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Trump admin dealing 'incalculable damage' to GOP with religious statements: analyst

Trump admin dealing 'incalculable damage' to GOP with religious statements: analyst

Raw Story

Religious statements made by members of Donald Trump's administration are harming the Republican Party , a political analyst has warned. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a Pentagon prayer service featuring a fabricated Bible verse directly from Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction. Hegseth introduced the prayer as CSAR 2517, which is actually Ezekiel 25:17—the fictional passage recited by Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules Winnfield. The prayer included Hegseth's modifications, replacing movie dialogue with military references. The incident sparked widespread ridicule from legal experts and lawmakers, with critics questioning Hegseth's fitness to lead the military while weaponizing Christianity to justify warfare. Vice President JD Vance also sparked controversy by publicly lecturing Pope Leo XIV on theology during a Turning Point conference. Vance stated the pope must be "careful" when discussing theological matters and ensure statements are "anchored in the truth." Pope Leo XIV directly rebuked Vance, declaring, "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others." The confrontation highlighted tensions between Vance's Christian nationalist ideology and papal teachings emphasizing universal compassion over national interest prioritization. David Wippman and Glenn C. Altschuler, writing in The Hill , suggest these moments from Hegseth and Vance highlight a dangerous precedent set by Trump's team. They wrote, "The Trump administration’s threats to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure and destroy its civilization in the name of Jesus have prompted sharp rebukes from religious leaders, including Pope Leo, who quoted the Prophet Isaiah as saying God 'does not listen' to leaders with 'hands full of blood.' "Trump’s profanity and endorsements of a Christian crusade are doing incalculable damage. In a nation in which only 62 percent of citizens identify as Christians, the president’s justification for his war of choice is eroding trust, intensifying political polarization, and contributing to an environment in which almost half of Americans think members of the other party are 'downright evil.' "As Trump divides Americans while claiming God anointed him to lead the country, his rhetoric and his actions make clear that America and its leaders are no longer what they once were — the linchpin of an international order resting on shared values, laws and respect for national sovereignty."

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Supreme Court judge blasted for controversial speech: 'Suffering from Fox News brainrot'

Supreme Court judge blasted for controversial speech: 'Suffering from Fox News brainrot'

Raw Story

Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas has been heavily criticized for a speech made against progressive politics. Thomas delivered a scathing critique of progressivism during a speech at the University of Texas Austin Law School, characterizing the political philosophy as fundamentally incompatible with American constitutional principles. Thomas argued that progressivism seeks to replace the foundational premises of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself. "Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence and hence our form of government," Thomas stated. "[Progressivism] holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God, but from government. "It requires of the people a subservience and weakness incompatible with a constitution premised on the transcendent origin of our rights." Heather Digby Parton, writing for Salon , suggested the speech highlighted an ongoing problem in America's right-wing politics. She wrote, "Coming from the mouth of an associate justice of the Supreme Court, those words — and their implications — are jaw-dropping and cause for alarm. "If you read between the lines, he is saying that the country is at war, and the battles are not just political or philosophical. They are also spiritual. "But Thomas’ attack on the left is really just a slightly more elegant indictment than the ones you might read on an obscure Reddit thread, or have read on an old Usenet forum back in the 1990s." "But Clarence Thomas, like many conservatives in this misbegotten era, suffers from Fox News brainrot, a condition that encourages them to wallow in the bitterness of their own experience while believing the world is going to hell in a handbasket because of people who refuse to accept the way things are supposed to work." Political analysts previously criticized Thomas' speech, with political scientist and The Atlantic contributing editor Norma Ornstein calling the 76-year-old judge the "most corrupt justice in the history of the United States speaks. "Investigative journalist Jacke Singh added , "Um. Wow. An outright psyop attempt. Narrative inversion. Manipulation. From a sitting Justice."

