5/11/2026

republicans in congress stripped healthcare from so many and now try to pretend that they didn't


As Republican lawmakers look ahead to a challenging midterm election cycle, many have already begun airing television ads focused on a specific issue: funds for rural hospitals. In fact, the message of the ads makes these GOP incumbents appear rather liberal on an issue that has long been a serious problem for the party.

But as The Washington Post reported, there’s a key detail that the Republican commercials are omitting, in the apparent hope that voters won’t know the difference. From the article:

On rural health care this year, Republicans want voters to remember the Band-Aid they helped create, not the reason the bandage was needed in the first place.

It’s an interesting dynamic playing out in races nationwide, with groups and campaigns spending money to inform voters that Republican senators supported the Rural Health Transformation Program, a $50 billion fund aimed at strengthening overall health care in rural America. But those ads are somewhat misleading. They wholly ignore that the program was needed only because of the sizable cuts to Medicaid that Republicans made elsewhere in the same sweeping 2025 tax-and-domestic policy law that created the rural health program.

At issue is the inaptly named One Big Beautiful Bill, which Donald Trump signed into law last summer and which included some of the largest cuts to U.S. healthcare in modern history. Of particular interest were the nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid funding, which Congress realized would do more than just hurt low-income families.


they are such liars.  they voted to gut it and then after that vote?  they voted to give a small portion back and now they want to act like they care and are concerned?  no.  republicans in congress knew what they were doing.  they went forward with it.


speaking of knowing what they're doing, bari weiss doesn't have a clue and she is destroying cbs news along with her boytoy tony.  read ava and c.i.'s 'TV: Hope amid crashes and burns' for more on this.


'general hospital'?


chase asked willow for help now that they want to adopt phoebe and not just be her foster parents.  brook lynn knew he was going to do that.  they both agree that they're going to ask every 1 for help.


willow agreed and touched chase on his shoulder.  when she did, we (the audience) saw that some 1 was taking pictures.  remember that michael has said he's going to push willow and chase together and doesn't care that this is going to destroy his 1/2 sister's marriage.  so i'm sure that's some 1 that michael has hired. 

friday, nina stabbed jack with the injection that willow gives to drew to keep him imobile.  she did that because cassadine and jack were fighting and 1 of them was going to kill the other.

as jack immediately fell out, cassadine asked what was in that shot?  she may have said it was drew's medicine, i don't know.

but she called 911 and went to the hospital following behind the ambulance.  at the hospital, she asked elizabeth if jack was going to be okay?  elizabeth didn't know but got her to answer some questions (nina lied) to try to figure out what happened.  

nina called willow to tell her she hadn't given drew his medicine.


on friday's episode, he was able to move a finger.  during th show, it progressed to sevral fingrs and his hand.  willow made it home in time to stop him from using the phone.  

cassadine went to carly to tell her she was right and nina had stabbed him in the back.  he told her that jack didn't appear to know where josslyn was.  (carly's daughter that 'nathan' has kidnapped and is hiding at sidwell's.) 

meanwhile, rocco was out on the porch of his mom's home waiting, as he explained to his 1/2 sister charlotte when she got there, because his father (dante) and his mother (lulu) were fighting inside.


what were they fighting about?  remember that elizabeth told dante on friday's episode that rocco was who shot ross. 


so dante was very upset that rocco shot ross and lulu knew and didn't tell him.


she explained that nathan (not really nathan, remember) brought rocco to her after the shooting and told her she couldn't talk about anything.  after he left, rocco told her what happened.  then nathan came back and said that they had to bury this to protect rocco.

she told dante she was trying to help him since he was the acting police commissioner.


dante didn't like the fact that lulu assumed he would go after his own son.  she brought up how he'd gone after his own brother michael a few years back.

he said he wouldn't have allowed the wsb to take rocco.

only other big thing was lucas showed up at the hospital and elizabeth told him about jack and added how it ws strange that 2 different men, 3 months apart could have had a stroke at the same home. 


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


Monday, May 11, 2026.  John Oliver examines The Crooked Court, Puny Pete Hegseth slaps another false accusation on Senator Mark Kelly, Chump's immigration problems continue, Chump goes on a late night rant, and much more. 



Last night on LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER, John took on The Shadow Docket.




Meanwhile THE NEW YORK TIMES notes this morning:

Oil prices rose and stock futures ticked down on Monday as investors reacted after the two sides failed to agree on a U.S.-Iran peace deal.

President Trump said on social media Sunday that Iran’s latest proposal was “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” He did not share details about what Iran had offered. Tehran has said the two countries are working on a short-term agreement that would pause fighting for another 30 days and end Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil and gas shipping route in the Persian Gulf.



Iran’s demands for U.S. war reparations, recognition of its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and an end to American sanctions were among the conditions that President Trump has deemed “unacceptable,” Iran’s state-owned broadcaster reported on Monday.

The terms were detailed in a social media post by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting after Mr. Trump on Sunday dismissed an Iranian counterproposal as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.” Mr. Trump did not specify his objections to the deal, which was passed via Pakistani mediators.


UAW's Will Lehman issued the following statement regarding the Iran War last week:

Brothers and sisters,
 
On Saturday, April 25, I introduced a resolution against the US-Israeli imperialist war on Iran at a meeting of UAW Local 677, which includes the Mack Trucks plant where I work. The local apparatus voted it down 7–1, with mine the only vote in favor.
 
There is enormous opposition among autoworkers to the war, to the attacks on democratic rights at home, and to the diversion of trillions into militarism while living standards are slashed. But the UAW apparatus has aligned itself with the war drive of the government and the corporations, enforcing nationalism while workers are told to “sacrifice” for policies that benefit only the financial oligarchy.
 
The resolution denounces the war as the supreme international crime as established at Nuremberg, condemns Trump’s threat to “end a whole civilization” as incitement to genocide, opposes the conversion of auto and auto parts production to military output, and demands the immediate disbanding of ICE and CBP as agencies of repression. It calls for the formation of rank-and-file committees in every local — independent of and not subordinate to the union bureaucracy — to take this fight forward.
 
The fight against war cannot be waged through the officials who support it. I urge workers to read, print, and distribute this resolution widely in your workplaces, present it at your local, and use it to organize discussion and action independent of the bureaucracy.
 

Read my recent statements

 

William Lehman for UAW President
 
 
 
 

On MEIDASTOUCH NEWS this morning, Ben reports on Chump's online meltdown last night. 






Donald Trump has gone on a desperate social media posting spree to try to hide just how unpopular a president he is.

In a typically deranged Truth Social blitz starting Sunday night, the 79-year-old posted: “Excellent Poll Numbers. Thank You!”

It is unclear where Trump is seeing these “excellent” poll numbers, as the president is routinely recording dire approval ratings amid his deeply unpopular war on Iran and his handling of the U.S. economy.

In a further 17 Truth Social updates posted over the next hour, the president shared numerous pieces of AI-generated slop on various topics, along with fawning praise from MAGA accounts, appearing to self-soothe over the success of his second term.

Trump was so desperate to share acclaim from his loyal supporters that he even posted a polling story that is at least nine months old.

Soon after boasting about his supposedly “excellent” polling, the president shared another post about a CNN survey showing Trump had surpassed Ronald Reagan as the “most beloved president among Republicans.”

The poll appears to refer to polling aggregation reported by CNN in July 2025. A more up-to-date story on the president, showing approval ratings in the low to mid-30s, was published by CNN last week under the headline: “Charting how Trump became a historically unpopular president.”





A released a study that looked at Latino immigrant labor employment across every major red and blue state across the country. Researchers found that Texas and Florida, among the loudest anti-immigration states, depend on immigrant labor at about the roughly the same rates as California and more than New York. In other words, red states can’t function without the very people they say they want to deport.

Red state conservatives attack immigrants publicly, so no one looks too closely at their own behavior. As Shakespeare once wrote: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

A good example of someone “protesting too much” has been Donald Trump, who has repeatedly attacked undocumented migrants as “animals” who “poison the blood of our country.”

Given those types of comments, it is more than ironic that the Trump Tower in Manhattan was built by employing undocumented Polish workers in 1980s, while Trump was telling Americans that immigrants were stealing their jobs. Trump’s golf courses hired undocumented workers for decades. Of course, Trump will deny all of these facts as “fake news.”

Trump and MAGA need you to hate immigrants, so you don’t notice they’re the ones hiring immigrants. The louder the outrage, the bigger the secret they’re hiding from the public.

By the way, aren’t we still waiting for millions of more documents to be released from the Epstein files?

Bob Chimis, Elmwood Park



And let's note a letter to the editors of THE SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS:


Irony defines Texas Republicans.

After years demanding indiscriminate immigration crackdowns, they’re now shocked to learn that driving away workers leaves no workers.

The same politicians who cheered mass deportation suddenly bemoan labor shortages and slower growth.

That’s not policy. It’s political theater with real world costs.

For more than a decade, Texas leaders blocked immigration reform, sued to stop legal pathways and turned border security into a prop.

Now crops rot, construction stalls and restaurants can’t hire. You can’t demand mass deportation on Monday and complain about missing workers on Tuesday.

Texas has always relied on immigrant labor. Our economy knows it. San Antonio knows it. Only politicians trapped in their own contradictions pretend otherwise.

If they want workers, they can drop the stunts and finally pass real bipartisan immigration reform.

Charles Fredrickson



Patrick Lohmann (SOURCE NEW MEXICO) reports:

The United States Department of Justice on Friday filed a motion urging a federal judge to immediately prohibit New Mexico officials from enforcing House Bill 9, the Immigrant Safety Act, saying the new state law is unconstitutional and would irreparably harm a New Mexico county.

The law prohibits public entities like counties from contracting with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to hold immigrant detainees. The law has faced sustained pushback in Otero County, where county officials say the measure will result in the loss of up to 284 jobs and force the county to sell its immigrant detention facility, the Otero County Processing Center, at a loss.

The federal DOJ’s Civil Division and the United State’s Attorney’s Office in New Mexico filed the motion for a preliminary injunction Friday in federal court. The defendants are the State of New Mexico, including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Attorney General Raúl Torrez.    

The 49-page motion alleges that House Bill 9, which goes into effect May 20, amounts to an unconstitutional regulation of the federal government and its responsibility to detain and remove undocumented immigrants. 

ICE continues to terrorize this country and the people in it.  Markwayne Mullen is not in charge.  Tom Homan is.  Tom Homan who, ahead of the 2024 presidential election, took a bribe -- $50,000 -- and that got swept aside once Chump was sworn in.  

He's a law enforcement officer . . . who took a bribe.  That makes him dirty.  And yet Chump allows him to oversee ICE.  

Holman's a dirty cop.

And that's what Chump wants.  A dirty cop because he'll look the other way on so many things.  Sophie Hurwitz (MOTHER ONES) reports:

As Mother’s Day approaches, a group of senators are raising the alarm about the “appalling and horrific treatment” of pregnant and nursing people in immigration detention. On Thursday, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin demanding information about the treatment of this vulnerable group, and urging the agency to release pregnant women from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Their letter comes on the heels of new legislation introduced this week by Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) that would establish care standards for federally incarcerated pregnant people—including those jailed in ICE and Customs and Border Protection facilities. The bill builds on one that the House already passed in 2022, which only applied to those in Bureau of Prison’s custody. 

It’s hard to know how many pregnant people are in federal custody, and what percentage of those are immigrants. In 2023, more than 700 incarcerated mothers gave birth in prison, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. Between January 1, 2025, and February 16, 2026, 363 pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants were deported, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Sixteen miscarriages were recorded during those six weeks. As of March, there were an estimated 126 pregnant women still being held in detention, according to the senators’ letter. 

The care those who are pregnant in detention receive—or don’t receive—varies widely depending on the state they’re in, or even the individual facility. Federal guidelines are sparse: There are no federal rules on prenatal nutrition for incarcerated mothers, and some facilities still reportedly shackle pregnant inmates, even around their bellies. Some mothers are separated from their newborns only moments after birth. These practices can put mothers’ lives in danger, and can lead to miscarriages, psychological, and physical trauma. 

 The the laughable First Lady gave a speech last week -- and typed it up as a column for THE WASHINGTON POST -- proclaiming the importance of motherhood.  But she didn't mean the women in detention -- the women who need the help the most.  No, she's just a blithering egomaniac like her husband.  She's trashy, she's uncouth, she's garbage.  

She lied to get citizenship -- she wasn't a college graduate and did not qualify for genius status -- but. like her husband, she feels rules are for other people.  Motherhood includes children being schooled and Melania doesn't give a damn about immigrant children being schooled.  Sarah Matusek (CHRISTIAN SCINCE MONITOR) notes:

U.S. states can’t bar immigrant children – no matter their status – from attending public school. The Supreme Court said so in 1982.

A growing chorus of Republicans wants to overturn that decision. Bills in state legislatures over the past year have unsuccessfully aimed to collect data on immigrant students without legal status or charge them tuition. Passing that sort of legislation could put the issue back in front of the Supreme Court someday.

“It’s time for it to go,” Rep. Chip Roy, who’s also running in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general, said of the court ruling during a congressional hearing in March. “Any amount of illegal immigration in our hospitals, jails, schools, or elsewhere should not be tolerated. ... States should have the ability to curb it.”

Critics of the landmark decision – Plyler v. Doe – say that educating unauthorized immigrant children is expensive and that cash-strapped school districts should focus limited resources on American kids. Immigrant advocates say children who entered the United States illegally deserve the same access to schools as their American-born peers, arguing that free education helps shield against poverty.



Secretary of Education Linda McMahon -- a defendant charged with taking part in the sexual abuse of young boys -- is destroying the Dept of Education as Chump wants her to.  Melania didn't write about that in her column.  They're liars, the Chumps, dirty, trashy liars.   

She also didn't write about the gutting of the group providing oversight.  



As the death toll at immigrant detention centers across the country continues to rise, the Trump administration is kneecapping federal efforts to monitor allegations of abuse at these facilities.

Sites such as the Dilley Immigration Processing Center and Camp East Montana — both located in Texas and used to aid President Donald Trump’s racist anti-immigrant crackdown — have been decried by human rights advocates over reported deaths and alleged abuse.

