doj discovers drugs-for-votes, quickly prescribes ‘look away’
DOJ officials carefully examining evidence of a drugs-for-votes scheme before filing it directly in the ‘too politically awkward’ shred bin.
Puerto Rico investigators thought they were working a normal prison drug ring — you know, the usual: gangs, smuggling, overdoses. Then they found out the gang was also handing out drugs to inmates in exchange for their votes for now-Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón, a loyal Republican and Trump fan. Inmates addicted to narcotics were told their supply – and possibly their safety – depended on filling in the right oval. It’s textbook vote-buying, except the currency is heroin instead of $20 bills and a T-shirt.
Things were moving, evidence was stacking up, and prosecutors were looking not just at inmates and corrupt prison staff, but at whether González-Colón’s campaign was involved. Then Trump wins in November 2024, González-Colón wins, and suddenly the Justice Department’s enthusiasm for both drug enforcement and election integrity develops a mysterious medical condition. Prosecutors are ordered to strip out the voting-fraud charges and drop everything against the prison officials. The indictment mentions the drugs-for-votes scheme in passing, then bravely refuses to charge anyone for it. The lead prosecutor is later told to stop digging altogether. Mission accomplished.
Meanwhile, Trump is sending her a gushy congratulatory letter about her “resounding victory,” she’s trying to put up a statue of him in San Juan, and the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney W. Stephen Muldrow insists that charging corrupt officials is a “top priority.” So top, in fact, that when a judge later references an investigation involving the governor, Muldrow’s office sprints into court to clarify that, no, absolutely not, there is no investigation of Jenniffer González-Colón. To round out the carnival, Tulsi Gabbard’s ODNI swoops in and seizes Puerto Rico’s voting machines in 2025 over vague “vulnerabilities” — at the request of the same U.S. attorney’s office that quietly killed the prison vote-buying probe. Election integrity theater on the outside, drugs-for-votes impunity on the inside. Perfect symmetry.
#killing-democracy#corruption#lawlessness
trump’s floating firing squad hits 188 ‘maybe drug dealers’
The US military helpfully demonstrates its new probable-cause standard: if it floats, it explodes.
The Trump administration’s favorite new pastime—blowing up boats it swears are full of drugs but refuses to prove—has claimed at least 188 lives so far, including two more in the Caribbean on Monday. US Southern Command proudly posted a video of a small vessel on the water followed by a giant fireball, like a recruitment ad for people who hate due process and love explosions. Evidence that these were actually drug boats remains classified under the strict doctrine of "trust us, bro".
This little maritime snuff-film franchise has been running since early September, conveniently alongside the largest US military buildup in the region in generations and just months before the raid that snatched former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and flew him to New York on narco-terrorism charges. Trump now claims the US is in "armed conflict" with Latin American cartels, which is a very polite way of saying he’s unilaterally declaring a borderless, forever war where the standard of proof is: boat exists.
Even as the Iran war churns along, the administration is ramping up these strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, insisting it’s all about stopping overdoses in the US—by vaporizing people at sea, far from any courtroom, any jury, or any confirmed contraband. Critics, i.e. anyone who can read the UN Charter or the Constitution, are pointing out that this whole "narco boat" campaign looks less like law enforcement and more like state-sanctioned murder with better PR. But hey, when you label everyone a "narcoterrorist", every patch of ocean becomes a battlefield and every dead body a victory metric.
#killing-democracy#imperialism
trump, tech bros, and the campaign to punish australia for liking journalism
Trump and the tech billionaires, carefully considering whether Australian democracy can be monetized or should just be punished.
Australia’s Labor government dares to suggest that Meta, Google, and TikTok should pay for siphoning off value from Australian news outlets, and suddenly the American tech oligarchy is clutching its pearls and speed-dialing the one man who hates journalists even more than they do: Donald Trump. The plan: turn Trump’s festering rage at the “enemy of the people” into US foreign policy, and use America’s trade and diplomatic muscle to smack Australia until it stops trying to keep its media alive.
Trump, already furious that Australia didn’t enthusiastically join his Iran adventure in the Strait of Hormuz, has made it clear the country is on his naughty list. That just happens to coincide beautifully with the interests of Meta, Google, and the newly Trump-compliant TikTok (now with its algorithm babysat by Larry Ellison’s Oracle, because oligarchy is a full-service industry). These companies are shoveling hundreds of billions into US projects, buying up media companies, and collecting White House dinner invites—while preparing to lean on the next US ambassador to Australia to help kill Canberra’s media tax. The message is simple: back your journalists and your democracy, and Washington—under Trump and his tech patrons—might just punish you for it.
Meanwhile, Albanese is out here saying quaint things like “journalists are the lifeblood” of democracy, while Trump sues the BBC for reporting on January 6 and screams at CBS for reading from a shooter’s manifesto. Australia is trying to keep local news alive; Trump and his tech allies are trying to make sure that any country that protects independent media learns what happens when you offend a man who prefers his coverage fawning and his oligarchs happy. Democratic values vs. billionaire feelings—guess which side US foreign policy is drifting toward.
#oligarchy#killing-democracy
trump spends millions to protect his favorite gerrymander
Trump gestures majestically in Indiana while super PACs light $12 million on fire to teach local Republicans the dangers of insufficient gerrymander worship.
Indiana used to have quiet little state Senate primaries where candidates shook hands, kissed babies, and maybe bought a yard sign if they were feeling wild. Now, thanks to Donald Trump’s personal revenge tour, those same sleepy races are drowning in nearly $12 million of ad spending so he can punish seven GOP incumbents who dared to vote against his dream redistricting plan. For context: the entire 2024 cycle saw under $500,000 in Indiana state Senate ads. Democracy is supposed to be about voters picking their politicians; Trump’s project is to spend eight figures making sure politicians pick their voters — and then destroy any Republican who objects.
Instead of just saying, “these guys crossed Dear Leader on the map,” Trump-aligned groups are carpet-bombing the airwaves with deranged culture-war nonsense and straight-up misinformation. One ad calls longtime GOP state Sen. Jim Buck “old, pathetic, liberal” — because nothing says principled conservatism like age-shaming your own 80-year-old foot soldier for insufficient loyalty. Another masterpiece of post-truth politics shows a bunny and toilet paper, then slaps Sen. Greg Walker’s face on the roll and screeches that he “betrayed Hoosiers” by helping China buy Indiana farmland. Tiny issue: Walker and every state senator voted to ban foreign adversaries, including China, from buying that land. The attack isn’t just misleading; it’s a tantrum that the ban wasn’t fascist enough.
The real story is who’s paying for this circus. Hoosier Leadership for America and American Leadership PAC — both aligned with Jim Banks and overseen by Andrew Surabian, a top adviser to Donald Trump Jr. and VP JD Vance — have already dumped more than $8 million into these races to replace insufficiently obedient Republicans with MAGA loyalists. The incumbents, fighting for part-time jobs that pay about $33,000 a year, have scraped together $2.6 million just to avoid being flushed by a toilet-paper ad backed by the Trump family political machine. This isn’t normal primary politics; it’s a nationalized loyalty purge of a state legislature so Trump can lock in rigged maps and a rubber-stamp caucus. The title says “Indiana revenge tour,” but the itinerary reads like the prequel to the next round of democracy sabotage.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
diplomacy is for losers, says real estate government
A row of empty State Department offices, recently vacated to make room for the president’s third-favorite fundraiser’s cousin.
The State Department is discovering a fun new HR trend: when you replace career diplomats with golf buddies and campaign donors, the people who actually know how to run foreign policy start sprinting for the exits. Normally, about two-thirds of U.S. ambassadors come from the career foreign service; under Trump, that ratio has been flipped into a loyalty test with a flag pin.
Senior career diplomats, seeing their jobs handed to politically connected amateurs whose main qualification is writing big checks and praising Trump on TV, are taking the hint and retiring early. Why spend decades learning languages, negotiating treaties, and managing crises when you can be passed over for the guy whose main international experience is owning a condo in Cancun?
This isn’t just petty patronage; it’s systematic hollowing-out. By sidelining professionals in favor of donors and sycophants, the administration is turning the State Department from a diplomatic corps into a networking event for rich people who like ambassadorships more than tax brackets. American foreign policy gets weaker and more chaotic, but hey, at least the cocktail parties are great.
#killing-democracy#corruption#oligarchy
trump rage-quits nato, accidentally reboots german militarism
Four European leaders outside Downing Street trying to pretend they still live in a world where the American president isn’t blowing up NATO because someone hurt his feelings.
