NOTING OUR NON-ENTHUSIASTIC RESPONSE, BARI RUSHED TO ADD THAT WE'D LOVE THE CLOSER. ERIKA KIRK WAS GOING TO DO AN INTERPRETIVE DANCE WEARING TASTEFUL PASTIES AND A G-STRING WHILE BARI SANG "THAT GREAT OLD EVERGREEN FROM 1888 'THE BAND OF N------! FROM "OLE VIRGINNY STATE".' IT'S ONE OF THOSE SONGS THAT SO DEEP AND SO REAL IT JUST MOVES ME. BUT I'M SENTIMENTAL THAT WAY, I ALWAYS GET A LUMP IN MY THROAT WHEN I THINK OF A GOOD LYNCHING. IT'S A SHAME THAT, AS A SOCIETY, WE HAVE PHASED LYNCHINGS OUT. OH, WELL. MAYBE NEXT YEAR."
AS WE ATTEMPTED TO LEAVE, BARI STOPPED US TO INFORM, "SPEAKING OF NEXT YEAR, I'LL BE DOING A SPECIAL CBS TELETHON IN JANUARY. IT'S CALLED 'FREE TINA' AND IT'S FOCUSED ON RAISING MONEY FOR SOCIAL ACTIVIST, FREEDOM FIGHTER AND GLORIOUS CONVICT TINA PETERS. SHE BROKE THE LAW BUT THEY CAN'T BREAK HER SPIRIT. SHE'S A RACIST OF MANY DECADES AND, HONESTLY, I JUST LOVE HER. I CALLED HER TO TELL HER ABOUT IT AND SHE SAID, 'STOP CALLING ME YOU PERVERT D**E, I'M NOT BITING YOUR CARPET!' SHE'S SWEET LIKE THAT. SHE'S GOING TO LOVE THE QUALITY ACTS WE'RE BOOKING FOR THE TELETHON. SO FAR, WE'VE GOT THE JANUARY 6TH INSURRECTIONISTS, THE PROUD BOYS, THE WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH OF HATE CHOIR AND JASON ALDEAN. RUMOR HAS IT JASON MAY PERFORM IN A SPEEDO! I'M ASSUMING THAT WILL HAVE A LOT OF WOMEN SWEARING OFF MEN SO I'M ASKING MY WIFE NELLIE TO CONSIDER GIVING ME A DAY PASS -- YOU KNOW, A FREEBIE TO CHEAT JUST FOR ONE DAY?"
The DOJ's secret memo authorizing missile strikes on boats in the Caribbean isn't a legal analysis - it's legal laundering.
According to leaks reported by The Guardian, the Office of Legal Counsel memo claims the strikes constitute "collective self-defense" on behalf of allies like Mexico and Colombia, who supposedly need us to blow up cocaine shipments because cartels are waging "armed violence" against their governments.
Small problems with this theory: No ally has publicly asked us to bomb boats. There's no evidence that cartels are engaged in "armed conflict" with any sovereign state. There's no evidence that cocaine sales finance a war rather than just enrich criminals. And there's zero evidence these strikes were "self-defense" against any imminent threat.
Yesterday, we just focused on Pete Hegseth as he continued his public transition from FOX "NEWS" personality to War Criminal. I understand he's contemplating top surgery. But a number of you thought I'd share something on the Tennessee election that took place Tuesday. A lot of times when you expect me to comment and I don't, I'm trying to be kind.
Several of you asked, so here goes. Matt Van Epps (MAGA) won against Aftyn Behn (Democrat). Some people were convinced Behn was going to pull it off. We didn't waste time on her, she was a loser. She shouldn't run again. What does the race mean?
Republicans should worry. Even against one of the worst candidates in years, Van Epps had to spend millions -- they flooded that district with money. And he almost lost.
Republicans need to worry.
You won't face many as ditzy as Aftyn Behn.
When Chump insulted her as not a Christian, her response was weak. When he attacked her claiming she didn't like country music, her response was weak.
She was an idiot over and over.
Chump says you don't like country music? You step up to the mike a press conference and start singing Patsy Cline's "Crazy." Not the whole song if you don't want to. Then you say, "Heard somebody lying on me and saying I didn't like country music. Can you be born in Tennessee and not like country music? Well, what's a New Yorker like Donald know about country music anyway? This is the fool who dances publicly over and over to the disco song 'YMCA'." That's what she should have done (and what she was advised to do, by the way) but didn't.
Again, not very smart. Neither is the DSA chapter in Knoxville. This was always going to be a loss for Behn.
So to recap: A ditz, a very poor campaigner and a Democratic Socialist running in that district and yet she managed to get 45% of the vote? Republicans across the country should be in a panic. Most of them will face Democratic Party candidates with a functioning brain.
