4/01/2026

chump's pardons and general hospital



The Constitution grants sweeping pardon powers to the president, which means that public opinion has historically been the only check on that power. The risk of a backlash is the reason that presidents have waited until their last days in office to issue many pardons and commutations, especially dubious ones to family members (like Hunter Biden) or political allies (like Caspar W. Weinberger, whom George H.W. Bush pardoned). The potential for a backlash also made presidents cautious about the number of pardons they issued. They understood that there could be an outcry if somebody who received a pardon later committed a new crime. The pardon system has also relied on the decency of American presidents.

President Trump has abandoned this approach. His self-serving pardons are so numerous that public attention cannot keep up with them. It is a version of the strategy that his former adviser Steve Bannon has described as “flood the zone”: Do so much so fast that people cannot follow the consequences.

He has created a veritable pardon industry, in which people with White House connections accept payments from wealthy convicts. Among those on whom he has bestowed freedom are dozens of people convicted of fraud. He has also pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras, who helped traffic hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States, and Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for running Silk Road, a sprawling criminal enterprise that sold drugs. There seems to be no crime too ugly for a Trump pardon.


Worst of all, Mr. Trump granted clemency on the first day of his second term to everyone who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He did not distinguish between rioters who were relatively peaceful and those who attacked police officers, as Vice President JD Vance said should be the case. About 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters received a clean slate, regardless of their actions.

The results have been disastrous. At least 12 of the pardoned rioters have since been charged with other serious crimes, including child molestation, assault, harassment, murder plots and charges related to a vicious dog attack. The outcome was predictable. Critics, including this board, had warned that Mr. Trump’s pardons would embolden the rioters by signaling that crime has no consequences. One does not have to be a criminologist to predict that people who commit a violent act and are absolved of any punishment might become repeat offenders.

he has pardoned these crooks and they feel entitled and are now suing us, the american people, saying they were treated wrongly.  they should have been thrown in prison for life or executed.  they committed treason.  

'general hospital'?

last night i wrote and posted but it didn't post and i don't know where it went.


i had noted that maybe i was sick but i was not enjoying monday's show which played like a really bad tuesday show back in the 80s when tuesdays and thursdays were the b-characters and the uneventful moments.  

joslyn talked to lucas - after he caught her in ross' room - about marco.  but it was nothing.  it was joslyn doing her spy thing.  it wasn't about what lucas was going through or how he missed marco.


the rest of the episode was further nonsense with the exception of carly and jack.  carly went to town on him because he couldn't give her any answers about jason.  that was the only thing of interest.

i was not interested in michael's son asking what a hooker was.  i was not interested in brooklyn and chase trying to get the dead woman's baby.  i was not interested in so much that went on and on to nowhere.

today was a better show.  felicia was on and used well as james grandma speaking to nathan. still too much brooklyn who is the worst female character on the show - dante is the worst male character.  she was a little bitch today in so many ways including when michael asked her to pass the orange juice, she poured the rest into a glass for herself.

do people think this makes us like brook lynn? 

it doesn't.  she's just a little spoiled bitch used to getting her way.  

portia and isaiah were on and that made it better.  they were talking about curtis who showed up and told portia that he wanted them to all get along.  jordan, meanwhile, was at sidwell's and he told her that she was going to use her contacts as former police chief to find out what was going on in the investigation into marco's death (sidwell still believes that sonny murdered marco).  

jordan told curtis about it when he overheard on the phone.  she said she wasn't going to drop out, she was so close to getting the goods on sidwell and he was going to be easier to catch because he was distracted by marco's death.

nathan puts james on hold when he gets a text involving work.  he says he has to go take care of a bad guy.

he's at sidwell's and sidwell is asking for this and that and telling nathan that he will do it 'by any means necessary.'  nathan tells him he can't do that and sidwell responds, 'that's not something that detective nathan west would do but i'm not talking to nathan west right now. i'm talking to cassius faison.'

and that was the end of the episode.

so nathan is not nathan.  

i believe we last talked about this on march 12th in 'is nathan really nathan?' and now we have the answer. 


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


Tuesday, March 31, 2026.  Chump talks of possibly ending war on Iran, Pete Hegseth apparently tried to profit from the war, and much more. 



President Donald Trump’s second term hit a dubious new milestone this weekend. No, it wasn’t his war in Iran entering a fifth week, nor was it the shutdown grinding on after Trump personally killed a deal to partially fund DHS. It wasn’t even the president hitting new levels of unpopularity in public polling, or a third “No Kings” day drawing thousands of protesters. Instead, HuffPost can report that the president’s golf habit has crossed the $100 million mark, costing taxpayers at least $101.2 million in travel and security expenses since his return to office.
When Trump arrived at his West Palm Beach golf course on Saturday morning, it marked his 56th visit there since his 2025 inauguration. It was his 110th day on a golf course that he owns — meaning he has played golf on more than one-quarter of his days since returning to the presidency. Per our analysis, Trump is now on track to spend $300 million on his golf habit by the end of his term. 

While the president golfs, the country is at war. Troops describe overwhelming stress and a disillusionment so deep that some are walking away from military service altogether. Gas prices are climbing, and workers are already feeling the pain. Americans are already skipping meals or rationing prescriptions to cover health care costs — and Republicans are plotting further health care cuts to pay for Trump’s war.


Poor Donnie,  The war might distract him from golfing.  


Chump and Netanyahu's war on Iran might wind down, might not.  Yesterday, Chump spoke and was -- as usual -- all over the place.  Aaron Boxerman,Erika Solomon and Sanam Mahoozi (NEW YORK TIMES) report:


President Trump zigzagged from claims of diplomatic progress to renewed threats of destruction on Monday, sending new shocks through oil markets as he sought to pressure Iran to make a deal to end the monthlong war.

Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post that there had been “great progress” in talks with Tehran but warned that if they failed to produce an agreement, he would order the bombardment of Iranian power plants, oil infrastructure and potentially desalination plants. The president has repeatedly threatened such attacks in recent weeks, only to back down, as the global economy reels from the risk to energy supplies.