Europe spends eight decades building institutions so Germany never again becomes the continent’s dominant standalone military power, and then along comes Donald Trump, who decides to speedrun the Weimar-to-rearmament arc because he’s mad at Friedrich Merz. The US president is openly questioning America’s commitment to NATO, threatening withdrawal, and now pulling thousands of troops out of Germany because the chancellor dared to call his Iran war disastrous. Nuclear strategy by wounded ego: what could go wrong?
Instead of a stable US security umbrella, Europe gets a crash course in "you’re on your own, kids." Germany, spooked by Russian aggression and abandoned by its supposed ally, is racing to build the strongest conventional army in Europe and pour hundreds of billions into its defense industry. France is panicking about losing arms-export dominance, Poland’s right wing is screaming about German power again, and everyone else is quietly wondering whether it’s a good idea to hand a supercharged military to a country where the AfD currently tops the polls. All this because Trump treats NATO like a golf club membership he can cancel when someone is mean to him on TV.
The net result: the US, once the stabilizing hegemon, is now the chaos engine pushing Europe back toward the exact balance-of-power nightmares NATO was invented to prevent. Trump gets to posture as the tough guy who won’t "subsidize" European defense, while the actual outcome is a fragmented arms race, a turbocharged German defense sector, and a weaker, more brittle alliance facing a nuclear-armed Russia. Truly, the art of the deal: alienate allies, empower adversaries, and accidentally reboot the one European historical storyline everyone swore they were done with.
#national-security#killing-democracy
trump discovers new axis of evil: the pope and italy
Marco Rubio heads to the Vatican to explain that US foreign policy is totally stable and normal, aside from the part where his boss is threatening Italy and subtweeting the pope with AI Jesus fan art.
Donald Trump has now expanded the axis of evil to include: Iran, the pope, and Italy. After Pope Leo dared to condemn the US-Israeli war on Iran, Trump called the first US-born pontiff "weak" and "not doing a very good job" — bold words from a man whose spiritual practice consists of rage-posting and confusing an AI Jesus selfie with a medical headshot. He blasted out an AI-generated image depicting himself as Christ, then tried to claim it was actually him as a doctor, because nothing says humility like, "I’m either your savior or your surgeon, I forget which."
Vice-president JD Vance helpfully joined the clown mass, telling the Vatican to stick to "matters of morality" while also warning the pope to be careful when talking about theology and war — a neat trick that boils down to: talk about morality, unless it makes our war look bad. Meanwhile, Trump turned on one of his loudest European fans, Giorgia Meloni, threatening to yank US troops from Italy because her government wouldn’t cheerlead his Iran strikes or his tantrum at Leo. US basing rights and NATO posture are now just another item on the Mar-a-Lago grievance menu.
Into this holy tire fire walks Secretary of State Marco Rubio, dispatched to Rome to "thaw" relations with the Vatican and Italy — which is diplomatic code for, "Sorry the president screamed at you and compared himself to Jesus again." Rubio will privately meet Pope Leo and Italian leaders while pretending the administration’s foreign policy is something other than a loyalty test for worshipping Trump’s image, AI-enhanced or otherwise. The pope, for his part, says he doesn’t fear the US administration and will keep speaking out against the war, which in Trump’s America now counts as both a moral act and a national security risk.
#killing-democracy#imperialism
ohio republicans briefly remember haitians are people (polls pending)
Pastor and Haitian community leader stand outside the supreme court, politely asking the government not to bulldoze their lives, while Republicans check the latest polling before deciding if they’re human today.
Mike Turner spent months dodging a pastor and a Haitian community leader who just wanted to explain how 10,000 Haitians helped rescue Springfield, Ohio’s economy. Then he accidentally ran into them at the airport and, after a brush with actual constituents, suddenly discovered that Trump’s plan to rip away Temporary Protected Status from 350,000 Haitians (and thousands of Syrians) might be slightly awkward in a district where voters can read polls.
Turner and fellow Ohio Republican Mike Carey were two of a grand total of 10 House Republicans willing to vote with Democrats to extend protections for Haitians, while the rest of the party continued its usual performance art of letting Trump do whatever he wants to immigrants. The bill is expected to die in the Senate, because why stop a xenophobic policy just because it’s cruel, economically stupid, and unpopular?
