Sunday night owls open thread: SCOTUS could choose to wreck the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau

Tim Ryan reports— Justices Will Hear Challenge to Consumer Watchdog Agency : Taking up a case that will give its conservative majority another...

Mulvaney may be on thin ice after destroying Trump's top impeachment defense

Last Thursday, "acting" White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney managed to set fire to one of the White House's top talking points in their...

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: El-Doral-done

Earlier this week, Donald Trump announced that after an exhaustive search, an expert team of experts had determined that the only suitable place...

Harry Reid likely has it wrong about Elizabeth Warren's pragmatism versus progressiveness

Harry Reid had many progressives up in arms last week as he left the impression that Elizabeth Warren is not as progressive as her campaign...

What happens when Trump is gone?

I say this in a sense of normalcy, but these times are anything but normal. In a just world, a man like Donald J. Trump would never be allowed...

Trump's spews are hazardous to my health

I have, over the years, been a target of hate. I know what it feels like to live with the knowledge that simply because of the color of my skin and...

Just one day's news proves Trump is Nixon, Neville Chamberlain, and Boss Tweed all rolled into one

You ever just have a day? A day that, to quote Ma Kelly from the great gangster spoof Johnny Dangerously, really sucks? America had a day like that...

Plumbing the depths of the alt-reality network

There comes a time where it becomes evident that we aren't just dealing with a difference of opinion. We aren't just arguing from different points...

In front of an NYC crowd of 25,000, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez endorses Bernie Sanders for president

On Saturday, an estimated 25,000 people gathered in New York City to hear Vermont Senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders speak at...

Trump backpedals on hosting G-7 summit at Doral, but Warren and Castro don't let him off that easily

On Saturday night, Donald Trump took to Twitter to update the public on his latest reversal. He won’t actually be hosting the 2020 Group of Seven...

Trump gave the green light to Turkey's invasion, and America's national security disaster

Donald Trump condemns long-time allies to slaughter and says he doesn't care: President Trump on Wednesday distanced the United States from the...

Of course Trump should be kicked off Twitter

Enough is enough. If there was a tipping point for Donald Trump’s blatant abuse of Twitter with his hate speech, it may have come when he...

Report suggests NASA can save a good deal of money, by being a lot less concerned about space germs

Elon Musk, and anyone else hoping to land a human foot on Mars, may have worked out the problems with rockets, with landing, and with how to keep...

U.K. prepares to vote on Boris Johnson's last-minute plan as thousands march for Brexit revote

With Parliament sidelined and only days left in before the Halloween end date for the U.K.’s membership in the European Union, Boris Johnson...

Donald Trump and his supporters bring fear to Minnesota's Somali community

Donald Trump brings hatred and racism with him wherever he goes. Most recent case in point: Trump’s rally in Minneapolis last week. The area has...

Michigan Gov. Whitmer rolls back Republican measures that punish the poor

Under Republican former Gov. Rick Snyder, Michigan had punitive limits on how much in assets people could have while receiving public assistance....

2020 Democrats shine on corporate accountability, tribal autonomy, and reproductive freedom

It wasn’t a week in which it was hard to make the case that any one of the Democratic presidential candidates would be a better president than...

A day after hinting he might back impeachment, GOP Rep. Francis Rooney says he's resigning

The first Republican in Congress to just a day ago dare to say he would consider voting to impeach Donald Trump announced Saturday that he will...

Saturday snippets: Giant survey shows campus sexual assault rampant; climate and contraception

• Huge survey shows how incredibly common campus sexual assault is: A new survey of campus sexual violence in the United States has found that...

The Electoral College continues to be an archaic mess, by the way

The Electoral College method of electing presidents is an archaic relic of buggy-whip times and needs to be put out of its misery. We are now...

In disastrous development for Trump, his allies start looking out for themselves

Just like the week Nancy Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry was a turning point for Democrats, this week marked a turning point for...

Trump administration moves to open up the largest U.S. national forest to logging and development

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Arms for dirt? Donald Trump did it, so get over it, says Mick Mulvaney

William McRaven/NY Times, icymi: Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President If President Trump doesn’t demonstrate the leadership that...

Voting Rights Roundup: We asked a court to draw these maps instead of the NC GOP's new gerrymanders

● North Carolina : Last month, Republican legislators passed new state legislative districts after their previous maps were struck down in state...

Hillary Clinton says Russia is grooming Tulsi Gabbard to be third-party spoiler; Gabbard pushes back

Yes, really: The headline captures what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.  (CNN) Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary...

2020 Democrats stand with Chicago teachers, this week in the war on workers

Democratic presidential candidates are showing their support for striking Chicago teachers. Sen. Bernie Sanders has been a strong ally, joining a...

Spotlight on green news & views: Debate mods avoid mentioning climate; Trump backs CO2 pollution

This is the 614th  edition  of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the October 12 edition...

Saturday night owls open thread: Media coverage of U.S. farming erases a key element: farmworkers

At The New Republic, Nick Martin writes— American Farming Runs on Exploitation. Climate change isn't the only reality the USDA's been slow to...

Bankrupted PG&E rejects San Francisco's bid to buy back the power grid

At the beginning of Sept. San Francisco offered to buy Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) electrical grid in the city for $2.5 billion. The energy...

Picks of the Week from the Daily Kos Community, Oct. 19 (and another Tip of the Week!)

Welcome, dearest Daily Kos Community, to the latest installment of Picks of the Week! It’s been another hellacious week for news, and y’all did...

Nuts & Bolts: Inside a Democratic campaign—writing your campaign at Daily Kos

It’s another Saturday, so for those who tune in, welcome to a diary discussing the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic Campaign. If you’ve missed out,...

Georgia school district reverses trans-inclusive bathroom policy after vandalism, death threats

The Pickens County School District released a disappointing statement on Wednesday justifying its decision to reverse a policy that had allowed...

Dream Hampton, Hillary Clinton drop out of women’s summit that celebrates known child-cager

Some of the most accomplished women in the nation are refusing to share a stage with a woman best-known for using her power to torture children....

Giuliani's 'proof' that Biden was corrupt was paid for by an indicted oligarch who funded Manafort

There is only one scandal. On broad terms, that scandal is how easily Donald Trump is manipulated by anyone appealing to either his ego or his...

Trump supporters' deep state conspiracy theory about missing buses is really about missing money

Trump supporters who didn’t manage to make it to Thursday’s anti-impeachment protest are raging against a bus company, the deep state, and...

Open thread for night owls: Famed climate scientist Michael Mann blasts 'doomism'

Deborah Snow at The Sidney Morning Herald writes— Why 'doomism' is part of the latest frontier in the climate wars : Once if you were a climate...

Trump EPA appointees bypassed rest of agency to invent claims 'specifically to target California'

This is the sort of thing that would have been considered a legitimate scandal in the last Republican administration, and would have caused Fox...

Trump tweets out support for 'ultimate solution' to Kurds after talking to Turkish autocrat Erdoğan

On Friday morning, Donald Trump was back on the phone to Recep Erdoğan. And this phone call seems to have been about as beneficial to regional...

Meet the newest presidential scholar, a Newsmax contributor who writes self-help Illuminati books

A new Trump appointment to, and this is a real thing, the Commission on Presidential Scholars is raising some eyebrows today. You might have...

Friday testimony before the impeachment inquiry could highlight a fracture inside the Defense Dept.

When Ambassadors Marie Yovanovitch and Gordon Sondland appear on Capitol Hill to testify before the House impeachment inquiry, the media pays...

Gordon Sondland testified he was fighting against conspiracy theories—that's not what evidence shows

With the pace of witnesses going past the House impeachment inquiry, and with most of the testimony in this round staying locked up behind closed...

Trump surrenders for the Kurds, endorses ethnic cleansing, calls it 'a great day for civilization'

On Thursday, Donald Trump completed the war he began in betraying America’s Kurdish allies by surrendering for them. In a room where the only...

Trump and his squad pounded 'no quid pro quo' like a drum—until they got Mulvaneyed

Pretty much everyone who means anything to Donald Trump advanced the bogus defense against impeachment that there was "no quid pro quo" in his July...

Germany, U.K., France, EU, and the House of Representatives vs. Trump and Erdoğan

200 medical students, residents in limbo: 'I don’t know what I’d do if DACA was rescinded'

Nearly 200 medical students and residents, including fourth-year University of New Mexico School of Medicine student Yazmin Irazoqui Ruiz, could...

'These kids need somebody': Chicago teachers strike for more nurses and counselors

Chicago teachers remain on strike for a second day Friday as negotiations continue between the Chicago Teachers Union and the city and schools...

