–President Donald Trump on Friday removed the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs figures after a report showed hiring slowed in July and was much weaker in May and June than previously reported.
When Trump does not like government reporting he fires the people involved even if the reports are accurate.
–The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced on Friday that it will wind down its operations due to the successful Republican effort to defund local PBS and NPR stations across the country.
-In March, the president issued an executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” that it said was meant to address “a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”
He singled out the Smithsonian Institution and said the administration would seek “to remove improper ideology from such properties.”
In an email to NPR, White House Spokesperson Davis Ingle wrote: “Unfortunately for far too long the Smithsonian museums have highlighted divisive, DEI exhibits which are out of touch with mainstream America.”
“We are fully supportive of updating displays to highlight American greatness. The Trump administration will continue working to ensure that the Smithsonian removes all improper ideology and once again unites and instills pride in all Americans regarding our great history,” he said.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is an American late-night news talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. CBS announced the show will end when the host’s contract runs out in 10 months. Colbert’s political commentary was a continuing criticism of Donald Trump.
Coincidentally, or not, Paramount Global, which owns CBS, is seeking regulatory approval from the Trump administration to sell itself to the Hollywood studio Skydance Media. (I’d never heard of it either.) An official statement, claiming that the “Late Show” cancellation represents “a purely financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night … not related in any way to the show’s performance, content.
Trump’s war on the media has been non-stop on every network accept Fox.
Newspapers and television outlets are under attack like never before. Yes as far back as Richard Nixon presidents have attacked the media. ABC News settled a defamation suit brought by Trump on Dec. 14, agreeing to donate $15 million to his presidential library and issue a statement. Trump’s lawsuit against CBS, filed in Texas in October, accuses the broadcaster of deceptively editing a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has sued CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. The president has prevented The Associated Press from entering the Oval Office press events.
To stay on the good side of Trump both Jeff Bezos owner of the Washington Post and Patrick Soon-Shiong owner of the Los Angeles Times both stopped the endorsement of Kamala Harris. NPR and PBS rely on government subsidies and are likely limiting their criticism of the Trump administration.
You could have asked the question ‘Is freedom of the press in jeopardy?’ Sadly dictators do not allow opposing opinions.
The TACO meme is so perfect. Because Trump, as all bullies do, does chicken out. A lot! And not just to China and the tariffs.
The latest news on tariffs is Trump’s threat on Russia. Trump announced Russia will face 100% “secondary” tariffs if there isn’t a ceasefire deal between the country and Ukraine in 50 days. “We want to see it end, and I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would’ve had a deal two months ago but it doesn’t seem to get there.”
Other recent threats include a 50% tariff on Brazil for the trial against its former president. Mr. Trump’s pledge to place tariffs on imports from Brazil is partly in retaliation for what he considers a “witch hunt” against his political ally, the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing trial for attempting a coup.
It should be obvious that Trump sees tariffs as his best way to influence world order. He doesn’t see his method as chickening out. He sees his threats of getting his way as success.
President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, sparked a wave of angry reactions on Friday after he told Fox News that border patrol doesn’t need probable cause to detain suspected illegal migrants.
“I’ve got to get your reaction to this Biden-appointed federal judge out in Los Angeles, apparently expected today to issue a temporary restraining order, halting your lawful operations. She says, ‘I think it’s important for the court not to burden otherwise lawful law enforcement activities.’ Your reaction there,” asked Fox’s Griff Jenkins.
“Look, people need to understand, ICE officers and border patrol, they don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them. They just need this: totality of the circumstances, right? They just got through the observation, you know, get articulable facts based on the location, the occupation, their physical appearance, their actions,” Homan replied, adding:
Like a uniformed border patrol officer walks up to them at, for instance, a Home Depot. And they got all these articulable facts, plus the person walks away or runs away. Agents are trained on what they need to detain somebody temporarily and question them. It’s not probable cause, it’s reasonable suspicion. We’re trained on that.
Every agent, every six months, gets Fourth Amendment training over and over again. These officers are really good at what they do, and if the judge makes a decision that’s against what these officers are trained and what the law is based upon, then they’re going to shut down the operation. I think that’s their endgame. They want ICE to stop doing this, but if they base it on the rule of law, they’re going to find out border patrol and ICE is doing exactly what they’re going to do in accordance with law.
ICE has been accused of racial profiling in recent weeks, leading to DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin to put out a statement this week, saying, “Any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE.”
California Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) replied, “And there you have it. Under the Trump Administration, ICE and Border Patrol are being empowered to stop and question you based solely on how you look. No probable cause. No real reason. Just your “physical appearance.” That’s not justice—it’s profiling.”
So today it is brown skinned people from south of the US border but tomorrow it could be Chinese, or it could be Jews.
