Newsbusters.

Early Thursday, 18-year-old Loyola University of Chicago student Sheridan Gorman was murdered by a lone gunman on a Lake Michigan pier as she strolled with classmates hoping to catch the Northern Lights. Two days later, Fox’s Matt Finn revealed police detained a violent, 25-year-old illegal alien from Venezuela as suspect. Of course, he reportedly arrived in the U.S. during the Biden border crisis.

Of course, this heinous killing — which Finn’s colleague Bill Melugin dubbed “Laken Riley 2.0” — has been of zero interest to the flagship morning and evening newscasts of ABC and CBS with zero mentions on Sunday or Monday.

In NBC’s case, they had the gall to cover it for 98 seconds on Sunday’s Nightly News, but hid from viewers the crucial details about the suspect.

Newsbusteres.

No matter which party was in charge nor which party had publicly announced they were withholding their votes, the liberal media would always blame the Republicans, especially in an election year. The effort to manipulate the facts in that way was nakedly apparent during Monday’s episode of The View when the ABC co-hosts openly admitted it was Democrats who were “holding up funding” to the government and TSA, but still insisted it was “a Republican problem.”

Amid their conversation about the long lines at airports, and TSA workers not getting paid, co-host Ana Navarro admitted Democrats were behind it but suggested it was for the just and noble cause of sticking it to ICE.

Amid their conversation about the long lines at airports, and TSA workers not getting paid, co-host Ana Navarro admitted Democrats were behind it but suggested it was for the just and noble cause of sticking it to ICE.

Newsbusters.

he New York Times Magazine is clearly inflating Don Lemon’s already massive ego with a story titled: “‘I Am the News’: The Absurd Drama (and High Stakes) of the Don Lemon Affair.”

Times writer Matt Flegenheimer implies that Lemon isn’t exactly the best example of journalism and that he’s remarkably stuck on himself. The absurd drama seems to be how both sides of the Trump wars have made Lemon’s post-CNN career.

Trump Is Finally Eyeing an Exit From Iran. But Will He Take It? (David E. Sanger/New York Times)  Despite their pretenses of being able to mind-read “what Trump is really thinking”, they have no clue as to what Trump is thinking.

Democrats pile on Trump for post celebrating Mueller’s death (Politico)

State Dept. fumes after insiders reveal who ‘motivated’ Trump to launch Iran war: report (Alexander Willis/Raw Story)  The Narrative Media will believe anything that fits in with their delusions.

Donald Trump Is Nothing Like Robert Mueller (Jonathan Lemire/The Atlantic) And thank God for that.

Haters at NPR Hype Swedes Claiming Trump’s ‘Dismantling Democracy’ at Alarming Speed

Trump’s Reaction to Mueller’s Death: ‘Good, I’m Glad.’ (Erica L. Green/New York Times)  Me, too.

Dump Trump: MS NOW’s Capehart Calls for 25th Amendment Talk After Trump’s Pearl Harbor JOKE

CNN’s “100% MAGA Trump approval” segment omits key nuance for virality (G. Elliott Morris/Strength In Numbers) Oh—say it ain’t so….

Trump Has Made a Fundamental Miscalculation about Iran (Phil Klay/New York Times)  After all, Phil Klay is The Expert! (Phil who…?)

Washington ignores America’s fiscal cliff (Neil Irwin/Axios)  Have you ever noticed that the Narrative Media only care about “America’s fiscal cliff” when a Republican is President?

Trump Destroyed the EV Industry, Just When We Need It Most (Jonathan Cohn/The Bulwark)  Uh, no, economics destroyed the ‘EV industry’.

‘Nobody else is responsible’: Trump to blame for Iran crisis, ex-CIA chief says (David Smith/The Guardian)

Gov. Pritzker Says Trump Has Dementia, CNN’s Erin Burnett Doesn’t Push Back a Bit

Trump’s changing course on Strait of Hormuz strategy raises questions about US war preparation (Collin Binkley/Associated Press)  Grasping at straws much?

Newsbusters.

If you have been watching the media coverage of the war with Iran, you can not help but be aware of the leftist agenda being driven home day after day, report after report. You hear that there was no imminent threat from Iran, Trump has no exit strategy, etc. And of course the one they really love to push is Israel as an evil player, whether it’s how they somehow made the U.S. start the war, or as a recent CNN report implied, how they are bombing Lebanon for no reason, and are responsible for the deaths of children.

On Thursday’s Erin Burnett OutFront, the CNN host began her segment by talking over a video of an RT reporter in Lebanon, who just managed to avoid an Israeli air attack, while giving his report. She would then play it with sound, as she made her feelings known.

Burnett failed to mention that Israel has said that it issued explicit warnings the day before, citing Hezbollah’s use of the area for moving fighters and weapons. She then threw it to a report from inside Lebanon by Correspondent Isobel Yeung, who first showed us the funeral of what she says were four young siblings and a cousin killed in Israeli airstrikes.

The Narrative Media also wring their hands a lot when hospitals, mosques, and orphanages get targeted, without bothering to report that Islamic terrorists (like Hamas and Hezbollah) regularly use such places as command posts and staging areas with the “innocent” denizens as their human shields.

Iran Believes It’s Winning–and Wants a Steep Price to End the War (Yaroslav Trofimov/Wall Street Journal)

Trump’s unshackled presidency puts him at the center of the economy (Matt Peterson/CNBC)

Trump Is Hiding the Truth About the War in Iran (New York Times)

Capehart Tries To Cast Doubt On Claims Of Success In Iran

Three weeks in, Iran war escalates beyond Trump’s control (Reuters)

The Energy Supply Shock of the Iran War Changes Everything (Matthew Zeitlin/Heatmap News)  Everything?

On CNN, Democrat Discovers $200 Billion Is Too Much Money—When Trump Spends It

Iran war’s economic shocks could reverberate for a while (Courtenay Brown/Axios)

‘This is about attention’: Mike Lee’s MAGA crusade is driving his colleagues crazy (Jordain Carney/Politico)  MAGA is the New Nigger.

Chicago Transit Authority sues to restore billions in federal funding (Gregory Svirnovskiy/Politico)  Because, as we all know, funding local transportation is TOTALLY the responsibility of the Federal government—and the Federal taxpayer.

Trump Erupts in Fury Over His War Failures–and Exposes a Big Weakness (Greg Sargent/New Republic)  Gred Sargent loses his shit.

Trump Thinks Cuba is Another Venezuela. Here’s Why He’s Wrong (Achy Obejas/Politico)

Trump’s Iran War Drive Exposes Limits of ‘Yes Sir’ Cabinet (Bloomberg)

Newsbusters.

When a military expert’s opinion is different than a politician’s, how are fact-checkers like PolitiFact supposed to adjudicate the politician’s claim? If a Friday article by Zoe Weyand is anything to go by, the answer is not at all, or at least if the politician is Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. However, Weyand’s standard for giving Warren a “true” rating for a recent claim she made about President Trump is different than the one PolitiFact has traditionally applied to Republicans.

Warren claimed that Trump has dropped more bombs on more countries than any president in the modern era, which was defined as since 9/11. In the “If your time is short” summary, Weyand wrote, “From the start of his first term to now, Trump has authorized military strikes in 10 countries, more than any other president in the 21st century. He has also authorized a higher number of military strikes than any other modern president.”

However, she also observed how “An expert said the use of ground troops is a better way to analyze military activity. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush deployed a far greater number of American troops during their tenures.”

That expert was Mark Cancian, who Weyand described as “a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Defense and Security Department.” Cancian’s opinion that ground forces are a better way to measure military activity did not dissuade Weyand from giving Warren a straight-up true rating, but historically, Republicans have not been given that benefit.

Newsbusters.

As the military uses up expensive weapons in the war with Iran, it naturally seeks to replenish them. However, CNN’s Saturday host of First of All, Victor Blackwell, suggested that the money being used to protect our troops means that the government isn’t concerned with “you” as he rattled off several welfare programs he claimed the money should go to instead.

