United States | News & Politics

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6921651

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/11224

Pop star Sabrina Carpenter and Kids Can Press, publisher of the popular Franklin the Turtle children's book series, are shaming President Donald Trump's administration for using their work to promote its policies of mass deportation and extrajudicial killing.

On Monday, the official White House X account posted a video showing federal agents chasing, apprehending, and detaining purported undocumented immigrants that featured Carpenter's song "Juno" as its soundtrack.

On Tuesday morning, Carpenter angrily denounced the White House for using her song in a mass deportation video.

"This video is evil and disgusting," she wrote in response. "Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda."

An administration spokesperson responded to Carpenter's message by continuing to reference her lyrics, and said that "anyone who would defend these sick monsters" that the administration is deporting "must be stupid, or is it slow," a line lifted from her hit song "Manchild."

As noted by the Guardian, Carpenter is just the latest popular artist to object to the Trump White House using their work in propaganda videos, as Beyoncé, Olivia Rodrigo, Kenny Loggins, and Foo Fighters have also attacked the White House for hijacking their songs.

Kids Can Press, meanwhile, slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he posted a meme depicting Franklin the Turtle launching air-to-surface missiles at the boats of supposed "narco-terrorists" in the Caribbean.

In a statement, the publisher said that it "strongly" condemned "any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image," such the one Hegseth posted on social media.

“Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity,” the published emphasized.

Hegseth posted the meme shortly after the Washington Post reported last week that US defense forces had conducted a "double-tap" strike against a suspected drug boat in September with the express purpose of killing two men who had survived the initial strike on the vessel.

Many legal scholars consider such an action to be murder or an overt war crime, and Hegseth and the Trump White House in recent days have been trying to shift responsibility for authorizing the second strike to Adm. Frank Bradley.

Writing in his Substack page on Tuesday, journalist Paul Waldman noted that Hegseth's attitude toward extrajudicial killing shouldn't be a surprise since he had previously lobbied Trump during his first term in office to pardon convicted war criminals.

"This is a government that is not only full of sadists, but has elevated sadism to a place of honor in politics and policy," he wrote. "If you’re one of Trump’s underlings and you aren’t publicly expressing glee at the prospect of punishing and abusing those with less power, then you won’t really fit in. That’s the context in which we have to view this event."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6921678

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/11196

President Donald Trump on Tuesday blew off US voters' concerns about affordability, even as polls show most voters blame him for increasing prices on staple goods.

At the start of a Cabinet meeting, Trump falsely claimed that electricity prices are coming down, despite the fact that Americans across the country are struggling with utility bills being driven higher in large part by energy-devouring artificial intelligence data centers.

The president then claimed more broadly that voter concerns about increased costs were all figments of their imaginations.

"The word 'affordability' is a Democrat scam," Trump declared. "They say it and they go onto the next subject, and everyone thinks, 'Oh they had lower prices.' No, they had the worst inflation in the history of our country. Now, some people will correct me, because they always love to correct me, even though I'm right about everything. But some people like to correct me, and they say, '48 years.' I say it's not 48 years, it's much more, but they say it's the worst inflation we've had in 48 years, I'd say, ever."

Trump: But the word "Affordability" is a Democrat scam. pic.twitter.com/WmXeDLWQ0X
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 2, 2025

Later in the Cabinet meeting, a reporter asked Trump if he believed voters were growing "impatient" with his policies, which have not produced the kind of broad-based decline in prices he once promised.

Trump, however, doubled down.

"I think they're getting fake news from guys like you," he said. "Look, affordability is a hoax that was started by Democrats, who caused the problem of pricing."

Q: You talk about affordability. Are the American people getting impatient with the reforms you're making?

TRUMP: I think they're getting fake news from guys like you. Look, affordability is a hoax that was started by Democrats. pic.twitter.com/EhtSaKHEMk
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 2, 2025

The president's claims about affordability being a "scam" issue are at odds with what US voters are telling pollsters, however.

A Yahoo/YouGov poll released late last month, for instance, found 49% of Americans say that Trump's policies have done more to raise prices in the last year, compared with just 24% who say that he's lowered their costs. The survey also found voters are more likely to blame Trump for higher prices than they are to blame former President Joe Biden.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump routinely campaigned on affordability and vowed to start lowering the cost of groceries starting on the very first day of his presidency. Since then, however, Trump has slapped heavy tariffs on a wide range of imported goods, which economists say have led to further price increases.

