Pop Power Politics

08/23/2026

08/23/2026

Writer Tom Nichols blasted President Trump on Saturday after Trump said that hospitals are performing reverse surgery on transgender people because he ordered them to do so. Nichols called the claim completely and feverishly crazy.

08/23/2026

“Lawyers for President Donald Trump are threatening to file a $5 billion dollar defamation lawsuit against a liberal think tank if it does not retract a report critical of the White House’s deployment of National Guard troops to cities across the country.

According to a cease-and-desist letter sent this week, the president has taken issue with an analysis conducted by the Center for American Progress that found the deployments failed to reduce urban crime in the way Trump has repeatedly asserted.

In a statement published on Friday, CAP President and CEO Neera Tanden said the organization stands by its report and will not be taking it down.

“This threatened lawsuit’s attack on facts and evidence is baseless,” Tanden said. “A fundamental protection of the First Amendment is to allow for the publication of facts and analysis that are contrary to the arguments and claims of any administration. A lawsuit is a transparent attempt to silence us. We will neither cower nor bend in the face of it.”

The letter to CAP, which was first reported by The New York Times, sets a 5 p.m. Friday deadline for the think tank to retract the report, apologize to the president and compensate him — or risk facing a defamation lawsuit for at least $5 billion.

The nine-page letter, which was sent on Monday, also suggests that CAP “manufactured” data that the deployments were not improving urban crime.”
Read more NOTUS

05/01/2026

END THE VIOLENCE

Let's stop pretending this is just an unconventional birthday party for a former president. When Donald Trump steps into a UFC arena on June 14 to celebrate himself amid a crowd watching a blood sport, he is making a deliberate, calculated statement. Political analysts are rightly warning that this spectacle comes at the absolute worst moment for our deeply fractured country.

There is a reason authoritarian movements throughout history have aggressively merged their political branding with hyper-masculine combat. It is entirely by design. By centering his campaign around a cage fight, Trump is conditioning his base to associate his movement with unchecked brutality. He is slowly replacing the democratic ideals of debate and the rule of law with the primal aesthetic of a gladiator arena.

This is exactly how a society becomes desensitized to political violence. First it is packaged as entertainment, then it becomes an acceptable political tool, and finally, it becomes a deadly reality. When a man who has already incited mob violence aligns his public brand with literal bloodletting, we cannot afford to look away. When a would-be dictator shows you he views politics as a blood sport, believe him.