Friday, June 05, 2026

The Crooked Court's bought and paid for Clarence Thomas

The Crooked Court is bought and paid for.  Alexandria Jacobson (RAW STORY) reports:


As the U.S. Supreme Court prepared to determine the fate of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in the landmark case, Louisiana v. Callais, MAGA groups and conservative nonprofits connected to far-right megadonors that filed briefs in support of weakening the historic civil rights law took in record-breaking amounts of dark money, according to new research.

Seven nonprofits with various ties to President Donald Trump, conservative megadonor Leonard Leo or other wealthy right-wing figures who filed briefs in the Callais case took in nearly $105 million through donor-advised funds, a dark money vehicle, between 2021 and 2024, according to new analysis from progressive watchdog group, True North Research.

That’s seven times the donor-advised funding those groups received in the previous three-year period, according to the research. Of those nonprofits, the Trump-aligned America First Legal Foundation took in by far the most money from donor-advised funds — more than $58 million since it was co-founded in 2021 by Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff; Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff during Trump’s first term; and Gene Hamilton, former deputy White House counsel in Trump’s first presidency.

“It's disturbing that the same far-right funders and political agents who built the far-right faction of the [Supreme] Court to impose their agenda on us all are continuing to spend big now to change even the contours of elections, and it's making it harder for people to cast their votes and easier to get their politicians in power to do their bidding and impose their agenda,” said Alyssa Bowen, deputy executive director at True North Research.


Leonard Leo?  So Clarence Thomas should have had to recuse himself.  In 2023, Michael Walden, at  The Brennan Justice Center noted:


On April 6, ProPublica revealed that a right-wing billionaire has secretly funded a lavish lifestyle for Justice Clarence Thomas. Then on Friday, a federal judge in Texas tried to block the use around the country of mifepristone, the medication used in half of all abortions. These two dramatic twists are part of the same story. They show a judicial system out of control, in thrall to right-wing activists and swimming in cash.
​
​It seems that Thomas routinely received luxury travel, gifts and accommodations from Harlan Crow, a real estate developer and Republican benefactor. The Los Angeles Times first reported on the flow of gifts from Crow to Thomas in 2004. Then Thomas simply stopped disclosing them, for nearly two decades.
​
​Details are eye-popping, a tale of luxury trips to faraway places, fancy yachts and private jet excursions that would be valued at $500,000 a pop. A painting shows Thomas, Crow and Leonard Leo, the leader of the conservative Federalist Society, puffing stogies at a private hotel owned by the real estate mogul: an instantly iconic image of a hermetically sealed world of wealth, ideological militancy and elite chumminess.
​
​Leo, of course, has worked with astonishing success to pack the federal courts with conservatives. Expect more to come: Another billionaire recently gave a new conservative nonprofit controlled by Leo $1.6 billion to use on his causes.
​
​Thomas has issued a statement saying that he was merely vacationing with family friends, and he had been advised “by colleagues and others in the judiciary” that there was no need for him to disclose the billionaire’s beneficence. Even if he did ask around, that is part of the problem.
​
​The Supreme Court’s members police themselves. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has said the justices “consult” with the code of judicial conduct for guidance, but we have no way to know exactly how they do that. That DIY approach is perilous.
​
​In 2022, Thomas was the only justice to vote to shield records and documents from the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Months later it was revealed that those documents included texts between Thomas’ wife, Virginia, and the White House chief of staff about the plot to overturn the 2020 election. Thomas never explained why he did not recuse himself despite this obvious conflict of interest.


"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Friday, June 5, 2026.  Donald Chump crumbles as his power decays. 




As Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes this morning, Donald Chump was losing it on social media as his party plans crashed and burned 
 

There was a time when Chump was feared and got whatever he wanted.  Joni Ernst foolishly voted to confirm Pete Hegseth, for example.  Even though she knew better.  Because she was scared. So many people in Congress went along because they were scared.  They aren't scared now.  You can't live your life in fear and that's changed some of the control Chump had.  Then he's also been exposed for a self-serving jerk (at best) who the American people have turned against.  He's a grifter who has run one con job after another and exposed himself in the process.  So here we are and Filip Timotija (THE HILL) reports:
 
The House Armed Services Committee adopted a provision for the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would demand the Pentagon inform Congress why senior military officers were fired or dismissed within five days. 

The requirement was introduced by Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and was adopted Thursday without objections in a bipartisan voice vote. 
The provision comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired two dozen senior military officers since taking the helm at the Pentagon, prompting bipartisan worries that experienced officials are being dismissed without explanation. 

Earlier this year, Hegseth fired widely respected Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, leading some House Republicans to voice opposition to the move, arguing that George is an experienced military leader. 


Oh, yes, a check is now in place with, no doubt, the hope that balance will be restored.  Because Congress is part of three branch government and each of the branches is supposed to act as a check on the others.  



Several Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers following a report that a White House official intervened to grant a $620 million Pentagon loan to a company linked to President Trump’s eldest son. 

“We write to demand a full explanation for what appears to be an egregious example of Trump administration corruption involving the White House delivering a lucrative Defense Department loan to a company with financial ties to the Trump family,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles on Tuesday. 

The Democrats include Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Mazie Hirono (Hawaii) and Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.) and Mike Levin (Calif.).

Vulcan Elements, a rare-earth magnet startup based in North Carolina, announced last November it had received $620 million in a direct loan from the Pentagon and an additional $50 million from the Commerce Department. The company said in a press release at the time it would use these funds to produce 10,000 metric tons of magnet production in the U.S. annually.  

A ProPublica investigation published last week revealed Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, took an undisclosed stake in the company around three months before this deal was closed.

Additionally, the outlet reported the lending request was made by Peter Navarro, the president’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. 


That's Democrats trying to do a check and balance.  And hopefully Republicans will join them in this.  Chump's corruption is the worst.  He's gotten away with it so far.  But he's a lame duck now and the American people have caught onto him.  

The American people have caught on to him.  And that includes members of Congress.  Take John Cornyn.  In the 2002 election, he was voted into the US Senate.  And he remained there winning re-election over and over and over.  And should have been a walk this go round -- at least in the GOP primary.  But Chump endorsed Ken Paxton and Paxton won instead. James Osborne (HOUSTON CHRONICLE) reports:


U.S. Sen. John Cornyn went so far as to push legislation renaming a highway for President Donald Trump as he sought the president's endorsement in his hotly contested runoff with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.  

Now he says that bill "may not make it into my priorities the next seven months."
A week after losing his reelection bid to Paxton, who Trump endorsed in the final days of the race, Cornyn's political career is seemingly at its end. And the four-term senator - who said he is "looking forward to working in the private sector" - seems to have a new attitude to the president.
[. . .]
[T]there are early signs Cornyn is more willing to split with the president. On Tuesday, he joined moderate Senate Republicans, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, in challenging the qualifications of Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as the acting director of national intelligence.

And then there's Todd Blanche.  Chump wants to make him Attorney General.  That requires Senate confirmation.  And it's not January 2025 anymore.  



