Ken Klippenstein: Pentagon Prepares for Trump to Go Berserk
Unprecedented number of B-2 bombers amassed for Iran strike
In the largest single deployment of stealth bombers in U.S. history, the Pentagon has sent six B-2 “Spirit” aircraft to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
The long-range bombers, which are uniquely suited to evade Iranian air defenses and can carry America’s most potent bunker busting weapons, flew in from Missouri last week in a little noticed operation.
The B-2s carry not just bombs, but a message for Iran: “do you see our sword?,” as one retired general told Newsmax this week.
(Ken Klippenstein more…)
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Closer to the Edge: YES, CONGRESS CAN IMPEACH TRUMP RIGHT NOW. HERE’S WHY.
Donald Trump has only been back in the White House for a couple of months, and the Constitution is hanging by a thread. Some say it’s not even possible to impeach him. Some say it would be a huge waste of time and resources. But here’s the truth: Congress absolutely can — and arguably must — impeach him.
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Let’s be honest: the Senate might not convict him. Not yet. But impeachment is more than a conviction process. It’s a line in the sand. It tells the public — and the world — that Congress still exists. That there are limits. That this country is not one man deep.And if Mike Johnson refuses to act? Then it’s on Democrats — and any Republican left with a conscience — to do it anyway. Put it on the record. Force the vote. Make every member choose: Constitution or chaos?
(Closer to the Edge more…)Free Speech for People: Impeach Trump Again
Closer to the Edge: He’ll Do It. Of Course He’ll Do It.
Trump wants the Insurrection Act. The question isn’t if. It’s how far he’ll go after.
Donald Trump is not a man of restraint. He is not a man of nuance. He is a man who looks at 200-year-old laws like a child finding a gun in grandma’s attic and thinks, “Cool, let’s see what this does.”
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Section 6B of Trump’s day-one executive order didn’t just float the Insurrection Act—it invited it to dinner. He told the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to draft him a report—due April 20—that includes recommendations for achieving “complete operational control” of the southern border, “including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.”
(Closer to the Edge more…)Waging Nonviolence: What to do if the insurrection act is invoked
Waging Nonviolence: What would a general strike in the US look like?
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LAW dork: SCOTUS, 5-4, backs Trump effort to end one route for Alien Enemies Act challenges
The court was unanimous that challenges could be brought, but the limit — only habeas claims can be brought — raises significant questions and concerns.
(LAW dork more…)
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Robert Reich: In unity, there’s strength to confront Trump. In disunity, cowardice
Why didn’t the nation’s top 20 law firms sign a friend-of-the-court brief against Trump’s vindictive executive orders? What their associates, coming associates, and law school deans ought to do.
(Robert Reich more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 7, 2025
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Senate Republicans are also starting to push back. Seven Republican senators have now signed onto a bill that would limit Trump’s ability to impose tariffs. The power to levy tariffs belongs to Congress, but Congress has permitted a president to adjust tariffs on an emergency basis. Trump declared an emergency, and it is on that ground that he has upended more than 90 years of global economic policy.Trump has threatened to veto any such legislation, but he will not need to if Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) refuse to bring the measure to a vote. Jordain Carney and Meredith Lee Hill of Politico report that while Republicans express concern about the tariffs in private, leaders will stand with the president because they must have the votes of MAGA lawmakers to pass any of their legislative agenda through Congress, and to get that they will need Trump’s support. Others are worried about incurring Trump’s wrath and, with it, a primary challenger.
“People are skittish. They’re all worried about it,” Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) told Carney and Hill. “But they are putting on a stiff upper lip to act as though nothing is happening and hoping it goes away.”
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(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Daily Beast: MAGA Rolls Out Bonkers New Justification for Trump’s Trade War
ARE MEN OK?
Right-wingers from the fringe to Fox News are rolling out a new argument in favor of Trump’s tariffs—that they will help boost America’s masculinity.
