Featured

Trump: Iran asked me to be Supreme Leader, but I said no thanks

Trump’s “Iran asked me to be Supreme Leader” joke at an NRCC fundraiser uses a real, deadly leadership crisis in Iran to normalize assassination-as-policy and blur what’s confirmed about the war and succession.

Mar 26, 2026

Featured

‘Men need to be perp-walked’ after Epstein files release, Massie tells BBC

A GOP lawmaker says the Epstein document releases are still falling short—because redactions and withheld material may be blocking accountability and survivor-centered justice.

Mar 25, 2026

Buried.News

The stories buried under the noise

Primary focus

Trump fires Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary

A Cabinet secretary was forced out amid contracting and oversight scrutiny, signaling that executive control—not transparent accountability—can dictate leadership of the agency driving mass detention and deportation.

Mar 5, 2026

Featured

The Trump gold coin is not normal : Consider This from NPR

A federal design panel OK’d a Trump portrait for a commemorative gold coin, but the key question is whether Treasury can legally bypass long-standing limits meant to keep living politicians off U.S. money.

Mar 23, 2026

Featured

White House Confronted Over Huge Bets Made Minutes Before Trump’s Big War Move

A $580 million burst of oil-futures selling minutes before Trump’s Iran “talks” post raises a basic public-interest question: did anyone trade on advance knowledge of a market-moving national security decision?

Mar 24, 2026

Norms Impact

Labor Secretary’s Husband Barred From Department Premises After Reports of Sexual Assaults

Federal workplace access was cut off for a Cabinet secretary’s spouse after staff alleged sexual assaults inside the agency—an institutional failure of duty-of-care that tests whether power shields insiders.

Executive

Feb 19, 2026

⚖ Legal Exposure

Ethics Violation

Likely Unlawful

Potentially Criminal

Likely Criminal

Allegations that the Labor Secretary’s husband sexually assaulted staff inside a federal building, including an incident reportedly captured on security video and reviewed in a criminal investigation, create significant legal exposure and institutional risk. The department’s decision to bar him from headquarters and the inspector general inquiry into related misconduct indicate serious investigative red flags, though the article does not establish a prosecutable public-corruption quid pro quo or that the spouse acted under color of law.

Sources

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/business/labor-secretary-husband-sexual-assault-allegations.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

Summary

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, has been barred from Labor Department headquarters after at least two female staff members reported sexual assaults in the building. The allegations were raised inside the department as part of an internal inspector general investigation into alleged misconduct by the secretary and her senior staff. The decision restricts access to a federal workplace while a criminal investigation reviews security-camera evidence from at least one reported incident.

Reality Check

Letting a Cabinet secretary’s spouse move freely through a federal workplace after staff report sexual assault invites a two-tier system where proximity to power can erode basic safety and equal protection at work. If the reported conduct involved nonconsensual sexual touching, it can plausibly implicate federal sexual-abuse statutes for acts in federal facilities, including 18 U.S.C. § 2244 (abusive sexual contact) and related provisions depending on the facts shown on security footage and in witness statements. Even if prosecutors ultimately decline charges, our government’s legitimacy depends on immediate, documented access controls and an investigation insulated from political influence—because workplace safety and the rule of law cannot be optional for the well-connected.

Legal Summary

Legal Analysis

18 U.S.C. § 111 (Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees)

The allegations involve unwanted/inappropriate touching of Labor Department staff inside a federal workplace during working hours; if forceful or offensive physical contact is established, it can satisfy assault/battery concepts incorporated in §111 when directed at covered federal employees.
Key gap from the article: it does not specify whether the complainants were federal “employees” covered by §111 at the time, nor whether the conduct meets the statute’s force/assault threshold as charged federally (facts are being investigated criminally per the article).

18 U.S.C. § 242 (Deprivation of rights under color of law)

Because the accused is the secretary’s spouse, not alleged to be a federal official or acting with delegated authority, “under color of law” is not established on the stated facts.
Exposure could increase only if evidence showed he leveraged official power/access in a way attributable to government authority; the article does not allege that.

5 C.F.R. Part 2635 (Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch) / Agency workplace conduct & access controls

The department barring the secretary’s husband from headquarters reflects an internal risk-control response to alleged misconduct in a sensitive federal workspace.
Internal inspector general scrutiny of alleged misconduct by the secretary and senior staff suggests potential procedural/ethics exposure (e.g., permitting improper access, failure to safeguard staff), but the article does not describe specific acts by the secretary.

Conclusion: The core conduct described is a serious investigative red flag involving alleged sexual assault in a federal workplace with an active criminal inquiry, but the article does not provide enough to conclude substantially satisfied federal public-corruption elements; exposure centers on potential criminal assault/offensive touching and related workplace/ethics failures rather than a money-for-official-action scheme.

Detail

Dr. Shawn DeRemer, the husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, was barred from the Department of Labor’s headquarters on Constitution Avenue after at least two female staff members told officials he had sexually assaulted them, according to people familiar with the decision and a police report.

The women reported that Dr. DeRemer touched them inappropriately inside the building. One incident occurred during working hours on the morning of Dec. 18 and was recorded on office security cameras, according to people familiar with the matter. The video showed Dr. DeRemer giving one of the women an extended embrace and was reviewed as part of a criminal investigation, one person said.

In January, the women’s concerns about Dr. DeRemer were raised during an internal investigation by the department’s inspector general into alleged misconduct by Secretary Chavez-DeRemer and her senior staff, according to a person familiar with the inquiry.

Norms Impact

Trump Bored to Sleep During Board of Peace Launch

A president appearing to sleep through his own flagship meeting erodes the basic governing norm of attentive executive stewardship over public policy and diplomatic signaling.

Executive

Feb 19, 2026

Sources

https://newrepublic.com/post/206784/donald-trump-sleep-board-peace-launch

Summary

President Trump appeared to doze off on camera during the inaugural meeting of his “Board of Peace” at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. A public presidential event meant to project command instead displayed visible disengagement at the center of a newly launched initiative. The practical consequence is a renewed, unavoidable scrutiny of presidential fitness and cognitive capacity as the country moves toward midterm elections.

Reality Check

A president repeatedly appearing to drift off in official settings risks normalizing a hollow executive—one where decisions and access can migrate to staff and insiders without transparent accountability, weakening our rights through untraceable power. Nothing described is likely criminal on its face, but it collides with core governance norms: the presidency requires sustained attention to official business and credible public performance of command. When visible disengagement becomes routine at signings, Cabinet sessions, and diplomacy, we are left with governance by shadow delegation and an electorate asked to accept it without answers.

Media

View media post

Detail

Footage from Thursday’s inaugural “Board of Peace” meeting at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. shows President Trump appearing extremely drowsy while seated during presentations and remarks by other speakers.

During a presentation by Major General Jasper Jeffers III, Trump’s eyelids visibly grew heavy and he appeared to struggle to remain awake. Video clips also show him continuing to doze as several international dignitaries spoke, including during remarks by Tony Blair. The meeting is described as extending at least two and a half hours.

The incident follows multiple recent public appearances in which Trump appeared to fall asleep or struggle to stay awake, including a whole-milk legislation signing ceremony last month, a marijuana rescheduling executive order signing, a Cabinet meeting in December, and a Rwanda–Democratic Republic of the Congo peace agreement signing.