trump fights fraud by starving children first, asking questions never
Trump administration officials bravely shielding taxpayers from the grave threat of low-income kids having somewhere safe to go while their parents work.
The Trump administration has discovered a bold new way to "defend American taxpayers": threaten to cut off nearly $10.6 billion in childcare and family assistance to five Democratic-run states based on a viral right-wing video that’s already been thoroughly debunked. Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois, and Colorado—all blue, what a coincidence—are staring down a freeze on Child Care and Development Fund, TANF, and Social Services Block Grant money, because nothing says good governance like making toddlers collateral damage in a Fox News segment.
The supposed smoking gun? A conservative influencer’s Somali daycare hit piece that media outlets and investigators have already shredded, plus a totally different Covid-era meals fraud case that was prosecuted under Biden and had nothing to do with current childcare funding. In other words, the administration is using old fraud by some Somali-Americans to smear all Somali childcare centers and then using that smear to punish entire states. Childcare workers describe being treated like criminals while they keep the economy functioning, but Mike Stuart at HHS went on X to declare this is all just a "partisan political stunt" and insist the administration has "serious concerns" it somehow can’t put into evidence.
Meanwhile, families who already can’t afford $13,000-a-year childcare are being told to enjoy their "impossible choices": quit working, leave kids in unsafe situations, or go broke. Providers—many of whom qualify for public assistance themselves—are staring at losing their only income because Trump wants a culture-war headline about "fraud" in blue states and among immigrants. The five states have sued, winning a temporary court order blocking the freeze and arguing the move is illegal and unconstitutional. The White House, naturally, had no comment, because it’s hard to explain how starving low-income kids and working parents over a YouTube video is anything but killing-democracy meets racism with a side of forever-grifting culture war.
#killing-democracy#racism
sure, let google write the plane safety rules, what could go wrong
Trump DOT officials proudly watching Google Gemini hallucinate the next federal safety rule, while a plane flies overhead and everyone pretends this is fine.
The Trump Department of Transportation has decided that when it comes to keeping planes in the sky and trains from exploding, what America really needs is... Google Gemini doing first drafts. According to internal records and staff interviews, DOT is rolling out a plan to use Gemini to churn out federal transportation regulations in minutes, because nothing says responsible governance like letting a hallucination-prone chatbot write the rules for gas pipelines and toxic freight trains.
DOT General Counsel Gregory Zerzan bragged that Trump is "very excited" and that the department will be the "point of the spear" for AI-written rules. Zerzan also clarified the new safety standard: "We don’t need the perfect rule... we don’t even need a very good rule. We want good enough. We’re flooding the zone." In other words, the plan is to bury the public and watchdogs under a blizzard of AI-generated regulatory word salad so no one notices what’s actually being changed—or broken.
At a December demo, more than 100 DOT employees were told Gemini can do 80–90% of the work of writing regulations and crank out a draft rule in under 20 minutes, because the preambles are just "word salad" anyway. The model even produced a mock Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that helpfully forgot to include the actual legal text. Concerns about AI hallucinations were waved off; staff were told their new job would be to "proofread this machine product"—like spellcheck, but for the Code of Federal Regulations.
All of this is being wrapped in the usual tech-bro buzzwords about "AI culture," "upskilling," and humans as a "choke point" who will eventually just supervise "AI-to-AI interactions." Meanwhile, the administration is already using AI to draft an unpublished FAA rule. So the people in charge of aviation and pipeline safety are treating generative AI like a productivity hack, and the president is "very excited" that the future of regulation is whatever Gemini spits out between hallucinations. But sure, tell us more about how this is about innovation and not about deregulation on autopilot.
#killing-democracy#anti-science#forever-grifting
trump’s border cops shoot a citizen, then seize the evidence
Nothing says “public safety” like killing a citizen at a protest and then treating the evidence like it’s Mar-a-Lago’s server room.
In Minneapolis, 37-year-old U.S. citizen Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal officers during an immigration enforcement protest, and the Trump administration’s response has been: shoot first, stonewall later. Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith says the feds are flat-out ignoring a court order that lets state investigators access the evidence. State investigators reportedly had to get a warrant just to see the basic facts of a killing in their own city, and even then federal agents still refused to hand anything over—because nothing says "we did nothing wrong" like hiding the evidence from everyone with a badge you don’t control.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem helpfully announced that her own department will lead the investigation into the killing committed by…her own department. Meanwhile, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara says he’s gotten zero cooperation or information from DHS. Even Senate Republicans like Thom Tillis and Bill Cassidy are nervously edging away from the crime scene, demanding a “thorough and impartial” joint investigation and warning the White House not to shut out local law enforcement—translation: this looks bad even to people who thought family separation was just tough love.
On TV, Trump’s Border Patrol czar Greg Bovino declared that the armed federal agents are actually "the victims" and insisted Pretti “perpetrated violence” and approached officers with a weapon. The problem: video and eyewitness accounts so far say that’s not what happened, and NPR hasn’t verified any evidence that Pretti ever brandished his handgun. Then Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli chimed in on X to explain that if you approach law enforcement with a gun, officers are “legally justified” in shooting you—an exciting new doctrine that even the NRA and Rep. Thomas Massie think sounds like a constitutional tire fire. In other words, the same crowd that screams "shall not be infringed" is now watching Trump’s immigration machine argue that merely existing near cops with a firearm is a death sentence. But sure, tell us more about how this is all about law and order.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness#anti-immigration
trump’s doj discovers separation of powers is, unfortunately, still a thing
Trump’s justice department, moments after learning that “go around the judge” is not actually a recognized legal doctrine.
The eighth circuit just told Trump’s justice department that, no, it may not speed‑run authoritarianism and invent a new way to criminalize protest because a pastor with apparent ICE ties got his feelings hurt. A magistrate judge already refused to sign off on arrest warrants for five people, including journalist Don Lemon, saying there wasn’t enough evidence. So DOJ’s brilliant plan was to ask higher courts to personally bless the warrants, because nothing says "rule of law" like shopping around for a judge who’ll rubber‑stamp your retaliation.
Chief US district judge Patrick Schiltz called the request "unheard of" in his entire circuit, which is legalese for "what the hell are you people doing." All three appeals judges refused to intervene, even the one who thought the evidence might be enough, because apparently some folks in the judiciary still remember how due process works. Meanwhile, Trump’s DOJ continues to charge three activists with "conspiracy against rights" for a protest in a church, while vowing to "protect Christian services"—in other words, weaponizing civil-rights law and religion as a shield for an immigration crackdown.
Don Lemon, who was covering the protest, not leading it, calmly pointed out that the administration will likely try to "go around a judge" and "retrofit" laws to get him anyway. That’s the Trump doctrine in a nutshell: if the law doesn’t fit the persecution you want, just keep jamming until it breaks. The appeals court didn’t stop the case entirely—DOJ can still run to a grand jury or re‑argue the warrants—but for one brief moment, the system reminded them that "protecting churches" doesn’t mean you get to declare open season on protesters and journalists.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump discovers the off switch for europe’s wallet
Ursula von der Leyen studies a QR code, trying to figure out how to pay for lunch without routing the transaction through Donald Trump’s mood swings.
Donald Trump hasn’t even finished dreaming up new ways to bully allies, and Europe is already gaming out what happens when the guy who tried to buy Greenland decides to sanction your groceries. French MEP Aurore Lalucq goes viral for pointing out the obvious: if Trump is happy to treat NATO like a protection racket, imagine what he’ll do with control over Visa and Mastercard. The US already showed Russia what happens when Washington pulls the payments plug; now Europe is realizing its "ally" might try the same trick just because Ursula von der Leyen hurt his feelings in Davos.
So Europe is flirting with the radical idea that maybe, just maybe, its entire economy shouldn’t depend on whether Donald wakes up mad at Brussels. Lalucq is calling for an "Airbus of payments" – a public, European version of India’s UPI – because nothing says sovereignty like not having your retail sector hostage to a Florida man with Wi‑Fi. India built a state-backed digital payments backbone that US companies can use but can’t control, while Europe is still busy rolling out "Wero," a private bank wallet so inspiring that even the chair of the European Parliament’s economic committee is subtweeting it.
Meanwhile, China is exporting an authoritarian, surveillance-ready payments ecosystem, India is exporting an open standard, and Europe is exporting think-tank panels about "strategic autonomy". The Guardian politely suggests that maybe defending democracy starts with making sure Trump can’t personally decide whether Europeans get to buy bread. In other words: if you don’t want your politics run from Mar-a-Lago, stop letting your tills be run from there.
#killing-democracy#fascism
kidnap first, declare war later
When your foreign policy is just a silhouette of a guy’s head filled with explosions, but somehow the Pentagon still calls it ‘measured’.
Donald Trump has apparently decided that the "America First" foreign policy now includes kidnapping heads of state and threatening to bomb a NATO ally’s territory. In this fun new phase of the regime, he’s abducted Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, is menacing Iran with troops, and is fixated on Greenland like a bored Bond villain with early-onset map addiction. Even his own supporters are confused, which is impressive given what they’ve already swallowed.
Peter Beinhart walks through the depressing American tradition that got us here: presidents start cautious after a disaster like Vietnam or Iraq, then a few "easy" wars go well, and suddenly the White House is drunk on "surgical" violence and medals. Trump, who once ran as the guy who hated pointless wars, has now discovered that nothing says "global domination" like a quick kidnapping, some airstrikes, and a total disregard for international law. Hubris plus unchecked executive power plus a president obsessed with domination – history suggests this story doesn’t end with Greenland turning into a timeshare, it ends with catastrophe.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
trump voter cosplay reaches sundance, punches sitting congressman
Maxwell Frost at Sundance, where the films are indie, the parties are exclusive, and the racists apparently think they’re deputized by Donald Trump’s deportation fanfic.
Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost went to Sundance to attend a CAA party and instead got a live-action demonstration of Trump’s America. An apparently drunk, uninvited man allegedly told the 29-year-old congressman that President Donald Trump was going to deport him, followed him out of the restroom, hurled racist comments, and then punched him in the face—because nothing says “respect for law and order” like breaking and entering a private event and assaulting a Black Latino member of Congress.
Security kicked the guy out, and Park City police arrested him on two counts of simple assault and two counts of aggravated burglary, with sentencing enhancements. Frost says he’s okay and thanked security and police, while the Sundance folks rushed out a statement condemning violence and hate speech and clarifying this was a “non-Festival-affiliated event” (translation: please don’t cancel your premieres, Hollywood).
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the attack “horrifying” and demanded aggressive prosecution, while Frost reminded everyone on X that “we are in scary times” and urged people not to be silenced. In other words: a sitting U.S. congressman can’t even go to a film festival party without some MAGA-brained racist fantasizing about Trump deportation squads and throwing punches—but sure, tell us more about how political violence is a both-sides problem and everything’s totally normal.
#trumps-america#racism
bbc discovers americans are somehow still into this guy
A calm BBC explainer asking how popular the arsonist is while the house smolders picturesquely in the background.
The BBC sends Ros Atkins on a noble quest to answer the eternal question: how popular is a president who tried to overturn an election, treats the Constitution like a nondisclosure agreement, and governs like a bored oligarch with Wi-Fi? Spoiler: popular enough that we all have to keep talking about it.
In tidy charts and calm narration, Atkins walks through how Americans are processing a news cycle that ping-pongs from Venezuela to Greenland to Minneapolis to Washington, DC—while Trump’s approval rating shuffles around like it’s just another normal presidency and not a rolling stress test of whether checks and balances actually work. Because nothing says "healthy democracy" like needing an explainer on how many people are still cool with a guy who openly dreams of being president-for-life.
The piece politely asks how Americans feel about their president, delicately sidestepping the obvious follow-up: how many are fine with the grift, the strongman cosplay, and the permanent state of constitutional brinkmanship—as long as their side is "winning." In other words: it’s a popularity contest where the prize is what’s left of American democracy, but sure, let’s focus on the graphics.
#killing-democracy#oligarchy#full-stupid
from ‘we need real news’ to ‘have you tried fascism?’
Tucker Carlson, back when his bow tie was the most dangerous thing about him, explaining freedom of the press before spending a decade helping his viewers hate it.
