Category Archives: Trump

Healthcare, Obama Care, Republican Party, Trump, US

One Year Later, RFK Jr Has Dismantled America’s Health Care Infrastructure

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One Year Later, RFK Jr Has Dismantled America’s Health Care Infrastructure

Why take vaccines when you can eat meat, do push-ups, and increase your chances of cancer with tanning beds? Inside the deranged, pro-death agenda of RFK Jr. and his cabal of conspiracy theorists.

THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali and Paging America (Substack)
Mar 20

One year.

That’s it. That’s how long it took for an unqualified, dangerous crank to damage America’s once lauded health care infrastructure.

Out of all Trump’s horsemen of the apocalypse, I have long warned that RFK Jr., a man with zero medical qualifications who spouts eugenics, is the most dangerous. The man who is now the director of our Health and Human Services has single-handedly replaced medical experts and scientists with fellow conspiracy theorists who don’t believe in life-saving vaccines, use Nazi rhetoric to describe autistic people, and promote bunk science and snake oil to line their own pockets.

Thanks to RFK Jr., vaccination rates in the United States are now hovering around 70% as preventable diseases, such as measles, are becoming great again. The man with brain worms has also decided to literally invert the food pyramid, prioritizing meat and dairy instead of fruits and grains. Why take medication when you can eat “magical” foods and do push-ups instead? No need for vaccines and veggies, kids, but be sure to use tanning beds! Earlier this week, the FDA abandoned its proposal to ban people under 18 from using beds that could increase the risks of skin cancer.

Meanwhile, our best and brightest are now fleeing to Europe and China, with critical research funding being cut, and we haven’t even addressed the cataclysmic damage that will result after the GOP’s “billionaire bill” that will gut $1 trillion from Medicaid.

Thankfully, medical experts and a few judges are fighting back from this pro-death march. On Monday, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s dangerous changes to the childhood immunization schedule. On Thursday, another judge provided temporary relief to 21 states to protect federal funding to hospitals that provide gender-transition care.

Unfortunately, generational damage has already been done, but that doesn’t mean we give up the fight to educate and inform the public about the intentional attacks on their health.

Middle East, Politics, Republican Party, Trump, US, World

BREAKING: Trump Commits Thousands Of Troops To The Middle East – Iran Has Been Waiting For “US Boots On The Ground” For 47 Years.

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BREAKING: Trump Commits Thousands Of Troops To The Middle East—Iran Has Been Waiting For “US Boots On The Ground” For 47 Years.
Trump is gearing up to seize Kharg Island. The IRGC built their entire military doctrine around the day America tried.

Dean Blundell (Substack)
Mar 20

What’s Deployed, What’s Coming, And What The Numbers Actually Mean

The USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group—Boxer, USS Portland, and USS Comstock—departed San Diego on March 18, ahead of its originally scheduled deployment window. The Boxer ARG carries approximately 2,500 Marines from Camp Pendleton’s 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, bringing total personnel, including sailors, to roughly 4,000 aboard those three ships.

They’re linking up with the USS Tripoli group, already transiting from Japan with the Okinawa-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit—approximately 2,200 Marines plus around 2,000 sailors, totaling 4,200 to 4,400 personnel. Once the two groups merge, six amphibious ships will have added roughly 8,000 service members to a region where 50,000 U.S. troops are already deployed.

The Boxer is a small aircraft carrier. F-35B stealth jets. V-22 Osprey tiltrotors. Hovercraft in the well deck. The 11th MEU can conduct amphibious landings. The 31st MEU is specifically trained for limited-scale raids and seizure of maritime platforms.

The Navy spokesperson told NBC San Diego this is “routine training that ensures the continued war-fighting readiness of Navy and Marine forces.” That’s the same Navy currently fighting a war with Iran.

The Target Is Already Named

This morning, Axios reported — citing four sources with direct knowledge — that the Trump administration is actively considering plans to occupy or blockade Iran’s Kharg Island to pressure Tehran into reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

“He wants Hormuz open. If he has to take Kharg Island to make it happen, that’s going to happen. If he decides to have a coastal invasion, that’s going to happen. But that decision hasn’t been made,” a senior administration official told Axios.

Kharg Island is a five-mile strip of coral in the Persian Gulf, 15 miles off Iran’s coast and 500 miles past the Strait of Hormuz. It processes roughly 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports. Destroy it or seize it, and you’ve grabbed Iran’s economy by the throat.

The U.S. already bombed it. On March 13, American forces conducted what Trump called “one of the most powerful bombing raids in the history of the Middle East,” targeting over 90 military sites on Kharg—naval mine storage, missile bunkers, IRGC naval bases, and the runway—while deliberately sparing the oil infrastructure. The message: We know where the off switch is, and we haven’t thrown it yet.

Trump told Fox News Radio the same day that if he were going to take Kharg Island, he certainly wouldn’t tell anyone about it. Then he spent the next week publicly threatening to bomb the oil pipelines. So.

White House thinking, per Axios sources: “We need about a month to weaken the Iranians more with strikes, take the island, and then get them by the balls and use it for negotiations.”

But Here’s What’s Waiting For Them

This is where the story gets complicated — and where the cheerleading from certain corners of Fox News needs to stop.

Iran has been preparing for this exact scenario since 1979. Not metaphorically. Literally. The entire military doctrine of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was built around the day America tried to come ashore in the Persian Gulf.

The lesson Iran learned in 1988 is the foundation of everything that followed. After the U.S. Navy sank roughly half of Iran’s conventional fleet in a single day during Operation Praying Mantis—retaliation for Iran mining a U.S. warship—Tehran reached an obvious conclusion: you cannot fight the U.S. Navy ship-for-ship and win. What followed was nearly four decades of building something else entirely.

The IRGC Navy isn’t a navy. It’s a guerrilla force at sea. Jane’s Defence—the gold standard for military analysis—recognizes it as the world’s most prominent practitioner of small boat swarm tactics: speed, mass, coordinated manoeuvre, low radar signature, and concealment. Iran is believed to possess around 3,000 fast-attack craft capable of these operations. Here’s how it works in practice: 10 to 20 boats swarm a single vessel from every direction simultaneously. They target the bridge to blind it and the engine room to kill it. Hidden in the chaos are unmanned suicide vessels — remote-controlled drone boats packed with explosives — steered directly into the hull. While the crew is overwhelmed, other boats drop tethered naval mines directly into the ships’ path. If the swarm doesn’t finish you, anti-ship missiles fired from mobile trucks that immediately retreat into fortified mountain caves will.

Then there are the mines. A former U.S. Navy admiral has stated publicly that Iran retains the capacity to mine the Strait of Hormuz in ways that would take many months to clear even without any hostile fire. A former British security analyst adds that Iran can deploy manned and unmanned submersible vehicles—small submarines, underwater drones—from concealed shore tunnels. You have to clear the strait before you can even reach Kharg. And you’re doing it under fire, in shallow water, in a channel 21 miles wide at its narrowest point.

Then there’s the “Mosaic Defence.” In 2005, the IRGC formalized what it calls a decentralized command-and-control doctrine—essentially a military designed from the ground up to absorb and survive decapitation strikes. Every regional IRGC unit operates semi-autonomously with its own intelligence, weapons stockpile, and command structure. You can kill the leadership — and the U.S. and Israel killed Supreme Leader Khamenei and dozens of senior IRGC commanders on day one of Operation Epic Fury — and the machine keeps running. Iran’s foreign minister announced this openly on February 28th: “Bombings in our capital have no impact on our ability to conduct war. Decentralized Mosaic Defence enables us to decide when — and how — war will end.”

Then there’s the cost math. A Shahed drone costs $20,000 to $50,000 to produce. A U.S. Patriot interceptor costs $4 million per shot. Iran has already forced the U.S. to burn through Tomahawk stockpiles and air defence interceptors at a pace that’s alarming Pentagon planners. This is the same playbook the Houthis ran in the Red Sea for months — low-cost attrition against expensive American systems — and Tehran has been watching and refining it the entire time.

Then there’s the Strait of Hormuz. To take Kharg Island, you need to get through the Strait of Hormuz. NE is getting through the Strait of Hormuz without lighting up the Iranian coast and mountain ranges for DAYS with ammo the US simply does not have.

What The Experts Say About Actually Taking Kharg

Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Harrison Mann, who resigned from the Defence Intelligence Agency over Biden’s Gaza policy and has no axe to grind for either side, put it plainly: any attempt to seize Kharg Island would be “close to a suicide mission.” The Marines would be 500 miles past the Strait of Hormuz — a chokepoint the U.S. Navy currently considers too dangerous to enter — 15 miles off the Iranian coast, within range of weapons the IRGC hasn’t even had the opportunity to deploy yet in this war. Artillery rockets. Short-range drones. Shore-based systems that have been waiting for exactly this moment.

A helicopter assault avoids anti-ship weapons but creates a different problem: the MEU’s Ospreys and helicopters would need at least three trips to insert the full Marine force. Those are three trips of predictable flight paths, landing zones, and sitting targets while Iranian forces calibrate their sights. Resupply and evacuation by sea means running the gauntlet again. Resupply by air means doing it indefinitely, under fire, on an island 15 miles from the Iranian mainland.

Responsible Statecraft’s assessment: for the troops who receive those orders, “the operation would land somewhere between a suicide mission and a self-imposed hostage crisis.”

There is a counter-argument. One analysis published this week argues the March 13 strikes degraded Kharg’s fixed defences severely enough—destroying SAM batteries, missile bunkers, and the IRGC naval base—that what’s left is a broken garrison of 200 to 500 personnel without command infrastructure or reinforcement capability. Under that scenario, 2,200 Marines against a destroyed garrison with total U.S. air superiority is an overwhelming force. The 82nd Airborne’s ready brigade has quietly cancelled scheduled exercises. Army battalions are already in Kuwait. Pentagon planning reportedly covers multiple island seizures simultaneously—Kharg, Hormuz, Qeshm, and Kish. If Rump keeps this Operation Epstein thing up, the US military is going to need all the help it can get, considering the USS Gerald Ford is on its way to Greece to have the shitters fixed and to start preparing it to be seaworthy enough to head back to the US after a mysterious 30-hour fire broke out on board.

That analysis assumes the intelligence assessment is right. The regime is too broken to mount a coherent response. Because Iran doesn’t have mobile capabilities, the bombing runs missed. That they don’t mine the waters around Kharg the moment the ships appear on radar.

If that assessment is correct, Kharg falls and the war ends on American terms.

If it’s wrong, the United States has Marines trapped on an island 15 miles from Iran with a hostile sea between them and resupply.

Iran has been building toward that second scenario for 47 years. The ships are sailing. The decision hasn’t been made. But the window is closing, and the math is brutal.

Canada, China, Politics, Republican Party, Russian Investigation, Trump, US

Way To Go, MAGA. Is this the great America you were hoping for?

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Way To Go, MAGA.
Is this the great America you were hoping for?

Adam Kinzinger (Substack)
Mar 20

Yesterday, the president of the United States made a Pearl Harbour joke to the Japanese prime minister. Not in a private moment of breathtaking social incompetence, but on the world stage, in a diplomatic meeting, where the entire point of the exercise is to convince our most important Pacific ally that we are a serious, reliable partner in an increasingly dangerous world. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi responded the way any seasoned diplomat responds when trapped in a room with a man who just stepped on every rake simultaneously—she offered the polished, glacial smile of someone checking her watch and calculating how many minutes until she could escape.

Then, because the moment clearly needed more texture, Trump led her down the “Wall of Presidents”—a proud American tradition—and made sure to point out, with evident satisfaction, the spot where Biden’s autopen photo had been replaced. A diplomatic masterclass. Truly. The Japanese delegation flew thousands of miles for a hallway tour and a WWII call back.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Here’s the thing about “Making America Great Again”—at some point, you have to reckon with the scorecard.

It’s been roughly one year. Let’s check in.

We are now an unreliable ally. The nations that built the post-World War II order with us — nations that sent their sons and daughters to fight beside ours, that opened their markets, their bases, their intelligence networks to us — are quietly, urgently making contingency plans that don’t include Washington. Not because they want to. Because they have to.

