GOP Farm Bill Puts Food Assistance at Even Greater Risk Amid Growing Crisis
Nearly 30 percent of US state governments believe they may be forced to narrow SNAP eligibility to cope with new costs.
President Trump's luncheon with Republican senators devolves into shouting match; earthquake shakes Northern California.
Nearly 30 percent of US state governments believe they may be forced to narrow SNAP eligibility to cope with new costs.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday that the United States is in a position to maintain normal flows of oil through the Strait of Hormuz even if the U.S. is unable to strike a broader peace deal with Iran. His comments add to recent assertions from Trump administration officials that the U.S. can control the […]
Trump says he’ll sign housing bill aimed at lowering costs only after Senate passes restrictive voting measure – key US politics stories from Wednesday 24 June at a glanceDespite rare and overwhelming bipartisan support, a US bill aimed at lowering the cost of housing for Americans is being held hostage by Donald Trump.The president said he won’t sign the 21st Century Road to Housing Act until the Senate meets his demand to pass the Save America Act, which would dramatically change voting regulations by requiring proof of citizenship at voter registration and significantly curtail mail-in voting. Continue reading...
'They're abolish ICE, abolish the police, abolish the border'
Ever since the overthrow of the Fulgencio Bautista regime in 1959, Cuba has been shunned by the United States. Now, following the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and months of U.S. military strikes against Iran, President Donald Trump is indicating that a U.S military invasion of Cuba is possible. But conservative Washington Post columnist George Will fears that Trump could make a bad situation in Cuba even worse."After beginning the war, but before his conduct of it turned it into an embarrassment, President Donald Trump said: 'On the way back' from Iran, 'we will be taking over' Cuba 'almost immediately,'" Will explains. "Now, humiliated and bewildered, he hungers for a success before this autumn's elections."The 84-year-old Will, who was a scathing critic of the late Fidel Castro, is no fan of the communist regime in Cuba — which has been suffering from a terrible economy, a crumbling infrastructure, and frequent blackouts. But he fears that if Trump does move forward with a U.S. military invasion of Cuba, things will only become more dire for the troubled island nation."Communist Cuba, a threadbare museum of Marxism, has always attracted tyranny tourists, leftist pilgrims eager to experience, briefly, applied socialism," Will argues in the Post. "The only good its evil ever produced is 'Against All Hope,' Armando Valladares' magnificent 1986 memoir of 22 years as a political prisoner. Beatings were never perfunctory, always ferocious and imaginatively cruel.… Other than those pilgrims, no one believes the Havana regime has a shred of legitimacy. What should be done?"The Never Trump conservative continues, "For decades, Communist Cuba, a mendicant nation prickly about its revolutionary dignity, depended on subsidies from the Soviet Union, then on bartered oil from Venezuela. Now, it experiences electricity blackouts sometimes lasting 22 hours a day. Some airlines have stopped serving Havana because fuel is scarce for return trips. Tourism has evaporated." But Will emphasizes that while Cuba's situation is dire, Trump doesn't appear to have a coherent game plan."In January," Will observes, "Trump said, 'Cuba is ready to fall.' Into what? Has Trump thought through his vow to 'take care' of Cuba with a 'friendly takeover' during 'a little brief stopover'? Before he skittered away from demanding Iran's 'unconditional surrender,' he jovially said of Cuba: A U.S. aircraft carrier will 'stop about 100 yards offshore, and they'll say: Thank you very much. We give up.' Such a cutup. Our Metternich from Midtown Manhattan is not intimidated by the aphorism that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."
President Donald Trump has so many revenge campaigns and such a huge list of grievances that the White House staff is struggling to keep them straight. Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, a new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, details a number of exchanges with aides. Haberman explained on CNN Wednesday morning that there is no longer a line between the Justice Department and Trump."But we make clear in the reporting how true that is he wanted the top DOJ officials to understand — as they were trying to obtain an indictment against Letitia James — and there was this question of whether a mortgage fraud charge could actually be brought. Todd Blanche, who was then the deputy attorney general, was not convinced this was going to work," Haberman explained. "[Blanche] was operating, in our reporting, from the perspective of if you're going to bring a case, you need to be able to actually prove the case," she said. "Like a lawyer" host John Berman cut in. Haberman read an excerpt illustrating Trump's frustrations with James and the lack of progress in going after her. "He told one adviser that Blanche needed to grasp: He didn't really care whether she was ultimately convicted," the book explains. "The president's true goal was to drag into court the New York Attorney General who had won a nearly half billion dollar civil fraud judgment against him."Trump told the advisor, "I want to make her life miserable."When they asked Trump whether he said it, Trump said he didn't think so, but agreed, "I would have said it." He attacked her as a "dirty cop" and "very corrupt person." "So, we got a real look at how this is working," said Haberman. The reporter also detailed a case in which top aides Stephen Miller and Boris Epstein were talking about one of Trump's targets from 2020 that they couldn't remember. "They're talking about 'who was that guy involved in the in the elections,' in the machines and the security of the elections in 2020?" Haberman said, noting they couldn't even remember and had to look up who the person was. It was Chris Krebs. "And then soon there is this presidential memorandum about investigating Krebs," Haberman explained.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israel Defense Forces will not withdraw from southern Lebanon, even if the United States demands it. Katz’s comment is the first time any top Israeli official has publicly said they would go against the U.S. regarding Lebanon, after two weeks of avoidance. Stressing the danger posed to soldiers, […]
Brad Lander has defeated two-term incumbent Congressman Dan Goldman for the Democratic nomination in New York's 10th Congressional District.