HOMAN IS STILL A THIEF AND A LIAR

 

GAS

 

 

The Greatest Corruption In History

They’re in bed with the cops

Ed Elson Mar 31

The most corrupt administration in American history continues to make history — this time with a multi-billion-dollar insider trading scandal profiteering off of the President’s declarations on whether or not our nation will continue to go to war. If the previous sentence sounds insane to you, that’s because it is. We are currently witnessing a level of corruption we’ve never seen. The point of this post is to show you just how bad it’s gotten.

Before we dive in, a quick refresher: Last Monday morning, Trump announced he was engaging in talks with Iran. Fifteen minutes before his announcement, however, we saw gigantic spikes in trading volumes across multiple different markets. At 6:49am, more than a half a billion dollars in oil futures changed hands. Within minutes, $1.5 billion worth of S&P futures were traded as well. Over in the prediction markets, one trader made nearly $1 million betting on the war with 93% accuracy. Multiple other traders were flagged for making what appeared to be insider trades.

We’re left with two conclusions: Either 1) multiple traders got extraordinarily lucky with their extraordinarily risky bets that they all made at the same time, or 2) multiple traders knew what was about to happen. Those who believe the former are beyond saving.

Most are outraged by what happened. But what’s missing in their response is an understanding of the greater context. This was not an isolated incident. It wasn’t even one of a couple of incidents. This was part of a larger chain of corruption that has become so standardized in this administration that we can only conclude it’s by design. It’s the kind of corruption that requires not just our ire, but coordinated resistance. We will get to next steps in a moment, but let’s first make sure we’re all on the same page and review some of the other recent scandals that have gotten (purposefully) buried in the news cycle.

E Pluribus Unum

One major scandal you might have forgotten about happened last spring, when more than a dozen government officials made unusually well-timed stock sales right before the President initiated one of the most market-roiling events in U.S. history: Liberation Day. This alone would have been cause for concern, but it was only the beginning.

A few days later, Trump made his first TACO, pausing the tariffs and thus yanking the markets right back up. But just a few minutes before he signalled that move, we saw another huge spike in S&P options trading, with some trades skyrocketing more than 2,000% in a single hour. It was one of the largest jumps in U.S. stock market history, and a handful of people were somehow able to predict it perfectly.

Before that, there was the crypto saga. Just days before his inauguration, Trump launched a meme coin that briefly hit a $27 billion market cap – 80% of which was controlled by Trump-affiliated companies. Suspiciously, 58 anonymous wallets made over a billion dollars dumping the coin, while more than 810,000 investors lost $2 billion combined. Melania’s coin was even worse: Twenty-four wallets bought tokens minutes before she even announced it and then flipped them for a collective $100 million. By the end of the year both coins had cratered, but the insiders were long gone.

We must also mention prediction markets, the new ground-zero for insider trading. There was the anonymous Polymarket account that bet $32,000 that Maduro would be ousted just hours before Trump announced his operation on Venezuela, for example. That account ended up making $400,000. There was also the account that made an unusually good bet on the timing of Ayatollah Khamenei’s death right before an airstrike killed him. That one returned more than half a million dollars. These are just two examples but there are more.

We could also discuss the tens of thousands of dollars the new DHS Secretary made buying oil and defense stocks right before the Venezuela invasion. Or last night’s report that Pete Hegseth’s broker tried to buy him defense stocks right before the Iran attack. Or the millions Trump’s children invested in military drone companies, also before the Iran attack. Or the billions Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner raised from Gulf State funds right before Trump revealed that he was the one who determined we should go to war. Insider trading is now a standard feature of this administration. You don’t even have to look hard to find it.

In Bed With The Cops

You might be thinking, “Isn’t all of this illegal?” The answer is yes. You might also be thinking, “Won’t they be prosecuted?” The answer to that question is no, because the most essential piece of Trump’s corruption strategy has been to corrupt the very law enforcement agencies whose job is to stop him. In the case of insider trading, that agency is the SEC.

After Trump took office, SEC enforcement actions on public companies declined by 30%, one of the largest drops ever. It also settled only $800 million worth of cases, the lowest number ever in years of administration change. Trump himself canceled or halted almost 160 enforcement actions in just one year, and white-collar crime prosecutions were cut in half. This was all by design.

Trump’s efforts form part of a long-running attempt to degrade the SEC. Both parties are responsible for this — or, to be more accurate, the Supreme Court is responsible for this. The SEC lost its might right after the Citizens United decision in 2010, which unleashed billionaires’ ability to buy our representatives and control U.S. legislation, hence why the agency is no longer interested in prosecuting financial crimes.

