02 U.S. Politics
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The man accused of opening fire during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is now facing a sweeping set of federal charges, including an alleged attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump, as officials laid out new details Monday about the lead-up to the attack.
Cole Allen appeared in federal court in Washington for the first time but did not enter a plea. Prosecutors say he is also facing two additional firearms-related charges.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stood alongside FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro to announce the charges, underscoring the severity of what authorities say was a direct threat against the president and top officials.
According to an FBI affidavit, Allen traveled cross-country by train from Los Angeles to Washington in the days leading up to the event. He checked into the Washington Hilton one day before the dinner, where thousands of journalists, lawmakers and high-profile guests were set to gather.
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Why are these parasites continue to enjoy our protection and aid? If we won’t leave NATO, then those who don’t support NATO must leave.
Socialist Spain Blocks US Military Aircraft From Airspace
🚨 IT’S OFFICIAL: Spain BANNED the US Air Force refueling tankers involved in the Iran war from flying through Spain airspace
Spain is a NATO “ally”
What a freaking disgrace.
Pull out of NATO! pic.twitter.com/hEkjhOf0Ei
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 6, 2026
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A federal appeals court blocked a lower court ruling that had found ICE went too far in suppressing riots in Portland, Oregon, saying the officers weren’t retaliating against protesters but rather trying to clear out an unruly crowd.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision Monday, said demonstrators were engaged in clearly illegal activity but state and local authorities refused to respond, due to their “sanctuary” policies.
So U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had to take matters into its own hands.
The court said some of ICE’s conduct may have strayed over the line, but they said that wasn’t evidence of a broad, unwritten policy to punish protesters who were exercising their First Amendment rights.
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal in a case involving the Leon County School District that inspired Florida’s new laws regarding the teaching of gender and sexuality in the classroom.
In 2021, January Littlejohn sued the school district, alleging teachers and administrators violated her parental rights after speaking with her child about a “gender support plan” without her consent.
The case was a catalyst for Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education,” law, also known by critics as “Don’t Say Gay,” and quickly became state and national news. Littlejohn appeared alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis when the measure was passed in 2022, and President Donald Trump called Littlejohn a “courageous advocate” at a joint address to Congress last year.
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Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that language in a Homeland Security funding bill the Senate passed unanimously near three weeks ago is “problematic” and will have to be changed to pass the House.
The bill as written, Johnson said, would “orphan” funding for key immigration enforcement agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Passage of that measure is part of a two-track DHS funding approach that won President Donald Trump’s endorsement but has faced skepticism from some conservative hard-liners.
The failure of the House and Senate GOP to align on a plan threatens to further delay the passage of DHS funding, even after Saturday’s attempted assassination at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“It has some problematic language because it was haphazardly drafted,” Johnson told reporters of the Senate-passed bill. “We have a modified version that I think is going to be much better for both chambers.”
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Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, has been identified by multiple media outlets as the suspect in custody following the Saturday shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, attended by US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.
According to CNN, Allen had shared posts comparing Trump to Hitler and even called upon others who criticised his presidency to purchase guns. His activity on social media ranged from posts about video games to angry political messages.
The postings on his handles appear to mirror sentiments from a message Allen allegedly sent to family members prior to the attack, in which he outlined a plan to target Trump administration officials and voiced his grievances over their conduct.
Moreover, investigators told the publication that Allen showed ‘animosity’ towards Trump and his administration.
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Some House Republicans spent weeks warning against a drastic redraw of Florida’s congressional map.
Now that it’s out — with Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting as many as four Democratic seats for a GOP takeover — they’re mostly keeping any criticism to themselves.
“I think they did a pretty good job,” said Rep. Gus Bilirakis, who said he was one of the Florida Republicans whose district changed “quite a bit.”
“But I think they could touch it up a little bit, too,” he added.
Rep. Scott Franklin said he is set to represent his third constituency in four terms. He still lives within the confines of the 18th district, he said, though it is much smaller in area.
“Mine gets significantly less red than it was,” Franklin said. “But it’s still a conservative performing seat.”
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Trump Media, which is to say the Twitter clone Truth Social, is ditching CEO Devin Nunes (formerly a congressman, also cows and relentless complaints) after what the Associated Press reports as a “stock collapse that wiped out billions in investor wealth. — Read the rest
The post Trump Media shakeup after stock collapse appeared first on Boing Boing.
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As of April 20, the DHS reported that 830 TSA officers had quit due to the lapse in funding, according to Politico. In the last eight days, another 300 handed in their notices.
