After a decade behind the desk, Stephen Colbert's late-night show will come to a close next May

As MAGA tears itself apart, Pelosi said lawmakers have more important issues to worry about

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In the nearly six months since the Trump administration has had control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the bureau’s leadership has focused almost exclusively on rolling back any punishments, fines and penalties made against companies during the Biden administration. Related | Employees at the nation's consumer financial watchdog say it's become toothless under Trump In some cases, companies that were supposed to refund their customers or pay a penalty for unfair or deceptive practices are no longer bound to make their customers whole. Other companies facing charges of fraud of deceptive practices saw their lawsuits dropped in the early days of the Trump administration. A security officer works inside of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 10. Here are some of the Trump administration’s rollbacks: Navy Federal Credit Union The CFPB accused Navy Federal Credit Union, the nation’s largest credit union, of having unfair and deceptive overdraft fee practices. NFCU settled with the bureau and agreed to refund its members $80 million in overdraft fees. However, when the new administration took over, NFCU asked to have the order dismissed, which the CFPB agreed to do without giving a reason. Navy Federal has not said whether it would refund their members, which are mostly service men and women, families and veterans. Reduced overdraft fees The CFPB proposed new regulations that would have reduced overdraft fees to $5 from their industry average of $27. The regulations focused on a bureau analysis on what it actually cost banks to make short-term loans to customers to cover those purchases when a customer’s account went negative. The banking industry stood to lose billions of dollars in overdraft revenue, although banks have been weening themselves off overdraft fee revenue for years. The regulations were overturned by the Republican-controlled Congress in April. Capital One In the last days of the Biden administration, the CFPB sued banking giant Capital One for allegedly cheating its customers out of $2 billion in interest payments on their savings accounts. The case involved a product that Capital One sold known as 360 Savings, which the bank advertised as having the best savings rate in the country. Capital One failed to tell some customers that it had another product with a higher savings rate. The case was dropped within days of the Trump administration taking over the bureau. Walmart The CFPB filed a lawsuit in December against Walmart and workforce company Branch Messenger, accusing the companies of deceptively steering delivery drivers to open accounts with Branch, in order for those employees to get instant access to their wages. However, the CFPB said these Branch accounts came with high fees and deceptive marketing, and said Walmart and Branch should return $10 million to harmed drivers. Both Walmart and Branch denied the accusations. The lawsuit was dropped by the CFPB in the first weeks of the Trump administration. Zelle The parent company of Zelle, the peer-to-peer payment system, as well as some of the nation’s largest banks, were sued by the CFPB late last year over accusations they failed to protect hundreds of thousands of consumers from rampant fraud on Zelle, in violation of consumer financial laws. The CFPB’s lawsuit claimed hundreds of thousands of customers lost approximately $870 million in funds to fraud over the seven years that Zelle had been in existence. That lawsuit was dropped by the CFPB in March.

A few weeks ago, I told you that Donald Trump’s Department of Justice had launched an action against Daily Kos. I couldn’t say much then—and I still can’t. As part of the resolution, we’re required to keep the nature of the action confidential for one year.  But here’s what I can say now: The DOJ has backed off. They’ve withdrawn. We stood our ground, and we won. This victory didn’t happen by accident. We didn’t cozy up to Trump for special treatment. We didn’t flinch. And most importantly, you didn’t flinch either. It’s easy to say “fight fight fight.” It’s something else entirely when doing so costs real money—especially while running an independent publication in a brutal media and political environment. But because this community stepped up when we asked, we were able to hire a top-notch legal team and face this challenge with confidence. Without your support, this could’ve ended very differently. And let’s be honest—this win feels even better because of how overwhelming things have felt lately. Under Trump, the courts and federal agencies have been warped into tools of political revenge. The news is a daily avalanche of chaos and cruelty. Tuning out is tempting. So yes, in the grand scheme of things, this may be a small win. But for us, it’s huge. A real threat is off our back. And more importantly, it proves something powerful: Even in this darkness, we can fight back and win. Now, for the first time in weeks, I can fully focus on something exciting: our future. On Tuesday, we officially launched the capital campaign to build the next version of Daily Kos—a faster, stronger, more secure platform built to last for decades to come. It’s the most important project we’ve undertaken in years, and it’s the key to making sure we’re ready for whatever comes next. If you haven’t yet, please contribute to that exciting effort!   Frankly? It’s a lot more energizing to talk about building the future than fending off fascists. Thank you for standing with us when it mattered most. I promise, we wouldn’t have won without you. And we certainly wouldn’t be here without you. And on May 6, 2026, I’ll be able—and happy—to tell the full story.