But here’s where Trump’s corruption has (again) gone above and beyond. Two weeks ago, after just six months on the job, the SEC’s enforcement director, Margaret Ryan, resigned. Why? At first it was unclear, as her resignation letter and public comments were unusually reserved. But soon, the truth came to light. Reuters reported that Ms. Ryan had expressed interest in bringing charges against many of Trump’s closest associates, including his family. Soon enough she was reportedly in trouble with her bosses, at which point she mysteriously quit.

A similar event took place over at the Department of Justice’s antitrust division just weeks before. Gail Slater, who was tasked with cracking down on monopolization, had run into multiple power struggles with top Trump officials who wanted to be more lenient on enforcement. (Or, to be more accurate, to not enforce at all.) Two of her deputies were eventually fired for “insubordination,” and it wasn’t long before Ms. Slater was ousted herself.

Gotham

Superhero fans have quite literally seen this movie before. The entire premise of Batman is that the cops can no longer be trusted as they are in bed with the criminals, so the city of Gotham needs Batman, the masked vigilante to enforce the law on the citizens’ behalf.

The previous sentence sounds a lot like America. In fact, America becomes more like Gotham everyday. Our politicians are increasingly bought; our law enforcement, increasingly compromised. Some would argue we’re in need of a Batman, but that’s a little too comic-book for me though. I would argue we need a Harvey Dent, Gotham’s hard-nosed district attorney who was willing to prosecute the powerful no matter the political cost. Right now we have … no one. Which brings me to my next point.

Advice To Dems

The single best platform Democrats could run this cycle is the following: Promise to put every Trump-associated insider trader behind bars. If that sounds radical to you, it isn’t. Tracking down and prosecuting insider-traders isn’t that complicated of a task, and it’s literally the SEC’s job. In addition, this could be one of the most politically popular movements in recent memory. Roughly nine in ten Democrats and Republicans believe insider trading in Washington is a problem that must be addressed with a trading ban.

Whichever candidate promises to put the insider traders in jail will probably win. At that point, they’ll have the chance to do something even braver: actually put them in jail. This would be a good move, not because it’s politically popular but because it’s simply the right thing to do. Billions of dollars have been made off of insider connections to the President — but the more honest way to put it is that billions of dollars have been stolen by insiders connected to the President. The corruption in our government is reaching a level that is simply untenable, and an easy win for any political candidate would be to promise to put an end to it.

Atlanta

I’m writing this on a flight from Atlanta. I flew down on Saturday to see my grandmother who recently suffered a stroke. Technically, she experienced “cerebral amyloid angiopathy,” a build-up of abnormal proteins in the brain that ultimately cause it to bleed internally. She lost her ability to move and speak, and was in hospital for several days until my mother and uncle made the difficult decision to bring her home for a more peaceful end.

As I entered her house I encountered childhood memories: Helping her water the plants in the garden, hunting for easter eggs in the park, eating Life cereal (my favorite) every morning. When I went in to see her she immediately lit up. “Hello!” she said. I sat down and held her hand and asked her how she was doing. She tried to respond but she couldn’t get the words out. So we sat there, holding each other, while my sister read her poetry.

The afternoon light was falling neatly at the foot of her bed and the birds were chattering politely. Her eyes were closed, but she held my hand firmly. It wasn’t long before I had to leave again. But for a brief moment, none of this mattered.

See you next week,

Ed

 

