Historically, the best St. John’s baseball teams have been led by local stars. This year's team is no different.
Views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author. The California gubernatorial primary is getting down to that nitty-gritty, and while things aren’t looking as rosy […]
I was stumped. On Wednesday, I watched Trump’s Cabinet meeting. I’m not only a glutton for punishment, but I will not be handing out compliments for a very long time. Stunned, I have been mulling over what to write about that beyond-cringe meeting, trying to figure out what prompts middle-to-older-aged, white adults - educated, although… - suck up to a man like this.I’ve been around and followed politics long enough to know that sycophancy is as old as licking George Washington’s revolutionary boots. I worked on Capitol Hill in the 1980s and 1990s, and believe me, members of Congress lived in self-constructed bubbles where staffers, lobbyists and hangers-on told them exactly what they wanted to hear. But there is not a gross enough word that can even begin to describe what happened in the White House Cabinet Room on Wednesday, an over-the-top lesson in leeching that made your skin crawl, your mouth gape, your stomach churn, your ears melt, your eyes cross.The sensation of watching it was a full-body blow of epic adulating proportions. And if you think I’m exaggerating, try and watch the whole thing as I did. But don’t watch it more than once.Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler looked Donald Trump dead in the eyes and said, “Mr. President, you have made us a nation of builders again. You’re leading us to the greatest economy that the world has ever known… I hear it everywhere I go: ‘Please thank the president for putting us back on track. Thank you.’ They love you.”They love you. Bleck!.Yuck! That is now part of the historical record. And I don’t know whether my eyes were crossed and I wasn’t seeing straight, but she looked like someone AI-generated not only her, but her words.Speaking of bleck and yuck, there was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. When he opens his “manly” moronic motor-mouth, it’s akin to watching a blue whale dump 50 gallons of excrement on your head. His words are that abhorrent and that disgusting, and so hard to wash off.He defecated praise on Trump’s renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, describing the maintenance efforts as "a great segue" and linked it to the Iran war.What?But then again, maybe Hegseth knows of what he speaks. Because Trump said that the reflecting pool was a “disgusting place,” and that crews had to pull "more than 10 dumpsters" of accumulated garbage and waste from it. The reflecting pool sounds an awful lot like Hegseth.Hours before the meeting, as if they knew the tragedy that was about to transpire, the New York Times ran an analysis article titled, “Trump is the Only Person Who Can Save America, According to His Cabinet.” If you haven’t read this, read it now. It found that at least one in six sentences spoken by Cabinet members contains praise for Trump, attributes every administration success to him personally, or attacks Democrats. One in six sentences. Watch yesterday’s Cabinet meeting and you will see that come to life.Six sentences go by fast, so your head will start to spin once your brain starts catching on. It’s almost like each Cabinet member goes five sentences, and then Trump pushes an electrical shock button, and that sixth sentence of praise is jolted out.When you are watching, you have to keep reminding yourself that these are the people running the most powerful government on earth. And they spend a sixth of their time essentially writing pseudo-Hallmark cards to a man who eats McDonald’s everyday and calls people “piggy,” “dummy” and “scum” on social media.This is a man who reportedly emits a bad odor. And if you believe the viral videos from yesterday — and other instances — did Trump have an accident in front of the White House after returning from his medical check-up?Here’s what these people need to understand. You are making absolute fools of yourself and you're wasting your time and your careers tripping over yourselves and fighting each other in order to get a quick lick in on this man’s odorous derriere. History is littered with the political corpses of people who kissed Donald Trump’s ring and got nothing but humiliation in return. Pam Bondi spent years fawning over this man. Gone. Chris Christie practically built a shrine to Trump after 2016. Trump mocked his weight publicly and called him a loser. Even John Cornyn, a senator in his 70s who should have known better, genuflected before Trump and still got crushed in his primary by Ken Paxton, a man with one of the most scandal-ridden records in history. Where do these people go when Trump is done with them? They end up as guests on NewsNation. They write books nobody reads. They show up on panels where the other panelists are also people Trump fired or humiliated. Do they then try and kiss up to Sean Hannity, thinking that’s their way back into Toady Trumpland?Earlier this year, The Bulwark writers Sam Stein and Andrew Eggers did what I did and watched an entire Cabinet meeting.
