#fedchair — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #fedchair, aggregated by home.social.
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U.S. Stock Market Rebounds Amid Rising Treasury Yields and Geopolitical Tensions https://www.byteseu.com/2296103/ #Coinbase #FedChair #GeopoliticalTensions #Geopolitics #Inflation #NASDAQ #Nvidia #Robinhood #S&P500 #StockMarket #TreasuryYields
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Trump's Frequent Contact with Fed Chair Sparks Concerns Over Independence
📰 Original title: Trump fawns over Fed chair's good looks during talks sparking 'animated concerns': report
🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Users: It's clickbait ⚠️View full AI summary https://en.killbait.com/trump-s-frequent-contact-with-fed-chair-sparks-concerns-over-independence.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world
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Trump's Frequent Contact with Fed Chair Sparks Concerns Over Independence
📰 Original title: Trump fawns over Fed chair's good looks during talks sparking 'animated concerns': report
🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Users: It's clickbait ⚠️View full AI summary https://en.killbait.com/trump-s-frequent-contact-with-fed-chair-sparks-concerns-over-independence.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world
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Trump's Frequent Contact with Fed Chair Sparks Concerns Over Independence
📰 Original title: Trump fawns over Fed chair's good looks during talks sparking 'animated concerns': report
🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Users: It's clickbait ⚠️View full AI summary https://en.killbait.com/trump-s-frequent-contact-with-fed-chair-sparks-concerns-over-independence.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world
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The bond market isn't buying what Fed Chair Warsh is selling
Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49118696
#HackerNews #bondmarket #FedChair #Warsh #economics #finance #news
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The bond market isn't buying what Fed Chair Warsh is selling
Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49118696
#HackerNews #bondmarket #FedChair #Warsh #economics #finance #news
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The bond market isn't buying what Fed Chair Warsh is selling
Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49118696
#HackerNews #bondmarket #FedChair #Warsh #economics #finance #news
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The bond market isn't buying what Fed Chair Warsh is selling
Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49118696
#HackerNews #bondmarket #FedChair #Warsh #economics #finance #news
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The bond market isn't buying what Fed Chair Warsh is selling
Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49118696
#HackerNews #bondmarket #FedChair #Warsh #economics #finance #news
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https://www.europesays.com/videos/45769/ New US Fed chair vows reforms as central bank signals rate hikes on horizon • FRANCE 24 English #DOLLAR #DonaldTrump #fed #FedChair #FedDollar #FedPolicy #FedReform #FederalReserve #FRANCE24 #FRANCE24English #FRANCE24 #FRANCE24English #KevinWarsh #Trump #TrumpEconomy #TrumpFed #UsCentralBank #UsEconomy #UsInflation #UsInterestRates #UsMonetaryPolicy #USPolitics #UsRates
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Warsh Takes Helm at Fed Amidst Faltering Rate Cut Prospects
Kevin Warsh is the new Fed Chair as of 23 May 2026. What does this mean for interest rate cuts? Learn how this change affects your loans and savings.
#federalreserve, #kevinwarsh, #interestrates, #useconomy, #fedchair
https://newsletter.tf/kevin-warsh-fed-chair-rate-cut-update/
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Kevin Warsh officially started as Fed Chair today. This change suggests that interest rate cuts may not happen as fast as people expected last year.
#federalreserve, #kevinwarsh, #interestrates, #useconomy, #fedchair
https://newsletter.tf/kevin-warsh-fed-chair-rate-cut-update/ -
https://www.europesays.com/people/87434/ Is Kevin Warsh Trump’s Fed chair pick? POTUS drops massive hint ahead of Friday announcement; ‘known to everybody’ #DonaldTrump #FedChair #KevinWarsh #POTUS #PresidentOfTheUnitedStates #TrumpFedChairKevinWarsh #TrumpFedChairPick #TrumpKevinWarsh
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Kevin Warsh, who served at the Federal Reserve during the 2008 financial crisis, is returning as Fed chair with a sweeping reform agenda and promises of independence from Donald Trump. https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/money/kevin-warsh-returns-fed-reserve-with-regime-change-agenda-amid-trump-pressure-r2ks78rq?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #KevinWarsh #FederalReserve #FedChair #USEconomy #Trump
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Kevin Warsh, who served at the Federal Reserve during the 2008 financial crisis, is returning as Fed chair with a sweeping reform agenda and promises of independence from Donald Trump. https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/money/kevin-warsh-returns-fed-reserve-with-regime-change-agenda-amid-trump-pressure-r2ks78rq?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #KevinWarsh #FederalReserve #FedChair #USEconomy #Trump
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Kevin Warsh, who served at the Federal Reserve during the 2008 financial crisis, is returning as Fed chair with a sweeping reform agenda and promises of independence from Donald Trump. https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/money/kevin-warsh-returns-fed-reserve-with-regime-change-agenda-amid-trump-pressure-r2ks78rq?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #KevinWarsh #FederalReserve #FedChair #USEconomy #Trump
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Kevin Warsh, who served at the Federal Reserve during the 2008 financial crisis, is returning as Fed chair with a sweeping reform agenda and promises of independence from Donald Trump. https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/money/kevin-warsh-returns-fed-reserve-with-regime-change-agenda-amid-trump-pressure-r2ks78rq?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #KevinWarsh #FederalReserve #FedChair #USEconomy #Trump
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Powell’s tenure as Fed chair marked by inflation battle, independence tests
Eight years ago, when Jerome Powell became Chair of the Federal Reserve (Fed), economists worried that inflation and…
#NewsBeep #News #Economy #Business #DonaldTrump #Fed #fedchair #FederalReserve #Inflation #interestrates #JeromePowell #monetarypolicy #UK #UnitedKingdom #UsEconomy
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/590008/ -
https://www.europesays.com/ie/490111/ Powell’s tenure as Fed chair marked by inflation battle, independence tests #Business #DonaldTrump #Economy #Éire #fed #FedChair #FederalReserve #IE #inflation #InterestRates #Ireland #JeromePowell #MonetaryPolicy #UsEconomy
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https://www.europesays.com/ee/169105/ Hoolimata sellest, et Warsh asendab Powelli Föderaalreservis, ei näe kauplejad juunis intressimäära langust #Äri #Business #EE #Eesti #EestiKeel #Estonia #Estonian #FedChair #FederalReserve #InterestRates #KevinWarsh
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5 Charts Show Powell’s Record on Jobs, Inflation, and Interest Rates
It’s Jerome Powell‘s curtain call. Loading audio narration… The Federal Reserve chair’s term is set to end on…
#Economy #BusinessInsider #February #fedchair #Fedmeeting #FederalReserve #Inflation #interestratedecision #jobmarket #lowrate #pandemic #powell #record #response #stephenkates #year
https://www.europesays.com/2951316/ -
How would you do as chair of the U.S. Fed?
“Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal plays a game from time to time with our Friday regulars called “What’s Jay…
#Economy #Fed #fedchair #FederalReserve #FederalReserveSystem #videogame
https://www.europesays.com/2950958/ -
Lazy Caturday Reads: A Mixed Bag of Stories
Good Afternoon!!
Artist unknown
There isn’t a lot of urgent news today, which is kind of nice for a change. I’ve got a mixed bag of interesting stories though.
Before I get to the politics news, I want to share a fun story about a woman who had a small but significant part in the movie “Cool Hand Luke.”
Alex Williams at The New York Times (gift link): Joy Harmon, Car-Washing Temptress in ‘Cool Hand Luke,’ Dies at 87.
Joy Harmon, who needed only three minutes, a bucket of soapy water and a housedress held together with a safety pin to sear herself into Hollywood history as a chain-gang prisoner’s fantasy come to life in the classic 1967 film “Cool Hand Luke,” died on April 14 in Los Angeles. She was 87.
She died in hospice care after contracting pneumonia in recent weeks, her daughter Julie Gourson Matthews said.
Ms. Harmon never achieved leading-lady status. Still, she tallied more than 30 screen and television credits, often popping up in an episode or two of popular 1960s and early ’70s TV shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “The Monkees,” “Batman,” “Bewitched” and “The Odd Couple.”
Onscreen, she was hard to miss, with her pinup figure, platinum hair and ice-blue eyes. “Gosh, you have the bluest eyes!,” she recalled Paul Newman, the star of “Cool Hand Luke,” once saying to her — no small praise coming from an actor known for his own dazzlingly blue eyes….
