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.

Media: Yes, there's a lot of garbage out there but that doesn't excuse 60 MINUTES

We're not sure what was funnier, 60 MINUTES pretending to do journalism in Norah O'Donnell's chat with Donald Chump or the 'after party' conversation we had with two 60 MINUTESers after the interview aired.  At one point, one of them snapped at us, "Well, look what passes for a TV documentary these days!"

 

 

We're not sure that's a defense but for any misguided like our 60 MINUTE friends, we've called out hundreds of so-called 'documentaries.'  In fact, we can call out one right now.

Rebecca Miller is a bigger liar than her father and who has sat through AFTER THE FALL and thought that could ever be possible?

The silly ninny isn't much of an artist.  But she's not much of anything.  She's certainly not much of an American since she bills herself as Lady Day-Lewis.  She's married to the British actor Daniel Day Lewis who's been given a title.  However, she's an American citizen and we don't do royal titles in the US.  She's not much of an actress, she's not much of novelist either or a filmmaker -- on the latter, seven features films.  That's how many she's directed.  All flopped.  

It's doubtful she'd have been hired in the first place if her father wasn't Arthur Miller.  She speaks with the same cowardly voice as her father.  And that is an issue when she's narrating a four-hour and forty-five minute, five-part 'documentary.'

She's focusing on Martin Scorsese.  No five hours isn't needed.  Nor is her constant purring of "Marty."  

This isn't a documentary, it's a film hagiography from a devoted fan.  Which is how we get his biggest disaster being THE KING OF COMEDY.  No, his biggest disaster is THE ACT.  

She doesn't even mention it in her documentary.  We know "Marty" so we'll be stepping on toes here.  Didn't plan to but since Miller did a fact-free documentary, we'll have to fill in the blanks.

The pluses: Martin directed one of the best films of the 20th century: GOODFELLAS.  He did a few other good films.  He also did some bad films.  He was denied deserved Academy Awards over the years.  Twice he lost to actors.  Kevin Costner's DANCES WITH THE WOLVES at least had scope (it was not better directed than GOODFELLAS).  Robert Redford's ORDINARY PEOPLE was a tiny, bad TV movie (but Redford won best director instead of Scorsese for RAGING BULL).  By the time he finally won (THE DEPARTED), he had hit a creative rut and he's never left it.

Scorsese has two problems as a film maker -- Rebecca avoided both -- and they're going to harm his legacy.

Friday, Kat posted "That embarrassing Martin Scorsese" and it was about Scorsese's stupidity.  He made a Howard Hughes film with a straight Howard Hughes.  

This isn't minor because Scorsese has a troubled history with gay men.  

Rebecca Miller doesn't explore that or even note that.  She shows a bit of Scorsese's documentary AMERICAN BOY: A PROFILE OF STEVEN PRINCE.  It was made quickly -- supposedly in less than 24 hours.  She shows him in a hot tub with Steven Prince (it's footage from the documentary) and he tells Steven not to sit close to him.

Though it's not noted, Steven's gay.  This wasn't a joke.  This was Marty's homophobia.  

His homophobia harmed NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- the film he made with Liza Minelli -- and it destroyed THE ACT.

That's the Broadway musical he directed -- also starring Liza.  Liza's not in the 'documentary' except with archived interviews she did promoting the film in the 70s.  We get the likes of Leo DiCaprio commenting on TAXI DRIVER but no Cybil Shepperd.  It's a strange line up Rebecca Hall selects from until you grasp that she's only speaking to the pre-approved voices Scorsese told her to (this while claiming she had complete freedom).

Liza belonged in that line up.

The two had a long standing affair.  On the set of the film, he had a problem with certain gay members of the crew.  The problem only increased (as did the number of gay men in the crew) when they worked together on THE ACT.

In the 20th century, Martin has been most noted for his squeamishness around gay men which is why they don't really factor in any of his feature films -- a strange silence in the 20th century and an embarrassing one in the 21st.

But that's not the only thing that Rebecca Miller ignores.

Martin Scorsese thinks domestic abuse is a normal part of life.  He thinks it's something he should show.

And he does.  Repeatedly from the male point of view.  He portrays it as love or as control or as this or that.  And maybe that's all it is for a male character.

Even with ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, the beating of Alice's son Tommy is really through the male point of view.  We're not just talking about the way the violence is filmed in Scorsese's movies.

He is tunnel vision and it harms his film.  He never can put himself into the female character.  For De Niro's Jake, the beating only matters when he's handing it out.  But, in real life, when a man is beating a woman, it's not the same thing for a woman.  When someone she loves beats her, if she stays past the first beating, she's always got to worry what's going to set him off, what's going to enrage him next.  It may very well be just another day for the male characters.  But it's never that for a woman who has been beaten. 

And Martin Scorsese's glorification of domestic abuse -- and he does glorify it -- is another nail in his  coffin in the 21st century.

Then there's Jodie Foster.  

We were shocked to hear Jodie go on about the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.  For years, she refused to even talk about and ended interviews if anyone brought it up.  She gave Rebecca Miller too much credit when she decided to discuss it with her.  We say that because, Jodie just played the part.

She shouldn't have been nominated for an Academy Award for Iris.  It's become obvious over the years that Robert De Niro coached the performance through a series of games with a child.  She wasn't acting, she didn't have the chops and she makes that clear every time she talks about it.  

So why is she the one Rebecca Miller bears in on?  She wants to know about the assassination attempt on Reagan.  The 12-year-old?  That's how old she was when she made the film.  Rebecca doesn't go after Martin -- the adult director -- or Paul Schrader -- the adult screenwriter.  

Rebecca's not a feminist -- she thinks she's beyond equality, if you can believe it.  But you'd think that if she wanted to explore the assassination attempt of a sitting president, she'd make a point to ask those that were adults when the movie was made.  These were not her ideas or her creations.  And watching her answer these questions from Rebecca Miller, we felt very uncomfortable.  Two adult males came up with a characterization and a third male watched the film and acted on it.  Three men imposed themselves and all these years later it's still, "Jodie, explain it to us."  

The proper response from Foster should be, "F**k you."

That is not our first take down of a documentary.  Unless we die this month, it probably won't be our last.

But now let's move back to 60 MINUTES.

That was an embarrassment.  Why Norah O'Donnell handled the chat that way, we have no idea.  If she thinks that embarrassment will help her find another job, she's mistaken.  And it is time to find another job.  The new owner thinks she's overpaid.  She's no longer anchoring the nightly news.  She has no where to go and damn little to offer.  A real interview could have given her a praise worthy exit.  Now?  Maybe FOX "NEWS" will be interested?

Time and again, she failed as a journalist.

She asked about political violence increasing and he whined that "they call me a Nazi all the time. I'm not a Nazi. I'm the opposite. I'm somebody that's saving our country."  He talks like a Nazi.  Norah could have pointed that out.  How his comments about immigrants tracked with "Final Solution" comments by Hitler.  Or she could have just treated him with the lack of respect he's earned and shot back, "Should they call you the space cowboy, the gangster of love, Maurice maybe?"

Instead, he lied.  And got treated as though he were a truth teller and not a serial liar.  That's not journalism.

If Norah wasn't up to the interview -- and clearly she wasn't -- 60 MINUTES could have and should have offered a crawl at the bottom of the screen explaining Chump's various lies. 

He's taken to the high seas to go after oil-rich Venezuela and he insists that the boats he's attacking and destroying -- killing people on board -- are 'narco terrorist' boats.  There is no death penalty in the US for dealing drugs.  But any sentence a drug dealer or trafficker receives in the US follows a trial.  Except in Chump Land where fat ass is not judge, jury and executioner.  He lied that each boat he's attacked would have killed 25,000 Americans ("every one of those boats kills 25,000 Americans. Every single boat that you see that's shot down kills 25,000 on drugs and destroys families all over our country.")  Norah didn't challenge him and didn't ask where he plucked that figure from?  In fairness to Norah on the latter, it was obvious to most viewers that he'd plucked it out of his fat ass.  She didn't even point out that boats -- not being planes -- are never "shot down."

It's hard to pick the worst section of the interview.  Certainly, this one is a strong possibility:

NORAH O'DONNELL: I-- I w-- definitely want to talk about the economy, but I just want to make s-- sure we-- we button up this issue--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Sure.

NORAH O'DONNELL: --on nuclear weapons. And I want to clarify this--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Sure.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Are you saying that after more than 30 years, the United States is going to start detonating nuclear weapons for testing?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I'm saying that we're going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do, yes.

NORAH O'DONNELL: But the only country that's testing nuclear weapons is North Korea. China and Russia are not--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, Russia's-- no, no. Russia's testing nuclear weapons--

NORAH O'DONNELL: So my understanding--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And China's testing 'em too. You just don't know about it.

NORAH O'DONNELL: That would be certainly very newsworthy. My understanding is what Russia did recently was test essentially the-- delivery systems for nuclear weapons, essentially missiles, which we can do that but w-- not with nuclear warheads-

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Russia's testing, and China's testing, but they don't talk about it. You know, we're a open society. We're different. We talk about it. We have to talk about it, because otherwise you people are gonna report-- they don't have reporters that gonna be writing about it. We do. No, we're gonna test, because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea's been testing. Pakistan's been testing.

No, Russia and China are not detonating nukes.  When that takes place, when a nuke detonates,that registers on our nuclear detonation detection system (which utilizes both ground features and satellite features), it registers on seismic monitoring and it registers via direct visual or radiological evidence.  No, repeating because it is important, Russia and China are not detonating nukes. Norah's tentative observation ("That would be certainly very newsworthy") does not count as pushback -- and it's especially weak when you consider the topic being discussed.

It may not have been obvious in the  broadcast but when you refer to the text, it's obvious that Norah's most repeated phrase was "Uh-huh." 

She was so agreeable.  Is she angling for a job in the administration?  That would explain why she never asked him what his repeated attacks on Joe Biden and Barack Obama were supposed to accomplish?  She never pointed out that president's don't do that.  Or that both men had won elections and represented various voters that Chump was also attacking when he attacked Biden and Obama.  

And it's easy to be agreeable when you let someone lie and don't care at all.  Excerpt:

NORAH O'DONNELL: Can you just answer that question that tariffs have led to inflation? They have led to an increase in cost of living for most Americans--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They haven't led to inflation. We have no inflation. We have no inflation. Biden had inflation, and he didn't have tariffs. He didn't use tariffs.

NORAH O'DONNELL: For the average American--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You know why he didn't use 'em? 'Cause he's not smart enough to use 'em.

NORAH O'DONNELL: But the companies say they passed on more than 30% of these costs to the American consumer off the tariffs--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Okay, ready, are you ready?

NORAH O'DONNELL: Somebody has to pay for it.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. You have to pay, but we don't have any inflation. Inflation is the que-- is the real test of paying. Everybody said, "Oh, if you do tariffs, you're gonna have inflation." So Biden had the highest inflation in the history of our country by far, okay. No tariffs.

I have very modest tariffs compared. Let me tell you. These tariffs ultimately are so good that at some point when they're used properly, and I use them more properly than anybody's ever even dreamt possible, think of it. We become rich. We're taking in trillions of dollars.

And I have no inflation. And I have total national security. When I put the 100% tariff on China over and above what they were already paying, which was about 55%, so 155%, they came to the table immediately and they made a deal with us that was a very fair deal. That's called national security. And then I didn't make 'em pay the 100%. That would have been instituted. That would have come to fore on November 1st. Norah, Norah, listen to me--

NORAH O'DONNELL: I know our time with you is limited. I hear you.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If I didn't have the power of tariff, we would be-- we would be like a subject nation. We'd be subject to everyone else. Everybody uses tariffs on us. If I wasn't allowed to use tariffs on them, we would be a third rate-- we would be a third world nation.

NORAH O'DONNELL: I know your time is limited, so I do want to make sure I get through another-- more of these topics.

Yes, we are suffering from inflation.  October 24th, the US Labor Dept issued a press release noting:

The index for gasoline rose 4.1 percent in September and was the largest factor in the all items monthly increase, as the index for energy rose 1.5 percent over the month. The food index increased 0.2 percent over the month as the food at home index rose 0.3 percent and the food away from home index increased 0.1 percent.

The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in September, after rising 0.3 percent in each of the 2 preceding months. Indexes that increased over the month include shelter, airline fares, recreation, household furnishings and operations, and apparel. The indexes for motor vehicle insurance, used cars and trucks, and communication were among the few major indexes that decreased in September.

The all items index rose 3.0 percent for the 12 months ending September, after rising 2.9 percent over the 12 months ending August. The all items less food and energy index also rose 3.0 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index increased 2.8 percent for the 12 months ending September. The food index increased 3.1 percent over the last year. 

Sorry to shock Chump and O'Donnell but that is inflation.

And that's reported by Chump's own Labor Department 10 days ago. 

So many times a real response would have been not "uh-huh," but instead, "What the hell does that have to do with anything?"  His second impeachment:

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, it's the opposite. I think I've been very mild-mannered. You're looking at a man who was indicted many times, and I had to beat the rap. Otherwise I couldn't have run for president. They tried to get me not to run for president by going after me and by indicting me.

But even during my term, on a perfect phone call, I got impeached. This call was perfect. Tim Scott, from South Carolina, highly respected, a legitimate person totally legit, he read the tran-- thank goodness we had a transcript of the call.

The call I got indicted on, a call on Ukraine of all places, with the President of Ukraine. It was a perfect phone call. Tim Scott said, "I just read the transcript. The President didn't do anything wrong, was perfect." And that was the end of the indictment pretty much.

What the hell does that mindless ranting have to do with anything?

He wasn't indicted on that, he was impeached over that for the second time.  And what the hell does idiot Tim Scott's opinion matter? He holds no law degree.  He went to college on a sports scholarship, let's not pretend he's the new Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Much was cut from the interview that CBS aired over the public airwaves.  You can find the full interview on YOUTUBE and here for a transcript. CNN's Daniel Dale did a fact check here.

But all you needed to see was Chump running all over Norah O'Donnell who could pretty much only manage one of her "uh-huh"s and never managed to hold him to facts and never managed to seriously correct hm.  If her point was to demonstrate how vapid and unimportant journalism can be, then she succeeded.  And others at 60 MINUTES can whine about TV documentaries but that doesn't change -- and won't change -- how Norah's chat with Donald was not journalism.

Media: They fail to note the pattern of ICE lies but make time to defend this year's John Fetterman

The country has turned on Chump and on his version of ICE.  If you doubt the latter, George Retes.  We noted him July 23rd in "Media: Why America's turned on Chump's war on immigrants."  He's the Iraq War veteran ICE assaulted in California -- Retes described the assault, "It took two officers to nail my back and then one on my neck to arrest me even though my hands were already behind my back."  In a Friday column for THE WASHINGTON POST, conservative George Will wrote about Retes:

 

One Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s knee was on his neck, another’s was grinding his back. Drenched with tear gas and pepper spray, George Retes might have wished that his 137 pounds were back in Kirkuk, Iraq, one of his Army deployments. Herewith a glimpse of your tax dollars at work.

Born 26 years ago in Ventura, California, where his mother was born, he enlisted after high school and calls the Army “the best job ever,” adding, “I love the infantry.” He married a woman he deployed with, thereby acquiring a stepson, soon a daughter, and a reason to leave the Army: to avoid long absences from his children.

 [. . .]

The ICE men were presumably looking for undocumented immigrants. Retes’s driver’s license, which he says the ICE men never asked to see, identifies him as “Veteran Army.” His license plate includes “DV”: disabled veteran. While ICE’s warriors were trying and ultimately succeeding in smashing his driver’s-side window (the better to pepper spray him), they apparently did not notice his rear window’s “Iraq Combat Veteran” sticker.

