Tag: us presidents

Two Different Wars, Two Different Presidents, But the Same Lies

I’m writing this piece well into President Donald Trump’s new war with Iran, which, with the help of Israel, has already killed more than 2,000 civilians, including 175 schoolgirls and staff; displaced some 3.2 million people; and is costing the American taxpayer at least one billion dollars a day. All of which is tragically reminiscent of the last time a Republican president led the U.S. into a war on a river of lies and greed. I’m thinking, of course, about George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Weapons that don’t exist. Threats to this country that aren’t real. Liberation for a people that the U.S. will never win over. Freedom for women about whom nobody in power cares a jot. A war that will bring total victory in only a few days or weeks. All this we heard in 2003, and all this we are hearing again now.

I spent many years writing about the Iraq War, even though it took me some time to figure out how to begin. I was sickened by the Muslim-baiting that had been going on since the 2001 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and disgusted with the Hollywood movies and legacy press articles glorifying our vengeful wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, while deifying our soldiers. I wanted to tell a different story. I just didn’t know how.

Then, in 2004, I came across the blog Baghdad Burning by a 24-year-old Iraqi woman who called herself Riverbend. She was the first Iraqi I had ever read on the war, and she taught me that those in an occupied country tell a very different story than do the occupiers.

Back then, if Iraqi men showed up in American books, movies, or journalism at all, it was usually as an enemy or a clown. Meanwhile, Iraqi women were depicted as little more than incomprehensible black-clad figures hovering in the background or wailing over the dead. But Riverbend was none of those. She was a computer technician in a sophisticated city who sounded like an American college student. I was hooked.

Over the next few months, I read her blog religiously. Riverbend’s language and thoughts sounded no different than those of my own daughter, except that she was describing what it was like to live, hour-by-hour, through the overwhelming, heart-freezing violence of a U.S. bombing campaign and the occupation of her country.

Today, we can get the same sense of immediacy by reading or listening to brave civilians and journalists in Gaza, but during our post-9/11 wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, hearing any voice from the “other side” was rare. So, Riverbend’s blog was not only eye-opening, but it made readers like me feel as though we were experiencing the war right beside her. She wove the mundane moments of her days — jokes, lighthearted observations, conversations with her family — in with her terror at the falling bombs and her feelings about the United States as she watched us tear apart her country. Her blog was eventually collected into a book and published by The Feminist Press in 2005.

Soon, I began reading other Iraqi blogs, too, along with every translation I could find of Iraqi poetry and fiction. I also followed videos by Iraqis that were appearing online, telling stories remarkably different from those I was hearing here in the United States. Some of those Iraqi civilians did indeed want democracy, although they didn’t believe it could be forced on anyone by a foreign power or bombs. Some had been satisfied living under Saddam Hussein’s autocratic rule. Many were too focused on their daily struggles to find food and avoid bombs to think about politics at all. But all of them, whatever their thoughts and opinions, were suffering horribly, not only from our bombs, but from wounds, illnesses, malnutrition, starvation, and threats of all kinds, as well as from bullying, kidnappings, rape, and murder at the hands of the gangs and militias our war had unleashed.

One of the most eye-opening of those Iraqi videos was made by an anonymous woman early in the war, who put on a burqa, hid her handheld camera under it, and drove around the countryside interviewing women about their struggles and poverty. As she explained, what she was doing was so dangerous that she had no doubt her video would only remain up on YouTube for a day or so. Sure enough, it quickly disappeared. I only hope that she didn’t disappear with it.

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SHOCKING: Even Mt Vernon Staff Unfamiliar With Genocidal Nazi Duke’s History & Tour Of America In Spring 1940; He’s Listed As A “Famous” Visitor On Their Website!

At Armed Forces Press, we just ran a feature last month aiming to raise awareness about the historically buried and shocking British royal / Nazi duke trip across the US in Spring 1940, with hundreds of American elites visiting him at events, while the US was still neutral in WWII. That article links to a documentation webpage with seized and declassified US and Nazi German intelligence. Awfully, it was put forth that after WWII, it was not only that the Duke of Saxe Coburg and Gotha was a big Nazi, but he was also associated with the policy to exterminate the mentally ill and physically disabled.

Shockingly, over the weekend in a web search, I stumbled upon that Mt. Vernon, the treasured home of George Washington in Virginia south of DC, listed this genocidal duke among their selected “famous” visitors, with no further text.

A number of people around me also found this deeply disturbing.

I sent these two emails to a number of their senior staff members including their historian CEO, SVP of fundraising (development), library director, chief curator, VP of education, and VP of media / comm, to make sure this would receive administrative attention.

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Trump Lied About Being for Peace – Just Like Every President Before Him

Three years ago, Donald Trump referred to himself as “the candidate who delivers peace.” This weekend, his administration bombed Iran. While it may seem unusual, the historical record suggests otherwise, clearly demonstrating that Trump follows a long line of American politicians who spent a lot of time talking about being against wars only to wage them once elected president.

During the 2000 presidential debates, George W. Bush claimed he wanted a “humble” foreign policy, adding that he doesn’t think US troops “ought to be used for what’s called nation-building.”

By 2003, the Bush administration was at war in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to researchers at Brown University, the Iraq War directly caused at least 190,000 deaths and is projected to cost US taxpayers roughly $2.2 trillion when long-term veteran care and related expenses are included.

Bush also oversaw a brutal torture program that included waterboarding, sensory deprivation, auditory overload, and “rectal rehydration”.

In February 2007, Barack Obama told an Illinois crowd that they came to see him speak “because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope.” In 2008, he said that events in Iraq “have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible.”

Obama received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

Three days after his inauguration, Obama ordered the CIA’s first Pakistani drone strike, killing at least nine civilians. During his first term, Obama outpaced Bush in the number of drone strikes he authorized, blew up weddings and funerals, bombed Libya, launched cyber attacks and imposed crushing economic sanctions against Iran, while also openly targeting US citizens in Yemen.

In 2013, Obama boasted that “after a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home.” And yet, by the time he left office in January 2017, US troops remained in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, Bush-era CIA torture was brushed under the carpet, and the US had bombed at least seven different countries.

In 2016, Donald Trump claimed if he became president, “the era of nation-building will be brought to a very swift and decisive end.”

Less than a week into his first term, Trump oversaw a commando raid in Yemen that resulted in the death of an 8-year-old girl.

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Megyn Kelly shares ‘creepy’ photo of Bill Clinton as Hillary deposed over Epstein

Megyn Kelly revealed a ‘creepy’ decades-old photo of Bill Clinton ‘looking down the chest’ of her young friends as Hillary began her deposition over alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein. 

Kelly dropped the photo during an interview with Tucker Carlson, while the ex-First Lady took questions from members of Congress at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, near the Clintons’ home in Westchester County, New York. 

The former Fox News anchor claimed the photo showed two of her friends, Meg Florence and Abby Rittman, at The Bombay Club in Washington in 1999, when Bill Clinton was still president and shortly after his impeachment.

‘Yes, he is looking down the chest of my friend, Meg Florence, and that’s my other friend in the foreground, Abby Rittman. He’s basically got his hand on her side boob,’ Kelly said.

The SiriusXM host added that the president was there with Hillary and daughter Chelsea.

Clinton ‘went over to their table, they were there with a bunch of guys too, introduced himself before you know it, he wanted pictures.’

Kelly said that both of her friends were around 20 years old and ‘were just graduating college.’

She called it ‘evidence’ that Clinton ‘wasn’t shamed at all’ over the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which ended with the Senate failing to convict him in February of 1999.

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Report: CCP Official Tied to 26 Babies in CA Surrogacy Scam Wanted One of His Offspring to Eventually Become U.S. President

A senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official who was allegedly involved in a massive surrogacy scam in California had an obsession with one of his children eventually becoming president of the United States, according to a new report.

