3/13/2025

ruth marcus details why she left the 'washington post'

cheryl

 


that's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Cheryl Hines Explains Junior" from last night.



'ruth marcus and the death of 'the washington post'' went up tuesday night and want to continue coverage on that topic.  liam reilly ('cnn') reports:


Ruth Marcus, who recently resigned as a Washington Post columnist after four decades, said she parted ways with the paper following a spiked opinion piece on the paper’s billionaire owner because her job is to tell readers “what I think, not what Jeff Bezos thinks I should think.”
In a New Yorker piece that was published less than 48 hours after her resignation, Marcus shared more details about the events that led to her departure — and raised concerns about what Bezos’ changes could mean for the future of the paper’s opinion coverage. The New Yorker piece also includes a column written by Marcus that was spiked by the Post’s chief executive and publisher Will Lewis.
One week ago, Bezos announced the opinion section would focus on two “pillars,” personal liberties and free markets, while “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.” Several Post staffers have publicly called out the change, which is reported to have led to 75,000 readers ending their subscriptions in less than 48 hours, and opinion editor David Shipley resigned after being asked to lead the overhauled opinion desk. Marcus’ blocked piece only gently raised issues with Bezos’ overhaul.

i checked to see if girlish glenneth greenwald has tweeted about this?

remember when he parted with 'the intercept' and wanted every 1's support?

well he doesn't give a damn about any 1 but his own dainty swamp ass. 


Besides revealing the column that led to her abrupt departure from the Post, Marcus asserted in a separate piece for The New Yorker that her former employer also didn’t run another critique of Bezos’s edict that his paper’s opinion section will concentrate on supporting personal liberties and free markets.

Noting that other columnists successfully tested Bezos’s new demand, such as Dana Milbank’s “clever column” that said if they were “to defend Bezos’s twin pillars” then they must “redouble our fight against the single greatest threat to ‘personal liberties and free markets’ in the United States today: President Donald Trump,” Marcus wrote that another writer was not so lucky.

“Our media critic, Erik Wemple, was less fortunate,” she asserted. “His straightforward column disagreeing with the Bezos announcement — I read it in our internal system, and found it perfectly reasonable — never ran.”
A spokesperson for The Washington Post did not respond to a request for comment. Wemple declined to comment.

Explaining why she decided to write her column that “respectfully” dissented with the billionaire owner’s new opinion direction, Marcus pointed out that she had already “spoken out forcefully against” Bezos’s decision to kill the editorial board’s endorsement of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, which inevitably led to hundreds of thousands of canceled subscriptions.

“Censoring columnists was way worse. Having written then, how could I stay silent and live with myself now? Still, I hesitated,” she noted. “Since Trump’s Inauguration, I had been writing at a furious pace, assailing his blizzard of executive orders, his assaults on the rule of law, his dismantling of the Justice Department, which I had covered as a young reporter. Was speaking out on Bezos important enough to risk losing the platform that the Post provided?”


and let me note this, 'On Wednesday, Marcus added another critique of Bezos: she was not a fan of him appearing alongside other tech executives at President Trump's inauguration in January. She said it was "inappropriate" for Bezos to have "conveyed a message of support for Trump".'

agree.  a publisher of a newspaper should not be at any inauguration.   that was appalling.

and so is girl power glenneth greenwald.  each day, he makes clear what a putz he is and what a liar he is and what a fake he is.

ruth's in the same situation that he was and he can't even tweet support for her.  but the drama queen wanted us all to stop everything to defend him.  i did.  you can be sure i would never, ever do that again.  fraud.


let's close with c.i.'s 'The Snapshot:'


Thursday, March 13, 2025.  Realities and perception -- touching on hair and make up in your presentation -- the difference between helping someone and making a political point, the danger that Junior has become to our country during the measles outbreak, we note the passing of a nut job,  and much more.


Let's deal with some e-mails quickly.  I'm awful and I'm a hypocrite over the Syrian-born Palestinian a few of you e-mailing the public account insist.

I may be awful.  I've copped to being a bitch and said repeatedly that I'm not a nice person. I've said that here since 2005, check the archives.

As for hypocrisy?


No.  That would be the Gaza Freaks.


My take has always been -- go back to 2004 and you'll see it here -- we should welcome everyone to this country . . . except those coming to this country to try to start up conflict with another country.  Think some of the Cuban exiles.


If a Cuban wants to come to this country, I will gladly welcome them.  Unless they get here and then use our country to try to pimp their war with Cuba.  You want to come this country?  Great, you're welcome to and I'm glad to have you up until you're pushing actions against whatever country you hate.  

Mike's "Those dangerous skies (and I'm not in the mood for our latest flavor of political martyr)" is worth reading and he talks about his anger over this issue. 


So the activist who's now facing deportation?  I agree with Mike, he should have kept his damn mouth shut.  Don't come to the US and start trying to get us involved in your personal war.  As Mike said, American students on campuses want to protest the genocide?  More power to you.  I applauded you and covered you for months and months and months here.  

