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**** US Shoots Down Iranian Drone in Arabian Sea ****

"A US aircraft carrier shot down an Iranian drone that "aggressively approached" the ship in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday hours before two gunboats operated by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) approached a US-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and threatened to board and seize the ship."

Source: Archived link

Nota Bene: The loathsome Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu continues braying that "Iran cannot be trusted," yet POTUS Barack Obama, the EU, the IAEA, and the UN all worked together to monitor Iran's nuclear facilities until Dummkopf Trumpf obeyed Netanyahu and pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.


How much Islamophobia can Benjamin Netanyahu and AIPAC squeeze out of one tired tea bag?

Should the American public trust a man who lied about POTUS Joe Biden and who ordered the destruction of Gaza so that Israelis can have a waterfront Riviera over the corpses of nearly 72,000 Palestinians?

And Steve Witkoff is Trumpf's negotiator with the Iranians.

Can the American public trust either him or Dummkopf Trumpf to do the right thing?


... Republicans are in full-out panic mode over their plunging support with Hispanic voters ...

Yeah, there was this ...

Trump Wins Big with Hispanics, Flipping South Texas Counties (November 2024)
texasscorecard.com

... Hispanic Americans cast their vote in historic numbers for Republican President-elect Donald Trump, flipping historically blue counties red.

According to an NBC national exit poll, 54 percent of Hispanic/Latino men went for Trump.

In Maverick County, a border region including Eagle Pass, 59 percent of the vote went to Trump while 40 percent went to Kamala Harris"a 19-point victory for the Republican. In 2020, the county vote went to Biden by 9.5 percentage points. ...


That looks to be changing.

@#15 ... Epstein was a popular NYC socialite and people knew he was a total creep for decades. ...

From what I had seen in the NYC media, you could make a similar comment about Pres Trump back then. Except for the "popular" aspect."

From what I saw in the NYC print media back in the day, Pres Trump was avoided by the NYC elite.

Indeed, he seemed to be against them ...

Donald Trump: Soak The Rich (1999)
www.cbsnews.com

... Billionaire Donald Trump is offering an unusual economic plan. He would impose a one-time 14.5% tax on the rich, to get rid of the national debt and save Social Security for the middle classes. Seeking attention and credibility for his potential Reform party presidential campaign, the real estate tycoon proposed the tax plan Tuesday.

He said the one-time tax package would raise $5.7 trillion to erase the nation's debt and save $200 billion in annual interest payments. The $5.7 trillion is about two-thirds of the nation's gross domestic product, a figure sure to raise alarm bells on Wall Street.

Trump said he'd use the windfall to save Social Security and slash taxes for the middle class. He also said his own tax bill would be raised by at least $725 million

"It's a big hit for me, but I think it's worth it," Trump said in a telephone interview from his New York offices.

People and trusts valued at more than $10 million would be subject to the new tax. Trump, a longshot for the presidency, estimates his net worth at $5 billion. ...


Planet P Project - Why Me? (Extended Version) (1983)
www.youtube.com

Lyrics excerpt ...

genius.com

...
Sitting up here watching all the lights blink down below
The earth is turning, why does it go so slow?
Thinking about the girl I left behind
Houston can you hear me, or have I lost my mind?
Why me? Why me?

I was waiting on the pad, all systems were go
The man up in the tower was enjoying the show
Then I got this feeling that I never had before
Hey let me out of here, what am I here for?
Why me?

There must be a thousand other guys
Must be some other way to look good in your eyes
Why am I up here? What do they see in me?
Must be one thousand other places to be
Why me? Why Me?

The last man to be here was never heard from again
He won't be back this way till 2010
Now I'm riding on a fountain of fire
With my back to the earth, I go higher and higher
Why me? Why me?
...


@#9 ... HANG BY THE NECK UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD, ...

Is that not similar to what Pres trump told the J6 rioters to do to VP Pence?


Trump expressed support for hanging Pence during Capitol riot, Jan. 6 panel told (2022)
www.politico.com

... The Jan. 6 select committee has heard testimony indicating that then-President Donald Trump " after rioters who swarmed the Capitol began chanting "hang Mike Pence" " expressed support for hanging his vice president, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The White House chief of staff at the time, Mark Meadows, was in the dining room off the Oval Office with Trump at one point during last year's Capitol attack, the committee has been told. Meadows then left the dining room and informed other people nearby that Trump had signaled a positive view of the prospect of hanging the vice president, the panel heard.

Meadows' account as it was described to the committee came after some members of the mob converging on the Capitol had broken into chants of "Hang Mike Pence!" Those chants were a reaction to Pence's decision to accept electoral votes that indicated Joe Biden had won the presidency.

POLITICO could not independently verify the veracity of the claim regarding Meadows' comments. ...


@#4 ... They dropped the charges. ...

Thx for that follow-up.

From the cited article ...

... Martinez, 30, thought about driving to a hospital, but she knew she wouldn't make it.

The blood covering her phone made it impossible to dial 911. Eventually she used Siri, the voice assistant, to call for help through her car's Bluetooth speaker.

She spotted a repair shop near 35th and California. Martinez pulled over, ran inside and found help just as consciousness began to slip away. Someone inside the repair shop helped her to a chair and held onto her. She remembers looking out a door.

"I just saw the light getting brighter and brighter," Martinez said. "In my head, I was like, I'm losing this battle.' I wasn't scared. ... I don't know how to explain it. But I wasn't in pain."

Still, she thought, "This is it. I'm done."

"I just closed my eyes," she said. "I could have really died."

But she didn't. Martinez survived. And in a wide-ranging interview this week with the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, Martinez discussed her shooting, the federal government's failed attempt to prosecute her and the role she now sees for herself in a fight for accountability.

Martinez is set to testify in Washington, D.C., in a public forum Tuesday about immigration agents' use of force. She's also expected to learn this week whether a judge will allow her to release evidence tied to her dropped prosecution, including an agent's body-camera footage.

Evidence suggests at least one shot fired at Martinez came from behind, her attorney says. ...


... DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that body cameras would go to ICE agents in Minneapolis and to operatives nationwide when funding is available. ..

A good, but inadequate, first step.

Next, remove the masks.

Then, and this is an important then, make ICE obey the laws that law enforcement have to obey.


Axios Explains: Inside ICE's superpowers (2025)
www.axios.com

... The images of masked, heavily armed immigration agents snatching people off the streets and taking them away in unmarked cars have shocked many Americans " and led to a simple question: Is all of this legal?

It is " at least for now.

Why it matters: Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created after the 9/11 attacks, its agents have operated with vastly more enforcement power, less transparency and fewer guardrails than local police.

ICE's rules were designed largely to give the agency broad leeway in helping the FBI identify and arrest domestic terror suspects.
Now the Trump administration is using that power to go after unauthorized immigrants " potentially millions of them " with a frequency and aggressiveness that has sent ripples through communities nationwide.

Zoom in: Under Trump, critics say, ICE has become the closest thing the U.S. has to a secret police force.

- - - ICE agents aren't required to wear body cameras, can cover their faces, don't have to provide badge numbers or identify themselves, can arrive in unmarked cars and don't need a warrant from a judge to detain someone.

- - - Like those with other federal enforcement agencies, they can ignore rules that govern local police departments, particularly those local agencies with histories of abuse or that operate under court-imposed restrictions on racial profiling.

- - - In some cases, ICE agents can even arrest U.S. citizens " but they aren't supposed to place them in immigration detention units. Even so, a few U.S. citizens have been detained in recent ICE raids because of agents' mistakes or negligence. ...


@#4 ... He only pays his lawyers. ...

Trump owes lawyers seven-figure sum as ex-president shovels donors' funds into hefty legal bills (May 2024)
www.independent.co.uk

... Hefty fees to hush money lawyer Todd Blanche made up a a large proportion of the debt ...

Donald Trump started the month owing his lawyers a seven-figure sum as the ex-president burns through thousands of dollars per day to cover his burgeoning legal fees.

Founded and controlled by Mr Trump, Save America leadership political action committee (PAC) has been his primary fundraising and political spending wing since he left the White House.

The PAC, composed of wealthy pro-Trump donors, has absorbed most of the cost from his legal troubles, as he faces 91 felony counts including 34 from his hush money trial alone. Mr Trump denies all charges held against him.

Last year, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee spent $55 million on legal bills, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), according to a filing in February. In February alone, Save America spent $230,000 on lawyer fees, as per the filing.

Save America entered 2024 with liquid cash of just $5 million after Mr Trump burned through his donors' funds paying off his astronomical legal bills.

According to Save America's most recent filings with the FEC, the former president owes approximately $1.1 million to five law firms. One law firm accounts for Save America's greatest debt: Blanche Law, founded by Todd Blanche. ...


Another view ...

Despite new curbs, Elon Musk's Grok at times produces sexualized images - even when told subjects didn't consent
www.reuters.com

...
- - - Nine Reuters reporters uploaded photos to xAI's Grok chatbot over two periods in January

- - - They asked Grok to alter the images to depict them in sexually provocative or humiliating poses

- - - In the majority of cases, Grok returned sexualized images, even when told the subjects did not consent
...



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