For much of the last year, staffers who were initially part of the Department of Government Efficiency effort improperly accessed and shared sensitive personal data on millions of Americans. The Trump administration hasn't been able to answer how much data is at risk, what it was used for or why its unprecedented efforts to consolidate data are needed.
A former school superintendent in Des Moines, Iowa, entered a guilty plea at a court hearing on Thursday, months after he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for staying in the country illegally. Ian Roberts pleaded guilty to falsely claiming U.S. citizenship for employment and being an illegal immigrant in possession of firearms.
57 HOUSE REPUBLICANS JOIN DEMOCRATS TO KEEP FEDERAL AUTHORITY TO SHUT OFF YOUR CAR Lawmakers failed to remove a mandate requiring automakers to install remote "kill switches" in new vehicles, giving the government the ability to disable cars at will.
Whiny titty-ass baby Von Shitzhispants is having a nervous breakdown over his awful poll numbers and is using his usual cudgel, lawsuits against any news in the press that makes him look bad. In a crazed Truth Social post, Trump claimed all polls showing him in the gutter are fake, and he will sue. WIll Trump sue Real Clear Politics, the favorite right-wing polling site that gives his average approval rating at 42%? Trump has bilked the US for over a billion dollars this year in the Oval Office and should be investigated by the HOUSE (I kid, because they never will), but this gives him the resources to sue everything and everyone to force his demented and narcissistic viewpoint against reality itself. Trump uses the courts like Stephen Miller uses ICE. A fascist is what a fascist does.
During an appearance on Fox Business, Trump commented, "We've never needed them. They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan. ... and they did. They stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines." But some of Trump's European critics are pointing out that when he was young during the 1960s and 1970s, he avoided military service. Scotland-based journalist/author Stephen Stewart, himself a veteran, argued, "Trump's comments are as offensive as they are inaccurate. It's hugely ironic that someone who allegedly dodged the draft for the Vietnam War should make such a disgraceful statement. He has desecrated the memory of hundreds of British soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, people who we called friends and comrades. If he was a man of honor, he would get down on bended knees to ask forgiveness from the families of the fallen."
Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators are meeting in Abu Dhabi today for the first trilateral talks since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 - here's what we know
James Talarico speaks from inside the Christian tradition to call out the hypocrisy of Christian nationalism " not by attacking faith, but by actually taking Jesus' words seriously.
When politicians claim they want a "Christian nation" but ignore teachings like loving your enemies, welcoming the stranger, caring for the poor, and refusing religious supremacy, something doesn't add up.
Talarico lays out that contradiction clearly and powerfully, pointing to the radical heart of the Gospel " especially the Good Samaritan and Jesus' challenge to wealth, power, and judgment.
This isn't about tearing Christianity down. It's about asking whether those in power are willing to live up to the faith they claim to represent.
T The last day of July 2025 was D-day for Florida's local governments. That was when the state's new Department of Government Efficiency, modeled on Elon Musk's federal DOGE, began descending on city halls and county administrative offices to audit spending as part of Governor Ron DeSantis's drive for "transparency and accountability in government." His administration dispatched two teams of fiscal specialists from Tallahassee"including experts from the Departments of Revenue, Financial Services, and Education"in what he called a "boots-on-the-ground" effort to rein in local government spending. To justify the campaign, DeSantis argued that, with Florida's growing prosperity, local governments were using revenue from rising tax receipts, especially property levies, to go on a "spending spree." The state DOGE's purpose, he said, was to find out what elected officials were doing with all that new money
This Week in Freudenfreude: She's Got a Ticket to Ride (And She Don't Care)
This Week in Schadenfreude: The President's Ratings Aren't What They Once Were
Donald Trump has again disparaged America's Nato allies, claiming that troops from allied nations "stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines" while fighting in Afghanistan in support of the US campaign against the Taliban. The only time Nato has ever invoked its mutual defence clause " stating that an attack on one member represents an attack on all " came after the terrorist attacks of September 11, when member states deployed thousands of troops to Afghanistan. Read more
How many polite ways, after all, are there to ask whether the President of the United States has lost his mind? Read more
US Congress Useless
Inflation ticked up to 2.8% November, moving further away from the Federal Reserve's target 2% mark, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports Thursday.
A man accused of putting a bounty on the life of Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino was found not guilty Thursday. A verdict was reached just before 4 p.m. The jury of six men and six women got the case about 12:45 p.m. Thursday. Closing arguments took up all of the morning. The government was unable to provide any evidence to corroborate an alleged murder-for-hire plot. According to the statute, a person commits murder for hire if they take a substantial step toward committing the crime. That substantial step must be an act that strongly corroborates that the defendant intended to carry it out.
The Florida Bar downplayed a congressional finding that Matt Gaetz, President Trump's first choice for U.S. Attorney General, committed statutory rape before it abandoned his prosecution. Roughly the top half of the 70-page file is a report by a bipartisan U.S. House Ethics Committee that concludes the now-former Republican congressman took illegal drugs and paid women, at least one who was underage, for sex for more than three years. The report recaps the committee's investigation that derailed Gaetz's wild ride that let him off short of becoming U.S. Attorney General.
