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Sep 10, 2025 - World

Donald Trump’s desire to deport immigrants from the U.S. by force is running headlong into his drive to increase foreign investments in the U.S. in the hope that it will improve his dismal job numbers.Asked about an immigration raid on a Hyundai facility in Georgia by agents working for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem that led to a round-up of 475 employees, many of them South Koreans sent to help with the set-up, NBC’s Christine Romans said foreign investors are becoming nervous."So talk about the concerns you've heard from South Korean business leaders,“ she was asked on MSNBC.“Well, it's the collision of two Trump administration policies, right?’ she began. “Aggressive immigration enforcement and then using these trade deals to to get countries to invest more in the United States. Now, are you more likely in South Korea or elsewhere to invest more in the United States? If the 200 people that you've sent over to build the factory, literally, to train the American workers around it.”“They just said they're the top investor,” MSNBC host Joe Scarborough prompted his guest.”That's right, that's right and this is what part of the trade policy is to get more countries to send their companies here to build in the United States,” Romans replied. “At the same time, you have this very messy public image that is being broadcast here.”“It's just these things are at cross purposes,” she elaborated. “What you hear from business leaders, overseas business leaders ,is that the us immigration system is a godawful mess, and that they need better visa pathways for skilled workers to get here. What you hear from MAGA, of course, and from many traditional Republicans as well, is that skilled worker visas take away American jobs, so it's not an easy sell on that end. It's a big mess and this is front and center here.”You can watch below or at the link. - YouTube youtu.be

Sep 10, 2025 - World

President Donald Trump issued a brief statement about the suddenly tense standoff between Poland and Russia.Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned the NATO member's parliament that Russia had crossed a line by sending drones into its airspace during an early Wednesday attack against Ukraine, saying "this situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II," and the U.S. president briefly commented on social media."What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones?" Trump posted on Truth Social at 11:09a.m. EST. "Here we go!"European leaders condemned the incident as an escalation by the Kremlin, which has continued its attacks on Ukraine despite Trump's efforts to push Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into peace talks.Polish military officials called the incursion “act of aggression" and said all of the drones were shot down with help from NATO allies, and Tusk said he has activated Article 4 of NATO’s treaty, which allows member nations to demand consultations with their allies.That's only the eighth time since NATO was established in 1949 that Article 4, which does not trigger a military reaction, has been invoked by a member.

Sep 10, 2025 - World

The Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibits military troops from committing unlawful killings, defined at 10 USC et. seq. Troops can kill enemy combatants on sight, but only when engaged in armed conflict, or when there is an imminent threat. Even when we are at war, it is a war crime for troops to deliberately kill civilians unless it’s an act of self-defense in response to imminent danger.On September 2, in international waters, on suspicion that a small boat off the coast of Venezuela was carrying drugs to Trinidad, President Donald Trump ordered a strike. The boat was carrying 11 people, all of whom were killed.There were no efforts to speak to, arrest or interdict the traffickers. There was no sharing of intelligence, no imminent threat, and no diplomacy. Instead, Trump, unencumbered by constraints of law, ordered the boat blown out of the water. The next day, the New York Times reported that “Pentagon officials were still working… on what legal authority they would tell the public was used to back up the extraordinary strike in international waters.”Reckless violenceAfter the strike, Trump posted, “Earlier this morning, on My Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” Pete Hegseth, the U.S. “Secretary of War,” took his own victory lap with, “We're going to go on the offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality.” His Neanderthalic bleating tracks similar talk from ICE and DHS as theyglorify militarism and violence to recruit new agents, for whom a criminal background is not an automatic disqualification.Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has consistently defended war criminals, dismissing military law as an inconvenient intrusion onto combat authority. If his disdain for “tepid legality” in favor of maximum “lethality” in killing 11 people was not an admission of guilt — meaning he knew the order was illegal but didn’t care — nothing is. Equally chilling, when Brian Krassenstein, a social influencer, noted online that “killing citizens of another nation who are civilians, without any due process, is called a war crime,” Vice President JD Vance wrote back, “I don’t give a s--- what you call it.”Extrajudicial killingsWhen testosterone highs from the strike finally dissipated, military analysts began questioning the maneuver. They questioned, in particular, its legality.Administration officials explained that narcotics on the boat posed an “imminent national security threat.” But that claim doesn’t hold up, given that the boat was headed for Trinidad, even if drugs were on board. Worse, unlike typical drug interdictions by the U.S. Coast Guard, this strike was carried out without warning shots. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said simply that, “Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders they blew it up,” and promised more violence in the near future.Whether drugs were on the ship or not, drug runners are criminal civilians, not enemy combatants. The closest thing I’ve seen to a law-adjacent defense is the administration’s bootstrapping claim that Trump could order a strike on Tren de Aragua because Trump has designated it a terrorist organization. But that’s like claiming the right to kill civilians by association. Experts appear to agree:Frank Kendall, former secretary of the Air Force, said the kill targets, “weren’t engaged in anything like a direct attack on the United States” and weren’t afforded a trial to determine their guilt. He added: “Frankly, I can’t see how this can be considered anything other than a nonjudicial killing outside the boundaries of domestic and international law.”Geoffrey Corn, a retired lieutenant colonel and former Army senior adviser on the law of war, said, “I don’t think there is any way to legitimately characterize a drug ship heading from Venezuela, arguably to Trinidad, as an actual or imminent armed attack against the United States, justifying this military response.”Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer, agreed that even the designation of drug cartels as terrorist groups doesn’t translate into authority to use military force against them. Such designation enables the U.S. to levy sanctions and pursue criminal prosecutions, not to just open fire and kill them.American lives at riskThe Venezuelan government is now legitimately accusing the U.S. of extrajudicial murder, and preparing for escalating violence. In response to Trump’s attack, President Nicolás Maduro ordered the deployment of 25,000 soldiers to Venezuela’s coastal regions, more than doubling the country’s military presence in those areas.Maduro has said that he suspects Trump is really threatening regime change with the strike and the buildup of U.S. naval forces in the area, because Venezuela holds the world's largest proven oil reserves. Others believe Trump’s escalating use of military force is an attempt to divert public attention away from the Epstein files, corruption and tanking economy. Still others say Trump is dangerously unhinged, projecting imagery of power to mask his administration’s widespread ineptitude. While these motivations are not mutually exclusive, Venezuela’s long term allies, China and Russia, are watching closely.Whatever his true reason, if Trump has the authority to unilaterally redefine civilian suspects as “combatants” even though they pose no imminent threat, he can redefine any group as a terrorist organization, and order them killed.That may present a tidy solution to Trump’s stubborn due process problem, but it is the stuff of Nazis. Even though today’s victims are brown and Black, trapped in poverty, and therefore disposable to men like Trump, killing them extrajudicially is murder. I don’t give a s--- what the administration calls it.Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

Sep 10, 2025 - World

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that several Russian drones were shot down Wednesday that had flown over the NATO country’s airspace, igniting a firestorm of criticism against President Donald Trump for his handling of Russian aggression.“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin embarrassed Trump 3 weeks ago in Alaska,” wrote X user “Maine,” a self-described Democratic strategist with more than 88,000 followers. “Putin bombed an American factory two weeks ago; Putin [is] now expanding war into Poland and Moldova. Putin has played Trump for a fool.”According to Tusk, the incursion was the first time in history that Russian drones had been shot down over NATO country territory, NATO being the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the intergovernmental military alliance of western nations. Putin has frequently named NATO as the impetus for his country’s aggression amid long-running talks to accept Ukraine as a NATO-member state.Ron Filipkowski, a former prosecutor, ridiculed the Trump administration for its handling of Russian aggression by mocking Defense Department Secretary Pete Hegseth, criticizing what he characterized as the administration’s weak and performative responses to past instances of Russian aggression.“Hegseth is working on a very energetic workout video to respond to Putin’s aggressive military violation of Poland’s airspace,” Filipkowski wrote in a social media post on X Wednesday.The incursion was called the “most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began” by Kaja Kallas, the European Union foreign affairs chief, who went on to note that the incursion appeared “intentional,” and “not accidental.”It’s unclear exactly how many Russian drones had invaded Poland’s airspace, though the Ukrainian Air Force estimated it to be at least eight, according to the New York Times. On Polish television, Tusk said there had been as many as 19 Russian drones that flew into Polish airspace.“Putin never would have launched drones into Poland if Donald Trump was President,” X user Maine wrote in another social media post, poking fun at Trump’s past claims that Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine “would have never happened” were he president at the time. Trump has also said at least 53 times that he would end the Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office for his second term, a pledge that clearly did not come to fruition.CNN's Natasha Bertrand said, "Russia’s drone incursion into Poland marked the first time in its history that NATO planes have engaged potential threats in allied airspace, per Col. Martin L. O’Donnell, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe spokesperson. Fellow CNN personality Aaron Blake also called the move "unprecedented."Putin embarrassed Trump 3 weeks ago in Alaska. Putin bombed an American factory 2 weeks ago. Putin now expanding war into Poland and Moldova. Putin has played Trump for a fool https://t.co/ePfltZXaem— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) September 9, 2025

Sep 9, 2025 - World

President Donald Trump revealed that the U.S. military discovered Israel's plan to strike Hamas officials in Qatar after it was "too late to stop the attack."In a Tuesday post on Truth Social, Trump suggested he had no control over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to target a Hamas negotiating delegation in Qatar."This morning, the Trump Administration was notified by the United States Military that Israel was attacking Hamas which, very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the Capital of Qatar," the U.S. president explained. "This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me.""I immediately directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack," he continued. "I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the U.S., and feel very badly about the location of the attack."Trump said he believed Netanyahu wanted peace despite the attack."I also spoke to the Emir and Prime Minister of Qatar, and thanked them for their support and friendship to our Country," he added. "I assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil."