'Perverted little fantasy': Stephen Miller instantly buried after bizarre post

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller kept up his attacks on birthright citizenship with a far-fetched hypothetical on Friday, and critics lined up to ridicule it.Days after the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship in a 6-3 ruling that struck down President Donald Trump's executive order, Miller posted on X that if you believe a foreign government could sail a hospital ship to the edge of US waters, "deliver a hundred babies to foreign moms, then promptly sail back," and that each child "is American for life, you don't believe in nationhood at all." The rant echoed the birth-tourism case he made on Fox News, where he floated a "hard look" at barring pregnant women from the country.Miller's post predictably led to quick backlash. Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger asked sarcastically, "What about our hospital ship that we sent to Greenland? It happened right?" Bulwark journalist Sam Stein quipped, "Well. When you put it that way." Internet personality Damin Toell pointed out that under the 1898 Wong Kim Ark precedent, and still after this week's ruling, babies born aboard foreign government ships in US waters are already exempt from birthright citizenship.Others flipped Miller's logic back on him.National security journalist Marcy Wheeler called his "perverted little fantasy" no more real "than it was for the century and a half since birthright citizenship was codified." Academic Alonso Gurmendi argued that "any citizenship rule can be made to sound absurd like this." And journalist Zaid Jilani went furthest, sarcastically asking: "What if a mom catapults over the US Mexico border and from 500 feet in the air pops a baby out, ties a parachute to it and lets it fall gently to the ground. Does that baby deserve citizenship, lib?"The administration has vowed to keep fighting, though some analysts say the ruling nearly went the other way. Independent estimates put actual birth tourism at a tiny fraction of U.S. births.

A Vietnam Nurse Who Came Home, Helped Get Us to 250

Some Americans who have always celebrated the anniversary of our country's independence see us losing independence and so much else on the eve of our 250th. They aren't in the mood for a parade.

Mayor Mamdani Orders NYC to Sweat at 78 Degrees — While His Own City Hall Was HOW Cold?

Trump threw a party for himself — and nobody came

If you’re feeling that the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States has been hijacked by a narcissistic, political hack, you’re not alone. Instead of a joyous event for all Americans, our holiday has been plagued by vicious attacks on those who haven’t drunk the Make America Great Again Kool-Aid. And the results are proof positive that we, the people, are not going for it.Not one bit.One of the primary “celebrations” was the Great American State Fair held on the National Mall this week. Supposedly showcasing the history of the 50 states, a whopping 20 states decided to skip the event entirely. Not because they’re not proud of their state or didn’t want to tell the wonderful tales about the vast diversity and beauty of this place we call home, but because President Donald Trump turned it into a political rally for himself instead of a birthday party for all Americans.Most of the musicians and entertainers who were booked cancelled as it morphed into a staged event for Trump. Those few that didn’t cancel had very sparse crowds sprinkled over the lawn in one of the most embarrassing displays of just how historically unpopular our current president and his attempts to divide, not unite, Americans are with the populace.Despite Trump claiming a crowd of 45,000 people, about 1,000 showed up. Of course this is totally in line with his self-aggrandizing exaggerations across the board since he lives in a fantasy world where he is worshipped and adored.But the stunning failure of the Great American State Fair isn’t alone in demonstrating the fact that Americans have grown very tired of this particular reality TV show clown. Consider these events of the last week:The Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s executive order attempting to overturn the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship. It’s not where we came from, it’s where we are; and those born here are Americans. The president’s former attorney, Ty Cobb, reflecting on the financial declaration showing the president and his sons have garnered more than a billion dollars from sketchy crypto sources called it “the greatest onslaught of corruption in the history of mankind” adding “he creates policies that can only enrich himself and his family, is something that I think the average American should be staggered by.”A federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order that the U.S. Postal Service could not deliver mail ballots in states that had not surrendered their voter role information to the federal government, thus halting one of his most obvious and odious attempts to rig the coming elections in which his MAGA allies are predicted to lose badly. Even the Social Security Administration’s latest list of popular baby names puts “Donald” at its lowest point since the 1880s.The takeaway is clear — Americans are not happy that our nation’s birthday has been hijacked and degraded. We are not happy with being intentionally divided instead of united in celebration of our history. We are not happy that those who fought and died to establish this nation — and all those who have struggled to keep democracy alive since then — have been shoved to the side by a gilded grifter.Trump is not who we are as Americans and Montanans. We are the nation of “all men are created equal” and on this 250th celebration of our founding the great challenge is to live up to that promise, to be the united, not the divided, states — and to continue to forcefully reject these self-serving, despicable efforts to drive us apart.

