White House Abruptly Cancels Meeting on FEMA’s Future After Leaked Report Revealed Plan to Gut the Agency

Trump continues baffling attack on FEMA. Is it another distraction?

By Carl David Goette-Luciak

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.

A meeting that was supposed to chart the future of America’s disaster-response agency ended on Thursday before it could even begin. 

The final report of a committee tasked by Donald Trump with reviewing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was scheduled to be presented and put to a vote Thursday afternoon. But shortly before 1 p.m., when the FEMA Review Council was scheduled to convene in Washington, a draft of the report was leaked to news outlets and the White House abruptly canceled the session. 

The shakeup appeared to surprise even some of the review council’s own members, several of whom were still awaiting instructions outside the meeting’s planned location less than an hour before it was supposed to start, The Washington Post reported. Registered attendees only received notice of the meeting’s postponement after the event was scheduled to conclude. That announcement, a two-sentence email from the council’s designated federal officer, Patrick Ryan Powers, did not provide an explanation for the cancellation or a date for a rescheduled meeting. 

The draft of the report signaled the review council’s plan to dramatically cut the agency even as climate change-fueled disasters increase, provoking swift condemnation from advocacy groups and emergency management experts. Critics panned the draft as a blueprint for weakening the nation’s primary emergency-response agency and shifting responsibility onto states unequipped and unprepared to manage crises alone. 

Human Rights and Democracy Replaced by Profit

Trump’s Distorted World View

By Terry H. Schwadron

Events, reports and analysis have converged this week to underscore Donald Trump’s unique view of how the world should spin.

Beyond the fallout of defending U.S. strikes on suspected drug boats, increasing threats of an undeclared war on Venezuela, the excesses of a mass deportation campaign spiraling out of control, unending tariffs, and flailing attempts to force Ukraine into a bad deal with Russia, we got a new National Security Strategy document that lays out Trump’s values as if they are ours.

Together, they reflect the clear vision of an autocratic, power-minded Trump who wants to dictate to Americans and the rest of the world that they should forego human rights and democracy, recognize a U.S. hemispheric dominance, and kowtow to us because of our national wealth, not our ideals.

As The New York Times concluded in an analysis of the strategic document, “The world as seen from the White House is a place where America can use its vast powers to make money” at the expense of support for dictators and caring about those without wealth.

“Gone is the long-familiar picture of the United States as a global force for freedom, replaced by a country that is focused on reducing migration while avoiding passing judgment on authoritarians, instead seeing them as sources of cash,” The Times analysis said.

He had to do it

King Donald's new scheme to bring in more rich people. What's his cut?

This is a real thing. Not a joke. Not a meme. 

FBI posts images of new "person of interest" and offers reward

Tariffs 101: What they are, who pays them, and why they matter now

Understanding Trump's new national sales tax

Kent Jones, Babson College

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing a case to determine whether Donald Trump’s global tariffs are legal.

Until recently, tariffs rarely made headlines. Yet today, they play a major role in U.S. economic policy, affecting the prices of everything from groceries to autos to holiday gifts, as well as the outlook for unemployment, inflation and even recession.

I’m an economist who studies trade policy, and I’ve found that many people have questions about tariffs. This primer explains what they are, what effects they have, and why governments impose them.

What are tariffs, and who pays them?

Tariffs are taxes on imports of goods, usually for purposes of protecting particular domestic industries from import competition. When an American business imports goods, U.S. Customs and Border Protection sends it a tariff bill that the company must pay before the merchandise can enter the country.

Because tariffs raise costs for U.S. importers, those companies usually pass the expense on to their customers by raising prices. Sometimes, importers choose to absorb part of the tariff’s cost so consumers don’t switch to more affordable competing products. However, firms with low profit margins may risk going out of business if they do that for very long. In general, the longer tariffs are in place, the more likely companies are to pass the costs on to customers.