But I never knowingly covered a foreigner on US campuses taking part in the protests.

I've studied abroad and had the good sense and manners to know my place.  I was a guest in a country and I acted accordingly.  

"His people!"


The wife's emerged finally.


She wants you to know that he was defending "his people."


They are his people?  Great.  Go there.  Go to your people.  You're not an American, you're not an American citizen.  Those are your people?  Well love them and protect them, go there and help.  Get the hell out of this country and so he can go work to help "his people."

I have no problem with Americans being vocal and demanding an action on an issue.  


I also have no problem with immigrants making demands regarding immigration.  I have a huge problem with people coming over here to this country and using it as a base for their petty wars and grievances.  Again, that's not new and I've gone over this over and over.  I've also opposed anyone having citizenship to more than one country.  


You can disagree with those positions and you can think I'm stupid and you can think I'm wrong -- and I'm often wrong --, but there's no hypocrisy there.  I am very consistent.  

We'll come back to this topic.

Let's move to Gavin.  I know Gavin Newsom and have noted that many, many times.  He's taken a repugnant stand on transgender people.  I have posted many videos here about that.  I have not commented which has one person insisting I'm covering up for Gavin.  


If I were covering up for him, I wouldn't have posted the videos calling him out.  I really liked Gavin up until that moment.  I've known him for years and years. I'm enraged by his new position and far too angry to write about it.  I know him going back to his first marriage.  I do not trust that I would be able to write rationally or fairly about him at present.  I am sure I would surface many buried bodies if I wrote about him right now.


B-b-but, you should!  He might be president!


He's never going to be president.  Never.  It's not happening.  California is seen as a crisis under his watch outside of our state.  That's first of all.


Second of all, he doesn't listen to me.  I'm fairly blunt.  I've told him for years to lose that ridiculous hairdo -- but women love to run their fingers through it!!! I don't think they do, I've had many conversations with both of his wives over the years and with many women who dated him.


Gavin's really the only one that likes that ridiculous hairdo.  I didn't like it on Barbara Bush when she was First Lady and I don't like it on Gavin. 


It's a joke and it makes him a joke.  And I've not only pointed that out in person, Ava and I covered it when he went on Chelsea Handler's NETFLIX talk show.  It's cine worthy and plays into the negative portrayal of him as out of touch and not wanting to be part of regular people. 

But he's an idiot and doesn't listen.  I see Stephen Jenkins has gone back to normal hair ("Third Eye Blind: Tiny Desk Concert" just went up this morning). Love Stephan but he was an idiot for going with that ridiculous George Washington hair -- not unlike Gavin.  Third Eye Blind was riding high of a great album and multiple hits.  But then he decided to end the look that the audience lapped up and debut, with BLUE, that awful hairdo. They never recovered their momentum.  


Gavin has bad hair and way too much baggage.

 

My guess is he's trying to reshape himself publicly for a run in 2028.  I don't think he'll get the nomination.  

And I'll probably work strongly against him if he does try for the nomination.  And while my record getting people awards and offices may not be strong, I do know how to organize and kill someone's chances.  So I'm not really worried about Gavin and, unless he decides to run for the presidential nomination, that's all I intend to say about him.

I'm mean and I never say anything nice or do anything nice -- argues an e-mail.


Really?  I'm not a nice person, I admit that.  But never do anything nice?


I'm thinking of a man who passed away.  The late John Conyers introduced me to him a little over 20 years ago.  His death really wasn't noted.  And I was being kind -- or thought I was -- by not noting it here.  Maybe I should?  Maybe it would teach the Gaza Freaks a lesson about how you run off people from your causes.  Because that's what he did.  A very intelligent person.  Dedicated to so many good causes -- and a few nutty conspiracies.


We highlighted him for years.  He'd send something to the public account.  Sometimes he'd send it and I wouldn't note it or wouldn't note it fast enough and he'd call me personally to complain. 


As the years passed, he got nuttier and nuttier.  And I still highlighted him.  Even though it resulted in many complaints -- because he was getting so nutty.  


We finally did drop him.  And he called to gripe and wanted to know why and I told him he was spreading lies.  He screamed back over the phone that I was "a gatekeeper!"  I was preventing the free flow of information.  


No.  


I wasn't going to allow your lies up here.  


A political opinion that I disagreed with?  Sure.  No problem.


But lies?  Lies about science?  Conspiracy theories that were so laughable and so bad.


I'm sorry you went nutty but you did.  And you lost the ability to speak with people as a result.


He was nuts at the end.  At the end he was Naomi Wolf.  Prior to that, he had a strong mind and could make strong political arguments -- some of which I agreed with, some of which I didn't.  But I'm not interested in chemtrail conspiracies or lies about vaccinations. I'm not interested in the nutty.


Gaza Freaks, you'll are on the same path.  There is not enough support in the US to get what you want.  And, what's worse, your behavior in the lead up to the presidential election turned off a large group of people who previously worked to support you.


