Saturday Report 10/11/25 — Find out what the Planetary Health Diet (PHD) proposed to help optimize human health globally: you’ll be shocked

The Best of the Rest of the News (with Opinion)...

— When Justice Becomes Revenge. It’s becoming painfully clear that Donald Trump’s Justice Department is turning “mortgage fraud” into a political weapon used not to defend the law but to punish his enemies, like in third-world countries run by tinpot dictators. One by one, the people who dared to hold Trump accountable for actual crimes he committed are being dragged through the mud under the guise of justice. New York Attorney General Letitia James, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, John Bolton, and Senator Adam Schiff have all found themselves facing investigations or indictments that look less like law enforcement and more like political payback. This is not a coincidence; it’s very specific and intentional message: cross Trump, and his government will find a way to come for you. If this were truly about honesty in mortgage filings, Trump’s own cabinet would already be answering questions under oath. Reports show Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin each filed overlapping “primary residence” mortgages, exactly the same kind of conduct that the administration now calls criminal “fraud.” Yet not one of them has faced a single charge. The hypocrisy is staggering. The double standard is rotting the core of our democracy. When the powerful can weaponize the law to destroy their critics while shielding their allies, justice itself begins to die. Like Lavrentiy Beria, the head of Stalin’s secret police, famously said, “Show me the man, I’ll show you the crime.” This is not about mortgages. It’s about power, corruption, and the soul of a nation that once believed in fairness. Every American who still believes in democracy must raise their voice and demand that the same laws applied to Trump’s enemies be applied to his friends. If Trump insists on turning justice into a weapon, then he and every member of his inner circle should have to live by the very rules they’re using to destroy others. The machinery of justice is being twisted into a tool of vengeance, and every American should be alarmed. Any one of us could be next.

— Trump and the GOP are losing the shutdown war. MAGA firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is openly agreeing with Democrats that Congress should extend the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) subsidies so over 20+ million Americans won’t see their insurance premiums explode by the end of this year. Republican Senators Thom Tillis and Susan Collins appear to be on board, as well. The cracks are showing, as is the desperation: Mike Johnson is spearheading an effort with billionaire-owned Fox “News” to call next weekend’s No Kings Day protests a “hate America rally.” It’d be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. Even worse, Russell “The Reaper” Vought has begun, according to NBC News, the process of permanently laying off or firing more federal workers as a way of punishing Democrats for not going along with their tax cuts for billionaires and cuts to healthcare to pay for them.

— Meanwhile, rumor has it that the reason Johnson is refusing to swear Adelita Grijalva into office is because she’d be the 218th vote for a discharge petition to force a floor vote on releasing the Epstein files and Johnson is planning to hold a vote to change the House rules on discharge petitions so it takes a supermajority instead of a simple majority (218) votes to force a floor vote and those files and videos. As long as Grijalva isn’t sworn in, Johnson has a majority to change the House rules, so, after that’s done, he can safely swear her in and the discharge petition will go nowhere. It’s arcane and confusing for most people; the bottom line is that Johnson, Bondi, Patel, Bongino, and all but 4 House Republicans appear totally committed to making sure that if there’s any evidence of Trump raping young girls in those files it will never, ever see the light of day.

— About those “Democrat” agencies that Trump wants to lay people off from. Trump, Vance, and Russell Vought say that they are going to begin laying off or even firing employees who work for “Democrat agencies” as a way of punishing congressional Democrats for refusing to vote to maintain the budget that cuts American healthcare. Which presents Democrats with an opportunity to point out to Americans that every agency and program that benefits average working Americans was brought into law by Democrats, all the way back to 1933. Other than Eisenhower‘s national Highway system and his expansion of Social Security, every single program that benefits working class people was proposed by Democrats and put into law by Democratic administrations. For almost 100 years, Republicans have exclusively devoted their efforts to helping billionaires and giant corporations, and openly fought and voted against everything from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid to unemployment insurance, the five day work week, 40 hour week, the right to vote, housing supports, food supports, programs for women and children, a clean environment, etc., etc. Hopefully the media won’t forget to point out this stark difference between the parties…