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Marty Baron Drops a Bomb: We Unethically Avoided Joe Biden's Cognitive Decline

Marty Baron Drops a Bomb: We Unethically Avoided Joe Biden's Cognitive Decline

Newsbusters

Marty Baron Drops a Bomb: We Unethically Avoided Joe Biden's Cognitive Decline Associated Press media reporter David Bauder found a fascinating nugget in an otherwise predictable lecture on media ethics from former Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron. He gave the keynote address of the Peter F. Collier Awards for Ethics in Journalism at New York University. (This is not the Peter Collier who wrote books with David Horowitz.) Alongside the usual lectures about the awfulness of Trump, there was a single note about how the press failed in reporting on Biden's cognitive decline: Each of us probably can point to other instances where we went astray. Here’s one to think about: Did we live up to our truth-seeking mission early this decade as we saw Joe Biden struggling cognitively and physically while holding the most powerful position on earth? I don’t believe we did. Did some among us shy from aggressively exploring his intellectual acuity and physical health for fear of aiding Donald Trump’s campaign and alienating loyal readers, viewers and listeners? My guess is yes. If so, would that be an ethical breakdown in our profession? Again, I’d say yes. One thing is for sure: Our credibility was damaged. I didn't see Baron saying this back in the 2023 or 2024. He was doing the usual War on Trump material. In this speech, he immediately followed up: "Now we are living with an administration that actively obstructs our search for truth. President Trump and his allies seek to extinguish all independent arbiters of fact. The press is among them." Leftists are always "independent arbiters" when they go after Trump. This was the more typical Baron bellowing: If one challenge to that ethic of vigilance is the president’s malicious war on the media , another comes from those who enjoy press freedoms but abdicate the corresponding duties. I’m talking, for instance, about cable networks that function as mouthpieces and bullhorns for the administration, who routinely funnel on-air personalities into its top positions and who supply them with lucrative landing spots when they exit. These outlets render themselves largely indistinguishable from the government they are supposed to cover.... If the founders of this country had wanted lapdogs in lieu of watchdogs, they would have at least hinted at that in the formative documents that are their legacy. Those documents had deep flaws, but that was not among them. Stenography and propaganda are clearly not the ethic of the First Amendment. Notice how this conflicts with Baron's notes on failing to hold Biden and his team accountable. Under Democrats, the liberal outlets can be accused of being "mouthpieces and bullhorns" and stenographers and propagandists. Baron and his pals in the media establishment imagine they aren't pitching their "news" at a partisan audience -- while the Post sells "Democracy Dies In Darkness" T-shirts and baby onesies. Baron slammed the Ellisons and their hire Bari Weiss for aiming for an audience in the political center at CBS News. That's political! The new owner of CBS and the current editor-in-chief of the news division, for instance, set an explicit objective of appealing to the center right and the center left. That is a political goal. It is not a journalistic one . And it is a far cry from how Jack Knight instructed his newsroom: “Get the truth and publish it.” That is a journalistic goal. Media owners who substitute political goal posts for news values find refuge in sophistry. They lay claim to ethics; instead, they subvert them. Again, who is pretending that The Washington Post hasn't had political goals? The staffers were all furious at owner Jeff Bezos when the Post wasn't allowed to explicitly endorse Kamala Harris for president. Tim Graham Mon, 04/20/2026 - 13:57 Marketing Timing Regular Search Engine Title Marty Baron Admits Media Ignored Joe Biden Cognitive Decline, Bad Ethics CNS Commentary Off

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New Jersey election 2026: Meet the Democrats looking to flip a longtime GOP seat in Congress

New Jersey election 2026: Meet the Democrats looking to flip a longtime GOP seat in Congress

Whyy

Primary voters in Monmouth and Ocean counties will choose between Democrats John Blake and Rachel Peace. The winner will face longtime U.S. House Rep. Chris Smith in November.

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Who owns presidential records? Trump's Justice Department says it's him

Who owns presidential records? Trump's Justice Department says it's him

NPR

The Trump administration asserts a nearly 50-year-old law requiring the preservation of presidential records is unconstitutional. Historians warn important papers could be destroyed.

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After dodging massive strike, a major NYC union struggles to dodge criticism about how it represents workers

After dodging massive strike, a major NYC union struggles to dodge criticism about how it represents workers

Amny

Despite achieving a tentative labor contract agreement last week, a subset of the city’s unionized residential building service workforce shared concerns about the massive union’s representation of its rank-and-file members. The Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RAB) and the union 32BJ SEIU reached a late-inning agreement on April 17 that narrowly avoided a strike,... Read More

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Trump reveals classified Iran war information, again. US Marines' location tweeted out.

Trump reveals classified Iran war information, again. US Marines' location tweeted out.