Despite Mr. Trump’s claim that the United States is in talks with “a new, and more reasonable, regime” in Iran, however, there has been little apparent progress in the negotiations. Iran has denied holding substantive talks with the United States and has rejected the Trump administration’s conditions as unreasonable. The war has raged on, drawing in much of the Middle East, sending oil and gas prices skyrocketing and fracturing Mr. Trump’s political support at home.

As Mr. Trump strains to find an end to a conflict he originally mused would last four to five weeks, he has alternately narrowed his aims — arguing on Sunday that “regime change” in Iran had already been achieved — and raised the prospect of escalation, ordering thousands more U.S. troops to the Middle East, including Marines and Special Operations Forces.


He has no plans because he has no established goals.  He never did.  He started a war with on end goals.  He was encouraged in this by the yes-people who surround him. They started a war and, even now, can't point to any accomplishments.  They just continue it and hope at some point they'll discover a way to say, "It's over!"


Ellie Cook (NEWSWEEK) reports,  "The White House told Newsweek on Monday that the United States does not need 'help from Spain or anyone else' after Madrid closed its airspace to U.S. aircraft involved in the Iran war, a move that underscores Spain’s opposition to U.S. and Israeli military operations in the Middle East."  They don't need help from anyone else?  Well that will be interesting to see. 



Trump’s threats: Trump claimed the US was in “serious discussions” with a “new” regime in Iran and threatened to “completely obliterate” the country’s energy sources if “a deal is not shortly reached.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio later claimed there were “fractures” within Iran’s leadership but declined to name the specific people the US is negotiating with. Trump’s former national security adviser dismissed claims the White House is negotiating with a more moderate regime as “just delusional.”
Tehran’s rebuttal: Contradicting both Trump and Rubio, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said there are currently no direct negotiations between the US and Iran. Messages have only been relayed through intermediaries, he claimed. The White House says Tehran’s pessimistic public comments do not reflect private messages being passed between the two sides.


Chump lies about conversations all the time.  And what happens when you lie all the time?  No one believes you.  So people don't believe Chump's talking to anyone in the Iranian government.  And they don't believe that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth would be sitting out press briefings if he had anything worth sharing.  



Once mobilization begins and the war industry is activated, it is difficult to turn back. The war machine is too vast and complex to stop. Now the war against Iran is escalating and seems out of control. This is evident, to begin with, in the words: Iran issued a harsh warning to the United States yesterday that any ground operation against the country will end with the "humiliating capture" of its troops, who will be "food for the sharks of the Persian Gulf".

In this context, the Pentagon has offered, as confessed yesterday by Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, "several intervention options in Iran and the president has not yet made a decision." In the Middle East region, the United States already has over 8,000 deployed ground forces, including paratroopers, marines, and special forces, but Trump has not yet made a decision on the plans presented to him, which include taking one or more islands and even an incursion beyond enemy lines. At the moment, we do not know if Trump will choose one, several at once, or none.
What we do know is that he is not satisfied with that deployment and has asked for more. Another ship for amphibious operations, the USS Boxer, set sail from Hawaii two days ago to head to the Gulf region with thousands of marines on board. It will be the second of its kind, as the USS Tripoli already arrived here on Friday.

Some recall these days that U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1960 with 900 military advisors, then with 3,500 marines to secure Da Nang airport, and from there to half a million soldiers fighting in 1969.

To replace the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, which is undergoing repairs in Greek waters, the USS George Bush will also be deployed. Some claim that in reality, the Gerald Ford was damaged by an Iranian missile attack, while the United States maintains that there was a massive fire in the laundry room.

Many journalists covering Defense affairs in Washington have complained about the lack of transparency: it has been 10 days since the last appearance of Hegseth and Caine before the press regarding Iran. There has been no CENTCOM press briefing since March 10, nor any daily Pentagon press conference.



Questions arise over US targets in Iran.  There have been two schools bombed.  ALJAZEERA looks at other targets:

In the densely populated neighbourhoods of southern Tehran, the 11th Criminal Investigation Base once stood as a mundane symbol of local law enforcement. Its detectives investigated economic crimes, fraud and petty thefts.

The building housed no ballistic missiles, no uranium centrifuges and no military command centres. Today, it is a crater. In the opening wave of the United States-Israel war on Iran, warplanes wiped the local police station off the map.
It was not an isolated incident. An investigation by Al Jazeera’s Digital Investigations unit has verified that at least 75 internal security sites were destroyed or damaged in bombardments by Israel and the US from February 28 to March 10. The targeted facilities included local police stations, criminal investigation headquarters, public security offices and checkpoints operated by the Basij paramilitary force.
[. . .]
The spatial distribution of the 75 verified strikes revealed a clear and deliberate strategy. Warplanes bypassed isolated military installations to hit the infrastructure Tehran uses to police its citizens.
The capital alone absorbed 31 strikes, more than 40 percent of the total targets. Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province, suffered eight strikes. The remaining targets were clustered tightly in major western and central cities, including Isfahan, Kermanshah and Hamedan. Meanwhile, Iran’s sprawling eastern and southeastern provinces remained largely untouched by this campaign.

By overlaying the strike coordinates with demographic maps, the investigation shows a near-perfect alignment with urban density. More than 70 percent of Iran’s population lives in these targeted western urban areas.


At THE HILL, James Durso points out, "The ghosts of Baghdad and Kabul should be enough to silence any serious talk of sending American troops into Iran. Yet here we are again, with voices in Washington and Tel Aviv whispering that only boots on the ground can neutralize Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, its local allies and its regional mischief.


On this morning's MEIDASTOUCH NEWS, Ben explains that Chump may, in fact, be abandoning the war. 





Trump’s job-approval ratio at Silver Bulletin on March 4 was at minus-12.5 percent. As of March 30, it’s at minus-17.4 percent, more than 2 percent below the previous second-term low. His average job-approval number stands at 39.7 percent, another second-term low, while his average job-disapproval number is 57.1 percent, a second-term high. On average, 47.2 percent of Americans strongly disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, still another second-term high. Only 22.4 percent strongly approve of Trump’s job performance, another second-term low. That’s an intensity gap of nearly 25 percent, or if you prefer, a ratio of more than two to one.

