September 21, 2026 at 1:15 PM EDT
Attorney General Bonta Caves to Pressure from Billionaires and Gavin Newsom, Paves Way for Disastrous Paramount-Warner B

Attorney General Bonta Caves to Pressure from Billionaires and Gavin Newsom, Paves Way for Disastrous Paramount-Warner Bros. Mega-Merger According to Bloomberg on Monday, California State Attorney General Rob Bonta and other state attorneys general have reached a settlement of their antitrust lawsuit against Paramount Skydance's $111 billion takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. According to the report, the settlement creates a nominally independent editorial board to oversee CNN and CBS, and makes promises on the output of the combined studios' movie production. Bloomberg does not report any divestitures of the merged companies' massive cable channel portfolio. These minor concessions are largely unenforceable behavioral remedies that Bonta had previously denounced, and in some cases promise less than the two companies are already doing as standalone competitors. They came after Paramount owner David Ellison made multiple threats to move the studio out of California unless the attorneys general dropped their lawsuit. Previously, Bonta had maintained he'd only accept structural remedies, which block the merger or involve companies selling off significant parts of the combined businesses. In August, California Governor Gavin Newsom indicated that he'd like Bonta to settle the case, despite growing public concern over the many harms such a deal would bring: widespread entertainment industry layoffs, spiraling consumer costs and increa

September 21, 2026 at 3:30 AM EDT
On Unseriousness: Digging More Bonkers GOP Holes

On Unseriousness: Digging More Bonkers GOP Holes In a possibly more than averagely batshit news cycle, the apocalyptic clusterfuck of clowns "governing" this country got up to some serious weirdness last week. As the chief clown waffled on the best way to kill us all - AI, nukes, nukes in space, forever war, hissy fits, agitprop up the wazoo - his lackeys frantically gaslit us with brain-dead pols, high T warriors and drunken sheep fuckers. No wonder Americans are said to be dreading the fall - not autumn, but the fall of democracy and civilization (sic) itself.

September 18, 2026 at 2:07 PM EDT
Press-Freedom Coalition Calls for the Immediate Release of ICE-Detained Journalist Luis Galeano

Press-Freedom Coalition Calls for the Immediate Release of ICE-Detained Journalist Luis Galeano On Friday, a coalition of 15 civil-society and press-freedom organizations demanded that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) release renowned Miami-based journalist Luis Galeano. The letter's signers include Free Press, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, PEN America, Reporters Without Borders and the Society of Professional Journalists, among others.

September 18, 2026 at 10:20 AM EDT
New Report "High Flyers 2026" Reveals How Private Jets Costs Taxpayers and the Planet

New Report "High Flyers 2026" Reveals How Private Jets Costs Taxpayers and the Planet The wealth explosion among the ultra-rich has led to soaring demand for luxury private jets and the infrastructure to serve them, including expanded private aircraft hangers and runway capacity at local and regional airports. Meanwhile, transnational corporations wanting to shield their top managers from interactions with the public are also expanding their private jet fleets, even as more shareholders are trying to rein in private jet excess.

September 17, 2026 at 9:55 AM EDT
Trump Administration Directive Would Allow Killing of Endangered Wildlife

Trump Administration Directive Would Allow Killing of Endangered Wildlife The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a sweeping new directive that attempts to strip imperiled wildlife of protections from most activities that can kill or injure them. "This stabs at the very heart of the Endangered Species Act by giving federal approval to the killing of some of America's most beloved wildlife," said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The Trump administration is desperate to annihilate environmental protections, but this incredibly radical measure is both cruel and profoundly unlawful. Killing endangered wildlife is illegal, whether that's your purpose or not."

September 16, 2026 at 12:21 PM EDT
New ACLU and AFL-CIO Report Shows Deportations Lower Wages and Raise Costs for America's Workers

New ACLU and AFL-CIO Report Shows Deportations Lower Wages and Raise Costs for America's Workers The American Civil Liberties Union and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) today released a new report, Citizenship and the Affordability Agenda: A Path to Better Jobs, Higher Wages, and Prosperity for All, detailing how the mass deportation agenda is exacerbating the affordability crisis by disrupting critical industries, eliminating jobs, weakening workplace protections, and driving up costs for working families. The findings come as communities continue to suffer the impact of mass de-legalization, record levels of immigration arrests and rebound from the economic toll of militarized enforcement operations like Minnesota's "Operation Metro Surge."

September 15, 2026 at 2:11 AM EDT
A Certain Weeping: Beyond Bin Laden's Wildest Dreams

A Certain Weeping: Beyond Bin Laden's Wildest Dreams Along with grief and loss, the anniversary of 9/11 brought home for many the "incalculable cost" of the quarter century of carnage it unleashed - the militarizing "beyond all sanity," the othering of "everyone who isn't 'them,'" the lying, fear-mongering, inflicting of terror that's left America hollowed out from forever wars now mostly against imaginary enemies within. The bleak consensus: There would be no Trump without 9/11, the senseless, self-defeating war on terror did not end, and it damn near did us in.The commemoration of 9/11 came hard on the tawdry heels of a pointless, "historic" midterm convention by a "staggeringly incompetent" dumpster fire of a GOP shameless enough to hoist "Never Forget" signs while forgetting or twisting beyond recognition what it was we vowed not to forget - our unity and humanity in the face of unprecedented loss. Instead, it mirrored the betrayal of a nation's history and values, the turning of a government on itself to morph into an engine of its own destruction. "Defend Freedom!", vaguely blared other signs, without specifying just whose freedom, or at what cost. Thus did the event's speakers giddily spiral into paranoia and conspiracy, pointing stubby fingers at their "enemies" of choice: "Terrorists. Muslims. Criminals. Antifa. Black or trans people. Undocumented immigrants. Suspected undocumented immigrants. Opinion-havers. Op-ed writers." Etc etc.And, these days, commies. Ted Cruz savaged "communists and Islamists (who) hate Christians, hate Jews and hate capitalism." Little toad-like, wide-eyed MAGA Mike shrieked we are a nation "being attacked from within" (true, that) by Dems "beholden to radicals. We have let the barbarians inside the gate, and next year the Communists will be in Congress." (Oh, please.) Ever-slimy J.D. called half of Congress "the party of hatred (that) despises America and the people who built it." Don Jr. revisited the "dystopian hellscape" of left-wing ideology, declaring, "Communism is on the march." His demented old man said Dems "turned our cities into scenes of death, misery, murder, poverty and destruction," but thank God "we took that dark age of America and turned it into a golden age." Also, he'll give you a $5,000 bribe if you "cheat like hell" on Election Day. Inspiring.Later, at a 9/11 Pentagon event, he and his lackeys reiterated their devotion to "never forget" not to learn anything from a grievous, vengeful past. Trump said his Iran debacle fulfills a "sacred oath" to "never, ever forget," or learn, squat. Dangerous zealot Pete said "our warriors" have "fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for half a century, that cheered on 9/11," a total lie. Iran's government and people decried the "mass murder of human beings" on Sept. 11, with huge crowds attending candlelit vigils. Sliding past pesky facts, Pete yawped Iran still "plots to kill our citizens" and "we're still sending terrorists where they belong - to Hell." Then he crudely veered to Scripture: The struggle against evil "will continue until Judgment Day, "our only answer (is) eternal vigilance," and thank you Jesus for brave new "warriors who will say when it matters most, 'Send me.'"Startlingly for those of a certain age who, dumbfounded, watched it unfold on that blue-sky day - and then rewatched it a thousand times, trying to grasp a reality so much of the world, but not this once-shining city on a hill, has experienced - about a third of Americans are too young to remember the chaos of 9/11 - its searing images of office workers, often holding hands, plunging to their deaths; the collapse of both towers in a vast cloud of ash, dust, paper, carcinogens; the courage of firefighters and first responders, thousands of whom died that day or later of cancers; the initial summoning of our better angels as a nation came together for one another. Historian David Blight cites "the essential grief of it...a sheer sense of unspeakable loss." He also calls it "the most visual event in our history, so shocking, so horrifying that you can't watch it without a certain weeping." Obviously, it didn't last. At first, Bush's language was of criminality, not war. The resources of the federal government would go to help victims' families and "find those folks who committed this act." He was rational: He told Congress the terrorists "practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism (that) perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam." Then - from fear, hubris, ineptness, talking to mad Cheney? - his rhetoric pivoted to the martial, the need in a new world to "win the war against terrorism." "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," he said, and new Sen. Hillary Clinton echoed him: "Every nation has to be either with us or against us." Absurdly, he vowed to end terror, evil itself, "a frightened child wishing to rid the world of bad guys." Even language warped into creepy, blood-and-soil, "Nazi-resonating" totalitarianism with the newly coined "Homeland Security." 9/11was "when things began to go wrong for the United States," argues former Bill Clinton adviser Bill Galston. When "the world's most powerful country responded to the worst terrorist attack in its history by inflicting terror of its own," we swiftly squandered our global good will, power, money, resources and whatever remained of our moral capital after decades of imperialist crimes to invade Afghanistan, then Iraq, now Iran, in forever wars born of the same lies, missteps, ignorance, arrogance and racism whose abuses and lack of accountability continue to haunt and fracture us today. Added to millions of innocent lives lost, the reflexive move to demonize, dominate or torture those seen as lesser also led to "a staggering level of the willful infliction of suffering...of gratuitous cruelty and sadism that became operationally part of the war on terror."An estimated 940,000 people were killed by direct, post 9/11 violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen; up to another 3.8 million people died indirectly in those war zones. Bush promised great military victories, as Americans learned (again) to equate national strength with the ability to inflict harm. When misbegotten wars faltered, ravaged, failed - it took the Taliban just 20 years to retake power - leaders began recycling 9/11 lies to justify new wars (see Iran), recycling hardware and manpower from the old, well-funded wars for a paramilitary and counter-insurgency force at home (see ICE), finding domestic enemies to scapegoat and target (see migrants et al), and pitting Americans against each other while turning a blind eye to the boundless corruption behind it. In brief, after a long road of death and destruction, "The war on terror has come home."Historians debate whether Osama Bin Laden "won" after all in the dark aftermath of 9/11. He failed in his desire to establish a caliphate and expel western countries from the Middle East, but "the magnitude of the self-inflicted wounds (of) America's overreach," argues former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes, "hastened our own decline, division and betrayal of our own story." Rhodes is often haunted by the cost in blood and treasure of what we did - and what we didn't do, say, for climate change, health care, education: "If you came down to Earth from another planet and tried to make sense of the fact that the United States spent several trillion dollars chasing a relatively small number of terrorists around a few countries, toppling governments and then fighting insurgencies when it has huge problems...you would think this is a country that has gone insane." To The Intercept's Nick Turse, a quarter century after 9/11, "It's clear that bin Laden won." A major goal, Turse notes, "was to trap the U.S. in expensive, foreign quagmire wars that would trigger domestic economic collapse." In 2001, America enjoyed an unimaginable budget surplus of $128 billion. After decades of ruinous wars, tax cuts for the rich and too much spending on the wrong things, today's national debt is over $40 trillion, we'll pay more than $1 trillion in interest, and that will likely double in the next decade. In 2004, Bin Laden touted his strategy of "bleeding America to the point of victory," writing, "All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaeda to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without achieving for it anything of note."Of late, America's "swirl of toxic policies and overreach has opened the door to something beyond bin Laden's wildest dreams" - the rise of a more deadly terrorist than any foreign threat or even Cheney, who deemed "quietly" waterboarding detainees "a no-brainer." Trump, Putin's fragile, useful idiot, has "stepped into that slipstream of othering people" - Black president, Mexican "rapists," immigrant caravans, Democrats - unleashed by 9/11, and swiftly taken nearly 4,000 authoritarian actions, 1,050 undermining democracy: Over 940 silencing dissent, 650 destabilizing foreign policy, 600 gutting civil rights, 500 spewing misinformation, one biggie tryiing to kill us all with greenhouse gases, and now headlining the global erosion of democracy to render the U.S. "Patient Zero." "Bin Laden is long gone, but his spiritual successor remains ensconced in the White House," Turse darkly notes. "The Al Qaeda leader couldn't have hoped for better."At last week's 9/11 remembrance, several relatives of the dead spoke out against the same "sickening, unfathomable" othering, denouncing "using this tragedy to spread hate, which does no honor to the victims." Jonathan Larsen likewise urges we find hope in the "stories of what people did when faced with the prospect of horrific death, people who had to weigh that against their own humanity." Those stories offer "hopeful messages about America" because "they're about humanity, a humanity 9/11 was engineered to make us forget." Our own "true instincts," he argues, are "of greatness, of self-sacrifice," demonstrating "that any of us, unburdened by stupid stories about who our fellow humans are, will help each other." 25 years later, "What we need to recover our forgotten better natures are better stories." May we tell them, and hear them above the unutterable carnage, and find solace going forward.Update: Oh look! Over there! Another lying scumbag, another hapless scapegoat, another desperate, vengeful, shiny circus - "Operation Heartland Surge To Find New Imaginary Enemies" - to distract us from colossal crimes and failures. Huh. ICE, born of Bush/Cheney's ill-conceived War on Terror, brought the war home to Chicago.Getty Images Along with grief and loss, the anniversary of 9/11 brought home for many the "incalculable cost" of the quarter century of carnage it unleashed - the militarizing "beyond all sanity," the othering of "everyone who isn't 'them,'" the lying, fear-mongering, inflicting of terror that's left America hollowed out from forever wars now mostly against imaginary enemies within. The bleak consensus: There would be no Trump without 9/11, the senseless, self-defeating war on terror did not end, and it damn near did us in.The commemoration of 9/11 came hard on the tawdry heels of a pointless, "historic" midterm convention by a "staggeringly incompetent" dumpster fire of a GOP shameless enough to hoist "Never Forget" signs while forgetting or twisting beyond recognition what it was we vowed not to forget - our unity and humanity in the face of unprecedented loss. Instead, it mirrored the betrayal of a nation's history and values, the turning of a government on itself to morph into an engine of its own destruction. "Defend Freedom!", vaguely blared other signs, without specifying just whose freedom, or at what cost. Thus did the event's speakers giddily spiral into paranoia and conspiracy, pointing stubby fingers at their "enemies" of choice: "Terrorists. Muslims. Criminals. Antifa. Black or trans people. Undocumented immigrants. Suspected undocumented immigrants. Opinion-havers. Op-ed writers." Etc etc.And, these days, commies. Ted Cruz savaged "communists and Islamists (who) hate Christians, hate Jews and hate capitalism." Little toad-like, wide-eyed MAGA Mike shrieked we are a nation "being attacked from within" (true, that) by Dems "beholden to radicals. We have let the barbarians inside the gate, and next year the Communists will be in Congress." (Oh, please.) Ever-slimy J.D. called half of Congress "the party of hatred (that) despises America and the people who built it." Don Jr. revisited the "dystopian hellscape" of left-wing ideology, declaring, "Communism is on the march." His demented old man said Dems "turned our cities into scenes of death, misery, murder, poverty and destruction," but thank God "we took that dark age of America and turned it into a golden age." Also, he'll give you a $5,000 bribe if you "cheat like hell" on Election Day. Inspiring.Later, at a 9/11 Pentagon event, he and his lackeys reiterated their devotion to "never forget" not to learn anything from a grievous, vengeful past. Trump said his Iran debacle fulfills a "sacred oath" to "never, ever forget," or learn, squat. Dangerous zealot Pete said "our warriors" have "fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for half a century, that cheered on 9/11," a total lie. Iran's government and people decried the "mass murder of human beings" on Sept. 11, with huge crowds attending candlelit vigils. Sliding past pesky facts, Pete yawped Iran still "plots to kill our citizens" and "we're still sending terrorists where they belong - to Hell." Then he crudely veered to Scripture: The struggle against evil "will continue until Judgment Day, "our only answer (is) eternal vigilance," and thank you Jesus for brave new "warriors who will say when it matters most, 'Send me.'"Startlingly for those of a certain age who, dumbfounded, watched it unfold on that blue-sky day - and then rewatched it a thousand times, trying to grasp a reality so much of the world, but not this once-shining city on a hill, has experienced - about a third of Americans are too young to remember the chaos of 9/11 - its searing images of office workers, often holding hands, plunging to their deaths; the collapse of both towers in a vast cloud of ash, dust, paper, carcinogens; the courage of firefighters and first responders, thousands of whom died that day or later of cancers; the initial summoning of our better angels as a nation came together for one another. Historian David Blight cites "the essential grief of it...a sheer sense of unspeakable loss." He also calls it "the most visual event in our history, so shocking, so horrifying that you can't watch it without a certain weeping." Obviously, it didn't last. At first, Bush's language was of criminality, not war. The resources of the federal government would go to help victims' families and "find those folks who committed this act." He was rational: He told Congress the terrorists "practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism (that) perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam." Then - from fear, hubris, ineptness, talking to mad Cheney? - his rhetoric pivoted to the martial, the need in a new world to "win the war against terrorism." "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," he said, and new Sen. Hillary Clinton echoed him: "Every nation has to be either with us or against us." Absurdly, he vowed to end terror, evil itself, "a frightened child wishing to rid the world of bad guys." Even language warped into creepy, blood-and-soil, "Nazi-resonating" totalitarianism with the newly coined "Homeland Security." 9/11was "when things began to go wrong for the United States," argues former Bill Clinton adviser Bill Galston. When "the world's most powerful country responded to the worst terrorist attack in its history by inflicting terror of its own," we swiftly squandered our global good will, power, money, resources and whatever remained of our moral capital after decades of imperialist crimes to invade Afghanistan, then Iraq, now Iran, in forever wars born of the same lies, missteps, ignorance, arrogance and racism whose abuses and lack of accountability continue to haunt and fracture us today. Added to millions of innocent lives lost, the reflexive move to demonize, dominate or torture those seen as lesser also led to "a staggering level of the willful infliction of suffering...of gratuitous cruelty and sadism that became operationally part of the war on terror."An estimated 940,000 people were killed by direct, post 9/11 violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen; up to another 3.8 million people died indirectly in those war zones. Bush promised great military victories, as Americans learned (again) to equate national strength with the ability to inflict harm. When misbegotten wars faltered, ravaged, failed - it took the Taliban just 20 years to retake power - leaders began recycling 9/11 lies to justify new wars (see Iran), recycling hardware and manpower from the old, well-funded wars for a paramilitary and counter-insurgency force at home (see ICE), finding domestic enemies to scapegoat and target (see migrants et al), and pitting Americans against each other while turning a blind eye to the boundless corruption behind it. In brief, after a long road of death and destruction, "The war on terror has come home."Historians debate whether Osama Bin Laden "won" after all in the dark aftermath of 9/11. He failed in his desire to establish a caliphate and expel western countries from the Middle East, but "the magnitude of the self-inflicted wounds (of) America's overreach," argues former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes, "hastened our own decline, division and betrayal of our own story." Rhodes is often haunted by the cost in blood and treasure of what we did - and what we didn't do, say, for climate change, health care, education: "If you came down to Earth from another planet and tried to make sense of the fact that the United States spent several trillion dollars chasing a relatively small number of terrorists around a few countries, toppling governments and then fighting insurgencies when it has huge problems...you would think this is a country that has gone insane." To The Intercept's Nick Turse, a quarter century after 9/11, "It's clear that bin Laden won." A major goal, Turse notes, "was to trap the U.S. in expensive, foreign quagmire wars that would trigger domestic economic collapse." In 2001, America enjoyed an unimaginable budget surplus of $128 billion. After decades of ruinous wars, tax cuts for the rich and too much spending on the wrong things, today's national debt is over $40 trillion, we'll pay more than $1 trillion in interest, and that will likely double in the next decade. In 2004, Bin Laden touted his strategy of "bleeding America to the point of victory," writing, "All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaeda to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without achieving for it anything of note."Of late, America's "swirl of toxic policies and overreach has opened the door to something beyond bin Laden's wildest dreams" - the rise of a more deadly terrorist than any foreign threat or even Cheney, who deemed "quietly" waterboarding detainees "a no-brainer." Trump, Putin's fragile, useful idiot, has "stepped into that slipstream of othering people" - Black president, Mexican "rapists," immigrant caravans, Democrats - unleashed by 9/11, and swiftly taken nearly 4,000 authoritarian actions, 1,050 undermining democracy: Over 940 silencing dissent, 650 destabilizing foreign policy, 600 gutting civil rights, 500 spewing misinformation, one biggie tryiing to kill us all with greenhouse gases, and now headlining the global erosion of democracy to render the U.S. "Patient Zero." "Bin Laden is long gone, but his spiritual successor remains ensconced in the White House," Turse darkly notes. "The Al Qaeda leader couldn't have hoped for better."At last week's 9/11 remembrance, several relatives of the dead spoke out against the same "sickening, unfathomable" othering, denouncing "using this tragedy to spread hate, which does no honor to the victims." Jonathan Larsen likewise urges we find hope in the "stories of what people did when faced with the prospect of horrific death, people who had to weigh that against their own humanity." Those stories offer "hopeful messages about America" because "they're about humanity, a humanity 9/11 was engineered to make us forget." Our own "true instincts," he argues, are "of greatness, of self-sacrifice," demonstrating "that any of us, unburdened by stupid stories about who our fellow humans are, will help each other." 25 years later, "What we need to recover our forgotten better natures are better stories." May we tell them, and hear them above the unutterable carnage, and find solace going forward.Update: Oh look! Over there! Another lying scumbag, another hapless scapegoat, another desperate, vengeful, shiny circus - "Operation Heartland Surge To Find New Imaginary Enemies" - to distract us from colossal crimes and failures. Huh. ICE, born of Bush/Cheney's ill-conceived War on Terror, brought the war home to Chicago.Getty Images

