lindsey graham discovers gravity, warns trump football is still in putin’s hands
Lindsey Graham explaining to America that the ex-KGB dictator might not be honest, as if he’s just cracked the Da Vinci Code.
Lindsey Graham went on TV to warn Donald Trump that Vladimir Putin is basically Lucy with the football – which is rich, coming from the guy who has spent the last decade as Trump’s emotional support senator every time he faceplants on foreign policy. Apparently, after years of Trump publicly swooning over Putin, undermining NATO, and treating Ukraine like a reality-show prop, Graham has noticed that the ex-KGB dictator might not be negotiating in good faith. Truly, a breakthrough in Republican science.
Graham’s message boils down to: Putin keeps dangling "peace" while refusing to budge on anything, and Trump keeps sprinting at the ball like it’s a golden opportunity for a campaign photo-op. Then Putin yanks it away and uses the chaos to strengthen his position. In other words, U.S. foreign policy is now a Peanuts rerun where the nuclear codes are offscreen.
The Trump camp, of course, is still selling this as brilliant statesmanship: the great dealmaker bringing peace to the world by believing whatever Putin says this week. Meanwhile, career diplomats and actual security experts get sidelined so Trump can chase another made-for-TV "peace" moment that exists mostly in his own press releases. Because nothing says serious global leadership like getting repeatedly conned by the same autocrat while your own party has to go on cable news and beg you not to fall for it again.
#national-security#killing-democracy#full-stupid
trump admin discovers new policy frontier: outlawing people
Robert F Kennedy Jr and Donald Trump, bravely defending "biological truth" by regulating bras, underwear, and pronouns like they’re weapons of mass destruction.
The Trump administration has decided that if it can’t win the culture war, it’ll just outlaw the other side’s existence. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is rolling out a plan to block Medicaid and federal funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to trans youth, rebranding life-saving treatment as "sex-rejecting procedures" that allegedly "rob children of their futures". Because nothing says "protecting kids" like making sure the ones most at risk of suicide lose access to the care that keeps them alive.
Not to be outdone in the cruelty Olympics, the FDA is now going after binders, tucking underwear, and prosthetics, sending warning letters to small companies like ShapeShifter Apparel and GenderBender LLC for not registering these items as "medical devices". Translation: the agency that works for a guy who promoted lethal fake autism "cures" is suddenly very worried about the regulatory status of a sports bra with ambition. Seizure and injunctions are on the table, because apparently the real public health emergency is trans people having comfortable underwear.
All of this stacks neatly on top of Trump’s Day One executive order on "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government", which forcibly redefines all federal documents to only recognize two "immutable" sexes. Congress is happily playing along: the House just passed a bill making it a felony—up to 10 years in prison—to provide gender-affirming care to minors. In other words, they’re trying to turn doctors into criminals and trans kids into evidence.
The goal isn’t policy; it’s erasure. They know trans and nonbinary people won’t stop existing, so the administration is settling for the next best thing: driving them underground and making their lives as dangerous and miserable as possible. Black-market hormones, unlicensed surgeries, higher risks of illness and death—this is not a bug, it’s the feature. The Trump administration can’t legislate people out of existence, but it’s working very hard to make sure they suffer for daring to exist at all.
#fascism#killing-democracy
presidency now streaming exclusively on trump plus
President of the United States, pictured here beta-testing the idea that state communications should run exclusively through his own failing meme stock.
Donald Trump has effectively turned the presidency into a low-rent streaming exclusive on Truth Social, a platform used by roughly 3% of Americans and owned by, wait for it, Donald Trump. In other words, the commander-in-chief is paywalling official communications, policy announcements, and his ongoing mental unravelling behind a glorified penny-stock vanity project that props up his net worth. Because nothing says "serving the American people" like forcing them to subscribe to your failing app to find out if you just declared a travel ban.
Inside this walled garden of senility and racism, Trump is posting at manic volume, confusing AI videos with reality, and boosting conspiracy garbage about magical "med beds" that cure everything — and may or may not exist only in the brains of QAnon YouTubers. He falsely announced that a Brown University shooting suspect was "in custody," then had to walk it back 19 minutes later, casually demonstrating that the president is now just live-action fan fiction with nuclear codes. Mixed in: random context-free videos, self-glorifying photos, and reposts calling Somali Americans "inbred savages" pushing "Sharia bullshit" — the kind of thing that used to be a career-ending scandal and is now just Saturday on Truth.
