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In a perhaps unprecedented dark time for America and the world, let us take solace in our indomitable Dear Stable Genius, who remains unwaveringly focused on taking care of shiny business: Gold social security cards like Elvis, a $400 million, lopsided shed/ballroom with gaudy columns but no main entrance, and of course gold toilets - which all keeps him so busy he hardly has time to threaten Iran with war crimes. What a time to be alive, barely.
In actual good news, No Kings Day 3.0 drew between 8 and 12 million people, thus hovering tantalizingly close to the 3.5% of a nation's populace historically required to overthrow an authoritarian regime. So good work, patriots. The over 3,000 protests, aka per Mike Johnson "Hate America rallies," ranged from Alaska's Utqiaġvik, the country's northernmost city (7 people) to Ele'ele, Kaua'i, the westernmost, from over 100,000 in New York City to nine stalwarts on Maine's Monhegan Island. Thousands of Trump's neighbors in Palm Beach turned out, ending with a twilight march to Mar-A-Lago, or as close as they could get.
Their signs were brutal: "Elect A Rapist, Expect To Get Fucked. How Many Deaths For the Epstein War? Worst President Since Trump. Criminals Belong Behind Bars, Free Balls for Members of Congress Who Lost Them, Trump Rapes Kids, Impeach Pedolf Shitler, Putin's Bitch, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. According to The Borowitz Report, Trump, furious about the large protests, argued they'd be much smaller if you subtract all Elon Musk's kids there because they hate him: "People are saying their number (was) much higher than 400, thousands, maybe millions. You take away Elon’s kids and almost no one was there."
There were also "half-dozens to dozens of Americans" at One King co unter-protests, reports The Fucking News, who put the number at "many-ish...Organizers say there were barely any organizers," with attendees ranging from "a tiny number of young people to a die-hard faction of dying people." In Palm Beach, one man carried a heavy sign that read, "Deport the white liberals"; masked to protect himself "against the vindictive left," he said he left soon after he was "attacked" by a woman who denied touching him; her comrades said the guy just dropped his sign "because he was too weak to carry it."
Their small numbers did face competition from "the incredible shrinking CPAC," also meeting that day in Grapevine, Texas with a turnout of "barely thousands." Once a MAGA "center of political gravity," this year's event drew neither Trumps nor presidential candidates. One possible ick factor: MC was (still) CPAC chair Matt Schlapp, who in 2024 settled a pricey sexual misconduct lawsuit from a guy working on Hershel Walker’s (LOL) Senate campaign, who charged Schlapp groped him. The event did boast Todd Chrisley, a reality TV star doing 12 years in prison for massive fraud till Trump pardoned him. Here’s his welcome.
There was also a big contingent of South Korean “stop the steal” activists and supporters of former president Yoon Suk Yeol, impeached last year and now serving life in prison for insurrection. Still, the whole thing was a bit of a slog. Organizers tried to jazz up session subjects - a panel titled "Fraud" became “Ilhan Omar ‘Family’ Values"; Mercedes Schlapp beseeched factions not to "divide from within," which is how you divide; and when Schlapp asked them, the clueless CPAC "crowdette" mistakenly, hilariously cheered the prospect of impeachment proceedings by what could be a newly-Democratic-controlled House. SAD!
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Poor deplorable MAGA. Maybe they're disheartened by Trump's well-deserved plunging approval rating, now at barely 33%. Maybe it's because their regime is such a half-assed shitshow and their people are such self-serving, hypocritical dickwads. As in: Amidst a government shutdown that's seen TSA agents (starting salary $34,454) compelled to work without pay as Congress takes a two-week recess (pay over $170,000) on the taxpayers' dime, TMZ urged readers to send in photos of vacationing pols, and here comes Lindsey Graham at Disney World, “The Most Magical Place On Earth," gaily twirling a Little Mermaid bubble wand yet. America and Megyn Kelly: WTF.