 

Newsbusters.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is a case study in liberal media hypocrisy regarding intervention in the Middle East. His opinions on the Iraq War (led by Republican president George W. Bush) were hateful, but when Democratic president Barack Obama invaded Libya (also without congressional approval), a newly war-mongering Kristof beamed that we were (yes) greeted as liberators. Now with Donald Trump in charge, going to war in the Middle East is once again dangerous and bad.

Kristof’s March 18 column, “How Trump Should Extricate Himself From His Iran Quagmire,” opened “The ongoing debate about whether the Iran war will become a quagmire misses the point. President Trump and America are already in one.”

In his March 14 column, “Does Trump Risk Turning America Into a Rogue State?” he lamented (after forward United Nation’s lies about Israel targeting children in Gaza): “Now in Iran, I fear we may be retreating even further from the principles we once proclaimed, loosening the shackles that civilized nations place on themselves to protect our shared humanity.”

Newsbusters.

The media’s love for Republicans who become Democrats is not confined to the Trump era. Before the Trump era there was former GOP senator-turned Obama Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, and he joined CNN International/PBS anchor Christiane Amanpour on Thursday’s Amanpour and Company to discuss current Secretary Pete Hegseth’s record as a wartime leader. As Amanpour invented a non-existent scandal about executing prisoners of war, Hagel alleged the U.S. is “manufacturing a whole new generation of young terrorists in the Middle East.”

No, Islam is manufacturing a whole new generation of terrorists in the Middle East. It does so automatically.

Newsbusters.

On Saturday’s The Weekend: Primetime, MS NOW co-host Catherine Rampell made a stunning admission, recalling that 90 percent of the anti-Semitic hate mail she receives comes from the left. This revelation came as she made an unusual effort to provide balance during a segment focused on anti-Semitism within the Republican party.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

As left-leaning New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg appeared to discuss her recent article on the subject, she accused President Donald Trump of causing a surge in anti-Semitism in young Republicans:

Proglodyte Projection: When the Left accuses you of doing they they do … and when they accuse you of planning to do what they’re planning to do.

The Telegraph (UK).

Dozens gathered outside The Guardian’s glass-fronted headquarters on Wednesday, holding up banners and placards showing Nazis persecuting Jews and calling for an end to what they called “the new hate movement”.

Many also had a more unlikely symbol of protest: coffee cups and bags from Gail’s bakery.

The Guardian has been plunged into a fresh anti-Semitism storm amid claims the newspaper is minimising racism against Jews.

Newsbusters.

Note to the British socialists at The Guardian: Smashing up the windows of Jewish-linked establishments does not have a glorious history.

Jonathan Liew’s offensive column in the often-offensive far-left U.K. newspaper The Guardian is introduced this way: “A corner of north London where food has become a battleground in the Israel-Gaza war — A smashed window here, a provocative sticker there. In an age when protest feels increasingly meaningless, it’s no wonder that acts of petty symbolism are on the rise.”

The “smashed window” subhead refers to the violent vandalism suffered by a newly opened branch of Gail’s, an upscale bakery chain in the United Kingdom. Liew, who has a pattern of anti-Jewish columns, casually passed along why Gail’s windows had been shattered in the name of Palestine. The column’s timing makes it even nastier, in the wake of attacks on Jewish schools in Europe and a synagogue in the United States.

But first came a self-conscious, densely detailed description of a meal at the nearby sainted Palestinian café, which comes off like a Pete Wells food review suffering indigestion.

Newsbusters.

Monday’s PBS News Hour fell into the footsteps of its fellow public media outlet NPR, raising alarm over purported “hateful rhetoric” by the Republican Party against Muslims. The online title: “Anti-Islamic rhetoric from GOP politicians sparks concerns over religious hatred.”

The opening graphic behind co-anchor Geoff Bennett read “Islamophobia in America.” Yes, after weeks of attacks on Jews and others by Muslims, “Islamophobia” remains the thing the elitist press wants to discuss.

Read it.

Ayman Mohamad Ghazali tried to kill Jewish kids after ramming his truck into a synagogue, but ended up burning inside his own truck before shooting himself.

The media went out in full force to explain away Ghazali’s actions by letting the public know that Israeli had killed some of his family members in an airstrike.

They made sure to include that fact that two children were reportedly killed in that airstrike.

Curiously missing from such headlines, however, was the fact that Ghazali’s brothers who were killed served with designated terror group Hezbollah.

Imagine how peaceful the world would be if the Religion of Peace didn’t exist.

Imagine how much you would know if the Narrative Media reported actual news.

‘New York Times’ Retracts Story Due To Several Accuracies (Babylon Bee)

The Atlantic, a Voice of the Crust.

The window for Donald Trump to end the Iran war by simply declaring victory and walking away is rapidly closing. Soon he will face a stark choice: He can take greater risks in pursuit of a decisive tactical success, prepare the country for a prolonged conflict that could last for many months, or seek a negotiated settlement that involves a real compromise with Tehran.

There is no ‘compromise with Tehran’ because Tehran has proven repeatedly that they can’t be trusted. Iran cannot support terrorism surrogates like Hamas and Hezbollah without money, real money, Western hard currency, and that requires them to sell oil. Once Israel and the U.S. have destroyed their armed forces, their security forces, any portion of their government that crawls out of its holes, and their ability to extract and refine oil, they will have no capability to support terrorism or (more important) build nuclear weapons. That destruction is now underway.

We have ben at war with Iran since they invaded our embassy 47 years ago; the problem has always been that they have been fighting that war and we haven’t. Trump decided to start fighting back, and the Muslim-appeasers and hand-wringers in the Narrative Media keep hoping that their long faces and wagging fingers will get him to quit. That never worked before, and it won’t work now.

Newsbusters.

On Sunday’s The Weekend, MS NOW co-host Jonathan Capehart stretched to link anti-Muslim comments by Republicans to recent terrorist attacks at a Michigan synagogue and at Old Dominion University, even though Muslims were the perpetrators and not the victims in both cases.

Co-host Eugene Daniels began the segment by reading from a couple of recent statements by Republican members of Congress that were critical of Muslims, and then complained about how House Speaker Mike Johnson responded as the MS NOW host recalled: “And I think the thing that is like concerning — frustrating all the words is that like the leadership of the party has said nothing.” When co-host Jackie Alemany noted Johnson said something, Daniels said “he added to it!”

…

Without mentioning that the perpetrators of recent terrorist attacks were Muslims, Capehart concluded: “But we just saw this week incidents — the synagogue in Michigan, a shooting at Old Dominion. Like, these words, this moment that we’re in can have very real consequences for people.”

Newsbusters.

Someone should do a wellness check on The New York Times. Looks like its journos read the portents wrong — AGAIN — on another one of its apocalyptic prognostications on the economic consequences of President Donald Trump taking out the Islamist regime in Iran.

Times business reporter Emmett Lindner nonsensically tried to dig up the corpse of the 1970s oil price shock following the Yom Kippur War as a comparative case study to what is transpiring around the Persian Gulf as Israel and the U.S. decimate Iran’s war machine. “Echoes of the ’70s in What’s Now the Largest Oil Shock Ever,” read Lindner’s overdramatic March 13 headline.

Lindner even had the temerity to suggest that the Iran War of 2026 was “worse” than the 1973-74 energy crisis, which was marked by a plethora of factors, which included the following: Bad domestic policy, dollar devaluation, and an oil embargo imposed by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).

“Certainly, oil and gasoline prices are soaring,” cried Lindner like a soothsayer throwing fits as he pours over the portents. “The 1973 embargoed oil accounted for about 7 percent of global oil consumption, and targeted only a handful of nations … Now, closer to 20 percent of the world’s supply is threatened, and the disruption is caused by a war that has no end in sight.”

