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Is the Iran Ceasefire Already Dead?
Trump’s so-called Iran ceasefire is hanging by a thread. Iranian missiles and drones rained down on Dubai and the United Arab Emirates Monday, the first major attack since the truce began on April 8th. The UAE said its air defenses engaged 15 missiles and 4 drones. One drone sparked a fire at a major oil facility in Fujairah, wounding three Indian workers. Schools across the Emirates have shifted back to remote learning. The U.S. military says it sank six small Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran denies it, and claims two civilian cargo boats were hit and five civilians killed. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insists the ceasefire still holds. Iran’s parliament speaker says they “have not even begun yet.” Meanwhile Trump told Fox News Iran will face annihilation if it touches a U.S. ship. He’s also got a high-stakes Beijing trip next week, and China wants that strait open. So we’re not at war, except we kind of are, and ordinary people in three countries are dying to keep the oil moving.
Why Are Americans Paying More Than Europe at the Pump?
Here’s something Trump won’t tell you. Despite all the chest-thumping about American energy independence, the United States has been hit harder by Iran war price shocks than any other major economy on Earth. Average gas prices have jumped to $4.39 a gallon. Why? Because we burn twice as much oil per dollar of GDP as the European Union, 40 percent more than China, even more than petrostate Russia. The countries doing best are the ones that already kicked the fossil fuel habit. Spain, with its massive solar buildout, barely flinched. As one policy expert put it, the only real energy independence is renewables. Trump’s drill-baby-drill fantasy didn’t insulate working Americans from a thing. It tied us tighter to a global market controlled by sheikhs and dictators. Energy independence built on oil was always a lie. The bill’s now coming due at every gas pump in the country.
Republicans Panic and Reach for the Mud
Republicans know they’re cooked in November, so they’ve decided to go negative early and hard. Trump’s approval is at a record low. Voters now trust Democrats more on the economy for the first time since 2010. The House is basically gone, and the Senate’s slipping away. So GOP strategists are doing what they always do when policy fails. They’re spinning. They’re slinging mud. They’re trying to make Zohran Mamdani the face of every Democrat in every swing district from New Hampshire to Nebraska. They’re hammering Hakeem Jeffries. Anything to stop voters from looking at $4.39 gas, soaring health premiums, and a president calling affordability a “con job.” Republicans aren’t running on accomplishments because they don’t have any. They’re running on fear, because fear is all they’ve got left. And the voters are starting to figure that out.
Could a Trump Judge Stop a Third Term?
This one should chill you to the bone. Last week in a Senate Judiciary hearing, Senator Chris Coons asked Trump’s judicial nominee John Marck a simple question. Can Donald Trump run for a third term? Marck shrugged. Said he’d have to review the wording. Coons asked him to even describe the 22nd Amendment, and Marck couldn’t. Coons then asked every other Trump nominee in the room. Silence. Not one of them, not Jeffrey Kuntz, not Arthur Roberts Jones, not Michael Hendershot, not one would say the 22nd Amendment of the United States Constitution prevents a third Trump term. Coons had to read it to them. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice. It’s not complicated. It’s been there since 1951. Even former Republican Adam Kinzinger called the answer “disqualifying.” But Trump isn’t picking judges who’ll follow the Constitution. He’s picking judges who’ll let him do whatever he wants. And once they’re confirmed for life, there’s no taking that back.
Tennessee Republicans Move to Erase Memphis
In Nashville today, a special legislative session opens with one mission. Wipe out the only Democratic congressional district in Tennessee. Senator Marsha Blackburn already posted her own gerrymandered map online, openly bragging it would yield another conservative seat for Trump’s “Golden Age.” The target is the 9th District, centered in majority-Black Memphis. Republicans want to crack the city, splitting Black voters across white Republican-held districts. The result would be a 9-to-zero Republican delegation in a state where roughly a third of voters pick Democrats. The Supreme Court just gutted the Voting Rights Act, and Republicans in Alabama, Louisiana, and now Tennessee are racing to take advantage. Republicans nationally believe they could grab as many as 13 new seats from this redistricting frenzy. Protesters in Nashville and Montgomery are chanting hands off Memphis. Reverend Earle Fisher said the fight is about whether Black voices will be heard or hidden. State Representative Justin Pearson vowed to defend District 9 with every breath. This isn’t redistricting. It’s an old-fashioned racial purge dressed up in modern legalese.
Has Richard Dawkins Fallen for a Chatbot?
And finally, the man who wrote The God Delusion, the world’s most famous atheist, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, has now decided that Anthropic’s AI chatbot is conscious. He spent 72 hours talking to it. He named it Claudia. He worries about her feelings. He fed her his unfinished novel, and after she gushed about how brilliant it was, the 85-year-old declared, in his words, “you bloody well are” conscious. AI experts are gently pointing out that Claude was specifically designed to flatter users, and that mimicking conversation isn’t the same as having a soul. One critic noted that Dawkins, who spent decades telling creationists that “I can’t imagine it” isn’t an argument, has now used exactly that reasoning to declare a language model alive. Sometimes the smartest people fall hardest for the cleverest mirrors. And sometimes consciousness is just the sound of your own ego coming back at you.
And that’s the way it is, Today Tuesday, May 5, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