You may have heard of Camp East Montana earlier this year, after a medical examiner determined that an immigrant who was being held there died by homicide via asphyxia, contradicting officials who said the man died after attempting suicide. Last month, NPR reported that the number of immigrants to have died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has already hit a record annual high in the current fiscal year, which began in October. And CBS News reported that a record high for the calendar year is possible as well.

Meanwhile, the administration is undermining efforts to investigate unlawful and abusive behavior toward detained immigrants. HuffPost reported on an internal email, which MS NOW hasn’t independently seen, indicating that the Department of Homeland Security is closing an office tasked with investigating claims of abuse at immigration facilities.



The internal Department of Homeland Security office that oversees detention facilities and conditions is winding down its operations — even as the administration places more people in detention, and for longer stints.

Congress created the Office of Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO) in 2019 to investigate detainee deaths, detainee access to medical care, and employee misconduct, among other issues.

In a statement to NPR, DHS said the office shut down because of the current funding lapse in Congress targeting immigration enforcement.

Congress last week finally ended the longest agency shutdown in U.S. history, agreeing to fund most parts of DHS — but excluding some immigration enforcement functions.


DHS said that it is Congress' fault.  DHS who lies regularly to the American people and the American legal system.  They're lying again.


Bustillo notes:

But the measure passed by Congress and signed by President Trump to fund most parts of DHS did not mandate the closing of the office.

Republicans are separately looking at a partisan process known as reconciliation to fund all of DHS, including ICE and Border Patrol, for the remainder of Trump's term without any Democratic support. It is not clear if OIDO would reopen if ICE and Border Patrol are funded.

Even before the shutdown, the Trump administration had been stripping down the office's functions and laying off staff in civil rights areas. That comes as the number of people who have died in immigration custody has reached an all-time high for the fiscal year.


While Melania ignored the mothers in need, American Friends Service Committee doesn't.  They issued the following:


Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate the women who raised us—to honor their love, their sacrifice, their strength. But today, thousands of immigrant mothers are separated from their children and loved ones by detention. Across the U.S., mothers are locked up in immigration detention centers. Many more are left to care for their families alone after a loved one is detained or deported.    

No one should be torn away from their loved ones. Families should never be separated by walls or borders. That’s why, with your support, AFSC is working alongside communities across the country to end detention for good.  

This week, dozens of community members in San Diego, California, and Denver, Colorado, showed up for mothers in detention. We wanted everyone behind those walls to know that people outside stand in solidarity with them, that they are not forgotten.  

In Colorado, community members gathered for a vigil outside the GEO Detention Center in Aurora. We held handmade signs and candles and delivered our messages through a megaphone so everyone inside could hear.  

In San Diego, many community members came together to make Mother’s Day cards for people in detention. On Friday, we brought the cards and yellow flowers to Otay Mesa Detention Center, where we hoped they would be delivered to people inside. 

These acts of solidarity are one part of a broader effort to support families facing detention. They also highlight the cruelty of our immigration system.  

“Writing a Mother's Day card to someone who is currently being detained exemplifies the idea that everyday people are thinking about those who have been deprived of their freedom,” says Adriana Jasso, coordinator for AFSC’s U.S-Mexico Border Program. “We need to communicate to the public that immigration law and policies—as harmful as they are—don’t just impact mothers being held, but also their children and extended community. We have a responsibility to call out the inhumanity of a system that continues to take away people’s freedom and potentially their future.”  

Since the start of the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has vastly expanded detention and deportation. ICE has detained the parents of at least 50 U.S. citizen children per day, according to research by ProPublica. It has also deported four times as many mothers of U.S. citizen children per day as the previous administration did.  

The people behind these numbers are mothers, children, and whole communities. 

From California to New Jersey, AFSC provides direct support to families impacted by detention and deportation. That includes legal representation, social work, accompaniment, and other support.   

In Florida, AFSC is part of the Miramar Circle of Protection. Since 2017, the group has offered mutual aid, information, and other resources to immigrants navigating the immigration system.  

Every Wednesday, AFSC staff and volunteers set up across the street from the local ICE facility in Miramar. We offer water, coffee, homemade pasteles, clothing, Know Your Rights information, and legal referrals. When someone comes for an ICE appointment and gets detained, our team documents what they can and helps families locate their loved ones. 

AFSC Campaigns Coordinator Maria Bilbao helped found the Circle of Protection. In recent months, she says the group has assisted mothers facing eviction, deportation, and family separation.  

Gladis is a mother of two. Her youngest was just two weeks old when ICE detained her husband while he was walking to the neighborhood store. Without her husband’s income, Gladis couldn’t pay the rent or afford groceries or diapers. The Circle of Protection mobilized, helping raise funds from the community to cover her rent for three months and other expenses until she figured out her next steps.  

Doris and her husband were both detained and facing deportation. Maria connected them with legal help to get their affairs in order. The parents made the difficult decision to return to Honduras with their young children. Maria helped Doris get passports for their children so they could make the journey together.  

Ana* came to the Circle of Protection after her husband was deported during an ICE check-in at the facility. She didn’t know how she was going to support their family. The group provided her with some financial assistance. They brought toys for her kids. And they connected with a local immigrant services organization that could offer long-term support.  

“We are not charity,” Maria says. “We are showing up. We are bearing witness. We are documenting everything we’re seeing. We are there every day to stand with immigrants facing detention and injustice.”  

This is what community looks like—people choosing to show up for one another. None of this work happens without people who believe families belong together and that all people deserve to live in dignity.  

Because of supporters like you, we can walk alongside mothers like Gladis, Dori, and Ana—offering care, resources, and solidarity in the hardest moments.  

This Mother's Day, we stand with every mother harmed by detention and deportation. We stand with every family forced to navigate this inhumane system. And we will keep standing until every mother can spend this day where she belongs—with her children, her family, and her community.


 Evelio Menjivar-Ayala is a priest.  He is also an immigrant who came to the US in 1990. Gabe Ortiz (AMERICA'S VOICE) reports:

Pope Leo XIV’s pick to lead West Virginia Catholics is a prelate who was at one time an undocumented immigrant. Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, who has served as an auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese of Washington D.C. since 2023 and has now been selected by the pontiff to become the new bishop of West Virginia, is a Central American immigrant who fled for his life hidden in the trunk of a car, The Guardian reports.

“Born on 14 August 1970, in Chalatenango, El Salvador, Menjivar-Ayala’s journey to the priesthood began in the violence of the Salvadorian civil war, where he and his family narrowly survived being fired upon by soldiers while fleeing their home, he previously told the Catholic Standard,” The Guardian said. “After two failed attempts to reach the US, hindered by deportation and a guide who deserted the migrant group, he finally succeeded on his third try, despite a brief imprisonment in Mexico and a grueling desert crossing.”

Menjivar-Ayala, who arrived in the U.S. with just an extra set of clothes as his only possessions, worked a series of essential jobs in construction and janitorial services while earning his GED before entering the priesthood, The Guardian noted. 