Trump’s Draconian Border Policies Are Menacing the 2026 World Cup

Trump is banning travel from more than 30 countries 

Maybe this is why FIFA gave Trump his phony "peace prize"

By Nora Loreto

This article was originally published by Truthout

On Saturday, December 6, soccer fans around the world found out where their favorite teams will be playing in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Players and staff from 48 countries and territories will play 104 games across North America — and for the first time in history, Canada is hosting some of the games. Together, Toronto and Vancouver will host 13 matches.

In addition to the matches, 84 training sites and 178 practice fields will be spread across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. Plus, tens of thousands of broadcasters from around the world will cover the games for their home countries.

Holding the games in three countries means that ease of crossing borders is a fundamental part of the World Cup going smoothly. Hundreds of thousands of players, staff, and fans will need to move across the U.S.-Mexico border and the Canada-U.S. border multiple times in order to attend the matches over the course of six weeks in June and July 2026. But already, months before the games begin, concerns are mounting over whether attendees will be able to enter the host countries at all.

Russia’s Most Dangerous Weapon is Donald Trump’s Mind

How did the United States Come to Back a Vicious Dictator against All Its Allies?

Dr. Bandy X. Lee

The disintegration of Donald Trump’s mind—now obvious for everyone to see—is metaphorical of the disintegration of our society. Unfitness means that there is no one in charge of the government; there is no one home. Rather, the appearance of someone being home makes him a prime target for nefarious forces to do their mischief.

I warned in The Psychology of Trump Contagion, published before the 2024 presidential election:

Sometimes the greatest threat to national security is someone who can be leveraged and compromised—so as to parrot our enemies’ propaganda, to destroy American democracy from within, and to assist their rise in global dominance.

One of these enemies is Vladimir Putin. Russian forces launched 704 total missiles and drones against Ukraine overnight on December 5 to 6, 2025, heavily targeting railway and energy infrastructure in this proxy U.S.-Russia war. The goal is to freeze our fellow pro-democracy Europeans, so as to force them into submission as winter approaches.

So, how did the U.S. come to aid and comfort a hostile opponent bent on reestablishing the Soviet Union? Astute political commentator Thom Hartmann makes a critical observation from the Epstein emails:

The child victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes are apparently not the only ones who’ve paid the price for Donald Trump’s long relationship with that notorious pedophile.

Epstein’s “partying” with Trump has apparently also led to thousands of civilian deaths abroad, the collapse of America’s credibility around the world, and a serious threat to the future of democracy in Europe….

In Epstein’s emails, he boasts of offering to advise Russia’s senior-most officials about how to manipulate Trump: “I think you might suggest to putin that [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] lavrov can get insight on [Trump by] talking to me…”

Consider Trump’s secretive and beta-submissive behavior toward Vladimir Putin, especially in Helsinki when he trashed our intelligence agencies and sucked up to Putin, and more recently with his red carpet in Alaska, and it’s impossible to ignore what this newest Epstein revelation implies.

If Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine is a direct or indirect result of things Trump did with Epstein, it’s naked treachery. Consider the pattern:… the Russian military targets … are not accidents of war. They’re the deliberate targeting of civilians, children, doctors, classrooms, apartment buildings, homes, and hospitals….

And all of this—the horror of what’s happening in plain sight that’s the clear result of Trump’s repeated and pathetic kowtowing to Putin—appears, from the Epstein emails, that it may be getting so much worse over the past 10 months because Putin took Epstein’s advice and threatened Donald Trump with exposure.

We still don’t know what was said in that room in Helsinki because Trump covered it up, making sure we’d never know. He ordered his American interpreter to move away from his private conversation with Putin, and afterward seized and destroyed her notes.

Similarly and more recently, in Alaska, Trump dismissed his aides and rode with Putin privately in his car where they engaged in another lengthy, secretive conversation.

That’s the behavior of a man with something to hide, who’s terrified by some horrible secret….

No meaningful value

Donald Trump's bonkers social media post about the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife.

If his people won't invoke the 25th Amendment, they should at least take away his cell phone

Kash Patel's terrible pre-mature victory lap in the Brown shooting

Eager to show he isn't the total screw-up most non-MAGA feel he is, Patel tweeted this yesterday to claim credit for the capture and arrest of THE WRONG GUY. No thanks to Patel, his false statement interrupted the investigation for the real killer who, at this writing, is still on the loose.

