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December 7, 2025
Trump’s foreign policy vision: Make Europe white again
Trump's global "strategy" is grandiose, racist, and alarmingly dumb: Tyranny is cool, bro! But democracy sucks
By Andrew O'Hehir
Executive Editor
Published December 7, 2025 6:45AM (EST)
(Salon) To say that Donald Trump’s political movement is built on contradiction is an understatement. Trump’s entire movement is a contradiction: The promise to make America “great again” has always referred simultaneously to an imaginary past that never existed and an imaginary future that can never be achieved, not even under the totalitarian dictatorship of Stephen Miller’s late-night fantasies.
....(snip)....
Understandably enough, it’s the unhinged and unconcealed racist panic shoveled out in the Trump NSS that has generated international headlines. Europe, the document warns, is losing its historic cultural identity and faces the “stark prospect of civilizational erasure.” Exactly what is meant here by “identity” and “civilization” is only barely left unsaid, and the Great Replacement rhetoric is not so much borrowed as copied and pasted: It is “more than plausible,” we are told, that in coming decades “certain NATO members will become majority non-European,” and may no longer “view their place in the world, or their alliance with the United States, in the same way” they used to.
....(snip)....
We can’t exactly call it surprising that this overwrought Trumpian manifesto vows to go all-in on “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations” by encouraging the rise of “patriotic European parties” eager to celebrate their nations’ “individual character and history.” Or that the attitude expressed toward Russia, China and the oil-based monarchies of the Middle East amounts to a shrug emoji: Really far away! Not our problem! Live and let live! Ukraine-Shmukraine!
Or rather, it’s only surprising in the sense that whenever we think the Trump administration can’t outdo itself in overt bigotry, outright lies or vainglorious self-destruction, we turn out to be wrong. One could observe that Trump’s apparent plan to give Vladimir Putin almost everything he wants, Neville Chamberlain-style, in order to end the Ukraine war isn’t working too well, and that JD Vance and Elon Musk’s efforts to meddle in European elections on behalf of the xenophobic far right have at least partly backfired. None of that means, mind you, that this alternately idiotic and delusional document — described in that Economist editorial, using an enjoyable Anglo-idiom, as “a dog’s breakfast” — is not dangerous. ....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/07/trumps-foreign-policy-vision-make-europe-white-again/
Trump's foreign policy vision: Make Europe white again
Trump’s foreign policy vision: Make Europe white again
Trump's global "strategy" is grandiose, racist, and alarmingly dumb: Tyranny is cool, bro! But democracy sucks
By Andrew O'Hehir
Executive Editor
Published December 7, 2025 6:45AM (EST)
(Salon) To say that Donald Trump’s political movement is built on contradiction is an understatement. Trump’s entire movement is a contradiction: The promise to make America “great again” has always referred simultaneously to an imaginary past that never existed and an imaginary future that can never be achieved, not even under the totalitarian dictatorship of Stephen Miller’s late-night fantasies.
....(snip)....
Understandably enough, it’s the unhinged and unconcealed racist panic shoveled out in the Trump NSS that has generated international headlines. Europe, the document warns, is losing its historic cultural identity and faces the “stark prospect of civilizational erasure.” Exactly what is meant here by “identity” and “civilization” is only barely left unsaid, and the Great Replacement rhetoric is not so much borrowed as copied and pasted: It is “more than plausible,” we are told, that in coming decades “certain NATO members will become majority non-European,” and may no longer “view their place in the world, or their alliance with the United States, in the same way” they used to.
....(snip)....
We can’t exactly call it surprising that this overwrought Trumpian manifesto vows to go all-in on “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations” by encouraging the rise of “patriotic European parties” eager to celebrate their nations’ “individual character and history.” Or that the attitude expressed toward Russia, China and the oil-based monarchies of the Middle East amounts to a shrug emoji: Really far away! Not our problem! Live and let live! Ukraine-Shmukraine!
Or rather, it’s only surprising in the sense that whenever we think the Trump administration can’t outdo itself in overt bigotry, outright lies or vainglorious self-destruction, we turn out to be wrong. One could observe that Trump’s apparent plan to give Vladimir Putin almost everything he wants, Neville Chamberlain-style, in order to end the Ukraine war isn’t working too well, and that JD Vance and Elon Musk’s efforts to meddle in European elections on behalf of the xenophobic far right have at least partly backfired. None of that means, mind you, that this alternately idiotic and delusional document — described in that Economist editorial, using an enjoyable Anglo-idiom, as “a dog’s breakfast” — is not dangerous. ....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/07/trumps-foreign-policy-vision-make-europe-white-again/
December 6, 2025
Published: December 4, 2025 5:08pm EST
Joshua Kastenberg
Professor of Law, University of New Mexico
(The Conversation) News reports about a U.S. military attack on a boat in the Caribbean allegedly carrying drugs have raised critical questions about the military campaign against drug smugglers being carried out by the Trump administration in that region.
Among them: whether Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth or others face criminal liability for any of the attacks. Those attacks killed people alleged to have been involved in illegal narcotics trafficking.
Congressional investigations have begun into allegations that a Sept. 2, 2025, follow-up attack on two survivors of an earlier attack was illegal and ordered by Hegseth. Some legal scholars have cited violations of international and United States criminal law that could come into play.
But as a military law scholar who spent 20 years as a lawyer and judge in the U.S. Air Force, I know that there aren’t enough facts known yet to determine who is responsible for what. There are five investigative mechanisms that could be used to determine the facts and whether there is criminal liability on the part of both senior civilian officials and military members involved in the now extensively reported second strike on the suspected drug boat that resulted in the deaths of civilians. ...................(more)
https://theconversation.com/pete-hegseth-could-be-investigated-for-illegal-orders-by-5-different-bodies-but-none-are-likely-to-lead-to-charges-271284
Pete Hegseth could be investigated for illegal orders by 5 different bodies - but none are likely to lead to charges
Pete Hegseth could be investigated for illegal orders by 5 different bodies – but none are likely to lead to chargesPublished: December 4, 2025 5:08pm EST
Joshua Kastenberg
Professor of Law, University of New Mexico
(The Conversation) News reports about a U.S. military attack on a boat in the Caribbean allegedly carrying drugs have raised critical questions about the military campaign against drug smugglers being carried out by the Trump administration in that region.
Among them: whether Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth or others face criminal liability for any of the attacks. Those attacks killed people alleged to have been involved in illegal narcotics trafficking.
Congressional investigations have begun into allegations that a Sept. 2, 2025, follow-up attack on two survivors of an earlier attack was illegal and ordered by Hegseth. Some legal scholars have cited violations of international and United States criminal law that could come into play.
But as a military law scholar who spent 20 years as a lawyer and judge in the U.S. Air Force, I know that there aren’t enough facts known yet to determine who is responsible for what. There are five investigative mechanisms that could be used to determine the facts and whether there is criminal liability on the part of both senior civilian officials and military members involved in the now extensively reported second strike on the suspected drug boat that resulted in the deaths of civilians. ...................(more)
https://theconversation.com/pete-hegseth-could-be-investigated-for-illegal-orders-by-5-different-bodies-but-none-are-likely-to-lead-to-charges-271284
December 5, 2025
BART is moving forward with the latest in a series of fare hikes designed to keep up with inflation as it faces a future of major deficits and potential service cuts.
The 6.2% increase is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The surge continues a program of inflation-based increases the agency has imposed every two years since 2004.
The one-way cost for the shortest trips on the system, such as those between stops in downtown San Francisco and Oakland, will rise from $2.45 to $2.60. A moderate-length commute — from El Cerrito Plaza to San Francisco’s Civic Center station — will go up 35 cents to $5.70 each way. BART calculates that the average passenger fare will rise from about 30 cents to $5.
The latest hike is detailed in a federally required analysis of the equity impact on minority and low-income riders that the BART board of directors is slated to approve Thursday. .................(more)
https://www.kqed.org/news/12040951/bart-raise-fares-again-deficit-looms
SF Bay Area: BART to Raise Fares Again as Deficit Looms
BART is moving forward with the latest in a series of fare hikes designed to keep up with inflation as it faces a future of major deficits and potential service cuts.
The 6.2% increase is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The surge continues a program of inflation-based increases the agency has imposed every two years since 2004.