Critics
buried Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in ridicule Tuesday night after he
uncorked a bizarre rant, taking issue with Pope Leo XIV and urging the
new pope to "be on the right side of history."
Leo,
born Robert Francis Prevost, became the bishop of Rome and head of the
Catholic Church in May following the death of Pope Francis. He has
recently criticized aspects of the Trump administration, particularly
its hardline immigration policies, and questioned whether such policies
are compatible with a genuinely pro-life stance.
On
Tuesday, Reuters reported that Leo urged President Donald Trump and his
administration not to try to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
using military force.
"It is better to search for ways of dialogue, or perhaps pressure, including economic pressure," Leo said.
"On
the other hand, there is the danger, there is the possibility there
will be some activity, some (military) operation," he said separately.
Graham leaped to defend the president's administration on X.
"Without
a credible threat of the use of military force, nothing changes in
Venezuela. When it comes to Maduro, the time for talking is closing. The
time for action to end this reign of terror in Venezuela is upon us,"
said Graham.
Girl, please.
Lindsey Graham is not a Catholic.
Also who is he to hector anyone about being on the right side of
history? 70 years old and still hiding in the closet. He ought to be
ashamed.
MAGA-aligned
GOP Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is being challenged for his long-held
Senate seat by Democratic pediatrician Dr. Annie Andrews. Graham is
running with the endorsement of President Donald Trump, whose recent —
and critics say dubious — explanation for an MRI he received is a
political target for Andrews.
Trying
to quell suspicions raised by reporters and others including Minnesota
Governor Tim Walz, the White House released a letter this week from
Trump’s physician that addressed the MRI the President said he recently
received.
The physician’s note, issued by Dr.
Sean Barbabella, said the MRI was part of a “comprehensive executive
physical” and was ordered because men of Trump’s age "benefit from a
thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health" — an
explanation repeated by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
None
of Trump’s MRI explanation passes the sniff test, according to Dr.
Andrews, who by challenging Trump’s transparency — or lack thereof —
while trying to hit Graham’s credibility by association.
Andrews
wrote on social media: “I would like to challenge one of my physician
colleagues to order an abdominal MRI with the indication ‘thorough
evaluation of abdominal health’ and let me know what Radiology has to
say about that.”
Lindsey lost his
spine when John McCain died. In fact, McCain might still be alive today
if he hadn't had to spend all those years carrying Graham.
Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, told
soldiers under his command in Iraq to ignore legal advice about when
they were permitted to kill enemy combatants under their rules of
engagement.
The anecdote is contained in a
book Hegseth wrote last year in which he also repeatedly railed against
the constraints placed on “American warfighters” by the laws of war and
the Geneva conventions.
Hegseth
is currently under scrutiny for a 2 September attack on a boat
purportedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean, where survivors of a first
strike on the vessel were reportedly killed in a second strike following a verbal order from Hegseth to “kill everybody”.
Hegseth
is a known liar and we've seen he can't take accountability. When he
brought classified information into a non-secure chat, he just lied.
War plan? That's not top secret! He's just a liar. He never grew up
and became a man, he's just a little liar who thinks he can lie his way
out of anything.
The apparent, coordinated effort to distance Hegseth from the September 2 boat strikes stems from an exclusive report from the Washington Post last
week alleging that Hegseth ordered a follow-up strike on two people who
had survived the initial bombing of their boat on September 2. The
attack kicked off what has since exploded into an extended campaign of lethal hits on suspected drug boats from Venezuela, despite mounting evidence that casts doubt on the assertion that those killed were even trafficking drugs into the United States. According to tracking work from the New York Times, at least 80 people have been killed in 21 strikes.
Hegseth has since blasted the allegations as “fake news.” He also responded with his version of an apparent joke: a fake image of a Franklin the Turtle children’s book titled Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists, with the titular character shown in military gear, firing at targets in the sea from a helicopter.
Kids Can Press, which has published many of the Franklin the Turtle books, condemned Hegseth’s post on Monday night, saying it contradicted its values of “kindness, empathy, and inclusivity.”
Lawmakers, including at least one top Republican, have indicated
targeting shipwrecked survivors may constitute a war crime. (The
Department of Defense’s own “Law of War Manual” prohibits “no quarter”
declarations, which includes “conduct[ing] hostilities on the basis
that there shall be no survivors.”) Republican-led committees in the
House and Senate have since announced investigations into the report.
The
the thing about liars? They tend to lie after they lie and that's why
Hegseth has a story that keeps changing. Back in September, for
example, he was on FOX "NEWS" breathlessly detailing what he saw happen
in real time. Now he's a little foggy on the events.
"There was no fog of war the morning after this happened," Joe Scarborough noted this morning on MS NOW's MORNING JOE.
Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth absolutely lost it Tuesday as he scrambled to
shirk responsibility for reportedly murdering the survivors of a
September 2 drone strike on an alleged drug trafficking vessel in the
Caribbean.
