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A Special Kind Of Loathsomeness
Bad Men Behaving Badly Chap. 746: 'Cause it's not awful enough we have to endure the racist crap spewing from our home-grown jackasses, the rest of the world just bore grim witness to it as dunk-tank Christofascist Pete Hegseth chose a D-Day remembrance to flip the script on World War 2, trash European allies for not being fascist enough, and liken (good-guy) Allies landing at Normandy to an "invasion" of brown people "with "dangerous ideologies." Fact: "This is repulsive and confused, unless you're a Nazi."
Speaking of: Last week, under cover of darkness, "shameful" Senate Republicans pushed through a "Secure America Act" (sic) gifting yet more billions to keep out more of the swarthy hordes Pete's so scared of. Without making any of the reforms Dems had demanded, they added to last year's obscene $191 billion gift to DHS another $75 billion for ICE and $65 billion for CBP, 4 to 7 times their previous budgets, with most allocated to expand detentions, deportations, facilities, goons - not, as it could, to fund free childcare for over a million kids, groceries for over 10 million households, a year of SNAP benefits to 31 million people, health care tax credits for a year etc etc ad nauseum. Their wise leader, meanwhile, was throwing tantrums on TV - "Dude is losing his shit" - because a reporter dared ask for evidence of his flood of unhinged claims.
And greasy "Secretary of War (Crimes)" Pete lurches along on his quest to turn America into a white nationalist theocracy. A buffoon of a warmonger though (because?) he never saw combat, he posts klutzy videos of himself working out; in one, he prances in a “This Is War” t-shirt. (No, this is reality TV). Sporting Crusader tattoos - Deus Vult, but whose God? - he stripped 180 unholy faiths from those the military recognizes despite a First Amendment ensuring "the free exercise of religion for everybody" - a religious purge dressed up as paperwork (telling) thousands of service members their beliefs don’t matter to the government they’re risking their lives to protect.” (After outrage, he restored the Mormons.) He cut dozens of female and Black Navy officers from leadership-approved promotions, dissing “historic so-called firsts” that make the military “less lethal.”
And to mark this weekend's 82nd anniversary of the June 6, 1944 D-Day landing of Allied forces on the beaches of Normandy - perhaps the most pivotal moment in a long bloody fight to defend democracy against fascism - he gave a pro-fascism speech, embracing a Great Replacement theory that calls for a return to the racial ideology on which fascism is based. Speaking at the American Cemetery in north-west France where about 9,400 are buried, he'd barely recalled the courage of Allied Forces from multiple countries wading ashore in history's largest amphibious operation to liberate Europe before pivoting to warn "their legacy requires our active vigilance." European leaders may have grown too "comfortable," he said with the chutzpah of the deeply ignorant, and they may have somehow "forgotten that freedom is not free."
"Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different, dangerous ideologies," he intoned. "On beaches in Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, boats and men arrive....When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not." What a pompous asshole. So: On D-Day, Ugly Americans hawking xenophobia. Equating brown-skinned migrants who want to feed and keep safe their families with "dangerous ideologies." Also: Equating anti-fascism with "dangerous ideologies"? Wait, weren't the Allies the good guys? And wait, so the Nazis were...? Americans were horrified by so much repulsive and confused: "Sewage," "straight-up white nationalism," "a cheap suit full of hate and racism - what an evil shit," "Crystal Meth Rumsfeld strikes again," "We get it, dude. Just come out and say you hate black and brown people."
Especially in Europe, critics did not hold back, and we are here for it. English historian Simon Schama decried Hegseth's "special kind of loathsomeness, a blend of historical deafness, grotesque stupidity and comically ludicrous self-importance...As if the little people’s rage against immigration somehow is superior to the war against the 3rd Reich, and entitles this comic-book nobody to lecture the actual heroes." Others blasted "something profoundly ugly happening" in our right wing..."and on D-Day, D-Day!" and "an obscene desecration" of the memories of those who fell. Like many, French P.M. Sébastien Lecornu rightly paid tribute instead to the "3,000 men, barely 20 years old," who died, offering "the breath of their youth and the sacrifice of their lives."
Europeans also called bullshit on the faux drama and utter hypocrisy of Hegseth's angry claim that, after a united D-Day era when "each nation bled," Europe is not "standing with" a U.S. now run by a lying, racist, narcissistic, war-mongering toddler who does nothing but abuse them. "America will lead and we must, but capable allies must be Right. There. With Us...In the Breach. When It Matters," he bloviated. "The men who fought and died here restored freedom to Europe,. Now freedom must be maintained by this generation of leaders and war-fighters...We stand by our allies, and we expect our allies to stand beside us." "So much nonsense," retorted Swedish economist Anders Åslund. "'We stand by our allies!’ No you don’t. You just attacked them. Immigration policies are internal matters... Doesn’t Hegseth know the most unreliable ‘ally’ by far is the US?”
