Immigration fraud

Fact Post News -  Non-citizen voting fraud is so minimal that the Heritage Foundation, over a more than a decade of studying this, found 24 cases nationwide in which naturalized citizens or immigrants had improperly voted.

Farms

Mike Levin - More than 15,000 American farms shut down in 2025. The American Farm Bureau has warned that rising costs, falling margins, and policy decisions in Washington are pushing family farms to the brink.

                                   Via Gianl1974

Can Trump start a war with Iran without the approval of Congress?

Find Law - Can the President of the United States (POTUS) begin a military conflict without Congressional approval? As commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, how much control do they have? As you might expect, the answers aren't simple.

A President Is Not a King. The Founding Fathers wanted to avoid giving one person the authority to plunge the new nation into a war. While the office of the president was crafted with George Washington in mind, the creators of the Constitution realized that those who followed might lack his virtues and humility.

As such, it was left to Congress to declare war. This was considered well-established constitutional law until around 1950.

It is still unequivocally true that only Congress has the power to declare war. They've done so 11 times, the last time being during World War II.

It's understandable if you're scratching your head, remembering Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and other conflicts that sure seemed like wars. While Congress has only declared war 11 times, it's also approved 108 "military operations" through resolutions.

This is where it gets complicated. A couple examples may help illustrate.

In 1950, President Harry Truman sidestepped Congress by going directly to the United Nations — then five years old — to authorize military action in North Korea. The U.N. did authorize military action, and Truman used U.S. troops to carry out the "police action."

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush believed a military response was required after Iraq invaded Kuwait. While ultimately Congress declared a joint resolution authorizing the deployment of troops, Bush maintained that he had the right to deploy troops regardless and would have done so even if it led to his impeachment. Bush felt it was vital to U.S. economic and security interests to protect Kuwait.

Ultimately, a Congressional resolution rendered the issue moot. However, it left a gray area regarding when a president can oversee the deployment of troops even without a declaration of war.

No president has ever made a formal declaration of war on their own.

As commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, the president makes all final military decisions during wartime...

Congress has also expanded and retracted the president's wartime powers. In 1941, the First War Powers Act gave President Franklin D. Roosevelt temporary control of many Congressional powers to enhance the efficiency of the war effort. These were repealed after the end of World War II.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (referred to as the War Powers Act) went in the other direction. It limits what the president can do with military forces if lacking Congressional approval. U.S. forces sent into combat are limited to 90 days without a Congressional resolution, 30 of which must be spent on their withdrawal.

While the War Powers Act limits prolonged engagements, it also grants the president the authority to "respond to attacks and other emergencies." This was the right that President Trump claimed in 2017 after ordering missile strikes against a military base in Syria without explicit Congressional approval....

Iran

On June 21, 2025, the U.S. military attacked three nuclear sites in Iran. Congress did not approve the action and has not declared war. Iran hadn't attacked any U.S. targets, but the Trump administration claimed that Iran's nuclear program meant that attacks were imminent.

The administration could try to frame any retaliatory strikes by Iran as justification to proceed without Congressional approval under the War Powers Act, at least for a limited time.

Congress could pass legislation limiting the president's war powers, but would need to gather enough support to override an almost certain veto from Trump. Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie submitted such a resolution in the House on June 17.

The ruling in the Supreme Court tariff case

READ IT IN THE HILL

Will you get any tariff rebates?

Washington Post - Probably not. For the most part, tariffs are paid by importing companies during a Customs and Border Protection process. Individual consumers eventually see some of those fees in the form of cost increases but do not pay tariffs directly.

It’s unlikely that individual businesses will refund customers for price increases.

Trump said several times last year that he planned to use the tariff revenue, which was about $200 billion as of mid-December, to give stimulus checks to Americans. But there are many challenges inherent in that plan, including that tariff funds go to the Treasury and must be allocated by Congress before they are used.

6 reasons the U.S. and Iran are on the brink of war

Trump's efforts to silence critics derailed by roadblocks

Polls

RCPolling:
Harris Leads Early 2028 Democratic Primary Polling

🔵Kamala Harris: 30.5%

🔵Gavin Newsom: 21.5%

🔵Pete Buttigieg: 8.6%

🔵Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: 7.5%

RealClearPolitics Polling Average 

NBC News - Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was released from police custody “under investigation,” police said, after he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct while in office.... 

Andrew is the most high-profile figure to face criminal accusations in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and his arrest is the first of a royal family member in centuries.

His arrest also poses a serious reputational and constitutional risk for the monarchy, whose popularity has declined following the death of the beloved Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.

Last year, support for the institution fell to a historic low, with just 51% of Britons saying it was “very important” or “quite important” to continue having a monarchy, according to polling by the National Centre for Social Research. 

Money

Amazon has dethroned Walmart as the world’s biggest company by sales. The two companies reported a difference of around $3 billion in year-end revenue. New Republic - Donald Trump announced Thursday that he wants the United States to contribute $10 billion to his so-called Board of Peace—essentially forming a slush fund of taxpayer money the president can use however he likes. Speaking at the board’s inaugural meeting in Washington, Trump assured the folks watching at home that $10 billion was “a very small number when you look at that compared to the cost of war.”

Gas prices may go up

Axios - The cost to fill up your car will probably climb soon — and the oil price spike over Iran tensions is only one reason...

 Oil prices are jumping this week as traders digest the risk that a U.S. strike on Iran could disrupt supply.  That will eventually filter down to retail gasoline.

Other, more mundane forces are also going to start putting upward pressure on gasoline, fuel market analysts say.

• Refiners will soon start the switch to so-called summer blends, which don't vaporize as easily, to meet air pollution requirements.
• It's more expensive and time-consuming to create fuel that's resistant to evaporation, explains Aixa Diaz, an AAA spokesperson.

The seasonal cost rise typically starts at the end of February or early March as "spring break season kicks off and refineries start production of summer-blend gasoline," Diaz said via email. ...

 Patrick De Haan of the market tracking firm GasBuddy says the Iran situation is currently adding a few cents per gallon.

• He notes that inventories of winter blends are "well above average" right now, which is "temporarily diluting the impact" of the increase.
• But De Haan, the firm's head of petroleum analysis, said the change to summer blends; more people driving after winter; and typical pre-summer maintenance work reducing activity at refineries are together a powerful force.
• This "retail seasonality" typically adds somewhere between 25 cents and 65 cents per gallon between late February and April-May.

 As you can see above, average pump prices remain low amid ample gasoline stockpiles, though they vary a lot by region.

• "The good news is we're seeing the cheapest gas prices for this time of year since 2021, so even as prices go up as they usually do in the spring, we're starting from a lower point," Diaz said.

Supreme Court rules that Trump's sweeping emergency tariffs are illegal.

CNN - The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump violated federal law when he unilaterally imposed sweeping tariffs across the globe, a striking loss for the White House on an issue that has been central to the president’s foreign policy and economic agenda.

The decision is arguably the most important loss the second Trump administration has sustained at the conservative Supreme Court, which last year repeatedly sided with the president in a series of emergency rulings on immigration, the firing of the leaders of independent agencies and deep cuts to government spending.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion and the court agreed 6-3 that the tariffs exceeded the law. The court, however, did not say what should happen to the more than $130 billion in tariffs that has already been collected.

“The president asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope,” Roberts wrote for the court. “In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it.”

White House reverses its non-invitation to black govenror

The Hill- Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said he will attend the National Governors Association (NGA) meeting with President Trump on Friday after the White House reversed course, once again, and extended the invitation to the Democratic governor, a source familiar told The Hill.

Moore, the vice chair of the NGA, made his announcement shortly before the business breakfast was slated to begin. .. . .

Trump had initially opted to invite only Republican governors to the traditionally bipartisan gathering, which coincides with the NGA winter meeting in Washington, D.C., but changed course after the Republican chair, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, said the NGA would not back the event, as it has in the past, unless all Democratic governors were included. 

All Democratic governors subsequently received invitations to the meeting, but Moore and Polis later heard from the White House that their invitations had been rescinded.

[Moore is black and Polis is an out gay]

Trump Is Still Deporting People Wherever He Wants

New Yorker - In March of 2025, the Trump Administration was widely criticized for sending more than two hundred Venezuelans to cecot, a notoriously brutal mega-prison in El Salvador. Yet, over the past eleven months, the Administration has continued the practice of deporting large numbers of noncitizens to so-called third countries, or countries to which the deportee typically has no connection. This is often because many immigrants living in America have judicial orders that prevent the government from sending them to their home country owing to the risk of persecution. This third-country practice has continued, however, despite the fact that a number of deportees have been sent back to their home countries after arriving in the third country. (Others remain stuck in prisons.) Recently, the Administration sent nine people of various nationalities to Cameroon, where most of them are now being held in detention until they agree to return to their home countries.

Trump ditched World Health Organization. His new plan will cost three times as much, report says

Independent, UK - The Trump administration is reportedly proposing to spend around $2 billion per year replicating the global health capabilities of the World Health Organization, after the U.S. finalized its exit from the UN agency last month.

The Department of Health and Human Services is reportedly driving the effort to build up the U.S. labs, data-sharing networks, and rapid-response systems that it previously had access to as part of the global health agency, unnamed officials told The Washington Post.

The figure is roughly triple the U.S.’s past annual contributions to the WHO, which averaged about $680 million in member dues and voluntary contributions...

