Two Months at Most to Avoid Trump-made Global Recession

Here's yet another reason Trump is desperately trying to end a failing war he began in his capacity as Netanyahu's useful village idiot: Skyrocketing national debt. Yes, midterms are looming. MAGA resentment against Trump's lies growing. Epstein Files scandal still haunts the pedophile friend. Economy in shambles. Oil prices through the roof. Unbridled national debt. Pain at the pump and in the grocery store. Inflation stubbornly rising...All the cost-cutting the Great Moron and his DOGE criminals did by pruning the country of its hard-working civil servants amounted to pathetic savings compared to the hundreds of billions he is squandering on quixotic windmills of testosteronic wars.

Everything he deceptively told his MAGA herd of morons was to blame on - and continues to blame - Democrats for has been a lie at worst, or an abysmal failure at best. The only thing that may stand out as a "success" is all the xenophobia-, racism-, and white-Christian-supremacy-driven policies. "Fighting Illegal Immigration" for Trump's racist white fascists was never more than code word for let's have an orgy of hate and cruelty against anyone who is not an immigrant of White Aryan Anglo-Saxon Evangelical stock, despite the fact that both legal and illegal immigrants are the biggest drivers of the US economy: all the way from picking strawberries to establishing high-end technology startup companies. 

But racism often blinds itself to the complex realities of this world, which it reduces to hurtful but useless slogans while it thrives inside ignorant backward environments of no education, illiteracy, drunkenness and violence. 

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The global economy has a month—eight weeks at most—to avoid a recession, warns top economist
Eleanor Pringle
Updated Thu, April 30, 2026


Mohamed El-Erian during a Bloomberg Television interview in London on Sept. 25, 2023.(Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg - Getty Images)

The countdown is on: The global economy has four weeks, eight at most, if it is to avoid plunging into a recession.

That’s the warning from Mohamed El-Erian, the former CEO of Pimco, who served as chair of President Obama’s Global Development Council. This week, El-Erian said the globe will “avoid a recession, provided—and here’s the important thing—provided the straits are reopened in the next four to eight weeks. If they’re not reopened in the next four to eight weeks, it will look very different.”

El-Erian’s focus on the strait is the same as the rest of the world’s: wondering when the global oil supply will return to normal, easing prices as a result. But El-Erian is one of the few who has stepped further, by placing a time frame on when the discomfort may dip into a full economic contraction.

On the question of when the strait might reopen, there’s little evidence of a swift resolution. It’s worth remembering that when the conflict between Iran, the U.S., and Israel broke out, Wall Street was widely of the opinion that it would be resolved in a matter of weeks. Instead, the standoff has rumbled into a third month, with Iran (which borders the Strait of Hormuz) threatening ships that pass through the waterway, suffocating oil supply out of the vital Middle East region.

“Investors are pricing in a more protracted conflict,” observed Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid this morning, referencing that longer-dated futures have moved up to their highest levels of the conflict so far.

Consumers are feeling the sharp end of the conflict, El-Erian said, particularly in Europe and Asia. As well as strategic stockpiling of oil reserves, consumers are also beginning to panic buy: In Japan, for example, shoppers have returned to the COVID-era habit of toilet paper hoarding.

“If the war goes on, [the U.K.] will become and Europe will become as vulnerable as Asia is right now,” El-Erian said to LBC. “If you go to Asia right now, they’re not just worried about the price of fertilizers, the price of energy. They’re worried about physical availability. They’re worried about running out. There was a warning last week that Europe only has six weeks of aviation fuel left in terms of storage decisions.

“The irony in all this is that the U.S., which started the war, does better in relative terms than anybody else because of its energy supplies. It’s totally energy independent, and it has a very agile economy.”

The U.S. isn’t invincible

Whether a recession in Europe and Asia would be enough to tip the U.S. into a similar contraction is a hypothetical question, but economists on home turf are already concerned about the fundamentals for American growth.

Even though the U.S. is relatively shielded from oil inflation (it became a net energy exporter in 2019), last year it still imported 17% of its domestic energy supply, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That comes on top of an already diverging picture on the domestic consumer: the emergence of a “K” shaped economy where the gap between those on the higher and lower end of the income spectrum is growing.

Moody’s chief economist, Mark Zandi, has been warning about the effects of such a split. In a note this week, he wrote that U.S. growth is “fragile,” explaining: “Growth, yes, but less than the economy’s potential growth rate, and not sufficient to support any meaningful job growth. Unemployment is still low, but it is steadily drifting higher, and the labor force participation rate is falling. Of course, this is not sustainable.”

The outlook at the start of the year had looked rosier, he added, courtesy of stimulus from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), and bets on Fed rate cuts to stimulate economic activity. The latter is looking all the more unlikely.

Stimulus from the OBBBA is also likely to be canceled out because of the Middle East conflict. Research from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley both found that the Iran war’s knock-on effect on oil prices has almost entirely canceled out the biggest consumer tax windfall in years, and for lower-income Americans, the ledger may be in the red.

“Even if the Iran war winds down and oil prices recede quickly, the fallout will ensure there is no GDP pickup or job growth this year. Unemployment will rise further, and already considerable recession risks will worsen,” Zandi added.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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And the Great Moron wants to double the US Military Budget to $1.6 trillion 

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US national debt is now bigger than the economy for first time since World War II

Joe Sommerlad

Fri, May 1, 2026

 

The value of debt held by the public has officially surpassed the size of the U.S. economy, and members of Congress are increasingly sounding the alarm over the fiscal trajectory of their nation.

As of March 31, debt held by the public stood at $31.27 trillion, while nominal GDP over the prior 12-month period was an estimated $31.22 trillion—pushing the debt-to-GDP ratio to 100.2%, according to a press release issued Thursday by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), based on new data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

It marks yet another threshold for the U.S. borrowing burden, which now requires more than $1 trillion in interest payments every year.

Cautionary quips are coming from many corners of the economic sphere: Fed chairman Jerome Powell wants policymakers to have an adult conversation about spending, while Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio has long warned of an economic “heart attack” in which public investment is crowded out by service payments on the debt.

And Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said only this week he expects a bond crisis to ensue at some point because the issue won’t be addressed in time by policymakers.

The news has reignited a conversation among policymakers about what needs to be done to manage the U.S. fiscal deficit. Following the news about the debt now overshadowing the size of the economy, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) took to X, saying it was “just embarrassing.”

“The consequences are all around us,” he added. The debt is a drag on the economy, he said, with American families “dealing with inflation, and higher costs of living because of Washington’s spending addiction. It’s only going to get worse until we cut up the credit cards and get serious.”

Meanwhile Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador during Trump’s first presidency, wrote on X that America had crossed a “dangerous milestone.” She added: “When the bill comes due, expect higher taxes, a weaker dollar, fewer services, a weaker military—and our kids stuck paying for it.”

These statements echo the reality for many Americans. A study released yesterday by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation—an organization advocating for fiscal stability—found voters are increasingly concerned that national debt is driving up their cost of living: 92% of voters (including 94% of Democrats, 92% of independents, and 89% of Republicans) said they were worried current debt levels are impacting the prices of groceries, energy, and housing.

On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) outlined why he opposed the war in Iran in favor of focusing on tasks at home. “I think that the biggest national security risk we face is our debt and that the further we go into debt the more we are at risk,” he told the Raging Moderates podcast.

“I really think that our greatest challenge and our greatest threat is from within, not from without,” he added. “I think defending our currency, affording our government, all of the costs that we have domestically, I think really argues against getting more involved in international conflict—particularly if it’s a war of choice.”

Similar calls are being made on the other side of the political spectrum. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, told a committee oversight hearing last month: “The countries who will win the 21st century will be the countries who invest in education and infrastructure. Not the countries who drive themselves deep into debt trying to control the farthest reaches of the world.

“Robbing our domestic investments to pay for endless wars is a path to economic ruin that will open the door for China and other countries to dominate the future.”
A cause for optimism

Reaction to debt milestones—albeit negative—might actually be a cause for optimism among experts.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is widely cited by debt hawks as evidence for why policymakers need to change course: It was the CBO that reported in March that $1 trillion was added to the federal deficit in the first five months of the year.

But CBO Director Phil Swagel is incredibly optimistic that a crisis will be avoided entirely. He told Fortune in an exclusive interview: “Interacting with members of Congress makes me optimistic. I know you read about all the squabbles…I’m completely aware of this, but the policymakers that are thinking about these things are thoughtful and effective.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Tiny Lebanon Squeezed Tight by Trump-Netanyahu

By far, the largest majority of Lebanon's complex social structure wants Hezbollah gone or dead. No one is really complaining about Israel's savagery, even though the Lebanese put Israel and Hezbollah on an equal footing as the most detested ultra-religious, supremacist and violent behemoths. In fact, the Lebanese are celebrating - mostly in silence so as not to be accused of inciting violence - the fact that their sworn enemies, Iran and Israel, are at each other's throats. When confronted with the scenario of two ugly bullies, for whom they don't care much, fighting it out, the Lebanese repeat the saying, "خلّي الخرى يخبّط بعضو" - literally, let the shit beat the shit.

Fine, and one has to understand that they do not enjoy the never-ending violence unfolding, again and again, on their soil. But after some 60 years (since the late 1960s) of every ethnic and religious barbarian experimenting their warfare on Lebanese soil, for equally barbaric ideologies spawned during the Stone and Bronze Ages, including things like God's Chosen Ones, or God's Ultimate Message, or the arrival/return of the Messiah (Jewish, Christian) or the Mahdi (Islam) to humanity, the Lebanese have become jaded and watch war like a live movie, a reality TV moment, with popcorn and beer. The "art" of war has become their "life", and not just an imitation. 

As they watch Israel erase the south of their country, with perhaps the likelihood of a predictable invasion by ultra-religious Jewish settlers and a Zionist annexation of that part of their country, the Lebanese present a symptom similar to a rotating Stockholm's syndrome. As hostages of Hezbollah and Iran, some Lebanese fall in love with the romanticism of a fin-de-siècle resistance bullshit that draws its roots back to the 1960s times of revolution. As Israel bombs right and left, eardicates olive groves and essentially kills land with phosphorus bombs, some Lebanese cannot help but fall in love with the Israelis and sustain the thought that, perhaps, this will be the last time and they are willing to see it through despite the barbarity and the loss of land.

Many Arabs have signed treaties and made pseudo- and superficial "normalization" agreements with the genocidal colonial Zionists, all without any serious peace. The resentment across all Arab peoples is still very deep in regard to the continued rape of Palestine, despite their governments cavorting to idiots-on-Zionist-Netanyahu's-leash like Trump. That is why no one is really banking on a "new Middle East" proclaimed by the Great Moron Trump, which promises to keep the region on the same sinusoidal up-and-down cycle of real wars and fake peaces, while the Zionists keep pilfering land from their neighbors and westerners secute their access to oil.

Granted that Hezbollah and Iran's Ayatollahs have given the Zionists ample pretexts to wage their wars, and the two Shiite criminal organizations are to blame. As you can tell, the Lebanese are caught between two devils, and hard as they try to manintain a semblance of normal life amidst the horror, the movie goes on with a vicious circular plot that is exactly like the snake eating its own tail: Israel raped Palestine. Arabs tried to restore their "honor" (a big thing in the region) in several wars, but failed to restore honor and regain lost lands. So they bent down, kissed the ring and signed. Not really convinced, but what choice did they have when fighting Israel amounts to fighting the American father of the bastard child? Then Iran stepped in and decided to try its hand at restoring honor and land, and as we call can see, they are failing like imbeciles.

And that is exactly the price the Lebanese have been paying for more than six decades. 

Again, if Israel does - and it's a big if - eliminate Hezbollah, the Lebanese know there is a dear price to pay. You see, Zionists and their American poodles are not known to freely give: They will exact a price. 

To those Lebanese who are still stupid enough to believe that Israel and/or the US are doing them a favor: Beware. For those six decades, Lebanon has been the cheapest chip on the table, and after much confrontations between the big guys around them, Lebanon ends up being the bargaining chip. Every US administration since Eisenhower has fucked the Lebanese from behind in order to remain cordial with, of course its bastard child Israel, but also its Saudi, Kuwaiti, Egyptian, Syrian ... oily and mildly Israel-friendly clients. Lebanon does not have oil, and even if oil is discovered in the waters across its shoreline, it would be too late and in puny quantities that do not amount to "an interest".

This is what the Lebanese have never really understood. They live in a world of semi-liberal fiction, and are still deeply religious, just like their Jewish and Muslim neighbors. It's just that they are so small and weak that they refrain from warmongering (except the idiots of Hezbollah). De Gaulle once told the Lebanese, "countries don't have friends, they have interests". But the Lebanese continue to believe that Saudi Arabia and Iran are the friends of Lebanon's Muslims, and that the US and Europe are the friends of Lebanon's Christians, even though all of these "friends" have sold and bought them when necessary and convenient. 

The bottom line of the ongoing war - the umpteenth one in six decades - is that Lebanon is being driven to suicide by everyone else. And suicide, the Lebanese have proven themselves capable of it many times in the past. It's just that they suck at suicide, which makes living more depressing because they keep failing at killing themselves once and for all. The US is pushing the Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to wage a war against Hezbollah with a divided and badly armed army and then sign literally anything with Israel, just so Trump and Netanyahu can claim that they fought a war for peace (Trump) and land (Netanyahu). 

The Lebanese have been there many times before: With Eisenhower who disptatched 10,000 US Marines to Beirut in 1958; with Nixon and Kissinger who assured Israel's safety by making a deal with the Syrian dictator in 1974: Abandon the Golan to Israel and take Lebanon instead (which Assad did between 1974 and 2005); with George Bush Sr. who literally asked the Stalinist regime in Damascus to put down a rebellion by the freedom-minded Lebanese against the Kissinger-instigated Syrian occupation; with George Bush Jr. who decided to ask the Syrians to leave Lebanon (because they were not helping him with Iraq's Saddam Hussein) but re-installed the criminal Lebanese warlords to the helm; and now Trump who, I think will again, sell Lebanon and "pacify" it by giving the new Damascus friend Al-Sharaa and the old Tel Aviv friend Netanyahu "shares" in his new investments in Lebanon.

Not once did the Americans or the Europeans really try to shield this tiny country from the bullies. They did it for Bosnia. They did it for East Timor. They did it for Kuwait. But never for interest-free Lebanon. 

For now, all the Lebanese can do is watch Israel battle it out with Hezbollah, perhaps maybe "liberate" Lebanon from Hezbollah and Iran, but steal the southern third of the puny country as payola. Jaded the Lebanese are. They don't give a damn anymore. Finish the 60-year old masturbatory exercises between Muslims and Jews and let us move on with an amputated but peaceful country.

The big question in my mind is: When will the Lebanese learn De Gaulle's lesson?

Pimp Trump's Arab Gulf Girls Distraught as They Face "No-Client" Prospects

You may want to check: https://lebanoniznogood.blogspot.com/2026/04/when-s-it-hits-fan-pimp-trumps-arab.html

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‘Take the money and run’: Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke on why the UAE quit OPEC
Shawn Tully
Updated Wed, April 29, 2026 


A pipeline in the UAE. The country announced it would be leaving OPEC in a surprise move.(KARIM SAHIB—AFP/Getty Images)

The decision was shocking. But the announcement April 28 that the United Arab Emirates was leaving OPEC caps years of tension where the desert state chafed under the cartel’s quotas, and recently, encountered severe strain in its relationship with Saudi Arabia, the group’s most potent force by far. Though it had felt strains before, it was the war in Iran that pushed the UAE over the edge. “The war suddenly made job one for the UAE: ‘Take the money and run,’” says Steve H. Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University. “First, OPEC stood partially in the way. Now, the Iran war poses a much bigger danger for a long time to come.”

The UAE didn’t mention the Gulf conflict in its public announcement. Its press release stated: “The decision reflects the UAE’s long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile, including accelerated investment in domestic energy production.” Included was a confirmation that the UAE seeks to lift production beyond OPEC strictures—framed by understatement apparently designed to avoid freaking out the oil market. The UAE pledged to bring “additional production to the market in a gradual and measured manner, aligned with demand and market conditions.”

One observer the move didn’t surprise was Hanke, who served on the UAE’s Financial Advisory Council from 2008 to 2014. Years earlier, he had developed an economic model that addressed how fast an oil-rich nation should produce assuming different rates of decline in the “real,” or inflation-adjusted, price of crude. That projection specified the rising “discount rates” at which the reserves lost value the longer they stayed in the ground. The faster the projected decline in the dollars a barrel fetched on the world market, the quicker a nation should pump to maximize its profits. Hanke shared his work with the UAE’s economic leaders. “The system showing those optimal pumping rates made sense to them,” says Hanke. “If you think future prices are going higher, you slow down and wait to produce. If you think they’re going lower, you ramp up fast.”

Starting around 2021, the UAE began pushing hard for a much higher share of OPEC’s output. For Hanke, the reason was obvious: Its Abu Dhabi–based government was increasingly concerned about the rise in green energy that threatened a long-running slide in “real” fossil fuel prices. In fact, sustainable technologies looked so promising to the UAE that it invested heavily in projects ranging from solar farms to sustainable aircraft fuel to low-emission hydrogen. “That led to the strategy of ‘pump like hell today,’” says Hanke. In that vein, the UAE greatly accelerated its oil investments, and sought to put all that new capacity to work by pressing OPEC to lift its limit around 50% to roughly 5 million barrels per day. Those demands soured its relations with Saudi Arabia, and the two nations also clashed in their support of warring sides in both Yemen and Sudan. The UAE’s tacit recognition of Somaliland, and its role in moving Israel towards being the first nation to officially take that stance, have further antagonized the Saudis.

The haymaker, however, landed when fellow OPEC member Iran unleashed its drones and missiles on UAE’s oil and gas complex, an offensive that seemed unimaginable before the U.S.-Israeli attacks—even though the Emirates had antagonized Iran by courting both nations, and joining the Abraham Accords in 2020. Iran inflicted severe damage on at least five major UAE facilities, including a drone strike that ignited fires at Ruwais, one of the world’s largest refineries, and another at the key Port of Fujairah oil export hub. While the UAE still manages significant shipments via its pipeline to the Gulf of Oman, the war has crippled its freedom for moving crude and gas from its wells to world markets.

“The problem’s gone from a long-term decline in the real price, to the possibility that in the future, they won’t be able to sell all, or can only sell much less, because Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, or periodically takes out part of its infrastructure,” says Hanke. The upshot: The UAE’s discount rate soared overnight. The new math dictates that the “present value” of oil produced in the future will be much lower than before the war. In other words, any opportunity to go, go like hell. “The UAE now has a big incentive to tilt oil production towards the present and away from the future,” says Hanke. Leaving OPEC and its quotas opens that door. This war is full of unforeseen consequences. None bigger than the bombshell on April 28 that this OPEC stalwart for nearly 60 years is bolting.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Trump Needs China's Approval to Rebuild Squandered US Ammo Stocks

America shot its arsenal empty in 2 wars. Now it needs Beijing’s permission to reload
Steve H. Hanke, Jeffrey Weng
Updated Thu, April 30, 2026


Pete Hegseth, US secretary of defense, during a House Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. The hearing is set to examine the Department of Defense 2027 budget request.(Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On Wednesday, the Trump administration finally let the cat out of the bag that Operation Epic Fury, America’s war on Iran, has burned through $25 billion so far. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The White House has already requested a supplemental budget of $200 billion for its war on Iran.

The inventory math is brutal. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) finds that in Iran alone, the United States burned through 45% of its Precision Strike Missile stockpile, half of its THAAD interceptors, nearly half of its Patriot PAC-3 inventory, roughly 30% of its Tomahawks, and more than 20% of its long-range JASSMs.

That is just one war. Add Ukraine, where, since 2022, the United States has shipped roughly one-third of its Javelin inventory, one-quarter of its Stinger stockpile, more than two million 155mm artillery rounds, and thousands of GMLRS rockets. The combined drain is what the Pentagon’s own internal assessments now describe as a “near-term risk” of running out of ammunition.

The fact that the weapons cupboard is bare is one thing. What is rarely reported is the fact that [America's weapons cupboard] will not be restocked without Beijing’s approval.

Four Weapons, Four Periodic-Table Problems

Leave Ukraine aside. Forget the Javelins, the Stingers, the GMLRS rockets, and the two million artillery rounds that were used in Ukraine. Setting Ukraine aside, consider four weapons that the United States just burned through in Iran, and the critical material required for each — which flows almost exclusively through China.

Tomahawk cruise missile. The United States burned through over 1,000 Tomahawks in Iran — ten years’ worth of production. Each one’s fin actuators run on samarium-cobalt magnets. China mines and refines 99% of the world’s samarium and placed it under export licensing on April 4, 2025. To rebuild the inventory, Raytheon must turn to Beijing for samarium.

Patriot PAC-3 interceptor. The seeker uses samarium-cobalt (SmCo) to slew its guidance head; the radar’s traveling-wave tubes use SmCo to focus the microwave beam; yttrium-iron-garnet phase shifters tune the array. Replenishing the 1,200-plus interceptors expended in Iran requires roughly 1.2 to 2.4 tons of high-temperature SmCo, plus yttrium oxide. Between 2020 and 2023, China supplied 93% of U.S. yttrium imports.

JASSM-ER stealth cruise missile. The fin servos and seeker run on neodymium-iron-boron magnets (NdFB) doped with dysprosium and terbium for thermal stability. Strip out the heavy rare earths, and the magnet demagnetizes in flight. Roughly 1,100 missiles expended translates to between 1.5 and 3 tons of NdFeB feedstock. China refines the vast majority of the world’s dysprosium and terbium.

F-35 Lightning II. For a decade, the Department of Defense itself has repeated that each F-35 contains 920 pounds of rare earths. The strategically critical content is the high-temperature SmCo and dysprosium-doped NdFeB in the engine actuators, electric drives, and radar. These are precisely the materials Beijing has placed under license.

Across these four weapon systems, the back-of-the-envelope replenishment requirement is between five and ten metric tons of finished defense-grade rare earth magnets, more than 95% of which will arrive from the People’s Republic of China.

Beijing’s Hand

China holds all the cards and knows how to play them. Gallium and germanium controls came in August 2023. Antimony controls came in August 2024, with a full ban of shipments to the United States in December 2024. As a result, antimony prices surged by 134%. Tungsten restrictions were imposed in February 2025; the price skyrocketed by over 557% per metric ton. Then MOFCOM Announcement No. 18 of April 4, 2025, placed seven medium and heavy rare earths under discretionary licensing. Chinese rare-earth magnet exports were curtailed by 74% the following month. In October 2025, Beijing extended the regime extraterritorially to any product, anywhere in the world, containing as little as 0.1% of Chinese-origin rare earths.

Trump in Beijing

This brings us to May 14, 2026, when President Trump is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. Not surprisingly, critical materials sit at the top of the meeting’s agenda. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer stated in early April that the goal of the meeting is “to ensure we can continue to get rare earths from the Chinese.”

There is only one thing worse than being unprepared for the war you started. It is being unprepared for the next one, because your adversary controls the periodic table.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Who? What? When? I don't Know...An Ignorant and Senile President....

... please wake me up when it's time for bed, says Dozy Don. I haven't heard. Don't ask me, I only work in this Out House. What is this about? Supreme Court decisions, War Powers Act, .... big decisions engaging the country, and yet the narcissistic moron is entirely focused on himself, on making money and building vanity reminders of his legacy as the Dumbest President in US history.

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‘When did it come out?’ Trump remains disengaged as events unfold around him
Steve Benen
Thu, April 30, 2026


President Donald Trump[sleeping] in the Oval Office of the White House on April 23, 2026.(Will Oliver / EPA / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

For proponents of voting rights and racially diverse democracy, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais was a brutal gut punch. University of California at Los Angeles law professor Richard Hasen wrote in a Slate analysis that the decision, written by Republican-appointed justices, “will go down in history as one of the most pernicious and damaging Supreme Court decisions of the last century.”

Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent that the ruling renders Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act “all but a dead letter” and that the consequences “are likely to be far-reaching and grave.” She added that in states “where that law continues to matter — the States still marked by residential segregation and racially polarized voting — minority voters can now be cracked out of the electoral process.”

With this in mind, it’s easy to imagine Donald Trump reacting to the ruling with delight, not just because of his record of radical animus, but also because the Republican-appointed justices just delivered a ruling that will almost certainly benefit the president’s party.

And yet, when a reporter asked Trump about the high court’s decision several hours after its release, he appeared to have absolutely no idea what had happened.

“Tell me, when did the ruling come out?” the president asked, adding that he’d “been with contractors” talking about his ballroom vanity project. After talking about the ballroom initiative for a bit — once he gets started on the subject, it’s generally tough for him to stop — he eventually told the press corps, “Tell me about what happened.”

No one asked the obvious follow-up question: Shouldn’t he know what happened?

A similar exchange unfolded a week earlier, when a reporter asked whether the president could confirm recent reporting about his administration taking steps to send 1,100 Afghans to the Democratic Republic of Congo. “I don’t know,” he replied.

The week before that, amid reports that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had met with administration officials for an important closed-door discussion, a reporter asked Trump whether Anthropic did, in fact, have a meeting at the White House.

“Who?” he replied, apparently confused. When the reporter repeated the question, he again said, “I have no idea.”

The frequency with which this comes up is an underappreciated element of the Republican’s presidency.

At a White House Cabinet meeting in November, for example, whenever Trump was asked a question of any substance, he’d ask someone else to answer. The same week, the president was pressed to defend his scandalous pardon for Changpeng Zhao, founder of the crypto exchange Binance, who helped finance the president’s stablecoin and put money in the Trump family’s pockets.

“I don’t know who he is,” he replied.

This wasn’t the first time. In March, after Trump pardoned one of his donors, he was pressed for an explanation. He again appeared clueless: “They” told him that the criminal had been treated unfairly, which was enough for him to sign a pardon.

