Marshall Smith

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: The MAGA bozo responsible for Trump's disastrous Reflecting Pool "renovations" is exposed — and his company is literally named "Greenwater Services."

Meet John Cafaro.

Despite looking like a 1950s cartoon mobster, this is a real, flesh-and-blood human being from Trump's inner circle. He's also a convicted felon who previously pleaded guilty to bribing a member of Congress.

Cafaro received a $1.7 million no-bid contract to install a water-purification system in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Normally, the National Park Service would have a robust open bidding process to find the most reasonably priced, most competent contractor. Instead, the job was entrusted into Cafaro's sweaty mitts without much scrutiny.

The details of that contract are murky, like everything else involving this administration, so it's safe to presume that there was a healthy dose of corruption and graft involved. It's no coincidence that Cafaro just happens to be a big Trump donor and a Mar-a-Lago neighbor. He's given at least $300,000 to PACs tied to the President.

Like everyone else in Trump's circle, Cafaro has proven to be exceptionally incompetent. The Reflecting Pool is now a cesspit of algae and looks greener than ever before. Another company unrelated to Cafaro received the $14.7 million no-bid contract to install blue waterproofing material in the pool. That firm likewise did an incredibly poor job, as chunks of the material are now peeling away and floating to the surface.

This is how things work in third world dictatorships. Cronies and political allies are awarded contracts to reward them for their loyalty to the regime and there's no expectation that they'll ever fulfill the work to proper specifications.

The administration, rather than admit their failure, has taken to posting fake pictures on social media while insisting that the water is crystal clear.

We have eyes. We can see how bad it's gotten.

Please ❤️ and share to demand a full investigation into the Reflecting Pool contracts!

[Really American 🇺🇸 @ReallyAmerican1]

Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth’s crusade to purge women and people of color from our Armed Forces has never been subtle.

But today, a New York Times exposé revealed exactly how far he’s gone to dismantle the careers and achievements of our finest servicemen and women.

More than a dozen military insiders — both active duty and those already purged — spoke to the Times anonymously to unmask a horrific ongoing attack.

They detailed a process used by Hegseth and his team to halt senior officer advancements for reasons completely unrelated to merit, job performance, or fighting wars.

Hegseth’s efforts are part of a quest to advance his white-and-male centered worldview, facts, history, and actual service be damned.

In the absence of any such evidence, insiders confirmed that he has used his position to withhold promotions from qualified, decorated veterans. The Times cited several enraging examples:

• Last fall, Hegseth ordered Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll to remove two Black and two female officers from a 29-person promotion list. Driscoll repeatedly refused, citing their decades of exemplary service. In March, Hegseth bypassed him, removed their names, and sent the modified list to the White House.

• In total, Hegseth has removed 32 officers from Air Force and Navy one- and two-star promotion lists. He also pulled the only Black officer and the only female officer from a Marine Corps list, leaving their promotions in limbo.

• Vice Adm. Sara Joyner, a highly decorated three-star fighter pilot, saw her advancement stalled over a 2021 Navy recruiting ad where she said, "I’m not just a girl with a dream. I’m a sailor with one." Hegseth deemed the line a "big problem." Joyner has since retired.

• Rear Adm. Stephen D. Barnett was recommended for a promotion after successfully managing the aftermath of a massive Navy fuel spill in Hawaii. Hegseth blocked his advancement after Barnett participated in a Navy-sponsored Pride event back in 2018.

It is an outrage to watch a media personality whose greatest battles have been with hangovers intentionally harm the careers of people who risked everything to keep America safe. Hegseth’s actions are insult to all who have served and a risk to national security.

[Image: REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov]

[Scott Dworkin @funder]

2020 FAKE ELECTORS CASE MOVES FORWARD: Three Trump allies in Wisconsin face eleven felony counts each, carrying up to six years apiece. Trump pardoned them federally—but he can’t pardon them for the state charges. They now head to trial. Full story here: https://t.co/sTt2eCv2zL

[BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ @mmpadellan]

Good morning and Happy Friday to everyone who noticed that, while even MILLI VANILLI bailed on trump's birthday, EVERYONE showed up for President Obama, including all the living Presidents, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Common, Eddie Vedder, Tom Hanks, Stephen Spielberg...

People showed up for the REAL ones.

Michael Steele: "This is a moment that can be about the country. And I think a lot of people are looking at it that way."🙏💪

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Dear Joe,
I wish I could sit down with you face to face and explain why so many of us were offended by the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House.
For me, it had nothing to do with the UFC or who showed up for the fights. The brand you and Dana have built is a bona fide American success story. More power to you. As for the fighters, in my book, anyone brave enough to put it all on the line in the arena is remarkable to witness. Their dedication and discipline inspire me. I don’t understand anyone who can’t admire that.
And as for the people who attended, I, for one, love Shane Gillis. I think he’s hilarious and brilliant. It was a show. A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. I can’t blame anyone for wanting to witness it firsthand.
My problem is that I believe some of our public spaces are sacred. And unlike many of the great powers that came before us, these American monuments belong to all of us. Not to whoever happens to hold power at the moment.
The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to any President. It belongs to the people. To treat it as Caesar treated the Colosseum is antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for.
This is not Rome. Presidents are not emperors doling out bread and circuses for the peasants. The White House is the People’s House. This “celebration” could have happened in any stadium within a stone’s throw of the South Lawn. No one would have had an issue with it.
But that was obviously Donald Trump’s whole point. By holding the event on the South Lawn, what he was saying to the rest of us is:
“This is my house. I own it. I will do with it what I please. I’ll build a colosseum and have the gladiators fight under my gaze. I’ll tear down the East Wing. I’ll pave over the Rose Garden. I’ll cover everything in gold and marble. I’ll erase the names of all the men who came before me.”
The fights were an exhibition of imperial domination, not a celebration of our 250th anniversary as a democracy.
The White House is not Buckingham Palace. It is not the Palace of Versailles. It is not the Forbidden City of Beijing. It does not belong to an emperor, or a king, or a commissar.
The White House belongs to us. All of us. The person who sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is nothing more than an honored guest. A temporary caretaker.
The President is our servant. Not our Caesar.
Respectfully, Hunter

P.S. Cage match between me and Don Jr.? Your call on the venue. Anywhere but the South Lawn.

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

Michelle Obama: We simply don't have the luxury or time to be cynical or complacent, to wring our hands in despair, or to wait for someone else to fix the problem. Hope is all we have, because hope is the essential spark that lights the fire of change. But hope is a choice. Whether or not we use our voices to speak up is a choice. Voting is a choice. Being a decent human being is a choice. Believing that we still hold the power to build a country that reflects us all is a choice.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Obama: I am not immune to anger or doubt. But I do know this when we lose faith in each other, when we stop believing that voting matters… we open the door to the most ruthless or the most careless, or the most fearful among us who see some groups and some people as more equal than others and see government as nothing more than a way to divvy up the spoils and punish enemies, and keep those who are different in their place. I do not believe that is the story of America that prevails in the end.

[Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg]

Today in Chicago, @BarackObama and @MichelleObama reminded Americans how we can be our best as a country, just as they did during their eight years in the White House.

It was a great honor to participate in today’s opening for the Obama Presidential Center, whose purpose of empowering people to make positive change is timely and needed.

[David Axelrod @davidaxelrod]

Over the past 19 years, I've watched @MichelleObama, who never sought a career in the public eye, become a master orator. Her speech yesterday at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center may have been her very best. Moving, direct and powerful.

[Steve Schmidt @SteveSchmidtSES]

Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I felt something that has become unfamiliar: pride. Watching the living presidents gathered together reminded me that our story is bigger than any single administration, election, or demagogue.

https://t.co/9846CVM38E

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: HAHA! Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton burst out laughing at the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center after Michelle brilliantly shaded Trump over the Nobel Peace Prize.

This is just too good...

"You were unflappable at every turn, always focused, always calm, always looking at the long view," the former First Lady said to her husband. "How absurd it is to even imagine that you might have buckled under the pressure even once, lashed out in frustration, lost your temper. How absurd it is to imagine that you might have done anything but make our family and this entire country proud."

We can think of another President who regularly loses his temper, buckles under pressure the moment that difficulties arise, and lashes out in frustration on Truth Social daily. There is an infuriating double standard at play. Obama had to always keep his cool to avoid getting labeled with the "angry Black man" racist trope. As an entitled white man, Trump can blow his top whenever he wants and nobody bats an eyelash.

"No, you were too busy. I'm not done, y'all! Not done," Mrs. Obama continued as the crowd roared with approval. "So much to say. You were doing the people's work, rescuing our economy, expanding healthcare, ending a war, ordering the Bin Laden raid, saving an auto industry, winning a peace prize."

She paused and smiled at that point in the speech, giving the audience a chance to cheer. Seated in the wing, Hillary Clinton burst out laughing at the obvious jab and President Obama laughed along with her.

It's well-documented that Donald Trump is absolutely obsessed with the fact that Obama has a Peace Prize while he himself has been denied the distinction. Trump aggressively lobbied in vain for one, cajoling foreign leaders to nominate him.

He was so incensed by the Norwegian Nobel Committee's refusal to award him that he wrote to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre: "Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace."

He lived up to the implicit threat in that letter by going on to launch a pointless, costly, child-murdering war against Iran that ultimately ended in defeat and surrender for the United States.

And Michelle wasn't done there...

"Keeping us safe from Ebola, regulating the banks, standing up for marriage equality, listening to science, and comforting an entire nation in the face of unspeakable tragedies," she continued, listing more of her husband's accomplishments. "And you did it all with such grace and class and cool that you made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park."

The Ebola bit is another jab at Trump who, with the assistance of RFK Jr. and Elon Musk, gutted research and pandemic prevention. This is the most virulently anti-science administration that this country has ever seen.

One thing is certain. The Obamas will have a lasting, radiant legacy in this country. Trump will be reviled by future generations, his name used as a byword for incompetence, failure, and corruption.

Please ❤️ and share if you love the Obamas!

[Acyn @Acyn]

Michelle Obama: Not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you… the claims that a U.S. Senator and constitutional law expert wasn't qualified for the job. The lies about your birthright, your faith, your patriotism, the outrage when you stated the biological fact that if you'd had a son that he too would be black, yet you were unflappable at every turn, always focused.

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

Michelle Obama to Barack Obama: You were doing the people's work. Rescuing our economy. Expanding healthcare. Ending a war. Ordering the Bin Laden raid. Saving the auto industry. Winning a peace prize. Keeping us safe from Ebola. Regulating the banks. Standing up for marriage equality. Listening to science. And comforting an entire nation. And you did it all with such grace, and class, and cool.

[Susan Rice @AmbassadorRice]

This is a jaw-dropping, horrific surrender document complete with hundreds of billions in reparations. It is the predictable result of incompetent negotiation and the foolhardy strategic catastrophe of starting and pursuing this disastrous war. The U.S. will not soon recover from this, the biggest national security blunder in decades.

[Michael Steele @MichaelSteele]

No. The Iranians did not; but they clearly said that about you given the $300B MOU you just “negotiated”.

[Acyn @Acyn]

CNN montage of Trump bashing the JCPOA and releasing any money to Iran:

I would have never given him back the money. I would have said, the money is off the table. Let's start negotiating. And you know what? I would have won that negotiation

[The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln]

It's only Tuesday and Trump has fucked up a pool for $14 Million, lost a war agreeing to pay Iran $300 Billion, and ballooned his already expensive ballroom budget by another $200 Million.

Where are the Republicans screaming about "waste, fraud and abuse"?

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

🚨 BOMBSHELL! MS NOW confirms Trump's FBI Director Kash Patel used over $1M in taxpayer funds to illegally reward a secret "Payback Squad" of loyalist agents.

Rep. Raskin reveals they were paid to carry out unlawful orders and cover up Patel's misbehavior!

[Acyn @Acyn]

Warnock: We have all of this naked, unabashed corruption. I don't know if Donald Trump was a billionaire or not the first time he ran, he said he was. But we all know he is now. He has made more money in this year and a half than he's made in his entire life. 

He's enriching his sons… He said he was going to look out for the families of this nation. And I guess since charity begins at home, he started with his own family. He just forgot about the rest of our families.

[Congressman Robert Garcia @RepRobertGarcia]

Oversight and Judiciary Dems visited Ghislaine Maxwell’s prison today, it is essentially a pristine park with fountains and ample green space. She’s the only convicted sex offender there. Why did @DAGToddBlanche move her here? This isn’t justice.