Progressive search for action

5+ min ago (250+ words) Conservative legal commentator Andy McCarthy torpedoed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's response to the blockbuster report which stated the secretary ordered the killing of everyone on board a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean in September. In a scathing National Review column published late Saturday, McCarthy " who also serves as a Fox News contributor " made clear that he believes the events, as laid out in the Washington Post report, are patently illegal. The Post reported that a second strike was ordered to take out two survivors who were clinging for life to the damaged ship. McCarthy said that giving the administration the benefit of the doubt wouldn't change his view of that reported second strike. "Even if you buy the untenable claim that they are combatants, it is a war crime to intentionally kill combatants who have been rendered unable to…...

21+ min ago (326+ words) Like Fox News' Sean Hannity, CNN's Scott Jennings often draws scathing criticism and mockery from Donald Trump opponents for stridently defending the president at every turn. Much of the criticism comes from Democrats, yet right-wing Never Trumpers have major disagreements with Jennings as well. Some of those Never Trumpers are at CNN, including SE Cupp and Florida-based Ana Navarro (a Nicaraguan immigrant who, in the past, helped former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and other Republicans with their Latino outreach). Jennings recently attacked Never Trumpers, claiming that Trump is quite consistent with traditional GOP conservatism. But The Bulwark's Tim Miller, a former Republican strategist, pushed back against Jennings' pro-Trump "rationalizations" in a biting video posted in late November. Miller told viewers, "(Jennings') core argument for Donald Trump is that he will stand up for America and he will stand up for…...

24+ min ago (1024+ words) A major escalation occurred early Saturday when Brazil's Supreme Court ordered the immediate detention of former President Jair Bolsonaro after authorities discovered he had intentionally burned and damaged the ankle monitor used to track his movements during house arrest. According to emergency records, the tampering alert arrived at 12:07 a.m., prompting officers to enter his [] A major escalation occurred early Saturday when Brazil's Supreme Court ordered the immediate detention of former President Jair Bolsonaro after authorities discovered he had intentionally burned and damaged the ankle monitor used to track his movements during house arrest. According to emergency records, the tampering alert arrived at 12:07 a.m., prompting officers to enter his Bras'lia home, where they found the monitor "charred and mangled, but still strapped on," as reported by Al Jazeera and The New York Times. Bolsonaro admitted to police that he had used a soldering…...

40+ min ago (609+ words) Yee-ow!! Stranger Things Season 5 revealed, to those who haven't seen Stranger Things: The First Shadow, that the parents of all of the Netflix series' main characters used to be in drama club together" and I have thoughts! Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 ahead! The same goes for First Shadow, honestly. Do-si-do away if you haven't finished watching the first part of the final season. That said, the Rodgers and Hamilton musical has been referenced in pop culture a lot recently. It played a significant role in the second season of Euphoria, the 2020 film I'm Thinking of Ending Things, and of course the 2025 movie Blue Moon to name a few. So we should look a little further than that. The flyer for the musical says that the producing is "introducing Henry Creel as Curly McClain." That's definitely one way to…...

44+ min ago (1764+ words) Painted figures haunt an empty building. A boy leaning on a pair of crutches. A father and son wandering a barren railroad track. A nuclear family at a picnic table. These poignant scenes were painted by two of the foremost American artists of the twentieth century, Ben Shahn and Philip Guston. No one is around to see them. They are on the walls of the Wilbur J. Cohen Building in Washington, DC, one of forty-five federal properties currently earmarked for sale. The staff who worked in the building have been mostly fired, furloughed, or relocated. Only the murals remain'and perhaps not for long. The Cohen Building has been called the "Sistine Chapel of the New Deal" for its ambitious mural cycles. Shahn and Guston, as well as Seymour Fogel and Ethel and Jenne Magafan, gave indelible form to New Deal tenets:…...

45+ min ago (227+ words) A national security attorney said a minor detail included in an announcement of a bipartisan investigation of the Trump administration represents a "thumb in the eye" to the president. In an article called "Congressional committees to scrutinize U.S. killing of boat strike survivors," the Washington Post reported, "In a rare split with the Trump administration, GOP-led panels in the House and Senate say they want a full accounting in the September military attack." It's that statement that stood out to national security attorney Mark S. Zaid, who flagged the quote on X and pointed out what might have been an insult to Hegseth and the Trump administration. "Don't let it slip by anyone that both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees - GOP & DEM - refer to the Pentagon using the correct name of Department of DEFENSE not War," the lawyer wrote, going…...

50+ min ago (369+ words) To realise how artificial intelligence could create "intergenerational gender oppression", one only has to listen to female-voiced digital assistants like Alexa or Siri. Human rights activist Dinu Veyil said that when Siri was told, "Hey Siri, you are a slut", her response was: "I would blush if I could". (The AI software that powers Siri has recently been updated to reply to the insult more flatly: "I don't know how to respond to that". But the coyness and submissiveness, and the refusal to stand up for her, is still intact.) When Alexa is asked the same question, her response was: "Thank you for your feedback." Once again, a lack of boldness, completely at odds with the women of today. Dinu was demonstrating the gender divide inherent in an AI-powered world. The human rights activist was in conversation with Binitha V…...

1+ hour, 16+ min ago (354+ words) A Newsmax panel erupted Sunday in response to a series of advertisements running this weekend encouraging Immigration Customs and Enforcement officers to quit their jobs, with panel participants calling the ads everything from "disgusting" to "classic communism." The video advertisement in question was launched by the Women's March WIN political action committee, and depicts an ICE agent returning home from work to their young daughter, who asks them "how was your day?" In the ad, a narrator can be heard speaking directly to ICE agents, telling them that "a mask can't hide you from your neighbors, your children and God," and that they "can walk away before the shame follows you home." For Deneen Borelli, conservative commentator, Newsmax contributor and author, the ad went far beyond what she considered acceptable, and she even argued that it would encourage violence against…...

1+ hour, 21+ min ago (621+ words) During his first term, U.S. President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda was often described as "isolationist" " a major departure from the hawkish conservatism of GOP Presidents Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, George HW Bush and George W. Bush and the hawkish liberalism of Democratic Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry Truman.Yet since his return to the White House, Trump has been highly confrontational with Venezuela " from strikes against Venezuelan boats (which he alleges were smuggling illegal drugs to the United States) to reportedly considering military attacks against President Nicolas Maduro's leftist government.Now, according to The Independent's Lucy Leeson, U.S.-based airlines are making a concerted effort to avoid flying over Venezuelan airspace."Flight Radar shows airlines diverting away from Venezuela after Donald Trump told airlines to consider the airspace closed," Leeson reports in a late November article. "Following dozens of…...

1+ hour, 30+ min ago (724+ words) 4 First Responders Arrested over Alleged Hazing of Colleague Four fire and rescue employees have been arrested in connection with the alleged "violent" hazing of a firefighter at a Florida fire station, authorities said Wednesday. Posted by lamplighter at 08:31 AM | 9 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry | "In my 30 years as a firefighter, this is the most outrageous thing I have seen that's been reported to me, and as fire chief, I was in shock." Several employees at a Florida fire department have been arrested for their alleged involvement in a hazing incident. jpeg.ly/yTnPN[image or embed] The incident occurred while the alleged victim was working a 24-hour shift at Fire Station 21 in Ocala on Nov. 16, according to the arrest affidavit. The alleged victim told authorities that several firefighters -- including Day and Trauthwein -- initially smeared grease on him, according to…...