The frequency with which this comes up is unsettling. Days earlier, Trump appeared lost when asked about developments in Israel. Two weeks before that, when asked about a possible suspension of habeas corpus, the president initially thought that was a reference to a person [- The idiot thought that Habeas Corpus is the name of some dude -]  before telling a reporter, “Oh, I don’t know.”

Around the same time, Trump was forced to reverse course after he discovered that he had cut off counterterrorism funds to New York City days earlier.

Last September, as part of a half-hearted last-minute attempt to prevent a government shutdown, Trump welcomed congressional leaders to the White House for a meeting. After it failed to produce results, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that the president was apparently “not aware” of the key elements of the Democratic position.

A month earlier, Trump said he didn’t “know anything about” a failed top-secret mission in North Korea in 2019 that he reportedly authorized. At a White House event in July, a reporter noted the Trump administration had paused a shipment of military aid intended for Ukraine a week earlier. Asked who approved this, the president replied, “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

In May, during a Q&A with a White House press pool, Trump was asked about his administration’s new student visa policy, and he responded in a way that suggested he had no idea what the reporter was talking about.

Weeks earlier, less than 24 hours after he nominated Dr. Casey Means to serve as the nation’s next surgeon general, the president conceded that he didn’t know Means. The day before that, amid reports that the administration was planning to expand its deportations agenda to Libya, Trump was pressed on the policy. “I don’t know,” he responded.

The same week, Trump appeared on “Meet the Press,” and when NBC News’ Kristen Welker asked whether everyone in the United States is entitled to due process, the president replied, “I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.” When Welker reminded her guest about the Fifth Amendment, Trump again said, “I don’t know.”

As part of the same exchange, Welker went on to ask, “Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?” Once again, Trump answered, “I don’t know.”

Around the same time, fielding questions in the Oval Office, Trump was asked whether he agreed with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s comments about possible tariff exemptions for certain family consumer goods. “I don’t know, I’ll think about it,” the president said. “I don’t know. I really don’t.”

Last spring, Trump was asked about four U.S. soldiers who had gone missing during a NATO training exercise in Lithuania, and the president was clueless. Asked about the apparent assassination of a Russian general, Trump again had no idea what the reporter was talking about.

When the Republican was asked about the Signal group chat scandal and whether he believed classified information was shared, he replied, “I don’t know. I’m not sure, you have to ask the various people involved.”

No one appeared to be trying to trip up the president with unexpected inquiries into obscure topics. In all of these instances, Trump should have been able to respond to the questions with substantive responses. But he didn’t. Instead, the Republican effectively said, over and over again, “Don’t look at me; I just work here.”

Most objective observers would probably agree that if Joe Biden had repeatedly said “I don’t know” in response to simple questions about his own administration, it would have been front-page news — and the Democrat’s responses would have played on a loop for hours on end in conservative media.

Similarly, Trump has personally invested considerable time and energy in accusing Biden of having been a doddering old “autopen” president who was unaware of events unfolding around him. Given the frequency with which President Bystander clings to “I don’t know” responses, he should probably consider a new line of attack.

Finally, let’s not forget that Trump’s authoritarian tendencies are rooted, at least in part, in the idea that governmental power must be concentrated in the president’s hands, to be executed as he sees fit.

It makes Trump’s apparent cluelessness that much more alarming. As The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie noted in a column late last year, “There is a presidency at work in Washington, but it is not clear that there is a president at work in the Oval Office.”

Trump Weasels Out of Iran War by Suddenly Pretending to Obey the Law

The two top morons of the US administration, the pedophile Epstein's friend Donald Dumb and his thuggish and virile minion Pete Hegseth, have decided to suddenly pretend to obey the laws of the country by claiming that they have to terminate their losing losing war with Iran because they had only 60 days to win it without congressional approval. 

Two days ago, the Great American Moron Donald Dumb had declared that he is under no pressure whatsoever to decide what to do with Iran and that his decisions have nothing to do with the November midterms , which virtually everyone thinks will be a huge defeat for him.

As someone who constantly broke the laws and refused to abide by decisions of the courts, it was surprising to hear him and Hegseth say they must terminate the war with Iran because they want to abide by the 60-day deadline in the War Powers Act that says he needs congressional approval after that deadline.

This is nothing by a giant Trump TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) dissimulated behind a sudden respect for the laws and Congress. The Great Moron and his Sancho Panza Hegseth sidekick already foresee a defeat by an anti-war majority in Congress, should they request an extension of that deadline. Second, the midterm campaigns are already in full swing, and by suddenly terminating the war with Iran they are hoping that the American people would have forgotten about the war by November.

This also means that - having NOT won (i.e. have lost) the war with Iran (no regime change, no concessions on uranium enrichment, a continued blockade of Hormuz...) - the original inciter for the war, Benjamin Netanyahu, who prodded the bovine Trump with a cattle prod and bamboozled him into a war that all past US presidents have declined to prosecute for the past 30 years, might have to continue on his own with some support from the US.

This trick may pass in the deserted brains of some in the MAGA herd, but it won't pass with the vast majority of the American people. Americans have already tired of the lies and false campaign promises, they have tired of wasting billions on an unnecessary war while their cost of living has skyrocketed since the Great Moron was elected on promises of "no foreign wars" and lower grocery prices. 

So, the Trump administration is now suddenly arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval. The Defense Secretary of War, the drunkard warrior Pete Hegseth, told the Senate last Thursday that the ceasefire effectively paused the war. Under that rationale, the administration has not yet met the requirement mandated by a 1973 law to seek formal approval from Congress for military action that extends beyond 60 days.

While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran's oil tankers from getting out to sea. The War Powers Act that limits a president’s military powers, and Donald Dumb had until today Friday to seek congressional authorization or cease fighting.

“That deadline is not a suggestion; it is a requirement,” said Republican MAGA Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. She unexpectedly broke rank with the Great Moron by voting to end military action in Iran since Congress hadn’t given its approval. Since the Great Moron was pushed by Netanyahu into war without a forethought, Collins clarified that “further military action against Iran must have a clear mission, achievable goals, and a defined strategy for bringing the conflict to a close."

Using byzantine language to camouflage the American defeat in this war, some of Donald Dumb's right-wing extremist "intellectuals" are saying that the new phase would be a mission of self-defense focused on reopening the Hormuz strait while reserving the right to offensive action in support of restoring freedom of navigation.

Menanwhile, the Jesus-saved-me drunkard and fornicating weasel Hegseth testified in the Senate that the administration understands that the 60-day clock was on pause while the two countries were in a ceasefire. Democrats who queried him about the timeline are now saying that Hegseth “advanced a very novel argument... never heard before” and “certainly has no legal support.” One interpretation is that by claiming a "pause", the administration reserves the remaining balance of the 60 days deadline for resuming the war and still remain bound by the that deadline. In  other words, this asinine bunch of idiots want to wage the war like an American "football" (a distorted version of rugby misnamed by the dumb Americans) game where the clock is constantly paused and restarted, and the game is played in 4-second installments that make the boring game lasts hours and hours.

“To be very, very clear and unambiguous, nothing in the text or design of the War Powers Resolution suggests that the 60-day clock can be paused or terminated,” a commentator said. Other presidents have argued that the military action they’ve taken was not intense enough or was too intermittent to qualify under the War Powers Resolution. But Trump’s war in Iran would certainly not be such a case, and lawmakers need to push back against the administration on that kind of argument.

Trump's Empty Skull Means he Uses his Tiny Gonads to Think

It's realy like watching a fight between 9-year olds.

Both Trump and the Iranians are now blocking the Strait of Hormus, out of spite at each other. So we are in for a long stalemate and a long Cold War-like stalemate.

Now the imbecile, elected by 77 million other imbeciles, says he doesn't care about the stalemate running into the November midterms. Since one needs to translate Trump's verbal diarrheas into real world language, this means that he is terrified of the prospect of an unresolved war he initiated, but cattle-prodded by a Zionist war criminal, running straight into that November Tuesday. It's a Roy Cohn smartass tactic: Always say the opposite of what you're thinking. You see, when he insults women, Trump is really lusting after them. When he accuses Democrats of lunacy, he is revealing his own mental inadequacies by projecting them onto others. Someone once wrote, "with Trump every accusation is a confession".

As he slowly sinks in the muddy sands of the Middle East, Trump has no idea what to do. He was bamboozled by Netanyahu into starting a war that seems highly unwinnable if one takes the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles as precedents. 

Trump is now stuck. If he backs down on Iran, he loses. And if he sticks with escalation, he also loses. The only real options he has if he wishes to try and not "lose" this war (or at least appear not to lose it in the eyes of his MAGA herd of morons) are:

- He can use a nuclear weapon to "wipe out an entire civilization", a Harry-Truman-Japan decision circa 1945

or

- He can send ground troops to invade at least a portion of Iranian territory to try and destabilize the regime just enough to make it fall, but that would mean a long-term involvement with plenty of body bags
 coming home 

or

- He can continue in a pesistent campaign of random bombings that would weaken Tehran further without risking American lives, but that would also mean a long term and costly campaign that would include nasty retaliations by the Iranians against the Arab Gulf concubines of the US who are already shrieking hysterically at losing investments, fleeing foreign workers, and a degradation of their tacky shiny mirages back into a Stone Age landscape.

