cms now stands for coke, miracles & soda
Trump contemplates advanced cancer therapy on Air Force One, also known as a warm Fanta in a Styrofoam cup.
The president of the United States, a man with the nuclear codes and a permanent McDonald’s coupon book, apparently believes diet soda might kill cancer cells because it can kill grass. This revelation comes courtesy of Mehmet Oz — now somehow running the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — who cheerfully recounted how Trump defended chugging Fanta on Air Force One by declaring, “this stuff’s good for me – it kills cancer cells,” and then suggested it was basically health food because it’s made with “fresh squeezed” orange juice from concentrate. America, your tax dollars are sponsoring a live-action YouTube misinformation reel.
Not to be outdone, Don Jr. nodded along and floated the idea that maybe his dad is “on to something,” citing Trump’s “energy, recall, stamina” as if surviving on Diet Coke and grievance were a peer-reviewed clinical trial. Meanwhile, actual doctors are sprinting to social media to remind people that diet soda does not, in fact, cure cancer — though Trump’s logic does raise the exciting possibility that bleach is a superfood. Physicians have to publicly debunk the commander-in-chief’s lawn-care-based oncology theories while the same health department he controls is re-writing US nutrition guidelines to emphasize “real food.” Sure, real food — as long as it comes in a fountain cup and melts a dandelion.
This is the same brain trust that once mused about injecting disinfectant and shining “powerful light” inside the body, now effectively crowdsourcing public health policy from late-night infomercials and whatever pops into Trump’s head when he sees a commercial. With Dr. Oz at CMS and Trump treating sodas like chemo in a can, the line between federal health guidance and a daytime talk show segment has fully disintegrated. The only thing getting killed here isn’t cancer — it’s scientific credibility.
#anti-science#healthcare#full-stupid
rfk jr runs cdc like a facebook comments section
Robert F Kennedy Jr studies vaccine policy the way most people read YouTube comments: confidently, incorrectly, and with catastrophic consequences.
The Trump administration’s second-term health strategy is finally clear: if you can’t beat infectious diseases, legally disable the people who know how. A federal judge just hit pause on all the vaccine "work" done by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — the one hand‑picked by HHS secretary and professional anti-vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr — and in the process vaporized official CDC recommendations for current flu shots, Covid boosters, and a new RSV shot for babies. So yes, the world’s richest country has managed to stumble into respiratory virus season with a vibes-based vaccine policy.
Instead of fixing the mess, the administration has produced a fresh one. There’s no confirmed CDC director, ACIP is legally radioactive, and Kennedy technically could issue recommendations himself, assuming he can stop suing vaccines long enough to read the court order. Health officials might also just ignore the judge entirely — a move that, to be fair, is now standard operating procedure for Trump-world whenever the judiciary gets fussy about laws and due process.
States are splintering off, insurers aren’t sure what they’ll cover, pharmacists don’t know what they’re allowed to give, and professional medical organizations are scrambling to fill the void with guidelines based on whatever data they can legally see. Meanwhile, the administration’s big reform is a new ACIP charter that gives more power to groups that treat PubMed like a Deep State psy-op. Public trust in vaccines and the CDC is circling the drain, and experts say the genie of confusion and mistrust is already out of the bottle. Perfect timing, as always, for the next pandemic roll of the dice.
#anti-science#healthcare#killing-democracy
workers attempt democracy, trump’s nlrb files hostile workplace complaint
Attendees at the Union Now rally in New York display the extremely controversial idea that workers should have power too, prompting immediate concern from Trump’s NLRB about this obvious threat to shareholder feelings.
American workers are doing something truly radical under Donald Trump: trying to have some power over their own lives. Union leaders have launched "Union Now", a nonprofit designed to boost union density in a country where about 70% of workers say they want a union and only 10% are allowed to have one – a ratio that would make any self-respecting corporation drool, but somehow is considered "freedom" when it’s about paychecks instead of phones.
Sara Nelson and other organizers are trying to build a war chest to help workers withstand bosses who fire people illegally during organizing drives, stall first contracts for years, and generally behave like they read the National Labor Relations Act and thought it was a list of suggestions. Meanwhile, Trump’s newly re-rigged NLRB has swiveled from watchdog to corporate HR department, making it even easier for employers to drag out negotiations until workers either quit in despair or die at their second job.
Former labor secretary and current NYC deputy mayor Julie Su politely calls these endless delays a "form of union busting," which is a very professional way of saying: companies are breaking the law and the federal agency in charge of stopping them is now cheering from the luxury box. Union membership is down from 21 million in 1979 to 14.7 million today, even as the population has grown by over 100 million, but don’t worry – billionaire wealth is doing great. Trump’s America: collective bargaining for CEOs, bootstraps for everyone else.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
trump sells you ‘tax relief’ and sends the savings to raytheon
A lonely taxpayer stares at their refund check, wondering how much of it got rerouted to bomb Iran instead of paying for their insulin.
American taxpayers just found out what their 2025 "tax receipt" actually bought, and spoiler: it wasn’t healthcare, food, or a functioning planet. The Institute for Policy Studies crunched the numbers and the average household shelled out about $4,049 for military-related spending, up from $3,707 the year before. Of that, roughly $1,870 went straight to Pentagon contractors, because Lockheed Martin’s yachts don’t upgrade themselves. Meanwhile, a majestic $31 per filer went to substance abuse and mental health programs. Good thing no one in power seems to have issues with either of those.
While people are drowning in living costs, Trump is pushing a ~40% increase in defense spending and cutting other programs by 10%. Medicaid for 68.5 million Americans clocks in at $2,492 per filer, Medicare at $2,207, food assistance at $396, disaster relief at $179, and the Environmental Protection Agency gets a generous $131 to hold back climate collapse with duct tape and vibes. But don’t worry, nuclear weapons get $130 all on their own, because priorities. And this tax breakdown doesn’t even include the US-Israeli war with Iran, which burned through an estimated $11.3bn in the first six days like it was kindling for Trump’s reelection bonfire.
Polls show around 60–70% of Americans think their taxes are too high and that the rich aren’t paying enough, but Republicans tossed out some shiny tip-income exemptions and senior deductions so a few people get slightly bigger refunds while war-driven inflation eats it all back at the gas pump. Trump calls it strong leadership; the receipts call it a transfer program from your paycheck to the Pentagon and its contractors, with a tiny side of social spending so no one can technically say they got nothing for their money. Congratulations, you helped fund a war, a weapons lobby, and maybe half a therapy session.
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
memphis ‘safe’ task force mostly just pulls people over
America’s finest: turning a strip mall parking lot into a checkpoint so we can bravely protect Memphis from the menace of people driving while immigrant.
Trump ordered a law-and-order surge in Memphis to crush violent crime, then showed up to take a victory lap for a 30% drop in serious violence. Tiny hitch: Memphis Police Department data shows crime had already fallen to a 25-year low before his Memphis Safe Task Force rolled in with the National Guard and a small army of agencies. But why let reality get in the way of a campaign rally about how only Donald J. Broken Windows can save America?
Once you pop the hood on this "violent crime" crackdown, it’s just a traffic-stop factory with a deportation side hustle. Of the more than 5,200 arrests in the first four months, only about a quarter were for violent crimes, and most of those were from old warrants. The task force did manage to nab over 800 immigrants deemed unlawfully present, though — and only 2% of those were even accused of violent crime. Being undocumented is a civil offense, but the Memphis Safe Task Force treats it like the city’s gravest threat, especially in Parkway Village, a majority Black, rapidly growing Hispanic neighborhood where 81% of arrests are for nonviolent offenses.
The White House’s response is to crank the gaslight to stadium brightness. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson credits the "great work of President Trump’s task force" for falling crime, while refusing to explain why the supposed war on violent offenders looks suspiciously like a dragnet for immigrants selling shoes and tacos. The U.S. Marshals Service parrots the script, bragging that "calls for service are down 18%" — as if people terrified of calling the cops in a militarized crackdown is proof that crime vanished rather than that trust did. Memphis didn’t get a safety plan; it got a political stunt dressed up as public security, with immigrant families and Black neighborhoods paying the price for Trump’s campaign talking points.
#anti-immigration#killing-democracy#lawlessness
trump promises new iran talks to fix crisis he personally lit on fire
U.S. warship cruises the Strait of Hormuz while Washington pretends this is all a totally normal way to run foreign policy.
Trump is now signaling that new talks with Iran could start "soon," which is Washington-speak for, "after we’ve finished pretending the last eight years of diplomacy never happened." Having torched the JCPOA, slapped on maximum-soundbite sanctions, and helped crank regional tensions high enough to rattle oil markets and Navy commanders, he’s now floating himself as the indispensable dealmaker who will heroically negotiate us back to roughly where we were before he wandered in with a gas can.
Diplomats and military officials get to play minesweeper in the Strait of Hormuz while Trump chases a TV-ready handshake moment that he can brand as the greatest deal ever made, many people are saying. Iran, having watched the U.S. shred a signed agreement on a whim, is supposed to trust that this time the reality show host in chief really means it. American credibility takes another hit, global security gets treated like a campaign prop, and the rest of us are left hoping the next episode of "Art of the Nuclear Deal" doesn’t end with a carrier group on fire.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
save america by stopping americans from voting, naturally
Behold: quaint little "I voted" stickers from that brief era when casting a ballot didn’t require a document scavenger hunt and a DHS background check.
The "Save America" Act is back, and once again the plan to "save" democracy is to make sure fewer people can participate in it. This year's model bolts together strict documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements, a very tight voter ID regime, and the casual threat of criminal charges for election officials who don’t perfectly navigate this booby-trapped mess. As a bonus, states would have to hand their voter rolls over to the Department of Homeland Security on the regular, because nothing screams "free and fair elections" like running your local precinct out of a national security file cabinet.
Instead of just calling this what it is — a mass voter suppression bill built to lock in minority rule — the Trump orbit is selling it as "election integrity" while his supporters are still relitigating 2020 and the FBI is poking around Fulton County. Meanwhile, civil rights groups are in court trying to stop Trump from kneecapping mail-in voting, because the GOP finally noticed that when more people can vote, they tend to lose. The Guardian is politely inviting readers to ask questions about what this all means for November’s midterms and the future of American democracy. The short answer: if Trump gets his way, the future looks a lot like DHS-approved voter lists, terrified election workers, and a government that only trusts elections it has pre-rigged.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump’s jan. 6 ‘patriots’ keep racking up child sex crimes
Future Trump martyr David Paul Daniel hydrating between assaulting cops and, as it turns out, starring in a federal child exploitation case.
The "law and order" president has done it again: another Jan. 6 rioter personally blessed by Donald Trump’s mass clemency program is now set to plead guilty to federal child sexual exploitation charges. David Daniel — who Trump helped scrub clean for assaulting police at the Capitol — has reached a plea deal over enticement of a child under 12 to produce sexual abuse images, plus another minor victim under 18. Truly the finest of people, the best people, the only people this movement ever seems to find.
Federal Judge Matthew Orso had to patiently explain that Trump’s Jan. 6 pardon does not magically extend to "child exploitation" because, astonishingly, raping children is not "conduct related to the events at or near the United States Capitol." This is not a hypothetical problem: Daniel is at least the third Trump-pardoned Jan. 6 rioter nailed in separate child sex cases. Daniel Tocci got four years for a child porn collection; Andrew Paul Johnson is doing life after trying to bribe a victim into silence with fantasy money from a supposed Trump Jan. 6 settlement. The movement that screams about "groomers" sure seems to have a recurring casting problem.
Meanwhile, the Trump DOJ has been tying itself in knots drawing magical lines around these pardons: guns seized during Jan. 6 raids? Sometimes pardoned. Child sexual abuse material uncovered during those same investigations? Not covered. One rioter, Dan Wilson, even got a second pardon to cover his gun conviction — because if there’s one thing this crowd takes seriously, it’s making sure the violent coup guys keep their firearms. And lawyers for alleged DNC/RNC pipe bomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. are now trying to cram bomb-planting under the Jan. 6 pardon umbrella too.