Or maybe it's because Commander-In-Chief Private Bonespurs started another forever quagmire without legal or political justification, and it turns out wars in the Middle East are hard and complex and above his pay grade - like health care! - to solve, and now with no good options he's spewing up only staggering incoherence for strategy, like hailing "great progress" in imaginary "serious discussions" while pivoting to rabidly threatening to "conclude our lovely 'stay’ in Iran" by "obliterating" their civilian infrastructure, electricity, energy and drinking water, which is a war crime. But talks are going “unbelievably well."

Anyway, his true passion is turning every crass, stupid thing he or Elvis can think of fake gold like the Oval bordello and even Social Security cards, and slathering his repulsive name on structures, coins, currency, and building trashy, illegal monuments to himself like an obscene, unapproved, un-permitted, $400 million ballroom twice the size of the White House, because, "They’ve always wanted a ballroom," except now it's suddenly, "essentially a shed for what goes under it," a massive military complex, presumably a bunker where, as merciful history would have it, he'll finally free us of him, "and we're doing it very well."
He's so ballroom-enraptured that on Air Force One he just pulled out a swath of drawings to show reporters, explaining, "I thought I’d do this now because it’s easier. I’m so busy...fighting wars and other things." Quick mindless pivot to "hand-carved, beautiful, Corinthian columns" - "Corinthian wut" - he's also reportedly re-imagining for the White House facade, a change deemed "at odds with universally held historic preservation standards." Same, experts say of "barely scrutinized" ballroom plans, "riddled with design flaws" - disproportionate, pillars block windows, grand staircase to nowhere. WH lackey on "the best builder in the world": "The American people can rest well knowing this project is in his hands.” We feel better already.

And then there's his new gold toilet, mounted on a 10-foot throne near the Lincoln Memorial. The new masterwork of Secret Handshake (Best Friends Forever), it celebrates the renovation of the White House Lincoln Bedroom bathroom, all in gold, and "what this President has actually accomplished." The toilet's plaque reads, “In a time of unprecedented division, escalating conflict, and economic turmoil, President Trump focused on what truly mattered: remodeling the Lincoln Bathroom....This, his crowning achievement, is a bold reminder that (he) isn’t just a businessman, he’s taking care of business. It stands as a tribute to an unwavering visionary who looked down, saw a problem, and painted it gold.”

More than 300 species of migratory freshwater fish are in dire need of "urgent coordinated cross-border collaboration" amid a crisis of rapid collapse, according to a report released Tuesday at a key United Nations conservation conference in Brazil.
"Some of the longest, most important migrations of species on Earth are happening beneath the surface of the world’s rivers and many are rapidly collapsing," the United Nations Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals' (CMS) annual "Global Assessment of Migratory Freshwater Fishes" report states.
Released at CMS' 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Campo Grande, Brazil the report details how freshwater fish—which are vital for the health of riparian ecosystems and provide food for hundreds of millions of people around the world—"are among the most imperiled wildlife on the planet."
"Many migratory species now face declines driven by loss of connectivity, flow alteration, habitat degradation, exploitation, pollution, and interacting pressures across borders," the report notes. "Recognizing these trends and their transboundary nature, [CMS] has sought stronger coordinated action for inland fishes that move across national jurisdictions."
📣 MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨 Out now at #CMSCOP15: the Global Assessment of Migratory Freshwater Fishes, the most comprehensive overview yet on the conservation needs of migratory freshwater fish. 🌍🐟Download the #CMSFreshwaterFishes in English, Spanish and French: www.cms.int/news/un-vita...
[image or embed]
— Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) (@cms.int) March 24, 2026 at 5:28 AM
The report's authors—Zeb Hogan, Zach Bess, Michele Thieme, and Twan Stoffers—identified 325 species of freshwater fish as candidates for international conservation efforts. River basins the report says should be prioritized include the Amazon and La Plata–Paraná in South America, the Danube in Europe, the Mekong and Ganges-Brahmaputra in Asia, and the Nile in Africa.
According to the report:
Many migratory fish rely on long, uninterrupted river corridors connecting spawning grounds, feeding areas, and floodplain nurseries, often across multiple countries. When dams, altered flows, or habitat degradation interrupt those pathways, populations can decline rapidly...
Migratory freshwater fish populations worldwide have declined by roughly 81% since 1970 and nearly all (97%) of the 58 CMS-listed migratory fish species (including fresh and salt-water species) are threatened with extinction.
CMS recommends governments take steps to safeguard migratory fish and their habitats, including protecting migration corridors, devising basin-scale action plans and transboundary monitoring, and international coordination of seasonal fisheries.
“Many of the world’s great wildlife migrations take place underwater," Hogan, the report's lead author, said in a statement. "This assessment shows that migratory freshwater fish are in serious trouble, and that protecting them will require countries to work together to keep rivers connected, productive, and full of life.”
Thieme, who is vice president of World Wildlife Fund-US, said that “rivers don't recognize borders—and neither do the fish that depend on them."
"The crisis unfolding beneath our waterways is far more severe than most people realize, and we are running out of time," she added. "Rivers need to be managed as connected systems, with coordination across borders, and investments in basin-wide solutions now before these migrations are lost forever."
The CMS report follows last month's publication of a study by researchers in Spain who examined how ocean warming driven by human burning of fossil fuels is causing a "staggering and deeply concerning loss of marine life.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders has declared artificial intelligence "a threat to everything the American people hold dear" in a Thursday editorial published by the Wall Street Journal.
Sanders (I-Vt.) began his piece by citing recent polls showing Americans are deeply apprehensive about the impact that AI will have on the economy and their lives, and he said that this feeling was entirely justified given what the people who currently control the technology aim to do with it.
"At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, people recognize the AI revolution is being led by some of the wealthiest people in this country," Sanders argued. "Billionaires like [Tesla CEO] Elon Musk, [Amazon founder] Jeff Bezos, [Meta CEO] Mark Zuckerberg, and [Oracle co-founder] Larry Ellison are investing enormous sums in AI and robotics not to improve life for working families but to expand their own wealth and power."
He then cited quotes from Musk and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates explaining how AI will eliminate the need for human labor and asked, "If machines can perform most economically valuable work better than humans can, how do people earn a living and support their families?"
Sanders said that the consequences of the widespread adoption of AI aren't just economic, but social as well.
"How can we rush forward when AI is already reshaping how we as human beings relate to one another?" he asked. "According to a recent poll by Common Sense Media, 72% of US teenagers say they have used AI companions, and more than half do so regularly. What does it mean for young people to form 'friendships' with AI while becoming lonelier and more isolated from other human beings?"
Sanders said the US Congress needs to step to the plate to regulate AI—and that Big Tech's massive campaign spending is intimidating too many lawmakers from speaking out.
"The AI industry has already spent more than $185 million to make sure government does nothing to protect the American people," Sanders said. "We can’t allow a handful of billionaires, eager to increase their wealth and power, to rush forward with a technology that will fundamentally transform humanity without democratic input or accountability."
Sanders has been one of the leading voices in Congress demanding the government due more to rein in AI, and last month he and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) introduced a bill that would impose a nationwide moratorium on AI data center construction "until strong national safeguards are in place to protect workers, consumers, and communities, defend privacy and civil rights, and ensure these technologies do not harm our environment."
Sanders last month also demanded that Amazon's Bezos testify publicly before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee about his plans to replace human workers with AI-powered robots, arguing that "we need to understand what will happen to these workers... Will they simply be thrown out on the street in order to make Mr. Bezos even richer?"
In the conclusion to his WSJ op-ed, Sanders called for "the future of AI" to be "decided by the American people."