During a press event announcing his elevation to bishop of West Virginia, Menjivar-Ayala pledged to stand by working people, including immigrants. Menjivar-Ayala has already asserted fierce support for immigrant communities as Washington’s auxiliary bishop, including penning an April 2025 National Catholic Reporter op-ed that rebuked the federal government’s mass deportation agenda and urged faithful to not be complicit in the targeting of their neighbors.

“To those of you who are silent or think this does not involve you, to those of you who are not troubled by this — or worse, who applaud it — particularly those who are Catholic, I ask you: Do you not see the suffering of your neighbors?” he wrote. “Do you not realize the pain and misery and very real fear and anxiety these unjust government operations and policies are causing? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet? In the final teaching of his public ministry, Jesus warned that we will be judged on how we respond to others in distress (Mt 25:41-46).”


Pope Leo is appointing diverse priests from diverse backgrounds.  Matthew Green (ALETEIA) reports

Since his election on May 8 last year, Pope Leo XIV has named numerous bishops to fill posts around the world, also in the USA. Before becoming pope, Cardinal Robert Prevost was himself in charge of proposing new bishops for established Latin Rite dioceses around the world. So, while such decisions are never taken lightly, Leo XIV is particularly keyed in to the needs and criteria involved. 
As of May 6, 2026, he has made 26 appointments of bishops for his homeland. This includes raising priests to the bishopric, elevating auxiliary bishops to new dioceses, and transferring ordinary bishops to new sees. Eleven of these bishops — 42% — were born outside the United States. Sixteen of them are under 60 years old, and the youngest is 45. Only three come from religious communities: a Jesuit, a Benedictine, and an Oratorian. They come from countries across North and South America, Asia, and Africa (but not Europe). Among them are a former undocumented immigrant from El Salvador and two former refugees from Vietnam.

This diversity reflects the diversity of the Church in America itself. Immigrants have of course always been a key Catholic demographic in the USA, since it is itself a nation of immigrants. However, over the past century their countries of origin have mostly shifted away from Europe.

Just in the first week of May this year, Leo XIV has appointed five bishops. On May 1, 2026, he made four episcopal appointments: two of them are immigrants, and a third will be the youngest bishop in the country. The fourth was a later vocation with a background in military service. Then, on May 6, he named the fifth, tapping a Jesuit priest to head the Diocese of Honolulu.



More than 200 people gathered May 6 at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit to discuss the Church’s prophetic witness regarding the debates surrounding immigration and the impact current federal policy has had on immigrant communities over the past two years.

Priests, bishops, parish leaders and immigration rights advocates from 10 dioceses participated in “Witness to Hope: Pastoral Care of Immigrant Communities,” a collaborative effort between the Archdiocese of Detroit, Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan, the Hope Border Institute in El Paso, Texas, and the Center for Migration Studies of New York, to discuss what the Church can do at the parish and diocesan levels to accompany immigrant communities amidst the expansion of immigration enforcement initiatives taking place during President Donald Trump’s second administration.

This was the third daylong summit, following previous “Witness to Hope” gatherings in Providence, Rhode Island, and Phoenix, Arizona, in recent months.

“The goal here today is to get us energized to take the next steps as dioceses, parishes, religious congregations or as groups of Catholic organizations, because some of you might be doing pretty well in a lot of things,” said Fr. David Buersmeyer, a priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit and chaplain for Strangers No Longer, a Detroit-based, lay-led Catholic immigration rights advocacy group. 



Our court systems continue to attempt to maintain the law.  Lautaro Grinspan (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION) reports:

An Atlanta-based appeals court has struck down the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy for immigrants in federal custody, clearing the way for more people to wait at home while their deportation cases wind through the court system.

In a 2-1 decision issued Wednesday by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a three-judge panel ruled that the Department of Homeland Security can no longer deny bond hearings to people in immigration detention, including those who have been living in the U.S. for years with no criminal records. 


Turning to Petey Hegseth, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Has Pete Got A Deal For You"  went up Friday.  Catherine Bouris (DAILY BEAST) reports:


An increasingly desperate Pete Hegseth threatened fresh legal action against a Democratic senator for his criticism of Donald Trump’s war on Iran.

The defense secretary’s campaign against Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona was dealt a blow on Thursday, when a federal appeals court signaled that it would not support his effort to punish Kelly over a video in which he and other lawmakers told servicemembers they could refuse illegal orders. 

In February, another court blocked his attempt to censure and demote the 62-year-old senator, who flew 39 combat missions over Iraq during the Gulf War before serving as a NASA astronaut.

Determined to defeat Kelly by any means necessary, Hegseth issued a new threat on X on Sunday evening in response to comments Kelly made on CBS News’ Face the Nation.

Speaking to host Margaret Brennan, Kelly said that it was “shocking how deep we have gone” into U.S. weapons stockpiles during Trump’s war on Iran.

“Because this president got our country into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline... because of that, we’ve expended a lot of munitions. And that means the American people are less safe,” Kelly said.

Responding to a post from Brennan on X about Kelly’s claim, Hegseth wrote, “‘Captain’ Mark Kelly strikes again. Now he’s blabbing on TV (falsely & dumbly) about a *CLASSIFIED* Pentagon briefing he received. Did he violate his oath…again?” He ended his post with a note that the Pentagon’s legal counsel will review whether or not Kelly violated his oath.

Kelly was quick to respond, sharing a video of an interaction he had with Hegseth during the Pentagon chief’s appearance in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month.

“We had this conversation in a public hearing a week ago and you said it would take “years” to replenish some of these stockpiles,” Kelly wrote.

“That’s not classified, it’s a quote from you. This war is coming at a serious cost and you and the president still haven’t explained to the American people what the goal is.”


Let's wind down with this from Senator Alex Padilla:

California gas prices are up more than $1.50 per gallon since the start of Trump’s war with Iran

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Californians face rising gas prices driven by the Trump Administration’s ongoing war in Iran, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in introducing the Transportation Fuel Market Transparency Act to crack down on petroleum market manipulation and protect consumers from unjustified price spikes at the pump.

The bill would create a new Transportation Fuel Monitoring and Enforcement Unit at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to proactively monitor fuel markets for fraud, manipulation, and anti-competitive behavior that can artificially inflate prices. It would also increase transparency across fuel markets and significantly raise penalties for bad actors.

California drivers consistently pay among the highest gas prices in the nation, with costs often spiking faster and higher than the national average during periods of global disruption — putting added pressure on working families, small businesses, and commuters across the state.

“At a time when Trump’s unauthorized war with Iran is driving up costs, we need stronger oversight to ensure oil companies and traders aren’t exploiting the moment to pad their profits,” said Senator Padilla. “This bill will bring greater transparency to fuel markets, hold bad actors accountable, and help protect consumers across California.”

The Transportation Fuel Market Transparency Act would:

  • Strengthen Oversight: Enhance the FTC’s authority to crack down on false reporting or deceptive practices that artificially inflate fuel prices across gasoline, diesel, and biofuels markets.
  • Establish Dedicated Monitoring: Create a permanent FTC unit responsible for continuously tracking crude oil and fuel markets to identify irregularities and protect consumers.
  • Target Market Manipulation: Empower regulators to investigate and penalize companies engaging in price manipulation, abuse of market power, or other anti-competitive practices.
  • Increase Penalties: Double the maximum penalty for market manipulation to $2 million per day, per violation.
  • Improve Transparency: Expand federal data collection and public reporting on fuel supply and pricing to promote fair competition and prevent price gouging.

