QOTD -- Endless Corruption And Illegal Ads

 

"Donald Trump narrowly winning two presidential elections in conditions highly favorable to the out party may suggest the conclusion that playing dirty is always good politics, but I don’t think that this is true. Trump’s illegal taxpayer-funded campaign ads are very bad, but I continue to think that to the extent that they matter they will be a net negative for Republicans [snip]

"The thing about this is that Trump has dark money coming out of his ass — there’s absolutely no reason his Riefenstahl-for-even-bigger-morons ads couldn’t have been self-funded. The looting of the public fisc was an end in itself. But it’s not a great idea to remind people of your endless corrupt self-dealing during the football game while it costs $110 to fill up their truck." -- Scott Lemieux, LGM, on "Counterproductive Authoritarianism."  The American public sees what's going on and is overwhelmingly against the Malignant Fascist's taxpayer-funded political ads.  After near universal condemnation, it caused an extremely rare walk-back from the MF, who claims those ads will be funded by one of his PACs going forward.  (The Democratic Party is suing him to have the government reimbursed for the ads already run that the MF still wants taxpayers to pay for.)  In the meantime, the ads have served the purpose of reminding voters of the MF's heavy-handed authoritarianism (ad content and style) and his corruption (ads method of funding), it sends a strong (though unintended) message of a crooked, out-of-touch politician willing to spend millions of tax dollars on self-promoting projects (see also, the Golden Ballroom/bunker, the Triumphal Arch/sniper tower, and various building re-namings).

QOTD -- Cesspit Of Corruption

 

"... Despite the extent of Trump and Co’s corruption, there’s still some voter education to be done here. Given everything else — the disastrous Persian Gulf war, tariffs, inflation, threats against our closest allies, visions of AI annihilation — it has taken a long time for Trump and Co’s lurid, open corruption to emerge as a major political issue. But there are growing signs that corruption is finally breaking through into the public consciousness. Hopefully this breakthrough will be hugely important not just for the midterm elections but for what happens afterwards.  [snip]

"Given the extent of the corruption, the rise of oligarchy in America, and the ever-rising flood of money in politics, many people may reasonably ask “Why will this matter?” Having elected Trump twice, can we trust Americans to vote for what is right rather than for lies? And can we trust Democrats, once in power, to be immune to the seduction of Big Money, as the Big Money will certainly try?

"So, in a very real sense, once in power Democrats will have multiple battle fronts on their hands. In addition to battling Trump in his two remaining years of power, they will also have to prove to the American people that they will be immune to the inevitable attempts by Big Money to buy them off through campaign contributions and back-room deals. A couple of examples of what is already going wrong are the recent employment of Chuck Shumer’s daughter by OpenAI and the crypto billions raised by Kirsten Gillibrand’s 22-year old son for a new venture..." --Nobel economist Paul Krugman in his Substack, on "The Trump Administration is a Cesspit of Corruption."  Democrats can fold in the Malignant Fascist's increasing and increasingly obvious corruption into their "are you better off today" economy/ affordability argument ("You and your family are struggling, but not Trump and his cronies...") Krugman also makes the crucial point that Democrats, now as well as when they're back in power, need to get their own house in order,  because even the "small potatoes" deals he cites above might make the average low-information voter think Democrats are as corrupt as the unprecedented corruption and self- dealing of the Malignant Fascist and his Epstein class grifter minions and lickspittles.  The clock is ticking.

Crypto's Biggest Lies (And Liars)

 

If you haven't seen a Ben McKenzie cryptocurrency explainer in the past few years, take some time and look at this interview with Vice's Shane Smith.  McKenzie, who made his name as an actor, turned filmmaker ("Everyone Is Lying To You For Money")/ author ("Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud") in order to expose the cryptocurrency grift (and the grifters who are profiting from it) that could some day bring down our entire financial system.  Please take time to watch this interview, and share!

Trump's Shady Stock Trading

 

Armed with information on foreign developments not available to other stock market investors, the corrupt and greedy Malignant Fascist continues to add and subtract from his stock portfolio, breaking precedent with every former President.  In his June financial disclosures, the MF was involved in 1,051 transactions.  From CNBC:

"President Donald Trump disclosed just over 1,000 financial transactions for the month of June in what appears to be broad reshuffling of his portfolio.

The president rotated in and out of stocks, bonds and exchange-traded funds throughout the month. The transactions totaled between $78.1 million and $263.1 million, according to Trump’s latest filing on Aug. 22, which shows a range for each sale or purchase rather than an exact figure. His securities purchases topped $49 million, while his sales totaled at least $28.5 million.

While the filing gives a window into the investment moves made on behalf of Trump, it is not a clear picture of his total portfolio holdings. The amount bought or sold isn’t specific, and there is no indication of how much Trump owns of any particular security."

The pattern that CNBC goes on to describe is one of moving in and out of stocks sometimes within 48 hours (e.g., defense contractor Northrup Grumman), some buying and selling around the time of his supposed "peace deal" with Iran on June 14.  So many red flags. 

This active stock trading by the MF will almost certainly be investigated by Congress, should the Dems win back the majority, as well it should, along with his crypto business and foreign financial entanglements, including bribes.

(photos: Alex Wong / Getty Images (Trump), Jason Larkin / Getty Images (Stock Market)

Trump's Obscene Pay-to-Play Operation

 The Wall Street Journal reports today that the corrupt and mentally disturbed Malignant Fascist fundraising operation is nothing short of official bribery, asking corporations to donate millions of dollars in the expectation of getting access to his regime and policies written to their liking and profit.  The WSJ article is behind a paywall, but Election Law Blog has the text:

"Almost every night in the White House, President Trump calls his fundraiser, Meredith O’Rourke, for an update.

Trump asks O’Rourke which companies and donors have cut checks and which haven’t, and for how much. He often asks her to make much larger financial requests than she was planning—for some donors the ask is $5 million, for others it is $50 million. And the president gives her names to call, often including people who have recently met with him, according to people with knowledge of the calls. 

'This is very important to the president. He’s asked me to call you and ask you for this donation,' O’Rourke has relayed on phone calls with companies, persistently following up with them. In some calls, she has referred to Trump as the boss, saying 'the boss wants this money.' In turn, Trump has called her the “princess of darkness” because she is such a 'killer” with donors, according to people who have heard his comments. [snip]

Trump stands out for taking personal control of the fundraising, and no sitting American president has ever raised these amounts for his pet projects. At the same time, companies have paid new attention to the White House as Trump has gotten involved in regulatory decisions that once were made by independent agencies, dramatically shifting the balance of power across Washington.

Trump has been demanding large checks from companies for a range of political and legacy projects—telling executives and lobbyists that their companies should give $25 million or $50 million. He has sometimes offered donors special access."  (our emphasis)

The mob boss President has no problem shaking down companies to fund his personal projects and for other lawless activities, getting an underling to do the dirty work of collecting bribes.  The MF wouldn't be successful if it weren't for corrupt corporations willing to pay-to-play, and circumvent regulatory agencies and courts. Some of the ones noted in the article are familiar faces -- Amazon, Meta, Microsoft --whose CEOs show up at the MF's luncheons and social events to curry favor with the unhinged narcissist.  Each one should be investigated by a Dem Congress and pay the price for bribery when Dems control the White House.  In the meantime, State Attorneys General might use this article as a basis for legal action at the state level. 

(Credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

 

Trump's Sketchy Nuke Deal With Corrupt Saudis

 

It appears that the lucrative "business" links between the corrupt and felonious Malignant Fascist and his counterpart Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin "Bone Saw" Salman are coming to fruition. Yesterday, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia announced a deal to permit Saudi Arabia to enrich nuclear fuel by itself, an act that could result in a race in the region to develop enrichment capabilities.  The New Republic reports:

"The Trump administration on Wednesday signed a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia that, per The New York Times, 'could lead to the country enriching its own fuel for nuclear reactors' and is estimated to 'provide billions of dollars for the U.S. nuclear industry.' This news took much of Washington by surprise, given the rift between the two countries over the U.S. war against Iran. Nuclear experts have long been expecting such a deal, but President Trump’s reported concessions to Saudi Arabia raise legitimate concerns and unless addressed could lead to a Middle East filled with nuclear weapons programs. This would undermine decades of U.S. work to prevent the spread of the most destructive weapons humanity has ever created."

The U.S. has agreements with 26 nations including Japan and the European Union for selling nuclear reactors and low enriched uranium that can't be used in weapons, as provided under Article 123 of the Atomic Energy Act.  This deal with the Saudis is different:

"Almost all of the deals omit permission for states to pursue uranium enrichment or plutonium reprocessing—thus reducing global risk, as highly enriched uranium and separated plutonium can both be used to produce nuclear weapons. Japan and the European Union, with their strong legal systems and acceptance of the most stringent inspection obligations conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, are the only two 123 deals that allow significant enrichment or reprocessing of U.S. materials.

Saudi Arabia is not Japan or the EU, and its agreement with the U.S. sounds a lot different from the standard 123 deal. This raises concerns that Saudi Arabia is using its close financial ties to the Trump family to manipulate U.S. cooperation to pursue a nuclear weapon option, especially if Iran continues to be a nuclear threshold state.

Of greatest concern is a provision that could open the door to Saudi Arabia having a uranium enrichment facility." (our emphasis)

The MF's loosened requirements on the Saudis are detailed further in the article, and represent a threat of proliferation.  It's something the MF won't let stand in the way of more payoffs to his interests from the Saudi regime and big profits for the U.S. nuclear industry.

 

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle celebrated the landmark bipartisan housing bill becoming law overnight Saturday despite President Donald Trump's refusal to sign it. 

The 21st Century Road to Housing Act aims to address the country’s housing shortage by increasing the supply of homes and overall homeownership. The legislation loosens regulations to encourage housing construction and limits Wall Street investors from buying homes that could go to families instead.

It passed in the Senate 85-5 and in the House 358-32, both veto-proof majorities, last month.

Trump said he was refusing to sign the bill because the Senate has not taken up the unrelated Save America Act which would make significant election and voting reforms, including requiring photo ID at polling places and proof of citizenship before a person could register to vote. The voting bill has been flatly rejected by Democrats and would require 60 votes to prevail in the Senate.

In a post on social media Friday, Trump said he would not sign "in PROTEST" over the Senate's inability to pass the voting bill.

Since the president did not sign or veto the housing bill following the 10-day window after Congress presented it to him, it became a law midnight Saturday.  [snip]

"Donald Trump couldn’t pick up the pen because he just isn’t interested in lowering costs for American families," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement Saturday.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., called Trump's delays in signing the housing bill "childish," and touted the law's benefits for Americans.

"This legislation is going to lower housing costs, build more homes, and ensure working families can afford to keep a roof over their heads," she said in an X post.

A failed attempt to hold the housing bill hostage to the Malignant Fascist's election- rigging "Save America My Ass Act."  This is also another case of a self-inflicted political wound for the MF, resulting from his extreme narcissism, stupidity, and moronic petulance.  Well done, MAGAts!

The bad:

For the Iranian regime, keeping a chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz has turned out to be more important than the tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief from the Trump administration.

That is because Tehran is playing a long game. Iranian officials believe the country has finally emerged as a regional hegemon, after the U.S. and Israel failed to achieve their main goals in the war they unleashed in February. And, as long as Tehran cements this new status by securing permanent arrangements to control the vital waterway—and dominating the Persian Gulf economies along with it—then the rest, including American sanctions relief, will eventually follow.

“This is the only way: recognize the new Iranian order in the Strait of Hormuz,” warned Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission. “The Strait of Hormuz will only open with ‘Iranian arrangements,’ not American threats,” added the parliament’s speaker and the lead negotiator with the U.S., Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

This attitude heralds a rocky future, with regular bouts of violence, continuing uncertainty for global energy markets and a Damoclean Sword of renewed strikes hanging over the Gulf monarchies.

“The Islamic Republic will become even more of a gangster regime. Its takeaway from the war is that concessions are won through coercion—by attacking its neighbors, threatening the Strait of Hormuz and driving up the price of oil,” said Karim Sadjadpour, Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Like Putin’s Russia, the Islamic Republic believes that its security depends not on the prosperity of its people, but on the insecurity of its neighbors.”

And, just like Russia in its own neighborhood, the Iranian regime views the oil-rich Gulf monarchies as belonging to its own natural sphere of influence—a sphere denied to it by American meddling ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Now that America has failed to protect these Gulf states from Iranian attacks, Tehran’s drive to institutionalize Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz reflects its ambition to establish a new Pax Iranica in the Middle East. After all, the Gulf countries, to a varying extent, rely on the strait not just for their oil and gas exports, but also for other vital supplies, from consumer items to food...

