It might surprise some people that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, American politics’ most dynamic progressive icon, wishes Democrats would stop thinking “that the power struggle within the party is between progressives and moderates,” as she told me recently. “Whether it’s advisers or the consultant class, they are losing elections because of it,” she said. Instead, Ms. … Read more
Years before President Trump returned to the White House, his budget chief, Russell T. Vought, began mapping out a plan to shrink the federal government. In Mr. Vought’s design, spending would be slashed by about $9 trillion over the next decade. Entire federal programs — from housing vouchers to student loans — would be eliminated. … Read more
Democrats have a problem that runs deeper than the 2024 election. They have a problem that runs deeper than Elon Musk’s assault on the government. Look at the places they govern: strongholds like New York and Illinois and where I’m from, California. They’re losing people. [CLIP: Since the pandemic started, California is seeing an exodus, … Read more
Problems with a huge database of voter information that effectively functions as the central nervous system of the Democratic Party grew so worrisome last summer that top Democrats staged an extraordinary intervention to keep it running through the November election, according to multiple people involved. Had it collapsed, the party’s entire get-out-the-vote operation could have … Read more
Follow live updates on the Trump administration here. During his first term in office, President Trump described the European Union “as a foe,” established “to hurt the United States on trade.” He repeated the charge at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, but in more vulgar terms: “The European Union was formed in order to screw … Read more
Plus, is the daytime soap opera back? Source link
Joseph Osse loaded his black sedan with a few guns, a steel target and a recording stand for his phone before driving into the desert west of Salt Lake City on a cold day in mid-November. Mr. Osse, 32, began filming himself target shooting around a year ago for short videos he posted on YouTube. … Read more
Soon after taking over, they created a crisis by shutting down huge segments of federal government spending, though they restarted at least some payments after a judge slapped them with a court order. Late Friday, Elon Musk seized control of the Treasury Department’s payment system, which disburses trillions of dollars and houses sensitive data about … Read more
Bret: Which, as any honest employer will tell you, at least privately, tends to devolve in practice into a de facto system of set-asides based largely on the identity of an employee or contractor. And also, in some cases, a quiet but damaging erosion of standards, like the weakening of the Army’s fitness requirements that … Read more
Let’s skip the happy talk: Democrats are in a dark place. It’s not merely that Donald Trump has rolled back into Washington with an everything-everywhere-all-at-once approach to grabbing power. The new president is buoyed by eager-to-please Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress and a #Resistance movement that feels played out. The American people, meanwhile, … Read more