POKING AROUND ON DAY 175

Super duper pooper man

Today is Day 175 of the battle to save America from Grampaw Shitstain and his moron followers. There are 480 days to achieve a Democratic majority in House and Senate and “end the Trump presidency” in the words of MAGA Mike. Grampaw Shitstain travels to Texas today to view the scene of his latest crime against humanity. DHS wants to make skateboarding a crime.

Puppy-killer ICE Barbie shoots herself in her foot, again: In a blistering X post, the Department of Homeland Security accused CNN of “activist journalism” for reporting that Secretary Kristi Noem’s cost control edict slowed FEMA’s response to the deadly Texas floods. DHS labeled the reporting a “FAKE NEWS LIE,” but ironically, the statement only reinforces the very 72 hour delay CNN exposed. CNN’s scoop, based on anonymous FEMA officials, reported that Noem imposed a strict rule—every FEMA contract or grant exceeding $100,000 now requires her personal sign off. The threshold, internal sources say, is “pennies” in typical disaster relief. The result? FEMA couldn’t pre position Urban Search and Rescue crews until Noem gave the green light — 72 hours after the flooding began. DHS’s statement claimed its “robust, coordinated federal response” saved “over 900+ lives” and praised Noem for “working day and night” to approve frontline needs. That’s a standard political script—but the devil’s in the details: “within moments of the flooding,” DHS claimed deployments began. If that were true, FEMA could have bypassed the 72 hour delay. But CNN’s sourced account says otherwise. DHS’s framing of the approval threshold as fiscally prudent smacks of political cover. FEMA contracts during disasters routinely hit the hundreds of thousands—these are not trivial sums. Sources warned that the threshold “could severely disrupt the distribution of emergency funds during natural disasters.” So DHS’s statement is effectively saying: “Yes, Noem slowed things down—but that’s good.” That line echoes the now familiar playbook of highlighting conservative oversight while accusing critics of overreach.

Stop the Steal rally organizer Caroline Wren, a longtime GOP fundraiser, was found in contempt of court and fined $2,000 a day until she complies with a subpoena for records about the Jan. 6 event that preceded the attack on the Capitol. The subpoena arises in a lawsuit by Capitol police against Donald Trump, and Wren is a witness. “I don’t want to resort to incarceration if at all possible,” U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks of South Florida said Wednesday in court, where Wren was a no-show.

After an Oklahoma TV station’s weather radar was vandalized Sunday night, the founder of an anti-government militia group confirmed that it was targeting Doppler radars. “Absolutely,” Michael Meyer, the founder of Veterans On Patrol, told News9, the CBS affiliate in Oklahoma City. Meyer told the station he had posted a warning sign that weather radars were being “targeted for elimination by victims of U.S. weather experimentation.” A suspect was arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges but has not been charged for the radar sabotage. Asked if his group was responsible for vandalizing News9’s radar, Meyer responded: “Veterans On Patrol is responsible for a lot more than that.” Another reminder that I never saw so many white male peckerwood morons in one place at one time as I did in the Navy.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante on Thursday blocked President Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship for any children whose citizenship status would be at risk if the order went into effect. He agreed to grant class action status to a lawsuit challenging the order. It means that children beyond the plaintiffs are protected by the preliminary injunction. Laplante’s ruling has the same practical effect as a nationwide injunction, as it applies to babies anywhere in the country. The class does not include parents, as sought by the plaintiffs. The judge described his decision to issue a preliminary injunction as “not a close call,” suggesting that the deprivation of U.S. citizenship clearly qualifies as irreparable harm.

At least 15 Palestinians, including eight children and two women, have been killed in an Israeli strike while queuing for nutritional supplements in front of a clinic in central Gaza, a hospital says. Video from al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah showed the bodies of several children and others lying on the floor as medics treated their wounds. US-based aid group Project Hope, which runs the clinic, said the attack was a blatant violation of international law, saying Thursday morning's strike in front of its Altayara health clinic in Deir al-Balah happened as patients had gathered outside, awaiting its opening to receive treatment for malnutrition, infections, chronic illnesses and more. Graphic footage posted on social media, which was verified by the BBC, showed the immediate aftermath of the attack, with adults and young children lying in a street, some severely wounded and others not moving. The IDF responded with its standard-issue bullshit, saying it struck a "Hamas terrorist" and “regretted any harm to uninvolved individuals.”