With Pam Bondi fired from her position as US attorney general, progressive campaigners on Friday said that Democrats in the Senate, although they are in the minority, must use the leverage they have to force a release of all the remaining files concerning convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"Even in the minority, Senate Democrats have tools to exert pressure—by withholding votes, slowing proceedings, and setting clear conditions," said the grassroots group Our Revolution as it launched a nationwide petition demanding that Senate Democrats block the confirmation of Bondi's replacement unless they commit to the document release. "That leverage must be used."
Our Revolution elevated a call from US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who along with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has led the push for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all of the Epstein files.
The latest release of files, which Bondi oversaw and which didn't occur until more than a month after a December 2025 deadline, failed to protect the identities of some survivors of the abuse perpetrated by Epstein and his vast network of powerful associates, while redacting the identities of many of the alleged abusers. Last month at a congressional hearing, Bondi refused to apologize to the survivors in attendance.
Khanna and Massie as well as Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) have led Democrats in demanding the release of 3 million more files that remain, which Garcia said in February include official FBI interviews regarding allegations that President Donald Trump sexually assaulted a 13-year-old child.
The release of files in late January included thousands of references to Trump, but Khanna said the release amounted to a "cover-up" due to the absence of many official FBI survivor statements.
Khanna said in an interview with NPR on Friday that "the Senate should make it absolutely clear they will not confirm a new attorney general unless that attorney general commits to the release of all these files and commits to starting investigations. And if that new attorney general doesn't live up to that word, they will have the same fate as Pam Bondi."
He added that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche—who stepped into the role vacated by Bondi without needing to go through the confirmation process due to his previous confirmation as Bondi's deputy—has falsely stated that "all the files" the DOJ can release have already been disclosed to the public.
"That's just not factual," said Khanna. "In the past, he said that there are 3 million files that have not been released. Now, he claims that they're not releasing those because they're protecting the identity of survivors. But if you talk to the survivors, if you talk to the survivors' lawyers, they will tell you, in fact, that the DOJ was reckless and did not protect their identity. And the 3 million files that haven't been released have the survivors' statements to the FBI agents, where the survivors name the rich and powerful people who raped them, abused them, showed up to Epstein's island, and that they are protecting a group of people who aren't playing by the same rules. This is about two tiers of justice in America."
Massie offered his congratulations to Blanche on Thursday before telling him, "Now you have 30 days to release the rest of the files before becoming criminally liable for failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act."
Our Revolution said Senate Democrats must condition any confirmation vote for Bondi's successor on "a clear commitment" to:
The University of Washington has removed a professor from his role as director of its Middle East Center after he criticized the illegal US-Israeli war of choice on Iran and condemned Zionism, the settler-colonial movement for Jewish hegemony in Palestine.
Aria Fani, who will remain an associate professor at UW’s Jackson School of International Studies, told The Seattle Times on Friday that new interim widirector Daniel Hoffman told him last week he was fired from his leadership role at the Middle East Center.
Fani, who was born and raised in Iran and came to the US when he was 18 years old, said he was hired for his research on Iran. However, he told the Times that he now feels "profoundly hurt and betrayed" by his removal.
"There’s a chilling effect on not just my academic freedom, but that of my colleagues; anyone who dares to speak out against the war and against aggression," he said.
In a separate interview Friday with My Northwest, Fani said he was removed "for improper use" of the center's listserv, an email application.
"I sent out two memos about this atrocious war on Iran in which I offered historical analysis that’s lacking in the media,” Fani said. “I was told that my email made ‘certain constituents feel attacked.’ By certain constituents, I assume the university means Zionists who would like to keep bombing every Middle Eastern country and continue dehumanizing their people.”
Last July Fani told the The Daily UW, a student newspaper, that President Donald Trump's militaristic foreign policy—he's bombed 10 countries, more than any other US leader—is not making the world safer.
“If you tell the dozens of children that were killed in Israeli bombardment... in Iran, or the families of the nuclear scientists who were just wiped out, I hardly imagine they would say that the world is a more peaceful place," he said amid the first round of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran.
