We love Donald Trump

South Park Returns Tonight With Twisted Christian Episode As Season 27 Passes Halfway Mark

Librarians sound alarm as Trump admin takes aim at IMLS Spectrum News (Austin, TX)

Ady Huertas re-shelves books at the San Diego Librarys Central Branch. (Spectrum News) Editors Note: Video not available without sign-in :(.

POLITICS

Librarians sound alarm as Trump administration takes aim at agency supporting libraries and museums

By Cassie Semyon Washington, D.C., PUBLISHED 4:45 PM ET Oct. 13, 2025

Every day for the last nearly 30 years, you could find Ady Huertas between the stacks of books at the San Diego Public Librarys Central branch.

My favorite part is empowering our community with information and really making sure that were giving access to those core resources, said Huertas, who manages the Youth, Family, and Equity Services program.

She said she worries her position and programs offered by librarians across the country could drastically change if a directive from President Donald Trump is allowed to go into effect.

Back in March, the President signed an executive order to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) as part of his effort to reduce the size and cost of the government. Created by Congress in 1996, IMLS was created to issue grants for libraries and museums nationwide.

But with the future of IMLS in jeopardy, libraries face a future of uncertainty.

What You Need To Know

Our operational budget is just for that: To keep the doors open. But the IMLS budget really supports the programming and engagement that we do with the community and to support and even out that playing field in our communities, said Huertas, who added that programs such as Lunch at the Library for underserved youth during the summer and adult literacy and workforce development programs could be put on the chopping block.

All of those programs are going to probably be severely minimized if we do not receive this federal support, she explained.

In 2024, IMLS provided 600 grants totaling about $270 million to libraries across the country. That year, the federal budget was nearly $6.8 trillion dollars.

It will have a domino effect, because we didnt build, particularly public libraries or school libraries, on the idea that they should be privately funded. They were a community resource to be shared, and we shared that wealth together, and we shared that opportunity and that impact together, said Sam Helmick, the president of the American Library Association.

Access to information means access to opportunity, and our founders knew this, which is why when they came up with this unique form of government, they recognized that an informed society would be necessary to continue and thrive, which is why they invested heavily in libraries, Helmick explained.

A librarian from Iowa, Helmick said there is a misconception that funding for libraries simply goes towards books.

In a small community in my state, a grant was provided to create an electronic chair down into the basement of the library because it also serves as its emergency weather shelter, and they didnt have an elevator, explained Helmick.

When folks come in to find a job or find housing or find community, when folks come in and they recognize that they have access to academic libraries across the country and they can research their own health or their own project or their own entrepreneurial goals, and now they have diminished access to them, its really difficult to quantify the loss of that opportunity, Helmick added.

The American Library Association has filed a lawsuit against deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, who is the interim head of IMLS, to halt the dismantling of the agency. That case is still ongoing, and Sonderling did not respond to multiple interview requests from Spectrum News.

Continue/Read Original Article Here:

From 1920s Italy to 1930s Palestine to 1980s Ska Scenes, Antifa Has Many Faces

A historian discusses past anti-fascist organizations and practices in light of Trumps effort to criminalize antifa.

Canadian jobs sacrificed on Trumps altar as Stellantis announces US investment

Trump under fire for sexist remark to female journalist at White House

El plan de Trump o la paz como espectculo

Bruselas responder "apropiadamente" a las represalias contra un pas, ante la amenaza de Trump a Espaa

will continue expanding the state, brutalizing & imprisoning our comrades for and the will be helping him every step of the way, building their own careers off it, fully embedding themselves inside the state apparatus.

Could a Trump $1 coin break U.S. law on currency design Columnist Theodore R. Johnson exposes how the proposed 250th anniversary coin featuring a living president defies legal norms, echoing the controversial Coolidge coin. This reflects Trump's personalist leadership style that puts his image above national milestones. Dive into the full analysis here: Excellent insight from Johnson.

This is what we mean when we say the are like the in the 1930's.

Jack Smith Speaks Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Jack Smith Speaks

By , Oct 14, 2025

You have choices about where you get your news and analysis. Im grateful youve chosen to read Civil Discourse. If you value clear, independent insight into the law and our democracy, I hope youll consider a paid subscription. Your support makes the newsletter possible. Thank you for being here with me.

ABC today that the House Judiciary Committee wants to have former special counsel Jack Smith testifybehind closed doorsabout investigating the Mar-a-Lago, January 6, and Donald Trump. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who chairs the Committee, wants an interview by October 28. He is calling for Smith to turn over documents and communications too.

Why now Last week, there was reporting (very unsurprising to anyone who has ever investigated a federal case) that Smiths probe regarding a number of Republican lawmakers as part of the January 6 case investigation. Jordan to Smith, As the Committee continues its oversight, your testimony is necessary to understand the full extent to which the Biden-Harris Justice Department weaponized federal law enforcement.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri that The F.B.I. tapped my phone. He said hed been wiretapped.

Not so fast, though. Obtaining phone records means getting call informationthat can mean which phone number called which other phone number, when, and possibly, how long the call lasted. Its easy to understand why prosecutors would want that information in virtually any case theyre investigating.

Here, given reports that Trump had numerous calls leading up to and on January 6 (for instance, ), it would be surprising if they hadnt done so. The New York Times that The calls were scrutinized because at the time, prosecutors were trying to identify relevant communications between the president and his inner circle with members of Congress on the key days surrounding the violence.

Call information, which frequently produces investigative leads, is acquired routinely by investigators. But it is not the same thing as a wiretap, which lets law enforcement listen in on a targets phone calls. To get a wiretap, prosecutors and agents have to get an order from a federal judge in compliance with the strict requirements of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. They have to establish probable cause and show that less intrusive investigative methods were tried and failed. A wiretap only lasts for 30 days, and prosecutors must go back to the judge, with fresh proof, in order to reup the wiretap for an additional 30 days.

Jordans allegation that this is the weaponization of the DOJ should fall on deaf ears. Jack Smith was investigating one of the most serious situations our country has ever facedan effort to interfere with the smooth transfer of power between two American administrations, with involvement by the outgoing president who had lost the electionusing routine investigative techniques. Jordan and other Republicans should be able to differentiate between that and wiretaps, since these are statutory creatures and Congress sets the requirements for when they can be used.

Continue/Read Original Article Here:

Wednesday Reads: A Mixed Bag of News

Good Morning!!

It seems theres no end in sight for the government shutdown. The House is on a long paid vacation, and the Senate keeps voting again and again on the House Republican plan.

Heather Cox Richardson wrote yesterday at :

The government shutdown, which started on October 1, is entering its third week. As Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) explained this morning, the Senate is in session, and it keeps voting on two bills to reopen the government. Majority leader John Thune (R-SD) keeps having the Senate vote on the measure passed by Republicans in the House. That measure funds the government until November 21. It has failed repeatedly to get past the 60 votes necessary to avoid a filibuster. The Democrats have offered an alternative measure, which extends the healthcare premium tax creditwithout which health insurance costs on the Affordable Care Act market will skyrocketand restores nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid. That measure, too, has repeatedly failed to pass.

Murphy notes that normally the two sides would negotiate. But, he says, President Donald J. Trump is telling Republican senators to BOYCOTT NEGOTIATING, and they are following orders.

The House of Representatives is even more dysfunctional. House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pushed the continuing resolution through the chamber on September 19, the Friday before leaving town for a week. Then Johnson canceled the House sessions on Monday and Tuesday, September 29 and 30, both to jam the Senate into having to accept the House measure and to avoid swearing in Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), who was elected on September 23. Grijalva will provide the 218th signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on the release of the files collected during the federal investigation into the crimes of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump and his officials promised to release those files, but have tried to avoid doing so since news broke that Trump, who was a close friend of Epstein, is named in them.

I really think the Epstein issue is the reason for the Republican resistance to compromise. Trump really really doesnt want the Epstein files to be released. There must be some terrible stuff about him in those records.

Emily Brooks of The Hill notes that jamming the Senate as Johnson tried to do was a tactic employed by the far-right Freedom Caucus, and they are cheering him on. But Democratic senators refused to vote in favor of the House measure, standing firm on extending the premium tax credits before their loss decimates the healthcare markets. Now, although Democrats are in Washington, D.C., ready to negotiate, Johnson says he will not call House members back to work until the Senate passes the House measure.

Brooks notes that not all Republicans are keen on the optics of staying out of session during a shutdown. Mike Lillis of The Hill reported on Sunday that the cancellation of all House votes since late September has some Republicans warning that the tactic will backfire. In addition to the question of healthcare premiums, there is the issue of military pay stalled by the shutdown, and the fact that, by law, Congress was supposed to deliver its 2026 budget by September 30.

Over the weekend, the administration tried to ratchet up the pressure on Democratic senators to cave when it announced it would fire about 4,200 federal employees. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo notes that the threat seemed at least in part to be designed to follow through on a threat Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought had made to pressure Democrats before the shutdown. When those layoffs didnt happen, the administration then suggested it would not pay furloughed workers after the shutdown ends. After backlash, they walked that threat back. The new announcement seemed in part an attempt to prove they would do something.

Im glad the Democrats are standing firm on their insistence that the cuts to health care be restored. Read more from Richardson at the substack link.

Today the Supreme Court is going to hear a case that could allow John Roberts to achieve his lifelong goal of completely destroy the Voting Rights Act.

Lawrence Hurley at NBC News: .

The conservative-majority  on Wednesday will consider whether to eviscerate a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act in a congressional redistricting case from Louisiana.

The justices, who  of the case over the summer, will hear oral arguments on whether states can ever consider race in drawing new districts while seeking to comply with Section 2 of the 1965 law, which was enacted against a backdrop of historic racial discrimination to protect minority voters.

The long-running dispute concerns the congressional map that Louisiana was required to redraw last year after being sued under the Voting Rights Act to ensure that there were two majority-Black districts. The original map only had one such district in a state where a third of the population is Black.

The Supreme Court originally heard the case  on a narrower set of legal issues but, in a rare move, it asked in June for the parties to reargue it. The court then  by asking the lawyers to focus on a larger constitutional issue.

Now, the justices will be deciding whether drawing a map to ensure there are majority-Black districts violates the Constitutions 14th and 15th amendments, which were both enacted after the Civil War to ensure equal rights for former slaves, including the right to vote.

This is interesting:

Conservatives argue that both constitutional amendments prohibit consideration of race at any time. The Supreme Court has previously embraced this colorblind interpretation of the Constitution, most notably in its 2023 ruling that  in college admissions.

Louisiana, which initially defended its new map, has switched sides and joined a group of self-identified non-African-American voters who sued to block it on constitutional grounds. The Trump administration also backs the states new position.

The map is being defended by civil rights groups that challenged the original map.

Read more analysis at the NBC News link.

More on the case from Hansi Lo Wang at NPR:

A major redistricting case  could not only determine the fate of the federal Voting Rights Act, but also unlock a path for Republicans to pick up a slew of additional congressional seats.

If the high court overturns the acts Section 2 a provision that bans racial discrimination in voting GOP-controlled states could redraw at least 19 more voting districts for the House of Representatives in favor of Republicans, according to a  by the voting rights advocacy groups Black Voters Matter Fund and Fair Fight Action.

And depending on when the court rules in the case, known as , some number of the seats could be redistricted prior to next years midterm election.

The analysis comes as President Trump continues to lead a GOP push for new maps in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and other states that could help Republicans preserve their slim House majority after the 2026 election.

The GOP effort could be bolstered by a Supreme Court ruling that eliminates longstanding Section 2 protections against the dilution of the collective power of racial minority voters.

Many of the landmark laws supporters fear such an outcome after the conservative-majority court didnt rule last term on the Louisiana case, and instead scheduled a rare second round of oral arguments, which is expected to focus on the constitutionality of Section 2s redistricting requirements.

A ruling gutting Section 2 could have a cascading effect on congressional maps in mostly Southern states where Republicans either control both legislative chambers and the governors office or have a veto-proof majority in the legislature and where voting is racially polarized, with Black voters tending to vote Democratic and white voters tending to vote Republican.

On Monday, who was arrested and then taken by ICE to a facility in Virginia. After many people reacted in shock, ICE claimed the boy had a knife and a gun when he was arrested. The local police say he had a knife but no gun.

The Boston Globe:

Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security, posted on social media Monday that the juvenile posed a public safety threat and was in possession of a firearm and a large knife when arrested. Everett Police Chief Paul Strong said Tuesday that no firearm was recovered.

The juvenile was booked at the police station on Thursday and then was detained by ICE at the station. He is now being held at the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., according to his family.

This is from Maria Kabas at The Handbasket:

A 13-year-old Massachusetts boy is in ICE custody hundreds of miles from home, and trying to figure out how this was allowed to happen has been challenging. A local news story about the ordeal  on Sunday, prompting more questions than answers about the conduct of local police, their relationship to federal immigration enforcement and whether the boys family even knew he was being taken out of state. While we have some new information, the cloud of confusion remains.

A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia. (Photo from The Boston Globe)

Heres what we know at this point: Last Thursday, police in Everett, Massachusetts say the boy made a credible threat of violence against another student in the school district. When officers picked him up at a bus stop outside his school, they allegedly found a knife in his possession. Once the boy was fingerprinted, ICE became aware of the case. According to the , the boys mother was called to pick him up after he was arrested, waited for about an hour and a half, and was then told her son was taken by ICE. He was held overnight in a Massachusetts ICE facility and then taken Friday to one in Virginia. We know he came to the US from Brazil and, along with his family, has a pending asylum case.

Ive never done a bond or a habeas for a kid this young, ever, US District Judge Richard G. Stearns said during an emergency habeas corpus hearing Friday filed by a lawyer on behalf of the boy. This is the youngest.

Everett is a city of nearly 50,000 people that borders Boston directly to the north. According to the 2010 Census, 33% of residents were born outside of the US. Per the 2020 Census, the city is a little more than 50% white, with a big Hispanic and Latino community, as well as large Italian and Brazilian populations. As people at a city council meeting testified Tuesday night, ICE has had a bombastic presence in the community since the start of the second Trump administration.

Heres what Kabas was told by a DHS spokesperson:

After I reached out to ICE spokesperson Casey Latimer on Monday regarding the boy taken from Everett, I received a reply from a different spokesperson named James Covington. He wrote Please see the below from DHS on the 13-year-old alien. Please feel free to direct any questions to them.

The below Covington was referring to wasand bear with me herea screenshot of an  from DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin who had quote posted Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council. Reichlin-Melnick  about the story, writing This makes NO SENSE. A 13-year-old was arrested by local police for unknown reasons, and then turned over to ICE, which is detaining him far away from his mother who is going through immigration court, has an asylum application on file, and is legally authorized to work.

Latimer went on to accuse the boy of an extensive rap sheet and possessing a gun, which the local authorities say is not true. So maybe this is a troubled kid, but the local police should be dealing with that, not DHS, especially since his family has an active asylum case.

The Young Republicans are in the news and not in a good way.

Jason Beeferman and Emily Ngo at Politico:

Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway.

They referred to Black people as monkeys and the watermelon people and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

William Hendrix, the , used the words nga and nguh, variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as epic. Peter Giunta, who at the time was chair of the same organization, wrote in a message sent in June that everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.

Giunta was referring to an upcoming vote on whether he should become chair of the Young Republican National Federation, the GOPs 15,000-member political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40 years old.

Im going to create some of the greatest physiological torture methods known to man. We only want true believers, he continued.

Read more horrible comments at the Politico link.

A follow-up story at Politico by Emily Ngo and Jason Beeferman:

Two more members of a Young Republican group chat strewn with racist epithets and hateful jokes stepped down from their jobs Tuesday after POLITICO published an 

Bobby Walker and other young Republicans who took part in an epithet-filled Telegram chat are out of jobs after POLITICO began asking questions about their statements.

Peter Giuntas time working with New York Assemblymember Mike Reilly has ended, the Republican lawmaker said. Giunta served as chair of the New York State Young Republicans when the chat took place. Joseph Maligno, who previously identified himself as  for that group, is no longer an employee of the New York State Unified Court System, a courts spokesperson confirmed.

Another chat member, Vermont state Senator Sam Douglass, faced mounting calls for his resignation as well, including from the states , a Republican, and Douglass, who called his statements deeply disturbing.

POLITICOs in-depth look into how one group of Young Republicans spoke privately was met Tuesday with widespread condemnation in New York, Washington and beyond. The members of the chat 2,900 pages of which were leaked and reviewed by POLITICO called Black people monkeys, repeatedly used slurs for gay, Black, Latino and Asian people, and jokingly celebrated Adolf Hitler.

In a bipartisan outcry, members of Congress and other political leaders from around the country said they were appalled by the contents of the group chat. The board of directors of the National Young Republicans said every member of the chat must immediately resign their state organization.

Trump is destroying the White House. The mess in the oval office can be fixed by a new president and the giant flagpoles could be removed, but what about the huge ballroom hes building and the proposed Nazi-style victory arch What about the ruined rose garden Hes turning the peoples house into Mar-a-Lago north.

Marc Caputo at Axios:

Donald Trump is obsessing over remodeling the White House like no other president.

  He has  the Oval Office, replaced trees, paved the Rose Garden lawn, hung art and mirrors all over, erected flagpoles and begun work on a $250 million ballroom.

  Hes not done: Trump has had models and dioramas built for other projects hes considering, and even directed how and where new marble-tiled floors are laid.

Long after Trump has exited the presidency, his imprint will be on the executive mansion in an unprecedented scope and scale even if a successor removes the Oval Office gold leaf.

Whats next: The presidents wandering architectural eye is now gazing southwest from the White House to land around the Memorial Bridge. He wants to erect a giant arch as a grand entrance into Washington from Arlington National Cemetery.

  Lets build something like the Arc de Triomphe in that space, it would be beautiful when you drive or fly in, Trump told a White House visitor a few weeks ago.

  Trump has three differently sized models of the Arc de Trump that hes been  of D.C. to determine the right scale.

  On Saturday, Trump  on Truth Social a rendition of the arch by Washington architect Nicolas Leo Charbonneau.

The models for the arch were 3D printed on Trumps orders by the architects involved in designing the new ballroom. He says itd be , along with some of the other projects. The total cost is unclear.

Theres much more horrifying stuff to read at Axios, if you stomach it.

Look inside the Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom at Mar-a-Lago in 2005 (from The Palm Beach Post)

Rachel Cohen at New Jersey.com:

Eric Trump is sharing how renovations to the White House are a nod to Mar-a-Lago.

Trump  to Fox News anchor Steve Doocy of his familys Florida golf club as he promotes his new book, Under Siege, which is out Tuesday. It offers an unfiltered look into the Trump world and criticism against his father, .

Moving throughout the patio and home of the Palm Beach estate, Doocy later admired the fantastic view of the beach, while pointing to how the resort displays the same umbrellas from the new Rose Garden.

