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Economist Justin Wolfers delivered a searing shock to the hosts of MS NOW’s “The Weekend” on Saturday. And his news carried an unnerving warning to the state of the nation’s vulnerable democracy.Government statistics released this week show the annual inflation rate hit 4.2 percent in May — the highest in three years — while the latest YouGov poll shows almost 60 percent of Americans say the economy is getting worse. But this isn’t the extent of the pain the vast majority of the nation is suffering. While it is aching, it is losing power too.Newly minted trillionaire Elon Musk invested more money than mo

At the age of 80, President Donald Trump has been plodding around on American dirt for more than 30 percent of the nation’s entire 250-year lifespan.That is no small number, and critics say his advanced years have been bearing down on him as he prepares to celebrate his 80th birthday at taxpayer’s expense.“I don’t think it’s a great idea for Donald Trump to be reminding everyone that he’s 80 years old at this moment, when he shows various signs of faltering or saying very odd things,” said New York Time

Bulwark founder Sarah Longwell hosts weekly surveys with President Donald Trump supporters. And this week’s inquiry reveals a sea change that’s going to irreparably clobber Trump and the Republican Party in the next few months.“We've done a series of focus groups in recent months with a bunch of Zoomers who identify as politically moderate,” said Longwell. “… With the ones that had voted for Trump, we saw a lot of evidence that the large gap between Trump's current approval rating and his vote share in 2024.”“

Pamela Carlin, the Kenneth and Harle Montgomery professor of Public Interest Law and a founder and co-director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law school, has argued 10 cases before the Supreme Court. And during that time, she’s come to an assessment about Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito: the man is a partisan hack — and he makes no bones about it.They don’t care if they make the court “look nakedly, openly political,” said Carlin speaking on Slate’s Amicus podcast with host Dalia Lithwick.“They have just decided they have the power right now to

The last time President Donald Trump got stomped in a midterm election, in 2018, his unpopularity cost his Republican Party more than three dozen House seats.But the New York Times reports even that wasn’t a true stomping because “the bottom never truly fell out for the Republicans that year.”This year is gearing up to be the real stomp.“The party actually gained ground in the Senate — as working-class white voters largely kept their faith in Mr. Trump’s economic know-how,” reports NY Times national political correspondent Shane Goldmacher. “Today, that once-deep reservoir

Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced her reelection campaign in February by posting a video that showed her opening a box of New Balance running shoes.“This is perfect for 2026,” she said to the camera as she held up a sneaker. “Because I’m running.”The video didn’t mention that New Balance’s owner and chairman, billionaire Jim Davis, gave $1 million to the super PAC supporting Collins’ campaign seven months prior. The company is based in Boston and has manufacturing facilities in Maine. It was one of four donations Davis made last year to the network of committees raising money for Collins.Davis, who is worth an est

The Florida Supreme Court has declined to suspend the Florida law license of Kenneth Chesebro, convicted in Georgia of filing a false list of electors there to undermine Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.Instead, the justices issued a reprimand over the objection of Justice Jorge Labarga, the sole member of the court not appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Former Gov. Charlie Crist placed him on the Supreme Court in January 2009.)“In my view, the intentional commission of fraud upon the court is one of the most egregious ethical transgressions a lawyer can commit, and such serious misconduct necessitates the imposition of severe professional sanctions,” Labarga wrote.Labarga said a written

HOUSTON — Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Friday said Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Rep. James Talarico will “go to hell” for his interpretations of the Bible, as Talarico has made his Christian faith a cornerstone of his campaign.Speaking at the Republican Party of Texas’ convention in Houston, Patrick accused Talarico, an Austin state representative, of introducing faith into the contentious Senate race, expected to be expensive and brutal as Democrats seek to capitalize on anti-Trump sentiment to claim the minority party’s first statewide victory in more than three decades.

Melinda French Gates says she immediately recognized pure evil when she met Jeffrey Epstein.Speaking with the Guardian, French Gates said one of many things contributing to her decision to divorce Bill Gates in 2021 after 27 years of marriage was his unfaithfulness to her and that he maintained contact with Epstein, despite her objections.But then, in January, the U.S. Justice Department released a tranche of Epstein emails which contained messages drafted by Epstein

The US and Iran stepped back from the brink of returning to all-out war on June 11. Hours after saying the US military would carry out strikes against Iran for a third consecutive night, Donald Trump postponed the attack. The Iranian military had said the US would “receive a more severe response than before” if it followed through on its threats.Trump claimed to have cancelled the strikes because of progress in negotiations between the two countries. In a statement posted on social media, Trump said: “Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all