Many Democrats were quick to pounce on the president declaring affordability a "scam."

"There you have it folks," wrote Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) on X. "From 'I will lower prices on Day 1' to this."

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) argued that Trump was trying to make Americans' economic anxieties disappear by telling them not to believe their own bank balances.

"The president is trying to gaslight Americans into believing that everything is fine," he observed. "The reality is millions of Americans are worried about their checking accounts and whether they can put food on the table, afford healthcare, and pay their bills."

Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) said that Trump's dismissal of voters' affordability worries are "easy to say when you are a billionaire who has never had to choose between groceries and the light bill."

"Working families in Texas know the real scam is his tariffs, his higher premiums, and his complete failure to offer any plan to address the housing crisis or actually lower prices," Garcia added.

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

It’s 4:30 pm on a Monday as Colell Steele stands in front of the closed canteen window at Neuse Correctional, a medium-custody prison in North Carolina. He’s lined up to wait an hour before the canteen opens so he can purchase his usual: four postage stamps, at 78 cents each; two AAA batteries, each costing 22 cents, needed for listening to his AM/FM radio; and then whatever hygiene items he can afford with the rest, which usually isn’t much. Since Steele receives no money from back home, he must stretch the $4.90 he earns each week working as a media clerk who cleans tablets for his cellblock.

“Every blue moon I might buy a bag of chips or a soda,” Steele told me as we sat in a day room at Neuse. “I can’t afford much anymore because inflation has decreased the amount of food and supplies I can buy. I spend more to get less.”

In a 26th floor courtroom overlooking Manhattan’s frigid winter skyline, dozens of immigrants sat in on the trial of their former president, the once untouchable symbol of a “narco-dictatorship” that reorganized of the government’s judicial, police, and military leadership to collude with drug traffickers.

It wasn’t Nicolás Maduro — though the Venezuelan president had likewise been indicted in the Southern District of New York. It was Juan Orlando Hernández, the former Honduran president who, as U.S. prosecutors said in their closing arguments in 2024, “paved a cocaine superhighway” to the United States. In a monthlong trial we covered from New York that winter, Hernández was convicted of three counts of drug trafficking and weapons charges, earning him a 45-year prison sentence.

Now, as B-52s plow the skies near Caracas and U.S. President Donald Trump announces the closure of Venezuelan airspace via social media, Hernández is poised to have his conviction erased. A key asset likely working in his favor is something Maduro pointedly lacks: a long-running allyship with the United States. Before his prosecution, Hernández spent years promoting Washington’s goals of militarization and migrant crackdowns as a friend of Barack Obama, Marco Rubio, and Trump.

Zohran Mamdani, Ozzy Osbourne and Sinners also feature in encyclopedia’s top 20 most-read English-language pages

Why the DC-deployed Guardswoman shot last week may never see justice

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/42895525

• The International Criminal Court (ICC) is under assault by the United States and Russia, among others, which are determined to undermine its mandate as the court of last resort.
• ICC member countries need to stay firm in their defense of the court so that impartial justice remains a critical part of the rules-based international order.
• ICC member countries should use their annual meeting to defend the court human rights groups, and others cooperating with it, and to enforce judicial findings against members who fail to arrest and surrender those sought by the court.

Member countries of the International Criminal Court (ICC) should intensify efforts to protect the court and human rights groups campaigning for justice from attack, Human Rights Watch said in a new report. The 20-page report makes detailed recommendations for the annual session of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties, which will meet in The Hague, Netherlands, from December 1 to 6, 2025.

Throughout 2025, the US administration of President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions against court officials, a United Nations expert, and Palestinian civil society organizations in an attack on justice and the international rule of law. Russian arrest warrants issued in 2023 and 2024 against ICC officials remain pending. In June, the court faced a second serious cyber-attack with the purpose of espionage.

“Government efforts to undermine the ICC reflect broader attacks on the global rule of law, aiming to disable institutions that seek to hold those responsible for the worst crimes to account,” said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “ICC member countries need to stay firm in their defense of the court so that impartial justice remains a critical part of the rules-based international order.”

The Assembly session takes place amid important ICC achievements over the past year. In March, the Philippines surrendered former President Rodrigo Duterte to the court to face charges of crimes against humanity related to the country’s notorious “war on drugs,” which killed tens of thousands of people. In October, ICC judges handed down a landmark conviction of a former “Janjaweed” militia leader for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, Sudan.

