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“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”

-- Henry David Thoreau

News and Opinion

Much more detail in the article:

US intensifies crackdown on peaceful protest under Trump

Anti-protest bills that seek to expand criminal punishments for constitutionally protected peaceful protests – especially targeting those speaking out on the US-backed war in Gaza and the climate crisis – have spiked since Trump’s inauguration. Forty-one new anti-protest bills across 22 states have been introduced since the start of the year – compared with a full-year total of 52 in 2024 and 26 in 2023, according to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) tracker.

This year’s tally includes 32 bills across 16 states since Trump returned to the White House, with five federal bills targeting college students, anti-war protesters and climate activists with harsh prison sentences and hefty fines – a crackdown that experts warn threaten to erode first amendment rights to freedom of speech, assembly and petition. ...

In March, three federal bills targeting university campus protests were announced including the Unmasking Hamas Act, which would make it a federal crime subject to 15 years in prison for wearing a mask or other disguise while protesting in an “intimidating” or “oppressive” way. The bill, which is almost identical to the Unmasking Antifa bill introduced in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests, does not define “oppressive” or “disguise”.

A separate bill would exclude student protesters from federal financial aid and loan forgiveness if they commit any crime at a campus protest, even a non-violent misdemeanor such as failing to disperse. In both cases, sponsors have made clear that the bill is a legislative response to pro-Palestinian protesters, many of whom wore masks to avoid retaliation and doxing. ...

According to Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the slew of anti-protest laws threatens the core of US democracy. “These state bills and Trump’s crackdown on protected political speech are intended to scare people away from protesting or, worse, criminalize the exercise of constitutional rights,” said Leventoff.

Netanyahu Pushes “Libya Model” For War With Iran!

The Backlash Against Israel’s Western-Backed Crimes Will Fuel The Far Right

A new Pew survey has found that a majority of Americans now have a negative view of Israel, with 53 percent of respondents now holding an unfavorable view of the Zionist state — up from 42 percent just three years ago.

This comes as Benjamin Netanyahu announces after his latest meeting with Donald Trump that negotiations with Iran will necessarily have to include a “Libyan-style” dismantling of the nation’s civilian nuclear infrastructure in order to avoid the war that the US is /openly preparing to wage. This, naturally, is a complete non-starter condition for Iran.

It also comes as Trump’s US Citizenship and Immigration Services announces that it’s going to be screening the social media posts of immigrants for “antisemitic” speech, which of course in practice means criticism of Israel and its atrocities. This is just the latest in the Trump administration’s relentless efforts to prevent Americans from seeing or hearing any political speech which goes against Washington’s official position on Israel.

If you're wondering why the empire is working so frantically to stomp out all speech that is critical of Israel, here's why. https://t.co/2RPUEqm39j

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) April 9, 2025

Developments like these can be expected to assist the rise of the far right in the west. US public opinion is turning hard against Israel as both parties bend over backward to send it expensive weapons and silence its critics — and US public opinion is seldom good at making subtle distinctions.

“Antisemitism” is fast becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. As westerners tire of having their speech rights taken away by their government to protect the interests of a state that’s committing genocide under a Star of David banner, a lot of them are going to blame Jews for this. As western governments bend over backwards to help murder Israel’s enemies in the middle east, a lot of westerners are going to blame Jews. As the drums for war with Iran beat louder and louder and parents fear their children will be sent off to die for Israel, many will blame this on the Jews.

I am not saying this is a good thing. It’s a very bad thing. But it’s also reality.

As more and more westerners grow disgusted with Israel and their government’s support for its depravity, the far left is going to talk to the public about the difference between Zionism and Judaism, about the western empire and its interests in the middle east — and meanwhile the far right is going to blame it all on Jews.

Which of these sounds like the easier argument to make? Which is simpler? Which is more digestible? Which is less challenging to the cognitive biases of a population that’s already been propagandized to view their nation as inherently virtuous: a perspective which highlights the west’s culpability for the atrocities we’re backing in the middle east, or a cartoonish perspective which blames it all on the subversive manipulations of a sinister religious minority?

Actually, what fuels antisemitism is murdering children by the thousands under the banner of the Star of David while adamantly insisting that your actions are inseparable from all Jews and the totality of Judaism.

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) December 26, 2023

Those of us who oppose the criminality of Israel and its western allies from the left will do all we can to keep the far right’s arguments from gaining traction, but it won’t be our fault when we fail. It will be the fault of the western governments who’ve spent all this time stomping out the civil liberties of their citizenry in the name of fighting “antisemitism” while raining military explosives on the middle east and backing the slaughter of tens of thousands of children under a Star of David flag.

We can expect to see some nasty hate crimes against Jews in the future, which the Zionists will be all too happy about because then they can point to those incidents and say “This is why we need Israel! This is why we need a Jewish state to protect us!”

But of course this won’t just affect Jews. Immigrants, racial minorities, LGBTQ people and other marginalized communities will all be harmed by the rise of white nationalist factions whose popularity benefits from an increase of anti-Jewish sentiment in our society. The mainstream “MAGA” movement, as ugly as that’s been, is still far less dangerous to these groups than the overtly Hitlerite factions will be if they come into significant power in the future.

This does seem to be where things could be headed, especially if the economic situation gets as dire as it looks like it might get, and even more so if there’s a war with Iran. It can all be easily avoided by simply ceasing to stomp out free speech to protect Israel, ceasing western warmongering in places like Iran and Yemen, and ceasing to back Israel’s genocidal atrocities against Palestinians.

But it looks like our rulers are bound and determined to drag us into a very dark direction instead.

Gaza City strike kills at least 23 as Israel reportedly plans to seize Rafah

At least 23 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a residential building in northern Gaza, as reports emerged that the Israeli military is preparing to seize the entire city of Rafah as part of a newly announced security corridor.

Medics at al-Ahli hospital said that the bombing on Wednesday of a four-storey building in the Gaza City suburb of Shijaiyah had killed at least eight women and children, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors into the evening. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a senior Hamas militant.

According to the UN, nearly 400,000 people have been forced to leave their homes or shelters since Israel decided to abandon a two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas, cutting off aid, food and fuel on 2 March and resuming large-scale bombing two weeks later. A total of 1,500 people have been killed and 3,700 injured since then, according to the local health ministry. ...

Israeli officials say the renewed military campaign is aimed at pressuring Hamas into releasing Israeli hostages. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued sweeping evacuation orders amid a vow from the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to “divide up” and seize large swathes of the territory.

On Wednesday, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the IDF was preparing to incorporate the entire city of Rafah and its surroundings – one-fifth of the entire Gaza Strip – into the new “Morag corridor” between Rafah and Khan Younis. Such a move would cut off Gaza from Egypt and turn the territory into an enclave completely surrounded by Israel.

Hamas calls on UK government to remove it from list of banned terrorist groups

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has submitted a legal filing saying it should be removed from the UK government’s list of proscribed terrorist groups. Hamas, which carried out the 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel, in which more than 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were killed and a further 250 taken hostage, is arguing that it is not a terrorist group but “a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project”.

The assertion is contained in a witness statement by Mousa Abu Marzouk, head of international relations for Hamas and the applicant for the claim to the UK home secretary, Yvette Cooper, published by Drop Site News.

His statement continued: “The British government’s decision to proscribe Hamas is an unjust one that is symptomatic of its unwavering support for Zionism, apartheid, occupation and ethnic cleansing in Palestine for over a century. Hamas does not and never has posed a threat to Britain, despite the latter’s ongoing complicity in the genocide of our people.” ...

Hamas’s military wing, Hamas IDQ, was proscribed by the UK in 2001. In 2021, its political wing which runs Gaza, was also proscribed, with the UK government describing the distinction between the two wings as “artificial” and labelling Hamas “a complex but single terrorist organisation”. If an organisation is proscribed as a terrorist organisation it is a criminal offence to, among other things, belong to it, show or express support for it, and wear clothing or carry or display articles in public which would arouse reasonable suspicion that the individual is a member or supporter of it.

In a document provided to Drop Site summarising its legal arguments, Hamas’s legal team reportedly said it represented the group pro bono because it would be illegal to accept payment. It quotes the lawyers as saying: “Hamas does not deny that its actions fall within the wide definition of ‘terrorism’ under the Terrorism Act 2000. Instead, it notes that the definition also covers all groups and organisations around the world that use violence to achieve political objectives, including the Israeli armed forces, the Ukrainian army and indeed the British armed forces.”

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Trump, Netanyahu, and Iran

NEW: Another U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone was shot down by the Houthis in Yemen, sources tell Fox News. This is the fourth MQ-9 Reaper drone shot down by the Houthis since March 3rd, and the fourth shot down under the Trump administration. It is the third U.S. MQ-9 drone shot down over…

— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) April 9, 2025

Trump Threatens Joint U.S.-Israeli Attack on Iran If Talks on Iran’s Nuclear Program Fail

Trump Again Threatens Attack on Iran, Suggests Israel Could Lead It

On Wednesday, President Trump again threatened the possibility of the US taking military action against Iran and suggested Israel might “lead” the attack.

“If it requires military, we’re going to have military,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if the US would attack if a nuclear deal isn’t reached with Iran.

“Israel will obviously be very much involved in that — it’ll be the leader of that. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do,” he added.

Trump’s latest threat comes ahead of negotiations between the US and Iran that will be held in Oman this Saturday. The talks will be attended by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

ALL US Immigrants To Be SCREENED For Israel Criticism

Pro-Israel group asks DoJ to investigate children's entertainer Ms Rachel over posts on Gaza children

A prominent pro-Israel group that doxes people it deems antisemitic is calling on Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, to investigate whether beloved children’s entertainer Ms Rachel is operating as a foreign agent after sharing sympathetic content about children suffering in Gaza.

In a letter sent on Monday, the group StopAntisemitism formally requested the Department of Justice determine whether Ms Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, is “being remunerated to disseminate Hamas-aligned propaganda to her millions of followers”, claiming her social media posts about Palestinian children in anguish could constitute undisclosed work for foreign entities.

“Given the vast sums of foreign funds that have been directed toward propagandizing our young people on college campuses, we suspect there is a similar dynamic in the online influencer space,” StopAntisemitism’s director, Liora Rez, wrote in the letter shared with the New York Post.

Ms Rachel has been described as a modern-day Mister Rogers, and whose Songs for Littles videos have amassed more than 10bn views since she launched her YouTube channel in 2019. The 42-year-old former teacher who lives in New York with her husband, the Broadway music director Aron Accurso, just announced the birth of her second child via surrogate on Tuesday.

StopAntisemitism specifically objects to posts in which Ms Rachel shared widely reported images of malnourished children in Gaza and cited casualty figures from Gaza’s health ministry that align with UN reports. The group claims she has ignored “the suffering of Israeli victims, hostages, and Jewish children”. ... It is unclear whether the Department of Justice will pursue an investigation.

Trump's Tariff Fallout EXPLAINED

Trump says ‘I know what I’m doing’ before stepping back from global tariffs

Donald Trump has insisted “I know what the hell I’m doing” by imposing sweeping tariffs and bragged that world leaders are “kissing my ass” as they try to negotiate trade deals. The US president was speaking to political donors at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual fundraising dinner in Washington on Tuesday night.

His rambling 90-minute address came just hours before his latest tariffs went into effect. “I know what the hell I’m doing,” the president said. “I know what I’m doing. And you know what I’m doing too. That’s why you vote for me.”

The administration has given conflicting signals over whether the tariffs are open to negotiation. Trump claimed: “I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make a deal.” Mocking the pleas of foreign leaders, he parodied: “Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir!”

Less than a day later, Trump shelved plans to hike tariffs on most countries except China, unveiling a 90-day pause and pulling back from his global trade war after days of market turmoil and warnings of recession. After insisting for days that he would hold firm on his aggressive trade strategy, Trump announced that all countries that had not retaliated against US tariffs would receive a reprieve – and only face a blanket US tariff of 10% – until July.

It is unclear where that leaves earlier threats of more tariffs to come. On Tuesday, Trump had said: “We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals and once we do that they’re going to come rushing back into our country because we’re the big market … So we’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals.”

From “Liberation Day” to Chaos: Trump Pauses Most Tariffs While Escalating Trade War with China

Republicans trying to change rules to avoid House vote on Trump tariffs

Republicans are quietly pushing a procedural rule that would curb the power of the US Congress to override Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff policy. The House of Representatives’ rules committee on Wednesday approved a measure that would forbid the House from voting on legislation to overturn the president’s recently imposed taxes on foreign imports. The sleight of hand was embedded in procedural rule legislation setting up debate on a separate issue: the budget resolution that is central to Trump’s agenda.

