The elections are a month away, Trump’s numbers are historically low, generic ballot polls favour Democrats over Republicans, and control of the Senate is now within reach. Right now, Democratic messaging is unambiguous: affordability, competence, and corruption. My argument is simple: in a system of checks and balances, the Republican-held Congress is not doing its job to prevent the worst excesses of this wayward president from damaging the national interest. Where to begin? In no particular order: 1. Out-of-control corruption. Self-dealing by the Trump family and associates is at a level at or beyond that of some of the most corrupt administrations in American history. From a proposed deal involving Lukoil assets, to shady crypto-bros in the UAE, to the administration’s dealings with Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt (who has been investigated by Swiss authorities), there are so many other examples. The proposed Lukoil deal alone reportedly involves Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, Todd Boehly, and Middle Eastern business interests linked to the Witkoff and Kushner families. 2. Pointless wars. The war with Iran was effectively pointless. Firstly, a plethora of jus ad bellum arguments and objectives were given for why the war was being fought, ranging from preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons to destroying its ballistic missile production, eliminating its navy, ending its support for proxies, and rhetoric about political change in Iran. The breadth and shifting emphasis of these justifications created the impression of a war without a clearly delimited political end state. And the broader objectives have not been reached, but we are dealing with a generational disruption to oil markets that has sent the prices of diesel and other petroleum products skyrocketing. 3. Tariffs. Against the basic principles of economics that a first-year student would know, Trump introduced sweeping tariffs that predictably did nothing to solve America’s persistent trade imbalances (which weren’t even necessarily a problem in and of themselves), but did contribute to higher prices. Tariffs are taxes on imports, and much of their cost is ultimately borne by American businesses and consumers. 4. Deficits. Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill significantly increased projected U.S. deficits by introducing unaffordable tax cuts alongside increased spending. The national debt has reached an all-time high, and the resulting fiscal trajectory puts upward pressure on borrowing costs and debt-service expenditures. This might become a permanent legacy of his unless future administrations take drastic and painful steps to reduce the deficit. 5. Alienating allies. This includes chastising NATO, threatening to take over Greenland and make Canada America’s 51st state, imposing high tariffs on allies (particularly Canada), and generally weakening America’s relationships with countries that have spent decades supporting the United States. 6. Weakening our strategic posture against China. By moving scarce military assets away from the Indo-Pacific and burning through hard-to-replace munitions needed in a potential war with China, he has weakened deterrence against China, increasing the risk of a hot war with China. 7. Abandoning Ukraine. He has dramatically reduced American support for Ukraine and deprived Ukraine of essential air defence capabilities needed to counter Russia’s daily bombardment, while berating and humiliating Zelenskyy in the White House. 8. Coddling dictators. He lavishes praise on Xi Jinping, Putin, and Kim Jong Un, but attacks friends. His administration pursues business arrangements with Russia involving people with close personal and financial connections to his family and senior officials, while imposing tariffs and making threats against democratic allies. 9. Weakening democracy. Attacks on the press, repeatedly casting doubt on the electoral process, prosecuting political opponents, attempts to impose new restrictions on mail-in voting, using government funds for advertisements that closely resemble campaign messaging, and pushing legislation that would increase the burden on women and minority voters (reducing the likelihood that they will vote). 10. Possibly violating international law. The seizure of Nicolás Maduro raised serious questions under international law, as have military strikes against suspected drug-smuggling vessels without publicly demonstrated evidence in many cases that the targets were engaged in drug trafficking or constituted a threat justifying the use of lethal military force. 11. Damaging the U.S. military. Pete Hegseth has fired or forced out numerous senior military commanders (including Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff), while pursuing further substantial reductions in the number of general and flag officers. He has weakened adherence to military law and established norms governing the use of force and treatment of prisoners, withdrawn a sizeable number of U.S. forces from Europe (weakening our position against an increasingly belligerent Russia), and weakened our security posture in the Asia-Pacific region by focusing attention and scarce military resources on Iran. Perhaps most astonishingly, he violated basic operational-security doctrine by sharing sensitive details about impending U.S. military strikes over Signal, an unclassified commercial messaging application, in a group to which an unauthorized third party had been added. The Pentagon inspector general subsequently concluded that his conduct violated Department of Defense policies and could have endangered U.S. personnel and the mission. And so on. At no point did the Republican-held Congress hold up its hand and say, "Stop," even though it had the power to do so. That is the point of checks and balances. Congress is not supposed to be an adjunct of the executive branch. It controls appropriations, passes legislation, conducts investigations and oversight, confirms senior officials, can constrain presidential war-making, and ultimately possesses the power of impeachment. The entire constitutional purpose of giving these powers to a separate branch is to prevent an errant president from being able to do whatever he wants. Republicans controlled Congress. They had the institutional power to constrain this administration and repeatedly chose not to use it. So they do not deserve to be there. My ask to Democrats now is simple: don’t fuck it up.