The one-way cost for the shortest trips on the system, such as those between stops in downtown San Francisco and Oakland, will rise from $2.45 to $2.60. A moderate-length commute — from El Cerrito Plaza to San Francisco’s Civic Center station — will go up 35 cents to $5.70 each way. BART calculates that the average passenger fare will rise from about 30 cents to $5.
The latest hike is detailed in a federally required analysis of the equity impact on minority and low-income riders that the BART board of directors is slated to approve Thursday. .................(more)
https://www.kqed.org/news/12040951/bart-raise-fares-again-deficit-looms
December 5, 2025
Trump is dragging the White House press corps into the gutter
I guess the barrage of lies and insults aren't enough. Now Trump wants the media's complete submission
By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published December 5, 2025 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) Never forget: Each and every week, Donald Trump gets worse.
His regime is a ladder into a bottomless pit, a place that, as Hunter S. Thompson once said of journalism, is “a cruel and shallow money trench … a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.”
In the latest round of professional malfeasance, the president’s sycophants in the communications office have launched a “Media Bias Portal” on the official White House website. They are encouraging people to give them “tips” when the public believes a member of the press has produced “Fake News.” Naturally, I took the opportunity to fill out the page and offered the White House a tip that its own communication staff is publishing “fake news.” I wonder how long I’ll be waiting for a response.
....(snip)....
Trump is now in the end stages of his campaign to destroy free speech, independent media and all forms of dissent. He’s like the WWE Undertaker in the White House — which fits the bill nicely since the head of his communications staff, Steven Cheung, formerly worked with the WWE and loves to play the bully with members of a young and inexperienced press corps.
....(snip)....
There is a good reason reporters haven’t stood up to defend one another during the current administration. Trump has engineered an inexperienced, sycophantic press corps. It’s handicapped from the moment reporters begin asking him questions, and Trump gets bolder, less professional and increasingly confrontational every time he appears before a pool spray, largely because of his success in undermining the Fourth Estate. ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/05/trump-is-dragging-the-white-house-press-corps-into-the-gutter/
Trump is dragging the White House press corps into the gutter
Trump is dragging the White House press corps into the gutter
I guess the barrage of lies and insults aren't enough. Now Trump wants the media's complete submission
By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published December 5, 2025 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) Never forget: Each and every week, Donald Trump gets worse.
His regime is a ladder into a bottomless pit, a place that, as Hunter S. Thompson once said of journalism, is “a cruel and shallow money trench … a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.”
In the latest round of professional malfeasance, the president’s sycophants in the communications office have launched a “Media Bias Portal” on the official White House website. They are encouraging people to give them “tips” when the public believes a member of the press has produced “Fake News.” Naturally, I took the opportunity to fill out the page and offered the White House a tip that its own communication staff is publishing “fake news.” I wonder how long I’ll be waiting for a response.
....(snip)....
Trump is now in the end stages of his campaign to destroy free speech, independent media and all forms of dissent. He’s like the WWE Undertaker in the White House — which fits the bill nicely since the head of his communications staff, Steven Cheung, formerly worked with the WWE and loves to play the bully with members of a young and inexperienced press corps.
....(snip)....
There is a good reason reporters haven’t stood up to defend one another during the current administration. Trump has engineered an inexperienced, sycophantic press corps. It’s handicapped from the moment reporters begin asking him questions, and Trump gets bolder, less professional and increasingly confrontational every time he appears before a pool spray, largely because of his success in undermining the Fourth Estate. ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/05/trump-is-dragging-the-white-house-press-corps-into-the-gutter/
December 5, 2025
“Rage bait” as Word of the Year? It’s a reason for hope
Oxford Dictionary elevates the name of the MAGA addiction — the first step to a solution
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published December 5, 2025 6:45AM (EST)
(Salon) At first, I was sad to see that the linguist team at the Oxford English Dictionary had picked “rage bait” as the Word of the Year. But there’s no doubt it was the right choice.
As the wordsmiths explained in their Dec. 1 press release, rage bait is “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.” While they never use the term “MAGA,” there can be no doubt that they’re talking about the decentralized, mostly online propaganda that has created the movement and given so much power to Donald Trump.
A major form of rage bait is the endless stream of videos, photos, stories and memes — many outright fabricated — that are gobbled down by gullible Trump voters, keeping them in a constant fury at liberals and feminists and immigrants and queers. Their leaders’ goal is to keep them in a perpetual state of ignorance and hostility, ready to destroy American democracy just so they can stick it to these people they’ve been told to hate.
....(snip)....
MAGA’s rage bait is depressing to think about. But ultimately, I was heartened to see that Oxford made this choice because putting a name to a problem is often the first step toward solving it. While the term has been around for awhile, the Oxford team notes that its usage has increased threefold in the past year, showing that far larger numbers of people are starting to understand how folks are being brainwashed on social media and what effect it’s having on our politics. As experts told me for my recent article investigating the rage bait YouTube show “Whatever,” the best way to prevent the far-right brainwashing is for people to understand that they are being manipulated, so they are better equipped to resist the temptations of rage bait. ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/05/rage-bait-as-word-of-the-year-its-a-reason-for-hope/
"Rage bait" as Word of the Year? It's a reason for hope
“Rage bait” as Word of the Year? It’s a reason for hope
Oxford Dictionary elevates the name of the MAGA addiction — the first step to a solution
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published December 5, 2025 6:45AM (EST)
(Salon) At first, I was sad to see that the linguist team at the Oxford English Dictionary had picked “rage bait” as the Word of the Year. But there’s no doubt it was the right choice.
As the wordsmiths explained in their Dec. 1 press release, rage bait is “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.” While they never use the term “MAGA,” there can be no doubt that they’re talking about the decentralized, mostly online propaganda that has created the movement and given so much power to Donald Trump.
A major form of rage bait is the endless stream of videos, photos, stories and memes — many outright fabricated — that are gobbled down by gullible Trump voters, keeping them in a constant fury at liberals and feminists and immigrants and queers. Their leaders’ goal is to keep them in a perpetual state of ignorance and hostility, ready to destroy American democracy just so they can stick it to these people they’ve been told to hate.
....(snip)....
MAGA’s rage bait is depressing to think about. But ultimately, I was heartened to see that Oxford made this choice because putting a name to a problem is often the first step toward solving it. While the term has been around for awhile, the Oxford team notes that its usage has increased threefold in the past year, showing that far larger numbers of people are starting to understand how folks are being brainwashed on social media and what effect it’s having on our politics. As experts told me for my recent article investigating the rage bait YouTube show “Whatever,” the best way to prevent the far-right brainwashing is for people to understand that they are being manipulated, so they are better equipped to resist the temptations of rage bait. ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/05/rage-bait-as-word-of-the-year-its-a-reason-for-hope/
December 5, 2025
A desperate Trump puts his racism on full display
The president’s attacks on Somali-Americans are the latest sign he is failing — and he knows it
By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published December 5, 2025 9:00AM (EST)
(Salon) Donald Trump needs to put the phone down at night and get some sleep. After spending three hours Monday night manically sharing more than 160 bizarre posts on Truth Social, he spent most of Tuesday’s televised cabinet meeting struggling to stay awake — and he lost the battle more than once. This was just the most recent example of his flagging energy and focus. But he woke right up when it came time for him to rant about immigrants.
It’s hard to know if Trump is simply ratcheting up his deportation policy to distract from his low poll numbers and a foreign policy that seems increasingly beyond his comprehension, or if this escalation is a specific policy push by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. What’s clear is that the administration has entered a new phase in its plan to rid the nation of immigrants.
What started out as a campaign promise to deport the “worst of the worse” gang members like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua has progressed to a full scale purge of any non-white, non-citizen. Trump is now even talking about “denaturalization” and “re-migration,” two terms that are right out of the Great Replacement Theory playbook.
....(snip)....
When speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Thanksgiving — the day after the shooting — he pivoted from his attacks on Afghan immigration to railing against Somalians as well. They are “ripping off our country,” he said, pledging “we’re not going to put up with these kind of assaults on law and order by people who shouldn’t even be in our country.” When a confused reporter asked what Somalians had to do with the Afghan suspect, the president blithely replied, “nothing, but Somalians have caused a lot of trouble,” and then insulted Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. He continued that theme in his crude, late-night Thanksgiving “message” on Truth Social that characterized Somalians in Minnesota as roving gangs “looking for prey as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone.” ................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/05/a-desperate-trump-puts-his-racism-on-full-display/
A desperate Trump puts his racism on full display
A desperate Trump puts his racism on full display
The president’s attacks on Somali-Americans are the latest sign he is failing — and he knows it
By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published December 5, 2025 9:00AM (EST)
(Salon) Donald Trump needs to put the phone down at night and get some sleep. After spending three hours Monday night manically sharing more than 160 bizarre posts on Truth Social, he spent most of Tuesday’s televised cabinet meeting struggling to stay awake — and he lost the battle more than once. This was just the most recent example of his flagging energy and focus. But he woke right up when it came time for him to rant about immigrants.
It’s hard to know if Trump is simply ratcheting up his deportation policy to distract from his low poll numbers and a foreign policy that seems increasingly beyond his comprehension, or if this escalation is a specific policy push by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. What’s clear is that the administration has entered a new phase in its plan to rid the nation of immigrants.
What started out as a campaign promise to deport the “worst of the worse” gang members like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua has progressed to a full scale purge of any non-white, non-citizen. Trump is now even talking about “denaturalization” and “re-migration,” two terms that are right out of the Great Replacement Theory playbook.
....(snip)....
When speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Thanksgiving — the day after the shooting — he pivoted from his attacks on Afghan immigration to railing against Somalians as well. They are “ripping off our country,” he said, pledging “we’re not going to put up with these kind of assaults on law and order by people who shouldn’t even be in our country.” When a confused reporter asked what Somalians had to do with the Afghan suspect, the president blithely replied, “nothing, but Somalians have caused a lot of trouble,” and then insulted Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. He continued that theme in his crude, late-night Thanksgiving “message” on Truth Social that characterized Somalians in Minnesota as roving gangs “looking for prey as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone.” ................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/05/a-desperate-trump-puts-his-racism-on-full-display/
December 4, 2025
A Medicare pilot program will allow private companies to use artificial intelligence to review older Americans’ requests for certain medical care — and will reward the companies when they deny it.
In January, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will launch the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) Model to test AI-powered prior authorizations on certain health services for Medicare patients in six states: Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington. The program is scheduled to last through 2031.
The program effectively inserts one of private insurance’s most unpopular features — prior authorization — into traditional Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older and those with certain disabilities. Prior authorization is the process by which patients and doctors must ask health insurers to approve medical procedures or drugs before proceeding.
Adults over 65 generally have two options for health insurance: traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Both types of Medicare are funded with public dollars, but Medicare Advantage plans are contracted through private insurance companies. Medicare Advantage plans tend to cost less out of pocket, but patients enrolled in them often must seek prior authorization for care. .....................(more)
https://michiganadvance.com/2025/12/04/repub/medicares-new-ai-experiment-sparks-alarm-among-doctors-lawmakers/
Medicare's new AI experiment sparks alarm among doctors, lawmakers
A Medicare pilot program will allow private companies to use artificial intelligence to review older Americans’ requests for certain medical care — and will reward the companies when they deny it.
In January, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will launch the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) Model to test AI-powered prior authorizations on certain health services for Medicare patients in six states: Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington. The program is scheduled to last through 2031.
The program effectively inserts one of private insurance’s most unpopular features — prior authorization — into traditional Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older and those with certain disabilities. Prior authorization is the process by which patients and doctors must ask health insurers to approve medical procedures or drugs before proceeding.
Adults over 65 generally have two options for health insurance: traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Both types of Medicare are funded with public dollars, but Medicare Advantage plans are contracted through private insurance companies. Medicare Advantage plans tend to cost less out of pocket, but patients enrolled in them often must seek prior authorization for care. .....................(more)
https://michiganadvance.com/2025/12/04/repub/medicares-new-ai-experiment-sparks-alarm-among-doctors-lawmakers/
December 4, 2025
FDA claims on COVID-19 vaccine safety are unsupported by reliable data – and could severely hinder vaccine access
Published: December 3, 2025 4:16pm EST
Frank Han
Assistant Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, University of Illinois Chicago
(The Conversation) The Food and Drug Administration is seeking to drastically change procedures for testing vaccine safety and approving vaccines, based on unproven claims that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines caused the death of at least 10 children.
....(snip)....
Citing an internal, unpublished review, the memo, written by the agency’s top vaccine regulator, Vinay Prasad, attributes the children’s deaths to myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. And it says the deaths were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, but provides no evidence that the vaccines caused the deaths.
The death of children due to an unsafe vaccine is a serious allegation. I am a pediatric cardiologist who has studied the link between COVID-19 vaccines and heart-related side effects such as myocarditis in children. To my knowledge, studies to date have shown such side effects are rare, and severe outcomes even more so. However, I am open to new evidence that could change my mind.
But without sufficient justification and solid evidence, restricting access to an approved vaccine and changing well-established procedures for testing vaccines would carry serious consequences. These moves would limit access for patients, create roadblocks for companies and worsen distrust in vaccines and public health. ....................(more)
https://theconversation.com/fda-claims-on-covid-19-vaccine-safety-are-unsupported-by-reliable-data-and-could-severely-hinder-vaccine-access-271028
FDA claims on COVID-19 vaccine safety are unsupported by reliable data - and could severely hinder vaccine access
FDA claims on COVID-19 vaccine safety are unsupported by reliable data – and could severely hinder vaccine access
Published: December 3, 2025 4:16pm EST
Frank Han
Assistant Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, University of Illinois Chicago
(The Conversation) The Food and Drug Administration is seeking to drastically change procedures for testing vaccine safety and approving vaccines, based on unproven claims that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines caused the death of at least 10 children.
....(snip)....
Citing an internal, unpublished review, the memo, written by the agency’s top vaccine regulator, Vinay Prasad, attributes the children’s deaths to myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. And it says the deaths were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, but provides no evidence that the vaccines caused the deaths.
The death of children due to an unsafe vaccine is a serious allegation. I am a pediatric cardiologist who has studied the link between COVID-19 vaccines and heart-related side effects such as myocarditis in children. To my knowledge, studies to date have shown such side effects are rare, and severe outcomes even more so. However, I am open to new evidence that could change my mind.
But without sufficient justification and solid evidence, restricting access to an approved vaccine and changing well-established procedures for testing vaccines would carry serious consequences. These moves would limit access for patients, create roadblocks for companies and worsen distrust in vaccines and public health. ....................(more)
https://theconversation.com/fda-claims-on-covid-19-vaccine-safety-are-unsupported-by-reliable-data-and-could-severely-hinder-vaccine-access-271028
December 4, 2025
Boat strikes: War crime or “fake news” hoax?
Even as some Republicans turn on the ghastly Pete Hegseth, right-wing media can't handle the truth
By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published December 4, 2025 9:05AM (EST)
(Salon) Bob Woodward reported in “Fear” that Donald Trump once offered a friend accused of sexual harassment a simple strategy: “You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back… if you admit to anything, you’re dead.”
That has since become the ethos of his MAGA movement. Today, anything that threatens Trump’s power, reputation or fragile ego is instantly alchemized into a hoax. “Every scandal you hear about Trump is a media hoax designed to destroy him,” Charlie Kirk told his MAGA audience. Right-wing media simply refuses to tolerate andy and all facts that disrupt the narrative ecosystem they’ve built around Trump. And now this machinery of denial is being used to excuse war crimes.
Even as the evidence of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ghastliness grows, with Republican lawmakers calling into question his competence and even conservative legal scholars warning that the laws of armed conflict have repeatedly been broken under his watch, MAGA media appears imperviously sealed within a bubble of denial. The right no longer debates truth. So when Hegseth — himself a former Fox News host — oversees the slaughter of over 83 people for no reason other than they were “suspected” of having drugs on their boat, the media machine he built around him rushed to dismiss the killings as the latest “hoax” perpetrated by “fake news.”
....(snip)....
The Daily Caller, the right-wing publication founded by Tucker Carlson years ago and now a loyal MAGA mouthpiece, has promoted Hegseth’s “fog of war” excuses and published articles arguing that the strikes are being “misinterpreted” by mainstream media. Breitbart dismissed the Washington Post’s initial report as “a fabricated hit job on patriots defending our borders,” while Newsmax and OANN referred to the story as the “Venezuela boat hoax” and “another anti-military hoax by the deep-state press.” Even after the White House confirmed the core facts, MAGA media outlets didn’t correct themselves, but reflexively shifted from claims of falsehood to justification. ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/04/boat-strikes-war-crime-or-fake-news-hoax/
Even as some Republicans turn on the ghastly Pete Hegseth, right-wing media can't handle the truth
Boat strikes: War crime or “fake news” hoax?
Even as some Republicans turn on the ghastly Pete Hegseth, right-wing media can't handle the truth
By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published December 4, 2025 9:05AM (EST)
(Salon) Bob Woodward reported in “Fear” that Donald Trump once offered a friend accused of sexual harassment a simple strategy: “You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back… if you admit to anything, you’re dead.”
That has since become the ethos of his MAGA movement. Today, anything that threatens Trump’s power, reputation or fragile ego is instantly alchemized into a hoax. “Every scandal you hear about Trump is a media hoax designed to destroy him,” Charlie Kirk told his MAGA audience. Right-wing media simply refuses to tolerate andy and all facts that disrupt the narrative ecosystem they’ve built around Trump. And now this machinery of denial is being used to excuse war crimes.
Even as the evidence of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ghastliness grows, with Republican lawmakers calling into question his competence and even conservative legal scholars warning that the laws of armed conflict have repeatedly been broken under his watch, MAGA media appears imperviously sealed within a bubble of denial. The right no longer debates truth. So when Hegseth — himself a former Fox News host — oversees the slaughter of over 83 people for no reason other than they were “suspected” of having drugs on their boat, the media machine he built around him rushed to dismiss the killings as the latest “hoax” perpetrated by “fake news.”
....(snip)....
The Daily Caller, the right-wing publication founded by Tucker Carlson years ago and now a loyal MAGA mouthpiece, has promoted Hegseth’s “fog of war” excuses and published articles arguing that the strikes are being “misinterpreted” by mainstream media. Breitbart dismissed the Washington Post’s initial report as “a fabricated hit job on patriots defending our borders,” while Newsmax and OANN referred to the story as the “Venezuela boat hoax” and “another anti-military hoax by the deep-state press.” Even after the White House confirmed the core facts, MAGA media outlets didn’t correct themselves, but reflexively shifted from claims of falsehood to justification. ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/04/boat-strikes-war-crime-or-fake-news-hoax/
December 3, 2025
(Detroit Metro Times) Two right-wing political operatives who orchestrated a racist robocall campaign to suppress turnout among Black voters in Detroit dodged jail time Monday and were sentenced to one year of probation.
Jack Burkman, 59, and Jacob Wohl, 27, pleaded no contest to felony charges for creating and funding a series of robocalls in 2020 that pushed falsehoods about voting by mail.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Margaret VanHouten handed down the sentence under a Cobbs agreement between the defendants and the court.
A Cobbs agreement allows a judge to give defendants an advance estimate of their sentence in exchange for a plea. The Michigan Attorney General’s Office was not part of that agreement. ..................(more)
https://www.metrotimes.com/news/metro-detroit-news/right-wing-operatives-sentenced-in-racist-robocall-scheme-targeting-detroit-voters/
Right-wing operatives sentenced in racist robocall scheme targeting Detroit voters
(Detroit Metro Times) Two right-wing political operatives who orchestrated a racist robocall campaign to suppress turnout among Black voters in Detroit dodged jail time Monday and were sentenced to one year of probation.
Jack Burkman, 59, and Jacob Wohl, 27, pleaded no contest to felony charges for creating and funding a series of robocalls in 2020 that pushed falsehoods about voting by mail.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Margaret VanHouten handed down the sentence under a Cobbs agreement between the defendants and the court.
A Cobbs agreement allows a judge to give defendants an advance estimate of their sentence in exchange for a plea. The Michigan Attorney General’s Office was not part of that agreement. ..................(more)
https://www.metrotimes.com/news/metro-detroit-news/right-wing-operatives-sentenced-in-racist-robocall-scheme-targeting-detroit-voters/
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