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Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts

Grifting gets some pretty bizarre results

by Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski for ProPublica

ICE Barbie shooting a taxpayer-paid political ad at
Mount Rushmore

On Oct. 2, the second day of the government shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: “Break our laws, we’ll punish you.” 

Noem has hailed the more than $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration. Her agency invoked the “national emergency” at the border as it awarded contracts for the campaign, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process designed to prevent waste and corruption.

The Department of Homeland Security has kept at least one beneficiary of the nine-figure ad deal a secret, records and interviews show: a Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. The company running the Mount Rushmore shoot, called the Strategy Group, does not appear on public documents about the contract. The main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, which was created days before the deal was finalized.

No firm has closer ties to Noem’s political operation than the Strategy Group. It played a central role in her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial campaign. Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser at DHS, has worked extensively with the firm. And the company’s CEO is married to Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.

The Strategy Group’s ad work is the first known example of money flowing from Noem’s agency to businesses controlled by her allies and friends.

Homeland Security wants your driver’s license data for citizenship checks

Trump's latest push to invade your privacy

By Jen Fifield and Zach Despart for ProPublica

Co-published with The Texas Tribune

The Department of Homeland Security says it intends to add state driver’s license information to a swiftly expanding federal system envisioned as a one-stop shop for checking citizenship.

The plan, outlined in a public notice posted on October 30, is the latest step in an unprecedented Trump administration initiative to pool confidential data from varied sources that it claims will help identify noncitizens on voter rolls, tighten immigration enforcement and expose public benefit fraud.

According to emails obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, DHS approached Texas officials in June about a pilot program to add the state’s driver license data, but it’s not clear if the state participated.

Earlier this year, DHS added millions of Americans’ Social Security data to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system, allowing officials to use the tool to conduct bulk searches of voter rolls for the first time. According to the document filed Thursday, SAVE also recently expanded to include passport and visa information.

Incorporating driver’s license information would allow election officials whose rolls don’t include voters’ Social Security numbers to conduct bulk searches by driver’s license number. Ultimately, the system would link these two crucial identifiers for the purpose of citizenship checks, said Michael Morse, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

“It is the key that unlocks everything,” Morse said.

ICE’s ‘Frightening’ Facial Recognition App is Scanning US Citizens Without Their Consent

They can scan and store your face but you can't even see theirs

Stephen Prager for Common Dreams

Immigration agents are using facial recognition software as “definitive” evidence to determine immigration status and is collecting data from US citizens without their consent. In some cases, agents may detain US citizens, including ones who can provide their birth certificates, if the app says they are in the country illegally.

These are a few of the findings from a series of articles published this past week by 404 Media, which has obtained documents and video evidence showing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents are using a smartphone app in the field during immigration stops, scanning the faces of people on the street to verify their citizenship.

The report found that agents frequently conduct stops that “seem to have little justification beyond the color of someone’s skin... then look up more information on that person, including their identity and potentially their immigration status.”

While it is not clear what application the agencies are using, 404 previously reported that ICE is using an app called Mobile Fortify that allows ICE to simply point a camera at a person on the street. The photos are then compared with a bank of more than 200 million images and dozens of government databases to determine info about the person, including their name, date of birth, nationality, and information about their immigration status.

What a malignant narcissist might do if all is lost to them

Trump's deeper descent into nihilism

By Rich Snowdon

Over the weekend, I was re-reading the history of Hitler's last days.

I found myself paying special attention to March 19, 1945. 

When he understood the war was lost, instead of taking responsibility for the mass destruction and death he'd caused, instead of surrendering to end the war, Hitler decided that the German people, being losers…

Did not deserve to live.

In his Gotterdammerung frame of mind, in his nihilistic despair, he issued what was called "The Nero Decree." 

He commanded that the infrastructure of Germany be destroyed—water systems, electrical grids, railways, food supplies, all of it. Scorched earth. He said it was to prevent the enemy from using any of those things.

But really...

He was punishing his Germans.

Because they had failed...

     Had failed him.

And if his Decree had been carried out, millions of Germans would have died. But Albert Speer and others flew around the country countermanding the order.

This morning as I watched the news, I asked myself: Why is Trump so…

Hellbent on destruction?

And Hitler's Decree came to mind.

All his life, Trump has been acting out, massively. He's always been desperate for genuine love, but he's never known how to get it. So he sucks attention instead. From anybody and everybody. From the whole world. He keeps hoping this will fill him up, which it doesn't and can't.

