CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Roaming Charges: Peanuts From Heaven

Still from Fritz Lang’s The Testament of Dr. Mabuse.

“President Xi said America is a nation in decline. And I said, ‘You’re right.'” – Donald Trump

“President Xi said America is a nation in decline. And I said, ‘You’re right.'”

NPR interviewed a Trump voter in Georgia who said he thought the President was doing “an A job.” When asked how his family was dealing with rising food prices, the man replied, “My wife and I fast.” What’s the cure for this mass mesmerism that induces people to be willing to suffer extreme deprivations in order to enhance the fortunes, political and financial, of their billionaire leader? Trump’s like Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse, without the medical degree.

The number of Americans who say their financial situation is getting worse is higher now than at any time in the past 25 years. This is the kind of economic indicator that usually spells a wipeout for the incumbent party in the upcoming elections–though the extreme gerrymandering allowed by the Supreme Court (you can’t create a single black congressional district, but you can engineer entire states with nothing but white ones) and the incompetence of the Democratic Party may yet save the day for the GOP, which now represents the views of only about 30% of the voting population on must issues.

Trump, who’s probably never pumped his own gas in his entire life, refuses to show even the slightest hint of economic compassion for Americans facing gas prices: “This is peanuts. I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while. But I don’t even think about it. What I think about is you can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

When Fox News’ Brett Baier played Trump the video of him saying he didn’t care about Americans’ financial situation, Trump replied: “That’s a perfect statement. I’d make it again.”

Since the start of Trump’s war on Iran, U.S. consumers have spent more than $40 billion extra on gas, according to a new report from Brown University’s Cost of War Project.

Despite our alleged energy independence, Americans are paying more at the pump than any other post-industrialized nation for Trump’s blundering war against Iran that almost no one wanted and he hasn’t the faintest idea, because ideas come oh-so-hard for him, how to end…

An unnamed energy industry representative, quoted by the Financial Times, described the mood a meeting on the severe economic impacts of the Iran war on escalating US fuel costs: “I was at an industry meeting this week, and I can tell you one of the biggest concerns was that we might see diesel prices [in the US] go to $10, and the equipment, you know, the pumps and the dispensers and so forth can’t handle a number that high. That’s incredible.”

Trump is steadily draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a failed attempt to suppress gas prices. Last week, the Reserve fell by almost 10 million barrels, its largest ever weekly amount. The total volume of the SPR now stands at less than 375 million barrels.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that the ongoing oil price shock from Trump’s Iran War will reduce U.S. payroll growth by roughly 10,000 jobs per month through the end of the year.

As a consequence of Trump’s inane decision to go to war against Iran, the Financial Times reports that “nearly 80 countries have now introduced emergency measures to protect their economies as the world approaches a new, more dangerous phase in the energy crisis driven by the Iran war.”

Trump: “We lost 13 people. In other wars, you lost hundreds of thousands of people. I get a kick when I look at somebody on television and they say, ‘He’s lost 13 people.’”

That’s because the US now fights wars against people using machines to do the killing. (There hasn’t been a war where the US has lost 100,000 plus Americans in 80 years. But they’ve killed that many in several: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan.)

Graham Platner, who actually fought in two post-911 wars, has a somewhat different take on Trump’s Iran War:

I want to shame the hell out of these people. I fought in these stupid wars. I spent the bulk of my 20s and early 30s in the infantry, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I’m not JD Vance. I didn’t go sit in an air-conditioned and fucking typing copy all day. I was a machine-gunner in the Marine Corps. I was a long-range surveillance team leader and squad leader in the United States Army. I’ve seen it. I’ve touched it. I know what it looks like when American high explosives interact with fucking children. And it’s the most awful thing you’ll ever see. I want to be in the Senate to make sure that when even people in my party think that sending America’s sons and daughters off to fight for stupid reasons, when they think that’s a good idea, I want to be able to go up to them and tell them that they are fucking assholes. By the time this thing goes to air, it is quite possible that we are going to start to realize that war isn’t a fucking game and that the United States military has gotten itself embroiled in a conflict that it’s not in control of, that might be escalating in ways that we can’t really comprehend. I am terrified. And it’s not the people who started this war who will be the one’s that pay the price.

