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A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Trump: Actually, the Epstein scandal is great for me The man never polls better than he does in his own head. ‘Release the damn files’: Outgoing GOP senator slams Trump over Epstein At this point, we’ll take any criticism of Trump from the right. Secret memo reportedly reveals Trump doesn't actually care about the border Who needs borders when you can just deport anyone you don’t like? Trump deals another blow to American automakers Make America walk everywhere. Big Lie-boosting election clerk is begging for Trump to save her Tina Peters simply will not go away. Cartoon: Ozzy RIP to the Prince of Darkness. Conservative rich dudes think they'll Make Movies Great Again Ah, yes, a Palantir-Ayn Rand mashup. Just what literally no one wanted. Click here to see more cartoons.
A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Trump: Actually, the Epstein scandal is great for me The man never polls better than he does in his own head. ‘Release the damn files’: Outgoing GOP senator slams Trump over Epstein At this point, we’ll take any criticism of Trump from the right. Secret memo reportedly reveals Trump doesn't actually care about the border Who needs borders when you can just deport anyone you don’t like? Trump deals another blow to American automakers Make America walk everywhere. Big Lie-boosting election clerk is begging for Trump to save her Tina Peters simply will not go away. Cartoon: Ozzy RIP to the Prince of Darkness. Conservative rich dudes think they'll Make Movies Great Again Ah, yes, a Palantir-Ayn Rand mashup. Just what literally no one wanted. Click here to see more cartoons.
Daily Kos
The Recap: Trump doesn’t care about border security, and even the GOP wants answers on Epstein files
A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Trump: Actually, the Epstein scandal ...
Conservatives in America control every lever of the federal government’s power, but they remain infuriated that they do not control the levers of culture and entertainment. Surely that cannot be because the type of entertainment they push is garbage no one wants to watch. No, it must be because the right studio, backed by the right multimillionaires, hasn’t come along. Enter Founders Films—ugh. Backed by high-level employees of Vice President JD Vance benefactor Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies, surely this will be the way that conservatives crack the entertainment market. Do Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar, early Palantir employee Ryan Podolsky, or investor Christian Garrett have any particular background that would make you want to give them money to run a studio? Not particularly, although Sankar is getting to play-act as a soldier, having been one of four tech executives that the Army invented a detachment for. Why? So that they could all pretend to be lieutenant colonels despite never having served a day. Shhh. No one tell Sankar, as he thinks it is real and did a wildly embarrassing piece about it for Bari Weiss’s Free Press for Eugenics Enthusiasts. Related |Army gives shady offer to tech bros so they can play soldier So, what do these big brains have planned once they sucker some other multimillionaires out of their not-actually-hard-earned money? Such blockbuster ideas as “Operation: Pineapple Express” about the “botched withdrawal” from Afghanistan; a 9/11 movie celebrating “courage”; and a yet-unnamed flick about the 2020 assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Surely all of those will be blockbusters. Move over, Marvel! There’s also a three-part adaptation of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” planned, because of course there is. Were the people demanding a new Ayn Rand trilogy? Couldn’t they just go watch the trilogy that came out like 15 years ago? Sure, the first part got mercilessly panned by critics, and the second part got mercilessly panned by critics, and the third part got mercilessly panned by critics. Actual moviegoers didn’t, well, actually go, particularly by the time Part III rolled around. But surely now America is ready for six to nine hours of Ayn Rand beamed into their eyeballs, right? Hopefully Founders Films will have better luck than the producers of the previous trilogy, who had to recall 100,000 DVDs because the jacket described Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged: as “a timeless novel of courage and self-sacrifice,” and Randians 100% do not believe in self-sacrifice. Perhaps Americans will rush to the cineplex to see some other Founders Films fixations, which will be “unafraid of offending Chinese audiences” and will use “American cultural power to spread skeptical views of the Chinese government.” Definitely what we are all looking for. Actor Gina Carano’s extremist views got her shunned by mainstream Hollywood producers. But Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire Studio gave her another chance to flame out. No matter how much money the Palantir dudes and their pals throw at this exercise, it’s likely just going to be Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire Studio 2.0. Did you know conservative gadfly Shapiro had a movie studio? Okay, be honest: Did you know Ben Shapiro had a movie studio because you were ever organically aware of one of his entertainment offerings, or only because of coverage of his failed attempts to break out of the right-wing ecosphere? Thought so. Shapiro’s studio already offers what Founders Films promises: jingoistic trolling starring a combination of fading stars and people that the rest of Hollywood doesn’t want to work with because it’s weird when people keep yelling about wokeness when you’re just trying to do your job. Who could have predicted that “Terror on the Prairie,” a 2022 Daily Wire joint starring Gina Carano after she went full anti-vaxxer transphobe, would have flopped? Everyone, actually. In the end, perhaps this isn’t such a bad thing. If conservatives want to light their money on fire by giving it to other millionaires to make bad, ham-handed movies that no one wants to watch, who are we to say no?
In another concession to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, the Trump administration shut down a crucial program that catalogued war crime. This included a database that tracked the mass deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia—another obvious sign that President Donald Trump has little to no care for the wellbeing of children. Managed through an initiative at Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, the database played an important role in the International Criminal Court’s 2023 charges against Putin related to the illegal deportation of children. Researchers were informed last month that the State Department had “quietly” terminated the contract to comply with Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, though sources say that the database may have been deleted in the confusion wrought by DOGE’s cuts. “We have reason to believe that the data from the repository has been permanently deleted,” Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman of Ohio wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The news comes after a report from The New York Times about the Trump administration halting food testing programs and shutting down a group that studied bacteria in infant formula. “It’s as if someone, without enough information, has said, What’s a good way to save money on our automobiles? Let’s just take out the seatbelts and airbags, because do we really need them?” Darin Detwiler, a food safety consultant and associate professor at Northeastern University, told the Times. Cartoon by Clay Bennett Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has exposed his lack of integrity when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable populations, particularly through his awful mishandling of the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas. Couple that with Kennedy’s plan to destroy children's teeth by eliminating fluoride from drinking water, and the threat to U.S. children’s health is glaring. Before that, the Department of Agriculture pulled $1 billion in funding for programs that helped feed school-aged and low-income children. The programs, which were created during the Biden administration, provided funding to local farmers and food vendors to help combat food insecurity. And, of course, Trump has made it clear that he plans to dismantle the Department of Education, which Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been working toward by firing half of the department’s staff. But the harm to children goes far beyond Trump, with the GOP’s legion of creeps frequently being connected to accusations of child abuse. For example, Trump’s short-lived attorney general nominee, former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, allegedly paid multiple women—including a child—for sex, according to a damning ethics report. And Gaetz’s former associate and alleged party bro Joel Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in prison for various crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor. Similarly, just last month the Trump administration was trying to assist alleged rapist and human trafficker Andrew Tate and his brother in their extradition case. More recently, Minnesota’s MAGA state Sen. Justin Eichorn was arrested in a police sting for allegedly soliciting a minor for sex. His arrest came just days after one of Trump’s former “spiritual advisers,” Robert Morris, was indicted and charged with five counts of “lewd or indecent acts to a child,” stemming from when he was traveling evangelist in 1982. But this is just the tip of the iceberg of the hypocrisy displayed by Trump and Republicans who claim to crusade for children’s welfare yet enact policies and maintain alliances that actively cause them harm. Campaign Action
Billionaire Elon Musk is using his sway within Donald Trump’s administration to try to destroy the United States Agency for International Development. USAID handles U.S. aid to foreign projects around public health, education, disaster relief, and promoting democracy abroad. On Monday, congressional Democrats condemned Musk’s actions, calling them illegal during a press conference outside of the closed USAID headquarters. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut singled out Musk’s business interests in China, which many people believe encouraged Musk to torpedo the House GOP’s spending bill in December. “China is cheering at this action today,” Murphy said. Murphy: "Let's not pull any punches about why this is happening. Elon Musk makes billions off of his business with China. And China is cheering at this action today. There is no question that the billionaire class trying to take over our govt right now is doing it based on self-interest."— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-02-03T18:26:04.635Z “Elon Musk, you may have illegally seized power over the financial payment systems of the United States Department of Treasury,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said. “But you don’t control the money of the American people. The United States Congress does that under Article 1 of the Constitution.” Raskin called the billionaire’s actions an “outrageous, scandalous, illegal maneuver.” The congressman questioned the target of Musk’s attempted budget cuts, noting the Pentagon, whose budget is more than 20 times the size of the USAID, does not seem to be on Musk’s list. “The Pentagon budget is where the defense contractor, Elon Musk, who became the richest man in the world off of our money, he collects his payments from,” Raskin said. “And now he's trying to shut down USAID. We're not going to allow this to happen. It will not stand.” YouTube Video Musk responded on his hate-filled social media site, X, with a bit of doublespeak that George Orwell would have probably found egregious. 
Trump seems content with the perception that he is running the show, but it is clear that he is out of his depth when it comes to billionaire predators like Musk pulling the strings behind—and now in front—of the scenes. Click here for Daily Kos’ Bluesky Starter Pack. Join us on Bluesky and @#$% Elon Musk!
President-elect Donald Trump tapped notorious anti-vaxxer and bear-meat aficionado Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services Thursday. The prospect of a man who has railed against fluoride in water and promised to stop research on drug development and infectious diseases for at least eight years heading the country’s public health initiatives has given many people pause. Reactions to the news have begun to come in, though none of those reactions mention Kennedy’s theory that chemicals in drinking water have resulted in “gender confusion.” Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana took time away from saying that women should not be allowed to leave their state for reproductive care to lament vague “vaccine mandates” in support of Kennedy’s nomination. TAPPER: The medical community has been clear that what RFK Jr says about vaccines is false. They don't cause autism. Does that bother you at all? SENATOR-ELECT JIM BANKS: Look Jake, in the election Donald Trump won the popular vote pic.twitter.com/IWrHH8xkdn— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 14, 2024 Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis shocked many with his statement on X. “I’m excited by the news that the President-Elect will appoint @RobertKennedyJr to @HHSGov,” Polis wrote. “He helped us defeat vaccine mandates in Colorado in 2019 and will help make America healthy again by shaking up HHS and FDA. I hope he leans into personal choice on vaccines rather than bans (which I think are terrible, just like mandates) but what I’m most optimistic about is taking on big pharma and the corporate ag oligopoly to improve our health.” Polis’ support for RFK Jr. was a far cry from his feelings on the matter back in August, when he posted this. pic.twitter.com/IdbR2sISgM— David Weigel (@daveweigel) November 14, 2024 Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, an actual physician, readied his rubber stamp by writing that Kennedy “has championed issues like healthy foods and the need for greater transparency in our public health infrastructure. I look forward to learning more about his other policy positions and how they will support a conservative, pro-American agenda.” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, not known for being particularly bright, called the pick “absolutely brilliant.” And the always craven Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin seemed over the moon about an HHS chief who is as far out when it comes to public health as he is. I could not be happier that @realDonaldTrump has selected @RobertKennedyJr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. He’s a brilliant, courageous truth-teller whose unwavering commitment to transparency will make America a healthier nation.— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) November 14, 2024 Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts kept his reaction short and sweet. Dangerous. Unqualified. Unserious.