Since then, many more Iranian children have been killed by US and Israeli bombing, including more than 100 students who were among around 175 people massacred in the February 28 US cruise missile strike on a girls' school in Minab.
“The [only] peace this secures is for weapons manufacturers, for oil companies, for drone companies," Fani said in an implicit rebuke of Trump's claim to be the "president of peace."
"It secures peace for them, fills their pockets with money, and makes them fully invincible," he added. "It’s creating a class of people that are living [on] an alternate planet."
Fani was a close friend and defender of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the 26-year-old Turkish-American UW grad and International Solidarity Movement volunteer who was fatally shot in 2024 while peacefully protesting the expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Witnesses said Israeli occupation forces deliberately shot Eygi in the head.
The professor also called Zionism—some of whose founders acknowledged the colonial nature of their endeavor—a "cancerous" ideology.
Fani noted that his removal from his position at the Middle East Center coincided with a recent town hall-style meeting attended by UW President Robert Jones and right-wing media personality Ari Hoffman. According to Fani, Hoffman "specifically asked Jones" about the professor's leadership at the center.
“All we can do is try to remind people of their responsibilities as members of the university community,” Jones said at meeting. “Not trying to tell them that they can’t have a discussion about Palestine or about Israel, but let’s be clear that those discussions need to be had in a way that doesn’t perpetuate an environment where people feel unsafe.”
According to its website, UW's Middle East Center seeks "to strengthen an understanding of the Middle East in all sectors of American society through training and research at the University of Washington, as well as through delivery of outreach programming across the nation."
Fani is one of dozens of US academics who have been fired, had their contracts terminated, lost job offers, or faced other punitive repercussions for advocating Palestinian rights or opposing Israeli policies and practices.
Earlier this week, Shirin Saeidi, who headed the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, was terminated for social media posts deemed supportive of Iran's government, despite the fact that the school's Faculty Committee on Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure ruled unanimously in February that she should return to her position.
Late last month, Texas State University philosophy professor Idris Robinson sued school officials after he was fired for what he says was his 2024 off-campus lecture in North Carolina titled “Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance."
Israel's conduct in Gaza is the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case filed by South Africa and formally supported by nearly 20 nations. The International Criminal Court has also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.
The ICJ found in 2024 that Israel's occupation of Palestine is an illegal form of apartheid.
Fresh demands for a total arms embargo against Israel emerged Wednesday as the country's devastating onslaught in Lebanon—leveling apartment buildings and killing more than 250 people—threatened to derail tenuous progress toward a deal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran.
"The United States and all other countries need to cut off weapons to Israel immediately," said Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the US-based Center for International Policy. "Full arms embargo."
Avi Lewis, leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, wrote on social media that "Canada must bring sanctions against Israel, cancel the Canada-Israel free trade agreement, implement a real two-way arms embargo, and use every diplomatic and economic tool at our disposal to rein in Israel."
"US-Israeli impunity has shredded the international order," he added. "Canada should lead in rebuilding it."
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday that he "will be offering a resolution to stop US military aid to Israel" when Congress returns to session next week. The US is Israel's chief arms supplier; recent data shows that 99% of Israel's weapons imports are from the US and Germany.
Israel launched its barrage of airstrikes on Lebanon, including busy areas in central Beirut, just hours after US President Donald Trump, Iranian leaders, and Pakistani mediators announced a two-week ceasefire agreement aimed at providing space for a lasting resolution to the war that the US and Israel launched in late February.
Pakistan's prime minister said explicitly that Lebanon was part of the ceasefire agreement, but the Trump White House and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the country was excluded, prompting fury in Iran.
"If this isn’t yet another case of the US early reneging, then what is it?" asked Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry.
US Vice President JD Vance claimed Wednesday that there was a "legitimate misunderstanding" about the terms of the ceasefire, saying the Iranians "thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn't."