Exact same umbrellas as the Rose Garden, Trump responded on Fox & Friends.

He added: And by the way, that beautiful flag pole right there the exact same flag pole that we have at the White House. I got a call from my father. He goes, Honey, I need two great flag poles. I want to donate them to the White House.

Trump went on to say that were very happy to have the same Mar-a-Lago flagpole on the south and north grounds now.

Barf.

A few more stories to check out today:

The New York Times:

Newsweek: .

Chicago Sun-Times:

The Washington Post: .

The Washington Post (gift link):

The Guardian:

Thats it for me today. Whats on your mind

Canada fears for auto jobs after Stellantis announces US investment

DECRYPTAGE. "Il aime largent, pas les guerres..." comment Trump fait aussi de la paix au Moyen-Orient un business personnel

Canada fears for auto jobs after Stellantis announces US investment

Trump hates this super bad photo of him in Time magazine. I almost feel sympathy almost Emma Brockes &magazines

Castillo: Si vas al FMI, perjudics a los jubilados hay que decir basta a este sometimiento -

Well, this has come as a shock, Netanyahu seemed so trustworthy

Donald Trump On Life At The White House!

It will eventually though, I think. has so effectively & quickly dismantled the already weak state that he is creating genuine conditions in the long term. But in the mean time, like actions are maybe the best option to just build as big a as possible.

Donald Trumps Scottish golf resorts still loss making despite rising revenues

But the first world is so bribed and drugged by the spoils that that doesn't seem likely to happen any time soon.

I Love Donald Trump

Federal Workers Are Being Used as Pawns in the Shutdown

I think BadEmpanada made a good point about how at this point the in the is dead, obviously in part because of all the compatible left nonsense & endless government against state , ...

Jack Smith hits back at claims that Trump prosecutions were politically motivated (US)

Two emerging-market giants hardest hit by U.S. President Donald Trumps trade wars are deepening their ties, betting a united front will help them endure the U.S. broadsides and find new markets to skirt tariffs.

My Coffee With Stephen Miller

A version of the below article first appeared in David Corns newsletter, Our Land. The newsletter comes out twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories and articles about politics, media, and culture. Subscribing costs just $5 a monthbut you can sign up for a free 30-day trial. About a dozen or so years ago, a staffer for

Bruselas defiende a Espaa frente a Trump: "Responderemos a cualquier medida tomada contra uno de nuestros Estados miembros"

Trump Threatens to Relocate 2026 World Cup Games over Unrest: U.S. President Donald Trump has sparked controversy after threatening to relocate World Cup matches scheduled to take place near Boston, Massachusetts, claiming that parts of the city have been taken over by unrest. Foxborough home to the New England Patriots and located about 30 miles from Boston is among the U.S. cities set

RE:

That someone wrote " are not hoarding " just hit me again, looking at this.

RE:

putting the of the state on full display for all to see.

No longer in a distant theater of but right here in the front row: .

dont react at all when the is overseas, targeting certain , & though they be.

RE:

To Americans, looking at people of seas, theyre just the tiny black & brown people who live in my TV.

You were at while masked men backed by & were doing this to people you think are subhuman.

inflicts upon the exact same type of rule that those up in arms about it are happy to support when it's imposed by their ' ' presidents on the people of the third world.

La UE respalda a Espaa tras la amenaza de aranceles de Trump y dice que responder adecuadamente

Artists plan nationwide US protests against Trump and authoritarian forces

Donald Trump Says Charlie Kirk Was in Awe of How He Turned to Dodge Sniper Bullet

The IMF reckons the global economy remains in flux, but the Trump effect is real and Australians arent fooled Greg Jericho

Trump Blasts Time Cover Photo as 'Worst Ever,' Citing 'Disappearing Hair'


The long awaited ceasefire has come, but establishing True/Lasting PEACE rests between Israel & Palestine alone WILL IT COME


Last updated: 2025-10-15



Too much screen time.