Senate Democrats want answers on Trump's 'outrageous' decision to profit from the G-7 summit

The Trump White House is insisting that the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort is the ideal place to host the 2020 G-7 summit, but White House...

Three muslim mothers and 8 kids not allowed onto NYC ferry because of imaginary 'security issue'

A group of Muslim families had their nice outing together ruined when employees of the New York City Ferry in Brooklyn wouldn’t allow them to...

Who are the lucky investors making a fortune in oddly timed investments around world events?

One of the problems with having a president whose only talent is a willingness to present his erratic and frequently incoherent behavior in front...

Team Trump insists his struggling Doral resort is the only logical place to host the G-7

Donald Trump did himself a big favor when he chose his own Doral resort to host next year's G-7 summit. The story coming out of the Trump White...

Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Resistance FRIDAY!

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE … Late Night Snark: Everything is Fine Edition "President Trump had a meeting with Democrats at the White House....

Trump administration talking tough about another government shutdown for border wall funding

On Thursday, the Senate failed a veto override on Donald Trump's emergency declaration, which is being used to purloin funds appropriated for...

Moscow Mitch's favorite Russian oligarch is back in the bad news

Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch sanctioned by the Obama administration for his direct and malign influence in the 2016 election of Donald...

Collins goes into full victim mode over being politely questioned by a constituent about Trump

Knowing they would lose, Democrats force Senate vote on lame Trump emissions rule as election tactic

Big victory for voting rights: Federal court blocks Florida Republicans' modern-day poll tax

In a major victory for voting rights, a federal district court  has issued a preliminary injunction  blocking most of Florida Republicans'...

Cartoon: Presidential correspon-dunce

Report: Illinois prison guards mocked, released medical information on incarcerated trans people

As reported in a joint effort by Injustice Watch and BuzzFeed News, at least 25 Illinois Department of Corrections employees not only mocked...

Seattle confiscates guns belonging to neo-Nazi Atomwaffen group leader

SEATTLE — A notorious neo-Nazi whose antics have included organizing paramilitary exercises in the woods of western Washington state to prepare for...

Minimum effort on minimum wage: Let's send the Senate a message

A recession is looming . In July, the Fed cut interest rates for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis. Wealth inequality is growing , the...

All roads lead to Trump in the impeachment inquiry

GOP congressman 'shocked' by Mulvaney's quid pro quo admission, won't rule out impeachment

Florida Rep. Francis Rooney told CNN Friday morning he was "shocked" by White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's admission on Thursday that...

Former assistant secretary of state arrested protesting Trump administration's refugee cuts

Anne Richard said that as the former assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration, she never expected to get arrested on...

Abbreviated pundit roundup: Brazen corruption

We begin today’s roundup with Mark Joseph Stern at Slate who argues that Donald Trump’s decision to award himself the multimillion dollar G7...

Cartoon: The great and unmatched wisdom war

President Trump’s unprepared, off-the-cuff phone calls are now resulting in war crimes instead of just old fashioned high crimes and misdemeanors....

Moscow Mitch tries to dictate schedule of impeachment. Pelosi brushes him off

Moscow Mitch McConnell is already figuring out how quickly he can dismiss an impeachment of Donald Trump from the House. He wants "a speedy...

Trump is still telling people not to testify, except no one is listening to him

Donald Trump may still be ripping up national monuments to build his uglified fence along the border, but there’s one big wall that has already...

William Barr will do anything to save Trump, so long as it doesn't stick him with Rudy Giuliani

Trump blamed Rick Perry for the whole Ukraine scandal, but that's the opposite of the truth

Within a day of the whistleblower complaint being made public, Donald Trump had identified what seemed like a very unlikely candidate for First...

Mick Mulvaney outright admits that Trump held up aid to Ukraine to get support for conspiracy theory

Since Rudy Giuliani is busy getting ready for likely charges from the U.S. attorney’s office he once directed, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney...

Gordon Sondland provides critical testimony to impeachment inquiry; opening statement now available

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland appeared on Capitol Hill Thursday morning to begin his testimony before the House impeachment...

Representative Elijah Cummings, 1951-2019

Representative Elijah Cummings, long a powerful voice for civil rights, for human rights, and for simple justice in all its forms, has died. As...

Senate Republicans brace themselves for impeachment trial

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is starting to admit that there will likely be an impeachment trial in the Senate. After weeks of trying to...

Trump's pathetic efforts to humiliate Nancy Pelosi make her into a badass meme. Again

If Donald Trump thought that this time, finally, he was going to be able to embarrass and bully House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, even he has probably...

'All roads lead to Putin': Nancy Pelosi explains what she was saying to Trump in That Picture

No wonder Donald Trump had a meltdown in his meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats on Wednesday. Asked about...

McConnell drags feet, won't allow a vote on House rebuke of Trump on Syria

The House overwhelmingly voted to condemn Donald Trump's withdrawal of troops from Syria Wednesday, with 129 Republicans joining Democrats to pass...

Pence's mission in Turkey to clean up Trump's colossal foreign policy failure off to a shaky start

Vice President Mike Pence has received a less than enthusiastic response in Turkey, where he's gone to try to convince President Recep Tayyip...

Abbreviated pundit round-up: Treating Trump as middle-school bully; consumer-owned utilities

Derecka Purnell at The Guardian writes— A black woman was shot and killed by police in her house. We need real justice : L ast month, a judge...

Pence announces full U.S. capitulation to Turkey; Kurdish forces are given 120 hours to flee area

During a live press conference in Turkey on Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence announced a "deal" with Turkish President Recep Erdogan to give...

Former FBI assistant director: Trump's 'spiraling downward, incredibly vulnerable' to foreign actors

Even by Donald Trump's standards, Wednesday was an epically bad day for him. Early on, Trump dissed U.S. Kurdish allies in the fight against ISIS as...

The White House didn't just move the goal posts on quid pro quo. It tore them down altogether

As Washington shook with the twin revelations of the rough transcript of Donald Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and...

GOP colleague assails Lindsey Graham's sign-on letter to acquit Trump as 'dumbest' idea ever

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is in overdrive to protect his own 2020 reelection chances even as he criticizes Donald Trump's disastrous...

Gallup: Support for Trump's impeachment and Congress both on the rise

The more Congress moves toward impeaching Donald Trump, the more Americans support both impeachment and the actions being taken by Congress,...

Rep. Elijah Cummings was also a passionate defender of immigrant families and their dignity

Rep. Elijah Cummings, who died on Thursday at the age of 68, is being remembered as one of the House of Representatives’ moral voices, as a...

Trump administration bucks Constitution by selecting Trump's Doral resort for next year's G-7 summit

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and the United States gather each year to discuss world affairs. As you...

Cheers and Jeers: Thursday

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE Coming Attractions Oh my… - Opens December 20. Same day as Star Wars IX. I may have to take the day off. Cheers...

Cartoon: A Lucky Ducky cartoon: Does Hollingsworth Hound finally win?!!?

Click here to see an animated version of this comic strip. PLEASE DO join Tom the Dancing Bug's INNER HIVE! Be the first kid on your block to see...

USDA report confirms: Trump's new SNAP rule could leave 1 million kids without automatic free lunch

Proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as “food stamps,” could result in almost 1 million...

Chicago teachers strike for smaller classes, affordable housing, and racial justice

Chicago public school teachers, along with school staff represented by SEIU, are on strike as of Thursday morning. The teachers, who a poll shows...

News roundup: Syria dominates big day of non-impeachment news

This was a day so jam-packed with news that impeachment got a run for its money, which is saying something. The main non-impeachment story was...

Russia raises eyebrows, smirks at 'highly unusual' letter from Trump to Erdogan

The Kremlin continues to have Donald Trump’s number … although, to be fair, when it comes to Trump’s bizarre, bro-ish letter asking Turkish...

Vulnerable Senate Republicans slide further underwater with voters, while Democrats gain

Sens. Doug Jones of Alabama and Gary Peters of Michigan are the two most vulnerable Democrats in Morning Consult's quarterly Senate rankings...

Open thread for night owls: Excerpts from the latest edition of the Harper's Index

From the November Harper’s Index: Portion of Americans who wouldn’t be “at all surprised” if the genocide of a religious group occurred in the...

Study shows 4% of U.S. workforce and 7% of GDP come from green economy's $1.3 trillion in sales

A new study released by Palgrave Communications Tuesday estimates that the U.S. “green economy” employs 9.5 million people and cranks out...

Mulvaney scrambles to walk back 'quid pro quo' admission, blaming press for reporting what he said

After a disastrous press conference performance in which acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney agreed that the White House had held up...

Impeachment news: Mulvaney confirms 'quid pro quo' link between military aid, 'corruption' demands

Weeks of White House talking points were upended today when acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, in a press conference, confirmed that...