— Norway could feel a chill of revenge soon, now that Donald Trump didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize. The Peace Prize celebrates those who fight for peace, reconciliation, human rights, disarmament, and the fraternity of nations, not those like Trump who glorify power, revenge, death, and division. Thus, yesterday morning the 2025 Peace Prize went to María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who’s risked her life to stand up to tyranny and rebuild democracy from the ashes of the Chavez and Maduro regimes. She’s everything Trump is not: courageous, selfless, and devoted to justice. She is also in hiding from the police of the regime she has been challenging. My grandfather came from Norway, and I feel his spirit standing tall beside us, proud that the land he left behind still knows the difference between tyranny and truth. Yet I have to wonder how a revengeful Trump might strike back at Norway for this humiliation, perhaps through higher tariffs, harsher NATO demands, or even branding the nation an enemy. Stay tuned…

— Deep Red Oklahoma’s governor rips Trump and Texas for sending troops to Chicago. Kevin Stitt is both the governor of Oklahoma and the president of the National Governor’s Association, and he’s speaking out against Trump’s sending troops from Texas into Chicago. “We believe in the federalist system — that’s states’ rights,” he told The New York Times, adding, “Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.” He pointed out that he joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott in suing the Biden administration over imposing mask and vaccination mandates on the states, and this is a much greater overreach. “As a federalist believer, one governor against another governor, I don’t think that’s the right way to approach this,” Still told the Times. Another crack in the Red Wall. Will Republicans come to their senses and act to stop Trump’s onrushing tsunami of fascism before it swamps our democracy entirely? If enough of us reach out to Republican elected officials and give them courage to stand up and do what’s right, there’s still hope.

— According to reporting by Reuters, Trump is targeting progressive nonprofits for intimidation and punishment. The good news is that they’re fighting back. Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, which was recently name-checked to be among those nonprofits Trump wants to harass and terrorize with investigations and prosecutions, says, “We don’t have all the details, but it appears Trump’s regime is gearing up to smear us with ludicrous accusations that we’re somehow tied to violence at protests—a claim that’s as false as it is predictable. Let’s call this what it is: A baseless attempt to chill free speech and scare people away from exercising their constitutional right to protest an authoritarian regime. … By floating false allegations of violence, Trump wants to scare people away from exercising their constitutional rights. We won’t let him succeed. Don’t let this smear distract you. The best response to attacks on our rights is to exercise our rights. That means showing up in huge numbers on October 18.” It can be difficult, even terrifying, to stand up against the power of a state, the only entity that has the legal power to strip you of your assets and your freedom, or even disappear you. Good on Levin and Indivisible, and be sure to show up next Saturday for No Kings Day!

— Alarm is setting in as Trump mulls “antifa” foreign terrorist designation. A time-worn strategy of dictators across history is to create a straw man group that they claim represents a threat to the nation, and then use phony accusations of membership in that group to persecute, prosecute, and even imprison people the dictator hates. From the Salem Witch Trials to Joe McCarthy’s era, Americans have seen this repeated over and over, and now Trump is trying to reprise it by claiming that Antifa — a word that is short for “anti-fascist” and does not represent any known group — is a “foreign terrorist organization.” He’s angling for the “Foreign Terrorist Organization” (FTO) designation because Bush’s outrageous PATRIOT Act allows people identified that way to more easily lose their normal constitutional rights and protections of due process; there’s no law that designates domestic terrorists. Keep an eye on this. It’s startlingly similar to the way Hitler, in the 1933-1935 era, began claiming that Jews were members of a “terrorist religion” and needed to be isolated and separated from “good Germans” and society. It’s a very, very dark indicator about the direction Trump and his lickspittles are trying to take America.

— Geeky Science: Find out what the Planetary Health Diet (PHD) proposed to help optimize human health globally: you’ll be shocked. Nature reports that six years ago,