I grew up thinking knowledge was a good thing. I wanted to learn. I wanted to be smart. I didn't just ask questions -- usually to my brother Brad -- like "why is the sky blue?," I wanted to know the answer so that when I had kids I could share that with them.
As a psychologist, I had continuing education because you have to stay up to date and continue to learn. But even outside my field of work, I need to learn. Mike and our daughter are doing their gardening again this summer and I learn so much from them and love it. I'm not a plant person so each summer's a seminar for me and I love all that they teach and share with me.
I want to learn to this day and I wanted my kids to learn and knew it was a way to a better life, a richer life with meaning. A life where the world around you opened up because you understood it.
Brad and I lost our parents early on. I'm sure he got tired of his little sister forever asking why this and why that? But he never showed it and he fostered that questioning and that learning in me. Maybe other people weren't as lucky and didn't have someone like my brother in their lives. But I can't understand the people like Donald Chump who don't just embrace ignorance but work to amplify it.
Homeland
Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that Harvard University
"must change its ways" or lose its right to enroll foreign students, as a
federal judge said she would issue a preliminary injunction to stop the
Trump administration from revoking the school's SEVP certification
without first following the legally mandated procedures.
Last
week, the Trump administration moved to ban international students from
the college, drastically escalating their ongoing dispute. Harvard
countered with a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
The
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) then wrote to the school
Wednesday, explaining it now had 30 days to show it was complying with
the federal government, to avoid the revocation of its Student and
Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) status.
"Harvard's
refusal to comply with SEVP oversight was the latest evidence that it
disdains the American people and takes for granted U.S. taxpayer
benefits," Noem said on X, formerly Twitter, as she shared the letter.
"Following our letter to Harvard, the school attempted to claim it now
wishes to comply with SEVP standards.
A
stooge like Donald Chump doesn't respect education or knowledge.
Instead, he tries to tear it down. He wants the whole world to be as
stupid as he is. Lauren Lewis (THE DAILY BEAST) reports:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that the U.S. will start “aggressively” revoking visas for Chinese students.
The
Trump administration will focus on targeting students “with connections
to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Rubio
said in a State Department statement, which did not define what it
believes to be “critical fields.” It comes amid President Trump’s
unprecedented attempts to assert control over American higher education
institutions.
Last year,
nearly 280,000 Chinese students were studying in the U.S., according to
the Institute of International Education. It’s not clear how many would
be affected by Rubio’s move. His statement also said that visa criteria
would be revised to “enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications
from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”
Relations
between Beijing and Washington, D.C. have been strained since Trump’s
return to office, with the Republican sparking a trade war between the
two powers through extreme tariffs on Chinese imports.
China’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the move by Rubio, branding it an
“unreasonable” decision hidden behind the guise of ideology and
security concerns.
I thought
conservatives were supposed to believe that businesses determine
business. But here's Chump mucking around and trying to run and destroy
colleges. That's not the duty of the president. But these uneducated
hicks in the administration do not know a thing:
Education
Secretary Linda McMahon provided valuable evidence on national TV that
the Trump administration is targeting universities for illegitimate
political reasons:
Linda McMahon: "Universities
should continue to be able to do research as long as they're abiding by
the laws and in sync, I think, with the administration and what the
administration is trying to accomplish."
We need to reject and rebuke this administration. America's future depends upon learning. Long after a stroke takes that grifter, this country will still be here and we will need intelligent citizens to keep it alive and growing.
Thursday, May 29, 2025. Donnie Dementia doesn't like the phrase "TACO" or the verdict a court just delivered on tariffs, he does like deporting a five-year-old girl who will likely die if she's deported and he likes deporting an evangelical pastor and he likes deporting the daughter of a US veteran born overseas while her father was serving in another country because Chump isn't just a Convicted Felon, he's a cruel and corrupt human being.
President Donald Trump bristled at suggestions that Wall Street believes he’s ultimately unwilling to follow through on extreme tariff threats, saying his repeated retreats are instead part of a strategy to exert trade concessions.