The only upside is that almost nobody is actually there to see it. The downside is that the traditional role of the presidency — communicating clearly and transparently with the country — has been replaced by Trump yelling into his own algorithm while mainstream media occasionally has to relay his worst outbursts to the rest of us. Meanwhile, the GOP, forever chained to Grandpa’s rage-app, is heading into the midterms trying to pretend that the man who falls asleep in cabinet meetings and can’t tell an AI deepfake from his own speeches is totally fine and definitely the real victim here. But sure, tell us more about "election integrity."
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
epstein files drop, sharpies attack
A heavily redacted document sits on a desk, bravely shielding the reputations of the very people who keep telling you law and order is their top priority.
The redacted Epstein files are out, which is Washington-speak for: "Here is a stack of black rectangles where accountability was supposed to be." The public gets a government-issued Rorschach test, and surprise, it still looks like a decades-long protection racket for powerful creeps. Because nothing says "we take this seriously" like turning key names and details into a CIA-approved blackout poem.
All this lands while Trump is already under fire for his stellar handling of the economy — you know, the one where working people get vibes and volatility while billionaires get tax cuts and bailouts. In other words, it's business as usual: the rich and connected float above the law in a sea of redactions, and everyone else gets to argue about gas prices while wondering which of their "leaders" needed that many pages blacked out.
#corruption#killing-democracy
maga christianity: now with extra state-sponsored persecution complex
Trump’s vision of religious liberty: one hand on the Bible, the other on the launch codes.
Donald Trump, America’s most famous casino theologian, has decided the real global crisis isn’t war, famine, or climate collapse—it’s the "mass slaughter" of Christians in Nigeria, which he’s helpfully pairing with threats of a U.S. invasion. Because nothing says "religious freedom" like using the Pentagon as your missions committee.
Back home, the administration is busy turning Maga Christianity into an official state religion with better branding. Trump handed Pam Bondi a shiny new taskforce to root out "anti-Christian bias," moved to "protect prayer" in public schools (translation: government-approved performative piety), and issued a memo identifying "anti-Christianity" as a potential driver of terrorism. In other words, the state is now in the business of defining which religion gets special protection and which dissenters get quietly reclassified as security threats. But sure, tell us more about how other countries are hostile to religious liberty.
The pastors in this piece are the inconvenient Christians—the ones who actually read "love thy neighbor" and thought it wasn’t a typo. While Maga preachers bless ICE raids and anti-LGBTQ+ crusades, these folks are running immigrant-support vigils in Oklahoma, escorting undocumented people to their hearings, and organizing letter campaigns to demand basic human decency from GOP officials like Kevin Stitt and James Lankford. In Minneapolis, they’re teaming up with Moms Demand Action to push for assault-weapons bans after a church shooting killed two kids, because unlike the White House, they think "thoughts and prayers" should be followed by legislation.
From Chicago protests under National Guard occupation to Florida clergy camping outside "Alligator Alcatraz" to oppose Trump’s detention dystopia, local faith leaders are doing the radical Christian thing of… acting like Christians. Meanwhile, Trump 2.0 is busy baptizing authoritarianism in holy water and calling it "religious liberty." The good news? There’s a growing movement of pastors who’ve decided that if the choice is between state-backed Maga Christianity and the actual gospel, they’re siding with the guy who talked about immigrants and the poor—not the one who sells $399 Bible bundles on Truth Social.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump admin discovers exciting new disaster strategy: do nothing
Pictured: Washington’s new unofficial FEMA policy — if you wanted dry land, you should’ve donated more to the campaign.
Nothing says "strong leadership" like watching a state drown while you sit on the money that was supposed to keep it dry.
As atmospheric rivers turned parts of Washington state into an unplanned water park, the Trump administration was busy trying to cancel roughly $182 million in FEMA hazard mitigation funds and slow-walk another $31 million in disaster prevention grants. These weren’t hypothetical wish lists — Washington and other states had already secured the grants, started design and permitting, and even invested tens of millions of their own dollars. But Kristi Noem’s DHS slapped on a new approval policy, then just... didn’t approve anything, because nothing screams "homeland security" like letting floods do the urban planning.
