Daily Kos

Daily Kos https://www.dailykos.com News Community Action Copyright - Kos Media, LLC Fri, 13 Mar 2026 19:27:26 +0000 Fri, 13 Mar 2026 19:27:26 +0000 rsshelp@dailykos.helpscoutapp.com rsshelp@dailykos.helpscoutapp.com Hegseth gets shifty when asked about US deaths in Iran war https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/13/2372996/-Hegseth-gets-shifty-when-asked-about-US-deaths-in-Iran-war?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= During Friday’s Iran war briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took a page out of his boss’ <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372701/-I-don-t-know-about-it-Trump-plays-dumb-about-his-own-war" target="_blank">the-buck-stops-nowhere playbook</a> and turned strangely vague when asked to estimate U.S. casualties and wounded. Hegseth, not known for being silent, looked over to Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who didn’t provide a real answer, either. “I mean, it's a bunch of a return to duty, so we've had a whole—a large, large majority—have gone in for some medical treatment and returned to duty,” Caine said.  “But I want to clarify that,” Hegseth interjected. “I think what we've tried to do here is clarify those numbers rather than saying KIA [killed in action] or WIA [wounded in action]—wounded. Be more clear about that because the overwhelming majority, almost 90%, thank God, are returned to duty.”  <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=Y28zLi_EcLo" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Y28zLi_EcLo" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> What is known is that at least <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/us-soldiers-killed-iran-war.html" target="_blank" title="">11 service members have died</a> since the start of President Donald Trump’s war on Iran—and that the U.S. bombed an <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372865/-Democrats-demand-probe-into-Trump-s-bombing-of-Iranian-school" target="_blank">elementary school</a>. Hegseth’s vague “almost 90%” sounds less like clarity and more like further proof of how <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372833/-It-s-official-Iran-war-is-very-stupid-and-very-expensive" target="_blank">reckless and dangerous</a> the entire project is. You start to see why Hegseth seems <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/13/2372997/-Hegseth-confesses-plan-to-turn-CNN-into-MAGA-propaganda" target="_blank">so eager</a> for billionaire Larry Ellison to fully propagandize CNN.  rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) Casualties Iran Oil peteHegseth Propaganda War _2372996 Fri, 13 Mar 2026 19:00:14 +0000 White House now in charge of HR at CBS News https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/13/2373013/-White-House-now-in-charge-of-HR-at-CBS-News?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= In an unexpected and likely inadvertent move, CBS News reportedly<a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/12/cbs-news-white-house" title="" target="_blank"> hired</a> Jeremy Adler, a communications person who used to work for former Sen. Liz Cheney. You know where this is going, right? How dare CBS News hire anyone associated with <a href="https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-liz-cheney-jan-6-committee-members-jailed/story?id=108257827" title="" target="_blank">Demon Liz and Her Jan. 6 reckoning</a>? Now, is Adler some big deal who’s gonna take over Tony<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/5/2371826/-How-CBS-owner-is-trying-to-gaslight-America" title="" target="_blank"> Dokoupil’s</a> job and really make<a href="https://people.com/cbs-news-pushes-back-against-whiskey-fridays-tony-dokoupil-report-11886023" title="" target="_blank"> Whiskey Fridays</a> happen? <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="A cartoon by Jack Ohman." class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1510657/large/20251225edohc-a.jpg?1766536477" title="A cartoon by Jack Ohman."> <figcaption>“The way it is” by Jack Ohman</figcaption> </figure> Nah. He’s joining the comms team at CBS, big deal. Indeed, it’s a low-level, routine enough thing that there wasn’t even some official announcement about it. In fact, the White House outrage run to the press is the first anyone has<a href="https://x.com/brianstelter/status/2032131070024360446" title="" target="_blank"> heard</a> about it. Adler’s name wasn’t even mentioned publicly. Okay, well, perhaps Adler is some sort of stealth progressive, sent in to undermine the MAGA agenda? Nope. Adler appears to be your run-of-the-mill GOP comms flack. He’s<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-adler-b8196838/" title="" target="_blank"> worked</a> for Cheney, sure, but also former House Speaker Paul Ryan, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and former U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand Scott Brown. He even interned at the stupidly named RNC War Room. This is not a dude planning on rolling in and getting woke.  But the Cheney association is toxic, of course, given Trump’s fixation on punishing anyone who dared to hold President Donald Trump and his minions accountable for their violent insurrection. So, the White House is<a href="https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/cbs-news-hires-jeremy-adler-white-house-upset/" title="" target="_blank"> throwing a fit</a> about the hire because it is totally cool and normal for the president to basically have veto power over anyone a news network hires, no matter how far down the corporate ladder that person might be. Some anonymous White House official griped to Axios that, “The idea CBS would hire Liz Cheney’s flack who has worked to jail President Trump and make it impossible for anybody who supported the president to get hired is insanity. What the hell is Bari Weiss thinking?” Yes, people supporting the president have definitely had a hard time getting hired these days. Why, just look at CBS News … oh wait.  At a time when so much mass media is bending toward Trump, at a time when Trump has stashed his little pals all across the administration, the notion that somehow a comms guy for Liz Cheney is blocking the career advancement of MAGA types is ridiculous.  <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="MIAMI, FL - NOV 18: Staff editor and writer for the New York Times, Bari Weiss is seen on stage during day two of the Miami Book Fair presented by Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus on November 18, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Alberto E. Tamargo/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1485519/large/AP19323500567770.jpg?1759779445" title="MIAMI, FL - NOV 18: Staff editor and writer for the New York Times, Bari Weiss is seen on stage during day two of the Miami Book Fair presented by Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus on November 18, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Alberto E. Tamargo/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)"> <figcaption>Editor-in-chief of CBS News Bari Weiss</figcaption> </figure> The invocation of Weiss is also odd here. It would be weird for Weiss, the putative head of the whole news organization, to be personally signing off on every hiring decision. There are<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/executive-team/" target="_blank"> over 20 people</a> at CBS News just on the executive team. Does Weiss have to call all of them every day to make sure they don’t hire anyone on the White House’s banned list? Let’s face it: if that’s what Trump wants, that’s what Weiss will deliver. She’s there to suck up to Trump and make sure that only pro-MAGA news<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/2/12/2368406/-Bad-news-CBS-producer-reveals-stories-are-being-vetted-for-ideology" title="" target="_blank"> ever airs</a>, and to hurl CBS News’ ratings into an exhilarating<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/1/14/2363384/-Trump-loves-the-new-direction-at-CBS-but-nobody-else-does" title="" target="_blank"> downward</a> spiral. There’s no reason to think that Weiss—or David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount who is also a<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/5/2371826/-How-CBS-owner-is-trying-to-gaslight-America" target="_blank"> very pliable</a> Trump pal—won’t bow to this whiny demand out of the White House.  The network has already told Stephen Colbert that <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/18/2334015/-CBS-cancels-Trump-critic-Colbert-s-Late-Show-and-faces-sharp-blowback" title="" target="_blank">he’s out in May 2026</a>, just to please Trump, and even after firing him, made sure to<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/2/17/2369118/-CBS-forces-Colbert-to-pull-segment-and-he-isn-t-doing-it-quietly" target="_blank"> censor</a> a segment to show the Federal Communications Commission can flex its muscles whenever it wants. Similarly, the network shelved a<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/12/22/2359572/-CBS-bows-again-to-Trump-by-shelving-critical-60-Minutes-story" title="" target="_blank"> “60 Minutes</a>” story about the CECOT prison in El Salvador when it was clear it would make Trump look bad.  CBS News is abasing itself to show fealty to Trump, and there’s no reason to think it will get crossways with Trump over a comms dude, so Adler will likely be out before he was ever even in. rss@dailykos.com (Lisa Needham) BariWeiss CBSNews JeremyAdler _2373013 Fri, 13 Mar 2026 18:00:08 +0000 Hegseth confesses plan to turn CNN into MAGA propaganda https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/13/2372997/-Hegseth-confesses-plan-to-turn-CNN-into-MAGA-propaganda?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth admitted Friday that the Trump administration is looking forward to Trump ally David Ellison taking over CNN’s parent company, Warner Discovery, because the network’s news content will be more friendly to the administration. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Skydance Media CEO David Ellison attends the premiere of "Fountain of Youth" at the American Museum of Natural History on Monday, May 19, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1493275/large/AP25140179404298.jpg?1761608167" title="Skydance Media CEO David Ellison attends the premiere of "Fountain of Youth" at the American Museum of Natural History on Monday, May 19, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)"> <figcaption>Skydance Media CEO David Ellison</figcaption> </figure> Hegseth’s admission came as he complained about CNN’s coverage of the Iran war, specifically<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/politics/hormuz-trump-administration-underestimated-iran" target="_blank"> a recent report</a> from administration sources detailing mismanagement of the war, which has led to global chaos and death. “More fake news from CNN: ‘Reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz.’ Patently ridiculous, of course. For decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This is always what they do: hold the Strait hostage. CNN doesn’t think we thought of that. It’s a fundamentally unserious report. The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,”<a href="https://youtu.be/E68Xw9DlB3w" target="_blank"> </a>Hegseth <a href="https://youtu.be/E68Xw9DlB3w" target="_blank">said</a>. <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=E68Xw9DlB3w" title="" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E68Xw9DlB3w" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Hegseth and President Donald Trump have consistently complained about reporting that is accurate, which they deride as “fake news.” Specifically, Hegseth has groused about reporting on troop deaths and the<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372865/-Democrats-demand-probe-into-Trump-s-bombing-of-Iranian-school" target="_blank"> likely U.S. culpability</a> in the bombing of an Iranian school, which killed at least 168 children. Apparently Hegseth would prefer if CNN repeated<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372832/-Trump-s-new-midterm-message-High-gas-prices-are-good-actually" title="" target="_blank"> falsehoods</a> like Trump’s recent contention that an increase in gas prices is a positive for the economy. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-left"><img alt="MIAMI, FL - NOV 18: Staff editor and writer for the New York Times, Bari Weiss is seen on stage during day two of the Miami Book Fair presented by Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus on November 18, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Alberto E. Tamargo/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1502457/large/AP19323499865521.jpg?1764175453" title="MIAMI, FL - NOV 18: Staff editor and writer for the New York Times, Bari Weiss is seen on stage during day two of the Miami Book Fair presented by Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus on November 18, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Alberto E. Tamargo/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)"> <figcaption>CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss</figcaption> </figure> Trump<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/28/2350729/-Trump-flexes-his-mob-boss-fantasies-by-meddling-in-media-mergers" title="" target="_blank"> worked behind the scenes</a> to steer Ellison, a Republican donor, into a position where his company, Paramount Skydance, could outbid Netflix to take over Warner Discovery. In a<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/5/2371826/-How-CBS-owner-is-trying-to-gaslight-America" title="" target="_blank"> recent interview</a> with CNBC, Ellison denied that news content would be shifted to the right under his leadership and claimed to be in the “truth business.” But after his company<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/9/2352105/-Mainstream-media-is-now-mainly-leaning-right" title="" target="_blank"> took over CBS</a>, conservative activist Bari Weiss was put in charge of CBS News, and the network quickly began sidelining reporting critical of the Trump administration while programs like “CBS Evening News”<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/7/2361871/--Marco-Rubio-we-salute-you-CBS-Evening-News-goes-full-MAGA" target="_blank"> praised</a> figures like Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Ellison’s claims to impartiality were further undermined when<a href="https://x.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/2026447224511549869" target="_blank"> </a>he <a href="https://x.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/2026447224511549869" title="" target="_blank">recently traveled</a> to Washington, D.C., to join GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina at the State of the Union address. Graham is Trump’s closest ally in Congress and a longtime backer of the most extreme policies of his presidencies. Trump <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/30/2366295/-Journalists-arrested-as-Trump-team-sets-fire-to-First-Amendment" title="" target="_blank">has declared war</a> on the First Amendment on <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2372904" title="" target="_blank">multiple fronts</a> while his business allies like Ellison have been buying up the biggest media platforms and moving their content to the right. Hegseth just made the mistake of admitting it out loud. rss@dailykos.com (Oliver Willis) CBS CNN davidEllison DonaldTrump FirstAmendment Iran Journalism Media peteHegseth War _2372997 Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:30:15 +0000 Cartoon: Some people will die https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/13/2372442/-Cartoon-Some-people-will-die?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A cartoon by Clay Bennett. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/5/2371687/-The-peace-president-can-t-stop-starting-wars" title="" target="_blank">The ‘peace’ president can’t stop starting wars</a> <hr> rss@dailykos.com (Clay Bennett) BoardofPeace Cartoon ClayBennett DonaldTrump Iran War _2372442 Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:29:07 +0000 Trump’s unpopularity could flip this red state https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/13/2372988/-Trump-s-unpopularity-could-flip-this-red-state?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= President Donald Trump's political rise quickly transformed Ohio from a perennial swing state to a solid red bastion, with Republicans now <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Ohio_state_executive_offices" target="_blank">in full control of state government</a>. But Trump's disastrous second term may finally change Democrats fortunes in the Buckeye State. A <a href="https://theoec.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OEC-Ohio-Survey-Results-2026.pdf" target="_blank">poll</a> released this week by the left-leaning firm EMC Research shows Democrats not just leading both Ohio's gubernatorial and Senate elections but also surpassing the 50% mark—an important indicator for the ultimate outcome of the races. Democratic candidate Amy Acton, who is running unopposed for the gubernatorial nomination, leads Republican front-runner Vivek Ramaswamy by a whopping 10 percentage points, 53% to 43%, among likely voters. Meanwhile, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown leads incumbent GOP Sen. Jon Husted, 51% to 47%. And that result came before Husted made a boneheaded comment about how poor people are, in his eyes, basically stupid. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, speaks with supporters at a campaign rally, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1362305/large/AP24279757765833.jpg?1730317020" title="U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, speaks with supporters at a campaign rally, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)"> <figcaption>Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, shown in 2024.</figcaption> </figure> "People living in poverty are just not very experienced at navigating the real world, right?" Husted <a href="https://x.com/atrupar/status/2031470036880150698" target="_blank">told</a> a right-wing podcaster earlier this week. "I remember talking to one young lady who said, 'Well, I don't really know how money works at a grocery store,' because she grew up and has lived all of her adult life using SNAP cards to buy groceries." That probably won’t go over well with the<a href="https://usafacts.org/answers/how-many-people-receive-snap-benefits-in-the-us-every-month/state/ohio/" target="_blank" title=""> 12% of Ohioans</a> who receive food stamp benefits and whom Husted views as dopes. Expect to see that comment in Brown's ad campaign. Ultimately, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/business/economy/consumer-prices-inflation-pce-february.html" target="_blank">rising prices</a>—which will be <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372832/-Trump-s-new-midterm-message-High-gas-prices-are-good-actually" target="_blank">supercharged</a> by the war in Iran—and Trump's <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372580/-Trump-team-realizes-immigration-terror-campaign-is-bad-politics" target="_blank">violent immigration crackdowns</a> may be putting Republican states in play.  Trump's approval is <a href="https://civiqs.com/results/approve_president_trump_2025?uncertainty=true&zoomIn=true&annotations=true" target="_blank">underwater</a> in places he carried by double-digits in the 2024 election, such as Ohio, Iowa, and Texas—all three of which have gubernatorial and Senate contests this fall. Political prognosticators have been comparing the 2026 midterm with the one in 2018, when an unpopular Trump helped Democrats retake the House by a large margin, despite that the party also <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2018/results" target="_blank">lost ground in the Senate</a>. However, as the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/6/2371932/-Yes-Trump-s-economy-really-is-as-bad-as-it-seems" target="_blank">economy flounders</a> due to Trump's disastrous tariff policy and the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372526/-What-Wall-Street-is-getting-wrong-about-Trump-s-oil-crisis" target="_blank">ill-planned war</a> he <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/2/2371207/-Trump-s-Iran-conflict-could-sink-the-GOP-in-November" target="_blank">launched in Iran</a>, 2026 could look more like the 2006 midterms, when backlash to then-President George W. Bush's Iraq War led Democrats to<a href="https://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/" target="_blank" title=""> retake control not only of the House but also the Senate</a>—even with an extremely unfavorable Senate map that year. Trump’s approval has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/23/politics/trump-approval-rating-independents-cnn-poll" target="_blank">fallen off a cliff with independents</a>.  <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="A pedestrian crosses Central Avenue through downtown, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, in Middletown, Ohio. The city is the hometown of Vice President-elect JD Vance.(AP Photo/Kareem Elgazzar)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1388385/large/AP25015591216175.jpg?1737058954" title="A pedestrian crosses Central Avenue through downtown, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, in Middletown, Ohio. The city is the hometown of Vice President-elect JD Vance.(AP Photo/Kareem Elgazzar)"> <figcaption>A pedestrian crosses through downtown Middletown, Ohio, last January.</figcaption> </figure> "First thing I look at in a poll is Independents. Being -38 w/ Indies before a midterm is catastrophic," Democratic operative Jim Messina, who helped former President Barack Obama win the White House in 2012, <a href="https://x.com/Messina2012/status/2031783534243791062" target="_blank">wrote</a> in a post on X, referring to Trump being 38 points underwater on average with independents. "Closest that another prez was to this w/ Indies in March of a 2nd term midterm election year was Bush in '06... and that was w/ backlash to Iraq, Katrina, & Dubai Ports deal." Meanwhile, Hispanic voters, who Republicans were adamant were realigning to become part of a permanent GOP coalition, have <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/4/2371604/-5-things-Democrats-can-learn-from-the-Texas-and-North-Carolina-primaries" target="_blank" title="">shifted back toward Democrats</a> amid Trump’s masked immigration goons racially profiling Latinos to help meet an arbitrary deportation goal.  And it’s hard to see how Trump turns things around for his party, given that experts say the price hikes from the oil crisis Trump created in the Middle East will take months to reverse—and that’s if the conflict stops today. There’s no indication that the war is anywhere near an end, as Iran is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/03/13/world/middleeast/iran-mines-strait-hormuz.html" target="_blank">digging in for a prolonged fight</a>.  Republicans are speeding toward catastrophe in November. rss@dailykos.com (Emily Singer) 2026election 2026midterms amyacton DonaldTrump Economy Inflation Iran JonHusted OH-Gov OH-Sen SherrodBrown VivekRamaswamy _2372988 Fri, 13 Mar 2026 15:00:22 +0000 A new low: Trump team says First Amendment doesn't apply to journalism https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/13/2372904/-A-new-low-Trump-team-says-First-Amendment-doesn-t-apply-to-journalism?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= The Trump administration argued in court that one of the most basic acts of journalism—soliciting news tips and information from the public—is an act of “solicitation” and therefore is not protected by the First Amendment. The bogus stance came about because The New York Times <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/12/04/nx-s1-5631838/new-york-times-pentagon-defense-hegseth-lawsuit" target="_blank">is suing</a> the Pentagon in response to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s policy that bars news outlets from reporting on classified material with government approval. <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534252/large/AP26061509967236.jpg?1773252289" title="Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)"> <figcaption>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth</figcaption> </figure> As part of ongoing court proceedings between the Times and the Pentagon, the<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/business/media/a-call-for-reporting-tips-rankles-pentagon-officials.html?unlocked_article_code=1.SlA.ErYt.wlVhsa1ZpZJ8&smid=url-share" target="_blank"> </a>administration <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/business/media/a-call-for-reporting-tips-rankles-pentagon-officials.html?unlocked_article_code=1.SlA.ErYt.wlVhsa1ZpZJ8&smid=url-share" target="_blank">argued</a> that the Washington Post’s web-based request for news tips goes over the line by asking readers to “help us report on the Pentagon” and requesting information related to “changes within the Pentagon and throughout the U.S. military.” The Trump administration has imposed a host of extremist policies throughout the armed services, including<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/9/2321473/-How-the-military-is-dealing-with-Hegseth-s-order-to-remove-transgender-troops" target="_blank"> banning transgender</a> troops,<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/19/2311306/-Inside-Trump-s-racist-crusade-to-erase-American-heroes-from-US-history" target="_blank"> erasing history</a>, and<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/27/2370735/-Hegseth-turns-War-Department-on-the-scouts" target="_blank"> </a>even <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/27/2370735/-Hegseth-turns-War-Department-on-the-scouts" target="_blank">ordering</a> Scouting America to embrace bigotry. It’s a basic tenet of journalism to solicit information, which can then be investigated and possibly turned into a news report. The opposition to the Post’s tip request is even more glaring because the Pentagon made clear in November that it’s fine when a pro-Trump figure makes a similar request.  <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/4/2371621/-Death-and-destruction-Hegseth-can-t-contain-his-bloodlust" target="_blank">'Death and destruction': Hegseth can't contain his bloodlust</a> <div> <hr> </div> President Donald Trump is<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/12/2358141/--Crazy-lady-Republican-tears-into-Laura-Loomer" target="_blank"> close to</a> right-wing activist Laura Loomer and leans on her for advice despite her openly racist views. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson<a href="https://x.com/ScottNover/status/1985784630100804036" target="_blank"> said</a> that Loomer’s request for tips did not violate the Pentagon’s policy because she operates a “general tip line” while the Post “explicitly and exclusively” targets military and Defense Department employees. “If fake news reporters actually had a brain and could read our policy correctly, then maybe one day they will be as effective of a journalist as Ms. Loomer is,” Wilson said. Trump and other Republicans frequently dismiss news outlets that accurately report on them in a negative light as “fake news.” And since the institution of its new policy, most legitimate news organizations have abandoned the Pentagon to avoid subjecting their work to the loose standards of the Trump administration.  <figure class="image-captioned align-left"><img alt="FILE - Members of the media pack up their belongings in the press area of the Pentagon, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1512966/large/AP25363671348645.jpg?1767197547" title="FILE - Members of the media pack up their belongings in the press area of the Pentagon, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)"> <figcaption>Members of the media pack up their belongings in the press area of the Pentagon on Oct. 15, 2025.</figcaption> </figure> In their place, several conspiracy-minded individuals like Tim Pool<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/22/2349917/-Pentagon-s-new-press-corps-is-the-stuff-of-nightmares" target="_blank"> have taken over</a> the Pentagon’s press pool. The administration’s opposition to the Post is ironic, since its owner, Jeff Bezos, has<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/5/2367247/-Bezos-guts-the-Washington-Post-just-like-Trump-wanted" target="_blank"> overseen a rightward shift</a> in the paper’s editorial stance and posture. In fact Bezos’ actions have been so pro-MAGA that they’ve even been praised by Trump himself. But going after a basic journalistic technique in court is in line with Trump's hostility toward the free press, which has encompassed<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/11/2353343/-Trump-s-war-on-the-media-goes-global" target="_blank"> multiple lawsuits</a> against news organizations and pollsters, severe<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/22/2334650/-Another-casualty-in-Trump-s-disgraceful-war-on-public-media" target="_blank" title=""> cuts to public broadcasting</a>, and multiple attempts to<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/17/2369118/-CBS-forces-Colbert-to-pull-segment-and-he-isn-t-doing-it-quietly" target="_blank" title=""> control talk show hosts</a>. All of it amounts to nothing more than a fascist trying to control the narrative. rss@dailykos.com (Oliver Willis) DonaldTrump FirstAmendment Journalism Media Pentagon peteHegseth _2372904 Fri, 13 Mar 2026 13:30:09 +0000 Bike and walking trails lose hundreds of millions under Trump https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/13/2372847/-Bike-and-walking-trails-lose-hundreds-of-millions-under-Trump?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Cities and states turn to lawsuits, alternative funding amid federal cuts. By <a href="https://stateline.org/author/schatlani/" target="_blank">Shalina Chatlani</a> for <a href="https://stateline.org/2026/03/12/bike-and-walking-trails-lose-hundreds-of-millions-under-trump/" target="_blank">Stateline</a> <hr> Cities and states are filing lawsuits and scrambling for alternative sources of money as the Trump administration seeks to shut off the federal funding spigot for biking and walking trails. Since the early 1990s, there has been fairly consistent — and largely bipartisan — <a href="https://data.bikeleague.org/data/national-federal-funding-planning-for-biking-walking/#:~:text=The%20Intermodal%20Surface%20Transportation%20Efficiency,funding%20bicycle%20and%20pedestrian%20infrastructure." target="_blank" title="">federal support</a> for bicycle and pedestrian projects. Federal funding for such projects reached new heights during the Biden administration, as major spending measures in <a href="https://www.railstotrails.org/trailblog/18-months-in-whats-the-impact-of-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-law-for-trails-walking-and-biking/#:~:text=Dedicated%20funding%20for%20active%20transportation,demand%20for%20active%20transportation%20infrastructure." target="_blank">2021</a> and <a href="https://bikeleague.org/yet-another-threat-to-federal-funding-for-biking-and-walking-reconciliation-puts-grants-in-jeopardy/#:~:text=The%20Neighborhood%20Access%20and%20Equity,Act%20to%20Save%20NAE%20Funding" target="_blank">2022</a> included billions in new money for them. But in his efforts to eliminate what he perceives as diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — and to roll back anything associated with his predecessor — President Donald Trump has targeted hundreds of millions in federal grants for biking and pedestrian projects. And further cuts could be coming. The broad tax and spending measure Trump signed last summer rescinded $2.4 billion from the Biden administration’s Neighborhood Access and Equity Program, money included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to address long-standing safety issues stemming from past infrastructure projects, including <a href="https://stateline.org/2020/07/28/advocates-rally-to-tear-down-highways-that-bulldozed-black-neighborhoods/" target="_blank" title="">interstate highways</a> that split minority communities. Of that total, at least <a href="https://www.railstotrails.org/trailblog/reconciliation-bill-claws-back-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-for-trails-walking-and-biking/" target="_blank">$750 million</a> was specifically earmarked for trails, walking paths and bike lane projects, according to data on grant recipients collected by Rails to Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit that advocates for trails and the construction of multiuse paths in abandoned railroad corridors. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/17/2358734/-How-Trump-broke-nature" target="_blank">How Trump broke nature</a> <hr> Mark Treskon, a principal research associate at the nonprofit Urban Institute, said the administration seems to view bike and pedestrian trails as “a policy thing that people on the left like,” and is cutting funding as a “knee-jerk reaction” to former President Joe Biden’s policy priorities. But Nate Sizemore, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Transportation, said the Trump administration is simply “getting back to basics” by “building the essential infrastructure needed to safely move people and commerce.” “As grant programs become available for applicants, we will ensure that every taxpayer dollar is reinvested into rebuilding the roads and bridges our economy demands. … This decision reflects a significant shift away from the previous administration’s costly social and climate initiatives that deprioritized the needs of American drivers and increased congestion risks,” Sizemore wrote in an email. Already reeling from the $750 million in cuts included in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, cities and states that are counting on federal money for biking and pedestrian projects are worried about further cuts when Congress reauthorizes a broad transportation funding law that <a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48644" target="_blank">expires</a> on Sept. 30. Biden’s 2021 infrastructure measure boosted the amount of money available for bike and pedestrian projects under that law. “Everything is on the table, and there’s lots of risks to not only some of these grants that have been given under the last transportation bill … but it also implicates programs that are like the bread and butter of building trails, walking and biking infrastructure that have been around for many decades,” said Kevin Mills, vice president of policy at Rails to Trails Conservancy. “We’ve heard warning signs from the administration, from leaders in Congress and from the heads of state transportation departments that they are looking to focus more on cars and less on active transportation, and sometimes less on transit as well.” <h3>Seeking alternatives</h3> In the aftermath of last year’s cuts and uncertainty over the future of federal funding, some states and cities have seen their projects completely stall, while others have found ways to move forward while decreasing their reliance on federal support. In Connecticut, Rick Dunne, the executive director of the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, the federal metropolitan planning organization in that area of Connecticut, said the Trump administration pulled $5.7 million in funding to build around 9 miles on a 42-mile trail project known as the Naugatuck River Greenway Trail last <a href="https://ctmirror.org/2025/09/29/naugatuck-river-greenway-trail-trump-funding-revoked/" target="_blank">September</a>. “It would have leveraged a whole bunch of state money and local dollars to build these sections,” Dunne said, noting that the council was hoping to use the federal funds to get matching dollars locally. “It would have advanced all of the activities on the trail and built major sections using other state, federal and local funding for construction.” <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="FILE - In this July 14, 2012, file photo, bicyclists finishing a three-day ride of the Great Allegheny Passage between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Md., enter a downhill section of the trail near Cumberland, Md. As the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy marks its 30th anniversary in 2016, Pennsylvania's rail trails, ranging from local trails a few miles long to the 150-mile Great Allegheny Passage, are among 1,970 trails nationwide that cover more than 22,300 miles. (AP Photo/Cal Woodward, File)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534567/large/AP16152802425436.jpg?1773350973" title="FILE - In this July 14, 2012, file photo, bicyclists finishing a three-day ride of the Great Allegheny Passage between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Md., enter a downhill section of the trail near Cumberland, Md. As the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy marks its 30th anniversary in 2016, Pennsylvania's rail trails, ranging from local trails a few miles long to the 150-mile Great Allegheny Passage, are among 1,970 trails nationwide that cover more than 22,300 miles. (AP Photo/Cal Woodward, File)"> <figcaption>Bicyclists ride the Great Allegheny Passage between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Md., in July 2012.