Tuesday, May 19, 2026

The Crooked Court

The Crooked Court's in the news.  David Badash notes:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch’s book tour was met with staunch criticism by the far-right, but underneath the anger, political scientist Daniel Ruggles writes, was a critical revelation: the conservative movement is split between hard-right MAGA nativists and mainstream constitutionalists.

Writing at The Bulwark, Ruggles notes that at his core, Justice Gorsuch — like all conservatives to varying degrees on the Roberts Supreme Court, is an originalist: he believes the constitution should be interpreted as it was understood when written.
But the MAGA hard right has not embraced originalism, and, Ruggles writes, “originalism’s slow seep into both conservative and mainstream constitutional law will not be easily undone.”

“Fundamentally, originalists accept the democratic constraints of the Constitution and believe them to be a core component of America’s political tradition,” Ruggles writes. “Postliberals and their nativist fellow travelers” — MAGA, for example — “have begun to reimagine the American state without any such constitutional guardrails.”

Gorsuch’s book tour enraged MAGA because he kept focusing on “creed.”

“The United States is a ‘creedal’ nation—that is, a nation unified by common belief in rights, liberties, and democratic institutions,” Ruggles writes.

Gorsuch explained that Americans share a “heritage,” but, Ruggles said, “it’s one of ideals, not ethnicity. Being an American requires not lineage, but belief.”

“It was a gentle rebuke of nationalism—and it drove the hard right nuts,” Ruggles wrote.


Or maybe they just aren't fans of crooks?  Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) notes:

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has blasted the Supreme Court’s handling of a high-profile redistricting case in Virginia and warned that such decisions risk making the court look political.

Speaking at an event hosted by the American Law Institute in Washington, D.C., on Monday, the liberal justice condemned the move to allow Virginia to redraw its maps ahead of the midterms shortly after it shot down a majority-Black congressional district and weakened the Voting Rights Act

The move by the nation’s highest court will be strongly favorable to Republicans in November’s elections, where the party is trying to gain any advantage it can ahead of expected major losses, as well as reduce the number of Black lawmakers in Congress.

Jackson said that the Supreme Court needs to be “really, really careful” not to appear politically motivated, and that it failed to do so by gutting the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana and allowing new maps to be drawn even as early primary voting had begun.
“Courts are apolitical, not supposed to be issuing rulings that are in the political realm,” Jackson said, via CNN.

“We have to be scrupulous about sticking to the principles and the rules that we apply in every case and not look as though we’re doing something different in this kind of context.”


But then there's the highly unscrupulous Samuel Alito.  One of the most crooked of the Crooked Justices.  Aaron Goldstein (THE COOL DOWN) reports:

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is under renewed scrutiny over his oil and gas stock holdings after watchdog groups argued that his involvement in major fossil fuel cases may conflict with the court's own ethics standards and further erode public trust in the judiciary.

A coalition of watchdog and environmental groups sent a letter this month urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate Alito, according to the Guardian. 
The groups said his decisions about when to recuse himself from oil and gas cases have been inconsistent, and he is reportedly the only sitting Supreme Court justice to hold individual stock in energy companies.

In the letter, the watchdogs note that "his irregular recusal practice in oil and gas industry-related cases is undermining public confidence and the impartiality of the Court." 


"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS): 

Tuesday, May 19, 2026.  Chump's been enriching himself via the stock market, Arab leaders ordered him to stand down on Iran, he's creating a slush fund for his militia, Homeland Security caught in another lie, and much more. 



President Donald Trump declared he was hitting pause on a planned military attack against Iran on Monday, but his Truth Social post was also the first time the operation was revealed.

Fresh off his visit to China last week, Trump, 79, is back to dealing with the ongoing war he started in Iran.
The fragile ceasefire remains in place as the president struggles to reach a deal, but the president is now claiming there was an operation ready to go.

Trump wrote that he had been asked by the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to “hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow.”

[. . .]

In the hours leading up to Trump’s social media announcement Monday afternoon, he fired off 36 posts not about the war, but Tuesday’s primaries and his political endorsements.

However, before that, he did rattle off one post about the war in which he whined about the coverage he was getting.




President Trump said Monday that he had authorized a new wave of attacks against Iran this week but that he was holding off to make room for “serious negotiations,” after he said three Gulf leaders requested more time to work out a nuclear deal.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch new strikes, only to pull back at the last minute from plunging the United States back into an unpopular, expensive war. On Monday, he confirmed plans to strike and canceled them at the same time.

“We were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow, and I put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to,” Mr. Trump told reporters.

When Mr. Trump launched the war alongside Israel on Feb. 28, he estimated that it would end in four to five weeks. The conflict is now in its third month, and Mr. Trump is caught between dueling impulses: to force Iran into submission, and to declare victory and move on.



He's also caught between Arab leaders.  Arab leaders told Chump to back down and that's why he did yesterday as Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes in the video below. 






