Jonathan Bush, GOP candidate for Maine governor, marketed his birthing clinic to immigrant women with Spanish-language ads, according to his own book.
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 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.”
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 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.…
Maine is less than one week away from primary Election Day as Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner seems poised to pick up his party’s nomination despite several mounting scandals connected to his name. Platner, an oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran, has faced multiple controversies since announcing his populist campaign for Maine’s U.S. Senate seat […]
President Trump’s boasts of securing a commitment from Iranian leaders not to develop a nuclear weapon have puzzled nuclear experts who note that Tehran has made that pledge for more than 50 years.
President Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to the national lab in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on Thursday for consultations with a team of technical experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran, Axios has learned. Why it matters: The White House is trying to reach a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran to end the war and begin in-depth nuclear negotiations, and wants to have experts at the ready should those talks be launched.The U.S. and Iran are still at odds on several details of the MOU, according to U.S. officials and regional sources involved in the mediation. The sources characterized the negotiations as in their final stretch, but it remains unclear whether agreement will ultimately be reached."This meeting in Oak Ridge doesn't mean that a deal is going to happen, but it is a sign that the negotiations are in a very serious phase and that there is a good chance to get it done and we want to be prepared," a U.S. official said.The intrigue: Axios was alerted on Thursday to the fact that Witkoff had made an unannounced trip to eastern Tennessee. Two U.S. officials later confirmed he and Kushner were visiting Energy Department facilities at Oak Ridge.Some of the country's foremost experts in uranium processing and centrifuge technology are based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex. In the past, nuclear materials and equipment — including from Kazakhstan and Libya — were routed through Tennessee.The White House declined to comment. The National Nuclear Security Administration did not provide comment.The two U.S. officials said a team of roughly 100 experts was recently established to take part in the nuclear negotiations should a preliminary deal be reached. The Iran envoys made the trip to meet with members of that team and discuss preparations for the potential implementation of a nuclear deal.Driving the news: Witkoff and Kushner agreed terms with their Iranian counterparts last week on a 60-day MOU to extend the ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, allow Iran to sell oil and launch talks on Iran's enriched uranium stockpile and limitations on future enrichment.Trump asked for two amendments to the text last Friday, and the Iranians said they would ask for tweaks of their own. The U.S. is waiting for the official Iranian response, but the sources said the gaps are relatively narrow.For example, Trump asked Tehran to agree that any final deal would include a 60-day deadline to conclude the down-blending of Iran's enriched uranium, but the Iranians want that deadline to be 90 days, according to two sources briefed on the talks.There is also disagreement over how much of Iran's frozen billions would be released, and when. The U.S. has said it would release funds after a final deal was reached and concrete steps were taken toward implementing it, a U.S. official said. The Iranians want some of the funds released immediately.An adviser to Iran's supreme leader told CNN that the talks were deadlocked over the frozen funds and "the ball is in Trump's court."Zoom in: If the negotiations advance to the second phase, the team of experts that met with Witkoff and Kushner would have to develop a plan for the disposal of Iran's nuclear material, how to limit the enrichment program further, and how to verify compliance.The U.S. officials said some of the same experts with whom Witkoff and Kushner met on Thursday participated in the process of recovering enriched uranium from Venezuela several weeks ago. That material, from a research reactor, arrived last month in South Carolina for processing.Some of the nuclear experts who participated in the meeting also joined Kushner and Witkoff in Oman for nuclear negotiations with Iran before the war."These are the top nuclear experts in the U.S. who know how to do the technical things that a deal with Iran will entail," a U.S. official said. What to watch: U.S. officials claim the White House has been getting positive indications from the Iran negotiators, but think there are internal divisions in Tehran over how to proceed.