Common Dreams (@commondreams.org.web.brid.gy)

Social Security and the “Millionaires Day” Milestone A new analysislysis from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) finds that **this coming Monday (March 9)** is the day that million-dollar earners stop contributing to Social Security – a milestone that serves as a reminder that the program’s finances could be greatly improved by lifting the cap on earnings. While the vast majority of working people pay income and payroll taxes on all their earnings throughout the year, the Social Security payroll tax is capped at $184,500. Once a person’s wage and salary income reaches that taxable maximum, they stop paying into the program. The amount of income above the cap has risen dramatically: in 1983, only 10 percent of income was above the cap, but today it is approaching 20 percent – another illustration of rising income inequality in the country. Eliminating the cap on taxable earnings would go a long way towards affirming Social Security as a social insurance program, while also fortifying the program’s finances for current and future beneficiaries – an issue that has been a priority for many political leaders over several decades. While there are always political discussions about how to strengthen Social Security’s finances, many of the prescriptions – like raising the retirement age – are regressive in nature, disproportionately harming working-class workers. Making all workers pay their fair share by eliminating the cap, though, would provide substantial additional revenue without harming workers or retirees. “Allowing higher earners to stop contributing to Social Security early in the year is a policy choice that shortchanges the program,” said **CEPR Labor and Disability Researcher Hayley Brown,** who authored the new analysis. “The tax cap on earnings is at odds with the ethos of shared responsibility that underlies social insurance. Lawmakers should reinforce that sense of shared responsibility and the program’s solvency by eliminating the cap.”

06.03.2026 17:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Labor Market Plummets as Trump Fuels Economic Turmoil The latest jobs report shows the United States lost 92,000 jobs in February 2026, with prior months revised down by 69,000 jobs. The unemployment rate remains elevated at 4.4% and is near its highest levels in 4 years. The February report reveals a labor market that is barely hanging on as Trump threatens to reignite inflation with his illegal war in the Middle East. **Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief of Policy and AdvocacyAlex Jacquez released the following statement:** > “The deterioration in the labor market is visible from space. Trump’s reckless economic agenda has forced the labor market into the negative, threatening the livelihoods of American workers. As the president piles on blanket tariffs and oil prices soar, today’s report confirms he’s sent the economy straight into a stagflation spiral.”

06.03.2026 15:34 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

New Letter Calls on CFTC to Investigate Suspicious Bets on Iran Attack Public Citizen sent a letter today calling upon the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to investigate highly suspicious bets placed on the outcome of the recent American-Israeli military assault on Iran and the death of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Using platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, certain users have been able to make hundreds of thousands of dollars on political betting, specifically pertaining to the American-Israeli war on Iran. The timing of the bets has raised suspicion as to whether or not the bettors have inside information, as some of the bets were made mere hours before the U.S. strikes began. The letter poses various questions on the connection between the political gambling and the military attacks on Iran: * **Insider Trading:** Who placed these accurate and very substantial bets on the prediction market platforms moments before the actual attacks on Iran occurred? * **Unauthorized Disclosure of Confidential Government Information:** Who within the Trump and Netanyahu administrations were privy to the timing and goals of the American-Israeli attacks? * **Political Betting:** Given that some governmental officials do indeed have access to reliable non-public information on likely outcomes of political events, is it prudent to allow betting on such outcomes? * **Public Interest:** Might some government officials manipulate public policies based on self-enrichment on prediction market platforms rather than based on the public interest? “Allowing prediction market platforms to bet on virtually anything, any time is a recipe for disaster,” said **Craig Holman, Public Citizen’s government affairs lobbyist.** “The American people should not have to wonder whether government officials are exploiting their access to classified information to make a quick buck. The CFTC must act swiftly to regulate platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket in order to protect the public.”

05.03.2026 23:28 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

February Beige Book Shows Trump’s Price Hikes Continue to Create Struggles for Consumers, Businesses The Federal Reserve released its February 2026 Beige Book, providing an updated snapshot of economic conditions across all 12 Federal Reserve Districts. A growing share of districts reported flat or declining activity as economic uncertainty and price sensitivity weighed on consumer spending alongside rising housing and food insecurities. The report paints a clear picture of rising tariff costs, higher prices for basic necessities, and Trump administration policies disrupting businesses and squeezing working families. **Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief of Policy and Advocacy,****Alex Jacquez****, reacted with the following statement:** > “Trump sold Americans a bill of goods he can’t deliver on, and he owes working families a refund. The president has driven up costs for consumers and businesses alike with his chaotic tariff policies and foreign wars. The Federal Reserve’s report should serve as a major red flag for the White House that Trump’s economy is flailing.” > **BACKGROUND** The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book plays a critical role in informing monetary policy decisions by highlighting regional economic conditions gathered from contacts at businesses, banks, and community organizational contacts at each of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts. Economists have found that the Beige Book can offer early signals about turning points in the economy, including rising recession risks. In the March edition of the Beige Book, contacts reported that: * **Tariffs continue to push up costs.** Nine Federal Reserve Districts cited rising input prices tied to tariffs, with many firms saying they are passing those increases directly on to customers. * A New York food ingredient company reported tariff-driven price increases moving through the supply chain. Some manufacturers are responding by shrinking package sizes while keeping prices the same. * In the Cleveland District, one manufacturer raised prices by 4.25% instead of the planned 3% to offset new steel tariffs. * Manufacturers in the Chicago District said tariffs are becoming harder to absorb. One firm noted that after splitting the cost with customers last year, they now plan to pass “the full cost on in 2026.” * **Rising prices for basic necessities are squeezing household budgets.** As essential expenses rise, more households are cutting back and turning to community support to meet basic needs. * Nonprofits in the Philadelphia District reported increased demand for food assistance as many clients struggle to afford basic necessities. * In the Boston District, contacts highlighted continued reliance on food pantries driven by high prices for food, rent, and home heating. * Contacts in the Atlanta District said rising prices are forcing families to find new ways to stretch their budgets. Households are “selling clothes online, scrapping metal, tapping savings, utilizing buy now/pay later offerings, eliminating dining out, using coupons, and buying in bulk.” * Organizations serving low-income consumers in the Chicago District described rising food insecurity and ongoing challenges finding affordable housing. * **Spending patterns reveal a widening economic divide.** While higher-income households continue to spend, many lower- and middle-income consumers are cutting back or trading down to cheaper options. * Contacts in the San Francisco District described a “bifurcated, or K-shaped, economy.” Discretionary spending remained strong among higher-income households, while lower- and middle-income consumers continued shifting toward lower-cost and store-label alternatives. * In the New York District, sales gains were concentrated among higher-income consumers. Even so, many shoppers remained price-conscious and searched across multiple retailers for better prices. * Retail patterns in the Atlanta District reflected the same divide. Discount stores reported steady demand from price-conscious shoppers, while higher-end retail sales remained resilient. * **Health care and insurance costs are rising.** Contacts pointed to higher premiums, shrinking access to coverage, and growing financial strain on health care providers. * In the New York District, contacts said low- and moderate-income households and older adults are facing increasing challenges maintaining health insurance coverage as premiums rise and access to low-cost plans declines. * Nonprofits in the Dallas District warned that expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies and changes to Medicaid requirements could lead to a rise in the uninsured. Contacts said the shift could limit access to preventative care while hospitals absorb the cost of treating patients without coverage. * In the Kansas City District, contacts warned that many rural hospitals are under severe financial strain. Roughly half are operating at a loss, with several facilities in northern Missouri at risk of closure.

05.03.2026 17:36 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Operation Epstein Fury: A Holy War With Shitty Toilets Our latest senseless illegal war against brown people, born of ever-shifting lies and fought by the sons of the blithe un-rich, is Trump's ultimate Wag-the-Dog distraction from his crimes, failures and pedophilia at home. Having oafishly declared the Iran regime “a vicious group of very hard, terrible people” - pot/kettle if you add "inept"- his "warriors" are now being told this is "part of God's divine plan," with The Rapture imminent (after killing more schoolgirls.) One sage: "It's a good thing Congress isn't alive to see this." Leave it to "the world's most famous bone-spur patient," Board of Peace chair, recipient of a fake FIFA peace prize and pilfered real Peace Prize, cornered serial sexual predator facing exposure and pathological liar who vowed "no new wars" while attacking _seven nations in a year_ to launch "the dumbest war in US history" - a tough competition - and the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which Bush, Rumsfeld, Powell et al at least tried for months to justify with a pack of lies before making "the worst foreign policy decision in history." Trump: Hold my Coke. Experts have long warned that with his hubris, thin skin, historical ignorance and affinity for heedless demolition of buildings, customs, laws, credibility, he could wreak the most havoc in foreign affairs, where his power is most unbridled - especially now, as he grows increasingly desperate and dangerous. Thus, having amassed a vast arsenal of US weaponry in the Persian Gulf, did he launch our current "national obscenity." Ever presidential, he did it in a sober, cogent speech at a White House lectern with all the gravity the occasion called for. Kidding: He did it in a histrionic 2:30 a.m post on his crappy platform from his golf bordello after a $1-million-a-plate fundraiser - cue cringe robotic dancing to _God Bless the USA_ - and a bellicose, garbled speech, his face smeared in make-up beneath a tacky _baseball cap?!_ Later, the White House released a photo of a hastily assembled War Room with black drapes around it and some guy peeking in - looking for the omelette bar? Observers: "Looks secure to me," "Looks like the Goodman wedding reception had to be moved," "These clowns seriously started WW lll from a blanket fort at a shitty golf club?!" and, "This is not how democracies go to war." But we just did - with no (Constitutionally mandated) approval from Congress, no (historically obligatory) public debate, over the objections of his own intelligence agencies and against the wishes of 80% of Americans, including his own base. In a slurred, spurious, deeply Orwellian speech, he "upended half a century of US foreign policy" by proclaiming the _$1-billion-a-day_ -but-who needs-groceries-or-health care Operation Epic Fury (presumably named by a 12-year-old minion), which he randomly called "the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country." Citing zero evidence, he said many of Iran’s soldiers "no longer want to fight," are "looking for Immunity from us," and hope to "peacefully merge with Iranian Patriots (to) bring back the Country to Greatness" (like ravaged America) to "achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” Because, bless his moronic heart, nobody ever thought of regime change before. The world's worst negotiator moved to set the Middle East on fire after walking away from ongoing, reportedly promising talks in which Iran had already made concessions; given the regime's "stupefyingly overt corruption," they included bribes to a deeply unqualified Kushner and Witkoff. Trump's Very Serious, deep-dive analysis: "We were having negotiations with these lunatics, but it was my opinion they were going to attack first." So he did. The death toll in a swiftly spreading conflagration is now over 1,000, including at least six US service members. Gruesomely but not surprisingly, one of the first strikes hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in southern Iran, killing an estimated 170 girls aged seven to 12. In a searing video of the carnage - woe to the murderers of little children - a distraught man stands amidst bloodied books, bodies, backpacks and shouts, "This was a school and they came to study." Also killed the first day was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of military commanders - so many, in a sign of Trump's famed proficiency, that he told news outlets he'd had a "beautiful plan" and several candidates for Iran’s new leadership but, oops, "They're all dead." There were other miscalculations. Despite his sanguine gibberish about PEACE, Tehran vowed to unleash "devastating blows" and the intact, powerful, heavily armed, fanatically loyal Revolutionary Guard, showing no interest in laying down their arms or ideology, warned of "a severe, decisive and regret-inducing punishment” of their killers. As in Iraq and everywhere else and one more time, a historian notes, regime change through bombing has never been successful: "Regimes are networks, (and) when an external power kills a leader, networks often consolidate, not fragment. Successors emerge, as do Martyr narratives." As to the US, what has yet to emerge is a long-term plan, a lucid rationale for the mayhem. They throw spaghetti at the wall, offering wildly shifting goals, timelines, narratives, excuses of "imminent threat" so flimsy they'd be laughable if not lethal. They want to "destroy Iran’s missile capability," "a __nnihilate their navy,” halt their regional hegemony, stop them from building nuclear weapons US intelligenceinsists are over 10 years away. Trump babbles: He wants "freedom for the people,” Iran "just wanted to practice evil," we have to "get rid of their whole group of killers and thugs," and they blocked his 2020 re-election. He really did "obliterate” their nuclear program in June but "we found they were in a totally different site - totally different, so it was just time.” One analyst: "The lack of any coherent message seems to suggest the lack of any coherent objective." Robert Reich: "He has no fucking clue what he’s doing." Bizarrely, Trump's reportedly calling journalists to workshop objectives and timelines: 2 or 3 days, four to five weeks? More bizarrely - is it possible? - suddenly-anti-war MTG charges the regime, deep in "the same old bullshit," is even polling voters to ask how many casualties they'd accept: "How about ZERO you bunch of sick fucking liars." Meanwhile, MAGA struggles to define the debacle they've birthed. In a few head-spinning minutes, Mike Johnson claimed Iran "declared war on us," insisted "we're not at war," and clumsily pivoted to, "a very, umm, specific, clear mission, _an operation._ " Enraged Dems were more forthright. Ruben Gallego: "Trump ran on exposing pedophiles and stopping wars, (and) is now protecting pedophiles and starting wars.” Chris Murphy on a vanity war "nobody in this country is asking for: "It won’t be the billionaire children of Trump and his buddies that die." Steve Schmidt, likewise bitter: They'll have "died to change the subject from child rape." In greasy contrast, dry-drunk war-mongerer, preening macho cartoon, and "colossus of incompetence and extremism" Pete Kegsmith yammers about "our warriors fully unleashed to achieve our objectives, on our terms, with maximum authorities." Also "iron fist," "true force multiplier," "hitting them surgically, overwhelmingly" while seeking "off-ramps and escalations (to) execute what we need" with, "No apologies. No hesitation. Epic fury." What an epic asshole. He snarled at a presser with right-wing hacks: "Why would we tell you - you, the enemy, anybody - what we will or will not do?" He went full psychopath in another, braying of "death and destruction from the sky all day long" and "rules of engagement (that) are bold, precise, and designed to unleash American power. We are punching them while they are down." Also, "War is hell." Though Sherman added, "It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation." A Christian nationalist, Crusades fan-boy and sexist xenophobe who attends Bible study and Pentagon prayer services, Hegseth is a vital force in an explosive push to enshrine brimstone-breathing - and unconstitutional - Christian fundamentalism in America's military. Thus is our new war of choice being feverishly sold, not as a ploy to distract from Epstein, ICE, inflation etc but as a Biblically-sanctioned holy crusade toward a devoutly-to-be-wished End Times. Or in the more skeptical words of _The Fucking News_ , "Jesus Christ, They Drafted Jesus Christ To Fight Iran." Since the Iran attacks, reports Jonathan Larsen, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has logged over 200 complaints from 50 bases of every military branch about commanders telling troops this is "all part of God’s divine plan," with Trump improbably "anointed" to bring the Rapture, Armageddon and the return of Christ to recreate a white, straight, Republican, gated-community America. Larson reports one _Christian_ NCO wrote on behalf of 15 troops of multiple faiths, all rejecting the call to embrace a nihilistic, Revelation-based worldview. "This is not what my faith is for," he wrote, "and this is not what my uniform is for." MRFF head Mikey Weinstein, an Air Force and Reagan White House veteran, said he's been "inundated" by calls with "one damn thing in freaking common" - complaints about "the unrestricted euphoria" of commanders urging troops to accept their fundamentalist theology. Declares Weinstein, "Any military (pushing) their blood-soaked, Christian nationalist wet dreams upon the flames of this latest non-Congressionally sanctioned attack against Iran should be swiftly, aggressively and visibly prosecuted." Adds Dean Blundell, raised Evangelical, on a "crusade of low-IQ warriors": "If history has taught us one goddamn thing, it’s that holy wars don’t end when the true believers say they will. They end when there’s nothing left to burn." Alas, in the case of this ill-conceived holy war, true believers may be embarking not just with epic fury, an iron fist and a blanket fort but irreparably clogged toilets. Adding a surreal twist to an already dark tale of Christofascist empire-building, new reports describe toilet lines of up to 45 minutes for 4,500 sailors on the world's most advanced warship, the US Navy's $13-billion, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, now facing what are politely termed "significant sanitation challenges" as it idles in the Persian Gulf. The ship's vacuum-based sewage system has long been plagued by repeated failures and lack of maintenance, but the latest breakdown of many of its 650 toilets may be the final straw for sailors already weary from an extended, 8-month deployment; after Trump's illegal Venezuela assault/kidnapping, they were ordered to go straight to his illegal Iran air strikes/mass murder. Some have posted gross videos of flooding shit; reads one, "Join the Navy, they said." Still, their Commander-In-Chief says everything's swell. "It's going to go pretty quickly," he announced of the widening chaos in the Middle East. "We're way ahead of schedule." Experts warn the Iran war, coupled with the shift of national security resources to immigration, raises the risk of terrorism; says veteran and Rep. Jason Crow, "It just shot through the roof. But Trump just bragged about the "exciting times," and asked how he'd rate the success of the war on a scale of one to ten, he said he'd give it "about a fifteen." As to the likely growing casualties from his "noble mission," he's shruggingly said, "That's the way it is." Talk about epic fury: See the response from Kendall Brown, whose husband is on the USS Gerald Ford. "If you voted for this, I fucking hate you," she says in a now-viral video. "If you still support this, you are a monster." "America is strong because its leaders are strong. President Trump proves that every day," reads a _DraftBarron_ website by _South Park's_ Toby Morton. "Naturally, his son Barron is more than ready to defend the country his father so boldly commands. Service is honor. Strength is inherited. Dog Bless Barron." Arguing, "Leadership starts somewhere," it offers the loving testimonial from his dad, "People come up to me, with tears in their eyes, and they say, ‘Sir, you’re the strongest. Send Barron off to war.’" For now, Operation What Now lurches on. Trump reportedly bombed Iran because "he had a feeling, based on fact." Melania explained how to achieve "enduring peace." Oil prices quickly spiked, and millions were stranded __ after airports and sea lanes shut down. Because we are the most exceptional, can-do country on earth, the State Department's Office of Overseas Citizens Services hotline was there to help. Sort of. Dog bless America. _"Five things to remember about war: 1. Many things reported with confidence in the first hours and days will turn out not to be true 2. Whatever they say, the people who start wars are often thinking chiefly about domestic politics 3. The rationale given for a war will change over time. 4. Wars are unpredictable 5. Wars are easy to start and hard to stop."_ - Timothy Snyder - YouTube www.youtube.com Skeptics of our latest imperialist incursion voice legitimate class concerns.Image from BlueSky

05.03.2026 10:34 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Sanders and Khanna Introduce Legislation to Tax Billionaire Wealth and Invest in Working Families Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) today introduced the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, legislation that would establish a 5% annual wealth tax on the 938 billionaires in America — who are now collectively worth $8.2 trillion. In its first year, the bill would provide a $3,000 direct payment to every man, woman and child in a household making $150,000 or less — $12,000 for a family of four — and use the estimated $4.4 trillion in revenue raised over the next decade to address the most pressing crises facing working families. “At a time of unprecedented income and wealth inequality, this legislation demands that the billionaire class in America finally pay their fair share of taxes so that we can create an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1%,” **Sanders said.** “We can no longer tolerate a corrupt tax code that enables billionaires to pay a lower tax rate than the average worker. In a democratic society, we cannot tolerate 60% of our people living paycheck to paycheck — struggling to pay for housing, food and health care — while 938 billionaires have become $1.5 trillion richer. We cannot continue a trend in which, over the past 50 years, $79 trillion in wealth in our country has been redistributed from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. Enough is enough. Billionaires cannot have it all. It is time to enact a wealth tax on billionaires and use this revenue to address some of the major crises facing working families, the children, the elderly, the sick and the most vulnerable.” “We have a deep economic divide in this country. On one side, places like Silicon Valley are generating extreme wealth. On the other side, families are struggling to cover the cost of health care, housing, and basic needs. We can tax billionaires a modest amount to make sure everyone has a fair chance while keeping our innovative engine. That is why I am proud to join Senator Bernie Sanders to lead the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act,” **Khanna said.** The Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act would establish a 5% annual wealth tax on just 938 billionaires in America who are now worth $8.2 trillion. No one who has a net worth of less than $1 billion would pay a penny more in taxes under this bill. According to an analysis by economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the legislation would raise $4.4 trillion over the next decade. The bill would use revenue from the wealth tax to: * Provide a $3,000 direct payment to every man, woman and child in a household making $150,000 or less — $12,000 for a family of four * Reverse the $1.1 trillion in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts in Trump's so-called "Big Beautiful Bill," which are estimated to cause more than 50,000 unnecessary deaths * Expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing for millions of seniors * Build, rehabilitate and preserve over seven million affordable homes to eliminate the affordable housing gap and end homelessness * Ensure no family pays more than 7% of their income on childcare * Establish a $60,000 minimum annual salary for every public school teacher in America * Expand Medicaid home health care for seniors and people with disabilities Under the bill, Elon Musk — worth $833 billion and now wealthier than the bottom 53% of American households combined — would owe $42 billion in taxes, leaving him with approximately $792 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, worth $220 billion, would owe $11 billion. Jeff Bezos, worth $218 billion, would owe approximately $11 billion. Read the bill text here. Read a summary here. Read the economic analysis here.