An 18 year veteran attorney at the Interior Department just quit. John Murdock is a conservative Christian who says he witnessed a “deeply troubling assault on the rule of law” inside the trump administration. And holy shit, his resignation letter. After laying out what he’s witnessed, he writes- “Flooding the zone with shit is a strategy for producing a shitty country.” Yet another adult has left the room.

BREAKING: YES! The Catholic Church hits Trump with a MASSIVE lawsuit after his administration denied access to clergy seeking to administer sacraments to detainees. This should knock these fascists down a peg or two... “As a bishop I am responsible for every soul in my archdiocese, and that includes those who are in the prisons,” stated St. Louis Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski. He said that his priests "cannot hear confessions, they cannot celebrate Mass, they cannot give ‌the ⁠anointing of the sick to any of the detainees." Rozanski accused the administration of "robbing the detainees of their rights to have access to these sacraments." His archdiocese has filed a lawsuit alleging that a detention facility in Missouri blocked them from accessing Catholics being held inside, violating their right to receive communion and confession. The archdiocese says that most of the roughly 150 detainees are Hispanic Catholics. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of ​Missouri, the suit names officials at Homeland Security as well as the local sheriff. It reveals that clergy have been restricted to a paltry four-hour window to meet with detainees at the Saint Genevieve County Jail, and even then they are separated by glass, meaning that they cannot administer the Eucharist. Denying Catholics communion is a grave violation of their religious rights and a clear sign that there is nothing truly "Christian" about this White House. The officials at the jail suggested that the priests could place the consecrated communion host — which Catholics believe to be the literal, physical body of Jesus Christ — inside a no doubt dirty container, which the guards would then pass along to the detainees. Archbishop Rozanski slammed the idea as "sacrilegious." The archdiocese is demanding that its clergy be granted a level of access commensurate with their importance to the detainees, which would mean treating them like consular officials or attorneys. Please ❤️ and share if you support this lawsuit!

Why would any Canadian still want to vacation in the United States given how the Trump administration treats Canada?

🤬

Absolutely... Why is everybody apparently so afraid to say the truth that FoM is *reciprocal* ? so benefits us massively in access to, on & around our continent. That it is also 4 freedoms, so massively benefitting our exporters & every single person in the UK everytime they went shopping, even if they never set foot outside the UK.

The only reason Donald Trump is president is because he cheated in the 2024 election with Elon Musk’s help. Trump also cheated in 2016 & 2020. Mark my words. HE. CHEATS. AT. EVERYTHING.

As a nation, we simply cannot go on like this. History is blunt about what happens when a country waits to remove a madman: the longer the delay, the more horrific the ending. This is not going to end well. America has to find the moral courage to do what is required, while it still can.

