The Strokes - Going Shopping

Dontcha Know It

 

Keystone Kash and His FBI Not Sure Who Shot Who at the Hilton

Three days after the White House Correspondents’ dinner, Keystone Kash's FBI is still unsure who shot a Secret Service officer during the assassination attempt outside the Hilton ballroom. The Secret Service officer was wearing a bulletproof vest, but sources say investigators haven’t found the fragment that pierced it — and can’t definitively say whether it came from the suspect.  Bottom line: investigators are still unable to say for certain whether the armed attacker shot the officer or how he was injured.

Law enforcement agents on the scene Saturday initially believed Cole Tomas Allen, the suspect who breached the dinner’s final checkpoint, fired his shotgun and struck the officer with buckshot from his weapon.  A check of Allen’s shotgun showed that he discharged one shell but did not reload, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters Monday. 

In its review, a Secret Service team estimated that Allen was running nine miles an hour and then stumbled somehow and fell a few yards past the checkpoint. That raises the question among law enforcement professionals of how a person moving that fast could have stopped, turned around, and fired his weapon at an officer behind him.

At a Monday news conference, Blanche said Allen had been charged with discharging a firearm during a crime of violence because the FBI determined he fired a single shell from the shotgun he was carrying.  But he said authorities were not prepared to say whether that was the shot that hit the Secret Service agent’s body armor.

Blanche said investigators also determined that the agent who was shot fired five rounds at Allen, none of which hit the suspect. He said they could not be sure those were the only rounds fired by law enforcement officers.  But this contradicts the Secret Service, who said its investigators collected the firearms of all Secret Service officers and agents on the scene and found no evidence that anyone else fired their weapons, a law enforcement official said.

Hopefully, the FBI will get its act together before tomorrow's hearing. 

 

Trump Pushes White Nationalist Fantasy in Front of Embarrassed King Charles

King Charles of the U.K. sat awkwardly yesterday as convicted felon Donald Trump delivered a racist, blood-and-soil speech to “welcome” him to the White House.  In a bizarre and deeply uncomfortable moment during the visit of King Charles III, Donald Trump delivered a rambling, race-tinged tribute that sounded more like 19th-century white supremacist rhetoric than a modern presidential address.  In the first few minutes of his remarks (which surely must have been written in part by white nationalist Stephen Miller), Trump unleashed the following: 

Long before Americans had a nation or a constitution, we first had a culture, a character, and a creed. Before we ever proclaimed our independence, Americans carried within us the rarest of gifts: moral courage, and it came from a small but mighty kingdom from across the sea. For nearly two centuries before the revolution, this land was settled and forged by men, women who bore in their souls the blood and noble spirit of the British. Here on a wild and untamed continent, they set loose the ancient English love of liberty and Great Britain’s distinctive sense of glory, destiny, and pride, and that’s what it is: glory, destiny, and pride.

The American patriots who pledged their lives to independence in 1776 were the heirs to this majestic inheritance. Their veins ran with Anglo-Saxon courage. Their hearts beat with an English faith in standing firm for what is right, good, and true.

In recent years, we’ve often heard it said that America is merely an idea, but the cause of freedom did not simply appear as an intellectual invention of 1776. The American founding was the culmination of hundreds of years of thought, struggle, sweat, blood, and sacrifice on both sides of the Atlantic.

Let me first say that "moral courage" in the United States didn't come solely from a "small but mighty kingdom from across the sea."  It also came from America's indigenous peoples, African slaves and Mexican immigrants, whose descendants are an integral part of the American culture.  In his ignorant mind, Trump was arguing that "America" was the result of “hundreds of years of thought, struggle, sweat, blood and sacrifice on both sides of the Atlantic” –  implying that America’s greatness comes from white European bloodlines.

 

His attempt to shoehorn in a paraphrase of Churchill at the end fell completely flat and came off as awkward and forced in context. Trump, who often comically claims he’s the “least racist person” in the room, is nonetheless standing beside the King of England, pushing a vision of American identity rooted in racial and ethnic purity rather than the ideals of liberty, equality, and democracy that actually define this country.

 

It was embarrassing, ahistorical, and revealing.  Trump isn’t celebrating America’s founding values. He’s pushing a white nationalist fantasy that has no place in 2026.

 

Hypocrisy of the The Slovenian Sphynx

Melania Trump's criticism of Jimmy Kimmel has been met with calls of hypocrisy – and social media users have the receipts that show it.  In a post on social media, the first lady tried to criticized Kimmel’s “hateful and violent rhetoric”, labeling him a “coward” and called for the TV network to “take a stand.”

Last week, late-night TV host made a joke about the first lady, suggesting she had “a glow like an expectant widow”.  On his Monday night show, Kimmel explained the joke was in relation to Melania and Donald Trump’s age difference (56 and 79, respectively), and was “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.”  As if anybody with half a brain needed an explanation of the obvious!

It didn’t take long for people to point out that the rhetoric coming from none other than her own husband is pretty violent itself. 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, back at the office . . .

Madonna - I Feel So Free

As If You Needed Another Reason to Avoid Tesla

When Tom LoSavio bought hisTesla Model S in 2017, he thought he was buying a car that would one day drive itself.  LoSavio paid more than $100,000 for the luxury sedan, including $8,000 for lifetime access to its most advanced driver-assistance features. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said that the hardware in the company’s cars would eventually allow all of its cars to drive themselves.  “My wife and I talked about what a great thing it would be if we could just get in a car and have it drive us places,” LoSavio told The Wall Street Journal.