</figcaption> </figure> Dunne said Connecticut is limited in how it raises transportation funds because it doesn’t have counties. “It’s either paid for by those small local towns, 10,000 to 20,000 people, or it’s paid for by the state,” Dunne said. “But once we lose the federal funding, then we start losing some of the state funding and local funding that would have matched it.” Dunne said the council has not received any further communication from the U.S. Department of Transportation. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Terry Brunner, director of the city’s Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency, said the Trump administration last September pulled an $11.5 million grant to build part of a 7.5-mile pedestrian and bike lane around the city’s downtown. The city decided to <a href="https://www.cabq.gov/mayor/news/city-files-lawsuit-for-rail-trail-funding" target="_blank">sue</a> the administration in November to get those funds back, and the case is still wrapped up in court. “We’re hoping we get a positive outcome on the lawsuit,” Brunner said. “We’ve also got a backup plan to ask for another federal funding source, or try to get funding from the state of New Mexico to the city of Albuquerque to complete the section, because we were about 90% done with the design of this trail.” Brunner said Albuquerque has one of the highest <a href="https://stateline.org/2024/08/30/dark-highways-fast-cars-few-sidewalks-and-more-pedestrian-deaths/" target="_blank" title="">pedestrian and cyclist death rates</a> in the country, so getting people off the streets onto a safe trail is a priority for the city. “I don’t think they’re going to stop us, but they’ll delay us,” he said, noting that the city is lucky because the state is offering funding and that the city budget may have some flexibility. “Historically, we’ve always had a good partnership in Albuquerque with the federal government, and this is taking away a little bit of that shine and making us feel as if the federal government just really doesn’t care about Albuquerque.” <h3>Projects in Republican-led states</h3> The Trump administration also <a href="https://jaxtoday.org/2025/07/08/jax-loses-147m-federal-grant-for-emerald-trail-completion/" target="_blank" title="">rescinded</a> a $147 million grant for Jacksonville, Florida, to complete the 30-mile urban Emerald Trail. Kay Ehas, CEO of Groundwork Jacksonville, the city’s nonprofit partner in building the Emerald Trail and restoring Hogans and McCoys creeks, says the group is continuing to work with the city “to identify funding to replace the federal grant that was rescinded last year.” “We are enlisting the support of corporate and private donors to fund design, which keeps the project moving while we seek government dollars for construction,” Ehas told Stateline. Meanwhile, in Georgia, the Atlanta Regional Commission is continuing to plan and develop Flint River Gateway Trails, said Josh Phillipson, principal program specialist at ARC. The 31-mile network of bike and pedestrian paths would connect communities along the Flint River in the southern portion of the metro Atlanta area. The commission has tapped local sources for the $3.5 million it needs to draft a master plan for the project, despite losing a <a href="https://www.ajc.com/business/2025/08/southside-trail-loses-65m-in-federal-cuts-backers-still-aim-to-build-it/" target="_blank">$65 million</a> federal grant. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/28/2355400/-Kids-and-teens-go-full-throttle-for-E-Bikes-as-federal-oversight-stalls" title="" target="_blank">Kids and teens go full throttle for E-bikes as federal oversight stalls</a> <hr> “We are not doing anything on the construction because we don’t have those dollars at this point,” Phillipson said. “We’re stepping back a little bit more into our traditional role of doing the long-range planning, but we’re going to be sticking with this project, committed for the next few years.” Mills, of Rails to Trails Conservancy, lamented the loss of the Neighborhood Access and Equity grants, which would have helped areas “where historic transportation investments had split communities in two,” cutting off residents from economic opportunities and their neighbors. In Atlanta, for example, Phillipson said the trails project was meant to “bridge over core infrastructure decisions of the last century that were overwhelmingly impacting more diverse communities,” making it “difficult now to walk or ride a bike between two adjacent communities.” Treskon, of the Urban Institute, said cities and states will be hard-pressed to replace all the federal money they lost. “It’s a pretty big hit across the board for the places that had built that into their financial plans,” he said. rss@dailykos.com (Stateline) Biking Exercise Nature PublicHeath railstotrails _2372847 Fri, 13 Mar 2026 13:00:18 +0000 Cartoon: Trump's other dolls https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/13/2372511/-Cartoon-Trump-s-other-dolls?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A cartoon by David Horsey. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372399/-ICE-Barbie-s-shenanigans-could-cost-Republicans-this-House-seat" title="" target="_blank">ICE Barbie’s shenanigans could cost Republicans this House seat</a> <hr> rss@dailykos.com (David Horsey) Cartoon DavidHorsey DonaldTrump EpsteinFiles ICE KRISTINOEM PamBondi StephenMiller _2372511 Fri, 13 Mar 2026 12:30:01 +0000 The DOGE bros are even dumber—and more racist—than you thought https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372908/-The-DOGE-bros-are-even-dumber-and-more-racist-than-you-thought?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= If you were hoping to see what some of the racist tweens behind the short-lived Department of Government Efficiency look like and how they justified their actions to dismantle scores of federal agencies, you’re in luck. Well, “luck,” really. The Modern Language Association, which sued the Trump administration over its arbitrary and illegal termination of over $100 million in National Endowment for the Humanities grants, just posted six hours of one DOGE bro explaining how he chose which grants to cut. Meet Justin Fox. He enjoys being sullen, wearing his best tech bro quarter-zip sweater, and failing miserably to explain his actions. <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=22tvt2-IvmU" title="" data-frameborder="0" data-height="315" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/22tvt2-IvmU?si=hvyIgazdlh_1HvHj" data-width="560">YouTube Video</a></div> Despite having held a high-profile slash-and-burn role at several agencies, Fox really<a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/05/17/nx-s1-5401392/doge-federal-agency-nonprofits-cpb-usip-vera-institute" title="" target="_blank"> hasn’t deigned</a> to talk about his background. What little we know is that he was formerly an associate at an investment firm for a spell before multibillionaire Elon Musk tapped him to be a DOGE dork, so Fox was pretty sure he was super-qualified to terminate millions in arts grants.  Of course, this lazy grifter doofus<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/arts/humanities-endowment-doge-trump.html?ref=404media.co" target="_blank"> used</a> ChatGPT, feeding the AI bot every NEH grant with the prompt: “Does the following relate at all to D.E.I.? Respond factually in less than 120 characters. Begin with ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’”  120 characters definitely seems like plenty for a chatbot to explain whether something is “D.E.I,” an entirely amorphous and meaningless concept that is really just conservative-speak for “We don’t want any money to go to minorities.” <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/14/2322284/-This-annual-government-report-proves-that-DOGE-is-useless" title="" target="_blank">This annual government report proves that DOGE is useless</a> <hr> But when asked to explain a little bit more about his very rigorous method, things fell apart. Fox<a href="https://www.404media.co/i-watched-6-hours-of-doge-bro-testimony-heres-what-they-had-to-say-for-themselves/" target="_blank"> searched</a> for forbidden DEI terms like “Black” and “LGBTQ,” explaining that a documentary about Black civil rights was “not for the benefit of humankind. It is focused on this specific group, or a specific race, here being Black.” Buddy.  Notably, when asked about it during the deposition, this genius admitted that they didn’t search for, say, “white” or “heterosexual,” because we all know that white straight people are the only ones who matter because they are blessedly free of DEI. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Cartoon by Clay Bennett" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1405932/large/cbe250309c.jpg?1741284014" title="Cartoon by Clay Bennett"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> But thank god that Fox and ChatGPT<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/research/2026/03/11/how-doge-gutted-neh-22-days" title="" target="_blank"> saved</a> us from DEI horrors like a $349,000 grant to upgrade an old HVAC system at a museum. Here’s the ChatGPT rationale Fox swallowed whole: “Improving HVAC systems enhances preservation conditions for collections, aligning with the goal of providing greater access to diverse audiences.” And as far as the fact that DOGE<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/14/2322284/-This-annual-government-report-proves-that-DOGE-is-useless" title="" target="_blank"> didn’t reduce</a> the deficit at all? “I have to believe that the dollars that were saved went to mission critical, non-wasteful spending, and so, again, in the broad macro: an unfortunate circumstance for an individual, but this is an effort for the administration,” Fox babbled during his deposition.  Oh, okay then. As long as it was “an effort for the administration,” it doesn’t matter what any of the real-world effects were. Got it.  Now, meet Nate Cavanaugh. Nate enjoys smirking, rocking in his chair, and being smug about how he<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/arts/humanities-endowment-doge-trump.html" title="" target="_blank"> destroyed</a> “useless small agencies.” <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-instagram-content="&lt;blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVyhJT9jf4f/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"&gt;&lt;div style="padding:16px;"&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVyhJT9jf4f/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"&gt; 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border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVyhJT9jf4f/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank"&gt;A post shared by 404 Media (@404mediaco)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;"><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVyhJT9jf4f/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"><div> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVyhJT9jf4f/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> <div> <div></div> <div> <div></div> <div></div></div></div><div></div> <div></div><div> <div>View this post on Instagram</div></div><div></div> <div><div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div></div><div> <div></div> <div></div></div><div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div></div></div> <div> <div></div> <div></div></div></a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVyhJT9jf4f/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by 404 Media (@404mediaco)</a></div></blockquote></div> Cavanaugh also<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/18/2310993/-Unqualified-DOGE-bro-leads-raid-on-agency-dedicated-to-world-peace" title="" target="_blank"> oversaw</a> the raid on the U.S. Institute of Peace because of course he did. As a 28-year-old tech entrepreneur, this DOGE doofus was just as qualified as Fox to terminate roughly 97% of NEH grants, which is to say not at all. Cavanaugh did, however, manage to<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/doge-musk-mohammad-halimi-institute-peace-taliban" title="" target="_blank"> target</a> an Afghan scholar on social media for the crime of working with USIP, leading to the Taliban taking his family. Guess that’s some sort of achievement? <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/18/2310993/-Unqualified-DOGE-bro-leads-raid-on-agency-dedicated-to-world-peace" title="" target="_blank">Unqualified DOGE bro leads raid on agency dedicated to world peace</a> <hr> What comes through the most when you watch these little masters of the universe is their profound arrogance, their confidence that they knew better than the whole of government, and their certainty that they’ll never suffer any consequences for their actions.  On the last part, they’re probably right. rss@dailykos.com (Lisa Needham) doge ElonMusk JustinFox NateCavanaugh NEH USIP _2372908 Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:01:11 +0000 The Recap: All eyes stay on Texas races, and the stupidity of Trump’s Iran war https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372886/-The-Recap-All-eyes-stay-on-Texas-races-and-the-stupidity-of-Trump-s-Iran-war?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372729/-This-GOP-senator-sinks-to-a-new-low-to-win-Trump-s-affection?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03122026" target="_blank">This GOP senator sinks to a new low to win Trump’s affection</a> This is the definition of desperate. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372742/-Trump-s-bogus-US-attorney-picks-keep-flaming-out?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03122026" target="_blank">Trump’s bogus US attorney picks keep flaming out</a> Turns out kissing up to Pam Bondi isn’t enough. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372822/-Not-just-the-Senate-race-Texas-GOP-is-at-risk-in-House-races-too?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03122026" target="_blank">Not just the Senate race: Texas GOP is at risk in House races too</a> Republicans thought gerrymandering would fix it all, but they didn’t bank on such fired-up Democrats running for office. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372434/-Cartoon-True-patriots?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03122026" target="_blank">Cartoon: True patriots</a> More like true disrespect. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372833/-It-s-official-Iran-war-is-very-stupid-and-very-expensive?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03122026" target="_blank">It's official: Iran war is very stupid and very expensive</a> But sure, let’s keep on bombing. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372832/-Trump-s-new-midterm-message-High-gas-prices-are-good-actually?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03122026" target="_blank">Gashole: Trump says high fuel costs are good, actually</a> We officially live in an upside-down world. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372835/-Energy-secretary-struggles-to-spin-Trump-s-oil-crisis?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03122026" target="_blank">Energy secretary struggles to spin Trump’s oil crisis</a> The damage control is not working. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/blogs/Comics?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03122026" title="" target="_blank">Click here to see more cartoons.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos Staff) BradSchimel chriswright Iran JohnCornyn Texas TheRecap _2372886 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 19:55:39 +0000 Cartoon: Fall of Duty https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372682/-Cartoon-Fall-of-Duty?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= <div> Consider supporting my work so I can continue creating it: Substack: <a href="https://nickanderson.substack.com/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1ASCzmncqLcsb43rp30uhwTGbmxWWtSLNypA2-4QklrKitQlpXTfOgUsg_aem_3NSZZ4Wc5GSegoZ_-bnUnA" target="_blank" title="">https://nickanderson.substack.com/</a> Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/c/editorialcartoons?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2NHXIIRUW3TBTPXvTXa7Kv4vpBmhmZO7jICFAiQ5TgKNsywALtwFRepo8_aem_5ye0OR3TGbicoKorigXyxw" target="_blank" title="">https://www.patreon.com/c/editorialcartoons</a> </div> <div>Ko-Fi: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/c/editorialcartoons?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2LbcLmJOb6SvwZfUCz8R1LbsUqkbx7Urn_j5MmBZNlwU-heuB6bcdVCoA_aem_SUdm1_RV72Y-uTf7YYUipg" target="_blank" title="">https://www.patreon.com/c/editorialcartoonsCartoon:</a> <hr>Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372397/-Trump-couldn-t-care-less-about-the-troops" title="" target="_blank">Trump couldn't care less about the troops</a> <hr></div> rss@dailykos.com (Nick Anderson) CallOfDuty hegseth Iran _2372682 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 23:59:04 +0000 Texas Republican begging for Trump's blessing gets schooled at hearing https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372891/-Texas-Republican-begging-for-Trump-s-blessing-gets-schooled-at-hearing?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois humiliated Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas when Cornyn tried to promote President Donald Trump’s voter suppression bill. “So I don't understand how it could disenfranchise millions of Americans,” Cornyn said, asking if Durbin could explain why Democrats oppose the bill. “I'm happy to,” Durbin replied, before launching into a straightforward breakdown of how the legislation would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.  “Those are all matters that could be addressed by amendments to the bill itself if we get on the bill, correct?” Cornyn responded.  “When's the last time we amended a bill?” Durbin shot back. <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=F3rCjJWb9Dk" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F3rCjJWb9Dk" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> This public humiliation comes as part of a desperate bid by Cornyn to get Trump to <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372364/-Why-Trump-broke-his-promise-to-mess-with-Texas" target="_blank">endorse his reelection campaign</a> over the equally <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/1/2150494/-Indicted-Texas-attorney-general-Ken-Paxton-isn-t-done-attacking-DACA-recipients-just-yet" target="_blank">scumtastic</a> Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is challenging Cornyn in the GOP primary. The longtime Texas politician has shed what remained of his dignity, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372729/-This-GOP-senator-sinks-to-a-new-low-to-win-Trump-s-affection" target="_blank">reversing his position</a> on ending the Senate filibuster, in order to jam through Trump’s election-rigging scheme.  rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) DickDurbin JohnCornyn SaveAct Texas VoterSupression _2372891 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 23:30:03 +0000 Rural schools and hospitals suffer under Trump https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372877/-Rural-schools-and-hospitals-suffer-under-Trump?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= President Donald Trump’s expensive new visa requirements <a href="https://apnews.com/article/teacher-jobs-h1b-j1-visa-online-school-08080546339ac7aadefce42fc73e4281" target="_blank">are killing</a> rural schools. Last fall, Trump <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/9/23/2344941/-Trump-s-visa-scam-might-annoy-Big-Tech-but-it-will-break-rural-health-care" target="_blank">announced</a> that H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers would now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/22/trump-h1b-visa-fee-explainer" title="" target="_blank">cost $100,000</a>, a staggering sum for workers and the U.S. employers sponsoring them. Previous fees were around $1,700 to $4,500.  Rural schools often rely on international educators, but it’s not like schools that are struggling to hire people are going to have a cool $100,000 per teacher to toss around. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="A poster showing the Trump Gold Card is pictured as President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1508755/large/AP25262753755068.jpg?1766021055" title="A poster showing the Trump Gold Card is pictured as President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)"> <figcaption>A poster showing the Trump Gold Card is displayed at the White House on Sept. 19, 2025.</figcaption> </figure> There are <a href="https://www.nea.org/resource-library/nea-data-brief-h-1b-visas-public-school-districts" title="" target="_blank">more than 2,300</a> H-1B visa holders who currently work as educators in roughly 500 school districts across the country. Texas, North Carolina, and California employ the most, while Georgia, Alaska, Arizona, and Minnesota are also pretty high.  School districts had already shouldered around $15,000 to $20,000 in visa-related fees to sponsor a single teacher even before the hike was announced. Now, instead of having qualified teachers from overseas, schools will deal with shortages by hiring online teachers and uncertified teachers.  Terrific. Great job, Trump.  There’s no question that this is also decimating <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/21/2357999/-Rural-health-providers-could-be-collateral-damage-from-100K-Trump-visa-fee" target="_blank">rural health care</a>, which relies on a steady stream of international workers.  One hospital in rural North Dakota has been trying to hire a lab technician for months, with no U.S. citizens applying. The new visa fee is so steep that it amounts to what rural hospitals would pay for the annual salaries of two lab techs. So the hospital can’t hire anyone locally because they don’t exist, and it can’t hire anyone from overseas because it can’t afford them.  <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/20/2311325/-Rural-seniors-voted-for-Trump-so-naturally-he-s-screwing-them-over" target="_blank">Rural seniors voted for Trump—so naturally he’s screwing them over</a> <hr> And it’s not just the steep price tag. The administration is now <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/10/2353052/-No-fatties-libs-or-poors-Trump-s-visa-restrictions-are-garbage" title="" target="_blank">requiring</a> visa officers to screen for medical conditions and demand financial information to make sure that visa applicants have enough money to cover medical care for the rest of their lives.  Of course, the change to H-1B visas was done for racist reasons, based on a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/09/19/g-s1-89680/trump-adds-100-000-fee-for-high-skilled-foreign-workers-in-major-visa-overhaul" title="" target="_blank">certainty</a> that foreigners are taking jobs meant for Americans. “Either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they're going to depart and the company is going to hire an American. If you're going to train people, you are going to train an American,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-left"><img alt="Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens during an event with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1525898/large/AP26033775438752.jpg?1770751582" title="Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens during an event with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)"> <figcaption>Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick</figcaption> </figure> Somehow, this ridiculous price hike is intended both to keep foreigners out so they don’t take our jobs and to raise $100 billion. And somehow, it will do that even though the administration expects that the 85,000 visas normally awarded each year will significantly decrease.  Wait. Maybe that $100 billion is meant to also include the Trump Gold Card, where wealthy people can just straight up <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/13/2327745/-Trump-is-super-proud-of-his-dumb-golden-Trump-Card-scheme" title="" target="_blank">buy citizenship</a> for $5 million—or <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dougmelville/2025/12/31/trumps-gold-card-already-passed-13-billion-in-sales-is-this-the-future-of-immigration/" target="_blank">maybe</a> $1 million? Either way, people coming here to teach don’t have $1 million to drop on the world’s tackiest gold card. Even if an international educator or health care professional managed to jump through all of these hoops, they’d end up in a rural area in a country where immigration agents routinely swoop in to kidnap people based on racist vibes.  Why would anyone put themselves through that? rss@dailykos.com (Lisa Needham) DonaldTrump H1BVisas HealthCare Immigration Rural Schools visas _2372877 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 22:30:05 +0000 UFC fighters teach FBI how to choke you better https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372889/-UFC-fighters-teach-FBI-how-to-choke-you-better?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= The Ultimate Fighting Championship is taking FBI agents under their wing for a weekend to apparently teach agents how to properly beat people into submission. According to the fighting giant’s <a href="https://www.ufc.com/news/ufc-and-fbi-partner-historic-first-exclusive-training-seminar" target="_blank">press release</a>, longtime strongmen from the sport will head to Quantico, Virginia, where the FBI Special Agent Academy resides, to teach young graduates and veteran agents alike.  “The athletes, along with UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, will provide insight into how they train for competition, as well as demonstrate specific techniques and tactics, offering a unique perspective to the students as they prepare to enter the field office,” the press release  reads.  <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="FBI Director Kash Patel White House speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1502605/large/AP25316670055158.jpg?1764182027" title="FBI Director Kash Patel White House speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)"> <figcaption>FBI Director Kash Patel</figcaption> </figure> The FBI is separate from the police force and from the Department of Homeland Security’s <a href="https://www.fwd.us/news/new-brief-analysis-shows-that-ice-has-deputized-more-than-13000-local-law-enforcement-officers-and-promised-billions-in-funding-to-local-agencies-through-expanded-287g-program/" title="" target="_blank">increasingly</a> deputized ICE agents. However, the crossover of combat sports with a department presumed to protect the public sends an interesting PR message at a time in which violence against citizens has<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/28/2365884/-Why-Alex-Pretti-s-killing-broke-Trump-s-misinformation-machine" title="" target="_blank"> been in the media</a> and is <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/13/2363058/-Abolish-ICE-America-is-warming-to-the-idea" title="" target="_blank">gaining public backlash</a>.  The collaboration between FBI Director Kash Patel and UFC President Dana White isn’t all too surprising, however. After all, Patel has already been in hot water for using his taxpayer-funded jet to <a href="https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-slams-fbi-director-patel-for-misuse-of-fbi-jet-wasting-taxpayer-dollars-we-didnt-make-it-mandatory-that-you-go-to-ufc-games-with-mel-gibson/" target="_blank">attend UFC fights</a> with Mel Gibson. And White’s entanglement in the Trump administration goes deep. Over the past decade, White and President Donald Trump have cultivated a longtime friendship through the former casino owner <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-sports/dana-white-ufc-conquered-america-mma-1235231420/" title="" target="_blank">hosting White’s once-illegal fights. </a>White even<a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/07/18/dana-white-rnc-trump-melania" target="_blank"> introduced Trump</a> at the RNC convention. Now, it seems,Trump is<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/10/6/2347273/-Trump-demands-blood-for-his-80th-birthday" title="" target="_blank"> hosting the multibillion dollar industry</a> on the White House lawn as a  U.S. 250th birthday event.  <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/6/2347273/-Trump-demands-blood-for-his-80th-birthday" target="_blank">Trump demands blood for his 80th birthday</a> <hr> It’s unclear if Trump prompted the chest beating training seminar or if Patel—who <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/23/2370020/-Despite-crises-in-US-FBI-director-chugs-a-beer-in-Italy" title="" target="_blank">has his own history</a> of beer chugging <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/9/30/2346245/-Kash-Patel-continues-to-disgrace-his-office-in-the-stupidest-ways" title="" target="_blank">displays of masculinity</a>—suggested the idea. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/15/2303779/-Why-conservatives-are-obsessed-with-phony-masculinity" title="" target="_blank">Bro culture and phony masculinity aside</a>, this collaboration sends an unsavory message to citizens.  Daily Kos reached out to the FBI press team for comment but did not receive comment by time of publication.  rss@dailykos.com (Alix Breeden) DanaWhite FederalBureauofInvestigation KashPatel UFC _2372889 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 21:30:17 +0000 Democrats demand probe into Trump’s bombing of Iranian school https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372865/-Democrats-demand-probe-into-Trump-s-bombing-of-Iranian-school?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Democratic senators are putting a spotlight on President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/4/2371621/-Death-and-destruction-Hegseth-can-t-contain-his-bloodlust" target="_blank">Pete Hegseth</a>, over the tragic <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/11/politics/us-iran-school-strike-civilians" target="_blank">bombing</a> of a girls’ school in Minab, Iran.  The strike, which killed at least 168 children and 14 teachers, was <a href="https://abc7news.com/post/outdated-intel-led-us-carry-deadly-strike-iranian-elementary-school-ap-sources-say/18705763/" target="_blank">likely caused</a> by outdated government intelligence. <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="Rescue workers and residents search through the rubble in the aftermath of what Iranian officials said was an Israeli-U.S. strike on a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News Agency via AP)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1531414/large/AP26059720035089.jpg?1772329664" title="Rescue workers and residents search through the rubble in the aftermath of what Iranian officials said was an Israeli-U.S. strike on a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News Agency via AP)"> <figcaption>Rescue workers and residents search through the rubble in the aftermath of a U.S. strike on a girls' school in Minab, Iran, on Feb. 28.</figcaption> </figure> “There must be a swift investigation into the strikes on this school and any other potential U.S. military actions causing civilian harm,” read a <a href="https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_hegseth_on_minab_bombing_civcas_iran.pdf" target="_blank">letter</a> sent to Hegseth that was signed by every Democratic senator. “The findings must be released to the public as soon as possible, along with any measures to pursue accountability.” “A couple of years ago, I worked alongside my colleagues to pass into law something called the Civilian Protection Center,” Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey told CNN Thursday, blaming Trump’s gutting of the bipartisan program created to reduce the risk of civilian casualties. “This fault lies directly on President Trump and Secretary Hegseth.”  <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=RSoK7tJpgOQ" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="//www.youtube.com/embed/RSoK7tJpgOQ" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Similarly, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York drew more attention to the bombing during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday, calling for a serious investigation into the largest civilian casualty event in recent U.S. history.  “Just to clarify for your benefit, Senator Gillibrand,” GOP Chair Roger Wicker said. “You did not mean to say that we had targeted a school.” “That a missile hit a school,” Gillibrand replied.  “No, but it's the word ‘targeting’ that you did not mean,” Wicker responded. “How we chose a target that turned out to be a school,” Gillibrand said. “But the fact that it is chosen as a target, I'd like to know, and I hope that we can have an open hearing on this, Mr. Chairman.”  <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=JcPlVL0-km0" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JcPlVL0-km0" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Attempts to <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372701/-I-don-t-know-about-it-Trump-plays-dumb-about-his-own-war" target="_blank">feign ignorance</a>—or to parse semantics about the word “targeting”—aren’t going to change the heinousness of what happened: The Trump administration bombed an elementary school. <div> <div> <h3><a href="https://store.dailykos.com/products/kos-no-wars-peace-sign-on-black-5051-blk" target="_blank">Click here for your exclusive "No Wars" Daily Kos T-shirt</a></h3> </div> </div> <div> <div id="donation-request"> <div></div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) Bombing DonaldTrump Iran Military peteHegseth School War _2372865 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 20:30:09 +0000 Senate GOP gifts Democrats chance to fight for voting rights https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372867/-Senate-GOP-gifts-Democrats-chance-to-fight-for-voting-rights?