How many of these richie-rich narcissists are there anyway? This unknown egomaniac who’s decided to make a name for himself as a Democratic Biden critic at a time of great peril for the country and the world is also a straight up kook: About two years before he launched a campaign to unseat President Joe Biden, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) was anxious to win something else from his future opponent: his attention. In November 2021, Biden traveled to the town of Rosemount, Minnesota—just south of St. Paul—for one of his first events touting the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law he had just signed. Traveling with Biden were Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), who represents Rosemount, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), who represents St. Paul, as well as the state’s two U.S. senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona was also on board. Phillips, who represents the western Minneapolis suburbs, did not travel to Minnesota with Biden, but was insistent on flying back to Washington with the president.
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They are in short supply in discussions of the war in Israel but they do exist I’m trying to feature commentary that I think adds to the conversation about this horrible situation. This piece is by two British politicians with skin in the game: Much has been said in the past three weeks about the tragedy of Israelis and Palestinians, not least in the Houses of Parliament. For us, it is deeply personal. We are the only two British MPs with parents who grew up in Israel and Palestine. Though we represent different political parties, this is not the first time we’ve worked together on this conflict. However, we feel this is the most urgent, and most important, intervention we have had to make. Israelis and Palestinians need support from their friends abroad, and our own communities here in the UK that are affected by the conflict need reassurance as the Middle East conflict spreads to the streets of the UK. We are concerned by how little space there is for nuance in parliament and in wider society on this issue.
The new Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on Hannity last night and made it clear that the impeachment inquiry onto Joe Biden is all systems go. Or is it? Philip Bump writes: The Hannity interview was useful in one sense. Johnson’s predecessor as speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), had approved the impeachment inquiry driven largely by Comer and Jordan. When McCarthy was ousted, it wasn’t clear what would happen. Johnson confirmed that it will move forward. Or perhaps it won’t. In late September, the impeachment inquiry held a hearing involving a handful of witnesses, none of whom could provide any evidence impugning Joe Biden or his son, by their own admissions. The 2019 impeachment of Donald Trump — probably the target of Johnson’s sniffy disparagement of “the other team” — had released its final report about three weeks after its first hearing (which was followed by four more days of hearings). The Biden “impeachment inquiry” has held no more hearings in the month since the first one. And, by his own admission, Comer doesn’t want to.
The Tanuki! The tanuki is a wild canid species native to Japan that is related to wolves, foxes, and domestic dogs. It’s also known as the Japanese raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus) and is a subspecies of the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) that’s found in mainland Asia. With its thick fur, masked face, and curious nature, the tanuki has served as a cultural icon in Japanese folklore for centuries. The bushy-tailed animal is known as a mischievous trickster that’s shown up in legends and myths as a shapeshifter with supernatural abilities. In popular culture, tanuki can be spotted in Nintendo video games and Studio Ghibli films. Here are eight little-known facts about this fascinating canid species. 1. Tanuki Are Not Related to Raccoons Despite their masked appearance, tanuki are not close relatives of the common raccoon, the famous species native to the United States. Tanuki belong to the Canidae family, alongside wolves and foxes. In contrast, the common raccoon shares more in common with mustelids, a family that includes weasels, badgers, and otters.
Family members of Al Jazeera Gaza Bureau chief die in IDF bombing The “wife, teenage son, daughter and grandson, and eight other members” of Al Jazeera bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh died Wednesday in an Israeli air strike on the the Nuseirat refugee camp in southern Gaza. The Israeli military said in a statement it had “targeted Hamas terrorist infrastructure in the area” without elaborating. Washington Post: In its statement, the Israel Defense Forces also said it had “been targeting military targets across the Gaza Strip. Strikes on military targets are subject to relevant provisions of international law, including the taking of feasible precautions to mitigate civilian casualties.” The journalist’s family had relocated south to an area the Israeli military had designated a safe zone.