None of these options are compatible with a chance at victory in the 2026 midterms next November.

But the man is simply a cornered bully. Right now he is huddling with his recalcitrant and reluctant military leaders to consider escalatory military actions against Iran. The goal of this briefing is, no surprise, the wishful thinking about ‌actions needed to compel ⁠Iran to negotiate an end to the conflict.

According to Axios, the US Central Command is thinking of a "short and powerful" wave of strikes on Iran. "Short" in the hopeless hope that it all will vanish before the elections, and "powerful" in the equally hopeless hope that somehow the regime will buckle if the US bombs bridges and power infrastructure. 

The Iran war appears to be unpopular with the American people. They know this was a badly conceived joint MAGA-Zionist adventue that has rattled markets and ​raised oil prices. The mediator, the Pakistanis, are themselves extremist Islamists with nuclear bombs. I wonder why is Iran any different.

Americans never seem to learn from experience or from history. This Iran war is another instance where the chances of turning a bad regime into a good one is simply silly. Regime change, democracy, etc... all are subsumed under a greedy reach for oil, not because we need it, but to prevent China from taking it.

Meanwhile, the price of oil again surged on Thursday, with prices hitting some $125 a barrel. Americans should expect to be paying $10 a gallon this summer if the stalemated war continues.

An Average Day in the Moron State of Texas

When you let morons walk around with guns....to prove their manliness. No wonder it's also known as the Loonie Star state.
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Man Accidentally Fires His Gun on Texas Bus and Shoots His Girlfriend in the Leg
The woman's injuries are reportedly non-life-threatening
Gina Kalsi
Tue, April 28, 2026


Stock photo of Metro bus in Houston, Texas
Credit: FOX 26 Houston

NEED TO KNOW

A woman was accidentally shot in the leg on a Houston METRO bus after her boyfriend’s gun discharged by mistake, according to a preliminary investigation

The man allegedly left the scene but was reportedly later identified when he sought medical attention

The woman’s injuries are non-life-threatening and the investigation into the incident is ongoing

A woman was accidentally shot in the leg by her boyfriend while riding a METRO bus in Houston, Texas.

The woman was traveling on the bus via route 29 on Monday, April 29, when she was shot, according to ABC 13 and FOX26.

Officials at Houston METRO Police investigating the case told ABC13 that they initially thought it was a domestic dispute.

However, after reviewing the CCTV footage, police said the incident appeared to be accidental. METRO bus told the outlet that the clip shows the man talking and fumbling with his gun, which then went off, allegedly hitting the woman in the leg.

Although it did not appear like the man was shooting intentionally, the investigation is still in the early stages and is ongoing, METRO bus told the outlet.

The news channel reported that the victim is the man’s girlfriend and FOX26 said the two individuals were known to each other.

The man reportedly left the scene, according to investigators, per ABC 13. However, FOX26 said the individual was later identified when he sought medical attention, attributing the information to Houston police.

The woman’s injuries are non-life-threatening, according to Click2Houston.

Her name has not been released and the investigation is ongoing.

Houston METRO and the Houston Police Department were contacted for further information and comment by PEOPLE, but did not immediately respond.

Read the original article on People

Trump's "PURITY TEST" For Incoming Immigrants

A "Green Card" is a popular term for "Permanent Residence". Before obtaining a Green Card, immigrants come into the US on any of a number of visas (student visa, research visa, worker's visa, asylum visa, etc.) that, once the visa terms are fulfilled (i.e,. the student finishes his/her studies, the worker's contract terminates, the research project has ended, etc.), entitle their holder to apply for Permanent Residence (or a Green Card). Not all visas are eligible for a Change of Status from visa holder to resident: For example, a tourist visa cannot, under any circumstance, be changed to a Permanent Residence. Those who enter on a tourist visa and then overstay their visa (i.e. don't leave the country after the period of time granted) become illegal aliens and are subject to deportation.

For the first time in US history, the Trump Fascists want to impose on applicants for a Green Card an ideological purity test that essentially boils down to something like, " Are you with Trump or against Trump?" This is what happens when a democracy truns into an ideological Gulag or concentration camp. 

This is what happened to Alexei Navalny, a political rival of Putin, who was murdered on the orders of Putin himself  according to the late opposition leader's former chief of staff, Leonid Volkov. Now Trump may not have yet reached the apex of a Putin-like dictatorship that openly and wantonly assassinates its opponents, but he is well on his way. 

To the would-be immigrants of the world: You have to swear allegiance to Trump if you want to come to the US. You cannot express any political opinion that is critical of Trump. You cannot have opinions about Israel that differ from the "official" US position on Israel (when in fact there is no "official" position on Israel, there are many different opinions among US citizens, some in favor and some against Israel).

A Permanent Resident is PERMANENT. It's not a temporary status during which one can argue it would be inconsiderate to delve into the country's politics (damned be freedom of expression). A Green Card holder has ALL THE RIGHTS OF A US CITIZEN (foremost of which are constitutional protections that Trump is plundering anyway), except two: No US passport, and you can't vote. But to live permanently in the US and be unable to freely voice your opinions on anything is inhumane and against all the natural laws of this world.  
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Donald Trump’s Administration Reportedly Stated Green Cards Can Be Denied to Those Expressing Political Opinions
Evolve Editors
Tue, April 28, 2026 


Photo Credit: Nathan Howard/Getty Images

The Trump administration has rolled out internal guidance instructing immigration officers to deny green cards to applicants who express certain political views. The policy specifically flags criticism of Israel, participation in pro-Palestine protests, and acts like flag desecration as grounds for rejecting lawful permanent residency.

Donald Trump’s administration reportedly issued guidance on green card

The materials, distributed last month to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers, outline scenarios that would trigger escalated review of a green card application. Posting “Stop Israeli Terror in Palestine” alongside a crossed-out Israeli flag on social media is cited as a disqualifying example. Holding a sign advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government also makes the list, according to training materials reviewed by The New York Times.

Immigration officers are now required to refer cases involving “potential Anti-American and/or antisemitic conduct or ideology” to supervisors and the general counsel’s office. The directive builds on an August announcement that USCIS would revise how it evaluates immigrant benefit requests, which grant the right to live and work in the country. “America’s benefits should not be given to those who despise the country and promote anti-American ideologies,” a USCIS spokesman said at the time.

Additionally, USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler defended the current guidance in a statement to People. “If you hate America, you have no business demanding to live in America,” Kahler said. “Citizenship or a green card are both privileges reserved for individuals who respect and uphold the principles upon which this nation is founded, and evaluating aliens based on their own words and actions is both fair and reasonable,” he added.

The green card policy comes alongside other administration actions targeting foreign nationals over speech related to Israel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked visas held by pro-Palestine activists. In December, the U.S. was considering requiring tourist visa applicants from dozens of countries to provide five years of social media history. Donald Trump has publicly endorsed the enforcement posture.

Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.

 

Evangelical Christian Pastor, a "Marriage Counselor", is a Polygamist

The "Reverend" Leslie Williams is not even a Mormon. He's just a Moron.

Predictably, he's from the conservative backward states of Florida and Georgia.

American Christianity in general, Catholics, Protestants and every other sect in between, is looking more like the Catholic Church circa the 1400s: Decadence, unbridled sexuality, debauchery, women popes, married popes with mistresses and concubines, and selling tickets to heaven. Which I think would all have been Donald Trump ideas, had God allowed him to be Pope at the time. But alas, Democrats and the Lunatic Left conspired with God himself against him in a sordid hoax and witch-hunt he is likely to tell us about in one of his 2 am bedtime social media posts.
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Pastor known for marriage advice arrested at rumored swingers community accused of having multiple wives
Bonny Chu
Tue, April 28, 2026 

 

Pastor Leslie Williams, known for his marriage advice book, was arrested in Florida on a bigamy charge after allegedly marrying multiple women. Here, he takes a selfie as he rides a golf cart.

A pastor who runs a ministry in a rumored swingers community for Florida seniors — and ironically wrote a book on how to love your spouse — was arrested Wednesday following allegations that he married multiple women.

Leslie Williams, 62, was taken into custody at the sprawling retirement center, The Villages, on an outstanding warrant out of Georgia tied to a bigamy charge, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.

He is currently being held without bond due to his status as an out-of-state fugitive, with legal holds stemming from Rockdale County, Georgia.

"Florida marriage records were obtained and confirmed that Leslie Williams was still lawfully married at the time of the subsequent marriage," the Rockdale County Sheriff's Office told Fox News Digital. "Based on these records, a warrant was obtained for Leslie Williams for the charge of bigamy."

Concerns were first raised when a complainant reported the alleged bigamy to the Haines City Police Department in Florida, officials said. The case was later transferred to Georgia after records showed Williams’ previous marriage had been certified in Rockdale County.

According to Williams’ Facebook page, the pastor had indicated he had been married for years, dating back to at least 2018, before a recent December post announced a new marriage to a woman named Cindi.

"Thanks for all the wonderful comments referencing my saved, beautiful and talented wife, Mrs. Williams!" he wrote in the post, which featured a photo of the woman as his updated cover image.

One friend, however, reacted to the celebratory news with some skepticism.

"Wow I thought you were already married. Congratulations!!" the commenter wrote.
A mugshot displays 62-year-old Florida pastor and marriage advice author Leslie Williams.

When another friend asked if the announcement was real, Williams responded, "Yes preacher!!!! THE HAPPIEST MAN on earth!!"

However, activity on his Facebook page suggests the relationship may have turned rocky in the months that followed.

The cover photo featuring his new wife was removed roughly two months later and replaced with an image of a car, according to his account activity.

His relationship status was also changed from "married" to "single."

Documents show the warrant for his arrest was then issued on April 3 by the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia.

Williams is currently being held for extradition at the Sumter County Detention Center in Florida in accordance with the warrant stipulations.

Residents dance in the square of the Villages retirement community outside of Orlando, Florida, on October 4, 2016.

The arrest came after the pastor had published a 2017 book titled "Love Her Like This: Loving Her Has Never Been Deeper." According to its summary, the book aimed to foster a "never-failing" love by emphasizing biblical commitments to strengthen marriages.

"In a time where there is a high divorce rate in the church, LHLT shows men [the] depth of Christ's love for His bride as an example for every man to love his bride with the same strength, sacrifice and commitment," a cover poster for the book stated.

The 62-year-old also described himself as "an apologist and teacher of the word of God with relevant and timely messages for the body of Christ," according to his book.

He also runs Leslie Williams Ministries located within The Villages, his website said.

According to the Associated Press, The Villages is one of the largest retirement communities in the world located outside of Orlando, where long-running rumors of swingers, public sexual encounters and unusually high rates of sexually transmitted diseases have surfaced over the years.

GOP-MAGA Candidates are Ashamed of the Great Moron

For Republican-GOP-MAGA candidates running for the midterms, Trump has a stench about him that they'd rather not bring along in their campaigns, lest they lose the elections. Now that is very much how "loyalist" candidates should NOT normally conduct themselves.

If they had any gonads, they would break up with the Moron and be free, or they should promote him as their boss. But these are bigots at heart: That is how they use religion, a la carte, taking from it what suits them and ignoring the rest. With Trump, they probably hate him but do not dare break up with him. So, they drag him along like a disgusting poor relative or an aging senile grandfather from the sticks, but hide him from view when talking to their electorate. So nice.

Republican campaigns are keeping President Donald Trump at arm’s length as they try to hang onto their seats in Congress. They already were expected to lose their majority in the House and the Senate even before their Great Moron launched his Zionist-prodded war with Iran and high gas prices. He never delivered on his campaign promises which he completely ignored and focused instead on implementing the extremist right-wing white nationalist "Project 2025."

Instead, lawmakers planning to run for re-election have decided not to tout their ties to Trump, according to Reuters. This strategy was discussed during a closed-door meeting of top MAGA officials, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and concluded by urging lawmaker candidates not to bring up their loyalty to Trump or his unpopular war with Iran. 

Lovely! 

MAGA "Warriors" Pete Hegseth and Stephen Miller First to Duck at WHCD

The first cowards to duck when the shots rang out at the White House Correspondents Dinner are the most violent, racist, xenophobic members of the Dumb Administration.

PETE HEGSETH   .... STEPHEN  MILLER 

 

[Updated]: Trump is Racist Bozo the Clown

[UPDATE-28-Apr-2026]: 

Trump has terminated the entire National Science Board of 22 ‌members.

More details:

• The independent board was established in 1950 to guide the governance of ​the National Science Foundation and to advise the president and the Congress on policies about science and engineering.

• It included over 20 members appointed for six-year terms.

• Since taking office in early 2025, Trump has put pressure on ‌independent institutions. Political experts ⁠say his administration is attempting to remake those bodies by installing loyalists in leadership positions and by removing independent ⁠and critical voices.

• Board members were told on Friday they were being ousted effective immediately, members Yolanda Gil and Keivan Stassun, said in emailed statements.

• "Yes, ​ all 22 ​current members of the National Science ​Board were terminated on Friday ‌effective immediately. No reason was given," Gil, who works at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California, said.

• The majority of the board members were academics. It also had representation from national labs, non-profits and the industry, Gil told Reuters.

• "Seeing similar actions by the Administration across the ‌federal government and especially with regards to ​scientific research, it seemed only a matter ​of time," Stassun, who works ​at Vanderbilt University, said.

• Stassun, who said he was ‌disappointed, also confirmed Gil's account that ​Friday's termination email ​did not provide any reason.

• The National Science Foundation directed questions to the White House.

• A White House official said authorities given ​to the board by ‌Congress when the board was created may need updating. The National ​ Science Foundation's work "continues uninterrupted," the official said.

Lebanon Iznogood's INTERPRETATION: 

- Trump hates science. As an illiterate moron, he doesn't undertsand that the basic research sponsored by the NSF and the NIH is what propels the US to the forefront of scientific discovery.

- In the instructions he received from his "Project 2025" handlers, he is told to focus only on "nationalist science" which consists of bogus scientific projects and research whose results are known in advance to favor and promite the social-political outlook of the extremist right-wing Project 2025 program.

- By pre-ordaining what "truth" such a science should uncover, this move by the dicktator Trump clones the Soviet "Lysenkoism" era in which the stalinist communists used the biologist Trofim Lysenko to falsify data aiming at disproving existing scientific facts in genetics and agriculture by rejecting Darwinian natural selection (as a capitalist Western concept) in favor of the disproved and long rejected theory of Lamarckism, or by advocating the absurdity of Marxist "class-less" science. 

During that period under Stalin, more than 3,000 mainstream biologists were dismissed or imprisoned, and numerous scientists were executed in the Soviet campaign to suppress scientific opponents [Source: Wikipedia]. The president of the Soviet Agriculture Academy, Nikolai Vavilov, who had been Lysenko's mentor, but later denounced him, was sent to prison and died there, while Soviet genetics research was effectively destroyed. Research and teaching in the fields of neurophysiology, cell biology, and many other biological disciplines were harmed or banned.

Which is exactly what the moron Trump is trying to do: Appoint scientists at the NSF Board who would defund research "not in line with official Trump ideology" while funding bogus research that proves, for example, that African Americans are less intelligent than White aryans, that women are not suited for work outside the home, that homosexuality is a disease, that his buddies in the insurance companies can use people's genetic data to deny them coverage, etc. This is what fraudulent science is: You design the research in such a way that it can only "prove" your hypothesis, rather than formulate the hypothesis and let the results prove or disprove it. You let facts determine what is true or likely, rather than force your experiments (or fabricate and falsify data) to "prove" your own pre-existing ideas. But with Trump who invented such Fascist notions as "Fake news" or "Alternative facts", he wants to condemn simple unadulterated science as "fake science" while his MAGA science is the correct one. Watch as the Trump-appointed goons at the new Board of Directors at NSF begin their rampage, mayhem and plunder of the gem that is American science.

I am grateful that Trump's term has an end - if he abides by the Constitution - because the harm he is causing to American science could be devastating if this sort of charlatanism is allowed to go on for years. Meanwhile, thousands of American scientists are leaving for careers in sane countries like Canada, the UK, Australia, France, Germany and the EU at large. 

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1- Trump is a racist white supremacist who is purging the federal administration of its African-American personnel. He and his Zionist friends see eye to eye on matters of racism: He, in the US, hates African Americans and they, in raped Palestine, hate Palestinian Arabs. 

2-Trump is an illiterate dumb idiot who thinks that science is a waste of time and money. For that he is known as Bozo the Clown.

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Trump Sued For Racial Discrimination, Accused Of Firing 75% of Black Officials At Independent Federal Agencies
Christopher Rhodes
Mon, April 27, 2026 


Lawsuit alleges racial discrimination in firing of Black federal employees under Trump administration.

Upon returning to office, President Donald Trump immediately implemented orders and policies against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in government and beyond while also slashing federal agencies and laying off employees. Now, a new lawsuit alleges that these policies have combined to target Black federal employees, as the Trump administration is accused of racial discrimination.
Lawsuit alleges racial bias in firing of National Transportation Safety Board official

Alvin Brown, a Democrat nominated by President Joe Biden who served as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, filed a complaint alleging that his dismissal in May 2025 was done because of racial bias. Brown argues in his complaint that his firing cannot be explained by partisan reasoning. ‘Mr. Brown’s removal from the NTSB cannot be explained by the fact that Mr. Brown is a Democrat and President Trump might have wanted to exert Republican control over the Board,” Brown’s lawyer wrote in the lawsuit. “At the time of Mr. Brown’s removal from the NTSB, there were two other Democrats serving on the Board.” Rather, Brown is arguing that his removal is part of a systematic targeting of Black federal employees, and thus a violation of his Fifth Amendment rights.
Alleged pattern of firing or replacing Black people

According to Brown’s attorneys, 75% of Black officials of independent agencies have been fired under Trump. “President Trump has removed Black Senate-confirmed appointees; he has either nominated a non-Black individual for their replacement or has not formally replaced them at all,” Brown’s attorneys further allege. “This trend fits with President Trump’s consistent messaging criticizing diversity and inclusion and his clear and demonstrable emphasis on hiring white people.” A second Black former official, Robert Primus, has filed a similar lawsuit relating to his firing in August from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, a position to which he had been nominated by Trump and then elevated to board chairman under Biden. In addition to race, Primus pointed toward his opposition to a massive railroad merger deal as motivation behind his firing.
Slashing federal jobs, dismantling agencies, and opposing diversity initiatives

Since returning to the White House, Trump has initiated a series of executive orders and policies against DEI programs and initiatives, which have been interpreted broadly to censor or remove information relating to Black people and other minority communities. Trump also dismantled federal agencies and conducted mass firings of federal employees, with DOGE initially taking a leading role in this process. Trump has additionally attempted to fire or even prosecute officials who previously opposed him or have current policy disagreements with him, such as Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook of the Federal Reserve Board.

The lawsuits filed by Brown and Primus challenge these policies. The suits push back against Trump’s efforts to fire federal employees and gut diversity initiatives, arguing that the impact of these policies has been active, disproportionate targeting of Black employees. In making these challenges, lawyers in the two cases have cited stunning statistics and patterns of Black employees being eliminated from federal positions or replaced, painting a picture of an administration actively hostile toward Black people in the federal government.
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Trump’s purge of National Science Board condemned as a ‘real bozo the clown move’
Josh Marcus
Sun, April 26, 2026

Trump’s purge of National Science Board condemned as a ‘real bozo the clown move’
The Trump administration reportedly fired all 22 current members of the National Science Board, a key body that advises the president and Congress on U.S. science policy and steers the National Science Foundation.

Critics are alarmed by the news that the Trump administration reportedly fired all 22 current members of the National Science Board, the body that steers the National Science Foundation and advises Congress and the president on top scientific issues.

In a statement on Saturday, Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California called the decision a “real bozo the clown move.”

“This is the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to harm science and American innovation,” she said. “The NSB is apolitical. It advises the president on the future of NSF. It unfortunately is no surprise a president who has attacked NSF from day one would seek to destroy the board that helps guide the Foundation.”

“Will the president fill the NSB with MAGA loyalists who won't stand up to him as he hands over our leadership in science to our adversaries?” she added.

“This unseemly political maneuver must be seen for what it is: An attempt to silence independent scientists, shut down evidence-based decision making, and keep the public in the dark,” Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO of the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote in a blog post.

The Trump administration reportedly fired the entire National Science Board on Friday, a key body that steers U.S. science policy and advises the president and Congress (Reuters)

The National Science Foundation directed questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request from The Independent for comment.

The White House reportedly fired the members of the board on Friday with little explanation.

The advisory body, whose members serve six-year terms, helps guide the overall direction of the NSF’s more than $9 billion budget. It helps approve major expenses and sets long-term priorities for the agency, the engine of basic non-medical science and engineering funding in the U.S., which has had a hand in the creation of major technologies like GPS and the internet.

“What it means is that there won’t be any practical impediments to the administration essentially enacting their own budget and priorities and ignoring Congress’ directives or congressional law,” Keivan Stassun, a professor of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University who was among those fired, told The Lost Angeles Times.

“What we’re likely to see is a collapse of what has historically been a broad investment in American science and technology capabilities,” he added. “The most transformative discoveries are transformative because you can’t predict them in advance, so we invest foundationally in scientists and engineers to do basic science and engineering research.”

The Trump administration has taken other controversial steps around scientific policy, including removing the entirety of a key CDC vaccine advisory panel (Reuters) [Can you guess what the other Bozo - RFK Jr. - is really thinking from the way he is looking at Trump hurling his verbal diarrhea?]

The reported firings are the latest sign of uncertainty and upheaval at the NSF.

Last April, NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan resigned from the agency, as personnel from the Trump administration’s slash-and-burn DOGE cost-cutting program were working inside NSF to cancel scores of grants.

The following month, board member Alondra Nelson resigned, citing the DOGE takeover, alleging the Elon Musk-led effort had “by fiat the authority to give thumbs up or down to grant applications which had been systematically vetted by layers of subject matter experts.”

Last year, the White House proposed a 55 percent cut to the NSF budget, which Congress rejected. The administration has again requested cuts as part of the fiscal year 2027 budget.

In March, the administration nominated Jim O’Neill, a former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and biotech investor, to lead the science agency.

O’Neill, who has yet to go for a hearing before Congress, would be the first NSF chief who lacked a formal scientific or engineering background.

The president has championed U.S. dominance in technology, and Silicon Valley CEOs donated to his campaign and inauguration (AFP/Getty) [here, a lineup of the Great Moron's asskissing billionaire friends]

In its first year in office, the Trump administration terminated or froze more than 7,800 research grants, while roughly 25,000 scientists and staffers at research-related agencies left the government, according to Nature.

Last summer, the administration removed all the members of an influential CDC vaccine advisory board, some of whom were replaced by vaccine skeptics.

The administration similarly removed members of an autism advisory board, installing members in their place who had previously made debunked claims linking vaccines to autism.

The president has a long history of denying well-established science, and he called the climate crisis “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” last year at the United Nations General Assembly.

The president has proved supportive of the technology industry, though, championing artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

His administration has pushed to speed the development of AI data centers across the U.S.

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Hegseth as Pentagon's Christian Mullah: Christian Sharia Anyone?

The very very bad sinner - alcoholism, women, violence...- Pete Hegseth, says he was "personally" saved by Jesus. Could Jesus "save" people collectively or impersonnally? I don't understand the "personal" in this miraculous conversion, tempered as it were by the fact that people don't really change. They might assume an outward personality that is the exact opposite of who they really are, something known as BIGOTRY.

As he tries to keep pleasing Jesus with his pseudo metamorphosis, Hegseth has gone so far as to begin turning the secular Pentagon into a Warmongering Church of Death. Which is the equivalent of the Rule of the Jurisprudents in Iran or the supreme Mullah of Afghanistan's Taliban. Such Christian idiots don't realize that you don't fight bigotry with bigotry. You don't fight Islamic fundamentalism by becoming a Christian fundamentalist. To do so is, at the very least, easy, primitive, reflexively stupid and short-sighted. Fundamentalism is bad, has always been bad through history, regardless of what religion it comes from. But would you expect anything else from the illiterate morons that Trump has selected to "serve" him?

Hegseth loves the Hebrew Torah/Old Testament for one reason and one reason only: It reeks of sexuality, violence, genocide, incest, human sacrifice, and self-ingratiation with the Big Zombie in the Sky who is a capricious sadist who is never satisfied with what humans do.

Firing chaplains, particularly Catholic ones, firing African American military leaders, firing women military leaders.... Hegseth's Warmongering Church of Death is also Racist White Supremacist, so much so that only Evangelicals like him, who get "personally saved by Jesus" (I still cannot wrap my mind around this notion), will go to heaven, just as only white Christian aryans (e.g. the South African white Nazi apartheid remnants) will be accepted as immigrants in the American wilderness. Hegseth wants to apply a CHRISTIAN SHARIA LAW in America, which is the implementation of biblical law across the country, just as radical Islamist terrorists want to implement koranic law: Stoning, lashing, hanging, crucifying... you name it. With Hegseth, the US might as well turn into a Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan in which suits and ties replace weird headgear and robes, in which women are men's property to be cornered into an exclusive career of getting pregnant, cooking and doing laundry.

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Pete Hegseth’s Iran war messaging echoes sermons from his extremist church
Jason Wilson
Sun, April 26, 2026 


Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington DC, on 24 April 2026.Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/AFP/Getty Images(Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/AFP/Getty Images)

On 17 April, at a briefing on the Iran war, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth told reporters he had been “sitting in church with my family” the previous Sunday while the minister preached from Mark 3.

Hegseth then recast a passage about the Pharisees watching Jesus “so that they might accuse him” as a description of the US press corps, which has long been a target of his ire. “Our press is just like these Pharisees,” Hegseth said. He accused “the legacy Trump-hating press” of a “politically motivated animus” that blinded it to “the brilliance of our American warriors”.

The sermon Hegseth described as attending bears similarities to one delivered only days earlier at Christ Kirk DC, a Washington branch of the openly Christian nationalist Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), the denomination to which Hegseth belongs.

The 12 April sermon, titled “The Fellowship of Grievance”, also exhorted worshippers to embrace a “biblically informed hatred”.

That sermon, other Christ Kirk DC sermons, and episodes of podcasts produced inside the CREC network show pastors who have preached to Hegseth’s congregation, and the most senior figures in the denomination, advancing a theocratic program that would restrict the vote, criminalise LGBTQ+ expression and apply biblical law through the courts.

Asked in an email whether CREC had shaped Hegseth’s worldview, CREC founder and pastor of Christ Church, Moscow, Douglas Wilson wrote: “You would need to ask him that. But his worldview is broadly the same as ours.” Asked if he was a Christian nationalist, Wilson wrote: “Yes, that would be a fair description.”

Hegseth’s cabinet tenure continues to underscore the growing influence of CREC inside the US military and the Trump administration, including through his portrayals of the Iran war.

‘There are things that God hates, and it’s right for us to share that hatred’

The preacher at the 12 April service was Dr Benjamin Merkle. He is the president of CREC-aligned New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, a senior fellow of theology there, a teaching elder at Christ Church Moscow, the CREC’s flagship congregation, and the son-in-law of Wilson, the denomination’s co-founder.

Christ Kirk DC has met since July 2025 in a Pennsylvania Avenue building owned by the Conservative Partnership Institute, a Trump-aligned non-profit which, as previously reported in the Guardian, acquired the real estate to support activities including influencing Republican staffers and targeting government employees. The congregation uses a rotating roster of CREC preachers.

In the sermon, Merkle cast the Pharisees as having “gathered around simply so that in this moment they can find something prosecutable against Jesus, because of the hatred that they have in their heart”.

Merkle told the Guardian in a phone call that he had not listened to Hegseth’s press conference or seen any reporting on it.

“I wasn’t making a political observation, I was making a human observation,” Merkle said of his comments on the Pharisees. He added: “Secretary Hegseth’s application to that situation could very well be a very appropriate application of the principle that I was fleshing out.”

Despite speculating on Hegseth’s adaptation of the sermon, Merkle refused to confirm or deny Hegseth’s attendance at the service. When asked in an email to confirm his attendance, Merkle answered: “Sorry, I don’t want to be weird. But I don’t think I will do that.”

Similarly, the Pentagon would neither confirm nor deny Hegseth’s attendance. Asked to do so in an email, Hegseth’s assistant press secretary, Riley Podleski, wrote: “We have nothing further to provide”.

In the sermon, Merkle also said that the previous day he had been at a conference where “someone was lamenting how unified the left seems to be in their attacks on the right” while “the conservative right is very disjointed”. “When they all hate the same thing,” Merkle said, “it forms a temporary unity, a fellowship of the grievance.”

Asked about these remarks, Merkle said: “My point is that when you have a strong opposition from multiple different places to one particular figure or one particular movement or people, then you can find groups that would never have gotten along before suddenly kind of bond together. And I do think we see that in our current political situation. I think that’s one appropriate application of it.”

After spending 40 minutes contrasting the unity of the Christian church with the “grievance” unity of its opponents, Merkle told his congregation: “It’s also not true that those who love God are only united by our loves. We’re also united by the things that we hate. We share a hatred of evil. There are things that God hates, and it’s right for us to share that hatred.” Christians, he said, are defined “not just by love” but by “biblically informed hatred”.

Asked about the phrase, Merkle said: “I dislike how, particularly more liberal branches of Christianity, we start to define godliness as love – but love disembodied, love in its most general state.

“You’re supposed to hate what is evil, detest what is evil,” Merkle said. “But evil is defined by God’s word.”

Asked whether believers were to hate abstract evil or the people who do evil, Merkle said: “It’s a classic evangelical trope to say we hate the sin and not the sinner. But the problem is, in the end, God throws sinners into hell. So I don’t know that it’s right to draw that distinction as if I can just hate this thing that was done but not the person that did it.”

Julie Ingersoll, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida, has studied the CREC for decades. She told the Guardian: “The CREC motto ‘All of Christ for All of Life’ refers to their view that there is no area of life that is not governed by God’s law. This version of Christianity allows for no realm in which there can be neutrality: not church and state, not religion and the courts, not education or the military.”

She added: “Not only do they want the US to be a Christian nation, but they also want all nations to be Christian nations.”

Merkle’s father-in-law, Wilson, is a co-founder of Christ Church Moscow, CREC and New Saint Andrews, and one of the most prominent Christian nationalist leaders in the US. Wilson and his church teach that civil authorities should enforce Old Testament law [hence, a Christian Sharia Law), and that both homosexuality and abortion warrant death penalties under that law.

Wilson told the New York Times in October that he looks forward to a future in which “there aren’t any Pride parades and there aren’t any drag queen story hours”.

Asked if his sermon connected to CREC demands for abortion to be outlawed and severely punished, Merkle said: “I would absolutely make that connection. I mean, I hate abortion.

“And I really reject the claim that it’s this private, personal decision. It’s the execution of a child, and I think it’s grotesque that our culture accepts it, and I want to see that eradicated,” Merkle said. “I think it’d be a great blessing to our nation to see the widespread murder of our children eliminated.”

Asked if LGBTQ+ people merited biblically informed hatred, Merkle said: “I think God is clear that he made a woman to go with a man and a man to go with a woman, and that’s what a marriage is.”

He added: “I think that the acceptance of homosexuality not only has done great evil to America, but I think it does great evil to those that are practising it. I think it does great harm to them, and I think they’re greatly blessed to be delivered from it.”

On abortion and homosexuality, Merkle said: “If we were to hate what is evil, I think those two things are evil. So I think that’s a pretty simple syllogism.”

‘I hope that God kills him’

At key moments in his cabinet tenure, Hegseth has given CREC pastors a platform in services that have put Christian nationalism at the centre of the US military.

Brooks Potteiger, Hegseth’s pastor in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, presided over the first worship service in a monthly series Hegseth initiated at the Pentagon in May 2025. Potteiger returned on 21 January 2026 for the first service after the US operation that captured deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

In a 4 March blog post, Wilson announced that Potteiger had “accepted a call and will be coming to serve as an on-site pastor” of Christ Kirk DC starting in July.

Potteiger has been described in reporting as Hegseth’s spiritual adviser. Asked if that was accurate, he told the Guardian in an email: “I’d simply say he’s been one of many parishioners at church that I’ve had the privilege of ministering to.”

Potteiger drew media attention in March after appearing on the Reformation Red Pill podcast with its host Joshua Haymes. Discussing Texas Democratic senate candidate James Talarico, Haymes said: “I hope that God kills him.” Potteiger responded: “We want him crucified with Christ.”

Asked about the exchange, Potteiger said: “Being ‘crucified with Christ’ is a quote from the apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20 talking about conversion. Mr Talarico claims to be a Christian but teaches contrary to Christ. Far from wishing him harm, I wish for him to have a true experience of salvation.”

On 17 February, 11 days before the US joined Israel in the first attacks on Iran, Wilson presided over a Pentagon worship service. “God can do what he likes,” Wilson told the assembled personnel, “and as we should know by now, what he likes to do is to take the most unlikely materials and do something glorious with it.”

Hegseth’s own public rhetoric has increasingly drawn on the vocabulary of Christian nationalism.

On 5 March, at a counter-cartel conference, Hegseth told Central and South American leaders that with the US they were “western nations with distinct characteristics” and “Christian nations under God”. On 19 March, he asked the American people to pray for US troops “on bended knee” and “in the name of Jesus Christ”. On 25 March, he read from Psalm 18 – “I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet” – and prayed that God would “break the teeth” of US enemies. On 16 April, he offered a garbled passage of Ezekiel filtered via Pulp Fiction.

The Guardian previously reported that Hegseth said on Haymes’ podcast in 2024 that moving his family to a CREC church had brought him “a whole view of the world that has changed the way we think, too”.

In response to questions about his relationship with CREC, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement: “The Secretary is a proud member of a church affiliated with the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which was founded by Pastor Doug Wilson. The Secretary very much appreciates many of Mr Wilson’s writings and teachings.”

Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said: “Hegseth has aligned himself with some of the most extreme Christian nationalists in the country. Their anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs and extremist views about women should give anyone pause, as well as his ‘biblical’ attacks on journalists, especially when Hegseth is sharing them with our soldiers and blasting away at the separation of church and state.

“But even more worrisome is his infusion of his Christian beliefs as the basis for our war in Iran,” Beirich added. “Our national security should not be based on fanatical holy war fantasies, but that is what Hegseth, and by extension Trump, have wrought.”