smokejumper tries to put out the dumpster fire that is ryan zinke
Ryan Zinke, alleged public-lands defender, carefully inspecting which part of Montana should be converted into his next investment vehicle.
Montana smokejumper and union leader Sam Forstag has spent his career parachuting into literal wildfires, which turns out to be the less dangerous part of his resume. The real inferno started when the federal government abruptly axed a quarter of US Forest Service workers in Montana in one day—no cause, no notice, including a 15-year employee getting canned during cancer treatment and another worker learning he was fired while in line for his mother’s funeral. A court eventually reversed the cuts, but the message from Washington was clear: workers are disposable, the spreadsheets are sacred.
So Forstag decided to go from jumping into fires to trying to evict one: Republican congressman Ryan Zinke, Trump’s former interior secretary and walking monument to the phrase "public service really pays." Zinke slunk out of the Trump administration in 2018 under multiple ethics investigations over his business dealings, then somehow watched his net worth rocket from about $2 million to more than $30 million by 2021 through real estate and assorted ventures. Now he’s back in Congress running on a platform of "stonewall Biden" and "open every scenic vista to mining and drilling" while still cosplaying as a public-lands defender. He votes to gut the agencies that protect the land, then helps his rich friends cash in on the ruins.
Forstag’s pitch is almost offensively straightforward: maybe Congress should have some people who have actually had jobs that don’t involve lobbying, insider deals, or Fox News hits. He’s running on boring, extremist ideas like affordable housing, universal childcare, and a healthcare system where getting sick doesn’t mean losing your job and your house. Meanwhile, Zinke is too busy skipping town halls and pushing new extraction projects to respond to any of this. The choice for Montana’s 1st District is shaping up nicely: a guy who jumps into forest fires to save public land, versus a guy who treats public land as a starter kit for his next investment portfolio.
#corruption#oligarchy#forever-grifting
trump fda discovers bold new frontier in health: lying on the label
FDA officials proudly unveiling the new food label: "No Artificial Colors*" with a microscopic asterisk reading "*except the ones that might slowly melt your organs."
The Trump FDA has heroically decided that "no artificial colors" now means "no petroleum-based artificial colors, plus whatever other sketchy crap we can cram in and still print the magic words." Under the new rules, food companies can brag about having no artificial colors while serving up titanium dioxide nanoparticles – a substance the EU kicked out of food because of cancer and gene-damage concerns. But don't worry, it's "naturally derived," just like lead, arsenic, and every other fun thing that kills you.
Robert F Kennedy, now Trump’s HHS secretary and head of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) brand, is calling this regulatory surrender "real progress" and part of helping Americans "eat real food." Apparently in this administration, "real food" means Skittles with a side of potential neurotoxicity and intestinal inflammation, but with excellent marketing. Public health groups call it what it is: a broken promise and a handshake deal with Big Food and chemical companies, complete with zero enforcement and maximum wiggle room.
While states from West Virginia to Texas are out here doing the actual work – banning dyes and slapping warning labels on the rainbow – the federal government is busy inventing new ways to let corporations mislead parents about what’s in their kids’ candy. The FDA is also just ignoring a 2023 petition to yank titanium dioxide from food entirely, because why act on science when you can rebrand poison as a lifestyle choice? Consumer Brands and industry lobbyists, naturally, are thrilled. When the people selling the chemicals say the new "safety" rules are great, you know who the rules are really written for.
So yes, Trump and Kennedy technically moved on Red Dye 3, then immediately pivoted to letting companies hide other problematic dyes behind feel-good labels. MAHA promised to "Make America Healthy Again"; what we got is a regulatory Mad Libs where "health" means whatever the food lobby can get away with this quarter.
#forever-grifting#anti-science
texas gop discovers you can just say the quiet nazi part out loud now
Jace Yarbrough, seen here auditioning to be the first openly "Nazi-ish" congressman, while billionaire sponsors check their FEC receipts and smile.
Texas congressional hopeful Jace Yarbrough has cracked the modern Republican code: say your politics might be called "bigoted" and "Nazi-ish" and then proudly announce you no longer care. The reward for this honesty about his neofascist aspirations? A shower of cash from Peter Thiel, Claremont Institute chair Thomas Klingenstein, and Charles "I’d like to be a warlord" Haywood, plus a glowing Truth Social endorsement from Donald Trump. When you tell voters you no longer share "common values" with the people you see at the grocery store because they’re from the wrong places, the MAGA donor class hears "finally, someone who gets it."
