August 12, 2025 at 8:00 PM EDT
Veterans are really getting screwed by Trump

The inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs released a report on Tuesday revealing staffing shortages across the veterans' health care system, which will be exacerbated by the Trump administration's decision to slash staffing. The audit determined that all 139 of the medical center campuses within the VA system reported that they lack workers and that reports of severe shortages for certain positions are up 50% from the previous fiscal year. It also indicated that 94% of VA facilities report severe staffing shortages for medical officers, while 79% reported a shortage of nurses.

August 12, 2025 at 5:30 PM EDT
RFK Jr. is super mad he can't make other countries sabotage science

Like all richie-rich types who were born on third base but think they hit a triple, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is convinced not only that he got his current gig on merit but also that he is a genuine medical expert, despite no training whatsoever. Only someone with that level of hubris could demand that a major medical journal retract a study because he doesn't like the outcome.  Earlier this month, Kennedy called on the Annals of Internal Medicine to retract its publication of a large-scale Danish vaccine study. Kennedy is unhappy that the study found no link between aluminum in vaccines and increased health risks in children. Of course Kennedy is unhappy. That conspiracy theory is at the heart of his long-running anti-vaccine crusade. 

August 12, 2025 at 5:00 PM EDT
GOP lawmaker lives in his DC office because he's too scared to go outside

GOP Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee defended President Donald Trump's military takeover of Washington, D.C., claiming that he's just so terrified of crime that he doesn't even venture outside of his office anymore. "You don't want to go out on the streets at night in Washington, D.C," Burchett told CNN. "I come from a family of public education. That's one of the reasons I live in my office at night. But the other reason is it's too dadgum dangerous, brother. It is dangerous and everybody knows it, and the people are being victimized."

August 12, 2025 at 4:00 PM EDT
8 years after Charlottesville, Nazis control the White House

The dates of Aug. 11-12 marks the eighth anniversary of the neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, billed as "Unite the Right." After that event, the bigoted ideas and beliefs of that group of racists has now been integrated throughout the federal government thanks to President Donald Trump. The rally came less than a year after Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017. The event, where some chanted "Jews will not replace us" was meant as an assertion of white supremacy, which had been handed a lifeline with Trump's 2016 election win. The protest soon descended into blood and death after a neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35 others.

August 12, 2025 at 3:45 PM EDT
Take that, Laura Loomer

Two weeks after right-wing conspiracy theorist and Trump's Rasputin Laura Loomer seemingly orchestrated his ouster, Vinay Prasad is back as the Food and Drug Administration's top vaccine regulator.  In a different world, it would be a cause for celebration that the Trump administration realized it is extremely weird to fire a health professional based on the views of a random bigot with no actual role in government. But we live in this world, and while it's great to see Loomer fail, getting Prasad back at the FDA is not exactly great either. 

August 12, 2025 at 3:43 PM EDT
Cartoon: Authoritarian art

A cartoon by Jack Ohman. Related | Texas governor threatens the unthinkable to force through rigged map

August 12, 2025 at 12:00 PM EDT
Freedom fighter wields sub sandwich against Trump's DC gestapo

Federal law enforcement agents deployed by President Donald Trump arrested an apparently drunken man after he threw a sandwich at them on Monday night, again highlighting the absurdity of Trump's response to crime in Washington, D.C. In a video that has gone viral, a man in a pink shirt yelled at federal officers to protest their presence in the nation's capital, repeatedly calling them "fascists." He then threw a sub sandwich at one of the officers, who then chased and arrested him.

August 12, 2025 at 11:15 AM EDT
New inflation data is worse than you think

Core inflation rose at an annualized rate of 3.1% in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Tuesday, as President Donald Trump's nonsensical tariffs led to rising prices for American consumers. The current topline figure is 2.7% This is .2 percentage points higher than the previous month's figure. That 3.1% annualized rate is the fastest rising inflation rate in five months, and higher than the 2.9% annualized rate BLS clocked in July 2024, according to The New York Times.

August 12, 2025 at 10:30 AM EDT
Trump's tireless self-promotion could raise your mortgage rate

When it comes to home mortgages, President Donald Trump has a plan. And it's a very stupid plan, one where he destabilizes the housing market by turning mortgage behemoths Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into publicly traded stocks. He's already got the vulgar branding lined up and everything.  Trump's plan is to launch an initial public offering for both Fannie and Freddie, which theoretically could raise around $30 billion. For reference, that's only slightly more than Immigration and Customs Enforcement's budget for next year alone. So, not exactly a windfall. 

August 12, 2025 at 9:30 AM EDT
Cuomo campaigns on raising rent for the average New Yorker

This video from New York mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo seemed pathetic at first watch. The disgraced former governor is proposing "Zohran's law," which he claims would "keep the rich out of New York's affordable housing."  He named it after Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist who won the Democratic mayoral primary. Sore-loser Cuomo is now running in the general election as an independent.

August 12, 2025 at 9:00 AM EDT
Patient Numbers at NIH hospital have plummeted under Trump, jeopardizing care

By Rachana Pradhan for KFF Health News The number of people receiving treatment at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center -- the renowned research hospital that cares for patients with rare or life-threatening diseases -- has tumbled under the second Trump administration, according to government documents and interviews with current and former NIH employees.

August 11, 2025 at 8:02 PM EDT
Red states are jumping to copy Trump's worst moves

Normally, states aren't super-jazzed when the federal government cuts millions in research funding or micromanages how grant money is spent. Red states, however, are in such thrall to President Donald Trump's destruction of higher education and government spending that they've decided to get in on the action. Welcome to the exciting world of state DOGE departments, DEI watchdogs, and slashed budgets""for when having the Trump administration attack colleges and universities just isn't enough.