How the Supreme Court’s Tariff Ruling Could Save the Civil Service Washington Monthly
from news.google.com
02b U.S. Politics – Progressive
During Tuesday morning’s cable news morning shows on MS NOW and CNN, blame was placed on Republicans for the lasting DHS shutdown caused by Democrat protests of immigration enforcement and ICE funding. The hosts of CNN This Morning, CNN News Central, and, of course, MS NOW’s Morning Joe ignored the Democrats’ impact on the shutdown, a growing media trend.
In a tease for the News Central segment, CNN This Morning host Audie Cornish teed up the story as a Republican attack on Democrats:
Okay, you guys, we want to talk a little bit more about the partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security enters another week and as we mentioned earlier, very long lines at the airport as a result. So, Republicans want voters to blame Democrats. We’re going to talk about how this is going to play out.
In a tease for CNN News Central, CNN This Morning host Audie Cornish minimized the Democrats impact on the DHS shutdown and impacts to the TSA.
Instead, she stated “Republicans want voters to blame Democrats” for the shutdown. pic.twitter.com/UWdcdOu6s9
— Nick (@nspin310) March 17, 2026
Israel’s defense minister said Wednesday that the country would escalate its war against Iran, and its parallel assault on the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon, clearly signaling an escalation of the conflict in the heart of the Middle East.
“The intensity of attacks in Iran is increasing. We are in the midst of achieving a decisive outcome,” Katz said in his video message, shared on social media.
“Israel’s policy is clear and unequivocal: no one in Iran has immunity, and all are targeted. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorized the IDF to neutralize any senior Iranian official for whom an intelligence and operational opportunity arises, without the need for additional approval. We will continue to intercept and hunt them all,” he said.
“Significant surprises are also expected throughout today across all arenas, which will escalate the war we are conducting against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
The human cost of Israel and America’s air campaign on Iran is mounting, nowhere more painfully felt than in the children’s wards of its hospitals.
In the intensive care unit of one, four-year-old Anita lies in a coma with severe head injuries a few days after being pulled out of the rubble of her home when it was destroyed in an air strike.
Her mother Zeiba was in torment, clutching her tiny hand and begging her to wake up. Doctors say she almost certainly never will.
Far-left podcast host Joy Reid argued that the United States is only “marginally better” than Iran, even after the brutal Islamic regime recently slaughtered tens of thousands of protesting citizens.
During the January anti-regime protests, thousands of Iranians were killed by their own government.
Estimates of the number killed vary substantially, hampered by the ongoing internet shutdown.
The Iranian government has acknowledged more than 3,000 dead.
However, the US-based organisation HRANA (Human Rights Activists News Agency), whose figures have been reliable during previous crackdowns, says it has verified more than 6,000 dead and has more than 17,000 more recorded deaths under investigation, giving a possible total of about 22,000.
Joe Kent, who led the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned Tuesday, saying he “cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran.”
“Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent wrote in his resignation letter to Mr. Trump.
Kent accused high-ranking Israeli officials and some in the media of waging a “misinformation campaign” that was “used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory.”
“This was a lie,” he said, urging Mr. Trump to “reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for.”
In a post on X, Gabbard appeared to respond to Kent’s letter, saying the president “is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat.”
Democrats in Congress continue to resist the SAVE America Act by claiming that it seeks a return to the “Jim Crow era” and “discriminates” against women, but can they back up their claims?
Democrats in the House and Senate have repeatedly claimed the legislation is discriminatory, though many of the bill’s provisions, which include requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and voter ID, poll overwhelmingly positively with Americans.
The SAVE America Act has already passed the House, but the Senate is considering the bill this week.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, claimed in an online video statement that married women would be banned from registering to vote if they change their name.
“If you’re a woman who got married, changed your last name, and if your last name doesn’t match the last name on your birth certificate, you’re not going to be able to register to vote,” the Hawaii senator claimed. “That I call stealing our votes.”
ABC News’ Wednesday report on an alleged Iranian drone threat to California did not initially include that the information was “unverified.”
“We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the US conducted strikes against Iran,” ABC News reported the late February alert stated.
However, the outlet noted in an updated version of the article on Thursday — which included an editor’s note — that the full alert reportedly included the word “unverified” between “acquired” and “information.”
On the left is the way ABC (or their source) reported the FBI alert.
On the right is the actual FBI alert that went to JTFF partners.
You will notice the word left out —“Unverified.” https://t.co/zSBHObisAI pic.twitter.com/XEZPeNKmDA
— Ben Williamson (@_WilliamsonBen) March 12, 2026
China is helping Cuba race to capture renewable solar energy as the United States imposes an effective oil blockade on the Caribbean island, creating its worst energy crisis in decades.
As the Trump administration steps back from U.S. climate commitments and reinvests in fossil fuels, China is flexing its dominance in renewable energy, using offers of equipment, expertise and financing as geopolitical levers.
European Union ministers and leaders pushed back on ideas to protect the strait, including expanding a maritime operation already in place in the Red Sea.
from www.nytimes.com
President Donald Trump is bringing back 2020. Many Republicans wish he wouldn’t.
Conversations with nearly a dozen GOP state and county chairs and strategists reveal a party largely eager to move on from relitigating Trump’s election grievances, which they’re worried may detract from an economic message that actually motivates voters. But the president won’t let it go, subpoenaing 2020 election records and putting pressure on lawmakers to pass legislation to overhaul voter registration laws.
As Republicans stare down a treacherous midterm landscape, there’s a growing view inside the party that focusing on “stolen election” claims and voter fraud will kneecap them in the general election: That messaging might play well with the MAGA base in the primary, but it could alienate moderates tired of rehashing an election from nearly six years ago.
“I’m always one to believe you should look forward, not backward,” said Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based GOP strategist and Trump convention delegate who hosted a meeting of fake electors in 2020 at his Harrisburg-based public affairs firm. “It would be better if the midterms focused on the recovery of the economy and all the good things the Republican administration and Congress are doing to move the economy forward.”
National Public Radio is still in hot pursuit of the supposed sins of GOP Islamophobia, while anti-semitism from Muslim Democrats is never news. NPR made not just one but two stories out of Barbara Sprunt’s reporting, which consisted of her acting horrified about Republicans saying mean things about Islam without being punished.
The first story aired March 13 on All Things Considered: “Unlike past eras, anti-Muslim GOP rhetoric draws little pushback from party leaders.” Yes, the good old days when Republican leadership called out offensive comments by Republicans – and got no credit for it from the elitist media, which still called every Republican presidential candidate a racist.
AILSA CHANG, HOST: In recent days, several Republican lawmakers have drawn condemnation for using anti-Muslim rhetoric. It’s not the first time that the party has had to confront hateful language from within its own ranks, but unlike in past political eras, these comments have faced little pushback from Republican leaders. NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt joins us now….let’s start with this tweet from Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles. This was from earlier this week, right? He posted, quote, “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”
NPR doesn’t care if antisemitic comments from Democrats like Rep. Ilhan Omar receive “little pushback from Democrat leaders.” Being Muslim means you’re “marginalized,” so you’re in a different rule book. Sprunt went on to say:
SPRUNT: ….There’s been a lot of posts about Sharia Law. There’s a Sharia-free America Caucus that now has 50 Republican members. Sharia refers to rules devout Muslims follow in life, like praying five times a day, avoiding pork. It’s a religious framework, not a plan to replace the Constitution. And if you listen to the rest of what Johnson said, he added that this isn’t about Muslims as people. But critics say by framing this answer around Sharia law, it gives cover for bigoted language.
On March 7, a throng of left-wing counter protestors met with a small right-wing protest outside Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). From within the crowd, 18-year-old Emir Balat threw a homemade bomb and yelled “Allahu akbar.” Balat and his friend Ibrahim Kayumi were arrested for the attack, and law enforcement later determined that the two were ISIS sympathizers.
All of the above information was publicly available by the afternoon of March 7. By 2:00 p.m. ET, several videos of Balat throwing the bomb were already circulating on social media, in which he could clearly be heard yelling the well-known Islamist slogan.
Despite all of that information being readily available, The New York Times’s first headline about the incident read: “Homemade Bomb Thrown at Protest Near N.Y.C. Mayor’s House, Police Say” — a summary so vague that it almost seemed to pin the bomb-throwing on the right-wing protestors.
