Donald Trump, who started his second term as United States president a little over a year ago, likes to talk about how he is making America great again. But, for foreigners planning their trips abroad, it appears Trump has played a significant role in reducing their perception that America is great — at least as a travel destination.
The US military has, since early September, been blowing up small boats and killing their occupants in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. This killing spree has been undertaken based on evidence-free “trust me bro” claims that the boats were being used by “narco-terrorists” to transport drugs to America.
Grand juries in America, operating under rules heavily titled toward prosecutors, tend to acquiesce to just about all requests for indictments. Thus, it is quipped on occasion that a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich. Grand juries have largely failed to live up to their promise as a check on the exercise of government power.
On Monday, the United States House of Representatives approved via a voice vote the BRAVE Burma Act (HR 3190). The legislation would facilitate continuing sanctions against Myanmar, as well as pursuing other adversarial action against the country in Asia. It is yet another step in the US government’s effort to pursue a vast amount of intervention across the world.
Last week, I wrote about the United States House of Representatives approving funding for the Department of Education for fiscal year 2026 at about the same level as each of the previous two years. This action, I suggested, was at odds with President Donald Trump, who is from the same party as the House and Senate majorities, having promoted during his 2024 presidential campaign and since his desire to drastically reduce and even eliminate this Cabinet department.
It is good to be cautious when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) proclaims he is promoting “common sense” ideas. But, looking at a listing of some of what he on Wednesday called “common-sense reforms, ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” that Senate Democrats want imposed for the United States government’s immigration enforcement efforts, it seems that Schumer and his party caucus are putting forward some promising ideas.
President Donald Trump is not a small government guy. But, he has declared during his 2024 presidential campaign and since his intention to drastically reduce or even eliminate a Cabinet department — the Department of Education.
Last year, British journalist and former diplomat Craig Murray provided valuable reports from Lebanon, documenting — among other things — death and destruction brought by Israel’s military. Now, Murray is on the ground in Venezuela, doing what he did in Lebanon last year — providing access to information that tends to be filtered out or distorted in much reporting.
During consideration Thursday of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (HR 7148), United States House of Representatives members rejected by a vote of 268 to 164 an amendment to offered by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), along with cosponsors Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA) and Chip Roy (R-TX). The amendment would eliminate funding to implement a mandate included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR 3684) that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021. That mandate requires vehicles to be manufactured so they include a “kill switch” that empowers government to remotely disable the vehicles if surveillance technology the mandate also requires to be included in the vehicles indicates there has been “impaired” driving.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cops — often masked, out of uniform, and intent on quickly escalating the force they initiate while yelling out orders and curses — have been demonstrating over the past few months the danger of police directed to menace and suppress instead of to serve and protect.