Trump's big promise to financially 'benefit' Americans implodes in real time: report
Far Left
President Donald Trump vowed back in January that his administration’s takeover of Venezuela would “benefit” Americans, and yet, just over six months later, that promise appears to be imploding after key players have reportedly gotten cold feet, The Washington Post reported Sunday.In the immediate aftermath of the unprecedented U.S. attack on Venezuela earlier this year, the Trump administration took control of the nation’s oil revenue, which Trump claimed at the time would be “used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.” The Trump administration had hoped U.S. companies would invest $100 billion into the South American nation’s energy infrastructure.“But businesses don’t want to spend big on capital-intensive projects to extract heavy crude, which take decades to pay off, if there’s a high chance the government will backslide,” the Post’s report reads.“ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said recently that Venezuela has ‘a lot more work to do on their side of the equation.’ He said the overhaul of the hydrocarbon law was insufficient ‘to attract a whole lot of investment’ because it could amount to a ‘95 percent government take.’ Chevron CEO Mike Wirth has expressed similar sentiments.”The Trump administration was recently in hot water over its handling of Venezuela’s oil revenue. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) pressed Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week during a congressional hearing on whether the administration was concealing lucrative private contracts related to Venezuela’s oil.“The Venezuelan government’s illegitimacy raises the risk of investing capital,” the Post’s report reads. “Once real elections are held, U.S. companies will gain a clearer sense of whether it’s worth pouring in money.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert had a blunt message for a Fox News Digital reporter who asked her about affair allegations Saturday: "F--- you, first of all."The Colorado Republican was asked about unverified allegations from Cynthia West, described as the ex-girlfriend of Rep. Thomas Massie, claiming an encounter between Boebert and Massie shortly after his wife's death in 2024. Massie, a Kentucky Republican and frequent Trump critic, lost his primary race last month after Trump backed his opponent.Boebert didn't stop at the opening expletive. "If you're going to bring me into this, the sexist stuff is out of control," she continued, visibly agitated and gesturing toward the reporter outside what appeared to be a Capitol area building. "So there's your clickbait that you were looking for and I don't want to talk about anybody's exes and their crazy s--- they do."She then walked away.The exchange was posted by Fox News itself, which noted the confrontation in a clip running just over 13 seconds. The allegations have not been verified and Boebert did not address their substance, framing the question itself as the problem rather than offering a denial.
President Donald Trump on Friday said Iranian leaders have not yet reached a deal with the U.S. to end the ongoing war because they’re “strong” and “proud.”
It is hard to be on left-leaning social media and not hear the panic screams directed at Congressional Democrats for not "doing something" amidst the chaos and corruption bursting forth from the reactor breach within the administration. As for actually stopping or holding up the legislation powering through all three MAGA branches, one can somewhat sympathize with Democratic pols, given how little they can do under our form of government. But Democrats can and must fire back when holding the floor in oversight, especially during committee hearings going out to screens everywhere. And on that issue, we see signs of life — and none too soon.This administration's flaunting of its breathtaking corruption continues to poison the nation's foundation, and if Democrats lack the power to arrest right now, at least establish a record, something on which to build, a message, and thus the movement to stop it. History gets recorded moment to moment, and this administration bets that no one has a moment to spare to stop them. Seen from afar, perhaps Trump and Co. have read it right; the country's incuriosity over the corruption is stupefying. One of this regime's only true successes is fully absorbing the maxim about the cover-up being bigger than the crime. The guy who could shoot somebody on Fifth Ave. and not lose a vote will have to just hire someone to do it because his time is dedicated to the floor of the NYSE, using inside information, indeed creating the information hour to hour, to profit off the latest developments. No deep throat "follow the money." No — just follow the news.Senator Professor Elizabeth Warren has had it and took Treasury Secretary and hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to the shed over Trump's day trading, noting that any private entity with such success and activity would have regulators knocking at the door with warrants. Instead, Bessent got Warren, wondering how the hell this happens right in front of us. Bessent had nothing because there's nothing to be had, only retorting that Congress should "get its house in order first," as if A.) It's his job to tell Congress what to do B.) Congress being almost as bad somehow gives Trump a license to commit crime in daylight, and C.) any self-respecting government couldn't do both.Over in the House came the hopelessly inept and one of the uniquely dull members of the Cabinet, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, who got his Okie handed to him by Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA). Mullin apparently believes that DHS is a part-time position he can do primarily working out of his house, jetting back and forth to Washington twice weekly after making sure everything's okay in Oklahoma rather than, literally, "everywhere else." It is right there. Trump making millions, Mullin jetting around in Kristi Noem's jet, doing whatever one does in bed 35,000 feet over the country, working on a COVID schedule rather than planning for the next pandemic. Whatever is to come of it is up to the country, whether we even care enough anymore, remains to be established; what's up to the Dems is making sure that it's at least known, addressed, and fought against. So fight they do. (And, please, remember this particular moment, because when Hurricane "Macho" hits Houston with 145 mph winds this summer, bringing millions of people's lives to a standstill, requiring a herculean effort from, well, literally everywhere else, remember if Mullin seemed at all "engaged" about whether his Department remained secure, never mind the nation's security.)Yes, when conditions crater all around, screaming at your Democrats to "do something" is as much a cry for help as it is an instruction, never mind insurrection. But we shouldn't take for granted these days, the ones that quickly constitute the history of this regime, that someone took the flag and demanded answers, accountability, something. As for Trump, Bessent, Mullin, the entire lot of them. They must see a nation of suckers. There's nearly no other explanation as to how Trump can trade seven-figure NVIDIA stock in the same week he opens China to their chips. Instead of shooting someone on the street, Trump took the gun to the bank and simply walked out with a bag. Money doesn't create itself out of thin air; there are victims. Trump bought that stock from someone who thought it more likely to go down, given everything known at the time, the seller not knowing what Trump did, that he alone was about to improve NVIDIA's fortunes. Get invested, so to speak.It's just all so awful. But we need so much more of this. The statute of limitations for most federal crimes is five years, and whether anyone will ever be fully held accountable depends greatly on where our priorities go as history unfolds from here, moment to moment — at least Democrats appeared to capture this one.Jason Miciak is a Rawstory Columnist and former Editor at Occupy Democrats, an author, political consultant, attorney, and single parent girldad.