And now here he is, the most powerful man in the most powerful nation—for a second time!

What more could he possibly do? But it's not enough. It's not working. It's not saving him from his childhood pain...

So checkmate.

No moves left to make, no hope left, as more and more Americans turn against him. And why would this not trigger rage? A helpless, desperate nihilistic rage.

The way I see it this morning, Trump wants to…

Make America feel his pain.

He wants us to pay a price for failing him. An existential price.

Look at what he's doing. It's all destruction...

He's taking healthcare away from millions.

He's taking food assistance away from millions.

He's destroyed trade relationships that millions of Americans depend on.

He's deporting immigrants who key industries depend on and can't do without.

He's wrecking the institutions we count on.

He's destroying the rule of law.

He’s doing his damnedest to put an end to our country.

There's no greatness here, only a surrender to death, as he delivers his final message...

     "To hell with you, America."

EDITOR'S NOTE: More needs to be said about Trump's end game. As he continues to lose his grip and descend into madness, his reactions and actions have become bizarre and extreme. He has also become more aware of his own mortality speaking for the first time recently about whether he will "go to heaven" or the other place.

Psychiatrists deem him to be a malignant narcissist - he checks just about every box - and that makes him especially dangerous.  As such, it is impossible for him to accept responsibility for any failure or error. It's always someone else's fault and generally he will find some way to punish them.

I would add to Rich Snowdon's list Trump's fixation on nuclear weapons. Even in his first term as well as his second, Trump has blathered on about who deserves to be nuked, a list that has included Iran, China, North Korea, though not Russia. He has bombed Iran and Yemen and is preparing an invasion of Venezuela. 

He has threatened military action against Canada, Mexico, Panama, Greenland, Gaza in addition to his worldwide trade war. He has threatened to re-invade Afghanistan to reclaim Bagram Air Base, apparently not knowing that Bagram was actually built by the Soviets during their failed war with Afghanistan.

At a certain point, as Snowdon points out, none of this will feed his ego enough. His polls drop. The courts rule against him. Millions march in the street against him. November 4 was a humiliation for him. And he can see death's door ahead of him.

Of course, he believes none of this is his fault - it's ours. At what point will he decide it's time to make us pay the ultimate price?

- Will Collette

American justice

I wonder if Epstein meant it as a compliment or something else?

Study Reveals Why People Believe Lies, Especially From Friends

The roots of gullibility

By Society for Neuroscience 

Why do people believe lies? The answer may lie in how our brains process social connections and rewards. Recent research led by Yingjie Liu at North China University of Science and Technology suggests that our willingness to believe false information depends not only on what is being said but also on who is saying it.

By examining how people interpret messages from friends versus strangers, the study reveals that trust, emotional bonds, and the promise of potential rewards all play crucial roles in shaping whether we accept or reject a lie.

According to their JNeurosci publication, the research team used neuroimaging to study 66 healthy participants who interacted through computer screens while seated across from each other. When the exchange of information resulted in a positive outcome for both participants, it was labeled a “gain,” while information that produced a negative outcome was categorized as a “loss.”

Contributing author Rui Huang says, “The key reason we chose ‘gain’ and ‘loss’ contexts is that they illustrate how people adjust decision-making in response to potential rewards or punishments.”

How pecans went from ignored trees to a holiday staple

The 8,000-year history of America’s only native major nut

Shelley Mitchell, Oklahoma State University

Pecans, America’s only native major nut, have a storied history in the United States. Today, American trees produce hundreds of million of pounds of pecans – 80% of the world’s pecan crop. Most of that crop stays here. Pecans are used to produce pecan milk, butter and oil, but many of the nuts end up in pecan pies.

Throughout history, pecans have been overlooked, poached, cultivated and improved. As they have spread throughout the United States, they have been eaten raw and in recipes. Pecans have grown more popular over the decades, and you will probably encounter them in some form this holiday season.

I’m an extension specialist in Oklahoma, a state consistently ranked fifth in pecan production, behind Georgia, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. I’ll admit that I am not a fan of the taste of pecans, which leaves more for the squirrels, crows and enthusiastic pecan lovers.

Help your child live a longer, healthier life

Too much screen time in youth may set the stage for future heart and metabolic diseases.

American Heart Association

Research Highlights

• More time using electronic devices or watching TV among children and young adults was linked with higher cardiometabolic disease risk, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and insulin resistance, based on data from more than 1,000 participants in Denmark.
• The association between screen time and cardiometabolic risks was strongest in youth who slept fewer hours, suggesting that screen use may harm health by "stealing" time from sleep, researchers said.
• Researchers said the findings underscore the importance of addressing screen habits among young people as a potential way to protect long-term heart and metabolic health.

Screen time tied to early heart and metabolic risks

Children and teens who spend many hours on TVs, phones, tablets, computers or gaming systems appear to face higher chances of cardiometabolic problems, such as elevated blood pressure, unfavorable cholesterol levels and insulin resistance. The findings are reported in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

A 2023 scientific statement from the American Heart Association reported that "cardiometabolic risk is accruing at younger and younger ages," and that only 29% of U.S. youth ages 2 to 19 had favorable cardiometabolic health in 2013-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data.

Trump wants to zero out this anti-terrorism program

White House Calls This 9/11-Era Fund ‘Wasteful.’ Red and Blue States Rely on It.

Don Thompson 

Boston Marathon bombing, 2013

Donald Trump’s push to eliminate a federal disaster preparedness program threatens a fund used by state health systems from Republican-led Texas to the Democratic stronghold of California.

The Hospital Preparedness Program was created more than two decades ago in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the deadly anthrax attacks that began days later. The fund has provided nearly $2.2 billion to states, territories, major cities, and other entities over the past 17 years to ready health care systems for the next pandemic, cyberattack, or mass-casualty event.

Recently, that money has been used to combat the bird flu that has sickened at least 70 people in the United States, killed at least one, and remains a threat. The funds also have been used to respond to crises such as hurricanes, tornadoes, mass shootings, floods, and heat waves.

But the budget request sent to Congress by Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought, proposes eliminating the program, saying the effort “has been wasteful and unfocused” and that cutting it would allow states and cities to “properly” fund their own preparedness plans. Any action is currently stalled by the government shutdown, which stems from a partisan dispute over expiring health care subsidies that affect many of the 24 million Americans who buy coverage from Affordable Care Act marketplaces.

Red and blue states say the hospital preparedness funds are essential and could not be readily replaced with local funds. It’s an example of how the White House’s efforts to reduce its role in responding to public health and natural disasters have imperiled state and municipal reliance on federal resources to meet community needs.

The program “is the main source of government funding for disaster preparedness among hospitals, EMS providers, and other parts of the health care system,” Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson Chris Van Deusen said.

There is Still Time to Call in the Mental Health Doctors!

Trump's impairment is irrefutable

Bandy X. Lee

“Emotional overstrain” is the phrase the official spokesperson of the Russian president used to describe Donald Trump’s state. How diplomatic!

Russian and Chinese leaders are very careful with the language they use in public, quite the opposite of the mentally- and emotionally-disturbed American president.

Yet, there is no doubt they, and so many other world leaders, are well aware of the dangerous psychological disturbance in the Oval Office—and consulting their own experts! There is no doubt that these leaders have their own psychiatric consultants who have very seriously profiled, thoroughly assessed, and even diagnosed Donald Trump. We would do so if we were dealing with any other such leader in the world.

There is no doubt that these leaders have been professionally counseled on how to manipulate and maneuver a man so emotionally vulnerable—who they should also rightly fear is, in addition to everything else, the commander of the most powerful military on the planet who has instant control of the second largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.

As I have been writing and speaking about for years, persons with mental issues such as Donald Trump are extremely manipulable—and malleable if managed in the right way. We may have taken advantage of this and convinced him to step down voluntarily early in the first Trump presidency (many do not believe this, rightfully so, but it is true!). Or we may have imposed severe limits on him and forced him to step down early in this presidency (harder to do, but more possible than many believe!).

Instead, we yielded to corruption and cowardice, not minding the inevitable catastrophe that lay ahead, and enabled and emboldened his weaknesses instead of managing and remedying them. To this day, we are controlled and conned, rather than making use of medical expertise to control and take charge of an all-too-common condition, well-known in forensic psychiatric settings.

When the mentally-impaired are at the helm, they are by definition capable of actions that are tremendously irrational, inconsistent, incompetent, and endangering, and no matter how they wish to believe otherwise.

I have therefore emphasized for many years that, unless such a person is properly understood, the danger assessed, and the violence risk contained, they will proceed to do things that are more and more dangerous, outrageous, and unstoppable.

The Pedo Protection Squad at your service

Can't pay? Off with his head!