“I’ve been called a dumb motherf*ker by MAGA over 6,000 times in the last 24 hours. Every comment and message spelled it with a b. I think President Trump lied to us. Yesterday’s cartoon has over 20,000 replies if you think I’m exaggerating.” John Buss, @repeat1968 (dkat: this is the cartoon)
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
As we close in on the midterms, the country’s political landscape couldn’t be crazier if it tried. You would think that a “mature” democracy could rise to discourse above name-calling and jingoism. If you can’t run on the progress you’ve made, then I guess that’s all that’s left to you. You also need a lot of jazz hands to cover up what’s really going on. The two top headlines for me today should be beyond belief, but remember how so much of this has managed to push the Iran/Israeli/USA War off the front pages.
This first article is from The Guardian, which has been my go-to newspaper since high school. “Greenland issues ‘strong warning’ as Trump-linked oil firm prepares to drill. Island’s government says no approval given after Greenland Energy brings kit ashore for exploratory drilling.”
An American oil company connected to Donald Trump is preparing to sink wells in remote Greenland despite not having received permission from the local authorities.
As the US president renews his threats to claim the vast Arctic territory, materials to prepare for drilling were brought ashore in recent days on Greenland’s eastern coast.
That has prompted Greenland’s government to issue a “strong warning” that no approval had been granted to land the kit. “All future logistical matters must be advised and approved by the mineral resources authority – before they are carried out,” the government said in a statement.
Two days later, Trump made his latest menacing post on Truth Social, showing himself looming over a Greenlandic village.
Executives of Greenland Energy, a Texas company set up last year, have claimed that $1tn of crude may lie beneath the Jameson Land region. They announced plans to spend $60m drilling two wells to find out.
Although Greenland stopped issuing new oil licences in 2021 on environmental grounds, a UK company called 80 Mile had secured exploration rights in Jameson Land. Greenland Energy’s corporate filings say it will take a majority stake in the project in exchange for funding the exploration, though it still needs government permission to proceed.
Greenland Energy has retained Phil McGraw, better known as Dr Phil, a prominent rightwing former chatshow host who served on Trump’s religious freedom commission, to make a documentary series that will “capture the mission of these modern-day wildcatters”.
It has also appointed as a director a US navy veteran who is working on Golden Dome, the missile defence plan for which Trump says controlling Greenland is “vital”.
Larry Swets, Greenland Energy’s chair and a big shareholder, appears to enjoy access to Trump’s circle. He has said the oil project is “not related to American annexation”.
After a company representative falsely claimed at a Jameson Land community meeting in June that it had permission to land drilling equipment, Swets said: “Our enthusiasm for the project led us to communicate in a way that created confusion.”
But the next month, local people in the sparsely populated region noticed a tug pulling a barge shorewards and unloading a dozen containers. “The goal was to get the equipment onshore at Nunap Qeqqa [Jameson Land] in connection with planned oil exploration drilling,” the Greenland government’s statement said.
The Danish investigative outlet Danwatch quoted the head of the shipping company as confirming the delivery was for Greenland Energy.
Greenland Energy has declined to respond to questions from the Guardian. A letter it sent to shareholders on Thursday said: “Recent high-level meetings between project leadership and Greenlandic regulatory and oversight authorities have been constructive, and we continue to be encouraged by the progress being made toward the remaining approvals required for drilling.” It said that after those discussions, just one well would be drilled to begin with.
There’s a lot more at the link if you’re interested. As I mentioned before, the campaign mood this year is peak mud slinging. This Rex Hupke Op-Ed at USA Today sums it up well. We’re not only into colonialism these days, but we’re also seeing the Red Scare tactics. I can’t imagine this appealing to anyone under 80, but who knows these days? “Democratic extremism? GOP spent a decade riding extremism to power. Republicans have spent the past decade worshiping the most extreme president in our nation’s history, a man with an almost impossibly long history of loathsome behavior and malicious dishonesty.”
Between now and the midterm elections, and probably well beyond that, you’ll hear endless chatter about “Democratic extremism,” and it will be Hilarious with a capital “H,” because it will all come from the mouths of Republicans.
“The Democrats want to destroy America!” they’ll holler.
“The Democrats are all socialists!” they’ll rail, unable to define socialism if their lives depended on it.
Oh my, the horror! Someone pull up my fainting chair, I seem to have caught the vapors!
Let’s put this nonsensical rhetoric to bed right now. Republicans have spent the past decade worshiping the most extreme president in our nation’s history, a man with an almost impossibly long history of loathsome behavior and malicious dishonesty. While doing so, they have embraced some of the most extreme political views and policies imaginable, shattering political norms and leveraging hate and division to gain power.
Reelecting Donald Trump was about as extreme as it gets
There’s plenty more where that comes from at the link. Scott McFarland, writing at his SubStack Scott MacFarlane Reports, has the headline: “Trump Turns National Parks into Piggybank, Cutbacks and Setbacks Hammer America’s National Parks in the Shadow of Trump’s Vanity Projects.”
There are enormous canyons.
Geysers.
Majestic cliffs.
Waterfalls and wildlife.
Rainforests and reindeer.
But in America’s national parks under President Trump, the most dramatic sight might be the rapid shifting of taxpayer and donor money.
Internal park service records obtained by Scott MacFarlane Reports reveal a controversial and overwhelming re-routing of money to Trump vanity projects.
The topline dollar figures are astounding, according to multiple sources inside the US Department of Interior, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to news media.
The records show more than $323 million have been made available for upgrades and projects on the White House grounds this year.
That’s a dramatic, nearly 5000 percent increase from the $7.5 million spent on White House grounds projects in 2024.
On the National Mall in Washington, nearly $100 million was made available for projects this year. That’s more than ten times larger than the $9 million provided for the Mall in 2024.
The internal park service records show declines in the money allotted to – or projected for use at – dozens of other major U.S. parks this year. There were multi-million dollar reductions in funds for Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon national parks, which are some of the flagship attractions of America’s National Park Service.
“The National Park Service is being used as a piggy bank for Trump’s vanity projects,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which advocates on behalf of current and former parks employees. Whitehouse said, “The National Parks Service and the Department of Interior are giving Trump all of the money that he wants.”
The shifting of funds slows – or delays – a range of projects big and small at National Park facilities, while expediting work on Trump’s pet projects in Washington, D.C.
“That’s costing the American people,” Whitehouse said, “That’s hurting the rest of our country.”
There’s so much bad policy and actions coming from Orange Caligula’s orders and policies that the press doesn’t appear to be able to keep up with it. I just recently read an article on the delegalization. This is a racist, xenophobic move by the Trump administration to remove immigrants here legally from the country. This is from Mother Jones. It’s from last fall, but the article I tried to read about the current situation with Haitians was behind a paywall at The New Yorker. I was unaware of what was going on. Again, we need a lot more people reporting on these pogroms. This is the headline from Isabela Dias’ reporting. “Trump Is Making Thousands of Rule-Abiding Immigrants Undocumented. Inside the largest delegalization campaign in modern US history.”
Nathaly Maestre has tried to follow her doctors’ instructions to the letter. Her obstetrician and perinatologist were clear: At 40, eight months into a high-risk pregnancy, and after a miscarriage last year, she has to avoid unnecessary stress.
But that has become impossible. In May, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protection from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States. Overnight, Maestre and her partner, Luis Guillermo, found themselves without status—despite following all the rules.
“You try not to think so much about what’s happening outside,” Maestre told me in Spanish, her voice breaking. But it is hard “with all these sudden, abrupt changes.”
Fleeing persecution from pro-government militias in Venezuela, Maestre and Luis Guillermo came to the United States on tourist visas in September 2021 and later applied for asylum. In the fall of 2023, another option became available: Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. This stopgap shield from deportation for people who cannot safely return to their countries of origin because of armed conflicts, natural disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances has protected roughly 600,000 Venezuelans—until now.
President Donald Trump’s termination of TPS for Venezuelans is part of the largest delegalization campaign in modern US history. “A single act of stripping immigration status in one fell swoop,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, an attorney with the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy representing TPS holders in a lawsuit against the government. The plan, he added, is central to the administration’s mass deportation goals as it scrambles to scale up US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests to an improbable 3,000 a day. “This is a community that has recently provided information to the government about their whereabouts, rendering them all vulnerable to deportation, [which] gives the government the opportunity to go after a lot of them—very quickly.”
Adelys Ferro, executive director of the Venezuelan-American Caucus, has received thousands of messages from Venezuelans who have lost status under Trump, wondering what to do. Some have had panic attacks. Many lack travel documents because they can’t simply go to a nearby Venezuelan consulate and renew an expired passport—all services have been paused since 2023. “You have a whole community feeling hunted,” she said, “feeling persecuted all over again.”
Again, please read more at the link. And I hate to be the bearer of Fox News, but this is today’s headline on that subject. “US State Department has yanked more than 175k visas under Trump administration so far. ‘The majority of these visas were revoked due to law enforcement encounters for a range of criminal activity… ‘ the department noted.” Yeah, right, I believe that. I’m not actually going to print any of the story or show the film, because it’s the usual bugaboo stereotype. I’m certain a more reasonable analysis of the data will come later from other sources. Or at least I hope so.
Well, that’s all I can stand to talk about today.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
Please VOTE when it’s your turn!
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Last Wednesday, I wrote about Ohio Rep. Max Miller and his refusal to end his reelection campaign in light of the multiple accusations of violence against his ex-wife, including holding a gun to her head and throwing boiling hot water on her as well as breaking the collarbone of his 2-year-old daughter. But one of his abusive actions has really resonated with observers–his refusal to return his daughter’s beloved blue bunny.
Miller, 37, has faced domestic violence and physical abuse allegations for years, most recently from his ex-wife, the mother of his 2-year-old daughter. But no detail has broken through quite like the “little blue bunny.” Conservative colleagues who previously had avoided commenting on Miller’s personal life called this week for his resignation after his former father-in-law, another powerful Ohio Republican, accused the second-term congressman of holding his granddaughter’s stuffy “hostage” for 48 hours.