Guojun Xuan and his partner Silvia Zhang allegedly took advantage of California’s wild west surrogacy industry to have at least 26 children via surrogates using Xuan’s sperm and an anonymous egg donor, The New Yorker detailed. The pair amassed more than two dozen children by creating their own agency, called Mark Surrogacy, which was located at their multimillion dollar home in Arcadia (seen above.)

Employees who worked at the couple’s home said Xuan was a “rich man who wants a lot of kids” by any means necessary, according to the New Yorker. 

Other employees claimed Xuan was obsessed with having as many children as possible in the hopes that one would eventually become president of the United States, per the report. 

“Several of the children were named after prominent US politicians and foreign leaders — which Song suggested was out of jealousy, since Xuan isn’t a ‘natural-born’ American and cannot run for president,” the New York Post detailed. Song had been an aide to the couple.

Xuan and Zhang allegedly posed as an unmarried couple who wanted to give their daughter a sibling — a claim which attracted dozens of women who agreed to be surrogates for the couple. None of the women were aware of the other surrogates when they entered into agreements, according to the report.

Xuan’s alleged surrogacy scam was revealed after a two-month-old infant under his care was hospitalized with head injuries in May 2025. Officials discovered the more than two dozen other children in his care, ranging from infants to teenagers. The couple is out on bond while a state child abuse investigation is ongoing, according to the report. 

Since the pair was arrested, at least five more of their surrogates have given birth, according to reports cited by The Post. Some surrogate mothers are fighting for custody of the children after discovering the alleged scheme. Xuan and Zhang have filed lawsuits against at least two expecting surrogates who have allegedly cut off contact with the couple since their arrest, per the report.

The New Yorker piece alleges that Xuan’s behavior had become more chaotic in recent months, including actions such as carrying around business cards claiming to be a “Trump Doge Member,” “an Official Trump Cabinet Member,” and a “Trump Advisor,” although he appears to have no ties to the Trump administration.

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The Art of the Presidential Health Cover-Up

When the St. Petersburg Times first launched PolitiFact in 2007, its purpose was to assess the veracity of statements made by “members of Congress, the president, cabinet secretaries, lobbyists, people who testify before Congress and anyone else who speaks up in Washington.”

Fast forward to September 2025, and the trailblazing fact-checker has been reduced to informing us that “President Donald Trump is alive.” Yes, and the sky is blue, and the day ends in y, even if some online randos may be memeing to the contrary.

The trivial episode of Trump’s rumored demise illuminates what the future intersection of politics and information might look like. POTUSes and their handlers will go to fantastical lengths to lie about presidential health crises, history demonstrates; what changes over time is how they get away with it.

Grover Cleveland, for example, traded on his considerable reputation as “The Honest President” to not only deny the factual newspaper report that what had been billed as a four-day yachting vacation in 1893 was actually major oral surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on the roof of his mouth, but also to successfully disparage the reporter as a fabulist disgrace to journalism.

Edith Wilson, the Jill Biden of a century ago, cut off nearly all access to her husband Woodrow after his October 1919 stroke while he was president, making his final 17 months in office an unelected co-presidency at best. She and his complicit medical team (who took care to avoid the word stroke, preferring exhaustion) successfully pulled off a single, risky, stage-managed afternoon
meeting with two suspicious senators, during which Woodrow Wilson’s paralyzed side was covered by a blanket. The president was able to rally enough to mollify (if on a secondhand basis) the 100 or so reporters waiting downstairs.

Edith Wilson also helped arrange a glowing, Pulitzer Prize–winning New York World profile by Louis Seibold in June 1920, showing her husband to be a hale, active, and sharp-witted operator. It was, alas, a work of fiction.

