Josef Burton Since 1979, the US has been in perpetual economic, military, and political combat with the Iranian state. The only difference now is that bombs are falling. The post We Have Always Been at War With Iran appeared first on The Nation.
Peter Kornbluh The danger of “maximum pressure” vs. the promise of “pragmatic engagement.” The post What Trump’s Cuba Policy Should Be to Advance US Interests appeared first on The Nation.
In 2003, Daily Kos was just a scrappy little blog running on a cheap shared hosting plan. It was fine—until it wasn’t. The site grew too big, too fast. We kept crashing. Readers couldn’t comment. And I didn’t have the money to fix it. So I turned to the community. Some of you might even remember this: I asked for help buying a dedicated server, our very first. You stepped up, we raised the money, and Daily Kos moved to its own hardware. That one decision made everything that came next possible. Now, more than 20 years later, we’re at another one of those moments. Our current site—custom-built, endlessly patched, and more than 15 years old—is too expensive to maintain and too inflexible to evolve. It’s been held together with duct tape and developer ingenuity. But we can’t afford to keep going like this. Just like in 2003, we’ve outgrown what we have. And once again, we need your help to move forward. We’re officially migrating Daily Kos to WordPress—a modern, open-source platform used by everyone from Vox to Rolling Stone to The Nation. With it comes a huge ecosystem of plugins, tools, and possibilities we could never afford to build ourselves. Features we’ve long dreamed of—mobile apps, user badges, faster comment loading, better moderation tools, polls, media integration, and more—are finally within reach. It won’t happen overnight, but step by step and with your support, we’ll finally be able to deliver the experience this community has wanted and deserved for years. Related | Daily Kos is moving to WordPress We’ve already hired a vendor, and work will begin in August with the new site launching in early 2026. The first version will be a straight port designed just to get us off of the old system. But what happens next—what we build, improve, or finally retire—will be shaped by you. We’ve formed a Community Advisory Group to help guide our priorities, like which features we keep, which ones we drop, and what we build next. We’ll soon be announcing more details on this critically important community liaison. And for the first time in a long time, we’re doing this with a real roadmap, deadlines, and accountability. But none of it happens without you. Just like that first server in 2003, we’re asking you to help fund this next giant leap—the most significant upgrade in Daily Kos history. If you’ve ever wanted a faster site, better tools, or a platform that feels like it was built for this community, this is your moment. Chip in to help build this new Daily Kos. It’s always fun to be on the ground floor of something exciting, and I hope you’ll be part of it. Two quick things I need your help with: 1. We need a name for this campaign. This is a special capital campaign, separate from our normal fundraising. “The Daily Kos New Website Capital Campaign” is functional … but boring. Got something better? 2. What would be cool ways to reward early donors? Yes, there’s the satisfaction of doing something great. But I want to directly recognize the folks who help make this possible. Here are some ideas: Special account badges or flairs Private Zoom updates from me and the team Early beta access to the new site and maybe early access to new features Your name on the “Thank you for building this” footer This capital campaign is what will unlock everything—tools you’ve been asking for, features we’ve dreamed of, and more joy in using the site every day. And every dollar you contribute will help make it real. Thank you for being here and for joining us in this next chapter of Daily Kos. Chip in to help build this new Daily Kos.
A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. What on earth are Elon Musk and Greg Abbott emailing about? And why are they working so hard to keep it secret? Trump’s approval with Latino voters craters as he carries out evil deportation agenda It’s surprising it took this long. Republicans block Epstein files release as they bow to Trump “This is about trust. Republicans said, ‘Trust us. Vote for us and we will release these files.’ Well here we are—they’re backtracking.” Cartoon: Extreme weather happening now! It’s a shame there’s no way to find out about it. Supreme Court further endorses Trump as king The court just keeps enabling illegal behavior. Top House Republican probes Biden for something he does himself Always nice to see tax dollars being well spent. Americans reject MAGA meanness as ‘Superman’ soars Seems like “truth, justice, and a better tomorrow” may actually prevail, at least at the cinema. Click here to see more cartoons.