And now, in the name of their mythical, bigoted, white, male, Christian Republic, the US - Hegseth, Trump, Vance et al - have the audacity to be hectoring their European “allies” to “up their white supremacy game” to stop an “invasion” of what Trump has called the brown and black “vermin” who once flocked to our “shining city on a hill,” now a beacon of hate. Hamlet's ghost: “O, what a falling-off was there.” Last weekend, in France, Hegseth didn’t even stay for the international ceremony at the cemetery where so many are buried - per Trump, all those suckers and losers. Pete likely didn’t know the denizens of a nearby village had weeks earlier asked that his visit be cancelled. "It seems to us," they said in their request, "that this man does not share our democratic values." We feel your pain.
Jun 08, 2026
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Appellate Court Tosses Youth Case Against 'Unconstitutional' Trump Orders Fueling Climate Crisis
A federal judge in the District of Montana last year "reluctantly" dismissed a lawsuit filed by young Americans challenging a trio of President Donald Trump's anti-climate executive orders and invited the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to correct him—but the panel on Tuesday again tossed the case.
Backed by attorneys at Our Children's Trust and Public Justice, Eva Lighthiser, Rikki Held of Held v. State of Montana, and 20 other children and young adults sued in May 2025 over Trump's executive orders (EOs) boosting the coal industry, declaring a "national energy emergency," and calling on federal agencies to accelerate fossil fuel development.
After the first dismissal from US District Judge Dana Christensen, the young Americans and their lawyers vowed to appeal. However, the 9th Circuit on Tuesday found that "plaintiffs can only speculate that the executive orders are the cause of the many agency actions they allege will exacerbate climate change," and "they have not plausibly alleged that enjoining federal agencies from implementing the executive orders is substantially likely to prevent agencies from taking similar emissions-inducing actions under other lawful authorities."
Issuing an injunction sought by the plaintiffs "would effectively place one federal district court in charge of executive branch energy policy—'an extraordinary and unprecedented role' for a member of the 'unelected and politically unaccountable branch,'" the appellate court also concluded. "Further, by effectively challenging hundreds of current and anticipated agency actions in one lawsuit, Plaintiffs seek to circumvent the jurisdictional and procedural rules Congress has established for challenges to agency actions."
Julia Olson, chief legal counsel and co-executive director of Our Children's Trust, declared in a Tuesday statement that "this decision lets the president direct a sweeping fossil fuel agenda, with no authorization from Congress and no meaningful judicial review, and then tells the children harmed by that agenda that they cannot challenge it until it is unconstitutionally implemented piece by piece. That is not how the Constitution works."
"The court did not decide whether these executive orders are constitutional. It did not decide whether the federal government may knowingly endanger children," she explained. "Instead, it slammed the courthouse doors on children fighting for their lives and told them to file hundreds of cases against every agency action carrying out the president's unconstitutional executive orders. Courts do not become policymakers when they stop unconstitutional government action. That is their job. These young people deserve a court willing to do it."
The lead plaintiff, Lighthiser, stressed that "the court never said we were wrong. They never said the harm isn't real. They just said they wouldn't stop the harm."
"They had the power to act. and they chose not to," she continued. "By the time we are harmed enough to satisfy them, it will be too late. I am a young person. This is my life, my health, my future. And I deserve better than this. We all do."
The decision comes as Trump and his allies continue to serve the interests of the fossil fuel executives who helped him return to power, regardless of the consequences for people and the planet—from gutting key agencies and attacking clean power projects to dismantling a deep-ocean monitoring system that helps researchers understand the impacts of the climate crisis.
"The Trump administration is responsible for a children's health emergency by obligating federal agencies to take actions that dramatically increase greenhouse gas emissions and climate change," Dan Snyder, director of Public Justice's Environmental Enforcement Project, said Tuesday. "The 9th Circuit makes no mention of this emergency. Indeed, the 9th Circuit's decision is shocking in what it lacks."
"The court didn't even consider US Supreme Court decisions—or decisions from within its own circuit—which would require it to reach a very different decision than the one it did today," he highlighted. "The court ignored significant and undisputed facts that Trump's executive orders are causing real-world injuries to our children today. And the court ignores its most basic responsibility: finding workable remedies that provide relief to the uncontested injuries being inflicted by the Trump administration on our kids."