We've been led to this strait (pardon the pun) by the complete incompetence of the MF and his tyro "negotiators" ("Javanka" Kushner and Steve "Witless" Witkoff) who were trying to get the semblance of a "win" from the MF's disastrous decision to go along with Bibi Netanyahu's fantasy to crush Iran with American air power.  Every day this malevolent moron is in power, America suffers irreparable harm.

The ugly: 

A Democratic senator on Saturday alleged that whistleblowers have detailed several problems stemming from rushed or improper reconstruction of the Kennedy Center, adding a new layer to the travails of the arts complex as President Donald Trump tried to seize control of it and its name.

Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said in a release on Saturday that he had received a whistleblower disclosure from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit whistleblower protection group, alleging that “the Center rushed a series of renovations driven by the President’s aesthetic whims and his desire to star in a series of televised events in December.”

“The Center’s subservience to the President’s desires and its corner-cutting contracting practices have resulted in steel columns that are rusting through fresh paint, a reflecting pool that may have to be torn out and rebuilt, and a brand-new bathroom floor torn out over an offending tile color,” Whitehouse continued. “This is waste, and it treats a national memorial to President Kennedy as if it were a private renovation project.”  [snip]

Whitehouse released a letter he wrote to the center’s executive director, Matt Floca, demanding answers by July 23. He said the whistleblower report included “firsthand accounts of multiple former Center project managers, supported by contemporaneous documents and photographs.” He also included an 83-page appendix full of internal center documents, emails and photos of apparently shoddy construction.

The allegations include that the center rushed work before it was authorized by Congress because it wanted it to be complete for Trump to accept the new FIFA Peace Prize that the soccer federation awarded him. In doing so, the letter alleges the center didn’t follow required contracting guidelines and wasted money replacing a bathroom because the president didn’t like the color and inking no-bid contracts. One $8 million contract to replace the concert hall’s floor went to a firm with no experience in concert halls, Whitehouse contended.

Well, well.  Imagine that.  Shoddy construction, cutting corners, no-bid contracts to unqualified contractors, wasting taxpayer dollars.  There's pay-to-play kickbacks written all over this, too.  Utterly on- brand for the MF and his corrupt regime. Exposure is the first step toward accountability, and there's so much to be accountable for in this corrupt fascist regime.

 

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

The disclosure that Donald Trump made billions of dollars (largely in crypto) last year, is giving the Democrats an increasingly clear campaign message for the midterms: Trump is corrupt and stealing your money and doesn't care a whit that you can barely afford food. The two parts, his corruption and your financial stress, fit together well. People are going to connect the dots and assume that if Trump weren't so corrupt, they wouldn't be feeling so much pain. That is not strictly true in the sense that even if Trump were not in the crypto business, food prices wouldn't be lower. But it is also true that Trump's entire focus is on raking it in for himself instead of devoting ever last hour to working on getting prices down. He could do things to help lower prices—for example, making it easier to import cheap food from Mexico, but he is not interested. When pressed for details, Democrats could point this out.

Connecting Trump's corruption to people's pain is a good story for the midterms. But if Democrats capture either or both chambers of Congress in November, it will be a free-for-all next year. His 927-page financial disclosure (PDF) is a roadmap for Democrats to follow. It itemizes every financial venture Trump was engaged in during 2025. The suboenas will fly if Democrats get the power to issue them. Private and public depositions will abound. The biggest targets are the people around Trump, including family and cronies. They have no immunity from being called to testify. They can plead the Fifth Amendment, but in court of public opinion, that makes someone look guilty. If a representative asks someone: "Did you ever discuss a business deal with the leader of the U.A.E., Qatar, or any other country in the Middle East?" an answer of "Fifth" is a much weaker answer than "No."

World Liberty Financial, a project of the Trump and Witkoff families, has been a magnet for foreign investors. It probably has an accountant who could be asked under oath about who the investors and clients are and whether there are any potential conflicts of interest.

An investigation by the NYT has turned up the tidbit that Trump's sons and those of Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick have ties to at least 14 companies seeking almost $9 billion in government funding for deals supposedly involving rare earth minerals. Talk about conflict of interest. The sons aren't going to get immunity (unless one is prepared to rat on the others), but them saying "Fifth Amendment" a few hundred times during a hearing is not going to look great. Democrats will be able to use footage of that in 2028 to show how corrupt the Republicans are. [snip]

Another area the Democrats are going to be interested in is the 21,000 securities trades Trump made while in office, some of them with curious timing. Could there be a pattern in which stock was bought, then some official announcement was made driving a stock just bought skyward, then a sale? Were there many purchases and sales in close proximity where the sale made a big profit just a few hours later? Computers are pretty good at detecting this kind of stuff. By way of contrast, Joe Biden made 13 trades during his entire presidency.

In short, the disclosure form is a veritable gold mine of areas for the House Oversight Committee to pursue if ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA) becomes chairman in January. Garcia is very aggressive and detests Trump. It could be quite a show. If Garcia is smart, he is already prepping for future investigations. His Long Beach-based district is D+18, so he doesn't have to spend a lot of time campaigning. Besides, his staff can start digging and planning now.

A theme for 2026, indictments for 2028.  Sounds good to us.

The bad:

... What do the study’s participants talk about? Their central concern is their own so-called "moral foundations." For them, any democracy is valid only insofar as it vigorously upholds "faith, family, freedom and place," as indicated in the study’s title. Since they believe their values are under relentless attack by the institutions of democracy, then democracy must be sacrificed. In this mindset, political opponents are not acting in good faith but are outright demonic. The study describes Maria from Michigan this way: "Her verdict on the Democratic Party as having dedicated its playbook to Satan and chosen the ‘platform of death’ does not leave room for normal civic constraints to apply.'"

It should be emphasized that these values mean their faith, not a non-Christian religion or no religion; their family (forcible family separation of immigrants or gay marriage don’t count); their freedom (getting vaccinated as a civic responsibility to protect the frail and immune-deficient is incomprehensible to them) and their place (typically small-town and rural, cities being dens of iniquity).  [snip]

Part of their rejection of democracy is the fact that they know they would be outvoted in a straight-up, ungerrymandered system: "Kyle (mid 20s, WY), a delivery driver, extends the logic: 'Every single small town would be outvoted by every single city. We wouldn’t be able to feed people cows. We’d all be eating seaweed.'"