Sitting beside a drowsy Donald Trump during a
lengthy Cabinet meeting, Hegseth claimed that while he had been
perfectly happy to take responsibility for the dozen extrajudicial
executions of people who the government couldn’t prove were drug
traffickers, he wouldn’t dare claim credit for that one Pentagon
decision.
Instead, the war chief continued to redirect responsibility for the strike onto Commander Frank “Mitch” Bradley, and even the president himself.
“I
watched that first strike live. As you can imagine at the Department of
War we got a lot of things to do, so I didn’t stick around for the hour
and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation
digitally occurs, so I moved on to my next meeting,” Hegseth said.
“A
couple of hours later I learned that that commander had made the—which
he had the complete authority to do—and by the way Admiral Bradley made
the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the
threat.”
Let's break away from Hegseth for a
moment to note Donald at that cabinet meeting and his press conference.
MEIDASTOUCH NEWS' Ben explains Chump
When the documents were unsealed, who was president? That's right: Donald Chump.
Why
did he pardon the convicted drug trafficker? He'd rather lie about Joe
Biden instead of answering that question. He keeps blaming Joe for
everything and thinks we are all too stupid to notice.
They
always need a fall guy, a scapegoat, because they never take
accountability for their actions. It appears they are trying to frame
Adm Frank M. Bradley for Pete Hegseth's War Crimes. Helene Cooper and John Ismay (NEW YORK TIMES) note:
On Thursday, he
will head to Capitol Hill for closed-door sessions with lawmakers, as
Republicans and Democrats express concerns about the Trump
administration’s campaign.
At the time
of the Sept. 2 attack, Admiral Bradley was beginning the last month of
his tour as head of the Joint Special Operations Command, which conducts
some of the military’s most secret missions, and preparing to assume
the command of U.S. Special Operations Command, a job he took in
October.
But now he has become a
public example of the potential legal peril that the American military
faces as it carries out the orders of President Trump and his defense
secretary.
The president said that he
“wouldn’t have wanted” a second strike on the boat survivors, and that
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told him he did not order one.
Mr.
Hegseth had previously said that he watched the operation live on
video. But on Tuesday, Mr. Hegseth said he “didn’t stick around” to see
the second strike.
They're throwing the admiral under the bus. It's what they do to avoid accountability.
It
seems like a lifetime ago but it was just last month that Senator Mark
Kelly and five other Democrats did a PSA reminding that the law states
you do not have to obey and illegal order (Uniform Code of Military
Justice states that explicitly). And the response from Chump and his
minions was to attack Kelly and the other five. To talk of putting
Kelly to death. To insist he be brought back into the military to try
to court-martial him.
In a fundraising appeal for the Democratic Party yesterday, Kelly noted:
If
you can believe it, things didn’t stop when Trump called for my
hanging. It didn’t stop with the threat of a court-martial from Pete
Hegseth, either. Because now, the FBI has asked to question me and other
members of Congress.
All for saying things the president didn’t like to hear.
If you’re feeling like this isn’t the country you grew up in, I don’t blame you. But I hope you aren’t giving up on it.
I
certainly haven’t. This country has given me too much, and I’ll never
be able to repay that debt. I still believe in our democracy, our
values, and our Constitution.
There’s no chance in hell that somebody like Donald Trump is going to stop me from serving the people of this nation. None.
If he thought all of this was going to shut me up, he’s got another thing coming.
The topic's not going away. Last night, Rachel Maddow discussed it with Stephen Colbert on his CBS late night program.
That's just one program.
The White House appears to think this is going to die out and just fade away but that's not the case. Daniel Hampton (RAW STORY) reports:
Sen.
Thom Tillis (R-NC) delivered a sharp rebuke on Monday following reports
on the Pentagon's controversial boat strike, in which Defense Secretary
Pete Hegseth was reported to have authorized a second attack on
survivors of an initial strike.
If the
allegations prove true, Tillis told reporters that the person
responsible needs "to get the hell out of Washington," according to
Newsweek.
Tillis, a thorn in
Trump's side who has said he'll leave Congress, emphasized the need to
fully investigate the incident, but insisted that a follow-up strike
would constitute "a violation of an ethical, moral or legal code" if
confirmed. The comments come amid increasing scrutiny on the Trump
administration's three-month U.S. military campaign targeting suspected
drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
Rep.
Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) told Axios he is considering introducing
articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth over
reports he authorized a second strike on a purported drug boat in the
Caribbean.
Why it matters: Thanedar could once
again find himself in conflict with House Minority Leader Hakeem
Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who dismissed the prospect of impeachment during a
press conference on Monday.
The
Michigan congressman has repeatedly roused the anger of his Democratic
colleagues this year by pushing rogue impeachment efforts against
President Trump.
He briefly forced a Trump impeachment vote in
May — as any individual House member can do with or without support
from their leadership — but pulled it under intense pressure from party
leaders.
Pete Hegseth, a Trump sycophant who served in the military, topped out at the mid-level rank of major, and left full of bitterness and resentment toward a military establishment that clearly didn’t value his brilliance and fortitude.
The
halls of the Pentagon are apparently strewn with rakes these days, and
Hegseth has managed to step on almost all of them, including security blunders, needless fights with the press, and envious, unmanly whining
about the medals on the uniform of Senator Mark Kelly, a veteran of
higher rank and far greater achievement than Hegseth himself. Like
Trump, Hegseth thinks his job is to get even with people he views as
enemies: When Hegseth pulled more than 800 senior officers
into an auditorium to give them a long and pointless harangue, it was
not only disrespectful; it was cringe-inducing, like watching the
angriest kid in your high school come back 20 years later as the
principal and unload his adolescent gripes on all the teachers in the
staff lounge.
Now, however, Hegseth is in new and far more dangerous territory. The Washington Post reported last Friday that, back in September, Hegseth ordered the killing
of the survivors of the first strike against what the administration
says are terrorist-controlled drug boats. If this report is accurate, it
means that Hegseth issued what is called a “no quarter” order, a crime in both American and international law.
So far, the president and the secretary have not disputed the facts, instead fumbling about with classic Beltway-style “non-denial denials.”
Today, the White House admitted that the second strike did in fact take
place, but on the orders of the Special Operations Command chief,
Admiral Frank Bradley, which seems to be setting Bradley up as a
scapegoat. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
said today that “Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these
kinetic strikes,” adding that Bradley “worked well within his authority
and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed
and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”
Let's wind down with this from Senator Adam Schiff's office:
Schiff on Trump abusing power to go
after his enemies: “This is a broad societal effort to silence,
intimidate the opposition. It’s what dictators do.”
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that
he submitted alongside Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Richard
Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to the Department of Justice seeking records of
potential executive branch misconduct or corruption, including on
information related to White House Border Czar Tom Homan reportedly
accepting $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents as a bribe for
government contracts.
Schiff also blasted the Trump administration’s investigation into his
colleagues, Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, highlighting that
Trump is once again abusing the power of his office to go after his
critics and to silence and intimidate them.
On Trump admin refusal to answer questions on Tom Homan investigation, the need to submit FOIA requests for answers:
[…] Here where the Justice Department dismissed the case for reasons
it’s never made clear, the question is, did they ever get the money
back, or did he just get this $50,000 bribe gift from the FBI? And we
should be able to get answers from the Attorney General on that or the
Director of the FBI, but that requires that Republicans join us in doing
serious oversight. That requires the Judiciary Committee demand, on a
bipartisan basis, answers to those very basic questions. They haven’t
been willing to do that. So, Senator Whitehouse, Senator Blumenthal
myself, have now made these FOIA requests. My experience in the first
Trump administration, when they likewise stonewalled oversight is
sometimes FOIA is a quicker process to get answers, because you can go
to court to enforce them — than even congressional oversight —
particularly here where Republicans aren’t willing to do it.
On Trump admin investigation and intimidation tactics into members of Congress for simply reciting the law:
[…] This is plainly intended to try to intimidate them. We have the
astonishing situation where the president, the Pentagon are saying that
if you state the law, if you state what the Constitution provides, that
that’s how somehow going to subject you to investigation, prosecution
for sedition, court martialing. It’s absurd, but the whole point of it
is also a dangerous effort to try to silence and intimidate. And I can
tell you knowing all of these six who made that video, they are not
about to be silenced or intimidated. They have faced far greater in
their careers than these idle threats from the president or the
Pentagon. But nevertheless, it’s part of the abuse of the Justice
Department to go after the president’s enemies. He’s now abusing the
Pentagon to go after his enemies. He’s abusing the FCC to go after his
critics in late night comedy. He’s using the Department of Education to
go after his critics at universities. This is a broad societal effort to
silence, intimidate the opposition. It’s what dictators do. And I’m
just so proud of the patriotism of my colleagues, Mark Kelly, Elissa
Slotkin, two of our most respected colleagues, I think all of us in the
Democratic caucus are feeling enormous sense of pride in them and
support for them.
[…] It’s not a serious investigation. There’s no court or court
martial in the world that would find fault, I think, with my colleagues
restating the obvious restating of the law. But you know, it’s designed
to set a chilling effect. It’s designed not only to chill these
particular members, but to send a message to other members of Congress,
House or Senate, that you got to watch what you say, because you will be
investigated. You can be threatened with prosecution. You might have to
retain counsel. We will essentially put you through the ringer if you
dare stand up to this President. But you know, I can tell you, my
colleagues and I feel this only stiffens our resolve to stand prouder,
stand stronger, push back harder against this lawless administration.