Opinion
Climate
Economy
Politics
Rights & Justice
War & Peace
A cop costume for you, and you, and you...
Further

Un-Handcuffing Loose Cannons, Badges and Other Bedlam

What the ever-loving fuck. With the man-child's megalomania spiraling - rampant troops, despot banners, Ugandan exile, his "Consultational" right to hire and fire (especially black women) and the unctuous gifting of a big boy badge to rule them all - "a lot of people are saying" we've reached the "Mad Cow Dictator" phase. What to do. JB Pritzker on the "arrogant little man": "We are watching, and we are taking names." And humbly, on the curve toward justice of MLK's moral universe: "It doesn't bend on its own."

Having arrived at what Paul Krugman calls "another break-glass moment" - "We are all Lisa Cook" in the regime's weaponizing of government - the shards are everywhere. In brief, "The man is a raving lunatic." His massive, menacing mug now hangs from the Department of Labor, giving off "Strong Chairman Mao vibes"; Gavin Newsom: "THANK YOU, GLORIOUS LEADER!" He declares he has "the Consultational right" to appoint or fire judges, U.S. attorneys, anyone, and Democrats should "go to HELL!" He has turned the FBI and DOJ into "the largest domestic terrorist organizations in the nation," with the alleged power to disappear "animal" Abrego Garcia, convicted of no crime, to Uganda - a judge had to warn they were "absolutely forbidden" to do so - or detain a racially-profiled victim a week after what another judge called "without a doubt the most illegal search I've ever seen in my life." He went on to argue, at this point likely in vain, "Lawlessness cannot come from the government.”

Still, along with delusion and stupidity, it does. James Comer, the House Oversight Committee's own Elmer Fudd, is launching an investigation into "manipulated" crime data based on its "lack of faith in city leadership" to combat D.C.'s non-existent "crime crisis." Similarly, Maryland's Dem Gov. Wes Moore has publicly disputed as "an imaginary conversation" the Mad King's claim he "heaped praise" on him last year as "the greatest president"; in response, the White House sniped "lightweight" Moore is "desperate for attention" and should clean up Baltimore's (also imaginary) "massive crime mess." Having cancelled cancer research, they're also busy spending their obscene new billions on toys for the brownshirts; two shiny rigs, matching Trump's jet, proclaim, "Defend the Homeland." From house painters and landscapers, that is, not disease: Trump and his brainworm-infested death-cult buddy reportedly plan to pull the COVID vaccine off the U.S. market "within months."

Meanwhile, he raves. Windmills kill, so he's halting construction on an almost-completed $4 billion windfarm off the coast of Rhode Island that could light and run hundreds of thousands of homes. Instead, like China, "We're heavily into the world of magnets now." He's going to reduce drug prices "by 1,400, 1,500%." He doesn't like the Department of Defense name: "Department of War sounded better...We won everything." He likes teaching White House history: "McKinley. He was a president. He was the tariff, the most, I guess, since me..." The Alaska fiasco exposed his "idiotic, incoherent, incompetent foreign policy...The man playing at being president has no idea what he is doing"; still, he boasted, the seven European leaders who then visited the White House to support Zelensky actually came from 38 countries - "We've never had a case where 7, plus really 28, essentially 35, well, 38 countries were represented here" - and, "They call me the president of Europe."

On Monday, as usual, he sat behind the Resolute Desk - bruised hand, swollen ankles - as he babbled, lied, signed kingly executive orders to continue his reign of terror. Defying SCOTUS precedent, without any authority to do so, he made it a crime to burn the American flag. Adding to the already-beefy ranks of unfit, ill-educated, 18-year-old, there-for-the-signing-bonus-and-gratuitous-cruelty ICE thugs, he charged Pete Kegseth with creating “specialized units” in the National Guard, aka "random fascist vigilantes," trained to deal with "public order issues," aka help crack down on dissent and free speech. He called them "a quick reaction force" - weirdly, the same name proposed by Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who "seemed particularly pleased by the government's exciting career opportunity." "I'm not a dictator," said the Retribution President, who's mad some people criticize his sending in troops to peaceful cities. "A lot of people are saying, 'Maybe we’d like a dictator.'" (Maybe, "Defend freedom, or learn to goose step.")