Lawrence O'Donnell noting suck up Todd Blanche kissing up to Chump,  "That was Todd Blanche saying to Donald Trump, 'I will do anything for you, sir.  Anything'."




In May 2025, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat, arrived at an ICE detention facility in his New Jersey city and asked for a tour. Though he was initially let inside the facility’s gate, he was soon confronted by about a dozen federal law enforcement officers and asked to leave. And so he did.
For a moment, that seemed like it would be the end of this incident, but then one of the officers had a phone call. A video, later submitted to a federal court, shows this officer turning to his fellow law enforcers after the call and informing them, “We are arresting the mayor right now, per the deputy attorney general of the United States.”

That deputy attorney general was Todd Blanche, who is now the acting leader of the Department of Justice. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Blanche to become the Senate-confirmed attorney general of the United States.

[. . .]

Blanche was Trump’s personal lawyer before he arrived at the Justice Department. As DAG, Blanche oversaw the Justice Department’s criminal investigations and prosecutions, including the DOJ’s 93 regional US Attorneys’ offices and law enforcement agencies such as the FBI.

That means that Blanche’s involvement in the Baraka arrest wasn’t an isolated incident — at a hearing formally dismissing the charges against Baraka, a federal magistrate judge scolded the DOJ for “using the immense power of the government to pursue weak cases or to make examples without sufficient cause.” Blanche was the senior Justice Department executive overseeing political prosecutions targeting a wide range of Trump’s perceived enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

That is only one reason Blanche isn't qualified.  And Senator John Fetterman's saying he's not voting to confirm Blanche. If he's not going to vote for Blanche it's doubtful any Senate Democrat will.  Fetterman's the one who's been closest to Chump.  But the Republicans, he's got them sewn up, right?  


But in recent days, Blanche has faced backlash from some of the same Republican senators whose support he needs to secure confirmation after he championed plans for a $1.8 billion fund that would have paid out Trump followers and allies who alleged political persecution by prior administrations.

Unhappy Senate Republicans confronted Blanche about the fund at a contentious GOP conference meeting last month. On Tuesday, Blanche said he was abandoning the plan, which threatened to sink an unrelated immigration-enforcement bill.

Many lawmakers worried such a fund could be used to reward people who assaulted police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. But Trump said he loved the idea and that Blanche was “doing a very good job” leading the Justice Department.

Blanche also continues to face criticism over the Justice Department’s release of millions of files from the FBI’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Asked whether he thought Blanche could get enough votes to secure confirmation, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R, S.D.) told reporters, “it’s hard to say … this is an environment where nothing is a safe or sure thing.”

Blanche on Thursday described his relationship with senators as good. “I don’t say no to phone calls,” he said. “I’ll meet with anybody who wants to meet with me.”


Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, signaled the issue as a political faultline and a decisive hurdle for Blanche as lawmakers weigh his nomination to permanently lead the Justice Department.
Speaking to CNN journalist Manu Raju in the halls of the Capitol, Tillis made clear that any perceived sympathy for those involved in the 2021 riot would be a dealbreaker.

“I haven’t made a decision yet, the key for Todd or anybody going through the Judiciary Committee is being pretty tight on January the 6th,” the senator said.

He added: “They better not have said for one minute that the people that beat up police officers like these right down here were righteous people. You come even close to saying that. You don’t have a prayer of my vote in Judiciary.”


!










Yesterday, we noted:

Chump's destroyed the economy with tariffs and the Iran War and he's got more he's plotting.   Paul Farrell (INDEPENDENT) notes:

The Trump administration is proposing tariffs of 10 percent or more on products from dozens of major trading partners, following a probe into imports allegedly made with forced labor.

A report released early Wednesday by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) stated that Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and other countries would face 10 percent additional tariffs for allegedly failing to enforce a forced-labor import ban.
A 12.5 percent additional tariff would be imposed on China, Japan, India, South Korea, Brazil, Switzerland, and dozens of other countries.

The United Kingdom?  

Chump and his never ending lies.


Economist Paul Krugman covers the latest nonsense from Chump:


Yesterday it came in the form of “Section 301” tariffs on 60 trading partners, including the European Union and Japan. Section 301 is titled “Relief from Unfair Trade Practices.” So what are the unfair practices the Trumpists say the whole world is engaging in?

The answer is that the Trump administration is accusing other countries of “failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”

Notice the wording. They aren’t accusing the European Union itself of employing slave labor. Even the Trumpists aren’t willing to lie that shamelessly (yet). No, the claim is that the EU isn’t doing enough to stop countries that do employ slave labor from selling their goods in Europe.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, understands that the alleged justification for these tariffs is a lie. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the EU is less diligent about opposing the use of slave labor than the US. For that matter, there is no reason to believe that Trump and his minions have any particular objection to slave labor. This is nothing but a transparently, one might say sneeringly, bogus rationale for continuing to flout both US law and international agreements.

Why do Trump’s minions keep using legal tricks and lies to impose tariffs? There is, after all, no reason they couldn’t simply ask Congress to impose tariffs through normal legislation. But doing so would run into three problems, from Trump’s point of view. First, Congress might balk. Second, at minimum an attempt to pass legislation would require hearings, in which the weakness of the administration’s arguments would become obvious. Third, one of the reasons Trump loves tariffs is that he gets to issue decrees at will, none of this pesky nonsense of consulting with the legislative branch; having to follow the Constitution would spoil his fantasies of omnipotence.

So here we go again, with another round of tariffs that will probably be ruled illegal some months from now.

Chump's just lying.  Accusing the UK and others of using slave labor.  Lies to get his way.  Lies to try to fool the American people.  Sam Stevenson (NEWSWEEK) explores what this means for American consumers:

For consumers, the implications are direct: tariffs are effectively taxes on imports, and those costs are often passed through supply chains, increasing prices at the checkout.

That means everyday products such as clothing, electronics, household goods and car parts could become more expensive if the proposal takes effect.
Economists broadly note that tariffs tend to raise costs. Previous U.S. trade actions have been linked to higher consumer prices as importers and retailers adjust pricing to cover additional expenses.


Let's move over to Homeland Security where Kristi Noem is gone but not forgotten.  Russell Payne (SALON) explains:


Kristi Noem, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security and current U.S. envoy for the Shield of the Americas, is facing a new Hatch Act complaint over her use of a government jet for a political trip, as well as her use of government social media accounts for self-promotion.
The Hatch Act is a 1939 law limiting the political activities of federal employees with the aim of ensuring that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion and to prevent executive branch employees, except for the president and vice president, from using their office for political ends.

The complaint alleges that “Noem, and one or more members of her staff violated the Hatch Act by using public resources to travel to and attend part of the Republican Governors Association conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 11, 2025.”

American Oversight, the watchdog group that filed the complaint, also requested that the Office of Special Counsel, which handles Hatch Act complaints, investigate the Department of Homeland Security’s use of its official Flickr account to “publicize Noem’s attendance at the partisan RGA event and other similarly-political activities.”
Records show that DHS One, the name of the jet used by the secretary, was used for Noem’s trip to the Republican Governors Association in Nashville. Former advisor to President Donald Trump, Corey Lewandowski, who served as a special government employee during Noem’s tenure at DHS, and who was allegedly engaged in an extramarital affair with Noem, was also CC’ed on some of the communications regarding the RGA trip. Noem has faced questioning before Congress about the alleged relationship, and attacked the reports as “tabloid garbage,” though she stopped short of explicitly denying the allegations while under oath.



The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is canceling most pending contracts initiated under ousted Secretary Kristi Noem, the current ‌secretary said on Wednesday, a move that follows congressional scrutiny and an internal watchdog review of her contracting practices.
During a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, Secretary Markwayne Mullin also said he would restore longer training for federal immigration officers, reversing a Noem-era decision that shortened training during a hiring surge ​and drew bipartisan concerns in Congress about whether recruits were adequately prepared.
Mullin faced questions from a top Democrat about what steps ​he had taken to roll back Noem-era contracts.
"We are looking at the contracts that weren't already signed, and we ⁠did go through and cancel most of those," Mullin said.


Homeland Security's actions have appalled the nation.  Last night, THE NEWSHOUR (PBS) did a story on the repulsion. 


Matt Standal:

Just 50 miles from the Canadian border, the town of Froid is home to less than 200 people.

For more than a decade, Roberto Orozco-Ramirez has been one of them.

Marvin Qualley:

Roberto's our neighbor. He's a part of our community.

Matt Standal:

Over the years, Roberto has come to mean a lot of things to a lot of people here. He's a local diesel mechanic, little league coach, and father of four boys.

Sheri Crain:

Great businessman. He's my neighbor, been my neighbor next door for 11 years.

Matt Standal:

But what residents of Froid didn't know until recently is that Roberto is also an undocumented immigrant who had been deported back in 2009.

Keith Nordlund:

Up until six months ago, I didn't know Roberto was illegal.

Matt Standal:

Neighbor Keith Nordlund says Border Patrol vehicles started showing up around town in early January.

Keith Nordlund:

We had -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we had at least two Border Patrolmen in our town.

Matt Standal:

Agents staked out Roberto's house and, according to his neighbors, even harassed Roberto's children.

Keith Nordlund:

I personally don't believe that's right. Them four boys are American citizens.

Matt Standal:

Roberto turned himself in on January 25. The government charged him with illegal reentry and immediately took him into detention, telling Montana PBS that this enforcement action represents a community safety priority.

Keith Nordlund:

The beef is donated by local ranchers.

Matt Standal:

Within days, Keith Nordlund found himself organizing the biggest fund-raiser this town had ever seen to help Roberto. More people showed up to the Froid Community Center than the town has residents. They shared a meal. They bid on hay and gravel and tools, raising thousands of dollars for Roberto's family.

A separate legal fund raised thousands more.

Roberto Orozco-Lozcano Jr.:

It's really hard seeing that now he's in jail.

Matt Standal:

Roberto Orozco Jr. is Roberto's oldest son. He says his father fled cartel violence in Mexico as a teenager and came here to build a better life.

Roberto Orozco-Lozcano Jr.:

It's incredible seeing such a hardworking man, I mean, my dad. being in a situation like this. I just don't find it very fair.

Matt Standal:

When Montana attorney Laura Christoffersen heard about Roberto, she says she began studying immigration law and hired an expert thanks to those private donations. And what they found changed everything.

Laura Christoffersen, Attorney:

What we believe is that, even in 2009, at the time of his first deportation, he was not afforded due process, which means he was illegally removed.

Matt Standal:

Christoffersen says she found mistake after mistake in the way federal authorities handled Roberto's deportation and says, since January, ICE agents have repeatedly violated his rights.

Laura Christoffersen:

I think people should understand that this is the person who's been in the U.S. more than 25 years, raised a family with four U.S. citizen children who are contributing members of our community. They pay taxes. They obey the rules. They follow the law. They don't take from our society.

Matt Standal:

In this deep red part of the state, there are mixed feelings about Roberto's legal status. But Keith Nordlund says this ordeal has caused him to question some long-held political beliefs.

Keith Nordlund:

I'm not OK that Roberto was here illegally. I don't believe that's right. However, our system is so broken that a guy like Roberto that's came here, has worked his butt off, has built a business, he's thriving in a niche, and he is a valuable asset to our community, how is there not a way for him to be legal?


ICE has destroyed so many lives.  Aala Abdullahi and Geoff Hing (MOTHER JONES) reported earlier this week:

For about five days in December, Abdullahi Mohamed seemingly vanished into the US immigrant detention system. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had detained him near Portland, Maine, and held him for more than seven weeks in Massachusetts. Then, without warning, ICE began moving him repeatedly across the country, from state to state and facility to facility, faster than his family could keep up. News of his whereabouts came to them in fragments: an email from his lawyer that he was in Mississippi; a phone call from the wife of a fellow detainee who said he was in Louisiana; and at one point, a call from Mohamed himself—that lasted for about two minutes—from an undisclosed airport.

His lawyer laid out what was happening. “They are doing this now more and more—moving people without any notice,” he wrote to the family in an email. The transfers, he explained, can block people like Mohamed from speaking with an attorney and make it difficult to file legal petitions in the right jurisdiction, while distressing families. “This is cruelty,” he wrote.

Quick and repeated transfers have become more common in President Donald Trump’s second term, a Marshall Project investigation has found. From the final year of the Biden administration to the first year of Trump’s latest term, the number of people transferred five or more times more than tripled. The number of people transferred out of state within 24 hours more than doubled, according to a Marshall Project analysis of ICE detention data obtained by the Deportation Data Project.

Immigration lawyers say the many transfers not only cause undue suffering for people being detained and their families but have significantly undermined due process protections. Because detainees have limited access to phones while in transit, and ICE’s detainee locator does not always reflect their real-time location, immigration attorneys say rapid transfers can leave people unreachable for hours or even days. Families can lose track of their relatives, while lawyers struggle to locate or speak with clients.

During those gaps, attorneys say, some detainees have been pressured to sign forms affecting their immigration cases before they can speak with counsel.


Turning to Chump's dead best friend Jeffrey Epstein,  Annie Grayer and Nicky Robertson (CNN) note:


House Oversight Chair James Comer and other Republican lawmakers are calling on the Justice Department to investigate allegations involving two men accused of sexually abusing Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistant, according to a letter provided first to CNN.

The new pressure from the Republican lawmakers stems from testimony the panel received last month from the assistant, Sarah Kellen.
In her closed-door interview, Kellen said Frederic Fekkai, a French celebrity hairstylist, and Philip Levine, the former mayor of Miami Beach, sexually assaulted her in separate incidents. She alleged that a third individual, Patrick Demarchelier, a French fashion photographer, exposed himself to her, according to a newly released transcript.

Comer’s letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche asked the Justice Department to investigate  “the allegations against, and any other criminal conduct committed by” Fekkai and Levine in particular, noting Levine appears in the so-called Epstein files 600 times and that Fekkai was known as a “close friend” to Epstein.


