“Seventy-five years ago, my father and I gazed down from the stands at Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle in the outfield at Yankee Stadium. I was thrilled by the sight of two heroes of my time, but Dad was not impressed. He had seen Babe Ruth. I think about that now, in a time desperate for such symbolic representatives of our better selves, which we once derived from sports figures like Mickey, Joe, and the Babe. They distracted us from pain and poverty. They gave us hope. I wonder if the answer to ‘Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?’ (that line from Simon and Garfunkel’s famed song ‘Mrs. Robinson’) is the same as to so many other wrenching questions these days: Donald Trump. Consider the following: Until he wore himself (and his welcome) out with such excess, he was indeed superb at commanding attention and winning ugly.” (04/12/26)
“You know what a blanket party is. Popular at sleepover parties, military barracks and prisons, it’s when you throw a blanket over someone’s head so that everyone can take free shots to the guest of honor’s head and ribs. California Democrats, and some in Washington as well, threw a surprise blanket party for Rep. Eric Swalwell Friday night. I don’t mean to traffic in redundancy. A party like this is by definition a surprise for the guy under the blanket. The real surprise is that it was organized at all. Mr. Swalwell, 45, is a seven-term congressman from the Bay Area. He ran for president in 2020, staying in the race just long enough to participate in one debate. … you have to imagine someone backstage on the Biden team, aka the Democratic Party Machine, writing Mr. Swalwell’s name in a little book under the heading ‘Dead Men.'” (04/13/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Everyone hates Israel now, which is as it should be. But we all need to understand that Israel has never acted alone. If Israel were acting alone, it would be an asshole with a pointy stick instead of an asshole with an attack helicopter. The west gave it the attack helicopter. An asshole with a pointy stick is not much of a problem. The world is full of assholes with pointy sticks. Get yourself your own pointy stick and you can deter their aggressions without much difficulty. An asshole with an attack helicopter can ruin everyone’s day. He can fuck everything up and kill whoever he wants — even people who have pointy sticks. He doesn’t need to negotiate with anyone. He doesn’t need to be polite or diplomatic. You just have to give him whatever he wants or he’ll fly over there and chain gun you and your family.” (04/13/26)
“The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 and has grown to 32 nations. Not surprisingly, the United States of America is the largest contributor to the organization, supplying 16 percent of the overall NATO budget and having the largest expenditure on national defense, totaling $980 billion, which is 62 percent of the overall defense spending of all member nations. Realizing that many nations were freeloading and not contributing their fair share, in 2014, the leadership of NATO mandated that members spend at least two percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense spending. Unfortunately, in 2024, then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg admitted that nine member nations had still not met their two percent goal. The new goal for NATO is for members to spend 3.5 percent of their annual budget on defense spending by 2035. Currently, only three nations have met that goal.” (04/13/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
“After the breakdown of talks in Pakistan, the ceasefire between the US and Iran is more fragile than ever, and now seems likely to give way to a new phase of the war. The ceasefire and talks have failed to end Israel’s devastating attacks on Lebanon or to negotiate international access to the Strait of Hormuz, now under Iran’s control. The world must use this pause in the war to push for a permanent ceasefire and peace agreement, but we must also start to assess the true human cost of the war–something the US is always reluctant to do in its wars, from Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan. While we always know the exact number of Americans killed in these wars, we never have an accurate tally of how many people we have killed …” (04/13/26)
“Colorado mom Dana Grueser is still trying to piece together how her sweet son ended up on a locked ward screaming at her for being a Nazi and begging for his phone. … When her son Ari was 14 and starting high school, Dana says, his friend group fell apart. He and his girlfriend broke up, and his parents separated, too. Dana encouraged him to go outside, but he said no one else was out there. He started spending more time online. Dana wasn’t too worried. She’d set up parental controls. And yet, she would later learn, Ari got to the point where he was eluding all the safeguards and spending 12-14 hours online a day. Online he made new ‘friends,’ who urged him to do things like carve pentagrams and upside down crosses on his chest.” (04/12/26)
“Faced with growing backlash, US President Donald Trump appears to have removed a controversial Truth Social post depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure. The AI-generated image, which showed Trump appearing to heal a sick man in a hospital bed, sparked fierce backlash from both sides of the US political spectrum, including from some of Trump’s most ardent supporters. The post came just hours after Trump posted a lengthy message criticising Pope Leo XIV, a vocal critic of the US and Israeli military operation in Iran. Trump acknowledged posting the picture, telling reporters he thought it was ‘me as a doctor.’ The now-deleted image showed Trump, wearing a white robe, with a glowing hand on the forehead of a sick man, which critics said was similar to religious paintings showing Jesus healing the infirm.” (04/13/26)
“A former Nigerian oil minister accused of staying in luxury homes for free and enjoying lavish spending sprees in exchange for government contracts denied taking bribes as she gave evidence in a London court on Monday. Diezani Alison-Madueke, 65, is accused of benefiting from access to multimillion-pound U.K. homes that were paid for and refurnished by energy firms seeking government contracts in Nigeria. Prosecutors allege that she benefited from private jets, a chauffeur-driven car and shopping trips including 2 million pounds ($2.7 million) spent at Harrods, a famed London department store. They also allege that she received 100,000 pounds ($135,000) in cash while she was Nigerian minister of petroleum resources from April 2010 to May 2015. Giving evidence at Southwark Crown Court in London, Alison-Madueke said ‘I did not abuse my office during that period.’ She denies five counts of accepting bribes and a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery.” (04/13/26)
Source: The American Prospect
by Daniel Boguslaw & James Baratta
“This week, the Congressional Black Caucus will quietly support an effort to reauthorize surveillance powers that were used to spy on Black Lives Matter activists in 2020, the Prospect has learned. According to multiple congressional sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, CBC support for the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) comes after Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the powerful ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, successfully lobbied CBC leadership to stand down on reforming the vast intelligence authority. Section 702 grants U.S. intelligence agencies the authority to collect communications data on foreign intelligence targets abroad. In practice, however, it has allowed those agencies to amass troves of data on American citizens.” (04/13/26)
“Hungary’s opposition Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, has won the election, bringing an end to Viktor Orbán’s 16-year grip on power, in a result that is likely to rattle the White House and reshape the country’s relationship with the EU. Less than three hours after polls closed on Sunday, Orbán conceded defeat after what he described as a ‘painful but unambiguous’ election result. … With 98.74% of the vote counted, Magyar’s Tisza party was projected to have won 138 of the 199 seats in the country’s parliament, giving them a super-majority capable of amending the constitution and key laws, suggesting they would be able to reverse some of the changes made by Orbán and Fidesz, and potentially unlock EU funds.” (04/12/26)