Back in 2009, Tucker Carlson stood on a CPAC stage and told conservatives that rightwing media needed to be more responsible and accurate, basically arguing, “hey, maybe we shouldn’t just lie for a living.” The crowd booed, because nothing says movement of ideas like jeering the suggestion that your news shouldn’t be made up. Fast-forward through the Trump era, and that same guy has reinvented himself as a full-time grievance grifter whose business model is precisely the thing he once warned would fail.
Jason Zengerle’s new book, Hated by All the Right People, tries to answer the question haunting political reporters: “What the hell happened to Tucker?” Spoiler: money, fame, and a Republican base that rewards whoever can scream “globalist” and “invasion” the loudest. The book walks through Carlson’s evolution from a semi-serious conservative writer who called Trump “the single most repulsive person on the planet,” to a Fox News anchor privately trashing Trump while publicly cheerleading him, to a post-Fox podcaster who openly platforms white nationalists, Holocaust revisionists, and Kremlin propaganda while describing Zelenskyy as “sweaty and ratlike.” In other words, he went from pretending to care about truth to realizing fascism pays better.
Zengerle, who once liked Carlson and used him as a source, now frames Tucker as the funhouse mirror of the last 30 years of conservative politics: start with a “gifted young writer,” add the Fox outrage machine, mix in Trump, and end with a guy flying to Moscow to help launder Vladimir Putin’s image while ranting about “persecuted Christians.” The Dominion texts exposed the gap between Tucker’s private contempt and his on-air MAGA cosplay; this book fills in how that hypocrisy became the entire business model of rightwing media. But sure, tell us again how the real threat to democracy is college kids being rude on TikTok.
#killing-democracy#fascism
when prince harry is your nato damage control guy
Prince Harry, a literal prince, trying to explain basic NATO obligations to a guy who once asked if we could just use nukes more.
Prince Harry, a guy who used to dress up like a Nazi for fun and still manages to clear the moral bar over Donald Trump, showed up on NBC’s TODAY to defend NATO troops after Trump’s latest brain-melter about alliance forces on the front lines.
Trump reportedly made comments downplaying or politicizing NATO deployments and the risks to troops in Eastern Europe, because nothing says "commander in chief" like treating collective defense as a reality show plot twist. Harry, who actually served in Afghanistan and has this wild concept called "respect for people risking their lives," pushed back and talked about the sacrifices of NATO service members who are, you know, trying to keep authoritarian regimes from rolling tanks into their neighbors.
In other words, we’ve reached the stage of American decline where a British royal ex-pat has to go on morning TV to remind the former U.S. president that NATO soldiers are not extras in his grievance tour. Trump keeps chipping away at the alliance that underpins Western democracy, and the international response is basically: send in the spare Windsor and hope he can talk sense into the world’s most powerful Fox News comment section.
#national-security#killing-democracy#fascism
the invisible man vs the very loud fascist
Joe Biden fades into the background while Trump stands at center stage furiously rewriting January 6 as a patriotic field trip.
Joe Biden is quietly writing a memoir and fighting cancer; Donald Trump is loudly rewriting history and democracy. One year after leaving office, Biden has basically vanished from public life, which would be normal if his successor weren’t busy turning the federal government into a personal grievance machine. While Biden tinkers with a 500-page book deal and struggles to raise money for a presidential library no one seems excited to fund, Trump is out here issuing mass pardons to more than 1,500 January 6 rioters and installing 2020 election deniers in senior posts—because nothing says "law and order" like rewarding the people who tried to overturn an election on your behalf.
Trump has junked Biden’s climate agenda in favor of burning everything that isn’t nailed down, pitching fossil fuels as the patriotic power source of the AI future while launching an unrestrained assault on clean energy. He’s also busy purging thousands of career officials, imposing loyalty tests, and gutting agencies that were once semi-insulated from political interference. In healthcare, he’s elevated Robert F. Kennedy Jr and other fringe cranks, because who needs science when you have vibes? Meanwhile, DEI frameworks are being torched across government, universities are under sustained political attack, and immigration policy—legal and illegal—is being hardened into something that looks less like governance and more like a Fox News comment section with subpoena power.
