MEDIA: Consummate actresses and federal judges

Two new shows and federal judges had us realizing how important someone who knows their job is.   

 

Convicted felon Donald Chump has ensured that his own lack of credibility would be the hallmark of his administration.  He and those serving in his cabinet have lied repeatedly -- to the American people and to the courts.  And it's the latter that has harmed the administration more than anything else. 

 

Nia Prater (THE INTELLIGENCER) noted last month:

Jeanine Pirro’s tenure leading the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., has been marked by a poor record in court. The former judge and onetime Fox News host has seen several cases she has brought against protesters and other anti-Trump figures fall apart in front of grand juries, including a well-publicized failure to indict a resident for hurling a sandwich at a federal agent stationed in the capital city last year.

Now, following another one of those setbacks, her office is reportedly dropping its pursuit of a group of Democratic members of Congress whom President Donald Trump has accused of treason. Sources tell NBC News that the U.S. attorney will stop seeking legal action against the six Democratic lawmakers who filmed a video urging members of the military and the nation’s intelligence community to refuse illegal orders, in a clear shot at Trump and his administration.

The reported move comes just weeks after a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., rejected Pirro’s efforts to obtain an indictment against the Democrats, a once rare occurrence that has become common during Trump’s second term.

 

They couldn't get an indictment from the grand jury.  Because their reputation is in tatters, destroyed by the administration itself.  They've lied too often to the courts.  

Last month, Matt Naham (LAW & CRIMES) reported: 

 

 A federal judge unloaded on the Trump administration for continuing to subject noncitizens already present in the United States to mandatory detention despite hundreds of court rulings to the contrary, drawing the conclusion that the federal government "knows" the practice as applied is "illegal" and yet its behavior does not change.

 In an effort to put a stop to this "intentional misconduct," U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi on Thursday ordered federal immigration authorities to "immediately" release Diana Elizabeth Cartagena Hueso from custody.

Expressing frustration with the Trump administration's behavior in this habeas corpus case and many others, Quraishi, a Joe Biden appointee, recounted how he ordered the government to hold a bond hearing and not to transfer the 29-year-old Salvadoran woman out of New Jersey, only to learn that she had already been moved to Oklahoma.

After moving the detainee to Texas and then back to Oklahoma — three total transfers in a two-day span — the Trump administration has "not bothered" to offer an explanation and claims it doesn't have to bring the woman back to the Garden State, the judge said.

 [. . .]

By Quraishi's count, the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey has violated 72 court orders and "expressly admitted" violating 56, albeit unintentionally, as "[i]mmigrants are swept up into custody and shifted repeatedly around the country without warning or explanation." The judge found that "objectively appalling" and said the formerly Habba-led office has "eroded" the presumption of its credibility.

"That number by itself is objectively appalling, but at least one judge has indicated that it underreported," the judge remarked. "The U.S. Attorney's Office has counted these citations as unintentional. Sadly, the well-deserved credibility once attached to that distinguished Office is now a presumption that 'has been undeniably eroded.'"

In a final blow, the judge threatened to force prosecutors or DHS officials to "testify under oath" and provide explanations if the mandatory detention cases continue to come before him.

"The government's continued actions after being called to task can now only be deemed intentional," Quraishi concluded. "The undersigned will not stand idly by and allow this intentional misconduct to go on. It ends today."

 

 This is the reputation that they have earned.  As we've pointed out, Judge Judy would have washed her hands of their claims long ago.  You lie to the court once, you destroy your reputation.  And that's a basic.  But Chump has hired so many idiots that they don't grasp that and they lie and lie and lie and outrage members of the judiciary.  

 

ATLANTA BLACK STAR NEWS noted last month:

 

Another day, another humiliating setback for President Donald Trump’s Justice Department — and another awkward moment for Attorney General Pam Bondi, repeatedly tasked with executing the president’s hard-edged agenda only to see it stall under judicial pushback.

Federal agents swooped into a Virginia home in January, boxing up laptops, a recorder, a hard drive, even a Garmin watch. The target wasn’t a dangerous suspect but a Washington Post reporter who had done nothing more than her job. At the time, the Justice Department framed the raid as a routine leak investigation carried out in the name of national security.

Weeks later, the very judge who authorized the takedown took a second look and reached a different conclusion: the government investigators now asking for trust no longer deserved it.

Earlier this week, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Porter made that judgment explicit, blocking the Justice Department from searching the seized devices of journalist Hannah Natanson and sharply rebuking prosecutors for how they handled the case. 

 In a blistering 22-page opinion, Porter reversed course after initially authorizing the seizure, ruling that the DOJ, led by Bondi, could not be trusted to police itself in light of its omissions, shifting explanations, and priorities that put hunting down leaks ahead of protecting First Amendment freedoms. 

 

 The court determined it could not trust the administration to protect the First Amendment.  That's a huge blow to the image of the Justice Dept.  Pam Bondi, Attorney General, has sullied the reputation of the department and revealed herself to be a partisan operative and not a functioning Attorney General.  

 

She acts like a crazed fool.  That's in front of Congress when she takes her slam book with her filled with insults and that's when she's popping off on social media.  On the latter, Josh Gerstein (POLITICO) explains how the Justice Dept made a request of the courts but then Bondi's social media actions rendered the request moot:

 

In an order earlier this week, Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster said Bondi’s posts on X including the names and, in many instances, photographs of the defendants shortly after their arrests “violated a court order” placing those cases under seal. 

Foster leveled the criticism in connection with the prosecution of Nitzana Flores, a South Haven, Minnesota, resident accused of assaulting two Border Patrol officers during a scuffle last month in Minneapolis surrounding the arrest of another person for allegedly ramming a government vehicle.

The judge said Bondi’s posting of the names and arrest photos undercut prosecutors’ request for an order to prohibit defense attorneys from publicly disclosing personal information about immigration agents involved in the case against Flores. The requested order would also prohibit any defense counsel from sharing that information with their client.

Foster said Bondi’s social media posts made the government’s request for court-ordered discretion for its agents “eyebrow-raising, to say the least.”

“The government failed to respect Ms. Flores’s dignity and privacy, exposed her to a risk of doxxing, and generally thumbed its nose at the notion that defendants are innocent until proven guilty. The post also directly violated a court order sealing the case,” the judge wrote. “Notwithstanding, the government now seeks an accommodation from the Court that it blatantly failed to give Ms. Flores and her codefendants.”

 

 

Federal judges of all stripes have stood firm over the last year and counting and have delivered verdicts rooted in the Constitution and precedent.  Actors who know their craft are overcoming weak material as well.