Trump’s team also moved to kill FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program entirely, calling it "wasteful" and "politicized" — which is a bold take on a program where every dollar invested saves six in future disaster costs. More than 20 states sued and actually won in court, but the money still hasn’t shown up while people in Hoquiam and Aberdeen watch their economic future float away. In other words: states invest, courts rule, homes flood, and the federal government shrugs. But sure, tell us more about how you’re the party of fiscal responsibility and law and order.
#killing-democracy#anti-science#forever-grifting
welcome to america, please don’t leave or we might not let you back
Behold Google HQ, where some of the brightest minds on earth are now advised not to risk visiting their families because the U.S. government might not let them come back to write more JavaScript.
Apple and Google are now telling their foreign workers: "Welcome to the land of the free, do not under any circumstances attempt to leave." Internal memos reviewed by NPR show both companies warning H-1B employees to avoid international travel because the Trump administration has turned routine visa renewals into a months-long game of immigration roulette.
The Department of Homeland Security, in its ongoing quest to prove that cruelty is the point, now demands up to five years of travelers' social media history. Consulates and embassies are backed up for months, meaning if you go home to see your family, you might discover that "family separation" now includes highly skilled engineers who committed the crime of taking a long weekend in Bangalore.
Just to really drive home how hostile the government is to legal immigration, the White House also slapped a $100,000 fee on each new H-1B visa, because nothing says "merit-based immigration" like a giant paywall. Hundreds of workers renewing visas in India have already had appointments postponed while the State Department bravely ensures that software developers and chip designers do not pose a dire threat to national security.
In other words, Trump has managed to create an invisible border wall around the entire country: if you're here on a visa, you're effectively trapped. But sure, tell us again how this is all about "illegal" immigration and not a broad, systematic crackdown on anyone who wasn’t born in the right ZIP code.
#anti-immigration#killing-democracy#full-stupid
trump discovers indigenous rights buried in the defense budget
Lumbee Chairman John Lowery cries tears of joy as the U.S. government finally decides, after only 137 years, that his people are real enough to get health care — all while Trump collects the credit in the background like he personally invented Native sovereignty yesterday.
After only 137 short years — roughly the time it takes Congress to notice Native people exist — the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina finally gets full federal recognition, not through some thoughtful, standalone civil rights measure, but stapled to a $900 billion Pentagon goody bag. Because nothing says respect for tribal sovereignty like, "Sure, we’ll recognize your existence, just as soon as we finish buying a few more missiles."
Tribal Chairman John Lowery and Lumbee members traveled to D.C. to watch Donald Trump sign the bill, giving the former reality show landlord a photo op where he gets to pretend he personally ended 137 years of federal indifference. In reality, the Lumbee have been petitioning since 1888, got half-baked recognition in 1956, and only now get access to basic things like Indian Health Service, housing support, and education funding that other federally recognized tribes have had for decades. The Congressional Budget Office estimates about $250 million in health benefits over four years — which is, in Pentagon terms, the couch-cushion money they lose under one F-35.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein applauded the move, pointing out that full recognition will finally let Lumbee citizens access health care, housing, child care, and disaster relief like other tribes. In other words, the federal government is bravely stepping up to do the thing it should have done before most of today’s members were born, and wants a round of applause for eventually clearing the lowest bar in human governance: acknowledging people exist and deserve health care. But hey, a win is a win, and in Trump’s America, getting justice via the National Defense Authorization Act apparently counts as progress.
#not-awful#trumps-america
trump invents maritime law, repossesses venezuela’s oil
US warship patrolling off Venezuela, bravely defending America from the grave threat of other countries having their own oil.
US forces have now stopped a second merchant vessel in international waters off Venezuela, because nothing says "rules-based international order" like playing pirate cosplay with the world’s shipping lanes. This follows the earlier seizure of an oil tanker and Trump’s very normal, definitely-legal announcement of a "total and complete" blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers going in and out of the country — no UN mandate, no declaration of war, just vibes and a carrier group.
Trump went on TV to remind everyone this isn’t about imperial nostalgia or oil, it’s about… imperial nostalgia and oil. Venezuela, he claims, "took all of our energy rights" and "we want it back" because they "illegally took it" — in other words, nationalized their own resources, which Washington has decided is now a retroactive crime against the United States. Meanwhile, the US military keeps blowing up alleged drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific, killing 99 people since September, while insisting this is totally about narcotics and definitely not about regime change. Maduro accuses the US of trying to overthrow him, which the administration helpfully underlines by refusing to rule out a war and parking the largest US fleet in the region in decades.
Mexico’s president is over here begging the United Nations to show up and maybe prevent a full-scale shooting war, while the UN does its best impression of a screensaver. So we’ve got anonymous US officials leaking details of an "ongoing military operation," a president threatening war to "get our oil back," and a de facto unilateral blockade in international waters. But sure, tell us again how this is all about "stopping drugs" and "freedom" and not just 21st-century gunboat diplomacy with a spray-tan.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
pam bondi, death penalties, and her totally coincidental unitedhealth buddies
Pam Bondi, carefully weighing the evidence, her conscience, and her old lobbying client list—guess which one wins.
Pam Bondi is back, and somehow the conflict of interest is the least subtle thing in the room. The Trump attorney general is pushing for the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, while defense lawyers politely point out that Bondi only just came from a cushy gig at Ballard Partners, the lobbying firm that represents Thompson’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group. But sure, no need to worry about bias when the nation’s top prosecutor is fresh off the payroll of the victim’s corporate mothership.
Bondi, who spent her post-Florida-AG years cashing checks from Trump megadonor Brian Ballard’s shop, insists this is all about justice and Making America Safe Again, not about executing the guy who allegedly shot a client-adjacent CEO of her old firm. She announced the death penalty decision in a press release that sounded more like a campaign rally than a legal document, prompting the judge to gently remind the Justice Department that openly poisoning the jury pool is still frowned upon. Mangione’s lawyers now want the death penalty off the table, some charges tossed, and evidence suppressed, arguing that maybe—just maybe—the government shouldn’t try to kill someone in a case marinated in financial ties and political grandstanding.
Federal prosecutors, naturally, say this is all overblown, that intense publicity is not a “constitutional defect,” and that calling this a constitutional crisis is just defense-lawyer melodrama. In other words: the AG’s ex-lobbyist connections, her corporate-adjacent history, her MAGA-flavored soundbites about executing the defendant, and a judge warning her to stop talking are all just business as usual in Trump’s justice system. Because nothing says impartial rule of law like a death penalty decision that doubles as a press hit for your old lobbying network.
#corruption#killing-democracy
holiday cheer, but make it anti-fascist
American shoppers bravely navigating the holiday season, trying to buy a mug without accidentally funding ICE recruitment, tariff abuse, or Elon Musk’s federal demolition derby.
Nothing says “Merry Christmas from President Life Alert” like having to run your gift list through a human rights filter. After a year of Trump’s second-term purge of DEI, immigrant crackdowns, and Musk’s federal-agency bonfire, shoppers are doing the unthinkable in America: spending less at giant corporations that openly lick the regime’s boots. The "We Ain’t Buying It" campaign, backed by more than 220 organizations, told people to skip Target, Home Depot, and Amazon over Black Friday, and millions actually listened. Little Blue Cart, a directory of progressive small businesses, saw record traffic, because apparently some people prefer not to fund fascism with one-click checkout.
Target is getting hit for rolling back diversity programs it used to brag about, Home Depot is under fire because ICE is scooping up day laborers from its parking lots like it’s a federal Costco, and Amazon is being shunned for its Trump inaugural cash dump and long, proud history of treating workers like disposable shipping materials. Spotify is helpfully running ICE recruitment ads—because nothing says holiday playlist like “Now Hiring for Family Separation 2.0”—and Tesla is bleeding sales after activists decided that if Elon Musk is going to help dismantle federal agencies, at least they won’t help him move Model Ys while he does it.
Meanwhile, immigrant-owned businesses are shortening hours or closing altogether under ICE terror campaigns, and some shoppers are deliberately supporting companies suing Trump over what they say are illegally enacted tariffs. Others are throwing money at colleges refusing to bow to Trump’s culture war decrees. In other words, the White House spent years screaming that the only freedom that matters is the freedom to shop—and now people are using that freedom to tell Trump and his corporate enablers to get bent. Capitalism meets conscience, and for once, conscience is actually putting a dent in the QVC Reich.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
from camelot to mar-a-lago: the kennedy center rebrands for strongman chic
The Kennedy Center, moments before the ghost of JFK files a formal complaint with literally every founding father about brand dilution.
The Kennedy Center, once named for that quaint concept known as "public service" (via John F. Kennedy), has now decided to go full personality cult and slap Donald Trump’s name on the front of the building. Because nothing says arts and culture like rebranding a national performing arts landmark after the guy whose main contribution to the arts is yelling at Broadway actors on Twitter and stiffing contractors.
Officials are treating the renaming like it’s some kind of historic honor, rather than what it actually looks like: a taxpayer-adjacent shrine to a man who thinks "Hamilton" is when his golf buddy from Palm Beach stops by for lunch. In other words, we’ve gone from celebrating a president who asked what we could do for our country to celebrating one who asked what the Kennedy Center could do for his ego and brand placement.
So now, visitors to Washington can tour the Capitol, the White House, and the newly re-labeled Trumpified Kennedy Center, a neat little trifecta of institutions slowly being converted into backdrops for one guy’s need to see his name in gold. But sure, this is all totally normal in a healthy democracy and not at all the kind of thing you see in countries where the leader’s face is on every building, billboard, and mandatory school poster.
#oligarchy#killing-democracy
netanyahu brings war menu to mar-a-lago, chef recommends midnight hammer
Tehran billboard: "For a better Iran, its missile is on me"—which pairs nicely with Mar-a-Lago’s unofficial slogan, "For a better poll number, your war is on us."
Benjamin Netanyahu is heading to Mar-a-Lago to brief Donald Trump on fresh options for bombing Iran, because nothing says responsible statecraft like planning new airstrikes at a golf resort that also sells wedding packages. Israel wants Trump to sign off on, assist with, or just outright own another round of attacks on Iran’s ballistic missile program and air defenses, on top of June’s U.S.-led Operation Midnight Hammer — the one Trump insists "totally obliterated" Iran’s nuclear capabilities while U.S. assessments quietly say, "lol, not quite."
While Tehran is publicly floating the idea of resuming talks, Trump is privately being handed a familiar four-course war menu: Israel goes solo, Israel with U.S. backup, joint strikes, or the full "America does it all" special. At the same time, he’s considering military strikes in Venezuela, boasting on TV that he’s "destroyed the Iran nuclear threat and ended the war in Gaza, bringing, for the first time in 3,000 years, peace to the Middle East" — which is a bold claim, especially for a region that is currently being managed via ceasefires, proxy wars, and PowerPoint target lists on the Oval Office coffee table.
The White House is still thumping its chest about bunker-busting Iran’s enrichment sites, Israel is demanding more action before Iran rebuilds its missile and air defense infrastructure, and Trump is threatening to "obliterate" anything Tehran reconstructs unless they come back to the table on his terms. In other words, U.S. foreign policy is now a protection racket: nice ballistic program you’re trying to rebuild there, shame if something happened to it. But sure, tell yourself this is about "regional stability" and not about a president auditioning for Strongman of the Year while dangling new wars over two continents.
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
let them eat caviar bumps
Nonprofit director stares into the middle distance, calculating how to feed 500 people a month on the change Trump shook out of the social safety net.
In Trump’s miracle second-term economy, the vibes are immaculate—unless you’re hungry. In metro Atlanta, Sabrina Carter gets a majestic $24 a month in food stamps, which is apparently what the Trump administration thinks a human stomach costs. Her big splurge is cereal. Meanwhile, Erica Barker is feeding a daughter and grandson on noodles after losing her job, and has been pushed to a food pantry for the first time. Because nothing says "economic comeback" like middle-aged Americans standing in line for donated groceries while being judged for not starving more politely.
At Area in Need Missionary House, executive director Stephanie Jordan says demand has exploded from 280 people a month to over 500, right after SNAP benefits went into "hiatus" during Trump’s latest federal shutdown stunt—an austerity cosplay so bad even food banks saw it coming after it hit. Costs are up 30%, the pantry is raiding its housing budget just to keep people fed, and there’s no sign of the "temporary" crisis ending. In other words: the safety net is now a GoFundMe plus a church pantry, and the White House solution is to insist the numbers look great on TV.
So on one side of Trump’s America, you’ve got people rationing noodles and praying the pantry has enough canned green beans this week. On the other side, you’ve got people dropping more on a month of restaurant tabs than an average family pays on a mortgage, clinking glasses over $50 appetizers and "caviar bumps" while Fox News tells you the poor are just lazy. It’s trickle-down economics in its purest form: the money trickles up, the hunger trickles down, and anyone caught in the middle is told to be grateful the stock market is doing great.