02.03.2026 17:08 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Ribbital: Democracy As Something We Do, Not Just Have Most memorable about this week's longest, basest, game-show SOTU, a toxic, lying, us-and-them hate fest: The rowdy multitude of responses from a populace "defying the lie that we are powerless." Bigly upstaging a goalie's Medal of Freedom was "a marathon of truth-telling," from a cogent Dem response to the Portland Frogs leading a restive, joyful, shaggy defense of "this thing we call democracy" by We the People, insisting, "Don't be afraid to call it fascism - we got to meet this fuckin' moment." The State of the Union speech, already a stale ritual of forced national unity, felt more farcical than ever in these rancorous times, a tawdry, surreal piece of performance art whose only true believers may be those MAGA morons who, when challenged, frantically, mindlessly yell "USA!! USA!!," their version of, "Oh yeah?!" They resorted to it several times Tuesday at a tacky event that over 70 deeply fed up Democrats skipped. "The President has shown no respect for the principles upon which this country is based," argued Maine's Sen. Angus King. "I cannot in good conscience participate in (a) function that would require me to ignore all that has gone before, and to pay him a measure of respect he has not earned." Other apt SOTU responses: _Turner Classic Movies_ showed _Gaslight_ , and Jeff Tiedrich proclaimed, "The State of the Union is - oh, who gives a fuck, really?" The "18-year-long," "excruciatingly tedious," "most openly racist State of the Union in modern history" came as its perpetrator faces record-low 36% approval ratings, trailing by double digits in swing states and bleeding support among independents as he babbles about "fake polls," "silent support" and "made-up numbers" by "professional cheaters." His deplorable flunkies aren't faring any better. In a civil trial where investors are suing Elon Musk, his lawyers can't find jurors because so many Americans "hate him." They also hate ICE Barbie and her stormtroopers, and Kash Patel for his $75K, not-at-all-personal trip to Milan to chug beer with hockey players that so infuriated his own work force they sent 8 videos of it to media. There's also Rep. Tony Gonzales with another sex scandal MAGA doesn't need (though they need his seat), and perennial losers Kegseth and Pirro. Still, given he "continues to live in a fantasyland where stuff becomes true just because he says it is," his SOTU was awesome, like his glittering State of Denial. Likely invisible were the Suffragette white outfits of Dem women, the photos of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Rep. Al Green's sign, "Black People Aren't Apes" (he was escorted from the chamber), the "Release the Epstein Files" pins, and the stalwart, near-dozen Epstein survivors themselves invited by Dem lawmakers, reminders of ghastly new evidence and allegations and cover-ups lurking behind one key question from survivor Jess Michaels: “Does our government belong to the American people, or to those who prey on them?” There was, of course, no answer. In fact, there was no mention of Epstein. Or of the reviled ICE, stalled DHS, on-the-brink Iran, or long-suffering Ukraine on the 4th anniversary of its invasion. There was, instead, a hate-lie-and-grievance-filled shit show, a Klan rally of "white-supremacist wolf whistles," a "fascist rally peppered with flop-sweat one-liners," a slurred, venomous, fact-free barrage of boasts, insults, puffery met with faithful Kim Jong Un-esque applause from co-conspirators filling up empty seats for an old man who endlessly burbled, lurched and clung to a podium as he hid a gross bruised hand behind him. It was, wrote Ana Marie Cox, a speech "simultaneously banal and unsettling (by) a greasy fleshhole of hate...rancid and powerful." Her trenchant analysis: "I fucking hate this guy." And no, full disclosure, we did not watch it. We just...couldn't. But sincere thanks to those strong souls who chronicled the debacle, most notably Mehdi Hassan and the folks of _Zeteo_here and here. Also to Jimmy Kimmel, for his fine, no-diapers introduction. The musty lies and bombast unspooled. We were a dead country but now we're "the hottest." Dems are "suddenly using the word 'affordability' - somebody gave it to them," but high prices are all their fault. Countries hit by tariffs are "happy." Most foul were lurid tales about the "scourge of illegal immigration,"****like "Somali pirates who have ransacked Minnesota" and "pillaged $19 billion from the American taxpayer," though it was 80 Somali-Americans, led by a white American woman, who committed some fraud while over 100,000, 95% of them U.S. citizens, pay nearly $70 million in taxes and contribute $8 billion to the community but sure let's go with a collective ethnic smear. The crude, dumb, divisive finale: Stand if you agree your first duty is "to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens" - and don't forget the Seig Heil. Cheap Theatrics 'R Us. Dems sat. Trump raged, "You should be ashamed." Ilhan Omar fought back: "_You_ should be ashamed. You're killing Americans." MAGA yelled "USA!" Goebbels Miller shrieked “0 democrats stood for the (principle) leaders must serve citizens before invaders. Never has there been a more stunning moment in Congress." True, but not how he thinks. In a final, Oprah moment, the "merit vampire" who thrives on stolen glory bragged, "We’re winning so much we don’t know what to do about it" and to prove it here's the carefully choreographed USA Olympic hockey team who jeered with him in the locker room about their women cohorts who won bigger: "Come on in!" The MAGA frat party dregs cheered, hooted, fist-pumped more "USA!" Then he gave out medals, and fed the athletes Big Macs. Press Barbie: "He knows how to celebrate champions. No one does it like him!" Ugh. The flip side: Kudos to the five hockey players, and the moms who likely largely raised them, who declined the non- invite; four of five came from Minnesota. And kudos to _Public Enemy_ Hall of Fame rapper Flavor Flav, a longtime supporter of women's sports, who invited the women's team to party in Las Vegas and "celebrate for real for real" in July on a _She Got Game_ weekend funded by him and area resorts. And gracious thanks to actor, gourmand and all-round mensch Stanley Tucci, who hosted the women on the patio of his favorite Milan restaurant, the Michelin-starred Ristorante Ratanà, where they happily feasted on pumpkin risotto and just desserts. Meanwhile, in the wake of the mad king's claptrap, Democrats won three local elections in swing states: two in Pennsylvania for a majority in the state house, one in Maine, further cementing Democrats’ hold. Finally, there were myriad, heartening alternative events where lawmakers, advocates, Epstein survivors and whistleblowers vowed to, "Lean in, stand up and show up" in defense of democracy and fierce resistance - and stark contrast - to the small, mean narcissist down the road making up "facts" and boasting about stripping 2.4 million people of food stamps. The official Democratic response, from Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, was succinct and forceful. Citing the pernicious rhetoric, cruelty, cover-ups, scams, ballrooms, she asked who benefits: "Is the president working for you? We all know the answer is no." Sen. Alex Padilla pointedly gave a follow-up in Spanish. Famously last seen getting tackled by DHS thugs for daring to ask ICE Barbie about her brownshirts' violent abuses, he asserted, "I am still here. Still standing. Still fighting." His sense of resolve was echoed at a "People’s State of the Union” rally on the National Mall held by _MoveOn_ and _Meidas Touch,_ where speakers lambasted Trump's imaginary "Golden Age of America" in a country that in fact offers "one reality for everyday people and another for the rich and well-protected." Citing vast unmet needs on healthcare, housing, jobs, Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee of the Working Families Party vowed to "elevate the voices of (those) angry, scared and fed up with an administration that’s done nothing to help and a lot to hurt everyday people." Sen. Chris Murphy decried a speech ignoring ICE "tear-gassing schools, murdering citizens, and disappearing legal immigrants." The Progressive Caucus' Greg Casar reviled a $4-billion grifter "lecturing you, the American people, about how good you have it (when) everyone but Trump’s rich friends knows it’s a disaster,." Meanwhile, at the National Press Club a few blocks away, a dozen members of the illustrious Portland Frog Brigade headlined a giddy, heartfelt, sold-out State of the Swamp, a SOTU "ribbital" hosted by DEFIANCE.org and advocacy media network Courier where attendees were encouraged to gather, preferably in frog caps, in "peaceful defiance and civic participation." M.C.'ed by _Defiance_ head and former Trump staffer Miles Taylor, the event drew dozens of speakers, and a few frogs, who over several hours gave resolute, kinetic, briskly-3-minute speeches focused on the vital need to remember that, "Democracy is something we do, not just something we have." The most substantial time went to the last three speakers - the combative mayors of Minneapolis and Chicago, and an enraged Robert DeNiro - and they were all electrifying. The mood was chill, festive, occasionally profane, but the message was consistent: In the face of unprecedented threats to our democracy by "a rapist vulgarian named Donald Trump," we must, "Refuse to shut up, sit down, or even stop ribbiting. Stay LOUD." Between speakers, video clips showed historic figures of defiance: MLK Jr, Muhammad Ali, Black Panthers, James Baldwin, John Lewis, lunch-counter sit-ins, Jesse Jackson rousing Sesame Street kids to say, "I am somebody." Next to the stage, about 20 inflatable frogs, "the jesters of this movement," stood and often danced in a "frog pond" with signs: "Damn Straight," "Amphifa," "Frogs Not Fascists." Earlier, they'd hit the Capitol to hand out pocket Constitutions to members of Congress and toured D.C. for proud green selfies. Taylor: "Who better to help navigate the swamp than a creature born in the swamp?" Despite the focus on matters of substance - housing, healthcare, climate crisis, ICE abuses, democracy itself - the tone of many speakers was light-hearted and self-deprecating. Delaware Gov. Matt Meyers: "There are more frogs in this room than people in my state." New York Rep. Dan Goldman: "It's great to be here and not in Congress tonight." Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden on his political low profile: "I'm barely a household name in my own household." Oregon Rep. Maxine Dexter: "Thank you to the frogs who hopped across the country." The array of speakers was admirably broad - from a panel of First Amendment legal defenders to former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham - and outspoken on "the weak, dumb, small, sad man" and "pathetic whiny loser who knocked down the East Wing and thinks he can knock down our democracy." Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, one of the six veterans along with Mark Kelly under attack by Kegseth for re-iterating that the military should follow the law, began with, "Well, President Trump keeps trying to put me in prison. But I've never been very good at sitting in my foxhole and letting them send grenades my way. I fight back." Motormouth Joe Walsh, former "rock-ribbed" conservative and Illinois GOP rep with serious buyer's remorse, and author of the 2020 book _Fuck Silence:__Calling Trump Out for the Cultish, Moronic, Authoritarian Con Man He Is_ , was resolute on the "cruel bastard" who gave us Jan. 6 and "don't you for one moment think he's not gonna try" to mess with coming elections: "This moment calls for all of us to be courageous - we ain't never been here before. Our job is to blow him outta the water. Fuck Trump. The mid-terms are happening." Over hours, their messages aligned: Fascists come after everyone in the end, even fellow fascists. MAGA is waiting its turn in the trashbin of history. Help put it there. Courage is more contagious than cowardice. An old story is dying. The elites have never been the ones to save us - it's always the people. Cruelty isn't strength, nor is defying the rule of law. Strength is the moral courage to say this is not right, to see other people as fully human. When empathy disappears, authoritarianism is next. Gutsy Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey: "We are not spectators in this moment. We are stewards of our democracy. Hold strong." DeNiro, on feeling "betrayed" by today's America, "like an abused spouse professing love for their abuser." "You have to lift people up," he said, his voice cracking. "If you've ever loved your country, this is the time to show it." The aftermath of a grotesque SOTU tells us everything we need to know about the historic moment. Trump raged about "the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people" who declined to stand with his fascism: "We should send them back (on) a boat with Robert DeNiro, another sick and demented person....saying (things) seriously CRIMINAL!" News surfaced that, during the speech, Ilhan Omar guest Aliya Rahman, a disabled Minneapolis woman dragged from her car by ICE who later gave searing testimony to Congress, was forcibly removed by Capitol Police and charged with "Unlawful Conduct" after she silently stood up in the gallery, like many others. On Friday, Trump held a million-dollar-a-plate, "Billionaires first, Americans last" fundraiser. And the day before, NYC Mayor Mamdani, with the help of AOC, released an adorbs video about his new free child care program. Which side are you on? Tough call. > See on Instagram

28.02.2026 05:16 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Paramount Skydance’s Takeover of Warner Bros. Is Bad News for Workers, Consumers, and Free Expression On Thursday, the Warner Bros. Discovery board decided to abandon its plans to sell the company to Netflix in favor of a Paramount Skydance bid. In addition to offering $31-per-share to purchase the massive entertainment and news conglomerate, Paramount agreed to pay a $2.8 billion breakup fee to Netflix to walk away. After WBD initially accepted Netflix’s offer for the company earlier this year, Paramount made a series of hostile bids for the company, aided by President Trump’s expressed preference that ownership transfer to his political ally and Paramount owner David Ellison and his centibillionaire, MAGA-loving father, Larry. Free Press Co-CEO **Craig Aaron** said: “The Netflix deal was disastrous but this new one is even worse. The idea that Paramount should be allowed to control CBS and CNN should be unthinkable, especially given their record of turning the Tiffany Network into a trash heap. The Ellisons have already promised the Trump administration that they’ll make sweeping changes to CNN given the chance, and we know what that means: firing journalists, spiking important stories, and replacing the news with empty propaganda. “This deal endangers our democracy by giving a family of pliant billionaires even more control of vast swaths of our news coverage, TV stations and movie studios. Allowing more mergers in the already highly concentrated movie business will harm filmmakers and industry workers when Paramount delivers on its promise to make deep cuts to please its Wall Street backers. While a few Hollywood execs and sovereign-wealth fund managers in the Middle East might get rich from this deal, thousands and thousands of American workers will lose their jobs. “In any normal administration this merger would be a non-starter. In this one, the corruption and capitulation of the Ellison family is the main selling point. They’ve already shown a willingness to bend to Donald Trump’s will and change their coverage and personnel to please his whims. Trump wants to control the news, and his Justice Department has been largely purged of anyone who might ask too many questions of a deal like this. State attorneys generals had better wake up to the serious dangers of this deal before it’s too late.”

