“The moment that Elon Musk’s most ardent critics have been waiting for has finally arrived as he exits the Trump administration and hands over control of the Department of Government Efficiency. They will assure us that the results have been an embarrassing failure, but they could not be more wrong. Musk has forever changed how Americans look at federal spending, and that is a wonderful thing. First of all, DOGE estimates that it has saved taxpayers $160 billion. A sneering NPR claims that there is only data to prove $63 billion, but even if that is true, that’s an enormous amount of waste being cut..” [editor’s note: Now if only the actual bill(s) start including those actual cuts – SAT] (05/29/25)
“A South African woman convicted of kidnapping and trafficking her six-year-old daughter has been sentenced to life in prison, along with her two accomplices. The jail terms for Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn come more than a year after Joshlin Smith mysteriously disappeared outside her home in Saldanha Bay, near Cape Town. Despite a highly publicised search for the girl, who vanished in February 2024, she is yet to be found. South African prosecutors say she was sold into slavery however this was not definitively proven during the trial. It is believed that Smith, who was addicted to drugs, needed the money. The sentencing follows an eight-week trial that captivated South Africa, with witnesses and prosecutors making a number of shocking allegations. Judge Nathan Erasmus said he ‘drew no distinction’ between the trio in handing down the sentences.” (05/29/25)
“A federal judge on Thursday extended an order blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to bar Harvard University from enrolling foreign students. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs extended the block she imposed last week with a temporary restraining order on the government action. Harvard sued the Department of Homeland Security on Friday after Secretary Kristi Noem revoked its ability to host foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On Thursday, the Trump administration announced a new effort to revoke Harvard’s certification to enroll foreign students. In a letter sent by the acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, Todd Lyons, the government gave Harvard 30 days to respond to the alleged grounds for withdrawal, which include accusations that Harvard coordinated with foreign entities and failed to respond sufficiently to antisemitism on campus.” (05/29/25)
“On May 22, in 90-degree heat, a group of workers circled in front of Rep. Steve Scalise’s office in Metairie, Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans. The workers, members of the Federal Unionists Network (FUN) and Step Up Louisiana, were just one small fraction of a growing group of organized public employees fighting back against the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on the working class. President Donald Trump wants a Scott Walker moment, a Ronald Reagan moment, perhaps even a Margaret Thatcher moment: a big, dramatic showdown with public employees in which he can appear all-powerful and mercilessly crush them. Accompanied by Elon Musk, the president issued an executive order on March 27 to strip collective bargaining rights from more than 800,000 federal employees.” (05/28/25)
“Good things don’t come in threes. Venus is concealing at least three city-killer asteroids that could strike Earth in weeks without warning, potentially wreaking havoc upon our planet before we can react. ‘Twenty co-orbital asteroids (space rocks in the orbit of two celestial bodies) of Venus are currently known,’ the authors warned in the arockcalyptic study, which was published in the journal ‘Astronomy and Astrophysics. The international research team, led by Valerio Carruba of Sao Paolo University in Brazil, wrote that at least three of the asteroids — 2020 SB, 524522, and 2020 CL1 — that circle the Sun in tandem with our twin planet have unstable orbits that take them dangerously close to Earth, The Daily Mail reported. If this shaky trajectory is shifted only slightly by a small gravitational change or other force, they could be set on a collision course with our planet, per the study.” (05/28/25)
“Astronomers have discovered a strange new object in our Milky Way galaxy. An international team reported Wednesday that this celestial object — perhaps a star, pair of stars or something else entirely — is emitting X-rays around the same time it’s shooting out radio waves. What’s more, the cycle repeats every 44 minutes, at least during periods of extreme activity. Located 15,000 light-years away in a region of the Milky Way brimming with stars, gas and dust, this object could be a highly magnetized dead star like a neutron or white dwarf, Curtin University’s Ziteng Andy Wang said in an email from Australia. Or it could be ‘something exotic’ and unknown, said Wang, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.” (05/28/25)
“He’s been banned from making movies. Banned from giving interviews. Banned from traveling. But, impelled by a commitment to independent thought and expression, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi can’t help but defy such restraints by his autocratic government. He did this in the limelight last Friday, accepting in person the top honor at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Mr. Panahi’s winning movie, ‘Un Simple Accident’, appears to be both humane and highly political. Its message and manner of production spotlight opposing facets of Iranian society: civilians’ unabated aspirations for freedom, for a system that embodies both justice and mercy; and the inhumane and repressive practices of a theocratic regime. ‘I have become a filmmaker in spite of restrictions,’ Mr. Panahi told The Guardian. He has been jailed twice, and the film draws on his prison experience. ‘The fear of being arrested is constant,’ he admitted.” (05/27/25)
“Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he wants his country to join a major European plan to bolster defences by 1 July. Speaking to CBC on Tuesday, Carney said he hoped Canada would sign on to ReArm Europe – a plan to dramatically increase defence spending on the continent to in the next five years – in a bid to reduce reliance on the US. ‘Seventy-five cents of every (Canadian) dollar of capital spending for defence goes to the United States. That’s not smart,’ Carney told the public broadcaster. His remarks come amid tension with the US after threats from President Donald Trump – though Carney has also previously said he is open to joining a missile defence project proposed by Trump. A day after Carney’s remarks, Canada’s defence minister told a military trade show that his country wanted to quickly boost defence capacity in the face of growing global threats.” (05/28/25)
“Eighty-one years ago, on May 31, 1944, General George Patton walked before the 6th Armored Division before the D-Day invasion and told the troops a simple, inescapable fact about war: ‘No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country’. It is a cautionary speech that might well be given in Harvard Square this week as the fight between the university and the Trump administration escalates. By the end of this war (regardless of the outcome), the Trump administration is likely to win even if it loses in the courts. The Trump administration has committed to total war with Harvard on multiple fronts. It is threatening the school’s tax-exempt status, denying the ability to admit foreign students, freezing grants, and launching a myriad of investigations.” (05/28/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Now that it’s been made clear that Israel’s goal in Gaza is the complete ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians, Israel apologists have been shifting from bleating about hostages and Hamas to arguing that ethnic cleansing is actually fine and good. Which makes sense; that’s really the only argument they can make at this point. … Never forget that the US Congress gave Netanyahu dozens of standing ovations during a single speech while he was in the middle of perpetrating history’s first live-streamed genocide. This is who they are. It will always be who they are. … Israel has done more to promote hatred toward Jews in the last year and a half than Stormfront has in its entire existence. No white supremacist propaganda will ever be as effective at spreading hatred against Jews as openly mass murdering children under a Star of David flag.” (05/28/25)
