A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know.

Goodbye, meritocracy. Hello, Trump loyalty tests.

Trump may say he wants the best people, but he really just wants blind devotion.

Republicans desperately try to spin Trump's gross Epstein note

It’s not clear what’s more disgusting: the GOP’s lies or what they’re covering for.

'Communist' Mamdani is weathering right-wing attacks just fine

It probably helps that the other choices are pretty problematic.

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Cartoon: Minor changes

Make America Healthy Again, indeed.

What Trump means by the 'total protection' of prayer in schools

Trump wouldn’t recognize religious liberty if it slapped him in the face.

Mike Johnson sees nothing wrong with Trump’s police states

What could possibly go wrong?

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Another state is trying to rig more GOP seats in the next election

And in this case, there’s very little Democrats can do.

ICE is hell-bent on erasing all evidence of its lawless actions

ICE thinks it can make the rules.

Poor 'border czar' hates getting called out for ICE's racist tactics

We love to see the pushback.

Another day, another dump of really bleak jobs data

The numbers don’t lie.

Sign the petition: Stop the Trump administration from gutting climate protections

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