Did Trump Violate Constitution With Strike on Iran? Republicans in Congress at Odds

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In the wake of President Donald Trump’s military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities Saturday, Republicans in Congress are at odds over the constitutionality of the military action without congressional approval.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said: “The President made the right call, and did what he needed to do. . .

But a fellow Republican, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, said the dropping of 12 bunker buster bombs in a precision strike on three nuclear sites was “not constitutional.”

Massie responded directly to Johnson’s opinion, saying: “Why didn’t you call us back from vacation to vote on military action if there was a serious threat to our country?” . . .

Numerous presidents of both major political parties have taken military action against countries without congressional approval in recent years, including Democrat Barack Obama launching strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.

(Read more from “Did Trump Violate Constitution With Strike on Iran? Republicans in Congress at Odds” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

If Iran Blocks Strait of Hormuz, What Will Happen to U.S. Energy Costs?

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Iran is reportedly weighing blocking a key commercial choke point known as the Strait of Hormuz, a move that could drive up energy costs in the U.S. and across the globe, according to energy sector experts who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Israel began to bombard Iran to eliminate the Islamic Republic’s ability to build a nuclear weapon on June 13, and the U.S. carried out “Operation Midnight Hammer” on Saturday night, bombing three of Iran’s nuclear facilities. While Iran’s parliament has reportedly voted to close the Strait of Hormuz in a retaliatory move to choke the world’s oil supply in response to the American strikes, the U.S. is well-positioned to combat the inevitable energy cost spike that would follow if Iran succeeds, sector experts told the DCNF.

“The escalating conflict between Iran and Israel is already putting upward pressure on oil and natural gas prices—and that pressure will intensify if the Strait of Hormuz is blocked,” Trisha Curtis, an economist at the American Energy Institute, told the DCNF. “This kind of disruption would send global prices higher and tighten supply chains. Fortunately, the U.S. is well-positioned to respond — our domestic production strength and growing export infrastructure make American oil and natural gas increasingly indispensable to global markets.”

Iran does not have the legal authority to halt traffic through the strait, meaning it would need to usurp control through force or the threat of force, according to legal scholars and multiple reports. The Iranian parliament’s reported move to block the Strait on Sunday awaits final approval by Iran’s Supreme Council, according to Iran’s Press TV.

The Strait is only 35 to 60 miles wide and connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean, flowing past Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. The thoroughfare is vital for global trade, as tankers carried one fifth of the world’s oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (Read more from “If Iran Blocks Strait of Hormuz, What Will Happen to U.S. Energy Costs?” HERE)

Federal Land Sales, More Logging and More Oil Revenue: What’s in the Big Federal Bill for Alaska?

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Members of the U.S. Senate last week proposed a major sale of federal land as part of the “Big, Beautiful Bill” proposed by Republicans to fund the U.S. government.

If adopted, the proposed sale could be significant for Alaska, where the federal government owns and manages 61% of all land in the state.

Under language proposed by the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service would be required to sell between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres of public land across 11 Western states, including Alaska.

National parks and monuments would be off limits to sale, but wide swaths of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land would still be available.

The proposed language states that the sold land “shall be used solely for the development of housing or to address associated community needs,” and that the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture can determine whether the sold land is being used for an appropriate purpose. (Read more from “Federal Land Sales, More Logging and More Oil Revenue: What’s in the Big Federal Bill for Alaska?” HERE)

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Kremlin Warns That Other Nations Ready to Give Iran Nukes: ‘Dangerous Escalation Has Begun’

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Moscow warned Sunday that several nations are prepared to supply Tehran with nuclear weapons, as Russia and China condemned America’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Dmitry Medvedev, who serves as deputy head of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Security Council, claimed Saturday’s US airstrike — the first to use 15-ton GBU-57 “bunker-buster” bombs in combat — only caused minimal damage to Tehran’s nuclear sites, including the fortified Fordow enrichment plant.

Medvedev, who did not specify which countries are ready to arm Tehran, reiterated that the attacks would not stop Russia’s ally in the Middle East from acquiring nuclear weapons.

The statement comes as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he will be traveling to Moscow to meet with Putin to discuss countermeasures.

“We enjoy a strategic partnership, and we always consult with each other and coordinate our positions,” Araghchi told Russian media.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry described the American airstrike in Iran as “a gross violation of international law, the UN Charter, and UN Security Council resolutions. (Read more from “Kremlin Warns That Other Nations Ready to Give Iran Nukes: ‘Dangerous Escalation Has Begun’” HERE)

Homeland Security Warns of Possible Terrorist Attacks in U.S. Following Strike on Iran

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The Department of Homeland Security issued a terrorism alert on Sunday — warning of possible Iranian attacks against the US following the American airstrikes against Tehran’s nuclear program.

DHS warned officials to be on the lookout for Iranian-led attacks over the next three months by terror cells inspired to retaliate following Saturday night’s strike.

“The likelihood of violent extremists in the Homeland independently mobilizing to violence in response to the conflict would likely increase if Iranian leadership issued a religious ruling calling for retaliatory violence against targets in the Homeland,” DHS said in a statement. (Read more from “Homeland Security Warns of Possible Terrorist Attacks in U.S. Following Strike on Iran” HERE)

Neocons Use Accusations of ‘Appeasement’ to Morally Blackmail People Into Supporting Forever Wars

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Bad World War II analogies appear to have become a dime a dozen in today’s political discourse. In just the past few months, I’ve excoriated Russell Moore for his ridiculous reference to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in response to President Donald Trump’s push toward a peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine and pilloried Max Boot’s baffling comparison of Ukraine’s recent attack on Russia’s bomber fleet to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Now, Mark Levin, in his zealous crusade to push the United States into directly joining Israel’s strikes against Iran, has invoked the most tired and most misconstrued talking point related to the Second World War: appeasement.

Levin’s screed (it’s far too light on substance to be called an op-ed), titled “Isolationism is the same as appeasement — and it’s keeping Trump, Netanyahu from transforming the Middle East,” does little more than launch ad hominem attacks and provide a masterclass in projection. It’s amazing to read sentences like these: “They’re too self-righteous in their ignorance to realize how absurd they sound. … In fact, they’re so blind and self-important that they don’t see the new foreign policy taking place in real time, right in front of their eyes!” and not even detect even a hint of self-awareness from a man who is advocating for the United States to become stuck in yet another Middle East quagmire.

Remember how all those other times our attempts to “transform” the Muslim world worked out so well?

Afraid that his readers won’t be convinced by merely insulting the intelligence of so-called “isolationists,” Levin tries to morally blackmail any potential skeptics by blowing the appeasement dog whistle as loudly as he can. “There’s nothing new or good about isolationism, which, in a word, is appeasement. It’s old and promotes war, such as World War II,” he writes bluntly.

It seems like whenever very reasonable people object to yet another forever war, neocons crawl out of the woodwork to screech “appeasement!” to try to cow their foreign policy opponents into embarrassed silence. If you don’t agree with the neocons’ next regime-change project, you’re no better than British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who meekly gave in to Adolf Hitler in 1938 and emboldened Nazi aggression — thereby unleashing all of the devastation that ravaged Europe. If you don’t believe in toppling tinpot dictator No. 12, installing an American puppet state, and sacrificing untold amounts of American blood and treasure, you, specifically, are setting the stage for another World War II, another Holocaust. At least, that’s the implication. (Read more from “Neocons Use Accusations of ‘Appeasement’ to Morally Blackmail People Into Supporting Forever Wars” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Trump Calls for Special Prosecutor to Investigate Rigged 2020 Election

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President Donald Trump is calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the rigged 2020 election, polluted by everything from suspect absentee ballots to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s “Zuckbucks.”

“Biden was grossly incompetent, and the 2020 election was a total FRAUD! The evidence is MASSIVE and OVERWHELMING,” Trump wrote on Friday on Truth Social.

“A Special Prosecutor must be appointed,” he continued. “This cannot be allowed to happen again in the United States of America! Let the work begin!”

In the same post, Trump blasted his predecessor and his “CORRUPT CRONIES” for leading an invasion that saw millions of illegal immigrants pour into the United States over Joe Biden’s presidential term. The president noted the latest U.S. Border Patrol report, which shows that the agency did not release a single illegal immigrant into the country in May, compared to 62,000 on Biden’s watch in May 2024.

Corporate media immediately sprang to Biden’s defense and turned to the tired line that Trump’s assertions about the rigged election are “baseless.” The Associated Press decried that Trump’s call for a special prosecutor comes as “his Republican White House is consumed by a hugely substantial foreign policy decision on whether to get directly involved in the Israel-Iran war. Audaciously, the AP added that Trump’s call for a real deep dive investigation into an election replete with irregularities and election-law violations “is part of an amped-up effort by him to undermine the legitimacy of Biden’s presidency.” (Read more from “Trump Calls for Special Prosecutor to Investigate Rigged 2020 Election” HERE)

U.S. Says Strikes ‘Devastated’ Iran’s Nuclear Program

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Unprecedented US strikes have wrecked Iran’s nuclear program, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday, though other officials cautioned the extent of damage at the three sites was unclear.

Iran’s leaders struck a defiant tone and vowed to respond, while an advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed their stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed.

International concern intensified over the surprise attacks deepening conflict in the Middle East after Israel launched its bombing campaign against Iran earlier this month.

President Donald Trump said he wanted peace and urged Iran to end the conflict after he launched massive overnight strikes on a key underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo, along with nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz. (Read more from “U.S. Says Strikes ‘Devastated’ Iran’s Nuclear Program” HERE)

Iranians Arrested at Border Released Into U.S. by Biden Admin as Threat to Homeland Looms

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Over 1,500 Iranian nationals who illegally entered the U.S. at the southern border were arrested during the Biden administration, and nearly 50% of them were released back into the country, according to a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) source.

More specifically, Border Patrol agents arrested 1,504 Iranian nationals from fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2024. Of the 1,504 individuals who were arrested, 729 were released into the U.S.

The number of Iranian nationals arrested at the southern border increased year-to-year, with 48 being arrested in FY21; 197 in FY22; 462 in FY23 and 797 in FY24.

Likewise, the number of Iranian nationals released also increased, with 12 in FY21; 40 in FY22; 229 in FY23; and 448 in FY24.

It is unclear how many of the Iranians released into the U.S. were on the terrorism watchlist, as the Biden administration repeatedly denied Fox News’ Freedom of Information Act requests and appeals for the data. The Biden administration cited “privacy concerns” of the people on the list, as well as “minimal public interest” for denying the requests. (Read more from “Iranians Arrested at Border Released Into U.S. by Biden Admin as Threat to Homeland Looms” HERE)

Trump ‘Disturbed’ by Israeli P.M. Netanyahu’s Gift of Golden Pager, Tribute to Exploding Ones Used to Kill Hezbollah Fighters

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By U Politics. During the first meeting of President Donald Trump’s second term, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gifted the president a gold-plated pager and the vice president a silver-plated one.

This came just a few months following Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah, nicknamed “Operation Grim Beeper,” where Israel sold handheld pagers and walkie-talkies containing explosives to Hezbollah operatives. They detonated in two coordinated attacks in Syria and Lebanon in September 2024.

Trump told reporters that the gifts were “disturbing” following the attacks in the Middle East, according to the New York Times.

Following this meeting and “disturbing” gift, the U.S.’s Israel policy took a large shift. Trump is now considering joining Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. The president met with national security advisors to discuss what actions the U.S. should take next. . .

Trump considered for months whether to contain Netanyahu, telling an ally he was trying to drag the U.S. into another war in the Middle East, a thing he promised wouldn’t happen in his campaign. He does believe that Iranians were playing him during diplomatic negotiations. (Read more from “Trump ‘Disturbed’ by Israeli P.M. Netanyahu’s Gift of Golden Pager, Tribute to Exploding Ones Used to Kill Hezbollah Fighters” HERE)

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Mocked Mercilessly After Bizarre Social Media Posts Resurface

By New York Post. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is being mocked mercilessly over a slew of bizarre social media posts that resurfaced as the Israel-Iran war broke out — including his musings about treating a woman right and even being “naughty&playful” as a school kid.

The odd posts date back at least a decade and are in stark contrast to the anti-Israel and war rhetoric that now fills the social media feed of the 86-year-old leader and most senior cleric in the extremist Islamic Republic.

In one from 2013, Khamenei recalled his awkward school days.

“I went 2school w/a cloak since1st days;it was uncomfortable 2wear it in front f other kids, but I tried 2make up 4it by being naughty&playful,” he wrote.

Social media users were quick to fire back, with one X user replying: “U have nothing 2 B ashamed of. You’re just as naughty and playful as ever.”

“Born to be playboi carti, forced to be ayatollah,” another chimed in. (Read more from “Iran’s Supreme Leader Mocked Mercilessly After Bizarre Social Media Posts Resurface” HERE)