The Dictatorship

Senate confirms Steve Pearce to lead the Bureau of Land Management

Published

3 hours ago

May 20, 2026

Senate confirms Steve Pearce to lead the Bureau of Land Management

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee the management of a quarter-billion acres of public lands on Monday, as the administration pushes ahead with more mining and drilling while reversing conservation plans.

Former congressman Steve Pearce will lead the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management following Monday’s 46-43 confirmation vote. Pearce’s background as a Republican Party leader in New Mexico known for supporting public land leasing and industry made him a contentious pick. Democrats and environmental groups were strongly opposed.

He attempted to assuage any fears during his February confirmation hearing by noting that he grew up on a family farm where conserving the land and water was a necessity.

“The security and economic health of the country, especially the western states, rests squarely with the BLM,” he testified. “We can and must balance the different uses of public land. Local economies and future generations depend on us doing our job right.”

The land bureau has about 10,000 employees who manage roughly 10% of land in the U.S. It’s also responsible for 700 million acres (283 million hectares) of underground minerals, including major reserves of oil, natural gas and coal.

Trump and Republicans in Congress have been unraveling regulations from former President Joe Biden’s administration that are viewed as burdensome to industry. They have opened millions of acres of public lands for mining and drilling and canceled land plans and conservation strategies formulated under Biden.

The Democratic Party of New Mexico prior has called Pearce “an outright enemy of public lands,” suggesting he’s beholden to the oil and gas industry.

The Center for Western Priorities said Pearce’s confirmation was part of a broad assault by Trump and Republicans on public lands, pointing to the recent cancellation of grazing rules and other changes.

Pearce, a former fighter pilot and Vietnam War veteran, served seven terms in the U.S. House representing a district that spans oil fields, including portions of the Permian Basin and vast tracts of other public land.

He had a conservative voting record and advocated for ranchers when parts of Lincoln National Forest were closed to protect the endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse.

Pearce has said that his time in Congress and his visits to constituents showed him that the federal government had become what he called an absentee landlord. Instead of partnering with states and local communities on land management, he said the government was ruling over them.

As director, he vowed he would ensure local input would be part of his decision-making process.

While in Congress, Pearce urged the U.S. Interior Department to reduce the size of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument outside Las Cruces, New Mexico, as part of a nationwide review of monument designations during Trump’s first term. He said a reduction would preserve traditional business enterprises on public lands. That earned him lasting ire from environmentalists who called for his nomination to be rejected.

___ Associated Press writer Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

The Dictatorship

Putin visits China to reaffirm Russia ties as Xi also seeks stability with Trump

Published

3 hours ago

May 20, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Putin visits China to reaffirm Russia ties as Xi also seeks stability with Trump

BEIJING (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived Tuesday night in China for meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping less than a week after U.S. President Donald Trump wrapped up his own trip to Beijing.

Putin’s plane landed in Beijing, where he was greeted by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and an honor guard, as well as youths in light blue shirts waving Chinese and Russian flags and chanting, “Welcome, welcome, warmly welcome!”

His two-day visit is likely to be closely watched as Beijing seeks to maintain stable relations with the United States while also preserving strong ties with Russia.

The Kremlin has said Putin and Xi plan to discuss economic cooperation between the two countries, but also “key international and regional issues.” The visit coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship signed in 2001.

AP AUDIO: Putin visits China to reaffirm Russia ties as Xi also seeks stable US relations after Trump summit

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports Russia’s leader is visiting China to reaffirm ties with President Xi Jinping.

China is a key trading partner for Russia, especially after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Beijing has said it is neutral in the conflict while maintaining trade ties with the Kremlin despite economic and financial sanctions by the U.S. and Europe.

Putin said in a video address released before his visit that bilateral ties are at “a truly unprecedented level” and the relationship plays an important role globally, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.

There is “no connection” between the visits by Trump and Putin, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Monday, noting the trip by the Russian leader was agreed in advance, several days after Putin and Xi spoke via videoconference on Feb. 4.

“The Trump visit was about stabilizing the world’s most important bilateral relationship; the Putin visit is about reassuring a long-standing strategic partner,” said Wang Zichen, deputy secretary-general for the Beijing-based think tank Center for China & Globalization. “For China, these two tracks are not mutually exclusive.”

Putin and Xi call each other ‘friend’

Putin last visited China in September 2025 to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tianjin, watch a military parade honoring the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and hold talks with Xi.

At the time, Xi called his counterpart an “old friend ” while Putin addressed Xi as “dear friend.” In China, “old friend” is a very rare diplomatic term used by the government and party to describe favored foreigners.

In April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Beijing and met Xi, who described the bilateral relationship as “precious” in the current international context. Xi said China and Russia needed to strengthen and defend their shared interests.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said over the weekend that Putin’s trip also would allow Russia to receive direct updates and exchange views with China on its talks with the U.S.

During Trump’s visit, Xi described the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China as the world’s most important and said they should see each other as partners rather than rivals. By the end of the two-day summit, the countries said they would work on a new framework to manage “a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability.”

Wang of the center for China & Globalization observed, “Beijing wants stable relations with the West, continued strategic trust with Moscow, and enough diplomatic room to present itself as an unbiased major power capable of talking to all sides.”

China is Russia’s primary trade partner

For some, Putin’s visit is meant to reinforce the partnership between Russia and China that has strengthened in recent years.

China has become Russia’s top trading partner following the start of the war in Ukraine, and is the top customer for Russian oil and gas supplies. Moscow expects the war in Iran to increase the demand. China also has ignored demands from the West to stop providing high-tech components for Russia’s weapons industries.

Ushakov, the Russian presidential aide, said Russia’s oil exports to China grew by 35% in the first quarter of 2026 and that Russia is one of the biggest exporters of natural gas to China.

During “the crisis in the Middle East,” Russia remains a reliable energy supplier and China is a “responsible consumer,” Ushakov said.

Putin noted earlier this month that Moscow and Beijing have reached “a very substantial step forward in our cooperation in the oil and gas sector.”

“Practically all the key issues have been agreed upon,” he said. “If we succeed in finalizing these details and bringing them to a conclusion during this visit, I will be extremely pleased.”

Putin also praised their bilateral relationship as a crucial, balancing force in international relations.

“Interaction between such nations as China and Russia undoubtedly serves as a factor of deterrence and stability,” he said.

Moscow welcomes China’s dialogue with the U.S. as another stabilizing element for the global economy, Putin added.

“We stand only to benefit from this, from the stability and constructive engagement between the U.S. and China,” he said.

The Dictatorship

Senate approves war powers vote to rein in Trump on Iran

Published

7 hours ago

May 20, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

May. 19, 2026, 6:08 PM EDT

The eighth time is sort of the charm for the U.S. Senate.

Amid attendance issues and growing defections in the GOP ranks, the Senate on Tuesday approved a procedural vote related to a war powers resolution. If adopted, the war powers resolution would severely restrict President Donald Trump’s war powers in Iran.

After seven failed previous attempts, the Senate voted 50-47 to discharge the war powers resolution, with Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining with nearly all Democrats in backing the procedural motion. (Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., once again opposed the vote.)

Cassidy, the newest GOP defection, just lost his bid for reelection to the Senate over the weekend, after Trump backed a challenger in the Louisiana primary. Cassidy also voted to support an Iran war powers resolution in 2020.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told MS NOW the Cassidy flip underscores there is “steady progress towards a realization that we are overextended and diplomacy is the only reasonable way to resolve this.”

But this victory will mostly be symbolic. Three GOP senators — John Cornyn, R-Texas, Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. — weren’t present for the vote Tuesday, hence why the resolution succeeded. The resolution will now get another procedural vote before a final up-or-down vote in the Senate.

Even if those senators supported the measure, the legislation would still need to be adopted in the House — and survive an almost certain veto from President Trump.

None of those things are likely. But after seven failed votes in the Senate, this victory is at least symbolic for Democrats.

Introduced by Tim Kaine, D-Va., the resolution directs the president “to remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran.”

Last week, Kaine told reporters a day would come soon that Republicans joined Democrats on the resolution. By luck, or pure vengeance, that day came today.