Doctor groups form united front against RFK Jr’s efforts to limit vaccine access

Doctors stand up to Bobby Jr.'s vaccine insanity

Liz Szabo, MA

Children will die if proposed changes to federal vaccine policy take effect, doctors warned today during a joint press conference with representatives from six leading health organizations.

Experts were responding to a vote by members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—all handpicked by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—to limit the use of hepatitis B vaccines in newborns, in spite of evidence that the shots prevent cancer and save lives.

“Children will acquire hepatitis B and die as a result of these recommendations,” said Aaron M. Milstone, MD, representing the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). “My colleagues or I, not a committee member, will be the ones supporting the parents of a dying child and trying to explain how they were let down and lost a child from a preventable infection.”

The ACIP recommended vaccinating all healthy newborns against hepatitis B at birth for 34 years, because mothers can pass the virus to infants during delivery. That recommendation helped to reduce the number of hepatitis B infections in children by 99%.

But last week, the ACIP voted to recommend a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine only for newborns whose mothers test positive for the virus or whose infection status is unknown. Mothers who aren’t infected with hepatitis B should discuss the risks and benefits with their health provider, the group advised. Babies who aren’t vaccinated against hepatitis at birth should wait at least 2 months for their first dose, the committee decided.

Experts note that blood tests aren’t always accurate, producing “false negative” results about 5% of the time.  About 90% of infants exposed to hepatitis B at birth develop a chronic, incurable infection that can lead to liver failure, liver cancer, and early death.

Babies and children also can be exposed after birth by family members. 

Research has shown that postponing an infected baby’s first dose of hepatitis vaccine by 2 months could could cause at least 1,400 preventable hepatitis B infections among children, 300 additional cases of liver cancer, 480 preventable deaths, and over $222 million in excess health care costs a year.

Amnesty Int'l says ALL deaths from Trump's boat attacks are murder, not just the slaughter of ship-wrecked survivors

‘All of Them Constitute Murder,’ Amnesty Says of Trump Boat Bombings

Brad Reed for Common Dreams

The Coast Guard demonstrates the correct,
legal way to make ocean drug arrests

Human rights organization Amnesty International is cautioning critics of the Trump administration’s boat-bombing spree against getting bogged down in the precise details of each individual strike if it means losing sight of the bigger picture.

Daphne Eviatar, director for security and human rights for Amnesty International USA, said that it would be a mistake to merely condemn the Trump administration for launching a double-tap strike aimed at killing shipwrecked survivors of an initial attack, because the entire campaign of bombing vessels based on the suspicion that they are carrying illegal narcotics is unlawful.

MIDNIGHT UPDATE on the Brown shooting

Deadly Brown Shooting Spurs Calls for Action on Guns

Jessica Corbett for Common Dreams

With at least two people dead, several others in critical but stable condition at Rhode Island Hospital, and a suspect at large after a Saturday shooting at Brown University in Providence, gun violence prevention advocates and some US lawmakers renewed calls for swift action to take on what the nonprofit Brady called “a uniquely American problem” that “is completely preventable.”

A suspect ("person of interest") was arrested just before 5 AM at a hotel in Coventry. Shelter in place orders were lifted at 7 AM. Tonight, he was identified as Benjamin Erickson, 24, from Wisconsin. Police say they found two handguns in his hotel room. NEW: Just after 11 PM, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and police officials held a unscheduled briefing to say that Erickson was being released, noting that it was unfortunate his name was released. That means there is NO suspect in custody and the killer is still on the loose.

“Our hearts are with the victims, survivors, their families, and the entire community of Brown University and the surrounding Providence area in this horrific time,” said Brady president Kris Brown in a statement. “As students prepare for finals and then head home to loved ones for the holidays, our all-too-American gun violence crisis has shattered their safety.”

“Guns are the leading cause of death for youth in this nation. Only in America do we live in fear of being shot and killed in our schools, places of worship, and grocery stores,” she continued. “Now, as students, faculty, and staff hide and barricade themselves in immense fear, we once again call on lawmakers in Congress and around the country to take action against this uniquely American public health crisis. We cannot continue to allow politics and special interests to take priority over our lives and safety.”

THIS is the misinformation posted by Trump just two
hours after the shooting. Local and university officials
scrambled to correct this malicious interference. At 6 PM, 
he posted a retraction that blamed Brown University 
police for having "reversed their previous statement."
There was no such previous statement.

Despite some early misinformation ➡, no suspects are in custody, and authorities were searching for a man in dark clothing. 

The law enforcement response is ongoing and Brown remains in lockdown, according to a 9:29 pm Eastern update on the university’s website. Everyone is urged to shelter in place, which “means keeping all doors locked and ensuring no movement across campus.”

The Ivy League university’s president, Christina H. Paxson, said in a public message that “this is a deeply tragic day for Brown, our families, and our local community. There are truly no words that can express the deep sorrow we are feeling for the victims of the shooting that took place today at the Barus & Holley engineering and physics building.”

US Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said on social media that he was “praying for the victims and their families,” and thanked the first responders who “put themselves in harm’s way to protect all of us.” He also echoed the city’s mayor, Brett Smiley, “in urging Rhode Islanders to heed only official updates from Brown University and the Providence Police.”

In a statement, US Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) also acknowledged everyone impacted by “this horrific, active, and unfolding tragedy,” and stressed the importance of everyone listening to law enforcement “as they continue working to ensure the entire campus and surrounding community is safe, and the threat is neutralized.”

The state’s two Democratic congressmen, Brown alumnus Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo, released similar statements. Amo also said that “the scourge of mass shootings is a horrific stain on our nation. We must seek policies to ensure that these tragedies do not strike yet another community and no more lives are needlessly taken from us.”

Elected officials at various levels of government across the country sent their condolences to the Brown community. Some also used the 389th US mass shooting this year and the 230th gun incident on school grounds—according to Brady’s president—to argue that, as US House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) put it, “it’s past time for us to act and stop senseless gun violence from happening again.”

New York City’s democratic socialist mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, noted that this shooting occurred just before the anniversary of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut:

This senseless violence—once considered unfathomable—has become nauseatingly normal to all of us across our nation. Tonight, on the eve of the anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting, we find ourselves in mourning once again.

The epidemic of gun violence stretches across America. We reckon with it when we step into our houses of worship and out onto our streets, when we drop our children off at kindergarten and when we fear if those children, now grown, will be safe on campus. But unlike so many other epidemics, we possess the cure. We have the power to eradicate this suffering from our lives if we so choose.

I send my deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and to the Brown and Providence communities, who are wrestling with a grief that will feel familiar to far too many others. May we never allow ourselves to grow numb to this pain, and let us rededicate ourselves to the enduring work of ending the scourge of gun violence in our nation.

Fred Guttenberg has been advocating against gun violence since his 14-year-old daughter was among those murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida nearly eight years ago. He said on social media that he knows two current students at Brown and asserted that “IT DOESN’T NEED TO BE THIS WAY!!!”

Students Demand Action similarly declared: “Make no mistake: We DO NOT have to live and die like this. Our lawmakers fail us every day that they refuse to take action on gun violence.”

Gabby Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman from Arizona who became an activist after surviving a 2011 assassination attempt, said that “my heart breaks for Brown University. Students should only have to worry about studying for finals right now, not hiding from gunfire. Guns are the leading cause of death for young people in America—this is a five-alarm fire and our leaders in Washington have ignored it for too long. Americans are tired of waiting around for Congress to decide that protecting kids matters.”

John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, warned that “we either take action, or we bury more of our kids.”

The Associated Press noted that “Rhode Island has some of the strictest gun laws in the US. Last spring the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed an assault weapon ban that will prohibit the sale and manufacturing of certain high-powered firearms, but not their possession, starting next July.”

Gun violence prevention advocates often argue for federal restrictions, given that, as Everytown’s latest analysis of state-level policies points out, “even the strongest system can’t protect a state from its neighbors’ weak laws.”

King Donald announces official Xmas ration