by Shireen Akram-Boshar | May 12, 2026 | Defense, Democrats, iran war, News, Pentagon budget, Pete Hegseth, Republicans, Trump Administration
On Tuesday, May 12, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified in back-to-back hearings before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Throughout the hearings, Hegseth defended Trump’s defense budget request of $1.5 trillion. Hegseth was joined by General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Jules Hurst III, the Pentagon’s acting…
Source
by Austin C. McCoy | May 8, 2026 | Black History, civil war, DEI, Discrimination, Disenfranchisement, Donald Trump, elections, Gerrymandering, history, ICE, Jim Crow, Op-Ed, Protests, Racial Justice, Racism, Republicans, Supreme Court, Voting Rights, Voting Rights Act
The Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate Louisiana’s congressional map creating two Black-majority districts continues to remind us of how much the U.S. has backpedaled away from the so-called racial “reckoning” of the summer of 2020. The Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais undermines another key plank of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, passed more than 60 years ago with the intent of…
Source
by Taya Graham | May 5, 2026 | CBP, Congress, Democrats, DHS, federal budget, ICE, Mike Lawler, News Analysis, Reconciliation, Republicans, Rob Menendez
Last week, Republicans in Congress passed a framework for a proposed round of funding for ICE and Border Patrol. The measure was intended to end an impasse over Department of Homeland Security funding, which lapsed over 10 weeks ago. But the budgetary framework, which includes $70 billion for both agencies, came with a twist: No Democratic input needed. Republicans bypassed the normal…
Source
by Brad Reed | May 4, 2026 | Election Denial, Election Deniers, elections, MAGA, News, Republicans, The Big Lie, Trump Administration, Voter Rolls
As President Donald Trump continues to push Republicans to aggressively gerrymander ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a new analysis has found more than 50 candidates running for key offices who have in the past engaged in efforts to nullify election results. As reported by NPR on Monday, election watchdog States United Action has released a report showing that election-denying candidates…
Source
by Sasha Abramsky | May 3, 2026 | Alaska, California, elections, Eric Swalwell, Gubernatorial elections, Louisiana, Maine, Op-Ed, primaries, Ranked Choice Voting, Republicans, Runoff Election, Runoff Elections, Washington D.C., Washington State
With just weeks until California voters cast ballots for the next governor in the primary, five candidates are clustered atop the polling, each with at least 10 percent but less than 20 percent support among the electorate. A sixth candidate, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, is at 5 percent and has been gaining visibility in recent weeks. More than a quarter of the electorate has yet to make up its mind.
Source
by Stephen Zunes | Apr 17, 2026 | Benjamin Netanyahu, Bush administration, Chuck Schumer, Democrats, diplomacy, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Iran, Iran nuclear agreement, Iran Nuclear Deal, iran war, Israel, Kamala Harris, Obama administration, Op-Ed, Republicans, War, war in Iran
Unlike the invasion of Iraq, which received the support of a sizable minority of congressional Democrats, Donald Trump’s war on Iran has received near-universal criticism. Still, the party has focused primarily on process-style critiques — such as the legality of declaring the war under the Constitution and the war’s economic impact — rather than the humanitarian consequences and flagrant…
Source