The Snapshot Thursday, May 8, 2025.

The Snapshot Thursday, May 8, 2025.

  The Common Ills 

Thursday, May 8, 2025.  The Politics of Destruction is about destroying the system which includes the safety net.  Grasp what Chump's ultimate mission is and grasp that Ben & Jerry's Ben Cohen has gone to the dark side and there can be no welcome back in his future.

Let's start with Lawrence O'Donnell.

That's Lawrence on MSNBC last night dealing with reality.

I'm sure that gets tiring for Lawrence.  Doing reality, addressing what's going on not just bulls**ting and wasting everyone's time.

Judging by the e-mails, you know who was the photo negative of Lawrence yesterday on YOUTUBE.

David Hogg is where grifting money is.  They're hoping to peal off some off that grift money.  I'm not that worried about David because he's being curbed as we speak.  His plan was insanity to begin with but right now he's finding out that Big Daddy may continue to fund him but those second tier donors -- who weren't grassroots -- they aren't funding him.  But look at the grifters online hoping they can suck up that money.

They're idiots and they prove it every day.

Let's talk about harassment.  It's real.  It exists.  Women and men have been harassed.  But let's also be clear that everyone who claims they were harassed were not.  The same is true of rape. A friend right now is being accused of assault.  Did he do it?  I don't believe so, it's not his nature.  But he could have.  Here's the thing, though, if you say you worked for him and you say he raped you multiple times over multiple months, I'm not getting it.

If someone rapes me, I'm getting justice.  Okay, maybe the person doesn't want it to be known publicly.  Okay.  Then let's say I don't want to be known as a rape victim.  Then I quit. I don't wait around for the another rape.

I don't go back to work and get raped a second time.  Or a third.  Or a fourth.  But the woman wants us to believe that.

Maybe it happened, maybe it didn't.

I believe everyone has a right to tell their story.  I do not believe everyone is believed.

We weren't there.  We have to come to a conclusion based on the evidence before us.  I loathe Donald Chump.  That didn't mean that I had to believe every woman who came forward with an assault claim.  Ava and I did a piece ahead of the 2016 election where we reviewed the stories of the women coming forward and explained why we found some believable and others we did not find believable.

Bring on the fembots or bring on the bimbos, call it whatever you want.

But the grifter brought on bimbo supreme.

She claims she was harassed.  That's what she's made her name on -- that and falsely implying that she was an educator for two women in Congress, she was not.

Roger Ailes is disgusting (is he dead, was, if he is).  He harassed women.

But Bimbo?

No.  The timeline is not one of harassment.  The timeline is one of a woman who thought she could play the game and win.  She's let him be out of line because he was going to give her a big promotion.  She came forward only after other women had gone public and only after she wasn't advancing.  We're not talking one year or two years.  Look at the timeline.

And grasp that bimbo is responsible for some of the women harassed.  She played the game.  She thought she was going to win the game.  By playing the game, she normalized it.  She put other women at risk.

When bimbo wants to apologize for that and get honest about it, I'll applaud her.  But if you dangled sex repeatedly with an employer, if you played that game with him, you don't get to come back and whine and you certainly don't get to act as though your actions didn't put other women at risk.

So the bimbo and the grifter are on together praising the Hogglet and the 'expert' -- bimbo -- wants to explain the problems to you. 

And being an expert, she knows facts right?

Wrong.

Nancy Pelosi. She's 85 years old.

Bimbo says Pelosi needs to retire.

Does she?

I don't think that's bimbo's decision.  It's my decision because I live in her district and she's my representative. 

If she were a US senator, I would be wary of electing her to a six year term in 2026.  If she runs, she'll be up for re-election, she'll be up for a two year term.  If she was primaried tomorrow, I'd vote for her.  She's competent, she's still on the ball and I actually think her move into mentorship has been effective.  I am not a blind supporter of Nancy as anyone who's read this site for any number of years knows.

So I don't think Bimbo's judgment skills were strong.  Her analytical powers didn't lead her to name Bernie Sanders who is planning to run for re-election despite the fact that his would be a six year term and that's his personality becomes ever more prickly.  Usually an indication that someone's not aging well.

But again, those are calls.  Let's deal with facts.

Bimbo attacked Nancy because she's not stepping aside and she's a Baby Boomer and this is the problem with Congress and --

STFU.

I am so damn sick of these charlatans being presented by grifters on YOUTUBE as experts.

Bimbo chose to make that attack. 

It was incumbent upon bimbo to know what she was speaking of.

What is the baby boom?  That's a question with many possible response and entire books have been written on the topic.  But the most simplified explanation is that after the end of WWII, there was an increase in the population creating the baby boom.  

Do you see the problem with Bimbo's argument?

If I tell you Nancy was born in 1940, do you get the problem?

Do I need to explain to you that WWII ended September 2, 1945?

Nancy is not a baby boomer.  No one qualified to be a guest would ever make the claim that she was.

Only a bimbo.  And only a grifter would sit across from her and nod as the bimbo went on and on about Nancy and her baby boom.

I've never called Bernie a baby boomer because he was born one year later in 1941 which, again, is not part of the baby boom.

Garbage in, garbage out.

I'm being kind.  That's the grifter's one kindness from me.  The next time I catch him working the con, I will rip him and his con apart.  And please understand that the above happened in the first minutes of the YOUTUBE video.  It never got better.  I could do a series of snapshots to cover all the lies and distortions told in that one video.  

Garbage in, garbage out.

That's his only pass.  Next time, we're going to Stacy Lattisaw him.

For now, we'll just say thank you to Lawrence who does real work every day and acknowledge that his work has to be exhausting for him and that we appreciate all he puts into it.

Speaking of fake asses, Ben Cohen.  Please read Marcia's "MAGA and Jerry ice cream? Pass and pass on the hideous Ben Cohen" to grasp the right wing turn that Cohen has made.  And, no, there's no excuse for it.  And when you look at all the damage DOGE has done, to grasp that Cohen has cheered them on and has set up a pro-DOGE website?  This is why DSA can't be trusted.  Ben was a Socialist.  He was not a Democrat.  And it's so very easy of those two factions -- MAGA and DSA -- to flip.  Look at Naomi Wolf, for another example.

Ben Cohen is not our friend.  He is part of The Politics of Destruction.  And his eagerness to see the system torn down allows him to applaud DOGE which has left and will leave millions of Americans suffering.  But that's okay to these freaks.  That's why they didn't rally you to vote for Kamala Harris.  They're okay with the suffering, they're okay with the destruction Chump is carrying out.

And that's why you need to be suspicious when Socialists are brought on air and not identified as such.  Their little circle jerk where they protect each other and put one over on you put Chump back in the White House.  Journalism requires disclosure but their circle jerk opposes it.  

Ben's revealed himself and only an idiot's going to listen to him ever again.

Grifters don't do work, they're lazy.  If you doubt look to the Oval Office and you'll see how lazy grifters truly are.  And the inability to actually work results in really poor choices.  We see that in his Cabinet.  Steve Benen (MADDOW BLOG) offers:

In the abstract, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seem like the kind of Cabinet officials who’d get along. They’re both middle-aged Republicans from the Midwest. They’re both former Fox News personalities. They’re both married to women who also used to work at Fox News. They were both confirmed to important jobs they’re unqualified to hold.

Two peas in a pod, right?

As it turns out, no. The headline in Politico read, “Duffy vs. Hegseth: Friction over air safety erupts in Trump’s Cabinet.”

The trouble appears to have begun in earnest on Monday night, following an incident in which a military helicopter caused two commercial flights to be diverted near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Fox News’ Laura Ingraham pressed Duffy on who was responsible, and the secretary replied, “The FAA doesn’t know, we asked the DOD.”

In an apparent rhetorical shot at Hegseth and his Pentagon team, Duffy added, “The DOD has promised radical transparency, they should tell us who is qualified to take a helicopter out of the Pentagon. I don’t know, but they have to tell us.”

A day later, Duffy returned to Fox News and took a softer tone, but he nevertheless reiterated that the Defense Department hadn’t provided him with the details he requested. 

Two TV personalities who never should have been put into any presidential Cabinet.  This is a Cabinet built to dismantle everything.  Every one is at risk.  MAGA will put aside any pretense of support for veterans so even veterans are at risk.  Ashley Murray (INDIANA CAPITAL CHRONICLE) notes:

Veterans and Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday protested the Trump administration’s planned cuts for the Department of Veterans Affairs that include slashing some 80,000 jobs, which many worry will affect the massive agency’s delivery of medical care and benefits.

The group rallied outside the U.S. Capitol shortly after VA Secretary Doug Collins finished lengthy questioning before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, where he defended the cuts as necessary to improve the department’s efficiency.

Holding signs that read “Veterans Healthcare Not For Sale,” a crowd of former service members joined by senators and representatives decried that argument as “nonsensical,” as Sen. Richard Blumenthal, top Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee, put it.

“We’re not going to allow veterans to be betrayed by this administration,” Blumenthal, of Connecticut, said. “I’ve just come from a hearing with the VA secretary, and to say it was a disappointment is a huge understatement. That hearing was a disgrace.”

Chump is the destruction of the system.  And some Socialists want to pretend like that destruction doesn't mean the destruction of the safety net but it does.  

The economy' sin the tank and it's only getting worse and the administration is okay with that -- it will give them the perfect excuse to call for the gutting of Social Security.  So all the havoc Chump's delivered?  It's not by happenstance, it's not by accident.

From the April 15th snapshot:

 

Other damage he's doing?  The United States makes a lot of money from foreigners traveling here for various events, conventions and sight seeing journeys.  Dallas, TX?  A magnet for people around the world who want to remember President John F. Kennedy.  And a ton of people do because President Kennedy was a monumental and historical figure -- unlike his nephew Tiny Balls Junior who is an embarrassment.  Florida?  The incredible beaches.  Key Largo, Key West.  DISNEY WORLD, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS FLORIDA THEME PARK, Daytona Beach, The Dahil Museum, etc, etc.  California?  DISNEYLAND Park, the wineries, the film studios, the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, Alcatraz Island, Pier 39, the beaches, the San Diego Zoo, Catalina Island, Big Sur, Joshua Tree, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Santa Monica Pier, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mission San Juan Bautista . . .  New York has the Statue of Liberty, the Museum Of Modern Art, Central Park, Empire State Building, Time Square, Grand Central Terminal . . .  That's just a few things in a few states.  Most of the states have major tourist attractions.  And tourists from outside the US coming here accounts for a lot of money each year. 

Do you get how much money that is?  How many industries that impacts?  You've got the airline industry, you've got the car industry if the visitors rent a car, you've got taxis and Ubers, you've got hotels and motels, you've got eateries, you've got bars, many of the points of interest have fees visitors have to pay, you've got the clothing industry since travelers often purchase an outfit or two (or a t-shirt or two) in addition to what they've packed, you've got shops -- souvenir and regular shops.

Or it did.

Do we grasp how much money Chump's running off?

In 2023, international travelers poured an estimated $213 billion -- billion -- into the US economy.  That amounted to approximately $584 million a day.

And now Chump's making us pariah around the world.  See, sending people to a gulag in El Salvador doesn't really argue for freedom and democracy.  And since Chump declares these deportations and imprisonments require no trials, if you're in Paris, you really think Las Vegas or whatever is worth seeing when, while you're visiting the US, you might accidentally get caught up in one of Chump's dragnets and end up being taken not back to France but a to prison -- one where the are no rules or guidelines and people are tortured.

At BOING BOING, Jason Weisberger observes, "JD Vance doesn't understand how tourism works and is doing his level best to ensure the 2025 World Cup is a failure. Threatening people with creepy, puppy-killing Kristi Noem like the boogeyman will only encourage tourist dollars to stay in their home countries, and watch the football games from the safety of their own, clean couch. Tourism is already crashing; there have been too many stories of people disappearing into our brownshirted Customs and Border Protection system."  Morgan Music (LATIN TIMES) elaborates:

Vice President JD Vance noted that visitors from around the world would be coming to the US for the 2026 World Cup, then warned of consequences for anyone who fails to leave "when the time is up."

FIFA World Cup 26 is scheduled to kick off in June of 2026, with games played in 16 cities across Canada, Mexico and the United States. It will be the first World Cup hosted by the US since 1994, when the record was set for the most financially successful and best attended World Cup in history.

The worldwide tournament's return presents a tremendous economic opportunity as fans from around the world flock to host cities. Vance acknowledged the tourism boom in a presser with President Donald Trump's World Cup planning task force.

"We'll have visitors from close to 100 countries," Vance told the group. "We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the games."

"But when the time is up," he continued, "They'll have to go home, otherwise they'll have to talk to Secretary (Kristi) Noem."

Vance chuckled and gave the table a satisfied smack as he turned the floor over to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Noem. "That's true," she replied, punctuating a polite laugh.

On X, users were unimpressed by the quip.

"The Trump Administration is completely squandering a generational opportunity for the American tourism & hospitality industries," a comment read. "US about to set the record for worst World Cup attendance in World Cup history," one user predicted.

"These people are going to ruin international tourism in this country for at least a decade or more," lamented one comment. "Tourism just took another 25% hit," added another.

"They've somehow managed to turn an international celebrating into a threatening deportation PSA," said another.

