United States | News & Politics

Ever wake up in the morning, read the news headlines, and they’re so insane you just start laughing like Woody Woodpecker? Yes, every day! Or maybe it’s just me!

. . . The biggest investor, according to itself, was a company called GD Culture Group, which is made up of eight Chinese investors and spent $300 million. The company recorded zero revenue last year from an e-commerce business it runs on TikTok, and disclosed last month that it was in danger of losing its Nasdaq listing because it had failed to meet certain financial requirements. So whither and from whom did it get $300 million? Why, from a stock sale to an unnamed entity in the British Virgin Islands! And that is all we know. However, the company’s annual report notes that “The Chinese government may intervene or influence its operations at any time,” as is the Chinese government’s way. So whoever it is, it is no one who the Chinese government would disapprove of.

Remember when Trump was trying to ban TikTok, and then suddenly the algorithm started pushing his messaging before the election, and then he loved them again? Ha ha ha HA ha! Ha ha ha HA ha! HAHAHAHAHA!

Bernie and AOC have a national platform, an energized base, and the infrastructure to gather small donations. Now they need winnable policies to back. It seems impossible in the MAGA-controlled government — unless they turn to state ballot initiatives.

The vice president has some advice for young Americans.

Whatever their “pro-worker” bluster, the Republican Party’s budget of Medicaid cuts and tax breaks for the wealthy shows the GOP is still the party of sadistic oligarchs, not populists.

Six so-called patient advocacy groups are working to advance corporate profits in the pharmaceutical industry by routinely lobbying in line with Big Pharma’s priorities and opposing drug price negotiations.

Gaetano Bresci was a 30-year-old anarchist who assassinated the king of Italy in 1900. The establishment press cast him as a madman, but many ordinary Italians saw his actions as due vengeance for the state’s bloody repression of workers’ protests.

U.S. military leadership has once again stressed the need to modernize and maintain the combat readiness of the country’s nuclear arsenal.

General Thomas Bussiere, head of the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command, recently addressed the Senate Armed Services Committee.

According to his statements, the U.S. must maintain and upgrade all aging weapons systems, as it faces the challenge of deterring two major nuclear powers. He also voiced concerns about growing threats from North Korea and mentioned that Iran could potentially acquire nuclear weapons.

In conclusion, the general expressed worry that the Air Force has little margin left and is running low on resources—further highlighting the urgent need for modernization and the development of new nuclear capabilities to ensure effective deterrence.

Following him, Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe Jr. of the U.S. Navy spoke next. He asserted that the Navy remains the most resilient leg of the nuclear triad.

Like the Air Force, Wolfe emphasized that modernization and support are critical for ensuring ongoing readiness. He also noted that the Navy depends heavily on a relatively small number of highly skilled personnel.

• Repeat Offenders: Chicago police failed to stop troubling behavior in their ranks, records show. Over a dozen officers faced multiple sexual misconduct allegations.
• Zero Tolerance: The Chicago Police Department adopted a new sexual misconduct policy in 2023 amid controversy. Records show the department has struggled to implement it.
• First-of-Its-Kind Analysis: The Invisible Institute and ProPublica reviewed more than 300 complaints filed over a decade that accused Chicago police officers of sexual misconduct.

Trump is on a multipronged mission to eliminate a science agency that conservationists, toxicologists, universities and more call irreplaceable.

Universities and colleges across the United States are on pace to spend a record amount of money on lobbying in 2025 as President Donald Trump works to reshape higher education through massive cuts in federal financial support.

The White House has been targeting institutions for their handling of issues like antisemitism, diversity policies and transgender inclusion, already cutting billions of dollars in funding to elite schools. In addition to cutting off grants for research funding, ending support for financial aid programs and threatening schools’ tax-exempt status, the administration has discussed the potential deportation of roughly 400,000 undocumented college students.

Under financial pressure from the Trump administration, some universities are changing their policies to comply with the president’s demands while ramping up their lobbying expenditures. In 2024, colleges and universities broke a record by spending $104.9 million on lobbying. In the first quarter of 2025, universities and colleges already spent $27.6 million.

The biggest increases, which often include hiring additional lobbyists, were made by some of the universities that have become prominent targets of the administration, such as Columbia University, Harvard University, Northwestern University and the University of California.

Military has supplied its medics with antivenoms that seem not to have been tested for safety or effectiveness

House Republicans came together to pass their domestic policy megabill early Thursday, after weeks of internal conflict and last-minute intervention from President Donald Trump.

The 215-214 vote is a major victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, who largely kept his conference together after days of around-the-clock negotiations with holdouts. ... The bill includes a fresh round of tax cuts sought by Trump, as well as hundreds of billions of dollars in new funding for the military and border security.

...

This is arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday morning. “Great job by Speaker Mike Johnson, and the House Leadership, and thank you to every Republican who voted YES on this Historic Bill! Now, it’s time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”

Democrats have their own names for the measure, including “the GOP tax scam” and “one big, ugly bill.” Minority party leaders are deriding the bill by pointing to nonpartisan forecasts that it would increase the federal deficit by trillions of dollars and cause more than 10 million people to lose health care coverage, while shifting resources away from the lowest-income households and to the wealthiest.

In a lengthy closing speech ahead of the final vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Republicans of bankrolling tax cuts for the rich with cuts to safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP food assistance.

“And people will die. That’s not hype. That’s not hyperbole. That’s not a hypothetical,” Jeffries said, before a heated exchange about “decorum” with the Republican presiding over the floor.

My own 'editorializing'/additional context beyond this point:

EDIT: Link to the bill itself on congress.gov:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/all-info

Estimates are that 11 million will lose Medicaid coverage, 13 million will lose SNAP benefits, between $3.3 trillion and $3.8 trillion ... to nearly $6 trillion increase to the national debt... many, many other programs are directly cut back, and the existing 'PayGo' laws will force other cutbacks in things like Medicare from the overwhelming deficits this creates... if this passes the Senate, which seems likely, though some modifications also seem likely.

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61420

https://www.crfb.org/blogs/breaking-down-one-big-beautiful-bill

Possibly also worth noting:

The House version writes into law the formal removal of the 'de minimis' import exception rule, so that means basically every US based, import reliant dropshipper no longer has a workable business model... thats now formally in the law, not just a flurry of Executive Orders.

Also, EV credits are over.