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"The legislature, like the executive, has ceased to be even the creature of the people: it is the creature of pressure groups, and most of them, it must be manifest, are of dubious wisdom and even more dubious honesty. Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner. The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle..."

-- H. L. Mencken

News and Opinion

Trump Is Bombing Yemen For Israel

The US is bombing Yemen again after Houthi leaders announced that their blockade on Israeli shipping would resume due to Israel’s siege on Gaza.

Trump could have used Washington’s immense leverage over Israel to force Netanyahu to honor the ceasefire agreement and allow aid into Gaza. Instead he let the IDF lay siege to Gaza and started bombing Yemen for Israel, because he’s a warmongering Israel cuck.

Trump is bombing Yemen for Israel, rushing weapons to Israel despite its flagrant ceasefire violations, and rolling out authoritarian measure after authoritarian measure to stop Americans from criticizing Israel. Because that’s what you get when you vote for America First.

Do you want to know how much of a pathetic Israel lackey Trump is? Earlier this month his nominated hostage envoy Adam Boehler went on CNN and proclaimed that the United States is “not an agent of Israel”. Days later, the White House withdrew Boehler’s nomination.

Known things:

1. Trump is a servant of Israel.

2. Trump is on the Epstein flight logs.

3. Epstein worked with Israeli intelligence.

4. Epstein was running a sexual blackmail operation.

5. Trump is obstructing the release of the Epstein files.

Question:

Exactly how many kids did Trump rape?

Trump BOMBS Yemen On Behalf Of Israel

US says airstrikes against Houthis in Yemen will continue indefinitely

US officials have said airstrikes launched against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis will continue indefinitely, after a first round on Saturday killed at least 53 people and injured almost 100 more. The strikes, which aim to punish the Houthis for their attacks against Red Sea shipping, are Donald Trump’s first such use of US military might in the region since he took power in January.

Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, told Fox News: “The minute the Houthis say ‘we’ll stop shooting at your ships, we’ll stop shooting at your drones’, this campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting.” Hegseth was among several senior officials underlining that the strikes were designed to signal a new assertive approach to Iran, and more generally in the Middle East.

Michael Waltz, the US national security adviser, said in separate interviews that the strikes “targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out” and had involved “overwhelming force [that] put Iran on notice that enough is enough”.

Earlier, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!” He added: “To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY!” ...

The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responded to the US threats by saying the Houthis were independent and took their own strategic and operational decisions. “We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they take their threats into action,” Maj Gen Hossein Salami told state media.

Alastair Crooke : Israel at War With Itself

Israeli Military Kills 14 Palestinians in Gaza Over 24 Hours

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday that at least 14 Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks in the previous 24-hour period as Israel has ramped up its bombings amid its ongoing breach of the ceasefire deal reached in January.

The ministry said the total number of bodies that were brought to Gaza hospitals was 29, including 15 that were dug out of the rubble. Israeli attacks also wounded 51 Palestinians.

An Israeli strike on Saturday in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia targeted aid workers, killing nine people. According to CNN, the Al-Khair Foundation, a charity based in the UK, said the strike killed eight charity workers.

Netanyahu says he will seek to dismiss head of Israel’s internal security service

Benjamin Netanyahu has announced he will seek to dismiss the director of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, through a cabinet vote later this week, in a move that will prompt further accusations of authoritarianism. The Israeli prime minister said in a video statement on Sunday that “ongoing distrust” made it impossible for him to continue to work with Ronen Bar, who has led Shin Bet since 2021.

Netanyahu said: “We are in the midst of a war for our very survival … At any time, but especially during such an existential war, the prime minister must have complete confidence in the director of the [Shin Bet]. Unfortunately, however, the situation is the opposite.” It comes after an increasingly acrimonious dispute between the men over responsibility for the failures that allowed the surprise Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza.

Shin Bet is responsible for monitoring Palestinian militant groups. It recently issued a report accepting responsibility for its failures around the attack but also criticised Netanyahu, saying government policies were among its causes. Netanyahu has not accepted any responsibility for the attack, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and led to 251 being abducted, though he was prime minister at the time and has been in power for a total of 17 years. ...

The Israeli media has criticised Netanyahu for allowing substantial financial aid from Qatar to reach Hamas, in an apparent attempt to strengthen the Islamic militant group in Gaza as a rival to the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

The tensions peaked this weekend when Bar’s predecessor, Nadav Argaman, said he would release sensitive information about Netanyahu if the prime minister was found to have broken the law. Netanyahu accused Argaman of blackmail and filed a police complaint.

Hamas Agrees To Release Israeli-American Hostage

Hamas announced on Friday that it had agreed to release American Edan Alexander along with the bodies of four other dual US-Israelis who died in Gaza. The group did not provide more details about the agreement.

In a statement on the group’s Telegram channel, Hamas explained that the armed Palestinian group is willing to release “[E]dan Alexander, who holds American citizenship, in addition to the bodies of four other dual nationals.”

Alexander is believed to be the last living Hamas hostage with American citizenship. He was serving in an Israeli military unit near Gaza on October 7 when he was captured during the Hamas assault.

While the details of the agreement are unclear, CNN reported on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff had presented a proposal to the Qataris earlier this week that involved Hamas releasing Alexander. Under that agreement, the Israeli total siege of Gaza would be lifted and the ceasefire extended through Passover, April 20.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : How Israeli Extremism Undermines US Democracy and Constitutional Rights

Just by the way: independent of all the other censorship justifications offered here by Rubio, what is the basis for claiming Mahmoud Khalil is a "Hamas supporter?"

I know some believe that any opposition to Israel's wars justifies that accusation, but anything beyond that? https://t.co/GQkQRJfTOr

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 12, 2025

Trump Admin Wants to CONTROL COLUMBIA?

Mahmoud Khalil’s case is setting up an epic first amendment battle with Trump

The Trump administration is relying on an obscure provision of immigration law to justify deporting Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident, setting up a high-stakes legal battle between the first amendment and what the government claims are its foreign policy powers. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who became a leader of pro-Palestinian protests on the campus, was arrested on 8 March by immigration agents. After his arrest, immigration officials said they were seeking to deport him under a provision of federal law that gives the US secretary of state, currently Marco Rubio, the power to deport someone if their presence in the country is deemed to “have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”.

The US constitution gives the president tremendous power over foreign affairs. The Trump administration is now trying to use that authority to dramatically expand its immigration powers and curtail rights for immigrants. ...

“The primary issue in the case, I think, that is going to be litigated is whether this is unconstitutional first amendment retaliation,” said Ramya Krishnan, a lawyer at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia. “If the first amendment means anything, it means that the government can’t lock you up or deport you because of your political views. That’s literally the most important thing about this country.” Krishnan said that the provision Rubio is relying on to pursue Khalil’s immigration can’t be used to override constitutional freedoms. “Whatever the text of the statute says, it’s subject to the first amendment. And the theory of the case that they’re advancing here is astonishingly broad,” she added.

Federal law also blocks the government from removing someone “because of the alien’s past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations, if such beliefs, statements, or associations would be lawful within the United States, unless the Secretary of State personally determines that the alien’s admission would compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest”. In a legal filing on Thursday, Khalil’s lawyers said it was obvious he was being punished for his viewpoints.

“Neither Secretary Rubio nor any other government official has alleged that Mr Khalil has committed any crime or, indeed, broken any law whatsoever,” they wrote. “The Rubio Determination was exclusively motivated by Mr Khalil’s lawful, constitutionally-protected past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations.” Trump administration officials have not formally laid out the case for why they believe Khalil threatens the foreign policy interests of the United States. The White House told the outlet the Free Press that Khalil’s arrest would be a “blueprint” for investigating other students.

Macron says Russia’s permission not needed to deploy troops in Ukraine

Emmanuel Macron has said France, the UK, and other nations providing security guarantees for Ukraine after any eventual ceasefire would not be aiming to deploy a “mass” of soldiers, but instead could send contingents of several thousand troops to key locations in Ukraine without needing Russia’s permission.

The French president told regional French newspapers, including Le Parisien and La Dépêche de Midi, that “several European countries, and indeed non-European ones” had “expressed their willingness” to join a possible deployment to Ukraine to secure a future peace agreement with Russia.