Lindner’s scareporn had a shelf life of about 3 days, as U.S. oil prices (WTI crude) would plummet over five percent back under $100 to $93.54, leading Wall Street toward having its best day since the war began, as the Associated Press reported March 16. As popular trading account NoLimitGains posted on X the same day, “Traders are betting this [war] ends soon.”

Read it.

he White House has responded to former CNN host Don Lemon’s suggestion that President Donald Trump opposes the First Amendment and should be disinvited to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“President Trump is the most transparent and accessible President in American history to the media and his return to the White House saved the legacy media from going out of business,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told The Daily Signal in a statement Monday.

“There has never been a greater champion of the First Amendment than Donald J. Trump who has implemented an unprecedented expansion of press access to cover him,” Ingle added. “Don Lemon is a low ratings loser that no one takes seriously.”

That about sums it up.

Read it.

On today’s installment of ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, a preferred media narrative was laid waste in real time. A retired Navy admiral exposed the ridiculousness of the notion, pushed heavily across the Elitist Media, that military planners somehow failed to plan for contingencies along the Strait of Hormuz.

Watch as former Fifth Fleet Commander Kevin Donegan (VADM, USN-RET) tells ABC’s Martha Raddatz that such contingencies were “built into it from the beginning”.

The New York Times, paper of record of the Crust.

Jon Feldhammer, like many Californians, often passes canvassers holding clipboards at the grocery store or on his commute to work. They’re part of an effort to collect the nearly 900,000 signatures required to put a proposed state billionaire tax on the ballot in November.

But Feldhammer isn’t tempted to add his name to the list: He’s on the other side of the fight.

A partner at the law firm Baker Botts, Feldhammer is one of the many high-powered lawyers, lobbyists and business leaders working against the initiative, which would place a one-time 5 percent levy on Californians with a net worth north of 1 billion dollars.

Needless to say, this article merely repeats the same old tropes: Wealth inequality is a Bad Thing per se and somehow (never specified) being wealthy is oppressing the non-wealthy; wealthy people, no matter how much they do pay, are never paying their ‘fair share’ (said fair share never specified); if the wealthy pay a lesser percentage of their income in tax, they are somehow ‘cheating’, whether or not that payment complies with the tax laws.

Some people are just congenitally butt-hurt if someone else has something that they don’t. There is a reason that Envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Case in point: It’s Good to Be a Billionaire, Even at Tax Time (also New York Times), which rings the changes on the Fair Share smear. His other assertion, that The Rich ‘play by a different set of rules’ and take advantage of ‘loopholes that aren’t available to the rest of us’, is just a bare-faced lie—the Tax Code is the Tax Code, and the same Tax Code applies to everybody—what he calls ‘loopholes’ were deliberately put in the Tax Code (by people smarter than him) so as to encourage the sort of investment that leads to productivity, economic growth, and (oh, by the way) more jobs.

Newsbusters.

National “Public” Radio can NOT find the story of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji putting “Likes” on pages celebrating the October 7 massacre in Israel. But it CAN find stories where Mamdani is the victim of cruel Republican social media posts. GOP ‘Islamophobia’ is hot news, and Muslim Democrat antisemitism is not.

And that’s why we call it ‘Narrative Media’. They have a point of view and they push it continuously.

Newsbusters.

As the war in the Middle East rages, let’s take a pause and a walk back through some history of the media and America at war.

Let’s start specifically with the war in Vietnam.

As someone (ahem!) old enough to recall the media coverage of the Vietnam War there is plenty to remember. And specifically to remember the slow and then rapid change of pace with the media of the day going from supportive to questioning to an outright anti-war coverage that was televised nightly into American living rooms.

So much did the media coverage of the war become a hot and then hotter topic in the day that it has even earned its own space in places like the Encyclopedia Britannica.

• “Verified by NBC News” = Trust me, bro.
• “Adding evidence, experts say, that an American missile likely hit…” = We have no actual proof.
• “…hit a compound once home to a military base” = This is a buried lede, please don’t pay attention to it.
• “Weapons expert Jeffrey Lewis” = Here’s a left-leaning DC thinktank nerd to make our scant evidence seem more concrete than it is.
• “4 other weapons experts, who agree” = Trust me bro, Part Dos.
• “NBC News spoke on the phone with a father who said his 8-year-old daughter, Zahra, was killed…” = Let’s end with a sad story of a random Iranian man so the audience really hates Trump.

Read it.

The scientific community has seriously betrayed the American public, and their reliability and reputation are in jeopardy as a result of the deceptions and fraudulent acts they have perpetrated. After the poor guidance and literal lies that the members of medicine and science have told us over the last few years, we have to ponder: where do we go for the truth?

There are many reasons for science taking a deceptive approach to their research, and by exploring them, we may learn how to overcome their compulsion to misrepresent their results.

Newsbusters.

The hits just kept coming for CNN this week. Amid criticism of the network’s biased reporting from Iran, bias about the conflict, and how they got access to the country, two high-ranking CNN officials were caught at the Iranian Embassy in London attending a celebration for the founding of the Islamic regime. Additionally, the daytime edition of CNN News Central on Thursday aired four-uninterrupted minutes of Iranian state television delivering a purported written statement from the latest ayatollah, who’s in a coma.

On March 12, the U.K.-based newspaper The Telegraph published an article about the unfolding scandal engulfing Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government where his Foreign Ministry attended a February 12 celebration at the Iranian Embassy to mark the founding of the Islamic Republic. The party was happening at the same time they were slaughtering thousands of their own citizens in the streets. The newspaper reported:

UPDATE: In the hours since NewsBusters put a spotlight on the imagine of CNN officials at the Iranian Embassy shared by The Telegraph, the newspaper has removed the image from the story. You can still see the image below.

Newsbusters.

ABC News, already the worst among the Elitist Media broadcast network evening newscasts, may have plumbed a new low. A story subject’s murderous, transgender father was hit with Disney pixie dust and spun into the more anodyne “former family member.”

Newsbusters.

Only a handful of right-leaning stories slipped through Google News’s iron grip on information domination. While the tech giant pushed 314 left-leaning stories, its gatekeepers only permitted 11 right-leaning articles to make the occasional appearance in the platform’s morning editions last month.

MRC uncovered that just 2% of Google News’s top morning stories in February came from sources rated right-leaning by media ratings firm AllSides. Google’s leftist bias is only further underscored by the fact that it completely shut out right-leaning outlets for over half the month.

Why Voters Might Finally Blame Trump for Rising Costs (New York Times) They hope, they hope, they hope….

The White House isn’t panicking about oil prices. That may change in a few weeks. (Politico)  They hope, they hope, they hope….

The contracting mess Noem’s leaving behind at DHS (Brittany Gibson/Axios)

3/11/26?? AM: … Dragged by President Donald Trump into another war in the Middle East … (Punchbowl News)

The Trump DOJ is giving guns back to felons, including one alleged fake elector (Jaclyn Diaz/NPR)

Democrats ask what happened to millions earmarked for Trump’s library (Washington Post)  As if it were any of their business.

Bondi Moves to Military Housing Amid Threats From Cartels, Critics

Behind the Curtain: America’s big lie (Axios)  Well, nobody would know better than Axios about Big Lies.

Trump Is the Anti-Trump ??? There is an alternate universe in which Donald Trump is the popular … (Jamelle Bouie/New York Times)

Iran Sleeper Cells ‘Activated’; Threaten To “Eliminate” Trump

How Trump’s War on Iran Is Hastening the Coming MAGA Crack-Up (Greg Sargent/New Republic)  Greg Sargent loses his shit.

Meyers, Wallace Claim Iran War Is ‘A Stab In The Back’ To MAGA  As if they had any clue.

Iran war flummoxes some Trump media allies (Jared Gans/The Hill)  Not to mention most of the Narrative Media.

Trump’s Delusions Come at Americans’ Expense (Jennifer Rubin/The Contrarian)  Jennifer Rubin loses her shit.