Yarbrough isn’t just another crank; he’s a lawyer and Air Force reservist who sued the Pentagon because it mildly objected to extremism, and whose boutique firm proudly represented Elon Musk’s X and Rumble against watchdogs and advertisers who didn’t want their brands hanging out next to fascist fan fiction. At a Dallas forum, he ran through the white-nationalist starter pack: repeal the Hart-Celler Act to restore race-based immigration quotas, rant about "hordes" of Muslim immigrants imposing sharia, and wrap it all in the language of "good government" that coastal elites rudely keep describing as, again, "Nazi-ish."
The FEC filings read like a who’s who of the new American reactionary aristocracy. Thiel maxed out to Yarbrough on Christmas Eve, because nothing says holiday spirit like bankrolling a man a sociologist calmly describes as one of the most "militant" MAGA figures and a would-be "lawgiver" for a neofascist movement. Claremont-linked donors and members of the secretive Society for American Civic Renewal are right behind him, quietly building their dream: a post-democratic America where the House of Representatives includes guys endorsed by a former president and funded by billionaires who fantasize about armed patronage networks and civil war.
North Texas’s 32nd district used to be a safe blue seat until Republicans surgically redrew it into a GOP pickup. Now the prize is likely to go to whichever candidate can most convincingly reassure donors that American pluralism was a historical typo. Yarbrough’s pitch is simple: if you think 1965 civil-rights-era immigration reform was a catastrophic mistake and believe Muslim immigrants are an invading army, he’s your man. Trump’s endorsement and Thiel’s money make it crystal clear: this isn’t a fringe experiment. This is the party.
#fascism#killing-democracy
trump speed-runs another middle east disaster
Trump explains that you either give him a nuclear deal in 10 days or he reenacts the Iraq War with extra sequels and worse writing.
Donald Trump has decided that the best way to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program is to recreate the vibes of 2003, but dumber. He’s given Tehran “10 to 15 days” to cut a deal while parking the biggest US military buildup in the region since the Iraq invasion right on their doorstep. Aides are reportedly workshopping everything from a “limited strike” on government and military sites to a series of escalating attacks that could end Iran’s nuclear work or, you know, collapse the entire government. Just normal, totally responsible stuff to say out loud while sitting on two aircraft carriers.
While threatening to start another forever war, Trump is also demanding agencies dump their UFO files because Barack Obama made a joke about aliens and got more attention than him. At the same time, Virginia Giuffre’s brother is on TV saying Trump may be “potentially implicated” by the Epstein files (which Trump claims actually exonerate him, because of course they do), and far-right mascot Tommy Robinson is wandering around Washington meeting people close to the president like this is some kind of white nationalist Bring Your Friend to Work Day.
The supporting cast is doing their part. FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly hopped on the bureau’s jet to watch Olympic men’s hockey in Italy, generously sending taxpayers a bill up to $75,000 so he could catch some ice time. Over at the Labor Department, the husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been barred from headquarters after multiple women accused him of sexual assault, which is apparently still not disqualifying for proximity to this administration. And Trump, fresh off threatening a war, told Georgia supporters that the media isn’t talking about the cost-of-living crisis anymore because he’s "won affordability"—a bold claim from a guy who just turned the Persian Gulf into his personal campaign backdrop.
#imperialism#lawlessness#national-security
dan crenshaw begs for trump’s love, gets ghosted anyway
Steve Toth, seen here auditioning for the role of ‘Most Obedient Backbencher,’ explains that Dan Crenshaw’s real crime was momentarily acknowledging who actually won the 2020 election.
Donald Trump has endorsed every House Republican running in the early 2026 primaries except one: Dan Crenshaw, who is now spending a pile of money on TV ads insisting that he actually does love Big Brother. Texas state Rep. Steve Toth is challenging him from the ultra-MAGA right, arguing that Crenshaw’s occasional brush with reality on Ukraine and the 2020 election disqualifies him from serving in a party where the top policy priority is personal loyalty to Trump.
Crenshaw, who once dared to say the stolen-election fantasy was a "lie meant to rile people up," is now flooding the airwaves with footage of Trump calling him "great" and telling voters that if they think he’s not MAGA enough, they just aren’t stalking his social media hard enough. He’s bragging about defending Trump’s policies "in extremely hard places" like The View and Bill Maher, while simultaneously touting his hardline immigration stance, cartel war cosplay, and repeated attempts to strip Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care for minors to prove he’s on-brand authoritarian where it counts.
The punchline: even after signing on to Ken Paxton’s doomed legal stunt to overturn Biden’s win, Crenshaw still committed the unforgivable sin of voting to certify the election. So now his reward is a primary where both candidates are racing to prove who can worship Trump more convincingly, while Trump himself dangles a possible endorsement like a reality show rose. Policy, governance, democracy — all demoted to background extras in the ongoing casting call for Trump’s favorite congressional sidekick.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump turns anti-corruption tools into a loyalty rewards program
Donald Trump signs yet another "totally principled" order in the Rose Garden, thoughtfully converting US trade policy into a legal defense fund for Jair Bolsonaro.
Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index politely notes that democracy is face-planting worldwide, but the real star of the show is the United States, where Donald Trump has turned anti-corruption laws into a patronage system for his friends and a bludgeon for his enemies. Sanctions, anti-money-laundering rules, and anti-bribery laws were supposed to protect the public interest; under Trump, they’re more like a Mar-a-Lago membership perk. Adversaries get hammered, allies get waivers, and the line between "rule of law" and "whatever keeps Jair Bolsonaro out of jail" gets blurrier by the day.
Trump openly bragged that his 50% tariff on Brazil was retaliation for Bolsonaro’s coup trial, which is a fun way of saying extortion via trade policy. Meanwhile, his administration is slapping sanctions on International Criminal Court judges and prosecutors, UN human rights mandate-holders, and even a Brazilian supreme court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, whose crime appears to be taking an attempted coup seriously. The message to the world is clear: uphold international law, and Washington might treat you like it treats actual war criminals.
This isn’t corruption as a briefcase full of cash; it’s corruption as a global architecture. Delay beneficial ownership rules, soften foreign bribery enforcement, flog "golden visa" schemes with no safeguards, and suddenly kleptocrats know exactly where to park their money and buy political cover. The US was once the supposed anchor of anti-corruption efforts; under Trump it’s more like the cruise ship casino where oligarchs, authoritarians, and indicted ex-presidents all come to launder reputations and settle scores — with sanctions, tariffs, and a wink.
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
trump turns nato into a protection racket, europe starts learning krav maga
Map of the Baltic Sea, also known as the body of water NATO members now have to defend from both Russia and whatever Trump’s mood is this week.
Europe joined NATO to be protected from Russia, not to have Donald Trump wake up one morning and threaten to carve off Greenland like it’s a Trump golf course with icebergs. After the "Greenland crisis"—in which the most powerful NATO member floated seizing territory from another member—Baltic Sea states quietly realized that the alliance’s biggest wildcard isn’t Moscow’s rusting navy, it’s the guy in Washington treating Article 5 like a gym membership he can cancel if the Europeans don’t "pay up".
So the Baltic countries did the unthinkable: they acted like responsible adults. Finland and its neighbors built a joint maritime surveillance center, spun up an AI system called Nordic Warden to watch over undersea cables and pipelines, and created a nonstop patrol—Baltic Sentry—to guard infrastructure that the US used to pretend to care about. While Trump is out there announcing that if allies don’t hit his arbitrary spending number he’ll just let Russia have a snack, these countries are patching the security holes he’s punching in the system.
Meanwhile, ordinary Europeans have noticed that the "leader of the free world" now talks about NATO like it’s a casino comp program. Only a quarter of Swedes think the US would actually show up if they were attacked, and most Britons doubt Washington would defend the Baltics at all. So regional mini-alliances are forming, France is boarding shady Russian tankers, and everyone is quietly preparing for a future where the United States is less a guarantor of security and more an unstable landlord threatening eviction. NATO may survive this, but it won’t be thanks to Trump—it’ll be because everyone else decided to do the grown-up work while the arsonist keeps playing with matches.
#killing-democracy#national-security
labor secretary’s office turns into hr’s worst nightmare
The Frances Perkins Building, now featuring the Trump-era Labor Department’s new motto: "Do as we say, not as we allegedly grope, drink, and bill to the taxpayer."
