Just when you thought the State of California could not possibly find another way to waste taxpayer funds, lawmakers beat everyone’s expectations.
A proposed California law “would expand access to state-funded legal representation for undocumented immigrants,” according to Newsweek.
Last time I checked, it was not the job of elected officials to fund the legal bills of foreign nationals, especially on the taxpayers’ dime. While I am no legal expert, I am having a hard time seeing how this is legal, but draw your own conclusions.
It is almost like lawmakers took a look at all the fraud and misuse of funds and decided to DOUBLE IT. From over $100 million in hospice fraud to spending $24 billion on homeless initiatives — which made the problem worse — to the $126 billion train to nowhere — to its $114 million butterfly bridge — the state just cannot help itself.
Assembly Bill 2600, proposed by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland), would expand access to publicly funded attorneys for individuals facing immigration proceedings in California.
Judge Dismisses Trump’s Lawsuit Against the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch Over Epstein Reporting – TheWrap
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President Donald Trump warned China on Sunday it would face a tariff among other “staggering” consequences if it provided weapons to Iran.
Trump announced a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in a Sunday morning Truth Social post, saying ships that paid an Iranian toll in either Chinese yuan or cryptocurrency would be intercepted by the United States Navy.
“Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo asked Trump about reports China had provided missiles to Iran.
After a 10-day mission that sent them around the far side of the moon, NASA Commander Reid Wiseman says he and his three fellow Artemis II crew members are “bonded forever.”
Wiseman and fellow astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen were welcomed home in an emotional and rousing event in Houston, one day after they touched back down on Earth.
“We are bonded forever and no one down here is ever going to know what the four of us just went through and it was the most special thing that will ever happen in my life,” said Wiseman.
The mission broke the record for the farthest humans have ever travelled from Earth, and on a personal level, Reid said it was no small feat.
Oil prices may soon be coming down after this move by U.S. Forces.
U.S. CENTCOM on Saturday announced the USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy will patrol the Strait of Hormuz to clear it from mines that were placed by the Iranian regime.
The move by U.S. CENTCOM come as JD Vance and top Iranian officials are in Pakistan discussing a peace agreement that would bring an end to U.S. military operations in Iran.
Liberals around Europe are raising their glasses in celebration after seeing the results of the election in Hungary on Sunday.
With nearly 99% of the votes counted, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party had secured only 55 of the 199 seats in the Hungarian parliament, bringing Orbán’s 16-year stint as prime minister to an end despite an endorsement last week from President Donald Trump.
If you’re following AI news, you’re probably getting whiplash. AI is a gold rush. AI is a bubble. AI is taking your job. AI can’t even read a clock. The 2026 AI Index from Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, AI’s annual report card, comes out today and cuts through some of that noise.
Despite predictions that AI development may hit a wall, the report says that the top models just keep getting better. People are adopting AI faster than they picked up the personal computer or the internet. AI companies are generating revenue faster than companies in any previous technology boom, but they’re also spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers and chips. The benchmarks designed to measure AI, the policies meant to govern it, and the job market are struggling to keep up. AI is sprinting, and the rest of us are trying to find our shoes.
All that speed comes at a cost. AI data centers around the world can now draw 29.6 gigawatts of power, enough to run the entire state of New York at peak demand. Annual water use from running OpenAI’s GPT-4o alone may exceed the drinking water needs of 12 million people. At the same time, the supply chain for chips is alarmingly fragile. The US hosts most of the world’s AI data centers, and one company in Taiwan, TSMC, fabricates almost every leading AI chip.
U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV pushed back Monday on President Donald Trump’s broadside against him over the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, telling reporters that the Vatican’s appeals for peace and reconciliation are rooted in the Gospel, and that he doesn’t fear the Trump administration.
“To put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is,” Leo told The Associated Press aboard the papal plane en route to Algeria. “And I’m sorry to hear that but I will continue on what I believe is the mission of the church in the world today.”
Democratic House Rep. Eric Swalwell suspended his campaign for California governor on Sunday night following sexual assault allegations that he continues to deny.
“I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s,” Swalwell said in a social media post.
