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December 14, 2025
Trump is whitewashing American history
The death of Viola Fletcher, the last survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, underscores what Trump is attacking
By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published December 13, 2025 6:45AM (EST)
(Salon) Viola Floyd Fletcher passed away on Nov. 24. At 111, she was the oldest known survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, a pogrom and an act of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by thousands of white people that took place over the course of two days in the spring of 1921. The white mob killed at least 300 Black people in the prosperous neighborhood of Greenwood, Oklahoma, which was known as the “Black Wall Street,” and destroyed more than 1,200 homes and at least 60 businesses. Machine guns were used; airplanes dropped bombs. Survivors were forced into a concentration camp. In today’s money, the total damages are estimated at up to $200 million.
Black prosperity is a threat, a provocation and a collective narcissistic injury to what W. E. B. Du Bois famously described as the “psychological wages of whiteness.” More than 100 years later, in the post-civil rights era and the Age of Trump, this remains true.
....(snip)....
What Fletcher and others like her represent are threats to Donald Trump, America’s first White president. As Ta-Nehisi Coates has compellingly argued, Trump’s power in this role is not rooted in skin color or phenotype but in white identity politics and making “the negation of Obama’s legacy the foundation of his own… (Trump) is the first president whose entire political existence hinges on the fact of a black president.”
As part of Trump and his MAGA movement’s revolutionary project to return the country to the 19th century — what he and his messengers have termed “Make America Great Again” — the experiences and legacies of Black and brown people who speak uncomfortable truths about American society, such as Mother Fletcher, are being distorted and/or silenced in service to patriotism, American exceptionalism, white racial innocence and white victimhood. Even more than his first, Trump’s second administration is based on, as Nikole Hannah-Jones explained in the New York Times, “recast[ing] the white majority as the primary victims of systemic racial discrimination — though no evidence, not even self-reporting among white people, shows this to be true.”
The latest example of the MAGA revanchist project centers on attacking the only two federal holidays that honor Black American history. Earlier this week, Trump’s Interior Department announced it was ending free admission to national parks on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth. Instead, those holidays will be replaced by Trump’s birthday, June 14, which is also Flag Day. The National Park Service, which is overseen by the department, will also begin charging non-U.S. residents more to visit its parks. This is an act of nativism presented semi-politely as “America-first pricing.” ....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/13/trump-is-whitewashing-black-american-history/
Trump is whitewashing American history
Trump is whitewashing American history
The death of Viola Fletcher, the last survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, underscores what Trump is attacking
By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published December 13, 2025 6:45AM (EST)
(Salon) Viola Floyd Fletcher passed away on Nov. 24. At 111, she was the oldest known survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, a pogrom and an act of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by thousands of white people that took place over the course of two days in the spring of 1921. The white mob killed at least 300 Black people in the prosperous neighborhood of Greenwood, Oklahoma, which was known as the “Black Wall Street,” and destroyed more than 1,200 homes and at least 60 businesses. Machine guns were used; airplanes dropped bombs. Survivors were forced into a concentration camp. In today’s money, the total damages are estimated at up to $200 million.
Black prosperity is a threat, a provocation and a collective narcissistic injury to what W. E. B. Du Bois famously described as the “psychological wages of whiteness.” More than 100 years later, in the post-civil rights era and the Age of Trump, this remains true.
....(snip)....
What Fletcher and others like her represent are threats to Donald Trump, America’s first White president. As Ta-Nehisi Coates has compellingly argued, Trump’s power in this role is not rooted in skin color or phenotype but in white identity politics and making “the negation of Obama’s legacy the foundation of his own… (Trump) is the first president whose entire political existence hinges on the fact of a black president.”
As part of Trump and his MAGA movement’s revolutionary project to return the country to the 19th century — what he and his messengers have termed “Make America Great Again” — the experiences and legacies of Black and brown people who speak uncomfortable truths about American society, such as Mother Fletcher, are being distorted and/or silenced in service to patriotism, American exceptionalism, white racial innocence and white victimhood. Even more than his first, Trump’s second administration is based on, as Nikole Hannah-Jones explained in the New York Times, “recast[ing] the white majority as the primary victims of systemic racial discrimination — though no evidence, not even self-reporting among white people, shows this to be true.”
