Raw Story

Rick Wilson, conservative pundit and "Never Trumper," offered a warning for President Donald Trump to take steps to turn his health around before it's too late.

On his podcast, "The Elephant in the Room," Wilson addressed Trump directly.

"Mortality comes for us all," Wilson warned. "It's going to come for me, it's going to come for everybody. It's going to come for you, too. They haven't swiftly developed enough miracles in medical science to not make you a guy who ate McDonald's every day for the last 30 years."

"The secret, Donald, is some people age with grace. And some people take care of themselves as they age. You have not."

On Thursday, the White House took the extraordinary step of addressing recent photos of Trump with a large bruise on his hand and swollen ankles. The diagnosis, according to press secretary Karoline Leavitt, is chronic venous insufficiency, which causes blood to pool in the veins.

Leavitt described the condition as "benign" and claimed, "The president remains in excellent health."

Wilson quipped that if Trump wants to let his health go, "a lot of Americans will not object."

He added, "I'd rather you leave office humiliated — head to prison after this is all over in some capacity — than having you die in office, honestly. But you might die in office if you don't start taking care of yourself."

"Donald, you're an old man now. You're almost 80. You're not that guy anymore. You're not that guy with Jeffrey Epstein 30 years ago chasing t--l in New York and Palm Beach. Lose the Big Macs, bro. I would lose them sooner than later. Filet-o-Fish is not your friend now."

Watch the podcast below via YouTube or click the link.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor unleashed fury on her conservative colleagues for their decision overruling a lower court and giving the Trump administration the go-ahead to significantly slash the workforce of the Department of Education.

"That decision is indefensible," she wrote on Monday.

"When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it," she continued.

"Two lower courts rose to the occasion, preliminarily enjoining the mass firings while the litigation remains ongoing. Rather than maintain the status quo, however, this Court now intervenes, lifting the injunction and permitting the Government to proceed with dismantling the Department. That decision is indefensible. It hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out. The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave. Unable to join in this misuse of our emergency docket, I respectfully dissent."

It was another decision along ideological lines with a 6-3 ruling.

According to Sotomayor, the Department of Education was established by Congress, and thus, only the legislative branch "has the power to abolish the Department.

Read the dissent here.

By Lee Ann Rawlins Williams, Clinical Assistant Professor of Education, Health and Behavior Studies, University of North Dakota.

The devastating losses from the historic flooding in Texas Hill Country on July 4, 2025, are still coming into grim focus, with more than 130 deaths confirmed and more than 160 still missing as of July 14.

As emergency responders focus on clearing debris and searching for victims, a less visible and slower disaster has been unfolding: the need for ongoing mental health support long after headlines fade.

This phase is no less critical than restoring power or rebuilding bridges. Disasters destabilize emotional well-being, leaving distress, prolonged recovery and long-term impacts in their wake long after the event is over.

Without sustained emotional support, people and communities face heightened risks of prolonged trauma and stalled recovery.

As an educator and practitioner focused on disability and rehabilitation, I explore the intersection of disaster recovery and the impact of disasters on mental health. Both my research and that of others underscore the vital importance of support systems that not only help people cope in the immediate aftermath of a disaster but also facilitate long-term healing over the months and years that follow — especially for vulnerable populations like children, older adults and people with disabilities.

Emotional toll of disasters

Natural disasters disrupt routines, displace families and challenge people’s sense of control and security. In the immediate aftermath, survivors often experience shock, grief, anxiety and sleep disturbances. Often these symptoms may evolve into chronic stress, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or a combination of these conditions.

A 2022 study found that Texans who experienced two or more disasters within a five-year span had significantly poorer mental health, as reflected by lower scores on standardized psychological assessments, which highlights the cumulative toll repeated disasters can have on mental well-being.

After Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005, nearly a third of survivors continued to experience poor mental health years later.

And reports following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017 revealed surging rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, especially in areas where services remained unavailable for extended periods of time.

Strained recovery systems

Disaster response understandably focuses on immediate needs like rescue operations, providing post-disaster housing and repairing damaged infrastructure. In addition, short-term mental health supports such as mobile health clinics are often provided in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.

However, although emergency services are deployed quickly after a disaster, long-term mental health support is often delayed or under-resourced, leaving many people without continued care during the recovery period, especially in remote or rural communities, exposing deep structural gaps in how recovery systems are designed.

One year after Hurricane Harvey devastated parts of Texas in 2017, more than 90% of Gulf Coast residents reported ongoing stress related to housing instability, financial hardship or displacement. Yet less than 10% of people stated that they or someone in their household had used mental health services following the disaster.

Hurricane Helene in 2024 similarly tested the resilience of rural mental health networks in western North Carolina. The storm damaged roads and bridges, schools and even local clinics.

This prompted a news organization, North Carolina Health News, to warn of rising “trauma, stress and isolation” among residents as providers scrambled to offer free counseling despite legal barriers stemming from licensing requirements to provide counseling across state borders.

State health officials activated community crisis centers and helplines, while mobile mental health teams were dispatched from Tennessee to help those impacted by the disaster. However, state representatives stressed that without long-term investment, these critical supports risk being one-off responses.

These events serve as a powerful reminder that while roads and buildings can often be restored quickly, emotional recovery is a slower, more complex process. Truly rebuilding requires treating mental health with the same urgency as physical infrastructure. This requires investing in strong mental health recovery systems, supporting local clinics, sustaining provider networks and integrating emotional care into recovery plans from the start.

Finding mental health support

Lessons learned from previous disasters and an abundance of research show how sustained mental health supports can help people recover and build resilience.

These six lessons are particularly helpful for finding needed mental health support following a disaster:

• If you’re feeling overwhelmed after a disaster, you’re not alone, and help is available. Free and confidential support is offered through resources like the Disaster Distress Helpline (1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746), which connects you to trained counselors 24/7.
• Many communities offer local mental health crisis lines or walk-in centers that remain active well after the disaster passes. Check your county or state health department’s website for updated listings and information.
• Even if physical offices are closed, many clinics now offer virtual counseling or can connect you with therapists and medication refills remotely. If you’ve seen someone before, ask if they’re still available by phone or video.
• After major disasters, states often deploy mobile health clinics that include mental health services to shelters, churches or schools. These temporary services are free and open to the public.
• If someone you care about is struggling, help them connect with resources in the community. Share hotline numbers, offer to help make an appointment or just let them know it’s OK to ask for support. Many people don’t realize that help is available, or they think it’s only for more “serious” problems. It’s not.
• Mental health support doesn’t always arrive right away. Keep an eye on local news, school updates or health department alerts for new services that may become available in the weeks or months after a disaster.

Disasters don’t just damage buildings; they disrupt lives in lasting ways.

While emotional recovery takes time, support is available. Staying informed and sharing resources with others can help ensure that the road to recovery isn’t traveled alone.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) was routed in a shock upset last month when Democrats rejected him in the primary for mayor of New York City, in favor of the young democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani, who is running on a platform of freezing rent, expanding free bus service, and creating public grocery stores in food deserts.

After weeks of relative silence from Cuomo, however, he announced Monday that he is remaining in the race and will run on a separate party line in the general election, alongside scandal-plagued incumbent mayor Eric Adams and the pro-Trump Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

"Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably knew that the Democratic primary did not go the way I had hoped," said Cuomo in his announcement video posted to X. "To the 440,000 New Yorkers who voted for me, a sincere thank you. Thank you for believing in me, in my agenda, and in my experience. And I am truly sorry that I let you down. But as my grandfather used to say, when you get knocked down, learn the lesson and pick yourself back up and get in that game, and that is what I'm going to do."

Even before Cuomo's video dropped, reports that he would stay in the race had already drawn criticism.

"Andrew Cuomo an un-evolved desperate man searching for meaning in all the wrong places," wrote former New York state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi.

"True to form, Andrew Cuomo once again refuses to accept that no means no," wrote state assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest, referencing allegations of sexual misconduct against the former governor.

As soon as the video dropped, it was overshadowed in likes and shares by Mamdani, who replied to the post with a link to his campaign donation page.

"NO MEANS NO. Go away, you gargoyle faced bully," wrote state Sen. Gustavo Rivera.

"Translation: Cuomo is so desperate to prevent a rent freeze that he actually set foot on the streets of New York. Get this jabroni out of New York politics for good!" wrote the account for the activist network Adbusters.

"Took three weeks to edit out passersby shouting 'Go f--- yourself'" wrote satirical political cartoonist Eli Valley.

"Honestly, what do Democrats say about the purpose and utility of the primary process now?" wrote Bernie Sanders' political adviser and More Perfect Union founder Faiz Shakir. "In New York, we're yielding the entire 'process' over to billionaires' whims. Fight Oligarchy."

Watch Cuomo's announcement video below or at the link here.

President Donald Trump has declared his intention to campaign on the deeply unpopular "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," which one analyst said should be an ominous sign for how he views next year's midterm elections.

Both the president and the domestic policy legislation he pressured Republicans to pass are unpopular with voters, but Salon columnist Heath Digby Parton said his midterm strategy was only risky insofar as next year's elections are free and fair.

"Trump is a man with an unprecedented track record of trying to overturn elections," Parton wrote. "There was a time when many Americans thought his behavior following the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was so egregious that he should be prosecuted and, at the very least, never be allowed near elective office again. Those days are long past, and Trump’s return to the presidency has emboldened him."

"While his decimation of any semblance of Justice Department independence is troubling," she added, it’s downright spine-chilling when it comes to elections."

The president has an eager and obliging attorney general in Pam Bondi, and her deputies are his former personal lawyers, and Trump has tasked them with rooting out the types of election fraud that he has baselessly claimed cost him the 2020 contest – which Parton says could give him to pretext to tamper with future results.

"Back in March, he signed an executive order requiring voters to present proof of citizenship to vote and all ballots to be received by election day, not simply postmarked as many states allow," Parton wrote. "He also called on states to share voter lists and prosecute election crimes, threatening to pull federal funding if they refuse. Ostensibly to prevent fraud, he ordered states to cease using barcode or QR code in the vote counting process, which would bar many jurisdictions from using voting machines. Trump and his minions fatuously insisted this was being done to restore faith in the electoral process — faith that was shaken by his 'Big Lie.'"

Those orders are being challenged in court, but the Justice Department continues to follow up on his directives, and Parton said that uncertainty could give Trump and his Republican allies space to tamper with election outcomes they don't like.

"All of this was foreshadowed by Project 2025, which laid out plans to create unprecedented federal interference in the way elections are managed," she wrote. "Based on Trump’s behavior and how closely he and the administration are following the Project 2025 blueprint, it’s not paranoid to expect, at minimum, court challenges to midterm election results in races that would shift the balance of power. And I wouldn’t bet too much money on the courts being as straightforwardly dismissive as they were the last time."

Parton expects Republicans to appeal losing results all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which could cast congressional majorities in doubt until the 2028 presidential election is already underway.

"The midterms are only 16 months away, which is both a short time and an eternity," Parton wrote. "When it comes Trump’s thirst for absolute power and penchant for corruption makes it clear: Vigilance is a necessity."

More than three months after a federal judge threatened to hold representatives of the Donald Trump administration in contempt for delaying an order to halt deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants, the case remains stalled with no explanation, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

“It’s very unusual,” Stephen Vladeck, law professor at Georgetown University, told the Times. “An appeals court may need hours or days to figure out an administrative stay, but it doesn’t need weeks and certainly not months.”

The case stems from an emergency order in March by Judge James Boasberg, who instructed the Trump administration to halt flights deporting more than 100 Venezuelans to El Salvador. Alleged to have ties to the Venezuelan street gang Tren de Aragua, the migrants were mid-flight when Boasberg ordered the planes turned around.

According to a DOJ whistleblower's account, the deportations went forward despite the order. Boasberg pressed the DOJ for weeks in an effort to determine whether the administration had deliberately ignored his ruling and, on April 16, warned that the government would either need to provide the deported individuals with due process or face a contempt investigation that could result in criminal charges.

Two days later, however, an appeals court issued an administrative stay pausing Boasberg’s proceedings, with the court having taken no action since.

“Justice (Amy Coney) Barrett said administrative stays could be problematic because they can be issued quickly and without delving into the merits of a case,” wrote Alan Feuer with the New York Times Tuesday. “If left to linger, she suggested, they could be used as a way to freeze a case in place without discussing any of its underlying facts.”