On February 6, President Trump issued an executive order authorizing asset freezes and entry bans on ICC officials and others supporting the court’s work. The order clearly seeks to shield US and Israeli officials from facing charges before the ICC. In November 2024, ICC judges had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

...

Government sanctions should only be used to target those who are committing serious crimes, not those who document and deliver justice for such crimes, Human Rights Watch said.

...

The American pro-Israel group StopAntisemitism has included children’s content creator Ms Rachel on its “Antisemite of the Year” list, targeting her for highlighting the suffering of Palestinian children.

StopAntisemitism has repeatedly attacked Ms Rachel on social media for sharing content with her more than 20 million followers showing starving Palestinian children and highlighting the plight of youngsters who have lost limbs in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The pro-Israel organisation even has even urged US Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether Accurso is receiving foreign funding to promote anti-Israel messaging and influence public opinion. There has been no evidence provided such accusations.

Comments by President Trump, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some panelists suggest the committee is likely to delay hepatitis B shots and discuss revising the use of other vaccines.

Never mind that the reason we give hepatitis B vaccines at a very young age is preventing parent-to-child transmission has prevented a lot of cancer

He could’ve gotten the virus when he was born. Or maybe from his brother, or his caregivers, or his friends. Nobody knows. That’s why vaccinating everyone is so important, regardless of people’s perceived risks.

The hepatitis B vaccine — and the current recommendation to give it at birth — is likely why years later, as a doctor, I cannot recall caring for a patient with liver cancer caused by this virus. It was the world’s first anticancer vaccine. To think that members of my father’s generation may be the last to die from this devastating infection is to grasp how truly remarkable medical progress is.

The build-up in the Caribbean began in August with the deployment of air and naval forces, including a nuclear-powered submarine and spy planes, according to US officials.

It now includes a range of aircraft carriers, guided-missile destroyers, and amphibious assault ships capable of landing thousands of troops.

Analysis of satellite images has made it possible to identify at least six military vessels in the region over the past week.

https://archive.ph/BJKQL

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday that a Navy admiral acted “within his authority and the law” when he ordered a second, follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea in a September U.S. military operation that has come under bipartisan scrutiny.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered the justification for the Sept. 2 strike after lawmakers from both parties on Sunday announced support for congressional reviews of U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The lawmakers cited a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat in that September incident.

What surprised the ranking member of the DHS House Subcommittee, which in part oversees DHS' funding, is that there were no detainees present nor detention officers. ... "They have a television and the largest holding cell has three showers. The shower works. And then each holding cell had a toilet. The toilet was not in any way something any of us would be comfortable using, certainly not in an area that is open to others," she said. ... According to Underwood, DHS told her detainees are provided food from either Subway or Walmart or are given food from a previous facility they were at. ... She also noted there is no permanent food vendor and no contract for providing medical care

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/772410

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More lawmakers are showing themselves out of Congress instead of running for reelection amid complaints about the legislative branch’s struggles to make a difference as partisan squabbles and limited areas of compromise that derail attempts to solve the country’s issues.

More than 40 lawmakers have already announced they will not be seeking reelection ahead of the 2026 midterms, a record pace compared to recent cycles with more announcements possible once they head home for the end-of-year holidays. Some are seeking different offices like moving from the House to the Senate or running for their home state’s governorship, while others are stepping away from public service entirely amid dysfunction in Washington and bitter partisanship that has hampered their ability to pass bills and threatened their safety.

https://archive.ph/KQAbZ

The U.S. government has caused massive food waste during President Donald Trump’s second term. Policies such as immigration raids, tariff changes and temporary and permanent cuts to food assistance programs have left farmers short of workers and money, food rotting in fields and warehouses, and millions of Americans hungry. And that doesn’t even include the administration’s actual destruction of edible food.

The U.S. government estimates that more than 47 million people in America don’t have enough food to eat – even with federal and state governments spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on programs to help them.

Yet, huge amounts of food – on average in the U.S., as much as 40% of it – rots before being eaten. That amount is equivalent to 120 billion meals a year: more than twice as many meals as would be needed to feed those 47 million hungry Americans three times a day for an entire year.

Indiana House Republicans released a proposed map with new congressional district lines Dec. 1 that could lead to the elimination of the two Democrats from the state's congressional delegation if passed.

They got the votes for this by threatening to firebomb the home of any Republican state legislator who wouldn't go along.

Archived copies of the article:

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