and women’s health care, alongside escalating efforts to enact a nationwide abortion ban.

“The Dobbs decision was just the beginning of Republicans’ war on women’s reproductive rights—their goal has always been a national abortion ban. Republicans are hoping we don’t notice, but from trying to get mifepristone classified as a water contaminant to defunding Planned Parenthood, we can see clear as day that Republicans are working to enact a national abortion ban,” said Senator Murray. “Republicans have already caused enormous damage, shuttering women’s health clinics across the country, forcing women to carry dangerous pregnancies to term, and decimating access to maternal health care. But Democrats will continue to push for legislation to protect women and health care providers. That’s why we are uplifting the stories of women across the country who have suffered from Republicans’ abortion bans and the providers who are trying their best to care for them. We will keep fighting to restore the right to abortion for every woman in all 50 states.”

The senators’ spotlight forum comes after more than a year of Republican trifecta control of government, during which the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have repeatedly attacked the reproductive health care American women depend on, creating widespread disruption and turmoil for patients and providers alike. Last year, Republicans in Congress pushed through their Big Ugly Bill that defunded Planned Parenthood and is kicking millions of Americans off Medicaid. Last year, the Trump administration withheld millions in Title X funding, putting more than 840,000 people at risk of losing access to family planning and preventive health care. This year, the administration further destabilized the Title X program by delaying the standard application process for new grants.

Throughout 2025 and into 2026, Republicans intensified their campaign to eliminate access to mifepristone—an FDA-approved abortion medication—through sham hearings, politically motivated reviews, conspiracy theories, attempts to weaponize environmental laws, and by continued efforts to secure abortion restrictions through the courts. More recently, the Trump Department of Justice announced, and later walked back, a $1.7 billion slush fund that could compensate anti-abortion extremists convicted of assaulting abortion clinic staff and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act—notably, despite widespread bipartisan condemnation, Trump refuses to rule out establishment of the fund. At the same time, the Trump administration has abandoned enforcement of the FACE Act, further emboldening those who threaten patients, providers, and access to reproductive health care.

“At my 20-week scan, I received the devastating news of my life, our daughter had anencephaly. Her brain and skull would never fully develop. Nothing could save her. She was 100% incompatible with life. She was going to die. The only question was, when, and whether she would die inside my body, before I knew it, putting my own life at risk. I thought for sure that I would be granted an ‘exception.’ I thought my doctors could show Halo and I compassion. I was wrong. When I asked what my options were, I was told I didn’t have any. Because Texas has an abortion ban. The one person I trusted with my life, my doctor, my healthcare provider, had her hands tied by the State. Helping me could have sent her to jail. … I had no rights to my own body. I was a vessel for the state,” Samantha Casiano, former plaintiff, Zurawski v. State of Texas, said during her testimony. “My daughter, Halo, lived a few agonizing hours before she passed away. While she was still here, her eyes started to bleed. She was like a fish pulled from water gasping for air. She changed colors in front of us, pink, red, blue, purple, until she was gone. That trauma is permanently imprinted in my memory. Because under Texas’s cruel abortion ban, I was forced to give birth to a baby every doctor knew would not survive, and then walk out of that hospital as if nothing happened, like she was never here. It was like sending my child into a war we all knew she would lose. It was cruel. It was inhumane. … Many women do not know this is happening to them until it happens. Right now, as we sit here there is a woman out there reliving my nightmare. I want her to know she is not alone. I see you. I hear you. I stand with you. … I will give my last breath as Halo did to make sure that happens.”

“We found out our baby had a lethal genetic anomaly affecting bone development. Soon my baby’s bones would begin to break in utero at my slightest movement — like bending down to pick up my three-year-old son. At birth, their rib cage would be too small to support lung function. We were told our baby would suffocate at their first breath without immediate extreme medical intervention. This diagnosis came 25 days after Texas’s extreme heartbeat bill, SB8, went into effect. … At the end of the appointment, I was handed a printout of my own medical records with the advice to seek a second opinion — outside of Texas,” Kaitlyn Kash, former plaintiff, Zurawski v. State of Texas, said during her testimony. “A few months later I was pregnant again, but my third and fourth pregnancies ended in miscarriage. I needed medication — the same medication used in medical abortions — to help my body pass the fetal tissue and prevent infection that could jeopardize my future fertility. Because of the fear and confusion surrounding these laws, my prescription was challenged. I was treated like an addict looking for drugs instead of a mother losing her child — navigating a broken, frightened healthcare system while actively bleeding, while grieving, until I was finally able to obtain it through an online pharmacy. My husband and I then chose IVF. Eleven months later, we finally welcomed our second child — the result of my fourth pregnancy in less than two years. As I lay there holding my baby on my chest, I thought — we made it. That feeling was short-lived. My placenta wasn’t delivering. I needed a D&C — a procedure used to clear tissue from the uterus, and yes, also used in abortions. My doctor said it needed to happen quickly. … Fifty minutes after my daughter’s birth, I started violently throwing up and shaking. … I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was told I had lost half my blood volume. I was told I was ‘lucky’ I still had my uterus. … I wish I could tell you I have bad luck. I would love for my story to be a lightning strike. But it’s not. Every part of what happened to me happens to families across this country every single day. … You do not get to know the healthcare you need until you need it. You can be against abortion for yourself. You can never choose it. But you cannot restrict access to a category of medical care without consequences that reach every pregnant person in this country. Every woman you have ever loved — your daughters, your sisters, your nieces, your granddaughters. These bans force unimaginable pain and push hundreds of thousands of women into impossible situations they never saw coming. Trust me. I never imagined it either.”

