update - USSC refuses to hear lawsuit to overturn same sex marriage

[mandrill]

Trump expands military strikes on civilians, death toll rises


Over the past several weeks, President Donald Trump has ordered multiple deadly strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs. As the operations continue, the administration has provided less and less evidence to justify the attacks.
First strike


The president claims the strikes targeted boats smuggling drugs. (Joshua Hoehne/Unsplash)© Knewz (CA)
More than a month ago, Trump authorized a military strike on a civilian boat in international waters, which, according to the White House, killed 11 people. The president claimed the strikes targeted boats smuggling drugs to the U.S., but neither he nor his team presented any supporting evidence to Congress or the public.
Strikes continue


Two weeks after the first strike, more attacks followed. (MEGA)© Knewz (CA)
Two weeks after the first strike, more attacks followed. Recently, the Trump administration confirmed a seventh strike, and shortly after, an eighth in the Pacific Ocean. “The U.S. military attacked another vessel that the government suspected was carrying drugs, but for the first time struck a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia rather than in the Caribbean Sea,”The New York Times reported. The strike reportedly killed two or three people on the boat, according to an anonymous source.
Total casualties


The White House said the first seven strikes killed 32 people. (MEGA)© Knewz (CA)
According to the Times, the White House said the first seven strikes killed 32 people. If the latest reports are true, the total now nears three dozen. Still, that figure excludes any unannounced operations, raising questions about the accuracy of the official count.
Questions of legality


The legality of Trump’s strikes has come under scrutiny. (MEGA)© Knewz (CA)
The legality of the strikes has come under scrutiny as well. As the Times’ report added, “A broad range of outside legal specialists in laws governing the use of armed force have said the campaign is illegal because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even criminal suspects — who are not directly participating in hostilities.” One of the latest strikes, the sixth in a series of eight, targeted an alleged submarine. U.S. officials rescued two survivors who were later returned to their home countries. CNN later reported that the decision appeared to undermine the White House’s claims. “Releasing them is very difficult to square with the argument that the U.S. government is engaged in a war with people who would do imminent harm to Americans,” the outlet said. “Put plainly: If these people are so dangerous and engaged in what is allegedly warfare against the United States, how could they be released?”

 

[mandrill]

Trump says US to boycott G20 in South Africa, repeating allegations about treatment of white farmers


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that no U.S. government officials would be attending the Group of 20 summit this year in South Africa, citing the country’s treatment of white farmers.

Trump had already announced he would not attend the annual summit for heads of state from the globe’s leading and emerging economies. Vice President JD Vance had been scheduled to attend in Trump’s place, but a person familiar with Vance’s plans who was granted anonymity to talk about his schedule said Vance would no longer travel there for the summit.

“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump said on his social media site. In his post, Trump cited “abuses” of Afrikaners, including violence and death as well as confiscation of their land and farms.

The Trump administration has long accused the South African government of allowing minority white Afrikaner farmers to be persecuted and attacked. As it restricted the number of refugees admitted annually to the U.S. to 7,500, the administration indicated that most will be white South Africans who it claimed faced discrimination and violence at home.

But the government of South Africa has said it is surprised by the accusations of discrimination, because white people in the country generally have a much higher standard of living than its Black residents, more than three decades after the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule.

The country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has said he’s told Trump that information about the alleged discrimination and persecution of Afrikaners is “completely false.”

Nonetheless, the administration has kept up its criticisms of the South African government. Earlier this week during an economic speech in Miami, Trump said South Africa should be thrown out of the Group of 20.

Earlier this year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio boycotted a G20 meeting for foreign ministers because its agenda focused on diversity, inclusion and climate change efforts.

Seung Min Kim And Michelle L. Price, The Associated Press

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

James Comey case falling apart as crucial evidence collapses: report


The Department of Justice's case against former FBI Director James Comey appears to be unraveling, with new evidence casting significant doubt on the prosecution's central allegations, The New Republic wrote.

Prosecutors claim Comey lied during 2020 Senate testimony when he denied authorizing an anonymous FBI source to speak to news outlets about the bureau's Hillary Clinton investigation — with the alleged source being identified as attorney Dan Richman.


But newly revealed documents show Richman wasn't even employed by the FBI at the time — and that glitch has the government's case "coming apart at the seams," The New Republic wrote.

