The album features 12 melodramatic ways to perish because your tortured lover has left you, might leave you, or has you so dick-drunk and trauma-bonded you’re spiritually flatlining.
This is how the Trump administration treats its veterans: Raid them, detain them, and leave them without any way to legally defend themselves.That’s what happened to George Retes, a 26-year-old Army veteran who was arrested by ICE officials while commuting to his job in July, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.Retes, a U.S. citizen and father of two, was driving to a farm in Ventura County, California, where he was supposed to work as a security guard on July 10. As he approached the farm, droves of protesters and federal agents were blocking the road. He tried to explain that he needed to get through for work, but the message—and his legal residency—did not matter.ICE agents followed him back to his vehicle, where they proceeded to bang on his doors and give him conflicting information. One agent told him to “reverse,” while another agent told him to “pull over to the side,” according to an op-ed Retes penned for the San Francisco Chronicle in September.As the situation escalated, officers lobbed tear gas at nearby protesters. The chemical irritant filled Retes’s car, causing him to choke.“Suddenly, an agent smashed my window and pepper-sprayed me,” Retes wrote. “I was pulled from the car, and one agent knelt on my neck while another knelt on my back.”The veteran was zip-tied and left in the dirt for several hours before the agency sent him to Los Angeles’s Metropolitan Detention Center. They never bothered to check his identification.Retes was detained for three days, during which he was deprived of basic rights that are granted to suspected criminals, according to his attorneys. “He was not allowed a phone call, access to counsel, or a hearing. He was also subjected to inhumane treatment, not being allowed a shower to wash chemical irritants off his body,” the lawsuit reads.In addition, the unwarranted and violent fiasco caused Retes to miss his daughter’s third birthday, and “exacerbated injuries he had sustained during his military service.”To make matters worse, Retes never received an explanation for his arrest or for his continued detention at MDC, according to the lawsuit.“The officers, for their part, showed no interest in confirming George’s story,” the lawsuit reads. “No officer suggested he had broken any law, either. And no officer perceived him as a threat.”The lawsuit was filed against the U.S. government, specifying unnamed individuals with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Navy, the FBI, and Customs and Border Protection.“George’s rights were violated, and he is filing this lawsuit, not only to protect his own rights, but to have the rights of others be protected too,” Andrew Wimer, director of media relations at the Institute for Justice, told The Guardian. “What happened to George is clearly wrong. No one can be held for three days without being told what they’ve done wrong, without being charged with a crime. Americans deserve justice when their rights have been violated.”
Donald Trump is losing the MAHA moms.The New York Times reports that women who flocked to the president in the 2024 election and embraced his promise to tackle “toxins in our environments and pesticides in our food” feel betrayed after Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to boost U.S. production of glyphosate, the pesticide used in the weedkiller Roundup that is possibly linked to cancer and is the subject of numerous lawsuits, including one brought by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.“Ensuring an adequate supply of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides is thus crucial to the national security and defense, including food-supply security,” Trump’s order read.As a result, these women, some of whom embraced the moniker “MAHA moms” after Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” slogan, are now rethinking their support for the president. “Women feel like they were lied to, that MAHA movement is a sham,” health and wellness podcaster Alex Clark, who works for the Trump-allied group Turning Point USA, told the Times. “How am I supposed to rally these women to vote red in the midterms? How can we win their trust back? I am unsure if we can.”Some MAHA moms have directed their anger at the president, but others question why Kennedy is backing production of a chemical he has criticized. On the Instagram page of Vani Hari, who promotes healthy eating and advises the White House on food policy, several commenters were upset with Kennedy. “This begs the question why didn’t sec Kennedy have a say and stop it,” wrote one person, while another asked “Where is RFK Jr.?” Neither Kennedy’s office nor the Trump administration has addressed whether Kennedy was part of any discussions about the order before it was issued.The founder of Moms Across America, Zen Honeycutt, has led a campaign against glyphosate, petitioning stores not to sell it and supporting testing for pesticide residue. She called Trump’s order “an egregious offense to what he promised,” in an interview with the Times.Trump’s order also has pushback from Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who posted on X Thursday that he would introduce legislation to overturn the order. It seems that Trump has started a fight between MAGA and MAHA.