AFinRenoFightsBack 🌊2026 🌊

@callyson.bsky.social

Longtime CA/originally PGH/now NV Leader @SwingLeftReno Politics/fashion/art Fighter for American democracy NO DMs unless I know you IRL #Resist #Steelers #VoteBlue

What you just said is one ot the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard

What you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic tings I have ever heard

When Trump first seized the “millions of barrels” of oil back in January, he assumed complete control. His administration eventually proclaimed that it would use any profit from the sales for “the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people.” The State Department has since claimed that “billions of dollars have been disbursed to the Venezuelan economy” and that “financial monitoring is under way to ensure funds benefit the Venezuelan people.”

But none of that has been proven to be true. The Financial Times reported Wednesday that there has been no evidence of oil money going back into the hands of the Venezuelans Trump claimed to care for, and that Venezuela’s first-quarter gross domestic product was the lowest it’s been in five years.

“Trump’s invasion of Venezuela has been about oil, power, and graft from the very beginning, with billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil revenue being controlled by the Trump administration without transparency or safeguards,” Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro told the FT, adding that all of Congress had been “kept in the dark” by the Trump administration. And on Tuesday, Republican Representative María Elvira Salazar called on Trump to make the transactions known, citing “the importance of transparency over where the money is going.”

Every year, there are approximately 250,000 GoFundMe campaigns from people seeking help covering their medical bills, and no small number of them are for children. We live in a country in which 66.5 percent of all bankruptcies are related to medical bills — up to 550,000 each year — and 15 percent of those medical bankruptcies are attributable to illnesses and injuries suffered by children. In 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (RIP) found that 100 million Americans owe over $220 billion in medical debt, and that was before people lost their Obamacare subsidies. Not to mention that, since Donald Trump has been in office, drug companies have raised the prices of over 700 medications.

And this is all for people who were able to actually get treatment in the first place. There are a whole lot of people out there, a whole lot of children, who don’t. There are approximately 4.6 million children in the United States who don’t have health insurance — about six percent of the childhood population up to age 18 — and studies show that uninsured children have a mortality rate 60 percent higher than children who are covered. Also, about one in three children in the United States (about 23 million) are underinsured and therefore have less access to healthcare than they need.

We should be deeply, deeply ashamed. We should be ashamed about all of it, frankly, but we should especially ashamed of the fact that there is even a single child in this country that cannot get medical treatment for financial reasons. I mean, Republicans kinda get off on the idea of adults not being able to afford healthcare as a result of not having worked hard enough, but it’s a smidge harder to make that argument when it comes to children.

President Donald Trump tends to lash out at the reporters when they point out something he doesn’t like, or simply can’t explain. And that explains today’s Oval Office outburst over Iran. There are no signs that Iran plans to stop fighting, a reporter observed to Trump. So, what’s the plan?
“How would you know if there are no signs? What? Do you know something that I don’t know?” Trump retorted. “You don’t know what the dialog is behind the scenes.… You don’t get that when you listen to your fake station…. You don’t know anything.”
The reporter asked the obvious follow-up. “Well, tell us!” Trump then offered up a contradiction, essentially saying that Iran is clamoring for a meeting, but also has no real interest in a meeting that would end the fighting. “I will tell you,” Trump said. “They want to desperately meet, and until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest in meeting.”
There it is, folks. Trump knows that he’s unable to get out of this war he started. The U.S. probably can’t move Iran’s negotiating position with more bombs, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment. But Trump keeps making ominous threats anyways.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) was asked on MS NOW about Hegseth giving troops testosterone injections: “The military does not need more testosterone. It needs better leadership. And that starts with the Secretary of Defense. It also starts with the commander in chief. He's the one that hired Hegseth, who is the most unqualified individual we've ever had in this position by far.

… “They're firing the wrong people. Pete Hegseth is firing people because they're women and they're black. The President should fire Pete Hegseth.”

Sen. Murray: “April 8th, you said their missile program is functionally destroyed. Launchers, production facilities and existing stockpiles depleted and decimated and almost completely ineffective. Iran has been firing at US military bases in the region and ships for the last week. Hegseth: Iran is at the weakest point militarily it has ever been in in the past decade.”
Murray: “Why exactly are billions of dollars more for the National Guard and this administration's illegal strikes in the Caribbean urgently needed for the Iran war?
Hegseth: Because of the gross negligence and neglect of the Biden admin.”

Sen. Reed: “Your fallback to the Biden admin is just a very obvious excuse for what I think is probably gross negligence. You did not fully inform the president that you would be in a situation where the Strait of Hormuz could be effectively closed. Hegseth: The fact that those contingencies all were part of the possibility, and we understood that is all the more reason why President Trump deserves the kind of praise he should get. Reed: He should be praised for starting war without authority, creating a situation in which the world economy is suffering tremendously?”
Reed: “These airstrikes have not yet deterred and defeated the Iranians. Do you think airstrikes alone will do that? Caine: I think academically, as you look across the totality of history, air power has got limits… Reed: Well, the military, the next step would be escalation by ground combat. Do you anticipate that escalation? Caine: I think it'd be unhelpful for me to opine on hypotheticals.”

Sen. Durbin: “It’s my understanding that this whole supplemental funding request is $87.6 billion. But we are told DOD still has $75 billion in unobligated funding from last year’s reconciliation package. Is that true? Hegseth: Roughly. Durbin: What’s going to happen to that 75 billion? Hegseth: There’s plans and designs on that - move away from all the woke priorities of of what the Biden admin was pursuing.”

WaPo: “The Pentagon faces an urgent budget shortfall caused largely by the war in Iran, with some critical lines of funding set to run out within weeks even as Trump escalates the conflict with Tehran, according to lawmakers and current and former US officials. The funding crunch is already leading the Pentagon to limit training and maintenance that help maintain military readiness.”

… “And the collapsed ceasefire with Iran could further strain the military’s budget: After 4 US service members died during more than a week of intensified fighting, officials in Washington signaled they were preparing for a wider conflict.”

… “The WH has asked Congress for an immediate infusion of $67 billion to help cover the costs of the war, but lawmakers are gridlocked over how to proceed. The House plans to leave Washington on Thursday for a month-long recess, leaving any deal on military funding weeks away at the earliest.”

Reason: “Trump pledged on the campaign trail that he would slash electricity prices in half within 18 months of returning to the WH. That self-imposed deadline is today, and—as with many of the president’s promises—he appears to have fallen short of his goal.”

… “From Trump’s inauguration to April 2026, the most recent month for which govt data are available, residential electricity rates have risen by an eye-watering 18%. From April 2025 to April 2026, rates jumped by 7.3%, or about twice the rate of inflation. Unfortunately, for many consumers, there is not much relief in sight.”

… “Last week, PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, announced the results of its annual capacity auction, which determined the cost to procure power in the region for the 2028–2029 delivery year. The cost of the latest auction hit $16.4 billion, tying the previous auction’s record-high price and all but locking customers into historically high rates.”

… “Nationally, utilities in the second quarter of 2026 asked state regulators to approve $9.2 billion in rate hikes, up 26% from the $7.3 billion in rate increase proposals filed in the same period last year.”

Trump then posted this on Truth Social after the meeting: “After meeting with the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, who has done a remarkable job working to transform his Country, I am hereby directing my Admin to allow all US airline carriers to fly directly to Lebanon so that Americans can easily visit this beautiful land. Hopefully, other Countries will do the same. Enjoy!”

… It’s a war zone. What could go wrong? Enjoy!

Q -There are no signs that Iran is ready to stop fighting. So what is the plan? Trump: How would you know if there are no signs? Reporter: They continue to attack our allies. Trump: They want to meet desperately to end it, you don’t get that when you listen to your fake station. You don’t know anything. Reporter: Well, tell us then. Trump: They want to meet with me, but until they want to meet in a meaningful way I have no interest.”

osh Hawley Targets Pro-Choice Website for Criminal Investigation
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is asking the Department of Justice to launch a criminal investigation into Plan C Pills, calling the website a “dark money operation.” In a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Hawley claims that Plan C functions “as the referral and logistics hub for shipping abortion drugs into states whose laws prohibit it.”

And that’s what makes all of this so telling: Plan C doesn’t actually sell abortion pills, it provides information about where patients can get the medication. Hawley isn’t targeting an abortion pill provider‚ he’s going after an information hub. This is about quashing speech—and women’s ability to help each other.

It’s all part of the broader attack on pro-choice speech I’ve been warning about:

Earlier this year, Senate Republicans asked the FDA to shut down abortion pill websites, seize their domains, and work with the Justice Department to “investigate and prosecute” the “chemical abortion drug dealers.”

Blanche jumped at the chance to check that box. Without warning or a chance for survivors and their lawyers to prepare, Blanche arranged a meeting, forcing some of those who had attended the confirmation hearings to literally turn around during their travels home. And in that meeting he did something no prosecutor should ever do: He made them feel even worse than they had about our justice system then before. He refused to take responsibility for the ways in which they had so awfully been treated by the justice system, including under his leadership, and to apologize in any meaningful way.

I wasn’t in the room, and I cannot get inside Blanche’s head. But based on everything I have seen and heard over the past months, it seems clear that Blanche has and continues to treat these women not as crime victims whom he has a duty and legal obligation to serve and protect, but as a political nuisance that needs to go away for the benefit of Trump, whom he clearly views still as his client.

Any senator who cares about how victims of crime are treated by the justice system would not vote to endorse this abysmal conduct from the highest federal prosecutor.

Tom Homan held a press gaggle outside the WH to address the latest ICE murders of innocent people:

Q: “The ICE officer in Maine - is there any more clarity on how he got his job considering the vetting concerns his wife raised? Are there potential changes coming in vetting? Homan: That's a question for ICE.”

… Every single day this guy loves talking about everything ICE is doing. But not this particular question. I wonder why?

"I said this a year ago - if Democrats’ hateful rhetoric doesn't stop there will be bloodshed. And unfortunately I was right. And I'll tell you something else - it's not over yet - I'm afraid we're gonna bury an ICE agent."

… We have been burying the victims of ICE agents.

"It comes down to one simple fact - these people failed to comply with law enforcement. All they had to do is comply. If they did, they'd be alive today."

… I wonder if he would say the same about Ashli Babbitt?

Sen. Jon Ossoff just sent this letter to RFK Jr: “ Last year, you terminated the CDC’s FoodNet required surveillance of Cyclospora cayetanensis, the parasite responsible for cyclosporiasis. And now a cyclosporiasis outbreak sweeps the nation. Your foolish and self-indulgent demolition of critical public health programs puts Americans at risk.”

… “The Trump Admin is actively undermining food safety. To date, CDC has confirmed 1,645 cases – and there are still thousands of pending cases waiting for CDC to confirm. Americans are suffering from severe diarrhea and painful complications. Across the country, parents feel increasingly uncertain about how, and whether they can, shop safely for their families. This is unacceptable.”

… “Please answer the following questions within 72 hours:

Has the CDC’s FoodNet been restored to require tracking of Cyclospora cayetanensis? If not, why?

Why did you terminate tracking of Cyclospora cayetanensis in the first place?

What is the status of epidemiological and food safety investigations to determine the source and scope of the outbreak?

CNN pollster Harry Enten on the latest Trump polls: "It’s a record low approval rating for Trump in the CNBC poll These are horrible numbers. It's the worst this century for a president at this point in his second term when you look at an average of the polls. Donald John Trump now hold the record for the worst ever net approval rating of any president at his second term.”

… “What is dragging him down? All time worst approval rating among independents at this point in a second term. Even worse than Richard Nixon before he resigned because of Watergate.”

The answer, while hardly a secret, is not nearly as widely known as it should be. The US economy performs much better when a Democrat is president than when a Republican is
- Alan Blinder and Mark Watson, Economists, Princeton University

Telegraph: “The US does not have enough missiles to return to an all-out war with Iran, an American official has warned. Trump is reportedly looking at planning for a ‘wider war’ against Tehran with the American military sending more warplanes to the Middle East. However, a US official familiar with admin discussions said the operation would be limited by dwindling stockpiles of air defense and long-range munitions.”

… Official: “We do not have enough to safely sustain operations, and I don’t think the WH is aware of that.”

… “The warning comes as the US launched a 9th consecutive night of attacks on the country, edging closer to all-out conflict in the region. Iran responded to the weekend’s attacks by continuing its strikes on American allies across the Gulf. Kuwait said it had come under missile and drone attack. It said a power station and water desalination facility had been hit, which it ‌described as ⁠a direct strike on vital civilian infrastructure.”

ICE is not protecting us
ICE is threatening us
Abolish ICE

WSJ: The CFTC is investigating Rep. Ann Paulina Luna (R-FL) after she told people in the summer of 2024 that she tipped off Rogan O’Handley aka ‘DC Draino’ that Trump would pick Vance for VP prior to the announcement being made so that he could make a winning bet on Polymarket, which he did.

Axios: Republicans admit the GOP’s midterm forecast is bleak. But they’re clinging to two hopes: voters’ fear and loathing of Democrats. “It’s going to be a hate election,” a Republican tied to Trump‘s political operation told Axios. “Voters have to hate the Dems more than they hate us. And we have material to work with.”

… Republicans plan to use the Democrats’ Tea Party-like revolt by progressives to paint the entire party as radicals who can’t be trusted to govern. “Swing voters have a persistent fear the Democrats will just go too far left,” said a GOP pollster with an array of clients across the nation. “So we can make the case that yeah, we suck. But they’re worse.”

I could have been a real financial journalist, but I became a Trumper instead
- Maria Bartiromo

Daily Mail: “The lawyer for the Tate brothers has told DM that Trump will support them after they were arrested in FL on an extradition warrant from the UK. Joseph McBride said that the President ‘hates political persecution and communism’ and this was an example of both. On the question of Trump’s support, McBride said: ‘Trump hates political persecution and communism’, referring to the actions of the British govt.”

… “As McBride understood it, a low level DOJ official signed off on the warrant and that DOJ leadership were not aware of it. McBride said the Tates were ‘100,000% contesting’ their extradition meaning the case will likely end up before a federal judge, and could drag on for months. Asked directly if he wanted Trump to intervene in the case, McBride said: ‘No comment’.”

… “The Tate brothers are reportedly friends with the President’s son Barron, who, according to a report in the NYT, ‘admires’ Andrew Tate and had a Zoom call with him in 2024. Donald Trump Jr has shown support to Andrew Tate and in June 2024 on a joint live stream on X, the President’s son told him: ‘You’ve got people attacking you as far as I’m concerned. They just want to silence you’.”

Everything I don't like is WOKE
A book for basic dickheads

Uncle Sam holding an E Jean Carroll Fan Club card

In light of recent anti-trans athlete rulings from the Supreme Court, a senior member of the Heritage Foundation is imagining a future that looks a lot like the past: one where a key provision of Title IX, a foundational law preserving gender equality, is gutted; one where women in sports and in academia are sidelined in deference to men; one where trans people don’t exist at all.

Title IX’s Failed Experiment: Why Accommodating Sex Differences Beats Engineered Parity is authored by Boise State University professor Dr. Scott Yenor. Relying on sexist stereotypes, it calls for the government to let some schools dismantle competitive women’s athletics, which is already comparatively underresourced, and let women funnel into more “feminine” physical activities, like yoga, hiking clubs, and team cheerleading (not to be confused with Stunt, the competitive cheerleading-adjacent sport that gained full NCAA championship status just this year). Such activities don’t come with the scholarships and opportunities that elite sports do.

This is the "deep state" Donald Trump should fear
- US constitution

"Why are conservatives so weird about energy? They'd rather boil the planet by burning our liquid remains than build a windmill"
- two dinosaurs talking

Reminder:
After we beat them, MAGA Republicans will say the election wasn't fair.
Don't listen to the nonsense.

Evidence of voter fraud - Trump & elephant lackeys picking up bullshit

Punchbowl: “House Democrats are rolling in cash with just 109 days until the midterms. A new trove of campaign-finance reports released this week showed a concerning reality for the GOP: Democratic candidates raked in gargantuan amounts of money last quarter in key battleground districts.”

… “In fact, at least 26 GOP incumbents were outraised by a Democratic challenger during that critical period, per a Punchbowl News analysis of FEC data. The majority of that GOP group hold competitive districts. And 11 of the Republicans had less cash on hand than their Democratic challenger.”

… “Tea leaves. This is a real danger sign for the GOP. Some of these House Democratic challengers raised more money last quarter than Senate candidates. And lackluster fundraising by Republican candidates is stretching the House map in Democrats’ favor.”

… DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene: “Numbers don’t lie, and they are all saying one thing: Democrats are poised to take back the majority.”

WH spokesperson Abigail Jackson on Newsmax on the SAVE Act: “I saw a tweet yesterday from Olive Garden that in order to take advantage of their never-ending pasta pass, you have to show photo ID. I thought, that’s weird, Olive Garden takes pasta pass security more seriously than Democrats take election security.”

AP: “The ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives said.”

… “David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat. Brouillette’s troubling past further challenges how thoroughly DHS has vetted recruits as it went on a hiring spree to help carry out Trump’s immigration crackdown.”

… “At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Monday while in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.”

$Yet the notion of a testosterone crisis in need of treatment is not backed by science, says Adriane Fugh-Berman, a professor of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University Medical Center. Screening for testosterone levels isn’t always accurate, she wrote in an email to Mother Jones, because in otherwise healthy men, levels can fluctuate dramatically. Symptoms can be “vague and nonspecific;” classic ones such as fatigue, brain fog, and low libido can be caused by myriad other conditions. What’s more, she says, “there is very little evidence that administration of testosterone can help symptoms.” The drawbacks of overprescribing testosterone are considerable; adverse effects include blood clots, fractures, heart arrhythmia, high blood pressure, kidney problems, infertility, and, adds Fugh-Berman, “let’s not forget testicular shrinkage.”$