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

Affordable Care Act Insurers Want More Premium Increases as Enrollment Sags

(KFF) For the second year in a row, many Affordable Care Act insurers are proposing double-digit premium increases, driven by rising medical costs as well as policy changes by Congress and the Trump administration. In preliminary filings with state regulators, insurers are seeking a median rate increase of 14% for 2027, according to an analysis of filings in 16 states and the District of Columbia by the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker.

lostincalifornia

Trump Says US Ceasefire With Iran Is 'Over' After Strikes

(Bloomberg) US President Donald Trump said his tentative ceasefire with Iran is over. “For me, I think it’s over,” he said on Wednesday in Ankara, sitting next to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the military alliance’s annual summit. “As far as I’m concerned it’s just a waste of time.” Trump’s remarks came shortly after the US launched a new wave of strikes against Iran and revoked a waiver that allowed the sale of Iranian oil.

mahatmakanejeeves

Trump says he doesn't want anything to do with Spain: 'Cut off all trade'

(CNBC) President Donald Trump has slammed Spain for not contributing enough to NATO, as he attended the defense alliance summit in Turkey. “Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate. They don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits,” he said at a press conference in Ankara with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “Don’t even talk to them. They’re hopeless, bad people,” the president said.

Dulcinea

Reflecting Pool being drained - again - as Trump administration tries once more to fix landmark

(CNN) Crews began draining the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Sunday, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months. In an interview released Tuesday with Katie Miller, a conservative podcaster and wife of President Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Burgum said they started draining the pool as planned after the July Fourth fireworks show, noting some of the fireworks debris was still in the water.

KS Toronado

Wednesday's Condensed News Cartoons & Memes

BumRushDaShow

Trump Files Plea To Block $5 Million Payout To E. Jean Carroll

(CNBC) Attorneys for President Donald Trump in a late Tuesday night court filing urged a New York federal judge not to disburse nearly $5.8 million to E. Jean Carroll to satisfy a May 2023 civil verdict holding him liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer. Trump’s lawyers said that money cannot be released to Carroll under an agreement unless and until the Supreme Court rejects the president’s new, long-shot bid for reconsideration of his petition that the high court take his appeal of that verdict.

Dulcinea

DOJ warns state officials of 'potential criminal penalties' over noncitizen voting

(ABC News) As the Trump administration seeks to tighten federal control over elections ahead of the midterms, the head of the Justice Department's civil rights division has sent letters to state election officials warning them of "potential criminal penalties for those who fail to carry out their duties" in relation to federal election laws -- including preventing noncitizens from voting. One election official who received a letter -- which went to at least six states, including Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado -- told ABC News they found it "threatening."

BumRushDaShow

Ken Paxton May Have Broken Same Texas Election Laws He Wants To Tighten, Bombshell Report Finds

(Mediaite) The Texas Tribune reported on Tuesday that Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in the state, may have broken the very voter registration laws he’s seeking to tighten. Zach Despart, who writes for both the Tribune and ProPublica, found that “Paxton appears to have used an address where he did not live while voting in six elections in the past two years, including in May’s runoff that made him the Republican nominee for U.S. senator, according to records.”

BumRushDaShow

Trump DOJ agrees to new Michael Flynn payout as allies make bank without 'slush fund'

(Raw Story) President Donald Trump's administration found a new way to pay off an ally after abandoning plans for an "anti-weaponization" fund — quietly settling a second lawsuit with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. The Army had withheld about $38,557 from Flynn's retirement pay over a 2015 speaking fee from Russia Today, the Russian state-owned media company now known as RT. The new settlement is below $75,000, Bloomberg reported.

shelshaw

Mitch McConnell's Colleagues Say He's Alive, Talking On The Phone

(Huff Post) In an apparently coordinated effort to show Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is alive and on the mend, a handful of his allies made statements Tuesday saying they have spoken to the senator in the past day and discussed a variety of issues. “I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky,” conservative pundit Scott Jennings said on social media. Aides to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) separately said they’ve spoken to McConnell, too.

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US judge orders four states be given access to citizenship data for voter checks

18 min ago - July 8, 2026 12:18 PM EDT Updated 2 hours ago July 8 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Florida has ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to resume giving four Republican-led states access to an immigration database to check the citizen ... (Reuters)

Trump denies disaster aid for 4 Democratic-led states

27 min ago - Trump on Friday rejected $227 million in aid requests from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for help recovering from a major snowstorm in February. Two days earlier, Trump approved Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid ... (Politico)

Trump to Remove Syria From US Terrorism Sponsor List

52 min ago - July 8, 2026, at 10:36 a.m. ANKARA/WASHINGTON, ⁠July 8 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump ⁠on Wednesday informed his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa that he had decided to remove the country from the U.S. list of designated sta ... (US News & World Report/Reuters)

European countries top 'scorecard' on climate progress while US slips to 27th

1 hr ago - Wed 8 Jul 2026 06.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 8 Jul 2026 06.01 EDT Much of the world has made encouraging strides in reducing toxic problems such as water and air pollution that have long plagued communities. But there is still a widespread lack of p ... (The Guardian)

