President Donald Trump’s 4th of July speech for showed disrespect to Gold Star families, or immediate relatives of soldiers who died on active duty.
“Oh my God,” wrote The Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols on the social media platform X. “Trump pays tribute to the Gold star families and then says ‘we have medals for you backstage’ like they are failed contestants on a game show.”
The Republican leader has a long history of controversial behavior toward Gold Star Families. In May, while attending an Arlington Cemetery wreath-laying ceremony to honor them for Memorial Day, Trump left the Gold Star Families standing in the rain while he was protected from the elements. Looking “exhausted, unsteady, and vacant,” according to Republican strategist and former President George W. Bush adviser Steve Schmidt, Trump’s appearance proved to be “the perfect metaphor for this vulgar and degraded age in American life,” and in the process offered a snapshot of “the truth of Trumpism better than any poll, speech or slogan ever could.”
He added, “It was a weekend of humiliation for the country. Abraham Lincoln described the war dead as those who gave ‘the last full measure of devotion.’ Donald Trump has spent his political life mocking devotion, degrading sacrifice and insulting honor. He mocked John McCain for being captured. He called dead Americans ‘losers’ and ‘suckers.’ He turned Arlington into a campaign backdrop. He transformed Memorial Day into another spectacle centered on himself, his grievances and his vanity.”
Trump’s handling of that event was similarly derided by Heather Delany Reese, a political commentator who once supported Trump.
“If Donald Trump cared even a little about the meaning of Memorial Day, he would have spent the morning honoring the fallen,” Reese commented at the time. “He would have spoken about the young men and women who never made it home.” Instead the president “spent his morning posting hatred from his phone.”
The president also attracted Gold Star Family ire in January 2024. The veterans’ rights group VoteVets released an ad condemning Trump for referring to veterans who died in combat as “suckers” and “losers,” as well as for describing Gold Star Families who protested such language as “vile” and “shills.”
Trump’s rhetoric, these families argued, “just underscores the outright hate Donald Trump has for those who serve and those who’ve lost loved ones in war.“
“It is a dark day in America when the Republican party’s presumptive nominee, who never served himself and never had family who wore the uniform, sends attack dogs after Gold Star families in this way,” their statement added.
The president even controversially went after the family of Khizr Khan, who died in combat during the Iraq War, during his 2016 presidential campaign. Specifically he claimed that the deceased soldier’s mother was not allowed to speak because of the family’s Muslim religion, although he provided no evidence of this.
Every day brings more news of Trump’s greed, incompetence, cruelty, and criminality.
Raking in $2.2 billion in his first year in office, much of it siphoned off from taxpayers and gullible followers. His Iran debacle. His malignant narcissism, putting his face and name everywhere. His cruel mass deportations. His use of the Justice Department to prosecute anyone he feels has wronged him. And so on.
“The damage President Trump has inflicted on the United States and the world is so enormous and wide-ranging that it is hard to grasp.”
I think it important to separate the loathsomeness of Trump as a person from the horrendous things he’s doing. Trump won’t change, but we can begin seeking changes in our system to prevent such awfulness in the future — especially if/when we boot out the Republican cowards and sycophants from Congress.
What basic reforms are necessary to begin cleaning up the mess? I’m not talking about specific policies such as reducing the size of the military, saving the planet from climate change, providing Medicare for All, or dealing with AI — as important as they are. I’m focusing on basic meat-and-potatoes reforms of how our government functions — reforms that will be necessary to get anything done.
The bare essentials. Herewith:
1. Subject Supreme Court justices to term limits. Limit the terms of justices to 18 years, after which time they must move to courts of appeals or district courts. Justices already on the high court can remain only until they’ve been there for 18 years. Those who are beyond this limit must immediately move to other courts. (Another reform is to expand the number of justices, but FDR tried this and it proved so politically unpopular that he had to abandon it.)
2. Prevent conflicts of interest. End the exemption of the president and vice president from conflicts of interest laws. Require all federally elected officials to put their investments into blind trusts. Prohibit all trading of specific shares of stock.
3. Stop a president from using the Justice Department. Prohibit a president from having any involvement in decisions about whom to prosecute. Require congressional review of any pardons or commutations.
4. End gerrymanders. Require states to create independent commissions to draw congressional district lines.
5. Revive voting rights. Reenact Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (which barred voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or ethnicity) and Section 5 (which required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting to obtain federal approval before changing any voting laws or procedures).
6. Protect press freedom and independence. Amend the Sherman and Clayton antitrust acts to bar large corporations, or any person already owning major media, from purchasing major media networks or platforms.
7. Protect the freedom of inquiry. Bar the executive branch from conditioning research or other educational grants to universities on any ideological litmus test. Researchers should be free to pursue truth.
8. Get big money out of politics. Establish public matching funds for small-dollar donations for all federal elected offices. Encourage states to grant corporate charters only on condition that corporations refrain from political activity (as Hawaii has done and Montana is considering, and hopefully California will do). Pursue a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United and establish Congress’s authority to limit big money in politics.
9. Tax large aggregations of personal wealth. Enact a wealth tax. Eliminate the “stepped-up basis at death” rule that allows large fortunes to be transferred from one generation to the next without paying taxes on capital gains.
10. Eliminate the Electoral College. Pursue a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College and base the selection of president and vice president on whichever ticket wins the overall popular vote. In the meantime, seek a compact among states (and the District of Columbia) to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential ticket wins the overall popular vote.
We need to begin talking about major structural reforms of how our government functions — and pushing candidates for every level of government to support them. Trump has revealed how easily the system can be abused. When we have the power, we must act to end such abuses.
With the nation’s 250th birthday, here’s a quick comparison to other US leaders.
He single-handedly tanked the economy with high prices resulting from tariffs and the Iran War. Trump’s defunding government agencies and scientific research, along with hyperinflation, has created an impossible job market (the uptick of unemployment nearly one percentage point over the past few years obfuscates the real job market). He has also gone after a national core value, democracy, attacking free speech whether in libraries, education, or protesting on behalf of Palestinian rights. The Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool is a clear symbol of his failed leadership: Trump tried to turn it blue for July 4th, but instead it became green with algae.
While LBJ oversaw an immoral, ruthless, and ultimately failed war in Vietnam, at least he passed civil rights legislation and poverty-reducing Great Society policies.
George W. Bush undertook a reckless war against Iraq; although unjust, one of the main objectives—to overthrow Saddam Hussein—was met, even if afterwards creating a liberal democracy failed miserably and, ultimately, led to ISIS ruling across swathes of the Middle East. Domestically, Bush governed during a recession in his first term that resulted from the dot-com bubble bursting, but he did not fundamentally attack the democratic core of United States, although the Patriot Act presaged the Trump era.
Because of Donald Trump’s monumental failure as a wannabe dictator, MAGA is fracturing and progressives are rising.
Joe Biden oversaw the post-Covid period during which inflation costs, which rose under Trump I during the pandemic, continued to rise because of international supply chain bottlenecks and the Ukraine War. He also gave the green light to the Israeli genocide in Gaza, a policy that Trump continued during his second term. However, Biden’s domestic policies and legislation included the forgiveness of student loan debt, a bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the latter of which included the largest investment in clean energy in US history.
Ronald Reagan conducted covert wars against Latin American governments and his neoliberal policies ultimately helped lead to Trump. However, his negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty were instrumental in leading to the end of the Cold War.
Barack Obama, like Reagan, got into his own covert wars, through supporting Islamist factions in the Syrian Civil War and expanding drone strikes. He also was responsible for creating chaos after his “leading from behind” regime change war against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Yet, domestically, he passed Obamacare, which led to an additional 17 million Americans having health insurance. He also helped pull the economy out of the Great Recession.
President Bill Clinton, a scandal-plagued presidency during the pre-9/11 era, oversaw a healthy economy, but represented the Democratic Party’s embrace of neoliberalism and “tough on crime,” “super predator” policies. While flawed and foreshadowing what was to come, he would not be considered a failed president.
Jimmy Carter, a leader during stagflation and the Iran Hostage Crisis, has been perceived as a failed president. While his handling of each problem could have been improved, he did not create stagflation, which came about from a mix of high oil prices and the Fed’s stimulative economic policies. His offering asylum and medical treatment for the last shah of Iran in the US was in line with US imperial policy. Despite his crimes against the Iranian people and the new Iranian government’s demand that he be returned to Iran to receive justice, Carter refused.
Lastly, Richard Nixon, the most corrupt recent American leader before Trump, authorized the burglary to increase his chances of winning reelection and, after a cove-rup, resigned in shame. He also expanded the failed Vietnam War to Cambodia and Laos, though he had campaigned on ending the conflict. Yet, he created the Environmental Protection Agency and reestablished ties with China, though to do so turned a blind eye to Pakistan’s genocide against a nascent Bangladesh. Nixon did attempt to curtail democracy but nowhere near as systematically as Donald Trump has during his second term.
At every turn, Trump has tried to erode US democracy and the good of the people during his second term. While campaigning to end both inflation and the Ukraine War, he has not ended the war and caused prices to skyrocket thanks to his tariffs and his immoral and illegal war against Iran. He has redirected taxpayer money from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the US Agency for International Development (predicted to cause the deaths of 4.5 million children under 5 years old), and scientific and medical research to fund tax cuts for billionaires, expand the brutal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency by a factor of nine, and now seeks $1.5 trillion in Department of Defense funding (that’s $10K a year per taxpayer if divided evenly).
His Iran War caused about 3,500 Iranian deaths and 4,300 Lebanese deaths. While the US and Iran have a ceasefire, Israel isn’t abiding by it. As of this writing, Trump is still threatening the complete destruction of Iran, which is not ideal if you are honestly negotiating for peace.
From a US imperial perspective, the war has failed on every front: The Iranian regime is more powerful than ever; the Iranian population has largely gotten behind its government during the war; Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz now; Iran acts as a check on Israeli use of force in Lebanon; and the US bases, from which American forces retreated from during the fighting, may be closed in the Gulf countries and move to Israel. For those who relish in military victories, it is a loss for America.
Donald Trump may be up there as the biggest loser in history, but for now, it’s safe to say that he is the biggest failure in recent American presidential history.
There is an upside to utter failure though. While establishment Democrats have offered tepid criticism against Trump’s authoritarianism and immoral wars, progressives have made headway whether it’s the Mamdani-backed progressives winning their primaries in New York, Graham Platner winning the primary in Maine, or Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)’s use of “genocide” to describe Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza. Even Tucker Carlson has condemned his past Islamophobia and vociferously condemns the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the decimation of southern Lebanon and Beirut.
Because of Donald Trump’s monumental failure as a wannabe dictator, MAGA is fracturing and progressives are rising. Anti-Trump protests have broken record numbers and anti-ICE demonstrations at places like Delaney Hall are pushing back as strong as ever.
Surely, just after the 250th anniversary of the US, these were things worth celebrating.
