The Donald Trump Score Card

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/09/politics/trump-halligan-doj-appointment-challenged-comey

excerpt:

"The coming challenge to remove Halligan from the case is just one in a wave of recent criminal defense lawyers around the country calling into question Trump’s use of top prosecutors who haven’t been confirmed by the Senate. Some of those challenges have been successful.

Halligan may make the Comey case especially vulnerable, in that she was the only prosecutor to take the indictment through a grand jury, and was sworn in by the administration to lead her office just days before."

 

Trump considering $15 billion in clean energy cuts after cutting $7.5 billion.


Leaked list shows Trump administration considering $15 billion in additional clean energy cuts

 

A 90-Second Crash Course in Trump’s Betrayal of American Soy Farmers – Mother Jones

excerpt:

Trump’s aid package to farmers is expected to be in the billions of dollars. But to some farmers, that misses the point. “The American farmer, especially myself included—we don’t want any payments. We want to work,” said Indiana soybean and corn farmer Brian Warpup to the Associated Press. “The worst thing we could ever want is a handout.”

 

GOP votes against placing check on Trump's war powers against cartels.


Senate Republicans vote down legislation to check Trump's use of war powers against cartels

excerpt:

"WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans voted down legislation Wednesday that would have put a check on President Donald Trump’s ability to use deadly military force against drug cartels after Democrats tried to counter the administration’s extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers to destroy vessels in the Caribbean.

The vote fell mostly along party lines, 48-51, with two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski, voting in favor and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman voting against."

 

Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned to raise money for public TV after Trump's cuts.


https://www.npr.org/2025/10/08/nx-s1-5566744/bob-ross-paintings-auction-public-media

 

A 'soft coup' in progress

excerpt:

"Unfortunately, there are many strong points to this ongoing soft coup. Foremost is Trump’s skill in the media. People seemed swayed simply by his swagger and style and tend to ignore what he’s actually saying. Another is an extremely conservative Supreme Court who seems confused about what branch of government they occupy. Re-writing the Constitution, voiding hard-fought laws such as the Civil rights Act and Voting Rights Act because they deemed them no longer necessary and expanding executive power to a dangerous degree is not a mandate intended for the highest court in the land."

 

Trump is being duped by his own administration officials.


Are We Witnessing a ‘Soft Coup’? - WhoWhatWhy

excerpt:

"However, Trump’s ignorance does not seem to just stem from the right-wing echo chamber he helped create and lives in. It appears as though his staff is keeping him in the dark on many crucial issues.

For example, as part of the administration’s effort to punish blue states, it cut $187 million for counterterrorism efforts in New York.

That’s a big deal. Did Trump know about it? Apparently not.

According to The New York Times, he “was blindsided by the decision to defund the police, not learning of the cuts until Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York called him on Sunday to protest the change after the fact, according to three people with knowledge of the call.”

The funding was then restored."

 

Trump broke the law by sending National Guard to L.A., federal judge rules

excerpt:

Breyer seemed persuaded by that argument. He wrote in his ruling that if the government’s rationale is that the military can assist law enforcement whenever there’s danger to officers, there’s no logical end to the military’s involvement, since law enforcement is inherently dangerous.

In his ruling, Breyer said that federal lawyers were presenting a “perpetual, atextual right to defy Congress.” By their logic, the president’s power is limitless, allowing the executive in chief to “ to deploy troops to accompany any federal employee whose job puts them at some risk — as do the jobs of many federal employees, from OSHA inspectors to IRS agents to U.S. marshals.”

 

Third of Republicans say grocery prices ‘harder’ under Trump

excerpt:

"Addressing the affordability concerns of everyday Americans was central to President Trump’s presidential campaign, during which he vowed to lower grocery prices "on day one." More recently, in an address to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump said that he had "defeated" inflation within the first eight months of his second term."

 

‘He wasn’t this national hero’: US college students voice concern over Charlie Kirk’s idolization

excerpt:

The rightwing response to Kirk’s death is being used as a tool to continue censoring ideals that challenge the status quo, said AR, a South Asian man and senior at Temple University in Philadelphia. “The state could essentially ban criticism of Zionism. It could ban criticism of the US government’s foreign policy effectively for large segments of the population, especially those who were not US citizens,” said AR*, who is using a pseudonym. “It could flirt with the idea of revoking citizenship from those who are naturalized on the basis of their speech. And now they have a perfect boogeyman of leftwing terrorism.”

 

Trump admin buying more buildings in Chicago, Portland amid crackdown

excerpt:

Noem said they were also looking at purchasing buildings in Portland. "I was in Portland on Tuesday, and met the governor, met with the mayor, met with the chief of police... They are all lying, and disingenuous, and dishonest people," she added. "I told them if they didn't meet our demands for safety and security on the streets and work with us, then we were going to bring in more federal law enforcement."

“If we have to do it the hard way in Portland and Chicago, we will,” she said.

 

https://www.aol.com/news/trumps-labor-department-admits-trumps-170047450.html

excerpt:

“Farmers are getting it in so many ways; their exports are down, their costs are up, and they’re losing their workforce,” said Ajilore, the former USDA economist. Given all that, farmer sentiment “actually hasn’t really moved as much as you would expect, given what’s happening,” he said. He attributes it to a wait-and-see attitude among farmers who have faithfully supported Trump for years. But now, he added, “the impact is starting to really hit home.”

 

Trump is robbing Peter to pay Peter.


https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2025/...n-crackdown-take-a-toll-on-wisconsin-farmers/

excerpt:

The problem with the bailout solution, says Gbenga Ajilore, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and former senior adviser for rural development at USDA, is that the revenue generated by tariffs that Trump proposes to convert into handouts to farmers comes directly from the farmers themselves.

“It’s not even like robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s like robbing Peter to pay Peter,” Ajilore said in a phone interview Wednesday. “What’s happening is that there are tariffs on a lot of goods — looking at steel, aluminum, looking at fertilizers. So farmers are paying more for their inputs. We’re seeing this impacting these companies like Caterpillar, John Deere. And so you can say there’s a lot of revenue, but it’s coming out of the pockets of consumers, businesses and farmers.”

 

https://www.aol.com/news/trumps-labor-department-admits-trumps-170047450.html

excerpt:

The loss of those temporary, undocumented workers could have a big impact on American farms. The Labor Department cites a study that found a 10 percent decline in the agricultural workforce would result in a 4.2 percent reduction in farm output and a 5.5 percent decline in farm revenue. "Given that approximately 42 percent of the U.S. crop workforce are unable to enter the country, potentially subject to removal or voluntarily leaving the labor force, these impacts will likely be dramatically higher," the department notes. "Such significant economic impacts not only create tangible and imminent economic harms, but they structurally disrupt the ordinary operations of the U.S. agricultural sector, resulting in shortages of agricultural commodities that cannot be supplemented with imports in the near-term."

 

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2025/...n-crackdown-take-a-toll-on-wisconsin-farmers/

excerpt:

"If farmers are not already feeling seasick as the Trump administration spins the ag economy around on a cycle of tariffs and bailouts, the administration’s immigration crackdown is also making them queasy.

A panel discussion at last week’s World Dairy Expo focused on a labor shortage made worse by a Trump administration that seems hell-bent on deporting the agricultural workforce."

 

Trump's revenge campaign continues.


Live Updates: N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James Indicted After Trump’s Pressure Campaign
Her indictment on mortgage-related charges follows a case brought against the former F.B.I. director James Comey.
Devlin Barrett, Glenn Thrush, and Jonah E. Bromwich
Updated Oct. 9, 2025, 7:14 p.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10/09/us/trump-news

 

Today is Kazmirez Pulaski Day and the anniversary of the siege of Savanah, GA. in the American Revolution in 1779.

Looks like there is a ceasefire in Gaza; and an exchange of hostages is promised.

 

I figure Emperor Orange will want to bomb or at least heavily sanction Norway after he didn't 'win' the Nobel Peace Prize after personally ending, what, 38 wars this week?

 

Machado is awarded Nobel Peace Prize.


https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10/10/world/nobel-peace-prize

 

Trump administration has federal government implement credit swap as part of its $20 billion bailout of Argentina.


US buys Argentine pesos, finalizes $20 billion currency swap

excerpt:

"Bessent, under fire from U.S. farmers and Democratic lawmakers, has insisted that the credit swap is not a bailout. Farmers are angry about the idea of rescuing Argentina, whose own farmers have benefited from a recent gush of sales of soybeans to China at the expense of their U.S. counterparts. Lawmakers have pushed Trump to explain how this financial help aligns with his “America First” agenda."