On any topic related to the Iran War, the Trump admin can't go more than 10 seconds without directly contradicting itself.
The coalitions around Platner are a lot more complex than just splitting them along two social networks the vast majority of Americans don’t use, but the culture of both sites helps provide a useful shorthand to summarize this divide on the left where we have actually siloed ourselves inside our own separate echo chambers.
One of Donald Trump’s most outspoken attorneys is facing discipline over ethics violations. Ed Martin, an employee at the Justice Department, is in trouble with Washington, D.C.’s professional conduct investigator for sending a letter to the dean of the Georgetown University Law Center last year saying his DOJ office wouldn’t hire any graduates from the law school due to its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. A complaint was filed by Hamilton Fox, who serves as disciplinary counsel for the district, giving him prosecutor-like powers on disciplining attorneys. Professional conduct proceedings will now begin for Martin, where he could face sanctions or even lose his law license. It’s the first such action against a lawyer in the Trump administration. “Acting in his official capacity and speaking on behalf of the government, he used coercion to punish or suppress a disfavored viewpoint, the teaching and promotion of ‘DEI,’” said Fox in the complaint. “He demanded that Georgetown Law relinquish its free speech and religious rights in order to continue to obtain a benefit, employment opportunities for its students.”Trump tried to name Martin as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia early in his second term, only for him to be removed after it became apparent that the Senate would not confirm his appointment. Martin, a former political operative in Missouri, right-wing talk show host, and January 6 apologist, has had a rocky tenure in the Trump administration. Martin threatened anyone who criticized Elon Musk’s DOGE effort in its early days with legal action, and the methods he used to target prominent Democrats for criminal charges worried Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche so much that he reportedly “encouraged” a federal grand jury to investigate Martin for potential misconduct. Now it appears his attacks on DEI in service of the Trump administration have led to legal trouble. It would be quite the story if Martin ends up facing sanctions or losing his law license for attacking DEI, something every Republican, led by Trump, is doing these days. It might even end up protecting DEI initiatives.
This is Ackman’s second attempt at listing Pershing Square, after withdrawing an oversized plan in 2024 that found little market appetite.
Officials are considering buying long-term futures while selling shorter-dated ones to tamp down gasoline and oil prices.
The Pentagon spent an estimated $5.6 billion on munitions alone during the first two days of Donald Trump’s illegal war in Iran, three U.S. officials told The Washington Post. And every dollar of that was spent without congressional approval. This figure, which was delivered to Congress Monday, significantly dwarfs the Pentagon’s preliminary cost estimate of $1 billion per day. Some GOP lawmakers told Politico they’d received estimates that were closer to $2 billion. The Post report comes as Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Tuesday “will be the most intense day of strikes,” just hours after Trump claimed the war “was very complete.”The officials who spoke to the Post did not disclose what kinds of munitions were fired in the U.S. military’s opening salvo, but U.S. Central Command confirmed that the U.S. has fired more than 2,000 munitions and struck more than 5,000 targets. Multiple outlets have reported the use of precision weapons including Tomahawk cruise missiles, which cost $2.2 million each. Reports indicate that the U.S. may have used one of these missiles in a deadly strike at a girls’ primary school that killed 175 people, many of whom were children. But munitions aren’t the only costs, according to the Center for American Progress. Elaine McCusker, who served as deputy undersecretary of defense during the first Trump administration, estimated that it cost $630 million to assemble the largest force of U.S. military assets to the Middle East in decades before the first shot was even fired. Only days into the fighting, a friendly fire incident downed three F-15 fighter jets, costing roughly $351 million. Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine told reporters last week they would transition away from precision munitions in favor of laser-guided bombs, which are far less expensive. Still, as the fighting drags on, the cost to U.S. taxpayers continues to balloon. The Trump administration is expected to submit a supplemental defense budget in the coming days—asking for billions more to keep dropping bombs.
Two days before his kidnapping, President Nicolás Maduro gave an interview to Spanish writer Ignacio Ramonet and explained that the war on Venezuela is a cognitive one, “because the war is for the brain, the brain handles emotions and handles concepts.” The term cognitive war is relatively new, and it sheds light on recent discourse [...]
Humanity cannot continue to expand production and consumption exponentially on a finite planet.  It’s biophysically impossible. The carbon emissions are already producing more volatile weather patterns, more frequent floods, droughts, and wildfires, and disruptions of agriculture, commerce and global supply chains. And yet the US Government and respectable opinion remain in zones of denial or [...]