Turning to the day to day, Megan Schaltegger (DELISH) notes:

Wondering why your monthly grocery bill suddenly feels like a second rent? The sticker shock is real. According to new data from the Labor Department, food prices skyrocketed in April, bringing the annual inflation rate for the category up to 2.9%.

Translation: Your weekly grocery run is more expensive than it’s been in years…and it’s still climbing. AP News reports that Americans have not even seen the full impact of rising energy costs on their retail food pricing yet—which, yes, likely means the worst is yet to come.

“Most of what we’re seeing now in the food price chain probably predates the conflict,” Purdue University economist Ken Foster told the outlet. “We’re cautiously waiting to see what the June numbers and the May numbers might show as they come out in terms of...the extent to which energy shocks in the Strait of Hormuz and shipping blockades and so forth are going to impact food prices.”



For three consecutive years, American workers held a thin but meaningful edge over rising prices: their earnings were growing faster than inflation. That streak ended in April 2026, and the consequences are about to ripple through household budgets in ways that are difficult to ignore.

The latest Consumer Price Index report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed prices accelerating at a pace that Wall Street underestimated, and that the Federal Reserve cannot easily fix.

Behind the numbers is a collision of geopolitical conflict, a data correction from last year’s government shutdown, and persistent cost pressures on the essentials you buy most often.


That's where we are.  Where are we headed?  James McClenathen (THE MOTLEY FOOL) notes: 

Prices are rising fast. And top economists expect things to get worse before they get better.

Annual inflation is expected to hit 6% this quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's Survey of Professional Forecasters. Three months ago, the same group predicted 2.7%. That's a massive jump in a short time.


6% somewhere over the next six months?  


Of course, not everyone is suffering.  Eva Roytburg (FORTUNE) reports:

On the morning of Monday, March 23, President Trump pulled his first “TACO” of the Iran war. After four weeks of fighting, with oil prices already up 55%, Trump had given Iran an ultimatum on Friday: make a deal within 48 hours, or the U.S. would strike its power plants and energy infrastructure.

But on Monday morning, Trump reversed course. In an all-caps Truth Social post, he announced the U.S. and Iran had been having “very good and productive conversations” and that he would extend the deadline for a deal by five days.
Wall Street, for the first time since the war began, exhaled. Stocks rose. Brent crude plunged nearly 11%. Energy stocks — one of the few reliable winners of the conflict — sold off with oil.

The brokerage account in Trump’s name spent the day buying them.

According to the 113-page periodic transaction report released by the Office of Government Ethics on May 14, Trump’s brokerage account spent that same day buying a sweep of petroleum and gas stocks, including Phillips 66, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron, along with defense and aerospace names like Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics: the companies that stood to profit if the war dragged on.

The day wasn’t an outlier. The filing, which covers January through March, shows a consistent posture through the Iran conflict: as Trump prosecuted the war and told Americans it would end “soon,” the account in his name was hedging it, buying gold, Treasuries, and cash.

A spokesperson for the Trump Organization, the family’s privately held conglomerate, told Fortune the brokerage accounts are operated by third-party financial institutions that have “sole and exclusive authority over all investment decisions.” Trades, the spokesperson wrote in a statement, are executed through “automated investment processes and systems administered by those institutions,” and neither Trump, his family, nor the Trump Organization “plays any role in selecting, directing, or approving specific investments.”
[. . .]

The accumulation began the same day the war did. The disclosure reports trades only in ranges, not exact dollar figures, with purchases falling between $50,000 and $5 million depending on the position. 

Markets generally divided into two camps: the risk-on assets—U.S. stocks, growth, tech—that investors buy when they’re confident the economy will grow , and the safe havens—gold, Treasuries, cash—they retreat to when they’re not. Through the Iran war, the account moved steadily from the first camp to the second, even as Trump told Americans the conflict was nearly over.

On March 2, the first trading day of the war, the account bought Newmont, the gold miner, for $50,000 to $100,000. On March 4, the day Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, it bought the iShares US Treasury Bond ETF for $250,000 to $500,000. The next day, it bought $500,000 to $1 million of the iShares Gold Trust.

The buying continued even as Trump publicly insisted the war was under control. 


Last night on MS NOW, Rachel Maddow addressed Chump's stock buys and the ways he then manipulated the stock.  






Immigration is Chump's signature policy and how's that worked out for America?  It's given us a very bad name and image on the international stage.  Tourism to the US is down and it's Chump's immigration policies that have led to the decrease.  It's ripped families apart.  It's destroyed neighborhoods.  And Brendan Rascius (INDEPENDENT) reports it's cost a lot of money as well:

President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown could cost the federal government nearly half a trillion dollars in lost tax revenue over the next decade, according to economists.

Undocumented immigrants currently pay about $66 billion each year in payroll and federal income taxes. But policy changes introduced by the Trump administration may deter many from filing returns, potentially reducing federal revenue by between $147 billion and $479 billion over 10 years, an analysis by the Yale Budget Lab concluded.
Trump, who pledged to carry out the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, has taken a number of steps in furtherance of that goal, including strengthening enforcement measures, promoting self-deportation and significantly boosting funding for ICE.

One key development came last April, when the Internal Revenue Service agreed to share taxpayer data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for individuals with final removal orders. Under the arrangement, ICE submitted names and addresses, which the IRS matched against its records before returning confirmed identities. By August, the agency had handed over tens of thousands of records.

Although a federal court found the agreement unlawful in November, the policy shift may have already had a chilling effect, discouraging some immigrants from filing taxes.


Let's stay with immigration for a bit more to note some developments. Ronda Kaysen (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:

The Trump administration has long claimed that mass deportations would deliver more jobs and higher wages to American-born workers. But a new study casts doubt on that assertion, undermining a central tenet of the president’s immigration policy.

Recent surges in deportations have led to job losses for both immigrant and American-born workers, while wages have stayed flat, according to the study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonpartisan research organization. Construction, which depends heavily on immigrant labor, was impacted more than any other industry studied, with American-born workers losing more jobs as a result of the deportations than the undocumented workers who remained.

The study offers the first national analysis of the effects of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation operations on the labor market, comparing communities that experienced surges in deportations between January 2025 and October 2025 with those that did not.

Analyzing federal labor data, researchers focused on four industries that rely heavily on undocumented immigrant workers: agriculture, construction, manufacturing and wholesale. Deportations had a chilling effect on each of those industries, disproportionately affecting men, who accounted for more than 90 percent of the immigration arrests. Taken together, the affected industries saw a 5 percent drop in employment for male undocumented workers and a 1.3 percent drop for male American-born workers without a college degree.




We noted that Chump's policies have split up families. Ashleigh Fields (THE HILL) reports a number:


A new report from the Brookings Institution found that more than 145,000 U.S. citizen children have likely been separated from at least one parent due to detention over their immigration status in the second Trump administration. 

The information released on Monday by Brookings indicated that more than 22,000 children have experienced having all of their co-resident parents detained. The nonprofit public policy organization says only 5 percent — or around 1,100 — of these children have received services from the child welfare system based on information collected from interviews with community organizations and child welfare agencies.
Other minors are living with family or friends for the time being, while some have left the country alongside their deported parents. 

“The bottom line is that there is no systematic approach to protecting the children of those detained by ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” the Brookings report says. 

“ICE does not directly involve itself in safeguarding the well-being of a detainee’s children and only refers to child protection if children are present at an arrest and no alternative care is immediately available,” it adds.


The Brookings report is entitled "The administration has detained 400,000 immigrants: What do we know about their children?" and is written by Maria Cancian, Nissi Cantu, Lanikque Howard, and Tara Watson.

Regarding the children, the report notes:

We know surprisingly little about what happens to children of detainees. Children who are themselves unauthorized may face detention or deportation, but most children of detainees are U.S. citizens. In some cases, the child may travel to the parent’s origin country with a deported parent, but the government does not publish systematic data on its transportation of U.S. citizen children to foreign countries and we do not know how commonly this happens.

Parents wishing their children to remain in the United States are encouraged by community partners to have a family preparedness plan, specifying a close friend or relative who will care for the child if the parent cannot. In many of these cases, the government is unaware of children left behind, and most parents prefer to avoid contact with the child welfare system even if they have only substandard care options.

Caregivers are sometimes able to access supports through the child welfare system. Sometimes supports may be available without a formal child welfare case being opened—e.g., when prevention resources are available. The child welfare system typically becomes more deeply involved only when a care arrangement becomes unsustainable or the abuse or neglect of a child comes to the attention of authorities. Some children, a small minority of those with detained parents, will end up in foster care. Even when a child welfare case is opened, or a child enters foster care, the case may not be identified or documented as immigration-related.


And the report concludes:

Most children affected by parental detention and deportation are U.S. citizens. As immigration enforcement expands, ensuring that affected children have access to basic supports and protections should be understood not as optional, but as a necessary governmental responsibility tied to the foreseeable consequences of family separation and displacement. When we detain or deport a child’s parents, the nation has a clear obligation to recognize, account for, and safeguard the child’s well-being.



A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been charged with assault for allegedly shooting a Venezuelan immigrant during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, the second time local prosecutors have leveled criminal charges against federal officers for their conduct in the city this winter.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said ICE agent Christian Castro in January fired several shots through the front door, one of which struck Julio Sosa-Celis in the thigh before tearing through a wall in a child’s bedroom. Moriarty said Castro had lied about being attacked before the shooting.
“Mr. Castro fired his service weapon at the front door of the home, knowing there were people who had just run inside that presented absolutely no threat to him or anyone else,” Moriarty said Monday at a press conference.

Moriarty said a nationwide warrant had been issued for Castro’s arrest. He is facing four counts of assault in the second degree and one count of falsely reporting a crime. Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to a request for comment.