On the world stage, Trump is "sketching a new world order" based on raw power and economic coercion, threatening to seize land and slap allies with tariffs like it’s his old bankruptcy lawyer doing foreign policy. NATO and support for Ukraine—cornerstones of Biden’s foreign policy—are out; territorial threats and transactional shakedowns are in. In other words, it’s American imperial cosplay with none of the competence and all of the extortion. Biden, increasingly seen by Democrats as the guy who clung to the 2024 nomination just long enough to hand the country back to Trump, is fading into the background. But Trump and the GOP won’t let him disappear entirely—they need "Crooked Joe" and "Sleepy Joe" as the eternal scapegoat while they dismantle what’s left of the postwar democratic order in real time.
So Biden becomes the "invisible man"—and Trump becomes the guy using the full machinery of the state to turn his resentments into policy. One is writing a book; the other is writing a manual on how to kill a democracy and call it patriotism, but sure, let’s keep debating who "looked weak" on a debate stage two years ago.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
supreme court discovers limits to trump’s power… when rich people’s portfolios are at risk
Trump glares at the Federal Reserve building, wondering why the money printer won’t just go brrr on his command.
Donald Trump is running his usual playbook on the Federal Reserve: demand lower interest rates, insult the Fed chair as “stupid” when he doesn’t comply, and then unleash the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell for the high crime of… talking about building renovations. In other words, it’s the same authoritarian power grab as everywhere else in his administration, just with more marble and fewer children in cages.
Trump also fired Fed governor Lisa Cook in August over mortgage-fraud allegations that first appeared on social media, with no investigation, no hearing, and no due process. A lower court called nonsense and temporarily reinstated her, so naturally the White House sprinted to the Supreme Court to ask the six-justice MAGA supermajority to bless Dear Leader’s right to purge independent officials at will. This is all part of the conservative legal movement’s beloved unitary executive fantasy, where the president can fire anyone, anytime, for any reason, and the only check is “elections” – which is very convenient if you’re also busy undermining elections.
The twist: the same court that cheerfully greenlit Trump’s firings at the NLRB and FTC suddenly got very concerned about statutory limits and independence once it was the Fed’s turn. The justices, who have been busy “making war on independent agencies”, are now carving out a special exception for the central bank, because nothing says principled constitutionalism like deciding the law means one thing for labor regulators and another for the people who set interest rates for JPMorgan. Amy Coney Barrett is suddenly fretting over economists’ warnings that firing Cook could trigger a recession, and Brett Kavanaugh is worried that if Trump can purge Fed officials at will, a future Democratic president might do the same to his team. What goes around comes around, and apparently that’s the one thing this Court won’t allow.
So the Court may actually slap Trump’s hand here – not because they’ve discovered a newfound love for checks and balances, but because destabilizing the Fed might tank markets and upset donors. Independent agencies that protect workers or consumers? Totally expendable under the new imperial presidency. But the Fed, the quasi-private temple of global finance? That gets wrapped in constitutional bubble wrap. The message from the Roberts Court is clear: Trump can centralize power and purge watchdogs all he wants, as long as he doesn’t mess with the interest-rate machine that keeps the oligarchy happy. But sure, tell us again about their neutral, principled jurisprudence.
#killing-democracy#oligarchy#forever-grifting
trump doj heroically saves money by not fighting child sex traffickers
The Trump DOJ, boldly confronting the scourge of child sex trafficking by canceling the conference that trains people to fight it and then not returning reporters’ calls.
The Trump justice department has discovered an exciting new way to be "tough on crime": stop funding the people who catch criminals. The DOJ has slashed money and training for law enforcement investigating child sex crimes, including canceling the 2025 National Law Enforcement Training on Child Exploitation because nothing says "protect the children" like pulling the plug on the one conference that teaches cops how to track predators using AI and new platforms. Prosecutors now have to beg to justify basic things like training, trial prep, and meeting with victims, and the answer is almost always no—because apparently the "core mission" of the justice department is not prosecuting child predators.
Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) taskforces are losing their annual grants, meetings between DOJ, ICAC commanders, NCMEC, and tech companies have been quietly killed off, and investigators are left to "beg and plead" other sources for money just to afford the software and staff needed to find abused kids. The work is already traumatizing and isolating, but sure, let's also cut off the professional support network that keeps people from burning out. Meanwhile, the department refuses to release the full investigative files on convicted child sex trafficker and Trump pal Jeffrey Epstein, but insists it can both protect children and use taxpayer dollars efficiently. In other words: we absolutely could go after child predators, we just choose not to—and please stop asking about Epstein.
Law enforcement who once thought this administration would be "pro-law enforcement" and serious about trafficking are now describing the situation as "disheartening"—a very polite way of saying "we're being kneecapped from above while they cosplay as defenders of children on TV." But hey, if you gut anti-trafficking programs, starve survivor support, and make it harder to prosecute child sex offenders, you can save a few bucks and keep some old friends comfortable. Law and order, Trump-style.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
king leer gets more orange, world gets more on fire
Behold: "King Leer" Trump, holding court in the crumbling ruins of democracy while the world’s leaders giggle along like it’s all just great television.
Martin Rowson and Ella Baron politely take a break from watching democracy disintegrate in real time to explain how they draw it. Rowson goes full Shakespearean apocalypse, casting Trump as a warped "King Leer" surrounded by snickering world leaders, because nothing says stable constitutional order like an aging, fleshier, madder strongman getting a sequel cartoon a decade later. He’s still using just as much orange paint, though, so at least there’s continuity somewhere in this administration.
Rowson leans into old-school ink, gouache, and the sheer mess of trying to capture a news cycle that’s basically a live‑action dumpster fire. Baron, working digitally, imagines Trump squatting in a dystopian nest hoarding his spoils, which is honestly the most accurate depiction of the modern oligarchic GOP you’re going to get without subpoena power. Both of them are crystal clear on one thing: Trump’s "increasing, capricious madness" is exactly why political cartoonists are still needed — to enrage the cultists and give everyone else a tiny bit of catharsis while the institutions supposedly protecting us continue to fold like wet cardboard.
In other words, the world is in turmoil, the would‑be king is still ranting, and the watchdogs left on duty are people with pens and tablets frantically trying to keep up. But sure, tell us again how everything is normal and this is just politics as usual.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump declares slavery 'improper ideology,' orders history to knock it off
Informational panel at the President’s House, seen before the Trump administration decided that acknowledging slavery was just a little too "divisive" for their brand of patriotism.
The Trump administration has decided that the real problem with American history isn’t slavery, racism, or insurrection – it’s talking about them. The National Park Service quietly tore down slavery-related exhibits at Philadelphia’s President’s House – the place where George Washington literally kept enslaved people – without even bothering to tell the city. Philadelphia is now suing the federal government to put the panels back, because nothing says "limited government" like DC micromanaging which enslaved people are allowed to exist in public memory.
The lawsuit targets the Interior Department, Secretary Doug Burgum, and acting NPS director Jessica Bowron, who apparently interpreted their mission to "preserve history" as "pressure-wash it until it’s MAGA-safe." The removed displays documented the people Washington enslaved and traced the broader history of slavery in the US – you know, the actual history conservatives keep insisting schools already teach. But under Trump’s 2025 executive order, anything deemed "improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology" has to go, which conveniently includes slavery exhibits, references to his impeachments, and any mention that he helped inspire a violent attack on the Capitol.
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro and Philly officials are blasting the move as an obvious attempt to whitewash the past, and they’re not being subtle about it. Meanwhile, at the Smithsonian, references to Trump’s impeachments and his role in January 6 have already been scrubbed from near his shiny new portrait, because nothing screams "strong, confident leader" like legally mandating that museums pretend your two impeachments and a coup attempt were just a quirky phase. In other words: the administration that screams about "revisionist history" is now literally rewriting the plaques.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump dumps the kurds for his new jihadist bestie
Donald Trump and Ahmed al‑Sharaa, smiling for the cameras as they jointly announce that everything is under control, especially the parts currently on fire.