,

Individual polling trends mostly tell the same story. Fox News polls show Trump’s net job approval sliding from minus-14 percent at the beginning of March to minus-18 percent on March 23. Quantus Insights had him at minus-9 percent at the beginning of March and minus-15 percent on March 26. Reuters-Ipsos showed him sliding from minus-22 percent at the beginning of March to minus-26 percent on March 23. A new UMass survey on March 25 set his job approval at 33 percent, around the same level he was registering after the Capitol Riot. Polls that break out partisan self-identification show the president’s job approval among independents dropping into the 20s (25 percent at Quinnipiac, 29 percent at Economist/YouGov).

It’s tempting to attribute this sudden downward lurch to the Iran war. As Silver Bulletin documents in its polling averages, Trump’s war of choice is quite unpopular: Currently 38.5 percent of Americans support it and 53.9 percent are opposed. But the president is bleeding support on other crucial issues as well. According to Silver Bulletin, on “the economy” Trump’s net approval averages have dropped to a second-term low of minus-22.5 percent, and on “inflation,” he’s hit a really shocking second-term low of minus-35.9 percent.

,

In terms of the rapidly approaching midterm elections, there’s a pretty clear trend as well: The Democratic advantage in the generic congressional ballot has hit 2025–2026 highs of 5.9 percent at RealClearPolitics and 5.4 percent at Silver Bulletin.

,

If the war in Iran continues, along with elevated gas prices and other bad economic news, there’s no reason to think the current free fall in Trump’s popularity will do anything other than persist, at least until the irreducible minimum of hardcore party-base support is reached. There’s a reason prediction markets strongly favor a Democratic takeover of the U.S. House (84.5 percent at Kalshi and 85 percent at Polymarket) and give even odds of the Senate flipping as well.




President Trump’s approval rating dipped to a new low, and even fewer people surveyed in a new poll said they support his administration’s war efforts against Iran.

In a University of Massachusetts Amherst poll released Monday, 33 percent of respondents said they approve of the president’s job performance. Of the 62 percent who said they disapprove of his work in office, 53 percent expressed “strong” disapproval. 
Exactly 33 percent of the poll’s respondents said they either “somewhat” or “very much” associated themselves with Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, including 77 percent of Republicans and 4 percent of Democrats polled. 

On the issue of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, only 29 percent of respondents said they supported Trump’s handling of strikes against Iran. Sixty-three percent disapproved of his job on this issue. 


Today on MORNING JOE, they addressed Chump's talk that he might be willing to walk away and they addressed his threat of War Crimes. 



Audra D. S. Burch, Andy Newman, Edgar Sandoval, Anna Griffin and Pooja Salhotra (NEW YORK TIMES) note the American people:

As Americans pumped gas into their cars Monday, pennies were getting pumped right out of their pockets. A lot of pennies.

As the Iran conflict entered its fifth week, gas prices had increased about 35 percent since Feb. 28, with the national average hitting $4.02 per gallon on Tuesday. It was the largest increase in decades. The conflict has threatened oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which previously carried a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil.

Motorists in every corner of the country are watching the numbers tick up and — rarely — down. On Monday, New York Times reporters followed along as they made their calculations. 

At a Mobil station on Atlantic Avenue along a popular route to Kennedy International Airport, Mohammed Razzak, an Uber driver, paid $70 on Monday to top up his Chevrolet Suburban, a purchase that would have cost about $53 earlier this year.

“This is too much,” Mr. Razzak, 48, said. “Since the beginning of the war, it’s gone up almost $1 a gallon” — to $3.69, from $2.79.

Uber has offered drivers increased discounts on gas, but Mr. Razzak, who has been driving for 14 years, said his bottom line has gotten steadily worse.

“Every week, I’m spending $100 extra,” he said. “It’s not like my fare is going up every day. We are suffering, all the drivers, all the people — not the government. There’s nothing I can do. No choice.”

Many mornings, Penelope Cepeda drives her mother to work and in the afternoon picks up her sister from school. And she commutes to her own job or to college classes.

She drives a relatively fuel-efficient Kia K4, but the skyrocketing gas prices caused by the Iran war — more than a $1 hike per gallon in Florida over the last month — have cut into an already tight budget. Before the increases, Ms. Cepeda paid about $35 for a tank of gas. That price is now more than $45. For Ms. Cepeda, who earns $12 an hour as in-home caregiver, every penny counts.

“If you’re counting on the dollars that you’re earning by the hour, it’s like, ‘Damn, 80 cents?’” said Ms. Cepeda, a student at Valencia College who fills her tank two or three times a month. “That’s money that I’m losing for my car bill. That’s money that I’m losing for my water bill or my phone bill.”

Ms. Cepeda, 20, gave up on plans to travel for spring break, but hopes gas prices will stabilize by the summer so she can take a vacation.

“Maybe a cruise. Maybe something cheap. If cruises go up, then maybe we’re just going to stay here.”



Last week, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens penned an article that captured the rah-rah-ness of the pro-war crowd and was breathtaking in its short-sighted triumphalism. Headlined “The War Is Going Better Than You Think,” Stephens called for “perspective on the panic over the war in the Middle East” and scolded critics who depict the Iran war as “an unprovoked and unnecessary attack on Iran, launched at Israel’s behest” that is “already a foreign-policy fiasco that has put the global economy at risk without any clear objective or endgame.” Not so, he cried.

His evidence? Comparisons to the past. In 1991, during Operation Desert Storm against Saddam Hussein, the US-led forces lost 75 aircraft. So far not a single piloted plane has been shot down over Iran. At the start of the invasion of Iraq 12 years later, President George W. Bush tried but failed to mount a strike to decapitate Saddam’s regime. This time around, Donald Trump killed Iran’s supreme leader and many high-ranking officials in the initial bombing. And in 2012, when Barack Obama was president, the price of Brent crude oil hit $123 a barrel ($175 in 2026 dollars). So the price of $108 a barrel this past week shouldn’t be such a bother.

