Progressive search for action

24+ min ago (298+ words) President Donald Trump praised Matt Van Epps" electoral victory late Tuesday as Republicans held on to a deep-red Tennessee House seat and fended off progressive state lawmaker Aftyn Behn, whom the president fumed "hates Christianity" during the race. Van Epps, a former Army helicopter pilot, secured Tennessee"s 7th District with barely 54% of the vote, defeating Behn in a district Trump carried by 22 points just last year. The win increases Republicans" House majority to 220 seats, though that number shrinks again when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) leaves in January. Trump immediately seized on the result, hailing the victory as "another great night for the Republican Party!!!": Van Epps reciprocated the praise in his victory speech: "President Trump was all-in with us. That made the difference. In Congress, I"ll be all-in with him." Meanwhile, Democrats are hardly discouraged by the narrow…...

37+ min ago (127+ words) Marco Rubio and Donald Trump Today's Office Hours discussion question is particularly difficult to answer. After more than 10 months of this catastrophic Trump regime, who has emerged as the worst person in it, other than Trump himself? There are so many candidates for this distinction that's it been hard to narrow down the finalists, but I've done the best I can to identify the most dangerous. All have caused extensive damage. This isn't to excuse Trump, of course. He appointed them and continues to support them. His rantings and ravings have encouraged them. Which of them in your view is the worst of the worst? Hence, today's Office Hours question: Who in the Trump regime is the worst of the worst?...

44+ min ago (584+ words) Peter Thiel speaking at an event in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's called Palantir Technologies, a Silicon Valley tech company that may put your most basic freedoms at risk. Palantir gets its name from a device used in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, in which a "palantir" is a seeing stone " something like a crystal ball " that can be used to spy on people and distort the truth. During the War of the Ring, a palantir falls under the control of the evil Sauron, who uses it to manipulate and deceive. Palantir " co-founded by far-right billionaire Peter Thiel and its current CEO Alex Karp " bears a striking similarity. It sells AI-based data platforms that let their clients, including governments, militaries, and law enforcement agencies, quickly process and analyze massive amounts of your personal data. Whether it's social media profiles, bank account…...

1+ hour, 20+ min ago (1574+ words) Elected officials are quick to support public lands ranchers who are accused of breaking rules. As a result, federal agencies pull punches when enforcing regulations. After repeated calls, texts and letters, the Forest Service sent the ranchers a "notice of noncompliance," according to documents obtained via public records requests. The agency asserted that the ranchers had engaged in "a willful and intentional violation" of their permit and warned that future violations could lead to its revocation. The ranchers were hardly the largest or most politically influential among those who graze livestock on public lands. But they soon had help from well-placed people as they pushed back, hoping to get the warning rescinded based on their belief that they had been treated unfairly. "The Forest Service needs to work with us and understand that grazing on the Forest is not black…...

1+ hour, 48+ min ago (489+ words) " The First Sunday of Advent, when the Candle of Hope is lit in faith communities and churches. " The parol-making with artist couple facilitators, Bert Monterona and Mylene Maranoc, at St. Mary the Virgin South Hill Church in Vancouver, BC. " The rally at the GL Metrotown Skytrain Station against corruption in the Philippines. The First Sunday of Advent The Reverend Expedito Farinas, aka Apo Expie, in his twelfth year as St. Mary the Virgin South" Hill Church's pastor, led the lighting of the Candle of Hope with the children and adult congregants. This church has been a witness to the congregants' experience of a sense of community beyond age, color, culture, education, race, or social status. Reverend Expie's church remains open to many migrant communities, especially Filipinos who find comfort in The Reverend's homilies that speak to their struggles and strengths....

1+ hour, 54+ min ago (242+ words) A journalist who has written four books about President Donald Trump revealed on Tuesday that the president is exhibiting behavior that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein warned about years ago. Michael Wolff, who has described himself as a "Trump chronicler," discussed Trump's use of the presidential pardon power on a new episode of "Inside Trump's Head," a podcast he co-hosts with Joana Coles of The Daily Beast. Wolff said that Epstein warned Trump would use the pardon power in a "childlike" way, and some of Trump's recent pardons seem to indicate. Multiple pardons Trump has issued during his second term have raised concerns among legal analysts. Most recently, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of Binance, who was convicted of money laundering and forced to pay a more than $4 billion fine. Trump also pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hern'ndez,…...

2+ hour, 11+ min ago (286+ words) A political analyst has suggested there could be a draft of "resignations and retirements" in the GOP following the close race in Tennessee. "I think you're going to see another two or three resignations or retirements, I should say, maybe even a resignation of House members because if she's going to overperform by 17 points with all the deployment of all the money, all the Trump, most Congress people are not going to get that much attention in their midterm races." "You've got a lot of people who are going to be like, 'I don't want to spend the next year fundraising or running against somebody in the primary who's going to be a pain, then running in the general election." "And even if I win, which means I have to overperform what I did in the 2024 election by 10, 15 points, I'm…...

2+ hour, 31+ min ago (418+ words) A doctor has said the reason Donald Trump gave for receiving an MRI scan in October is "not plausible". Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who served as the cardiologist of former Vice President Dick Cheney for more than 30 years, said the White House report for Trump's MRI and the claim it was preventive is "not plausible". Speaking with CNN last night, Dr. Reiner shared that there is no MRI scan that can be part of "routine, preventive care" as Trump had claimed. "The president's doctor didn't even disclose what kind of scan. The president said MRI, all that the president's physician said was advanced imaging. Did he have an MRI? Did he have a CT? Did he have both?" "And what he didn't say is whether the president had a scan of his brain. He didn't say he didn't, he just included…...

2+ hour, 42+ min ago (335+ words) Donald Trump's niece, Mary Trump, has suggested the economy is in such a bad state under the president's administration it's "dragging" businesses down. Her claim comes as Costco file a lawsuit against the Trump administration, seeking a refund on tariffs. Costco's lawsuit urges the federal trade court to declare Trump's 'emergency' tariffs illegal, an authority the president says he has under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Mary Trump has since suggested the state of the economy under Trump's administration goes against his election campaign promise to "boost American businesses". She said, "Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald promised to boost American businesses, but he was lying. Shock. Instead, Donald's policies are dragging American companies down, so much so that a number of them are taking him to court." Trump's "reciprocal tariffs" levy billions of dollars in taxes on Americans…...

3+ hour, 33+ min ago (306+ words) A Newsmax legal analyst delivered a sharp and stunning rebuke of the Trump administration this week, telling viewers of the right-wing network that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and anyone else involved in a controversial, deadly boat strike ought to be "prosecuted for a war crime." Hegseth has faced intense scrutiny and criticism following a report that he ordered an unlawful no-survivors strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean. Legal experts and ex-military lawyers have said such an order would constitute a war crime if the reports are accurate. Newsmax's judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano delivered a sobering assessment to viewers on the show National Report. "It gives me no pleasure to say what I'm about to say because I worked with Pete Hegseth for seven or eight years at Fox News. This is an act of a war crime,…...