"That said, the Israelis have actually offered to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful," Vance said.
More Israeli airstrikes were reported in Beirut as Vance made his comments.
More Israeli airstrikes in Beirut #Lebanon just as VP Vance says Israel will show restraint. “Israelis have actually offered to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon …to make sure that our negotiation is successful.”
This is in sheyyah area tonight pic.twitter.com/F4ZFrlKS52
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) April 9, 2026
Israel's assault on Wednesday marked the deadliest day for Lebanon during the latest round of bombing, which began days after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran. Lebanon held a national day of mourning on Thursday as rescue efforts continued across the country.
One woman, identified as Haniya Faraj, told The New York Times that nine of her relatives were wounded in an Israeli attack on a neighborhood in central Beirut.
“I don’t know if there are more, my head is about to explode," she said. "I can’t reach all my family members."
The Associated Press reported that its journalists "saw charred bodies in vehicles and on the ground at one of Beirut’s busiest intersections in the central Corniche al Mazraa neighborhood, a mixed commercial and residential area. Using forklifts, rescue workers removed smoldering debris and sifted through ruins for survivors."
Heba Morayef, Amnesty International's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement that the Israeli government "has an appalling track record of carrying out unlawful attacks in Lebanon and displaying a callous disregard for civilian life, fueled by the impunity Israeli officials feel they enjoy."
"These attacks are a reminder that states must immediately halt the transfer of arms and weapons to Israel, given the overriding risk that they will be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law," said Morayef.
European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, condemned Israel's massive bombardment of Lebanon and reiterated that the country must be included in the ceasefire agreement.
"We condemn these strikes in the strongest possible terms," said Macron. "They pose a direct threat to the sustainability of the ceasefire that has just been reached. Lebanon must be fully covered by it."
Sánchez, who has vocally condemned the Iran war from the start as illegal and immoral, went further, urging the European Union to "suspend its Association Agreement with Israel."
"There must be no impunity for these criminal acts," said Sánchez.
"Netanyahu helped walk us into war, but he cannot keep us there," said US Rep. Debbie Dingell.
A group of Democrats in the US House of Representatives on Thursday demanded that any ceasefire deal to pause the war in Iran must force Israel to halt its operations in Lebanon, and called for the passage of a war powers resolution to help end the attacks.
Although the US, Iran, and Israel agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday, Israel has continued its bombing campaign in Lebanon, killing more than 250 people on Wednesday alone.
Iran has said it will not abide by a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the attacks on Lebanon stop, while Pakistan, which helped broker the ceasefire, has insisted that halting strikes on Lebanon has always been part of the agreement.
In a Thursday social media post, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) promoted a resolution she introduced in late March that called on the US to force Israel to stop its campaign in Lebanon, which has killed and wounded thousands of people while displacing more than 1 million more.
"I didn't wait for the genocidal regime of Israel to kill over 250 people in Lebanon yesterday to file resolutions to stop the US funding of these war crimes," wrote Tlaib. "So for colleagues speaking up now, welcome, but also don't just tweet, support the war powers resolution to save lives."
The call to include Lebanon in any ceasefire didn't just come from progressives like Tlaib, but from centrist members such as Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC), who recently defeated a progressive primary challenger who heavily criticized her past support from the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
"I am signing Rep. Tlaib's war powers resolution to stop all US military involvement in Israel’s hostilities in Lebanon," Foushee said. "The war in Lebanon has displaced nearly 1 million people and has claimed the lives of thousands. Our federal government must hold itself to higher humanitarian standards than participating in a war that is putting innocent people at risk."
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) didn't explicitly endorse Tlaib's resolution, but affirmed that any ceasefire deal needed to curtail Israel's Lebanon campaign.
"This ceasefire must become a permanent peace. That means including Lebanon," wrote Dingell. "Netanyahu helped walk us into war, but he cannot keep us there."
