Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Let us not forget that they have taken steps to silence the Special Prosecutor over trump's felony investigation.
Their practice is not to deal with facts and evidence, but to hide them from the light of day.
His henchman are on record as trying to implement a conspiracy to wipe the video evidence of their intentional act to steal classified documents. Not to mention that trump was shown to have provided a foreign official with top secret nuclear submarine secrets.
So no, he was not being unfairly prosecuted. He was being held accountable. Grand juries, regular juries, judges, prosecutors, appeals courts, all found the case against trump to have merit and allowed it to continue. These prosecutions ended by default, not vindication, or a finding of "not guilty".
I try to avoid the political wrangle. But I'm perplexed by the seizing of large super tankers loaded with oil as a way to fight drug use in the U.S. Notwithstanding "The Butterfly Effect" which teaches that everything is affected by everything else and knowing that the great comet extinguished the dianasours and paved the way for humans to evolve - it still seems like a stretch to me,
What's the tanker itself worth? More than one of those small drug boats I'd guess. And is a load of crude worth more or less than a load of cocaine or whatever the alleged drug boats deliver?
If I were in charge, I'd have the CIA plant bugs on these drug boats at sea and then intercept them humanely when they arrive in the U.S. If the CIA doesn't possess such tracking devices, they can buy some at Amazon for 15-20 bucks apiece. So the incredulity of this whole operation deeply perplexes troubles me.
Bezos, will provide them free, I am sure. The cost of sending a carrier battle group after these boats is astronomical. They could simply track them via satellite and do as you say. Instead they opt to pay $300,000 per hour. Over $7,000,000 a day, assuming they use no weapons.
yes, i was waiting for trump to brag about how much HE made on seized tankers.
but the grift is much bigger, as taxpayers (not oil corporates, lobbying and bribes being a pittance) have funded the 'acquisition' of massive foreign reserves.
"Among other oversight efforts, Congress could inquire with the Trump Administration regarding its justification for pardoning Hernández. President Trump has asserted that Hernández was treated 'unfairly' and was 'set up' by the Biden Administration. To date, the Trump Administration has not provided any evidence to support those claims other than echoing some of Hernández's complaints about his trial. The U.S. investigation into Hernández spanned several U.S. presidential Administrations, including President Trump's first term, during which several of Hernández's co-conspirators were charged and convicted."
"Congress also could seek information regarding how the pardon fits into the Trump Administration's security policy. The Administration has characterized many of its actions in the Western Hemisphere, including lethal military strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, as aimed at combatting the flow of illicit narcotics into the United States. Some Members of Congress argue that the Hernández pardon calls into question those stated objectives. In 2024, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland asserted that Hernández had supported 'one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.' In February 2025, the Trump Administration designated the Sinaloa cartel, with which Hernández worked, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorists."
"Additionally, Congress could assess the implications of the Hernández pardon for U.S.-Honduras relations and broader U.S. security interests. Although the next Honduran government is likely to maintain close ties with the United States, perceptions that U.S. law enforcement actions are based on political considerations could erode the broad-based support in Honduras for security cooperation as well as the deterrent effect of the U.S.-Honduras extradition treaty. In the assessment of one former Drug Enforcement Administration official, the impact of the Hernández pardon is likely to extend beyond Honduras, damaging the credibility of the United States and its drug trafficking investigations internationally.
Hmmmm, weren't the rest of the Epstein files due this past week?
Golly, talk about questionable timing.....we are being duped by the con man once again. Somebody once pointed out that he runs the country like it's a "reality" TV show, as he just keeps trying to stuff shock value in our faces to keep himself relevant.
Geoff Bennett: So, before we get to the impact, I want to know more about how we got here. What should we know about how this decision was made and who was involved in it?
Dr. Sean O'Leary: Yes, this was really arbitrary. And this -- let me be clear. This was not from any CDC scientists. This was really a political move. As you may know, our HHS secretary has for decades really been a leader in spreading falsehoods and, frankly, lies about vaccines. And now he's running our health care system. And so this -- what we saw today is just one more step in his ongoing dismantling of the U.S. vaccination program.
Geoff Bennett: So what's the potential impact of narrowing the vaccination schedule? What has pediatricians so concerned?
Dr. Sean O'Leary: Yes, I mean, to be honest, what diseases does he want to see children suffer from? I mean, that's what we're talking about here. The vaccines that he is scaling back are vaccines that save lives, that prevent thousands of hospitalizations. So I would ask the secretary, what diseases do you want to see children suffer from? I really don't understand this move. It's really based not on any kind of science or evidence, but simply a political ideology.
Geoff Bennett: And for parents who want to keep their children on the previous, more comprehensive vaccine schedule, what should they do?
Dr. Sean O'Leary: Yes, so HHS is really -- unfortunately, some of what they're doing has legal implications in terms of access and coverage and who stocks what vaccines. But in terms of being able to trust them, we can no longer trust our federal government for vaccine recommendations. And that's a real tragedy. Fortunately, a lot of the professional societies are stepping forward, and we are making our own recommendations.
So, the American Academy of Pediatrics has been making vaccine recommendations since well before the federal government, since the 1930s. We're going to continue to publish our schedule every year. The American Academy of Family Physicians is similar to the American College of Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
We're all working together to continue to make evidence-based vaccine recommendations. So, at this point in time, I would say trust your pediatrician, trust the professional societies. Do not trust the federal government about vaccine recommendations.
Comments: It's tragic that vaccine guidance has become so politicized and based on false information. Unfortunately, this is to be expected from HHS Secretary Kennedy. The Trump administration frequently refuses to accept evidence-based science. It seems like these lamebrains would prefer to Make American Children Suffer Again (MACSA).
"President Donald Trump's Pentagon chief announced plans on Monday to demote U.S. Senator Mark Kelly from his rank as a retired Navy captain for alleged 'reckless misconduct' after he and other Democratic lawmakers urged troops to refuse any illegal orders. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon has begun proceedings that would ultimately slash Kelly's retirement pay and attach a letter of censure to his military record. Kelly, who represents Arizona in the Senate, is a decorated military veteran and former NASA astronaut."
"Kelly said he would 'fight this with everything I've got.' 'Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn't like, they will come after them the same way. It's outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that,' Kelly said in a statement on X. Kelly could face additional measures in the future depending on his actions, Hegseth said in a statement on X. The steps announced by Hegseth represent the latest actions taken by the Trump administration targeting critics of the Republican president. Democrats and other critics have accused Trump of seeking to stifle dissent."
Comments: An inept, possibly inebriated Defense Secretary targets a true American hero for alleged 'reckless misconduct.' Yet Hegseth discussed battle plans in real-time over Signal which truly was 'reckless misconduct!' In normal times, any service member who did this would face severe consequences. The Trump administration does not tolerate any legally-established dissent whatsoever. These thin-skinned lackeys have repeatedly failed to uphold the First Amendment of the Constitution.
"Five years ago tomorrow was the most shameful day in American history. We must not allow Trump to persuade America that it did not happen or that he was innocent, or let him deflect the nation’s attention from the fifth anniversary of what occurred that day."
"After an 18-month investigation including more than 1,000 witnesses and nine televised public hearings, the House’s select committee identified Trump as the 'central cause' of the Capitol attack by the pro-Trump mob."
"The panel, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously to recommend charges to the Justice Department to prosecute Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election."
"Following a special counsel investigation by the Justice Department, Trump was indicted on four charges in August 2023."
"Less than three weeks ago, Jack Smith, the former special counsel to the Justice Department, appeared before the House Judiciary Committee and testified under oath: 'Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.'"
"The sole reason Donald Trump is not now behind bars is that Smith dropped the case after Trump was elected to a second term, because the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States — written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by five other justices, three of whom were nominated by Trump — prevented the prosecution of a sitting president."
"We must teach our children and our children’s children and all future generations of Americans what happened on January 6, 2021— so that, as Mike Pence hoped, 'history will hold Donald Trump accountable.'"
Comments: Donald J. Trump betrayed the U.S. and is an illegitimate president who rightfully belongs in prison.
"These thin-skinned lackeys have repeatedly failed to uphold the First Amendment of the Constitution."
And yet, our political system actually seems to have nothing effective in the way of checks and balances to mitigate that. If just a few years ago someone had tried to convince me that this was even possible I would have written them off as a ridiculous alarmist.
"Since the 1980s, Republicans pushed the idea that a popular government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights crushes the individualism on which America depends. As cuts to regulation, taxation, and the nation’s social safety net began to hollow out the middle class, Republicans pushed the idea that the country’s problems came from greedy minorities and women who wanted to work outside the home. More and more, they insisted that the federal government was stealing tax dollars and destroying society, and they encouraged individual men to take charge of the country."
"After the Democrats passed the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, more commonly known as the motor voter law, enabling people to register to vote at motor vehicle departments, Republicans increasingly insisted Democrats were cheating the system by relying on the votes of noncitizens, although there was never any evidence for this charge."
"The idea of reclaiming the country for white men by destroying the federal government grew, along with the idea that Democrats could win elections only by cheating. In 2016, Trump insisted that his female Democratic opponent belonged in jail and that he alone could save the country from the Washington, D.C., 'swamp.' Other Republican leaders who had initially shunned him began to support him when it became clear that he could mobilize a new crop of disaffected voters who could put Republicans into office."
"And they continued to support him, claiming initially that he could be kept in check by establishment Republicans like his first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, who moved from leading the Republican National Committee to the White House for the first six months of Trump’s first term. In his first months in office, Trump delivered the tax cut Republican leaders wanted, as well as the appointment of one out of every four federal judges, including three Supreme Court justices, who would protect the Republican project in the courts.
"But the idea that Trump could be kept in check fell apart in September 2019, when it appeared he was trying to rig the 2020 election. A whistleblower revealed that Trump had called the newly elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in July 2019 to demand that Zelensky smear former vice president Joe Biden, who was beating Trump in most polls going into the 2020 election season. Until Zelensky did so, Trump said, the administration would not release the money Congress had appropriated to fund Ukraine’s fight against Russia, which had invaded Ukraine in 2014."
"The attempt to withhold congressionally appropriated funds in order to tilt an election was a glaring violation of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act codifying the executive branch’s duty to execute the laws Congress passed. In the congressional investigation that followed, witnesses revealed that Trump’s cronies were running a secret scheme in Ukraine to undermine official U.S. policy and benefit Trump’s allies."
"Republicans in 1974 had turned against President Richard Nixon for far less, but although Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said not a single Republican senator believed Trump, they stood behind him nonetheless. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told his colleagues: 'This is not about this president. It’s not about anything he’s been accused of doing…. It’s about flipping the Senate.'"
"Although he was elected with less than 50% of the votes cast, Trump claimed an 'unprecedented and powerful mandate.' As soon as he took office in January 2025, the president and his henchmen flouted the 1974 Impoundment Control Act again, seizing Congress’s right to control the nation’s finances. Trump used emergency powers to ignore the Constitution and deployed troops in Democratic-led cities.When Congress required the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files, the administration largely ignored the law. Today, more than two weeks after the deadline, it had released less than 1% of the files. Ignoring the rights afforded to individuals by the Constitution, Trump is seizing people off the streets and prosecuting his perceived enemies."
"That vision is a profound rejection of the principles of the rules-based international order, which was designed to use power for deterrence rather than domination. It is also a profound rejection of the principles of American democracy, a system of checks and balances to channel power into a government that could deliver stability and prosperity to all the people, not just a select few."
"Trump’s domestic and foreign policies — ranging from his attempted coup against the United States five years ago, to his incursion into Venezuela last weekend, to his current threats against Cuba, Colombia, and Greenland — undermine domestic and international law. But that’s not all. They threaten what we mean by civilization."
"The moral purpose of civilized society is to prevent the stronger from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Otherwise, we’d be permanently immersed in a brutish war in which only the fittest and most powerful could survive."
"This principle lies at the center of America’s founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It’s also the core of the post- World War II international order championed by the United States, including the UN Charter — emphasizing multilateralism, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law."
"But it’s a fragile principle, easily violated by those who would exploit their power. Maintaining the principle requires that the powerful have enough integrity to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us hold them accountable if they don’t."
"Trump — enabled by cowardly congressional Republicans and a pliant majority on the Supreme Court — has turned the U.S. presidency into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of American government in history."
"A direct line connects Trump’s attempted coup five years ago to his capture of Nicolas Maduro last weekend. Both were lawless. Both were premised on the hubris of omnipotence. That same line extends to Trump’s current threats against Cuba, Colombia, and Greenland."
"But unfettered might does not make right. It makes for instability, upheaval, and war. History shows that laws and norms designed to constrain the powerful also protect them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth eventually bring them down — along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war. Trump’s blatant lawlessness will haunt America and the world — and civilization — for years to come."
"On the fifth anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, there is no official event to memorialize what happened that day, when the mob made its way down Pennsylvania Avenue, battled police at the Capitol barricades and stormed inside, as lawmakers fled. The political parties refuse to agree to a shared history of the events, which were broadcast around the globe. And the official plaque honoring the police who defended the Capitol has never been hung."
"Many Republicans reject the narrative that Trump sparked the Jan. 6 attack, and Johnson, before he became the House speaker, had led challenges to the 2020 election. He was among some 130 GOP lawmakers voting that day to reject the presidential results from some states."
"Instead, they have instead focused on security lapses at the Capitol — from the time it took for the National Guard to arrive on the scene to the failure of the police canine units to discover the pipe bombs found that day outside Republican and Democratic party headquarters. The FBI arrested a Virginia man suspected of placing the pipe bombs, and he told investigators last month he believed someone needed to speak up for those who believed the 2020 election was stolen, authorities say."
"Five people died in the Capitol siege and its aftermath, including Babbitt, who was shot and killed by police while trying to climb through the window of a door near the House chamber, and Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died later after battling the mob. Several law enforcement personnel died later, some by suicide."
"The Justice Department indicted Trump on four counts in a conspiracy to defraud voters with his claims of a rigged election in the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack. Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers last month that the riot at the Capitol 'does not happen' without Trump. He ended up abandoning the case once Trump was reelected president, adhering to department guidelines against prosecuting a sitting president."
"Trump, who never made it to the Capitol that day as he hunkered down at the White House, was impeached by the House on the sole charge of having incited the insurrection. The Senate acquitted him after top GOP senators said they believed the matter was best left to the courts."
