Look around. Day to day, steadily more Americans understand that we have to get Beyond Donald. It isn’t a done deal though it is getting there. But then what?  “Don’t muddy the waters with such a question,” some would reply. “We have enough on our minds. We have enough to do right now without worrying [...]
Some wars brutalise, and others erase. Gaza has been erased for the past 3 years. In the crowded, coastal strip of just 140 square kilometres, the detonation of a 2,000-pound MK-84 bomb does more than level concrete, leaving no trace of nearly 3,000 Palestinians. It creates a fireball reaching roughly 3,500 degrees Celsius — about [...]
Not Our President's Day, thank God, has passed. Along with mattress sales, it was marked by many middle fingers in the air, a typically grotesque message from a tainted White House, and news that a massive, ill-fated, gold-leaf statue of the worst president in history, hilariously dubbed "Don Colossus," remains stranded on its back in an Ohio warehouse as its creator and a bunch of crooked crypto bros - surprise! no surprise! - back-stab and bicker about money. May he rot there, please.The general sentiment around our latest National Holiday was best summed up by one post: "Happy Presidents Day. Except the current one. Fuck that guy." He didn't win any points by marking the day spewing the usual hateful vulgarity "in the creepiest way possible," declaring in a vengeful post, "They came after the wrong man. I was the hunted. Now I'm the hunter." He is also, of course, "one sick dude," old, dazed and confused with unprecedented low approval ratings, maybe because all he does is lie, bully, bribe, be bribed and in his gluttonous delusion insist, “We have the greatest economy actually ever in history” as he rips us off for billions by selling his name for hopeful airports and don't forget their trashy "clothing, handbags, luggage, jewelry, watches, and tie clips." Democracy dies in tie clips. Now, in one final, loutish indignity, he - or at least a gaudy doppelgänger - is being held hostage in Zanesville OH for a $92,000 payment, having been both delayed and downgraded from a planned prime spot at his inauguration to his Doral golf course - specifically, the tenth hole. The statue saga began when sculptor Alan Cottrill, who's made about 400 figures on commission, including bronzes of 16 past presidents and a Thomas Edison now in the Capitol, got a call from an unknown Las Vegas sculptor asking if he'd like to make a statue commemorating Trump's brave ear being allegedly grazed in Butler, Pennsylvania - an "iconic" 2024 moment a consortium of 16 cryptocurrency enthusiasts deemed "a turning point in world history," also a cool chance to "show our appreciation of his embrace of crypto." LOL.The original plan was to unveil a bronze, 15-foot, 2,400-pound Don Colossus, installed on a 6,000-pound concrete base, at Trump’s inauguration, positing it to loom over the National Mall. The roughly month-long timeline was tight - Cottrill had to work "crazy fast" - and he was to be paid $300,000. There were tough moments. When he replicated Trump's "turkey neck," the crypto boys were "aghast" and requested "a more flattering, less realistic look." The hardest part was the hair: "Holy shmoly! You can't sculpt and cast something that is....wispy." Still, he toiled away at it, and met the deadline. The night before one of the crypto clutch called: Temps had plunged, the Secret Service had moved Inauguration Day inside where a two-story rapist might pose a danger, and the new plan was to install Don later at his Doral resort. The statue malingered in a warehouse in DC, then in another in Pittsburgh. Cottrill got paid over time, but "every payment arrived weeks late." In November, he approached his patrons with a shiny new idea: The bronze was burnished to look gold, but what if they coated it in Trump's beloved gold leaf? The proposal was "like a glass of water to a person dying of thirst - Immediately everybody jumped on board." But finding someone to work on a giant Trump statue proved tough; several declined the job "because of the subject matter" before someone agreed to slather it in a layer of 23.75-carat gold leaf. A photo was sent to the felon, who loved it - "Wow, it's so bright and beautiful" - a plan was formed to install the pedestal at "a juicy spot" near three palm trees at the 10th hole, and the crypto investors began "actively looking” for a launch date.But Cottrill suddenly charged the crypto guys - who include Dustin Stockton, a GOP strategist investigated by federal agents for the "We Build The Wall" fraud Steve Bannon did time for - with copyright infringement, arguing they'd gone behind his back for months to promote their $PATRIOT cryptocurrency while marketing the statue: "That was their play all along." Instantly, the deal got bogged down in the volatile world of crypto, a meme coin only worth what current speculation makes of it; things got really messy when the gluttonous Trump, smelling money, launched his own $TRUMP coin days before his inauguration, hammering the $PATRIOT value before itself predictably tanking to over 95% below its peak. Still, and despite charges of massive conflict of interest, Trump has reportedly raked in $1.4 billion from this crap.Meanwhile, Don Colossus is being held hostage in "financial purgatory" by Cottrill, who claims the crypto guys are both ripping him off and refusing to fork up their final payment. "They keep saying, 'Oh don’t worry Alan, we’ll pay you, we’ll pay you,' but actually they've been illegally infringing on the copyright of my original art right up to the present day." They're also continuing a bizarre social media campaign, posting images of the pedestal - all they have - with promos for their meme coin. "The dream is alive and well," they proclaim. "What the president has in store for the $PATRIOT community and his inner circle for this unveiling