Stephens presents a couple of other markers to suggest this war is proceeding just fine, while acknowledging the Trump administration’s “failures in planning, particularly its unwillingness to make a stronger public case for war and get more allies on our side before the campaign began”—which are hardly quibbles. Overall, his advice is to buck up and not be Debbie Downers: “If past generations could see how well this war has gone compared with the ones they were compelled to fight at a frightening cost, they would marvel at their posterity’s comparative good fortune. They would marvel, too, at our inability to appreciate the advantages we now possess.”

Stephens is grasping at tactical straws. Perhaps the US military is putting its hundreds of billions to effective use in terms of the prosecution of the war, though we probably won’t know for certain until there are after-action reports and investigations (if there are any). We do already know that a missile strike that was attributed to US military forces hit a girls’ school and killed about 175 Iranian civilians, most of them students. But looking at the number of bombs dropped or Iranian leaders killed or the fluctuation in the price of oil is not the best way to evaluate this war—especially in these first weeks of the conflict.

Wars are often not easy to judge because the chaos, conflict, and disruption they trigger will yield consequences that last for years, if not decades. It’s easy to gawk at Pentagon videos of Tomahawks raining “death and destruction from above,” as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls it, and hail the war machine. Much tougher is perceiving the ripples. We have no idea where all this violence will lead. It’s theoretically possible we might end up with a less threatening regime in Tehran and more stability in the Middle East, though that does seem close to magical thinking. However, cheerleading the early stats and proclaiming they bode well for the long run seems purposefully naive.



Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes coutnries helping Iran target the US:

More than one major U.S. adversary is assisting Iran.

China has been sharing intelligence with Iran since roughly two weeks into the war, a “well-placed,” unidentified source “with knowledge” of the situation told HUMINT’s Sasha Ingber. The military cooperation has been ongoing since at least March 10.

[. . .]

Several military officials told The Washington Post on March 6 that Russia shared targeting details with Iran, offering the locations of U.S. military assets such as warships and aircraft across the Middle East. Over the weekend, European allies warned that Russia was aiding Iran more than U.S. officials had let on. They underscored that America’s latest Middle East conflict is intertwined with Russia’s war against Ukraine, reported CBS News.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted Monday that the conflict would be resolved in the coming weeks, though military officials have indicated that the war could rage for months.


And in the US, the greedy have dirty hands. Catherine Bouris (DAILY BEAST) notes:


A broker for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly sought to invest in major defense companies just weeks prior to the commencement of Donald Trump’s war on Iran, a new report has alleged. According to three people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Financial Times, a Morgan Stanley broker representing Hegseth contacted investment firm BlackRock in February about a potential multimillion-dollar investment in its Defense Industrials Active ETF. On Feb. 28, Trump began conducting joint strikes with Israel on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and starting a new war in the Middle East.


Some video coverage of the war.







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

ICE Director intent on building warehouse system like “[Amazon] Prime, but with human beings” 

“Cramming tens of thousands of people into warehouses meant for packages, without the ventilation, temperature control, plumbing, or sanitation systems necessary for human habitation, would almost certainly exacerbate…deaths in custody, assaults, and infectious disease outbreaks.”

Letter to CoreCivic (PDF) | Letter to GEO Group (PDF) | Letter to GardaWorld Federal Services (PDF)

Letter to Newmark Group (PDF) | Letter to KVG LLC (PDF) | Letter to PNK Group (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, led 52 members of Congress in a new investigation into whether government contractors, real estate brokers, and property owners are corruptly profiting from the White House’s fast-tracked expansion of inhumane warehouse-based immigration detention facilities. The lawmakers wrote to six companies, pressing them to explain how much they expect to earn from the new detention warehouses, their lobbying efforts to land these lucrative government contracts, and more.

“These warehouses were built to hold products, not people…Given the public’s grave concerns about this warehouse system, we request prompt answers to questions about your involvement in the system,” wrote the lawmakers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is working at breakneck speed to implement its “Detention Reengineering Initiative,” a warehouse system to hold nearly 100,000 people by November 2026. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has described the vision as “[Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.”

Experts have warned that because of the speed of the operation, it will be nearly impossible for ICE to build the infrastructure necessary for human habitation in warehouses. Immigrants in existing detention centers suffer from inhumane conditions, including lack of access to adequate medical care and poor-quality food.

“Placing thousands of people in warehouses that were never intended to house human beings will only exacerbate these problems,” wrote the lawmakers.

With the Trump administration planning to spend $38.3 billion on the warehouse system, the project promises to be extremely profitable for vendors, property owners, and real estate brokers. And for many of the warehouse contracts, ICE appears to be circumventing the normal competitive bidding processes.

ICE is using a Navy’s contracting program, diverting DoD resources to avoid a competitive bidding process and avoid disclosing contract details that would typically be made public, triggering concerns of unnecessary costs and corruption.

For example, ICE paid $129 million for a facility in Georgia — nearly five times the amount it was assessed for last year. The details of some of these transactions have been kept secret, including through the use of non-disclosure agreements.

Additionally, some senior Trump officials have close ties to immigration contractors that could profit from the warehouse system. For example, David Venturella, who recently joined ICE after leaving the GEO Group — a top ICE detention contractor — is leading the ICE division that oversees detention contracts even though his former employer is competing for lucrative warehouse contracts. Attorney General Pam Bondi is also a former lobbyist for the GEO Group. Tom Homan, the “Border Czar,” and Corey Lewandowski, a former Homeland Security official, have reportedly helped contractors secure contracts to line their own pockets.

The lawmakers asked the contractors and real estate firms to provide clarity on: their roles in the warehouse expansions; their expected profit margins from the project; whether they’ve donated to the Trump campaign or cabinet officials; and whether they will commit to not allowing their work to be used to facilitate inhumane conditions at these detention centers, by April 13, 2026.

Senators Edward Markey (D-MA), Bernard Sanders (D-VT), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) joined in signing the letters.

Representatives Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), Jesus García (D-Ill.), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), April McClain Delaney (D-Md.), Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Ilhan Omar (D-M.N.), Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), Patrick Ryan (D-N.Y.), Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), Jan Shakowsky (D-Ill.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill), Donald Beyer (D-V.A.), and James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) joined in signing the letter.

