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King Donald the First: Fuck That
The run-up to No Kings Day has seen a crazed wave of hysteria from a right wing shrieking about Hamas, Marxists, Huns, Orcs, Barbarians at the Gate with the sinister portent, "You'll see the hate for America all over this thing." What the. We think we'll see millions of people - also frogs, chickens and a detained giraffe - who support health care, free speech, our neighbors, and the right to oppose becoming an authoritarian hellhole. DeNiro: "We're all in this together, with liberty and justice for all."
Organizers vowing, "No Thrones, No Crowns, No Kings" are predicting the largest, one-day demonstration in U.S. history, with people in 2,500 towns and cities across the country celebrating the First Amendment's guarantee to "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The original No Kings protest took place 250 years ago, Robert DeNiro noted in a sober ad for Indivisible , when Americans decided they didn’t want to live under the rule of King George III; they declared their independence and fought a bloody war for democracy, which since then has proved "often challenging, sometimes messy and always essential." As to today's would-be king, he said, "Fuck that." Indeed.
The messaging around the new No Kings from hundreds of groups organizing it has been strikingly consistent, calling on people to “engage in the work of democracy." The Human Rights Campaign blasts "an authoritarian regime that’s forgotten who it serves," charging us to "stand together in the belief that America belongs to its people." Authoritarians, they note, require division to carry out their agenda: "They need people to stop trusting each other, to stop talking to each other, to make us forget who we are, we, the people, demanding a country that makes good on its promise of freedom. And there is nothing more American than that." Despite the abuses and intimidation, the task is "to remind those in power who they answer to. This is our country."
Over time, the right's frantic bloviating and fear-mongering have escalated along with the reasons to protest - health care, shut down, masked thugs, broccoli prices. But its basic tenets have stayed the same: Only GOP speech is protected, not yours. If you oppose them, you're a terrorist, probably paid. The only legit American is one who thinks and looks like them. And they can viciously lie, provoke, insult, harass, dissemble or demonize you as communists, fascists, pedophiles, vermin all they like, but Democrats are the ones "inciting violence." Thus on Saturday, will they recoil from what smug, obsequious, despicable fraud MAGA Mike calls "the hate America rally," and no wonder. Damn, little Christo-fascist dude, what would Jesus say?
"I have had it with these people," Mike sputtered a few weeks ago on "the pro-Hamas wing and, you know, antifa people" planning to gather and "playing games with real people's lives...I can’t believe they’re actually doing this." (The next thing you know, they could be cutting health care..) This week, it was an “outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes,“ again with "pro-Hamas supporters," "antifa types," "Marxists in full display (who) don’t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic,” which of course include the foundational truth that we have free speech and no kings. The hypocrisy went even more over the top when Thug-In-Chief Tom Homan inveighed about "hateful rhetoric," darkly warning "there will be bloodshed."
Scott Bessent,vowed he'd investigate the event's "networks of terrorist organizations" as “the farthest left, hardest core, most unhinged in the Democratic Party.” Pundit Scott Jennings charged Dems "care more about criminals than victims...more about illegal aliens than American citizens. And if you speak up or push back? We saw what happened to Charlie." (OK, but we're still gonna need to see those Epstein files.) The most insane bullshit spewed from Press Barbie, who after seeing an interview with Zohran Mamdani sneeringly told Fox News it shows Democratics' main constituency is “made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals." Whereas Repubs are "standing up for law-abiding Americans." Just fuck off, Barbie.
"The White House says outrageous things to make you hate your neighbor," responded Tim Walz. "Your neighbor isn’t the problem. The White House is." Hakeem Jeffries slammed Leavitt as "sick" and "out of control," linking her claptrap to a surge in hate speech evidenced by recently leaked, racist, sexist, Hitler-loving sewer talk from Young Republicans. "They are ripping the sheets off in plain view," he said. "This is what the American people are getting from the Trump administration." Bernie Sanders on their "Hate America" drivel: "Really? Because people are defending the Constitution (and) are not going to let (you) turn this country into an authoritarian society? The right to protest is what America is about. You are not going to stop us."
Their choice of slurs are "classic authoritarianism," says anti-fascism expert Stanislav Vysotsky, "playing to a base that is rabid for violent retribution against their enemies." The name-calling instills us-vs.-them fear of dissent, dehumanizes opponents as an existential threat, helps justify a violent crackdown, and in this case is carefully calibrated to fit into Trump's demented decree outlawing "Antifa," which is still not a thing, as "a domestic terrorist organization," which is also not a thing. "I don't think it's that complicated," said Indivisible's Ezra Levin. "The one thing an unpopular authoritarian regime is scared of is mass, organized, peaceful people-power." "When people rise, kings fall," notes Michael Moore. "There are more of us than there are of them."