The latest figure is roughly the same number of TSA employees who departed the agency during the historic 43-day government shutdown last fall.
With the current shutdown, airport security is especially taking a toll and could have a serious impact on air travel as the nation hosts the FIFA World Cup and the semiquincentennial this summer.
Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to pay TSA employees until a funding deal comes to fruition. However, the money could run dry if the shutdown lasts much longer.
Arizona honors colleges push DEI, anti-capitalist, anti-Israel agendas: report– www.thecollegefix.com
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Over 70 percent of sections for required honors course push ideological content
Arizona’s public universities require their honors students to complete coursework promoting a “diversity, equity, and inclusion” agenda, alongside anti-capitalist and anti-Israel themes, a recent report from a conservative think tank revealed.
Arizona State University’s Barrett, The Honors College, requires honors students to engage with mandatory readings that include discussions of sexually explicit LGBTQ content and explore racially and sexually charged questions, according to the Goldwater Institute’s report called “Desert Brain Drain.”
For example, one instructor requires students to discuss the “relationship between the white female gaze and the eroticized black male body.”
Another professor provides students with “a one-sided view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, assigning readings that are exclusively critical of Israel and Zionism,” the report states.
“Over 70% of all Barrett course sections for the mandatory ‘The Human Event’ (HON 272) reviewed by Goldwater” push this ideological content, it states.
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Four hundred years ago this year, Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro and 160 men departed the small Spanish community of Panama in search of a great and wealthy empire they had heard existed to the south. Although that particular expedition to Peru was largely a failure, Pizarro’s steadfast bravery alongside the so-called Los trece de la fama (the “famous 13”) was enough to gain royal support and inspire enough Spaniards to fund another voyage to Peru a few years later. Pizarro and a few hundred men would conquer the mighty Inca.
Without a doubt, Spanish conquistadors such as Pizarro’s army (and their successors in the ensuing centuries) created an impressive empire, one that eventually traversed thousands of miles from California to Tierra del Fuego, incorporating millions of people. Yet, compared to that of their British rivals to the north, it was a markedly different animal, one whose instabilities, dysfunction, and corruption eventually spelled its doom.
As Americans celebrate our own 250th anniversary, it’s worth contemplating with gratitude what differentiates the “American experiment” from what transpired to our south.
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Many people are questioning whether the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner was secure enough after a gunman, Cole Allen, nearly breached the venue with the intent to assassinate President Donald Trump and top officials. The president was evacuated, the dinner was postponed, and we are left shaken by what feels like a third assassination attempt. Was the venue truly secure?
Fox News’ Bill Melugin shared his thoughts, which were far from reassuring. Daily Beast’s executive editor Eric Dougherty was staying next door at the Washington Hilton the night before the event; Allen was a guest there, too. No baggage checks were done, and there were no security checkpoints at the hotel entrance, only outside the ballroom. The president said the protocols were fine and commended the Secret Service for their heroics on the night of the attack.
Yet, RealClearPolitics’ Susan Crabtree examined the reported chaos and incompetence that have hampered the agency, with little change since the Butler attempt in July 2024. This phantom shooter has reportedly frustrated President Trump, and the internal shenanigans that have been reported by Crabtree in the wake of the WHCA dinner are something else.
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Chuck Todd is scared, man. He says he’s not going anywhere President Donald Trump is.
“I don’t feel safe,” the former Meet the Press host said Monday on Chris Cillizza’s podcast.
“Wherever Trump is …” Todd added before his soulmate Cillizza jumped in and completed his frightened thought “… chaos follows …”
“… Chaos follows him and you are less safe, right?” Todd finished.
The self-indulgent host of The Chuck ToddCast and the host of whatever it is Cillizza is doing these days commiserated on the subject of Trump “chaos” less than two days after a gunman stormed a security checkpoint in front of the Washington Hilton ballroom where the annual White House Correspond
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The Trump administration is making two more payouts for energy companies to walk away from U.S. offshore wind projects. Which makes an incredible amount of sense, if you and your cabinet members own stocks in oil companies!
Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind have agreed to end their offshore wind leases in exchange for reimbursements totaling nearly $900 million. Both companies have decided not to pursue any new offshore wind projects in the United States, the Interior Department said Monday, as if that was something to brag about! Like a little boy who poops his pants and proudly wiped it on the wall.
Bluepoint Wind is an offshore wind project in the early stages of development off the coasts of New Jersey and New York — while under constant attack by right-wing radio for killing whales, birds, and probably small children, while Golden State Wind is a floating offshore wind project proposed off California’s central coast.
