Daily Kos

As the political climate gets increasingly noxious for President Donald Trump and his captured Republican Party, it’s becoming clearer that Democrats are favored to retake the House this November. The Senate is a tougher lift, but it’s no longer just in play. Democrats may now be the slightest of favorites to win it. That is a remarkable state of affairs. Democrats are operating on largely…

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A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Republicans only like an Iran deal if Trump’s name is attached It’s amazing how opinions change depending on who introduces the deal. Why Republicans suck at being patriotic Patriotism is about a lot more than just being strong and powerful.

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A cartoon by Clay Jones. Related | MAGA kooks are drowning in dirty reflecting pool conspiracies…

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The administration’s efforts to force states to let President Donald Trump control elections keep getting shot down by courts unwilling to warp the Constitution to grant Trump’s wishes, so it’s changing tactics. If they can’t win on the law, they’ll win with the purse strings and illegally withhold money from states that won’t comply with Trump’s conspiracy-addled demands.

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President Donald Trump’s approval rating is nearing doomsday levels for the GOP, with the pollster American Research Group on Monday releasing a survey showing just 30% of Americans approve of the job he’s doing in office. It’s difficult to put into words just how bad things have to get in this polarized political climate for a president to reach 30% approval. To get that low it means you’re…

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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche really, REALLY doesn’t want to put it in writing that the slush fund is dead. He won’t put it in writing for Congress, and he won’t put it in writing for the federal court handling one of the cases challenging the fund. Why not? Well, you see, there’s simply no need! Per the Department of Justice, the court can just look at Blanche’s congressional…

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By Anna Maria Barry-Jester for ProPublica After the Trump administration upended the world’s largest foreign aid provider last year, terminating thousands of programs and firing nearly all of its staff, its plan for the agency was clear: Eliminate it entirely. But because it is a congressionally created agency, President Donald Trump needed lawmakers’ permission to do so.

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A federal judge has blocked an attempt by the Trump administration to subpoena Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other state officials, calling it an effort to “harass and retaliate against them.” In a ruling unsealed Monday, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schlitz found the “dominant purpose” of the subpoenas was to “coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil…

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It’s the latter half of June, which means everyone is bracing for disaster, thanks to the Supreme Court saving all the big cases for the end of the term. This year, they’ve sat on a lot of them, though they do this so often now that having 17 cases remaining is actually lower than previous years. Two opinions issued last Thursday weren’t ones everyone is waiting on with a mixture of worry…

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A cartoon by Clay Bennett. Related | What do inflation and Iran have in common? Trump screwing up.

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The United States drifted further toward becoming a fascist state over the weekend, when at least five people were arrested at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, in Washington, D.C., on dubious vandalism charges. The arrests came after President Donald Trump said the problems with the Reflecting Pool, including a massive algae bloom and its peeling blue paint, were the fault of vandals…

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Alan Greenspan, the jazz-playing U.S. Federal Reserve chair who was celebrated for engineering a decade of prosperity but later shared the blame for a devastating financial crisis, died Monday. He was 100. Greenspan died died from complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his wife of 29 years, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell. “To me he was my husband, who shaped my life from our…

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In a report shared first with The 19th, three top Senate Democrats say Trump and Republicans have ‘taken a wrecking ball’ to childcare. By Grace Panetta for The 19th Three top Senate Democrats are accusing the Trump administration and Republicans of “taking a wrecking ball” to childcare programs, highlighting the issue in a midterm year where many Democrats are running on inflation…

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Congressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions. Republicans spent years attacking former President Barack Obama’s Iran deal, arguing before its ratification that Obama didn’t give them enough information. After the deal went into effect…

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A cartoon by Mike Luckovich. Related | Former presidents and famous friends help Obama celebrate museum opening…

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By Sharon Lerner and Anna Maria Barry-Jester for ProPublica Frank Ssekamwa says the United States presented his country with an impossible choice. If it accepted the terms of a new health agreement, Uganda would have to give the U.S. access to the data of millions of his fellow citizens — a decision he worries would make their personal information more vulnerable to breaches and possible…

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Elon Musk’s status as the world’s first trillionaire illustrates an accelerating trend. By Tim Henderson for Stateline When SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and artificial intelligence company, began trading on the stock market last week, he became the world’s first trillionaire. The SpaceX IPO made the world’s richest man even richer, grabbing headlines worldwide. But it is merely…

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A cartoon by Drew Sheneman. Related | Turns out Musk’s AI bot doesn’t just sexualize kids—it bombs them…

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The clean energy sector is showing resilience despite challenges thrown at it by a hostile White House, a recent report found. A string of legal victories has further dampened the Trump administration’s efforts to halt wind and solar power. By Aman Azhar for Inside Climate News The Trump administration has abandoned its effort to halt wind energy projects across the United States…

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