The participants are similar to the authoritarian personalities that Canadian psychologist Robert Altemeyer studied for his 2008 book "The Authoritarians'': "They bring strong loyalty to their in-groups, have thick-walled, highly compartmentalized minds, use a lot of double standards in their judgments, are surprisingly unprincipled at times and are often hypocrites.”...

This is from an analysis of an opinion study (“Faith, Freedom, Family, Place: An Ethnographic Study of Conservative Americans’ Relationships to Democracy” by the Johns Hopkins Agora Institute and ReD Associates) of three Republican counties  -- in Michigan, South Carolina, and Wyoming.  The views the subjects expressed represent a not-insignificant part of the electorate that is hostile to democracy, hostile to diversity, hostile to Americans other than those in their homogeneous groups -- i.e.,  hostile to modern America.  We have to understand that while they inhabit the same country, they're hostile to its basic principles and un-reachable.  They're core MAGA and cannot be reasoned or bargained with.  They can only be defeated over and over and over again.

The ugly:

U.S. President Donald Trump intervened on behalf of American star forward Folarin Balogun, whose suspension was lifted in a decision that allows him to play in a World Cup match against Belgium on Monday.

Balogun, the American leader with three goals, received a red card for stepping awkwardly on the right ankle of Tarik Muharemović of Bosnia and Herzegovina in a 2-0 round of 32 win on Wednesday. A red card triggers an automatic one-game suspension.

FIFA announced Sunday that the suspension had been lifted, triggering praise from Trump and outrage from Belgium’s team.

Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino after the game asking FIFA review the red card, according to a person familiar with the call who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump said in a statement on social media.

The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) said it was “astonished” and Belgium coach Rudi Garcia mocked FIFA’s action.

“I didn’t know that in the offices of FIFA the 5th of July was the 1st of April in Europe,” Garcia said through a translator in an April Fools’ Day comparison. “The Belgian federation does not defend itself, it does not protect the national team, She defends football in general, she defends her integrity, her ethics. I think it’s the first time in the history of the World Cup that there is this kind of decision.”

Garcia wouldn’t respond when asked about a possible appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport or whether he thought Trump impacted FIFA’s action.

“In order to safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams and to protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport, both at this FIFA World Cup and at future editions of the tournament, the RBFA is investigating all potential options,” the Belgian federation said in a statement..."

Irony alert:  Balogun is an American citizen whose parents come from one of the MF's "shithole countries" (Nigeria) that the MF wants to stop immigration from.  Regardless of your allegiance to our national team, and the foul that caused the red card, this smells to high heaven.  Belgium and every every competing country now has to wonder how much the MF's influence over the corrupt Infantino and his corrupt FIFA organization will tilt other matches.  (UPDATE:  Belgium is taking legal action against FIFA.) Having a host country, with its infamously corrupt leader cutting a deal with the head of FIFA (who notoriously gave the MF a "Peace Prize"!), is already raising hackles around the world.  Also, when the MF gets involved in anything, the ETTD syndrome kicks in, so ...

Trump's Graft Unparalleled In Western Democracies

There have been a number of stories in recent days of the Malignant Fascist's huge financial windfall in 2025, after the his 927-page financial disclosure form was released.  His crypto haul was $1.4 billion alone, where he got quick profits while investors / suckers lost nearly $4 billion.  Well, the MF has given the U.S. another distinction on its 250th birthday:  its President is now in a league with the corrupt tyrants in Russia and Turkey in terms of accumulating vast wealth while in office:

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister and billionaire mogul who died in 2023, is often considered to have set the mold for President Trump with his mastery of the news media, gilded taste and, above all, legislative maneuvers that drew accusations of conflicts of interest.

Mr. Berlusconi passed laws that appeared tailor-made to protect and benefit his family’s vast business empire. And his annual earning disclosures showed he had been paid tens of millions of dollars while serving as prime minister.

This week, new financial disclosures suggested that Mr. Trump has broken that mold by making at least $2.2 billion in his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses.

Mr. Trump’s profits are a haul once unimaginable for any leader of a liberal democracy, particularly a sitting American president. No modern Western leader has ever publicly disclosed such big windfalls while in office.

The Trump family’s earnings, experts said, have moved him into an echelon of enrichment more associated with strongmen in Russia and Turkey.

His gains were all the more striking because the United States has long positioned itself as a standard-bearer for financial regulation, anti-graft measures and the rule of law. Yet his cryptocurrency earnings highlight an unusually glaring conflict: As president, Mr. Trump oversees the regulation of an industry that, as a businessman, he also greatly profits from...  (our emphasis)

We'll leave it there so you can read the rest of the article, with all the modern comparisons of self- dealing graft, at your leisure (but please read).   

As he falls back on his latest distraction, the moth-eaten Republican "red scare" tactic, the American people need to be reminded over and over again that the world- class- corrupt MF isn't helping them, he's helping himself -- to billions in graft and shady deals (and he'll get away with paying little or no taxes as he has in the past).  It can't be made clearer, because it's the one thing he's being proudly transparent about.

 

Trump Made $1.4 Billion In Crypto Last Year; How Did You Do?

 

Most.  Corrupt.  President.  Ever:

President Donald Trump earned more than $635 million from a licensing agreement with a cryptocurrency group specializing in "meme" coins bearing his name last year, an amount that pushed his total crypto holdings past $1 billion, according to a lengthy financial disclosure form he released Tuesday.

The figures from 2025 — the first year of Trump's second term — were disclosed to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics in a 927-page document. By comparison, President Barack Obama's final disclosure form was eight pages, while President Joe Biden's was 11. Vice President JD Vance's form for last year is 17 pages.

Trump's meme-coin earnings came on top of more than $236 million worth from additional crypto token sales, and an additional sale of equity worth more than $65 million associated with Trump family crypto venture World Liberty Financial. There's also more than $290 million classified as income from cryptocurrency wallets associated with World Liberty.

The $635 million was earned from a group called "Celebration Coins." No digital footprint could be found for the group, and a representative for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.  [snip]

Unlike past presidents, Trump did not divest his assets or place them in a blind trust before taking office. The Trump Organization has said the assets are managed by third-party financial institutions, with trades executed through automated technology.