“Four years after Dobbs, we are still dealing with a massive public health crisis. People still need abortions. They are still getting abortions. The difference is that they now have to travel farther, wait longer, spend more money, and overcome more obstacles to obtain the same healthcare. Those costs do not disappear. They are absorbed by patients, families, providers, and abortion funds,” Megan Jeyifo, Executive Director, Chicago Abortion Fund, said during her testimony. “The total spent on abortion funding has tripled since Dobbs, from just over $16 million to more than $48 million. Every day, we hear from people trying to make thoughtful decisions about whether to start or grow their families while navigating rising costs, unstable housing, inadequate childcare, and shrinking social safety nets. Federal and state policy decisions shape those realities. For many of the people we serve, the decision to have an abortion is inseparable from the economic conditions in which they are raising children and planning their futures. … Many of the women who built this movement have told me they never imagined their children and grandchildren would come of age with fewer abortion rights than the ones they themselves fought to secure. Four years into a new post-Roe era, I cannot pretend things are not sometimes very dark. When we spent a weekend just last month wondering whether access to medication abortion through telehealth and the mail might be dramatically curtailed for millions of people across the country, that was hard. And we know that fight—and others like it—are still coming.”

“Maine is one of the most rural states in the nation, with 40% of its population living in rural communities where access to healthcare can be difficult and, in some cases, out of reach. Indeed, in many of Maine’s rural communities, access to reproductive healthcare has effectively disappeared. A severe shortage of family planning and reproductive health providers, combined with the closure of hospital labor and delivery units across the state, has left many patients with few or no local options for care. As OB/GYN providers have left these regions, existing gaps in care have only deepened in my state,” said Evelyn Kieltyka, Senior Vice President of Program Services, Maine Family Planning. “Maine Family Planning tried to meet the state’s health care crisis head-on by expanding into primary care and offering wellness and preventive services, treatment for acute and chronic conditions, and geriatric care. However, because our primary care model was designed to serve Medicaid patients, we were forced to discontinue these services after we lost Medicaid funding. … Maine is facing a significant shortage of labor and delivery services. Since 2015, 12 rural hospitals have closed their labor and delivery units, and another closure is under consideration this year. To help address this gap, MFP was exploring collaborations with the remaining birthing centers to provide prenatal and postpartum care. These partnerships could have saved patients hundreds of miles of travel, as well as lost wages and childcare expenses. However, without Medicaid funding, MFP cannot consider this type of expansion. … MFP is sending a clear message to the current administration: We refuse to compromise the services and care we offer to our patients. Our clinics offer life-changing care, life-saving care, and we’re not giving up. Congress has the power to restore Medicaid funding to family planning providers who also offer abortion care. I ask that you do everything in your power to do so. The health and well-being of Mainers and their families, as well as that of patients across the country, depends on it.”

“Across the country, around 550 Planned Parenthood health centers provide birth control, cancer screenings, wellness exams, STI testing and treatment, and abortion, where legal. Planned Parenthood health centers see everyone — no matter who you are, where you live, or what problems you’re facing. In many communities, they’re the only providers of reproductive health care. … This week marks four years since the Dobbs decision. It also marks nearly one year since President Trump and Republicans in Congress ‘defunded’ Planned Parenthood by aiming to block most Medicaid patients from using their insurance at Planned Parenthood health centers. These things didn’t happen by accident. They are part of the anti-abortion movement’s coordinated, decades-long plan to make it harder for everyone, everywhere to get an abortion. And the consequences have been devastating,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “Last November, visits for birth control pills were down by 20 percent compared to the same period the previous year. STI testing declined by 11 percent. And in December, breast exam visits declined by 25 percent. That means cancers undetected and STIs untreated. Patients unable to plan for their families and their futures. This crisis is on top of the crisis caused by the Dobbs decision. 20 states now ban abortion. And bans do not stop abortion — they add burdens to those seeking them and those providing them. These cowards are continuing to push their agenda regardless of the human cost. … Planned Parenthood organizations are staying vigilant against this threat — along with threats to mifepristone, Title X, and more.”

“Today is a grim anniversary for America, marking four years since Trump’s MAGA Supreme Court stole women’s rights to control their own bodies,” said Leader Schumer. “Dobbs will go down as one of the worst, most devastating decisions in American history—but for Republicans, it was just the start of their all-out assault on reproductive freedom. Women seeking basic health care are being treated as criminals, doctors are being threatened with jail time for providing it, and families are being destroyed by Republicans who don’t trust women to make the decisions that are right for them and their families. This isn’t care; it’s control. Not protection, but punishment. Republicans created this health care crisis, and they made it worse a year ago when they passed their ‘Big, Ugly Bill’ and enacted the largest health care cuts in history. Democrats are fighting back to restore and protect abortion rights nationwide.”

