trump spends billions to stop wind, somehow still full of hot air
A nearly finished offshore wind farm, moments before the Trump administration tries to pay it to stop existing.
Donald Trump has finally found a kind of green energy he supports: shoveling $2.6 billion in taxpayer cash into the pockets of energy companies so they’ll cancel wind projects and kill union jobs. After courts repeatedly told him he can’t just freeze all wind leasing and slap stop-work orders on nearly finished projects because he’s mad about whales, birds, and that one time Scotland wouldn’t protect his golf course view, the administration pivoted to the classic Republican solution: just buy your way out of the law.
Union workers like Thomas Kilday and Will Gonzalez built their lives around long, dangerous offshore shifts to power hundreds of thousands of homes. In return, the Trump administration has given them chaos, court fights, and the constant fear that some guy in the White House with a personal vendetta against turbines will vaporize their next paycheck. Projects that are 90% done and already delivering power are being jerked around while Interior signs massive checks to Invenergy, Bluepoint Wind, and Garden State Wind for the privilege of not building clean energy.
Labor leaders in Rhode Island point out that they’re 5–0 against Trump in court on these stop-work orders, but the administration just keeps lighting money on fire to prove that owning the libs is more important than stable union jobs or a livable climate. The message from Trump’s America is crystal clear: if you’re a billionaire energy company, the government will pay you handsomely to do nothing. If you’re a trained worker ready to build the future, you can sit on your unused certifications and pray the next court ruling comes before your bills do.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
ncaa proudly complies with bigotry, calls it ‘clarity’
Woman holds signs saying “inclusion makes us stronger” and “let kids play!!!” while six justices and one ex–game show host respond, “Have you tried not being included?”
The NCAA’s Charlie Baker went on national TV to calmly explain that, no, the organization will absolutely not be rethinking its effective ban on trans women in college sports, especially now that Trump’s Supreme Court fan club has given states the green light to exclude them. Why reconsider discrimination when the federal government has helpfully turned it into a “national standard”?
Baker cheerfully reminded everyone that the NCAA rewrote its rules in 2025 to lock trans women out of women’s sports, all to “comply” with Trump’s second-term executive order about “men in women’s sports” – a policy crusade aimed at roughly ten trans athletes out of more than 500,000 NCAA competitors. When you’re running a multi-billion-dollar cartel built on unpaid labor, nothing screams courage like punching down at a microscopic minority to keep the base riled up.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling that bans on trans girls and women don’t violate Title IX gave West Virginia, Idaho, and at least 25 other states a judicial permission slip to keep kids off teams for the crime of existing. Baker’s response? Call men’s sports the “open network,” insist the current policy is “inclusive enough,” and assure everyone that schools are fine with it. When the government weaponizes civil rights law to narrow who counts as fully human, there’s always a line of institutions like the NCAA ready to call it "clarity" and move on to selling more March Madness ads.
#killing-democracy#trumps-america
netanyahu schedules war-time fan meetup with trump
Netanyahu, between airstrikes, eagerly refreshing his phone to see if Trump has finally liked his request for a meeting.
Benjamin Netanyahu is busy overseeing airstrikes in Lebanon, but don't worry, he’s making time for what really matters: a photo-op with Donald Trump. Tens of millions are mourning the Ayatollah, the region is a live wire, and Netanyahu’s priority is apparently checking in with the twice-impeached, felony-convicted former guy like he’s booking a podcast guest spot.
While bombs fall and civilians scramble for shelter, Bibi is out here trying to sync calendars with a man whose foreign policy experience consists of Jared’s WhatsApp messages and yelling "tremendous" at maps. Actual U.S. diplomacy is supposed to be happening through the current administration, but Netanyahu clearly prefers the guy who treated Middle East policy like a real estate branding exercise and a campaign prop.
So as regional tensions spike and the rule of law continues its long vacation, an indicted prime minister and a convicted ex-president circle each other for yet another mutually beneficial PR stunt. It’s not peace they’re chasing, it’s relevance — and maybe a joint press conference where they can both pretend they’re still running the world instead of just running from accountability.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
uk debates how best to handle its unstable orange landlord
Keir Starmer, future former prime minister, rehearses the traditional role of UK leaders in the Trump era: human paperweight for the president’s half-baked trade deal props.
Britain is about to swap Keir Starmer for Andy Burnham, and the first item on Burnham’s to‑do list is apparently figuring out how to manage a US president who thinks foreign policy is a loyalty test and NATO is a cover band. Trump, whose mother was Scottish and whose ego is stateless, has already cycled through three UK prime ministers in five and a half years, trashing British troops, demanding help with his Iran adventure, and workshopping the line "this is not Winston Churchill we're dealing with" like it’s his new standup closer.
Starmer tried everything to keep the "special relationship" alive – second state visit, Oval Office grins, literal photo‑ops of him picking up Trump’s dropped trade papers like a particularly overqualified valet – and still ended up on the receiving end of public tantrums because he wouldn’t turn the UK into a forward operating base for whatever war Trump wanted next. Now Burnham, a guy Trump dismisses as "the mayor of a town" and "extremely liberal," gets to decide how much groveling is required to stop the world’s loudest landlord from rage‑tweeting about the North Sea.
Diplomats politely describe Trump as "erratic" and "transactional," which is a genteel way of saying the health of the transatlantic alliance depends on whether anyone has told him he looks presidential that morning. The great strategic question for Britain is no longer how to balance Europe, America, and global security – it’s how to navigate a US president who wants to be treated like royalty, minus the work, the dignity, or the reading. The "special relationship" has officially been downgraded to emotional support role for an aspiring autocrat.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump wants to deport your nurse
Carlos Giménez, seen here in the rare GOP ritual of publicly acknowledging that immigrants are humans and also keep your grandparents alive.
The Trump administration, freshly empowered by a friendly supreme court, is racing to end Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Haitians (plus thousands of Syrians) because nothing says "law and order" like forcibly shipping people back to a failed state and a war zone. The Department of Homeland Security has already issued guidance bragging that TPS holders get to keep their status only until the lower courts fall in line with the supreme court’s "favorable" decision. Justice, apparently, now means "we’ll ruin your life as soon as the paperwork catches up."
Even some Republicans have noticed this is both monstrous and wildly impractical. Florida’s Carlos Giménez, whose district actually contains Haitian human beings instead of just Fox News talking points, is begging the White House to stop trying to deport his constituents back into chaos. Ohio governor Mike DeWine chimed in too, pointing out that the Haitians Trump wants gone are the ones staffing factories, working in food service, and taking care of your parents with Alzheimer’s. New York Republican Mike Lawler is also suddenly discovering that when one-third of Haitian TPS holders in your area work in healthcare, mass deportation is less "own the libs" and more "collapse the nursing homes."
So while Trump and JD Vance spent 2024 inventing horror stories about Haitian communities to juice their anti-immigration base, Republicans who live in the real world are now quietly explaining that deporting nurses, caregivers, and small-business owners en masse from a country that literally tells Americans "do not travel there" might be a "huge mistake." Bold stance: maybe don’t use U.S. immigration policy as a live-action cruelty experiment.
#anti-immigration#killing-democracy
trump thanks fifa for doing the right whine
Former president and part-time assistant VAR official Donald Trump, seen here spiritually drawing the offside lines on Truth Social.
Donald Trump has discovered a new branch of government: FIFA’s disciplinary committee. The former president waddled onto Truth Social to thank FIFA for rescinding Folarin Balogun’s red card, praising them for “reversing a great injustice!” Because when you think impartial sports governance, you obviously think a guy who tried to overturn an election and once threatened to pull the US out of NATO like it was a golf club membership.
While Mexico fans were outside England’s hotel banging drums and blowing horns, Trump was doing his own late‑night noise pollution, inserting himself into a refereeing decision for the home team at a World Cup being co-hosted by the United States. The Guardian’s readers are already wondering if the Orange One called in a favor from his buddy Gianni Infantino, because nothing says rule‑based sport like a man who sees every institution as another thing to lean on for personal "wins."
FIFA, already famous for corruption, arbitrary rulings, and Qatar, now gets a public pat on the head from Trump for its newfound commitment to justice. Totally reassuring that a body under constant suspicion of backroom dealing is now being congratulated by the guy who thought the Justice Department was his personal law firm. American democracy is still on fire, but at least the striker is available for selection.
#corruption#forever-grifting
jd vance celebrates 10 years clean from having a spine
JD Vance and Donald Trump salute at Arlington, honoring those who died defending democracy while actively workshopping ways to make sure it doesn't survive their careers.
The Atlantic decided to celebrate America's 250th birthday by republishing JD Vance's 10-year-old essay where he correctly diagnosed Donald Trump as "cultural heroin" and "the needle in America's collective vein"—before he decided to open a franchise and start dealing the product himself. Back then, Vance warned that Trump offered "an easy escape from the pain" with fake solutions and no details, and predicted supporters would one day realize he couldn't fix what ails them. Fast-forward a decade and he's standing next to Trump at Arlington, saluting like a man hoping no one remembers he used to call the boss "America's Hitler."
The essay is going viral now, just as Trump's approval ratings crater under the weight of his mass deportation campaign, his failure to lower prices, and that pesky little war in Iran he helped launch after promising no more foreign adventures. While Trump rants about a "golden age" and a "communist menace" because democratic socialists keep winning elections, his vice-president is busy pretending his entire public record before 2022 was performance art. The guy who once said Trump was "leading the white working class to a very dark place" now wants to inherit the keys to the bunker.
Vance's journey from "never Trump guy" to Trump-backed Senate candidate to vice-president and aspiring 2028 heir apparent is less a political evolution and more a live demonstration of what happens when ambition hits the off switch on moral limits. As David Frum politely put it, Vance told everyone where his line was, then "walked across it." He didn't just cross the Rubicon; he set up a merch table on the far bank and started selling MAGA-branded life jackets to the people he once warned were drowning.
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
presidency now available as a premium subscription service
Behold the Trump Corporate Governance Committee, otherwise known as "the boys who make sure dad gets paid while he's busy dismantling what’s left of democracy."
Donald Trump looked at the American presidency, a 230-year-old public institution, and said: "What if this was a QVC channel with nukes?" His latest financial disclosure shows that in the first year of his second term alone, he vacuumed up more than $2bn from Trump hotels, Trump golf courses, Trump crypto, Trump watches, Trump cologne, Trump Bibles and whatever else his kids could slap a logo on while pretending to be a "blind trust".
Ethics rules used to be a thing; now they're more of a vintage aesthetic. Human rights lawyer Tutu Alicante calls it what it is: the old assumption that openly looting public office carried reputational risk has collapsed. The new model politician is a political grifter whose job description is 10% governance, 90% merch drop. From Nigel Farage cashing in as Westminster's best-paid man while pushing dubious crypto and taking billionaire-funded jet rides, to Pauline Hanson repeatedly "forgetting" to declare her own oligarch air miles, Trumpism has gone global: it's aspirational kleptocracy with a Union Jack or Southern Cross slapped on top.
Trump even pulled a full 180 on crypto: after calling it a scam, he launched his own meme coin when he got back into the White House. Supporters bought the digital Trump trading cards, watched the price crater, and learned an important lesson about markets: the only guaranteed winner is the guy whose face is on the token. He cleared $635m while his fans ate the losses. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren is out here using phrases like "brazen crypto corruption" to describe the obvious — that these Trump-branded coins and ventures look a lot like a convenient way to buy political favor without the inconvenience of campaign-finance law.
So yes, living standards are falling, public services are crumbling, and young people are told to hustle harder — but the president is minting billions off perfume, NFTs-with-extra-steps, and foreign deals managed by Don Jr and Eric on a "global moneymaking blitz". Western democracy always feared turning into a banana republic. Trump just asked why stop at bananas when you can add cologne, golf memberships, and a meme coin.
#forever-grifting#corruption
pope leo vs the axis of amoral dunces
Pope Leo, lone adult in a world leaders’ daycare, gently explaining to Trump, Putin and Netanyahu that ‘thou shalt not commit war crimes’ is not a negotiable suggestion.
Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu walk into a century and somehow it’s our problem. Simon Tisdall lays out the obvious: these three aren’t just bad at ethics, they appear to have deleted the concept from their internal operating systems. From Putin’s missile roulette over Ukraine, to Netanyahu’s UN-flagged child-targeting genocide in Gaza, to Trump’s all-you-can-eat buffet of corruption, crypto scams and constitutional vandalism, we’re living through a masterclass in how to turn public office into a moral septic tank.
The Trump regime, now featuring Vice-President JD “Watergate Wasn’t That Deep Actually” Vance and Defense Secretary Pete “God Loves My Bombs” Hegseth, has upgraded immorality from scandal to standard operating procedure. We’ve got extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean, an unlawful US-Israel war on Iran that starts with the mass killing of primary school children in Minab, and a White House that treats international law like the terms of service on a sketchy crypto exchange. The cover-up isn’t even a cover-up any more; it’s just arrogant silence wrapped in flag pins and Bible quotes.
Into this swamp wades Pope Leo, apparently the last global figure who thinks “don’t kill children and lie about God wanting it” is a baseline, not a radical left agenda. He’s publicly calling out Trump, Putin and Netanyahu as tyrants, torching Vance and Hegseth for weaponising religion, and trying to slam shut the just-war loopholes politicians use to launder their bloodbaths as “proportional self-defence”. While far-right parties criminalise dissenters as terrorists and Western leaders normalize war crimes and kleptocracy, Leo is out here reminding everyone that war is “never blessed by God” and that dragging the sacred into “darkness and filth” is, shockingly, bad.
So on one side: billionaires, war criminals, crypto-grifters and arms dealers running a global morality Ponzi scheme under the brand of “strength” and “national security”. On the other: a pope, some impertinent Muslim and Jewish leaders, and a newly installed archbishop of Canterbury telling Israel to stop the occupation and the world to stop pretending this is fine. The fact that the Vatican is now the ethical high-water mark for the American presidency tells you everything about how thoroughly Trumpism has killed any remaining shame in public life.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
space cowboys and border patrol: fascism, but make it rodeo
Proud parents watch as their kids play rodeo games a few feet from a Border Patrol signup booth, proving that in Trump’s America, nothing says family fun like soft-launching your child’s future in paramilitary border enforcement.
Trump’s America has finally merged two great national traditions: rodeo culture and state power. At Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, baby-faced recruits swear into the Air Force while bull riders in chaps prepare to get launched into the dirt, and somewhere in between, Space Force and US Border Patrol quietly turn the whole thing into a live-action recruitment ad. It’s billed as a celebration of America’s 250th birthday, but the real headliner is a booth where you can sign up to help enforce Trump’s immigration crackdown, right next to the kids’ games.
Border Patrol, freshly showered in $70 billion in border security funding, including $26 billion just for itself, is now dangling $60,000 signing bonuses like party favors while bragging it’s finally passed 21,000 agents. The agency that’s been at the center of Trump’s hardline immigration crusade is hoovering up applicants who can’t qualify for the actual military but are still very eager to carry a gun for the state. Asthma? Heart condition? No problem — you may not be fit for war, but you’re apparently fit to police migrants.
Meanwhile, Space Force – Trump’s vanity project turned permanent branch of the military – is out here co-sponsoring bull-riding events and competing with Silicon Valley for "top-tier talent" by promising to "tame… space" like it’s a particularly rowdy open range. The stadium rises to honor veterans while drones paint the Space Force logo in the sky, and the message is clear: patriotic entertainment and endless militarization are now a single product, sold as family fun with a Tim McGraw soundtrack. The line between "go watch some bull riding" and "sign up to enforce the border for a president obsessed with immigration crackdowns" has been replaced with a recruitment tent and a bouncy trampoline.
#killing-democracy#trumps-america
trump to celebrate independence day by attacking half the country again
Mount Rushmore prepares for the honor of being a background extra in Trump’s latest episode of ‘This Is About Me Now.’
Trump is reportedly "ramping up" his rhetoric just in time for his July Fourth speech, because nothing says national unity like using a patriotic address as a campaign rally with better fireworks and more flags. NBC's segment questions whether this White House, which treats political opponents as enemies of the state and the press as traitors, is capable of anything resembling a unifying tone that doesn’t involve compulsory flattery.
Instead of a normal civic celebration, we’re getting another taxpayer-funded grievance festival where the president stands in front of a national monument and explains that the real threat to America is… Americans who don’t like him. The line between a public, nonpartisan event and a campaign spectacle gets a little blurrier every year, as Trump happily converts national holidays into personality-cult programming.
So while past presidents used Independence Day to gesture vaguely toward shared values and democratic norms, this one is workshopping new insults and testing how much authoritarian chest-thumping he can cram into a "unifying" speech. The only thing truly bringing the country together at this point is bipartisan dread about what he’s going to say next.
#killing-democracy#fascism#trumps-america
trump deregulates your baby’s lunch
FDA HQ heroically fighting infant botulism with a single remaining inspector and a PowerPoint about "efficiency".
The Trump administration looked at the baby formula system that already poisoned infants in 2022 and said: "What if we fired the inspectors this time?" The FDA’s own former food safety chief says the agency is now "doing less with less" after Trump’s reorganization and staff cuts stripped away thousands of employees, especially the ones who actually go into factories and check whether the baby food is seasoned with botulism.
On paper, the FDA rolled out something adorably named Operation Stork Speed to "expand options" for safe infant formula. In reality, the expert brought in to help design the nutrition regulations says there’s been basically no movement since 2025, while the agency insists everything is "continuing as planned"—a chilling phrase when multiple brands are being recalled for bacterial contamination and infant botulism outbreaks. States are scrambling to fill the gap, doing nearly 2,000 recall checks in a week while the federal agency tasked with protecting the food supply managed a proud total of 21.
The chaos is so advanced that investigative reporters, not regulators, had to connect that two different formula brands behind botulism outbreaks were using the same organic milk supplier. The FDA only updated the public record on its inspections after reporters asked why there was no trace of a German plant linked to sick babies. Meanwhile, Trump’s people brag about doubling paper-pusher "infant formula staffing" while quietly starving the field investigators who actually keep bacteria out of bottles. It’s deregulation as performance art: fewer cops on the beat, more press releases about "accountability", and a baby formula market where parents have to hope their kid’s next bottle didn’t come with a side of neurotoxin.
#killing-democracy#anti-science#forever-grifting
land of the fee, home of the barely-naturalized
1,300 hopeful immigrants take the oath in Pasadena while the Trump administration works tirelessly to make sure they’re the last ones through the door.
America turns 250 and, in a touching tribute to its founding ideals, the Trump administration is celebrating by seeing how many brown and non‑Christian people it can keep from becoming citizens. New Americans are raising their right hands and swearing allegiance while quietly calculating how much time they have before Stephen Miller’s spiritual interns decide that denaturalization should be a national pastime. Pride? Sure. Also: terror, paperwork, and a four‑figure bill for the privilege of existing.
The White House has turned the naturalization process into a slow‑motion obstacle course: longer waits, tougher civics tests, and jacked‑up fees, all wrapped in a broader campaign of raids, deportations, and legal gymnastics to challenge birthright citizenship. Community groups describe citizenship now as “survival,” which is a neat way of saying that in Trump’s America, the closer you get to full legal status, the more the government looks at you like a clerical error to be fixed.
While scholars politely note that the US is still more “accessible” than places like Qatar and Kuwait, that’s a bit like bragging that your democracy isn’t quite as exclusionary as a petro‑monarchy. As the administration revives interest in stripping citizenship from people who already have it, the message for new Americans on the nation’s 250th birthday is clear: welcome to the club, your membership can be revoked at any time, no refunds, no appeals, and please ignore the ICE van circling the parking lot.
#anti-immigration#killing-democracy
hakeem jeffries reminds everyone the arsonist is still in charge of the fire department
Hakeem Jeffries patiently explaining that yes, Democrats are messy, but only one party currently has a president treating the FBI like his personal QAnon book club.
Hakeem Jeffries went on NPR to play the role of Responsible Adult™ and gently remind everyone that while Democrats are busy reenacting West Wing fan fiction about primaries, Donald Trump is still the guy with the nuclear codes, the Pentagon, and a large collection of unhinged House Republicans.
Pressed twice about how he’ll work with Democrats who beat his preferred candidates in New York, Jeffries basically replied: "I don’t care who wins the purity Olympics, we’ve got an actual authoritarian cosplay project to shut down." Instead of airing intra-party grievances, he pivoted back to Trump, the GOP agenda, and what he calls "MAGA extremism" — you know, the crowd that thinks elections are optional and laws are for other people.
Jeffries also slammed Trump’s decision to jump into the Middle East conflict — a "war of choice" that the White House apparently selected from the same menu where it orders culture-war outrage — and noted that House Democrats oppose it. At the same time, he’s cautiously optimistic Trump will sign a bipartisan housing affordability bill, presumably during one of the brief interludes when the president isn’t rage-watching cable news or threatening random prosecutors on social media.
And because this administration can never resist misusing law enforcement, Jeffries called out Trump’s team for wasting FBI resources to re-chase the already debunked 2020 election conspiracy fever dreams. While Trump tries to turn federal agents into his personal fan-fiction investigators, Jeffries is out here begging voters to focus on the guy abusing the machinery of the state — not just which Democrat gets to inherit the flaming wreckage later.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness#national-security
trump discovers nato isn't his personal fight club, throws tantrum anyway
Trump studies a NATO spending chart and concludes the real enemy is math, alliances, and anyone who won’t bomb Iran on command.
Donald Trump took a brief break from rage-posting about his indictments to rage-post about NATO, declaring it "ridiculous" for the US to keep its supposedly "one sided" relationship with the alliance. On Truth Social, he shared a very serious chart (always a good sign) showing US defense spending next to a couple of cherry‑picked allies, then concluded that the entire post‑WWII security order is a bad deal because Europeans won’t let him use their bases as a launchpad for his Iran adventure.
Instead of admitting he’s mad Europe doesn’t want to co‑star in his Middle East sequel, Trump is pretending this is all about "fairness" and "reciprocity"—while his administration has already started scaling back US commitments and demanding that NATO countries jack up their defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. That’s not a security policy; that’s an arms‑industry wet dream in patriotic wrapping paper.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is out doing the clean‑up tour, politely explaining that the president is just "disappointed" Europe won’t be more "actively involved in attacking Iran"—a phrase that tells you everything you need to know about who’s the aggressor here. With a major summit in Ankara looming and 32 member states trying to keep the alliance from collapsing under the weight of Trump’s ego, NATO’s 77‑year mission has evolved from deterring Russia to surviving the American president.
#killing-democracy#national-security#imperialism
court reminds trump he’s not hr director of a banana republic
Trump officials stare at the Constitution like it’s malware while a judge gently explains they can’t just fire people for doing diversity work.
The Trump administration just got a civics lesson from a federal appeals court, which ruled that, yes, even intelligence officers have this pesky thing called due process. The CIA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence fired 19 career officers whose crime was… doing temporary diversity assignments they’d been ordered to do under the previous administration. The agencies then tried to pretend their own rules didn’t exist, like a teenager claiming they never saw the chore chart.
Government lawyers helpfully argued that then–CIA Director John Ratcliffe and the director of national intelligence had unfettered authority to fire people with or without cause, which is a bold thing to say out loud in a courtroom and not at a Heritage Foundation cosplay dictatorship summit. The judges, in a 2–1 ruling, replied that actually, when your own regulations say employees get a shot at reassignment and an appeal, you can’t just yeet them out the door for helping with diversity work that offended the current regime’s delicate culture-war sensibilities.
Attorney Kevin Carroll, representing the officers, noted that "intelligence officers have due process rights, too," which is apparently a controversial statement in Trump World, where loyalty oaths are in and civil service protections are out. The court ordered the CIA and acting DNI Bill Pulte to get these people back to work, though the administration is already eyeing an appeal, presumably on the grounds that the Constitution makes an exception whenever someone hurts Donald Trump’s feelings about DEI. The agencies, naturally, did not respond to requests for comment—possibly because it’s hard to email reporters while shredding your own HR manual.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness#fascism
air force major discovers war powers clause, promptly arrested
U.S. Air Force Major Jason Watson makes the grave mistake of citing the Constitution in public, moments before being reminded that the only acceptable use of his uniform is to carry out unauthorized wars, not complain about them.
An Air Force major showed up on the Capitol steps in full uniform, read the Constitution, connected it to Trump and JD Vance’s freelance wars in Venezuela and Iran, and then did the one thing this administration truly cannot tolerate: publicly demanded their impeachment. Capitol Police quickly reminded everyone that while you can drone people abroad without a vote, you absolutely may not raise your voice about it in the wrong part of the staircase.
According to the police, Jason Watson’s real crime was “Crowding, Obstructing, and Incommoding” — a perfect description of the Trump administration’s entire foreign policy, but sure, slap it on the guy quoting the War Powers Clause. Watson argued that Trump and Vance’s unauthorized military adventures have killed 13 U.S. service members and injured hundreds more, which in any functioning democracy might trigger hearings. In this one, it triggers a perp walk.
The military swiftly chimed in to remind everyone that service members are banned from “political activities” in uniform, but apparently not from participating in the unconstitutional wars he was protesting. Using contemptuous language about the president is forbidden; using missiles without congressional authorization is…a policy disagreement. Watson called the administration’s immigration tactics unconstitutional, too, which is probably the most impeachable thing he did: suggesting the law should apply to the people in charge.
So yes, you can still protest in certain designated free-speech zones on the Capitol grounds, as long as you don’t impede traffic, upset the president, or mention that Congress actually has war powers. Civilian deaths abroad? Manageable. One officer demanding impeachment on the wrong set of steps? Now that is a national security emergency.
#killing-democracy#imperialism
trump wins the right to erase history from national parks
A national park visitor center proudly displaying nature, patriotism, and absolutely no mention of how either is being destroyed.
America’s national parks used to teach you about glaciers melting, enslaved people building the country, and immigrants doing more than starring in Fox News crime segments. Now, thanks to Donald Trump and a helpful appeals court, they’re free to offer the full Heritage Foundation experience: majestic views, sanitized history, and climate change that politely doesn’t exist.
After Trump’s 2025 executive order to restore “truth and sanity” to American history (translation: delete anything that makes racists or oil companies uncomfortable), Interior secretary Doug Burgum told the National Park Service to hunt down and remove any signage that "inappropriately disparages Americans past or living". So out went references to slavery, immigration, and the tiny inconvenience of the planet cooking itself. Advocacy groups sued and actually won in district court, with Judge Angel Kelley warning this was a “dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization”. The First Circuit then stepped in and basically said: relax, erasing history from public spaces doesn’t cause irreparable harm.
The appeals panel decided that systematically stripping climate and slavery information from public monuments doesn’t create “specific harms” – apparently, undermining public trust and deleting uncomfortable facts is just business as usual now. As long as you can’t produce a spreadsheet showing how many members quit your group because the slavery plaque vanished, the government is free to scrub the record clean. So the ruling boils down to this: the administration can erase history from national parks, and citizens can enjoy their federally funded amnesia in peace.
So yes, the Trump administration just won the right to turn national parks into taxpayer-subsidized propaganda zones. The glaciers are melting, the forests are burning, and the courts have decided the real threat is a sign that might "disparage" someone who owned people 200 years ago. Welcome to American heritage, now with 80% fewer facts.
#killing-democracy#fascism
stable genius cosplays as dr. mengel-don
President cosplays as a doctor in an AI video diagnosing critics with a fake brain disease, which is certainly one way to handle dissent when you’ve already declared yourself Jesus, the Pope, and a king on the internet.
The sitting president spent his day not governing, but posting an AI video where he plays "Doctor Trump" curing celebrities of the fictional condition "Trump Derangement Syndrome"—a handy label his supporters use for anyone insufficiently thrilled by fascist cosplay and felony indictments. The video uses hyper-realistic deepfakes of critics like Robert De Niro, Whoopi Goldberg, Edward Norton, Julia Roberts, and Rosie O’Donnell, all digitally rewritten to beg forgiveness for ever doubting Dear Leader. Actual Rosie O’Donnell, tragically still bound by reality, responded by suggesting the 25th Amendment, which is not the punchline so much as the correct medical advice.
In the fake testimonials, AI De Niro weepily confesses that he was miserable and made everyone around him miserable—a bold narrative choice given that the only person visibly making the country miserable is the guy in the white coat and stethoscope pretending to be a doctor while he mainlines Diet Coke. The "treatment" for this invented brain disease? Turn off the news, say your prayers, and drink soda like Trump. So the cure for criticizing the president is to stop consuming information, embrace blind faith, and adopt his beverage regimen. Very normal, extremely healthy, not at all a cult.
This is not Trump’s first foray into AI-assisted messianic fanfic. He has already posted himself as Jesus healing the sick, as the Pope feuding with the actual Pope, and as a literal king on a fake Time cover. February’s contribution was a racist AI video portraying Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, which he deleted but never apologized for, because racism is apparently just another content vertical in the Trump Media Strategy. The White House, doing its best impression of state media, waved it all off as the president’s "right" and insisted TDS had "rotted the brains" of his critics, declining to say whether anyone even bothered asking the depicted actors before hijacking their faces for propaganda.
So we now have a president openly using deepfake tech to fabricate repentance from his enemies, label dissent as mental illness, and market himself as both spiritual healer and monarch, backed by a taxpayer-funded comms shop calling it all a joke. The man who can’t handle a real press conference is very enthusiastic about a future where reality itself is optional—as long as every synthetic version of it ends with him in charge and everyone else apologizing for ever telling the truth.
#killing-democracy#fascism
golden gate bridge now a toll road and free speech surcharge zone
Golden Gate Bridge, now featuring four lanes of traffic, one lane of protest, and a special EZ-Pass for state repression.
The Trump-era justice machine has discovered a bold new frontier in public safety: trying to send anti-war protesters to prison for up to 15 years because traffic was bad in San Francisco. Seven pro-Palestine activists who blocked the Golden Gate Bridge in 2024 were just convicted of six misdemeanors each, including "false imprisonment" of motorists who, for once, couldn't pretend they "didn't see" what was happening in Gaza. The jury, apparently still clinging to a faint pulse of sanity, deadlocked on the felony conspiracy charges that prosecutors were hoping to use as a warning shot at anyone who thinks democracy involves more than quietly filling out web forms for their congressmember.
Prosecutors under San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins tried to turn a fairly standard Bay Area civil disobedience action into a mini-RICO case, insisting the four-hour protest posed "extreme threats" to the health and welfare of trapped drivers. Meanwhile, the defense pointed out the actual extreme threat: a US-backed bombing campaign in Gaza that phone calls and letters had done precisely nothing to stop. Nineteen of the original "Golden Gate 26" quietly had their charges dropped or deferred, but seven were kept on the hook for felonies because nothing says "equal justice under law" like rolling the dice on who gets their life ruined for blocking a roadway.
Not to be left out, the Golden Gate Bridge transit authority decided this was the perfect moment to monetize dissent, demanding restitution for lost toll revenue — something they apparently never bothered with for other traffic-blocking protests. After the DA’s office went on social media to solicit would-be victims for compensation, defendants ended up paying three- and low four-figure sums, neatly converting protest into a small fundraising drive for the bridge. So in the Trump era, the lesson is clear: You can protest war, but only if you don’t inconvenience commuters, disturb revenue streams, or suggest that US foreign policy shouldn’t be dictated by whoever’s currently rage-tweeting from the White House.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
