Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump says the U.S. missile shortage is Biden’s fault, not the six months he’s spent firing them at Iran. A Texas family named in the Epstein files over an attempt to buy the “Lolita Express” gave thousands to Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign. ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on gloves that deliver painful electric shocks to detainees. And Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9 million from oil and gas holdings before hearing a fossil fuel case in October.
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Trump Blames Biden for the Missiles Trump Fired
You can’t fire all your missiles at Iran and have them too, or however that saying goes.
Trump said on Real America’s Voice Tuesday morning that the U.S. is “fine with munitions,” then said the reason the stockpile is low is that Joe Biden gave “three hundred billion dollars worth” to Ukraine.
“They talk about munitions — and we’re fine with munitions, we’re fine. But the reason it would be lower — and we’re building them like crazy — but the reason it’s low is he gave three hundred billion dollars worth to Ukraine,” Trump said. “They never mention that. They never like to mention that.”
The actual reason the U.S. is short on long-range missiles and interceptors is because the Trump administration has been shooting them at Iran for the past six months. Biden did send some Tomahawks to Ukraine in 2024, but that doesn’t have the same effect as a six-month war.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies looked at the actual numbers and concluded the U.S. has enough missiles to continue the war under any plausible scenario, so the shortage Trump is blaming Biden for may not even exist.
It’s like reporting your car stolen while sitting in it.
They’re Named in the Epstein Files, and They Donated to Ken Paxton
A used Boeing got more due diligence than an FBI tip about children.
At least one member of the Jaffe family, a Texas real estate and aviation clan, donated upwards of $6,000 to groups supporting Ken Paxton, according to FEC filings. The family appears in the Epstein files twice.
1. Their aviation company, Jetran, was in talks to buy Epstein’s Boeing jet, the plane allegedly used to ferry teenage girls to his properties. The deal fell apart in June 2016, after Jetran walked away citing “due diligence” and concerns about “engine issues.”
2. Doug Jaffe III is named in a 2020 anonymous tip to the FBI alleging he hosted a caller at a Mexican villa where they saw a girl estimated at 11 or 12. The tipster said Jaffe took them to an Acapulco club where “young girls (possibly underage) were brought onto the stage and groped.”
The FBI listed the tip as “closed” in October 2021, with no indication it was substantiated. Doug Jaffe III says he never met Epstein and had no relationship with him.
The Paxton campaign did not say whether it would return the money. Seeing as he once fled his house to avoid being served a subpoena, returning a check seems unlikely.
ICE Is Buying $20 Million Worth of Shock Gloves
They’re calling them “de-escalation devices,” and in fairness, they do make people stop moving.
ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” by March, according to a notice DHS published Monday. The solicitation for a no-bid contract could go out as early as Friday.
The devices are called the G.L.O.V.E. — Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter — made by Compliant Technologies of Lexington, Kentucky. They look like normal patrol gloves, but when pressed to bare skin, they deliver a shock.
The manufacturer warns that the gloves should not be used as punishment, on people merely showing “verbal defiance or belligerence,” or on children, pregnant women, the elderly, or disabled people.
The ACLU’s Jenn Rolnick Borchetta noted that ICE has spent the last year showing the country it is too quick to use force. Now, officers can deploy electric shocks “with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do.”
One expert described the sensation as being “like a bee sting,” which is reassuring until you remember bees don’t have qualified immunity.
Alito Has Made $2.9m From Oil and Gas Since Joining Supreme Court
Is it really a conflict of interest if the interests are getting along?
Justice Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9 million from his fossil fuel holdings between 2005 and 2024, according to an analysis by Court Accountability. Even at the lowest estimate, the figure is almost $400,000.
Most of Alito’s gains came from a mineral interest in Grady County, Oklahoma, held by his wife, Martha-Ann. The report suggests he undervalued it — he reported $100,000 to $250,000 while an adjacent plot sold for $800,000 in 2017.
The Alitos leased the land to Citizen Energy, later acquired by a company majority-owned by Paul Singer’s Elliott Investment Management, which also owns more than 52 million shares of Suncor worth over $2.3 billion. Singer paid for a 2008 private jet ride Alito took and did not disclose.
On October 5, the opening day of its term, the Supreme Court will hear Suncor and Exxon argue that federal law bars local governments from suing fossil fuel producers over climate damage.
The court says Alito need not recuse himself because his holdings don’t include the specifically named companies, and he has since sold his ExxonMobil stock. He is the only justice who has not filed his 2025 disclosure, which was due May 15.
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Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tonight.
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Administration Admits Defeat in Attempt to Get Trans Kids’ Medical Records. The Trump administration has spent the past year subpoenaing hospitals across the country for the private medical records of transgender children. Not because anyone was harmed, but because they wanted to find a reason to prosecute doctors who provided gender-affirming care. A federal judge in Pennsylvania called it out last December, writing that the DOJ’s arguments showed “callous indifference, if not abject cruelty.” The DOJ appealed, and this week, they quietly dropped the appeal with no explanation. The families’ attorney said his clients “can breathe easier with this litigation behind them.”