###





The following sites updated:


Posted by at

3/27/2026

taco chump and general hospital

barron enlists

 

that's  Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Barron Does His Duty And Enlists" which went up today.

so candy ass barron can't enlist?  his father's started a war.  he's not protesting it.  so he needs to have his ass ready to deploy to iran.  he needs to enlist immediately.  


on the war, chump can't form a plan or stick to 1.  eduardo porter ('guardian') reports:


From Wall Street to the White House, the dish everyone’s talking about this week is the Persian Taco. It’s what’s served when Trump chickens out in Iran.

In the early hours of Monday morning, witnessing oil prices surge, stock futures plummet and bond yields climb due to his threat to pummel Iran’s civilian power infrastructure, the president hurriedly walked it back, announcing he would put off the bombing because talks with Iran were actually going great. After the bombast and bloodshed, it was time for Taco (Trump Always Chickens Out), a move he first put on display during the tariffs crisis last year.
Bonds snapped back in instants and the price of Brent crude recoiled to below $100 a barrel from more than $112 seconds earlier. By 9.30am in New York, the S&P 500 stock index had jumped 1.5%, defying futures contracts that had earlier signalled a 1% daily decline.

Maybe we should thank Trump for stopping American forces before they committed a war crime, setting off an inevitable tit for tat with Iran to blow up civilian infrastructure around the Gulf; delivering a gut punch to the global economy that would send financial markets into a tailspin.
But events in the hours after the president offered up his dish of Mex-Middle Eastern fusion cuisine suggest his tactic may have run its course. He can still inflict tremendous damage to the region and the world economy. Making extreme threats and walking them back will again provide Trump with the illusion of agency. But he no longer has control of events in Iran. He does not get to decide when the conflict ends. Markets are figuring out that that will likely be up to Tehran.

'taco' man does not know what he's doing.  that's the 1 thing he's made clear.  he hasn't known what he was doing throughout this term but that is especially clear when you look at his interactions with iran.  he starts he stops, he threatens he backs down.  he has on clue what he's doing.  

'general hospital'?

1st off, is charlotte a liar?  now i was bothered by marco's killing so maybe i missed something on wednesday - the day he died.  but i remember danny being at least a yard away from jason as he was being put in the van and then driven off.

charlotte told rocco that danny ran up to the van and was banging on the door and the window.

this upset rocco - because jason is taking the fall for rocco.  rocco shot ross.  

charlotte doesn't know that her brother shot ross.  but regardless, why would she say such things?

while she said them, lulu went to the hospital to find out if ross was going to survive or not.

she walked in just when britt was about to put something in his i.v. bag.  britt told her she couldn't just come into the room and walked her out.  britt and joslyn had talked about killing ross.  britt was going to do it since, as a doctor, she'd have greater access.  joslyn saw her with lulu and went in to kill ross.  while she was messing with his iv, she looks over at him and he's come to, he's staring at her.

chase and brooklyn were visited about their being foster parents for phoebe.

i'm not interested in olivia and michael.  so let me just stop there.

the d.a. went to sonny's unofficially and asked him if he killed marco - noting that sidwell (marco's father) thought he did.  sonny explained that marco was the love of lucas' life and how lucas was carly's brother and he would never hear the end of it from carly if he had killed marco.  

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


Friday, March 27, 2026.  Chump's illegal war of choice is harming the economy while exposing him as an idiot who has no idea what he's doing or how to fix it, Kristi's Corey got fired from the US government this week but, through March 31st, they can still travel on a private plane on the taxpayers' dime, Chump's friend Jeffrey Epstein continues to remain in the news cycle, and much more.



The war in Iran will lead to a surge in inflation this year, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz pushes up prices for oil, gas and other commodities, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Thursday.

The inflation rate in the United States will average 4.2 percent this year, more than 1 percentage point higher than the group’s previous forecast, made late last year, the Paris-based organization said. Across the Group of 20 nations, inflation is forecast to average 4 percent this year, 1.2 percentage points higher than previously expected.


The war in the Middle East continued to weigh on the U.S. housing market, as mortgage rates climbed for the fourth week in a row, squeezing Americans already struggling with high housing costs.

The average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rate climbed to 6.38 percent, according to the mortgage-financing giant Freddie Mac, up from 6.22 percent the week before and the highest level since the first week of September.

That rate is still significantly below its peak of 7.79 percent in October 2023. Until the war started, rates had been gradually declining, falling below 6 percent in the last week of February. The drop in rates had offered hope that more prospective buyers would enter the market, but rates have since marched steadily higher.

Along with the financial cost, there's also the cost in human lives.   13 US service members have been killed and at least 200 injured.  At least 1500 Iranians have been killed as well.  Because there was no real planning for this war so many developments have arisen -- ones that should have been planned for if you're going to war.  That does include the concerns now on the part of the US government regarding the Strait of Hormuz.  (Malaysia states the Iranian government has given it permission to utilize the shipping lane.) 


The Iraqi government on Wednesday accused the United States of attacking a clinic on a military base in western Anbar province, killing seven members of the Iraqi military and injuring 13. The incident could strain relations between the two nations amid the war in neighboring Iran.
The airstrike constituted “heinous aggression,” to which Iraq reserved “the right to respond by all available means,” said Sabah al-Numan, a spokesman for the commander of Iraq’s armed forces. It “undermines the relationship between the peoples of Iraq and the United States of America,” he added.

The U.S. denied targeting a clinic but did not provide details. “We’re aware of the reports. U.S. forces did not target a medical clinic in Iraq,” Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for Central Command, which oversees U.S. operations in the region, said Wednesday.

The incident may further complicate the dynamic between Washington and Baghdad. The U.S. military operates from installations within Iraq, including a strategic air base located northwest of where the strikes occurred. The Iraqi government has for years publicly said that it wanted U.S. forces to withdraw from the country, though it has relied on American troops in a shared fight against Islamic State militants in the region.

