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We'll Make Our Home In the American Land
Exciting news, patriots! After cancelling his OG concert, Dear Leader will now celebrate our 250th birthday with "the Greatest Rally, EVER!" featuring the "fabulous" 83-year-old Lee Greenwood and “a fine and highly dignified gentleman," himself. Also, for some reason, "prune-face" Bruce Springsteen and a gazillion A-list performers are holding two concerts to honor America's "songs that shaped us." Reviews call it "a rare gift" in music history, but they're all losers and lunatics.
Taking time off from nodding off (again) in a meeting, Trump as predicted has finally cancelled his much-hyped “Freedom 250 concert of has-beens and never-weres after almost all nine acts bailed; poor Vanilla Ice, reportedly the only, desperate act still ready to go on. The concerts were set to kick off his equally-fab-sounding Great American State Fair, a "once in a generation...State Fair like no other" - "Dive into the fun and feel the energy" - hosting carnival rides, "hands-on partner activations" from each state, and daily workshops with titles like Land & Prosperity, Family Life and Community Support, Everyday Health and Well Being with MAHA Monday, and Faith, Values, and Inspiration.
Trump was his usual chivalrous self in defeat after the concert went down in tacky flames. "We don't want singers with no talent, but big fees to put you to sleep," he wrote. "We’ve told them all to stay home." Instead, he giddily announced “a Rally to end all Rallies!" in "magnificent Washington D.C, now totally beautified." Because, "All we want is you, me, a few speakers, and the Greatest Music ever played, the same Music you have listened to for years!" it will feature die-hard Lee Greenwood (again), with "one of the Greatest Hits of All Time," his 1984 God Bless the U.S.A, after which he will introduce "a fine and highly dignified gentleman known as President DONALD J. TRUMP!”
There's more: The "amazing" opera singer Christopher Macchio, who has just 571 listeners on Spotify, will join in. "Not since the legendary Luciano Pavarotti has there been such a voice!” bragged Trump, though Pavarotti’s family has protested his use of the opera great's songs by arguing, "The values of brotherhood and solidarity which Luciano Pavarotti expressed throughout (his) artistic career are entirely incompatible with the worldview offered by Trump.” Also, the U.S. Army Band, Armed Forces Choir and "The President’s Own United States Marine Band" will perform “all your favorite Hits." Observers say the gig "sounds lame as fuck," but MAGA fans who go to every rally "like Deadheads with less weed and more racism" will probs love it.
Amidst other glad fails - even UFC fighters have trashed him with Star Wars rants of "Darth Vader gonna get took (sic) down" - many deem a more apt celebration of America's birthday the June 4 and 5 concerts in New Jersey by Springsteen and many fellow musicians. The guest list is so vast and illustrious - among them, Bon Jovi, Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, Kenny Chesney, Tom Morello, Gary Clark Jr., Dion, Dropkick Murphys, Shemekia Copeland, Keb’ Mo’, Nils Lofgren, Valerie June, Darlene Love, Public Enemy, David Sancious, Tony Trischka, Sister Sadie, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty, Steve Van Zandt, Jimmie Vaughan, the New Breed Brass Band - it's assumed Bruce called in favors: "They were beckoned, and graciously agreed."
Springsteen and the E Street Band just wrapped their Land of Hope and Dreams Tour - "No Kings" plastered below - in Philadelphia. Celebrating "hope over fear," it featured his most fiery political songs: Born in the USA, Death To My Hometown, No Surrender, Darkness On the Edge of Town, Streets of Minneapolis, Dylan's Chimes of Freedom. The two new concerts, titled Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us, are likewise unabashedly rabble-rousing. Held in Springsteen's Jersey backyard at Monmouth University, they will also launch the new Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, which aims to preserve the Boss' legacy and offer "a journey through American music history" with ongoing exhibitions, archives and workshops.
This week's concerts, says Robert Santelli, "reflect everything the Center stands for" - the power of "a rich and diverse treasury of American music (to) bring people together (and) the inspiration to think about our shared history in divisive times." Casting a wide and joyful net, artists perform landmark songs from American music - blues, bluegrass, Native, rock, hip-hop, folk, jazz, country, gospel. Tickets are reasonably priced for an intimate venue, and brief narration before each performance offers context to the artist, song, and genre. Thursday night reviews praised "a magical, once-in-a-lifetime moment in music history" and a nod to "how powerful music is in telling our nation’s story." Both concerts sold out.
Bruce and the Dropkick Murphys' rousing rendition of American Land, based on a 19th-century poem by an immigrant steelworker, which asks and celebrates those "who will make his home in the American Land." In brief, all of us.
The McNicholases, the Posalskis, the Smiths, Zerillis, too
The Blacks, the Irish, Italians, the Germans and the Jews
They come across the water a thousand miles from home
With nothing in their bellies but the fire down below.
Jun 05, 2026
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Hottest Year Ever Recorded Set to Arrive by 2030, Warns New UN Report
Global temperatures are likely to hit their highest average level ever within the next four years, according to a report published Thursday by the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization.
Overall, WMO's report projects an 86% chance that the world will experience its warmest year ever between 2026 and 2030, with a 91% chance that "the global mean near-surface temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 average levels for at least one year between 2026 and 2030."
Exceeding temperatures from the pre-industrial average by 1.5°C "risks unleashing ever more severe climate change impacts and extreme weather, and decreases adaptation option," the report notes.
Leon Hermanson, lead author of the report, said there's a good chance that 2027 will break all-time temperature records set in 2024 given that meteorologists are predicting an El Niño weather pattern to develop this summer and continue through the end of this year.
One particularly troubling finding in the report is that "Arctic temperatures over the next five extended northern hemisphere winters (November-March) are predicted to be 2.8°C above average temperatures for 1991-2020, an anomaly more than three and half times that of global mean temperature anomaly over the same period."
These higher Arctic temperatures mean likely further reductions in ice in the Barents Sea, Bering Sea, and Sea of Okhotsk, the report warns.
Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in a Thursday interview with The Guardian that Europe's current heatwave is a preview of what's to come the longer the global climate crisis goes unaddressed.
"Protecting human lives, businesses and economies from extreme heat and the many other soaring costs of climate change is core business for every nation," said Stiell, "and it starts with kicking the fossil fuel addiction much faster."
May 28, 2026
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As US Drivers Suffer High Gas Prices, Big Oil Celebrates and Plans Big Payouts for Shareholders
A Tuesday report from Groundwork Collaborative reveals how fossil fuel companies are not merely scoring windfall profits from President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran, but also using that money to reward shareholders rather than providing relief to consumers.
The price of gas has soared since Trump attacked Iran without any congressional authorization in late February, going from an average of under $3 per gallon at the start of the war to $4.49 per gallon as of Tuesday.
As US drivers have paid more at the pump, however, fossil fuel firms have been concerned with paying out dividends and conducting stock buybacks expanding production to lower prices, Groundwork Collaborative's report finds.
Among other things, the report notes that ExxonMobil is on pace to deliver $20 billion worth of stock buybacks in 2026, even as CEO Darren Woods has insisted that the company's decisions on production will be "grounded in value, not volume."
Additionally, the report documents how Shell recently announced "another 5% dividend increase and more than $3 billion in buybacks," with CEO Wael Sawan describing the company's commitment to paying shareholders as "sacrosanct."
Chevron has pledged roughly $3 billion in quarterly stock buybacks, while also saying increasing dividends for shareholders is its "first and foremost" priority.
Chevron CFO Eimear Bonner, the report adds, recently revealed that the company has no plans to boost output in response to high energy prices, stating that "capital spending and production outlooks are consistent with previous guidance."
Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, accused Big Oil of using Trump's illegal war as cover to keep prices high without taking any steps to reduce pain at the pump.
"These companies want Americans to believe price spikes are simply the unavoidable result of global events," said Owens, "but their own executives are openly telling investors that volatility, conflict, and supply disruptions are good for business. They are choosing buybacks over production, shareholder payouts over affordability, and corporate profiteering over the economic security of working families.”
The high fuel prices aren't being felt just in the US, but across the world.
Karthik Sankaran, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, explained in a Tuesday analysis how oil prices are hitting nations in the Global South particularly hard.
"A recent story in The New York Times described how the price for transporting corn into refugee camps in Somalia had doubled or even tripled, as had the price of water at diesel-powered public tubewells," Sankaran wrote. "Meanwhile, protests this week in Kenya against fuel price hikes have led to four deaths, and political and financial stresses are mounting across the continent."
Sankaran also pointed to problems in India, where "sharp jumps in the price of liquid petroleum gas have hit urban households hard, particularly those whose breadwinners work in small-scale industrial establishments."
Despite the actue global economic pain, energy experts who spoke with CNN on Tuesday expressed skepticism that the crisis would abate anytime soon, despite Trump's regular hyping of a deal to end the conflict.
Rory Johnston, an oil market researcher and founder of Commodity Context, told CNN that he wasn't buying optimism from commodities futures markets after Trump claimed to have made significant progress on an agreement with Iran.
"Nothing has fundamentally changed," Johnston said. "The strait remains closed."
Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, said that a deal to end the war wouldn't instantly bring energy prices back to where they were before the war began, estimating it could take months just to get 80% of the pre-war oil supply flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.
May 26, 2026
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Raskin Introduces BLANCHE Act to Destroy Trump DOJ's Plot for 'Super Pardon' of President and His Family
Though acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche has said President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion “weaponization” slush fund is now “dead,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin on Thursday unveiled draft legislation that would eliminate what he describes as a “super pardon” buried in the Department of Justice settlement reached last month.
While Blanche—whom Trump said he plans to nominate for a full term as attorney general—has backed off the fund that would allow the DOJ to disburse taxpayer money to Trump allies and January 6 insurrectionists amid bipartisan backlash, a news release from Raskin’s (D-Md.) office on Thursday said the acting AG has done nothing to rescind “the mother of all sweetheart deals he tucked into his unprecedented settlement with Trump.”
The settlement, created in exchange for Trump dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for improperly leaking his tax returns, gives Trump, his entire family, and all their business ventures total and permanent immunity for “any matters currently pending or that could be pending” not only before the IRS, which Trump sued in the case that led to the settlement, but also before “other agencies or departments.”
The Maryland Democrat also said that despite retreating on the "weaponization" fund, the DOJ is still using its Judgment Fund to improperly reward the president's allies.
According to the Washington Post, as of April, the DOJ had already paid $8.5 million to prominent Trump allies who claimed to have been wrongly targeted by the Biden administration, even though no court formally determined that they had been.
“If the administration and its allies in Congress are truly walking away from the $1.8 billion criminal enrichment fund, they should have no problem joining us in banning it outright,” Raskin said. “But no one should be fooled by Trump and Blanche’s tactical pause: Nothing has been dismantled, and nothing has been renounced. Trump’s scheme to raid the Judgment Fund, bankroll political allies using taxpayer cash, and score a sweeping Super Pardon is alive and well and remains a clear and present threat to our constitutional order.”
Raskin, who is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a new legislative package on Thursday, aiming to destroy the remaining vestiges of the DOJ deal and ensure that future presidents can never use federal settlements to reward themselves.
The Block Lawless Agreements and Nullify Corrupt Handouts and Emoluments (BLANCHE) Act, bars sitting presidents from entering settlements for money damages with the federal government and requires independent judicial oversight of any such agreements, including ones that grant the president "super pardons" like the one granted to Trump by the DOJ.
“My legislative package would end the slush fund, outlaw collusive settlements, and make clear that no president can use taxpayer dollars to cut partisan loyalty reward checks,” Raskin said.
He also introduced the Constitutional Rights Defense Act, which would allow individuals to file suits against the federal government when their rights are violated by agents of the state.
In contrast with the January 6 Capitol riot participants who have been claiming compensation under the fund, Raskin said his bill "ensures that all people who have actually had their constitutional rights violated by the government will have access to justice."
Raskin has previously introduced legislation that would block the use of federal funds to finance the Trump IRS settlement and prohibit payouts to January 6 Capitol riot participants and other Trump allies, including family members.
"Congress must act with urgency to shut down this presidential plunder once and for all,” Raskin said.
Jun 04, 2026
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Nearly 100 Trump-Pardoned MAGA Insurrectionists Have Been Charged With Other Crimes: Analysis
On the first day of his second term last year, President Donald Trump delivered a mass pardon to more than 1,500 people who were charged with crimes related to the violent riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
An analysis published Thursday by Lawfare associate editor Katherine Pompilio finds that at least 97 of these pardoned Trump supporters have been charged with other crimes, including serious alleged offenses such as grand larceny, fraud, and plots to assassinate law enforcement officials and politicians.
The analysis also documents 14 instances of pardoned Capitol rioters being "charged with sex crimes or crimes related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM)," while "at least six" have been charged with domestic violence.
Some of the pardoned rioters have been charged with more minor offenses, including public intoxication, possession of drug paraphernalia, and property damage.
The most notable finding is that at least five of the repeat offenders committed crimes after being freed from prison as a result of Trump's actions, suggesting that his pardon "may have actively facilitated criminal conduct."
The most infamous case involves Andrew Paul Johnson, a Capitol rioter who was freed from prison after receiving the Trump pardon and has since been sentenced to life in prison on charges related to child molestation.
"The criminal conduct for which he was convicted took place both before and after his pardon," the analysis notes.
Other repeat offenders who committed crimes after being freed by Trump were Zachary Alam, who was convicted of felony and grand larceny months after being pardoned, and Ryan Nichols, who was arrest last month for allegedly "threatening a person with a gun in a church parking lot," the analysis finds.
According to a Thursday report from The New York Times, the Lawfare analysis more than doubles the number of documented instances of pardoned rioters who have been charged with crimes beyond January 6-related offenses.
"A previous study of January 6 recidivism found that at least 40 defendants faced other criminal charges, with 12 taking place after Trump's clemency order," reported the Times. "The Lawfare study found 19 criminal cases that occurred after the clemency."
Jun 04, 2026
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Trump Says Iran Blockade Could Last All Summer Amid Fears of Oil Supply 'Powder Keg'
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday tried to project optimism about reaching a deal to end the illegal war he started against Iran, even while acknowledging the crisis could last for several more months.
In an interview with The New York Post, Trump was asked whether the current blockade of Iran would last until Labor Day.
"I don't know," Trump said. "I mean, I think it could be, but I think it's unlikely... I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly."
Q: Do you think the blockade will still be in place by Labor Day?
Trump: It could be, but I think it's unlikely. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly. pic.twitter.com/Ispq2tnPJZ
— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 3, 2026
The president for the last several months has managed to keep oil prices from spiking to disastrous levels by dropping hints that his illegal war will soon be over, even though it has continued with no end in sight.
And while the Trump administration has insisted that its ceasefire deal is still in effect, CNN reported on Wednesday that Iran launched attacks against US military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain after US forces fired a Hellfire missile at a Botswana-flagged oil tanker that was heading toward an Iranian port.
Iran also launched drone and missile strikes at Kuwait's international airport, killing one person and leaving dozens injured, according to Al Jazeera.
Oil industry expert Patrick De Haan on Tuesday warned that the price of oil will soon shoot back up if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed because US petroleum supplies, which have been drained at a rapid pace since the start of the war, are about to hit their lowest level in over two decades.
"US distillate inventories will likely fall under 100 million barrels for the first time in over 20 years, exacerbated by high exports due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz," De Hann wrote in a social media post. "This is a powder keg waiting to go off if a deal to reopen the strait doesn't happen soon."
In an analysis published Wednesday, The American Prospect's Ryan Cooper similarly warned that the tricks used by nations around the world to keep a lid on oil prices, such as releasing petroleum reserves, would soon be ineffective thanks to hard supply constraints.
"As storages dwindle and run out, the only way to match demand to supply will be for the price to rise high enough to destroy something like 10 to 20% of global oil consumption," Cooper wrote. "And because a great deal of oil demand is obligatory and therefore not very price-sensitive, that price will likely be north of $150 per barrel."
This would lead not just to an explosion in gasoline and diesel fuel prices, Cooper continued, but a "corresponding price hike for anything that needs to be transported, or involved in plastic in some way, which is to say basically everything."
Jun 03, 2026
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Rights Group Sounds Alarm After Israel Sends Gaza’s Dr. Abu Safiya to Solitary Confinement
“The international community cannot remain silent while a respected physician is reportedly subjected to harsh conditions, denied adequate medical care, and isolated from the outside world."
Jun 05, 2026
A prominent human rights group on Friday sounded alarms upon learning that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, has been sent to solitary confinement.
As reported by Haaretz, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said it learned on Thursday that Abu Safiya was moved to solitary confinement this week without any explanation.
According to a report from The Palestine Chronicle, an attorney representing Abu Safiya claimed that his client was placed into solitary confinement in retaliation for appealing his continued detention.
Abu Safiya was first taken into custody by Israeli forces in December 2024 and has been held since then without being charged with any criminal offenses.
In a Friday statement, the Council of American-Islamic Relations said news of Abu Safiya's solitary confinement was "deeply disturbing" and raised "even more urgent concerns about his welfare and basic human rights."
"Congress must demand his immediate release and insist that Israel end the arbitrary detention, abuse, and mistreatment of Palestinian medical professionals and civilians," CAIR added. “The international community cannot remain silent while a respected physician is reportedly subjected to harsh conditions, denied adequate medical care, and isolated from the outside world without any legal justification. Dr. Abu Safiya must be released immediately."
PHRI has for months been raising concerns about Abu Safiya's detention, long before he was transferred to solitary confinement.
While demanding the physician's release in April, for instance, PHRI said Abu Safiya was being held "in harsh conditions, without access to medication or medical care, as his health continues to deteriorate."
A 2025 report from Amnesty International, which has also called for Abu Safiya’s release, said that the Gaza-based physician “was detained in the course of caring for his patients and carrying out his medical duties.”
Amnesty also noted that, prior to his detention, Abu Safiya and other colleagues at the Kamal Adwan Hospital had “provided human rights and humanitarian organizations with reliable information about the health situation” in Gaza, which has been left devastated by years of Israeli attacks that have killed at least 72,000 Palestinians.
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DOGE Wanted to Falsely List Millions of People as Dead in Social Security Database: Whistleblower
One critic accused the Trump administration of plotting "financial murder" against millions of people.
Jun 05, 2026
A federal whistleblower has revealed plans by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to falsely list millions of people in the Social Security database as dead in a scheme to pressure them to leave the US.
In an interview published Friday by The Washington Post, former Social Security Administration (SSA) executive Jeremiah Schofield outlined a DOGE-concocted scheme that would have potentially cut people off from wages, banking, and government benefits by falsely listing them as dead.
Schofield said a DOGE employee told him in a phone call that they wanted to add 2.7 million living people to SSA's "Death Master File," cutting them off from essential financial services so they would either leave the country voluntarily or show up to local SSA offices to complain, where they would be promptly arrested.
“That call was one of the most disappointing calls I’ve been in in my 25-year career,” Schofield, who left the SSA in October, told the Post. “I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”
While immigrants were the primary target of the scheme, Schofield said that the list of people created by DOGE included some US citizens and lawful permanent residents.
One anonymous former SSA employee who spoke with the Post outlined the serious ramifications for the 2.7 million people had they been added to the Death Master File.
“If you’re on the [Death Master File] you can’t have a bank account," they explained, "you can’t get credit, so no apartment, no way to save money, no way to get paid, no way to get on insurance or carry health insurance. It has a ton of devastating effects.”
Schofield said he refused to carry out the DOGE employee's request after consulting with SSA lawyers who said falsely marking living people as dead would likely be illegal.
The plan was ultimately shelved, and the Trump administration claimed in recent court filings that it has revoked DOGE employees' access to SSA data.
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, said that Schofield's whistleblower report was yet another example of President Donald Trump's administration abusing its power and weaponizing the federal government.
"Trump ran on a promise to protect Social Security," Altman said, "but this whistleblower report is the latest evidence of how he really views it: As nothing more than a weapon to wield against his enemies."
Altman added that removing living people from the database is essentially "financial murder."
"It means losing access to your bank account, your health insurance, and your credit cards," Altman explained. "It means getting kicked out of your home. It means that your life is destroyed."
Whistleblower Aid, the nonprofit legal assistance organization representing Schofield, said their client's claims show "no one is safe from this type of weaponization of our Social Security data."
"If the administration is permitted to ‘kill people off’ and ruin their lives to pursue its anti-immigrant agenda," the group added, "it will be able to use the same cruel and illegal tactics against anyone who has a Social Security number.”
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'Resounding Defeat for Opponents of Privacy': Warrantless Spying Extension Stalls in Senate
"Clear majorities of Americans across the nation, and in Congress, do not want the government bypassing the courts to hoover up our private, personal data."
Jun 05, 2026
Privacy advocates celebrated Friday after a Republican-led effort to extend warrantless spying powers failed to advance in the US Senate in the early hours of the morning, with seven GOP lawmakers joining every Democrat except Sen. John Fetterman in opposition.
The failed vote was another stumble for supporters of renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which lets the federal government surveil the electronic communications of noncitizens located outside the US. The authority is set to lapse next Friday.
Advocates have long demanded reforms to the law, noting that US intelligence agencies have relentlessly abused it to spy on Americans.
Sean Vitka, executive director of Demand Progress, called Friday's vote a "resounding defeat for opponents of privacy," arguing it "shows that there is no path forward for FISA without a warrant requirement."
"Clear majorities of Americans across the nation, and in Congress, do not want the government bypassing the courts to hoover up our private, personal data," said Vitka. "If the White House and congressional leadership want to renew FISA, they have to stop ignoring this obvious fact and allow votes on real privacy reforms."
Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, called the vote "an interim victory" but warned that some senators "who would have voted to advance the bill changed their vote" due to President Donald Trump's selection of loyalist Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence—a choice that drew bipartisan backlash.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who supports extending Section 702 spying powers, voted against advancing the FISA legislation on Friday after decrying Pulte as an "enormously bad choice" who is "grossly unqualified."
Goitein noted that Pulte, who currently heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), is currently "under investigation by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office for misusing his position and his access to government records to trigger dubious charges of mortgage fraud against Trump’s perceived political enemies."
"If Pulte can do that with the limited access to Americans’ information he has as head of the [FHFA], imagine what he could do with all the authorities and capabilities of the intelligence community—including, of course, Section 702," she added. "What wouldn’t make sense? Handing Section 702 to whomever Trump could nominate in Pulte’s place without ensuring that they can’t use it as a tool for domestic spying."
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