Trump: "In 14 months, we've lifted 3.3 million American off of food stamps. That's a record. And Biden and his allies wrecked our country." pic.twitter.com/mBDcbFE09x
He “lifted” all those people from food stamps by cutting their aid and leaving them without food. But sure. He did that.
The big picture: The pinch of high prices for food, energy, housing and more has driven seismic shifts in public opinion over the last four years. Since the onset of the Iran war, the cost of living looks likely to get worse, not better, at least in the near term.
Energy prices are surging, interest rates are on the rise, and the stock market is looking wobbly — a triple whammy for U.S. households.
By the numbers: The national average for a gallon of gasoline is poised to surpass $4, up from about $3 a month ago — and is set to rise further the longer the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked.
Even before the latest energy shock, electricity prices were up 4.8% over the last year, and piped natural gas up 10.9%.
Higher energy prices will also likely show up in more expensive airfares and in shipping costs that could ripple through all sorts of goods.
Grocery prices are up 3.9% over the last year, and Iran’s blockade is throttling the global supply of fertilizer, which could create new pressures on food prices come harvest season.
He thinks his happy talk will tide people over until everything turns around because he’s always right about everything. Sure. That’ll happen.
Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the conflict (90%) and say the U.S. made the wrong decision in striking Iran (88%).
In contrast, about seven-in-ten Republicans and Republican leaners approve of how Trump is handling the conflict (69%) and think the U.S. made the right decision (71%).
Still, sizable shares of Republicans take the opposing views.
Republican-leaning independents, in particular, are divided. For instance, roughly half (52%) approve of Trump’s handling of the conflict, while 45% disapprove.
Or is it the stupid Republicans?
Still, they aren’t unanimous, especially among those GOP leaning Indies. They need them to win.
This isn’t really a huge endorsement either…
No wonder Trump says he wants to “move on” from Iran and take on Cuba, which will be much easier — at least in the beginning.
While Trump’s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran has rallied war hawks and his older supporters, it has alienated many of the young men who swung toward the GOP in 2024. That split is resonating among not only the rank-and-file, but also conservative media influencers and some corners of the White House.
The generational divide was on stark display at CPAC, the annual conservative base-rallying gathering, where some young MAGA loyalists expressed deep frustration and even anger at the Trump administration’s choice to reignite conflict in the Middle East. One month into the war, Trump’s shaky ground with young men threatens to fracture an already-fragile GOP coalition ahead of a hostile midterm in November.
At the conference in north Texas, some attendees carried around Iranian flags, pledging loyalty to the U.S. mission overseas, while others donned America First hats and preached about the need for anti-interventionism.
“Trump and Republicans in general are going to have major issues in the midterms, in 2028, if we can’t wrap this up in a relatively quick amount of time,” said 21-year-old Andrew Belcher, president of the Ohio College Republicans. He added that Trump is doing “relatively poorly” with hyper online young men who are influenced heavily by media figures like Tucker Carlson and other isolationists in the GOP.
As I’ve said, I don’t think he really cares much about his base anymore. He’s prefer not to have the Dems win in November but he thinks he can persuade people to believe it was stolen no matter how large the victory. And he’s sure that in the end history will remember this era the way he wants it to so … whatever. Right now he just wants to build his monuments. But the rest of the party has different needs…
“He thinks everything is transactional, he can deal with the deal one step at a time and see how things unfold, but war is fast, uncontrollable, unpredictable and deadly,” said Julian E. Zelizer, a Princeton history professor and the editor of a book of essays about Mr. Trump’s first term.
“He’s doing the same techniques he always does — threatening people, insulting people, seizing attention to what he wants to say — he’s learning that it doesn’t always work,” he added. “He’s doing the art of the deal in a way that’s just creating chaos.”
That’s from this article in the NY Times about Trump’s war. (gift link) It’s actually much too kind but it is interesting. He’s in so far over his head that it’s breaking him.
He loves the violence though. Just loves it:
“We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time — Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,” he wrote in a Truth Social post this month. “They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”
And his henchmen love to see it:
“President Trump is acting like a wartime president should — decisive, unafraid to use his constitutional authority and focused on protecting Americans rather than getting bogged down in the kind of endless and rudderless conflicts we saw under his predecessors,” said Mike Davis, who leads the Article III Project, a conservative advocacy group, and was an early supporter of Mr. Trump’s war.
“Presidents don’t need permission to defend the country, and the media and Democrats will do anything to delegitimize Operation Epic Fury,” he said. “President Trump’s legacy won’t be judged on process or polls, but on whether he succeeds in neutralizing the Iran threat and making Americans safer.”
Trump: "We have a thing called a war, or as they would rather say, a military operation. It's for legal reasons. Because as a military operation, I don't need any approvals. As a war you're supposed to get approval from Congress. Something like that. So I call it a military… pic.twitter.com/RN8To9mdfx
Trump knows what he’s doing is illegal.He says it right up front. But he’s immune from all accountability as long as he has 33 Republican sycophants in the U.S. Senate he won’t be impeached and the law can no longer touch him.
NATE SWANSON spent nearly two decades in the U.S. government, including most recently as a State Department representative on the Trump administration’s Iran negotiating team and previously as the National Security Council’s director for Iran in the Biden administration. Days before the U.S. bombed Iran, Swanson published a piece predicting that Iran would do exactly what it has done should the U.S. attack.
That’s expertise President DONALD TRUMP had available to him — until Swanson, a BARACK OBAMA holdover, was “forced out” of his post after a critical tweet from conservative podcaster LAURA LOOMER, Swanson said. Loomer did not return comment and a White House official, speaking on background, noted that Swanson did not serve on the National Security Council in the Trump administration.
In his piece for Foreign Affairs published Feb. 24, Swanson wrote that Iran would not capitulate after a bombing campaign, but rather escalate and “target global oil flows and international shipping, sending energy prices up and creating a serious political liability for Trump.” And indeed, Iran has made scattershot attacks on energy targets and others across the region, as well as throttling passage through the Strait of Hormuz by threatening attacks on ships.
In an interview with POLITICO this week, Swanson predicted that the Trump administration’s negotiations with Iran will not go well because both sides are “irrationally confident” in their positions. Neither side seems willing to find an offramp at this point, he said.
“I think the war is probably going to go on longer than anyone anticipated,” he said.
We spoke with Swanson this week about his predictions — and what he thinks comes next in the war with Iran.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Trump keeps saying Iran’s response has surprised him — that no one told him Iran would retaliate against regional energy infrastructure. How does that kind of comment from the president sit with you?
Obviously, it’s not true. There are many people in the government who told him that there was high risk involved. He just chose not to listen to them. And as someone who was forced out of the government and wrote pretty much exactly what was fairly obviously going to happen, that doesn’t sit super well.
What is your current take on the state of the war today?
I think both sides are probably irrationally confident in their standing, and so I think that’s a little worrisome. So I think the war is probably going to go on longer than anyone anticipated.
Trump continues to believe that military success is leading to Iranian political capitulation, which isn’t happening.
Let’s remember that Iran has a vote and Iran is dead set on resisting and defying expectations. I also think they’re kind of irrationally confident without an off-ramp.
I think we’re going to be stuck in this conflict longer and with likely escalations to come. I think the problem is the president is not going to get any off-ramp, and I think we’ll probably go through some of these ground operations he’s considering.
So you’re not convinced by these negotiation talks right now?
One, Iran has rejected them. It’s the same thing that Iran rejected for previous iterations. They’re feeling confident. They feel like they should be making the demands, not the U.S., and obviously the U.S. isn’t adhering to that. So I don’t think either side is ready to compromise.
You negotiated with the Iranians last year, representing the Trump administration posture at the time. What do you think are the most notable changes from either side since then?
On Iran’s side, I think there’s a real hardening coming out of the June war. They didn’t know what to make of Trump before that. I think they have hardened and shown less flexibility. So they haven’t really seriously engaged, it’s more performative than serious. That’s where Iran has shifted a lot since last June.
In the U.S, I think the shift came earlier. And I think they didn’t know what they wanted out of a deal and I think the U.S. became more beholden to our domestic politics on this, and listening to outside influence so no enrichment, etc.
If you were still there at the NSC, what advice would you give to the president today?
You’re not gonna be able to control the off-ramp. Iran is not going to capitulate, so the idea that you’re gonna be able to unilaterally set the off-ramp isn’t going to happen. Either you’re going to have to escalate or you’re going to have to compromise. And so those are just the two options.
Trump: "They have to open up the Strait of Trump– I mean, Hormuz. Excuse me. Such a terrible mistake. The fake news will say, 'He accidentally said–' No. There's no accidents from me." pic.twitter.com/3dTavHHuGM
He just goes out of his way to be offensive these days:
President Donald Trump is toying with renaming one of the world’s most critical shipping routes after—who else—himself.
Speaking at an investor forum in Miami on Friday night, Trump casually referred to the Strait of Hormuz as the “Strait of Trump,” before quickly correcting himself, then insisting it wasn’t a slip.
“Excuse me, I’m so sorry. Such a terrible mistake,” he told the crowd.
“The Fake News will say, ‘He accidentally said.’ No, there’s no accidents with me.”
The remark drew laughs in the room, but behind the scenes, it’s not entirely a joke.
Trump has reportedly privately floated renaming the waterway the “Strait of America,” or even after himself, if the U.S. succeeds in wresting control of it from Iran, according to The New York Post.
One administration official reportedly told the Post that the U.S. is “taking the Strait back” and suggested that if America ends up policing it, “why should we call it Hormuz?”
This branding of the world with his disgusting name — which should be a name that joins the pantheon of names that no person would ever willingly claim — is the strongest sign of his fundamental personality disorder which is getting worse every day.
Unfortunately, he’s sullying the name of our country right along with his own.
If your portfolio is taking a beating, there’s always the YMCA :
Young man, there’s no need to feel down, I said Young man, pick yourself off the ground, I said Young man, ’cause you’re in a new town There’s no need to be unhappy Young man, there’s a place you can go, I said Young man, when you’re short on your dough you can Stay there and I’m sure you will find Many ways to have a good time
Krash Patel is as big an idiot as you supposed (Reuters):
Iran-linked hackers have broken into FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email inbox, publishing photographs of the director and other documents to the internet, the hackers and the bureau said on Friday.
On their website, the hacker group Handala Hack Team said Patel “will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims.” The hackers published a series of personal photographs of Patel sniffing and smoking cigars, riding in an antique convertible, and making a face while taking a picture of himself in the mirror with a large bottle of rum.
The emails, Gizmodo reports, come primarily from the 2010s:
The U.S. government had seized Handala’s web domains after the group launched a cyberattack that brought down the systems of U.S. medical equipment company Stryker. The new Handala domain is hosted at a .to address, the top-level domain for Tonga, an island nation in the South Pacific.
More:
“The so-called ‘impenetrable’ systems of the FBI were brought to their knees within hours by our team,” the group wrote. “All personal and confidential information of Kash Patel, including emails, conversations, documents, and even classified files, is now available for public download.”
🐶 In China, 7 stolen dogs escaped from a butcher’s truck and walked 17 km home led by a corgi!
In Jilin province, seven dogs were stolen for sale at a dog meat market and loaded into a van. But they managed to escape — and what followed looks like a movie.
In China, 7 stolen dogs escaped from a butcher’s truck and walked 17 km home led by a corgi! In Jilin province, seven dogs were stolen for sale at a dog meat market and loaded into a van. But they managed to escape — and what followed looks like a movie. Instead of scattering, they stayed together: forming a protective circle around an injured German shepherd, while a corgi led the way. Over two days, they covered about 17 km across roads and fields — and made it back to their owners. Escape mission: accomplished.
This story is unbelievable:
I dove deep into this heartwarming story of seven stolen dogs that escaped and walked 17km home – here are the key verified facts in concise points:
The Theft: Seven dogs from the same village in Jilin Province, China were stolen from their owners. They were loaded onto a truck heading to an illegal dog meat shop.
The Escape: During transport, the dogs jumped or fell from the moving vehicle onto the Changshuang Expressway. Instead of scattering, they stuck together as a tight pack.
The Epic Journey: Over two days they covered around 17 km across highways and fields. A small corgi led from the front, constantly glancing back and adjusting pace to keep everyone together. Larger dogs formed a protective ring around an injured German Shepherd. ‘
The Rescue: Locals and rescuers tracked the group in real time via viral social media posts and drone footage until they safely intercepted the entire pack.
Happy Ending: All seven dogs were reunited with their grateful owners in the same village after vet checks. Only minor injuries despite the fall, traffic, and long trek. These neighbourhood friends already played together daily, which helped them stay united.
This real-life “Homeward Bound” adventure led by one brave little corgi has gone mega-viral for showing incredible loyalty and teamwork.
Dogs really are the best.
Share to spread this wholesome win and celebrate these heroes!
Before vaccines, death and disability stalked children. Then shots turned once-common infections into something doctors only read about in textbooks. When immunization rates drop, however, plagues from the past can come roaring back, as measles has in American communities where parents decided not to vaccinate their children. Imagine what would happen if even the people who wanted shots couldn’t get them.
Shortly after Kennedy was nominated, questions swirled over how he might overhaul America’s immunization system. Two Stanford University researchers wondered how many people would suffer if vaccination rates dropped or shots became entirely unavailable for four of the most infamous diseases: polio, measles, rubella and diphtheria.
Outbreaks often start when an American catches one of these illnesses abroad and returns home. So epidemiologists Mathew Kiang and Nathan Lo, who is also an infectious diseases doctor, built a model to simulate how the four contagions could spread from sick travelers based on each state’s vaccination rates.
[…]
The professors ran thousands of simulations for each disease, producing a range of possible outcomes. From there, they figured out the average number of deaths and disabilities over a 25-year period.Their model shows that at current vaccination rates, the nation is already teetering on the brink of an explosion in measles cases — one that would be virtually wiped out with just a 5% increase in vaccination. But if current rates drop by half, all four diseases could return.
The researchers’ modeling of the worst-case scenario assumes a quarter century where no one could get the shots. It doesn’t account for the likelihood of parents going abroad to find vaccines or politicians intervening to ensure drugmakers offer them again. But the results demonstrate in stark terms how vital shots are and what’s at stake if policy changes interfere with Americans’ ability to vaccinate their kids.
It’s not good. Without the polio vaccine at least 23,000 kids will be paralyzed, and that’s al low estimate. Without the measles vaccine over 230,000 will be dead over 25 years and 41,000 babies could be born with congenital rubella syndrome. On average, the model predicts 138,000 deaths from diphtheria, could be a million over 25 years. And those are just the worst cases of paralysis and death. The degree of suffering would be a million times worse.
That’s what these unqualified quacks and weirdos want to do to us.
Read the whole thing for the details. It’s terrifying but important. The medial profession has to step up and put themselves on the line to oppose this quackery.
Here is an interesting piece by Jake Taylor at MS Now about some of the internal discomfort with Trump’s massively stupid Iran non-strategy, particularly the so-called messaging which is something you’d expect from a cartoon villain in a Batman comic:
Nearly one month after the U.S. began strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump is sending thousands of troops to the Middle East to potentially fight in a war he said he has “already won.”
That contradiction has frustrated some senior White House aides and outside allies, three of whom spoke to MS NOW about the president’s public messaging. They described it as confusing, internally inconsistent and increasingly detached from battlefield reality.
Trump calling the war already won is “mostly hyperbole,” said a senior White House official granted anonymity to speak candidly about the administration’s thinking. “It’s part [of Trump] just wanting to declare victory and move on.”
That impulse, the official said, has become more pronounced in recent days.
“[Trump] is getting a little bored with Iran,” the official said. “Not that he regrets it or something — he’s just bored and wants to move on.”
A second White House official who was granted anonymity for the same reason said that Trump has begun to “move on” from the conflict and has started shifting conversations and personal focus toward the economy, domestic issues and the upcoming midterm elections.
The White House’s public communications have suggested a similar detachment, presenting the conflict less as an ongoing war with human lives at stake and more as a cultural moment that generates online content.
These people are monsters. They are using the most lethal weapons on earth (short of nuclear arms) killing thousands and displacing millions and they treat it like it’s a pastime? The president is bored? My God.
This is even more grotesque:
In the past few weeks, official White House social media accounts have leaned on internet memes to flippantly promote the conflict, using clips from movies like “Iron Man” and “Top Gun,” characters from cartoons like “SpongeBob SquarePants” and rap music overlaid on footage of unclassified videos of bombs striking Iranian targets.
“The war videos are cringe and disrespectful and gross,” the senior White House official told MS NOW. “It makes me feel embarrassed.”
[…]
“The social media post of bombs being dropped, OK, cool, but what do we get out of this?” added a former official in the Trump White House, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Someone else told him that there are really two different messaging channels, one the official White House account with the cringe videos and — wait for it — Trump’s Truth Social account which apparently is considered the serious one. This person said there’s a divide among officials about how to approach the messaging.
The former Trump official said, “he has learned he can tell the American people his feeling, and, with enough time, the American people will accept his lie. Just telling us the war is won isn’t good enough. We need to see it; we need to feel it.” No kidding.
His “messaging” if you want to call it that (it’s more like incoherent verbal mush) is so contradictory that all but the most fervent MAGA cultists are already discounting anything he says. But inside the White House they’re all just clapping like trained seals hoping to get through the day without a catastrophe.
“So many people are afraid of being on the outs that they are just drinking the Kool-Aid and going along with it,” said the former White House official.
We’re a month into President Donald Trump’s increasingly disastrous Iran war, and we have no idea what’s really going on. In part, that’s because Trump is now nothing but a creature of pure id surrounded by enablers, running the country like an enormous out-of-control toddler. But it’s also because the administration is not at all interested in providing the American people with objective, reliable information.
That erasure of truth leaves us unmoored.
It is very difficult to get through the day now without being stunned by just how overwhelmingly dishonest virtually everything that comes out of the U.S. Government really is. Needham suggests that it’s partly the strategy — chaos and cacophony makes it easier for them to get away with the extreme, nefarious agenda they’l determined to enact as quickly as possible. And she rightly notes that a whole lot of money is being made in the process.
But there’s an even bigger problem:the war on objective truth and data makes it impossible for politics and government to function. The MAGA people and others for whom their salaries on it, choose to believe Trump while the rest of us scramble to find out the truth. And everything is up for debate.
The whole society is affected by this. We’re not operating on a shared reality anymore and it’s getting worse every day. Since there is simply no penalty for lying it means that it’s basically a free-for-all and it’s not confined to politics.
I remember people like Lynne Cheney ranting about the left’s post-modernism and “moral relativity” and how it was driving the culture to perdition. As usual it was projection. It’s the right that’s making a profit at it.