The latest example of the MAGA revanchist project centers on attacking the only two federal holidays that honor Black American history. Earlier this week, Trump’s Interior Department announced it was ending free admission to national parks on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth. Instead, those holidays will be replaced by Trump’s birthday, June 14, which is also Flag Day. The National Park Service, which is overseen by the department, will also begin charging non-U.S. residents more to visit its parks. This is an act of nativism presented semi-politely as “America-first pricing.” ....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/13/trump-is-whitewashing-black-american-history/
December 14, 2025
Trump’s politically motivated prosecutions keep crumbling
The president's grand legal strategy targeting his perceived enemies isn't working
By Garrett Owen
National Affairs Fellow
Published December 14, 2025 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) President Donald Trump will not let his enemies go without a fight. He wants to punish those who speak out against him, who present cases against him and who, in doing their jobs to the letter of the law, go against his wishes. To an objective observer, they are perceived enemies. To him, they are as real as the “crimes” they commit against him.
But Trump’s interim U.S. attorneys are failing one by one. Alina Habba, his embattled top attorney for New Jersey, resigned on Monday. A former lawyer for Trump, she was found to be illegally serving in her interim role after continuing past her 120-day mark. Since Congress never approved her, New Jersey’s Democratic senators axed her outright. After losing her appeal, she finally resigned on Dec. 8 to “protect the stability and integrity” of the position, a rare public defeat for the Trump administration.
....(snip)....
Comey is likely to face follow-up strikes from the Trump administration. While a new indictment against him has yet to materialize, he may face charges similar to obstruction of justice and lying to Congress.
James was ready to face a new indictment surrounding alleged mortgage fraud. But on Dec. 4, a grand jury declined to indict her. The Justice Department then attempted to indict her for a third time — and the second time in one week — but they failed again.
....(snip)....
The Justice Department has no clear prosecutor. Instead, it has questionable cases, indictments made possible only by manipulation that have drawn the ire of federal judges and cast what Trump wanted to be a highly-publicized case of political revenge into a fly-by-night legal circus. This is to say nothing of a lawsuit from a close friend and former lawyer of Comey that could bring it all to a grinding halt. ...................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/14/trumps-politically-motivated-prosecutions-keep-crumbling/
Trump's politically motivated prosecutions keep crumbling
Trump’s politically motivated prosecutions keep crumbling
The president's grand legal strategy targeting his perceived enemies isn't working
By Garrett Owen
National Affairs Fellow
Published December 14, 2025 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) President Donald Trump will not let his enemies go without a fight. He wants to punish those who speak out against him, who present cases against him and who, in doing their jobs to the letter of the law, go against his wishes. To an objective observer, they are perceived enemies. To him, they are as real as the “crimes” they commit against him.
But Trump’s interim U.S. attorneys are failing one by one. Alina Habba, his embattled top attorney for New Jersey, resigned on Monday. A former lawyer for Trump, she was found to be illegally serving in her interim role after continuing past her 120-day mark. Since Congress never approved her, New Jersey’s Democratic senators axed her outright. After losing her appeal, she finally resigned on Dec. 8 to “protect the stability and integrity” of the position, a rare public defeat for the Trump administration.
....(snip)....
Comey is likely to face follow-up strikes from the Trump administration. While a new indictment against him has yet to materialize, he may face charges similar to obstruction of justice and lying to Congress.
James was ready to face a new indictment surrounding alleged mortgage fraud. But on Dec. 4, a grand jury declined to indict her. The Justice Department then attempted to indict her for a third time — and the second time in one week — but they failed again.
....(snip)....