will surely be spectacular!" They say they hope to offer Trump one of Cottrill's earlier miniature versions, coated in the same gold finish; they'd love to have it placed in the Oval Bordello, along with all its trashy drek.The crypto cartel argue they'll pay their final installment before Don "leaves for Doral," and Cottrill is "trying to squeeze us for it." But Cottrill says he already went to Doral a few weeks ago to install the base; he brought along a 12-inch version to scope out the site - "It was the only thing I could fit in my hand luggage" - and a landscape architect dug up and re-positioned the palm trees just so. "The gold leaf in the Florida sun - it’s going to be brilliant," he pledges. "But what they owe me is $91,200, and it's not leaving until they pay me." For all the aggravation, Cottrill says he's enjoyed working on the project. But it's taken up a lot of space in his studio for a long time, and now, "I'd like to get it the hell out of here." Many, many Americans can relate. See on Instagram
New Mexico’s state House is looking to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s ranch in the state, unanimously passing a bill on Monday to establish an investigatory subcommittee to see what the convicted sex criminal was up to there.One of the bill’s co-sponsors, state Representative Andrea Romero, called the committee a “Truth Commission” that will use testimony, subpoena powers, and public records to “put the whole story together.”New Mexicans “deserve to know the truth about what went on at the Zorro Ranch and who knew about it. We have heard years of allegations and rumors about Epstein’s activities in New Mexico, but unfortunately, federal investigations have failed to put together an official record,” Romero said in a statement. “With this Truth Commission, we can finally fill in the gaps by investigating the failures that led to the horrific allegations of abuse and crime at Zorro Ranch, so we can learn from them and prevent such atrocities from taking place in our state going forward.”Epstein’s Zorro Ranch was a sprawling 7,500 acres that he bought in 1993, which had its own helipad and airstrip. Court documents say that sex trafficking took place there with the help of Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, but the federal government has never conducted a full search of the property. In 2019, then–New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said his office conducted its own investigation and found “activity that occurred in New Mexico that was still viable for prosecution, including contact with multiple victims.”Balderas added that federal prosecutors in New York asked his office to hold back on any investigations or prosecutions related to Epstein, as they had their own ongoing investigation of Epstein. In emails released earlier this month, Manhattan federal prosecutors said in 2019 that they had spoken with the New Mexico attorney general’s office, who they said had “agreed to cease any investigation into sex trafficking and share whatever they had gathered regarding sex trafficking activity with our office.”Years later, New Mexico authorities are going to be taking a full look at what happened on the ranch. Several of Epstein’s victims have testified that they were abused there, but Epstein successfully managed to keep those activities hidden for many years, even from his neighbors. With this commission, the truth may finally come out.
After staving off major mark-ups during the holiday season, American companies are finally starting to hike prices in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and other policies making business more expensive, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The initial tariff-driven price spike started to dull in October and fell before Black Friday—but it is back for a post-Christmas price reset, according to Alberto Cavallo, a professor at Harvard Business School who tracks online prices of U.S. retailers. Between the end of November and February 10, the prices of most affordable imported goods rose by 2.3 percent, according to Cavallo.Driven by the rising price of appliances, bedding, computers, electronics, and furniture, online prices posted their largest monthly increase in a dozen years, according to the Adobe digital price index.American companies aren’t shying away from blaming Trump’s tariffs for the suddenly soaring prices.After delaying price increases on winter goods, Columbia Sportswear said it intended to up the price of spring and fall merchandise by, on average, a high single-digit percent. Speaking on an earnings call earlier this month, Columbia’s chief executive Tim Boyle said that raising prices, and other mitigation measures like renegotiating prices with its factories, was intended to “offset the dollar impact of high tariffs.”Levi Strauss raised prices in January in response to Trump’s tariffs, and is continuing to mark up price tags in February. The company said it identified more opportunities to boost prices on new, high-end items, while only moderately increasing the price of entry-level products.McCormick & Co said that tariff expenses added a whopping $70 million in gross costs last year, and will add $50 million in incremental costs this year. The spice maker initially raised prices in September, and plans to increase prices again this month.The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on Trump’s disastrous tariff policy as early as Friday. But tariffs aren’t the only Trump administration policies making business more expensive.Structural Systems Repair Group, a Cincinnati-based construction company, was forced to raise prices by 10 to 15 percent after tariffs and health care costs for its 115 employees both increased by 10 percent. In 2026, the absence of Affordable Care Act subsidies, which elapsed under the Trump administration, has caused health insurance premiums to spike even higher.
