Progressive search for action

7+ min ago (106+ words) Never Trump conservative George Will examines Sorkin's book in his December 17 column for the Washington Post, adding some of his own insights on the state of the Trump-era economy. Will adds that although the New York Times "did not rank the crash the top story of 1929," a "lost decade followed." "Sorkin and the hornets can debate the causation," Will comments. "Now, about today." Will goes on to note The Economist's warnings about the U.S. economy in an article published on November 15, drawing parallels between their analysis and Sorkin's. George Will's full Washington Post column is available at this link (subscription required)....

8+ min ago (488+ words) U.S. President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 17, 2025. Doug Mills/Pool via REUTERS President Donald Trump's Wednesday speech went over like a lead balloon, according to CNN's Stephen Collinson. "Donald Trump put a dark new spin on the tradition of national presidential addresses Wednesday, conjuring a hellscape of a 'dead' nation he claims he was handed by former President Joe Biden," Collinson wrote. CNN's Stephen Collinson called Trump's speech the "nightmare before Christmas." "His goal was obvious " to distract from his own political slump," wrote Collinson. It isn't unusual for the president to deliver a speech or give a press conference before the holiday break, but this was something different, according to Collinson. When presidents ask for time to make big announcements, it's usually something significant, like…...

19+ min ago (449+ words) The MAGA faithful are steering the US towards a "nihilistic" tone after accepting Donald Trump's recent statements, a Nobel Prize winner has warned. Award-winning economist Paul Krugman suggested the approval which some had for Trump's statement on the death of film director Rob Reiner is a sign of a vicious turn in the US. Writing in his Substack, Krugman says he was both shocked but not surprised to see Trump's comment on the death of Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner. Krugman wrote, "It wasn't news to me that the president of the United States is a vicious shmuck." What did surprise Krugman, though, is how quickly the president's statement was accepted by his most ardent supporters. Trump has gone beyond what was expected of him when it comes to hateful rhetoric, Krugman claimed. He wrote, "Now, Trump is…...

22+ min ago (694+ words) Evan Turnage (D), who is 33 years old, announced that he would challenge 77-year old Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) in a primary, a decision that sets up yet another battle between a senior incumbent and a younger opponent, Mississippi Today reports. Said Turnage: "This is the poorest district in the poorest state in the country. It was that way when I was 1-year old, when Congressman Thompson was first elected, and it remains that way today. We need real plans for real change." President Trump's media company Trump Media & Technology agreed to merge with fusion power company TAE Technologies in an all-stock deal worth more than $6 billion, the Wall Street Journal" Jimmy Carter's presidency is often remembered for a single speech. In 1979, facing an energy crisis, Carter went on national television to talk about more than gas lines and oil" "Those members…...

27+ min ago (153+ words) Trump's primetime address to the Nation attempted to assure Americans that everything is getting better. Trump's primetime address to the Nation attempted to assure Americans that everything is getting better. Posted by retort at 08:28 AM | 0 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry | Read the Retort using RSS. The Republican propaganda that Trump "inherited" a bad economy from Biden and is making it better is the exact opposite of true. The numbers don't lie and people know what they are experiencing.image or embed Admin's note: Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be filtered. Abusive conduct is not allowed. The following HTML tags are allowed in comments: a href, b, i, p, br, ul, ol, li and blockquote. Others will be stripped out. Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be…...

27+ min ago (618+ words) MS NOW's Morning Joe crew mocked President Donald Trump's "crazy" holiday speech claims on the economy as "out of touch," and warned voters would instead "believe" what they were seeing with their "eyes" and feeling in "their wallets" on Thursday. Trump addressed the nation on Wednesday night in a televised speech from the White House's Diplomatic Reception Room to attack former President Joe Biden as the cause of high prices and economic distress while touting his accomplishments over the past year, claiming his administration had already reversed the country's economic fortunes. On Thursday morning, the Morning Joe crew rounded on the speech as they accused the president of pushing "one exaggeration after another" that they claimed would not fool anyone. Host Joe Scarborough began: "When you say in some places in America you go and gas is $1.50 a gallon or…...

32+ min ago (799+ words) WASHINGTON " Even as Democrats accuse the Trump administration of misleading Congress in the wake of the president's announcement of an oil tanker blockade on Venezuela, Republicans are dismissing Democrats' " and some Republicans' " fears. At the Capitol on Wednesday, one senior GOP senator went so far as to mock Democrats for speaking up. "Poor babies," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told Raw Story. Asked if he had been surprised by Trump's announcement on Tuesday night, as senior Democrats complain they were, Cornyn said: "Not really. "I mean [Venezuelan oil] is the lifeline for Iran and to some extent, for China, and an outlet for Russia to continue to be able to sell oil and finance its war machine against Ukraine. So I think it's not a surprise from that standpoint." Cornyn is a member of the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees....

39+ min ago (349+ words) (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool) There is a long-standing, mostly respected convention in American television: when all the major networks cut away from regular programming to carry a president live, something important is about to happen. A national tragedy. A military strike. A resignation. Occasionally, history. What viewers got Wednesday night was none of those things. Instead, it was a campaign rally speech delivered from the White House, carried live on every major network, with no news to report. It was a president arguing not with political opponents, but with observable reality itself. The anger was impossible to miss. Trump spent much of the address shouting, hectoring, insisting. Another conservative commentator, Andrew Donaldson, described the speech as "rushing and angry," and said it "reeked of fear." Fear is not how incumbents typically project strength. That detail…...

48+ min ago (180+ words) The decision by House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) to allow special counsel Jack Smith to testify in only in private will come back to haunt Republicans, and things could get worse. That is the opinion of "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough as he went on an extensive rant on Thursday morning, where he accused GOP lawmakers of being "scared to death" of what Smith would reveal to the public. On Wednesday, Smith spoke behind closed doors, where he told lawmakers he had evidence of the president's criminality. That led to the MS NOW host's tirade. "It seems to me Republicans in the House should be smart enough to understand that they don't want to catch this runaway truck, because if the dog catches the truck, that is bad news for the Republicans," Scarborough exclaimed. "It's bad news for Donald…...

55+ min ago (940+ words) San Francisco has long held within its foggy embrace a remarkable sense of queer activism and creative energy. The city holds the complexities of sexuality and freedom of expression " an island of misfit toys that don't neatly fit into any boxes. It is a city of innovators and trailblazers who have set out west for their own treasure. San Francisco has rebuilt itself time and time again, recovering from massive fires, earthquakes, tech takeovers, and most recently, a global pandemic. This queer-as-fuck city is rebuilding and reinvigorating its queer art scene all over again. People are hungry for it. Those of us who have been here for a few decades remember the '90s and early aughts when art spilled out into the street, when music filled every corridor, house parties adorned the rooftops, and impromptu punk shows took place outside of…...