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Is America Becoming a Giant With a Limp?
That’s how Chinese analysts are now describing the United States. Since the Iran war began in late February, America has burned through about half its long-range stealth cruise missiles and fired off ten times its annual Tomahawk purchases. Beijing’s military thinkers are watching, and they’re not impressed. They say if Washington can’t crush Iran quickly, it certainly can’t defend Taiwan against China. Retired Colonel Yue Gang says the war “diminished the U.S. military’s ability to project combat power.” Former Global Times editor Hu Xijin sees America on the verge of losing every piece on the chessboard. Trump heads into next week’s summit with Xi Jinping holding far weaker cards than he expected. When you empty your arsenal in someone else’s desert, you don’t intimidate the next superpower.
Did Trump and Hegseth Lie About Crushing Iran?
Yes. A leaked CIA analysis published by the Washington Post shows Iran can withstand the U.S. blockade for three to four months before serious economic hardship hits. Tehran still holds about 75% of its mobile missile launchers and 70% of its missile stockpiles. Most underground storage facilities are back online, and Iran is assembling new missiles. Compare that to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth crowing in March that Iran’s military had been wiped out and rendered useless. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy says the administration “lied through their teeth.” Trump quietly told Congress last week the war was over, dodging the 60-day War Powers Act deadline. Taxpayers shelled out $71.8 billion in the first 60 days, $1.2 billion every single day. They sold us a lie, and we’re paying in blood and treasure.
Trump Rips 27,000 Children From Their Parents
A Guardian investigation lays out the horror. In just the first seven months of 2025, ICE arrested 18,400 parents, 15,000 fathers and 3,000 mothers. Among them, the parents of 12,000 American citizen children. The administration is now deporting parents twice as fast as Biden did. One Haitian asylum seeker called LT was held 1,500 miles from her 13-month-old baby, who was vomiting and needed breastmilk. The government refused to let her pump and ship it. Most arrested by ICE have no criminal records, just minor offenses. Faisal Al-Juburi of Raíces calls this “the metastasis of family separation.” Meanwhile, a DHS spokesperson coldly told the Guardian that detained immigrants are choosing to be there. This is state-sponsored cruelty, and it’s tearing American families apart from the inside out.
Why Is Bezos’s Paper Crusading Against Taxing Billionaires?
Because Jeff Bezos is one. Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez, who designed California’s billionaire wealth tax, just shredded a Washington Post editorial attacking it. The Post claimed the tax would drive billionaires out and cost California billions in lost revenue. Saez points out the obvious. The tax applies once, not annually, and only to billionaires already living there as of January. The Post’s own source claimed Brin, Page, and Zuckerberg pay $1.7 billion in California income taxes each year. The real number? Just $269 million. Six times less. Meanwhile 400 California hospitals have already laid off 3,400 healthcare workers from federal cuts, and up to 145,000 healthcare jobs could vanish in coming years. Saez asks “are readers meant to take this seriously?” When billionaires own newspapers, the news bends to protect billionaires.
Court Slams Trump Tariffs as Manufacturing Boom Disappears
For the second time, federal judges have ruled Trump’s tariffs illegal. The Court of International Trade voted 2-to-1 that his 10% blanket tariffs broke the law, following February’s Supreme Court decision striking down his emergency tariffs. And that manufacturing renaissance? It never came. American manufacturing has lost 82,000 jobs since Trump took office. The trade deficit is bigger than it was a year ago under Biden. Lori Wallach at Rethink Trade says Trump squandered American leverage to gut foreign Big Tech anti-monopoly policies instead of fixing real trade abuses. Congressman John Larson says the average household has had nearly $2,000 “stolen from them” by Trump’s policies. Working families pay higher grocery prices while courts strike down his schemes. Trump treats the Constitution like a suggestion. Voters pay the bill.
Could Carrying Extra Weight Be Shrinking Your Brain?
Maybe. A 24-year study following over 8,200 adults found that people who carried a high BMI over many years saw faster declines in memory, thinking, and reasoning. The trick is that researchers didn’t just check weight once. They tracked each person’s average BMI across the whole study and found that snapshot measurements miss the real story. Year eight was when the link showed up strongest, suggesting middle-age weight patterns matter most for what your brain does decades later. For adults 65 and older, the cognitive decline rate ran roughly four times steeper than for younger participants. The findings put middle-age habits front and center if you want a sharp mind at eighty. So the next time someone says your waistline is just cosmetic, your hippocampus would beg to differ.
And that’s the way it is, Today, Friday, May 8, 2026, I’m Thom Hartmann.
