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Walter Einenkel

Egged On By Trump, Bukele Won't Return Victim Of Wrongful Deportation

President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador joined President Donald Trump for a Q&A session with reporters on Monday, during which he pigheadedly said that he would not return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador’s CECOT prison.

“I suppose you’re not suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist threat to the United States. I'm not going to do it. It's like, I mean, the question is preposterous,” he said.

Bukele continued to claim, “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” before Trump eventually jumped in to call the press “sick people” for asking about Garcia's Supreme Court-ordered return.

Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen and legal U.S. resident who is married to a U.S. citizen, held valid documents of residency issued by the Department of Homeland Security

Despite admitting that Garcia was wrongfully deported, the Trump administration has offered up a series of disingenuous and unconstitutional claims to justify leaving Garcia in El Salvador’s notoriously violent prison.

But the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Trump administration must facilitate Garcia’s return to the United States.

Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration is now wrongfully claiming that the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over this case—because that would be a democracy with checks and balances, not a dictatorship.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

RFK Jr Waffles As Second Unvaccinated Child Dies In Measles Outbreak

An eight-year-old Texas child died of pulmonary failure as a result of measles, marking the third confirmed measles death and the second death of a child from measles to occur in the United States in decades. Both children were unvaccinated.

“[T]here are 642 confirmed cases of measles across 22 states, 499 of those in Texas,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote on X.

Kennedy also announced that he was traveling to Texas to offer condolences to the family of the recently deceased child.

While the infamous anti-vaxxer failed to mention that the majority of cases are in unvaccinated children, he did admit that the MMR vaccine is the “most effective way to prevent the spread of measles.”

As the measles outbreak rages on, Kennedy has admitted that the MMR vaccine is the most effective way to fight against the disease, while also undermining the necessity of vaccinations. In public appearances, such as on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Kennedy said it was better to get infected with measles than to be vaccinated.

Texas HHS has confirmed that, while most confirmed cases remain primarily in the western part of the state, new cases have emerged in central Texas and a concerning rise in the northeast region. Meanwhile, New Mexico has reported more than 50 cases, and Kansas has reported 24.

At the same time, Kennedy’s nonprofit Children’s Health Defense Fund continues to promote dangerously uninformed science about vaccines and measles, falsely claiming that poor medical treatments are to blame for the recent deaths. The organization is also pushing vitamin A supplements, which not only can’t cure nor stop the spread of measles, but can actually be toxic for children.

Outside of offering “comfort” to grieving families, Kennedy’s actions belie any meaningful scientific or medically proven solutions to stopping this public health nightmare.

As HHS secretary, Kennedy has slashed public health research budgets, fired tens of thousands of federal health care workers, and promoted anti-vaccine goons like David Geier.

So while Kennedy may occasionally acknowledge the importance of vaccines, his actions and continued encouragement of anti-vaccine rhetoric consistently undermines any public health efforts.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Musk's Extremism Driving Tesla Finances Into 'A Disaster On Every Metric'

Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man and a terrible parent, was handed another loss on Wednesday, after his electric vehicle company Tesla released its first quarter sales report. The news wasn’t good. The EV maker reported its lowest quarter sales since 2022, well below the modest predictions analysts had forecasted.

Tesla shares fluctuated, beginning Wednesday with a six percent drop, before rebounding, possibly due to talk that Musk would be leaving his Department of Government Efficiency. And even Tesla cheerleaders, like Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, were having a hard time turning this lemon into lemonade, as he expressed on X.

Musk’s latest setback comes just a week after reports that Tesla’s sales in Europe had dropped 40 percent in February, even as Europe’s EV market was enjoying an upswing in sales. Tesla’s losses in Europe can be partly attributed to Musk’s full-throated support of Germany’s far-right, neo-Nazi-affiliated Alternative for Germany party.

“In addition to Elon Musk’s increasingly active role in politics and the increased competition it is facing within the EV market, the brand is phasing out the existing version of the Model Y—its best-selling vehicle,” Felipe Munoz, global analyst at Jato Dynamics told the Financial Times.

Tesla’s brand has taken hits on top of Musk’s embrace of right-wing extremism. Nearly all of Tesla’s Cybertrucks were recalled in March due to issues stemming from the glue used to hold the stainless steel facade detaching, creating possible dangerous road hazards.