Jun 02, 2026
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House Dem Confronts Trump Ag Secretary Over Claim That 4.5 Million Being Kicked Off SNAP is 'Good News'
Rep. Shontel Brown on Thursday confronted US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins for her past boasts about kicking millions of Americans off food assistance.
During a House Agriculture Committee hearing, Brown grilled Rollins for saying it was "good news" that 4.5 million fewer people are now enrolled in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) than before President Donald Trump took office last year.
"The reality is that 4.5 million people were kicked off the program to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy," said Brown. "Families and children are not leaving the SNAP program because they are doing better."
Rep. @ShontelMBrown: Recently, you described it as good news that roughly 4.5 million people have been moved off SNAP. The reality is that 4.5 million people were kicked off to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. They are not doing better--
Rollins: They are. pic.twitter.com/qcB2WlAHLv
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) June 4, 2026
"They are," Rollins replied, without citing any evidence.
"They are being forced off because of eligibility changes, new administrative barriers, and states preparing for the enormous cost shift that they know is coming," Brown shot back. "And you know this. So I'm really struggling to understand why you think pulling the rug out from under children, seniors, veterans, and families that have fallen on hard times [is] good news."
Rollins then baselessly claimed that all of the people who had been removed from SNAP had been added to the program fraudulently, including "200,000 dead people."
The Associated Press last month published a fact check that examined a similar Rollins claim about the number of people removed from food assistance over the last year, and determined that the most likely culprit were changes made to the program by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a 2025 budget law that slashed funding to SNAP by $186 billion over a decade.
"What we’ve seen in terms of the data is that the trend in participation declines seems to be related to the program being harder to access,” Roger Figueroa, an assistant professor at Cornell University, explained to the AP.
Jun 04, 2026
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'Vote for Cruelty and Corruption': House Republicans Approve $70 Billion in New Funding for ICE and DHS
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday narrowly approved nearly $70 billion in new funding for US Department of Homeland Security agencies responsible for the Trump administration's anti-immigrant crackdown, a move denounced by Democrats and advocacy groups.
The Secure America Act—a budget reconciliation bill approved last week by the Senate, where it was introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)—passed the House by a vote of 214-212. Every Republican present voted for the bill, while every Democrat in the chamber and Independent Rep. Kevin Kiley of California voted against it.
The legislation provides funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through the end of President Donald Trump's term. The bill now heads to Trump's desk for his signature.
"In the final months of their House majority, House Republicans are doubling down on their failed approach: blank checks for ICE and not one cent to make things cheaper for working families," Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) said following Tuesday's vote.
"The day after threatening to cut Social Security and Medicare, they are sending billions to Trump’s mass deportation machine—which still has $100 billion sitting in the bank," he added. "The Republican Congress is a disaster for working Americans. When Democrats take back power, we must repeal this funding.”
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said on X: "The House GOP just voted to give ICE and CBP $70 BILLION. Instead of investing in you and ensuring you can afford your healthcare, groceries, or rent—they chose to hand $70 BILLION to agencies operating without any guardrails while terrorizing and brutalizing our communities."
Civil society groups also blasted House Republicans after the vote.
“Congressional Republicans gifting ICE with billions of extra dollars of funding while Americans are struggling to make ends meet is an outrage," said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, which decried what it called "a vote for cruelty and corruption."
“Trump’s ICE has proven that it is dangerous and out of control," Gilbert added. "Today’s vote is... a vote against the Constitution and the safety of our communities and neighbors. Shame on congressional Republicans for ramrodding through this egregious funding.”
FWD.us President Todd Schulte said, "At a time when voters remain rightly outraged at ICE, providing hundreds of billions of dollars to ICE and CBP to terrorize communities and tear families apart while the cost of living rises and healthcare funding is slashed is both a stunning policy failure, and incredibly unpopular with voters."
ACLU senior policy counsel Kate Voigt said in a statement that "it is unconscionable that the House would vote to write yet another blank check for ICE and Border Patrol’s campaign of chaos without any reforms. Over the past several months we’ve seen these abusive agencies kill our neighbors, harass and racially profile people, and tear thousands of families apart."
More than 50 people have died in DHS custody since Trump returned to office, with experts asserting that many of the deaths were preventable. Detained immigrants have reported beatings and sexual abuse, medical neglect, hunger and inedible food, and denial of access to attorneys, and other mistreatment.
DHS officers have killed Americans Renee Good and Alex Pretti and Mexican national Silverio Villegas González, and have wounded numerous other people during Trump's second term.