So the pattern is clear: Trump hands out mass pardons to insurrectionists like merch at a rally, a non-trivial number turn out to be accused or convicted child predators, and the courts are left sweeping up the wreckage while MAGA world still insists these are political prisoners and heroes. This is the movement that claims it’s saving America’s children.
#lawlessness#forever-grifting
white house stages heartwarming ad for poverty wages
Grandma delivers McDonald’s to the president while delivering talking points to the cameras—America’s economy, now available as a branded content partnership.
The White House rolled out its latest economic policy explainer by doing what this administration does best: staging a commercial and calling it governance. Enter "DoorDash grandma" Sharon Simmons, previously flown in to lobby Congress for Trump’s "no tax on tips" gimmick, now reappearing as a surprise McDonald’s delivery driver to the president. DoorDash eventually had to admit the whole thing was a pre-arranged stunt, complete with a carefully televised $100 tip, because nothing says serious tax policy like an influencer collab with the guy who almost ended democracy.
Then the propaganda machine really went for it. The Trump rapid response account blasted out a quote claiming Simmons had "saved" more than $11,000 in tips by "not having to claim" them on her taxes—promptly smacked down by a community note and basic math. The actual policy is a temporary deduction on up to $25,000 in tips, most tipped workers already pay little or no federal income tax, and her tips are still taxable in Arkansas anyway. Minor details, easily ignored when you’re busy turning a precarious gig worker into a mascot for a law that, according to researchers, gives a tiny tax break to some servers while gutting health care, energy, and food assistance to finance tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.
Labor advocates pointed out that this isn’t worker empowerment; it’s a marketing campaign for poverty wages. The policy encourages more tipping instead of higher base pay, while Trump’s broader package shreds the safety net the same workers rely on to survive. As One Fair Wage’s Saru Jayaraman put it, the fact that "DoorDash grandma" is even a thing is a sign of societal failure, not a feel-good moment. But in Trump’s America, corporations pay workers so little they have to beg for tips, the government offers a tax gimmick instead of a raise, and then everyone gathers at the White House to film it like a heartwarming Super Bowl ad for late-stage capitalism.
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
trump discovers minority rights are for losers
Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans gazing lovingly at the filibuster, wondering if they should kill it now or wait until it can hurt them personally.
President Trump is once again staring at a guardrail of American democracy and asking, very sincerely, whether it would look better smashed through the windshield. This time it’s the Senate filibuster, which he wants to vaporize so he can shove the so‑called Save America Act through the chamber without the pesky inconvenience of needing more than 50 senators to agree.
Senate Republicans, however, are having a rare moment of semi-conscious thought. They’re reportedly nervous about detonating the filibuster because they understand that one day, they might not be the ones holding the gavel, and then Democrats could use the same no‑rules sandbox to pass things that aren’t handouts to donors and Christian nationalists. So we get the usual GOP dilemma: protect basic institutional norms, or hand Trump the matches and hope the fire only burns other people.
The filibuster has a long, ugly history — from civil-rights obstruction to routine gridlock — but it’s still one of the last speed bumps left between Trump and full‑tilt majoritarian rule dressed up as populist revolution. The fact that the future of a 200‑year‑old legislative norm now hinges on whether Senate Republicans are more afraid of Trump’s rage tweets than of someday being in the minority tells you exactly how sturdy American democracy is in 2026: held together with vibes, cowardice, and a parliamentary procedure nobody actually likes.
#killing-democracy#fascism
acting ag proudly announces doj now a trump family office
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche explains that the Justice Department runs best when the defendant is also the boss.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche went on NBC to do the one thing the Justice Department was specifically not designed for: gush about how wonderful it is that Donald Trump is personally "involved" in its work. The nation’s top law enforcement official-in-training wheels essentially confirmed what everyone already knew — the DOJ is no longer an independent institution, it’s just another Trump property, somewhere between Mar-a-Lago and the food court at Bedminster.
Instead of even pretending to defend the traditional wall between the White House and federal prosecutors, Blanche praised Trump’s hands-on approach like he was talking about a tech startup founder, not a guy facing more criminal exposure than a mob convention. The message to career prosecutors was clear: your new job is not to enforce the law, it’s to enforce Trump’s feelings. Investigations? Charging decisions? That’s adorable. The only thing that really matters now is whether the king is pleased.
This is the part of the movie where the regime usually tries to hide the capture of the justice system. The Trump administration has politely skipped that step and gone straight to bragging about it on cable news. When the acting attorney general is on TV applauding the president’s direct meddling in prosecutions, you’re not looking at a justice system anymore — you’re looking at a loyalty test with subpoenas.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
uk asks: should our nukes come with a free trump?
The UK, bravely entrusting its national security to a man who tried to buy Greenland like it was a foreclosure listing.
Britain is apparently still role‑playing as Robin to America’s Batman, except Batman is now Donald Trump and he keeps threatening to sell Greenland like it’s a Trump golf course with better ice. Former NATO chief George Robertson is shrieking about a £28bn "black hole" in UK defence spending, because the country might not be shovelling enough money into a force structure designed less to defend Britain and more to be the premium DLC pack for the US war machine.
The whole setup, as the editorial politely notes, means only about 15–20% of UK defence spending is actually about defending the UK. The rest is essentially a subscription to the American empire bundle: US‑controlled nuclear weapons, F‑35s that might as well ship with a "Made for Lockheed" watermark, and a posture built around NATO nuclear sharing where Trump treats alliance commitments like overdue casino markers. Britain doesn’t get technological control, just the privilege of being an extra in Washington’s war cosplay.
Whitehall’s big brain move is to promise more defence money… someday in the 2030s, while Trump is busy casually undermining international law and U‑turning on things like the Chagos deal. Meanwhile, the UK is reshaping its military around a US‑style "defence as venture capital" tech ecosystem, because nothing says "national security" like turning war into a start‑up pitch deck. The Guardian ends on the only real question that matters: with Trump back in office, whose security is Britain actually funding – its own, or the whims of an unstable reality‑TV autocrat with the nuclear football on speed dial?
#imperialism#killing-democracy
ice insists it doesn’t kidnap people, just ‘forcibly relocates’ citizens in their underwear
ICE agents, seen here engaging in what they insist is definitely not kidnapping, just enhanced wrong-address customer service.
In St Paul, ICE decided the Fourth Amendment is more of a vibe than a rule and sent masked agents to smash down the door of ChongLy “Scott” Thao, a 56-year-old Hmong American and naturalized US citizen. They dragged him into the street in subfreezing temperatures, half-naked and clutching a blanket, drove him “to the middle of nowhere” to photograph him, realized they’d grabbed the wrong guy, and then just dropped him back home like a misdelivered Amazon package. Now Ramsey County authorities are investigating the episode as possible kidnapping, burglary, and false imprisonment, because apparently someone in Minnesota still thinks laws apply to federal agents.
Homeland Security’s response? A straight-faced statement that “ICE does not ‘kidnap’ people” and that this is all just a political stunt to “demonize” their officers. They claim they were executing a warrant targeting “sexual predators” allegedly tied to the property, that it’s "standard protocol" to hold everyone in the house, and carefully skip over the part where the local DA and sheriff say DHS has simply ignored requests for records. With a grand jury on the table and neighboring Hennepin County already suing the Trump administration for stonewalling investigations into three federal shootings—including the killings of anti-ICE protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti—Minnesota officials are having to sue their own federal government just to find out who keeps shooting and abducting people.
Meanwhile, deaths in ICE custody are quietly stacking up like a body-count scoreboard: 47 people have died since Trump’s second term started, at least 15 in 2026 alone. As Trump’s DHS tries to argue that Minnesota has no jurisdiction and federal agents are basically untouchable, Ramsey County’s sheriff gently reminds them that “there is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents.” Bold of him to assume this administration recognizes any authority besides Trump’s ego and whatever DHS lawyers can staple together as a constitutional theory on the back of a napkin.
