Democratic Underground: Forums for U.S. Liberals and Democrats

Trump tariffs and green energy rollbacks push household electricity bills up 10%

(The Guardian) Household electricity bills have increased by 10% since Donald Trump re-entered the White House, a new report has found, with its authors highlighting the impact of the president’s datacenter boosterism and cuts to clean energy projects as part of the cause. The analysis comes as the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, said he knows rising energy prices could be a political challenge for the GOP ahead of next year’s midterm elections, but claimed Democrats were to blame for the cost increases.

BumRushDaShow

US hikes steel, aluminum tariffs on imported appliances, railcars, EV parts

(Reuters) The U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday it is hiking steel and aluminum tariffs on more than 400 products including wind turbines, mobile cranes, appliances, bulldozers and other heavy equipment, along with railcars, motorcycles, marine engines, furniture and hundreds of other products. The department said 407 product categories are being added to the list of “derivative” steel and aluminum products covered by sectoral tariffs, with a 50% tariff on any steel and aluminum content of these products plus the country rate on the non-steel and non-aluminum content.

babylonsister

Trump Wants You Talking About Nonexistent Crime, Not His Medicaid Cuts

(Smirking Chimp) Americans really, really don’t like the GOP’s budget-busting “Big Beautiful Bill,” which Trump signed this summer. It’s been called “the largest redistribution from poor to rich in American history.” Over 60 percent of Americans say they oppose it — and the more they learn, the higher that figure climbs. The law made historically deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP to fund tax cuts for billionaires and corporations, plus enormous subsidies for for-profit Pentagon and ICE contractors. As a result, 17 million Americans will lose their health coverage, killing 51,000 people every year. Millions more will go without food, including children.

douglas9

DC National Guard members actively training to carry pistols in capitol mission

(The Handbasket) The DC National Guard is making sure all members have the requisite training to use a specific type of pistol should the official order to be armed come down from Trump or his Department of Defense, The Handbasket is the first to report. The fact that members may soon be armed was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal and NPR, but this new information sheds light on the fact that members are actively preparing to be armed.

mahatmakanejeeves

Pirro's office won't pursue gun charges over carrying rifles, shotgun

(Washington Post) Federal prosecutors in D.C. have been instructed not to seek felony charges against people who are carrying rifles or shotguns in the nation's capital, regardless of the strength of the evidence, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and an email reviewed by The Washington Post. The new policy, which Pirro said was crafted by the Justice Department and its solicitor general, marks a break with past practice.

marmar

Trump setting stage for Kent State 2.0

(Salon) It’s not hysterical to think it could happen. It’s not conspiratorial to suggest it’s what they might actually want. And it cannot be dismissed as improbable, given the conditions on the ground and what we already know about the most powerful man in the world: the prospect of American troops, in American cities, opening fire on American citizens — and that blood on the streets could be viewed not as a tragedy but as plain good politics.

BumRushDaShow

Fox News host Bret Baier pulled over in DC amid Trump law enforcement crackdown

(USA today) Fox News host Bret Baier was pulled over this weekend in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. Baier, 55, a political news anchor at President Donald Trump's favored network, may have been inadvertently caught up in a recent law enforcement crackdown ordered by his administration. Earlier this month, Trump announced he would deploy the National Guard in the nation's capital to address what he saw as rampant crime.

tulipsandroses

Conservative podcaster warns of right-wing conspiracy theories coming true under Trump

(Mediaite) Tim Dillon: "They've already got the National Guard on the street. They already have all your information in D.C., and now they just get to decide what is and isn't over the line. That should scare everybody. You're fucking nuts, dude. If this doesn't scare you, you're nuts ... This is literally the wet dream of every conspiracy theorist that has ever lived, and it's happening now.

Dulcinea

Stephen A. Smith: Trump 'opened his mouth and deposited checks his a‑‑ can't cash'

(The Hill) Stephen A. Smith on Monday slammed President Trump for not securing a peace deal with Russia and Ukraine despite his promises on the campaign trail. “The reality is, and excuse my language, he opened his mouth and deposited checks his a‑‑ can’t cash. That’s really what it comes down to,” Smith said during a Monday evening appearance on NewsNation’s “Cuomo.”

babylonsister

Donald Trump is becoming the greatest unifier of Europe since the end of the cold war

(The Guardian) It’s difficult to say at this stage whether anything good will come from the impromptu White House summit, but European leaders showing up as a group in support of Ukraine was a first. In Washington, we saw a rare and unprecedented yet admirably balanced European ensemble: countries from northern and southern Europe, large and small, two nuclear powers and permanent members of the UN security council, the two institutions headquartered in Brussels but often appearing to inhabit two different planets; and the UK, perfectly in tune with European positions, despite having withdrawn from its core political entity.

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El Paso judge blocks Ken Paxton from taking legal action against Beto O'Rourke's political group

30 min ago - An El Paso judge this week temporarily stopped Attorney General Ken Paxton from prosecuting former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke's political group, Powered by People, after Paxton moved to block the organization from financially supporting Texas Democrats ... (Texas Tribune)

Pete Hegseth's Security Detail Is So Big It's Pushing an Entire Army Agency to the Brink: WaPo

33 min ago - Aug 20th, 2025, 8:49 am Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “unusually large” personal security detail has put “significant strain” on the Army agency responsible for providing the personnel — the Washington Post reports. A ... (MEDIAite)

Democratic Party Faces a Voter Registration Crisis

36 min ago - The Democratic Party is hemorrhaging voters long before they even go to the polls. Of the 30 states that track voter registration by political party, Democrats lost ground to Republicans in every single one between the 2020 and 2024 elections — ... (New York Times - gift link)