“It’s been four years since women lost their constitutionally protected right to abortion. Since then, Americans and their doctors have been forced to navigate a patchwork of bans and restrictions on abortion that have resulted in women bleeding out in parking lots, travelling across state lines for care, or being forced to wait weeks to terminate unviable pregnancies,” said Senator Baldwin. “27 million women still live in states under abortion bans and I remain committed to telling their stories until we can restore the rights and freedoms every American deserves to make their own decisions about their own body.”

“Republicans’ long crusade against women’s reproductive freedoms has created national chaos that is a mortal threat to women’s health. I’m grateful to the panelists today who are helping shine a light on the stories of women across this country who continue to be denied lifesaving medical care and basic human rights,” said Senator Smith. “The four-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision is a moment for us to recommit to the fight, and especially to the effort to ensure mifepristone remains accessible and available no matter where you live. I will not stop organizing and fighting until women’s freedoms can be exercised equally in all parts of this country.”

“Four years ago, the Supreme Court stripped Americans of the freedom to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions—putting that power in the hands of politicians. The Trump Administration and Republicans across the country are leading a campaign of assault against women’s healthcare, restricting access to critical, often life-saving care. We need action now—I remain committed to never stop fighting for reproductive justice, abortion access, and the simple, foundational right to choose your own healthcare,” said Senator Blumenthal.

“Four years after Dobbs, women are worse off. They are traveling farther, paying more, and facing greater barriers to care. Since Idaho imposed a restrictive abortion ban, more than one-third of the state’s OB-GYNs have left – and women are forced to seek care elsewhere. This strains care in states like Washington that have continued to protect abortion rights. I will continue fighting to restore abortion protections for patients and doctors nationwide,” said Senator Cantwell.

“We must keep working to pass legislation to protect women and their families in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “That’s why I’ve introduced legislation with Senator Murray and others to protect women who cross state lines to get abortions, as well as the providers who care for them. I’m fighting to ensure Nevada and other pro-choice states can continue taking care of women and families who need help.”

“When Trump’s hand-picked Justices on the Supreme Court threw out our constitutional right to choose, they did more than ban abortion—they put women in danger,” said Senator Duckworth. “They crushed the dreams of hopeful parents—including our nation’s servicemembers and Veterans—who live in abortion-ban states and rely on IVF to build their families. They increased the maternal mortality rate because doctors are afraid to provide lifesaving care to pregnant women who are bleeding out or suffering deadly infections. There is simply nothing ‘pro-life’ about Trump ending Roe v. Wade. Nothing.”

“Four years ago, the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority abandoned the long-standing constitutional protections recognized in Roe v. Wade, dragging women’s rights half a century backward. The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress and states across the country have used this as a mandate to attack reproductive freedoms at every level,” said Senator Durbin. “But the fight is far from over, and I will continue to push back against these harmful restrictions on women’s health care and autonomy.”

“Four years after the Supreme Court’s disastrous Dobbs decision, women across our country continue to suffer devastating consequences. From restricting lifesaving emergency care to forcing patients to travel across state lines for essential services, Republicans’ war on women and our bodily autonomy doesn’t just undermine the fundamental right to healthcare—it endangers millions of lives,” said Senator Hirono. “As the Trump regime continues to attack our basic rights and freedoms, I will do everything in my power to restore and expand access to abortion and family planning services nationwide, and fiercely protect healthcare providers and the patients they serve.”

“By stripping women of our hard-earned reproductive freedoms and jeopardizing access to life-saving health care, the Supreme Court’s outrageous Dobbs decision set back decades of hard-fought progress,” said Senator Shaheen. “Four years later, our fundamental rights are still under attack. The testimonies we heard at the forum are powerful reminders of what we’ve lost since the Dobbs decision and what continues to be at stake in the fight to restore access to the full range of reproductive health care.”

Senator Murray is a longtime leader in the fight to protect and expand access to reproductive health care and abortion rights, and she has led Congressional efforts to fight back after the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Murray has introduced more than a dozen pieces of legislation to protect reproductive rights from further attacks, protect providers, and help ensure women get the care they need; Murray has led efforts to push for passage of these bills on the Senate floor multiple times over the last four years.

###




The following sites plus Stan's "THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT," Ruth's "Chump has no sense of style" and Mike's "Chump fades Miss Sassy irritates" --  updated:





Posted by at

Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Junior's waning power in the administration



Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s relationship with the White House has become “non-existent,” fueling speculation that he could be the next member of President Donald Trump’s cabinet to get the ax, according to a report.
Kennedy, the de facto face of the so-called Make America Healthy Again movement, has become a polarizing figure at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Rumors have been swirling for months that Trump has “had it” with Kennedy, according to Puck News, while the MAHA Action group is said to be “despondent over Kennedy’s diminished standing inside the White House,” the outlet reports, citing a source who works with the movement.

