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Any more like Massie on the back bench? Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) is still working to secure enough votes to re-up his speakership despite the endorsement of the president-elect. The House votes to elect a speaker for the 119th Congress at noon today (Friday). With the GOP’s razor-thin margin, more than two defections can sink him. The Hill: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) affirmed his decision to not support Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) in the Speaker’s race, even if his colleague Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) would land a top spot on the House Rules Commitee. Massie was asked by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a new host on One America News Network, if he would vote for Johnson if Roy would become the chairman of the influential committee. “Oh no. You can pull all my fingernails out, you can shove bamboo up in them, you can start cutting off my fingers,” Massie responded late Thursday. “I am not voting for Mike Johnson tomorrow, and you can take that to the bank,” he told his former colleague.
Doctor Who has had a "big bad" lurking in the background for twenty years. Villengard creator Steven Moffat on its accidental emergence.
“New year, new you,” they say. Well, Project 2025 is going to make what’s new actually really fucking old. Like listeria- and child labor-old. The country went for some Grover Cleveland shit, and you know what? We, the People, can play that game. This New Year, it’s time to roll back the clock and become the worst version of yourself.
It’s going to be so much easier than coming up with strategies for self-improvement. Those Heritage Foundation guys were kind enough to show us how, and it turns out all you really need to do is stop trying.
Toss out the Department of Education and start homeschooling your kids because, under your roof, they won’t be forced to learn about pronouns or how to read. And thinking about the benefits of immigrant labor is complicated, so we might as well assume they’re all criminals and get on board with mass deportations. Your community might suffer, but community is overrated. What’s it ever done for you?
As he prepares to retire from journalism, James Risen warns of press missteps in the Trump era.
The post Media’s Biggest Failures appeared first on The Intercept.
As he prepares to retire from journalism, James Risen warns of press missteps in the Trump era.
The post Media’s Biggest Failures appeared first on The Intercept.
The Albanese government is spending almost a billion dollars to bolster Australia’s dominant position in the region and lock out Chinese influence.
The post Australia spends big to keep China out of region first appeared on Solidarity Online.
He’s itching to do it The Republicans in Congress are also very, very thirsty for a shooting war. Normally, they’d be agitating for something in the middle east, maybe China, maybe even Ukraine. But since Trump took over they have to pretend that they’re pacifist isolationists. So Mexico it is, at least at first. I wrote about this earlier, based on a lot of reporting by Rolling Stone. They are taking about a “soft invasion” in which they drop in Special Forces to “take out” the leaders of the cartels. (The other option is an actual invasion force at the border.) They just published an update: Rolling Stone talked to half a dozen former special operations soldiers and intelligence agents to see what this saber-rattling might look like in practice. On paper, they argued it was an easy operation to dismantle the cartel leadership, something that our military — particularly units like SEAL Team Six and Delta Force — has mastered after two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. To a man, all said they’d volunteer for the mission.
The Louisiana Republican blamed “wokeness” in part for police’s failure to stop the New Orleans attack that left 15 dead.
The post Steve Scalise Knows Exactly What Led to the Bourbon Street Attack: DEI Initiatives appeared first on The Intercept.
The mass murder in New Orleans and Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas fit a troubling pattern among U.S. vets, research says.
The post U.S. Military Service Is the Strongest Predictor of Carrying Out Extremist Violence appeared first on The Intercept.
Chief Justice John Roberts is mad as a hornet about all the criticism: Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday blasted what he called “illegitimate activity” aimed at undermining the independence of the judiciary. While facing criticism of contentious court rulings is part of the job for judges, some recent actions have crossed the line, Roberts said in his annual end-of-year report. He outlined four areas of concern: violence, intimidation, disinformation and threats to defy court judgments. All four “undermine our Republic, and are wholly unacceptable,” Roberts wrote. It’s pretty clear from the report that what he’s really angry about is the criticism that some of the Justices are corrupt and partisan. But it’s also highly unlikely that he’s talking about Trump who calls them every name in the book if they rule in a way he doesn’t ‘t like.
This is terrifying: This is even more terrifying: The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 was one of President Joe Biden’s chief legislative victories and the largest investment to fight the climate crisis in U.S. history. Trump and congressional Republicans have taken aim at the law to unwind much of Biden’s legacy and spur domestic fossil fuel production. Among the moves that could raise revenue: revoking the law’s $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit, new vehicle emissions rules and other incentives for clean energy production. Trump and the GOP could also green-light a major expansion of energy production on protected federal lands. Together, the CRFB projected, that could produce $700 billion in cost savings and new revenue over the next decade. One step forward two steps back. It’s a terrible, terrible mistake but I’m fairly sure this will be a priority.
The resemblance isn’t just a comical coincidence
The post Why Do Some People Look Like Their Dogs? appeared first on Nautilus.
More infighting in MAGAworld: Billionaire Trump surrogate Elon Musk defended his decision to strip critics of their ability to monetize content on X after cracking down on dissent on the social network. Responding to a supporter who defended “people getting demonetized for their inexcusable behavior,” Musk declared, “Exactly. The first amendment is protection for ‘free speech’, not ‘paid speech’ ffs.” He demonetized people who criticized him specifically. I don’t know why anyone would be too surprised by that. He’s essentially an employer of people making money on X and employers have every right to muzzle speech on the job. Of course he did that. All you have to do is read his Twitter feed to see what an onanistic, self-indulgent, narcissist he is. In any case, his “free speech” crusade is very contingent on whose speech should be protected, not what or where. He likes to have it both ways.
Simon Wren-Lewis is one of many mainstream economists who staunchly defend the idea that having microfoundations for macroeconomics moves macroeconomics forward. A couple of years ago he wrote this: I think the two most important microfoundation led innovations in macro have been intertemporal consumption and rational expectations … [T]he adoption of rational expectations was not […]