Comments: We must never forget what actually transpired on January 6, 2021. Many Republicans have lied about and downplayed the events of the day. GOP leaders who aided and abbetted Donald J. Trump must be held accountable for their actions. History will not look favorably upon these spineless, feckless so-called leaders!
// I’m not going to talk today about how we got here and strategies for getting out. All I want to do right now is to say that we should be clear about what is happening. American fascism is on the march, and anyone who balks at saying that clearly, who makes excuses and pretends that Trump and the people he brought in aren’t monsters, is deeply unpatriotic. If we are to have a chance at saving democracy, our first duty must be clarity. No sanewashing, no bothsidesing. Only facing the horrible truth can set us free.
// I’m not going to talk today about how we got here and strategies for getting out. All I want to do right now is to say that we should be clear about what is happening. American fascism is on the march, and anyone who balks at saying that clearly, who makes excuses and pretends that Trump and the people he brought in aren’t monsters, is deeply unpatriotic. If we are to have a chance at saving democracy, our first duty must be clarity. No sanewashing, no bothsidesing. Only facing the horrible truth can set us free.
Probably the best summary I'll read this week. Concise - gets to the heart of the matter.
Five years ago, on January 6, 2021, more than 2,000 rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the process of counting the electoral votes that would make Democrat Joe Biden president of the United States. They tried to hunt down House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and chanted their intention to “Hang Mike Pence,” the vice president. They fantasized that they were following in the footsteps of the American Founders, about to start a new nation. Newly elected representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) wrote on January 5, 2021: “Remember these next 48 hours. These are some of the most important days in American history.” On January 6 she wrote: “Today is 1776.”
In fact, it was not 1776 but 1861, the year insurrectionists who had tried to overthrow the government in order to establish minority rule tried to break the U.S. The rioters wanted to take away the right at the center of American democracy—our right to determine our own destiny—in order to keep Donald J. Trump in the White House, making sure the power of elite white men could not be challenged. It was no accident that the rioters carried a Confederate battle flag.
Since the 1980s, Republicans pushed the idea that a popular government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights crushes the individualism on which America depends. As cuts to regulation, taxation, and the nation’s social safety net began to hollow out the middle class, Republicans pushed the idea that the country’s problems came from greedy minorities and women who wanted to work outside the home. More and more, they insisted that the federal government was stealing tax dollars and destroying society, and they encouraged individual men to take charge of the country.
After the Democrats passed the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, more commonly known as the motor voter law, enabling people to register to vote at motor vehicle departments, Republicans increasingly insisted Democrats were cheating the system by relying on the votes of noncitizens, although there was never any evidence for this charge.
As wealth continued to move upward, the idea that individuals and paramilitary groups must “reclaim” America from undeserving Americans who were taking tax dollars and cheating to win elections became embedded in the Republican Party. By 2014, Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) called Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters “patriots” when they showed up armed to meet officials from the Bureau of Land Management who tried to impound Bundy’s cattle because he owed more than $1 million in grazing fees for running cattle on public land.
The idea of reclaiming the country for white men by destroying the federal government grew, along with the idea that Democrats could win elections only by cheating. In 2016, Trump insisted that his female Democratic opponent belonged in jail and that he alone could save the country from the Washington, D.C., “swamp.” Other Republican leaders who had initially shunned him began to support him when it became clear that he could mobilize a new crop of disaffected voters who could put Republicans into office.
And they continued to support him, claiming initially that he could be kept in check by establishment Republicans like his first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, who moved from leading the Republican National Committee to the White House for the first six months of Trump’s first term. In his first months in office, Trump delivered the tax cut Republican leaders wanted, as well as the appointment of one out of every four federal judges, including three Supreme Court justices, who would protect the Republican project in the courts.
But the idea that Trump could be kept in check fell apart in September 2019, when it appeared he was trying to rig the 2020 election. A whistleblower revealed that Trump had called the newly elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in July 2019 to demand that Zelensky smear former vice president Joe Biden, who was beating Trump in most polls going into the 2020 election season. Until Zelensky did so, Trump said, the administration would not release the money Congress had appropriated to fund Ukraine’s fight against Russia, which had invaded Ukraine in 2014.
The attempt to withhold congressionally appropriated funds in order to tilt an election was a glaring violation of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act codifying the executive branch’s duty to execute the laws Congress passed. In the congressional investigation that followed, witnesses revealed that Trump’s cronies were running a secret scheme in Ukraine to undermine official U.S. policy and benefit Trump’s allies.
Republicans in 1974 had turned against President Richard Nixon for far less, but although Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said not a single Republican senator believed Trump, they stood behind him nonetheless. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told his colleagues: “This is not about this president. It’s not about anything he’s been accused of doing…. It’s about flipping the Senate.”
But once acquitted, Trump cut loose from any oversight. He sought revenge and insisted that “[w]hen somebody is President of the United States, the authority is total.” “The federal government has absolute power,” he said, and he had the “absolute right” to use that power if he wanted to.