Amid a torrent of shouted and contradictory ICE men commands, and after he asked for an agent’s badge number, he says, Retes was dragged from his car, his wrists were zip-tied behind his back, and he was seated on the roadside ground for four hours.

 

Those are the signs of an out of control federal agency and those are the actions of Chump's gestapo force.  The actions are shocking, yes, and illegal.  

  

 

 

The actions are also not all that surprising considering who gets hired by ICE and who provides purported oversight of ICE.  Who gets hired?  The lowest of the low.  Charles P. Pierce (ESQUIRE) pull quoted from an NBC NEWS report and this might be the most disturbing part of that report:

 

Nearly half of new recruits who’ve arrived for training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center over the past three months were later sent home because they couldn’t pass the written exam, according to the data. The academic requirement includes an exam in which officers are allowed to consult their textbooks and notes at the end of a legal course on the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Fourth Amendment, which outlines when officers can and can’t conduct searches and seizures.

 

"Oh my goodness!  They almost hired those people!"

 

No, that's not it.  It's that they hired the others -- those 'trained' people who required an open book final exam.  They weren't expected or required to know the law.  You see that reflected in their conduct repeatedly.

 

Not just with regards to their attack on the US citizen and Iraq War veteran George Retes, but on people all across the country.  They are a lawless body that terrorizes in the streets of America.   

 

They terrorize pregnant women.  They terrorize the challenged and/or disabled.  Who is safe on the streets of America when ICE is let loose?  Children?  They're tear gassing children.  When they're not zip-tying them.

 

And there is no oversight.  

 

They're a department of liars led by the lying Homeland Secuirty Secretary Kristi Noem.

  

ICE rammed a car in Chicago -- ran into it -- and they lied in statements and false charges insisting that  Dayanne Figueroa, a US citizen, ran into them:

 

Footage obtained by Newsweek appears to show armed federal agents detaining Figueroa, dragging her by the legs to remove her from her vehicle. Some agents brandish guns, and bystanders can be heard shouting, “You hit her,” as the situation unfolds.

Additional video obtained by Figueroa’s family from another witness provides a different angle of the encounter. The bystander who is filming tells federal agents: “You hit her. We all saw it.”

“You guys are f*****g scumbags, f*****g Nazis. They hit her car. You guys hit her, and you f*****g know it,” the bystander is heard saying.

“As agents were departing, the driver, a U.S. citizen, struck an unmarked government vehicle,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek.

 

Tricia, like Kristi, is a repeat offender when it comes to lying to the American people. Nicole Charky-Chami (RAW STORY) notes:

A senior ICE official is under fire after publicly sharing a 13-year-old child's information — and an expert warns it "could lead to serious consequences."

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, 31, who is the most senior public affairs official under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, revealed the identity, alleged criminal history and a photo of the child detained by ICE, The Daily Beast reported Monday.

McLaughlin is accused of sharing children's information not just once, but multiple times.

Her social media post and the DHS actions “could lead to serious consequences inside the government, such as an Inspector General investigation, disciplinary action, or even congressional scrutiny," Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney Arash Hashemi told The Beast.

Public anger was rising after a Brazilian-born seventh-grader in Massachusetts was reportedly taken by federal agents to a juvenile detention center more than 500 miles away from his family.

In an attempt to stop the public criticism, McLaughlin and DHS tried to use social media.

"They claimed that the boy had an 'extensive rap sheet,' while listing some of his apparent past offenses. They also stated—falsely, it transpired—that he had been in possession of a firearm," The Beast reports.

It's illegal for DHS or law enforcement to share a child's information.

 And here's where the media keeps failing us.  Homeland Security officials have been caught in one lie after another.  It's so bad that judges can't really take their claims seriously at this point.  But the media too often repeats claims regarding ICE without noting the long pattern of lies from them this year.  

 

We were all taught about the little boy who cried wolf.  You don't lie because you'll be known as a liar and the time will come when you need to be believed but you're known as a liar.  

 

A lesson we're taught as children is too much for ICE and the officials over ICE to grasp. That might be shocking if we hadn't already addressed the relaxed 'standards' when it comes to hiring ICE agents.

 

Relaxed standards.  Ty explained to us that there were e-mails insisting that we don't call out Democrats anymore.  Huh?  The last piece we did was entitled "Media: Can Dems stop caving, can the media stop whoring" -- how do you miss that? 

 

On our last piece, we'll come back to the Dem issue in just a moment, some are bothered that we've decided we don't care if we miss a week in posting here.  It's now been twenty years and counting and we had to do a weekly media piece for 20 years.  Chump is back in the White House.  That requires a lot of energy on our part.  It requires energy not to burn out and not to be captured by fear.  It also requires energy for us to sound the alarms on Chump's crimes in zoom calls and in speaking appearances.  In a perfect world, we'd have time for everything.  Then again in a perfect world we could have spent this space right now explaining in great detail how awful CBS' 'reality' show/contest THE ROAD is.

 

Back to Dems.

  

There are something's we're not calling out.  We're focused on the mid-terms and how Dems getting both house of Congress can save the country.  