(Daily Beast more…)Dispatch: Our Treasury Secretary Is an Economic Illiterate
NY Times: Tariffs May Make It Too Expensive to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’
President Trump’s tariff polices have sent oil prices falling, which may push energy companies to reconsider their plans to drill.
Jay Kuo: Can We End the Trump Tariffs?
Opposition to Trump’s tariffs is building within the GOP and conservative legal circles
(Jay Kuo more…)Nate Silver: Silicon Valley’s gamble on Trump isn’t paying off
Tech stocks have tumbled since Trump took office. More about the mindset that led much of the Valley to support him in the first place.
Jennifer Rubin: Words & Phrases We Could Do Without
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Increasingly “DEI” in the MAGA dictionary has come to mean “Blacks” or “women” or “a convenient scapegoat who represents the ‘other.’” A plane goes down? DEI. A museum pays tribute to the greatness of Jackie Robinson? DEI.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)Closer to the Edge: Still Not Signing: A Superintendent’s Response to the Department of Education’s Anti-DEI Ultimatum
The federal government gave us 10 days to sign away our values. Here’s our answer.
(Closer to the Edge more…)RNS: Catholic bishops say they will no longer partner with US on refugee work and children’s services
Jess Piper: The Missouri “Moderate”
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Popular Information: The five-month campaign to steal a North Carolina Supreme Court seat
(Popular Information more…)
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Brian Klaas: We’re Living Brave New World, Not 1984
Orwell feared those who would ban books. Huxley feared that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Huxley’s prophecy is closer to modern dystopia.
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And yet, the vision from Brave New World is arguably more insidious because it is largely invisible and self-imposed. Jackboots can be resisted, Big Brothers toppled. But how can we spark a revolution when the oppression is coming from ourselves?
(Brian Klaas more…)
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Sarah Jones: Here Is A Form Of Protest That Trump Can’t Stop
The Hands Off protest movement was not only one of the largest demonstrations in history, but the decentralization makes it very difficult to stop.
(Sarah Jones more…)
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Closer to the Edge: WHAT BIG TEETH YOU HAVE: THE DANGEROUS STUNT OF RESURRECTING DIRE WOLVES
They’re not quite dire wolves. But they are a glimpse into a biotech future where extinction is optional, ethics are negotiable, and nothing is ever really dead — just waiting for a venture capitalist
(Closer to the Edge more…)
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EEAGLI: Watch trillions get wiped of the Mag-7 in 2025
An insane US$3.8 trillion has been wiped off the Magnificent Seven since the start of the year. That’s Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, Meta, Alphabet and Apple. That’s is an awful lot of wealth destruction in such a short time. Anyway, here is my latest data visualisation on it.
(EEAGLI more…)
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TNR: Here’s What One of Trump’s Grantee Termination Letters Looks Like
This NEH grantee was told the “immediate termination” of her grant “is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government.” Is this America?
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RNS: My book was just banned from the US Naval Academy library
Book bans are an aggressive, systemic form of lying. This one takes aim at key texts at the intersection of religion and racial justice.
I was surprised the other night when I started getting messages that my book, “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity” — which won a 2021 American Book Award — appeared as No. 46 on a list of 381 books that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered purged from the academic library at the U.S. Naval Academy, as reported by The New York Times.You can read the whole list of books here that were banned last week because they included diversity, equity and inclusion subject matter.
(RNS more…)Bulwark: In a World of Pete Hegseths, Be a Maya Angelou
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TNR: The Bleak, Defeatist Rise of “Climate Realism”
It’s not just the Trump administration. Bankers, centrist Democrats, and others are embracing the idea that climate targets were never realistic—and that we should now prepare, ruthlessly, for a new future.
(TNR more…)
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NY Times: After Trump’s Tariffs, Stocks Plunged but Penguin Memes Ticked Up
The Internet poked fun at the Trump administration’s decision to impose new tariffs on Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Australian territories near Antarctica where many penguins but no people live.
