Music: Ape Chimba — ‘Djengi’
Four out of five U.S. troops surveyed understand the duty to disobey illegal orders
Politico reports: President Donald Trump on Thursday called for six Democratic lawmakers to face arrest and trial after they made a video encouraging U.S. service members and members of the intelligence community to refrain from following orders if they broke the law. “It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL,” Trump charged in a post on Truth Social. “Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand…
In the face of strong resistance, Border Patrol withdraws from Charlotte and heads for New Orleans
The Charlotte Observer reports: The U.S. Border Patrol is leaving the Charlotte area after arriving Saturday, making arrests by confronting and questioning Latino people in public places, according to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday. There would be no further Border Patrol operations on Thursday, a press release from Sheriff Garry McFadden said, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement will continue working in Charlotte. Even as local officials said that Border Patrol was finished in the Queen City, U.S. Department…
Border Patrol is monitoring millions of drivers across the U.S. and detaining those with ‘suspicious’ travel patterns
The Associated Press reports: The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious, The Associated Press has found. The predictive intelligence program has resulted in people being stopped, searched and in some cases arrested. A network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information, and an algorithm flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on where they came from, where they were going and…
Federal grand jury investigating two prominent Trump administration officials
MS NOW reports: A federal grand jury in Maryland is investigating whether Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte and Justice Department official Ed Martin illegally shared sensitive grand jury information with unauthorized people, according to two people familiar with the probe. The investigation, according to two people familiar and documents reviewed by MS NOW, is focused on whether the mortgage fraud investigations of Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and possibly of New York Attorney General Letitia James have been tainted…
Larry Ellison discussed axing CNN hosts with White House in takeover bid talks
The Guardian reports: Senior White House officials have discussed internally their preference for Paramount Skydance to acquire Warner Bros Discovery in recent weeks, and one official has discussed potential programming changes at CNN with Larry Ellison, the largest shareholder of Paramount. The discussions, according to people familiar with the matter, come as Paramount portrays itself as the best bid for Warner Bros Discovery, after the company announced last month it was open to offers, because it would have an easier…
Saudi crown prince promises massive investment in the U.S. but is running low on cash
The New York Times reports: The visit by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia to Washington this week painted a familiar tableau: the head of an oil-rich nation cozying up to President Trump and titans of American industry. That appearance of wealth is core to Saudi Arabia’s power and image in the United States and at home, where the Saudi government has vowed no less than an economic transformation for its young populace. In the Oval Office on Tuesday, Crown…
Thousands of toxic sites across America at risk of coastal flooding
The Guardian reports: More than 5,500 toxic sites nationwide could face coastal flooding by 2100 due to rising sea levels, according to new research. The study, published on Thursday in Nature Communications and led by scientists at the University of California, warns that if heat-trapping pollution continues unabated, rising seas will flood a wide range of hazardous facilities including those handling sewage, toxic waste, oil and gas, as well as other industrial pollutants. The analysis relies on projections of a…
Music: Jazzanova — ‘Coffee Talk’
How Trump lost control of the Epstein spin cycle
David Gilbert writes: For almost a decade, President Donald Trump has managed to control the conspiracy theory spin around disgraced financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The conspiracy theories benefited him; they were one of the factors buoying him to office. It’s only been in the last few weeks—spurred by the release of new Epstein documents and the public defection of GOP lawamkers—that the complex web of misinformation has spun out of Trump’s control. It all began with QAnon….
Trump capitulation plan would gift Russia parts of Ukraine that it doesn’t already control
The Guardian reports: US and Russian officials have quietly drafted a new plan to end the war in Ukraine that would require Kyiv to surrender territory and severely limit the size of its military, it was reported on Wednesday as Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least 25 people in the city of Ternopil. The draft plan, which was reportedly developed by Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev, would force draconian measures on Ukraine…
Republicans are suing to kill California’s pro-Democratic gerrymander. They have a huge problem
Matthew Cooke and Richard L. Hasen write: California Republicans, now joined by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, have sued California in federal court to stop implementation of Proposition 50, a voter-passed ballot measure that creates a Democratic gerrymander of the state’s congressional districts, adding up to five more Democratic seats. The lawsuit argues that the Legislature had an unconstitutional race-focused intent on the state’s Latino voters when it passed the maps. In fact, whatever the Legislature intended should be…
A White House banquet for the oligarchy in honor of an alleged murderer
The New York Times reports: The world’s richest man. One of the world’s most famous soccer players. The president of soccer’s governing body. Dozens of executives from the finance, tech and energy sectors. These are some of the guests who attended President Trump’s black-tie dinner for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia at the White House Tuesday evening. The red carpet welcome for Prince Mohammed is an extraordinary moment in diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia. It is his…
The Charlie Kirk purge: How 600 Americans were punished in a pro-Trump crackdown
Reuters reports: When Lauren Vaughn, a kindergarten assistant in South Carolina, saw reports that right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk had been shot at an event in Utah, she opened Facebook and typed out a quote from Kirk himself. Gun deaths, Kirk said in 2023, were unfortunate but “worth it” if they preserved “the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given Rights.” Following the quote, Vaughn added: “Thoughts and prayers.” Vaughn, a 37-year-old Christian who has taken missionary trips to Guatemala, said…
‘Ticking time bomb’: A pregnant mother kept getting sicker. She died after she was denied an abortion in Texas.
By Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser This story was originally published by ProPublica Tierra Walker had reached her limit. In the weeks since she’d learned she was pregnant, the 37-year-old dental assistant had been wracked by unexplained seizures and mostly confined to a hospital cot. With soaring blood pressure and diabetes, she knew she was at high risk of developing preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication that could end her life. Her mind was made up on the morning of Oct. 14,…
William Blake, poet and prophet, was a prescient critic of capitalist alienation
Jonathan Agin writes: Comparing the poet, painter, and master engraver William Blake to his contemporary William Wordsworth in a 1991 London Review of Books article, Jonathan Bate wrote that “Blake’s wildness was what shaggy men like Ginsberg needed a generation ago, but Wordsworth’s sobriety and steady eye can do more for us now.” A generation further on, it’s time we get back to Blake, who was indeed “wild” in his radically anti-imperialist, counter-enlightenment spirit. Though some of his contemporaries would…