27.02.2026 18:38 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

For Now A Prince. How Long Till A (Fake) King? The arrest of the U.K. rapist formerly known as Prince, and the echoing, trans-Atlantic edict that no one is above the law, lay ever-barer America's "true exceptionalism": A culture of immunity so corrosive our own heinous, in-his-fever-dreams "exonerated" Predator-In-Chief has enragingly yet to face any consequences for his manifold sins, crimes, cruelties and depravities, petty and profound. Finally, says Epstein survivor Maria Farmer, "(Let) all the dominoes of power and corruption begin to fall." The stunning arrest by Thames Valley Police of "Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor" - notably, _not_ "His Royal Highness," ”the Duke of York" or other niceties - on his 66th birthday was widely seen as not just an arrest but "a transfer of power," a possible, long- awaited shift in the tides for once-untouchable elites of the Epstein class that announces power and status may no longer keep them safe, at least outside the crooked U.S. Shortly after 8 a.m., police arrived in six unmarked vehicles at Wood Farm on King Charles’ Sandringham Estate to haul Andrew off; they also reportedly searched his former residence near Windsor Castle. The charge, "suspicion of misconduct in public office" - talk about your euphemisms - stems from Andrew's term as UK trade envoy from 2001 to 2011, when he allegedly shared with Jeffrey Epstein confidential government reports on potential investment opportunities from Vietnam, Singapore, China and Afghanistan. The envoy gig mandates a "duty of confidentiality"; any "abuse of public trust" that uses public power as "private currency for self-serving or nefarious reasons" carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. (Just imagine what they'd make of the Trump cartel's brazen, perennial grifting.) Andrew, of course, has also been charged with raping outspoken Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide last year at 41, which led to him being stripped of his royal titles before slinking out of public view. Regrettably, he never faced a rape charge in court due to several factors - a civil settlement with Giuffre, a high bar for conviction beyond a reasonable doubt, and other legal loopholes. Presumably for some Epstein victims, bringing Andrew to even a modicum of justice on the easier-to-prove misconduct in office charge may feel dispiriting, like nabbing the murderous Al Capone for tax evasion: Better than nothing, but not good enough. Andrew's was the first arrest of a senior member of the British royal family in modern history. The last one arrested was King Charles I in 1647, following his defeat in the English Civil War by Parliamentarian forces; a believer in the divine right of kings, his tyrannical reign led to his imprisonment, trial for high treason, and beheading in 1649 - the moral arc of the universe moved faster then. After Andrew's arrest, his brother King Charles, who had received no warning beforehand, issued a statement on, not his bro but “Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor”; he expressed “deepest concern" but "whole-hearted support" for the investigation: "Let me state clearly: the law must take its course." Others cited the same probity. Prime Minister Keir Starmer: "No one is above the law.” The family of Virginia Giuffre: "No one is above the law, not even royalty." Heartbreakingly, they added, "For survivors everywhere, Virginia did this for you." Waxing cautious about possible shifts in power, _The Mirror_’s Christopher Bucktin notes, "A birthday arrest should not stand alone as a rare spectacle. It should signal something larger: that no title, no fortune, no political office is sufficient armour against the law...Justice cannot stop at one imprisoned accomplice while others retreat behind legal teams and influence." A new report from the UN's Human Rights Council, which finds Epstein's wrongs "may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity," echoes him. Arguing the files' "credible evidence of systematic and large-scale sexual abuse, trafficking and exploitation" - thus contradicting the "little evidence" bullshit of our DOJ and FBI - it dismisses vapid calls to "move on" as "a failure of responsibility towards victims." Resignations alone aren't enough, it adds: "It is imperative that governments act decisively to hold perpetrators (criminally) accountable." As further evidence "Epstein elites can't hide anymore" - except, yes, infuriatingly, here - active investigations of Epstein-related crimes in 16 countries are now sweeping up officials on both sex-trafficking and corruption charges; Canada will reportedly open the next one. In the UK, former ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson was fired and is under ~~investigation~~ - oops, now arrest - for passing on financial info to Epstein; Starmer’s chief of staff, who appointed Mandelson, also resigned. In Norway, a former prime minister was charged with "gross corruption” for his Epstein ties, and two diplomats are being investigated. In France, so are a former Culture Minister, his daughter and a senior diplomat. Non-Epstein-related justice has also come for South Korea's former President Yoon Suk Yeol - a life sentence _with hard labor_ for an insurrection - and Brazil's Bolsonaro, whose 2023 coup attempt got him 27 years, and no pardons. "This is what accountability looks like," argues David Kurtz of Andrew's arrest and all the rest, which "sends a signal far beyond London - straight to Washington." What it proclaims: "If the King's own brother is not above the law, neither is the King's dinner guest, nor his Commerce Secretary." Infernally, the lesson has yet to be heeded in an America ruled by a two-bit, 34-count felon and rapist abetted by a cabal of flunkies managing a Mafia-style criminal regime with no bottom and a corrupt SCOTUS whose "out-of-thin-air immunity doctrine" has made him less accountable than actual royalty - spawning a nation "exceptional among developed nations solely in (its) unwillingness to hold the powerful to account, even in the most egregious cases." Confirming that stark reality was last week's unfurling, outside the DOJ, of a huge banner of Dear Leader, "an abomination and an outrage" straight-up declaring our alleged justice system "a pure creature of presidential whim, retribution and cover-up." Meanwhile, despite Epstein files that "scream 'Guilty" - with his hideous name appearing over 38,000 times in 5,300 released files representing just 2-4% of the grisly whole - Trump had the chutzpah to respond to a question about the possible ripple effect at home of Andrew's arrest by professing, four times in 30 seconds, he's been "totally exonerated." "Well, you know, I'm the expert in a way, because I've been totally exonerated," he blustered, prattling on in toddler-ese. "I did nothin'. It’s very nice. I can actually speak about it very nicely. I think it’s a shame. I think it’s very sad. It’s very, very sad to me. It’s a very sad thing. To see it, and to see what’s going on with his brother. King. So I think it’s a very sad thing." Fucking Christ. Nope, wasn't me, nothing to see here, not a creep, all good, if sad. And _not a_ _word_ on the survivors. Appalled observers: "Guilty as fuck," "The man on my TV screen is batshit crazy," and, "I hope to live long enough to see this POS in a cell with an open toilet." Or maybe none? Epstein’s carefully curated, now slowly splintering network of elites included billionaires, academics, politicians, scummy MAGA hangers-on like Steve Bannon - “Dude. You up??" - with culpability circling ever closer to Trump. A trove of damning evidence has been unearthed by investigative journalist Roger Sollenberger. In one account, he cites the disappearance of allegations in both a civil complaint _and_ FBI slideshow that the DOJ spoke four times __ to a Jane Doe who credibly charged she was about 14 when she was forced to perform oral sex on Trump; when she bit down on his penis, she said he punched her in the head, kicked her out, and later raped her vaginally and anally. Experts say such slowly emerging stories of abuse reveal a ghastly, familiar pattern; the latest, in Alaska, is "nothing short of horrifying." Thus does Masha Gessen argue that it's time for us to stop speaking of the Epstein story "as a story about extraordinary lawlessness. It is a story about ordinary lawlessness." Dating back, in Trump's case, a savage lifetime. By now he's committed most of the crimes Thomas Jefferson charged King George with in the Declaration of Independence - ignored laws "necessary for the public good," sent "swarms of Officers to harass our people," kept "Standing Armies without Consent," altered "fundamentally the Forms of our Government," ravaging due process, free speech, health care, civil rights, history itself. The lies, deaths, grift, cruelty, unceasing assaults on decency. The "monstrous machine" to snatch up and spit out thousands of innocents - "¡ _Libertad_!” - in concentration camps. The children trapped with cancer, measles, trauma: "Please get me out of here." Two-month old Juan Nicolás, unresponsive in Dilley, choking on his vomit, abruptly deported with his family to Mexico, tracked down and cared for thanks to "America's most relentless immigration reporter," because, "The story is rarely the policy - (it's) the person standing in the rubble of the policy." Today, the two essential pillars of Trump's "fantasy version of nationalist renewal" - ethnic cleansing and tariffs - are both rubble, rejected by the public, the courts and even a corrupt SCOTUS, which enraged him so much he revived a cringe John Barron to rave about the "fools and lap dogs” who rejected his cherished tariffs and the imaginary hundreds of billions they brought in to make us '"the hottest country." The drek kept spewing. He praised lickspittles Thomas, Alito, Beer Keg Brett for "their strength and wisdom," especially Beer Keg, "for his, frankly, his genius." He respects them "because they not only dissented, their dissent is so strong. I'm very good at reading language and it read our way 100%...My thousands of victories...Like the wars I stopped. The Prime Minister of Pakistan said I saved 35 million lives by getting them to stop. That's -- and I did it largely with tariffs." He's vowed _new_ tariffs, "and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way." So much winning. Also somewhere he asked the owner of "they made steel products" how he was, and the man said, "I'd love to kiss you," because "we were down to working one hour a week and then you came in and imposed tariffs (and) now we're going to double shifts seven days a week and maybe to 24 hours almost seven days a week, we're hiring people like we haven't - like I've never..." Trump: "Nobody's standing in (the) position I have as president had the insight, the courage, I don't know what it is. They're all pouring into the United States. But just like that great patriot said, Sir, what you've done, nobody thought was possible." As to "slimeball" Gorsuch and Coney Barret, they're "an embarrassment to their families" and were "swayed by foreign interests." Dems were intrigued: The Judiciary Committee's Jared Moskowitz felt he should find out more about them, and another Dem felt the next president "will have no choice but to replace all 9 members with new justices with no foreign entanglements." On Saturday, the White House held the annual Governors' Dinner, designed to "build relationships and discuss things in a bipartisan way." Historically, the staid, candle-lit, black-tie affair - Melania wore $2,400 silver foil pants - can serve as a genial distraction from Congressional battles. In this rancorous moment, it was a shitshow - actors on both sides alternately called it "a farce" and "a glowing evening" - because after the Mad Hatter King uninvited two Dems, the only Black and only openly gay governor, Dems all boycotted it what became a MAGA ass-kissing fest. Trump used the moment to blame two Dem governors for a sewage spill in the Potomac River. "We have to clean up some mess Maryland and Virginia have left us," he snarled. "It's unbelievable what they can do with incompetence." The ruptured pipe is part of a D.C.-based, federally regulated utility under the oversight of the U.S. EPA. As to "mess," we hope to see this face replicated soon at home. _"It could go either way. There's no other way. You have other ways you can go. You don't have to go that way. You can go other way."_ - Donald J. Trump, lifelong sexual and financial predator and deeply, deeply shameful President of the United States of America The former Prince Andrew leaving the police station after his arrestPhoto by Phil Noble/Reuters, a portrait of power crumbling in real time that went viral on BlueSky

23.02.2026 08:12 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

SCOTUS Blocking of Trump’s “Emergency” Tariffs Is a Small But Meaningful Check on a Lawless President Today, the Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to implement sweeping tariffs was unlawful. **Global Trade Watch director Melinda St. Louis issued the following statement:** “The Supreme Court’s decision today deals a blow to Trump’s illegal, chaotic tariffs that have been used to benefit powerful corporate interests over working people. “When used lawfully and as part of a wider strategic policy, tariffs can help protect U.S. jobs, raise labor and environmental standards, and correct corporate-driven trade imbalances that harm workers and communities. But Trump’s approach was never strategic, constructive, or rooted in concern for working people. “These sweeping tariffs were deployed to bully other countries to benefit his corporate cronies and to fuel anti-humanitarian political goals, not to uplift the people harmed by decades of corporate-rigged trade policy. While today’s decision is a meaningful check on a specific abuse of power, Trump has made clear that he plans to use other tariff authorities to barrel ahead with his global bullying and secretive dealmaking. “Congress and the courts should exercise their constitutional checks and balances over all of Trump’s authoritarian power grabs and should demand a trade policy that prioritizes the lives of working people over the billionaires that this administration has been carrying water for since day one.”

20.02.2026 20:02 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump Tariffs Today, the Supreme Court drew a clear line, ruling that Trump’s tariffs were not within his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. **Food & Water Watch Senior Food Policy Analyst Rebecca Wolf **issued the following statement: > “Trump’s misguided tariff tantrum has caused an affordability crisis for American consumers and farmers. Trump’s tariffs have driven consumer prices through the roof, and brought irreparable harm to farmers who have seen markets shrink with retaliatory tariffs. > > “Today’s ruling is an important check on the President’s dangerous agenda. This decision marks an important step towards restoring balance and addressing the affordability crisis that indiscriminate tariffs helped fuel. We need sound trade policies that will help farmers and families — not undermine them.” > Food & Water Watch analysis of President Trump’s first term trade war found that in its wake: * Farm bankruptcies rose 24% from 2018 to 2019. * The number of farms harvesting soybeans decreased overall by 10.7% while the number of soybean farms with 1,000 acres or more increased by 5% from 2017 to 2022. * The total number of farms fell 7% between 2017 to 2022, hitting small farms and Black producers hardest. * Bailout funds flowed to the largest operations and multinational corporations.