We are a non-threatening adversary to Russia and China. This is a sentence that would have been considered treasonous fever dream fiction five years ago. Today it’s foreign policy. We have provided Russia with effective sanctions relief despite documented evidence that Russia supplied targeting intelligence to Iran, which used it to kill American troops. Read that again slowly. And yet here we are, apparently decided that the real enemy is a trans activist in Vermont.

We have started, or accelerated, a conflict that is holding the global energy market hostage, with no coherent exit strategy, no clear diplomatic framework, and no apparent adult in the room with a whiteboard. The economic ripple effects are slamming against the shores of every nation on earth, and we’re the ones who threw the stone.

We have threatened to invade Canada. Canada. Our largest trading partner. The country that shares the longest undefended border in human history with us. We have also, for variety, rattled sabres at Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Panama, and presumably anyone else who looked at us funny on a Tuesday. NATO allies are not quietly reassured by this energy.

China—and this is the part that should make every American, regardless of party affiliation, sit down and breathe into a bag—is being considered by the international community as a more reliable strategic partner than the United States. China. The authoritarian surveillance state that imprisons ethnic minorities in camps and jails journalists. More reliable than us. We did that. We handed them that gift, wrapped it in a bow, and personally delivered it.

And China, watching us shred our alliances like a raccoon who got into the filing cabinet, is quietly accelerating their internal timeline for Taiwan. Why wouldn’t they? The cavalry just announced it’s not coming.

Here’s the part that really stings, beneath the geopolitical catastrophe and the economic whiplash and the international humiliation: we did this to ourselves because Fox News successfully convinced a significant portion of the American electorate that the real existential threat to this country wasn’t Russia, or China, or climate change, or crumbling infrastructure—it was your neighbour who voted Democrat.

The White House communications operation—which was once the most powerful messaging apparatus on the planet—has been handed to people whose primary credential is posting on X at 2 AM. Governance has been replaced by content creation. Policy has been replaced by the performance of policy. The hard, grinding, unglamorous work of actually running a country has been outsourced to a reality television production that has apparently never heard of a second act.

And while all of this is happening, while the world is reorganizing itself around our absence, while our allies are building new arrangements and our adversaries are growing bolder, this administration is actively working to keep the Epstein files sealed. The party that ran on draining the swamp is apparently very concerned that you don’t get a good look at what’s in the swamp. Funny how that works.

The base was told the elites were hiding something. They were right. They just voted for the cover-up.

Here is the geopolitical truth that is not complicated, even if it’s been made to seem so:

Alliances are the source of American power. Not our aircraft carriers — though those are nice. Not our GDP — though that matters. What made America the indispensable nation was that we built, over 80 years, a network of relationships, treaties, shared institutions, and mutual commitments that no adversary could match. NATO. The Pacific alliance structure. The WTO. The international financial architecture. The basic credibility that when America said something, it meant it.

That is what we are burning. And unlike aircraft carriers, you can’t build alliances on a procurement schedule. Trust, once broken, takes a generation to rebuild — if it rebuilds at all.

We didn’t lose our strength by being outcompeted. We walked into the room, pulled the pin on a grenade, and set it on the table ourselves.

Here is where I refuse to join the doom choir, because doom is a luxury we can’t afford right now.

America has survived catastrophic failures of leadership before. We survived the Civil War. We survived McCarthyism. We survived Watergate. We survived every preceding era in which people in power decided that their grip on that power was more important than the republic itself.

We will survive this too — but only if we treat it as the clarion call it is.

The Democrats will win Congress. The arithmetic of backlash is not subtle. When you torch the economy, terrify your allies, embolden your enemies, and run the country like a particularly chaotic episode of a failing streaming show, the voters who stayed home or held their noses or convinced themselves it couldn’t be that bad—those voters show up. They’re already showing up. The 2026 midterms will not be a gentle course correction. There will be a verdict.

And when Donald Trump finally leaves the stage — removed by term limits, by elections, by the weight of history — America will do what it has always done with its worst chapters: it will process, reckon, and move on. The Trump name will join the ranks of historical cautionary tales taught in classrooms, cited in poli-sci papers, referenced as the inflection point when the country looked into the abyss and decided, collectively, that it preferred not to fall in.

History has a long memory and no mercy for those who mistake a moment for a mandate.

The lesson, if we’re paying attention, is not that democracy is fragile — though it is. The lesson is that democracy requires maintenance. It requires coalitions of people who believe in it to remain active, engaged, organized, and frankly a little bit angry.

The answer to the unravelling of American alliances abroad is the building of alliances at home—across party lines where possible, across demographic lines certainly, unified not by ideology but by the simple conviction that the American experiment is worth preserving.

Large, durable, pro-democracy coalitions. That’s it. That’s the whole strategy.

We don’t need to out-meme them. We need to out-organize them, out-vote them, and then — once we have the keys back — rebuild, slowly and unglamorously, the institutions and relationships that made this country worth fighting for in the first place.

And hold them to account legally when appropriate. Not for retribution, but for the future. So lessons learned will stick. Jail has a way of doing that.

America is not going to be great again because someone told us it would be.

It’s going to be great again because enough of us decided to make it so—the hard way, the only way that actually works.

The toilet of history awaits. The rest of us have work to do to flush it.

News, Politics, Republican Party, Trump, US

This is the move everyone has been waiting for. Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner just told every person connected to Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking empire that state prosecutors are coming for them, and there’s not a thing Donald Trump can do about it.

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other98

This is the move everyone has been waiting for. Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner just told every person connected to Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking empire that state prosecutors are coming for them, and there’s not a thing Donald Trump can do about it.

“Hey Epstein class, you may think that whatever happened on that island or happened in Epstein’s mansion is not going to haunt you,” Krasner said. “Let me tell you who is going to haunt you. It’s the prosecutors at the state court level who still care about the Constitution, the laws, and justice.”

Because Epstein’s operation was sprawling and transnational, it crisscrossed through countless local jurisdictions. That means state prosecutors across the country potentially have standing to bring charges. And here’s the part that should have every powerful person on that client list losing sleep: state court convictions cannot be pardoned by any president. Period.

