Donald Trump is heading to Tulsa on Saturday for his first campaign rally in months, and not everyone in the city is happy to hear it. The editorial board of the local newspaper, for instance, which says “This is the wrong time” and “the wrong place” for Trump to rally. “We don’t know why he…
So. Much. Action. To say it’s hard to keep up with is … something of an understatement. But, of course, a lot of the current action is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overdue. Holding police departments to account and addressing the systemic racism that leads to law enforcement—and oh so many other—inequities is just the beginning, and here’s hoping this…
The Trump administration’s Stephen Miller-pushed public health order that has now resulted in the deportation of hundreds of migrant children back to possible danger is now facing its first court challenge, CNN reports. Advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have sued the administration over its attempt to deport a 16-year-old boy who fled Honduras after witnessing…
Janice McGeachin probably holds the highest elected office of any explicit far-right “Patriot” extremist in the United States: Idaho’s lieutenant governor is an unabashed fan of the “Three Percent Militia,” is happy to pose with men flashing the “OK” hand signal, is closely allied with a key figure in the 2014 Bundy Ranch standoff in…
Donald Trump is always on the lookout for an enemy to rally his base against as he postures about his own supposed toughness. Even Trump can’t quite claim a virus is out to get him personally, so he needs other enemies. Today, the World Health Organization took the top spot, as Trump announced “We will…
Forget about coronavirus—Donald Trump is determined to repeat the political rally and ode to his own ego he staged in Washington, D.C., on the Fourth of July last year. That event featured all the military hardware Trump could demand, excluded regular people from the prime locations in favor of tickets for Trump’s allies, and forced the National Park Service to divert $2.5…
While Mitch McConnell’s Senate is on recess this week, the House is in session and is taking up a bill making changes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to make it more flexible and a better fit for small businesses, including extending the deadline for paying back the loans, allowing a larger percentage to be…
The same denial leading ridiculous numbers of people to ignore the reality that social distancing and mask-wearing protects everyone during a pandemic seems to be prevailing when it comes to a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds the only about half of Americans would get…
The United States crossed a brutal threshold on Tuesday: 100,000 Americans have now officially lost their lives to COVID-19. That’s likely an undercount of the true number, but it’s the number we have right now, and it’s a staggering toll in just a matter of months. It’s also news that comes the day after Memorial Day—a month…
Donald Trump has a new testing plan, released in a report to Congress and called “COVID-19 Strategic Testing Plan.” It is, of course, neither strategic nor a plan. It’s telling the states to do it, and “holds individual states responsible for planning and carrying out all coronavirus testing.” Congressional Democratic leaders are not impressed. “After six…
Donald Trump, by dint of his unflagging ineptitude and pervasive presence on the national stage, has left the Biden campaign with an embarrassment of riches for material to use in attack ads. Two released by the campaign this week work in tandem, one reminding Americans just how devastating this pandemic has been under Trump’s leadership while…
More than 40,000 National Guard members are hard at work helping states fight the novel coronavirus, from testing to disinfecting facilities to contact tracing—and the Trump administration plans to screw them over to save some money. The administration announced a “hard stop” on deployments on a date that just happens to be one day before any of…
Impeached president Donald Trump’s buffet lunch with Republican senators Tuesday had a lot do to with his reelection and very little to do with the pandemic still raging across the nation. Or the urgent need for more relief. Or the budget crisis states and counties and cities and towns are facing. Or a persistent lack…
Eric Trump, the president’s son, spewed his usual nonsense on Fox News Sunday, this time to advocate for the senior Trump’s all-so-important right to campaign during the coronavirus pandemic. During the interview, Eric Trump, executive vice president of The Trump Organization, accused Democrats of trying to “milk” needed coronavirus lockdowns for “everything they can.” “And you…
As the COVID-19 pandemic has raged on around the country, Prism has been on the ground covering the stories that matter most to the communities at risk, and keeping a finger on the pulse of the other major news unfolding against the backdrop of the virus. In case you missed it, here’s a roundup of…
This past Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was a lying sack of crap. “They claim pandemics only happen once every hundred years but what if that’s no longer true? We want to be early, ready for the next one, because clearly the Obama administration did not leave to this administration any kind of game…
In the wake of Donald Trump’s executive order demanding the reopening of the nation’s meat processing plants, a new Bloomberg News analysis shows that the COVID-19 pandemic is now spreading at “more than twice the national rate” in counties with major plants. COVID-19 infections are rose 19% in the week after Trump’s April 28 order….
Two Republican governors tell the tale of which approach to the coronavirus is winning not only more support among constituents, but bipartisan support to boot. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who perhaps mounted the most aggressive effort of any Republican governor to protect his state with early shutdown orders, received 86% support from his constituents for…
While Kentucky’s senior senator, Republican Mitch McConnell, is drawing red lines over more assistance to the states trying to stay afloat in the coronavirus crisis, the governor, Democrat Andy Beshear, is making sure the state’s unemployed get all the assistance possible. That’s led to a third of Kentucky’s workforce filing for unemployment, the largest share of…
The Trump White House is now a coronavirus hotspot. With the news of Mike Pence press secretary Katie Miller (wife of white nationalist Stephen Miller) and Donald Trump’s military-provided personal valet (read: Diet Coke deliverer) testing positive, as well as unidentified Secret Service members, that much seems clear. Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Stephen…