Senator John Cornyn (RINO-TX) drove the internet crazy on Friday after posting a very cryptic tweet a few days following his massive loss to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Texas GOP Senate runoff election. The post John Cornyn Sends Internet into a Frenzy with This Cryptic Tweet Following Landslide Loss to Ken Paxton appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
A private detention center in New Jersey has again become a major flashpoint in the fight over the Trump administration's immigration policies.Why it matters: It's the first major clash under Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin's leadership. Protesters have been arrested outside the facility while detainees reportedly take part in a hunger strike over claims of inhumane living conditions and inadequate medical care. The 1,000-bed Delaney Hall Facility reopened in Newark, New Jersey, last year. Since then, it's been the scene of high-profile protests, arrests and escapes.Democratic lawmakers and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) have called for the detention center to be shut down.The latest: Sherrill announced Friday the formation of a protected protest zone outside of the facility.Sherrill also said she'd take "every action available" to facilitate a full inspection of the facility by the New Jersey Department of Health, which she said had its access restricted.A department spokesperson confirmed to Axios that inspectors were only allowed to conduct a food service inspection.The other side: Mullin has argued the backlash has "nothing to do with the conditions at the facility," which DHS says include three meals a day, clean water, clothing and other resources.DHS has contended there is no hunger strike. Mullin said during a Wednesday meeting of Trump's Cabinet that the "handful of individuals" refused to eat because they wanted their "ethnic right food."Mullin added, "They can go back to their country and get whatever food they want."DHS did not respond to Axios' request for additional comment. State of play: But Nedia Morsy, the director of Make the Road New Jersey, tells Axios that the hunger strike is a coordinated effort among 300 detained community members seeking release."ICE lies and manipulates and threatens and continues to feel that they have the permission to do so because ... Mullin enables it and encourages it," she argues.Ami Kachalia, a senior policy strategist with the ACLU of New Jersey, tells Axios there has been "brutality in the conditions, and there's been brutality in the response."Friction point: Former Secretary Kristi Noem's ouster followed months of backlash against her handling of the nation's immigration crackdown, especially after two U.S. citizens were killed at the hands of federal agents in Minnesota.Trump swiftly tapped Mullin, then a U.S. senator from Oklahoma, to replace her. He's now been in the job for around two months, navigating a department rocked by funding debates and a backlog of contracts.Context: Delaney Hall was the first center to open under the second Trump administration and quickly became central to the nation's immigration debate.The GEO Group, which owns the facility, was awarded a 15-year contract by ICE to provide "support services" at Delaney Hall. It estimated the contract value at around $1 billion.The facility has also seen conflict involving elected officials: Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said he was hit with pepper ball spray at the facility and Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) was charged by the DOJ over a scuffle outside of the facility last year. She has denied wrongdoing. Zoom out: Not only does the outcry represent a pivotal moment in Mullin's tenure, but it is also reminiscent of similar scenes at immigration facilities across the country. Near Chicago, clergy were at the front lines, pushing for access to the Broadview immigration facility. And in snowy Minnesota earlier this year, dozens of protesters were arrested outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as deadly unrest rocked the state.Axios' Brittany Gibson contributed reporting.Go deeper: The contracting mess Noem's leaving behind at DHS
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel and the Justice Department demanding a list of Patel’s personal travel history after it was revealed that the director took a “VIP snorkel” trip while in Hawaii. Senate Democrats requested records documenting Patel’s travel, expenses, and […]
Where each Lakers player — and JJ Redick — stands entering offseason
President Donald Trump's latest midterm gaffe was his most revealing yet, and it signaled that we are headed for a "very messy moment," according to one of his biographers. Journalist Michael Wolff, who has written four books about Trump, discussed the president's recent comments about the approaching midterm elections during this week's cabinet meeting on a new episode of "Inside Trump's Head," a podcast he co-hosts with Joanna Coles of The Daily Beast. During the meeting, Trump told a reporter that he "doesn't care about the midterms," and that his primary goal is to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon."Saying 'I don't care' is basically 'f--- you,'" Wolff said. Trump's comments came at a time when Republicans have expressed concerns about the upcoming election. Although the GOP seems likely to pick up 10 House seats through the redistricting wars, recent polling suggests Democrats hold momentum as the calendar turns to November. Wolff added that it showed Trump is backed into a corner, which is when he tends to be his most "audacious" and "dangerous" self. "Basically, he is saying that he desperately cares, and that he recognizes that his back is to the wall, that he's in a corner that he can't get out of," Wolff said. "So the 'I don't care, I'm above it all' guy is really down in the mud thinking of some slur or libel to save himself or some new enemy, to elevate and attack, some preposterous lie to spread and some emergency to declare," he continued. "This could be a very messy moment or an ugly Trump moment at this point, that he's going to blame us for demanding that he care."
The power of the vote is showing strong in the Lone Star State, as the majority of Texans bid a...