Ms. Harmon, listed in the credits as the Girl, appears about 23 minutes into the movie and is gone before minute 27. But she makes the most of her screen time.
Emerging from a farmhouse, bucket in hand, she languidly scrubs down a 1941 DeSoto in full view of the sweat-drenched, shirtless prisoners digging a roadside ditch nearby.
“Hey, Lord, whatever I’ve done, don’t strike me blind for another couple of minutes,” Dragline (George Kennedy), the alpha dog of the chain gang, says.
While the prisoners wipe their brows and gawk, the amply endowed Ms. Harmon nearly bursts out of her skintight dress as she bends to scrub hubcaps or sprawls across the hood, occasionally pausing to squeeze her sponge so that the suds cascade down her torso.
“Oh, God, she doesn’t know what she’s doing,” one lustful prisoner says.
“She knows exactly what she’s doing,” Luke responds. “She’s driving us crazy and loving every minute of it.”
A bit about Harmon’s life:
Patricia Joy Harmon was born on May 1, 1938, in Flushing, Queens, the elder of two daughters of Homer Harmon, a promotional director at the Roxy Theater in Manhattan, and Bernice (Hopmann) Harmon. (Many accounts cite her birth year as 1940, but she shaved two years off her age once she was in Hollywood, her daughter said.)
She grew up in Wilton, Conn., and began modeling at an early age. At 17, she was a runner-up in the Miss Connecticut beauty pageant.
By Roxanne Driedger
After graduating in 1956 from Staples High School in Westport, she acted in local theater productions before making her Broadway debut two years later in “Make a Million,” a sendup of TV quiz shows. That led to an appearance on a real quiz show, Groucho Marx’s “You Bet Your Life,” which in turn led to a regular role as Mr. Marx’s on-air assistant on the show’s spinoff, “Tell It to Groucho.”
By the mid-1960s, Ms. Harmon was starting to win big-screen roles in matinee fare like “Village of the Giants,” a sci-fi comedy featuring Beau Bridges, about teenagers who grow to 30 feet tall after consuming a miracle concoction made by a boy genius (Ron Howard).
If nothing else, it was a speaking part. The same could not be said for her role in “Cool Hand Luke,” where the only directive was that she show up for the audition in a bikini, Ms. Harmon recalled in an interview last year with the podcast “Vanguard of Hollywood.”
When she arrived, she was wearing “a coat over a bikini,” she recalled, “and Paul Newman and the director and the producer were there.” She had no lines to read, she added, “so I just talked to them, and then I got the part.”
“Cool Hand Luke” earned four Academy Award nominations, including best actor for Mr. Newman; Mr. Kennedy won the Oscar for best supporting actor.
For Ms. Harmon, the film proved to be a career pinnacle — and she was fine with that.
“I was never one who said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be a big star,’” she said in a 2017 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I just took whatever came to me.”
I had fun reading that article. I hope you will too. Use the gift link to read the rest.
On to the less enjoyable news…
It doesn’t look like there will be any Iran war negotiations in Pakistan this weekend.
CNN Live Updates: Status of US-Iran peace talks uncertain as Iranian foreign minister leaves Pakistan.
Peace talks: Sources say Iran’s foreign minister has left Pakistan after talks with mediators about the stalled US-Iran peace effort. The US previously said it was sending envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan this weekend, but Tehran denied any plans to meet directly, further clouding the status of negotiations.
Trump awaits an offer: President Donald Trump said he expected Iran to present new terms in response to US demands for ending the war. He did not provide details, however, and has said uncertainty surrounding Iran’s leadership is complicating talks.
CNN: Araghchi leaves Pakistan, Iranian sources tell CNN.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi departed Islamabad on Saturday evening local time, according to Iranian sources familiar with the discussions, after meetings in the Pakistani capital to discuss a truce with Washington and consult key allies in the region.
It was not initially clear where Araghchi would travel next, but the Iranian Foreign Ministry previously said he would also visit Oman and Russia during the trip.
Lindsay, by Linda Lee Nelson
Some background: Araghchi landed in Islamabad on Friday evening for a flurry of meetings with Pakistan’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the country’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, who has served as a key mediator between Tehran and Washington.
Pakistani ministers are trying to facilitate a second round of talks between US and Iranian officials, after lengthy discussions in early April failed to alleviate the thorniest diplomatic hurdles between the warring parties.
The White House said Friday that a US delegation would travel to Islamabad this weekend, but Iranian media had denied reports that Araghchi would directly negotiate with Washington during his trip, leaving the status of talks uncertain.
Trump has just called off the trip to Pakistan by Witkoff and Kushner.
The New York Times published a fascinating article about Iran’s leaders this week. It appears that the Revolutionary Guards are actually in control of the government, and it’s not clear if the men doing the negotiating actually have the power to make final decisions.
Farnaz Fassihi at The New York Times (gift link): A New Era and New Leadership: The Generals Who Are Running Iran.
When Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled Iran as the supreme leader, he exerted absolute power over all decisions about war, peace and negotiations with the United States. His son and successor does not play the same role.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the son, is an elusive figure who has not been seen and whose voice has not been heard since he was appointed in March. Instead, a battle-hardened collective of commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and those aligned with them are the key decision makers on matters of security, war and diplomacy.
In the Garden, by Thomas Little
“Mojtaba is managing the country as though he is the director of the board,” said Abdolreza Davari, a politician who served as senior adviser to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he was president and knows Mr. Khamenei.
“He relies heavily on the advice and guidance of the board members, and they collectively make all the decisions,” Mr. Davari said in a phone interview from Tehran. “The generals are the board members.” [….]
Mr. Khamenei, who was selected by a council of senior clerics as the new supreme leader, has been in hiding since American and Israeli forces bombed his father’s compound on Feb. 28, where he also lived with his family. His father, wife and son were all killed. Access to him is extremely difficult and limited now. He is surrounded mostly by a team of doctors and medical staff who are treating the injuries he sustained in the airstrikes.
Senior commanders of the Guards and senior government officials do not visit him, fearing that Israel may trace them to him and kill him. President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is also a heart surgeon, and the minister of health have both been involved in his care.
Though Mr. Khamenei was gravely wounded, he is mentally sharp and engaged, according to four senior Iranian officials familiar with his health. One leg was operated on three times, and he is awaiting a prosthetic. He had surgery on one hand and is slowly regaining function. His face and lips have been burned severely, making it difficult for him to speak, the officials said, adding that, eventually, he will need plastic surgery.
Just a bit more:
Mr. Khamenei has not recorded a video or audio message, the officials said, because he does not want to appear vulnerable or sound weak in his first public address. He has issued several written statements that have been posted online and read on state television.
Messages to him are handwritten, sealed in envelopes and relayed via a human chain from one trusted courier to the next, who travel on highways and back roads, in cars and on motorcycles until they reach his hide-out. His guidance on issues snakes back the same way.
The combination of concern for his safety, his injuries and the sheer challenge of reaching him has resulted in Mr. Khamenei’s delegating decision making to the generals, at least for now. Reformist factions, as well as ultra-hard-liners, are still involved in political discussions. But analysts say that Mr. Khamenei’s close ties to the generals, whom he grew up with when he volunteered to fight in the Iran-Iraq war as a teenager, have made them the dominant force.
President Trump has said that the war, along with the killings of layers of Iran’s leaders and security establishment, has ushered in “regime change” and that the new leaders are “much more reasonable.” In reality, the Islamic republic has not been toppled. Power is now in the hands of an entrenched, hard-line military, and the broad influence of the clerics is waning.
“Mojtaba is not yet in full command or control,” said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa for Chatham House who has contact with people in Iran. “There is, perhaps, deference to him. He signs off or he is part of the decision-making structure in a formal way. But he is presented with fait accompli presentations right now.”
So it appears that the Generals are actually running things in Iran now. You can use the gift link to read the whole article. It’s very interesting.
Back in the USA, the DOJ has withdrawn the charges against Fed chair Jerome Powell, but the damage is done.
The New York Times: The ‘Lasting Damage’ of Pirro’s Abandoned Fed Investigation.
The Justice Department’s criminal investigation of the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome H. Powell, appears to be over. But the ramifications for the central bank are likely to prove much longer lasting.
Nine months after President Trump made a hasty visit to the Fed’s Washington headquarters and promised to “take a look” at a costly renovation, the administration has concluded its inquiry with seemingly nothing to show. Far from the criminal charges that they once pursued, prosecutors left in their wake a dark cloud over the institution and the person Mr. Trump has chosen to next lead the central bank.
The about-face has removed, for now, the immediate threat of a further escalation against the Fed. It has also potentially cleared a path for Mr. Trump’s nominee for Fed chair, Kevin M. Warsh, to succeed Mr. Powell, whose term ends on May 15.
By Richard Williams
What will be far harder to recoup is confidence in the Fed’s ability to operate independently from a White House that has shown little restraint in its efforts to bully the central bank into slashing interest rates.
Even as Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, announced that the investigation was shutting down, she warned that she would “not hesitate” to reopen the inquiry if warranted. Ms. Pirro added that she had asked the Fed’s inspector general to take over the investigation, even though the internal watchdog had been looking into the matter since July….
Kathryn Judge, a Columbia Law School professor who was a Supreme Court law clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer, said she feared “lasting damage” from the investigation into Mr. Powell — not only for the Fed but for policymakers across government.
Until now, she said, officials did not have to worry about repercussions from “taking a strong stance on policy issues in ways that are inconsistent with the president’s agenda.” But that was the sort of pressure that Mr. Powell faced as Mr. Trump sought to force rates down.
There’s some news about Trump’s corrupt case against the IRS.
NBC News: Judge questions legal basis for Trump’s $10 billion case against IRS.
A federal judge is asking the Justice Department and President Donald Trump’s private attorneys to explain whether his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, an agency he oversees as president, is the type of dispute federal courts can hear.
In a Friday order, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams questioned whether an actual disagreement exists, writing that a case can only stand if there is “adverseness” between the parties.“Typically, adverseness is found in a situation where one party is asserting its right and the other party is resisting,” Williams wrote. “Consequently, if there is no adverseness, there is no case or controversy.”
The Constitution’s “case or controversy” clause says federal courts may only hear actual “controversies.”
The judge ordered both parties to explain “whether a case and controversy exists” by May 20. Williams set a hearing on the matter for May 27 in Miami.
The order comes as both sides seek to resolve the dispute. Attorneys representing Trump and the IRS asked a federal court in a joint filing last week to pause proceedings for 90 days while the parties hold talks to find a resolution.
How the hell can they resolve a “dispute” when Trump is the boss?
Trump sued the IRS and the Treasury Department in January alleging that the agency was at fault for the unauthorized release of his tax documents by a government contractor who shared them with news outlets. Trump argued that the IRS did not take the necessary steps to prevent the actions of the contractor, Charles Littlejohn, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 following a guilty plea.
In her order, Williams did recognize that Trump sued the IRS in “his personal capacity,” rather than as president, but wrote that “he is the sitting president and his named adversaries are entities whose decisions are subject to his direction.”
The corruption in this administration is beyond belief.
Some good news–it looks like Trump’s “SAVE” act is dead.
Al Weaver at NOTUS: Senate Republicans Bench Trump’s Voting Bill.
Senate Republicans have sidelined the SAVE America Act, arguing that it shouldn’t be anywhere near the top of the party’s priority list, especially amid the Iran war and growing economic woes.
Quiet Day by Yuriy Sultanov
Republican leaders this week were forced to remove the proposal as pending business in the chamber as they shifted gears to pass the budget resolution. That effectively benched the bill — which has been championed by President Donald Trump and considered a top agenda item — after an extensive pressure campaign by conservative members and influencers.
The necessary move, however, was greeted with a sigh of relief by a number of Republicans who, while supportive of the measure, believe it’s time to move on to more pressing matters. They also believe the pro-SAVE America Act blitz, led by Sen. Mike Lee and like-minded conservatives, did little to help the case, and may have backfired. Members are ready to bid it adieu as they near the final six months before the midterms.
“They’ve convinced themselves that the longer it hangs around, the more popular it gets. The reality is — I’m quite certain they haven’t gained a single vote, and may have lost a few with time,” one Senate Republican told NOTUS. “There’s some things that aren’t possible, and this is one of them.”
The member noted that while key parts of the bill — which requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote — poll well with wide swaths of Americans, including Democrats, it is hardly considered a leading issue for voters.
“When put in a lineup of the top 100 things people are thinking about every day, it doesn’t get very high on the list,” the senator continued. “We’re spending a lot of the precious resource of time and energy on something that’s not top-of-mind awareness to voters.”
I already had to produce a photo ID and prove my citizenship when I registered to vote. Good riddance to this idiotic bill.
A follow-up to The Atlantic story on Kash Patel:
Joe Sommerlad at The Independent: Atlantic writer sued by Kash Patel says she’s been ‘inundated’ with new sources corroborating her reporting.
Sarah Fitzpatrick, The Atlantic investigative journalist behind last week’s bombshell story about FBI Director Kash Patel, has said she has since been “inundated” with messages from new sources corroborating her reporting.
Fitzpatrick’s story alleged that Patel drinks to excess – so much so that, in one instance, breaching equipment was ordered to break into a locked bedroom when he did not respond to inquiries about his well-being. The profile and also characterized him as deeply paranoid about being fired by President Donald Trump.
Patel claimed the stories were false and has filed a ludicrous lawsuit.
Speaking to the Radio Atlantic podcast one week after the article, Fitzpatrick was asked about the director’s retaliatory moves and said she was undaunted.
“My response is that I stand by every single word of this report,” she said. “We were very diligent. We were very careful. It went through multiple levels of editing, review, care.
“And I think one of the things that has been most gratifying, after – immediately after the story published was, I have been inundated by additional sourcing going up to the highest levels of the government, thanking us for doing the work, providing additional corroborating information.”
Fitzpatrick said that she used more than two dozen sources for her original report, characterizing the officials she spoke to as “people who felt that not only was this conduct embarrassing, unbecoming, but that it was a national security vulnerability, and that Americans were perhaps less safe as a result.”
Asked about some of the more shocking details in her report, she said: “I had never heard anything like this as a reporter, and I think I spent a very long time, a very diligent amount of time checking it out because it was so explosive.
“And I think the fact that this was known throughout the FBI, throughout the Justice Department, that it reached the White House is because it was so alarming. And people were really frightened.”
There’s more at the link.
Those are the stories that caught my attention today. What’s on your mind?
#AyatollahMojtabaKhamenei #CoolHandLuke #DonaldTrump #FedChair #IranRevolutionaryGuards #JeromeHPowell #JoyHarmon #KashPatel #Pakistan #PaulNewman #SarahFitzpatrick #SAVEAmericaAct #TheAtlantic #TrumpIRSLawsuit #USIranPeaceTalks -
Lazy Caturday Reads: A Mixed Bag of Stories
Good Afternoon!!
Artist unknown
There isn’t a lot of urgent news today, which is kind of nice for a change. I’ve got a mixed bag of interesting stories though.
Before I get to the politics news, I want to share a fun story about a woman who had a small but significant part in the movie “Cool Hand Luke.”
Alex Williams at The New York Times (gift link): Joy Harmon, Car-Washing Temptress in ‘Cool Hand Luke,’ Dies at 87.
Joy Harmon, who needed only three minutes, a bucket of soapy water and a housedress held together with a safety pin to sear herself into Hollywood history as a chain-gang prisoner’s fantasy come to life in the classic 1967 film “Cool Hand Luke,” died on April 14 in Los Angeles. She was 87.
She died in hospice care after contracting pneumonia in recent weeks, her daughter Julie Gourson Matthews said.
Ms. Harmon never achieved leading-lady status. Still, she tallied more than 30 screen and television credits, often popping up in an episode or two of popular 1960s and early ’70s TV shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “The Monkees,” “Batman,” “Bewitched” and “The Odd Couple.”
Onscreen, she was hard to miss, with her pinup figure, platinum hair and ice-blue eyes. “Gosh, you have the bluest eyes!,” she recalled Paul Newman, the star of “Cool Hand Luke,” once saying to her — no small praise coming from an actor known for his own dazzlingly blue eyes….
