Posts on Wednesday, July 16, 2025
The Federal District Court for the District of Columbia has been a safe haven for Democrats, with the justices there willing repeatedly to favor plaintiffs who have filed suits against the Trump administration. Margot Cleveland obtained a memo from a federal judicial conference held this past March showing that the DC judges are actively hostile to Donald Trump and want to ensure the Supreme Court shares that hostility. This behavior crashes into the federal canons governing judges, as well as into the reality of Trump’s conduct. Before Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, the DC District Court had already garnered a reputation for hostility to the Trump side
Not long after Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs escaped some of the more severe charges he faced in his RICO trial, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced another shake-up at the Justice Department, and a welcome one: Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey, who also handled the Ghislaine Maxwell prosecution, has been fired. ABC News reported that President Trump was not keen on having a member of the Comey family work in his Justice Department:
The Justice Department on Wednesday fired Maurene Comey from the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where she most recently led the prosecution of Sean "Diddy" Combs, multiple sources told ABC News.
The U.S. Department of Justice has fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a federal prosecutor who worked on cases against Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jeffrey Epstein.
The reason for her firing remains unclear. Maurene Comey, an assistant U.S. attorney in the southern district of New York, most recently led the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs. The rapper was convicted of a prostitution-related charge this month but acquitted of more serious charges. Maurene Comey had previously prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell, the former associate of Epstein who helped the financier run his child sex trafficking ring.
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday afternoon, July 16 that Coca-Cola has agreed to use real cane sugar for its soda beverages sold in the U.S.
"I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!"
USA TODAY has reached out to Coca-Cola for confirmation on the president's announcement. A spokesperson for the company told Reuters the Atlanta-based company will share details on new offerings
A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month indicates the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The newspaper cited people familiar with U.S. officials' early assessment of evidence uncovered in the investigation into the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people.
The first officer, who was flying the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, asked the more experienced captain why he moved the fuel switches to the "cutoff" position seconds after lifting off the runway, the report said.
The two pilots involved were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder
The unprecedented crackdown that is underway right now to root out fraud in Minnesota’s growing autism program started around the time of a federal raid of two autism centers last year in Minneapolis and St. Cloud. However, there are growing concerns that the state may have missed warning signs. (Snip) “There was such a high need for autism services in Minnesota when the state began offering it, that it’s an unlicensed service, so there aren’t the same structures in place that there are for other programs,” said Shireen Gandhi, Temporary Commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the agency
WASHINGTON − Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, was hospitalized July 16, her office said in a statement, amid an ongoing debate and anticipated vote in the Senate on President Donald Trump's $9 billion spending cuts. "While at work at the Capitol today, Sen. Smith started to not feel well," her staff said. "She went to the Capitol physician who recommended she undergo more thorough examination at GW hospital." (Snip) The Minnesota Democrat's absence likely means one less no vote on a package slashing funds for foreign aid and public broadcasting, currently under consideration in the upper chamber. Senate Majority Leader John
How low can they go? The job approval rating for congressional Democrats has plunged to another all-time low, with fewer than 2 in 10 Americans happy with their work on Capitol Hill. Only 19% of registered voters approve of the way Democrats in Congress are handling their job, a Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday found. The dismal rating for congressional Dems is the lowest ever recorded by the pollster, which first began asking the question in 2009. Even among Democratic voters, a majority (52%) disapprove of congressional Democrats, with only 39% satisfied. “If the approval numbers for Republicans are bad
Jill Biden’s infamous “work husband,” Anthony Bernal, just became the latest Biden insider to clam up under oath. On Wednesday, Bernal invoked the Fifth Amendment when dragged before Congress to answer questions about Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive decline, making him the second close Biden aide to lawyer up and refuse to talk.
Bernal followed the lead of Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s longtime personal physician, who also took the Fifth when pressed for answers. And just like O’Connor, Bernal had nothing to say to reporters on his way out the door.
According to Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), the committee’s legal team
The storms in rural Texas have been devastating, and the Trump Administration has acted swiftly. (Snip) FEMA’s initial slow response under the Biden Administration has been well-documented, and the partisan way that they provided assistance is reprehensible.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, noting the early inaction, was incensed. She claimed that the weather was being used as a weapon. Where MTG got her information is still uncertain. It is, however, becoming clearer as time marches on that governments around the world have been exploring the potential for controlling the weather. This quest goes back many decades, and the doubting Thomases among us are being naive.
There’s a strange, unsettling irony in the endless chants for Donald Trump to release the so-called “Epstein names.” For many in his base, these demands feel like the final frontier of truth and justice. But this obsession isn’t born merely from a desire to protect the vulnerable or expose elite wrongdoing. Instead, it’s the byproduct of a deeper, more painful economic story — one that tells us far more about modern America than any flight log ever could.
When Jeffrey Epstein, charged with child sex–trafficking, was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019, under bizarre circumstances — broken cameras, inattentive guards
Feds execute search warrants
connected to ‘massive scheme to defraud’
a Minnesota housing program replies
connected to ‘massive scheme to defraud’
a Minnesota housing program replies
Alpha News was on location as a search warrant was being served at several locations related to a “massive scheme to defraud” Medicaid and Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) program.
According to the search warrant, the fraud investigation involves HSS providers who billed for various services intended to provide stable housing for Minnesotans.
The search warrant states, “The Program has proved to be extremely vulnerable to fraud.” (snip) Records indicate that Brilliant Minds Services is owned by Khalid Dayib and Mustafa Ali. Before April 2025, it was owned by Dayib, Ali, and a third partner, Moktar Hassan Aden.
Late-night dramatics and surprise defections capped off the push to advance President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar clawback package through procedural hurdles, but now lawmakers are nearing the finish line.
Lawmakers cruised through hours of debate on Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package Wednesday morning and are now entering into another vote-a-rama, where both sides of the aisle can offer an unlimited number of amendments to the package.
At stake are clawbacks that would yank back congressionally approved funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting, which Senate Democrats, and some Republicans, have admonished.
Donald Trump is once again angry, but this time his ire is directed at a new audience: his own MAGA supporters.
In a blistering post on Truth Social on Wednesday morning, Trump continued to push his backers to stop talking about Jeffrey Epstein, an issue that has driven what appears to be one of the most significant rifts between him and the political movement he built.
“Let those weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work,” he wrote. “Don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore.”
Trump later told reporters in the Oval Office that he had “lost faith in certain people”
Trump disavows supporters pushing Jeffrey
Epstein '*': 'I don't want their support anymore!' replies
Epstein '*': 'I don't want their support anymore!' replies
President Donald Trump on Wednesday disowned his supporters who have called for the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, chiding them as "weaklings" who "bought into this *"
The lengthy post on Truth Social represents the clearest split from the faction of his MAGA base that has questioned the Justice Department’s handling of the case.
My "PAST supporters have bought into this “*” hook, line, and sinker," he said in the post, adding, "Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!"
Oakmont Country Club confirmed numerous reports on Wednesday that Wyndham Clark has been banned from the golf course property. After missing the cut at last month's U.S. Open, a tournament he won two years ago at Los Angeles Country Club, Clark took his anger out on lockers at the prestigious club. One alleged photo of the damage made its way around social media, as two bottom portions of lockers were completely caved in.
During a heated exchange on CNN, Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky and anchor Abby Phillip went berserk after Scott Jennings pointed out a simple, inconvenient truth: Under President Donald Trump, the price of eggs has dropped — just as he promised.
It all started when Jennings highlighted the economic success of Trump’s policies. “The core CPI forecast was 3%. It came in at 2.9. For the five months of Trump’s administration, inflation has matched or beat expectations,” he said. He added that the economy is “booming with new investments” and that the administration has reason to be “bullish on America.” Jennings pointed to Trump’s push to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent
The Trump administration and its associates are allegedly seeking access to voter data and physical inspections of election equipment. The request is raising concerns among local and state election officials over potential interference in the 2026 midterms. The Washington Post first reported the story on Wednesday, July 16. The Post described the outreach as the “most unusual activity” in Colorado, a state President Donald Trump lost in the 2024 election. According to officials, a consultant identified as Jeff Small, who has ties to members of Congress and previously served as Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert’s chief of staff, contacted multiple election offices.
"In America, we don't do kings."
That was the message of the leftist protesters who swarmed the streets nationwide on June 14 in opposition to President Donald Trump and his agenda.
"Trump must go now!" they chanted, waving signs that likened the president to a dictator and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to his Gestapo.
Their complaint was alleged despotism. But if Democrats really opposed authoritarianism, they wouldn't be celebrating its emergence in the courts.
Hunter Biden said in a new interview that Democrats lost the November election to President Trump because they weren’t loyal to his father, former President Biden. (Snip) “And I will tell you why we lost the last election. We lost the election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party. That’s my position,” he told Harrison, according to the excerpt. “We had the advantage of incumbency. We had advantage of an incredibly successful administration and the Democratic Party literally melted down.” The remarks are a part of a broader interview Harrison did with the former president’s
Jill Abramson is the former executive editor of the New York Times. She now teaches journalism at Northeastern University and is a contributing opinion columnist for the Boston Globe. Yesterday the Globe carried her column on the Washington Free Beacon under the headline “The conservative weapon bringing down university presidents and law reviews.” Subhead: “The Washington Free Beacon is publishing scoops that have left blood on the floor at Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Duke, and other prestigious corners of academia.”
Trump Admin Deports Barbaric Criminals
to a Tiny African Country You’ve Probably
Never Heard Of replies
to a Tiny African Country You’ve Probably
Never Heard Of replies
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security deported several illegal immigrants, including those convicted of serious crimes like murder and child rape, to a tiny land-locked nation in southern Africa.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin announced the move in an X post late Tuesday.
"A safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed— This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back," she wrote. "These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities, but thanks to [President Trump] (and) [DHS Secretary Kristi Noem], they are off of American soil."
Have fun in *checks notes* Eswatini, gentleman.
The Senate on Monday confirmed the first judicial nominee of President Trump’s second term.
Whitney Hermandorfer will now be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, the Cincinnati-based bench that hears appeals from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee
Hermandorfer, of Tennessee, was confirmed by a 46-42 vote along party lines. She will replace an Obama pick, Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch.
Twelve senators did not vote.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) called the confirmation of Hermandorfer “a boon to the federal judiciary.”
The Republican Party doesn’t make it easy. With these razor-thin majorities, nothing will be easy. And one way to blow it is not over the Epstein files. Please, we’re not losing the midterms over that, but granting amnesty to illegal aliens could do it.
What the hell even is this? With the Senate trying to pass President Trump’s rescissions package, which codifies $9 billion in cuts—a test of sorts for another run with deeper reductions—the House Republicans felt it was incumbent upon them to hash out an immigration compromise with some of the worst people. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) might as well be a Democrat,
The PGA Tour is set to return to one of its old homes. According to Sports Business Journal, Trump Doral in Miami will host a PGA event for the first time since 2016 next year. The outlet reports that the event will take place from April 27 to May 3, potentially as a signature event. The new event would take place in between the Zurich Classic in New Orleans and the Truist Championship, which would force the CJ Cup Byron Nelson to be pushed back later in the calendar, right after the PGA Championship.
I'm sorry, y'all.
I can't crack on this greasy, pathetic sleazeball enough.
But this post will not be dedicated to skewering oleaginous California Governor Gavin 'Randall-Flagg Lite' Newsom for being a complete slime whose propensity for lying and manipulative subterfuge gives pondscum a bad rap. (X) (As I said last week - y'all got took.)
No.
No.
This is going to be a little different approach to tweaking twitchy Twinkle Teeth.
Let's call it a lighthearted romp through the evidence of what a frickin' freakazoid he really is - if you can stand to take two seconds to watch him in action.
I mean eyeballs on the man, watch.
His mannerisms are...unsettling.
The alphabet wars are, as you might think, primarily about sexuality, sex, and sexual morality. When looked at in those terms, as many liberals do or claim to, you can see, if you squint hard enough, the point they make about just letting people live their lives in peace. At least until you start thinking about the impact that allowing men into women's spaces and reality slaps you in the face.
Most liberals only like to think about the issue as a question of tolerance. What do we care if some men want to wear dresses? In many cases, that is the limit of their thought process, akin to asking
Gavin Newsom's Four Hour, Curse-Filled,
Gaslighting Interview Previews His Presidential Campaign replies
Gaslighting Interview Previews His Presidential Campaign replies
Four hours of gaslighting and cursing.
I've watched most of Newsom's latest venture in podcast politics in a four-hour-long Shawn Ryan Show interview. It was a curse-word-filled apologia of his time as governor and how everything is great in LaLa Land.
Here are some highlights.
Gavin Newsom is in favor of gun control, but he's not. He presided over and encouraged the dumbest decriminalization of felonies, prompting massive theft rings to prey upon shop owners, causing a mass exodus of people and retail outlets, but California is one of the toughest on crime. He's not running for president, but he is.
Let's kick off this column by paraphrasing Ronald Reagan: there they go again.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been boldly — and annoyingly — trying to make a case to Democrats to be the party's presidential nominee in 2028. Some may say it's a premature bid but, let's be honest, our presidential election cycles are practically endless now. For all intents and purposes, the 2028 primary season starts next Sunday, just after brunch.
Don't shoot the messenger.
Newsom knows that he has to get a head start because he's attempting to do something that is nigh on impossible in the current Dem electoral climate:
Many of us can recall when Barack Obama eagerly proclaimed on the eve of his election "we are five days away from transforming the United States of America" to thundering cheers of adoration back in 2008.
Very few failed to ask why America, a constitutional republic, with self-governance as its cornerstone, would need a transformation; and what would America be transformed into?
What if Barack Obama was a fraud, a communist Muslim plant ensconced into the highest echelons of our government by the U.N. and the World Economic Forum
Billionaire Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone has done a 180 after blasting Trump's sweeping tariffs, explaining, "When you made a mistake, admit it."
During Langone's appearance on Tuesday on CNBC's "Squawk Box," the co-founder of the home improvement store and top GOP donor said that he was wrong when he called out the president in April suggesting he was getting bad advice from advisors for the "46% tariff on Vietnam" and said the 34 percent rate on China was "too aggressive, too soon."
Seventeen immigration court judges have been fired in recent days, according to the union that represents them, as the Trump administration pushes forward with its mass deportations of immigrants in the country.
The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents immigration court judges as well as other professionals, said in a news release that 15 judges were fired “without cause” on Friday and another two on Monday. The union said they were working in courts in 10 different states across the country — California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
Yemen fighters allied to exiled government
claim seizure of tons of Iranian-supplied
Houthi weapons replies
claim seizure of tons of Iranian-supplied
Houthi weapons replies
Fighters allied to Yemen’s exiled government claimed Wednesday they had seized 750 tons of Iranian-supplied missiles and weaponry bound for the country’s Houthi rebels, the latest interdiction of arms in the country’s decadelong war allegedly tied to Tehran.
For years, the U.S. Navy and other Western naval forces have seized Iranian arms being sent to the Houthis, who have held Yemen’s capital since 2014 and have been attacking ships in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war.
The seizure announced Wednesday, however, marked the first major interdiction conducted by the National Resistance Force, a group of fighters allied to Tariq Saleh, a nephew of Yemen’s late strongman leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Vice President JD Vance cast two tie-breaking votes in the Senate Tuesday to move forward a $9.4B rescissions package — which would rip federal funding from PBS and NPR — in the upper chamber.
The Senate deadlocked, 50-50, on two procedural votes to start debate on the multibillion-dollar spending clawback package before Vance’s votes advanced the measure requested by the White House.
Three Republicans – Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) – joined all Democrats in opposition to the bill.
At this point, you would be hard-pressed to find any reasonably informed American who honestly thinks President Joe Biden wasn’t in a state of serious cognitive decline at the end of his term in office. Yet the New York Times has at least two reporters who are willing to pretend they believe this.
On Sunday, the Times ran a piece by notorious Russia collusion hoaxer Charlie Savage and Tyler Pager about the thousands of clemency decisions recorded with autopen in the final days of the Biden administration. The piece is meant, on the surface, to be a defense of Biden and his administration’s use of the autopen.
Republican prospects for keeping the House of Representatives in 2026 have been hanging on by a thread, but President Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are getting ready to execute an end run around that.
In a move that left Democrats stunned and fuming, Abbott has called a special session so that the GOP-controlled legislature can redraw the Texas congressional lines. That came after the Trump-led DOJ found that several districts in the state were likely illegal gerrymanders. The projection is that Republicans could pick up as many as five seats, most of which would be in the Rio Grande area.
General Motors has announced plans to expand production of gas-powered vehicles and SUVs in Michigan as well as the manufacturing of pickup trucks.
The Detroit-based auto manufacturer said in a statement on Tuesday that it will “begin production of the Cadillac Escalade, as well as the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra light duty pickups at Orion Assembly in early 2027 to help meet continued strong customer demand.”
According to CNBC, the Escalade is produced in Arlington, Texas, while the Silverado and Sierra trucks are made at an assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which will continue to produce the vehicles.
On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” Democratic strategist James Carville called the controversy related to the release of government records about the late Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged wrongdoing a “distraction” for Democrats.
Carville argued Democrats should focus on the so-called Big, Beautiful Bill passed earlier this month by the GOP-led Congress.
“James, do you look at Democratic voters as caffeinated and energized as the ambassador says?” CNN host Anderson Cooper said.
“Well, you can’t help but do it,” Carville replied. “I mean, you look at these primary results and you look at general election results, I mean, it’s sporadic and it’s off-year. And I think the Democrats have just this wonderful opportunity,
President Donald Trump indicated that he supported Attorney General Pam Bondi, stating that she had handled files relating to convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein “very well.”
When speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump revealed that Bondi had given him a “very quick briefing” regarding the memo released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and added that the files were “made up by” former FBI Director James Comey and former President Barack Obama, ABC News reported.
Trump’s response comes after the DOJ and FBI released a memo that found that there was no evidence that Epstein had a client list, and that an investigation
A gerontocracy runs the Democratic Party, so it is natural that the next generation of Democrats is eager to push the old guard out and bring in some fresh blood.
The problem they have is that the next generation of Democrats is absolutely insane. Last year, it looked like the old guard still had some fight in them. For much of the year, Joe Biden remained the Democratic Party's candidate for president, and AOC lost her bid to become the Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee. That loss was particularly galling to the younger set, as the winner was Congressman Gerry Connolly, who died