Occupy Democrats

Donald Trump's Monday crashes and burns as polling reveals that his approval rating has hit a record low for his second term — plummeting to a pathetic 37%.

And it gets so much worse for our would-be dictator...

According to a CNN/SSRS survey, 63% of Americans say that they disapprove of Trump's job performance as president. The new numbers represent a dramatic drop from the last CNN poll in July, which revealed that 42% approved of Trump while 58% disapproved.

These new numbers are inching towards Trump's lowest low for either term, which was 34% approval immediately after the violent attack on the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. In other words, he's so bad at being president this time around that it's as if he's incited another insurrection as far as the American people are concerned.

Shortly after his second term started, Trump was riding relatively high. The poll found in February that 47% approved while 52% disapproved. The longer that Trump remains in office, the more that the public realizes that he's a disaster of historic proportions.

The new poll also shows that people making less than $50,000 have turned drastically on Trump, an unsurprising development given the fact that he has spiked inflation through his disastrous tariffs and cut $1 trillion from Medicaid. That demographic's approval has dropped from 45% approval in February to a paltry 31% now.

He has also lost substantial support from independents, a key voting bloc for winning elections, with their approval going from 43% at the start of his term to 28% now.

If this downward trend continues (and it's likely to since Trump is only getting worse and worse at his job) the mid-term elections are going to be a disaster for Republicans. If Democrats retake the House and Senate we can stop the MAGA agenda dead in its tracks and use subpoena power to launch a slew of investigations into the widespread corruption of this administration.

Sources: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/enough-jessica-tarlov-waves-off-234152907.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/26/business/media/jessica-tarlov-the-five-fox-news.html

JD Vance RAKED OVER THE COALS by furious Republican Senators over Trump’s Argentina beef deal disaster!

The latest MAGA meltdown is sizzling like steaks over hot briquettes — appropriately so, since this time they’re apoplectic over beef.

Vice President JD Vance got roasted alive behind closed doors by his own party after Donald Trump blindsided Senate Republicans with a backroom deal to flood the U.S. with cheap Argentinian beef.

According to multiple reports, GOP senators — especially those from ranching states — tore into Vance, calling the move an “insult” to American farmers and ranchers. One senator said the room was “boiling,” while Vance, clearly overwhelmed, finally snapped: “Does anyone have questions NOT about beef?”

No, JD — they don’t. Because your boss just screwed over thousands of American ranchers to help his far-right buddy, Argentina’s Javier Milei.

Trump’s logic? Sell out U.S. agriculture to help a foreign extremist — and then blame the farmers.

He ranted on Truth Social, attacking American ranchers as “terrible” and whining that they “need to get their prices down.”

So much for “America First.”

Now, MAGA’s fake populists are caught in their own political stampede — furious constituents, collapsing rural support, and a vice president who’s becoming the face of Trump’s latest economic betrayal.

Trump’s “beef deal” isn’t just bad policy — it’s a symbol of what MAGA really stands for: foreign favors, corporate profits, and contempt for working Americans.

Republicans are finally tasting what the rest of us have known for years — when you cozy up to Trump, you always end up on the menu. Sources: https://www.newsweek.com/argentina-beef-money-donald-trump-bailout-republicans-10916200

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-lawmakers-warn-trumps-argentina-beef-proposal-could-rattle-us-ranchers

https://youtu.be/o489zY-szVw

INTERNATIONAL EMBARASSMENT! Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations gets CUT OFF and SHUT DOWN for LYING his ass off at the UN General Assembly!

Addressing the representatives of every nation in the world, Trump’s toady Michael Waltz went on an unhinged rant of despicable lies against the beleaguered nation of Cuba and defended the US’s needlessly cruel and unconscionable trade embargo against the island nation.

In typical Trumpian fashion, Waltz vomited out a barrage of ridiculous and baseless lies like he would if he was addressing a Fox News host, confident that there would be no pushback and no consequence. “The United States and the Trump administration wants to set the record straight when it comes to this resolution and to correct the fake news, the misinformation and this false reality the regime seeks to create year after year with this vote. The facts are this is an illegitimate and brutal regime that seeks to cast itself as the victim of aggression while plainly describing itself as quote the enemy of the United States.”

“It's located just 90 miles off our shore. It conspires and it collaborates with enemies and adversaries of the United States against our interests. The facts are that this regime supports terrorist organizations around the globe.”

“It is allowing mercenaries to fight in the war in Ukraine. It's propping up the Venezuelan regime and it aids cartels. The facts are that these cartels that it props up are trafficking people, drugs and weapons and is aiding and abetting instability in our hemisphere. They undermine democracies in our hemisphere.”

At this point, the moderator interrupts him for a point of order by Cuba, who quickly shuts him down:

"The Permanent Representative of the United States not only lies and strays substantially from the topic, but also expresses himself in a rude and arrogant manner against your Presidency and against the dignity of this Assembly and the Member States. He does so with uncivilized, crude, and coarse behavior that is not acceptable in this distinguished and democratic forum. Mr. Waltz, this is the General Assembly of the United Nations, not a Signal chat nor the House of Representatives!”

That last line is a reference to Waltz’s involvement in Pete Hegseth’s leaked classified info texting scandal on the Signal platform, which of course was not a disqualifying incident for anyone involved.

It is beyond disgraceful to see this bloodthirsty goon walk into the United Nations and treat the assembled representatives of every country on the planet with such contempt and derision. The United States’ embargo of Cuba is one of the longest-running injustices in the world, economically strangling and isolating a neighboring nation out of sheer spite. Good on Cuba for standing up for themselves and stopping these lies in their tracks. The biggest underminer of democracies in our hemisphere is the Trump regime itself! Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-fails-make-big-dent-un-vote-calling-end-cuba-embargo-2025-10-29/ https://www.plenglish.com/news/2025/10/29/cuba-expects-another-un-vote-victory-against-us-blockade/ https://youtu.be/SdXHPhXJKig

It's a forum about sexual fantasies, mostly cool but they also have a political board, where they allow the absolute most abhorrent political views, saying that Dems should be massacred, and more. Why the fuck does a sexual forum even have a political board? They allow some sick fucking hate speech and refuse to do anything to stop it.

A federal judge delivers a CRUSHING defeat to Trump’s “Project 2025” shutdown scheme — INDEFINITELY saving thousands of jobs from MAGA mass firings!

In a crushing rebuke to Donald Trump’s authoritarian power grab, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has indefinitely blocked Trump’s illegal plan to fire thousands of federal workers during the ongoing MAGA government shutdown.

This is a massive victory for the rule of law — and a humiliating defeat for Trump and his extremist Project 2025 allies, who thought they could exploit the shutdown to dismantle the federal workforce from within.

Judge Illston didn’t mince words. She made it clear that Trump’s administration — led by far-right ideologue Russ Vought, the man behind the Project 2025 blueprint for authoritarian control — has been breaking the law.

“The evidence suggests that the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management have taken advantage of the lapse in government spending to assume all bets are off,” Illston said. “You can’t do this in a nation of laws.”

Boom. Her new order — now indefinite, not temporary — freezes Trump’s mass layoffs across eight key agencies, including Commerce, Education, Energy, the EPA, Health and Human Services, HUD, Homeland Security, and Treasury.

That’s over 4,000 workers spared from the Trump-Vance administration’s political purge — for now.

Legal powerhouse Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward, who represents the unions fighting back, hailed the ruling as “a major blow to the Trump-Vance administration’s unlawful attempt to make the Project 2025 playbook a reality.”

Let’s be clear about what Trump is trying to do here. This isn’t about budgets. It’s not about “efficiency.” It’s about revenge and control.

Trump’s so-called “reductions in force” were designed to do two things: First, crush the unions and intimidate public servants who refuse to bend the knee to MAGA ideology; and second, advance the Project 2025 dream of hollowing out the federal government so billionaire donors and corporations can rule unchecked.

He’s using the shutdown — which he caused by refusing to negotiate with Democrats — as political cover for a mass firing spree that would gut regulatory agencies, cripple consumer protections, and grind essential public services to a halt.

And all while Republicans in Congress hold the economy hostage, refusing to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies and driving up Americans’ healthcare premiums — adding insult to injury for working families already drowning in medical debt.

Perryman said it best: “Playing games with federal workers’ livelihoods is cruel, unlawful, and a threat to everyone in our nation.”

This ruling doesn’t just stop Trump’s lawless plan — it exposes the truth behind the MAGA movement’s real goal — To destroy democracy from the inside out, one federal worker at a time.

So yes — this is a huge win for democracy, for workers, and for every American who still believes that government should serve people, not plutocrats.

Like, share, and spread the word: Trump just got torched in court — and the American people are fighting back!

Donald Trump enrages his own MAGA supporters by ordering U.S. troops to buy foreign cars instead of American vehicles: "Go out and buy a Toyota!"

America First really means America last...

“I was just told by the prime minister that Toyota is going to be putting auto plants all over the United States to the tune of over $10 billion. So that's Toyota so go out and buy a Toyota,” Trump said to U.S. troops during a speech aboard the USS George Washington at the Yokosuka Naval Base.

Whenever Trump throws out a large number to brag, it's safest to presume that he's pulling the figure out of thin air. There's no way to know if Toyota has actually pledged to spend $10 billion on manufacturing plants in the U.S.

And even if they really did pledge such an investment, there's no reason to believe that they'll follow through on it. Foreign leaders and companies know that Trump only cares about headlines. He can announce the investment, move on to his next fake announcement, and he won't bother to follow up on the actual implementation. It's all reality television to him.

What's more, even if Toyota did make this pledge and does deliver on it, Trump urging Americans to buy Toyota is still a betrayal of his campaign promises. Profits for Toyota vehicles manufactured in the United States flow back to the corporation in Japan, strengthening a Japanese company at the expense of American companies' market share.

"And that's a lot to do with eh..." Trump continued. Because right now we have all the AI plants, we have so many things happening in the United States and it’s because of November 5th Election Day but it’s also because of tariffs."

"The tariffs have been so good," Trump rambled on. "We're taking in trillions and trillions of dollars. I heard them, before I came up I heard on— You're all on television now. They're talking to— All the networks, all the— Everybody's covering it. Look at these characters back— Look at all of them!"

Donald Trump's electoral victory in 2020 hinged partially on him winning Michigan, the beating heart of the U.S. automobile industry. These pro-Toyota remarks are a knife in the back of the autoworkers who put Trump back in power and they'll remember it when the mid-term elections roll around.

Not surprisingly, the responses online have been overwhelmingly negative—

"Great. So Toyota will build workerless automated factories in the US that will bring few jobs and further undermine the longterm place of American workers," wrote one user on the right-wing New York Post website.

"I pledge 20 billion-same economic impact," mocked another.

Social media is afire with similar sentiments. Do you think that Trump's remarks will hurt him in the mid-terms?

Please like and share!

Democratic states unite to hit Trump with a MASSIVE lawsuit to stop him from cutting off food to millions of Americans — “We won’t let him starve our people.”

While Donald Trump’s USDA plays politics with people’s plates, Democratic governors and attorneys general are stepping up to fight back — and feed America.

More than two dozen Democratic attorneys general and Democratic governors from three states just filed a major lawsuit against the Trump administration for its cruel and unlawful decision to suspend food benefits during the government shutdown.

Their message is clear: Americans will not go hungry because of Donald Trump’s political games.

At the center of the battle is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — the program that feeds 1 in 8 Americans, providing an average of $187 a month to struggling families, seniors, and veterans.

When Trump’s government shutdown cut off new funding on October 1, the USDA had a choice: use the nearly $6 billion in contingency funds Congress set aside exactly for emergencies like this — or let millions go hungry.

Trump’s USDA chose cruelty. Then, unbelievably, they slapped a banner on their website declaring “the well has run dry” and tried to blame Democrats for the disaster.

But Democratic state leaders aren’t buying it — and they’re taking the fight to court.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, argues that the Trump administration’s refusal to use available contingency funds is not just immoral — it’s illegal.

“Congress made sure SNAP could continue during a shutdown,” one Democratic attorney general said. “The money exists. The only reason it’s not being used is because the Trump administration wants to manufacture a crisis.”

These Democratic officials are demanding that the USDA follow the law and release emergency funds immediately so families can receive their November benefits.

Budget experts agree with them. The USDA’s own shutdown plan — quietly deleted from its website — clearly stated that SNAP operations should continue during a funding lapse. Even former officials under past Republican administrations say there’s no legal reason the program should stop.

While Trump’s USDA refuses to help hungry families, Democratic governors and AGs are doing what the federal government should be doing: protecting people, not punishing them.

They’re fighting for the single mom working two jobs, for the retiree on a fixed income, for the child who can’t focus in school because there’s no dinner waiting at home.

They’re standing up against Trump’s blatant weaponization of hunger — because no president should ever use food as leverage in a political fight.

Once again, it’s the Democratic states leading the moral charge while Trump’s Washington collapses into chaos and cruelty.

As one Democratic governor put it: “If Donald Trump won’t feed America’s families, we will fight him in court until he does.”

This is what real leadership looks like.

While Trump’s USDA tries to starve people to make a point, Democrats are fighting to feed the nation and uphold the law.

Because in the United States of America, nobody should go hungry just because a billionaire ex-president wants attention.

Please like and share if you’re grateful for the Democrats who are fighting against this inhuman policy.

Donald Trump stabs Americans in the back by allowing corporations to put medical debt BACK on your credit report.

Apparently, getting sick is now a moral failing in Trumpworld.

While millions of Americans are struggling to keep up with skyrocketing healthcare costs, Donald Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — led by MAGA loyalist and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought — just made a stunning move: they’re trying to stop states from wiping medical debt off people’s credit reports.

Yes, you read that right. As families face historic spikes in healthcare premiums — thanks to Republicans blocking Affordable Care Act subsidies — Trump’s CFPB wants to protect Equifax and Experian, not you.

According to new reporting from The Lever and Bloomberg Law, the Trump-controlled CFPB plans to issue an “interpretive rule” saying federal law overrides state laws that protect patients from having their medical bills destroy their credit. In plain English? Trump’s team is telling states, “You can’t help your citizens.” Let that sink in.

California, New York, Colorado, Maine, and over a dozen other states have passed laws to shield their residents from predatory credit reporting of medical debt. These are common-sense reforms — because medical debt doesn’t say anything about whether you’re financially irresponsible; it just says you got sick in a country where healthcare costs more than rent.

But Trump’s CFPB is siding with the credit reporting lobbyists — the same corporations that helped tank millions of Americans’ credit scores during the pandemic. The Consumer Data Industry Association, which represents the Big Three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), is using this Trump-era argument to sue states that dared to protect consumers.

Consumer advocate Chi Chi Wu of the National Consumer Law Center called the move “salt in the wound.” That’s putting it mildly. Tens of millions of Americans are already drowning in medical debt, with roughly 1 in 5 having it on their credit report. The average adult in medical debt owes over $1,000 — not because they were reckless, but because our healthcare system is.

And now Trump’s CFPB wants to make sure your suffering sticks around — to haunt your credit score, your loan applications, your job prospects.

As Century Foundation president Julie Margetta Morgan warned, the GOP’s refusal to extend ACA subsidies is about to send premiums soaring — and “pour gasoline on the already raging fire of medical debt.”

So while MAGA Republicans scream about “freedom,” what they’re really fighting for is the freedom of corporations to punish you for getting cancer, breaking a bone, or giving birth.

This isn’t “draining the swamp.” It’s weaponizing the system against ordinary Americans — to protect the profits of the very industries that put us in debt in the first place.

Remember this the next time Trump pretends to care about “working-class Americans.” Because when it comes down to it, he’ll always choose Wall Street over Main Street — and your hospital bill will prove it.

Please like and share if you’re outraged by this latest sadistic move by the Trump administration!

UH, WTF? Trump goes off the rails with a completely BATSH*T crazy speech to US troops that shows his demented brain is decaying at a rapid pace!

President Trump’s trip to Japan started off on the wrong foot in a big way — videos show him ambling about aimlessly and needing to be pointed in the right direction by his handlers — before taking the stage to address our troops stationed there.

After his usual brags about how we’re not woke anymore and we love killing people but also he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump then started talking about how he, uh, hates “good looking people,” and then somehow pivots to the Supreme Court?

“From the men and women of the rank and file, that's true. It comes from you people, incredible people, good looking people, too many good looking people. I don't like good looking people. I never liked good looking people, I'll be honest with you. I've never admitted that before. But see, I'm allowed to see, you know, we wanted the Supreme Court to think based on merit. You know about that, right? Merit. Everything now in our country is based on merit. And that's why I look at you and I see nothing but merit. It's great to have a country back where we can go by merit now. We don't go by anything else except for talent and work and hard work.”

Oh, sure, Trump. That’s why your administration has 23 former Fox News personalities working in it right now? Merit?

Then he goes in on the Gulf of America and, well, read it for yourself. Because it’s nonsense:

“Is it nice? They say it now routinely. I heard the news today. The Gulf of America weather is wonderful. They don't say it with a smile. It's called the Gulf of America.”

“How did that happen, right? And it took me, you know, for many years, I said, why is it called the Gulf of Mexico when we seem to have the shore? Well, we do. We have 92% of the shoreline. And so I said, you know, when we make it back, not if, when, too big to rig. We made it too big to rig. I said, get out and vote. Too big to rig.”

“Make it that way. I said, I'm going to change it. And one of the first things I did is I changed it. Nobody could even fight it. They tried. We got sued all over the place.”

“We won every suit. And it's now officially the Gulf of America. Isn't that nice? But our sailors have written honor, greatness and triumph into the pages of history. So what you're doing is incredible. And it's an incredible time for our country on gun decks and flight decks and torpedo rooms and cockpits. The men and women of the Navy have poured out their blood and sweat and tears to defend the land.”

This is complete and utter gibberish. And it gets worse as he goes off on a bizarre rant about the catapults they use on aircraft carriers and how it’s somehow woke to use electricity:

"Let me ask you. We're gonna go steam first and then electric. Catapults, which is better, electric or stream? I'm gonna put in an order. Seriously. They're spending billions of dollars to build stupid electric. And the problem when it breaks you have to send up to MIT, get the most brilliant people in the world."

This is evidence of dementia, according to psychologists. Dr. John Gartner told The Daily Beast Podcast that the 79-year-old’s absurd speeches, repeated confusion, and frequent lapses in memory are flashing signs of his “immense cognitive decline.” The way that Trump’s thinking is so “disordered” is very similar to dementia patients who “pick up on one concrete physical detail” and then “free-associate” away from the original topic — which is every single Trump speech.

Anyone watching Trump speak on any subject for longer than a minute can tell something is seriously wrong with this man, and it is beyond comprehension how so many Republicans are willing to go along with his insane whims. 25th Amendment NOW!

E Jean Carroll publicly humiliates Donald Trump by revealing that his disgusting body odor and bizarre behavior "mesmerized" the jury during the trial that resulted in her $83 million defamation win.

These details are hilarious as they are gross...

“I don’t understand how people can be afraid of a fat, elderly man who wears apricot makeup, his hair done up like Tippi Hedren in The Birds, and sits in a courtroom and moans and groans and complains and snorts,” Caroll told The Daily Beast podcast.

“They were mesmerized. You have never seen anything like it,” she said of the jury. “He never sat still, and he talked the entire time within earshot of the jury. He belittled Alina Habba, his own attorney. He would spit as he was talking. He didn’t smell so good.”

She recounted how her attorney Roberta "Robbie" Kaplan really got under Trump's skin...

"He stood up with steam coming off his back and hot air blowing out his ears because Robbie Kaplan was giving the final argument, and she was asking the jury how much it would take to make him stop," said Carroll.

“She drove him so crazy, he stood up in the courtroom and left,” she explained. "When a man is innocent, he doesn’t storm out of a courtroom; he stays and fights. He turned tail and stormed out of the courtroom. He lost right at that second. He couldn’t have looked more guilty."

Caroll credibly accused Trump of raping her and he was ultimately found civilly liable for sexually assaulting her. She was awarded $5 million but then Trump continued defaming her in public and denying her story, eventually resulting in her massive $83.3 million victory.

“When the jury heard the evidence, it wasn’t very hard,” Kaplan told the Daily Beast.

“The clerk opens it up, reads it, frowns, shakes his head, folds it back up, and then hands it to Judge Kaplan,” said Caroll. “And Judge Kaplan opens it up, and his eyebrows rise up towards his hairline, and he frowns, and he says, ‘Madame forewoman, what does the M stand for?’”

The forewoman explained that "m" stood for "million.

“That was a moment,” said Carroll. “I left my body. As I say, I felt like Peter Pan who flies around the ceilings. And quite frankly, I’ve never come down from that. That win was so enormous and so powerful, not for me, not for Robbie, but for everybody in the country who had sort of lost hope that he could ever be beaten.”

“We’re still feeling the good victory of that. It’s happened. And we’ve proved—Robbie proved, and I proved—that Trump can be beaten,” Carroll continued. “He can be beaten.”

E. Jean Caroll is right. Trump shouldn't be feared. He can be defeated. All it takes is the courage to fight back.

Please like and share!

SWAMP KING —Trump just mandated loyalty tests for federal employees to keep their jobs!

In a move straight out of a banana republic, the Trump administration has just turned federal performance reviews into a loyalty oath — not to the government, not to the Constitution, but to HIM!

According to a bombshell HuffPost report, tens of thousands of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees will now be judged on whether they “clearly and demonstrably support implementation” of Donald Trump’s policies.

Yes, it’s come to this. Career public servants — scientists, doctors, analysts, and inspectors general — are now being told that their jobs depend not on doing good work for the American people, but on pledging allegiance to Trump’s agenda.

This is not parody. It’s policy.

The new HHS directive literally lists “Faithful Support of the President’s Policies” as the most critical element of an employee’s annual review. Workers are being told they must “advance the President’s specific policy agenda” — or risk being fired.

Given that Health and Human Services Secretary and DOGE have already decimated the ranks of the department, the agency can’t really afford to lose more personnel. And with so many workers idled by the government shutdown, job insecurity among federal workers is already at an all-time high.

One HHS employee told HuffPost: “So basically, we swear we’re going to follow Trump’s policies, which is ridiculous.”

Ridiculous — and dangerous.

Federal workers are supposed to serve the law and the Constitution, not the whims of one man. But Trump has been on a mission to gut the civil service and replace it with loyalists since day one. This is the latest step in his authoritarian march to turn government agencies into personal fiefdoms.

It’s also pure hypocrisy: Trump screams about the “deep state,” but what he’s really building is a “Trump state” — where facts, science, and ethics take a back seat to loyalty tests.

Stanford professor Terry Moe nailed it: “They want to ensure that civil servants, who are supposed to be nonpartisan, are themselves loyalists. This flies in the face of the entire foundation of civil service.”

That foundation — merit, independence, and integrity — is what separates a democracy from a dictatorship. And it’s collapsing under Trump’s boot.

Employees are terrified. Morale is tanking. Even workers in the Office of Inspector General, whose job is to investigate waste and fraud, are now being told to “support the President’s policies.” Translation: don’t uncover anything that makes him look bad.

Trump’s people call it “Restoring Accountability.” Let’s call it what it really is: Restoring Obedience.

The bottom line is that Trump isn’t draining the swamp — he’s drowning the government in his own ego. This is how democracies die — one loyalty oath at a time.

Please like and share if you agree: Federal employees serve America, not Donald Trump.

Legal analyst Andrew Napolitano shocks his far-right Newsmax viewers by admitting that Donald Trump's corrupt scheme to pay the troops with $130 million from a billionaire supporter is illegal.

The corruption has become impossible to spin...

"Well, look, he's obviously a very charitable person," Napolitano said of Trump supporter Timothy Mellon. "However, the government can't spend that money because the Constitution says no money shall be spent from the public treasury but that which has been authorized by Congress."

"And Congress, in furtherance of that constitutional language, wrote legislation, which is signed into law, which says the Defense Department can't spend money that are gifts," he went on. "So the money is probably sitting somewhere, but the government can't spend it."

"There's something called the Anti-Deficiency Act, fancy phrase for a statute that says the government can't take money from a source other than the Congress and it can't spend money other than that which is appropriated by Congress," said Napolitano.

"So I would think that someone in Mr. Mellon's financial category would have a team of lawyers that would examine this for him and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's another law that they're looking at, but the basic Constitutional language and the basic federal law say no," he continued.

"I don't know what they can do with that money. They can't spend it under this legislation," Napolitano added.

The rationale here is easy to understand. The American military should not be funded by a private billionaire because then they would be beholden to that individual. It's absolutely crucial to our national security that it remain the American people who pay the American military. This rule is especially important in the case of Mellon, who has given tens of millions to Trump's campaigns, including $50 million to one of his super PACs last year. If Mellon is paying our military, that amounts to Trump paying them, and we cannot allow this fascist president to turn our military into his own private mercenary force.

Napolitano further explained that the "donation" would not be a tax free transaction and Mellon would have to pay $50 million in taxes.

Napolitano also pointed out that the biweekly payroll of the troops is $6 billion so the donation would only cover a "small fraction" of what is needed. The New York Times reports that Trump's 2025 budget requested roughly $600 billion for total military compensation. Mellon's $130 million donation amounts to just $100 per service member.

It's worth noting that Trump himself is the entire reason that the military isn't getting paid right now. This government shutdown is his fault because he refuses to extend crucial Affordable Care Act subsidies. He controls the government. He owns the shutdown.

The government's inability to spend the "donation" as intended does raise an obvious question about an administration that habitually engages in graft and theft. Where is the money?

"If the government has cashed Mr. Mellon's check or if he wired it to them, the question is where are those funds? Because theoretically Pete Hegseth can't spend them," said Napolitano.

"If we have a reporter with Treasury Secretary Bessent in the Far East, please ask him, where is that cash?" he added with a laugh. "What happened to the $130 million!?"

One thing is for certain. When Democrats retake control of the government they need to order a full forensic audit of everything that occurred during the Trump years. We are witnessing corruption on a scale that dwarfs anything in the history books.

Please retweet and ❤️ to demand a full investigation!

Former President Joe Biden gives a fiery speech in his first remarks since his cancer therapy, says that we're in "dark and perilous times" but it's "no time to give up" because America always emerges "stronger, wiser and more resilient."

Remember when we had a real president?

"Fundamentally, Ted [Kennedy] believed in the power of our democracy to pull our nation through the worst of moments and folks we can't kid ourselves, we are in one of those moments right now," Biden said while receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.

"In my over fifty years of elected public life, this is the worst I've seen it. If Ted were here today, he'd still be fighting like hell but his optimism would be surely tested because truth be told, our very democracy is at stake in my view," Biden continued.

"Look, I know it's tempting to check out, to throw up your hands and it feels heartbreaking some days but if Teddy were here today, he'd drawn inspiration from the lessons he and his siblings learned growing up," Biden went on. "The same ones that I learned from my dad. Whenever we faced tough times as a kid, my dad would look at me and say 'Joey get up'."

"'You get knocked down, get up, Joey. Just get up.' That's my message to us tonight," said Biden. "We have to get up. All those who love Teddy and who love our country, all of us who are dismayed by the present state of the Union, there's no time to give up. It's time to get up."

"We must do better in this country. We all agree that our politics is broken, that political violence, never acceptable, is out of hand, that America should be a place not of extremism and fury, but of decency and grace, that our institutions are what makes us the envy of the world, and our democracy is worth fighting like hell for," he went on. "Friends, since its founding, America has served as a beacon for the most powerful idea ever in government in the history of the world."

"As Teddy once said, most of the world still knows what we can be, what only we can be. And they want us to be that nation again. America is the only country in the world founded on an idea," Biden continued. "Not geography, not religion, not ethnicity. A big idea. The idea is stronger than any army, more powerful than any dictator."

"The idea is that we hold these truths to be self-evident that we're all created equal, and deserve to be treated with dignity throughout our lives. While we never fully lived up to that idea, we've never walked away from it either. And after spending over fifty years at the center of it all, I know the idea of America depends on our respect for the institutions that govern and guarantee a free society."

"It depends on a presidency with limited powers. It depends on a functioning Congress. It depends on autonomous judiciary," he continued. "It depends on a free and independent press. Institutions that reflect the timeless words, we hold these truths to be self-evident. And we, the people."

"Whether we show the courage, stand up to the abuse of power, or are we going to yield to it? We face these existential questions again today. We remain in the battle for the soul of our nation, in my view. And that means we, all of us — and I mean all of us — have an enormous responsibility to protect the institutions upon which the fate of our nation rests."

"No one is exempt from responsibility. No one gets a pass on standing up to the bullies and standing firm against the threats. Time and again, throughout history, at moments of great crisis, we Americans have summoned the better angels of our nature and brought our country back from the abyss."

"And, folks, there's some good news. It's happening again right now in America. Right now," said Biden.

"Look across the country and you'll see it. Average Americans showing courage, making exceptional and extraordinary sacrifices to protect our democracy. The federal employee who resigns rather than follow the order that he knows is wrong."

"The university that's fighting back against the threats rather than compromise its academic legitimacy and integrity. The late-night hosts who continue to shine a light on free speech, knowing their careers are on the line. The elected officials who bucked their own party, knowing there will be hell to pay for it."

"The journalists and corporations and advocacy groups, law firms who are doing the right thing, knowing retribution is right around the corner in every state in this nation. The Americans doing what Teddy Kennedy spent his life doing, standing up, standing tall, fighting to make our country live up to its highest ideals. Because they believe in a simple truth that the soul of the nation is worth fighting for."

"Let me close with this. America is not a fairytale. For 250 years, it's been a constant push and pull, an existential struggle between peril and possibility," said Biden. "We're not guaranteeing any happy endings. And maybe, maybe it's that unwavering optimism I learned from my friend Teddy that caused me to say, I believe in the America of our dreams is always closer than we think. That's why the work of Edward M. Kennedy Institute is so important, teaching young people how to fight for, strengthen, and cherish the institutions that make our democracy literally a beacon for the world."

"When I was President, I said the most urgent question facing the country was whether democracy is still America's sacred cause. Sacred cause. I believe the answer is yes."

"I'll never believe the answer could ever be anything other than that. It can never be no. As I began to build my own presidential library, I hope that it too will inspire a love of democracy in future generations."

"Because whatever my legacy may be, I hope it will be said of me, what is true of Teddy, that he believed in our democracy, that he knew it was worth fighting for," Biden continued.

"Friends, I can't sugarcoat any of this. These are dark days, but we're one of the only countries in the world that time and again has come out of every crisis we faced stronger than we went into that crisis," he said.

"Every one. And after half a century of watching this, sometimes moved to the brink before finding our true compass again, I still believe, I still believe we'll emerge as we always have. Stronger, wiser, more resilient, more just."

"So long as we keep the faith, remember who in God's name we are. In the words of scripture that the Kennedy family has invoked on other times of great moral crisis, be strong and have good courage. Be not afraid and be not dismayed."

"Folks, it's time to get back up. It's time to get reengaged. It's time to act, to fight like hell, to fight like Teddy would fight. That's what we owe Teddy. That's what we owe each other. That's what makes us. "Look, that's what we owe our kids and this country. So it's time to get back up."

"Above all else, get back up! Get up, America. Get up, get up, get up now! Thank you. God bless you and may God protect the United States of America," the former president concluded.

This is what real leadership sounds like. This is what morality and decency and dignity sound like. Donald Trump on his best day could never hope to deliver a speech half as coherent, thoughtful, and moving as this.

The same media that obsessed over Biden's cognition is now criminally uninterested in the fact that Trump took a dementia test and had an MRI scan. The hypocrisy is scalding but we soldier on.

Get up America!