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 by […]
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 large […]
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 […]
Justin Elliott, Robert Faturechi and Alex Mierjeski, Staff Writers - ProPublica
Stephan:
After having tea with my wife, and debriefing with her about how hard it is becoming to do SR every day because of how depressing it is to report on what is happening to the United States, I decided I did need to do this corruption story because, I think it finally settles the issue that on 20 January we will cease to be an ethical democracy, and become an authoritarian oligarchy. Donald Trump simply has no ethics, and no interests other than his own self-enrichment. Tomorrow I am going yet again to see if I can find some good news trends. In the United States they are becoming very hard to find.
There have been internal concerns that Trump Media could be misleading investors, a source said. But with its largest shareholder about to be president, experts doubt the SEC is up to the job of investigating Truth Social’s parent company.
Last month a major shareholder of a publicly traded company took to social media to complain that people — perhaps short sellers — were spreading lies that could hurt his firm’s stock price.
“There are fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumors,” the post read. “I hereby request that the people who have set off these fake rumors or statements, and who may have done so in the past, be immediately investigated by the appropriate authorities.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t typically take its marching orders from shareholders on social media. But in this case, the poster was Donald Trump, who’s just weeks away from being inaugurated and gaining the power to appoint the head of the SEC.
When Trump takes office in January, a president will for the first time be the majority owner of a publicly traded company, Trump Media, which runs Truth Social. Former SEC officials are concerned about how Trump could try to use the agency to go after the foes […]
Climate change is significantly altering the poles. An iceberg bigger than Rhode Island — 1,418-square-miles — has broken free in the Antarctic and is now floating in the Southern Ocean about halfway between the southeast coast of Argentina and the Antarctic continent but more than 1,200 miles east. It will pass by South Georgia Island a British overseas territory inhabited only by scientists who study the Antarctic. As this report describes no one really knows what the environmental effect of such a huge block of melting ice will be.
Iceberg A23a in November 2023. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
After spinning in a vortex for months, the world’s largest and oldest iceberg is on the move again.
Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey announced on Friday that the colossal iceberg, designated A23a, is floating across the Southern Ocean. The iceberg’s journey provides a significant opportunity for scientists to study how giant icebergs impact their surrounding ecosystems.
“It’s exciting to see A23a on the move again after periods of being stuck. We are interested to see if it will take the same route the other large icebergs that have calved off Antarctica have taken,” Andrew Meijers, an oceanographer at British Antarctic Survey, noted in the British Antarctic Survey statement, “And more importantly what impact this will have on the local ecosystem.”
A23a weighs almost a trillion tons, and, as of August, spanned 1,418-square-miles (3,672 square kilometers), making it twice as big as Greater London, or just a bit larger than Rhode Island, according to CNN. It has repeatedly claimed the title of the world’s largest iceberg, outlasting several large contenders.
