Featured Stories

The GOP attack on the safety net and middle-class programs begins to take shape

(LA Times) No one can be surprised that Republicans are hoping to exploit their Washington trifecta — the White House and majority control of the House and Senate — by implementing vast federal budget cuts in order to save their 2017 tax cuts from expiration. Now we’re beginning to see some meat on the bare bones of GOP policies, thanks to a “menu” of fiscal policy reforms recently leaked to Politico. The one-page document, which Politico reports was produced by the House Budget Committee chaired by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), lists dozens of cutbacks adding up to supposed savings of as much as $5.7 trillion over 10 years.

At the Hegseth hearing, GOP senators covered themselves in shame

(Washington Post) A gross dereliction of duty on the part of the Republican-controlled Senate and the Trump-directed FBI. That is a harsh but unavoidable assessment of the confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth to serve as Donald Trump’s defense secretary. Both institutions should be ashamed of their performance — Republican senators most of all, as, bullied by the president-elect and intimidated by deep-pocketed, no-holds-barred pressure campaigns, they abdicate their constitutional advice-and-consent responsibility.

Sen. Schmitt (R-MO) misspelled MILITARY at Hegseth's hearing

Virginia House of Delegates Passes Constitutional Amendment Guaranteeing

(Blue Virginia) The Virginia House of Delegates passed – on a party-line vote, not surprisingly – HJ1, a constitutional amendment which “Provides that every individual has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom and that the right to make and effectuate one’s own decisions about all matters related to one’s pregnancy cannot be denied, burdened, or otherwise infringed upon by the Commonwealth, unless justified by a compelling state interest and achieved by the least restrictive means.” Note that Gov. Glenn Youngkin has no role in the amendment process, which means that it’s up to the General Assembly and, ultimately, voters.

Wednesday carTOONS

RFK Jr. Lied About Making $1.2 Million Pushing Anti-Vax Crap

(Daily Beast) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars he made from his anti-vax crusade, Donald Trump’s transition team has admitted to the Daily Beast. Trump’s pick for health secretary previously said his career as the founder, chairman and general counsel of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense was “unpaid” and “the opposite of a profit motive.”

"We can't just give in": Women of color are still processing Harris' loss while preparing for Trump

(Salon) Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign came and went almost like a fever dream. In just 100 days, she clinched the Democratic nomination, found a favorable running mate in Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, released an ambitious economic plan to address Americans' concerns and — most importantly, it seemed — reinvigorated a Democratic base that President Joe Biden's candidacy had left disaffected.

"You will have to change how you see women": Why Trump fears Hegseth accusers

(Salon) At the very top of the Fox News host's hearing to be Donald Trump's defense secretary, both Hegseth and his GOP defenders spun out two competing narratives: The stories about him aren't true, but if the evidence makes the stories undeniable, it doesn't matter, because he's a changed man. Armed Services Committee chair Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., kicked off the have-it-both-ways strategy in his introductory remarks to Hegseth's confirmation hearing Tuesday by acknowledging that "Mr. Hegseth has admitted to falling short" while insisting "the accusations leveled at Mr. Hegseth have come from anonymous sources."

Trump Is Wrong. The US Does Not Subsidize Canada

(Jim Stanford) U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has pledged to impose immediate across-the-board 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, even higher tariffs on China and tariffs on other countries as well. He says they will start with executive orders on Monday, his inauguration day. Initially, these threats were interpreted as a strategy to exert leverage over other countries on a range of trade and non-trade matters, from border issues to defence spending to taxes and regulations on U.S.-based tech giants. That may have been wishful thinking, because Trump’s rhetoric has now turned more ominous.

Trump pardons can't erase impact of Capitol riot convictions, top DC prosecutor says

(AP) Pardoning rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol four years ago can’t erase the truth about what happened that day, the top federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C., said Tuesday as he prepares to leave office. “There is no undoing these prosecutions,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves told The Associated Press. “The vindication of the rule of law is something that has already occurred. And no one can take that away.”