Beatings Will Continue
Until Morale Improves
Donald John Trump needs to escape conversations about the bawdy card he sent to celebrate the 50th birthday of his pal, Jeffrey Epstein.
In lieu of intermeddling in the regional conflicts of other nations, upsetting global trade relationships, or further dismantling the constitutional order of America, TACO Man has pulled a real whizzy.
Erasing a Bawdy Birthday Card between Sex Offenders with a Worse Human Abuse TACO Triumph
On 18 July 25, Trump the Terrified attempted to silence a MAGA cult uprising with a prisoner trade swap deal. The backstory follows.
1. On 15 March 25, the United States flew about 200 persons to El Salvador for imprisonment in its infamous CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo). The facility can hold 40,000 prisoners. On that day, the United States was using military equipment and personnel to remand to another sovereign nation residents seized by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents. The operation proceeded under an unpublicized agreement between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. The United States agreed to use tax dollars to pay for the incarceration of the prisoners, who were relocated in defiance of an active court order and delivered in shackles.
2. On Friday, 18 July 25, Karen DeYoung and Samantha Schmidt of The Washington Post (WaPo) reported that:
“More than 250 Venezuelans deported in March by the Trump administration and flown to El Salvador’s high security ‘counterterrorism’ prison were sent home Friday in exchange for 10 U.S. citizens imprisoned in Venezuela by the government of President Nicolas Maduro.”
DeYoung and Schmidt state that the operation was the fruit of “months of negotiations by the State Department.” The names of the ten returned citizens have not been released. The time, place, and reason for their arrest and imprisonment also is not been made public. An unnamed official claimed that Venezuela now no longer holds any U.S. citizens.
The State Department never has provided a complete list of U.S. citizens considered unjustly imprisoned by Venezuela.
WaPo notes that the U.S. has returned more than 7,000 Venezuelans to their country of origin this year in twice-weekly flights.The Friday flight from the U.S. reportedly included seven young children previously separated from their parents during deportation operations.
The whole episode has been a rolling master class in deception, distraction, disinformation, duplicity, double-dealing, despair, and desperation.
a. Deception. On and since 15 Mar 25, the Department of Trump Justice argued that the United States could not return the persons flown to El Salvador once delivered to, and under the control, of another sovereign nation.
b. Disinformation. On 14 Apr 25, the President of the United States welcomed the President of El Salvador to the White House and an Oval Office press conference underscoring the “deal” as “done” and not subject to reversal.
c. Whoopsie. In Apr 25, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and the Speacial Papporteur on the human rights of migrants raised concerns about the deportations and related detentions.
d. Double-Dealing. In a press statement released on 30 Apr 25, El Salvador told the United Nations that the United States retained legal responsibility for prisoners held at its CECOT facility.
"The Salvadoran State emphatically states that its authorities have not arrested, detained, or transferred the persons referred to in the communications of the Working Group…The actions of the State of El Salvador have been limited to the implementation of a bilateral cooperation mechanism with another State, through which it has facilitated the use of the Salvadoran prison infrastructure for the custody of persons detained within the scope of the justice system and law enforcement of that other State."
e. Despair. On 17 July 25, the venerable New York Times published a description of a 50th birthday card sent by Mr. Big to Mr. Nasty. In addition to a typewritten (maybe) fantasy conversation between the two “pals” with “secrets” to be celebrated, the card included a sketch of a naked woman, featuring breasts and a squiggly “Donald” signature mimicking pubic hair.
f. Desperation. Mr. Big immediately sued Dow Jones and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for libel.
g. Distraction. On 18 July 25, a prisoner swap deal goes down which drains all oxygen in the room with its audacity.
Facts Still Matter
Masked and armed ICE agents are approaching and detaining residents of this country without warrant. The old crime of “driving while black” is gaining a companion target— “working while brown.”
It is not okay to return residents sent to CECOT to their nation of origin. Those not members of criminal organizations fled Venezuela to escape certain threats and abuses, including death and/or false imprisonment. Returning them to certain harm is indefensible.
Clear and continuing abuses of human and constitutional rights domestically are compounded by possible international actions of breath-taking callous cruelty. Reports of the burning of 500 metric tons of food which could have fed 1.5 million children for one year suggests evidence of waste, fraud, and abuse within Trump 2.0 specifically disadvantaging nations previously dependent on our aid.
Look again.
We have food pantries and food deserts here in America.
The food could have gone to good and immediate use before it spoiled.
Resolve
What justification exists for taxpayer dollars misappropriated through neglect? Or used to normalize criminal conduct by the current administration?
The partisan majority in the Supreme Court likely will support these rogue actions without explanation. The Congress seems more interested in clawing back funding for Big Bird and Tchaikovsky than responding to cries to defund ICE and/or impeach the sitting president for any of his crimes still left unprotected by the high court.
Donny the Duplicitous has worse problems than poor circulation to his lower limbs. His dementia is becoming publicly delusional.
HE is a state of permanent national emergency.
The TACO Man is reversing course on two issues with a single public relations event.
1. He is scrambling to escape punishment for abuse of human rights on and after 15 Mar 25 by completing and trumpeting a shady prison swap deal; and,
2. He is using that deal as a diversion from the shit storm of welching on his promise to uncover pedophiles in positions of power. Now that he is implicated, he is rushing to court to claim himself a victim of the parts of the press retaining any semblance of immediately fair voice.
Resistance to Trump 2.0 and its implementation of the Project 2025 playbook is hard to sustain. The Make Good Trouble turnout on 17 July 25 was less than that for the No Kings Day on 14 June 25. Rather than despair, look to the numbers of persons peacefully protesting on 17 Feb and 19 Apr 25. Rejoice in and honor every participant. The effort to redeem democracy is a marathon, not a sprint.
Trump 2.0 can beat on the will, the aspirations, and the values of We the People.
Without our leave and help, it cannot defeat us or our rule of law.
It needs our permission to govern.
Every day, everywhere all the time, let us use our persons and our purses to protest peacefully and persistently the Trump 2.0 assaults on our individual and indivisible Power of One.
Rise up.
Stay up.
Resist.
Persist.
Prevail.
Thank you, Susan! Appreciated.
It took three times for me to realize I was seeing "I" with "can't handle the truth" - serious head shake and nod. If Mr. Murdoch wants F47 booted out of the inner sanctum, do you think it will be done?