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

Trump urges PM to grant asylum to Iranian soccer team as five escape handlers

A U.S. president publicly pressed Australia’s prime minister to grant asylum as Australian authorities were urged to treat alleged coercion of athletes as a modern-slavery emergency.

Executive

Mar 9, 2026

Sources

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-10/iranian-womens-football-escape-asylum/106434542

Summary

Five Iranian women’s national football players in Australia evaded team handlers, are safe with Queensland police, and are seeking asylum. A U.S. president publicly pressed Australia’s prime minister to grant asylum to the entire team while an Australian anti-slavery commissioner escalated the matter to federal authorities. The case now turns on whether Australian law enforcement and immigration systems treat the alleged coercion as a trafficking-slavery risk and move to protective visas before the team’s exit.

Reality Check

When heads of government use public pressure to steer another country’s asylum decisions, we normalize power-by-post rather than due process. Even without direct U.S. legal force here, this kind of intervention conditions the public to accept executive personalization of humanitarian protection instead of insulated, rules-based adjudication. Over time, that degrades expectations that asylum and protection decisions are made by evidence, procedures, and accountable institutions rather than by political leverage.

Detail

Multiple sources told the ABC that five Iranian women’s national football players—Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Ghanbari, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramazanzadeh and Mona Hamoudi—left the team’s accommodation on the Gold Coast, evaded team handlers, and are being protected by police in Queensland while seeking asylum in Australia.

The players had refused to sing Iran’s national anthem before an opening match with South Korea at the Women’s Asian Cup earlier this month and were later labelled “traitors” on Iranian state television, prompting fears of persecution if they return to Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social urging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to grant asylum to the whole team, saying the U.S. would take them if Australia would not. NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner James Cockayne sent a referral to the Australian Federal Police, copied to the foreign affairs, attorney-general, and immigration ministers, urging an immediate investigation into potential modern slavery offences and initiation of visa processes that could include Human Trafficking Visas.

Norms Impact

Christian music star born without arms arrested on child porn charges

A church minister and prison chaplain role became the backdrop for child-exploitation allegations, testing whether our institutions will report, cooperate, and protect without delay or deference.

Judiciary

Oct 22, 2025

Sources

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/jon-paul-sheptock-church-musician-arrested-b2849918.html

Summary

Jon Paul Sheptock, 49, a worship minister formerly at First Montgomery Baptist Church in Texas, was arrested on charges of possessing and producing child pornography. The case reflects an institutional failure point where religious and correctional ministry roles can provide access, credibility, and leverage even when formal child oversight is limited. The practical consequence is an urgent need for robust safeguarding, reporting, and cooperation protocols across churches and correctional settings while criminal investigations proceed.

Reality Check

This conduct, if substantiated, sits at the core of predatory power—using trust, access, and implied intimidation to obtain sexual imagery—and it normalizes a blueprint where reputation shields exploitation until law enforcement intervenes. It is likely criminal under federal child-exploitation statutes, including 18 U.S.C. § 2251 (sexual exploitation of a minor/production), § 2252 and § 2252A (receipt/possession/distribution of child sexual abuse material), and may implicate coercion-related offenses depending on proof of threats or extortionate intent. Even before conviction, our institutions fail if they treat this as an internal moral lapse rather than a public-safety emergency requiring immediate reporting, evidence preservation, and full cooperation with investigators.

Detail

Jon Paul Sheptock, 49, a Christian musician and former worship minister at First Montgomery Baptist Church in Texas, was arrested on charges of possessing and producing child pornography.

Ryan Gable of the Montgomery County Constable Precinct 3 office stated that detectives attempted to arrest Sheptock at his home in September but could not locate him. The Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Unit later located and arrested him while he was working as a minister at a local women’s prison.

In records described as written testimony from the Montgomery County Precinct 3 Constable’s Office, an alleged victim stated she believed Sheptock stole an image of her from nine years earlier, when she was 17. The affidavit states that after sending the image to her, he sought more explicit images and sent a video depicting an assault with a statement implying he did not want that to happen to her. The document further alleges he showed multiple nude images of adults and young girls on his computer.

The church confirmed his arrest, removed him from all responsibilities, and stated it is cooperating with law enforcement. The church also said new allegations were made by an adult congregant.