The Rational National Jun 1, 2026 Political commentators Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur have both been banned from the UK, apparently over their criticisms of the Israeli government. I break down what we know, their reactions, and past comments. Time Stamps: 00:00 Intro 03:09 Corbyn & Polanski react 03:57 Hasan Piker at Oxford Union 06:06 Cenk’s 2025 defence 08:29 Cenk’s reaction to ban 11:23 What they did 14:24 Hasan’s reaction 16:06 Rightwing reaction
Give Dangerous Donald credit. Coming off the floor of his 2020 defeat, under several federal and state indictments, a convicted felon, accused by over sixty women of sexual abuse or worse, his endorsed candidates having lost in the 2022 elections, the Trump business brand wilting along with his polls, Trump displayed more vengeful energy and cunning than the entire feeble, defeatist Democratic Party apparatus. He roared back against all odds in 2024 as an elected dictator to implement his declaration that he “can do whatever I want as president.”
Trump’s wrecking, endangering, and weakening of America worsens by the day, as he doubles down and calls his critics “deranged,” “demented,” “wackos,” “weak,” “low-IQ,” “crazy,” and “treasonous.” Moreover, his vicious expletives expand by the day.
However, the tide is finally turning against the failed gambling Czar and Netanyahu dittohead. Trump’s relentless greed is starting to undermine his dwindling support, despite his control of the Republican primaries. The headlines tell the story of his decline, and not just in the polls, with approval ratings down to 35%. The majority of Americans polled—nearing 60%—want him impeached and removed from office. This demand comes without the backing of the Democratic Party leadership, still skittish about mounting an Impeachment Drive. The case for Impeachment is aided and abetted daily by Trump’s outrages.
Now comes the headline, “A tough week for Trump on Capitol Hill, as Republicans deal him setbacks” (Washington Post, May 23, 2026) that must worry Trump. The $1.8 billion slush fund for violent, convicted felons and immunity for Trump and his extended family from IRS audits and enforcement proved too much for Trump lackey Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). At the same time, Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a crook impeached by his own Party in the Texas House, an adulterer under suit by his wife for divorce (see the Postarticle of May 19, 2026) over former judge, Sen. John Cornyn, popular with the Senate GOP. Earlier, Trump came out against Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), helping Cassidy lose the primary. To Thune and allies, a president coming out against his own incumbents is treachery.
So, the water in the Senate GOP’s cauldron may be starting to boil. They know about Nixon’s experience in 1974 coming off winning 49 out of 50 states in the 1972 election. With Nixon’s polls sinking after the Watergate scandal (a quaintly modest one-time crime, compared to Trump’s hundreds of continuing scandals), the Congressional GOP saw itself sinking in the 1974 elections. A delegation of GOP Senators went to the White House and told Nixon, “Mr. President, your time is up.” Nixon resigned days later.
One can envision something similar today. Trump is an unstable lame duck outlaw, including violating congressional authorities. Republicans have to face the voters in November. They are likely to lose the House. The Senate has 20 Republican Senators up for election compared to only 12 Democrats. They have a three-vote margin now. Trump, given his economy, his chosen wars, his unrestrained greed and self-enrichment, is making prospects of a Democratic win in the Senate more possible.
Had the Democrats not ceded half the states (the red states) to the Republicans decades ago, leaving behind remnants of their organized presence, almost all the Republican Senators running this year could be at risk. Instead, only about six have competitive races—thank you, obtuse Democratic Party.
In any event, most politicians, however servile they may have been to a President, prefer saving their own political skins to falling on their swords for an unpopular president losing his cognitive grip and voter sensitivity by the day. (See the April 30, 2026 statement from medical professionals in the Congressional Record – “Medical Concerns About President Donald J. Trump and His Fitness For Office.” Do you know any other president who would say “I don’t care about the financial condition of Americans” in the midst of surging inflation, rising food, health care, rental, and gasoline prices? A president who is using the White House to massively enrich himself and his family. (See Cashing in on the presidency: here).
Unless Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer open the Party to input from labor and advocacy groups to help sharpen a stronger, authentically advanced agenda (Compact for America, anyone?), the Democrats may eke out a 51 to 49 win, with erratic John Fetterman (D-PA) playing the role of Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) as the swing vote. This will give the tie-breaking power to Vice President J.D. Vance.
One slim ray of hope: TheWashington Post reported on May 17, 2026, that “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) has directed the chamber’s Democratic policy committee to host listening sessions with members, with voters and with advocacy groups to inform a party-wide agenda…”
Even if you don’t believe Jeffries, rush through that open door with your proposals, as we will with the recommendations of 24 civic leaders (see winningamerica.net). My winning get-out-the-vote agenda is there as well. (See my column: “Somersaulting Voters: Stopping Rabid Gerrymandering,” May 15, 2026).
Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate and the author of “The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future” (2012). His new book is, “Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lies and Lawbreaking Betray All” (2020, co-authored with Mark Green).
KQED News May 27, 2026 Political Breakdown With one week until voting ends in California’s June primary, Democratic candidate for governor Tom Steyer sold himself as a populist who will use his experience in finance to squeeze more out of corporations and help average Californians with rising costs. Steyer, one of the race’s three leading candidates, is a former hedge fund manager who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars of his fortune in recent years pushing progressive causes, including fighting climate change, opposing President Trump and, now, running for governor. At a KQED town hall Tuesday night, he returned to his campaign’s central theme of affordability. Steyer fielded questions from both the audience and KQED’s Guy Marzorati. It was the third in a series of town hall events KQED hosted with top-polling candidates for governor this election season.
This online forum watch party features activists who will discuss how predatory behavior by the leader of the United Farm Workers was hidden for decades and how organizations can prevent such tragedies.
Speakers: Desirèe Rojas – labor organizer and daughter of UFW cofounder Albert Rojas; Martha Cotera – a leader of La Raza Unida Party in the 1970s (Austin); Yolanda Alaniz – former farmworker and historian of UFW (Los Angeles); Yuisa Alegria-Gimeno – queer feminist and LA County worker
An urgent protest is called for Sunday, May 31 in San Francisco against a likely U.S. military attack on Cuba. Already, 5 months of a total oil blockade has devastated the economy, causing unprecedented suffering for the people. The recent indictment of Raul Castro by the United States Department of Justice is a shameful injustice and pretext for an unprovoked war on Cuba.
Now is the time to stand together and stop this war before it starts. Join us in San Francisco! Bring your signs and banners!
5. Monday, 8:00am – 12Noon, Court Support for Stop AI Activist
Court House 400 McAllister (Dept. 503) SF
Support activist Wynd Kaufmyn who is being tried for non-violent civil disobedience against Sam Altman’s company OpenAI. Come to SF City Hall for Press Conference and walk across the street to SF Superior Courthouse at 400 McAllister St, Dept. 503 for Trial. Wear red or come with signs! There will be a sign-making station and a table to leave signs during the trial if you want to keep them.
In a historic, first-of-its-kind trial, a member of the group StopAI is facing charges for blockading the doors of OpenAI. OpenAI’s product, ChatGPT, has already been implicated in user suicides and mass shootings, demonstrating its potential for lethal harm. Mass layoffs, AI psychosis, war crimes, dystopian levels of surveillance, and loss of human control are growing threats from AI likely to culminate in catastrophic global harms.
Wynd asserts her actions were necessary to prevent imminent harm from OpenAI’s reckless development of AI. The necessity defense was used in 2018 when a Boston Municipal Judge acquitted 13 climate activists who blocked a fracked gas pipeline. The judge found the activists not guilty on the basis of necessity. Wynd needs support to establish this precedent for AI.
7. Tuesday, 8:00am – 10:00am, No More Genocide! Protest at Microsoft Conference
Fort Mason Center SF
RALLY AGAINST MICROSOFT CONFERENCE Tuesday, June 2nd 8 AM Fort Mason Center, San Francisco
No Azure for Apartheid, the campaign by current and former Microsoft workers against Microsoft’s cloud and AI contracts with the Israeli military and government, is mobilizing on June 2nd for a community rally against Microsoft Build conference!
Microsoft is expecting a few thousand attendees to show up to this conference where they plan to showcase their latest cloud and AI developments, all while those same technologies are sold as digital weapons to the Israeli military and government to fuel occupation, apartheid, and genocide. The speakers for this event include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as well as former IOF soldiers giving talks about cloud and AI throughout the event. Let’s turn up and show Microsoft that there will be no business as usual while Microsoft and its execs have blood on their hands!
NO TECH FOR GENOCIDE! IOF OFF AZURE! DIGITAL ARMS EMBARGO NOW!
California is preparing to share DMV records through a third-party database system, potentially exposing sensitive personal information to federal agencies, including ICE and the Trump administration.
This plan puts all our data at risk, especially immigrants, trans people, and anyone who could be targeted because of their identity or because they disagree with the administration.
The shared data will include whether a driver has a Social Security number, which could be used to compile bulk lists of undocumented drivers and their addresses. This data sharing would shatter California’s decade-long promise to protect the personal information of more than one million immigrant drivers.
Join Bay Resistance and community partners as we demand transparency, privacy protections, and a firewall around Californians’ personal data.
9. Thursday, 4:00pm – 6:00pm, Tell Target to Stand Up To ICE!
Metreon Target:
789 Mission Street. Meet on the sidewalk by the Mission Street entrance. SF
Tell Target: We will boycott until they Stand Up To ICE!
Join us to say: Until Target acts to protect its workers and guests from ICE, we will not shop at Target! We will hold signs, hand out flyers, and explain why we must all boycott Target until they Stand Up To ICE. Bring a sign if you have one.
Bank Warns Trump’s War Could Trigger Global Catastrophe by Raw America
Journalists unite to stop MAGA billionaire’s planned acquisition of CNN, Republican confronted by angry constituents at town hall, Murdoch paper blasts Trump’s corruption. Video and Read on Substack.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) said in a yet-to-be-published proposed rule Friday that it’s drawing up plans to radically crack down on mail voting by sending ballots only to voters who are registered with the federal government.
The proposed rule, which will be formally published next week, is an alarming step toward implementing President Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on mail voting ahead of the 2026 midterm election. And it would represent a massive expansion of federal control over voting, without congressional authorization.
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Trump signed a sweeping executive order in March that, in part, ordered the Postal Service to only send mail ballots to voters on lists created and controlled by the federal government.
The order is currently the subject of multiple lawsuits. USPS’s proposed rule came a day after a federal judge overseeing one of the lawsuits declined to block the order. The judge concluded the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the order since federal agencies had not yet taken steps to implement it.
Now, that appears to have changed.
USPS is moving forward with the order even though legal experts and voting rights organizations have warned that it is a blatantly unconstitutional attempt to restrict the right to vote and usurp states’ authority over elections.
Under the Constitution, states run elections and only Congress can set national standards.
The proposed rule would require state election officials to send USPS a list of voters who have requested a mail-in or absentee ballot at least 30 days before ballots are sent out under state law. If voters aren’t on the list, they will not receive a ballot.
It also allows state officials to make “supplemental submissions to enroll additional individuals or modify prior submissions until the last day that ballots may be mailed out to individuals under state law.”
In this way, that provision tacitly admits that it will lead to errors that need to be fixed, whether through “supplemental submissions” or modifying “prior submissions.”
Those errors, caused by a new federal government program that is not explicitly authorized by Congress, are precisely the kind of harm the plaintiffs challenging the executive order seek to prevent.
In their lawsuits, Democrats and voting-rights advocates argued that using USPS’s list, as well as other federal registration lists included in Trump’s order, would lead to eligible voters being unable to cast ballots. In part, that’s because the lists would rely on Department of Homeland Security databases that have been shown to have serious flaws.
USPS also said the names of mail voters would be associated with a “unique barcode” that is assigned to their ballot. It claimed that the barcode would “help determine adherence to federal law and facilitate law enforcement efforts.”
Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University and a former deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ), said in a social media post Friday that the proposed rule was a move toward Trump’s order being ruled unconstitutional.
“One step closer to standing, which means one step closer to an end to this charade,” Levitt said, referring to U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols’s ruling Thursday.
While Nichols did not necessarily disagree with Democrats and pro-voting groups that Trump’s order could be unlawful, he said they couldn’t show that they had been harmed by it because federal agencies hadn’t acted on the directives.
In fact, though he was rejecting the plaintiffs’ request for a permanent injunction against the order, Nichols specified that his decision was actually a message for the Trump administration to act in order to give the plaintiffs standing to sue.
“It is not aimed at [the plaintiffs] but instead tells only the agencies to do something,” Nichols, a Trump appointee, said of his decision.
The Postal Service did not immediately respond to Democracy Docket’s request for comment.
Friday was the deadline Trump included in his order for Postmaster General David Steiner to initiate a rulemaking process to formally implement the president’s mail voting restrictions.
In recent weeks, Steiner, who also serves as CEO of USPS, has met with other senior Trump administration and DOJ officials to discuss ways to implement the order.
This story has been updated with new details throughout.
San Francisco Public Press May 27, 2026 Civic JPhoto Credit: Michelle Liu Civic Special – San Franciscans will decide on June 2nd whether to tax corporations whose CEOs make 100 times the median salary of their lowest paid workers or raise a more modest tax on larger businesses. San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Lila LaHood moderated the discussion between David Harrison, Director of Public Policy For the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Kim Tavaglione, Executive Director of the San Francisco Labor Council at KALW radio’s public space in downtown San Francisco. Show Notes: June 2026 San Francisco Public Press Election Guide SFPublicPress.org Yes on D campaign San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Voter Guide
President Trump signing his mail voting executive order in the White House in March 2026. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)