Part of the frustration reportedly stems from criticism that the health secretary has undermined longstanding vaccine policies, which have generated a slew of negative headlines, as well as carrying out “draconian cuts” to the department.

​Several sources told the publication that Kennedy’s remaining time in office is limited. Some said that he could go after the midterms, while others said he could in the coming months. ​


He has caused more problems.  That's all he does.  He's a joke and he is a con artist. MAHA realizes he can't do much of anything and won't so they've lost faith in him.  He's a joke.


"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS): 

Tuesday, June 23, 2026.  Chump's 'deal' with Iran continues to falter, he continues to resist oversight and attempts to kill every attempt at oversight, Americans are not praising him s the midterms approach, he's trying to take Church land in New Mexico, and much more. 

Let's start with Amanda Bell (TV INSIDER):

ABC is once again fighting back against the FCC’s targeting of The View. This time, the network has issued an urgent call for audiences of the daytime talk show to weigh in with their thoughts on the agency’s decision to question whether the show’s political interviews are exempt from the equal time rule and potentially affect the broadcast licensing renewal.
Beginning Monday (June 22), the network is running a TV spot that invites viewer comments to the FCC with the message, “The View has welcomed your favorite guests for nearly 30 years. Now the FCC wants to control who is allowed to appear on the show. Tell the FCC to let the viewers decide. You have until July 6th.”

The ad also features a QR code linking to the FCC’s comments portal, which reads, “FCC’s Media Bureau Seeks Comment on Petition by Disney’s ABC Asking the FCC to Declare that The View Qualifies as a Bona Fide News Interview Program and Thus is Exempt from the Statutory Equal Opportunities Requirements.”


Make a point to weigh in.  I have and have made it clear that I support THE VIEW.  This FCC is a joke and it attacking ABC.  Good for ABC for fighting back. 


Turning to Chump's ongoing war, Tyler Pager (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:

As Vice President JD Vance entered the fifth hour of negotiations with Iranian leaders over the weekend, President Trump weighed in with an ill-timed threat to start bombing again.

If the Iranians closed the Strait of Hormuz, Mr. Trump told a Fox News reporter, the negotiators talking to Mr. Vance would never make it back to their country — in fact, they would have no country to return to at all.

For Mr. Vance, this was the latest example of his increasingly tricky role as the frontman in the U.S. negotiations with Iran, as Mr. Trump repeatedly creates disruptions in his path.

On Monday, Mr. Vance said the first round of talks had laid “a successful foundation” for peace. But now, Mr. Vance will have to find a way to end a war that he opposed at the start, while navigating his boss’s whims and an adversary that has proved itself, at least in part, immune to Mr. Trump’s threats.


This morning, MS NOW notes that an $80 billion supplemental will be requested.




Iran said on Tuesday that it has no plans to open its damaged nuclear sites to U.N. inspectors, a day after Vice President JD Vance claimed “a major milestone” in talks on the country’s nuclear program aimed at securing a lasting peace agreement.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, responded “no” when asked at a news briefing on Tuesday whether Iran intended to grant access to any of its war-damaged nuclear sites to inspectors from the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency.

“We had no detailed discussions on the nuclear issue,” he later said, according to Iranian state media.


In other news, midterms are months away and Chump has alienated so many Americans.  Alex Henderson reports that swing voters are still bothered by Republicans:

Four years have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with its June 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization — a ruling that, according to conservative GOP consultant Sarah Longwell, continues to be a political liability for Republicans.
Writing in the conservative website The Bulwark, Longwell — founder of Republican Accountability (RA), formerly Republican Voters Against Trump — explains, "Amid all the talk of inflation, war, and artificial intelligence, people are underestimating just how important abortion could still be to this fall's elections. That seems like an insane sentence to type because, after all, abortion proved decisive in 2022, when Democrats dramatically overperformed expectations. The consensus quickly formed that the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was the key contributor. But when the Democratic Party put a heavy emphasis on abortion in the 2024 elections, it didn't pan out. That's because voters were more motivated by economic issues."
Longwell adds, "Fights around abortion moved to the states — where Republican- controlled legislatures were passing sweeping bans — and receded from the federal level. Today, Dems may have over-learned the lesson of 2024."


Republicans have signs of trouble ahead of the midterm elections after President Donald Trump has "failed to deliver on his economic promises," an analyst argued on Monday.
In a column for The Guardian, journalist and author Steven Greenhouse pointed out how the GOP will have to face this growing problem among white, blue-collar voters in the fall.
"If any demographic group was key to Donald Trump’s election victories in 2016 and 2024, it was white, blue-collar voters," Greenhouse wrote. "But in perhaps perilous news for Republicans, Trump’s support from that group has plummeted – as many white, working-class voters have grown upset about everything from increased inflation and gas prices to Trump’s war against Iran. These glaring cracks in Trump’s blue-collar base point to big trouble for Republicans in this November’s midterm elections."
The disappointment among GOP voters is "bad news" for Republicans, Greenhouse argued. And polls point to that mounting dissatisfaction — a new CBS poll revealed that 54 percent of white voters without a college degree disapprove of Trump's performance as president. Trump won 66 percent of white voters without a four-year degree in the 2024 presidential election.