The Justice Department has no clear prosecutor. Instead, it has questionable cases, indictments made possible only by manipulation that have drawn the ire of federal judges and cast what Trump wanted to be a highly-publicized case of political revenge into a fly-by-night legal circus. This is to say nothing of a lawsuit from a close friend and former lawyer of Comey that could bring it all to a grinding halt. ...................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/14/trumps-politically-motivated-prosecutions-keep-crumbling/
December 14, 2025
Mike Johnson’s speakership is in trouble
Like his GOP predecessors, the House speaker is having trouble corralling his unpredictable caucus
By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published December 14, 2025 9:00AM (EST)
(Salon) President Donald Trump declared last week that House Speaker Mike Johnson “has been a fantastic speaker,” making it clear that he considers Johnson to be one of his most important subordinates. Trump wasn’t doing Johnson any favors. With his latest approval ratings firmly in the thirties, the president is increasingly seen as more of an albatross than a benefit to the GOP. And right now, with House Republicans on the verge of a full-scale mutiny, Johnson needs all the help he can get.
In fairness, Johnson is not the first Republican speaker to find himself in that situation. In fact, it has become something of a ritual sacrifice for the leader of the House GOP to be unceremoniously deposed by his own members. Johnson himself won the post after his predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Ca., was removed from his post after a painful series of votes in which the caucus finally settled on the virtually unknown congressman from Louisiana to lead them.
....(snip)....
Republicans govern in total chaos. But Johnson’s case is unique in one important respect: In the past few years, the reason GOP speakers failed was because the most extreme conservatives in the caucus would not accept any kind of compromise with Democrats in order to pass legislation. And even when the “compromise” was really a win, they refused to take yes for an answer. They wanted to dominate the opposition, to pound them into submission, and if they couldn’t have that they would rather have nothing. Boehner, Ryan and McCarthy all fell prey to that puerile intransigence. Johnson was one of those guys himself and, for the most part, he’s been able to keep his hardcore tea party types in line. His resistance is coming from a number of other directions.
....(snip)....
Members are still angry about Johnson’s decision to send them home for two months during the shutdown, and those in vulnerable swing districts are desperate to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, knowing that allowing them to lapse will be the kiss of death. Johnson, following his own deep hostility to any kind of government health care program, is refusing. Even Trump was briefly willing to extend them for a couple of years, but the speaker and others quickly informed him that plan was a non-starter with the right wing, which is excited by the idea that people on the hated Obamacare will lose their insurance. ............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/14/mike-johnsons-speakership-is-in-trouble/
Mike Johnson's speakership is in trouble
Mike Johnson’s speakership is in trouble
Like his GOP predecessors, the House speaker is having trouble corralling his unpredictable caucus
By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published December 14, 2025 9:00AM (EST)
(Salon) President Donald Trump declared last week that House Speaker Mike Johnson “has been a fantastic speaker,” making it clear that he considers Johnson to be one of his most important subordinates. Trump wasn’t doing Johnson any favors. With his latest approval ratings firmly in the thirties, the president is increasingly seen as more of an albatross than a benefit to the GOP. And right now, with House Republicans on the verge of a full-scale mutiny, Johnson needs all the help he can get.
In fairness, Johnson is not the first Republican speaker to find himself in that situation. In fact, it has become something of a ritual sacrifice for the leader of the House GOP to be unceremoniously deposed by his own members. Johnson himself won the post after his predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Ca., was removed from his post after a painful series of votes in which the caucus finally settled on the virtually unknown congressman from Louisiana to lead them.
....(snip)....
Republicans govern in total chaos. But Johnson’s case is unique in one important respect: In the past few years, the reason GOP speakers failed was because the most extreme conservatives in the caucus would not accept any kind of compromise with Democrats in order to pass legislation. And even when the “compromise” was really a win, they refused to take yes for an answer. They wanted to dominate the opposition, to pound them into submission, and if they couldn’t have that they would rather have nothing. Boehner, Ryan and McCarthy all fell prey to that puerile intransigence. Johnson was one of those guys himself and, for the most part, he’s been able to keep his hardcore tea party types in line. His resistance is coming from a number of other directions.
....(snip)....
Members are still angry about Johnson’s decision to send them home for two months during the shutdown, and those in vulnerable swing districts are desperate to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, knowing that allowing them to lapse will be the kiss of death. Johnson, following his own deep hostility to any kind of government health care program, is refusing. Even Trump was briefly willing to extend them for a couple of years, but the speaker and others quickly informed him that plan was a non-starter with the right wing, which is excited by the idea that people on the hated Obamacare will lose their insurance. ............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/14/mike-johnsons-speakership-is-in-trouble/
December 13, 2025
( Salon). The Trump White House is facing legal challenges after discontinuing real-time American Sign Language interpretation at many official events, prompting renewed concerns from disability advocates about accessibility and equal access to government information.
Advocates argue that removing ASL interpreters denies deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans the ability to fully participate in civic life. Federal disability law requires reasonable accommodations to ensure public access, particularly during live announcements related to public safety, health, and governance.
The dispute follows a broader cultural moment in which accessibility itself has become politicized. Earlier this week, Senator Marco Rubio refuted the use of the “Calibri” font in federal documents, deciding it was “woke” despite the font’s purpose: making text easier to read for people with visual impairments.
Disability advocates say these attacks reflect a misunderstanding — or outright dismissal — of why accommodations exist. Ramps, captions, readable fonts, and interpreters are not preferences, they argue, but requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act in a world that was not designed with disabled people in mind. ...........(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/13/disability-advocates-push-back-as-white-house-limits-asl-access/
Disability advocates push back as White House limits ASL access
( Salon). The Trump White House is facing legal challenges after discontinuing real-time American Sign Language interpretation at many official events, prompting renewed concerns from disability advocates about accessibility and equal access to government information.
Advocates argue that removing ASL interpreters denies deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans the ability to fully participate in civic life. Federal disability law requires reasonable accommodations to ensure public access, particularly during live announcements related to public safety, health, and governance.
The dispute follows a broader cultural moment in which accessibility itself has become politicized. Earlier this week, Senator Marco Rubio refuted the use of the “Calibri” font in federal documents, deciding it was “woke” despite the font’s purpose: making text easier to read for people with visual impairments.
Disability advocates say these attacks reflect a misunderstanding — or outright dismissal — of why accommodations exist. Ramps, captions, readable fonts, and interpreters are not preferences, they argue, but requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act in a world that was not designed with disabled people in mind. ...........(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/13/disability-advocates-push-back-as-white-house-limits-asl-access/
December 12, 2025
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) Board Chair Jamaal Myers have announced that fare capping is coming to the TTC network next year.
Starting in September 2026, TTC riders will ride for free automatically after taking 47 trips in a calendar month as part of the mayor’s 2026 budget.
“We’re making life more affordable for people who rely on transit,” Chow said. “With fare capping, you pay as you go, and once you’ve taken 47 trips in a month, the rest of your rides are free. No more deciding whether you can afford a monthly pass upfront. No more overpaying if you don’t ride enough to make a pass worth it.”
Chow has also indicated she will ask the TTC to plan for an even lower fare cap of 40 rides for the 2027 budget. ............(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/technology/fare-collection/news/55337784/city-of-toronto-ttc-to-introduce-fare-capping-in-2026
Toronto: TTC to introduce fare capping in 2026
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) Board Chair Jamaal Myers have announced that fare capping is coming to the TTC network next year.
Starting in September 2026, TTC riders will ride for free automatically after taking 47 trips in a calendar month as part of the mayor’s 2026 budget.
“We’re making life more affordable for people who rely on transit,” Chow said. “With fare capping, you pay as you go, and once you’ve taken 47 trips in a month, the rest of your rides are free. No more deciding whether you can afford a monthly pass upfront. No more overpaying if you don’t ride enough to make a pass worth it.”
Chow has also indicated she will ask the TTC to plan for an even lower fare cap of 40 rides for the 2027 budget. ............(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/technology/fare-collection/news/55337784/city-of-toronto-ttc-to-introduce-fare-capping-in-2026
December 12, 2025
Published: December 12, 2025 8:53am EST
Gareth J. Fraser
Associate Professor of Evolutionary Developmental Biology, University of Florida
(The Conversation) The world’s oceans are home to an exquisite variety of sharks and rays, from the largest fishes in the sea – the majestic whale shark and manta rays – to the luminescent but rarely seen deep-water lantern shark and guitarfishes.
The oceans were once teeming with these extraordinary and ancient species, which evolved close to half a billion years ago. However, the past half-century has posed one of the greatest tests yet to their survival. Overfishing, habitat loss and international trade have cut their numbers, putting many species on a path toward extinction within our lifetimes.