Creampuff (L) and Sebastian (R)

Yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked an effort by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto to restore the 100 percent tax deduction for gambling losses after it was cut down to 90 percent in the Big Bad Law. Cortez Masto attempted to restore the full deduction via unanimous consent on the floor, arguing that the provision, which many Senate Republicans were unaware of until the entire bill became law, would harm her state immensely. Las Vegas is known as the “gambling capital of the world.” “It will do irreparable harm to our nation’s gaming industry if it takes effect — especially in Nevada,” she said on the floor, adding that it will “disincentivize” gamblers, pointing to those competing at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas this week.

ow stupid and ignorant are these MAGAts? This ignorant and stupid: EPA Secretary Lee Zeldin said Thursday he is going to investigate the latest right-wing conspiracy advanced by Margjorie Traitor Goon and others that the “Deep State” caused the Texas floods: “Americans have questions about geoengineering and contrails. They expect honesty and transparency from their government when seeking answers. For years, people who asked questions in good faith were dismissed, even vilified by the media and their own government. This ends today.” FFS, these fools haven’t got the brains to understand the truth. Contrails are created by a body moving through air that has a sufficient humidity and low enough temperature to leave ice crystals in its wake. There is no such thing as a “chemtrail.” There is also no such thing as “geoengineering” outside of a bad s-f novel. Of course people this willfully stupid get laughed at.

The FDA granted full approval Thursday to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for children, making it the first COVID shot for kids aged 6 months to 11 years old that is no longer administered under an emergency authorization. But the vaccine is only available for children with at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19, the FDA said, in line with a change made by HHS Secretary The Wrong RFK Got Shot. “COVID-19 continues to pose a significant potential threat to children, especially those with underlying medical conditions. Vaccination can be an important tool for protecting our youngest against severe disease and hospitalization,” Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, said in a statement. The new licensing stipulation could make it harder for parents who want to get their healthy children vaccinated against COVID to do so, because that is now effectively an “off-label use” of the vaccine. Leading medical groups led by the American Academy of Pediatrics earlier this week sued The Wrong RFK Got Shot over the new vaccine restrictions.

How crazy is the senile old crazy fuckwit? This crazy: This week, Grampaw Shitstain decided to engage in what passes for “international diplomacy” in what passes for his brain. He notified Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that he was implementing a 50% tariff on all products from that country. Never mind that Brazil is one of the few countries with whom the United States has a positive trade balance - we sell more to them than they do to us. Notably, they sell us the coffee that ends up in 60% of the coffee cups in the U.S. Why would he do this? He’d do it because Brazil is currently prosecuting Jair Bolsonaro, “The Trump of the Tropics,” for attempting a coup to remain in office after he was defeated in 2022, which included a plot to murder several Brazilian officials. Gramps said on his Lies Anti-Social: “The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace.” Gramps clearly feels a bond of solidarity with the Brazilian would-be dictator and coup-plotter. “It happened to me, times 10,” he posted Monday. “I’ll be watching the WITCH HUNT of Jair Bolsonaro, his family, and thousands of his supporters, very closely.” President Lula told the senile old fuck to pound sand. “Brazil is a sovereign country with independent institutions that will not accept being abused by anyone,” President Lula said in a statement, noting that the case against Bolsonaro “is the sole responsibility of the Brazilian Judiciary.” The NYT noted: “Trump's effort to use tariffs to intervene in a criminal trial in a foreign nation is an extraordinary example of how he wields levies as a one-size-fits-all cudgel — and how they can yield economic destruction as a result.” The Times went on to point out: “Mr. Trump also incorrectly said the United States had a trade deficit with Brazil. For years, the United States has generally maintained a trade surplus with Brazil. The two countries had about $92 billion in trade together last year, with the United States enjoying a $7.4 billion surplus in the relationship. The top products traded are aircraft, oil, machinery and iron.” Remember - even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Surprise, surprise (not): The majority of the American people have turned on Grampaw’s immigration policy, and no longer support it. Naturally, Maldministration II is not taking the news well that the issue on which Gramps thought he got elected is now a major weakness. So Herr Obergruppenfuhrer Tom Homan went on Fux Snooze and tried to blame the media for the public turning against the shitshow he’s running. He said: “The working men and women of ICE are doing is incredible. We are looking for over 300,000 missing children. We have already found 10,000. Have you heard that anywhere? No, the media is simply not covering it. Look, this should be a nonpartisan issue. Arresting public safety threats and national security threats, everybody be on the same page on that. Rescuing children, I mean, it should be a nonpartisan issue. Everybody should be in lock step on that. But they're not. The media is lying. The Democrats are -- they don't want President Trump to be successful. I got news for them. We are being successful.” (Successful at kidnapping and disappearing grandmas, children, and people trying to follow the rules to become legal residents.) Homan was gibbering away in the original German because of the Gallup Poll released this morning, which finds: 35% approve the pogrom, including 21% strongly approving, while 62% disapprove, including 45% strongly. “Support is also lower today for deporting all undocumented immigrants, with 38% now favoring this as the administration is attempting it, down from 47% last year when it was a Trump campaign promise.” In 2024, support for deportation was uniquely high. “Today’s level matches where it stood in 2019 (at 37%) and is slightly higher than when first measured in 2016 (32%).” Support for allowing undocumented immigrants to become U.S. citizens has risen to 78%, up from 70% last year. Approval is higher still for offering individuals brought to the U.S. illegally as children a pathway to citizenship, with support holding above 80%. Go eat shit and die Homan, before you die from getting the same treatment in Alligator Auschwitz you are meting out today to the unfortunates now there.