You are as crazy -- as bats**t crazy -- as Francis A. Boyle was at the end (he's the nut job who recently died that I was referencing above).  


Now I don't want to keep writing about the Syrian-born Palestinian.  Mainly because I don't like bulls**t. And I'm tired of reading and hearing copy that's coming from the man's attorney.  That's not journalism.  (Check out WIKIPEDIA's laughable entry where his claims are presented as fact and claims from others are just claims.  That's not reality.  Both sides are making claims at this point -- his attorney and the government.) And it's going to get so bad that I'll end up making the case for him to be deported and doing so better than Chump's idiotic administration can -- which is why I don't plan on writing about this topic again.


The reason we're starting with this is because when I saw the coverage of the ugly wife yesterday, I again had to ponder: How stupid is this attorney?


Francis Boyle thought he could act the fool and people would support him.  That's not reality and that's not the world we live in.


The attorney for the Palestinian doesn't grasp reality.  There is no excuse for the malpractice she's carrying out in terms of the court of public opinion.


I don't care how devout the wife is or not.  You tell the idiot to change her clothes and to put on some make up.


This is not about how you worship. This is about connecting with Americans and getting attention and support for your husband.

The clothes she wore for the camera?  She could have worn the exact same clothes but in an appealing color and fabric instead of looking like she was wearing a feedsack.


Her skin was awful.  She needed make up.  Men wear make up when on camera.  Ronald Regan did -- and I'm talking after he was done acting.  The reason is to look natural.  

At the very least, someone should have put mascara on her.


This is not where you make the case for 'my religion and I'm devout.'  This is where you try to get everyone who catches you to relate to you.  You don't put up barriers.


You're pregnant and your husband's being deported?  Start reaching for people's emotions.  And to do that, you can't put up a wall by looking like some Amish person from the 18th century. 


There is no way the wife is as ugly as she photographed yesterday.  You're in front of the camera, put some make up on so people watching without any opinion yet are thinking, "That poor woman, she looks so vulnerable and in pain.  I can't imagine how I'd get through that."  That's what you want and that's the only thing that's going to help your husband.  You've got an idiot for an attorney.  She should have told you to put on some make up -- even if it was just mascara -- so you would look normal to the people watching.  Instead, your bare face looked ugly -- and, again, she's probably not ugly.  But when you go in front of the camera, man or woman, for a planned interview, you're generally wearing make up.  She didn't have to look like she spent a half hour at the Clinique counter, but she needed some make up.  

I've noted before where friends have asked my input on their clients.  I've noted before where I've advised on wardrobe in court and on hair and make up.  I do know what I'm talking about.


Time and again, freaks -- like Boyle -- want to prove their point.


That's not me.  That's not how I handle it.  Again, the war resisters that self-checked out and got my help are in Canada and aren't at any threat of being expelled.  That's because my goal during the Iraq War was to keep them safe.  I wasn't going to -- and didn't -- use them to make points on the Iraq War.  I was opposed to the Iraq War and could call it out -- and did day after day both here and on campuses across the country.  That didn't mean I was using people who self-checked out to make my point.


This was about their lives and their safety.  And so what we focused on was that and how we could get citizenship for them.  Too many others wanted to use a Joshua Key or a Darrell Anderson to make a political point  That may have helped you feel good about yourself but it didn't help those attempting to live in Canada.  No one we helped got deported.  No one we helped has ever been threatened with deportation.  

Sometimes you get too lost in trying to make a statement that you're really not helping the people who need help. 


Francis fell into that trap as did the Gaza Freaks. 


I'm not going to doom a person to make a political point.  That's not helping them.  And pretending the world is at a point it's not yet at is being an idiot and a danger to the people you say you want to help.


Moving on, depending upon the time zone you are in,  Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Cheryl Hines Explains Junior" went up last night or this morning.


cheryl


Cheryl Hines, the disgusting wife of Junior.  Robert Kennedy Junior is a nut job and an embarrassment.  So naturally Donald Chump picked him for HHS.  First, let me applaud him.  Last time we noted him, I pointed out that the Secretary of Health and Human Services should post at the government website his thoughts on immunizations, not take the attitude that writing a column for FOX "NEWS" qualifies for a Cabinet Secretary.  Guess what?  He has posted the column at HHS finally.


It should have gone up there immediately but maybe this was a wobbly foot taking a first step?  I'll be kind and we'll just move on to the larger issues of Junior being unqualified. 




An unearthed report showed that Health and Human Service Secretary Robert F. Kennedy shared "inaccurate" information about a CDC Advisor Committee on vaccines, as many believe he was laying the groundwork for dismissing its members.

In recent interviews, Kennedy has claimed, "I think 97% of the people on it had conflicts. I think we need to end those conflicts and make sure that scientists are doing unobstructed science."

However, after reviewing the 2009 report and speaking to people involved with the committee, NPR determined that Kennedy's assertion was "inaccurate."