I want to shame the hell out of these people. I fought in these stupid wars. I spent the bulk of my 20s and early 30s in the infantry, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I’m not JD Vance. I didn’t go sit in an air-conditioned and fucking typing copy all day. I was a machine-gunner in the Marine Corps. I was a long-range surveillance team leader and squad leader in the United States Army. I’ve seen it. I’ve touched it. I know what it looks like when American high explosives interact with fucking children. And it’s the most awful thing you’ll ever see. I want to be in the Senate to make sure that when even people in my party think that sending America’s sons and daughters off to fight for stupid reasons, when they think that’s a good idea, I want to be able to go up to them and tell them that they are fucking assholes. By the time this thing goes to air, it is quite possible that we are going to start to realize that war isn’t a fucking game and that the United States military has gotten itself embroiled in a conflict that it’s not in control of, that might be escalating in ways that we can’t really comprehend. I am terrified. And it’s not the people who started this war who will be the one’s that pay the price.

This war is not about Iran getting nuclear weapons. Iran could, of course, simply buy a nuke on the Dark Web’s version of eBay…That was always the scaremongering cry back in the “rogue state” days of Clinton-time. Presumably, they’re even cheaper now. Iran might even be able to buy a couple from the Israelis; they’ve got plenty to spare.

Trump claimed that he pulled back from his latest threat to annihilate Iran at the request of the Arab states. But the real reason is that the Pentagon objected, warning that Iran, whose air defense systems were supposedly destroyed on the first day of the war, has become more and more adept at tracking and countering US air operations. (Meanwhile, CNN reported this week that Iran has restarted production of its drones.)

This is backed up by a report from the Congressional Research Service documenting that at least 42 (and probably many more) US aircraft have been lost in the Iran War, including F-15s, F-35s and MQ Reaper drones.

An internal Pentagon assessment of Operation Epic obtained by the Washington Post concludes that the US rapidly depleted its stockpile of “advanced missile-defense intercepters,” largely because the US was forced to use more of its high-tech weaponry defending Israel from Iranian missiles and drones than it anticipated. The US launched at least 200 THAAD missiles to defend Israeli sites, nearly half of its arsenal, leaving the US with only 200 interceptors to defend its own sites across the Middle East. This is likely another reason Trump backed off his threat to “make Iran glow.”  A single THAAD missile costs $15.5 million. You do the math.

The “independent” numbers are crushing for Trump and the GOP…The Republicans are just the party of Trump now. They believe whatever he says, even when he contradicts himself three times a day. And the Democrats are a cult of Trump opposition, except when it comes to Israel and, when push comes to shove, Wall Street.

Lola and I went to Valvoline early this morning for an oil change, before heading out for a ramble in the woods. The prices are already outrageous. But when presenting the bill, the clerk said, “That’ll be $94.50–plus, uhm, a $4.50 surcharge owing to the volatility of the oil market.” 

“The volatility of the oil markets? I thought this was synthetic?”

“So, why the surcharge?”

The kid just shrugged his shoulders. He could only read from the script he was given.

A few more peanuts from Heaven, I guess.

The Lebanese Health Ministry reports that at least 3,089 people have been killed, and 9,397 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2. This includes 14 people killed and three wounded on Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanon town of Deir Qanoun en-Nahr. Among those killed was a family of 11, including three children, their parents and grandparents.

Meanwhile, in Gaza,  Israel has killed at least 883 Palestinians and wounded 2,648, since October 11, 2025, the first day of the Trump-brokered “ceasefire,” where the Israelis have yet to cease firing.

Lawyers with the human rights group Adalah met with passengers on the Global Sumud Flotilla, who were abducted by Israeli forces and taken to Ashdod Port. They described the detainees having been beaten, tasered, shot with rubber bullets, placed in forced stress positions, and subjected to sexual humiliation. The hijabs worn by Muslim women were ripped off by Israeli personnel. At least three detainees needed hospitalization.

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released a video showing detained participants of the illegally seized Gaza-bound flotilla being bound, shoved, dragged and abused in Israel’s Ashdod Port. Ben-Gvir wrote: “That’s how we welcome the terror supporters. Welcome to Israel.”

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni fired back at Ben-Gvir’s appalling stunt and the abusive treatment the kidnapped flotilla members, many of whom are Italian citizens, have been subjected to by Israeli forces:

The images of the Israeli Minister Ben Gvir are unacceptable. It is inadmissible that these demonstrators, including many Italian citizens, are subjected to this treatment that violates human dignity. The Italian Government is immediately taking, at the highest institutional levels, all necessary steps to secure the immediate release of the Italian citizens involved. Italy further demands an apology for the treatment reserved to these demonstrators and for the total contempt shown toward the explicit requests of the Italian Government. For these reasons, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation will immediately summon the Israeli ambassador to request formal clarifications on what has occurred.”

