This week, Lisa and David talk about National Unity Day, weekend tragedies; Disney licenses characters to OpenAI’s Sora video generator; Pentagon AI flags Pete Hegseth war crimes; Congress silent as Trump escalates maritime kill operations and seizures on shaky legal ground; ongoing institutional capture and branding at USIP (Institute of Peace); National Parks parks forced to drop MLK and Juneteenth while adding Trump’s birthday to fee-free days; Australia social media ban; 50 Cent’s “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” Netflix documentary; Trump’s bonkers Kennedy Center honors; Alina Habba resigns after court disqualification; woman gives birth in Waymo; judge orders release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia; the “Taiwan question”; Spotify Wrapped fails; and more.
Added Context for Missile Strikes on Suspected Drug‑smuggling Boats
Legal experts broadly agree that much of this activity has, at best, a very shaky legal basis under both U.S. domestic law and international law, and that the “second shot” on survivors would clearly amount to an unlawful killing or war crime if the facts are as reported.
* There is no specific authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against Venezuela, “narcoterrorist” cartels, or generic drug traffickers; a detailed October 2025 letter from Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats stresses that Congress has “not enacted a specific statutory authorization for use of force” for these strikes.
* The administration instead leans on an Office of Legal Counsel memo that stretches older authorities and claims the 1973 War Powers Resolution’s 60‑day limit does not apply, because the operations use unmanned aircraft and do not put U.S. personnel at risk.
* Legal commentators and several members of Congress have criticized this as a return to, and expansion of, the unilateral war‑making we disliked under Bush and Obama, but with even weaker congressional involvement; attempts in the Senate to require authorization for further strikes have failed so far.
The current political reality is this: there is scattered oversight and a failed repeal/limitation vote, but no binding prohibition.
* Many experts argue these are law‑enforcement situations under peacetime maritime law, not an armed conflict, so the U.S. cannot reclassify drug traffickers as “unlawful combatants” and use wartime lethal‑force standards against them.
* Even if an armed‑conflict framework applied, firing a second missile at clearly shipwrecked survivors would violate long‑standing protections for persons hors de combat and the duty to rescue, and has been widely described as a war crime if substantiated.
* The Trump administration counters that the operations respect the law of armed conflict and that the boats, and even the drugs as “war‑sustaining objects,” are lawful military objectives, but this position is “fiercely criticized” as an overbroad attempt to turn a criminal‑law problem into a war.
In short:
* The legality of the boat strikes is highly contested, with strong arguments that at least the follow‑on strike on survivors was clearly unlawful and that the broader campaign lacks a solid statutory or international‑law basis.
* Congress has so far failed to assert its war‑powers role in more than symbolic ways.
Links:
Yergz Radio (yergzradio.com)
Dare Talk Radio (daretalkradio.com)
This Week in Outrage Substack (outrageoverload.net/twio)
The Disney-OpenAI Deal Redefines the AI Copyright War (Wired)
Pentagon Unveils New GenAI Platform, It Immediately Starts Flagging Pete Hegseth’s War Crimes (Above the Law)
National parks’ fee-free calendar drops MLK Day, Juneteenth and adds Trump’s birthday (NPR)
Alina Habba resigns after court disqualified her from being New Jersey’s top prosecutor (BBC)
Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia again (CNN)
