OPINION TODAY featured podcast —
@ronbrownstein.bsky.social on what’s ahead in 2026—and in 2028.
(Conversations with @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social)
opiniontoday.substack.com/i/183037344/...

Iraqozuela (with @ronbrownstein.bsky.social): Trump’s Venezuela takeover rhetoric and the politics of oil, Tim Walz bowing out of Minnesota’s gubernatorial race, rising health care costs and what they could mean for the midterms—and much more.
(Hacks On Tap)
opiniontoday.substack.com/i/183773933/...

Analysis: Why Democrats see health care as a prescription for revival | CNN Politics While health care was not a major focus in the 2024 presidential election, it has become a central front between the parties during President Donald Trump’s tumultuous second term, as the government s...

While many are dissatisfied with aspects of the medical system, it’s far from clear the GOP can sustain public support for an agenda that simultaneously challenges mainstream medicine and retrenches the federal govt’s role in promoting health.
(@ronbrownstein.bsky.social)
www.cnn.com/2025/09/28/p...

If none of this has happened in 12 months, the odds are pretty high Cruz will find some rationale to avoid breaking with Trump at that point.

Really feel like I’m losing my mind: government OBVIOUSLY cannot punish an individual law firm for hiring someone it disfavors! It’s ludicrously unconstitutional and I feel like without a day of law school I could argue the case. And yet the best paid lawyers in the country are folding?

Analysis: Trump’s moves to hollow out government could be difficult to undo | CNN Politics Americans have grown accustomed to dramatic shifts in policy each time control of the White House changes between parties. But across a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues, President Dona...

“What history has shown us is that it’s easy to dismantle areas of science and technology,” said Joanne Padrón Carney, AAAS chief government relations officer, “but it’s difficult to rebuild.”

Read the full story from @ronbrownstein.bsky.social in @cnn.com ⤵️

Gene Hackman has died at 95. I recently wrote about his performance in Night Moves for a Criterion release that will arrive in a few weeks. Like anyone who writes about Hackman's acting, I had to come up with novel ways to avoid the word "perfect." It wasn't easy. >

Analysis: GOP’s plans to enact Trump agenda may face a big vulnerability | CNN Politics As they try to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda, congressional Republicans face the same political risk as a generation ago: that tying together tax cuts and spending cuts will backfire.

House conservs are demanding GOP push big spending cuts when extending Trump's tax cuts. That departs from the GOP's tax only-sugar not spinach-strategy for the 01/03/17 tax cuts and echoes the plan that allowed Bill Clinton to revive his presidency in 95-96. More here. www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/p...

I wrote about this too. Bottom line is it was hard to convince voters that prices in the future would be higher under Trump when they believed that life was more affordable under him so recently in the past-despite all the warnings from economists of every ideological stripe about his Trump II plan

This is a constitutional crisis: the President doesn't have the power to cancel funds appropriated by Congress. Also, the math is insane; there is NO way to cut $4B/day by getting rid of "fraud". Cuts of that magnitude will dangerously undermine the core functions of government.

Analysis: As Trump launches his enforcement offensive, immigrant advocates are mobilizing too | CNN Politics Far beyond the Washington clamor of executive actions and lawsuits, and the dueling press releases between Donald Trump allies and adversaries, the arrival of the new president’s immigration regime is...

“The number 1 thing: family separation..Individuals are really worried about who is going to take care of their children” if they're detained or deported.

As Trump launches his enforcement offensive, immigrant advocates are mobilizing too edition.cnn.com/2025/01/28/p... @ronbrownstein.bsky.social

Exclusive | Meta to Pay $25 Million to Settle 2021 Trump Lawsuit The president had sued the social-media company after his accounts were suspended following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Knee. Bent. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

Chris Hayes on the attention economy A conversation about how attention was commodified, why it's so easy to steal, where industry is looking for new supplies, and whether democracy can survive this.

I listen to and support @volts.wtf because of his many wonderful perspective-widening episodes, usually focussed on clean energy, but sometimes on other topics. Like this one on something I'd never considered before--worth your attention, I promise!

www.volts.wtf/p/chris-haye...

"Some 50% of poll respondents said the country was on the wrong track when it came to the cost of living, compared to 25% who said it was moving in the right direction."

Before the election, voters also were most likely to name "the economy" as their most important issue
news.gallup.com/poll/651719/...

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Saturday she didn’t understand why President Trump fired several departmental inspectors general late Friday night given that those positions are crucial to rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, one of the president’s stated goals. “I don’t understand why one would fire individuals whose mission it is to root out waste, fraud and abuse. This leaves a gap in what I know is a priority for President Trump. So I don’t understand it,” Collins said while arriving at the Capitol for a Saturday morning vote.

Oh come on.