BumRushDaShow
BumRushDaShow's JournalSen. Ruben Gallego says Trump administration's strikes on alleged drug boats is 'murder'
Source: NBC News
Oct. 26, 2025, 9:50 AM EDT
WASHINGTON — Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said on “Meet the Press” that President Donald Trump’s decisions to strike alleged drug boats in the Caribbean were “murder.”
Asked whether he believed that the strikes were consistent with international law, Gallego said, “No, it’s murder.”
“It’s very simple,” Gallego continued. “If this president feels that they’re doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard. If there’s an act of war, then you use our military, and then you come and talk to us first. But this is murder.”
Gallego’s comments come as the U.S. has said it conducted 10 strikes on alleged drug boats since September, killing dozens of people. Two of the strikes were in the eastern Pacific, and eight strikes were in the Caribbean Sea. NBC News has not independently confirmed whether the boats were carrying drugs.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/ruben-gallego-trump-administration-strikes-caribbean-murder-drugs-rcna239826
Gun violence prevention groups disqualified from grants built around their work
Source: The Guardian
Sun 26 Oct 2025 07.00 EDT
Last modified on Sun 26 Oct 2025 07.01 EDT
The Trump administration has released solicitations for a grant program meant to stop gun violence in underserved communities. But this year, the non-profits the grant was built around are disqualified from applying, according to an application notice released by the Department of Justice (DoJ) in September.
The Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI), was created in 2022, to support groups working in rural and urban communities struggling to address violence and fund research studying the programs’ efficacy. The pioneering program was born out of a recognition by the Biden administration that such community-centered programs were among the most successful tools in combating the US’ deep-rooted gun violence problem, and had played a crucial role in helping reduce homicides in major US cities.
Before Trump’s inauguration, community-based organizations, non-profits and local and state governments were eligible to apply for the grant. Now, only city, county and tribal governments are allowed. And the stated goal of the program has been changed from “comprehensive, community-based prevention” to “supports law enforcement efforts to reduce violent crime and improve police-community relations”.
Since 2022, the federal government has awarded more than $300m to over 120 non-profits, city and county governments and research institutions through the initiative, according to an archived list of grant recipients. The department of justice, which oversees CVIPI, did not respond to a request for comment.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/26/gun-violence-prevention-non-profit-grants-disqualified
Maybe Michael Bloomberg can step up and fill the gap as "gun control/violence" initiatives have been one of his philanthropic focuses.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says U.S. won't be able to pay military by Nov. 15 amid government shutdown
Source: CBS News
Updated on: October 26, 2025 / 12:48 PM EDT
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that service members will miss paychecks by Nov. 15 if the government shutdown stretches on, despite the Trump administration's previous assurances that members of the military will be paid amid the funding lapse. "I think we'll be able to pay them beginning in November, but by Nov. 15 our troops and service members who are willing to risk their lives aren't going to be able to get paid," Bessent said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."
President Trump directed the Pentagon to use unspent research and development funds to pay the military earlier this month, with around $8 billion in funds from the previous fiscal year identified to cover the mid-month paychecks.
But officials have warned that the move was a temporary fix, and that members of the military risked missing their next paychecks at the end of the month, and beyond, if the shutdown continues.
Bessent suggested that members of the military will receive their upcoming paycheck, but he warned that if the shutdown continues, the U.S. would be unable to pay the service members by mid-November. "What an embarrassment," Bessent said, putting the blame on Democratic leaders in Congress who he claimed are "worried about their primaries, and not the American people."
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-military-paychecks-government-shutdown/
Of course you can't and using an illegal "donation" for BA funding of salaries should be a non-starter and will probably end up in 45's pockets.
Since you all have dissolved the U.S. Legislative Branch - just call up Majority Leader John Thune in the Senate and tell him to "kill the filibuster" (cloture Rule) and pass the C.R. - and it will ALL be on the GOP (and possibly those same 2 (D) and 1 (I) votes).
Kurdish rebel group PKK says it is withdrawing its fighters from Turkey
Source: NBC News/AP
Oct. 26, 2025, 4:24 AM EDT
A militant Kurdish group announced on Sunday that it is withdrawing its fighters from Turkey to Iraq as part of a peace effort with Turkey.
The statement issued in northern Iraq by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, came months after a group of its fighters began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony, as part of the peace process. The group has been waging a decades-long insurgency in Turkey that has led to tens of thousands of deaths since the 1980s.
"To prevent any risk of clashes or provocations, we are currently withdrawing all our forces within Turkey to the Medya Defense Area with Abdullah Ocalan's approval," read the statement from Sabri Ok, referring to the group's imprisoned leader. The Medya Defense Area is a term often used by the PKK to describe areas in northern Iraq.
The statement also called for legal and political concessions.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/kurdish-rebel-group-pkk-says-withdrawing-fighters-turkey-rcna239819
REFERENCES
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143406881
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143457660
RELATED - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143466650
'You'll go down as a wimp:' Pence's never-before-published notes key evidence in case against Trump, book says
Source: ABC News
October 26, 2025, 7:11 AM
Donald Trump berated Mike Pence, calling his then-vice president a "wimp" during their final phone call on Jan. 6, 2021, hours before Congress certified the 2020 election of Joe Biden, according to Pence's previously unpublished notes included in a new book by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl.
According to court filings, had his case against Trump gone to trial, special counsel Jack Smith planned to use the handwritten notes -- hastily scribbled on Pence's day planner -- as evidence to document the hours before Trump allegedly directed a violent mob to storm the Capitol.
"You'll go down as a wimp," Trump told Pence about his decision not to block Biden's certification, according to Pence's notes about the call on the morning of Jan. 6, just before the president took the stage at the "Save America" rally on the Ellipse. "If you do that, I made a big mistake 5 years ago," Pence wrote Trump told him.
The exclusive details are reported in Karl's upcoming book, "Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign that Changed America." The notes also include what appears to be a scribble of an angry emoji after Trump told Pence, "You listen to the wrong people," according to Karl.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/youll-wimp-pences-published-notes-key-evidence-case/story?id=126837443
Chief Justice John Roberts declared him "immune" so it makes no difference and then he can just pardon himself.
US, China reach 'framework' of trade deal, Bessent says
Source: The Hill
10/26/25 7:58 AM ET
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that the U.S. and China will likely avoid 100 percent American tariffs on Chinese good after negotiators settled on a plan for a possible trade agreement. Bessent told NBC News’ Kristen Welker that “after two days of negotiations” with Chinese International Trade Representative Li Chenggang in Malaysia, a “framework” of a deal has been reached. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet in South Korea on Thursday, capping off the former’s five-day trip to Asia.
Earlier this month, Trump announced he would impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods by Nov. 1. That came in response to Beijing requiring foreign entities to obtain a license to export any products containing over 0.1 percent of rare earth minerals, either sourced in China or manufacturing via its extraction process.
China controls roughly 70 percent of the globe’s rare earths.
“President Trump gave me a great deal of negotiating leverage with the threat of the 100 percent tariffs, and I believe we’ve reached a very substantial framework that will avoid that and allow us to discuss many other things with the Chinese,” Bessent told NBC.
Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/international/5573659-us-china-trade-agreement-bessent/
TRANSLATION - "Concepts of a framework of a deal".
And then this guy will come out and declare "Hold my Diet Coke" -
'JD, cut the crap': Vance slammed for 'publicly mocking Brown people' despite marrying one
Source: Raw Story
October 25, 2025 10:32PM ET
Vice President JD Vance Saturday was called out for "publicly mocking other Brown people" despite "being married to a Brown woman and having mixed-race kids."
It started with a video of New York's Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani saying, “My aunt stopped taking the subway after 9/11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab.”
Misrepresenting what was said, Vance shared that video and added, "According to Zohran the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks." The internet wasn't happy.
Emmy winner Danny Deraney chimed in, "You will never know what ridicule and profiling people went through." "Thousands of people had to put American flag stickers on their car just to prove they are American," he further added. "And that is after my cousin Bobby was killed. How you guys claim to be Christian is beyond me. Try being kind."
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/jd-vance-brown-people-reax/?utm_source=superhead
https://x.com/mehdirhasan/status/1982146068297982292
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Imagine being married to a Brown woman and having mixed-race kids and then publicly mocking other Brown people as they talk publicly and emotionally about their experience of racism. Vance is just a bad person.
JD Vance
@JDVance
According to Zohran the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks
2:03 PM · Oct 25, 2025
Ignore this observation in the 21st century at your own peril.
Pastors at a protest? That's the scene at anti-Trump rallies across the US.
Source: USA Today
Oct. 26, 2025, 5:05 p.m. ET
Federal officers recently shot Rev. Jorge Bautista with a pepper ball at close range, sending him reeling, with orange powder caking his face and clothing. A month earlier, Presbyterian pastor David Black was hit in the head with a pepper ball while praying outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chicago. The video, which circled the globe after it was reported on by Religion News Service, caused an outcry.
Since early summer, pastors, ministers, imams, rabbis and priests have stood between police and protesters in Los Angeles. They've been arrested by ICE agents in Chicago and Portland, and taken into custody at the U.S. Capitol and in congressional offices. On Oct. 18, leaders of all faiths spoke, prayed and marched at the peaceful "No Kings" rallies, held in thousands of communities across the U.S.
Conservative evangelical Christians have long been a dominant force in U.S. politics and overwhelmingly back the Trump administration and its current actions. But increasingly, moderate and progressive Christians and other faith communities are pushing back, saying it's time to remind the country of religion’s role in caring for the poor and the stranger, especially as segments of the Republican Party increasingly embrace Christian Nationalism ‒ the belief that the secular government should favor Christianity or even be replaced by it.
And the Trump administration's intense focus on deporting immigrants, taking away health coverage for millions of Americans and walking back human and civil rights makes this a moment for religious leaders to return to their historic role at the front of protest movements, leaders across a variety of faiths told USA TODAY.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/10/26/faith-leaders-trump-ice-tactics-immoral/86817168007/
Hurricane Melissa upgraded to Category 4, expected to strengthen on Jamaica approach
Source: ABC News
October 26, 2025, 5:47 AM
Hurricane Melissa strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it churned northwest through the Caribbean Sea on Sunday, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.
A Hurricane Warning -- meaning that hurricane conditions are expected -- was in effect for Jamaica as of early Sunday, the NHC said.
A Hurricane Watch -- meaning that hurricane conditions are possible -- was in effect for the southwestern peninsula of Haiti and southeastern regions of Cuba.
The multi-day event of torrential rainfall is expected to cause catastrophic and life-threatening flooding, as well as destructive winds and life-threatening storm surge through Tuesday.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/hurricane-melissa-upgraded-category-4-expected-strengthen-jamaica/story?id=126873184
Trump's Push for Gulf to Pay For Rebuilding Gaza Faces Hurdles
Source: Bloomberg
October 26, 2025 at 4:00 AM EDT
When US President Donald Trump spoke in Israel’s parliament ahead of the signing of his Gaza peace plan this month, he thanked “Arab and Muslim nations” in advance for pledging “tremendous amounts of money” to rebuild the devastated Palestinian territory.
That appeared to resolve the question — to the US leader at least — of how to find the $70 billion the United Nations says is needed to reconstruct the territory destroyed by Israel’s two-year military campaign against Hamas.
But persuading the likes of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to hand over the funds is unlikely to be as easy as Trump claimed. While the deep-pocketed and energy-rich trio worked on and enthusiastically endorsed the peace plan, all three have specific reservations about unconditionally providing financing, according to several people with knowledge of the thinking of Gulf officials.
“In my experience, it’s easy to pledge funding, but realizing it and putting up the money is something else,” said Ibrahim Saif, a former Jordanian energy and planning minister who now works as a consultant in the country.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-26/trump-s-push-for-gulf-to-pay-for-rebuilding-gaza-faces-hurdles?srnd=homepage-americas
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