Ava-joye Burnett (SCRIPPS NEWS SERVICE) notes that Castro is the second ICE agent with an arrest warrant:


Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. was charged in April with two counts of second-degree assault after prosecutors said he pointed a gun at two people during an apparent road rage incident on Highway 62 in the Twin Cities.
During the initial investigation, Morgan told authorities he was an ICE agent assigned to the Minneapolis area and was returning to a federal facility at the end of his shift on Feb. 5 when another driver allegedly tried to block him while he was driving on the shoulder.
Morgan said he displayed his weapon and yelled, “Police, stop,” because he feared for his safety. Authorities said Morgan acknowledged he was not responding to an emergency or conducting an active law enforcement operation at the time.

And when not content just to separate a family, ICE prevents a parent from seeing their child born.  Billal Rahman (NEWSWEEK) reports:


A Guatemalan man missed the birth of his first child after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) held him for several days despite a federal court order requiring his “immediate release,” according to legal filings and his family.

On May 1, U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen E. Scott of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that ICE had violated procedural due‑process protections when it re‑detained Freddy Cortez Lugos—who was in the U.S. on humanitarian parole—during a routine check‑in and ordered the agency to free him without delay. Instead, Cortez Lugos remained in custody until the evening of May 4, his relatives said, adding that amid the delay, his partner went into labor and gave birth to their son, Izaan, on May 1.
The case highlights the ongoing tension between federal courts and the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy, as judges continue to scrutinize ICE’s authority to re‑detain people who were previously released under parole or supervision. At stake is not only whether ICE is complying promptly with court orders but also whether constitutional due‑process protections have real force during the government’s aggressive push to expand immigration enforcement.


Turning to reparations, Chump's delivering them . . . to White insurrectionists.  Nikki McCann Ramirez (ROLLING STONE) reports:


The Justice Department confirmed on Monday that it is creating a $1.776 billion fund to send taxpayer money to "victims of lawfare and weaponization."

According to a statement from the DOJ to MeidasTouch, the fund would "consist of a Commission of five members appointed by the Attorney General. One Member will be chosen in consultation with congressional leadership" and "the President can remove any member."

Hours before the announcement, President Donald Trump withdrew a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, paving the way for the creation of the fund in an attempt to skirt concerns about the president's attempts to use taxpayer funds to compensate himself. Last week, ABC News and CNN reported on internal White House discussions regarding the president's desire to drop the lawsuit in exchange for the massive fund to compensate allies and other individuals he feels have been wronged by past administrations - particularly former President Joe Biden. According to CNN, the settlement would also kill any existing IRS audits on Trump, members of his family, or associated businesses. 

ABC News reported that the fund could potentially respond to claims made by individuals who believe they were the victim of overreach or "weaponization" by the Biden administration. This could include the roughly 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants, whom Trump pardoned soon after taking office last year. While sources claim the agreement might include a provision barring Trump from directly pocketing the money, his businesses or other enterprises and associations may not be placed under such a restriction. 


Last night, Rachel Maddow addressed this topic with US House Rep Jamie Raskin.


Other coverage includes . . . 









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


“Free File cannot efficiently, effectively, and securely serve the taxpayers who are statutorily entitled to free tax filing services.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, DC - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Angus King (I-Maine), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to launch a new probe into the Free File program, a partnership with private tax prep companies. The request comes after the Trump administration killed the Direct File program, instead touting its failed Free File program, which has a nearly two-decade-long record of underperformance.

“We have serious concerns that Free File cannot efficiently, effectively, and securely serve the taxpayers who are statutorily entitled to free tax filing services,” wrote the lawmakers.

In April 2022, GAO released a report entitled “IRS Should Develop Additional Options for Taxpayers to File for Free,” highlighting the need for the government to develop new ways for low- and middle-income Americans to file their taxes for free. In response, the Biden administration created the Direct File program, which allowed Americans to file their tax returns online, for free, and directly with the IRS.

Last October, the Trump administration killed the Direct File program, asserting that the Free File program, which is operated by for-profit tax preparation firms and has a lengthy track record of underperformance, could meet taxpayers’ needs.

In addition to GAO’s earlier report, numerous reports by Congressional committees, nonpartisan watchdogs, and media outlets have identified serious problems with Free File. Free File partners have deliberately misled taxpayers into paying for assistance when they are eligible to file for free. Additionally, an investigation by Senator Warren found that Free File partners have leaked sensitive taxpayer data to private tech companies, putting taxpayers’ most sensitive information at risk.

To address concerns surrounding Free File’s underperformance and the lack of options for Americans to truly file their taxes for free, the senators requested that GAO initiate an investigation to evaluate the program’s user experience, accessibility, accuracy, and costs.

Senator Warren is a leading voice in advocating for taxpayers and for improved IRS resources:

  • In April 2026, Senator Warren introduced the Stop Corporations and High Earners from Avoiding Taxes and Enforce the Rules Strictly (Stop CHEATERS) Act, a bill to restore and revitalize the IRS with additional funding for tax enforcement, technology operations support, systems modernization, and taxpayer services like free taxpayer assistance.

