Shauneen

NEW: Former Trump official Steve Bannon suggested the president deployed ICE officers to major U.S. airports as a “test run” for using them in upcoming elections. According to the administration, they will not assist TSA with passenger screenings but instead guard exit lanes or check IDs. democracydocket.com/news-alerts/ba…

Republicans passed a law that gives ICE agents a $10,000 bonus every year for the next four years. Those same Republicans are blocking a vote to pay TSA officers anything at all.

The day the Affordable Care Act passed was one of my proudest moments as president, because it meant that millions of Americans would have access to health care, some for the first time. The ACA also prevented insurance companies from denying people with pre-existing conditions coverage, allowed young people under the age of 26 to remain on their parents’ plan, expanded Medicaid, and so much more. But the ACA was always meant to be a first step. We still have to do more to expand access and make health care more affordable for everyone.

NEW: We have seen DOJ secure a search warrant to seize ballots in Georgia and a subpoena to seize ballots in Arizona. Now a sheriff is seizing ballots in California. This is a crisis unfolding in real time. democracydocket.com/news-alerts/go…

Trump blames Hegseth for the war: "Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up. You said, 'Let's do it.'"

🚨BREAKING: FIRST PHOTOS OF TRUMP’S CALL WITH IRAN

You can see the desperation. Trump is rambling on about parents changing the sex of their kids again. This is his winning argument. 🤦🏽‍♂️ “Everybody go out and get your kid a nice operation and change the sex of your kid.”

Genuinely seems Trumps presidency is completely falling apart. Basic government services aren’t getting executed. He’s stuck in a quagmire in the Middle East. Job growth is negative and inflation is accelerating. Gas is 4-5 dollars a gallon. What a mess

China is leading in hybrid floating solar and aquaculture. Panels float on lakes while fish, shrimp, and crabs are farmed below, saving land, reducing evaporation, keeping panels cooler, and generating clean energy.

Part 2. So why are the bugs disappearing? Almost every corn seed planted in America comes pre-coated with a pesticide called a neonicotinoid. Think of it as nicotine for bugs. It gets baked into the seed, and as the plant grows, the poison spreads through the whole thing, stems, leaves, pollen, nectar, all of it. About half of soybean seeds get the same treatment. In total, these pesticides cover around 150 million acres of U.S. farmland every year. That’s roughly the size of Texas. Here’s the part that got me. The plant only absorbs about 2% of the pesticide on the seed. The other 98% washes off into the soil and water. A Penn State study found that 40% of farmers don’t even know their seeds are coated with it. The EU looked at the science, found “high acute risks” to bees, and banned three of the main ones from outdoor use in 2018. The U.S. still hasn’t. The neonicotinoid market hit $5.5 billion globally in 2023. Pesticides aren’t the only problem. Streetlights are killing bugs at a scale nobody expected. UK researchers compared moth caterpillars near lit and unlit roads and found 47% fewer caterpillars near the lights. One German estimate puts the toll at 100 billion insects killed by artificial light per summer. And the new LED streetlights cities are installing to save energy? Worse for insects than the old yellow ones. Then there’s the land itself. North America has lost 90% of its native grasslands. What replaced them is mostly single-crop farms stretching to the horizon, corn or soy with nothing else growing. For insects, that’s a desert with poison in it. The EU banned the pesticides. The U.S. still sprays them across an area the size of Texas every planting season.

ICE is not at airports to help TSA and reduce lines. They are there (without identification) trying to arrest people, exactly as I predicted. ICE must be abolished.

“I’m glad the president put ICE in airports. That’ll drive the Democrats crazy.” Republican House Oversight chair @RepJamesComer makes it clear Republicans *govern* entirely out of spite (From @atrupar)

"Iran called Trump’s bluff...How thin did his bluff turn out to be? He didn’t wait until his 48-hour deadline was expiring. He blinked with 12 hours to spare—ensuring the entire threat period took place while markets were closed over the weekend." open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark…

RT @atrupar: Q: Who is Steve Witkoff speaking with in Iran? TRUMP: A top person Q: Who is it? TRUMP: I can't. I don't them to be killed…

@FPWellman @SuzanneBos43679 unfortunately ~61% of our troops voted for trump

@FPWellman Time to check which Republicans and Trump family members (completely coincidentally) bought bought stock and oil futures pre-announcement.

This is what passes for international diplomacy and leadership today. An all caps misspelled rant from a sundowning old man is posted by the Department of Defense as an official order. 35 years ago I had just fought the last battle of Desert Storm and GEN Schwarzkopf met our enemy in a tent in the desert to lay out their withdrawal from Kuwait as thousands of coalition troops waited for our orders. Today a mentally unstable narcissist posts on his personal social media company his brain dump and our troops are left scrambling to decode it all. This is the most incompetent leadership I’ve ever witnessed at any level.

@funder Trump Can’t Stop Any Of It: Beaten Bad By Judges, Journalists, Farmers, and Two Dead Presidents’ Families open.substack.com/pub/dworkin/p/…

ICE disappeared woman from Utah airport despite legal papers—now been deported. "Why are you arresting me? I am here lawfully!" she yells. "But agents said they 'did not care about that.'" Other travelers stand around airport as she's dragged away—despite no uniforms or ID. ICE then transferred her around the country to 7 different detention centers—over 3 months before finally deporting her. Marta Brizeyda Renderos Leiva said that conditions in the ICE detention centers were unbearable—and the smell of mold made people sick. "The beds next to the walls get wet, the blankets get wet... A lot of people get sick and they don't care or do anything for us," she explained. Her 4 children are all U.S. citizens and cannot afford to travel to El Salvador to visit her. She said her only wish now is to return to Utah in time for her children’s graduations in May.

The problem isn’t America. It’s a Congress owned by Trump loyalists not the people.