Joe Biden

Foreign policy expert Kevin Baron, the founding executive editor of the military news website Defense One, warned of the threat right-wing media poses to American in a new analysis.

"It’s hard to watch Russia's version of journalism and not think of the American far-right’s version of it. Indeed, the connections are both direct and philosophical—and of import to national security leaders," he wrote. "In the past few months, we’ve seen just how closely related the two are, Putin’s propaganda and our own. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, America’s far-right denied the looming threat as a wag-the-dog conspiracy concocted by deep-state Democrats and centrist Republicans, or tried to blame President Joe Biden. Russian propaganda outlets gleefully put those clips into heavy rotation."

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Friday blamed President Joe Biden for this week's spike in gas prices -- even after House Republicans pushed Biden last week to ban Russian oil in the United States.

Writing on Twitter, McCarthy tried to absolve Russian President Vladimir Putin for the surge in gas prices, even though it was Putin's decision to invade Ukraine -- and the massive economic sanctions on Russia that followed -- that are driving the spike.

President Joe Biden on Friday announced a new round of sanctions on Russia by the United States, as well as countries within the European Union and the Group of Seven nations.

The latest round of joint economic restrictions will revoke Russia’s status as a preferred trading partner and eliminate the country’s ability to borrow from multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock also was there, calling on candidates to join Trump on stage, as can be heard in a video of the event posted to Facebook.

The video begins with DePerno praising Trump before the former president made his remarks. DePerno also highlighted that if elected he will help “restore Michigan back to a constitutional republic.”

On Friday, the Des Moines Register reported that officials at the Democratic National Committee are proposing reforms to the presidential primary process that, if adopted, could strip Iowa of its guaranteed first-on-the-calendar spot — potentially ending a tradition that is a huge moneymaker for the Midwestern state but that is increasingly criticized as flawed.

"A draft resolution, obtained and corroborated by the Des Moines Register, would set new criteria for early-voting states that favor primaries over caucuses and diversity over tradition," reported Brianne Pfannenstiel. "If the proposal advances, it would upend the party's presidential nominating calendar by requiring states to apply to hold their nominating contests before the rest of the country and expanding the number of early voting states to as many as five. Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, which currently lead off the process, would not necessarily be given preferential consideration over other states that apply."

There were no great expectations when former Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake was confirmed by his former Senate colleagues to take the position as U.S. ambassador to Turkey. He had no previous track record as a diplomat and had never even set foot in the country. His selection for the position by President Joe Biden surprised many.

In his September 2021 confirmation hearing, Flake’s former colleagues warned him he might have a tough job in the Turkish capital of Ankara. But that was months before Vladimir Putin would decide to invade Ukraine, instantly making Flake’s already complicated job even more difficult. Today, as the Daily Beast reports, Ambassador Flake is playing a critical role in guiding the United States' relationship with a sometimes confounding ally.

Syllipsimopodi bideni is small (about 12cm in length), has ten arms, suckers, fins, and a triangular pen of hard tissue inside its body for support. It’s a unique find because “squishy” animals tend to degrade quickly after death and therefore rarely make good fossils.

We don’t know when this unusual fossil was discovered, but in 1988 it was donated to the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. It would sit largely ignored for more than 30 years until American palaeontologists Christopher Whalen and Neil Landman decided to study it.

It used to be rare for mail-in ballots to be thrown out in Texas, but thanks to the GOP's new voter suppression law, more than 27,000 of them were flagged for rejection during the state's recent primary election, according to a new analysis published Wednesday by The Associated Press.

For Texans who cast ballots by mail, the initial rejection rate was 17% across 120 counties, based on preliminary figures reported by election officials after votes were counted in the state's March 1 primary. Although Texas has 254 counties, the vast majority of the nearly three million people who participated in the nation's first primary of 2022 reside in the 120 counties that provided early data.

Bill Barr's reputation restoration tour is not going well, as he undermines what little credibility he once might have had. On Thursday the disgraced former Trump Attorney General told Fox News Joe Biden, who is 79, is too old to be president, but he would vote for Donald Trump, who will be 78 in 2024.

Barr, who is 71, repeatedly has come under fire in recent days for similar remarks surrounding his dogged insistence that despite Trump having displayed a “detachment from reality that was stunning to me,” having “lied about the election,” and “threatened democracy,” yet insisting that he would vote for him for president against anyone running on the Democratic ticket.