Krasner emphasized that the statute of limitations for crimes involving children extends for years, giving prosecutors a long runway. Any conviction at the state level means real time served, no matter who’s in the White House.

Krasner already founded the F.A.F.O. coalition, a network of progressive prosecutors from cities including Minneapolis, Dallas, Austin, and multiple Virginia jurisdictions built specifically to hold powerful people accountable when the federal government refuses to. He’s not bluffing. He’s building infrastructure.

Under Pam Bondi, the DOJ has shown zero interest in pursuing Epstein’s associates. The files have been buried. The investigations have stalled. The coverup is happening in plain sight.

So if the federal government won’t do its job, Krasner is saying the states will. And the beauty of this approach is that it only takes one indictment. One associate flips. Then another. Then the whole thing unravels.

The powerful have spent years assuming they were untouchable. Krasner just told them they’re not.

Politics, Trump, US

While the Epstein files drip out in slow motion, we’re told to fixate on “red lines” and “retaliation” in Iran instead of asking why the same elite names keep popping up in those documents. The war footage is the distraction; the buried files are the threat.

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feminist_news_now

While the Epstein files drip out in slow motion, we’re told to fixate on “red lines” and “retaliation” in Iran instead of asking why the same elite names keep popping up in those documents. The war footage is the distraction; the buried files are the threat.

Meanwhile, Trump, Israel’s leadership, and their billionaire friends are cashing in. Every missile strike and “security package” means more public money funnelled into the same defence contractors and “reconstruction” firms they invest in and take donations from. First they bomb and destabilize, then they show up later to rebuild, privatize, and surveil the ruins in their own image.

War is their cover story. Profit and protection from accountability are the plot.

Politics, Trump, US

Treating Allies Like Enemies Does Donald even know the difference anymore?

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Treating Allies Like Enemies
Does Donald even know the difference anymore?

Mary L Trump (Substack)
Mar 20

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi visited the White House yesterday to reaffirm the U.S.–Japan alliance. The meeting unfolded exactly as one might expect when one of the leaders involved has no clear grasp of how to manage the crisis he created. That crisis, of course, is Donald’s war of choice in Iran.

Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister, is a hard-line conservative, and she arrived in Washington D.C. with a gesture of goodwill—250 cherry trees to mark America’s upcoming 250th anniversary. She also found herself navigating an Oval Office meeting dominated by the fallout of Donald’s rapidly escalating conflict. What should have been a ceremonial reaffirmation of diplomatic ties became, for Takaichi, an exercise in damage control.

There were visible signs of discomfort throughout the meeting, particularly when reporters pressed the prime minister about Japan’s refusal to help secure the Strait of Hormuz. She reiterated Japan’s opposition to Iran’s nuclear program and appealed directly to Donald’s ego, telling him.

I firmly believe it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world.

Yes, the man waging an illegal, unconstitutional war of choice that has already killed more than 2,300 people across the region, including hundreds of children, and at least 13 U.S. service members is going to bring about global peace. Whether Takaichi was being sincere or strategic is unclear, but given that roughly 82 percent of the Japanese public opposes the war, the latter seems far more likely.

Donald, for his part, continued to describe the war not as a conflict or an incursion, but as an excursion, as if the mobilization of our military were little more than a casual outing.

This is how he framed it:

Everything was going great. The economy was great. Oil prices were very low. Gasoline was dropping to—I mean, we had $1.99, $1.85. . . . And I saw what was happening in Iran and I said, “I hate to make this excursion, but we’re going to have to do it.” And I actually thought the numbers would be worse. But we’re doing this excursion, and when it’s completed, we’re going to have a much safer world. And the Prime Minister agrees with me on this. She considers it to be terrible what Iran did. I think every country does; just about every country does. Iran is a serious threat to the world, to the Middle East and to the world. And everybody agrees with me. I think virtually every country agrees with me on that. I wanted to put out that fire. And I said, ‘You don’t do that; oil prices will go up, the economy will go down a little bit.’ I thought it would be worse, much worse, actually. It’s not bad, and it’s going to be over with pretty soon.”

None of that is true. The last time gasoline prices in the United States were below $2 a gallon was in early 2020, when the COVID pandemic brought the world to a halt and demand for gas collapsed. The last time before then that prices dropped below $2 a gallon was in early 2016, during the Obama administration.

Donald’s broader claims are also lies. He did not anticipate Iran’s response—specifically its immediate move to close the Strait of Hormuz; there was no meaningful coordination with any of our allies other than Israel; and there is no evidence “everybody agrees” with him. In fact, our allies have little incentive to support a war initiated by an American president who has spent years publicly belittling them and threatening NATO.

Meanwhile, the conflict continues to spin further out of control. Israel struck Iran’s South Pars natural gas field, and Tehran retaliated across the region, targeting energy infrastructure, including major facilities in Qatar. Donald initially claimed he had no knowledge of the Israeli strike and later insisted he had advised against i

Here is how he described the exchange between him and Netanyahu:

I told him, “Don’t do that.” And he will not do that. We did not discuss. We are independent. We get along great. It is coordinated, but on occasion he will do something and I do not like it, so we are not doing that anymore.

Let me paraphrase: “I told Netanyahu not to do it. He didn’t do the thing that he actually has done and of which I am denying any knowledge of. We’re independent, but we coordinate on everything except those things on which we do not coordinate.” These glaring logical inconsistencies leave us with two possibilities: either Donald is lying about this, or the commander-in-chief of the United States military was clueless about a strike our only ally in this war carried out. Those are both bad options.

Donald then turned to berating NATO:

We are defending the Strait for everybody else. And then, in the case of NATO, they do not want to help us defend the Strait. And they are the ones that need it, but now they are getting much nicer because they are seeing my attitude. They are getting much nicer, but as far as I am concerned, it is too late. The UK wants to send aircraft carriers now, and I said, “I want the aircraft carriers before the war. I do not want them after the war’s won.’

It’s worth pointing out that our NATO allies didn’t ask for this war and bear no responsibility for the Strait’s being closed. And Donald continues to claim that we’ve won the war, while complaining that our allies aren’t helping us fight the war. We won it, but now we have not won it. We were winning. Now we’re not. We don’t need NATO’s help anymore, except, of course, we desperately do. And if they don’t give us the help we do not need, unless we do need it, Donald will continue to insult and threaten them.

A Japanese reporter asked Donald directly why the United States hadn’t notified its allies before launching strikes in Iran. I think that’s a simple and entirely reasonable question under the circumstances, and here’s Donald’s response:

One thing: you do not want to signal too much when we go in. We went in very hard, and we did not tell anybody about it because we wanted a surprise. Who knows better about surprises than Japan, okay? Why did you not tell me about Pearl Harbour, okay? Right, he is asking me, “Do you believe in surprises?”

Yes, that flaccid little man wants us to believe that because he went in so hard, we didn’t need to tell our allies. And he’s essentially saying we can’t trust our allies any more than we can trust our enemies. Obviously, Japan was our enemy when they attacked Pearl Harbour. It would’ve been strategically inadvisable for them to alert the United States in advance of the attack. As for why they didn’t tell Donald—he hadn’t even been born yet.

That is the level of unseriousness and incompetence of the man who got us into this war and who controls the most powerful military in the world, including our vast nuclear arsenal.

This is also the same person who once promised us this:

We’re going to win so much. You may even get tired of winning, and you’ll say, “Please, please, it’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore, Donald. It’s too much.” And I’ll say, “No, it isn’t. We have to keep winning. We have to win more.”

Unlike Donald, I’ve actually had experience with winning, and, as someone who has won things, I understand how it works, and it is not something I’ve ever gotten tired of.

I am, on the other hand, sick to death of losing lives, opportunities, security, institutional knowledge, and the country’s reputation because the most incompetent, reckless, and dangerous loser ever to disgrace this planet has unchecked power.

Politics, Trump, US

Boots on the Ground, Epstein’s Lawyer Lies Under Oath, Staley’s Wife Bails, ICE Weaponized for Custody Battle, and CBS Radio Dies

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Boots on the Ground, Epstein’s Lawyer Lies Under Oath, Staley’s Wife Bails, ICE Weaponized for Custody Battle, and CBS Radio Dies

FiveStack | Top 5 Breaking News Stories
Zev Shalev (Substack)
Mar 20

5️⃣ Bari Weiss Kills CBS News Radio
After nearly a century on the air, CBS News Radio is dead. Bari Weiss announced she’s shutting down the division Edward R. Murrow built and laying off 6 percent of the CBS Newsroom, with 700 affiliated stations given two months to find a replacement. “She is systematically destroying everything,” Zev said of Weiss, calling her unqualified for the position and noting the only qualification she has is supporting Israel and Bibi Netanyahu.

Dean traced the pattern further: “Does money even matter to the bottom line of what they’re trying to accomplish with this consolidation? I don’t think ratings matter.” With CBS Evening News cratering to 3.83 million viewers under Tony Dokoupil and the Ellison family now acquiring CNN through the Warner Bros. Discovery deal: the consolidation of American media under Trump-aligned ownership continues at speed.

4️⃣ Staley’s Wife Files for Divorce
After 40 years of marriage, Debora Staley has filed for divorce from former Barclays CEO Jes Staley, the banker banned from the UK financial industry over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. All documents are sealed. “They’re doing a performative divorce more likely than anything else in order to separate their assets so she can control them going forward,” Zev explained, noting that British regulators are investigating Staley’s ties again. Dean didn’t hold back: “Do you know how many women, how many girls/women, have accused Jes Staley of sexual abuse? I counted 38.” With JPMorgan’s $290 million Epstein settlement and more litigation coming, the Epstein reckoning is now forcing the people who enabled it to scramble for financial cover.

HERE’S A STORY YOU MAY HAVE MISSED WE FOUND ON GROUND NEWS:
Saudi Arabia’s oil officials are privately projecting crude could spike to $180 a barrel if the Iran war’s disruption of energy supplies persists past April, according to the Wall Street Journal. Oil is already above $110 with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed to commercial traffic. Economists surveyed by the Journal put the probability of a global recession at 50 percent if prices reach $138.

3️⃣ Epstein’s Lawyer: “I Knew Nothing”

Darren Indyke, Jeffrey Epstein’s personal attorney for decades and co-executor of his estate, sat before the House Oversight Committee and told Congress under oath that he had “no knowledge whatsoever” of Epstein’s crimes. His name is on NDAs covering payments totaling up to $280 million to victims. He signed off on settlements during the estate process. And yet he claims he knew nothing. “This isn’t perjury. “This is flat-out lying,” Dean said. “Just flat out lying about what this man helped Jeffrey Epstein get away with for 20 years.” Congressman David Min, a former law professor, said after the hearing that Indyke likely perjured himself “over and over and over again,” revealing that Indyke couldn’t explain $725,000 in structured cash withdrawals designed to avoid federal reporting, that multiple women described him helping them with apartments and immigration issues, and that he reportedly told women not to talk to police. The FBI and Department of Justice had never even interviewed Indyke before this deposition.

2️⃣ Trump Ally Weaponized ICE Against His Ex
The New York Times reported that Paolo Zampolli, the man who introduced Donald Trump to Melania and a figure in the Epstein files, used his White House connections to get ICE to detain and deport the mother of his child during a custody battle. Zampolli reached out to top ICE official David Venturella, who personally called the Miami office to ensure agents picked up Amanda Ungaro before she was released on bail. Dean laid out the deeper connection: Zampolli was recruited into the modelling world by Jean-Luc Brunel, Epstein’s associate who died in a French jail. He brought Melania into the Epstein world and is now serving as a presidential special envoy with what amounts to diplomatic cover. “Every single person around Donald Trump that is impugned by the Epstein files has been given some type of cover,” Zev noted, connecting the pattern of Trump surrounding himself with compromised figures from both the Epstein and Russia networks.

1️⃣ Trump and Bibi: Boots on the Ground
Three weeks into a war Congress never authorized, the United States is deploying ground forces to the Middle East. The USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group departed San Diego March 18th carrying 2,500 Marines and 20 F-35B fighter jets. Trump admitted he killed Iran’s entire leadership and now has no negotiating partner, saying, “There’s no one to talk to,” and then adding, “I like that.” Netanyahu appeared publicly and confirmed a ground component is necessary, telling reporters, “You can’t do revolutions from the air.” Dean connected the escalation directly to the Epstein cover-up: “If you wanted to know how serious Donald Trump is about getting out from underneath this whole pedophile conversation, he’s willing to sacrifice 8,000 men and women.” Zev tied the thread tighter: “Epstein worked for Israel, and Epstein worked for Russia. The fact that we are at war at the behest of Bibi Netanyahu is important because the reason Donald Trump is in power is partially because of Jeffrey Epstein.”

The through line across all five stories is the same network protecting itself, whether through media consolidation, performative divorces, perjury before Congress, weaponizing federal agencies, or launching unauthorized wars.

 

Politics, Trump, US

NEWS: Trump Declares Victory in Iran (Again), Musk Found Liable for Fraud, Tone in DC Shifts as Republicans Grow Concerned About the War

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NEWS: Trump Declares Victory in Iran (Again), Musk Found Liable for Fraud, Tone in DC Shifts as Republicans Grow Concerned About the War and More

Aaron Parnas
Mar 20

The tone in Washington seems to be shifting.

Republicans are growing uneasy about the ongoing war effort, and Trump is once again claiming victory in Iran while also looking for an off-ramp, even as he considers sending thousands more troops to the region.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk has been found liable for defrauding investors in a major court decision, and the media landscape is continuing to change in fundamental ways. Trump is praising the FCC chairman for allowing the Nexstar-Tegna merger to move forward, with Nexstar positioning itself as an alternative to what it calls “fake news.” At the same time, CBS is shutting down its radio division and laying off a significant portion of its newsroom.

SCOOP: Campaign finance records reveal that Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign spent nearly $12,000 on a stay at the ultra-luxury Dorado Beach Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Puerto Rico, tied to a conference appearance he later withdrew from amid controversy. The trip, which also included recreational activities like playing pickleball with Logan and Jake Paul, is raising new questions about how campaign funds were used and the timing of the spending.

A San Francisco jury found Elon Musk defrauded Twitter investors during his $44 billion 2022 takeover, determining that key tweets about spam and bot accounts were materially false or misleading and contributed to investor losses. The case centered on claims that Musk made these statements to drive down Twitter’s stock price and improve his negotiating position, though the jury did not find him liable for all statements or broader scheme claims.

CBS News is shutting down its nearly 100-year-old radio division and laying off staff as part of a major restructuring under Bari Weiss, with cuts affecting about 6% of the newsroom. The move marks a significant contraction in legacy media and comes amid declining ratings, internal turmoil, and broader consolidation under new ownership tied to the Ellison family.

Donald Trump actively praised FCC Chairman Brendan Carr following the approval of the Nextar-Tegna merger, calling him one of the most powerful people in Washington:

The DEA has designated Colombian President Gustavo Petro a “priority target,” a label used for individuals believed to have a significant impact on the drug trade. U.S. prosecutors in New York are investigating alleged links between Petro’s associates and major trafficking networks, including claims tied to the Sinaloa cartel and potential bribery schemes involving promises to block extraditions of traffickers.

The NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder will not make their customary White House visit during their trip to Washington, citing a “timing issue” despite discussions with the White House. The decision follows a long-standing but sometimes politically contentious tradition of championship teams visiting, with similar scheduling or political complications affecting past teams.

Trump declares victory in Iran war: President Trump said “I think we’ve won,” signaling confidence from the White House even as the conflict continues and key military and geopolitical questions remain unresolved.

Trump said the U.S. is nearing its military objectives in the Middle East and is considering scaling back operations, adding that other countries could take responsibility for securing the Strait of Hormuz and that doing so would be relatively easy.

Markets saw broad volatility, with both stocks and bonds declining, gold heading for its worst week in decades, and traders briefly viewing a Fed rate hike as just as likely as a cut, as the S&P 500 logged its longest weekly losing streak in a year.

CBS News has confirmed that the Pentagon is actively preparing for a possible U.S. ground invasion of Iran, with detailed plans involving the 82nd Airborne Division, Marine Expeditionary Units, and the Army’s Global Response Force. Thousands of Marines and multiple warships are already being deployed to the region, while officials are also planning for detaining Iranian fighters if troops are sent. Trump publicly says he is not planning to send ground troops but has left the option open, underscoring growing escalation behind the scenes.

The Trump administration is reportedly considering sending thousands of U.S. troops into Iran, with one option involving deploying forces to key ports or islands in the Persian Gulf to help secure shipping routes like the Strait of Hormuz. The move would mark a significant escalation in U.S. involvement, as the strategic waterway—critical to global oil supply—has been a central flashpoint in the ongoing conflict.

The U.S. is rapidly escalating its military buildup in the Middle East, with a second Marine Expeditionary Unit of roughly 2,200 Marines and three warships now deployed, joining another unit already en route. These amphibious forces, including advanced ships capable of launching F-35 fighter jets, are designed for combat, evacuations, and strategic operations. The deployment comes as the war enters its third week, with at least 13 U.S. service members killed and many more wounded, signaling intensifying conflict even as Trump publicly denies plans for ground troops. This is the response from some in MAGA.

Trump attacked NATO allies as “cowards” for refusing to join the Iran war, escalating tensions with longtime partners as they resist military involvement despite U.S. pressure to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and address rising global oil prices.

Reuters has confirmed that Switzerland suspended arms export licenses to the U.S. and restricted airspace access for Iran war–related military flights, citing neutrality laws. The move reflects deepening global unease with the conflict, as Switzerland also reviews existing U.S. licenses and had already rejected some flyover requests, underscoring increasing international resistance and isolation around the war.

The World Food Programme is warning that the Middle East conflict could trigger record global hunger levels, with disruptions to energy, shipping, and trade systems expected to drive food insecurity far beyond the region. If the war continues, up to 45 million additional people could face acute hunger, pushing the global total to 363 million and threatening to reverse recent progress in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions.

A federal judge struck down the Pentagon’s new press policy, ruling in a lawsuit brought by The New York Times that it violated the First Amendment by effectively targeting and excluding disfavored journalists. Read the full ruling here.

Trump suggested that the Strait of Hormuz will eventually reopen or resolve on its own without direct intervention.

Canada is rolling out financial aid for farmers and food businesses impacted by surging fertilizer and energy costs tied to the Iran war, offering expanded credit lines and loan flexibility through a federal program. The move highlights how the conflict’s economic ripple effects are hitting global agriculture and food supply chains, forcing governments to step in to stabilize key industries.

According to Reuters, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. of being “detached from reality” in its claims about progress in the war, comparing current messaging to misleading Vietnam-era briefings. His remarks come as Iranian officials dispute U.S. assertions about destroying key military capabilities and highlight growing contradictions in the administration’s public narrative, including disputed claims about what families of fallen U.S. service members have said about continuing the war.

Ukraine peace talks are set to resume after being paused by the Iran war, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying the U.S. has signaled readiness to reengage despite its focus shifting to the Middle East. The pause highlights how the expanding Iran conflict is diverting global attention and complicating efforts to resolve Russia’s war in Ukraine, even as negotiations cautiously restart.

The U.K. has authorized the U.S. to use key British bases, including RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia, to carry out strikes on Iranian missile sites targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The move is framed as “collective self-defense,” but it expands operational scope, signaling deeper Western involvement even as British officials publicly emphasize de-escalation and avoiding a wider war.

According to Reuters, QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi warned that he had repeatedly cautioned U.S. officials and energy partners about the risks of provoking Iran, highlighting that escalation could severely damage global energy systems. His warnings came before Iranian strikes hit Qatar’s LNG infrastructure, knocking out roughly 17% of export capacity and triggering major global energy disruptions.

Airport security delays are worsening nationwide as the DHS shutdown drags on, with TSA staffing shortages leading to wait times of up to two hours at major hubs like Houston and New York. Officials warn conditions could deteriorate further, with some smaller airports at risk of shutting down if unpaid workers continue to call out, disrupting travel for millions ahead of the busy spring season.

The Senate unanimously passed a measure to end special TSA screening privileges for members of Congress, forcing lawmakers to go through standard airport security like the public. The move comes amid long TSA lines and staffing shortages during the DHS shutdown, though the bill still needs House approval and Trump’s signature to become law.

Two former FBI agents who worked on investigations related to Donald Trump have filed a lawsuit against FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, alleging they were unlawfully fired for political reasons in violation of their constitutional rights. The agents, who filed anonymously citing safety concerns, say they had minor roles in the cases and were targeted as part of broader retaliation against officials tied to Trump investigations, raising serious concerns about politicization within federal law enforcement.

The Justice Department is moving to dismiss its criminal case against two former Louisville police officers charged in connection with the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor, seeking a permanent dismissal that cannot be revived, marking a major reversal in one of the highest-profile police accountability cases in recent years.

The Trump administration has filed a federal lawsuit against Harvard, accusing the university of violating civil rights law by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students after the Oct. 7 attacks. The Justice Department is seeking to recover billions in federal funding, escalating an ongoing battle that already includes attempts to cut grants, revoke tax-exempt status, and restrict international students.

The Trump administration is increasingly backing down in immigration court, with Justice Department lawyers admitting in dozens of cases they cannot defend ICE detentions, leading to bond hearings or releases. Judges have already ruled more than 7,000 times that detentions were illegal or lacked due process, highlighting strain and breakdowns in the mass deportation system.

The Trump administration has released a new AI legislative framework urging Congress to create a unified national policy, emphasizing child protections and industry growth while limiting legal liability for developers. The proposal also seeks to curb state-level regulations seen as slowing innovation, a move that is already drawing bipartisan pushback over concerns it could weaken accountability for powerful tech companies.

A Delta flight from Los Angeles to Sydney hit turbulence during descent, leaving several crew members injured and sending three people to the hospital with minor injuries, all in stable condition. Officials told NBC News that such incidents may become more common as climate-driven weather patterns increase turbulence risks, highlighting growing safety concerns for air travel.

 

Politics, Trump, US

Trump Friend Got ICE to Arrest His Son’s Mother

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Trump Friend Got ICE to Arrest His Son’s Mother

Trump’s FCC lets one company control 70% of local news; new footage shows Trump’s declining health; Trump may cave to Democrats’ key ICE demand

British Chris and Raw America
Mar 20

A friend of Trump is using ICE as his personal weapon. A new media merger is giving a right-wing billionaire control of almost all local news. New footage suggests Trump’s health is rapidly declining. And—in good news—Democrats may have forced Trump to unmask ICE agents.

MAGA oligarchs are buying up media outlets at a staggering pace, hollowing out newsrooms, and silencing all reporting they don’t like.

Trump Ally Asked ICE to Detain the Mother of His Child
Paolo Zampolli is the man who claims credit for introducing Donald Trump to Melania back in 1998 at a New York nightclub. Last June, Zampolli had a problem. His Brazilian ex-girlfriend, Amanda Ungaro, had been arrested in Miami on fraud charges. They were locked in a custody battle over their teenage son. And she was in the country on an expired visa.

So he picked up the phone.

According to records obtained by the New York Times, Zampolli reached out to a top ICE official named David Venturella. He explained that Ungaro was undocumented and suggested that getting her into ICE detention could help him win custody of his son.

Venturella then called the Miami ICE office to make sure agents would pick Ungaro up before she could be released on bail. He reportedly noted that the case mattered to someone close to the White House.

Ungaro was placed in ICE custody and eventually deported to Brazil.

DHS insists she was detained because of her expired visa and the fraud charges. And it’s possible she would’ve been deported regardless. But the speed with which a senior ICE official jumped into action for a minor Trump associate is quite a story.

This is what the abuse of power looks like. It doesn’t always come in the form of a presidential order. Sometimes it’s a phone call from a bloke who goes to the same parties as the first lady. Draw your own conclusions.

One Company Will Now Control Local News for Over 70% of US Households
As we mentioned this morning, Nexstar Media Group has just been cleared by the FCC and the Department of Justice to acquire Tegna, another major local broadcaster. Already the largest provider of local news in the country, Nexstar will now reach more than 70 percent of U.S. households with its local newscasts.

