💣 LUTNICK DODGES CRYPTO AND EPSTEIN
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick walked out of House Appropriations this morning without a single question about Tether or his Epstein ties. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) pressed him on Epstein and the administration’s tariff agenda — Lutnick deflected Epstein to his scheduled May 6 House Oversight interview, the same line he used yesterday against Sen. Chris Van Hollen at Senate Appropriations. No member asked about crypto. Cantor Fitzgerald — Lutnick’s former firm, now run by his son Brandon — holds custody of the $132 billion in US Treasuries backing Tether, took a 5% stake for $600 million via convertible debt that Tether itself financed through a loan to the Lutnick family trust, and is now reserve custodian for Tether’s new GENIUS Act stablecoin USAT, launched in January. Tether’s documented client base includes North Korean nuclear procurement, Mexican cartels, Russian arms firms, Middle Eastern terror finance, and Chinese fentanyl precursor labs. Lutnick still refuses to recuse from Trump’s Digital Asset Markets Working Group. The committee had the chance to force answers under oath this morning and let the gavel close on him. The May 6 interview is 13 days away - but it’;s behind closed doors and not under oath so it’s functionally meaningless
🎖️ SHOWDOWN AT THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ
Day 55. Trump ordered the US Navy to “shoot and kill” any Iranian boats laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seized two ships yesterday — MSC Francesca and Epaminondas — and left the Greek-owned Euphoria stranded. Thousands more US forces are rolling into the region. The Strait — 20% of the world’s crude — is effectively shut. Trump says “no time frame” on the war: the ceasefire is a holding pattern. The first destroyed Iranian boat detonates the next phase.
⚖️ TRUMP RACIST POST IS A SIGNAL
Trump reposted Michael Savage’s Newsmax segment on Truth Social — Savage calls India and China “hellholes,”targets ACLU attorney Cecillia Wang by ethnicity, and invokes Andrew Jackson’s defiance of the Supreme Court on Cherokee removal, misattributing it as Stonewall Jackson. The SCOTUS majority signaled at April 1 oral arguments it will strike down Trump’s birthright citizenship order. A ruling lands by end of June. The Jackson reference is the framework: if the Court rules against him, ignore it — the move that produced the Trail of Tears.
📉 TWILIGHT VOTE TO SURGE ICE
Senate cleared S.Con.Res.33 at 3:49 AM — 50-48, party-line — setting the framework for ICE and Border Patrol funding through FY2035. No Democratic support, no floor scrutiny, no daytime cameras. Watch for ICE staffing announcements within 72 hours.
🌍 PHELAN OUT MID-COMBAT
Navy Secretary John Phelan was ousted yesterday. Hung Cao is acting — civilian head of the service swapped while the guns are hot. Cao says he’s believes witch craft is sweeping the nation and holds extreme right wing beliefs.
🎯 THE PATTERN
We’re at another point of inflection. The commerce secretary skates by on two huge scandals. The Senate funded an Ice surge in the middle of the night. The Navy Secretary is fired for disagreeing with Trump’s orders. Trump appears ready to defy Scotus. Trump is in a lethal stand off over Hormuz. This is anything but business as usual - democratic oversight and the traditional guardrails are being shunted out of the way by a POTUS hell-bent on global conflict and an economic collapse.
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How is it that these senators do not ask back to back to back questions to him about all of this and not allow him to weasel out of it? I know they all love to grandstand — especially in election years— but a little strategic coordination would be smart. WTAF
Our world is in such a pickle !! From day to day, I don’t know what to fret over more - the fragile inter-working of our incompetent government, or the War.
If he puts boots on the ground I’m going to grieve myself to death. So many of my friends died in Vietnam! Watching the War on tv every night was excruciating!!
Now, I have friends whose children (and grandchildren) will have to sign up for the draft.
It all gets to be too much!! I know it’s too much for Pudding Pants!! 🤬🤬💙💙🤬