Capping the News 😱 ✡️🌻😱 💣🚀

Just a Skirmish? The new leader of Iran is Mojtaba Khamenei. If that name sounds familiar it’s because it is, the new Khamenei is the very recently orphaned and widowed 56-year- old son of the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who was taken out at the beginning of the war.  Reports are that the new Khamenei’s hardline views and commitment to exporting the Islamic revolution abroad are the same as those of his deceased father and that he has very close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and was their favored candidate. It’s fair to assume that he’s hiding or at least trying to hide from incoming missiles.  Bloomberg News says he controls a secret, multimillion-pound London property portfolio which includes 11 properties with total holdings estimated over £100 million so it’s also fair to assume that wherever he’s hiding he isn’t lacking for creature comforts. As to missiles, there are lots of them going in both directions, hitting military and civilian sites on both sides.  Although Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian apologized for Iranian strikes on its neighboring Gulf states, facing criticism from other Iranian leaders he’s since backtracked and Iran has continued those attacks. Also, there are reports that Putin, another one of those with a vast empire outside of his country, is helping Iran pinpoint US targets. The war is either going according to plan or not going according to plan.  It’s going to end in days, weeks, months, or years.  Everything bad that happens is Israel’s fault, everything good is due to Trump’s acumen and why shouldn’t Putin who Trump still treats with kid gloves help Iran out?  Crude oil prices spiked to near $120 per barrel this morning before falling back to a still high $106.  Gas at the tank is heading north too but not to worry because Trump says the increase is temporary, but then again despite Friday’s job report, the one that showed February’s job loss at 92,000 and unemployment ticking up to 4.4%, he insists the economy is roaring.

Trump🧢: The press, at least the press on the left, got all bent out of shape over the weekend because Trump wore one of his baseball caps during what was supposed to be the dignified transfer of the returning remains of the American soldiers who died last week. May all their memories be a blessing.  Fox watchers were spared the 🧢 because Fox “accidentally” showed an earlier transfer where Trump wasn’t wearing one. The hat thing was disrespectful, but that’s the least of our problems. Trump clearly knows that which explains why he’s once again pushing very, very hard to pass an expanded version of the voter squelching SAVE Act, one that further limits mail-in voting while also including an anti-trans provision to excite his base.  He’s threatening to never again sign any legislation if the Senate doesn’t dispense with the filibuster to get it passed because he’s seen the polls and fears the consequences of losing control of the House and maybe even the Senate. The Department of Homeland Security funding package still hasn’t passed, not really a problem given all the extra money they were awarded in last year’s budget but an excuse to start making airport security lines long and slow.  And for some inexplicable reason, the White House has halted the release of a federal intelligence bulletin warning of a heightened terrorism threat within US. The road gets rockier from here, for Trump, for us, and for the world. As to the world, Trump’s talking Cuba now.  Maybe he, Marco Rubio and Bibi whisperer Linsdey Grahams think that with all eyes focused on the Middle East, few outside Miami will notice a little Caribbean excursion?   

More 💩:  South Carolina’s Post and Courier news has examined the accusations made by the woman who claims she was abused as a minor by both Epstein and Trump.  They’ve corroborated much of what she told the FBI about her life during her four interviews using “archived government records and news accounts.”  They found that the woman “provided verifiable details to agents about her family background and its legal entanglements. She offered the name of an Epstein business associate on South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island who became a central figure in the drama, with specifics that are reflected in public records.” Naturally, the White House still insists that she lied about everything and that her troubled past proves that she’s unreliable.  Sexual predators like Epstein tended to prey upon those who came from broken families living on the edge and those preyed upon often go on to have even more troubled lives so, if anything, her troubled past can be seen as more validation of her allegations. That said, the paper did not provide proof that she was sexually abused.  ICE Barbie Noem isn’t the only Trump person who is exiting. Vinay Prasad, the controversial head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, is departing the agency for the second time in less than a year.  His departure follows drug industry criticism of his handling of vaccine and the impediments he’s put in front of rare disease drug reviews. To be clear, RFK still doesn’t like vaccines, but with the midterms coming the Trump administration wants to downplay that perhaps because measles epidemics don’t go over well with the electorate.  On the legal front, US Attorney/former Fox commentator Jeanine Pirro has given up on going after Biden and his autopen, largely because his use of an autopen for pardons was not illegal.  Despite her best efforts to prove otherwise, she knows that no Grand Jury would think that it was. Lastly, federal judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, ruled that Kari Lake’s appointment as acting CEO of the US Agency for Global Media was illegal. The ruling voids all her actions since including the mass layoffs of hundreds of Voice of America journalists and staff. It’s fair to assume that the Trump administration will appeal the ruling because, why would we need Farsi speakers broadcasting messages when we are trying to rally the people of Iran?