20.02.2026 17:58 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

EPA Dismantles Protections for Mercury and Air Toxics From Power Plants The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today finalized a repeal of the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) – a move that will allow coal- and oil-fired power plants to emit more brain-damaging mercury, other harmful heavy metals, and dangerous soot. Those emissions put the public at greater risk of heart and lung disease, cancer, and premature death. EPA also eliminated a common-sense requirement that power plants install cost-effective systems to continuously monitor the amount of pollution they emit — depriving communities of a powerful tool for ensuring power plants comply with air pollution standards and provide real-time data on their emissions. “Trump’s EPA is making an attack on public health with the repeal of the 2024 MATS,” **said Earthjustice Attorney Nicholas Morales.** “This unlawful repeal will result in higher levels of mercury, soot, and other hazardous pollution into our air and communities. With this move, the Trump administration is wiping out health protections critical for protecting children from toxins like mercury just to save the coal industry some money.” The repeal of MATS follows a two-year exemption the Trump administration granted to some of the nation’s dirtiest power plants, many of which had demonstrated their ability to meet the updated 2024 standards. In June 2025, community and environmental groups represented by Earthjustice and other counsel sued the Trump administration over this unlawful decision. The exemptions, issued in April and July, allow 71 coal power plants to release more mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that tighter limits are achievable and would protect children, pregnant people, and people with chronic heart and lung disease from toxic air pollution. **Background on MATS** Before MATS was established in 2012, there were no federal limits on how much mercury and toxic air pollution coal and oil -fired powered plants could emit. The standards led to a 90% reduction in mercury emissions, 80% drop in other metals, and helped save up to 11,000 lives each year. In 2024, the EPA strengthened MATS, building on what has become one of its most effective air pollution rules. EPA’s own analysis of the 2024 rule found: * $33 million in annual health benefits * Minimal impact on electricity reliability, with no expected retirements * Only 33 plants required upgrades to meet non-mercury metal standards. For many coal plants, the 2024 standards simply require tuning up existing pollution controls already in place, and most covered facilities had met or were on track to meet the tighter limits. By scrapping those stronger safeguards and reverting to outdated standards, EPA is giving a lifeline to some of the dirtiest power plants in the country at the expense of public health. **The following are reactions from our clients and the coalition** “This announcement really hits home for us here in the Houston area where one of the nation’s largest and dirtiest coal fired power plants remains fully operational,” says **Jennifer Hadayia, executive director at Air Alliance Houston**. “The danger of coal plants like W.A.Parish (owned by NRG) are not theoretical; they have real quantifiable harms on people’s quality of life and health. Repealing the rules that curtail coal plant pollution means that mercury, soot, arsenic, and other harmful substances will continue to be in our air at unhealthy levels. And for what reason? Most of the remaining coal plants in the U.S. were already on track to meet the stronger standards. This repeal is a dog whistle to a dying industry and won’t make anyone healthier. Those of us working to truly protect public health from the harms of air pollution will continue to push for stronger protections from coal pollution.” “This rollback is one more example of the Trump administration putting fossil fuel interests ahead of the American people,” **said Anne Havemann, deputy director at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network**. “The 2024 MATS rule created meaningful gains in public health at minimal cost. That’s environmental protection at its best.” “For decades, Montanans have breathed toxic pollution from the dirtiest power plant in the nation,” said **Anne Hedges, executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center.** “The outdated, unreliable Colstrip plant has the highest rate of toxic air pollution of any similar coal plant in the nation. It is the only one of its kind that hasn’t installed modern pollution controls. People living downwind shouldn’t have to pay the price of this administration’s reckless disregard for human life through high medical bills and lower quality of life to treat health problems that are completely preventable. It’s heartless.” “Repealing the 2024 MATS rule is the latest example of the Trump administration serving the fossil fuel industry instead of protecting public health. The excessive emissions of arsenic, mercury, and other toxic heavy metals cause the most harm to the people most in need of protection, including children, who are being exposed to these toxins during critical developmental windows,” said **Lawrence Hafetz, legal director of Clean Air Council** , headquartered in Pennsylvania, a state containing nine coal plants that would have been subject to improved standards. “The Trump EPA’s decision to repeal the mercury standards is a direct attack on the health of Americans,” said **Laurie Williams, Beyond Coal Campaign director of Sierra Club**. “For years, these lifesaving safeguards have slashed the amount of toxic pollution coal plants dump in our air and water, keeping millions of Americans safe from heart attacks, asthma and premature deaths. Now, the president that promised to make Americans healthy again is deliberately weakening those protections and families will suffer preventable illness simply because he wants to give the coal industry another handout at the expense of our health. Americans deserve public health standards that are designed to protect people, not pad the profits of a dying industry that can’t compete with less expensive coal plants that rampantly pollute our air. But Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin have made their choice: help their buddies in the coal industry cut corners rather than prioritize the health and safety of our communities. The Sierra Club will fight this decision with everything we have to defend our communities from this dangerous and deadly rollback.” “The coal industry is in decline, and dismantling clean air protections won’t bring it back,” says **John Walke, senior attorney for NRDC**. “It will only lead to more asthma attacks, more heart problems, and more premature deaths, especially in communities living in the shadow of coal plants. We have a right to breathe clean air, and we will fight for that right even if Trump’s EPA refuses to.” “For over a decade, the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards have protected Americans from mercury and other dangerous pollutants emitted by coal plants, but now Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are recklessly attacking these protections so their coal buddies can make a few more bucks,” said **Sierra Club Climate Policy Director Patrick Drupp**. “This is the complete opposite of making Americans healthy. By rolling back this commonsense, lifesaving protection, the Trump administration is making Americans sicker and unnecessarily exposing families and children to more dirty pollution that causes heart disease, cancer, and developmental disabilities. This is despicable and reckless, and we will continue to defend our communities from these health hazards caused by coal plants.” “With so many of the nation’s coal plants concentrated in the Midwest, this decision sends an unmistakable signal that our communities are expendable,” **said Brian Lynk, Environmental Law & Policy Center senior attorney**. “Rolling back protections from toxic mercury pollution sacrifices public health to prop up a declining industry, even though it won’t change the fundamental economics driving coal’s decline. This administration is sticking its head in the sand while the rest of the world moves forward toward more affordable and less toxic energy sources.” “This repeal is an unprecedented, unlawful, and unjustified reversal that flies in the face of congressionally mandated efforts to reduce hazardous air pollution from industrial facilities,” **said Hayden Hashimoto, attorney at Clean Air Task Force.** “EPA’s repeal puts polluters’ interests over public health by loosening the limits on emissions of air toxics from power plants, which the agency has previously recognized as the largest domestic emitter of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants. Allowing more emissions of air toxics puts Americans at greater risk for the benefit of a small number of particularly dirty coal plants.” “Repealing these protections will allow coal plants to pour more mercury and toxic pollution into our air, which will then get into our water, food, and ultimately our children’s bodies. It’s a needless cruelty when modern pollution controls can provide greater safety,” **said Surbhi Sarang, senior attorney at Environmental Defense Fund**. “The Trump administration is willfully ignoring evidence that coal plants can reduce their pollution in readily available ways for reasonable cost – and American families will be the ones paying the price.”

20.02.2026 17:54 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Donald Trump to Pollute Tennessee Air with More Mercury, Arsenic, Lead Today, Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency dismantled a bedrock environmental and public health standard that protects Americans from mercury and other dangerous toxic air pollutants, such as arsenic, lead, and chromium. Rolling back the new and more protective Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will allow coal- and oil-fired power plants to emit more damaging pollution that puts the public at greater risk of heart and lung disease, cancer, and even premature death, as well as causing severe neurological damage to fetuses and children. According to the Sierra Club’s Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard, reversing the 2024 improvements and reverting to the 2012 standards will allow the dirtiest coal-fired power plants to emit 50 percent more mercury pollution. In May 2025, the Trump administration exempted 68 power plants—including some of the biggest polluters in the nation—from MATS after soliciting exemption requests from big polluters over email. The Sierra Club sued the administration for these unlawful exemptions. **In response, Sierra Club Campaign Organizing Strategist Bonnie Swinford issued the following statement:** “These protections from mercury and other toxic pollution existed to protect communities from reckless polluters. By repealing these protections, the Trump Administration is giving handouts to the coal industry elites– and waging war on the public’s ability to hold polluters accountable. We deserve protection from dirty and expensive plants like Kingston and Cumberland coal plants. We cannot allow the Trump Administration and utilities like TVA to run these coal plants with no input from everyday people. We must fight to keep the public in public power.” **In response, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director Laurie Williams issued the following statement:** “Donald Trump’s senseless decision to repeal the mercury standards is a direct attack on the health of Americans. For years, these lifesaving protections have slashed the amount of toxic pollution coal plants dump in our air and water, keeping millions of Americans safe from heart attacks, asthma and premature deaths, and protecting our babies from permanent neurological damage. Now, the president that promised to make Americans healthy again is deliberately weakening those safeguards, and families will suffer preventable illnesses simply because he wants to give the coal industry another handout. “Americans deserve public health standards that are designed to protect people, not pad the profits of a polluting industry that can’t compete with cheaper, reliable, renewable energy. But Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin have made their choice: help their buddies in the coal industry cut corners rather than prioritize the health and safety of our communities. The Sierra Club will fight this decision with everything we have to defend our communities from this dangerous and deadly rollback.”

20.02.2026 17:51 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Supreme Court Ruling Curbs Trump’s Authority, But Tariff Chaos and Higher Prices Remain The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision today striking down Donald Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act will do little to deliver meaningful relief to American consumers or businesses still paying the price for his chaotic trade agenda. Prices driven up by Trump’s tariffs will remain high, and the Court’s decision falls far short of restoring certainty to an economy warped by months of trade policy whiplash. Tariffs affected by this decision amount to over _$175 billion_ so far, with higher costs passed directly onto consumers while businesses pulled back on hiring and investment. Those costs are now baked into supply chains and balance sheets, and prices that have climbed since Trump took office are unlikely to come back down. The Trump administration has already signaled it will cobble together a patchwork of alternative legal authorities to preserve its trade regime, guaranteeing continued instability for businesses trying to plan, hire, and invest. **Groundwork Collaborative Chief of Policy and AdvocacyAlex Jacquez reacted with the following statement:** > “Any consumer looking for relief from tariff-driven price hikes did not find it at the Supreme Court today. The economic damage Trump has already done to business investment, manufacturing, and working families’ budgets will linger for years to come. Refunds for impacted businesses will take months or even years to process, and there is little reason to believe companies will pass those savings on to consumers. Trump must set aside his erratic tariff policy and instead pursue a trade agenda that protects workers, supports manufacturers, and doesn’t punish consumers.” **Email _press@groundworkcollaborative.org_ to speak to a Groundwork expert about the economic costs of Trump’s trade agenda.**

20.02.2026 15:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Center for Food Safety Responds to Trump Administration’s Executive Order on Glyphosate Today, Center for Food Safety (CFS) issued the following statement from **George Kimbrell, Legal Director at Center for Food Safety** , in response to the Trump administration’s February 18, 2026 Executive Order concerning glyphosate: > “This Trump Executive Order follows a long pattern from the administration: sound and fury, ultimately signifying nothing. Executive orders do not have the force and effect of law without new authority from Congress and here cannot magically give Monsanto immunity for the harms of its toxic glyphosate products. In addition to being legally meritless, the EO is factually unmoored from reality. The Trump Administration has demonstrated no threat to the continued availability of glyphosate, and in any case there are literally hundreds of other herbicides available to farmers and others. This EO is a transparent attempt to influence the Supreme Court to grant glyphosate-maker Monsanto/Bayer and other pesticide behemoths immunity from liability for the harms caused by their products. It also represents the Trump administration betraying MAHA yet again and a feeble attempt to divert attention from the disastrous effects of Trump tariffs on the farming community.” **Background** For over twenty five years, Center for Food Safety has worked to improve pesticide regulation and build a better, more regenerative future of food. Among other landmark cases on behalf of the public interest, a CFS lawsuit resulting to a federal court in 2022 holding that EPA’s cancer safety findings for glyphosate were contrary to both the law and scientific standards, and striking them down

19.02.2026 20:20 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Despite Relentless Attacks, Nearly Half a Million Workers Unionized in 2025 New data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows union representation grew by 463,000 in 2025, bringing the total number of workers represented by union contracts to 16.5 million. Thanks to years of sustained organizing, 11.2% of all wage and salary workers in the United States are now covered under union contracts, up from 2024 and the highest in 16 years. “Billionaire bosses and union-busting politicians have tried to throw the kitchen sink at working people and their unions—slashing our jobs and rigging the rules to scare us out of organizing— but they are failing,” **said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler**. “Working people are experiencing relentless attacks on our freedoms and our livelihoods. These numbers confirm what we’ve seen in the labor movement: Workers have felt President Trump’s billionaire-first agenda in action and are hungry to take back their power. Workers know that the best check on a bad boss is a strong union contract. In 2026, workers will continue to organize in every corner of the country and build power to fight for the lives they deserve.” “Labor is one of the last institutions in this country that working people actually trust,” added Shuler. “Nearly 70% of Americans support unions and more than 50 million more workers are eager to join one—but broken labor law still has the deck stacked against them. Too many face vicious union-busting and retaliation for organizing and punishing lay-offs even as corporate bosses rake in profits. When Trump shut down the National Labor Relations Board from functioning by denying it a quorum, workers were forced to wait—beyond their own bosses’ delaying tactics—for their elections to be certified and legal justice to be served.” The new report shows undeniable energy across the country: * Years of organizing in new industries, workplaces and in “right to work” states in the South have pushed nationwide union density to 10%. * Nearly half of all union growth came from Southern states, with younger workers organizing at a rapid pace. * The number of public sector workers represented by a union grew by 236,000, up to 36.4% of that workforce. * Despite the biggest act of union-busting in history, union density among federal workers grew to over 31%—the largest single-year increase since 2011—as workers responded to DOGE-driven attacks aimed at stripping away collective bargaining rights and driving experts out of their jobs. * Private sector union representation grew to add 227,000 workers, with significant gains in health care, retail, education services and construction. * Workers are looking to the labor movement for solutions as artificial intelligence (AI) threatens their jobs and basic rights. Already, the White House is barreling ahead with its billionaire-first “AI Action Plan” and empowering CEOs to use AI as an excuse to slash payrolls, with 7% of planned job cuts attributed to the new technology. “Politicians face a clear mandate to stand up to union-busting bosses, whether they are in the corner office or the oval office,” Shuler said. “We call on Congress to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, and to reverse the single largest act of union-busting in American history by passing the Protect America's Workforce Act in the Senate.”

