President Joe Biden commuted the sentences on Monday of 37 death row inmates, citing his conscience as a force behind the decision. He also left the death sentences unchanged for three men charged with hate-motivated mass shootings and terrorism.
National Politics
How Liberals Lost Comedy, and Helped Trump Win
Trump’s success with comedy is a result of the new relationship between digital media and the business of joking. For decades, liberals were thought to hold a monopoly on comedy. Moreover, there was little money to be made in comedy acts devoted to right-wing politics. Since 2016, however, a new crop of right-wing comedians has taken to digital platforms and algorithmically driven audience targeting in order to change this reality.
Why Americans Are Furious With Health Insurance CEOs
Over 8,000 Americans die every day, many unnecessarily. The United States still does not have in place a national health care system that guarantees everyone adequate medical attention. Some 25 percent of Americans have people in their family who have had to delay medical treatment for a serious illness because they couldn’t afford the care. Some 79 percent of America’s nurses, for their part, say they’re working in inadequately staffed health facilities.
Ex-Trump Adviser Michael Flynn Loses Defamation Suit Against Man Who Called Him ‘Putin Employee’
A state appeals court upheld a decision dismissing a defamation lawsuit that former Trump administration national-security adviser Michael Flynn filed against Rick Wilson, a political strategist and key player in the “Never Trump” movement. Wilson referred to Flynn in a 2022 tweet as “Putin employee Mike Flynn” and in 2023 retweeted “FYI, Mike Flynn is Q.”
Ron DeSantis Back-Up Defense Secretary If Hegseth Stumbles Out?
The President-elect’s stated commitment to Hegseth comes as Florida’s Governor is seen as a better bet on a prediction market. Ron DeSantis led the field Friday morning on Polymarket, but had fallen back by Saturday. Trump and DeSantis are attending the Dec. 15 Army-Navy football game, deepening the intrigue.
RFK Factor: An Unwelcome, Possible Return of Measles, Whooping Cough, and Worse
After backlash against public health interventions culminated in President-elect Donald Trump’s nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the country’s best-known anti-vaccine activist, as its top health official, infectious disease and public health experts and vaccine advocates say a confluence of factors could cause renewed, deadly epidemics of measles, whooping cough, and meningitis, or even polio.
Banning Birthright Citizenship Makes Newborns Criminals in Their Crib
Those who don’t like the idea that birth on American territory automatically grants you the gift of American citizenship have started to parse the words of the 14th Amendment. Conservative attempts to dismantle well over a century of constitutional precedent is dishonest, and untenable.
Sen. Rick Scott Gives Pete Hegseth Full Support Despite Drinking and Troubling Work History
While some Republican senators say they aren’t ready to just yet commit to supporting Pete Hegseth as damaging stories about his drinking and leadership continue to surface, Rick Scott is not one of them.
How Bathroom Bans on Federal Property Would Impact Trans Americans
A proposed bill in Congress would ban trans people from bathrooms in museums, national parks and other federal property. How would it be enforced, and what are the consequences?
Project 2025’s Coming War on Struggling Families
I’m a mom of four and have a child with special needs. My husband and I work hard for our four boys. We live above the official federal poverty line, but we struggle. And if conservative groups succeed in implementing Project 2025 under the next Trump administration, we’ll struggle a lot harder, with looming, harsh cuts to programs that families like mine rely on.
Janette Nesheiwat, Michael Waltz’s Sister in Law and Fox Contributor, Is Trump’s Choice for Surgeon General
Best known as a medical contributor to Fox News, Nesheiwat graduated from Umatilla High School before becoming a medical professional. Nesheiwat’s sister, Julia Nesheiwat, served as Trump’s Homeland Security adviser in 2020 during the President-elect’s first term in the White House. Julia Nesheiwat is now married to U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, who Trump recently named as National Security Adviser.
Is Marco Rubio NATO’s New Best Friend?
While Rubio has clearly changed his tune on Ukraine to align with Trump, he is not in lockstep with Trump on Nato. In fact, Rubio co-sponsored legislation alongside Democratic senator Tim Kaine, that would make it more difficult for Trump to withdraw from Nato by requiring two-thirds of the Senate to ratify withdrawal.
Advise and Consent. Just Not to Matt Gaetz.
Matt Gaetz is virtually no one’s idea of a qualified nominee. The man is a graduate of William and Mary Law School, a fact that must have the ghost of Thomas Jefferson pulling out his sepulchral hair. He practiced law for less than two years in a civil firm, has no criminal law experience and was briefly suspended for not paying certain administrative fees but was later reinstated.
One More Delusion: Trump Thinks He Can Solve the Middle East.
Donald Trump has promised to end all wars. In his usual impulsive and unpredictable manner, he has pledged to resolve the Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office and help Israel finish its Gaza and Lebanon operations quickly. Yet the Middle East is a complex place. Given the absence of a Gaza ceasefire, the thin hope of a halt to the Lebanon fighting, Netanyahu’s intransigence and Trump’s pursuance of an “Israel first” policy, the Middle East’s volatility is likely to persist.
Where Florida Went, The Nation Is About to Follow
Goodbye to America defining itself as a Beacon of Hope, the Light of Freedom, or any of that other stuff they told you in 3rd grade: the rule of law, checks and balances, free speech, science-based health care, and son on: we saw it all in Florida. It was just prelude.
Immunized Against Science: What Robert Kennedy Jr. as Health Chief Would Mean
Many scientists at the federal health agencies await the second Donald Trump administration with dread as well as uncertainty over how the president-elect will reconcile starkly different philosophies among the leaders of his team. Should Kennedy win Senate confirmation, his critics say a radical antiestablishment medical movement with roots in past centuries would take power, threatening the achievements of a science-based public health order painstakingly built since World War II.
House Speaker Opposed to Releasing Matt Gaetz Ethics Report on Alleged Sexual Misconduct
The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives is trying to put the brakes on a document that could harm Donald Trump’s pick for Attorney General by preventing a report on Matt gaetz’s alleged sexual misconduct from being released to the Senate. before Gaetz’s confirmation hearing.
Trump Taps Matt Gaetz for Attorney General; Democratic Leader Calls It ‘Beyond Catastrophic for the Country’
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Panhandle Republican who in recent years has become a national political lightning rod, was picked Wednesday by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as U.S. attorney general. Trump’s announcement that he is nominating Gaetz to lead the Department of Justice came shortly after he confirmed that U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is his choice for secretary of state.