WE THINK THERE'S ANOTHER EXPLANATION: PHILLIPS NEEDED MCDONALD'S.
BEAR WITH US. PHILLIPS HAS A HUGE HANKERING FOR FRANCHISE EATINGS AND MCDONALD'S HAS JUST BROUGHT BACK THEIR ORIGINAL FRIED APPLE PIE. WHAT IF, HE WENT TO MCDONALD'S?
I was with my boys one time and I was telling them I was gonna go to Waffle House and get Waffle House. And I ended up at a Waffle House – this was in Georgia and I end up at a Waffle House like 50 miles away from where I was. And they said, “where are you?” and I said, “A Waffle House.” And “a Waffle House where?” And I said, “Waffle House in Rome, Georgia.” And they said, “That’s not possible, you just left here a moment ago.” But it was possible. It was real…
Teleporting is no fun. It’s no fun because you don’t really know what you’re doing. You don’t really understand it, it’s scary, but yet – but so real.
THAT'S RIGHT. WHAT IF GREGG PHILLIPS -- GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE AND SELF-NOTED TELEPORTER -- TELEPORTED TO A MCDONALD'S TO GET A FRIED PIE AND NOW IS STUCK THERE BECAUSE HE IS UNABLE TO TELEPORT BACK HOME. AS HE ADMITTED HE "DOESN'T REALLY KNOW WHAT [I] AM DOING" AND HE DOESNT "REALLY UNDERSTAND IT."
So who did Trump manage to book for his big event? Who was the big name they managed to lock in? Well, it’s Kash Patel’s 27-year-old girlfriend. Get excited everybody.
The FBI director’s 27-year-old girlfriend is a featured performer at Trump’s big celebration, which I’m sure was thrilling news for all of these 6,000 people who are following her budding country music career on Spotify. I’m sure they are absolutely delighted.
But it turns out well-known musicians are not the only ones dropping out of Trump’s big state fair. The website for the event says it will feature more than 150 exhibits from all 50 states and territories. Sounds good, right?
Only it turns out that some of America’s states and territories are just as reluctant to participate in this thing as Milli Vanilli or one half of Milli Vanilli, to be exact, because several states have now also announced that they are pulling out of this event, too. According to various news outlets, at least 10 states have dropped out and will not have exhibits at the event.
Trump couldn’t even get all 50 states of the United States of America to attend the Great American State Fair.
And he can’t even deliver on the food he promised for this event, it turns out, because yesterday “Axios” reported that a local D.C. sandwich shop that appeared on the event’s vendor list said they never agreed to participate in the fair at all. Again, this is — this is supposed to be the kind of thing that is easy for a president. It’s the kind of — kind of the presidential equivalent of a local politician showing up at a ribbon cutting ceremony, but Donald Trump can’t even pull this off.
And Jen was right. In fact, as Ben reported in the video at the top of the snapshot, thee food situation was much worse because some vendors did show up . . . only to have the power go out and food get ruined. And the Ferris wheel wouldn't work.
How much of our tax dollars were wasted on that garbage? And don't pretend you want the nation to come together and to unify when you've got Sean Duffy on stage cursing at liberals or Chump onstage insisting that two years ago the country was the laughing stock and blah blah blah. This was a partisan event. This was not about unity, it was not about America.
Glory was being sought. But not for this country. Not for its founding. Not for the hope of what it can be. Everyone on stage was present to glorify the Convicted Felon.
And, no, you're not going to get even half the country willing to go along with that as a celebration of 250 years of existence.
The Make America Healthy Again movement that helped sweep Donald Trump back into the White House is fracturing over his betrayal on pesticides — and MAHA activists are now threatening to stay away from Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.
According to a report from MS NOW's Arielle Hixson, the Trump administration's decision to back Monsanto in the Supreme Court's Roundup pesticide liability case is turning into a pivot point for the administration. The company is fighting to shield itself from state lawsuits claiming the herbicide should have carried cancer warnings. By supporting Monsanto's legal team, Trump signaled whose side he's on—and it's not the health-conscious base that carried him to victory.
According to a report from MS NOW's Arielle Hixson, the Trump administration's decision to back Monsanto in the Supreme Court's Roundup pesticide liability case is turning into a pivot point for the administration. The company is fighting to shield itself from state lawsuits claiming the herbicide should have carried cancer warnings. By supporting Monsanto's legal team, Trump signaled whose side he's on—and it's not the health-conscious base that carried him to victory.
[. . .]
That threat of voter disengagement represents a catastrophic risk to Trump heading into 2026. MS NOW is reporting a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found 41% of American adults support MAHA — voters who skew Republican but whose loyalties are now visibly shaken.
Alexandra Muñoz, a toxicologist working with the MAHA movement, warned that a Monsanto victory would "strip accountability from a category of chemicals that includes known carcinogens and could clear the way for more hazardous pesticides to reach the market," according to the report.
Hannah Dunning, the "Clean Clothing Chick," articulated the movement's ultimatum, telling MS NOW, "If they want to be disrespectful to the point where they're going to side with Big Chemical in the Supreme Court, watch out for angry moms, because we're here; we're ready."
President Trump, facing a backlash from supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for allying himself with the chemical industry, issued an executive order on Thursday aimed at reducing pesticides in the food supply and studying the health risks they pose.
The order does not involve new federal funding, and does not call for new regulations or legislation. Critics contended that it did little to meaningfully address the consequences of pesticide use. Two White House officials, speaking anonymously to preview the order before it was announced, said it was timed to coincide with a dinner Mr. Trump was hosting for farmers.
And it's not just independents, swing voters, Republicans and MAGA that Chump's losing, Nicole Charky-Chami (RAW STORY) reports even the tin foil hatters of QAnon are leaving Chump Land:
QAnon believers have turned on President Donald Trump, and despite an attempt from the White House to win them back, it has backfired among the president's former allies, an analyst reported on Thursday.
Will Sommer, senior reporter at The Bulwark, described how the Trump administration dropped a "bizarre QAnon-themed social media campaign" this week. In posts on X, the White House used slogans associated with QAnon, including “trust the plan” with a mock Q design to try to promote Trump executive orders and references to "quantum computing."
"There are several reasons why QAnon believers are turning on Trump," Sommer wrote. "But the main thrust boils down to this: After trying to block the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and failing to deliver deep-state arrests, some of the movement’s dissatisfied stars think it’s a bit gauche, if not insulting, that the president and his team are appropriating QAnon culture."
QAnon John, a former movement personality, described the backlash over Trump's second administration and the online group.
“Now, [sic] that Trump’s approval is in the toilet after endless broken promises to the American people and blatantly Israel first policies, they are using Q propaganda in a last ditch desperate attempt to reel the deceived loyalists back in," he wrote.
Chump's reflecting pool nightmare continues but it's not the only damage he's physically done to the area. Vic Verbalaitis (DAILY BEAST) notes:
Yet another of President Donald Trump’s vanity projects has left a nasty scar on an iconic Washington, D.C. landmark.
The White House South Lawn, the featured site of the president’s 80th birthday bash, housed the 600-ton metal behemoth dubbed “The Claw” for Trump’s birthday fight night, which ruined the historically pristine green lawn in the process.
As can be seen in aerial photos captured on Wednesday, workers have arrived to repair the grass damaged by the UFC Freedom 250 event held on June 14.
[. . .]
Trump’s other vanity projects, such as his botched Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation and his demolition of the White House East Wing to make way for his $600 million ballroom, have irrevocably changed the historic People’s House and its surrounding landmarks.
All that money wasted on Chump's personal birthday. Corruption, corruption, corruption. Chump can -- and does -- add to our national debt constantly. He's just not very good when it comes to generating income for the United States. Tristan Bove (FORTUNE) reports:
U.S. colleges are dealing with plummeting international student enrollment, and the consequences could go far beyond shrinking tuition revenue.
International students have become less likely to pursue education in the U.S. since President Donald Trump’s return to office. The administration has introduced more restrictive anti-immigration policies, including measures that explicitly target foreign-born students, and tightened rules about post-schooling employment for international graduates.
Last fall, schools reported international student enrollment had dipped 17%, according to NAFSA, an education nonprofit. Declining tuition spending translated to $1.1 billion in lost revenue for universities, and almost 23,000 fewer jobs.
Those figures might just be a drop in the bucket if international students end up permanently absconding from U.S. schools. International enrollees disproportionately pursue technical degrees, including in scientific, technology, engineering, and mathematics domains, otherwise known as STEM. The skills and the professions these lead to are cornerstones to U.S. innovation and technological breakthroughs, which in turn bolster all sorts of businesses and jobs. By cutting off those foreign-born grad students and PhDs at the source, the U.S. risks gutting its own economy years down the line.
That’s the finding of a paper published Tuesday by researchers at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. If the number of transplant STEM graduates trained in the U.S. were to fall by a third over the next decade, the blow to entrepreneurship, productivity, and business dynamism would claw anywhere between $240 billion and $481 billion from the country’s GDP, the paper found.
Whether it's the White House lawn or the influx of money to the country from foreign students, Chump destroys it all. He's a screw up, a loser, and always has been.
A
pair of sweeping decisions from the Supreme Court will allow Donald
Trump’s administration to end humanitarian protections for tens of
thousands of immigrants and indefinitely block people seeking asylum
from entering the country.
Thursday’s rulings
from the high court’s conservative majority could upend asylum law and
open the door for the Trump administration to forcibly remove more than 1
million people from the country who are already here legally.