While Tesla faces increased competition in the market, the biggest problem the company faces is Musk’s politics and personality. Musk and DOGE’s unconstitutional attack on government agencies has cost tens of thousands of Americans their jobs and threatened their economic security.

His damage control efforts have been pathetic, undermined by his continued attacks on democracy, such as his unsuccessful yet transparent attempt to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court election.

The Trump administration has clearly been ordered to cravenly prop up the billionaire’s nosediving reputation. But promising to throw people in jail if they protest against Tesla, holding an informercial in front of the White House, and having the entire Trump administration hawk Tesla stock during their television appearances has clearly not been the recipe for success they hoped for.

And now, Musk’s toxicity has become so great that even Donald Trump’s most loyal parasites are trying to find the right way to distance the GOP leader from his top donor. Whether or not Trump and friends can quit Musk’s hundreds of billions of dollars remains to be seen.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

RFK Jr. Hires Weird Anti-Vax Activist To 'Analyze' HHS Data On Autism

The Department of Health and Human Services has hired anti-vaccine activist David Geier to analyze government data in search of thoroughly debunked links between immunizations and childhood autism.

Geier, who holds a bachelor’s degree in biology, has spent decades pushing discredited theories linking vaccines to autism. Geier and his father Mark Geier have long been known for peddling bad science, with the scientific journal Nature even naming them among the world’s top science deniers in 2010.

More than a decade ago, Geier was charged with practicing medicine without a license, while his father’s medical license was suspended for treating autistic children with the reckless “Lupron protocol,” which involves a drug used to treat prostate cancer and in chemical castration of sex offenders.

Geier’s new role within HHS signals another win for the anti-vaccine movement—and a loss for public health.

“This is a worst-case scenario for public health. It’s a slap in the face to the decades of actual credible research we have,” Jessica Steier, a public health researcher who leads the Science Literacy Lab, told the Washington Post.

Despite having his access to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revoked in 2004, Geier will now be given multiple sets of CDC data on vaccine safety.

During HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearings, Democratic lawmakers highlighted his inadequacy to lead the country’s public health agencies.

Now, his mismanagement of the ongoing measles outbreak, unconscionable reductions to the federal health services workforce, and hiring of Geier prove that he is a danger to public health.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Free Fall: Tesla Recalls Nearly Every Cybertruck As Exterior Panels Pop Off

Tesla’s downward trajectory took another hit on Thursday, after it was reported that over 46,000 Cybertrucks—almost all of them—are being recalled. The issue stems from the glue holding the stainless steel paneling to the Cybertruck’s exterior possibly detaching, creating a dangerous road hazard.

The recall feels almost symbolic of everything world’s richest man Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency represents to Americans these days. Vehicles under the recall include all 2024 and 2025 vehicles produced, as well as some from the end of 2023. That is nearly all of the Cybertrucks that have been delivered to customers. This is the eighth recall of Cybertrucks in just over a year.

Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spent Wednesday night with Fox News’ Jesse Watters, imploring people to buy Tesla stock.

“If you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla,” Lutnick told Watters’ viewers. “It’ll never be this cheap again.”

It was yet another example of the Trump administration’s efforts to boost sales of co-president Musk’s struggling business. In the last two weeks Trump has crassly hawked cars in front of the White House, Attorney General Pam Bondi has threatened to imprison those who protest Tesla, and MAGA conspiracy theory minions have said that peaceful opposition to Musk and his companies amounts to domestic terrorism.

Lutnick’s latest appearance didn’t do much for Tesla as the stock dropped at the open of the day.

Since December, Tesla has lost nearly 49 percent of its market cap. Clearly desperate, the carmaker has been sending out tone-deaf surveys to frustrated customers and offering big discounts to existing customers in an attempt to get them upgraded to new models.

Musk went on Fox News’ Hannity on Tuesday night, to get almost weepy about how much of an angel he is and how he is being persecuted.

“Tesla is a peaceful company; we've never done anything harmful. I've never done anything harmful, I've only done productive things. So, I think we just have a deranged ... there's some kind of mental illness thing going on here because this doesn't make any sense.

Meanwhile, Tesla sales have reached new lows worldwide, and even prominent investors are “trimming” their holdings in the company to reduce their exposure to Musk’s general turpitude. This includes Tesla board members like Musk’s brother, Kimbal; Rupert Murdoch’s son James; and board chair Robyn Denholm, who reportedly sold off $75 million in shares over the past five weeks.

Trump’s GOP flunkies in Congress remain too terrified of a Musk-funded primary to protect their angry constituents from the dismantling of our government. But their cowardice won’t change the fact that the American public and the courts do not approve of what Musk and DOGE are doing to our country, and they are furious about it.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Trump Family Wants A Piece Of Shady Binance Crypto Grift

Trump family representatives have been in discussions to take a financial stake in the U.S. arm of crypto exchange Binance, whose founder served four months in prison for money laundering.

Binance, along with former CEO Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions violations in 2023.

A deal with the Trump family would allow the previously banned company to return to the United States.

Billionaire New York real estate developer and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has reportedly been involved in the talks with Binance.

This is just the latest example of President Donald Trump’s willingness to align himself with the shady—and often illegal—crypto world. Trump’s billionaires club is filled with tech bros who have both made and been floated by considerable amounts of money in the crypto space.

Trump has seen how much more lucrative a grift of the barely policed crypto world is in comparison to previous ventures, like selling shiny gold sneakers.

Trump launched his own meme coin $TRUMP shortly after inauguration in a clear money grab, pulling in millions while exploiting hundreds of thousands of suckers. But more importantly it was a naked pay-to-play scam, allowing foreign agents and fellow grifters to curry favor with the president—like Tron founder Justin Sun, who was facing a civil fraud case started under the Biden administration.

After Sun “invested” tens of millions into Trump’s meme coin, he was rewarded by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission cutting a deal and dropping the case.

As the Trump family continues talks with Binance, the potential investment—and whether or not it would include one of Trump’s patented pardons—remains to be seen.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Senate Democrats Poised To Reject Plutocratic GOP Budget Bill

House Democrats are calling on their colleagues in the Senate to reject the GOP-passed spending bill—and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says he’s got the votes to do just that.

“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input—any input from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said Wednesday. “Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House.”

The Republican-led House caved to President Donald Trump and co-president Elon Musk Tuesday, passing a spending bill that would force $880 billion over 10 years in cuts from social safety net programs like Medicaid. The move is a naked attempt to extend GOP tax cuts for the rich at the expense of working-class Americans.

While Republicans were able to pass the bill in the House with the vote of only one Democrat, it’s a different story in the Senate, where Republicans will need Democrats to help them. And so far, they’re not getting it.

“They should refuse to allow this bill to pass in the Senate,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, warned her Senate counterparts on Tuesday. “If they don't, I think there's going to be a huge backlash from across the country. And I think, all of them will, you know, will have to deal with the consequences of that.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was also clear about her feelings on the matter. “The Republicans have the White House, the Senate, and the House. If they want to do this, and if they want to screw over the American people, they can do this with their votes and their party. I do not believe that Democrats should participate.”

“Everyone needs to call their Dem Senator right now. They are starting to cave,” wrote Ocasio-Cortez on her social media account, adding that voters should “Tell them: 1. Vote NO on Cloture AND 2. Vote NO on the Republican spending bill. Don’t let them pivot to reconciliation. GOP doesn’t need Dem votes on that and they know it.”

Maybe Schumer and his fellow Senate Democrats have been getting those calls from voters—and at least for now, they seem to be listening.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Nepo Queen Lara: We 'Ought To Be Kissing The Feet' Of Musk And Trump

Lara Trump appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on Monday to declare that “people ought to be kissing the feet of Elon Musk and Donald Trump” for the illegal dismantling of the U.S. government.

The nepo baby’s comments came as she and Hannity wrung their hands about the unfairness of protests against Musk at various Tesla locations.

President Donald Trump’s minions, for their part, are already doing a lot of ass-kissing, and Hannity told Trump’s daughter-in-law that he plans to buy his own Tesla in solidarity with the world’s wealthiest man.

And Trump himself announced that he will buy a Tesla to support Musk, adding to suspicion that the billionaire is pulling Trump’s puppet strings.

- YouTubeyoutu.be

Tesla’s stocks have plummeted since Musk’s takeover of the U.S. government and threats to popular programs such as Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare.

“Every time you hear these people on the left say Elon's enriching himself and his friends. This guy is losing money because of what he's doing,” Lara said.

