02b U.S. Politics – Progressive

How Cheap Drones Are Changing Wars Like the Ones in Ukraine and Iran– www.nytimes.com

pgnewser April 20, 2026 0

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One of the biggest takeaways of the war with Iran is that it has proven itself to be a surprisingly capable adversary against the United States. In addition to its willingness to go on the offensive, Iran has forced the U.S. and its regional allies to confront the rise of cheap drones on the battlefield.

Iranian drones, made with commercial-grade technology, cost roughly $35,000 to produce. That is a fraction of the cost of the high-tech military interceptors sometimes used to shoot them down.

Note: Estimated price of munitions per unit. In practice, multiple interceptors are fired when targeting a drone. For instance, with the $80 bullet fired by the Centurion Counter-Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar (C-RAM), 75 rounds are fired in a second. Sources: Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Open Source Munitions Portal, SRC Inc, U.S. Army and U.S. Navy.

Cheap drones changed the war in Ukraine, and they have enabled Iranians to exploit a gap in American defense investments, which have historically prioritized accurate but expensive solutions.

Countering drones has been a major priority for the Pentagon for years, according to Michael C. Horowitz, who was a Pentagon official in the Biden administration. “But there has not been the impetus to scale a solution,” he said.

Obama and Mamdani read and sing with New York preschoolers in first meeting | Barack Obama– www.theguardian.com

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Barack Obama met with Zohran Mamdani for the first time on Saturday at a childcare center where the former Democratic US president and mayor of New York City read to preschoolers and led a sing-along.

The meeting comes as Mamdani, a democratic socialist who marked his 100th day in office just over a week earlier, is also trying to build a working relationship with Donald Trump – Obama’s Republican presidential successor.

Obama and Mamdani did not take questions after reading the book Alone and Together to the children – and leading a sing-along of The Wheels on the Bus.

Obama, a standard-bearer for the Democratic party, has offered to be a sounding board for Mamdani, 34. Mamdani’s star power, youth and progressive agenda has made him stand out in Democratic politics.

A new, telling sign emerges about GOP’s midterm fears– www.dailykos.com

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It’s been about a week since now-former Rep. Tony Gonzales resigned from Congress after the Texas Republican admitted to having an unethical sexual relationship with at least one former aide, who later died by suicide.

Yet the state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has yet to set a special election to fill Gonzales’ seat—and that silence is telling.

President Donald Trump carried Gonzales’ seat by just over 15 percentage points in 2024, according to data from The Downballot. In a normal year, that would make this seat a GOP lock.

However, this election cycle has been anything but normal.

Last year, Trump pulled New York Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination to serve as ambassador to the United Nations because he worried her seat would be competitive in a special election. And Trump carried Stefanik’s seat by nearly 21 points—making her Upstate New York district even stronger Republican territory.

Cognitively Declining Trump Wants Praise For Being Able To Sign His Name– www.politicususa.com

pgnewser April 20, 2026 0

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The White House should not be used as the world’s most expensive assisted living facility, but that appears to be what is happening during the second Donald Trump administration.

The president was showing signs of decline when he ran to return to the White House in 2024. Trump consistently got facts wrong, forgot names, and jumbled up basic history to the point where he once blamed Joe Biden for World War II.

If the American people had been paying attention, and Democrats deserve some blame for being afraid to call out explicitly and repeatedly Trump’s decline to voters, they would have seen that Trump was cognitively fit to serve as president.

Trump has made decision after decision, starting with his obsession with tariffs and willful blindness to the advice of experts, that he would cause severe economic damage, and going through believing Netanyahu and going to war with Iran, which has demonstrated a severe lack of mental competency coming from the White House.

Iran’s Supreme Leader sends chilling threat as he mocks US ‘arrogance and weakness’ | World | News– www.express.co.uk

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Iran’s Supreme Leader has issied a chilling threat in a new bombshell message, while also taking a brutal swipe at Donald Trump and US troops.

Mojtaba Khamenei commended his forces for resisting what he called American and Israeli “arrogance”, before threatening to bring about “new defeats”. The Supreme Leader also said his opponents’ “weakness and humiliation” had been exposed for all to see. Khamenei has not been seen since the war began. He replaced his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed in Israeli-US strikes at the start of the conflict.

In a statement issued through an Iranian state news agency, Khamenei said his forces had “stood firm against America’s sinister schemes.”

He continued: “With its strong divine and popular support and in dense, fortified ranks, it (the army) stands shoulder to shoulder with other mujahideen of the armed forces against the two armies at the forefront of the front of kufr (disbelief) and arrogance, clashing with them hand-to-hand and exposing their weakness and humiliation to the eyes of the world.

PBS Attacks Trump Admin’s Pope Criticisms– www.newsbusters.org

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Ever since Pope Leo assumed the papacy, PBS News Hour Friday contributors MS NOW host Jonathan Capehart and The Atlantic staff writer David Brooks have tried to claim him as one of their own in their fight against the Trump administration. That continued this Friday as the duo essentially told Vice President JD Vance to shut up when it comes to criticizing Leo’s remarks about the Iran War, with Capehart claiming they are among “the most insulting things” a VP could say and Brooks arguing the Iran War is permissible under just war theory, but also isn’t because Trump.

Host Amna Nawaz began with Capehart and wondered, “Pope Leo issued a pretty strong statement rebuking the war in Iran. Trump then unloaded on him online. Vice President Vance jumped in to criticize him as well, telling him to be careful on matters of theology. Is it smart for the president to be getting into it with the pope? What does he stand to gain from that?”

Using logic he would never apply to abortion, Capehart replied:

No, it’s not smart at all to be getting into it with the pope, to be fighting with the pope, even though the president says, ‘I’m not fighting with the pope.’ Yes, you are, and over something where it’s like the president is taking the words from the pope very, very seriously, when any pope, Pope Leo, Pope Francis, Pope John Paul, would have been saying the same thing, because this is about life and death. This is about right and wrong. And it’s something big that’s happening in the world that has commanded the pope’s attention.

Homeland Security’s New Task Force Website Sanitizes Trump’s Deportation Agenda – Mother Jones– www.motherjones.com

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The Department of Homeland Security just rolled out a new website for its city-occupying task forces that looks, more than anything, like a vibe-coded pitch deck. Launched on Friday, HSTF.gov was first announced on the FBI’s X account.

We don’t negotiate. We dismantle. The site’s slogan is displayed in the same sans-serif font stylings as direct-to-consumer deodorant companies and AI-powered lease abstraction platforms. The main page is largely consumed by a macho image, presumably AI-generated, of gas-masked officers with AR-15 style weapons advancing in formation through a cloud of tear gas.

Trump Threatens War Crimes in Iran Again – Mother Jones– www.motherjones.com

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President Donald Trump departs after speaking with reporters about the war in Iran during a news conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Monday, April 6, 2026.Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

In a Truth Social tirade on Sunday morning, President Donald Trump claimed that Iran violated their ceasefire agreement with the US by firing shots at ships in the Strait of Hormuz and again threatened to commit war crimes by taking out the country’s energy infrastructure.

“Many of [the bullets] were aimed at a French Ship, and a Freighter from the United Kingdom,” Trump contended about Iran’s targeting of the ships, without evidence. “That wasn’t nice, was it?”

MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell Smears RFK Jr. as ‘Sick Racist’– www.newsbusters.org

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On Thursday’s The Last Word, MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell used a selectively edited clip to portray HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “deeply perverted racist madman” who wants to remove all black children from their parents and have them “reparented” by the government. In fact, the HHS secretary said no such thing.

The MS NOW host began his dishonest segment by claiming that Kennedy wants to forcibly remove all black children from their parents:

Donald Trump’s Human Services secretary, who was convicted of the felony of heroin possession during the 14 years that he admits to having been a heroin addict, is the first cabinet secretary in history — indeed, the only administration official in the administration of any President in history — who wants to rip every black child in America out of the arms of that child’s mother and that child’s father. Every single black child.

O’Donnell worked in the word “Nazi” as he continued:

Robert Kennedy Jr believes that every black child in America has bad parents, and that every black child in America needs to be reparented. That is his personal Nazi word for it. “Reparented.” He did not say that some black children need to be reparented by him. He did not say that thousands of black children need to be reparented. He said, quote, “every black kid” needs to be reparented by the federal government and institutions run by him.

Behind Trump’s “Unstable, Insulting” Strategy To End The Iran War– www.ndtv.com

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US President Donald Trump seems to have lost his appetite for war as the two-week ceasefire with Iran nears an end. He is oscillating between ominous and propitiatory approaches while asking Iran to make a permanent peace deal. Behind the scenes, he’s grappling with fear that the situation can turn into something similar to the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis –one of the biggest foreign policy failures of recent times, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Trump’s impulsive style has never before been tested during a sustained military conflict, and according to the report, his top aides are limiting the flow of information t

ABC News Uses Trump Pope Leo XIV Clash to Target Catholic Voters in 2026– www.newsbusters.org

pgnewser April 16, 2026 0

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The Elitist Media continue to treat the exchanges between President Trump and Pope Leo XIV as an opportunity to try to drive Catholics from the President’s coalition ahead of the midterms. And absolutely no one is more ham-handed about it than ABC News.

Watch Rachel Scott’s report rehashing the controversy, with a sprinkling of Vice President JD Vance’s remarks at a Turning Point USA Event in Georgia, as aired on ABC’s World News Tonight on Wednesday, April 15th, 2026 (click “expand” to view transcript):

Massive Coinky Dink: Trump Administration Cancels Catholic Charities Contract– crooksandliars.com

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The Trump administration abruptly canceled an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami to shelter and care for migrant children who enter the U.S. alone, ending a relationship between the Catholic Church and the U.S. government dating back more than 60 years to the first arrivals of Cuban exiles in South Florida.

Gee, do you think this has anything to do with Pope Leo not kissing his ass like the evangelical fundies do?

The Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, has paid Catholic Charities in Miami for several years to house immigrant children who enter the U.S. without parents or adult supervision. The non-profit operates the equivalent of a federally funded foster care system, separate and apart from state agencies that have custody of abused and neglected children. The federal government reached out to the charity in late March about the cancellation of the funding.

Amid his one-way feud with the pope, Trump has abruptly canceled funding for Catholic Charities of Miami to provide housing and foster families for unaccompanied immigrant children, ending a 60-year partnership and possibly forcing hundreds of children to be relocated.
-Keith Boykin

— Audrey (@parickards.bsky.social) 2026-04-15T17:15:47.031Z

Republicans could lose House and Senate majorities—and they know it– www.dailykos.com

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Republicans have expressed fears both publicly and privately that their congressional majorities are in serious danger in November, as voters angry with President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and the fact that it’s making life even more unaffordable in the United States threaten to punish the GOP at the ballot box.

But now they have moved on from merely talking about those fears to taking concrete steps that make it clear they know their prospects are dire and that they are on track to lose control of not just the House but the Senate, too.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he is taking steps to ensure that Republicans will be ready to replace Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito should he choose to retire this summer, giving a little hint-hint to the 76-year-old with a lifetime appointment who was recently hospitalized with an unspecified illness.

Pappas holds cash advantage over GOP rivals in New Hampshire– www.politico.com

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Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) holds a sizable cash advantage over his GOP rivals in the race for New Hampshire’s open Senate seat.

The Democrat raked in $3.3 million to his campaign account over the first quarter of the year as he vies to succeed retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). Pappas, who faces only nominal opposition for his party’s nomination, entered April with $4.2 million in his war chest, according to his Federal Election Commission filing.

Pappas’ leading GOP competitor, former Sen. John E. Sununu, raised $1.1 million directly to his campaign account and had nearly $1.9 million in cash on hand. He spent just $349,000, per his filing — a significantly lower burn rate than Pappas, who spent $2.3 million over the last three months.

Sununu’s primary rival, former Sen. Scott Brown, lagged even further behind. Brown raised a modest $321,000 and entered the second quarter with $783,000 in his campaign coffers. He spent more money than he brought in, according to his filing.

Trump’s ICE crackdown is hurting America’s armed forces – thehill.com

pgnewser April 16, 2026 0

Trump’s ICE crackdown is hurting America’s armed forces – thehill.com
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Immigrants and the children of immigrants are a crucial source of personnel for the U.S. military. Given events in the Middle East, it’s an odd time to go out of the way to alienate them, but that’s what the White House, congressional Republicans and Republican governors and legislators in numerous states seem intent on doing.

Democrats’ new affordability nemesis: FIFA– www.politico.com

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Democrats are adding a new target to their affordability agenda, joining groceries, utilities and landlords — FIFA, the soccer governing body responsible for staging the World Cup.