The
6-3 decisions, both written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, are
expected to have devastating consequences for immigrants and their
families who seek asylum at the border as well as tens of thousands of
people who live and work in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status.
The Crooked Court keeps overturning the lower courts to impose Chump's will -- not the law -- upon us all.
We
need Supreme Court reform as issues to address in 2026 and have
proposals ready in 2028. We need to have a strict and enforceable code
of conduct. We need term limits. And we need to expand the number of
judges on the Court. This needs to be done immediately.
The six crooks on the Court currently are destroying our lives as they shred the Constitution.
Our
nation is turning 250 years old and it is crying and grieving over the
manner in which the Court mutilates our democracy daily.
Thursday, June 25, 2026. Chump and Republican US senators exchange
words, Chump's faithful turn out for a speech from the Convicted Felon
and large numbers leave half-way through the speech, the courts are
delivering some harsh verdicts for Chump, Pete Hegseth remains
unqualified to be the Secretary of the Defense, and much more.
Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) brings us up to speed on the Iran War this morning.
Delusional and demented Donald Chump, Convicted Felon of the United States, no longer can recall what he said mere months ago. Reanna Smith (THE MIRROR) reports:
For more than 100 days, Donald Trump has reassured the American public that the war in Iran has effectively been won by the US.
He has repeatedly claimed victory in the conflict,
even going as far as declaring that it was achieved within the "first
hour" of the war. But now the president appears to have backpedaled on
those bold claims.
On Tuesday, 116 days after the
conflict began, he admitted Iran is only now "on the 'ropes,' ready to
go down for the fall." The president took to Truth Social to boast about
the achievement as he complained about the US Senate approving a War
Powers Resolution demanding that he halt hostilities against Iran and
seek congressional approval before continuing any military action.
[. . .]
The post suggests that the US had not already achieved the victory Trump had previously declared.
It
started with Trump demanding to know why anyone would vote for a
resolution to end the war in Iran, as four Republicans had done on
Tuesday, despite ongoing peace negotiations.
“He
asked, ‘Why would anybody vote for the War Powers Act?’ As he
continued, I said, ‘Is that a rhetorical question, or would you like to
really know?’ He said, ‘I’d like to know,’” [Senator Bill] Cassidy told
reporters after the meeting.
“I stood and
said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on. It was
supposed to last four weeks, it’s lasted four months. Our original
objectives have not been achieved, and I want to know what’s going on.’”
Cassidy
said he told the president he’d continue voting for resolutions to end
the war until the administration gives lawmakers a briefing. He said the
account was not necessarily verbatim, but other senators confirmed
there’d been a testy exchange.
“As I recall,”
Cassidy continued, “he did not particularly care for my comments, raised
his voice. I lost my temper — that’s inappropriate, it’s the Irish in
me — but I again matched his tone and his volume, and it went back and
forth, but at some point, my guys said, ‘All right, Bill, sit down,’ and
so I sat down and tried to de-escalate.”
The
more-than-hourlong meeting with Mr. Trump focused mostly on the Iran
war and the War Powers Resolution. On Tuesday, the Senate approved a
Democrat-led resolution to keep the president from ordering further
military action in Iran. Four Republicans voted in favor of the
concurrent resolution, which is symbolic and does not carry the force of
law.
A source directly
familiar with the meeting told CBS News Mr. Trump expressed his
discontent with Republicans, including Cassidy, who had worked with the
Democrats on the resolution.
The president
also shared his disdain for Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. "It was very
awkward when she walked in right after he said that," the source said.
Murkowski
arrived at the meeting late, telling reporters that she had a
previously scheduled event. Afterward, she questioned his decision not
to sign the housing bill.
"If he chooses to
hold up his own agenda because he wants action on the SAVE Act, that's —
I guess — his call. It is not helpful to him. It's not helpful to the
country, and it's not moving the needle," Murkowski told reporters. "If
you don't have the votes, sir, you don't have the votes."
Sen.
John Kennedy (R-La.) described Trump as “mad as a murder hornet” about
the Iran vote, while Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) described the scene
as “very much like a hospital board meeting, when a bunch of doctors are
yelling at each other.”
Marshall added that “at the end of the day, we'll figure out a way to get along.”
Another
GOP senator, granted anonymity to speak candidly, called the lunch
“very intense.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), deploying some go-to
congressional lingo for heated encounters, called it “spirited,” “frank”
and “candid.”
And the two also note Chump's inability to move past the Save America Act:
Instead,
Trump’s surprise declaration, which appeared to catch even some of his
own staff off guard, became the latest curveball for Senate Republicans —
following a surprise request for White House ballroom security funding
and the announcement of a Justice Department “Anti-Weaponization Fund”
that overshadowed and delayed passage of a GOP immigration enforcement
bill.
