Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took his trolling act to the next level on Tuesday night by calling for a third term for President Donald Trump after he delivered a speech before a joint session of Congress.
Graham has come a long way over the past decade. The longtime legislator was a vehement critic of Trump’s when the two ran against each other for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Wednesday, March 5, 2025. Donald Chump embarrasses himself (and the country) yet again, Pete Hegseth feels the best he can do as Secretary of Defense is to promote racism, Robert Kennedy Junior thinks posting at FOX "NEWS" nullifies the need to post at the HHS website, and much more.
Last night, Convicted Felon Donald Chump delivered the State of the Fat Guy address and it was frightening.
Ahead of the State of the Fat Guy address, Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:
ICYMI: Senator Murray statement on why she won’t be attending Trump’s Joint Address
Murray has been a leading voice raising the alarm on Trump and Musk’s indiscriminate mass firings that are hurting people in Washington state and across the country— holding multiple press calls with WA federal workers, releasing fact sheets, and speaking out at every opportunity
***WATCH VIDEO HERE; DOWNLOAD HERE***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, held a virtual press conference with federal workers in Washington state who worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), U.S. Forest Service, and National Park Service before being recently fired—through no fault of their own and with zero justification—as part of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s unprecedented assault on the federal workforce. Joining Senator Murray for the press conference today were: Scott Olson, a disabled veteran in Seattle who previously worked at the VA helping homeless veterans; Jordan Lewis from Seattle, a former landscape architect designing projects for the National Parks Service across Washington state; Ray Beaupre, a former seasonal worker with the U.S. Forest Service in the Methow Valley; and Ambrose Dieringer, an analyst in the supervision division of the CFPB who lives in West Seattle.
Ahead of President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress, Senator Murray is lifting up the stories of real people in Washington state who are being hurt by Donald Trump’s reckless and illegal moves—from his indiscriminate mass firings across the federal workforce that will undermine services we all rely on and put lives at risk, to his illegal funding freezes that are seriously harming businesses and organizations across Washington state and putting them in financial jeopardy. Senator Murray’s statement on why she won’t be attending the Joint Address tonight is HERE.
“President Trump is coming here to the Capitol… this evening to give what he is calling the State of the Union. But I expect that he will give his own fantasy version of an update on how he and Elon Musk are running the country. Because it is pretty painfully clear to me… that these two out-of-touch billionaires really have no idea what they are doing… In short, they really have no sense at all of the actual state of our union. Because they have never really taken the time to listen to the people on the frontlines who are serving our communities before they fired them!” Senator Murray said on the press call today. “Elon and Trump may not care about what these workers did; they may not get that it matters—probably because they don’t take commercial flights, or rely on Social Security benefits, or send their kids to public schools, or struggle to get health care, or have to worry about being scammed by predatory lenders. But you know what? Regular people get it. Regular people understand their work has value, it has dignity, and it makes our lives better. And regular people also understand that mass firing people, like the workers we’ll hear from right now, will make their lives worse.”
“That may not be the narrative Elon Musk and Donald Trump try and spin tonight. But it is the truth, and the people need to hear it,” Murray continued. “I am going to keep doing what I can to lift up federal workers who can share their stories, warn everyone about what is happening, and what it’s going to mean for our country, and push to reverse as much of this damage as possible as fast as possible.”
“Working at the VA gave me purpose. I understood the struggles veterans faced, whether physical, mental, or emotional. I took pride in being part of something bigger than myself, in continuing to serve even after taking off the uniform,” said Scott Olson, a disabled veteran who served for eight years in the Army, including time in combat, and was diagnosed with cancer twice after serving in Iraq for 15 months. Scott worked at the VA in Seattle in Program Support for VA’s Community Housing Program—helping homeless veterans—before he was suddenly fired without cause last Monday, as part of Trump and Elon Musk’s mass layoffs at VA. “The next chapter in my service led me to working with unhoused Veterans. My role was to serve as the initial contact when they came in looking for help with resources. I supported the social workers ensuring they had the ability to transport Veterans in the community. Limiting roles like mine, means other VA employees will have to take on more and cutting into valuable clinical time directly serving veterans. That’s why it was so devastating when, without warning, without cause, I was terminated. No explanation, no justification just a cold dismissal from a role that meant everything to me. It felt like a betrayal, not just of my dedication but of the values I thought the VA stood for. I had fought through war, through cancer, and through every challenge life had thrown at me only to be cast aside by the very system I had believed in.”
“The CFPB has been open for less than 14 years, but in that time has returned over $21 billion dollars to harmed consumers in the form of compensation, principal reduction, canceled debts, and other relief. Fo every $1 spent, about $2.85 has been returned to consumers. How is that inefficient?,” said Ambrose Dieringer, an analyst in the supervision division of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) who resides in Seattle. Ambrose and many of his colleagues were suddenly put on administrative leave last month and ordered to cease working after Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought took over as Acting Director of the CFPB, where he is working with Trump and Elon Musk to cripple the nation’s leading agency protecting consumers from financial fraud—raising serious conflict of interest concerns.
“These recent firings are a disaster for public lands, we are already suffering from years of backlog maintenance and the effects of heavy wildfire damage across the landscape. If we do not act now to save these recreation programs, they will be lost forever along with our beloved trails,” said Ray Beaupre, who was a permanent seasonal volunteer coordinator and trails lead with the U.S. Forest Service in the Methow Valley Ranger District, before being recently laid off without cause by Trump and Musk.
“In my role with the NPS, I was responsible for planning and implementing critical repair and upgrade projects across national park sites in the Pacific West Region, including Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. My work included renovating campgrounds impacted by wildfires, upgrades to picnic areas and outdoor restroom facilities, implementing trail projects, and much needed visitor center improvements for accessibility,” said Jordan Lewis from Seattle, a former landscape architect with the National Park Service who worked on several important projects across Washington state including: a trail project at San Juan Island National Historical Park to protect endangered Marble Butterfly habitat, a roadway safety project for bicyclists and pedestrians also at San Juan Island National Historic Park, critical upgrades to aging visitor facilities at Ross Lake Overlook and Cascade Pass in North Cascades National Park, and needed accessibility improvements at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site to meet compliance with ADA laws. “On February 14th at 4:50 PM, without warning, I received a generic email terminating me immediately. The letter stated that my skills and abilities did not meet the needs of the Department and that my position was no longer required—despite an exceptional performance review and a backlog of urgent repair projects I was hired to implement. Overnight, my dream job was taken from me and my life has been turned upside down by people I have never met. But beyond my personal loss, these mass firings of probationary employees are already having serious consequences for our national parks. On February 14th, more than 1,000 probationary employees were fired from NPS alone, creating staffing shortages that are now affecting park units nationwide. Our division has been forced to indefinitely suspend several critical projects due to the indiscriminate removal of dedicated NPS employees.”
Senator Murray has been raising the alarm nonstop about how mass firings at all manner of federal agencies will hurt families, veterans, small businesses, farmers, and so many others in Washington state and across the country. Senator Murray has spoken out on the Senate floor against this administration’s attacks on federal workers and held multiple press conferences to call attention to how Trump and Musk’s mass layoffs are hurting federal workers in Washington state and undermining services for everyone. Earlier this month, she released both a national fact sheet and a Washington state fact sheet detailing what we know about the mass layoffs so far. Senator Murray also sent an open letter to federal workers and a newsletter to her constituents in Washington state outlining her concerns with the administration’s so-called “Fork in the Road” offer.
Senator Murray has also sent a flurry of recent oversight letters demanding answers about indiscriminate staffing reductions across federal agencies—including letters to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on mass firings across HHS as well as a letter focused specifically on firings at FDA, Energy Secretary Chris Wright on indiscriminate firings at BPA, HUD Secretary Scott Turner on reports of massive staff cuts at HUD, Interior Secretary Doug Burham on National Parks Service staffing cuts, and Acting USDA Secretary Gary Washington on the universal hiring pause for USDA firefighters, among others.
Senator Murray’s full remarks, as delivered on today’s press call, are below and video is HERE:
“Thank you to all of you for joining us today. I think as everybody knows, President Trump is coming here to the Capitol, where I am, this evening, to give what he is calling the State of the Union. But I expect that he will give his own fantasy version of an update on how he and Elon Musk are running the country.
“Because it is pretty painfully clear to me, from all of the contacts we are getting from around our state and everywhere, that it’s pretty clear that these two out-of-touch billionaires really have no idea what they are doing. They have no idea how painful cuts and mass firings they have gone on with such glee—how that’s hurting our families, and in short, they really have no sense at all of the actual state of our union.
“Because they have never really taken the time to listen to the people on the frontlines who are serving our communities before they fired them.
