Another Day, Another Dog-Ass Republican

Always. Always. Always. They're always doing what they tell us they hate - or what they accuse others of doing. Like they believe - hard - that if they just stay on the attack, we won't notice what fuckin' dirtbags they are.

Republican Who Backed Death Penalty for Pedophiles Faces Child Sex Charges

Palm Beach County Clerk of Court Michael Caruso, a former Republican state legislator who previously backed the death penalty for adults convicted of sexually battering children under 12, was arrested Tuesday on five felony child sex abuse charges.

The 67-year-old married father of seven who was appointed by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis faces five felony counts: kidnapping, child molestation, lewd exhibition, luring or enticing a child and child abuse causing mental injury, an arrest affidavit shows.

Investigators in Florida say Caruso violated a child—who is a relative—and allege the abuse occurred multiple times from fall 2024 to August 2025, including on a family cruise, a fishing outing and during a Thanksgiving gathering. The child has been receiving therapeutic services since April 2026, according to the police affidavit.

“Being in a position of public trust provides no shield from accountability,” state Attorney General James Uthmeier said. "This individual will face the full force of the law.”

DeSantis, who named Caruso to serve as court clerk and comptroller in August 2025, immediately suspended him from office Tuesday upon learning of the allegations.

“It was a very easy decision for me to yank him from that position," DeSantis said during a Tuesday news conference.

When asked whether he or anyone in his administration was aware of the allegations against Caruso before his appointment, he answered "of course not.”

“He had a clean vet, he was well-regarded in the community,” DeSantis said, calling the alleged crimes “horrific.”

Florida is the first state to reintroduce the death penalty for convicted pedophiles, DeSantis said, and if Caruso is convicted, "he is going to be in a world of hurt.”

What Bill Did Caruso Support?

While representing District 87 in the Florida House, Caruso backed what is now known as the 2023 Florida Capital Sexual Battery law. The legislation allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty for adults convicted of sexually battering a child under the age of 12. Caruso is listed as a “Yea” in the April 13, 2023, House vote. DeSantis signed the bill in May 2023 and it took effect six months later.

The Republican is up for reelection in November but is not appearing on Tuesday’s primary ballot, as he is running uncontested. The Florida GOP called on Caruso to immediately drop out of the race.

“While this is surprising news for our entire team, it does not change who we are at the Clerk’s Office or our commitment to the community and customers we serve,” the Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller’s Office said in an email to Newsweek.

Following the arrest, Shannon Ramsey-Chessman was sworn in as clerk ad interim. As of Tuesday afternoon, Caruso’s official page on the clerk's office website was unavailable.

Caruso was booked into the Orange County jail and is being held without bond. The investigation remains ongoing and Uthmeier's office expects more charges.

Hawk

A concentration camp by any other name still stinks of fascism.

Belle

There are 1,461 days in a POTUS term.

1,461

- 564

  897

There's over 60% of Trump's term left to go.

"Trump has been a disaster for the US, and the Republicans in Congress who co-signed for it are to blame."

Review Farms

"You've never wondered why something completely boring - like a bike lock - has like 50,000 reviews?"

I hate this shit. Seems like everything is just so fucking scammy.

Hawk

Stop wondering

The Kids Are Not Alright

Elect Republicans and watch the children suffer.



More Than 770,000 Children Are No Longer Receiving SNAP Benefits After Trump Changes Federal Food Program

Republican backers of Trump’s signature domestic policy bill repeatedly claimed that revisions to the food benefits program wouldn’t affect the most vulnerable. But reports from a dozen states show children are losing access.

As a House committee debated President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy bill last year, Republican backers repeatedly emphasized that its changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, wouldn’t affect vulnerable people.

SNAP reforms would “restore integrity” to the program and ensure it works for the “most vulnerable among us, including children,” said Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican and chair of the House Agriculture Committee.

Passing the bill would be a “historic accomplishment” that will ensure “those in need can continue to receive the assistance they need,” said Rep. John Rose, a Republican from Tennessee.

And Rep. Dusty Johnson, a South Dakota Republican, said the bill would focus resources on the “neediest” Americans. “If you are a pregnant woman, your benefits are unaffected. If you have young children at home, your benefits are unaffected by this bill. If you are disabled, your benefits are unaffected by this bill.”

But nearly a year after the measure was signed into law, the number of children receiving food assistance has plummeted by at least 776,000, according to a ProPublica analysis. At least 12 states break down program participation by age, and of the 1,670,011 people who are no longer receiving benefits in those states, 776,134, or 46%, were children.

Another analysis reached the same conclusion: Just last month, the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found there were 700,000 fewer children receiving food assistance.

Arizona has seen the nation’s largest percentage decline in SNAP participants; 205,223 children are no longer receiving the benefit since July 2025, a 55% drop. Louisiana had the second largest percent decline among children, 22%.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, hasn’t detailed the impact on children aided by the program, but initial figures show that compared to February 2025, 4.3 million fewer people received SNAP nationwide in February 2026, leaving 37.8 million participants.

Although children weren’t the intended targets of the legislation’s changes, they’re increasingly “collateral damage,” said Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

If states are trying to comply with the law’s changes to SNAP, they’re likely not focusing on making the program accessible, Bergh said. Other experts said that people may be pushed off the program because of increased paperwork requirements to remain eligible.

States are required to impose work requirements for most adult recipients, while preparing for two major cost shifts. In October, states will begin covering 75% of the program’s administrative costs. States have been paying 50% of those costs.

In addition, states will have to pay a larger share of SNAP benefits starting in October 2027, based on their error rate. Error rates reflect overpayments or underpayments of SNAP benefits. While sometimes characterized as fraud, such errors are usually the fault of the state agency or the SNAP recipient, according to USDA, which describes them as “largely unintentional.”

If a state agency is facing staffing shortages and struggling to comply with new regulations, it will be harder for low-income families to access the benefits, Bergh said. “Families are falling through the cracks.”

In Massachusetts, for example, the share of SNAP applicants who called an assistance line and couldn’t reach a worker rose from 61% in November to nearly 81% in March, according to the Department of Transitional Assistance, which administers SNAP in the state. The state agency did not respond to a request for comment.

A USDA spokesperson did not address ProPublica’s questions about the number of children who have lost access to SNAP. “There is no shortage of resources for the most vulnerable among us, including children,” the spokesperson said.

Have you lost your benefits? Are you working with those who have? Help ProPublica do more reporting. We need your help understanding what shifting policies actually mean for communities across the country. If your SNAP or Medicaid benefits have been cut or if you work to help people navigate public assistance programs, you can email us at safetynet@propublica.org to share your experience.

The three members of the House Agriculture Committee who defended last year’s bill before its passage — Rose, Thompson and Johnson — did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about their statements now that many children no longer receive SNAP benefits.

Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins about her recent comments that it was “good news” that millions of people no longer receive SNAP. If more than 700,000 children have been dropped in the 12 states that report those figures, “that number’s going to be into the millions” when other states are included, he said.

Rollins responded, “The 700,000 number of children is not correct,” contending that most people who were kicked off SNAP were “fraudulent.”

“That is not a nonpartisan group that gave you that number,” she said. (ProPublica independently verified the figures reported by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.)

McGovern said he has talked to people who have lost food assistance. “These are people who actually need and rely on this food assistance to provide basic nutrition for their families,” he said.

Pressure to lower error rates “creates a temptation for the states to bump off working families,” said Parke Wilde, a food economist at Tufts University. Working families may have more volatile incomes, making it harder for state agencies to assess benefits accurately.

“When they say we want to preserve SNAP for those with the greatest need, they’re sort of acknowledging that they want the scale of the SNAP program to be smaller,” he said.

Mariana Chilton, an expert in child hunger at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said a smaller program won’t save money in the long run. Research shows that children who receive SNAP benefits are healthier, have better academic outcomes, use hospitals less often and have better mental health as teenagers.

She called the situation a “public health crisis” in the making. “When children are not healthy, this affects children today and it affects them throughout their lifetimes,” she said, likening hunger during early childhood to a brain injury.

As Arizona’s SNAP participation drops, nonprofits are feeling the effects. St. Mary’s Food Bank, the largest in the state, has seen a 15% increase in need this year, which translates into 300,000 more visits from people in search of food, said Milt Liu, the chief executive officer.

“It’s important for everyone to realize that policies have implications for people on the edge, and we’re seeing that in our line every day,” he said.

On a recent morning, Ana Alvarez waited in a line of vehicles at a St. Mary’s food bank in Phoenix. Alvarez, a single mother of five who works at a restaurant, started coming to St. Mary’s after she lost her SNAP benefits in September.

She reapplied for SNAP with the Arizona Department of Economic Security in December, but the application is still pending. The department did not respond to questions about its backlog.

She clips coupons and has cut out trips to the zoo and restaurants with her children. The slow season at the restaurant where she works is about to hit. And as summer temperatures rise, Alvarez wonders how she will afford her electric bill, her rent and her car payment.

At least once a week she contacts the agency about her application. The last time she called, a worker told her what others have in the past: She will have to keep waiting.

Belle

IMHO, Republicans go on making a play for Plutocratic rule.

They push radical wackos in their primary elections - people who aren't very likely to win in the general election. And they have to know their wacko candidates don't appeal to most voters.

So it would seem they really are counting on a Jim Crow style scheme to keep people away from the polls.

With all the shit they're trying to pull - the campaign against Mail-In, threatening to order the USPS not to deliver ballots, vote roll purges, closing polling places, threatening to post armed "officers" at polling places, and and and. They're working hard to carve off a few percentage points - votes that would normally go to the Democrats - in order to eke out a few wins here and there.

It's the ugliest kind of politics, and I don't blame anybody for being repulsed by the process, and more than a little reluctant to participate.

But we have to show up for it.

No matter what else, don't stay home. Go vote.

Oy

Trump is doing his damnedest to stay in office.

He's nominated people for the federal bench who refuse to say that a president who has served two terms is not eligible for a third term, according to very plain and obvious language at the beginning of the first section of the 22nd amendment:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

 

Why do we have to fuck with this?

Where are the honorable people in government who should be jumping all over this?

Erika

Parasocial Exploitation

Parasocial exploitation is the practice where influencers, content creators, or brands deliberately manufacture an illusion of genuine friendship or intimacy with their audience to maximize financial gain. It turns a fan's natural emotional investment into a transactional commodity, often leading to overspending or psychological harm.

A Reminder

In 1979, Jimmy Carter had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House.

In 1986, Ronald Reagan had them removed.

If we'd listened to Carter, and continued to follow his lead, we wouldn't have to worry about the Strait of Hormuz.

Republicans, on behalf of The Dirty Fuels Cartel, have been fucking us over for a very long time.

How Do I Not Hate These Assholes?

We're living another episode of Classic GOP Proforma Bullshit.

• Completely fuck something up
• Walk away, leaving it for someone else to clean up the mess you've made
• Bitch about the clean up and the people doing the work

I live for the morning I wake up to The Big Beautiful Obituary.

A Death-Of-Stalin Moment

Three main components:

1. Tactical: I have a tank. This is what makes it run, this is what it can kill, and this is what can kill it
2. Operational: I have a battalion of tanks, and a supply train, and air support, and infantry, and field intelligence and and and - this is the hill we want our guys to take, and this is how the other guys could stop us 
3. Strategic - what's the fuckin' point of all that? What have we accomplished in service to our long term interests?

We have the muscle to fuck up the whole day for anybody anywhere in the world.

But what's next? What comes after all that fuck-up-ery? How does all this shit Trump is doing manifest a coherent strategy?

Manufacturing Ignorance

agnotology
noun

The process of intentionally creating or encouraging doubt or ignorance, for example by spreading false information, in order to influence opinion, sell a product, or gain an advantage, or the study of this process.

Iran

The idea that we can topple a government with low-risk airstrikes is pretty dumb.

The idea that if we knock off the Irani government, killing 80 school girls in the process (oops), and then expect the new government to get all chummy with us - well that's just fuckin' stupid.

It's like thinking that once the Russians lose in Ukraine, we can expect Ukrainians to embrace the Russians even though they've outright murdered Ukrainian civilians for years - It's just really really really fuckin' stupid.

And BTW, Trump has blustered, "We can't allow a country to raise up terrorist groups".

So maybe we should stop creating those countries, and giving them reason to do it. We've been fucking with Iran for 75 years. Stop doin' that, you stoopid fuck.

We are not distracted

Hillary Speaks

SECRETARY CLINTON'S OPENING STATEMENT

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, Members of the Committee... as a former Senator, I have respect for legislative oversight and I expect its exercise, as do the American people, to be principled and fearless in pursuit of truth and accountability.

As we all know, however, too often Congressional investigations are partisan political theater, which is an abdication of duty and an insult to the American people.

The Committee justified its subpoena to me based on its assumption that I have information regarding the investigations into the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Let me be as clear as I can. I do not.

As I stated in my sworn declaration on January 13, I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices. I have nothing to add to that.

Like every decent person, I have been horrified by what we have learned about their crimes. It's unfathomable that Mr. Epstein initially got a slap on the wrist in 2008, which allowed him to continue his predatory practices for another decade.

Mr. Chairman, your investigation is supposed to be assessing the federal government's handling of the investigations and prosecutions of Epstein and his crimes. You subpoenaed eight law enforcement officials, all of whom ran the Department of Justice or directed the FBI when Epstein's crimes were investigated and prosecuted. Of those eight, only one appeared before the Committee. Five of the six former attorneys general were allowed to submit brief statements stating they had no information to provide.

You have held zero public hearings, refused to allow the media to attend them, including today, despite espousing the need for transparency on dozens of occasions.

You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files. And when you did, not a single Republican Member showed up for Les Wexner's deposition.

This institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors, as well as the public who also want to get to the bottom of this matter. My heart breaks for the survivors. And I am furious on their behalf.

I have spent my life advocating for women and girls. I have worked hard to stop the terrible abuses so many women and girls face here and around the world, including human trafficking, forced labor, and sexual slavery. For too long, these have been largely invisible crimes or not treated as crimes at all. But the survivors are real and they are entitled to better.

In Southeast Asia, I met girls as young as twelve years old who were forced into prostitution and raped repeatedly. Some were dying of AIDS. In Eastern Europe, I met mothers who told me how they lost daughters to trafficking and did not know where to turn. In settings around the world, I met survivors trying to rebuild their lives and help rescue others — with little support from people in power, who too often turned a blind eye and a cold shoulder.

If you are new to this issue, let me tell you: Jeffrey Epstein was a heinous individual, but he's far from alone. This is not a one-off tabloid sensation or a political scandal.

It's a global scourge with an unimaginable human toll.

My work combatting sex trafficking goes back to my days as First Lady. I worked to pass the first federal legislation against trafficking and was proud that my husband signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which increased support for survivors and gave prosecutors better tools for going after traffickers.

As Secretary of State, I appointed a former federal prosecutor, Lou deBaca, to ramp up our global antitrafficking efforts. I oversaw nearly 170 anti-trafficking programs in 70 nations and directly pressed foreign leaders to crack down on trafficking networks in their countries. Every year we published a global report to shine a light on abuses.

The findings of those reports triggered sanctions on countries failing to make progress, so they became a powerful diplomatic tool to drive concrete action.

I insisted that the United States be included in the report for the first time ever in 2011. Because we must hold ourselves not just to the same standard as the rest of the world but to an even higher one. Sex trafficking and modern slavery should have no place in America.

None.

Infuriatingly, the Trump Administration gutted the Trafficking in Persons Office at the State Department, cutting more than 70 percent of the career civil and foreign service experts who worked so hard to prevent trafficking crimes. The annual trafficking report, required by law, was delayed for months. The message from the Trump Administration to the American people and the world could not be clearer: combatting human trafficking is no longer an American priority under the Trump White House.

That is a tragedy. It's a scandal. It deserves vigorous investigation and oversight.

A committee endeavoring to stop human trafficking would seek to understand what specific steps are needed to fix a system that allowed Epstein to get away with his crimes in 2008.
A committee run by elected officials with a commitment to transparency would ensure the full release of all the files.

It would ensure that the lawful redactions of those files protected the victims and survivors, not powerful men and political allies.

It would get to the bottom of reports that DOJ withheld FBI interviews in which a survivor accuses President Trump of heinous crimes.

It would subpoena anyone who asked on which night there would be the "wildest party" on Epstein's island.

It would demand testimony from prosecutors in Florida and New York about why they gave Epstein a sweetheart deal and chose not to pursue others who may have been implicated.
It would demand that Secretary Rubio and Attorney General Bondi testify about why this administration is abandoning survivors and playing into the hands of traffickers.

It would seek out officers on the front lines of this fight and ask them what support they need.
It would put forth legislation to provide more resources and force this administration to act.
But that's not happening.

Instead, you have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump's actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers.

If this Committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein's trafficking crimes, it would not rely on press gaggles to get answers from our current president on his involvement; it would ask him directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files.

If the majority was serious, it would not waste time on fishing expeditions. There is too much that needs to be done.

What is being held back? Who is being protected? And why the cover-up?

My challenge to you, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, is the same challenge I put to myself throughout my long service to this nation. How to be worthy of the trust the American people have given you. They expect statesmanship, not gamesmanship. Leading, not grandstanding. They expect you to use your power to get to the truth and to do more to help survivors of Epstein's crimes as well as the millions more who are victims of sex trafficking.

Today's Monte

Homan says he doesn’t ‘know’ meaning behind Noem’s ‘right leaders’ comments

White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday he didn’t “know” what Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem’s recent comments about ensuring “we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country” meant.

“So, what does she mean when she says ‘electing the right leaders?’ That’s not really immigration enforcement or DHS responsibility,” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Homan on “State of the Union.”

“I don’t know. That’d be a question for the secretary. If I had to guess, probably that — you know — only those legally eligible to vote would vote. But I have not talked to the secretary about those statements. That’d be something she’d have to answer,” Homan replied.

On Friday, Noem suggested that her department plays an expansive role in election security. The secretary alleged that she has the authority to find “vulnerabilities” in the election system and put in place “mitigation measures” to ensure local and state elections are carried out “correctly.”

In a press conference in Arizona, Noem claimed that elections were under DHS’s mission of “maintaining critical infrastructure.”

“I would say that many people believe that it may be one of the most important things that we need to make sure we trust, is reliable, and that when it gets to Election Day, that we’ve been proactive to make sure that we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country through the days that we have, knowing that people can trust it,” she said.

Noem also said on Friday that she was “still in charge” of DHS, even as Homan recently gained more control over President Trump’s immigration agenda.

DHS has faced heat in recent weeks over the two fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal immigration authorities.

Guns No Guns

• Cruelty is the point
• Hypocrisy is the point
• Fuckery is the point
• Assholery is the point

Professor Pagel's Rundown

Instead of getting your Underoos all knotted up, maybe you could just tell us you don't issue illegal orders.

This looks a lot like more evidence that these jerks are spoilin' for a fight, and they intend to do everything they can think of to provoke a violent reaction.

Closer And Closer

It's not a terribly smart thing to hold your breath on this shit.

• Trump is pressuring Boebert and Mace hard to get their names off the discharge petition
• Even if the vote is called, there's bound to be delays - debate, conference meetings, etc
• If the thing passes, there's no guarantee Johnson will act quickly to deliver the demand to Bondi
• Bondi almost absolutely fight it and stall and do whatever Trump instructs her to do
• This is Trump, so he'll take it to court and we'll spend a year waiting - unless enough Republicans get antsy enough about the re-election chances if it drags out and remains an issue during the mid-term campaigns

So yes, it's pretty damned close to being the smoking gun, but since there's no honor in MAGA, the GOP, or the White House - we can't reasonably expect any of them to act honorably.

Red Wine & Blue

IDK if the tag on this is true or not - whether the NC Republicans deleted this file. But would it surprise anyone if they did?