Scientists estimate that 100 million (yes, million) sharks and rays are killed each year for food, liver oil and other trade.
....(snip)....
That’s why countries around the world agreed in December 2025 to add more than 70 shark and ray species to an international wildlife trade treaty’s list for full or partial protection.
It’s an important move that, as a biologist who studies sharks and rays, I believe is long overdue. ....................(more)
https://theconversation.com/sharks-and-rays-get-a-major-win-with-new-international-trade-limits-for-70-species-271386
Sharks and rays get a major win with new international trade limits for 70+ species
Sharks and rays get a major win with new international trade limits for 70+ speciesPublished: December 12, 2025 8:53am EST
Gareth J. Fraser
Associate Professor of Evolutionary Developmental Biology, University of Florida
(The Conversation) The world’s oceans are home to an exquisite variety of sharks and rays, from the largest fishes in the sea – the majestic whale shark and manta rays – to the luminescent but rarely seen deep-water lantern shark and guitarfishes.
The oceans were once teeming with these extraordinary and ancient species, which evolved close to half a billion years ago. However, the past half-century has posed one of the greatest tests yet to their survival. Overfishing, habitat loss and international trade have cut their numbers, putting many species on a path toward extinction within our lifetimes.
Scientists estimate that 100 million (yes, million) sharks and rays are killed each year for food, liver oil and other trade.
....(snip)....
That’s why countries around the world agreed in December 2025 to add more than 70 shark and ray species to an international wildlife trade treaty’s list for full or partial protection.
It’s an important move that, as a biologist who studies sharks and rays, I believe is long overdue. ....................(more)
https://theconversation.com/sharks-and-rays-get-a-major-win-with-new-international-trade-limits-for-70-species-271386
December 12, 2025
Whether Netflix or Paramount buys Warner Bros., entertainment oligopolies are back – bigger and more anticompetitive than ever
Published: December 12, 2025 8:56am EST
Matthew Jordan
Professor of Media Studies, Penn State
(The Conversation) News of Netflix’s bid to buy Warner Bros. last week sent shock waves through the media ecosystem.
The pending US$83 billion deal is being described as an upending of the existing entertainment order, a sign that it’s now dominated by the tech platforms rather than the traditional Hollywood power brokers.
....(snip)....
Meet the new boss – same as the old boss
If it does go through, the Netflix-Warner Bros. merger will likely please Wall Street, but it will further decrease the power of creators and consumers.
Like other companies that have moved from being a growth stock to a mature stock, Netflix is under pressure to be profitable. Indeed, it has been squeezing its subscribers with higher fees and more restrictive login protocols. It’s a sign of what tech blogger Cory Doctorow describes as the logic of “enshittification,” whereby platforms that have locked in audiences and producers start to squeeze both. Buying the competition – HBO Max – will mean Netflix can charge even more.
....(snip)....
Now, all bets are off. Whichever platform acquires Warner Bros. will have enormous power over the kind of stories that get sold and told. ..................(more)
https://theconversation.com/whether-netflix-or-paramount-buys-warner-bros-entertainment-oligopolies-are-back-bigger-and-more-anticompetitive-than-ever-271479
Whether Netflix or Paramount buys Warner Bros., entertainment oligopolies are back - bigger and more anticompetitive ...
Whether Netflix or Paramount buys Warner Bros., entertainment oligopolies are back – bigger and more anticompetitive than ever
Published: December 12, 2025 8:56am EST
Matthew Jordan
Professor of Media Studies, Penn State
(The Conversation) News of Netflix’s bid to buy Warner Bros. last week sent shock waves through the media ecosystem.
The pending US$83 billion deal is being described as an upending of the existing entertainment order, a sign that it’s now dominated by the tech platforms rather than the traditional Hollywood power brokers.
....(snip)....
Meet the new boss – same as the old boss
If it does go through, the Netflix-Warner Bros. merger will likely please Wall Street, but it will further decrease the power of creators and consumers.
Like other companies that have moved from being a growth stock to a mature stock, Netflix is under pressure to be profitable. Indeed, it has been squeezing its subscribers with higher fees and more restrictive login protocols. It’s a sign of what tech blogger Cory Doctorow describes as the logic of “enshittification,” whereby platforms that have locked in audiences and producers start to squeeze both. Buying the competition – HBO Max – will mean Netflix can charge even more.
....(snip)....
Now, all bets are off. Whichever platform acquires Warner Bros. will have enormous power over the kind of stories that get sold and told. ..................(more)
https://theconversation.com/whether-netflix-or-paramount-buys-warner-bros-entertainment-oligopolies-are-back-bigger-and-more-anticompetitive-than-ever-271479
December 11, 2025
Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem and Kash Patel are rumored to be on the chopping block
By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published December 11, 2025 9:15AM (EST)
(Salon) When Donald Trump announced his first presidential bid in 2015, he was known to most Americans as the star of NBC’s “The Apprentice” whose catchphrase was “you’re fired!” He loved to say it on the stump with his trademark snarl and jabbing finger. He apparently even tried (unsuccessfully) to trademark the phrase during the reality show’s heyday in the mid-2000s. But as it turned out, even though he was a businessman in real life, Trump was actually unable to fire people in person. He instead delegated the unpleasant task to one of his lackeys, or simply made it known that he wanted the person to quit.
....(snip)....
There is no question in this administration what the requirements are: Tell Trump only what he wants to hear, slather him with praise at every opportunity and never, under any circumstances, disagree with anything he says.
So far this new approach has resulted in very little turnover. There have been a couple of instances where someone hasn’t worked out. But instead of firing them, he has taken to promoting people to different jobs. Michael Waltz, Trump’s first national security adviser, apparently wasn’t meshing well with the extremists in the Pentagon, so he was sent to New York as ambassador to the United Nations. The majority of Trump’s Cabinet officials and White House staff have survived quite well simply by willingly debasing themselves at every opportunity.
But as we approach the first anniversary of Trump’s second inauguration, rumblings of impending personnel changes are growing louder. Most are centered on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has produced the most scandals of any Trump appointee. His confirmation process was a trainwreck, with allegations of sexual assault, alcohol abuse and mismanagement of the only two small organizations he’d ever run. None of those issues were apparently deal breakers for his gig as a Fox News weekend host, but putting such a person in charge of the U.S. military made even some of the most radical GOP senators a bit queasy. They voted for him anyway, at least partially because he is popular with the MAGA base, and some were threatened with violence if they refused. ................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/11/trump-could-ring-in-the-new-year-with-a-cabinet-shake-up/
A new year Cabinet shake-up for Trump?
Trump could ring in the new year with a Cabinet shake-upPete Hegseth, Kristi Noem and Kash Patel are rumored to be on the chopping block
By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published December 11, 2025 9:15AM (EST)
(Salon) When Donald Trump announced his first presidential bid in 2015, he was known to most Americans as the star of NBC’s “The Apprentice” whose catchphrase was “you’re fired!” He loved to say it on the stump with his trademark snarl and jabbing finger. He apparently even tried (unsuccessfully) to trademark the phrase during the reality show’s heyday in the mid-2000s. But as it turned out, even though he was a businessman in real life, Trump was actually unable to fire people in person. He instead delegated the unpleasant task to one of his lackeys, or simply made it known that he wanted the person to quit.
....(snip)....
There is no question in this administration what the requirements are: Tell Trump only what he wants to hear, slather him with praise at every opportunity and never, under any circumstances, disagree with anything he says.
So far this new approach has resulted in very little turnover. There have been a couple of instances where someone hasn’t worked out. But instead of firing them, he has taken to promoting people to different jobs. Michael Waltz, Trump’s first national security adviser, apparently wasn’t meshing well with the extremists in the Pentagon, so he was sent to New York as ambassador to the United Nations. The majority of Trump’s Cabinet officials and White House staff have survived quite well simply by willingly debasing themselves at every opportunity.
But as we approach the first anniversary of Trump’s second inauguration, rumblings of impending personnel changes are growing louder. Most are centered on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has produced the most scandals of any Trump appointee. His confirmation process was a trainwreck, with allegations of sexual assault, alcohol abuse and mismanagement of the only two small organizations he’d ever run. None of those issues were apparently deal breakers for his gig as a Fox News weekend host, but putting such a person in charge of the U.S. military made even some of the most radical GOP senators a bit queasy. They voted for him anyway, at least partially because he is popular with the MAGA base, and some were threatened with violence if they refused. ................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/11/trump-could-ring-in-the-new-year-with-a-cabinet-shake-up/
December 11, 2025
Brian Thompson's killing hasn't helped our public health crisis. Here's what actually might
By Troy Farah
National Affairs Editor
Published December 11, 2025 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) An inordinate amount of proverbial ink has been spilled trying to psychoanalyze Luigi Mangione, who is in court this month, accused of killing Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO who was fatally shot this time last year. Articles and documentaries with titles like “Inside the mind of Luigi Mangione” and “The mind of a killer” abound, which is perhaps typical when an alleged assassin gets such a high profile.
....(snip)....
Even before many of these details were released, the internet became flooded by people projecting their own perceived motives onto the killing. Because the target in this assassination was the head of UnitedHealthcare, a company accused of cruelty and corruption toward sick and dying people, it was easy to see this as fighting back.
UnitedHealthcare is a company accused of numerous offenses, from ignoring doctors’ advice and denying claims for services they deemed not “medically necessary” to extracting overpayments from the federal government. Last year, a ProPublica investigation found that UnitedHealthcare denied critical treatment for kids with autism — which even the company acknowledged as “gold standard treatment” — all in an effort to maximize profit.
....(snip)....
If it’s true that Thompson’s killing was an act of vengeance, it doesn’t seem like it accomplished much, as I argued it wouldn’t last year in Salon. It’s not hard to predict that violence won’t undo violence. Maybe it’s too early to tell, but it definitely seems like public health and access to health care in America is much worse than it was a year ago.
Right now, Congress is still squabbling over Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire by the start of the new year. The vote, which has yet to be set, is expected to fail, making this concession to reopen the government another Democratic surrender. (Meanwhile, a $901 billion defense bill is considered “must-pass” legislation.) The result is expected to spike premiums for tens of millions of Americans, which is already happening across the nation while covering even less. ................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/11/a-year-after-luigi-mangiones-arrest-health-care-is-even-worse/
A year after Luigi Mangione's arrest, health care is even worse
A year after Luigi Mangione’s arrest, health care is even worseBrian Thompson's killing hasn't helped our public health crisis. Here's what actually might
By Troy Farah
National Affairs Editor
Published December 11, 2025 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) An inordinate amount of proverbial ink has been spilled trying to psychoanalyze Luigi Mangione, who is in court this month, accused of killing Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO who was fatally shot this time last year. Articles and documentaries with titles like “Inside the mind of Luigi Mangione” and “The mind of a killer” abound, which is perhaps typical when an alleged assassin gets such a high profile.
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Even before many of these details were released, the internet became flooded by people projecting their own perceived motives onto the killing. Because the target in this assassination was the head of UnitedHealthcare, a company accused of cruelty and corruption toward sick and dying people, it was easy to see this as fighting back.
UnitedHealthcare is a company accused of numerous offenses, from ignoring doctors’ advice and denying claims for services they deemed not “medically necessary” to extracting overpayments from the federal government. Last year, a ProPublica investigation found that UnitedHealthcare denied critical treatment for kids with autism — which even the company acknowledged as “gold standard treatment” — all in an effort to maximize profit.
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If it’s true that Thompson’s killing was an act of vengeance, it doesn’t seem like it accomplished much, as I argued it wouldn’t last year in Salon. It’s not hard to predict that violence won’t undo violence. Maybe it’s too early to tell, but it definitely seems like public health and access to health care in America is much worse than it was a year ago.
Right now, Congress is still squabbling over Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire by the start of the new year. The vote, which has yet to be set, is expected to fail, making this concession to reopen the government another Democratic surrender. (Meanwhile, a $901 billion defense bill is considered “must-pass” legislation.) The result is expected to spike premiums for tens of millions of Americans, which is already happening across the nation while covering even less. ................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/11/a-year-after-luigi-mangiones-arrest-health-care-is-even-worse/
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