ICE detainees across the nation are resisting abuse in detention centers across the nation through hunger strikes and other civil disobedience, as well as via lawsuits.
Jun 09, 2026
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'No Evidence': Bolivia's Paz Blames 'Narco-Terrorists' for Protests and Signs Law Granting Emergency Powers
Days after the Trump administration blamed "narco-terrorists" for ongoing anti-government protests in Bolivia, US-backed President Rodrigo Paz adopted the term in a statement Monday as he signed legislation that could clear the way for his administration to impose a state of emergency—allowing the military to take action against the demonstrations and suspending constitutional rights across the South American country.
"Our security is put at risk when narco‑terrorism, and the priorities of certain actors, are not aligned with our democracy, our Constitution," Paz said at a signing ceremony. "They put their own interests above those of Bolivian society."
The president warned that the protest organizers' "days are numbered."
Local journalist Joseph Bouchard noted that Paz did not provide any evidence that the dozens of roadblocks that have been erected in Bolivia and the marches and other protests that have been held in cities including La Paz and El Alto are in any way connected to drug trafficking or "narco-terrorism." The government of the Santa Cruz department, the largest of nine constituent departments in Bolivia, also used the term "narcoguerrillas" to describe protest organizers.
Paz signed the legislation into law weeks after the Bolivian Chamber of Senators overturned a law that imposed strict limits on how the government can declare a state of emergency in the country. The limitations included ensuring that certain rights could not be suspended under a state of exception and making the president criminally liable for exceeding the law’s parameters.
On Sunday the legislature passed a new law clearing the way for Paz to declare a state of emergency and allow the military to deploy to clear about 90 blockades and other protests.
The demonstrations have included a 683-mile march in May from the northern territories to La Paz, with Indigenous representatives, teachers, mining unions, and other labor federations among those protesting low wages, privatization, and Paz's decision to end a fuel subsidy after he became president last November. The subsidy had been crucial for working people, organizers say. Some groups are calling for Paz's resignation.
According to The Associated Press and other outlets, the road blockades have disrupted deliveries of food, fuel, and medical supplies.
Before Paz signed the law on Monday, the country's public prosecutor charged a leader of the main labor federation with "terrorism" for his role in leading the demonstrations.
The independent public ombudsman said over the weekend that 10 people have died as a result of the blockades, 37 people have been injured, and 365 arrests have been made from May 1-June 2. The government has said seven of the deaths resulted from a lack of medical attention, but they are still being investigated.
Last week, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on social media that the US government and military would “reject all attempts to overthrow the legitimate government” of Paz.
“The United States is watching. Bolivia must not allow itself to fall prey to the old status quo of narco-terrorist dominance in the region,” Hegseth added.
The Trump administration has also claimed to be fighting "narco-terrorism" as it has killed more than 200 people in boat bombings in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, and charged Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with drug trafficking after the US military invaded Venezuela and abducted the president in January.
In March, residents of a farming town in Ecuador described an "ambush" by Ecuadorian and American forces who had attacked the area in what the country's right-wing president, Daniel Noboa, called an operation to take down “a training ground for drug traffickers."
The farmers said the town was a "livestock area" with no drug trafficking activity taking place.
Bouchard noted that before signing the law regarding the declaration of a state of emergency, Paz thanked Hegseth for his "support for democracy."
"I really don't know how anyone could take any of this seriously," said Bouchard, "after reading for three seconds about the Trump administration and the history of the US in Bolivia/Latin America."
Jun 09, 2026
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‘Collective Punishment’: Israel Halts All Humanitarian Aid to Gaza in Retaliation for Iran Strikes
In an act described as "collective punishment" against two million Palestinians, Israel announced that it would close off the main entry points for humanitarian aid into Gaza indefinitely in retaliation for strikes launched this weekend by Iran.
Iran launched missiles at Israel on Sunday in response to Israel's bombing of a densely populated Beirut suburb, which killed civilians and violated a June 1 agreement not to bomb Lebanon's capital.
In addition to retaliating with new strikes on Iran, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said on Sunday that “a number of necessary security measures have been implemented” following the missile fire, “including the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Rafah Crossing, until further notice.”
COGAT claimed that closing the crossings "will not affect the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip" because "the substantial quantities of food that have entered the strip since the beginning of the ceasefire significantly exceed the nutritional needs of the population, according to [United Nations] methodologies."
That is not what actual UN reports say. The World Food Program (WFP) estimated in June that about 1.6 million people living in Gaza, more than three-quarters of the population, were "facing high levels of acute food insecurity" despite the entry of food parcels and other aid since the October 2025 "ceasefire" between Israel and Hamas.