Ben Wiseman The president’s depravity is deathless By Frank Bruni There are many signs of President Trump’s deterioration, but on one front he has indisputably grown sharper and faster. He’s at his peak when it comes to maligning the dead. He used to be more shambolic about it. After John McCain’s death in August 2018, the aspersions that Trump cast on the Arizona senator were feeble and fitful, with Trump’s summary judgment — “I never was a fan” — coming more than six months later. That statement was as needless as it was tactless. Trump had made his disdain for McCain clear all the way back in 2015, when he mocked McCain’s five and a half years as a prisoner of war, suggesting that winners don’t get captured and tortured. Trump was quicker to kick Colin Powell’s corpse. The highly decorated general and former secretary of state died in October 2021; Trump’s public condemnation of him came within about 24 hours. He memorialized Powell’s “big mistakes on Iraq,” and he accused Powell of disloyalty to fellow Republicans, which really meant a refusal to genuflect before Trump. Trump measures people not by what they’ve done for others but by what they’ve denied him. He uses the narcissist’s yardstick. And he whacked Robert Mueller with it, rejoicing over the former F.B.I. director’s death almost simultaneously with the news of it a week ago Saturday. “Good,” Trump exulted in a social media post. “I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!” On McCain’s and Powell’s graves, Trump did a lazy waltz. On Mueller’s, a jitterbug. And we’ve already moved on. We always do. That’s the thing about Trump’s moral grotesqueness — there’s so much of it that no one instance, no single episode, can hold our attention for long. He maxes out our memories, the new depravity quickly overwriting the old depravity on our hard drives. But let’s not let purge his denigration of Mueller just yet. For several reasons, it warrants more than a fleeting wince. A common thread runs through the lives of McCain, Powell and Mueller. All three were military veterans. All three saw combat. And all three received Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts for their service and injuries in Vietnam — the place that Trump avoided with a physician’s note attesting to his ostensibly debilitating bone spurs. Is Trump shamed by their examples? He’s surely baffled by their choices. Trump wouldn’t risk a paper cut unless there was multi-million-dollar payoff on the far side of the nick. And he has privately referred to Americans killed in wars as “suckers” for having put their lives on the line, according to reports — which he has called “fake news” — by several news organizations. It’s as if he needs desperately to feel superior to those soldiers, to cast their strength as weakness, their courage as folly, lest his own cowardice be exposed. And so he disparaged McCain, Powell and Mueller, talking smack about them even (especially?) when they could no longer talk back. His pronounced venom for Mueller no doubt reflects his particular interest in discrediting his work as a special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller’s inquiry bedeviled Trump for much of his first term in the White House, and when, in 2019, Mueller released a report saying that he could not determine definitively that the Trump campaign had — or had not — conspired with Russia, Trump falsely claimed complete exoneration, putting the phrases “witch hunt” and “Russia hoax” in heavy rotation. Trump’s spinning of Mueller’s report was his dress rehearsal for his rewriting of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. It required the transformation of Mueller from earnest public servant to vengeful monster, and Trump was hardly going to abandon or halt that project upon Mueller’s death. It’s always about Trump, it’s all about Trump and his rants about the recently departed are hardly confined to those in government. In December, after the beloved movie director Rob Reiner and his wife were fatally stabbed in their Los Angeles home, Trump attributed their deaths to their political opposition to him. He wrote in a social media post that Reiner perished “due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.” It was appalling. And it was quickly forgotten. That’s why I’m revisiting it. That’s why I’m mentioning Mueller. Trump wants us to become inured to his offenses because inoculates him from any consequences. He wants to degrade us — he wants to degrade everything — because he’s a more fitting ruler with freer rein if his kingdom has been leeched of all decency. He’s a hypocrite, of course, as are the lickspittles around him. After Charlie Kirk’s death, they freaked out about any stray whisper of the uglier parts of Kirk’s legacy — it was untimely, unseemly, cruel — but they shrug at Trump’s sadism. They ignore his souring of Kirk’s memorial itself, where Trump said flippantly that he hates his enemies. All of that they recast as boldness. Or they claim that it’s harmless: It’s just Trump being Trump. It’s a presidential perk, like winged swag from Qatar, a tacky ballroom and incompetent underlings. No. It’s more than that, and it’s worse than that. It’s a retreat from empathy, generosity, kindness. And it’s telling. The way we respond to death says everything about who we are. If we can’t extend the dead a bit of grace, it’s because we’re graceless.

HOW LOW IS THE BAR? ASK A MORON PLUMBER.

 

 

VOTE FOR ME YOU MAGAt IDIOTS

 

 

Trump reminds us why we are rallying on Saturday

March 27, 2026

Robert B. Hubbell Mar 27

[Note: Because of No Kings Day 3.0 protests, I will not host my usual Saturday morning livestream. But I will record and release a brief video statement on Saturday morning—to join you in solidarity on No Kings Day 3.0.]

At this point, few of us need reminding why we will be in the streets defending the rule of law on Saturday. But if we needed any further motivation, we received plenty on Thursday. In normal times, several of the stories below would have prompted calls for immediate impeachment, conviction, and removal—or for a comprehensive cognitive exam with the results made public.

Part of what makes reporting on Trump so difficult is that developments that receive scant media attention are norm-shattering, Constitution-breaking, never-before-in-the-history-of-the-republic scandals.

Let’s take a look.

Trump says he will sign an executive order to pay TSA agents.

[Last-minute update: As I was putting the final touches on this newsletter, I received a news alert saying that the Senate had agreed to a deal to fund the DHS and TSA. Per Politico, “Senate Republicans accepted what Democrats have been offering for weeks — cash for all of DHS except for ICE and part of Customs and Border Protection.” See Politico.]

Per the Constitution, Congress appropriates money, and the president disburses it as instructed by Congress.

For 40 days, Congress has refused to appropriate money to the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of TSA. On Thursday, Trump said he would simply sign an executive order to pay TSA agents—despite the explicit refusal of Congress to do so.

Most of the media nodded their heads in agreement and credulous acceptance, dutifully reporting that Trump would pay TSA agents without bothering to discuss whether (a) he had the authority to do so; and (b) if so, what constitutional or statutory provision granted him that authority.

If Trump uses federal funds to pay TSA agents without a congressional appropriation, that would violate Article I of the Constitution and the Anti-Deficiency Act.

To its credit, the Wall Street Journal included a nod to the illegality of Trump’s actions in its story entitled “Trump Announces Plan to Pay TSA Agents.” The WSJ included the following paragraph at the very end of its lengthy article on Trump’s proposed executive order:

The planned effort by Trump to temporarily pay TSA employees could be challenged in court. The Antideficiency Act prohibits federal spending without an appropriation by Congress.

Under the Anti-Deficiency Act, it is a felony to spend money not appropriated by Congress. See 31 U.S.C. § 1350.

Curiously, congressional Democrats have decided to take Trump at his word, arguing, “See? Trump used the long security lines at the airport as a negotiating tactic! He could have paid TSA agents any time he wanted!”

Democrats should insist that Trump follow the law, rather than arguing that he had the power to pay TSA agents all along. He did not; that is why the government has been shut down for 40 days. If he has the authority to declare an emergency to pay TSA, why can’t he just claim emergency powers to fund all of DHS, thereby circumventing Congress’s role in the appropriations process?

In short, Democrats must stick to the rule of law, even if it means giving up some political points in trolling Trump.

Coda

Trump claims he can fund TSA by executive order. But even as he claims the unilateral authority to do so, he is urging Senate Republicans to end the filibuster—to fund DHS and pass the SAVE Act. See Democracy Docket, Frustrated by filibuster, Trump and MAGA allies eye nuking it to pass SAVE America Act.

Trump said,

When is ‘enough, enough’ for our Republican Senators. There comes a time when you must do what should have been done a long time ago, and something which the Lunatic Democrats will do on day one, if they ever get the chance. TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER and get our airports, and everything else, moving again. Also, add the complete, all five items, SAVE AMERICA ACT items. Go for the Gold!

But as Democracy Docket noted,

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has repeatedly shot down proposals to gut the filibuster, saying the idea would be a GOP own goal. “Throughout history, it’s protected Republicans and conservative priorities and principles a lot more often than it’s protected Democrats.”

Senator Thune speaks the truth: Republicans have maintained minority control of Congress, in part, because of the filibuster. Republicans know that if they eliminate the filibuster, Democrats will pass voter protection legislation that will eliminate partisan gerrymandering—effectively ending their ability to lock in an unfair electoral advantage in state legislatures and the House of Representatives.

But—here’s the important point—when Democrats next control the Senate, they should abolish the filibuster, for the very reasons that John Thune is desperate to preserve it.

Trump plans to invade Iran as he says that Iran is “begging for a deal.”

On Thursday, angry Republicans stormed out of a briefing by the administration regarding the war in Iran. Per reports, the administration discussed three options, all of which involved a dramatic escalation of the war. See Daily Mail Online, Furious Republicans storm out of secret Iran briefing as new objective sparks ground invasion panic.

Although the Daily Mail’s story was an “exclusive,” other media outlets confirmed much of the Daily Mail’s reporting. See, e.g., NBC, Tensions flare during Iran briefing for members of Congress, and CNN, GOP lawmakers vent frustration over Trump administration’s lack of info on Iran war.

Per the Daily Mail, the lawmakers were presented with shifting goals for the war:

Nancy Mace walked out early, venting that ‘we were misled,’ while pro-Trump committee chair Mike Rogers warned ‘we’re not getting answers’ as Pentagon chiefs briefed the House Armed Services Committee, sparking fireworks on Capitol Hill.

Now, a Daily Mail source inside the room has revealed stark new details, including a shifting set of objectives separate from those publicly touted by the administration.

‘We were told nukes were not a military objective,’ they said, noting how the Pentagon has repeatedly stated they were. [¶]

The lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, urged the White House to answer questions about Kharg Island, Iran’s crucial oil export hub; its nuclear material; and regime change.

The lawmaker said that the White House must answer for its plans, particularly regarding Kharg Island and troops on the ground.