The images of the Israeli Minister Ben Gvir are unacceptable. It is inadmissible that these demonstrators, including many Italian citizens, are subjected to this treatment that violates human dignity.

The Italian Government is immediately taking, at the highest institutional levels, all necessary steps to secure the immediate release of the Italian citizens involved.

Italy further demands an apology for the treatment reserved to these demonstrators and for the total contempt shown toward the explicit requests of the Italian Government.

For these reasons, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation will immediately summon the Israeli ambassador to request formal clarifications on what has occurred.”

As for Trump, when asked about the current state of his relationship with Netanyahu, he said

He’s fine. He’ll do whatever I want him to do. [The truth is almost certainly the reverse.] I’m at like 99% in Israel. Maybe after I do this, I’ll go to Israel and run for prime minister.

He’s fine. He’ll do whatever I want him to do. [The truth is almost certainly the reverse.] I’m at like 99% in Israel. Maybe after I do this, I’ll go to Israel and run for prime minister.

In an appearance on Israeli TV, Tucker Carlson was accused of comparing Israel, “a country that abides by international law,”  to the “terror regime in Iran”.

Carlson shot back: “As an Israeli, you should pause before using the phrase ‘terror regime,’ since you live in a country that murdered thousands of children in Gaza…The Israeli prime minister pushed the US president, who turned out to be far weaker than I understood, into a war that hurts the United States. That is not an attack on Jews. Israel does not represent all Jews despite its claims. It does not.”

The DNC finally released its autopsy report on the 2024 elections. It doesn’t mention the words “genocide,” “Palestine,” “Gaza,” or “Israel.” No wonder the cause of Harris’s political death remains a mystery to them.

Thomas Massie, during his concession speech to the Trump-approved, AIPAC-sponsored former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein: “I would have come out sooner, but I had to call my opponent to concede and it took a while to find him in Tel Aviv.”

Yet, even as Trump wages a genocidal war against anyone who stands up to him within the GOP, the future of the party seems to be with Massie. NYT on the anti-interventionist views of Young Republicans: “On almost every foreign policy question asked in the poll, the 18-to-44-year-old segment of the Republican coalition takes a dissenting view.”

In the Chicago case of the Broadview Six ICE protesters, Federal Judge April Perry excoriated the deceitfulness of federal prosecutors: “I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.”

After being ripped by Judge Perry, the Office admitted to their outrageous misconduct, conceding that prosecutors made egregious errors during the grand jury hearings and agreed to the immediate dismissal of all remaining charges.

Using government records from the Deportation Data Project, the Ohio Immigrant Alliance found that during the first fifteen months of the second Trump administration, nearly 8,000 people were detained by ICE in Ohio between January 2025 and March 2026. Less than 5 percent had been convicted of a violent offense.

A new analysis by the Brookings Institution (probably the best thing they’ve done in decades) suggests that more than 100,000 children have been separated from their parents during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and around three-quarters of those children are likely U.S. citizens.

Elvis Costello: “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” I hear you, man.

“She was filing her nails while they were dragging the lake…” is a pretty good description of the women of the Trump Administration.

ICE has paid over-the-market prices for empty warehouses that have sat unsold for months. A real estate analyst quoted by the Atlantic found that ICE has paid between 11% to 13% above market prices for dozens of warehouses it wants to turn into concentration-like prisons for people it has detained. For example, in Washington County, Maryland, ICE secretly acquired a warehouse for $104 million without informing any nearby communities or local governments and by-passing state environmental laws.

In Hamburg, Pennsylvania, DHS paid $87.4 million for a warehouse that was sold in 2024 for $57.5 million. 

In the town of Social, Georgia, ICE paid $128 million for the warehouse, a price far above the assessed value of $29.7 million for the building and land.

In Oakwood, Georgia, ICE shelled out $68 million for a warehouse and surrounding land that was appraised a year earlier for only $7.1 million.

Outside Surprise, Arizona, ICE paid $70 million (in cash!) for an empty warehouse valued at $55 million. In San Antonio, Texas, ICE bought a warehouse for $66 million, nearly $30 million more than its assessed value of $37 million.

Finally, ICE........

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