And D.C. is great now, he argues. After years of such rampant crime "no one dared to wear jewelry or carry purses or go to restaurants," he brags, "People are free for the first time ever." And lookit those bulked-up, trash-bag-toting National Guard troops picking up admittedly meager garbage while looking dazed and confused, or walking through a virtually deserted National Mall. They look so great! Which is why he now needs to inflict them on more non-existent, crime-ridden blue cities. Maybe start with Chicago, where the GOP cut more than $800 million in public safety and crime prevention, so no wonder it's "a disaster" and "a killing field" run by that loudmouth, non-complicit "slob" J.B. Pritzker, who had the nerve to point out that 13 of the nation's top 20 cities in homicide rates have GOP governors - and, "None of these cities is Chicago" - and 8 of the top ten states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans, and, "None of those states is Illinois."

Pritzker wasn't done. He said he had to "speak plainly about the moment that we are in and the actual crisis, not the manufactured one, that we are facing." "Ringing an alarm," he called Trump's actions unprecedented, unwarranted, illegal, noting the White House didn't even inform him, the mayor or the police of his plans. "This is not about fighting crime," he said. "This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city in a blue state to try and intimidate his political rivals. There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention...In any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is: a dangerous power grab...Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here." Blasting Trump's use of the National Guard as "political props (at) odds with the local communities they seek to serve," he warned, “If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law."

Pritzker's righteous defiance stood in tragic contrast to the groveling farce ending that surreal Oval Office session, wherein U.S. Marshals Service head Gady Serralta gifted America's most easily bought and paid for president with a shiny, big-boy, Cracker Jack, honorary marshal's badge, aka Keystone Cops Memorial Idiocy Badge, for turning D.C. into a fascist police state, aka Make America Gaddafi Again. The handcuff key to the grinning buffoon was for his efforts to "un-handcuff law enforcement agents all over this nation." (Pilot's wings and hobby horse are next.) Not The Onion. One sage: "I'm pretty over living in interesting times." Beyond the dark comedy, Rachel Maddow warns, watch what they do - repurposing and degrading police, military, intelligence, all federal law enforcement to turn them against American people on American soil - not what they say, which is gibberish. Tom Sullivan likewise counsels, "The tide has turned." On the hard history of fascism: "You are here. Let's maybe not vote for it again."


U.S. Declaration of Independence:

  • He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
  • For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments
  • He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
  • He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
  • He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
  • He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
  • For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world
  • For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent
  • For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury
  • For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
SEE ALL
Campaigners demand that negotiators fix the Global Plastics Treaty process in Geneva, Switzerland
News

Campaigners Confront Plastics Treaty Delegates, Demanding Deal That Stops Pollution 'At Its Source'

As the final negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty reached the halfway point on Saturday, delegates entering the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland for the day's talks were met by more than 200 campaigners representing civil society groups who stood in silence along the path leading to the United Nations building—but nonetheless sent a clear message.

The civil society observers displayed signs in multiple languages, urging negotiators at the second plenary of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to "fix the process" and keep their promises to drastically reduce plastic waste and toxic chemicals in plastic products.

Achieving goals like banning single-use plastics, capping plastic production, and imposing regulations on harmful additives within the treaty will be impossible, campaigners have warned, if the biggest plastic-producing countries like the United States are permitted to lobby for a weaker treaty and if fossil fuel industry lobbyists continue to overpower anti-pollution advocates at the talks.

"People worldwide have made it clear: They support decisive action to cut plastic production, consumption, and pollution," said the Break Free From Plastic movement in a statement Friday. "A majority of governments have endorsed these demands, yet negotiations are stalling with a small group of petro- and plastic-producing states deploying delay tactics, with no sign that they intend to raise ambition."

"With just days remaining, the dynamic must change," said the group. "Countries must keep their commitment to end plastic pollution. They must use every tool available to deliver a strong treaty—one that includes legally binding rules on production and chemicals, uplifts real solutions, safeguards human rights, and protects frontline communities."

The talks began earlier this week, with negotiators tasked with forging a legally binding treaty to restrict plastic pollution, following a 2022 agreement that was reached as the result of a proposal from Rwandan and Peruvian officials. The first round of talks, which were supposed to end with a treaty, stalled last December after plastic-producing countries refused to cap production. More than 100 countries at the negotiations agreed to a plastic production limit.

As with fossil fuel emissions, many countries in the Global South are not major producers of plastic waste—but the U.S. exports more than 1 billion pounds of plastic waste to low-income countries each year.

The climate action group Greenpeace has warned that fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists outnumber experts on the impact of pollution 4-to-1 at the negotiations in Geneva, and are joining oil- and plastic-producing countries in continuing to push for a treaty that focuses on downstream measures they claim will address pollution, such as improving recycling systems.

As Common Dreams reported Thursday, the Trump administration has called on countries participating in the talks to reject "impractical" terms within the treaty, such as plastic production caps, bans, or restrictions on certain additives to plastic products.

Scientists believe that less than 10% of plastic products ever get recycled, despite the efforts of individuals to recycle their products.

Katie Drews, national director of the U.S.-based Alliance for Mission-Based Recycling (AMBR), said Friday that "recycling is essential, but it cannot solve the plastics crisis," which must be stopped "at its source."

"Without binding caps on plastic production, bans on toxic chemicals, and global mandates to design packaging for safety, reuse, and real recyclability, downstream solutions will continue to be overwhelmed and communities will continue to pay the price," said Drews. "AMBR stands with scientists, health professionals, youth, frontline and fenceline communities, Indigenous peoples, waste pickers, and mission-driven allies worldwide in urging governments to act. We need a treaty that truly protects human and environmental health, one that goes beyond words to bold, enforceable action."

Advocates' concerns are backed up by a study published in The Lancet this week, which said that without far-reaching efforts to stop more plastic from being produced, "production is on track to nearly triple by 2060."

As campaigners and scientists have worked towards a Global Plastics Treaty since 2022, companies like Dow, Shell, and ExxonMobil have only been ramping up their production of plastic, expanding their capacity by 1.4 million tons. Just seven petrochemical giants have sent a combined 70 lobbyists to the talks, which are scheduled to wrap up on August 14.

"The more we produce, the more we pollute," said Jules Vagner, president of the French group Objectif Zéro Plastique. "Opposing binding targets to reduce plastic production is, in practice, choosing to let pollution continue and worse, accelerate. We do not want another treaty that manages waste. We want one that ends pollution at the source."

"If some countries are unwilling to rise to this historic moment, they should step aside," said Vagner. "Not block global progress. We want a world free from plastic pollution, not one that adapts to it."

SEE ALL
Trump shows a chart with tariffs imposed on various countries
News

Congressional Report Warns Trump Tariffs Could Stymie US Manufacturing for 'Years to Come'

US President Donald Trump's tariff whiplash has already harmed domestic manufacturing and could continue to do so through at least the end of this decade to the tune of nearly half a trillion dollars, a report published Monday by congressional Democrats on a key economic committee warned.

The Joint Economic Committee (JEC)-Minority said that recent data belied Trump's claim that his global trade war would boost domestic manufacturing, pointing to the 37,000 manufacturing jobs lost since the president announced his so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs in April.

"Hiring in the manufacturing sector has dropped to its lowest level in nearly a decade," the Democrats on the committee wrote. "In addition, many experts have noted that in and of itself, the uncertainty created by the administration so far could significantly damage the broader economy long-term."