The FCC granted Nexstar a waiver of the rule that caps how many households a single broadcaster can reach. In other words, the rule that was supposed to prevent this kind of consolidation was just waved away.

Nexstar’s CEO praised President Trump and FCC Chair Brendan Carr by name for making it happen.

Eight state attorneys general had filed a lawsuit just the day before to block the deal, arguing it violates antitrust law and would put more broadcast news in fewer hands, gut local jobs, and remove accountability to the communities being covered. Those concerns were brushed aside.

New Footage Raises Serious Concerns About Trump’s Cognitive Health
A new Netflix documentary about the Murdoch family called “Dynasty: The Murdochs” also includes footage of Donald Trump spanning the past decade, and the contrast is striking.

The film includes clips of Trump from the first Republican primary debate of the 2016 election cycle, where he came across as coherent, sharp, and effective. Whatever one thinks of his politics, he was in command of himself.

Compare that to recent footage of the 79-year-old president, and the difference is difficult to ignore. Medical observers and Trump critics have for some time been pointing to rambling speech, verbal stumbles, and apparent difficulty concentrating during public appearances.

Trump himself dismissed questions about his cognitive health in January, saying his father had Alzheimer’s but that he does not.

He forgot the name of the disease mid-sentence while making that point.

Trump’s supporters argue the criticism is politically motivated. Medical professionals have noted the cumulative effects of age and stress. The documentary footage adds a visual dimension to a conversation that isn’t going away.

Trump May Be About to Cave to a Key Demand from Democrats
The partial government shutdown is still dragging on, with negotiations centred on funding for the Department of Homeland Security and reforms to ICE and Customs and Border Protection.

Border czar Tom Homan was expected to meet with Senate Democrats on Friday to continue talks.

According to NBC News correspondent Julie Tsirkin, the White House is open to compromising on some Democratic demands. One item is reportedly under discussion: agents unmasking, with restrictions. That means potentially limiting the ability of immigration enforcement agents to conceal their identities during operations.

Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin also agreed he’d use judicial warrants for home entries if he were named Homeland Security secretary.

Here’s the context that matters.

These negotiations are happening after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota: Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Two Americans are dead. That’s what it took to get any movement toward accountability measures.

The willingness to even discuss warrant requirements and agent transparency only appeared at the table after American lives were lost. That’s not reform. That’s damage control.

 

 

Politics, Trump, US

Internal Collapse Inside Trump’s White House Resignations looming, Miller rising, and a behind-the-scenes power struggle exploding.

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Internal Collapse Inside Trump’s White House
Resignations looming, Miller rising, and a behind-the-scenes power struggle exploding.

Lev Parnas (Substack)
Mar 20

I’m going to be very direct with you.

What I’m hearing from my sources right now is serious — and if it plays out, it will send shockwaves through Washington.

Tulsi Gabbard is actively considering resigning as DNI.

This comes on the heels of Joe Kent’s resignation, where he made it clear there was no imminent threat from Iran, and what we are now seeing is not a coincidence.

It’s a fracture inside Trump’s intelligence and national security circle that is getting harder and harder to contain.

Let me explain what’s really going on.

Over the last two days, during her testimony before Congress, Gabbard made something very clear — without saying it outright.

She never once expressed support for Donald Trump’s decisions.

Instead, she carefully walked a legal line, repeatedly affirming that the president has the right to make decisions, while stopping short of saying she agrees with those decisions.

That’s not loyalty. That’s  distance.

At the same time, Joe Kent publicly undercut the administration’s position, saying there was no imminent threat — and then resigned.

When you have senior figures breaking from the same messaging—especially on something as sensitive as Iran—that’s not policy disagreement… that’s a rift.

Now here’s what I’m being told that the media is NOT reporting.

Trump is concerned. And he should be.

Because Tulsi Gabbard isn’t just another cabinet official.

She has been deeply involved behind the scenes in Trump’s election strategy infrastructure—working on so-called “election reform” initiatives in states like Georgia and Arizona and tied into broader efforts around foreign interference narratives, including Venezuela, that could be used as leverage politically.

That’s not a small role. That’s central to the operation.

And now she’s pulling away.

That’s why this is creating panic internally.

And it gets even more complicated.

Inside Trump’s inner circle right now, I’m hearing there are two camps forming:

Those who want Gabbard out immediately

And those who are trying to keep her in place at all costs

But let me be very clear here —

Trump and his inner circle are doing everything possible to keep her from leaving.

Because this isn’t just about optics.

This is about timing.

With the midterms approaching, the last thing Trump can afford is a high-profile fracture like this — especially from someone as deeply embedded in his national security and election infrastructure as Tulsi Gabbard.

They know if she walks now, it doesn’t just create headlines — it creates exposure.

And at the same time, the pressure is building from all sides.

The Tucker Carlson fractures, the Laura Loomer wing, and other voices inside the MAGA ecosystem are pulling in different directions—turning what was once a controlled operation into internal chaos.

That pressure is spilling directly into the White House.

And it’s becoming harder and harder to contain.

Because they also know what happens next if she leaves.

Tucker Carlson. Independent platforms. Uncontrolled conversations.

Places where she can speak freely — and where the narrative can’t be managed.

And that’s the real fear.

At the same time, there are major shifts happening inside the White House itself.

As I’ve been telling you:

Susie Wiles is on her way out

Stephen Miller is now effectively taking over, acting as chief of staff

And I’m hearing Alina Habba may be stepping into a larger role

This is a power struggle unfolding in real time — and nobody in mainstream media is connecting these dots for you.

But you’re hearing it here.

But here’s the bigger picture that should concern all of us.

While this internal chaos is unfolding:

Gas prices are climbing.

Wars are expanding.

Economic pressure is building on everyday Americans.

And where is the leadership?

Where is the Democratic Party calling this out clearly and consistently?

Where are the fighters explaining what’s actually happening behind the scenes?

They’re not there.

And that’s the problem.

This is exactly why I made the decision to run for Congress.

Florida’s 27th District is not just another race—it’s ground zero.

This is Trump’s backyard.

Marco Rubio is tied into it.

Susie Wiles operates out of it.

Pam Bondi and Donald Trump himself.

This is where power is concentrated — and where it must be challenged.