Attilatheblond
Attilatheblond's JournalNot only did Trump pardon a major drug trafficker, his administration has hallowed out staff here in the borderlands
And AZ Attorney General Kirs Mayes isn't taking it without a fight.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/attorney-general-says-pam-bondi-removed-60-dea-agents-fighting-drug-trafficking-in-arizona/ar-AA1S5Jv6]
AG calls for federal agents to fight drug trafficking in Arizona
Arizona’s top prosecutor said the major focus on immigration enforcement by the Trump administration has led to federal drug prosecutions dropping by 10% from 2024 and the number of people who have been charged with money laundering going down by almost 25%.
“The federal government is effectively abandoning its fight against drug and human trafficking as it prioritizes immigration enforcement,” Mayes wrote.
Mayes also raised concerns about Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checkpoints reportedly going unattended along State Route 82, a southern Arizona road that she said is commonly used for drug trafficking. This is an issue for the attorney general, who said most drugs enter the U.S. inside cars driven by U.S. citizens through border checkpoints.
The Administration that Can't Think Straight pretends to be all law and order, but they are leaving the borderlands pretty defenseless. Pulled people off duty here where the fentanyl comes into the US and sent them to D.C. to pretend to fight crime and make sure trash is picked up.
I am thinking Trump is getting paid off by the real international drug cartels while he is feigning being tough on drug runners by blowing up boats that could not possibly make it to the US.
POTUS who wants a real Peace Prize seems hell bent on provoking a war with Venezuela
US jets tracked circling Gulf of Venezuela as tensions mount
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0edxgx31zdo]
The F/A-18 Super Hornets appeared on flight tracking sites near Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city, at around 13:00 (17:00 GMT), before circling the gulf for about 40 minutes.
A US defence official told the Associated Press the F/A-18 jets had conducted a "routine training flight" in the area.
The incident comes amid a wave of US strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea, which the White House said were trafficking drugs to the US from Venezuela. Experts have raised questions over the legality of the strikes, which have killed more than 80 people.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused the US of using the strikes to destabilise the country and oust him from power.
Mom of Karoline Leavitt's nephew rejects White House narrative of her ICE arrest
Gift link https://wapo.st/48qWW9C]
If Trump wants to find a 'nasty woman' to grumble about, he doesn't need to look beyond his West Wing pool of blonds. Karoline Leavitt is right there, backing up her hard drinking, pugnacious, gambler, occasional deadbeat dad of a brother in what appears to be a nasty child custody battle with his child's DACA protected mother Bruna Ferreira.
Ferreria, brought to the US as a very young child by her parents from Brazil, was picked up and detained by ICE. But the story is not really about that. This is about a nasty man, Michael Leavitt, with a record of drunkenness, brawling in the street, gambling, and trying to wipe his child's mother from their lives. It also illustrates a questionable use of position and proximity to political power against enemies.
We know Trump is a vindictive jerk who uses position to harm those he doesn't like. Maybe that condition is contagious, or maybe his press secretary has always leaned toward using connections to be a mean girl.
The article is not short, goes into a lot of details of the history of Bruna Ferreria and the family Leavitt, but it will become the problem de jour for another Trump appointee.
More excerpts in my reply below, but there are a lot of details in the WaPo article linked. It's a tangled web of good ol nastiness.
Something I posted on FB the other day. ACA isn't just help paying premiums, it also added regulations.
ACA, also known as Obama Care, is NOT just about money going to insurance companies to help people pay premiums so they can be insured. It is ALSO about putting regulations ON insurance companies.
It's about requiring insurance companies to spend a certain % of what they charge on actual medical care payments. If an insurer does not spend that % of the premiums they collect on actual care, they must refund or lower the rates they charge. ACA limits the % of profits insurance companies can make! Without some regulation, insurers have no incentive to pay for claims, they can deny more and more to assure THEY get more profits.
The ACA puts demands on insurers to cover every client, not just the ones who don't use a lot of health care. It keeps them from only covering healthy people and refusing to cover people with per-existing conditions. Ending ACA would mean the people who need coverage the most would be unable to get health insurance, or it would be as such a high cost that most would be unable to afford it, which is essentially the same as them not being allowed into the insurance programs.
Trump thinks everyone is as ignorant as his maga voters. He thinks he can pretend they are saving money, or getting money back when what he is trying to do is give Big Insurance the OK to deny claims and/or deny coverage to people more likely to need care and have claims. in order to make obscene profits again.
Please remember these aspects of the ACA and help others to recall that it's not just money to subsidize premiums for consumers. It is also about making insurers do better to provide health care instead of just taking people's money.
Supreme Court declines to hear case on constitutionality of same-sex marriage
Waiter, please send a bottle of your finest wine to the celebration at Pete & Chasten's table. And a bottle of badly corked sour grape wine to that hypocritical, 3 times divorced 'champion of holy matrimony' Kim Davis's slop tray behind the dumpster.
https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/11/supreme-court-declines-to-hear-case-on-constitutionality-of-same-sex-marriage/]
As is generally the case when it denies petitions for review, the court did not provide any explanation for its decision not to hear Davis’ case. If any justices disagreed with the decision not to take up the case, they did not note that disagreement publicly.
Pay up, Kim! Maybe your ex-husbands will contribute to your fund to pay the lawsuit you lost.
Want to help DEM candidates get on the ballot in AZ?
This portal will verify your status as a registered voter in AZ then take you to a list of candidates with petitions to get on our ballots. It's easy and very well done.
https://apps.azsos.gov/apps/election/eps/op/]
I suggest we all bookmark the site and share it with others in AZ. Help candidates get the signatures they need to get on our ballots.
AZ Grand Jury indicts 20 in firearms trafficking conspiracy to Mexico
If Trump-Antionette and his court of fools were really interested in stopping drugs and gang violence, they would be doing what Arizona investigators, courts are doing: Bust the people trafficking guns and ammo to Cartels.
https://www.myheraldreview.com/news/border/arizona-indicts-20-in-firearms-trafficking-conspiracy-to-mexico/article_1befc51a-bb25-429b-92c6-e5cfb28a0e1c.html?]
The defendants allegedly provided funds to purchase firearms and compensated straw purchasers who forged Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives forms to conceal the true buyers, according to the indictment. The trafficking organization obtained approximately 334 firearms during the conspiracy, prosecutors say.
Law enforcement tracing through the ATF eTrace system revealed that many of these firearms have been recovered in Mexico, the attorney general's office says. The charges include misconduct involving weapons and other felony offenses under Arizona law.
We have border checkpoints a few miles north of the border on most, if not all northbound highways. Northbound vehicles have to go thru checkpoints. Sometimes you get a wave thru, sometimes a CBP sniffer dog gets to noise around your vehicle. Sometimes they pull you aside and tear the seats out of your vehicle and you get to put it all back together yourself. (by the way, these checkpoints can be put up anywhere in the special enforcement area, which is ALL the way around the continental US, including ALL coastal areas)
What is missing is standard inspection stations for SOUTHBOUND traffic. Makes it easy for gun traffickers to earn some gig income hauling guns into Mexico. As more traffickers are getting busted, maybe Sec Nome and her goons will stop harassing lawful citizens and immigrants and focus on the criminals making sure Cartels are well armed.
Nah, just wishful and practical thinking on my part.
Maybe DU needs a 'hear-say' forum?
General discussion is one thing, but stuff that has no evidence being posted more and more is getting pretty weird. It'd be nice if it was all in one place and then could be moved to General Discussion if some actually information comes up.
Just spit balling here.
Check on GOP House reps in your area/state. Let me know if they are espousing this 'concern' re medical care resources
Trying to gauge how many GOP Reps besides Seldom Seen AZ 6 Rep Ciscomani's are voicing 'concern' and invoking a new GOP talking point to blame DEMs when rural medical care all but disappears under GOP policies.
Rural reps must be feeling insecure as so many rural facilities face disaster due to GOP funding slashes.
https://www.myheraldreview.com/news/cochise_county/ciscomani-urges-cms-to-ensure-fair-rural-health-fund-distribution/article_9911d7ae-1768-4740-a108-e4e5d4a36fe4.html?emailmd5=a1ac3f8b54e4f38eac45f2e75f54651c&emailsha1=24315811922823421145739103116121352153160199146216&emailsha256=71f7f3c212c9e68005bbed1843b7ab0ad44028a222d6a2196b39af31a4e88db3]
The lawmakers sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz regarding the Rural Health Transformation Fund, according to Ciscomani's office. The $50 billion program over five years represents the largest federal investment in rural hospitals and was enacted as part of the Working Families Tax Cut Act.
The Republicans expressed concern that funds could be diverted to urban centers rather than rural healthcare providers facing financial challenges. The letter was signed by representatives from states with Democratic governors, including Arizona, Washington, California, Minnesota and Colorado.
Re Firefox browser: anybody else who uses it as default browser notice a change in browser home page?
Just opened it after being offline for a few hours. All the 'tiles' of sites I use most often are gone. Stuff like news sites I check regularly, social media sites I use, and a few retail sites I use. POOF, vanished. Can't get that browser opening page back
Did Firefox do this to comply with Trump Administration wishes/command to slow people down from getting onto trusted sites quickly? Anybody else have this blank page staring at them when they open firefox tabs?
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Member since: Thu Apr 14, 2022, 01:44 PMNumber of posts: 8,087