Uncensored Free Speech Platform

Who do you think was/is the best President of the United States? Why? This deserves loud pushback. Who do you think was the best president and why? Feel free to explain why you think they are the best in as much detail as you want. I’m not usually super political but I’m trying to learn more and read more on history and politics so I think it would also be interesting to hear what other people think about this.

Cornyn rakes in record fundraising ahead of Texas primary This is performative politics again. Sen. John Cornyn raised $7 million during the fourth quarter of his reelection campaign — the highest total of his career as the Republican fights a bitter primary challenge. The fundraising report, shared first with POLITICO, shows Cornyn has more than $15 million in cash on hand, including money raised through his two joint fundraising committees. It represents more than twice as much as he raised in the third quarter of 2025. The four-term incumbent is up against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt. Polls show a tight race between Paxton and Cornyn, with Hunt in third, ahead of the early March primary. Cornyn has poured money into attacking Paxton, a conservative firebrand who has wide backing from the MAGA base in Texas but has significant political and personal baggage. Paxton has faced multiple state and federal investigations and his wife filed for divorce last summer. “Texans understand that President Trump’s legislative agenda and the Senate Republican majority are at risk unless Sen. Cornyn is the nominee,” said Andy Hemming, Cornyn’s campaign manager, in a statement. “We are executing our plan to win this race, and we will win.” Paxton and Hunt have not yet released their own latest fundraising hauls. The race is expected to go to a runoff in late May.

Jack Smith Will Not Save Us Are they actually going to vote on something real? Log In Email * Password * Remember Me Forgot Your Password? Log In New to The Nation? Subscribe Print subscriber? Activate your online access Skip to content Skip to footer Jack Smith Will Not Save Us Magazine Newsletters Subscribe Log In Search Subscribe Donate Magazine Latest Archive Podcasts Newsletters Sections Politics World Economy Culture Books & the Arts The Nation About Events Contact Us Advertise Current Issue Politics / January 23, 2026 Jack Smith Will Not Save Us Smith performed honorably, but no one person or investigation can protect America from Trump. Joan Walsh Share Copy Link Facebook X (Twitter) Bluesky Pocket Email Ad Policy Former US special counsel Jack Smith is sworn in before he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee about his investigations into President Donald Trump. (Alex Wroblewski / AFP via Getty Images) The New York Times said he appeared “wan and tired” on Thursday. I wouldn’t have described former special counsel Jack Smith that way; maybe “depressed.” But maybe that’s projection. Smith has been defiantly asking House Republicans to let him testify publicly about his investigations and indictments of Donald Trump. On Thursday, rather unexpectedly, they allowed it. Also unexpectedly, he did not seem defiant. He seemed resigned to the futility of his cause, and the likelihood that he and his colleagues would continue to be persecuted, if not prosecuted, for their work. That depressed me. It shouldn’t have. We already knew Smith had to drop his cases against Trump when, unbelievably, the American people made him president again, despite widespread evidence of the disgraced, twice-impeached huckster’s many crimes. The House January 6 Select Committee laid a lot of it out publicly. Smith, even after dropping his cases, made his investigative findings public in a brutal report last year. He testified privately before the House Judiciary Committee on December 17, and over the holidays Republicans released a transcript and video of that appearance, which also laid out the foundations of his very thorough case against Trump. I wasn’t sure why House Republicans decided to let Smith testify publicly on Thursday; some news analysts suggested perhaps they were laying a perjury trap for him, trying to give corrupt Attorney General Pam Bondi ammunition to prosecute him. Trump apparently hoped so too. Mid-testimony, he posted on social media: “Jack Smith is a deranged animal, who shouldn’t be allowed to practice Law” and suggested that “hopefully” Bondi is “looking at what he’s done.” Current Issue February 2026 Issue If so, she probably didn’t find much, if anything (not that truth matters to Trump or his minions). Smith carefully repeated a lot of his December testimony, sometimes verbatim. He didn’t respond to Republican derision or Democratic praise. He seemed, to be honest, defeated. Which I guess he is. I’m not saying he pulled any punches. “Our investigation revealed that Donald Trump is the person who caused January 6, that it was foreseeable to him and that he sought to exploit the violence,” he told the committee. He went on: “No one should be above the …