"Based on both US business investment projections and economic analyses of the UK in the aftermath of Brexit, the Joint Economic Committee-Minority calculates that a similarly prolonged period of uncertainty in the US could result in an average of 13% less manufacturing investment per year, amounting to approximately $490 billion in foregone investment by 2029," the report states.

"The uncertainty created by the administration so far could significantly damage the broader economy long-term."

"Although businesses have received additional clarity on reciprocal tariff rates in recent days, uncertainty over outstanding negotiations is likely to continue to delay long-term investments and pricing decisions," the publication adds. "Furthermore, even if the uncertainty about the US economy were to end tomorrow, evidence suggests that the uncertainty that businesses have already faced in recent months would still have long-term consequences for the manufacturing sector."

According to the JEC Democrats, the Trump administration has made nearly 100 different tariff policy decisions since April—"including threats, delays, and reversals"—creating uncertainty and insecurity in markets and economies around the world. It's not just manufacturing and markets—economic data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that businesses in some sectors are passing the costs of Trump's tariffs on to consumers.

As the new JEC minority report notes:

As independent research has shown, businesses are less likely to make long-term investments when they face high uncertainty about future policies and economic conditions. For manufacturers, decisions to expand production—which often entail major, irreversible investments in equipment and new facilities that typically take years to complete—require an especially high degree of confidence that these expenses will pay off. This barrier, along with other factors, makes manufacturing the sector most likely to see its growth affected by trade policy uncertainty, as noted recently by analysts at Goldman Sachs.

"Strengthening American manufacturing is critical to the future of our economy and our national security," Joint Economic Committee Ranking Member Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) said in a statement Monday. "While President Trump promised that he would expand our manufacturing sector, this report shows that, instead, the chaos and uncertainty created by his tariffs has placed a burden on American manufacturers that could weigh our country down for years to come."

SEE ALL
Rally Held Marking 5th Anniversary Of Citzens United Decision Aims To Draw Attention To Corporate Money In Politics
News

'10 Years in the Making': DNC Passes Resolution to Limit Dark Money in Primaries

Following years of pressure from progressive advocates, the Democratic National Committee's resolutions panel on Tuesday unanimously approved a measure aimed at limiting dark money—undisclosed independent campaign contributions—in presidential primary elections.

The resolution, which was introduced by Chair Ken Martin, was approved during the DNC's summer meeting in Minneapolis. The measure calls for creating a panel tasked with pursuing "real, enforceable steps the DNC can take to eliminate unlimited corporate and dark money in its 2028 presidential primary process."

Tuesday's move stands in stark contrast with the DNC resolutions committee's past refusals to allow a vote on a dark money ban.

Larry Cohen, a leading campaigner against dark money and board member of Our Revolution, an offshoot of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign, told Common Dreams Tuesday that "corporate money has been a disaster for progressive nominees."

"Crypto money and AIPAC knocked out at least three or four people we were all supporting," Cohen noted, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which along with its United Democracy Project (UDP) super PAC spent more than $100 million during the 2024 election cycle. AIPAC's largesse played a key role in helping pro-Israel Democrats defeat former progressive Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—two of Congress' most vocal critics of Israel's genocide in Gaza—in Democratic primary contests.

DNC Resolution 4 opposing dark money in presidential primaries passes unanimously at DNC Resolutions Committee.This is a victory decades in the making after long years of opposition and struggle. Much appreciation to Chair Ken Martin.

[image or embed]
— David Atkins (@davidoatkins.bsky.social) August 26, 2025 at 7:11 AM

"If this party blocks corporate money in the nominating process and blocks dark money, those are two great steps," Cohen said, noting that the measure which passed Tuesday is "just a resolution of intent," not an actual change to the party's platform or a policy shift.

"The next step is [that] there will be a committee named that will talk about how we implement this for the 2028 presidential election, and that committee has to report back by the [DNC] meeting a year from now with specific implementation points," Cohen explained.

"That could mean that every potential Democratic candidate for president must sign the People's Pledge," he said, referring to the agreement between then-US Sen. Scott Brown (D-Mass.) and challenger Elizabeth Warren in 2012 requiring candidates to offset spending by outside groups on their behalf.

"So if a candidate says, 'well I had nothing to do with this, but the money got spent,' in the People's Pledge, the candidate who benefited, Scott Brown, had to make a charitable donation of the same amount of money," Cohen said. "That would be an example of an implementation point."

As for possible legislative solutions like the DISCLOSE Act—a campaign finance reform bill repeatedly torpedoed in Congress—Cohen said that he "wouldn't give that too much weight because you have to change Congress."

"We came close," he said, but then-Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Az.) "blocked a rules change that would have put that bill on the floor with 50 supporters instead of 60… and now you have to imagine getting back to a time when [Democrats] will have 50 again."

"So that's in the resolution, there should be legislative change," Cohen added, "but also in the resolution is that all elected Democratic officials should look at what they can do," including at the state, county, and municipal levels.

"They can adopt rules to limit or eliminate the effectiveness of corporate, dark, and other independent expenditures, like Elon Musk money," Cohen said in a nod of infamy to the world's richest person, who spent upward of $290 million supporting President Donald Trump and other Republicans in 2024.

The US Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which allowed unlimited independent financial contributions to support political campaigns, unleashed a tsunami of dark money that has been used by billionaires and corporate interests to sideline progressive candidates and buy elections.

Since Citizens United, nearly $20 billion has been spent on US presidential elections and more than $53 billion on congressional races, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets. Spending on 2024 congressional races was double 2010 levels, while presidential campaign contributions were more than 50% higher in 2024 than in 2008, the last election before Citizens United.

The DNC's action on dark money was overshadowed by its rejection of another resolution calling for a suspension of US military aid to Israel.

"This party keeps digging its own grave," said attorney and organizer Asma Nizami. "And it's owned by AIPAC."

SEE ALL
US-POLITICS-CONSERVATIVES
News

Texas AG Demands Schools Display Ten Commandments Even After Judge's Injunction

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday said that the vast majority of schools in the Lone Star State should still plan on displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms even after a federal judge ruled against it last week.

In a statement, Paxton said that "schools not enjoined by ongoing litigation must abide" by a state law that requires the display of the Ten Commandments in all public and secondary school classrooms.

"The woke radicals seeking to erase our nation's history will be defeated," he said. "I will not back down from defending the virtues and values that built this country."

Paxton asserted that only nine Texas school districts are affected by the injunction and said that all other districts "must abide by the law once it takes effect on September 1, 2025."

The Texas attorney general's defiant stance on the Ten Commandments earned him a quick rebuke from Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who accused him of grandstanding instead of doing his job as the state's chief law enforcement official.

"Paxton's job is to uphold the Constitution, which guarantees the separation of church and state—not the Ten Commandments," he wrote on X. "Our public schools should focus on educating Texas students, not stoking culture wars."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation also rebuked Paxton for failing to uphold the Constitution's prohibition of the government establishment of a religion.

"The Constitution, not the Ten Commandments, built this country," the foundation said. "Forcing students to observe one religion’s rules is a blatant violation of the First Amendment regardless of what Ken Paxton claims. Public schools are for education, not religious indoctrination."

Paxton's declaration came less than a week after US District Judge Fred Biery of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction against the state law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed.

In his ruling, Biery argued that the classroom displays "are likely to pressure the [students] into religious observance, meditation on, veneration, and adoption of the state's favored religious scripture, and into suppressing expression of their own religious or nonreligious background and beliefs while at school."

SEE ALL
Palestinian prisoners in Sde Teiman
News

Palestinian Boys Allege Sexual Assault, Torture by Israeli Jailers

Palestinian teenagers kidnapped and imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces during the genocidal war on Gaza accused their jailers of torturing and sexually assaulting them in a report published Saturday by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"They took me from the aid distribution site and transferred me to a hospital in Rafah, where I was interrogated for an hour," one 16-year-old boy identified by his first name Sami, who was abducted on June 29, told ABC. "They stripped me and conducted a body search. Then, they loaded me into a jeep and transported me to a prison in Israel."

"During the interrogations, they tortured us—handcuffing us, beating us with sticks, and using electric shocks," the teen continued. "They did countless things to break us."

"I was tortured for a week until I lost all sense of time and awareness," Sami said. "They put me in a one-square-meter cell, where I spent the entire week. I never saw daylight, never stepped outside. They only came to deliver food."

"They asked if I knew anyone from Hamas, and whether I had crossed over on October 7," Sami recounted. "They kept pressing me about who I knew and who I had seen. I told them I was just walking down the street—I didn't know anything."

"They would beat me. Each person that talked to me would beat me," the teen alleged. "I was handcuffed, blindfolded, and they put electricity in my legs."

Mahmoud, age 17, said that his Israeli abductors "began hurling insults, cursing at us, and accusing us of being with Hamas."

"They stripped us of our clothes and took us to Kerem Shalom, completely naked, with nothing," he continued. "There, the beatings and torture began."

"The Israeli women soldiers beat us. They stripped us and 'played' here, and here, and there," Mahmoud said, indicating his genitals. "They beat us with sticks. Got on us while we were lying on the ground. We were handcuffed like that and naked."

Mahmoud said his captors wanted to humiliate him and other teenage boys in custody, accusing the troops of taking nude photos of them and sending female soldiers to mock and touch his body—an especially shameful ordeal for Muslims.

"When I was released from prison, I had a breakdown," Mahmoud said. "I felt mentally exhausted and deeply disgusted. What I witnessed—no one should ever have to see."

"I was tortured, we are children," he added. "What have we done?"

ABC published photographs showing signs of torture on the teens' bodies, including from shackling.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) categorically rejected the teens' accusations, saying that "this includes allegations of electric shocks during interrogations, strip-searching detainees for humiliation purposes, or sexual assaults."

However, there have been numerous documented cases of such abuse, most notably at the notorious Sde Teiman torture prison. Israeli physicians who served at Sde Teiman have described widespread severe injuries caused by 24-hour shackling of hands and feet that sometimes required amputations.

Palestinians taken by Israeli forces have described being raped and sexually assaulted by male and female soldiers, electrocuted, mauled by dogs, soaked with cold water, denied food and water, deprived of sleep, and blasted with loud music. Dozens of detainees have died in Israeli custody, including one who died after allegedly being sodomized with an electric baton.

Last year, nine IDF reservists were arrested for allegedly gang-raping a Sde Teiman prisoner, who suffered severe internal injuries in the attack, which was caught on video. Far-right Israelis including government officials subsequently stormed the facility in a bid to free the reservists, and Israeli leaders including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded a probe of the video—not to seek justice for the victim, but rather to find and punish whoever leaked it.

Survivors of Israeli abuse have also accused their jailers of bringing Israeli civilians into detention centers and allowing them to watch and record prisoners being tortured.

Gazan doctor Khaled al-Sir told ABC that Sami and Mahmoud's accounts mirrored his own abuse at the hands of Israeli soldiers who imprisoned him for six months last year.

"I witnessed many prisoners who were sexually assaulted using batons in their buttholes and also using the pepper spray over their private parts," al-Sir alleged, adding that there was an area of Sde Teiman that guards called the "hell section," where abuse was particularly severe.

A pair of recent United Nations reports detailed sexual violence, including reproductive and gender-based crimes, perpetrated by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians. The UN has also reported rape and other sexual violence committed by Hamas militants against Israelis during the October 7, 2023 attack and against hostages kidnapped that day.

In January, Israel blocked a request from UN sex crimes experts to probe alleged sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas fighters during the October 7, 2023 attack, reportedly to avoid scrutiny of rapes and other abuses allegedly committed by Israeli forces against imprisoned Palestinians.

SEE ALL