Trump’s billionaire allies will now own CNN, Fox News, CBS, WaPo, WSJ and NY Post — plus 185+ local tv stations and news in 100 markets.
They also control X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, TikTok, Truth and Twitch.
They control the AI you're integrating into your lives, the algorithms feeding you content, and your personal data you've given up for access.
This is all by design to manipulate and surveil us, and we’re not talking enough about it.
Pay attention.
The new American dream, for some of its citizens, is to no longer live here. Put aside Trump's deportations, America’s own citizens are leaving in record numbers, replanting themselves in lands they find more affordable and safe. @drewhinshaw@JoeWSJ https://t.co/gKLAfweGxU
US immigration officials picked up a blind Rohingya refugee last week in Buffalo, NY. Then, realizing they had no basis to deport him, they released him five miles from his home. He needed a walking stick and died trying to make his way back to his house: https://t.co/dNBRWAiv0b
More than three-quarters of Americans say that the issues that divide the United States pose a serious threat to the future of the nation's democracy, according to the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist Poll.
Seventy-eight percent of respondents said there is a serious threat to American democracy, a concern shared by a majority of all political parties. That sentiment has remained largely steady since Marist first asked the question in the aftermath of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The result comes as the poll also found that two-thirds of Americans believe the system of checks and balances that divides power between the White House, Congress and the courts is not working well.
President Donald Trump's closest allies designed his second-term agenda to move fast and test the limits of executive power. Over the last year, Trump has pushed his policy priorities at a frenetic pace, often bypassing Congress entirely and opting instead to sign executive actions, many of which have been challenged in courts.
The erosion of checks and balances – and the political divisions over whether that is good or bad for the health of democracy – potentially could have long-term consequences, said constitutional law scholar Kimberly Wehle, who teaches at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
"What people don't understand is, once the system no longer functions, it won't function when you need it to function either," Wehle said. "When the apparatus of democracy fails then we just have to hope for a benevolent president."
On the other hand, John Yoo, a professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley and former Justice Department official during the George W. Bush administration, says the consolidation of power in a strong executive is a return to previous norms.
Yoo argued that Trump's executive actions over the last year are meant to restore a pre-Watergate worldview, one where the presidency had "more discretion, more power to it than it does today, and less congressional interference."
EXCLUSIVE: ~400 Christian leaders have issued an Ash Wednesday statement decrying the Trump admin as “cruel and oppressive,” arguing the govt has been corrupted by an aberrant faith and calling on Christians to perform “greater acts of courage to resist.” https://t.co/XQzJiJxEOf
BREAKING: Dozens of Lee County, Florida students have been suspended after participating in protests against ICE arrests at local high schools, with more than 3,600 students involved across 14 schools.
What a joke
During her 11 months as the de facto leader of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Kari Lake has wasted millions of dollars and done profound damage to America’s foreign broadcasters, and to America’s ability to communicate with the world
The Trump administration has revoked a scientific finding that was the backbone of U.S. climate policy for nearly two decades.
“We are officially terminating the so-called ‘endangerment finding,’ a disastrous Obama-era policy,” the president said during a White House event Thursday with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
In 2009, the Obama administration issued the endangerment finding, a scientific declaration that greenhouse gas emissions threaten public health and welfare.
Zeldin called the finding “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach.” Scientists and environmental groups said the administration’s action would lead to more pollution and health harms.
William Brangham (@WmBrangham) has more.