United States | News & Politics

Any sober analysis of America’s confrontation with Iran should tell us that the carrier battle groups can achieve no meaningful or positive political objectives should they be ordered to attack. The United States could order its land forces to somehow invade the country, but is there anyone who believes that such an extreme and unfathomable action would create a favorable outcome with what would be horrific costs?

Yet these considerations apparently remain lost to our political leaders — who cling to misguided beliefs that bombing and war will somehow create favorable outcomes — as undefined as those outcomes might be.

A woman who sought asylum in the United States after fleeing a country where homosexuality is illegal says the Trump administration's third-country deportation system sent her to another one

Today, Donald Trump held his first meeting of his new grifting bribe operation “Board of Peace,” the fake UN substitute he’s set up so corrupt world leaders, dictators and warlords — just the absolute most garbage leaders on the planet — can give him money while they all say “Board of Peace” a lot. Also he steals your money and gives it to himself, for “Board of Peace” purposes. 

During that meeting, he explained to the young, handsome 47-year-old leader of Paraguay that he’s not into him in that way. He only likes young, um, “women.”

“It’s always nice to be young and handsome. It doesn’t mean we have to like you. I don’t like young handsome men. Women? I like! [big laughs at own joke from star of Epstein Files].”

Was that the most awkward and creepy moment in the meeting, or just one in a meeting full of them? It was the second thing, of course. 

There was the moment when JD Vance told a “joke,” and even in that room of people who were lined up to lick Hitler’s asshole, he couldn’t even score a courtesy laugh, that’s how thoroughly off-putting and unlikeable he is. 

His “joke” was supposed to be at the expense of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose star turn at the Munich Security Conference has put so much fear of God into American Nazis and fascists that they’ve spent the entire past week focused on one small moment when she paused too long to give an answer. We would try to transcribe Couchy’s “joke,” but you really ought to experience the “please clap” and “you didn’t say thank you!” nature of it for yourself.

The rest of the meeting was the same as any other Trump gathering, because he’s needy, senile, feeble and stupid. He played the same shitty Trump basic grandpa bitch playlist he plays for everybody, everywhere. During “November Rain,” he asked his guests, like a basic grandpa bitch, if they liked the music, like Axl Rose’s power ballad is his own personal Lawrence Welk. 

He whined, whined, whined, whined, whined about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize, while lying that he doesn’t care about the Nobel Peace Prize. 

He bragged about FIFA creating a pity peace prize for him, as if that is not the most embarrassing fucking thing in the world and any normal person wouldn’t die of humiliation if that happened to them. He referred to it as “their first peace prize,” as if the soccer guys are going to do this every year, like they didn’t run up in the attic to find something to give Trump and tell him it’s a “peace prize.” 

He told the gathered dictators, some of whom were from the Middle East, that there is peace in the Middle East. You know, except for that whole Gaza thing and the fact that he’s putting together weapons for more strikes on Iran. 

He continued to hallucinate about all the wars Stephen Miller (or someone) has convinced him that he’s ended. (He has ended zero wars, and everyone in that room knows it.)

He told weird lies about how often women go to see his shitty wife’s piece of shit movie.

He whined, whined, whined, whined, whined about the United Nations, and how they messed up his teleprompter, and how he ALMOST DIED trying to walk up their escalator. He has told this story 67,386,462 times, because his brain is nothing but grievances and pudding. 

He bragged about the Dow — THE DOW! THE DOW! — because “Board of Peace.” 

He bragged about his own corruption, then openly asked for some more people to bribe him, because it’s just that easy.

At the end of the meeting, all the gathered dictators and creeps got to go around and say their favorite things about Donald Trump, like a Mario Kart-dick-sucking Cabinet meeting with foreign accents! Trump appeared to doze off for much of it, because he’s not up to spending that much time doing things these days.

Department of Justice prosecutors across the US have suffered a string of embarrassing defeats in their aggressive pursuit of criminal cases against people accused of “assaulting” and “impeding” federal officers.

In recent months, the federal government has relentlessly prosecuted protesters, government critics, immigrants and others arrested during immigration operations, often accusing them of physically attacking officers or interfering with their duties.

But many of those cases have recently been dismissed or ended in not guilty verdicts.

In several high-profile cases, the prosecutions fell apart because they relied on statements by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers that had no supporting evidence or in some instances were proven by video footage to be blatantly false.

Criminal defense lawyers said it was unusual for federal prosecutors to pursue a high volume of charges over minor clashes with law enforcement, and that it was extraordinary to see the DoJ lose case after case across jurisdictions.

The Supreme Court ruling has helped the family of one man in particular: the architect behind Trump’s tariffs.

Tension over how companies have responded to a surge in immigration enforcement is the climax of a yearslong reckoning with a local tradition of corporate social responsibility.

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Feb 20, 2026

As Democrats plan boycotts and counterprogramming to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address next week, progressives are readying their own response to resist not just the historically unpopular commander-in-chief, but the centrist faction of their own party.

For years, the State of the Union has served as a platform for rising stars in the opposition party. The Democrats are rolling out the newly minted Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a darling of the party establishment whose inaugural committee boasts an army of corporate backers—including Amazon and Capitol One, lobbying groups for the gambling industry and car dealerships, and multiple tobacco companies.

Seeking to push an alternative vision, the left-wing Working Families Party (WFP) has chosen Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), whom national director Maurice Mitchell described as “fearless, rooted in working-class communities, and unafraid to take on both MAGA extremism and corporate power.”

Feb 18, 2026

The newspaper spoke to 13 Democratic and independent voters including retirees from Indiana and Michigan, working people from states such as North Carolina and Nevada, and an unemployed voter from Iowa. The topic of discussion was the participants’ frustrations with the Democratic Party as it faces the Trump administration and the president’s aggressive deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across the country.

“Spineless” was one word a participant had for the Democratic Party when asked to describe it. Another said the party appears “paralyzed” while a 46-year-old Latina woman from Nevada said Democrats in Congress are “sellouts and suckers.”

A 23-year-old American was shot last March in South Padre Island. ICE’s involvement in the shooting was not disclosed until this week.

I have to wonder how many more murders ICE is covering up.

Donald Trump on Friday railed against the supreme court justices who blocked his use of tariffs, calling the decision a “disgrace to the nation” and claiming he planned to impose even more tariffs under other statutory authorities.

“It’s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think,” the president said during remarks from the White House. He cast that influence as social and cultural. “I’m ashamed of certain members of the court. Absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country.”

He praised the three justices who dissented in the opinion – Brett Kavanaugh who wrote the main dissent, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The others – including two of his appointees, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch – drew his derision.

Wisconsin lawmakers have scrapped a controversial VPN ban from an age-verification bill following backlash from residents and digital rights experts.

First introduced in March 2025, Senate Bill 130 (and its Assembly counterpart AB 105) originally required any provider distributing "harmful" material to minors to block all users connecting via a VPN.

Republican Senator Van Wanggaard moved to strike the provision on Wednesday, February 19. The amendment also added "virtual service provider" to the bill’s final paragraphs to clarify that VPN firms themselves are not liable under the law. The Senate welcomed the change, and the Assembly concurred the following day, sending the bill to the Governor’s desk for signing.

As tensions mount between the Trump administration and the courts, the judge called “shameless” a claim by officials that her earlier order was not binding.