Category: News

  • DHS Calls Facts Focused News Story About Fatal Shooting “Vile” and “Pro-Criminal Propaganda”

    DHS Calls Facts Focused News Story About Fatal Shooting “Vile” and “Pro-Criminal Propaganda”

    The people running the Department of Homeland Security’s X account are frequently criticizing news outlets coverage. Considering DHS’ lack of concern for accuracy, the criticism rings hollow. Today, they criticized an AP story in this way:

    This is truly vile, @AP.

    Why would you minimize the fact that one of our brave @ICEgov law enforcement officers was dragged by the car by a criminal illegal alien, even as assaults on @ICEgov officers have increased by 1000%.

    Stop writing pro-criminal propaganda. It’s pathetic.

    That doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that should be coming from the US government.

    Their post didn’t link the story, but did show the headline of the story, “Immigration agent who shot man in Chicago-area traffic stop says injuries were ‘nothing major’.” That headline is entirely accurate and simply factual. The headline could have been harsher, here is the Reuters headline from its story covering the situation, “Footage of deadly ICE shooting in Chicago suburb challenges official narrative.”

    The AP story itself is equally focused on factual claims instead of a journalist’s opinion.

    The story quotes from a Kristi Noem X post, where she wrote in part an ICE “officer was dragged many yards by a car after a criminal illegal alien resisted arrest. His life was put at risk and he sustained serious injuries.”

    The story also noted that “Federal officials had previously said the agent suffered ‘multiple’ and ‘serious injuries.’”

    Bodycam footage that the AP says was obtained from the Franklin Park police department through a Freedom of Information Act request tells a different story. Here is the story’s coverage:

    “I got dragged a little bit,” said the injured agent, who can be seen walking and talking while wearing ripped jeans with blood on them.

    The videos show the first agent saying his partner had suffered “a left knee injury and some lacerations to his hands” while speaking over a radio.

    “Nothing major,” the injured officer says while putting his arms up to shrug off concerns.

    Some of that footage that was included in local news reports shows that the description is accurate.

    The AP noted that they didn’t get a response from DHS officials on this story. Which isn’t all that surprising considering the level of discrepancy.

  • DHS and ICE Show that US Can Stop Drug Traffickers Without Blowing Up Boats

    DHS and ICE Show that US Can Stop Drug Traffickers Without Blowing Up Boats

    The Trump administration has recently blown up an unclear number of boats in the Caribbean that they claimed were being used to traffic drugs. Apparently, killing all those on the boats. Contradicting the need to do that has been unlikely source, the Department of Homeland Security’s social media team.

    On September 9, DHS’ X account was used to post this:

    Over the weekend, as part of Operation Pacific Viper, the

    @USCG Cutter Stone conducted three interdictions in a single night—seizing nearly 13,000 pounds of cocaine and apprehending seven suspected drug smugglers.

    Today, the posted video of capturing another drug boast from the same operation while again not needing to blow up a boat with people on it.

    They are probably not throwing shade at others in the administration, but it looks a lot like they are.

  • Despite Claim Donald Trump Didn’t Profit Off of Presidency, He Now Claims to Be Worth Over $100 Billion

    Despite Claim Donald Trump Didn’t Profit Off of Presidency, He Now Claims to Be Worth Over $100 Billion

    In a lawsuit filed on Monday, Donald Trump claimed the value of his “one-of-a-kind, unprecedented personal brand alone is reasonably estimated to be worth at over $100,000,000,000.” That is significantly above what he claimed his total net worth was on the day he announced his candidacy for President back in 2015. At that time he claimed his net worth was $8.7 billion. Those two numbers collide with the claim by his son on Tuesday that “[m]y father was the first guy who hasn’t made money off of the presidency.”

    Forbes disputes Eric Trump, “Donald Trump has presided over the most lucrative presidency in American history, adding billions to his net worth, largely by cashing in on crypto.”

  • Donald Trump Doesn’t Seem to Know if US Has Bombed Two or Three Boats in the Caribbean

    Donald Trump Doesn’t Seem to Know if US Has Bombed Two or Three Boats in the Caribbean

    On September 2, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that “U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.” In other words, the US had apparently bombed a boat somewhere in the Caribbean used by drug traffickers. Even basic details of what happened are still unclear. CNN quoted Democratic Jack Reed as saying “They have offered no positive identification that the boat was Venezuelan, nor that its crew were members of Tren de Aragua or any other cartel,” after his staffed was briefed on the 9th. Despite that, the next day Fox News aired an interview where the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said “we knew exactly who it was.”

    On Sunday, Donald Trump told reporters, “Since the first strike and then to a lesser extent, the second, we don’t see any I mean, we almost see no boats out there, which is fine as far as I’m concerned. There’s been very little boat traffic.” So there had been two strikes as of Sunday?

    On Monday, Donald Trump posted “This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.” Beyond using a social networking site he partially owns two make such a serious announcement, he was claiming there were now two strikes that happened despite stating previously two had already happened. Confused?

    Today he told reporters “We knocked off, actually, three boats not two, but you saw two.”

    Considering the obvious questions about the legality of bombing these boats, when the President can’t even provide clear information on whether two or three boats have bombed things are very amiss.