In the nine years since, LoSavio said it has become clear that Tesla took him for a ride. He is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that alleges that Tesla charged customers thousands of dollars in pricey upgrades for a product that didn’t, and still doesn’t, exist.  LoSavio alleges that Musk and Tesla have made repeated claims that were false about the self-driving capabilities of these vehicles and misled consumers who paid extra because they believed the company’s marketing. His lawsuit is one of several ongoing efforts by Tesla owners looking to hold the company accountable for overpromising and under-delivering on its Full Self-Driving (FSD) product.

Tesla is facing mounting legal issues in Netherland and Australia, over charges that the company misled customers about the cars’ capabilities. The matter calls into question Musk’s decade-long marketing pitch that Tesla’s autonomous vehicles were just around the corner. That promise kept Tesla’s stock near all-time highs—and with a market cap that exceeds most other automakers combined—even as its share of the electric-vehicle market has eroded.

The lawsuits and European campaign represent just thousands of Tesla customers. Wall Street analysts, however, estimate that there are millions of Teslas on the road with the outdated hardware no longer capable of running the most sophisticated version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software.  LoSavio won class-action status for his lawsuit in September. The class represents approximately 3,000 people in California, a figure that excludes the many Tesla owners who have signed arbitration agreements with the company that prevent them from suing. 

Tesla started including early versions of its self-driving tech in its vehicles in 2014. By 2015, Musk was publicly claiming that Tesla vehicles could drive themselves entirely within two years. Then in 2016, Tesla announced that all new cars built from then on had the hardware required for full self-driving. Musk told the press that a Tesla would drive itself from Los Angeles to New York City by the end of 2017.

But it was all bullshit.  Eventually Tesla’s plans required a more sophisticated computer and cameras than were installed in LoSavio’s car. In 2020 and 2021, it started offering customers upgrades to the third edition of its computer and camera set. Some customers like LoSavio, who paid upfront for lifetime access, got complimentary upgrades from Tesla. Others who wanted to use the FSD/self-driving technology but paid monthly could pay $1,000 for the upgrade.

Then in 2023, Tesla upgraded its hardware for the fourth time and started selling new cars with its latest chip. That meant that customers like LoSavio, who got updated to the third-edition computer a few years prior, once again had outdated equipment. The company hasn’t made any moves since January 2025, when Musk told investors that the company would have to do yet another computer upgrade for customers who bought the lifetime FSD (Full Self-Driving) package.

 

Earth Day Revisited

Keystone Kash Paranoid About Being Fired

On Friday, April 10, as FBI Director Kash Patel was preparing to leave work for the weekend, he struggled to log into an internal computer system. He quickly became convinced that he had been locked out, and he panicked, frantically calling aides and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House, according to nine people familiar with his outreach. Two of these people described his behavior as a “freak-out.”  News of his emotional outburst ricocheted through the bureau, prompting chatter among officials and, in some corners of the building, expressions of relief. The White House fielded calls from the bureau and from members of Congress asking who was now in charge of the FBI.  It turned out that the answer was Patel-- he had not been fired. The access problem, two people familiar with the matter said, appears to have been a technical error, and it was quickly resolved. “It was all ultimately bullshit,” according to one FBI official who spoke with the Atlantic.

But Patel, according to multiple current officials, is deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy. And he has good reasons to think so—

Meanwhile, Back at the Office . . .

Dozens of Sloths Die at Shady Roadside Zoo Operation

On a busy tourist strip in Orlando, behind noisy bars and souvenir shops, 21 sloths in crates arrived at a warehouse at the end of a grueling international trip.  Soon, they would all be dead.

The new home of the tree-dwelling mammals was the off-site facility of a new roadside attraction called “Sloth World,” a $49 animal encounter marketed as a conservation-focused center scheduled to open soon.   Nothing could have prepared the sloths for this. Until recently, they lived wild in the forest canopies of Guyana.  The animals' new home wasn't ready to receive them.  There was no running water. No electricity. The space heaters meant to keep them warm were plugged in with extension cords running from another building, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission incident report that Inside Climate News obtained through an open-records request. But the heaters repeatedly tripped the fuse and shut off. At least one night in December 2024, the agency said, the sloths were left alone in the cold warehouse without heat.   One by one, they died. 

List of Missing/Dead Scientists Linked to American Secrets Grows

The ominous web of U.S. scientists and lab employees who have died or gone missing continues to grow as two more cases have been linked to the disturbing trend. 

NASA scientist Frank Maiwald died on July 4, 2024 in Los Angeles at the age of 61, but the cause of death has never been made public and officials confirmed that an autopsy was never performed.  Maiwald had been a prominent researcher at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) since 1999 and worked on multiple projects tied to advanced satellite technology that could scan Earth and other planets.

In June 2023, just 13 months before his death, Maiwald was the lead researcher on a breakthrough that could help future space missions detect clear signs of life on other worlds, including Jupiter's moon Europa, Saturn’s moon Enceladus, or the dwarf planet Ceres.  Despite Maiwald being a JPL Principal, an award given to scientists 'making outstanding individual contributions' in their fields, NASA has never commented publicly on the scientist's death, and the only public record marking his passing was an obituary posted online.  The online obituary set up for Maiwald did not mention any health issues before the 61-year-old's death, and NASA JPL would neither confirm nor deny that Maiwald had been employed there for decades despite records of his achievements listed on their website. 

Lady Gaga & Doechii - Runway

O Holy Doctor!

DUI Hire Pete Kegsbreath Targeting Women and Minorities in DOD

Despite the conflict with Iran and other recent military activity overseas, the Pentagon seems focused on purging minorities and women. Last week, NBC News reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had intervened to block or delay the promotions of more than a dozen Black and female senior officers. 

The process within the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines is structured to ensure the most qualified officers get promoted. Hegseth’s decision to intervene in the process has raised concerns among some officials within those military branches and the White House, the nine U.S. officials familiar with the situation said.  “There is not a single service that has been immune to this level of involvement by Hegseth,” one of the U.S. officials said. 

According to both NBC and The New York Times, some officials are concerned that officers are being targeted because of their race, gender, or perceived political affiliation. In one instance last year, Hegseth’s chief of staff, Ricky Buria, bluntly stated that “President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events,” the Times reported.

Two officials said that among the attributes Hegseth has cited for removing officers from promotions are past support for Covid vaccines or mask mandates for troops, or whether officers were affiliated with DEI programs, or assigned to worke on such initiatives. Those same officials said an officer’s association with former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley (whom Trump still views as a political enemy) can also make an officer who is up for a promotion susceptible to scrutiny from Hegseth’s office.  “There is not consistency being applied to the standards” for promotions, another of the U.S. officials said.

Hegseth blocked three Marine officers (two women and a Black man) who were expected to be promoted or appointed to new roles, despite being recommended by Marine leadership. None of the three Marines were the subjects of internal investigations that might raise concerns about moving forward with their promotions, according to two of the officials.  

Army chief of staff, General Randy George had recently asked to meet with Hegseth to discuss Hegseth's blocking of promotions for some Army officers, which seemed to focus on women and Black men, but Hegseth refused to meet or discuss his decisions, according to two additional U.S. officials.  Soon thereafter, Hegseth fired George instead.  George's term was expected to serve in his position an additional year and a half,  George, the Army’s top officer, was senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during the Biden administration.  Also during Hegseth’s tenure, several top military officers have been removed, including former Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown Jr., a Black man, and former Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti, a white woman.

A retired senior military officer described the promotion process as rigorous and said any meddling by the defense secretary could diminish trust in it.  “Our officer corps trusts our promotion process,” the retired officer said, adding that intervention in the process without an explanation “will certainly cast a shadow across our officer corps that everything they have said, done and written about during their careers could be politicized in a career-ending manner with the stroke of a pen.”

 

Todd Blanche's DOJ Now Going After Low-Level Staffers in Pursuit of Trump's Revenge Agenda

Remember Cassidy Hutchinson?  She was the 25-year-old administrative aide to Mark Meadows that was subpoenaed by Congress to testify at the 2022 House hearings on the January 6 insurrection.   Everything she said at her four (legally-compelled) appearances was corroborated by Secret Service agents and other White House personnel.

There are now reports that Todd Blanch's Justice Department has assigned its civil rights division to investigate Hutchinson-- due to Trump's anger at anyone perceived to have done him wrong, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The decision is in keeping with the administration’s bid to find new ways to use the powers of the federal government to target convicted felon Donald Trump’s political opponents. Those efforts persist even though the department has struggled to carry out the president’s demands for retribution and has increasingly hit roadblocks from judges, grand juries and even some of its own prosecutors.

Blanche demonstrated his complete ignorance of DOJ's mission (to be an independent arm of the justice system) when he said (at a press conference last week) that Trump had “the right,” even “the duty,” as president to call for investigations of anyone [the President] believed deserved them.

 

Does Trump Think Catholics Are a Bunch of Fucking Morons?

Shortly after posting a hateful screed against Pope Leo XIV, convicted felon Donald Trump posted an image that depicted him as a Jesus figure, which quickly drew rare criticism from the religious right, prompting allegations of blasphemy. 

The post also came mere hours after Chicago's Cardinal Cupich lambasted the Trump administration for posting “sickening” social media content about the Iran war during an interview on 60 Minutes.  The CBS show interviewed Cupich and two other high-ranking American Catholics (Newark's Cardinal Tobin and Washington DC's Cardinal McElroy) days after Pope Leo XIV ramped up his criticism of the war. 

The shocking image posted by Trump was in the style of a painting, depicting him in a long white robe with a red cloak draped around his shoulders. In one hand was an orb glowing with light; Trump’s other hand rested on the forehead of a man in what resembled a hospital bed — light beaming from the man’s head as Trump appeared to pray for his healing. Patriotic symbols including an eagle, fireworks and the Statue of Liberty filled the frame.

Before the post was deleted, evangelical and Catholic allies called the image blasphemous in a rare public break from a base that has largely stood by Trump.  “I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy,” wrote Megan Basham, a prominent conservative Protestant Christian writer and commentator. “But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.” 

Isabel Brown, a Catholic podcaster with the Daily Wire outlet and a conservative influencer allied with the Trump White House, spoke out against it.  “This post is, frankly, disgusting and unacceptable, but also a profound misreading of the American people experiencing a true and beautiful revival of faith in Christ in the midst of our broken culture,” Brown wrote.  

Faced with such quick backlash, Trump attempted to explain that he thought he was being depicted as a "doctor."  “I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker, which we support,” Trump said.  “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better,” Trump continued. “And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”  Trump added “only the fake news” could suggest he was depicting himself as Jesus, ignoring the criticism he received from his own religious supporters.  Last year, Trump shared a picture of himself dressed in full papal robes after joking that he would “like to be pope”, an image that also sparked widespread attention and debate online.

The new image and the subsequent reaction echoed a Truth Social post Trump ultimately deleted earlier this year, a video that at the end briefly showed Barack and Michelle Obama depicted as apes. The post was deleted after roughly 12 hours, but not before the White House press secretary dismissed criticism and urged the news media to “stop the fake outrage.”

 

Embarrassment for ICE Barbie as Trump Kicks Her to the Curb

I couldn't let this jaw-dropping piece of news pass by.  Kristi Noem, the fired former head of the Department of Homeland Security, suffered another round of embarrassment upon exiting the Trump administration.  The Daily Mail reported that Noem's husband is a cross-dresser who wears large fake breasts and hot pants while messaging with online adult entertainers.