President Donald Trump's decision to abandon his $1.8 billion IRS settlement didn't defuse the legal crisis surrounding it — it just shifted the target, according to a federal trial attorney who has been tracking the case.Sabrina Haake, a 25-year federal litigator and political analyst who writes the Substack newsletter The Haake Take, argues that Trump dropped the so-called anti-weaponization fund not because of political pressure ahead of the midterms, but to avoid forcing the appointment of a third attorney general. The real threat, she writes, came from an extraordinary intervention by 35 retired federal judges.On May 27, those judges — spanning both parties — filed a motion to reopen Trump's IRS case on suspicion of fraud against the court. Their motion accused the Department of Justice of deceiving U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams by announcing a settlement publicly without notifying the court, then using that settlement as legal justification for transferring $1.776 billion in taxpayer money to Trump, his family, and his businesses while purporting to release all federal claims against them.The judges called it "most egregious conduct involving a corruption of the judicial process itself," writing that the parties "used the proceedings before this Court as a legal pretext" while working to prevent the court from determining whether a legitimate case even existed. If Trump controlled both sides of the same case and personally profited from the outcome, the judges reasoned, there was no legal controversy — only theft.At the center of it all is Attorney General Todd Blanche. Haake notes that Blanche moved to dismiss the case two days before a brief outlining the court's jurisdiction was due, and that he failed to assert basic defenses the DOJ was legally obligated to raise — defenses the department had previously asserted in a nearly identical prior case involving the same IRS contractor. His failure to mount any defense at all, the judges wrote, "only emphasizes the fraudulent nature of the settlement reached here" and "strengthens the conclusion that the litigation was collusive from the start."Judge Williams ordered the DOJ to respond to the fraud accusations by June 14. Blanche will be editing that brief knowing that in New York, where he is licensed to practice law, committing a fraud upon the court is considered grounds for immediate suspension or permanent disbarment, according to Haake.Stripping the larceny from the equation, Haake concludes, does nothing to resolve the underlying fraud finding. The money may be off the table. The judges' accusations are not.
"The American Dream is intrinsic and fundamental to the founding of this country, it’s enshrined in the Declaration of Independence," said Chinweze Ahaghotu, Head of Portfolio Management at Galderma.
One of the Republican lawmakers who stood up to President Donald Trump over his longtime friendship with the late Jeffrey Epstein cursed out a Fox News journalist who accused her of an affair with another anti-Epstein Republican.“F--- you, first of all!’ Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) told a Fox News Digital reporter on Saturday when the latter brought up the allegations from a woman who claims to have been Massie's ex-girlfriend.The longtime MAGA supporter then added, “If you’re gonna bring me into this, like, the sexist stuff is like out of control. So there’s your clickbait that you were looking for.”Massie and Boebert have both been targets by Trump and his media surrogates ever since they broke with the president over releasing the Epstein files last year. Despite Trump downplaying their relationship and falsely claiming he kicked Epstein out of his home after learning about his Epstein connections, Trump in fact was close friends with Epstein for more than two decades. In September Massie came forward as the only male Republican lawmaker willing to oppose Trump on his refusal to release the un-redacted Epstein files.“It’s myself and three women, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert," Massie said at the time. "And these are women taking up for women. And I think we need more men on the Republican side of the aisle to step forward and do the right thing.”Asked about Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) attempts to thwart the release of the files, Massie said that "what Mike Johnson is doing by having his own resolution is to give political cover to those people who aren't supporting the effort by Ro Khanna and I. But here's the problem. When people go through this trove of documents, the political cover is going to go away."Massie added, "And they're going to be exposed once again... They're only going to increase the outrage. And in the meantime, you've got these survivors who are still not getting their justice. By the way, Mike Johnson has panned the legislative effort by Ro Khanna and I, saying it's poorly drafted, but he took three pages out of our bill and put them verbatim in his bill — completely cribbed them."He continued, "But he took the teeth out of it, is what he did. So he's got a meaningless resolution to provide a fig leaf to the people who are afraid to stand up for these survivors."
The Trump administration’s hesitancy in signing a major drone deal with Ukraine is slowing the U.S. military down in an area where it’s already trying to play catch-up. Even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Washington to make a deal, with talks between the two nations stretching back to at least September, the U.S.…