The Obvious Is Taking Its Revenge on Trump (Franklin Foer/The Atlantic)  More accurately, the oblivious, in the form of the hand-wringers in the Narrative Media.

The media is structurally pro-Trump (Elias Isquith/The Necessary Fictions)  An obvious looney.

FURIOUS SPIN: OK, Trump Tariffs Didn’t Cause Inflation Doom We Forecast, but Iran War!

AI error or not, Iran school bombing is a permanent stain on America’s soul (Will Bunch/The Philadelphia Inquirer)  Will Bunch loses his shit, but not his admiration for Obama.

Another U.S. Military Service Member Dies in Iran Operations, Bringing Total to 7  Fewer than the number who died in the terrorist bombing of U.S.S. Cole in 2000.

Wisconsin Man Who Killed Parents To Fund ‘Satanic’ Trump Assassination Attempt Sentenced

NO SURPRISE: ABC Sunday Panel Unanimously Dumps on Operation Epic Fury

Trump told us who he was in 2012. Will we finally believe him today? (Marc Elias/Democracy Docket)

RINO Alert: Defense: Murkowski savages GOP over Iran (Punchbowl News)

NYT’s Sanger, Deep State’s Bertrand Wildly Insist Iran Was Not an Imminent Threat

Schumer: Release Oil Reserves to Counter Rising Gas Prices

Conscientious Objector Group: Phone ‘Ringing Off Hook’ As Huge Mobilization Underway

ABC’s Unscientific Attack on Trump and CO2

Are Latinos Staying at Home Out of Fear of Trump?

The German Elite’s Anti-Americanism

Trump Sons Back New Drone Company Targeting Pentagon Sales (Heather Somerville/Wall Street Journal)  Unlike Biden’s sons, Trump’s sons actually have business skills.

Sen. Chris Murphy Says Democrats Need to Block Legislation Until There’s an Iran War Authorization Vote (Nora Toscano/NOTUS)  Let’s see: Less legislation => Less Democrat porkbarrel spending => Less waste, fraud and abuse. Yeah, I’m good with that.

Dem Leaders Can’t Explain Past Support For Unilateral Presidential War Powers

Trump Cabinet Members Allegedly Buying Nuclear Bunkers  Always a good idea, with the Democrats run by cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

Trump’s Weird Fetish for Discount Dress Shoes Revealed (Leigh Kimmins/The Daily Beast)  The very best of American high-school ‘journalism’.

Trump’s Venezuela strategy has failed in Iran (Gideon Rachman/Financial Times)  Looks pretty successful so far.

Read it.

The BBC has been caught yet again manipulating comments from the Trump administration to radically alter their meaning.

During a March 2 press conference about the war in Iran, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that the United States is bringing death to the same regime that chanted “death to America.”

BBC Persia, however, substituted the word ‘people’ for ‘regime’ – fundamentally changing Hegseth’s meaning to sound like America was targeting all Iranians vs. the regime.

No doubt the BBC considers the two words synonymous.

Democrats join legal challenge to Trump’s planned 250-foot arch (Dan Diamond/Washington Post)

House Democrat seeks to bar Trump from closing Kennedy Center for renovations (Ryan Mancini/The Hill)

With Healthcare Fueling U.S. Jobs, More Trouble Ahead Due To Trump Cuts (Bruce Japsen/Forbes)  Because, as we all know, funding health care is TOTALLY the responsibility of the Federal government—and the Federal taxpayer. (The question no ‘journalist’ asks: Hey, maybe if we reduced taxes people would be able to pay for their own health care?)

As Trump Focuses on Cuba, DOJ Seeks Charges Against Its Leaders (New York Times)

Pam Bondi’s Ludicrous New Scheme to Protect Lying DOJ Lawyers (Slate)

Mills: Trump Admin “Reveling In The Carnage” As Tehran Burns

DOJ releases Epstein files with accusations against Trump (Miami Herald) Epstein! Epstein! Epstein!

Trump has privately shown serious interest in U.S. ground troops in Iran (NBC News)  We have no proof, so we’ll just insinuate….

Newsbusters.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s presidential campaign trial run masquerading as a book tour took him to Katie Couric’s Next Question podcast on Thursday, where she expressed concern over Newsom’s reputation as “slick.” During that portion of the episode, the former CBS and NBC anchor would ask such difficult questions as “Are you just ridiculously good-looking?” and wonder if that plays into concerns about his authenticity.

He’s a Democrat. No Democrat has ‘authenticity’, they are all The Joker in Clever Plastic Disguises.

Newsbusters.

During an interview on Wednesday’s Ana Cabrera Reports, the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister confirmed key details of a Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s interview on FOX News where he stated the Iranians claimed to have enough material for eleven nuclear bombs, a statement that MS NOW rushed to report was false based on an “anonymous Gulf diplomat.”

On Monday, Witkoff said “the Iranian negotiators said to us, directly, with, you know, no shame that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60 percent, and they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs and that was the beginning of their negotiating stance.”

MS NOW’s senior national security reporter David Rohde reported last night that Witkoff’s claims were false and went on Morning Joe the next morning to parrot the anonymous diplomat’s claims.

Newsbusters.

CNN’s Erin Burnett displayed some bizarre and problematic moral equivalency on Wednesday as she hosted OutFront from Tel Aviv, Israel. Recapping the days’ events, she sought to compare an American submarine sinking an Iranian destroyer to Iran bombing neutral countries as proof the conflict is “escalating.”

Burnett began, “This as the war is escalating tonight, as I speak, 10 countries across northern Europe, northern Europe, you heard me right, are preparing a plan right now to evacuate civilians across borders amid this war with Iran that is now spreading thousands of miles from where it began, in Khamenei’s compound in the center of Tehran Saturday morning.”

Newsbusters.

As the U.S. and Israel war against Iran enters Day 4, the PBS News Hour continues to rely on coverage sympathetic to the murderous regime pro-regime from “special correspondent” Reza Sayah.

Judge: Trump Effort to End NYC Congestion Pricing Unlawful

Smoothie King fires employees who refused to serve couple with Trump merchandise (Brady Knox/Washington Examiner)

Trump’s MAGA base wrestles with Iran strikes launched by an ‘America First’ president (Matt Dixon/NBC News)  No, they don’t. They’re behind him. Narrative Media sock-puppets just don’t want to believe it. (Why didn’t we do this to Iran long ago?)

New Jersey Faces Structural Deficit Crisis And Democrats Blame Trump

The Trump administration still can’t decide why it’s doing this (Cameron Peters/Vox)  Sure they did, you just can’t admit it.

Trump is running out of time to sell his rationale for Iran war (Politico)  He’s got three years left.

House Dems fume at Trump admin’s “bullsh*t” Iran briefing (Andrew Solender/Axios)  Fuming is about all they’re good for.

Jeffrey Sachs: ‘Trump Is An Utter Disgrace To Our Nation – He Lied To Us’

O’Donnell Suggests Trump’s Military Operates like Hitler’s WW2 Forces

Texas primary shows that MAGA loves a villain (Amanda Marcotte/Salon)  Amanda Marcotte loses her shit. No, MAGA doesn’t so much love a villain as hate a RINO. Amanda, of course, hasn’t the wit to perceive that.

So much for affordability: Trump’s war with Iran exposes the deceit of ‘America First’ (Max Burns/The Hill)

Right-wing pundits want Trump to heal the MAGA rift over the Iran war via the mass deportation of American Muslims (Matt Gertz/Media Matters for America)  Sounds like a plan.

Trump’s War on Iran Could Screw Over US Farmers (Molly Taft/Wired)  As if anybody who writes for WIRED knows shit about farming.

Read it.

Indeed, they are not.

Iran is not Venezuela as much as Trump wants it to be (Politico)

Death toll rises in Trump’s ‘Epic Fury’ military campaign (Ellen Mitchell/Associated Press)  Soon they may match the typical transgender or Muslim mass shooting.

