Progressive search for action

6+ hour, 3+ min ago (366+ words) President Donald Trump's son-in-law likely broke the law this week, one analyst wrote Wednesday. Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow on Tuesday to participate in high-stakes foreign policy negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin over a potential peace deal with Ukraine. The U.S. delegation consisted of Kushner, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and an interpreter. "Kushner's participation in the Moscow meeting " and the similar role he played in the Gaza negotiations " likely violates the law," wrote Judd Legum for Popular Information. As a representative of the Trump administration, he technically qualifies as a Special Government Employee " a designation that requires specific legal guidelines. However, "Trump has not named Kushner an SGE," noted Legum, even though a 1977 Department of Justice opinion suggests that performing governmental functions under presidential direction can constitute an official capacity. "Here, Kushner is engaged in activities that can only be…...

6+ hour, 24+ min ago (227+ words) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's recent interview with Aaron Ross Sorkin raised red flags for a pair of analysts on Wednesday. Sorkin interviewed Bessent at The New York Times' DealBook Summit, an annual gathering of business leaders, where the Treasury secretary made a series of questionable claims, according to Jonathan V. Last and Tim Miller of The Bulwark. Among them: Bessent's defense of Trump's appearance at Tuesday's cabinet meeting " where he appeared to fall asleep " and suggestion that he doesn't read the news. Miller described the interview as a "performance act" during a new episode of "Bulwark Takes." He pointed to Bessent's repeated attacks against the media. Last also warned that Bessent's suggestion that he doesn't read the news was revealing for all of the wrong reasons. Miller wondered if Bessent would be trustworthy enough to guide the economy out of a…...

6+ hour, 44+ min ago (311+ words) Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) faced criticism for a proposal to limit where food stamp recipients can purchase meals. The Iowa Republican, who is not seeking re-election, told Fox Business that she would introduce a bill to prevent SNAP recipients from using their government assistance to buy fast food. "I have a McSCUSE ME Act which would disallow those SNAP benefits being used at fast food restaurants," Ernst said. "We want to make sure that those hungry families, those food insecure families actually are receiving benefits, but we want them to really use those dollars on nutrient-rich foods." The measure's name seems to have come from a catchphrase uttered by a woman in a viral video who complained that a McDonald's employee mocked her weight when she asked about $1 deal on a McRib sandwich. "McScuse me, b----?" the woman says in the…...

6+ hour, 53+ min ago (326+ words) Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday called on Attorney General Pam Bondi for an urgent sit-down over unreleased information related to Jeffrey Epstein's files. A letter sent to the attorney general on Wednesday told Bondi she had until Friday to give "new information" that the administration cited as the reason for a new investigation on the late financier and convicted sex offender, and "could hinder the full release of the files," The Daily Beast reported. Democrats Ro Khanna, Ben Ray Lujan and Jeff Merkley joined with Republicans Thomas Massie and Lisa Murkowski to demand she respond to her previous statements and give a status update from Nov. 19, after she said "new" and "additional" information had surfaced to prompt a latest look into Epstein and the people connected to him, NBC News reported. "In the interest of transparency and clarity on…...

7+ hour, 40+ min ago (224+ words) A day after President Donald Trump went viral after falling asleep during a cabinet meeting following an all-night Truth Social posting binge, some Republican loyalists spent Wednesday trying to spin the narrative to say that Trump is nothing short of the Energizer Bunny and the picture of perfect health. That effusiveness raised the eyebrows of several, including NewsNation contributor Chris Cillizza, who quipped on X, "This is very reminiscent of Joe Biden's senior staff saying 'this guy never stops working!' sort of stuff in 2023/2024." "Law & Order" star Chris Meloni chimed in on X, saying, "He runs around the golf course " Woman man camera TV. " 4 dimensional chess." "Roger Marshall is a doctor. Yet, he shamelessly lies about Trump's stamina. Either he's a really bad doctor [and] he should lose his license or he's a gutless liar," wrote another anti-MAGA account on…...

