Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal Since the September day when President Donald Trump symbolically renamed the Department of Defense as the Department of War, the U.S. military has conducted at least 21 strikes on Venezuelan boats, killing 83 people allegedly suspected of drug trafficking. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth convened an unprecedented and widely mocked pep rally of military generals and flag officers during which he pledged his commitment to the “warrior ethos.” And Hegseth has continued to fire or demote military generals and admirals, purging at least two dozen of them during his tenure, the New York Times reported. Last Wednesday, an…

Sky York Journal The extent of the prosecutorial and investigative misconduct in the James Comey case is even greater than previously known, a federal magistrate judge revealed in an extraordinary new ruling today. The judge was tasked with deciding whether Comey had met the very high bar for a defendant to be given full access to the transcripts and recordings of a grand jury proceeding. But it turns out that in addition to the reasons Comey argued for access to the grand jury material, the judge found from his own review of the materials a host of new problems that…

Sky York Journal Reacting to yet another obstacle in his path to redraw congressional district maps to help Republicans flip Democratic seats in as many states as possible before the midterms, President Trump slammed Indiana Republicans on Sunday for not bending the knee.  It’s the latest in a series of setbacks for the Trump administration’s months-long mid-cycle gerrymandering pressure campaign, suggesting that despite early wins in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina, the larger effort to redraw congressional lines to help Republicans hold the U.S. House might be losing steam.   On Friday, Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray announced that…

Sky York Journal On Thursday, a group of Michigan Republican lawmakers sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi asking the Department of Justice to deploy federal election monitors to oversee Michigan’s primary and general elections next year. The reason for the request, as outlined in the letter, centers on a supposed conflict of interest around Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who is also running for governor in 2026. The request, election experts emphasized to TPM, is both extremely atypical and has no real justification.  “I don’t recall a request for monitoring of elections coming months or even close…

Sky York Journal This story first appeared at ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. On Oct. 2, the second day of the government shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: “Break our laws, we’ll punish you.”  Noem has hailed the more than $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration. Her agency invoked the “national…

Sky York Journal The call warning of a dangerous tide of extremism in Donald Trump’s Washington is coming from inside the house — the vice president’s house.  And this alarm bell that things are going way too far didn’t come from some liberal or Never Trump conservative. It came from a member of the entourage of Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orbán.  Rod Dreher is an American writer who moved to Budapest in 2022 after becoming enamored with Orbán’s brand of right-wing populism. On Monday, he published a lengthy essay on his Substack “diary” describing a sitdown he had with…

Sky York Journal Private security details. Lawyering up. Moving assets overseas. Keeping comms on encrypted apps. Creating new legal entities to build a shield against federal investigations. Nonprofits devoted to progressive causes are taking new precautions as the Trump administration repeatedly declares that it will direct law enforcement to investigate groups advocating for views that it disfavors. The Trump administration and its supporters frame these threats as part of a sweeping, necessary investigation into “antifa,” the chimerical assembly of “domestic terrorists” that it accuses of fomenting political violence. TPM spoke with executives at nonprofits advocating for immigration reform, action on…

Sky York Journal The longest government shutdown in U.S. history came to an end Wednesday night after 43 days. House Republicans and a handful of House Democrats passed a new continuing resolution (CR) in a largely party-line 222-209 vote. Wednesday’s vote followed a late-night Senate vote on Sunday, during which a group of Senate Democrats broke ranks with their party, caving on their demand for extended Obamacare subsidies, and joined a Senate deal to reopen the government.  Six House Democrats — Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME), Adam Gray (D-CA), Don Davis (D-NC), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Marie Gluesenkamp…

Sky York Journal After seven weeks of unprecedented delays, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday finally formally swore in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ). The swearing in ceremony came after Johnson called the House back into session — after refusing to do so for more than a seven weeks — to vote on the Senate-passed continuing resolution that would reopen the government. Grijalva will be the final vote needed on the bipartisan discharge petition — led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) — that will force a vote on fully releasing the Justice Department’s files on the…

Sky York Journal President Trump’s pressure campaign to get red states across the country to redraw their congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms has hit a roadblock as various GOP-led redistricting efforts have either stalled or failed in recent days.  As it stands now, GOP-led states, including Texas, North Carolina and Missouri, have all all engaged in mid-cycle redistricting to redraw congressional maps. But last Tuesday’s election results, and a series of setbacks for similar efforts in other red states, has placed a big question mark on the administration’s ongoing redistricting power grab. For months, the Trump administration has been…