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

ICYMI: Murray, Kaptur Asked GAO to Look Into Energy Department’s Decision to Steer Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Away from Wind, Solar in Defiance of Spending Law

Washington, D.C. — Today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the Department of Energy’s (DOE) decision last year to steer hundreds of millions of dollars provided by Congress in fiscal year 2025 for the research and development of clean energy sources toward energy sources favored by Secretary Chris Wright violated the law.

GAO’s investigation into the matter was requested last July by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.

In a statement responding to the decision, Senator Murray and Congresswoman Kaptur said:

“Today, GAO confirmed what’s been clear from the start: the Trump administration broke the law when it gutted investments in affordable, clean energy. Secretary Wright unilaterally rewrote a spending bill signed into law by President Trump, all so he could benefit handpicked industries at the expense of clean energy research Americans are counting on to lower their energy bills. GAO has made clear that this was not merely a policy choice—it was a clear violation of appropriations law.

“The Department of Energy cannot simply ignore the law because the Secretary has a vendetta against the most affordable energy sources. American families have paid the price for this lawbreaking—in higher energy costs, in canceled university and industry research awards, and in national lab scientists who lost their jobs. The administration must take steps to immediately comply with the law, and we must work on a bipartisan basis to insist the Department follows the law.”

In fiscal year 2024, Congress provided $137 million for DOE to support wind energy and $318 million to support solar energy. The fiscal year 2025 full-year continuing resolution—written by House Republicans and signed into law by President Trump in March 2025—continued those funding levels. However, in a spend plan made public on July 2, 2025, the Trump administration revealed it was steering hundreds of millions of dollars away from congressionally directed clean energy technologies to other, favored industries. Rather than fund wind at the enacted level of $137 million, the administration allocated just $29.8 million – a 78% cut. Rather than fund solar at the enacted level of $318 million, it allocated just $41.9 million – an 87% cut.

On July 28, 2025, Kaptur and Murray formally asked GAO to issue a legal decision on whether DOE’s FY2025 spend plan violated the Purpose Statute—which requires that appropriations be used only for the purposes for which they were provided—and the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits agencies from obligating funds in excess of available appropriations.

On February 25, 2026, as DOE began obligating funds in defiance of the law—including issuing a Notice of Funding Opportunity making $146.5 million in FY2025 funds available for geothermal energy despite Congress providing only $118 million—Kaptur and Murray renewed their GAO referral and called on the Department to immediately reverse course. Today’s GAO legal decision responds to that request.

In its decision today, GAO stated: “DOE is required to obligate and expend its FY 2025 appropriations in accordance with the referenced congressional control point amounts in the FY 2024 explanatory statement. …. To the extent that DOE obligated or expended FY 2025 funds in excess of appropriated amounts—that is the FY 2024 levels described above—DOE should report an Antideficiency Act violation.”

###






Posted by at

Thursday, June 04, 2026

Federal judges do their jobs even if the Supreme Court won't do theirs


Elected officials are eroding confidence in the judicial system, and the vitriol increasingly espoused by politicians angry over court rulings can have dangerous implications, two federal judges told NBC News.

“When you call us monsters, and when you say we hate America, and you post that on a large social platform, and when you say it in front of the cameras day in and day out, and when it’s written, and when people put up wanted posters,” U.S. District Judge Esther Salas said. “You are doing that for one reason, and that is to erode the public’s confidence.”
Salas, whose only child was killed in 2020 by a man targeting her, and retired U.S. District Judge John Jones III sat down with NBC News as part of the network’s Common Ground initiative aimed at bringing leaders together from different perspectives together to discuss solutions on bridging that gap.

Salas was appointed to the New Jersey bench in 2011 by Democratic President Barack Obama. Jones was appointed in 2002 by Republican George W. Bush, and spent 19 years on the Pennsylvania bench before his retirement in 2021. Both discussed their growing concerns about the safety of the judiciary.
Threats are rising. So far this year, there have been 324 threats against 253 federal judges, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, the federal agency tasked with protecting federal judges. Last year, there were 564 threats tracked by the agency.

Our federal judges -- regardless of who appointed them to the bench -- do a much better job than the Crooked Court.  That said, no one should be threatened let alone physically targeted.  

But called out?  Yeah, that's part of the process.  


The Supreme Court's Tuesday night decision clearing Alabama to use a congressional map that federal judges found was built on intentional racial discrimination wasn't just a voting rights ruling, according to former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance. It was a signal flare, and Democrats had better be paying attention.
In her Civil Discourse newsletter, Vance called the decision the culmination of a 13-year assault on Black voting power that began with Shelby County v. Holder, accelerated through last month's Callais ruling gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and landed with this week's per curiam order blessing maps that a three-judge panel had already found were tainted by intentional discrimination.
The court's majority leaned on the Purcell principle, the doctrine against last-minute judicial interference in elections, to justify its ruling. The irony, Vance argued, wasn't lost: the same court that handed Alabama Republicans a major victory used an anti-interference rule to run direct interference in an ongoing election.

"Political parties try to earn your vote; authoritarian movements find ways to win without it," Vance quoted Fair Fight's Lauren Groh-Wargo.


Tuesday’s 6-3 order in Allen v. Milligan, which was technically unsigned, allows Alabama—and, in the future, other states—to enact legislative maps even if a federal court rules that they were enacted with racially discriminatory intent. This decision goes well beyond the court’s ruling in Callais, which focused on VRA claims under Section 2 about gerrymandered maps with a racially discriminatory effect.

The decision gives carte blanche to Southern state lawmakers to eliminate majority-Black districts as soon as they feasibly can—or, in Alabama’s case, even if it is not actually feasible or practical. (More on that later.) In 1957, the Supreme Court unanimously ordered Southern states to desegregate their schools “with all available speed.” In 2026, the court’s conservative majority is demanding the elimination of Black electoral power in the South on the same time scale.
“In addition to being wrong on the merits, the Court’s decision inflicts two grave harms on the public,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent. “It debases the democratic process by upending Alabama’s entire election in the name of permitting Alabama to discriminate against Black Alabamians. It also corrodes the rule of law by rewarding Alabama’s gamesmanship and outright defiance of court orders.”

Allen v. Milligan may sound familiar because we have been here before. The Supreme Court already heard the case as a Section 2 challenge to Alabama’s post-2020 congressional districts in 2023. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined with the court’s three liberals to uphold a district court ruling that required Alabama to draw a second majority-Black congressional district.

Though the decision was a surprise victory for voting-rights groups, given the Roberts Court’s hostility to the VRA, there were also warning signs lurking beneath the surface. The majority opinion by Roberts merely stated that the district court had “faithfully applied the court’s precedents” while going out of its way to endorse those precedents.


"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Thursday, June 4, 2026.  Donald Chump continues the war against Iran and continues losing the war, he's gearing up to nominate Todd Blanche to be Attorney General, even four Republicans rebuke him in the House, in the Senate his ballroom doesn't get a vote, and much more.


Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) breaks down the latest on Chump's Iranian war. 
 





Four Republican lawmakers broke party lines Wednesday to pass a resolution curbing Donald Trump’s war powers in his military campaign in Iran.

The four Republicans who joined Democrats were Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Tom Barrett of Michigan, and Warren Davidson of Ohio.

The measure to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities with Iran passed in the House 215–208.

As a concurrent resolution, the measure must be passed by both chambers of Congress. Democratic Senator John Fetterman, a staunch supporter of Israel, has single-handedly prevented previous versions of the measure from passing in the Senate, despite defections from three Republican senators.


Claudia Grisales (NPR) reminds, "The resolution had originally been set for a vote two weeks ago, but Republican leaders sent House members home early for a May recess when it appeared the largely Democratic-backed measure had enough Republican votes for passage. However, the extended break didn't shift GOP support to kill the measure."  Robert Jimison (NEW YORK TIMES) notes, "The measure they supported does not require a presidential signature but still faces long odds of being enacted — and even if it were, it would likely be challenged by the administration. But its adoption, along with a similar measure advancing in the Senate in recent weeks, was a clear repudiation of Mr. Trump’s handling of the war in Iran."  Miranda Jeyaretnam (TIME) quotes US House Rep Gregory Meeks stating, "I am thrilled that we;ve had the opportunity to have some members from the Republican side stand up. I'm really thrilled and proud of my Democratic colleagues, because every Democrat, every single one voted for this.  We're going to continue to do our constitutional responsibilities, that's what we're doing. We're going to continue and be a check and a balance when the administration doesn't follow the Constitution."  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) notes:


President Donald Trump raged at the four "bad Republicans" who voted with the Democratic minority to end his war against Iran.

The 79-year-old president lashed out Wednesday morning after the Iran war powers resolution passed 215-208 in the GOP-led House after Republicans Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Thomas Massie of Kentucky joined Democrats in the vote.


As Chump throws his tantrum, Sarah K. Burris notes:


President Donald Trump is panicking, The Atlantic's Vivian Salama, Jonathan Lemire and Nancy Youssef wrote on Wednesday.

According to the report, talks between the U.S. and Iran are on hold while Trump tries to build up to a kind of war "grand finale."

Trump decided that he wanted to combine the Iran deal with the Abraham Accords, a set of agreements between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries to normalize relations.

Trump wanted "those countries that hadn’t yet joined the Abraham Accords [to] get on board." The various leaders gave him a "less than lukewarm response."

One U.S. official told the reporters that a leader spoke up, calling the idea interesting, but then there was silence. During the 90-minute call, there were several times that Trump asked, “Hello? Hello? Anyone there?”

The story explains why there have been so many reports of an agreement with Iran, only for nothing to come to light. Trump reportedly became "irritated" about those comparing his deal to the one established under former President Barack Obama. Trump's was being mocked as "weaker." He wanted to find a way to make his agreement better than Obama's.



Let's note this from Senator Patty Murray's office about Secretary of State Marco Rubio appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday and be asked about the war:

***WATCH: Senator Murray’s full questioning***

Washington, D.C. — Today—at a Senate Appropriations State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee hearing on the FY27 budget request for the Department of State—U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pressed Secretary Marco Rubio on whether he advised Trump to go to war with Iran, and she slammed Trump’s proposal to blow $1.5 trillion on his war budget instead of helping families afford groceries, gas, housing, health care, and child care.

[IRAN WAR]

Senator Murray questioned Secretary Rubio on his role in advising the president on matters of national security and what his opinion was on engaging in war with Iran.

MURRAY: Mr. Secretary, you are not only the Secretary of State—you are also the president’s National Security Advisor. Those are both full-time jobs when we’re at peace, let alone as we have troops deployed in multiple conflicts around the world and the president is threatening to invade Cuba. 

So, I want to just ask you specifically about Iran. You were one of just a handful of top aides with a seat at the table when the president ultimately did decide to launch the Iran war.

Did you advise the president against the war?

RUBIO: I’ll never tell anybody what I advised the president privately, but I will tell you that the president had before him all the information that he needed. I agree with the decision that he made, if that’s what you’re asking, because the President of the United States saw a threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon behind a conventional shield that, in about a year, would have been impenetrable, and we could not allow them to develop that immunity, and then they could break out to a weapon.

MURRAY: So, you won’t tell us. you know, this is a question that millions of Americans are asking, how on earth did we get here? So, I wanted to know what did you advise the president? Were you for or against this war, or did you—the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor—have no opinion?

RUBIO: No, I just told you I support the president’s decision. I think he made the right decision, but I cannot tell you, and will never do. And you have to understand, nobody in my role has ever done is to go to you and say, “oh, I was in a meeting and I told the president this,” I just can’t do that, I won’t do that, it’s unwise to do that, and it’s unfair. But I am telling you, the president made the right decision, that’s my view, I believe in it strongly.

MURRAY: You do now, okay. Let me just—

RUBIO: I always have, I mean, in terms of my view of the challenge that it poses.

MURRAY: Okay, well back in March, you said this war would end in: “weeks, not months.” And here we are four months, hundreds of troops injured or killed, and billions of dollars later.

Trump promised everybody he was going to lower prices and no new wars. Now we have higher prices and a new war. Trump promised the American people this war would be fast and decisive. It has been slow, and secret, and endless.

And the majority of Americans do oppose this conflict. What my constituents are telling me is they want child care, they want health care to be more affordable, they don’t want Trump to have 1.5 trillion dollars for a defense budget to start wars around the globe. I hear that constantly from so many people.

[VALUE OF INVESTING IN DIPLOMACY & ASSISTANCE]

MURRAY: You know Secretary Rubio, let me just say this: diplomacy and development tools help keep us safe here at home by mitigating conflict, by mitigating disease, other global threats. But the budget that you are here to defend—which would slash this work to the bone, while sending war spending through the roof—makes clear that diplomacy is Trump’s last priority.

And by the way it’s not just the budget, or the unhinged rants attacking allies like Greenland and Canada, or threatening to “end civilizations,” or Trump treating war like a game—the White House posting literal video game edits as if he weren’t getting American soldiers injured.

It’s also the actions that you have taken over the past year to gut the State Department—deeply concerning, dismantle foreign aid, abdicate American leadership. Under your leadership, it is deeply concerning that State left 500 tons of food aid to rot in ports, and it had to be incinerated. Or pushing out thousands upon thousands of dedicated public servants—including families who put country first here, and left their home to serve around the world only to be sacked with no rhyme, no reason. I’ve heard from them.

Meanwhile, you are planning to put Trump’s face on U.S. passports. As if that is going to help our image when all that’s happening. And the hack-and-slash job that you have done to foreign assistance, and you’re asking for in this budget, has not only shattered America’s global leadership, it has led to millions of preventable deaths. Programs have been frozen, grants have been cancelled, lifesaving work utterly turned upside down.

I want to talk about global health—the stakes of life and death are here under global health. PEPFAR-supported testing reach[ed] nearly five million fewer people than the year before. In Zambia, babies born to HIV-positive moms used to be tested within hours of birth, and treatment started immediately for positive cases. Now babies are not being even tested until they’re six weeks old.

So you are not just cutting resources that I just reference—you are actually cutting the United States out of the conversation on global health threats and leaving all of us less prepared. We are in the middle of a deadly Ebola epidemic, we are seeing a worrisome hantavirus outbreak, this administration has halted funding to the World Health Organization. And you are currently withholding nearly two billion dollars in FY 25 Global Health funding that was appropriated with bipartisan support here, signed into law by President Trump, and expires in less than four months.

Now, I know that Ebola funding somehow miraculously started moving when we were seeing bad headlines—but what is moving right now Mr. Secretary is less than two percent of what is available. So my point is that the delay in mobilizing those resources has cost us valuable time and let this disease kill more people. And the fact is, we already had these support systems in place, they were in place, until this Administration destroyed them.

And even as we stare down a crisis caused by this administration’s incompetence in my opinion, you are here today to defend a budget that doubles down on that—that is what is really disturbing to me—with a 40% cut to Global Health Programs in this budget. So to my point of view, this budget doesn’t make America great again, it makes the world sicker and less safe.

And that I’m just talking about the cuts that you’re proposing with this budget, because we cannot ignore the biggest line item in the president’s overall budget that’s in front of us—which is war. 1.5 trillion dollars for war.

Not a cent [more] for child care. Not a cent to make health care more affordable. That is the budget that you are here today to defend, and it spends $1.5 trillion on war and slashes your Department to ribbons.

So that is what is concerning to me, as you come before our committee today to back this request up. It just seems to me we are cutting diplomacy and paying defense contractors, and I just believe from my point of view, and I know you disagree with me, but I just think this is the wrong way for our country to go. A budget is a statement of values. I’ve said it many, many times, and I think it is in big question where the values are in this budget. So that’s where I am.

RUBIO: Mr. Chair, Senator Boozman, can I respond? Because she touched a lot of topics. I don’t know if I can get all of them, you know, but, but I’m going to get to most of them.

CHAIR: Sure.

RUBIO: Because I strongly disagree with almost everything you’ve said,

MURRAY: I figured you would.

RUBIO: A couple points. First, let’s talk about the State Department. The State Department was actually one of the least impacted of all the agencies in government.

MURRAY: I’m not talking about least impacted. You heard—

RUBIO: No, no, no, no. But let’s be frank, we didn’t—not a single, for example, overseas employee was RIF’d from the State Department. The vast majority of the reduction in forces came from the career civil service, not the foreign service, and that’s because we got rid of the functional bureaus and put all the power under the regional bureaus. It’s one of the best things we’ve ever done, and I think it’s going to prove to be very wise. And we already see the impacts of it.

Let’s walk through some of the programs you’ve pointed to. So, for example, our disaster response today around the world, because we combine those accounts, is faster than it’s ever been, and more effective than it’s ever been. These are not theories, it is the reality. We responded to hurricanes in the Caribbean, Jamaica, and Cuba, by the way, $3 million in aid to Cuba, faster at a record pace than ever before. We’ve responded to two typhoons in the Indo-Pacific faster than we’ve ever responded, because we combined and consolidated those accounts, and we’re able to move very, very quickly in that regard.

Beyond that, you mentioned the PEPFAR. The reality of it is, first of all, you have to combine it with all these other programs that we’re involved in, but if you look at the numbers for the last, well in the third quarter of 2026, 2025, the exact number of people that were receiving medications were receiving medications during that period of time. The exact number, and it’s going to even improve, because we’re adding innovation to it. There have been recent innovations in AIDS treatment, HIV treatments that are even more effective than some of the legacy programs that are available.

MURRAY: Mr. Secretary it is very clear why you are the secretary, because you’re very good at words.

RUBIO: No, but I’m giving you, I don’t know how else can I answer you other than words?

MURRAY: I will stand by my statement against yours. I just will.  

RUBIO: What was that?

MURRAY: I will stand by all of the facts that I gave.

RUBIO: Okay, but I get a chance to respond, right?

MURRAY: Well, my times out, it’s up to the chair.

CHAIR: You can respond.

RUBIO: Okay. So, on the other things you’re not talking about, those I think are very valuable to this, are these global health compacts that we’re entering with 32 countries, 27 of them in Africa. In which we’re basically going to the country to say, “okay, we used to give money for clinics, we used to give money for health care, we used to give money for maternal care,” and we used to have it in a bucket, and it was maternal care globally, and then we went out and dished out contracts for people to go into individual countries.

Now we’re entering into contracts, compacts, agreements with the country, and we’re saying to them, “okay, what are your needs?” And we’re doing this through the embassies. “What are your specific needs in this country?” And entering into a compact, not just to provide them aid for these things that they need, but to help them strengthen their national health care systems, so that long term they will be self-sustaining. Now, in some countries, it may take 10 years to get to that point, some it may take less. But for the first time, we are not just having these buckets that then are distributed broadly around the world. It is targeted at the highest needs of those countries based on their own domestic strategies and allowing us to become a value added to their strategy and to build their capacity. That’s something that hasn’t been talked about.

You look at what we’ve done with OCHA [United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs], we’ve signed the first humanitarian reset agreement in Geneva, and along with our anchor pledge of 2 billion in support for the 18 country-based crisis level pool funds. This is going to allow us to respond in a more effective way. With the Global Fund, we’ve entered into agreement with the Global Fund. They’ve put out repeated statements thanking the United States for the role that we are playing with the Global Fund, and we’re prepared to do more if donors match what we are providing, we’re prepared to do even more in that regard.

The list goes on and on. The point is, this is not about, first of all, this is not about denying and being punitive towards the world. This is about delivering aid, but delivering it in a more effective and concise and consolidated way that actually gets more aid to more people faster, that is the goal. And I think we’re well on our way to achieving it.

Now, as far as the budget is concerned, you know we operate under an OMB guidance that tells us, “this is how much you have, tell us what you would do if this is what you get.” We present this to you, having served here for a long period of time, I said this before you walked in, so perhaps you missed this point, is we always understand that there’s going to be a congressional process in which you’re going to look at our request and generally ignore it, but in many cases add to it or reframe it, and we’re prepared to work with you as we did last year in the passage of an appropriations bill, which we would like to see passed, because when you pass appropriations bills, it gives us the structure that we need in order to carry out these reforms.

MURRAY: Mr. Secretary, I just will tell you, I appreciate that you have words to explain everything from your point of view. I’m talking from reality on the ground, and from what I am seeing and hearing, and I fear deeply that we are losing our place and our value globally. So, you and I have a disagreement. Thank you.

###





Chump can't make a deal.  Not a good one.  He's the failure his father always told him he was.  But this time?  Daddy's not around to bail him out.  He's exposed as the fraud he is.  With the entire world watching.  And registering.  THE DAILY DIGEST notes:

This war started on February 28, 2026, and those few days have turned into months; the general feeling is that time, money (a lot of money) have been lost, and above all, world leadership has been lost.
[. . .]
The latest polls of American citizens show that the public is tired of a war that was unpopular from the start.
But now, four months later, they doubt that the dispute's resolution will have any positive impact on their country.
Basically, Americans don't have much faith that Donald Trump can win anything in a conflict that he himself started.
Moreover, according to CNN, some of the most hawkish members of the Republican Party claim that the agreement being worked on by both sides could even leave Iran in a more powerful position than before the conflict.