  • In April 2026, Senator Warren took to the Senate floor to seek unanimous consent to pass the Direct File Act. The bill would reverse the Trump administration’s decision to end the highly successful Direct File program—which allowed Americans to file their taxes online, for free, and directly with the government—and make the program permanent.

  • In February 2026, Senator Warren led over 150 lawmakers in introducing the Direct File Act, new legislation that would reverse the Trump administration’s decision to end the highly successful Direct File program — which allowed taxpayers to file their taxes online, for free, and directly with the government — and make the program permanent.

  • In February 2026, Senator Warren led her colleagues in pressing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Chief of Taxpayer Services Ken Corbin on the Treasury Department’s decision to end Direct File and instead promote Free File.

###




Posted by at

Monday, May 18, 2026

The Crooked Court and the Crooked GOP

The Corrupt Court has had a lot of help this year and last from Solicitor General D. John Sauer.   Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:


U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer has fundamentally transformed the role of the nation's top lawyer before the Supreme Court, according to a longtime court correspondent, abandoning the traditional norms of the office to embrace a confrontational, MAGA-aligned advocacy style that has proven remarkably effective with the court's conservative supermajority.
Unlike predecessors who balanced partisan interests with broader federal government concerns, Sauer has locked arms with conservative justices to advance Trump's executive power agenda, wrote CNN's Joan Biskupic. His arguments have been notably more politically charged than those of prior solicitors general, echoing Trump's rhetoric directly in Supreme Court briefs and oral arguments.
"Sauer has defied the studied detachment of the solicitor general’s office and openly retained his MAGA-warrior sensibility," Biskupic wrote. "When the administration lost the dispute over Trump’s tariffs on foreign goods — a rare, conspicuous defeat — Sauer was at the president’s side as he denounced the justices. Standing before television cameras, Trump called justices 'an embarrassment to their families.'"

His arguments in that Supreme Court case were some of the most politically charged of the current session," she added.


They have no respect for history -- until it comes to racism.  Then it's, "We must return the name of the confederate general!"  But when it comes to history that actually matters -- like the Senate filibuster rule -- they work overtime to destroy it and remove it.  Because they don't respect anything.  Except racism.  The GOP respects racism.  Racism is what they stand for today and it is all they stand for. 

On Chump's ballroom filings, Joe Patrice (ABOVE THE LAW) notes:

Two weeks ago, the Department of Justice filed a motion in the White House ballroom litigation that read suspiciously like the a case of lawyers throwing up their hands and just hitting “file” on the their client’s dementia-addled markup. And, but for the fact that Donald Trump is not the Department of Justice’s client, that pretty much nails it. The brief defined “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” ranted about “Barack Hussein Obama,” and included a series of nonsense tangents. One might have hoped that brief would prove an aberration and the people with law degrees might take over again on reply.

Well, the good news for all of us is that the DOJ seems to have gone right back to Trump for an encore.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter, and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward signed a seven-page reply brief in the ballroom case that doubles down on the Truth Social school of drafting. “Trump Derangement Syndrome” is back, baby!
[. . .]
The brief continues its quixotic effort to conflate an underground security complex with an eyesore of a ballroom where the East Wing used to be. “[I]t is now crystal clear that the entire cohesive, integrated, knitted and complex Project is necessary to ensure National Security and Presidential safety,” the brief asserts, without ever providing a reason why this is crystal clear. The court issued an injunction because there was never an explanation why an underground bunker needed to have a ballroom over it and — now a full briefing cycle later — there still isn’t one.


This Project as a whole, with one venting system, one electrical system, one plumbing system, one security system, one air conditioning and heating system and, very importantly, one structural system, will ensure that events like the assassination attempt of Butler, PA, West Palm Beach, FL and at the Washington Hilton on April 25th do not happen again. 

Except the ballroom wouldn’t be much help to a president campaigning in Pennsylvania. Or golfing in Florida. Or even choosing to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which — again — could not be held in the new proposed ballroom, because Trump’s proposal is not big enough to host the WHCD. The new ballroom has a capacity under 1,000 — the WHCD brings together over 2,500 guests.


Now let's note Crooked Justice Clarence Thomas. 


Sarah K. Burris reports:


A recent dissent from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has prompted two legal analysts to question just "how far gone" the infamous conservative is.

Last week when the Supreme Court temporarily upheld telehealth access to Mifepristone, a frequently used drug that can expel pregnancies and miscarriages.

Thomas wrote in his own dissent, disagreeing with the majority of the court, claiming that the 1873 Comstock Act blocks the mail delivery and telehealth prescriptions for the drug. The law, however, applied to "obscene" materials and was used to stop the mailing of adult photos, magazines and other items.

“I write separately to note that, as Louisiana argued below, it is a criminal offense to ship Mifepristone for use in abortions,” said Thomas. “The Comstock Act bans using ‘the mails’ to ship any ‘drug ... for producing abortion.’"

Those pharmaceutical companies, Thomas claimed, "cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes."

He said that they should be "thrown in prison."

"Applicants, which are the makers of these drugs, are not entitled to a stay of an adverse court order based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise. They cannot in any legally relevant sense be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes," Thomas continued.