According to the report, Bryon Noem sent at least $25,000 to interact with fetish models, whom he communicated with using a phone number that easily identified him as the now-former DHS secretary's husband.

Experts say his behavior opened his wife up to blackmail that could have endangered U.S. national security.  “If a media organization can find this out, you can assume with a high degree of confidence that a hostile intelligence service knows this as well," former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos told the Daily Mail.

And given that his wife appears to be openly cheating on him with sleazeball former Trump administration aide Corey Lewandowski, who can blame Bryon for working out his kinks on the side?  We can however, throw some shade his way for pretending to be some holier-than-thou Christian who claimed to have stayed with his wife because of “his calling from God to support her,” as an unnamed family member told the New York Post earlier in March.  We can also shame him for apparently being so careless and sloppy with his communications with the models, since it could’ve endangered American national security.

It's hard to feel bad for ICE Barbie Kristi Noem, who wasted millions of taxpayer dollars to fly around the country with her alleged fuck-buddy so she could film ads promoting herself and stage stunts to torture immigrants.  Noem’s detractors also are accusing her of lying about her knowledge of her husband’s reported fetish, saying it’s something that’s been openly known in Trump world for years.

Good riddance to basic white trash and the hillbilly-style drama that seems to follow her wherever she goes. 

The Slovenian Sphinx Speaks!

 

Alex Warren - Fever Dream

Artemis II Returns to Earth Today

 

Iran Now Charging Tolls on the Strait of Hormuz-- Trump Trying to Save Face

In yet another sign that Iran got the upper hand on Trump, there are now reports that Iran is charging some ships millions of dollars to pass through the Strait of Hormuz (according to NBC News).

Shipping traffic through the strait has plummeted since the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran in February. But some ships have been getting through.  

Ships carrying Iranian oil or goods have been allowed to pass freely, according to The Wall Street Journal. Ships from friendly nations have been paying a toll of $1 million or more, while ships from unfriendly countries have been blocked.  The situation has been dubbed “the Tehran toll booth” by shipping industry experts, according to NBC.

“The Strait of Hormuz is no longer a chokepoint,” Athens-based Xclusiv Shipbrokers said in a recent report, according to the Journal. ”It’s being reshaped into a controlled corridor where access is conditional, selective, and increasingly political.”

Although some ships have been forced to pay, it does not appear Iran has a consistent policy, according to NBC. State media reported the Iranian parliament was preparing legislation to formalize the tolls.

Ceasefire mediators say the current status quo (Tehran's tolls) in the strait is unlikely to change, especially in light of the confusion over the terms of the so-called ceasefire.  Iran and Pakistani mediators say that the ceasefire included Lebanon-- but with Israel continuing to bomb its northern neighbor Iran says that the terms of the ceasefire have been violated.

Trump claimed in an interview with ABC News that he’s considering a “joint venture” with Iran to manage tolls in the Strait of Hormuz.  But it's obvious to everyone that Trump is only trying to salvage his reputation as a dealmaker-- as Iran will almost certainly refuse to share tolls with the U.S. and Trump will not want to be seen as the one who called off the ceasefire.  What a mess!

 

Trump Threatens to Commit War Crimes, Then Backs Off After Accepting Iran's 10-point Ceasefire Plan

Yesterday, convicted felon Donald Trump threatened the death of Iran’s civilization, an escalation of his ongoing threats to commit international war crimes against that nation. Trump’s incendiary rhetoric validated long-running warnings from the Democratic Party about Trump issuing illegal orders to the U.S. military.

In a post to Truth Social Trump wrote, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” He added, “47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”

Trump’s threats come just a few days after he said the U.S. would be targeting Iran’s civilian infrastructure, hitting facilities like energy plants, water treatment centers, and key roads and bridges. Targeting such structures is a war crime.

Of course, Taco Don backed off from his threats late last night, when he announced that a ceasefire was in effect.   Trump tried to portray the ceasefire agreement as a "total victory," but this was quickly refuted by public statements issued by the Iran government.  Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi released a statement saying that Iran's military will coordinate safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz during the ceasefire, and that Washington had accepted “the general framework” of Iran’s 10-point proposal “as a basis for negotiations.” Iran's Supreme National Security Council (the country’s top security body) released a statement that confirmed the ceasefire but also portrayed the agreement as an Iranian victory.  

Iran said that talks with the U.S. would take place in Islamabad and laid out key parts of Tehran’s 10-point plan. It included regulating passage through the Strait of Hormuz; terminating attacks on Iran and its regional proxy forces, the withdrawal of US forces from the region, compensation to Iran, the lifting of international sanctions and unfreezing of assets as well as and a binding UN resolution to secure any ultimate peace deal.  

A senior White House official told CNN that Israel is part of the ceasefire and had agreed to also suspend its bombing campaign while negotiations continue.  But this was also quickly revealed to be a lie, as an Israeli military spokesperson confirmed that Israel was still carrying out strikes in Iran, despite reports of a "ceasefire." 

 

MAGA World Hates Flaws in Women

A photograph of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has been purged from photo services. Why? Because it was supposedly taken at an unflattering angle.  According to Status, the photo—which shows Leavitt holding her son during a White House Thanksgiving event—was removed from AFP and Getty Images archives. The disappearing photo is just the latest example of the administration’s zeal to control its image—and the media playing along.

But shortly after the photo was removed from the archives, it began surfacing online, where it was reproduced by the official Democrats social media account.

A representative from AFP admitted that it was removed after the White House made the service “aware” of its displeasure. The photo clashes with the “correct” image of women that has been pushed by the MAGA movement. Outlets like Fox News have argued that conservative women are superior to their liberal counterparts because they purportedly embrace beauty treatments like hair dye and lip filler and put greater emphasis on women serving merely as vessels for producing babies.

But this isn’t the Trump administration’s first clash with unapproved photography.  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth barred photographers from attending war briefings at the Pentagon after supposedly “unflattering” images of the former Fox News host were taken earlier this month.

And last year, a Vanity Fair photo shoot with several members of the senior Trump team, including Leavitt, went viral after it highlighted their physical imperfections—again running counter to the administration’s misogynistic messaging about women.

President Donald Trump has argued for years that media outlets that do anything other than regurgitate his own lies and propaganda are “fake news,” and the administration has attacked and suppressed journalism that refuses to fall in line.  The choice by AFP and Getty to purge unapproved images shows that mainstream media continues to be subservient to Trump rather than focus on informing the public. 

 

Tony "Squeeze My Balls" Gonzales Still in Office

How is this creep still in office?

Explicit text messages published by the the San Antonio Express-News show GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales repeatedly asked his then-campaign director for nude photos and sex in 2020, years before admitting his 2024 affair with a congressional staffer who later died by suicide.

The previously unreported exchanges containing hundreds of messages were obtained by the newspaper. The messages, which the newspaper reported date from when Gonzales was a first-time Republican candidate in June 2020, show him escalating a late-night conversation with his campaign’s political director into explicit sexual requests over several days.

Within hours of initially discussing her dating life and complimenting her as a “smart girl,” the text messages show that Gonzales asked what she wore to bed, what kind of underwear she was wearing, and requested nude photos. The messages go on to describe how he wished to have sex with her and have her “squeeze my balls.”   

“I know what I want and won’t stop until I get it,” one message reads, according to the report.  When the campaign director declined his requests multiple times, he replied: “47 nos is about my limit.” The texts then include multiple requests for photos in the following days.  Despite the exchanges, the aide, granted anonymity, told the newspaper that no physical relationship occurred and that the pair “didn’t so much as touch.”

The revelations add to mounting scrutiny over Gonzales’s conduct following a separate 2024 affair with 35-year-old congressional aide Regina Santos-Aviles, which he publicly acknowledged as “a mistake” and “a lapse in judgment.” Santos-Aviles died by self-immolation in September 2025 after her husband discovered the messages.  Revelations related to that relationship prompted backlash from House Republican leaders and led Gonzales to abandon his bid for a fourth term. He is set to leave office in January. 

The former campaign director who shared the texts with the Express-News said she chose to come forward after learning of Santos-Aviles’s death in 2025. “He obviously pursued, pursued, pursued her like he did with me,” she said. “I never took him serious… It wasn’t until this poor girl died that I thought, ‘No, this guy is pure evil.’”

“This behavior needs to stop,” she added.

Happy Easter!

 

UAE Cracks Down on Social Media in an Effort to Maintain Its Phony Image

Dubai has been struggling to maintain its image as a safe and picturesque locale since the region has been under attack during the Trump-Iran war.  But early on, as Iranian missiles began to fall on Dubai (the largest and most ostentatiously luxe city in the United Arab Emirates) the facade began to crack.   The city once touted as one of the safest places in the world is now no longer a peaceful haven. And the UAE government has rushed to try and control the narrative, prompting a huge crackdown on anyone sharing photos of missile attacks and their aftermath. Instead, content creators have been posting weirdly similar photos and videos full of praise, parroting buzzwords about the city’s strong, stable leaders.

Satellite images of Dubai show smoke from areas damaged by air strikes

How can influencers continue to portray the “Dubai dream” online, when the whole world knows that the city has been mired in conflict? And what about the ordinary people who are being detained for sharing photos and videos that go against the official line?

Paul McCartney - Days We Left Behind

Pam's New Career as a Relationship Advisor

 

Don't Be April Fooled: Jonathan the Tortoise is Still Alive

Reports of the death of the world’s oldest living land animal — a nearly 200-year-old tortoise — were greatly exaggerated.  Jonathan (believed to be 193) is still kicking — albeit slowly — on the island of St. Helena.

“It was a hoax,” Anne Dillon, head of communications on the island, said.  “I don’t have all those details, I can just assure you that he is very much alive.”

News of the tortoise’s demise spread rapidly on social media on April Fool’s Day.  A social media  account, falsely claiming to be that of Joe Hollins, a veterinarian who had worked with the reptile on the island west of Africa in the south Atlantic Ocean, said he was heartbroken to announce the death of the “gentle giant” that “outlived empires, wars, and generations of humans.”  The post quickly accumulated over a million views, mostly an outpouring of condolences.  But Hollins later said on Facebook that he didn't have an X account and something more sinister was afoot.  “This  is a hoax — The hoaxer is asking for crypto donations. It’s a con,” Hollins wrote.

Guinness World Records lists Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise, as the oldest living land animal and oldest tortoise ever. He was believed to be about 50 years old when he was brought to St. Helena in 1882.  Dillon said the tortoise was still roaming the grounds of the governor’s residence, which was the place Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to following his defeat by the British at Waterloo in 1815.   Bonaparte died there in 1821, about a decade before Jonathan is believed to have taken the first steps in what would become a very long life.

Trump Unwittingly Reveals Plans for Secret Military Bunker

Convicted felon Donald Trump has complained that a “stupid” lawsuit forced him to reveal plans to build a top-secret military base underneath his White House ballroom.  The 79-year-old president was defending his $400 million vanity project while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, after a New York Times article over the weekend exposed the shoddy nature of its construction and design.