He said this could involve “a few thousand troops” from each state, deployed at “key points” in Ukraine, to conduct training programmes and “show our long-term support”. Macron added in the interview on Saturday that the proposed contingents from countries that were members of the Nato alliance would serve as “a guarantee of security” for Ukraine and that “several European nations, and also non-European, have expressed their willingness to join such an effort when it is confirmed”. He added: “Under no circumstances can the Ukrainians make territorial concessions without having any security guarantees.”

Moscow has firmly opposed such a deployment, but Macron said Russia’s permission was not needed. He said Ukraine was sovereign. “If Ukraine requests allied forces to be on its territory, it is not up to Russia to accept or reject them.”

Russia ironclad guarantees. Ukraine federalization?

Trump and Putin expected to speak this week about ceasefire terms, envoy says

Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he expected the US president to speak with Vladimir Putin this week, saying that the Russian president “accepts the philosophy” of Trump’s ceasefire and peace terms.

Witkoff told CNN that discussions with Putin over several hours last week were “positive” and “solution-based”. He declined to confirm when asked whether Putin’s demands included the surrender of Ukrainian forces in Kursk; international recognition of Ukrainian territory seized by Russia as Russian; limits on Ukraine’s ability to mobilize; a halt to western military aid; and a ban on foreign peacekeepers.

Putin said on Thursday that he supported a truce but outlined numerous details that need to be negotiated before the deal can be completed. The Russian president said he was open to a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the US but offered vague terms for his support, raising questions about what the Kremlin wants. Witkoff declined to describe Russian terms. He said US envoys “had narrowed the differences” between Ukraine and Russian negotiators, and he would meet Trump on Sunday to discuss “how to narrow the differences even further”.

The discussions, Witkoff added, included Ukraine, Russia and European stakeholder countries including France, Britain, Norway and Finland, as well as other elements “that would be encompassed in a ceasefire”.

Trump, he said, was being updated about the discussions as they happened. “He is involved with every important decision here and I expect that there will be a call between the [US and Russian] presidents this week.” Witkoff also said the US was continuing to engage and have conversations with Ukraine, and “advising them on everything we’re thinking about”.

Trump Didn't See This Coming: Canada Breaks $13 Billion Deal with US and Turns to EU!

Canada to review the purchase of US-made F-35 fighter jets in light of Trump’s trade war

Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney has asked Defense Minister Bill Blair to review the purchase of America’s F-35 fighter jet to see if there are other options “given the changing environment,” a spokesman for Blair said Saturday. Defense ministry press secretary Laurent de Casanove said the contract to purchase U.S. military contractor Lockheed Martin’s F-35 currently remains in place and Canada has made a legal commitment of funds for the first 16 aircraft. Canada agreed to buy 88 F-35’s two years ago.

Carney, who was sworn in on Friday, has asked Blair to work with the military “to determine if the F-35 contract, as it stands, is the best investment for Canada, and if there are other options that could better meet Canada’s needs,” de Casanove said. “To be clear, the F-35 contract has not been canceled, but we need to do our homework given the changing environment, and make sure that the contract in its current form is in the best interests of Canadians and the Canadian Armed Forces,” de Casanove said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has declared a trade war on Canada and has threatened economic coercion to make it the 51st state. Trump’s threats have infuriated Canadians, who are booing the American anthem at NHL and NBA games. Some are canceling trips south of the border, and many are avoiding buying American goods when they can.

The government had budgeted about $19 billion Canadian (US$13 billion) for the F-35 purchase in what is the largest investment in the Royal Canadian Air Force in more than 30 years. The full life cycle of the program is expected to cost $70 billion Canadian.

Immigrants Deported to El Salvador Despite Judge's Order: ACLU Lawyer Lee Gelernt

Judge blocks Trump from using 18th-century wartime act for deportations

Donald Trump has invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport five Venezuelan nationals from the US. The White House issued a presidential proclamation on Saturday targeting Venezuelan members of the gang Tren de Aragua, saying: “Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”

Civil liberties organizations have accused Trump of invoking the 1798 act unlawfully during peacetime to accelerate mass deportations and sidestep immigration law.

Hours later, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s administration from using the act to carry out its intended deportations of the Venezuelans. The US district judge James Boasberg of the federal district court in Washington DC agreed on Saturday to issue a temporary restraining order that prevents the Venezuelans’ deportation for 14 days. ...

Boasberg’s decision comes in response to a lawsuit filed the same day by the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward. The organizations charge that the Trump administration unlawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act.

In the lawsuit, ACLU and Democracy Forward argued the act has been invoked only three times in the history of the US: the war of 1812, first world war and second world war. “It cannot be used here against nationals of a country – Venezuela – with whom the United States is not at war, which is not invading the United States and which has not launched a predatory incursion into the United States,” the lawsuit stated.

Like a bad penny...

‘Maga since forever’: mercenary mogul Erik Prince pushes to privatize Trump deportation plans

Silicon Valley has played a sizable part in the early days of Donald Trump’s new administration, but another familiar face in the Maga-verse is beginning to emerge: businessman Erik Prince, often described by his critics as a living “Bond villain”.

Prince is the most famous mercenary of the contemporary era and the founder of the now defunct private military company Blackwater. For a time, it was a prolific privateer in the “war on terror”, racking up millions in US government contracts by providing soldiers of fortune to the CIA, Pentagon and beyond.

Now he is a central figure among a web of other contractors trying to sell Trump advisers on a $25bn deal to privatize the mass deportations of 12 million migrants.

In an appearance on NewsNation, he immediately tried to temper that his plan had any traction. “No indications, so far,” said Prince about a federal contract materializing. “Eventually if they’re going to hit those kinds of numbers and scale, they’re going to need additional private sector.”

Should Schumer Step Down? Calls Grow for New Dem Leadership After He Voted for Trump Spending Bill

‘All the birds returned’: How a Chinese project led the way in water and soil conservation

It was one of China’s most ambitious environmental endeavours ever. The Loess plateau, an area spanning more than 245,000 sq miles (640,000 sq km) across three provinces and parts of four others, supports about 100 million people. By the end of the 20th century, however, this land, once fertile and productive, was considered the most eroded place on Earth, according to a documentary by the ecologist John D Liu. Generations of farmers had cleared and cultivated the land, slowly breaking down the soil and destroying the cover. Every year, the dust from the plain jammed the Yellow River with silt (this is how the river gets its name), sending plumes of loess, a fine wind-blown sediment, across Chinese cities – including to the capital, Beijing.

And so in 1999 the Chinese government took drastic emergency action with the launch of Grain to Green, a pilot project backed by World Bank funding, to regreen the plateau and reverse the damage done by overgrazing and overcultivation of the once forested hillsides that would become what the bank described in 2004 as “the largest and most successful water and soil conservancy project in the world” (pdf).

The primary focus was to restore agricultural production and incomes in the plateau, but the dust storms descending on already polluted cities, “making people cough even more”, also became a driver, says Peter Bridgewater, an honorary professor at the Australian National University’s Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies. World Bank participants spent more than three years designing the project, working with experts as well as communities, officials and farmers on how to overturn the longstanding but unsustainable grazing and herding of livestock. Tree-cutting, planting on hillsides and uncurbed sheep and goat grazing were banned. The sustainable practices demonstrated in some small villages were scaled up.

The project was extraordinarily ambitious, and was powered through by China’s authoritarian system. “If you want major change, the Chinese system is well adapted to making major change,” says Bridgewater wryly. There were grain and cash subsidies for people converting farmland to grassland, economic forest or protected ecological forest. There were tax subsidies and benefits to offset farming losses, long-term land use contracts and conversion to more sustainable farming including orchards and nuts, and widespread tree-planting employment programmes.

By 2016, China had converted more than 11,500 sq miles of rain-fed cropland to forest or grassland – a 25% increase in vegetative cover in a decade, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change. Other studies showed large reductions in erosion and positive changes in plant productivity. “When the environment improved, all the birds returned. The forest has developed its ecological system naturally,” the forestry worker Yan Rufeng told the state-run news channel CGTN.

Line 5, a Trump donor, is profiting off a pipeline deal threatening pollution

Donald Trump’s administration is being accused by activists of a quid pro quo as it attempts to fast-track a controversial fossil fuel pipeline proposal in Michigan that would in part be built by a donor with deep financial ties to the president. While Canadian oil giant Enbridge owns the Line 5 oil and gas pipeline that it is attempting to replace in the Great Lakes region, the contractor is Tim Barnard, who, along with his wife, gave $1m to Trump’s campaign last year, Federal Election Commission records show.

Barnard’s company, Barnard Construction, received more than $1bn to build parts of the border wall, and he is also a prolific Republican donor to state and national candidates and organizations. Enbridge wants to replace the ageing Line 5 that cuts across about 4.4 miles (7km) of seabed in the Great Lakes, which holds more than 90% of the nation’s fresh water, and 21% of the world’s fresh water.

The estimated $1.5bn replacement plan calls for building a tunnel underneath the Great Lakes, which opponents say puts the environment at high risk. They also questioned Barnard’s ability to complete the highly complex project, citing a lack of experience and a history of wage violations.

“Such pay-to-play arrangements among the government and federal contractors are not unusual, but they are increasing in scope under a second Trump administration, and are highly unethical and corrupt the government contracting process,” said Craig Holman, a Capitol Hill lobbyist with Public Citizen, a non-profit that advocates for transparency. “Contracts oftentimes are awarded based on large campaign donations rather than merit, and it effectively rigs the bidding process against businesses who either cannot afford making large campaign contributions or who refuse to pay to play for government contracts,” Holman said.

Trump’s environmental rule-shredding will put lives at risk, ex-EPA heads say

Three former Environmental Protection Agency leaders sounded an alarm on Friday, saying rollbacks proposed by the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, endanger the lives of millions of Americans and abandon the agency’s dual mission to protect the environment and human health. Zeldin said on Wednesday he planned to roll back 31 key environmental rules on everything from clean air to clean water and climate change. The former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy called Zeldin’s announcement “the most disastrous day in EPA history”.

The warning by McCarthy, who served under two Democratic administrations, was echoed by two former EPA heads who served under Republican presidents.

Zeldin’s comprehensive plan to undo decades-old regulations was nothing short of a “catastrophe” and “represents the abandonment of a long history” of EPA actions to protect the environment, said William K Reilly, who led the agency under President George HW Bush and played a key role in amending the Clean Air Act in 1990. “What this administration is doing is endangering all of our lives – ours, our children, our grandchildren,” added Christine Todd Whitman, who led the EPA under George W Bush. “We all deserve to have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. If there’s an endangerment finding to be found anywhere, it should be found on this administration because what they’re doing is so contrary to what the Environmental Protection Agency is about.”

Whitman was referring to one of the major actions Zeldin announced: to reconsider a scientific finding that planet-warming greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The agency’s 2009 finding has been the legal underpinning for most US action against climate change, including regulations for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources. Environmentalists and climate scientists call the endangerment finding a bedrock of US law and say any attempt to undo it will have little chance of success.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

The Lobby, Mahmoud Khalil & the First Amendment

Extremist Zionist Group Sent List of Palestine Defenders to Trump Officials for Deportation

Professor at Center of Columbia University Deportation Scandal Is Former Israeli Spy>a>

Patrick Lawrence: Season of the Sophists

Trump’s Pro-Israel McCarthyism Is Already Boomeranging

Palestinians unearth fresh wounds as Gaza's al-Shifa hospital burials are relocated

The Phony Ceasefire

Craig Murray: Putin Is No Hitler

NATO Sec.-Gen. On Ukraine Accession

Echoes Of The May 2 2014 Odessa Massacre

Back to cash: life without money in your pocket is not the utopia Sweden hoped

As Trump-Musk Target Social Security, Seniors Share Stories of Benefit Cutoffs

Franco victims finally come home as 50th anniversary of dictator’s death looms

Notable Tesla investor says he hopes Musk’s government role is ‘short-lived’

Animal poo can be used to save endangered species from extinction, research finds

Lt. Col Daniel Davis DENIED Job As Tulsi Gabbard Deputy After Unfair 'SMEAR'

Woke Fascism: Trump ANTISEMITISM CRACKDOWN

“Woke” Is A Wedge To DIVIDE Workers! w/ Chris Hedges

A Little Night Music

Fenton Robinson – Night Flight

Fenton Robinson – The Getaway

Fenton Robinson – West Side Baby

Fenton Robinson – Texas Flood

Fenton Robinson – As The Years Go Passing By

Fenton Robinson – Can't Hold Out Much Longer

Fenton Robinson - You Don't Know What Love Is

Fenton Robinson ~ Gotta Wake Up

Fenton Robinson - Somebody Loan Me A Dime