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How Clarence Thomas Misunderstands Democracy

Apr 18, 2026Center Right

Paul Waldman: The Supreme Court justice's insistence that rights come from God, not government, couldn't be more wrong.

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"Empire of AI": Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World

Democracy Now!

12 hours ago

"Empire of AI": Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World

In our July Fourth special broadcast, we revisit our interview with longtime technology reporter Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI, which unveils the accruing political and economic power of artificial intelligence companies — especially Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the exploitation of workers in Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology’s detrimental impact on the environment. “This is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms,” says Hao in an extended interview.

Far Left

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Thomas Paine: The Founding Father Worth Celebrating

Reason.com

Yesterday

Thomas Paine: The Founding Father Worth Celebrating

As America races toward its 250th birthday, Paine is the Founding Father to cast our lot with.

Center Right

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Top MAGA defector says Trump's US 'not a democracy'

Alternet.org

Yesterday

Top MAGA defector says Trump's US 'not a democracy'

According to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson — who used to be among President Donald Trump’s closest allies — the U.S. is “not a democracy,” and he’s now working to “help build a third party” that will uphold the “America first” values he says Trump has betrayed. Carlson made these assertions via an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review, which he gave following his announcement that he had left the Republican Party. While he says that he was a “consistent defender” of the party for 35 years, he now argues he can no longer support the way it has changed under Trump. Central to his criticism of both president and party was the war in the Middle East. While Carlson was instrumental to Trump’s success during the 2016 and 2024 campaigns, explains the New York Times, “he broke sharply with the president after the United States started the war with Iran in late February, declaring Mr. Trump was violating a core campaign promise to avoid foreign conflicts. By April, Mr. Carlson said he was ‘tormented’ by his past support for the president. He told the Columbia Journalism Review that he had not spoken to Mr. Trump since the start of the war.”“I’m not interested in talking to him,” said Carlson.While Carlson has in the past attempted to maintain a public perception of alliance with Trump, texts revealed in 2023 during a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems showed his true feelings. “I hate him passionately,” texted Carlson in 2020, just two days before Trump spurred on the January 6 insurrection. A few days later, he texted that the president was “a demonic force, a destroyer.” Trump regained Carlson’s loyalty — or at least his willingness to fake it — in time for the 2024 election, but then over the course of the following year, growing daylight could be seen between their policy positions. Then Trump launched conflict with Iran, which Carlson said betrayed the “America first” ethos as well as blatant promises to start “no new foreign wars.” Speaking with the Columbia Journalism Review, Carlson said that there was no longer any contrast between “war and finance.”“That’s not a democracy,” asserted Carlson. “That’s a one-party state posing as a democracy, and it needs to be broken, and there’s going to be a third party, and I’m going to do everything I can to bring that about.” While some have suggested that he may be preparing for a presidential run himself, Carlson has rejected this idea, saying, “I’m not a politician, that’s for sure. I’m not a rival to Trump for power. I have no power. I’m someone who knows Trump, and I know him well, and I’ve known him for a long time.” Carlson isn’t the only prominent figure from the MAGA movement to lose faith in Trump. Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene had her own dramatic falling out with the president, and on Wednesday announced plans to create a new political party specifically to oppose the MAGA agenda.

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Ketanji Brown Jackson invokes 'dark stain of slavery' in explosive rebuke of Clarence Thomas at Supreme Court

US Politics: Latest News, Comments and Breaking Stories | Mail Online

Yesterday

Ketanji Brown Jackson invokes 'dark stain of slavery' in explosive rebuke of Clarence Thomas at Supreme Court

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson invoked 'the dark stain of slavery' in an explosive reprimand of fellow Justice Clarence Thomas on Tuesday.

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Justice Thomas calls transgender language a ‘lie’ in concurring opinion

The Hill News

3 days ago

Justice Thomas calls transgender language a ‘lie’ in concurring opinion

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that transgender language is a “lie to the public” in a Tuesday opinion, concurring with a ruling that blocks athletes who were assigned to the male sex at birth from competing against biological women. “Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or girls, even if they believe…

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A Clarence Thomas Protégé Defied a Landmark Supreme Court Ruling. His Mentor Would Be Proud.

News and Politics - Slate Magazine

3 days ago

A Clarence Thomas Protégé Defied a Landmark Supreme Court Ruling. His Mentor Would Be Proud.

This might be labeled “devolving standards of decency” jurisprudence.

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Justice Clarence Thomas blasts transgender rhetoric as a ‘lie’ in biting Supreme Court opinion

New York Post

3 days ago

Justice Clarence Thomas blasts transgender rhetoric as a ‘lie’ in biting Supreme Court opinion

Republican-appointed Justice Clarence Thomas tore into transgenderism as a "lie to the public" in his concurrence on the Supreme Court's decision to uphold state-level policies restricting girls' sports to biological females.

Right

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Justice Clarence Thomas' dissent shocks MS NOW analyst

Raw Story

3 days ago

Justice Clarence Thomas' dissent shocks MS NOW analyst

Legal analyst Lisa Rubin characterized Justice Clarence Thomas' birthright citizenship dissent as "disappointing" during an MS NOW discussion following the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling upholding birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara. Rubin said Thomas was "picking up a thread that Solicitor General John Sauer left for him" and "taking the bait" by drawing a distinction between Black Americans and children of "foreign temporary visitors." In his dissent, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, Thomas argued the 14th Amendment was written to confer citizenship on enslaved people's children, not temporary visitors' children, citing the Dred Scott decision and quoting Frederick Douglass. Rubin predicted the distinction would not resonate with civil rights advocates, noting, large swaths of the civil rights movement will not accept this argument given decades of shared organizing between the NAACP and immigrant rights groups. Chief Justice Roberts authored the majority opinion, joined by three liberal justices and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.Watch the video below. Your browser does not support the video tag.

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How Clarence Thomas Misunderstands Democracy

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How Clarence Thomas Misunderstands Democracy

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