Not Big Daddy’s ‘American carnage,’ is it? After Otis strengthened from a tropical storm to a Cat 5 hurricane in 24 hours before slamming into Acapulco on Wednesday, CNN’s Derek Van Dama called it “the new normal…. Climate change? The fingerprints written all over it.” Nope, climate change deniers will insist. After a suspected firearms instructor and Army reservist armed with an AR-style rifle murders 16 in Lewiston, Maine, injures dozens, and throws multiple communities into shelter-in-place lockdown, gunophiles will insist the problem isn’t easy access to guns either. The suspected shooter remains at large as I type this. Hannaford Supermarkets has closed all its stores in Maine until at least 10 a.m. L.L. Bean has closed its facilities across Maine as well. New York Times: The “34th mass killing” this year is the 565th mass shooting in the United States, defined by the Gun Violence Archive as “a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.
A Category 5 hurricane hit the city and nobody saw it coming OMG this is the Princess hotel in Acapulco. That’s some serious damage!!! 😫#HurricaneOtis #HurracanOtis #Otis #Acapulco #México pic.twitter.com/MWauoK1bbG — Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) October 25, 2023 Whoahhh! Jeeeze!! This video really shows how bad the situation is in Acapulco 😭💔 📹 Jorge Martíne#HurricaneOtis #HurracanOtis #Otis #Acapulco #Mexico pic.twitter.com/XboA3EYoCM — Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) October 25, 2023 I didn’t see one news report about any of that yesterday on cable. (I sure am glad I got to hear hour after hour of lying Republicans instead.) Anyway, it’s a good thing global warming is a hoax or this sort of thing might be a problem: Hurricane Otis, a tropical storm that strengthened suddenlyinto the most powerful cyclone known to have hit Mexico’s Pacific Coast,slammed into the tourist resort of Acapulco on Wednesday and battered nearby beach communities. The hurricane’s 165-mph winds shattered windows, rattled tall buildings and snapped power and telephone lines.
The new Speaker of the House is a Christian Right extremist. A sage Dem texts, basically: Repubs are gonna elevate a speaker who tried to overthrow the election and backs an abortion ban – the two issues we won on in 2022 “What are they thinking ?” — Jonathan Martin (@jmart) October 25, 2023 Throw in entitlements and it’s basically every gross rating point Dems have bought in last few elections — Jonathan Martin (@jmart) October 25, 2023 He was a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund for 20 years: The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian practices within public schools and in government, outlaw abortion, and curtail the rights of LGBTQ people. ADF is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with branch offices in Washington, D.C., and New York, among other locations. Its international subsidiary, Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, operates in over 100 countries.
It’s hard to find anything to say about this anymore. A disturbed man takes up one of his easily obtained semi-automatic weapons and mows down a bunch of innocent people. The gun proliferation zealots instantly call for more guns and better mental health. Oh, and thoughts and prayers. It never, ever, changes and I have come to believe that we are now addicted to the cycle of violence as some sort of primitive cleansing ritual. It makes no rational sense. This latest shooter reportedly had mental illness and was hearing voices. According to some reports about his social media, he was also a right winger. Surprise. It also sounds like he and his family are gun extremists. Maybe this guy is lying, but it tracks:
Say it ain’t so! Trump in 2018: “You look at GDP at 3.2 percent, we’re doing so well… Nobody would have believed it” GDP just hit 4.9 percent under @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/5w0TZm9tjU — Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) October 26, 2023 Not counting the gyrations of the pandemic period, it is stronger economic growth than any quarter of the pre-Covid Trump presidency and stronger than any quarter since 2014. https://t.co/xkPejz7Stw https://t.co/0xm4sJ5sPS — Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) October 26, 2023 I guess I’m past hoping that people will ever “feel” that the economy has improved as long as the price of eggs is higher than it was in 2010. But honestly, I think that Trump’s ongoing presence in our political culture makes his followers gleefully pretend that the world has gone to hell since he left office and the rest of us are just depressed and enervated by the relentless chaos he causes. Still, the news is true. The economy is rolling and the relentless doom saying over the past couple of years, predicting an imminent recession, remains wrong.