18.02.2026 19:14 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

NIAC: With “90% Chance” of War on Iran, Congress Must Act Now to Prevent Illegal U.S. Military Adventure In response to a Trump administration official telling reporters there is now a 90% chance of U.S. military action against Iran in the coming weeks, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) released the following statement: “This assessment should trigger immediate action from Congress, the branch of government legally and constitutionally charged with deciding when the U.S. goes to war. “The United States is positioned on the edge of a major war in the Middle East, one that would not be limited, short-lived, or contained. With extensive military deployments underway and public signals that diplomacy may soon be abandoned, the risk of a large-scale, prolonged and senseless conflict is immediate and real. A war on Iran would not help Iranians demanding change in the face of government repression but instead kill innocent people, create instability inside Iran, and ignite a region-wide conflict. “NIAC, the largest grassroots Iranian-American organization in the United States, representing more than 70,000 members nationwide, has spent nearly 25 years advancing peace and working to prevent a catastrophic war with Iran. Earlier this month, NIAC Action and 25 other national organizations formally called on Congress to exercise its constitutional authority and take immediate action to remove U.S. forces from hostilities and prevent an unauthorized and devastating conflict. This could be the last chance for Congress to finally assert its Constitutional authority and debate whether our nation enters a major war with generational consequences. “The power to declare war belongs to Congress, not the president. Yet the country is once again being steered toward war without a vote, without meaningful public debate, and without clear authorization from the representatives of the American people. “A war with Iran would carry enormous regional consequences, endanger American service members and Iranian civilians alike, destabilize global markets, and risk spiraling escalation across the region and diminished civil liberties at home. The American public has consistently opposed such a war. Lawmakers must reflect that reality. “There is a concrete path to prevent this outcome. The Iran War Powers Resolution (WPR), introduced in the Senate by Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) and in the House by Representatives Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), would require the President to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran absent Congressional authorization and make clear that any war must be debated and approved by Congress. If the reported 90% likelihood of military action is even close to accurate, Congress has no time to waste.”

18.02.2026 18:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Lawsuit Challenges Trump’s Climate Science, Tailpipe Rule Rollbacks The Center for Biological Diversity and a broad coalition of health and environmental groups sued the Trump administration today over its rollback of the landmark scientific finding that forms the core basis of federal climate action. The lawsuit also challenges the Environmental Protection Agency’s rollback of tailpipe rules that cut pollution from cars and trucks — the nation’s largest source of climate pollution. “We’re suing to stop Trump from torching our kids’ future in favor of a monster handout to oil companies,” said David Pettit, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “Nobody but Big Oil profits from Trump trashing climate science and making cars and trucks guzzle and pollute more. Consumers will pay more to fill up, and our skies and oceans will fill up with more pollution. The EPA’s rollbacks are based on political poppycock, not science or law, and the courts should see it that way.” The 2009 endangerment finding concluded that planet-warming pollution like carbon dioxide and methane threatens public health and the welfare of current and future generations. It was based on overwhelming scientific evidence that has only become more robust and irrefutable since then. The United States is the second-largest carbon polluter in the world, after China, and the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases. The endangerment finding underpins federal regulations that have reduced climate-damaging pollution from cars and trucks. Revoking those lifesaving and gas-saving clean air standards will allow automakers to make cars that guzzle more gas and pollute more. It will force consumers to pay more at the gas pump. The vehicle rules Trump plans to scrap would cut 7 billion metric tons of emissions and save the average American driver $6,000 in fuel and maintenance costs over the lifetimes of the vehicles made under the standards. Today’s lawsuit was filed in federal court in the D.C. Circuit. The case was brought by: * The American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment, Clean Wisconsin, represented by Clean Air Task Force * Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ), Clean Air Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC), and the Union of Concerned Scientists, represented by Earthjustice * Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Law & Policy Center, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), Public Citizen, Sierra Club

18.02.2026 13:32 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

UCS Joins Lawsuit Challenging Trump Administration’s Unlawful Endangerment Finding Repeal Today, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) joined a group of environmental, public health and science nonprofits in filing suit against the Trump administration for unlawfully repealing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) endangerment finding and rolling back emissions standards for vehicles despite the transportation sector being the largest source of U.S. climate pollution. The 2007 Supreme Court ruling _Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency_ —a court case where UCS was a petitioner—established that heat-trapping emissions are covered by the Clean Air Act. EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding then confirmed that global warming emissions are a threat to public health and the environment, with subsequent court rulings repeatedly reaffirming EPA’s obligation to the public to regulate these harmful emissions. **Below is a statement byDr. Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO of UCS.** “EPA’s repeal of the endangerment finding and safeguards to limit vehicle emissions marks a complete dereliction of the agency’s mission to protect people’s health and its legal obligation under the Clean Air Act. This shameful and dangerous action by the Trump administration and EPA Administrator Zeldin is rooted in falsehoods not facts and is entirely at odds with the public interest and the best available science. Heat-trapping emissions and global average temperatures are rising—primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels—contributing to a mounting human and economic toll across the nation. This anti-science administration must be held to account for evading its responsibility to help address this acute crisis and we’re going to help make sure that happens.” UCS is being represented by Earthjustice in this latest lawsuit. The joint press release from groups filing the lawsuit is available here. Please contact UCS Media Director Ashley Siefert Nunes to speak with a UCS expert. UCS filed comments on behalf of its half a million supporters and its network of more than 22,000 scientists to voice strong opposition to EPA’s proposed repeal of the endangerment finding and vehicle standards. It also submitted a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin that was signed by more than 1,000 scientists opposing repeal of the endangerment finding and urging the agency to stop dismantling critical climate regulations and fulfill the mission of the agency to protect public health. UCS has also filed and recently won a suit against the Trump administration related to its violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. A federal judge recently declared the Trump administration violated federal law when it secretly formed a “Climate Working Group” and tasked it with writing a dangerously slanted report that the administration then used as a basis for its proposal to overturn the endangerment finding. As part of that lawsuit—brought by UCS and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)—the administration was compelled to turn over more than 100,000 documents, which UCS and EDF plan to make available to the public in early March.

18.02.2026 13:31 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

350.org urges countries to support Vanuatu's proposed UN resolution Vanuatu has tabled a draft _resolution_ to the UN to formally endorse last year’s International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate change. Despite pressure from big polluters to stall the momentum from international law to action, island nations like Vanuatu continue to push for accountability. The current draft resolution responds to the unanimous ICJ advisory opinion on climate change, which among others confirmed that: * The 1.5°C limit is legally binding, not aspirational, and must guide all state conduct. * States have binding obligations under customary international law to prevent foreseeable climate harm and resulting rights violations—obligations that apply to all countries, including those that have withdrawn from the Paris Agreement. * Fossil fuel subsidies, exploration licenses, and continued production can breach international law. * Climate harm can be attributed to individual states, and states cannot escape liability by asserting that they are only one of many releasing greenhouse gases. * States must regulate private actors, including fossil fuel corporations whose emissions cause harm, including transboundary devastation. **Fenton Lutunatabua,_350.org_ Program Lead Pacific & Caribbean said:** _“Six months ago, this advisory opinion was unanimous, meaning all agreed that countries have the legal responsibility to avoid climate harm and are liable for the damages if they fail to do so. This decision put the fossil fuel industry, and the governments that enable them, on notice. It is crucial, for all of us on the frontlines, that this notice be turned into concrete action. The world may think that the climate crisis is confined to islands like ours in the Pacific, but the reality is that it is impacting everyone – from heatwaves in Australia to wildfires in the US. As people that have lived this reality for decades, we are urging the international community to grasp this opportunity to avoid the worst of it. Global cooperation to solve this crisis is in everyone’s best interest.”_ **Anne Jellema, Executive Director of 350.org, said:** _“Vanuatu’s leadership is a powerful reminder that climate justice is not abstract, it is rooted in law, responsibility, and lived reality. The International Court of Justice has made clear that protecting people and the planet is a legal obligation, not a choice. This UN resolution is about turning that clarity into action._ _At a time when some governments are trying to delay and deny, island nations are showing what true leadership looks like: standing up for fairness, accountability, and a livable future for all. Communities on the frontlines should not have to pay the price for pollution they did not cause. The world now has both the moral and legal mandate to act, governments must rise to that moment.”_

18.02.2026 12:25 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Fuck This Guy: The Hunted Becomes the Beached 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

17.02.2026 16:54 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

CTU on the Death of Ofelia Torres A statement from the Chicago Teachers Union on the passing of Ofelia Torres, a 16-year-old junior at Lake View High School: > After months of fighting both cancer and the cruelty of Trump’s unconscionable and inhumane immigration policies, one of our own precious young scholars, Ofelia Torres, has lost her battle with cancer. She passed away just days after her heroic fight for her father’s freedom resulted in an immigration judge offering a potential pathway to citizenship for her father—who was taken by ICE while trying to care for his family. Ofelia’s fight illuminated the fear that has gripped immigrant communities amid the racial profiling, detention of family members and use of deadly force by federal agents, while also struggling with the skyrocketing cost of health care. Her courage and her story will live on at Lake View High School and in the hearts of educators across this city. > > For far too long, Trump and his far-right allies have worked to convince the public that immigrant families are somehow the problem. The truth is the opposite: their labor, their love, and their commitment to family and community are part of the backbone of this nation. From the so-called ‘Midway Blitz’ here in Chicago to continued assaults on communities of color in Minnesota and beyond, these actions echo some of the darkest chapters in our history—periods marked by state-sanctioned violence and terror like Chicago’s 1917 Red Summer, the anti-immigrant strikebreaking in Washington state by federal troops in 1919 or the assault on Black folks trying to register to vote throughout the 20th century. > > Like the countless stories of family separation during xenophobic and anti-Black periods throughout our nation’s history, Ofelia and her family’s experience is not isolated. It reflects a broader pattern of fear, instability, and inhumanity imposed on people who are our neighbors, our friends, and integral members of our school communities. We grieve this loss deeply, and we recommit ourselves to building a world worthy of the young people we are entrusted to serve. > > A student dying of cancer should never have to experience the anxiety and stress that Ofelia endured to ensure her father was treated with humanity and compassion. Rest in Power Ofelia. >

16.02.2026 19:19 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Trump Appoints Gambling CEOs to CTFC After Ousting Enforcement Lawyers On Tuesday, The Daily Wire reported that President Donald Trump has established an advisory commission at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission filled with gambling, prediction market and crypto CEOs. Also, as of this week, the CFTC’s flagship enforcement office in Chicago now has no enforcement attorneys, with one of the ousted attorneys warning that “if I was a different person, I would launch a crypto scam right now, because there’s no cops on the beat.” The following is a statement from **Demand Progress Education Fund Policy Director Emily Peterson-Cassin** : “The Trump administration hollowed out the CFTC’s flagship law enforcement office and then let in the CEOs of companies that openly encourage insider trading, scams and gambling. The corruption couldn’t be more obvious. It’s hard to see the CTFC succeeding at its mission to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis when it is influenced from the inside by a rogues’ gallery of billionaire CEOs responsible for monetizing and gamifying virtually every aspect of everyday life. As we saw with the FTC and now CFTC, President Trump has given up on caring about protecting working class Americans and has given the keys to our economy to billionaire scammers.”