What’s really driving this sudden burst of spine isn’t morality; it’s math. Trump’s approval is sinking in Ohio, 15% of his 2024 voters now regret it, and a majority oppose his Iran war and tariff cosplay. Republicans are facing brutal headwinds, a toss-up governor’s race, and a $79m Senate deathmatch, so a few of them have decided that maybe openly attacking the immigrant communities keeping their state alive is bad for business. As one political scientist politely put it, Ohio is drifting purple; translated: even some Republicans have figured out that deporting your workforce is not a growth strategy.
So Turner, long allergic to in-person town halls, is now quietly opposing Trump on Haitians while refusing to explain why to the press. It’s not exactly courage; it’s more like a controlled panic response. The Trump administration keeps trying to rip legal status away from people who rebuilt hollowed-out towns, and a tiny sliver of the GOP is only objecting because the same voters who loved the cruelty in theory are now watching it threaten their local economy. Welcome to Trump’s America, where basic human rights get a hearing only when the donor class and the polling crosstabs say so.
#anti-immigration#trumps-america
project freedom: now with extra mines and no war (trump swears)
Artist’s impression of ‘Project Freedom’: a minefield, three navies, 20,000 trapped sailors, and one guy on Truth Social insisting this is not a war.
The Trump administration has proudly unveiled “Project Freedom”, a plan to "guide" hundreds of ships trapped in the Gulf through a new route in the Strait of Hormuz — a route so safe that the Joint Maritime Information Center is frantically warning everyone to avoid the usual lanes because of all the mines. Trump pitched this on Truth Social as a humanitarian operation “on behalf of” Iran, which is a bold framing choice for a guy who just helped bomb them and then slapped a counter-blockade on their ports.
Iran, for its part, has responded with the diplomatic equivalent of “touch that water and we shoot you,” insisting no ship moves without coordinating with its armed forces and warning it will attack any foreign military force approaching the strait, “especially the aggressive US army.” Meanwhile, US Central Command swears this is not an escort mission, just “support” with guided-missile destroyers, 100+ aircraft, drones, and 15,000 troops. You know, normal background scenery for a strictly-not-a-war operation.
Over 850 ships and about 20,000 sailors are stuck in this floating monument to strategic genius, with Iran calling unapproved transits a ceasefire violation and Trump threatening to respond “forcefully” to any interference in his humanitarian stunt. Macron is politely backing away from the whole thing, saying Europe won’t join an operation whose framework “seems unclear,” which is a very French way of saying “this is insane.” Trump, who just told Congress the US is not at war, is simultaneously telling Florida retirees “you know we’re in a war,” while dangling the possibility of “very positive” talks with Iran as markets prepare to open. So everything’s fine, unless you’re a sailor, an Iranian, an Israeli, or anyone who thought Congress still had a say in when the US goes to war.
#imperialism#lawlessness#national-security
trump admin discovers 14,000 imaginary ferraris on food stamps
Brooke Rollins bravely battling the epidemic of poor people secretly being rich, armed with nothing but a tweet, a think tank that won’t show its homework, and a burning desire to cut your groceries.
The Trump administration has decided that the real problem with poverty in America is not that people are hungry, it’s that they’re allegedly buying ramen with their Ferrari money. Agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins loudly claimed that 14,000 SNAP recipients own luxury cars like Ferraris, Bentleys, and Teslas, then quietly forgot to produce any verifiable data, a state name, or even a coherent methodology. The "evidence" comes from the Foundation for Government Accountability, a right-wing think tank that refuses to share its data, which is a normal thing you do when your research is totally real and definitely not just vibes and Excel fan fiction.
While Rollins and her cheering section (Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Tim Burchett, and James Woods, because of course) scream "fraud" on social media, actual experts note there’s no evidence of widespread abuse and that SNAP fraud is, according to USDA itself, relatively rare. What is widespread? Hunger. Food insecurity hit 13.7% of US households in 2024, the highest in a decade, right as the Trump administration helpfully ended the federal household food security report. When the data shows you’re starving people, the obvious solution is to stop collecting the data.
Rollins boasts that 4.3 million people have been kicked off SNAP after Trump’s "big, beautiful bill" jacked up work requirements and dumped administrative costs on states, then waves her hands and implies they were probably all scammers anyway. Researchers point out that 67% of counties already fail to reach everyone under the poverty line and that up to 19% of US households rely on SNAP at some point, but sure, let’s pretend the real scandal is the mythical Bentley-driving single mom buying generic cereal. The policy is simple: invent fraud, amplify it through right-wing media, then use it as cover to take food away from millions of low-income families, children, veterans, and seniors. It’s not "government accountability"; it’s starvation by talking point.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
rubio brings a gun to a famine
Marco Rubio explains to a starving planet that what they really need isn’t food or medicine, it’s a vibrant marketplace and a Goldman Sachs breakout session.
The Trump administration has discovered a bold new development strategy: if you kill the aid, you don’t have to read the reports about how many people you failed. After firing nearly all 16,000 USAID employees and vaporizing another 280,000 contractor and local jobs, Team America First is now dangling UN funding like a mob protection racket. Pay your respects to "trade over aid," the plan where the US will only cough up "a significant portion" of its legally owed UN dues if the UN agrees to slash its own budget, gut pensions, and even cut peacekeeping missions by 10%—during multiple active wars and refugee crises. Strong-arming the world while you skip out on your tab is now official US foreign policy.
As the UN warns of "imminent financial collapse" thanks largely to unpaid US fees, refugee agencies are trying to feed and house millions displaced by the Iran war with a budget that looks like Rubio wrote it on a cocktail napkin. UNHCR is dramatically underfunded, the World Food Program says 45 million more people could face acute hunger, and Oxfam estimates 95 million people will lose basic healthcare and 23 million kids lose education, with over 3 million preventable deaths per year. The Trump response? Put Marco Rubio and Ambassador Mike Waltz onstage with Walmart, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Palantir to announce that actually this is about "free markets" and "not walking away" from aid—just replacing it with corporate sponsorships and press releases.
What used to be international development is now a hostage negotiation with the UN, where the ransom note is written on US letterhead and signed by the same people who blew up USAID and called it innovation. Experts politely point out that trade without protection or support will turbocharge inequality and undermine global stability, but this administration isn’t chasing stability; it’s chasing short-term political points and new markets for US firms. Call it humanitarian policy by private equity: strip the assets, fire the staff, starve the poor, and then sell everyone a lecture on "prosperity" while the UN scrambles for rent money. Welcome to Trump’s second term: foreign policy by foreclosure.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
land of the free* (*offer not valid if you criticized israel)
US immigration officers bravely defending freedom by scrolling your old tweets for insufficient enthusiasm about a foreign government.
The Trump administration has discovered a bold new innovation in immigration policy: if you want to live in the United States, you’d better love not just America, but also whichever foreign government the White House is currently stapling to the First Amendment. Per new internal guidance reported by the New York Times, green card applicants can now be flagged and denied for "anti-American" or "antisemitic" ideology — where "antisemitic" is helpfully redefined to include saying "Stop Israeli Terror in Palestine" or showing an Israeli flag crossed out. Attending a pro-Palestinian protest? Congratulations, you’ve just auditioned for deportation.
Because nothing says "constitutional republic" like immigration officers — excuse me, "homeland defenders" — trawling your Twitter history for signs you failed the loyalty test to both Washington and Jerusalem. Burning a U.S. flag, holding a sign that could be interpreted as calling for overthrow of the government, or just criticizing Israeli war crimes now become potential red marks on your green card application. The Supreme Court has said for 80 years that noncitizens here have First Amendment rights; the Trump team has responded: what if we just pretended they don’t and see who stops us?
This isn’t happening in a vacuum. The administration has already been working hand-in-hand with anti-Palestinian outfits like Canary Mission and Betar to dox and help target students for detention and deportation over campus speech, including Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was literally grabbed off the street by masked agents for co-writing a pro-Palestine op-ed citing UN reports and human rights groups. Meanwhile, Melania Trump is demanding ABC punish Jimmy Kimmel for a joke, because the First Lady of Christian Nationalism apparently believes the U.S. is a monarchy where late-night hosts answer to the royal household.
So the message is clear: if you’re a noncitizen, your political rights now come with a giant asterisk and a content moderation team in uniform. Today the forbidden opinions are about Israel and flag burning; tomorrow, as the ACLU points out, it can be any dissent the regime finds inconvenient. Free speech in Trump’s America is still technically legal — as long as you never actually exercise it, never post about it, and definitely never try to get permanent residency afterward.
#killing-democracy#fascism#anti-immigration
america’s mayor, trump’s fall guy
Rudy Giuliani flanked by Kash Patel and Howard Lutnick at a 9/11 event, a visual reminder that even national tragedy can be repurposed into background scenery for the Trump Cinematic Universe.