 

So there are things that, in better times, we'd be exploring but we don't have time for right now.  The ship is sinking and we're bailing water as fast as we can.  We don't have time for everything.  

 

So we focus on what we think is most important.

 

For a week now, we've said nothing as the Dems -- certain Dems -- got behind the latest John Fetterman.

 

Remember that piece of garbage?  Dems pimped him like crazy, Bernie endorsed him yet anyone with a brain knew he shouldn't get the nomination.  He got it.  He won the election.  He was sworn into Congress and then immediately went into a hospital to receive mental treatment.  He was there for months.  No, that's not normal nor is it acceptable.  A lot of whiners among the Dems now insist that he changed due to a stroke -- that would be a stroke he had as a candidate when he could have still been replaced but certain Dems attacked anyone -- politician, the media, internet personality -- that suggested that.

 

America, meet your new John Fetterman:  Graham Platner.

 

He's one of many vying for the spot of Democratic Party nominee for a senate seat out of Maine.

 

One of many.

 

And he needs to drop out.  He was whining Monday night that the Democratic Party was attacking him -- his own party.

 

Believe his party is the Communist Party -- isn't that what he declared online.  Let's go to WIKIPEDIA:

 

In October 2025, various news outlets reported on Reddit posts by Platner from between 2013 and 2021 in which he called himself a "communist", declared that all cops are bastards, and agreed with a post calling rural white Americans "racist and stupid". In an interview with CNN, Platner said of those comments, "That was very much me f**king around the internet ... I don't think any of that is indicative of who I am today".^[39] In a 2013 Reddit discussion about anti-rape underwear, Platner commented that people worried about assault should "take some responsibility for themselves and not get so fucked up they wind up having sex with someone they don't mean to".^[40] He also referenced political violence in multiple posts; in 2018, he wrote: "Fight until you get tired of fighting with words and then fight with signs, and fists, and guns if need be." Platner also wrote that "an armed working class is a requirement for economic justice" and urged readers to "Get Armed, Get Organized. The Other Side Sure As Hell Is."^[39][41] He has said that many of the comments do not represent his current political beliefs, and that they were the product of disillusionment after his military discharge and struggles with PTSD.^[42][43] Collins called Platner's internet history "terrible" and "offensive".^[44] Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said that while he did not approve of Platner's comments, he did not consider them "disqualifying".^[45] After the reporting on these comments, Platner's political director, former Democratic state representative Genevieve McDonald, resigned from his campaign.^[46]

Platner said in an interview with Pod Save America that he has a skull-and-bones tattoo resembling the Totenkopf, a symbol worn by the Nazi Schutzstaffel paramilitary organization. Platner said that he and some other Marines got the tattoo while on leave in Croatia in 2007, not knowing its symbolism,^[47] and that he learned that his tattoo resembled the Totenkopf only when reporters and political operatives from DC contacted him during his campaign. He said he had recently gotten it covered up.^[48][49] Maine Governor Janet Mills, one of Platner's opponents in the Democratic primary, described the tattoo as "abhorrent". She stated, "I obviously vehemently disagree with the things he's been quoted as saying and doing" but that it was "up to the people" to decide whether he should continue in the Senate race.^[50] However, Platner also called himself an anti-fascist "supersoldier" in an old Reddit comment.^[51]

 

Is there some homo-erotic desire on the part of DSA -- among others -- when it comes to male candidates who are pure trash?  Like Fetterman, Platner doesn't look like he's managed more than two showers a month and DSA tends to mistake that for fortitude.

 

Tonight, Jen Pskai was all but licking him on air on the soon to be MS NOW.  

 

Weirdo Branco Marcetic took to JACOBIN (the DSA bible) at the start of the week to insist there was a smear job being done on Platner.  

 

Not a smear job, an expose.

 

He got a Nazi tattoo.  Instead of calling that out, the DSA is acting as ridiculous as the fright-wing does when they rush to defend Confederate monuments.  And CNN's already exposed his lie that he didn't know he'd tattooed himself with a Nazi symbol until recently was a lie -- he knew as far back as 2006 when CNN was able to unearth the social media posts he'd deleted as part of his effort to run for the senate.  Part of that effort, by the way, was getting married (for the first time) last year at the age of forty.  

 

He knew it was a Nazi tattoo and he knew it nearly 20 years ago.  He's lied repeatedly and publicly.  He's also a mercenary who worked for Blackwater which is somehow being ignored.

 

Why?  Because he cites Bernie as a hero (as did Fetterman) and he cites Socialists as heroes (without noting their political affiliation) (as did Fetterman) so it's time for the same booming voices to try to shout reality down.  There are many candidates running of that Democratic Party nomination.  Why are Jen Psaki, POD SAVE AMERICA, JACOBIN and others doing advance work for his campaign while ignoring other nominees?  And on other comments, he did not minimize rape accusations as some idiots in the media keep typing, he minimized rape.  There's a big difference.  One is really bad (mining accusations), the other is outright evil (minimizing rape itself).  Christopher Wiggins (THE ADVOCATE) explained:

 

 The controversy has rattled Maine’s Democratic primary. Platner, a Marine and Army veteran and political newcomer, admitted to posting homophobic slurs and crude antigay jokes on Reddit as recently as 2021. He apologized for misogynistic and racist comments on Reddit before that. And, he covered up a tattoo he’s worn for 18 years that resembles the Nazi Totenkopf symbol, which he said he got in his 20s during his time in the Marines.

