“Politics: from ‘Poli” (Many) Tics (bloodsuckers)

Yeah, we all love politicians… it has been said many times that 435 + 100 + 2 + 9 + 15 = 561. I am sure that the sums matching the numbers of Congressmen, Senators, Pres/VP, Supremes , and Cabinet heads is just over 11 boxes of ammunition (23 if you buy the pricey hollowpoints) is merely a coincidence, right? Been seeing those numbers for at least 30 years now…

The Cato Institute says the US is charging huge fees to immigrants who have zero – no – chance of having visas approved, and the total is up to $1,300,000,000. Specifically named were Trump, SecState Rubio, and Kristi Noem. Countries primarily affected were Cuba and Venezuela.

Under Rubio’s leadership, officials at the State Department have apparently even gone so far as to issue internal guidance actively prohibiting staff from informing those migrants they stand no hope of success, because “this could be seen as pre-adjudication” on their applications.  Daily Beast

Speaking of Kristi, expect investigations. Remember that $220,000,000 publicity campaign centered around her? Seems two companies made big bucks on that:

One of the firms, Safe America Media, received at least $15.2 million and was formed last February just a few days before it was awarded the limited-bid contract to work on the overall $220 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign, according to an internal DHS memo and three people familiar with the contracts who were granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the contracts.

The second firm, People Who Think, received at least $7.7 million from its 10 percent commission on a portion of the $220 million, according to the memo, which was written by DHS Deputy Under Secretary for Management Paul Stackhouse, and reviewed by POLITICO.

And segueing from Kristi, her recent boy-toy Corey Lewandowski can expect some questions. Seems multiple people are accusing Lewandowski of soliciting bribes in exchange for helping them get DHS contracts. From the CEO George Zoley, GEO Group:

As a titan of the private prison industry, GEO Group stood to benefit from Trump’s mass deportation agenda, which would require the federal government to spend tens of billions of dollars to transport, detain, monitor and deport undocumented immigrants. The company’s federal contracts in those areas already totaled more than $1 billion per year.

During the transition, Lewandowski told Zoley that he wanted to be paid in exchange for protecting and growing GEO Group’s DHS contracts, according to a senior DHS official and three people familiar with their discussion. Zoley, concerned about the propriety of the ask, told Lewandowski he would have no part of it, the sources said, describing the confrontation as tense.

Zoley declined, the two sources said. In the months that followed, the length of two of GEO Group’s federal contracts shrank, and currently several of its facilities that could house migrants sit idle, even as Congress and Trump have poured money into DHS to execute the mass deportation campaign.  NBC News

If you do a search on “Lewandowski accused of soliciting bribes” you’ll get multiple sources.

And in closing, a surprising omission from a recent Hegseth presser: the Pentagon-owned Stars and Stripes reporter Matthew Adams.

The Pentagon barred its own military news publication, Stars and Stripes, from atttending Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s press conference on Thursday, claiming there was no room.

“Seems a bit odd since the Pentagon published a memo with changes to the newspaper, including content overhaul,” Adams wrote, noting how, earlier this month, the Pentagon sent out an eight-page memo detailing plans to “modernize” the outlet.  HuffPost

This actually makes some sense if they don’t particularly like his writing – but the excuse was that too many outlets wanted to attend and they had insufficient seating. For your own employees?

Category: Politics