Comments
Their practice is not to deal with facts and evidence, but to hide them from the light of day.
His henchman are on record as trying to implement a conspiracy to wipe the video evidence of their intentional act to steal classified documents. Not to mention that trump was shown to have provided a foreign official with top secret nuclear submarine secrets.
So no, he was not being unfairly prosecuted. He was being held accountable. Grand juries, regular juries, judges, prosecutors, appeals courts, all found the case against trump to have merit and allowed it to continue. These prosecutions ended by default, not vindication, or a finding of "not guilty".
but the grift is much bigger, as taxpayers (not oil corporates, lobbying and bribes being a pittance) have funded the 'acquisition' of massive foreign reserves.
https://youtube.com/shorts/lTBG57Y8UWc?si=1w5rePkuKjSUP_mR
regarding its justification for pardoning Hernández.
President Trump has asserted that Hernández was treated 'unfairly' and was 'set up'
by the Biden Administration. To date, the Trump Administration has not provided any evidence
to support those claims other than echoing some of Hernández's complaints about his trial.
The U.S. investigation into Hernández spanned several U.S. presidential Administrations,
including President Trump's first term, during which several of Hernández's co-conspirators
were charged and convicted."
"Congress also could seek information regarding how the pardon fits into the Trump Administration's
security policy. The Administration has characterized many of its actions in the Western Hemisphere,
including lethal military strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, as aimed at combatting
the flow of illicit narcotics into the United States.
Some Members of Congress argue that the Hernández pardon calls into question those stated objectives.
In 2024, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland asserted that Hernández had supported 'one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.'
In February 2025, the Trump Administration designated the Sinaloa cartel, with which Hernández worked,
as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorists."
"Additionally, Congress could assess the implications of the Hernández pardon
for U.S.-Honduras relations and broader U.S. security interests.
Although the next Honduran government is likely to maintain close ties with the United States,
perceptions that U.S. law enforcement actions are based on political considerations
could erode the broad-based support in Honduras for security cooperation
as well as the deterrent effect of the U.S.-Honduras extradition treaty.
In the assessment of one former Drug Enforcement Administration official,
the impact of the Hernández pardon is likely to extend beyond Honduras,
damaging the credibility of the United States and its drug trafficking investigations internationally.
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12621
Golly, talk about questionable timing.....we are being duped by the con man once again.
Somebody once pointed out that he runs the country like it's a "reality" TV show, as he just keeps trying to stuff shock value in our faces to keep himself relevant.
There's more than a kernel of truth to that.
https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-sidelined-venezuela-opposition-leader-machado-for-ultimate-sin-of-accepting-nobel-peace-prize-report/?cdmc=37qPrB9mFf1BeJsiOszmdFI9NIO&refcode2=37qPrB9mFf1BeJsiOszmdFI9NIO&refcodecdmc=37qPrB9mFf1BeJsiOszmdFI9NIO
"Look over here, not over there" - and they nod.
So, before we get to the impact, I want to know more about how we got here.
What should we know about how this decision was made and who was involved in it?
Dr. Sean O'Leary:
Yes, this was really arbitrary.
And this -- let me be clear. This was not from any CDC scientists.
This was really a political move.
As you may know, our HHS secretary has for decades really been a leader in spreading falsehoods and,
frankly, lies about vaccines.
And now he's running our health care system.
And so this -- what we saw today is just one more step in his ongoing dismantling
of the U.S. vaccination program.
Geoff Bennett:
So what's the potential impact of narrowing the vaccination schedule?
What has pediatricians so concerned?
Dr. Sean O'Leary:
Yes, I mean, to be honest, what diseases does he want to see children suffer from?
I mean, that's what we're talking about here.
The vaccines that he is scaling back are vaccines that save lives,
that prevent thousands of hospitalizations. So I would ask the secretary,
what diseases do you want to see children suffer from?
I really don't understand this move.
It's really based not on any kind of science or evidence, but simply a political ideology.
Geoff Bennett:
And for parents who want to keep their children on the previous,
more comprehensive vaccine schedule, what should they do?
Dr. Sean O'Leary:
Yes, so HHS is really -- unfortunately, some of what they're doing has legal implications
in terms of access and coverage and who stocks what vaccines.
But in terms of being able to trust them, we can no longer trust our federal government
for vaccine recommendations. And that's a real tragedy.
Fortunately, a lot of the professional societies are stepping forward, and we are making our own recommendations.
So, the American Academy of Pediatrics has been making vaccine recommendations
since well before the federal government, since the 1930s.
We're going to continue to publish our schedule every year.
The American Academy of Family Physicians is similar to the American College of Physicians,
the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
We're all working together to continue to make evidence-based vaccine recommendations.
So, at this point in time, I would say trust your pediatrician, trust the professional societies.
Do not trust the federal government about vaccine recommendations.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-the-overhaul-of-u-s-vaccine-guidance-means-for-public-health
Comments: It's tragic that vaccine guidance has become so politicized and based on false information.
Unfortunately, this is to be expected from HHS Secretary Kennedy.
The Trump administration frequently refuses to accept evidence-based science.
It seems like these lamebrains would prefer to Make American Children Suffer Again (MACSA).
from his rank as a retired Navy captain for alleged 'reckless misconduct'
after he and other Democratic lawmakers urged troops to refuse any illegal orders.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon has begun proceedings
that would ultimately slash Kelly's retirement pay and attach a letter of censure to his military record.
Kelly, who represents Arizona in the Senate, is a decorated military veteran and former NASA astronaut."
"Kelly said he would 'fight this with everything I've got.'
'Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember
that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn't like, they will come after them the same way.
It's outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that,'
Kelly said in a statement on X.
Kelly could face additional measures in the future depending on his actions,
Hegseth said in a statement on X.
The steps announced by Hegseth represent the latest actions taken by the Trump administration
targeting critics of the Republican president.
Democrats and other critics have accused Trump of seeking to stifle dissent."
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-demote-sen-kelly-retired-navy-rank-captain-stops-short-threatened-trial-2026-01-05/
Comments: An inept, possibly inebriated Defense Secretary targets a true American hero
for alleged 'reckless misconduct.'
Yet Hegseth discussed battle plans in real-time over Signal which truly was 'reckless misconduct!'
In normal times, any service member who did this would face severe consequences.
The Trump administration does not tolerate any legally-established dissent whatsoever.
These thin-skinned lackeys have repeatedly failed to uphold the First Amendment of the Constitution.
We must not allow Trump to persuade America that it did not happen or that he was innocent,
or let him deflect the nation’s attention from the fifth anniversary of what occurred that day."
"After an 18-month investigation including more than 1,000 witnesses and nine
televised public hearings, the House’s select committee identified Trump as the 'central cause'
of the Capitol attack by the pro-Trump mob."
"The panel, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously to recommend charges to the Justice Department to prosecute Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election."
"Following a special counsel investigation by the Justice Department,
Trump was indicted on four charges in August 2023."
"Less than three weeks ago, Jack Smith, the former special counsel to the Justice Department,
appeared before the House Judiciary Committee and testified under oath:
'Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump
engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election
and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.'"
"The sole reason Donald Trump is not now behind bars is that Smith dropped the case
after Trump
was elected to a second term, because the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States —
written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by five other justices,
three of whom were nominated by Trump — prevented the prosecution of a sitting president."
"We must teach our children and our children’s children and all future generations of Americans
what happened on January 6, 2021— so that, as Mike Pence hoped, 'history will hold Donald Trump accountable.'"
Comments: Donald J. Trump betrayed the U.S. and is an illegitimate president who rightfully belongs in prison.
And yet, our political system actually seems to have nothing effective in the way of checks and balances to mitigate that. If just a few years ago someone had tried to convince me that this was even possible I would have written them off as a ridiculous alarmist.
So many chickenshit Repugnants. Jayzuz. They won't back him up, after all he's done for the country. Only two mentioned in the article express misgivings: Collins and Tillis.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5673860-republican-senators-defend-mark-kelly/
provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights
crushes the individualism on which America depends.
As cuts to regulation, taxation, and the nation’s social safety net began to hollow out the middle class,
Republicans pushed the idea that the country’s problems came from greedy minorities
and women who wanted to work outside the home.
More and more, they insisted that the federal government was stealing tax dollars
and destroying society, and they encouraged individual men to take charge of the country."
"After the Democrats passed the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, more commonly known
as the motor voter law, enabling people to register to vote at motor vehicle departments,
Republicans increasingly insisted Democrats were cheating the system by relying on the votes
of noncitizens, although there was never any evidence for this charge."
"The idea of reclaiming the country for white men by destroying the federal government grew,
along with the idea that Democrats could win elections only by cheating.
In 2016, Trump insisted that his female Democratic opponent belonged in jail
and that he alone could save the country from the Washington, D.C., 'swamp.'
Other Republican leaders who had initially shunned him began to support him
when it became clear that he could mobilize a new crop of disaffected voters
who could put Republicans into office."
"And they continued to support him, claiming initially that he could be kept in check
by establishment Republicans like his first chief of staff, Reince Priebus,
who moved from leading the Republican National Committee to the White House
for the first six months of Trump’s first term. In his first months in office,
Trump delivered the tax cut Republican leaders wanted, as well as the appointment
of one out of every four federal judges, including three Supreme Court justices,
who would protect the Republican project in the courts.
"But the idea that Trump could be kept in check fell apart in September 2019,
when it appeared he was trying to rig the 2020 election.
A whistleblower revealed that Trump had called the newly elected president of Ukraine,
Volodymyr Zelensky, in July 2019 to demand that Zelensky smear former vice president Joe Biden,
who was beating Trump in most polls going into the 2020 election season.
