Raw Story

Veteran Rich Osthoff was defrauded by ex-Rep. George Santos who, he claimed, set up a GoFundMe for his dying dog — and then pocketed the cash. Watching President Donald Trump free the disgraced congressman Friday has left him furious.

Speaking to MSNBC on Monday, Osthoff said he was "sick to my stomach" after hearing about Santos' commutation. "For the president of the United States to stick me in the gut with a knife, and every other veteran and every other military member gets a knife to the gut."

Osthoff had hoped that Santos would serve at least half of the sentence before he was released or pardoned.

"His sentence would serve as a warning to federal officials that if you do this, you'll end up in prison. That's what the DOJ wanted the message to be. What message does him walking out of prison after three months send him?" Osthoff asked.

"Walking out of prison after three months is a complete travesty. Same with the the Jan. 6th people. This is the president, a rogue president now just using his pardon power like a cudgel against everything that's decent, good and holy. It's shameful and a disgrace. And I'm almost ashamed that I served my country. Now, this is not the country I raised my hand three times to re-enlist for."

Osthoff's service dog had cancer and he sought help from individuals who could contribute to fund the treatment he couldn't afford. Santos offered to start a GoFundMe for the dog, but, in the end, Osthoff never saw a dime of the money.

After the scam was revealed, individuals stepped up to help him get another service dog, but it meant his dog Sapphire suffered.

"Sapphire still died and I watched her die a painful death," he said.

"And that guy is the one who did that to me. Every time I see him on TV now ... it brings a wound right back into the forefront again," Osthoff lamented.

Santos told CNN over the weekend that he hopes to be a more honest person and express contrition for those he wronged. But Osthoff isn't buying it.

"He's been so rude to me. He's lied about me. He's defamed me on TV dozens of times. He has no remorse," the Navy veteran said.

Santos spent 84 days in prison out of the 87 months in prison.

The Republican response to this weekend's massive No Kings demonstrations showed they're ready to crown President Donald Trump as absolute ruler, an analyst wrote Monday.

The president dismissed the protests, which drew an estimated 7 million people at 2,600 events nationwide, as "very small, very ineffective," posted AI-generated video of himself dumping feces on attendees' heads and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act.

But Salon's Sophia Tesfaye argued the GOP response was even more revealing.

"The right’s response to No Kings wasn’t just politically telling. It was conceptually damning," Tesfaye wrote. "If a protest warns that someone is behaving like a king, and the accused responds by laughing, wearing a crown and declaring 'You’re just mad I’m winning' — you have your answer."

Vice President JD Vance shared a doctored video of Trump placing a crown on his head while Democratic leaders bowed, and the White House official account shared his post. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) claimed the protesters "hate America" and wanted to "dismantle capitalism" and "erase our founding principles.”

"He may not be a king by law," Tesfaye wrote. "But in posture, and in the eyes of his defenders, Donald Trump already wears the crown. So he wants to define criticism as disloyalty. Mike Johnson wants to define protest as hate. Fox News wants to define mass mobilization as marginal. And yet none of it is working."

Millions protested Saturday against the president and his policies, but Tesfaye said the Republican reaction shows why those demonstrations are necessary to preserve democracy.

"The important questions now aren’t whether Trump will continue to act like a king," Tesfaye wrote. "They are whether the right can continue to pretend he isn’t — and if the press will let Republicans claim they haven’t seen Trump’s absurd reaction before he abuses his power to exact revenge."

The junior U.S. senator representing a state with one of the highest rates of childhood poverty in the country has been slapped with an $8 million IRS tax lien, Politico reported Monday.

Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV), the former governor who assumed former Sen. Joe Manchin's seat, is tardy on making good on assessments dating back to 2009 -- debt that has followed him long before he was elected as governor in 2016.

Justice’s fortune comes from farming, resorts and ownership of coal mines that he sold to Russian interests for $568 million in cash and stock, also in 2009. He later repurchased them at a discount.

According to Politico, information about the lien came out over the weekend when the press was consumed with the nationwide “No Kings” rally against Donald Trump.

The report noted, “It wasn’t immediately clear why the IRS decided to move forward with the lien at this time. The IRS filed two documents. Both indicate they were prepared and signed Sept. 30, and stamped Oct. 2 by a clerk for Greenbrier County,” adding, “One of the assessments from the IRS is dated Nov. 25, 2015, appearing to put the agency near the end of its 10-year window for taking action.”

While running for the Senate seat he now inhabits, the 74-year old Justice pushed back at reports of his tax woes, telling reporters, “I’ve told everyone that if you’ll tend to the business of the state of West Virginia as I’m tending to the business of the state and you’ll just stay out of my family’s personal stuff, you’ll find the final outcomes will be exactly what I’ve told you they’ll be. They’ll be worked out.”

President Donald Trump insulted Australian Ambassador to the U.S. Kevin Rudd to his face during a meeting with the country's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

During a Monday appearance with Albanese at the White House, a reporter asked Trump if he was concerned with "things the ambassador said about you in the past."

"I don't know anything about him," Trump said of Rudd, who was sitting across the table from him. "I mean, if you said bad, then maybe he'll like to apologize. I really don't know."

"Did an ambassador say something bad of me?" the U.S. president asked Albanese. "Don't tell me. Where is he? Is he still working for you?"

"Yeah, yeah," Rudd volunteered.

"You said bad?" Trump asked.

"Before I took this position, Mr. President," the ambassador replied.

"I don't like you either," Trump fumed. "I don't, and I probably never will."

Rudd, himself a former Australian Prime Minister, has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump, describing him as a threat to democratic institutions.

While meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Monday at the White House, President Donald Trump chided a reporter for apparently bumping into a mirror with a camera.

“You gotta watch that! You're not allowed to break that, that mirror is 400 years old!” Trump said as the White House reporters crammed into the room ahead of the president’s meeting with Albanese.

“The camera just hit the mirror... Ay ay ay! I just moved it up here from the vaults and the first thing that happens, a camera hits it. Hard to believe, isn't it? But these are the problems in life.”

It’s unknown what mirror the reporter had bumped into, though it could possibly be a gilded English pier mirror made in the late 18th century and donated to the White House in 1946, which the White House Historical Association made reference to in a past social media post.

The U.S. Marine Corps — under the watchful eyes of Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — staged a demonstration on Saturday in southern California.

It wasn’t a No Kings demonstration, though. It was more like a Yes Kings demonstration.

Some of the Marine Corps’ shells that were fired by M777 howitzers across California’s Interstate 5 prematurely detonated, sending shrapnel down on what could have been hundreds of motorists.

Why the hell did the Marine Corps fire artillery shells over Interstate 5 anyway?

Interstate 5 is the largest and most-traveled north-south freeway in California.

The military demonstration was part of an exercise marking the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary.

Beforehand, the military predicted that the exercise would be safe, but California Governor Gavin Newsom disagreed.

“Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn’t just wrong — it’s dangerous,” Newsom said last week.

Newsom was so concerned about the plan that he ordered a 17-mile stretch closed of the freeway closed between Los Angeles and San Diego — which caused significant backups on that portion of the interstate, used by approximately 80,000 people daily.

Before the mishap, Vance’s office disputed Newsom’s claim that the live rounds were dangerous, saying the Marine Corp’s demonstration was “an established safe practice.”

“If Gavin Newsom wants to oppose the training exercises that ensure our Armed Forces are the deadliest and most lethal fighting force in the world, then he can go right ahead,” Vance’s communications director said in a statement. “It would come as no surprise that he would stoop so low considering his pathetic track record of failure as governor.”

After the round prematurely exploded on Saturday, the whole exercise — which was expected to include the firing of approximately 60 155-millimeter shells — was terminated.

An active-duty Marine artillery officer and a former Marine artillery noncommissioned officer who spoke to the New York Times described the exercise as “unusual.”

They said the only howitzer training they had previously observed at Camp Pendleton had taken place at approved artillery ranges on the main side of base, east of the interstate, which they said were a much safer option for training.

A highway patrol official based in the area also described it as “unusual and concerning.”

Tony Coronado, the highway patrol’s border division chief, said in a statement that “it is highly uncommon for any live-fire or explosive training activity to occur near an active freeway.”

So what’s going on here? Why did the Marine Corps decide to fire live artillery shells across California’s major interstate freeway on Saturday?

Could the decision have had anything to do with the planned No Kings demonstrations in California on Saturday — the heart of anti-Trump country — and the well-known fact that Trump hates California?

Just asking.

• Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
• Robert Reich's new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org.