1+ hour, 7+ min ago (234+ words) U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks to the American Business Forum Miami at the Kaseya Center Arena in Miami, Florida, U.S. November 5, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst When Tuesday night, November 4 arrived, Democratic strategists were on pins and needles as they awaited returns in 2025's off-year elections. And there was a lot of good news for Democrats, from double-digit victories in gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey to landslide wins in three Pennsylvania Supreme Court retention votes. Those elections were widely viewed as a referendum on Donald Trump's second presidency, giving Democrats some optimism about the 2026 midterms. Now, Democratic and GOP strategists are paying close attention to a U.S. House special election in Tennessee that will be held this Tuesday, December 2. With former Rep. Mark Green having retired from Congress, the election finds Democratic State Rep. Aftyn Behn up against Republican Matt Van Epps....

1+ hour, 12+ min ago (315+ words) U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a breakfast with Republican Senators at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. November 5, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act of 1935 and the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) was created, the program had its share of critics on the right. Some Republicans of the 1930s attacked Social Security as a form of "socialism," and 90 years later, those arguments persist. Tesla/SpaceX/X.com leader Elon Musk described Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme" during an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast. President Donald Trump claims to be a staunch defender of Social Security, but the Trump Administration's downsizing at the SSA is making it harder for seniors to receive benefits owed to them. Trump claims that his goal is to reduce "waste, fraud and abuse" at the SSA; liberal economists like Paul…...

1+ hour, 23+ min ago (512+ words) Using current economic trends to predict the future can be misleading, since all trends are subject to limits and countertrends. In this article, I'll apply that truism to a trend that a lot of people are talking about'soaring electricity prices in the United States. A bursting AI bubble could at least temporarily halt electricity price increases tied to new data centers. But it might be a dreadful "solution," especially for people who are neither wealthy nor politically connected. More Electricity Demand? Just Increase Supply! The obvious solution to rising electricity prices is to meet new demand with new supply. Just generate more power. What energy sources are available for that purpose? None of those supply solutions seems ideal. Moreover, before we try to choose a candidate and say, "Problem solved," it's essential that we examine limits and countertrends that could…...

1+ hour, 39+ min ago (166+ words) U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he walks to board Marine One to depart for Joint Base Andrews, from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 22, 2025. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz One of the red states where Trump and other MAGA Republicans are trying to make the congressional map as gerrymandered as possible is Indiana. But according to The Independent's Eric Garcia, one Republican they won't be able to count on is Indiana State Sen. Mike Bohacek. Garcia, in a late November article, reports that Bohacek "said he would oppose President Donald Trump's overtures to redraw the state's congressional district lines after the president used a slur often made against people with disabilities. Attacking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Trump used the R-word and described him as "seriously r-------." And Bohacek was offended. Garcia notes that Bohacek "said that that Trump…...

1+ hour, 40+ min ago (1355+ words) As 2025 draws to a close, the departure of the beleaguered acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, David Richardson, caps a tumultuous year for FEMA. In January, President Donald Trump took office and vowed to abolish the department. Though the administration subsequently slow-walked that proposal, its government-wide staffing cuts have led to a nearly 10 percent reduction in FEMA's workforce since January. Now it faces a long-awaited report issued by a review council, commissioned by the president and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, just as a new interim FEMA chief prepares to take the reins in December. This story was originally published by [Grist]Grist. Sign up for Grist's [Weekly newsletter]weekly newsletter here.Although some expected the review council to recommend further cuts or try to fulfill the president's suggestion of disbanding FEMA entirely, a leaked draft of the…...

3+ hour, 1+ min ago (300+ words) Jeffrey Epstein in February 2015 (U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Justice/Wikimedia Commons) Before he was accused of sex trafficking of minors, disgraced billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein interacted with a long list of prominent figures " from now-President Donald Trump to former President Bill Clinton to economist and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. That isn't to say that all the politicians, bankers and economists who knew Epstein were actually involved in his crimes in any way. Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney and fixer and now a scathing critic of the president, told MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) that when he was working for the Trump Organization, he "never heard Jeffrey Epstein on the phone or even call into the office." But as pressure for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to release its Epstein files rages on, questions remain on who knew what and…...

4+ hour, 22+ 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…...

4+ hour, 45+ 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:…...

5+ hour, 22+ 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…...

6+ hour, 57+ min ago (371+ words) Official Portrait of President Ronald Reagan This week's shooting of two National Guard members by a gunman identified by the authorities as an Afghan national was horrific. But Trump's response has been disproportionate and bigoted. He vows to "permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries." He intends to deport legal immigrants born in countries the White House deems "high risk." He threatens to strip U.S. citizenship from naturalized migrants "who undermine domestic tranquillity." He plans to deport foreigners deemed to be "non-compatible with Western Civilization." He wants to detain even more migrants in jail " in the U.S. or in other countries " without due process. In addition to the unconstitutionality of such actions, these threats stir up the worst nativist impulses in America " blaming and scapegoating entire groups of people for the act of one gunman. Apart from Native Americans, we are…...