Donald Trump has decided that the best way to honor the Kurds who fought and died alongside the US against Islamic State is to… hand their territory to a former jihadist strongman and call it peace. President Ahmed al‑Sharaa, once the proud owner of a $10m US bounty on his head, is now "attractive, tough" in Trump-speak, which is MAGA for "we lifted sanctions because he flatters me and promises to do the dirty work." The Kurdish-led SDF, which held a quarter of Syria and the bulk of the actual anti-ISIS fight, is being shoved toward "dissolution" while Damascus moves in. Because nothing says "loyal ally" like letting your proxy forces get steamrolled the second they become politically inconvenient.
US envoy / walking conflict-of-interest Tom Barrack helpfully announced that the "rationale" for partnering with the SDF has "largely expired" now that Assad 2.0 is ready to take over security. Translation: we found a dictator who’ll run the prisons and the counterinsurgency so we don’t have to pretend to care. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of ISIS suspects and families in sprawling camps like al-Hawl are being left to rot or riot, while Washington ships 7,000 "most hardened" fighters off to Iraq and just sort of hopes nobody notices the words torture, forced confessions, or executions. Years of zero investment in deradicalisation have turned these camps into extremism factories, but Western governments are still playing hot potato with their own citizens stripped of nationality, pretending responsibility can just be deported away.
Back in Europe, the same governments that spent a decade clutching pearls about Syrian refugees are now pushing to deport them back to a shattered country that needs an estimated $200bn to rebuild, is still run by a centralized authoritarian regime, and has "inclusive dialogue" in the same way prisons have "open concept." Austria and friends are suddenly very excited about declaring Syria "safe" now that they don’t want to deal with the people who fled. In other words: Trump hugs a rehabilitated jihadist strongman, throws the Kurds under the tank, outsources ISIS detention to the nearest torture-adjacent jurisdiction, and Europe tries to stuff the survivors back into the warzone — but sure, tell us again how this is all about "stability" and "security."
#imperialism#killing-democracy
trump discovers weather, declares climate science illegal
Trump, bravely owning the libs by arguing that if it’s cold in January, 150 years of climate science is canceled.
Donald Trump saw a massive winter storm barreling across half the country and decided it was the perfect time to log on to Truth Social and yell: “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???” Because nothing says serious national leadership like confusing the weather outside your window with global climate trends that every major scientific body on Earth has been screaming about for decades.
Scientists, who tragically still think facts matter, point out that this very storm is linked to a disrupted polar vortex and an Arctic that’s heating up to four times faster than the rest of the planet. In other words, the thing Trump is using to mock climate science is being made worse by the climate crisis he insists is a hoax. Winters in the US are warming faster than other seasons, cold snaps are getting shorter, record hot days are crushing cold ones, glaciers are disappearing, ski resorts are dying—but sure, one big blizzard totally cancels out physics, decades of data, and basic literacy.
So while 230 million Americans brace for freezing temperatures, icy roads, and power outages, the guy who was president and wants the job back is publicly insisting that reality doesn’t exist if it’s snowing. Fossil fuels keep burning, the planet keeps heating, and Trump keeps doing what he does best: weaponizing full-stupid anti-science nonsense to give polluters cover, because nothing screams “America First” like making sure your grandkids inherit a climate that wants them dead.
#anti-science#full-stupid
eric trump does foreign policy, because of course he does
Eric Trump, noted non-official U.S. diplomat, carefully evaluating whether this foreign policy meeting can be monetized in golf courses, hotel towers, or just the usual influence cash-back points.
In Davos, Somaliland’s president Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi is out hunting for recognition and investment, so naturally he meets with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog…and Eric Trump, a man whose official U.S. government title is absolutely nothing. But he does hold a senior role at the Trump Organization, which just happens to be the family business run by the guy who runs the country, so what’s a little informal foreign policy between friends and future licensing deals?
The closed-door chit-chat was arranged by a "private forum for discreet high-level gatherings" — which is a very polite way of saying "backroom deal starter pack." Somaliland is strategically parked on Red Sea and Gulf of Aden shipping routes, is pushing its deep-water port of Berbera as a logistics and energy hub, and is suddenly recognized by Israel as an independent state. In other words: prime real estate for anyone who loves ports, pipelines, and plausible deniability.
An advisor to Somaliland’s leader says Eric "expressed interest in Somaliland and the opportunities it offers" — because nothing says responsible governance like the president’s son eyeballing a strategic African coastline while the Trump Organization quietly looms in the background. The BBC notes Eric has no official role in government, but sure, let’s just blur the line between U.S. foreign policy and Trump family business plans until it disappears completely. What could possibly go wrong?
#forever-grifting#corruption
deputy ag discovers insider trading, but make it policy
Todd Blanche explaining that his crypto policy had nothing to do with his crypto holdings, just like your seatbelt ticket had nothing to do with the cop’s monthly quota.
Todd Blanche, Trump’s criminal defense lawyer turned Deputy Attorney General, allegedly looked at federal conflict-of-interest law, shrugged, and said, "What if we just didn’t?" An ethics watchdog complaint says Blanche ordered DOJ to shut down crypto investigations and disband the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team while personally holding at least $159,000 in crypto-related assets. In other words, he didn’t just pick winners and losers in the market — he picked himself.
This is the same Todd Blanche who signed an ethics agreement promising to dump his crypto within 90 days and avoid anything that could affect his digital coin stash. Instead, he issued an April memo declaring Biden’s crypto crackdowns "regulation by prosecution," torched the enforcement team that had actually won cases, and watched as his bitcoin jumped an estimated 34% in value before he finally "divested" — by gifting it to his adult children and grandchild, because nothing says "public service" like turning DOJ policy into a family wealth transfer event.
The Campaign Legal Center’s complaint politely calls this "blatant" and asks the DOJ inspector general to investigate whether a crime was committed, which is adorable given that Blanche is literally the No. 2 at the same department he may have just used as a personal crypto pump. The penalties on paper are up to five years in prison, but sure, we’re definitely going to see the sitting Deputy AG prosecuted by the agency he helps run for enriching his own portfolio while dismantling white-collar enforcement.
Blanche, who helped get Trump through 34 felony convictions and then watched two other criminal cases evaporate when his client retook the White House, is now busy remaking the Justice Department into a sort of legal protection racket for friends of the regime — from personally interviewing Ghislaine Maxwell to telling the crypto industry that the "regulatory weaponization" era is over. The market loved it, enforcement hated it, and the rule of law is somewhere under the bus with the rest of American democracy — but hey, the grandkids’ wallets are looking fantastic.
#forever-grifting#corruption
maga turns a murdered refugee into a billboard campaign
Nothing honors a murdered refugee like turning her photo into a multi-million-dollar right-wing marketing asset.
Donald Trump saw the horrific killing of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska and, in classic statesmanlike fashion, immediately went on Truth Social to demand a “quick” trial and “THE DEATH PENALTY” for the Black suspect he called an “ANIMAL”. Elon Musk chimed in to explain that the real crime here is that the "mainstream media" supposedly didn’t cover it enough because she was white. JD Vance blamed “soft-on-crime” policies, and Andrew Tate briefly took a break from his own violent-rape allegations to warn that if you’re a "pretty girl" in America you basically can’t go outside. In other words: a tragic killing became instant content for the right-wing fear-industrial complex.
Then the grift-industrial complex kicked in. Trump-loving tech CEO Eoghan McCabe announced he’d drop $500,000 in $10,000 grants to paint giant murals of Zarutska’s face in “prominent” US locations, and Elon Musk replied, "I’ll see your half-mil and raise you $1m." The project, hosted on Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo — home to Proud Boys, January 6 rioters, and every racist-fired-for-being-racist GoFundMe reject — has now raised over $100,000 more from smaller donors. McCabe’s team claims the whole thing, now a $1.7m shrine, is just to "memorialize the story of an innocent young woman" killed in a senseless crime.
So now Zarutska’s image is splashed across buildings from Bushwick to DC, Miami, and LA, wrapped in lilies and cursive fonts, while the same movement funding the murals uses her death to push racist panic, harsher punishment, and "cities are hell" propaganda. No money for mental health care, no interest in systemic reform — but huge enthusiasm for weaponizing a murdered refugee’s face as a permanent campaign poster. Because nothing says "we care about victims" like turning their memory into a billionaires’ culture-war branding exercise.
#killing-democracy#racism#full-stupid