In the first half of May, UN workers identified more than 2,000 cases of acute malnutrition among young children, according to a June report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
That same OCHA report said about 678,000 hot meals were delivered in May, down from 1.5 million per day in mid-March as a result of underfunding and due to Israel's closures and restrictions at certain entry points. The number of people receiving food parcels in May also dropped to about 820,000, down from 1.1 million in March. The rations that were distributed in May covered only about 75% of the average person's minimum daily caloric needs, while those distributed in March covered about 50%.
While the amount of aid entering the strip has increased since the ceasefire went into effect, UN data has never suggested that the amount entering "exceeds" the needs of Palestinians. Since the truce began, reports have consistently said the amount of aid entering the strip was only reaching part of the population, and that aid packages only contained part of the needed nutritional value, which did not meet the terms of the agreement.
Israel, which has been accused of using starvation as a "weapon of war" against Gaza by UN bodies and major human rights groups, previously closed all crossings into the strip at the start of its military assault against Iran in late February.
This not only halted the entry of food and medical aid but also blocked medical evacuations for sick and injured Palestinians, which were desperately needed due to Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s medical system. Even as entry points reopened in the following weeks, aid entry never returned to previous levels.
COGAT said on Monday that "the crossings will be reopened gradually, subject to an ongoing operational assessment and under security restrictions designed to ensure the safety of all personnel present at the crossings on both sides," though it provided no clear timeframe or indication of how much aid would be allowed in.
“Aid is not a political tool and should not be weaponized in this way. The survival and needs of children in Gaza should not have to answer to airstrikes elsewhere,” said Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe in a statement on Monday.
“For nearly three years, Gaza has been pummelled so hard by Israeli airstrikes that nothing can grow there and people have been reliant on the already small amount of aid crossing the border—aid that was never enough and is now totally out of reach,” he added. “Children in Gaza have already been starved by design. They should not now be denied water, medicine, shelter, and the other essentials needed to survive. The Israeli authorities must re-open these crossings immediately, lift the siege, and facilitate the safe delivery of humanitarian aid at scale.”
With Israeli leaders openly stating their goal in recent weeks to expand the nation's occupation of Gaza despite the ceasefire, international observers have suggested that Israel was using the escalation of hostilities with Iran as an excuse to ramp up its brutal treatment of Palestinians, nearly 1,000 of whom have been killed in the strip since the ceasefire went into effect.
The US-brokered ceasefire agreement signed by Israel and Hamas in October required the “full entry of humanitarian aid and relief” into the strip.
"The guarantors of the ceasefire must step in and force Israel to reopen the crossings, resume and triple the aid amounts, and totally stop any attacks on Gaza now," said Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed. "This is their job. And they must uphold the ceasefire agreement."
Jun 08, 2026
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International Lawyers Decry US Aggression Against Cuba, Urge Solidarity With Its People
“Those who remain silent in the face of this growing unlawfulness and aggressiveness assume a grave responsibility," said the head of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.
Jun 10, 2026
An international group of leftist lawyers on Tuesday condemned the US blockade, sanctions, and war threats against Cuba, and the mounting repression of solidarity with the long-suffering Cuban people.
The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) held a virtual press conference "to condemn escalating United States measures against Cuba and to call for renewed international action in defense of international law, Cuban sovereignty, and the rights of the Cuban people."
"The United States continues to threaten Cuba while imposing unilateral coercive economic measures designed to destabilize the country and facilitate regime change," IADL noted. "In recent months, restrictions on fuel shipments have further intensified the hardships faced by the Cuban people, with severe consequences for daily life."
"For more than three decades, the United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly called for an end to the US blockade of Cuba, with the United States and Israel consistently standing alone in opposition to the international consensus," the group added. "While these annual resolutions represent a powerful condemnation of the blockade, symbolic measures alone are insufficient. International law imposes obligations on states to act in the face of ongoing violations."
Speakers at the press conference warned that the Trump administration's recent actions—including war threats and a deadly fuel blockade—are serious violations of international law that threaten the rights and well-being of millions of Cubans.
"The illegality of the blockade is not in doubt. What is at stake today is the impunity that allows it to continue," IADL general secretary Micòl Savia said. "What is at stake is the complete disregard of the United States for international law and collective institutions and their contempt for the common values of humankind."
"The actions of successive US administrations against Cuba make it very clear that they do not consider themselves bound by the principles of sovereign equality, peaceful coexistence, and self-determination that form the foundation of the international legal order," she continued.
