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Our authoritarian theater lurches on amidst the forging of a police state by an avenging "Peace President," equally deranged and malignant, who conflates lies, raves, phantasms - see wacko AI videos - with reality. The five-time draft-dodger, with his neo-Nazi Secretary of War Crimes, just rabidly urged a roomful of silent generals to join a "war from within" against their own citizens, for now in Portland. Reviews of his new reality show: "Fat Man and Little Boy bombed." Also, "The commander-in-chief is not okay."
Despite his manifest unfitness and underwater approval ratings- "People hate this mad king shit" - he and his vile cohorts are busy erasing rights and building an internal legal and military force aimed at silencing skeptics, opponents and "terrorist networks," aka most of us, in the time-honored name of "national security." This week he also got to play peacemaker with a war criminal, spewing "fatuous bleats" as he proclaimed "one of the great days ever in civilization" at the signing of a Gaza "peace plan" that included no Palestinians, leans hard into Israel's genocidal vision, and puts a bloody "stamp of legitimacy" on their effort to "achieve through politics what the war of extermination could not achieve on the ground." Hamas must take it or leave it: "There is no negotiation here. There is an American plan." If Hamas rejects it, Israel will "finish the job" thanks to the plan's convenient loopholes; Trump eagerly affirmed they'd "have our full backing to do what (you) have to do."
Mostly, the alleged master of the art of the deal has just been refusing to negotiate at home. The current shutdown is the unsurprising result of a so-called president who in response to queries about discussions of differences, said one official, "read (sic) all the shit they’re asking for, and said, ‘On second thought, go fuck yourself'"; then he reversed himself, talked to Jeffries and Schumer, but seemed unaware of the ACA health insurance stalemate that largely triggered the crisis. The last few days, as his party literally ran away from the fray "on vacation" rather than try to hammer out an agreement, he helpfully contributed to the discourse on keeping government open by posting a series of what-the-actual-fuck, "straight-up-Orwell's-1984" deep fake videos, each more bizarre and offensive than the last, thus confirming the widespread belief that, "Donald Trump has always lived in his own world of lies and ignorance and growing misinformation - he has no idea what reality is."
Thus, his batshit post announcing, “MEDBED HOSPITALS: THE NEW ERA IN HEALTHCARE," offering us all magic, imaginary "medbeds" that cure cancer, reverse aging, regrow body parts, and keep a zombie JFK Jr. alive. The news grew from a longtime QAnon conspiracy theory that government elites have been hoarding this medical marvel in tunnels for themselves so, say, after a hard day of trafficking children out of a pizza parlor, Hillary Clinton can go home, lie on her medbed, and regrow her missing limbs. No more: Now, "Every American will soon receive their own MedBed card," with grifters selling $11,000 "medbed generators." This, to be clear, as Trump and the GOP actively work to gut health care protections for millions. His post was deleted after about 12 hours, long enough for many to wonder, "Is it bad when the leader of a country is so cognitively impaired he can no longer determine what's real?" and for Gavin Newsom to re-post with, "DONALD TRUMP HAS LOST IT."
That was premature. There was more. Soon after, there was Trump's re-post of a video titled, “The Great Replacement is no longer conspiracy theory!” Based on a Newsmax segment, it blamed Dems for encouraging hordes of undocumented migrants to come here to vote, with over two million getting illegal Social Security numbers. That was followed by a now-infamous, grotesquely racist, staggeringly juvenile post, "one of his most demented ever" and National Embarrassment #742, featuring a deep fake (Jewish) Schumer and (African-American) Jeffries, with inexplicable Mexican music, sombrero, waxed moustache, telling reporters,. “We have no voters left because of all of our woke, trans bullshit." Etc. America: "This is sick." Jeffries: "Next time you have something to say to me, say it to my face." He noted House and Senate Dems "are here, on duty, ready to fund the government. Bigotry will get you nowhere. Do your job." Then he posted a photo of the pedo besties with, "This is real."
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Speaking of: In more weirdness, pardoned Jan.6 QAnon shaman Jacob Chansley sued Trump - also Musk, Israel, the NSA, IMF, World Bank etc - for $40 trillion, claiming he's the rightful president, and at this point why not; he also trashed Trump for not releasing the Epstein files. Meanwhile, Trump's so out of it he thought Whiskey Pete's Warrior Fest was for other countries' top brass: "Isn't it nice people are coming from all over the world to be with us?" Then he veered to "It's just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily." Maybe that's because Kegseth is reportedly both "crumbling" and out of control: Spooked, paranoid, "even more manic, dude is crawling out of his skin" since Kirk's killing; into vain "total princess shit"; throwing "full-blown tantrums" if challenged - on his "pussy-ass-bitch" Department of War name swap, extra-judicial killings of fishermen in the Caribbean, critics deeming his ideas for change "myopic and potentially irrelevant." Each time, "He just WENT OFF."
So sure, great to see a loose cannon and "drunken freak" Secretary of Bravado with the power to unilaterally summon to Quantico from around the world, at the cost of millions of dollars, over 800 U.S. generals and admirals with much-decorated decades in the service and unequaled command expertise to serve as extras for a MAGA pep rallED talk/ lecture about meritocracy, "warrior ethos" and "a return to the highest male standards" from a greasy, wildly unqualified former Major in the National Guard and ex-host of a Fox News weekend program with a messy history of alcoholism, incompetence, sexual infidelity, rape, and threatening national security by butt-dialing classified information to a reporter - all of which could have been "accomplished," a term doing a lot of lifting here, in a simple email or leaked Signal chat. No wonder, standing before a gaudy massive flag like a knock-off of George C. Scott in Patton, the ignoble Pete "gave off a lot of small dick energy."
