BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
Patriotism wasn't the reason bolton decided to be a drumpf / trump sycophant, he was seeking power for himself and so decided to ignore the authoritarian aspirations of drumpf / trump. He didn't care what the drumpf / trump-pence administration did to the nation, to Americans in general. He was out for himself just like every other traitor of democracy in the drumpf / trump-pence and now the drumpf / trump-vance administrations. You brought this on yourself bolton, you other magat cultist, take note. From Mother Jones and the Washington Post.....
The FBI on Friday raided the Maryland home of John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term before becoming a vocal Trump critic. Agents were seen entering Bolton’s home around 7 am ET, nearly the exact same time that FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X: “NO ONE is above the law…@FBI agents on mission.”
The probe, which reportedly relates to a previous investigation launched during Trump’s first term over whether Bolton improperly handled classified information, is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s use of law enforcement powers against perceived enemies. Though Patel’s Friday social media post did not explicitly refer to the Bolton raid, the two men have a fractious history. Bolton made several appearances in Patel’s 2024 book The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, including in an infamous appendix listing “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State.” In the book, Patel also blasted Bolton as an “arrogant control freak” and personally blamed Bolton for delaying Patel’s hiring in the first Trump administration.
Bolton has been especially outspoken in recent weeks over Trump’s negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In turn, Trump attacked Bolton on Truth Social as “really dumb.”
This case underscores the danger of putting partisan hacks in top law enforcement jobs.
Seven months before the FBI’s Friday morning raid on John Bolton’s home and office, Donald Trump revoked the former national security adviser’s clearances and took away his security detail. The president did so even though intelligence showed that the Iranians would love to see Bolton dead for helping orchestrate the killing of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.
Speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, Trump made clear that he sees the raid as fair-game payback for the legal travails he endured during his years out of power. The president complained that FBI agents went through his son’s bedroom and his wife’s drawers when they searched Mar-a-Lago in 2022. “So I know the feeling,” he said.
The pursuit of 76-year-old Bolton underscores the danger of putting partisan hacks in top law enforcement jobs. The government needed to show probable cause to get a judge to sign the search warrant, so it’s possible there was a rock-solid predicate for the search. But Trump’s promises of retribution and revenge make the government’s motives suspect. So does FBI Director Kash Patel putting Bolton on a list of members of the “deep state” in his 2023 book “Government Gangsters.”
It is a valid fear that the case against Bolton is a fresh instance of the old Soviet saying, “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.” It comes against the backdrop of federal investigators looking for dirt on other Trump critics: New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), former FBI director James B. Comey and former CIA director John Brennan.
Trump does not conceal his view that the Justice Department should maintain no independence whatsoever from the White House. On Friday, while wearing a hat proclaiming “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING,” the president speculated that the search could turn up evidence that Bolton is “a very unpatriotic guy.” Trump added that he did not have advance knowledge of the search, although it would have been fine if he had because he is the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.
The administration appears to be relitigating a fight it lost five years ago when the Justice Department tried unsuccessfully to stop Bolton from publishing his tell-all memoir about his tenure as national security adviser. Bolton emphatically denied that the book, based on notes he had taken, contained classified material. After a career White House staffer said Bolton had made the necessary edits to get the green light, the national security adviser who succeeded Bolton ordered an additional clearance review by a Trump loyalist.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had harsh words for Bolton in 2020, even as he allowed him to publish: “Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States,” he wrote. “He has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability.”
Subsequently, under Attorney General William P. Barr, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation, convened a grand jury and issued subpoenas regarding whether Bolton had mishandled classified material. But the investigation was closed without charges during the Biden administration. Some sources told The Post the investigation that prompted Friday’s search is focused on the book, but at least one other said it’s a broader inquiry.
Trump hardly has the moral high ground in any discussion about the handling of classified material, but accusing others of what he himself has been accused of has long been part of his M.O. During his decade as the dominant figure in American life, Trump has ushered in an elevated baseline of bipartisan cynicism. There is little pretense that Lady Justice is blind.
The president has steadily eroded norms built up during the post-Watergate era. Some Democrats were too willing to disregard those same norms because they were determined to get Trump by whatever means necessary. Now, Trump is more powerful than ever. His weaponization of government seems destined to fuel a protracted tit-for-tat cycle.
Consistent principles must be enforced against members of both parties, but how? Courts can help, as illustrated Thursday by the New York appellate panel decision to void an excessive half-billion-dollar judgment against Trump. Still, proving malicious or selective prosecution is exceedingly difficult. Rebalancing the scales of justice requires independent-minded prosecutors to employ forbearance. Just because someone can be charged with a crime does not mean they should be.
These farmers are getting exactly what they voted for. I have no sympathy for them at all, they only whined about how difficult things are for them now but didn't express any concern about how NOT MY pres drumpf's / trump's, NOT MY pres musk's, NOT MY vp vance's, their administration's and the gop / greed over people-republican's policies and legislation is disrupting and damaging the lives of tens of millions of people across this country. From the Washington Post.....
National correspondent Annie Gowen and staff photographer Ricky Carioti have documented rural communities throughout the Midwest. They spent days in northeast Kansas this spring, interviewing and photographing the Thomases at length on their family farm and at local farmers markets.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan.
In the dawn light at his first farmers market ofthe year, Jacob Thomas set out lush Bibb lettuce he’d cut just hours before, plump stalks of green and purple asparagus and coolers with 60 dozenblue and brown-speckled eggs.
Soon the downtown market would fill with customers he hadn’t seen since fall, when he and his wife, Jennifer, were making ambitious plans for the future. So much now depended on these customers. The young couple had taken a 10 percent hit when the Trump administration abruptly cut $1 billion from two programs that suppliedlocal produce and meat to schools and food banks across the country. Robust sales here would help offset that $8,000 loss.
There have been other blows, too, which collectively have put the Thomases’ small farm operation — always just barely making it — on even shakier financial footing.
Plans for a new warehouse and an expansion of their farm store are up in the air because of the administration pausing, then unpausing a $750,000 federal agriculturegrant. They plowed up a spot for a new greenhouse only to learn that another grant for $8,000 would never come. They worrythat 2,000 chrysanthemum cuttings ordered from Canada will be ensnared in the countries’tariff dispute.
A third-generation farmer, Jacob and his family are mainstays in thiscommunity near the Fort Leavenworth Army installation where they grow vegetables on 15 acres, as well as other crops — mostly hay to feed their cattle and sheep — on more than 500 acres. On their wedding day 11 years ago, he and Jennifer rode the biggest tractor they could borrow through the main street from the chapel to the reception, the bride sitting shotgun in her flowing dress.
But a decade of farming has taken a toll, and last fall Jacob began treatment for depression and anxiety.Sometimes, when the stress feels overwhelming, he can barely eat.
“The financial insecurity makes my depression worse,” he said recently. He was trying to remain optimistic, reminding himself that it was still early in the year and “just because one program went away, there’s still plenty of time to pivot.”
Though the Thomases and many of their neighbors voted for Donald Trump last November, the consequences of his administration’s wide-ranging cuts and uncertainty over tariffs have already had a profound impact on this hilly corner of northeast Kansas — one of the hardest-hit states for agriculture during Trump’s last trade war. For many, the pride they felt when the president spoke of his love for farmers in his March 6 address to Congress has given way to a growing sense of helplessness, frustration and anger.
“For every farmer I’ve talked to, this has been earth-shattering and life-changing,” said Bryan Zesiger, a winemaker and former Republican state Senate candidate who runs a tasting room just steps from the farmers market. “I don’t know what they were supposed to achieve, but from our perspective, you just hurt a lot of people.”
As the sun rose, the first customers began trickling by the Thomases’ stand. One, an octogenarian who has known Jacob for over a decade, asked about the farm as she bought a dozen large eggs ($6) and a pound of hamburger ($7.99).
How are things going? she asked.
“Oh, it got caught up in all the grants being paused,” Jacob replied. “Now we’re trying to restart. … Funtimes!”
The mayor pro tem of Leavenworth, Nancy Bauder, stopped and bought some spring onions.
“I’m glad to see you’re here,” she said. She had heard that another longtimelocal farmer was preparing to sell out. Jacob had heard the same, but he’s determined to keep going.
“C’mon, piggies!” Jacob called from the middle of a muddy pen. He and two farmhands were trying to load 23 Berkshire and Duroc pigs — some weighing over 300 pounds — into a trailer to take to the processing plant. Their bristle-haired subjects squealed, protested and slipped away from the open door.
“Dad, can you do anything about that pig or not?” Jacob asked his father, Dale, who was leaning up against the fence. Dale swatted the wayward one on its hindquarters with a stick. “C’mon, pigs, join your brethren and sistren,” Jacob urged, pushingthe rest into the trailer.
It was one of the first brilliant and sunny days of spring at JETProduce and Meats, located on land that has been in the family for 70 years. The American flag on the farm store’s sign spiraled in the stiff breeze, and daughters Lisa and Sarah, ages 6 and 4, were playing nearby. Lambs dozed in their pens. Goliath, the calf Dale was bottle-feeding, cried for more milk. The rest of the cattle were scattered in an emerald field across the road.
Jacob planted his first vegetable garden while he was still in high school, but he didn’t begin raising vegetables in earnest until he was a student at Iowa State University and fell in love with horticulture. He wanted to feed people.
His wife, by contrast, was a military brat who thought she would become a chemical engineer. Jennifer mustered up the courage to ask Jacob out the day after they graduated from high school — figuring she had nothing to lose. (“I like you” was her opening line.)
The two took over principal management of the business in 2014, though Dale and his wife, Kris, remain active, with him working full-time and her managing one of the stands they have in weekend farmers markets in three nearby towns.The older couple live next door and cook dinner for the family every Friday and Sunday.
“It’s like a postcard of what it should be,” said Austin Reynolds, a fellow farmer, neighbor and friend.
The Thomases’ farm is beloved in the community, with more than 7,500 fans on its Facebook page. A recent hot debate was what to name the frog who had taken up residence in the potting shed. (Answer: Potter.)
The operation has never been very profitable, however.
“We’re barely making it,” said Jacob, 33. “Our idea of an extravagant vacation is going to Omaha to the zoo.”
He grows the food, and Jennifer, who’s 34, figures out how to market it — a puzzle she has normally been eager to solve. Yet lately the financial pressures have “gotten to the point where we don’t talk about it in front of our kids,” she said.
Before this year, Washington, D.C., felt remote, and the goings-on in the federal government during various administrations never really affected the family’s operation. Jacob considers himself a Republican but “very much dislikes Trump” and previously supported challengers like former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. He reluctantly voted for Trump last fall, seeing him as “the lesser of two evils.”
The first big blow of 2025 cameright after Trump’s inauguration, when the president issued an executive order pausing billions of dollarsin federal grants, including that $750,000 award that was part of an effort to bolster resilient food systems. The new warehouse Jacob and Jennifer planned to buildcould have more than doubledtheir vegetable output and also served as a hub for smaller farmers nearby. They also hoped to expand the farm store on their property, where they sell their meats and produce, plus homemade pies, local cheese and honey from local businesses.
They later learned that the grant was reinstated, but the project remains in limbo due to rising construction costs, a disrupted building schedule and doubts over whether Jacob can secure his part of the financing.
The whole episode stung, particularly since they got little response when they asked for help from the Kansans in Congress.That included Sen. Roger Marshall, aRepublicanwho had visited their farm on a campaign stop and surprised everyone when he pulled an onion out of the ground, wiped it on his pants and took a big bite of it. The only politician who listened was Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat from the Kansas City area who isn’t even their representative.
The second blow came shortly after Trump addressed Congress,asking for Americans’ patience during the “adjustment period” of tariff negotiations while predicting that “our farmers are going to have a field day right now.”
Only days later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announcedit would be axing the funding for the programs that purchased local produce, eggs and meat forthe country’sschools and food pantries. In the state of Kansas alone, producers are out $2.6 millionthis year.
The funding last year comprised 65 percent of sales for the 30 or so farmers in the Kansas City Food Hub cooperative, who are now scrambling to find other markets. The Thomases hope to link with a new grocery store.
“Historically, if you got a government contract, we’re golden, because the government always pays,” Jacob said.
“It might take a long time, but they do pay,” Jennifer added.
“Today I don’t feel that way,” Jacob said. “For the first time in my life, I don’t trust the government is going to follow through on their word.”
The familyalso lost 640 acres that Jacob’s fatherhad rented from a neighbor for 45 years whenthat other landownerended the arrangement with little explanation. Jacob was so upset he couldn’t eat for two days.
“There’s a lot of truly stressful days. A lot of days. What else can happen?” Dale said as he drove with Jacob to the processing facility, the unlucky pigs jostling in the back. “When people ask how we’re doing, it’s like, ‘Do you want the truth or what we tell people?’”
Earlier in the day, father and son had gone into Leavenworth to put out the farmers market sign at the place on the downtown sidewalk where they set up on Saturdays every year.
“I can’t believe you’ve been doing this for 10 years,” Dale said.
“I thought it would be easier by now,” Jacob said.
The market’s opening daywas a success, Jacob said as he totaled up the take from the register and cash box.
They’d sold about $1,800 — “very promising,” he said — with customers purchasing dozens of $5 herbs and perennials, as well as $20 everbloomingstrawberry plants and $25 hanging flower baskets.
If business keeps up like this, he calculated, they might be able to make up the $8,000 hole in their budget from the loss of the USDA funding that bought food for pantries and schools.
He and Jennifer also had gotten other good news in recent days: Separate funding aimed at bringing fresh produce to a low-income housing complex in Kansas City had not been terminated as feared. Plus they’d gotten a lead on land to rent from a different neighbor who was retiring.
Still, they had barely made a dent in the 60 dozen eggs, with only eight dozen sold. Oh well, Jacob thought as he reloaded the unsold eggs in the trailer to return home. Maybe their farm store would be busy later.
About this story
Editing by Susan Levine. Photo editing by Natalia Jimenez. Design and development by Madison Walls.
Annie GowenAnnie Gowen is a correspondent for The Post's National desk. She was the India bureau chief from 2013 to 2018. Ricky CariotiRicky Carioti is an award-winning photographer and has worked for The Washington Post since 2002.