 

This is the hill Jen Psaki and others want to die on?

 

And instead of letting it play out, they're trying to rig it, they're trying to railroad the American people.   

 

 While they try to lie to us to pimp their favored candidate,  they ignore the war on immigrants and so much more.

 

For example?

 

Hey, commentators at websites, on YOUTUBE, on MSNBC, every where -- where the hell have you been?

 

Donald Chump has savaged Joe Biden over the use of an auto pen to sign documents.  He's insisted that Joe didn't even know what he was signing.  Well last week, Donald served himself up for that kind of criticism but where the hell were you?

 

David Badash noted Donald had just pardoned Changpeng Zhao:

 

 Asked on Thursday why he chose to issue the pardon, and if it had anything to do with Zhao’s involvement with the Trump family’s crypto business, the President responded, “Who is that?”

“The founder of Binance,” the reporter replied.

“The recent one, yes,” Trump said. “I believe we’re talking about the same person, ’cause I do pardon a lot of people.”

“I don’t know -- he was recommended by a lot of people,” Trump continued. “A lot of people say that -- are you talking about the crypto person?”

 

Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) covered the story in terms of Republcians and Democrats who objected to the pardon. 

 But there was always an important point to make that no one seemed to grasp.

 

Last month, AP reported:

 

President Donald Trump has added a Presidential Walk of Fame to the exterior of the White House, featuring portraits of each of the previous commanders-in-chief — except for one.

Instead of a headshot of Joe Biden, the Republican incumbent instead hung a photo of an autopen signing the Democrat’s name — a reference to Trump’s frequent allegation that the former president was addled by the end of his term in office and not really the one making decisions.

 

Chump doesn't know who he pardoned -- and not from earlier this year or even a month ago.  He didn't know who he just pardoned.  Seems he's guilty of everything he's accused Joe of.  Also seems like his not knowing who he pardoned is even more important after Monday's assault by the Republican controlled House Oversight Committee which stated this week their 'finding' that Joe Biden's pardons are not legitimate because they were signed with an auto pen.  That's their 'finding' and they can talk about it however they want; however, it is not a judicial finding and it has no weight at all on the pardons Joe issued which stand in spite of Chump and GOP spin. 

 

Last week, William Priest (BARRON'S) observed, "Democracy, once thought to be self-sustaining, is on defense. Like every system before it, democracy has gone through cycles of strength and weakness—but its survival is no longer guaranteed. What is at stake is not simply a style of governance, but the wealth, freedom, and happiness of its citizens."  We agree.  In the 20th century, there was communism, democracy, socialism, totalitarianism, fascism, etc.  When the USSR fell, some political observers declared it a victory for democracy.  It wasn't.  Democracy, like any political system, can fall.  We have to fight for it -- right now, we're really having to fight for it -- and we can't take it for granted.  But when we see the media refusing to cover something or refusing to cover it accurately or using their time (while wasting our time) to lie about the candidate they personally support, it becomes obvious that democracy does not mean as much to them as it does to us.  If it did, they'd be better at their jobs.

 

 

Media: Can Dems stop caving, can the media stop whoring?

Are elected Democrats bound to be losers forever?  We kind of hoped not.  We kind of hoped that as the nation suffers through its worst crisis, elected Dems were learning just like, hopefully, the left trash that pretended attacking Kamala Harris wasn't helping to put Donald Crump back in the White House.

  

 

We wondered that this morning during CNN's STATE OF THE UNION when Dana Bash spoke with Senator Mark Kelly who was apparently eager to lick all the salt of Donald Chump's nut sack.  Right now, more than ever, we need leaders not those who scrape and bow.

 

Kelly was tonguing Chump's balls  for a peace plan.

 

Did it feel good, on his knees in front of Donald, debasing himself for a 'peace plan'?

 

Since he gets off on shame, we've got some news for him: It was all for nothing.  He humiliated himself for nothing.  
 

There is no peace plan.  Phase one, the only thing that most are aware of and the only thing Hamas has really agreed to,  is a release of any living hostages in exchange for 2,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons and let's Israel retain control over much of Gaza in a manner.  In fact, William Christou  and Jason Burke (GUARDIAN) observe, "If negotiators have closed gaps between Hamas and Israel over the details of the first phase of the 20-point plan announced by Trump in the White House last week, it was not immediately certain whether the parties had made any progress on thornier questions, such as how Hamas will be disarmed, as Netanyahu has demanded, and the eventual governance of Gaza."

 

Exactly.  

 

This could very well be yet another pause masked as a cease-fire.  

A true peace plan probably wouldn't result in what took place September 29th -- that's when Chump announced it . . . with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side  -- with only Netanyahu at his side.

 

The wilful stupidity on the part of the press and the part of elected officials when it comes to this fact speaks to a very anti-Muslim point of view.  We get that, right?  When Chump pretends to have talks of peace re: Ukraine, the press and politicians notice if a Ukrainian representative is not present.  

But leave, for example, Izz al-Din al-Haddad out of the announcement and it doesn't matter?

 

It matters and it's very significant.   

 

There is no peace plan -- certainly not one that's going to benefit the Palestinian people.  