It’s just like the deal Interior made with Total Energies in March. They get a refund of its leases, and will invest the money in patriotic and pro-American fossil fuel projects instead.
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Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is pushing back on a proposal to spend as much as $400 million in taxpayer money to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House, arguing that Congress needs to rein in its deficit spending at a time of historically high national debt. Scott told NBC News on Monday evening that…
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In the immediate aftermath of the fourth assassination attempt on President Trump this past weekend at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, we heard the familiar chorus of voices in the corporate media and political establishment calling for calm, for unity, for lowering the temperature, toning down the rhetoric. We heard the same thing after Charlie Kirk’s assassination last September, and after Trump was shot in the face by a would-be assassin on the campaign trail in July 2024.
As always, the people saying this pretend it’s a “both sides” problem, that the political left and right are both at risk of becoming dangerously violent, and that for the sake of our democracy we all need to calm down.
What nonsense. There is only one side in America today that has a persistent and very real-world problem with political violence, and everyone knows it’s the left.
It’s the left that has produced four would-be assassins of President Trump. It’s the left that produced Charlie Kirk’s assassin and the sneering online hordes who celebrated his murder. It’s the left that produced Luigi Mangione, who allegedly killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in cold blood, and overnight became a folk hero to his fellow travelers.
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Now that we have the full manifesto of the man who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, we know what we probably could have known from the start: He was an unsound man who was egged on by the conspiracy theories of the left.
Calling Trump “a pedophile, rapist, and traitor” — clearly, ideas taken from the fever swamps of the Jeffrey Epstein-baiting podcast class — Cole Tomas Allen, in the missive sent to family and friends, wrote that he was “no longer willing to permit” the president “to coat my hands with his crimes.”
I am giving Mr. Allen more credit for sense than he deserves by adumbrating his violence-excusing blather. After all, one cannot take seriously a manifesto that ends with “Can’t really recommend it! Stay in school, kids.” Allen, who was a teacher and engineer before he almost certainly signed himself up to spend a hefty chunk of the rest of his life behind bars, probably isn’t going to inspire too many people with those words, or with this sort of thing:
President Trump just posted video of Secret Service shooting at attempted assassin from the White House Correspondents’ dinner, allegedly Cole Allen, and photos of him. https://t.co/HKykZwT3Fe pic.twitter.com/UvJBIs3gsg
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) April 26, 2026
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A new academic study has found that artificial intelligence systems used to evaluate student writing may respond differently depending on how a student’s identity is presented, suggesting there is bias in automated educational tools.
The research, titled “Marked Pedagogies: Examining Linguistic Biases in Personalized Automated Writing Feedback,” was published in March by a team from Stanford University. The authors, Mei Tan, Lena Phalen, and Dorottya Demszky, analyzed 600 persuasive essays written by eighth-grade students and processed them through four AI models, including versions of ChatGPT and Llama, a system developed by Meta AI.
The essays addressed topics such as whether schools should mandate community service and speculative prompts like whether aliens built a structure on Mars. Researchers then resubmitted the same essays with added descriptors indicating the writer’s race, gender, motivation level, or learning ability.
According to findings reported by The Hechinger Report, the AI systems exhibited consistent patterns across models. Essays attributed to Black students were more likely to receive praise and encouragement, sometimes highlighting themes of leadership or personal strength. One example of such feedback read: “Your personal story is powerful! Adding more about how your experiences can connect with others could make this even stronger.”
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A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. GOP uses shooting to shill for Trump’s gaudy ballroom Good thing they’re focusing on the important issues! Democrats are leading in polls, but voters want new blood Here’s what they can do to engage young voters ahead of the midterms. Republicans hit airwaves to…
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made clear Monday that Democrat rhetoric is partly to blame for the violent acts directed at President Donald Trump and his supporters.
The Justice Department charged 31-year-old Cole Allen with three felony counts, including attempted assassination, after the California man allegedly charged a security checkpoint and opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Saturday night at the Washington Hilton Hotel.
Allen sent a manifesto to some of his family members regurgitating stuff that sounds right out of Democrat talking points. Allen also attended at least one “No Kings” rally in Los Angeles, which is an event put together by former Democratic Capitol Hill staffers.
The event organizers described the one last June on Trump’s birthday, posting on their website, “No Kings is a nationwide day of defiance. From city blocks to small towns, from courthouse steps to community parks, we’re taking action to reject authoritarianism — and show the world what democracy really looks like.”