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced on Thursday that next week he will bring the Republican Party’s voter suppression bill, aka the SAVE America Act, to the Senate floor for debate. Thune’s decision will give Senate Democrats, who oppose the bill, an opportunity to lay out their objections to legislation they have described as a reboot of racist Jim Crow voting laws. <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1521805/large/AP26013752267107.jpg?1769536390" title="Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)"> <figcaption>Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks during a news conference at the Capitol on Jan. 13.</figcaption> </figure> <a href="https://x.com/LeaderJohnThune/status/2032114734489555102" target="_blank">Thune announced</a> his decision in a floor speech and wrote, “Next week, I will bring the SAVE America Act to the floor. Senate Democrats will be forced to defend their outrageous positions on these issues and explain to the American people why common sense and the Democrat Party have parted ways.” Republicans have argued that the law protects voters, but that isn’t true. Under the guise of preventing noncitizens from voting (which is already illegal), the legislation includes several measures that<a href="https://campaignlegal.org/update/what-you-need-know-about-save-act" target="_blank" title=""> would suppress voting</a> across the board—a tactic that has historically been used to help Republicans. For instance, the law would impose onerous new requirements to prove citizenship before people even register to vote. The Campaign Legal Center estimates that over 21 million Americans—including married people who have changed their names—do not have access to the additional documents the new law would require them to have, cutting off their path to registering to vote. The bill would also restrict the ability to register to vote by mail and online, push mandatory purges of voting rolls (which could include errors), and allow for the prosecution of election workers simply for helping people to vote. If the bill became law it would also force states to share private voting information with the federal government, which would empower even more abuses like President Donald<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372499/-FBI-goes-all-in-on-2020-election-conspiracy-in-Arizona" target="_blank" title=""> Trump’s recent FBI raid</a> on Georgia election offices to prove his bogus election conspiracies. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372499/-FBI-goes-all-in-on-2020-election-conspiracy-in-Arizona" target="_blank" title="">FBI goes all-in on 2020 election conspiracy in Arizona</a> <hr> Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer drew a line in the sand against the bill in a message posted Sunday. “The SAVE Act is Jim Crow 2.0. It would disenfranchise tens of millions of people,” Schumer<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/schumer.senate.gov/post/3mgkvqi2abk2u" target="_blank"> wrote</a>. “Senate Democrats will not help pass the SAVE Act under any circumstances.” <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-left"><img alt="Cartoon about the SAVE Act disenfranchising women who have changed their last names" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1525867/large/SAVEact915.png?1770747025" title="Cartoon about the SAVE Act disenfranchising women who have changed their last names"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> To Schumer’s point, the Jim Crow laws<a href="https://www.history.com/articles/jim-crow-laws-black-vote" target="_blank" title=""> put in place</a> in the South following the end of the Civil War were a distinct strategy meant to preserve white supremacy. Rather than allow Black voters to express their political preferences at the ballot box, segregationist state governments and municipalities introduced restriction after restriction on voting, with obstacles like poll taxes and literacy tests specifically erected with an eye toward decreasing Black voter participation. The NAACP<a href="https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-condemns-reintroduction-save-act-calls-passage-john-lewis-voting-rights-act" target="_blank"> announced</a> its opposition to the SAVE America Act in 2025 “The SAVE Act is nothing more than voter suppression disguised as voter protection. The burdensome requirements disproportionately target voters in historically marginalized communities, amplify systemic inequalities, and aim to silence millions,” NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. Senate Republicans like Maine’s Susan Collins, once again shattering her claims to not be a part of the party’s extremist MAGA bloc,<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5777802-talking-filibuster-gop-debate/" target="_blank"> support the bill</a>. But the unified Democratic opposition means that the bill is not likely to hit the 60-vote threshold it needs to overcome a filibuster. Thune has said he won’t throw out the Senate filibuster rule to allow passage but figures<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372729/-This-GOP-senator-sinks-to-a-new-low-to-win-Trump-s-affection" target="_blank"> like embattled Texas Sen. John Cornyn</a>, who needs MAGA support to win the runoff for his primary race against Ken Paxton, are pushing for the major procedural change. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372729/-This-GOP-senator-sinks-to-a-new-low-to-win-Trump-s-affection" target="_blank">This GOP senator sinks to a new low to win Trump’s affection</a> <hr> Trump has<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/politics/whats-in-the-save-america-act" target="_blank"> made passage</a> of the bill a top priority, as it contains several measures meant to validate his completely debunked conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Trump has also pushed for the inclusion of anti-transgender provisions in the bill, including a ban on sports participation and gender reassignment surgery, as part of a plot to reengage conservative<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/26/2370534/-Trump-voters-regret-hits-new-high" target="_blank"> voters disappointed</a> by his unpopular presidency. Republicans are expected to fare poorly in this year’s midterm elections. A series of special elections since last year have<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372663/-Latest-special-elections-bring-more-bad-news-for-GOP?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=" target="_blank"> consistently been decided</a> in favor of Democrats.<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/2/13/2368594/-Democrats-score-big-redistricting-win-in-Virginia" target="_blank"> GOP attempts</a> to redraw the boundaries of congressional districts have met stiff Democratic opposition. Changing the federal law to suppress the vote is one of the few avenues left for Republicans, but that gambit already seems doomed to fail. rss@dailykos.com (Oliver Willis) ChuckSchumer JohnThune SAVEAmericaAct Senate VotingRights _2372867 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 19:30:04 +0000 Energy secretary struggles to spin Trump’s oil crisis https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372835/-Energy-secretary-struggles-to-spin-Trump-s-oil-crisis?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Energy Secretary Chris Wright attempted to do some damage control Thursday, as oil prices continue their rollercoaster climb. But unfortunately for Wright, it’s hard to sell a flaming bag of manure. “Ultimately, this is going to help us fill the reserve, but we need the oil in the short term for the—short term pain for long term gain,” he told CNBC, defending the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/united-states-release-172-million-barrels-oil-strategic-petroleum-reserve" target="_blank" title="">release</a> of 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=WNfAVsALfk4" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="//www.youtube.com/embed/WNfAVsALfk4" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Wright’s own department <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4b55d2eb-7231-4229-931f-0930d118f350" target="_blank">says</a> it doesn’t expect gas prices to return to pre-war levels until well into 2027.  Also in the interview, Wright claimed that President Donald Trump’s war on Iran makes energy markets safer—which was quickly <a href="https://x.com/atrupar/status/2032089172484231521?s=20" target="_blank">undercut by footage</a> aired alongside him, showing Iran's strikes on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.  <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372526/-What-Wall-Street-is-getting-wrong-about-Trump-s-oil-crisis" target="_blank" title="">What Wall Street is getting wrong about Trump’s oil crisis</a> <hr> Wright then appeared on CNN, where he worked his ass off trying to spin what is clearly an oil crisis of Trump’s own making. “We're in the midst of a significant disruption in the short term to fix the security of energy flow for the long term,” he said, downplaying an International Energy Agency <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/32726bce-ec4e-4251-8f33-10c15806fbc6" target="_blank">report</a> released Thursday, which found that Trump’s Iran war “is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.” <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=FCl2p_99Mic" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FCl2p_99Mic" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> And then when Wright appeared on the usually friendly shores of Fox News, he was forced to apologize for <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/deleted-tweet-from-energy-secretary-sends-oil-markets-on-another-wild-ride-a40df578?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqd6SM3bpHx1o6rJEj_tGTYN6NPTwCZ7mOkWJhS2uUroaq1KRMRaXXxMEBr7rVU%3D&gaa_ts=69b2d67e&gaa_sig=Jo1orvI48pZRwXOCSvico4A4McrHJV2FeVYoiKAGjnLduHo2CJisBlKmoTX_n2zQTnqv5hiJiiGu_CT8wMCOtQ%3D%3D" target="_blank">posting</a>—and then deleting—a claim that the Trump administration had successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz, throwing the markets into chaos. “I take full ownership of that as the person in charge of the department,” Wright said. “Very unfortunate. It will not happen again.” <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=u7JEluJ0XuM" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="//www.youtube.com/embed/u7JEluJ0XuM" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Wright <a href="https://x.com/atrupar/status/2032089632574263727?s=20" target="_blank">also acknowledged</a> Thursday that the U.S. Navy currently has no way to escort tankers safely through the waterway. “It can’t happen now,” he said. “We’re simply not ready.” <hr> <a href="https://store.dailykos.com/products/kos-no-wars-peace-sign-on-black-5051-blk" target="_blank">Click here for your exclusive "No Wars" Daily Kos T-shirt!</a> <hr> rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) chriswright DonaldTrump Economy Energy GasPrices Iran Oil War _2372835 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:30:18 +0000 Gashole: Trump says high fuel costs are good, actually https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372832/-Trump-s-new-midterm-message-High-gas-prices-are-good-actually?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= As President Donald Trump's war in Iran <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372351/-Trump-s-war-spikes-gas-prices-and-gets-Iran-a-worse-leader?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_2&pm_medium=web" target="_blank">spikes oil and gas prices</a>, the warmonger-in-chief is trying out a new message to blunt political blowback: High oil prices are good, actually. "The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money," Trump<a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116216383667242591" target="_blank"> wrote</a> in a post on Truth Social. "BUT, of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stoping [sic] an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World. I won’t ever let that happen! Thank you for your attention to this matter." The "we" Trump is referring to certainly isn't average Americans, who are paying <a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/" target="_blank">65 cents more per gallon</a> on average to fill up their tanks due to Trump's war. "Americans today will spend roughly $250 million more on gasoline than they did 30 days ago," Patrick De Haan, an oil and gas price expert,<a href="https://x.com/GasBuddyGuy/status/2032093128719515707" target="_blank"> wrote</a> in a post on X. And experts say the current $3.60 average for a gallon of gas will look cheap if the war continues in its current form. Iran is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/combatants-mideast-war-trade-more-air-strikes-iran-clamps-down-dissent-2026-03-11/" target="_blank">threatening</a> a future of oil costing $200 per barrel, which would push gasoline prices <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/iran-threatens-200-oil-barrels-us-prepares-massive-release-emergency-petroleum-reserves" target="_blank">past $5 a gallon</a>. <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534277/large/AP26070600586103.jpg?1773255067" title="President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)"> <figcaption>President Donald Trump, shown on March 11.</figcaption> </figure> Trump’s assertion that high gas prices are good, actually, is also just a complete aboutface from his previous comments. Back in 2012, Trump <a href="https://x.com/KFILE/status/2032087256953954505" target="_blank">warned</a> that $5 per gallon gas prices "could bring down our country." Apparently that's only true for Trump if a Democrat is in office? Hell, in his <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/24/2370308/-Trump-gives-his-most-unhinged-State-of-the-Union-speech-yet" target="_blank">State of the Union address</a> just a few weeks ago, Trump bragged about how gas prices had fallen during his term and listed it as a reason why his tenure has been a success. "Gasoline, which reached a peak of over $6 a gallon in some states under my predecessor—it was quite honestly a disaster—is now below $2.30 a gallon in most states. And in some places, $1.99 a gallon," Trump<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/us/politics/state-of-the-union-transcript-trump.html" target="_blank"> said</a>, which was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-trumps-state-of-the-union-claims-on-the-economy-immigration-and-crime" target="_blank">broadly false</a> about prices at the time. Now that prices are rising, he has abandoned that message, instead saying that we all need to pay more at the pump for his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/us/politics/how-trump-miscalculated-iran-response.html" target="_blank">ill-thought out war</a> that a <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/8/2371462/-Trump-s-uniquely-unpopular-war-on-Iran" target="_blank">majority of the public doesn’t support</a>.  Of course, while Trump's cultish MAGA base will likely accept price increases to support their Dear Leader's idiotic war, the majority of Americans will not. The midterms are going to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/11/house-gop-affordability-midterms-00824205" target="_blank">hinge on affordability and inflation</a>. And given that gas increases have <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/the-iran-war-and-surging-oil-prices-are-affecting-consumers-heres-how" target="_blank">downstream effects</a>—spiking shipping costs, for instance—Trump's <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/live-blog/trump-poll-economy-tariffs-congress-elections-dhs-housing-live-updates-rcna262332" target="_blank">poor marks</a> on handling inflation will likely only get worse. Even if the war ended today and Iran stopped bombing oil tankers and storage facilities in the Middle East, experts say gas prices will <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372526/-What-Wall-Street-is-getting-wrong-about-Trump-s-oil-crisis?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web" target="_blank">take months to get back to normal</a>. But worse for Trump is that Iran is showing no signs of backing down, with experts saying that reopening the critical Strait of Hormuz to allow oil to once again be transported out of the Middle East could require American troops on the ground. The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/ending-iran-war-quickly-carries-big-risks-for-the-u-s-and-allies-60c003de?mod=WSJ_home_mediumtopper_pos_2" target="_blank">reported</a> on Wednesday: <blockquote>Now that Tehran has demonstrated the capacity—and global implications—of choking off the Hormuz strait, it has created significant geopolitical leverage for itself, and an incentive for Gulf states to appease it in the future. Reopening the strait, military analysts say, may require a ground operation to seize the Iranian coastline. That would mark an open-ended escalation, potentially leading to much higher American casualties.</blockquote> In the meantime, Trump will try to gaslight the American people and pray that it doesn't do his entire presidency in. Democrats, meanwhile, are slamming Trump’s claim that higher oil prices are good, actually. “That’s an insane statement by the president of the United States at a time of war. For him to just be flailing right now, you can see that the White House is clearly in panic right now because this war is not going as they thought it would,” Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mgup7syoxr2c" target="_blank">said</a> in an interview with CNN.  <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-bluesky-content="&lt;blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgup7syoxr2c" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreieoqbp6t3rtri5faugijrayryqyqd6zzy6bntene6zniw33w4skr4"&gt;&lt;p lang="en"&gt;Sen. Kim: &amp;#34;The people I talk are thinking about their grocery prices, housing prices. They&amp;#39;re not thinking about how much money American corporations are going to make off of higher oil prices, because that&amp;#39;s just gonna raise all of our prices at home. That&amp;#39;s where the president is just so detached&amp;#34;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; &lt;a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc?ref_src=embed"&gt;Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3mgup7syoxr2c?ref_src=embed"&gt;2026-03-12T15:20:39.671Z&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;"><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgup7syoxr2c" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreieoqbp6t3rtri5faugijrayryqyqd6zzy6bntene6zniw33w4skr4">Sen. Kim: "The people I talk are thinking about their grocery prices, housing prices. They're not thinking about how much money American corporations are going to make off of higher oil prices, because that's just gonna raise all of our prices at home. That's where the president is just so detached"— <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc?ref_src=embed" target="_blank">Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3mgup7syoxr2c?ref_src=embed" target="_blank">2026-03-12T15:20:39.671Z</a></blockquote></div> "The people I talk to, they’re thinking about their grocery prices, they’re thinking about their housing prices. They're not thinking about how much money American corporations are going to make off of higher oil prices, because that's just gonna raise all of our prices at home,” Kim added. “That's where the president [is] just so detached. He’s delusional about what it is that the American people want." rss@dailykos.com (Emily Singer) 2026election 2026midterms DonaldTrump GasPrices Inflation Iran IranWar Oil War _2372832 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:30:07 +0000 It's official: Iran war is very stupid and very expensive https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372833/-It-s-official-Iran-war-is-very-stupid-and-very-expensive?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Within just a few days of President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran, the situation within the Pentagon led by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has become chaotic, with costs for the conflict already ballooning while intelligence findings undermine the administration’s varying justifications for the conflict. For instance, in a briefing given to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday,<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/first-6-days-iran-war-cost-11-billion-pentagon-tells-senators-rcna263060" target="_blank"> Defense officials</a> said that the first six days of war cost taxpayers approximately $11.3 billion. The staggering figure may significantly underestimate the costs. Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a Democratic member of the committee, told reporters, “I expect that the current total operating number is significantly above that.” Coons said that the cost to replace the military munitions being used is already “well beyond $10 billion.” <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="120325.the_Warrior_Ethos.jpg" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1504582/large/120325.the_Warrior_Ethos.jpg?1764794206" title="120325.the_Warrior_Ethos.jpg"> <figcaption>“Accountability” by Nick Anderson</figcaption> </figure> The costs run in stark contrast to Trump’s rhetoric when campaigning for the presidency, when he said he was<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/5/2371687/-The-peace-president-can-t-stop-starting-wars" target="_blank"> the “peace” candidate</a> and repudiated America’s history of “forever wars.” Intelligence reports are also at odds with the administration’s varying justifications for the war, which have run the gamut of claims about Iran’s nuclear development, a purported imminent threat to America, and the need for regime change. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/us-intelligence-says-iran-government-is-not-risk-collapse-say-sources-2026-03-11/" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a> on Thursday that despite bombardment from American and Israeli military forces, U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that the leadership structure of Iran remains in place. Reuters’ source told them that intelligence reports show “consistent analysis that the regime is not in danger.” Underlining these reports, newly appointed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei<a href="https://apnews.com/article/iran-israel-us-march-12-2026-oil-prices-90e17dbf7354d1e9428994ab2a036506" target="_blank"> released a speech</a> on Thursday indicating that he intends to keep up attacks against other nations in the region and will keep the Strait of Hormuz closed off. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused global oil prices to soar, significantly increasing gas prices across the world. As these global developments continue to grow chaotic, the Pentagon has focused on<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372715/-Pete-Hegseth-goes-to-war-against-ugly-photos-of-himself" target="_blank" title=""> matters like barring photographers</a> from briefings with Hegseth. Apparently the former Fox News host is upset that unflattering pictures of him speaking at the briefings have been circulated. <hr> Related  | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372715/-Pete-Hegseth-goes-to-war-against-ugly-photos-of-himself" target="_blank" title="">Pete Hegseth goes to war—against ugly photos of himself</a> <hr> Hegseth has also presided over<a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/207555/pete-hegseth-billions-dollars-fruit-basket-stands-chairs-crab" target="_blank"> an internal spending spree</a> at the Pentagon. Newly released reports of expenditures showed the purchase of a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano,$60,000 for Herman Miller recliner chairs, $124,000 for ice cream machines, and $139,224 on 272 orders of doughnuts. While the Pentagon has its hands full with the Iran mess, the man in charge of it alll—commander in chief Trump—<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372701/-I-don-t-know-about-it-Trump-plays-dumb-about-his-own-war" target="_blank">is professing ignorance</a>. Asked about an ongoing Pentagon investigation about the role of the U.S. military in the bombing that blew up a girl’s school in Minab, Iran, and killed 165 people that were mostly children, Trump told reporters yesterday, “I don't know about it.” <h3><a href="https://store.dailykos.com/products/kos-no-wars-peace-sign-on-black-5051-blk" target="_blank" title="">Click here for your exclusive "No Wars" Daily Kos T-shirt!</a></h3> rss@dailykos.com (Oliver Willis) DepartmentofDefense Iran peteHegseth _2372833 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:30:12 +0000 Cartoon: True patriots https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372434/-Cartoon-True-patriots?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A cartoon by Pedro Molina. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372397/-Trump-couldn-t-care-less-about-the-troops" target="_blank" title="">Trump couldn't care less about the troops</a> <hr> <h3><a href="https://store.dailykos.com/products/kos-no-wars-peace-sign-on-black-5051-blk" target="_blank" title="">Click here for your exclusive "No Wars" Daily Kos T-shirt</a></h3> rss@dailykos.com (Pedro Molina) Cartoon DonaldTrump Iran JDVance Military PedroMolina War _2372434 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:29:11 +0000 Not just the Senate race: Texas GOP is at risk in House races too https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372822/-Not-just-the-Senate-race-Texas-GOP-is-at-risk-in-House-races-too?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Most of the national attention in Texas is focused on the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/12/2372729/-This-GOP-senator-sinks-to-a-new-low-to-win-Trump-s-affection?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web" target="_blank">state's Senate contest</a>, in which Democrat <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/3/2371549/-Talarico-s-primary-win-sets-up-a-real-Senate-race-in-Texas" target="_blank">James Talarico</a> is hoping to ride an anti-Trump wave to Democratic victory in this seat for the first time in more than 30 years. But President Donald Trump has made more than just the Senate seat competitive in the Lone Star State. Multiple GOP-held seats are now at risk due to a growing Latino backlash to Trump's <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2372580/" target="_blank">violent immigration crackdown</a>. In Texas' 23rd District, GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales has put his red seat in play after he was <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/6/2371943/-How-the-flood-of-retiring-Republicans-signals-a-growing-blue-wave" target="_blank">forced to retire</a> following a <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/5/2371812/-House-GOP-to-cheating-Republican-You-must-quit-but-not-right-now" target="_blank" title="">disturbing sex scandal</a> in which an aide he had an affair with went on to die by self-immolation.  <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="Brandon Herrera, a Republican congressional candidate for Texas' 23rd District, speaks during an event, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Somerset, Texas. (AP Photo/Brenda Bazán)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534465/large/AP26058096150281.jpg?1773327208" title="Brandon Herrera, a Republican congressional candidate for Texas' 23rd District, speaks during an event, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Somerset, Texas. (AP Photo/Brenda Bazán)"> <figcaption>Brandon Herrera, a gun-focused YouTuber and Republican congressional candidate for Texas' 23rd District, speaks during an event on Feb. 26.</figcaption> </figure> The new GOP nominee Brandon Herrera, whom Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116213110990414470" target="_blank">endorsed</a> on Wednesday night, is a <a href="https://www.theakguy.com/" target="_blank">gun-rights extremist</a> and YouTube influencer known online as “The AK Guy.” Notably, the district he seeks to represent encompasses the city of Uvalde, the site of the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting, in which a man fatally shot two teachers and 19 students between the ages of 9 and 11.  A Democratic internal <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/TX23-PPP-poll.pdf" target="_blank">poll</a> released Thursday found Herrera leading Democratic nominee Katy Padilla Stout by just 2 points. That’s a shocking result both because Gonzales won in 2024 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/05/us/elections/results-texas-us-house-23.html" target="_blank">by 25 points</a>, though the district’s lines have been redrawn since then. (Also eye-popping is that in the right-leaning district, Talarico also holds a clear lead over both potential GOP opponents.) As such, the Cook Political Report, the nonpartisan political handicapping outlet, moved the race from a safe Republican seat <a href="https://www.cookpolitical.com/house/race/485331" target="_blank">into the competitive column</a> on Thursday. But wait, there's more! Democrats are also excited about their nominee in Texas' 15th District, a majority-Hispanic but deeply gerrymandered seat that stretches from the Texas border to near Corpus Christi. However, Democrats notched a strong recruit in Tejano music star Bobby Pulido, whom they believe can win under the expected electoral conditions of 2026. Pulido gained attention this week when the district's GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz <a href="https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/bobby-pulido-quinceanera-invite-application-22071002.php" target="_blank">disparaged</a> Pulido as a quinceañera singer. “This election isn’t about who you want performing at your niece’s quinceañera. It’s about who you trust with your family’s future. After years of neglect, South Texas finally has a seat at the table, and we’re not going to jeopardize that,” De La Cruz <a href="https://www.facebook.com/reel/1280798953941733" target="_blank" title="">said</a> in a video posted to Facebook. <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 5: Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, conducts a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center after a meeting of the House Republican Conference on Wednesday, February 5, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1479158/large/AP250366932680441.jpg?1758126762" title="UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 5: Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, conducts a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center after a meeting of the House Republican Conference on Wednesday, February 5, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)"> <figcaption>Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz of Texas, shown in 2025.</figcaption> </figure> Pulido ran with the diss, saying he will now play music at quinceañeras in his district—a smart, novel way to campaign. "My corrupt opponent tried to take a shot at me the other day, and she said the only place I belong is playing quinceañeras. But you know what? I’m proud of that, because in South Texas, a quinceañera isn’t just a pachanga. It’s a rite of passage that brings family and neighbors together,” Pulido<a href="https://www.facebook.com/reel/760438200250044/" target="_blank"> said</a> in a video response. “So if you or a member of your family is turning 15 and is planning a quinceañera in my district, I’d be honored to stop by and celebrate with you. Send us a DM, and let’s talk.” No recent polls have been released for the district. But in September, when Pulido was gearing up for a bid, they showed De La Cruz at<a href="https://x.com/birenbomb/status/1968311364751077867" target="_blank"> just 41% support,</a> a low number for an incumbent. Ultimately, Republicans <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/15/2333557/-Here-s-how-Trump-s-gerrymandering-scheme-in-Texas-could-backfire" target="_blank">gerrymandered Texas</a> to try to <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/10/2332652/-Texas-Republicans-are-trying-to-rig-the-map-for-the-next-election" target="_blank">rig the midterms</a> and blunt GOP losses. But Trump's unpopular immigration agenda and cratering economy are putting seats Democrats would otherwise have no business winning <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/6/2352333/-Uh-oh-the-GOP-s-Texas-gerrymander-suddenly-looking-shakier" target="_blank">in play</a>. rss@dailykos.com (Emily Singer) 2026election 2026midterms BobbyPulido BrandonHerrera DonaldTrump KatyPadillaStout LatinoVote MonicaDeLaCruz Texas TonyGonzales TX-15 TX-23 TX-Sen _2372822 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:30:17 +0000 Trump’s bogus US attorney picks keep flaming out https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372742/-Trump-s-bogus-US-attorney-picks-keep-flaming-out?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Another week, another Donald Trump-appointed temporary U.S. attorney out of a job. This time, it’s Brad Schimel, who had been<a href="https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/bondi-caught-in-another-us-attorney-pickle-after-judges-tell-her-interim-appointment-to-get-out/" title="" target="_blank"> installed</a> as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. It turns out the judges in the district just aren’t that into him and declined to extend his tenure.  Federal district court judges can appoint a U.S. attorney upon the expiration of the 120-day interim gig Schimel had if there is no Senate-confirmed candidate. Since the president hasn’t put Schimel’s name before the Senate, the district court judges were his only path to continued employment.  So, come March 17, Schimel is unemployed again, and the judges of the district were pretty<a href="https://www.wied.uscourts.gov/news/us-attorney-notice" target="_blank"> pointed</a> about the Trump administration’s attempts to stuff rando temps into these jobs.  “The Court awaits the nomination and confirmation of a full-time United States Attorney by the President and United States Senate,” said a statement posted on the Eastern District website. It’s so weird that federal judges didn’t want to let an<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/us/politics/brad-schimel-trump-wisconsin-supreme-court.html" title="" target="_blank"> election denier</a> who got his job by<a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2025/11/18/wisconsins-new-interim-u-s-attorney-got-job-after-text-to-pam-bondi/87323630007/" title="" target="_blank"> texting</a> Attorney General Pam Bondi stick around for the next three years. This temp gig was Schimel’s reward after getting absolutely<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372602/-The-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court-could-get-even-more-liberal-soon" title="" target="_blank"> murdered</a> in his 2025 race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, even though he had multibillionaire tech titan Elon Musk on his side with millions in cash.  <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372602/-The-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court-could-get-even-more-liberal-soon" title="" target="_blank">Conservatives may soon get little say in this swing state's high court</a> <hr> It’s not clear if Bondi plans to try to keep Schimel in the job regardless. You’d think after losing in court about<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/29/2351044/-Another-of-Trump-s-handpicked-US-attorneys-is-illegal" target="_blank"> Bill Essayli</a> in California, Alina<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/9/2357530/-Unqualified-Trump-stooge-finally-vacates-US-attorney-seat" target="_blank"> Habba</a> in New Jersey, Sigal Chattah in Nevada, Ryan<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/17/2363652/-Trump-s-Justice-Department-is-more-lawless-than-ever" target="_blank"> Ellison</a> in New Mexico, and, of course, Lindsey<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/11/24/2355386/-Trump-s-retribution-tour-hits-another-snag" target="_blank"> Halligan</a> in Virginia, Trump and the Department of Justice would realize that this One Weird Trick they keep trying to pull simply isn’t working. The courts are simply not interested in assisting in the administration’s efforts to install unqualified hacks and skip the whole advice-and-consent thing in the Senate.  So Schimel is unemployed, but that’s probably still better than what’s going on with Ed Martin, who is facing<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/27803685-martin-complaint/" title="" target="_blank"> disciplinary proceedings</a> by the Washington D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility. Mind you, this isn’t just saying that Martin is on the receiving end of a complaint to the bar. The D.C. bar has opened formal disciplinary proceedings stemming from an incident during Martin’s exceedingly brief tenure as interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.  In March 2025, Martin decided it was a terrific idea to randomly send a<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/10/2309204/-Even-the-right-has-a-problem-with-Trump-s-latest-attack-on-free-speech" title="" target="_blank"> threatening letter</a> to the dean of Georgetown University Law School for not sufficiently eradicating DEI practices, while not really explaining what those forbidden practices might be. Then, before the dean even got back to him, Martin wrote again, saying his office would not hire students or graduates from Georgetown Law.  <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="FILE - U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. speaks at a news conference, May 13, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1486818/large/AP25267016964193.jpg?1760140144" title="FILE - U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. speaks at a news conference, May 13, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)"> <figcaption>Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin speaks at a news conference on May 13, 2025, in Washington.</figcaption> </figure> He also seemed to vaguely threaten that he could somehow take the school’s nonprofit status away if they didn’t comply.  “Answers to these questions appear to bear directly on Georgetown University’s status as a 501(c) nonprofit and its receipt of nearly $1billion of federal tax money in recent years,” Martin wrote. So, that part was bad, what with basically violating the school's First Amendment rights by using the full weight of the government to dictate what it could say. But how Martin responded when he learned that a retired judge had filed a bar complaint was much, much worse.  Martin learned of the complaint when he was still the interim U.S. attorney in D.C. Rather than responding to the allegations in the complaint, which is both the normal and required thing to do, Martin instead decided to compound his ethical problems by demanding, ex parte, a meeting with the chief judge of the D.C. federal circuit and the senior judges of the D.C. Court of Appeals.  For good measure, he copied the White House counsel and complained about the disciplinary counsel's “uneven behavior.” It isn’t clear if Martin thought this would somehow intimidate or impress the judges, but instead, judges kept telling him what students learn during their first week of law school: No, they could not meet with him without the other party being present—in this case, the disciplinary counsel. It’s not kosher for judges to have solo chats with one side.  But Martin kept pressing the issue, which just netted him another ethical violation for the board to charge him with. Good going, Ed.  Martin had a<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/26/2318738/-The-untold-story-of-how-Ed-Martin-ghostwrote-online-attacks-against-a-judge-and-still-became-a-top" title="" target="_blank"> checkered</a> past which included being found in civil contempt, a jury finding him liable for defamation, and getting in a wee bit of a jam over trying to delete or withhold government emails.  Martin was such a bad pick for a U.S. attorney job that even the Trump administration realized it and<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/8/2321257/-Trump-to-yank-controversial-US-attorney-pick-after-intense-backlash" title="" target="_blank"> pulled</a> his nomination. He was then shuffled over to the DOJ to be the pardons attorney and head of the Weaponization Working Group. But Martin managed to screw that up as well.  <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/8/2321257/-Trump-to-yank-controversial-US-attorney-pick-after-intense-backlash" title="" target="_blank">Trump yanks controversial US attorney pick after intense backlash</a> <hr> It’s a real feat to be too toxic for this Justice Department, but Martin<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/7/2367482/-Trump-s-favorite-DOJ-conspiracist-gets-demoted-and-Musk-faces-deposition" title="" target="_blank"> was stripped of</a> his weaponization gig for reportedly leaking grand jury information, so he no longer gets to sit at the big kids’ table in the DOJ headquarters. He’s still the pardons attorney, but is that really a job these days when everyone knows the way you get a pardon is just by bribing Trump? Who could have known that trying to get around the Senate and install unqualified cronies and election conspiracy theorists as top federal prosecutors would result in such chaos? At least some of them are getting fired—or, in the case of Martin, getting their just rewards.  rss@dailykos.com (Lisa Needham) BradSchimel DOJ EdMartin USAttorneys _2372742 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:30:11 +0000 This GOP senator sinks to a new low to win Trump’s affection https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372729/-This-GOP-senator-sinks-to-a-new-low-to-win-Trump-s-affection?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Talk about desperate …  GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/john-cornyn-save-america-act-filibuster-trump-texas-senate-rcna262927" target="_blank">caved</a> to right-wing activists’ demands Wednesday, saying that he now supports nuking the filibuster to pass President Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/6/2367483/-GOP-s-new-voter-suppression-bill-won-t-SAVE-anything?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web#comments" target="_blank">voter suppression bill</a>. Cornyn’s newfound support for axing the filibuster is a complete about-face from his past position on Senate procedure, and it amounts to a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/11/cornyn-filibuster-save-act-trump-00822562" target="_blank">naked attempt</a> to secure Trump's endorsement in his existential runoff. <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="President Donald Trump speaks as tours the U.S. border with Mexico at the Rio Grande on the southern border, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019, in McAllen, Texas, as Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, left, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, listen. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1517624/large/AP19010760293008.jpg?1768412161" title="President Donald Trump speaks as tours the U.S. border with Mexico at the Rio Grande on the southern border, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019, in McAllen, Texas, as Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, left, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, listen. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)"> <figcaption>President Donald Trump speaks during a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border alongside GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas in 2019.</figcaption> </figure> “After careful consideration, I support whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary for us to get the SAVE America Act and homeland security funding past the Democrats’ obstruction, through the Senate, and on the president’s desk for his signature,” Cornyn <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/11/opinion/sen-cornyn-why-the-save-act-matters-more-than-the-filibuster/" target="_blank">wrote in an op-ed</a> for the New York Post. For years, Cornyn extolled the virtues of the filibuster, saying that eliminating the arcane procedure—which requires 60 senators to advance bills to a vote—would eventually blow back on Republicans when Democrats regained power. "Power is fleeting, and at some point the shoe will always be on the other foot," Cornyn <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MDyQBbW1Vw" target="_blank">said</a> in January 2022, when Democrats were trying to pass a voting rights bill. "Liberal activists may like the idea of nuking the filibuster today, but they'll soon find themselves ruing the day their party broke the Senate." <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372364/-Why-Trump-broke-his-promise-to-mess-with-Texas" target="_blank">Why Trump broke his promise to mess with Texas</a> <hr> Also that month, Cornyn slammed Democrats for considering eliminating the filibuster to pass the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4" target="_blank" title="">John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act</a>.  “Not only are our colleagues trying to seize the authority given under the Constitution to the states to manage their own elections, they’re willing to take a wrecking ball to the United States Senate itself and, particularly, the Senate rules,” he <a href="https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/cornyn-democrats-election-takeover-bill-a-solution-in-search-of-a-problem/" target="_blank">said in a statement</a>. But Trump is hellbent on passing the SAVE Act—which would force Americans to show a passport or birth certificate when registering to vote, require ID at the polls, and demand that states run voter registration records through an error-ridden database to keep noncitizens from voting.  The bill has nowhere near the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster in the Senate, and thus is <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/11/john-thune-save-america-act-talking-filibuster-00822428" target="_blank">expected to fail</a>. <figure class="image-captioned align-left"><img alt="Former President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at a rally, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, in Robstown, Texas. (AP Photo/Nick Wagner)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1380770/large/AP22296096327508.jpg?1734977849" title="Former President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at a rally, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, in Robstown, Texas. (AP Photo/Nick Wagner)"> <figcaption>Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton shakes hands with Trump during a rally in 2022.</figcaption> </figure> Still, Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-gop-save-bill-citizenship-id-filibuster-744071b0a3c86ef64aa19aeb3b552509" target="_blank">said</a> that Republicans should do whatever it takes to pass the bill, including killing the filibuster.  And because Cornyn needs Trump’s endorsement if he has any chance of surviving the runoff against <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/texas-primaries-john-cornyn-ken-paxton-james-talarico-jasmine-crockett-gop-senate-midterms-f12cf045?mod=opinion_lead_pos3" target="_blank">MAGA darling and scandal-tarred</a> Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, he ignored his conviction and cowed to Trump’s demands. Cornyn seems to know how desperate his filibuster flip-flop looks, bristling when reporters questioned him about the sudden change of heart. When an NBC News reporter <a href="https://x.com/brennanleach/status/2031735688429801658" target="_blank">asked</a> about the switch, Cornyn simply put his hand in her face and said, “Go away.” Cornyn is so scared of losing to Paxton—whose scandals establishment Republicans <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/texas-primaries-john-cornyn-ken-paxton-james-talarico-jasmine-crockett-gop-senate-midterms-f12cf045?mod=opinion_lead_pos3" target="_blank">fear will cost the GOP</a> a Senate seat—that he swallowed whatever modicum of pride he has left to do what Dear Leader demanded. "Hopefully the president likes what he sees, but this has really been sort of an evolution of my own thinking,” he told reporters Wednesday. Meanwhile, Paxton has been <a href="https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/2029607496395239546" target="_blank">hammering</a> Cornyn for not killing the filibuster to pass the SAVE Act, calling Cornyn’s new position disingenuous.  <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="Texas state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks at a primary election watch party Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1532387/large/AP26063223982282.jpg?1772640019" title="Texas state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks at a primary election watch party Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)"> <figcaption>James Talarico, the Democratic nominee who will be facing off against either Cornyn or Paxton for a Senate seat in Texas.</figcaption> </figure> “You attacked the talking filibuster as not ‘feasible’ days ago. In October, you refused to help the President abolish the filibuster and said ‘it's a nonstarter.’ Texas deserves better than someone who only does the right thing when desperately trying to save themself,” Paxton <a href="https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/2031737015130337342" target="_blank">wrote on X</a>. As they say, a broken clock is right twice a day. It’s unclear if Cornyn’s newfound anti-filibuster religion will be enough to win Trump’s endorsement. Trump appears to have <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372364/-Why-Trump-broke-his-promise-to-mess-with-Texas" target="_blank">gotten cold feet</a> after reports said that he was going to heed establishment Republican <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/4/2371648/-Looks-like-Trump-will-cave-to-establishment-GOP-in-Texas-Senate-race?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web" target="_blank">demands</a> to endorse Cornyn and force Paxton out of the race. MAGA personalities <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/4/2371673/-MAGA-melts-down-over-Trump-s-expected-Texas-endorsement?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_7&pm_medium=web" target="_blank">erupted with anger</a>, and Paxton reiterated that he <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/5/2371767/-Ken-Paxton-doubles-down-adding-to-GOP-s-Texas-fears?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web" target="_blank">has no intention</a> of dropping out.  What’s more, <a href="https://e1.nmcdn.io/assets/ppp/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/TexasResultsMarch2026.pdf" target="_blank">polling</a> shows that even with Trump's endorsement, Cornyn wouldn't have the race in the bag. And Trump—who hates to be a loser—may be hesitant to get behind the wrong horse. In the meantime, Cornyn has been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrokLfA5TeU" target="_blank">releasing</a> nuclear attack ads against Paxton, drawing attention to his past impeachment, indictment, and affairs. <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=JrokLfA5TeU" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JrokLfA5TeU" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Ultimately, whoever wins will face off with Democratic nominee <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/3/2371549/-Talarico-s-primary-win-sets-up-a-real-Senate-race-in-Texas" target="_blank">James Talarico</a>, whose Christian faith and populist message could <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/4/2371604/-5-things-Democrats-can-learn-from-the-Texas-and-North-Carolina-primaries" target="_blank">resonate</a> with Texas voters and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/5/2371655/-Daily-Kos-endorses-James-Talarico-for-US-Senate-in-Texas?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web" target="_blank">flip the seat blue</a> for the first time in more than 30 years. Polls show Talarico <a href="https://www.fox7austin.com/election/talarcio-cronyn-paxton-texas-senate-poll-march-2026" target="_blank">leads both Cornyn and Paxton</a> in a general election matchup, though he leads Paxton by more. The GOP’s Texas runoff is as ugly as many predicted it would be. We love that for Republicans. rss@dailykos.com (Emily Singer) DonaldTrump JamesTalarico JohnCornyn KenPaxton Midterms Senate Texas _2372729 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 13:30:04 +0000 Trump explores deep sea mining in American Samoa https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372708/-Trump-explores-deep-sea-mining-in-American-Samoa?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Even as opposition grows and the U.S. territory maintains a moratorium on seabed mining, NOAA began a $20 million survey of surrounding federal waters to help locate deep sea mineral deposits. <div style="text-align:start">By <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/profile/teresa-tomassoni/" title="" target="_blank">Teresa Tomassoni</a> for <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11032026/trump-noaa-american-samoa-deep-sea-mining/" target="_blank" title="">Inside Climate News</a> <hr></div> The Trump administration is moving to open federal waters surrounding American Samoa to deep-sea mining despite widespread opposition from leaders and environmental advocates from the U.S. territory. Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began mapping more than 30,000 square nautical miles of the territory’s seabed, <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-to-map-critical-mineral-deposits-in-deep-waters-off-american-samoa" target="_blank" title="">surveying the ocean floor </a>for deposits of manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper found in potato-sized, rock-like formations called polymetallic nodules. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="deep-discoverer-960.jpg" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534271/large/deep-discoverer-960.jpg?1773253884" title="deep-discoverer-960.jpg"> <figcaption>A remotely operated vehicle traverses over an extensive field of polymetallic nodules on the deep-sea floor.</figcaption> </figure> “Even though there is overwhelming local opposition—global opposition because of our allies around the world—they continue to move forward,” said Sabrina Suluai-Mahuka, founder and executive director of Finafinau, an environmental advocacy nonprofit in American Samoa. Meanwhile, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is advancing the federal leasing process that could eventually allow private companies to mine those mineral deposits. <div id="mc_embed_signup_69b17e0a1fd15" style="text-align:start"> <div id="mc_embed_signup_scroll_69b17e0a1fd15"> Together, the two federal agencies are helping carry out President Trump’s 2025 executive order, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18052025/trump-promotes-deep-sea-mining-bypassing-international-law/" title="" target="_blank">“Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources</a>,” a mandate that directs officials to identify and accelerate access to seabed minerals, claiming the minerals are <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/unleashing-americas-offshore-critical-minerals-and-resources/" target="_blank" title="">“vital to our national security and economic prosperity</a>.” These minerals, which have only been industrially mined on land to date, are used in military defense systems, such as fighter jets and missiles, electric vehicle batteries, smartphones and some medical devices. American Samoa is not the only place being targeted for its minerals. In recent months, BOEM has expressed interest in issuing leases to mine seabed minerals in several offshore areas, including waters near other U.S. Pacific territories such as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. Areas off Alaska and Virginia are also under review. BOEM and NOAA each have distinct roles in regulating seabed mining—a nascent and highly controversial industry. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Deep-seabed-mineral-nodules-NOAA-photo.jpg" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534270/large/Deep-seabed-mineral-nodules-NOAA-photo.jpg?1773253751" title="Deep-seabed-mineral-nodules-NOAA-photo.jpg"> <figcaption>Polymetallic nodules, such as those shown here, can occur on the ocean floor and are of interest for the critical minerals they contain.</figcaption> </figure> While federal officials argue that seabed minerals are needed to strengthen national security and support green technologies, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17072025/deep-sea-mining-negotiations-resume-amid-industry-pushback/" title="" target="_blank">critics say many of those metals could be recovered by recycling </a>batteries and electronics already in circulation. Many environmental advocates are also worried about the environmental risks the industry poses and the speed at which the Trump administration is moving to pave the way for an industry that has not yet operated at scale anywhere else in the world. “No one has done commercial-scale deep-sea mining,” said Becca Loomis, a staff attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she promotes ocean health by working to prevent offshore fossil fuel development and deep sea mining. “This would be brand new, and they’re kind of forging ahead,” she said. “Rushing ahead with this industry is really scary for the ocean, the ocean ecosystem, for people who rely on fisheries.” Under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, BOEM is authorized to issue leases and permits for extracting minerals from the seafloor in U.S. federal waters, as it does for oil and gas. NOAA is in charge of overseeing permits for deep-sea mining activities by U.S. companies looking to mine in international waters. But, in the case of American Samoa, NOAA is also playing a direct role domestically by mapping and sampling the deep ocean floor around the territory. The agency says the data will help scientists better understand the marine environment generally, but it will also be used to identify areas where valuable mineral deposits may exist—information that could help guide future industry decisions about deep-sea mining in federal waters. “NOAA is proud to play a leading role in the President’s plan unlocking access to critical minerals for domestic supply chains,” said <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-to-map-critical-mineral-deposits-in-deep-waters-off-american-samoa" target="_blank" title="">Neil Jacobs, a NOAA administrator who oversees deep-sea exploration.</a> “This project highlights NOAA’s strong impact on economic resilience as we invest in research that supports sustainable deep sea mining practices and allows partners to better understand their marine environments.” <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned width-xl"><img alt="A Parapagurus sp. crab with a coral in the genus Epizoanthus on its back makes its way across a spectacular and unexpectedly densely packed field of ferromanganese nodules blanketing the seafloor of Gosnold Seamount, explored during Dive 16 of the 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones expedition." class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534267/large/crab-coral-hires.jpg?1773253730" title="A Parapagurus sp. crab with a coral in the genus Epizoanthus on its back makes its way across a spectacular and unexpectedly densely packed field of ferromanganese nodules blanketing the seafloor of Gosnold Seamount, explored during Dive 16 of the 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones expedition."> <figcaption>A crab makes its way across a spectacular and unexpectedly densely packed field of ferromanganese nodules blanketing the seafloor of Gosnold Seamount, explored during a 2021 expedition in the North Atlantic.</figcaption> </figure> </div> <h3>Local Opposition Emerges</h3> Opposition to deep sea mining in American Samoa began well before NOAA’s survey vessels arrived in February. In early 2024, when a California-based technology company, Impossible Metals, expressed interest in mining polymetallic nodules in American Samoa’s waters, alarm spread quickly among local leaders, fishers and community groups, Suluai-Mahuka said.   In response, former Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga issued an <a href="https://c717832c-d82b-42d5-bcc4-38c7b26353c5.filesusr.com/ugd/36d1c0_3789f4f26b4f4a41bdab6e87d36a9388.pdf" target="_blank" title="">executive order </a>establishing a moratorium on deep-sea mining, prohibiting all exploration and exploitation activities within their waters. But that ban applies to only around 3 miles of water offshore of American Samoa’s islands. Beyond that boundary, authority shifts to the federal government, which controls waters farther offshore, including areas of the outer continental shelf that extend up to roughly 200 nautical miles from the islands. Typically, Hemphill said, federal agencies still consult with and consider the views of nearby states or territories when deciding whether to allow offshore development, including projects involving oil, gas or wind. Florida, he noted, offers a well-known example. “Florida is famous for not having offshore oil because the people were against it to preserve the sanctity of the Florida Keys and the fishing and the tourism and so the federal government didn’t force Florida to do it,” Hemphill said. “The Trump administration is not giving American Samoa that same respect.” <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Abyssal plain nodules from the central Pacific Ocean." class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534268/large/abyssal-nodules-hires.jpg?1773253745" title="Abyssal plain nodules from the central Pacific Ocean."> <figcaption>Abyssal plain nodules from the central Pacific Ocean.</figcaption> </figure> Ignoring the territory’s opposition, he warned, could threaten both the island nation’s marine life and economy. “Deep sea mining poses significant risks to marine biodiversity, including the potential for habitat destruction, pollution and the disruption of critical ecological processes,” Mauga, American Samoa’s former governor, wrote in his order to ban seabed mining. More than <a href="https://seabedminingsciencestatement.org/" target="_blank" title="">1,000 marine science and policy experts</a> from more than 70 countries have also signed a statement calling for a precautionary pause on deep-sea mining related activities until—and if—independent research demonstrates the industry can operate without causing serious or irreversible harm to ocean ecosystems. Tuna fishing and processing make up the backbone of American Samoa’s economy, supporting thousands of jobs. While some proponents say deep-sea mining could bring new economic opportunities, Suluai-Mahuka said many residents worry it could instead undermine the industry the islands depend on most. Scientists warn that much of the equipment deep sea mining companies are proposing to extract seabed minerals, up to 4 miles deep, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29072025/nations-denounce-deep-sea-mining-bid-pacific-us/" title="" target="_blank">could generate sediment plumes that travel long distance</a>s, potentially smothering coral reefs which provide critical coastal protection against storm surge and rising seas for American Samoa’s coastal communities. They also provide vital habitat for healthy fish populations. “If those corals die, our fish may not have anything to live off, and not even just our fish, but the whole ecosystem that we rely on,” said Suluai-Mahuka. “Our families might not have food on the table because their families can’t catch anything anymore.” Fish that are caught, she said, could also eventually become contaminated if metals released from seabed mineral deposits during mining enter the marine food chain and accumulate in the fish American Samoans eat. Over the past year, Suluai-Mahuka has organized a series of town halls and virtual forums to help American Samoan residents better understand the federal government’s efforts to pave the way for deep-sea mining in their waters and to hear directly from industry representatives, including Oliver Gunasekara, co-founder and CEO of Impossible Metals. Last spring, the company submitted an unsolicited request to BOEM to mine polymetallic nodules off American Samoa. According to Gunasekara, the technology his company is developing would avoid producing the toxic sediment plumes often cited as one of the primary environmental risks of deep-sea mining. “We don’t have any sediment plumes,” he said. Instead, he said, his company is developing a fleet of underwater robots that would hover just above the seabed, using cameras and sensors to locate polymetallic nodules and collect the mineral deposits without disturbing marine life. <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned width-xl"><img alt="An extensive field of ferromanganese nodules, often interspersed with wide patches of ripple-ornamented sediment, formed the bulk of the hard seafloor substrate for much of Dive 17 of the 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones expedition." class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534266/large/field-hires.jpg?1773253729" title="An extensive field of ferromanganese nodules, often interspersed with wide patches of ripple-ornamented sediment, formed the bulk of the hard seafloor substrate for much of Dive 17 of the 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones expedition."> <figcaption>An extensive field of ferromanganese nodules, often interspersed with wide patches of ripple-ornamented sediment, is seen during a 2021 North Atlantic expedition.</figcaption> </figure> </div> <h3>Federal Leasing Process Advances</h3> Since the company made its request, BOEM has initiated a six-step process for awarding deep sea mining leases in the U.S. territory. “Developing a domestic supply of critical minerals will strengthen U.S. supply chains, bolster economic and national security, and reduce reliance on China and other foreign nations for domestically available materials vital to energy technologies, advanced manufacturing, and defense systems,” said a BOEM spokesperson. Environmental and cultural considerations will “guide every decision on potential future leasing activity,” the spokesperson added in an email. But Suluai-Mahuka said the federal process tells a different story. In response to Impossible Metals’ request, BOEM initiated a six-step process that could lead to leasing parts of the seabed for mineral extraction. First, they published a Request for Information and Interest (RFI) in the Federal Register last summer, seeking input from the public, scientists and industry on possible commercial seabed mineral extraction within American Samoa’s outer continental shelf. The area of interest borders the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument—federally protected waters known for their unique ecosystems and rich biodiversity—as well as the Cook Islands’ exclusive economic zone, prompting concerns about potential transboundary impacts. More than 75,000 comments were submitted during a 30-day public comment period that closed in August, most in opposition. According to <a href="https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/documents/marine-minerals/Area%20ID%20Memo_American%20Samoa%20OCS%20Minerals_Signed_With_Attachement.pdf?VersionId=pU26HzVpeYFJMUUTR8tcWauGM3VKCO71#:~:text=General%20Comments&text=Commenters%20referenced%20American%20Samoa%20Executive,extensions%20to%20the%20comment%20period." target="_blank" title="">BOEM’s own summary of the public comment period</a>, several commenters emphasized that American Samoa’s moratorium on deep-sea mining remains in full force and has been reaffirmed by the territory’s current governor, Pulaali’i Nikolao Pula, and other leaders. Others pointed to growing international momentum to stop the industry from moving ahead. <a href="https://deep-sea-conservation.org/solutions/no-deep-sea-mining/" target="_blank">At least 40 countries </a>have expressed their support for a global moratorium on deep sea mining. Many commenters called for respect of Indigenous rights and sovereignty in decision-making about ocean resources in territorial waters, including Andrew Pati Ah Young, a founding member of Fa’asao Amerika Samoa, a community organization comprised of local fishers, chiefs, faithleaders and other residents, as well as members of the Samoan diaspora. In his submission, Ah Young wrote: “We wish to register our strong opposition to any federal action that would authorize or advance deep-sea mining in or near American Samoa’s waters. “Safeguarding the oceans is a core part of Samoa’s cultural identity and economic practice. The Samoan proverb ‘A logo tai ua logo uta’ teaches that what is felt in the ocean is also felt on land. Our lives, culture, and sustenance are tied to the health of the sea—when the ocean suffers, the land and its people inevitably share that pain.” <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/1/2370783/-US-government-is-accelerating-coral-reef-collapse-scientists-warn" title="" target="_blank">US government is accelerating coral reef collapse, scientists warn</a> <hr> In spite of these comments, BOEM completed the second stage of the leasing process, which involves identifying the area of interest. In this case, the agency also significantly expanded the area under consideration for mining. “After receiving about 76,000 comments in opposition, the administration went ahead and essentially doubled the potential lease area [originally 73,222 square kilometers] to over 130,000 square kilometers,” said JV Langkilde, an American Samoan associate attorney at Earthjustice, an environmental law organization based in the U.S. More recently, Suluai-Mahuka said, the agency moved to the third stage of the leasing process by launching an environmental analysis of the potential impacts of offering mineral leases in the identified areas. But for residents of American Samoa, she said, the debate is not just about what happens miles below the surface; it’s about the future of the communities that depend on the ocean above it. “For the industry, it’s seen as a lottery ticket. They could potentially make so much money,” Suluai-Mahuka said. “But for us, it’s a gamble on our livelihoods.” </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Inside Climate News) AmericanSamoa Environment Mining NOAA Oceans _2372708 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 13:00:11 +0000 Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug presents Dementia Donnie https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/12/2372681/-Cartoon-Tom-the-Dancing-Bug-presents-Dementia-Donnie?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= -> It's the <a href="https://tomthedancingbug.com/2026/03/10/the-march-2026-inner-hive-drive-sign-up-get-some-comics-save-democracy/" target="_blank">INNER HIVE DRIVE</a>! Join Tom the Dancing Bug's Inner Hive today, and the cost of signing up will be donated to the Democracy Defenders Fund to sue Donald Trump over and over, and protect voters' rights! Get exclusive comics and content every week, support Tom the Dancing Bug…  and save America! -> Sign up for the free weekly newsletter, <a href="https://tomthedancingbug.substack.com/" target="_blank" title="">The Tom the Dancing Bug Review</a>! Not nearly as good as joining the Inner Hive, but it's free! -> Get yer Tom the Dancing Bug books!  <a href="https://tomdbug.wpcomstaging.com/tom-the-dancing-bug-store/" target="_blank" title="">The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug Library</a> — get one, two or all eight volumes. -> Follow @RubenBolling on <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/rubenbolling.bsky.social" target="_blank">Bluesky</a> and/or <a href="https://mastodon.social/web/@rubenbolling" target="_blank" title="">Mastodon</a> and/or <a href="https://www.threads.net/@rubenbolling" target="_blank" title="">Threads</a> and/or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tom-the-Dancing-Bug/98855041884" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and/or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rubenbolling" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and/or <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/tomthedancingbug/" target="_blank">Reddit</a>. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/2/2371288/-WTF-is-wrong-with-Trump-s-neck" title="" target="_blank">WTF is wrong with Trump's neck?</a> <hr> rss@dailykos.com (RubenBolling) Cartoon Comic Dementia DementiaDonnie DonaldTrump _2372681 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 12:30:16 +0000 White House tasks GOP with finding 'real Americans' to push its BS https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372570/-White-House-tasks-GOP-with-finding-real-Americans-to-push-its-BS?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= White House deputy chief of staff James Blair is worried about Republicans losing the House this fall—and rightfully so. A Democratic House would not just stymie President Donald Trump’s agenda but also aggressively investigate all the things he’d rather sweep under the rug: Jeffrey Epstein, the Trump family’s corruption, the billions in foreign money flowing through Trump-branded businesses, and the growing list of conflicts of interest tied to his administration. So at a retreat with House Republicans, he told them to stop touting all the things they’ve been bragging about, such as <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2372580/" target="_blank">mass deportations</a>.  But buried in the Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/10/white-house-house-republicans-mass-deportations" target="_blank">report</a> was this gem: “Blair also told members to go out and find ‘real Americans’ to highlight wins in the GOP's sweeping legislative package passed last summer.” Ha, ha, ha—I’m dying here! He wants what? The “sweeping” legislation Blair is talking about is Trump’s law known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Let’s see what was in there for “real Americans.” To start, the bill slashed <a href="https://medicareadvocacy.org/impact-of-the-big-bill-on-medicare/" target="_blank">over $1 trillion</a> over the next decade from health programs like Medicaid. It also <a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/snap-cuts-one-big-beautiful-bill-act-leave-almost-3-million-young-adults-vulnerable" title="" target="_blank">cut federal food assistance</a>, making it harder for struggling families to feed their kids. Good luck, House Republicans, as you try to find “real Americans” eager to brag about the “wins” of losing their health coverage or food benefits.  <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1530392/large/AP26056122706597.jpg?1772034039" title="President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)"> <figcaption>President Donald Trump, shown in February.</figcaption> </figure> Republicans did throw money at Immigration and Customs Enforcement to bolster their thug army, but right now, that murderous crew of “real Americans” <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/18/2363282/-Abolish-ICE-hits-record-high-support" target="_blank">aren’t particularly beloved</a>. When Blair is telling House Republicans to avoid talking about Trump’s beloved mass deportations, you know the issue is politically toxic. It’s become obvious that if you have to hide your face to do your job, you’re the bad guy. There was also <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/congress/2025/12/senate-voting-on-901-billion-defense-bill-that-pushes-hegseth-for-boat-strike-video/" target="_blank">massive defense spending</a> under Trump. Defense contractors certainly consider that a “win,” but again, it’s probably not the look that Blair is hoping for. Hmm, what else is in this law … oh wait. There they are. The real winners. Billionaires. The law has <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/7-ways-the-big-beautiful-bill-cuts-taxes-for-the-rich/" title="" target="_blank">showered the ultrawealthy</a> with tax cuts. And many of them are technically “real Americans.” Found ’em for you, Blair! In the end, Republicans <a href="https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/what-does-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-cost/" target="_blank">added $3.4 trillion to the nation’s debt</a> while slashing its safety net. There were certainly lots of winners in that boondoggle, and they are “real Americans” in the strictest definition of the term—but they’re not the kind Republicans want parading around their campaign ads. When Republicans talk about “real Americans,” they don’t mean billionaires or defense contractors. They mean regular joes—people who work for a living and who have increasingly turned to the GOP out of that toxic brew of economic despair, racial resentments, and culture-war grievance politics. These are economically struggling voters, mostly white but not exclusively so, who backed the GOP on the hope it would lower prices, raise wages, and other critical work Republicans were never interested in doing. Ultimately, Blair’s presentation was as helpful to House Republicans as <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372494/-Trump-completely-ignores-what-Americans-care-about?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_8&pm_medium=web" target="_blank">Trump’s edicts</a> that they should focus on voter suppression and further demonizing trans kids. “It will guarantee the midterms. If you don’t get it, big trouble, my opinion,” Trump told them on Monday. What hope do House Republicans have if even their Dear Leader can’t follow Blair’s advice? rss@dailykos.com (kos) 2026 Deportations DonaldTrump Economy Elections HealthCare House ICE Immigration JamesBlair Medicaid Medicare SNAP _2372570 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:01:11 +0000 The Recap: GOP panics as blue wave builds, and Trump’s library bribes are MIA https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372731/-The-Recap-GOP-panics-as-blue-wave-builds-and-Trump-s-library-bribes-are-MIA?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372580/-Trump-team-realizes-immigration-terror-campaign-is-bad-politics?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03112026" target="_blank">Trump team realizes immigration terror campaign is bad politics</a> Turns out “Mass deportation now” isn’t a feel-good message. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372663/-Latest-special-elections-bring-more-bad-news-for-GOP?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03112026" target="_blank">Latest special elections bring more bad news for GOP</a> Watch that blue tsunami gather steam. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372696/-Where-did-all-of-Trump-s-library-bribes-go?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03112026" target="_blank">Where did all of Trump's library bribes go?</a> That presidential library is the grift that keeps on grifting. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2371820/-Cartoon-Inside-Trump-s-war-room?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03112026" target="_blank">Cartoon: Inside Trump's war room</a> Talk about moving targets. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372677/-New-Epstein-statue-aims-to-take-Trump-down-like-the-Titanic?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03112026" target="_blank">New Epstein statue aims to take Trump down like the Titanic</a> He only thinks he’s king of the world. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372683/-Millionaire-GOP-senator-shrugs-off-soaring-gas-prices?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03112026" target="_blank">Millionaire GOP senator shrugs off soaring gas prices</a> Five-dollar gas is no big deal when you have boatloads of cash. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372443/-Trump-can-t-brag-about-winning-too-much-in-the-courtroom?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03112026" target="_blank">Trump can't brag about 'winning too much' in the courtroom</a> Let’s savor his many legal defeats, shall we? <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372602/-The-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court-could-get-even-more-liberal-soon?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03112026" target="_blank">Conservatives may soon get little say in this swing state's high court</a> So much for Elon Musk’s meddling!  <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2371987/-6-years-ago-Trump-imposed-a-travel-ban-as-COVID-erupted?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03112026" target="_blank">6 years ago, Trump imposed a travel ban as COVID erupted</a> And he’s once again presiding over a nation on the brink. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/blog/Comics?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03112026" target="_blank">Click here to see more cartoons</a>. rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos Staff) BlueWave Covid-19 DonaldTrump JeffreyEpstein TheRecap _2372731 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 20:49:01 +0000 Cartoon: Send Barron https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372421/-Cartoon-Send-Barron?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A cartoon by Clay Jones. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372357/-A-draft-for-Trump-s-Iran-war-White-House-says-it-s-on-the-table" title="" target="_blank">A draft for Trump's Iran war? White House says it's 'on the table.'</a> <hr> rss@dailykos.com (Clay Jones) BarronTrump Cartoon ClayJones DonaldTrump Draft Iran War _2372421 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 23:59:04 +0000 Pete Hegseth goes to war—against ugly photos of himself https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372715/-Pete-Hegseth-goes-to-war-against-ugly-photos-of-himself?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= You’d think that with a war going on and all that, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would not have time to worry about <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/lewk" target="_blank">serving lewks</a>—but Hegseth is a man of many talents. The former Fox News talking head-turned-Pentagon chief has<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/11/hegseth-press-briefings-photos-iran/" target="_blank"> barred</a> press photographers from attending war briefings because their agencies published photos his staff thought were “unflattering.” Wow, can’t imagine that good old Pete isn’t eternally photogenic. <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534252/large/AP26061509967236.jpg?1773252289" title="Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)"> <figcaption>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon on March 2 in Washington.</figcaption> </figure> It’s definitely not worrisome at all that during a war, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/10/14/2348547/-Even-Fox-News-says-hell-no-to-Hegseth-s-ridiculous-demands" target="_blank">press access</a> to the Pentagon is diminishing <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/10/16/2348899/-White-House-spews-pathetic-lie-about-Pentagon-media-walkout" target="_blank">even more</a>, and definitely not worrisome that Hegseth’s focus seems to be on making sure he looks good for the ‘gram while President Donald Trump’s war on Iran spins out of control.  Not that there have been many opportunities to snap some pics of Hegseth behind the Pentagon podium. The briefing that resulted in suboptimal photos occurred on March 2—the first time Hegseth deigned to provide a briefing since his boss started an unnecessary war against Iran on Feb. 28. Before that, Hegseth hadn’t shown up at the briefing room podium since June 2025.   At the March 2 briefing, photographers from three large news agencies—the Associated Press, Reuters, and Getty Images—that license their photos worldwide took the offending pictures. After Hegseth’s staff decided they didn’t like how he looked, the solution, of course, was just to bar press photographers from future briefings and limit all photographs to those taken by the Defense Department. When asked about this, a Pentagon spokesperson gave the sort of snotty, stupid response that has become a hallmark of the Trump administration’s complete decimation of professionalism and civility. <figure class="image-captioned align-left"><img alt="Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth prepares to give a television interview outside the White House, Friday, March 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1413624/large/AP25080629754893.jpg?1743100592" title="Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth prepares to give a television interview outside the White House, Friday, March 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)"> <figcaption>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth prepares to give a television interview outside the White House on March 21, 2025, in Washington.</figcaption> </figure> “In order to use space in the Pentagon Briefing Room effectively, we are allowing one representative per news outlet if uncredentialed, excluding pool,” said press secretary Kingsley Wilson. “Photographs from the briefings are immediately released online for the public and press to use. If that hurts the business model for certain news outlets, then they should consider applying for a Pentagon press credential.” Hegseth and his Pentagon flunkies know full well that no respectable news organization is going to apply for a Pentagon press credential. The so-called war secretary's September demand that he get to approve all reporting resulted in a mass exodus of actual news organizations that rightly refused to sign such an agreement. They were instead<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/22/2349917/-Pentagon-s-new-press-corps-is-the-stuff-of-nightmares" target="_blank"> replaced</a> with far-right weirdos like podcaster Tim Pool and MyPillow guy Mike Lindell’s LindellTV. Hegseth made clear from the start that how he looked is of paramount importance. He thinks he is a super-jacked perfect specimen of Aryan manhood, which perhaps explains why he can make so much time to post <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-pete-hegseth-cant-stop-posting-cringe-workouts-videos/" target="_blank">pathetic workout videos</a>.  <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-instagram-content="&lt;blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNg28YcvPUo/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"&gt;&lt;div style="padding:16px;"&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNg28YcvPUo/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;div style=" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"&gt; &lt;div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="padding: 19% 0;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px; width:50px;"&gt;&lt;svg width="50px" height="50px" viewBox="0 0 60 60" version="1.1" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"&gt;&lt;g stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"&gt;&lt;g transform="translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)" fill="#000000"&gt;&lt;g&gt;&lt;path d="M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631"&gt;&lt;/path&gt;&lt;/g&gt;&lt;/g&gt;&lt;/g&gt;&lt;/svg&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="padding-top: 8px;"&gt; &lt;div style=" color:#3897f0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;"&gt;View this post on Instagram&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-left: 8px;"&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-left: auto;"&gt; &lt;div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNg28YcvPUo/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank"&gt;A post shared by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@secwar)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;"><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNg28YcvPUo/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"><div> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNg28YcvPUo/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> <div> <div></div> <div> <div></div> <div></div></div></div><div></div> <div></div><div> <div>View this post on Instagram</div></div><div></div> <div><div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div></div><div> <div></div> <div></div></div><div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div></div></div> <div> <div></div> <div></div></div></a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNg28YcvPUo/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@secwar)</a></div></blockquote></div> This is also the dude who<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/24/2318485/-Hegseth-demands-makeup-studio-at-Pentagon-to-spin-his-scandals" target="_blank"> demanded</a> a makeup studio at the Pentagon just a couple of months into the job. And it makes sense that Hegseth, coming from Fox News, is used to tight control over how he looks, though it makes no sense that he has therefore decided to look like Pete Hegseth. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/24/2318485/-Hegseth-demands-makeup-studio-at-Pentagon-to-spin-his-scandals" target="_blank">Hegseth demands makeup studio at Pentagon to spin his scandals</a> <hr> Surely Hegseth has enough money to buy a suit that fits, but he nonetheless rocked a hilariously<a href="https://radaronline.com/p/pete-hegseth-mocked-tight-outfit-melania-movie-premiere-suits/" target="_blank"> ill-fitting nightmare</a> to the premiere of the “Melania” movie. Someone really needed to tell him that the suit jacket was two sizes too small.  <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his wife Jennifer arrive for the premiere of first lady Melania Trump's movie "Melania" at The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534254/large/AP26030041691588.jpg?1773252317" title="Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his wife Jennifer arrive for the premiere of first lady Melania Trump's movie "Melania" at The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)"> <figcaption>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his wife Jennifer arrive for the premiere of first lady Melania Trump's movie "Melania" at The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts on Jan. 29.</figcaption> </figure> </div> This baseball cap? This bunchy shirt? Another ill-fitting suit jacket? <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and Walt Nauta, personal aide to President Donald Trump, step off Air Force One, Saturday, March 7, 2026, at Miami International Airport in Miami. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534253/large/AP26066839365501.jpg?1773252302" title="Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and Walt Nauta, personal aide to President Donald Trump, step off Air Force One, Saturday, March 7, 2026, at Miami International Airport in Miami. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)"> <figcaption>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and Walt Nauta, personal aide to President Donald Trump, step off Air Force One on March 7 at Miami International Airport.</figcaption> </figure> </div> It’s clear that Hegseth thinks his clothes make some sort of statement. When he wore a<a href="https://x.com/PeteHegseth/status/1890166282257080795" target="_blank"> weirdly casual</a> blue suit to a meeting of world leaders and stuck out like a dumb sore thumb, he declared it symbolized “America First.” Honestly, his clothes mostly just scream, “I'm a douche who needs to size up.” While Hegseth may worry that he’s not looking his best behind the podium and wants to make sure there’s no evidence of that, he is in no way worried about all the<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/18/2358887/-For-Pete-s-sake-Hegseth-wants-to-make-spirituality-manly-again" target="_blank"> pictures</a> floating around of his <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/15/2286569/-Trump-s-Pentagon-pick-was-flagged-by-fellow-service-member-as-Insider-Threat" target="_blank">white Christian nationalist tattoos</a>. Those are just good old American warfighter emblems.  But otherwise—no pictures, please. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/18/2358887/-For-Pete-s-sake-Hegseth-wants-to-make-spirituality-manly-again" target="_blank" title="">For Pete's sake! Hegseth wants to make spirituality manly again?</a> <hr> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-instagram-content="&lt;blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVxA5JUgFHn/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"&gt;&lt;div style="padding:16px;"&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVxA5JUgFHn/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;div style=" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"&gt; &lt;div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="padding: 19% 0;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px; width:50px;"&gt;&lt;svg width="50px" height="50px" viewBox="0 0 60 60" version="1.1" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"&gt;&lt;g stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"&gt;&lt;g transform="translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)" fill="#000000"&gt;&lt;g&gt;&lt;path d="M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631"&gt;&lt;/path&gt;&lt;/g&gt;&lt;/g&gt;&lt;/g&gt;&lt;/svg&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="padding-top: 8px;"&gt; &lt;div style=" color:#3897f0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;"&gt;View this post on Instagram&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-left: 8px;"&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-left: auto;"&gt; &lt;div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVxA5JUgFHn/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank"&gt;A post shared by Alix Breeden (@emogurlandra)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;"><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVxA5JUgFHn/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"><div> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVxA5JUgFHn/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> <div> <div></div> <div> <div></div> <div></div></div></div><div></div> <div></div><div> <div>View this post on Instagram</div></div><div></div> <div><div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div></div><div> <div></div> <div></div></div><div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div></div></div> <div> <div></div> <div></div></div></a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVxA5JUgFHn/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Alix Breeden (@emogurlandra)</a></div></blockquote></div> rss@dailykos.com (Lisa Needham) DOD Media Pentagon peteHegseth Press vanity _2372715 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 23:00:08 +0000 ‘I don’t know about it’: Trump plays dumb about his own war https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372701/--I-don-t-know-about-it-Trump-plays-dumb-about-his-own-war?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= President Donald Trump spoke to reporters Wednesday, where he seemed loath to discuss anything having to do with his <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372563/-Trump-s-propaganda-princess-gets-busy-spinning-Iran-war" target="_blank">war in Iran</a>—except for how great his <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/2/2371107/-The-peace-president-goes-to-war" target="_blank">bombing campaign</a> has been.  When asked about <a href="https://theintercept.com/2026/03/11/iran-school-missile-investigation/" target="_blank">reports</a> that a Pentagon <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/4/2371621/-Death-and-destruction-Hegseth-can-t-contain-his-bloodlust" target="_blank">investigation</a> found that the United States fired a missile into a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, killing at least 165 people—mostly children—Trump brushed the question aside. “I don't know about it,” Trump said dismissively. <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;President Trump on new report that shows military investigation has found the U.S. struck school in Iran: &amp;quot;I don&amp;#39;t know about it.&amp;quot; &lt;a href="https://t.co/IucvtcQQjl"&gt;pic.twitter.com/IucvtcQQjl&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/2031773129429684648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;March 11, 2026&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">President Trump on new report that shows military investigation has found the U.S. struck school in Iran: "I don't know about it." <a href="https://t.co/IucvtcQQjl">pic.twitter.com/IucvtcQQjl</a>— CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/2031773129429684648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2026</a></blockquote> </div> He was also asked whether he could consider the war a victory if it succeeded <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372351/-Trump-s-war-spikes-gas-prices-and-gets-Iran-a-worse-leader" target="_blank">only in replacing</a> Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with his son Mojtaba Khamenei. “I don't want to comment on that,” Trump replied. “But I will tell you, I just spoke with various countries—the leaders of various countries, you'll have a list—and they said they've never seen anything like it.”  <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=JBiKwmKTLHg" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JBiKwmKTLHg" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Similarly, Trump wanted nothing to do with a reporter’s question about a potential withdrawal plan. “I'm not going to answer that,” he said. “But we have hit them harder than virtually any country in history has been hit, and we're not finished yet.”  <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=UM9j6gceomQ" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="//www.youtube.com/embed/UM9j6gceomQ" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Despite seemingly having no answers himself, one thing has become crystal clear: <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/3/2371465/-Iran-war-proves-Trump-is-still-at-the-concept-of-a-plan-stage" target="_blank">how little</a> Trump grasps the scale of the damage that he’s done. rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) Children DonaldTrump Iran MiddleEast Military School War _2372701 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 22:30:15 +0000 Trump's favorite shoe company sues him https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372718/-Trump-goes-toe-to-toe-with-favorite-shoe-company-over-tariffs?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Nothing stings quite as much as your favorite shoes giving you blisters. And in President Donald Trump’s case, that blistering is to the tune of millions of dollars.  Weyco Group, the company behind the president’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/style/fashion/trump-florsheim-shoes-tucker-carlson-jd-vance-bessent-448567ab?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqfXigtZvJ6gJCPifYzYioxVR0glvGmX4jrpZEWzEzaB4KSD_jTKyF395rCEz4k%3D&gaa_ts=69aef1d8&gaa_sig=9yiRvvb7d0hJQtE1rhEpHUTC-P8LgBpg8lBM2rQ3UczV-RzP40tE6n0lxmJD8aMZbNOyrNo7Uq4bLzSgdidMdg%3D%3D" target="_blank">favorite oxfords</a>, is suing the administration for a refund on the money it paid due to Trump’s sweeping tariffs.  “The idea behind the tariffs originally was pro-business, and it feels like somehow the pro-business part of this has gotten lost,” Weyco Group CEO Tom Florsheim<a href="https://baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2026/02/26/wisconsin-tariffs-supreme-court-lawsuit-trump-administration-weyco-group-kohl-s-milwaukee-tool-florsheim-shoes" target="_blank"> told Spectrum News</a>. “You're paying more for the tariff than you were for the shoes." Florsheim told the outlet that his company was originally manufacturing its shoes in China, having to spend millions on tariffs alone. After moving their business to India, Trump's tariffs followed them.  “From a business planning standpoint, it's been almost impossible,” Florsheim said. <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1416840/large/AP25092740404180.jpg?1743788548" title="President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)"> <figcaption>President Donald Trump announces new tariffs last April.</figcaption> </figure> This all seems rather unfortunate for a business beloved by the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/real-time-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-the-first-presidential-debate/fact-check-has-trump-declared-bankruptcy-four-or-six-times/" target="_blank">multi-bankrupted businessman</a>.  Despite Trump’s claims that the cost of his tariffs would be <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/4/2307799/-Trump-insists-on-tariffs-and-we-re-all-going-to-pay-literally" target="_blank">paid by other countries</a>, companies have started <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/6/2371995/-Trump-has-the-power-to-do-anything-except-pay-back-tariffs-apparently" target="_blank">demanding their money back</a> after the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/24/2370118/-Supreme-Court-conservatives-air-their-grievances-in-tariffs-dissent" target="_blank">struck down those tariffs</a>. It’s unclear if the lawsuit will prompt Trump to have a change of heart on his fashion choices.  After all, he has been tossing out boxes of Weyco’s Florsheim oxfords to everyone in his administration, as the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week.  “All the boys have them,” a female White House official told the outlet. Another quipped, “It’s hysterical because everybody’s afraid not to wear them.” Equally as hysterical is a recent photo showing that, despite forcing the shoes on his Cabinet members, Trump didn’t seem to care enough to check shoe sizes.  A photo quickly circulated of Secretary of State Marco Rubio <a href="https://x.com/MilesTaylorUSA/status/2031715054500843699?s=20" target="_blank">sporting a pair of oxfords </a>with a healthy gap between the back of the shoe and his heel.  <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;Yesterday morning: “As such, wearing [Trump’s shoes] becomes a private act of submission (particularly if he’s guessed your size wrong, and you’re forced to walk around with clown shoes).”&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Photo of Marco Rubio surfaces yesterday afternoon: &lt;a href="https://t.co/hISHCqvqSR"&gt;https://t.co/hISHCqvqSR&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://t.co/DQlcHcoMs9"&gt;pic.twitter.com/DQlcHcoMs9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Miles Taylor (@MilesTaylorUSA) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/MilesTaylorUSA/status/2031715054500843699?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;March 11, 2026&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Yesterday morning: “As such, wearing [Trump’s shoes] becomes a private act of submission (particularly if he’s guessed your size wrong, and you’re forced to walk around with clown shoes).” Photo of Marco Rubio surfaces yesterday afternoon: <a href="https://t.co/hISHCqvqSR">https://t.co/hISHCqvqSR</a> <a href="https://t.co/DQlcHcoMs9">pic.twitter.com/DQlcHcoMs9</a>— Miles Taylor (@MilesTaylorUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MilesTaylorUSA/status/2031715054500843699?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2026</a></blockquote> </div> Oddly enough, according to the WSJ, Trump had openly asked for Rubio’s shoe size—reportedly 11.5—before making the purchase.  If anything, Trump might not be the only one in his administration feeling blistered from this lawsuit. rss@dailykos.com (Alix Breeden) DonaldTrump MarcoRubio Shoes Tariffs _2372718 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 21:30:02 +0000 Trump says he can end the Iran war whenever he wants. So why hasn’t he? https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372695/-Trump-says-he-can-end-the-Iran-war-whenever-he-wants-So-why-hasn-t-he?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= In a sign he's clearly worried about the negative <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372351/-Trump-s-war-spikes-gas-prices-and-gets-Iran-a-worse-leader?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_2&pm_medium=web" title="" target="_blank">economic</a> and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/2/2371207/-Trump-s-Iran-conflict-could-sink-the-GOP-in-November?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web#comments" title="" target="_blank">political</a> consequences of the ill-advised <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/5/2371687/-The-peace-president-can-t-stop-starting-wars" target="_blank">war he started</a> in Iran, President Donald Trump on Wednesday called up yet another reporter to insist that everything is going great. He also said that he will end the conflict "soon" because there is "practically nothing left to target." "Little this and that ... Any time I want it to end, it will end," Trump<a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/11/trump-iran-war-end-withdrawal" title="" target="_blank"> told</a> Axios' Barak Ravid in a five-minute phone conversation. Trump's ridiculous claim that he can simply decide when the war against Iran will stop is patently absurd. Iran is not a rational actor. It doesn't care about the suffering of its people, nor about preserving the nonexistent relationships it has with other western nations. So long as it has munitions and the ability to cripple the global economy by <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372385/-Sailing-through-a-war-zone-is-no-big-deal-says-Fox-News" title="" target="_blank">choking off the Strait of Hormuz</a>—a waterway critical to the global oil supply—it has no incentives to stop. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Cartoon by Jack Ohman" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1532742/large/20260305edohc-a.jpg?1772738823" title="Cartoon by Jack Ohman"> <figcaption>“Why did we attack Iran?” by Jack Ohman</figcaption> </figure> Indeed, Iran has every incentive to continue, as the war could <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/10/business/us-economy-war-iran-recession" title="" target="_blank">spark a global recession</a> and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/3/2371455/-Trump-s-Iran-war-gets-cold-reviews-from-MAGA-friendly-influencers?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_6&pm_medium=web" title="" target="_blank">damage Trump politically</a>—which Iranian leaders are surely taking great pleasure from. Iran has said in no uncertain terms that it has no plans to stop its hostilities.  