 

How do you miss that?  If it's not assuming that Palestinians are less human -- the anti-Muslim point of view we noted above -- then it's just exhaustion over this conflict that didn't begin in October 2003.  But even that exhaustion goes to anti-Muslim bias.  Because you're ready to embrace anything just to see it 'ended' -- you're willing to ignore the Palestinian needs.

 

 Israel, to kind of Malcolm X it, didn't land on an empty land in 1948, it landed on Palestine.  

 

Maybe because the United Kingdom has publicly struggled with this issue longer (as opposed to the US media and officals which tended to run with Israel-is-a-saint-Palestinians-are-always-to-blame), their press has been much more honest  Take  Katie Stallard's conclusion at the end of her piece for THE NEW STATESMAN: 

 

  The key clause here is "if agreed," because, as Trump meandered on, it became clear that his peace plan had not, in fact, been agreed by Hamas. “We’re at a minimum, very, very close,” he said, despite the fact that his proposal was not shared with the militant group until after the press conference. By the following day, Hamas officials had said they were reviewing the plan “in good faith” but at the time the New Statesman went to press it was unclear when a response would be issued. In April, Hamas rejected demands to give up their weapons as a “red line”. During his press conference, Trump warned that “if Hamas rejects the deal” then Netanyahu would “have our full backing to do what you would have to do”.

 

Or take Alex Boyd and Tom Bateman's BBC NEWS report tonight, "Many details for the later phases of the peace plan could be hard to reach agreement on - such as the governance of Gaza, the extent of Israeli troop withdrawal, and the disarming of Hamas."

 

 Senator Mark Kelly did not look reasonable praising Chump for a fake deal.  He looked deeply stupid and deserved to.  Why is it that all the Democratic senators and House representatives and MSNBC hosts are just going along with bulls**t as opposed to telling the truth that Elaine did in "Stupid Donald Chump works to create a quagmire" -- Chump's putting US troops in the region.  Not to protect Palestinians.  So why are they there and, more to the point, considering all of known history, why is left to Elaine to explain he's creating a quagmire for the United States?

 

What we were left with from STATE OF THE UNION was the impression that Senator Kelly could handle questions about the scent of Chump's taint but not much of anything else as demonstrated when ever Dana Bash was more aware of reality than Kelly.

 

She asked him, "You mentioned looking forward, and I should mention that you visited the region several times during this conflict. There are multiple sticking points in the 20-point plan, particularly when we get to like point six, and the whole question of whether or not Hamas will lay down its arms. How realistic is that?"

 

Like the stereotypical beauty queen pageant drivel of "world peace," Kelly insisted, "I think it’s possible, I am concerned, that they may change their minds here."

 

Who is this 'they'?  Hamas has not signed off the 20-point plan (especially true of disarming).  

 

Mark's stupidity is only matched by CODEPINK's gross ignorance.  They spent the fall of 2024 electing Donald Chump.  That is the reality.  They now spend their final days following Kamala Harris around on her book tour, screeching and disrupting.  

 

Kamala Harris is not the president of the United States -- CODEPINK worked hard to ensure that.  And they're too scared to protest Donald Chump -- weren't out at Walter Reed on Friday, for example, despite days of notice that Chump would around  for his 'annual' six-month check up.  But they managed to boo and his Kamala.  

 

The whole country suffers today due to the actions of CODESTINK and their allies.  

 

And those dumb quacks haven't learned one damn thing.  Instead of apologizing to the country for the work they did to put Chump in the White House, they want to distract and waste time by going after Kamala Harris -- who, for the record, is not president of the United States and was not president of the United States.  Palestinians are getting screwed over with Chump's supposed peace plan and CODESTINK too busy wasting more time to fight for the people of Palestine or even to garner attention for their plight.  

 

Kelly's actions demonstrate that, even all these months later, we can't count on our elected Dems and CODEPINK's misdirected hysteria makes it clear that they're no one to depend upon either.  

 

 

 

Media: Flip the script? Acosta can't even lift it

YOUTUBE and podcasts have extended the careers of some fired from cable and network news.  Sometimes that's a good thing.  Sometimes.

 

But for every single  Mehdi Hasan there are several Jim Acosta.

 

Last week, Acosta reminded us again of how lucky the country was when CNN fired him at the start of this year.  

 

That's not to say that Acosta doesn't have some talents -- he does.  But too often he undermines what he's covering.  During Chump's first administration, he did this repeatedly.  Everything is not equal except in Jim Acosta's eyes.  In his eyes every action is equal and deserves massive attention and should make your blood boil.  That's how he helped Chump from January 2017 through January 2021.  He was such a drama queen, that he made people sympathetic to Chump or at least aware enough that somethings were just too much.

 

Now Jim worked with a staff at CNN and you could argue that the problem was his producer, for example.  But on YOUTUBE, Jim's calling all his shots and he's embarrassing and harming the cause so many times of late. 

 

There are stories that need to be told and that need to be amplified.  The new material on the Epstein and Maxwell scandal needs to be amplified, for example.  Immigration needs to be covered more -- and not justified -- remember that second point, we'll be coming back to it. 

 

He's posted a video Saturday on his YOUTUBE channel and RAW STORY thought it was noteworthy.  No, not for any reason that they're covering.  It's garbage and his guest is garbage.  It helped no one. 

 

Let's start with the topic:  They're might be more grab them by the p---- type tapes!  Someone would have them! 

Who the f**k cares?

 

What?  You want a Congressional investigation on them?  

You want to waste our damn time on this bulls**t?

 

The tapes will never see the light of day -- if they exist.  If they exist, they're not going to shock at this late date.  But there was Acosta and Billy Bush talking about creepy Mark Burnett (husband of Roma Downey) and in all their gabby and gossiping, the two couldn't even make one important point: Chump's given away another American jobs. Mark Burnett should not be the US Special Envoy to the UK.  He shouldn't.  He can be.  He can't be a US ambassador because he's not a US citizen.  But he can be one of this government's special envoy because it doesn't require US citizenship.  They usually are US citizens but they don't have to be.  Here's Chump giving away another job that could have gone to an American but instead handing it to a foreigner who doesn't even live in the United States. 

  

Some in the public -- people other than political junkies -- are paying attention to important stories.  Such as?  Epstein-Maxwell, immigration, the looming shut down, inflation, jobs, the abuse of government by targeting people like Comey, etc.

And here comes Acosta dragging in the dead bird that no one cares to see.  

Not only do we not want to see it, its harming us.  

How so?  

On the set of THE APPRENTICE are we supposed to think a rape took place?  On camera?  Chump probably said something sexist and vile and disgusting.

 

But what does it matter at this point?

 

More to the point, the middle of America sees this garbage -- this Acosta garbage -- that time is being wasted on and they see is as unserious and just an effort to get Chump.  In other words, they see it as all the work Acosta did before at CNN.

 

Acosta's not keeping us directed or focused, he's distracting us and he's giving people reason to blow off  serious complaints about Chump .

 

There was nothing of value.  Nothing.  Acosta let the disgraced Billy Bush lie about his career and he let him float support for Chump's war on immigrants.  See, Bush explained, he was just in Ireland and he spoke to some men there and they support Chump.  Oh, how we've missed Thomas Friedman and his Taxi Cab Confessions.  Whenever Friedman wanted to make a point in the '00s, he generally found a taxi cab driver to hide behind.  It's interesting, if you look at his body of work, how every tax cab driver he ever noted in those bad columns agreed with Freidman's own views.  Never once was there a NEW YORK TIMES column by Friedman about how a taxi cab driver disagreed with him

 

We disagreed with Billy Bush.  We especially disagreed with his lies about his time on THE TODAY SHOW.  He was a victim, Billy insisted, because the producer didn't want someone from ACCESS HOLLYWOOD on a news show.  

 

No, the chief producers and the entire crew and talent objected that a gossip columnist was brought on.  And that objection only grew stronger when the gossip couldn't -- or wouldn't -- nail down the facts.  Most infamously, Billy was enthralled with a male athlete who was 'attacked.'  Only, turns out, he wasn't.  And any real journalist would have asked the right questions -- the ones Billy didn't.  Not only did Billy fail at journalism, he got into an on air row with Al Roker.  Al.  Roker.  Known as the nicest man on daytime television.  And during that on air beef -- Al was right, Billy was wrong.

 

And Acosta was wrong to waste everyone's time.

 

In addition to the topics noted prior, there's also a good chance that the government will go into shut down this week.  They have until Tuesday night to pass a short term funding bill.  At midnight, it's over.  Dems were supposed to meet with Chump last week but Chump cancelled the meeting and bluffed and blustered backing off only when polling indicated that the public could blame a shut down on the Republican Party since they control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. 

 

Now Chump rushes to meet with the Democrats on Monday.

 

Dems are concerned about the cuts to healthcare, to cite one important issue.  They need to stand up for their concerns.

 

Without any real messaging, they are already winning.  

 

And if the shut down happens?  As soon as Tuesday night turns into Wednesday morning (midnight), Democrats should be in front of every camera pointing out Chump's inability to pull a budget together.

 

It should, in fact, go something like this.

 

Minority House Leader Hakeem Jeffries:  He had time to golf but didn't have time to work on our nation's budget.

 

Minority Senate Leader Chuck Schumer:  He had time to go after James Comey but he didn't have time to put together a budget.

 

Senator Patty Murray:  He had time to repeatedly attack veterans' health care but he didn't have time to put together a budget.  

Senator Ron Wyden:  He had time to invade Portland, but he didn't have time to put together a budget.   

 

Senator Maria Cantwell: He had time to demand Microsoft fire Lisa Monaco but he didn't have time to put together a budget.

 

Senator Tammy Baldwin:  He had turn to destroy American farmers while bailing out Argentina but he didn't have time to put together a budget.  

 

US House Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez:   He had time to work on getting Jimmy Kimmel fired but he didn't have time to put together a budget.

 

Senator Elizabeth Warren:  He's had time to launch attacks on Social Security but he didn't have time to put together a budget.

 

US House Rep Jasmine Crockett: He made time to terrorize immigrants without criminal records but couldn't make time to put together a budget. 

 

If the country goes into a shutdown, that should be the messaging over and over.  How Chump has stuck his big nose into everything -- including in private business, in colleges, in museum, etc, etc -- but he hasn't made time to go the actual work that a president is supposed to focus on.

 

The showdown all by itself will be evidence of Chump's failure.  But Democrats can also use that event to demonstrate all the time he's wasted on everything but helping the American people.

 

That's how you flip the script.