Democrats quickly abandoned Swalwell, 44, after allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman twice, including when she worked for him. The allegations were first published Friday in the San Francisco Chronicle, and later by CNN.
Pope Leo has responded to President Trump’s attack on him by saying he has “no intention to debate” Mr. Trump on Iran.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump lashed out at the pontiff on social media, calling him “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” he added.
Leo had called Mr. Trump’s threat to wipe out Iranian civilization “truly unacceptable” and encouraged people to contact “political leaders … to ask them, tell them to work for peace.”
The Supreme Court and Trump’s Regime are Full of Christian Fascists revcom.us
from news.google.com
HONG KONG — China is poised to benefit from the Iran war as global energy disruptions accelerate a shift away from fossil fuels and toward clean technologies and renewable power, industries that China dominates.
Most of the oil and gas from the now mostly shut Strait of Hormuz was Asia-bound. Asian nations are scrambling to conserve energy and bolster dwindling reserves. As a temporary ceasefire teeters, gasoline prices in the U.S. and Europe are spiking.
While most of Asia is hit hard, China will likely benefit from the fossil fuel disruptions despite being the biggest purchaser of Iranian oil. China leads the world in battery, solar and electric vehicle exports, and its industries are forecast to face a rise in demand for renewable products.
Before the start of the Iran war in late February, China’s lead in clean technologies was lengthening. The U.S. under President Donald Trump scaled back on renewable energy and leaned on its vast oil and gas resources, promoting energy exports to achieve what Trump described as “energy dominance.”
Donald Trump has said he doesn’t care if Iran comes back to negotiations with the US after the weekend talks in Pakistan ended without a deal. “I don’t care if they come back or not,” Trump told reporters in Maryland on Sunday. “If they don’t come back, I’m fine.”
Trump said earlier that the US Navy would start blockading the Hormuz strait and also prohibit every vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran. US Central Command said later it would begin a blockade of all Iranian Gulf ports and coastal areas on Monday at 10am ET (5.30pm in Iran and 1400 GMT), effectively seizing control of maritime traffic in the strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned that “approaching military vessels to the strait of Hormuz is considered a violation of the ceasefire”.
Oil prices rose in early market trading after Trump’s blockade announcement. The price of US crude oil rose 8% to $104.24 a barrel and Brent crude oil – the international standard – rose 7% to $102.29. Australia’s share market dropped sharply on Monday morning.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf taunted Trump on X, saying in a post: “Enjoy the current pump figures. With the so-called ‘blockade’, Soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4–$5 gas.” Earlier he said Trump’s new threats would have no effect on the Iranian nation: “If you fight, we will fight … We will not bow to any threats.”
Trump and his advisers are looking at resuming limited military strikes in Iran in addition to the US blockade of the Hormuz strait, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing officials and people familiar with the situation.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps asserted their sweeping control over the Strait of Hormuz, even as it signalled that civilian maritime traffic remains permitted under regulated conditions.In a statement, quoted by AFP, the Guards’ naval command said, “All traffic… is under the full control of the armed forces,” accompanied by footage showing vessels targeted through crosshairs. The warning escalated further with the message, “The enemy will become trapped in a deadly vortex in the Strait if it makes the wrong move.”
Oil prices have rocketed in early market trading after the US announced it would blockade Iranian ports.
The US military has confirmed it will halt all maritime traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports, with the measure taking effect at 10am ET (2pm GMT) today.
US crude oil prices surged eight per cent to $104.24 a barrel in early trading, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed seven per cent to $102.29.
Hungary’s strongman Viktor Orban has lost reelection in stunning fashion, an absolute electoral wipeout that presages what his MAGA allies in the U.S. will be facing this November.
The brand-new opposition Tisza party won around 53% of the vote, to just 37% for Orban’s Fidesz. Tisza is projected to secure around 138 seats in the 199-seat parliament, comfortably above the 133 needed for a supermajority, giving it the power to rewrite Hungary’s constitution and begin dismantling the autocratic system Orban spent 16 years building. Fidesz currently holds 135 seats.
China’s energy strategy pays off as Mideast war cramps supplies, analysts say The Japan Times
from news.google.com
Iran sees American demands as reaching far beyond what the United States achieved in war. Tehran is gambling that it can withstand further bombardment more than Washington is willing to sustain economic chaos, experts say.
from www.nytimes.com
John Brennan, who was the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) throughout Barack Obama’s presidency, has joined calls for the removal of US President Donald Trump from office, declaring that the US Constitution’s 25th Amendment was drawn up with Trump specifically in mind.
The Iranian regime recently massacred perhaps as many as 40,000 of its own people, has been bombarding civilian targets in multiple nations for weeks, and has spent decades practicing international terrorism and domestic tyranny. So, of course, the United Nations just nominated an Iranian representative to its committee overseeing women’s rights and anti-terrorism measures.
Disney To Axe Nearly 1,000 Jobs Under New CEO Josh D’Amaro: Report Yahoo Finance
from news.google.com
Donald Trump hasn’t done interviews with neutral journalists who could challenge him in years. Trump’s venues of choice are either cell phone interviews that last a minute or two or conservative media like Fox News and Newsmax.
The Fox News interviews are heavily manufactured, usually pretaped, and edited before they air.
It takes a special level of incompetence to go on a network that is propagandistic and supportive and botch a softball question in such a friendly and managed environment.
The issue that is driving the special election results that Democrats have been dominating, and the Democratic Party’s midterm generic ballot lead that has been growing, is the economy. Inflation and rising prices are driving voter outrage directed at this president and his administration.
WASHINGTON — Former 2024 GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley said that the US will “probably” need to dispatch a special forces team to retrieve Iran’s uranium stockpile.
“That’s probably what it’s going to come down to. I mean, this is a special force mission. It would take about a week to ten days to get done. They know how to do it. It’s dangerous,” Haley told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
The U.S. Military’s New ‘Mini’ B-21 Raider Stealth Inspired Drones Just Broke Cover 19FortyFive
from news.google.com
The first thing you learn about a loom is that it’s easy to break.
The shuttle runs along a track that warps with humidity. The heddles hang from cords that fray. The reed is a row of thin metal strips, bent by hand, that bend back just as easily. The warp beam cracks if you over-tighten it. The treadles loosen at the joints. The breast beam, the cloth roller, the ratchet and pawl, the lease sticks, the castle; the whole contraption is wood and string held together by tension. It’s a piece of ingenuity and craftsmanship, but one as delicate as the clothes it manifests out of wild plant fibers. It is, also, the foundational tool of an entire industry, textiles, that has kept its relevance to our days of heavy machinery, factories, energy facilities, and datacenters.
Gun Store Sales Surge As Virginians Try to Beat New Gun Controls– www.breitbart.com
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EXCERPT:
Gun stores in Virginia are seeing sales surge as residents of the state buy up firearms and ammo trying to beat the effective dates of new gun controls.
The Fauquier Times noted, “Early indicators suggest Virginians are responding to a slate of proposed gun-control legislation with a noticeable spike in firearm background checks — a sign that gun sales are on the rise.”
Congressional and campaign staffers for Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) have condemned the recent sexual assault allegations against their embattled boss, urging the public to support the four accusers.
“As leaders of teams working for Eric Swalwell, we’re horrified by the recent reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle and by CNN,” more than a dozen staffers said in an unsigned statement on Saturday. “We stand with our former colleague, and the other women who have come forward. We believe you should stand with them, too.”
Elon Musk’s xAI faces lawsuit over Mississippi power plant tied to AI data centers The Times of India
from news.google.com
Two U.S. Navy destroyers had transited the Strait of Hormuz to begin mine-clearing operations in the vital waterway, U.S. Central Command said Saturday.
The destroyers crossed through the Strait and operated in the Arabian Gulf, CENTCOM said on social media. Additional U.S. forces, including underwater drones, will “join the clearance effort in the coming days,” CENTCOM said.
The operation came as President Trump said on Truth Social on Saturday that the U.S. was doing “a favor to Countries all over the world” by clearing mines from the strait. Mr. Trump also said Saturday that all of Iran’s mine-laying ships have been destroyed.