Once he opened his mouth, it got worse. Lamely citing Trump's "Liberation Day" for his botched tariffs, Hegseth declared. "Today is another Liberation Day - the liberation of America’s warriors." Rattling off a list of tired culture war grievances, he vowed no more DEI, identity months, "frivolous complaints" about ethics or misconduct, "dudes in dresses," "climate change worship," "stupid rules of engagement...We are done with that shit!” "Every day, we have to be preparing for war, not defense. We're training warriors, not defenders. We fight wars to win, not defend," he raved. "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy...We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country." In short, no more Mr. Nice Legal Guy. "You kill people and break things for a living," he snarled. "You are not politically correct, and don’t necessarily belong (in) polite society.” So: Let your bigot flag fly. Make war crimes, sexual assault, hazing great again.
And if you don't like it, resign. Given the stony silence, many didn't, especially once he went after the beardos - usually Black and/or Muslim men - and the fatsos, warning of new physical fitness standards: “If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard (work outs), so can every member of our joint force." The reviews - this is a reality TV show, right? - were brutal. "Hegseth brought the generals before him to fat shame them (and brag that he can do push-ups)...I fucking want my money back, asshole," read one. Also, "Pete will always be a National Guardsman assigned to a civil affairs unit who got a bunch of Crusader tattoos in his 40s because he wants you to think he's a cool, war-criming operator instead of an online wife-beating loser saying what it means to be a WARFIGHTER to a roomful of legit guys who all outrank him," and, "I would posit it’s more unacceptable to see a Christo-fascist, tattoo-festooned Fox dunk-tank clown in the halls of the Pentagon, frankly, but maybe that’s just me."
Military critics called his appearance "embarrassing,” “ridiculous,” "shocking," "insulting," "offensive," "self-aggrandizing." Jamelle Bouie called it "some of the most loser shit I have ever seen." A veterans advocate noted "people (who) have served 20 or 30 years in uniform do not need (Hegseth) to tell them about warrior ethos" or "lethality": "He's barely qualified to host Fox News. Has he no honor?" Navy commander Bobbby Jones tore into a sleazy "Sec bro" who thinks push-ups can replace "critical thinking under pressure...honor, courage and commitment." On his bigoted, divisive views on race, gender, DEI: "WHAT?! You're kidding me. You have the nerve to think you have the right to be the arbiter if someone of color or a woman deserves to be there? When you weren't even good enough to make my rank? And you try to erase their history? You need to take the example of the people you tried to lecture today and hopefully live your life more like them. The world will be better off."
- YouTube www.youtube.com
You'd think it couldn't get more cringe after Hegseth ended with a histrionic, Dr. Strangelove-like, "WE ARE THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR! GODSPEED!" (Cue, "There's no fighting in the War Room!") Improbably, it did when the world's most famous five-time draft dodger, criminal and pedophile lumbered onstage to join "a middle manager dry drunk cosplaying tough to lecture US generals on the Constitution and loyalty." "A drunk and a rapist walk into a bar..." noted one online sage. Another: "Hegseth: No fatties in the chain of command! Trump: Waddles onto stage." The seemingly heavily sedated Private Bonespurs spoke slowly, slurring words in "an unusually meandering speech," "a disgraceful and unnerving performance" and "a nakedly partisan appeal that violated every standard of American civil-military relations." It was also "an inexcusable strategic risk (to) convey an inane message" and "a waste of time for people who emphatically had better things they could and should be doing."
He insulted Biden 11 times: "They looked at him falling down stairs every day," with a long weird detour about stairs and how Obama - "I had zero respect for him" - would "bop down those stairs. I’ve never seen it. Da-da, da-da, bop, bop." There was his love of the word “tariff," America becoming "rich as hell," "PEOPLE COMING IN FROM INSANE ASYLUMS," the wars he ended and “millions and millions of lives” he saved, the rigged election, the autopen, the fecking Gulf of America, "the concept of battleships" like in Victory At Sea, the “beautiful paper, the gorgeous paper, with the real gold writing" when he signs things: "Everyone loves my signature," Most significantly, he "told a roomful of silent generals to join a war from within," that "we're under invasion," it's a "big part of war now," "we should use some of these dangerous (blue) cities as training grounds for our military," and their first priority is "defending the homeland," which has a vague Germanic ring to it we can't quite place.
Takeaways: "The president told the military American citizens are the enemy and he wants them to practice war on them. I think this is called Treason." "We want you to wage war on your fellow Americans. Also in 13 hours you aren’t getting paid." "Bad actors, bad movie. The director should be ashamed. 0/10." “He billed the taxpayers millions to fly every general to Washington to hear this weirdo drivel." "The commander in chief is not okay," wrote Tom Nichols of his "farrago of fantasy, menace, and autocratic peacocking." "It's one thing to serve it up to an adoring MAGA crowd, but another to aim this kind of sludge at military officers" used to treating presidents with respect, and assuming they're "basically normal. You have to wonder who will shield them from the impulses of the person they just saw on stage." He cites a famed 1973 moment when an Air Force nuclear-missile officer asked in a training, "How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?”