Trump is going to try and steal this election… There is only one conceivable reason to join Russia and Belarus here…

BREAKING: The Mayor of San Diego hits back hard after Trump publicly urged Iran to nuke his city and Los Angeles. Every patriotic American should be enraged right now… “San Diego is not collateral damage. We are not expendable. And we are never a ‘small price to pay,’” Mayor Todd Gloria wrote on X. “Keep our city out of your reckless war talk.” Last night at a rally in Nebraska, Trump told his mindless supporters that the higher prices caused by his Iran War are “a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.” “They can take out a city,” Trump said. “Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.” True to bloodthirsty form, the crowd erupted in applause at the prospect of millions of their fellow Americans dying in a nuclear holocaust. The garbled nature of Trump’s dementia-tinged speech has given some MAGA supporters wiggle room to insist that Trump is being misinterpreted in the media, but his words speak for themselves. This is the President of the United States, our sworn commander-in-chief, urging the nation that he started a war with to retaliate by destroying two beloved American cities because he perceives them as Democratic strongholds. The fact that over 1 million Republicans reside in Los Angeles County alone is apparently irrelevant to him, since they aren’t enough to swing the city red. This is, unfortunately, the natural rhetorical terminus for a President who believes in representing only those Americans who voted for him. He has regularly threatened to withhold federal aid to blue states and cities. He has encouraged his followers to see Democrats as demonic, America-destroying creatures. Is it any surprise that they get excited by the idea of nuking us? Thankfully, there is zero chance of this scenario unfolding because, despite Trump’s lies to the contrary, Iran does not possess nuclear weapons nor do they have the ballistic technology necessary to deliver such a payload to the West Coast of the United States. That reality is nonetheless immaterial to the matter at hand. Our President has turned against half of his own country. He must be removed from office. Please ❤️ and share if you think that Trump is a traitor!

The fact that the Nebraskan MAGA people started cheering when Trump said about Iran, “let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay,” is all you need to know about how seriously messed up America is right now. In the entire history of modern warfare, no leader of any nation has ever stood at a podium and publicly invited a hostile foreign military to “take out” their own sovereign cities. Until now.

Business wants closer relations with EU. Leaving ECHR would make that more difficult/impossible. Hard to see how a party that wants to leave ECHR and unravel the EU reset can be a party of business. Equally, ditching those policies would surely help put Tories back in contention?

At the Blessing of the Animals yesterday in Panama City, Panama.

This is what Brexit has done to Britain. Luise Valentiner arrived in Scotland through Erasmus and made it her home for 32 years. She built a business, paid taxes and became part of her community. Before Brexit, 85% of her sales went to EU customers. Then came customs charges, returned parcels and regulations too costly for a sole trader to navigate. After three decades here, she was also forced repeatedly to prove her right to return to her own home. Add growing xenophobia and the rise of Reform, and she and her husband have finally had enough. They are leaving Scotland for Denmark. Luise has not fallen out of love with Scotland. Brexit has made living and belonging here economically, practically and emotionally exhausting. Britain is losing businesses, skills, friendships and people who enriched this country for decades. Brexit is national self-harm.

The president of the United States calling for journalists to be arrested for reporting on empty seats at his rallies should be a much bigger story in the news.

🔴'Prisons are overcrowded because we are locking up tens of thousands of people with drug problems, mental health issues and low educational attainment. Meanwhile, Michelle Mone, Post Office bosses, billionaire tax dodgers and those responsible for Grenfell Tower walk free.' - @David__Osland

Why should your freedom to move around Europe expire because you turned 31? People change careers at 40. Start businesses at 50. Retire at 65. Fall in love at any age. European mobility isn’t a youth benefit. Freedom of Movement is a lifelong freedom.

RT @ThatGuy68289349: I’m Canadian and Cuba is not my enemy. I’ve been there many times and Cuban folks are beautiful people. Adolph Orang…

A British teenager born today has fewer automatic rights across Europe than their parents had at the same age. That isn’t ancient history. It was a political choice. And political choices can be reversed. Restore mutual Freedom of Movement.

You can reasonably dispute the meaning of a lot Trump says because he’s so incoherent and inarticulate. But what you can’t reasonably dispute is that he is a sadistic and delusional narcissistic sociopath, at once both psychopathic and psychotic, who is lacking in morality, conscience, empathy, remorse, and impulse control, and whose only concern if a city (in any country, including ours) were to be wiped off the face of the Earth, would be how it affects him.