For decades, my colleagues and I have been up against an immense machine— a wildy rich, axis of media, entertainment, and cultural power that made dissent a form of professional suicide. A form of murder – the systematic killing of a person’s good name, reputation, and livelihood.
And when we pointed out the sharia-compliant media ecosystem that enabled it, the punishment only intensified. We were smeared, deplatformed, shadow-banned, and algorithmically buried—until many of us were effectively disappeared from the public square, leaving the megaphone almost entirely in the hands of far-left demons.
Liel Leibovitz of Tablet looked at the New York Times’ piece on the terror attack outside of Mamdani’s residence titled “At 13, He Was Selling Sneakers. At 18, He’s Facing Terror Charges.” Leibovitz: This is not a bug. It’s a feature. We can mock it all we want, writing cutesy headlines like “at 20, he was an aspiring Viennese painter; at 56, he was facing the Allies in a bunker in Berlin.” But the truth is deeper and more troubling. What we’re seeing here is the result of the left’s near-total command of everything we’re allowed to know, say, and think…. When a perfect machine that includes the Democrat party, mainstream media, intelligence agencies, Big Tech, and corporate America comes together and runs an intel operation on you, this is what reality starts to look like. And it’s not something to be merely laughed at; it’s something to be crushed, which means making very significant changes to how you live your life, who you trust, and what you value (Liebovitz).
The emperor is stark naked, but thanks to a misguided legal doctrine, the Republican justices keep insisting he’s fully clothed.
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Apparently, this famous quote was written by the 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire, but I first heard the line in the movie The Usual Suspects. I think about it often, as it encapsulates Donald Trump’s relationship with the Republicans on the Supreme Court.
The Donald Trump who exists in the real world—the racist, fascist sexual predator who happily tweets out the illegal and unconstitutional motivations for his policies—does not exist according to the Supreme Court. Instead, the court has invented a different Trump, one who does not speak, does not lie, and adheres to the well-established norms regarding the use of executive power. It has dreamed up a normal US president, grafted this creation onto Trump’s legal filings, and then ruled as if this fiction were reality.
CNN’s Abby Phillip had to issue an on-air correction for pushing fake news. She can pretend that it was a mistake all she wants, but the facts were known well before she decided to push a blatantly false narrative about the bombing attempt in New York City over the weekend. As someone who fancies herself a journalist, it was inexcusable.
It’s come to the point for CNN where the only thing worse than people not watching their channel is when people watch their channel.
Oh, sure, the former Don Lemon Network™ has plenty of issues with the former. You’re not going to have to give up your jokes about measuring CNN viewership by airport delays anytime soon. But with those airport delays (thanks for the DHS shutdown, Democrats!) comes additional opportunities to check out what they’re doing over there — and holy moly, are they still screwing things up.
Take the attempted terror attack near Gracie Mansion in New York City on Saturday, purportedly by a couple of Islamic State group-inspired nutjobs. (Or, as the network might have called it back in 2020, “fiery but mostly peaceful protesters.”)
For almost two weeks now, the US and Israel have been waging war on Iran. What Washington initially presented as a military campaign that would swiftly alter the strategic balance and put Tehran in a vulnerable position has proven to be far more complex. Over the past months, the White House has maintained that Iran could be on the brink of total defeat by the end of the first, or at most, the second day of a conflict. Apparently, the American side expected a rapid dismantling of Iran’s capabilities and a serious destabilization of its government. However, recent developments tell a different story.
With jagged cliffs rising from the Arabian Sea, the Strait of Hormuz is striking in its scenery — and these days, its emptiness. This resource superhighway, which normally hosts more than a hundred of the world’s largest oil and liquid natural gas (LNG) tankers every day, has seen no more than a handful all week.
They are the brave ones, daring to run these front lines where U.S. and Iranian naval forces face off. At least 14 commercial vessels have suffered some kind of violent incident, leaving at least eight mariners dead.
Confusion on whether Iran truly needed only “two weeks to four weeks” to make a nuclear weapon, as President Donald Trump suggested on Monday, hangs over the ongoing U.S. and Israeli war on the Persian Gulf nation. Nuclear experts call this claim unlikely—but the confusion may stem from some basics of atomic chemistry.