If adopted, the rule would in effect stall until October a Democratic effort to force a floor vote on a resolution disapproving of the national emergency that Trump declared last week to justify the tariffs. This mirrors a similar tactic used previously to shield Trump’s earlier tariffs. ...

Republicans moved against a resolution introduced by Gregory Meeks of New York, along with other House Democrats, seeking to end the national emergency declared on 2 April. This declaration was used by Trump to implement sweeping new tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Republicans’ blockade specifically targets the expedited process for reviewing national emergencies outlined in the National Emergencies Act. It stipulates that the period between 9 April and 30 September will not count towards the 15-day window that typically allows for fast-tracked floor votes on disapproval measures.

Democrats strongly condemned the action, accusing Republicans of obstructing debate and prioritising Trump over the economy and congressional oversight.

Bond Market BOMB That Forced Trump's Hand

Experts fear rise in diseases as layoffs halt health research: ‘Incredibly bizarre gaslighting’

Mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) portend a future with more infectious disease outbreaks, chronic conditions, and a widening gulf in health between the most affluent and vulnerable, experts told the Guardian.

Further, they said, the Trump administration’s multipronged attacks on American science represent a generation-defining experience, a new chapter in the “boom and bust” cycle of health funding, and a masterclass in branding, as Donald Trump and the secretary of health and human services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, dismantle institutions in the name of improving them.

“I fear for the country,” said Dr Steven Woolf, a population health researcher at Virginia Commonwealth University and a family physician. “Many people not too fond of bureaucracy may feel this big shakeup in Washington DC is well overdue. But I don’t know that people appreciate what’s coming their way – much like a far-off tsunami warning.”

Experts said they see the chaos, confusion and upheaval – from the ideological purge of basic research grants early in Trump’s tenure to more expected layoffs at the National Institutes of Health – as leading to shorter, sicker American lives.

“These are cuts that are not driven by a rational strategy to improve population health,” said Woolf. “This is all being done in the name of ‘making America healthy again’ – that’s the incredibly bizarre gaslighting that’s going on.”

Revealed: drug tests in California prisons yielded false positives, affecting thousands of people

Thousands of drug tests used by a major US diagnostic company in California prisons last year are suspected to have generated false positive results, an enormous error that has jeopardized the parole requests of some incarcerated people, according to civil rights lawyers and prison medical records. California prison officials have known about the issue for months, but have failed to clear people’s records or reverse the consequences people have faced from the tests.

The problem originated with tests conducted by Quest Diagnostics, a company used by healthcare professionals across the country, and the sole firm contracted to do clinical drug screening for the California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR). From mid-April through July of last year, Quest’s urine opiate drug screenings in CDCR prisons used an “alternative” reagent, the chemical meant to detect drug traces, while the company’s lab faced a backorder of its usual reagent. The switch resulted in “more presumptive positive results” than registered in tests with its usual chemical, and when Quest restored its original reagent, the positivity rate “returned to its historical average”, according to a letter the firm sent to prison healthcare officials. ...

From January through April, when the normal chemical was being used, the monthly positive opiate rate across CDCR prisons ranged from 6.6% to 6.8% each month, according to the records from California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS), the state agency that provides prison medical care. The rate then suddenly rose to 17.1% in May, 20.5% in June and 17.1% in July. The positivity rate returned to 6.8% in August, when the company returned to the original reagent, and stayed in that range for the rest of year. ...

Dr Fred Rottnek, a family medicine professor and addiction expert at Saint Louis University, who reviewed some of the Quest records for UnCommon Law, said the 300% jump in positivity rates rendered the tests “basically worthless”.

“There should be a mandate to go back and review all of the medical records, and whether the lab results had any bearing on parole board decisions,” said Rottnek, who previously served as the St Louis county jail medical director.

Judges take steps to block removals of five Venezuelans held in Texas and New York

Federal judges in New York and Texas on Wednesday took legal action to block the government from moving five Venezuelans out of the country until they can fight the government’s attempt to remove them under a rarely invoked law that gives the president the power to imprison and deport noncitizens in times of war. The men were identified as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, a claim their lawyers dispute.

Three men were being detained in a facility in Texas, while two more were being held in an Orange county, New York, facility. One man in Texas is HIV-positive and fears lacking access to medical care if deported. Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr signed a temporary restraining order in Texas while Judge Alvin K Hellerstein said at a New York hearing that he planned to sign a temporary restraining order as well to block removals while the court challenges proceed.

The actions came after civil liberties lawyers in Texas and New York sued in defense of the Venezuelans who are at risk of removal from the US under the the 18-century Alien Enemies Act.

All five men were identified by the government as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang. The men were identified as gang members by physical attributes using the “alien enemy validation guide”, in which an Ice agent tallies points by relying on tattoos, hand gestures, symbols, logos, graffiti and manner of dress, according to the ACLU. Experts who study the gang have told the ACLU the method was not reliable.

Ice director wants to run deportations like ‘Amazon Prime for human beings’

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said he would like the agency to implement a system of trucks that rounds up immigrants for deportation in a system similar to how Amazon delivers packages around the US. “We need to get better at treating this like a business,” the acting Ice director, Todd Lyons, said. He said that he wanted to see a deportation process “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings”. His comments were first reported by the Arizona Mirror.

Lyons was one of a series of Trump administration speakers at the 2025 Border Security Expo at the Phoenix convention center. Other speakers were Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, and the secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. Speakers at the expo praised Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans, the 1798 law that was last used during the second world war to intern Japanese Americans. Noem promised to expand on its use to more efficiently deport immigrants. Lyons also called the act “amazing”. ...

Lyons also spoke highly of other new technology being potentially implemented in the deportation process. He expressed hopes that the agency could utilize artificial intelligence to “free up bed space” and “fill up airplanes”, allowing Ice to deport immigrants at a quicker pace. ...

Several speakers, Homan included, echoed the opinion of having a deportation system that is run like a business, with assurance that the Trump administration is depending on the private sector for completion of its mass deportation agenda. Many representatives from the military-industrial complex were in attendance. “Let the badge and guns do the badge-and-gun stuff. Everything else, let’s contract out,” Homan said.

Trump campaigned heavily on implementing a system of mass deportation, and has spent his presidency so far attempting to deliver on his campaign promises. Data suggests as many as 1,400 people were arrested during or right after Ice check-ins in the first four weeks of his administration.

White House ends funding for key US climate body: ‘No coming back from this’

The White House is ending funding for the body that produces the federal government’s pre-eminent climate report, which summarizes the impacts of rising global temperatures on the United States. Every four years, the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is required by Congress to release a new national climate assessment to ensure leaders understand the drivers of – and threats posed by – global warming. It is the most comprehensive, far-reaching and up-to-date analysis of the climate crisis, playing a key role in local and national decision making about agriculture, energy production, and land and water use.

The next assessment is due by 2027. But now, Nasa has ended its contract with the consulting firm ICF International, which convened the USGCRP and coordinated the federal agencies that contribute to the quadrennial report.

“There’s really no coming back from this, and it means we are all less informed about climate impacts, and won’t have the most up-to-date information on risks and threats,” said one federal staffer who was engaged in USGCRP activities, and who requested anonymity to avoid retribution. “USGCRP helped me to leverage resources from other agencies for use in my own work. But without these networks, I’m left without a support system and the latest science on climate change.”

The end of the contract, first reported by Politico and confirmed by multiple sources to the Guardian, imperils the federal government’s climate research, say experts. “The firing of USGCRP staff guts the entire climate research and services ecosystem leaving teetering silos of climate teams, already reeling from federal cuts due to Doge,” the anonymous staffer said. ...

USGCRP staff who hailed from the 15 federal agencies had all been told to abandon the body; its only remaining staff were from ICF and have now been fired, the second worker said. “Climate research as a whole will be hobbled because USGCRP’s interagency working groups are essential coordinating bodies across the entire government, including and beyond the 15 USGCRP member agencies.”

Elon Musk’s xAI powering its facility in Memphis with ‘illegal’ generators

KeShaun Pearson took a seat in front of the Shelby county board of commissioners in Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday morning. In the gallery behind him, a small group of people held up signs that said “Our air = our lives” and “Our water, Our future.” With a manner-of-fact demeanor, Pearson addressed the commissioners. “I’m here because today we’ve learned that xAI is using 35 methane gas burning turbines,” said Pearson, who is the director of the advocacy group Memphis Community Against Pollution. “They have submitted a permit to our Shelby county health department for 15, yet they are using double that amount with no permit.”

It’s been known that xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, has been using around 15 portable generators to help power its massive supercomputer in Memphis without yet securing permits. But new aerial images obtained by the Southern Environmental Law Center show that number is now far higher. The group says these gas turbines combined can generate around 420MW of electricity, enough to power an entire city.

“xAI has essentially built a power plant in South Memphis with no oversight, no permitting, and no regard for families living in nearby communities,” Amanda Garcia, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement. “These dozens of gas turbines are doing significant harm to the air Memphians breathe every day.” The 35 generators xAI is using are “illegal” and a “major source of air pollution”, the law center wrote in a letter to the Shelby county health department on Wednesday. It says these high emission rates violate the Clean Air Act, including specified limits on toxic and carcinogenic pollution.

Musk fired up his xAI facility in Memphis last summer. He calls the supercomputer “Colossus” and it’s tasked with providing compute power for xAI’s chatbot Grok. The building that houses Colossus is the size of 13 football fields and Musk hass said he plans to double that. Artificial intelligence requires an immense amount of energy to carry out computations and provide quick responses to user queries. For example, a query with ChatGPT needs nearly 10 times as much electricity as a typical Google search query, according to a report by Goldman Sachs. In the US, the majority of that electricity comes from burning fossil fuels like coal and gas, which are primary drivers of climate change.

xAI already has contracts to draw 150MW of electricity from Memphis’ local utility, which is enough to power 100,000 homes a year. But Musk has said he needs even more energy to deal with power fluctuation issues at the plant. When the first few methane gas generators appeared outside the xAI facility last summer, it caused a stir because the Shelby county health department and the Environmental Protection Agency said xAI wasn’t using permits to run those generators. It appears the company found a loophole in the system that allows it to use the gas generators as long as they’re not in the same location for more than 364 days. In January, xAI applied for a permit for 15 generators, but there was no mention of the additional 20 units in the application.

Trump signs executive order on water pressure to ‘restore shower freedom’

A global trade-war rollercoaster was not enough to distract Donald Trump from fulfilling one of his longtime priorities on Wednesday: changing the federal definition of “shower head”, a move the White House said would “end the Obama-Biden war on water pressure”.

Trump has complained for years about inadequate water pressure in American showers, sinks and toilets, and has blamed federal water-conservation standards for the problem.

“In my case, I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump said as he signed the executive order, which the White House said would apply to multiple household appliances, including toilets and sinks. “I have to stand under the shower for 15 minutes until it gets wet. It comes out drip, drip, drip. It’s ridiculous.”

The White House said in a statement on the executive order: “By restoring shower freedom, President Trump is following through on his commitment to dismantle unnecessary regulations and put Americans first.”

Also of Interest

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

Union-Led General Strike Over Austerity Brings Greece to Standstill

AIPAC leader boasts of special ‘access’ to top Trump natsec officials in leaked audio

Pentagon Prepares for Trump to Go Berserk

Israel’s ambassador is ejected from an African Union event

Trump orders DoJ to investigate two former officials who defied him

China Cuts The Legs Out Underneath The US LNG Industry

Some Fall-Out From The Tariff Wars

Watchdog Says Trump Tariff Pause Lays Bare 'Just One More Con on Working People'

Trump Thinks Tariffs Can Bring Back the Glory Days of US Manufacturing. Here’s Why He’s Wrong

US’s biggest egg producer’s profits triple as prices soar

Trump takes aim at city and state climate laws in executive order

TARIFF PAUSE. White House chaos as problems multiply

A Little Night Music

Cub Koda & The Houserockers ~ Give Me Back That Wig

Cub Koda - Random Drug Testing

Brownsville Station - Love, Love, Love

Cub Koda - Hoy Hoy

Cub Koda - Tight Jeans

Cub Koda - Rockin' This Joint Tonight

Brownsville Station - "Rumble"

Brownsville Station - Be Bop Confidential

Cub Koda & The Points – Ducktail

Cub Koda and The Houserockers - Feelin' Good