 

Take THE MADISON.  Like most Taylor Sheridan TV shows, it's gorgeous to look at.  Some of the scenes in the first episode don't play at all.  But Michelle Pfeiffer delivers a powerhouse performance and that keeps the show going.  By the third episode, the actors all appear to have found their characters but Michelle still the one delivering every episode.  

 

She plays a widow dealing with loss and dealing with guilt.  And she's good in the role while her husband is alive but after he dies, she burns down to the embers of the character and is haunting.  

 

AMAZON PRIME's  SCARPETTA is another show saved by the lead performances.  Or two of them.

 

Nicole Kidman has been delivering in one series after another: BIG LITTLE LIES, TOP OF THE LAKE CHINA GIRL, THE UNDOING, NINE PERFECT STRANGERS, ROAR, LIONESS, EXPATS and THE PERFECT COUPLE make up an incredible body of work. 

 

SCARPETTA delivers but it's the weakest of her projects since she started doing TV shows.  That's not her fault and it's not Jamie Lee Curtis' fault.  In fact, the two of them are what makes the show watchable and a pleasure.  

What hurts the show?

 

It's telling us a story from two different time periods.  And someone decided that Nicole and Jamie Lee couldn't play their characters in their 20s and 30s so two new actresses were brought on to play them.  And to play Bobby Cannavale and Simon Baker's character.  

 

Nicole Kidman's voice and speaking manner are distinctive.  When you have an actress playing her as the same character abut 20 years younger, you need to have a voice that sounds similar.  Jamie Lee's voice may seem less distinctive to us because we're American and so is she but it is distinctive and it's jarring to hear another adult actress playing her same character but with a different voice and a different way of speaking.

 

Maybe it would have been smarter to have allowed Nicole and Jamie Lee to do voice overs for the younger actresses?  

 

The two actresses playing Nicole and Jamie Lee's younger selves also don't look like them.  That's especially true of the younger actress playing Nicole's character and especially true of the actress' nose.

 

We go back and forth in time over and over in each episode.  

 

It's jarring.  

 

It's takes out of the story and out of the mood.  

 

Then we switch back to Nicole and Jamie and one of them or both of them does something so original and inspired that we're back in the story and vested all over again.

 

Three actresses who know what they're doing and then some make two new series worth watching.  Federal judges across the political spectrum who know what they're doing are saving the Constitution and the country.  

 

It's why, last week,  Gabe Whisnant (NEWSWEEK) was able to note:

 

A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump ruled Tuesday that his administration’s effort to shut down New York City’s congestion pricing program was unlawful, allowing the tolling system to remain in effect.

U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman said the U.S. Department of Transportation lacked the authority to unilaterally revoke federal approval for the program, which charges drivers to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street. In a 149-page decision, Liman vacated a series of letters sent by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy that threatened to withhold federal funding unless the tolls were halted.

 

 While the federal courts have shown a willingness to obey the Constitution, the Supreme Court has not and Chief Justice John Roberts has shown no inclination to protect the federal judges.  Joe Patrice (ABOVE THE LAW) points out John Roberts' silence on the attacks on the federal judges:

 

He’s sat around as Trump spent the next year attacking lower court judges in terms that generated a 327 percent increase in threats against the federal judiciary. Federal judges sounded the alarm that they feared for their lives, telling NBC News that the Supreme Court “doesn’t have our backs.” One judge said flatly that if nothing changed, “somebody is going to die.”As the leader of the judiciary, Roberts responded by issuing a year-end report about how Thomas Paine would probably yearn for a return to the monarchy and collecting a funding boost for Supreme Court security. 

 

Maybe it's time to recast the Supreme Court. 

 

 

 

Media: Tony Dokoupil and Bari Weiss destroy CBS NEWS

Some CBS NEWS friends have been upset that we've been silent, some CBS NEWS friends have been thankful, most have just been wondering if it's time to go?  We'd say yes and we'd note we gave CBS EVENING NEWS four weeks to get their act together and they failed.

 

Bari Weiss (editor in chief' of CBS NEWS) and  Tony Dokoupil (anchor of the evening news) are the source of the problem.

 

In four weeks, they've destroyed THE CBS EVENING NEWS.   Completely wrecked it   Run off viewers and are running off the staff.  On the latter, Wiktoria Gucia (THE DAILY BEAST) reports:

 

CBS News is offering buyouts to CBS Evening News staffers less than 24 hours after editor-in-chief Bari Weiss told employees to leave the company if their views don’t align with her new vision.

The buyouts, offered to non-union staffers, were announced at a Wednesday morning meeting by the executive producer of CBS Evening News, Kim Harvey, according to Variety.

 

 She had a meeting last week where she appeared before CBS NEWS employees and made a series of statements.  Scott Nover and  Laura Wagner (WASHINGTON POST) reported:

 

Weiss told the CBS News staff that she wanted the network to appeal to political moderates. “We’re for the center. We’re for the center-right, and we’re for the center-left,” she said.

She also outlined a critique of the network’s current standing. “The honest truth is right now we are not producing a product that enough people want,” she said. “I am here to make CBS News fit for purpose in the 21st century.”

Weiss argued that CBS is too focused on maintaining its broadcast audience rather than building for the future. “Our strategy until now has been clinging to the audience that remains on broadcast television, and I’m here to tell you that if we stick to that strategy, we are toast,” she said.

 

So let's recap.  First, she wants to appeal to the center. Second, she's going to attract more people to CBS.  Third, broadcast TV is not the future of CBS NEWS.  

 

 

She's not qualified for her job.  Let's start with number three, she is the editor-in-chief of CBS NEWS.  Her job is to focus on CBS NEWS.  Those above her will focus on a future beyond broadcast news for CBS NEWS.  But as CBS NEWS is defined today, it is broadcast news.  She has no experience in broadcast news so she doesn't understand it and, not understanding it, wants to immediately dismiss it.  

 

 

Her lack of experience just causes her to bluster and bully.  

 

 

She's in over her head and we noted that in "Media: The best and the worst of TV showed up in December."  She's not a journalist, she was an opinion writer.  She had no experience in broadcast TV but was put in charge by the new owner to appease Donald Chump.  She says one of her goals is to attract more viewers to CBS NEWS.  

 

 

One of her goals?  That's all she was hired for.  CBS NEWS is about ratings and the number of viewers The future of CBS NEWS is something she might be consulted on but what her job is right now is to deliver viewers.  That's all her job is.  But she's too much of an idiot to grasp that.

 

 

She wants to appeal to the center?  

 

 

Then maybe not market yourself as right-wing.  Which is what she did and what the program has become.  And Tony The Pony, so eager to be in the anchor seat anywhere, assisted her on that with his reaching out to right-wingers.

