Thursday, April 16, 2026

Madonna, Rihanna, Cardi B, the Gallaher brothers

We were noting Madonna last time so let's start with her tonight.  Gil Kaufman (BILLBOARD) reports:

Madonna is officially headed back to the dance floor. After months of teasing, the singer confirmed on Wednesday morning (April 15) that her eagerly anticipated sequel (she calls it a "continuation") to her 2005 electropop dance classic, Confession On a Dancefloor is due out on July 3 on Warner Records.
She previewed the LP, dubbed Confessions II, in a breathless, trancey visualizer set to a thrumming beat in which she previewed the opening track "I Feel So Free." The strobe-heavy visual revealed the shorthand name for the project - COADF2 - and featured feathery voice-over from the singer in which she says, "Thanks for coming/ Sometimes I like to just hide in the shadows/ Create a new persona/ A different identity/ I can be whoever I want to be."

Over bubbling synths and a spare, clicking beat Madonna sways in blurry, colorful shadow behind the projected lyrics about getting lost in the rhythm as she adds, "Honestly, I wish I could be like other people/ And just not care/ But out here/ On the dance floor/ I feel so free," as the beat starts to pick up and a man's voice adds, "Oh, by the way, it all started like this" before the music fades and the screen goes to black.
In a statement, Madonna summed up the new album by quoting the first few lines of the song "One Step Away," saying, "People think that dance music is superficial, but they've got it all wrong. The dance floor is not just a place, it's a threshold: A ritualistic space where movement replaces language." She added that when she re-teamed with the original LP's producer, Stuart Price, on the new album they created a working manifesto.


Ellise Shafer (VARIETY) notes, "She made the announcement via social media on Wednesday alongside the album's cover, which features her perched on top of speakers in purple lingerie with pink fabric covering her face."  From Madonna to Rihanna, Andy Greene (ROLLING STONE) reports:

Despite not releasing a new album in the past decade, Rihanna just became the first woman in the history of the music industry to surpass 200 million RIAA singles certifications. And she's third on the all-time list, topped only Drake and Morgan Wallen.

Her total now stands at 200.5 million units. Drake holds the top spot with 277.5 million, and Wallen is below him at 215 million.

In the pre-digital era, the RIAA - the trade organization which certifies Gold, Platinum, and Diamond sales and streaming awards - simply tabulated the number of physical singles that were shipped to retailers. Once iTunes came online, it measured paid downloads of songs. And in the modern age, it counts 150 on-demand streams as the equivalent of a single purchase of a digital music file. That explains why the chart is topped by streaming-age superstars like Drake, Wallen, Rihanna, Kanye West, Beyoncé, and Luke Combs, while titans of past eras like Queen and Michael Jackson are far below.

But the chart-toppers are all active recording artists. Rihanna hasn't released an album or toured since 2016, though she did play the Super Bowl Halftime show in 2023, and performs at the occasional private event. She also recorded "Lift Me Up" for the 2022 movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and "Friends of Mine" for 2025's Smurfs. She managed to surpass the 200 million single certification mark simply on the durability of her catalog. Year after year, classics like "Umbrella," "Only Girl (In the World)," "Don't Stop the Music," and "We Found Love" rack up astronomical numbers.  

Good for Rihanna.   Still on women in music, Michael Saponara (BILLBOARD) reports:

Reconnecting with her Dominican roots, Cardi B has plans to fully enter the Spanish market, but not until she releases a third album in English. Following her next LP, Cardi revealed during Sunday's (April 12) Charlotte, N.C., stop on the Little Miss Drama Tour that she's looking to drop a Spanish-language project.
"You know I speak money in English and Spanish, b-h. After this album I'm putting out, I'm going to the Spanish market," she said. "I ain't talking no more English. Hola, no habla inglés. It's time to get the Spanish money, b-h. They got a lot of the Spanish money waiting for me, I'm gonna go get it."

It's not the first time Cardi has spoken about releasing a Spanish-language album. Back in June 2024, she posted a poll asking the Bardi Gang if they'd want a fully Spanish project from her, and the answer was a resounding yes. Seventy-nine percent, to be exact, were in favor of the Spanish-language album. "OK AFTER MY ENGLISH ALBUM," she wrote at the time on her IG Story.


Now let's note siblings.  Paul Grein (BILLBOARD) reports:

With Oasis set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later this year, Noel and Liam Gallagher will become the 27th set of siblings to be ushered into the Rock Hall.

The Gallagher brothers have had a famously difficult relationship - as did the first set of siblings to be inducted, Don and Phil Everly. During what was billed as the Everly Brothers' last show, at Knott's Berry Farm in California in July 1973, Phil smashed his guitar and walked off stage. Don performed solo the following night, telling the audience, "The Everly Brothers died 10 years ago." The two brothers didn't reunite musically for more than 10 years.

Read on for more siblings in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  And Elaine covered the inductees in "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees."  Like her, I am thrilled for Sade.  


Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Thursday, April 16, 2026.  Chump's lies continue and continue to weaken him in the eyes of the people, Senator Elizabeth Warren calls out his tax policy that shields the wealthy from paying their share, Kristi Noem's make-work job that Chump invented was invented to sideline her, The Epstein Scandal continues, and much more. 



Ewan Gleadow (RAW STORY) reports on David Pakman's observations about the war on Iran and the Chump administration: 

Speaking on the Strait of Hormuz reopening and closing again, Pakman claimed that how long it takes to reopen the trade channel and broker peace with Iran would determine just how difficult the remainder of Trump's time in office will be for the US.

Pakman said, "Think about where we are right now and where I want to go is how long do you believe this is going to last? We had the initial timeline of three to four weeks, that became four to six weeks, we are now in week seven.