But what she failed to address is how Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is clawing back existing government contracts and syphoning billions in taxpayer-funded deals into his own companies.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Too Little, Too Late: RFK Jr. Suddenly Is Promoting Measles Vaccination

In the wake of the growing measles outbreak in Texas, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published an op-ed on Fox News’ website over the weekend, urging Americans to … get vaccinated.

With the subhead “MMR vaccine is crucial to avoiding potentially deadly disease,” the infamous anti-vaxxer wrote, “Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”

Texas Health and Human Services first reported the outbreak in mid-January. The disease rapidly spread, reaching nearly 150 confirmed cases. The majority (if not almost all) of those cases are among children who have not received the MMR vaccine. Texas officials say the outbreak is the worst in almost three decades.

Last week, during Donald Trump’s bizarre Cabinet meeting, Kennedy glibly dismissed a measles-related death of a school-aged child as “not unusual.” It was the first measles fatality recorded in the U.S. in over a decade.

Kennedy has spent much of his career promoting anti-vaccine misinformation, notably amplifying debunked bad science connecting the MMR vaccine to autism rates in children. Kennedy, along with others in the anti-vaxx movement have contributed to declining vaccination rates, resulting in outbreaks like the one in Texas.

The Texas outbreak, which began in Gaines County and has now spread to eight more counties, had alarmingly low vaccination rates among its cases of school-aged children. This is not just by chance; It has been fomented by Mr. Measles and his anti-science allies for decades.

At the same time, the Children's Health Defense, the organization Kennedy founded and previously chaired, continues to promote false information about the Texas outbreak. On February 20, its official social media account blamed the outbreak on the MMR vaccine itself. Their claims have the same amount of evidence they have always had—zero.

Kennedy can write as many toothless op-eds as he likes, but as cases pile up Kennedy’s first order of business at the HHS was to gut the agency tasked with educating the public and preventing outbreaks like this one. Kennedy even abruptly canceled the FDA’s planned meeting for next flu season and paused multimillion-dollar efforts to develop a new COVID-19 vaccine to deal with new strains.

With the Trump administration’s history of mismanaging public health, and Elon Musk’s focus on destroying our government agencies, the future is only going to get more dangerous for Americans.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Trump Justice Official Seeks To Intimidate Congressman Who Called Out Musk

A California congressman is finding out what happens when you dare to mock Elon Musk in Donald Trump's America.

Rep. Robert Garcia on Thursday posted a letter he received from the Department of Justice saying that billionaire co-President Musk and his minions in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency are concerned that the outspoken Democrat is threatening them.

“So if you criticize Elon Musk, Trump’s DOJ will send you this letter,” Garcia wrote on Bluesky. “Members of Congress must have the right to forcefully oppose the Trump Administration. I will not be silenced.”

So if you criticize Elon Musk, Trump’s DOJ will send you this letter. Members of Congress must have the right to forcefully oppose the Trump Administration. I will not be silenced.

[image or embed]
— Robert Garcia (@robertgarcia.bsky.social) February 20, 2025 at 7:56 PM

The letter addressed to Garcia and signed by interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Edward R. Martin Jr. quotes the congressman’s February 12 appearance on CNN.

"What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight,” Garcia said when asked how Democrats can stop the unelected Musk’s takeover of the U.S. government. “This is an actual fight for democracy.”

The letter to Garcia appears to be an opening salvo in “Operation Whirlwind,” a new push to prosecute threats against public officials that Martin announced to DOJ prosecutors on Wednesday.

“This sounds to some like a threat to Mr. Musk,” the letter continues, “an appointed representative of President Donald Trump who you call a ‘dick’—and government staff who work for him. Their concerns have led to this inquiry.”

Martin appeared to be referring to the Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee’s first chaotic hearing, where Garcia chided chair Marjorie Taylor Greene’s previous antics.

“In the last Congress, Chairwoman Greene literally showed a dick pic in our Oversight congressional hearing. So, I thought I'd bring one as well,” Garcia said before proffering a picture of Musk.

During his CNN appearance, host Brianna Keilar asked Garcia a question: “Do you think that calling Elon Musk a ‘dick’ is effective messaging for confronting what is a potentially irreversible transformation of the U.S. government?”

The congressman pulled no punches in his response.

“Well, he is a dick, and I think he’s also harming the American public in an enormous way,” Garcia said. “What I think is really important and what the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy, for the future of this country, and it’s important to push back on the chairperson of this committee.”

Who is to say if Musk is indeed a “dick” or not? The fact of the matter is that calling the world’s richest man a “dick” isn’t a physical threat, and Garcia’s First Amendment rights allow him to use the descriptor.

So “dick” or not, self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” Musk and the Department of Justice have no right to be threatening a congressman.

Martin previously sucked up to Musk by threatening legal action against people perceived to be harassing his anonymous and unvetted DOGE dorks as they gained access to Americans’ sensitive personal and financial information.

Garcia is one of six Democrats on the Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee. Under the leadership of infamous crackpot Greene, the committee’s first hearing went off the rails almost instantly.

The Southern California congressman has been vocal in demanding answers from Musk and Trump for their likely illegal efforts to dismantle government agencies. GOP Rep. Nancy Mace has also threatened to file a resolution to censure Garcia over his “bring actual weapons to a bar fight” figure of speech, which is a variation of “Never bring a knife to a gun fight.”

Here is the full text of Martin’s letter to Garcia:

As United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, I receive requests for information and clarification. I take these requests seriously and act on them with letters like this one you are receiving.

At this time, I respectfully request that you clarify your comments from February 12, 2025. During a live interview with CNN, when asked how Democrats can stop Elon Musk, you spoke clearly: "What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy."

This sounds to some like a threat to Mr. Musk - an appointed representative of President Donald Trump who you call a "dick" - and government staff who work for him. Their concerns have led to this inquiry.

We take threats against public officials very seriously. I look forward to your cooperation with my letter of inquiry after request. Thank you in advance for your assistance. Please respond by February 24, 2025. Should you have further questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to call my office or schedule a time to meet in person.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Trump Complains About Remote Work While Taking Extended Florida Golf Jaunt

President Donald Trump took time away from golfing to speak to a group of billionaires at the Saudi Public Future Investment Initiative Institute summit in Miami, during which he complained about remote work.

“All federal employees must once again show up to work. It's a new phenomenon. You know, since COVID. Show up to work in person like the rest of us. You can't work at home. They're not working. They're playing tennis, they're playing golf, or they have other jobs, but they're not working or they're certainly not working hard. You could never build a company or a country with that,” he said.

One of Trump’s first edicts was to issue a memo demanding all federal workers to return to the office while he went … golfing.

Since then, Trump’s itinerary has included trips to the Super Bowl, a publicity stunt at the Daytona 500, and a lot more golfing—all at taxpayers' expense.

It isn’t surprising. While billionaire Elon Musk is busy dismantling U.S. administrative functions, Trump is picking up where his first administration left off: spending time at his many estates and playing a lot of golf.

During Trump’s first go-around, his golf habit set historic records in costs to the U.S. taxpayer, and it looks like he’s on track to break that record. So far, it has been estimated that Trump’s golf game has cost Americans around $10.7 million, with Trump heading to the golf course at least 10 times in his first 31 days in office.

As for the federal workers who haven’t been fired or placed on administrative leave, research shows that remote work benefits both workers and employers. There is also evidence that women and minority groups are negatively impacted the most by a lack of remote or hybrid work options.

But as long as Trump’s golf game isn’t affected, why would he care?

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Musk's DOGE Gang Hit With Fresh Revelations Of Heinous Conduct

The aspiring young goons in Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are being exposed as inexperienced and untrustworthy young Musk-o-lytes who have histories of posting racist and sexist things online.

One of Musk’s DOGE boys has a history of retweeting white supremacists and well-known misogynists. Gavin Kliger is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley, and possibly the “Special Advisor to the Director” at the Office of Personnel Management, Reuters reports, per his LinkedIn profile.

According to Reuters, between October 2024 and January of this year, Kliger shared posts by white supremacist Nick Fuentes and self-avowed misogynist Andrew Tate. The latter remains under criminal investigation by Romanian authorities for allegedly trafficking minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, and money laundering.

Bloomberg reports that another young member of Musk’s DOGE team,19-year-old Edward Coristine, was previously terminated from a job at an online security firm for “leaking internal information to the competitors.”A spokesperson for Path Network, an Arizona-based data security and hosting company, told Bloomberg that Coristine’s contract was terminated “after the conclusion of an internal investigation into the leaking of proprietary company information that coincided with his tenure.”

