Hawaii enacted a law that could neuter Citizens United.
Montana could soon follow suit via a ballot referendum.
Here's what you should know about the plans to get Big Money out of politics — and how they could be replicated where you live.
In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.
She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.
The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.
She handed out the checks herself.
In 1989 she offered $500 to every kid in the county who wanted to go to the local college.
When Gatlinburg burned in 2016, she sent 900 families $1,000 a month for six months.
You've probably heard that part.
Here's the part you haven't:
The fund raised more than expected, so she showed up in May and handed every one of those families another $5,000 on top.
Then she quietly put $3 million into the recovery group that handles the years after the news trucks leave.
She built her county an entire hospital.
She played a benefit concert in 2007, Dollywood and the Stampede matched it, and LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 with a birthing unit and a women's center in it.
In 2022 she started covering 100% of tuition, books, and fees for Dollywood employees.
Full-time, part-time, AND seasonal.
In 1991 she paid for a bald eagle sanctuary because the birds couldn't be released back into the wild, no press release.
And when Hurricane Helene came through here in Western North Carolina, she wrote a personal check for $1 million and her companies matched it.
She didn't owe North Carolina anything, but she helped anyway.
She started the Imagination Library because her daddy couldn't read or write. Before he passed, he told her it was the most important thing she ever did.
Rest in Peace, Dolly 🇺🇸
If Elon Musk, the richest man alive, really believes "money won't matter" in 2036, he'd support a 5% tax on his wealth & the wealth of other billionaires to make sure all Americans have a decent standard of living.
The fact that he doesn’t tells you everything you need to know.
BREAKING: In a stunning and deeply alarming move, the Postmaster General has announced that the USPS will REFUSE to deliver mail-in ballots for the 2026 midterm elections to any state that does not comply with Donald Trump’s so-called “election integrity” executive order.
Let that sink in.
This is a direct attack on voting rights and a blatant attempt to strong-arm states into submission by threatening Americans’ access to the ballot box.
The Postal Service….an institution meant to serve EVERYONE—is now being weaponized to influence elections.
Democracy is not optional. Voting is not conditional. And no president gets to decide who can and cannot participate in our elections.
This should outrage every American, regardless of party.
@sarrah_bellus@Grancracker_ Sara Jacobs has become my absolute favorite member of Congress in recent months. She is a superstar. Superb communicator. @RepSaraJacobs
Elizabeth Warren warns the GENIUS Act, the “stablecoin” bill to allow Big Tech companies to create their own currencies, would “create a superhighway for Donald Trump’s corruption.”
Story: https://t.co/sdwXYNKbjN
I’m on the Senate floor right now urging my colleagues to vote no on the GENIUS Act.
There is no excuse for Congress to pass a crypto bill that will turbocharge Trump’s corruption. https://t.co/qb8wWQ6PUA
Donald Trump isn’t just illegally removing U.S. citizens from the country without due process.
He’s illegally removing U.S. citizens who are literal children undergoing care for cancer.
https://t.co/IVWDmD6Hit
How much Elon Musk makes from the government a day: $8 million.
How much a senior on Social Security gets a day: $65
Guess which budget Musk and Trump want to cut?
BREAKING: Pope Francis unleashes a historic attack on the Trump administration over its cruel treatment of migrants — and takes specific aim at remarks made by J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert.
So-called Christians in the MAGA movement are melting down over this...
The Pope, head of the Catholic Church, issued a rebuke of Donald Trump's mass deportation plan, stating that it removes the migrants of their inherent dignity as people and "will end badly."
Usually one to abstain from commenting directly on the internal politics of individual countries, Francis made his new remarks in a letter addressing U.S. bishops.
In it, he invoked the Bible's Book of Exodus and said that God is "always close, incarnate, migrant and refugee" and pointed out that Jesus Christ was "expelled from his own land" when his family fled to Egypt and had to "take refuge in a society and a culture foreign to his own."
Putting fake Christians to shame, Pope Francis went on to state that Jesus loved "everyone with a universal love" and taught us to see the"dignity of every human being, without exception."
"Thus, all the Christian faithful and people of good will are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa," the pope wrote.
He then turned his pen towards addressing the United States directly.
"I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations," wrote Pope Francis.
"The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality," he continued.
"At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival."
"That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness," wrote the pope.
It was the next part of the letter that has really infuriated MAGA supporters. Recently, Vice President J.D. Vance — who was baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church in 2019 — attacked the Church's compassionate teachings on immigration.
Proving that he either doesn't understand Catholic theology or would prefer to cherrypick what he likes and doesn't, Vance butchered a medieval concept known as "ordo amoris" or the "order of love."
"As an American leader, but also just as an American citizen, your compassion belongs first to your fellow citizens," Vance told Fox News. "That doesn’t mean you hate people from outside of your own borders, but there’s this old-school [concept] — and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the way — that you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world."
Of course, the idea that one should love those closest to you doesn't mean that you shouldn't love people from other countries. Vance shamelessly twisted the meaning to suit his party's xenophobic views. St. Augustine, who pioneered the concept that Vance was referencing, certainly didn't advocate for an authoritarian mass migration program.
In his letter, Pope Francis wrote that "Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups," a direct and blunt rebuke of Vance's claims.
"In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings!" the pope continued. "The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually mature in his identity and vocation. The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the 'Good Samaritan', that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception."
Francis warned against deploying "an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth."
He went on to urge the bishops in the United States to continue working "closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ" and "promoting fundamental human rights."
"God will richly reward all that you do for the protection and defense of those who are considered less valuable, less important or less human!" he added.
Pope Francis then turned his attention to the entire Catholic Church, urging its followers "not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters."
He concluded by calling for all of us to work towards a "a society that is more fraternal, inclusive and respectful of the dignity of all."
In other words, we need to build a world where MAGA is not the law of the land.
Please retweet and ❤️ to thank Pope Francis for standing up to MAGA hatred — and consider joining the growing exodus to Tribel, a new pro-democracy social network that is exploding in popularity because Twitter and Facebook are trying to stop its growth — which is only making Tribel grow even faster. Please follow us on Tribel to get all of our breaking news alerts sent straight to your phone or computer by clicking the following link: https://t.co/HnJzSKj4Hp
Donald Trump is making a deliberate attempt to overwhelm the system, and to overwhelm you. It can be difficult to keep up. And that’s by design.
But we can keep up – and respond. Here’s what he’s doing, and what it means for you. Just the facts. 🧵⤵️
Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.
President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.
LOVE THIS! President Biden just awarded Hillary Clinton the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honor. Secretary Clinton has dedicated her life to this country. Well deserved!
Former President Trump had 44 cabinet secretaries. 40 of them don’t support his 2024 campaign.
Neither does his Vice President nor any of his former chiefs of staff.