“It’s called negotiation,” Trump said on Wednesday, adding that he intentionally would “set a number at a ridiculous high number” and then “go down a little bit” as part of talks.
Trump was asked during an Oval Office event to respond to reports of a so-called “TACO” trade, in which investors seize on market tumbles after the president makes tariff threats, predicting he will ultimately relent and equities will rebound.
The acronym -- which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out -- was coined by a Financial Times columnist and has since been adopted by traders attempting to navigate the dozens of changes to tariff policy Trump has announced over the early months of his presidency.
Trump Always Chickens Out. Neither the markets nor business people respect Chump. Alison Durkee (FORBES) adds:
Feb. 7 Trump made his first public comments about imposing sweeping tariffs on foreign imports—after already announcing separate tariffs on goods from China, Canada and Mexico—telling reporters he wanted reciprocal tariffs that match the duties countries levy on American goods, saying he wants to make sure “we’re treated evenly” and that “we don’t want any more, any less.”
Feb. 13 Trump signed a memorandum directing his administration to fix its “non-reciprocal trade arrangements” with other countries by “determining the equivalent of a reciprocal tariff with respect to each foreign trading partner,” taking into account what tariffs a country levies on American goods, but also related costs like value-added taxes and nontariff trade barriers like regulations that make it harder for the U.S. to import their goods.
March 26 The Trump administration announced 25% tariffs on imported cars to be imposed starting April 3, with an extension to imported auto parts starting May 3, as Trump suggested the levies would accelerate “tremendous growth in the automobile industry” as automakers build more U.S.-based plants.
March 27 Trump indicated his auto tariffs would be “permanent” throughout his second term.
March 31 White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters there would be “no exemptions at this time” to Trump’s impending tariffs on foreign goods.
April 2 Trump rolled out his tariff policy at a “Liberation Day” event at the White House, releasing details of the plan that showed nearly all countries (even uninhabited ones) facing tariffs ranging from 10% and 50%—but the Trump administration appeared to calculate by just dividing a country’s trade surplus with the U.S. by its export value, rather than the more sophisticated formula the administration claimed (flip-flop No.1 ).
Contrary to Leavitt’s March 31 comments, the executive order imposing the tariffs exempted “copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, lumber articles, certain critical minerals, and energy and energy products” (flip-flop No. 2).
Trump also backtracked on his previous commitment for the U.S. to charge reciprocal tariffs matching the ones other countries impose on American goods, saying in his speech the administration would instead “charge them approximately half of what … [other countries] have been charging us, so the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal,” adding, “I could have done that, I guess, but it would have been tough for a lot of countries and we didn’t want to do that” (flip-flop No. 3).
We will stop with flip-flop number three but, please note, Alison Durkee goes on to compile 21 Chump flip-flops on tariffs since the start of the year.
Trump Always Chickens Out.
The American people agree with that.
Tuesday on CNN (video above), Harry Enten looked at the polling data and explained, "Trump: a clear plan for tariffs and trade? The majority answer here is 'no.' 'No, Donald Trump does not have a clear plan for tariffs and trades.' This is the one thing that perturbs voters and the markets more than anything else. It’s not whether or not you put tariffs on or not. It’s whether you’re going to actually do it and stick to your guns. The American public does not believe that Donald Trump sticks to his guns. 55% say 'No, he does not have a clear plan for trades and tariffs.' And, I will note, of course, the center of the electorate -- the all-important independent vote? 64% of independents say "No, Donald Trump does not have a clear plan for trade and tariffs'."
And the topic only got worse for him late yesterday with a court ruling declaring that Chump doesn't get to override the Constitution and steal the power of tariffs from the US Congress. Lawrence O'Donnell explains it in the video below.
Pope Leo XIV has subtly made a plea to President Donald Trump to hurry up and do something about Vladimir Putin, after Russia launched a huge drone strike on Ukraine.
In his latest tweet-posting spree, the man once known as Robert Prevost doubled down on his appeals for the U.S. president to fulfill his promise to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
“The people of Ukraine have been struck by fresh, serious attacks,” the Chicago-born pontiff wrote on X Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Russia hit Ukraine with the biggest drone and missile attacks since Putin launched a full-scale invasion in early 2022. The aerial assault of 367 drones and missiles killed at least 12 people—including three children.
Remember Chump's campaign promise to end that war on day one?
Day one.
Check my math but I believe this is day 139. So he couldn't pull it off on day one. And 138 days extra and he still can't pull it off.
“Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after we all together win the presidency, we will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled. It will be settled. The war is going to be settled. I’ll get them both. I know Zelensky, I know Putin. It’ll be done within 24 hours, you watch.”
“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War. The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.”
— President Trump, in a social media post, May 19
Over and over during the presidential campaign, Trump pledged to end the three-year war between Russia and Ukraine — which began when Russia invaded its neighbor. He made it seem easy — “within 24 hours” — and repeated that claim in campaign rally after campaign rally. As shown above, he sometimes suggested he could cut a deal before he even took the oath of office, citing the relations he forged with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin during his first term.
Emotional. That's what Putin calls Chump now. Emotional.
As the intersection of the Trump administration’s offensive against immigrants and higher education rests a misguided new policy. As NBC News reported, the president’s team this week “stopped scheduling new interviews for international students seeking visas to study in the United States,” as the State Department prepares a new effort to screen students’ social media accounts.
Evidently, students found to have expressed the “wrong” ideas will be excluded from American colleges and universities.
A day after his administration advanced this policy, Donald Trump was pressed for an explanation. It went badly — not because the president offered a weak defense, but because he didn’t seem to know what the reporter was talking about.
Asked specifically when his administration might resume interviews for foreign student visas, Trump responded, “On what?” Reminded that she was asking about foreign student visas, Trump asked, “For the French?” possibly in reference to the reporter’s accent.
When he eventually figured out what the question was about, he offered an evasive “we’re gonna see,” before changing the subject and whining anew about Harvard.
Watching the exchange, it was hard not to get the impression that he simply didn’t know about his administration’s new policy on foreign student visas — which has proven to be a familiar problem in this White House.
However, according to several polling results following the election, the then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris secured the vote among younger age groups. Trump, though, did gain ground, especially among the youth male vote, which they both targeted while on the campaign trail.
A CBS News poll compiling exit poll results found that voters between the ages of 18 to 29 picked Harris by 54% to 43%, while those aged 30 to 44 chose Harris by 51% to 47%.
And a Navigator Research analysis, which compiled data from 5,000 self-reported general election voters, detailed that Americans under the age of 30 voted for Harris by four more percentage points.
President Donald Trump's immigration enforcers have reportedly arrested the daughter of a U.S. veteran.
Alma Bowman, 58, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March during a scheduled check-in at its Atlanta field office, according to Atlanta News First. She has been living in the country since she was 10 years old.
"She is an American citizen, and to lock her up in immigration detention is deeply offensive to her humanity, to the Constitution, and is just plain wrong," family attorney Samantha Hamilton, of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, told Newsweek.
[. . .]
Family attorney Samantha Hamilton told Newsweek: "Alma is one of thousands of people across the world who have been born to U.S. citizens in countries where the U.S. has erected military outposts, but whom have not been recognized as U.S. citizens. The plight of 'Amerasians' has been widely studied. But in Alma's case, her father legitimated her, brought her to the U.S., and she has lived in Macon, Georgia since she was 10 years old."
Representative Hank Johnson said: "She's an American citizen. That has been clearly established. The fact that one of her parents was an American means that she is an American."
Gabriela USA and Malaya Movement USA said in a joint statement issued in March: "Her detainment is a major cause of concern due to her ongoing medical issues, even being hospitalized just last week which has resulted in her needing to use a wheelchair."
A critically ill Mexican girl who could die within days if her treatment is paused has been ordered by the Trump administration to leave the U.S., according to her family and doctor.
Deysi Vargas’s 4-year-old daughter, named only as Sofia in a GoFundMe page, urgently required better medical care for a life-threatening condition and was granted temporary humanitarian permission to enter the U.S. from her home country of Mexico in 2023, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Sofia has short bowel syndrome, a rare condition that stops her from absorbing nutrients in food. When she was born in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, she had to be attached to feeding tubes 24 hours a day. Since moving to the U.S., her condition has significantly improved, but she still requires treatment every day.
Now the Trump administration has ordered Sofia’s deportation, leaving her at risk of death, an attorney representing the family said.
“This is a textbook example of medical need,” Rebecca Brown of the pro bono firm Public Counsel told the paper. “This child will die and there’s no sense for that to happen. It would just be a cruel sacrifice.”
The family is currently living in Bakersfield, California, just over 100 miles north of Los Angeles.
The threat to Sofia’s life was confirmed by Dr. John Arsenault of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where she receives regular treatment every six weeks.
But Chump's willing to kill her. Not even a two-dolls for Christmas miser sentiment offered for this young girl. If you wonder why so many people hate Chump around the world -- or even just in this country -- look no further than his efforts to deport this little four year old girl who has done nothing to hurt anyone and who will most likely die if she's tossed out of the country.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: If you live out by the Little Manatee River in the swamplands south of Tampa, you probably know the name Maurilio Ambrocio. He's an evangelical pastor at a local church. He's lived here for 20 years. Ambrocio also owns a landscaping business. And a few weeks ago, news about him spread fast.
GREG JOHNS: We were helping a neighbor, and he said, did you hear? I was like, hear what? He said, he heard that Maurilio got deported. I was like, what? What did you just say?
GARSD: This is Maurilio Ambrocio's neighbor, Greg Johns. His eyes water as he recalls when Hurricane Milton hit last year. Ambrocio called to ask if he was OK.
JOHNS: Do you need propane? Do you need water? What do you need? That's the type of neighbor - you know, this man is a part of the neighborhood.
GARSD: Johns says he voted for President Trump last November. In fact, he did so at Ambrocio's church, which doubles as a polling booth.
JOHNS: I did. I did because I was not happy with, you know, some of the direction that the country was going.
GARSD: He was hoping migrants with criminal records would be targeted, but this, he said, this is not what he expected.
JOHNS: You're going to take, you know, a community leader, a pastor, a hardworking man. What, did you need a number that day?
GARSD: That day was April 18. Ambrocio had gone in for one of his mandatory check-ins with immigration agents. Pastor Ambrocio has a form of legal protection called a stay, and that means although he entered the U.S. unlawfully, he's allowed to stay as long as he meets with immigration officials who ask him if he's still employed and hasn't committed any crimes. But on April 18, that didn't matter. He was detained. NPR reached out to ICE to ask why Ambrocio was detained this time around. In an email, they said, because he was in the U.S. illegally. They didn't clarify why now. Here's Ambrocio's wife, Marleny.
MARLENY AMBROCIO: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "For my five children," she says, "it's like the world ended."
(SOUNDBITE OF EGG FRYING)
GARSD: While she fries an egg for breakfast, she tells me she dreams about her husband every night. Last night, she says, he knocked on the door of their trailer home. "In the dream, he bought me perfume."
M AMBROCIO: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "And he started spraying it on me. I giggled, and I said, Maurilio, when did they release you?"
M AMBROCIO: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "But he didn't respond. He just looked at me silently." And then she woke up to the very real problems her husband's detention has left them with.
M AMBROCIO: (Speaking Spanish).
GARSD: "How are we going to eat?" she asks, "to pay the bills?" Maurilio was the breadwinner. All of his children are American citizens. The four youngest are still in school. Nineteen-year-old Ashley is now the only one with a job - several jobs, in fact.
We walk out to the field, away from the trailer and her mother. A thunderstorm is coming. The cicadas scream and a hot breeze runs through the Spanish moss. Like many young Americans whose migrant parents have been detained, the burden to provide for her family now falls on her. She's had to take over her dad's landscaping business, learning payroll, coordinating job assignments and speaking to his clients. She's also taken on a lot of his pastoral duties at church, and she's a hostess at a restaurant.