#trumps-america#killing-democracy
america re-ups the reality show for another season
A room full of people applauding their own victimhood while the president calls it a "unity address."
MAGA activists are gathering in Phoenix, which in normal times would be called a fringe conference, but in our current hell timeline is just called "politics." Because nothing says "healthy democracy" like a movement whose whole brand is refusing to accept election results and then getting rewarded with more power.
Meanwhile, President Trump is once again addressing the nation and—more importantly—his fans, because the line between a presidential address and a fan convention disappeared somewhere around the third "witch hunt" speech. It's less "head of state" and more "livestreamed grievance rally" beamed into every living room.
And on the other side, Democrats are apparently holding a post-mortem on how they managed to lose 2024, which must be a very short meeting: "We underestimated the authoritarian cult again" followed by twelve PowerPoints about suburban messaging. In other words, the MAGA movement keeps radicalizing in public, Trump keeps mainlining attention into his personality cult, and the supposed opposition is still trying to focus-group its way out of a constitutional crisis.
#killing-democracy#fascism
president of the united states reviews jake paul fight from air force one
Anthony Joshua restores boxing sanity in Miami while the President turns Air Force One into a flying Jake Paul reaction channel.
Anthony Joshua did his civic duty in Miami by reintroducing Jake Paul’s head to gravity, four times, on a global Netflix stream designed for memes and traumatic brain injury awareness. The former heavyweight champ finally stopped the YouTuber-turned-punching-bag in the sixth, in what the Guardian politely calls a "restoration of sanity" and what any ringside neurologist would call "evidence for a future class-action lawsuit." Paul spent most of the night clinching, flopping, and buying time like a filibustering senator who forgot his talking points, before getting systematically folded by Joshua’s right hand.
The real national content, though, was happening at 30,000 feet. From Air Force One, President Donald Trump tuned in and rushed to Truth Social to praise Jake Paul’s "GREAT Courage" and "Fantastic Entertainment" against a "very talented and large Anthony Joshua." Because nothing says serious leader of the free world like live-blogging a Netflix novelty fight between a YouTuber and a faded heavyweight while flying on the taxpayer’s $200,000-an-hour plane. In other words: the imperial presidency has gone full Twitch streamer.
Joshua, to his credit, played the role of boxing’s reluctant bouncer, ejecting the influencer from the heavyweight VIP section while politely congratulating him for staying conscious slightly longer than expected. Paul, jaw probably broken and bank account definitely not, declared he has "already won in every single way in life"—which is an honest motto for the influencer-politics era: get wrecked for content, cash the check, and let the president hype your "stamina" to his base. But sure, tell me more about how this is all normal and not a late-stage empire glued to its screens while the guy with the nuclear codes live-reviews pay-per-view brain damage.
#killing-democracy#full-stupid
nothing says ‘no new wars’ like maybe invading venezuela
Trump explaining how tariffs, magic beans, and maybe a little war with Venezuela will somehow pay for everything, if you just don’t look at the budget math too closely.
Trump sat down with Kristen Welker and, in classic fashion, used the opportunity to threaten another foreign country, lie about health care, and mangle basic math on tariffs — so, you know, presidential.
First up, Venezuela: the guy who ran on ending forever wars now says he “doesn’t rule out” war with Caracas and has ordered a “blockade” on Venezuelan oil tankers. He won’t say if regime change is the goal, just that Nicolás Maduro “knows exactly what I want.” Because nothing says ‘peace president’ like openly dangling invasion while choking a foreign economy.
On health care, Trump claims his big national address already unveiled his master plan: just give people money and let them “buy their own health insurance” with various “health care accounts.” No details, no structure, no numbers — just vibes and buzzwords. He also insists he doesn’t need to repeal Obamacare because it will “repeal itself,” which is a bold new legal theory where laws vanish if Trump says they’re unpopular on TV.
Then there are tariffs, which Trump now declares will be “permanent” because they supposedly give the U.S. “great national security” and “tremendous wealth.” He even says they’ll pay for his new “warrior dividend” for service members. Tiny problem: a senior administration official and a Senate appropriations source say the money is actually coming from military housing funds, not tariff revenue. In other words, troops get a bonus while their barracks crumble, and the White House calls it a win — but sure, tell me more about how tariffs are writing the checks.