13.02.2026 16:16 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

UK: High Court rules ban on Palestine Action under terrorism legislation unlawful In response to today's High Court judgment that the proscription of Palestine Action under terrorism legislation is unlawful, Tom Southerden, Amnesty International UK’s Law and Human Rights Director, said: “Today’s ruling is a vital affirmation of the right to protest at a time when it has been under sustained and deliberate attack. The High Court’s decision sends a clear message: the Government cannot simply reach for sweeping counter‑terrorism powers to silence critics or suppress dissent. We welcome this judgment as an essential check on overreach and a powerful reminder that fundamental freedoms still carry weight in UK law. “We are relieved - and encouraged - that the Court has recognised the dangers of treating direct action as terrorism. This decision halts a pattern of escalating restrictions, aggressive policing tactics, and an ever-expanding definition of what constitutes ‘terrorism’. It draws an important line in the sand against attempts to narrow the democratic space and undermine public confidence in the right to speak out. “The implications are profound. Thousands of peaceful protesters - including those involved in the Defend Our Juries campaign - have been arrested for something that should never have been a crime. This ruling offers hope not only for them, but for anyone who believes that challenging those in power is a legitimate and necessary part of public life. “A healthy democracy depends on people being able to organise, protest, and demand accountability without fear of being branded a threat. Today’s outcome strengthens that principle and underscores the importance of safeguarding our rights against disproportionate, politically motivated interference. “Amnesty will continue to expose attempts to erode these freedoms, stand with those targeted for peaceful activism, and defend the right to protest wherever it is threatened. This decision marks an important step forward - and we will keep working to ensure the Government respects both the spirit and the letter of today’s ruling.”

13.02.2026 13:47 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

On Fascists, Mean Girls and Screechy Pedophile Allies In what one sage deemed "amateur-hour, clown-fucker, reality-show dictatorship shit," this week's House hearings on ICE abuses, Epstein cover-ups and other GOP atrocities showcased a parade of rancid, lying, stonewalling MAGA lickspittles and deplorables - loudest among them sneering "bad acid trip come to life" Pam Bondi - facing off against a for-once united cohort of smart, angry, truth-telling Democrats with righteous history on their side and, finally, no fucks left to give. We are here for it. Deep in his delusional bubble, the mad child-king ostensibly in charge of these evil cretins told _Fox News_ Wednesday that Americans are living in "the greatest period of anything we’ve ever seen." Maybe he meant how he's been bravely standing up for a bridge he thinks Canada ripped us off for while forgetting he praised it when it was built, and _paid for_ , by Canada. Or maybe it's 'cause in exchange for idiotically spending our money trying to prop up dirty, pricey, inefficient coal - "the 19th century called and it wants its fuel source back" - and glitching out en route, the "simplest mark of all time" got another shiny participation trophy as the ****“Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal." "Lookit his happy face!" the Internet chortled. "The big special boy is so big and so special!" Also, "Marvel is running out of Superheroes" and "This is the saddest thing I've ever seen." Possibly sadder is MAGA Reps. Andy Ogles and Mark Alford still __melting down about Bad Bunny's "pure smut" half-time show wherein "children were forced to endure explicit displays of gay sexual acts" that are "illegal to be displayed on public airways" which is why he wants a Congressional inquiry into said "unspeakable depravities," though they might be confusing them with Epstein's, which they've notably ignored. Also sad is _another_ bigly fail by US Attorney Jeanine Boxwine to get a grand jury indictment for fake crimes, in this case against Dem Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and four Reps, all veterans, for their video ___reading the law_ _out loud_ to remind military they have the right not to obey illegal orders. The kicker: Her attempt was so ludicrous that reportedly _zero grand jurors_ thought she hit the famously low ham-sandwich bar for probable cause. In this week's House hearings, it was clear Dem lawmakers, like the rest of us, had reached the famed point in 1954's McCarthy hearings when an appalled Joseph Welch, at the limit of his tolerance for McCarthy's lies and cruelty, exclaimed, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" That fierce moral outrage, and the strength and clarity needed to vent it, has been evident in besieged Minnesota for weeks: In grand jurors' staunch refusal to indict so-called "rioters,” in protesters' profane, hilarious anthem pillorying ICE Barbie, in neighbors seething at the masked, armed rabble that just caused a multi-vehicle crash in St.Paul, the latest in a long line of ICE crimes and transgressions. "Oh my God, you guys are so....evil. I can _feel_ it, " railed one resident. "Jesus. Fucking incels, racists, murderers, thugs. What are you _doing_?!" So it was that, in Tuesday's House Homeland Security Committee hearing, when acting ICE director Todd Lyons whined in his opening statement that "to say the men and women of ICE are Gestapo (is) wrong" and hurts their alleged feelings, Rep. Dan Goldman wasn't having it. "People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are un-American and outright fascist," he said. Goldman cited their racial profiling, asking people for their papers, use of excessive force and other forms of intimidation, likening them to Nazi/ Soviet regimes and shutting down Lyons' protestations as "unnecessary speaking." "I have a simple suggestion," Goldman said calmly. "If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or a secret police, then stop acting like one." Tell it to power-mad, I-want-my-blankey ICE Barbie, reportedly fascisting it up big time over her goons. Jesus. Other Dems likewise minced no words. Rep. LaMonica McIver: "Mr. Lyons, do you consider yourself a religious man?" "Yes, Ma'am." "Well, how do you think Judgment Day will work for you with so much blood on your hands?" "I'm not gonna entertain that question." "Oh, ok, of course not. Do you think you’re going to hell, Mr. Lyons?" "I’m not gonna entertain that question." When the Chair sternly chides her about "standards of decorum," she blithely notes, "Well, you guys are always talking about religion, so it's OK for me to just ask a question, right? Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate you." (One comment: "We need more Black women in Congress.") She goes on, "How many government agencies, Mr. Lyons, are you aware of that routinely kill American citizens and still get funding?” "Ma'am, I'm not gonna entertain that." "Of _course_ you're not. This is exactly why we should not be funding this agency...The people are watching you." And so it went. Eric Swalwell quoted Lyons' earlier testimony he "wanted to see a deportation process like Amazon Prime, but with human beings" before asking, "How many times has Amazon Prime shot a mom 3 times in the face?" "None," said Lyons, before lamely noting he meant it "needs to be more efficient" and he'd added, "we deal with humans so we can't be like them." Swalwell, coolly, "Speaking of humans, how many times has Amazon Prime shot a nurse 10 times in the back?” Online, commenters pointed out, "Obviously, Amazon Prime doesn't shoot you in the face. You have to pay for Amazon Prime Plus to get that level of service," though, "you'll still get ads unless you step up to Premium, and you'll have to pay for the ammo up front." From another, "Is this the first time Amazon has been used as the good guy in a comparison? Fuck him up." Rep.Delia Ramirez ripped Lyons: "My mother, a Guatemalan immigrant _and_(finger in air) an American taught me I have a responsibility to look evil in the eye and you have used your power to perpetrate great evil, and it's time you answer to this committee for the lawlessness you have empowered." She named Good, Pretti, Marimar Martinez - "Do something bitch" - and myriad other crimes: 100 court orders violated, dozens of tear-gas attacks despite a court order, banned chokeholds, warrantless arrests, 3,800 children in detention, roving patrols, plate switching, observer intimidation. On ICE demands to "respect the mission": "I have as much respect for you as I do for the last white men who put on masks to terrorize communities of color... the inheritors of the Klanhood and the slave patrol. Their activities were immoral and criminal, and so are yours." Wednesday, A.G. Pam Bondi appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in a rabid attempt to make them forget her months of covering up the Epstein files, missing deadlines, redacting perps, releasing survivors' names and otherwise ignoring them by "shouting, lying and being a cold bitch." Over five hours, in "an astonishingly contemptuous performance," she failed to answer _a single question._ Acting out "a sociopathic tween," she shrieked, veered, lied, argued, sniped, stonewalled, deflected, rolled her eyes and mean-girled through a book of scripted smears at Dems daring to seek accountability: "Insolent, Shouty Brat Brings Burn Book To Congress." She was "a nasty piece of work," a "demented skank," a "Nazi redneck bleach blond Barbie," a "historic villain" who once vowed to "put human trafficking monsters...behind bars" and will now be shunned "in every room she ever walks into for the rest of her life," to die "as a disbarred lawyer and a national disgrace...Her cheese has slid off her cracker." She was snippy queen of the non-sequiturs. When Jerry Nadler asked how many Epstein co-conspirators she'd indicted - zero, obviously - she raved, "You all should be apologizing. You sit here and you attack the President, and I am not going to have it." Then she veered, wildly, yelling, "The Dow right now is over _50,000,_ the S&P at almost _7,000,_ the NASDAQ is smashing records, Americans’ 401(k)s and retirement savings are booming. _That’s_ what we should be talking about.” When Zoe Lofgren asked her about redacting perps' names, she sneered, "I find it interesting she keeps going after President Trump, the greatest president in American history. She didn't say how much money she took from Reid Hoffman, did she?" Asked about Ludnick's ties to Epstein, she bickered, "what is ties?", scowled "shame on you," scoffed, "I'm stunned you want to keep talking." Jamie Raskin, the Committee's Ranking Member, repeatedly called bullshit: "You can filibuster all you want, but not on our time. The way it works is, we ask you a question, you answer it. I warned you at the outset of this hearing." Bondi exploded. "You don't TELL ME anything,” she shrieked. “You’re a washed-up, loser lawyer." Then, mad-Lady-Macbeth-like, she muttered, "You’re not even a lawyer." (Raskin, a graduate of Harvard Law School and former editor of Harvard Law Review, is a longtime professor of Constitutional law at American University, and has written several books.) Unflappable, Raskin coolly accused her of running an Epstein cover-up of "staggering incompetence." "You've turned the people's Department of Justice into Trump’s instrument of revenge,” he charged. “Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza, and you deliver every time." Bondi blocked questions from Becca Balint with smears against Merrick Garland - Balint: "Weak sauce" - then with charges of anti-Semitism. Balint, whose grandparents were killed in the Holocaust: "You want to go there?! Really?!" Ted Lieu asked if Trump attended parties with underage girls; Bondi rolled her eyes. "This is so ridiculous," she said. "They are trying to deflect from all the great things Donald Trump has done. There is no evidence he has committed a crime. Everyone knows that." Lieu: "I believe you just lied under oath, which is a crime." Bondi, screaming, "Don't you _ever_ accuse me of committing a crime!" Jared Moskowitz noted Trump's name appears over a million times in the Epstein files, "more than God's name in the book about God." Grinning, he mused about her Burn Book zingers: "I'm curious. Just flip to Moskowitz. Because we’re in the Olympics, I’m going to give it a grade. Give me your best one. Whaddya got?" With almost a dozen Epstein survivors sitting behind Bondi in the hearing room, Pramila Jayapal asked them to stand and raise their hands if they'd tried and failed to meet with DOJ officials. They all did. She asked Bondi to turn around and apologize; Bondi stood her ground: "I'm not going to get in the gutter with this woman and her theatrics." Noting an earlier claim that any victim who wants to talk to the DOJ has done so, Dan Goldman took up her quest. He asked how many had met with the DOJ: None. How many had reached out asking to: All. Of those who reached out, how many were ignored: All. And despite "their shameful, despicable efforts to intimidate," how many are still willing to talk to them? All. Bondi, still sitting, still hating, still steadfastly unperturbed, breezily flips her fake blond hair back, gazing into space. Jasmine Crockett declined to "ask any questions of this witness because (she) has no intention of answering them." She turned to Ballint. "Right or wrong? Raping children." Ballint: "Wrong." "Killing random citizens." "Wrong." Etc. Crockett: "OK, thank you. I never woulda got that from our witness, who is somehow a lawyer but doesn't understand how it works with witnesses. I'm not sure what law school you went to (Stetson)... but you don’t seem very good at your job...Americans are looking for answers (not) protecting pedophiles and creeps. You will be remembered as one of the worst Attorney Generals in history." Bondi cuts in to rave about immigrants convicted of crimes in Texas. Crocket cuts her off: "CONVICTED! So what we talkin’ about? Convict some of these perpetrators who raped these women sitting behind you that you won’t even acknowledge are here!” She stalks out. Bondi is still babbling about Hakeem Jeffries and some money. Observers were aghast at the wretched Bondi spectacle. Online, one older woman conceded "I'm sure this will get taken down" but spoke her mind for all of us: "Bondi is an absolute cunt, and needs to rot in prison for the rest of her life. What an evil evil woman. My God." Trump loved it: Bondi was "fantastic." John Pavlovitz, pastor and father, looked on at her "masterclass in gaslighting," and wondered, "How does someone become Pam Bondi?" He muses about "the meandering road to losing one's soul...so completely bereft of empathy, so seemingly unencumbered by other people’s suffering, and so strident in the face of simple accountability." As someone's daughter, he writes, "I'm sure there’s a story you have to tell yourself to keep the self-loathing at bay and let you sleep at night...I hope whatever you got for your soul was worth it to you. It sure as hell isn’t for the rest of us." > See on Instagram "

13.02.2026 09:07 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Lawsuit Seeks to Protect Monarchs Under Endangered Species Act Two conservation groups, the Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety, today sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to force officials to set a binding date to finalize federal protections for monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act. The monarch was proposed for protection in December 2024, making the final listing due in December 2025. The groups argue the delay increases extinction risk for the nationally beloved pollinator. “Comprehensive protections are urgently needed to ensure a future for these migratory wonders,” said Tierra Curry, endangered species co-director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Monarchs unite us and it’s disgraceful that their future is being sacrificed to political nonsense.” Instead of issuing the final listing at the end of 2025, Trump officials delayed the decision as a “long-term action,” with no definitive date for issuance provided. The federal assessment of the monarch’s status found that in the next 60 years western migratory monarchs have up to a 99% chance of going extinct and eastern monarchs have up to a 74% chance. “The Service must finalize monarchs’ protections from their threats, including and especially pesticides, which have been a major driver of their rapid decline,” said George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety and counsel in the case. “The Service’s duty is to protect monarchs not corporations.” Migratory monarchs have declined by more than 80% since the 1990s. Last year’s eastern population, who overwinter in the mountains of Mexico, was just one-third of the size needed to be out of the danger zone of collapse. Updated population data will publish this spring, but the population is expected to be about the same level. The western population, who overwinter in forests on the California coast, is down more than 95% since the 1980s and numbered only 12,260 monarchs this year. That’s the third-lowest tally ever counted. In 2014 the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and renowned monarch scientist Lincoln Brower filed a scientific and legal petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking protection for the butterflies and their habitat under the Endangered Species Act. The butterflies were placed on a candidate waiting list for protection in 2020. The centers filed a lawsuit to elevate them from bureaucratic limbo resulting in the proposed listing in 2024. Today’s lawsuit was filed in San Francisco in the U.S. District Court for the North District of California. **Background** In one of the longest migrations of any insect, at the end of summer eastern monarchs fly from the northern United States and southern Canada to overwinter together in high-elevation fir forests in Mexico. The population size is determined by measuring the area of trees turned vivid orange by the clusters of butterflies. Scientists estimate that 15 acres of occupied forest is the minimum threshold for the migrating pollinators to be above extinction risk in North America. Monarchs face tremendous threats. Their initial decline was driven by widespread loss of milkweed, the caterpillar’s sole food source, due to increased use of the herbicide glyphosate on fields of corn and soybeans genetically engineered to resist it. Volatile herbicides sprayed on newer herbicide-resistant crops drift and reduce floral resources required by adult butterflies. All stages of monarchs are harmed by neonic insecticides used in crop seed coatings and on ornamental plants. Climate change is damaging the forests where monarchs winter and extreme weather events are interfering with reproduction and migration. Grasslands and other green spaces that provide wildflowers for nectaring adults continue to be lost to development. Millions of monarchs are killed by vehicles annually as they migrate across the continent. In their winter habitat in Mexico, forests and streams are being decimated to grow avocados for unsustainable U.S. demand. In California, more than 60 known overwintering forest sites have been cut down. Listing has been indefinitely delayed for hundreds of imperiled species in addition to the monarch as their protections have been deemed “long-term actions.” The Fish and Wildlife Service lost 18% of its staff last year, including more than 500 scientists, and the Endangered Species Act listing budget was slashed to 2004 levels. In 2025 not a single plant or animal was protected under the Endangered Species Act for the first time since 1981.

12.02.2026 20:19 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Trump Administration Takes Chainsaw to Science-Based Endangerment Finding Endangering Us All The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced its final rule to undo the agency’s 2009 foundational scientific finding that global warming emissions endanger public health and the environment—referred to as the Endangerment Finding. EPA also today repealed standards that reduce the dependence of cars and trucks on fossil fuels, which were among the strongest policies the United States had in place to combat climate change, curb toxic fossil fuel pollution, and save drivers money at the pump. This announcement was made via a press conference, and the final rule has yet to be posted to the federal register. **Below is a statement byDr. Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). ** “Today, Administrator Zeldin took a chainsaw to the Endangerment Finding, undoing this long-standing, science-based finding on bogus grounds at the expense of our health. Ramming through this unlawful, destructive action at the behest of polluters is an obvious example of what happens when a corrupt administration and fossil fuel interests are allowed to run amok. “The science establishing harm to human health and the environment from heat-trapping emissions was clear in 2009. More than fifteen years later, the evidence has only mounted as have human suffering and economic damages. Meanwhile, the continued burning of fossil fuels is causing global warming emissions to rise. The science, the facts and the law are unassailable: EPA has the obligation and the authority to regulate this pollution under the Clean Air Act, an act of Congress it’s now blatantly violating. “The transportation sector is the single largest source of U.S. global heat-trapping emissions. By scrapping vehicle global warming pollution standards today, the Trump administration has co-signed the release of more than 7 billion tons of planet-warming emissions nationally in the decades ahead. “Communities across the country are routinely enduring the consequences and costs of climate change, including deadly heat waves, accelerating sea level rise, worsening wildfires and floods, increased heavy rainfall, and more intense and damaging storms. EPA’s attempts to delay climate action come at a time when scientists warn that the world is on the cusp of breaching 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming—a crucial guardrail to help limit some of the worst climate harms. “Instead of rising to the challenge with necessary policies to protect people’s wellbeing, the Trump administration has shamefully abandoned EPA’s mission and caved to the whims of deep-pocketed special interests. Sacrificing people’s health, safety and futures for polluters’ profits is unconscionable. We all deserve better and this attack against the public interest and the best available science will be challenged. UCS stands ready to defend the Endangerment Finding in court and beyond.” UCS filed comments on behalf of its half a million supporters and its network of more than 22,000 scientists to voice strong opposition to repeal of the endangerment finding and vehicle standards. It also submitted a letter to EPA Administrator Zeldin that was signed by more than 1,000 scientists opposing the repeal of the endangerment finding and urging Administrator Zeldin to stop dismantling critical climate regulations and fulfill the mission of the agency to protect public health. A federal judge recently declared the Trump administration violated federal law when it secretly formed a “Climate Working Group” and tasked it with writing a dangerously slanted report that the administration then used as a basis for its proposal to overturn the Endangerment Finding last year. As part of that lawsuit—brought by UCS and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)—the administration was compelled to turn over more than 100,000 documents, which UCS and EDF plan to make available to the public in early March. **More UCS Resources:** * UCS comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy strongly opposing their commissioned Climate Working Group report and testimony delivered at a hearing on Endangerment Finding repeal. * An op-ed authored by UCS experts that ran in _Scientific American_ titled “Why EPA’s Latest Move Could Worsen the Climate Crisis.” * UCS blog posts on the endangerment finding, vehicle standards, scientific integrity, and disinformation. * UCS statement on the United Nations Environment Programme’s annual Emission’s Gap Report showing that, without rapid corrective action, the world is on track for temperature rise of between 2.3 and 2.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels over this century.

12.02.2026 18:53 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Repeal of EPA’s Endangerment Finding Will Have Devastating Impact The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today revoked its long-standing, science-based conclusion that planet-warming greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. Known as the “endangerment finding,” the scientific conclusion gave the EPA the authority and duty to regulate greenhouse gases. If allowed to move forward, the repeal of the endangerment finding will allow the Trump administration to undermine key safeguards that protect clean air, while giving free reign to industries that generate planet-warming emissions. In response, **David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program,** issued the following statement: “If left to stand, this action will hamstring the government’s ability to combat the most terrible environmental threat in human history, harming Americans and the world for decades to come. “Abundant scientific evidence supports the EPA’s prior conclusion that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. And Americans feel the effects of climate change constantly, as we experience more dangerous hurricanes, furnace-like heat domes, walls of water slamming into our children’s summer camps, raging wildfires, and other extreme weather driven by greenhouse gases.”

12.02.2026 18:27 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

House Republican Moves to Block Climate Lawsuits as Oil Industry Pushes for Immunity As climate accountability lawsuits move closer to trial across the country, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) _announced_ this week that she is working with House and Senate colleagues to _craft legislation_ aimed at “tackling” state climate superfund laws and climate deception lawsuits against fossil fuel companies. Her announcement follows _widespread reports_ that oil industry lobbyists have been pressing Congress for some form of _liability shield_. In January, the American Petroleum Institute made clear that stopping state climate lawsuits is a _top 2026 priority_, pledging to “stop extreme climate liability policy.” Eleven states and the District of Columbia, along with dozens of cities, counties, and tribal governments, have active lawsuits seeking to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about the climate harms of their products. Several of those cases — including in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Colorado — are _advancing toward discovery and trial_ after courts denied motions to dismiss. The push for federal legislation marks the most concrete attempt yet to shield fossil fuel companies from mounting legal exposure. Efforts to limit liability are not unique to the oil industry. In recent months, other industries including _pesticide manufacturers_ and segments of the _tech sector_ have sought similar protections when litigation risks increase. But the scale of the climate cases, and the public costs at stake, make the fossil fuel industry’s immunity push especially consequential. _**Statement from Cassidy DiPaola, Communications Director, Make Polluters Pay Campaign:**_ “Rep. Hageman’s announcement confirms that the fossil fuel industry is escalating its effort to avoid accountability. As more than a dozen states and communities move closer to putting Big Oil on trial, and as climate superfund laws begin to take hold, the industry is turning to Congress for protection. API has said plainly that stopping climate liability is a top priority and now we are seeing legislation take shape to do exactly that. If these companies believe they did nothing wrong, they should be willing to defend that position in court. Instead, they are asking lawmakers to block the cases altogether. A federal liability shield for fossil fuel companies would not lower energy prices or ease the cost of living. It would simply shift more of the financial burden onto working families and local governments while insulating one of the most profitable industries in history from accountability. Congress should not close the courthouse doors to communities seeking redress. Big Oil is not entitled to special immunity from the consequences of its conduct.”

12.02.2026 17:15 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Minnesotans Fought Back Against ICE and CBP. Now it’s Congress’ Turn. This morning, White House Border Czar Tom Homan announced ICE and CBP will vacate Minnesota, after Minnesotans fought tirelessly to protect their communities against lawless immigration enforcement. **Public Citizen Co-President Lisa Gilbert** issued the following statement: “The people of Minnesota set the example of bravery, compassion and strength against masked, lawless federal agents who vastly underestimated the power of community and peaceful protest. “Tom Homan’s announcement that the administration will scale back the surge of immigration operations in Minnesota is a crucial win. That said, with billions still to spend on immigration enforcement from the “big ugly law,” the Trump Administration is still stripping families from their homes and throwing them into unlivable conditions in detention centers across the country in a militarized mass detention campaign. And there is no sign from the Trump administration that it plans on doing anything – including arresting and persecuting small children – differently. The victory in Minnesota should galvanize our efforts to fight these atrocities. “Just as Minnesotans fought back, Congress must now follow suit and refuse to fund DHS agencies that enable such reckless and dangerous acts that, in some cases, have killed people in broad daylight. We need drastic reforms now.”

12.02.2026 16:50 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

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