The legislation builds on previous efforts to strengthen federal oversight of energy markets, similar to authorities granted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which have successfully policed manipulation in electricity and financial markets.

Despite having similar authority since 2007, the FTC has not consistently used its tools to monitor and enforce against manipulation in petroleum markets. This bill would ensure those authorities are fully utilized to protect consumers — including millions of Californians who rely on their cars every day.

A one-page summary of the Transportation Fuel Market Transparency Act is available here.

The full bill text is available here.

###


The following sites -- plus Ava and my "TV: Hope amid crashes and burns" --  updated:



5/09/2026

homeland security continues to lie to the courts (and general hospital)

ph1

that's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Has Pete Got A Deal For You" and it went up earlier today.


turning to the news, as c.i. has repeatedly documented for nearly a year and a 1/2 now, homeland security continues to lie to the courts.  and the courts are sick of it as they should be.  some 1 comes before a judge and lies?  that's it.  you're not believed anymore.  and homeland security has lied about people they've physically attacked, about where they were, about everything.  they're caught in another lie now. adam lynch reports:

The New York Times reports a clash between a federal judge in Rhode Island and a Trump administration lawyer continued to escalate on Thursday after judges in the district appointed a special counsel to investigate potential misconduct.

In April, Judge Melissa R. DuBose released Bryan Rafael Gomez on bond, despite the fact that Gomez was wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic

Two days later, President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security did not hesitate to publicly blast DuBose in a posted a news release as an “Activist Biden Judge”who is soft on crime.

“This is yet another example of an activist judge trying to thwart President Trump’s mandate from the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities,” DHS blared in an April 30 post. “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, DHS will continue to fight for the removal of criminal illegal aliens who have no right to be in our country.”

But the problem with that, however, is that Trump’s administrative prosecutor, Kevin Bolan, knowingly failed to alert Judge DuBose about Gomez’ murder charges before she released him. According to the Times, Bolan withheld that pivotal information on advice from the Homeland Security Department.

Infuriated, Judge DuBose called the withheld information a “serious breakdown” in legal ethics, and said further inquiry was needed into possible violations of Mr. Bolan’s duty of candor to the court. She said she would also consider imposing sanctions on the Homeland Security Department for misconduct

the burden of proof is on the government when bringing cases.  and that should be a higher burden than normal when you consider how the federal government keeps lying to the courts.

some comments on the article:

Ghostt X
12 hours ago
It would be an interesting side note on the legacy of Trump's second term in office to see the final and long list of government attorneys who are sanctioned and/or disbarred for their actions in Trump's DOJ.


Deborah Crouse
2 hours ago
I don't believe for one minute any of the disbarred lawyers didn't realize they were crossing legal lines with the decisions that got them disbarred.  They did if for their felon friend who likely promised to pardon them or whatever.  Unfortunately for the lawyers, believing a pathological liar was their downfall.  Where is their felon friend now?  Still throwing other lawyers under the bus!


Marty H.
9 hours ago
How many attorneys have lost their license to practice law while working for Trump?  I've lost count because it has been so many.  There should a course in every law school called Trump 101.  How not to lose your license to practice law with each chapter describing how each of these attorneys was disbarred from practicing law.  That book for that course would be as long as the book, "War and Peace".

k b
10 hours ago
Hard to miss the sequence: information withheld, judge rules based on what she was told by DHS attorney, & DHS attacks her for the outcome they created.

This is happening right after DHS Secretary Mullin is confirmed with the stated goal of keeping DHS out of the headlines. 
If this is the first major test, it’s not a promising start.

Mullin may want to take down the comment from the DHS site & issue a public apology to the court.


'general hospital?


nina was supposed to give drew his injection - the drug that willow is using on him to keep him silent and under control.  but things kept coming up and she wasn't able to give it to him.  and drew is able to move 1 of his fingers because he hasn't had the injection yet.  how much longer before he can move a limb?

nathan and lulu fought because he told her rocco had to leave immediately.  ross was out of the hospital and he knew jason didn't shoot him so he was going to be looking and he would figure out it was rocco.  lulu said her son needed to be around his family.  nathan told her no and she told him that he didn't have a say on what happened with her family.

elizabeth went to visit dante.  he told her that they did a blood test using the sample of ross' blood that she got for him.  it's not ross' blood on the gun.  he doesn't know what's going on but it's not jason's and the whole thing - even though britt says jason shot ross - doesn't make sense.

they talk about how there had to be some 1 else there.

but who would jason and britt protect?


who would jason be willing to take the fall for?


elizabeth tells him that she treated some 1 the night ross was shot and they had an injury that could have come from having shot a gun.


she tells dante it was his son rocco.

dante never disbelieves.  he's a little shocked.  but he points out that rocco is some 1 that britt and jason would protect.  

nina is busy when jack arrives.  cassadine has asked her to get him over.  she and jack argue about him getting the dirt on drew for nina's daughter willow.  she starts getting nervous about what cassadine might do when he gets there so she tell jack to leave and he won't and cassadine's there with a gun.


he and jack argue and when jack says he didn't send josslyn anywhere cassadine says there's no reason for him to be alive then.


nina screams at them to stop fighting and finally when jack is going to shoot cassadine, nina stabs him with the needle filled with the medicine for drew and jack falls to the ground.


it was a very tight and fast moving episode. 

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


Friday, May 8, 2026.  Chump's dementia receives more attention, Chump and Pete Hegseth continue to persecute Senator Mark Kelly, an Epstein and Chump exhibit goes up in NYC, and much more.

Chump.  Is he all there?  Is he fading?  Is the dementia worsening?  William Vaillancourt (DAILY BEAST) notes:

Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, appearing on The Daily Beast Podcast, said the 79-year-old president seems to be “more senile” now than he was during his first term.
“I’m no doctor. I’m no psychologist. I’m no child psychologist, which might be more appropriate for the president,“ Moulton told host Joanna Coles. ”But he definitely seems to be getting worse. He really seems to be getting worse. He seems to be getting more senile. I mean, you don’t talk about cognitive tests a lot if you’re not taking cognitive tests, and you only take cognitive tests if your doctors are concerned about your cognitive abilities.”

“Everyone declines, whether we like it or not, at that age... I think it’s just that much more dangerous,” Moulton explained. “Most people can see that Donald Trump is dangerous—that he’s dangerous for our troops, for our country, for our economy, for our national security. I mean, there’s a long list. But he definitely seems more dangerous now than he was even in his first term.”


California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued a unique challenge to Donald Trump after the president went on a bizarre tangent in public once again.

Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, Trump interrupted his address to explain the difference between “sea” and “see.”

“Drug traffic coming into our country is way down,” he said. “By sea, by ocean, by water. A lot of people say, ‘What do you mean by sea? Is it see, like vision?’ No, it’s sea, S-E-A,” he continued, spelling the word out loud.
Responding to the odd interlude in an X post, Newsom expressed concern that “Little D’s” brain was in decline.