"Right now, what we're getting is a total misrepresentation of a 20-year-old report, about a process that was already being improved before that report was issued," former CDC Director Tom Friedman told NPR.


Did he not grasp that there were serious trust issues with regards to him being the head of this cabinet post?  Those concerns are not made better when you're caught lying.  We have the worst measles outbreak in years and people looking for reassurance that the Secretary of Health and Human Services is (a) on the job and (b) knows what they're doing.  When Donna Shalala served in that post, no one questioned her knowledge base, her qualifications or how she did her job.  For eight years, she did a solid job, demonstrated real leadership and kept the American people informed.  It's too bad Junior's struggling.  And that he's struggling at a time when the country especially needs a health czar.  Neha Mukherjee (CNN) explains, "At least two pregnant women have been infected in this outbreak, according to officials at Covenant Hospital in Lubbock. Eighty-one measles cases have been reported in children ages 4 and younger across Texas and New Mexico. This is part of the larger outbreak that now spans three states, including Oklahoma, and totals 258 reported cases."  The World Health Organization notes:



The virus is so contagious that 90% of people who are not immune and who come into contact with an infected person will become infected and develop the disease.

Measles is normally spread through direct contact and through the air. The virus infects the respiratory tract and then spreads throughout the body.

The measles virus can live for up to 2 hours on a surface or in the air. If other people breathe in the contaminated air or touch the infected surface and then their eyes, nose or mouth, they can become infected. An infected person can spread the virus even before they have typical symptoms (e.g. rash).

Measles infects the respiratory tract and then spreads throughout the body. Symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose and a rash all over the body. Measles is a highly contagious and potentially serious disease.

Most deaths from measles are from complications related to the disease. Complications are most common in children under 5 years and adults over age 30.

One in 5 children infected with the measles virus may develop severe complications.

Complications can include:

blindness
encephalitis (an infection causing brain swelling and potentially brain damage)
severe diarrhoea and related dehydration
ear infections that can lead to permanent deafness
severe breathing problems including pneumonia.
Measles infection has also been shown to weaken a person’s immune system, making it more difficult for them to fight off other diseases for months or even years after being sick with measles.

If a woman catches measles during pregnancy, this can be dangerous for the mother and can result in her baby being born prematurely with a low birth weight.

The only way to stop measles is to prevent it through vaccination. Measles vaccine is safe and effective. Two doses of measles-containing vaccine (MR/measles-rubella) provide 97% protection from infection and the potentially serious consequences of the disease. For most people this protection is lifelong.


Pretty straight and forward, pretty cut and dry -- the same can't be said of Junior or his oversight at present.  Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:



Health care professionals are torching Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s response to a slew of measles cases popping up across the country.

The health and human services secretary suggested Monday that a poor diet could have been behind the death of a West Texas child who contracted measles.

“It’s very, very difficult for measles to kill a healthy person,” Kennedy told The New York Times, adding that there is “a correlation between people who get hurt by measles and people who don’t have good nutrition or who don’t have a good exercise regimen.”

Kennedy’s comment, however, belied the fact that the most vulnerable populations to die from measles are unvaccinated children.

“To be crystal clear: 1. Measles is a nasty disease,” an epidemiologist under the handle @HealthNerd posted on BlueSky. “2. You cannot treat measles with antibiotics or cod liver oil. 3. The measles vaccine is very safe and highly effective, as shown by the ELIMINATION OF THE DISEASE IN THE US FOR 25 YEARS. 4. RFK Jr. is an ignorant fool.”



In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity broadcast Tuesday, Kennedy said “natural immunity” after getting a measles infection is more effective at providing lasting protection against the disease. However, Kennedy left out that the dangers of catching the disease outweigh the advantage of immunity, according to doctors.

“It used to be when you and I were kids, everybody got measles,” Kennedy told Hannity. “And measles gave you protection, lifetime protection against measles infection. The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people, for life, but many people it wanes.”

RFK Jr: "It used to be that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection. The vaccine doesn't do that ... it used to be that very young kids were protected by breast milk. Women who get vaccinated do not provide that level of immunity."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)2025-03-12T01:41:30.330Z


Despite Kennedy’s claims, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the majority of people who have had the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccines will be protected for life. The CDC also has guidance for people it recommends should be revaccinated.

Dr. Ashish K. Jha (TIME) explains, "Contrary to statements by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., outbreaks of this deadly disease are highly unusual. The U.S. declared measles eliminated more than 20 years ago, thanks to an exceptionally safe and effective vaccine. But efforts to undermine confidence in that vaccine have contributed to these recent outbreaks. There are things we can do, individually and collectively, to protect our most vulnerable and hopefully eliminate measles in this country again."









Did you ever think we'd knowingly put a quack and a nut job in charge of Health and Human Services?  Natalie Neysa Alund (USA TODAY) reports:


Two more states are reporting they are now part of the escalating measles outbreaks across the U.S.

