Bits n pieces, from east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

With a “blue wave” expected from November’s voting, Democracy Docket reports that, along with President Donald Trump’s efforts to sideline voters deemed a threat to Republicans, there’s a risk of flooding voters with election disinformation (including false voting sites). To combat disinformation a bill is now in Congress: the Fraudulent Artificial Intelligence Regulations Elections Act.

Trump’s 80th birthday-Flag Day UFC cage fights event unfolded last Sunday. Various media noted it was the first private, for-profit sporting event held on White House grounds. VIP guests paid up to $1.5 million for ringside access. Law enforcement included armored vehicles. 

A Cornell University classics professor likened the event to the “bread and circuses” of “gladiatorial games of Imperial Rome, when combatants brutalized each other for public entertainment…to bolster rulers’ popularity and quell potential unrest.” The White House said the UFC covered costs, but seven federal agencies were also tapped, the AP reported. The FBI claimed multiple arrests were made to stop an attack on the event.

After learning inflation surged to 4.2% (Bureau of Labor Statistics), numerous media noted that Trump commented “I love inflation” -- which soon appeared on billboards.

On Truth Social Trump recently said he’s sending an ‘Election Integrity Army’ to every state for the mid-term elections.

Former U.S. Sen. Richard Gephardt-Missouri, and former Sen. Timothy Wirth-Colorado, also first Secretary of State for Global Affairs, recently released a report they say indicates the Trump administration is engaged in a “rolling coup.” 

Info to back their claim includes:

Trump’s directive, NPSM-7 targets citizens they deem “anti-American,” “anti-capitalist,” “anti-Christian” or “hostile to traditional American views.” The two senators point out that this threats protected political speech as terrorism. As part of the rolling coup the FBI, IRS and Treasury Department are tracking funding sources and supporters of organizations they suspect are directly or indirectly facilitating what they regard as “political unrest,” ignoring the First Amendment. 

The FBI’s “Joint Mission Center,” armed with a $12.5 billion “targeting” budget, has engaged in a 300% increase in “domestic terrorism” investigations. Former AG Pam Bondi has testified that thousands of U.S. citizens and non-governmental organizations are on a secret watch list connected to the Joint Mission Center.

Dovetailing with the Joint Mission Center actions is the administration’s appropriation of $45 billion for new ICE detention facilities -- a budget over four times that of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The senators believe the scope of new ICE detention indicates warehousing intended for political prisoners, prohibited by a 1974 federal law.

The senators point out that the commander of the U.S. Northern Command, responsible for over 200 killings labeled “extrajudicial” in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, has stated publicly that he would similarly “definitely” execute “lawful orders” on American soil. The look is not good, considering Trump has fired the bulk of Dept. of Defense officials who oversee the legality of military operations.

Two other concerns the senators’ report shared was that of the Trump administration consistently pursuing vast sums for more federal agents for airports and urban polling places (that Trump lost in the 2024 election) and the Justice Dept. is attempting to secure states’ voter roll data.

The senators say rather than “tanks in the street” on a single day, an incremental and less obvious “rolling coup” is well underway. To combat that, they recommend Congress reassert Article I authority over emergency powers, military deployments on U.S. soil, and the “Office of Legal Council’s power to rewrite statute by memo.” 

As well, they said governors and attorneys general need to adopt protective measures that shield citizens, non-profits and election workers from NPSM-7. Newsrooms need to report the bigger picture, and all others need to “name it out loud.” Ignoring the issue, they say, could likely result in democracy being destroyed by a Presidential declaration of a national emergency.

Headlines, for brevity: Deal is reached to end Iran war [this Friday -- Trump’s Cabinet members have raised doubts -- key issues like Iran’s nuclear program are not yet addressed]; Court Blocks Censorship and Erasure of American History and Science at National Parks; Judge tosses Trump bid to restrict renewable energy tax credits; Trump’s name is gone from the Kennedy Center façade [per court order]; Elon Musk becomes the world's first trillionaire as SpaceX opens at $150 a share [the Lever said stock market regulators created an “extraordinary exemption” from consumer protection regulations for Musk, and 401(k) holders will be forced to invest in the “government-subsidized money-losing company”], and, Top Pentagon Official Admits Boat Strike May Have Killed Victims of Human Trafficking.

Blast from the past: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion…we must think anew and act anew… and then we shall save our country.” Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president, in 1862.