One of many cartoons about Hegseth's Warrior JamboreeFrom Democratic Underground
And here we are. The stoic, professional top brass in Quantico sat dead silent, stone-faced, through the madness. At its end, some limply applauded but most remained silent; in the limited images released, they look pissed, as if "'Bitch, please' were a photo." Still, with or without their approval, the regime's "war from within" goes on apace. On Sept. 27, Trump announced he would "provide all necessary Troops to protect War-ravaged Portland" and any ICE Facilities "under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists" with "Full Force, if necessary." He was reportedly hepped up from watching an earlier bogus segment on Fox showing two hostile scenes in Portland that turned out to be from 2020 BLM protests. But who needs facts? "I didn't know that was still going on," he yammered. "Portland is unbelievable - the destruction of the city. These are paid agitators...What they’ve done to that place...They just burned the place down. It's just, it’s like living in hell." JD nods along.
Hours after announcing the deployment of 200 National Guard to hellish Portland, city and state officials sued Trump, Hegseth, and ICE Barbie to block their "patently unlawful" move based on "wildly hyperbolic pretext...Their characterization of Portland as ‘war-ravaged’ is pure fiction." Portland Mayor Keith Wilson on their "fruitless show of force: The number of necessary troops is zero, in Portland and any other American city...The president will not find lawlessness or violence here unless he plans to perpetrate it." The threat drew several hundred protesters - far more than the handful that have been turning up for months - overseen by federal snipers on rooftops. "We are average, everyday citizens tired of (Trump's) illegal actions," said the wife of a veteran, who called the deployment "a moral injury." Around then the addled, reality show nitwit who makes policy based on what he sees on biased, bigoted, fantastical Fox News was dumbfounded to learn that he, and they, might be wrong.
In an interview, he described talking to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, who tried to set him straight. "I said, 'Wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?'" he exclaimed. "My people tell me different. They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place...it looks like terrible.” Reality bites, and #WarRavagedPortland bit back. Last weekend, Portlanders - "Stay safe, stay weird" - flooded social media with images of their hellish life: Gardens, picnics, drummers, runners, street fairs, cherry blossoms, food, bikes, dancing, Taco trucks, dystopian bread lines, pastry-filled farmers markets, blissed-out dogs rolling in grass: "Here’s our dog writhing in agony on the killing fields of war-ravaged Portland." There were trees wrapped in multi-hued knitting - "We knit at dawn" - marauding hordes amidst sun-dappled roses - "Oh, the demise of humanity!" - and a brave beer in a koozie: "It's unsafe to even walk your beer down the street without protection!"
Chilling tales emerged of violent kittens attacking toilet paper - "WAR AND DEVASTATION HAPPENING IN PORTLAND! KITTENS DESTROYING VERY EXPENSIVE TP !" - long lines for brunch - "Hellscape doesn't begin to describe it" - and "leaves not staying on the trees anymore from so much violence. Good God, it's horrific." At an outdoor fair, "kids were chasing geese, people were selling tie-died shirts, and one sick son of a bitch was selling Nepalese food. It was crazy." Video revealed an empty, silent ICE building "under siege" - "By that definition, my house is under siege"; one from Sen. Ron Wyden showed the same placid scene, with a few protesters across the street. One harried victim described "sipping my iced pumpkin latte and strolling past historic Victorians, boutiques selling $300 clogs, women in Eileen Fisher cardigans debating olive oil varieties (and) too many options for artisanal cheese, and so many dogs who eat better than I do. I couldn’t help but wonder - if this is war, where do I enlist?"
Survivors from other cities sent thoughts and prayers: From "war ravaged DC," "post-apocalyptic Los Angeles," "the liberal hellscape of Denver, where they're eating the dogs!" Many sent moral support - "The Portlish are a strong and noble people. We stand with you" - and one eager citizen said she "can't wait for the National Guard to come clean up Seattle - there is litter everywhere." There were searing war dispatches. "We barely survived today. Everything is in chaos. We began the day with huckleberry pancakes...They were terrifyingly delicious." "Dearest Mother, I write to you from the front lines (where) our batallion bravely holds the line between the artisanal kombucha stand (and) the enemy, armed with reusable tote bags and passive-aggressive signage. Our oat milk rations are low." "My dearest wife, These barbarians will not yield...We have severed the cords of their latte machines but they are making cowboy coffee in their camps...A Golden Retriever has stolen my ammo belt."
On Wednesday, Trump announced 200 National Guard troops were "now in place" at a small protest at Portland's ICE facility, and they have "begun restoring LAW AND ORDER." But NBC News affiliate KGW reported "none can be seen," and lawmakers said they'd been told troops still need a few days to prepare, maybe by wending their arduous way through the artisanal breads. Guard officials say the deployment, expected to cost at least $3.8 million, is to "protect federal facilities," a slight discrepancy from a White House release declaring troops would "crush violent radical left terrorism" in the tranquil city. "I know this isn't easy," Oregon's adjutant general told Guard members of a mission neither they nor residents seem enthused about. "We don't get to pick and choose." For now, five Portlanders, some in bathrobes, held a pastry protest - "We're here for the hellscape" - as other stalwarts struggled to endure the war's hardships. "They have forced us to listen to music and revel in community," they said. "Pray for us."
"A thinly-veiled threat to global peace, progress, and survival" was how one climate justice organization described US President Donald Trump's hourlong address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday as the international community took in Trump's attacks on global cooperation, migration, and the consensus among scientists that human activity is causing the climate crisis and a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy is needed to avoid the worst impacts.
Namrata Chowdhary, head of public engagement at 350.org, said the president's speech offered proof of a warning from UN Secretary-General António Guterres just hours before, in which Guterres had said the world has "entered an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering," with peace and progress "buckling under the weight of impunity, inequality, and indifference."
Trump drew gasps from the assembled world leaders when he said predictions about the climate emergency by the UN and the global science community "were wrong" and "were made by stupid people."
The BBC reported that some diplomats "could be seen shaking their heads" as the president called climate change "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the comment showed Trump "is representing his fossil fuel billionaire friends, not science."
"Climate change is REAL. It is an existential threat to the planet and future generations. We must transform our energy systems away from fossil fuels," said the senator.
Guterres' warning "was only emphasized by the erratic speech given by Donald Trump: Reckless. Disruptive. Indifferent," said Chowdhary. "And mocking with impunity the relentless suffering around the world, in a speech hard to distinguish from reality TV of the worst kind."
Trump's speech came weeks after hundreds of people were killed in one day by flooding in Pakistan—a disaster fueled by increasingly intense monsoon seasons that scientists have said are caused by fossil fuel emissions and planetary heating.
Earlier this year, a study by British and Italian researchers found that deadly flooding in Texas was also made significantly worse by the impacts of climate change.
"Trump’s remarks, which downplayed the urgency of climate action and pushed for expanded fossil fuel investment, come as the world continues to experience record-breaking heat, fires, and floods," said Chowdhary. "At the upcoming UN climate summit, world leaders face a stark choice: Stand with people and the planet, or with the fossil fuel industry."
Mauro Vieira, the minister of foreign affairs in Brazil, which will host the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in November, told CNN that Trump's attacks on policies demanding a shift to renewable energy do not change Brazil's position on the climate.
"We believe in renewables,” said Vieira. “This will save the planet. That’s our position."
JL Andrepont, US senior policy analyst at 350.org, emphasized that a majority of Trump's own constituents know that the climate crisis is being caused by fossil fuels and support a shift away from them.
"This stream of lies is part of the same fossil-fueled billionaire agenda that got tens of thousands into the NYC streets this weekend, calling for climate justice," said Andrepont. "The leader of the world’s top polluting country is trying to tell the people—from our Pacific family members to the climate- and conflict-displaced peoples he’s deporting—that their lived reality is not real. But there are far more of us calling for human rights than there are of him and his cronies."
"We refuse to be pawns in Trump’s unjust quest to pad the pockets of billionaires like him," added Andrepont. "It’s time to draw the line and make billionaires in and out of government pay for the damage they’ve caused and fund the needs of the people.”
Hospitals and healthcare clinics across the US have been announcing layoffs, service cuts, and closures in the weeks since Republicans passed a budget law that's estimated to slash spending on Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.
Monday reporting by CNN highlighted that Augusta Medical Group is closing three of its rural clinics in Virginia. The company said in a statement earlier this month that the closures were "part of Augusta Health’s ongoing response to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the resulting realities for healthcare delivery."
The CNN report noted that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger recently campaigned in Buena Vista, one of the rural communities that will be losing its clinic, to make the case that the cuts in the GOP's budget law should be reversed.
Tim Layton, an associate professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia, told CNN that rural areas figure to be particularly vulnerable to the Medicaid cuts given their lower population densities.
"You can expect those places to be impacted by now having people who don’t even have Medicaid,” he said. “With fewer people to spread fixed costs across, it becomes harder and harder to stay open."
Layton also dismissed Republicans' claims to have created protections for rural hospitals with a $50 billion rural health fund, as he described it as a "short-term patch" that will "go pretty quick." KFF earlier this year estimated that rural Medicaid spending would fall by $137 billion as a result of the GOP law, which is nearly triple the money allocated by the health fund.
Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for Virginia attorney general, seized on the CNN report and used it to tie incumbent Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares to the national Republican Party's policy agenda under President Donald Trump.
"The Big Bill causing three rural clinics in Virginia to close is just the tip of the iceberg," he wrote in a social media post. "And it's happening because Jason Miyares is too scared to fight against Trump’s Medicaid cuts that will throw nearly 300,000 Virginians off their healthcare."
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten also ripped the GOP for passing Medicaid cuts that are hurting the communities they represent.
"Hundreds of healthcare providers in rural areas depend on Medicaid funding to keep doors open and care for patients," she wrote. "But Trump’s Big Ugly Bill cuts millions from Medicaid, leaving these healthcare providers in jeopardy."
Leor Tal, campaign director for Unrig Our Economy, said that the cuts to Medicaid looked particularly bad politically for Republicans when contrasted to the tax cuts that disproportionately benefit high-income Americans.
“These closures are the congressional Republican agenda in action: cuts to healthcare for rural moms and families, tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires,” Tal said. “These closures are not an accident—they are the direct result of a law written to serve the wealthy and leave working people behind, and unless Republicans in Congress reverse course, more working-class Americans will be left behind while the rich get even richer.”
The US government officially shut down at midnight on Wednesday after weeks of failed negotiations, following Democrats' refusal to back a Republican spending plan that did not reverse the GOP's massive cuts to healthcare spending.
In order to support the GOP's continuing resolution, which needs 60 votes to advance in the Senate, Democratic leaders have long insisted that Republicans extend a Biden-era tax credit that had significantly lowered insurance premiums for around 22 million people who purchased health insurance on the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) online insurance marketplace.
KFF found last month that the tax credits have reduced insurance premiums by 44% on average—over $700 per enrollee—and have contributed to the number of people purchasing insurance on the exchanges more than doubling to over 24 million in 2025.
The GOP allowed the credit to expire at the end of the year during negotiations for President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July. If they are not extended, the average recipient can expect their health insurance premiums to more than double in 2026, which KFF estimates will result in over 4 million people becoming unable to afford their health insurance plans.
Democrats have also demanded that Republicans roll back some of the GOP bill's $793 billion worth of cuts to Medicaid, which the Congressional Budget Office has estimated will result in about 7.8 million more people becoming uninsured and has begun to result in the closures of rural hospitals around the country.
Instead of negotiating to stave off the coming healthcare apocalypse, GOP leaders came up with a different solution: to make up an overt lie. As the shutdown drew nearer, Republicans abruptly shifted to the talking point that Democrats were holding the government hostage unless Republicans agreed to give free healthcare to "illegal aliens."
“Democrats are going to shut down the federal government and inflict significant pain on American citizens because President Trump won't force taxpayers to fund free benefits to illegal aliens,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Vice President JD Vance said Democrats "want to give massive amounts of money, hundreds of millions of dollars, to illegal aliens for their healthcare while Americans are struggling to pay their healthcare bills.”
And shortly after Democratic leaders expressed the belief that they'd gotten through to the president during negotiations, Trump dashed any hopes of a resolution by posting a bizarre artificially generated video of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) talking about his plans to "give all these illegal aliens free healthcare... so they can vote for us" while standing next to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who was edited to appear with a sombrero and a mustache while mariachi music played in the background.
It is a bit that they have continued using to lampoon Democrats who have demanded that Trump treat the negotiations seriously.
"The lie is so big and so brazen that it’s almost not worth addressing, because doing so gives the claim far more credibility than it deserves," Jonathan Cohn explained for The Bulwark, a right-leaning publication. "But it’s become ubiquitous in Republican talking points, from the president on down. There’s also a chance some people will believe it, because it feeds into some common misconceptions about healthcare and immigration policy, as well as preconceptions of how the parties operate."
Undocumented immigrants in the United States are barred from applying for federally funded healthcare, including Medicaid and subsidized plans from the ACA. They also cannot receive, as Trump claimed, "Medicare—the Cadillac Medicare."
Democrats have called for lawful immigrants, including legal asylum recipients, green-card holders, and other legal permanent residents, to have their healthcare restored after the Big Beautiful Bill stripped them of eligibility for these programs.
"Republicans might not want these people to be eligible for those subsidies," Cohn said. "But these people are not 'illegal aliens.' They have permission to be in the United States."
Another persistent claim has been that millions of undocumented immigrants are lying about their status to obtain benefits they shouldn't, which Republicans also frequently invoked during the debate over cuts to Medicaid in June, including the audacious lie from Senate Republicans that the bill “protects Medicaid for eligible Americans by removing 1.4 million illegals.”
"Even if it were true that millions of Americans were getting Affordable Care Act insurance through deception or error, there’s no reason to think that large numbers of undocumented immigrants would be among them," Cohn explained.
This is because enrollment systems cross-check Social Security numbers with information from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Meanwhile, Healthcare.gov requires noncitizens to provide other forms of documentation, like green-cards or entry permits, to demonstrate their lawful status.
The only federal healthcare subsidy that even theoretically benefits undocumented immigrants is "Emergency Medicaid," which reimburses hospitals that provide mostly emergency care to immigrants ineligible for federal healthcare subsidies. The GOP bill cut $28 billion from this program, and Democrats have called for it to be restored, along with other Medicaid cuts.
However, that $28 billion is only about 3% of the total healthcare cuts Democrats are calling to restore and less than 1% of total Medicaid spending. Moreover, only a portion of the beneficiaries are undocumented immigrants—they also include many legal residents who are not yet eligible for government benefits.
"A lot of the money, Cohn said, "is spent on truly emergency services like resuscitating somebody from a heart attack or delivering a baby that hospitals and clinics are obligated to provide, thanks to a 1980s law, signed by Ronald Reagan, that prohibits denying care to people who need stabilizing or lifesaving treatment."
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act has been one of the least popular pieces of legislation in recent memory. According to the most recent data from Pew Research in August, 46% disapprove of the tax and spending law, while 32% approve. Just 11% said they strongly approve, while 33% said they strongly disapprove.
The bill's cuts to Medicaid are especially unpopular, but Republicans have managed to push off many of the worst effects until after the 2026 midterms. The same cannot be said about the ACA subsidy cuts, which will be felt immediately in the new year.
Republicans are well aware that being blamed for those cuts could be destructive to their electoral chances. One survey conducted in July by two of Trump’s most trusted pollsters found that for Republicans in the most competitive congressional districts, “a 3-point deficit becomes a 15-point deficit” against the generic Democrat if they allow the healthcare premium tax credit to expire.
As Vanessa Cárdenas, the executive director of immigrant advocacy group America's Voice, said Tuesday as the shutdown approached, "The Trump administration and their allies in Congress are going back to their repulsive yet tried-and-true tactic of scapegoating immigrants to distract from the fact that their policies are taking away Americans’ healthcare and damaging our economy."
As President Donald Trump and his allies continue to target immigrants, journalists, and anyone else critical of the increasingly authoritarian administration, organizers are gearing up for another round of "No Kings" rallies across the United States, which they expect will draw even more demonstrators than a similar day of action in June.
"Sustained, broad-based, peaceful, pro-democracy grassroots movements win. Trump wanted a coronation on his birthday, and what he got instead was millions of people standing up to say NO KINGS," Indivisible co-founder and co-executive director Ezra Levin said in a Tuesday statement. "No Kings Day on June 14 was an historic demonstration of people power, and it's grown into a broad, diverse movement."
"While Trump escalates his attack with occupations of American cities and secret police forces terrorizing American communities, normal everyday people across this country are showing up every single day with courage and defiance. On October 18, we're going to show up in the largest peaceful protest in modern American history," he added. "Millions will come together in more cities than ever to say collectively: No kings ever in America."
Indivisible is planning next month's peaceful protests alongside groups including the ACLU, American Federation of Teachers, Common Defense, 50501, Human Rights Campaign, League of Conservation Voters, MoveOn, National Nurses United, Public Citizen, Service Employees International Union, and United We Dream.
IT’S OFFICIAL: We now have more protests planned for October 18 than there were back in June.It’s not even October yet but you’ve already put 2,100 events on the No Kings map.We hope to see you at the largest day of peaceful protest in American history: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i... #NoKings
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— Indivisible ❌👑 (@indivisible.org) September 30, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Organizers announced the second Not Kings mobilization earlier this month. As a federal government shutdown loomed on Tuesday, they said that over 2,110 protests are now planned across all 50 states—more than those that drew over 5 million people to the streets in June.
"We the People of the United States of America reject the Trump regime's repeated assaults on our freedoms," said 50501 national press coordinator Hunter Dunn. "This administration has invaded our cities, dismantled our social services, and tossed hard-working Americans into concentration camps. He has sacrificed our Constitution on the altar of fascism. On October 18th, the American people will gather together to practice two time-honored American traditions: nonviolent protest and anti-fascism."
Trump has deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles, California, and Washington, DC, and this week is moving to do the same in Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, Illinois—where US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are already carrying out the deadly "Operation Midway Blitz" as part of Trump's national push for mass deportations. The administration is also specifically targeting pro-Palestinian foreign students, which a federal judge on Tuesday rebuked with what one reporter called "the most scathing legal rebuke of the Trump era."
Also on Tuesday, during an unusual gathering of US military leadership in Virginia, Trump declared that the country is "under invasion from within" and generals should use American cities as "training grounds," while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pledged to overhaul the inspector general process: "No more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complaints, no more repeat complaints, no more smearing reputations, no more endless waiting, no more legal limbo, no more sidetracking careers, no more walking on eggshells!"
Trump seems to think that the National Guard is some pawn he can play whenever he wants to feel powerful. But let's be clear about what he's doing: he is using the US military against its own people. This is authoritarianism.
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— Public Citizen (@publiccitizen.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Meanwhile, Jacob Thomas, a military veteran and communications director for Common Defense, said that "as veterans and patriots who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and the freedoms that it enshrines, we are appalled at the lengths President Trump and his billionaire buddies have gone to to strip our neighbors and communities of the rights, dignity, and freedoms owed to everyone residing in this country."
"We must all do our part to fight back against his authoritarianism and military occupation of cities," he continued. "We cannot allow a wannabe dictator to destroy our democracy, gut veteran healthcare, keep people from accessing the ballot box, and tank our economy. We must all join together in solidarity to fight back and secure our freedoms. Two hundred and fifty years ago, Americans stood up to a tyrant king, generations later our great-grandparents defeated fascism abroad. Now it is up to us to defeat fascism at home."
As Israel's bombardment of Gaza and starvation policy in the exclave nears the beginning of its third year, the assault that has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians has driven US support for Israel "off a cliff," suggested one commentator in response to a poll released Monday by The New York Times and Siena College.
The survey of 1,313 registered voters found that for the first time since the newspaper and university have polled Americans on their sympathies regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1998, more respondents said they support Palestinians than Israelis.
Thirty-five percent expressed sympathy with the Palestinian side, while 34% said they support Israelis and 31% said they were unsure or had equal sympathy for both sides.
The poll did not show a majority of respondents backing Palestinians, who have demanded the right to self-determination and an end to Israel's occupation and apartheid policies since Zionist forces ethnically cleansed hundreds of Palestinian towns and cities, killed 15,000 people, and expelled at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in order to establish the Jewish-majority state of Israel in the 1940s.
But the shift in support toward Palestinians was still viewed as seismic among political observers including journalist Krystal Ball, who said the poll showed that "Israel has lost the American people."
Support for Israel and the United States' policy of providing the country with more than $300 billion in aid—mostly military aid—since its founding have long appeared unbreakable among lawmakers from both major political parties, and the public has followed suit for decades.
In 2011, a Gallup poll found that US adults were more than four times as likely to express sympathy and support for Israelis than for Palestinians. Between 1988 and 2011, the survey never found more than 20% of Americans siding with Palestinians.
The Times/Siena poll has found similar results, with 47% of respondents telling survey-takers that they supported Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023 and just 20% expressing sympathy with Palestinians.
In December 2023, only 22% of Americans told the Times and Siena they believed Israel was intentionally killing Palestinian civilians—despite numerous statements by Israeli officials suggesting that their policy was to do so. In the first weeks of the war, then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the government as cutting off deliveries of water, food, and fuel to Gaza because Israel was "fighting human animals," and President Isaac Herzog said Gaza's population of more than 2 million Palestinians were all "responsible" for the Hamas attack, denying that there were civilians who were "not involved."
Nearly two years later, Americans have changed their view, with 40% saying Israel is intentionally killing Palestinians. A quarter of respondents said Israel is doing enough to prevent civilian casualties, down from 30% in 2023, and 16% said Israel is unintentionally killing civilians, down from 21%.
The Times reported a "stunning reversal" in public opinion regarding the continuation of US aid to Israel since October 2023. More than half of registered voters now oppose providing Israel with military and economic aid. Opposition was the highest among voters under the age of 44; 62% of those aged 30-44 said the US should stop funding Israel, while 68% of voters aged 18-29 said the same.