While holding comically large placards detailing how the completed ballroom might look, Trump also gave updates on what is being built beneath the area where the White House East Wing once stood.

“The military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed,” he said.

“The ballroom essentially becomes a shed [shield] for what’s being built under the military, including from drones, and including from any other thing,” Trump added. “The glass, or the windows, you see the big windows, the glass is extremely thick. It’s high-grade bulletproof glass, so all of the windows are bulletproof.”

The lawsuit Trump referenced was filed in December 2025 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is asking a federal judge to halt construction of the ballroom until it undergoes multiple independent reviews, passes environmental assessments, and receives approval from Congress.

The vanity project is being built as tens of millions of Americans suffer through a cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by Trump’s war on Iran.

On Sunday, the Times reported that multiple experts also condemned the proposed design of the mammoth building, noting that it includes a staircase that doesn’t lead anywhere, columns that will block the view of its windows, and the 90,000-square-foot ballroom that is “unnecessarily” large.

 

Keystone Kash Using FBI resources to Go After Trump's Enemies

Keystone Kash Patel (still stumbling and bumbling at the FBI)  is pressing to release a decade-old investigative file involving Rep. Eric Swalwell and a Chinese intelligence operative, recently dispatching agents in the bureau’s San Francisco office to quickly redact the files before they are released publicly despite no evidence of wrongdoing by Swalwell.  

The potential release is part of the Trump administration’s aggressive push to smear Swalwell, a vocal critic of convicted felon Donald Trump and a leading Democratic candidate for California governor. It is highly unusual for the FBI to release case files tied to a probe that did not result in criminal charges.

As FBI director, Patel has focused on trying to bring a criminal case against the outspoken Democrat, reassigning multiple agents in San Francisco to work on the matter, the current and former officials said. FBI leaders have even discussed sending agents to China to talk to the suspected intelligence operative, believing she could have damaging information about Swalwell.

The Chinese woman at issue is Christine Fang, who reportedly helped with fundraising for Swalwell’s 2014 reelection campaign and even helped place an intern in his congressional office. When federal agents conveyed their concerns about Fang to Swalwell around 2015, he reportedly cut off ties with her and said he helped investigators.  Swalwell was not accused of any wrongdoing when the FBI investigated his relationship with Fang a decade ago. In 2023, the Republican-led House Ethics Committee closed a two-year investigation into the congressman, deciding to “take no further action.” 

Despite that, FBI leaders have recently suggested that the government could try to arrange for Fang to get a U.S. visa in exchange for speaking with FBI agents, according to the three people with knowledge of Patel’s efforts. It would be highly unorthodox to grant a visa to a person suspected of being an intelligence agent for a foreign superpower.   In addition, bringing a known Chinese spy back into the U.S. represents a major security risk.

The push to publicly release the investigative files strongly suggests that the FBI has struggled to so far to build a criminal case against Swalwell. Even if there is no incriminating evidence in the files, an extensive case file could contain revealing and personal details about Swalwell and his campaign operations.

The lengths that Patel’s circle is going to in the bid to pursue a political foe of the president have raised alarms within the bureau, where some officials fear that releasing the files (even with redactions) could compromise law enforcement sources and investigatory methods, making it harder for the FBI to gain trust with potential witnesses.

They also said they feared the repercussions of sending agents to the territory of an adversarial nation to dig up information on a sitting congressman. Such an interview, legal experts said, would be impossible without Chinese interference, and Fang would be considered an unreliable witness.

 

Jailbirdie!

Woods' Martin County mugshot

Tiger Woods was photographed for the first time after he left jail following his arrest for driving under the influence (DUI).  The 50-year-old pro golfer was involved in a rollover crash near Jupiter Island, Fla., around 1 p.m. local time last Friday.

After the incident, Woods was charged with DUI with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test.  The athlete bonded out and was released from custody that same day, and new photographs taken after his release show Woods looking upset as he sat in the passenger seat of a car, exiting the premises of the Martin County jail. 

 

The March 27 crash took place between Woods' Land Rover and a pressure-cleaning truck that was pulling a small trailer, Martin County Sheriff John M. Budensiek said at a press conference that same day.

According to authorities, Woods was alone in his vehicle at the time of the crash. Budensiek said police are “not sure” whether he was wearing a seat belt. 

“Mr. Woods did not appear to be injured at all, and the other individual was not injured,” Budensiek said during the press conference, adding that the athlete was “lethargic on scene because of what he was intoxicated on.”

The police chief also confirmed that Woods “did exhibit signs of impairment," but added that authorities "were not suspicious of alcohol being involved in this case, and that proved to be true at the jail," where he blew "triple zeroes" on the breathalyzer test. (Woods refused to take a urinalysis test at the jail, Budensiek said.) 

The March 27 incident marked another car accident involving Woods. He previously sustained serious injuries in a 2021 crash in Los Angeles that required surgery, and he was also involved in a separate incident in 2009, also near his Florida home.  

Spanish Woman Dies by Euthanasia after Legal Battle with Neglectful Father

The death by euthanasia of a 25-year-old Spanish woman after a protracted legal battle with her father has triggered debate about the role of the state in caring for her and why it took so long to implement her wish to end her life.   Spain is one of a handful of European countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, that have passed laws allowing euthanasia to be carried out by physicians. The Catalan regional government had granted Noelia Castillo's request for assisted dying in 2024.

The case has received enormous attention in Spain, with Castillo's father and Christian Lawyers (Abogados Cristianos) attempting to block her death until the last moment. After an 18-month legal battle, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled this week in Noelia Castillo's favor. 

In October 2022, Castillo had thrown herself from the fifth floor of a building. It was then that she became paraplegic and requested euthanasia, a petition that was approved in July 2024 after the Catalan regional government agency determined that she was in an “irreversible” clinical condition causing her “severe dependency, chronic pain, and debilitating suffering.”  The government determined that she had met the requirements set by law and she passed on Thursday evening at a Barcelona hospital.  

It is ironic that Castillo was blocked by the very father who had neglected her during her youth and was the source of much of her anguish. 

Barry Manilow - Sun Shine

Sign of Doom Appears Over Tel Aviv

The skies over Tel Aviv were flooded with a sea of crows on Tuesday, in what many people are saying is a 'harbinger of doom' warning.  Thousands of crows were filmed circling high-rise buildings, including the iconic Azrieli Towers, in dramatic footage that quickly went viral online. 

 Many viewers linked the eerie scene to Israel's ongoing conflict with Iran, claiming the spectacle signaled a looming disaster.  'This is considered by many to be a 'harbinger of doom' as it is often followed by total catastrophe,' one user shared on social media, while others linked it to a biblical prophecy.  They cited the Book of Revelation 19:17, which describes an angel standing in the sun, shouting to birds flying in midair to gather for 'the great supper of God.'

The swirling flock created dark, shifting clouds over the skyline, leaving residents and viewers stunned by the sheer scale of the migration.  While scientists said the dramatic sighting was a routine migration event, many social media users insisted there was something more sinister behind the massive flock. 'This is the worst possible omen at a civilizational level,' one user shared.  'It's still taken seriously back home in England, and the Romans would stop entire wars over this sign.'

In ancient Rome, priests known as augurs closely watched the skies, interpreting the flight patterns and calls of birds as messages from the gods that could influence decisions about war, leadership and major public events.  Large or unusual gatherings of birds were often viewed as ominous warnings of trouble ahead.

More than 2,000 people have been killed across the Middle East as the war enters its fourth week.  Israeli and U.S. strikes inside Iran have left more than 1,200 people dead, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.  At least 1,000 deaths have been reported in Lebanon, while 17 people have been killed in Israel.  The conflict has also claimed the lives of 13 US service members, with two additional troops dying from noncombat causes. 

 

 

Crazy Times Indeed

Sleepy Time for Don

Convicted felon Donald Trump continues to be the subject of speculation around his health and wellbeing online, after having two MRI scans in the space of a year in 2025, being diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency and – in this case – appearing to fall asleep on multiple occasions.

The 79-year-old orange man has, however, addressed the rumors before, speaking during the January 29 cabinet meeting to say that the last meeting – where he appeared to close his eyes – “got pretty boring”.

For reference, here are some of the most recent instances of Trump taking a "spontaneous nap" -- 

April 26, 2025: One of the earliest and most high-profile instances where Trump was accused of falling asleep was at the funeral of Pope Francis. He also faced criticism for going against the Vatican’s dress code and wearing a blue suit and appearing to be on his phone during the event. 

May 13, 2025: While on a tour of the Middle East, touting a new agreement signed with Saudi Arabia in a press conference, Trump appeared to fall asleep, and was subsequently branded “Sleepy Don.”

July 15, 2025: Ironically, despite its name, people pointed out that Trump appeared to fall asleep during the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit.

October 8, 2025: Trump has long been vocal in his opposition to the Antifa movement, but during a round table on this very subject in October, the Republican seemingly struggled to stay awake. 

November 6, 2025: At the same event where a White House guest fainted, Trump was seen leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed.

December 2, 2025: As Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed Trump is “the only leader in the world who can help end” the war in Ukraine, the president was seen leaning to one side with his eyes closed, nodding but without opening his eyes when Rubio addressed him as “Mr President” while speaking.

December 4, 2025: Just days later, Trump’s head was seen drooping and he seemed to be struggling to stay awake during a press conference marking the signing of new agreements by leaders from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

December 18, 2025: During an Oval Office event marking Trump signing an executive order to give marijuana a lower drugs classification, the president appeared to drift off while sat at the Resolute Desk.

January 4, 2026: During the press conference on U.S. action in Venezuela, Trump was observed fighting off slumber land while top military official Dan “Raizin” Caine was at the podium.  Trump was seen in the background appearing to be struggling to stay awake, closing his eyes on several occasions. 

January 14, 2026: With Health Secretary RFK and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins standing behind him, Trump appeared to nod off in his Oval Office chair during a White House event focused on the return of whole and two per cent milk to school lunches. 

February 12, 2026: Standing behind Lee Zeldin of the Environmental Protection Agency during a press conference on removing climate regulations, Trump appeared to struggle to keep his eyes open yet again.

February 19, 2026:  The Orange Man appeared to close his eyes during the first meeting of his newly established Board of Peace, with the press office of California governor Gavin Newsom among those poking fun at the Republican. 

March 23, 2026: Trump was in Tennessee attending a round table on the Memphis Safe Task Force when he appeared to struggle to keep his eyes open. 

 

Meanwhile Back at the Office . . .

 

Controversy Reigns After Senegal Stripped of its Africa Cup Title

A night of jubilation in Morocco was ushered in by anger in Senegal after the Confederation that governed football in the continent made the controversial decision to strip the Senegalese national team of their continental football title and hand it to their North African rivals.  Last week (over two months after the final whistle blew at a contentious and acrimonious final in Rabat) came the news that the Africa Cup tournament host Morocco was named the winners of the Africa Cup of Nations.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) had ruled that Senegal had broken the rules by leaving the pitch in protest at a refereeing decision. The match later resumed and Senegal won 1-0 but Caf said that the walkout meant they had forfeited the game.

Moroccans took to the streets to celebrate and local media have shown videos of happy fans driving through Tangier waving the national flag, banging tambourines and honking their horns. Other pictures show triumphant supporters letting off flares.  Moroccan journalist Jalal Bounour said that it was "a sleepless night as fans welcomed the news with great excitement and joy".

There was an overwhelming sense that justice had been done after what Moroccans saw as a violation of the rules.  "I believe this was a sporting injustice, Morocco was certainly wronged and the facts were clear," one man told the BBC in Rabat.  "The entire Moroccan people are out in every city and everywhere, happy with our cup. The cup has returned to us, the cup that was denied to us," a woman, who was wearing the national team's top, told a local sports channel.  "My friend told me that Morocco had won, and I was so happy. I was sleeping at home when I heard this news, and I was so happy. We're so happy now," another man said.

Another fan said the nation was still astonished by the decision: "The team is in shock, I swear I am in shock. Thank God, our cup has returned to us and we are grateful because it was given to us."  The news also dropped like a bombshell in the Senegalese capital, Dakar - but for the opposite reason.  "I'm stunned. Football no longer exists. This is not football. No-one here understands or accepts this decision," a young man, Daouda Seck, told the AFP news agency.  "We're shocked. Corruption has ended up winning."

His views echoed the official response from the Senegalese government which said it would appeal against the decision to take the title away from the national side, adding that the ruling undermined Caf's credibility.  The authorities have also called for an "independent international investigation into suspected corruption within Caf's governing bodies".

"Caf is set to become a laughing stock in the football world, and Africans will be ridiculed for everything that has been said and criticized regarding the organization of this tournament," another Senegal fan told the BBC.  "I think the best team won on the pitch, and that should be respected off it as well, so the rules, the laws of the sport should come into play at that level," Senegalese student Ralf Nonga told AFP.

 

Trump Loses Yet Again in Federal Court

A federal judge has ruled that the Pentagon’s restrictions on news outlets violate the First Amendment and issued an order tossing parts of the Defense Department’s policy.

Judge Paul Friedman, of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, also ordered the Pentagon to restore the press passes of seven journalists for The New York Times, which had brought the suit. The NYT reporters had surrendered their passes last October instead of signing the policy, which empowered the Pentagon to declare journalists “security risks” and revoke their press passes if they engaged in any conduct that the Pentagon believed threatened national security.

In his 40-page ruling, Judge Friedman wrote that the Pentagon’s policy rewarded reporters who were “willing to publish only stories that are favorable to or spoon-fed by department leadership.”

Siding with an argument advanced by The Times, Judge Friedman added that the Pentagon had given itself too much power to enforce its new rules. The policy also violates journalists’ due process rights under the Fifth Amendment, he said, writing that it “provides no way for journalists to know how they may do their jobs without losing their credentials.”

The ruling was a defeat for the Trump administration, which has been engaged in a multifaceted pressure campaign against the news media. ABC News and CBS News’s parent company agreed to multimillion-dollar settlements to resolve suits that President Trump brought against the networks. The ABC late-night star Jimmy Kimmel was temporarily pulled off the air last year after Mr. Trump’s top communications regulator assailed his program and suggested that he might take regulatory action against the broadcaster.

The ruling against the Pentagon followed a similarly stark decision this month from a federal judge to restore the operations of Voice of America, a government-funded news organization that Mr. Trump had ordered shuttered a year ago in an executive order.

A spokesman for The Times said Judge Friedman’s ruling “reaffirms the right of The Times and other independent media to continue to ask questions on the public’s behalf,” adding that “Americans deserve visibility into how their government is being run, and the actions the military is taking in their name and with their tax dollars.”

 

Twenty One Pilots - Drag Path

Taliban Allows Men to Beat Wives as Long as They Don’t Break Bones

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have issued a draconian decree that makes sodomy punishable by death and allows men to beat their wives so long as they don’t break bones or leave visible, lasting wounds.

Human rights campaigners have decried the move as “devastating” and warned that women’s recourse to justice would be further curtailed.  “The men have the right to rule completely the women,” rights activist Mahbouba Seraj told CNN from Kabul. “His word is the word of law – that’s it.” 

The decree was issued last month but has only recently come to international attention after it was leaked to the Afghan rights group Rawadari, which published it in the original Pashto. The Afghanistan Analysts Network then translated the document into English.  The punishments outlined in the decree have already been widespread throughout the country, but this is the first time that they have been so clearly codified since the United States and its allies withdrew from the country in August 2021, allowing the Taliban to return to power.  The Taliban insists that all its rulings are in line with Islamic Sharia law and have religious legitimacy.

The punishment for animal abuse is more severe. The decree says that anyone who forces animals like dogs or cockerels to fight should be sentenced to five months in prison. The decree also permits a father to punish their child for, among another things, failing to pray. The punishment for a teacher who so severely beats a student that a bone is broken is to be removed from their job.

Given that women in Afghanistan are prohibited from leaving the home without a male guardian, activists say the new law will prevent women from seeking justice even in cases of severe physical violence. Afghanistan’s Sharia Law also dictates that a woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man.

Women have seen their rights steadily degraded since the Taliban returned to power. Women are banned from almost all work outside the home. UNICEF estimates that more than two million girls and women have been shut out of education by the Taliban’s ban on them attending secondary school and university.  The UN’s top human rights official, Volker Türk, told the Human Rights Council that the decree was “legitimizing violence against women and children, and characterized Afghanistan as a graveyard for human rights. “Afghanistan’s women and girls face extreme gender-based discrimination and oppression that amounts to persecution,” Türk said. “The system of segregation is reminiscent of apartheid, based on gender rather than race.”