Donald Trump

Alternet -   In a “highly unusual” move, the contractor behind the construction of President Donald Trump’s ballroom got a monetary boost from the National Park Service. The New York Times reports that Maryland-based Clark Construction not only nabbed a secret no-bid contract for a nearby job, but the National Park Service under Trump inflated the value of the contract several times over before awarding it to them. The additional work involves construction at the site of two ornamental fountains in Lafayette Park near the White House in Washington, DC.

“The National Park Service wanted to repair two ornamental fountains in Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House,” reports the Times. “The Biden administration in 2022 had estimated the work would cost $3.3 million. But Mr. Trump’s government agreed to pay Clark $11.9 million to do it, and later added tasks that increased the contract to $17.4 million, the documents show.”

Alternet -   Former White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews says nobody can escape Father Time, and right now Father Time is trampling boot marks all over President Donald Trump’s mind. Her opinion came after a painful series of photos of Trump appearing to nod off and go straight into REM sleep at an important Oval Office Thursday conference, augmented with citations of Trump’s more unnerving late-night posts.

“I just think it's gotten even worse in the sense that it's a little bit more extreme. In the first administration, we didn't have him posting about wanting to annihilate an entire civilization. And so … it seems like he's lost his fastball and that he's not beating Father Time,” said Matthews, who worked in Trump's first administration. “Look, you can't beat father time. And I think old age is catching up with him. And so he's not as on it and as sharp as he once was. And I think that is also just enhancing the craziness that was already kind of there and bringing it to a whole new level. And, and we're seeing that play out.”

MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace pointed out that Trump “drift[ed] off to la la land” likely because he was furiously posting on social media between the hours of midnight and 2:45 A.M. a total of 18 times.

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From our overstocked archives: Dealing with old times

Tens of millions just three months away from financial ruin

The Hill -   Tens of millions of Americans are three months away from financial ruin. A single quarter stands between the average household and bankruptcy, and the average household knows it. According to a recent national survey, a little over $6,000 in additional debt is all it takes to push a family over the edge. Six thousand dollars. The cost of a half-decent secondhand car. A modest kitchen renovation. In the country that put a man on the moon, mapped the human genome, won two world wars, and produces more billionaires per capita than anywhere on earth, that’s the cliff edge.

The old vocabulary no longer fits. The conservative catechism of thrift, discipline, and delayed gratification has aged poorly in light of the evidence. Tariffs, as the survey notes, rippled through supply chains and left a sizeable dent in consumers’ pockets. Health care waits in the background, capable of dismantling a decade of careful saving with a single bad diagnosis. American households have always lived under financial pressure. The difference now is the direction — or rather, the directions. It is coming from everywhere at once, which is what makes it almost impossible to outrun.

The longer story begins decades ago. Factories closed, towns traded paychecks for addiction and obituaries. The political class, meanwhile, offered transition as consolation. Some regions absorbed the shock. Many, however, did not. The geography of opportunity broke along those lines and remained broken. 

The changing Republican drug policy

The Hill -   The Trump administration’s moves on marijuana and psychedelics signal the start of a new era in Republican drug policy. The orders to fast-track reviews of psychedelic drugs and reschedule medical marijuana are a far cry from the party of “just say no” and former Republican President Richard Nixon’s war on drugs. 

“Regardless of what one may think of the president … he seems to be someone who is open to innovation and is not imprisoned by dogmatic viewpoints,” said Bryan Hubbard, CEO of the advocacy group Americans for Ibogaine, a psychoactive compound that shows promise for addiction treatment. 

Last week, President Trump signed an executive order to loosen research restrictions on psychedelic drugs as medicine to treat mental conditions like depression and substance abuse disorder....

The order came with $50 million to boost states’ efforts and a directive for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fast-track reviews that could ultimately lead to the approval of psychedelic medicines. 

Days later, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche ordered the reclassification of state-licensed medical marijuana as less dangerous. Blanche said the Justice Department “is delivering on President Trump’s promise to expand Americans’ access to medical treatment options.”  

...Psychedelics are still illegal, and Trump did not endorse their use recreationally. Similarly, recreational marijuana was not legalized. It remains a Schedule I drug under federal law, akin to heroin or LSD. 

But together, the moves reflect changing public perception on “softer” drugs like cannabis and LSD. It also reflects the influence of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which together with Trump’s populist tendencies has helped jump-start a desire for drug experimentation and health freedom.  

Middle East

The Hill -  Iran said it will not meet directly with the U.S. in upcoming talks mediated by Pakistan, despite a contrary statement from the White House earlier Friday. “No meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the U.S. Iran’s observations would be conveyed to Pakistan,” Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a social media post Friday afternoon. Diplomats from Iran and the U.S. are expected to engage in negotiations facilitated by Pakistani officials in Islamabad this weekend. 

