Go Fact Yourself

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Attribution: Shooting the messenger by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts”

[variation of a quote credited to Baruch, Schlesinger and Moynihan]

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66 thoughts on “Go Fact Yourself”

  1. thread title inspired by the message on a tee shirt worn by a constituent at a recent town hall meeting held by a Wisconsin repub congressman.

  2. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/cbs-news-analysis-doge-says-its-cutting-costs-but-claims-are-exaggerated/

    The spotlight may have moved off the Department of Government Efficiency since the departure of Elon Musk, but the Trump administration’s DOGE continues to post about cost cutting on its so-called “wall of receipts.” And once again, some of its claims about savings appear to be significantly overstated, according to a CBS News review.

    The review of three of the largest cuts claimed so far indicates the savings from those contracts are less than 3% of what DOGE said they were.

    On July 27, DOGE added 705 canceled contracts to the website it uses to track and declare savings from the agency’s cost cutting across the federal government, among them three of the largest claimed cuts posted since President Trump launched DOGE in January.

    The three contracts — all from the Department of Health and Human Services — funded COVID-19 testing and treatment for people who were uninsured or underinsured during the pandemic. DOGE claims canceling those contracts saved $6.4 billion.

    But CBS News’ review of transaction records indicates the actual savings is just a small fraction of that — around $165 million.
    [continues]


  3. President Trump appeared on the White House roof today for some reason, a new poll found everyone in the his administration is deeply unpopular, people are speculating about the reason for Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer to a prison known as “Club Fed,” and voters are letting GOP lawmakers know they’re unhappy about the Big Beautiful Bill.

  4. If you would like to see a howling at the moon lunatic look for any of his act on top of the White House yesterday. It makes his little plays at the helipad seem “normal”. His actions are becoming horrific and should not be tolerated by any person anywhere.

    Next up, millions of deaths can attributed to JFK jr removing science from the U.S. health agencies.

  5. My question: Can she lie without consequence if they gave her immunity for the interview?

    Ghislaine Maxwell told DOJ Trump never did anything concerning around her: Sources
    The Trump administration is considering releasing transcripts of the interview. — ABC NEWS

  6. Ever anything that concerned her…but she was convicted of trafficking AND abusing minors and other young women.

    The women have told their stories. There is physical evidence. She is incarcerated for a reason.

    As for what Orange PedOTUS was doing on the roof, it was another distraction brought on by the dementia of a megalomaniac. Based on his hand gestures and favorite color, he plans to put a golden dome on his presidential palace.

    A ballot room bigger than the WH itself, all of that gaudy gold leaf, a rose garden that looks like a dog run where you can hose the droppings down flag-shaped drains, and a now golden dome. He’s not planning to leave, but he won’t live forever and he’s not in good health. Does he allow JD to step in, or does he install Ivanker since Barron is too young. Heck, why follow an age rule when none of the others matter.

  9. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/history-texas-lawmakers-walking-out/story?id=124392943

    But this is not the first time lawmakers have fled the Texas State Capitol avoid voting on a measure they disagreed with, “breaking quorum” by depriving the statehouse of enough legislators to conduct business. They’ve been doing it since 1870 — more than 150 years ago.

    The first instance of quorum-breaking in Texas took place in 1870, when 13 legislators withdrew from the Senate but remained in the state, according to the Texas State Historical Association.

  11. As I posted last night, SCOTUS is probably killing the 1965 VRA. Gerrymandering won’t be necessary if they disenfranchise enough folks.

  12. President Trump appeared on the White House roof today for some reason

    a “golden opportunity” was missed

  13. Is YouTube censoring the Epstein story?
    We posted this video twice. YouTube ghosted it both times, showed it to no one.
    TikTok? No problem.

    The topic:
    Ghislaine Maxwell.
    Trump allies calling her a victim.

    🎥 Watch what YouTube doesn’t want you to see:

  18. https://thehill.com/homenews/5438719-ice-eliminates-age-cap/

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is eliminating the age cap on new hires, allowing people older than 40 to join its deportation force.

    The move will end the limitations on the physically demanding job at a time when the Trump administration is pressed for personnel to carry out its mass deportation agenda.

    *Baseball fantasy camp for old racists.

  19. Craig – As with fudging captions and hashtags, you may need to redo the video with zero pics of Maxwell & Epstein, and pronounce their names differently. Like one woman at Flood’s town hall called him: Ep-Stine. Maybe Jilliane MaX-Bad?

    There is video of Guiffre saying she had been trafficked to Dershowitz multiple times.

  21. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/05/trump-jpmorgan-bank-america-debanking-00494729

    President Donald Trump on Tuesday went after the nation’s biggest banks, accusing them of discriminating against him in recent years as his administration weighs options for cracking down on perceived bias against conservatives in the financial system.

    Trump said in an interview on CNBC that JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and others refused to accept more than $1 billion of his deposits. Trump said he eventually had to spread his cash across small banks “all over the place.”

    “The banks discriminated against me very badly,” Trump said, reviving his criticism that large Wall Street banks had “debanked” conservatives for political reasons.

    During the interview, Trump said JPMorgan Chase notified him that they would be closing his longstanding accounts within 20 days, and that Bank of America subsequently refused his business after his first term in office.
    Trump also claimed, without offering any specific evidence, that the Biden administration had pressured banking regulators to “do everything you can to destroy Trump.”

  22. https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-weigh-jpmorgans-290-million-settlement-with-epstein-accusers-2023-11-09/

    2023:
    NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Thursday approved JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM.N), opens new tab $290 million settlement with women who said Jeffrey Epstein abused them, and that the largest U.S. bank turned a blind eye to the late financier’s sex trafficking.

    U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff called the deal “a really excellent settlement” that he said could prevent future sex trafficking by alerting banks to the consequences of facilitating transactions linked to it.

    The deal followed embarrassing disclosures that JPMorgan ignored internal warnings and overlooked red flags about Epstein because he had been a valuable client.

    Epstein was a JPMorgan client from 1998 to 2013. The bank kept him on even after he was arrested in 2006 on prostitution charges and pleaded guilty two years later.

  24. Yes BiD, this isn’t the first time i’ve found YouTube algorithm robots programmed to be skittish about the Epstein story. While TikTok is not, treats the same videos no differently on their platform. And yet they are beholden to Trump to extend their deadline to sell or shut down.

  26. it’s funny, YouTube doesn’t bury all the gun videos and all the AI generated fake news videos and all the conspiracy videos and all the flat earth videos…

  27. Given that Trump has certain subjects that he always lies about, you would think media types would keep a list handy to immediately challenge the most egregious every time they fall out of his mouth.

    1. Greatest/most
    2. Never happened
    3. I know nothing about that
    4. Obama/Hillary/Kamala did it.
    5. Russia/Putin
    6. Two weeks

    Feel free to add

  28. It was well known that as a result of bankruptcies, banks had Trump on an allowance in order tomaintain his image to keep repayments flowing. Even the show the apprentice was a result of his being an available “billionaire” to act as frontman for the concept.

  29. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Tuesday that it will start winding down mRNA vaccine development efforts under a federal health agency focused on developing medical countermeasures to address public health emergencies.

    mRNA vaccines had been discussed as having the potential to cure cancer, apparently trumpco loves cancer and hates you

  31. https://www.newsweek.com/jeffrey-epstein-files-virginia-giuffre-trump-live-updates-2109750

    “We understand that Vice President JD Vance will hold a strategy session this evening at his residence with administration officials. Missing from this group is, of course, any survivor of the vicious crimes of convicted perjurer and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein,” Giuffre’s siblings, Sky and Amanda Roberts, and Danny and Lanette Wilson.

    “Their voices must be heard, above all. We also call upon the House subcommittee to invite survivors to testify. As Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s siblings, we offer to represent her in her stead and we hope the administration takes our call to action seriously.”

    It’s a theme party for pedo-supporters. The theme: COLLUSION

  33. https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/tiktok-us-ban-september-if-china-doesnt-approve-trump-deal-1236469084/

    Howard Lutnick, President Trump’s Commerce Secretary, said TikTok will go dark for the video app’s millions of American users unless China agrees by a Sept. 17 deadline to a deal that will give the U.S. owners majority control over the app.

    “We’ve made the decision. You can’t have Chinese control and have something on 100 million American phones,” Lutnick said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” If China doesn’t approve the deal, “then TikTok is going to go dark.”

    *The US replacement, M2, would make Chinese surveillance look like a walk in the park, probably.

  34. We understand that Vice President JD Vance will hold a strategy session this evening at his residence with administration officials

    JD is like “ hey gentlemen, I have some experience tamping down rumors”

  38. The Nation’s Landmark Voting Rights Law Just Turned 60. It May Not Survive Trump.

    On July 24, US Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Latina Democrat from Houston, traveled to Austin to testify before the Texas House against the mid-decade congressional redistricting plan pushed by Donald Trump that was designed to give Republicans five new seats in the US House. Garcia said Republicans were motivated not just by political expediency, but by a broader desire to weaken the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which prohibits electoral changes that discriminate against voters of color.

    “The short-term game is getting five seats to retain the gavel of the House,” Garcia told members of the special committee on redistricting. “That’s the power grab. The long-term game is to repeal the Voting Rights Act.”

  39. There’s nothing tells you more about how bad it is than what all they’re having to go through to cover it up.

    You know, Sit Down with the Girl.
    Move the girl to a cushier “prison”, start talking on tv how great a philanthropist she secretly was……go cats go…..cover up da poop

  42. We understand that Vice President JD Vance will hold a strategy session this evening at his residence with administration officials.

    It’s also damning that they need a strategy beyond “telling the truth”

  43. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-least-favorite-part-constitution-deleted-1235401874/

    GOVT. WEBSITE ‘GLITCH’ REMOVES TRUMP’S LEAST FAVORITE PART OF CONSTITUTION

    The online Constitution website is maintained by the Library of Congress, which Trump is trying to take over
    ***

    https://abovethelaw.com/2025/08/congress-just-deleted-habeas-corpus-from-the-constitution-on-its-website/

    “Pop quiz: how many sections does Article I of the Constitution have? If you choose to look it up on the official website of Congress, congress.gov, because you don’t want to trust not some sketchy Substack for sedition hobbyists, you’d say it has eight. Except it has ten. Congress has just deleted Section 9 (and 10) from the website where it maintains the “Constitution Annotated” as a public service. But it’s gone now. Because the sketchy sedition hobbyists are the ones running Congress now.

    Section 9 includes eight different clauses, but likely the most relevant to the Republican leadership is the right of habeas corpus. “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it,” reads the Constitution. At least the copy maintained by the non-profit National Constitution Center reads that way, because the congressional version skips it entirely.

    And it’s just gone… the copy jumps directly from the end of Section 8 to Article II. [UPDATE: I was working quickly and didn’t even focus on the semicolon there. The deletions actually start before the end of Section 8.]

    The good news for Justice Sam Alito is that Section 9 is also the part of the Constitution that bars anyone holding office from accepting a title. So Sir Samuel of Blackacre can now fully enjoy his medieval European knighthood while continuing to collect under-the-table luxury benefits!

    The quiet deletion of constitutional protections from the government’s official website marks a bold step into Orwellian fanfic. It’s a move Trump telegraphed last year, when he released his personal Trump Bible, promising his fans a King James Bible and copies of America’s foundational documents… minus the parts he doesn’t like. The Fourteenth Amendment? That thing with Equal Protection and birthright citizenship and banning insurrectionists from office? NO THANK YOU! When his own “Little Red Book” — hawked to supporters for $60 a pop — edited out the parts of the Constitution that didn’t fit his vibe, many rolled their eyes. But it was already an assault on the rule of law, with MAGA officials attempting to force his FrankenBible into schools as an educational text. American civics with the Reconstruction stuff neatly removed.

    In retrospect, the exclusion of the Twenty-Second Amendment might have been a red flag too.

    A Nixonian power grab raises hackles, but bumble along embracing the stupidest fascism cosplay and one of two things happens: (1) you get away with it because the Supreme Court gave up on the rule of law or (2) you get called out and play it off as a joke that critics are “crazy” for taking so seriously. If enough people call out Congress for this, it’s going to be “a harmless oversight” and purely coincidental that their version of the Constitution excludes the part that makes dictatorships slightly harder.

    Oh, and you should watch out for bills of attainder and ex post facto laws too. Because that’s also in Section 9.”

  47. ICE now proudly utilizing terrorist tactics (using rental trucks to conceal themselves)

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-06/more-raids-home-depot-in-macarthur-park-raided

    they’re not going after criminals they’re going after people looking to work

    By the way, those types of people usually get up around 4 AM to get to Home Depot at 6 AM, work their asses off until the sun sets, spend another hour or two getting home, go to bed and then do it again. They have no time to commit crimes, they are too busy doing honest work

  48. They say Ghislaine Maxwell cleared Trump in a DOJ interview.

    But so far there’s no transcript.
    No audio.
    Just their version of what she allegedly said.

    So we asked our AI lawyer:
    What are they leaving out? And is this immunity — or impunity?

  49. The transcript is no good because she will have said whatever the hell they wanted her to have said. She knew full well what they wanted her to say.

  52. Beto O’Rourke’s political group is a top funder for Texas Democrats’ exodus to block GOP congressional map

    Powered by People, a Democratic political group started by former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, has emerged as a top funder covering the costs of Texas lawmakers’ out-of-state decampment to thwart a new GOP-proposed congressional map, according to two people involved with the fundraising efforts.

    ***

    Paxton launches investigation into Beto O’Rourke’s political group for funding Democrats who left state

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into whether Beto O’Rourke’s political group, Powered by People, is breaking laws by funding Texas Democrats’ out-of-state travel attempting to stop the passage of the new Republican-favored congressional maps.

  54. I’m not sure 65-69% of Americans would agree the sun is hot and night is dark, but they apparently agree on this:

    Americans who say Trump is “very” or “somewhat dishonest” =
    69%

    Americans who say Trump is “very” or “somewhat corrupt” = 65%

    “Where Trump faces his poorest rating in our poll is on perceived corruption and dishonesty,” adds La Raja. “A clear plurality (49%) sees Trump as ‘very dishonest,’ with an additional 20% saying that he is ‘somewhat dishonest.’ And 45% see him as ‘very corrupt,’ with an additional 20% as ‘somewhat corrupt.’ Only about one-third reject those labels entirely. Trump also gets low ratings on transparency – a majority (52%) say Trump is not at all transparent, his weakest score after dishonesty. Only 23% believe that he’s very transparent. For a candidate who brands himself as a truth-teller and disruptor, this appears to be a credibility gap.”

    (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

  55. Venezuelan men and their families share experiences after CECOT release

    Nearly half, 118 of the more than 230 men, including Ramos, came to the U.S. legally and were deported in the middle of their immigration cases. He entered the U.S. with a CBP One appointment, a program the Biden administration used to try to bring order to the soaring numbers of migrants attempting to enter the country.

    At least 166 of the more than 230 men had tattoos, including Blanco, Ramos and Vega. Our investigation found that the government relied heavily on tattoos to tie the men to the Venezuelan gang, even though Tren de Aragua experts say tattoos are not reliable indicators of gang affiliation.

    A handful of the men, including Vega, had been granted voluntary departures by an immigration judge, which means they had agreed to pay their way home to Venezuela. Instead, they were deported to El Salvador.

    For months, the families of Venezuelan men sent to CECOT by the Trump administration awaited news about their loved ones. Now that the families have been reunited, they open up about the harm they experienced.

  56. 🚨 DOJ leak claims Ghislaine Maxwell “cleared” Trump?

    Not quite. She said he did nothing in her presence. That’s legal spin — and former federal prosecutor Carolyn Adams isn’t buying it.

    We break it all down in 9 minutes:

  61. Far-Right Militias Adored the Constitution. Then Came Trump.

    Since 2009, I have spent a lot of time covering right-wing groups, tea party activists, the Bundys, and other anti-government extremists who have couched their opposition to the federal government or Democrats in the language of the Constitution. They have plied me with multiple copies of their favorite pocket Constitution, put out by the National Center for Constitutional Studies, a group founded by the late anti-communist W. Cleon Skousen, whom Mack credits for his “conversion to constitutionalism.”

    Former tea partiers, mandatory mask and vaccine opponents, or elected officials like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who insisted in 2015 that an ordinary military training exercise known as Jade Helm was an attempt by President Obama to invade Texas—none of them have objected to Trump’s use of the military on domestic affairs. And you’d be hard pressed to find a “strict constitutionalist” on the right who has spoken out against Trump’s actions that many courts have already found to be unconstitutional, such as his punishing law firms he doesn’t like. And not a word from any of them about his unprecedented and likely illegal use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to dispense with due process in deporting immigrants.

  62. Brava, Carolyn!

    Now, how long before we start smell what JD & company cooked up tonight at Casa de Collusion?

  63. https://newrepublic.com/post/198853/donald-trump-dhs-ice-fema-reassignment

    Two birds, one stone: Donald Trump has found a way to shutter FEMA and bulk up ICE.

    A number of FEMA employees were told via email Tuesday night that they would be reassigned to ICE.

    Sources familiar with the matter say that those who received the email were probationary employees who had been on administrative leave for months after the Trump administration attempted to fire them, according to The American Prospect.

    “If you choose to decline this reassignment, or accept but fail to report for duty, you may be subject to removal from Federal service as provided in 5 U.S.C. § 7513.”

    *Horrifying!

    Congress has just awarded $170 billion toward immigration enforcement, with ICE getting an unprecedented $75 billion of that sum. Meanwhile, ICE agents are complaining about the unrealistic quotas placed on them by deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller and wondering why they’re spending so much time “arresting gardeners.”

    And FEMA, which provides crucial services to Americans experiencing natural disasters, is already in dire straits: While Texans were overwhelmed by flooding, the agency didn’t answer two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, reported The New York Times.

  65. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/06/jd-vance-ohio-lake-water-levels

    JD Vance’s team had the army corps of engineers take the unusual step of changing the outflow of a lake in Ohio to accommodate a recent boating excursion on a family holiday, the Guardian has learned.

    The request from the US Secret Service was made to “support safe navigation” of the US vice-president’s security detail for an August outing on the Little Miami River, according to a statement by the US army corps of engineers (USACE).

    Vance was spotted in the south-western Ohio area on 2 August, his 41st birthday, according to social media posts that noted he was seen canoeing on the river, a tributary that Caesar Creek Lake feeds into.

    One source with knowledge of the matter who communicated with the Guardian anonymously alleged that the outflow request for the Caesar Creek Lake was not just to support the vice-president’s Secret Service detail, but also to create “ideal kayaking conditions”. The Guardian could not independently confirm this specific claim.

    *Either way, it was a ridiculous thing to do.

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