Since then, Trump also has thrown a key
surveillance program into limbo and upended the confirmation plans for
his own nominee for director of national intelligence.
Most
persistently, he has fixated on Senate Republicans passing the SAVE
America Act — including by eliminating the filibuster — even though
Thune and other GOP senators have said repeatedly that there aren't the
votes to do that.
“There is a huge group of
people who really appreciate what the president is doing right now and
it's the Democrat party,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said. ”And we’ve got
to get our act together and stop surprising people and stop having
conflicting messages.”
Meanwhile, Chump's name has been removed from The John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. But the removal was done
behind a tarp and the tarp remains obscuring the title of the
building. Mike Scarcella (REUTERS) reports:
A
federal judge on Wednesday ordered U.S. President Donald Trump's
administration to explain why it placed a tarp over the Kennedy Center's
façade after the Republican leader's name was removed from the building
under a court order.
U.S.
District Judge Christopher Cooper said the administration must report
by July 31 "the purpose and status of the tarp and scaffolding" now in
place at the iconic building.
Last
month, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found that the president
had illegally put his name on the performing arts center when it was
added in December. Further, the Obama-appointed judge ruled that only
Congress had the power to change the name of the Kennedy Center,
formally known as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”
But it seems Trump’s team isn’t taking that well.
On
June 13, workers complied with the judge’s order, removing Trump’s name
from the once-storied performance center. But in its place, they
erected scaffolding and a tarp that almost completely obscures the name
on the building.
The scaffolding and tarp
extend almost entirely up the side of the building. Crews even ensured
that the doors to the center below the sign remained accessible,
suggesting the cover-up would stay in place for some time.
Cooper,
for his part, appears to have caught on. On Wednesday, the federal
judge ordered a status report by the last day of July detailing “the
purpose for and status of the tarp and scaffolding that Defendants have
erected on the front portico of the Center, to the extent they remain at
that time,” Deadline reported.
A federal judge in California on Tuesday issued
a nationwide block against the Trump administration’s policy of making
arrests at immigration courts, putting an end to a practice that
garnered national attention.
Last year,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement began detaining migrants in
courthouse hallways across the country, sometimes moments after pleading
their cases. The move raised alarm among attorneys and advocates who
said the practice was turning immigration courts from places of due
process into zones of fear and punishing people who were following the
rules.
[. . .]
In a 71-page
ruling, Judge P. Casey Pitts acknowledged the “chilling effect” of ICE’s
policy, finding that it was “arbitrary and capricious.”
“For
the avoidance of doubt, simply extending the 2025 courthouse-arrest
policies to cover immigration courthouses would not cure those policies’
fatal defects. As the Court has previously detailed, the policies
entirely fail to address the chilling effect of courthouse arrests on
noncitizens’ attendance at court proceedings, which is both a critical
factor underlying ICE’s 2021 guidance and an ‘important aspect of the
problem’ in its own right,” Pitts said.
Elliot Spagat (INDEPENDENT) adds, "This
ruling marks the second judicial setback for courthouse arrests,
following a May decision by a federal judge in New York. However, while
the earlier order applied only within New York, Judge Pitts' latest
decision invalidates the policy nationwide." And, as Betty noted last
night in "Hateful Chump gets blocked in his attacks on trans people," a judge stood up to Chump on medical records. AP's Larry Neumeister notes, "A
judge temporarily blocked federal prosecutors in Texas from getting
access to the medical records of transgender patients treated at New
York hospitals on Wednesday, saying they were part of an improper
government effort to “demonize and eradicate an entire population of
transgender” people." Neumeister reports:
At
a Tuesday hearing, Failla was critical of the federal government,
saying executive orders addressing transgender issues contained
“language some people might consider inflammatory.”
She
said it seemed from an “atmospheric perspective” that the government
was “rounding up” vulnerable individuals by finding out the most
personal information about them and then “giving them no comfort they're
not going to be ostracized or even harmed.”
“There
are episodes of this in our history and they are not nice episodes,”
Failla said. “Some may see it as a rounding up of people for all bad
purposes.”
Most major medical groups say access
to gender-affirming care is important for people with gender dysphoria.
Transgender teens, parents and providers have described it as
life-saving for children who are depressed or suicidal because their
gender identities do not match the gender assigned them at birth.
A
divided federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the Justice
Department is not entitled to Michigan's voter registration list
containing sensitive information from voters in the state.
The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit is now the first appeals
court to weigh in on the Trump administration's efforts to obtain the
unredacted voter rolls from more than two dozen states. At issue in the
case decided by the 6th Circuit is the Justice Department's demand for
the information from Michigan.
In a 2-1 decision, the
6th Circuit said a provision of federal civil rights law does not
entitle the government to Michigan's voter registration list, which
contains the names, birth dates, driver's license numbers and partial
Social Security numbers of all registered voters in the state, among
other information.
Chump,
of course, is used to bad news. He takes it and then lies about it to
make himself look better. Yesterday, he spoke in DC and even a crowd
that turned out for him wasn't interested as evidenced by their
departing while his speech was far from over.
Watch the crowd disperse while Donald continues speaking and droning on.
This after his trip earlier this week to Pennsylvania attracted only a small crowd.
He is suffering from an enthusiasm gap, to say the very least.
With
midterms approaching, Republicans in Congress should be taking note.
But even when they do something that could help the country -- and help
them get re-elected -- Chump has a way of screwing that up. From last night's THE NEWSHOUR (PBS).
Amna Nawaz:
Welcome to the "News Hour."
President Trump has
upended Congress' plans for a major housing bill, refusing to sign
legislation that passed with veto-proof majorities as he tries to force
action on his voting reform agenda.
Geoff Bennett:
The tactic is familiar.
Earlier this year, the
president derailed a bipartisan deal on intelligence and surveillance
legislation while pressing lawmakers to adopt that controversial voting
bill known as the SAVE Act. Now he's using a housing package that many
lawmakers expected would be signed into law today as a new point of
leverage.
Andrew Desiderio covers the Senate for Punchbowl News and joins us now.
Andrew, always great to see you.
So,
the White House had prepared for this signing ceremony. Lawmakers were
gathered there on Capitol Hill, and then President Trump says via social
media that he's not going to sign the bill after all. You have to tweet
up on the screen right there. You were there with the news broke. How
did Republican senators react?
Andrew Desiderio, Punchbowl News:
They were shocked, I mean, dumbfounded.
As you
mentioned, the president has done this a lot lately where he has
blindsided Republican leaders. But a signing ceremony usually happens at
the White House. This one was set up in the Capitol Building itself
here in what's known as Statuary Hall. They had a stage set up. They had
the presidential emblem there, a desk for him to sign it.
And
just about an hour before he was supposed to leave for the Capitol, he
put this message on TRUTH Social, saying that he wasn't going to sign it
into law until the Senate and the House sent him, as you mentioned, the
SAVE America Act, which is legislation that has virtually no chance of
passing either chamber, frankly, at this point, but especially in the
Senate, where the filibuster exists.
And what's fascinating about
this particular rift between Senate Republicans and the president is
that the president was already scheduled to attend a lunch meeting with
Senate Republicans right after the signing ceremony, which he came to
anyway.
And the conversation ended up devolving into mostly an
argument between himself and Senator Bill Cassidy over the Iran war. And
the president really didn't open it up for Q&A at all about the
SAVE America Act issue and the fact that he's blocking now the
bipartisan housing and affordability bill, which, by the way, got 85
votes in the Senate and nearly 400 votes in the House.
Geoff Bennett:
Right, bipartisan, veto-proof majority. What leverage does the president really have at this point as it relates to this bill?
Andrew Desiderio:
Well, he has leverage in the sense that he could just hold out in not signing it.
But
there is a 10-day clock that starts to run, but only when the speaker
of the House officially transmits the bill to the White House. Speaker
Johnson, of course, a close ally of President Trump, has not officially
done that yet.
So, if he doesn't actually transmit this bill to
the White House, that 10-day clock doesn't start to run. And if he does,
then the 10-day clock runs, and, at the end of it, the bill
automatically becomes law without the president's signature.
Now,
if the president were to get the bill eventually and then veto it,
Congress could vote on overriding that veto, but it takes two-thirds in
both chambers. If you take into consideration the fact that it got huge
margins in both chambers to begin with, you would think that they would
be able to easily override this veto.
But veto override votes tend
to be very interesting, in the sense that a lot of members back off of
their initial support for a piece of legislation when it comes to a veto
override because they don't want to be seen as crossing the president.
So
who knows, honestly, what's going to happen with this bipartisan
housing affordability bill, which Republicans really, really want to
focus on, because they know that affordability is the number one issue
for voters in the midterms.
Geoff Bennett:
Well, yes, let's talk more about that, because the
president dismissed this housing bill as being of minor importance. That
was the phrase that he used. But housing costs, affordability remain a
top issue for voters heading into November.
So, how much of a political vulnerability does this open up for Republicans?
Andrew Desiderio:
It's a major political vulnerability.
The
president's poll numbers are already at historic lows. Voters are
already saying that they in these surveys are very dissatisfied with the
state of the U.S. economy, the cost of living, again, affordability
concerns, and they want to see Congress and the president addressing
that.
And, instead, what we're seeing is, of course, the president
having this fixation, this obsession on the SAVE America Act, which, as
I mentioned before, has virtually no chance of actually becoming law.
And it's something that Republican leaders think they can use against
Democrats to show that they're against voter I.D., for example, which is
usually an 80/20 issue in this country, right?
