Trump Admits the Iran Nuclear Crisis Is Mostly for the Cameras
After bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, threatening further strikes, and dragging the world to the edge of a larger conflict, the president of the United States sat down with Fox News and said that recovering Iran’s enriched uranium was “more for public relations than it is for anything else.”
The war in Iran is over, Operation “Epic Fury” is done.
Sixty days has elapsed, so they cannot continue.
Operation “Sledgehammer” is a new war with Iran. Now they said that they can restart the clock.
After 60 days they will it start again if they change the name again.
Anyone got the drift of where this country is going?
Wow, just WOW:
Trump Wants 250 Pardons for America’s 250th Birthday
The White House has discovered that 250 is both the age of the country and a perfectly reasonable number of felons to set free.
Trump is considering granting 250 pardons this summer to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States. If approved, the announcement could come on June 14, which is Flag Day and Trump’s birthday, or on July 4.
Trump has already issued several high-profile pardons this term, including the founder of Binance, the founder of Silk Road, and a former CEO convicted of fraud. The next 250 recipients are unconfirmed.
The proposal has sparked intense speculation about who might make the final list, with Ghislaine Maxwell and Sam Bankman-Fried among the names being floated. Trump has reportedly shut the door on Bankman-Fried, whose pardon would trigger a massive political backlash given that his victims were everyday investors.
Trump has already issued more than 1,600 acts of clemency in his second term. More than half of the 88 individual pardons he granted through January went to white-collar criminals. In many cases, he also wiped out the requirement that they pay restitution, costing their victims an estimated $1.3 billion.
Happy birthday, America. The cake is for the convicts.
New ICE Director Deported a Trump Ally’s Ex-Girlfriend as a Favor
The Trump administration has named David Venturella as ICE’s next acting director. Venturella spent 12 years at GEO Group, the massive private prison contractor, before returning to the federal government last year. That alone would be a story. But it is not the story.
Among the lowlights of Venturella’s time back in government: he helped a Trump ally get his ex-girlfriend deported during a custody battle.
Paolo Zampolli, the man credited with introducing Trump to Melania, called Venturella after learning his Brazilian ex, Amanda Ungaro, had been arrested on fraud charges in Miami. Venturella coordinated to have ICE agents pick Ungaro up before she could be released on bail.
Venturella emphasized that it was a favor for a friend of the president during the call. Zampolli denied asking for special treatment, claiming he simply called the head of ICE to understand the process.
GEO Group, Venturella’s former employer, is ICE’s largest detention contractor. During the 2024 presidential campaign, the company’s employee-funded super PAC donated over $1 million to a pro-Trump super PAC.
The man who now runs ICE used to run the company that profits from ICE’s expansion, called in a deportation as a personal favor, and did not have to be confirmed by the Senate for any of it. The revolving door is spinning so fast it has achieved flight.
A Congresswoman Picked a Fight With a Fourth Grader and Lost
Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, 82, received a letter this week from a constituent. The constituent was ten years old. He had written a persuasive essay about electric vehicles for a school assignment, suggested a $5,000 federal tax rebate, and mailed it to her in an envelope with “4th grade” on the return address. He was proud of it.
Foxx wrote back. She told him he and his classmates would be personally responsible for paying down the national debt, cited climate articles from Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial board, and then, in the section his mother later posted on Instagram —
“My guess is that your teachers will not give you a good educational experience and help you learn to think, as they are too interested in indoctrinating you. How sad,” Foxx wrote. She also instructed him to ask his teacher to explain propaganda to him.
Foxx, who chairs the House Rules Committee, voted for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which is projected to increase the national debt by trillions. She used a letter about national debt to lecture a ten-year-old whose generation will inherit the debt she voted to create.
The post was shared more than 12,000 times. Foxx has not apologized. She did, for what it’s worth, chair the House Education Committee for six years.
Your Tax Dollars Are Funding a Christian Nationalist Prayer Rally
The Trump administration has found a new way to spend your tax dollars: nine hours of Christian nationalism on the National Mall.
The Trump administration is hosting an all-day prayer festival this Sunday called “Rededicate 250: National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” as part of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration.
The event will feature mostly evangelical Protestant leaders and members of the Trump administration, many of whom falsely claim that America’s founders wanted the country to be explicitly Christian. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are all slated to speak.
Trump’s spiritual adviser, Paula White-Cain — who has compared Trump to Jesus — said the festival is about “really truly rededicating the country to God.” She added that the celebration would not include leaders “praying to all these different Gods.”
The First Amendment, ratified in 1791, has some thoughts on government-funded religious festivals. Legal scholars say that senior cabinet officials speaking at a taxpayer-funded event promoting Christianity as the nation’s founding faith is exactly what it was designed to prohibit.
Trump will not attend in person, sending a video message instead. A golden statue of him was recently unveiled at his Florida estate. The event is about humility before God.
Xi did not meet Trump at the airport!
Based on reports from May 13-14, 2026, it is accurate that Chinese President Xi Jinping did not personally meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the airport upon his arrival in Beijing for a high-stakes summit.Here are the details regarding the arrival: Who Met Him: Trump was greeted on the tarmac by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, along with other senior foreign affairs officials and diplomats.
Protocol Interpretation: Some viewed the lack of a personal greeting from Xi as a “snub” or a sign of strained relations.
China gains major edge on U.S. amid Iran war, intelligence report finds
A confidential assessment, circulating as President Donald Trump begins his highly anticipated trip to Beijing, shows shifts in several key areas of competition.
By John Hudson
A confidential U.S. intelligence analysis details how China is exploiting the war in Iran to maximize its advantage over the United States across military, economic, diplomatic and other fields, said two U.S. officials who have read the report.
The assessment, the officials said, was produced this week for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, and has raised alarm within the Pentagon about the geopolitical costs of Washington’s standoff with Tehran as President Donald Trump enters high-stakes talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Produced by the Joint Staff’s intelligence directorate, the report uses what’s known as a “DIME” framework to assess China’s response to the Iran conflict via four instruments of state power: diplomatic, informational, military and economic.
Officials talked about the finding, which has not previously been reported, on the condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. intelligence matters.
Since the U.S. and Israel initiated the Iran war on Feb. 28, China has sold weapons to Persian Gulf allies of the U.S. as they struggled to defend their military bases and oil infrastructure from Iranian missile and drone attacks, the report says.
Beijing has also assisted countries around the world struggling to meet their energy needs after the U.S.-Israeli attacks prompted Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, a corridor for the transport of one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas.
The war has also drained the U.S. of massive stocks of munitions that would be critical in a potential standoff with China over the fate of Taiwan, the report notes. The Iran conflict, which has resulted in the damage or destruction of U.S. military hardware and facilities throughout the Middle East, has allowed Beijing to observe how the U.S. fights wars and learn how to plan its own future operations.
The report notes that Beijing has incorporated popular criticisms of the war into its public messaging, labeling the conflict “illegal.” China has long sought to undermine the image of the U.S. as a responsible steward of the rules-based international order, and it views the Iran conflict as emblematic of Washington’s cavalier approach to military hostilities.
Experts said the finding provides new insights on China’s reaction to the war, such as its provision of weapons to U.S. allies, while reinforcing the growing consensus that the conflict is tilting the balance of power in Beijing’s favor.
“On balance, the war in Iran is massively improving China’s geopolitical position,” said Jacob Stokes, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
The timing of the report is particularly sensitive as Trump begins multiple days of meetings in Beijing aimed at rebalancing the relationship between the world’s two largest economies.
The summit, which was postponed in March because of the Iran war, comes as Trump’s envoys struggle to find a resolution that will reopen the strait and resolve U.S. concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump’s standing, domestically and worldwide, has been weakened because of the public’s dissatisfaction with the conflict and the significant damage it has done to the global economy.
Confident in China’s power, Xi is ready to host an unpredictable Trump
Countries are rethinking U.S. fossil fuels after Iran war
From Hamas attack to U.S. war with Iran, violence forges a new Middle East
Trump’s anti-globalism looks like old-school Yankee imperialism
Trump’s anti-globalism looks like old-school Yankee imperialism
At India’s main energy summit, signs of a new world order without Trump
January 19, 2026
Trump takes swipe at Canada after Carney’s Davos speech
On Wall Street, investors ignore Trump’s talk of war
In Maduro’s capture, Russia sees a great-power rival act with impunity
Trump has rejected the idea that he is under pressure or needs Beijing’s help to bring the war to an end. “I don’t think we need any help with Iran. We’ll win it one way or the other, peacefully or otherwise,” he told reporters before leaving for Beijing.
Trump has said the closure of the strait is a major problem for China given its reliance on Gulf oil, but the intelligence report notes that China has weathered the shortages because of its development of renewable energy and its vast oil reserves.
“China is the second-most-insulated country in the world to the energy crisis, after only the United States,” said Ryan Hass, a China expert at the Brookings Institution.
That is allowing Beijing to win friends abroad, Hass said.
“China is presenting itself as a solutions provider in providing access to jet fuel and other products that are in short supply as a bridge for the short term,” he said.
Since the war started, Beijing has reached out to Thailand, Australia, the Philippines and other countries to help them manage their energy needs and is offering access to Chinese-produced green energy technology as a longer-term solution.
“This is not altruism,” Hass said. “It is Beijing seizing on an opportunity to drive wedges between America and its traditional partners.”
During past energy crises, Washington has dispatched officials around the world and convened emergency meetings to address the shortage. But the Trump administration has not shown interest in such an effort.
“This has created an opening that Beijing is working to fill,” Hass said.
Munition shortages are another major dynamic of the war. The U.S. has expended huge numbers of missiles, bombs and interceptors, many of which are expensive and require a long time to produce, to defend Israel and Gulf allies from Iranian counterattacks and destroy Tehran’s arsenal.
As The Washington Post and other media outlets have reported previously, there has been a particularly notable impact on the limited supplies of Patriot air defense weapons and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors, as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The situation has left Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and other allies worried about U.S. military readiness and Washington’s ability to intervene in the event of a Chinese attack.
“This prompts questions about the U.S. defense industrial base’s ability to rapidly restock munitions and adds to already existing concerns about slow deliveries,” Stokes said.
It also gives Beijing-friendly voices in Taiwan a reason to “slow or block funding for Taiwan’s military buildup,” said Stokes. Taiwan’s backers view the buildup as critical for deterring Beijing.
The war has also allowed Beijing to claim moral high ground against Washington and distract from its own considerable human rights abuses and coercive behavior in Asia.
“China has an opening to portray the United States as an aggressive, unilateralist power in decline because Washington cannot stop itself from getting embroiled in bloody and costly Middle East wars,” Stokes said.
Donald Trump casually admits he merged two massive federal departments without signing a single legal document.
Merging Depts of Energy with Interior cuts all red tape to drill on any land anywhere. He handed total control of American energy to his billionaire cronies with zero oversight.
The White House operates like a corrupt mafia bypassing all laws.
ZELENSKYY HAS “CARDS” FOR NEGOTIATIONS
Zelensky said Tuesday that Ukraine now has “cards.”
This comment came after the United States asked Ukraine to help protect American military bases in the Jordan from Iranian drones.
This comment was a retort to President Trump who has previously claimed that Zelenskyy had no “cards” in negotiations with Russia and Putin.
It was because of the lack of cards that Ukraine should reach a peace deal with Putin.
Ukraine does have “cards.”
And the “cards” are more than just drone defenses for US bases in Jordan.
Ukraine now is the most advanced country in the world for fighting a war on a budget.
Every country will be seeking their technology and their tactics.
Ukraine is already starting to export both
Zelenskyy needs to realize the value of their knowledge and leverage it.
Particularly in the negotiations.
Ukraine does have “cards.” And the US needs to realize it.
The Iran debacle is worse than Vietnam.
There will be no going back to a world in which the Strait of Hormuz is open. Iran is now a key player in the region, China and Russia are strengthened, and the U.S. is substantially diminished. Anyone can see that just a few weeks of war with a second-rank power drastically reduced American weapons stocks, opening the way for aggression from China or Russia, while “the conflict has revealed an America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started.
The loss of trust by our allies is disastrous, but it is not irretrievable. What will be irretrievable is that Trump will not be able to get as good at nuclear deal with Iran as Obama had.
Iran will be restarting its nuclear weapons development program, once the active fighting dies out.
Trump is meeting with President Xi. He has no leverage. He has no cards to play. But what he will do is give away US technologies or compromise other vital US interests so that he can come back to the states and proclaim a victory.
Is China working against the US behind the scenes?
PIECE 1: THE MISSILES THAT SHOULDN’T EXIST
The US bombed Iran’s missile sites.
Pentagon said the threat was destroyed.
Then Iran kept launching missiles.
How?
Reuters confirmed it: Iran was in talks to buy supersonic anti-ship missiles directly from China.
Global Defense Corps reported China secretly sent $5 billion in weapons to Iran.
Iran’s own Foreign Minister admitted it.
He called China a “strategic partner” giving Iran “military cooperation.”
Iran may still be shooting because China is supplying.
PIECE 2: THE B-2 THAT CHINA COULD SEE
The B-2 Spirit is America’s most advanced stealth bomber.
It’s supposed to be invisible.
A Chinese company called Jingan Technology said their AI system “Jingqi” intercepted radio signals from B-2 bombers during the March 1 strike on Iran.
They detected US military mobilization weeks before the attack.
China was watching every US move in real time.
PIECE 3: THE YUAN THAT KILLS THE DOLLAR
Iran just announced something that should terrify every person holding US dollars.
Oil tankers can pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
But only if they pay in yuan.
Not dollars. Yuan.
The mBridge platform, China’s cross-border payment system, already processed $55 billion in transactions.
95% of that volume was in digital yuan.
PIECE 4: THE ALLIES WHO SAID NO
The US asked NATO to join the war.
Every single NATO ally refused.
Then Trump asked China to send warships to the Gulf.
China said no.
PIECE 5: THE BILL NOBODY CAN PAY
The Pentagon admitted the war cost $15 billion
That’s just the part they’re counting.
China’s cost: zero.
China’s gain: cheap discounted oil, global credibility, yuan adoption, US military distracted from Taiwan.
Every dollar the US spends in this war is a dollar that doesn’t go toward competing with China.
Every week of war makes the dollar weaker.
Every week of war makes the yuan stronger.
Every week of war pushes more countries into China’s orbit.
This isn’t a war between the US and Iran.
This is China using Iran as a weapon against America.
tRump is an idiot, he does not understand this.
While collecting his Federal $200,000 a year paycheck:
King Charles’ Quiet Visit to Shenandoah Raises an Uncomfortable Question About America’s Public Lands
King Charles III ended his U.S. visit with a gesture that felt refreshingly sincere. A lifelong advocate for environmental protection someone who has spent more than five decades speaking up for conservation he chose to spend time in Shenandoah National Park rather than simply attend formal events. He met with park rangers, swore in a group of Junior Rangers, and even took a moment to meet Buddy, a rescued bald eagle. The visit also marked a new conservation partnership between Shenandoah and Scotland’s Cairngorms National Park, symbolized by the unveiling of commemorative stones. For someone who converted his own estate to organic farming back in 1986 long before it was fashionable and endured years of ridicule for it, this wasn’t a photo opportunity. It reflected a consistent, deeply held commitment.
What stands out is how little attention this moment received. That silence says something. When a visiting head of state highlights the importance of America’s public lands with genuine curiosity and respect, it shouldn’t go unnoticed. It’s a reminder of the value of these spaces not just economically, but culturally and environmentally.
It also invites a broader comparison. Leadership on environmental issues isn’t just about policy papers; it’s about perspective. Over the past several years, decisions around public lands have often leaned toward expanding commercial access loosening protections, opening large areas of national forests to logging and extraction, and considering the sale or transfer of public land to private interests. Supporters argue these moves boost economic growth, while critics see them as short-term gains at long-term cost.
That contrast is hard to ignore. When someone from outside the country visibly engages with and honors these landscapes, it underscores how significant they are. Public lands are one of the United States’ most enduring legacies. Treating them as assets to be managed carefully rather than commodities to be offloaded remains an ongoing debate, and one that deserves far more public attention than it often gets.
Nordic report on the impacts of a AMOC tipping urges stronger mitigation, monitoring and preparedness
5.2.2026
The report A Nordic Perspective on AMOC Tipping reviews the current state of science on the impacts of potential Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapse and provides recommendations for policy actions.
The report was published on Thursday 5 February 2026 on the Nordic Council’s website: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2026-504.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) transports heat to the North Atlantic and contributes to the relatively mild climate of the Nordic countries. Global warming is slowing down AMOC and although unlikely, it is possible that it could even stop at relatively low levels of global warming. Such a change could turn the climate of Northern Europe in a colder direction while the rest of the world continues to warm – the effects could be visible in food production, energy systems, and livelihoods, among other things.
“The AMOC is a key part of the climate system for the Nordic region. While the future of the AMOC is uncertain, the potential for a rapid weakening or collapse is a risk we need to take seriously,” says Aleksi Nummelin, Research Professor at the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
“This report brings together current scientific knowledge and highlights practical actions for mitigation, monitoring and preparedness.”
Last week, nearly 60 nations representing over one-third of the world’s economic power met in Colombia to accelerate their shift away from oil, gas, and coal in light of Iran.
The summit, led by Colombia and the Netherlands, was organized outside normal U.N. channels and processes to avoid the kind of bottlenecking often orchestrated by petrostates. Participants met to draft individualized, national transition roadmaps away from fossil fuels; using more laid back Q and A information sessions, they made unusual progress. The United States was not invited. That allies grasp the existential imperative to bypass Trump’s destructive impulses is reassuring; it confirms that other nations are not led by idiots. Green energy dominance is Trump’s worst nightmare Like a suicidal sadist, Trump is obsessed with increasing reliance on fossil fuels. His attempts to elevate coal are as economically illiterate and embarrassing as his now comical battle against wind energy. The rest of the world, thankfully, has stopped listening. Instead, reeling from oil and gas price aftershocks from Iran, the industrialized world is now running toward renewable energy, to wit: In China, President Xi Jinping has called for a rapid acceleration of a new energy system, emphasizing massive development in wind, solar, nuclear, and hydropower to safeguard energy security. The EU has drafted new plans to accelerate clean energy deployment, specifically focused on accelerated investment in solar, wind, and heat pumps to reduce dependence on imported fuels, while also reconsidering nuclear power as a ‘strategic stabilizer.’ South Korea has committed to a goal of 100 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. India is now focusing on rapid expansion in solar and wind to diversify its energy supply to reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Saudi Arabia, despite being a major oil producer, has doubled its target to ensure 50% of its electricity generation comes from renewables by 2030. Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines are accelerating renewable projects with incentives, with private companies in Vietnam abandoning LNG projects in favor of renewables. Egypt is planning to transition its electricity supply, now 10% renewable, to 45% intwo years. Chile is now facilitating tax credits and supports for electric vehicle (EV) adoption to reduce foreign-sourced fuel dependence. These developments should give everyone hope. Even if a ceasefire is announced tomorrow, analysts say damage to the oil industry will last for years. Most delicious of all, Trump put it in motion. Fatih Birol, Director of the International Energy Agency, said that Trump’s war in Iran has permanently damaged the industry. Almost overnight, Birol observed, foreign leaders lost faith in fossil fuels, which will cause “a significant boost to renewables and nuclear power and a further shift towards a more electrified future,” he said, which will “cut into the main markets for oil.” As an anti-science, anti-information nihilism spreads its ignorant rot across the U.S., it is reassuring to know that other nations aren’t similarly afflicted. Idiocracy, it would seem, is not contagious.Trump’s Reflecting Pool Scheme Doesn’t Hold Water
The president handed a $6.9 million no-bid contract to his own “pool guy” to turn it blue.