7+ hour, 49+ min ago (643+ words) WASHINGTON " President Donald Trump pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), a conservative Democratic congressman facing bribery, money laundering and conspiracy charges, out of disinterested concern for the politicization of the Department of Justice under Joe Biden, Republican senator Ted Cruz claimed on Wednesday. "The Constitution gives the pardon power exclusively to the President," Cruz told Raw Story at the Capitol, when asked about the Cuellar pardon, which Trump announced on social media. "It's his decision how to exercise it." Raw Story asked if Cruz was worried, given the seriousness of the charges against Cuellar, that the Trump White House was nonetheless setting "a bad example for politicians writ large?" "The Biden Department of Justice, sadly, was weaponized and politicized," Cruz said. "And I think President Trump is rightly concerned about the politicization of the Department of Justice." Trump made the same…...

8+ hour, 9+ min ago (260+ words) Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro accused former vice president Kamala Harris of telling "blatant lies" about him in her new book. The Democratic governor spoke to The Atlantic's Tim Alberta about the vetting process he underwent as Harris considered who to choose as her running mate during the 2024 presidential campaign, and the Washington Post reported that the typically composed Shapiro appeared to lose his cool over some claims in her post-campaign memoir "107 Days." Alberta wrote that Shapiro sounded exasperated by suggestions that he had tanked his interview for the job. "I did ask a bunch of questions," he said, according to Alberta. "Wouldn't you ask questions if someone was talking to you about forming a partnership and working together?" Harris also wrote that Shapiro had asked her residence manager how many bedrooms were in the Naval Observatory, where vice presidents live,…...

8+ hour, 29+ min ago (151+ words) Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Forget your mother's tube of Revlon. Lipstick today is as messy'and fascinating'as changing attitudes towards femininity. Mining the experience of women across culture, class, and generation, this book tosses out expired ideas about beauty and power like so many tubes of melted wax. Who wears lipstick today? For those who do, is it out of loyalty to a strict feminine standard? Or some other reason entirely? From MAC to Glossier, from Marilyn to Chappell Roan, lipstick is as shape-shifting and elusive as femininity itself. Unpacking the history of feminism's anti-lipstick sentiments, debunking long-standing fallacies, and digging into how Gen Z is using lipstick to explode gender norms, Lipstick explores how self-adornment can be a source of play, pleasure, and transformation View all books…...

9+ hour, 7+ min ago (452+ words) Sometimes it doesn't seem like two things are connected. But deep down you know they are. You try to grasp the correlation, but it's elusive.I think I've found the answer. Why can't we, the United States, regularlyblow up fishermenoff the coast of Venezuela " without a judge, jury, or relevant jurisdiction " without49% of American childrenlanguishing in or near poverty?? Why can't we sendtens of billions of dollarsto helpIsrael commit genocidewhile also having affordable housing for Americans?Rather than the monthly mortgage paymenton a typical home doublingsince January 2020? Why can't we turn Syria into a failed stateled by a former Al Qaeda chiefwithout also spending over$13,000 per child per yearon childcare?! Why can't we spend over$1 trillion a year on our Department of War & Deathwithout27% of American adultsreporting they've gone without medical care this year because they can't afford it?(We all at…...

9+ hour, 12+ min ago (193+ words) Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) spoke out in Congress on Wednesday to demand change on what he sees as a pressing issue facing Americans: burdensome federal regulations on the water flow of showers. "Nobody likes weak showerheads. Really, nobody likes weak showerheads," said Fry. "Weak showers are for sad motels and gyms built in the 1970s. If we wanted a gentle mist as our shower, we would just stand in front of a humidifier. That's why I introduced the SHOWER Act. Because no one wants to be waterboarded by a trickle at 6 a.m. in the morning." Trump himself has made the current state of showers in America a constant gripe, often bringing it up unprompted in long, meandering speeches at rallies or other functions. "I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair," Trump said to reporters when…...