Well, Well, Well... Look What the Coast Guard Dragged In

New: Coast Guard Opens Fire, Disables Chinese Smuggling Boat

The Iran Peace Deal Is What Trumpism Looks Like

In war and in peace, Trump’s loyalty is to Trump.

Ivory Coast’s Elye Wahi arrested on match-fixing allegations two weeks before World Cup

A player currently competing at the World Cup was arrested two weeks before the tournament on match-fixing allegations.

Barron Trump debuts new look at Trump’s UFC event in rare public appearance

Barron Trump debuted a noticeably shaggier look while attending the UFC event at the White House on June 14. President Donald Trump’s youngest son showed off longer, tousled hair — a stark change from the neat style he sported during his last public appearance months ago.

'He is not well': Onlookers say Trump's 'profane' Obama jab reveals president's jealousy

President Donald Trump startled onlookers with a profane outburst when he was asked about former President Barack Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran.The 80-year-old Trump has been fixated on proving the agreement to end his war in Iran is stronger than the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – which he withdrew from in May 2018, during his first term – and he blew up Wednesday morning when asked about the comparison at the G7 summit."Nobody could've made this deal," Trump groused. "The JCPOA done by Obama … he gave them $1.7 billion in cash — green cash, from banks — into a Boeing 757 and flew it into Iran. He tried to bribe his way out. I didn't do that .… and you know what the Iranians did? They laughed at Obama and they said he's a stupid son of a b----."Trump's flare-up – which came as he was seated with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France – alarmed many who saw his comments on social media."He is not well," sighed journalist Juliet Jeske, who runs the "Decoding Fox News" account."Iran literally brought in a team of psychologists to help during negotiations because of how erratic and unhinged Trump is lol," recalled the popular "Good Politics Guy" account."A vulgar and profane serial liar," sneered veteran journalist Alan Friedman."Obama's JCPOA prevented Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons without any loss of life or billions spent on a needless war," observed political scientist and former diplomat Michael McFaul."‘Unlike MY deal…which is SO amazing that I still refuse to show anyone the details!’" joked filmmaker Andy Ostroy."It took us 20 years to lose in Vietnam. This dumb--- did it in 100 days," argued Army veteran Bruce Crossing."Trump is tormented by jealousy of a superior human being," opined veteran journalist John Harwood. "Obama's superiority, as a president and a person, hurts Trump especially badly because he's a huge racist and Obama is black.""Trump is just writing the jokes for Late Night comedy himself," offered author and lecturer Andreas Krieg."He’s so jealous of Obama opening his spectacular Obama Center tomorrow," said the popular X user Susan in Delaware. "He’s obsessed with him. But this is awful on the global stage.""Trump is always projecting. ALWAYS," marveled activist and pundit Tara Setmayer.

Unions Are Getting More Popular. The Right Isn’t Taking It Well

For years, the conservative partisan playbook to win working-class votes was to ignore economic inequality and demagogue the culture war. The journalist Thomas Frank published a best-selling book about this in 2004. “The trick never ages; the illusion never wears off,” Frank wrote in What’s the Matter With Kansas.“Vote to stop abortion; receive a rollback in capital gains taxes.”It may be aging now. Public approval of labor unions, which bottomed out during the Great Recession of 2007-2009 at 48 percent, has been rising ever since, according to Gallup, and lately it’s around 70 percent, which is higher than at any time since the salad days of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Although support stands highest (90 percent) among registered Democrats, in 2022 a 56 percent majority of Republicans also approved of unions. That’s fallen since to 41 percent, but it’s still a significant minority for a party that for nearly four decades included right-to-work boilerplate in every quadrennial platform. It took a few years, but a significant minority of congressional Republicans is now beginning to catch up to GOP voters. The 2024 Republican Party platform was the first since 1980 not to include a right-to-work plank, and, as I noted last week (“How to Get A Labor Rights Bill Through A GOP House”), two labor rights bills successfully bypassed Republican Speaker Mike Johnson in recent months via discharge petition and passed with support from 20 Republicans. Meanwhile, Democrats are fielding, to challenge red-state Republicans, candidates who appeal to the working-class voters they long neglected. Even the problematic oyster farmer Graham Platner has a good shot at unseating Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine.Given that the culture war no longer serves to distract voters reliably from labor rights, the new conservative strategy is to re-define labor rights as culture war. On Monday The Wall Street Journal published an editorial (“A GOP Gift to the Cultural Left”) that’s a sort of trial balloon.The editorial addressed House passage of the second labor rights bill to sneak past Speaker Johnson, the Faster Labor Contracts Act (text; summary), which time-limits management dithering after a union election. I fully expected the Journal edit page’s usual tirade about greedy union bosses extinguishing capitalism’s animal spirits. That was the gist of the Journal’s previous editorial about the bill in May, when the discharge petition acquired the necessary 218 signatures. But the thrust of the new editorial was quite different. Unions, it said, only seem like they’re about improving your working conditions; really, they’re just a front for sex-changers and baby-killers. “We wonder if Republicans know what they’ve voted for,” opined the Journal. “Unions, allied with Democrats, have long supported a progressive agenda that includes collective bargaining for abortion coverage and transgender healthcare.” Those 20 Republicans who voted for the Fair Labor Contracts Act, the Journal said, are “selling out their constituents to the progressive left.” The Journal’s Exhibit A was an “Abortion Model Collective Bargaining Agreement Language” recommended by the AFL-CIO. This document does indeed propose “comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services, including contraceptives, abortion services (procedural and pharmaceutical) and gender-affirming care.” But the AFL-CIO is not a labor union—it’s a federation of labor unions that plays no role in negotiating union contracts. That’s typically the work of a union local. “Unions are democratic institutions,” Steve Rosenthal, former political director of the AFL-CIO explained to me, with officials at all levels elected by members and conventions. “They take positions accordingly, based on where the members are.” If a contract includes health coverage for gender-affirming care or Mifepristone, that’s because members want these things. Any member of Congress who actively opposes such language is interfering with the terms of a private contract, which is something conservatives are supposed to hate.The Journal editorial didn’t identify any union members who object to their health plan covering abortion and gender reassignment. (My guess is such people are hard to find.) Instead, the Journal complained that “many businesses have objected to those provisions on religious grounds.” Oh, please. If I may be permitted a conservative complaint: I never even imagined I’d hear such an argument before 2014, when the Supreme Court decided, outrageously, that businesses enjoy the same First Amendment right to religious freedom as individuals. Bring back the good old days when they didn’t!

Well, This Should Be Interesting….

Now, you know the dynamics. Now, you know the reasoning. Now, you know the motives and intents. Now, you know how the SSCI sits at the epicenter of the enabling mechanism we call the “Deep State”…. …. and now you know why SSCI Chairman Tom Cotton would send this message: They are so fancy, no? […] The post Well, This Should Be Interesting…. appeared first on The Last Refuge.

James Carville makes astounding prediction about 'obviously not well' Trump

Democratic political strategist James Carville dropped an astounding prediction about Donald Trump's second presidency.The veteran political operative discussed the 80-year-old president's future on his "Politics War Room" podcast as Trump's approval ratings wither into historic lows and voters rebel against Republican policies, and The Daily Beast highlighted one of Carville's predictions.“Trump has no earthly idea what’s coming for him,” Carville told co-host Al Hunt. “They’re not telling him. The vote against him in November is gonna be, like, breathtaking.”Trump has been repeatedly spotted dozing off at public events, including last week's Game 3 of the NBA Finals, and he has reportedly grown bored with negotiating an end to the Iran war he started, and Carville wondered whether he would finish his second term with a Democratic congressional majority.“This guy, by Easter of 2027, is just going to walk away from this job,” Carville predicted.“He’s just going to f---ing walk away, because he doesn’t have any idea of what it’s going to be like when he comes to grips with the massive rejection of him, anybody that has anything to do with him, anything he has to do with,” Carville added. “He’s a soft man, he gets distracted, he’s obviously not well, he sleeps all the time, slobbers all over himself or whatever ... he won’t last past Easter of 2027.”That's not the first time Carville predicted Trump would quit the presidency in that time frame.“Everything that he tries blows up in his face,” Carville said back in March. “I’m telling you, I think he’s just going to quit next year by this time. I think he’s just going walk away because the Democrats control the House and the Senate.”The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Carville's latest prediction, but his March remarks drew a diagnosis of "a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome" from spokeswoman Olivia Wales."The President was elected with a resounding mandate to reverse disastrous Biden-era policies and unleash a new era of prosperity for our country – and it’s clear that he has delivered for Americans with a secure border, cooling inflation, working-class tax cuts, new trade deals, new drug pricing deals, trillions in investments, and peace through strength policies that eliminate national security threats to our Nation," Wales said at that time. "Only deranged Democrats like James Carville could oppose all these wins for the American people.”Carville eagerly embraces that line of criticism from the president and his operatives.“You’re right! I got Trump Derangement Syndrome," Carville said. "I hate the motherf---er, and you know what? I don’t want to get rid of it. I don’t want to get better, I want to get worse. I want to hate him more. I pray to God in heaven.” - YouTube www.youtube.com