Trump team bragged about its Freedom Fuel station selling gas for $3.47. The price was $2.99 before he took office

1 hr ago - Wednesday 08 July 2026 14:07 EDT Donald Trump’s team bragged about “lowering the price at the pump” after launching its new Freedom Fuel gas stations, but a new report suggests one of those locations charged an even lower price for fue ... (The Independent)

US officials compiling 'menu' of Spanish goods, as Trump weighs embargo

2 hrs ago - 07/08/2026 12:56 PM EDT The Trump administration is preparing a list of Spanish goods to potentially embargo, after President Donald Trump ordered officials to cut off trade with the European nation Thursday morning. The Treasury Department will be ... (Politico)

Trump's Jaw-Dropping Secret Threat to U.S. Ally Is Leaked

2 hrs ago - Towards the end of his tenure, Trudeau, who was replaced as PM by Mark Carney in March last year, faced sinister threats from Trump in private phone calls, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. In one ... (Daily Beast)

Historians Reject White House's Criticism of Smithsonian Museum

2 hrs ago - The Organization of American Historians, the nation’s largest group of scholars of U.S. history, blasted the report in a statement on Monday, accusing the administration of presenting a partisan ideological attack in the guise of historical crit ... (NYT)

Trump switches back to flying on older Air Force One for England trip instead of new Qatari jet

3 hrs ago - Wed 8 Jul 2026 14.25 EDT Last modified on Wed 8 Jul 2026 14.37 EDT Donald Trump will fly from Turkey to England onboard the older Air Force One, rather than the new, Qatari-gifted aircraft he used to travel to Turkey, an unexpected change in plans th ... (The Guardian)

GOP Rep Mercilessly Booed At Town Hall While Defending Signature Trump Policy

3 hrs ago - Jul 8, 2026, 05:03 AM EDT Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) was greeted with a chorus of boos during a town hall event on Tuesday after defending President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” Flood was asked what he planned to do about ... (Huff Post)

Senate sets new date for Jay Clayton's confirmation hearing after Trump derailed the previous one

4 hrs ago - July 7, 2026, 11:31 PM EDT / Updated July 8, 2026, 1:08 PM EDT The Senate Intelligence Committee scheduled a new confirmation hearing Tuesday for Jay Clayton’s nomination to be director of national intelligence after President Donald Trump upend ... (NBC News)

Trump Seemingly Calls Zelenskyy 'Putin' At Gaffe-Filled Press Conference

4 hrs ago - Updated Wed, July 8, 2026 at 1:57 PM EDT Topline President Donald Trump referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as "President Putin" Wednesday, then seemingly tried to cover up the gaffe, which was one of several during Wednesday's press ... (Yahoo! News/Forbes)

Judge tosses Trump Media's $3.8 billion defamation suit against The Washington Post

5 hrs ago - Another one of President Donald Trump’s lawsuits against a news organization has fizzled out. This time, it is a defamation lawsuit that the Trump Media and Technology Group brought against The Washington Post in 2023 over a story titled “T ... (CNN)

Meta Is Toying With the Idea of Smart Glasses That Record Everything, All the Time

5 hrs ago - Smart glasses ick people out for various reasons, and many have to do with cameras. In response to that ever-growing aversion, companies that make face computers with cameras on them have extended some small but helpful olive branches to people worri ... (Gizmodo)

Judge orders E. Jean Carroll be paid $5M in damages from Trump verdict

5 hrs ago - A New York federal judge on Wednesday ordered that E. Jean Carroll be paid $5 million plus interest for damages from a verdict holding President Donald Trump civilly liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer. The order came hours after Trum ... (cnbc)

Former Wisconsin judge spared prison for obstructing ICE arrest of Mexican immigrant

5 hrs ago - Updated 1:04 PM EDT, July 8, 2026 MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan was spared from prison Wednesday for ushering a Mexican defendant out of her courtroom to evade U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. A federal jud ... (AP)

Beshear requests McConnell health update

5 hrs ago - 07/08/26 10:24 AM ET Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) sent a letter to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)’s office on Wednesday, asking for a health update on the senator after he was admitted to the hospital on June 14. “Over the last several wee ... (The Hill)

Judges reject Kennedy Center effort to reinstate Trump's name

6 hrs ago - Story by Ted Johnson • 38m • A federal appeals court has rejected the Kennedy Center board’s latest argument for why Donald Trump’s name needs to be added to the complex. A three-judge panel on Wednesday denied a stay of a lower ... (msn.com)

Trump gives Ukraine OK to produce Patriot missiles as war with Russia drags on

7 hrs ago - July 8, 2026, 11:00 AM President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday the U.S. will give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air defense systems. "One of the things we're going to be talking about is, you'll -- we'r ... (ABC News)

'Greenland is not for sale' Denmark's Frederiksen reminds Trump

7 hrs ago - Simon Ormiston Wed, July 8, 2026 at 2:35 AM CDT Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Greenland was "not for sale" after renewed comments by Donald Trump suggesting the Arctic territory should be controlled by Washington rather than Copenha ... (yahoo.com)