Forexlive

Trump has tweeted that US Marines have boarded an Iranian ship. Trump sent the message ut on his own social media app, driving views and revenue. US CENTCOM had not confirmed this action by Marines at the time of Trump's tweets, the information was still classified. Iran has denied it. But Trump confirmed it, leaving little doubt. Earlier: Trump tweeted that Iran violated the ceasefire: Iran decided to fire bullets yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz — A Total Violation of our Ceasefire Agreement! Trump said he is sedning a negotiation team: My Representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan — They will be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations. Trump urged Iran to accept his deal, and said refusal would have dire coinsequences: We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY! They’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done For their part, Iran is threatening not to attend talks (WSJ, gated). --- Earlier: Monday open FX (unlike the closed Strait of Hormuz). Indicative rates 20 April 2026. According to regional shipping reports and security sources, Iranian forces have re-imposed transit restrictions and warned vessels against unauthorised passage, with Tehran stating the waterway will remain constrained until the United States lifts its naval blockade on Iranian ports. The move underscores a hardening stance from Iran despite ongoing diplomatic channels. Tensions have been reinforced by direct incidents at sea, with multiple reports that Iranian Revolutionary Guard units fired warning shots toward at least two commercial vessels attempting to transit the strait without coordination. Reports indicate that one incident involved an oil tanker, while another report referenced a container ship, both of which subsequently altered course. There have been no confirmed reports of vessels being struck, but the encounters have been sufficient to deter traffic. This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.

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A Soft Reset: Spring Cleaning for the Mind

A Soft Reset: Spring Cleaning for the Mind

The Cornell Daily Sun

There comes a point in the spring semester when you're no longer hyper-aware of how you're being perceived, when your reputation feels a little less fragile than it did in the fall. As we enter the last few weeks of the school year, many students, especially us first-years, have had similar experiences: a potentially tanked GPA, an awkward talking stage, a failed situationship and a probable rejection from a summer internship (but every company just ghosts you). Like the fall semester, spring is an anxious period - prelims, finals, the creeping realization that the semester is wrapping up - but socially and academically, we've already lived through all of the first-year horror stories everyone warns you about. Now feels like the time - unlike winter break, when we swear to follow through on a long list of resolutions - to set a few manageable goals for ourselves. Without the looming pressure of the new year ahead of us, there's a small space to think about how we want to finish out the academic year and head into summer: back home, abroad or wherever we may be. Either way, it feels like yet another new chapter - and it is. And the weather encourages a bit more reflection. In Ithaca's chilling winter, it often feels like you're stuck in place. When it's drab and gray, day in and day out, life can start to feel a bit like The Truman Show , as though you're caught in a never-ending cycle of 10:10 a.m. lectures, dining hall runs, the occasional Helen Newman visit and, if you're feeling adventurous, maybe a Wednesday night fishbowl in seven-degree weather. Winter has a way of placing me in a loop, where social or academic situations sit heavily on my mind, and the freezing dreariness does nothing but reflect how I'm feeling. But as the sun is starting to make an appearance more frequently, the motivation to get outside - to restore our long-lost vitamin D - is brewing. Along with it comes the urge to refresh our minds. Walking to class every morning is no longer an experience where I must first brace myself for numb fingers and harsh winds. It's now a breather: a moment of fresh air before my academic routine begins, a chance to clear my mind after a night's rest and reset before the day ahead, without worrying too much about what's already happened and instead looking forward. Spring feels like a 'soft' reset, compared to the New Year's pressure to hard reset - the attempt to fix every anxiety or embarrassment from the fall semester all at once. Spring doesn't demand that we completely reinvent ourselves with ambiguous goals that are unlikely to stick. For me, there's also the strange illusion of productivity that comes when I'm simply doing schoolwork outside in the sun. Perhaps the whole 'fake it till you make it' idea is true - sometimes that's exactly how a new routine begins. And of course, we can always question whether we're actually happier in the spring or just more distracted - by classes, friends, extracurriculars or merely the sun's presence. So, maybe it is a distraction. But it could also just be us trying to make the most of the final stretch of the semester before parting ways with campus, now that we've finally settled in. Either way, spring feels like the optimal time to take a few risks. After all, we're leaving in less than a month anyway. So I'm choosing to, or at least trying, not to worry so much about everything before summer break. Maybe a 'soft reset' looks less like reinventing yourself and more like small, intentional shifts - grabbing coffee with someone new, going to the office hours you've been avoiding since January or perhaps letting an awkward moment from February stay in February rather than carrying it with you. It's realizing whatever version of you people may have formed over the school year isn't fixed; there's still room to feel different within yourself. We're not stuck in a static loop, and regardless, campus always seems to have little ways to embrace the day - whether that's studying on the Arts Quad, walking around Beebe Lake, watching the sunset on Libe Slope or simply sitting in the sun a little longer than planned.

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Want climate truth? Believe the opposite when the media says something false

Want climate truth? Believe the opposite when the media says something false

Worldnetdaily

'Fewer than half of all Americans expressed trust in media as far back as 2004 – long before Donald Trump came along as a serious presidential contender complaining about fake news'

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Trump’s profane crusade is taking America down a dark path

Trump’s profane crusade is taking America down a dark path

The Hill

What makes Trump’s rhetoric unique — and uniquely dangerous — is not just the frequency and ferocity with which he uses profanity. It is the mutually reinforcing way he combines it with Christian nationalism and racial and religious insults to signal that the only “real” Americans are white, Christian and of European descent.

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Latest Fact Checks

How a Green-Card Holder Becomes a Naturalized US Citizen

How a Green-Card Holder Becomes a Naturalized US Citizen

Newsweek

Most green-card holders must wait five years before applying for citizenship.

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Controversial far-right leader's massive cash haul has GOP on edge over election chaos

Controversial far-right leader's massive cash haul has GOP on edge over election chaos

Raw Story

Far-right gadfly Nick Fuentes has discovered that peddling racism and misogyny is extremely profitable –– and that has Republicans nervous. The 27-year-old far-right extremist has amassed approximately $900,000 from his online followers since 2025 — funds he's using to build what he calls an "invisible empire" of infiltrators positioned throughout American institutions. According to a Washington Post analysis using AI technology to survey approximately 1,400 hours of Fuentes's livestreams, the money flows through multiple revenue streams: superchats where donors pay for on-screen visibility, swastika-imprinted merchandise, and $100-a-month subscriptions to a private chatroom where he talks with devotees . Fuentes is explicit about his mission. "We're an invisible empire. We're building a cadre of professionals, money people, bureaucrats, and we need them to all be waving the flag, but quietly, ideologically, loyally. ... We've got to be underground," he told donors during a January stream. The infrastructure of extremism has become self-sustaining, the Post's Drew Harwell and Jeremy B. Merrill are reporting, singling out that a shadow economy exists for Fuentes loyalists to cut and spread viral clips from his hours-long streams, earning their own online clout while amplifying his reach. Researcher Megan Squire from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) explained how this ecosystem functions: "The growth of superchats and other 'micropayments' has helped insulate influencers like Fuentes from the constraints that once made open racism a difficult business." GOP leaders are alarmed by what they're witnessing. Fuentes has become one of Donald Trump's most virulent critics as the midterm elections loom — and the infrastructure supporting him shows no signs of disappearing. Republican strategists had believed his popularity would fade as more Americans learned of his extremist views. Instead, he's found a die-hard audience eager to financially support him, extending his financial incentive to build his following even more, the Post is reporting. The California Republican Party took direct action in February, sending state party officials a memo urging them to block candidates "who promote Fuentes and Groyper culture," describing his ideology as calling for an America "modeled closely after Nazi Germany" that was alienating "to average Americans, to say the least." Donors aren't simply consuming extremism — they're participating in it. "Some donors see their superchats as a form of participatory politics that will help spread their beliefs and show their loyalty," Squire explained. "Others just pay for the status symbol of seeing their message and username on-screen, a way to prove oneself in an insular group brought together by their hatred of outsiders."

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Ben & Jerry’s Backs 420 Clemency Push, Supports Virginia Bill (4-20-2026)

Ben & Jerry’s Backs 420 Clemency Push, Supports Virginia Bill (4-20-2026)

Royal Examiner

RICHMOND, Va. –Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company has voiced support for Virginia legislation that modifies sentencing for marijuana-related offenses. The company reached out to the Last Prisoner Project in 2025 and launched “420 For Freedom,” a national clemency initiative urging state governors to issue pardons and sentence adjustments to those impacted by marijuana criminalization. Continue reading Ben & Jerry’s Backs 420 Clemency Push, Supports Virginia Bill at Royal Examiner.

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Marty Baron Drops a Bomb: We Unethically Avoided Joe Biden's Cognitive Decline

Marty Baron Drops a Bomb: We Unethically Avoided Joe Biden's Cognitive Decline

Newsbusters

Marty Baron Drops a Bomb: We Unethically Avoided Joe Biden's Cognitive Decline Associated Press media reporter David Bauder found a fascinating nugget in an otherwise predictable lecture on media ethics from former Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron. He gave the keynote address of the Peter F. Collier Awards for Ethics in Journalism at New York University. (This is not the Peter Collier who wrote books with David Horowitz.) Alongside the usual lectures about the awfulness of Trump, there was a single note about how the press failed in reporting on Biden's cognitive decline: Each of us probably can point to other instances where we went astray. Here’s one to think about: Did we live up to our truth-seeking mission early this decade as we saw Joe Biden struggling cognitively and physically while holding the most powerful position on earth? I don’t believe we did. Did some among us shy from aggressively exploring his intellectual acuity and physical health for fear of aiding Donald Trump’s campaign and alienating loyal readers, viewers and listeners? My guess is yes. If so, would that be an ethical breakdown in our profession? Again, I’d say yes. One thing is for sure: Our credibility was damaged. I didn't see Baron saying this back in the 2023 or 2024. He was doing the usual War on Trump material. In this speech, he immediately followed up: "Now we are living with an administration that actively obstructs our search for truth. President Trump and his allies seek to extinguish all independent arbiters of fact. The press is among them." Leftists are always "independent arbiters" when they go after Trump. This was the more typical Baron bellowing: If one challenge to that ethic of vigilance is the president’s malicious war on the media , another comes from those who enjoy press freedoms but abdicate the corresponding duties. I’m talking, for instance, about cable networks that function as mouthpieces and bullhorns for the administration, who routinely funnel on-air personalities into its top positions and who supply them with lucrative landing spots when they exit. These outlets render themselves largely indistinguishable from the government they are supposed to cover.... If the founders of this country had wanted lapdogs in lieu of watchdogs, they would have at least hinted at that in the formative documents that are their legacy. Those documents had deep flaws, but that was not among them. Stenography and propaganda are clearly not the ethic of the First Amendment. Notice how this conflicts with Baron's notes on failing to hold Biden and his team accountable. Under Democrats, the liberal outlets can be accused of being "mouthpieces and bullhorns" and stenographers and propagandists. Baron and his pals in the media establishment imagine they aren't pitching their "news" at a partisan audience -- while the Post sells "Democracy Dies In Darkness" T-shirts and baby onesies. Baron slammed the Ellisons and their hire Bari Weiss for aiming for an audience in the political center at CBS News. That's political! The new owner of CBS and the current editor-in-chief of the news division, for instance, set an explicit objective of appealing to the center right and the center left. That is a political goal. It is not a journalistic one . And it is a far cry from how Jack Knight instructed his newsroom: “Get the truth and publish it.” That is a journalistic goal. Media owners who substitute political goal posts for news values find refuge in sophistry. They lay claim to ethics; instead, they subvert them. Again, who is pretending that The Washington Post hasn't had political goals? The staffers were all furious at owner Jeff Bezos when the Post wasn't allowed to explicitly endorse Kamala Harris for president. Tim Graham Mon, 04/20/2026 - 13:57 Marketing Timing Regular Search Engine Title Marty Baron Admits Media Ignored Joe Biden Cognitive Decline, Bad Ethics CNS Commentary Off

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After dodging massive strike, a major NYC union struggles to dodge criticism about how it represents workers

After dodging massive strike, a major NYC union struggles to dodge criticism about how it represents workers

Amny

Despite achieving a tentative labor contract agreement last week, a subset of the city’s unionized residential building service workforce shared concerns about the massive union’s representation of its rank-and-file members. The Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RAB) and the union 32BJ SEIU reached a late-inning agreement on April 17 that narrowly avoided a strike,... Read More

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RFK Jr’s podcast has glimmers of his old show – will he address health issues differently?

RFK Jr’s podcast has glimmers of his old show – will he address health issues differently?

The Guardian

Secretary Kennedy Podcast so far seems designed to promote Trump administration talking points over any specific public health message Robert F Kennedy Jr’s new Secretary Kennedy Podcast is a show that, so far, appears designed to promote Trump administration talking points over any specific public health message. Though, based on the trailer and episode one, which dropped last week, one might expect the Secretary Kennedy Podcast to be quite similar to the health secretary’s former show, The RFK Jr Podcast. In the trailer that dropped ahead of his new podcast’s release, Kennedy says: “Children are sicker, chronic disease is exploding and the answers we’ve been given aren’t working” – talking points that were common on his old series. He even adds: “Many of us have come to the conclusion that the government actually lies to us,” a statement that might have served his former podcast better, given that Kennedy is now a senior figure in the government. Continue reading...

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All Fact Checks

How a Green-Card Holder Becomes a Naturalized US Citizen

How a Green-Card Holder Becomes a Naturalized US Citizen

Newsweek

Most green-card holders must wait five years before applying for citizenship.

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Confusing Donation Drops Run By For-Profits Targeted By Hawaiʻi Lawmakers

Confusing Donation Drops Run By For-Profits Targeted By Hawaiʻi Lawmakers

Civilbeat Org

Advocates say the measure will protect people from mistakenly thinking they're donating to charities.

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Controversial far-right leader's massive cash haul has GOP on edge over election chaos

Controversial far-right leader's massive cash haul has GOP on edge over election chaos

Raw Story

Far-right gadfly Nick Fuentes has discovered that peddling racism and misogyny is extremely profitable –– and that has Republicans nervous. The 27-year-old far-right extremist has amassed approximately $900,000 from his online followers since 2025 — funds he's using to build what he calls an "invisible empire" of infiltrators positioned throughout American institutions. According to a Washington Post analysis using AI technology to survey approximately 1,400 hours of Fuentes's livestreams, the money flows through multiple revenue streams: superchats where donors pay for on-screen visibility, swastika-imprinted merchandise, and $100-a-month subscriptions to a private chatroom where he talks with devotees . Fuentes is explicit about his mission. "We're an invisible empire. We're building a cadre of professionals, money people, bureaucrats, and we need them to all be waving the flag, but quietly, ideologically, loyally. ... We've got to be underground," he told donors during a January stream. The infrastructure of extremism has become self-sustaining, the Post's Drew Harwell and Jeremy B. Merrill are reporting, singling out that a shadow economy exists for Fuentes loyalists to cut and spread viral clips from his hours-long streams, earning their own online clout while amplifying his reach. Researcher Megan Squire from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) explained how this ecosystem functions: "The growth of superchats and other 'micropayments' has helped insulate influencers like Fuentes from the constraints that once made open racism a difficult business." GOP leaders are alarmed by what they're witnessing. Fuentes has become one of Donald Trump's most virulent critics as the midterm elections loom — and the infrastructure supporting him shows no signs of disappearing. Republican strategists had believed his popularity would fade as more Americans learned of his extremist views. Instead, he's found a die-hard audience eager to financially support him, extending his financial incentive to build his following even more, the Post is reporting. The California Republican Party took direct action in February, sending state party officials a memo urging them to block candidates "who promote Fuentes and Groyper culture," describing his ideology as calling for an America "modeled closely after Nazi Germany" that was alienating "to average Americans, to say the least." Donors aren't simply consuming extremism — they're participating in it. "Some donors see their superchats as a form of participatory politics that will help spread their beliefs and show their loyalty," Squire explained. "Others just pay for the status symbol of seeing their message and username on-screen, a way to prove oneself in an insular group brought together by their hatred of outsiders."

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Ben & Jerry’s Backs 420 Clemency Push, Supports Virginia Bill (4-20-2026)

Ben & Jerry’s Backs 420 Clemency Push, Supports Virginia Bill (4-20-2026)

Royal Examiner

RICHMOND, Va. –Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company has voiced support for Virginia legislation that modifies sentencing for marijuana-related offenses. The company reached out to the Last Prisoner Project in 2025 and launched “420 For Freedom,” a national clemency initiative urging state governors to issue pardons and sentence adjustments to those impacted by marijuana criminalization. Continue reading Ben & Jerry’s Backs 420 Clemency Push, Supports Virginia Bill at Royal Examiner.

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A Soft Reset: Spring Cleaning for the Mind

A Soft Reset: Spring Cleaning for the Mind

The Cornell Daily Sun

There comes a point in the spring semester when you're no longer hyper-aware of how you're being perceived, when your reputation feels a little less fragile than it did in the fall. As we enter the last few weeks of the school year, many students, especially us first-years, have had similar experiences: a potentially tanked GPA, an awkward talking stage, a failed situationship and a probable rejection from a summer internship (but every company just ghosts you). Like the fall semester, spring is an anxious period - prelims, finals, the creeping realization that the semester is wrapping up - but socially and academically, we've already lived through all of the first-year horror stories everyone warns you about. Now feels like the time - unlike winter break, when we swear to follow through on a long list of resolutions - to set a few manageable goals for ourselves. Without the looming pressure of the new year ahead of us, there's a small space to think about how we want to finish out the academic year and head into summer: back home, abroad or wherever we may be. Either way, it feels like yet another new chapter - and it is. And the weather encourages a bit more reflection. In Ithaca's chilling winter, it often feels like you're stuck in place. When it's drab and gray, day in and day out, life can start to feel a bit like The Truman Show , as though you're caught in a never-ending cycle of 10:10 a.m. lectures, dining hall runs, the occasional Helen Newman visit and, if you're feeling adventurous, maybe a Wednesday night fishbowl in seven-degree weather. Winter has a way of placing me in a loop, where social or academic situations sit heavily on my mind, and the freezing dreariness does nothing but reflect how I'm feeling. But as the sun is starting to make an appearance more frequently, the motivation to get outside - to restore our long-lost vitamin D - is brewing. Along with it comes the urge to refresh our minds. Walking to class every morning is no longer an experience where I must first brace myself for numb fingers and harsh winds. It's now a breather: a moment of fresh air before my academic routine begins, a chance to clear my mind after a night's rest and reset before the day ahead, without worrying too much about what's already happened and instead looking forward. Spring feels like a 'soft' reset, compared to the New Year's pressure to hard reset - the attempt to fix every anxiety or embarrassment from the fall semester all at once. Spring doesn't demand that we completely reinvent ourselves with ambiguous goals that are unlikely to stick. For me, there's also the strange illusion of productivity that comes when I'm simply doing schoolwork outside in the sun. Perhaps the whole 'fake it till you make it' idea is true - sometimes that's exactly how a new routine begins. And of course, we can always question whether we're actually happier in the spring or just more distracted - by classes, friends, extracurriculars or merely the sun's presence. So, maybe it is a distraction. But it could also just be us trying to make the most of the final stretch of the semester before parting ways with campus, now that we've finally settled in. Either way, spring feels like the optimal time to take a few risks. After all, we're leaving in less than a month anyway. So I'm choosing to, or at least trying, not to worry so much about everything before summer break. Maybe a 'soft reset' looks less like reinventing yourself and more like small, intentional shifts - grabbing coffee with someone new, going to the office hours you've been avoiding since January or perhaps letting an awkward moment from February stay in February rather than carrying it with you. It's realizing whatever version of you people may have formed over the school year isn't fixed; there's still room to feel different within yourself. We're not stuck in a static loop, and regardless, campus always seems to have little ways to embrace the day - whether that's studying on the Arts Quad, walking around Beebe Lake, watching the sunset on Libe Slope or simply sitting in the sun a little longer than planned.

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A War Nobody Voted For — And a Congress That Let It Happen

A War Nobody Voted For — And a Congress That Let It Happen

Headtopics

Hassan Elbiali is a political analyst and writer covering US foreign policy, international security, and Middle East geopolitics. His work has appeared in Independent Australia, Z Magazine, and other international affairs publications.