Chump has bungled everything over and over.  One example?  Steve Benen (MS NOW) notes:

Senate Republicans started last week with a plan. Just days after Donald Trump announced his plan to nominate Jay Clayton to succeed Tulsi Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence, GOP leaders said the federal prosecutor was so uncontroversial that they hoped to confirm him by the end of the week, which would have been a rare example of remarkable congressional efficiency.
The president, however, didn’t want the Senate to confirm his own DNI nominee. Instead, Trump wanted his other choice — Bill Pulte, the highly controversial director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — to take the reins as the acting DNI.

He didn’t go into a lot of detail as to why Pulte’s appointment was such a priority, though Trump did recently declare that he expects Pulte to use his new office to perhaps “find out some things about the rigged elections,” reinforcing obvious concerns about the unqualified housing official playing the role of a partisan weapon in pursuit of Trump’s conspiracy theories.
It was against this backdrop that Politico reported late last week that Pulte had already directed staffers “to pull together a list of about 300 candidates to be fired from the National Counterterrorism Center in the coming weeks.” CNN published a related report about Pulte “raising alarm bells among intelligence officials” before his first day even began.
While the reports have not been independently verified by MS NOW, they did generate attention on Capitol Hill. Rep. Jim Jimes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a written statement, “If the reports of Bill Pulte’s arrival at ODNI [the Office of the Director of National Intelligence] are true, they demonstrate why he should never spend a minute as Director of National Intelligence, a role he is legally not qualified to perform. I am particularly concerned by reporting that he may undertake a sweeping firing of intelligence professionals, following on major cuts already undertaken last year.”



Intelligence Democrats are warning acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Bill Pulte against carrying out sweeping firings or improperly declassifying intelligence as Congress braces for the controversial new intelligence chief’s full first week on the job.
[. . .]
“Given your lack of experience within the Intelligence Community, it is difficult to imagine that in such a short amount of time you have already developed fully informed views as to how to shrink ODNI without incurring risks to national security,” Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and his counterpart in the Senate, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) wrote to Pulte.

“Making significant structural changes to ODNI, to include a reduction in force, is not an appropriate course of action for anyone in an acting capacity, let alone without consultation with Congress, and you should refrain from doing so.”
[. . .]
“We are concerned that your record as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency demonstrates a willingness to misuse your position, including your access to sensitive information, to pursue President Trump’s perceived political enemies and further his retributive political agenda,” they wrote.

“Given the extremely sensitive nature of intelligence, we expect that you will not declassify properly classified information that would compromise intelligence sources and methods, or weaponize the declassification process for partisan political purposes.”



He's a screw up, a loser  and incompetent.  And people are catching on to his lies.  Hannah Rabinowitz (CNN) reports:


A federal judge on Monday blocked the Justice Department from forcing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other officials to turn over records in its probe of Democratic resistance to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, calling the move retaliatory.

In a 30-page ruling, district Judge Patrick Schiltz found that subpoenas were “part of an unconstitutional effort to coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration laws and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so.”
“The Department is not conducting a criminal investigation, but is instead using the grand jury process for other (unlawful) purposes,” wrote Schiltz, an appointee of former President George W. Bush.



“Initiating a criminal investigation in order to harass political opponents or to coerce them into taking official action-particularly official action that the federal government cannot directly require those political opponents to take-is a blatantly unlawful and unethical use the grand-jury process,” the ruling reads.

The document goes on: “The only question, then, is whether the challenged subpoenas were issued for one of these forbidden purposes. The Court has no doubt that they were.”


The courts have caught on.  They know this administration cannot be trusted.   When not trying to destroy the justice system, Chump tries to grease the wheels for corruption.  Casey Michel (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:

For the past 18 months, nearly all of the efforts to demolish America’s anti-corruption architecture have come from one source: the White House. Under President Trump, it was the White House that announced both the elimination of task forces specifically tasked with tackling kleptocracy and a pause on enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Trump administration has also transformed everything from white-collar prosecutions to presidential pardons into an open-air feast of corruption. And all the while, the president and his family have watched their net worth explode, thanks to billions in ill-gotten gains streaming in from around the world.
It goes without saying that Trump now oversees the most corrupt White House the U.S. has ever seen. But it would be a mistake to say that he and his White House are acting alone. Indeed, in the latest assault on America’s anti-corruption edifice—perhaps the most destructive effort yet—the White House is taking a back seat, and is instead looking to Republican allies in Congress to undo the single most important anti-corruption step the U.S. has taken in years.

First, a bit of history. For decades, until the early 2020s, the United States stood at the center of the world of offshore finance. While places like Switzerland, Panama, the Cayman Islands, and other smaller locales got most of the headlines regarding offshore secrecy, in reality it was the U.S. that dominated the world of laundering illicit wealth, attracting billions (and potentially more) from narco-traffickers, arms dealers, kleptocrats, and others looking to wash their wealth clean.
Many industries accelerated America’s transformation into an offshore behemoth, including real estate and private equity, both of which enjoyed decades-long loopholes in basic anti–money laundering provisions. But there was one industry in particular that served as the bedrock for all of these laundering networks: shell companies. Thanks to America’s fractured corporate formation landscape, the federal government had no say in how U.S. shell companies were formed—or what kind of information was needed when setting up a shell company.

As a result, states like Delaware, Wyoming, Nevada, and others provided all of the secrecy and legal protections that cartel heads, dictators, human smugglers, and others needed to hide their financial tracks. In a matter of minutes, anyone around the world could set up a U.S. shell company and immediately access their own bespoke U.S. money-laundering network—all of it perfectly legally. Time and again, investigators both domestic and foreign could track a dirty money trail, only to watch their efforts collapse in the face of a Delaware or Nevada shell company.

It wasn’t simply autocrats and their oligarchic proxies who benefited from these anonymous shells. Wealthy Americans, those looking to secretly influence American politics, those searching for ways to covertly inject finance into U.S. elections—all of them profited from this rank secrecy.

Efforts to bring the barest transparency to U.S. shell companies stretch back to at least 2008. But it wasn’t until the early 2020s that legislators finally passed something called the Corporate Transparency Act. The bill was hardly partisan; remarkably, a slate of legislators from both sides of the aisle passed the bill over President Trump’s veto. Nor was the bill onerous. Instead of a public registry of corporate owners, as seen in places like the United Kingdom, America’s new shell company database would remain private, accessible only to federal authorities and other officials tracking illicit and looted wealth.
It’s difficult to overstate just how momentous this new legislation was. For the first time in decades, the U.S. was no longer the leading font of anonymous shell companies. The best days of U.S. offshoring appeared behind us.

How much can change in just a few short years. Unsurprisingly, the opening salvo against the Corporate Transparency Act came from the politician who’s benefited from anonymous shells perhaps more than anyone else: Trump. Barely a month into his second term, Trump announced that the Corporate Transparency Act was an “absolute disaster,” an “economic menace” that would “soon be no more.” He announced that his administration would no longer be enforcing the law for U.S. shell companies—and that no one would need to worry about prosecution for breaking the law. A few months later, Trump’s Treasury Department announced that it was destroying all of the filings the registry had compiled thus far, torching the database entirely.


In related news, REUTERS reported Friday:

A federal appeals court on Friday blocked the Trump administration's plans to immediately slash the workforce at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by about two-thirds, delivering a setback to the White House's protracted efforts to shrink the consumer watchdog. 
The order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit came in response to a revised plan the Justice Department submitted in late March following repeated legal defeats over its plans to decimate if not eliminate the CFPB.

The appeals court had been reviewing the administration's appeal of a March 2025 injunction by a federal district court judge which temporarily barred the mass terminations.

The Justice Department, which previously tried to cut up to 90% of employees, had argued that it should be permitted to carry out its new plan immediately.


Yes, he wants to increase corruption and Chump knows that will also require shrinking the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He is highly allergic to oversight and always has been.  



It was just last week that US president Donald Trump’s name was removed from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts following a court order to do so, but when it came to taking the 80-year-old Republican’s name off the building, tarpaulin was erected to cover up the humiliating moment – tarpaulin which is yet to be taken down.
And with Trump already being branded a “snowflake” over the move, a group known as The Lincoln Project Advocacy (part of the wider anti-Trump Lincoln Project) took advantage of the tarpaulin still being up to beam a projection onto it – one highly critical of the president.

In one video captured of the projection, the animation shows clips of Trump and the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein; a man climbing up a ladder to rip off letters from the Kennedy Center; Trump scrunching up pages marked ‘Epstein Files’ and eating them; and text which reads “no one bends the knee like the GOP”.



The Kennedy Center is being accused of “gamesmanship” by fighting a court order that required the removal of President Donald Trump’s name from the building’s facade, and of keeping up tarps that block the sign in “petulant defiance,” according to new court documents filed Monday afternoon.
Lawyers representing Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, who sued Trump and the Kennedy Center in December over Trump’s legally dubious bid to rename the center after himself, filed an opposition Monday to the Kennedy Center’s motion to pause the court’s prior order requiring the removal of Trump’s name.
In the filing, Beatty’s lawyers accuse the Kennedy Center of running a “posion-pill gambit” to block the court order through legal maneuvers, including a last-minute request to pause the court order before the June 12 deadline to remove Trump’s name, which failed.

The filing also accused the center of hanging a tarp that obscures the Kennedy Center’s sign—which has stood for 10 days—in “petulant defiance” and to “frustrate the restoration of the status quo as it existed prior to the renaming.”

Another of Chump's ego problems -- the reflecting pool -- remains in the news.  Alyssa Lukpat (WALL STREET JOURNAL) reports:


President Trump poured out his frustrations with the problems plaguing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, saying that multiple people had been arrested and it would likely need to be drained for repairs.