In March 1933, the Enabling Act became law in Germany, granting the chief executive the power to enact laws without legislative oversight, effectively dismantling the system of checks and balances.
This pivotal legislation marked the transition from a democratic republic to a totalitarian dictatorship.
By September of that year, Germany had become a one-party state, consolidating the power of the Nazi regime and eliminating political opposition.
During the liquidation of the ghettos starting in 1942, trains were used to transport the condemned populations to death camps. To implement the “Final Solution”, the Nazis made the Deutsche Reichsbahn an indispensable element of the mass extermination machine, wrote historian Raul Hilberg.
Today masked immigration agents are taking unwanted immigrants to detention facilities.
Does any of that history remind anyone of what is happening in the United States today?
During the liquidation of the ghettos starting in 1942, trains were used to transport the condemned populations to death camps. To implement the “Final Solution”, the Nazis made the Deutsche Reichsbahn an indispensable element of the mass extermination machine, wrote historian Raul Hilberg.
Today masked immigration agents are taking unwanted immigrants to detention facilities.
‘Are you from California?’ Political advisor said he was detained at airport after confirming he’s from L.A.
Longtime L.A. political consultant Rick Taylor was returning from a weeklong vacation in Turks and Caicos with his wife and daughter when he was held by Customs and Border Protection for 45 minutes without reason.
He believes he was unjustly targeted and was intimidated during his holding.
Veteran Los Angeles political consultant Rick Taylor said he was pulled aside by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents while returning from a trip abroad, asked if he was from California and then separated from his family and put in a holding room with several Latino travelers for nearly an hour.
“I know how the system works and have pretty good connections and I was still freaking out,” said Taylor, 71. “I could only imagine how I would be feeling if I didn’t understand the language and I didn’t know anyone.”
Taylor said he was at a loss to explain why he was singled out for extra questioning, but he speculated that perhaps it was because of the Obama-Biden T-shirt packed in his suitcase.
Taylor was returning from a weeklong vacation in Turks and Caicos with his wife and daughter, who were in a separate customs line, when a CBP agent asked, “Are you from California?” He said he answered, “Yeah, I live in Los Angeles.”
The man who ran campaigns for L.A.’s last Republican mayor and for current Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla when he was a budding Los Angeles City Council candidate in the 1990s found himself escorted to a waiting room and separated from his family.
There, Taylor said he waited 45 minutes without being released, alleging he was unjustly marked for detention and intimidated by CBP agents.
“I have no idea why I was targeted,” said Taylor, a consultant with the campaign to reelect L.A. City Councilwoman Traci Park. “They don’t talk to you. They don’t give you a reason. You’re just left confused, angry and worried.”
Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the incident brought to mind Sen. Alex Padilla, who was arrested and handcuffed June 12 while trying to ask a question during a Los Angeles press conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“My former chief of staff and political consultant, Rick Taylor, was detained at Miami International Airport by federal authorities after returning from an international vacation,” he said in an email. “As Senator Alex Padilla said a couple of weeks ago, ‘if it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone.’ This Federal government operation is OUT OF CONTROL! Where will it end?!”
A representative from the Customs and Border Protection in Florida said an inquiry made by the Los Angeles Times and received late Friday afternoon will likely be answered next week.
“If Mr. Taylor feels the need to, he is more than welcome to file a complaint online on our website and someone will reach out to him to try and get to the bottom of things,” CBP Public Affairs Specialist Alan Regalado said in an email.
Taylor, a partner at Dakota Communications, a strategic communications and marketing firm, said he was more concerned about traveling and returning to the U.S. with his wife, a U.S. citizen and native of Vietnam.
He said he reached out to a Trump administration member before leaving on vacation, asking if he could contact that individual in case his wife was detained.
The family flew American Airlines and landed in Miami on June 20, where he planned to visit friends before returning to Los Angeles on Tuesday.
In a twist, Taylor’s wife and daughter, both Global Entry cardholders, breezed through security while Taylor, who does not have Global Entry, was detained, he said.
He said after the agent confirmed he was a Los Angeles resident, he placed a small orange tag on his passport and was told to follow a green line. That led him to another agent and his eventual holding room.
Taylor described “95% of the population” inside the room as Latino and largely Spanish-speaking.
“I was one of three white dudes in the room,” he said. “I just kept wondering, ‘What I am doing here?’”
He said the lack of communication was “very intimidating,” though he was allowed to keep his phone and did send text message updates to his family.
“I have traveled a fair amount internationally and have never been pulled aside,” he said.
About 45 minutes into his holding, Taylor said an agent asked him to collect his luggage and hand it over for inspection.
He said he was released shortly after.
“The agents have succeeded in making me reassess travel,” Taylor said. “I would tell others to really think twice about traveling internationally while you have this administration in charge.”
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