 

 

Bari and Tony are foolish and don't understand that when you reach out and cater to right wingers, you're running off moderates.  

 

They both also don't understand the brand of CBS NEWS.  Tony felt the need to compare himself to one of the most praised anchors of all time: Walter Cronkite.  And not only did he compare himself, he insisted he was going to be better than Cronkite.   Bill Goodykoontz.(ARIZONA REPUBLIC) observed of Tony's nonsense: 

 

Dokoupil's response was curious.

"What did you love most about him?" he wrote. "I can promise you we’ll be more accountable and more transparent than Cronkite or any one else of his era."

This is like an undrafted rookie boasting before his first NBA game that he's going to be better than Michael Jordan. Whatever points Dokoupil earns for confidence, he's docked more for saying such a dumb thing. Read the room.

 

But he can't read the room.  Which is why ensuing weeks saw such moments of 'journalism' as Tony crying on air that his father was a drug dealer (thie left him "robbed of the full Miami experience," he sobbed on air) and even bringing on his own mother to be an 'expert' and to lie.   Mekishana Pierre (ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY) noted last week:

 

Tuesday's episode of the evening news series featured a segment focusing on a study that found grandparents who care for their grandchildren score better on tests of memory and language and decline more slowly than those who do not. Dokoupil turned to a "big source" for commentary on the study's finding — his mom, Gail. 

"I find that they give me a sense of purpose. They energize me more than drive me down," Gail said of caring for her grandchildren. Dokoupil, who made his debut as the anchor of CBS Evening News earlier this month, has four children: two with his current wife, MS NOW anchor Katy Tur, and two with his ex-wife, Danielle Haas.  

 

Does anyone see the problem with this?  Well there are multiple problems.  But he brought on his mother as an expert -- four grandchildren that she takes care of.  She doesn't take care of four.  The two with Danielle Haas live with their mother . . . in Israel.  His mother is not taking care of those two children.  

 

Walter Cronkite never brought his own mother on the network news as an expert.  If he had, people would have laughed at him.  And they would have crucified them if they'd known that two of the four grandchildren are being raised in another country.   

 

Then there's the freaks Bari Weiss keeps bringing onto CBS NEWS as experts.  Cynthia Littleton (VARIETY) notes that Bari's elevated a quack who just got exposed for his long relationship with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein: 

 

 A week after being named as a CBS News contributor, Dr. Peter Attia is coming under fire after the latest raft of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files includes more than 1,700 mentions and evidence of a friendly relationship with the wealthy convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

 The correspondence makes it clear that Attia maintained a relationship with Epstein long after the financier faced sex trafficking and prostitution charges. “I go into JE withdrawal when I don’t see him.,” reads a line from Attia to Lesley Groff, who was an Epstein assistant. The remark, found in a January 2016 email, has spurred negative reaction on social media.

 

Caitlin McCormack (NEW YORK POST) adds: 

 

Anti-aging physician and newly named CBS News contributor Peter Attia swapped hundreds of chummy, eyebrow-raising emails with Jeffrey Epstein — including once joking that female genitals counted as a “low carb.”

The disturbing correspondence came to light just days after the celebrity doctor was named as one of the network’s 19 new contributors.

The emails were included in the trove of 3 million documents released by the Department of Justice Friday, as mandated by the “Epstein Files Transparency Act.” Attia is mentioned in the files 1,741 times.

In stomach-churning missives, the controversial anti-aging physician frequently asked after Epstein’s wellbeing and alluded to the convicted sex offender’s “outrageous” lifestyle. 

“You [know] the biggest problem with becoming friends with you? The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul…” Attia wrote in one 2015 email — with the chilling subject line “Got a fresh shipment.”

A photo of the referenced “shipment” was redacted.

Attia, 52, renowned as a “longevity influencer” specializing on metabolic health, also cheekily offered his health advice to Epstein.

“P—y is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten, though,” Attia wrote in one email from 2016, eight years after Epstein had been convicted in Florida of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.

 

This story brewed all weekend without the necessary note, "CBS and Attia have agreed to end Attia's contract."  Why?  Because Bari doesn't understand moderates.  She doesn't respect them.  And she doesn't know how to appeal to them.

 

She hopes to trick them.  Last week, the big news story was the murder of Alex Pretti by the US government.  Monday started off with criticism of THE CBS EVENING NEWS for its coverage which largely sidelined Alex.  That never got better.   

  

Some strong coverage on Alex was done by WCCO.  Here's a sample of three reports WCCO created. 

But you didn't see them on THE CBS EVENING NEWS.  This despite the fact that WCCO is a Minneapolis station -- where Alex was murdered by the US government.  And this despite the fact that WCCO is not a CBS affiliate, it's a CBS owned station.  WCCO is fully aware that they were cut off as a resource by their network's evening news program.  

 

She and Tony had access to news and chose not to share it on THE CBS EVENING NEWS.   

 

There's no come back for Bari.  She's been one embarrassment after another and she's proven to be unqualified for the job.  Tony?  With a better news executive behind him, he might be able to rebound.  But that would require Bari Weiss leaving her current post immediately.  The longer she's around, the more damage she does, the more she is tied to Tony Dokoupil and the further he sinks.  

 

 

Media: The best and the worst of TV showed up in December

The best moment of TV this month?  Episode five of HBO's HEATED RIVALRY.

 

 

As the episode comes to a conclusion, the New York Admirals win the Memorial Cup and the fans go wild.  As they scream and cheer, team captain Scott Hunter (Francois Arnaud) looks out and spots Kip (Robbie GK) in the crowd, Kip who he broke it off with despite loving because Scott couldn't handle coming out or even just a few of their friends knowing.  Scott gestures to Kip and it takes a moment but Kip begins heading towards Scott.  Once on the ice, Scott kisses Kip in front of everyone.  One of the best TV moments of the month and of the year.

 

By contrast, this month also delivered one of the worst TV moments of the month and year as the genre of news documentary/event was bastardized to include whoring.

 

Friday, December 12th, over on the new MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), Rachel Maddow  hosted a live news program from Chicago's Harris Theater focusing on the illegal tactics of ICE and the people's ability to fight back.  You heard about the importance of the whistle as heads up saying ICE is in the area and how this came about, you heard about the way immigrants were being terrorized by Donald Chump's gestapo force, you heard about how we can learn from one another.  Over and over, this was a news program.  First, it addressed a news worthy topic.  Second, it brought on witnesses and experts  Third it truly was a public service.

 

And we can't stop praising  RACHEL MADDOW PRESENTS: BURN ORDER LIVE.  It deserves an Emmy -- No, it deserves several Emmys. 

  

The following day, CBS aired CBS NEWS PRESENTS A TOWN HALL WITH ERIKA KIRK.  For some, "Who?" is an honest answer and that might have been the only thing honest about or around the special.

 

Grifter Erika was married to the younger Charlie Kirk -- one of those tradmarriage scolds who thinks the wife stays home and submits to the husband.  Of course, if Erika did what her late husband preached, she wouldn't be on TV every week or at fundraisers or on panels or on podcasts or every where that she is except at home with her two grieving children.

 

It was a story when it happened and we almost wrote about it.  But did we really want to do a piece whose sole focus appeared to be beating up a widow -- a crass and trashy widow, yes, but still a widow?

 

We decided to take a pass.

 

But then CBS was set to air a 60 MINUTES segment on the prison -- gulag -- in El Salvador that Donald Chump had used to dump immigrants.  It was about the conditions in the prison, the torture, etc.  

 

Bari Weiss pulled it.  

 

The opinion writer who's never been a reporter, let alone an investigative one, insisted publicly that the piece needed more work.  She based that, no doubt, over her many years reading GILMORE GIRLS fan fiction.  It was for that 'work' and possibly those nude sketches she did of Allison Mack, that CBS made her the "editor-in-chief" of CBS NEWS -- which has led Bari into a whole new field of slash-fiction where Allison's Chloe works under her at THE DAILY PLANET.

 

But in the real world, the world where Bari insisted that they did not have a statement from the White House so the segment couldn't air, Bari was revealed as the two-bit whore she's always been and always will be.  And remember that because she's going to get fired and when she does get fired she'll whine to the left -- the same left that she's long spat on -- about how unfair it is that a lesbian like herself got fired.

 

When that happens, don't shed a tear, just waive a middle finger.

 

That's truly all she deserves.

 

She has repeatedly insisted that her problem was news value and that the program didn't live up to it.

 

How did a town hall with the widow of a racist live up to it?

 

We may be doing another piece on racism in the near future, in terms of people trying to justify racism on the basis of a Black performer and pretending that he and a TV performer were on the same playing field when in fact the program has been notoriously racist over the years, that the power structure was racist and that the Black performer was a guest on one episode.  They try to pretend this was an equal playing field when it was no such thing.

 

We bring that up because when Chump's right wing buddies took over CBS, this was White people and they installed White Bari Weiss.  And she and the power structure chose to present the wife of a racist -- who echoes his racists opinions -- and treat her as some sort of expert who should be allowed to pontificate for one hour of prime time TV. 

 

 Mary Whitfill Roeloffs (FORBES) noted, "An hour-long interview with the widow of political commentator Charlie Kirk on CBS criticized for its editorial approach drove away big advertisers without drawing a hoped-for big audience in what could be a defining moment for Bari Weiss, the newly appointed editor in chief of CBS News."  Brian Steinberg (VARIETY) noted, "Viewership was off 11% compared to the average viewership in the hour year to date, according to data from Nielsen, and the “demo” audience was down 41% compared to its year-to-date average."  Justin Baragona (INDEPENDENT) makes the poor performance look even worse by bringing basic facts, "Making the low viewership for the Erika Kirk town hall even more striking is that CBS pulled in a large audience for the annual Army-Navy game that afternoon, drawing 7.3 million viewers per Nielsen’s early measurement. The post-game show, which served as a lead-in for the Kirk-Weiss chat, attracted a viewership of 3.5 million and 901,000 in the advertising demo, according to Nielsen." Even with a huge lead-in, the 'news' special flopped. THE NEW YORK POST explained it wasn't even a hit on YOUTUBE.

 

Maybe Bari Weiss needs to answer for that?

 

And maybe the new owners of CBS and PARAMOUNT need to answer to shareholders about why they paid Bari $150 million for her website -- that's about $149 million more than it was worth.

 

Mainly we should all be aware that Bari Weis killing that news segment on 60 MINUTES was censorship.

 

She had all these excuse about how it wasn't news and it wasn't ready.

 

But she's the one who put on an Erika Kirk special. Three months and three days after racist Charlie Kirk was shot dead, she put on an Erika Kirk special.

 

How did that qualify as news?  

 

Are we supposed to pretend that Erika had anything to share?   She's still working through the stages of grief described by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in ON DEATH AND DYING.  She's not come out of the grief, she has no lessons to share, she's garnered no perspective.  If anything, she's avoided dealing with her grief and loss. 

  

This month alone, Sean Hannity interviewed her on December 8th, she took part in THE NEW YORK TIMES DealBook Summit, she showed on Megyn Kelly's show, she showed up on Glenn Beck's show, and on December 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st she was part of AMERICAFEST.  That's not a full listing of her events and appearances  

 

She's not taken time to grieve and she's overexposed.  

 

How was she ever going to have anything worth sharing -- let alone anything news worthy worth sharing?

 

She wasn't.  Nor will JD Vance when Bari sits down with him for another 'news special' next month.  She'll baby him as well.  Spend a whole hour babying him.  Failing to grasp that her job as an interviewer is to push back, is to question. Bari Weis has neither the skills nor the training to be an editor-in-chief as she's made that clear. And she didn't need to wait until 2026 to share that with America.

 

Media: Chump's administration doesn't even grasp the firing process

As usual, the Chump administration gets it wrong.  The statement is: Tragedy plus time equals comedy. That's a comedy axiom: Tragedy plus time equals comedy.  That's what it is.  It's not: The whim of persecution equals democracy or, for that matter, laws.

 

 

When you've got an occupant of the Oval Office whose head is as fat as his ass, it's a given that the country's going to be in trouble.  The trouble's only going to be messier when the president both suffers from dementia and is a convicted felon.  

 

Maybe two stories last month made that clear?  

 

Probably not because even the few in the media who made the connection (Jen Psaki was one of the very few, so applause for her) between the stories failed to properly merge the two.

 

One of the subjects of coverage was David Maltinsky and the other was the Coast Guard.  David?  He's someone the FBI fired. Why?  As THE NEW YORK TIMES noted in its headline "An F.B.I. Trainee Hung a Pride Flag Near His Desk. He Says He Was Fired for It.."

 

David Maltinsky, an F.B.I. agent-in-training, had only a dim suspicion of what was going on when he was suddenly pulled from his classmates one evening last month and called to a meeting with top officials at the academy, where he was only three weeks away from graduation.

A gay man who had previously worked as a civilian cybertech assistant in the Los Angeles field office, Mr. Maltinsky knew that the meeting might have something to do with his sexual identity — or with his wide-ranging efforts at the bureau to promote L.G.B.T.Q. issues.