So what the
president is also doing is, he's preventing Republicans from even
seeking political benefit from that issue on its face. And so it really
is not just blindsiding them, but dumbfounding the Republican leadership
up here, to the point where I have Republican senators coming to me and
openly questioning whether this president is intentionally,
deliberately trying to blow up their congressional majorities.
MS
NOW host Jen Psaki on Tuesday interviewed South Carolina congressional
candidate Nancy Lacore, a three-star admiral and former chief of the
Navy Reserve who was fired last year by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Psaki
had the pleasure of informing Lacore on the air that she had won the
Democratic nomination, but only after the dismissed U.S. service member
chronicled her journey into politics following Hegseth’s purge last year
of senior military officials.
“It was an abrupt
end,” recalled Lacore. “I was one year into what is normally a four-year
job, you know, was notified that I was being relieved, effective
immediately. I walked out of the Pentagon an hour later — and I
struggled to figure out what was next for me.”
She
continued, “But the one thing I couldn’t shake was this feeling that I
wasn’t done serving. I thought I was going to be in uniform serving for
three more years and decided there’s too much at risk. I can’t sit on
the sidelines. I can serve differently.”
Lacore launched her campaign in January.
She
will now be running in the general election for South Carolina’s 1st
Congressional District, held by Rep. Nancy Mace (R), after defeating Mac
Deford. Before learning that she had won the nomination, Lacore
explained why a Democrat could be a popular choice.
“I
think the fact that every day we turn the TV on and this administration
is doing something that harms Americans helps, right?” Lacore said.
“People are fed up with this administration. And … I focus on what
matters to everybody in this district … the cost of living,
affordability.”
President Donald Trump frequently dismisses widespread affordability concerns and has launched a costly and deeply unpopular war with Iran. Lacore said her district has “a huge veteran population” of “fed up” people who approach her about these issues “in tears.”
She is only one of many qualified people that Hegseth has
fired. Along with firing, his 'leadership' has also led to a number of
people deciding to leave. Konstantin Toropin (INDEPENDENT) reports:
General
Christopher Donahue, the commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe and
Africa, is unexpectedly stepping down after only 18 months, the Army
confirmed late Tuesday.
Donahue, famously the
last American soldier to depart Afghanistan in 2021, will relinquish his
command on July 2. His departure marks the latest in a series of nearly
two dozen top military leaders who have either retired or left their
positions early under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who advocates for
"less generals, more GIs" in an effort to streamline the military's
senior ranks.
[. . .]
An
Army official, speaking anonymously due to the sensitive nature of the
discussions, indicated that Donahue’s departure coincides with internal
discussions about downgrading the US Army Europe and Africa Command from
a four-star to a three-star position.
This
potential change comes amid ongoing criticism from Hegseth regarding
European allies. Last week, Hegseth informed NATO allies that he would
initiate a six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe,
designed "to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward
Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the
defense of Europe." He added, "It’s a review that some countries will
fail and others will pass with flying colors."
The
command Donahue now leads is also set to be downgraded from a four-star
command to a three-star post, according to another U.S. official, part
of Hegseth’s broader push to shrink the number of generals across the
force.
Officers serving as four-star generals
are only eligible to hold a position of that rank. If there are no other
slots available, then the only option left for them is to retire.
Idiot Hegseth was noted last week due to vaccines and his waiving them:
Lawmakers
are now pointing fingers directly at the Department of Defense.
Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren, Mark Kelly, and Kirsten Gillibrand
sent a harsh letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The
politicians are demanding answers after a drone strike killed six
American service members in Kuwait. The incident occurred during the
opening hours of the conflict with Iran.
“We are concerned that this is part of a larger pattern in which this
administration has failed to protect Americans in the region from
Iranian retaliation,” the letter stated, according to Daily Beast.
Senator
Warren did not hold back her criticism. Speaking to ABC News, Warren
insisted that Hegseth “must be held accountable” for the tragedy.
She
added that “Hegseth’s leadership has been one betrayal after another.”
The letter argued there were insufficient “plans to prevent possible
harm from foreseeable attacks,” including acts “like retaliation with
drone strikes.”
Hegseth
is notorious for so many things -- most of them hideous. That would
include his refusal to wash his hands. Hygiene isn't a big thing with
Hegseth nor are vaccines. And that's coming back to haunt him. Greg Jaffe and Maggie Haberman (NEW YORK TIMES) report:
A
major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force
Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated
for the flu, defense officials said.
The
outbreak at the base in San Antonio raced through an Air Force Basic
Military Training wing, where new recruits sleep on bunk beds in open
bays and share meals at large communal tables.
A
trainee in his sixth week of basic training died after falling ill on
Friday and being taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, the Air Force said
in a news release. It was not immediately clear whether the death of
the trainee, Keon McDaniel, was related to the flu outbreak.
A comprehensive medical review into his death is underway to determine the cause, according to the Air Force.
In the weeks since Mr. Hegseth’s vaccine policy took effect on April 21,
only about 40 percent of Air Force trainees have opted to take the
vaccine, which had previously been mandatory, an Air Force official
said.
And this is happening right now. Imagine what awaits come winter. Hegseth, ruining America just a little bit more each day.
There's an update on that story, the number has risen to 222.
Military
branches are reintroducing flu shot requirements as an outbreak has
been growing at Lackland Air Force Base, where new recruits are trained.
Secretary
of Defense Pete Hegseth ended flu shot mandates for the military in
April, ending a mandate that had been in place since 1945. Hegseth said
at the time that it should be a service member’s personal decision
whether to get vaccinated or not.
But
you can't do that with the flu vaccine and the military. It impacts
readiness. You'd think even an idiot like Hegseth would have realized
that but, no, he didn't.
Zachary notes:
Approximately
40% of new recruits in San Antonio had flu vaccinations earlier this
month, according to ABC News. Now, however, it appears Hegseth’s rule is
being walked back as Pentagon officials say new recruits for the Army,
Navy, and Air Force will now be required to get flu vaccinations. The
current crop of recruits will be vaccinated and all recruits going
forward.
There will be reportedly be far more
exceptions to Hegseth’s optional rule put in place soon, too, which will
lead to vaccination mandates for deployed troops, healthcare personnel,
and more.
In a functioning
administration, Hegseth would have grasped his last straw several major
mistakes ago. In Chump land, he's just another screw up who screws up
repeatedly.
Lets wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
The government website
directs women to Option Line, a finder tool for unregulated, often
nonmedical anti-abortion facilities that has exposed the sensitive data
of pregnant women.
“Moms.gov is not about
promoting women’s health—it is an attempt to use HHS resources to
further strip women of their rights and privacy.”
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), along with Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), pressed President Donald Trump
and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the Trump Administration’s new
website, Moms.gov, which directs pregnant women and their loved ones to
unregulated and often nonmedical anti-abortion facilities known as
crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs).
“This raises profound concerns about the health, safety, and privacy
of people who access this government website at a time when women’s
health and reproductive rights face increasing attacks,” wrote the senators.
On Mother’s Day, the Trump Administration launched Moms.gov
as “a groundbreaking website for new and expecting mothers,” purporting
to “offer[] guidance and information to support the health and
well-being of mothers and their families.” Rather than connect people
with licensed health care providers and evidence-based resources, a
button reading “Find Pregnancy Centers Near You” steers them to an
external site called Option Line, a CPC finder tool that collects data
on pregnant women.
CPCs receive at least tens of millions of dollars in federal funding
and, though advertised as legitimate care providers, do not provide
comprehensive reproductive care and are not bound by federal privacy
protections, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which protects “sensitive health information from disclosure without patient's consent.”
CPCs have been known to cause dangerous delays in medically necessary
care, putting women’s health and lives at risk. In recent cases, CPCs
in Massachusetts and Texas
allegedly failed to identify life-threatening ectopic pregnancies,
leading to emergency surgeries. These incidents are especially troubling
in light of reports that a major CPC support organization advised
affiliated centers to avoid providing ultrasounds that could reveal
ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages, raising serious concerns about
patient safety.
The website also includes a direct link to Option Line, a collection
tool operated by Heartbeat International, an anti-abortion organization
with a history of data breaches. Option Line collects sensitive personal
information and may share it with third parties, posing serious privacy
risks. In one breach,
Heartbeat International compromised the privacy of thirteen people by
reportedly uploading an unencrypted training video to the internet
revealing their names and medical histories.
“At a time when reproductive health data is being used to criminalize
women, the Administration’s use of federal funds to direct women to a
private data-collection system, operated by an anti-abortion
organization known to collect and share personal data unrestrained by
federal privacy guardrails, is cause for alarm and warrants significant
scrutiny,” wrote the senators.
“In this hostile environment, women deserve a government that will
work tirelessly to ensure that they have access to health care that
improves their lives, receive accurate medical information from
legitimate health care providers, and that their private health
information will be protected. Instead, the Trump administration
continues to advance policies that restrict reproductive freedom and
block access to care,” concluded the senators.
The letter, sent on the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade,
demands that HHS remove the crisis pregnancy center link from Moms.gov,
stop using federal resources to direct women to anti-abortion CPCs, and
provide answers to a set of questions regarding how it will protect the
health and data privacy of the women who enter this site.
This letter was also signed by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tammy
Duckworth (D-Ill.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Tina Smith
(D-Minn.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and
Cory Booker (D-N.J.).
This letter is endorsed by Reproductive Freedom for All, National
Partnership for Women and Families, National Women’s Law Center, and
Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
“Anti-abortion centers—so-called crisis pregnancy centers—push
misinformation, rely on deceptive tactics, and endanger pregnant people
by delaying access to legitimate care,” said Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju.
“These centers cannot be trusted to protect people’s sensitive
reproductive health data any more than they can be trusted to protect
their health. We thank Senator Warren, Senator Hirono, and Leader
Schumer for their leadership in demanding answers about Moms.gov’s
alarming promotion of these centers and their history of endangering
people’s health and data privacy.”
“Moms.gov is propaganda for anti-abortion extremism, plain and
simple,” said Katie O’Connor, senior director of federal abortion policy
at the National Women's Law Center Action Fund.
“Moms.gov is taking advantage of the fear and confusion caused by the
constantly shifting landscape of abortion access to direct pregnant
people to dangerous anti-abortion centers, which are known to spread
false and misleading information in an effort to dissuade people from
getting abortion care. We are grateful to Senator Warren for her
leadership in calling out the dangers of this website and demanding more
information from the administration about why they are directing people
to resources that could put women’s health at risk.”
"The Trump Administration is using Moms.gov to push a coercive,
pronatalist agenda by promoting crisis pregnancy centers, or fake
clinics, over actual reproductive healthcare providers,” said Rosann
Mariappuram, Director of Reproductive Health and Rights at the National
Partnership for Women & Families.
“Fake clinics seek to deter pregnant people from obtaining abortion
care through lies and deceptions. They are known for reckless data
practices that endanger the privacy of the women and girls who walk
through their doors or visit their websites. Directing people to
Moms.gov is one of many tactics anti-abortion extremists are employing
to surveil pregnant people. We join Senator Warren in calling on HHS to
remove the pregnancy center link from Moms.gov and instead use federal
resources to help people get the care they need without fear or
judgment."
Senator Warren has led the fight to protect women’s reproductive rights:
In May 2026, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy Baldwin
(D-Wisc.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.),
Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) led the entire Senate
Democratic caucus in reintroducing a resolution affirming that the abortion medication mifepristone is safe and effective
and underscoring that law and policy related to the medication must be
equitable, transparent, and based on the best available peer-reviewed
evidence-based science.
In May 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth
(D-Ill.), and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) led 12 senators in pressing the Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on the Commission’s efforts to weaken a rule affirming employment protections for workers undergoing fertility treatments.
In March 2026, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Ron Wyden,
Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee (D-Ore.); and Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) led 23 colleagues in publishing a new report
revealing the harm Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have caused
to Americans in the six months since their dangerous provision to
“defund” Planned Parenthood, buried in their Big, Beautiful Bill, went
into effect.
In November 2025, ahead of the Senate Finance Committee’s
confirmation vote for Thomas M. Bell, Donald Trump’s nominee for Health
and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General (IG), U.S. Senator Elizabeth
Warren (D-Mass.) exposed Bell’s flip-flopping and slammed his extreme anti-abortion views.
In July 2025, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Michael Stuart, nominee for General Counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),
on his dangerous anti-vaccine views, staunch anti-abortion advocacy,
and more. Ahead of his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate
Finance Committee later today — at which Senator Warren will question
Stuart — Senator Warren sent Stuart a letter outlining her key concerns
with his nomination.
In February 2025, Senators Warren and Duckworth pressed Dr. Mehmet Oz,
President Trump’s then-nominee for the Administrator of the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), on his hostile anti-abortion
record.
In December 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.),
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) reintroduced the Health and Location Data Protection Act, legislation banning data brokers from selling Americans’ sensitive personal information.
In September 2024, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted the dangerous consequences women faced after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
In January 2024, on the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) spoke on the floor of the United States Senate about the fight ahead to restore abortion rights and protect reproductive freedom.
In December 2023, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) led 40 other lawmakers in introducing a resolution in support of equitable, science-based policies governing access to medication abortion.
In May 2023, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy
Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) expanded their investigation
into the effects of state abortion bans on women, as the country neared
the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe
v. Wade.
In March 2023, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mazie
Hirono (D-Hawaii), along with Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Richard
Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), sent a letter to Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer,
expressing concern regarding recent reports that the company would not
dispense medication abortions in 21 states where Republican Attorneys
General have threatened the company.
In January 2023, United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Cori Bush (D-Mo.) sent a letter to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) in
support of their October proposed rule on employee status, which would
help reclassify potentially thousands of misclassified workers.
In November 2022, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy
Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.)
released a new report:
Post-Roe Abortion Bans Threaten Women’s Lives: Health Care Providers
Speak Out on the Devastating Harm Posed by Abortion Bans and
Restrictions. The 23-page report – based on information provided by
leading health care providers – reveals the devastating consequences of
state abortion bans and restrictions enacted by right-wing legislatures
and the impacts of Senate Republicans’ extreme proposal to ban abortion
nationwide after 15 weeks.