www.patreon.com/keefknight the Keef Knight Project Keith Knight online store Related | Republicans block Epstein files release as they bow to Trump
Never miss a single PoliticusUSA story by becoming a subscriber. Subscribe now Donald Trump keeps trying to make his base forget about Jeffrey Epstein, but with each passing day, bigger and bigger names are coming out in support of Trump releasing all of the information on the Epstein case, including the Epstein client list. The latest to break with Trump is one of the biggest names in Republican leadership, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Speaker Johnson said on Tuesday when asked if Trump should release everything on Epstein: I haven’t talked to Marjorie (Taylor Greene) or Anna (Pulina Luna) about that specific subject, but I, I’m, for transparency, we’re intellectually consistent in this. Look, Reagan used to tell us we should trust the American people. I believe in that principle. I know President Trump does as well, and I, I trust him. I mean, he put together a, a team of his choosing and they’re doing a great job. It’s a very delicate subject, but we should, we should put everything out there and let the people decide it. I mean, the, the White House and the White House team are privy to facts that I don’t know. I mean, I, this isn’t my lane. I haven’t been involved in that. Uh, but, but I, I agree with the sentiment that we need to, we need to put it out there. Johnson didn’t have the strongest criticism that belonged to Rep. Lauren Boebert, who wants a special counsel appointed for the Epstein files. Read more
While the Trump administration loves to boast about its immigration crackdown, it’s not eager to share the details of who is doing the cracking. And now it’s not just Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who can hide their identities. Government lawyers representing ICE get to do so as well. On Tuesday, The Intercept reported that at least two immigration judges are allowing government lawyers to hide their names. Does anyone else get to hide their names? Of course not. When Judge ShaSha Xu declared at the start of a hearing that “We’re not really doing names publicly,” she did so only after stating her name, the name of the immigrants, and the names of their lawyers. This is necessary, per Xu, because “privacy” and “things lately have changed.” This is basically unheard of. Courts maintain a complete record of proceedings, and identifying the lawyers involved is a core part of that. Secret lawyers are just not a thing. This leaves immigrants unable even to identify who is pushing for them to be deported. But hey, some ICE attorneys think that it is “dangerous to state their names publicly,” and some immigration judges appear to agree. You might be wondering why immigration judges would go along with this. Immigration judges aren’t appointed and confirmed by the Senate, and they are not part of the judicial branch. Rather, they are employees of the executive branch, so their hiring, firing, and duties are dictated by the administration. That’s why they are complicit in the ruses that the administration is using to make easy arrests. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detain a person, center, on Jan. 27 in Silver Spring, Maryland. In late May, immigration judges received a memo from the Department of Justice, telling them to let Department of Homeland Security lawyers make oral motions to dismiss, then grant the dismissal immediately. Once the immigrant leaves the courtroom, since they no longer have a pending immigration case, ICE arrests them and proceeds to deport them. If immigration judges will go along with that, there’s no reason to think they won’t let DHS attorneys stay anonymous. While the move to make the courtroom process opaque is new, it builds on the administration’s allowing ICE agents to wear masks and obscure their identities. Can’t really have a secret police unless you also have a secret court, because the intent here is to deprive immigrants of the due process they are owed. Since the Supreme Court has blessed the idea of deporting detainees without a meaningful opportunity for them to challenge their removal, it’s pretty clear that they’re not going to restrain the administration. The administration has justified keeping the identities of ICE agents secret because of an alleged spike in violence against them. However, that number is ever-shifting. First, the violence had increased by 300%, then by 413%, and then by 700%. When The Washington Post’s Philip Bump analyzed the data last month, he found that violence against Customs and Border Patrol agents was down compared with the same period in 2024, and that the number of incidents was very low. For example, in March 2025, there were 20 incidents of violence against CBP agents. In April, it was 32, and in May, 21. That’s why the administration keeps using percentages rather than raw numbers. There are other ways the administration is working to cloak their illegal actions. Immigration lawyers have allegedly been blocked from seeing their clients. Members of Congress have been refused entry to immigration facilities despite a law allowing them to access the centers, but the administration has fixed that by simply stating it will not follow the law. Lawmakers now must give DHS 72 hours’ notice before visiting an immigration facility, and DHS can deny them access for any reason or no reason. The Justice Department even told a court on Tuesday that the police report of activist Mahmoud Khalil’s March arrest was privileged and that they wouldn’t provide it, because of the law enforcement privilege, which protects certain data when an investigation is ongoing. The judge was dumbfounded, pointing out they were trying to apply the privilege to something that already happened. All of this is deeply anti-democratic. Secret courts, secret police, secret charges, secret deportations, secret facilities. The administration is building a parallel “justice” system for immigrants where everything is hidden from those it targets, where everyone colludes to facilitate illegal, swift, and brutal deportations. It’s the farthest thing from justice imaginable.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have become so fixated on becoming “America First” that a batch of prepurchased high-energy biscuits will never make it into the hands of those in need. As of Tuesday, roughly 500 metric tons of emergency food intended for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan are about to expire, according to The Atlantic. Now, instead of potentially being able to feed 1.5 million children for a week, the U.S. will waste extra money—on top of the $800,000 spent to purchase it—to destroy the unviable rations. Federal workers reportedly attempted to contact the new head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, who could pull the right strings and make use of the nutritionally dense food. Ultimately, though, their attempts were unsuccessful. On one hand, it’s hard to argue against giving lifesaving resources to children. On the other (less rational) hand, if you ask the Trump administration, distributing food to countries like Afghanistan or Yemen could potentially feed terrorists, which is enough of a reason for them to cut off aid completely. The flag of the U.S. Agency for International Development flies alongside the American flag in front the USAID office in Washington on Feb. 3. In April, NPR reported that USAID contracts were slashed in these countries just from the fear that they were benefitting terrorist organizations alone. But other countries have starving children, so why weren’t the rations sent there? While 500 metric tons of biscuits is a small number comparatively when it comes to USAID supplies, the Trump administration is heavily curtailing its assistance overall. Rubio announced via Substack that starting in July, the Trump administration would hand out assistance only to countries that “align with administration policies,” a message that sounds oddly familiar to their ongoing battle with Harvard University, among other colleges. As Rubio shuts the door on those in need, new projections show how this will impact those most vulnerable. According to a study published in The Lancet, upward of 14 million people are projected to die by 2030 as a result of the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID. One third of those deaths—about 4.5 million—are expected to be among children under age 5. But this vast amount of avoidable death doesn’t seem to phase the State Department. “You can go back and relitigate all these little decisions. That’s not our focus. That’s not the secretary’s focus,” one state department official told ABC News when confronted with the study’s findings. “We are excited about what sort of the America First foreign assistance agenda is going to look like, and how much impact we can have moving forward.” Nothing excites the Trump administration than unnecessary pain.
President Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants the 2026 midterms to be rigged in the GOP’s favor. Speaking to Texas Republicans Tuesday morning, Trump outlined his redistricting wishlist: five new GOP congressional seats in Texas alone. The plan would significantly reshape the House, where Republicans currently hold one of the narrowest majorities in history. “I keep hearing about Texas ‘going Blue,’ but it is just another Democrat LIE. With the right candidate, Texas isn’t ‘going Blue’ anytime soon!” he wrote on Truth Social. To secure those extra seats, Trump has a key ally in Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who scheduled redistricting for a special legislative session beginning July 21. The plan, which Democrats have called a blatant power grab, appears to aim at flipping two competitive South Texas districts and dismantling seven urban, heavily Democratic ones. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is helping President Donald Trump in his gerrymandering efforts. Despite Trump winning just 56% of the vote in Texas in 2024, Republicans already hold two-thirds of House seats there. The 2021 map—one of the most gerrymandered in the country—created two new districts in majority white areas, even though people of color made up 95% of the state’s population growth. And now they’re going even further. The Department of Justice recently sent a letter to Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suggesting that 4 existing Democratic districts may have been drawn using unconstitutional racial gerrymandering—a sharp reversal from the Biden-era DOJ, which backed a lawsuit claiming that the map diluted minority representation. GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas praised the move, writing that Hispanic voters have shifted rapidly toward the Republican Party and that redrawing the maps would lead to major GOP gains. But this is a risky strategy. Texas’ current map already maximizes GOP gains. Adding more Republican districts could carve up safe GOP territory, force incumbents into costly primaries, or cause early retirements. Finding five new red seats might require weakening current Republican strongholds. Even if it succeeds, it might not matter. Republicans gaining five seats in Texas wouldn’t come close to offsetting potential national losses. Trump’s first midterm in 2018 saw Democrats gain 41 seats. A similar result in 2026 would negate any advantage gained through redistricting. Meanwhile, Trump’s support in Texas is slipping. A June poll from the Texas Politics Project found that a majority of Texans disapprove of him, with 44% saying they strongly disapprove, and just 27% saying they strongly approve. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is among the Democrats fighting against President Donald Trump’s abuse of power. As Trump works on his map-rigging strategy, Republicans are still searching for a national message to promote their sweeping economic agenda, which cuts Medicaid and food aid to deliver tax cuts to the wealthy. Strategists are now pushing “Trump Working Family Tax Cuts” and highlighting popular items like eliminating taxes on tips to win back moderate Trump voters. But Democrats are not staying silent. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has hinted at a countereffort, though it’s unclear whether state law grants him the authority to act. “Two can play this game,” he wrote on X. Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California warned, too, that if red states keep bending the rules, blue states may be forced to respond similarly. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Texas Democrats held a press conference Tuesday morning to condemn the “aggressive and egregious gerrymander,” calling it a move to “disenfranchise millions of people in Texas.” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene also pointed out the irony that redrawing the map could actually cost Republicans voters. “It’s basic math,” she said. Trump may view redistricting as his insurance policy, but it only works if Republicans win. If they stumble in 2026, no map—no matter how rigged—will be enough.
Chris Lehmann The president’s denial of the existence of government material on Jeffrey Epstein isn’t going over well with his followers. The post Trump’s Deep-State Conspiracy Theories Are Getting Beyond His Control appeared first on The Nation.