"We currently, as we stand today, just had, and this changes so quickly, but as of right now we had failed negotiations with Iran led by JD Vance, Donald Trump saying the Strait, which so desperately needed to be open, we are now going to close it, and no clear plan as to what even would mean victory at this point."
Pakman went on to suggest that Trump may not have been briefed on the Iran war before he joined Israel in striking the Middle Eastern country. He asked, "Was Trump actually briefed on the risks of this operation?"

The war could extend further than the already extended seven-week period, with Pakman suggesting the rest of the year could still be affected by the war in Iran.

"Will it go to the summer when the gas prices tend to go up anyway? Will it go into the fall when oil heating becomes more relevant in a lot of the United States? And by the way, there's an election. Gas prices could be higher in November for the election than they are today.

"Is it going to go into the final two years of Donald Trump's presidency? My best guess right now is that in a public-facing way, Trump will say it's over sometime before the summer. Blows the original timeline completely out of the water.


It could end tomorrow and Chump would still appear out of it and totally unprepared.  That's what he's been.  He pretapes a video announcing the war that he drops in the early morning hours while people are sleeping -- drops on his own social media -- and after that?  A constantly changing reason for the war.  It has been a disaster.  

And "disaster" is the only term for Chump's administration.  Max Burns (THE HILL) observes:

President Trump’s second term has been nothing if not a laundry list of broken promises. But few Americans have suffered more from Trump’s deceptions than the nation’s struggling farmers.  

It’s no secret that family farms have had a rough go of it over the past decade. An average of 373 farms have failed every year since 2015. The stress of simply surviving has led to a nationwide mental health crisis in resource-starved farming communities.
Trump captured 62 percent of the rural vote in 2024, 4 points better than his performance in 2020, based largely on promises to lavish prosperity (and federal money) on small farms on the verge of collapse. 

Like so many Trump promises, the help never arrived. The suicide rate in rural communities is now 3.5 times the national average and climbing. Farmers buckle under the financial strain of crippling agricultural tariffs, rising input costs and a president who didn’t bother to mention them once in his most recent State of the Union address.


Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes Chump's continued fumbles in the Iran War.





Aaron Blake (CNN) notes the toll the war Chump chose to start has had on his polling:

While Trump has declared the war is close to being over and a success, Americans don’t see it that way. And they certainly don’t see it as a strategic success.

A CBS News-YouGov poll over the weekend showed 36% said the military operations were successful. Another 31% said it was too soon to say, while 33% said they were not successful.
But Americans were even less sold on the strategic side of things. Just 25% said the war was a strategic success — far less than the 42% who deemed it a failure.

And when it comes to key objectives, Americans overwhelmingly don’t see them being met:

Just 7% said Iran’s leaders are more pro-US now (despite Trump claiming that Iran has a “new regime” that is “pretty reasonable.”)
Just 8% said the war has prevented Tehran from threatening other countries (despite Trump saying the war “stopped” Iran from taking over or taking out the Middle East.)
And just 11% said it has permanently stopped Iran’s nuclear program (despite Trump saying that’s the No. 1 goal and having said his June strikes in Iran “obliterated” its nuclear facilities.)
Even Trump might concede that last one is a work in progress. But the other key point is that Americans just don’t think the war is going to accomplish it.

In fact, they don’t even think the war has been a net positive on that front.

A recent Pew Research Center poll showed only 27% of Americans said the war would ultimately make Iran’s development of a nuke “less likely.” That’s the same as the 27% who viewed it as “more likely.” (Another 4 in 10 were neutral.)

That's just an excerpt of his analysis but, spoiler, it doesn't get better for Chump -- read Aaron's analysis in full. 

He can't justify the war -- not to the American people's satisfaction.  He's offered too many differing reasons and rationales.  He's been all over the map.  And the war has cost him supporters because he ran against these wars -- he was going to focus on America and Americans and no foreign wars.  That was what he campaigned on, yes.  But don't forget that as late as a year into the office, he was still whining about not winning a Nobel Peace Prize.  He didn't deserve one but declaring war on Iran sort of nixed that prize for him.  And it made people -- especially his supporters -- ask, "Who is he?"  He's not who he presented as.  


And they see him lying.  Ashleigh Fields (THE HILL) reports:

President Trump on Tuesday doubled down on the fact that he thought oil prices would be “much worse” than they are now amid the Iran war.

“I mean, honestly, I thought there’d be much worse. And I was willing to do that to stop a nuclear weapon to be used against this country or the Middle East. Anybody in the Middle East, they were going to take out the Middle East to stop that,” Trump said during his interview that aired Wednesday on Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria.”
“It was certainly worthwhile being much higher than it is right now. If you told me that we were going to be at only 92 a barrel, $92 a barrel, I would have been very surprised,” he added.


The American people aren't persuaded.  And now that he's offering that he knew prices would go  up?  


Inflation has surged to its highest levels in nearly two years, with higher diesel and gas prices as the major reason why.

The economic strain has resulted in Americans feeling less confident about the economy. The University of Michigan has been tracking consumer sentiment for over 70 years, and this month reported its lowest levels ever recorded.

Chump could really use an "I feel your pain" Bill Clinton type of moment now.  But the problem isn't just that he doesn't feel your pain but you wouldn't believe him saying that he did.  This is the man who personifies The Epstein Class.  This is the man who sues outlets.  This is the man who has put a price tag on the public commons.  He's greedy and his avarice has been stoked repeatedly in the last year despite the fact that he is the president of the United States, a public servant, and should not be receiving gifts (a plane, for example).  

Feel your pain?

He'd be more believable stating, "I caused your pain." 