“This girl is crying at night because she can’t sleep without her little blue bunny, and his answer is, ‘I’m just not going to give it to you,’” Sen. Bernie Moreno told reporters Tuesday.
Miller, who has denied all claims of abuse, posted screenshots on X the next day that he said exonerated him. His ex-wife’s team had sent the wrong “conduit” to fetch the bunny, he said, according to the text messages between the two, which delayed the handoff by 14 hours — not 48.
She asked him to please just leave it in the mailbox, according to the exchange, which racked up 2.3 million views.
By “the wrong conduit” Miller meant that his wife had sent a family friend to pick up the bunny instead of her father. So Miller refused to return it. Back to the WaPo:
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked the question on so many minds, “Did you hold this doll hostage?”
On this, the internet agreed.
“What kind of father wouldn’t deliver the bunny himself, knowing that it helps his little girl sleep at night?” one commenter asked.
“This does not make you look better,” added a reporter for Gateway Pundit, a far-right news site.
“There are literally thousands of fathers reading those tweets and thinking: ‘When my daughter lost her favorite toy, I led a search party as if for a downed NATO nuclear warhead. And when that failed, I paid $300 for a replica on eBay,” posted David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush.
Suddenly, the standoff over a toy in Ohio had sparked passionate chatter nationwide.
“Everybody gets it, no matter which side of the aisle they are on,” said Jon Krosnick, director of the Political Psychology Research Group at Stanford University. The little blue bunny, he added, “communicates so powerfully to all of us.”
Psychologists call the special toys or blankets that toddlers grow attached to “transitional objects.” In our culture, child begin to sleep alone much earlier than in many others cultures. Children here use their blanket or a stuffed animal as an attachment figure. Usually, by about age 6, kids can let go of the special object, but many older children keep it nearby and some even take it when they go away to college. I still recall my “blue blankie” that I carried with me everywhere as a child.
You can read the rest of the WaPo article using the gift link above.
Ohio Representative Max Miller has denied holding a little blue bunny hostage—but a series of messages shows the alleged abuser has a pattern of stealing his two-year-old daughter’s toy.
Miller has been accused of physically abusing his ex-wife Emily Moreno, daughter of Senator Bernie Moreno, for years. Amid the many abuse allegations against Miller, the lawmaker has taken the time to refute one distressing detail about his relationship with his daughter.
Speaking to the press Monday, Senator Moreno claimed that over the weekend, Miller had refused to return his daughter’s blue bunny. “This girl is crying at night because she can’t sleep without her little blue bunny. His answer is ‘I’m just not gonna give it to you,’” Moreno said.
“This is the level of total and complete depravity,” he added.
Miller denied withholding his daughter’s beloved bunny, claiming that he’d scheduled it to be picked up from his mailbox through the family’s parental coordinator, Dr. Deborah Koricke.
However, a series of screenshotted messages obtained by Mother Jones’s Abby Vesoulis suggest that Miller has a history of keeping the blue bunny hostage.
In one email dated March 19, 2025, Emily Moreno begged Miller to return the toy. “Can [redacted] please have her bunny back? She’s had it since birth, sleeps with it every night, carries it with her around the house, and sees it as a source of comfort,” Moreno wrote.
She also urged Miller not to “punish” their daughter because he was upset with his ex-wife.
At that time, the girl would have only been 1 year old! I said on Wednesday that Miller is monster, and this proves it. This man is cold as ice.
In a text message exchange from May, Senator Moreno asked if the bunny had been left behind, and Miller replied that the family could go through the parent coordinator to retrieve it. “I have no notes or record of what you are referring to,” Miller added.
“It’s the blue bunny she sleeps with, but got it,” Moreno said.
In an email from August 3 (right after the weekend Senator Moreno mentioned), Moreno’s attorney reached out to Miller’s lawyers in an attempt to have the bunny returned. “Why must this be a controversy? This is totally ridiculous. Please have Max return the bunny forthwith,” the attorney wrote.
In another text message from an unknown date, the family’s parent coordinator claimed that Miller “adamantly refuses” to leave the toy in the mailbox for Senator Moreno to retrieve.
The Miller race could have serious repercussions for Ohio and for Republicans’ hopes of hold in the House.
The controversy around Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) is complicating the midterm landscape for Ohio Republicans as Democrats build momentum in the Buckeye State, a former battleground that’s become a red state in the Trump era.
Miller, who is running for a third term in a competitive House district, is facing calls to step down after allegations of domestic abuse toward his ex-wife, the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio). He has forcefully denied the claims, but the controversy could make his red seat an easier pick-up opportunity for Democrats in the high-stakes fight for House control.
Ohio is also host to a highly competitive Senate race, where former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) has lodged a comeback bid against incumbent Sen. Jon Husted (R) that could bolster Democrats’ chances of taking back the upper chamber this fall — plus a neck-and-neck race for Ohio governor in the state that’s been GOP-led for more than a decade.
“In an environment where Republicans have been particularly strong in Ohio, this year’s environment is going to be much more challenging for them, and this certainly doesn’t help things,” said Robert Alexander, a political science professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, on the Miller developments.
“I think that the fact that so much of the attention is on Republicans is a good thing for Democrats,” he added. “The more it’s about Republicans, I think the better that Democrats will likely do.”
Forbes reports that a rally that Miller was to appear at had to be cancelled for “security concerns” amid “threats.” The rally was to be in support of the “SAVE American act.”
Miller has also donated $1 million to his campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal. That sounds like desperation. (Apparently Miller comes from a wealthy and prominent Ohio family.)
It so happens that Miller has a Democratic opponent, and he is beginning to draw attention.
Brian Poindexter, until recently a little-known Democratic candidate in a solidly Republican House district, lit a Marlboro cigarette and jammed a screwdriver into the latch of a shed door he had built. He ignored his phone, which had been blowing up in recent days because of a political scandal rocking Ohio.
“It’s crazy to have him running for Congress,” said the candidate’s father, Bob Poindexter, 68, who had made bolts for a living until he retired last year. He was watching his son work. “What would be really crazy is if he won.”
That prospect is rapidly becoming less crazy, as the campaign of Representative Max Miller, Republican of Ohio, has descended into turmoil over allegations that he had physically abused his wife and young daughter.
Mr. Poindexter, who turned 47 on Tuesday, is a hard hat-wearing, union card-carrying ironworker. With fresh opportunity — given Mr. Miller’s struggles — to win over voters in a Cleveland-area district that went for President Trump by double digits, he is the type of candidate some Democrats believe can claw back working-class voters who have flocked to Mr. Trump in recent years.
This week, he has set out to test that strategy in a Republican stronghold that is suddenly seen as competitive, and that could help Democrats retake the House.
Though he launched his campaign in January, Mr. Poindexter had been largely ignored by Democratic Party leadership until last week, when the fallout from an ugly custody battle between Mr. Miller and his ex-wife, the daughter of Senator Bernie Moreno, spilled into the national news. The district, which stretches from Amish country to the suburban shores of Lake Erie, has been considered comfortably Republican for a decade.
Read more using the gift link if you’re interested.
In other news, the Senate voted to confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General, not that anyone is surprised.
The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general in a vote early Saturday, cementing the command of President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer at a Department of Justice that Trump has sought to bend to his will.
The Republican-led Senate voted 50-49 to make Blanche the second confirmed attorney general since Trump returned to the White House last year with a stated desire to use the law enforcement agency to investigate his political enemies. While Blanche has already been leading the department in an acting capacity, his confirmation could free him to pursue the administration’s agenda even more aggressively.
Blanche said on social media that he was “deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me,” adding that he was “grateful” to senators for working late to confirm him.
The vote followed a tumultuous confirmation fight that exposed deep concerns — from some Republicans as well as Democrats — about installing Trump’s close ally atop a Justice Department that historically prided itself on its independence from the White House.
In the end, Blanche was confirmed by the narrowest of margins, opposed by two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — and by every Democrat.
As Daknikat wrote yesterday, retiring Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy cast the deciding vote–just as he did with RFK, Jr.
Early Saturday morning, the Senate voted to confirm Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the official role after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) caved and publicly backed President DonaldTrump’s former personal lawyer the day before.
Blanche was confirmed on a narrow 50-49 vote, with almostall Republicans aligning with the president. Thetwo exceptions wereSens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). In other words, Cassidy, who initially withheld his approval overconcerns aboutBlanche helping Trump prosecute political enemies, pushing the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization slush fund, and exempting the president from IRS audits, capitulated—knowing that his was the deciding vote. He did so shortly after Murkowski announcedher opposition.
In his Friday remarks on the Senate floor, Cassidy raised several reasonable points on why Blanche should not be confirmed: “approving the anti-weaponization slush fund,” “exempting the president from IRS audits,” and the aforementioned “bringing suits against political enemies.”
But the senator—who recently lost his bid for reelection after being targeted as a “disloyal disaster” by Trump—summonedperplexing arguments from his familiar playbook: “Mr. Blanche has made commitments” to be better, Cassidy noted. “I have spoken to Mr. Blanche five or six times,” he assured his colleagues, and not approving Blanche “puts at risk the progress made fighting violent crime, human and drug trafficking, and fraud.” The Trump administration’s fight on crime and human and drug trafficking has led to significant increases in militarization domestically and abroad, while attacks on so-called widespread fraud have cut essential social programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
This isn’t Cassidy’s first rodeo in backing downfrom his principled opposition to a controversial or clearly unqualified candidate. He used similar logic to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as health secretary as the deciding vote, putting naivetrust in his “assurances on vaccines.” And the senator did so again earlier this week—although his wasnot the sole deciding vote—to confirm Erica Schwartz, the physician and attorney who wasTrump’s pick for CDC director. Schwartz repeatedly dodged questions on whether she would carry out all of Kennedy’s policies, even if she believed it contradicted scientific evidence.
