Trump allies look to primaries as they escalate Indiana redistricting pressure

Posted on by Lone Candle

Trump dishonestly screamed about rigged elections, and then tries to rig his own midterms. Ridiculous hypocrisy and dishonesty.

“The pressure on Indiana lawmakers comes as Texas is moving forward with a redraw of its congressional map at the request of Trump — and California is crafting its own retaliation.

On Monday, dozens of Texas Democrats returned to Austin after protesting redistricting by remaining out-of-state for two weeks, denying Republicans the ability to conduct legislative business. As Texas Republicans are back on path to passing their new, more aggressive gerrymander, national Republicans have turned their attention to other states like Florida, Missouri and Indiana.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/18/indiana-republican-redistricting-trump-primary-00513609

‘We are arresting the mayor right now, per the deputy attorney general’

Posted on by Lone Candle

It looks like yet another political use of the criminal justice system by the Trump administration, and yet another dent in U.S. democracy.

“The federal officer who arrested the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city outside an immigration detention center in May suggested that he was making the arrest at the direction of the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Todd Blanche, according to law enforcement body camera footage described in a new court filing.

…

Witness accounts and other video footage taken that day showed the mayor had been allowed inside a gated area by a guard, stood there peacefully for the better part of an hour and left the gated area when federal agents threatened him with arrest. That day, Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) told POLITICO that he’d witnessed an agent inside the gated area talking on the phone with someone who told the agent to arrest Baraka, who by the time of the call was outside the gate. McIver gave a similar account in a press conference at the time.

…

Less than two weeks later, federal prosecutors dropped a trespassing charge against Baraka. But a federal judge chided the effort to charge him in the first place. Magistrate Judge André M. Espinosa called it an “embarrassing retraction” that “suggests a failure to adequately investigate, to carefully gather facts and to thoughtfully consider the implications of your actions before wielding your immense power.””

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/18/newark-mayor-arrest-bodycam-footage-todd-blanche-00513734

Doctors in Gaza struggle to fight rare paralytic illness under Israeli blockade

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Dangerous viruses that cause severe paralytic illness are thriving in Gaza, where starving children living under an Israeli blockade can’t access the food or treatments they need to recover.

For months, health officials have warned that the destruction of the Gaza Strip’s sanitation facilities by Israel could fuel the surge of infectious diseases, as seen in last year’s polio outbreak. Now, doctors are reporting a surge in cases of acute flaccid paralysis, a rare syndrome causing muscle weakness that can make it hard to breathe and swallow.

Cases in Gaza include acute flaccid myelitis, which mostly affects children, and the better-known Guillain-Barré syndrome, said Ahmed al-Farra, head of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/doctors-gaza-struggle-fight-rare-paralytic-illness-under-israeli-blockade-acute-flaccid-paralysis-guillain-barre/

The Sprawling Government Effort to Prosecute Barack Obama

Posted on by Lone Candle

Trump and his supporters had spread falsehoods and exaggerated that Democrats were using the justice system against Trump, then Trump gets into power and straightforwardly uses the justice system to prosecute Democrats. This hypocrisy is one of the many reasons Trump is damaging U.S. democracy and basic justice in the USA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlh7j8GeWB8

Trump’s War on Chocolate: ‘There’s No Way for Us To Source This Domestically’

Posted on by Lone Candle

“The world’s supply of chocolate depends on the global trade of cocoa beans, which are grown exclusively in equatorial climates across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The United States produces more chocolate than any other country in the world, but there would be no American chocolate-making businesses, large or small, without imports.

A lot of American manufacturing is like that too: U.S.-based businesses rely on imported raw materials when making everything from candy bars to new cars. Policies that make those inputs more expensive or difficult to obtain—policies such as the Trump administration’s tariffs—are leaving a bitter taste.

Chocolatiers, in particular, say trade barriers are a recipe for higher prices, lower quality, less innovation, and smaller profits. Doesn’t sound very sweet, does it?”

https://reason.com/2025/08/01/trumps-war-on-chocolate-theres-no-way-for-us-to-source-this-domestically/

Why Munich 1938 concessions to Nazi Germany haunt Washington 2025 talks

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Vladimir Putin’s desire to grab Ukraine’s key defensive lines echoes how Adolf Hitler secured Czechoslovakia’s fortifications.

…

“Ukraine has spent the last 11 years pouring time, money and effort into reinforcing the fortress belt and establishing significant defense industrial and defensive infrastructure in and around these cities,” the institute said.

If that happens, Russia would move its frontline roughly 80 kilometers further west, while Ukraine would be forced to build new defenses on flat and open terrain in neighboring Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk — far harder to hold than the fortified cities it controls now.

…

In September 1938, Adolf Hitler argued that handing over the ethnic-German majority Sudetenland region to the Reich would satisfy his ambitions and end the threat of war in Europe. France and Britain agreed, and browbeat Prague into accepting. Hitler — whose word was as reliable as Putin’s — said he had no further territorial ambitions.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-russia-war-in-ukraine-adolf-hitler-czechoslovakia/