NBC News -   American military bases and other equipment in the Persian Gulf region suffered extensive damage from Iranian strikes that is far worse than publicly acknowledged and is expected to cost billions of dollars to repair, according to three U.S. officials, two congressional aides and another person familiar with the damage.

The Iranian regime swiftly retaliated after the U.S. military attacked on Feb. 28, hitting dozens of targets across American bases in seven Middle East countries. Those attacks struck warehouses, command headquarters, aircraft hangars, satellite communications infrastructure, runways, high-end radar systems and dozens of aircraft, according to the U.S. officials and an assessment by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.

....The Pentagon has not detailed the extent of the damage publicly or, according to the U.S. officials, to members of Congress. Some Republican lawmakers privately expressed frustration about the Pentagon’s refusal to provide information about the damage or cost of repairs, according to two GOP congressional aides. 

How Americans get their news

Pew Research -   A growing share of Americans say they mostly get news because they happen to come across it, not because they’re actively seeking it out. About half of U.S. adults (49%) say this is the case today, up from 39% when we first asked this question in 2019.

Most U.S. adults say they happen across opinions and humor about news but seek out deep dives and up-to-date information

However, Americans are especially likely to find certain types of news by chance and actively look for others, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey from the Pew-Knight Initiative.

The types of content that most Americans say they get by chance tend to be reactions to news: humor and opinions. About two-thirds of adults say they see funny posts (66%) and opinions (64%) about the news mostly because they happen to come across them. Meanwhile, 21% say they get opinions mostly by looking for them, and 14% say the same for funny posts.

By contrast, only 31% say they get in-depth information or deep dives into issues or news events because they happen to come across them. And 38% say this is how they tend to get the most up-to-date information about issues or events.

Key facts about Asians in the U.S.

Donald Trump

Democratic Coalition -    As MAGA continues their faux-meltdown over the fraud in Minnesota - fraud that has been addressed and is being prosecuted BTW - let's just take a look at all the convicted fraudsters Trump has pardoned.

CALL TO ACTIVISM

 - There hasn’t been a single Cabinet meeting we’ve covered where Donald Trump didn’t fall completely asleep. There was no Biden meeting we covered where Biden ever fell asleep.

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Occupy Democrats

Middle East

The Hill -  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday revealed he had undergone treatment for prostate cancer and delayed releasing the results at the peak of U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran earlier this year.

Portside -   Omer Bartov is an Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. He grew up in a Zionist home and served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, but he has long been concerned about Israel’s use of military power. In a new book called “Israel: What Went Wrong?,” Bartov argues that Zionism has morphed into an ideology of extremism that led to genocide in Gaza following the Hamas attacks of October 7th. “There is growing criticism of American support for these kinds of Israeli policies, both on the American left and on the American right,” Bartov tells David Remnick. Bartov believes that Israel requires “shock therapy” because “it has not still come to identify the limits of its own power, because those limits are in Washington, D.C., and it’s there that those limits have to be set.” “For Israel, that would be good, because I think Israel needs to be liberated from that kind of dependence on American power. I think, for American society and for American Jewry, that’s a very bad thing because there is a rise of . . . antisemitism from the Tucker Carlsons of the world, who are a rising force right now.” Download a Transcript.

Feedly - Donald Trump has again said that the US has “total control over the strait of Hormuz”, adding that Iran’s leadership was so hobbled by infighting that it was unclear who was in charge. But the US president’s claim seemed questionable in the face of the seizure of two container ships by Iranian commandos and a US report warning it could take six months to clear the strait of mines. Trump’s comments on Thursday came after US special forces boarded a stateless oil tanker in the Indian Ocean, which the Pentagon claimed was carrying Iranian crude oil. NPR - President Trump has ordered the Navy to “shoot and kill any boat” trying to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Shipping through the Strait has nearly stopped over fears of mines, Iranian attacks and seizures of ships. The president says he is prepared to wait for the best deal to end the war with Iran.

🎧 There are no reliable figures on how many mines are in the Strait, NPR’s Jackie Northam tells Up First. She adds that they may not be as many as Iran is letting on, or Iran might not know where all of them are. Clearing these mines is a slow and dangerous task, especially amid the risk of attacks. Northam says this week's gunfire attacks and seizures of two ships by Iran have had a chilling effect on the already small number of ships trying to make it through the waterway. ➡️ Trump announced yesterday that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend their ceasefire for three weeks following high-level negotiations at the White House. This extension aims to maintain the fragile truce to pause fighting between the Israeli military and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

NBC News - The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended by three weeks, Trump announced.

ActBLue

Patriotwise -   ActBlue’s CEO stands accused of lying to Congress about foreign donations, potentially crippling the Democratic Party’s fundraising lifeline amid a cascade of resignations and federal probes.  ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones allegedly misled Congress in 2023 about robust foreign donation vetting, contradicted by internal legal memos. House Republican committees uncover 237 foreign IP donations in 30 days and lenient fraud rules prioritizing acceptance over scrutiny.

Seven senior staff, including top legal officer, resigned since February 2025; Trump administration targets platform with DOJ investigation.

Farming

70% of Farmers Cannot Afford Fertilizer

Elon Musk

Washington Post -   Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is on the cusp of a record-setting initial public offering that could soon make him a trillionaire. But in recent months he’s been increasingly vocal about something else: rallying White people to stand up for their race.

“Whites are a rapidly dying minority,” Musk wrote in January in a post on his social media site X that has garnered more than 17 million views and 150,000 likes. In a February post liked by more than 365,000 accounts, Musk declared that “there has been unrelenting hate and poisonous propaganda in the West against anyone White, straight or male over the past decade or more,” adding, “No more guilt trips. ENOUGH.”

Musk’s X feed has for years served as a megaphone for his conservative views, especially since he emerged as one of the most prominent backers of Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential campaign. But a Washington Post analysis found that Musk has recently significantly increased his rate of online posts about race and his concerns about perceived threats to Whiteness or what he views as calls for a “genocide” against White people.

Democrats launch impeachment bid against Pentagon Secretary

Patriotwise - House Democrats just launched an impeachment bid against President Trump’s Pentagon chief—turning an already tense Iran conflict into a high-stakes fight over war powers, accountability, and who really controls America’s military decisions. . . . The allegations center on an “unauthorized” war with Iran, civilian-casualty claims, and obstruction of congressional oversight. . . .With Republicans controlling the House, the effort is unlikely to advance—but it will shape oversight fights and midterm messaging.

Trump regime

The Hill - The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that it is dropping its criminal investigation into the Federal Reserve and its chair Jerome Powell. An ongoing criminal investigation would continue to delay the confirmation process for Trump’s nominee to be the next Fed chair, Kevin Warsh. Closing the case could clear the way for Warsh to be confirmed by the Senate in the coming days.

Timing: Powell’s term ends on May 15. However, the Federal Reserve chair typically does not step down until a replacement is confirmed. Today’s announcement could put that timing back on track.

Is this saga over for Powell?: Well, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said in a statement that she asked the Fed inspector general to investigate Powell and the Fed renovations.

The Hill - The Navy secretary’s removal, which caught many officials and lawmakers by surprise, comes as the president has aggressively pushed to supercharge U.S. shipbuilding, the commander in chief’s growing priority in efforts to counter China’s industrial and naval might.

Retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery said Thursday that he was not “disappointed” with Phelan’s ouster, but he said his grumbles with the Navy secretary were over the Trump-class battleship. “He and the president cooked up an extremely bad idea, which is a very large target known as a battleship. That’s going to cost $24 to $26 billion minimum. For the first one, which is the cost of like, 12 destroyers,” Montgomery, a senior director for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told reporters Thursday morning. 

In late December, Trump announced a new class of battleships as part of the U.S. Navy’s “Golden Fleet,” envisioned as an upgrade to the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. 

Trump aimed for the new class of battleships to be built by 2028, a timeline experts argued would be unlikely, saying the new vessels would take billions of dollars and far more time to complete. 

The Navy asked for a $377 billion budget for next year, including more than $65.8 billion for shipbuilding, to procure 18 warships, including destroyers and submarines. 

The CIA spies on the Vatican

Ken Klippenstein -  - When Trump declared Pope Leo “terrible for foreign policy,” the U.S. intelligence community took the president’s remarks as a directive to prioritize spying on the Vatican.

It has for years, sources tell me. The CIA has human spies working inside the Holy See bureaucracy. The NSA and CIA seek to intercept telecommunications, emails, and texts. The FBI investigates crimes committed against and by the Vatican. The State Department closely follows the ins and outs of Papal diplomacy and politics. All of these agencies liaise with the Vatican’s own foreign policy, intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump said in an April 12 social media post. Trump went on to cite several specific foreign policy grievances, including the Pope’s criticism of the Iran War and the abduction of Venezuelan ruler Nicolas Maduro. Trump said:

“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States …”

Weather

Newsweek -   A late-April winter storm is bringing heavy snow, strong winds and increasing avalanche risk to parts of the northern Rockies, with forecasters warning that mountain travel and backcountry conditions could rapidly deteriorate through Friday night and into Saturday.  The most severe impacts are expected across Montana, where multiple winter storm warnings are in effect, while the surrounding mountain regions of Wyoming and Idaho remain under winter weather advisories, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

ICE

Newsweek -    The Philadelphia City Council on Thursday approved a package of bills aimed at further limiting cooperation between city agencies and federal immigration authorities, sending the measures to Mayor Cherelle Parker for consideration.  The "ICE Out" legislation passed with a veto-proof majority after advancing through committee earlier this month.

The legislation would restrict cooperation between city agencies and federal immigration authorities, including banning 287(g) agreements and limiting information sharing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It would also require visible identification for officers, prohibit discrimination based on immigration status and restrict ICE access to city property without a judicial warrant.

Polls

NY Times - Disapproval of President Trump has climbed to the highest level of his second term, according to The New York Times polling average, which found that 58 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s job performance while only 39 percent approve.

MS NOW - Third Way and UnidosUS commissioned the poll of likely voters, which was conducted in March and oversampled Latino voters. They found that these voters are souring on Trump at a rate that outpaces the general electorate’s growing disenchantment with the president.  While Trump’s overall favorability rating in the poll was 44% favorable to 55% unfavorable, among Latino voters it was 34% favorable and 66% unfavorable. 

Suicides

NY Times - The rate of suicides among young people in the United States has dropped 11 percent below projections since the rollout of 988, the national suicide prevention hotline. It dropped even more significantly in states with the highest numbers of calls, according to a new study that Ellen Barry, who covers mental health, wrote about this week. Nearly 4,400 adolescents and young adults are alive, we think, because of the program.

The Department of Health and Human Services introduced 988 in July 2020 with bipartisan support and a $1.5 billion investment for the crisis centers that field calls.

Impeachment

Axios - Resistance-minded House Democrats are pushing their colleagues to begin building the case against President Trump now in anticipation of a Day 1 impeachment vote if they retake the House, Axios' Andrew Solender writes from the Capitol. The mere existence of this movement shows how much pressure Dem lawmakers will face next January if they retake the House and/or Senate.

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told Axios the party should "build up the case so that when we are in power in January, we've created the conditions ... we've done the fact-checking, we've done the shadow hearings, everything we need to be able to impeach" Trump.  Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) told Axios that if Democrats recapture the House, as history says is likely, "the push for impeachment is going to be overwhelming."  More

Marijuana

NPR - The Trump administration is easing restrictions on medical marijuana by moving it from the restrictive Schedule I to Schedule III, a category that includes drugs like Tylenol with codeine and anabolic steroids. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the move yesterday, saying it "allows for research on the safety and efficacy of this substance, ultimately providing patients with better care and doctors with more reliable information."

🎧 The reclassification is expected to further normalize the marijuana business, potentially expanding banking services and enabling common tax deductions that are currently unavailable. The order changes the regulation, not legalization. Medical-only states like Florida and Oklahoma will benefit from the order quickly, says reporter Ben Markus with NPR network station Colorado Public Radio. The Department of Justice is swiftly moving to more broadly reschedule marijuana, which could benefit recreational businesses. An administrative hearing is set for June.

Meanwhile....

Meta is planning to lay off approximately 8,000 employees and eliminate another 6,000 open roles.

At least eight wildfires are tearing through parts of southern Georgia and northern Florida.

Housing

Gambling

The Guardian -  Gambling addiction is spiraling “out of control” in the US, a leading campaigner for stricter guardrails has warned, as experts from around the world are set to gather in Boston to push for more regulation of the industry.  The rapid expansion of online gambling, prediction markets and sports betting platforms, “demands a public health response”, according to Harry Levant, director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), urging policymakers to intervene.

Polls

2028 DEM PRIMARY POLL: Kamala Harris 22% (+1) Gavin Newsom 21% Pete Buttigieg 12% Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 10% - Echelon Insights |

The Hill -   The decline in Americans who strongly approve of Trump’s job in office accounts for most of his falling approval rating — 20 percent strongly approve of the president, down from 26 percent one year ago.  Meanwhile, the share who “somewhat approve” of the president dipped from 19 percent in last April to 17 percent today.

NY Times -   Percentage of Americans who say that, as children, they knew a compassionate, nonjudgmental adult: 35

Percentage of these Americans who say that their mother was such a person: 50.  That their father was: 5

Record high number of books banned by libraries

The Guardian -  The American Library Association (ALA) has reported a record high in the number of books banned in US libraries.  In 2025, 5,668 books were banned – representing 66% of the total number challenged – with an additional 920 censored through access restriction, such as relocation on the library shelves.

The most-banned book in 2025 was Sold, a 2006 novel by Patricia McCormick about sex trafficking in India. Other frequently challenged titles include The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas.

... The ALA also found that 40% of the materials challenged this year involved representations of LGBTQ+ people or people of colour.

Housing

10 U.S. Cities Where Rent Is Skyrocketing

Meanwhile...

Study Finds - A growing number of Americans are deciding they’re done. Done with the friend who never apologizes. Done with the family member whose phone calls leave them drained. Done with the group chat that feels more like an obligation than a connection. According to a new survey released for Mental Health Awareness Month, 38 percent of Americans have gone “no contact” with a friend or family member in the past year, cutting off communication entirely rather than working through whatever went wrong.