The Frances Perkins Building – named for the first woman in a US cabinet – is now apparently hosting the Trump administration’s own off-brand Weinstein reboot. Labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, Shawn DeRemer, has reportedly been barred from Labor Department headquarters after at least two women accused him of sexually assaulting them inside the building. One reported incident allegedly happened during working hours, on federal property, and was caught on security cameras now being reviewed in a criminal investigation, because of course this administration can’t even do its alleged sex crimes off-site.
This would be bad enough if the secretary herself weren’t already under her own cloud of scandal. Chavez-DeRemer is facing an inspector general probe into allegations that she drank in her office on the clock and used taxpayer money for personal trips to places like Las Vegas, including one jaunt with a staffer she was allegedly romantically involved with. Her security officer-turned-alleged-love-interest has reportedly been put on leave, as have two top aides swept up in the fallout. Officially, everyone denies everything, unofficially the Labor Department now reads like a rejected "Mad Men" spec script: booze in the office, taxpayer-funded getaways, inappropriate relationships with subordinates, and the secretary’s spouse allegedly treating a federal workplace like his personal hunting ground.
The department’s website still proudly touts that Lori and her "high school sweetheart" founded an anesthesia management company, which is fitting, because someone clearly decided the best way to get through this administration’s ethics standards was to just knock the entire agency out cold. Under Trump, the office supposedly protecting American workers from abuse has become the place where the boss’s husband allegedly assaults them, the secretary allegedly parties on the public dime, and the inspector general is left trying to shovel out the mess with a teaspoon.
#perverts#forever-grifting
trump accuses obama of alien leaks, remains unclear on reality
Obama jokes about aliens while Trump, somewhere on Air Force One, tries to retroactively classify basic astronomy.
On Air Force One, Donald Trump decided that the gravest national security threat of the week was... Barack Obama saying he thinks aliens are statistically likely to exist somewhere in a universe with a few trillion galaxies. Trump solemnly informed reporters that Obama had revealed "classified information" when he joked that "aliens are real" on a podcast lightning round, declaring, "He's not supposed to be doing that" and "He made a big mistake"—which is a bold line of attack from a man who once read out classified imagery on Twitter like it was show-and-tell.
Obama, for his part, clarified that he didn't see any evidence of extraterrestrials during his presidency, really, and that his comment was about basic probability, not secret hangars full of little green Democrats at Area 51. There is, as the BBC notes, no indication he relied on classified information at all—unless high school math is now Top Secret. Meanwhile, Trump insisted he "doesn't have an opinion" on whether aliens are real, which is an unusual moment of epistemic humility from someone who has very strong views on windmills, bleach injections, and crowd sizes.
So we now have a sitting president casually accusing his predecessor of mishandling classified info over a podcast quip, while Congress holds Very Serious hearings on UAPs that produce absolutely nothing. The US national security state is out here managing nuclear arsenals and cyber threats, and the commander-in-chief is turning classification law into a prop for his ongoing beef with Obama. Rule of law and responsible handling of secrets? Sorry, we’re doing vibes-based alien discourse now.
#lawlessness#full-stupid
trump slaps his face on the justice department
The Justice Department, now featuring its new logo: Donald Trump’s face where blindfolded Lady Justice used to be.
The Justice Department just debuted its new look: a giant Trump banner draped over its headquarters like a third-rate casino promo, helpfully clarifying that the "independence" part of law enforcement has been discontinued. The slogan: "Make America Safe Again" — which here apparently means "safe for the president from consequences". Nothing says rule of law like the defendant hanging his own promo poster on the courthouse.
Pam Bondi, now attorney general and full-time presidential bodyguard, has ditched the old-fashioned idea that the AG shouldn’t act like the president’s personal lawyer. Instead, DOJ is proudly “celebrating 250 years” of American justice “at President Trump’s direction” — a phrase that would normally be a red flag, but is now just printed on official letterhead. While they insist they’re not weaponizing the department, they’re busy launching investigations into Trump’s perceived enemies: Letitia James, James Comey, Democratic lawmakers who warned troops about illegal orders, Jerome Powell for saying words in Congress, and random Minnesota officials for not being cruel enough on immigration.
Authoritarian regimes usually ease into the whole personality cult thing. This one skipped straight to hanging the leader’s face on the justice ministry while opening revenge probes against critics, then pretending it’s all just good governance. The banner says "Make America Safe Again"; the fine print reads: for Trump, not for democracy.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
trump turns kennedy center into a tacky mausoleum
A lone dog-walker passes the Trump-Kennedy Center, one of the few remaining patrons not scared off by gold-patterned carpets and weaponized branding.
The internal memo for the newly rebranded Trump-Kennedy Center reveals that the grand "revitalization" of America's flagship arts institution is, shockingly, not a bold new cultural vision but mostly new carpets, marble armrests, and a paint job. The Concert Hall is getting replaced seating, marble armrests that Trump bragged were "unlike anything ever done or seen before!" on Truth Social, fresh carpeting, and "strategic painting" — because nothing says world-class art like casino-adjacent interior design.
While the PR shop swears the Center has been "completely transparent" and insists this is all about "saving the building" and "transforming America's cultural center into a world-class destination," the actual world-class artists have already left. Performers canceled in droves over Trump’s politicization of the arts, the Washington National Opera bailed over a "financially challenging relationship" with current leadership, and ticket sales have tanked since Trump took over as chairman — even before the board obediently stapled his name onto the building in December.
Meanwhile, the Grand Foyer, Hall of States, and Hall of Nations are ditching their classic red for "black with a gold pattern" — a bold new aesthetic best described as "Air Force One meets Vegas buffet." Those carpets and furnishings were already redone two years ago without shutting the place down, but now the Center is closed while Trumpworld pretends this is all about HVAC, safety upgrades, and "enhancing the patron experience." Whether these modest repairs are the whole plan or just the appetizer for a larger monument to one man’s ego? The Kennedy Center won’t say. But hey, at least the armrests will be fabulous.
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
roundup now officially part of the nuclear triad
Donald Trump signs an order declaring Roundup essential to national defense, presumably in preparation for the day America has to invade a country’s backyard garden.
Donald Trump has discovered a bold new frontier in "national defense": protecting Bayer’s right to sell a cancer-linked weedkiller without being annoyed by all those pesky dying people. By invoking the Defense Production Act, he’s declared domestic phosphorus mining and glyphosate herbicide production – yes, Roundup – to be critical national security infrastructure, and then helpfully attached a liability shield so producers get immunity for anything they do while complying with his order. The Pentagon gets nukes, farmers get carcinogens, and Bayer gets a get-out-of-court-free card. America First, tumor biopsies second.
The executive order reads like it was faxed directly from a Bayer conference room, then run through ChatGPT: Defense Edition. It never mentions that WHO cancer experts and multiple independent studies have linked glyphosate to cancer, nor that Bayer is currently drowning in tens of thousands of lawsuits and multi-billion dollar payouts over exactly that. Instead, the White House insists that the real threat to US security isn’t, say, climate chaos or pandemics, but the hypothetical scenario where a German agrochemical giant might have to stop selling one specific weedkiller because juries keep believing the people who got sick.
Even better, Trump is managing to betray his own cranks. The Make America Healthy Again coalition – the wellness-flavored wing of Trumpworld that hates glyphosate – is furious, accusing him of making a mockery of the voters who bought the whole "toxic food system is killing America" pitch. Robert F Kennedy Jr, now Trump’s HHS secretary and long-time Roundup critic, responded by dutifully reading the hostage note about how this all "puts America first" on defense and food supply. Apparently the new Maha diet is kale, supplements, and a federally protected dose of herbicide.
Buried in the order is the real gift: it "confers all immunity" under section 707 of the Defense Production Act, which literally says no one can be held liable for any act taken to comply with such an order. That’s not regulation; that’s a corporate sacrament. While families poisoned by pesticides ask what happens to them, Trump answers clearly: they’re not "national security". Bayer’s production line is. The state’s coercive power is now a legal force field around a weedkiller, because under Trump, the only thing more sacred than the military is the balance sheet of whoever last called him a genius on Fox Business.
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
trump turns historic sewage spill into a loyalty oath
Emergency equipment lines the C&O Canal towpath as officials debate whose fault the literal river of crap is, and whether the president’s ego has been sufficiently flattered to allow cleanup.
Two hundred forty million gallons of raw sewage have been pouring into the Potomac for a month, which, fittingly, is also about how long it took the Trump administration to notice that the nation’s capital was marinating in E. coli. Once the stench finally reached Mar-a-Lago, Trump logged onto Truth Social to blame Maryland’s Democratic Gov. Wes Moore for a pipe that sits on federal land, is owned by DC Water, and is overseen by the EPA — otherwise known as “everyone but the guy I can attack on TV.”
Kristi Noem, now running FEMA like a Facebook comment section, jumped in to echo Trump’s blame-the-Dems line and helpfully spread false claims that D.C.’s water supply was contaminated. Trump then clarified the real policy: if local Democratic leaders want federal help with one of the largest sewage spills in U.S. history, they need to call him and “politely” ask for assistance — because nothing says “functioning democracy” like turning disaster relief into a feudal lord’s favor.
While residents gag on the shore and first responders strap on PPE, local officials are still trying to get basic answers from the federal government, which only got around to its first stakeholder meeting and FEMA’s first site visit a month into the catastrophe. EPA, for its part, issued a statement bragging about its ability to meet “President Trump’s strong desire to get this mess cleaned up,” while simultaneously stressing that no one has formally asked them to actually take over. The Potomac may be full of sewage, but the real spill is coming from the people pretending this is all someone else’s job.
#retribution#killing-democracy
cia lady vs chaos muppet: state of the union remix
Abigail Spanberger preparing to follow Trump’s State of the Union, also known as the annual ‘I definitely didn’t try to overthrow this place’ variety show.
Donald Trump is getting another taxpayer-funded therapy session in front of a joint session of Congress, and Democrats have decided to answer it by rolling out Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer whose entire career is basically one long no, actually, this is not normal to Trumpism. While Trump will be busy declaring his own perfection, Spanberger is set to talk about "rising costs" and "chaos in their communities" — also known as the Trump 2.0 governing agenda. One side brings flags and fantasies; the other brings someone who can pronounce "Ukraine" without needing Putin’s permission first.
Spanberger’s résumé is a walking subtweet of the Trump era: flipped a Republican district in 2018 during the first backlash to his rule, helped push Pelosi over the edge on impeaching him for extorting Ukraine, then crushed Republican Winsome Sears for governor by nearly 16 points — triple Kamala Harris’ 2024 margin over Trump in Virginia. So yes, the Democratic response is being delivered by a woman whose entire political rise is powered by the nuclear waste of Trump’s corruption, and she’s now being handed prime time to explain why people are tired of living in his perpetual crisis carnival.
Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer also tapped Sen. Alex Padilla to give the Spanish-language response, while Jeffries politely summarized Trump’s speech in advance as a live performance of lying, deflecting, and blaming everyone else for his failed presidency. Notably passed over: New York City’s socialist-flavored mayor Zohran Mamdani and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill — because when you’re running against a would-be autocrat who already tried to overthrow the government once, the party has decided maybe let’s go with the ex-spook who helped impeach him for abusing foreign aid. Polls show Trump bleeding support on the economy and immigration, so Democrats are studying the Spanberger/Sherrill "competent boring person vs. flaming dumpster of fascist vibes" model for the midterms. Bold strategy: offering governance against a guy still selling grievance and gold sneakers.
#killing-democracy#losses
board of peace proposes: hotels, troops, and a casual military occupation
Fifa boss Gianni Infantino puts on a USA cap, symbolically merging corrupt global football, American empire, and Trump cosplay into one glorious branding exercise.
Trump’s gloriously self-appointed “Board of Peace” met in Washington and immediately set about proving that words no longer mean anything. The US is pitching itself to command a 20,000-strong "international stabilisation force" in postwar Gaza, carving the strip into five sectors and starting with Rafah, while also planning a 5,000-person US military base over 350+ acres. Nothing says "peace" like dropping a giant permanent garrison in the middle of a devastated territory whose political future no one has bothered to solve.
While aid workers complain that the Board’s own Gaza administration office is an empty shell with no direction, Trump and his friends are already doing what they actually care about: money and branding. Trump boasts of a $10bn US pledge to "rebuild" Gaza, paired with billions more from Gulf monarchies and a cameo $75m from Fifa, whose president Gianni Infantino literally puts on a red USA cap like he’s signing a stadium naming-rights deal. A Cypriot-Israeli billionaire, Yakir Gabay, unveils plans to clear 70m tonnes of rubble and turn Gaza’s coastline into a "new Mediterranean Riviera" with 200 hotels and potential islands — because why rebuild a shattered society when you can build a resort?
European allies and even the Vatican are giving this shadow UN a hard pass, but the usual strongman fan club shows up: Kazakhstan’s president floats a Trump peace prize, and Trump uses his opening remarks to brag about "resolving eight wars" and then casually endorse Viktor Orbán. The actual rules of engagement for this giant foreign force in Gaza? Unclear. Any serious political solution for Palestinians? Also unclear. But a militarised protectorate run by autocrats, billionaires, and Fifa, dressed up as humanitarianism and stamped with Trump’s gavel? That part is coming through loud and clear.
#imperialism#forever-grifting
the art of the (trade) fail
Behold: a container ship full of foreign goods stubbornly refusing to be scared off by Trump’s tariffs or his caps-lock tweets.
US trade figures are in and, shockingly, President Tariff Genius has discovered that you can’t bully basic arithmetic. Despite slapping at least 10% tariffs on goods from nearly every country on earth like a toddler putting stickers on a globe, the US goods trade deficit hit a record $1.2 trillion. Imports surged to a record $3.4 trillion, exports hit a record too, and the gap still widened. Turns out yelling “AMERICA FIRST” doesn’t magically make foreign stuff cheaper or American factories reappear like Mar-a-Lago classified folders.
Trump did manage to throttle trade with China, shrinking that bilateral deficit by about 30%. Victory, right? Not quite: the overall deficit just rerouted itself through Mexico, Vietnam, Taiwan and anyone else with a shipping container and a pulse. Supply chains didn’t die; they just laughed, moved one country over, and sent a higher invoice. Meanwhile, AI-related imports of computer parts are booming, because apparently you can’t train a large language model on vibes and tariffs alone.
While the White House insists their plan just needs more time (and presumably more chaos), Trump keeps treating tariffs as his favorite foreign policy cosplay, threatening new taxes on any country that keeps trading with Iran and constantly revising the rules so nobody can plan anything. Businesses and states have sued, and the Supreme Court is now deciding whether this tariff circus is even legal. If the Court strikes them down, the administration says it will just reimpose them using “different tools,” which is a very polite way of saying: if at first you don’t succeed, abuse another statute.
So after years of trade war, global turmoil, and executive orders written like ransom notes, the US ends up with basically the same overall deficit as 2024, just with more paperwork, higher costs, and a solid reminder that Trump’s version of economic policy is less ‘strategy’ and more ‘hit random buttons and call it winning.’ America First apparently means America pays more while the deficit laughs in USD.
#trade-war#full-stupid
trump bulldozes history to build himself a party room
An excavator tenderly removes 20th-century history to make room for a 21st-century autocracy ballroom.
The Trump-appointed Commission of Fine Arts has bravely stood up to 150 years of history and 99% public opposition to approve the president’s dream: a giant taxpayer-adjacent ego chamber where the East Wing used to be. After literally demolishing part of the White House in 2025, the commission — composed of people personally chosen by the guy who wants the ballroom — has now decided the design is just fine, thanks, once architects tweaked it to their liking.
Historic preservation groups, led by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, have had the audacity to suggest that maybe you can’t just knock down a chunk of the White House and throw up Mar-a-Lago North without complying with legally mandated review processes. They even sued to halt construction, because apparently laws are still a thing outside Trump’s head. Meanwhile, commission chair Rodney Mims Cook Jr announces this mega-ballroom is “definitely needed for over 150 years,” which is a very poetic way of saying “we’re retrofitting American democracy for permanent monarchy vibes.”
Trump, naturally, promises it will be “the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world” and insists it’ll be funded by private donations — a phrase that has never, ever in U.S. history led to influence-peddling, access-buying, or future ambassadorships for random rich people. As the rubble of the East Wing settles, what’s left is a familiar blueprint: destroy historic institutions, bypass normal process, and replace it all with a gilded space designed for spectacle, flattery, and power-brokering. Governance as architecture: knock down the old checks and balances, put up a bigger stage.
#corruption#killing-democracy
trump discovers even he has to praise someone who actually did things
Jesse Jackson marching for voting rights while the GOP frantically looks for new ways to draw a line around democracy and call it a ‘safe district.’
Donald Trump, lifelong huckster and part-time strongman enthusiast, briefly stepped out of character to call Jesse Jackson a “force of nature” — which is MAGA for, “this guy actually organized people and won things without lying about crowd sizes.” Reverend William Barber’s tribute walks through Jackson’s life of actual public service: nonviolent direct action, boycotts against corporate greed, rainbow coalitions, and that terrifying concept so hated by Republicans everywhere: registering poor people to vote.
Then we snap back to present-day America, where Trump loses an election during a pandemic, screams “fraud” into every available microphone, and turns belief in the big lie into a mandatory GOP blood oath. State-level Republicans, desperate to keep Jackson’s multi-racial coalitions from ever mattering again, respond the only way they know how: gerrymander Texas into abstract art and let Trump literally order a gerrymander in North Carolina to try to cling to House power. Jackson, already sick, is still out marching in the heat while the supposed tough guys of the right are busy redrawing maps so they never have to face actual voters.
Barber’s whole point is that Jackson bet on love, fusion politics, and democracy, while Trumpism is betting on coercion, propaganda, and a Sharpie on the electoral map. One side registered millions of new voters; the other side is frantically figuring out how to make sure those voters’ ballots are worth about three-fifths of a district. The lion of love is gone, and in his place we have a spray-tanned zookeeper frantically moving the cages around so the animals can’t vote.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
trump cures science by killing all the scientists
Scientists rally in DC to beg the government not to defund the people trying to stop superbugs from killing everyone, which the administration finds very unreasonable.
The Trump administration looked at superbugs killing tens of thousands of Americans a year and decided the real threat was … NIH postdocs with pipettes. So billions vanish from research budgets, nearly 8,000 grants are torched at NIH and NSF, over 1,000 NIH staff are fired, and there's a hiring freeze so total that early-career scientists can't even apply to start labs. If bacteria could vote, this would be their Super PAC.
The federal government has now managed to lose more than 10,000 STEM PhDs from its workforce in a single year, with departures outpacing new hires 11 to 1. Labs are choosing between paying extortion-level maintenance fees or just turning off the machines and hoping antibiotic resistance takes a sabbatical. Young researchers like Ian Morgan are unionizing under the UAW just to slow the demolition of American science, while Trump & Co. proudly convert the world's leading biomedical engine into a very expensive mausoleum. America used to export vaccines and breakthroughs; under Trump, it exports its scientists and imports drug-resistant infections. Mission accomplished.
#anti-science#killing-democracy
strongmen’s punchcard loyalty club rebrands as ‘board of peace’
World leaders line up in Washington to join Trump’s Board of Peace, a groundbreaking initiative where the people bombing Gaza help decide how to rebuild it, and the Palestinians are politely asked to die off-screen.
Donald Trump has launched his very own off-brand United Nations, the "Board of Peace" – a kind of Costco for authoritarians where strongmen, military regimes and assorted democracy enthusiasts (ranked helpfully by Freedom House as not that into rights) gather in Washington to "solve" Gaza. Palestinians, whose territory has been bombed into the Stone Age and now needs an estimated $70bn to rebuild, are not on the board. Israel, which still controls more than half the strip from behind a cute little "yellow line" border, is on the board. Truly, a bold experiment in conflict resolution: talk about a people’s future, just don’t invite the people.
Traditional US allies like the UK, Germany and France took one look at this fee-paying members’ club for aspiring mini-Trumps and RSVP’d with a firm "absolutely not," worried – correctly – that this is an attempt to sidestep the UN and replace it with a body run on the whims of a single man whose foreign policy expertise consists of yelling on social media. The Board of Peace has a UN security council–blessed mandate to oversee demilitarisation and reconstruction in Gaza, but its first big achievement is pledging $5bn – roughly couch-cushion change compared with the $70bn the UN says is needed. So the plan is: cement a US-led, Trump-chaired parallel institution, pack it with dictators, starve reconstruction, and call it peace.
Meanwhile, a Lancet study quietly points out that more than 75,000 people were killed in the first 16 months of the war, with 3–4% of Gaza’s population killed violently and the majority of deaths being women, children and the elderly – exactly the kind of numbers you’d expect to inspire humility and accountability. Instead, we get a glitzy summit of the world’s least democratic governments cosplaying humanitarianism while debating how to "demilitarise" a shattered enclave they helped turn into rubble. When you build a new international order around autocrats and call it the Board of Peace, you’re not ending war – you’re beta-testing the subscription model for killing democracy.
#killing-democracy#fascism