Chump's destroyed the economy with tariffs and the Iran War and he's got more he's plotting.   Paul Farrell (INDEPENDENT) notes:

The Trump administration is proposing tariffs of 10 percent or more on products from dozens of major trading partners, following a probe into imports allegedly made with forced labor.

A report released early Wednesday by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) stated that Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and other countries would face 10 percent additional tariffs for allegedly failing to enforce a forced-labor import ban.
A 12.5 percent additional tariff would be imposed on China, Japan, India, South Korea, Brazil, Switzerland, and dozens of other countries.

The United Kingdom?  

Chump and his never ending lies.

Daniel Dale (CNN) fact checked Chump's interview for Miranda Devine's podcast:

Another softball interview. Another series of obvious lies from the president.

President Donald Trump’s conversation with conservative New York Post columnist and podcaster Miranda Devine, released on Wednesday morning, featured some of Trump’s longest-debunked false claims about elections, the economy and immigration. As with his inaccurate comments in a Fox News interview that aired on Saturday, which was conducted by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, these assertions went unchallenged.

Here is a fact check of some of his remarks in the Post interview. This is not intended as a comprehensive list.
Elections 

Mail-in ballots: Trump falsely claimed, as he has on numerous previous occasions, “We’re the only country in the world that has mail-in ballots. No other country does it anymore.”

In fact, dozens of countries  -- including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Switzerland  -- allow some or all voters to vote by mail, though the specifics of their policies vary.

The 2020 election: Trump repeatedly uttered his familiar lie that the 2020 election was “rigged,” this time adding that “it’s been proven to be rigged.” Trump lost fair and square to Joe Biden, the election wasn’t “rigged,” and – five-and-a-half years later — there is no proof for Trump’s assertion.

Trump also said of Biden: “Should have never been president. He lost the election in a landslide.” Biden actually won the election 306 to 232 in the Electoral College, and he earned more than 7 million more votes than Trump did.

Trump’s election performance: Trump lied of his election performance: “I won it three times.” Trump won the 2016 and 2024 elections and lost the 2020 election.

The 2024 election: Trump described the 2024 election he won as “a great election,” but then said, “They had a lot of rigging going on there too,” adding, “There were areas that were just rigged. I could see it. In other words, rigged against me.” There is no basis for these claims, either; Trump won the election legitimately but lost some communities and states legitimately.
Democrats and elections: Trump repeated his lie that Democrats “couldn’t win” without cheating, also saying, “If they didn’t cheat, they could not win because their policies are so bad” and that “if they didn’t cheat you wouldn’t have them in.” This is simply baseless; Democrats, like Republicans, win elections legitimately.
Ballots in California: Reprising a false claim he made in May, Trump said, “You know, in California, they mail out 38 — I think 38 million ballots.” He added, “And some people get three, four, five ballots. Republicans get, oftentimes, none.” Both of these claims are incorrect. California had about 22.6 million voters registered as of about two weeks prior to the last presidential election and about 23.2 million voters registered as of about two weeks prior to Tuesday’s primaries; there is no basis for any suggestion that some 15 million excess ballots are distributed in any California election. And every active registered voter in the state, no matter their party affiliation, is sent a mail-in ballot; there are occasional administrative errors by counties or the postal service, but there is no basis for Trump’s suggestion that there is some sort of general anti-Republican bias in distributing the ballots.

He can't stop lying.  It's a character defect.  He lies about everything.  He lies about himself and he lies about others.  He lies about the economy.  He lies about things people can see with their own eyes. 

He's a Convicted Felon and he loves to hire other convicts even though their convictions should prevent them from a job interview, let alone a position.  Tara Copp and Salvador Rizzo (WASHINGTON POST) report:

A convicted Jan. 6 rioter who later said that he regretted his participation in the U.S. Capitol attack has been hired by the Trump administration to work inside a Pentagon office that manages highly classified military operations, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The appointment of Elias Irizarry, who was 19 at the time of the riot in 2021, to a post in the Defense Department’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict office has raised alarm internally among staff who question how anyone convicted in the assault on American democracy could be trusted for such a sensitive role in the U.S. government, these people said. All spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a fear of retaliation.

Irizarry is assigned to the office’s irregular warfare and counterterrorism section, the people familiar with the matter said. The team comprises about 40 people, and its portfolio includes operations such as embassy security, personnel recovery and hostage rescue.

Two people characterized the work as among the most delicate that the Pentagon performs. All positions, they said, require a top-secret security clearance.

MS NOW covered this story yesterday.




President Donald Trump’s approval rating among independents has slipped to an all-time low, a new poll from YouGov/The Economist released on Tuesday shows.

Shifts in approval and disapproval ratings could signal broader erosion and complicate the Republican Party’s midterm strategies this year, especially as multiple trackers show Trump significantly underwater nationally. Independents often determine close elections.
According to the poll, Trump’s overall approval rating was 35 percent versus a 61 percent disapproval rating, for a net of -26. Among independents, his approval was 21 percent versus a 71 percent disapproval, a net -50.

YouGov’s Allen Houston, in an emailed release to Newsweek on Tuesday, said in part: “That’s a record-low among Independents for either term. At this point in Trump’s first term, he had a -3 net job approval among Independents.
“Trump’s job approval among Independents has fallen so low that the closest first-term comparison isn’t to Independents, whose net approval of Trump in his first term never fell below -30. Rather, Trump’s approval among Independents is close to how Democrats viewed Trump at the start of his first term, when he had a -54 net approval among Democrats [13 percent approve and 67 percent disapprove].”

And this as MSN notes, "Pope Leo XIV’s +37 net favorability in the Economist/YouGov poll far exceeds Trump’s -17, creating a 54-point difference."

Popularity?  Chump no longer has any.  Pope Leo is beloved.  Chump is despised.  He can slap his name on everything he wants, it won't stop his name from being a joke.  He's a con man and the world has caught on.  David Kurtz (TALKING POINTS MEMO) points out:

A confusing mishmash of reporting Monday afternoon inadvertently revealed that Donald Trump can still play Congress and the press like fools.

The flurry of reporting, mostly from Capitol Hill, was about whether the political heat around the corrupt “Anti-Weaponization Fund” had become too much to stomach, especially for GOP senators. The vague news, largely attributed to unnamed White House sources, was that Trump was signaling he “plans to drop,” “pause,” “retreat,” “backtrack,” and “back off” from the slush fund.
Adding an absurdist twist to the afternoon, the Trump DOJ put out a meaningless statement that it would abide by a court order blocking the slush fund.

Note that all the uproar yesterday only dealt with the slush fund — and only with the political furor over the slush fund. That represents only part of the corrupt scheme to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, which has three main elements:

the slush fund;
the IRS’ release of Trump et al. from any tax claims that predate the settlement (I should note there’s also an argument that the loose language of the settlement releases Trump et al. from any civil and criminal claims by the U.S. government prior to the settlement date);
the fraud on the court for some combination of bringing a frivolous claim, collusively settling it, and using the court to launder public funds for Trump’s slush fund.
Despite all the talk on the Hill about the politics of the slush fund, it’s never been clear exactly what Republicans in Congress were going to do about the slush fund and whether it would be sufficient. My understanding is that Trump wanted to include authorization for the slush fund in the reconciliation package (still no publicly available language on any such provision), and Senate Republicans were considering putting some guardrails to prevent payouts to people who assaulted police on Jan. 6, a noble enough but limited goal and hardly the only corrupt aspect of the $1.776 billion slush fund.

[. . .]

Even if the Republican Congress stands up to Trump on the slush fund, it doesn’t appear to be preparing to scrutinize, let alone unwind (if it’s possible) the corrupt release of the IRS’ claims against Trump and fam. It’s a huge giveaway — $100 million, by some estimates — under extraordinarily corrupt circumstances. The improper leaking of Trump tax returns by an IRS contractor isn’t a proper justification for dropping all of the IRS claims against Trump, let alone other civil and criminal claims the government may have had against him or his family members.

 

 
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who signed the one-page agreement that blocks the federal government from investigating potential tax claims against the president, told members of Congress this week that “nothing has changed” about the plan.
It might not be up to him, however. The judge overseeing the president’s lawsuit against the IRS could sanction the parties if the court finds that Trump filed a “frivolous lawsuit for the sole purpose of forcing a settlement” that bails out his family members and their businesses, all on taxpayers’ dime.
Congress could also step in. Lawmakers and watchdog groups want the deal thrown out and legislation that would permanently dissolve any agreements that shield Trump from future audits.



Chump is said to be planning to announce that he's nominating Blanche for Attorney General.  Blanche is currently acting Attorney General.  






Chump's a con man minus a ballroom currently.  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

Senate Republicans removed funding for security upgrades to President Trump's White House ballroom from their immigration package after the provision threatened the entire legislative effort, according to revised text released Wednesday

The Senate parliamentarian had determined the ballroom language violated specific budgetary requirements, which would have allowed Democrats to filibuster the bill and block $70 billion in ICE and border patrol funding, and Senate GOP leaders acknowledged the provision was procedurally problematic and politically risky, reported CNN.
Some Republican senators also expressed concern that allocating funds for the ballroom while Americans faced cost-of-living pressures ahead of midterm elections would project an out-of-touch image.

That's not a concern for Chump.  Ever.  He thrives on looking out of touch.  And on being out of touch.  

And he's got another US attorney who is not qualified for the job and who will not step aside but instead breaks the law.   Thomas Kika reports:


Sigal Chattah is an Israeli-born lawyer and a former RNC operative, who currently serves as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada. According to a lengthy and scathing report published by Ben Penn for Bloomberg on Wednesday, during her tenure in the role, she has bucked numerous ethical norms, and "pushed to launch investigations at the behest of former clients and friends while repeatedly bypassing Justice Department orders recusing her from cases," according to several sources close to the matter.
"Chattah, a former Republican party official who took over the US attorney’s office in Nevada 14 months ago, also opened a probe targeting her past political foe, the three individuals said," Penn reported. "It is one of many circumstances in which she’s leveraged her role to advance personal interests."

He added: "The first-time prosecutor frequently sought status updates on cases despite warnings that she was disregarding recusals signed by the deputy attorney general’s office in Washington that barred her involvement in matters where she had conflicts of interest, said several individuals. Chattah also took calls from outside attorney acquaintances and intervened in their pending matters opposite her office — seeking favorable outcomes for their clients."

“It’s charitable to call it chaos,” Rick Pocker, who served as Nevada U.S. attorney under George H. W. Bush, told Bloomberg. “I don’t think she quite understands how you’re not supposed to use that office for personal or political purposes.”

Citing "interviews with two dozen Nevada lawyers and former law enforcement officials," Penn noted that Chattah's conduct in the role has "departed from longstanding department policies and traditions, unsettling her staff, law enforcement partners, and defense attorneys." Her appointment as acting U.S. Attorney is also among a few that have been deemed "invalid" in court, though she remains in office while she attempts to appeal the ruling.

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

Building on their newly announced Election Protection Task Force, Senate Democrats met with election experts to safeguard voting rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Senators Alex Padilla, Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee which oversees federal elections, and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.), members of the Senate Democrats’ Election Protection Task Force, met with key election experts to stress-test responses to several threats to the 2026 midterms, including foreign interference and misinformation, the deployment of federal agents to polling places, and law enforcement agents seizing ballots from local election officials. The meeting was the second convening of the Election Protection Task Force since its April launch. Participants included former Attorney General Eric Holder, Marc Elias of the Elias Law Group, Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy, Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward, and election law expert Norm Eisen. 

“As millions of Americans exercised their right to vote yesterday, Donald Trump and his MAGA allies were working overtime — not to make life better for families who are struggling to make ends meet, but scheming to silence the voices of countless voters across the country. They have already moved to seize ballots, purge eligible voters from the rolls, dismantle the core protections of the Voting Rights Act, and now handed control of America’s most sensitive national security apparatus to a Trump loyalist whose only qualification is his willingness to do Trump’s bidding, including election interference. Between now and the November midterms, we expect these attacks will only intensify. That is exactly why this task force exists. We will fight back in the Senate, in the courts, and in the states, and we will ensure that Donald Trump can’t ‘takeover’ our elections. Our democracy is not his to take,” said Senator Padilla.

“Donald Trump and his enablers are not hiding their intention to interfere in the upcoming midterm elections — indeed they are already working to suppress the vote — and our Task Force is preparing for all the contingencies. In the specific scenario that I proposed for today, we confronted how this administration’s weaponization of federal law enforcement — including ICE or CBP — could be used to intimidate voters and depress turnout. This and the other scenarios we workshopped today will help ensure readiness across the country to confront these threats, combat attacks on our elections, and identify any gaps in our democracy’s defenses,” said Senator Schiff.

“Trump and Republicans are hellbent on rigging our elections and undermining our democracy. Democrats won’t let that happen,” said Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.“ Our Election Protection Task Force, the most expansive effort to date to protect the 2026 midterms, is readying for the threats we know are coming – and today we gamed out how we can thwart them before Republicans can undermine our free and fair elections. Democrats will be ready with lawyers and response teams to respond the moment Trump or his allies try to interfere with our elections. Democracy is on the line. Democrats are going to fight like hell to make sure our elections belong to the voters – not Donald Trump.”

As their agenda grows more unpopular due to a worsening affordability crisis and mounting corruption scandals, the Trump Administration has worked to disrupt free and fair elections and tip the scales toward Republicans ahead of the midterms. Trump has said he’ll deploy an “election integrity army” to polling places across the country and is making it harder to vote-by-mail. His Justice Department sought to seize state voter rolls. FBI agents and the Director of National Intelligence raided election offices in Georgia. Republicans pressed election officials in Arizona to turn over documents. Poll workers are being threatened nationwide.

Over the coming weeks and months, the Senators’ Task Force will continue to announce additional steps in the fight to safeguard the right to vote and ensure that every American has fair access to the ballot box this November.

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