Rudy Giuliani is in “stable but critical condition” in the hospital, and Donald Trump’s first instinct is to use his longtime fixer’s medical crisis as yet another chance to repeat the same debunked lies about the 2020 election. Because when your movement is built on grift and delusion, every event — even a supporter’s life-threatening illness — is just more content.
The BBC politely recalls Giuliani’s 9/11 leadership and honorary knighthood, then has to fast-forward to the part where "America’s Mayor" spent his twilight years touring the country alleging imaginary voter fraud, smearing two Georgia election workers so badly a jury handed them a $148 million defamation verdict. Trump, naturally, responds by declaring Rudy “the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR” and then immediately blaming Democrats for "what happened" to him, as though a car accident and a collapsing legal career were all part of some DNC master plot.
So Giuliani lies for Trump, torches his reputation, gets financially vaporized in court, and now becomes a prop in yet another post about the election supposedly being "stolen." Leopards Ate My Face PAC continues to operate at full capacity, even from the ICU.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness#forever-grifting
american public discovers emperor is naked, still somehow in office
Trump stares at a polling chart going straight down, convinced it’s just another "perfect" line the fake news refuses to understand.
Donald Trump has hit a new personal best in the "everyone hates this" department, clocking a 62% disapproval rating as voters gaze upon his Iran war, oil shock, and four-year-high gas prices and decide: actually, this sucks. His approval sits at 37%, which, considering he started a deeply unpopular war that tanked the global economy, is less a political achievement and more a damning indictment of partisan brainworm loyalty.
On the war with Iran, Americans disapprove 66% to 32%, which is what happens when you treat the Middle East like a Call of Duty map and then act surprised when the price at the pump looks like a Silicon Valley seed round. A full 76% disapprove of his handling of the cost of living, but Trump can at least take comfort in the fact that his base still loves him: 85% of Republicans approve, even as the share who strongly approve quietly shrinks, like their 401(k)s.
Trump’s “tough on the border” cosplay is faring only marginally better. Despite his controversial deployment of federal immigration and border agents into cities — a fun little experiment that racked up thousands of detentions and killed two American citizens — he still only manages 45% approval on the border and 40% on immigration overall. So after unleashing a quasi-paramilitary show of force and flirting with full-blown police state aesthetics, he’s still underwater. Fascism really isn’t delivering the polling bump the strongman influencers promised.
Meanwhile, voters are lining up to oppose his greatest hits: ending birthright citizenship, slashing medical research funding, jacking up defense spending, and yanking temporary legal status from migrants fleeing war zones. About seven in ten say he’s not honest or trustworthy, and six in ten say he doesn’t have the mental sharpness to be president — which raises the obvious question: if this many people think he’s a lying, cognitively diminished warmonger who crashes the economy, what does it say about the system that he’s still sitting behind the nuclear codes?
#killing-democracy#anti-immigration
trump eyes taiwan fire sale to xi’s bargain bin
Donald Trump walks into Beijing with Taiwan’s future in one hand and a Sharpie in the other, ready to see what Xi will give him for it.
China has spotted the rarest creature in geopolitics: a U.S. president who treats 23 million people in a vibrant democracy like a coupon code for better trade terms. Xi Jinping wants "unification" with Taiwan as his legacy project, and Donald Trump, ever the nakedly transactional deal hound, is rolling into Beijing desperate for a trade win and a little help on Iran. Beijing’s foreign minister is already helpfully connecting the dots for him, hinting that if Trump just dials back U.S. support for Taiwan — maybe slow-walk those $11bn in arms sales — then broader "cooperation" might suddenly bloom. American security guarantees, now available in the clearance aisle.
This is happening while U.S. intelligence has warned that Xi told the PLA to be ready for an invasion by 2027, China rehearses blockades around Taiwan, and its military is in the middle of top-down purges that usually precede something terrible. Taiwan’s opposition parties are obligingly blocking a $40bn defense budget, flying to Beijing for photo ops with Xi, and getting showered with economic "carrots" while China turns the intimidation dial up to 11. Hong Kong already demonstrated how "one country, two systems" works in practice: you get one country, and your system goes straight into the shredder.
Into this strolls Trump, whose track record on Taiwan is a cocktail of bragging, bluffing, and random policy swings that make allies wonder if their survival depends on what he had for breakfast. Beijing seems convinced the U.S. is in decline and that this administration is too distracted, too munitions-poor, and too chaotic to stand firm. A small rhetorical wobble from Trump in Beijing — a little "maybe Taiwan should work something out" here, a "we’ll see" there — could be weaponized by Xi as proof that unification is inevitable. So yes, the fate of a frontline democracy, global supply chains, and regional security may once again hinge on whether Trump decides he wants a short-term headline that says "HISTORIC DEAL" more than he wants to pretend he defends freedom.
#killing-democracy#national-security
trump doj shells out felony charges over instagram beach art
James Comey’s criminal co-conspirators, seen here arranged as seashells on a beach, bravely spelling out a felony for the Trump DOJ.
The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, would like America to know that James Comey is not being prosecuted just for a dorky seashell Instagram post that spelled out “86 47” on a North Carolina beach. No, no, that would look like naked political retribution. Instead, Blanche insists there’s a whole universe of super-serious evidence that he absolutely cannot describe, name, hint at, or vaguely gesture toward on national television. But trust him. The same way you’d trust a timeshare salesman with subpoena power.
Legal experts across the spectrum — including conservatives who normally cheer when Trump breathes in the general direction of a Democrat — are calling the case a transparent attempt to punish one of Trump’s favorite hate-objects after a previous case against Comey already collapsed. Career DOJ lawyers apparently agreed and quietly noped out of the investigation, leaving prosecution duties to a former New Jersey city councilman and an acting U.S. attorney whose pre-Trump experience with federal prosecution is best described as “theoretical.” Meanwhile, even Republican senator Thom Tillis is out here saying, on camera, that if this is really about a picture in the sand, it’s nonsense.
Blanche, who very much wants to turn "acting" attorney general into "permanent" attorney general, has been racing through Trump’s enemies list like it’s Black Friday at the Banana Republic of America. Adam Schiff calls the Comey case the weakest he’s ever seen and predicts it will be tossed before a jury even gets a whiff of it. So naturally, the Trump DOJ is doubling down — because nothing screams "confident, legitimate government" like trying to send a former FBI director to prison over seashells while pretending there’s a secret mountain of evidence just out of public view. Authoritarian cosplay with beach props, coming soon to a courtroom near you.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump tries to nationalize spirit, still can’t keep it in the air
A retired Spirit pilot gets a water cannon salute from Southwest while the Trump administration’s bailout plan taxis straight into a flaming crater.
Spirit Airlines finally achieved the one thing it never managed with legroom: dignity. The airline collapsed mid–retirement flight after running out of cash and watching “rescue” talks with the Trump administration go down faster than a budget red-eye. Captain Jon Jackson’s last Spirit flight was canceled along with the rest of the airline, because nothing says orderly wind-down like waking up to find your company dead and customer service "no longer available".
Instead of landing his career at the airline he served, Jackson had to hitch a ride home on Southwest, where his son and the crew scrambled a water cannon salute and a terminal champagne send-off. Corporate America: zero. Random decent humans: carrying the whole scene on their backs again. Meanwhile, behind this Hallmark moment is the fine print: jet fuel prices spiked thanks to the US-Israel war on Iran, Spirit had been bouncing in and out of bankruptcy like a loyalty program, and the Trump administration’s big idea was to float taking a 90% stake in the airline. Yes, the same crowd that can’t staff an ethics office wanted to effectively nationalize a discount carrier.
Even Spirit’s bondholders — not known for being squeamish about terrible ideas — looked at Trump’s proposed 90% federal takeover and noped out. So instead of a coherent industrial policy, workers got pink slips, passengers got stranded, and Trump got yet another reminder that yelling "deal!" on TV doesn’t magically conjure capital. The aviation community managed to show respect, compassion, and solidarity. The administration managed to demonstrate that it can’t even pull off airline socialism badly.
#oligarchy#money
white house correspondents’ dinner adds live ammo to the program
The Washington Hilton, where the White House Correspondents’ Dinner now features monologues, rubber chicken, and the occasional shotgun blast to really bring the First Amendment vibes home.
The Trump-era White House Correspondents’ Dinner has finally completed its evolution from awkward roast to live-fire exercise. Prosecutors say 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen allegedly sprinted past a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton and opened fire with a Mossberg pump-action shotgun outside the ballroom, where Donald Trump, Melania, and a large chunk of the US government were gathered with hundreds of journalists. According to US attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro — yes, that Jeanine Pirro, now cosplaying as America’s sober-minded prosecutor-in-chief on CNN — forensic evidence shows a buckshot pellet from Allen’s gun was embedded in the fibers of a Secret Service officer’s vest.