As a member of The Epstein Class, that's what he did.  Sarah K. Burris notes:

House Republicans will vote this week on a bill expressing support for their "One Big Beautiful Bill" Act passed last summer. The measure will not only cheer the law, but it will attempt to rebrand the unpopular budget measure to the "Working Families Tax Cut."

There's a reason for both of those things, a CNN data analyst explained on Wednesday. Data shows Americans don't like the "One Big Beautiful Bill," and they don't believe it did anything to help their affordability crisis.
The GOP's flagship budget bill, which Trump called the "big, beautiful bill," delivered many tax perks to the wealthy and corporations, but it has been a bust for many others. Even after it passed, there wasn't much fanfare. Mere months after it passed, Trump announced he was rebranding it to the "Working Families Tax Cut."


The tax cuts went to the elite.  Klaus Marre (WHO WHAT WHY) explains:

According to the IRS, the average refund has increased by $350. That isn’t nothing, especially at a time when so many American families are having trouble making ends meet.

But therein lies the real problem for Republicans who want to get credit for making life easier for regular people: People are really struggling, and that extra money is a drop in the bucket in light of the different ways in which Donald Trump has exacerbated the affordability crisis.
Contrary to the president’s claims, inflation is up to the highest level in nearly two years, and gas prices are skyrocketing because of the war he started with Iran.

When will they come back down? Trump has no idea.

According to Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs, the average US household has been forced to pay an extra $150 just for gasoline and diesel since the start of the conflict.

But it’s not just fuel. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz will lead to higher prices for many different goods later this year. Among them is US-grown food because farmers have to pay a premium for fertilizer right now.

Even if the war ended today, its effects would still be felt for months.

In addition, contrary to Trump’s claims, Americans have realized that they, as well as the businesses they work for and buy from, are the ones paying for the president’s tariffs.

Let's note this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

Under Trump administration, corporations paid $65 billion less in taxes in 2025 than 2024

American taxpayers forced to deal with twice as long wait times when calling the IRS to get help 

Warren: “While the Trump administration is making it harder for regular folks to get help from the IRS, the rich are having a field day”

Video of Exchange (YouTube)

Washington, D.C. — At a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) blasted the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) performance under CEO Frank Bisignano’s leadership, questioning whether the Trump administration is focused on serving the American public or just delivering for the rich. Bisignano is currently responsible for leading both Trump’s IRS and the Social Security Administration.

Despite Bisignano's claims that as IRS CEO, he is delivering a "really good outcome for the American public,” data show that the IRS was extremely understaffed during the peak of tax season thanks to DOGE dismissing thousands of customer service employees last year and the Trump administration’s failure to hire them back after attempting to backtrack. Senator Warren noted that under Bisignano, American taxpayers are facing increased barriers to getting help this filing season, with those who attempt to call into the IRS experiencing double the wait time before reaching an IRS representative.

“While the Trump administration is making it harder for regular folks to get help from the IRS, the rich are having a field day,” said Senator Warren.

Senator Warren criticized the tax cuts enacted by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which handed out billions of dollars to giant companies like Meta and Amazon and reduced the amount of federal taxes that corporations paid last year by $65 billion compared to 2024. That $65 billion would have been enough to extend the Obamacare tax credits three times over.

Senator Warren pressed Bisignano on whether he supports cutting health care for families so that giant corporations could receive tax cuts under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Bisignano responded, “It is a really good outcome for the American public here.”

Senator Warren concluded the hearing with a sharp rebuke of Bisignano's statement: “I think we’ve just seen the values of the Trump administration, loud and clear.”

Transcript: Hearings to examine the IRS 2026 filing season and IRS operations.
Senate Finance Committee
April 15, 2026

Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, Mr. Bisignano, you've claimed that as CEO of the IRS, you are “getting a really good outcome for the American public.” And I just have some questions about what that really means.

Last year, DOGE pushed out about 4,400 IRS employees whose specific job was to take calls and answer questions for millions of taxpayers. And then after you pushed them out, you discovered you actually needed those people to do that work. So, you tried to hire a lot of them back, but you did such a bad job at that that you were still short of your own hiring targets by about a thousand people as you got to tax filing season. And now, taxpayers who call in are waiting, literally, twice as long on hold, to get help.

So, Mr. Bisignano, which part is the “really good outcome” for the American people? Is it pushing out thousands of employees who are needed to help answer taxpayers' questions? Or is it unsuccessfully scrambling to rehire those workers? Or is it forcing millions of taxpayers to spend literally twice as much time waiting on the phone to get help? Where is the really good outcome?

Mr. Frank Bisignano: The really good outcome is the fact that we executed against the One Big Beautiful Bill. We have 54 million Americans who filed a form 1A. We have 80 million Americans who received refunds.

Senator Warren: I’m sorry. Mr. Bisignano, could I ask you just to answer my question? I gave you three facts that are verified. I take it you don't dispute any of those. I want to understand—

Mr. Bisignano: Well, here's the actual facts, ma'am.

Senator Warren: I want to understand how any of those are really good outcomes for the American people.

Mr. Bisignano: Here are the really good outcomes. We committed to single-digit wait times on the phones.

Senator Warren: I’m sorry, the data from your own inspector general—

Mr. Bisignano: Well, actually, what the data from the Inspector General report, the data from the inspector general says—

Senator Warren: Mr. Bisignano, can you let me ask my question?

Mr. Bisignano: Take the developed level of access. Increased 45%.

Senator Warren: Mr. Bisignano, that same report, I have now seen it, says wait times on the phone doubled for people asking questions.

Mr. Bisignano: I mean, IVR usage and chatbots all exceeded—

Senator Warren: So, the question I’m asking you is, where are those really good outcomes that you bragged about? And I take it they’re not there. Because let’s understand: while the Trump administration is making it harder for regular folks to get help from the IRS, the rich are having a field day.

Mr. Bisignano: How about 90, over 90% of people—

Senator Warren: Thanks to Donald Trump, corporations paid $65 billion less in taxes last year compared with 2024. Meta alone saved $3 billion. Amazon saved over $4 billion. And just for context, that $65 billion would have been enough money to extend the Obamacare tax credits three times over and still had money left over, saving health care for millions of Americans.

So, Mr. Bisignano, I just want to understand how slashing health care for families so that Meta gets a $3 billion tax cut is a really good outcome for the American public?

Mr. Bisignano: Well, a really good outcome for the American public is getting their checks, their direct deposits, within 21 days. What you're talking about isn't part of what the IRS is working on.

Senator Warren: So you think it is a good outcome that Meta gets to save $3 billion? Amazon gets $4 billion. And to pay for it, millions of Americans lose their health care? That's your view as the CEO of the IRS.

Mr. Bisignano: I don't see the two of them correlated, ma’am.

Senator Warren: They're correlated in terms of those tax cuts were paid for by pushing people off their health care. Did you not follow that?

Mr. Bisignano: Those tax cuts, 30 million seniors, your seniors—

Senator Warren: I’m talking about $3 billion for Meta paid for by people being pushed off their health care. And you're the one who said, “really good outcome.”

Mr. Bisignano: It is a really good outcome for the American public here. The tax, what was enacted in the Working Family Tax Act—

Senator Warren: That’s a terrific outcome for the American people? I think we’ve just seen the values of the Trump administration, loud and clear.

Chair Mike Crapo: Well, we still argue over whether the refusal to increase taxes is a tax cut.

Senator Warren: What we don’t argue over is whether Meta is paying $3 billion less under the One Big Beautiful Bill than they paid the year before under taxes. They got $3 billion, they got to keep it. It was paid for by millions of people who got pushed off their health care. Those are just the numbers.

###




Kristi Noem.  A liar to the people and to the courts.  A disgraced person engaged in an extra-marital affair of many, many years.  A disgraced person trying to play dumb regarding her husband's now exposed fetish.  And fired as Homeland Security Secretary.  But given a faux post.  Why?  Well it wasn't to save face, it turns out.  Tom Latchem (DAILY BEAST) explains:


The Trump administration invented a senior government role for Kristi Noem specifically to prevent her from entering the Senate, according to a new report by PunchUp.

The title of “Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas”—announced on March 5 when Trump publicly fired Noem as DHS secretary—was effectively invented to ensure she missed the March 31 filing deadline for the South Dakota Republican primary, multiple administration sources have told our sister investigative Substack outlet.
This meant that Noem, 54—the first Cabinet secretary ousted in Trump’s second term—could not challenge incumbent Sen. Mike Rounds, 71, whom Trump, 79, had already endorsed.

“It was made up to keep her busy,” one source close to the administration told PunchUp, adding that the White House had privately concluded Noem was such a liability that it needed to “put her out to the glue factory”—inventing a title that kept her on the government payroll and nominally occupied, but stripped of any real power.

Put her out to the glue factory?  

It gets worse for Kristi:

The plan began to unravel quickly. Sources told PunchUp that the White House panicked when it realized Noem was treating the position as substantive rather than symbolic.

“They didn’t expect her to take it so seriously,” one administration source said.

By March 25, the State Department had made clear that her chain of command ran to Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau—not Rubio—a humiliating reduction in standing that the Beast reported at the time. “Landau has now nuked the whole thing,” a source told PunchUp, in a development confirmed by one of Noem’s close allies.
Noem had brought 10 loyalists with her to her new role, according to an administration official cited by Politico. But within weeks, three of the group—former deputy chief of staff Troup Hemenway, Josh King, and Octavian Miller—were placed on paid leave and then fired. A source told the New York Post the dismissals were tied to their connections to Lewandowski: “They didn’t want any people that would be tentacles for Lewandowski.”
The Daily Mail reported last Friday that her time in the role was likely drawing to a close. “This post was intended as a soft landing so it didn’t look like Noem was immediately being fired,” sources told the Mail. “But no one really thinks she should have this job. The State Department was not happy to have her here, and the understanding is that she’s not going to be here for much longer.”


She did so much for Chump, helped him destroy our country.  And it wasn't enough to save her.  A lesson Pam Bondi's learning the hard way as well.  Kristi Noem is a disgrace.  


As is Pam Bondi who will never live down The Epstein Scandal.  



Yesterday, Jim Acosta spoke with Liz Oyer about The Epstein Scandal.  



They discussed Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche.  Pam's refusal to be deposed by the House Oversight Committee calls for her to be held in contempt.  She was being called to testify about what she saw and what she did.  The subpoena did not go away because she got fired. 

"He just lies," Liz observes of Todd and his claims that all the Epstein files have been released. "He keeps thinking he can wish it away," she observed of Todd's refusal to embrace transparency.



And people are not buying Todd's lie that all the files have been released.  On MS NOW yesterday, Chris Jansing spoke with Epstein survivor Danielle Bensky.



Excerpt:

Danielle Bensky: In 1996, Maria Farmer gave a report.  And we were able to find that first page of her report.  We know there is a second page.  She has confirmed this and we have yet to find it.  So we know that there are more documents, that's just one.  I believe that we have given a list of documents, that have been missing, as survivors and so for him to say -- it's just a complete farce for him to say that there are no more documents.  Not to mention, it's so contradictory to what has been said in the past.  And it just goes back to the only thing that we can bank on with this administration is uncertainty because they say -- you know, Pam Bondi says, 'The files are on my desk,' and then there are no files and then 'we've released them all,' 'no we still have some,' 'now we've really released them all' and it's just like this beam of -- it's just a chase. 

Chris Jansing: Do you believe that some of these files that have not been released -- I'll ask you point blank -- point fingers at powerful people?

Danielle Bensky: Definitely.  Yes, I do.  



Tara Palmeria addressed the scandal yesterday.





Tara Palmeri: At the same time, The Epstein Story is being hijacked.  It's being shifted away from victims and being turned into a spectacle by the manosphere.  They are so upset with the elite men and the kind of power games they were playing that they have forgotten the victims all together and, in fact, are debating the definition of pedophilia and questioning whether in fact the victims are victims.  That's right.  That is how the Epstein narrative is being changed.  They're completely stripping the gendered reality of this story out of it. 


The following sites updated:


Posted by at

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Kanye, Madonna, Fleetwood Mac

For this music grab bag, we've got a few on Kanye.  First, AP reports, "The rapper formerly known as Kanye West postponed his upcoming show in the city of Marseille after French authorities said they would seek to ban the concert. The decision by Ye came a week after he was banned from entering the U.K., where he was scheduled to headline the Wireless Festival in July, following a backlash over the artist’s history of antisemitic remarks."  And he's facing a new law suit.  Afouda Bamidele (THE BLAST) reports:

The man, who filed the lawsuit under the alias John Doe, is suing Kanye ‘Ye’ West for battery and infliction of emotional distress over an April 2025 incident.
According to court documents, the plaintiff is suing for an unspecified amount in damages due to the alleged injuries he suffered at Ye’s hands. The man claimed his unfortunate encounter with the rapper occurred at the famous Chateau Marmont in April 2025.

The alleged victim explained that he had been at his table in the hotel when Ye approached him and punched him out of nowhere. He stressed that the attack was unprovoked, claiming the punch “knocked him to the ground,” causing him to lose consciousness after hitting his head.



According to a complaint obtained by PEOPLE, West, who now goes by Ye, approached a man at his table in the hotel's garden at around 11 p.m. on April 16, 2024.
“Without warning, [West] punched [him] in the face,” states the complaint, which was filed on Monday, March 13, and accuses West of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The man, identified only as John Doe in the complaint, alleges the punch knocked him to the ground, where “he hit his head and lost consciousness.”
Per the complaint, West allegedly kept hitting the man while he was lying unconscious on the ground.


Moving over to Madonna, Josh Ackley (OUT) reports:

Madonna wiped her Instagram clean and announced a new album, described as a sequel to Confessions on a Dance Floor, and the reaction was immediate, outsized, almost physical, moving across media, across group chats, and across the quiet, private channels where people who have been paying attention for a long time recognize a signal when they see one. It would be easy to read that response as nostalgia or fan culture behaving as it always does, but that reading misses something more specific — something that has less to do with celebrity and more to do with timing. Madonna has a habit of reemerging at moments when the atmosphere tightens, when politics harden, and when the culture begins to narrow in ways that feel suffocating. People who have lived through that pattern recognize it in their bodies before they articulate it out loud.
The last time she released Confessions on a Dance Floor was 2005, at the height of a war built on lies, in a country that had grown comfortable with fear as a governing principle, where dissent was treated as disloyalty and the boundaries of acceptable life were quietly redrawn. That record did not arrive as commentary, it arrived as release, as insistence, as something ecstatic and physical that refused the moral heaviness of the moment without ignoring it. It became one of the most beloved records of her career not only because of how it sounded but because of what it allowed people to feel when the world outside felt increasingly rigid and controlled. So when she signals a return to that era now, in a year that feels darker, more unstable, and increasingly hostile to difference, the reaction is not just excitement, it is recognition.

Well let's hope her new album lives up to that build up.Regardless, it's a powerful essay on Madonna.  

Meanwhile Hugh Wilson (CINEMA BLEND) just wants to whine:

Fleetwood Mac’s iconic album Rumours will turn 50 next year, and a new Apple TV documentary from director Frank Marshall is on the way about the band, though it doesn’t sound like it’ll be on the 2026 television schedule. Fleetwood Mac has stayed remarkably relevant for decades, even going viral in recent years with their song “Dreams” from Rumours when it was added to a vibe-y skateboarding video.
I have complicated feelings about “The Mac” because I find some of their most famous music a little cheesy (though as I age, I like it more), but I adore the early bluesy stuff with founder Peter Green. That’s why I’m a little disappointed in what the documentary sounds like it will focus on.

Peter Green was in Mac from 1967 through 1970.  He recorded three albums with the band, was a member for three years.  They did not sell.  They did not go gold or platinum -- not in the UK and not in the US.  And they have not gone gold or platinum all these years later.  Over fifty years in release -- nearly sixty -- and they have not gone even gold.  Two albums after Green leaves, on Christine McVie's first official album as a member they have a US gold record with FUTURE GAMES. Only in the US, then BARE TREES is a US platinum record.  In 1975, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham join the lineup and they have the nine million selling (in the US) FLEETWOOD MAC album.  Then the 21 million selling (in the US) RUMOURS.  TUSK and MIRAGE are double platinum.  1980's live album LIVE is gold.  TANGO IN THE NIGHT is triple platinum.  BEHIND THE MASK (Buckingham isn't involved in this album) is a gold album. 1997's live album THE DANCE is five million seller in the US. And finally SAY YOU WILL (Buckingham's back, Christine McVie is gone) was a gold album.  That's 1975 through 2003.  

Peter Green is the star of a Peter Green documentary, Hugh.  Peter Green doesn't really matter to a Fleetwood Mac documentary.  It's a bit like going to a Beatles documentary and being upset that Pete Best wasn't the focus -- Best was the original drummer.  




Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Wednesday, April 15, 2026.  Chump claims war may be winding down, Americans struggle to manage with inflated prices from the war, NYT does a deep dive in Homeland Security, Kristi Noem's work is under examination, Pam Bondi skips her deposition before the House Oversight Committee, Melania's speech last week appears to have been prompted by a former friend announcing on social media that she was going to spill, and much more.



Most Americans still think their taxes are too high, according to recent polls, even after last year’s tax law fulfilled several of President Trump’s tax-related campaign promises.

In fact, a new Fox News poll indicates people are more upset about taxes than they were last year. The findings from the survey, which was conducted in late March, are another sign that Americans are on edge about their personal finances as the U.S. experiences a spike in inflation and sluggish economic growth. Other polling finds that frustration goes beyond personal tax obligations, with many believing that wealthy people and corporations are not paying their fair share, while others worry about government waste.

And why wouldn't they be on edge about personal finances?  Paul Wiseman (AP) reports,  "U.S. wholesale prices surged last month as the Iran war drove up the cost of energy.  The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its producer price index -- which measures inflation before it hits consumers -- rose 0.5% from February and 4% from March 2025. The year-over-year gains was the biggest in more than three years. Energy prices surged 8.5% from February."  Tristan Bove (FORTUNE) notes Chump's tariffs have hit all fifty states, "As farmers have faced higher costs for livestock feed, fertilizer, and machinery, those higher costs now appear on grocery store shelves across the country as food inflation, according to the study." 

As the economy remains in the toilet, the editors of THE INDEPENDENT note:

“Stagflation” is the phenomenon that dare not quite speak its name, but will soon perhaps stalk the Earth. Crucially, that depends on how long the Iran war lasts, and the skill of central banks and national treasuries, but it could easily become an extremely uncomfortable reality in the coming months.

Given that the United States is the IMF’s major “shareholder”, and its irascible president is known to take critical remarks personally, the IMF avoided mentioning Donald Trump by name. But we all know who is to blame for this catastrophe – the president, with his illegal, unplanned and unnecessary war.

The IMF’s list of industrial casualties from this war is a long one. The Gulf economies, which had in recent decades become a new hub for global growth (and tax avoidance), are the hardest hit, for obvious reasons. But, in the broader sense of their vast reserves of money and natural resources, they can afford it. As with the spike in commodities prices that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it is the poorer people in Africa and Asia who will find the struggle to survive even harder.
The emerging economies of East Asia, which rely so heavily on the Middle East for their oil and gas supply, and for many raw materials, will also suffer a slowdown, having already borne the brunt of Mr Trump’s tariff war. China, in particular, will see growth drop to its lowest in three decades – around 4.5 per cent. While enviable by European standards, that is insufficient to sustain jobs growth for the rising generation.
The advanced economies will also suffer from the disruption to trade and investment, and the cost-of-living crisis will intensify once more – including in the United States. President Trump’s “hottest nation in the world” will cool, even if its fossil-fuel providers enjoy a windfall.


And yet Chump's war of choice on Iran continues.  Ben notes the latest this morning on MEIDASTOUCH NEWS.





NPR notes this morning:

In a Wednesday morning interview with Fox Business, Trump said the war with Iran was "very close" to ending.

"I view it as very close to being over," Trump told anchor Maria Bartiromo.

Trump has repeatedly suggested the war is nearing an end without offering a clear timeline.

The latest developments came as the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday that the global economy could be heading toward a recession triggered by the war.




The velocity at which President Trump’s war on Iran has spiraled out of control is unsurprising.

History neither repeats nor rhymes, but patterns flash like neon signs in the recent U.S. experience in the Greater Middle East. The combination of underestimating the enemy, overestimating one’s own power, and altogether ignoring the need for a clear definition of victory leads to escalation with no end in sight.
The president raced to the top of the escalatory ladder, threatening to destroy Iranian civilization on April 7. Mercifully, he backed down and offered a ceasefire, leading to a single day of peace talks in Pakistan. Already, however, Trump is ordering the U.S. Navy to blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and is reportedly weighing the resumption of limited air strikes.

The United States was supposed to have learned these painful lessons after the long nightmare in Vietnam. Despite serious doubts in his own mind and among his chief advisers that victory was attainable, President Lyndon B. Johnson sank his legacy in the jungles of Southeast Asia.


Moving over to Homeland Security's former secretary Kristi Noem.  William Vaillancourt (DAILY BEAST) notes:

The Homeland Security deputy secretary who was on the outs late last year is back in the department following Kristi Noem’s firing.

Troy Edgar is serving in the same role under Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Politico reported on Monday.

Edgar was sworn in last March, but his working relationship with Noem deteriorated late last year, one Trump administration official and a former DHS official told the outlet. The ex-DHS official said Edgar had essentially been “ousted.”
In January, Donald Trump nominated him as ambassador to El Salvador, but that nomination has now been withdrawn.

“The Admin is withdrawing Troy’s nomination and the withdrawal is expected to be transmitted to the Senate today,” a second administration official told Politico. “Troy never resigned from his DHS position so he was able to return.”

Acting DHS Secretary Lauren Bis told the Daily Beast in a statement: “DHS is fortunate to have Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar continue in his role. He brings valuable knowledge of the Department from the President’s first term when he served as DHS’ Chief Financial Officer. He will play an integral role in helping to make America safe again.”




The main engine of Trump’s enforcement campaign is the Department of Homeland Security. To understand how the agency has transformed, we interviewed more than 80 former and current D.H.S. employees, as well as officials in the Justice Department, which oversees immigration courts. Many of them supported increased enforcement but criticized the administration’s execution, aspects of which they characterized as chaotic, dangerous and ineffective.

Career employees described experiencing a frustrating sense of whiplash as immigration policy has swung back and forth between Republican and Democratic administrations. The root of the problem, as they see it, is the failure of Congress over many decades to pass new laws that address today’s realities. In February, the Department of Homeland Security shut down after Congress failed to reach a deal on Democrats’ proposed changes to enforcement tactics.

D.H.S. policies bar employees from speaking to the news media without authorization. Some of our sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retribution from the administration. We corroborated their descriptions of specific incidents with colleagues, contemporaneous notes and court documents. Miller, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, former Secretary Kristi Noem and other agency leaders declined our requests for interviews. We also sent the department detailed questions.

It's a lengthy transcript piece.  THE DAILY BEAST's Tom Lacthem adds:

It amounts to a sweeping indictment of the agency under Noem, 54, who was fired by Donald Trump on March 5 after a controversial 14-month run. As the Daily Beast has reported, Trump’s aides had wanted her gone for months before he finally acted, with the final straw reportedly being her insistence, under oath, that he had personally signed off on her $220 million vanity ad campaign.
The hits in the Times feature come thick and fast. A former ICE field director describes how Trump’s deputy chief of staff and immigration czar, Stephen Miller, told a room full of agency chiefs that targeting lists were irrelevant. “There is no list,” Miller said, according to the Times. “Everyone is fair game.”
One former senior ICE officer says that when agents fatally shot unarmed Minneapolis mother Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7, 2026, Noem cleared the shooting as justified within an hour, before any investigation had taken place. The officer says the exoneration’s speed sent a message to agents in the field that they could “push the limits.”
The testimony about Noem’s arrival at the agency is withering. A former associate counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recalls her first DHS town hall, at which she entered to the theme song “Hot Mama,” spoke for a few minutes, took no questions, and left. “It felt like a South Park moment,” he told the Times.


Still on Homeland Security, Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) reports: 

An immigrant child detained by ICE with her family in Texas nearly died before receiving medical care.

The New Yorker published a long article Monday about the medical neglect of children under Trump’s draconian immigration crackdown, and the story highlights Amalia, who was detained by ICE with her parents and sent to Texas’s Dilley Immigration Processing Center in December when she was only 18 months old.

At the time, Amalia was a healthy toddler with no known issues. The water at Dilley smelled strange, so her parents, Kheilin Valero Marcano and Stiven Arrieta Prieto, bought bottled water at the center’s commissary for her, despite having no income in detention. (The article noted that nonprofit organizations who work on immigrants’ rights, such as Human Rights First and RAICIES, have found that families detained at Dilley say the water there is “unclean, foul-smelling, and causes stomachaches.”)

Marcano also said that one child found a bug in her food in the facility’s cafeteria, leading other kids not to want to eat. Not long after that, children in the facility began to fall sick, including Amalia. In January, Amalia developed a high fever, and at the facility’s clinic, Amalia was given ibuprofen and her parents were told the fever was “good, because it means she’s fighting off a virus.”

But after two weeks, the fever persisted, and Amalia started vomiting and having diarrhea. Going back to Dilley’s medical clinic didn’t help, as Marcano told The New Yorker she waited in line on eight different occasions without her concerns being addressed. Marcano at one point gave Amalia a cold bath to try to lower her temperature, only for her daughter to pass out. She went to the clinic and shouted, “Are you going to watch my baby die in my arms?”



Yesterday was April 14th, the day Pam Bondi was supposed to be deposed by the House Oversight Committee.  She did not show.   SCRIPPS NEWS SERVICE notes:


Pam Bondi could face contempt proceedings if she does not testify before the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation into the federal handling of records related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Bondi did not appear for a scheduled deposition Tuesday, prompting accusations from lawmakers that she is evading a lawful congressional subpoena.

The Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued a statement yesterday:


Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, released the following statement after former Attorney General Pam Bondi missed the scheduled date of her deposition before the Oversight Committee. Pam Bondi is attempting to evade a lawful bipartisan subpoena the Committee issued last month. The subpoena was issued following a bipartisan vote supporting a motion by Rep. Nancy Mace to subpoena, “the Honorable Pamela Jo Bondi,” and not just the Attorney General.

“Pam Bondi is evading a lawful congressional subpoena by failing to appear before the Oversight Committee for a deposition about the Epstein files and the White House cover-up. This subpoena applies to her regardless of her title. She must appear before the Committee, and if she continues to ignore the law, Oversight Democrats will move forward with contempt proceedings immediately. We will fight until there is true accountability and justice,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia.

 
###







Bondi's not the only person garnering attention for The Epstein Scandal. 



Even in the UK, they're talking about -- and making fun of -- Melania Chump and her claims to have not been close to Epstein and Maxwell.  


President Trump said Friday that he had known his wife wanted to speak about Jeffrey Epstein at some point, and that he “thought she had a right to talk about it,” even if he had not known what exactly she planned to say.

“It doesn’t bother me,” Mr. Trump said in a brief telephone interview, referring to the remarks Melania Trump made from the entrance hall of the White House a day earlier.

“I didn’t know what the statement was,” he said, “but I knew she was going to make a statement.”


And she did.  And it did not work out how she planned if her plan was to draw a clear line between herself and Epstein and Maxwell.   Jude Cramer (FAST COMPANY) notes:

If the first lady’s associations with Epstein had recently reentered the headlines, her speech might have been understandable. But instead, her statement left many scratching their heads and pointing at her and her husband’s proven connections to Epstein, particularly the two men’s friendship in the 1990s.