“So on this call, today, I am going to make sure we hear from some real people, real federal workers who were actually doing the work of the American people, and know what the damaging effects have been over the last few weeks.
“Because the truth is: the state of the union is that Trump fired forest rangers. The state of the union is that he fired cancer researchers. He fired people who keep Social Security running. And he fired thousands upon thousands of veterans who work to serve all of our communities.
“And at risk of saying the obvious—that will make our country weaker, it will make life a lot worse for folks back home. It is going to mean less safe conditions, longer lines at our National Parks and forests, places like Mt. Rainer, and North Cascades, and Olympic National Park, and Mount St. Helens. […]
“It’s going to mean longer wait times to get help with Social Security benefits. It is going to mean clinical trials at the Fred Hutch getting canceled, and promising cures will not happen, they’ll just get tossed in the shredder. It is going to mean slower response to disease outbreaks, and slower recalls of contaminated food. It is going to mean less help for people trying to get health insurance, or find child care. Fewer workers supporting air traffic control that keeps our skies safe at SeaTac.
“And despite what we might hear from Trump tonight, we know it’s not about saving money. Because we actually saw them fire Bonneville Power Administration workers—they are not paid by taxpayers, they are paid by ratepayers in the Pacific Northwest.
“We also know this is not about merit, because they mass fired so many people who had recently been promoted for doing a good job!
“Right here in Washington state, they even fired a NOAA employee of the year—someone who worked on saving orcas, and salmon, and wildlife from oil spills.
“I don’t know who Trump and Musk think they are fooling, but it doesn’t take a lot of common sense to realize: you don’t make the government work better by giving the richest man in the world a baseball bat and letting him smash it to pieces. This has been just heartbreaking, and infuriating.
“I have spoken to so many federal workers, public servants—who took so much pride in the work they do to strengthen our country, building our communities, supporting families, helping our neighbors.
“As you will hear this evening, the work they do is because they care. Because they know it’s important. And that’s why they were federal employees.
“Elon and Trump may not care about what these workers did; they may not get that it matters—probably because they don’t take commercial flights, or rely on Social Security benefits, or send their kids to public schools, or struggle to get health care, or have to worry about being scammed by predatory lenders.
“But you know what? Regular people get it. Regular people understand their work has value, it has dignity, and it makes our lives better. And regular people also understand that mass firing people, like the workers we’ll hear from right now, will make their lives worse.
“That may not be the narrative that Elon Musk and Donald Trump try to spin tonight for everybody. But it’s the truth, and it’s really important that people hear it.
“And I am going to keep doing what I can to lift up our federal workers, help share their stories, warn people about what’s happening, what it will mean for our communities and our country, and really work hard to reverse the damage that’s happening so fast.
“So I really appreciate the workers who are on here tonight to share their personal stories. I know it’s been really traumatic and difficult for all of you, so thank you for coming on this evening.”
###
While Patty addressed actual issues, Chump delivered none.
His speech was never-ending -- and people complained about Adrian Brody's speech Sunday?
Why did he talk so long? Because he was singing his own praises.
Buy a clue, when you have to sing your own praises, there's a reason -- no one else is praising you.
It was disgusting and never ending giving you plenty of time to wonder how someone ends up so screwed up.
Did Daddy make Donald touch his wee-wee?
Is that what damaged him so?
He turns 79 years old in a few months and that's really too old -- regardless of your baggage -- to act that way.
He delivered another performance of victimhood that I'm sure spoke to all the other impotent males out there who tug away furiously but never get stiff.
The speech was not about America or where we can go and what we can be.
It was about an elderly boy with Daddy issues insisting with rage that he was somebody and he had accomplished something and Daddy was wrong about him.
No, Donald, whatever your father said to you? He was being too kind.
You are a failure and you've been one your entire life.
When he used to mock and tell you that you weren't a man?
He was right.
Anytime you could have offered service, you ran like the coward you were, are and forever will be.
It didn't start with Vietnam but, yes, avoiding that war did prove you weren't a man. Your father was right there.
And that judgment that he passed on you is the same judgment we continue to pass.
You can scream and you can bully but all we see is an elderly brat who never grew up and never knew how to.
You embarrassed and shamed the country last night. Your lies promoting yourself cheapen the office. Your tantrum was seen on the world stage.
Not being a man, you merely repeat on others the cycle of abuse you endured from you own father. And that's why your children will breathe a sigh of relief when you finally pass away. You've screwed them up and screwed them over.
You blustered and bullied and acted like the crazy maniac that you are.
And it's gotten old.
Lets move on.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called the deadly measles outbreak in Texas a “top priority” for his department — after previously calling the situation “not unusual.”
“I am deeply concerned,” Kennedy, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a op-ed piece for Fox News — where the longtime vaccine skeptic touted the benefits of the measles vaccine: “Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons,” he wrote.
The most recent update from the Texas Department of State Health Services confirms that there are 146 cases of measles, with 20 hospitalizations, and one death of a school-aged child.
It’s a stark contrast in messaging from the previous Trump administration.
In 2019, when two measles outbreaks in New York threatened to reverse the United States' status of having eliminated measles, then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar didn’t mince words.
“Measles vaccines are among the most extensively studied medical products we have, their safety has been firmly established over many years,” Azar said in an April 2019 HHS statement.
He went on to say that “measles is not a harmless childhood illness, but a highly contagious, potentially life-threatening disease.”
US Army Lieutenant General Telita Crosland, who heads the military's health agency and is one of the most senior Black female Army officers, was reportedly forced to end her career.
On Friday (February 28), Crosland was forced to retire from her military role just a week after President Donald Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other senior officers, sources told Reuters.
Crosland's retirement was publicly announced Friday, but Reuters reported that the senior officer was told she must resign.
"I want to thank Crosland for her dedication to the nation, to the military health system, and to Army medicine for the past 32 years," Stephen Ferrara, acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said in a statement Friday.
The sources, a current and former official, said Crosland wasn't given a reason why she had to retire. The Pentagon also declined to provide a reason why Crosland allegedly resigned.
Crosland's departure comes amid Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's efforts to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at the Pentagon. Last month, Hegseth said he believed that "diversity is our strength" was the "single dumbest phrase in military history." The defense secretary also moved to end commemorations for Black History Month, Women's History Month, and more.
Critics of the administration have said the choice amounts to a cynical loophole, given that Congress banned the military from naming posts after members of the Confederacy.
"By instead invoking the name of World War II soldier Private Roland Bragg, Secretary Hegseth has not violated the letter of the law, but he has violated its spirit," Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., wrote in a February statement.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reinstated the name "Fort Benning" on Monday for one of the nation's largest military bases - the second such reversal he's ordered and the first that requires actually removing the name of a U.S. service member.
The base, located in Columbus, Georgia, had been renamed Fort Moore after Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, whose memoir "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young" chronicled his service in Vietnam. The name also commemorated his wife, Julia, who pushed the military to develop a more humane system for notifying family members of casualties.
Fort Moore, which was officially renamed in May 2023, was the first base named after a military family.
"I'm incredibly saddened," said David Moore, the son of Hal and Julia, who helped lead the effort to rename the post after his parents. "My only conclusion is that [Hegseth] chose to reject Hal and Julia Moore."
Dave Moore had suspected the base would be renamed after he saw the redesignation of Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg last month. Still, he wasn't certain it would change, especially since he believed his parents represented many of the qualities Hegseth publicly affirms - a focus on fighting wars among them.
"I thought we had a fighting chance," Moore said.
Instead, after receiving the news from the base's commanding general Monday afternoon and sharing it with his family, Moore said he was shocked, angry and confused.
"I don't believe we understand what he stands for," Moore said of Hegseth. "Everything he commended Fred Benning for is what he already had in Hal and Julia Moore."
A Black soldier in Michigan says superiors referred to him as a “coon.”
Another in Maryland was passed over for promotions by his white superiors.
A gay soldier in Idaho says his commander called gay marriage “immoral” and transgender people “sexual deviants.”
These are three of dozens of incidents documented by the National Guard that paint a picture of discrimination from Topeka, Kansas to Puerto Rico. They come as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has made it his mission to eradicate "woke" sensitivities in the military.
"I think the single dumbest phrase in military history is ‘our diversity is our strength,’" Hegseth said at the Pentagon weeks after being sworn in.
Hegseth, who served in the National Guard and came to President Donald Trump's attention as a Fox & Friends television co-host, now presides over an increasingly diverse force. In 2010, 19.5% of guardsmen were racial minorities. By 2023, the latest figures available, that percentage had risen to 24.2%. Hegseth fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a Black officer, on Feb. 21. On Friday, the Black head of the Pentagon’s sprawling health care system resigned abruptly.
A special program to help autistic students successfully navigate careers in math and science now faces an existential threat thanks to the Trump administration’s bid to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in American institutions.