“Another dimension of the blockade and sanctions against Cuba is the pressure imposed on third countries," Savia said. "The threat of punishment against institutions, banks, companies, and individuals that seek to establish commercial, financial, or diplomatic relations with Cuba is an intervention not only against Cuba, but also into the sovereign sphere of other countries."
"This shows how broad and arbitrary the sanctions policy has become as a tool of coercion," she added. "The threat of sanctions against companies from third countries that trade with Cuba violates their sovereignty.”
Speakers at the event excoriated the Trump administration's escalating war threats and politically motivated indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro, a hero of his country's successful revolution against a US-backed dictatorship.
"Cuba is now under the direct threat of [a] US imperialist war of aggression after a long period of economic and financial blockade," said Filipino jurist Edwin De La Cruz of the Amistad Philippines-Cuba Friendship Association and National Union of People's Lawyers.
"Serious transgressions on Cuba’s sovereignty, from failed efforts to foment unrest among the population, to the personal assault on the integrity of Comrade Raúl Castro by [President] Donald Trump intensified, with a threat of armed invasion tweeted by Donald Trump himself," he continued.
"Cuba and the Philippines share a common history of US imperialist domination. We share a common enemy and a common struggle," De La Cruz noted, pointing to the so-called Spanish-American War, in which the United States conquered both countries, along with Puerto Rico and Guam, from Spain under the false pretense of a Spanish attack on the battleship USS Maine. The US colonized the Philippines from 1898-1946, except for a brief period of Japanese occupation during World War II.
Deborah Jackson, president of the US group National Conference of Black Lawyers, called the Castro indictment "a transparently political prosecution that serves no legitimate law enforcement purpose."
Castro—who served as Cuba's president for a decade after his older brother, Fidel Castro, stepped down in 2008—was indicted by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) last month for his alleged role in the 1996 shoot-down of planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a counter-revolutionary group founded by a CIA-trained operative and Bay of Pigs veteran, after repeated warnings that they had violated Cuban airspace.
Critics noted Trump's ongoing campaign of illegal boat bombings in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, as well as the long history of US state terrorism against Cuba and support for the perpetrators of attacks carried out by right-wing Cuban exiles, including the 1976 bombing of a commercial flight with 73 people aboard.
Jackson said the charges against Castro "are clearly invalid... attempts to criminalize legitimate acts of self-defense by a sovereign nation" that "have been brought nearly three decades after the incident in question against a 94-year-old former head of state who will never be extradited to the United States."
Kerry McLean, an international human rights attorney with the National Lawyers' Guild in the United States, warned that “the indictment of Castro, a foreign leader and former head of state, threatens a repeat of the illegal abduction on January 3, 2026 of Venezuela’s president and his wife."
Trump ordered the invasion and arrest of President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores on dubious drug trafficking, illegal weapons possession, and narco-terrorism charges. The DOJ has since admitted that the cartel which Trump claimed was led by Maduro does not, in fact, exist.
McLean added that the US invasion of Venezuela—during which more than 75 people, including 32 Cuban members of Maduro's security team, were killed—violated the UN Charter, a treaty that, under the US Constitution, is "the supreme law of the land."
Speakers at the IADL event also decried US efforts to intimidate, investigate, and criminalize solidarity organizations.
“Like the designation of Cuba as a 'state supporter of terror' and the designations of many of the leading organizations and figures of the Cuba solidarity movement, these organizations and individuals are designated and targeted to impose state terror on the Palestine and Cuba solidarity movements, divide people from their homelands, and blunt the effectiveness of any opposition to US imperialism," IADL deputy general secretary Charlotte Kates said.
"The aim of such designations is not only to prohibit financial transactions, but to isolate those organizations and individuals that the US views as key networks of solidarity against imperialism and to prevent meaningful action to bring its crimes to an end," she contended.
Savia said, “Those who remain silent in the face of this growing unlawfulness and aggressiveness assume a grave responsibility, particularly when such conduct is carried out by one of the most powerful and heavily armed states in the world."
"By letting these policies continue unabated," she added, "and by applying double standards and selectivity while granting widespread impunity to rich and powerful states, they contribute to the erosion of the international legal order and pave the way for a world without the rule of law."
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With Straight Face, Trump Says Platner 'Worse Than Any Human Being That's Ever Run for Office, Probably'
The president has been convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying documents as well as being found guilty of fraud, sexual abuse, and defamation. While in office he's given massive tax giveaways to billionaires, opened the gates for corporate polluters, and made enriching himself and his family a top priority.