#lawlessness#killing-democracy
trump taps nine-figure mystery fund guy to run the fed, what could go wrong
Kevin Warsh, preparing to reassure senators that the Juggernaut Fund full of undisclosed assets will absolutely not influence the guy running global monetary policy, scout’s honor.
Kevin Warsh, Trump’s pick to run the Federal Reserve, turns out to own at least $100m in assets, including two mystery investments over $50m each in something called the Juggernaut Fund LP — which is exactly the kind of name you give a fund when you absolutely do not want anyone asking what’s inside. The underlying assets are conveniently hidden behind “pre-existing confidentiality agreements,” but don’t worry, he pinky-swears he’ll divest if confirmed. Ethics in Government Act compliance now apparently consists of: check a box, promise to sell the giant black box of money later, and we’re good.
The rest of his portfolio reads like a VC pitch deck written by a bored chatbot: AI bets, crypto schemes like a “yield-generating Ethereum layer two,” a robotic coffee bar, bionic clothing, and a reversible male contraceptive startup. Because nothing says “steady hand on the world’s most important central bank” like a guy simultaneously long on robot lattes, Ethereum yield farms, and high-tech birth control. His wife, Jane Lauder, strolls in with a casual $1.9bn family fortune, plus muni bonds listed as just “over $1 million,” which is how rich people say “don’t bother me with decimals.”
Meanwhile, the Senate confirmation is tangled up in a Republican vow to block Warsh until DOJ finishes its politically convenient investigation into current Fed chair Jerome Powell — a probe a federal judge already called a barely disguised attempt to bully Powell into cutting rates or quitting. DOJ is appealing, because of course it is; why stop using law enforcement as a monetary policy tool now? Powell’s term ends in May, and he’ll stay on pro tem if Warsh isn’t rammed through in time, so the world’s largest economy is basically waiting to see whether its central bank will be run by a career central banker… or by a nine-figure Juggernaut Fund guy whose conflicts of interest are marked “confidential” and stamped “trust me.”
#oligarchy#corruption
epa now stands for environmental pollution agency
Lee Zeldin tells a ballroom of professional climate deniers that they’re the real victims, moments after they finish cheering the rollback of the EPA’s legal basis for regulating pollution.
While scientists announce that March was the most abnormally hot month in U.S. history, a bunch of middle-aged men in conference lanyards huddle in a D.C. hotel basement to declare that, actually, everything’s fine and CO2 is your friend. The Heartland Institute, a fossil-fuel-funded monument to professional wrongness, throws a climate denial pep rally complete with children’s books minimizing sea level rise and buttons bragging "Unashamed about my carbon footprint" — because nothing says serious policy movement like merch that could double as gag gifts from Spencer’s.
Presiding over this science bonfire is Trump’s EPA administrator Lee Zeldin — also reportedly on the shortlist for attorney general, because this administration views qualifications the way it views emissions limits: something to be repealed. Zeldin uses his keynote to rail against a "cabal" of elites who believed in things like data, while the crowd cheers the repeal of the EPA’s "endangerment finding" — the legal backbone of virtually all U.S. climate rules. Meanwhile, denialist groups brag about getting an ophthalmologist with no air pollution background placed on a crucial EPA science panel, proving the new standard for environmental expertise is "has eyes."
Naomi Oreskes dryly points out that these guys aren’t oppressed outsiders; they’re bankrolled by big oil and Republican megadonors like the Mercers, and now enjoy direct lines into Trump’s White House and Project 2025. Heartland and its friends have already helped kill offshore wind projects, gut climate regulations, and build a government where climate deniers write climate policy. Polls show most Americans — including a big chunk of young Republicans — accept climate reality, but the people in charge are the ones handing out stress balls that say "Don’t stress. There is no climate crisis" as the planet quite literally bakes. Climate denial isn’t just winning the argument in this administration — it’s holding the regulatory pen.
#anti-science#killing-democracy
trump bravely refuses to apologize to literal pope
Trump, moments before explaining that actually *he’s* closer to God in the polls than the Pope.