What he did not expect was the letter he was handed when he arrived at the F.B.I. Academy’s front office.

It was signed by the bureau’s director, Kash Patel, he said, and announced that he was being “summarily dismissed” from the academy because of “political signage” he had once displayed at his work space in Los Angeles. The only thing that could be, he quickly realized, was a rainbow pride flag that had hung near his desk for years and had been given to him as a gift by his former bosses.

On Wednesday, Mr. Maltinsky filed a lawsuit against Mr. Patel and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, claiming that his firing was illegal and asking a federal judge to reinstate him at the academy, where he had been pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming a federal agent. He and his lawyers described his dismissal as the latest move by senior F.B.I. officials to play politics with internal personnel moves in a way that has not only damaged morale inside the bureau but has also hindered its ability to carry out its public safety mission. 

 

 Scott MacFarlane (CBS NEWS) noted:

 According to the lawsuit, the First Amendment "forbids government officials from firing government employees, or otherwise retaliating against them, simply for engaging in expressive conduct concerning a matter of public concern."

The lawsuit states that Maltinsky was fired in a letter signed by FBI Director Kash Patel in October. A copy of the letter was provided by Maltinsky to CBS News. In it, Patel writes: "I have determined that you exercised poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage in your work area during your previous assignment at the Los Angeles Field Office. Pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States, your employment with the Federal Bureau of Investigation is hereby terminated."

The rainbow flag that Maltinsky displayed at his workspace in the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office was presented to him after it had previously been displayed outside the Bureau's federal office complex there, according to the lawsuit.   

Maltinsky said the federal government approved the display of Pride flags at federal office complexes in June 2021. His lawsuit alleges that a colleague filed a complaint with a supervisor about Maltinsky's flag on Jan. 20, 2025, the day of President Trump's second Inaugural.

 

 John Ismay and Minho Kim (NEW YORK TIMES) report:

 

The Coast Guard is redefining how it views harassment across the service, discarding the concept of “hate incidents” and recasting symbols of hatred, including nooses and swastikas, as “potentially divisive.”

In the past, the display of such symbols was unambiguously cited in policy as “incidents of hatred and prejudice” that “have no place in the Coast Guard.”

But the revised edition of the policy, which goes into effect next month, raises the bar for proving that displaying hate symbols in public merits punishment.

The new instructions, described in a document titled “Harassing Behavior Prevention, Response and Accountability,” was signed Nov. 13 by the Coast Guard’s assistant commandant for personnel, Rear Adm. Charles E. Fosse.

 

Public outrage caused Kristi Noem (she's over the Coast Guard) to immediately pull the new policy.  This is the comparison Jen Psaki rightly made: The Chump administration is firing a man for an LGBTQ+ flag while at the same time pushing through hate speech.

 

But we thought the two raised another issue, a legal issue.

 

Had the H*A*R*L*O*T of Homeland Security kept the new Coast Guard policy in effect, what would that mean?  

 

Say it went into effect December 21st and she pulled it December 23rd?

 

Who'd get fired?  Legally, who could be fired?

 

If, once the policy was announced and in effect, who could be fired for displaying a swastika or something similar?

 

The answer is no one.  Not while the policy was in effect.  If the policy was overturned or retracted, once that was announced, anyone could be disciplined -- even fired -- for displaying a swastika.  

 

So with that in mind, explain to us Ka$h Patel's firing of David Maltinsky.

 

Now we know Ka$h is a busy man -- flying all over the country -- sometimes with his girlfriend -- on the tax payer dime.  And spending tax payer money to assign a swat team to guard said girlfriend.  

 

But it seems to us that if Ka$h were even remotely qualified for his job, he'd realize you can't have a policy in place -- in custom or writing -- and then fire someone for it.

 

Long before Donald Chump hauled his decaying fat ass back to the Oval Office, David was allowed to display the flag.  

 

Allowed?

 

He was encouraged to display it.  From Scott MacFarlane's report cited above:

 

The rainbow flag that Maltinsky displayed at his workspace in the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office was presented to him after it had previously been displayed outside the Bureau's federal office complex there, according to the lawsuit.   

Maltinsky said the federal government approved the display of Pride flags at federal office complexes in June 2021.

 

 There are many issues involved in this case.  But the most simple and basic one with regards to the law is that David was allowed and encouraged to display the flag.  If the policy was going to change, then the employees needed to be informed of the changes.

 

Employees are not hired -- certainly not by the FBI -- to be psychics.  But Ka$h is arguing that, on a whim, he can override a policy in place and fire someone without advising them that the policy is being changed.  

 

That's not how the law works.  If the flag was now a problem, the employee needs to be advised of that.  If David were advised of the change and elected to continue to display the flag, we'd have issues involving freedom of expression, for example.  But we don't even have to address that.  You can't fire someone for following a policy if you haven't informed them that the policy has changed.  

 

You can't punish an employee for following an existing policy that you decide to overturn when you fail to inform the employee that the policy is being overturned.  Simply put, you can't know what you aren't told. 

 

With that in mind, we're telling you to go over to HBO and watch HEATED RIVALRY.  Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie star as rival hockey players who begin an affair with one another.  It's a drama that holds your attention.  In fact, it's the finest drama HBO's had since THE UNDOING -- and that Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant mini-series was five years ago.

 

 

Media: The Four Jack Asses of the Apocalypse

If you didn't already know professional weasel Tucker Carlson had done something wrong, you got your confirmation on Sunday when Convicted Felon Donald Chump showed up to defend him.  If you missed it, Carlson had platformed his and Chump's mutual acquaintance Nick Fuentes Nazi Lover.

The right-wing, if you missed it, leapt off the cliff and fell into the arms of Alex Jones and other nut jobs.  Cradled to Jones' heaving breasts, the fright-wing now introduces such 'deep thoughts' as the Nazis have been misunderstood, victims of the Holocaust -- if they do exist -- were begging for it and so much more. 

Yes, it's the world we live in today.  Overcrowding at the institutions led to early and unneeded releases and the craziest of the crazies ended up with their own podcasts.  

They pretend they're honest, they pretend they're rationale, most of all they pretend they're fair.  Take legal antinomian Jonathan Turley who recently spent time raging against the names the media is called.  He's very bothered by that . . . if the journalist is from a right-wing outlet and if the person verbally attacking is a Democrat.  That's how he avoids Donald Chump's attack on a BLOOMBERG NEWS reporter over the weekend but removes the Ben Wa balls from his anus in order to use them as Greek worry beads while he frets over what non-politician Hunter Biden said about NY POST's Miranda Devane.  