Mary Papenfuss
Reporter .
President Donald Trump reportedly violated the rules to spend massive amounts of money on something Americans never dreamed they needed: A Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool painted blue.
Trump ordered the makeover of the century-old pool on the National Mall, which has been the focal point of such historic gatherings as Vietnam War protests and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963..
Trump somehow determined that overhauling the pool was suddenly “urgent.” That leaky determination allowed him to simply hand a hefty $6.9 million no-bid contract to the company he said worked on the pool at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.
“I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools,” the president told the press in late April. He initially claimed the project would cost $2 million.
The pool contract turned the project into a “reflection of Washington’s present,” wrote The New York Times, which pored over the details of the pricey venture.
Most notable was the Trump administration’s flat-faced insistence that painting the pool blue was “urgent.” The exemption is supposed to be used only to prevent “serious injury, financial or other, to the government.” Instead, the urgency was the president’s whim, and his desire to spruce things up in time for the nation’s 250th birthday.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers apparently tried to make the project seem more urgent by telling the Times it was being done at “Trump speed.”
On April 3, the pool repair contract was awarded to New Canton, Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which had never held a federal contract before, according to records.
Trump toured parts of the National Mall on Thursday night to tout his “beautification” agenda, telling reporters construction on the arch would begin “very soon.”
Even more confounding: The Times found that the company’s website doesn’t mention any previous swimming pool work—only waterproofing structures like roofs and water tanks, and restoring highway culverts.
ABC News’ senior political correspondent Rachel Scott didn’t see the urgency in the project, and challenged the president about it on Thursday.
“Mr. President, you are here against the backdrop of the war in Iran. Why focus on all these projects right now? We’re still seeing gas prices soaring,” she asked.
Trump responded that the project was “beautiful,” and that Scott was a “horror show” and a “disgrace” who had asked a “stupid question.”
Trump was so pleased with his imagined revamp of the reflecting pool that he posted an AI image of himself chilling in the pool shirtless with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and a bikini-clad woman who may or may not have been Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
.
President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated image of what he expects of his Reflecting Pool.
Truth Social
The project is just the latest case of Trump invoking special powers to dodge rules and hand lucrative contracts directly to his personally chosen contractors, treating the nation as his own “imperial realm” to “decorate or destroy,” the Times noted.
It’s a radical change in the history of America. Without any approvals, Trump tore down the East Wing of the White House to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom designed to his specifications (also via a no-bid contract), paved over the Rose Garden, and installed a giant statue of controversial explorer Christopher Columbus on the White House grounds.
The dramatic changes have become “secretive” projects in which the “friends and business associates of the president are being rewarded with no public scrutiny,” Tim Whitehouse, the executive director of the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, complained to the Times.
Trump Sons’ New Bid to Cash In on Daddy’s Presidency Exposed
Eric Trump (center) after he was newly appointed ALT5 Board Director of World Liberty Financial.
Beyond the secretive deal-making behind the redo are the many challenges bound to create problems for Trump’s hand-picked contractor. The leaky, 2,000-foot-long shallow pond is prone to algae growth that turns it green. It’s not clear if a paint job will change that.
“Painting is not going to solve that problem,” Tim Auerhahn, chairman of the Aquatic Council, a consulting firm for the pool and hot-tub industry, told the Times.
Trump loves Putin, and works for him
President Trump said Friday that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a three-day ceasefire over the weekend, which includes a prisoner swap.
The ceasefire will last from May 9-11, Trump wrote on Truth Social. The pause in fighting is for Russia’s Victory Day celebrations.
- Nov. 9, 2025: Trump posted on Truth Social that “a dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone”.
- Nov. 17, 2025: While in the Oval Office, Trump mentioned the checks would be issued “probably in the middle of next year”.
- Jan. 7, 2026: In an interview with The New York Times, when asked about the promise, Trump asked “When did I do that?”
Trump was asked about the rising gas price.
Donald J. Trump:”The gas price is going down. Have you looked?“
I looked: gas price is still going up:
As of May 8, 2026, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is roughly $4.54, showing a sharp increase in recent days due to global supply concerns. Prices have jumped over 25 cents in two weeks, reaching their highest levels since 2022, with daily fluctuations showing steady upward pressure.
tRump just loves to lie and try to mislead. It is a shame we have a president like that.
The disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan is one of the most recent nuclear accidents, with radioactive contamination that is expected to last for many decades.
There are approximately 1 million tons of radioactive material,
wastewater, and solid waste.
But to the surprise of many, among all the high-tech solutions, there is a very simple cleaning program that few people know about: sunflowers.
Yes, according to scientists, the sunflower is fantastic for cleaning radioactive waste from the environment!
Sunflowers are really good at absorbing certain radioactive isotopes. We solved some consequences of the Chernobyl accident by planting sunflowers in the affected areas, scientist Michael Blaylock stated in an interview in 2011.
Sunflowers have a few properties that make them ideal for nuclear cleanup operations:
- They grow very quickly and easily almost everywhere;
- They store the majority of their biomass in leaves and stems, so that radioactive material absorbed by plants can be cleaned up without their roots having to be dug up.
This technique, in which plants are used to clean up contaminated environments, is called phytoremediation.
The isotopes resemble the nutrients that sunflowers would naturally absorb: cesium resembles potassium, which plants need for photosynthesis, and strontium corresponds to calcium, which provides structural support.
Unfortunately, some radioactive elements settle slowly in the soil, meaning that this phytoremediation may not be very efficient in very recent accidents such as in Fukushima.
Nevertheless, the technique is promising and demonstrates the ability of plants to restore the environment.
Yes, yes, I agree, how ANYBODY can still support this America-attacking, lying bigot is an ongoing sad commentary on America. The guy should be rotting in jail, but like it or not, we all must live with the reality that fully 35 percent of the American electorate is broken and refuse to be fixed. The people who told us for four years under Joe Biden that rising gas prices were a deal-breaker, are now looking under their hoods, while their orange idol makes their lives more expensive and meaningless.
It’s a cult.
Exactly what he criticized Obama for doing, but will not get the same deal!
Reuters, citing three sources familiar with the matter, reported that “U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that the time Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon has not changed since last summer,
when analysts estimated that a U.S.-Israeli attack had pushed back the timeline to up to a year.” The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
The sheer pointlessness of the destruction wrought by the war only deepens the tragedy.
That means that despite weeks of aggressive bombing, which has killed at least an estimated 1,700 Iranian civilians, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, Iran’s nuclear program is still humming along — and no further away from being able to weaponize its nuclear program than it was before Trump launched his war of aggression.
Eric Brewer, a former senior U.S. intelligence analyst and vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative arms control think tank, told Reuters that “Iran still possesses all of its nuclear material, as far as we know” and that that material is “probably located in deeply buried underground sites where U.S. munitions can’t penetrate.”
Donald Trump looks at the Bible.
As part of Bible reading event, Trump expected to recite Scripture read at Jan. 6 riot
This makes it all the clearer that in order to make a dent, Trump would likely need to storm Iran’s underground nuclear facilities to seize and destroy its highly enriched uranium. Such a mission would require the deployment of ground troops, could take weeks and would, in the words of Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, constitute one of the “most complicated special operations in history.” Given Trump’s stunning ineptitude at every stage of this ill-conceived war, the prospect of the U.S. trying to conduct such a high-risk endeavor — which could easily escalate into an extended ground operation — is downright chilling.
The other way Trump can attempt to control Iran’s nuclear program is through negotiations. But given his limited leverage over Tehran, he’s currently considering the kinds of trade-offs and provisions he slammed for years in Barack Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Ironically, as my colleague Hayes Brown points out, it’s unlikely Trump is able to secure anything as strong as Obama’s agreement because of the political dynamics he has set in motion with the war.
The sheer pointlessness of the destruction wrought by the war only deepens the tragedy. The U.S.-Israeli strikes appear to have caused so many deaths, so much chaos across the region and so much global upheaval — culminating in a bona fide global economic crisis that has no end in sight. On Tuesday, Trump announced that he was pausing “Project Freedom,” a U.S.-led maritime operation aimed at safely escorting commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz. And the warmakers have achieved precisely zero of the goals that were the supposed justifications for war.
One of those goals expressed by Trump and his administration, often abandoned without explanation, was Iranian regime change. On that front, Trump has done worse than fail. He has helped pave the way for a new generation of leaders who are more hard line than the ones he killed off — and are probably more likely to pursue a nuclear weapon at some point in the future. Ironically, a nuclear-armed Iran some day could wind up being the most significant legacy of Trump and Israel’s war.
Words cannot express how horrible this ^ is.
Biden was in no way a “coward”, and Obama never was a “traitor”, and the only thing tRump has lead us into was never ending wars, lack of empathy, grievance politics, a rubber stamp do nothing to stop him Supreme Court and congress, lack of respect from the rest of the world, horrible national debt, destructive forces of dictatorial autocracy, plutocracy, and oligarchy, grift everywhere, demeaning of women, complaints about real reporting, restrictions on free speech, denial of science, stopping progress on wind turbines, reliance on polluting systems, land grabs, trump name on everything, people dying all over the world, and an extreme cost of living.
He is the biggest narcissist and national disgrace there ever was and his post shows it in spades.
Alexander Ward of the Wall Street Journal noted that today, at the White House, Trump told a group of small-business owners that he “call[s] it a mini war.”
Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) called out the fact that the Trump administration argued on Friday that it did not have to get congressional approval for the war on Iran at the 60-day mark required by the 1973 War Powers Resolution because, it said, the war had “terminated” on April 7.
It made the claim despite the fact that a blockade is an act of war and the U.S. continues to blockade Iranian ports. Asked on Saturday how he could say the war had terminated when the U.S. military was enforcing the blockade, Trump told reporters: “Well, it’s a very friendly blockade. Nobody’s even challenging it.”
When President Donald Trump struck a trade deal with the European Union in July, officials on both sides stressed how it would ensure long-term stability to trans-Atlantic trade.
The Trump administration called the deal a “generational modernization of the transatlantic alliance.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it “restores stability and predictability” by locking in 15 percent tariffs on most European goods exported to the U.S., while most American imports to Europe would be exempt from tariffs.
In other words, Trump got what he wanted out of that deal: A reduction in tariffs on American exports and the establishment of a new, permanent baseline tariff on European goods. European leaders also felt like they’d won something: the 15 percent tariff was lower than the 25 percent tariff Trump had threatened, and the deal would stop Trump from hiking tariffs the next time he was in a bad mood.
So much for that.
On Friday, Trump announced that he would raise tariffs on European-made cars to 25 percent. (Those tariffs are authorized by Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, so they are not affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling in February that limited some of the president’s power to impose tariffs unilaterally.)
Those higher tariffs could cost automakers $4 billion this year.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the tariff hike was in response to the E.U. “not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal.”
The trade deal, however, is not fully agreed to, so it is hard to understand how the Europeans could be breaking it. The E.U. is still in the process of ratifying it—even though it cleared the main legislative hurdle in March—and the Trump administration has not even asked Congress to approve it. Adding to the confusion is the fact that European trade officials visited the White House just weeks ago, and everyone seemed to be getting along. After that meeting, the U.S. and E.U. announced a new joint partnership for some strategically important minerals.
Trump’s sudden decision to hike tariffs has now put the entire deal at risk—and once again escalated tensions with Europe.
Friday’s announcement reveals, once again, how little any trading partner can trust Trump. The president’s word is effectively worthless, and his “deals” are subject to change at any time, for any reason. Who would enter into serious negotiations with someone like that?
TRUMP MOCKS THE CROWN PRINCE OF SAUDI
It was quite the scene. Trump was speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Florida — a forum organized by a group affiliated with Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion Public Investment Fund as reported by various international media. The fact that it was a Saudi-backed event made Trump’s remarks more Jarring.
“He didn’t think he would be kissing my ass, he really didn’t… and now he has to be nice to me… he better be nice to me, he’s gotta be.”
But Saudi Arabia publicly said nothing in response. Not a single official statement. A complete silence from the Crown Prince. However, local Crown Prince loyalists are sounding unease. They voiced concerns over why would the MAGA pioneer Trump insult one of his allies like this.
Most are assuming that it has to do with NYT’s reports regarding Crown Prince Salman privately pushing Trump to continue war on Iran. So that, Iran’s influence in the region dissipates. But Crown Prince later refused to go along with the total collapse of the regime, as it risks creating a power vacuum and potential spread of militants groups (as per his views). Trump wasn’t happy hearing this double standards. The President of USA also wants Saudi Arabia to be part of the Abraham Accord, “it’s now time… we’ve now taken them out… we got to get into the Abraham Accords.”
The Saudi Arabia is basically now feeling embarrassed, or more precisely the Crown Prince.
For eight decades the United States took on the responsibility of leading the Free World.
No longer. The current American president doesn’t care much about the world. His administration’s slogan is “America First.” And his administration doesn’t care much about freedom.
As White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller explained, “we live in a world, in the real world . . . that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world.” And if we simply live in a world governed by iron laws of force and power, all this talk of freedom and the Free World is bunk.
So under the Trump administration, we’re no longer the leader of the Free World. Indeed we’re barely on the side of the Free World, and they are leaving us behind.
Interesting video
https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-wildcard-mtg-coins-brutal-new-tds-catchphrase-for-donald-trump/
Donald Trump’s fresh attempt to fix his Strait of Hormuz quagmire has immediately suffered a blow.
The president on Sunday painted himself as a peacemaker as he announced a “humanitarian gesture” to guide stranded ships out of the narrow waterway that the U.S. has blockaded as leverage over Iran.He said the plan, dubbed “Project Freedom,” would begin on Monday morning Middle East time. Tehran, however, has responded resoundingly. “We warn that any foreign armed force, especially the aggressive U.S. army, will be attacked if they attempt to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz,” the Iranian military said in a statement released on Monday morning. It said the security of the waterway “is in the hands of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran” and warned that “any safe passage and navigation in any situation” should be “carried out in coordination with the armed forces.”
“We will maintain and manage the security of the Strait of Hormuz with all our might and we announce to all commercial ships and tankers to refrain from any action to transit without the coordination of the armed forces stationed in the Strait of Hormuz so that their security is not jeopardized,” the military said.
Yesterday marked 60 days since the start of Trump’s failed war in Iran.
The U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8) gives Congress the power “To declare War,” and the War Powers Resolution of 1973 — enacted over Nixon’s veto — mandates that troops be withdrawn within 60 days unless Congress extends the deadline or declares war.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that Trump doesn’t need Congress’s approval to continue the war past the 60-day mark because the ceasefire agreement with Iran has effectively stopped the clock. (Trump echoed Hegseth’s claim today in a letter to Congress.)
That’s bull—-, of course. But the interesting question is why — when Republicans have majorities in both chambers of Congress — Trump doesn’t want such a vote. Why not just let Republicans vote in favor of continuing his war, and be done with it?
It’s possible, of course, that Trump is worried that some Republican members might vote against the war — joining with all or almost all Democrats in voting against its continuation. Even a close vote could force a debate and pressure Trump to set the conditions and timeline for a withdrawal.
But there’s an easier and more straightforward reason.
Trump’s war is so unpopular that Republican members of Congress don’t want to have to go on record as voting in favor of it. With midterm elections in six months, they know their votes in favor of Trump’s war could be held over their heads — especially if the war drags on, or if gas prices continue to rise because Iran is blocking the Strait of Hormuz, or both.
They’ve let the White House know that forcing them to vote on the war will hurt their chances of maintaining control of Congress.
So congressional Republicans are choosing the coward’s way out: agree with Hegseth and Trump that there’s no need for such a vote because the ceasefire has tolled the clock. Or claim, even more absurdly (as has Speaker of the House Mike Johnson) that there’s no “war” to begin with, and hence no reason for such a vote.
Republicans in Congress are not brave people. To the contrary, they may be the most cowardly group ever to claim to represent the American people.
We now are going to pay for the ballroom!
tRump is telling us we must grow our own vegtables:
You and I both knew they were coming for our elections.
And now it’s happening. Right now. Today.
On Thursday, Louisiana’s MAGA governor suspended his state’s congressional elections—in the middle of the elections. Not before ballots went out. After. He looked at an election already in motion and postponed it.
Why? To rush through a new gerrymandered map designed to wipe out majority-Black congressional districts and hand Republicans seats they couldn’t win fairly.
He did it just hours after the MAGA Supreme Court gutted what remained of the Voting Rights Act—the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement, won by people who fought, bled, and died for the right to vote.
It’s a coordinated MAGA power grab, moving at breakneck speed.
Trump is already pressuring other Republican governors to redraw their maps. Speaker Mike Johnson is calling for a nationwide redraw that would silence voters of color across the country.
They are trying to lock in minority rule before we can stop them.
U.S. would be “taking over” Cuba “almost immediately,”
President Donald Trump spoke during remarks at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches in Florida Friday that the U.S. would be “taking over” Cuba “almost immediately,” while recognizing attendees including former Rep. Dan Mica.
“And he comes from, originally, a place called Cuba, which we will be taking over almost immediately,” Trump said.
“Cuba’s got problems. We’ll finish one first. I like to finish a job.”
“On the way back from Iran, we’ll have one of our big — maybe the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier — the biggest in the world,” he said.
“We’ll have that come in, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they’ll say, ‘Thank you very much, we give up.’”
The Iranians are telling us, “We have no intention of meeting any Americans,”
and that Iran is on its own tour now of Pakistan, Oman and Russia, where Araghchi met with President Vladimir Putin, and “We’re establishing our own terms for ending the war.” And so, what we’ve seen here is the construction of a total propaganda narrative, that is being repeated by almost every Western news organization, that somehow there are these negotiations going on, that the Iranians are putting proposals in front of the Americans. That’s not what’s happening at all.
What Iran has done is it has briefed Pakistan, which is currently the mediating country in the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, and they’ve said to them, “Here are our conditions for ending the war.” And what Iran is saying is, “We will enter into direct talks with the United States when President Trump lifts the illegal military naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. We will have an initial round of discussions about how to facilitate the expansion of commerce and transit through the Strait of Hormuz.” Iran has maintained that it’s not shut down the strait, but that it’s just shut it down for any vessels that are linked to the U.S. war in any way.
And then, after those conditions are met, the Iranians will go back to direct talks having to do with nuclear negotiations. But they’re saying that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are total ignoramuses when it comes to the technical issues in terms of nuclear or other issues, that having Kushner at the table might as well be having Benjamin Netanyahu at the table. That’s part of why they pushed for JD Vance. Iranians told me that they witnessed during the last round of direct talks a division between JD Vance, on the one hand, and Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, on the other hand.
Trump has painted himself into a corner. He’s certainly in a quagmire. The administration is desperate to find some form of an off-ramp. And they have been pushing a lie-filled propaganda narrative, that has been picked up by media across the board, that somehow the Iranians are kind of adjusting their position and coming back to Trump, but it’s not good enough yet. The reality is that Trump has no idea how he’s going to end this, because the Iranians know, or they believe, that they have the three M’s on their side: munitions, markets and the midterms.
They know that they have done unprecedented damage to U.S. defensive capabilities in the Persian Gulf. They caused the evacuation of 13 American military bases. They committed widespread damage against American aircraft, that only now is starting to come to light. They destroyed the early warning, highly expensive radar systems. The Israelis’ interceptors are at dangerous low levels. And the United States is unable to confront Iran’s asymmetric posture in the Strait of Hormuz, no matter what Trump does. The markets are in free fall right now, relatively speaking. It’s not going to get better. If Trump starts bombing Iran again, they say they’re going to hit oil infrastructure in the Persian Gulf, potentially cut undersea internet cables, which would massively disrupt commerce and internet. And the final thing is the midterms coming up.
This is a political disaster for Donald Trump. And the Iranians feel like they’re in a position that Trump is not holding the cards. And so, what they’re saying is, “If you don’t meet our initial demands to lift your illegal naval blockade, we’re not going to have any talks with you anytime soon, because you’ve painted yourself into a corner, and we’re going to sit back and let you continue to have less and less space in that corner.”
Petty Trump Throws a Fit After Being Humiliated by U.S. Ally
HURT EGO
A peevish President Donald Trump is yanking 5,000 U.S. soldiers from NATO ally Germany amid growing friction with Europe over the president’s war in Iran.
The Pentagon announced the move Friday after Trump, threatened on Truth Social two days earlier to pull troops when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the Iranians were “humiliating” the U.S. Merz also said he was stumped by Trump’s exit strategy.
A Pentagon review of U.S. troops worldwide did not recommend major reductions in Europe. The Pentagon “was not expecting it and has not been planning any kind of drawdown,” said a congressional aide familiar with the situation.
Trump initially claimed the war he launched two months ago would be over in a few weeks, yet the standoff continues.
President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz meet in the Oval Office at the White House on March 3, 2026.
Early in the war, Trump called on European allies to help the U.S. and send forces to open the Strait of Hormuz, which is critical to global oil shipments, after it was closed by Iran. But Europe has refused to engage in a war that its countries were never consulted about.
Yanking troops from Germany also fits Trump’s broader push to avoid involving America in European defense, including threatening to pull out of NATO. Critics have complained that fractures in American alliances would not only hurt Europe but also the U.S., undermining peace and stability.
The Trump administration hit a 60-day deadline on Friday, a requirement for congressional authorization of the war that Trump unilaterally launched without warning, and without lawmakers’ approval.
In a letter sent Friday to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Pro Temp President Senator Chuck Grassley, the president claimed the deadline hasn’t yet passed because it has been suspended by the current ceasefire, and the hostilities have effectively been “terminated,” even though U.S. forces remain.
Trump Finally Manages to Find His Vietnam
Congress, which left town on a week-long break on Thursday, is not expected to take any immediate action about the time lapse.
As of early May 2026, there are approximately 35,000 to 39,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in Germany, with recent reports indicating a planned withdrawal of 5,000 troops, which would bring the total to around 30,000–33,000. Germany hosts the highest number of U.S. troops in Europe, spread across major sites like Ramstein Air Base.
Further drawdowns from Germany and elsewhere in Europe may be coming.
Also angered at recent criticism by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the most MAGA-adjacent European national leaders, and chagrinned by Madrid’s decision not to engage in the war about which NATO was never consulted, Trump also has threatened to close U.S. bases in Italy and Spain.
Someone needs to advise President Trump that our forces stationed on allied soil are in fact critical U.S. military enablers, not trading cards or transactional toys, with host nations to be rewarded for good behavior or threatened with base closure as punishment. In medical parlance, such moves would be best described as “self-harm”; in the geo-political world, they would be characterized as “diplomatic malpractice.”
Biggest laugh of the day:
“Those with pathological narcissism are abusive and dangerous because of their catastrophic neediness,” Lee told Salon at the time. “Think of a drowning person gasping for air: a survival instinct just may push you down in order to save one’s own life. In the manner that the body needs oxygen, the soul needs love, and self-love is what a toxic narcissist is desperately lacking. This is why he must overcompensate, creating for himself a self-image where he is the best at everything, never wrong, better than all the experts, and a ‘stable genius.’”
So funny Trump is saying the court is awesome when it ruled that people have First Amendment rights!
Tariffs have nothing to do with protecting the US, they are at the whim of tRump and the last person he talks to:
Russia is flailing
In short, a wartime deadlock, a sputtering economy, a moribund tech sector, and growing worries of potential public discontent over declining living standards all suggest now is the perfect time for President Trump to intensify pressure and help Ukraine intensify military pressure on Russia. As the failure of peace efforts based on personal relationships and economic incentives shows, such pressure is the only way to achieve the president’s aim of bringing an end to the war. And such pressure would also be an appropriate response to the Kremlin’s sending to Iran of targeting intelligence, drone components, and even drones that today strike at U.S. forces and our allies.
Donald Trump: The perfect useful idiot
Trump is making insane proclamations about Iran again, sabotaging efforts at peace by his unqualified, incompetent negotiating team. He’s lying to his supporters about obvious things like the price of gasoline. He’s not sleeping, up all night shouting in all-caps at anybody who will listen and, during the day, literally screaming at his aides.
His former-heroin-addicted brainworm-infected head of Human Services, who has absolutely no training or experience in medicine or public health, is destroying America’s public health. His wrestling billionaire head of education is shutting down the US Education Department.
His violent, alcoholic, unfaithful head of the Defense Department keeps violating the Constitution as well as both domestic and international laws about warfare. His wholly captured Department of Justice — now run by his personal lawyer — is demanding voting information from swing state after swing state and refuses to say why.
And the Republicans on the Supreme Court, the New York Times just told us, have invented a “shadow docket” to amplify the power of Trump and his billionaires while ignoring stare decisis and the Constitution itself.
There’s a question I keep coming back to as I read news like this seemingly each and every day of this bizarre reality show: what if this isn’t just “Trump chaos”?
What if it’s all part of a deep and evil plan? What if Trump’s billionaire “Epstein Class” donors really believe they can “plate their sin with gold and remain forever hurtless,” to paraphrase Shakespeare, and eventually, when the bill comes due, walk away and blame it all on Trump?
After all, they may be thinking, he’s 80 this year. Demographic tables suggest he won’t be around that long. JD Vance is certainly thinking about it.
Turns out there might be something to that little conspiracy theory:
Singapore’s Foreign Minister Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan put it plainly last month when he told Reuters that the 80-year era of American-underwritten global peace and prosperity is “simply over.”
The rules-based international order built on the UN Charter, NATO, multilateralism, and the principle of sovereign equality — the very order that turned Singapore from a country with a per-capita GDP of $500 in 1965 into one touching $90,000 per family today — has ended, he said.
Not because it failed, but because the country that helped make it possible — America — has, in Balakrishnan’s careful diplomatic language, become “a revisionist power” under Trump and his rightwing billionaire-corrupted GOP.
In other words, Donald Trump isn’t just abandoning the world order America built after World War II: he’s actively replacing it with something else, something designed by and for autocrats and billionaires, and he’s doing it in close collaboration with some of the richest men and the most brutal dictators on the planet.
As a horrified world watched, Trump aligned himself (and thus America) with an international axis of oligarchs and corrupt strongmen that includes Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Israel’s Netanyahu, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, North Korea’s Kim, and China’s Xi Jinping, among other lessers.
And because Trump is the president of the United States, that alignment doesn’t just represent his personal changes and loyalty on the world stage. It means America itself has been enlisted in the project of dismantling democratic governance across the planet.
Follow the benefits and the project gets very clear very, very fast.
According to the Washington Post, Trump launched the strikes on Iran at the urging of MBS and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, despite U.S. intelligence assessments that Iran posed no imminent threat to America, and wouldn’t for at least another decade.
But Netanyahu has been trying to get an American president to attack Iran for decades and failed every time, until finally both Trump and Jared decided they wanted more billions from Saudi Arabia, who wanted us to strike Iran, too.
Why would Trump do what every other past American president has refused to do? It might have something to do with the Saudi Public Investment Fund controlled by MBS investing $2 billion in the private equity firm of his son-in-law Jared Kushner before the war started, and that Kushner has collected more than $110 million from the Saudi government since 2021, according to a bipartisan Senate and House report released March 19th. He’s also in the process of rustling up another five or $6 billion from the region.
And the New York Times reported that Saudi dictator MBS saw an “historic opportunity” to remake the Middle East with himself in charge, and he has been actively pushing Trump to do his dirty work and use American troops to seize Iran’s energy infrastructure and drive out the Iranian government entirely. He’s even reportedly assured Trump the spike in oil prices will be temporary, a claim most economists flatly reject and is now absurd given that the Straight Hormuz is shut.
Meanwhile, the Iran war has been a windfall for Trump‘s partner, Vladimir Putin, who’d previously been in deep trouble. Despite reports that Russia has been aiding Iran in killing American soldiers, the Trump regime dropped sanctions on Russian oil already at sea, pouring as much as $10 billion a month into Putin’s desperately cash-strapped war-ravaged economy.
Even more shocking, Trump reposted Russian propaganda slashing Ukraine, and four pro-Putin Russian lawmakers were hosted by Republicans in Washington for their first visit since they’d become pariahs because of Russia’s brutal, bloody full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
On Ukraine, the picture is equally damning. According to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, Trump’s toadies told Ukraine that we won’t guarantee that country’s security unless Ukraine surrenders its own land in Donbas to Russia, which is precisely what Putin launched the war to seize.
That’s the same region that was at the center of the 2016 scandal, when Russian operatives told Trump’s then-campaign manager and former Putin agent Paul Manafort that Russia would help Trump’s presidential campaign if he’d look the other way on Putin’s ambitions in the region.
Now Trump is poised to deliver it. The Washington Post reports Whisky Pete’s Pentagon is diverting weapons meant for Ukraine to the Middle East, and has already told Congress it plans to redirect at least $750 million in NATO-provided Ukraine funding to restock American weapons burned through in Iran instead.
This is what Trump’s — and the other corrupt, morbidly rich autocratic world leaders — New World Order looks like as it’s being assembled in real time, and it’s a new world being ordered primarily to serve the interests of the world’s morbidly rich.
There have been warnings about the billionaire capture of American democracy for years. This isn’t a theory anymore. And it’s not a particularly well-hidden conspiracy. Much of it is right out in the open, in fact.
According to Americans for Tax Fairness, just ~100 billionaire families poured a record-breaking $2.6 billion into the 2024 federal elections, representing one of every six dollars spent altogether.
That’s a 160-fold increase in billionaire political spending since the Supreme Court’s corrupt Citizens United decision in 2010. Trump himself received over $450 million from ~150 billionaire families, according to the same analysis, three times what Kamala Harris received.
Elon Musk alone spent over $278 million to put Trump back into the White House and get himself an opportunity to reshape our government in a way that stopped investigations into his companies and instead directed billions in government contracts to them.
And now those ~150 families have their 13 fellow billionaires sitting inside Trump’s cabinet, the richest cabinet in American history, with our first billionaire president overseeing the systematic dismantling of every institution that once protected ordinary people from the predations of obscene wealth.
It’s not complicated once you see it as a whole.
Trump isn’t just cozying up to Putin and the others out of personal admiration or some inexplicable ideological affinity, though those both often appear to be real enough.
He, Putin, MBS, and Netanyahu are all engaged in the same project that the lickspittles in his administration seem to have signed onto: replacing the democratic, rules-based world order — in which governments are accountable to their citizens and wealth is constrained by law — with a brutal and oligarchic one, in which massive wealth answers to nothing and no one, media is captured, and rulers brook no opposition.
A world where billionaires can park their money anywhere, buy any government, terrify the general population, and only rarely worry about some pesky democratic election changing the rules on them.
Our Founders explicitly worried out loud about exactly this. They structured the Constitution specifically to prevent a president from, for example, making war for private gain or at the behest of foreign powers. They gave Congress the sole power to declare war precisely because they wanted the American people to weigh in on and debate whether to dedicate their children’s lives and their money to a conflict.
Trump didn’t just bypass that; he bragged about destroying it. At a Republican fundraising dinner, he openly acknowledged that he wasn’t calling his unauthorized bombing of Iran leading to the deaths of 13 American service members a “war” because, as he put it, “you are supposed to get approval [for a war].” That’s a confession, not a gaffe.
The cost of this unauthorized, billionaire-fueled autocrat-promoted military adventure is now at least $1 billion a day and thousands of lives, with the administration reportedly planning to ask Congress for $200 billion more and the automatic draft beginning this December. That’s the same Republican-controlled Congress that just slashed money for Medicaid, education, food assistance, and heating fuel for poor families.
And it’s not like Americans support his war-mongering. Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 32%, and just 25% of Americans are happy with how he’s handling the cost of living.
The hopeful news is that America’s beaten the rightwing oligarchs before. FDR called them “economic royalists” and built a nationwide movement powerful enough to take them on and push them out of politics. America broke up the robber barons in the Progressive Era. We can do it again.
But first we have to call this what it is: not a difference of political opinion, not a culture war distraction, but a deliberate, well-funded, internationally coordinated assault bent on destroying American (and, ultimately, worldwide) democracy itself.
The billionaires and ideologues behind this aren’t confused. They know exactly what they’re tearing down and what kind of oligarchy they’re trying to build up to replace our democracy. The crisis is whether enough of us see it clearly enough to stop them before their project is complete.
Spread the word. Share the story. Call your members of Congress today — you can find their contact information here — and demand they use their constitutional authority to stop Trump’s unauthorized war being fought at the behest of foreign autocrats and domestic billionaires.
Demand they tax the rich appropriately, reclaim the power the founders carefully and intentionally gave them, get dark money out of politics, and begin to restore the American government that Trump and Musk so viciously destroyed.
Democracy can’t defend itself. That’s our job.
Interviews of knowledgeable people have detailed the ravages by the cruel, serial law violator, Tyrant Trump, inflicted on millions of Americans.
Still, the report from the V-Dem Institute at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg produced a jolting Common Dreams headline: ‘Trump is Dismantling US Democracy at a Speed ‘Unprecedented in Modern History.’“
The report described the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term as achieving in one year what budding autocracies take a decade to accomplish, adding that “the speed of decline is comparable to some coups d’état.”
To wreck, weaken, and endanger our country, Trump disrupts the lives of millions of civil servants, contractors, small businesses, and their families. He fired or forced out hundreds of thousands of federal civil servants staffing programs that protect the health, safety, and economic well-being of tens of millions of Americans, relying on food supplements, Medicaid, government-backed loans, and innumerable other social safety nets.
Trump has especially targeted law enforcement programs directed at enforcing worker and consumer safety, financial protections, and environmental health against toxic corporations. He is taking federal cops off the corporate crime beat.
Multiply this story of undeserved misery and fragility hundreds of thousands of times.
Here are some specifics. Qualified foreign doctors have had their visas rejected. The US has a doctor shortage, especially in rural areas. These physicians were blocked by Trump from extending care in areas with no doctors.
Huge, arbitrary cuts for scientific research have closed or curtailed labs, left individual scientists pursuing crucial discoveries to save lives without the government grants funding vital promising projects. He has also accelerated a brain drain from the US to Europe and China, and reduced the number of scientists, engineers, and nurses coming to the US to work, where they are seriously needed.
Entire careers and livelihoods have been destroyed by this dictator using the White House to vastly enrich himself and his cronies.
Let’s be more specific. The New York Times published a front-page story about what is happening to employees of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), illegally closed down in the first week of Trump’s regime. This reckless action jeopardizes millions of impoverished lives abroad. The article opened with: “She was fired by email while on maternity leave, given 24 hours to clear out her desk, and left with three days of health insurance and no severance.” Her husband, also working with funding from USAID, lost his job. They are now relying on food stamps, Medicaid, and a supplemental nutrition program—long-standing programs being cravenly slashed by the Trumpsters, while giving huge tax escapes to the super rich and large corporations like Apple.
Multiply this story of undeserved misery and fragility hundreds of thousands of times. Through Elon Musk’s criminal enterprise, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whole agencies were being illegally shattered, and virtually shut down, e.g., the Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the US Institute of Peace. Others were being strip-mined like the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Agriculture.
Trump tore up civil service union contracts. The unions are suing Trump for this breach of contract. Such lawsuits drag on interminably and are hardly covered by the media. What the union leaders and members should be doing is peaceably encircling the White House for round-the-clock vigils and featuring large signs calling Trump out in vivid language. After all, the headquarters of the AFL-CIO is less than a block from the White House for easy logistics.
What are the pretexts coming out of Trump’s snarling mouth to justify such devastation of America? One is that he accuses these agencies of being “woke,” an ill-defined word for “leftists” that he has turned into another of his four-letter epithets for his ever-true believers.
A more frequent declaration issued without substantiation is that his decisions are based on “a grave threat to national security.” His lies don’t pass the laugh test.
This pretext is always applied to Trump’s blockage of offshore wind turbines, which he strangely has long called “ugly.” Trump recently exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from measures to protect endangered species. Self-described warrior of God and Jesus Christ, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, stated that such exemptions would bolster national security by increasing domestic oil production.
Trumpian effrontery gets worse. He issued an executive order removing collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of federal employees employed by a dozen agencies on national security grounds. The 1978 law he falsely invoked applied to “intelligence officers,” not to cleaners, guards, clerks, etc., in federal buildings. Again, the expected lawsuits were filed. Amid judicial delays, Trump gets his way.
When pressed by reporters to explain these pretexts, Trump’s flaks come up with ridiculous assertions promptly rebutted by specialists in each area. (See The New York Times, April 19, 2026—“Trump Has a Go-To Justification for His Contentious Decisions: National Security.”)
Who elected Trump? The Democratic Party’s feeble, cowardly, and uninspiring performance in 2024—repressing through its corporate-conflicted consultants’ decisive input from its progressive wing and civic and labor leaders—was a big factor. (See the August 27, 2024, letter to Liz Shuler).
Who unleashed this runaway felonious politician violating daily innumerable federal laws, regulations, international treaties, and constitutional provisions, constituting serious impeachable offenses? (See H.Res.1155).
First, the congressional Republicans have abjectly surrendered their oath of office to constitutionally lead the congressional branch of government. In addition, the cowardly Democrats, who could have conducted scores of “shadow hearings” to inform the media and citizenry are largely MIA.
It is time for citizens to press their Senators and Representatives to stop this Trump rampage—before it is too late. The Congressional Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
Trump blasted both Spain and the U.K. last month after both countries hesitated on providing the U.S. full support over Iran.
The president said he ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut off all dealings with Spain” and slammed U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the move to give up the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The U.S. and U.K. jointly operate the Diego Garcia military base within the island archipelago.
“This is not Winston Churchill,” Trump said, contrasting Starmer with the famed British prime minister who led the country during World War II.
Appeals court clears way for U.S. to reopen border for asylum seekers
The judges found Trump’s decision to declare an ‘invasion’ and deny entry to asylum seekers was illegal.
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s declaration of an “invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border to restrict entry was illegal, effectively clearing the way to reopen the United States to migrants seeking asylum.
Advocates for immigrants sued, arguing that the administration was violating federal law by rejecting people’s right to seek asylum because they fear persecution based on their political opinion, race or other reasons detailed in federal law. A lower-court judge had ruled in their favor, but the border has remained largely closed to asylum seekers as the case made its way through the courts.
In its opinion, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said Trump’s proclamation was “an unprecedented decision” that brushed off long-standing federal laws outlined by Congress and probably endangered migrants’ lives.
“Denying asylum in one stroke, without any information about the affected individuals, necessarily ignores every risk of persecution they face when forced back to where they came from,” the court wrote in a lengthy opinion. “The challenged decision thus necessarily denies asylum even to foreign individuals who are sure to face persecution without it.”
The decision was handed down by Judge J. Michelle Childs, a Biden appointee who wrote the decision; Judge Cornelia T.L. Pillard, an Obama nominee; and Judge Justin R. Walker, a Trump appointee who wrote a partial dissent.
Advocates for immigrants cheered the ruling, saying officials have turned away people in fear for their lives.
“The court’s opinion does not mean there are now open borders, but only that the United States will no longer be one of the few countries in the world who after World War II does not provide a hearing for those fleeing persecution,” said Lee Gelernt, the American Civil Liberties Union attorney who argued the appeal. “The court properly made clear that the president cannot simply waive away the laws enacted by Congress.”
The decision comes weeks after the Supreme Court appeared poised to uphold birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, and as the Trump administration faces dozens of legal challenges to the president’s efforts to discourage illegal deportation and deport undocumented immigrants.
In a separate legal ruling Friday, the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit struck down a preliminary injunction from a federal judge that had prevented Texas officials from implementing a 2023 law that creates state-level criminal penalties for immigration offenses and allows state police to arrest undocumented immigrants.
Immigration advocacy groups sued, arguing that the law is unconstitutional because only the federal government has legal jurisdiction to enforce immigration law. The Justice Department during the Biden administration joined the case, and a federal judge issued an injunction, which was upheld by a three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit court.
The law “is enforceable only against aliens illegally present in Texas,” the majority wrote in its opinion.
“Texas’s right to arrest illegals, protect our citizens, and enforce immigration law is fundamental,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “This is a major victory for public safety and law and order.”
Federal laws have allowed migrants to seek asylum for decades, but the Trump administration contends that asylum is a “loophole” that has allowed thousands of migrants to gain entry into the United States and obtain work permits while they await a hearing that can take years in the backlogged immigration courts. During his second term, Trump officials have imposed restrictions that have allowed them to expel asylum seekers without a hearing and detain immigrants indefinitely inside the United States.
Border Patrol apprehensions have fallen from more than 2 million in 2023 to fewer than 240,000 last fiscal year, which ran from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30.
“We strongly disagree with this ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — this will not be the last word on this matter,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement. “America’s asylum system was never intended to be used as a de facto amnesty program or a catchall, get-out-of-deportation-free card.”
If asylum processing resumes, advocates for immigrants say, migrants would have to balance safety in Mexico or other nations against the threat of being detained in U.S. detention centers, where dozens have died since Trump took office amid concerns about inadequate medical care.
Federal officers have also carried out often violent raids across the United States to detain immigrants, though they have pulled back on those in recent weeks.
“The fact that the system is back open is really critical and important,” said Keren Zwick, co-counsel in the case and director of litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center. But she added, the invalidated proclamation is “just one of many tools in the government’s arsenal to harm and restrict asylum seekers.”
The appeals court ruling upheld a July decision by U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss, who ruled that the Trump administration lacked the authority to expel asylum seekers. Moss said Trump could not invoke emergency presidential powers to deport migrants without allowing them to follow proper procedures to apply for asylum, including undergoing interviews about threats of persecution or torture and, potentially, a hearing in immigration court.
Migrants and advocacy groups filed the lawsuit in February 2025 shortly after Trump issued the proclamation, saying federal law allows people to apply for asylum as long as they are on U.S. soil, even if they entered illegally.
I did not hear a shotgun blast, only security pistols. I bet the officer that was shot was shot by another security officer. If he really had a shotgun he would be dead.
No end in sight
Iran says it will not accept ‘maximalist’ US demands as Pakistan pursues peace
By Saad Sayeed, Ariba Shahid and Steve Holland
April 25 (Reuters) – Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi laid out Iran’s demands and its reservations about U.S. positions on Saturday as Pakistan made a new push to end a war that has killed thousands and shaken global energy markets.
After holding talks with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other top officials, Araqchi and his delegation flew out of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad with a military jet escort, government sources said. Details of the talks were scant.
The White House had earlier said President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner would travel to Islamabad on Saturday.
It was not immediately clear if or when Araqchi would return to Pakistan. Iran has previously ruled out a new round of direct talks with the United States.
Araqchi “explained our country’s principled positions regarding the latest developments related to the ceasefire and the complete end of the imposed war against Iran”, said a statement on the minister’s official Telegram account.
Asked about Tehran’s reservations about U.S. positions in the talks, an Iranian diplomatic source in Islamabad told Reuters: “Principally, Iranian side will not accept maximalist demands.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had earlier told reporters that Iran had a chance to make a “good deal”.
“Iran knows that they still have an open window to choose wisely,” he said. “All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon in meaningful and verifiable ways.”
Araqchi arrived in Islamabad on Friday. But an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson posted on X that Iranian officials did not plan to meet U.S. representatives and that Tehran’s concerns would be conveyed to mediator Pakistan.
Trump told Reuters on Friday that Iran planned to make an offer aimed at satisfying U.S. demands but that he did not know what the offer entailed. He declined to say who Washington was negotiating with, “but we’re dealing with the people that are in charge now”.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the U.S. had seen some progress from the Iranian side in recent days and hoped more would come this weekend, while Vice President JD Vance was ready to travel to Pakistan as well.
CEASEFIRES IN PLACE, FEW SHIPS CROSSING HORMUZ
Days after Trump extended the ceasefire, international flights resumed from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on Saturday, Iranian media said. The first passengers had departed for Medina, in Saudi Arabia, Muscat and Istanbul, with operations expected to accelerate in the coming days.
“Well, it’s a good feeling. When flights resume, trade is done, and people can do their jobs. It’s a good feeling,” said one passenger at the airport, where passengers were queuing at check-in desks.
Iranian airspace has been largely closed since the start of the war. Tens of thousands of flights have been cancelled, rerouted and rescheduled worldwide, shutting much of the Middle East’s airspace because of missile and drone threats.
Trump unilaterally extended a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday to allow more time to reconvene the negotiators.
Oil prices surged this week, with Brent crude futures soaring 16%, (now back to $105) on uncertainty over the fate of the peace talks and as violence flared in the region.
Shipping data on Friday showed that five ships had crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the previous 24 hours, compared to around 130 a day before the war. The ships included an Iranian oil-products tanker but none of the vast crude-carrying supertankers that normally feed global energy markets.
Data analytics firm Vortexa said this week it had recorded 35 total transits through the U.S. blockade from April 13 to 22, involving Iran-linked or sanctioned vessels for inbound and outbound journeys.
“The enemy, whose objective of crippling Iran’s missile and military capabilities has failed, is now seeking an honorable exit from the quagmire of war,” Iranian media quoted a defence ministry spokesperson as saying. “Iran is today in firm control of the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iranian state TV quoted the country’s top military command as reiterating that Iran would react if U.S. forces continued their “blockade and piracy” in the region.
On Thursday, Israel and Lebanon extended their ceasefire for three weeks at a White House meeting brokered by Trump, but there was little sign of an end to the fighting in southern Lebanon.
Israel invaded its northern neighbor last month to root out Iran’s Hezbollah allies after the militant group fired across the border in support of Iran. Tehran says a ceasefire there is a precondition for talks.
Four people were killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, Lebanon’s state news agency reported, and Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, the Israeli military said, in the latest challenge to the ceasefire there.
“Freedom” and how that word has been twisted into unrecognizable wreckage by the Republican Party
America is supposed to be the land of the free, but try telling that to a pregnant woman who is faced with a crushing decision about what’s best for her, or Alex Pretti or Renee Good who were shot dead in the street by government thugs for freely standing up against violent authoritarianism. (Government thugs, incidentally, who are still free among us to kill again as I type this.)
This cultish party distrusts and has full-blown hate of our government in the name of freedom, but lack of distrust in the head of that government, Donald Trump, who is easily the most dishonest, self-serving man in United States history.
It is impossible to describe just how stupid and weak they look and sound.
You see, the Republican Party wants us to believe freedom exists to give them the right to do whatever the hell it is they want when they want, and oppress people they don’t like all in the name of some perverted notion of law and order.
Well, we simply have to know by now that Republicans don’t stand for law and order or freedom. In fact, they absolutely loathe them. Why, they helped give a 34-count convicted felon, who stood up the most violent attack on our Capitol since 1812, the keys to finish us off for good.
That isn’t called freedom, it’s called treason.
Freedom isn’t the reason they absolutely love our U.S. troops patrolling our U.S. cities. Control over those cities is.
It gets worse (more pathetic), because these so-called freedom-loving Republicans inside our Congress have handcuffed themselves to Trump’s altar, and are told what to say and when to say it by their shriveled up, 80-year-old, orange wannabe king, or else.
They have been stripped of original thought, and believe only what they are allowed to by an abusive slob, who is mentioned in the Epstein Files tens of thousands of times, has lied hundreds of thousands of times while in office, and regularly beats Republican legislators into submission.
Picture Lindsey Graham …
Now picture the dangerous, anti-American tongue-draggers at the J-6 insurrection attempt, who were given the freedom to do it all that again, after being pardoned by the dangerous slob, who was given the freedom by our busted Supreme Court to do whatever he likes without consequence.
That isn’t freedom, it is authoritarianism.
Of course the damndest thing about all of this is just how freely these low-wattage idiots are hurting themselves in their never-ending quest to oppress everybody else.
Best I can see, Trump has not done a single thing to make their lives better, except hate the very same people they do.
Otherwise, he has made it harder for them to get the most basic things in life like affordable medical care, broadband access, unbiased news, clean air and water, and matching funding to keep their schools, parks, ball fields, libraries, streets, buildings, and neighborhoods thriving.
Even the gasoline they chug by the gallon is more expensive now.
And, say, what about freedom of choice or freedom of speech?
What about the freedom to read what they want?
What about freedom of the press, or freedom from all that religion they are throwing in our face?
How about the freedom to be who you want to be, or freedom from these damn billionaire-run monopolies who choose what we buy and where we can buy it?
All this “freedom” they seek is killing them and us.
Still not convinced?
Their warped sense of freedom has allowed them to finally unshackle themselves from all this dreaded science that has saved millions and millions of lives over the years from things like the Measles, which they believe they should be free to spread again.
Science used to be relied on to increase life expectancy, but thanks to all these Republican freedoms that is on the decrease, too.
They have given predatory insurance companies the freedom to ignore our claims, and raise our already sky-high premiums — that is if we can even afford to carry insurance in the first place.
By giving our government the freedom to deregulate corporations they are free to once again kill generations of people and animals from toxins that the scientists warned were lethal.
Their march for freedom has led to cuts in disaster relief that aids and comforts them when their towns are blown to pieces by catastrophic storms and fires that are far more severe than they used to be because of a rapidly changing climate. Republicans will look you straight in the eye and swear that isn’t happening, even if those predatory insurance companies are using the very science they distrust to defend devouring their savings.
That isn’t freedom. It is willful ignorance.
Republicans’ bastardized notion of the word freedom, is slowly strangling all of us, and that is by design, people. The truth is Americans have never been less free in my lifetime, and it is getting worse by the minute as fascism runs through the GOP’s hardening hearts and into our democracy’s veins.
With all the ruin emanating from the Oval Office on a daily basis, it’s easy to fall into quiet despair.
Following the news feels like monitoring a malignant tumor as it spreads outward from the epicenter of the free world, jumping oceans, URLs, and psyches, threatening the globe on macro and micro levels simultaneously. Only this sickness, this decidedly opportunistic cancer, has never been seen before. Certainly this level of rot has not been diagnosed in our 250 year history.
Trump’s singularly corrupt and destructive appetite, both fed and insulated by the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, is hard to stomach. After SCOTUS handed criminal immunity to a psychopath, despondency set in as the world resentfully assumed that Trump would get away with his crimes against humanity forever.
Then, just there, on the unlit edge of the blackest cloud to have darkened the world in a very long time, a glimmering trace of silver peaked out. In a development that should have streaked across the headlines, but barely got a mention, a federal judge ruled that Trump will pay for at least one of his crimes: January6.
Trump will likely lose his ill-got gains
Measuring the amount of corruption lining Trump’s pocket is like shoveling on a snowy day. As of late January, Trump had pocketed upwards of $4 billion from untraceable crypto currency ventures, suspicious market manipulations, and outright bribery from foreign and domestic sources during his first year back in office. He’d better be thinking on how to hide it, because on March 31, 2026, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled that Trump. Is. Civilly. Liable for the damages he caused on January 6, 2021.
Judge Mehta’s cautious 79 page ruling denied Trump civil immunity through a careful analysis largely devoted to distinguishing between Trump’s criminal actions as an office-holder (official-acts immunity), and his actions in seeking office, which were not official acts and therefore are not immune. The decision carefully followed the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, and will allow claims against him from members of Congress and capital police officers to proceed to trial.
After a prior ruling that Trump’s speech on the Ellipse plausibly amounted to incitement, which is not protected under the First Amendment, Trump’s legal team sought to substitute the United States as the defendant under the Westfall Act, arguing that Trump’s acts fell within the scope of his employment as President. That motion was denied. The critical contextual question, following the 2023 decision in Blassingame v. Trump, was whether Trump was speaking or engaging in conduct “in an official capacity as office-holder or instead in an unofficial capacity as office-seeker.”
Applying the immunity ruling, the court observed that “many uses of the presidential bully pulpit fall comfortably within the outer perimeter of [the President’s] official responsibility” and are therefore immune. “The Court’s approach recognizes that presidential speech on matters of public concern will very often be official—and thus immunized.” But the immunity decision itself recognized that there may “be contexts in which the President, notwithstanding the prominence of his position, speaks in an unofficial capacity—perhaps as a candidate for office or party leader.” Trump, 603 U.S. at 629. Acting or campaigning to attain the Office of the President, is not an official function of the office.
Proving damages will be easy
The cause-damages link on J6 is obvious.
On December 19, 2020, Trump sent out a tweet targeting extremist groups, urging them to come to the U.S. Capitol to make their anger known about a “stolen” presidential election. In follow up communications, he teased a “wild” rally, and convinced 74 million supporters who had voted for him that their votes weren’t counted, which, predictably, angered them.
On Jan. 6, 2021, on the White House Ellipse where his summoned supporters gathered, Trump gave a fiery speech telling those in attendance, “We fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” He then urged them to “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue” to “take back our country.”
Following Trump’s instructions, the summoned people then marched to the Capitol Building, which they breached with unprecedented political violence seen around the world. Although many people pleaded with Trump to stop the violence, he safely enjoyed it on TV for over three hours before he told rioters to stop.
At least seven people died from the attack.
Trump will bring this same contempt to the courtroom when he is personally sued for billions over J6, when he falsely brays, again, that he won in 2020. Juries don’t like him, most Americans don’t like him. He has assaulted women, stolen from our nation, and put our fragile democracy on life support. No verdict will be too high, and Americans are here for it.
Breaking with decades of tradition, the White House Correspondents’ Association
will not feature a comedian at its annual gala this Saturday night. Instead, “the world’s most celebrated mentalist,” Oz Pearlman, will entertain the throngs of journos, politicos, corporate overlords and Beltway influencers at the Washington, D.C. Hilton.
Among those luminaries will be President Donald J. Trump who, in his capacity as president, has previously boycotted the event. This time around he’ll deliver an address. The president seems to be feeling confident about his performance, as evidenced by this social media post:
“In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation, and work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!”
According to his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, he’s even been working with joke writers to prepare for the occasion.
Trump’s wars, deportations, voter suppression schemes, corruption, lies and so forth would have made great comedy. But the jokes would linger like funny prayers to ironic gods, permitting us to at least collectively recognize how absurd our predicament has become.
Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are flunking math
By Jarvis DeBerry “There’s two ways of calculating a percentage,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., at a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing. Warren had rightly dismissed President Donald Trump’s claim that he had lowered drug prices by up to 600%, and she demanded some “real math.” But Kennedy, out of either ignorance or shameless sycophancy to Trump, shot back with some MAGA math. “If you have a $600 drug, and you reduce it to $10,” Kennedy said, “that’s a 600% reduction.” No, it’s not. This point can’t be stressed enough in case there’s a middle schooler reading the opinion page: No! It’s just not. Kennedy didn’t come up with the 600% nonsense himself. Trump has consistently claimed that he’s reduced the price of drugs by many times more than the price of those drugs. Kennedy’s maddening repetition of pseudo-math may be the most glaring sign of a broader problem in the Trump administration. Hint: It is a 98% reduction, not 600%.April 24 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration plans to add firing squads, electrocution and gas asphyxiation as alternative methods of executing people convicted of the gravest federal crimes, it announced on Friday, noting difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections.
The recommendation came in a Justice Department report fulfilling Trump’s promise to resume capital punishment at the federal level in his second term, although it will likely be several years before another federal execution can be scheduled.
Shortly before his first term ended in 2021, Trump, a Republican, resumed executions at the federal level after a 20-year gap, putting 13 federal prisoners to death with lethal injections in his final few months in office. There had been just three federal executions in the preceding 50 years.
Most executions in the U.S. are carried out by state governments.
Returning to the White House last year, Trump rescinded a moratorium on federal executions by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
Trump’s Justice Department is now seeking the death penalty against more than 40 defendants across the country, although none have yet gone to trial, each of which can take years.
Trump thinks that his presidency is just a show.
Trump keeps pushing COAL
Former Combat Engineer at U.S. Marine Corps (1997–2001)
If the world ran on nuclear, how much waste would be produced every year?
We have roughly 400 nuclear reactors in operation right now worldwide. They provide right at 10% of the worlds electrical needs. Simple math tells you that we would need 4000 nuclear reactors to power the whole of the world with nuclear power alone.
A single nuclear power plant produces right about one railcars worth of waste per year. It gets casked up into special barrels and shipped somewhere to be buried in an old mine to half-life decay in peace.
A single coal fired plant produces right about 4000 railcars of waste per year. Toxic flyash which is usually just put in local holding areas. Like this one.
That is to say that 4000 nuclear reactors would make as much waste as a single coal fired plant.
(There are approximately 2,400 to 2,500 operational coal-fired power stations worldwide. producing 10 million times the waste.)
We solved the energy problem last century with nuclear power, but there is far too much money involved in the combustion of legacy fuels to just abandon it for something cheaper and cleaner and greener and carbon neutral. It was never about saving the planet it is about this:
Awesome :Video