What a loser.
Trump got some bad news about his precious ballroom yesterday.
A federal appeals court on Friday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to halt construction of its $400 million ballroom at the White House because the project lacks congressional approval.
Trump doesn’t have the unilateral authority to build a 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom where the White House’s East Wing stood before he ordered its demolition last fall, according to the decision by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit….
In a 2-1 decision on the ballroom, the appeals court sided with historic preservationists who sued to stop construction of the massive structure, which has begun to rise aboveground on the east side of the White House, according to the most recent aerial photos of the site. The court said it would stay its ruling for two weeks to give the administration time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” the court wrote.
“This holding has nothing at all to do with whether the proposed ballroom is desirable, or not, as a matter of policy. This ruling does not even necessarily mean that the Defendants may not ultimately construct the ballroom.
“What it does mean,” the court continued, “is that the Defendants may not do so during the district court’s expeditious litigation without securing Congress’s authorization, as the Constitution and laws require.”
More detail from Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein at Politico:
A federal appeals court panel has ruled against President Donald Trump’s attempt to unilaterally demolish portions of the White House to build a massive ballroom, saying the unprecedented project requires congressional approval.
“Executive actions that take control of that property out of the hands of the people’s representatives while irreparably harming the historical and visual architecture of perhaps the most prominent public building in the United States seriously intrude on the public interest,” Judges Patricia Millett, an Obama appointee, and Bradley Garcia, a Biden appointee, wrote in a joint majority opinion issued Friday.
The appeals court put its ruling on hold for two weeks to allow Trump to seek relief from the Supreme Court. If the high court doesn’t act by then, above-ground construction at the site would have to halt….
Trump has claimed that security concerns necessitated tearing down the East Wing and replacing it with a ballroom and other features, such as a rooftop launching pad for drones. In his post Friday, he referred to the planned structure as a “Military Center.”
But the appeals panel’s majority rejected the notion that raising security issues meant the courts couldn’t enforce federal statutes governing funding for such projects.
“The bold assertion that the Executive can act with utter lawlessness, destroying treasured national landmarks and harming the interests of individuals, and that no court can stop it flouts our constitutional order,” Millett and Garcia wrote. “While this court accords great weight and deference to invocations of national security and the safety of the President, such arguments are not an automatic get-out-of-law-free card.”
The ruling is the latest blow to Trump’s effort to remake Washington, D.C., in his image. A federal judge blocked his bid to add his own name to the Kennedy Center, and his effort to revitalize the Reflecting Pool at the base of the Lincoln Memorial has been marred by construction failures and the failed prosecutions of alleged vandals that Trump had blamed for the defects.
Of course he has already wrecked the entire White House complex.
The Iran war still drags on, and the Iranians have issued some demands.
A top Iranian national security official delivered a sweeping set of demands on Saturday that he said the United States must meet before the Strait of Hormuz can reopen to maritime traffic, throwing the fate of the critical trade waterway into question.
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, issued a statement carried by state media laying out multiple requirements for reopening the strait. He called for the United States to lift its naval blockade and sanctions on Iran, withdraw the U.S. military from around Iran, pay war reparations and release frozen Iranian assets, as well as end attacks on Iran’s allies in the region and threats against the country.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Iran’s demands. A previous cease-fire between Iran and the United States, agreed to in June, had said that sanctions would be fully lifted only in the event of a final deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program. And U.S. officials have said in the past that Iran could only access its frozen funds if it committed to giving up its highly enriched uranium first.
The statement from Mr. Zolghadr came as Iran and Oman have been negotiating an agreement on the future management of the Strait of Hormuz, which sits between the two countries. Iran effectively closed the strait in retaliation for being attacked by the United States and Israel in February.
Mr. Zolghadr’s list of demands upended expectations that a deal with Oman would soon allow commerce to flow through the strait once more and ease global energy prices. They will likely put pressure on President Trump to consider Iran’s conditions if he wants to lower consumer prices for Americans, which pose a risk for Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Even before Mr. Zolghadr’s statement, Iranian officials had hinted on Saturday that the reopening of the strait was not imminent. Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said that reopening the strait was “not contingent on the Iran-Oman negotiations.”
In comments carried by Tasnim, an Iranian news outlet affiliated with the Guards, Mr. Mohebbi said that it would depend “on the United States fully accepting Iran’s conditions.” He did not specify those conditions, other than to say that the United States must not interfere in Iran’s ongoing negotiations with Oman or other countries.
Meanwhile, top General Dan Caine is trying to find a way out of Trump’s Iran mess.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine is reportedly quietly working toward an exit from Donald Trump’s Iran war, even as the president appears to believe more air strikes could force a deal.
As the war enters its sixth month, CNN reported Friday that Caine has privately discussed the limits of further military action with other top Trump advisers, warning that continued bombing may not be enough to secure a ceasefire.
“Caine is looking for an off-ramp,” one source familiar with the matter told the outlet.
U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on U.S. President Donald Trump’s FY2027 budget request for the Department of Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 30, 2026.Ken Cedeno/Reuters
The 57-year-old general has discussed the matter with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance—all before meeting with Trump to coordinate their message and to emphasize the limitations of certain military options.
The news comes as Trump, who has long criticized articles he doesn’t like, has lashed out at reports about weapons shortages as a result of his war, which he had said would only last a few weeks.
The Washington Post reported that during a Cabinet meeting last Friday, Trump, 80, accosted Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth for being ill-informed about the shortages, which Trump thought “had been fixed.”
The shortages were primarily of long-distance guided missiles and interceptors, according to the Post. This was reportedly one reason there were fewer missile strikes over the past week.
Hegseth, 46, denied the story.
Caine’s discussions with other top officials about war prospects, one source told CNN, “is just his way of protecting the military.”
That’s all I have for today. Thoughts? What else is on your mind?
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“Went grocery shopping yesterday for a few things, came home, and started drawing this. The Golden Age, BWAHAHAHA!” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Orange Caligula must still have a lot of childhood nightmares still floating around his brain because he sure finds a lot of monsters under his bed to turn into political talking points and policy nonsense. Case in point, the weirdness that has started around what defines American citizenship since the Roberts court, since the majority didn’t buy his reasoning back in June. The new bugbear is “birth tourism.”
So, the way I understand it, the poor huddled masses yearning to be free have enough bucks to enter the country on jetliners and just hang around in hotels until they get themselves a baby, like the baby has anything to do with this start out with. Sigh. This nonsense comes from a man whose 4 out of 5 of his children are so-called anchor babies. So, what does this mean for Baron’s ascension to the White House? Have we ever totally figured out Melania’s road to citizenship?
Here’s a more reasoned line of analysis from the LA Times. “After Supreme Court loss, Trump again targets birthright citizenship with new orders.” Kevin Rector has the lede.
During a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, Trump called that decision by the high court “very unfair” and said the new orders were an attempt to end birthright citizenship by other means.
“Our country suffers because of it, and we’re ending it a different way,” he said.
Trump promised “big crackdowns” on birth tourism, or the practice of pregnant foreign mothers coming to the United States, or foreign fathers using surrogates already in the U.S., specifically to ensure their children receive U.S. citizenship.
Trump said an entire industry has been built up around the practice, turning birthright citizenship into “a joke.”
“Wealthy people are building businesses around birthright citizenship. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. It’s a disgrace,” he said. “They’re buying their way in, and we’re not going to let it happen.”
The orders were immediately criticized by proponents of birthright citizenship as an indefensible attempt by the president and his administration to make an end run around the Supreme Court’s clear finding that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution cannot be undone by the president.
This is ridiculous, and it’s not going to take a lot of folks’minds off day-to-day living expenses. Also, what about the escalation of that nonsense war you started with Israel? And speaking of foreign affairs, ProPublica‘s Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Sharon Lerner follow the money that’s supposed to go to foreign aid projects as provided by Congress. It seems Trump might be reallocating to things he considers more appropriate. “What Is the Trump Administration Doing With Foreign Aid Money? The billions of dollars Congress has allocated for foreign aid programs must be spent. One proposal from the Trump administration suggested funding research on crime against Afrikaners in South Africa.”
Since he returned to office, President Donald Trump’s administration has upended foreign aid. It’s labeled well-established, long-running programs as “not aligned with American interests” and slashed their budgets.
Still, the billions of taxpayer dollars Congress has allocated for foreign aid programs must be spent; lawmakers have insisted the government continue to fund humanitarian aid, global health and pro-democracy causes around the world. With most of the old programs now gone, however, we wanted to know: What is the Trump administration doing with that money now?
Recently, we published our investigation that found one answer to that question in a little-known bureau of the State Department that has dramatically transformed under Trump. For decades, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, known as DRL, has supported human rights in some of the most oppressive countries in the world. Now, our reporting found, it’s planning to direct funds to controversial groups supporting right-wing causes in Europe and elsewhere.
Our full story lays out some of the groups the government has considered funding, which include a British free-speech organization that has fought against bans on “gay conversion therapy” and a British American think tank created this year to focus on “existential threats to Britain, to America, and to our shared Judeo-Christian civilisation.” (Administration officials dropped that grant after significant pushback from Congress.)
One proposed grant particularly caught our attention: Trump administration officials suggested funding research on crime against minority populations in South Africa.
It’s clear from sources we spoke with that the key targeted minority population in question is the white ethnic group known as Afrikaners. Afrikaners were responsible for creating the nation’s infamous and brutal racially segregated apartheid system. Previously, DRL staff had been told to begin the process of awarding funds to a group called Lex Libertas, which was founded by a controversial figure who has called for Afrikaner self-governance. The group is currently fundraising to place 3,000 white crosses on the National Mall in remembrance of attacks on South African farmers.