Under Senate rulesa floor vote on the war powers resolution must occur within three calendar days — which should give Republicans more than enough time to get senators back to Washington to defeat the underlying resolution.

Still, the vote exposes growing frustration in the GOP ranks over the Iran war.

With the Iran conflict nearing the three month mark and a critical 90 day deadline, military action is supposed to cease unless Congress votes to declare or authorize war, according to the War Powers Resolution of 1973. The Trump administration, however, has disputed that the Iran war is on the clock, arguing the timeline has paused while in a ceasefire.

Still, the Senate’s vote comes as Democrats in the House are also expected to force a vote this week on reining in the president’s Iran war authority.

Last week, the House’s third vote on a war powers resolution failed with a 212-212 tied vote. Notably, the sole Democrat who voted with Republicans against that measure — Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine — objected on technical grounds and has suggested he could vote for a slightly different resolution this week.

Jack Fitzpatrick contributed to this report.

Kevin Frey is a congressional reporter for MS NOW.

Peggy Helman is a desk associate at MS NOW.

Lillie Boudreaux

The Dictatorship

Federal agencies are reportedly hiding DOGE documents from investigators

Published

7 hours ago

May 20, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Federal agencies are reportedly hiding DOGE documents from investigators

May. 19, 2026, 5:44 PM EDT

Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of politics and technology.

GAO’s DOGE probe hampered

Officials at some federal agencies are reportedly stonewalling the Government Accountability Office’s investigation into what sensitive information Elon Musk and other federal employees may have accessed while working for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The Washington Post reported on officials who have spurned requests from the GAO, which conducts audits and investigations into federal misconduct. Wouldn’t you like to know whether and how Musk and his minions garnered access to some of the government’s most highly guarded documents? I, for one, am certainly curious why some officials are blocking these efforts.

A GAO spokeswoman told the Post that the agency remains “committed to fulfilling our statutory audit responsibilities,” adding, “Timely cooperation from [a] federal agency is essential to ensuring Congress has the information it needs to conduct effective oversight.”

I don’t know about you, but to me that sure sounds like “you better hand over the documents.”

Elon’s latest L

Musk lost his lawsuit against OpenAI that could have led to a massive overhaul of the artificial intelligence company. The ruling, which the X owner has vowed to appeal, was something of a victory for OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman.

But Altman didn’t survive unscathed, as there were parts of the trial that made him appear quite untrustworthy.

Trump’s stock trades

I wrote about a new financial disclosure showing that President Donald Trump bought and sold stocks in tech companies, including Palantir and Nvidia, while his administration has had a hand in regulating — and enriching — these companies. As I see it, the Palantir stock purchases in particular raise fresh concerns about the motivations behind the president’s anti-immigrant crackdown.

‘Purge Palantir’ movement notches a win

Speaking of Palantir, Germany’s spy agency has reportedly decided to use a French software company rather than the American firm. The decision marks a victory for the “Purge Palantir” movement, a growing push for governments and businesses to sever ties with the Trump-aligned company.

MAGA world’s AI worries

Steve Bannon and a bunch of MAGA influencers are fretting over the AI revolution and what it could mean for humans, so they all sent an open letter to Trump, begging him to impose his will on the industry. I wrote about why their push for Trump to take a central role in AI regulation is a terrible idea.

Grassley extends an invitation to Big Tech

In a post on X late last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, invited top CEOs from Google, TikTok, Meta and Snapchat to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month to discuss what measures they’re taking to keep children and families safe.

Why Grassley, the committee chairman, neglected to invite Musk, whose scandal-plagued platform he used to make the announcement, is certainly worth pondering.

I invited the CEOs of Meta TikTok Google + Snapchat 2 testify before the Sen Judic Cmte on June 23 Americans deserve 2know what these companies r doing to keep kids&families safe online The cmte looks forward 2shining a bright light + holding Big Tech accountable

— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) May 15, 2026

Pope’s AI encyclical

Pope Leo is linking up with a co-founder of AI company Anthropic to launch an encyclical — basically, a guide on the church’s philosophy on different topics — focused on AI. The pope recently condemned the use of AI weapons in warwarning they can lead to a “spiral of annihilation.”