Ms. Harmon, listed in the credits as the Girl, appears about 23 minutes into the movie and is gone before minute 27. But she makes the most of her screen time.
Emerging from a farmhouse, bucket in hand, she languidly scrubs down a 1941 DeSoto in full view of the sweat-drenched, shirtless prisoners digging a roadside ditch nearby.
“Hey, Lord, whatever I’ve done, don’t strike me blind for another couple of minutes,” Dragline (George Kennedy), the alpha dog of the chain gang, says.
While the prisoners wipe their brows and gawk, the amply endowed Ms. Harmon nearly bursts out of her skintight dress as she bends to scrub hubcaps or sprawls across the hood, occasionally pausing to squeeze her sponge so that the suds cascade down her torso.
“Oh, God, she doesn’t know what she’s doing,” one lustful prisoner says.
“She knows exactly what she’s doing,” Luke responds. “She’s driving us crazy and loving every minute of it.”
A bit about Harmon’s life:
Patricia Joy Harmon was born on May 1, 1938, in Flushing, Queens, the elder of two daughters of Homer Harmon, a promotional director at the Roxy Theater in Manhattan, and Bernice (Hopmann) Harmon. (Many accounts cite her birth year as 1940, but she shaved two years off her age once she was in Hollywood, her daughter said.)
She grew up in Wilton, Conn., and began modeling at an early age. At 17, she was a runner-up in the Miss Connecticut beauty pageant.
By Roxanne Driedger
After graduating in 1956 from Staples High School in Westport, she acted in local theater productions before making her Broadway debut two years later in “Make a Million,” a sendup of TV quiz shows. That led to an appearance on a real quiz show, Groucho Marx’s “You Bet Your Life,” which in turn led to a regular role as Mr. Marx’s on-air assistant on the show’s spinoff, “Tell It to Groucho.”
By the mid-1960s, Ms. Harmon was starting to win big-screen roles in matinee fare like “Village of the Giants,” a sci-fi comedy featuring Beau Bridges, about teenagers who grow to 30 feet tall after consuming a miracle concoction made by a boy genius (Ron Howard).
If nothing else, it was a speaking part. The same could not be said for her role in “Cool Hand Luke,” where the only directive was that she show up for the audition in a bikini, Ms. Harmon recalled in an interview last year with the podcast “Vanguard of Hollywood.”
When she arrived, she was wearing “a coat over a bikini,” she recalled, “and Paul Newman and the director and the producer were there.” She had no lines to read, she added, “so I just talked to them, and then I got the part.”
“Cool Hand Luke” earned four Academy Award nominations, including best actor for Mr. Newman; Mr. Kennedy won the Oscar for best supporting actor.
For Ms. Harmon, the film proved to be a career pinnacle — and she was fine with that.
“I was never one who said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be a big star,’” she said in a 2017 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I just took whatever came to me.”
I had fun reading that article. I hope you will too. Use the gift link to read the rest.
On to the less enjoyable news…
It doesn’t look like there will be any Iran war negotiations in Pakistan this weekend.
CNN Live Updates: Status of US-Iran peace talks uncertain as Iranian foreign minister leaves Pakistan.
Peace talks: Sources say Iran’s foreign minister has left Pakistan after talks with mediators about the stalled US-Iran peace effort. The US previously said it was sending envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan this weekend, but Tehran denied any plans to meet directly, further clouding the status of negotiations.
Trump awaits an offer: President Donald Trump said he expected Iran to present new terms in response to US demands for ending the war. He did not provide details, however, and has said uncertainty surrounding Iran’s leadership is complicating talks.
CNN: Araghchi leaves Pakistan, Iranian sources tell CNN.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi departed Islamabad on Saturday evening local time, according to Iranian sources familiar with the discussions, after meetings in the Pakistani capital to discuss a truce with Washington and consult key allies in the region.
It was not initially clear where Araghchi would travel next, but the Iranian Foreign Ministry previously said he would also visit Oman and Russia during the trip.
Lindsay, by Linda Lee Nelson
Some background: Araghchi landed in Islamabad on Friday evening for a flurry of meetings with Pakistan’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the country’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, who has served as a key mediator between Tehran and Washington.
Pakistani ministers are trying to facilitate a second round of talks between US and Iranian officials, after lengthy discussions in early April failed to alleviate the thorniest diplomatic hurdles between the warring parties.
The White House said Friday that a US delegation would travel to Islamabad this weekend, but Iranian media had denied reports that Araghchi would directly negotiate with Washington during his trip, leaving the status of talks uncertain.
Trump has just called off the trip to Pakistan by Witkoff and Kushner.
The New York Times published a fascinating article about Iran’s leaders this week. It appears that the Revolutionary Guards are actually in control of the government, and it’s not clear if the men doing the negotiating actually have the power to make final decisions.
Farnaz Fassihi at The New York Times (gift link): A New Era and New Leadership: The Generals Who Are Running Iran.
When Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled Iran as the supreme leader, he exerted absolute power over all decisions about war, peace and negotiations with the United States. His son and successor does not play the same role.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the son, is an elusive figure who has not been seen and whose voice has not been heard since he was appointed in March. Instead, a battle-hardened collective of commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and those aligned with them are the key decision makers on matters of security, war and diplomacy.
In the Garden, by Thomas Little
“Mojtaba is managing the country as though he is the director of the board,” said Abdolreza Davari, a politician who served as senior adviser to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he was president and knows Mr. Khamenei.
“He relies heavily on the advice and guidance of the board members, and they collectively make all the decisions,” Mr. Davari said in a phone interview from Tehran. “The generals are the board members.” [….]
Mr. Khamenei, who was selected by a council of senior clerics as the new supreme leader, has been in hiding since American and Israeli forces bombed his father’s compound on Feb. 28, where he also lived with his family. His father, wife and son were all killed. Access to him is extremely difficult and limited now. He is surrounded mostly by a team of doctors and medical staff who are treating the injuries he sustained in the airstrikes.
Senior commanders of the Guards and senior government officials do not visit him, fearing that Israel may trace them to him and kill him. President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is also a heart surgeon, and the minister of health have both been involved in his care.
Though Mr. Khamenei was gravely wounded, he is mentally sharp and engaged, according to four senior Iranian officials familiar with his health. One leg was operated on three times, and he is awaiting a prosthetic. He had surgery on one hand and is slowly regaining function. His face and lips have been burned severely, making it difficult for him to speak, the officials said, adding that, eventually, he will need plastic surgery.
Just a bit more:
Mr. Khamenei has not recorded a video or audio message, the officials said, because he does not want to appear vulnerable or sound weak in his first public address. He has issued several written statements that have been posted online and read on state television.
Messages to him are handwritten, sealed in envelopes and relayed via a human chain from one trusted courier to the next, who travel on highways and back roads, in cars and on motorcycles until they reach his hide-out. His guidance on issues snakes back the same way.
The combination of concern for his safety, his injuries and the sheer challenge of reaching him has resulted in Mr. Khamenei’s delegating decision making to the generals, at least for now. Reformist factions, as well as ultra-hard-liners, are still involved in political discussions. But analysts say that Mr. Khamenei’s close ties to the generals, whom he grew up with when he volunteered to fight in the Iran-Iraq war as a teenager, have made them the dominant force.
President Trump has said that the war, along with the killings of layers of Iran’s leaders and security establishment, has ushered in “regime change” and that the new leaders are “much more reasonable.” In reality, the Islamic republic has not been toppled. Power is now in the hands of an entrenched, hard-line military, and the broad influence of the clerics is waning.
“Mojtaba is not yet in full command or control,” said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa for Chatham House who has contact with people in Iran. “There is, perhaps, deference to him. He signs off or he is part of the decision-making structure in a formal way. But he is presented with fait accompli presentations right now.”
So it appears that the Generals are actually running things in Iran now. You can use the gift link to read the whole article. It’s very interesting.
Back in the USA, the DOJ has withdrawn the charges against Fed chair Jerome Powell, but the damage is done.
The New York Times: The ‘Lasting Damage’ of Pirro’s Abandoned Fed Investigation.
The Justice Department’s criminal investigation of the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome H. Powell, appears to be over. But the ramifications for the central bank are likely to prove much longer lasting.
Nine months after President Trump made a hasty visit to the Fed’s Washington headquarters and promised to “take a look” at a costly renovation, the administration has concluded its inquiry with seemingly nothing to show. Far from the criminal charges that they once pursued, prosecutors left in their wake a dark cloud over the institution and the person Mr. Trump has chosen to next lead the central bank.
The about-face has removed, for now, the immediate threat of a further escalation against the Fed. It has also potentially cleared a path for Mr. Trump’s nominee for Fed chair, Kevin M. Warsh, to succeed Mr. Powell, whose term ends on May 15.
By Richard Williams
What will be far harder to recoup is confidence in the Fed’s ability to operate independently from a White House that has shown little restraint in its efforts to bully the central bank into slashing interest rates.
Even as Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, announced that the investigation was shutting down, she warned that she would “not hesitate” to reopen the inquiry if warranted. Ms. Pirro added that she had asked the Fed’s inspector general to take over the investigation, even though the internal watchdog had been looking into the matter since July….
Kathryn Judge, a Columbia Law School professor who was a Supreme Court law clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer, said she feared “lasting damage” from the investigation into Mr. Powell — not only for the Fed but for policymakers across government.
Until now, she said, officials did not have to worry about repercussions from “taking a strong stance on policy issues in ways that are inconsistent with the president’s agenda.” But that was the sort of pressure that Mr. Powell faced as Mr. Trump sought to force rates down.
There’s some news about Trump’s corrupt case against the IRS.
NBC News: Judge questions legal basis for Trump’s $10 billion case against IRS.
A federal judge is asking the Justice Department and President Donald Trump’s private attorneys to explain whether his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, an agency he oversees as president, is the type of dispute federal courts can hear.
In a Friday order, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams questioned whether an actual disagreement exists, writing that a case can only stand if there is “adverseness” between the parties.“Typically, adverseness is found in a situation where one party is asserting its right and the other party is resisting,” Williams wrote. “Consequently, if there is no adverseness, there is no case or controversy.”
The Constitution’s “case or controversy” clause says federal courts may only hear actual “controversies.”
The judge ordered both parties to explain “whether a case and controversy exists” by May 20. Williams set a hearing on the matter for May 27 in Miami.
The order comes as both sides seek to resolve the dispute. Attorneys representing Trump and the IRS asked a federal court in a joint filing last week to pause proceedings for 90 days while the parties hold talks to find a resolution.
How the hell can they resolve a “dispute” when Trump is the boss?
Trump sued the IRS and the Treasury Department in January alleging that the agency was at fault for the unauthorized release of his tax documents by a government contractor who shared them with news outlets. Trump argued that the IRS did not take the necessary steps to prevent the actions of the contractor, Charles Littlejohn, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 following a guilty plea.
In her order, Williams did recognize that Trump sued the IRS in “his personal capacity,” rather than as president, but wrote that “he is the sitting president and his named adversaries are entities whose decisions are subject to his direction.”
The corruption in this administration is beyond belief.
Some good news–it looks like Trump’s “SAVE” act is dead.
Al Weaver at NOTUS: Senate Republicans Bench Trump’s Voting Bill.
Senate Republicans have sidelined the SAVE America Act, arguing that it shouldn’t be anywhere near the top of the party’s priority list, especially amid the Iran war and growing economic woes.
Quiet Day by Yuriy Sultanov
Republican leaders this week were forced to remove the proposal as pending business in the chamber as they shifted gears to pass the budget resolution. That effectively benched the bill — which has been championed by President Donald Trump and considered a top agenda item — after an extensive pressure campaign by conservative members and influencers.
The necessary move, however, was greeted with a sigh of relief by a number of Republicans who, while supportive of the measure, believe it’s time to move on to more pressing matters. They also believe the pro-SAVE America Act blitz, led by Sen. Mike Lee and like-minded conservatives, did little to help the case, and may have backfired. Members are ready to bid it adieu as they near the final six months before the midterms.
“They’ve convinced themselves that the longer it hangs around, the more popular it gets. The reality is — I’m quite certain they haven’t gained a single vote, and may have lost a few with time,” one Senate Republican told NOTUS. “There’s some things that aren’t possible, and this is one of them.”
The member noted that while key parts of the bill — which requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote — poll well with wide swaths of Americans, including Democrats, it is hardly considered a leading issue for voters.
“When put in a lineup of the top 100 things people are thinking about every day, it doesn’t get very high on the list,” the senator continued. “We’re spending a lot of the precious resource of time and energy on something that’s not top-of-mind awareness to voters.”
I already had to produce a photo ID and prove my citizenship when I registered to vote. Good riddance to this idiotic bill.
A follow-up to The Atlantic story on Kash Patel:
Joe Sommerlad at The Independent: Atlantic writer sued by Kash Patel says she’s been ‘inundated’ with new sources corroborating her reporting.
Sarah Fitzpatrick, The Atlantic investigative journalist behind last week’s bombshell story about FBI Director Kash Patel, has said she has since been “inundated” with messages from new sources corroborating her reporting.
Fitzpatrick’s story alleged that Patel drinks to excess – so much so that, in one instance, breaching equipment was ordered to break into a locked bedroom when he did not respond to inquiries about his well-being. The profile and also characterized him as deeply paranoid about being fired by President Donald Trump.
Patel claimed the stories were false and has filed a ludicrous lawsuit.
Speaking to the Radio Atlantic podcast one week after the article, Fitzpatrick was asked about the director’s retaliatory moves and said she was undaunted.
“My response is that I stand by every single word of this report,” she said. “We were very diligent. We were very careful. It went through multiple levels of editing, review, care.
“And I think one of the things that has been most gratifying, after – immediately after the story published was, I have been inundated by additional sourcing going up to the highest levels of the government, thanking us for doing the work, providing additional corroborating information.”
Fitzpatrick said that she used more than two dozen sources for her original report, characterizing the officials she spoke to as “people who felt that not only was this conduct embarrassing, unbecoming, but that it was a national security vulnerability, and that Americans were perhaps less safe as a result.”
Asked about some of the more shocking details in her report, she said: “I had never heard anything like this as a reporter, and I think I spent a very long time, a very diligent amount of time checking it out because it was so explosive.
“And I think the fact that this was known throughout the FBI, throughout the Justice Department, that it reached the White House is because it was so alarming. And people were really frightened.”
There’s more at the link.
Those are the stories that caught my attention today. What’s on your mind?
#AyatollahMojtabaKhamenei #CoolHandLuke #DonaldTrump #FedChair #IranRevolutionaryGuards #JeromeHPowell #JoyHarmon #KashPatel #Pakistan #PaulNewman #SarahFitzpatrick #SAVEAmericaAct #TheAtlantic #TrumpIRSLawsuit #USIranPeaceTalks -
U.S. Attorney for District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro may have decided to drop any probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell—but that doesn’t mean the matter is necessarily closed.
Southern District of New York could still choose to take a look if there are grounds to do so.