To Reduce Electrical Grid Strain Amid Heat Wave, Data Centers Are Ordered to Use Backup Power

As triple-digit temperatures engulf much of the United States, the Trump administration wants grid managers to require the use of backup power that often goes unused.

Iran plans dayslong funeral for Supreme Leader Khamenei after war death

The country's theocracy hopes to see millions flood the streets of the capital beginning Saturday in scenes reminiscent to the burial of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.

Judge Orders USDA to Restore $127 Million in Federal Grants to Farmers

The Trump administration had yanked the money away from organizations led by and in support of Black farmers.

Inside the Supreme Court's death wish for Americans

In a 6-3 decision breaking on partisan lines, the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. Slaughter that Trump can fire Federal Trade Commissioners and other federal agency directors without cause. The ruling overturns longstanding Supreme Court precedent and express statutory instruction that combined to protect the political independence and subject matter expertise of federal agencies for over 90 years.The ruling presents a novel reading of a president’s Constitutional duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” expanding that power for a rogue president hellbent on breaking laws instead of executing them. As Justice Sotomayor put it, “The Court… is elevating (Trump) above his once-coequal branches by transforming a duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed into a license to act in defiance of those very laws.”An activist Roberts Court has now written into existence an all-powerful unitary executive despite elaborate instructions in art. I, II and III to keep the three branches of government separate and equal. Rejecting federal laws that restrict a president’s removal of agency directors to for-cause removal, SCOTUS has made the president all powerful and Congress less relevant, while arrogating scientific and technical questions to itself.Trump’s corporate donors can now choose their own regulatorsBefore republicans on the bench rewrote it this week, the Federal Trade Commission Act stated that a President could only remove a commissioner for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” That statute clearly and intentionally barred presidents from firing directors for partisan or corrupt reasons, and from punishing regulators who rule against a president’s corporate donor(s). Vesting a singularly authoritarian executive with unprecedented, expansive powers, the Supreme Court re-wrote federal laws to advance their own political narrative.Over two dozen federal agencies will be affected, covering everything from the financial markets, the commodities markets, and nuclear power. Agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission were all Congressionally designed to be independent watchdogs, enforcers insulated from partisan whims. Now Trump can remove any commissioners who threaten to rule against his allies, assuring that his political supporters will be afforded preferential review, licensing, merger approvals and other rulings.With Trump’s new latitude to fire any agency head who threatens meaningful regulation, his corporate donors have been effectively empowered to choose their own regulators. Federal laws passed to protect human health, finance, banking, communications, workplace safety, and clean air, soil and water have been rendered functionally meaningless.Replacing science, expertise and merit with political fealtyCongressionally created and funded federal agencies serve express, statutory purposes written to safeguard the American public. The Supreme Court had protected agency autonomy and expertise dating back to 1935, ruling that some degree of autonomy was necessary for federal agencies to meet specific scientific, economic, communications, trade, health, and environmental mandates. Federal agencies were never meant to be a president’s personal toys with which to reward donors and cronies.For a president in the habit of accepting lavish gifts and cash from foreign governments, along with hundreds of millions from domestic supplicants, finding even more room for self-dealing, corruption and political favoritism must be heady. For the rest of us, it’s dangerous. We actually need competent people to run the federal government, even in its post-DOGE watered down state.If Trump declares that every home must be heated by dirty coal, the head of the Energy Commission must try to effectuate that command no matter the harm to Americans’ lungs. If Trump declares that particulate matter, fossil fuels and the widespread use of Monsanto is good for the environment, any EPA director who contradicts him with cancer and death statistics will be silenced through removal. It’s governance by full Idiocracy.A know-nothing, anti-science president can now follow his gutTo every American outside the Fox News propaganda bubble, Trump has demonstrated astonishing incompetence on all fronts. From economically illiterate tariffs to our defeat in Iran, sprinkled with comically disastrous results in between, an ignorant and arrogant “I follow my gut” Trump revels in rejecting science and expertise as Americans pay the price.The only thing saving the nation from complete chaos and disaster to date is that several federal agencies had retained some level institutional competence despite Trump (and Musk’s) best efforts to dismantle them.