It's cruel, it's inhumane. And there are thousands of reported examples and many more examples that aren't reported. This is not what people thought they were voting for.
As we noted yesterday, he's also trying to toss Dylan out of the country. This is the young man who worked so hard in the last year to get an apartment for his family and pay rent so that they could leave the homeless shelter. This is the hard working, focused young person that America needs. Unless you're Donald Chump. Taylor Odisho (LATIN TIMES) reports:
A Venezuelan high school student who arrived in the U.S. seeking asylum in April 2024, during President Joe Biden's term, was detained by federal immigration authorities following an immigration court hearing on May 21.
Dylan is a 20-year-old student at Ellis Prep High School who entered the States with permission to seek asylum under policies enacted during then-President Biden's administration, CBS News reported. Through the program, Dylan was granted protected status, meaning he could apply for work and driver's learn permits, while he awaited his court date.
Dylan enrolled in a high school program for older newcomers, despite graduating in Venezuela, because he wanted to attend college in the U.S. He saved enough money as a delivery driver while attending English and preparatory classes to move his mother and his two younger siblings out of a homeless shelter and into their own apartment.
However, everything changed when asylum-seeking Dylan was detained last week. A spokesperson for New York Legal Assistance Group stated the young man's detention "robs him of the opportunity to pursue that relief with the full protections afforded to him under the law."
New York City's corrupt mayor Eric Adams refuses to intercede. But then, Chump kept Adams from going to prison so why would Eric Adams do anything that would cross Sugar Daddy Chump?
We've been noting Chump's pay-for-play pardons this week. Ann noted three more of them last night in "Grifters Chump, the Chrisleys, Walczak." Another one to add to the list: Michael Grimm. Remember him?
President Trump has signed off on a full pardon for former Rep. Michael Grimm of New York, according to a White House official.
Grimm, a Republican, was convicted in November 2014 of tax fraud and related charges stemming from his ownership of a Manhattan restaurant before joining Congress. Prosecutors said he underreported wages and revenue to the government, and that he filed false tax documents. Grimm was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Prior to being paralyzed last November, Grimm was a NEWS MAX personality who regularly and repeatedly attacked Kamala Harris while singing the praises of Donald Chump. Quid pro quo. Payback for such 'valuable' 'insights' as saying Kamala wants to "destroy the country" and being a bobblehead gas bag in the unintentionally hilarious film THE PERSECUTION OF DONALD TRUMP. It's always pay-for-play with Chump.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Trump, DOGE service cuts will require people to make nearly 2 million additional trips to understaffed Social Security field offices each year
In 31 states, over 25% of seniors must travel over an hour to access nearest Social Security field office
Washington, D.C. – A new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities revealed that recent cuts to Social Security phone services are forcing long, unnecessary travel burdens on seniors and other beneficiaries.
The Trump Administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE made cuts to Social Security Administration (SSA) phone service, including removing the ability to change direct deposit and other banking information over the phone. These changes will require Americans to make nearly 2 million additional trips to already-understaffed Social Security field offices each year — resulting in hours of wasted time, money spent on gas, and more.
The new analysis found that half of all seniors must drive at least 33 minutes to visit a field office, and nearly a quarter of seniors (13.5 million) live more than an hour round trip from their nearest office. Further, an estimated over 6 million seniors do not drive, and nearly 8 million seniors report a medical condition or disability that makes it hard to travel.
Earlier this year, DOGE identified dozens of Social Security Administration offices across the country it proposed to close — which would make accessing offices even more difficult and time-consuming for Americans.
Senate Dems’ Social Security War Room is a coordinated effort to fight back against the Trump administration’s attack on Americans’ Social Security. The War Room coordinates messaging across the Senate Democratic Caucus and external stakeholders; encourages grassroots engagement by providing opportunities for Americans to share what Social Security means to them; and educates Senate staff, the American public, and stakeholders about Republicans’ agenda and their continued cuts to Americans’ Social Security services and benefits.