The alarm raised by congressional Republicans was validated late Thursday as the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is considering sending an additional 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East. A supplemental deployment of 10,000 troops would bring the total number of US troops in the Middle East to approximately 60,000 (a total that includes crews on ships). See WSJ, Pentagon Weighs Sending 10,000 More Ground Troops to the Middle East and Al Jazeera, US-Israel war on Iran, (“CENTCOM confirmed there are now more than 50,000 US troops in the Middle East, a deployment that includes two aircraft carriers, 200 combat aircraft, and thousands of arriving forces such as the 82nd Airborne and Marine Expeditionary Units.”)

So, as Republicans are angry and alarmed by Pentagon briefings and Trump considers sending another 10,000 troops, Trump claims that Tehran is “begging for a deal.” Meanwhile, Trump extended his “deadline” for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 10 days, to April 6, 2026. Trump claimed that Iran asked for the extension, a claim that Iran repudiated immediately. See CBS News, Trump calls off Strait of Hormuz ultimatum as Iran receives U.S. message from mediators. (“Trump “retreated” from his deadline “out of fear of Iran’s response.”)

It is difficult to know where Trump’s war against Iran is headed—in large part because he seems to be making it up as he goes along. That is the most dangerous place for the U.S. to be.

For the record, five ships transited the Strait of Hormuz on March 26—as compared to a historical daily average of 100. See Strait of Hormuz Live Tracker — Real-Time Shipping & Oil Crisis Monitor. War risk insurance is available at 50 times the normal premium. (For comparison, imagine if your auto insurer raised your annual premium by a factor of 50.)

Federal judge issues preliminary injunction against the Defense Department's designation of Anthropic AI as a supply chain risk.

The AI company Anthropic refused to license its products to the Department of Defense unless the DOD agreed not to use the AI for mass surveillance of US citizens or for autonomous guidance of missiles. Trump and Pete Hegseth attacked Anthropic and its CEO, claiming that they were disloyal for refusing to bend to the will of the Defense Department. They then designated Anthropic as a “supply chain risk,” which prohibits companies that do business with the DOD from doing business with Antropic. That order was the effective equivalent of a “corporate death sentence.”

On Thursday, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the DOD from designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk. The opinion is here: Anthropic v. U.S. Department of War.

United States District Judge Rita F. Lin wrote,

The record supports an inference that Anthropic is being punished for criticizing the government’s contracting position in the press. In their announcements, the President and Secretary Hegseth called Anthropic “out of control” and “arrogant,” describing its “sanctimonious rhetoric” as an attempt to “strong-arm” the government. The Department of War’s records show that it designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk because of its “hostile manner through the press.” Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government’s contracting position is classic illegal First Amendment retaliation.

In determining that the DOD and Trump sought to punish Anthropic, the court relied on public statements by Trump and Hegseth, proving—once again—that they are complete idiots who lack any sense of self-awareness.

A documentary on the resistance—and a boost before No Kings Day 3.0

Nine months ago, I received an email out of the blue from screenwriter and producer Bobby Roth asking if I would sit for an interview for a documentary about the resistance. (A reader who is a friend of Bobby’s suggested he interview me.) Without knowing anything more, I said, “Yes.” A week later, we met at my home and talked for about ninety minutes. And that, as they say, was that.

Today, I received a note from Bobby with a trailer for the documentary, which is called Lightworkers. The trailer is here: Lightworkers. To say the least, I was blown away by the trailer. It is a powerful, timely reminder of why we are members of the resistance—and why we are protesting on No Kings Day 3.0. (Full disclosures, I am humbled and a little embarrassed to be included in a documentary featuring so many leading politicians, political activists, and thought leaders.)

Although the documentary hasn’t been officially released, I asked Bobby if I could share the trailer in tonight’s newsletter—in advance of No Kings Day. The trailer includes video of difficult subjects (including the ICE/CBP killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti), but is ultimately uplifting and affirming. It may give you the boost you need as you prepare for No Kings Day 3.0.

The documentary will be released soon and promoted to help the resistance preserve democracy and defend the Constitution. Details to follow!

Concluding Thoughts

As noted above, Senate Republicans agreed to the deal Democrats have offered for weeks: fund DHS, except for ICE and Border Patrol. See Politico. Senate Democrats stood firm and refused to fund ICE and CBP without meaningful reforms. That battle over ICE and CBP reforms must be fought and won, but Democrats have successfully maneuvered the battle lines in a way that favors them.

Of course, Trump could refuse to sign the deal, but then every minute of every hour standing in a TSA security line would belong to him.

There will be wrangling to come, but this is a significant moral and political victory for Democrats on the eve of No Kings Day 3.0!

We have the momentum! Let’s carry it into Saturday to create the largest single-day political protest in American history!