The reflecting pool on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., has been plagued by algae and a coating that is sloughing off after a recently completed $14.7 million renovation that was part of the president’s project to beautify the nation’s capital. On Saturday, Trump blamed the problems on vandals, who he said cut and poured corrosive chemicals into the pool.
[. . .]
It wasn’t immediately clear what the president meant by this. The new surface isn’t plastic like a typical pool lining, which is easier to cut, but is more like a coarse coat of paint. The Interior Department and the U.S. Park Police, which help oversee the pool, didn’t immediately return requests to provide additional details.

Trump said on social media on Sunday that he inspected the pool himself. “Work will begin immediately on fixing the seriously vandalized Reflecting Pool,” he said.

The reflecting pool was resurfaced this spring with an “American flag blue” coating. Within days of the pool’s reopening this month, algae blooms coated the floor and colored the surface, drawing spectators and online mockery. Some have taken pieces of the blue coating that has been floating in the water.



President Donald Trump has accused his critics of vandalizing the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as online images reveal the landmark's blue paint peeling and algae accumulating.

The president turned to Truth Social to express his fury over what he characterized as a vandalized pool. However, no evidence exists that the landmark has been deliberately sabotaged.
Amid this, the president has made two conflicting statements about the size of the gash in the pool. In his latest Truth Social post, he said it was 300 ft, whereas just a day ago, he claimed it was 250 ft. It comes after Trump's toxic Reflecting Pool claimed its first victim with a tragic death.
"Of the MANY Statues and Fountains that we rebuilt, renovated, cleaned, and fixed, the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool, which is being taken care of, ASAP! It has been given a 300 foot long gash, chemicals have been illegally placed in the water, and the beautiful new grass field has been destroyed with a gigantic 86 47 chemically carved into it (Probably inspired by Dirty Cop, James Comey! )" Trump stated.


MS NOW's MORNING JOE today addressed the reflecting pool.






Referring to the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, Minnesota governor Tim Walz commented on X: “Found an imaginary problem, said only they could fix it, didn’t listen to experts, hired buddies who grifted millions, failed miserably, bragged how great it went. The entire Trump presidency in a nutshell.” (Walz could have added: “blamed others for his failure, conjured up a conspiracy, then prosecuted them.”)


Last night, Rachel Maddow noted the reflecting pool and other failed 'improvements' Chump has made.






Moving over to note Loose Lips Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense.  Chauncey DeVega (SALON) points out:

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has tattoos all over his body — including a Jerusalem cross and the phrase Deus Vult (“God wills it”). Tattoos tell us a story about a person’s life and beliefs.

“God wills it” was a battle cry of Christian crusaders during the Middle Ages. Today it is used by violent right-wing extremist groups and other hate organizations – including those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The commanders of Hegseth’s D.C. National Guard unit deemed his tattoos to be a security risk — citing concerns about “insider threats” — and he was not allowed to work the security detail for President Biden’s 2021 inauguration.

Hegseth has defended his tattoos as expressions of his deeply held Christian faith. He claimed that he was persecuted for his religion and outspoken “conservative” beliefs. Yet, under current regulations, such tattoos could disqualify recruits and subject active-duty personnel to discipline.

Hegseth now oversees the United States military — one of the largest and most diverse organizations in the country, if not the world. He has made it his personal crusade to restore “warrior culture” by stomping out “woke” values, “diversity,” “DEI,” and “political correctness” in the military.

What Hegseth is really eradicating is the principle that the military should reflect and serve all Americans. His “warrior culture” is a mask for a 21st-century Jim Crow — one that uses colorblind language like “merit” and “fairness” to do the work of racism and other forms of prejudice, bigotry and intolerance.
And it mirrors the Trump administration’s larger authoritarian project: a version of American history, national greatness and daily life where white men are the only agents who really matter.

Black and brown people, women, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized communities are pushed aside — cast as supporting players, villains or erased entirely.

Military service is about much more than a uniform. It is a claim on citizenship, national belonging, and who counts as a “real American” and a patriot.

As Frederick Douglass observed during the Civil War, “Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship.”

Trump, Hegseth, Stephen Miller and the other architects of the MAGA movement know this is true, which is why they’re pushing back so hard.


Meanwhile, Chump is attacking a Catholic diocese.  Bruce Golding (INDEPENDENT) reports:

A Catholic diocese in New Mexico is waging a legal holy war against the Trump administration's plan to use 14 acres of church land for a new border wall — saying the plan would desecrate a 25-foot-tall, mountaintop statue of Jesus nearby.

In court papers filed Friday, lawyers for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces said the church would fight the administration in court before it “surrenders even a square inch of its sacred land.”

“The law, including cases cited by the Government, is clear that the Diocese is allowed to present its defenses before the Government possesses and irreparably desecrates the holy site at Mount Cristo Rey,” they wrote. “This Court should not bless this affront to religious liberty.”

The court filing also called President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall a “physical manifestation of this Government’s attitude toward migrants,” adding that “nothing could be less Catholic.”



Chump's Homeland Security is attempting to seize the land via eminent domain.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Adam Schiff's office:

Seattle, WA – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), joined CNN’s One Thing podcast with host David Rind at the 2026 Cascade PBS Ideas Festival to discuss the brazen and rampant corruption schemes of President Trump and his administration, and how the cost of that corruption is coming at the expense of the American people.  

During the conversation, Senator Schiff also discussed the opportunities and challenges posed by AI, emphasizing that we must make sure Americans have access to and are able to live with dignity amid the technological transformation our society is undergoing.  

Schiff also spoke about the Democratic Party’s agenda heading into midterm elections, including lowering costs, building back an economy that works for everyone, and making the American dream feasible again.  

Listen to the full interview here.

Key excerpts:  

On the rampant corruption in President Trump’s Justice Department: 

 […] It is so transformed and ruinous right now. And in my old office, I think about a third of the officers quit. We see mass defections throughout the country. And for me, the canary in the coal mine happened very early in this iteration of the Trump administration, when something absolutely unthinkable happened to anyone that had ever served in the Justice Department. It was beyond comprehension, and that is the Justice Department sought to dismiss a corruption case against a major public official, the Mayor of New York, in order to secure his help in something completely unrelated, and that was enforcement of the immigration policies of the president. That was unimaginable prior to this administration, and as much as there are dark and bleak things to see every day with the kind of corruption of this administration, we can’t ignore and shouldn’t look away from the heroes that are also being revealed. And one of my favorites was one of the attorneys on that case, who had been, I think he was a Scalia clerk, very conservative, Federalist Society type, wrote to the Justice Department and said that ‘I’m sure you can find some coward or some fool to dismiss this case, but it was never going to be me.’  

On the cost of the president’s corruption to the American people:  

[…] You’ve got the billion-dollar ballroom, you’ve got the triumphal arch, which violates the law, by the way, because there’s no Congressional approval. You’ve got all of the no-bid contracts around the fountains and the pools, they’re spending $5 million to gild, literally gild horses on a statue. You’ve got the president buying Boeing stock before going to China and announcing a 200 aircraft deal with China, and you’ve got the president buying Oracle before the TikTok deal, you’ve got the president buying Nvidia before deciding that Nvidia can export its some of its advanced chips. This is just stuff we learned in May, and I do think it’s important to not allow ourselves to be numb to this, this pillaging. But at the same time, the primary focus has to be on the fact that while the president is enriching himself and his family, he is doing nothing to address the problems of the American people. 

[…] And the cost of corruption is, the president could care less about bringing down the cost of your food or your housing or your gas, he’s too busy focused on improving his own economy. His personal economy is doing great. He’s made more money in the first year of his administration than the rest of his life put together 10 times, and he can’t be bothered to worry about your cost of living, and he tells you so. I mean, look how he’s spending his time. He was out there again on the grounds of the construction of the ballroom, talking about the ballroom. If he spent half as much time on trying to help people afford the cost of living and bring prices down as he spends on that stupid ballroom. I mean, imagine this: we’re in the midst of an economy that’s simply not working for millions of Americans, and the president of the United States is building a golden ballroom. It’s really incomprehensible. 

On the opportunities and challenges that AI will bring:  

There’s certainly profound challenges, both with the data centers, and I’ve introduced a bill to ensure that these large data centers bring their own energy, that they don’t socialize the costs of improvements that need to be made to the grid or regional infrastructure or transformers or other technologies. That they build in an excess capacity, so they can actually put power into the grid during surge times. This is obviously just one facet of the problem, you mentioned another, that is the environmental impacts.  

[…] There are some new technologies that are mitigating the need for water, which is, I think, encouraging, but the broader concerns are still dominating. And in addition to the data center issue, you have the fact that these models are so advanced now they have far outpaced our cyber defenses. And you have the additional growing impact on the nature of work. I’m most particularly concerned about that impact.  

[…] I think that AI and the transformation it will bring, presents both a danger and an opportunity, and the opportunity is to think anew about how our society works and how we make sure that people who are working and trying are able to enjoy a good quality of life. And that there is good and dignified work for people.   

On Democrats’ midterm agenda:  

[…] And it is a failure of both parties that housing is unaffordable, that college is unaffordable, that young people need to get a mortgage on their education to go to school, that’s on both parties. So, I totally understand the frustration, and I think there are people in our party who are speaking to that and speaking eloquently to that, but we need to do more than speak eloquently to it. We need to attack it with big ideas, with bold ideas, with non-incremental ideas. I think the reason we lost the last presidential election was because the Democratic Party became seen as the party of a deeply, deeply unsatisfactory status quo.  

And we damn well better, when we take the majority, and even more so when we take the White House, be ready to move dramatically to move this country in a different direction, of making it possible for people to work hard and enjoy a good life and provide for themselves and their family. In a world that is now global, it is automated and is increasingly driven by AI, and we have absolutely got to meet that moment. And if we don’t, there is nothing we can do that will put our democracy on solid ground. If the democracy isn’t working for people, if people see the quality of life their parents had as better than what they have. Then all too many are going to entertain any demagogue who comes along promising they alone can fix it. 

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The following sites -- plus Kat's "Bob Dylan, Diana Ross, Joni Mitchell (Yea!) and (boo!) Joan Jett" and Elaine's "Clive Davis" -- updated:

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