In fact, the country announced on Wednesday that it is shifting its strategy from just retaliatory strikes to "<a href="https://x.com/SkyNews/status/2031702489871818859" title="" target="_blank">continuous strikes</a>." On Wednesday, Iran <a href="https://x.com/OSINTWarfare/status/2031770724281553205" title="" target="_blank">struck a Thai cargo ship</a> that attempted to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, and <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/strikes-hit-oil-storage-facilities-oman-says-maritime-security-firm" title="" target="_blank">bombed oil storage facilities in Oman</a>. Of course, that's exactly why Trump is making these absurd claims that he can just stop this war with the flick of a switch—because he knows this ill-planned "excursion"—which was<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/us/politics/how-trump-miscalculated-iran-response.html" title="" target="_blank"> egged on</a> by the moronic yes-men Trump surrounds himself with—is getting away from him. Already, oil prices are surging, leading to a spike in<a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/" title="" target="_blank"> gasoline prices</a> in the United States. The spike in gas prices will be catastrophic for inflation, as gas prices not only impact the price at the pump but also shipping costs, which trickle down in the form of increased consumer goods prices. What's more, the war is having a negative impact on <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-11/fertilizer-prices-surge-due-to-war-in-iran-odd-lots" target="_blank">fertilizer</a>—a commodity that is not getting as much attention but could be equally damaging to the economy. <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/09/trump-iran-war-strait-hormuz-fertilizer-food-prices/" target="_blank">According</a> to Foreign Policy magazine, 20 to 30% of global fertilizer exports also travel through the Strait of Hormuz, which remains functionally closed. And an overnight dip in fertilizer supply will spike prices for the commodity that farmers rely on for crop yields. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372351/-Trump-s-war-spikes-gas-prices-and-gets-Iran-a-worse-leader" title="" target="_blank">Trump's war spikes gas prices—and gets Iran a worse leader</a> <hr> <div style="text-align:right"> <div class="AlignLeft">“Fertilizer prices were already high, and farmers were already pinched. So this will hurt,” Christopher Barrett, an agricultural economist at Cornell University, told Foreign Policy.</div> </div> On top of all that, taking Trump at his word that he can merely decide when the war ends is a fool’s errand, as he is a notorious and proven <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/4/2371446/-Trump-s-economic-lies-are-catching-up-to-him" title="" target="_blank">liar</a> who says whatever he needs to in order to weasel his way out of sticky situations. He’s even told proven lies about the Iran war. For example, he <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2026/03/without-providing-evidence-trump-pins-school-bombing-on-iran/" target="_blank">said</a> that Iran was responsible for the bombing of a school that killed at least 175 people in their own country—many of them young girls—when in actuality a preliminary U.S. review said the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/us/politics/iran-school-missile-strike.html" title="" target="_blank">American military was responsible</a> as it targeted the school based on faulty intelligence.  Ultimately, Trump squeezed out an entire tube of toothpaste when he launched a war without properly assessing the risk calculus. And that toothpaste cannot be easily put back in the tube. We're in a mess entirely of Trump's making. rss@dailykos.com (Emily Singer) 2026election 2026midterms DonaldTrump Economy GasPrices Inflation Iran IranWar Israel Oil _2372695 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 20:30:17 +0000 Cartoon: Enough's enough https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2371864/-Cartoon-Enough-s-enough?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A cartoon by Mike Luckovich. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/1/2370649/-Sure-it-s-early-but-let-s-talk-about-2028" title="" target="_blank">Sure, it's early, but let's talk about 2028</a> <hr> rss@dailykos.com (Mike Luckovich) Cartoon DonaldTrump Elections MAGA Midterms MikeLuckovich _2371864 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 20:29:14 +0000 Where did all of Trump's library bribes go? https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372696/-Where-did-all-of-Trump-s-library-bribes-go?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Well, well, well. Looks like that sweet, sweet “settlement” money for President Donald Trump’s Presidential Library has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/11/congressional-democrats-trump-library/" title="" target="_blank">gone on a walkabout</a>. No one could possibly have predicted that the most corrupt president in history would do such a thing.  Now Senate Democrats are asking what, exactly, happened to the at least $63 million that Trump extracted from media and technology companies to settle his fake lawsuits against them.  It turns out that the fund set up to receive those millions, the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund, Inc., no longer exists—because of course it doesn’t.  <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is proposing that President Donald Trump's presidential library be built in a parking lot that is currently used by Miami-Dade College staff and faculty and is adjacent to the Freedom Tower, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1481226/large/AP25266577903948.jpg?1758663299" title="Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is proposing that President Donald Trump's presidential library be built in a parking lot that is currently used by Miami-Dade College staff and faculty and is adjacent to the Freedom Tower, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)"> <figcaption>Miami-Dade College’s parking lot, which was used by staff and faculty and is adjacent to the Freedom Tower, was given to President Donald Trump’s library fund for just $10.</figcaption> </figure> The fund was set up in Florida, but state officials dissolved it in September 2025 after it failed to submit a mandatory annual report.  That might seem like nothing but an odd misstep, perhaps an inexperienced person serving as a registrant for the fund who didn’t understand the paperwork requirements. But that argument falls apart when you learn that the registrant was <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2025/10/one-of-trumps-library-funds-has-mysteriously-dissolved-but-a-lack-of-transparency-keeps-the-public-in-the-dark/" target="_blank">Jacob Roth</a>, who was at a little law firm called Dhillon Law Group at the time.  Yes, that’s the firm that was founded by Harmeet Dhillon, who <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/2/2360818/-Check-out-the-latest-contender-for-worst-lawyer-in-Trump-s-crappy-DOJ" target="_blank">now heads</a> the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice—not because she loves civil rights but because she’s an election denier and voter suppression enthusiast.  Roth formed Trump’s presidential inauguration committee fund—which also served as a sterling opportunity for big donors to <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/27/2317898/-Kissing-Trump-s-ass-is-paying-off-big-for-corporate-donors" target="_blank">bribe</a> the president—and has raked in millions over the years that it’s represented Trump and his campaigns.  This is not some babe in the woods who didn’t understand what he was doing. Instead, it looks a lot more like an attempt to avoid filing any paperwork that would have revealed anything about this murky fund, letting Florida dissolve it instead.  <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372416/-Trump-s-latest-grift-targets-America-s-250th-birthday" title="" target="_blank">Trump’s latest grift targets America’s 250th birthday</a> <hr> If that seems like an unduly cynical conclusion, it probably won’t when you learn that not long after the fund was dissolved, a new one called the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc., was created in December 2025. It reported receiving $50 million in contributions, but there’s no confirmation that this is where the faux-settlement money went.  And now, no one’s talking.  The White House says to ask Trump’s library, the foundation’s trustee won’t answer questions, and Roth referred questions to the Dhillon Law Group—a perfect closed circle of nonanswers.  When Trump first started collecting “donations” for his library by suing media companies for bribes, the amounts seemed impossibly large. ABC <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/16/2292198/-ABC-gives-Trump-what-he-wants-and-he-s-not-going-to-stop" title="" target="_blank">gave him</a> $15 million to “settle” his defamation lawsuit in December 2024, which was absolutely staggering at the time. But then there was <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/1/30/2300178/-Meta-s-the-latest-corporation-to-bend-to-Trump-with-25-million-payout" target="_blank">$25 million</a> from Meta, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/musks-x-agrees-to-pay-about-10-million-to-settle-trump-lawsuit-a38348f8?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqdrRrwfbAHAkfTq2NsH-dArDSZ-Q7lXfS4Jx6R4xb1tjXTEkAoMaMoDU8Fu2NA%3D&gaa_ts=69b184fc&gaa_sig=UYX7ISnvrsJBAeXvrO7R5RH0eJP0rZ7Ppbelikv__VfkOx2qdeCurr6TahwXhBgHLepAZJlFh_5yZS0bwnLEhA%3D%3D" title="" target="_blank">another $10 million</a> from X, and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/2/2331305/-CBS-News-disgraces-itself-as-parent-company-bends-to-Trump" target="_blank">$16 million</a> from CBS, and suddenly bribing Trump became routine, just the cost of doing business. But that’s piddly shit. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-left"><img alt="Cartoon by Mike Luckovich" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1432474/large/lk051425dAPR.jpg?1747173812" title="Cartoon by Mike Luckovich"> <figcaption>A cartoon by Mike Luckovich.</figcaption> </figure> The real grift for the library has come in the form of the largesse of the GOP in Florida, exceedingly happy to give the property of their residents away to Trump.  In an elaborate scam, Miami-Dade College <a href="https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/trumps-presidential-library-foundation-owns-planned-miami-site-records/3771428/" title="" target="_blank">gave</a> a state board overseen a downtown Miami parcel valued at more than $66 million for just $10. And the board then gave it to Trump’s library fund for another $10. Yes, $10. Even that pales in comparison to the<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/28/2335640/-Trump-brags-about-transparency-just-don-t-question-his-jumbo-jet-bribe" title="" target="_blank"> $400 million</a> jumbo jet bribe that Trump received from Qatar, which taxpayers get to pay to fix up but Trump gets to keep—also for his library.  Some back-of-the-envelope math here shows that this nonexistent library has already netted Trump a cool half-billion or so, and that’s just in the last 16 months.  He’s got almost three more years of being able to leverage his presidency into making the richest, most craven people give him even more money for a library that’s likely going to be nothing but pictures of Trump and evidence of his myriad bribes and crimes.  rss@dailykos.com (Lisa Needham) bribe Corruption DonaldTrump Florida Grift PresidentialLibrary RonDeSantis _2372696 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:00:15 +0000 Millionaire GOP senator shrugs off soaring gas prices https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372683/-Millionaire-GOP-senator-shrugs-off-soaring-gas-prices?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida appeared on CNN Wednesday and delivered what could end up being the GOP’s <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372663/-Latest-special-elections-bring-more-bad-news-for-GOP" title="" target="_blank">midterm message</a> on <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/15/2358212/-Trump-s-affordability-problem-is-anything-but-a-hoax" target="_blank">affordability</a> and President Donald Trump’s move to create chaos in the global oil market.  “It's fascinating to me that Democrats now talk about gas prices. Under [Barack] Obama and under [Joe] Biden, they tried to destroy the U.S. oil and gas industry,” Scott said. “I think unfortunately prices are going to be up for a while until this ends.”  <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=eKnngxPlSTA" title="" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eKnngxPlSTA" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Rising costs are unlikely to bother Scott, whose fortune is estimated at <a href="https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/net-worth-update-senator-rick-scott-made-estimated-4130k-stock-market-last-month" target="_blank">north of $550 million</a>. Given his history—such as the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/15/2240789/-Rick-Scott-gaslights-voters-about-the-massive-Medicare-fraud-he-oversaw" title="" target="_blank">massive fraud scandal</a> tied to the health care company he once ran—easing the financial burdens facing ordinary Americans seems pretty low on his list of priorities. rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) Economy Florida Gas RickScott Senate _2372683 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 18:00:17 +0000 Conservatives may soon get little say in this swing state's high court https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372602/-The-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court-could-get-even-more-liberal-soon?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Democrats now have a big chance to fortify their power on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. Annette Ziegler, the arch-conservative justice on the swing state’s high court, <a href="https://www.wpr.org/news/annette-ziegler-conservative-wisconsin-supreme-court-chief-justice-retire" target="_blank">announced Monday that she won’t run</a> for her seat in 2027. This comes after conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley announced last year that she wouldn’t run, with the race to replace her just around the corner.  Ziegler is … <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/29/2190313/-The-conservative-meltdown-on-Wisconsin-s-Supreme-Court-just-got-worse" target="_blank">a lot</a>. When the court’s composition flipped to a liberal majority in 2023, she seemed<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/29/2190260/-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court-chief-justice-accuses-liberal-majority-of-staging-a-coup" target="_blank"> genuinely surprised</a> that they could vote internally to do things Ziegler didn’t like, such as replacing the director of state courts.  Ziegler also has the <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/09/conservative-justice-annette-ziegler-wont-run-for-a-new-term-in-2027/89065666007/" target="_blank">distinction</a> of being the only justice in Wisconsin ever to be disciplined by her peers. Apparently, she handled cases as a circuit court judge where her husband was a director for one of the parties, West Bend Savings Bank. Whoopsie. Meanwhile, Bradley <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/29/2340910/-Bid-a-not-so-fond-farewell-to-Wisconsin-s-worst-Supreme-Court-justice" target="_blank">announced</a> her resignation last year, teeing up an <a href="https://www.wicourts.gov/news/thirdbranch/dec25/election.htm" target="_blank">election</a> for her seat on April 7.  <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford waves during her election night party after winning the election Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1415964/large/AP25092103866115.jpg?1743605466" title="Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford waves during her election night party after winning the election Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)"> <figcaption>Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Susan Crawford, a liberal, shown in 2025.</figcaption> </figure> Bradley was wildly unhappy that the partisan balance of the court shifted, which seems to be part of why she stepped down. Her farewell statement complained about how the court had shifted from “principled judicial service toward bitter partisanship, personal attacks, and political gamesmanship.” That’s rich coming from Bradley, who is so partisan that she publicly attacked two liberal candidates about their campaigns in the recent past. For both Ziegler and Bradley, it’s clear that now that conservatives no longer have a stranglehold on the state’s highest court, it’s no fun any longer. Don’t let the door hit you, etc.  Democrats have worked for years to flip the court for two big reasons, both of which inevitably drew national attention—and money.  First, Wisconsin has long been one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. Despite a roughly 50-50 split in statewide voting, Republicans<a href="https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/democrats-ask-wisconsin-supreme-court-to-toss-states-congressional-district-boundaries/" target="_blank"> hold</a> six of the eight House districts. State legislative districts had been drawn to ensure an invincible Republican majority, which<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/25/wisconsin-new-voting-maps-gerrymandering-republicans-democrats" target="_blank"> became clear</a> in 2022, when Democratic Gov. Tony Evers picked up 51.2% of the vote for his reelection, yet Republicans still held 65% of state legislative seats. However, in 2024, new maps approved by the state Supreme Court resulted in<a href="https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/11/wisconsin-election-assembly-senate-democrat-republican-gerrymander/" target="_blank"> Democrats flipping</a> 14 state legislative seats. The second reason Democrats worked hard to get a liberal majority on the court was to <a href="https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/wisconsin-supreme-court-election-spells-win-abortion-rights" target="_blank">provide protection</a> for the right to abortion in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which eliminated the federal right to abortion.  It’s both reassuring and worrying that this year’s race for Bradley’s seat has been<a href="https://isthmus.com/news/news/the-unusually-quiet-race-for-wisconsin-supreme-court/" target="_blank"> relatively quiet</a>. That’s a huge contrast from the April 2025 race between Susan Crawford and Trump-endorsed Brad Schimel. Billionaire Elon Musk poured<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/1/2313977/-Democratic-backed-Susan-Crawford-wins-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court-seat-cementing-liberal-majority?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_4&pm_medium=web" target="_blank"> over $20 million</a> into the race, to no avail. Crawford <a href="https://apnews.com/projects/election-results-2025/wisconsin/" target="_blank">won</a> by 10 percentage points. <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="Janet Protasiewicz speaks after being sworn in as a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1214100/large/AP23213832730227.jpg?1690939915" title="Janet Protasiewicz speaks after being sworn in as a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)"> <figcaption>Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal, shown in 2023.</figcaption> </figure> In 2023, liberal Janet Protasiewicz<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/2/2331320/-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court-reminds-us-all-why-judicial-elections-matter" target="_blank"> obliterated</a> conservative Daniel Kelly by 11 points in the race that flipped the court’s partisan balance. That race saw<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/us/politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-protasiewicz.html" target="_blank"> over $40 million</a> in spending, which at the time made it the most expensive judicial race in American history. The Crawford-Schimel race then leapfrogged that, with<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/2/2331320/-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court-reminds-us-all-why-judicial-elections-matter" target="_blank"> $100 million</a> being spent for a single state Supreme Court seat. Previously, judicial elections in Wisconsin were low key, and to some extent, it’s much better not to have the warped effects of national attention, leading to donors pouring huge sums into the race. The Democrats are relatively confident that the liberal candidate, Chris Taylor, will win, which doesn’t feel like a huge stretch given the shellacking of Schimel and Kelly. If Taylor wins, that will cement the liberal majority at 5-2, with a legitimate possibility of getting to 6-1 in 2027, in the race to fill Ziegler’s seat. A majority like that could mean that the liberals hold the highest court for years and years.  Conservatives made a decades-long project of capturing the federal courts to impose their unpopular agendas on everyone. It’s time Democrats made the same multiyear commitment to state court seats in order to have courts that genuinely reflect the rule of law. rss@dailykos.com (Lisa Needham) AnnetteZiegler RebeccaBradley Wisconsin _2372602 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:00:19 +0000 New Epstein statue aims to take Trump down like the Titanic https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372677/-New-Epstein-statue-aims-to-take-Trump-down-like-the-Titanic?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= An enormous statue depicting President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein recreating the famous king of the world scene from the movie “Titanic” appeared on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. The piece, installed by anonymous artists, shows the convicted<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/24/2370212/-Bombshell-reporting-verifies-missing-FBI-interviews-with-Trump-accuser" target="_blank"> sex offender</a> being embraced at the prow of a ship by Trump. <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-bluesky-content="&lt;blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:aimsrmhagunhtv5bqaslvnjn/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgrqic23vc2c" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreiaggop6572t6pdj5atp5pcwjymvoxxpdjjptpbzvicopkjp6xbtiy" data-bluesky-embed-color-mode="system"&gt;&lt;p lang=""&gt;A satirical statue of Donald Trump and late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein has appeared in Washington DC&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The statue was placed by anonymous artists who also erected one of Trump and Epstein holding hands titled &amp;#39;Best Friends Forever&amp;#39; back in September&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aimsrmhagunhtv5bqaslvnjn/post/3mgrqic23vc2c?ref_src=embed"&gt;[image or embed]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;— The National (&lt;a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aimsrmhagunhtv5bqaslvnjn?ref_src=embed"&gt;@scotnational.bsky.social&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aimsrmhagunhtv5bqaslvnjn/post/3mgrqic23vc2c?ref_src=embed"&gt;March 11, 2026 at 7:05 AM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;"><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:aimsrmhagunhtv5bqaslvnjn/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgrqic23vc2c" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreiaggop6572t6pdj5atp5pcwjymvoxxpdjjptpbzvicopkjp6xbtiy">A satirical statue of Donald Trump and late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein has appeared in Washington DCThe statue was placed by anonymous artists who also erected one of Trump and Epstein holding hands titled 'Best Friends Forever' back in September <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aimsrmhagunhtv5bqaslvnjn/post/3mgrqic23vc2c?ref_src=embed" target="_blank">[image or embed]</a>— The National (<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aimsrmhagunhtv5bqaslvnjn?ref_src=embed" target="_blank">@scotnational.bsky.social</a>) <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aimsrmhagunhtv5bqaslvnjn/post/3mgrqic23vc2c?ref_src=embed" target="_blank">March 11, 2026 at 7:05 AM</a></blockquote></div> A plaque at the base reads: <blockquote>The tragic love story between Jack and Rose was built on luxurious travel, raucous parties, and secret nude sketches. This monument honors the bond between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, a friendship seemingly built on luxurious travel, raucous parties, and secret nude sketches.</blockquote> The same art collective made news in September, when they unveiled a similarly sized statue, called <a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein-statue-removed-dc-1234753489/" target="_blank" title="">“The Secret Handshake</a>,” showing Trump and Epstein holding hands in a comically carefree posture. The new installation joins the growing body of <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/30/2273862/-Sorry-to-report-there-s-a-new-Trump-statue-and-it-s-big-and-naked" target="_blank">protest art depicting Trump</a> and drawing attention to his glaring shortcomings and scandals. rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) Activism Art DonaldTrump JeffreyEpstein Statue Titanic _2372677 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:55:13 +0000 Trump can't brag about 'winning too much' in the courtroom https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372443/-Trump-can-t-brag-about-winning-too-much-in-the-courtroom?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Sometimes it gets overlooked in the across-the-board horrors we’re facing, but it cannot be overstated just how much the Trump administration keeps losing in court.  Sure, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/9/8/2342416/-Supreme-Court-finds-new-way-to-bend-over-backward-for-Trump" title="" target="_blank">running to</a> the Supreme Court to get his way on the shadow docket has proven remarkably successful for President Donald Trump, but that’s because the administration only needs five credulous conservative justices to sign on.  In actual courtroom proceedings, however, things are not going so great.  <hr> <h3>Juries stand strong against the administration’s excesses </h3> Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice has descended into a shoddy, corrupt shadow of its former self, churning out politically motivated indictments whenever Trump feels like it and overcharging defendants simply because it can.  But the regular everyday folks who sit on grand juries and trial court juries have not been willing to participate.  Grand juries clearly have no interest in helping Trump weaponize the DOJ. That’s why they<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/11/2368270/-Jeanine-Pirro-fails-to-get-Trump-critics-indicted" target="_blank"> no-billed</a> U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro in her laughable attempt to indict six Democratic lawmakers for the not-crime of telling military personnel they have a duty to refuse illegal orders.  <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro speaks during a news conference on charges related to the deadly shooting of Israeli Embassy staff during a news conference at the Attorney General's office for the District of Columbia in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1510429/large/AP25219587037217.jpg?1766472683" title="U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro speaks during a news conference on charges related to the deadly shooting of Israeli Embassy staff during a news conference at the Attorney General's office for the District of Columbia in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)"> <figcaption>U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro</figcaption> </figure> Pirro has proven to be a walking, talking repudiation of the old saying that grand juries will <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/9/6/2341815/-Jeanine-Pirro-can-t-indict-a-ham-sandwich-and-Harvard-gets-a-win" target="_blank">indict a ham sandwich</a>. But when it comes to Pirro’s office, grand juries have refused that metaphorical ham sandwich a staggering number of times.  And it’s not just Pirro. Over in the Eastern District of Virginia, not one but two grand juries<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/11/2358028/-Grand-juries-won-t-prop-up-Trump-team-s-dumbassery" title="" target="_blank"> refused to reindict</a> New York Attorney General Letitia James after a court threw out the charges against her, as part of telling <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/6/2371861/-More-bad-news-for-Lindsey-Halligan" title="" target="_blank">Lindsey Halligan</a> she was out of a job.   Regular juries aren’t so fond of the administration’s antics either. When grand juries have refused to indict, which means felony charges can’t be brought, Pirro hit upon the genius idea of trying them on misdemeanor charges anyway.  Remember “sandwich guy” Sean Dunn? A jury somehow didn’t buy the administration’s argument that throwing a wrapped sub sandwich at a Border Patrol agent counted as misdemeanor assault and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/11/6/2352520/--Sandwich-Guy-triumphs-over-ham-fisted-charges" title="" target="_blank">acquitted</a> him. Pirro also <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/8/26/2340311/-Turns-out-this-Fox-News-hack-isn-t-too-good-at-being-a-US-attorney" target="_blank">tried three times</a> to indict Sydney Reid for impeding the transfer of gang members by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, when really what happened is that multiple agents slammed Reid against the wall for filming them with her cellphone.  So Pirro mounted an absurd three-day trial for a misdemeanor charge. The fact that one of the FBI agents who participated in violently restraining Reid got a scrape on her hand did not result in a conviction—surprise, surprise—with the jury taking only about two hours to deliberate.  <hr> <h3>Lower court judges have had it </h3> Just as juries have pushed back against Trump’s misuse of the justice system, lower court judges are no longer tolerating the DOJ’s cavalier attitude toward court orders and rules.  The biggest loss for Trump has to be that both the indictments against James and former FBI Director James Comey <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/11/24/2355372/-Judge-tosses-cases-against-James-Comey-and-Letitia-James" target="_blank">got tossed out</a> at the same time that Halligan did.  <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-left"><img alt="FILE - Lindsey Halligan, outside of the White House, Aug. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1486819/large/AP25282737343571.jpg?1760140158" title="FILE - Lindsey Halligan, outside of the White House, Aug. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)"> <figcaption>Lindsey Halligan</figcaption> </figure> In all seriousness, the administration’s attempt to revive these indictments—either by reindicting Comey and James or by appealing the lower court decision that removed Halligan—is blindingly stupid.  If those indictments come back, so do all of the existing problems: Comey’s <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/30/2351261/-A-major-roadblock-to-Trump-s-legal-victories-Naked-cruelty" target="_blank">motion</a> that he was selectively and vindictively prosecuted, Halligan’s <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/11/2358028/-Grand-juries-won-t-prop-up-Trump-team-s-dumbassery" title="" target="_blank">failure</a> to present the Comey indictment to the full grand jury, and her shady move of hiding an exculpatory witness when indicting James.  Meanwhile, ICE’s misdeeds in Minnesota during the unprecedented and lawless immigration surge has resulted in much of the state’s federal district court bench losing it.  Judges have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/04/politics/property-lost-immigration-crackdown-minnesota-contempt" target="_blank">floated</a> holding DOJ attorneys in criminal contempt. One even <a href="https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-us-attorney-acknowledges-mistakes-that-have-been-made-in-unfulfilled-immigration-court-orders/601592856" target="_blank">hauled to court</a> Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen to explain why the administration defied an order to return property to wrongfully detained immigrants and why that shouldn’t result in contempt.  Another federal judge in Minnesota <a href="https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/lessons-from-the-minnesota-s-civil-contempt-case" target="_blank">issued an order</a> demanding the administration show why it should not be held in contempt for failing to release wrongfully detained people long after a court ruled they had to do so.  <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/7/2371846/-Bad-times-make-for-busy-judges" target="_blank">Bad times make for busy judges</a> <hr> It had to be galling to the DOJ that it was a Trump appointee on the Minnesota bench, Nancy Brasel, who absolutely <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230969/gov.uscourts.mnd.230969.95.0.pdf" target="_blank">excoriated</a> the administration for the claim that it didn’t have to allow immigrant detainees to talk to lawyers because it was just too hard—given how many immigrants ICE had arrested.  “The Constitution does not permit the government to arrest thousands of individuals and then disregard their constitutional rights because it would be too challenging to honor those rights,” Brasel wrote in her ruling. <hr> <h3>Courts won’t let Trump keep his unappointed flunkies </h3> Trump knows full well that many of the unqualified sycophants he wants in key positions could never get past the Senate—even this Senate, where the conservative majority has happily rubber-stamped many of his worst picks. The unappointed U.S. attorneys have gotten it the worst. Courts have ruled that five—count ‘em, five—of these randos are not legally in their jobs.  Halligan is one of those, of course, but we’ve also got <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/10/29/2351044/-Another-of-Trump-s-handpicked-US-attorneys-is-illegal" title="" target="_blank">Bill Essayli</a>, who play-acted as U.S. attorney for the Central District of California; <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/4/2346472/-How-ICE-is-like-the-KKK-and-another-US-attorney-is-dunzo" target="_blank">Sigil Chattah</a>, who Trump installed in Nevada because of her abiding commitment to the lie that he won the 2020 election; and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/17/2363652/-Trump-s-Justice-Department-is-more-lawless-than-ever" title="" target="_blank">Ryan Ellison</a>, who got booted from his post in New Mexico. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Alina Habba, attorney for former president Donald Trump, speaks during a recess at Manhattan criminal court, Monday, April 22, 2024, in New York. Opening statements in Donald Trump's historic hush money trial are set to begin. Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories he thought might hurt his presidential campaign in 2016. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1470111/large/AP24113590781898.jpg?1755814802" title="Alina Habba, attorney for former president Donald Trump, speaks during a recess at Manhattan criminal court, Monday, April 22, 2024, in New York. Opening statements in Donald Trump's historic hush money trial are set to begin. Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories he thought might hurt his presidential campaign in 2016. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool)"> <figcaption>Alina Habba</figcaption> </figure> And the very first to go was Alina Habba, who tried to hang on by appealing her dismissal, only for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/9/2357530/-Unqualified-Trump-stooge-finally-vacates-US-attorney-seat" target="_blank">completely demolish</a> those hopes.  Bondi got the bright idea of replacing Habba with a <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/5/2367246/-Trump-s-latest-US-attorney-pick-is-another-real-winner" target="_blank">triumvirate</a> of attorneys in New Jersey. Apparently, the plan was to divide the power among three people so Trump could skip over the Senate forever.  But in a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.njd.540663/gov.uscourts.njd.540663.317.0_2.pdf" target="_blank">decision</a> that can only be described as furious, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann benchslapped the administration for focusing more on who gets to run the New Jersey office than the actual running of it. He also told the administration that “any further attempts to unlawfully fill the office will result in dismissals of pending cases.”  Just so wannabe U.S. attorneys don’t have all the fun, a court also just <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372365/-No-one-is-illegal-except-for-Kari-Lake" title="" target="_blank">declared</a> that Kari Lake wasn’t legally the head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the parent agency for the Voice of America.  Not only is Lake out, but so are the actions she took to destroy VOA.  <hr> <h3>Trump’s mass firings are illegal and courts know it</h3> Courts keep telling the administration that firing federal workers by the thousands with no real justification is simply not how it works, ordering mass reinstatements to unwind the mass firings.  The Supreme Court did Trump a solid in AFGE v. Trump, where, despite two lower courts blocking mass firings at 20 agencies, those injunctions <a href="https://www.afge.org/publication/supreme-court-intervenes-to-allow-trumps-unlawful-reorganization-of-the-federal-government-to-continue-as-case-proceeds/" target="_blank">were stayed</a> so Trump could proceed with the firings even while litigation was still pending.  But the administration fired so many people—and at so many agencies—that multiple other cases continue.  <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-left"><img alt="lk021226dAPR.jpg" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1526402/large/lk021226dAPR.jpg?1770921762" title="lk021226dAPR.jpg"> <figcaption>A cartoon by Mike Luckovich.</figcaption> </figure> There was the ruling that firing roughly 25,000 probationary workers simply for being probationary workers <a href="https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/09/trumps-mass-probationary-firings-were-illegal-judge-concludes-he-wont-order-re-hirings/408111/" target="_blank">had to be reversed</a>, with the judge calling the material the administration filed to justify the firings a “sham.”  Hundreds of workers from the State Department, Education Department, General Services Administration, and Small Business Administration were illegally fired during the government shutdown, which a federal judge in San Francisco <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/judge-rehire-workers-21249002.php" target="_blank">ordered</a> the administration to undo.  Of course, Trump’s biggest loss was handed to him by the Supreme Court, where he just<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/24/2370118/-Supreme-Court-conservatives-air-their-grievances-in-tariffs-dissent" title="" target="_blank"> couldn’t get</a> five of his pet conservatives to sign onto the idea that he could enforce tariffs purely based on vibes.  Trump seems genuinely surprised that it didn’t go his way. To be fair, that’s somewhat understandable given how many times they’ve let him run free, unfettered by laws or the Constitution.  But as it turns out, even the Supreme Court’s <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/4/2371534/-The-Supreme-Court-s-conservatives-continue-their-lawless-reign" title="" target="_blank">most corrupt justices</a> have their limits on facilitating Trump’s financial chaos.  Trump is going to keep losing, because everyone has had enough of this shit.  rss@dailykos.com (Lisa Needham) AlinaHabba Courts DOJ DonaldTrump JeaninePirro LindseyHalligan PamBondi SupremeCourt _2372443 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:00:03 +0000 Cartoon: Inside Trump's war room https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2371820/-Cartoon-Inside-Trump-s-war-room?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A cartoon by Clay Bennett. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/2/2366862/-Why-Trump-s-raid-on-Georgia-election-site-is-so-chilling" title="" target="_blank">Why Trump's raid on Georgia election site is so chilling</a> <hr> rss@dailykos.com (Clay Bennett) Cartoon ClayBennett DonaldTrump Elections Iran Midterms War _2371820 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 15:59:01 +0000 Latest special elections bring more bad news for GOP https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372663/-Latest-special-elections-bring-more-bad-news-for-GOP?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Democrats on Tuesday notched another round of stunning over-performances in a spate of<a href="https://x.com/ECaliberSeven/status/2031553591517810961" title="" target="_blank"> special elections held around the country</a>—including a victory in a state House seat in New Hampshire that President Donald Trump had won by nine points less than a year and a half ago. The New Hampshire flip—in which Democrat Bobbi Boudman defeated Republican Dale Fincher—is the second state legislative seat Democrats have <a href="https://arkansasadvocate.com/2026/03/09/special-election-offers-arkansas-democrats-hope-after-years-of-struggles-and-setbacks/" title="" target="_blank">flipped</a> in as many weeks. And it brings the total number of seats Democrats have grabbed from the GOP column since Trump's 2024 victory to 10, according to <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JGk1r1VXnxBrAIVHz1C5HTB5jxCO6Zw4QNPivdhyWHw/edit?gid=1173601967#gid=1173601967" target="_blank">data</a> from the Downballot. Republicans, meanwhile, have not won any Democratic-held seats in that time frame. The fact that Democrats are not only over-performing their 2024 margins, but also winning seats Republicans clinched less than two years ago, should be a flashing red warning sign for Republicans heading into the midterms. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., arrives to a news conference on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1499919/large/AP25322523575600.jpg?1763480917" title="Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., arrives to a news conference on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)"> <figcaption>In a special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia, Democrats over-performed by a <a href="https://x.com/SteveKornacki/status/2031562759125586274" target="_blank">17-point margin</a>.</figcaption> </figure> Special election performance is one of the key indicators of how a midterm election will play out. And right now, Democrats are, on average, running 13 points higher than their 2024 margins, according to Downballot data. That's enough to put <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/4/2356660/-Tennessee-is-best-sign-yet-for-Democrats-2026-hopes" title="" target="_blank">dozens</a> of <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/7/2356890/-What-Tennessee-s-special-election-tells-us-about-2026" title="" target="_blank">House seats in play</a> that would in a neutral environment be safe Republican seats. In a special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia, Democrats over-performed by a <a href="https://x.com/SteveKornacki/status/2031562759125586274" title="" target="_blank">17-point margin</a>. While the Democratic nominee there is almost sure to lose in the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/03/10/nx-s1-5742711/georgia-special-election-mtg-trump-fuller-moore" target="_blank">April 7 runoff </a>in this heavily Republican district, a drill down into the results holds bad news for the GOP. In heavily Hispanic areas of Greene’s former district, Democrats improved on their 2024 margins by an <a href="https://x.com/JacobRubashkin/status/2031549571717906524" title="" target="_blank">average of 30 points</a>. It means the Hispanic realignment Republicans were banking on holding from the previous presidential election has completely evaporated. Perhaps that's why the White House told House Republicans during a closed-door briefing at a retreat at Trump's golf club in Doral, Florida, that <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372580/-Trump-team-realizes-immigration-terror-campaign-is-bad-politics?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web" title="" target="_blank">lawmakers need to change their immigration messaging</a>. White House deputy chief of staff James Blair <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/10/white-house-house-republicans-mass-deportations" title="" target="_blank">told</a> Republican lawmakers that instead of focusing on "mass deportation"—which was a <a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2024/09/03/trump-promises-mass-deportations-of-undocumented-people-how-would-that-work/" title="" target="_blank">hallmark of Trump's 2024 campaign</a>—they should instead say that Trump is focused on deporting violent offenders. Of course, that's a lie, as the vast majority of the people being detained in squalid conditions and deported had<a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/5-ice-detainees-have-violent-convictions-73-no-convictions" title="" target="_blank"> no criminal history at all</a>. But given how badly Trump’s <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/18/2369290/-ICE-violence-is-up-over-290-under-Trump" target="_blank">violent</a>, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/2/2370799/-Agents-in-ICE-shootings-made-racist-or-sexist-remarks-records-show" title="" target="_blank">racist</a>, and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/4/2367148/-Top-deportation-thug-deems-killer-ICE-operation-very-effective" title="" target="_blank">deadly</a> immigration enforcement is <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/18/2363282/--Abolish-ICE-hits-record-high-support" title="" target="_blank">polling</a>, the White House feels it has to resort to lies to blunt the coming blowback.  <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372580/-Trump-team-realizes-immigration-terror-campaign-is-bad-politics" title="" target="_blank">Trump team realizes immigration terror campaign is bad politics</a> <hr> Worse still for Republicans is that things aren't likely to improve for them, as Trump's ill-advised and unpopular war in Iran is<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/9/2372351/-Trump-s-war-spikes-gas-prices-and-gets-Iran-a-worse-leader" target="_blank"> spiking oil and gas prices</a> when all Americans wanted was<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372494/-Trump-completely-ignores-what-Americans-care-about" target="_blank"> lower costs</a>.= That spike in prices could<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372526/-What-Wall-Street-is-getting-wrong-about-Trump-s-oil-crisis?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_4&pm_medium=web" title="" target="_blank"> decimate the global economy</a>. And if that happens, it would almost certainly cause the bottom to fall out for Republicans this fall. Ultimately, Republicans are barreling full speed toward <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/16/2363647/-Democrats-are-the-clear-favorites-to-win-the-House" title="" target="_blank">disaster</a> in November. And they deserve all the pain voters are about to make them feel.  rss@dailykos.com (Emily Singer) 2026midterms BobbiBoudin GA-14 GOP Hispanics ICE Immigration MarjorieTaylorGreene MassDeportation NewHampshire SpecialElection _2372663 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 15:00:06 +0000 Trump team realizes immigration terror campaign is bad politics https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372580/-Trump-team-realizes-immigration-terror-campaign-is-bad-politics?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= The Trump administration has reportedly issued a directive to congressional Republicans to stop speaking about “mass deportation.” The edict comes as voters turn away from President Donald Trump and the GOP’s hard-line stance on immigration, traditionally an area that garnered support. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump salutes at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1395908/large/AP24285781176540.jpg?1738886181" title="Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump salutes at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)"> <figcaption>Donald Trump salutes at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center on Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colorado.</figcaption> </figure> <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/10/white-house-house-republicans-mass-deportations" title="" target="_blank">Axios reported</a> on Tuesday that White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair told Republicans attending the party’s annual congressional retreat that they should emphasize plans to remove violent offenders, instead of mass deportation. Axios said Blair’s advisory “reflects growing concern among some Republicans that Democrats are successfully framing Trump's immigration policy as overly sweeping and indiscriminate.” But this isn’t mainly an issue of framing. The administration’s mass deportation efforts via agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/13/2363058/-Abolish-ICE-America-is-warming-to-the-idea" title="" target="_blank"> have a literal death toll</a>. Based on orders from Trump, who has made mass deportation central to the MAGA cause since he became a political figure in 2015, entire communities have been terrorized and harassed, and scores of people kidnapped by masked federal agents.. Pulling back on mass deportation rhetoric is a major admission of ideological defeat for the right. The issue was of such importance to Trump that<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/29/republicans-trump-mass-deportation-immigration" title="" target="_blank"> hundreds of signs</a> pushing for “mass deportation now” were proudly paraded around at the 2024 Republican National Convention, where Trump accepted the party’s nomination. The problems with mass deportation<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/3/2289941/-Republicans-are-going-to-wind-up-regretting-Trump-s-deportation-scheme" title="" target="_blank"> didn’t come out of nowhere</a>. Immigrants play a central role in American life, and with the exception of Native American families, every resident of the United States— including Trump— is a product of immigration. Attacking immigration was always going to backfire, leading to disruption of civic life, commerce, and other key parts of the national identity. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/3/2289941/-Republicans-are-going-to-wind-up-regretting-Trump-s-deportation-scheme" title="" target="_blank">Republicans are going to wind up regretting Trump's deportation scheme</a> <hr> Trump’s mass deportation gambit has<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/13/2363058/-Abolish-ICE-America-is-warming-to-the-idea" title="" target="_blank"> led to police state tactics</a> being exercised in neighborhoods and businesses, with schools, restaurants, churches, family homes, and other sanctuaries turned into a battleground for the execution of a policy grounded in racism. Public polls show a clear erosion in support for Republicans on the issue. For instance, a<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-deportation-operations-divide/" title="" target="_blank"> CBS poll released</a> last Monday shows 56% of respondents calling for a decrease in ICE operations. Additionally, 78% of respondents said ICE agents should not be allowed to ask for proof of citizenship from “anyone they choose.” <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-left"><img alt="A cartoon by Mike Luckovich." class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1526400/large/lk021126dAPR.jpg?1770921400" title="A cartoon by Mike Luckovich."> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/2/26/2370534/-Trump-voters-regret-hits-new-high" title="" target="_blank">Similar polls</a> show that Republican voters who backed Trump in the 2024 election are increasingly feeling regret—something party leaders definitely don't want to hear ahead of this year’s midterm elections. The reality is the new call for message discipline is unlikely to be heeded by the person who matters the most in this equation: Trump. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/25/2370382/-Mainstream-media-sanewashes-Trump-s-racist-lying-State-of-the-Union" title="" target="_blank">In his recent</a> State of the Union address, Trump took great pains to attack the Somali immigrant community living in Minnesota,<a href="https://www.yakimaherald.com/ap/national/trump-calls-somali-community-pirates-prompting-shouts-from-rep-ilhan-omar-during-state-of-the/article_f703da6c-60ef-5b8e-8b5c-34f8e14748be.html" title="" target="_blank"> who he called</a> “pirates” who “ransacked” the state. After he was rebuked during the speech by Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who represents the state in the House,<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-state-of-the-union-ilhan-omar-rashida-tlaib-immigration-congress-rcna260667" title="" target="_blank"> Trump wrote</a>, “we should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible.” Expecting Trump to hold his tongue on immigration for a day, let alone several months, seems like a fool’s errand. And voters clearly already know where he and his party stand. Republicans are<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/10/2372494/-Trump-completely-ignores-what-Americans-care-about" title="" target="_blank"> barreling toward</a> electoral rebuke. A mandate to bite their tongues is very unlikely to help them prevent a disaster at the polls. rss@dailykos.com (Oliver Willis) 2026election DepartmentofHomelandSecurity DonaldTrump GOP ICE Immigration MassDeportation RepublicanParty _2372580 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:10 +0000 6 years ago, Trump imposed a travel ban as COVID erupted https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2371987/-6-years-ago-Trump-imposed-a-travel-ban-as-COVID-erupted?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= On March 11, 2020, after weeks of <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/1/1923179/-CDC-reports-potentially-significant-outbreak-of-COVID-19-as-cases-reported-coast-to-coast" target="_blank">gaslighting Americans</a>, ignoring <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/6/1917226/-One-of-the-doctors-who-brought-novel-coronavirus-to-world-attention-has-died-as-cases-top-28-000" target="_blank">expert advice</a>, and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/11/1926420/-As-coronavirus-infections-soar-past-1-000-cases-Donald-Trump-tells-America-It-will-go-away" target="_blank">telling</a> Americans “it will go away,” President Donald Trump announced a 30-day travel ban from Europe as the World Health Organization <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7569573/" target="_blank">officially declared</a> COVID-19 a pandemic.   <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=xrPZBTNjX_o" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xrPZBTNjX_o" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic was <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/3/25/2022819/-Experts-estimate-that-Trump-s-handling-of-COVID-19-pandemic-cost-400-000-American-lives" target="_blank">deadly</a>, made even deadlier by <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/8/1935458/-Report-warned-White-House-of-a-catastrophic-outbreak-in-China-weeks-before-anyone-else-knew" target="_blank">ignoring</a> every early warning sign and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/8/1935508/-America-last-Rep-Porter-has-receipts-showing-Trump-chose-a-quick-buck-over-American-lives" target="_blank">exporting</a> medical supplies—choosing a quick profit over saving Americans’ lives. To date, more than <a href="https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths" target="_blank">1.2 million Americans have died</a> from COVID-19. rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) Coronavirus DonaldTrump Health Pandemic Vaccines WorldHealthOrganization _2371987 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 13:30:23 +0000 Credit bureaus are leaving more mistakes on frustrated consumers’ reports under Trump’s CFPB https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372503/-Credit-bureaus-are-leaving-more-mistakes-on-frustrated-consumers-reports-under-Trump-s-CFPB?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= TransUnion and Experian, two of the three major credit bureaus, have started dismissing a larger share of consumer complaints without help since the Trump administration began dismantling the CFPB. <div>By <a href="https://www.propublica.org/people/joel-jacobs" target="_blank">Joel Jacobs</a> for <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/credit-report-mistakes-cfpb-experian-transunion" target="_blank">ProPublica</a> <hr>Rebecca Sheppard specializes in untangling other people’s financial messes. But for nearly a year, the Colorado accountant has been unable to fix a glaring error on her own credit report. Her credit score plunged roughly 85 points because of a $240,000 student loan debt she does not owe. She repeatedly asked the nation’s big three credit reporting companies to correct the mistake, submitting documentation showing the debt belonged to her ex-husband. Even the loan’s account manager confirmed she wasn’t responsible. Still, the credit bureaus refused to remove it, jeopardizing her plans to move with her disabled father into a more accessible home. “There’s no way in the world I could qualify for the purchase,” she said. Sheppard should have been able to count on the federal government to pressure the credit bureaus to take her dispute seriously. For years, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wielded the threat of fines and lawsuits to make companies fix errors and engage with consumers. Under the Biden administration, a rigorous supporter of the agency, consumers’ rates of relief for such complaints rose to about 10 times as high as in 2020. But Sheppard needed help under the Trump administration, which has drastically curtailed the CFPB’s mission, including its policing of credit bureaus. With the agency weakened, two of the three major credit bureaus, TransUnion and Experian, have sharply reduced the share of consumer complaints they resolved in customers’ favor, according to a ProPublica analysis of federal complaint data. <div> TransUnion’s relief rate, which had remained relatively steady for several years, began plunging in the summer of 2025. By October it was providing relief roughly half as often. <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="Screenshot2026-03-10at10.23.23AM.png" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534008/large/Screenshot2026-03-10at10.23.23AM.png?1773163414" title="Screenshot2026-03-10at10.23.23AM.png"> <figcaption>Note: Credit reporting agencies can close complaints in customers’ favor by providing financial or nonmonetary relief, such as changing information on a credit report. Otherwise, complaints are generally closed with an explanation. Complaints are shown in the month the CFPB received the complaint. Companies have up to 60 days to provide a final response. Data as of Feb. 23, 2026. Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.</figcaption> </figure> </div> Experian’s drop was even more dramatic. The company resolved nearly 20% of complaints in consumers’ favor in 2024. Last year, that figure fell to less than 1%. <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="Screenshot2026-03-10at10.24.25AM.png" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534009/large/Screenshot2026-03-10at10.24.25AM.png?1773163478" title="Screenshot2026-03-10at10.24.25AM.png"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> </div> The third major bureau, Equifax, did not show a similar decline. Just days before President Donald Trump was inaugurated, the company entered into a consent order with the CFPB over deficient dispute and investigation practices. Under the agreement, the company committed to reforms and ongoing oversight. Equifax’s consumer relief mostly kept up with complaints. <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="Screenshot2026-03-10at10.26.03AM.png" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534010/large/Screenshot2026-03-10at10.26.03AM.png?1773163565" title="Screenshot2026-03-10at10.26.03AM.png"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> </div> The timing of the drops at TransUnion and Experian coincides with the Trump administration’s dismantling of the CFPB. In February 2025, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/russ-vought-trump-shadow-president-omb" target="_blank">Russell Vought, a White House official who oversaw sweeping cuts across federal agencies</a>, took control of the CFPB as acting director. He quickly ordered a stop to  nearly all agency work. Under his leadership, the CFPB has attempted to fire most of its staff, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-cfpb-investigation-capital-one-rocket-meta-carvana-greenlight" target="_blank">frozen investigations</a> and dropped enforcement actions, including against TransUnion. One of the CFPB’s new lawyers leading the pullback on enforcement represented Experian for years before joining the administration. The credit bureaus “want to do as little as possible,” said Chi Chi Wu, director of consumer reporting at the National Consumer Law Center, which is a plaintiff in a lawsuit that has so far blocked some of the administration’s dismantling efforts. “The thing that is making them do any kind of effort is a lawsuit or a regulator, and now we don’t have the regulator,” Wu said. In statements to ProPublica, the credit bureaus said that many complaints are illegitimate, including a large volume filed by credit repair organizations that charge customers to challenge negative information on their reports. Experian said in a statement that some of those companies “mislead consumers into believing they can remove accurate information,” adding that it investigates “all legitimate” complaints. The company did not respond to specific questions about its decline in relief. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/11/2337101/-These-GOP-lawmakers-referred-constituents-to-the-CFPB-for-help-Then-they-voted-to-gut-the-agency" target="_blank">These GOP lawmakers referred constituents to the CFPB for help. Then they voted to gut the agency.</a> <hr> Third parties are allowed to submit complaints on behalf of consumers if they disclose their involvement and get permission. Federal regulators have acknowledged that bad actors exist, but the CFPB and a <a href="https://coronavirus-democrats-oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/clyburn-cfpb-chopra-equifax-experian-transunion" target="_blank">House subcommittee</a> found that the credit bureaus’ systems for identifying third-party involvement were overly broad and dismissed legitimate concerns. Asked about the decline in relief, TransUnion said it recently changed its processes to handle third-party complaints and now redirects those with insufficient documentation to “a more appropriate” internal channel for review. For years, the CFPB’s <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/cfpb-budget-cuts-gop-darrell-issa-john-cornyn" target="_blank">complaint system</a> has served as a public middleman: forwarding consumer issues to the bureaus, requiring responses and publishing data showing how companies handled them. But the companies have <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/comment/CFPB-2025-0041-0012" target="_blank">successfully</a> <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/comment/CFPB-2025-0042-0003" target="_blank">lobbied</a> the Trump administration to start steering some consumers away from the transparent process and toward their internal systems. A CFPB spokesperson said the complaint system was inundated with submissions from bots and third-party credit repair firms, and the agency was working to address that so legitimate consumers can more effectively get help. The agency did not respond to written questions about the decline in relief or enforcement. How many consumers get help — or don’t — when using the credit bureaus’ internal systems is not public. But CFPB data shows that since Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, more than 2.7 million credit reporting complaints submitted to the CFPB have gone without relief, leaving some people at risk of being denied loans, housing or employment and subject to higher rates from insurers and lenders. One anonymized complaint came from a Texan who said a fraudulent account remained on their credit report despite their disputes. “I have an important deal that I need to complete that is important for the safety and survival of my family,” the person wrote. CFPB records show that Equifax provided relief, while TransUnion and Experian did not. Also among those who complained was an Air Force veteran and elections organizer in Arkansas who said the bureaus refused to restore his erroneously deleted mortgage history. ProPublica interviewed the man, Kwami Abdul-Bey, who said the error left him unable to refinance his home or car even after going to multiple lenders. “Each time they tell me that I do not have enough years of credit. I was paying on that mortgage for a decade before that trade line disappeared,” he said. After ProPublica contacted his mortgage servicer, Wells Fargo, the company reached out to Abdul-Bey to apologize for his situation and said it would investigate. <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/16/2333526/-Employees-at-the-nation-s-consumer-financial-watchdog-say-it-s-become-toothless-under-Trump" target="_blank">Employees at the nation's consumer financial watchdog say it's become toothless under Trump</a> <hr> Equifax and Experian did not reply to questions about individual consumers who filed complaints. TransUnion declined to comment on individual situations but said in a statement that the company “has multiple resources available to consumers to help with every step of the dispute process.” Everyday Americans cannot opt out of having their financial data collected and sold by credit bureaus. Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act in 1970, giving consumers the right to flag errors. But more recently, the credit bureaus have employed a limited number of workers — often overseas — to handle enormous volumes of investigations. TransUnion, for example, <a href="https://coronavirus-democrats-oversight.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/coronavirus-democrats-oversight.house.gov/files/2022.10.13%20Clyburn%20to%20CFPB%20re%20Credit%20Reporting.pdf" target="_blank">had 171 workers</a> responding to consumer disputes covering 38 million line items in 2021. A TransUnion spokesperson said in an email that the company has since added staffing but would not provide a number. “These ‘investigators,’ they have a stack of disputes like a mile high that they have to go through every day,” said Liam Hayden, a Chicago attorney who has represented consumers in credit reporting cases. “A real, authentic investigation costs money.” After the 2008 financial crisis, Congress created the CFPB to protect Americans from unfair and abusive practices. By 2015, the big three credit bureaus had become the most complained about firms in the agency’s complaint system. <div> <h3>Credit Reporting Complaints About the Three Major Credit Bureaus Have Surged in Recent Years</h3> Complaints about Equifax, TransUnion and Experian vastly outnumber all other complaints, for matters such as credit cards, loans or debt collection. <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="Screenshot2026-03-10at10.27.57AM.png" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534011/large/Screenshot2026-03-10at10.27.57AM.png?1773163679" title="Screenshot2026-03-10at10.27.57AM.png"> <figcaption>Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.</figcaption> </figure> </div> In 2022, identifying a lack of responsiveness by the credit bureaus to consumer issues, the CFPB released a <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-releases-report-detailing-consumer-complaint-response-deficiencies-of-the-big-three-credit-bureaus/" target="_blank">critical report</a>, <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-issues-guidance-to-address-shoddy-investigation-practices-by-consumer-reporting-companies/" target="_blank">alongside guidance</a> on how the companies should address “shoddy investigation practices.” Over the next few years, relief rates rose as the companies provided more individualized responses to complaints filed through the agency. Announcements on the CFPB’s website show the agency has brought a dozen enforcement actions against consumer reporting companies since 2015. Just days before Trump took office, the CFPB announced an enforcement action against Equifax. <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-orders-equifax-to-pay-15-million-for-improper-investigations-of-credit-reporting-errors/" target="_blank">The company settled</a>, agreeing to pay $15 million and operate under a legally binding consent order designed to fix its dispute process. Among the reforms, the company agreed to improve its web interface for submitting disputes, avoid relying on faulty information from creditors and not automatically dismiss repeated concerns from the same consumer. The agreement did not specifically mention the company’s handling of CFPB complaints. Equifax was given about a year to put many of the changes in place and has to remain compliant for five years after. ProPublica found that the agency had approved a similar action against TransUnion in July 2024, but it was never brought. Settlement talks ended shortly after the change in administration. “Given recent changes in CFPB leadership, our engagement with the agency on this matter has paused,” TransUnion wrote in a February 2025 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. “We cannot provide an estimate of when, or if, such engagement will resume.” That month, the CFPB <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-cfpb-drops-enforcement-action-against-trans-union-2025-02-28/" target="_blank">dropped a lawsuit</a> against TransUnion and a former company executive over alleged deceptive practices. <a href="https://newsroom.transunion.com/transunion-responds-to-litigation-filed-by-cfpb/" target="_blank">TransUnion denied</a> the allegations, calling them “meritless.” The CFPB later <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-ftc-take-actions-against-transunion-illegal-rental-background-check-and-credit-reporting-practices/" target="_blank">ended an agreement</a> meant to fix the company’s failure to promptly place and remove credit freezes. The <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69521914/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-v-experian-information-solutions/" target="_blank">CFPB sued Experian</a> shortly before the administration changed, <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-sues-experian-for-sham-investigations-of-credit-report-errors/" target="_blank">alleging failures</a> in its dispute handling processes. Experian has denied the allegations in court, <a href="https://www.experian.com/blogs/news/2025/01/07/experian-response-to-cfpb-lawsuit/" target="_blank">called the suit</a> “completely without merit” and said the company investigates “every consumer dispute thoroughly.” <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="Cartoon about the Trump administration shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1397429/large/cfdb915.png?1739294151" title="Cartoon about the Trump administration shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> The Experian case remains active. A CFPB spokesperson said that Victoria Dorfman, the new senior legal adviser who previously represented Experian, has recused herself from the case. In a July public comment letter, <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/comment/CFPB-2025-0027-0007" target="_blank">Experian argued</a> it should not be required to respond to individual CFPB complaints and that the vast majority of those filed recently are illegitimate. The industry’s lobbying arm, the Consumer Data Industry Association, has urged the CFPB to route more consumers away from the complaint system and make the remaining complaints private. This year, just a week after receiving a letter from the lobbying group, the CFPB added three notices for consumers to click through before filing a public complaint, warning them that their requests might be ignored if they have not already disputed issues directly with credit bureaus — a standard the agency <a href="https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_fcra-611-e_report_2022-01.pdf" target="_blank">previously</a> <a href="https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_fcra-611-e_report_2023-01.pdf" target="_blank">said</a> companies cannot reliably verify. In a statement to ProPublica, the CDIA highlighted that a notice instructing consumers to first dispute directly had been present in the CFPB complaint portal briefly around 2012. The new changes are “necessary to address the widespread misuse of the portal” that divert resources away from legitimate concerns, the group said. <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="Rebecca Sheppard poses for a portrait at her home in Parker, Colo. on Feb. 28, 2026." src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534042/large/cfpb-rebecca-sheppard-stroomer-030.jpg?1773174114" title="Rebecca Sheppard poses for a portrait at her home in Parker, Colo. on Feb. 28, 2026."