Jessie Williams (INDEPENDENT) notes, "Two people have been killed in Abu Dhabi after Iran launched a fresh barrage of missiles during its ongoing conflict with the US and Israel.  Another three people were injured in the attacks on the Emirati capital when debris from an intercepted missile fell, the emirate’s media office said."  


This morning, Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes Chump's lies about negotiations.




Donald Chump did not make a case to the American people.  He did not address the American people.  He taped a video that he posted to his social media in the dead of night.  He has not made the case for this war.  Can he?  Apparently, he cannot and that's why he's refused to make the case.  


Senior Republicans have gone public with a stinging rebuke of the Trump administration for keeping Congress in the dark over its Iran war strategy.

The salvo from Rep. Mike Rogers, 67, of Alabama—chair of the House Armed Services Committee and one of Trump’s most stalwart congressional backers of the strikes on Iran—is the starkest indication yet of an emerging divide within the party over the now four-week conflict, as NOTUS reported.

“We want to know more about what’s going on, what the options are, and why they’re being considered,” Rogers told reporters on Wednesday. “And we’re just not getting enough answers on those questions.”
His comments came after a weekly behind-closed-doors session for senior House and Senate defense lawmakers on Wednesday.

Rogers said he was asking not for sensitive operational specifics—those he understood were off-limits—but for some basic sense of direction. “We just wanted them to tell us what’s the plan, and we didn’t get any answers,” he said.


Senator Lindsey Graham is said to have spoken to Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, and coached him on how to approach Chump to get him to go to war.  March 7th, David McAfee (RAW STORY) noted:


Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has been exposed by the Wall Street Journal for "coaching" a foreign leader on how to influence Donald Trump.

The WSJ ahead of the weekend published a story called, "Lindsey Graham's Quest to Sell Trump on Striking Iran." In that piece, there is a nugget about the senator engaging in a campaign to help Netanyahu to persuade Trump to launch an Iran war.

"To help make the case on Iran, Graham traveled several times to Israel in recent weeks, meeting with members of the country's intelligence agency," the Journal reported Friday.

Graham is quoted in the article as saying, "They'll tell me things our own government won't tell me."

The report further states, "He spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, coaching him on how to lobby the president for action. Netanyahu showed the president intelligence that persuaded Trump to go ahead, Graham said."

McAfee quotes some people objecting to what Lindsey did and they're right to object, but let's be clear on what happened.  Lindsey is not a private citizen.  He is a US senator and has been one for 23 years and counting.  A member of the US government, who took an oath to the Constitution, collaborated with the leader of another nation on how to trick Donald Chump into going along with the foreign leader's plans to start a war.  Since the war started, Lindsey has become rabid and calling for killings.  There is some pushback against him from his own party.   Sophie Brams (THE HILL) notes:


Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) issued an indirect plea to President Trump on Wednesday to stop Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) from advising on the conflict with Iran, as the senator presses for a more aggressive approach to the war.

“I want President Trump to take Lindsey Graham out of the Situation Room,” Mace told CNN’s “Laura Coates Live.”
[. . .]
Mace argued that Graham has not “thought through or war gamed the consequences” of an operation on Kharg Island, which some have asserted would likely require putting American troops on the ground.

“Has he thought through what the Houthis are going to do? Has he thought through where Hezbollah is?” she said, also warning about Iranian retaliation that could further disrupt the economy.



Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) suggested Wednesday that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) should have less access to President Trump as the conflict with Iran persists.

“I absolutely think he should have his Oval Office credentials revoked,” Cammack told Migrant Insider’s Pablo Manríquez as she departed the Capitol.




My deepest sympathies lie with the Iranian people, whose hearts are torn in many directions. Many long for freedom and dignity, yet they remain wary of the long history of Western imperial intervention across the world, including their own country.

The Iranian people who took to the streets in recent years did not call for one form of domination to replace another. They demanded an end to oppression in all its forms, not the beginning of a new round under the Western thumb. Nor did they want change at any cost.
At every step, history teaches us – these promises of freedom offered by the West are never fulfilled.

The reason is simple. The freedom of others is simply not on the Western agenda, no matter its public rhetoric. Imperialism of this nature does not want freedom; it wants control, domination, power and profit.

On March 4, as bombs were falling around him in Tehran, Mohamad Maljoo, an Iranian dissident, was finally able to connect to the internet. He wrote on his Telegram channel: “Those who claim that one can rain fire on the body of Iran in the name of striking the Islamic Republic while imagining that the people will remain unharmed either do not understand the reality of war or deliberately choose to ignore it. Bombs do not discriminate. Destruction does not operate selectively.”

The truth of his warning echoes from Palestine to Iran: “Life does not flourish in the shadow of oppression. Nor does it grow beneath the rubble of bombs.”


And what do the American people think?  Steven Shepard and Andrew Daniller of The Pew Research Center note a new poll:


Weeks into the U.S. military campaign against Iran, majorities of Americans say striking that country was the wrong decision and disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of the conflict.

About six-in-ten Americans (61%) disapprove of Trump’s handling of the conflict, while 37% approve.
The new Pew Research Center survey of 3,524 U.S. adults, conducted March 16-22, also finds a similar balance of opinion on whether the initial decision to use military force was right (38%) or wrong (59%).

And by nearly two-to-one, more say the military action is not going well (45%) than say it is going extremely or very well (25%).


Tomorrow, No Kings Protests will take place across the country.  Rachel Maddow noted this on Monday on MS NOW.


THE BULWARK noted the protests last night.


David Pakman noted the Saturday protests.


Robert Reich notes the protests.



Protests will be taking place across the country and you can visit the No Kings website to find a protest in your area. 



Immigration?  Donald Chump's war on immigrants is one of the things fueling the No Kings protests.  And for good reason.  Chump and ICE have been lawless liars.   Chloe Atkins (NBC NEWS) reports:


The Trump administration admitted in a court filing that it had erroneously relied on an ICE memo to justify arrests at immigration courthouses as part of an ongoing federal case brought by groups seeking to block the tactic.

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that they had used the memo, titled “2025 ICE Guidance,” to defend the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE agents at courthouses, which led to numerous arrests of immigrants attending hearings.
The memo indicated that "ICE officers or agents may conduct civil immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses when they have credible information" that a targeted individual would be "present at a specific location.”

But, the Department of Justice said in the court filing, the memo “does not and has never applied to civil immigration enforcement actions in or near” immigration courts.



The DOJ threw ICE under the bus for "agency attorney error," a "material mistaken statement of fact" repeatedly cited in briefs that undermines a "core" defense of civil arrests at or near the executive branch's immigration courthouses.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton, once the SEC chairman during President Donald Trump's first term, submitted a letter to U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel on Tuesday to "regrettably" inform the jurist that he issued a ruling in September based on false information from the government defendants.
"We write respectfully and regrettably to correct a material mistaken statement of fact that the Government made to the Court and Plaintiffs. Specifically, this morning, counsel from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement informed the undersigned of the following: the memorandum entitled Civil Immigration Enforcement Actions in or Near Courthouses, dated May 27, 2025 – which the Government relied on in presenting its arguments in this case and referred to as the '2025 ICE Guidance' – does not and has never applied to civil immigration enforcement actions in or near Executive Office for Immigration Review immigration courts," the letter said, acknowledging that a do-over will be needed to decide the plaintiffs' claims "on the merits."


And a change in the Secretary of Homeland Security hasn't changed much so far.  Isabel van Brugen (DAILY BEAST) reports:

Healthcare workers in Michigan warned of a “chilling effect” as patients increasingly stay away from hospitals and clinics amid a rise in ICE agents showing up at medical facilities.

President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) goons are increasingly showing up in and around the state’s hospitals and clinics, healthcare providers and immigration advocates said during a press conference Tuesday, Bridge Michigan reported.

It follows the Trump administration’s rollback last year of prior protections that limited enforcement in so-called “sensitive locations.”
Dr. Lauren Snyder, a family physician in Michigan, said she’s having to monitor for what she described as a “basic fear of safety” during routine check-ups at her office, and adjust to the presence of ICE agents at her workplace.

“They are here,” she said.

The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and the ACLU of Michigan held a briefing as they released new guidance to more than 400 hospitals and providers statewide in response to the rising ICE encounters. The 12-page document outlined how facilities should respond to law enforcement activity.


ICE was hard on a lot of people.  It was hard on immigrants, it was hard on those perceived as immigrants, it was hard on families and friends.  So when Kristi Noem rightly lost her job as Secretary of Homeland Security, there was some relief that someone was paying for the illegal actions and the cruelty.  Kristi had been traveling in 'her' airplanes with her man Corey Lewandowski -- her alleged boyfriend -- and now Corey has been fired.  Laura Esposito (DAILY BEAST) reports:

Corey Lewandowski was fired from the Trump administration after he was spotted jetting off on a tropical getaway with his alleged lover, ousted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

A White House official and three sources close to the Trump administration confirmed Lewandowski’s ousting to the New York Post—Donald Trump’s favorite newspaper—after the special government employee was spotted with Noem, 54, in balmy Guyana, where temperatures ranged from 75°F to 83°F.

The final decision on Lewandowski’s future as a special government employee, where he served as Noem’s de facto chief of staff, reportedly came on Tuesday or Wednesday.
[. . .]
In Guyana, photos show the alleged couple meeting government and corporate officials.

The business meeting in the tropical country marked the first such public outing for Noem in her new role as Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas—a position created by Donald Trump after booting her from DHS and replacing her with former MAGA Senator Markwayne Mullin.
Lewandowski’s presence in Guyana was made public by the U.S. Embassy in Guyana on Wednesday, which shared several photos on X from the trip.



The photos marked the first time Noem was seen in public as she assumed her new role as Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a new position created by the Trump administration.

It remains unclear whether the recent firing will impact Lewandowski's ability to travel with Noem, who still enjoys exclusive government perks.
[. . .]
After persisting for more than four years, rumors over the affair peaked earlier this month when Noem refused to deny the affair while testifying under oath before a Senate committee.

Lewandowski is married to Allison Hardy, whom he met when he was in ninth grade and with whom he has four children. Noem married Byron Noem in 1992, and they have three children.


Photos of Noem’s visit to Guyana with Lewandowski sparked backlash online on Wednesday.

Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Senator John McCain, asked on X, “GIRL WHAT IS YOU DOING?”

Billy Binion, a reporter for the libertarian Reason magazine, wrote on X, “Why are my taxpayer dollars funding Corey Lewandowski's travel to Guyana? How is that remotely acceptable?”


Chump's administration continues to waste money.  And on that, Simon Lewis and Ted Hesson (REUTERS) noted:


Noem, who continued to travel on a DHS jet with top aide Corey Lewandowski at her side, met Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa on Wednesday, who awarded her an order of merit.

The former congresswoman and governor of South Dakota, who arrived in Washington in January 2025 as one of Trump's most prominent loyalists, now reports not to the president but to Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau as special envoy to the Shield of the Americas, according to a Trump official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity to discuss internal operations.

Noem is expected to return to the United States later on Wednesday and is not anticipated to retain access to DHS aircraft afterward, the official said.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Noem's new role. Asked about Noem's use of the government plane and whether DHS officials had staffed the trip, an agency spokesperson said: "We are not going to comment on the whereabouts of our plane or DHS staff."


"We are not going to comment on the whereabouts of our plane or DHS staff."  Because they don't believe that they have to answer to the people.  Kristi's been allowed to break every rule there is including not supervising someone you're sleeping with.  Chump is a chump, an idiot and a buffoon. And this refusal of a federal agency to answer questions?  It's a motivating factor for people to turn out tomorrow and note that we have No Kings in the United States and that are government is supposed to serve us and be responsive to us.



Turning to Donald Chump's friend of so many years, the late Jeffrey Epstein.  The survivors of his abuse want justice.  Joe Sommerlad (INDEPENDENT) reports that Victoria Derbyshire spoke with five Epstein survivors on BBC NEWSNIGHT Wednesday:

All of the women interviewed said their experiences with Epstein began with them giving him a paid massage and escalated into sexual assault.

The group was also unanimous in their belief that Epstein did not take his own life in August 2019. They maintained that the personal arrogance he displayed in their presence indicated he always believed he would get away with his crimes.

Another victim, Joanna Harrison, who had never previously come forward but had felt “forced” to do so after her name appeared in the recently-released Epstein files unredacted by mistake, said: “It’s not normal to see your abuser’s face every day for six years on TV, hear their name, you walk in a store and you see him on a magazine.

“There was once, I even went to my mailbox, and there was a flyer with his face on it in my mailbox and that was devastating for me. And so it just kind of gets to a point where you’re being suffocated, and you need to breathe, and I feel this is my way of trying to breathe.”


Anna Betts (GUARDIAN) reports on another interview that aired Thursday on THE SHADOW SESSIONS podcast:


After casting her vote for Donald Trump in 2024 in hopes that he would bring transparency around the Jeffrey Epstein case, Epstein survivor Jena Lisa Jones said in an interview this week that she now fears “we’re not going to get justice in all of this”.

“I wanted my day in court,” said Jones, who has said she was abused by Epstein when she was 14, in an interview on the Shadow Sessions podcast that aired on Thursday morning. “I didn’t get that, and we were so close to it, it really got ripped from us, and then after [Epstein] passed, everything just went into a circus show.”
Jones said she backed Trump in the 2024 election because of his promises to release the files related to Epstein – who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex-trafficking minors – and his network.
“Trump ran his whole freakin’ election on the release of these freakin’ files,” she said. “And it sparked it back all up again, gave us hope, gave me hope at least.

“He runs his campaign on this, and he runs it really, really hard to the point that a lot of us voted for him,” she added.

However, after the election, Jones said that she felt a shift.

“As soon as he gets in, we started pushing for the release of the files, and now it’s a ‘Democratic hoax’,” she said, referring to remarks Trump made in the fall in which he dismissed some calls to the release additional Epstein files as a Democratic “hoax”.

Meanwhile, questions remain regarding Epstein's final hours and the hours after his death, the immediate hours.  Isabelle Khurshudyan (CNN) reports: 


In the years since disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead from what was ruled a suicide in his prison cell on August 10, 2019, conspiracy theories have abounded about whether the convicted sex offender actually killed himself.

That speculation is likely to get new life now that Tova Noel, one of the prison guards on duty the night of Epstein’s death, has been asked to testify before the House Oversight Committee. Her testimony had been scheduled for Thursday but has been postponed due to scheduling issues.

[. . .]


The materials released in the files have only raised more questions, including new details about cash deposits Noel made in the months surrounding Epstein’s death. The files also show Noel Googled “latest on Epstein in jail” less than an hour before his body was found in his jail cell at around 6:30 a.m.

The files also include allegations from an inmate who reported that prison officials were shredding documents relating to Epstein in the days after his death.

In 2019, both Noel and Thomas were charged with conspiracy and falsifying records indicating they had checked on Epstein every 30 minutes as required that night.
Both were fired, but the federal criminal charges were later dropped under the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement that required community service and cooperation with a Justice Department inspector general review of the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death.


Pam Bondi's refused to comply with the law passed requiring the release of the government's Epstein files.  She slow walked them and then only released about half.  She has been subpoenaed to testify before the House Oversight Committee.   THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS offers:


Yet the nation's top law enforcement official has already signaled that she has no intention of complying with Congress' order, with Democrats walking out of a meeting with her Wednesday after she indicated that she would not abide by the subpoena.
There seems to be some confusion here; just because she leads the Justice Department does not mean that Bondi gets to decide what the law is or what constitutes compliance with subpoenas. She may be shocked to learn this, but her staff are not the only ones that have the capacity to conduct investigations in our government of checks and balances.

Once again, we must wonder what exactly is in the remaining and unredacted files that Bondi and the rest of the administration are willing to go to immense lengths, including unlawful ones, to prevent their release.

Of course, we all know broadly what this is about: it has to do with the man at the top. Trump was a longtime pal of Epstein's and features prominently in the files. This is the one story that seems to have really shaken the faith of the MAGA faithful, who once upon a time believed that Trump was a kind of savior that would finally shed light on the trafficking ring.

No matter how Trump tries to spin things now, his followers feel betrayed that he is so clearly attempting to protect his own self interest here. If Trump thinks even that loss of confidence is worth keeping the contents confidential in perpetuity, then all the more reason for lawmakers to zealously pursue full compliance with the law requiring total transparency.


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

Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray, Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“Democrats have been clear for weeks: there is absolutely no reason that TSA agents’ paychecks should be held hostage to Republicans’ demands to provide another blank check for ICE and Border Patrol—and it is just plain wrong that their pay has been held up this long. But finally, Republicans have relented, and we are now on track to fund the areas we agree on and get TSA agents paid, get our airports moving again, and fund important disaster relief and cybersecurity work.

“This is very good news for the TSA agents who’ve been working without pay and all the families who are looking forward to spring break travel.

“But it is a shame that instead of working with Democrats to land the plane on several common-sense reforms to ICE and Border Patrol that the White House had already agreed to, Republicans walked away from constructive conversations and ultimately rejected some basic steps to reform these agencies. I will keep fighting to secure real, meaningful steps to help rein in these rogue agencies—we just need Republicans to join us.

“Because the American people spoke up and because Democrats stood their ground and stood united, we have already forced changes to the way this administration is conducting immigration enforcement, and we have rejected the ridiculous false choice that the only way to prevent chaos at our airports is by cutting another blank check for President Trump and Stephen Miller. Speaking up matters. We’ve got to keep fighting—and demanding the accountability the American people deserve. That’s exactly what I’ll keep doing.”

The funding bill released and passed by the Senate tonight mirrors the bill that Senator Murray introduced on March 5—and that Democrats have repeatedly tried to pass through unanimous consent, but that Republicans have blocked on each occasion.

The bill funds all of the Department of Homeland Security, except for ICE and Border Patrol, which receive no new appropriations in the bill. It includes necessary “start-up” language after a lapse of appropriations, guarantees backpay to workers who went without pay during the shutdown, and retains the new accountability measures included in the legislation introduced in January.

###



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