There've been glitches. As part of a look-over-here-what-Epstein-files-campaign, they're having a 250th anniversary celebration for the Marines, including a "live-fire Amphibious Capabilities Demonstration" at Camp Pendleton just as No Kings is underway, along with a "beach bash" and “vanity parade” Gavin Newsom calls "an absurd show of force"; he did convince them to cancel a planned shutdown of a major highway that would've caused chaos. And L.A. Mayor Karen Bass urged protesters, as The Onion noted, "not to engage in violence and give (the regime) an excuse to inflict all the damage thhttps://www.salon.com/2025/10/16/portlands-protest...ey have been inflicting (since) day one of Trump’s term" because "you wouldn’t want them abducting people in broad daylight and deporting them."
Up to Friday night, the right's feverish smears kept coming: There would be "mobs of radicals," the "anarchists and pro-Hamas wing," "terrorists" to be treated "just (like) Al-Qaeda or ISIS." Unexpectedly, some of the most powerful rebuttals to their ridiculous bunkum has come from Portland's now-iconic, blow-up, often-dancing animal creatures: Its Portland Frog, new comrades from the Oregon Frog Brigade - "The Few. The Proud. The Web-Footed" - the longtime Portland Chicken, and various dolphins, roosters, sharks, T-rex and other anti-fascist critters relying on their inherent absurdity and their town's legacy of staunch anti-authoritarianism to make fools of the masked, armed, awkward, camo-swathed thugs accosting them "in this uniquely chaotic moment."
The creatures are serious about their absurdism. Seth Todd, 25, the somber OG Frog, sees it as "a strategy" to dismantle the narrative of violent protesters and ICE's strongman cosplay: Guns pointed at black-clad, scary- looking activists play differently drawn on a boogeying, oversized, silent frog: "Nice body armor, but (you'll) look stupid trying to take down an inflatable frog." Jack Dickinson, 26, the "chicken" Noem bravely stared down, has a graduate degree in economics with a focus on game theory, read most of Project 2025, and likes using "whimsy" to combat bullies: "What they rely on is fear." "At some point, I just I tied my own fate to that of the movement," he says. "The place this is going (is) such a departure from the world I thought (of) as a kid, I would much rather do anything I can to prevent that world from happening."
Other heroes have stepped up. The giraffe-suited comedian Robby Roadsteamer was singing Rod Stewart songs of peace and love outside ICE when three camoed jerks, rifles at the ready, detained him; a GoFundMe has raised over $115,000. Kermit, the timeless leader of The Frog Resistance, has re-surfaced with a new take on his classic Rainbow Connection: "Why are there so many/ Trump thugs in ski masks/ and why do they have to hide?” And a little-known Irving Berlin song from 1941 has re-emerged; it was sung by Al Bowlly, killed in London by a German bomb sent by the subject of the song just weeks after it was released: "When that man is dead and gone/We'll go dancing down the street..." Speak up, stay safe, hold onto hope.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Oct 18, 2025
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Nationwide Backlash Brewing Against Big Tech's Energy-Devouring AI Data Centers
America's biggest tech firms are facing an increasing backlash over the energy-devouring data centers they are building to power artificial intelligence.
Semafor reported on Monday that opposition to data center construction has been bubbling up in communities across the US, as both Republican and Democratic local officials have been campaigning on promises to clamp down on Silicon Valley's most expensive and ambitious projects.
In Virginia's 30th House of Delegates district, for example, both Republican incumbent Geary Higgins and Democratic challenger John McAuliff have been battling over which one of them is most opposed to AI data center construction in their region.
In an interview with Semafor, McAuliff said that opposition to data centers in the district has swelled up organically, as voters recoil at both the massive amount of resources they consume and the impact that consumption is having on both the environment and their electric bills.
"We’re dealing with the biggest companies on the planet,” he explained. “So we need to make sure Virginians are benefiting off of what they do here, not just paying for it.”
NPR on Tuesday similarly reported that fights over data center construction are happening nationwide, as residents who live near proposed construction sites have expressed concerns about the amount of water and electricity they will consume at the expense of local communities.
"A typical AI data center uses as much electricity as 100,000 households, and the largest under development will consume 20 times more," NPR explained, citing a report from the International Energy Agency. "They also suck up billions of gallons of water for systems to keep all that computer hardware cool."
Data centers' massive water use has been a consistent concern across the US. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Monday that residents of the township of East Vincent, Pennsylvania have seen their wells dry up recently, and they are worried that a proposed data center would significantly exacerbate water shortages.
