trump doj discovers bold new civil right: freedom from criticism
Don Lemon being led away in cuffs so the Trump administration can finally experience the sweet, sweet freedom of never being filmed doing anything wrong.
Don Lemon, former CNN anchor and current full-time Trump nemesis, was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles for the unthinkable crime of … filming a protest in a Minnesota church. The Trump justice department is charging him and three others with civil rights crimes for allegedly interfering with religious freedom — because nothing says "defending the Constitution" like using civil rights law as a club against journalists who film protests against ICE.
Abbe Lowell, Lemon’s lawyer, noted that a federal magistrate judge already looked at this and basically said: "you’ve got nothing" — twice. So naturally, Pam Bondi’s DOJ did what any healthy democracy would do: got enraged, vowed to "pursue this to the ends of the Earth" on Megyn Kelly’s show, then sent the feds back in anyway. Meanwhile, independent journalist Georgia Fort was also arrested for the radical act of holding a camera, and press freedom groups are calling this what it obviously is: a "naked attack" on the First Amendment.
The White House responded with the seriousness the moment demanded by posting on X: "When life gives you Lemons" with a chain emoji — because nothing screams "not a police state" like the president’s official account openly celebrating the arrest of a journalist. Top Democrats called it authoritarian, a "police state" move, and "pure authoritarian bile", which is Washington-speak for "this is what we used to condemn in other countries." But sure, tell us again how this is the administration bravely defending religious liberty and civil rights — by arresting the press after a judge already said there was no evidence of a crime.
Trump, ever the neutral observer, called Lemon a "loser, lightweight" and denounced his walk into the church as "terrible" while praising the pastor as a victim of being "accosted" by people with cameras. In other words, the DOJ has been repurposed from "justice" to "Department of Vengeance", civil rights law now protects you from being criticized, and journalists are being hauled off in chains to send a message. But don’t worry, democracy is doing great.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
government shuts down, deportation death squads stay open
Congress frantically pretends to govern while making sure the only fully funded part of the state is the masked deportation squad that just killed two US citizens.
The Senate is racing to avoid a partial shutdown because federal agents killed two US citizens in Minneapolis while acting as Trump’s roving, masked deportation squads—and Democrats suddenly discovered this thing called "leverage." Chuck Schumer is demanding the wild, utopian fantasy that DHS agents wear body cameras, follow a basic code of conduct, and maybe stop doing paramilitary cosplay with masks and random street hunts for anyone who looks "illegal." In other words: the bare minimum standards you’d expect from a halfway-functioning democracy are now a bargaining chip in a shutdown standoff.
The plan: pass five bipartisan spending bills, then slap DHS on a two-week leash while they negotiate whether ICE should continue operating like a taxpayer-funded terror organization. But thanks to the House taking a long weekend, a partial shutdown is locked in anyway—because nothing says "responsible governance" like clocking out while the government runs out of money. Speaker Mike Johnson swears they "want to get the government funded, as does the president," which is cute, given that Trump’s real priority is keeping his mass deportation campaign fully operational and minimally accountable.
Meanwhile, Lindsey Graham is holding things up to protect one very special interest: Lindsey Graham, and other lawmakers who really don’t want the FBI using their phone records against them in that pesky Trump 2020 election meddling investigation. And over in the House, the far-right brain trust is demanding that every funding bill be stapled to the SAVE Act—a voter suppression package dressed up as election security—because if you’re going to keep deportation squads rich and unrestrained, you might as well also make it harder for the wrong people to vote you out. Even if the government shuts down, ICE keeps humming along on its $75bn slush fund from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with agents likely forced to work through the shutdown. The message from Trump’s America is clear: national parks can close, food inspections can pause—but the deportation machine and its body count? That never sleeps.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump declares dead icu nurse an 'insurrectionist' to protect a taillight
Federal agents stand by a government SUV with a broken taillight, which now apparently carries more presidential concern than the dead ICU nurse who kicked it.
Nothing says "law and order" like the president of the United States posthumously branding a dead ICU nurse an "agitator" and "perhaps, insurrectionist" because he yelled at ICE and broke a government taillight. Alex Pretti, a legally armed VA hospital nurse fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis, is now being recast by Donald Trump as a crazed menace based on a newly surfaced video of him shouting at immigration agents and kicking the back of their vehicle. The officer, Trump insists, was "calm and cool"—because nothing screams independent fact-finding like the guy in charge of the shooters issuing the character judgment on social media.
This comes after the White House already tried out a few other labels—"gunman," "domestic terrorist," "would-be assassin"—before quietly walking them back when even Republicans started looking uncomfortable with the speed-run from "citizen" to "terrorist". Pretti’s family, understandably not thrilled that their dead relative is being used as a prop in Trump’s federal-police fan fiction, has condemned the smear campaign. But the administration’s message is clear: carry a gun legally, get killed by federal agents, and the president will personally log on to call you an insurrectionist if it helps justify the shooting.
Meanwhile, Trump claims he wants to "de-escalate" in Minnesota, even as he ramps up the rhetoric and keeps promoting the saintly calm of heavily armed federal officers over the life of a nurse who treated veterans. Border czar Tom Homan is out here begging everyone to "tone down the dangerous rhetoric" while his boss is on Truth Social pouring gasoline on the situation and lighting matches. In other words: citizens should be calm, obedient, and quiet—and if they aren’t, and something bad happens, the president will make sure they’re remembered as the problem, not the people with badges and guns.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
founders died for this: mall turned into trump motor speedway
IndyCars prepare to do 200 mph past the Capitol so Fox can sell truck ads while the Constitution watches from the curb and quietly files for divorce.
Donald Trump has decided that the best way to celebrate America’s 250th birthday is to turn the National Mall into a high-speed billboard with an executive-ordered IndyCar race, because nothing says “constitutional republic” like commandeering federal agencies to stage a televised street carnival for Fox Sports and Roger Penske.
Via an executive order that hasn’t even been made public yet (very normal, very transparent), Trump is directing the Interior and Transportation departments to “expeditiously” ram through permits, design a race route wrapping the monuments, and let Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy “use available funds to facilitate the race”—in other words, crack open the public wallet so billionaires can do burnouts in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks is thrilled, IndyCar owner Roger Penske is honored, and everyone insists this is about “patriotism” and “freedom” rather than a federally subsidized, ad-plastered branding orgy in the middle of what’s supposed to be the nation’s front lawn.
There’s the small issue that advertising is banned on Capitol grounds and IndyCar is basically a 220-mph NASCAR jacket, which might actually require Congress to bless this stunt. But don’t worry: Eleanor Holmes Norton’s office says she’ll “work to make it happen” if the mayor’s on board, because apparently representation for D.C. now means helping the White House turn your city into a corporate race track. Duffy is also told to work with the FAA to allow extra drones and aerial photography over sensitive government facilities, because if there’s one thing this administration loves, it’s casually rewriting safety rules to juice the TV spectacle.
So for America’s 250th, we’re getting a taxpayer-assisted, executive-ordered motorsports infomercial wrapped in a flag and sold as “freedom.” The Founders were worried about standing armies; they didn’t even get to the part where a future president would use the executive branch to build a temporary Trump-branded Monaco around the Washington Monument.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
trump doj heroically dumps 3 million pages of ‘totally not incriminating’ epstein files
America’s most connected sex trafficker, seen here during one of the many, many times the system politely looked the other way.
The Trump justice department has proudly announced it is releasing more than 3 million pages of Jeffrey Epstein files, along with over 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, because nothing says “we definitely didn’t help cover any of this up” like a document tsunami dropped years after Epstein conveniently stopped being available for questioning. Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche says this Herculean paperwork dump is all part of complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act—which is Washington-speak for "fine, you caught us, here’s the stuff we didn’t manage to bury."
Blanche also bragged that the Trump administration has produced roughly 3.5 million pages in total, as if volume equals virtue and not "we redacted the good parts and buried them in a PDF labyrinth so dense it should come with a Sherpa." In other words, the same government that once let Epstein walk away with a sweetheart deal is now tossing millions of pages into the public record and calling it accountability. But sure, dump a warehouse of files on a Friday and pretend that’s justice—because in Trump’s America, transparency means "you can technically see it, if you can afford a full-time research team and several spare lifetimes."
#corruption#lawlessness
dr. oz prescribes racism for medicare fraud
Dr. Oz, now taxpayer-funded, gesturing at Armenian bakery signs like he’s uncovered the Zapruder film of Medicare fraud.
CMS administrator Mehmet Oz took a break from selling miracle weight-loss scams to sell a new one for the Trump administration: that LA’s Armenian community is basically a $3.5bn hospice fraud cartel. In a social media stunt, Oz tours Van Nuys, waves at Armenian signage like it’s probable cause, name-drops the “Russian Armenian mafia”, and singles out a bakery on camera—because nothing says serious law enforcement like drive-by ethnic profiling with B-roll of pastries.
Gavin Newsom responded by filing a civil rights complaint with HHS, accusing Oz of spewing “baseless and racially charged allegations” that are already hurting real businesses and scaring people away from hospice and home care. Oz and CMS, naturally, have provided no corroborating details, while Newsom points out that California has already yanked more than 280 hospice licenses and frozen new ones since 2022—so the whole “California ignores fraud” talking point is as fake as Oz’s TV credentials as a public health guardian.
This little ethnic hit piece isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s part of a wider Trump administration “fraud” crusade that previously used allegations about Somali-run daycare centers in Minneapolis to justify a sweeping immigration crackdown—one that’s already produced mass protests and two people shot dead by federal agents this month. In other words, we’re not looking at a crackdown on fraud; we’re looking at a crackdown on communities, with Dr. Oz happily playing the role of government infomercial host for state-sanctioned scapegoating.
#racism#killing-democracy
schrödinger’s ice surge hits minnesota
Live look at Minnesota, where the forecast calls for freezing temps and a 90% chance of surprise ICE surge depending on whatever Trump blurts out next.
Trump has once again discovered his favorite law-enforcement strategy: say one thing, do another, and then yell about it on TV. After officials announced plans to draw down ICE and other federal agents in Minnesota, Trump publicly contradicted them and suggested the crackdown would, in fact, continue — because nothing says "rule of law" like treating federal policing levels as a campaign rally prop.
In other words, Minnesotans are now stuck in a fun little constitutional experiment where local officials are told one thing in briefings while the president goes on air and demands more boots, more raids, and more chaos. The actual operational plans? Who knows. The point isn’t safety or policy; it’s spectacle. Trump gets to posture as the tough guy, while communities get to live in permanent uncertainty about how many armed federal agents are roaming around this week.
This is the same playbook we’ve seen everywhere else: use ICE and DHS as a personal political branding exercise, then leave everyone else — from mayors to police chiefs to immigrants just trying to live their lives — to sort out the fallout. But sure, tell us again how this is all about "law and order" and not about a president testing how far he can push federal power into states that don’t clap hard enough.
#killing-democracy#fascism#anti-immigration
trump turns epa into the environmental pollution agency
A refinery flare stack in New Jersey bravely exercising its newfound freedom to dump more crap into the air, courtesy of the Trump EPA’s ‘pro-life except for lungs’ agenda.
In his triumphant return to the Oval Office, Donald Trump has decided that if you can’t repeal the laws of physics, you can at least pretend they’re optional. His EPA has launched 66 separate actions to kneecap environmental protections in a single year—because nothing says "core mission of protecting human health" like handing out pollution exemptions via email to coal plants and chemical factories.
Former EPA officials describe it as a “war on all fronts” and an attempt to leave only a symbolic husk of the agency. Mission accomplished: the EPA is now openly functioning as the Environmental Pollution Agency, where the main innovation is stopping the calculation of the monetary value of human lives saved and only tallying what regulations cost companies. In other words, if you die from fine particulate matter or ozone, that’s not a "cost" anymore—just a patriotic donation to corporate profits.
Trump’s team is shutting down clean air advisory committees, offering two-year get-out-of-the-Clean-Air-Act-free cards to some of the most toxic facilities in the country, and then insisting America’s air is "the cleanest it’s been in decades" as they rip out the measuring tools. It’s regulatory policy by gaslighting: gut enforcement, erase the science, declare victory. But sure, tell us more about how it’s the "climate zealots" who don’t care about people.
#anti-science#killing-democracy
uline worker quits the fascism fulfillment center
JD Vance delivers economic remarks at Uline, the world’s premier supplier of cardboard boxes, packing peanuts, and soft-focus fascism.
Uline, the Amazon Prime of fascism accessories, just got a very public resignation letter from one of its own. Laura Wittmann, a Canadian customer service worker on the "leadership track," noped out via a company-wide email explaining that she could no longer help fatten the fortunes of Liz and Dick Uihlein—two of Trump’s biggest 2024 megadonors—as America "descends rapidly into fascism." Because nothing says "neutral office supply company" like bankrolling the people dismantling democracy and cheering on border patrol shootings.
The Uihleins, who dropped roughly $139 million on MAGA Republicans and recently hosted Vice-President JD Vance for a little light autocracy pep rally at their Pennsylvania facility, are exactly the kind of respectable extremists Wittmann calls out. She describes their power as the "most insidious form of evil"—the kind that hides behind decorum, policy memos, and political donations while the state kills a mom and a VA nurse in Minneapolis. Meanwhile Liz is still penning scolding letters in Uline catalogs about lazy "nomads" who dare change jobs, blaming the now-gutted Affordable Care Act and stimulus checks for workers realizing they don’t have to grovel forever for the privilege of packing boxes for billionaires.
Wittmann’s parting shot? Higher-than-average pay isn’t generosity; it’s an "assurance of compliance" in service of what she calls the American imperialist war machine. She urges coworkers to stop pretending they’re just selling tape and pallets while their bosses help bankroll the regime tearing up healthcare, unleashing border forces, and expanding "territories they invade." Uline’s response was to scrub the email from inboxes in about 40 minutes—because nothing screams confidence in your values like frantically hitting delete on a conscience.
#killing-democracy#corruption
fbi raid, brought to you by the ministry of election doubt
Tulsi Gabbard, America’s top spy, personally inspecting dusty 2020 ballots like she’s about to uncover the Rosetta Stone of voter fraud instead of starring in a very expensive campaign ad for the big lie.
The Trump administration just sent the FBI to raid the Fulton County election office and seize every 2020 ballot, tabulator tape, ballot image, and voter roll they could get their hands on, because nothing says "confidence in elections" like a federal smash-and-grab of lawfully cast votes from six years ago. This is all in service of the eternal 2020 fan fiction: the big lie that Atlanta was a crime scene instead of the place where Joe Biden actually, verifiably won Georgia – twice confirmed by recounts, and thoroughly debunked by state investigators.
And because this is the Trump era, the clown car comes with its own intel chief: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard personally showed up at the raid, like a cosplay KGB officer looking for "foreign interference" in a county warehouse. Senator Mark Warner politely pointed out that either she has a real intel case and is breaking the law by hiding it from Congress, or she’s turning the supposedly nonpartisan intelligence community into a prop for Trump’s domestic election conspiracy circus. The Wall Street Journal helpfully reports that Gabbard is actually leading the administration’s nationwide hunt for phantom voter fraud – in other words, the DNI is now the president’s chief election denial officer.
Meanwhile, Trump’s DOJ – lovingly reengineered into an anti–voting rights wrecking ball – is filing flimsy lawsuits across the country to hoover up sensitive voter rolls, most of which courts are already swatting down. In Georgia, Fulton County was already in the middle of a legal process to turn over 2020 records after a state board stacked with Trump allies subpoenaed them. A judge had ordered a transfer plan, a hearing was scheduled, and then the feds just kicked in the door anyway, grabbed the ballots, and vanished them into the federal evidence void. Local officials now have no idea where their ballots are or what the administration plans to do with them, but they’re pretty clear on what this is: a staged "criminal" investigation designed to smear election workers, threaten public officials, and keep the base marinating in manufactured doubt heading into 2026 and 2028. But sure, tell us again how this is all about "election integrity" and not about building a permanent excuse for whenever Trump loses.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
state tv, but make it persian
Kari Lake, live from Voice of America, demonstrating how you turn a congressionally funded news service into a taxpayer-subsidized Trump campaign ad in under five minutes.
Kari Lake has discovered a bold new innovation in American broadcasting: why merely appear on Fox, Newsmax, and OANN to worship Trump when you can use U.S. government media to do it, in multiple languages, beamed straight into foreign countries? As the official overseeing the parent agency of Voice of America, Lake went on VOA’s Persian-language service to celebrate Trump’s first year back in office, calling him the "president of peace," repeating his fantasy claim that he ended eight wars, and attacking an "out-of-control judiciary" for daring to rule against Dear Leader. The segment was part of a glowing one-hour Trump special, then rebroadcast on VOA’s Chinese service, because nothing says "independent public broadcaster" like a taxpayer-funded campaign infomercial in two time zones.
The small problem: federal law and agency policies explicitly exist to stop exactly this — political appointees turning VOA into a White House propaganda arm. That’s the whole point of the VOA "firewall": to prevent the ruling party from using government-owned media as a personal hype machine. Lake’s defense is that you can’t tell the story of the "brave Iranian people" without amplifying Trump’s greatness and the "support" they supposedly have for him. In other words, the law doesn’t apply if the propaganda is for freedom. The network she’s trying to dismantle is now being conscripted to glorify the man she serves and to attack his political opponents and the courts — but sure, tell us again how it’s the other guys who love state-run media.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump finally bans tiktok... by owning it
TikTok’s new US algorithm: now proudly made in America, censored by your favorite billionaires, and brought to you by the guy who merged Paramount so Trump could yell at CBS in peace.
Remember when Trump pretended to be terrified that China might use TikTok to censor political speech and warp American democracy? Good news: the problem has been solved by handing the US version of TikTok to a Trump-aligned investor consortium led by Oracle, the data-hoarding besties of the American right. ByteDance gets a minority stake, Oracle gets the keys to the algorithm, and Trump gets what he always wanted: leverage over the app he credits for his 2024 win. Because nothing says "protecting free speech from foreign interference" like building your own state-approved propaganda firehose at scale.
US TikTok users are already noticing the magic of American freedom: videos about a federal agent killing Alex Pretti get stuck in endless "review", anti‑Trump content mysteriously flatlines in reach, and words like "Epstein" suddenly become Voldemort-tier unutterable. TikTok USDS swears it’s all just a quirky little "Oracle datacenter power outage"—in other words, the algorithmic equivalent of "the dog ate my homework"—while Gavin Newsom wonders aloud why his state’s laws seem to be getting throttled along with everyone’s For You page.
Meanwhile, the new joint venture is run by Adam Presser, who thinks references to Zionism should count as hate speech, and Benjamin Netanyahu is openly thrilled that a platform which made Western kids notice Palestinian suffering is now in friendlier hands. Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda? Conveniently banned. The algorithm is being retrained on US-only data, a perfect way to wall off Americans from global debates, juice conservative narratives, and quietly bury minority voices—Facebook’s rage-boosting 2018 algorithm change, but now under direct influence of Trumpworld donors like Larry Ellison, who is simultaneously hoovering up CBS, Paramount, and potentially Warner Bros and CNN.
In other words, censorship has gone full invisible-hand-of-the-market. You can technically "say" what you want; it just won’t go anywhere if it upsets the guys who own the servers, the newsrooms, and the president. Rightwing billionaires who cosplay as free speech warriors are consolidating control of both traditional media and social platforms, swapping book bans and police raids for something cleaner: algorithmic throttling you’ll never quite be able to prove. But sure, tell us again how this is all about stopping Chinese propaganda and defending the First Amendment.
#killing-democracy#oligarchy
trump shops for a fed chair who’ll cut rates and kiss the ring
Jerome Powell, moments before discovering that refusing to be Trump’s personal day-trader-in-chief is a fireable offense.
Donald Trump is expected to tap former Fed governor Kevin Warsh to run the US Federal Reserve, in what’s being politely described as an “extraordinary attempt” to tighten his grip on the central bank and steamroll its independence. In other words: after raging for years that Jerome Powell wouldn’t crash rates on command, Trump is now shopping for a chair who understands that the real dual mandate is “price stability and making Dear Leader look good.”
Warsh, a one-time monetary hawk who used to hate ultra-loose policy, has now discovered the spiritual benefits of lower borrowing costs just in time to align perfectly with Trump’s wishes. It’s amazing what enlightenment you can reach when the White House is dangling one of the most powerful jobs on Earth, plus you’re married into the Lauder billionaire dynasty whose patriarch literally egged Trump on to try buying Greenland. Nothing says independent central banking like a Fed chair whose family brainstorms real estate acquisitions at the scale of continents.
Market types are calling Warsh a “relatively safe choice” and assuring everyone he won’t become a “full-blown Trump stooge,” which is exactly the kind of sentence people said about half this administration’s appointees right before they torched whatever institution they were handed the keys to. Meanwhile, Trump is out here openly boasting that Warsh “thinks you have to lower interest rates,” because why hide the pressure campaign when you can just say the quiet part into a microphone on live TV? But sure, tell us again how the Fed is totally independent and this is all just normal, boring technocracy.
#killing-democracy#oligarchy#forever-grifting
world’s cheapest taxpayer demands $10 billion refund
Donald Trump, seen here contemplating how to turn paying $750 in taxes into a $10,000,000,000 payday.
Donald Trump — the man who paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 — is now suing the IRS and the Treasury Department for $10 billion because their security failures allowed a contractor to leak his returns to the press. In other words, the guy who spent years hiding his tax records is furious that the public found out he basically treated the U.S. tax code like a suggestion and the federal government like his personal write-off.
The lawsuit, filed "in his personal capacity" (because of course he wants the perks of the presidency without any of those annoying responsibilities), claims the disclosures caused him and his sons "reputational and financial harm" and "public embarrassment." Translation: the embarrassment came from the numbers, not the leak. This is the same tax story he loudly called "totally fake news" — which makes it extra fun that he’s now demanding billions over the real damage it did.
The leaker, former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn, already got five years in prison for stealing Trump’s and other billionaires’ tax data, so the criminal part is settled. But Trump’s move here is pure forever-grifting: try to cash in on a legitimate whistleblowing disaster, punish the agencies that hold him accountable, and signal to every future bureaucrat that crossing Dear Leader’s financial interests could come with a 10-figure price tag. Because nothing says "respect for the rule of law" like trying to bill the U.S. government ten billion dollars for the crime of accurately portraying your finances.
#forever-grifting#corruption#money
trump cures addiction with a sharpie
Trump bravely battles the overdose crisis by attacking a stack of paper with his Sharpie, thereby curing addiction in under a minute of B-roll.
Donald Trump signed an order to "address drug addiction," because nothing says serious public health strategy like a 47-second photo-op and a signature larger than the overdose death curve. Surrounded by the usual solemn faces, he launched yet another "initiative," Washington-speak for: we’re not funding real treatment, but we are absolutely going to moralize, criminalize, and outsource the grift to our friends.
In other words, the same administration that treats addiction as a talking point and addicts as props now wants credit for "solving" the crisis with a task force, some tough-guy rhetoric, and probably a few new ways to funnel money to rehab-industrial-complex donors. Evidence-based harm reduction, housing, and mental health care? Don’t worry, those will be carefully avoided in favor of more cops, more cages, and more cameras.
So yes, Trump is "addressing" drug addiction—mostly by addressing it to his base in a campaign-style speech while signing an order that will almost certainly prioritize punishment over treatment. But sure, tell us again how this is about compassion and not another excuse to expand state power over the lives of people already on the edge.
#killing-democracy#full-stupid#trumps-america
world's dumbest embargo expansion speedruns a trade war
A container ship bravely attempting to deliver oil without triggering the latest episode of Trump’s Sanctions & Tariffs Extended Universe.
Donald Trump has discovered a bold new use for tariffs: punishing any country that dares sell oil to a nation he doesn’t like. In a fresh executive order—because why involve Congress when you have a Sharpie—Trump threatened new levies on countries that supply fuel to Cuba, offering zero details on rates, targets, or how this isn’t just 1962 cosplay with extra brain damage.
Fresh off literally having US forces snatch Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro in a January raid on Caracas—because nothing says "rules-based international order" like abducting foreign leaders—Trump is now tightening the screws on Havana, boasting that Cuba will be "falling pretty soon" as Venezuelan oil dries up. In other words, Washington is openly using the global trading system as a hostage situation: sell fuel to Cuba and we tank your economy too.
Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez had the audacity to point out that the country has "the absolute right to import fuel" from willing exporters "without interference" from the US. Adorable. Meanwhile, the administration is busy rewriting the definition of "free trade" to mean "free to do whatever Washington wants or enjoy your new tariffs." But sure, tell us more about how this isn’t imperialism, just "maximum pressure" with a side of collective punishment.
#imperialism#trade-war#killing-democracy
hostage‑taker announces he’s ‘getting close’ to releasing a few hostages
Trump explains that any day now he might stop strangling the government, proving once again what a generous negotiator he is.
Trump says he and Democrats are ‘getting close’ to a deal to resolve the shutdown fight, which is a very polite way of saying the arsonist thinks he may soon stop pouring gasoline on the fire he started in the living room. After weeks of using federal workers’ paychecks and basic government functions as bargaining chips, he’s now selling himself as the great dealmaker who might, if we’re very good, reopen the government he personally helped close.
In other words, the guy holding the country’s operations at gunpoint is bragging that negotiations with his victims are going great. The White House breaks the government, blames Democrats for not giving him what he wants, then declares progress when they edge toward a truce that mostly involves Trump not doing the thing he just did. Because nothing says responsible governance like threatening millions of people’s livelihoods and then demanding applause when you consider stopping.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
kremlin chic comes to the palm room
The Palm Room, now proudly featuring a portrait of Trump with Putin, for visitors who like their White House tours with a side of authoritarian fan art.
The Palm Room, traditionally a tasteful holding pen for people waiting to meet the leader of the free world, has been upgraded to the Leader of the Free World’s Favorite War Criminal Appreciation Lounge. Newly revealed photos show Donald Trump proudly hanging a framed shot of himself grinning next to Vladimir Putin, taken at their Alaska summit—the one where Trump threatened “severe consequences” if Putin didn’t agree to a ceasefire, rolled out an actual red carpet on U.S. soil, got nothing, and then called it historic anyway. Because nothing says diplomatic triumph like commemorating the day you got clowned by a guy currently butchering Ukraine.
The White House insists this is just one of many “historic accomplishments” Trump likes to feature, and that photos are rotated frequently—kind of like how U.S. foreign policy is now rotated around whatever makes Putin smile on any given day. A spokesperson even blamed the war on Joe Biden’s “incompetence,” which is an interesting twist given that the only thing Trump’s Alaska summit accomplished was giving the Kremlin a propaganda poster and a new screensaver for Kirill Dmitriev, who responded on X with emojis like he just watched a Marvel trailer, not a photo of his boss meeting the American president.
Outside the Trump–Putin fan club, the reaction was… less heartwarming. Senator Mark Warner noted that Trump is literally putting a picture of Putin above a photo of his own grandchild—subtle—and Estonia’s Marko Mihkelson pointed out that hanging a portrait of “the greatest war criminal of the 21st century” in the White House might not be the strongest signal that a “just and sustainable peace” is coming anytime soon. But don’t worry: between demolishing the East Wing to build a $300m ballroom and turning the hallways into a shrine to failed strongman diplomacy, Trump’s White House is working hard to ensure that if American democracy is going down, at least it’ll have really on-brand interior design.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump state department plays empire with alberta
Map of North America, with Alberta circled and a giant price tag reading "$500bn – gently used democracy, must go."
In the latest episode of What If Russia Did This, far-right Alberta separatists have been holding covert meetings with Trump’s state department to ask a foreign power to help break up Canada, because nothing says "grassroots sovereignty" like flying south to beg Donald Trump for a $500bn US Treasury credit facility. British Columbia premier David Eby called it what it is: treason – the old-fashioned kind, not the Fox News kind where voting for a Democrat counts.
The Alberta independence crowd, still a minority in the province, is hustling for 178,000 signatures to trigger a referendum while openly fantasizing about US money and US backing. Conveniently, Alberta premier Danielle Smith recently made it easier to force referendums, but now insists she totally supports a "strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada" – in other words, she lit the fuse and is shocked, shocked there are separatist fireworks.
Trump’s treasury secretary Scott Bessent went on Real America’s Voice to praise Alberta’s "independent people" and to muse aloud about them leaving Canada, because when you’re running a barely-functional democracy at home, the obvious next step is destabilizing the neighbor that supplies your oil. Analysts are now openly gaming out a scenario where a separation vote fails, Trump declares it "fake", and the US moves troops up to northern Montana to pressure Canada into letting Alberta become the 51st state. But sure, tell us again how it’s the other countries that run fifth-column ops to fracture democracies.
Indigenous leaders, whose treaty rights actually predate Alberta’s existence, are pointing out that you can’t just redraw borders on their land because some oil guys got mad at equalization payments and found a sympathetic ear in Washington. Elections Alberta, they warn, is not remotely equipped to handle foreign interference in a referendum that the Trump administration seems eager to turn into its own little annexation cosplay. Canada, according to one researcher, is "sleepwalking" into this. The Trump crew, on the other hand, is wide awake and making a shopping list.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
trump discovers the war button again
Donald Trump, bravely threatening a war he’ll never have to fight in, while a US armada does the heavy lifting for his latest episode of Strongman Theater.
Donald Trump has decided that what the world really needs right now is a little light nuclear brinkmanship, announcing that ‘time is running out’ for Iran while parking a huge US armada on its doorstep. Because nothing says responsible global leadership like menacing a country of 89 million people to juice your strongman image and cable-news chyron.
This latest episode in "What If We Just Started A War?" comes after Trump first promised Iranian protesters that ‘help was on the way,’ then immediately backtracked when it looked like actual responsibility might be involved. Now he’s demanding Tehran negotiate a new deal on its nuclear program while simultaneously doing everything possible to make sure diplomacy dies in a ditch — in other words, classic Trump: threaten war, sabotage talks, then blame the other side for not being serious enough about peace.
Behind the scenes, Pentagon hardware is doing laps in the Persian Gulf while the rest of us get to play the fun new party game, "Is this a bluff, or is the least disciplined man alive about to start a regional war because he got bored on Truth Social?" Devika Bhat walks through what Trump could do next, which ranges from more empty chest-thumping to an actual military strike — but sure, tell us again how the adults are in the room and everything’s totally under control.
#national-security#killing-democracy