Jun 10, 2026
Four months after President Donald Trump's name reportedly appeared over a million times in long-hidden files related to his former friend, convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, and weeks after one analysis warned that his foreign aid cuts will likely kill 9 million people by the end of the decade, the president announced Wednesday that he'd identified the politician who is "probably" the worst person to ever run for public office.
In the Oval Office, Trump declared Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner, whom Maine primary voters chose to run in the general election by more than a 52% margin, a "thug" and a "cheap, no-good person," adding that he is "worse than any human being that's ever run for office, probably."
"Nobody's ever had a record like that... This guy's got a rap sheet, I've never seen anything like it," said the president as he lied about Platner, who has no criminal record.
Trump, meanwhile, was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in 2024. A New York judge also ordered Trump to pay a $450 million civil penalty over financial fraud that year, and in 2023, a jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming columnist E. Jean Carroll. More than two dozen women have accused the president of sexual misconduct.
Trump on Platner: "I watched that thug that's up in Maine. He's a thug. And they're trying to make excuses for him. I mean, he's worse than any human being that's ever run for office probably…And you'll have Schumer, he'll go crazy over this or that or Epstein…He's a thug." pic.twitter.com/I9k1MXZOUD
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) June 10, 2026
Trump, who has openly bragged about sexually assaulting women and reportedly committed adultery numerous times during his three marriages, was likely referring to controversies that made headlines after Platner, a combat veteran and oyster farmer, launched his campaign last year with a focus on taxing billionaires, expanding Medicare to the entire population, and ending US wars.
During his two terms in office, Trump has been rebuked for his allegiance to corporate interests, giving massive tax breaks to billionaires and powerful industries, undermining labor protections, launching wars of choice overseas, attacking public education, and gutting public health and environmental protection efforts.
Recently, a former campaign staffer told news outlets that Platner's wife had confided in her about messages Platner sent to other women early in their marriage. The candidate's former girlfriend, a right-wing operative, also accused him of being physically aggressive during their relationship. Earlier controversies centered on a tattoo that critics said resembled a Nazi symbol and posts he wrote on Reddit in the years after his military service.
Despite the months of criticism and news stories regarding Platner's past, with 91% of votes reported as of Wednesday afternoon, he won the support of more than 71% of Democratic primary voters, with many saying they connected with his strong focus on issues affecting working people and that he had taken accountability for his previous actions.
While attacking Platner on Wednesday, Trump brought up the Epstein scandal, saying Democratic lawmakers "go crazy" over his association with the financier, who died in prison while awaiting a trial on sex-trafficking minors and who was convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution with a minor.
As Trump hurled insults at Platner, also calling him "an outright pig," the Democratic candidate released an ad taking aim at "the Epstein class," saying that "the only thing the DC establishment can agree on is a love of Jeffrey Epstein—and a hatred of me."
Earlier, the Democratic candidate and so-called "thug" posted a video on social media of a volunteer activity he was taking part in on the morning after the election in Bar Harbor.
"This morning, I'm doing very important things, which is riding on the bike bus," said Platner, evidently taking time off from being what Trump has also referred to as a "major sleaze bag."
"The community gets together and helps ride with all of the kids who want to ride their bikes to school, and so it's safe and fun," he explained.
Good morning, Maine!
Hitting the trail. pic.twitter.com/y2xcbe1Hxi
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) June 10, 2026
"Honestly, it's exactly the thing that we need a lot more of in this country," said Platner, "which is people coming together and realizing that their neighbors are good people, and everybody just wants to help each other out. It's the message we need to take into our politics, which is why we won last night."
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Florida Man's Wrongful Arrest Suit Highlights Dangers of AI Facial Recognition in Policing
"Over a year later, I'm still picking up the pieces of my life, all because the police relied on this dangerous technology instead of doing their jobs and actually investigating," said Robert Dillon.
Jun 10, 2026
A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday in the Middle District of Florida by a Fort Myers resident wrongfully arrested nearly two years ago highlights the risks of police agencies relying on facial recognition tools.
"This case is about what happens when police let an error-prone artificial intelligence (AI) system stand in for an investigation," explains the complaint, filed by attorneys with the state and national ACLU as well as the firm Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney. "A facial recognition algorithm flagged Robert Dillon as the man who tried to lure or entice a child under 12 years old at a Jacksonville Beach McDonald's. It was wrong."
The 52-year-old "lives more than 300 miles from" and "had never set foot in Jacksonville Beach," the complaint continues. "But rather than test the machine's answer against the evidence that would have cleared him, the officers built a case to confirm it. Mr. Dillon was arrested and prosecuted for one of the most stigmatizing crimes a person can face."