Oklahoma health officials on Tuesday reported two cases of the highly contagious infectious disease in the state while health officials more than 1,500 miles northeast in Vermont reported one confirmed case of the virus there.
The two cases in Oklahoma are being reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as probable cases "due to exposure associated with the Texas and New Mexico outbreak" and because the victims are experiencing symptoms consistent with measles, the Oklahoma State Department of Health said.



Instead of pulling a Shalala, Junior's off playing nut job again.  David Edwards (RAW STORY) explains, "

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly was in contact with a Texas historian who helped support the distribution of unproven measles remedies amid an outbreak in the state.

Texas historian Tina Siemens told Mother Jones that Kennedy contacted her last week to discuss health concerns in the Mennonite community.
"Siemens said she had been working with a clinic called Veritas Wellness in Lubbock, Texas, to distribute medications, including Vitamin C, cod liver oil, and the inhaled steroid budesonide," the magazine reported.
Siemens was connected to an online fundraiser that claimed it would be "used to defray the cost of essential vitamins, supplements, and medicines necessary to treat children enduring complications from the measles virus and other illnesses."


Senator Ron Wyden's office issued the following statement:

Washington, D.C. –U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today called for immediate action from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy, Jr. to stop the spread of measles and save lives after our country experienced the first measles deaths in a decade.  

Measles, once declared eliminated in the U.S. over two decades ago, has infected at least 223 individuals in 13 U.S. jurisdictions. 

“Unfortunately, two of these cases have resulted in the tragic deaths of a child in Texas and a resident in New Mexico. These mark the first U.S. deaths from measles in 10 years. It is imperative that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) act immediately and robustly to stop the spread of this preventable infection and save American lives,” the senators wrote in a letter to Secretary Kennedy. 

To prevent further infections and protect vulnerable populations, the lawmakers pressed Kennedy to increase vaccination rates: “More must be done to increase vaccination rates against measles. Clear communication that vaccines work is imperative to build trust and increase uptake of vaccinations, ultimately saving lives. Therefore, it is critical that HHS utilize its authorities to promote vaccination against measles as the most effective way to prevent infection to improve vaccination rates and prevent future outbreaks.”

Stressing the importance of reinstating public health workers indiscriminately fired by the Trump administration, the senators concluded, “We urgently request that you reinstate all fired federal health workers and protect those remaining from termination to help stop the spread of measles and other infectious diseases.”

 In addition to Wyden and Merkley, the letter was led by Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and signed by Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Fetterman (D-PA), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.). 

Full text of the letter is here.





The following sites updated:


Posted by at

3/12/2025

the death penalty

i'm some 1 who does not believe in the death penalty other than when it comes to people who try to overthrow our government.  i think the death penalty should be outlawed for many reasons.

1) juries and judges can make mistake.  think of all the times you've read of someone in prison for 10 or 20 years that ends up being innocent.  if you execute some 1 ... i couldn't convict in a case with the death penalty.  i don't have that kind of sureness.

2) it's inhuman.  we need to be better than that.  



A federal judge halted Louisiana’s first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was scheduled to take place next week.

U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, stopping the state from immediately moving forward with the execution — which would have been Louisiana's first execution in 15 years. Attorney General Liz Murrill said the state will immediately appeal the decision.

i think it needs to be reviewed, in fact, i think all such decisions should be reviewed and i'd argue by the court system.  




David Leonard Wood. Jessie Hoffman. Aaron Gunches. Wendell Grissom. Edward Thomas James. Moises Sandoval Mendoza.

So many names. So many dead men walking. Ten days, five states, six death row prisoners scheduled for execution.
For a decade now, capital punishment in the US has been on the wane. Last year, for the 10th year running, there were fewer than 30 executions in America, and the number of new death sentences is also tracking at historic lows.

And yet. Among the rump of death penalty states – “killing states”, as detractors call them – the desire to keep on going seems to burn stronger every year.

Some state corrections departments are firing up their death chambers after decades of leaving them mothballed. Others are turning to new experimental execution methods such as nitrogen gas, or reviving long-discarded techniques – on Friday, South Carolina carried out the first firing squad execution in the US for 15 years.

The result is a landscape of capital punishment that is as riven as is the country as a whole. Across vast swathes, the practice is officially, or in effect, moribund. In pockets of the country, there is a frenzied scramble to get back into the death business.

so tomorrow evening, the latest cycle kicks off with david leonard wood in texas. 6 executions in a row.  and no 1 sees a problem with this?  ir's enough to make you lose all hope in humanity. 


lets close with c.i.'s 'The Snapshot:'


Wednesday, March 12, 2025.  Msuk loses money, Chump attacks school kids and much more.


Let's start with this:

For a week and a half, Kayla Somarriba and her husband Jeison Ruiz Rodriguez noticed suspicious vehicles circling their Spokane Valley block. Some were marked as federal law enforcement vehicles, others were clandestine. The couple was getting nervous. 