Documents reviewed by Lawfare reveal critical inconsistencies in Richman's employment status. His first term at the FBI ran from June 30, 2015, to June 30, 2016, serving unpaid and part-time as an advisor on encryption issues.


A handwritten FBI official's note provides a damning detail: "Doc drawn up + sent to OGC for Richman signature. Never signed. Never officially reappointed after June 2016."

That suggests that all evidence prosecutors cited occurred outside Richman's periods of employment at the FBI, The New Republic reported. The DOJ referenced an email chain from October 29 to November 2, 2016 — after Richman's first term ended — and emails and text exchanges in 2017.

The case is further complicated by additional judicial scrutiny. One magistrate judge has already demanded prosecutors stop examining Comey and Richman's communications, concerned about potential attorney-client privilege violations.

A federal judge is now seeking a complete account of the grand jury proceedings, after interim U.S. AttorneyLindsey Halligan submitted only a partial record — suggesting the government's case may be even more precarious than initially thought.

 

[mandrill]

Washington National Opera eyes abandoning Kennedy Center amid Trump takeover chaos


The Washington National Opera is contemplating leaving the Kennedy Center — a major casualty of President Donald Trump's takeover of the cultural institution, according to Artistic Director Francesca Zambello.

Zambello painted a stark picture of the center's transformation, noting to The Guardian, "It is our desire to perform in our home at the Kennedy Center. But if we cannot raise enough money, or sell enough tickets in there, we have to consider other options."


She emphasized that "the two things that support a company financially, because of the takeover, have been severely compromised."

The audience response has been particularly bad, she said, while sharing passionate messages the opera has received.



"They say things like: 'I'm never setting foot in there until the "orange menace" is gone.' Or: 'Don't you know history? Don't you know what Hitler did? I refuse to give you a penny.'"

In February 2025, Trump declared himself chair of the Kennedy Center, firing its bipartisan board and replacing leadership with his own appointees. The move sparked widespread criticism, leading to a 40% drop in ticket sales and donor confidence.

Ticket sales for the opera have plummeted dramatically, the artistic director said. Before Trump's takeover, performances ran at 80%-90% capacity. Now,they're down to 60%, with the appearance of fuller houses maintained by distributing complimentary tickets, The Guardian reported.

Zambello described the center as "tainted" and "politicized by the current management." She contrasted this with the previous board, which "was always a mix of Republicans and Democrats. It did not matter that someone was a Republican or a Democrat. What mattered was that they were leading a big, important institution."

The new management has raised additional concerns. "They have suggested that we produce more popular operas," Zambello noted. "This season, we are producing The Marriage of Figaro, Aida and West Side Story … I don't see how we can get more popular than that."

She also highlighted ongoing challenges with the new leadership, including questions about the company's commitment to diversity. "The management has questioned some aspects of it, and we have explained these are the best people for the roles," she said. "America is an incredibly diverse country, and so we want to represent every part of this country on our stage."

The financial pressure is intense, she said. Richard Grenell, the Trump-appointed president of the center, issued an edict requiring all shows to be "net neutral," but Zambello admitted to The Guardian, "We're at the point where now we can't present a net-neutral budget without an epic amount of outside funding, or knowing that our patrons would come back."

Despite the challenges, Zambello remains hopeful about finding a way forward, stating, "We can't turn our backs on half this country. We have to find a way to all communicate and function together. I don't believe in 'us' and 'them'."

 

[mandrill]

Allies find 'gung-ho' Miami prosecutor to target Trump-Russia investigators


Far-right influencers are looking to Miami as a venue to pursue "long-promised charges of a 'grand conspiracy'" against President Donald Trump’s perceived adversaries, according to a New York Times report.

The influencers have even found a federal prosecutor there— Jason A. Reding Quiñones, Trump-appointed United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, who was sworn into office in August 2025 and is currently a central figure in a high-profile investigation into a 2017 intelligence community assessment regarding Russian election interference.

As for their alleged 'grand conspiracy,' the Times explains that its theory is "still unsupported by the evidence."

"A cabal of Democrats and 'deep-state' operatives, possibly led by former President Barack Obama, has worked to destroy Mr. Trump in a yearslong plot spanning the inquiry into his 2016 campaign to the charges he faced after leaving office," the Times explains.

Last week, however, Reding Quiñones issued over two dozen subpoenas, including to officials who took part in the inquiry into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, the Times writes.

Among the recipients include familiar Trump foils: James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence; Peter Strzok, a former F.B.I. counterintelligence agent who helped run the Russia investigation; and Lisa Page, a former lawyer at the bureau.

The Florida investigation currently focuses on a "January 2017 intelligence community assessment about Russian interference in the 2016 election, particularly the role played by John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, in drafting the document," the Times says.

The Brennan investigation started "after criminal referrals to the Justice Department by top Trump intelligence officials," the Times writes, and was assigned to David Metcalf, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, "who was given special authority to scrutinize and possibly prosecute Mr. Brennan, according to four people with knowledge of his actions who requested anonymity to discuss an open matter."

Metcalf held senior Justice Department positions during the first Trump administration.

The Brennan case, however, was transfered from Metcalf to Reding Quiñones, "as part of a decision to greatly expand the scope of the Brennan investigation into other, unspecified activities, according to two people with knowledge of the situation," the Times explains.

The Florida subpoenas, the Times explains, "seek documents or communications related to the intelligence community assessment from July 1, 2016, through Feb. 28, 2017, according to people familiar with them. It commands the recipients to provide them to prosecutors in Miami by Nov. 20."

Despite the dubious nature of these investigations, the Times says, they do have one thing on its side.

"Reding Quiñones, a military veteran, has pursued his mandate to hunt down Mr. Trump’s foes with a gung-ho attitude that has endeared him to the president and the small but influential cadre of loyalists pushing hardest for prosecutions," notes the Times.

 

[mandrill]

GOP accused of trying to slip backdoor abortion ban into funding bill


Congressional Republicans are reportedly trying to insert anti-abortion language into government funding legislation as the shutdown continues, with the GOP and President Donald Trump digging in against a clean extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits as insurance premiums surge.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, sounded the alarm on Saturday about what he characterized as the latest Republican sneak attack on reproductive rights.

“Republicans said they might vote to lower Americans’ healthcare costs, but only if we agree to include a backdoor national abortion ban,” Wyden said in remarks on the Senate floor.

The senator was referring to a reported GOP demand that any extension of ACA subsidies must include language that bars the tax credits from being used to purchase plans that cover abortion care.

But as the health policy organization KFF has noted, the ACA already has “specific language that applies Hyde Amendment restrictions to the use of premium tax credits, limiting them to using federal funds to pay for abortions only in cases that endanger the life of the woman or that are a result of rape or incest.”

“The ACA also explicitly allows states to bar all plans participating in the state marketplace from covering abortions, which 25 states have done since the ACA was signed into law in 2010,” according to KFF.

Wyden said Saturday—which marked day 39 of the shutdown—that “Republicans are spinning a tale that the government is funding abortion.”

“It’s not,” Wyden continued. “What Republicans are talking about putting on the table amounts to nothing short of a backdoor national abortion ban. Under this plan, Republicans could weaponize federal funding for any organization that does anything related to women’s reproductive healthcare. They could also weaponize the tax code by revoking non-profit status for these organizations.”

“The possibilities are endless, but the results are the same: a complete and total restriction on abortion, courtesy of Republicans,” the senator added. “Trump said he’d leave abortion care up to the states. Well, this latest scheme makes it crystal clear: A de facto nationwide abortion ban has been his plan all along.”

The GOP effort to attach anti-abortion provisions to government funding legislation adds yet another hurdle in negotiations to end the shutdown, which the Trump administration has used to throttle federal nutrition assistance and accelerate its purge of the federal workforce.

Trump is also pushing a proposal that would differently distribute federal funds that would have otherwise gone toward the enhanced ACA tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year.

“It sounds like it could be a plan for health accounts that could be used for insurance that doesn’t cover preexisting conditions, which could create a death spiral in ACA plans that do,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF

 

[mandrill]

Democrats reach deal to end government shutdown ahead of Thanksgiving: report


Congressional Democrats have reached a deal to end the longest government shutdown in history, according to a new report.

Multiple sources granted anonymity told Axios that at least 10 Democrats plan to vote on the deal, which includes supporting a procedural motion to approve a series of short-term spending bills that fund the government through the end of the year. The deal also includes voting in December to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that Democrats have been fighting to preserve, according to the report.


There is also a negotiation to reinstate all of the federal workers Trump laid off during the shutdown, the report adds.

"Talks are fluid, and no deal is final until lawmakers have voted," Axios reported. "But the discussions are progressing toward a deal that would end weeks of deadlock in the Senate."