The proposed grant was later opened up to allow a broader set of invited groups to apply for $1 million of funding, though it is still intended for the same purpose, according to people with knowledge of the process. The State Department declined to say whether Lex Libertas will be among those invited to compete, citing ongoing deliberations, but said the Trump administration has serious concerns about the human rights situation in South Africa that need to be addressed. Lex Libertas did not respond to questions about the organization or the proposed grant.
Former diplomats who have worked extensively on human rights told us they were shocked that the victimization of white South Africans would be prioritized over the serious issues elsewhere in the region.
“It’s laughable to suggest that on the African continent, the prime issue of human rights concern is whites in South Africa,” one former agency official said when we asked him about the grant. South Africa is plagued by violence, but extensiveresearch has found that white South African farmers are not victims of crime at higher rates than other groups.
As usual, Trump’s biggest bugbear is people of color. It amazes me that Congress just can’t (or won’t) figure out a way to stop this. We’ve have breaking news today that Todd Blanche will be the next AG. Once again, Senator Bill Cassiday, Lousyana, has folded. Any chance of doing the right thing just is not possible for him. This is from the New York Times. “Cassidy Will Back Blanche, Salvaging His Confirmation. The Louisiana senator said that, despite reservations, he would back President Trump’s pick for attorney general, giving Republicans enough votes for a majority.” He’s the Doctor Senator who also enabled RFK jr to climb on his wrecking ball and go after our Health System. The story is reported by Michael Gold and Carl Hulse.
Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, said on Friday that he would support Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general, effectively saving the confirmation of President Trump’s pick after two other Republican senators said they would oppose him.
Mr. Cassidy, who lost his re-election bid to a Trump-backed challenger, said in a speech on the Senate floor that he had deep concerns about “apparent lawfare,” the phrase he has used to refer to the Justice Department’s targeting of the president’s political enemies.
But Mr. Cassidy said that after much consideration, he had come to believe that Mr. Blanche, who has served as the president’s personal lawyer, would be better positioned to push back against Mr. Trump’s norm-busting demands than an alternative.
“Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this,” Mr. Cassidy said. “But the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche. It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general, who may not run the department effectively under President Trump.”
He announced his decision hours after Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska became the second Republican to oppose Mr. Blanche’s confirmation, joining Senator Susan Collins of Maine. That threw the nominee’s fate into doubt, given that he could not afford additional Republican defectors, and intensified attention on Mr. Cassidy.
Ms. Murkowski said in a statement that she, too, harbored concerns over the “politicization” of the Justice Department. But the conclusion she reached was the opposite of Mr. Cassidy’s: She said that she feared that Mr. Blanche would “fail to check the worst impulses of this administration.”
Ms. Murkowski cited the department’s handling of the release of the Epstein files, which Mr. Blanche oversaw, and the settlement agreement that Mr. Blanche negotiated in Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against the I.R.S., which included the creation of a $1.8 billion compensation fund that could have been used to pay people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“The country needs an attorney general who will check the worst impulses of this administration,” Ms. Murkowski said. “I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.”
Ms. Collins, who is running for re-election in a state that Mr. Trump lost in 2024, said on Tuesday that she would vote against Mr. Blanche over similar concerns. Given the continued absence of Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who has been gone for nearly eight weeks because of illness, Mr. Blanche could afford to lose no more than two Republican votes and still win a majority for confirmation over the opposition of Democrats.
We lose again, as Steve Benen explains the latest attack on renewable energy in the Maddow Blog. “Team Trump uses taxpayer money to scuttle yet another renewable energy project. As one key Democratic member of Congress summarized, “It is hard to imagine a more backwards use of taxpayer money.”
There’s no shortage of lessons to be learned from the U.S. war with Iran, but high on the list is that it’s in Americans’ interest to embrace renewable energy — not just because it’s cleaner and cheaper, but also because it helps shield consumers from international turmoil in an increasingly volatile sector.
It’s a basic idea the Trump administration doesn’t want to understand. The New York Times reported this week:
The Trump administration will pay the German energy firm RWE $1.22 billion to abandon plans to build wind farms off the coasts of New York, California and Louisiana, the company announced on Thursday. […]
Under the agreement, RWE will voluntarily surrender three leases it owned for wind farms in federal waters.
If this sounds at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. In March, the Republican administration announced that it had agreed to pay a foreign company almost $1 billion in American taxpayer money to abandon two wind farm projects that would have produced enough electricity to power more than 1.3 million homes and businesses across New York, New Jersey and North Carolina.
At the administration’s insistence, the company will instead proceed with different energy projects that will cost more and pollute more. Put another way, thanks to a model imposed by President Donald Trump, many American consumers will pay for the privilege of paying more to turn on the lights, all while polluting our own air.
Then in April, it happened again, when the Republican administration announced plans to pay energy companies almost $900 million to abandon plans for two offshore wind farms. Two months later, Team Trump spent $765 million to buy back another group of offshore wind leases.
In late June, a fourth example emerged, when the administration announced plans to pay Duke Energy $129 million to abandon an offshore wind project off the coast of North Carolina.
With a fifth instance this week, the combined price tag for the developments is approaching $4 billion.