This is what has been happening in Mansfield, Georgia, a community that for years has experienced problems with its water supply ever since tech giant Meta began building a data center there in 2018.
As BBC reported back in August, residents in Mansfield have resorted to buying bottled water because their wells have been delivering murky water, which they said wasn't a problem before the Meta data center came online. Although Meta has commissioned a study that claims to show its data center hasn't affected local groundwater quality, Mansfield resident Beverly Morris told BBC she isn't buying the company's findings.
"My everyday life, everything has been affected," she said, in reference to the presence of the data center. "I've lived through this for eight years. This is not just today, but it is affecting me from now on."
Anxieties about massive power consumption are also spurring the backlash against data centers, and recent research shows these fears could be well founded.
Mike Jacobs, a senior energy manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists, last month released an analysis estimating that data centers had added billions of dollars to Americans' electric bills across seven different states in recent years. In Virginia alone, for instance, Jacobs found that household electric bills had subsidized data center transmission costs to the tune of $1.9 billion in 2024.
"The big tech companies rushing to build out massive data centers are worth trillions of dollars, yet they’re successfully exploiting an outdated regulatory process to pawn billions of dollars of costs off on families who may never even use their products," Jacobs explained. "People deserve to understand the full extent of how data centers in their communities may affect their lives and wallets. This is a clear case of the public unknowingly subsidizing private companies' profits."
While the backlash to data centers hasn't yet become a national issue, Faiz Shakir, a longtime adviser to US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), predicted in an interview with Semafor that opposition to their construction would be a winning political issue for any politician savvy enough to get ahead of it.
“For any Democrat who wants to think politically, what an opportunity,” he said. “The people are way ahead of the politicians.”
Oct 14, 2025
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Fed Governor Warns 'Job Growth Has Probably Been Negative' as US Labor Market Stalls
Christopher Waller, a Federal Reserve governor, warned on Friday that the US labor market at the moment is in poor shape and showing little sign of improvement.
In an interview on CNBC, Waller said that the data released by processing firm ADP earlier this month showing that the economy lost 32,000 jobs in September was "consistent with what we're starting to see with [Bureau of Labor Statistics] data."
"Job growth has probably been negative the last few months," he explained. "It doesn't look like it's doing much better. Anecdotally... I don't hear anybody with big hiring plans. All I ever hear is, 'We're not backfilling, we're not firing, we're holding off any job things.' That's the anecdotal evidence."
Fed Governor Christopher Waller: "Job growth has probably been negative the last few months. it doesn't look like it's doing much better. I don't hear anybody with big hiring plans." pic.twitter.com/aXDZPNTixq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 10, 2025
Waller's analysis was shared by Ed Al-Hussainy, rates strategist with Columbia Threadneedle investments, who told Axios on Friday that the job market was "bed rotting," with employers reluctant to make any major hiring commitments in the face of economic uncertainty.
Al-Hussainy also warned that the current problems with the job market could "continue to get worse, until they reach a tipping point where consumption starts to degrade, and then you have another recession scare."
Earlier in the week, Fortune reported that Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, estimated that there was "essentially no job growth" in the last month, while pointing to the Conference Board's recent report showing that US consumers haven't been this pessimistic about the labor market since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"There’s no better predictor of changes in unemployment, which thus likely rose again in September," he added.
Abby McCloskey, a columnist at Bloomberg and a former economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, argued in a Friday column that the US economy had now slowed down so much that even supporters of President Donald Trump were rating it unfavorably.
"Only 44% of Republicans think the economy is excellent or good, according to new data from the Pew Research Center," McCloskey explained. "Compare this to the soaring approval of GOP voters in Trump’s first term before Covid hit—when 81% thought the economy was good."
She then noted that, despite a record-breaking stock market and stabilized inflation, voters' concerns about the economy appeared to be justified.
"Despite enormous tax cuts in this summer’s reconciliation bill and sweeping reductions to the federal workforce—things Republicans would typically cheer—tariffs and political uncertainty are taking a toll," she argued. "When a voter balances the tax cuts from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act against tariffs raising prices on everything from groceries to clothes, it feels like running just to stay in place."
Oct 10, 2025
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Vance Jumps to Defense of 'Young Boys,' Aged 24-35, Who Praised Hitler in GOP Group Chat
Since the killing of far-right activist Charlie Kirk last month, Vice President JD Vance has led the charge among right-wing politicians who have railed against "left-wing extremists" and what he has claimed is a "network" of advocacy groups that foment and perpetrate violence—suggesting the "rhetoric" of progressives who are critical of President Donald Trump and his allies is akin to violence.