Trump: Dems Would Back Iran Strike If Not Done By Me Of course they would; who doesn’t know that?

Witnesses Describe Horror Scene After “Double-Tap” Bombing Kills Over 20 at Popular Tehran Square (Drop Site News)  You’d think they would jihadist terrorists or something.

Doctors Sound Alarm on White House ‘Secrecy’ Over Trump’s Neck Rash (Laura Esposito/The Daily Beast)  Maybe they ought to worry about him getting athlete’s foot, too. I mean, all that golf….

Can Donald Trump Win a War with Iran If He Can’t Explain Why He Started It? (Susan B. Glasser/New Yorker)  Yes.

MAGA Already Hates Trump’s Iran War (Will Sommer/The Bulwark)  As if anyone writing for the Bullshitwark has a clue as to what MAGA hates. (Hint: The Bullshitwark.)

MS NOW Itches for High Casualties to Hurt Trump, All Operation Plans

U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” Return of Jesus (Jonathan Larsen/Jonathan Larsen’s …)  Ah, ah, ah, ah, yankin’ their chains, yankin’ their chains….

Box-Cutter Thug Gets 16.5 Years In Prison After Framing Immigrant With Fake Trump Death Threats

‘Pretty Bad for Vance’: The VP’s Silence on Iran Peeves Allies (Ian Ward/Politico)  Boy, this molehill sure looks like a mountain if you squint properly.

Clinton says Trump told him of ‘some great times’ with Jeffrey Epstein (Andy Sullivan/Reuters)  Epstein! Epstein! Epstein!

Is America sliding into autocracy | FT #shorts

Rubio’s war remarks blow open MAGA’s Israel divide (Axios)

Trump’s Iran War and the Article One crisis (Lisa Needham/Public Notice) What crisis?

Minnesota Sues Trump Admin Over $243M Medicaid Freeze

Donald Trump’s dangerous ‘war of whim’ (Edward Luce/Financial Times)  The Financial Times is what the Wall Street Journal would be if it were run by the staff of Mother Jones.

Pete Hegseth’s Crazed, Angry Tirades on Iran Give Dems a Big Opening (Greg Sargent/New Republic)  Greg Sargent loses his shit.

We’re witnessing the birth of the Trump Doctrine (Marc A. Thiessen/Washington Post)  At least that’s what we’re going to tell you.

In Plunging Into a Mideast Conflict, Trump Gambles His Presidency (Tyler Pager/New York Times)  A gamble that no Democrat would risk, even one that was compos mentis, as Joe Biden notoriously was not.

On MS NOW, Reza Aslan Compares ‘Authoritarian’ Trump to Iran Regime

In Anti-Trump Rant, Politico Finally Admits Biden Administration Was ‘Dysfunctional’

Comedy Shows Claim Iran War Is a Distraction From Epstein  EpsteinQ Epstein! Epstein!

What Is the Point of This War? ??? A vignette from the end of the U.S.-led global order, per Reuters: (William Kristol/The Bulwark)  Wonder of wonders: Bill Krisol has found a war he doesn’t like. History is being made.

FAKE NEWS: ABC’s Bruce Falsely Claims Rubio Said Israel Dragged U.S. into Iran War

Chris Hayes Compares Trump Bombing Iran to 9/11 Terrorists

Trump has cornered himself with his war in Iran (Sidney Blumenthal/The Guardian)  Didn’t know that Sid Vicious was still alive. He and Robert Reich must have a lot to talk about.

TechDirt.

You might recall that when political news website Semafor entered the media industry on the back of $25 million in private money, they made all kinds of promises about how they were somehow going to revolutionize U.S. media. In reality most of their promises were relatively inane, and it didn’t take long before the outlet demonstrated it was primarily interested in propping up the status quo.

Case in point: one of the very first things the outlet did is start hosting “Restoring Trust In Media” annual conferences. Except each year they make it a priority to unironically validate, normalize and platform a lot of the people actively working to undermine trust in news. Like former Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson the first year, and overt bigot Megyn Kelly last year.

Semafor keeps being criticized for not only not helping to “restore trust in media,” but for actively making the problem worse. But they keep doubling down. This year’s event, for example, is a who’s who of people that have made U.S. media immeasurably less trustworthy over the last year

Newsbusters.

Did you know that a historic and symbolic landmark of the nation’s capital was recently vandalized by an individual currently sought after by the FBI? If the story escaped your attention, thank the Big Four News Apps — Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News — which largely ignored the attack, only featuring one article on the story over four days.

On Feb. 20, Fox News exclusively reported that the Trump-Kennedy Center had been subjected to an alleged act of vandalism after a suspect poured a “toxic,” dark substance onto an outdoor ice rink earlier that morning. The attack marked a major escalation of violence on a federal property, particularly one that holds national significance.

The Media Research Center examined the Big Four News Apps to determine whether they featured the vandalism story among their top 20 headlines during the mornings of Feb. 21 through Feb. 24. The results were telling.

Read it.

In a rare moment, Israel is confirming at least nine people killed and over 40 injured after an Iranian ballistic missile slammed into a residential area west of Jerusalem on Sunday afternoon.

The missile impact was in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, and according to Israeli media destroyed a synagogue and even caused damage to a bomb shelter beneath surrounding homes. There’s a likelihood that the death toll throughout the country will climb given Tehran’s ongoing massive retaliation.

“The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it declared the deaths of eight victims at the scene and took 28 others to hospitals, two in serious condition,” Times of Israel reports. “The death of the ninth victim was declared a short time later.”

“Significant”? By what standard?

More people died in the mob that attempted to storm the U.S. Consulate in Pakistan. Almost as many died in the Islam-inspired mass shooting in Austin, Texas. Eight times as many casualties occurred in the famous Oct. 7 Hanas terror raid that the Narrative Media are so studiously ignoring, while trumpeting the perfectly understandable Israeli retaliation in Gaza as a “genocide”.

I guess “significant” is in the eye of the propagandist….

Newsbusters.

Near the end of Thursday’s edition of The Lead, host Jake Tapper boosted an election theft conspiracy pushed by The Washington Post, which erroneously claimed President Trump was going to issue an emergency declaration to steal the midterm elections. Tapper even brought on the senior White House reporter to wrote the story, Isaac Arnsdorf to help give the accusations weight. But Republican commentator Shermichael Singleton blew up the accusations with a phone call.

“President Trump could then use that claim [of China election interference] as a basis to declare a national emergency, which then theoretically could open the door for him to exert extraordinary presidential power over the voting process in this year’s midterm elections,” Tapper prefaced as he began to rhetorically pull out the red twine.

After being given the floor to explain what his source told him, Arnsdorf disclosed that the proposal DID NOT come from the White House but rather someone who claimed to have spoken to the White House about it.

Newsbusters.

he State of the Union speech is an effective annual exercise to measure how journalists feel about a long speech on national TV by Donald Trump. They hate it intensely, like most children hate broccoli. They would like to scrape that steaming plate into the garbage.

The New York Times published a front-page editorial by White House reporter Katie Rogers – lamely labeled as “News Analysis.” It came under the headline “Casting Democrats as Villains, Trump Produces a Spectacle.” You can sense their outrage. Nobody should darkly cast Democrats as villains, especially the people Democrats relentlessly suggest are authoritarians out to end our democracy, but only after they starve children and close hospitals.

Like a good Democrat, Rogers insisted Republicans find themselves in a “politically treacherous moment,” while Democrats are “seeing polling moving their way” and “remain confident about the midterm elections.” The usual midterm election trends should inspire confidence, as well as all the partisan “news” products.

Liberal outlets sent out their pollsters to find that Trump has “gone too far” on immigration, taken the country in “the wrong direction,” and has all the wrong “priorities.” Their pollsters are always going to keep the “vibes” high for Democrats and paint dark clouds over the Republicans in any election season. They tried in 2024, but the people ruined it for the pollsters.

