SINCERETALK

Legal and voting rights experts are sounding the alarm after a Washington Post bombshell report revealed that President Donald Trump — who has been insisting on federalizing voting and has issued an executive order to pressure states to require proof of citizenship for voter registration — is now being urged by activists to sign an executive order declaring a voting "emergency." The proposed 17-page order would "unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting,” the Post reported, noting that the proposal "claims China interfered in the 2020 election" which would be the "basis to declare a national emergency." Former Trump national security official Miles Taylor warned that the "biggest electoral crime in American history might be unfolding." "The president cannot seize control of state-run elections by declaring a fake 'emergency.' There’s no statute that permits it," wrote Fair Fight Action communications dir...

Veteran Republican strategist Karl Rove knows how to win elections. He says he also knows what losing them looks like, and he says Trump is on his way to losing big. Strangely, the Republican Party’s master of partisan politics claims Trump is being too partisan, as indicated by the direction he took at his State of The Union speech. “Almost everything the president said energized his MAGA hard core. But they aren’t enough to stave off a shellacking this fall,” Rove told the Wall Street Journal . “Mr. Trump should have fixated more on those of his 2024 voters who have since become disenchanted: Those represented by his approval rating’s almost 8-point slide in the RealClearPolitics average since re-entering office,” said Rove. “That isn’t a large slice of the electorate, but those swing voters will decide which party controls Congress for Mr. Trump’s final two years in the White House.” Trump’s speech, like Trump himself, was “angry, pugnacious, and hence less effective,” said Ro...

President Donald Trump promised during his Tuesday State of the Union message to stop members of Congress from profiting from insider trading — and, in a rare moment, received bipartisan support. During a dramatic moment in his speech, Trump declared that Congress should “ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information,” adding they should “pass the Stop Insider Trading act without delay.” Even though Democrats joined Republicans in applauding and delivering standing ovations, Trump then tried to make the issue into a partisan one by singling out a prominent Democrat. “Let’s also ensure that members of congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information,” Trump said, then adding: “Did Nancy Pelosi stand up? ... Doubt it.” Trump referenced the former House Speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has been accused of insider trading . In response, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) shouted in response, “You do it yourself. What about yo...

When Homes Depot suffers its state headquarters feels the pain — and swing state Georgia is definitely taking notice of the 800 jobs the company reported lost in January. Now the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports the company, whose founders are supporters of President Donald Trump , are reeling from a 4.4 percent net earnings decline from $14.8 billion in fiscal year 2024, thanks to the president’s sputtering housing industry. “The current mortgage rate environment and significant increase in home prices since 2019 have impacted housing affordability,” Home Depot Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said during a conference call with investors on Tuesday. “Housing turnover has remained at historical lows since 2023, which has significantly reduced demand for projects and other purchases associated with buying and selling a home.” “Our customers also tell us they have concerns over general economic uncertainty, including inflation, growing job concerns and higher financing c...

The editor-at-large at a prominent right-leaning magazine is blasting President Donald Trump’s “debased state” — in particular, thinking he can dupe the American people out of their economic woes. “In our debased state of national politics we have become accustomed to presidents making promises they cannot possibly hope to deliver on, particularly just months before they become a lame duck,” Reason Magazine’s Matt Welch wrote on Tuesday . Pointing out that two-term presidents tend to spend their sixth-year State of the Union message boasting, Welch warned that “as the ghost of Joe Biden can attest, woe unto the POTUS who points to the cloudy economic sky and declares it blue.” Trump is “shouting into political headwinds considerably stiffer than those faced by” the last similarly scandal-ridden president, Bill Clinton, whose approval rating averaged to 60 percent during his 1998 State of the Union. By contrast, Trump has been in the high 30s in three recent national polls. “Like p...

I’m a bit sad that the Winter Olympics are over, but downright joyful I won’t be hearing that stupid, meaningless “U-S-A, U-S-A …” chant every evening while watching the games. It should have been retired many decades ago shortly after its birth in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. That’s the year a bunch of pimply-faced American kids knocked off the vaunted Big Red Russian hockey machine on their way to winning gold, 4-3, in what is now referred to as the Miracle on Ice. As that American amateur men’s team, composed of college kids, and recent grads, skated to one victory after another, it became clear something special was happening in that northern New York town tucked hard in the middle of the Adirondacks. Our country was in desperate need of a spark that made us all feel good about ourselves and brought us together, even if we really didn’t know it at the time. We were being suffocated by bad news, and a malaise that President Jimmy Carter eloquently addres...