But confronted with racist, antisemitic messages and jokes about rape that were sent in a group chat by members of the group Leaders of Young Republicans on Wednesday, the vice president dismissed the outrage that has ensued over the chats as "pearl clutching" over the actions of "young boys."
The "young boys" who sent messages that explicitly praised Adolf Hitler, lauded Republicans who they believe support slavery, and said their political foes should go to "the gas chamber," were between the ages of 24-35.
“The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys,” Vance said on The Charlie Kirk Show. “They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That’s what kids do. And I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke—telling a very offensive, stupid joke—is cause to ruin their lives.”
Since the messages were leaked, some of the Young Republicans who took part in the group chat have stepped down from their jobs—which they held, in some cases, with state lawmakers and the New York state court system. One member, Vermont state Sen. Samuel Douglass, who was the only elected official in the chat and made a racist remark about South Asian people, has faced calls to resign.
"Lil' JD defends Nazi-loving Republicans as 'boys,' though they're almost his age. I wonder how his wife feels about his waving away anti-Indian slurs?" said The Nation's Joan Walsh, referring to Usha Vance, whose parents immigrated to the US from India.
On CNN Wednesday evening, I've Had It podcast host Jennifer Welch said Vance's defense of racism—despite the fact that he has a South Asian wife and biracial children—offers the latest evidence that he's unlikely to fight for the rights of anyone, including those who voted for him.
Welch nailed it:
“JD Vance is married to an Indian woman. He has mixed-race children. If he won’t even defend them—his own family—from white supremacist jokes and Hitler worship… what makes you think he gives a damn about you?”
If a man won’t stand for his own, he’ll sell out… pic.twitter.com/5rAtLCZ61j
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) October 16, 2025
Vance's suggestion that the fallout from the Young Republicans' praise for Hitler and other comments could "ruin their lives" comes as the vice president and other far-right leaders have called for federal investigations and other actions to "disrupt" groups that express disagreement with the Trump administration—for example, those that call the deployment of armed immigration agents in US cities "authoritarian."
The administration and its allies have also already taken extreme actions against individuals who exercise their First Amendment rights—detaining pro-Palestinian protesters like Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk and trying to deport them for speaking out against US support for Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza. A man in Tennessee was charged with threatening mass violence and held in jail for weeks after he posted a meme with a quote from Trump after Kirk's killing, and more than 145 people have been fired for making comments about the activist's assassination.
While Vance "infantalizes people on the right to defend them," said journalist Zaid Jilani, "he never shows the same charity to the left (like, for instance, students that Trump has tried to deport)."
When asked by Politico, White House spokesperson Liz Huston rejected the idea that the ideas expressed in the group chat was reflective of rhetoric that Trump and other Republicans use in public and claimed that "no one has been subjected to more vicious rhetoric and violence than President Trump and his supporters."
Trump megadonor and former special government employee Elon Musk displayed what appeared to be a Nazi salute at an inauguration event for the president, and both Vance and Musk embraced the neo-Nazi political party Alternative for Germany before the country's election earlier this year.
On Wednesday, US Capitol Police opened an investigation after a modified US flag that displayed a swastika was seen in a video taken in Rep. Dave Taylor's (R-Ohio) office.
But on Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) joined Vance in dismissing questions about the group chat's participants, whose group has been expressly supported by GOP leaders.
"I don't know who any of these people are," said Johnson, before acknowledging that a photo had been posted online showing him standing with some of the group chat participants.
With Vance attempting to deflect attention away from the group chat this week, Massachusetts state Rep. Manny Cruz (D-7) reminded him that "these are the leaders of the Young Republican National Federation, the GOP’s 15,000-member political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40 years old."
"As leaders of national organizations and staff in state government," said Cruz, "they are rightfully being held accountable."
Oct 16, 2025
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'We're Not Going to Forget': Pritzker Warns Trump Enforcers Miller, Homan, Bovino That Immunity Not Forever
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is warning top lieutenants of President Donald Trump's violent and unlawful immigration enforcement policies that they will not always have the protection of presidential immunity and that lawmakers in the future will seek to hold them to account for their behavior, including unlawful orders given at the behest of the president.
With episodes of violent raids, unlawful search and seizures, and the mistreatment of immigrants, protesters, journalists, and everyday citizens, Pritzker, in a Thursday evening interview on MSNBC, specifically named White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, border czar Tom Homan, and Gregory Bovino, the Customs and Border Patrol commander operating in the Chicago area, as people whose actions will not be forgotten.
"All these people need to recognize, you may have immunity because Donald Trump's willing to pardon anybody who's carrying out his unlawful orders," said Pritzker, "but you're not going to have it under another administration."
Pritzker: "Stephen Miller is clearly ordering people to break the law. So he should know that yeah, it may be three years from now that he is held accountable, but I think it's important for them to know that whatever they do now, it's not like we're going to forget." pic.twitter.com/ExpdyijtnO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 17, 2025
Pritzker said that all the people serving the president, "including all the way down to ICE agents, can be held accountable when there's a change in administration that's willing to hold them accountable when they break the law."
Calling out Miller in particular, the governor charged that the xenophobic Trump advisor, who has been a leading champion and director of the harsh crackdown measures and federal deployments in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago, and elsewhere, has "clearly ordering people to break the law."
Critics and legal experts have said the deployments themselves are unconstitutional, and the heavy-handed tactics of agents have resulted in numerous violations of civil liberties and constitutional protections.
Miller should know, said Pritzker, that "it may be three years from now that he is held accountable, but I think it's important for them to know that whatever they do now, it's not like we're going to forget and it's not like we don't have a record of what they're doing."
On Thursday, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jeremy Raskin (D-Md.) led a letter from Democrats on the committee demanding that the Trump administration "immediately end its unlawful and violent enforcement campaign in the Chicagoland region, warning that the Administration’s actions are undermining public safety, violating constitutional rights, and destabilizing communities."
According to a statement from Raskin's office:
For months, personnel from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have employed military-style tactics in enforcement operations across Chicago, spreading fear, chaos, and violence. Such extreme enforcement tactics have only escalated since the Administration’s announcement of Operation Midway Blitz in September. In early October, President Trump went further, federalized the National Guard—over the objections of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker—and ordered troops to Illinois to enable these unlawful and unconstitutional assaults on Chicagoland residents.
In October alone, DHS personnel have shot two people and publicly advanced self-serving narratives that were immediately contradicted by body camera and surveillance footage, handcuffed an Alderperson at a hospital checking on the welfare of a constituent being detained by ICE, indiscriminately deployed tear gas in front of a public school and against civilians and local law enforcement, placed a handcuffed man on the ground in a chokehold, shot a pastor in the head with a pepper ball, thrown flashbang grenades at civilians, and raided an entire apartment complex and reportedly zip-tied U.S. citizens, children, and military veterans for hours.
In a letter addressed to Trump, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons, the 18 Democratic members of the committee, including Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, who represents the Chicagoland district, said, "The Administration claims the mantle of law and order, yet its actions in the Chicagoland
area demonstrate it is a catalyst for lawlessness and dysfunction."
"Violently abusing residents, kidnapping parents and children and disappearing them into detention facilities without access to basic necessities, and illegally deploying the militaryagainst a great American city," the letter continues, "does nothing to make anyone safer—in fact, it jeopardizes the safety and well-being of every community members."
Demanding a halt to the attacks by federal agents in Chicago, the lawmakers said "[t]he American people want a common- sense approach to public safety and immigration, not violent tactics that traumatize and destabilize communities. They want leadership, not theater. We urge you to step back from the brink and use your positions to enhance public safety, instead of undermining it."
Oct 17, 2025
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Israel Returns Palestinian Prisoners' Bodies With 'Signs of Torture, Mutilation, and Execution'
Israel on Wednesday returned the bodies of dozens of Palestinians abducted during the Gaza genocide showing "signs of torture, mutilation, and execution," as one US-based news site reported—a description consistent with the testimonies of former prisoners held by the Israeli forces over the past two years.
So far, Israel has returned 90 bodies, with more expected to be handed over soon, as part ofo the ceasefire agreement reached with Hamas last week. The Gaza Health Ministry's forensic team said that some of the bodies were blindfolded and bound, and bore signs of torture similar to those seen on many of the living Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel on Monday.
Some of the dead prisoners appeared to be victims of field executions—a war crime Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops have allegedly committed against men, women, and children alike.
Furthermore, Israel's obliteration of Gaza's healthcare and medical infrastructure is making it difficult for Palestinian forensic personnel to identify the bodies returned by Israel, which are in various states of decomposition.
"The horrific scenes visible on the bodies of the martyrs returned by the occupation, bearing marks of torture, abuse, and field executions, clearly reveal the criminal and fascist nature of the occupation army and the moral and human decadence this entity has reached," Hamas said in a statement.
"We call upon international rights groups, foremost among them the [United Nations] and [its] Human Rights Council, to document these atrocious crimes, open an urgent and comprehensive investigation into them, and bring the occupation leaders to trial before relevant international courts, as they are responsible for committing unprecedented crimes against humanity in our modern history," the statement added.
🟢 New Press Statement - Hamas:—The horrific scenes visible on the bodies of the martyrs returned by the occupation, bearing marks of torture, abuse, and field executions, clearly reveal the criminal and fascist nature of the occupation army and the moral and human decadence this entity has...
[image or embed]
— Drop Site (@dropsitenews.com) October 16, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and forced starvation. The International Court of Justice is also weighing an ongoing genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa and supported by around two dozen nations.
Although warned by their Israeli captors against speaking out, Palestinians freed from Israeli imprisonment this week described being held in a "slaughterhouse" rife with torture and abuse, including beatings, electrocution, and being shot with rubber-coated steel bullets.
Palestinians imprisoned by Israeli forces—including children—have described being raped and sexually assaulted by male and female soldiers, electrocuted, mauled by dogs, soaked with cold water, denied food and water, deprived of sleep, and blasted with loud music. Dozens of detainees have died in Israeli custody, including one who died after allegedly being sodomized with an electric baton. IDF officers allegedly brought Israeli civilians into detention centers and allowed them to watch and film Palestinian prisoners being tortured.
Israeli physicians who served at the notorious Sde Teiman torture prison also described widespread severe injuries caused by 24-hour shackling of hands and feet that sometimes required amputations.
Hamas' treatment of the Israelis it abducted during the October 7, 2023 attack is more complicated, with some freed captives saying they suffered torture and other abuse while others—especially those released early during the war—said they were treated relatively well. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier captured after the rest of his tank crew were killed said that although he was tortured, his captors granted his request for religious materials including a Torah. One woman even pushed back against Israeli media lies claiming she was wounded by her captors, when in fact it was an Israeli airstrike that injured her.
So far, Hamas has returned the bodies of nine Israeli and other hostages. Israel is calling on Hamas to “make all necessary efforts” to find and hand over the bodies of 21 remaining dead hostages still unaccounted for.
Oct 16, 2025
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As Suit Filed Over Memphis, Trump Takes Chicago National Guard Fight to Supreme Court
"Militarizing our communities against their will is not only un-American but also leads us down a dangerous path for our democracy," said Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
Oct 17, 2025
While Tennessee elected officials sued over Republican Gov. Bill Lee deploying the National Guard in Memphis at the request of President Donald Trump, the White House on Friday escalated a battle about a similar deployment push in Illinois to the US Supreme Court.
Illinois and Chicago's top attorneys are challenging Trump's attempt to federalize and deploy National Guard soldiers from the state and Texas amid the administration's anti-immigrant "Operation Midway Blitz" in and around the nation's third-largest city. US District Judge April Perry, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, last week issued a temporary restraining order.
On Thursday, a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit—featuring judges appointed by Trump as well as former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama—paused Perry's decision on federalization of Guard troops but unanimously upheld her block on their deployment, declaring that "political opposition is not rebellion."
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul called the 7th Circuit's order "another win for the people of Illinois and the rule of law in our state," and welcomed that "National Guard troops will not be seen patrolling the city of Chicago, Broadview, or other communities throughout Illinois."
"The responsibility of addressing local crime continues to fall to state and local law enforcement officers who are best trained to protect their communities," he added. "There is no need for troops in the state of Illinois, and my office will continue to vigorously oppose the administration's unlawful overreach."
Now, the Trump administration is appealing to the country's top court, which has a right-wing supermajority that includes three Trump appointees. In the application, Solicitor General John Sauer asks the justices to stay Perry's injunction, which was sought by the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago, so the president can immediately deploy troops.
According to the Chicago Tribune:
The 43-page petition also asked for an immediate administrative stay "given the pressing risk of violence," but the court had taken no action on that as of 5:00 pm Friday.
The filing said Illinois' resistance to a National Guard deployment mirrors similar actions still unfolding in California and Oregon. It asked that President Donald Trump be allowed to deploy some 700 troops in Illinois—300 from the Illinois National Guard and another 400 federalized out of Texas earlier this month.
The Supreme Court asked lawyers for Illinois to respond by 5:00 pm Eastern time on Monday.
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a frequent critic of the president, said on social media Friday that "Donald Trump will keep trying to invade Illinois with troops—and we will keep defending the sovereignty of our state. Militarizing our communities against their will is not only un-American but also leads us down a dangerous path for our democracy. What will come next?"
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, seven elected Democrats—Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, Memphis City Councilmember JB Smiley Jr., Shelby County Commissioners Henri Brooks and Erika Sugarmon, state Reps. GA Hardaway (93) and Gabby Salinas (96), and state Sen. Jeff Yarbro (21)—filed a lawsuit and motion for immediate relief over Lee's "patently unlawful" deployment.
The plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward, National Immigration Law Center, and Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, which submitted a complaint to the Davidson County Chancery Court arguing that "defendants have trampled on Tennessee law by unilaterally deploying Tennessee National Guard members in Memphis as a domestic police force."
Smiley, who's also an attorney, said in a statement that "Lee's decision to send the National Guard into Memphis at President Trump's request isn't leadership…it's illegal. The governor has disregarded our laws to deploy troops to intimidate our city, and the president's talk of using communities like Memphis as training grounds is dangerous and dehumanizing. Memphis deserves to be respected, not treated like the playground of an out-of-control dictator."
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, tied the current conditions in Memphis to other US communities—more than 2,700 of which are planning "No Kings" protests against Trump's increasing authoritarianism on Saturday.
"Yet, again, the president and his allies are engaged in an unlawful and harmful use of military force in an American city. There has been no invasion or rebellion in Memphis, which is the prerequisite for National Guard deployment," Perryman said. "The people of Tennessee deserve leaders who respect the limits of their office and the rule of law. Using military forces in our cities and communities without legal justification threatens democracy and puts communities at risk."
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Under Pressure From Trump, UN Shipping Regulator Delays Vote on Net-Zero Rules
“With climate warming impacts being felt everywhere on Earth, kicking this decision down the road is simply evading reality," says one campaigner.
Oct 17, 2025
Advocates of establishing an international framework for decarbonizing global shipping on Friday decried a postponed vote on proposed rules—a move that came amid pressure from the administration of US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia.
Members of the United Nations International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee gathered in London for a special meeting, MEPC 83, to vote on its Net-Zero Framework (NZF), a new set of global regulations aimed at slashing the shipping industry's greenhouse gas emissions.
A Saudi proposal to adjourn the meeting and delay a final decision on the NZF narrowly passed by a vote of 57-49, with 21 abstentions, Mongabay reported.
The NZF—whose goal is net-zero shipping by 2050—has two main interconnected components, a global fuel standard requiring ships to gradually reduce emissions, and a pricing mechanism meant to encourage the industry to voluntarily slash greenhouse gas output.
"The delay leaves the shipping sector drifting in uncertainty."
The NZF was approved at the last MEPC meeting in April, then shared with member nations for review, with an eye toward final assent during the current special meeting. However, while the European Union and nations including China and Brazil have been pushing for the NZF, the world's two largest oil producers—the United States and Saudi Arabia—are working to scupper the proposal, which Russia also opposes.
Trump took to his Truth Social network Thursday to pressure MEPC members to vote "no" on the NZF:
I am outraged that the International Maritime Organization is voting in London this week to pass a global Carbon Tax. The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping, and will not adhere to it in any way, shape, or form. We will not tolerate increased prices on American Consumers OR, the creation of a Green New Scam Bureaucracy to spend YOUR money on their Green dreams. Stand with the United States, and vote NO in London tomorrow!
The one-year postponement drew sharp rebuke from supporters of the NZF.
“We are disappointed that member states have not been able to agree a way forward at this meeting," International Chamber of Shipping secretary general Thomas Kazakos said following Friday's vote. "Industry needs clarity to be able to make the investments needed to decarbonize the maritime sector, in line with the goals set out in the IMO [greenhouse gas] strategy."
"As an industry we will continue to work with the IMO, which is the best organization to deliver the global regulations needed for a global industry," Kazakos added.
John Maggs, who represents the Clean Shipping Coalition at the IMO, said in a statement, “By delaying adoption of its Net-Zero Framework, IMO has today squandered an important opportunity to tackle global shipping’s contribution to climate breakdown."
“With climate warming impacts being felt everywhere on Earth, kicking this decision down the road is simply evading reality," he added. "Governments serious about climate action must spend the next 12 months rallying every nation that supports the framework, convincing those who are on the fence, or opposing, that its adoption is the only sane way forward.”
Elissama Menezes, co-founder and director of the advocacy organization Equal Routes, said: "Delay costs the climate—and coastal Indigenous peoples and Arctic communities are already paying the price for inaction. This week’s non-outcome should mean that states and the marine sector should double down on related efforts to reduce the impacts from the triple planetary crisis.”
Faig Abbasov, director of shipping at the green group Transport & Environment, told Reuters that "the delay leaves the shipping sector drifting in uncertainty."
Global shipping accounts for approximately 3% of the world's CO2 emissions. Approximately 90% of all international trade is conducted at sea, and proponents of the NZF warn that emissions will soar without the regulations.