They also pile on Republicans with their so-called “independent fact-checkers.” They pounce relentlessly on Trump, aerobically implying to the public that you can’t believe a word Trump says about anything. They’re trying to put the oomph behind this Jimmy Fallon joke: “Trump’s speech focused on his major accomplishments, and when those eight seconds were up, he just riffed for an hour and a half.”

Democrats Counter Trump With Their Own Plan to Limit Wall Street Landlords (Matthew Goldstein/New York Times)

Just 32% of Americans say Trump has right priorities, new poll finds, ahead of State of the Union speech – live (Lauren Gambino/Press Association)  Or so they would have you believe.

Fresh Off a Supreme Court Loss, Trump Could Face New Challenges on Tariffs (New York Times)

FACT FOCUS: A look at Trump’s false and misleading claims ahead of the State of the Union (Melissa Goldin/Associated Press)

How to stop a dictator ??? Just over a year into President Donald Trump’s first term … (Zack Beauchamp/Vox)

SOTU: Democrats Erupt After Trump Mentions ‘Somali Pirates’ And Sanctuary Cities

GOP lawmaker quietly questioned ‘disturbing’ East Wing demolition (Washington Post)

Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against New Jersey for Interfering with Federal Immigration Laws (US Department of Justice)

Trump Is Turning the F.C.C. and F.T.C. Against Free Expression (New York Times)

After Trump threats, Canadian military recruits surge (Mike Blanchfield/Politico)  Good luck with that. As the EU quickly discovered,  a rampant welfare state has very little money left over for defense.

Trump DOJ Sues N.J. Over ICE Ban on State Property

Dems demand probe of Trump’s SAVE America Act website (Jim Saksa/Democracy Docket)  Democrats are just full of ‘demands’.

Missing Epstein files include interviews with alleged Trump accuser (Lisa Rubin/MS NOW)  Alleged! That proves it!

Trump Is on the Verge of War. Previous Presidents Did It Differently. (Jeff Greenfield/Politico)

Ranking Member Robert Garcia Statement After Department of Justice Withheld Epstein Files, Includes Allegation President Donald Trump Sexually Abused a Minor

Charles Kushner adds to Trump’s growing ambassador drama (Avery Lotz/Axios)

Summer Lee Knows the Real State of the Union (John Nichols/The Nation)

Democrats to probe DOJ’s alleged withholding of Epstein files on Trump (Hailey Fuchs/Politico)  Lot of allegations wandering around these days.

ABC Hurls Deluge of Trump Hate Ahead of SOTU, CBS Goes Hard on GOP But Soft on Dems  Which is sort of their job, by all the evidence.

RINO Alert: Two GOP Reps plan to join Dems in SOTU Epstein protests (Andrew Solender/Axios)

Democrats Will Try Not To Act Like Children During Trump’s State Of The Union Address  I predict that they will fail.

Maryland Sues To Stop DHS From Converting Empty Warehouse Into ICE Facility

No. 2 House Democrat won’t attend State of the Union (Mia McCarthy/Politico)  Sadness fills the universe….

RINO Alert: Khanna, Massie to sit together during Trump’s State of the Union (Gregory Svirnovskiy/Politico)

This South Texas region flipped for Trump. Now it’s seeing red over his immigration policies. (Suzanne Gamboa/NBC News)

LAME: ABC, NBC Try to Trap Hughes Family Over Trump Inviting Hockey Team to SOTU

Dem Lawmakers Boycotting SOTU to Attend Counter Events

Trump cites health care issues in Greenland saying he’s sending a hospital ship. His claims are off (Associated Press)

Ahead of SOTU, Dems demand Trump makes Iran plans public (Joe Gould/Politico)  Yet more Democrat demands. Good luck with that.

We asked 2,300 Americans about the best and worst things Trump has done. (Washington Post)  All Democrats, of course, and focusing on the worst.

John Roberts Is Losing Patience With Trump (Linda Greenhouse/New York Times)  Narrative Media mind-readers are on the case.

Watch: TDS-Riddled De Niro Sobs In Tears Over Trump  The tears of our enemies are sweet.

15 States Sue Trump Admin Over Changes to Childhood Vaccine Policy  Because, as we all know, vaccine policy is TOTALLY the responsibility of the Federal government—and the Federal taxpayer.

Leftist Media Outraged After USA Olympic Hockey Team Goes Pro-MAGA

Trump’s favorite falsehoods: What to watch for in the State of the Union (Glenn Kessler/MS NOW)  TDS will certainly be on display.

Ro Khanna’s State of the Union guest recruited over 20 underage girls for Epstein: ‘Like Heidi Fleiss’ (Fox News)

Dozens of FBI records apparently missing from Epstein files, including Trump accuser interviews (CNN)

Rep. Al Green again escorted out of chamber after protest (Politico)

Dems tap ICE detainees, suspected illegal immigrants as guests for Trump’s speech: DHS (Fox News)  Demcorats: Party of Criminals. (California Allocates $35 Million To Aid Illegal Immigrants)

Rep. Ilhan Omar invites constituents ‘traumatized’ by Minnesota ICE raids to State of the Union 2026 (Ryan King/New York Post)

Pugnacious Trump sticks to the script (Politico)

Live updates: Trump touts campaign of mass deportation at State of the Union (Associated Press)  Hey, if you’re trying to get rid of 25 to 30 million illegal aliens, that’s by definition ‘mass deportation’.

Rep. Al Green Escorted Out of Trump’s State of the Union for Second Year in a Row (Amelia Benavides-Colón/NOTUS)  Playing to the partisan crowd.

Spanberger slams Trump on ‘affordability’ in SOTU response — as Virginia Democrats push new taxes (Fox News)

Jake Tapper Clutches His Pearls Over Trump Calling Dems ‘Crazy’ and Omits Why

Actor Robert De Niro SEETHES: ‘Our Country’s Not So Lovable Right Now’

What Hath Trump Wrought (Jamelle Bouie/New York Times)

Trump Puts On a Show, Casting Democrats as the Villains (Katie Rogers/New York Times)

What Trump got right — and wrong — last night (Politico)

Donald Trump’s SOTU Speech Least Popular This Century: Poll (Sam Stevenson/Newsweek) And if you believe that one, they’ll tell you another one.

A SOTU Like No Other — So little truth, so much time — Well, that was exhausting — or would have been, if I had watched it. (Paul Krugman)  The vacuum speaks.

The Trump boys are Making Corruption Great Again (Liz Dye/Public Notice)  The best of American high-school journalism.

Trump’s Dangerous Tariff Addiction (Robert J. Shapiro/Washington Monthly)

Why the longest-ever State of the Union address was the most inconsequential (David Smith/The Guardian)

Donald Trump gives unhinged State of the Union rant full of racist attacks, lies and stunts (Daily Record UK)

Trump Hires Team USA Goalie To Guard Southern Border (Babylon Bee)

Congress Confused By State Of Union From President Who Can Talk  (Babylon Bee)

Trump’s ICE Is Quietly Stockpiling Weaponry–and It Should Alarm Us All (Greg Sargent/New Republic) Greg Sargent loses his shit. By ‘us’, of course, he means his fellow proglodytes.

‘A Tedious, Tiresome Performance’: The Best and Worst Moments From Trump’s State of the Union (New York Times)

President Trump’s State of the Union Variety Show (Tom Nichols/The Atlantic)

‘Christmas Message From The Grinch’: Kimmel Pans Trump’s ‘Angry’ SOTU

This Moment of the State of the Union Just Lost the Democrats the Midterms (Matt Margolis/PJ Media)

Mark Kelly stands for illegal immigrants but sits for legal American citizens (Christopher Tremoglie/Washington Examiner)

Donald Trump’s State of the Union Was Long and Wrong (Susan B. Glasser/New Yorker)

Here’s a reality check on Trump’s AI pledge (Politico)

First Draft: ?? Trump’s Very Boring Fascist Rally (Zeteo)  I hope this writer never means a real fascist.

Fascist Failure ??? The State of Trump ??? What is the state of Trump? He is failing at fascism. (Timothy Snyder/Thinking about)

Five Takeaways From Trump’s Plodding, Scattered, and at Times Eerie State of the Union (Talking Points Memo)

Read NPR’s annotated fact check of President Trump’s State of the Union (NPR)

AP Fact-Checks Trump For Claiming The Revolution ‘Still Burns’ In Patriots’ Hearts

Fact check: Trump makes false claims about the economy, elections and crime in State of the Union (CNN)  Unfortunately, all of these Narrative Media ‘fact checks’ tend to bounce because there’s nothing behind them.

Epstein Files Are Missing Records About Woman Who Made Claim Against Trump (New York Times)  Maybe she lied.

Fact-checking Trump’s State of the Union address and more on most shocking moments (CBS News)  Bounce, bounce, bounce….

Democratic Lawmaker: Trump’s Request To Stand For American Citizens “Racist” (Washington Free/The Washington Free …)

Trump’s Epstein Scandal Takes Damning Turn as Dem Drops New Bombshell (New Republic)  More like a fart.

Joe Scarborough’s State of the Union: Trump ‘Did Sh– No Sane President Would Ever Do’

Schumer defends Democrats who didn’t stand during SOTU (Gregory Svirnovskiy/Politico)  Of course he does.

Omar heckles Trump during comments about Somali community (NewsNation)  In Somali, no doubt.

Lessons from the Minnesota’s Civil Contempt Case (Roger Parloff/Lawfare)

Margin of Error? CNN’s Cornish Cites ‘ONE Republican’ to Suggest Trump’s Losing Fans

Hegseth Jokes About Throwing Off Pentagon Pizza Tracking

ABC LOSES IT Over Patel in Milan, Cites Iran, Guthrie for Why He Shouldn’t Have Gone

‘Angel Families’ Return to Washington to Back Up Trump Ahead of State of the Union (Katie Rogers/New York Times)

Trump snubbed as U.S. Women’s Hockey Team declines State of the Union invitation (Aaron Parnas/MeidasTouch News)

The View Hates Patel Partying at Olympics, Demands He Prepare for War With Iran  I wasn’t aware that the FBI had any role in war with Iran.

The Supreme Court Spurns a Presidential Power Grab (Ilya Somin/The Dispatch)  Ilya Somin is a libertarian lawyer who is pretty sound on everything outside of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

NC House candidate fired from community college after calling Charlie Kirk racist (Jane Winik Sartwell/Raleigh News …)

CALIFORNIA CALAMITY: Governor Gavin Newsom Pardons Criminal Illegal Alien Convicted for Attempted Murder and Assault with a Firearm (Department of Homeland Security)

MAGA Attacks Gavin Newsom Over SAT, Reading Remarks in Atlanta (Khaleda Rahman/Newsweek)  There’s that MAGA guy again. He really gets around.

New Polling Data Shows Immigration Enforcement Is Costing Republicans Their Own Voters (Austin Kocher) Or so they would have you believe.

Trump administration expands efforts to dismantle the Education Department (Juan Perez Jr/Politico)

If Forced to Choose, Our Military Leaders Should Follow the Law Not the President–Like Ulysses S. Grant (Kori Schake/The UnPopulist)  Of course; but all this talk of ‘illegal orders’ is designed to leave the impression in people’s minds that Trump is actually giving illegal orders—a proposition for which neither evidence nor argument is given. It’s just hints and innuendo, intended to undermine Trump’s authority without leaving any actual statement for which they can be held accountable. (Jeanine Pirro’s office shelves pursuit of Democrats over social video, sources say (Ryan J. Reilly/NBC News))

Utah Map Decision Could Hand Democrats a Seat

Maryland Sues to Block ICE Detention Facility

Student ICE Protests Lead To Lockdowns, Debate Over Discipline In Pennsylvania Schools

MS NOW Lauds Comparison of ICE to KKK; Allows Lies About ICE Funding

The Trump Administration is Trafficking Pregnant Children to Texas So They Can’t Get Abortions (Jill Filipovic/Throughline)

‘Abolish ICE’ gets most votes in Chicago snowplow-naming contest; ‘Stephen Coldbert’ also a winner (John O’Connor/Associated Press)

Why Won’t the White House Cut Tucker Loose? (Will Sommer/The Bulwark)  Perhaps because the White House doesn’t hate the same people that The Bulwark hates?

Trump Administration Scrambles to Pick Up the Pieces of Broken Tariffs (Ana Swanson/New York Times)

PUBLICITY STUNT: Soros-Funded Fake News Outfit Co-Hosting Anti-Trump SOTU Boycott

Trump on Mar-a-Lago Shooting: ‘Lot of People Gunning for Me’

Nets Continue to Freak Out Over Kash Patel, OMIT White House ‘Angel Mom’ Event

Kash Patel’s Olympic outing sparks scrutiny (Cate Martel/The Hill)

Trump team on damage control after Huckabee comments on Israel (Felicia Schwartz/Politico)

‘A defensive posture’: Trump speaks to Congress on shakier ground than last year (Eli Stokols/Politico)

Trump faces midterms reality check (Politico)

Most Americans say Trump is growing erratic with age, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds (Jason Lange/Reuters)  Come and get your Narrative, hot off the press….

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump (Stephen Fowler/NPR)

Trump is about to start a war he hasn’t bothered to explain (Paul Waldman/Public Notice) Oh, he explained it; you just wouldn’t listen.

What a mission-driven press must do in this time of crisis (Margaret Sullivan/American Crisis)

Meddling with private business need not spiral after Trump (Washington Post)

‘Crisis of his own making’: Donald Trump weighs another war with Iran (Financial Times)

Kimmel Bashes Trump, Daily Show Praises Canadian Health Care After Hockey Wins

Trump Angered by Fresh Slide in Polls as Even Fox Admits He’s Tanking (New Republic)  Or so they would have you believe.

Trump’s Latest Deportation Tactic: Targeting Immigrants With Minor Family Court Cases (Eli Hager/ProPublica)  They’re still ILLEGAL immigrants.

Minnesota faith groups sue DHS over access to immigrant detainees (Paul O’Donnell/RNS)

PBS Hosts Historian Meacham: Trump Is Like McCarthy, Jesse Jackson Kept ‘Hope Alive’

Donald Trump’s state of mind is a global risk (Edward Luce/Financial Times)  The mind-readers of the Narrative Media are on the case.

Why The State Of The Union Boycotters Have It Right (Brian Beutler/Off Message)  It’s less effort than sticking their fingers in their ears and saying NA NA NA NA NA NA NA loudly.

The Movement: How anti-MAGA Republicans are plotting to take back the party (Emily Brooks/The Hill)  Good luck with that.

Attack of the Zombie Tariffs (Paul Krugman)  The vacuum speaks. Krugman quits the pretence of being an economist and puts on his Narrative Media panties.

Trump’s new tariffs are just as illegal as his old tariffs (Judd Legum/Popular Information)  We’ll find out, won’t we?

Plans for proposed ICE facility in Merrimack, N.H., won’t move forward, governor says (Amanda Kaufman/The Boston Globe)

The Unending Trump Tariff Mess (Wall Street Journal)

Trump Stole Your Money. He Won’t Give It Back. (Dan Pfeiffer/The Message Box)  Much like what you want to do to ‘rich’ people.

More Democrats to Ditch Trump’s SOTU Address  Good. Fewer Democrats to indulge in rude and disrespectful performance theater, like Pelosi tearing up her copy of Trump’s speech on national TV.

Report: Trump Just One More Assassination Attempt Away From A Free Third Term  (Babylon Bee)

Read it.

We just saw another tragic shooting in Rhode Island, this time at a high school hockey game. What people want to know in the immediate aftermath of such tragedies is who did it, where, and why—and how many people were injured or died. We instinctively want to know how close it was to us, if it could have happened to us, and if we could avoid a similar fate.

Flying in the face of this human need for truth is the woke legacy media, which puts ideology ahead of facts.

The Daily Mail, a British paper, reported early on that the Pawtucket perpetrator was a trans-identifying man in his 50s, the chief victims his wife and children, and the motive was likely connected with his gender identification and family conflict about it. Their photos supported this.

U.S. legacy media, meanwhile, tried to avoid the above facts. Their reason? The woke dogma the media adhere to is that “trans” people are an oppressed minority and always victims. Thus, the growing instances of mass shootings from people suffering from gender-related mental troubles must be given as little coverage and detail as possible.

Never Trump Republicans are still issuing dire warnings. Is anyone listening? (Steve Peoples/Associated Press) Uh, no.

Kash Patel Faces Backlash For Flying To Winter Olympics, Partying It Up With Team USA (Ben Blanchet/HuffPost)

Armed Man Shot Dead at Mar-a-Lago Was Fixated on Epstein Files, Text Shows (TMZ.com)

The Trump Administration Is Ending Aid That It Says Saves Lives (Hana Kiros/The Atlantic)  Just because something saves lives doesn’t oblige the taxpayers have to pay for it.

OMISSION: Sunday Shows Mostly Ignore Latest Trump Assassination Attempt

Trump’s Netflix threat is a warning to every CEO (Peter Kafka/Business Insider) Dunh dunh DUNHHHHHHH….

A Voice Sounding Like Trump Called Into C-SPAN And His Name Was A Pseudonym Trump Has Reportedly Used (Paige Skinner/HuffPost) Reportedly! That proves it!

Neil Gorsuch has Elena Kagan dead to rights (Jason Willick/Washington Post)

Trump’s law is crushing the next generation of RFK Jr. disciples (Amanda Chu/Politico)

The Human Cost of Trump’s War on Science (Jeneen Interlandi/New York Times)

Judges Grow Angry Over Trump Administration Violating Their Orders (New York Times)

Fact-check: Trump’s Latest Claims on Jobs, Inflation and Crime (New York Times) Come get your Narrative…

What Trump Sells Is Impunity (Katherine Alejandra Cross/Liberal …)  What are they going to do—impeach him?

Call Them What They Are — The Republican Party has become a haven for Nazi sympathizers. (Tom Nichols/The Atlantic)  If they were Communist sympathizers, they’d be Democrats.

DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin’s replacement is even worse (Amanda Marcotte/Salon)  Amanda Marcotte loses her shit.

Trump’s approval rating with independents hits a new low ahead of the State of the Union (CNN)  Come and get your Narrative, right here.

Trump won’t blink on tariffs ??? because he can’t (Stephen Collinson/CNN)

Trump: High Court ‘Accidentally’ Boosted Presidential Powers  Every action Trump makes that is overturned by the courts is an action that a future Democrat President can’t take. It’s a win either way.

Why Tariffs Aren’t Shrinking the U.S. Trade Deficit (Wall Street Journal)  The sol-called ‘trade deficit’ is a made-up thing. All trades have two sides, and all trades are balanced. The so-called ‘trade deficit’ only looks at one part of trade: goods in versus good out. The ‘trade-deficit’ hand-wringers pretend that if imports exceed exports, somehow that is a bad thing. But every trade is balanced; if imports exceed exports, it doesn’t mean that we are giving stuff away—those imports are being ‘paid for’, if not in goods then in capital flows. When imports exceed exports, that means that foreigners are sending us goods in exchage for ;pieces of paper, which is all ‘dollars’ really are these days. Who gets the better of that deal? (You’d think that a writer for the WSJ would know that—and, before they went Woke, a writer for the WSJ would know that.)

Trump Reverts to First-Term Tumult as Republican Fears Mount (Bloomberg)  Or so they would have you believe.

The UK and Other Democracies Hold the Epstein Elite Accountable (Jennifer Rubin/The Contrarian)  No, just the ones they don’t like. Jennifer Rubin losing her shit doesn’t change that.

Trump’s new interest in war will end badly (Gideon Rachman/Financial Times)  For Iran, perhaps. For Islam, certainly. War is a bad thing, but it’s not the worst thing, although you wouldn’t know that from listening to the Narrative media.

FLASHBACK: Media Elitists Despised Trump’s Addresses to Congress

Judge permanently blocks release of Jack Smith’s report on Trump classified documents case (Jacob Rosen/CBS News)  What are they afraid of?

The SAVE Act is Christian Nationalism in Action (Pamela Herd/Can We Still Govern?)  Apparently not letting Democrats cheat in elections is now ‘Christian nationalism’. I have no problem with that.

At the Spot Where Alex Pretti Was Killed (Sam Stein/The Bulwark)  The Bullshitwark will preach the anti-Trump Narrative until you fall asleep.

Nicki Minaj’s social media propped up by thousands of bots, analysis finds (Jason Beeferman/Politico)  If she weren’t a Trump supporter, nobody would give a shit.

Major Update: Bombshell Epstein Developments as Trump Support Falls Ahead of State of the Union and FBI Director Faces Calls to Resign (Aaron Parnas/The Parnas Perspective)  Come and get your Narrative.

You Do Not, Under Any Circumstances, Gotta Hand It To Chief Justice Roberts (Liz Dye/Law and Chaos) He’s still not a prog, and that means he’s evil.

Patel sparks outrage partying with Team USA as MAGA cheers him on (The Hill)  Outrage from the Usual Suspects, that is, although why anybody ought to care certainly escapes me. (The Left Is Big Mad at Kash Patel for Celebrating the Gold Medal Win With USA Hockey (Tim O’Brien/PJ Media))

First Draft: Time for Trump to Go? ??? Our president is too dangerous, too unwell, too much of a fascist. (Andrew Perez/Zeteo)

MS NOW’s Velshi Whacks Trump For Criticizing SCOTUS, Leaves Out Left Doing Worse

C-SPAN: Caller ‘John Barron’ Was Not Trump

Trump Gets Back at ‘supreme court’ by Revoking Capital Letters (Margaret Hartmann/New York Magazine)

U.S. Women’s Hockey Team declines Trump’s invitation to the State of the Union (NBC News)  Hating Trump is the most important thing.

Dem AGs plot to thwart Trump election interference (Lisa Kashinsky/Politico)  Proglodyte Projection: When progs accuse you of doing what they do—or plan to do.

Read it.

Don’t hold it in—tell us how you really feel.

JPMorgan Concedes it Closed Trump’s Accounts after Jan. 6

JPMorgan Admits It Shut Trump’s Accounts After Jan. 6 Capitol Attack (Rob Copeland/New York Times)  Probably seemed like a safe thing to do.

Trump has other tariff tricks up his sleeve (The New Neo).

CBS News is convulsing as Larry Ellison tries to please Trump (Margaret Sullivan/The Guardian)

Trump’s Trade Gamble Will Continue, Despite Supreme Court Rebuke (Ana Swanson/New York Times)

60% disapprove of Trump ahead of State of the Union, Post-ABC poll finds (Washington Post)  Of course they do.

Global Watchdog Claims US Could Lose “Democracy Status” Because Of Trump These self-appointed ‘watchdogs’ think quite a bit of themselves.

Secret Service: Armed Man Shot and Killed after Entering Mar-a-Lago Secure Perimeter

21-Year-Old Male Identified As Shotgun-Wielding Mar-a-Lago Intruder

Can the pardon power be saved from its own abusers? (Mike Fox/The Hill)

Is This the Most Important Supreme Court Case of the Century? (David French/New York Times)  David French cements his Woke credentials.

“Devastating” Discovery: New Docs Confirm JPMorgan De-Banked Trump Shortly After Jan 6th Capitol Chaos

The hidden ICE blueprint that should horrify every American (Will Bunch/The Philadelphia Inquirer)  Will Bunch loses his shit.