At a Friday hearing, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis expressed concern that Kilmar Abrego Garcia would be almost immediately deported if he is released on his criminal charges in Tennessee and transferred to immigration custody, which could occur as soon as Wednesday. “You have taken the presumption of regularity and you have destroyed it, in my view,” Xinis told the government. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers asked that Xinis order the government to provide their client will at least 72-hours’ notice before removing him and physically return him to Maryland while any removal proceedings unfold. Xinis said she’ll issue her order as “narrowly as I can” and at times floated ordering 48-hours’ notice.

Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Kehoe signed a measure Thursday that repeals the state’s guaranteed paid sick leave law, less than a year after nearly 58 percent of voters approved it. In a news release, the governor’s office described the voter-initiated paid sick leave law as “onerous” and harmful to small businesses, because it dictates “when and how paid leave must be provided” and requires “burdensome record keeping and compliance obligations.” They went on to spread the usual Republican horseshit: “Today, we are protecting the people who make Missouri work — families, job creators, and small business owners — by cutting taxes, rolling back overreach, and eliminating costly mandates.” If you believe a word of that, please go out in your front yard tomorrow morning and turn west to watch the sunrise.

Grampaw Shitstain said late Thursday that a deal was struck with NATO to send weapons to Ukraine, with the military alliance bearing the brunt of the cost. “We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100 percent,” he said in a phone interview with NBC News. “So, what we’re doing is, the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons to Ukraine, and NATO is paying for those weapons.” “We send weapons to NATO, and NATO is going to reimburse the full cost of those weapons,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker.

The Department of Homeland Security is urging local police to consider a wide range of protest activity as violent tactics, including mundane acts like riding a bike or livestreaming a police encounter, WIRED has learned. Threat bulletins issued during last month’s “No Kings” protests warn that the US government’s aggressive immigration raids are almost certain to accelerate domestic unrest, with DHS saying there’s a “high likeliness” more Americans will soon turn against the agency, which could trigger confrontations near federal sites. Blaming intense media coverage and backlash to the US military deployment in Los Angeles, DHS expects the demonstrations to “continue and grow across the nation” as protesters focused on other issues shift to immigration, following a broad “embracement of anti-ICE messaging.” Protesters on bicycles, skateboards, or even “on foot” are framed as potential “scouts” conducting reconnaissance or searching for “items to be used as weapons.” Livestreaming is listed alongside “doxxing” as a “tactic” for “threatening” police. Online posters are cast as ideological recruiters or as participants in “surveillance sharing.” Yes indeed, shit’s gettin’ real out there folks.

There will be a regular post tomorrow. Unless war or revolution break out on Sunday, I am taking the day off in recognition of becoming the oldest living member of my family in a century.

Cary - missed every day.

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