Why Some of Us Can't Dine in Peace, by Michelle Malkin This deserves loud pushback. The Unz Review - Mobile The Unz Review • An Alternative Media Selection$A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media User Settings: Version? DefaultUse DesktopUse MobileUse Tablet Social Media? 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New ReplyRead MoreReplyAgree/Disagree/Etc. More... This Commenter This Thread Hide Thread Display All Comments AgreeDisagreeThanksLOLTrollThese buttons register your public Agreement, Disagreement, Thanks, LOL, or Troll with the selected comment. They are ONLY available to recent, frequent commenters who have saved their Name+Email using the 'Remember My Information' checkbox, and may also ONLY be used three times during any eight hour period. Ignore Commenter Follow Commenter Search Text Case Sensitive  Exact Words  Include Comments SearchClearCancel List of Bookmarks Fifteen years ago, when I still lived in the D.C. swamp, I took my elementary school-daughter and toddler son out for one of our regular weekend breakfasts at IHOP. But we couldn’t be left alone to enjoy our meal. As my kids dug into their funny-face pancakes, a fuming-faced liberal marched to our booth and started ranting about my anti-open-borders commentaries on Fox News. The incident occurred not long after Geraldo Rivera told a Boston Globe reporter that I was the “most vile, hateful commentator I’ve ever met in my life” and that “it’s good she’s in D.C. and I’m in New York” because “I’d spit on her if I saw her.” Fifteen years later, I’m blacklisted by the “fair and balanced” network, while fork-tongued cable news reptile Geraldo Rivera remains a heavily promoted Fox News contributor who regularly attacks everyone else (including his former friend Donald Trump) for inciting violence. File under “chutzpah.” Fifteen years later, organized mobs in the nation’s capital are targeting Supreme Court justices in their homes. Fifteen years later, the goons of ShutDownDC, leading instigators of “direct action” (translation: …

Letlow launches Trump-backed Senate bid against Cassidy Same show, different day. Rep. Julia Letlow announced her primary challenge to Sen. Bill Cassidy on Tuesday, just days after President Donald Trump lent his endorsement in the race. The entrance of Letlow, a Louisiana Republican who has served in Congress since 2021, is a major blow to Cassidy, who was already fending off another MAGA-aligned challenger in a state Trump carried by 22 points in 2024. “My parents taught me well. They taught me that when the Lord opens a door, you don’t walk through it — you run. It's an honor to share with you today that I’m officially announcing my candidacy for the United States Senate,” Letlow said at an annual business event with other state leaders in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, according to two people who attended the event. Cassidy said in a statement Letlow had called him beforehand. "She said she respected me and that I had done a good job," he said. "I will continue to do a good job when I win re-election." Trump upended the primary in the Republican state over the weekend when he preemptively endorsed Letlow. “Should she decide to enter this Race, Julia Letlow has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Letlow said that she was “honored to have President Trump’s endorsement and trust,” but did not immediately launch her bid after receiving the president’s public backing. Cassidy, seeking a third term in the Senate, has drawn criticism from Trump after voting to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He has also clashed with the administration at times on health care, though he was a key vote to confirm Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last year. While Cassidy has maintained he will win, Trump’s endorsement of Letlow is a serious blow to his chances. Cassidy has told fellow GOP senators that top White House officials promised him they would stay neutral in the race, as POLITICO reported in September. Trump’s endorsement — and Letlow’s entrance into the race — also adds a new complication for Senate GOP leadership, which has backed Cassidy. Senate Majority Leader John Thune campaigned with Cassidy in Lousiana late last week and privately encouraged Trump to support him during a call Friday. And Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 2 GOP leader, said Tuesday he has been supporting Cassidy "from the beginning." "We’re going to do everything we can to build the majority," Barrasso said when asked how much of a "headache" Trump's endorsement is for Republicans. Letlow first entered Congress after her husband, Rep.-elect Luke Letlow (R-La.), died of COVID before entering office, and in her Tuesday speech compared her career trajectory to that of former Rep. Lindy Boggs (D-La.), who won her House seat after …