  • At JD Vance Event Touting One Big Beautiful Bill He Never Mentioned It by Name

    At JD Vance Event Touting One Big Beautiful Bill He Never Mentioned It by Name

    On Thursday, Politico reported on Republicans seeing it as “crucial” to tout the One Big Beautiful Bill this month as part of a messaging war:

    The party sees this month as crucial for gaining ground in the messaging war with Democrats over the new law, which pairs an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts with some of his campaign promises like “no tax on tips,” plus more funding for immigration enforcement and the military.

    The story also talked about an event that JD Vance would be holding later in the day in Georgia to promote the law. At that event, JD Vance strikingly never mentioned the law as the One Big Beautiful Bill. Instead, mentioning it as the Working Families Tax Cut three times. That goes against how Donald Trump refers to it, but is something that has been pushed by Republican strategists. NBC’s Peter Nicholas, Garrett Haake and Olympia Sonnier reported on that in July:

    Two Republican strategists said they are advising lawmakers to sell the act to a wider audience using different titles: the “Working Family Tax Cuts” act or possibly the “Trump Working Family Tax Cuts.”

    That split between Donald Trump and JD Vance was largely ignored by the press. Possibly because they think so little of JD Vance. Or perhaps because they are bad at their jobs.

  • DC ‘s 101st Homicide of 2025 Two Days in to Trump Takeover Barely Covered

    DC ‘s 101st Homicide of 2025 Two Days in to Trump Takeover Barely Covered

    When Donald Trump took over policing in Washington, DC on Monday of last week, there had been 99 homicides so far in DC in 2025. Later that day, August 11, there was another homicide. That received coverage from national outlets and local ones. That shouldn’t be surprising, considering what had just happened to policing in DC. Two days later there was another homicide, which didn’t receive almost any coverage. That should be shocking, but with the state of journalism, especially in covering all things Trump, it isn’t.

    We didn’t find any coverage of the homicide as the 101st. And the largest outlet we found that covered it at all was DC News Now, which is part of Nexstar Media Group.

    The homicide of Mignon Brown-Masse is currently one of 48 of DC police’s “Major Case/Unsolved Homicides.” They provide this information about the homicide:

    On Wednesday, August 13, 2025, at approximately 11:01 am, Ms. Mignon Brown-Massey was shot and killed in the 3300 block of 15th Street, NE.

    They also released a reward flier.

    The location of the homicide is far from the areas that appear to be the focus of Trump forces.

  • Reuters Buries “Dementia Don” Element of Trump Steel Tariff Story

    Reuters Buries “Dementia Don” Element of Trump Steel Tariff Story

    Yesterday, Reuters ran a story headlined “Trump says he will set tariffs on steel and semiconductor chips in coming weeks.” Someone who has followed the Trump tariff saga would be confused, because Donald Trump already set tariffs on steel. In the seventh of ten paragraphs in the story, that is noted:

    Trump in February raised tariffs on steel and aluminum to a flat 25%, but he announced in May that he would double the rate to 50% to boost domestic manufacturers.

    The next paragraph sort of deals with the contradiction:

    It was not immediately clear if another tariff increase on the metals was in the offing.

    Somehow they realized that Donald Trump might not know what is going on with his own tariffs, but they ran a story not about that, but focused on a claim that might have no basis in reality.

  • FEMA and Disaster Relief Absent from DHS Promotion of Kristi Noem’s First 200 Days Accomplishments

    FEMA and Disaster Relief Absent from DHS Promotion of Kristi Noem’s First 200 Days Accomplishments

    Continuing the oversized role of promoting Kristi Noem by DHS, they released a series of posts on “[Kristi Noem’s] accomplishments from her historic 200 Days on the job.” Notably absent was any mention of a critical part of the DHS, FEMA, and its role in disaster relief. Here is what they highlighted instead:

    THE MOST SECURE BORDER IN AMERICAN HISTORY.

    Daily Southwest Border encounters have plunged by 93%.

    In May, June and July, U.S. Border Patrol reported ZERO parole releases.

    The Biden administration’s catch-and-release policies have ENDED.

    More than 352,000 illegal aliens have been arrested and more than 324,000 removed.

    Over 13,000 unaccompanied children have been located.

    DHS has partnered with the State of Florida on Alligator Alcatraz and the State of Indiana on the Speedway Slammer to expand detention space to lock up the WORST OF THE WORST.

    HISTORIC self-deportations have been incentivized—1.6 million illegal immigrants have left the United States population.

    .@Sec_Noem has signed 16 agreements with other countries that advance President Trump’s agenda of making America safe.

    The Golden Age of Travel has arrived with the new “Shoes-On” travel policy and Families on the Fly campaign aimed at enhancing traveler experience while maintaining the highest security standards.

    The also released a companion video featured Red Hot Chili Peppers song “Can’t Stop”. They almost certainly didn’t get the rights to use that.

  • CDC Suspends Weekly Update of Measles Case Stats

    CDC Suspends Weekly Update of Measles Case Stats

    On February 21, the CDC started updating a page with stats on measles cases on a weekly basis up from monthly. That happened on Fridays and was later happening every Wednesday. This week there was no update. Instead, a message now appears at the top of the page stating that:

    The data on this page will not be updated on Wednesday, August 13, 2025. CDC will resume updates as soon as possible.

    No further information was provided as to what led to the change.

    That comes as the US has already had the highest number of cases this century so far this year, despite nearly 5 months remaining to go in the count:

    You have to go back to 1992 to a higher number of cases:

    The large outbreak of measles has reached across 40 states this year: