Author: Heather Cox Richardson

Just a year ago, we were focusing on Russian troops massing on the border with Ukraine, which the U.S. government and allies recognized as an attempt both to keep Ukraine from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a longstanding military alliance resisting Russian expansion, and to test the unity of the democratic nations that made up NATO itself. Former president Donald Trump had weakened NATO and vowed to pull the U.S. out of it if he won a second term, demoralizing our allies, but Democratic president Joe Biden and his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had worked hard...

Survivors of the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, testified on December 14 before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Club Q is an LGBTQ club in the city of about 500,000 people. The shooter opened fire there on the night of November 19-20, during a dance party. He used an AR-15 style rifle, murdering five people and wounding 19 more. Six others were hurt in the chaos. Pointing to Republican anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that calls LGBTQ individuals “groomers” and abusers,” survivors of the mass shooting said that Republican rhetoric was “the direct cause” of the massacre....

Former president Trump took to his Truth Social media platform on December 14 to announce that he would be making “a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT.” Since he recently threw his hat in the ring for president in 2024, there was a great deal of speculation about what political move this would be. When the news came on December 15, it turned out that his announcement was for digital trading cards with images of him as a superhero…available for $99 apiece. Radio personality John Melendez promptly called them “Broke’mon cards.” Ron Filipkowski, a former federal prosecutor and Republican who now monitors right-wing...

The Keystone Pipeline ruptured on December 7 near a creek in northern Kаnsаs, spilling what its operator, TC Energy, says is about 14,000 barrels of oil. This is equivalent to about 588,000 gallons, an Olympic swimming pool holds about 666,000 gallons. TC Energy says the leak is now contained. This is the largest land-based crude pipeline spill in the U.S. in nine years. Although the Keystone Pipeline has leaked 22 times before this, this week’s spill is bigger than all the others put together. A spill in July 2010 was more expensive — costing more than $1 billion —...