In one case, you're dealing with a politician holding the most important position in the United States trashing a reporter, in the other you're dealing with someone whose father was once president.  And Chump did it to the woman's face.   Time and again, raging queen Turley pretends to be fair and impartial when, in fact, he's deranged and unbalanced.

That whole core group is: Turley, Mother Tucker, Glenn Greenwald and Megyn Kelley.  

You have to be deranged -- the way Frau Farbissina lookalike Glenneth Greenwald is -- to think that video of you on your hands and knees wearing a woman's skirt (when you actively trash and mock transgender people) -- doesn't make you a joke nor the crack pipe in the video, nor the big man you're kneeling before and licking the toes of nor the insults he hurls at you -- to think your crackpot view of the world is normal.

Glenneth hates women and it's nothing but jealousy as he demonstrated when video of his sexual desires to dress like a woman, pretend to be a woman and have a man insult him with slurs against women.  That's news to the likes of Eoin Higgins because those lazy idiots never did the work required (see "Media: OWNED finds Eoin Higgins owned by bad journalism").

Glenneth was motivated by his hatred of women in 2007.  He took up with Fire Dog Rash Vagina, the woman who hated women, and was her roll dog as they barnstormed the country trying to destroy Hillary Clinton.  Instead of addressing that or any number of facts, Higgins wrote a fluff book that imploded on him upon publication.  

You really have to be stupid to trust the unstable to be stable long enough for you to write a book and have it published.  

But you have to be stupid to think you can be buddies with the people you're critiquing.  There's an actor who only recently began speaking to us again.  Around two decades ago, we trashed a series he had the lead in.  He was ticked.  We didn't trash him but the series was garbage -- and we weren't the only ones eventually trashing it.  We also told him -- face to face -- that the role was a mistake and he didn't need to play that type again.  He got angry and stopped speaking to us.  We understood.  We bumped into him recently.  He hasn't worked in four years.  He should have listened to us.  He had a great quality and should have gone for roles that utilized that.  Instead he played dull leading man roles and when he couldn't bring in audiences with that?  His career was over.  It wasn't about looks, he was and remains very good looking.  And he has talent is he's cast as a heel.  Regardless, we understood his being mad and no longer wanting to speak to us for all those years.  

Because being a critic means making the hard call, not the popular call.  Enablers, they're the ones who make the popular calls.

We don't like Glynneth Greenwald.  We've never liked him.  But we can give him credit on the rare times he's earned it.

When he broke the story around the Ed Snowden documents, we gave him credit.  We gave him applause.  Too much, in fact.  And we're the only media critics who have noted that reality.  Glynneth had the story! Glynneth had the documents!  The truth was coming out.

And then it didn't.

He took the documents to the soon-to-be-created INTERCEPT and that's where the documents remain and they remain unreported on.  

That's not the deal he presented to the public. 

What is it?  Bait-and-switch.  That's the hallmark of a con artist.  

That Mother Tucker Carlson is the supreme con artist, of course.  He brings on and platforms Nazis and then tries to retreat insisting he was just asking questions.  Robert Draper (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:

Last month, Tucker Carlson’s genial interview with the white nationalist Nick Fuentes detonated a bomb that further fractured the Trump-era conservative movement he once helped galvanize. This month, Mr. Carlson decided to escape the wreckage for weeks of bird hunting in Maine, South Dakota, Nebraska and Southwest Florida.

During three hours of interviews driving to and from a quail hunting site outside Fort Myers, Mr. Carlson was by turns indignant, reflective and seething — and thoroughly unrepentant for having roiled the conservative movement with the interview, or for his own escalating attacks on those who support Israel.

“Israel does not matter,” he said from behind the steering wheel, casually contradicting the view of Mr. Trump and every president before him, while his two spaniels sat in the back seat. “It’s a country the size of what, Maryland? It has a population of nine million. It has no resources. It’s not strategically important. In fact, it’s a strategic liability.”

Mr. Carlson expressed bafflement over the reaction to his session with Mr. Fuentes. He said he did not understand what was so problematic about his guest, beyond the fact that the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew, had depicted Mr. Fuentes as antisemitic just as he had done to Mr. Carlson.

Chris Cameron (NYT) describes what immediately followed:

Republican lawmakers and Jewish organizations denounced Tucker Carlson, an ally of President Trump, for hosting the outspoken white supremacist Nick Fuentes on his podcast this week, and criticized other conservative figures who defended the interview.

Senators Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell criticized Mr. Carlson, the far-right commentator who served as a top surrogate for Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign and spoke at the party’s national convention last year, for hosting Mr. Fuentes, who is openly antisemitic and had previously dined with Mr. Trump in 2022.

Days later, Annie Karni revisited the topic for the paper, noting:

Republican lawmakers and influencers continued on Monday to distance themselves from Tucker Carlson after his sympathetic interview with the prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes, putting on display a widening split on the right about how to address antisemitism within their party.

The fallout included at least one resignation, as a key aide to the head of a prominent right-wing think tank stepped down after backing his boss’s vigorous defense of Mr. Carlson.

Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation think tank, had announced late last week that the aide, Ryan Neuhaus, was simply leaving his chief of staff position for another role. But on Monday, a spokesman for the Heritage Foundation, said Mr. Neuhaus had resigned. The resignation was reported earlier by The Hill.

Ben Shapiro, the conservative podcast host, also condemned Mr. Carlson on Monday as “the most virulent superspreader of vile ideas in America,” criticizing him for failing to push back on Mr. Fuentes during the interview and for allowing him instead to spread his ideas unchallenged on a huge platform.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans were quick to disavow antisemitism and declare unbending support for Israel, even as some refrained from singling out Mr. Carlson by name.

The fall out continues.  Today, Cheyanne M. Daniels (POLITICO) reports:

Another member of the conservative Heritage Foundation has resigned following a video posted by the organization’s president defending Tucker Carlson’s interview with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.

In a post to Facebook, board member Robert P. George said he can no longer remain part of the foundation without a “full retraction” of the video released last month by the organization’s president, Kevin Roberts.

“Although Kevin publicly apologized for some of what he said in the video, he could not offer a full retraction of its content. So, we reached an impasse,” George said.

Carlson’s interview with Fuentes -- who has previously expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler -- received widespread condemnation for antisemitism, and the aftermath has exposed fault lines among conservatives.

And then there's Megyn.

Pretty-for-FOX-'NEWS' Megyn Kelly has always looked as though the right side of her face was smashed in with a shovel.  If that actually did happen, brain damage would explain her career.  The career problem is a common thread for all four, by the way.  Has anyone been fired more than Tucker?  Similarly, Glennyth and Megyn and Jonathan have a long list of former media employers.  Former.  

Does not play well with others was, no doubt, the common comment on all four losers' report cards.  

Over the weekend, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE mocked Megyn and her 'insights' --  James Austin Johnson, playing Donald Chump, "I thought Megyn Kelly made a terrific point this week, she said Epstein's not a pedophile. Terrific thing to just say out of nowhere. Great Job Megyn, we love Megyn, they should put her back on TV. Legalize Megyn!"  That was Saturday night.  She was also 'honored' Sunday night on John Oliver's HBO program:

John Oliver tore into Megyn Kelly for making “perhaps the boldest attempt” at damage control for President Donald Trump in the wake of Wednesday’s release of thousands of emails from the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Oliver replayed the moment from Kelly’s SiriusXM show when she tried to parse the definition of pedophilia, and in the process disclosed that she knew “somebody very, very close to this case who is in a position to know virtually everything” related to the Epstein scandal.

“Yeah, that clip starts with I know someone who’s super in the middle of all the Epstein s--t, and it somehow gets sketchier from there,” Oliver said on Sunday’s season finale of HBO’s Last Week Tonight.

The clip continued with Kelly explaining that, according to her source Epstein was not a “pedophile” because he “was into the barely legal type. Like, he liked 15-year-old girls.”

Except that 15-year-old girls cannot consent, it’s not legal for adults to have sex with them, and many of Epstein’s victims claimed they were raped by either him or his clientele in Florida, where the legal age of consent is 18.

There are times when the smartest thing to do is just shut your mouth.  Megyn should remember that, in fact, she should make it her mantra.  She has a dangerously under-nourished brain.  It leads her to such mistaken efforts as insisting that there's nothing wrong with Blackface.  In fact, let's pull Juliann McShane (MOTHER JONES) in:

There was her insistence that Santa Claus is white, for example, and her claim that wearing blackface used to not be so bad (that one got her fired from NBC News). Wednesday, on her eponymous SiriusXM show, Kelly picked another hill to die on: She implied, in conversation with NewsNation host Batya Ungar-Sargon, that it wasn’t quite fair to call Jeffrey Epstein a pedophile because he was “into the barely legal type” of minors—which Kelly appallingly defines as “like, 15-year-olds”—who look like they could be legal adults. Epstein was charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, and the Department of Justice said he abused and exploited dozens of underage girls, some as young as 14.

But Kelly said she nonetheless questioned how to characterize Epstein because, she claims, she knows “somebody very, very close to this case who is in a position to know virtually everything,” and “this person has told me from the start, years and years ago, that Jeffrey Epstein, in this person’s view, was not a pedophile.”

She's a crackpot, a lunatic.  And we were glad to see her called out across the web and to see Melissa Gilbert weigh in and to see the #iwas15 hashtag pushing back against Megyn's crazy and dangerous nonsense. 

But what shocked us the most?  She tried to go on a rant against so-called p.c.  No one seems to have noted that or commented on it.  At one point in the segment, she babbles on and rages about it used to be called "kiddie porn."  Damn you and your political correctness, she seemed to insist, now she can't even call it kiddie porn anymore!

We don't know which voice issues heredicts on what words and phrases are acceptable but, then again, we don't live in Megyn's head.

They're nuts, all four of them.

Back in the 70s, veteran DC journalist Walter Pincus was with THE WASHINGTON STAR and dreamed of establishing a sort of quasi-national newspaper.  His proposal was often greeted with laughter and cries of how the inmates would be running the asylum.  However, decades later POLITICO emerged and bore a resemblance to what Pincus had often spoken of.  It was not a case of the inmates running the asylum but instead strong and sometimes brilliant journalism.  

The best example of the inmates running the asylum would be the explosion of the multi-fired on YOUTUBE and satellite radio.  One scandal too many (or twelve or twenty too many) and they have been forever shut out of mainstream media -- and respectable society -- so they go the huckster route and run a con on the rubes.  If you're trying to understand the success of Glynneth, Megyn, Turley and that Mother Tucker, Whoomp There It Is.

Media: Un-American?

Unamerican? 

 

UnAmerican?  

 

No, it turns out it's un-American.  

 

 

 

 

 

That's the appropriate spelling.  

 

But is un-American a bad thing?

Not always. 

For example?  Best chocolate in the world?  Many would go with Norway's Vigdis Rosenkilde or Belgium's Neuhaus or France's Maison du Chocolat or Mexico's Feliu Chocolate or even Italy's Amedei.  They're all great chocolates and not originating in the United States doesn't change that.

Looking for the best skis?  France's Rossignol and Salomon.  Followed by several others with DPS being the only recognized maker of excellent skis in the US (Salt Lake City).  

 

One of the best streaming shows in the US right now?  Streaming on APPLETV+.

 

 

DOWN CEMETERY ROAD.  This British thriller is amazing.  Ruth Wilson plays a woman who lives in a neighborhood that has an explosion. Things do not seem to be what they appear so she hires a private investigator played by Adam Godley.  All of the actors mentioned are amazing and worthy of praise.  But Godley's character?  His wife has to take over the investigation.  And she's played by Emma Thompson in an amazing performance that should be topped off with an Emmy. The mini-series has eight episodes and there are multiple twists and turns in each one.  It more than holds your attention.  And it's un-American in that it's a British TV series set in the UK.

So, again, un-American doesn't have to mean bad.

But sometimes it does.

With Donald Chump back in the White House and with him doing very un-American things, it means bad.  Very bad.  Lawbreakingly bad.

Emily Prescott (KANSAS CITY STAR) reports, "Federal immigration officers reportedly shot and wounded U.S. citizen Carlos Jimenez during an enforcement stop near a school bus route, sparking Democratic outrage. Civil rights groups condemned the shooting as an example of excessive force. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that an internal investigation is underway to determine whether agents followed protocol."  

 

 

As is far too often the case, DHS Assistant Liar Tricia McLaughlin is quoted in the article.  We no longer quote her because she's been revealed as a liar repeatedly (see our "Media: They fail to note the pattern of ICE lies but make time to defend this year's John Fetterman").  Julianne McShane (MOTHER JONES) notes what happened:

The victim was a 25-year-old named Carlos Jimenez, who is a father of three. He was shot after getting out of his car to tell ICE agents, who had pulled over a vehicle, that children would soon be gathering in that spot for the school bus, his lawyer, Cynthia Santiago, told the newspaper. The agents’ cars had blocked a southern lane on the road and jutted into a second lane, according to the LA Times. “He was telling them, ‘Excuse me. Can you guys please, you know, please wrap this up.’ And immediately, the masked agent pulls out a gun and exchanges some words,” Santiago told the newspaper.

That?  That's un-American.  And it's un-American in a very bad way.

We have laws and regulations for a reason.  But a convicted felon like Donald Chump doesn't care about those -- as he goes around pardoning one crook after another, he makes that clear.

And  as he lets ICE and the 'border' patrol (Illinois shared no border with another country) terrorize American citizens and immigrants, he makes clear just how un-American he is. 

 

We have freedom of worship in the United States.  Donald Chump is trying to destroy that but we do have the right to worship in this country as we please (and that choice also includes the right not worship).  That's what makes Charles Thrush's report for BOOK CLUB CHICAGO so dispiriting:

Federal authorities told demonstrators Friday that there would be “no more prayer” in front of or inside the Broadview ICE facility, in a move that mystified local leaders and raised legal questions.

A federal representative delivered the news to a huddle of faith leaders and activists standing outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility Friday, speaking after faith leaders were denied entry to the building for the third time Friday.

Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills, whose department helped facilitate the phone call, said that he was “trying to figure out” in discussions with Mayor Katrina Thompson and an attorney if a federal agency could legally ban religious gatherings on land owned by the village. Religious groups previously have been allowed to practice outside the facility, he said.

[. . .]

Protesters expressed concern that the direction from federal officials could be in violation of the First Amendment, which guarantees both freedom of religion and assembly. The move also comes days after the AP reported that Pope Leo XIV urged authorities to allow pastoral workers to be able to access detained migrants.

Are we a nation of laws or not?  Every day Chump remains president, that question has to be asked because he disregards every law and regulation as though they never existed.  And what of his MAGA children of the corn?  They're screaming for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS to be posted in schools but they won't defend the right to pray in Chicago?  Seems hypocritical but if there were no hypocrites in the US, Chump would never get a single vote in any election.

We grasp that just as we grasp how out of control his gestapo force is.  Srijony Das (INQUISITR) reports:

While the Department of Homeland Security has already warned people about such activities, the Fullerton Police Department was recently notified of a surprising incident in which an agent was captured brandishing a firearm at a female driver.

The Fullerton Police Department said it did not assist the customs officer who pointed a firearm at a female cyclist. The incident occurred around noon at the intersection of Santa Ana Boulevard and Shelton Street. An officer from the police department noticed a man stepping out of his vehicle and pointed a gun towards a woman who was riding her bike behind him. The police officer immediately took action and approached the man, without knowing the man’s identity or what had actually happened. 

An officer from the Fullerton Police Department asked the man for identification, and he revealed that he was an ICE officer. He explained that he drew his firearm because the woman had been following and recording him for a long distance. An excerpt from the statement read: “The Fullerton Police Officer informed the agent that he could not assist with someone following or recording him if no crime had occurred, and that local law enforcement (Santa Ana PD) was en route.”

The incident was recorded and uploaded to Instagram, where the agent is clearly seen holding the firearm near his chest and pointing it towards the woman. The lady is later revealed to be a community watch member. The ICE agent then can be seen approaching the police officer, while the woman reprimands the former, saying, “What are you doing? What the [expletive language] is your problem?” In response, the agent shouts back, “You can’t be following us like that”. The woman responds, “I live here! It’s okay to pull your gun on a woman? What the [expletive language]?” 

As recorded in the Fullerton Police Department’s statement, the woman then left the scene shortly after. The police officer also made it very clear to the ICE agent that he would not assist him if no crime had actually taken place. Their statement further mentioned “ICE is a federal law enforcement agency, and Fullerton Police Officers will assist them, and any other local, state, or federal law enforcement agency, in situations involving immediate officer safety.

No, ICE, it doesn't work that way -- no matter what the idiot Chump tells you, it does not work that way.  You're (limited) training did not come with a certificate to bully American citizens.  

This litany from Alex Woodward (INDEPENDENT) describes abuse and terror, not law enforcement: 

In Chicago this week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents dragged a teacher known as “Ms. Diana” from inside a preschool and placed her inside an unmarked car.

Earlier this year, a 12-year-old boy was abandoned on the street in Waltham, Massachusetts, after an immigration raid, and in Oregon, an officer smashed the car window of a chiropractor who was taking his child to daycare.

Last month, families with children were pulled out of their homes in a Chicago apartment building, crying and screaming, in an overnight raid that led to the arrests of 37 people.

 

These are the actions of a force reorting to  a tin horn dictator, not an elected president who is supposed to manage -- for four years -- a democracy.  

Illinois has been especially targeted by Chump's gestapo.  Sophia Tareen (AP) reports:

A suburban Chicago father and his 1-year-old daughter were pepper-sprayed at close range as they headed grocery shopping over the weekend and happened upon federal immigration agents, the family said.

Rafael Veraza said the incident happened in a Sam's Club parking lot in Cicero on Saturday, amid escalating clashes that day between immigration agents and frustrated area residents. The suburb shares a border with the Chicago neighborhood of Little Village, a largely Mexican enclave that has frequently been at the center of a federal immigration crackdown that began two months ago in the nation's third-largest city.

 

Again, this is not law enforcement.  This ia renegade group of bullies being told that they can s**t on citizens and there will be no legal consequences.  That's why JB Pritzker, the state's governor (whom we both know and like) calls for people to continue to protest these outrageous (and illegal) actions and to document what is happening in their areas, "This is hugely important because recent cases have been overturned from gathered evidence from bystanders --  rulings against ICE and CBP for using tear gas and other methods during detainments."  Pritzker is among the governors who has shown true leadership in these very troubled times. 

 

So thank goodness for our governors   Thank goodness also for our judges.   Rulings against ICE and 'border' patrol are increasing.  Why?  Because they keep lying and, unlike Chump, they're getting held accountable for lying. 

Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

A federal judge called out Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino for lying as she dealt another legal defeat to President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigrants.

U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis ordered a preliminary injunction granting "complete relief" to Chicago residents and others who accused the Department of Homeland Security of using "extreme brutality" to violate their First Amendment rights, and she said during a court hearing Thursday that she found the testimony of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "not credible," reported WTTW-TV.

“The government would have people believe, instead, that the Chicagoland area is in a vice hold of violence, ransacked by rioters and attacked by agitators,” Ellis said before announcing her ruling. “That simply is untrue, and the government’s own evidence in this case belies that assertion.”

The judge singled out Bovino, who she said admitted to lying about whether a rock had struck him before using tear gas on protesters last month in Little Village.

 

They have earned a reputation for lying -- and judges don't like liars. 

You know who else doesn't like liars?  Tax payers who are the ones footing the bill for these employees who turn around and lie to the American people and to the courts.

Setting out to deceive the court?  That's actually a crime. And that's un-American.