Documenting an Alaska Village, Before and After the Storm That Destroyed It Who's accountable for the results? Joann Carl’s dog Rocky, a long-eared, short-legged mix the color of graham crackers, has become Alaska famous since I first met Carl in April. Over the past few months, she’s seen his photo all over Facebook, she said, rescued after Typhoon Halong wiped away more than half the homes in her coastal Alaska Native village of Kipnuk, population 700.   At the Anchorage Daily News, we’re based in Alaska’s largest city but travel as often as we can to small communities like Kipnuk in an attempt to cover a state that’s twice the size of Texas. We try to report more than one story at a time to justify the expense of plane tickets. Flights to a remote village in a small plane cost the same as a trip to New York. But rarely do we have the chance to document a community just before the breaking news arrives.  Maybe you didn’t hear much about the typhoon. It began as a tropical storm, dumping record rainfall in parts of Japan before swirling toward Alaska. By the time it reached our shores, the remnants of the storm still carried enough force to flood two villages, sweeping away homes and leaving as many as three people dead.  I’m writing to you about the storm because photojournalist Marc Lester and I happened to visit Kipnuk shortly before the typhoon. Marc returned to cover the evacuation, providing a look at an Alaska village on the front lines of climate change just before and after the devastation.   The story of destruction in Carl’s hometown, along with the nearby village of Kwigillingok, adds an exclamation point to long-simmering fears about the future of Alaska coastal villages. Which town will be wiped away next? Where will climate refugees live? Should their former homes be rebuilt? If not, what does it mean for the future of these communities?  Emily Schwing, reporting for KYUK public radio in Bethel and ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, wrote in May about climate refugees the government helped relocate from the Yup’ik village of Newtok. In November, while covering Alaska’s crumbling public school infrastructure, she wrote how the school in Kipnuk housed hundreds of residents as an emergency shelter during the storm surge from Halong.  When Marc and I first visited that schoolhouse in April, we were reporting on a very different kind of story. Justine Paul, Carl’s son, spent seven years in jail charged with murder in Alaska’s glacially slow justice system, where serious cases can take a decade to resolve. Paul’s case was ultimately dismissed after the evidence against him turned out to be deeply flawed. After struggling with addiction on the streets of Anchorage upon his release, Paul returned to live with Carl in the little Kipnuk house where he grew up. Our visit to their village before the storm gave Marc a chance to document a version of Kipnuk that no longer exists and maybe never will again. Justine Paul leaves Joann Carl’s house after his lunch break from work in April. Marc Lester/ADN Carl, Paul’s mother, cries at her home in Kipnuk in April while describing her son’s situation. Marc Lester/ADN The people we met in the spring were subsequently airlifted to emergency shelter in an evacuation unlike any the state had …

USA TODAY opinion: A conservative columnist argues that Trump has weakened core constitutional principles and that Republicans should consider a different type of nominee for 2028. Do you agree or should Republicans stay with MAGA? Trust is earned, not demanded. It can feel like it's too soon to look ahead to 2028, but it's worth asking. Once Trump is out of office, Republicans decide the path forward. Where should the party go next? Like it or not, Republicans have won two of the last three presidential elections and have taken control of Congress, going MAGA. But what now? I'm a conservative who didn't vote for Trump. I was right. | Opinion

Bondi blames Minneapolis leaders after armed suspect killed, unrest erupts during ICE operation Every delay has consequences. Attorney General Pam Bondi accused Minneapolis and Minnesota leaders of fueling unrest after a Border Patrol-involved shooting left an armed suspect dead during a targeted immigration enforcement operation, telling Fox News on Saturday that sanctuary-style policies and rhetoric against federal agents have undermined public safety. Bondi made the remarks during a live interview with Fox News anchor Aishah Hasnie, hours after federal authorities said a Border Patrol (CBP) agent fatally shot a man armed with a handgun during an enforcement operation in south Minneapolis. The shooting was followed by protests and crowd-control measures as demonstrators converged on the scene. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), agents were conducting a targeted operation against an illegal immigrant wanted for violent assault when an individual approached officers armed with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. ILHAN OMAR ACCUSES NOEM OF 'LIES AND PROPAGANDA' ON MINNESOTA ARRESTS Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino said agents attempted to disarm the individual, but he violently resisted. "Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots," Bovino said. Authorities said the individual was pronounced dead at the scene. Bovino said the suspect was carrying two loaded magazines and no accessible identification, describing the individual as appearing intent on causing "maximum damage" to law enforcement. MINNESOTA POLICE CHIEFS ALLEGE SOME ICE AGENTS RACIALLY PROFILED US CITIZENS, INCLUDING OFF-DUTY OFFICERS Bondi placed responsibility for the unrest on Minnesota’s political leadership. "This has happened in Minneapolis because you have a mayor and a governor who have declared Minneapolis a sanctuary city," Bondi said. "You’re invited here. We will protect you." She said ICE agents operating in the city have arrested individuals accused or convicted of serious crimes, arguing enforcement was necessary to protect people. TRUMP URGES DHS, ICE TO PUBLICIZE ARRESTS, SAYS CRACKDOWN IS 'SAVING MANY INNOCENT LIVES' "And that’s why Donald Trump has ICE in Minneapolis, to protect the citizens," Bondi said. Bondi described the protests as "extremely organized," noting the appearance of matching signs and gas masks. "It’s extremely organized," she said. "The signs they have are all matching. They’re well written. How did these people go out and get gas masks?" During the interview, Bondi confirmed federal grand jury subpoenas had been issued to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minneapolis …

