From defying Congress to rewarding loyalists and ignoring constitutional limits, America is confronting a dangerous new era where the rule of law no longer restrains those in power…

Back when I was a kid in Lansing, Michigan, my father used to tell me that the difference between America and the places his Army buddies had fought through in Europe and Asia wasn’t the size of our buildings or the strength of our army.

(As Stephen Colbert nears the end of his run as a host on late night television, it is becoming clearer than ever that the forces of repression seek to crush what Michael Denning called "the Cultural Front," including the comedians. That is in popular culture today the most penetrating critiques of the drift toward American fascism are found among the comedians. And reflecting on our past, the era of the Spanish American War, Jim Crow, McCarthyism and now Trumpism, it is the comedians who have popularized and legitimized critiques of  the rich and powerful.

The war in Iran isn’t just raising gas prices. It’s also helped push inflation to its highest level in three years, according to new government data out Tuesday.

The White House says these price increases are temporary. “The gas will go down as soon as the war is over,” President Donald Trump said a few weeks ago. “It will drop like a rock.”

Donald Trump didn’t invent American decline, but he has accelerated it with a fury and recklessness that will echo across the century.

There have been many presidents in American history who made mistakes. There have been weak presidents. There have been corrupt presidents. There have been presidents overwhelmed by events.

But there has never been an American president who has waged such sustained warfare against the sources of American strength itself.

Donald Trump is the author of American self-harm.

He’s the vandal of American power.

Alito cited data provided by the Department of Justice that used faulty methodology.

A new investigation by Reuters details how the Trump administration is seeking to gain federal control over elections in at least eight states, employing investigations, raids and demands for access to balloting systems and voter ID records for the campaign.

“What we’re seeing is the Trump administration, in some ways, is seeking to relitigate the 2020 election, and they’re also seeking to impose federal authority over the administration of elections,” says investigative journalist Ned Parker.

Protesters at a Senate committee meeting during a special session of the state legislature to redraw US congressional voting maps, Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in Nashville, Tennessee. (George Walker IV / AP)

Gaza is facing an “environmental and biological apocalypse” under Israeli bombardment and blockade, reports Palestinian aid worker Eyad Amawi of the Gaza Relief Committee. Israel’s destruction of infrastructure has become a “generator for disease,” with sewage contamination and rodent infestation now an everyday hazard for refugees living in tent camps. “[It’s] no longer just bombardment or physical destruction.

Discover how America’s debt crisis was built by the GOP and why everyday people are now stuck paying the price…

Republicans yesterday proposed an appropriations bill that will allocate a billion dollars to pay for Trump’s Golden Epstein Dance Hall (aka “Ballroom”). Every penny of it will be borrowed and we’ll be paying interest on that money for the rest of our lifetimes unless something dramatic changes.

New data suggests social media algorithms didn’t just influence voters; they may have tilted the entire outcome…

It sure looks like tech billionaires and foreign dictatorships gave us Trump in 2024. This is as bad as the massive Russian bot presence on Facebook and Twitter back in 2016 that Robert Mueller documented gave Trump the presidency the last time.

Late on Friday night, President Donald J. Trump took to social media. At 11:03 he posted an AI-generated image of himself, alongside Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, all shirtless, along with an unidentifiable woman in a bikini, appearing to be relaxing in a swimming pool. But the “swimming pool” was the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

May Day is for the workers. In some beautiful future, every worker will get May Day off. One day. But not yet. For now, it can also serve as a day when you remember the workers who are still working, and think about how you could make their lives better.

What are the indicators of a presumed democracy either faltering or fortifying itself against the buffeting or destructive forces of dictatorial autocracy, plutocracy, and oligarchy?

An aerial view of the construction of a second "smart" wall along a section of the U.S.-Mexico border between New Mexico and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Construction of the second wall in Arizona led to the destruction of a 1,000-year-old archeological artifact. Photo:

DHS was in talks with the wildlife refuge that hosts the ancient site to make sure it was protected, a local archeologist said.

Trump and his family make billions off the presidency, and we pay more

This is a lightly edited excerpt from Robin Andersen’s The Complicit Lens: US Media Coverage of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza, published by OR Books.

Janine Jackson interviewed Institute for Policy Studies’ Sarah Anderson about “successful” corporations paying poverty wages for the April 17, 2026, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks at a press conference with FBI Director Kash Patel following the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center for money laundering, at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.

The administration’s vindictive targeting of the Southern Poverty Law Center is yet another mask-off moment.

Behind the noise is a ruthless, coordinated effort to dismantle the American system and rebuild it for the ultra-wealthy…

Trump is making insane proclamations about Iran again today, sabotaging efforts at peace by his unqualified, incompetent negotiating team. He’s lying to his supporters about obvious things like the price of gasoline. He’s not sleeping, up all night shouting in all-caps at anybody who will listen and, during the day, literally screaming at his aides.

This year May Day will continue the historic mass mobilizations for social and economic justice of recent historic No Kings rallies. The original May Day was designed to remember the May 1, 1886 rally in Chicago for the 8-hour day. At that rally more than 300,000 workers from 13,000 businesses walked off their jobs to demand justice for workers.

Several months ago, I grabbed a coffee with a source of mine whose expertise is technology policy. We talked about how bonkers it is that the billionaire leaders of AI companies say they aren’t positive their machines won’t eventually harm humans.

For 55 years, the Southern Poverty Law Center has stood as a beacon of hope, fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to help create a multiracial democracy where we can all live and thrive. Today calls for us to maintain our resolve in the face of another fight for justice. We are confident that we will embrace any challenge, and we trust that the many people and organizations who share our commitment to defending civil society will stand with us

A Beacon of Hope in the Fight Against Hate and Extremism

Photographs show Hope and Porsha Ngumezi, left, and Nevaeh Crain. Photos by Danielle Villasana for ProPublica