> <figcaption>Rebecca Sheppard poses for a portrait at her home in Parker, Colo. on Feb. 28.</figcaption> </figure> </div> But <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/comment/CFPB-2026-0005-0017" target="_blank">consumer advocates contend</a> that the industry-friendly changes present even more obstacles for consumers like Sheppard who are trying to get their issues resolved. She twice disputed the student loan error directly with the bureaus. Then in June, she turned to the CFPB. All three responded that they had verified that the debt was hers without addressing documentation she provided to the contrary. In December, she sent another dispute by certified mail, but TransUnion replied with a postcard stating it believed the submission had not come from her. <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="2026-cfpb-transunion-postcard.jpeg" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1534012/large/2026-cfpb-transunion-postcard.jpeg?1773163749" title="2026-cfpb-transunion-postcard.jpeg"> <figcaption>In response to Sheppard’s fourth attempt to get TransUnion to fix an error on her credit report, the company sent her a postcard saying that it did not believe the request came from her. </figcaption> </figure> </div> “They didn’t even try,” Sheppard said. “The fact that they sent that little postcard was just ridiculous.” TransUnion did not provide a response regarding Sheppard’s situation but said in a statement that it “cannot change information furnished to us absent sufficient documentation and clear instruction from the consumer.” In her mailed dispute, Sheppard included a letter she received from the loan account manager stating that she was not responsible for the debt. With no other options, Sheppard sued the three credit bureaus in January. The companies have not yet responded in court. Without a functioning CFPB, enforcement may fall to state attorneys general and private lawsuits. The Federal Trade Commission can bring cases but lacks the authority to conduct routine supervision. A future without a CFPB will leave consumers increasingly trapped, said Hayden, the Chicago attorney. “In five years, the resolution of consumer disputes is going to be worse, credit reports are going to be worse and it’s going to be harder for folks to fix them, guaranteed.” </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (ProPublica) CFPB consumerprotections Finance _2372503 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 13:00:16 +0000 Cartoon: Insult bloat https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/11/2372542/-Cartoon-Insult-bloat?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Follow me on <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/jensorensen.bsky.social" target="_blank">Bluesky</a> or <a href="http://mastodon.social/@jensorensen" target="_blank" title="">Mastodon</a> <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/2/2371217/-No-stupid-rules-of-engagement-Hegseth-is-high-on-Iran-bloodshed" target="_blank">'No stupid rules of engagement': Hegseth is high on Iran bloodshed</a> <hr> rss@dailykos.com (Jen Sorensen) Cartoon Framing Iran Language War _2372542 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 12:30:02 +0000 What Wall Street is getting wrong about Trump’s oil crisis https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/10/2372526/-What-Wall-Street-is-getting-wrong-about-Trump-s-oil-crisis?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Wall Street has had its head in the sand through the entirety of President Donald Trump's second term, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/08/economy/us-stock-market" title="" target="_blank">whistling past</a> the graveyard as Trump's tariffs <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/11/2368260/-Yup-2025-really-was-a-horrific-year-for-jobs" target="_blank">throttled</a> the job market and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/consumers-inflation-economy-4cf2b9b627cc3ad1bbf6c31f77d27a02" title="" target="_blank">kept</a> inflation above the Federal Reserve's 2% benchmark. And Trump’s <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/9/2372351/-Trump-s-war-spikes-gas-prices-and-gets-Iran-a-worse-leader" title="" target="_blank">war in Iran</a> is no exception, as traders have taken his word that it “is very complete,” even as other members of his own administration <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372500/-Trump-and-Hegseth-on-radically-different-timelines-for-Iran-war?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_2&pm_medium=web" title="" target="_blank">say the opposite</a>.  Oil commodities <a href="https://www.investors.com/news/oil-prices-100-barrel-iran-war-excursion/" target="_blank">have fallen</a> and the stock market has risen, as Wall Street believes that Trump’s Iran “excursion” is short lived. But the problem is, Trump's word means nothing. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="A thick plume of smoke rises from an oil storage facility hit by a U.S.-Israeli strike late Saturday in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1533818/large/AP26067414454574.jpg?1773080524" title="A thick plume of smoke rises from an oil storage facility hit by a U.S.-Israeli strike late Saturday in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)"> <figcaption>A thick plume of smoke rises from an oil storage facility hit by a U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, on March 8.</figcaption> </figure> Unlike with <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/3/2325723/-New-steel-tariffs-are-coming-unless-TACO-Don-caves-again" target="_blank">tariffs</a>, Trump cannot <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/28/2324720/-Wall-Street-has-a-hilarious-new-way-of-mocking-chicken-Trump" title="" target="_blank">TACO</a> a war.  Iran has to agree to a ceasefire, and right now there <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/9/2372385/-Sailing-through-a-war-zone-is-no-big-deal-says-Fox-News" target="_blank">are no indications</a> that it will do that nor <a href="https://x.com/JoshYoung/status/2031391014594744349" title="" target="_blank">let marine traffic resume</a> in the critical <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-10/hormuz-tracker-strait-shut-to-almost-all-non-iran-linked-ships" target="_blank">Strait of Hormuz</a>, which is used to transport much of the world's oil. Indeed, a spokesperson for Iran’s armed forces said Monday that it won’t let even “one liter” of oil go to any U.S. or Israeli ally while the U.S. and Israel continue the war. "We are the ones who will determine the end of the war," they <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/iran-says-oil-blockade-will-continue-until-attacks-end-trump-threatens-hit-2026-03-10/" target="_blank">told</a> Reuters. In fact, oil experts are sounding doomsday alarm bells, saying that choking off the Strait has caused refineries to fill, necessitating stoppages in drilling that are not easy to resume on the drop of a dime. “While we have faced disruptions in the past, this one by far is the biggest crisis the region’s oil and gas industry has faced,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/10/aramco-warns-oil-market-catastrophe-strait-of-hormuz" target="_blank">said</a> Amin Nasser, president and CEO of the world's largest oil company, Aramco. Among the disruptions is the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/fire-hits-site-housing-abu-dhabi-national-oil-company-operations-after-drone-2026-03-10/?taid=69b03c8ae4ff75000164ba8a&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter" target="_blank">shuttering</a> of the United Arab Emirates’ largest oil refinery after a drone strike on Tuesday. Iraq has also had to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-10/iraq-oil-output-cut-further-as-baghdad-pushes-for-kirkuk-restart" title="" target="_blank">cut back</a> its production by a whopping 1.2 million barrels a day. Overall, the UAE, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait have <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-10/middle-east-oil-output-cuts-deepen-as-ships-stay-clear-of-hormuz?taid=69afcd39e4ff75000164b67d&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter" target="_blank">lowered</a> oil output by as much as 6.7 million barrels per day. That’s <a href="https://x.com/Ross__Hendricks/status/2031360267037086067" title="" target="_blank">6% of the world’s oil supply</a>.  <hr> Related | <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372429/-Trump-crony-blames-oil-crisis-on-Biden-because-of-course-he-does" target="_blank" title="">Trump crony blames oil crisis on Biden—because of course he does</a> <hr> Podcaster Joe Weisenthal spoke with oil market researcher Rory Johnston, who Weisenthal <a href="https://x.com/TheStalwart/status/2031304577337700474" title="" target="_blank">describes</a> as "one of the least alarmist people in oil.” Johnston <a href="https://x.com/Rory_Johnston/status/2031391923869512052" title="" target="_blank">said</a> that he is now "acutely alarmed." "This is the scenario you would propose as a thought experiment to understand how shocks like this would ripple through the global crude and refined products markets (spoiler: EVERYTHING BREAKS)," Johnston <a href="https://x.com/Rory_Johnston/status/2031391923869512052" target="_blank">wrote on X</a>. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-left"><img alt="Fuel prices are shown on a gas pump at a filling station in Richardson, Texas, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1533775/large/AP26065842470535.jpg?1773068658" title="Fuel prices are shown on a gas pump at a filling station in Richardson, Texas, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)"> <figcaption>Fuel prices are shown on a gas pump in Richardson, Texas on March 6.</figcaption> </figure> Worse still is that Johnston said it's not a problem that can be solved with the flip of a switch. "This crisis will continue to get worse until normal traffic through the Strait resumes, and, at this stage, even if the conflict ended today and tankers ramped back up to 100% Hormuz flow, it would still takes months to return to anything resembling normality," he <a href="https://x.com/Rory_Johnston/status/2031392133056229878" target="_blank">wrote</a>. Johnston said that Wall Street’s underreaction to this crisis could actually make things worse, as Trump faces less pressure to end the war without a stock market decline. "This isn’t over and the current market reaction, by reducing pressure on Trump, is only elongating the duration of the crisis and the physical disruption through the Strait of Hormuz," Johnston <a href="https://x.com/Rory_Johnston/status/2031383636759511139" title="" target="_blank">wrote on X</a>. Even with oil prices falling based on vibes, oil prices are still far higher than they were before Trump launched his ill-advised war. Bloomberg reported that, at current prices, any tax return relief Americans are expected to pocket would go right back to pay for the increase in gas prices Trump. So far, gas prices <a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/" title="" target="_blank">have risen</a> an average of 60 cents per gallon from a month ago. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Cartoon by Drew Sheneman" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1532429/large/20260304edshe-b.jpg?1772645140" title="Cartoon by Drew Sheneman"> <figcaption>A cartoon by Drew Sheneman.</figcaption> </figure> "We estimate that the oil breakeven price for the [One Big, Beautiful Bill] Act’s tax refunds is $83 per barrel. If oil exceeds that—currently the case—higher gasoline prices would more than drown out the gains from refunds," Bloomberg TV anchor Joumanna Nasr Bercetche <a href="https://x.com/JoumannaTV/status/2031214529494077517" title="" target="_blank">wrote on X</a>. "At $110 per barrel, annual household costs jump by $1,960." So why isn't Wall Street taking this seriously? Perhaps it’s because many Wall Street bros have supported Trump, and now they don't want to admit that he's a disaster who could take down the global economy. But at the end of the day, there's only so long that they can deny reality. Hopefully Trump’s war ends before it's too late. rss@dailykos.com (Emily Singer) DonaldTrump Economy Gas Iran Oil StockMarket WallStreet War _2372526 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:01:25 +0000 The Recap: FBI pursues 2020 election lie, and Trump team remains clueless on Iran war https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/10/2372519/-The-Recap-FBI-pursues-2020-election-lie-and-Trump-team-remains-clueless-on-Iran-war?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372494/-Trump-completely-ignores-what-Americans-care-about?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03102026" title="" target="_blank">Trump completely ignores what Americans care about</a> The only thing on Trump’s mind is Trump. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372009/-RFK-Jr-s-war-on-sugar-turns-sour?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03102026" title="" target="_blank">RFK Jr.’s war on sugar turns sour</a> You’re not going to believe this, but donut shops use a lot of sugar. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372500/-Trump-and-Hegseth-on-radically-different-timelines-for-Iran-war?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03102026" title="" target="_blank">Trump and Hegseth on radically different timelines for Iran war</a> Just what you want during wartime. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372529/-Why-is-The-New-York-Times-so-weird-about-Mamdani?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03102026" title="" target="_blank">Why is The New York Times so weird about Mamdani?</a> Unfortunately, this is not a deviation from the paper’s norm. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2371825/-Cartoon-Why-did-we-attack-Iran?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03102026" title="" target="_blank">Cartoon: Why did we attack Iran?</a> Beats Trump! <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372499/-FBI-goes-all-in-on-2020-election-conspiracy-in-Arizona?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03102026" title="" target="_blank">FBI goes all-in on 2020 election conspiracy in Arizona</a> A super normal, democratic thing to do. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372516/-White-House-laser-focused-on-what-matters-Cars-go-vroom?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03102026" title="" target="_blank">White House laser-focused on what matters: Cars go vroom</a> Nothing voters need more right now than a high-speed car race. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/blog/Comics?pm_source=ICYMI&pm_campaign=ICYMI03102026" target="_blank" title="">Click here to see more cartoons.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos Staff) Arizona DonaldTrump Elections FederalBureauofInvestigation Iran RFKJr TheRecap War ZohranMamdani _2372519 Tue, 10 Mar 2026 18:42:09 +0000 Cartoon: Kitty on the Moon (apol. to Gil-Scott Heron) https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/10/2372380/-Cartoon-Kitty-on-the-Moon-apol-to-Gil-Scott-Heron?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Now more than ever, we modern-day court jesters need your support!  Become a paid subscriber to any (or all!) of the platforms below to keep Keef gentleman-cartooning into the future and beyond! <a href="http://www.patreon.com/keefknight" target="_blank">www.patreon.com/keefknight</a> <a href="https://keithknight.substack.com/" target="_blank" title="">keithknight.substack.com</a> <a href="https://ko-fi.com/keithknight" target="_blank">ko-fi.com/…</a> <a href="https://kchronicles.com/subscribe-orig.html" target="_blank" title="">kchronicles.com/...</a> rss@dailykos.com (keefknight) Comics _2372380 Tue, 10 Mar 2026 23:59:03 +0000 Trump’s propaganda princess gets busy spinning Iran war https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/10/2372563/-Trump-s-propaganda-princess-gets-busy-spinning-Iran-war?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held a whirlwind press briefing on Tuesday, where she lied and deflected when asked about President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372517/-You-know-the-Iran-war-is-bad-when-Rand-Paul-starts-to-make-sense?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_2&pm_medium=web" target="_blank">unpopular Iran war</a>. When asked about a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/many-150-us-troops-wounded-so-far-iran-war-sources-say-2026-03-10/" target="_blank">Reuters report</a> that around 150 U.S. troops have been wounded since the start of the war, Leavitt refused to confirm the number, saying that “it's within that ballpark.”  <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=2o0eGoSXj2o" title="" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2o0eGoSXj2o" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Similarly, when pressed on Trump’s <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/10/2372517/-You-know-the-Iran-war-is-bad-when-Rand-Paul-starts-to-make-sense" target="_blank">dubious motivations</a> for launching the war, Leavitt suggested that it’s merely vibes-based.  “This was a feeling the president had based on facts,” she said. “Facts provided to him by his top negotiators who had been engaged with the Iranian regime in a good faith effort.” <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=h-sTS-I83yc" title="" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h-sTS-I83yc" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> And she was even less receptive to questions about the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/world/middleeast/iran-minab-school-strike.html" title="" target="_blank">bombing of a girls’ school</a> in Minab, Iran, that reportedly killed 168 children. When asked about the administration’s <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/4/2371621/-Death-and-destruction-Hegseth-can-t-contain-his-bloodlust" target="_blank">so-called investigation</a> into the potential war crime, Leavitt snapped. “We’re not gonna be harassed by The New York Times,” she retorted. <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-bluesky-content="&lt;blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgq42ryawm2m" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreihdrbesz5l3gmprqx5jtfsdins4hadda4ojwwaofn43llyzwtlvle"&gt;&lt;p lang="en"&gt;&amp;#34;We&amp;#39;re not gonna be harassed by the New York Times who have put out a lot of articles on this&amp;#34; -- Leavitt sneers at the New York Times for reporting on what by all accounts seems to have been a US strike that killed scores of elementary school students in Iran&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; &lt;a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc?ref_src=embed"&gt;Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3mgq42ryawm2m?ref_src=embed"&gt;2026-03-10T19:27:10.766Z&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;"><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgq42ryawm2m" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreihdrbesz5l3gmprqx5jtfsdins4hadda4ojwwaofn43llyzwtlvle">"We're not gonna be harassed by the New York Times who have put out a lot of articles on this" -- Leavitt sneers at the New York Times for reporting on what by all accounts seems to have been a US strike that killed scores of elementary school students in Iran— <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc?ref_src=embed" target="_blank">Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3mgq42ryawm2m?ref_src=embed" target="_blank">2026-03-10T19:27:10.766Z</a></blockquote></div> Then when asked about Trump’s decision to bail out his buddy <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/6/2371939/-Trump-s-buddy-Putin-is-helping-Iran-kill-Americans" title="" target="_blank">President Vladimir Putin</a> by easing sanctions on Russian oil, Leavitt dismissed it as no big deal.  “Russian oil was already at sea,” Leavitt said. “So this short term measure—we don't believe it will provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government at this time.” <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=pSQdyvf04rE" title="" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pSQdyvf04rE" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> According to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/world/middleeast/iran-war-putin-russia-energy-oil-prices.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, the decision to lift sanctions—as oil prices skyrocket—comes in the nick of time for Moscow. The only positive is Leavitt didn’t <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/9/2357624/-Here-s-how-Trump-s-propaganda-princess-is-blaming-Joe-Biden-now" target="_blank">blame former President Joe Biden</a> for Trump’s war. rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) DonaldTrump Iran KarolineLeavitt Oil Propaganda Russia War _2372563 Tue, 10 Mar 2026 23:30:02 +0000 The merit-based administration strikes again https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/10/2372571/-The-merit-based-administration-strikes-again?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= America, meet your new super-qualified member of the <a href="https://www.usafa.edu/about/bov/" title="" target="_blank">Air Force Academy Board of Visitors</a>. Is it someone with military experience? Nope. Maybe some post-secondary education experience? Wrong again.  It’s <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/10/trump-appoints-erika-kirk-air-force-academy-board-charlie/89081470007/" title="" target="_blank">Erika Kirk</a>, silly! Taking over the seat that her late husband Charlie Kirk <a href="https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2026-03-10/erika-kirk-air-force-academy-21016996.html" title="" target="_blank">held for about five months</a> before he was killed, Kirk will be tasked with making recommendations about the academy to the Defense Department and the president. <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Erika Kirk speaks during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2025, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1530139/large/AP25354077280993.jpg?1771969538" title="Erika Kirk speaks during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2025, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)"> <figcaption>Erika Kirk speaks during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest on Dec. 19, 2025.</figcaption> </figure> You can tell that the administration is really proud of this by the fact that neither the board nor President Donald Trump announced her appointment. Instead, her name just randomly appeared on the board’s website.  Kirk has no relevant experience, so much so that even a White House spokesperson could only muster up that she would be “a fearless advocate for the most elite airpower force in the history of the world.” Does … does the White House understand that this board exists to help the Air Force Academy better educate <a href="https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/united-states-air-force-academy-1369/student-life" title="" target="_blank">more than 4,000 cadets</a>, not demand more planes or whatever? It’s ridiculous that we have to pretend that Kirk is qualified to join the board, which <a href="https://www.usafa.edu/app/uploads/10-U.S.C.-9455.pdf" target="_blank">works</a> to “inquire into the morale, discipline, and social climate, the curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods, and other matters relating to the Academy that the Board decides to consider.”  It’s also a slap in the face to the military, even as Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/9/2372397/-Trump-couldn-t-care-less-about-the-troops?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web" title="" target="_blank">pretend</a> they’re the most pro-military folks ever. Kirk’s <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/how-erika-kirk-charlie-kirks-widow-and-turning-point-usas-ceo-rose-to-power?srsltid=AfmBOooB3NwO_H2ufq3bImB0h1RWNfC8yQ_bnB71zFCnnwy-2XNtOMYH" title="" target="_blank">experience</a> consists mostly of being a beauty queen and founding a “Bible-based streetwear brand,” whatever that means. Her LinkedIn profile lists her past roles as a real estate agent, model, and casting director.  She’s also ostensibly studying for a doctorate in biblical studies at Liberty University, which must be tough to manage with all of her flashy public appearances, where her <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@foxnews/video/7585373071662402847" target="_blank">entrances</a> are nothing but <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@slayatknight/video/7596450090600910111" title="" target="_blank">content</a> for TikTok.  The one thing Kirk is likely to do is follow in the footsteps of her late husband—who <a href="https://www.usafa.edu/app/uploads/Minutes-USAFA-BoV-Committee-Meeting-07-Aug-25_Signed.pdf" title="" target="_blank">demanded</a> to know how the Academy “doesn’t push the worldview of oppression, oppressor/oppressed dynamics, anti-western, anti-American, and gender ideology”—and harass staff about following Trump’s executive orders banning diversity, equity, and inclusion.  <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-left"><img alt="FILE - President Donald Trump is joined on stage with Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk as he finishes speaking at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, July 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1477091/large/AP25254627694768.jpg?1757613506" title="FILE - President Donald Trump is joined on stage with Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk as he finishes speaking at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, July 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)"> <figcaption>President Donald Trump is joined on stage with Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk after delivering a speech in July 2019.</figcaption> </figure> Though she no doubt thinks that she was put in this role based on merit, Kirk is actually the DEI hire here.  No, not actual DEI, but the DEI that is at the heart of this administration—where unqualified yahoos are stuffed in key roles not because they’re qualified but because they’re willing to show fealty to Trump.  Trump’s Cabinet is <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/16/2328346/-In-the-Trump-administration-merit-based-hiring-really-means-lying" target="_blank">littered</a> with these people. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. not only has no experience that qualifies him for his job but is also an unhinged antivaxxer. And Hegseth’s main qualifications are being a bone-deep racist and having no qualms about unfettered violence.   Dearly <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/5/2371788/-Kristi-Noem-commits-Trump-s-one-unforgivable-sin" target="_blank">departed</a> Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also had no experience that made her fit for the job, save for a willingness to shamelessly lie about the actions of her immigration goons. Her likely <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/5/2371788/-Kristi-Noem-commits-Trump-s-one-unforgivable-sin" title="" target="_blank">replacement</a>, Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, also has no relevant experience, unless you count his <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/05/did-markwayne-mullin-serve-in-the-military-see-dhs-appointees-history/89003389007/" title="" target="_blank">appearance</a> on Fox News, where he pretended he’s been to war. (He hasn’t.) But these meritless hires aren’t limited to high-ranking, well-known members of the administration. Trump put one of his <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/17/2369205/-Trump-appoints-unqualified-kiss-ass-to-grease-his-grifty-ballroom" target="_blank">former receptionists</a> on the Commission of Fine Arts despite having no experience in the arts or architecture or anything really. But it’s pretty helpful to have that sort of DEI hire on a board that will <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/20/2369579/-Lackey-packed-committee-approves-Trump-s-hideous-ballroom" target="_blank">approve</a> his big dumb ballroom.  And we can’t overlook the<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/2/18/2369227/-The-Trump-regime-s-most-laughable-lies-about-its-lamest-lackeys" target="_blank"> considerable number</a> of temporary U.S. attorney appointments that courts have ruled illegal. That situation has arisen because Trump is committed to stuffing his former personal attorneys and Big Lie believers into those roles.  <figure class="image-captioned width-xl align-right"><img alt="Cartoon by Clay Jones" class="width-xl" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1392325/large/CjonesRGB01292025.jpg?1738100637" title="Cartoon by Clay Jones"> <figcaption>A cartoon by Clay Jones.</figcaption> </figure> Or how about <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/6/6/2326163/-Meet-the-22-year-old-leading-Trump-s-terrorism-prevention-hub" title="" target="_blank">Thomas Fugate</a>, the 22-year-old whose job experience consisted of working on Trump’s campaigns, interning at the Heritage Foundation, and—according to his LinkedIn—serving as secretary general of a Model United Nations club. He now oversees terrorism prevention, which should definitely make you feel very safe.  We also endured random DOGE babies who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/arts/humanities-endowment-doge-trump.html" target="_blank">used ChatGPT</a> to kill thousands of grants that the chatbot found to include any sort of “DEI.” There’s no merit here. It’s a full-fledged affirmative action program for people who couldn’t get a job in the real world. They’re all objectively unqualified for the jobs they have, and they only got them because they share Trump’s worldview. The administration may pretend that these people were hired based on merit, but we don’t have to join in. And when Democrats get back in power, it will be a delight to clean house.  rss@dailykos.com (Lisa Needham) AirForce CharlieKirk DonaldTrump ErikaKirk Military peteHegseth _2372571 Tue, 10 Mar 2026 23:00:05 +0000 Watch GOP senator get owned after trying gotcha question https://www.dailykos.com/story/2026/3/10/2372531/-Watch-GOP-senator-get-owned-after-trying-gotcha-question?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Republican Sen. John Kennedy tried to paint a hearing witness as a wide-eyed leftist, despite the fact that the witness works at a libertarian think tank. It did not go well. During a <a href="https://www.budget.senate.gov/hearings/postponed-sanctuary-cities-the-cost-of-undermining-law-and-order" target="_blank">hearing</a> on sanctuary cities, Kennedy questioned witness David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, about a series of posts Bier made on Bluesky, including <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/davidjbier.bsky.social/post/3mbdcv4kvds2o" title="" target="_blank">one</a> where he described the Department of Homeland Security’s <a href="https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2006472108222853298?s=20" title="" target="_blank">deportation goals</a> as being “ethnic cleansing.” “Did I read that correctly?” Kennedy asked, after quoting Bier’s Bluesky post. “That was in regard to a Department of Homeland Security post about advocating 100 million deportations,” Bier replied. “A hundred million deportations would be ethnic cleansing. You would be removing one-third of the country.” “You don't think this is hyperbolic?” Kennedy pressed. “I think advocating 100 million deportations is ethnic cleansing,” Bier answered.  It didn’t get any better for Kennedy after that. <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content"><a class="new_iframe_placeholder" href="#">x</a></div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=uRDjFv88IF8" title="" data-frameborder="0" data-height="281" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uRDjFv88IF8" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> </div> Trying to regain footing, Kennedy attacked <a href="https://x.com/David_J_Bier/status/2028499991476510975" target="_blank">an X post</a> from Bier, which said that federal judges ruling against President Donald Trump’s purge of immigrants were “much braver” than masked goons from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  “They are much braver,” Bier said. “They put their names on their rulings, and they stand behind their constitutional rulings. When I talk about population purge, I’m talking about the fact that they’re trying to deport U.S.-born citizens. … It’s not a mass deportation agenda. It is also an agenda intended to reduce the population of the United States, including U.S.-born people.” At that point, the hearing’s chair, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, stepped in to stop the bleeding. rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) Committee DavidBier Deportation Fascism Immigration JohnKennedy Sanctuarycities _2372531 Tue, 10 Mar 2026 22:30:04 +0000