Ranking Member Huffman Releases Report on How Trump Hijacked America’s 250th Birthday to Enrich Himself, Sell Access, and Harvest Americans’ Data
Whistleblower accounts and internal documents reveal how the White House captured a beloved national charity, deceived donors out of their money, and sold access to the President July 02, 2026 Washington, D.C. – Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) released a new 55-page report following months of investigative work by Committee Democrats exposing how Donald Trump hijacked what was supposed to be a unifying, non-political celebration of our country’s 250th birthday and made it all about him – his vanity projects, his political and religious agenda, his business ventures, and his cronies who gorged on public funds under cover of a shadow corporation shielded from public scrutiny. The report, “From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250th Birthday,” traces how the machinery Congress built for a national commemoration that would be above politics was commandeered, over a period of months, into an apparatus for raising and spending money in service of the President’s ego, political agenda, and personal financial interests. “Donald Trump’s hijacking of America’s 250th birthday will go down as one of the most corrupt, brazen abuses of public trust in presidential history, even by the dubious standards of this administration. As our country prepared to celebrate a milestone that belongs to every American, Trump and his operatives launched a hostile takeover of the bipartisan commission established by Congress to lead the celebration. When that failed, they sidelined the commission, siphoned its resources, and infiltrated a beloved national charity under cover of a shadow corporation that shielded them from public scrutiny. Then they proceeded to deceive donors, solicit foreign money, sell access to the President, award no-bid contracts to Trump loyalists, harvest Americans’ personal data, and push a white-washed, Christian nationalist version of history,” said Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif). “But they didn’t account for us. Over the past year, our investigation has pursued the truth about the machinations, schemes and abuses of trust they’ve tried to hide. We’ve uncovered extensive evidence of corruption, self-enrichmentand potential crimes. The Republican majority in Congress, which has far more investigative tools and power than we do, could have joined us in conducting serious oversight and demanding answers. Instead, they’ve used their power to shield the individuals and entities involved. “The American people deserve to know the truth about how the official national celebration of our country’s 250th anniversary was stolen, along with a large – and so far unaccounted for – sum of their taxpayer dollars. So, today – against the obstruction and resistance of our Republican colleagues – we are dragging this fiasco out of the shadows and shining a bright light on the corruption and fraud surrounding Freedom 250. We can’t stop from tarnishing the country’s July 4th celebration, but we can stop it from ever happening again – we can protect the next government program, the next fund, the next thing that’s supposed to work for all of us, from being exploited and misused this way. That’s why we must confront this grift and corruption now. From our earliest days, America has stood for government by the people, not powerful tyrants. We will fight to keep it that way.” When the nonpartisan, congressionally chartered America250 Commission refused to bend to the President’s demands, the White House built a replacement – Freedom 250 LLC – and declared it the central platform for the national celebration. The White House lodged this shadow organization inside the National Park Foundation so it could exploit the credibility and donor relationships of a beloved public charity while operating outside the transparency rules Congress wrote into law for the commission. Key Findings The President put himself at the center of the nation’s birthday. Trump issued an executive order making himself and the Vice President Chair and Vice Chair of a White House task force, then staged his own birthday as a national event twice: the Army’s 250th military parade on June 14, 2025, and a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn on June 14, 2026, run under the Freedom 250 banner. The White House built Freedom 250 on deceit. Musical performers, among others, were misled about programming and connections to Trump’s political machine. Fundraisers may have misled donors who intended to support America250 and handed them Freedom 250’s banking information, routing contributions meant for the nonpartisan foundation to the President’s substitute entity instead. The report finds that, if true, this could constitute wire fraud and charitable solicitation fraud under federal and District of Columbia law. Freedom 250 sold access to the President and courted foreign money in America’s name. The organization circulated sponsorship packages starting at $500,000 and climbing above $10 million, backed by a “historic photo opportunity” with President Trump. Its CEO solicited foreign governments, corporations, and individuals at the World Economic Forum in Davos to fund the President’s priorities. If foreign funds reach the President’s vanity projects, the report finds the conduct would clearly violate the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause. Trump and his operatives cashed in. Event Strategies, Inc., the firm that helped plan the January 6th rally, has collected tens of millions in federal contracts connected to the anniversary, including a master contract worth up to $100 million. Trump traded in the stock of companies that donated to Freedom 250 and staged a White House UFC fight that shamelessly promoted his own investments and business ventures. Freedom 250’s event registration process was run through Campaign Nucleus, the firm founded by Trump campaign operative Brad Parscale, which uses artificial intelligence to score visitors and target “persuadable” voters. Thousands of unwitting fans handed over their personal information at a free FIFA World Cup Fan Zone on the National Mall. Freedom 250’s official merchandise is sold by the Trump campaign’s official merchandise vendor, Ace Specialties, and agencies have purchased the merchandise and required employees to wear it. The White House imposed a false, Christian nationalist history. Federally funded “Freedom Trucks” carried revisionism and outright falsehoods to schoolchildren, including an AI rendering of George Washington claiming, “our rights are a gift from God,” a statement Washington is not documented to have made. The Interior Department also urged employees to wear Freedom 250 pins and threatened discipline against those who refused the pin, which anonymous employees took to calling their “Vichy pin,” a reference to World War II-era lapel pins that served as loyalty and propaganda badges. Freedom 250 created a blueprint for corruption. The report concludes Freedom 250 is “a blueprint, not a one-time abuse,” already test-driven at the Department of Agriculture, where the administration steered companies with business before the government to donate through a conservation charity into a fund the Secretary controls. The investigation drew on confidential disclosures from sources interviewed by Committee Democrats, internal Freedom 250 documents and talking points obtained by the Committee, sworn testimony from two Committee hearings, and written responses from the National Park Foundation and the National Forest Foundation. Republicans on the Committee refused to conduct any oversight to hold the administration accountable, even when Democrats repeatedly raised evidence of wrongdoing at Republicans’ own hearing entitled, “All in for America250: Public-Private Partnerships Supporting America’s Semiquincentennial on our Public Lands.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum testified he was “not aware of the final decisionmaker” behind Freedom 250, and the Department has refused to provide that information since.
Trump has discovered, or created, powers that no president has ever had that have been sanctioned by a rightwing Supreme Court, Trump has widened the aperture of the powers the federal government has.
That aperture, Tanden said, can be used by a Democrat to “create a kind of new social contract.”
- Not if John Roberts has anything to say about it.
It doesn’t matter how much “Trump has widened the aperture of the powers the federal government has.” The next Democratic president can’t change America without changing the court. It is not politically neutral. It does not serve the law. It is profoundly corrupt. And only a fool would forget that what this court gives, this court can take away. It must be held accountable for its impunity for the law, same as everyone. So expand its number, impose term limits, strip its jurisdiction, throttle its budgets – whatever it takes, because there will be no new dawn as long as there’s a rightwing supermajority that’s prepared to veto it.
America’s Grifter-in-Chief strikes again
John Feffer July 03, 2026 | 07:41AM ET
The Trump administration concluded a recent mineral deal with Kazakhstan that, not surprisingly, enriches not only President Donald Trump’s own family but that of his secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick. Trump’s two eldest sons, part owners of Dominari Securities, are set to profit from the Kazakh tungsten deal. So is Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment firm run by Lutnick’s two sons.
As The New York Times pointed out in its investigation of the scheme, “Their sons were soon doing business with partners in a deal that their fathers were negotiating, continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in the second Trump administration that has few precedents in American history.”
The phrases “self-enrichment” and “few precedents” are interesting ways of characterizing this latest instance of the administration’s corruption. Isn’t self-enrichment a good thing, in the sense of profiting from your own hard work? By contrast, the article doesn’t mention the word “corruption” at all. Perhaps the Times is worried about getting hit by yet another Trump legal challenge (in October last year, Trump refiled a $15 billion defamation suit against the paper for its coverage of his 2024 presidential campaign).
There are indeed several precedents in American history for what Trump is doing. These previous corruption scandals—Credit Mobilier, Whiskey Ring, Teapot Dome—wrecked the reputations of presidents and cast long shadows over American politics. They also helped to produce the kind of safeguards that Trump is now destroying.
Foreign policy is a tool by which the administration levies a toll on any entity that has the temerity to be a country other than the United States.
As with much of Trump’s disrespect for norms, his corruption has been massive and largely in full view. The two outstanding questions are: Will Trump and company ever be held accountable for their graft and will this corruption have an enduring impact on political institutions in the United States?
Tracking the Damage
If scandalous behavior unfolds in full view of everyone, is it still a scandal? “Scandal” suggests something hidden, something whispered about, something revealed. Trump’s actions are full frontal. They are both brazen and matter-of-fact.
According to the Trump administration and its extended family, the money skimmed off the top of economic transactions is just smart politics. The administration has endeavored to negotiate every peace deal, trade agreement, investment arrangement, and mineral pact in such a way as to deliver Trump, his family, and their circle of close supporters a good chunk of change.
This is Trump’s interpretation of the American dream: Folks would be downright foolish not to profit from their position. All the great tycoons made their money, from railroads to AI, by being in the right place at the right time with the right amount of ruthlessness. In Trump’s case, however, he is using taxpayer money to cover the risk. And most the time, given the terms of the arrangement, there is hardly any risk because Trump is using his presidential power to game the system. That’s what he really means by the “art of the deal.” Trump only deals from a marked deck of cards.
The Center for American Progress runs Trump’s Take, which estimates that the president has received a little over $2.6 billion in cash and gifts since he took office in January 2025.
The graft is not secret, though sometimes the actual amounts involved are obscured by layers of complex finance. Trump’s recent mandatory financial disclosure offers some details. But thanks to a number of websites, it’s become quite easy to track in real time the growing amount of Trump’s slice of the pie.
The Center for American Progress runs Trump’s Take, which estimates that the president has received a little over $2.6 billion in cash and gifts since he took office in January 2025. Much of this money has come from various crypto schemes, including the Trump meme coin, but also such dubious ventures as the documentary about Melania Trump and a number of legal settlements (more colloquially known as shakedowns). Corruption Counter puts the value at $2.2 billion and includes such recent items as the $100 million savings for Trump from the recent effort to bar the Internal Revenue Service from auditing the president. (Courts blocked the overall $1.8 billion “settlement fund,” but the Justice Department is upholding the IRS amnesty.)
If you want to keep track just of the crypto deals, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee maintain the Trump Family Digital Grift Wealth Tracker. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) keeps his own list, which highlights the insider trading around the Iran War and a defense contract with Dell after the president invested in the company. David Kirkpatrick, at The New Yorker, has been keeping a running total of Trump’s ballooning assets. In January, he updated his total to $4 billion, which details, among other things, the Gulf money flowing into Trump pockets. Meanwhile, at RepresentUS, you can find a timeline of shady deals, from the no-bid contract to a presidential supporter for the Reflecting Pool “upgrade” to an Air Force contract for drones awarded to a company backed by Trump’s eldest sons.
In May, Campaign Legal Center published a rundown of influence peddling—what Trump supporters get in return for their contributions—that includes Elon Musk’s DOGE appointment, Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts for the Trump-supporting GEO Group, and the cessation of various lawsuits for Trump-friendly entities (Gemini, Robinhood, Coinbase). Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has its own tracker that keeps up with the number of major events held at Trump’s properties and the number of Trump-branded foreign projects developed during his second term (with a new Trump Tower planned for Tbilisi, Georgia, it’s now up to 25).
Sometimes it seems as though Trump administration policy is just a front for making money, much as a shell company provides a legitimate façade for organized crime.
Getting His Percentage
One of the sticking points in the current war with Iran is the latter’s attempt to control shipping in and out of the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran wants to charge a toll on ships passing through the Strait. Given that the strait is an international waterway—and not a canal—Iran’s bid violates international law.
Trump has opposed Iran’s gambit not so much because it violates the Law of the Seas but because Iran has borrowed a page from the Trump playbook. How dare they try to trump Trump! Indeed, the president has threatened a toll of his own if the ceasefire doesn’t hold: a take of 20% of regional revenues if the United States becomes “the guardian of the Middle East” by using military force to protect shipping in the region.
Foreign policy is a tool by which the administration levies a toll on any entity that has the temerity to be a country other than the United States. The Kazakh deal on tungsten is but one of several ways that the administration has cashed in on critical minerals. The Trump sons have a financial interest in 14 companies working with the US government on mineral deals that involve nearly $9 billion in federal funding. This includes $620 million Pentagon loan, fast-tracked by the White House, to a North Carolina rare-earth magnet company in which Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm has invested. Several Trump associates stand to gain from any future deal involving Greenland minerals.
Trump has used tariffs to extract various concessions. In some cases, countries have responded by appealing to Trump’s self-interest. Vietnam, for instance, approved a Trump golf course and received a tariff reduction. Switzerland also enjoyed such treatment when it gifted Trump “a special Rolex desktop clock, a 1-kilogram personalized gold bar, and loads of flattery.” The message is clear: US trade policy is for sale.
Even peace agreements are not immune from the Trump treatment. The Gaza peace deal offers potentially lucrative opportunities for outside businesses to profit from the reconstruction of the rubble-strewn area. “Everybody and their brother is trying to get a piece of this,” one long-time contractor told The Guardian. “People are treating this like another Iraq or Afghanistan. And they’re trying to get, you know, rich off of it.” The executive board of Trump’s Board of Peace is dominated by titans of industry—Marc Rowan, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner—all salivating at the prospect of using their insider position to profit (though, with progress stalled on the ground, the Board of Peace may end up doing corruption the old-fashioned way by just siphoning off the money up front and granting itself legal immunity to escape the consequences).
The deal that created a “Trump corridor” between Armenia and Azerbaijan was similarly projected to provide commercial opportunities to Trump cronies. But it has yet to get off the ground, another victim of
Trump’s propensity to make a big splash with his agreements and neglect to secure the follow-through.
Trump’s peace deal with Russia, negotiated on the backs of the Ukrainians, would have also meant a huge windfall for Trump cronies—in opportunities for reconstruction contracts in Ukraine and even larger profits for the commercial reengagement with Russia.
In The Atlantic, several months after Trump took office, David Frum summed up the corrupt activities of the administration this way:
Nothing like this has been attempted or even imagined in the history of the American presidency. Throw away the history books; discard feeble comparisons to scandals of the past. There is no analogy with any previous action by any past president. The brazenness of the self-enrichment resembles nothing seen in any earlier White House. This is American corruption on the scale of a post-Soviet republic or a postcolonial African dictatorship.
Frum served in the George W. Bush White House. A NeverTrumper, he nevertheless knows a little something about corrupt conservatives. Upwards of $20 billion of post-war reconstruction aid for Iraq disappeared into the ether of corruption (and the pockets of US firms, including Halliburton). Trump stands on the shoulders of giants.
Immunity and Impact
Donald Trump knows that he is a living, breathing violation of the law. That’s why he has gone to such lengths to ensure immunity—the Supreme Court decision providing presidents with immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts, the attempt to secure exemption from IRS audits. Trump has also promised to pardon preemptively “everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval Office.”
Let’s tackle Trump first. His immunity is not absolute. First, it does not cover “unofficial acts.” Depending on how courts define this category, Trump (and certainly his family) could be prosecuted for corrupt business dealings that are deemed “private.” Second, immunity doesn’t apply if it can be demonstrated that criminal prosecution poses no “dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.” That’s another tough one to parse, and it will probably fall to future courts to define. But if something is demonstrably corrupt, then it should by definition fall outside the legitimate authority and functions of the Executive Branch.
Trump has already used his broad powers to pardon the January 6 rioters and other malefactors, including 22 corrupt politicians. Trump cronies must look at this record and feel pretty safe from future prosecution.
Donald Trump knows that he is a living, breathing violation of the law.
But presidential pardons also have their limits. Such pardons can’t violate the Constitution or criminal law—though Trump has challenged these strictures—and they don’t cover future crimes. More to the point, Trump’s pardons only apply to federal prosecution. Individuals can still be tried in various states (and overseas if their misconduct took place in other countries).
The impact of Trump’s misconduct is directly related to this question of immunity. If the president and his coterie “get away with it,” then the corruption they initiated will be much harder to root out of political institutions. Unprosecuted acts can harden into precedents. Throwing Trump and company into prison would be satisfying. Ditto clawing back their ill-gotten gains. From the point of view of democracy, however, even a plea bargain in which the malefactors stay out of jail and pay a nominal penalty in exchange for pleading guilty would be a victory.
It’s best to think of Trump as an aberration, however much his behavior can be traced to past scandals, the authoritarian tendencies of previous presidents, and the oft-corrupt workings of American capitalism. Democracy, like any fiction, requires the willing suspension of disbelief. Trump’s truly an unbelievable character. Once he’s gone, it will be time to pretend that the monster has been vanquished and the rule of law restored. Only in this way will America escape its semiquincentennial with its clothing muddied but its presumably good intentions intact.
tRump: “there will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.”
Except it is the US that surrendered!
The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, passed in 2015, is a federal law that requires the President to
-submit any nuclear agreement with Iran to Congress,
-prevents the President from lifting statutory sanctions during a review period, and
-establishes ongoing congressional oversight. Several Republicans and Democrats have called on Trump to follow the law on the Iran MOU, but Trump plans to ignore it after alienating voices he’d need to defend it.
Trump’s personal thirst for revenge at home is hurting him on Iran. Congressmen he attacked in pursuit of personal retribution, and who lost their primaries as a result, have no Effs left to give and can now criticize him openly.
Republican Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and John Cornyn of Texas represent precisely this threat, and they came out swinging at the MOU. Senator Cassidy called the deal “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.” Cassidy noted that, “Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works” and it is now closed!
Senator Thom Tillis noted the cost of the war, to date: $100 billion. Rep. Thomas Massie criticized the figure as five times what Congress spends on roads and bridges annually.
Even Mike Pence said the MOU, “smacks of appeasement,” while
Sen. Ted Cruz called the reconstruction fund giving “billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us.”
Making JD Vance cling to the bottom of the bus
Fifteen weeks ago, Trump declared in all caps that, “there will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.” He sought the fall of the regime, total destruction of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, and American control of Iran’s oil.
But under the terms of the MOU, Trump is basically paying Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, financially propping up the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Before talks in Switzerland were cancelled due to continued bombing in Lebanon, Trump tried distancing himself from the MOU by having JD Vance become its face. When a reporter suggested Trump was setting JD Vance up for a fall by sending him to Switzerland, Trump tried to turn the reporter’s comment into a joke, but he didn’t deny it.
After Vance made his opposition to the war known, Trump forcing him to publicly “conclude” a war he opposed— on embarrassing terms— looks like a political hit job. Flexing a psychopath’s instinct to blame victims, Trump laughed as if war were a joke and announced that, “If (the MOU) works out, I’m going to take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD.”
The devil in the details
The White House spent four days attacking leaked drafts of the MOU as pure Iranian propaganda and misinformation. On Wednesday when Axios published the entire text of the MOU, it contained the exact language as leaked.
The administration framed the MOU as a “major win” for the US, while nearly everyone outside of Fox News calls it a disastrous foreign policy blunder, one that compromises long-term security in exchange for short-term concessions.
Trump was so eager to get oil flowing through the Strait and stop the slide into another Great Depression, he agreed to:
—Premature Sanctions Relief: The MoU immediately waives U.S. sanctions and allows Iran to resume oil exports and unblock restricted assets on “day one.” Critics, like former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, warn that this trades away vital economic leverage before hardline nuclear and regional negotiations even begin.
—Rebuilding the Iranian Threat: Analysts warn that the estimated $300 billion reconstruction and financial package will be funneled directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to finance terrorism and accelerate nuclear ambitions.
—Compromised Lebanon Strategy: The agreement’s ceasefire provisions require de-escalation in Lebanon without involving Israel or Hezbollah in the negotiations. Israel has already rejected this as giving Iran veto power over Israeli self-defense.
—Bribing Over Shipping Lanes: The deal immediately lifts the U.S. blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran only temporarily allowing toll-free passage for the 60-day negotiation period. Critics point out that the U.S. is effectively paying Iran to stop threatening international shipping, while Iran has already signaled its long term intent to charge “fees” for passage
.
So, no unconditional surrender. No nuclear disarmament. No permanent agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz without tolls; Vance said on CNBC that those details remain to be “figured out.” But Iran will get a $300 billion reconstruction fund and all sanctions lifted, even without those concessions, which is hard to spin as anything other than US surrender.
Trump keeps celebrating himself. Americans do not respond as he would like.
After winning a cage match in front of the White House last weekend, UFC fighter Josh Hokit paused his postfight interview to take a vulgar swipe at former first lady Michelle Obama. In the days that followed, Michelle Obama began trending across social media — not because of the insult, but because Americans responded by celebrating her, sharing elegant portraits, highlighting her accomplishments and praising the grace and dignity she brought to public life.It is a familiar pattern in the Trump era. First comes the clumsy effort to glorify the president and demean his perceived opponents. Then comes the public reaction that elevates the very people and values he is trying to diminish. President Donald Trump wanted Americans to celebrate his birthday with a big UFC fight. Instead, he reminded Americans of everything they appreciated about the Obamas.
Trump wants love, but he doesn’t know how to win it. He wants respect, but he doesn’t know how to earn it. He wants to be feared, but he doesn’t know how to inspire it. Frustrated, he turns to forced displays of loyalty and empty threats. And Americans respond with ridicule or something he may find worse: indifference.
Ukraine’s long distance drones were hitting a Russiwn oil storage facility in the outskirts of Moscow when a Russian defense missle missed its target and came down on an oil storage tank, blowing their own tank up!
ROME – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused her one-time close ally Donald Trump of fabricating a story about her on Friday,
Meloni said she was “astonished” by his comments, which were “completely made up”. She accused him of acting with far greater deference to the enemies of the West than he does towards old, established allies.
“I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence,” she said, adding: “There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.”
tRump/Israel is not done with Iran yet
Memorandum of Understanding an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and undertake that from now on they will not launch any hostile action against each other, and will refrain from the threat or use of force against each other.
tRump wanted the war to seem over due to November elections.
Then, after the elections:
Trump said that Iran killing US troops would be “a good reason” to restart the war — his words. There is a ceasefire deal signed just yesterday, but it is only 60 days long, the blockade remains, and Trump has openly said the war could resume if Iran doesn’t comply.
Israel will make sure it restarts after elections. tRump will say Iran did not comply, and boom.
Tulsi Gabbords “SECRET BIOLABS”:
Tulsi Gabbard’s Not-So-Shocking Revelation of U.S.-Funded Veterinary Biolabs in Ukraine
Trump’s director of national intelligence revives a Russian disinformation campaign on her way out.
Russian propagandists asserted in March 2022 that the U.S. was funding bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine as a justification for their armed forces’ brutal invasion of that country. “During a special military operation, the facts of the Kiev regime’s emergency cleanup of traces of a military biological program funded by the US Department of Defence implemented in Ukraine were revealed,” asserted a Russian spokesperson on March 6, 2022. A Chinese spokesman joined in, declaring “This Russian military operation has uncovered the secret of the U.S. labs in Ukraine, and this is not something that can be dealt with in a perfunctory manner.” Ironically, this outrageous allegation comes from a regime that refused to allow independent researchers to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 virus in Wuhan, China.
That authoritarian regimes lie is not surprising. However, this Russian propaganda was also parroted by prominent American right-wing figures in the United States, including former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson and podcaster Steve Bannon.
Former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard quickly joined in, releasing a video on March 13, 2022 in which she stated: “Here are the undeniable facts: There are 25 to 30 U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine. According to the U.S. government, these biolabs are conducting research on dangerous pathogens.”
Gabbard did not outright claim that the labs were researching bioweapons, although she hinted that they could be conducting “gain-of-function” experiments that could make the pathogens more dangerously infectious. Calling her “our friend,” Russian propagandists widely promoted her remarks as evidence for their claims about secret U.S. bioweapons labs in Ukraine. One Russian commentator even speculated, perhaps jokingly, that she was “some kind of Russian agent.”
In response, Sen. Mitt Romney (R–Utah) on March 13, 2022, tweeted: “Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda. Her treasonous lies may well cost lives.”
Both American and international organizations thoroughly debunked the Russian disinformation campaign.
Despite her conspiracy theory–adjacent shenanigans, President Donald Trump nominated Gabbard to head the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The ODNI integrates and coordinates the activities of the entire U.S. intelligence community, focusing on counterterrorism, counterintelligence and security, counterproliferation, cyberintegration, and counterinfluence. Gabbard became the director of national intelligence in February 2025.
In May, Gabbard announced that she was resigning as DNI to support her husband as he undergoes treatment for a rare form of bone cancer. Fair enough. On her way out of the door, Gabbard issued a June 12 press release that purportedly “reveals evidence of U.S. taxpayer-funded global lab program.” The release further claimed:
Until now, evidence regarding the full existence and funding of these laboratories had been knowingly withheld from the American people. The information surrounding the existence, history, locations, and funding of these US funded biolabs has been intentionally covered up by powerful people falsely, claiming that they do not exist and accusing anyone who says otherwise to be foreign assets and traitors to America.
Well, no. The Ukrainian biological research labs were not secret nor was information about them “knowingly withheld.” The U.S. Department of Defense issued a fact sheet on March 11, 2022, noting:
The United States, through BTRP [Biological Threat Reduction Program], has invested approximately $200 million in Ukraine since 2005, supporting 46 Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and diagnostic sites. BTRP has improved Ukraine’s biological safety, security and surveillance for both human and animal health.
Gabbard’s defensive line about “foreign assets and traitors” suggests Romney’s observation about her biolab innuendos struck a nerve.
So what did Gabbard’s “newly declassified evidence” actually show? The U.S. government has been funding a lot of veterinary research laboratories focused on wild animal and livestock infectious diseases. Above is a list from Gabbard’s new revelations:
Very suspicious, right? Not at all. The allegedly secret table of projects is evidently drawn from this openly published 2019 federal contractor report outlining Ukraine’s country science plan for researching infectious diseases.
So why study the pathogens listed in the above contracts? African swine fever is endemic in eastern Europe’s wild boar population and affects pork production in those countries as well. Fortunately, the last outbreak of classical swine fever in Ukraine was in 2015. The disease was also eliminated from Europe in that year. However, the virus is endemic in Central and South America and many countries in Asia. Avian influenza still afflicts wild birds and poultry in Europe and Ukraine. Additionally, infectious disease researchers are concerned that avian flu could gain a foothold among humans. These are actually reasonable studies by U.S. and Ukrainian researchers aimed at monitoring these and other concerning infectious diseases.
In the face of the Russian bombardment and invasion, the World Health Organization prudently advised in March 2022 that Ukrainian research laboratories destroy pathogens to prevent potential spills that might lead to disease outbreaks.
No evidence of a nefarious bioweapons plot has emerged. The contracted studies cited by Gabbard have not been covered up nor knowingly withheld. Our director of national intelligence is once again peddling Russian propaganda. The question is, why?
Trump insiders know the reckoning is coming — and this confession proves it
Thom Hartmann June 17, 2026 | 07:38AM ET
Donald Trump is already telling us he’s going to try to steal the 2026 election, and the fact that he’s saying it now, months in advance, is the whole tell.
Back in February, he stood up and declared that “Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” floated taking over the vote in 15 states his party doesn’t control, and returned to the lie he’s been pushing for a decade, that mail-in ballots are crawling with fraud.
They aren’t. Americans have voted by mail for more than a century and a half, and the Brennan Center has shown over and over that you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit mail-ballot fraud.
The fraud claim was never an argument: it’s an excuse for voter suppression, its own form of election fraud. When you convince tens of millions of people that the only way your side can possibly lose is if the other side cheats, you’ve prepared them to swallow whatever you “have to do to protect the vote,” and to reject the result as illegitimate if you lose anyway. That’s the groundwork, and they’re laying it right now in the open.
The measures themselves are extraordinary. This spring, Trump signed an executive order trying to seize federal control over how states run their elections, and when the courts blocked most of it, his administration found a back door through, of all places, the Post Office.
The Postal Service has proposed a rule that would let it refuse to deliver mail-in ballots in any state that won’t first hand over its complete list of mail voters to the federal government, a rule the NAACP says is built to disenfranchise voters and that 23 Democratic-led states are now suing to stop.
Steve Bannon went on his podcast and promised that “we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November,” and when reporters asked the White House to rule it out, the press secretary wouldn’t. More than forty-eight million Americans voted by mail in 2024.
These men want the power to decide whose ballot gets carried to the mailbox and who feels safe enough to show up in person.
If you’re wondering why they’re working this hard to keep you from voting, the answer slipped out of Todd Blanche’s mouth this spring.
Standing on a stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) outside Dallas, the man who’d been Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer and who now runs the Justice Department as acting Attorney General told the crowd, “[E]verybody’s afraid that the next administration, if we don’t win, we’re going to all be investigated and indicted.”
He meant it as a rallying cry. What he actually delivered was a confession: you don’t spend your evenings bracing for an indictment unless some quiet part of you already knows what you’ve done.
A reckoning is coming for the people breaking the law for this president, and they can feel it.
And now the White House is even discussing completely blowing up the Constitution and the right of habeas corpus, which dates back to the year 1215 when the British elite forced King John to sign the Magna Carta on the plain at Runnymede. As the New York Times reported:
“Suspending habeas corpus was one of two radical ideas [Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen] Miller had been pushing that alarmed [White House Staff Secretary Will] Scharf. The other was invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy the military to enforce the law on American streets as protests grew against deportation sweeps.”
Todd Blanche, in particular, has every reason to be worried: he knows who Trump really is, and what he’s capable of.
He’s the lawyer who defended Trump in the New York hush-money trial that ended in 34 felony convictions, and in the federal cases over January 6th and the classified documents stashed at Mar-a-Lago.
He’s also the guy who’s now hiding three million Epstein documents and cut the cushy, puppy-filled deal with Ghislaine Maxwell for keeping her mouth shut.
Now he presides over a Justice Department that he and Trump have remade into a personal instrument of vengeance, complete with a Hitler-like 60-foot banner of Trump’s leering face on its façade, and the president has just nominated him to hold the office permanently.
So when Blanche says out loud that he’s afraid, he isn’t being paranoid. He’s being a good lawyer, reading the room, and the room he’s reading is called “history.”
It reminds me of two lawyers I learned about when we lived in Germany, because the men doing Trump’s legal dirty work today are walking a road that better-dressed men walked 90 years ago, and, as a result, we know exactly where it leads.
The first is Hans Frank, who started out as Adolf Hitler’s personal attorney, defending Hitler and his Nazi thugs in court all through the 1920s the way Blanche once stood behind Trump at the defense table.
When Hitler took power, Frank was rewarded. He became the Reich’s chief jurist, president of the Academy for German Law, and eventually Governor-General of occupied Poland, where he presided over ghettos, mass plunder, and slaughter on a scale that’s still hard to grasp.
Frank was the respectable face of the regime, the man who insisted there was a legal theory for everything. At the Nuremberg trials he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and on October 16, 1946, the respectable lawyer was hanged.
The second man is Roland Freisler, and if Frank shows you what happens to the enabler, Freisler shows you what happens to the judge who decides — like Blanche has argued and John Roberts went along with — that the law is simply whatever Dear Leader wants it to be.
Freisler ran the Volksgerichtshof, the People’s Court, a tribunal stood up outside Germany’s constitutional structure for the express purpose of producing the verdicts the regime demanded. He handed down thousands of death sentences in three years.
He screamed at defendants from the bench, ordered their microphones cut, condemned the young students of the White Rose resistance to the guillotine for the crime of printing leaflets, and sent the officers of the July 20th plot to be hanged within hours of their show trials.
Freisler never faced a Nuremberg of his own, but only because an American bomb fell on his courthouse in February 1945 while he was reportedly clutching a defendant’s case file. The defendant lived; the judge did not. There’s a grim justice in the fact that the one man who most weaponized the law against his fellow citizens was killed holding the very file he was using to destroy one of them.
I stood in the small plaza at the University of Munich back in 1988, the Geschwister-Scholl-Platz, named for Hans and Sophie Scholl, where the two of them were caught scattering their leaflets from the gallery before Freisler sent them to die. They were the Renee Good and Alex Pretti of their time.
The university has since pressed bronze replicas of those scattered leaflets right into the pavement, so that today you walk over them and have to stop.
You think, standing there, about how ordinary the machinery of all this was. It wasn’t run by monsters in uniform alone. It was run by men like Todd Blanche and John Roberts, men with law degrees, men who told themselves they were just interpreting the statutes, just following the orders, just serving the head of state.
And every honest accounting that came afterward, from Nuremberg onward, rejected that excuse and established the principle that a directive from above does not protect the man who carries it out.
That principle is precisely what must be keeping Todd Blanche awake, because we’re already watching the American version, as Mark Twain once said, rhyme.
When Trump wanted his enemies prosecuted, the career professionals balked, so the administration installed Lindsey Halligan, another former Trump personal lawyer with no prosecutorial experience whatsoever, as a U.S. attorney, and she promptly indicted James Comey and Letitia James.
In contrast with Germany in 1933, a federal judge threw both cases out, ruled her appointment unlawful, and other judges in the district were so disgusted that one of them now puts an asterisk beside her name on every court filing.
Thankfully, at least so far, these are not the actions of a legal system that’s fully surrendered (although Aileen Cannon may soon have a word). They’re the actions of one that’s still fighting back, and that fight is the whole ballgame.
But it gets worse, because that same executive order about mail-in voting also directs the Department of Homeland Security to build its own state-by-state lists of who’s eligible to vote, exactly the kind of national database you’d assemble if your real plan was to pressure states into purging their rolls.
If that sounds like paranoia, it’s only because we’ve already forgotten that we lived through it. In 2000, Jeb Bush’s secretary of state, Katherine Harris, who also happened to be co-chair of his brother George’s Florida campaign, hired a private firm to scrub the voter rolls using a list of supposed felons that included eight thousand names shipped in from Texas.
The matching was deliberately loose, flagging anyone whose last name was an 80 percent match to a felon’s, and the Brennan Center later found that at least 12,000 eligible voters were wrongly purged, 22 times George W. Bush’s 537-vote margin. Black Floridians were 11 percent of the electorate and 41 percent of the people thrown off the rolls.
Bush took the presidency by that sliver, and the Florida Supreme Court-ordered recount that would have caught the theft was shut down by a Supreme Court whose deciding majority included a justice his own father had put on the bench, Clarence Thomas, whose wife was at that very moment collecting résumés for a Bush administration, and Antonin Scalia, whose sons worked for firms representing Bush, neither of whom saw any reason to step aside.
That’s the voter merge-and-purge playbook, and they’re dusting it off on a national scale for this November with new, borrowed-from-Putin tweaks. Or at least they’re trying their hardest to.
When the Reichstag finally voted itself out of existence in March 1933, uniformed storm troopers lined the walls of the chamber so the legislators would understand the price of voting no.
That’s the tradition these men are drawing from, and we’d be fools not to be clear-eyed and ready for just about anything between now and November. After all, we all watched what Trump and his lickspittles did on January 6th, 2021, killing four police officers as they tried to “hang Mike Pence.”
But here’s the difference between Germany in 1933 and America in 2026 and, as Wendy Lawrence argues in a brilliant recent essay, it comes down to timing.
The Germans got their decisive vote after the seizure of power, when a newly seated Reichstag rubber-stamped the Enabling Act and handed Hitler everything. We get ours before. Which is why they’re so frantically trying to suppress the vote.
The November midterms will arrive while the courts are still ruling against this administration, while subpoenas can still be issued, while the power of the purse still belongs to whoever controls the House.
A Democratic majority doesn’t need to convict anyone to change everything. It can deny the appropriations that fund the deployments and the detention machine, it can compel sworn testimony and drag the concealed directives into daylight, and it can restore a Justice Department willing to enforce laws like Section 242, the Reconstruction-era statute that makes it a felony for any official to strip any citizen of their constitutional rights.
The Supreme Court’s immunity ruling shields the president’s official acts, but it shields no one beneath him. The agents, the contractors, the lawyers who signed the unlawful papers, all of them remain fully exposed, and a future attorney general can act on that.
Trump understands this perfectly, which is why he told House Republicans that they have to win the midterms because otherwise “they’ll find a reason to impeach me.” It’s why his people muse about ICE at the polls and write rules to choke off the mail. It’s why Stephen Miller is reportedly pushing to suspend habeas corpus. It’s why Trump promised to “pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval [Office].”
These lawyers and judges aren’t afraid of impeachment as an abstraction: they’re afraid of the reckoning that oversight makes possible, the same reckoning Hans Frank met at the end of a rope and Roland Freisler escaped only by dying.
The coming reckoning — unless they can stop it this fall — isn’t vengeance. It’s the rule of law standing back up after being knocked down, and in this country that recovery still runs through a ballot box which the members of the Reichstag of 1933 no longer had.
The war with Iran cost us $1 trillion dollars and accomplished nothing:
Agreement to end the war and give Iran $300 million dollars:
1 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States, together with their allies in the current war, declare upon the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and undertake that from now on they will not launch any hostile action against each other, and will refrain from the threat or use of force against each other. The final agreement will confirm the provisions of this Article and the remaining Articles.
2 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States undertake to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to refrain from interfering in each other’s internal affairs.
3 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States undertake to negotiate and reach a final agreement within a maximum period of 60 days, extendable by mutual consent.
4 — Immediately upon the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, the United States lift the naval blockade and prevent any interference or obstruction against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and restore traffic within a maximum of 30 days to its full capacity; the traffic of ships shall be proportional to the pre-war volume of traffic on the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The United States also undertakes to withdraw its forces from the surrounding areas within 30 days after the final agreement.
5 — Upon signing this Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take steps to ensure that the movement of merchant ships from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa is resumed within 30 days to the pre-war volume, taking into account the need for the removal of technical obstacles and the neutralization of mines by Iran.
6 — The United States undertakes, together with its regional partners, to create a comprehensive plan agreed upon by both parties for the rehabilitation and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while ensuring financing of at least $300 billion. The implementation mechanism of this plan, as part of the final agreement, will be formulated within 60 days.
7 — The United States commits to ending, on a schedule to be agreed upon as part of the final agreement, all types of sanctions currently facing the Islamic Republic of Iran, including resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and all unilateral U.S. sanctions, both primary and secondary.
8 — The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates that it will never produce nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States have agreed that the fate of enriched material and the fate of all other mutually agreed nuclear-related issues, including Iran’s nuclear needs, will be adequately addressed in a final agreement; the final agreement will confirm the provisions of this Article.
9 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States agree that, pending a final agreement, they will maintain the status quo: Iran will maintain the status quo on its nuclear program, and the United States will not impose new sanctions on Iran or strengthen its forces in the region.
10 — The United States undertakes that immediately after the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, and until the date of the lifting of sanctions, the United States Treasury Department will issue waivers for exports of Iranian crude oil, petrochemical products and their derivatives, and all related services, including banking, insurance, transportation, and the like.
11 — The United States undertakes that, in light of the progress of negotiations towards a final agreement, frozen or restricted funds and assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be released and made fully available. These funds, whether held in the master account or transferred, will be used for any final beneficiary payment determined by the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran and will be fully available for use. The United States undertakes to issue all necessary permits and licenses on this basis.
12 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States agree that an implementation mechanism will be established to oversee the successful implementation of and future commitment to the Final Agreement.
13 — Following the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, and upon receipt of assurances regarding the commencement of implementation of Articles 4, 5, 10, and 11 of this Memorandum of Understanding, and the continued implementation of these steps, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States will enter into negotiations for a Final Agreement solely with respect to the remaining Articles.
14 — The final agreement will be approved through a binding resolution of the UN Security Council.
Marjorie Taylor Greene went on CNN and called Donald Trump a traitor
Marjorie Taylor Greene went on CNN and called Donald Trump a traitor to the American people. Sitting across from Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday, the former Georgia congresswoman said the people who fought the release of the Epstein files “want to cover up for pedophiles and rapists,” and called them traitors.
Collins offered her the exit every politician takes and asked whether she meant the president himself. Greene took none of it. “I’m saying exactly that.”
Then she told the story of a phone call. Before the files were released, Greene says, Trump called her personally and warned that his friends would get hurt if they came out. “And I’ll never forget that,” she said. It is her account and hers alone, no court record, no recording. But she was the one on the other end of the line, and she has now repeated it on national television.
The text message she described is worse. When death threats started coming in against her son, Greene says, she went to Trump about it, and he told her she deserved it. Her son was being threatened, and according to Greene, the president of the United States texted her that she deserved it.
None of this came out of nowhere. Greene spent six years as one of Trump’s most loyal soldiers, the kind who, in her words, “gave him my loyalty for free.” The break came in November, when she refused to take her name off the petition forcing the files into the open.
Trump pulled his endorsement, promised to back a primary challenger, and branded her “Wacky Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown” on Truth Social. Within a week she announced she was leaving Congress. The House passed the release bill 427 to 1, and Trump, cornered, signed it.
Her story has not wobbled since. On 60 Minutes in December she described a bomb threat at her house and direct death threats against her son, and she said the subject line on those threats was three words: Marjorie Traitor Greene.
The president’s insult had become the header on her family’s death threats. That is the context for what she told Collins this week, and for why “I deserved it” is the detail she cannot let go.
There is no court record for any of this, only her word. But her word has cost her Trump’s endorsement, her seat in Congress, and, by her account, her family’s safety.
People rarely pay prices like that for a story they invented.
Hegseth’s trip to commemorate the D-Day landings in Normandy was met with outright disgust
Secretary of War Crimes Pete Hegseth’s trip to commemorate the D-Day landings in Normandy was met with outright disgust by locals near the cemetery, who openly protested his presence and called him a disgrace to the values the Allies fought for.
In the village of Langrune-sur-Mer, residents and civic groups made it crystal clear they did not want him there. One local leader said Hegseth holds “values contrary to democracy, human rights, and peace,” while another bluntly labeled him as representing “colonial, warmongering, racist, far-right values.”
The civic group Langrune en Commun released a scathing statement demanding his visit be canceled, saying it would dishonor the memory of the young American, British, and Canadian soldiers who died on those beaches fighting for freedom.
True to form, Pentagon Pete failed to show the exhibit the humility and gratitude for sacrifice called for on such an occasion, the anniversary of one of the most sacred days in military history.
Hegseth used his speech to take shots at European allies for not joining Trump’s war in Iran, and to inject MAGA politics into the commemoration by hideously comparing the heroic D-Day landing with the arrival of migrant boats in Europe.
The competition is very tough, but as the main purveyor of the U.S. military’s new regressive might-makes-right-and-screw-
If I was a villager in Langrune-sur-Mer, I’d sign on to the statement too. As the head of the U.S. military, Hegseth desecrates the memory of the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice 80 years ago so that we could be free.
Constitution
On Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts, in a swipe at Donald Trump, stressed that the U.S. Constitution’s “main innovation” was the creation of an independent judiciary. Our Constitutional system of government only works, he emphasized, if power shared between the three branches of federal government remains equal and balanced, and it is up to the Courts, not Trump, to decide what makes it so.
Roberts’ remarks followed the Trump regime’s astonishing flurry of attacks against the judiciary. On April 25, Attorney General Pam Bondi called judges who refused to legitimize Trump’s power grabs “deranged,” then, with characteristic bombast, warned the judiciary, “we will come after you and we will prosecute you.” That same day, Kash Patel had a Wisconsin Judge perp walked out of the courthouse in handcuffs because she allowed a defendant to exit from a side door to the main hall where everyone else, including the FBI, was waiting. Three days later, Karoline Leavitt intimated that Trump could have Supreme Court justices arrested.
Roberts can well see that Trump’s henchmen are attacking the judiciary as the last line of defense against an authoritarian coup. Perhaps more difficult to see is that Trump’s attacks, in concert with his deliberate weakening of national security, are acts of sabotage. He is wrecking our constitutional form of government in an effort to replace it with something else. From this perspective, it is difficult to see Trump’s strategy as anything short of treasonous.
A president who projects his own criminality
Throughout his first 100 days, Trump engaged in wild and unprecedented acts of retribution against the rule of law and anyone who tried to make him answer to it. Last week, describing Trump’s EO to punish and extort lawyers who represented his political adversaries, a federal judge noted that, “No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue” in an attempt to march the country toward totalitarianism.
Aside from metastasizing power grabs, the most common thread running through Trump’s EOs– announced through a series of White House propaganda papers issued every other day– is Trump’s projection of his own crimes and misdeeds onto others. Anyone trying to map Trump’s elusive plan of governance need only look at what he purports to attack in his orders, because those are his true intentions. On his first dayin office, for example, Trump issued an EO “Ending the weaponization of the federal government,” dialing weaponization of government power to levels not seen since King George.
Freighted with propaganda, the White House memo regurgitated Trump’s grievances about efforts to hold him legally accountable for his actions, falsely proclaiming as “fact,” under seal of the White House, that, “The prior administration and allies throughout the country engaged in an unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power.”
Trump then turned these accusations into a plan of action never before seen in American history, ordering the AG, DOJ and FBI to conduct political investigations, arrests and prosecutions.
On brand, Trump accuses others of treason
Determined to rule by fiat in order to bypass both legislative and judicial branches, Trump has issued a slew of incongruent declarations and EOs too wide ranging to list. To squelch dissent and criticism of those orders, he describes critics as ‘enemies of the state,’ and accuses them of treason.
Trump’s presidential memorandum about “leakers” of government information describes as “treasonous” any disclosure of sensitive information for the purposes of undermining foreign policy, national security, or government effectiveness. ‘Undermining,’ of course, is whatever Trump says it is, which means any criticism can be deemed ‘treason.’
It’s a bold intimidation campaign meant to facilitate prosecution and imprisonment of critics in the near future, modeling authoritarians like Russia’s Putin, El Salvador’s Bukele, and Hungary’s Viktor Orban. While his left hand attempts to silence critics Putin style, Trump’s right hand is actively sabotaging national security, by:
1. Exposing secrets of the US intelligence community on easily hacked commercial messaging apps;
2. Making threats to NATO that serve and align with Russian interests;
3. Purging career civil servants and replacing them with incompetent loyalists to destabilize the government;
4. Pausing or ceasing federal enforcement of foreign bribery laws;
5. Trashing security alliances by threatening allies; and
6. Ending the Justice Department’s task force on covert foreign influence even as threats from foreign influence are rising.
Step by step, agency by federal agency, Trump is systematically disabling institutions that could interfere with his acquisition of domestic power, while at the same time inviting a foreign attack. Standing alone, each act weakens national security in ways that can’t be measured because the consequences have not yet materialized. Taken in concert, they reflect Trump’s intentional subversion of our national security interests.
Treason
Treason, a federal crime, is defined by the Constitution as ‘levying war’ against the nation; it also includes “giving aid and comfort” to our enemies.
- Trump credibly has been accused of treason for aiding Russia’s interests over our own.
- In 2023, his actions in fomenting the J6 attack were also deemed treasonous when the Colorado Supreme Court found that he engaged in insurrection, a decision with roots in the Constitution’s definition of treason.
- The Supreme Court found a workaround to avoid Colorado’s application of the 14th Amendment on grounds that had nothing to do with—and did not disturb—Colorado’s finding of insurrection.
Treason is defined as the betrayal of one’s country; it is hard to imagine a deeper betrayal than an American president questioning the basic rule of the US Constitution while he actively subverts it.
I have no illusion that the spineless Republican party is prepared to rein Trump in at this juncture; as one Senator admitted, they are all too “frightened” of retribution to do their Constitutional duty. So for now, thanks to a partisan Supreme Court and cowardly federal legislators, we are a nation held hostage by a lawless president of questionable sanity and his power-drunk sycophants.
As America wonders how bad it will get before he is stopped, at least we are learning a shared civics lesson: we are learning why the Constitution prohibits traitors from being elected into federal office.
The White House and Congress are working on a deal to clamp down on what US citizens are allowed to say online.
According to new reporting by Axios, the Trump administration is negotiating with key senators in an effort to shoehorn a massive legislation package which would limit states’ abilities to regulate AI in exchange for placing broad federal limits on digital speech.
Plenty of ink has been spilled about the Trump administration’s push to revoke AI regulation from individual states. Though the White House and its allies frame this as a matter of “safety” and “national security,” the timing is telling, coming as progressive state governments move to restrict the building of AI data centers and hold tech companies liable for harms their AI systems cause.
What makes this deal particularly insidious is the trade-off at its core. Per Axios, congressional lawmakers lead by Republican Marsha Blackburn are essentially offering to surrender their ability to regulate AI in exchange for three federal censorship bills: the Kids Online Safety Act, the NO FAKES Act, and a federal age verification mandate.
While the language around these three measures suggests common-sense cyber regulation, activists say they really amount to a massive censorship regime that is fundamentally anti-democratic.
In a blistering statement, the first amendment group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) warns that “taken together, these bills would fundamentally change the internet as we know it.” That’s especially striking because FIRE is funded by conservative private interests like billionaire Charles Koch, meaning its opposition highlights the degree to which Trump is butting heads against fellow members of the US ruling class.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KORA) for example, would force social media giants to restrict lawful speech based on Federal Trade Commission regulations. FIRE complains that this would give the federal government too much power to hold platforms like Meta accountable for their harms — which, many would argue, is long overdue. But given that just a few corporations own the vast majority of web infrastructure and social media, KORA would give the Trump-controlled FTC major power to bend the internet to its will.
To put this power into perspective, just regulating Meta’s Instagram would impact about 71 percent of US citizens who say they regularly use the app.
It’s a powerful weapon, in other words — and like any weapon, it matters a great deal who wields it. Should the White House and Congress push KORA through, it’s likely it would functionally end the possibility of surfing the internet anonymously, while supercharging Trump’s efforts to criminalize left wing opposition groups in the US.
Whether it passes will depend on some shrewd maneuvering on the Trump administration’s part to secure Congressional support. But it all underscores a frustrating reality of AI regulation in the US: Americans overwhelmingly support stricter regulation on AI — but with the current cabal running the Oval Office, there’s no guarantee that the cure won’t be worse than the disease.
Election worker sounds alarm on Trump’s new intimidation scheme
President Donald Trump is attempting to compromise future elections by targeting election workers.
Georgia is trying to block federal subpoenas targeting 2020 election workers, We deeply value the selfless staff and volunteers who facilitate free and fair elections.
The effort by the Department of Justice to obtain personal information for these workers and volunteers is shameful. The DOJ should not be involved in the intimidation of poll workers and the dissemination of disinformation. Propagating the lie that there was fraud in the 2020 elections further weaponizes the DOJ against ordinary citizens.
It is wrong for the DOJ to misuse the legal process now to spread disinformation and endanger the lives of citizens. We call on the DOJ to withdraw its subpoena immediately.
Trump’s supposed election integrity efforts are actually part of a plan to undermine democracy overall.
“I think there are two things to consider,” Pooja Chaudhuri, Senior Counsel/Deputy Legal Director at Democracy Defenders Fund who specializes in voting rights as well as election law litigation and advocacy, told AlterNet. “One is that the election is made up of voters, and so the outcome depends on people turning out to the polls and voting. The problem is … the chilling effect on voters.”
Chaudhuri continued, “When voters hear that ICE may be deployed to the polls, that mail-in voting rules are changing close to the election, a lot of voters might say, ‘I’m just not going to go out and vote.’ That could happen in many different ways. There are vulnerable communities — people may come from mixed-status families — they’re US citizens, but they might decide, “I’m not going to vote.” So one aspect is the chilling effect on voters that all of these actions would have.” Chaudhuri also expressed alarm that both gerrymandering and the FBI’s seizure of Fulton County, GA election information also could keep voters away from the polls.
“We’re going to see consequences in terms of voters saying, ‘I don’t want the FBI to get my personal ballot in the future,’” Chaudhuri observed. “So, to sum up, I do agree that putting it all together, it does paint an ominous picture.”
Dan Vicuña, Senior Policy Director for Voting and Fair Representation at Common Cause, also expressed alarm about Trump’s election actions.
“What they all add up to is a desire to avoid any accountability to the voters in the midterm elections — to ensure, to preordain the outcome of a midterm that he thinks is going to go badly for him,” Vicuña told AlterNet. “We know, from the Big Lie of the 2020 election to spurring on a violent revolt to overthrow a free and fair election, that he has no respect for democratic norms, for the voice of the people. This is entirely about his own power and his own ego. He will even invest in protecting that ego and protecting his power at the expense of the needs of the public. People are suffering with high gas prices and affordability issues, and he does not care. All that matters is protecting his power, and he has no interest in whether he does that through democratic means.”
Trump repeats same story over and over as signs of deterioration mount
John Stoehr June 07, 2026.
Either the nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump believes a cognitive test is an intelligence test or he’s lying about his mental health. I don’t think there’s a gray zone here. If it’s the first, he’s demented. If it’s the second, he’s hiding something (probably dementia). Either way, it’s bad.
It happens too frequently to ignore. The president brags about passing a cognitive test to the point where he seems to believe it’s a measure of his IQ. In public remarks, he often puts special emphasis on the word “cognitive” as if to stress that it demonstrates his intelligence. Here’s what he told the New York Post after a third trip in a year to Walter Reed. “I do physicals because I think I have an obligation to do it. I took a cognitive test and I got 100 percent on it. The doctors told me very, very few people can ace it. It’s actually a tough test.”
That’s only the latest iteration. I went to the Bluesky feed of Aaron Rupar, founder of Public Notice. Aaron watches most of Trump’s public appearances. I searched for “cognitive.”
On May 22, during a rally, Trump said:
I said, how many presidents have taken [a cognitive test]? “None.” I said, well, is it tough? “It’s a tough test. It starts off easy, then it gets very, very tough.” I said well, you know what? I’m gonna take that test. … This was in my first term. I took it and I aced it. … So the first question was, you have a bear, a snake, an elephant and a horse. “Name the horse.” That’s the horse. … The New York Times story … only use[s] the first question that you go into. The other questions they didn’t go into. … It had a question like “pick a number, sir, any number.” Okay, 203. “Multiple by 9. Divide by 2. Add on 1,324. Subtract 1,292. Sir, multiply it out one more time by 19. What is the answer, sir?” I got it right. And the one doctor said, “I’ve been doing this test for 20 years. I’ve never seen anybody ace it.”
On May 4, during a presser, Trump said:
In my opinion, anybody running for president or vice president should take a cognitive test. No president has ever taken one, except me. I’ve taken three and I’ve aced each one. One in the first administration, two over here. And whenever they get a little sassy like, “Does he still have what it takes?” I say, all right I’ll take another one. They are hard. There are many people in this room I know that are smart. They’re not gonna ace them. The first question is very easy. You have a lion, a bear and alligator and a squirrel. “Which is the squirrel?” … The first four or five questions, they get a little more difficult. By the time you get to the end, I don’t wanna be insulting, I’m not gonna do what Gavin Newsom [did] …
On May 1, during a speech, Trump said:
I took three of them. Aced all of them. … I’m the only president to take a cognitive test. I don’t think Obama could pass it. … Well, Biden – give me a break. The first question is very easy. It’s a lion, a giraffe, a bear and a shark. Which one is the bear? It’s a very standard test, but very tough around those 10 questions. … I’m in a room of brilliant people, but a lot of you wouldn’t have been able to answer. When I got the score of the test, the doctor said “wow.” … I’ve had different phases. They’ve said “he’s a mad genius” and I didn’t mind that too much. They said “he’s a horrible human being” and I didn’t like that much. Then they said “he’s really not a smart person at all.” I really hated that, so I took a cognitive test. … Dr. Ronny … had a whole team of doctors at Walter Reed. I said, should I do it? He said, “well, it’s a tough exam, actually. Those last 20 questions they get tough. A lot of people can’t do them.” … I said, I do well on things, so let’s do it. I got every one right.
On March 26, during a Cabinet meeting, Trump said:
I’m the only president that ever took a cognitive test. I took it three times. It’s actually a very hard test. It wasn’t hard for me, but it’s a cognitive test. It starts off with an easy question and by the time you get to the end … very few people can answer those questions. They get very tough, mathematical equations and things. I took it three times. I aced it all three times. … Doc Ronny told me … “if you take it, it’s Walter Reed … and if you do badly, it’s probably gonna get out.” But I aced it. I got them all right. One doctor said “I’ve never seen anybody get them all right. I’ve been doing the test for 20 years.” … I would love to see anybody that’s a president or a vice president … take a cognitive test.
On December 2, 2025, during a Cabinet meeting, Trump said:
They said, “would you like to take a cognitive test?” I said, is it hard? They said, “yes.” … I said, who is the last president to take one? “No president has ever agreed to take one.” When you get into the mid questions, meaning, question No. 10, 11, 12, 28, 30, they get harder and harder. … They said, “sir, the problem is this is Walter Reed Hospital, and that’s a military hospital and that means that things are sort of open. You could do poorly.” I said, I won’t do poorly. I’m a smart person. I’m not stupid person. As the doctor will tell you, I aced it. I got every question right. These are questions that I would say 99 percent of the people that I’m talking to, meaning the people from the fake news, would not do well in this exams. But I’m the only one that took it. I got every single question right.
On October 9, 2025, a day before going to Walter Reed, Trump said:
I also did a cognitive exam, which is always very risky, because if I didn’t do well, you’d be the first to be blaring it. I had a perfect score and one of the doctors said he’s almost never seen a perfect score. … When they asked, would I like to do one, I asked, did Obama do it “No.” Did Bush do it? “No.” Did Biden do it? Biden would’ve gotten the first three questions. … I’m actually a person that believes that if you’re president, you should do a cognitive exam, but last time I took a cognitive exam, and it was a perfect score. … The first few questions are pretty easy. Once you get into the middle, it gets a little tricky. And there aren’t a lot of people in this room that we get every single question right.
On April 14, 2025, in the Oval Office, Trump said:
I took my cognitive exam and I got the highest mark. One of the doctors said “sir, I’ve never seen anybody get that kind of … mark.” I hope you’re happy with that, although they haven’t been bugging me too much to take a cognitive, but I did do my physical and it was released. I hope you’re all happy with it. But the cognitive. They said to me, “sir, would you like to take a cognitive test?” I said did Biden take one. “No.” … What about Obama? Let me be the only one to take one. I’ve actually taken them three times already.”
There are only a few examples drawn from Aaron Rupar’s vast archive, and I hasten to add here that I’m sorry for making you read the same story over and over. However, that’s the point I’m trying to make. The sheer mass of repetition is itself a sign of age-related cognitive deterioration – or, to use a catch-all term, dementia. The president can’t remember the last time he told the story and doesn’t care, because the purpose of telling it is there’s nothing wrong with him. Indeed, the purpose is more than that. It’s proving his genetic superiority.
WHAT IF
What if Kamala Harris had become president, promptly leveled the historic East Wing of our White House, and then spent each day like a petrified drama queen shrieking that taxpayers should purchase her a new ballroom?
What if Harris had spent her time in office plastering her face and name on inanimate objects, while food prices she promised to lower spiraled out of control, and then belittled the people who dared mention this?
I’m not done.
What if Harris and her administration had spent their time attacking science and vaccines and then did nothing as Measles — MEASLES — made a deadly comeback across America?
What if Harris had become president and picked silly and insulting fights with our NATO partners who have been with us since WWII, while threatening to invade Greenland like some petulant child?
What if after running a campaign on no new wars, Harris appointed a drunken, racist talk show host to be her Secretary of Defense, who then proceeded to commit a series of war crimes, shared top-secret intelligence with God knows who, brazenly blocked military promotions of women and people of color, and then led a moronic war in Iran that has only succeeded in making America a more dangerous and expensive place?
Sorry, I’m not done yet.
What if instead of supporting Ukraine during their heroic fight on the frontline of democracy that benefits America, Harris berated its leader and then rolled out the red carpet for the murdering fascist, Vladimir Putin, on U.S. soil?
What if instead of prosecuting law and order, Harris appointed HER personal lawyer as OUR attorney general and then went about spending billions of taxpayer dollars to reward the traitors who attacked us on January 6, 2021?
Can you imagine?
What if Kamala Harris had become president and leveled idiotic tariffs on every country she could locate on a map that resulted in making things more expensive for Americans?
What would all those sanctimonious MAGA farmers say about that?
What if instead of answering questions from the media, Harris called them names like piggy, and enemies of the people?
What if after becoming president Harris stayed awake at night hate-posting unhinged bilge directed at 70 percent of America?
What if Harris had become president and got into a bitter feud with the Pope?
What if we found out Harris had been mentioned more than 30,000 times in the Epstein Files, and was a longtime friend of the child-rapist?
What if Harris had become president and spent the first 17 months in office spending more time at Walter Reed Medical Hospital than she did with her husband, and then publicly bragged about passing basic cognitive tests while being held up on swollen ankles?
Can you imagine????
What if Kamala Harris had become president and invited thousands of Blacks to immigrate to America from South Africa, after saying she was closing our borders?
What if Kamala Harris had become president and led a government-wide attack on rural white voters by making it as hard as possible for them to vote?
What is Harris had become president and depicted herself as Jesus Christ in a social media posting?
What if Harris had become president and filled her cabinet with unqualified rightwing talk show hosts and billionaires, whose only talents are filling their bottomless pockets with our money?
What if after becoming president, Harris did everything in her power to strip people of their healthcare, and medicare and medicaid benefits to benefit corporate raiders?
What if after becoming president, Harris set about putting actions in place that will pollute our air and drinking water …?
The annihilation of the barriers that used to separate good from evil and right from wrong have transformed America and its insane military might, into the most dangerous country in the world. When anything can be justified — even an attack on OUR OWN CAPITOL — everybody is in deep trouble.
We are spiraling out of control, and on the brink of losing our democracy for good, and the people who dare to pay attention — the blessed woke — know it.
Trump drags feet on drone deal with Ukraine, mystifying experts
by Ellen Mitchell – 06/07/26 6:00 AM ET
The Trump administration’s hesitancy in signing a major drone deal with Ukraine is slowing the U.S. military down in an area where it’s already trying to play catch-up.
Even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Washington to make a deal, with talks between the two nations stretching back to at least September, the U.S. has so far refused to embrace Kyiv as a partner in its drone development.
Zelensky posted a lengthy message to social platform X last Sunday calling for a “bilateral drone deal — a big framework document” between the U.S. and Ukraine, which has made astounding strides in drone warfare since Russia attacked the country in 2022.
But even with senior Pentagon officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll lauding Kyiv’s drone abilities, the Trump administration is still biding its time on taking full advantage of the Ukrainian capabilities, a delay that experts say is potentially kneecapping the U.S. military.
“I don’t know what the hangup would be in denying ourselves the ability to take advantage of that. I don’t think there’s any good reason,” Rebeccah Heinrichs, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, said of Ukraine’s drone capabilities.
“I don’t know if there is a hangup, I don’t know if there’s a different view between people about what the process needs to be, or what needs to come first, but clearly there is a great advantage on the U.S. side to partnering with Ukraine on drones,” she told The Hill.
Likewise, Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow with Brookings Institution, said he was “mystified” by the lack of a deal given that the U.S. has been trying to learn from Ukraine, including by sending teams to the country to study developments on the ground.
“Perhaps there is a procedural problem holding things up — or perhaps White House politics and directives are doing so, given that President Trump remains unpredictable in his degree of commitment to the Ukraine cause,” O’Hanlon said.
One former official who spoke to The Hill on the condition of anonymity had a more blunt assessment, calling the holdup “lethargy” on the part of the Trump administration and “a certain amount of hostility towards Ukraine coming from the very top.”
Indeed, Trump and Zelensky maintain a tenuous relationship, with the U.S. president repeatedly voicing his view that the Ukrainian leader is an obstacle to a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow — even more so than Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump has largely stopped U.S. military aid for Ukraine in his second term and often extols Putin as “smart” and a “strong leader,” while regularly insulting Ukrainian officials, even berating Zelensky in the Oval Office in February 2025.
The former official said Trump and Zelensky discussed a potential drone deal “in very positive ways” when they met in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City, but there has been little follow-up to the conversation.
“Those talks didn’t suggest any substantial energy on the U.S. side,” they said.
Zelensky told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Kyiv agreed to allow the U.S. to test and train with its drones, but the two sides have not signed “the big document.”
“I think this cooperation can be huge — the most powerful of its kind in the world,” he wrote on X after the segment aired. “We need to negotiate, not just talk about it. Take the necessary steps and do it as quickly as possible. For this, we need President Trump to say yes.”
He added: “American companies have advanced AI technologies we don’t have. In turn, we have many things they don’t have, due to our extensive experience on the battlefield.”
A deal in some form seems to be in the works, with the U.S. seeking access to Ukrainian drone technology and intellectual property rights as part of a proposed defense cooperation agreement, Bloomberg reported May 19.
As part of that deal, currently awaiting approval, the Pentagon reportedly wants to test Ukrainian drones and electronic warfare systems that could eventually be bought by the U.S., and wants to gain access to technologies — and possibly intellectual property rights — to allow Washington to replicate Ukrainian systems at home.
America’s ability to compete in the drone race has taken on added urgency with the war against Iran, which has used kamikaze drones to deadly effect against U.S. allies across the Middle East
Even as most were intercepted by Gulf countries and U.S. forces, those that evaded air defenses have caused major infrastructure damage and death. Six American troops were killed in March in Kuwait by an Iranian long-range one-way attack drone known as Shaheds.
“The U.S. is putting its own troops in danger by not working as closely as possible with the Ukrainians on drone development,” Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, wrote on X. “To stay close to Putin, Trump is showing once again how little he cares about US soldiers.”
The Army referred questions from The Hill on any current, smaller deals or the holdup on a larger bilateral agreement with Ukraine to the Pentagon’s press office, which declined to comment.
Kyiv in its more than four years of war with Moscow has acquired a drone expertise that has allowed it to strike further and further across Russian borders, destroying Kremlin oil and military facilities, stopping Russia’s battlefield gains and even clawing back territory.
Now the world leader in drone warfare, Ukraine has “developed a truly ingenious circuit where the engineers producing the drones are in direct touch with the soldiers, usually for immediate feedback,” the former official said.
“Ukrainians have figured out how to produce drones at a high speed, they know how to operate them and be iterative, and so they can learn from how the Russians are defending against them, how they can adapt them, not just in software, but how the operators pilot them,” Heinrichs said.
Ukraine out of necessity “has figured out how to create what is something like an industry, a drone industry, and we just haven’t fully taken advantage of learning how they’ve been able to do this, and against a pure adversary,” she added.
Heinrichs, who visited Ukraine and saw the country’s drone ecosystem firsthand, said their successes have not gone unnoticed by defense officials, one of which told her “just how incredible Ukraine was in drone warfare and drone capabilities, and how this is clearly something that the United States should take advantage of.”
Driscoll last month praised Ukraine’s integrated drone operating system during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying it “fully integrates every single drone, every sensor, and every shooting platform into just one single network. Ours does not.”
Following the attack in Kuwait, the United States quickly put out a request for help and Ukraine responded, sending interceptor drones and a team of drone experts to protect U.S. military bases in Jordan, Zelensky told The New York Times in March.
The Iranian-designed attack drones are similar to what Russia has been using in Ukraine for years, allowing Kyiv to show off its expertise.
Zelensky said his government also had received calls from leaders in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia looking for aid in countering Iran’s drones, with a team of Ukrainian experts sent to the Middle East to help countries figure out how to best protect themselves.
Ukraine, a non-NATO member, has likewise advised or plans to help train European countries in the alliance on drone warfare, including Germany, Sweden, Poland and the United Kingdom.
“We are now at the start,” the former official said of the U.S. military’s own drone endeavors. “I don’t think it’s been as well pursued because they haven’t paid sufficient attention to the best drone work on the planet.”
A June 4 proclamation stated that ex-Rep. Stephen Buyer (R-Ind.) would receive a “full, complete, and unconditional pardon” without explanation.
The Indiana Republican was sentenced to 22 months in prison in in 2023 after being convicted on four counts of securities fraud for engaging in two insider trading schemes, in which he pocketed a combined nearly $350,000.
Prosecutors asserted that Buyer bought hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Sprint shares in 2018 after learning of the company’s planned merger with T-Mobile — a client of his consulting firm. He made more than $126,000 after news of the merger became public, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The SEC also found Buyer obtained more than $1 million in Navigant Consulting shares after learning that one of his clients intended to acquire the firm and sold the shares for a $227,000 profit the day the sale was announced.
The former lawmaker was additionally accused by the Justice Department under the Biden administration of providing false explanations for the Sprint and Navigant trading during testimony at his March 2023 trial.
“He abused positions of trust for illicit personal gain, and today he faced justice for those acts,” Damian Williams, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement after Buyer’s sentencing.
Buyer appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court, which declined to take up the case.
Trump has granted more than 1,600 pardons and commutations in his second term, including to nearly all of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
US judge strikes down Trump policies targeting immigrants from 39 countries
By Nate Raymond
June 5, 20261
Muslim migrants stranded after U.S. President Donald Trump cancelled all U.S. asylum appointments for migrants waiting in Mexico are seen at the Assabil shelter, the only such refuge in Mexico specifically for Muslim migrants, in Tijuana, Mexico
Judge says USCIS policies left immigrants in legal limbo without authority
Ruling came in lawsuit by immigrant service organizations and labor unions
A federal judge on Friday ruled that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration had adopted a series of unlawful policies that have barred people from 39 countries from receiving decisions on applications for asylum, work permits, green cards and citizenship.
Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, struck down a slate of policies that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had adopted that he said left people from dozens of African, Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries in “indeterminate legal limbo.
He said the immigrants had adhered to the legal processes that Congress had enacted and USCIS had adopted by regulation, yet had been “stuck waiting, for months on end, for benefit requests that USCIS refuses to adjudicate.”
The judge, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, said it adopted the policies without statutory and regulatory authority and based on “anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making.”
“USCIS’s hold on adjudications cannot be attributed to anything that these individuals did wrong; rather, it arises solely by the happenstance of their birth,” he wrote.
The ruling marked a victory for a coalition of immigrant service organizations and labor unions that in March sued to challenge policies adopted by USCIS, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“This ruling reaffirms a basic principle: the federal government cannot shut down lawful immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on where they come from,” said Skye Perryman, the head of the liberal legal group Democracy Forward, which represents the plaintiffs.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump vowed on social media to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover,” and he expanded the number of countries now subject to full or partial travel bans under his administration to cover 39 nations.
Countries subject to full travel bans included Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti, Somalia, Venezuela and Syria. The administration justified the travel restrictions on vetting and security grounds.
The policies USCIS adopted placed a hold on processing immigration benefit applications from people from those 39 countries, which McConnell said “placed the lives of countless individuals on hold—solely by virtue of their countries of birth.”
“But the rule of law has to apply to everyone equally and, as evident here, USCIS has neither ‘followed the law’ nor ‘done things the right way,'” he wrote. “Indeed, the agency has violated the very immigration laws that Congress has charged it with administering, as well as the administrative laws that govern the agency’s actions.”
Absolute madness. Trump is ripping the eyes out of America’s ocean.
In June, the National Science Foundation begins hauling up more than 900 deep-sea instruments that have spent the last decade tracking the collapse of the climate system.
Off Oregon. Off Alaska. Off North Carolina. And in the icy waters between Greenland and Iceland, where the Atlantic’s heat conveyor belt is showing the first cracks of failure.
Fishermen lose the data that predicts where the fish will be. Coastal towns lose the early warning on flooding. Farmers lose the signals that shape next year’s harvest. Every working family on a coast or a field pays the bill so fossil fuel donors can keep cashing checks.
The whole network cost $48 million a year to operate. That is less than the price tag of a single F-35 fighter.
For that money, the public got real-time data on ocean temperatures, carbon absorption, marine heatwaves, and the current system that keeps Europe from turning into Siberia.
Congress restored the funding twice after Trump tried to slash it by 80 percent. So the administration shrugged, called it a “descope,” and started yanking the instruments out of the water anyway.
Why? Because you cannot panic about a fever if you smash the thermometer.
It fits a pattern. The EPA already killed the endangerment finding that anchored climate regulation. The National Center for Atmospheric Research was shuttered. NASA scrubbed climate language from its own reports on the hottest years ever recorded. Now the ocean sensors go dark.
The instruments themselves cost hundreds of millions of public dollars to design, build, and place. Tearing them out with no plan to replace the data is not budgeting. It is sabotage of your right to see what is being done to you.
You cannot vote out a hurricane. You can vote out the people who made sure you never saw
Class acts flooding back to Kennedy center after Trump-ectomy
OK Magazine Executive Editor Rob Shuter says big acts are once again eyeing a return to the embattled John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts now that President Donald Trump’s name mat soon be getting exorcised from the front of the building.
A federal judge recently ordered that Trump cannot rename the Kennedy Center, nor may he close it for what the Trump administration said were two years of renovations. And according to Shuter, big name artists are already chomping at the bit to raise the curtain. Leading the conversation, he said, are the producers of Hamilton.
“Hamilton would be the ultimate comeback,” one insider told Shuter. “It was the most high-profile withdrawal, and everyone knows what a return would symbolize.”
Shuter reports that the blockbuster musical famously “canceled its planned engagement amid the controversy surrounding the center’s leadership, becoming the most visible sign of the entertainment community’s backlash.”But it was not the only entertainer to pull out. Several actors, singers, bands, composers, comedians and other performers withdrew from show commitments after Trump insisted on plugging his name awkwardly before the name the building was constructed to eulogize. The president also made himself the chairman of the Kennedy Center board, fired several others on the board and replaced them with loyalists.
Artists soon abandoned the building en masse, and with a vacant lineup and empty seats Trump announced that the center would be closing for renovation. His announcement landed him merciless ridicule on social media.
But now, Shuter is pleased to report that “insiders say the mood is beginning to shift.” And it has everything to do with federal Judge Christopher Cooper’s recent Trump-ectomy of the building.
“A lot of artists never had a problem with the Kennedy Center itself,” Shuter reports another source close to the situation telling him. “Their issue was what it represented now under President Trump.”
Other big names now in discussion for return includes Issa Rae, Rhiannon Giddens, and Manuel Miranda, according to insiders. Additionally “several prominent arts organizations that previously pulled scheduled appearances.”
“There’s genuine interest in coming back,” another source told Shuter. “Many artists feel the Kennedy Center belongs to performers and audiences — not politicians.”
The way Shuter sees it, artists are seeing the return of the Kennedy Center as the victorious reclamation of art from a noxious cloud. He added that entertainment insiders expect “a wave of major bookings if the venue can restore stability and rebuild trust.”
“The first question everyone is asking is who returns first,” said another theater source to Shuter. “The second is whether Hamilton makes a triumphant comeback.”
“And in Washington, that could be the standing ovation everyone has been waiting for,” he said.
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