Tlaib's resolution, which was introduced on March 27, calls for the US to force Israel to end its incursion and to withdraw its forces from Lebanese territory, while providing humanitarian aid and guaranteeing a right of return for all displaced Lebanese people.
Anti-war advocacy organization Just Foreign Policy encouraged Democratic leaders to get on board with Tlaib's resolution.
"Let's hope that leadership of House Democrats can support Rep. Tlaib's war powers resolution—without any delay!" the group wrote.
The group called on voters to demand that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-NY), and other leaders to "do so—and say they'll support the House floor vote—NOW!"
On Thursday, House Republicans blocked Democrats' efforts to force a vote on a war powers resolution that would halt Trump's Iran war, although the party is expected to try again next week when Congress is scheduled to return to Washington, DC.
One observer called Sara Eisen's Iran War remarks a "glorious time capsule of this broken moment we are in."
CNBC anchor Sara Eisen was dragged on social media this week for on-air comments asking whether US President Donald Trump's threat to destroy Iran's civilization is good for investors.
As the US-Israeli war of choice on Iran and the Iranian military's closure of the Strait of Hormuz—through which around 20% of the world's oil is shipped—fueled volatility in global markets, Trump issued an ultimatum to Tehran: reach an agreement to reopen the vital waterway by Tuesday night, or “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."
While much of the world recoiled in horror at Trump's explicitly genocidal threat, Eisen, who co-hosts the cable business news network's "Squawk on the Street" program, opted for a different angle.
“This deadline that President Trump has set, 8:00 pm, has threatened to destroy a civilization. How does an investor process that?" she asked Tuesday. "Is it a bigger upside risk or downside risk?”
Reactions ranged from incredulity to outrage.
Journalist and writer Charlie Warzel called Eisen's remarks a "glorious time capsule of this broken moment we are in."
David Sirota—whose Oscar-nominated 2021 satirical comedy Don't Look Up skewers vapid TV hosts who filter the existential threat of an imminent comet impacting Earth through a profit-driven lens—asked, "What stage of corporate media is this?"
(Video by YouTube)
Eisen's comments are part of a societal landscape in which the price of a gallon of gasoline is a bigger concern for Americans than the US-Israeli slaughter of hundreds of Iranian children.
Numerous news and analysis articles lauded the profit potential of the Iran war. So have some Republican politicians.
“When this regime goes down, we’re gonna have a new Mideast,” US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News last month. “We’re gonna make a ton of money."
Big Oil—which invested $445 million in electing Trump and other Republicans in 2024—and fossil fuel executives are doing just that, cashing in on the war with record-setting stock sales.
"This is not peace for children in Gaza," said one humanitarian leader. "The ceasefire agreement has not translated into meaningful protection for children or created conditions for recovery."
Five leading humanitarian organizations that have spent two-and-a-half years advocating for Palestinians suffering under Israel's US-backed onslaught in Gaza released an analysis Thursday of the conditions on the ground six months into a so-called "ceasefire," and their message was clear: the Trump administration's 20-point peace plan is "failing" to end the devastation of the exclave.
The Danish Refugee Council, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International, and Save the Children led the assessment that's detailed in the groups' "Humanitarian Scorecard," released exactly six months after the truce was called.
As Common Dreams has reported, Israeli strikes in Gaza did not halt after the ceasefire agreement was reached in October, and at least 700 Palestinians have been killed in the past six months, including more than 180 children.
“At least two children a day have been killed or injured in the six months since the ceasefire for Gaza was agreed,” said Save the Children International CEO Inger Ashing. "This is not peace for children in Gaza. The ceasefire agreement has not translated into meaningful protection for children or created conditions for recovery."
Alarmingly, despite the continuation of Israeli attacks, the groups found that the category of "ceasefire and civilian protection" was the area in which the truce agreement has been closest to success. The scorecard rated civilian protection two points out of four and said it is currently in a "fragile" but not "failing" state. While attacks have continued, the groups said, "sustained bombardment" has halted.