Judge temporarily blocks Texas' Ten Commandments requirement in 11 school districts

1 hr ago - A Texas federal judge on Wednesday blocked from taking full effect a new state law requiring public schools to display donated posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. The ruling only applies to the nearly a dozen Texas school districts named i ... (Texas Tribune)

Trump calls on Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to resign, renewing attack on central bank

1 hr ago - Wed 20 Aug 2025 11.05 EDT Last modified on Wed 20 Aug 2025 11.11 EDT Donald Trump has called on a Federal Reserve governor to immediately resign, renewing his extraordinary attack on the central bank’s independence as officials mull next steps o ... (The Guardian)

Senate Democrats launch radio ad attacking GOP over cuts to rural radio funding

2 hrs ago - 08/20/25 7:11 AM ET The Senate Democrats’ campaign arm is launching a new radio ad Wednesday attacking Republicans for slashing funding for rural radio stations as a part of more than $1 billion Republicans made in cuts to public broadcasting in ... (The Hill)

Ranger fired for hanging transgender flag in Yosemite and park visitors may face prosecution

3 hrs ago - By MATTHEW BROWN and HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Updated 11:03 PM CDT, August 19, 2025 A Yosemite National Park ranger was fired after hanging a pride flag from El Capitan while some park visitors could face prosecution under protest restrictions that have bee ... (AP)

Politics may have spurred August purge of 5 veteran FBI agents

3 hrs ago - August 19, 2025 / 11:08 PM EDT When the FBI fired five veteran agents earlier this month, Director Kash Patel offered no explanation. Shock at the firings has continued to reverberate through the storied agency. And now, details are emerging about th ... (CBS News)

White House joins TikTok after delaying enforcement of sale-or-ban law

4 hrs ago - PUBLISHED Aug 19, 2025, 9:05 PM ET The White House launched a TikTok account on Tuesday amid uncertainty about the app’s future, as another deadline approaches for its parent company, Bytedance, to sell to a US buyer or be banned in the United S ... (CNN Politics)

Kamala Harris Praises Texas Democrat Who Defied GOP Order: A Hero 'Of This Moment'

4 hrs ago - Aug 20, 2025, 06:48 AM EDT Former Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday said Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier, who has spent the past two nights inside the Texas Capitol after she was barred from leaving the building over her refusal to agree t ... (Huff Post)

Fox News host Bret Baier pulled over in DC amid Trump law enforcement crackdown

5 hrs ago - Updated Aug. 19, 2025, 8:53 p.m. ET Fox News host Bret Baier was pulled over this weekend in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. Baier, 55, a political news anchor at President Donald Trump's favored network, may have been inadvertently caught up ... (USA Today)

Amid redistricting protests, Texas State Capitol cleared of visitors after reported social media threat

5 hrs ago - August 19, 2025, 11:05 PM The Texas State Capitol was cleared of visitors Tuesday evening and closed to the public after a social media threat, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement. The disruption came amid protests in support of ... (ABC News)

Kilmar Abrego Garcia wants criminal case thrown out over Trump administration's 'vindictive' prosecution

6 hrs ago - Wednesday 20 August 2025 00:06 BST Kilmar Abrego Garcia is asking a federal judge to throw out a criminal case against him, claiming he was “singled out” by President Donald Trump’s administration for “having the audacity to fight ... (The Independent)

Trump tariffs and green energy rollbacks push household electricity bills up 10%

6 hrs ago - 11h Household electricity bills have increased by 10% since Donald Trump re-entered the White House, a new report has found, with its authors highlighting the impact of the president’s datacenter boosterism and cuts to clean energy projects as p ... (msn/The Guardian)

Pirro's office won't pursue gun charges over carrying rifles, shotgun

6 hrs ago - WP EXCLUSIVE Pirro's office won't pursue gun charges over carrying rifles, shotgun D.C.'s top prosecutor said her office would continue charging violent crimes and firearms trafficking that involve those weapons. August 19, 2025 at 9:24 p.m. EDTToday ... (Washington Post)

US hikes steel, aluminum tariffs on imported appliances, railcars, EV parts

7 hrs ago - August 19, 2025 6:06 PM EDT Updated 11 hours ago WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday it is hiking steel and aluminum tariffs on more than 400 products including wind turbines, mobile cranes, appliances, bulldoz ... (Reuters)

One in three businesses says they plan to raise prices as Trump's tariffs begin and inflation grows

7 hrs ago - Tuesday 19 August 2025 23:11 BST Almost a third of U.S. businesses have said in a survey that they're likely to raise prices by the end of 2025 as they adjust to increasing costs and inflation, according to a new report. The online lending marketplac ... (The Independent)

Ice used Marriott chain to detain immigrants, despite hotel's 2019 pledge not to cooperate

8 hrs ago - Tue 19 Aug 2025 14.34 EDT Last modified on Tue 19 Aug 2025 17.54 EDT A Sheraton hotel in Louisiana has been used by immigration officials to hold people who are being deported, in what appears to be a contradiction of a position Sheraton’s paren ... (The Guardian)

US appeals court puts the brakes on contested land transfer for Arizona copper mine

8 hrs ago - Updated 5:40 PM EDT, August 19, 2025 A U.S. appeals court has temporarily blocked the transfer of federal forest land in Arizona to a pair of international companies that plan to mine one of the largest copper deposits in North America. The transfer ... (AP)

Judge halts Mississippi's DEI ban

9 hrs ago - Posted: Aug 19, 2025 / 11:38 AM CDT Updated: Aug 19, 2025 / 04:21 PM CDT JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – A federal judge ruled in favor of those who are challenging certain provisions of Mississippi’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ... (WJTV-TV Jackson, MS)