“Middle East Eye reports that Saudi Arabia pressured the Trump administration to cease bombing Yemen in advance of his planned trip to the Kingdom next week because such raids would be an embarrassment for him and his host. U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he was convinced that the Houthis were sincere in their new pledge to cease targeting shipping in the Red Sea. The subtext here is that people in the region believe the U.S. is bombing an Arab country on behalf of Israeli shipping in the Red Sea and to protect Israel from repercussions for its Gaza genocide. Attacking the Houthis, who are not otherwise popular, on these grounds while Trump is in Riyadh would make it look like Saudi Arabia is also running interference for the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” (05/07/25)
“The restaurant belonging to the husband of CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell was raided by ICE on Tuesday. A local D.C. Fox affiliate reported that ICE agents went into ‘Chef Geoff’s’ restaurant in D.C. that morning and asked to see staff members’ I-9 forms proving they are legally allowed to work in the U.S. The visit reportedly sent staff into ‘a panic.’ ‘Chef Geoff’s’ is owned by Geoff Tracy, who is married to the longtime CBS News anchor and correspondent. According to Fox 5, ‘Nearly a dozen law enforcement and immigration officials wearing DHS uniforms’ went into the restaurant located on New Mexico Avenue, Northwest. The agents were at Tracy’s restaurant for around 90 minutes, though no one was taken into custody.” (05/07/25)
“We’ve gotten a new tidbit of information about efforts by the Biden White House and some in the press to cover up President Joe Biden’s age-related infirmity. It comes from a new book, 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, by reporters Tyler Pager, Josh Dawsey and Isaac Arnsdorf of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, respectively. The authors report that ‘top White House aides debated having [Biden] undergo a cognitive test to prove his fitness for a second term but ultimately decided against the move,’ according to a report on the book in the New York Times. The revelation is the latest in a series of news nuggets about the 82-year-old Biden’s senescence — stories like White House aides putting tape on the floor so that Biden wouldn’t wander off course — that have been included in new books about the 2024 election.” (05/07/25)
“Accused MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia allegedly worked as a ‘taxi service’ for a convicted human smuggler to transport illegal [sic] migrants from Texas to various locations across the United States, according to a report. Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, who was convicted of smuggling illegal [sic] migrants in 2020, told federal investigators that he previously operated a smuggling service based in Baltimore — and hired Abrego Garcia ‘on multiple occasions’ to transport border crossers across the country, ABC News reported. The Department of Justice sent federal agents to a prison in Talladega, Alabama, late last month to question Hernandez-Reyes, 38, about Abrego Garcia, the alleged gangbanger at the center of a high-profile court battle over his mistaken deportation from Maryland to El Salvador by the Trump administration.” (05/07/25)
“Three former Memphis officers were acquitted Wednesday of state charges, including second-degree murder, in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols after he ran away from a traffic stop in 2023. A jury, which appeared to be all white, took about 8 1/2 hours over two days to find Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith not guilty on all charges after a nine-day trial in state court in Memphis. After the jury’s verdict was read, the defendants hugged their lawyers as relatives of the former officers cried. One relative yelled, ‘Thank you, Jesus!’ The three defendants still face the prospect of years in prison after they were convicted of federal charges last year, though they were acquitted of the most serious charges then, too.” (05/07/25)
“Medicaid recipients with earnings at or above the federal poverty line would have to pay significant out-of-pocket expenses for their health care coverage, and work requirements would be placed on the program, according to a menu of items in the emerging Republican budget reconciliation proposal seen by the Prospect. The Medicaid cuts, part of the giant tax and spending package Republicans are readying using the reconciliation process to avoid a Senate filibuster, would also roll back Biden-era rules that improved staffing at nursing homes. And they would alter a number of eligibility and enrollment provisions that would make Medicaid harder to navigate for its 71 million-plus enrollees, a common tactic to reduce enrollment.” (05/07/25)
“When Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022, it promised to lower healthcare costs, particularly for Medicare beneficiaries. Central to this effort were two key provisions: Medicare’s Drug Price Negotiation Program and new price caps on selected drugs. That promise, however, may carry unintended costs for patients. Multiple studies since the law’s passage have suggested that those relying on the development of gene therapies or repurposed drugs could face reduced pharmaceutical innovation as a result of the heavy hand of government price setting. The IRA’s Drug Price Negotiation Program will likely trigger two troubling trends, the first being reduced investment in the development of new drugs …. Second, it will weaken incentives to finance research into the repurposing of existing drugs, which has historically yielded efficient, cost-effective breakthroughs—precisely because much of the underlying pharmacological data is already established.” (05/06/25)
“Ukraine made military history last week: One of its newest drones shot down a very expensive Russian fighter jet. Yet just as historic was who won credit for this feat. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first congratulated the military. But then he thanked ‘everyone developing and deploying new technological solutions’. By ‘everyone’ he meant thousands of people, even those tinkering with drones in their garage. The Russian invasion has ignited a burst of ingenious engineering in Ukraine and spawned hundreds of startups competing to push the boundaries of drone warfare week by week. Each milestone in drones on the battlefield has slowed Russia’s capabilities. It has also inspired Europe and the United States to boost their defense innovation.” (05/05/25)
“If the overwhelming deluge from the Trumpian firehose of lies, threats, incompetency, illegal actions, and surreality is sweeping you off your feet, driving you to bedridden depression, leaving you passive and breathlessly unable to mount a response, much less resistance, please get into the huddle, take a time-out, and listen up to your Jock Culture coach. (That’s me, of course!) You need some distraction. Have you noticed lately how few sports stories are making their way to the top of the news beams? That’s because sports — once upon a time our most reliable source of outrage, speculation, cultish behavior, and lessons in domination, smackdown intimidation, and faux masculinity — has been replaced by a remarkable series of presidential half-time horror shows. It’s now all Trumpiana all the time. We need to get back to sports.” (05/06/25)
“U.S. President Donald Trump, casting a covetous eye on Greenland, has my attention. I have a history in that place, so little known to Americans in general, having spent the entire year of 1964 at Thule Air Force Base, now Pitufik Space Station, 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The road I’ve traveled since has me deeply concerned about Trump in every respect—believing that everything he represents and wants is contrary to the best interests of our country, the world, and mankind altogether, excepting perhaps oligarchs. At Thule I was responsible for overseeing the maintenance of our air-to-air missiles and for supervising the loading of those missiles on board our F-102 fighter jets in the event of declared hostilities with our great ‘bugaboo’, the Soviet Union.” (05/06/25)