Allen has been charged with three federal crimes, including attempting to assassinate the president, after allegedly traveling cross-country by train from California to DC with a shotgun, a .38 pistol, and assorted knives and daggers like he was packing for a Ren Faire coup. His social media reportedly compared Trump to Hitler and urged other critics to buy guns, and he allegedly sent a pre-attack document to his family trashing Trump’s policies and mocking Hilton security before apologizing for what he was about to do. So now we have a president who flirts with authoritarianism, and a would-be assassin who thinks the cure for creeping fascism is a mass shooting in a ballroom full of senior officials and reporters. Perfect illustration of how to defend democracy: by literally trying to gun it down.
#killing-democracy#national-security
gen z discovers that the chaos candidate governs like a chaos candidate
Trump contemplates why young voters are ungrateful, surrounded by gold trim, rising premiums, and a $400m ballroom no one asked for.
Republicans briefly thought they’d hacked democracy when a surprising chunk of young voters backed Donald Trump in 2024, seduced by promises to "build the greatest economy in the history of the world" and magically reduce prices on day one. Fast-forward 15 months and that spell has worn off like a Trump University diploma in a rainstorm: his approval with 18- to 29-year-olds has cratered from 48% to the mid-20s, while inflation, housing, healthcare, tuition, and basically every bill young people pay are all going up. Instead of affordability, they got a $400m White House ballroom, a war with Iran that helped send gas prices soaring over 45%, and tariff wars that pour gasoline on inflation.
The vibes, shockingly, are not immaculate. Just 13% of young Americans think the country is on the right track, and only 30% believe they’ll be better off than their parents. They were promised an economic savior; they got a guy who posted an AI image of himself as a Christ-like figure while sending masked ICE agents into major cities and picking fights with everyone from Pope Leo to Supreme Court justices to European leaders. Job growth is slowing, the youth job market "stinks", coffee is up 18.7%, beef 12.1%, hospital costs 6.4% – but sure, let’s blow hundreds of millions on a presidential party bunker.
On policy, it’s the same bait-and-switch. Trump vowed cheaper college, then watched tuition keep climbing while pushing deep cuts to student aid that will slam non-affluent students. He promised lower health costs, then jammed through his "big beautiful bill" and blocked new Obamacare subsidies, moves the CBO says will kick 10 million people off insurance and more than double premiums for 20 million Americans, many under 30. This is what happens when a generation that thought "burn it all down" sounded fun realizes they’re the ones stuck living in the ashes – and paying surge pricing on groceries for the privilege.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
law and order party flirts with pardoning epstein’s fixer
House Republicans workshop whether ‘Back the Blue’ now includes the ones who trafficked the kids.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have apparently discovered a bold new frontier in "law and order": floating clemency for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell so she might pretty please help their Epstein investigation. Survivors and their lawyers are understandably furious, pointing out that dangling a pardon in front of Epstein’s co‑conspirator is less "justice" and more "let’s see how much we can debase the system for a headline". Even James Comer, who chairs this circus, admits the idea "looks bad" while also cheerfully noting his committee is split on whether freeing Maxwell is a good play. Inspiring stuff.
Trump, who campaigned on releasing the Epstein files, then had his Justice Department mysteriously fail to do that on time, is now watching his party melt down over whether to pardon the woman a jury found guilty of horrific crimes against minors. Maxwell was already shipped off to a low‑security Texas "camp" right after a conveniently timed interview with now–acting attorney general Todd Blanche, which really helps the whole totally not a cover‑up narrative. Congress had to pass a bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act just to force Trump’s DOJ to cough up documents, and even then they showed up late, heavily redacted, and politically radioactive.
While Democrats and a chunk of Republicans call the clemency talk "absolutely detestable" and a betrayal of survivors, a mystery faction of GOP members is apparently workshopping the idea like it’s a trial balloon and not a grotesque insult to every victim in the case. Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, helpfully adds that there’s a "good chance" she’ll get a pardon, because subtlety is for people whose client isn’t the number two to Jeffrey Epstein. So the self‑proclaimed anti‑pedophile, law‑and‑order, "release the files" party is now half‑considering springing Epstein’s partner in crime while still failing to fully release the files. Accountability, Trump‑era style: weaponize the crimes, protect the enablers, and call it justice.
#lawlessness#killing-democracy
