The Republicans have been trying to take over the nation’s judiciary for several decades led by Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society. This “unretiring” of Democratic judges, blocks Trump as this article describes. This isn’t getting much media attention, but it is going to have an interesting positive effect.
A circuit court judge out of North Carolina rescinded his planned retirement, prompting GOP outrage.
With little more than a month to go before Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, a set of federal judges who previously announced retirements are pulling back those decisions. And Republicans are none too pleased.
Most prominent among the federal jurists to reverse a retirement announcement is Judge James Wynn of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. His name vanished from a list of pending vacancies over the weekend, joining two district court judges in North Carolina — Algenon Marbley and Max Cogburn — in pulling back their decisions once it became clear President Joe Biden would not be able to appoint their successors.
In a letter to Biden, Wynn wrote “that, after careful consideration, I have decided to continue in regular active service” on the bench. All three were appointed by Democratic presidents.
Their decisions serve to deny Trump further bench vacancies to fill as he hopes to capitalize on his push to move the federal judiciary rightward. Though judges routinely time retirements […]
Throughout the country the roads need to be rebuilt, and this new technology may provide resurfacing that is cheaper and less polluting, and that is good news.
Credit: Carbon Upcycling, Minnesota DOT and National Road Research Alliance
A private-public partnership has paved a section of Minnesota road with an experimental low-carbon concrete mixture that resulted in greater strength and lesser cement use, saving money and carbon.
Concrete and its most important ingredient, cement, is one of the most carbon-intensive industries on Earth because it’s used so often in construction. It has virtually no parallels for the ease of use, versatility, and structural properties, but emits about 0.6 tons of carbon per 1 ton of cement mixture produced according to Imperial College London.
US firm Carbon Upcycling Technologies, in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has successfully completed a three-year study on the use of the company’s low-carbon cement in highways.
The results highlight Carbon Upcycling’s ability to be a drop-in solution for reducing carbon-intensive cement in concrete, while saving money and making stronger roads.
The work in the study was carried out by Sutter Engineering and sponsored by the National Road Research Alliance (NRRA). It rigorously tested 16 unique concrete mixtures in real-world conditions on an active Minnesota highway […]
Michael Li, Staff Writer - Brennan Center for Justice
Stephan:
We are watching the United States democracy being destroyed, and a pseudo-election process being crafted to replace an honest democracy election. By March, I predict, the United States will no longer be a democracy; it will have become a larger version of Hungary, Turkey, and Russia. Within a year all the things the oligarchs seek, reduced taxes on the rich, reduced social support for ordinary Americans, e.g., Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, more expensive healthcare and drugs, further corruption of Congress and the Supreme Court, a more corrupt, less effective military. What amazes me is how docile and cooperative of this transition a large percentage of Americans have become. The Great Schism Trend, I have been reporting on for years, has become so advanced that we really have become two cultures in a single nation.
On the surface, the 2024 fight between Democrats and Republicans to control the House resulted in continuation of the status quo.
In 2022, Republicans won a net of nine Democratic seats to gain a narrow, and at times dysfunctional, majority of 222–213. This year, Republicans retained control, winning an only slightly smaller majority of 220–215. (With the resignation of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and two more expected vacancies in January because of Trump administration appointments, that majority is expect to drop further temporarily to 217–215.)
But dig a little deeper, and the 2024 election offers important insights about the power of gerrymandering, the impact of redistricting reforms, and the role that courts play in fair outcomes (for both good and ill).
Competition Was Scarce, But Enough to Keep the Outcome Uncertain
Heading into Election Day, only 27 House districts were categorized as competitive by Cook Political Report. Other election forecasters had even fewer districts on their lists of tossup and lean districts. In the end, the field proved just about as thin as expected.
Only 37 districts — 22 won by a Democrat and 15 won […]
Thom Hartmann is historically and factually correct. Pay attention to the points he makes. You and I are no more than docile chickens herded by billionaires and the illness-profit corporations they control, and no better cared for than those industrially farmed birds
Credit: National Cancer Institute / Unsplash
In the wake of the assassination of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson, Americans are wondering out loud why we’re getting ripped off by giant insurance companies when every other developed country in the world has healthcare as a right and pays an average of about half of what we do — and gets better outcomes.
— The only developed country in the world that doesn’t recognize healthcare as a human right,
— The only country with more than two-thirds of its population lacking access to affordable healthcare and a half-million families facing bankruptcy every year because somebody got sick, — The only country in the developed world where over 40% of the population carries $220 billion in medical debt, — And the only country in the developed world that has, since its founding, enslaved and then legally oppressed and disenfranchised a […]
Out of half a dozen stories I saw today reporting the organized corruption that constitutes the incoming Trump administration, I picked this one because it is going to directly affect your life if you are a recipient of Medicare of Medicaid. But I thought I should also mention that Elon Musk spent $277 million buying Trump the Presidency and, in the process, increased his wealth, largely through government contracts that you and I are paying for, by $200 billion. There is no doubt that we have become an authoritarian oligarchy.
Dr, Mehmet Oz Credit: Mark Makela / Getty
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the daytime television host Donald Trump has picked to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), may have a direct financial stake in three companies that would do business with the agency he intends to run.
A review of Oz’s 2022 tax disclosure by Accountable.US revealed that the Trump ally owned up to $26 million stake in Sharecare, a digital health company co-founded by Oz that operates CareLinx, the “exclusive in-home care supplemental benefit program” used by 1.5 million Medicare Advantage enrollees. The company went private in 2024, so it’s unknown whether Oz still owns a stake in the company.
Novo Nordisk, which produces Ozempic and Wegovy among other drugs, is also a client of Sharecare. As head of CMS, Oz has considerable impact on the pharmaceutical industry—but with business ties like these, it’s equally likely that these drug companies could have a profound impact on him.
Oz’s transition team spokesperson, Nick Clemens, toldUSA Today Friday that Oz had sold off his stake in Sharecare, but did not […]