"What strikes me as remarkable is how many pies Trump has his fingers in," said Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University. "There is no precedent to compare it with. No president in the 20th or 21st century has had something that's vaguely comparable."

Trump has faced bipartisan criticism for alleged conflicts of interest, assertions the White House has vigorously denied.

Trump's total crypto earnings totaled some $1.4 billion during his first year back in office, when he began making liberalized cryptocurrency regulations a cornerstone of his presidency.

Wait, there's more.  And it relates to everyone's favorite thug organization:

The disclosure also lists Trump's investment accounts as buying and selling shares of the GEO Group, a private prison company and one of the largest contractors with ICE.

Starting just 10 days after his inauguration, the disclosure shows Trump's investment accounts made purchases of the prison company. As the number of immigrant detainees swelled from 35,000 to almost 70,000, the purchases increased with the total ranging from $143,000 to $445,000. The last purchase was listed in late November. The stock that was sold ranges from $67,000 to $180,000.  (our emphasis)

Note to MAGAts and low-information voters:  he's not draining the swamp, he is the swamp;  he's not helping you, he's helping himself.  Those gins made by the Trump Crime Family were at the expense of losses by investors.  Imagine the cataclysmic outrage had Obama and Biden enriched themselves at this scale while in office, pursuing their financial interests and not the public's interests.

(Image: Chelsea Stahl / NBC News; Getty Images; Reuters)

 

"The Price Of Corruption" For Working Families

 

This past Wednesday, the American Economic Liberties Project and Groundwork Collaborative released a 10-page report, “The Price of Corruption: How Trump’s Pay-to-Play Administration is Driving Up Costs for Working Families” (pdf), that outlines nine policy areas "that have been warped by Trump's corruption."  It's main purpose is to pinpoint areas for further investigation by Democrats when the new Congress forms in 2027.

The policy areas covered are Health Care, Tariffs, Gas Prices, Energy, Air Travel, Tax Filing, Corporate Misbehavior, Credit Bureaus and Loan Rates, and Digital Assets and Prediction Markets. For a flavor of the contents, here's an excerpt for the last area, Digital Assets and Prediction Markets:

... The Trump family has personally netted at least $1.4 billion from crypto schemes, as this administration pulls away from oversight and enforcement of crypto fraud and prediction market regulations.

● Trump has installed people with crypto conflicts of interest throughout his administration, including by nominating more than 200 appointees who owned crypto assets worth up to $340 million.

 

● Simultaneously, the Department of Justice shut down investigations into crypto companies. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, while serving as deputy and holding at least $485,000 in crypto assets, eliminated the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team.

 

● Additionally, the administration has accelerated the adoption of crypto into critical federal agencies, including when Trumpʼs Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte urged mortgage giant Fannie Mae to accept crypto-backed mortgages for the first time ever.

 

● Trumpʼs crypto company World Liberty Financial (WLF) relies on Binance, a crypto exchange that admitted to anti-money laundering failures, Iran sanctions violations, and failing to report suspicious transactions linked to terrorist groups like Hamas. Binance has reportedly donated software to help launch WLF, and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, who had been convicted for failure to maintain an effective anti-laundering program, was later pardoned by Trump.

 

● Over the past year, Donald Trump Jr. has served as a strategic advisor to Kalshi and a large investor in Polymarket, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) – the agency overseeing these firms – has acted as their ally, rather than their watchdog. Both firms had actively lobbied Trumpʼs CFTC to block states from regulating prediction markets in the same way they regulate gambling companies...

 

As noted, it's a short, outline-format report, so please give it a read.

The media can't or won't focus on this firehose of corruption, but a Democratic Congress can and must. The American public -- especially working families -- needs to have it made clear which party is fighting for their interests and which Epstein class party is feeding at the public trough.

BONUS:  Similar takes here.

(Image:  Khoa Tran, Vanity Fair/ Getty Images)

"Epic Corruption In Plain Sight"

 

From Michael Waldman, Brennan Center for Justice, on the Malignant Fascist's "Epic Corruption in Plain Sight": 

"...There is a zone of lawlessness around the Oval Office, erected by the Supreme Court when it granted current and former presidents effective immunity from prosecution if their crimes involved 'official acts.' Loot the taxpayers, misuse government power for graft, and you’re off the hook.

Last week, the president filed a report with the Office of Government Ethics detailing the stock trades he made this year. It is a novelistic tale of profiteering, recognizable as insider trading in every way except, perhaps, under the law. 

Former U.S. Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer offers a useful guide.

In recent months, as Paramount and Netflix vied to buy Warner Brothers, Trump bought stock in all three companies. Now the Justice Department is considering whether to approve Paramount’s purchase of Warner Brothers.

As CNBC reported, Trump 'scooped up shares' in the data firm Palantir. Soon after, he abruptly praised the firm. 'Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has proven to have great war fighting capabilities and equipment,' Trump posted, even highlighting its ticker name. 'Just ask our enemies!!!' All this while Palantir was winning big federal contracts.

He invested in Oracle while brokering its deal to buy TikTok.

Just this week, he paraded off Air Force One in China, flanked by the CEOs of Nvidia and Boeing. Trump bought millions of dollars of Boeing stock before the trip, which led to the sale of 200 Boeing airplanes to the Chinese government. Among his biggest purchases has been Nvidia stock, which has seen steep increases after the U.S. government cleared 10 Chinese companies to purchase its advanced chips, in a big reversal from earlier national security concerns..." 

Financially stressed Americans going about their daily lives may only be getting a fraction of the fraction of the corporate media's coverage of the MF's corruption, if that.  (Some have said, beyond the risk they run for angering the unstable MF, the notion of the MF's corruption is already "baked in" and, therefore, not much a story for them -- which, of course, allows him to get away with just short of murder.)  This fog of cowardice/ exhaustion needs to be overcome by a strong focus on the MF's corruption during the campaign season and beyond.  It's not only a righteous focus, but a politically potent one for Democrats.

(Illustration:  Khoa Tran, Vanity Fair/ photos from Getty Images)

Trump's Latest Corruption: January 6 Thug Fund

 

Not long ago, the hugely corrupt and vicious Malignant Fascist filed a $10 billion lawsuit against his own IRS for not stopping the leak of his income tax papers, with his own corrupt Justice Department "defending" the Government.  The court was expected to toss the frivolous and self-dealing lawsuit, so the MF ordered his flunkies to settle out of court.  The illegal settlement was for $1.776 billion, which would allegedly go to pay off the January 6 violent seditionists and others impacted by the MF's big lie.  From PBS:

"The Trump administration on Monday announced the creation a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies of the Republican president who believe they were mistreated by the Biden administration Justice Department.