I remain mindful that the president has been on a personal crusade against wind power since he lost a fight a decade ago to block a project visible from one of his golf courses in Scotland. This generated such fanatical hatred for wind power that Trump, in 2019, publicly suggested that the sound generated by wind turbines “causes cancer.” (It does not.)
But that doesn’t make the latest developments any easier to defend. At a time when the U.S. would benefit from more renewable energy projects, the Trump administration keeps spending billions to scuttle renewable energy projects.
And it’s not like the business sector does us any favors either. Take a look at this article from CNBC. “Trump teased an Iran deal that didn’t come, but markets soared. Here’s why it keeps happening.” I’d like to make a suggestion that there is no such thing as a rational market when all the leaders in your government are incompetent and self-dealing. There’s only actors with money trying to get the most out of it. Kevin Breuninger has the analysis.
The Trump administration this week sparked enthusiasm that the U.S. and Iran could soon strike a deal on the Strait of Hormuz, driving down oil prices and sending stocks soaring — only for no deal to emerge.
If that sounds familiar, it may be because President Donald Trump has claimed dozens of times that the U.S. is close to an agreement that will end the war it began more than five months ago.
Investors have reacted to many of those claims with bursts of buying on hopes a breakthrough is near, even as the war instead appears to be widening and progress on Trump’s chief stated goal — containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions — is at a standstill.
“There’s tremendous optimism bias in the market,” Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, told CNBC.
Markets continue to assume incentives for both the U.S. and Iran favor a diplomatic end to the war. But some investors seem to “see a deal as a time machine” that will reset the Middle East to its prewar status quo, even though that’s unlikely to happen, Croft said.
The conflict of late centers on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for the global oil trade that has became a source of major leverage for Iran.
Tehran’s ability to effectively close the strait — an open, un-tolled international waterway before the war started — triggered a global energy supply shock that drove up gas prices, exacerbated inflation and raised alarms about oil reserves.
Even those who believe diplomacy remains a viable path to peace acknowledge the future of the strait presents an intractable problem.
“There still appears to be a fundamental difference over the fate of Hormuz: Iran wants to impose a service fee, while the US wants the pre-war situation restored, i.e., international, free waters in the Strait,” Claudio Galimberti, partner and chief economist at Rystad Energy, said by email.
White House stooge Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen keeps singing “The sun will come out Tommorow, Bet your bottom dollar, that tomorrow there’ll be sun.” Ayup.
Okay, enough of today. Let’s just hope for the best over the weekend.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
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Yesterday…would you believe I paid over 16 bucks for a dozen hot Krispy Kreme donuts? Well, I did. It was unexpected. When the woman told me how much they were, I almost spit. But by then I could smell them, and it was too late. I needed those hot melt in your mouth delicious treats.
The cost of everything is through the roof!
A few news items:
NEW: Meta has run dozens of paid ads that include explicit, AI-generated child sexual abuse material in recent months. Some as recently as this week."These are ads that were reviewed, approved, and allowed to run by Meta, never encountering interference while the company collected the ad dollars."
On a private call, Todd Blanche said his goal was to make the "Dobbs decision permanent in every single state."This isn’t just a confirmation vote anymore—it’s a roll-call vote on which Senators endorse BANNING abortion in ALL 50 states.I’m voting NO.
I hope some of these aren’t repeats from last week. I don’t remember if I posted them before or not…everything starts to run into each other nowadays. You all take it easy, this is an open thread.
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The Sky Dancing banner headline uses a snippet from a work by artist Tashi Mannox called 'Rainbow Study'. The work is described as a" study of typical Tibetan rainbow clouds, that feature in Thanka painting, temple decoration and silk brocades". dakinikat was immediately drawn to the image when trying to find stylized Tibetan Clouds to represent Sky Dancing. It is probably because Tashi's practice is similar to her own. His updated take on the clouds that fill the collection of traditional thankas is quite special.
You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.
There’s a lot more at the link if you’re interested. As I mentioned before, the campaign mood this year is peak mud slinging. This Rex Hupke Op-Ed at 
There’s plenty more where that comes from at the link. Scott McFarland, writing at his SubStack 
There’s so much bad policy and actions coming from Orange Caligula’s orders and policies that the press doesn’t appear to be able to keep up with it. I just recently read an article on the delegalization. This is a racist, xenophobic move by the Trump administration to remove immigrants here legally from the country. This is from 
This is ridiculous, and it’s not going to take a lot of folks’minds off day-to-day living expenses. Also, what about the escalation of that nonsense war you started with Israel? And speaking of foreign affairs, 
As usual, Trump’s biggest bugbear is people of color. It amazes me that Congress just can’t (or won’t) figure out a way to stop this. We’ve have breaking news today that Todd Blanche will be the next AG. Once again, Senator Bill Cassiday, Lousyana, has folded. Any chance of doing the right thing just is not possible for him. This is from the 
We lose again, as Steve Benen explains the latest attack on renewable energy in the 
And it’s not like the business sector does us any favors either. Take a look at this 
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