“There was no evidence that Iran was close to a nuclear weapon,” says Jeffrey Lewis of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. His comment echoed those of other experts after the war’s start, as well as statements from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi at that time and in 2025 and last year’s “threat assessment” report by U.S. intelligence agencies.
According to an IAEA estimate, as of June 2025, Iran possessed 441 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium, where the percentage refers to the share of the isotope uranium 235 (U 235) found in the material. That would be enough for 10 nuclear weapons if the material could be enriched further to full 90 percent weapons-grade concentrations, according to the IAEA. That further enrichment would take a matter of weeks in a fully functioning Iranian nuclear complex, perhaps explaining the time line within Trump’s declaration.
Tuesday on MS NOW’s “The Briefing,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said President Donald Trump would try to “seize ballot boxes’ to “subvert the vote” in the midterm elections.
Host Jen Psaki said, “The administration subpoenaed records from 2020 from Arizona. We know that’s not about changing the outcome of the 2020 election. We know that they’ve already gone through that. It’s obviously about 2026. What do you make of that and what’s your level of concern about it?”
Schiff said, “I think the subpoenas in Arizona, America, Maricopa County, the FBI raid in Georgia, this is all trying to establish some kind of phony predicate for them to say that the election system is so flawed, the machines don’t work. There’s too much fraud and absentee ballots that come November, they can nationalize the elections, they can somehow outlaw absentee ballots, or they can seize ballot boxes and they will have some pretext to do it. So this is, I think, part of laying the foundation to interfere with, suppress the vote or ultimately subvert the vote. They understand, as we do in the Democratic Party, that they are likely to get clobbered in the midterms and, you know, they’re willing to resort to anything.”
The Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit on Mar. 10, 2026, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, targeting several federal agencies within the Trump Administration, naming the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Defense as defendants.
The lawsuit alleges that the DNC sent close to a dozen FOIA requests to the Justice Department (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Defense Department (DOD) in October “concerning potential deployment of federal agents and troops to polling places, drop boxes, and election offices.”
“Nearly five months later, the DNC has received neither substantive responses nor responsive documents, not even a list of documents withheld under statutory exemptions,” the suit added.
It’s the Great Fear that is just eating away at the poor folks at Politico. It was first expressed by that periodical in December when they suddenly realized that with so many Democrats (and none clearly in the lead) that in the open primary for governor of California that it was possible that with only two Republicans in that race, that both of them could end up in first and second place due to the Democrats splitting up the rest of the votes among themselves.
A couple of months later in February that fear not only did not go away but intensified with poor Politico going full delusional to the extent of pretending that if they only concentrated on the top two Democrat candidates while absurdly ignoring the two GOP candidates whom many polls are showing in the first and second spot, thus qualifying to run against each other in the general election, that maybe the problem would just go away. The result of completely ignoring the Republican candidates who could both qualify for the general election earned Politico some well deserved mockery.
DORAL, Florida — President Donald Trump told House Republicans Monday he had one overriding legislative priority for 2026. Then they spent Tuesday talking about just about anything else.
Trump’s demand for passage of an updated SAVE America Act — a GOP elections bill that the House has advanced two versions of already — was met with less than complete enthusiasm from leaders gathered for the annual Republican policy retreat.
Speaker Mike Johnson and other senior lawmakers gave the unmistakable impression they now consider that bill to be a Senate problem — even after Trump insisted the House take it up a third time and add on more controversial provisions, such as a near-total ban on mail voting.
That post, however, quickly drew heavy backlash for appearing to downplay the attempted bombing that took place.
CNN later deleted the post, then apologized, writing on X, “A post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It has therefore been deleted.”
Balat was seen on video throwing the explosive device that failed to detonate. At the same time, he yelled “Allahu Akbar.” Kayumi and Balat indicated to police that they carried out the actions because they had pledged allegiance to ISIS, according to the criminal complaint.
Democratic report says Trump’s policies boosted China The Statesman
from news.google.com
YouTube on Wednesday said it would expand access to its artificial intelligence (AI) detection tool to politicians and journalists. The company will allow a pilot group of lawmakers and reporters to use its likeness detection feature, which flags AI-generated content that uses a person’s likeness and allows them to request removal if it violates YouTube…
from thehill.com