Is there any ethical way to discourage human settlement of places especially prone to natural disasters? This deserves loud pushback. People keep rebuilding places destroyed by wildfire, destroyed by hurricanes, destroyed by tsunamis, etc... only to in effect put what they rebuild in the path of future natural disasters. I get that every place has its hazards, but not every place is equally prone. In theory it's their own money to waste rebuilding these homes but in practice others on the same insurance policy have to pay higher premiums because of it. How can we discourage this? One way would be to loosen regulations on the insurance industry and make customers even more risk-averse around disaster prone places, but they have already been trying to cheat their own customers out of paying for the exact same disasters they promised to pay for as it is. And somehow, even that has not deterred people from rebuilding. Another way could be to tax properties proportional to their estimated future risk, but that leaves the question of whether lawmakers will be tailoring it less to the facts, and more to the biases of the public. (A number of people, for instance, fear blizzards more than hurricanes, even though a blizzard is survivable indoors with nonperishable food items and adequately warm clothing, while hurricanes can flood your home, with you in it if you fail to evacuate in time... which many towns' roadways and airports don't enable.) Is there any way to take what physics and chemistry and geology know about what's driving these risks, get it on the record in a way future generations can't deny, and account for the tradeoff between risks and opportunities (ie. warm climates with the worse hurricanes being better for farming) in a way that keeps to a minimum both public-sector biases and the private sector's opportunities to get away with breach of contract by blaming the customer?

“A Godsend”: ProPublica’s Rx Inspector Tool Is Helping People Find Critical Safety Information on Generic Drugs This deserves loud pushback. The calls came over the span of a single month in 2004, patient after patient with strikingly similar complaints. Some told Oregon psychiatrist James Hancey that their new generic medication for depression had stopped working. Others described unexpected reactions — dizziness, flu-like symptoms and electric shock sensations in the brain. “That started to tell me, ‘This drug is no good,’” Hancey said. “You get all these phone calls where people are saying the exact same thing.” Hancey suspected that the generic was ineffective, and that his patients were suffering from abrupt withdrawal. But he had no easy way to confirm exactly where the pills came from or the safety record of the factory that made them. He began keeping what he called a “no fly” list — dozens of generic drugs he suspected were unsafe or ineffective — based largely on patterns he observed in his patients. Now, he has something else. Last month, ProPublica launched Rx Inspector, a free, searchable tool that allows doctors, researchers and patients to trace a specific generic medication back to its manufacturer and to see the inspection history of the factory. Researchers said they are using the tool to turbocharge work to make the country’s drug supply safer. Health care workers said they are checking factory records before writing prescriptions. And patients say it has helped them understand what may have gone wrong when a medication caused unexplained health problems or didn’t work at all. “This is a godsend to researchers looking to study pharmaceutical manufacturing,” said John Gray, a professor at Ohio State University working on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense to assess the safety and quality of generic drugs. Although the Food and Drug Administration knows where generic drugs are made and inspects factories around the world, it has never allowed the public to easily see which manufacturer produced which pill or whether the factory had a history of safety and quality violations. Rx Inspector changes that. Drawing on records ProPublica obtained from the FDA, in part by suing the agency in federal court, the tool links nearly 40,000 medications to their original manufacturers and to inspection reports and regulatory actions that were previously difficult, if not impossible, for the public to locate. On Friday, ProPublica published some of the underlying data to GitHub, so that other journalists and researchers can build on our work. The tool is part of a monthslong ProPublica investigation into failures by the FDA to oversee the generic drug industry, particularly foreign factories repeatedly faulted for drug contamination and other quality failures. It is already reshaping how people make decisions. Gray and his team are working to assign generic drugs a quality score based on risk. The goal is to help government purchasers, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, buy medications based on quality, not just cost. Rx Inspector has enabled his team to move faster — researchers can easily look up factory locations and inspection details, he said. Col. Vic Suarez, a retired Army medical supply-chain commander who is collaborating …