The 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' was announced by the Justice Department as part of a deal to resolve President Donald Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in announcing the fund in a statement that it was 'a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.'

Democrats and government watchdogs immediately pledged to fight what they called a 'corrupt' and unprecedented resolution, warning that the arrangement would unjustly enrich people close to the president with taxpayer dollars and open the door to meritless claims of political persecution. [snip]

The fund would represent not only a highly unorthodox resolution but also a further demonstration of the administration's eagerness to reward allies who before Trump came to power were investigated and in some cases charged and convicted. Most notably, the president on his first day back in office pardoned or commuted the sentences of supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His Justice Department since then has approved payouts to supporters entangled in the Trump-Russia investigation and investigated and prosecuted some of his perceived adversaries." (our emphasis)

The depravity of rewarding the violent goons that stormed the Capitol, beat up police causing 140 to be treated for injuries and several to die, wrecking the building, stealing property, and smearing their feces on the floor of the Capitol, is breathtaking.  There's no question that the MF will find a way to pay himself for being "mistreated" by the Biden Administration.  Imagine how many Federal agencies the felonious MF could sue and then have his Justice Department settle before the case goes to trial. This action is also being seen as the MF buying his own militia for future thuggery on his behalf.

The settlement was so obviously corrupt that the Treasury Department's General Counsel Brian Morrissey, an appointee of the MF, resigned yesterday in apparent disgust.  More should do so, but won't, just as the corporate media will shrug and treat this as a one-day story, if that.  The theft continues.

BONUS:  Senate Dems plan to make Republicans go on the record on the MF's "Anti-Weaponization Fund."

(photo: These violent rioters may soon be a lot wealthier. AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Trump's $1.7 Billion Fund For Fellow Seditionists And Cronies

 

Dear Struggling, Law-Abiding American Taxpayers:

President Donald Trump is expected to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.  

The commission overseeing the compensation fund would have the total authority to hand out approximately $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to settle claims brought by anyone who alleges they were harmed by the Biden administration's "weaponization" of the legal system, including the nearly 1,600 individuals charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as well as potentially entities associated with President Trump himself. 

While the settlement is expected to be agreed upon in the coming days, sources caution that the final terms will not be set until they are officially announced.

In addition to a public apology from the IRS, the compensation fund is believed to be the main condition for Trump to drop a series of legal actions he filed against the federal government, including the $10 billion lawsuit related to the 2019 leak of his tax returns as well as $230 million in legal claims related to the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and the Russia collusion investigation he faced during his first term in office, sources familiar with the ongoing deliberations said. The settlement terms are expected to prohibit Trump from directly receiving payments related to those three legal claims; however, entities associated with Trump are not explicitly barred from filing additional claims, sources said.  [snip]

The proposed fund -- which could face significant legal hurdles -- would draw money from the Treasury Department's Judgment Fund, a permanent appropriation used by the federal government to pay court judgments and settlements, sources said. 

The arrangement would be an unprecedented use of taxpayer dollars with little oversight. Under the terms of the potential settlement agreement, President Trump would have the authority to remove members of the commission running the fund without cause, and the commission would be under no obligation to disclose its procedures or decision-making process for awarding more than a billion dollars, the sources said. 

The proposed creation of the compensation fund has led some administration officials to raise ethical concerns about the arrangement -- stemming not only from Trump suing his own government but also having control of an entity that can freely hand out $1.7 billion to his allies. When asked about his legal claims last year, Trump acknowledged the lawsuit "sort of looks bad," but claimed he would donate any money he receives from the claims to charity.  [snip]

While the exact terms of the settlement are still being finalized, sources have described the proposed compensation fund as a hybrid between a victim compensation fund -- similar to the civil claims process that followed the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill -- and a truth-and-reconciliation-style commission. Examples of truth and reconciliation commissions in other countries include governmental acknowledgment of wrongdoing related to apartheid in South Africa and Canada's Indian residential school system. 

Over the last year, the Justice Department has utilized a so-called "Weaponization Working Group" to examine what it has described as abuses of power by the Biden administration, identifying cases of alleged anti-conservative and anti-Christian bias -- claims that are disputed by former officials. 

Trump's proposed commission is expected to be composed of five members who would issue monetary awards based on a majority vote, and the process for awarding money and the identities of the recipient could be kept private, according to sources. 

Any remaining funds would be turned back over to the government shortly before Trump leaves office, sources said.  (our emphasis)

A Justice Department that's been turned into the Malignant Fascist's personal law firm is about to agree to this "unprecedented use of taxpayer dollars with little oversight" to reward the insurrectionists, extremists, scoundrels, sycophants, and other bottom-feeding remnants of the MF's cult who broke the law and trashed the Constitution.  We remain skeptical that the "significant legal hurdles" faced by the arrangement will be enough to keep the MF and his lackeys at DOJ from pulling this off.  The "ballroom Republicans" in Congress certainly won't stand in the way.  The self-dealing corruption of the MF becomes more normalized by our institutions every day.

(Image:  the MF with potential beneficiaries of his slush fund)

More Grifting By The Trump Crime Family

 

Since the corrupt and demented Malignant Fascist returned to the Oval Office, his family has raked in money from businesses and foreign governments that want to do business with their daddy's regime. The latest crooked enterprise involves his sons Don Jr. and Eric interest in a drone manufacturing business.n The Guardian has the report:

"A golf club company backed by the sons of Donald Trump is merging with drone manufacturer Powerus in a deal designed to take the drone technology company public.

The merger with Aureus Greenway Holdings is the latest in Eric and Donald Trump Jr’s growing investments in the drone sector, following last month’s $1.5bn tie-up between Israeli drone maker Xtend and Florida-based JFB Construction Holdings. Drones have become a major procurement priority for the Pentagon and are widely used in Ukraine, where dense air defense systems near the frontlines limit the deployment of conventional aircraft."

War drones are certainly a growing industry, thanks in large part to their daddy's war of choice on Iran and threats of war elsewhere. nIt's as if they will get richer if he starts more wars (Cuba? Greenland? etc.).  The report continues:

"Powerus, which was formed in 2025 by Andrew Fox, makes heavy-lift drones that can carry industrial payloads up to 675kg. The company also offers services to transform existing staffed boats into remotely operated or fully autonomous vessels.