It also brought renewed attention to the infamous birthday message and lewd drawing allegedly left for Epstein by Donald Trump in 2003, which read, “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.” The president has denied writing the message and sued The Wall Street Journal’s parent company for defamation after the outlet reported on the letter.




A former model who’s flown on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet and has close ties to President Donald Trump’s orbit warned late Saturday that “the truth will come out” after reportedly threatening to “tear down the entire system” by revealing insider knowledge.

That woman is Amanda Ungaro, a former Brazilian model, former ambassador to the United Nations and ex-wife of Paolo Zampolli, Trump’s special envoy and longtime friend. The New York Times reported last month that Zampolli successfully pushed Trump in 2025 to deport Ungaro, then his ex-wife.

Now, Ungaro is vowing revenge.

“Now it’s war,” Ungano told the Spanish news outlet El País in its report published Saturday night.

“We’ll see who wins. I kept quiet for years, and that’s why people are judging me. ‘Why are you speaking out now?’ they ask. ‘Because the guy wouldn’t let me live in peace!’”

Last week, an account on social media apparently belonging to Ungaro issued a series of threats directed at First Lady Melania Trump, vowing to “expose everything I know.” The threats were later suspected to be the potential motivation for the first lady’s surprise statement last week in which she denied having had a relationship with Epstein.


Amanda Ungaro?  When Melania made her statement last week, many said she was acting like someone trying to get out ahead of some news that would be breaking.  It appears to have broken.  QUEERTY notes:

It all starts with a story in the New York Times about a longtime Tr*mp friend who asked ICE to detain the mother of his child so he could win a custody battle that flew under the radar recently.

Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent and current presidential envoy, reached out to a top ICE official when he learned his ex, Amanda Ungaro, had been arrested on fraud charges in Florida.
Ungaro first arrived in New York as a 17-year-old model on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane in 2002. Later that year, she met Zampolli at a Manhattan night club. They entered into a relationship, had a kid together, but never married, and eventually broke up in 2023.

According to documents, Zampolli told the ICE agent that Ungaro was in the country illegally, and asked if she could taken into custody, hoping her detainment would help him win custody of the couple’s teenage son.

“The [ICE] official, David Venturella, promptly called the agency’s Miami office to ensure that ICE agents would pick up [Ungaro] from the jail before she was released on bail,” reports the Times.

OK, but what does this have to do with Melania?

Well, Zampolli is credited with bringing the future FLOTUS to the United States when she was a model in Slovenia, as well as with introducing her to Tr*mp at the Kit-Kat Club in 1998, a story that she referenced Thursday.

[. . .]

Then this week, Ungaro–or at least someone claiming to be her–started posting veiled threats towards Melania and fired AG Pam Bondi.

Though Ungaro doesn’t directly reference Epstein, the implication is apparent, especially after Melania’s remarks yesterday.

On top of that, Ungaro apparently taped an interview with a TV station in Spain that’s slated to air this weekend. 







Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — As President Trump’s war in Iran drives up food costs for American families and small businesses, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Minority Leader Schumer (D-N.Y.) led a group of four senators in pressing the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to crack down on food and agriculture companies engaging in grocery price fixing. The senators pressed the administration to lower costs for Americans by taking action to stop anticompetitive practices in the food supply chain and predatory pricing behavior, including breaking up illegal monopolies.

Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) signed onto the letter, which comes as oil, fertilizer, and other costs continue to surge as President Trump’s war in Iran continues into its seventh week — making the need for action even more urgent.

In December 2025, President Trump issued an executive order purportedly aimed at investigating “price fixing and anti-competitive behavior in the food supply chain.”

“[T]he Administration has yet to take any meaningful action to tackle consolidation and bring down food and farm input prices, which continue to squeeze farmers, small businesses, and consumers…Now, more than ever, it is time for the Administration to get serious about addressing these problems,” wrote the senators.

Despite President Trump’s promises to bring down prices “on Day One,” Americans saw their grocery bills rise faster than overall inflation last year, leading them to pay an average of $310 more for groceries compared to 2024. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to Donald Trump’s illegal war in Iran has effectively halted the shipment of one third of global fertilizer supplies, leading to higher fertilizer prices for farmers that are expected to be passed on to consumers in the form of higher grocery prices.

Instead of working to lower costs, the Trump administration has undermined antitrust enforcement in the food and agricultural industries, including by forcing out the DOJ’s top antitrust official and closing the FTC’s investigation into surveillance pricing even after an initial report found that retailers frequently use people’s personal data to tailor prices for goods and services.

“Excessive consolidation and anticompetitive practices by dominant firms are also major drivers of these price increases,” wrote the senators.

Consolidation in the fertilizer and seed markets, which are similarly dominated by just a handful of companies, are also driving up prices for farmers and American families. Giant food retailers and suppliers continue to engage in exclusionary contracting practices (such as slotting fees, category captain arrangements, and volume-based rebates) and discrimination.

The senators called for the DOJ and FTC to take the following specific actions to take on retailers’ and suppliers’ anticompetitive practices:

  • Crack down on violations of antitrust laws by giant corporations in the meatpacking, seed, fertilizer, and farm equipment sectors, including by breaking up these dominant companies;
  • Scrutinize and, where appropriate, block anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions in the food and agricultural sectors; and
  • Issue enforcement guidance on potential violations of the Robinson-Patman Act and investigate and take enforcement action where merited.

The senators also called on the FTC to:

  • Pursue rulemaking and enforcement action to tackle exclusionary contracting practices by corporations; and
  • Reopen its investigation into surveillance pricing and new rules and enforcement actions to address exploitative surveillance and dynamic pricing practices.

The lawmakers pressed for answers by April 27, 2026.

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