“‘LITTLE D’S’ BRAIN IS DECLINING RAPIDLY IN REAL TIME,” Newsom wrote in Trump’s own all-caps style.

“TODAY HE WAS CONFUSED BY THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘SEE’ AND ‘SEA.’ VERY SAD!”

“HIS HANDLERS ARE TERRIFIED AND DESPERATELY TRYING TO HIDE IT FROM THE PUBLIC. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DESERVE THE TRUTH,” he wrote, before issuing a challenge for the president to agree to a live cognitive test on national television.

“FOX NEWS CAN HOST,” Newsom suggested. “SEAN ‘SLUMPY RATINGS’ HANNITY WOULD BE PERFECT. I’LL EVEN LET HIM GIVE ‘LITTLE D’ THREE LIFELINES!”
Outlining the parameters for the test, Newsom said that it would take place during primetime, and that no teleprompters or notes would be allowed.

“‘PERSON, MAN, CAMERA, TV, SQUIRREL, ELEPHANT, GIRAFFE,’” he added. “LET’S SEE WHO PASSES!!!”

Trump boasted last week that he could correctly identify pictures of animals, including a squirrel, as part of a cognitive test.

It's scary to realize how far gone his brain is and how close he is to the nuclear codes.  It's scary to grasp how far gone he is and that he's made the decision to start the war with Iran and made the decision to continue the war.  Max Burns (THE HILL) offers:

Does anyone in America know what President Trump is doing in the Strait of Hormuz? Does Trump himself know?  

On Sunday, he boldly announced “Project Freedom,” his scheme to escort commercial ships through the shuttered strait. He then swiftly reversed course just two days later, declaring that the strait would remain closed, even as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was selling Project Freedom to the press. As Hegseth touted a plan that no longer existed, Trump again changed his timeline for ending his increasingly unpopular war in Iran.

Trump’s impulsive and contradictory actions in Iran have confounded his generals, his Cabinet and the public since the war began 10 weeks ago. Trump is now so bogged down that he is confounding himself, too. It is time for Congress to exert some constitutional authority and wrap this debacle up before regular Americans endure even more financial suffering. 


He doesn't know what he's doing.  That's why he's offered so many differing reasons for the war.  It's why he blows hot and cold on it, why he says it's too hard and he needs a break.  He's not up to the job because he doesn't have the mind for it.  He gets louder and he bellows but that's all that happens.  TACO.  NACHO.  He doesn't have the mind anymore.  It's gone.  


Senator Mark Kelly continues to be persecuted by Chump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.   Kelly, along with other members of Congress, taped a PSA explaining that those enlisted did not have to follow an illegal order.  This is a part of training.  But it upset Chump and Hegseth (Hegseth had made similar statements when he was on FOX "NEWS" about how troops did not have to obey illeal orders).  For a number of reasons, the court system sided with Kelly; however, Hegseth and Chump refuse to let it go.  


A U.S. federal appeals court at a hearing on Thursday appeared skeptical that the Trump administration’s could legally punish Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Kelly over public remarks he made urging service members to refuse unlawful orders.
Members of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit expressed criticism of the government’s efforts to censure Kelly, a retired Navy captain and Arizona Democrat, over more than an hour of questioning.

"These are people who serve their country. Many of them put their lives on the line," Circuit Judge Florence Pan told a Justice Department lawyer. "You're saying that they have to give up their retired status in order to say something that is a textbook example — taught at West Point and the Naval Academy — that you can disobey illegal orders?"



On the heels of a ruling in the court below that practically begged Hegseth to stop threatening the First Amendment rights of millions of military retirees to punish his boss' political rival over a video, the D.C. Circuit heard the DOJ's best pitch on Thursday for reviving the disciplinary action.

U.S. Circuit Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Florence Pan, and Cornelia Pillard, respectively appointed by Presidents George H.W. Bush, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama, formed the panel, a fact that Law&Crime pointed out after Hegseth finally filed the promised appeal of his loss. Despite technical difficulties with the court's publicly posted audio stream, Pillard and Pan's grilling of a DOJ attorney was enough to glean which way the wind is blowing.
"I mean, this is really basic," Pillard told the government. "You are not disagreeing that the video at issue that is the fulcrum of this case, Senator Kelly never says the words disobey lawful orders, right? I mean, that's uncontroversial. I understand you have a whole theory, but he doesn't say that, right?"
"Not in isolation, expressing —" the DOJ lawyer began to answer, before agreeing the judge was "correct."

In the lead-up to oral arguments, Kelly filed a brief recounting how President Donald Trump accused him and five other Democrats — Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich. — of engaging in "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" when they appeared in a video in November, condemned lethal military strikes on alleged drug smugglers' boats in international waters, and stated, "you can refuse illegal orders."
[. . .]
All along, Kelly said "you can refuse illegal orders" referred to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and Pillard picked up on it.

"He says you have a duty to disobey unlawful orders, right? That is something that is taught at Annapolis to every cadet, right?" the judge asked.

The DOJ shot back that the "only reason" Kelly said what he did was because the sitting senator and astronaut had a "specific intent to influence active duty service members" and that "Captain Kelly was not purporting to give a speech in Annapolis on military law."

"How do we know that?" Pillard followed up.

Because Hegseth said so, the DOJ replied.


Because crazy Hegseth with his multiple marriages and screwed up view of Christianity said so?  

Hegseth is crazed and insane.  A FOX "NEWS" weekend host who found a fool in Chump who would support him.  Hegseth's in over his head.  He was the one who should have been fired for Signal-gate.  Every week since then, he's made one blunder after another.  Sometimes he's made them daily.

Going after Mark Kelly was a huge mistake.  Kelly doesn't back down.  And now that's something the entire nation understands, that Kelly's a fighter.   It's raised his political profile and might even land him in the White House.  Leo Shane III, Connor O'Brien and Lisa Kashinsky (POLITICO) report

On the campaign trail, Kelly has amassed a war chest that has fueled talk of a presidential bid. He kicked off the year by hauling in roughly $13 million in the first quarter of 2026.

Kelly has said he’ll “seriously consider” mounting a candidacy in 2028. He was on the short list of running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful run against Trump in 2024. She eventually chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“He’s got the backstory. He’s a hot commodity right now,” said Pete Giangreco, a longtime Democratic strategist who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns. “He’s done it in a way that has excited the base of the party but is also a talking point that can win a general election because this is about courage and standing up for the Constitution and making sure we have a military that is not politicized.”
Another Democrat in the video, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, is also weighing a run for the party’s presidential nomination. Slotkin serves with Kelly on the Senate Armed Services Committee and is a former CIA analyst and Pentagon official.











For decades, sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was best buds with Donald Chump.  Epstein is dead now but his connection to Chump remains stronger than ever.  While the American people have demanded the Justice Dept release The Epstein Files, while Congress passed an act requiring the documents be released in full, Chump has refused to release them all.  Former US House Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene was told by Chump that she had to back off the call to release the files because, if they were released, people he knows would be hurt.  


An exhibit has opened up in NYC utilizing documents that have been released.  Lisa Rubin  (MS NOW) reports:

On a quiet block in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood, an Epstein-focused “reading room” is set to open to the public on May 8. Part public art exhibit, part “library,” it houses more than 3,400 physical volumes that together contain every document published by the Justice Department in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act. 

The sheer immensity of the release is evident as soon as you walk in; it’s a powerful visual that is all but lost by virtue of the fact that the millions of documents were released online and mostly live there. It is not known if there is any other public place where every page of the release has been compiled. 

The space also features a symbolic tribute to survivors and detailed timelines that cover an entire wall.








A reading room containing all 3.5 million pages of records related to Jeffrey Epstein that were released by the Department of Justice opens Friday in a Tribeca gallery. (You have to RSVP for the address, it seems.) The by-appointment-only pop-up is being put on by a nonprofit called the Institute for Primary Facts and will also include a timeline of Epstein and Donald Trump’s relationship. Thusly named the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room, the project is part art installation, part museum exhibit, and part cursed archive where the only reading materials are emails to and from Jeffrey Epstein.

Clio notes that the museum exhibit will be open until May 21st.  MILITARY.COM notes:


The title itself is deliberately provocative. The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room places Trump’s name alongside Epstein’s, reflecting the exhibit’s focus on their documented social relationship and the public records associated with it.

[Spokesperson David] Garrett said the Institute expected the exhibit to raise larger questions about power, accountability and whether the law applies equally.

"We hope and believe that the Epstein case is unique," he said. "The ages of the victims and the unbelievable number of crimes is hard to imagine. We hope and believe that the public will demand transparency and accountability.

"If achieved, we think this moment can provide hope to future generations that the rule of law still exists in America, and that it is applied equally, even to the rich and powerful."


This week also saw Epstein's colleague, friend and business partner Howard Lutnick be interviewed by the House Oversight Committee.  He was not put under oath despite the fact that it's the lie the Secretary of Commerce told last fall that necessitated him appearing before the Committee.  Media reports yesterday quoted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stating, "Look how they are dodging and avoiding and refusing to really investigate Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein."  Trina pointed out last night: 

Hillary is 100% correct.  She is not someone who met with Epstein but she was forced to testify.  Under oath.  And she was filmed.  Melania Chump knows Epstein.  Hillary, if she did meet him, met him at a White House event where he was one of many people present.  This was known.  Bill Clinton knew Jeffrey Epstein.  Hillary Clinton did not.  Our current Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick knew Epstein and visited Epstein island.  But he wasn't video taped and he wasn't put under oath.  And he had lied to the American people claiming that he and his wife, in 2005, went to Epstein's NYC home and left so creeped out that they decided never to have anything to do with him.  And that was that.  Until a few months later when some of The Epstein Files came out and we learned that Lutnick lied.  Six or so years after that tour of the home, And they'd talked and e-mailed since that home tour as well.  He's a liar.  And he went before them a liar but James Comer -- Gomer Pyle -- refused to put him under oath or to video tape. 





Another Epstein story gaining traction this week has been the relese of a note said to have been written by Jeffrey Epstein shortly before he died.  Kevin Reed (WSWS) reports:

A purported suicide note written by Jeffrey Epstein was released Wednesday by US District Judge Kenneth Karas in connection with the separate case of Nicholas Tartaglione, Epstein’s former cellmate, after a request from The New York Times.

The note remains unauthenticated with multiple outlets reporting that neither the Justice Department nor the court has verified that Epstein wrote it, and the BBC noted it has not been verified. The note is also not clearly a “suicide note” in any conventional sense—it is a scrawled, hard-to-read hand-written message on lined paper, without a signature, and its meaning is uncertain.

The text appears to read, in substance: “They investigated me for month— found nothing!!! So 15 year old charges resulted. time to say goodbye. No fun—not worth it!!” Other fragments from the same document include awkward, partially illegible phrases such as “It a treat be able one’s to say” and “Watch me to—Bust cryin.”

This language leads to the first obvious question: if the note is real, why was it never formally authenticated, and if it is not authenticated, why should it be treated as proof of Epstein’s state of mind just before his death on August 10, 2019?

Tartaglione claims he found the note after Epstein’s first alleged suicide attempt in July 2019, when the two were sharing a cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan. According to reports, Tartaglione later said he discovered it tucked into a book, and his attorneys told the court they believed Epstein wrote it based on Tartaglione’s account and other writings found later in the cell.

But that explanation raises another obvious question: Why would an alleged suicide note be left in a book in a cell shared by a man then facing murder charges, and why did it not surface publicly until Tartaglione talked about it years later?



In other Epstein news,  Johanna Berkman (GUARDIAN) reports:

Lawyers for Leon Black, the billionaire investor who has been accused in a civil lawsuit of raping a teenage girl inside Jeffrey Epstein’s New York townhouse in 2002, reached out to a powerful federal judge in 2024 to raise doubts about the alleged victim’s claims, a Guardian investigation has found.

The move set off a months-long court proceeding, which was conducted outside public view and led the US district judge Jed Rakoff to reverse a $2.5m award that had been granted to the alleged victim in a separate Epstein-related class action lawsuit, according to court records. She was later given a much smaller settlement in the class action case.

Jane Doe, as she is known in court filings, has claimed she was trafficked by Epstein and raped by Black when she was a teenager more than two decades ago.

The Guardian’s investigation is revealing new details about the private communications in Black’s legal campaign, which undermined Doe in her civil lawsuit against the Wall Street billionaire.

In a recent court order, Doe faced a significant setback when Jessica Clarke – the federal judge presiding over her civil lawsuit against Black – sanctioned Doe and her former lawyer for “serious, sanctionable misconduct in this case”. Judge Clarke said Doe’s former lawyer had “repeatedly lied to the court and opposing counsel”, and directed her client to destroy a social media account. Doe was sanctioned for having “falsified” some sonogram images that appeared in personal journals, which were submitted to the court as evidence of her abuse by Epstein.

However, it was not a complete victory for Black, as the judge also ruled that the high-stakes lawsuit could proceed.

Black, the 74-year-old former Apollo Global Management CEO, paid Epstein $170m, according to an investigation by the Senate finance committee, which he says was for tax and estate planning. Black has denied allegations that he raped or ever met Doe, who is now 40 years old. He has never been charged with any crimes in connection to Epstein or otherwise.

The Epstein scandal has prompted questions about why the accused sex trafficker’s elite circle of friends and associates has not faced greater scrutiny. That may change. Black is due to testify before the House oversight committee on 26 June, according to a person familiar with the matter, as part of the committee’s investigation into, among other things, Epstein’s sex-trafficking rings. He is also facing questions from the Democratic senator Ron Wyden, who claimed in a recent letter to Black that the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice “remove any lingering doubt” as to whether Black was “connected to women in Epstein’s network” and alleged that “powerful associates in the US and abroad were surveilling and paying off women on [Black’s] behalf”.


Next month, in NYC, there will be an event.  Charisma Madarang (ROLLING STONE) reports

In an evening of solidarity, Hollywood leaders will come together on Sunday, June 14, in New York City for Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment.

Jane Fonda, Bette Midler, Joy Reid, Patti Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Sasha Allen, and Broadway Inspirational Voices are set to appear and perform at the event, which will span 90-minutes and be available to stream online for free. National partner organizations and local civic groups will also host watch parties across the country. All proceeds from the event will go toward the work of the Committee for the First Amendment, which was revived in 2025 by Fonda and other members in the entertainment industry during the first year of the second Trump administration.
"Music has long been a tool to stand up to authoritarianism, and I am honored to spend the evening with these fiercely committed, talented, and brilliant people to celebrate our First Amendment rights," Fonda said in a statement. "As we continue to watch bad faith leaders take more and more power, it is critical that we gather together, raise our voices collectively, and stand united against this administration - and have some fun while doing it."


Rufus Wainwright posted the following to FACEBOOK:



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


Last year Trump fought to defund the Legal Services Corporation entirely, House Republicans fought to cut the program nearly by half; Murray protected nearly all of the funding in the bills she negotiated that Trump signed into law

Just last week, House Republicans passed a bill out of committee to cut funding for LSC by more than half and President Trump’s budget once again calls to defund the program entirely; As Murray gears up to once again protect LSC funding she will hear from Northwest Justice Project clients and lawyers about the important nonpartisan work this funding supports  

Civil legal aid also has a dramatic return on investment; every dollar spent on legal aid generates an average of seven dollars in economic benefits.

ICYMI: Murray Secures $540 million for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC)

***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL HERE***

Seattle, WA — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, held a roundtable discussion with lawyers whose work is supported by Legal Services Corporation (LSC) grants and client storytellers who have benefitted from that work.

Senator Murray was joined by Abigail Daquiz, Executive Director, Northwest Justice Project (NJP); Karla Carlisle, Managing Attorney, NJP Tri-Cities and Walla Walla Offices; Christy, Client; Jennifer Budinick, NJP Attorney, Veterans Unit; Alan Myers, Client; David Tarshes, former NJP Attorney; Anita Belcher, Client; and Will Gunn; Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel for LSC.

“In this country—our courts and laws are meant to be a great equalizer, but we can only live up to that promise of equality when cost is not a barrier to justice,” said Senator Murray. “The funding from the Legal Services Corporation helps organizations like Northwest Justice Project keep that promise and live up to the values that make America great, helping tens of thousands of people every year. The Northwest Justice Project is a lifeline for farmworkers being denied fair pay, domestic violence victims trying to protect themselves and their families, seniors facing an unfair eviction, and so much more. President Trump already tried to completely defund federal legal aid last year—I stopped him. Trump wants to defund legal aid again and House Republicans are pushing to cut existing funding by more than half—that’s simply not going to happen on my watch. I’ll be ripping up Trump’s budget and writing a new one, one that invests in legal aid and protects this absolutely essential lifeline for working people.”

In FY26, Senator Murray protected $540 million for LSC and rejected President Trump’s proposal to completely defund the largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans. Murray also beat back efforts by House Republicans to cut LSC funding by nearly half and made sure the FY26 appropriations bill included a provision to permit LSC recipients to operate with boards of directors that include more fiscal experts and community representatives—something Senator Murray has long advocated for. This change allowed LSC grantees to diversify their boards to include those with accounting, fundraising, and other kinds of expertise.

Just last week, House Republicans passed a bill out of committee that would cut LSC funding by more than half. LSC provides funding and support to legal aid organizations across the country to ensure Americans have the critical legal support they need to protect their families, advocate for veterans, prevent homelessness, and access their benefits. The primary responsibility of LSC is to manage and oversee the congressionally appropriated federal funds that it distributes in the form of grants to local legal services providers, which in turn give legal assistance to low-income clients in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories. LSC grantees have served over 6.4 million people, including 1.9 million who resolved housing, family, or other life-changing legal problems, and more than 30 million individuals used grantees’ online legal tools, websites, and self-help resources to navigate legal issues. Civil legal aid also has a dramatic return on investment; every dollar spent on legal aid generates an average of seven dollars in economic benefits.

“Federal funding for civil legal aid is the foundation for our ability to serve our communities—to ensure that a mom facing eviction has someone in their corner, that veterans who have served in this country can access the benefits they have earned, and ensures that safety is possible for survivors of domestic violence. Northwest Justice Project is the LSC grantee in Washington State and we take that responsibility very seriously, making sure that this investment is effectively used to serve our community. Thank you, Sen. Murray for being a champion for civil legal aid funding—so we can continue to show up for our clients,” said Abigail Daquiz, Executive Director, Northwest Justice Project.

“My attorney managed the chaos of my divorce, the connection for legal help with the protection order, and navigated the hurdles of coerced debt and terrible credit that my marriage had left me with, causing housing burdens… I am here today to say thank you. Thank you for giving me my life back. Because of NJP, I am not just a survivor; I am a mother with a home, a future, and a fresh start,” said Christy, a NJP client who with her two young children had fled an abusive partner.

“After more than a year of diligent work, NJP did what I couldn’t do alone. I was awarded a 50% disability rating. These weren’t ‘handouts’—they were the benefits I had earned over decades of service,” said Alan Myers, a NJP client, and a veteran who had served for 25 years and sustained service-related disabilities, including partial blindness, hearing loss, and spinal fracture. Yet he was told by the Veterans Administration that he would not qualify for benefits.

“If NJP needs anything, I will be there to help. It still blows my mind that I was able to be represented by great attorneys and actually get a favorable outcome. It was amazing. Truly amazing,” said Anita Belcher, a NJP client whose paycheck was suddenly garnished by 50% without notice.

NJP is Washington’s largest publicly funded legal aid program and provides legal representation to tens of thousands of low-income Washingtonians each year for critical legal matters including family safety, housing rights, wage theft, access to healthcare, education, and more. NJP is the sole LSC grantee in Washington state. LSC provided about $11 million to NJP in FY25, which was 18% of their total annual budget. They also received about $2 million in other federal funding, meaning 21% of their total budget in 2025 was from the federal government. Over one million people visit their website, washingtonlawhelp.org, to access free legal resources annually. Across Washington state, they have 20 physical offices and about 340 staff, including nearly 200 attorneys. In 2025, NJP direct legal services benefited 31,206 Washington residents, including more than 800 veterans, 2,929 older Americans, and thousands of domestic violence survivors. However, in Washington close to one million residents qualified for assistance. 

Services provided include a toll-free referral and intake hotline called CLEAR (Coordinated Legal Education Advice and Referral) that lets clients ask questions and get advice over the phone, the Washington Law Help public website that hosts free legal resources and self-help materials, and they coordinate volunteer attorney programs to ensure equal justice for people unable to afford an attorney. In addition to 20 offices statewide, specialized units serve farmworkers, Native Americans, veterans, and provide eviction and foreclosure defense.

###



And let's close with this from THE BLACK COMMENTATOR:


BlackCommentator.com                    

           

May                     7, 2026 Issue 1086

         
           
              

The                       Black Commentator

             

 Issue                           #1086

             

             

 is                           now Online

              May 7, 2026
           

           
           

Read                         issue 1086

                       

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The following sites - plus Marcia's "The hole in Chump's excuse for his hand" and Stan's "DAREDEVIL: REBORN" --  updated: