House passes DOGE cuts to USAID, NPR, and PBS. If it passes the senate it looks like the opposition will no longer be able to use tax-payer dollars to fund their propaganda.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-12/house-passes-doge-cuts-to-pbs-npr-aid-in-win-for-musk-trump?srnd=phx-politics

Case in point.

So Trump now turns out to be a warmonger, to boot. Maybe his one selling point, now gone. Who’s surprised by this?

I look forward to the many months of arming and aiding Israel in this war, to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars.

But at least big bird got what he deserved.

USAID Official and Three Corporate Executives Plead Guilty to Decade-Long Bribery Scheme Involving Over $550 Million in Contracts; Two Companies Admit Criminal Liability for Bribery Scheme and Securities Fraud

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/usaid-official-and-three-corporate-executives-plead-guilty-decade-long-bribery-scheme

Crazy.

Trump starts yet another war after bragging about no wars during his first term and running as the peace candidate. More losing.

No no, he’s still going to get his Nobel Peace prize. It’s 4D chess.

Blaming Trump for this is just naive, and distracts from the fact that this war has been long in the making with the Israel lobby and the US neocon establishment basically frothing at the mouth to start it.

Trump tried to fight the lobby and lost. Now he just tries to spin it as though he was in on it, or supported it, in the hopes of garnering more souls within the Israel lobby.

It’s 4D chess. — Punshhh

Right right— silly me. Here I’m thinking he’s just like every other president, beholden to the Israel lobby. I think what really sets him apart is his how vacuous his knowledge, morals, and principles are.

But still deserving of a peace prize.

Blaming Trump for this is just naive — Tzeentch

No, it’s just above conventional thinking. Easy to take Rubio at his word, or fully blame Netanyahu. But Netanyahu couldn’t do this without US support, and he knows full well Trump is a feeble character. He’s just as culpable as Biden would be — in which case you’d be harshly (and accurately) tearing him down.

Those who are fooled by his propaganda as a tough guy need to grow up. This is a man with no balls and almost no intelligence. He couldn’t locate Iran on a map if you asked him. To say he “fought” the Israel lobby is a joke.

Sure, he's culpable, but he's also largely irrelevant. The same is true for Biden or any other US president in modern times.

I often emphasize the 'lightning rod' function US presidents fulfill.

If the US has to make some ugly policy decisions, it's blamed on the president so that once they leave office, people can be made to believe that the ugliness left with them.

That's why I hate to see people focus squarely on Trump. When Trump leaves office things aren't going to change one iota, because this is the face of America.

Fine. But this is the Donald Trump thread. Also good to counter the cult propaganda with a little reminder that the Candidate of Peace is not an innocent bystander.

It’s the 250 year anniversary of the US Army and it will be marked by a parade. Many in the press erroneously call it “Trump’s parade”, despite the official name. They have to do this and essentially lie in order to maintain a narrative they spent the better part of decade building. The anti-Trump propagandists have already framed it as a parade in the style of Kim Jung Un, or some other dictator, and not something someone might see on Bastille Day. So I’m kind of hoping the mindless and thoughtless protesters show up to disrupt it, given that every time they put on such a show the rest of us get more-and-more inclined to ignore it.

In the spirit of conformity and catharsis they organized a multi-city protest to coincide with the parade, once again using the “Trump thinks he’s a king” narrative to fuel their live-action roleplay. It’s called the “No Kings” protest, a name about the average length of an anti-Trump activist’s incredulity. Bernie Sanders, donning his tricorn hat and advertising for the event, even made overtures to 1776 in an X post (the fact of which is verboten here). These are the kind of fantasies their politicians exploit for power, donor-dollars, and votes.

Perhaps funnier was the recent political theater put on by a Democrat senator. He disrupted a Kristi Noem press conference and tried to shove himself up to the stage to confront her, but was stopped and eventually pushed out of the event by security, taken down and cuffed. Afterwords, when speaking to the press, he started crying about it, literally. In unison the party pretended this event was an example of authoritarianism, not their own emotional and often violent outbursts, fuelled as they are by their own imaginations. We’ll see if any of this happens today, and I must admit I’m kind of looking forward to it.

A man disguised as a police officer shot and killed Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman & her husband this morning. Police found his manifesto and "no kings" fliers in his car. This happened after Hortman broke from her party and voted to defund healthcare for adult illegal aliens.

We need to have a conversation about far-left terrorism in this country.

I don’t know, man, you might be right. But Personally, I would wait until all is investigated. It could be some disgruntled cop trying to discredit the protests for all we know.

Makes sense. Wait for the facts to come out. It's not looking promising; he was a Walz appointee.

We've got the killing of the CEO of United Healthcare, the shooting of two Israeli ambassadors, doxing and attempted murder of ICE agents and police, and now the MN state rep and her husband + injuring another Senator and his wife.

This is partly why I rarely engage the hard left anymore. What do you say to people who want to burn everything down?

The blind leading the blind.

The news also says he was targeting abortion clinics. Not necessarily a hard-left cause. I guess we’ll see his motives from the manifesto he was reportedly carrying.

RFK Jr. removes all members of CDC panel advising U.S. on vaccines
^{— Annika Kim Constantino · CNBC · Jun 9, 2025}
RFK Jr. replaced everyone on the CDC's vaccine panel. Here's why that matters
^{— Maria Godoy · npr · Jun 13, 2025}

More degradation. Will it cost lives? If so, then what?

Hegseth says the Pentagon has contingency plans to invade Greenland if necessary
^{— Lolita C Baldor, Tara Copp, David Klepper · AP · Jun 12, 2025}

Are they afraid that Greenland might be taken over by Russia or China?

A man disguised as a police officer shot and killed Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman & her husband this morning. Police found his manifesto and "no kings" fliers in his car. This happened after Hortman broke from her party and voted to defund healthcare for adult illegal aliens.

We need to have a conversation about far-left terrorism in this country. — BitconnectCarlos

Looking like he was a right wing Christian nut, but whatever political persuasion he turns out to be, things are getting kind of ugly.

Trump tried to fight the lobby and lost. — Tzeentch

Lol.

Trump has never fought the Israeli lobby. What a bullshit lie.

Like when campaigning:


Yet unlike previous presidents, when moving the embassy to Jerusalem:


Yet unlike previous presidents, when accepting the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights to Israel:


On so on, on and on, countless of times. It's simply whimsical that anybody even tries to this stance that there would be some difference here with Trump and the neocons in this matter.

The military parade is amazing. There should be one every year.

What do you say to people who want to burn everything down? — BitconnectCarlos

Good thing you don’t support something like an entire region being turned to rubble. Otherwise people may think you’re beyond a hypocrite.

Same goes for guys who are literally part of a cult speaking about the “propagandists” who speak against it. Absolutely hilarious.

An idiot and a clown walk into a bar…

Israel urges U.S. to join war with Iran to eliminate nuclear program

An Israeli official claimed to Axios that the U.S. might join the operation, and that President Trump even suggested he'd do so if necessary in a recent conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A White House official denied that on Friday. A second U.S. official confirmed on Saturday that Israel has urged the Trump administration to join the war, but said currently the administration is not considering it.

A senior White House official told Axios Saturday that "whatever happens today cannot be prevented," referring to Israel's attacks.

"But we have the ability to negotiate a successful peaceful resolution to this conflict if Iran is willing. The fastest way for Iran to accomplish peace is to give up its nuclear weapons program," the senior official added.

What they're saying: "The entire operation... really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordow," Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told Fox News on Friday.

Israeli officials have raised the idea of U.S. participation to take out Fordow with U.S. counterparts since Israel's operation began.
An Israeli source said the U.S. is considering the request and stressed Israel hopes Trump agrees.

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/14/israel-iran-war-us-nuclear-program-trump

Watch, now they’ll want the US to join the Isreali campaign to avoid the cognitive dissonance involved in their narrative.

The military parade is amazing. There should be one every year. — NOS4A2

I think it's just simply.... lovely.

The tankers and IFV crews are waving at the people, some are chewing bubble gum. Some salute the commander-in-chief (or where they sit as no general is taking the salute of the parade), some don't, quite randomly. Yeah, nobody is basically taking the parade (Trump stood, but oh it's so long time, that he has to sit). Then the driving vehicles have to randomly stop sometimes, because I guess there congestion or so.

Luckily the weather is so bad that they've seemed to cancel the overflights. Apart from some UAVs.

And finally, the walking troops don't have weapons. I've never seen that, marching columns of soldiers without weapons. I guess it's some American safety measure. But there marching... yep, these guys and gals haven't marched a lot or trained marching in formation. Because why the F would they? The local marching band of some little high school march better on 4th of July, because those youngsters train for that march. Sure, there's the Marine Color guard. But those are few and USMC.

Oh, it's all so Trumpian. Trump want's to see a military parade. Then the US Army has to quickly represent something out of the blue. End result is for everybody to see. Because this is so un-American and the US Army just shows it.

Assuming one would notice what a military parade looks like.

Watch, now they’ll want the US to join the Isreali campaign to avoid the cognitive dissonance involved in their narrative. — NOS4A2

The pundits are saying Israel doesn't have the ability to disarm Iran by itself. They want the US to join in to finish the job. Trump appears to be bored by the notion.

Blaming Trump for this is just naive, and distracts from the fact that this war has been long in the making with the Israel lobby and the US neocon establishment basically frothing at the mouth to start it. — Tzeentch

It's been long in the making in large part because of the policies of his first term. Between the Abraham accords and ripping up an existing nuclear agreement, what's occurring now is just the logical consequence of what he did several years ago. Pretending to be a champion of peace in the last few moments is as hilarious as Biden pretending to care about the lives of Palestinians now that he's no longer president.

Good thing you don’t support something like an entire region being turned to rubble. Otherwise people may think you’re beyond a hypocrite. — Mikie

You mean Gaza? So, since I support fighting Hamas but don't support, e.g., violence against police officers and ICE agents, this makes me a hypocrite? :chin:

So, since I support fighting Hamas — BitconnectCarlos

Any violence against police or ICE agents is not intended. The intentions are what counts. If they’re hurt it’s because the target of the violence was Hamas. They’re out there, trust me. Trust the protesters’ official word on the matter. Otherwise you’re anti-American.

Funny how you’re against violence — I mean fighting Hamas — when it’s police officers or ICE agents getting hurt or killed (even though none have been killed). Weird.

The pundits are saying Israel doesn't have the ability to disarm Iran by itself. They want the US to join in to finish the job. Trump appears to be bored by the notion.

Never doubt the neocons. But Trump had already urged Netanyahu not to attack a day or so before the attack happened, and to end the war in Gaza. And obviously this turn of events ruins the diplomatic talks between US and Iran which were supposed to happen tomorrow, I think. It threatens the Abraham Accords. I imagine Trump is pissed at Netanyahu. Hopefully this episode will further disentangle the US from that government.

Hopefully this episode will further disentangle the US from that government. — NOS4A2

:lol: