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President Trump rejected FEMA disaster aid requests from four blue states last Friday, after accepting the aid requests of six red states just two days before, according to Politico. This continues his blatant trend of prioritizing petty political beef over sorely needed FEMA funding—putting Americans at risk in the process.New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island were all denied after requesting a total of $227 million in aid following the brutal blizzard in February. All four states were well past the damage threshold required to trigger aid consideration.“After months of waiting, President Trump today denied our request for a Major Disaster Declaration following the blizzard that pummeled New York City, Long Island, and the Mid-Hudson in February of this year,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement last week. “New York’s communities … deserve to have access to every resource available to recover and rebuild. Instead they have a President who is turning his back on his home state.… We will appeal to ensure New Yorkers receive the federal assistance they deserve.”Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and the rest of the state’s congressional Democratic delegation similarly condemned Trump.“After months of inaction, on July 2, President Trump denied Rhode Island’s request for a Major Disaster Declaration related to the record snowfall and cold temperatures,” the delegation wrote on Monday.The letter also noted that Trump bragged about granting over $846 million in disaster relief funds to Republican states on Truth Social the same day he denied their request—further proof of Trump purposefully withholding funds from blue states.“Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation believes the Trump Administration improperly rejected the Ocean State’s request, pointing out that President Trump has politicized disaster assistance for states over the last year and made it exponentially harder for so-called ‘blue states’ to get disaster funding under the highly partisan Trump Administration than it is for so-called ‘red states.’” They demanded he reverse the decision.The president also denied disaster relief requests from Vermont, Illinois, and Maryland last year, and from Colorado and California around that same time—all while continuing to deliver aid to states where more people voted for him.

The U.S. president has indicated that he’s done negotiating with Tehran, that the ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. is over, and that the public can expect more strikes to be exchanged between the two nations—a decision that is bound to rack up some monumental costs.A new analysis of U.S. expenses through the four-month war thus far, conducted by Popular Information’s Stephen Semler, found that Trump officials have dramatically lowballed Congress on the real cost of the conflict (Semler also co-founded the U.S. foreign policy think tank Security Policy Reform Institute).Last week, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought told the House Appropriations Committee that the U.S. had spent $30 billion on the Iran war. According to Semler’s estimates, the true cost is closer to $103 billion.Semler argued that Vought himself must have been aware of the figure’s inaccuracy. Days before his House testimony, Vought wrote and signed a formal request “on behalf of the president” for $88 billion in supplemental funding from Congress, including a $72 billion increase for the war effort.But even that $72 billion figure doesn’t offer a complete image of the war’s total price tag. Semler noted that Popular Information had previously calculated the war cost nearly that much—about $71.8 billion—during the first 60 days. The Trump administration is expected to ask for even more money to fund the conflict through upcoming reconciliation bills.In order to build an independent analysis of the Pentagon’s expenditures, Semler analyzed procurement information, operating and support data, open-source intelligence, statements from U.S. officials, and media reports.Over the first 120 days of the conflict, Semler tallied $28.5 billion in mobilization, administrative, and immediate combat costs; $46.7 billion spent on missiles, interceptors, and bombs; $20.3 billion on damaged or destroyed military assets; $2.9 billion spent on Israel’s bombs and interceptors; and an additional $4.8 billion on war costs to nonmilitary U.S. agencies.Yet no one in charge of the government—from the White House to top congressional Republicans—has posited exactly how the U.S. will pay for the war. Whereas taxes were raised in previous wars (such as World War I, World War II, and the Korean War) in order to fund conflict, the current administration has so far offered no such solution.

Derek Davison, Daniel Bessner Jake Nabel joins Danny and Derek to explore Roman-Parthian relations, ancient imperial rivalry, cultural misunderstanding, and the politics of historical memory. The post Rome and Ancient Iran—With Jake Nabel appeared first on The Nation.

He began the war on impulse; now Trump is ending the truce impulsively. The winner: Iran. The post Trump Blows Up His Own Iran Deal appeared first on The American Prospect.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell has not issued a personal public statement since being hospitalized on June 14.

PragerU is now an official education partner in at least ten states, pushing right-wing American exceptionalism and pro-Israel political content into American classrooms. Led by former Israeli intelligence officer Marissa Streit, the billionaire-backed media operation is using military-style messaging tactics to reshape how U.S. children learn history, race, and politics The post The Israeli Spy Behind PragerU’s Plan to Rewrite American Education To Indoctrinate Children appeared first on MintPress News.

As NATO leaders gather in Ankara on July 7-8, the alliance will again speak the language it has used for decades: unity, solidarity, deterrence, and collective commitment. Yet the central political question hanging over the meeting is harder to conceal than any summit communiqué. The Iran war has exposed a growing weakness in American leadership: [...]

Absorbing the revelations in the book Regime Change by journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, I posed a question to my American colleague:  why do figures like Donald Trump continue to get elected?  With his signature measured calm, he offered a chilling truth.  He suggested that Americans have not felt history’s harsh winds blow with [...]