The congressman from Florida is facing backlash after he said he would choose dogs over Muslims.
A 40-year-old man allegedly walked into a San Diego McDonald’s, asked for the manager, and violently put him in a headlock—all while claiming to be an ICE agent.“Why do you think your 911 calls aren’t f—king working?” Joshua Cobb can be heard telling McDonald’s employees in a video of the incident last week. “Why do you think that? Why do you think I’m willing to take two punches in the fucking face from some illegal immigrant while I make an arrest for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement?”🚨 We were told this would NEVER happen.A man in San Diego posed as an ICE agent, grabbed a McDonald’s worker by the neck, and threatened to deport him.He wasn’t law enforcement.Police say he’s Joshua Cobb, 40 — now arrested and charged with impersonating a federal agent… pic.twitter.com/GH3cDAIJWP— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) February 16, 2026“He grabbed me from, from the back, grabbed my neck like really hard,” general manager Daniel Martinez told ABC 10 News. “So when that happened, all my co-workers jumped on him, and he let go, but after that, he just punched me on the side.”In this case, employees knew Cobb wasn’t an ICE agent because he frequented their McDonald’s. He showed no ICE identification and was wearing just a T-shirt and a backward hat. He was later arrested.This isn’t the first time this has happened. Police arrested a man in Galveston, Texas, in December for impersonating an ICE agent. Decked out in full (albeit cheap-looking) tactical gear, 44-year-old Joshua Warner allegedly tried to arrest two people, telling the civilians who confronted him that he didn’t need to give them his name or badge number.“I’ve never seen police in a uniform like that, and his tool belt and all of his stuff … it looked like it had just came in from Temu or Amazon or something,” one witness told reporters.It seems incredibly, alarmingly easy for any middle-aged loser to create chaos and fulfill whatever racist GI Joe fantasies they have under the guise of being a federal agent. And the aggressive, indiscriminate actions of the real ones aren’t helping.
The president’s total 180 on TikTok was, in no small part, due to the machinations of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.Donald Trump had opposed the social media behemoth for years. Long before Democrats hopped on board with the idea, Trump challenged the app’s presence in the United States based on flimsy national security concerns, attempting to instate a total ban on the video-sharing app. But in the wake of Trump’s 2024 win, Kirk—whose efforts rallying young voters significantly aided the president’s cause—managed to change Trump’s mind. That November 2024 meeting involved Kirk, Trump, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, and a slideshow with a swath of visual graphics that Kirk knew would sway the incumbent Republican. Kirk and Chew wanted to stall the impending congressional ban on the app, and they succeeded by appealing to the president’s vanity.One slide, obtained by Axios, depicted the number of views Trump had accrued on the platform. It was staggering: a cumulative 3.8 billion eyes had watched content related to the president. Meanwhile, his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, was remarkably less popular, generating 1.3 billion views.Their closest competition was, according to the slide, Kirk himself, Fox News, Tucker Carlson, and pop phenomenon Taylor Swift.“I’m more popular than Taylor Swift,” Trump remarked, according to Axios.Trump then rang his son, Barron, to crow over the stat, according to MAGA insiders who spoke with the digital publication.The undertaking was almost too successful, so much so that it’s caused retrograde amnesia among Trump’s allies. In truth, Trump attempted to eradicate TikTok via an executive order before he left office in 2020, but that effort appears to be in the past. Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump during his campaign, told Axios that the president had always been a fond supporter of the app due to its ability to reach young voters.“He’d say all the time: ‘You guys are missing it! These young people, they love TikTok. They’re on it all day long,’” Miller told Axios. “And he’d recount stories of Barron talking about it, and also younger people who work with him and for him.”Last month, TikTok changed ownership in order to avoid the stalled U.S. ban, switching hands from ByteDance to a consortium of U.S.-led investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. Together, those three hold an 80.1 percent majority stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations, according to a company announcement. ByteDance still retains a 19.9 percent minority stake.