#imperialism#killing-democracy#full-stupid
trump discovers syria still exists, sends more bombs
US warplanes over Syria, bravely defending the principle that Congress never has to vote on war again.
The US has launched large-scale airstrikes across central Syria, because nothing says "careful, measured response" like dropping a bunch of bombs in a country we never officially declared war on. Two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in Palmyra, and in true forever-war fashion, the answer is apparently more of the same: a bigger strike package, more targets, and still no coherent strategy beyond "hit back and hope it looks tough on TV".
According to anonymous officials (the only truly permanent branch of government at this point), the strikes hit "dozens" of Islamic State targets, as part of the ongoing US-led campaign that has somehow become a semi-permanent occupation without Congress ever bothering to do its job. In other words, the Trump administration is still running on the same dusty 2001 and 2002 AUMFs like they’re an all-you-can-bomb buffet, because why ask for updated authorization when you can just keep pretending the war on terror is a single, unending episode?
The US is now routinely coordinating with Syria’s own security forces in these operations, which is a fun little reminder that American foreign policy has fully entered the "everyone’s awful, but we brought the jets" phase. But sure, tell us again how this is all about "precision" and "deterrence" and not about a president flexing military power whenever he needs a ratings bump or a distraction from whatever scandal is currently on fire back home.
#imperialism#national-security
trump’s loudest hall monitor suddenly has ‘family time’
Elise Stefanik announces she’s leaving Congress to spend more time with her family, and less time defending a guy who tried to overturn an election — personal growth, but make it decades late.
Elise Stefanik, one of Trump’s most devoted impeachment-defense parrots, has decided that running for New York governor against another Trump mini-me and staying in Congress is just too much work. So she’s doing the next best thing for democracy: quietly backing away from elected office while pretending it’s all about “efficient use of resources” and “family time.” Because nothing says I would have totally won like quitting the race the moment a real primary fight shows up.
Instead of spending 2026 trying to turn New York into a MAGA theme park, Stefanik says she’ll focus on her young son’s “safety, growth, and happiness” — which is a fascinating pivot from her previous focus on Trump’s safety, growth, and happiness during impeachment and beyond. Trump, naturally, stayed neutral between his two loyalists, calling both Stefanik and Bruce Blakeman “great people,” in other words: interchangeable foot soldiers in the same personality cult.
So the woman who helped normalize Trump’s abuses of power, defended his first impeachment circus, and nearly got shipped off to the UN as a reward (until House math got in the way) is now walking away from Congress and her gubernatorial ambitions. The last Republican governor of New York left office in 2007; Stefanik just made sure that streak is safe for a while longer — but sure, tell us again how this was all part of a grand, selfless plan.
#killing-democracy#fascism
pope sends pro-immigrant bishop to mar-a-lago’s backyard, trump’s nativist vibes in peril
Mar-a-Lago, spiritual home of gold-plated grievance, now awkwardly sharing a diocese with a bishop who thinks migrant kids shouldn’t be collateral damage in Trump’s deportation cosplay.
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Rev Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez — a Dominican-born, pro-immigrant priest from Queens whose flock is mostly migrants — as the new bishop of Palm Beach, aka the diocese that has the misfortune of containing Trump’s self-declared “Center of the Universe”, Mar-a-Lago. In other words, the Vatican just dropped a pastor who openly worries about Trump’s immigration raids right into the heart of the golf-cart gulag.
Rodríguez, whose parish lost more than 100 people to Covid and whose congregants now live in fear of Trump’s immigration crackdown, is politely trying to help the administration stop deporting five-year-olds and parents with no criminal records. Because nothing says family values like forcing parents to sign caregiver affidavits so their US-born kids don’t end up in foster care when ICE does a pre-dawn no-knock on the way to Mass.
While Trump rants about ‘bad hombres’ from his Palm Beach bunker, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops — including the conservatives — has issued a rare special message condemning his mass deportations, migrant ‘vilification’, and denial of pastoral care in detention centers. So now, in the same zip code where Trump rails against ‘invaders’, the local bishop will be preaching that migrants are not to be demonized, that they share American values, and that they deserve dignity and respect. But sure, tell us more about how the real religious persecution here is people saying ‘Happy Holidays’ at Target.
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