“With everything going on, we’re gonna be paranoid,” Somarriba said. “You see this serious car, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, what’s going on?’ But it was way too much. It’s one thing to see it once or twice, but it was just something that we would see almost daily.”

But she did not expect that federal agents would soon pull them over, break through the windows of their white Chevy Silverado, drag Ruiz Rodriguez and his brother Cesar from the vehicle and sweep them to a federal immigration jail in Tacoma after injuring the brothers with a Taser and a rifle.

The Ruiz Rodriguezes are migrants from Nicaragua; Somarriba was born in Miami.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents have been working in the Inland Northwest — as they have across the country — with agencies as far-flung as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to detain and deport migrants. It’s part of President Donald Trump’s chaotic effort to rid the country of immigrants the administration says are here illegally. 


Hey, if we spread a rumor that they're Palestinian, you think they'd get media coverage and protests.  Or does the White student getting all the attention just prove to be the 1% himself?  I guess he'd have to be, right?  He went to Columbia, after all.  Not an easy school to get into or to afford.  But let's drop everything and pretend like we're not being fed by his attorney -- which we are even when they say things like "we came across e-mails . . ."  No, you were fed them by his attorney.

And I can't figure out if that woman's inept or not?  She certainly created a media storm -- RAH RAH RAH -- but she can't get wifey on camera.  Wifey, when she speaks to the press, won't even give her name.

Does no one understand perception management?

You're trying to get attention for your client and his pregnant wife won't reveal her name?  

They're may not be anything wrong there but it doesn't look right and it doesn't play right. 

What it does do is foster doubt among people following the story as they wonder, "What's this American hiding?" 

I have no idea.  Maybe it's not really a marriage or it's a common-law marriage?  Maybe another man got her pregnant and she's afraid he'll step forward and say this was a green card scam?  Maybe the attorney's incompetent? Or maybe the wife or 'wife' is just really dumb and can't get it through her head that if she's trying to help her husband, she needs to be an open book including her name.  

What we know at present and she'll speak to sympathetic, pre-selected journalists who agree not to name her.

As a general rule when your clients is attempting to sway in the court of public opinion, you don't let the spouse dictate ground rules for the press.

But, again, the average immigrant that is being harassed and terrorized was not someone wealthy enough to go an ivy league school -- let alone one with a tuition cost where four years undergrad could buy two nice houses in most states. 

But keep marching and rallying for your 1%-er while you ignore the actual immigrants in need.

It's no different, this glorification and rally of support around one person, than the same instinct which apparently led US military veteran Ty Vaughn to Google whether or not you can get away with killing an immigrant before shooting Luis Banos Norberto in the head.  Ty got the message of hate from Donald Chump and he gets the message tat Latino immigrants don't matter from Gaza Freaks who can't be bothered to protest or speak out unless it's someone that they deem one of their own.  That's the message being sent and it's the message that's responsible for Luis Banos Norberto's murder at the age of 27. 

But ignore that, ignore New Jersey's Emine Emanet and Celal Emanet.as well as so many others.  And then wonder, Gaza Freaks, why you're seen as single-issue voters and no one outside of your bubble has any respect for you at all.  With you, as with Chump, it's all transactional.

And, ZETEO and others, stop e-mailing your garbage coverage of the 1% to me.  Looking at your own stats for streaming doesn't appear you have an audience for the story either.  Twelve hours later and you've only got 13,000 streams?  But your stuff from yesterday and the day before is all over 150,000 streams -- one over 250,000 streams?

If you don't get it, we believe in equality in this country.  That's what fed Occupy Wall Street.  So you ignore all the other deportation efforts at your own peril while you rush to pimp the 1% who went to Columbia.  It's hypocrisy and people don't generally embrace it.  Contact his attorney and let her know she needs to work harder and come up with a different strategy (and a spouse that doesn't have demands from the media before she grants access).  


Let's move on. 



All are invited.  Because that's how it's supposed to be.  Elected officials have constituents.  Those are their bosses and their party i.d. does not matter.  This isn't a campaign stop, this is about members of Congress doing their job.  While Jasmine Crockett and others are more than prepared to do their job, the MAGA members of Congress are hiding and scared.  See Ava and my "Media: Some returns work better than others" from Monday for more on that.   Hiding away from your constituents doesn't spell re-election.  And the all powerful Alien Musk who had MAGA members of Congress so worried because he was going to spend millions and millions in district after district, in state after state, funding challengers?  He's still sitting pretty but the big money that he had keeps shrinking and who knows how much he's prepared to lose?  Musk isn't very smart but I believe he's smarter than Mike Lindell. 

Big news that so many outlets seem to be ignoring?  Elizabeth Dwoskin, Faiz Siddiqui and Emily Davies (WASHINGTON POST) report:


Facing weeks of negative headlines and growing pressure from within the Trump administration, the U.S. DOGE Service is racing to finish the first phase of its assignment — slashing the federal bureaucracy — and move on to what the team hopes will be seen as more constructive work: creating sleek tools for navigating government services.
Throughout DOGE, the need to find and champion positive achievements is seen as urgent, according to two people familiar with the group’s internal workings. One key ally, General Services Administration official and former Tesla employee Thomas Shedd, told his staff during a meeting last week that “I need wins to defend,” according to audio obtained by The Washington Post.

Using a Silicon Valley phrase for putting new products in the hands of users, Shedd urged staff to “remain focused on the reason you came to the government and this team to begin with, which is to deliver value and ship.”
The effort comes as backstage turmoil over DOGE has begun to spill into public view: Only two days after praising billionaire Elon Musk, who oversees the DOGE team, in an address to Congress, President Donald Trump sided last week with frustrated agency heads, saying they -- not Musk -- are in charge of making cuts in their departments. On Truth Social, Trump called for more precision, writing: “We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’” And in pro-Trump districts, voters have stormed town halls to protest DOGE cuts to government services and firings of thousands of civil servants.



Chump's people think they can crisis manage this.  They're that stupid.  An unpopular program of questionable legality was always going to be a hard sale.  Though Chump's been unable to fill any post with someone qualified, let's pretend for a moment that the person heading DOGE was qualified.  That still wouldn't have helped Alien Musk.  The alien is not an American.  As Lawrence O'Donnell observed Monday night when Alien was attacking a US citizen -- Senator Mark Kelly -- Alien doesn't know this country.  



He was born and raised in South Africa.  Scared of life there after apartheid was due to fall, Alien ran to Canada.  He doesn't know the US.  He is not part of the US.  Alien is an alien to Americans and that's before you get into his creepy parentage (14 children), before you get into that weird voice (he speaks as though he has a hot potato on his tongue), that weird face, etc, etc.


Chump could have put Peyton Manning in charge and Americans would still have problems with their sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, fathers and mothers being fired.  The Social Security office in Shreveport?  When those people are threatened with job losses (and they are across the US), Chump and Alien's pretense that this is about DC and cleaning the sewer just don't fly.  But when you put Alien in charge, you've got an even bigger problem and, no, this really is beyond crisis management. 

DOGE would be a hard sell with anyone but with Alien?  It's even worse.  He can't even seem to help Tesla these days.  Kelsey Vlamis (BUSINESS INSIDER) notes:


Elon Musk said Monday running his businesses, like Tesla and SpaceX, while also taking on a major government overhaul effort has not been easy.
[. . .]
His comment came as Tesla stock declined 15% on Monday, its largest single-day drop since 2020. The stock is down 55% from a high in December, causing concern among investors.


Tesla's stock fell by 15 percent on Monday, losing $16 billion in one day and becoming the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year.

Musk shrugged off the loss, as well as a slew of other negative news reports, in a Fox Business Network interview.


Musk is a failure.  But let's go back to our Shreveport example for a moment.  You're killing jobs in cities around the country.  Shreveport isn't even the capital of the state of  Louisiana -- Baton Rouge is.  But in those areas, people are feeling the panic and the worry and some have already lost jobs.  Now that's widespread in cities in every state -- cities plural.  And now things are about to get worse -- we're going to see people in cities and in towns suffering because of Chump and that Musky alien.  Kelly Rissman (INDEPENDENT) reports:


The Department of Agriculture has slashed over $1 billion in funding aimed at helping schools and food banks purchase from local farmers, according to a nonprofit.

“Multiple states” were recently notified of these cuts, the nonprofit School Nutrition Association said in a statement Tuesday.
“With research showing school meals are the healthiest meals Americans eat, Congress needs to invest in underfunded school meal programs rather than cut services critical to student achievement and health,” said the group’s president Shannon Gleave. “These proposals would cause millions of children to lose access to free school meals at a time when working families are struggling with rising food costs. Meanwhile, short-staffed school nutrition teams, striving to improve menus and expand scratch-cooking, would be saddled with time-consuming and costly paperwork created by new government inefficiencies.”

An estimated $660 million in funds through the Local Food for Schools program for 2025 will no longer be available to support childcare institutions and schools, the group added.


Covering the same development, Kate Nalepinski (NEWSWEEK) notes:

The impact of these cuts will vary by state, depending on their reliance on the LFS program. States that had integrated these funds into their operational plans for school meal programs and food banks will face significant challenges.

According to USDA, the following states have signed with USDA on the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program:

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
 
Check my math, but I'm counting forty-two states.   Co-presidents Chump and Musk are cutting off food to children.  How do you think that plays with parents and grandparents.  Musk doesn't know anything, he's an idiot from another country.  But Chump doesn't even grasp how this hurts him?

Louisiana is one of the most poverty stricken states in the country. Three years ago, official state records showed the poverty rate to be 18.6% with 829,565 people living in or below poverty and 255,159 of those were children.  USAID cuts are awful.  But Chump could hope there that most people wouldn't realize what was going on since it impacted populations outside of America -- largely outside of America, when you're attacking USAID, you're also attacking Americans working with USAID.  But this is Chump preparing to starve children in this country -- children of voters.  









BLUESKY users are covering the topic. 


Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:


“As Secretary of the Navy, you could make programmatic decisions that would increase DoD’s reliance on companies in which you are invested. To mitigate that conflict, you should divest your holdings in defense contractors.” 

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote to Mr. John Phelan, nominee to be Secretary of the Navy, with concerns regarding his “serious conflicts of interest,” given his financial investments in defense contractors. To address her concerns, Senator Warren asked Mr. Phelan to make a number of commitments related to his conflicts of interest ahead of the committee vote on his nomination. 

As Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Phelan could make programmatic decisions that would increase the Department of Defense’s (DoD) reliance on companies in which he is invested or with which he has close relationships. These ties to various defense contractors, including Dell Technologies, Palantir, and Red Call Partners, raise serious concerns about his potential biases in making programmatic decisions for the military. 

Mr. Phelan has investments worth over $50 million in Dell Technologies, which has a $2.5 billion contract to provide software services to the U.S. Navy, alongside other lucrative DoD contracts. Since January 2024 alone, he has earned over $5 million in capital gains and dividends from that investment. Mr. Phelan also has investments in other defense contractors, like National Resilience, a biomanufacturing company that has a $410 million DoD contract, and Woolpert, which provides school construction services for DoD.

The nominee also founded MSD Acquisition Corp., which has promoted Phelan’s “extensive and deep relationships” with Palantir and other companies in which he has invested. From his Palantir stock alone, Mr. Phelan recently earned over $5 million in capital gains. 

“Even if you have sold your Palantir investments, your relationship with the company could still bias your decision-making toward assisting Palantir in its current push for more DoD contracts,” said Senator Warren. 

Mr. Phelan also holds a multi-million-dollar stake in Red Cell Partners, a venture capital firm that is heavily invested in defense technology, has contracts with DoD, and has a history of hiring former senior defense officials, including former Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Red Cell aims to increase DoD’s reliance on artificial intelligence (AI), and Phelan’s Red Cell assets include investments in multiple defense-tech AI companies. 

Senator Warren urged the nominee to divest any remaining defense contractor investments before taking office and not repurchase stock in these contractors while serving as the Secretary of the Navy. She also asked him to recuse himself from particular matters involving his former clients and employers for four years after serving in the Navy role, as many Biden appointees did. Lastly, Senator Warren asked Mr. Phelan to commit not to lobby DoD or work for companies that do business with DoD for four years after leaving office. 

“The rampant revolving door of former government leaders lobbying the agencies they once led, while their government relationships remain fresh, erodes Americans’ faith in the federal government…By making these commitments, you would increase Americans’ trust in your ability to serve the public interest during your time at DoD — rather than the special interests of political allies and private sector companies,” concluded Senator Warren. 

Senator Warren has sought to protect servicemembers and national security by pushing defense nominees to resolve their conflicts of interest: 

  • In March 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Deputy Defense Secretary Nominee Stephen Feinberg, urging him to recuse himself from all matters related to Ligado Networks, which has a pending $39 billion lawsuit against the Department of Defense (DoD) over highly sought-after telecommunications spectrum space that the military has said is “essential for its various satellite communications, radars and navigation systems” usage. 
  • In March 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Mr. Emil Michael, nominee for Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, with concern over his history of inappropriate behavior at work, his attacks on journalists and public accountability, and his ties to technology companies that may seek contracts with the Department of Defense. 
  • In February 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Mr. Stephen Feinberg, nominee for Deputy Secretary of the Department of Defense, ahead of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, pressing him to explain his “serious conflicts of interest” and his track record of mismanagement.
  • In January 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Mr. Michael Duffey, nominee for Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment of the Department of Defense, ahead of his confirmation hearing, with serious concerns about his record, which include violating the law, disregarding congressional authority, and his involvement in Project 2025. 
  • In January 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Mr. Pete Hegseth, nominee for Secretary of the Department of Defense, regarding his ethics conflicts ahead of the Senate’s consideration of his nomination. Mr. Hegseth’s household’s ownership of stock in several defense contractors and his unwillingness to commit to post-employment restrictions he previously advocated for at his confirmation hearing were particularly troubling for the role of Secretary of Defense.
  • In March 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren secured ethics commitments from Douglas Schmidt, ahead of his confirmation to be the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) for the Department of Defense.
  • In June 2023, Senator Elizabeth Warren and representative Andy Kim reintroduced the Department of Defense Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, to limit the influence of contractors on the military, constrain foreign influence on retired senior military officers, and assert greater transparency over contractors and their interaction with DoD.
  • In July 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren secured agreements to four-year recusals from former clients’ and employers’ party matters from then-Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and then-USD(R&E) Heidi Shyu.
  • In January 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren secured a commitment from General Lloyd Austin III, then-nominee for Secretary of Defense, to extend his recusal from Raytheon Technologies for four years and to not seek a position on the board of a defense contractor or become a lobbyist after his government service.

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