The other three areas the scorecard rated—humanitarian aid access, reconstruction and economic development, and freedom of movement of return—are all "failing" to be implemented under the ceasefire deal that President Donald Trump said would begin a "new day" in Gaza.
Israel and the "Board of Peace" Trump established have especially failed to ensure access to humanitarian aid, with the scorecard rating that category zero out of 10 points.
There are still fewer than 100 aid trucks delivering aid each day to a population that was almost entirely cut off from relief for two years, causing more than 360 people, including at least 130 children, to starve to death before the ceasefire deal was reached. The 20-point peace plan had indicated there should be at least 600 aid trucks entering Gaza daily and that border crossings would be reopened, but the Rafah and Jordan crossings are still "effectively closed," and only a Kerem Shalom crossing is open for aid.
"Even [the ceasefire's] humanitarian provisions—the most straightforward to implement—remain obstructed," said Ashing. "We are ready to scale up and support the people of Gaza, but we must be allowed to do our jobs.”
Israel is still restricting deliveries of what it calls "dual-use" materials that the Israeli government claims could be used as weapons; the list of banned items has included scissors in medical kits, anesthetics, shelter supplies, cancer medicines, and maternity kits. Fuel is also still "severely restricted," the scorecard reads.
“Six months into the so-called ceasefire in Gaza, we are seeing a continuation of the designed deprivation that we saw throughout the hostilities,” said Refugees International president Jeremy Konyndyk. “Palestinians are experiencing severe malnutrition and preventable deaths every day because many cannot reliably access basic food or services. Both the terms of the ceasefire deal and the core tenets of international humanitarian law require that humanitarian goods enter Gaza, and that humanitarians can do their jobs to save lives. The deal signed last year rightly committed to this—it is time to deliver on those commitments.”
With Israel allowing "only a handful of traders to import supplies and goods" and requiring "exorbitant 'coordination fees' for every truck," families in Gaza are also facing "exceedingly high prices on vital goods and supplies," the scorecard reads. Food items are anywhere from 3% to 233% more expensive than they were before Israel began attacking Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.
The 20-point plan also pledged to redevelop Gaza "for the benefit of the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than enough," with "a Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energize Gaza" being created by a panel of experts "who have helped birth some of the thriving modern miracle cities in the Middle East.” A special economic zone (SEZ) with preferred tariff and access rates would also be established.
Six months later, the SEZ has yet to be created, and no formal development plan has been convened, the humanitarian groups found.
The World Bank created a new Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) called the Gaza Reconstruction and Development (GRAD) fund in coordination with the Board of Peace, but its role is only as a limited trustee, with no responsibility for how funds are spent," reads the scorecard.
The category of freedom of movement was rated one out of six points, with credit given for the fact that some Palestinians have been able to reenter Gaza with the limited reopening of the Rafah crossing in recent weeks.
Other than that, "most of the population" is still displaced after 90% of Gaza residents were forced to flee their homes, and most are unable to leave or return to Gaza. Returns are not permitted at all beyond the Yellow Line marking the Israeli "buffer zone" established by the ceasefire, and there is also a "major backlog of people" awaiting medical evacuations, with some people dying while they wait for care.
“Six months into the ceasefire, Palestinians in Gaza are still facing a daily struggle to survive. President Trump promised to lead an extraordinary recovery and declared a ‘new day’ for Gaza. Instead, his plan for peace is stalling and his attention has turned away from the crisis,” said Oxfam America president and CEO Abby Maxman.
"Palestinians are still experiencing more of the same: going to bed hungry in flooded tents, facing long lines for clean water, and succumbing to diseases and injuries without a healthcare system or basic medical supplies," said Maxman. "All while the government of Israel drops bombs and cuts off vital, lifesaving assistance with US support. We cannot look away—Palestinians in Gaza need our support and pressure on our leaders to deliver on the promise of peace now more than ever.”