September 14, 2026 at 2:20 PM EDT
Statement: don't trust the AI bros. But take the danger of AI seriously.

Statement: don't trust the AI bros. But take the danger of AI seriously. AI "doomerism" is going mainstream. This week the heads of major frontier AI companies ratcheted up their rhetoric about how dangerous the technology they are building is, calling for a "pause" on AI development.Digital rights group Fight for the Future, which has run many of the highest profile campaigns against the use of AI for surveillance and warfare, issued the following statement, which can be attributed to the group's director, Evan Greer (she/her): "We can't trust the AI industry to regulate itself. We can't really trust anything these self-interested billionaires say. But we should take them seriously that the technology they are building is dangerous. And we should act urgently to demand strict regulation that protects people and holds AI companies accountable for the harm they've already done, while also preventing future harm. It's clear that these industry leaders think they are best positioned to craft AI policy for the good of all humanity. We think that's horseshit. Lawmakers should be listening to independent experts, researchers, civil society, and the communities most impacted. They should craft policies that address AI harm without undermining open source models or entrenching the largest players. Whether humans use AI to kill each other or AI agent swarms do immense harm, it's clear that unregulated AI poses an existential threat to human rights and liberty, if not humanity itself. Congress should act, but they shouldn't just do whatever the AI bros tell them to." AI "doomerism" is going mainstream. This week the heads of major frontier AI companies ratcheted up their rhetoric about how dangerous the technology they are building is, calling for a "pause" on AI development.Digital rights group Fight for the Future, which has run many of the highest profile campaigns against the use of AI for surveillance and warfare, issued the following statement, which can be attributed to the group's director, Evan Greer (she/her): "We can't trust the AI industry to regulate itself. We can't really trust anything these self-interested billionaires say. But we should take them seriously that the technology they are building is dangerous. And we should act urgently to demand strict regulation that protects people and holds AI companies accountable for the harm they've already done, while also preventing future harm. It's clear that these industry leaders think they are best positioned to craft AI policy for the good of all humanity. We think that's horseshit. Lawmakers should be listening to independent experts, researchers, civil society, and the communities most impacted. They should craft policies that address AI harm without undermining open source models or entrenching the largest players. Whether humans use AI to kill each other or AI agent swarms do immense harm, it's clear that unregulated AI poses an existential threat to human rights and liberty, if not humanity itself. Congress should act, but they shouldn't just do whatever the AI bros tell them to."

September 14, 2026 at 12:35 PM EDT
EPA to Allow Power Plants to Accelerate Global Warming

EPA to Allow Power Plants to Accelerate Global Warming The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to announce today that it will stop regulating carbon dioxide released by power plants burning fossil fuels, according to reports. If allowed to go into effect, the second largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would be allowed to grow unchecked. In response, David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Climate Program issued the following statement: "With this move, Trump again subverts the EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment. Allowing more climate-heating pollution from the U.S. power sector will deeply harm Americans' health and our natural environment. It will also cost us money and put us further behind in the competition over the energy of the future, renewables."The EPA's rationale, that greenhouse gas pollution doesn't endanger human health or the environment, is absurdly wrong, and the courts should reject it." The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to announce today that it will stop regulating carbon dioxide released by power plants burning fossil fuels, according to reports. If allowed to go into effect, the second largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would be allowed to grow unchecked. In response, David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Climate Program issued the following statement: "With this move, Trump again subverts the EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment. Allowing more climate-heating pollution from the U.S. power sector will deeply harm Americans' health and our natural environment. It will also cost us money and put us further behind in the competition over the energy of the future, renewables."The EPA's rationale, that greenhouse gas pollution doesn't endanger human health or the environment, is absurdly wrong, and the courts should reject it."

September 14, 2026 at 12:10 PM EDT
Trump Administration Will Roll Back Climate Rules

Trump Administration Will Roll Back Climate Rules According to published reports, the Trump Administration will finalize rules to rollback carbon pollution standards for power plants, as soon as today.Following is reaction from Meredith Hankins, federal climate legal director at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):"With millions of Americans facing wildfires, heat waves and deadly storms fueled by climate change, the Trump administration is cutting the biggest polluters loose to do more damage than ever. "For the health of our families and good of our nation, this cannot stand. Ignoring the immense harm to the public from this power plant pollution is a clear violation of the Clean Air Act and of Supreme Court precedent. We will be seeing them in court." According to published reports, the Trump Administration will finalize rules to rollback carbon pollution standards for power plants, as soon as today.Following is reaction from Meredith Hankins, federal climate legal director at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):"With millions of Americans facing wildfires, heat waves and deadly storms fueled by climate change, the Trump administration is cutting the biggest polluters loose to do more damage than ever. "For the health of our families and good of our nation, this cannot stand. Ignoring the immense harm to the public from this power plant pollution is a clear violation of the Clean Air Act and of Supreme Court precedent. We will be seeing them in court."

September 14, 2026 at 11:53 AM EDT
Trump Moves to Strip EPA of Authority to Limit Power Plant Carbon Pollution

Trump Moves to Strip EPA of Authority to Limit Power Plant Carbon Pollution According to reporting, Donald Trump's administration will propose to repeal the Endangerment Finding for power plants today - a move that would permanently strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas power plants under the Clean Air Act. This action would strip EPA of one of its most powerful tools for combating climate change. Combined with the administration's February repeal of the Endangerment Finding for motor vehicles, today's proposal is part of a sweeping effort to dismantle the legal foundation for federal climate regulation, leaving the EPA legally unable to act on the two largest sources of carbon pollution in the country. The proposal is another one of Donald Trump's attempts to bolster the profits of a struggling coal industry and deliver directly on the promises EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin made to the corporate executives at a National Coal Council meeting in July, where he vowed to fulfill the industry's "wish list." The administration has already given more than $700 million in taxpayer dollars to the coal industry, despite the immense public and environmental harms associated with burning coal for electricity, and the well-documented evidence that clean energy is now cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable than fossil fuels. The handouts and regulatory giveaways come as renewable energy continues to outperform fossil fuel-burning power plants in the marketplace. It is now cheaper to build new solar energy than to build new coal or gas plants-even without subsidies for renewable projects. In May, solar energy generated more electricity than coal across the entire country. That same month, Utah generated more energy from solar than any other source. Despite Donald Trump's best efforts, the coal industry cannot compete with solar""it's being kept on life support by taxpayer subsidies and regulatory handouts, while ordinary families pay the price in higher electricity bills, dirtier air, and more extreme weather fueled by carbon pollution.In response, Sierra Club Chief Program Officer Holly Bender issued the following statement: "While wildfires rage, floods devastate communities, and families struggle to afford skyrocketing electricity bills and insurance premiums, the Trump administration is handing the fossil fuel industry a license to keep polluting. This is full-throated climate denial while the climate crisis happens in real time and a shocking betrayal of the American public. The Sierra Club will fight back against this reckless and dangerous proposal with everything we have in the courts, in Congress, and in communities across the country." BackgroundThe Endangerment Finding is a 2009 scientific determination by the EPA that greenhouse gasses pose a significant threat to public health and the environment. It is the legal cornerstone of the EPA's authority to regulate climate pollution under the Clean Air Act - the foundation upon which vehicle standards, power plant rules, and other climate protections have all been built. The nonpartisan National Academies of Sciences confirmed last year that the finding "was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence."Sierra Club has been at the front lines of the fight for federal climate standards longer than any other organization. In December 2002, the Club filed the first-ever climate case under the Clean Air Act in federal court, which ultimately led to the Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. EPA that the Clean Air Act covers greenhouse gas pollution and to all of the federal climate standards that followed. Now, two-and-a-half decades later, Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are trying to destroy those hard-won victories in an effort to double-down on the fossil fuels that are harming the climate and environment, and driving up costs. According to reporting, Donald Trump's administration will propose to repeal the Endangerment Finding for power plants today - a move that would permanently strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas power plants under the Clean Air Act. This action would strip EPA of one of its most powerful tools for combating climate change. Combined with the administration's February repeal of the Endangerment Finding for motor vehicles, today's proposal is part of a sweeping effort to dismantle the legal foundation for federal climate regulation, leaving the EPA legally unable to act on the two largest sources of carbon pollution in the country. The proposal is another one of Donald Trump's attempts to bolster the profits of a struggling coal industry and deliver directly on the promises EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin made to the corporate executives at a National Coal Council meeting in July, where he vowed to fulfill the industry's "wish list." The administration has already given more than $700 million in taxpayer dollars to the coal industry, despite the immense public and environmental harms associated with burning coal for electricity, and the well-documented evidence that clean energy is now cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable than fossil fuels. The handouts and regulatory giveaways come as renewable energy continues to outperform fossil fuel-burning power plants in the marketplace. It is now cheaper to build new solar energy than to build new coal or gas plants-even without subsidies for renewable projects. In May, solar energy generated more electricity than coal across the entire country. That same month, Utah generated more energy from solar than any other source. Despite Donald Trump's best efforts, the coal industry cannot compete with solar""it's being kept on life support by taxpayer subsidies and regulatory handouts, while ordinary families pay the price in higher electricity bills, dirtier air, and more extreme weather fueled by carbon pollution.In response, Sierra Club Chief Program Officer Holly Bender issued the following statement: "While wildfires rage, floods devastate communities, and families struggle to afford skyrocketing electricity bills and insurance premiums, the Trump administration is handing the fossil fuel industry a license to keep polluting. This is full-throated climate denial while the climate crisis happens in real time and a shocking betrayal of the American public. The Sierra Club will fight back against this reckless and dangerous proposal with everything we have in the courts, in Congress, and in communities across the country." BackgroundThe Endangerment Finding is a 2009 scientific determination by the EPA that greenhouse gasses pose a significant threat to public health and the environment. It is the legal cornerstone of the EPA's authority to regulate climate pollution under the Clean Air Act - the foundation upon which vehicle standards, power plant rules, and other climate protections have all been built. The nonpartisan National Academies of Sciences confirmed last year that the finding "was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence."Sierra Club has been at the front lines of the fight for federal climate standards longer than any other organization. In December 2002, the Club filed the first-ever climate case under the Clean Air Act in federal court, which ultimately led to the Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. EPA that the Clean Air Act covers greenhouse gas pollution and to all of the federal climate standards that followed. Now, two-and-a-half decades later, Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are trying to destroy those hard-won victories in an effort to double-down on the fossil fuels that are harming the climate and environment, and driving up costs.

September 14, 2026 at 11:31 AM EDT
RootsAction and Progressive Democrats of America Announce Campaign Urging AOC and Ro Khanna to Run for 2028 Democratic P

RootsAction and Progressive Democrats of America Announce Campaign Urging AOC and Ro Khanna to Run for 2028 Democratic Presidential Nomination Two national activist groups, Progressive Democrats of America and RootsAction, announced today that they will launch a campaign soon after the November midterm elections calling for Reps. Ro Khanna and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to enter the race for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination."As the prospective field comes into view, it's crucial to have a strong progressive at the top of the Democratic ticket in 2028," the two groups said in a joint statement. "Most of the Democrats whose names now crowd the field have been war enablers, go-slow reformers or status quo protectors. AOC and Khanna, meanwhile, have shown a willingness to blaze unusual and much-needed trails on Capitol Hill beyond the constraints of the Democratic Party establishment and bipartisan corporatism."The groups said: "Majorities of voters, not just Democrats, are angry about nonstop war, runaway inflation, corporate greed and a government dominated by billionaires. The voices of Khanna and/or AOC are needed in the presidential campaign to ensure that voters hear serious solutions. Without a progressive populist advocate atop the ticket, the Democratic response would be woefully underwhelming -- enabling right-wing demagoguery to push voter unrest in dangerous and divisive directions."Progressive Democrats of America launched the "Run, Bernie, Run" campaign in 2013, which successfully drafted independent Senator Bernie Sanders to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 -- a campaign that sparked a big part of the contemporary progressive movement.In November 2022, RootsAction launched the "Don't Run Joe" campaign calling for President Biden not to seek re-election. RootsAction was the first national group to announce support for Zohran Mamdani in his successful run for mayor of New York.The joint statement called Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez "proven leaders and voices of clarity at a time of grave peril for our country and the world." The groups said "we believe their presence in the race is crucial to foster debate on healthcare, jobs, AI, militarism and the U.S. relationship with Israel, along with many other issues important to a wide range of voters."Progressive Democrats of America and RootsAction commented: "The announcement of this campaign will come as a surprise to both Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez. We did not give them any advance notice of it, and they have never suggested to us that we do any such thing.""Our organizations do not always agree with Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Khanna, and no doubt they don't always agree with us," the groups said. "But we definitely want to see one or both of them in the race."Both RootsAction and PDA are committed to helping the Democratic Party win the midterm elections, after which this campaign will launch. The groups added, "Party unity will be stronger with the expectation that the party's full spectrum of views will be well-represented on presidential debate platforms in 2027 and '28."PDA executive director Alan Minsky said today: "The success of progressive candidates across the country was the story of the 2026 primary season. Yet almost all of the high-profile prospective Democratic presidential candidates are Big Money-backed status quo centrists -- at a time when the Democratic voting base overwhelmingly supports progressive policies that lift the lives of working people. We need at least one progressive champion on the presidential debate stage to counter the corporatists' cacophony of bland incrementalism. Americans want change. Reps. Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez are two brilliant advocates for an America as great as its promise."RootsAction senior strategist India Walton commented: "Working people are hungry for leadership that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected -- leaders who do not capitulate to corporate power, who reject endless wars, and embrace policies that mean we can live healthy, happy lives. AOC and Ro Khanna can bring that vision to the presidential stage." Two national activist groups, Progressive Democrats of America and RootsAction, announced today that they will launch a campaign soon after the November midterm elections calling for Reps. Ro Khanna and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to enter the race for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination."As the prospective field comes into view, it's crucial to have a strong progressive at the top of the Democratic ticket in 2028," the two groups said in a joint statement. "Most of the Democrats whose names now crowd the field have been war enablers, go-slow reformers or status quo protectors. AOC and Khanna, meanwhile, have shown a willingness to blaze unusual and much-needed trails on Capitol Hill beyond the constraints of the Democratic Party establishment and bipartisan corporatism."The groups said: "Majorities of voters, not just Democrats, are angry about nonstop war, runaway inflation, corporate greed and a government dominated by billionaires. The voices of Khanna and/or AOC are needed in the presidential campaign to ensure that voters hear serious solutions. Without a progressive populist advocate atop the ticket, the Democratic response would be woefully underwhelming -- enabling right-wing demagoguery to push voter unrest in dangerous and divisive directions."Progressive Democrats of America launched the "Run, Bernie, Run" campaign in 2013, which successfully drafted independent Senator Bernie Sanders to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 -- a campaign that sparked a big part of the contemporary progressive movement.In November 2022, RootsAction launched the "Don't Run Joe" campaign calling for President Biden not to seek re-election. RootsAction was the first national group to announce support for Zohran Mamdani in his successful run for mayor of New York.The joint statement called Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez "proven leaders and voices of clarity at a time of grave peril for our country and the world." The groups said "we believe their presence in the race is crucial to foster debate on healthcare, jobs, AI, militarism and the U.S. relationship with Israel, along with many other issues important to a wide range of voters."Progressive Democrats of America and RootsAction commented: "The announcement of this campaign will come as a surprise to both Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez. We did not give them any advance notice of it, and they have never suggested to us that we do any such thing.""Our organizations do not always agree with Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Khanna, and no doubt they don't always agree with us," the groups said. "But we definitely want to see one or both of them in the race."Both RootsAction and PDA are committed to helping the Democratic Party win the midterm elections, after which this campaign will launch. The groups added, "Party unity will be stronger with the expectation that the party's full spectrum of views will be well-represented on presidential debate platforms in 2027 and '28."PDA executive director Alan Minsky said today: "The success of progressive candidates across the country was the story of the 2026 primary season. Yet almost all of the high-profile prospective Democratic presidential candidates are Big Money-backed status quo centrists -- at a time when the Democratic voting base overwhelmingly supports progressive policies that lift the lives of working people. We need at least one progressive champion on the presidential debate stage to counter the corporatists' cacophony of bland incrementalism. Americans want change. Reps. Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez are two brilliant advocates for an America as great as its promise."RootsAction senior strategist India Walton commented: "Working people are hungry for leadership that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected -- leaders who do not capitulate to corporate power, who reject endless wars, and embrace policies that mean we can live healthy, happy lives. AOC and Ro Khanna can bring that vision to the presidential stage."