Last month, a Quinnipiac University survey showed similar results, with 60% of voters from across the political spectrum saying they opposed more military aid for Israel—the most significant opposition level recorded by the university since it first asked the question in November 2023.
The Times survey displayed "absolutely staggering public opinion polling on Israel's collapse among young Americans," said journalist Glenn Greenwald.
"Though this was utterly unthinkable even five years ago," said Greenwald, "it's now reflected in poll after poll, and is so entrenched it's hard to imagine it can be reversed."
The poll was released as progressive commentator Hasan Piker said in a video posted on social media by Current Affairs that Democratic lawmakers must abandon the idea that supporting Israel is "pragmatic," pointing out that New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani easily won the primary election in June after being outspoken in his criticism of Israel's policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.
"It's not an area that you will be punished for, no matter how fearful you are of corporate donors, no matter how fearful you are of lobbying interests," said Piker. "The people will back you, as we have seen with the primary victory for Zohran."
Continuing to support Israel is "not pragmatic," he added. "It's actually the opposite of pragmatism."
"Our system isn’t broken," said one progressive critic. "It’s working exactly how billionaires want it to work."
Elon Musk became the first person in history with a net worth $500 billion as the Tesla and SpaceX CEO's fortune briefly topped the half-trillion dollar mark on Wednesday, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires tracker.
According to this year's International Monetary Fund figures, that makes Musk's net worth higher than the gross domestic product of 165 of the world's 195 nations.
Rooted in apartheid South Africa, built on a foundation of unethical business practices, and boosted by staggering sums of corporate welfare, Musk's fortune soared to even greater heights after he played a key role in buying the 2024 election for President Donald Trump and other Republican candidates by pouring over a quarter billion dollars into their campaign coffers.
As Forbes noted:
Worth just $24.6 billion in March 2020, soaring Tesla shares made him the fifth person ever worth $100 billion, in August 2020. He became the world’s richest person for the first time in January 2021, with a nearly $190 billion net worth. Then, in September 2021, he became the third person ever worth $200 billion (after Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Frenchman Bernard Arnault of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH). Musk went on to hit $300 billion in November 2021 and $400 billion in December 2024.
Musk was rewarded for his 2024 largesse by being named the de facto head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a job he has since left after overseeing the Project 2025-inspired evisceration of numerous federal agencies.
As progressives argue that the existence of billionaires is a public policy failure, Musk apparently no longer wants to be one. That's because he's seeking to leave the realm of mere multicentibillionaires behind and become the world's first trillionaire. Such an outcome is possible under a compensation package recently proposed by Tesla's board, and Forbes says it could happen by 2033.
Addressing this possibility, Musk—who has long warned about the existential threat posed by artificial intelligence, even as his companies pioneer such technology—said on his social media site X last year that “it’s not about ‘compensation’, but about me having enough influence over Tesla to ensure safety if we build millions of robots."
“If I can just get kicked out in the future by activist shareholder advisory firms who don’t even own Tesla shares themselves, I’m not comfortable with that future," he added.
Progressive observers expressed dismay at the news of Musk's latest money milestone.
44% of Americans are paid less than a living wage, while a union-buster who pays poverty wages, and buys elections to get more tax breaks hits $500 billion. Our system isn’t broken.It’s working exactly how billionaires want it to work.
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— Melanie D’Arrigo (@darrigomelanie.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Campaign for New York Health executive director Melanie D'Arrigo said Wednesday on social media that "Elon Musk hitting $500 billion while 60% of Americans can’t afford basic necessities is what it looks like when billionaires buy elections to get laws written to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else."
"Elon Musk is a result of decades of policy failures," she added.
Podcaster Brian Allen alluded to United Nations World Food Program Director David Beasley's challenge to Musk to contribute toward the $6.6 trillion needed to combat world hunger.
"He could’ve solved it 83 times, but chose to buy Twitter, pump Dogecoin, and lay off workers instead," Allen said of Musk. "Welcome to late-stage capitalism."
"We're under siege," said one witness. "We're being invaded by our own military."
Just hours after President Donald Trump said US soldiers should use Americans cities as "training grounds," federal law enforcement officials on Tuesday night descended upon an apartment complex in Chicago where witnesses say they broke down residents' doors, smashed furniture and belongings, and dragged dozens of them, including children, placed in U-Haul vans.
Local resident Rodrick Johnson, who lives in the building raided by Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE) agents, told the Chicago Sun-Times that federal officials broke down his door, put him in zip ties, and kept him detained outside the building for three hours before letting him go.
"I asked [agents] why they were holding me if I was an American citizen, and they said I had to wait until they looked me up,” he explained to the paper. “I asked if they had a warrant, and I asked for a lawyer. They never brought one.”
Pertissue Fisher, who also lives in the building, backed up Johnson's account and said that agents forcibly removed all residents from their homes regardless of their legal status.
"They just treated us like we were nothing," she told local news station ABC 7 Chicago. "They, like, piling us all up in the back on the other side, and it wasn't no room to move nowhere."
Ebony Sweets Watson, who lives across the street from the raided building, told the Chicago Sun-Times that she saw children, some of whom weren't even wearing clothes, dragged out of the building by ICE agents and then placed into U-Haul vans.
“It was heartbreaking to watch,” she said. “Even if you’re not a mother, seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.”
Watson also said that it appeared the federal agents had ransacked the building during the raid.
“Stuff was everywhere,” she said. “You could see people’s birth certificates, and papers thrown all over. Water was leaking into the hallway. It was wicked crazy.”