Just saying
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DOJ drops criminal probe of Fed Chair Powell, removes hurdle for Warsh confirmation ~
Huh... so it sounds like the investigation was bogus after all. Imagine that 🙄
#USA #USpol #trump #DOJ #Fed #FedChair #JeromePowell
---https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/24/fed-powell-doj-warsh-trump.html
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DOJ drops criminal probe of Fed Chair Powell, removes hurdle for Warsh confirmation ~
Huh... so it sounds like the investigation was bogus after all. Imagine that 🙄
#USA #USpol #trump #DOJ #Fed #FedChair #JeromePowell
---https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/24/fed-powell-doj-warsh-trump.html
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DOJ drops criminal probe of Fed Chair Powell, removes hurdle for Warsh confirmation ~
Huh... so it sounds like the investigation was bogus after all. Imagine that 🙄
#USA #USpol #trump #DOJ #Fed #FedChair #JeromePowell
---https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/24/fed-powell-doj-warsh-trump.html
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DOJ drops criminal probe of Fed Chair Powell, removes hurdle for Warsh confirmation ~
Huh... so it sounds like the investigation was bogus after all. Imagine that 🙄
#USA #USpol #trump #DOJ #Fed #FedChair #JeromePowell
---https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/24/fed-powell-doj-warsh-trump.html
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DOJ drops criminal probe of Fed Chair Powell, removes hurdle for Warsh confirmation ~
Huh... so it sounds like the investigation was bogus after all. Imagine that 🙄
#USA #USpol #trump #DOJ #Fed #FedChair #JeromePowell
---https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/24/fed-powell-doj-warsh-trump.html
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Inside The Convoluted Finances Of Kevin Warsh
Kevin Warsh (center), President Donald Trump’s nominee for Chair of the Federal Reserve, and his wife Jane Lauder…
#NewsBeep #News #Personalfinance #AU #Australia #Business #donaldtrump #EstéeLauder #Fed #FedChair #FederalReserve #Finance #KevinWarshnetworth #Lauder #PersonalFinance #powell #trump #warsh
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/623898/ -
Inside The Convoluted Finances Of Kevin Warsh
Kevin Warsh (center), President Donald Trump’s nominee for Chair of the Federal Reserve, and his wife Jane Lauder…
#NewsBeep #News #Personalfinance #AU #Australia #Business #donaldtrump #EstéeLauder #Fed #FedChair #FederalReserve #Finance #KevinWarshnetworth #Lauder #PersonalFinance #powell #trump #warsh
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/623898/ -
https://www.europesays.com/ie/448394/ Inside The Convoluted Finances Of Kevin Warsh #Business #DonaldTrump #Éire #EsteeLauder #fed #FedChair #FederalReserve #IE #Ireland #KevinWarshNetWorth #Lauder #PersonalFinance #PersonalFinance #powell #trump #Warsh
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https://www.europesays.com/uk/911314/ Inside The Convoluted Finances Of Kevin Warsh #Business #DonaldTrump #EstéeLauder #Fed #FedChair #FederalReserve #Finance #KevinWarshNetWorth #Lauder #PersonalFinance #powell #trump #UK #UnitedKingdom #Warsh
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WARSH FACES SENATE TEST FOR FED CHAIR ROLE
Kevin Warsh faces Senate today, April 21, 2026, for Fed Chair role. Lawmakers question his views on money policy and wealth.
#WarshHearing, #FedChair, #SenateTest, #MonetaryPolicy, #April21
https://newsletter.tf/warsh-senate-hearing-fed-chair-april-21-2026/
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Kevin Warsh's hearing for Fed Chair starts today, April 21, 2026. Lawmakers will ask about his money ideas and personal wealth.
#WarshHearing, #FedChair, #SenateTest, #MonetaryPolicy, #April21
https://newsletter.tf/warsh-senate-hearing-fed-chair-april-21-2026/ -
https://www.europesays.com/people/35151/ Here’s what Trump’s Fed pick could have in store for the world’s most powerful central bank #AssetHoldings #BalanceSheet #ChristopherWaller #DonaldTrump #FedChair #FedIndependence #FedWorkforce #FederalReserve #GlobalEconomy #Inflation #InterestRates #JeromePowell #KevinWarsh #mcnd #MonetaryPolicy #POTUS #PresidentDonaldTrump #PresidentOfTheUnitedStates #PresidentTrump #RateCuts #Recession #ScottBessent #SenateBankingCommittee #TreasuryDepartment #WallStreetJournal
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https://www.europesays.com/people/33279/ Week Ahead in Washington: April 19th #DepartmentOfJustice #FedChair #FederalReserve #Iran #IranPeaceTalks #JeromePowell #KevinWarsh #Pakistan #POTUS #PresidentDonaldTrump #PresidentOfTheUnitedStates #PresidentTrump #SenateBankingCommittee #StraitOfHormuz #TruthSocialPost #WeekAheadInWashington
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President Declares Intent to Oust Fed Chair Amidst Probe
President Trump plans to remove Jerome Powell as Fed Chair if he doesn't resign. This follows a probe into the Fed's building work. Affects interest rates and economy.
#Trump #FedChair #JeromePowell #InterestRates #USPolitics
https://newsletter.tf/trump-wants-to-fire-fed-chair-powell-after-may/
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President Declares Intent to Oust Fed Chair Amidst Probe
President Trump plans to remove Jerome Powell as Fed Chair if he doesn't resign. This follows a probe into the Fed's building work. Affects interest rates and economy.
#Trump #FedChair #JeromePowell #InterestRates #USPolitics
https://newsletter.tf/trump-wants-to-fire-fed-chair-powell-after-may/
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President Trump said he will fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell if he stays on the board after his term. This is a change from Powell's original plan to stay.
#Trump #FedChair #JeromePowell #InterestRates #USPolitics
https://newsletter.tf/trump-wants-to-fire-fed-chair-powell-after-may/ -
President Trump said he will fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell if he stays on the board after his term. This is a change from Powell's original plan to stay.
#Trump #FedChair #JeromePowell #InterestRates #USPolitics
https://newsletter.tf/trump-wants-to-fire-fed-chair-powell-after-may/ -
Federal Reserve Set to Hold Rates as Markets Fully Price out 2026 Cuts – Bitcoin News
Key Takeaways: Fed funds futures on CME show a 99.5% probability the Fed holds rates at 3.50%-3.75% at…
#Economy #CME #fedchair #FederalReserve #FederalReserveSystem #interestrates #JeromePowell #kalshi #polymarket
https://www.europesays.com/2897354/ -
Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady amid Iran war uncertainty
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) – Uncertainty about the war in Iran led Federal Reserve Board members to leave interest…
#Economy #dc #Fedboard #fedchair #FederalReserve #FederalReserveSystem #GasPrices #Inflation #jaypowell #JeromePowell #oilprices #StephenMiran #TheFed #U.S.Economy #washington
https://www.europesays.com/2867369/ -
Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady amid Iran war uncertainty
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) – Uncertainty about the war in Iran led Federal Reserve Board members to leave interest…
#Economy #dc #Fedboard #fedchair #FederalReserve #FederalReserveSystem #GasPrices #Inflation #jaypowell #JeromePowell #oilprices #StephenMiran #TheFed #U.S.Economy #washington
https://www.europesays.com/2865177/ -
Well that is major SMACK DOWN! Enough said! https://www.ms.now/news/jerome-powell-subpoenas-quashed-trump-doj #DoJ #Powell #FedChair #FED #Lawsuit #JeromePowell
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Well that is major SMACK DOWN! Enough said! https://www.ms.now/news/jerome-powell-subpoenas-quashed-trump-doj #DoJ #Powell #FedChair #FED #Lawsuit #JeromePowell
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Well that is major SMACK DOWN! Enough said! https://www.ms.now/news/jerome-powell-subpoenas-quashed-trump-doj #DoJ #Powell #FedChair #FED #Lawsuit #JeromePowell
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Well that is major SMACK DOWN! Enough said! https://www.ms.now/news/jerome-powell-subpoenas-quashed-trump-doj #DoJ #Powell #FedChair #FED #Lawsuit #JeromePowell
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Well that is major SMACK DOWN! Enough said! https://www.ms.now/news/jerome-powell-subpoenas-quashed-trump-doj #DoJ #Powell #FedChair #FED #Lawsuit #JeromePowell
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—>> #Pivot 🅴 #KaraSwisher & #ScottGalloway <<— #EpsteinFiles: a Wider Network #Resist & #Unsubscribe February New #FedChair #SpaceX + #xAI #AI News #Trump Rakes in $4B ⏱️1:01:20 #Pol #Politics #GeoPolitics #WorldNews #News #AusPol #CdnPoli #EUpol #NZpol #UKpol #USpol youtu.be/y0MfgH0QIpo
Epstein Files: How New Documen... -
—>> #Pivot 🅴 #KaraSwisher & #ScottGalloway <<— #EpsteinFiles: a Wider Network #Resist & #Unsubscribe February New #FedChair #SpaceX + #xAI #AI News #Trump Rakes in $4B ⏱️1:01:20 #Pol #Politics #GeoPolitics #WorldNews #News #AusPol #CdnPoli #EUpol #NZpol #UKpol #USpol youtu.be/y0MfgH0QIpo
Epstein Files: How New Documen... -
—>> #Pivot 🅴 #KaraSwisher & #ScottGalloway <<— #EpsteinFiles: a Wider Network #Resist & #Unsubscribe February New #FedChair #SpaceX + #xAI #AI News #Trump Rakes in $4B ⏱️1:01:20 #Pol #Politics #GeoPolitics #WorldNews #News #AusPol #CdnPoli #EUpol #NZpol #UKpol #USpol youtu.be/y0MfgH0QIpo
