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The Trump administration is struggling to meet its mass deportation targets, and Erik Prince’s $25 billion private army proposal may be back on the table.

The post Trump’s Deportation Drive Stalls—Is Erik Prince’s Private Army Back on the Table? appeared first on MintPress News.

By abandoning trans rights and praising Reagan, Democrats embrace a fangless politics with a track record of electoral failure.

The post Gavin Newsom’s Cynical Embrace of the Anti-Trans Agenda  appeared first on The Intercept.

Documents released by the Covid Inquiry reveal a network of connections between senior ministers, advisers and those handed lucrative Covid contracts

You’re losing Congressional Democrats’ “protest” during Donald Trump’s marathon speech had all the impact of a Demotivational poster. That’s leadership from Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. Punchbowl News: Earlier on Thursday, Jeffries and party leaders brought in some of the most vocal rank-and-file Democrats – including Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) – to berate them for their recent behavior. The members-only meeting was called by Jeffries, we’re told. Tuesday’s debacle, as well as the ongoing clashes between progressives and moderates inside the House Democratic Caucus, isn’t Jeffries’ fault, of course. But it is his problem. And it shows little sign of cooling off right now. That may be because Frost and Crockett didn’t come to D.C. to be punching bags. They came to fight, just what the Democratic base demands. Jeffries and Schumer came to get along. Their idea of defending constituents is holding a press conference. Holding up signs on sticks and wearing pink shirts isn’t much better.

Trump says he’s cutting aid to Ukraine to prevent global war—but his administration has doubled down on arming Israel as it openly threatens regional escalation. Will Washington be dragged into another Middle East war?

The post Trump’s New Favorite War: Zelensky Out, Netanyahu In appeared first on MintPress News.

A quarterly column, steady as ever

“And yet all his crimes seem to be a quite straightforward consequence of the way the contemporary art market operates: borderline criminality is baked in.”

Books read:

• All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art—Orlando Whitfield
• All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me—Patrick Bringley
• Other books to be discussed at a later date

Books bought:

Keir Starmer's Government looks set to close loopholes that would allow foreign billionaires like Elon Musk to bankroll UK political parties

The International Development Secretary's departure was overshadowed by world events this week, but it risks having a much longer lasting impact on the Government's fortunes, argues Neal Lawson

It is hard to imagine with the eighty-two executive orders already issued by President Trump, that a man of his stature, extraordinary power, intellect, sensitivity and unwavering focus on the needs of the American people, would find the time to address an issue that is so insidious and so pervasive as the continued forced sucking of paper straws.

Yet on February 10, 2025, President Trump issued “Ending Procurement and Forced Use of Paper Straws” to free us once and for all from those who would force us to use straws that simply suck. He knew it was high time to move away from the flimsy paper straws of the past and instead allow all of us, most importantly our children, the freedom to stay healthy and strong by sucking as long and as hard on petroleum-based plastic straws as they choose—at home, at work, at school, or at play.

Genetic tests promised parents healthy pregnancies. New class action lawsuits say they may be worthless.

If you’ve never fallen gently asleep to jazz ballads, only to sit bolt upright because a horse is shrilly whinnying in your ears, you should try it some time.

The post My Glamorous Life: The Unexpected Samples appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

6th of March 2025 My Lords, I will not speak directly to the proposals of the report to improve our military capabilities but will consider the framework in which they are set. The report’s underlying assumption is that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made Europe a much more dangerous place, against which we have to … Continue reading House of Lords Speech – Ukraine: “A wake up call” (International Relations and Defence Committee Report)

5th of March 2025 My Lords, like other noble Lords, I commend the efforts of the noble Baroness and her committee to shorten and simplify the code and guide. That they have not altogether freed themselves from the bureaucracy involved in all this is more a sign of the times than of any lack of … Continue reading Speech in the House of Lords – Conduct Committee

‘I always thought I could be an asocial primate. I cannot.’ How microbes helped James connect with the human-scale world

- by Psyche Film

Watch at Psyche

Talia Lavin, journalist and author of “Wild Faith,” on the right-wing Christian ideology and characters guiding Trump.

The post Trump’s Vision for America: I Am God appeared first on The Intercept.

Martha Nussbaum’s philosophy is dynamic and challenging, but also elegant and lucidly written: she is the thinker of our time

- by Brandon Robshaw

Read at Aeon

The 'State of Hate' report comes in the wake of last summer's racist riots and growing waves of extremist sentiment stirred up by public figures like Elon Musk

VOLUNTEERS from Marine Rescue Wooli assisted two adults and a young child sailing from Cairns to Victoria after their yacht ran out of fuel and their tender became submerged and disabled off Wooli last Thursday. Marine Rescue NSW Inspector John Murray said Marine Rescue Wooli received a call for assistance just before 12pm and rescue...

The post Marine Rescue return boaters to yacht after tender submerges on Wooli Beach appeared first on News Of The Area.

COFFS Harbour Creative Arts Group’s (CHCAG) annual Mad Hatters Tea Party takes place at the Coffs Harbour Showground Gallery on Saturday 15 March, at 2pm. One hundred percent of proceeds will be donated to the Coffs Harbour and Clarence CanDo Cancer Trust. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business....

The post Coffs Harbour Creative Arts Group’s annual Mad Hatters Tea Party to support ‘CanDo’ appeared first on News Of The Area.

AN old motorcycle painted blue has popped up above the fence of a property on Orara Way in Coramba, accompanied by the sign “Feeling Blue? Get help”. It is the handiwork of the group of lifelong mates behind the Blue Motorcycle Project. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business....

The post Blue Motorcycle Project rides in to the Coffs Coast appeared first on News Of The Area.

Could Trump and Musk be seeking to end our time on Earth? By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 5th March 2025 In thinking about the war being waged against life on Earth by Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their minions, I keep bumping into a horrible suspicion. Could it be that this is not […]

The Chinese Embassy in the US underlines the country’s differences with the US. Marco Rubio and Boris Johnson refer to the war in Ukraine as a proxy war, while Rubio also reaffirms Trump’s warning to Hamas. Ohad Kozminsky of the Jewish Council of Australia shares his views on Western colonialism and Gaza. The U.S. needs Continue reading »

“Martin O’Malley, the former commissioner of the Social Security Administration, said the recent cuts made by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency at the agency could result in the ‘collapse’ of the Social Security system ‘within the next 30 to 90 days.’” — The Hill

Internal memo from the Department of Government Efficiency

FACT 1: People pay into Social Security over their working lifetime and then withdraw from it when they hit their sixties, like an IRA that holds value even when the stock market crashes. This works as long as the number of people paying in is greater than the number of retired people. Stupidly, the forefathers assumed there would always be more working people (sixteen to sixty-seven years old) than there are retirees. This assumption is called a Ponzi scheme.