If you ever wondered what the next career move might be after “chief of staff for an election denier,” wonder no more.  Jeff Small, former chief of staff for GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, is now an elections consultant. Of course, his “consulting” looks a lot more like harassing elections officials based on President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories, so much so that even fellow Republicans in the state are pushing back.  It likely goes without saying that Small has no background whatsoever in elections or election security, but he does have a resume that includes work for not just Boebert, but also Big Lie luminaries like former GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado and current GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, who keeps busy being extremely antisemitic when not pushing election conspiracies.  GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado Regardless of his lack of relevant experience, Small has been contacting Colorado county clerks to let them know that he’s working with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. What does he want? Nothing big, really. Just to let an unnamed third party or perhaps the federal government muck around in their election equipment.  Both the DOJ and the White House declined to comment about Small’s involvement.  However, after Small told Steve Schleiker, the Republican clerk for El Paso County, Colorado, that he was working with the DOJ and DHS to “team up” with county clerks, Schleiker received a call from a DHS official.  “We would like to test the voting equipment to see if there’s any gaps,” they said.  Schleiker responded by saying that the federal government does not have the authority to “try to infiltrate a state’s or a county’s election equipment.”  Other Republican county clerks also refused, saying things like, “Nobody gets access to my voting equipment, for security reasons,” and, “To me, it felt like they were wanting to intervene before 2026.” The Trump administration seems to have overestimated the desire of Republican elections officials to participate in its project of undermining voter confidence. People who run elections are fanatical about election security, following detailed rules that ensure, for example, that no one is ever alone with voting equipment. There is, by design, no federal agency that has broad authority to access state or local election systems—because elections are run by states.  Colorado is being specifically targeted because of Tina Peters, former Mesa County clerk, who was convicted in state court after letting an election denier access voting machines to prove  that there was voter fraud in 2020. Peters is a right-wing cause célèbre, viewed as being imprisoned for her beliefs, rather than illegally letting randos root around in voting equipment.  Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Trump has ordered the DOJ to try to find a way to free Peters, even though her conviction was in state court and the DOJ has no authority.  The DOJ is continuing to harass other states as well, though not as vociferously as Colorado. A letter to Minnesota about the state’s compliance with the Help America Vote Act was actually a demand for information about noncitizens and a complete voter list, including inactive voters.  The letter came from the acting chief of the voting section, Maureen Riordan, who made the same demand of Minnesota in her previous gig with the voter-suppression group Public Interest Legal Foundation.  Not content with harassment or civil threats, the DOJ is also exploring whether it would criminally charge elections officials who it determines haven’t properly safeguarded their election systems. You know what’s not safe? Letting conspiracy theorists—even ones who work for the government—dig around in voting machines to rewrite the 2020 election results.  And surprise, surprise—the states the DOJ is most concerned about just happen to be swing states like Wisconsin and North Carolina.  The Trump administration isn’t interested in election safety or even in the integrity of voter rolls. It’s purely interested in figuring out a way to make state and local elections officials complicit in Trump’s efforts. And what’s more effective than the threat of prosecution?

Ukraine is resembling Nazi Germany in terms of dictatorship and economic degradation, the former Russian president has said Read Full Article at RT.com

Maurene Comey is the daughter of Donald Trump’s longtime political foe, former FBI director James Comey Read Full Article at RT.com

Pay-for-protest CEO claims ‘All activism is incentivized activism’ Read Full Article at RT.com

The country will bid to host the global sporting event once the situation permits, Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev has said Read Full Article at RT.com

Denis Shmigal has replaced Rustem Umerov amid a sweeping government reshuffle Read Full Article at RT.com

A government source has told RT that only punishing the “Israeli regime” and US for their nuclear site attacks can prevent a new war Read Full Article at RT.com

The US president has slammed his supporters who have been left unconvinced by the DOJ’s recent report that says no list of clients was found Read Full Article at RT.com

A powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Alaska on Wednesday afternoon, prompting tsunami warnings Read Full Article at RT.com

US immigration officials have faced a major surge in assaults against them this year, the US Department of Homeland Security has said Read Full Article at RT.com

At least three children were injured after a Ukrainian drone crashed into a residential building in the southern Russian city of Voronezh Read Full Article at RT.com

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired two of his top aides, rattling his department’s leadership team amid his broader attack on the nation’s public health apparatus. The two ousted officials—chief of staff Heather Flick Melanson and deputy chief of staff for policy Hannah Anderson—were dismissed after only a few months on the job. CNN, which first reported the firings, said Kennedy had lost confidence in both, though it’s unclear what triggered the move. In a statement to CNN, an HHS spokesperson confirmed the departures and said White House liaison Matt Buckham would serve as acting chief of staff effective immediately.  “He brings valuable experience in personnel strategy and organizational management to this new role,” the spokesperson said. “Secretary Kennedy thanks the outgoing leadership for their service and looks forward to working closely with Mr. Buckham as the Department continues advancing its mission to Make America Healthy Again.” No permanent replacements have been named. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, shown in 2013. HHS oversees the work of major federal health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health—institutions now squarely in the crosshairs of Kennedy’s largely anti-science agenda. The leadership churn hasn’t stopped with Kennedy’s own staff, either. According to The Washington Post, NIH’s chief operating officer, Eric Schnabel, was recently fired as well.  The various shakeups come mere months into Kennedy’s tenure and leave him scrambling to fill key leadership roles amid mounting scrutiny of his radical plans to reshape health policy, gut vaccine programs, and overhaul the structure of the department itself. Flick Melanson was one of Kennedy’s more seasoned Washington players, having previously served as acting general counsel and senior adviser to then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar during Trump’s first term. Anderson, a former GOP Hill staffer and policy adviser to Senate Republicans, had recently worked on health care at the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank. Politico reported that Flick Melanson had been viewed by some as a steadying hand—someone who understood the functions of the department, given concerns about how aggressively Kennedy might pursue his anti-science agenda. And yet, backed by President Donald Trump, Kennedy has charged ahead with his “Make America Healthy Again” crusade. Not only did he fire all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and replace them with loyalists, but he also published a widely criticized, error-filled report on childhood illnesses. And he’s moved to axe 20,000 HHS staffers and slash dozens of agency divisions—all while facing a wave of legal challenges. His war on synthetic food dyes faces industry changes. And under his watch, HHS has taken a series of anti-vaccine actions that experts say have eroded public confidence in immunizations. More chaos at HHS under Kennedy. No surprise there.

President Donald Trump is celebrating an enormous win: allegedly getting Coca-Cola to switch its sweetener from high fructose corn syrup to real cane sugar in the United States.  “I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” he wrote on Truth Social Wednesday. “I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!” The official White House X account even shared a bizarre Coke-inspired promotion of the very dumb announcement.  Despite being a Diet Coke drinker himself—with his very own “Diet Coke button” in the Oval Office—Trump’s move of getting U.S. Coke to be made with cane sugar effectively makes it the same as Mexican Coke.  And for a man who has touted mass deportations and a U.S.-Mexico border wall while claiming that people coming into the United States are murderers and rapists, his promotion of the Mexican drink is certainly an interesting move.  Then again, this is the same man who celebrated Cinco de Mayo in 2016 by hunching over a taco bowl and declaring, “I love Hispanics.”  So anything is possible.

A cartoon by Pedro Molina. Related | Trump and MAGA turn on each other over Epstein files

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Trump really, really wants to tank the economy And like so much of Trump’s agenda, it’s probably illegal. Democrats slam Trump and GOP for cover-up of Epstein files “Did anyone really think the sexual-predator president who used to party with Jeffrey Epstein was going to release the Epstein files?” 👀 Pentagon scales back its invasion of Los Angeles Who knew TACO also applied to domestic military campaigns? Bye-bye, Big Bird: GOP inches closer to gutting public media Trump’s agenda will hit rural America the hardest. Trump is gutting Medicaid—but rural America still won’t wake up Seriously, it’s like the guy is trying to crush his rural base. Cartoon: Tanks for nothing First, Trump tanks the economy, then he tanks education. Click here to see more cartoons.

The Trump administration has been deporting immigrants to random countries, and they couldn’t be more proud. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin boasted on X that “a safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed,” with 5 immigrants aboard. “This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” she wrote. “These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities but thanks to Trump and [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem], they are off of American soil.” To back up the assertion, McLaughlin posted some photos of the alleged barbarians, along with their criminal convictions. Of course, their names are not provided, so as per usual, there’s no way to fact check the now-standard assertion that the people being deported are the very worst of the worst.  King Mswati III of Eswatini Similarly, when the Trump administration deported immigrants to South Sudan, McLaughlin made an almost identical statement, saying that it was necessary because “no country on earth wanted to accept them because their crimes were so uniquely barbaric.” Just as the Trump administration decided it was fine to deport people to South Sudan despite warning people not to travel there because it’s too dangerous, it’s also content to ignore government reports on the human rights crisis in Eswatini.  The State Department’s 2023 report found “significant human rights issues” in Eswatini, including torture by the government, extrajudicial killings, lack of independence of the judiciary, trafficking, and child labor. Of course, neither immigrants nor their lawyers have any idea what exactly they will endure, but the report detailed overcrowding, nutrition deficiencies, lack of health services equipment, and gang violence in Eswatini’s prisons.  A spokesperson for the Eswatini government confirmed that the 5 immigrants are imprisoned in “isolated units” and that both Eswatini and the U.S. government will work with the United Nations to “facilitate the transit” of the men to their countries of origin.  It’s not entirely clear what that means, as it makes it sound like somehow the Trump administration deported people to Eswatini only to work jointly with that country to eventually send them home. Of course, that does not at all seem like the intent. According to a report from The New York Times report last month, the Trump administration has explored these trafficking arrangements with dozens of countries, many beset by violence, poverty, and human rights abuses. And of the 58 countries the administration has approached, many are covered by or are being considered for President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban.  Related | Rubio callously revokes visas for entire country over US mistake So it’s too dangerous to allow people from those countries into the United States, but it’s totally safe and cool to send people to their prisons. And in case countries were on the fence, the State Department told diplomats that these countries could possibly evade the travel ban if they take deportees.  We can expect much more of these blatant human rights violations, thanks to the Supreme Court blocking a lower court order requiring immigrants to have a reasonable chance to challenge their deportations. Now, people can be deported to any random country of Trump’s liking with as little as 6 hours’ notice.  The conservatives on the Supreme Court knew full well that their decision would open the floodgates to these evil actions. They just don’t care.

Barack Obama joked that they were «touch and go» while appearing on his wife's podcast

Stevie Wonder told the crowd at his UK show last week that he's blind, confirming what we already know

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Maurene Comey was terminated from her position as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, per reports