Slate legal reporter Mark Joseph Stern spoke with "Balls and Strikes" deputy editor Madiba Dennie, who called the Thomas opinion "outrageous."

Stern wondered what Dennie made of Thomas "throwing down" and "making the Comstock act great again."

She keyed in on the claim that the companies are part of some "criminal enterprise" as if they were "some guy on the corner selling heroin."

"I'm just like, 'Okay, buddy.' Like it's like somebody's been watching too much crime TV," she quipped.

"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS): 

Monday, May 18, 2026.  Chump remain buried in the polling, Michael Banks skips out the door with few remqrking on why, Chump's still eyeing Greenland, and much more.



Let's kick things off with Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) 






Most voters think President Trump made the wrong decision to go to war with Iran, a New York Times/Siena poll found, leaving the Republican Party on rocky political footing heading into the midterm elections as his approval rating sinks and economic concerns rise.

Majorities of voters said that the war was not worth the costs and held deeply pessimistic views about the economy.

Mr. Trump’s approval rating — a key historical predictor of how a president’s party will fare in an election — has sunk to a second-term low in Times/Siena polls of 37 percent amid the deeply unpopular Middle East conflict.

Nearly two-thirds of voters said that going to war had been the wrong decision, including almost three-quarters of politically crucial independents. Less than a quarter of all voters thought the conflict had been worth the costs.




Donald Chump's war of choice has sent prices soaring and increased inflation.  He had hoped, leading up to the visit to China, that the visit would garner good press and enhance his fading image.  

As we noted Friday, Chump crashed and burned in China.  He walked away with nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  He folded and cowered and was meek and pretty much played.  On the world stage.  Among others, he let down US farmers.  Myriam Toua (THE MIRROR) reports:


Donald Trump has, all of a sudden, announced a total U-turn on his campaign promise to American farmers he would intervene on Chinese nationals buying up land in the US, which has been met with fury by his once-loyal MAGA voter base.

[. . .]

But in Beijing, Trump was arguing that going ahead with his campaign pledge would suddenly hurt farmers instead of help them, and asserted pulling out the external investment [by Chinese buyers] would dramatically drive down the price of land.

He sang a very different tune, however, on his campaign trail in 2024 as he pledged to protect farmland “by saying you can’t come” in response to a reporter’s queries about Chinese-owned land at a Pennsylvania event.


Another broken promise from Chump.  Another time when he could have stood strong for America but revealed himself to be a weak, inept and cowardly character.  After his state visit to China where he met with President Xi Jinping,  

With the trip to China ended -- and so clearly having been a failure -- many are weighing in.  Anton Troianovski (NEW YORK TIMES) offers:

There was a vague agreement that China would purchase Boeing jets and more American soybeans. There was discussion about Iran and opening the Strait of Hormuz, and a nod to other issues, like cracking down on chemicals used to make fentanyl.

But President Trump departed Beijing on Friday with almost nothing concrete to show for his two-day summit with President Xi Jinping of China. After months of buildup and a delay necessitated by Mr. Trump’s difficulty in extricating the United States from the war with Iran, the summit ended with no major public progress on the Middle East, trade, Taiwan, nuclear proliferation, artificial intelligence or any of the other myriad issues that are sources of friction between the world’s two superpowers.


Michael Tomasky (THE NEW REPUBLIC) registers with:

Donald Trump says China agreed to buy 200 jets from Boeing. He crowed about it on Fox News Thursday night. But funny thing: A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was asked specifically about the jet deal after Trump spoke, and he said nothing about any such agreement. Wanna take bets on whether it actually happened?

Three points here. First of all, we should stop quickly to note that it’s sad that it’s come to pass that we just automatically believe a foreign government—and China’s no less—over the president of the United States (sad about him, that is, not us). Second, let’s remember that Boeing is an American company in a deep and sustained crisis that was brought on by basic greed: As David Goldstein explained in Democracy journal in 2024, after its acquisition of McDonnell-Douglas in 1997, the historically proud engineering culture at Boeing was destroyed as the company became more anti-union and outsourced more of its production.

And third, assuming that Trump is lying or at least exaggerating, well, we’ve just learned again for the jillionth time that Mr. Art of the Deal is a total fraud. Let’s review.

  • Remember how, in his first term, Trump was going to bring North Korea to its knees? Remember how he consistently heaped praise on Kim Jong Un and his “beautiful vision for his country”? Well, it’s not a “beautiful country” to the people who live there, and meanwhile, its nuclear progress has been steady over the last decade—during most of which, of course, Mr. Art of the Deal has been the president of the United States. Experts think the nation has assembled about 50 warheads.
  • Remember also that he was going to solve the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day back in office? In late March, a UN expert testified that the violence was “worse than ever.” We—that is, most decent people—are heartened by Ukraine’s resilience and wowed by its innovative drone technology. But that “we” doesn’t include the president of the United States, who obviously is cheering for his pal Putin—over whom he has zero leverage.
  • The 2025 tariff war on China totally backfired. China responded to Trump’s tariffs by limiting exports of rare-earth metals, and Trump backed down. Today, U.S. soybean exports to China are down (they peaked during Sleepy Joe’s “disastrous” presidency), as are auto exports. The first Chinese EVs are landing in Canada even as we speak. These are ultra-luxury cars that sell for $10,000 or even $20,000 less than their American equivalents.
  • Speaking of Canada, why isn’t it the 51st state yet? And speaking of Northern annexation, why isn’t Greenland part of the United States yet?
  • How’s that world-class Gaza resort coming along?
  • U.S. relations with Europe are at an all-time low. And it isn’t because of anything Europe did. Last December, the Trump administration released a security strategy paper calling Europe a bigger threat to the United States than Russia or China because of its progressive social and immigration policies, which threatened the continent with “civilizational erasure.”  
  • And finally, of course, there is Iran. The economic impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz will be felt for months ahead. The latest wrinkle? In India, where they apparently lap up Diet Coke, there’s a shortage of the beloved elixir because there’s an aluminum shortage (Diet Coke is sold only in cans there). The Middle East accounts for 98 percent of the global aluminum supply. Stock up on that Reynolds Wrap. Joking aside: There are and will be dozens of such shortages, some far more serious than Diet Coke. A UN official told AFP in Paris this week that up to 45 million people in the developing world could face hunger or even starvation because of the global fertilizer shortage.   


And at WSWS, Andre Damon weighs in:


US President Donald Trump returned to Washington Friday from a two-day state visit to China—the first by an American president in nearly a decade—that offered no let-up in the global eruption of American imperialism. The trip produced no easing of the US blockade of Iran, no halt to the US arming of Taiwan, no reduction of Trump’s anti-China tariffs and no communiqué.

The meeting took place in the shadow of the US attack on Iran that was launched less than three months earlier. Despite the brutality of the US onslaught, the Trump administration has failed to achieve its aims of overthrowing the Iranian government, destroying its military and gaining control of the Strait of Hormuz. 

Trump hoped to arrive in Beijing as the conqueror of Iran, ready to dictate terms to China with a stranglehold on its energy supplies. Instead, he was facing a geopolitical disaster, and he sought Xi’s aid in resolving the crisis created by the war.


Chump flamed out.  As usual, his self-promoting created hype and expectations that his mediocre abilities were never going to delier on.  Putin will be in China on Tuesday -- presumably showing Chump how a nation negotiates with China.


China showed him up.  Iran's giving him a real run for the money.  And yet Chump's still go his eye on Greenland.  Jeffrey Gettleman, Maya Tekeli, Anton Troianovski and Eric Schmitt (NEW YORK TIMES) report:

With the conflict in Iran still smoldering, President Trump’s obsession with Greenland seems like a forgotten sideshow.

But for the past four months, negotiators from the United States, Greenland and Denmark, which controls Greenland’s foreign affairs, have been holding confidential talks in Washington about Greenland’s future.

The talks were meant to give Mr. Trump an offramp to his threats of a military takeover of Greenland and to scale back a crisis that risked breaking apart the NATO alliance. But Greenlandic leaders are worried about what is being proposed, which is a much larger U.S. role on the Arctic island. And they fear that if the conflict with Iran winds down, the president will swing his aggression back on them.

Some Greenlandic politicians say they have even circled a date on their calendars to be wary: June 14, Mr. Trump’s birthday.

Chump is deranged.  And he's surrounding by the worst of the worst.  One less creep is Mike Banks.  He was Chief of United States Border Patrol -- Chump having named him to that position last year.  But last week, he announced he was stepping down.  NYT's Ashley Ayn missed the story writing fluff like: 

“It’s just time,” Michael Banks, who worked for Border Patrol for over 20 years, said in an interview with Fox News. “I feel like I got the ship back on course,” he added, referring to immigration enforcement at the southern border. “It’s time to enjoy the family and life.”

 

January 16, 2025, he was put in the position by Chump.  What changed?  At the start of last month, Ana Giaritelli (WASHINGTON EXAMINER) reported:


The national chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, was known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to engage in sex with prostitutes, according to six current and former Border Patrol employees who spoke with the Washington Examiner.

Banks “bragged” to colleagues while in his previous management role at Border Patrol about paying for sex with prostitutes while traveling in Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade. Banks’ behavior was said to have been investigated by Customs and Border Protection officials twice, including last year, but the investigation ended abruptly while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in office, leading to more questions.

“I don’t know how he became the chief of the Border Patrol with his character,” a former Border Patrol agent told the Washington Examiner in a phone call, adding that now-53-year-old Banks had personally pushed him to come along on one of the trips. “He’s going to third-world countries to take advantage of poor f***ing women, which disgusts the hell out of me.”

Four others said Banks talked freely with his subordinates about his travels and that it was known why he went, making his promotion to the top of the agency last year that much more flabbergasting.