A draft of the appropriations bill lawmakers are expected to pass was released on Sunday.

Read the text of the bill by clicking here.

 

[mandrill]

 

[Valcazar]

View attachment 507649

Likely to happen, in my view.
The Commanders are a team that would do this to suck up.

 

[mandrill]

Supreme Court rejects call to overturn its decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a call to overturn its landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The justices, without comment, turned away an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the high court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.



FILE - Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, right, talks with David Moore following her office's refusal to issue marriage licenses at the Rowan County Courthouse in Morehead, Ky., Sept. 1, 2015. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)© The Associated Press
Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower-court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney's fees to a couple denied a marriage license.



FILE - Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis makes a statement to the media at the front door of the Rowan County Judicial Center in Morehead, Ky., Sept. 14, 2015. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)© The Associated Press
Her lawyers repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who alone among the nine justices has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling.

Thomas was among four dissenting justices in 2015. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the other dissenters who are on the court today.

Roberts has been silent on the subject since he wrote a dissenting opinion in the case. Alito has continued to criticize the decision, but he said recently he was not advocating that it be overturned.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not on the court in 2015, has said that there are times when the court should correct mistakes and overturn decisions, as it did in the 2022 case that ended a constitutional right to abortion.



FILE - Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, with Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, left, at her side, speaks after being released from the Carter County Detention Center, Sept. 8, 2015, in Grayson, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)© The Associated Press
But Barrett has suggested recently that same-sex marriage might be in a different category than abortion because people have relied on the decision when they married and had children.

Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson praised the justices' decision not to intervene. “The Supreme Court made clear today that refusing to respect the constitutional rights of others does not come without consequences,” Robinson said in a statement.

Davis drew national attention to eastern Kentucky's Rowan County when she turned away same-sex couples, saying her faith prevented her from complying with the high court ruling. She defied court orders to issue the licenses until a federal judge jailed her for contempt of court in September 2015.


Supreme Court rejects call to overturn its decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide
She was released after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form. The Kentucky legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses.

Davis lost a reelection bid in 2018.

___

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

Mark Sherman, The Associated Press

 

[mandrill]

Sticky issues plague Trump's long-awaited new legislation: report


"Sticky issues" are plaguing a long-awaited new crypto legislation released Monday by the Senate Agriculture Committee — something President Donald Trump has referred to as a top priority.

The discussion draft portion is expected to change how the government regulates cryptocurrencies and is part of a sweeping new bill that is moving closer towards legislation, Politico reports.


Agriculture Chair John Boozman (R-AK) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a panel member who has had negotiations over the topic with Republicans, unveiled the new draft.

"The text included several sections in brackets that remain the subject of negotiations, indicating that lawmakers still have sticky issues to sort out," according to Politico.


The bill is considered a focal point for Trump and the powerful crypto industry, which has anticipated this legislation. It's expected to overhaul and give "regulatory clarity" requested by digital asset executives and lobbyists.

The president and his family have embraced crypto since his second return to office, and Trump has rolled back regulatory oversight of the industry as his family and their associates have started four different crypto ventures under the brand names American Bitcoin, $TRUMP, World Liberty Financial and Trump Media & Technology Group.

Trump recently pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Zhao was convicted of money laundering charges under the Biden administration. His company paid more than $4 billion, and Zhao personally paid a $50 million settlement as part of the conviction.

Trump was asked about Zhao's pardon on CBS News' "60 Minutes" last week, where he claimed not to know Zhao. Some analysts have found those claims hard to believe because Binance invested $2 billion in World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's cryptocurrency business. Zhao had hired lobbyists to persuade Trump to grant him a pardon.

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

And right on cue, Trump's own band of brownshirt goons pipes up:

Convicted Oath Keepers' founder announces militia's relaunch to enforce Trump orders


Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes announced he was relaunching the right-wing militia group in hopes that President Donald Trump would press them into duty.

Rhodes was released from prison earlier this year when Trump commuted his 18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy, and Media Matters reported that he was planning to reform his paramilitary organization to help enforce federal immigration law.


"Right now, under federal statutes, President Trump can call us up as the militia if he sees it necessary, especially for three purposes: to repel invasions, to suppress insurrections, and to execute the laws of the union, and right now, we see all three of those in play," Rhodes told the right-wing Gateway Pundit outlet.

"We have — we're facing an ongoing invasion of this country, it has not stopped. We're facing an insurrection by the left, and we're also facing a direct blocking and resistance against enforcing federal law — federal immigration laws, attacking ICE agents, you know, trying to ram them and run them off the road, throwing bricks to their windows. All of that is going on, and so under those three purposes, he can call up the militia."



"The militia is all of us, so the National Guard is part of the militia, which is why it's completely lawful for him to use the National Guard as he has, and he should do more of that, I think, across the country," Rhodes added.

Rhodes was convicted in 2023 for his role in organizing and carrying out the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, but he was among nearly 1,500 participants who Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of shortly after returning to the White House.

"He could just say given the circumstances of an invasion, insurrection, and resistance against federal law being being enforced, I'm calling up the militia, ordering all the men to come together [in] every county, put the veterans in charge of training and organizing all the other men and just have them stand too and await his orders," Rhodes said.

"He can do that and I think he should do that, and so that's what I'll be advocating for from him. So from the bottom, from down the rank and file, we can let President Trump know that we're ready to serve, encourage him to do that, call us up as a militia, order us all to come together in our counties under his command, which gives you complete legal sanction to do what you're doing.

 

[mandrill]

Trump asks Supreme Court to throw out E. Jean Carroll’s $5 million verdict


NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to throw out a jury’s finding in a civil lawsuit that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her.

Trump’s lawyers argued in a lengthy filing with the high court that allegations leading to the $5 million verdict were “propped up” by a “series of indefensible evidentiary rulings" that allowed Carroll's lawyers to present “highly inflammatory propensity evidence” against him.

Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and former TV talk show host, testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack in the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury retailer across the street from Trump Tower.

The jury also found Trump liable for defaming Carroll when he made comments in October 2022 denying her allegation.

Trump’s lawyers, led by St. Louis, Missouri-based attorney Justin D. Smith, called Carroll's claims a “politically motivated hoax."

They accused the trial judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, of warping federal evidence rules to bolster Carroll's “implausible, unsubstantiated assertions.” They said that by upholding the verdict, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was in conflict with other federal appeals courts on how such rules should be applied.

“President Trump has clearly and consistently denied that this supposed incident ever occurred,” Smith and his co-counsel wrote. “No physical or DNA evidence corroborates Carroll’s story. There were no eyewitnesses, no video evidence, and no police report or investigation.”

A message seeking comment was left with Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.

In September, when Trump's lawyers first indicated they would appeal to the Supreme Court, she said, “We do not believe that President Trump will be able to present any legal issues in the Carroll cases that merit review by the United States Supreme Court.”

A spokesperson for Trump's legal team said in a statement the Supreme Court appeal was part of the president's crusade against “Liberal Lawfare.”

“The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes," the statement said.

A three-judge appellate panel upheld the verdict in December 2024, rejecting Trump’s claims that trial Judge Kaplan's decisions spoiled the trial, including by allowing two other Trump sexual abuse accusers to testify. The women said Trump committed similar acts against them in the 1970s and in 2005. Trump denied all three women’s allegations.

In June, 2nd Circuit judges denied Trump’s petition for the full appellate court to take up the case. That left Trump with two options: accept the result and allow Carroll to collect the judgment, which he’d previously paid into escrow, or fight on in Supreme Court, whose conservative majority — including three of his own appointees — could be more open to considering his challenge.

Trump skipped the 2023 trial but testified briefly at a follow-up defamation trial last year that ended with a jury ordering him to pay Carroll an additional $83.3 million. The second trial resulted from comments then-President Trump made in 2019 after Carroll first made the accusations publicly in a memoir.

Judge Kaplan presided over both trials and instructed the second jury to accept the first jury’s finding that Trump had sexually abused Carroll. Judge Kaplan and Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, are not related.


In their Supreme Court filing, Trump’s lawyers said Kaplan compounded his “significant evidentiary errors” at first trial by “improperly preventing” Trump from contesting the first jury’s finding that he had sexually abused Carroll, leading to an “unjust judgment of $83.3 million.”

The 2nd Circuit upheld that verdict on Sept. 8, with a three-judge panel calling the jury’s damages awards “fair and reasonable.” Trump has since asked the full appellate court to hear arguments and reconsider the ruling.

Trump has had recent success fending off costly civil judgments. In August, a New York appeals court threw out Trump’s staggering penalty in a state civil fraud lawsuit.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.

Michael R. Sisak, The Associated Press