Until Zelensky did so, Trump said, the administration would not release the money Congress
had appropriated to fund Ukraine’s fight against Russia, which had invaded Ukraine in 2014."
"The attempt to withhold congressionally appropriated funds in order to tilt an election
was a glaring violation of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act codifying the executive branch’s
duty to execute the laws Congress passed. In the congressional investigation that followed,
witnesses revealed that Trump’s cronies were running a secret scheme in Ukraine
to undermine official U.S. policy and benefit Trump’s allies."
"Republicans in 1974 had turned against President Richard Nixon for far less,
but although Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said not a single Republican senator believed Trump,
they stood behind him nonetheless. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told his colleagues:
'This is not about this president. It’s not about anything he’s been accused of doing….
It’s about flipping the Senate.'"
"Although he was elected with less than 50% of the votes cast,
Trump claimed an 'unprecedented and powerful mandate.'
As soon as he took office in January 2025, the president and his henchmen flouted
the 1974 Impoundment Control Act again, seizing Congress’s right to control the nation’s finances.
Trump used emergency powers to ignore the Constitution and deployed troops
in Democratic-led cities. When Congress required the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files,
the administration largely ignored the law. Today, more than two weeks after the deadline,
it had released less than 1% of the files. Ignoring the rights afforded to individuals by the Constitution,
Trump is seizing people off the streets and prosecuting his perceived enemies."
"That vision is a profound rejection of the principles of the rules-based international order,
which was designed to use power for deterrence rather than domination.
It is also a profound rejection of the principles of American democracy,
a system of checks and balances to channel power into a government
that could deliver stability and prosperity to all the people, not just a select few."
five years ago, to his incursion into Venezuela last weekend, to his current threats against Cuba,
Colombia, and Greenland — undermine domestic and international law.
But that’s not all. They threaten what we mean by civilization."
"The moral purpose of civilized society is to prevent the stronger from attacking and exploiting the weaker.
Otherwise, we’d be permanently immersed in a brutish war in which only the fittest
and most powerful could survive."
"This principle lies at the center of America’s founding documents: the Declaration of Independence,
the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
It’s also the core of the post- World War II international order championed by the United States,
including the UN Charter — emphasizing multilateralism, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law."
"But it’s a fragile principle, easily violated by those who would exploit their power.
Maintaining the principle requires that the powerful have enough integrity
to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us hold them accountable if they don’t."
"Trump — enabled by cowardly congressional Republicans and a pliant majority
on the Supreme Court — has turned the U.S. presidency into the most powerful
and unaccountable agent of American government in history."
"A direct line connects Trump’s attempted coup five years ago to his capture of Nicolas Maduro
last weekend. Both were lawless. Both were premised on the hubris of omnipotence.
That same line extends to Trump’s current threats against Cuba, Colombia, and Greenland."
"But unfettered might does not make right. It makes for instability, upheaval, and war.
History shows that laws and norms designed to constrain the powerful also protect them.
Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth
eventually bring them down — along with their corporations, nations, or empires.
And threaten world war.
Trump’s blatant lawlessness will haunt America and the world — and civilization — for years to come."
So much evidence of incompetence, greed and betrayal.
@Observant1 Excellent work. No competent rebuttal is possible. Just sputters, and debate fallacies and propaganda. The work of a peanut gallery.
when the mob made its way down Pennsylvania Avenue, battled police at the Capitol barricades
and stormed inside, as lawmakers fled. The political parties refuse to agree to a shared history
of the events, which were broadcast around the globe.
And the official plaque honoring the police who defended the Capitol has never been hung."
"Many Republicans reject the narrative that Trump sparked the Jan. 6 attack,
and Johnson, before he became the House speaker, had led challenges to the 2020 election.
He was among some 130 GOP lawmakers voting that day to reject the presidential results from some states."
"Instead, they have instead focused on security lapses at the Capitol — from the time it took
for the National Guard to arrive on the scene to the failure of the police canine units to discover
the pipe bombs found that day outside Republican and Democratic party headquarters.
The FBI arrested a Virginia man suspected of placing the pipe bombs, and he told investigators
last month he believed someone needed to speak up for those who believed the 2020 election
was stolen, authorities say."
"Five people died in the Capitol siege and its aftermath, including Babbitt, who was shot and killed
by police while trying to climb through the window of a door near the House chamber,
and Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died later after battling the mob.
Several law enforcement personnel died later, some by suicide."
"The Justice Department indicted Trump on four counts in a conspiracy to defraud voters
with his claims of a rigged election in the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack.
Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers last month
that the riot at the Capitol 'does not happen' without Trump.
He ended up abandoning the case once Trump was reelected president,
adhering to department guidelines against prosecuting a sitting president."
"Trump, who never made it to the Capitol that day as he hunkered down at the White House,
was impeached by the House on the sole charge of having incited the insurrection.