How was Franklin Delano Roosevelt able to conceal his debilitating congestive heart failure, diagnosed in March 1944—an election year that he (unlike Wilson in 1920) was still competing in? For one, he and his team had had 23 years’ worth of experience working with a mostly compliant and occasionally intimidated press to conceal and suppress visual evidence of his polio paralysis. For another, it was a war year, back long before our modern yearslong presidential election marathons. The actual campaign didn’t really begin until late September, and the president did manage to propel himself through a few vigorous days on the hustings.

It also helped that FDR’s personal physician, Vice Admiral Ross T. McIntire, was an extravagant liar. In January 1944 he insisted his boss “was in better health than at any time since he entered the White House,” and then in the fall that “the president’s health is perfectly OK. There are absolutely no organic difficulties at all.”

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A Brief, Bloody History of All the Times the U.S. Caused Chaos in the Middle East

If at first you don’t succeed, make more problems for yourself. That seems to be the mantra in Washington when it comes to the Middle East. Every few years, a U.S. president asks Americans to go along with a small military commitment in the region—or starts one without asking the public. Almost inevitably, it causes bigger problems than promised.

Friends turn into enemies. The chaos allows bad actors to grow, or creates new factions with a reason to resent America. The political goalposts shift; the U.S. government discovers that a problem it didn’t care about before is actually a “vital interest.” And time after time, politicians promise that all these problems can go away with just one more decisive strike against the real cause of conflict in the region. No forever war is ever advertised that way from the beginning.

President Donald Trump is speedrunning this whole problem. Just a month ago, he was promising the end of “nation building” and grandiose “neocon” schemes. Now, he’s directly entered the Israeli-Iranian war by bombing Iran. While Vice President J.D. Vance tried to claim that “we’re not at war with Iran” and the attack would be a one-off incident, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump himself have both hinted that the U.S. will escalate to regime change if Iran does not surrender. Here’s how we got to this point—and some of the times we’ve seen this movie before.

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Joe Rogan Reveals Two Former U.S. Presidents Pressured Spotify to Censor His Views on COVID

Joe Rogan has revealed that two former U.S. presidents pressured Spotify to censor his views on COVID.

In his most recent episode with Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a Houston-based otolaryngologist who wrote a book about her battle to push back against the mainstream narratives about the pandemic, Rogan detailed how aggressively people in powerful places had come after him.

“Spotify got calls from two former presidents,”

Spotify responded by flagging podcasts discussing COVID-19, however, although Rogan insists the effects were overwhelmingly positive.

“I grew by two million subscribers in a month,” he said.

“People started listening, and they started listening, like, ‘Oh, he’s really reasonable and pretty humble about all this stuff and just asking questions.’”

Rogan also criticized media outlets that mocked his use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19, accusing them of deliberately misleading the public by calling it a horse dewormer.

“I’m, like, ‘Why aren’t you guys concentrating on the fact that a 55-year-old man is fine three days later during the worst strain?’

“It was during the Delta where everybody’s freaking out. ‘This one’s going to kill us all,’” he continued.

“And I was fine in three days.”

The 57-year-old added that he no longer respects mainstream media after they disgraced themselves countless times.

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Romanian National Going by Three Aliases Pleads Guilty to Swatting a Former U.S. President and Over 75 Others – Same Person Who Swatted Catturd Three Times

An Eastern European national using three aliases has admitted his guilt in a swatting ring that doxxed several public officials, including a former U.S. president, the DOJ announced on Monday.

As The New York Post reported, 26-year-old Thomasz Szabo was a key figure in a years-long conspiracy. Szabo and a co-conspirator, 21-year-old Serbian national Nemanja Radovanovic, targeted about 100 people in total, including Congressional members, governors, executive branch officials, and state officials.

According to the Justice Department, Szabo placed fake 911 calls, boasted that emergencies were taking place at the homes of top government officials, and threatened to blow up government buildings and houses of worship. Szabo used the aliases “Plank,” “Jonah,” and “Cypher” to cover his tracks.

Notably, he and Radovanovic did not specifically target individuals based on their political party affiliation. For those wondering about the president targeted by Szabo, he was not named in the indictment.

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