Coristine’s connection to Musk comes from a brief stint working atMusk's brain-chip startup, Neuralink. According to the Washington Post, Coristine’s online name is “Big Balls.” All of this is the opposite of what you want to see on someone’s resume who is set to potentially access hundreds of millions of people’s private information.

Those two join 25-year-old Marko Elez, who resigned last week, after the Wall Street Journalexposed his racist history on social media. Elez was quickly rehired at the insistence of Musk, Vice President JD Vance, and Trump, cavalierly passing off Elez’s previous racist posts that went up just a few months ago as youthful indiscretion, while giving him access to the country’s most sensitive financial data.Coordinating all of the destruction for Musk is Steve Davis. Davis comes over from leading Musk’s Boring Company, an anti-public transportation company, that repeatedly makes deals with cities involving tunnels and delivers nothing, delaying public works for years. Davis is credited with helping Musk obliterate Twitter in order to turn it into the much-depreciated cesspool of right-wing bigotry and misinformation known as X.

Senate Democrats have opened up a whistleblower portal for federal employees, hoping to uncover some of the clandestine destruction being done by Musk, Trump, and their goons.

Fear Of Iran Plot Led Trump To Use Campaign Staff As 'Bait'

A new book details Donald Trump’s paranoia during his 2024 presidential campaign over a potential assassination threat from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Reports that Iranian operatives had access to surface-to-air missiles led Trump and his advisers to use his staff as a decoy in a plane switcheroo, according to Politico’s Alex Isenstadt.

The threat stemmed from Trump’s first-term decision to assassinate Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. The revelations are in Isenstadt’s upcoming book, Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power. The reporter was given access to the Trump campaign’s inner circle, and Isenstadt reveals that Trump was so afraid that he secretly switched planes to travel to an event—leaving some of his staff feeling like bait.

Trump’s fear was stoked by foiled assassination attempts at a Pennsylvania rally and at his Florida golf course. While neither of the incidents were linked to Iran, Trump’s security detail had him fly on billionaire buddy Steven Witkoff’s plane after the Florida attempt while the rest of his staff took his privately owned plane, dubbed Trump Force One. According to Isenstadt, staffers didn’t find out about the new security arrangement until they were on board Trump Force One:

Campaign leaders tried to assure Trump aides they weren't being used as bait. But if Iranian operatives had access to surface-to-air missiles, several aides wondered, why were they put on board?

Trump has a history of indifference when it comes to the security of friends and foes alike. He has revoked security details for a host of officials from his first administration who have found their way onto his “enemies list.” This includes people like former national security adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and special envoy Brian Hook—all of whom face the same threat of assassination from Iran for their roles in Soleimani’s assassination.

Trump’s continuing paranoia and vengefulness were apparent as recently as last Tuesday, when he told reporters that Iran “would be obliterated” if he were to be assassinated.

“I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left,” Trump said.

Trump’s threat to destabilize the region even further has been reiterated by his very unqualified Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. During an interview on Fox & Friends, Hegseth said invading or attacking countries or regions that are home to “foreign terrorist organizations” is "on the table.”

Trump’s enemies list goes beyond former Cabinet members directly threatened with assassination by foreign adversaries. It also includes former Trump administration officials facing domestic threats due to Trump and the right wing’s increasingly dangerous lies.

The petty plutocrat has also revoked security details for former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, retired Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. Mark Milley, and former top U.S. health official Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Don Jr. Accused Of Killing Yet Another Protected Animal

Italian politician Andrea Zanoni accused Donald Trump Jr. of killing a protected species of duck while on a hunting trip near Venice in December.

Zanoni reportedly told authorities that a video shows Trump Jr. with what appears to be the dead body of a rare ruddy shelduck.

“This is actually a rather uncommon duck for the area. Not even sure what it is in English, but incredible shoot,” he says in the video.

“This is a species protected throughout Europe by the EU birds directive and of course by Italian law … [which] criminally punishes its killing and possession,” Zanoni said.

“The bird in the video is a female casarca, or ruddy shelduck. It’s highly protected and under Italian law you cannot hunt them,” Roberto Tinarelli, president of the Association of Ornithologists in Emilia-Romagna, told The Times of London.

Trump Jr. has a history of hunting questionable game. In 2019, he made headlines during a trip to Mongolia, where he shot an endangered argalis mountain sheep. It was later reported that U.S. taxpayers footed the bill for the rare animal hunting extravaganza.

The rich do not believe in laws—at least when applying them to themselves—and this clearly extends to recreational pursuits like hunting. Trump Jr.’s predilection for shady big-game hunting is shared by fellow Republican and former Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, who also has a history of dubious hunting practices.

The general irresponsibility of Trump Jr.’s actions are reminiscent of Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose bizarre bear “prank” epitomizes the kind of corrupt privilege and glib immorality embodied by the wealthy.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Hegseth Says Invading Mexico Is 'On The Table'

Donald Trump’s brand-new secretary of defense spoke with Fox News’ morning crew Friday and said that invading countries such as Mexico is a very real option.

“The drug cartels have been declared terrorist organizations,” “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade said, adding that invading countries such as Somalia, Sudan, and Syria would be prime for an American military strike if a terrorist organization such as al-Qaida was found there.

“As the secretary of defense, are you permitted now to go after them in Mexico or wherever they are?”

“Brian, I don't want to get ahead of the president and I won't, but that's ultimately going to be his decision,” Hegseth said. "But let me be clear. All options will be on the table.”

“The military is orienting, shifting toward an understanding of homeland defense on our sovereign territorial border,” Hegseth continued. “That is something we will do, and do robustly.”

The conversation was ostensibly about fentanyl coming into our country and how serious the GOP is about using might to stop it. Of course, one of Trump’s first acts as president was to pardon infamous drug trafficker Ross Ulbricht. The idea that the GOP is serious about anything other than what the billionaire class, led by Elon Musk wants them to do is laughable.

The preoccupation with Mexico, and many non-white countries for that matter, has been a focus of the GOP for decades, which has only heightened under Trump. Trump and the GOP have routinely used Mexico as a xenophobic scapegoat for their failed economic policies. From calling Mexicans “drug dealers, criminals, and rapists” to telling ghost stories about a mythical “caravan” of immigrants winding its way through South America to invade the U.S. to changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, nothing is too low for Trump.

Hegseth, a former Fox News weekend host, squeezed through confirmation, even as allegations of sexual abuse, domestic abuse, alcohol abuse, and a deluge of general inadequacies as a person were revealed to the public.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

'A Clear Danger': Europeans Blast Musk's Neo-Nazi Crusade

The world’s richest broligarch Elon Musk made a virtual appearance Saturday at a rally for Germany’s far-right extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, during which he told a crowd of 4,500 people that Germans should not feel “guilty” about the country’s past.

“It’s okay to be proud to be German. This is a very important principle. It’s okay. It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” he said.

“I only hope that this leads to people realiz[ing] what kind of person he is,” Christiane Benner, the head of Europe’s largest industrial union, told the press. “As citizens in a democracy, we have to stand up against this."

“The remembrance and acknowledgement of the dark past of the country and its people should be central in shaping the German society,” Dani Dayan, chairman of Israel's official Holocaust memorial wrote on Musk’s X. “Failing to do so is an insult to the victims of Nazism and a clear danger to the democratic future of Germany.”

“The words we heard from the main actors of the AfD rally about ‘Great Germany’ and ‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded all too familiar and ominous,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X. “Especially only hours before the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”

Musk, who endorsed the neo-Nazi-friendly AfD on X last month, was introduced at the rally by AfD leader Alice Weidel, who has her own set of racist-scandals to contend with. Musk also hosted an interview with Weidel on X earlier this month, and he has had an op-ed published in Germany’s largest newspaper supporting the AfD.

Musk’s virtual speech comes just days after making not one but two Nazi salutes during the inaugural parade for Donald Trump last week. His oversimplified whitewashing of Germany’s history is a far cry from how Austrian-native Arnold Schwarzenegger has described the need for everyone—including Americans and Germans—to remember how the path of fascism ends.

“You will not find fulfillment or happiness because hate burns fast and bright. It might make you feel empowered for a while but eventually consumes whatever vessel it fuels,” he said in a video address in 2023. “It breaks you. It's the path of the weak.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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