Dan Jones, a resident at the building, told the Chicago Sun-Times that he returned from work on Wednesday to find that several of his belongings, including electronics and furniture, were missing from his apartment, and that all of his clothes had been strewn across the floor. He said that he asked the Chicago Police Department for any information about what happened to his belongings in the wake of the ICE raid, but has so far received no response.
“I’m pissed off,” Jones told the paper. “I feel defeated because the authorities aren’t doing anything.”
Kidnapping naked children and throwing them into vans is what you would do if you were a child sex trafficker, and unless proven otherwise, sure looks like ICE is doing that.
Let's be clear: there is no "gang" as criminal or as dangerous as ICE is. https://t.co/99ExX5sCMM
— Jonathan 'Boo and Vote' Cohn (@JonathanCohn) October 2, 2025
Darrell Ballard, who witnessed the raid, told ABC 7 Chicago that it felt more like a military operation than law enforcement.
"We're under siege," he said. "We're being invaded by our own military."
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that 37 people were arrested during the raid, and it claimed some of them "are believed to be involved in drug trafficking and distribution, weapons crimes, and immigration violators."
American Immigration Council fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said in a Thursday social media post that the raid represented "a surreal moment for America" that was a clear violation of residents' civil liberties.
"Needless to say, if the normal police ever pulled something like this—pulling every single person out of an apartment building and handcuffing them to run warrant checks—they would be sued into oblivion," he observed. "Yet ICE is going to get away with it entirely."
Reichlin-Melnick also said that, even if the agents had a valid warrant to enter the apartment complex, it was highly unlikely that warrant would extend to removing every single resident there.
"I am... DEEPLY skeptical that the warrant permitted them to smash down every door and arrest every person in the building," he wrote. "My gut says they went far beyond the warrant."
“By continuing to actively block vital aid to a population against whom Israel is committing genocide, including by inflicting famine, Israel is once again demonstrating its utter contempt for the legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice," says Amnesty International's secretary-general Agnès Callamard.
Amid international outrage and protest over the interdiction and detention of humanitarians aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla by Israeli military forces, Amnesty International on Thursday said the effort to block the approximately 40 vessels bound to Gaza with life-saving aid shows just how far the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will go to keep "deliberately starving" innocent Palestinians in the besieged enclave.
“Israel’s forceful interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla vessels and detention of its crew off the coast of Gaza is a brazen assault against solidarity activists carrying out an entirely peaceful humanitarian mission," said Amnesty's secretary-general Agnès Callamard in a statement. "This seizure comes after weeks of threats and incitement by Israeli officials against the flotilla and its participants and after several attempts to sabotage some of its ships."
“By continuing to actively block vital aid to a population against whom Israel is committing genocide, including by inflicting famine, Israel is once again demonstrating its utter contempt for the legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice and its own obligations as the occupying power to ensure Palestinians in Gaza have access to sufficient food and lifesaving humanitarian assistance.
Protests erupted in cities across Europe, the Middle East, and worldwide on Wednesday night after news of the interdiction spread. Though not unexpected, the military assault on the nonviolent flotilla occurred in international waters, eliciting accusations of piracy and lawlessness on the high seas by the Israeli military and its civilian leadership.
In a Thursday morning statement, the group detailed what happened to their flotilla and reminded people worldwide of their purpose:
At approximately 10:00 PM EEST on October 1st, the IOF launched their assault on the Global Sumud Flotilla.
The world bore witness as unarmed civilians carrying humanitarian aid were subjected to intimidation and interception in the final hours of their peaceful mission to Gaza.
As the sun rises, the actions taken under the cover of darkness could not be more clear: they are the desperate maneuvers of an oppressor.
Our spirits are not broken and our resolve is only strengthened.
"This interception is not just about blocking aid," said Callamard. "It is a calculated act of intimidation intended to punish and silence critics of Israel’s genocide and its unlawful blockade on Gaza. The incitement and threats that preceded it are also a shameless attempt to demonize peaceful solidarity initiatives seeking to end Israel’s genocide and the cruel blockade it has imposed on Gaza since 2007 and significantly tightened since October 2023."
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday announced that a documented 151 children have now died in Gaza of starvation imposed on them by Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid amid constant bombardment and evacuation orders which have displaced individuals and families without relent.
UNICEF stressed, according to the UN News Centre, "that Gaza’s malnutrition crisis has reached catastrophic levels with the entire child population under five—more than 320,000 children—at risk of acute malnutrition."
With at least 14,383 children acutely malnourished in August, acute malnutrition among young people is up 500% from the beginning of this calendar year, all while aid groups from across the world have sounded the alarm and called for international intervention and the end of the forced starvation.
“This war must end now. Aid must be allowed into the Gaza Strip, including food and nutrition supplies. Humanitarians must be allowed to do their jobs,” said UNICEF communication manager Tess Ingram.
“The children of Gaza," she said, "are being punished by these decisions and it's killing them.”
For her part, Callamard said the attack on the peaceful humanitarian flotilla means that time for rhetoric and simple rebuke has long passed.
"The time for mere condemnation is over. States worldwide must act now and now make clear that they will no longer tolerate Israel’s systematic starvation of Palestinians in Gaza nor its targeting of unarmed civilian humanitarian efforts," she said. "The decades-long impunity for Israel’s blatant violations of international law must end, nothing can justify genocide.
Callamard demanded the "immediate and safe return of all those detained and allow unhindered access to Gaza for the other ships. They must also press Israel to lift its suffocating 18-year blockade and allow humanitarian aid to be delivered through all crossings into and throughout Gaza now."