“Iran’s military has reportedly readied ballistic missiles for possible launch against U.S. bases in the Middle East after President Donald Trump renewed his threat to wage war on the country if it does not reach an agreement with his administration regarding nuclear weapons — which American intelligence agencies have repeatedly found Tehran is not building. Trump discussed Iran during a Sunday phone call with NBC News'[s] Kristen Welker, telling her that ‘if they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing, and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before’ …. Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran’s theocratic government, warned Monday that ‘if any hostile act is committed from outside, though the likelihood is not high, it will undoubtedly be met with a strong counterstrike.'” (03/31/25)
“Anyone who remembered Donald Trump’s first-term as president knew what to expect. So it’s no surprise to them that virtually every day brings a new outrage, another crisis and unabated turmoil. If you’re a federal employee or a private firm worker with a government contract, no matter how competent, you worry that come tomorrow you won’t have a job to support your family. If you’re on Social Security or Medicare you fret opening your emails. If you’re a farmer who invested money in a Department of Agriculture program, you may be out of luck. If you’re a parent with a child in special education or a dependent with a disability you worry about losing any government assistance. You might say that on Nov. 5, 2024, we asked for all this and now we must live with it.” (03/31/25)
“The world’s richest man is dying to figure out how lawmakers on Capitol Hill got ‘strangely wealthy’ despite their comparatively modest public salaries. Speaking at a town hall in Wisconsin Sunday night, Elon Musk suggested that his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will investigate how certain members of Congress have achieved generational wealth. One attendee at the town hall had asked Musk if DOGE had uncovered evidence of funds wired from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to Rep. Maxine Waters [D-CA], Sen. Adam Schiff [D-CA] and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer [D-NY]. ‘They’ll [the government] send the money overseas to one NGO [non-governmental organization], then they’ll go through a bunch of them, and then I’m highly confident that a bunch of that money then comes back to the United States and lands in the pockets of the people you just mentioned,’ Musk replied.” (03/31/25)
“When Donald Trump entered office, he faced a number of choices that had confronted the last three Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. They all had the choice to either shrink government and reduce deficits or slow government growth while cutting taxes. They had the choice of using American power to restore deterrence by invading belligerents (e.g., Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan) or targeting enemies without deploying ground troops to change governments. Republicans could either impose tariffs to ensure trade balances and fair trade or argue that free, even if unfair, trade was in the U.S.’s interest by lowering consumer prices, keeping domestic producers competitive, and assuming foreign subsidies were unsustainable.” [editor’s note: Hanson’s IQ seems to diminish with each op-ed he writes – TLK] (03/31/25)
“A British toddler was kicked out of a nursery school after being accused of being transphobic or homophobic, according to local media reports. The child, aged 3 or 4, was kicked out of an unnamed school nursery ‘for being transphobic,’ the Telegraph reported Monday. The name of the school and details of the case were not disclosed by the Department for Education (DfE) of the United Kingdom, the report said. A DfE spokesman told the newspaper that ‘all pupils and staff should feel safe and protected at school and should never face violence or abuse.’ Statistics revealed that 94 students at state primary schools were suspended or permanently excluded for transphobia and homophobia in 2022-23. That figure includes 10 students from year one and three from year two, where the maximum age is seven, the report states.” [editor’s note: I’m confused; did this preschool tot make some comment about the hair-color or piercings on one of the “teachers?” – SAT] (03/31/25)
“The United States Treasury sanctioned six people and seven companies Monday for alleged money laundering for factions of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, underscoring the group’s new designation as a foreign terrorist organization under the Trump administration. The designation aimed at ‘targeting the financial operations’ of the cartel, which has raked in money by trafficking fentanyl to the United States, came as part of an investigation by U.S. and Mexican government agencies. The Treasury said those listed used ‘a network of front companies and shell corporations’ to launder money, often using things like currency exchange businesses along the U.S.-Mexico border and larger bulk cash pickups.” (03/31/25)
Source: In These Times
by Frederick Clarkson & Ben Lorber
“On October 12, 2024, tens of thousands of people thronged outside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., for what organizers called the ’A Million Women’ rally. The event was staged by a clutch of leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a dynamic and fast-growing Christian Right movement that has influenced hundreds of millions of people around the world, including tens of millions in the United States. Timed to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the themes of the gathering included winning Christian ’dominion’ over political institutions, mobilizing voters and — in keeping with the movement’s focus on the idea of spiritual warfare — exorcizing demons from the Capitol. But, although what limited media attention the event drew didn’t cover it, another major purpose was rallying support for Israel.” (03/31/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The US launched 65 airstrikes in 24 hours in Yemen, and then Trump’s intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard tweeted, ‘President Trump IS the President of Peace. He is ending bloodshed across the world and will deliver lasting peace in the Middle East.’ These freaks have no connection with reality. … I saw a video the other day of a father cradling the decapitated head of his son from an airstrike in Gaza, and I’m told I’m a terrorist supporter if I criticize the people who decapitated him. … The word ‘terrorist’ is a meaningless tool of imperial narrative control. Want to bomb some people? Designate them as terrorists. Want to silence protesters and dissidents? Say they’re supporting terrorists. Want sweeping surveillance powers? Say you need them to fight terrorism.” (03/30/25)
“Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators have returned to the streets of Istanbul, Turkey, to show support for the city’s jailed mayor. Ekrem Imamoglu, who is seen as the main rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was arrested on corruption charges last week, sparking mass protests. He denies the charges and says his arrest was politically motivated. Saturday’s crowds were so large they spilled from the site of the protest into a neighbouring park. The chairman of Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) addressed demonstrators, reading out a letter from the jailed politician who is being held in solitary confinement.” (03/30/25)
“When we finally learn the full melodrama of the so-called Signal 1-2 day ‘scandal’ of inviting a leftwing, Trump-despising, Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg onto a supposedly secure conference list, involving most of the top Trump security officials, lots of questions need asking and answering. Most importantly, who exactly had Goldberg’s private number, and ostensibly (in error [?]) could have possibly inserted it into the cleared list of participants in the discussions? Why Goldberg, rather than some random person of some 345 million Americans? So why in the world would any top Trump officials or their staffers ever even have Goldberg’s private contact information, given his quite public record of: a) fabricating stories with unnamed sources, and b) suffering from a decade of chronic Trump derangement syndrome? Did Goldberg know the mechanisms that had prompted and continued his stealthy presence on the secure discussions?” (03/29/25)