In New York and New Jersey, which are hosting eight tournament matches this summer at MetLife Stadium, a populist pile-on is being fueled by news that transit officials will close part of the nation’s busiest train station for the exclusive use of ticketholders and charge them more than $100 to get to matches.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat who was elected last fall talking about cost of living concerns, is now catching flak for planning to jack up train fares and also proposing a special tax for World Cup visitors. But she blames FIFA, a commercially minded Zurich-based nonprofit, for raking in $11 billion from the games and leaving local governments to pay for transporting fans.

“They should be paying for rides but if they don’t, I’m not going to let New Jersey get taken for one,” she said in a statement Wednesday.

Inside That Weird Anti-Science Conference Where Trump’s EPA Chief Delivered the Keynote – Mother Jones– www.motherjones.com

pgnewser April 16, 2026 0

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As scientists confirmed that March was the United States’ most abnormally hot month in recorded history, dozens of climate deniers gathered to promote misinformation and tout their newfound influence on federal policy.

At a conference hosted by the prominent science-denying think tank the Heartland Institute last week, a crowd of mostly middle-aged men in suits claimed the world is finally waking up to the idea that the climate crisis does not exist. “I feel wonderful,” James Taylor, president of the Heartland Institute, said in an interview. “The truth is winning out.”

The clearest sign of the crowd’s rising power was the gathering’s keynote speaker: Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), whom President Donald Trump is also reportedly considering for attorney general. “It is a day to celebrate vindication,” Zeldin said on Wednesday morning.

 

Ossoff builds massive cash edge as Georgia GOP field remains unsettled– www.politico.com

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Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff holds a massive fundraising advantage over the Republicans hoping to unseat him in November, giving him a head start as the GOP field remains fractured.

Ossoff, considered one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents of the cycle, raised $14 million during the first quarter of the year and ended with more than $31 million cash on hand — a significant war chest that dwarfs the combined totals of his Republican challengers, according to filings from the Federal Elections Commission.

On the GOP side, Rep. Mike Collins led in first-quarter fundraising, raising just over $1 million and entering the second quarter with $2.1 million in cash on hand. Collins has been a front-runner in public polling of the race, but with a large share of voters still undecided ahead of the May primary, the contest appears increasingly likely to head to a June runoff.

Donald Trump’s Blockade Is Headed for a Bust– www.truthdig.com

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As soon as the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran ended without an agreement, President Donald Trump fired a volley of angry social media posts venting his frustration. As a concrete step to force Iranian concessions, he announced a blockade of Iranian ports along the Persian Gulf.

Cut off Tehran’s oil exports, the logic goes, and the regime will have no choice but to bend to Trump’s will.

This thought process is being echoed and amplified by influential Washington voices who should know better. Take Dennis Ross, a former Middle East peace negotiator, who argued that “the blockade always made more sense than seizing Kharg Island. It stops Iran’s exports, its revenues, is a counterpoint to their closing the Straits [of Hormuz].” He also thinks that the measure will “put pressure on China to pressure Iran.”

Filled with excuses, Trump admits failure in his plot to rig midterms– www.dailykos.com

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In a Fox interview that aired on Wednesday, President Donald Trump effectively admitted that the ongoing Republican campaign to rig electoral maps in their favor to avert a wipeout in this year’s midterm elections has been a spectacular failure.

Speaking to his longtime booster and Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Trump made a perfunctory statement that Republicans would “do good” in the election but then began speaking as if the party had already lost.

“When somebody gets elected president, that party always loses the midterms, I don’t know why. I don’t know why, nobody can explain it,” Trump said.

A California sheriff seized ballots, testing the limits of local power over elections– www.dailykos.com

pgnewser April 16, 2026 0

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Over the past few weeks, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — who is also a Republican candidate for governor of California — has taken the unusual step of seizing ballots from a recent election, launching his own recount, and opening a criminal investigation into how the election was run.

“This investigation is simple: Physically count the ballots and compare that result with the total votes reported,” Bianco said during a press conference after he and his deputies seized the ballots last month.

The premise of Bianco’s investigation is sharply disputed. Bianco has pointed to the claims of a conservative citizens’ activist group that says it found an apparent discrepancy of tens of thousands of ballots — a figure election officials and independent experts say stems from a misreading of preliminary vote data, not an actual gap between ballots cast and ballots counted.