Keivan Stassun, a world-renowned physicist and astronomer at Vanderbilt University, is the founding director of the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation at Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering, which has been focused on finding ways to foster neurodiverse talent in higher education and the workforce. But Donald Trump’s focus on ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and its slash-and-burn approach to pausing research grants puts Stassun’s work at risk.
“The tragedy is that our project could not be seen as ‘woke DEI’ by anyone: it is workforce development for the nation's science and technology enterprise, filling the large talent gap that tech companies are facing in AI, cybersecurity, and all forms of engineering,” Stassun said in a text message. “We had a large set of corporate partners involved, and a large network of the biggest engineering schools partnered as well.”
Senator Warren joined Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Massachusetts Congressional Delegation ahead of President Trump’s joint address to Congress
Warren: “The whole Republican plan fits on a bumper sticker: Billionaires win; families lose.”
Washington, D.C. – At a press conference today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation in delivering remarks on Trump’s agenda to benefit billionaires while hurting working people ahead of Trump’s Joint Address to Congress.
Senator Warren called the first six weeks of the new administration a “sandstorm of chaos” meant to distract from President Trump’s goal of jamming through trillions in tax cuts to billionaires at the expense of health care, Social Security, and programs that benefit working people.
Senator Warren was joined by her guest Doug Kowalewski, a former National Science Foundation employee from Wellesley who, after six years of service, was fired unexpectedly in Elon Musk’s and the Department of Government Efficiency’s gutting of the federal workforce. Doug shared his story at Senator Warren’s recent town hall in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Transcript: Press Conference with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Massachusetts Congressional Delegation
U.S. Senate
March 4, 2025
Senator Elizabeth Warren: We are all here today as the federal representatives of the seven million people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And we stand proudly with the Mayor of Boston, who has been “invited” – I think that’s still a word – she has been invited by the Republicans to come and defend Boston and to defend the values that we fight for every day in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. So we want to be here, in part, to talk about what this fight is about.
Over the last six weeks, Donald Trump has created a sandstorm of chaos to try to distract us from his real agenda: Tax cuts for billionaires, paid for by cuts to health care and Social Security. These are programs that mommas and daddies and babies and seniors rely on every single day.
Trump and his unelected co-president Elon Musk are dismantling our government, piece by piece, so that it works better for those same billionaires and worse for everyone else. The whole Republican plan fits on a bumper sticker: Billionaires win; families lose.
Trump promised, you may remember, to lower costs “on day one.” Instead, he and co-President Musk have tried to fire the financial cops that keep Americans from getting cheated. They have slashed funding that supports research for cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s. And they have fired thousands of hardworking public servants, including the people who keep us safe when we fly on airplanes, the people who make sure that nuclear materials are safely stored, and people who inspect our food.
One of those hardworking public servants is Doug. Up until two weeks ago, Doug worked at the National Science Foundation — until out of nowhere, he was fired along with over one hundred of his colleagues. And I’ve invited Doug here to share his story. Doug, come on over.
Doug Kowalewski, Senator Warren’s Guest for Trump’s Joint Address to Congress: So, after six years of service at the National Science Foundation, I was fired two weeks ago from today. And me, along with 167 of my colleagues were called into a Zoom meeting to get a mass termination firing with no cause. And this doesn’t just impact me — this impacts all of Massachusetts. A limited workforce at NSF or NST or NIH jeopardizes the billions of federal investments that directly fund our top-notch research and researchers in Massachusetts and powers our local economy.
So, I’m scared for our country. Millions of Americans who have dedicated their lives and dedicated their careers to this country are suffering because of unelected billionaires. I’m here with Senator Warren to fight back against these illegal terminations and to stand up for hardworking civil servants. Thank you.
Senator Warren: Thank you very much, Doug. And I appreciate Doug being here. I just want to say, this is what happens when you go to town halls. I had a town hall in Framingham a week ago and Doug stood up and told his story, as have lots of other people in Massachusetts.
I would say the biggest question at that town hall is: What can we do? And Doug is living proof of what we can do. We can tell our stories because they matter. We build a grassroots movement across this story by not using big words and abstract terms, but by telling the story person by person by person about what kind of work you do and what it means when you just get called in and told, “You’re fired,” because it fits in someone else’s political agendas, so thank you for being here, Doug. I appreciate it.
Alright, I just want to say: Doug is standing up, he’s pushing back and that’s what we’ve all got to do.
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