Epstein Files: How New Documen... -
—>> #Pivot 🅴 #KaraSwisher & #ScottGalloway <<— #EpsteinFiles: a Wider Network #Resist & #Unsubscribe February New #FedChair #SpaceX + #xAI #AI News #Trump Rakes in $4B ⏱️1:01:20 #Pol #Politics #GeoPolitics #WorldNews #News #AusPol #CdnPoli #EUpol #NZpol #UKpol #USpol youtu.be/y0MfgH0QIpo
Epstein Files: How New Documen... -
—>> #Pivot 🅴 #KaraSwisher & #ScottGalloway <<— #EpsteinFiles: a Wider Network #Resist & #Unsubscribe February New #FedChair #SpaceX + #xAI #AI News #Trump Rakes in $4B ⏱️1:01:20 #Pol #Politics #GeoPolitics #WorldNews #News #AusPol #CdnPoli #EUpol #NZpol #UKpol #USpol youtu.be/y0MfgH0QIpo
Epstein Files: How New Documen... -
—>> #Pivot 🅴 #KaraSwisher & #ScottGalloway <<—
#EpsteinFiles: How New Documents Expose a Wider Network
#Resist & #Unsubscribe February
Trump’s New #FedChair
#SpaceX + xAI
#AI News
#Trump Rakes in $4B
⏱️1:01:20
#Pol #Politics #GeoPolitics #WorldNews #News
#AusPol #CdnPoli #EUpol #NZpol #UKpol #USpol
https://youtu.be/y0MfgH0QIpo -
—>> #Pivot 🅴 #KaraSwisher & #ScottGalloway <<—
#EpsteinFiles: How New Documents Expose a Wider Network
#Resist & #Unsubscribe February
Trump’s New #FedChair
#SpaceX + xAI
#AI News
#Trump Rakes in $4B
⏱️1:01:20
#Pol #Politics #GeoPolitics #WorldNews #News
#AusPol #CdnPoli #EUpol #NZpol #UKpol #USpol
https://youtu.be/y0MfgH0QIpo -
—>> #Pivot 🅴 #KaraSwisher & #ScottGalloway <<—
#EpsteinFiles: How New Documents Expose a Wider Network
#Resist & #Unsubscribe February
Trump’s New #FedChair
#SpaceX + xAI
#AI News
#Trump Rakes in $4B
⏱️1:01:20
#Pol #Politics #GeoPolitics #WorldNews #News
#AusPol #CdnPoli #EUpol #NZpol #UKpol #USpol
https://youtu.be/y0MfgH0QIpo -
How can the DOJ possible go on public TV and announce that there are no names in the Epstein Files for them to report when it is 100% obvious that Trump is using those files as his source for political appointments? #FedChair . . PEDO PEDO
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Finally Friday Reads: WTF has this regime done to our Country?
“The Eighth Amendment prohibits ‘cruel and unusual punishments,’ which the real Supreme Court has interpreted to forbid torture. Of course, the Trump administration does as it pleases.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
The first text message I woke up to today put a lot into perspective. “ICE on S Claiborne in Holly Grove! Please relay… 3 HOURS AGO.” It was way uptown, so all I could do was just put the word out and hope. I have a copy of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in my desk drawer, which I had left on top after trying to tame the contents of my drawers.
Which among us these days would “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor?” It’s times like these that I remember the 6 in my family who did, and 7 if you count the stepfather of one of my grandfathers, George Washington. Then there is the rest of the family who fought in all the wars to keep us free and ensure that all men and women were free and had the right to vote.
It’s been interesting to share the awful experience of having your city invaded by your own country. It’s given me a chance to reconnect with high school friends in L.A. and Minneapolis. I know many people here who daily mutually pledge to these causes down here in New Orleans, and we didn’t become a part of the scene until the Louisiana Purchase.
It’s time to stand up for what we’re supposed to stand for.
This Op-Ed in the New York Times caught my eye immediately after I tucked my pamphlet back in its rightful drawer. Lydia Polgreen, an Opinion Columnist, asked the same question that I had earlier and answered it succinctly. “This Week Has Revealed 3 Types of Americans.” I know where I stand, do you?
In Minnesota, I saw scenes that reminded me of the chaos and violence in civil wars I’ve covered in other countries. Heavily armed agents have rampaged through the streets, assaulting, tear-gassing and arbitrarily detaining people. They have fired on civilians at close range, killing two of them.
If this is a war, it is one-sided: The forces Trump has unleashed face not military opponents to their authority but ordinary people equipped with cellphones and whistles. Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota has activated the National Guard under his command, it’s true. But so far, they have been deployed to do little more than deliver coffee, hot cocoa and doughnuts to Minnesotans who have taken to the streets. There hasn’t been the kind of state and federal standoff that would constitute a classic civil war, though Walz has worried such a confrontation could soon be in the offing.
Yet the clash in Minneapolis has revealed a cleavage over the meaning of citizenship and constitutional rights perhaps as profound as the one that split the nation in 1861. The fight, now as it was then, is over that simple question: What kind of America are we?
There were the bystanders and accommodationists. On the day federal officers gunned down Alex Pretti, a nurse who cared for critically ill veterans, they were on full display. Dressed in tuxedos and ball gowns, some of the country’s richest men and women streamed into the White House for a special private screening of a hagiographic documentary about Melania Trump, the first lady.
Along with the chief executives of Apple and Amazon — the latter company had paid the first lady’s production company $40 million for the rights to the film — grandees and celebrities filled out the guest list. Beneath a glittering chandelier, gloved waiters served popcorn in glossy, black-and-white commemorative buckets. As if to underscore the transformation of the people’s house into a Trumpian Versailles, guests were sent home with French cookies emblazoned with the first lady’s name.
Then there were the aggressors. Not content to be largely silent supplicants, these Americans actively supported what had happened. Top administration figures like Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem rushed to paint Pretti as a domestic terrorist bent on slaughtering officers of the law. Never mind that he was a former boy scout and choir boy with no criminal record, his legally owned gun safely holstered. Perhaps most odiously, the conservative media personality Megyn Kelly declared that Pretti had only himself to blame for his death.
But arrayed against these powerful figures were the resisters, embodied by the two Americans gunned down in Minneapolis this month: Renee Good, a poet and a mother who had just dropped her son off at school, shot through the head by an ICE agent whom, it was baselessly claimed, she sought to run down with her car; and Pretti, who bravely placed himself between federal agents and a woman they shoved to the ground, paying for this valor with his life.
You may read more stories about these resisters at the gift link. And then, there are the journalists covering the story. This is from CNN. Journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were taken into custody after a Minnesota church protest. My great-granddaddy was a Methodist Circuit rider back in Kansas and back in the day, and a fierce abolitionist. People are just oozing traditional American values here, while the Trump Regime just ignores all those years of fighting, standing, dying, and making history. Remember the Presbyterian minister in Chicago? They certainly didn’t care about his right to peacefully protest. What about the rights of journalists to report a story?
Two independent journalists, Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, have been arrested in connection with a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Lemon and Fort were live-streaming as dozens of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters rushed into Cities Church on January 18, interrupting a church service and leading to tense confrontations.
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday announced said four people total had been arrested “in connection with the coordinated attack” at the church.
The other two individuals Bondi named were Trahern Jeen Crew and Jamael Lydell Lundy.
Court records related to the arrests were not immediately available. Lemon, a former CNN anchor who now hosts his own show on YouTube and other platforms, is expected to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday.
Lemon was in L.A. to cover the Grammy Awards and was arrested after 11 p.m. local time in a hotel lobby in Beverly Hills.
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement Friday morning. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”
“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,” Lowell added. “This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”
Lemon has repeatedly said he was present at the demonstration as a journalist, not as an activist. In a video of the episode that he posted to YouTube, Lemon said, “I’m just here photographing, I’m not part of the group… I’m a journalist.”
Fort made the same points in a Facebook Live stream when federal agents arrived at her home early Friday morning.
“This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media,” Fort said before she surrendered to agents.
“We are supposed to have our constitutional right of the freedom to film, to be a member of the press,” she said. “I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press because now federal agents are at my door arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago.”
We are burying our neighbors. Keith Porter Jr. Renee Good. Alex Pretti. Thirty-two more in custody last year alone.Six killed so far this year. They were not statistics. They were us. They were America. The killing MUST stop. Stop funding the killers. #ICEoffOurStreets
— Peggy Stuart (@peggystuart.bsky.social) 2026-01-30T15:22:27.663Z
Our fat Orange Caligula and his cronies sure want him to be king. I just don’t understand how anyone who knows our history could possibly find these events anything but outrageous breaches of our Constitutional democracy. But catch this Trump hatement today. This is reported by NBC News‘ Pillar Melendez. “Trump calls Alex Pretti an ‘insurrectionist’ and ‘agitator’ after new video of ICU nurse emerges. The president’s rebuke of the slain ICU nurse came after a video emerged of a confrontation between Pretti and federal agents days before he was fatally shot in Minneapolis.” The orange idiot has to be the center of attention, no matter how Bond villain evil he sounds.
Donald Trump on Friday called Alex Pretti an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist,” marking an increase in the intensity of his rhetoric toward the ICU nurse fatally shot by federal agents after the president recently said he wanted to “de-escalate a little bit” in Minnesota.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that Pretti’s “stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces.’
NBC News previously reported on the video, shared online this week, that appeared to show Pretti in an altercation with agents just days before he was fatally shot. In the video taken on Jan. 13, Pretti is seen yelling at federal immigration agents and kicking the back of a vehicle used by agents, breaking a taillight. It is not clear what happened before the interaction.
“It was quite a display of abuse and anger, for all to see, crazed and out of control. The ICE Officer was calm and cool, not an easy thing to be under those circumstances! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump said in the Friday post.
The Department of Justice has opened a federal civil rights probe into Pretti’s death, Deputy AG Todd Blanche said in a Friday press conference. He added that he does not know where Pretti’s phone is or the gun that he had on him before his death.
“We’re looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened,” Blanche said.
David Rothkopf, writing for The Daily Beast, has this characterization of Trump and his hatred of Free Speech. “There Can Be No More Doubt. Trump Wants to Kill Free Speech. JEFFERSON WEEPS. Don Lemon is the most high-profile reporter being targeted. Trump wants to target all of us.”
Donald Trump is seeking to execute the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the same way that his thugs gunned down Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good.
The arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for doing their jobs as journalists and covering a public protest at a church in Minneapolis is a violent assault on freedom of the press in the United States of America, one of the most egregious we have ever seen from a U.S. government.
Not one but two judges rejected prior efforts by the—misnamed—U.S. Department of Justice to indict Lemon and Fort for their presence at the church protest. But undaunted, Attorney General Pam Bondi proceeded to personally direct the arrest of Lemon in Los Angeles late on Thursday night, thus reminding us that she more than any other member of the Trump cabinet deserves to be impeached—no small distinction in a group that includes deserving candidates for being fired and convicted by the Senate like Kristi Noem, RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth.
Lemon’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, wrote in a statement, “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable” and he characterized the arrest as an “unprecedented attack” on a free press.
If anything, Lowell understates the dangers associated with Lemon’s arrest. Seeking to prosecute him represents not one but three separate attacks on freedoms so fundamental that were among the first guaranteed by our Constitution.
The latest Trump-appointed Fed Chair is like a read-it-and-weep announcement. I’m wondering what this will do to financial markets worldwide. This is from CNBC. “Trump nominates Kevin Warsh for Federal Reserve chair to succeed Jerome Powell.” Jeff Cox has the lede.
President Donald Trump on Friday named Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair, ending a prolonged odyssey that has seen unprecedented turmoil around the central bank.
The decision culminates a process that officially began last summer but started much earlier than that, with Trump launching a fusillade of criticism against the Powell-led Fed almost since Powell took the job in 2018.
“I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best,” Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the selection.
The pick of Warsh, 55, likely won’t ripple markets because of his past Fed experience and Wall Street’s view that he wouldn’t always do Trump’s bidding.
“He has the respect and credibility of the financial markets,” said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“There was no person who was going to get this job who wasn’t going to be cutting rates in the short term. However, I believe longer term he will be a credible candidate,” added Bahnsen.
Stock market futures nevertheless were slightly negative Friday morning, though off their lows since Warsh’s appointment became clear.
Warsh now faces Senate confirmation. If approved, he will take over the position in May, when Powell’s term expires. Warsh will fill the Board of Governors position currently held by Governor Stephen Miran, whose term expires Saturday. Miran can continue to serve until a replacement is named.
(Sigh). And now, the movie with the worst buzz ever!!! This is from Mother Jones. “Those Brutal ‘Melania’ Documentary Reviews Have Vanished from Letterboxd. Meanwhile, the First Lady used a Fox News appearance calling for ‘unity’ to shill the film.” I don’t think at my advanced age I’m going to start getting into porn, frankly.
Yesterday I published a story about what was quickly becoming a surprising site of capital R Resistance: the Letterboxd review page for the $75 million documentary film, Melania.
Comments were profane, fun, silly, unprintable. I included some of my favorites. The point I was making was this: Even before the movie’s release this Friday, it has become a lightning rod for anger, not least because Melania Trump’s oligarchic private premiere gala at the White House came the same day Alex Pretti was shot dead in the streets of Minneapolis amid her husband’s disastrous siege of the city. A real let-them-eat-cake moment.
But as my colleague Arianna Coghill went to promote the story today on our social media channels, she discovered the reviews have been wiped from the site entirely.
Sad.
So I sent an email to the Letterboxd press team asking why. What terms were violated? When did that happen? Even though the reviews appeared before the official release of the film, how is Letterboxd to know reviewers hadn’t seen the film itself?
They haven’t gotten back to me, and I’ll share their response when they do.
Update, Tuesday, January 27, 5:45 p.m.: Letterboxd just got back to me (they are based in New Zealand), attributing the erasure to an innocuous, automated back-end update:
This was an automatic update, caused by a previously incorrect premiere date. Letterboxd pulls through film data from TMDB, a user editable database for movies. The official premiere date was corrected on TMDB, automatically updated on the film’s main page on Letterboxd, thus preventing all reviews from appearing on the film page until its premiere. This happens from time to time on film pages through the automated sync, with no manual intervention required from the Letterboxd team.
So there you have it. Friday’s official release of the Amazon-MGM doc will provide would-be reviewers a fresh opportunity to contribute to Letterboxd’s thriving message boards.
Mo. Basuony at Filmogaz has this headline: “melania movie opens after Kennedy Center premiere as reviews turn combative.”
The melania movie reached theaters Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, after a Washington, D.C. premiere that blended red-carpet spectacle with unusually loud online blowback. The project — marketed as both a film and a companion series — has become a test case for how politics, celebrity, and platform-scale promotion can reshape a documentary rollout in real time.
The release centers on Melania Trump and the final weeks leading up to her return to the White House, with Brett Ratner directing and Melania serving as a producer with significant creative input. The premiere drew a mixed roster of political figures and pop culture guests, including Nicki Minaj, while early reactions focused less on what’s on screen and more on money, optics, and the film’s unusually aggressive marketing push.
Thursday night’s invite-only event took place at the Kennedy Center, though invitations and branding around the premiere used the phrase “Trump-Kennedy Center,” prompting immediate debate over naming and institutional politics. The red-carpet photos and guest lists quickly became part of the story, not just a prelude to the story.
Nicki Minaj’s appearance added to the swirl: her presence at a politically charged premiere turned the event into a crossover moment that traveled far beyond film pages and into fandom and campaign-world timelines. The result was a premiere that functioned as a media event first and a film debut second.
The money and the rollout plan
The financial contours are now inseparable from public perception. The film’s backing has been described as a rights/licensing deal near $40 million plus a marketing push widely pegged around $35 million, often summarized as a $75 million total outlay — a figure the filmmakers and team have pushed back on in parts, arguing the production scope is larger than a typical standalone documentary.
So, it’s just a usual day of grifting and pummeling Constitutional law. And how’s your day going?
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
#CivilAndConstitutionalRights #DonLemon #FedChair #GeorgiaFort #ICEArrestsJournalists #ICELawlessness #melaniaTheGrift