Fox is expected to serve as chief executive officer and chair of the combined company, Aureus said in an SEC filing.

In connection with the planned merger, Aureus has engaged Dominari Securities to help raise about $9m in financing.

Dominari counts both Trump brothers among its shareholders, with roughly 6% stake each."

The company is expected to bid on large, lucrative drone contracts from the Pentagon.  You can be certain that their proposals will lean on the fact that the skeevy Trump brothers are backing the company.  From bitcoins to drones, there's nothing that this greedy, nepotistic and corrupt family won't try in profiting from while the Malignant Fascist is in the Oval Office. 

(image: Brian Snyder / Reuters)

 

Looting America And The World: The Second Trump Presidency

 

The convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser Malignant Fascist has been busy enriching himself as his "Justice" Department continues to cover up the crimes of America's elitist "Epstein class," of which he's the most prominent member.  This is a good a summary of the grand theft being perpetrated by the MF while his crimes go unpunished, courtesy of Heather Cox Richardson:

On February 13 and 14, President Donald J. Trump’s representatives filed three applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to trademark his name for future use on an airport. As trademark lawyer Josh Gerben of Gerben IP noted, the application also covers merchandise branded “President Donald J. Trump International Airport,” “Donald J. Trump International Airport,” and “DJT,” including “clothing, handbags, luggage, jewelry, watches, and tie clips.”

Because of the trademark filing, Gerben notes, any airport adopting the Trump name would have to get a license to use the name, potentially paying a licensing fee. Gerben emphasizes that while it is common for public officials to have landmarks named after them, “never in the history of the United States” has “a sitting president’s private company…sought trademark rights” before such a naming.

In October, Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought withheld billions of dollars Congress appropriated for a tunnel between New York and New Jersey under the Hudson River, saying he wanted “to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles.” Trump told Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that he would release the funds if Schumer would agree to name Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., and New York City’s Penn Station after him.

After a Florida state lawmaker proposed putting Trump’s name on the Palm Beach International Airport, Jason Garcia of Seeking Rents today reported that the Florida legislature is currently pushing through measures to change the name of that airport to the “Donald J. Trump International Airport.” The amount of money proposed in Florida’s budget to make the change is $2,750,000, but Garcia notes this is likely a placeholder: the budget request is for $5.5 million.

The Trump grab for an airport named after him is just the latest grift in a presidential term that experts so far estimate has enriched the Trump family by at least $4 billion. That windfall includes merch, political contributions, and multiple cryptocurrency deals that have led, for example, to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who manages the United Arab Emirates’ sovereign wealth fund, buying a 49% stake in the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto company for $500 million days before Trump took office. This deal put $187 million immediately into Trump family entities and at least $31 million into entities owned by the family of Steve Witkoff, whom Trump had just named his Middle East envoy.  [snip]

Earlier this month, Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organization sued the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Treasury Department for $10 billion in damages after an IRS contractor during Trump’s own first term was convicted of leaking their tax information, along with that of thousands of other Americans who are not suing, to news outlets. Trump has control over the IRS, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says he will write whatever check he is told to cut. This move advances Trump’s use of the presidency to enrich himself into the realm of autocratic rulers who move their country’s money to their own accounts.  [snip]

Jonathan Landay and Douglas Gillison of Reuters reported yesterday that Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought took $15 million in unlawfully impounded money that Congress had appropriated for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which fed starving children, for his own security detail. Michelle Hackman, Josh Dawsey, and Tarini Parti of the Wall Street Journal reported that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her affair partner Corey Lewandowski travel in a $70 million luxury 737 MAX jet with a private cabin in the back.

Over all are the horrors of the Epstein files, in which Trump’s name appears so often observers have suggested it is the one place that could legitimately be rebranded with Trump’s name as the Trump-Epstein files.  [snip]

Profiting off his name is only part of why Trump appears to want to splash it anywhere he can: so far, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a new class of battleships, and perhaps “The President Donald J. Trump Ballroom” where the East Wing of the White House used to be.

It’s also about his legacy. In a tour of George Washington’s Virginia home, Mount Vernon, in April 2019, Trump expressed surprise that the first president hadn’t named any of his property after himself. “If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it,” Trump said. “You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you.”  [snip]

Trump has made no secret of wanting his image carved onto Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, where sculptor Gutzon Borglum carved the busts of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln in the Black Hills of the Lakotas. Beginning his sculpture in 1927, Borglum chose President Washington because he had founded the nation, Jefferson because he had launched westward expansion, Lincoln because he had saved the United States from destruction, and Roosevelt because he had protected working men and helped fit democracy to industrial development.

But Trump’s interest in being added to Mount Rushmore does not appear to be related to a desire to advance the interests of the American people. In September 2025 the IRS granted tax-exempt status to the Donald Trump Mount Rushmore Memorial Legacy, making it a charity that can accept tax-free donations.  (our emphasis)

Nothing the MF does is related to advancing the interests of the American people, either domestically or in foreign policy.  Other corrupt, hubristic tyrants in history sought to be remembered through monuments dedicated to themselves, but our moron madman has no claim to anything of a truly historical nature except his historically corrupt, racist, destructive, un-American terms in office, with his despicable cover up of the Trump-Epstein files at the foundation of that steaming pile of excrement.  

The day can't come too soon when we can obliterate his name from every public place and consign him to his proper place under the ash heap of history.

BONUS:  More looting here, here, here, and here, as if more evidence was needed.

(Image:  illustration by Oliver Munday;  photo by Skynesher/ Getty)

Another Participation Trophy For Toddler Trump

 

Yesterday, a lobbying group calling itself the Washington Coal Club gave the psychologically needy and greedy Malignant Fascist a made-up award for pushing dirty coal as an energy source.  The award / bribe presented to the MF was the "Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal," likely the one and only time it will be awarded.  It was given to him as he announced that his regime was funding coal plants in five states, and that he was ordering the Pentagon to get their electricity from coal-fired plants.

This adds to the toddler President's collection of undeserved and ridiculous "trophies" -- often created for him alone -- that are given to him in hopes of winning his support or getting him to do something. Most recently, Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado obsequiously gave the MF her Nobel Peace Prize -- a prize he has obsessed over since his arch-nemesis President Obama received it -- apparently hoping he'd install her in power in Caracas; much to her disappointment, he didn't.  The corrupt FIFA leadership also joined the bribery parade with an absurd, first-time "peace prize" after the MF's damaged ego was hurt that the Nobel Prize Committee spurned him.

The trophies themselves are the least of the ethical and illegal issues with the MF, when foreign governments and corporations are openly bribing the MF with cryptocurrency deals, payments to family members, and other instances of corruption, which he welcomes.  His MAGAt cult doesn't seem to mind, since they'd be doing the same thing if they were in his position.

(photo: Donnie gets his attaboy from the coal lobby)

 

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

One year ago this week, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. He entered office with a net approval rating of +5 in the FiftyPlusOne.news approval rating aggregate. Despite a tumultuous first term — which ended with the president posting his worst-ever numbers after the January 6 insurrection — voters, it seemed, were willing to give him another shot.

They are no longer willing to give him that chance. Trump sits at an -16 net job approval on average today, down from +5 on his first day in office. His 21-point drop is the worst first-year performance, in the eyes of public opinion, of any president’s first term going back to at least 1948. If you compare the last year to other second-term presidencies, Trump’s is still the worst first-year performance of any president in the modern polling, with one exception: Richard Nixon (who was consumed by Watergate and other national crises at this point in his term).

Either way, Trump is in historically bad company.

As The New York Times reported this week, Trump’s support among key groups he persuaded to vote for him in 2024 — notably, young, Black, and Latino voters — has now sunk below levels measured in the run-up to the 2020 election (which Trump lost to Joe Biden by 4.5 points in the national popular vote)... [snip]

The president has lost the most ground among the groups that put him back in the White House.  (our emphasis)

As the weeks go by, it's become harder and harder to find something "good" to begin with.  Increasingly, we've been relying on polling showing how historically unpopular the Malignant Fascist and his malevolent policies and enablers are.  That the polls consistently show this erosion of support tells us that a growing majority is rejecting the MF's toxic, un-American politics.  A would-be dictator who loses "the consent of the governed" is, in time, destined to fail.

The bad:

"... The behavior of ICE and CBP agents reminds me of the Fascist blackshirts who arrived in trucks, armed with clubs, knives, guns, and castor oil, to subjugate towns in early 1920s Italy, before Benito Mussolini declared dictatorship.

"Like the original Fascists, ICE agents want their violence to be public. They want the world to understand that anyone who challenges their authority and occupation of public space can be 'taught a lesson,' humiliated (parading their victims around in their underwear was a Fascist specialty, too) or eliminated.

"The United States has its own history of using organized public violence in neighborhoods and cities. We need only think of the role of violence in sustaining the Jim Crow South (which was a regional form of authoritarianism) and the lynchings of Black people that could happen at any time, and then the shootings of civilian protesters during the Civil Rights movement.

"Yet those around the world who watch the behavior of DHS operatives may make comparisons to military juntas abroad and other foreign regimes. Shooting protesters is standard practice where war is waged on domestic populations and even peaceful public dissent is considered a form of terrorism. People were shot for protesting in Belarus in 2020; in Turkey, anti-regime protesters have had chemical agents sprayed directly at their faces or in their mouths.

"In Iran, women were shot in the face and the eyes during the 2022-2023 protests, leaving many of them blinded. As Firouzeh Nahavandi has written, such acts “are part of a political rhetoric that is echoed throughout Iran’s long history, in which aiming for the eyes symbolically signifies stripping someone of their personal, political capital.”

"In all of these cases, state security forces are given license to kill and torture to shut down the sights most threatening to them: people showing the world through nonviolent protests that they do not fear the regime and will not lose their civic courage no matter what happens. This is the message that Minnesotans are sending to the world right now." (our emphasis)

Our fascist regime's approach to public humiliation and "manufactured cruelty" appears to be altering mug shots to falsely show arrested protesters crying. 

We take heart that resistance is growing and that Minnesotans and their Democratic leaders are fighting back against our homegrown fascists.  (Bravo to the FBI supervisor in Minneapolis who resigned after DOJ HQ told her not to investigate the Renee Good murder. Contrast that with AG Bondi extorting Minnesota.)  We need to show them in our words and actions that they're not in this alone.

The ugly:

"Days into President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, a cryptocurrency billionaire posted a video on X to his hundreds of thousands of followers. 'Please Donald Trump, I need your help,' he said, wearing a flag pin askew and seated awkwardly in an armchair. 'I am an American. … Help me come home.'

"The speaker, 46-year-old Roger Ver, was in fact no longer a U.S. citizen. Nicknamed “Bitcoin Jesus” for his early evangelism for digital currency, Ver had renounced his citizenship more than a decade earlier. At the time of his video, Ver was under criminal indictment for millions in tax evasion and living on the Spanish island of Mallorca. His top-flight legal defense team had failed around half a dozen times to persuade the Justice Department to back down. The U.S., considering him a fugitive, was seeking his extradition from Spain, and he was likely looking at prison.

"Once, prosecutors hoped to make Ver a marquee example amid concerns about widespread cryptocurrency tax evasion. They had spent eight painstaking years working the case. Just nine months after his direct-to-camera appeal, however, Ver and Trump’s new Justice Department leadership cut a remarkable deal to end his prosecution. Ver wouldn’t have to plead guilty or spend a day in prison. Instead, the government accepted a payout of $49.9 million — roughly the size of the tax bill prosecutors said he dodged in the first place — and allowed him to walk away.

"Ver was able to pull off this coup by taking advantage of a new dynamic inside of Trump’s Department of Justice. A cottage industry of lawyers, lobbyists and consultants with close ties to Trump has sprung up to help people and companies seek leniency, often by arguing they had been victims of political persecution by the Biden administration. In his first year, Trump issued pardons or clemency to dozens of people who were convicted of various forms of white-collar crime, including major donors and political allies. Investigations have been halted. Cases have been dropped. 

"Within the Justice Department, a select club of Trump’s former personal attorneys have easy access to the top appointees, some of whom also previously represented Trump. It has become a dark joke among career prosecutors to refer to these lawyers as the “Friends of Trump.”... (our emphasis)

As the Malignant Fascist's DOJ threatens blue states to knuckle under to their demands, they collaborate with the white collar billionaire criminals to make the charges or convictions go away.   In addition to being the most fascistic regime in American history, it's also the most transparently and overwhelmingly corrupt.