Salon.com
Trump says he could replace Freedom 250 artists himself
After multiple performers withdrew, Trump mocked them and proposed turning event into an “AMERICA IS BACK" rally
Left
Raw Story
CBS attempts to spin the Colbert replacement show's flop as a sound financial move
Far Left
In an attempt to get some positive press after making good on pulling Stephen Colbert’s popular “The Late Show” off the air and replacing it with Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed,” CBS issued a press statement claiming it was a sound business decision despite a massive drop in viewership.According to a report from the Daily Beast, CBS claimed on Thursday the unpopular move represented sound business strategy, stating: "We're proud to partner with Byron Allen on a new business and programming model for late night that proactively addresses a network daypart that was cost-prohibitive to continue. With this 'time buy' model, we have shifted an hour that was losing roughly $40 million annually to $15 million in profit — a $55 million swing."The network reiterated its assertion that canceling Colbert's show had been "purely a financial decision," which skeptical late-night competitor Jimmy Kimmel had already rejected, stating: "There's just not a snowball's chance in hell that that's anywhere near accurate," Kimmel said. "The idea that Stephen Colbert's show was losing $40 million a year is beyond nonsensical."According to an earlier report from The Beast, "Comics Unleashed" drew only 995,000 viewers in its debut episode, while late-night talk shows hosted by Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon topped more than 1.5 million viewers on the same night — and notably, Kimmel's was a rerun, not a fresh broadcast.Even more embarrassingly for CBS, Colbert's YouTube presence continues to outperform Allen's new show, the report added. A one-night appearance by Colbert on the public access TV show "Only in Monroe" drew 928,000 views on his YouTube channel alone — a figure that doesn't include viewers on other platforms.
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Raw Story
Trump reveals potential replacement for artists who bailed on state fair – himself
Artists have been pulling out of the Great American State Fair en masse after discovering the event’s ties to President Donald Trump, and as the Trump administration scrambles to replace the bailing performers, the president floated on Saturday a potential replacement – himself.“I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance on Wednesday, so I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.“The man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’ and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President!”Since announcing the lineup for the public event designed to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary, “nearly all” performers have dropped out, with the organization orchestrating the event, the Trump-linked Freedom 250, reportedly being "purposefully vague” about the festival when reaching out to artists.In addition to his proposal of replacing the artists himself, Trump also floated the idea of holding another event concurrent to the Great American State Fair – a “America is Back Rally” at the “same time [and] same location,” though, unlike the fair, “only great patriots” would be “invited.”
Far Left
Alternet.org
The Trump pattern continues: All talk and no receipts to show
The federal government keeps claiming there is massive fraud in its medical aid programs, but has been less than forthcoming about where it is and what's being done about it. Moreover, officials argue that if fraud were stopped, the federal deficit would disappear.Instead, an outwardly partisan anti-fraud campaign has featured Vice President JD Vance in the starring role of tagging Democratic states as uncaring or incompetent about finding fraud. It all seems especially galling when the examples that Vance promotes generally are the result of already-run state investigations or the prospect of fraud possibility, inevitably involving programs by or for immigrants already barred by law from receiving benefits.What's missing is an actual, evidenced accounting of what is supposed to be wrong rather than jumbled, unevidenced assertions that billions of public dollars are being wasted. Much like the fabled but discredited findings by Elon Musk's DOGE efforts a year ago, there is a lot of talk about fraud without the evidence to back up Vance's oft-repeated claims.Indeed, news accounts of Vance presentations feature him or Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the agency overseeing Medicare and Medicaid, discussing the possibilities of finding fraud without showing new cases.As TalkingPointsMemo.com notes, Donald Trump used his State of the Union address to offer "an absurd, fantastical and quickly debunked claim: Once Vice President JD Vance had a chance to root out fraud from (blue states') social services programs, the federal budget would be balanced and the deficit would disappear."Nope. Despite the hype, there is still a huge, quickly increasing federal debt and no list of fraudsters.The White House has decided that Minnesota, California, and now Maine are either purposely (for political reasons) or incompetently ignoring Medicaid eligibility or fraudulent reporting of child-care reimbursement programs. Apparently, fraud that continued under the first Trump administration should not count.The campaign started in earnest after Trump decided to attack Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other state officials there who oppose Trump's deportation efforts over reports—some true, some not—that there had been fraudulent child-care schemes in that state. Trump made it all political by connecting those schemes—which had been prosecuted after state investigations—to efforts by Walz to shield Somali immigrants involved to gain their electoral support.Quickly after naming Vance to head a White House effort to investigate fraud, the government has singled out blue states as bad actors in the filings of government reimbursements.Last week, Vance hosted Republican attorneys general—Vance did not invite Democrats until the last minute, so they boycotted the session—and made clear that he will use this anti-fraud commission as another weapon in the retribution campaign Trump is waging against blue states by withholding federal funds as a form of punishment for various, nebulous offenses.Vance said states should target Medicaid's social services spending and said the Health and Human Services Department would be reviewing how states use their Medicaid Fraud Control Units—ironically the very people who most often prosecute cases of Medicaid provider fraud. Indeed, states note that widespread cuts to Health and Human Services have made fraud investigation much more difficult.While there is agreement that some fraud exists in federal spending, there is no evidence that it is as rampant as Team Trump claims nor only in blue states. To even keep deficit spending unchanging, for example, the amount of fraud would have to be triple what the Government Accounting Office estimates.These public fraud charges are largely about suppliers who charge the government for a childcare facility that is not staffed, as an example from Minnesota. Medicare/Medicaid itself says the largest source of "fraud" is in overhyped medical prescriptions that result from the labyrinth for doctors to have to check the right boxes for reimbursement.Just this week, ProPublica published an analysis showing upwards of $100 million a year spent for medically questionable vascular procedures for mildly affected patients.But this campaign from Vance wants to pin blame on lack of Democratic state oversight for spending illegally on or for undocumented migrants or on allowing classes of ineligible aid recipients.The GAO released a study in 2024, during the Joe Biden years, that estimated government-wide fraud was between $233 billion to $521 billion between 2018 and 2022 (including COVID years). The GAO collected data from prosecuted cases, from inspector general reports and confirmed fraud reported to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by agencies. It used 46 fraud studies to build its model and to conclude that annual fraud losses amounted to between 3 percent and 7 percent of government spending.
Left
Salon.com
Ebola shows how Trump’s health policies are going global — and coming home
Politicized public health agencies also make it harder to hold officials accountable
Left
Raw Story
DOJ moves to oust judge embroiled in sex scandal from key Trump voter rolls case
The Department of Justice is demanding that an embattled Georgia judge be taken off its case seeking to grab voter rolls, according to reporting by Reuters.U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross in Atlanta was in the headlines earlier this week after news outlets identified her as the unnamed judge reprimanded for having sex in her chambers within earshot of clerks. The DOJ is seeking her removal from the case because she attended a political campaign event for Fani Willis, who prosecuted Trump for alleged crimes related to the 2020 election, Reuters noted. "A judge who attended a party celebrating the election of a Democrat best known for prosecuting a Republican President for alleged election interference cannot then preside over a case concerning that President's efforts to ensure election integrity," DOJ lawyers wrote, according to Reuters. Ross is hearing the DOJ's lawsuit seeking to force Georgia to hand over its non-public voter registration list. The DOJ filed similar lawsuits in other states, though it's been defeated in some.
Far Left
Bloomberg Politics
Trump Silence on Iran Shows ‘Massive Indecisiveness:’ Hall
Natasha Hall, Associate Fellow at Chatham House, says the White House’s silence after President Trump was expected to decide on a new Iran cease-fire plan reflects “massive indecisiveness” over the conflict’s end goal. Hall adds that Iran’s regime has proven its resilience and that more US strikes are unlikely to force capitulation. She speaks with Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg’s "Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)
Center
Blaze Media
Mamdani announces new city office that sounds just like DOGE — and gets nailed with mockery
Far-left New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the creation of a new city agency that sounds like his version of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.Mamdani said Thursday that the Commission on Government Efficiency would meet with community organizers and union members in order to improve coordination with city government efforts.'A reminder that when republicans expose and root out fraud it's smeared as racism, starving children, leaving the poor to die.' "This morning we are introducing COGE — the Commission on Government Efficiency," Mamdani said. "This Commission will find ways for our city to work smarter, faster, and more effectively for working people. New Yorkers deserve a city government as careful with their money as they are."He went on to take a shot at tech billionaire Elon Musk, who headed up the DOGE agency until he had a falling out with the president. "Elon Musk took that language and used it to cut as many jobs that were as critical as possible for so many of the neediest people across the country and across the world," the mayor said. "Ours is going to be a focus on actually delivering efficiency." Mamdani was immediately mocked by critics, including independent journalist Nick Shirley."This sounds a lot like DOGE ... Weird how your own governor questioned me when I speculated the sudden increase in spending in areas like childcare in NYC and now you do this. (Which is a good thing btw!)," he responded. "Cutting waste, fraud, and abuse should be the most nonpartisan issue in America as it affects everyone.""Remember when Democrats ridiculed President Trump and his administration for tackling government waste?" wrote Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. "Looks like they ran the numbers and found eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse is quite popular.""A reminder that when republicans expose and root out fraud it's smeared as racism, starving children, leaving the poor to die, etc. I suspect there will be a (d)ifference in coverage of this unserious ripoff of DOGE," TV producer Spencer Brown said."Is this satire? DOGE was ridiculed endlessly and now the folks who were outraged are doing it themselves?" another user replied on the X platform.The DOGE appropriation was also infuriating to liberals still angry about the agency's acts."Mimicking the DOGE name is an insult to every fired federal worker and everyone harmed or killed by USAID cuts," another user said. "Wish the team was a little less clever and slightly more thoughtful."RELATED: Mamdani's wife apologizes for insulting Israel, using N-word and gay slur in past tweets Musk promised through DOGE to find and cut trillions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse. Critics say the agency did very little to actually help the budget, which has spiraled into more debt under Trump's second term so far.Mamdani meanwhile was praised by many on the left for supposedly balancing the budget that had a $12 billion deficit. Critics point out that he did it by pushing pension payments into the future — basically mortgaging the future finances of the city to cover current costs. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Right
US news | The Guardian
New Jersey says state police will replace federal agents outside ICE facility
Announcement coincides with reports of influx of federal agents to Delaney Hall, site of protests and hunger strikeTop New Jersey officials announced on Friday that the state police will be taking over policing functions from federal immigration officers outside the contentious Delaney Hall facility, as reports surface of an influx of federal agents making their way to the area.As part of the state police’s takeover of “public safety operations” at the site, they will establish a “peaceful protected zone” for demonstrators and will have protesters “move there today”, according to New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, and attorney general, Jennifer Davenport. Continue reading...
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