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Marty Baron Drops a Bomb: We Unethically Avoided Joe Biden's Cognitive Decline

Marty Baron Drops a Bomb: We Unethically Avoided Joe Biden's Cognitive Decline

Newsbusters

Marty Baron Drops a Bomb: We Unethically Avoided Joe Biden's Cognitive Decline Associated Press media reporter David Bauder found a fascinating nugget in an otherwise predictable lecture on media ethics from former Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron. He gave the keynote address of the Peter F. Collier Awards for Ethics in Journalism at New York University. (This is not the Peter Collier who wrote books with David Horowitz.) Alongside the usual lectures about the awfulness of Trump, there was a single note about how the press failed in reporting on Biden's cognitive decline: Each of us probably can point to other instances where we went astray. Here’s one to think about: Did we live up to our truth-seeking mission early this decade as we saw Joe Biden struggling cognitively and physically while holding the most powerful position on earth? I don’t believe we did. Did some among us shy from aggressively exploring his intellectual acuity and physical health for fear of aiding Donald Trump’s campaign and alienating loyal readers, viewers and listeners? My guess is yes. If so, would that be an ethical breakdown in our profession? Again, I’d say yes. One thing is for sure: Our credibility was damaged. I didn't see Baron saying this back in the 2023 or 2024. He was doing the usual War on Trump material. In this speech, he immediately followed up: "Now we are living with an administration that actively obstructs our search for truth. President Trump and his allies seek to extinguish all independent arbiters of fact. The press is among them." Leftists are always "independent arbiters" when they go after Trump. This was the more typical Baron bellowing: If one challenge to that ethic of vigilance is the president’s malicious war on the media , another comes from those who enjoy press freedoms but abdicate the corresponding duties. I’m talking, for instance, about cable networks that function as mouthpieces and bullhorns for the administration, who routinely funnel on-air personalities into its top positions and who supply them with lucrative landing spots when they exit. These outlets render themselves largely indistinguishable from the government they are supposed to cover.... If the founders of this country had wanted lapdogs in lieu of watchdogs, they would have at least hinted at that in the formative documents that are their legacy. Those documents had deep flaws, but that was not among them. Stenography and propaganda are clearly not the ethic of the First Amendment. Notice how this conflicts with Baron's notes on failing to hold Biden and his team accountable. Under Democrats, the liberal outlets can be accused of being "mouthpieces and bullhorns" and stenographers and propagandists. Baron and his pals in the media establishment imagine they aren't pitching their "news" at a partisan audience -- while the Post sells "Democracy Dies In Darkness" T-shirts and baby onesies. Baron slammed the Ellisons and their hire Bari Weiss for aiming for an audience in the political center at CBS News. That's political! The new owner of CBS and the current editor-in-chief of the news division, for instance, set an explicit objective of appealing to the center right and the center left. That is a political goal. It is not a journalistic one . And it is a far cry from how Jack Knight instructed his newsroom: “Get the truth and publish it.” That is a journalistic goal. Media owners who substitute political goal posts for news values find refuge in sophistry. They lay claim to ethics; instead, they subvert them. Again, who is pretending that The Washington Post hasn't had political goals? The staffers were all furious at owner Jeff Bezos when the Post wasn't allowed to explicitly endorse Kamala Harris for president. Tim Graham Mon, 04/20/2026 - 13:57 Marketing Timing Regular Search Engine Title Marty Baron Admits Media Ignored Joe Biden Cognitive Decline, Bad Ethics CNS Commentary Off

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After dodging massive strike, a major NYC union struggles to dodge criticism about how it represents workers

After dodging massive strike, a major NYC union struggles to dodge criticism about how it represents workers

Amny

Despite achieving a tentative labor contract agreement last week, a subset of the city’s unionized residential building service workforce shared concerns about the massive union’s representation of its rank-and-file members. The Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RAB) and the union 32BJ SEIU reached a late-inning agreement on April 17 that narrowly avoided a strike,... Read More

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RFK Jr’s podcast has glimmers of his old show – will he address health issues differently?

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The Guardian

Secretary Kennedy Podcast so far seems designed to promote Trump administration talking points over any specific public health message Robert F Kennedy Jr’s new Secretary Kennedy Podcast is a show that, so far, appears designed to promote Trump administration talking points over any specific public health message. Though, based on the trailer and episode one, which dropped last week, one might expect the Secretary Kennedy Podcast to be quite similar to the health secretary’s former show, The RFK Jr Podcast. In the trailer that dropped ahead of his new podcast’s release, Kennedy says: “Children are sicker, chronic disease is exploding and the answers we’ve been given aren’t working” – talking points that were common on his old series. He even adds: “Many of us have come to the conclusion that the government actually lies to us,” a statement that might have served his former podcast better, given that Kennedy is now a senior figure in the government. Continue reading...

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