According to Charisma Madarang (ROLLING STONE), it wasn't just Miss Sassy telling 'jokes.'  No others wanted to join JD in competing in the new reality show SO YOU WANT TO BE AN ASSHOLE.   Chump himself offered, "Pam will come after you, and you're going to have a big problem" while the nation's Trans Secretary Sean Duffy felt the need to offer, "If you're coming to see some soccer, go on a road trip.  See America. Don't overstay your visa.  Don't stay too long."

The jokes aren't funny.  Especially in light of all the countries that are warning their citizens not to travel to the US.  Per Rachel Chang (CONDE NAST TRAVELER), those countries would include France, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Finland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium and Ireland. 

The jokes aren't funny.  But, again, part of The Politics of Destruction.  And Ben Cohen is now part of that.  Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office and grasp that this is a harm that DOGE is responsible for:

Trump administration abused Death Master File to purge at least 6,300 Social Security numbers–including children and seniors

ICYMI: Senator Murray on Vote Against Social Security Nominee, Releases New WA State Report on How Trump and Elon Are Breaking the Social Security Administration

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR), and 10 Senate colleagues in slamming the Social Security Administration (SSA) for transferring thousands of Social Security numbers associated with immigrants to SSA’s Death Master File, marking them as dead to pressure ‘self-deportation’ and demanded the agency’s watchdog launch a full investigation into the decision.

Exploiting Social Security’s Death Master File to terminate the SSN of living individuals without full due process, violates several federal laws and bedrock constitutional rights. The Trump administration’s actions violate their due process rights enshrined in the Constitution, falsify government records, and violate the Privacy Act, wrote the senators. Even Trump’s lawyers reportedly agreed that Social Security’s actions violated the Privacy Act. 

“This decision will result in the ‘financial murder’ of living individuals improperly placed in the file, with everything from their credit cards and banking to their ability to access healthcare and housing being ripped out from under them,” the senators wrote in the letters to Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek and Social Security Assistant Inspector General for Audit Michelle Anderson. 

The senators also called on the SSA Office of the Inspector General to launch a full investigation into the agency’s decision to begin using the Death Master File for this purpose, including how an individual gets targeted, who at the agency has decision making authority, and how those who have their SSNs nullified through this process can get it fixed if there is a mistake.

The Trump administration’s abuse of Social Security’s centerpiece role in America’s economy sets a dangerous precedent of allowing the government to rip away workers’ access to their earned Social Security benefits while threatening the security of all Americans.

“The purpose of SSA is to provide for the welfare of number-holders and their dependents, not to serve as an arm of President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda. This move degrades the solvency, reliability, and accuracy of SSA systems and programs. It is as cruel as it is thoughtless– the impact will be felt in communities across the country and in the future of SSA programs themselves,” the senators concluded in one of their letters to SSA.

In addition to Murray and Wyden, the letter was signed by Senators Peter Welch (D-VT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Angus King (I-ME), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR). 

A PDF of the letter to SSA Acting Commissioner Dudek is available HERE.

A PDF of the letter to SSA Assistant Inspector General for Audit Anderson is available HERE.

Yesterday, Senator Murray released a new report featuring testimonials from Washington state residents—including employees at the Social Security Administration who were recently fired through no fault of their own—and detailing how the Trump administration’s wide-ranging attacks on SSA risk depriving Washingtonians of the Social Security benefits they have earned and deserve. More than 73 million Americans, including 1.4 million—or one in six—people in Washington state rely on Social Security benefits. Half of seniors nationwide rely on Social Security for most of their income, and a quarter of seniors rely on Social Security for at least 90 percent of their income.   

Senator Murray has an extensive record of protecting Social Security benefits and fighting to secure essential funding for the Social Security Administration—and she has been tirelessly raising the alarm about the threat Elon Musk’s DOGE poses to Americans’ hard-earned benefits. In March, Senator Murray held a press conference to lift up the stories of SSA employees who are being pushed out by Elon Musk through no fault of their own and hear from Washington state residents who rely on Social Security. In February, Murray released a fact sheet warning of the Trump administration’s plans to make it harder for Americans who’ve paid into Social Security to get the benefits they have earned.

Under Senator Murray’s leadership as Chair last Congress, the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a draft Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriations Bill that would have provided a $509 million increase for SSA this year. Millions of Americans rely on Social Security and have earned benefits over lifetimes of work. Senator Murray also helped pass the Social Security Fairness Act at the end of 2024, which restored full Social Security benefits for public servants, including firefighters, law enforcement officers, teachers, and other state and local government workers—in January, Murray held a roundtable discussion in Everett with local union members on the implementation of the law.

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