Dillon—one of at least 15 people wrongfully arrested in the United States due to police reliance on incorrect facial recognition results—is suing the city of Jacksonville Beach as well as law enforcement officers from the Jacksonville Beach Police Department, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO), and Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
Reporting on the case Wednesday, Wired noted that while the Pinellas agency did not respond to a request for comment, a JSO spokesperson simply said that "due to pending litigation, we would be unable to comment further on the incident."
The actual suspect allegedly approached a girl at the McDonald's shortly before midnight on November 2, 2023. The following month, Dillon was flagged as a possible match by the Face Analysis Comparison and Examination System (FACES)—which "has been operated by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office since 2001, making it one of the oldest police face-recognition systems in the country," according to Wired. "At its peak in 2021, its tens of millions of Florida mug shots and driver's license photos were accessible to more than 260 agencies."
After denying any involvement in the case in December, Dillon was arrested at his home in front of his wife the next August, "held overnight in jail, forced to borrow money and pledge the title to his truck to post bond, subjected to months of criminal prosecution, and publicly branded with a mugshot that remains accessible online, long after the charges were dropped," the complaint states. "Community members still approach him in public to ask about the case. He no longer feels comfortable being friendly to children."
"He had no connection to the McDonald's, to the child who was targeted, or to anyone involved in the crime. He became a suspect for one reason: a facial recognition algorithm included him in a list of possible matches to a suspect captured on grainy surveillance footage at the restaurant," the document emphasizes. "The investigating officer treated that algorithmic output as a near-certain identification, omitted critical exculpatory evidence from his arrest warrant application, and failed to pursue routine investigative steps that would have immediately excluded Mr. Dillon as a suspect."
"The arrest warrant that deprived Mr. Dillon of his liberty was the product of a cascade of investigative failures by the lead investigator, Jacksonville Beach Police Department officer (now corporal) Scott O'Connell," according to the filing. Among them was the officer's "complete failure to consider that the suspect was alleged to have been a 'regular' customer."
The complaint also notes that "O'Connell is an officer with a documented history of volatility and poor judgment, having previously been terminated from the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office for threatening to 'blow up' the agency, later reinstated, then arrested for domestic battery before resigning under the weight of those charges. Jacksonville Beach PD hired him anyway, assigned him as lead investigator on a sensitive child-luring case, and later promoted him to corporal after his investigation resulted in the wrongful arrest and prosecution of an innocent man."
Dillon said in a Wednesday statement that "the night I spent in jail after they arrested me for a crime I did not commit still haunts me to this day. I will never get over how terrified and worried I was, wondering if I'd ever go home to my wife and daughter again."
"Over a year later, I'm still picking up the pieces of my life, all because the police relied on this dangerous technology instead of doing their jobs and actually investigating," Dillon added. "Florida police must implement safeguards and ensure this never happens to anyone else, because until they do, nobody is safe."
Nate Freed Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, stressed that "no one should lose their freedom or be scared to leave their house because an algorithm got it wrong."
"These Florida police departments owe it to Mr. Dillon to make amends and to take serious steps to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else," he argued. "Police across the country are on notice: Unreliable face recognition technology is hurting people, and we will keep fighting to hold them accountable for these abuses."
The ACLU has previously sounded the alarm over other cases, including those of Robert Williams, a Black man wrongfully arrested in 2020 after software owned by Michigan State Police misidentified him as a shoplifting suspect, and Randal Reid, who spent nearly a week in jail in 2022 after he was falsely identified as a luxury purse thief by Louisiana authorities.
The legal group on Wednesday also pointed to the reported role of FACES in the 2025 wrongful arrest of New Smyrna Beach resident Beau Burgess, as well as another case involving the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office: Jalil Richardson told Action News Jax earlier this month that after being misidentified as a vehicle thief, he "sat in there for over 50 days, in the most worst jail ever."
"There was no proper investigation done... to even reach out to me or to see if I was even in Florida," said Richardson, whose charges were dropped after he provided time sheets showing that he was at work in North Carolina when the vehicle was stolen.
In his case, JSO provided a lengthy statement, saying in part that "facial recognition software is just one tool in a large toolbox for investigators," and "calling the arrest the result 'police AI misidentification' is a catchy headline but does not provide accurate context," including that "the victim chose Mr. Richardson out of a photographic lineup to include other potential suspects."
Nicholas Warren, staff attorney at the ACLU of Florida, said Wednesday that "one wrongful arrest is one too many."
"Florida's growing reliance on facial recognition technology threatens us all," he warned. "We must stop this dangerous pattern before it traps more innocent people. No one should have their freedom taken away because the police rely on faulty technology."
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