Source: CounterPunch
by Matthew Stevenson
“Having seen Trump shuffle spasmodically to the Village People’s Y.M.C.A., I think we can rule out dancing as the motivation to construct a $400 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom where the East Wing of the White House once stood. We can also rule out the most recent reason given for the construction of such a Reichskanzlei, which is that only in a Führerbunker funded by tech bros and Epstein patrons will this president ever feel safe. This leads us back to the original intent of the Trump administration with all its tariffs, foreign wars, Musk budget cuts, and endless boondoggles (like the ‘free’ Qatari airplane): graft and corruption to the sole benefit of Thirty Percenter (normally his take on the vig) Donald J. Trump, proprietor.” (05/01/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/01/humpty-trumpty-sat-on-a-ballroom/
Source: SFGate
“Two makers of the widely used abortion pill mifepristone asked the Supreme Court on Saturday to block an appellate court ruling that cut off mail-order access to the drug just a day earlier, in what was the biggest jolt to abortion policy in the U.S. since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Danco Laboratories asked the high court for an emergency pause on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, saying the appellate ruling ‘injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions.’ GenBioPro, which makes a generic version of mifepristone, made a similar request.” [editor’s note: While this pill does work a bit further along than Plan B, it is useless if not taken in the early part of first trimester; it is not a late term procedure and should not be anyone’s business – SAT](05/02/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/a-federal-court-blocked-a-widely-used-abortion-22237880.php
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“Trump wants us to think that tariffs — his favorite word — are paid by exporters; you know, those crafty foreign manufacturers who’ve been exploiting us American naifs from time immemorial. Stop the presses! He’s wrong. To state what should have been known, U.S. tariffs are taxes that American importers of foreign-made goods pay to customs officials at ports of entry. While under unusual market conditions, an American importer might persuade an exporter to lower his price to offset the tariff, this did not happen with most of Trump’s tariffs.” (5/01/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-straight-talk-on-tariffs
Source: In These Times
by Hamilton Nolan
“May Day is for the workers. In some beautiful future, every worker will get May Day off. One day. But not yet. For now, it can also serve as a day when you remember the workers who are still working, and think about how you could make their lives better. On my way from Brooklyn to the May Day rally in Washington Square Park yesterday, I saw all the people working who make New York City work. The Mexican construction crew sitting in a line against a concrete wall on my block, covered in dust, taking a break from building the building across the street. The woman selling them lunches out of a big plastic cooler. The woman pulling hot metal trays out of the steam table at the restaurant on the corner.” (05/02/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/may-day-workers-labor-movement-new-york-city
Source: KFOR News
“A metro homeowner shot an alleged intruder Friday night and sent the suspect to the hospital, according to police. … Officials said it appeared to be a first-degree burglary, possibly turned self-defense. … The homeowner was not injured in the situation, per police.” (05/02/26)
https://kfor.com/news/metro-homeowner-shoots-alleged-intruder-friday-night/
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Energy Insider REVEALS What’s Killing Your Electric Bill (…and it’s NOT AI).” (05/01/26)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/energy-insider-reveals-whats-killing-your-electric-bill-and-its-not-ai
Source: The Bulwark
by Cathy Young
“As Trump once again calls for Jimmy Kimmel’s firing, many purported defenders of the First Amendment have betrayed their signature cause.” (05/01/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-free-speech-warriors-who-now-love-cancel-culture-trump-kimmel-kirk-fcc-abc-first-amendment
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“As Iranians marked the failure of the U.S. military to defeat their country and indeed celebrated a perceived victory, Iran’s parliamentary speaker and head of the negotiating team, Mohammad Ghalibaf, insisted that ‘we are not stronger than the United States in military power.’ Ghalibaf suggested Iran shouldn’t expect to ‘destroy’ the enemy, but instead should translate its battlefield gains into diplomatic leverage. U.S. officials have shown less humility. … Though Iran has been hammered, Ghalibaf may be right to think the Islamic Republic has won diplomatic leverage — and the proud people of Iran whom he chided may be closer to the truth than the boastful Americans. The most obvious source of newfound diplomatic leverage for Iran is its effective control of the Strait of Hormuz, but battlefield outcomes have also made Tehran think it has the advantage in negotiations.” (0501/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/one-big-reason-iran-thinks-it-has-the-advantage/
Source: Associated Press
“President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, effectively ending the partial government shutdown that began in February. The U.S. House had approved the measure hours earlier following White House warnings that emergency funding for DHS would run out as soon as Friday. The funding bill’s passage comes after more than a month of House Republican opposition to the plan, which advanced unanimously out of the Senate in late March.” (04/30/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/30/congress-dhs-tsa-funding.html
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution provides that ‘the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.’ The right to vote does not imply any guarantee of Pantone Matching System [TM] closeness in skin tone between the candidates elected and the voting majorities in districts. Nor should it. If you’re voting on the basis of skin color, You. Are. A. Racist.” (04/30/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20560