The Senate acquitted him after top GOP senators said they believed the matter was best left to the courts."
https://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-anniversary-trump-democrats-1ef8f91dcdf0f209ba7316139df7e9c6
Comments: We must never forget what actually transpired on January 6, 2021.
Many Republicans have lied about and downplayed the events of the day.
GOP leaders who aided and abbetted Donald J. Trump must be held accountable for their actions.
History will not look favorably upon these spineless, feckless so-called leaders!
Look it is GOP Senator Josh Hawley enjoying the peaceful gathering, while engaging in the 50-yard dash!
Should be viewed with the theme to Benny Hill playing.
// I’m not going to talk today about how we got here and strategies for getting out. All I want to do right now is to say that we should be clear about what is happening. American fascism is on the march, and anyone who balks at saying that clearly, who makes excuses and pretends that Trump and the people he brought in aren’t monsters, is deeply unpatriotic. If we are to have a chance at saving democracy, our first duty must be clarity. No sanewashing, no bothsidesing. Only facing the horrible truth can set us free.
Thank you for posting this.
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
JAN 6
Five years ago, on January 6, 2021, more than 2,000 rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the process of counting the electoral votes that would make Democrat Joe Biden president of the United States. They tried to hunt down House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and chanted their intention to “Hang Mike Pence,” the vice president. They fantasized that they were following in the footsteps of the American Founders, about to start a new nation. Newly elected representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) wrote on January 5, 2021: “Remember these next 48 hours. These are some of the most important days in American history.” On January 6 she wrote: “Today is 1776.”
In fact, it was not 1776 but 1861, the year insurrectionists who had tried to overthrow the government in order to establish minority rule tried to break the U.S. The rioters wanted to take away the right at the center of American democracy—our right to determine our own destiny—in order to keep Donald J. Trump in the White House, making sure the power of elite white men could not be challenged. It was no accident that the rioters carried a Confederate battle flag.
Since the 1980s, Republicans pushed the idea that a popular government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights crushes the individualism on which America depends. As cuts to regulation, taxation, and the nation’s social safety net began to hollow out the middle class, Republicans pushed the idea that the country’s problems came from greedy minorities and women who wanted to work outside the home. More and more, they insisted that the federal government was stealing tax dollars and destroying society, and they encouraged individual men to take charge of the country.
After the Democrats passed the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, more commonly known as the motor voter law, enabling people to register to vote at motor vehicle departments, Republicans increasingly insisted Democrats were cheating the system by relying on the votes of noncitizens, although there was never any evidence for this charge.
As wealth continued to move upward, the idea that individuals and paramilitary groups must “reclaim” America from undeserving Americans who were taking tax dollars and cheating to win elections became embedded in the Republican Party. By 2014, Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) called Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters “patriots” when they showed up armed to meet officials from the Bureau of Land Management who tried to impound Bundy’s cattle because he owed more than $1 million in grazing fees for running cattle on public land.
The idea of reclaiming the country for white men by destroying the federal government grew, along with the idea that Democrats could win elections only by cheating. In 2016, Trump insisted that his female Democratic opponent belonged in jail and that he alone could save the country from the Washington, D.C., “swamp.” Other Republican leaders who had initially shunned him began to support him when it became clear that he could mobilize a new crop of disaffected voters who could put Republicans into office.
And they continued to support him, claiming initially that he could be kept in check by establishment Republicans like his first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, who moved from leading the Republican National Committee to the White House for the first six months of Trump’s first term. In his first months in office, Trump delivered the tax cut Republican leaders wanted, as well as the appointment of one out of every four federal judges, including three Supreme Court justices, who would protect the Republican project in the courts.
But the idea that Trump could be kept in check fell apart in September 2019, when it appeared he was trying to rig the 2020 election. A whistleblower revealed that Trump had called the newly elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in July 2019 to demand that Zelensky smear former vice president Joe Biden, who was beating Trump in most polls going into the 2020 election season. Until Zelensky did so, Trump said, the administration would not release the money Congress had appropriated to fund Ukraine’s fight against Russia, which had invaded Ukraine in 2014.
The attempt to withhold congressionally appropriated funds in order to tilt an election was a glaring violation of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act codifying the executive branch’s duty to execute the laws Congress passed. In the congressional investigation that followed, witnesses revealed that Trump’s cronies were running a secret scheme in Ukraine to undermine official U.S. policy and benefit Trump’s allies.
Republicans in 1974 had turned against President Richard Nixon for far less, but although Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said not a single Republican senator believed Trump, they stood behind him nonetheless. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told his colleagues: “This is not about this president. It’s not about anything he’s been accused of doing…. It’s about flipping the Senate.”
But once acquitted, Trump cut loose from any oversight. He sought revenge and insisted that “[w]hen somebody is President of the United States, the authority is total.” “The federal government has absolute power,” he said, and he had the “absolute right” to use that power if he wanted to.