Trump is facing bipartisan backlash after deciding the most pressing issue for the leader of the free world is... publicly beefing with Pope Leo and then announcing he will absolutely not apologize. Because when you’ve got inflation, wars, and a melting planet, what voters really want is a presidential slap-fight with the Vatican.
Republicans and Democrats alike are reportedly telling him to knock it off, but Trump is digging in, insisting he did nothing wrong and sees no reason to say sorry. So instead of basic statesmanship, we get another episode of “The President vs. Anyone Who Doesn’t Clap Loud Enough”, this week featuring the head of the Catholic Church.
The White House could have used this as a chance to look even vaguely presidential. Instead, they’ve chosen the path of maximum grievance, minimum dignity, and zero self-awareness. American soft power continues its long, tragic journey from "shaping the global order" to "starting a flame war with the Pope on morning TV."
#killing-democracy#full-stupid
trump considers turning air travel into a literal monopoly game
United and American executives gaze lovingly at a route map, trying to decide which cities to overcharge first while Trump nods along like a man who thinks antitrust is a brand of breath mint.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby reportedly strolled into a late-February meeting with Donald Trump and floated the casual idea of merging United and American, a move that would essentially turn "competition" in US air travel into a historical anecdote. The two largest airlines on Earth would combine into one mega-carrier, shrinking the already oligopolistic "Big Four" (United, American, Delta, Southwest) down to a cozy Big Three that control nearly three-quarters of all passenger capacity.
Details of what Trump said are, of course, unclear, because why wouldn’t the fate of the entire airline industry be discussed in opaque, off-the-books conversations instead of, say, in public regulatory proceedings? Wall Street, however, got the message loud and clear: United’s stock ticked up, American’s jumped more than 7%, and investors briefly glimpsed a glorious future where passengers pay more for less while shareholders toast to "efficiency." As aviation expert Ganesh Sitaraman politely translated, fewer airlines means higher prices, more junk fees, and even more miserable flying — so, exactly the kind of deal this White House likes.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is out here doing his best "I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no" routine, musing that there is "room" for more consolidation while promising theoretical scrutiny and asset sales. Meanwhile, unions, rival airlines, airports, and anyone who’s ever flown coach are expected to hate this. But when you’ve got a president who treats the Oval Office like the VIP lounge at Mar-a-Lago, where CEOs can pitch multi-billion-dollar mega-mergers over metaphorical cocktails, the public doesn’t exactly get priority boarding.
So the Trump administration’s deregulatory dream marches on: fewer companies, more concentrated power, and a government that hears out monopoly fantasies from CEOs before passengers even know what’s happening. If you thought flying was bad now, just wait until "competition" is a vintage concept and your only real choice is whether you want to be gouged in basic economy or gouged in slightly-less-basic economy.
#oligarchy#forever-grifting
trumpworld takes its war-and-wallet summit off the books
The Salamander hotel, temporarily rebranded as the Global Elite Pop-Up War & Finance Emporium, where democracy is not on the guest list.
While Trump screams on Truth Social about the "paper tiger" of NATO, his loyal lieutenants spent the weekend in Washington doing something far more on-brand: slipping into the Bilderberg meeting to mingle with billionaires, arms dealers, and spy chiefs without the inconvenience of public records. At the Salamander hotel, Interior secretary Doug Burgum, tariff whisperer Robert Lighthizer, House Ways and Means chair Jason Smith, and Trump’s "drone guy" Army secretary Dan Driscoll joined Wall Street bosses, pharma execs, and the usual NATO brass for some casual off-the-books lobbying.
The agenda? The "Trans-Atlantic Defence-Industrial Relationship" and the "Future of Warfare" — otherwise known as how to turn permanent war and AI-powered drone swarms into a stable revenue stream. Eric Schmidt, now full-time drone evangelist, was there, along with Anduril’s Brian Schimpf and Palantir CEO Alex Karp, fresh off their work on Trump’s "Golden Dome" project. Intelligence chiefs, including the head of MI6, floated through this little democracy-free zone too, just to really underline that this is where policy gets made while voters get the press releases later.
