Stunning but not surprising. Averse to unpleasant candor, the Democrats’ governing body functions more like a PR firm than a political organization devoted to grassroots capacities for winning elections. The party’s leaders pose as immune from critique, even if they have led the party to disaster.

Trump’s tariff chaos is distorting supply chains, depressing trade, and locking uncertainty into the economy. As costs are passed to consumers and exports continue to slide, the trade war is becoming a sustained drag on growth. www.reuters.com/business/imp...

Over 1,000 nonprofits removed or diluted DEI language from IRS filings after the regime ordered agencies to root out “illegal” DEI efforts and threatened investigations and funding cuts. Government pressure is forcing widespread self-censorship without passing a single law.

Benny Johnson—fired for plagiarism and later linked to Kremlin-backed media funding—has been elevated into Trumpworld’s access journalist and propaganda influencer, churning out fawning coverage, rage bait, and immigration demonization. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Federal prosecutorial power is being repurposed to harass political adversaries rather than enforce the law. Relitigating settled facts through subpoenas and grand juries corrodes the rule of law, cementing the Justice Department as an instrument of retaliation. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Pam Bondi ordered all charges dropped against Utah plastic surgeon Dr. Kirk Moore, who falsified Covid vaccination cards & gave saline shots to children to evade vaccine mandates. Medical fraud is being reframed as political virtue, with loyalty elevated above public health & the rule of law.

Customs & Border Protection is shifting from pilot programs to routine use of small, human-portable drones as core surveillance tools. Drones are increasingly used beyond the border for interior enforcement and protest monitoring, integrated with larger aircraft & AI-enabled surveillance systems.

At least 268 businesses & revenue streams are tied to Trump and his family, spanning real estate, crypto, licensing deals, merchandise, & private partnerships. The mapping shows how profits & influence flow through a dense web of entities directly connected to Trump while he occupies the presidency.

7 in 10 Americans say the cost of living in their area is unaffordable, including nearly half of Republicans and 3/4 of independents, according to the latest poll. 3 in 10 Americans say the cost of living is affordable, falling 25% since June. www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

Over the past decade, the communes have diversified the country’s economy. As a result, the country has become almost entirely self-sufficient. The communities pledged to strengthen an economy centered on life & satisfying domestic needs, resolute in preserving sovereignty amid U.S. pressure.

The lawsuit accuses the DHS of acting unlawfully in its effort to strip South Sudanese citizens of TPS, a US immigration status granted to citizens of countries experiencing natural disasters, conflict or other extraordinary circumstances that could make return to their homelands dangerous.

Murder toll up to 107. A US military strike on Monday killed two more people accused by the Trump administration of trafficking narcotics in the eastern Pacific, Pentagon officials said, bringing the death toll in the U.S. campaign to at least 107. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/u...

"I think everybody, the American public, believe it's absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency." -Karolyn Leavitt Cryptocurrency Social Media and Technology Royalties Not to mention: Bribes Gifts Pardons Regulatory rollbacks time.com/7342470/trum...

Niemöller was describing what are sometimes called “salami tactics”: divide one’s opponents by picking them off one at a time, starting with the most reviled. But this has not been the case with Trumpism in 2025. The Trumpist fascists have instead gone after everyone, everywhere, all at once.

Project 2025 isn’t “just conservative policy.” It’s a plan to change the nature of governance—away from public service and toward a presidency-centered system overseeing law, regulation, & enforcement. It’s the comparative study of how democracies get hollowed out without ever formally ending.

SCOTUS Justices: take bribes fly insurrection flags strip our rights Wife tries to overturn elections gut voting protections bless gerrymandering unleash unlimited dark money grant President immunity for crimes rewrite the ethics rules to make it legal after the fact Why are states still obeying?

Trump has claimed that US forces struck a “big facility” in Venezuela last week – but the president did not specify what it was, or where, and the White House has not commented further. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

In a year littered with lies and wild declarations, these are the five that stood out as the most startling. 1. Putting people over fish 2. Wind energy is 'driving the whales crazy' 3. Clean, beautiful coal 4. Global cooling 5. Climate change investigations www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

In the US healthcare system, Filipinos make up a large percentage of the workforce, including undocumented people. Amid heightened levels of immigration arrests, many Filipino healthcare workers say they are providing essential care while in the grips of anxiety over their own safety.

For Trump, 2025 was a year of crisis. To name a few: Rooting out a migrant “invasion” Staunching legal immigrants & targeting US citizens Uneven trade deals Military offensive against “narcoterrorists” www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12...

At the start of the Trump 2.0 regime, a woman was about to pass me on the sidewalk and then stopped, turned toward me, & almost shouted: “It’s a fucking nightmare!” It has been a “fucking nightmare”. But sometimes a nation needs a nightmare before it can fully awaken to long-simmering crises.

Half of Project 2025 has become official policy. Filling the fed workforce with political appointees, phasing out Dept of Education, rolling back climate change policies, axing DEI, & ramping up immigration deportations were some of the major policy changes aligned with the conservative mandate.

1. Grok calls itself 'MechaHitler' 2. Gemini spirals into self-loathing 3. Ballerina Cappuccina: The face of Italian brainrot 4. Albania's AI minister gives 'birth' to 83 children time.com/7341781/stra...

Trump vs. Jimmy Kimmel Trump vs. late-night TV Trump vs. Elon Musk Trump vs. Gavin Newsom Trump vs. Marjorie Taylor Greene Trump vs. BBC Trump vs. Jerome Powell Trump vs. The Democratic Party Trump vs. Rosie O’Donnell Trump vs. the law, Constitution, & the USA citizenry time.com/7342412/trum...

Americans are witnessing corruption run rampant, and those in power no longer bother to conceal it. Our president admires dictators, rewards loyalty over competence, and treats public office as a tool for private gain. thefulcrum.us/ethics-leade...

1. Falling asleep on camera 2. "Groceries" 3. Magnets 4. CKj sad, but look at my ballroom! 5. Medbeds 6. “Dada, dada, dada, bop, bop, bop” 7. Wandering off while meeting Japan PM 8. White House roof stroll 9. “And then they said ‘skedaddle!’ 10. "TEPUBLICAN or TPUBLICAN?” 11. “Everything’s computer”

While DHS anti-immigration agents may hide their faces in balaclavas, Noem is front-and-center promoting the agency & Trump’s promised mass deportations. ICE Barbie is somewhere between the enabler and the cover for the agency’s campaign of “assault & kidnapping.” newrepublic.com/article/2044...

Patel being horrible at this job was of course virtually inevitable because his only credentials for it were a willingness to defend Trump and attack the president’s enemies relentlessly. newrepublic.com/article/2041...

Here’s the thing: Miller’s mission of boosting deportation numbers of necessity requires arresting people who are not criminals or gang members—people who have jobs and have become integrated into U.S. communities—because there’s no other way to get the removals up. But it makes us less safe.

Fiber artists across the US are using their craft to protest against everything from national guard deployments to rollbacks on abortion rights. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

What’s Grandpa Trump’s version of telling stories by the fire on Christmas? It seems to be unleashing a flurry of more than 100 posts on Truth Social lying, complaining, and congratulating himself. newrepublic.com/post/204745/...

No one had any idea what she was talking about—because she had made it all up. newrepublic.com/article/2045...

The GOP had motive, they had means, and they had opportunity. Every institution that could have stopped them chose to look the other way—or participate—in stealing the 2024 election. The proof is here.” — Christopher Armitage, The Existentialist Republic substack.com/home/post/p-...

DHS X account published multiple posts on Thursday that violate the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government actions that favor one religion over another. Post 1: “Rejoice America, Christ is born!” Post 2: “Merry Christmas, America. We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior."

For 4 months, the men were routinely beaten, abused, & sexually assaulted, enduring treatment that human rights groups have characterized as “systemic torture”. Then, in July, they were abruptly released as part of a diplomatic deal between Venezuela and the US.

“We are in a full-scale war with the U.S., Israel and Europe; they don’t want our country to remain stable,” Pezeshkian said in an interview published on the website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to The Associated Press.

Immigration has woven itself so tightly through the country’s fabric, in classrooms and hospital wards, city parks and concert halls, corporate boardrooms and factory floors, that walling off the country now will profoundly alter daily life for millions of Americans. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/b...

Lobbyists close to Trump say their going rate to advocate for a pardon is $1 million. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Farm country has overwhelmingly voted Republican for decades and turned out in droves on the president’s behalf 3x. However, over the past year, those same communities have borne the brunt of his tariff agenda, healthcare center closures, lingering inflation, and cuts to public lands programs.

A US judge has blocked US authorities from detaining or deporting a British anti-disinformation campaigner who is among five European nationals targeted by the Trump administration because of moves to push back against hate speech and misinformation. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/dec...

Jimmy Kimmel, the American late night host, appeared on British television screens on Christmas Day to deliver a so-called “alternative Christmas message,” in which he said tyranny was “booming” in the United States. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/w...

Trump has staged a year of “unrelenting attacks on working people." Now they’re preparing to fight back. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said the org is gearing up to challenge Trump’s “Billionaire First” agenda in 2026, standing up for “struggling” Americans.

“My fear is that this is all a lead-up to potential use of the guard or the US military around the next election cycle. That is incredibly alarming. It is not American to conduct elections with troops in the streets & to intimidate voters. It’s very authoritarian.”

Key details for public consumption have remained few and far between. CENTCOM has not released casualty figures, identified specific ISIS leaders targeted, or confirmed whether coalition partners participated in the strikes. www.military.com/daily-news/h...

On Monday, a federal judge ordered the US gov't to give legal due process to the 252 Venezuelan men, either by providing court hearings or returning them to the US. The men have repeatedly said they were physically and psychologically tortured while at the notorious Salvadoran prison.

The last days of 2025 include all sorts of potential bad weather: Blizzard conditions, a brewing bomb cyclone, and "Blue Norther." www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...

The village is “a peaceful community” that has “no known history of ISIS, Lakurawa, or any other terrorist groups operating in the area.” The projectile had struck close to a Primary Health Center. While there were no casualties, the incident had “caused fear & panic within the community.”