While leading shipping companies including Maersk and CMA CGM have taken steps to transition their fleets to zero emission vessels, they are still falling short of the goals laid out in the landmark Paris climate agreement or even the IMO’s own 2023 emissions reduction strategy.
”However, all is not lost—not by a long shot," said Maggs, "as there is an immediate opportunity to slash [greenhouse gas] emissions from shipping, minimize fuel burn, and the overall cost of the energy transition, and that is to strengthen and make enforceable the carbon intensity indicator (CII), the IMO’s cornerstone energy efficiency measure."
CII is a shipping industry regulatory metric that measures a vessel's annual carbon intensity.
“There’s no time to waste," Maggs added. "At MEPC 84 in April 2026 member states need to focus all their attention on transforming the CII into the energy efficiency powerhouse needed to quickly right this ship and put it back on route to being a climate solution.”
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Senators Launch Bipartisan Bid to Block Trump War on Venezuela
"Congress has not authorized military force against Venezuela," said Sen. Adam Schiff. "And we must assert our authority to stop the United States from being dragged—intentionally or accidentally—into full-fledged war."
Oct 17, 2025
With President Donald Trump floating potential military action within Venezuela and authorizing operations by the Central Intelligence Agency after launching several deadly strikes on boats near the South American country, three lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on Friday said they would force a new vote on blocking the White House from carrying out an attack there.
Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) last week introduced a measure to rein in Trump's bombing of boats in the Caribbean, which the White House has claimed are being used to traffic drugs into the US and present an imminent threat.
The measure failed, with one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) joining most of the GOP in opposing it and two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), supporting it.
Kaine and Schiff on Friday were reportedly hoping that a new bipartisan measure, introduced with Paul, would garner more support from the Republicans.
They said they would force a vote on a war powers resolution to block the use of force by US troops "within or against" Venezuela unless it was "explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force."
The 1973 War Powers Act requires Congress to consider and vote on resolutions regarding a president's power to enter an armed conflict without congressional authorization.
"Congress has not authorized military force against Venezuela. And we must assert our authority to stop the United States from being dragged—intentionally or accidentally—into full-fledged war in South America," said Schiff.
"Americans don’t want to send their sons and daughters into more wars—especially wars that carry a serious risk of significant destabilization and massive new waves of migration in our hemisphere."
The lawmakers announced the resolution as it was reported that two survivors of the military's most recent drone strike on a boat have been detained by US forces, with legal experts questioning whether they are prisoners or war or criminal suspects.
The White House has insisted it is acting within its rights to defend US security by striking boats it believes are carrying drugs—even as details have emerged calling into doubt the allegations that the vessels pose a threat.
Venezuela is not a significant source of drugs that are trafficked into the US—a fact that Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed when a reporter brought it up soon after the military began bombing boats, at least six of which have been struck so far. At least 27 people have been killed, and the grieving family of one victim spoke out Thursday and said they had not been involved in drug trafficking.
Even if the vessels were carrying illegal substances, legal experts and critics in Congress have stressed in recent weeks that they should be dealt with, as in the past, by federal law enforcement agencies, as Congress has not authorized military action against Venezuela or drug cartels.
“The American people do not want to be dragged into endless war with Venezuela without public debate or a vote," said Paul. "We ought to defend what the Constitution demands: deliberation before war."
Kaine told reporters on Thursday the Congress' knowledge of legal rationale for the boat strikes amounts to “a complete black hole."
Meanwhile, Trump has suggested this week he could further escalate attacks on Venezuela, saying the Caribbean Sea is "very well under control"—even though Vice President JD Vance has joked that the US could accidentally strike fishing boats in its operations there.
"We are certainly looking at land now," Trump said Wednesday.
Kaine said he was "extremely troubled that the Trump administration is considering launching illegal military strikes inside Venezuela without a specific authorization by Congress."
"Americans don’t want to send their sons and daughters into more wars—especially wars that carry a serious risk of significant destabilization and massive new waves of migration in our hemisphere,” said Kaine. “If my colleagues disagree and think a war with Venezuela is a good idea, they need to meet their constitutional obligations by making their case to the American people and passing an authorization for use of military force."
"I urge every senator to join us in stopping this administration from dragging our country into an unauthorized and escalating military conflict," said the senator.
The New York Times reported that Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) could potentially join the effort to pass the war powers resolution after voting against last week's measure, which he said was too broad.
"I am highly concerned," Young said after the vote last week, "about the legality of recent strikes in the Caribbean and the trajectory of military operations without congressional approval or debate and the support of the American people."
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