Public health experts sharply criticized the administration’s decision to leave the WHO, which America helped found and has often been its largest contributor, arguing the decision would leave the U.S. with less information and global capabilities to monitor and counteract disease, while international efforts to fight polio and improve children’s health would falter.

Dr. Ronald Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said last month the decision was "shortsighted and misguided" and "scientifically reckless,” while public health law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University told the Associated Press the pullback was “the most ruinous presidential decision in my lifetime.”

Federal agent victim gets PhD

Independent, UK -  Nearly one year after masked federal agents grabbed her off the street, Tufts University scholar Rumeysa Ozturk is officially a doctor.

Ozturk, who is studying media use among children and young people, has earned her PhD from the university’s Department of Child Study and Human Development.

“My studies, research and professional work focus on how positive media use among children and young people can nurture more kindness and compassion in the world,” she wrote Wednesday on LinkedIn.

“Despite the very brutal, illegal and unjustifiable experiences I faced over the last year, I remain hopeful that our world can become a gentler and more peaceful place,” she added.

Last month, an immigration court judge terminated deportation proceedings against Ozturk, whose arrest last March by masked agents near her home in Massachusetts is among the defining images of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts targeting international students who spoke out against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Environmental Groups Sue Trump’s EPA Over Repeal of Landmark Climate Finding

The Guardian  - More than a dozen health and environmental justice non-profits have sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its revocation of the legal determination that underpins US federal climate regulations.

Filed in Washington DC circuit court, the lawsuit challenges the EPA’s rollback of the “endangerment finding”, which states that the buildup of heat-trapping pollution in the atmosphere endangers public health and welfare and has allowed the EPA to limit those emissions from vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources since 2009. The rollback was widely seen as a major setback to US efforts to combat the climate crisis.

The suit was brought by the American Public Health Association, the American Lung Association, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and 11 other public health and environmental organizations. The lawsuit was filed by green legal organizations Clean Air Task Force and Earthjustice and it names the EPA and the agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, as defendants.

“EPA’s repeal of the endangerment finding and safeguards to limit vehicle emissions marks a complete dereliction of the agency’s mission to protect people’s health and its legal obligation under the Clean Air Act,” said Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO at the Union of Concerned Scientists, another one of the groups behind the lawsuit. “This shameful and dangerous action by the Trump administration and EPA administrator Zeldin is rooted in falsehoods, not facts, and is at complete odds with the public interest and the best available science.”

Gaza

The Guardian -  The Trump administration is planning to build a 5,000-person military base in southern Gaza, sprawling more than 350 acres and ringed with watch towers and barbed wired, according to Board of Peace contracting records seen by the Guardian.

The site is envisioned as a military operating base for a future International Stabilization Force (ISF), planned as a multinational military force composed of pledged troops. The ISF is part of the newly created Board of Peace, chaired by Donald Trump and led in part by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, which is meant to govern Gaza. It has faced criticism about its funding and governance, and major European allies have declined to join the group.

Canada

NY Times - Earlier this month, President Trump found the latest pressure point to extend his leverage over Canada: a new bridge connecting the country to the United States that is expected to open this year.

Mr. Trump threatened to block the opening, just hours after the billionaire owner of a competing U.S.-Canada bridge met with Howard Lutnick, Mr. Trump’s commerce secretary. It wasn’t that the president was particularly passionate about the new bridge. What excited him, officials familiar with his thinking said, was the opportunity to use the bridge to force Canada to make trade concessions.

“I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve,” Mr. Trump said on social media on Feb. 9.

The threat was a preview of the high-pressure tactics the president is expected to deploy when his administration renegotiates a trade deal with Canada and Mexico. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Mr. Trump signed into law during his first term, is set to be reviewed by the summer.

Board of Peace

Sam Sifton, NY Times - Today, President Trump greets his creation. The Board of Peace will hold its first gathering since more than 20 nations signed the board’s founding charter last month. Delegates will talk about how to rebuild Gaza.

But the board, a kind of Trump-aligned alternative to the United Nations, is aiming much higher. It wants to “secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict,” according to the charter. That’s a lot of places beyond Gaza. It also promises to be a nimble peacekeeping body, presumably unlike the diplomats at the United Nations....

Member nations must cough up $1 billion to secure a permanent board seat. If they don’t pay, they lose their spot after three years.

The recruits are an odd assortment — not all America’s traditional friends. They include Argentina, Hungary, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Seven European nations, including France and Britain, have declined the offer. Trump rescinded Canada’s invitation after the prime minister criticized U.S. foreign policy. Russia said it would pony up if the United States thawed its bank accounts.

Trump is the chairman — not just while he’s president, but for life! He can invite new countries to join or expel others. He decides who is on the executive committee. Among them are Jared Kushner, his son-in-law; and Tony Blair, a former British prime minister. Trump is the “final authority” on all matters related to the board and its operations. There are not a lot of checks and balances. He makes the calls.....

Many experts in international affairs worry about what they see as a worst-case scenario: The Trump administration could weaken the multilateral diplomatic system that the United States helped build after World War II — and replace it with something more rapacious and less stable, led by Trump....

“Peace in the world requires a broad, international consensus,” an international law professor who specializes in peace negotiations told The Times. “That can hardly be created through a new institution that is entirely dependent on the will of one man.”

Money

Bloomberg - Inflation may be down but, with grocery and electricity prices already at records, Americans aren’t feeling relief. Consumers now dole out $126 for what cost $100 before the pandemic, leaving many feeling they’re treading water rather than getting ahead. That frustration is set to dominate the midterms.

Meanwhile. . .

Bloomberg - Taking a cue from Australia, the first country to ban social media for minors, France is considering a similar move, part of a push that’s gaining traction across Europe and in India.

The Guardian - In the past 20 years, plastic production has doubled. In her new book Plastic Inc, Beth Gardiner, an environmental journalist from the US, warns that it will double again, perhaps triple, in the near future.

One Man Stole $660 Million. He’ll Never Pay It Back

Word

Robert Reich - Trump's big, ugly budget megabill gives ICE more agents than the FBI, more jails than the federal Bureau of Prisons, and a larger budget than most countries' militaries. It does this by stripping food away from children, the disabled, and the working poor.

Trump regime begins inquiry into new citizens who voted before they should have

MS News - The Department of Homeland Security’s chief investigations arm this week launched a broader nationwide campaign to investigate and prosecute naturalized citizens who may have improperly voted in past elections before they became citizens, according to documents reviewed by MS NOW, an effort spurring deep concern among law enforcement agents that the administration’s true goal is to intimidate voters from participating in future elections.  

Agents with DHS Homeland Security Investigations were notified last week of the new initiative, in which agents in all field offices are required to review both open and closed cases of suspected illegal voting by noncitizen immigrants, according to the documents and three people familiar with the plan.  

Launched at the direction of the White House, the people said, the program requires agents to determine if naturalized citizens voted or registered to vote prior to becoming citizens. Investigators are then asked to submit reports to the White House detailing each case in which they declined to bring charges, the people said.  An administration official speaking on background disputed that characterization.

Voting experts have consistently said the Trump administration’s claims of widespread fraudulent voting by immigrants are wildly exaggerated and the number of such incidents is very small. 

Forme Prince Andrew arrested

MS NOW - Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the disgraced brother of King Charles III who was stripped of his titles last year over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested by U.K. police on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. King Charles confirmed the arrest in a statement expressing his “deepest concern.”

“What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities,” he said. “In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation. Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.

Thames Valley Police said in a statement that auhtorities arrested “a man in his sixties from Norfolk” but declined to name him.

How Spain Is Carving a Different Path on Immigration

States with highest and lowest property taxes

US union membership hits 16 year high

 The Guardian - The number of workers covered under union contracts increased to a 16-year high in 2025, despite ongoing attempts by the Trump administration to wipe out collective bargaining agreements for tens of thousands of federal workers, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

About 16.5 million workers were covered by a union contract in 2025, up from 16 million in 2024 and the highest level since 2009. The increase stems from workers joining unions as members – 14.7 million US workers were union members in 2025, up from 14.2 million workers in 2024.

The percentage of all workers in the US covered by a union contracts ticked up to 11.2% in 2025, compared with 11.1% in 2024. Union membership increased from 9.9% in 2024 to 10% in 2025.

Union density in the US has declined drastically in recent decades from above 30% in the late 1940s and 50s. Despite the decline, public approval of labor unions has increased in recent years. Approval of unions now ranges between 67% and 71%, according to Gallup, levels last reached in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Polls

Reuters/Ipsos Poll

🚨Trump's disapproval hits 60%
🚨Trump's immigration approval hits -17%, a second-term low
🚨The poll shows support for Trump's handling of immigration has fallen significantly aming men in recent weeks
🚨Trump's economic approval falls to -23% 

Independent, UK - Melania Trump has been named the second least popular first lady in recent history, but it was Trump rival Hillary Clinton who took home the honors of being the most disliked, a new poll has found.

According to YouGov, 2,255 U.S. citizens were asked earlier this month to rank the 11 most recent first ladies on a scale of “Outstanding” to “Poor.”

Thirty-six percent said Melania was “poor,” and another 10 percent rated her “below average.” Roughly 18 percent of people in the survey ranked Melania as “outstanding” with another 12 percent saying she was “above average.” That left her with a net approval rating of -16.