“He would tell people that’s why he was going on these trips — he would go there to engage in activities with prostitutes,” a second person said. “So I think those stories are out everywhere, and you can’t put them away or not give it attention because he was the one telling people about these trips.


The day after NYT did their bury their head in the sand post, THE SPECTATOR noted:


Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks has resigned, ostensibly “to retire and return home to Texas to focus on my family and ranch.” Banks served under President Biden but quit in frustration over the administration’s lax border policies. When Trump returned to office, Banks took up his old job again: like Cincinnatus, he came out of retirement to serve, and will now return to his plow.

Perhaps “plow” is the operative word here. It’s widely speculated that Banks is in fact resigning because of a Washington Examiner investigation, which claims that he was a sex tourist who made regular trips to Colombia and Thailand while in post. According to six current and former Border Patrol employees, Banks used to boast of his sexual exploits to colleagues, and would be remarkably upfront about the purpose of these trips to anyone who asked. It ought to be said that prostitution is legal in both those countries, but that using the services of ladies (or gentlemen!) of the night is against agency policy.


Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:

But Banks’s sudden departure comes at a curious time, as reports circulate about his penchant for sex workers. Border Patrol employees told the Washington Examiner last month that Banks was “known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to engage in sex with prostitutes.”

Banks even “bragged” about his deviant habits with colleagues while in his previous role in Border Patrol, and allegedly paid for sex with prostitutes while travelling across Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade. CBP reportedly investigated his behavior twice, including last year, but the probe was squashed by former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.


The paper of record, THE NEW YORK TIMES, is going to let this pass without comment?  And you wonder how Jeffrey Epstein or, for that matter, Harvey Weinstein got away with so much for so long.  It's right there in the 'report' by Ashley Ayn.  


And not only does the record need to reflect these allegations against Banks to be accurate regarding Banks, it also needs to reflect the allegations to be accurate regarding Donald Chump.  Yet again, Chump's surrounded himself with people who never should have been appointed by him.  Did Chump know about the allegations before he appointed Banks to the job?  If not, when did Chump find out?


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


FDA approved mifepristone for use over two decades ago

Supreme Court set to rule on right-wing extremist attempt to roll back access to medication abortion

“Law and policy governing access to lifesaving, time-sensitive medication abortion care in the United States should be equitable, transparent, and based on the best available peer-reviewed evidence-based science.”

Text of Resolution (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — Today, 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.

The resolution comes hours before the Supreme Court’s administrative stay in Louisiana v. FDA is set to expire — which, without action, would uphold the Fifth Circuit’s ruling threatening millions of women’s access to mifepristone, even in states where abortion is legal.

The resolution was co-sponsored by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

The resolution was endorsed by the following organizations: All* Above All, American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Reproductive Rights, EMAA Project, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, National Abortion Federation, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, National Council of Jewish Women, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, National Network of Abortion Funds, National Partnership for Women and Families, National Women's Law Center Action Fund, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Power to Decide, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America), and URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity.

“Abortion opponents nationwide continue to push their politically motivated attacks on mifepristone and medication abortion to make it harder for everyone, everywhere to get care. That’s despite decades of research and millions of people using mifepristone to safely and effectively end a pregnancy,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “In the face of these attacks, we are grateful to Senator Warren, Sen. Baldwin, Senate Minority Leader Schumer, Sen. Wyden, Sen. Murray, and Sen. Smith for reaffirming that science-based policies must govern access to mifepristone.”

“Mifepristone continues to be crucial to our ability to access abortion care— and that is precisely why abortion opponents have been relentless in their efforts to restrict it nationwide, including in states where abortion is legally protected,” said Jessica Arons, director of the Liberty Division for Policy and Government Affairs at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “As this resolution affirms, millions of people have used mifepristone to safely end pregnancies and treat miscarriages for more than 25 years, including by telemedicine. We thank Senator Warren for introducing legislation to set the record straight and push back on anti-abortion propaganda, and we call on Congress to protect the right to abortion and end this political interference with our personal healthcare decisions once and for all.”

'“For decades, the science has been overwhelmingly clear: mifepristone is safe and effective. Millions of Americans have relied on this critical medication, which revolutionized access to care. We’re grateful to Senator Warren, Sen. Baldwin, Senate Minority Leader Schumer, Sen. Wyden, Sen. Murray, and Sen. Smith for their ongoing efforts to ensure the critical decisions about necessary—and sometimes life-saving— healthcare are based in science, not ideology,” said Rachana Desai Martin, Chief U.S. Program Officer at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The lawmakers first introduced this resolution in 2023, following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which sparked attacks on reproductive rights across the country. Since then, 20 states have banned or restricted access to abortion care.

Senator Warren has led the charge to protect reproductive freedom:

  • 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; 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. The report reveals that, in addition to acting as a backdoor abortion ban, the “defund” provision has ripped away Americans’ access to essential services — including primary care, birth control, cancer screenings, and wellness exams — and raised health care costs.
  • 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.

###


Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Susie Wiles Frets Over Mike Banks" went up Friday.  The following sites updated:




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