Normally, Peter Thiel is the dark wizard in residence here — he helps bankroll the Washington meetings through American Friends of Bilderberg, sits on the steering committee, and built Palantir with CIA money — but he skipped this year’s event, which in this universe counts as a transparency win. Still, Trumpworld got exactly what it loves: a secret space where corporate lobbyists and government officials can coordinate war, surveillance, and profit with zero oversight. The public gets no minutes, no transcripts, and no accountability — just the bill.
#oligarchy#forever-grifting
title x: from birth control to birth compulsion
Title X under Trump: now with 80% less healthcare and 200% more sermon.
The Trump administration has looked at Title X – a 50-year-old contraception program that helps 2 million low-income Americans avoid unwanted pregnancies – and decided the real problem is that women still have choices. So the new plan is to defund it in the budget, gut the office that runs it, then "reimagine" it as a pro-conception pipeline where federal dollars go to fertility pep talks and "restorative" anti-abortion quack medicine instead of actual birth control.
Rather than mention hormonal contraception as a core tool of women’s health, HHS guidance mostly scolds it for side effects and being "overprescribed," while nudging clinics toward pseudo-scientific Catholic-adjacent fertility schemes. At the same time, the rules tell providers to kill DEI efforts, avoid "facilitating illegal immigration," and prioritize parents’ rights to dictate their kids’ religious upbringing – which just happens to collide with state laws that let minors access contraception and STD care without parental permission. Federalism is sacred, unless it gets in the way of shoving teenage girls back into 1953.
All this is executed with the trademark Trump efficiency we’ve come to expect: the Office of Population Affairs was hollowed out during the shutdown, staff were literally locked out then laid off, and clinics were given one week to scramble for 2026 funding. Now a skeleton crew is supposed to review a nearly $300m program while the administration steers money toward crisis pregnancy centers – fake clinics whose main medical service is emotional blackmail. The result is a perfect MAGA compromise between "small government" and "big government": a state too incompetent to run public health, but just functional enough to punish women for trying to control their own lives.
Whether Title X is ultimately strangled to death or just transformed into a taxpayer-funded sermon series on fertility, the effect is the same: a program built to expand health, equality, and dignity has been turned into a stage for misogyny, religious coercion, and administrative malpractice. The birthrate might not go up, but the number of women trapped by policy will – which, for this crowd, is the real metric of success.
#pro-life#killing-democracy
trump’s favorite tv conglomerate speedruns media monopoly
Brendan Carr and the acting antitrust chief smile for the camera after helping one company swallow most of local TV, proving that regulatory capture now comes with its own photo op.
Nexstar looked at federal law saying a broadcaster shouldn't control more than about 39% of U.S. TV households and said, "What if we just did 80% instead?" The FCC and DOJ, now apparently functioning as the White House's in-house merger concierge service, shrugged, stamped it approved, and posed for photos. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr even flexed a selfie with the acting antitrust chief just days after they both green-lit Nexstar’s $6.2 billion gobble-up of Tegna, because when you're vaporizing media-ownership rules, you obviously need content for the gram.
The deal hands Nexstar 265 local stations across 44 states plus D.C., giving one Trump-friendly corporation staggering control over what counts as "local" news. And just to make sure the vibes were right, Nexstar pulled Jimmy Kimmel from its ABC stations after Carr publicly fantasized about pushing him off the air, then juiced up its cable arm NewsNation with pro-Trump pundit Katie Pavlich and a growing roster of Fox News refugees. Trump briefly pretended to weigh the deal, then smashed the big red button on Truth Social: "GET THAT DEAL DONE!" Four hours later, Carr obediently echoed the boss. Now a federal court in California is being asked to do the thing the regulators were supposed to: stop a politically wired media monopoly from jacking up prices, gutting newsrooms, and turning "local" coverage into a single corporate talking point.
So yes, under this administration, antitrust law is less about protecting competition and more about rewarding loyal broadcasters who yank the wrong comedians and hire the right MAGA influencers. The message from Trump-world is clear: align your newsroom with the president’s ego, and suddenly legal ownership caps become suggestions and 80% of American households is just a fun number on a slide deck.
#oligarchy#forever-grifting
