After spending like wild men on wars, tax cuts for the rich, and ballroom renovations no one ever asked for or needed, Trump-era Republicans are getting ready to recast themselves as fiscal conservatives as soon as the Democrats take control of the House this fall.
The American people are constantly being told that they can’t have universal healthcare or high-speed rail or free college or any number of other great things citizens of other countries have because we spend so much money on defense. Now, however, the Defense Department is saying they don’t even have enough bombs to fight wars. Where is the money going?
Trump’s pre-midterm offer to send every American adult $5,000 if the GOP retains the House and Senate has fallen flat with voters, not because it’s a bribe, but because they don’t trust him to deliver.
Gen Z young people, especially men, have their parents deeply concerned because they are not having sex or partying the way young people used to. This may be the first time in history that an older generation has screamed at their kids to turn that damn music up.
In America’s two-party system, voters who are unhappy with the incumbent Republicans have only one electoral alternative: vote for the Democrats they know will do the same thing.
For the president and, presumably, his supporters, there is an alternative reality in which everything is going as well as possible. The polls show that most voters do not believe that, yet the strategy of speaking demonstrable falsehoods persists.
From curbs on mail-in voting and the purging of voter rolls to widespread confusion about the validity of elections, the Trump Administration—dreading losses—is scuttling Americans’ opportunities to cast lawful ballots in the 2026 midterm elections.
After the CIA overthrew Iran’s democratically elected leader, U.S. policymakers helped themselves to Iranian oil at discounted prices and smugly congratulated themselves. But the blowback was a bitch. Their puppet ruler, the Shah, was soon overthrown by revolutionaries who despised and resented the United States. Sanctions intended to soften the Islamic Republic had the opposite effect, hardening its resolve and prompting it to wage proxy wars against the U.S. and Israel throughout the Middle East. Fifty years later, the Middle East is a hot mess, Iran is its dominant regional power, and the United States has lost. So why is the U.S. pursuing similar policies against oil-rich, socialist-majority Venezuela?
The Supreme Court’s de facto approval of Trump’s illegal ballroom construction and destruction of the East Wing is the latest example of a White House determined to outrun the slow-moving court system in order to remain unaccountable.
These days, many of the things you feel you might have to do in order to get ahead are things that make you completely hated and reviled.
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