WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Stating, “I can see where this is going,” on Wednesday Donald J. Trump fled to Argentina, vowing never to return.
Speaking bitterly to reporters as he departed the White House, Trump said, “You take away people’s food, throw yourself a Great Gatsby party, and tear down the White House, and this is the thanks you get.”
Trump had hoped to leave the US on the luxury 747 given him by the Emir of Qatar, but once Tuesday’s election results became clear the Arab ruler swiftly withdrew the gift.
In a tersely worded statement, the Emir declared, “Fly coach, loser.”
In Buenos Aires, Trump was greeted by an angry anti-immigrant mob.
– CEO Musk might quit if investors vote down $878 billion pay package this week, board says
– Many shareholders believe only Musk can deliver on promises of robotaxis, robots
– Some investors, experts warn of risks in staking Tesla’s future on one leader
LOS ANGELES, Nov 5 (Reuters) – Tesla’s (TSLA.O), opens new tab board of directors has pushed in all its chips on Elon Musk. Now investors must decide whether to back the biggest bet in company history.
Shareholders will vote Thursday on the stark choice presented by the board: pay Musk up to $878 billion in company stock or take the risk he will leave – potentially driving down the company’s stock. The decision, experts say, amounts to a referendum on whether traditional corporate-governance rules apply to the world’s richest man. […]
[…]“The president is very keyed into what’s going on, and he recognizes, like anybody, that it takes time to do an economic turnaround, but all the fundamentals are there, and I think you’ll see him be very, very focused on prices and cost of living,” Blair [White House deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs James Blair] said during an interview Wednesday. […]
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday she pressed charges against a man who groped her on the street Tuesday.
A video of the incident circulating on social media shows a man approach Sheinbaum from behind, put his arm around her and kiss her on the neck. [The man also ran his hands over her chest.] Another man, later identified by Sheinbaum as her aide, Juan José Ramírez Mendoza, intervened.
[…] Mexico’s first female president, said the man appeared intoxicated and she did not realize what had occurred until Ramírez Mendoza stepped in.
The Mexican leader added that she decided to press charges because “this is something that I experienced as a woman, but also we as women experience in our country.” She noted that she experienced similar harassment while using public transportation when she was 12 years old.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada said on the social platform X on Tuesday evening that the man was arrested by the country’s Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection.
[…] Sheinbaum also called on states to improve safeguards for women to report assaults saying that “women’s personal spaces must not be violated.”
In 2021, 49.7 percent of women ages 15 and older in Mexico reported they had experienced sexual violence at some point in their life […]
For six years, the European Union’s efforts to fight climate change have been on an upward swing. That came to an end on Wednesday morning in messy, exhausted scenes.
After a marathon meeting that ran through Tuesday night and eventually ended a little after 9 a.m. the next morning, a majority of the bloc’s 27 governments agreed on new targets to cut pollution — but only by weakening existing laws and slowing domestic efforts designed to cut down on that very same pollution.
The compromise was met with relief by many countries and European Commission officials, who had feared an embarrassing collapse that would have hamstrung the EU on the eve of the COP30 U.N. climate talks in Brazil starting Thursday.
But it also underscored a swing in political momentum. After half a decade of green victories on climate policy, a much more skeptical group of countries and parties now has the upper hand.
[…] Ministers also agreed on a target for 2035 — a requirement under the terms of the 2015 Paris Agreement that was due to be delivered earlier this year in advance of the COP30 talks. The ministers were unable to agree to a single number, instead promising a nonbinding cut between 66.25 and 72.5 percent.
The final deal on the binding 2040 goal came up short of the 90 percent cut in domestic pollution below 1990 levels, which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had made the key green pledge in her reelection campaign.
Instead, ministers on Wednesday agreed an 85 percent cut in domestic emissions by 2040. Governments intend to achieve the remaining 5 percentage points by paying other countries to reduce pollution on the bloc’s behalf, a system of purchases known as carbon credits.
[…] Poland was one of the key holdouts and ultimately refused to vote in favor of the target even though it was granted a delay […]
Poland was accused of holding hostage the 2035 climate target, which needed unanimous support, over the delay on ETS2, said three diplomats involved in the negotiations.
[…] even with that concession, the target was still the lowest level of ambition. “We were forced to accept the lower end of the range to prevent certain countries from blocking this agreement,” said Monique Barbut, the French environment minister. […]
Re @ 12
Trump could not get a decent nickname for Newsom. He could have gone for Nasty Newsom, Neggy Newsom or Nihilist Newsom, N is the easiest letter of all to find slurs that go with it.
Also, it is time to put pressure on the more amorphous Democrats in DC to live up to the new higher expectations, or get primaried.
It is no longer enough to be slightly less bad as the others.
“To understand this week’s results as nothing more than “a couple of elections in blue states” is to miss the importance of what actually happened.”
After a dominating Democratic performance in the 2025 elections, some Republicans have grudgingly acknowledged reality. “Last night was a disaster,” Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told Fox News. “It was an electoral blowout.” The GOP senator added that his party would be wise to see the results as “a warning sign.”
It was a warning sign, however, that some other Republicans preferred to overlook. In fact, many leading GOP partisans settled on the same talking point: There’s little to be learned, some Republicans said, from Democrats winning elections in blue states.
“I watched very closely,” Donald Trump told Fox News the day after the elections. “These are three pretty Democrat [sic] states.” House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed a similar line during a Capitol Hill press conference a few hours earlier, telling reporters, “What happened last night is blue states and blue cities voted blue.”
Predictably, JD Vance joined the chorus. The New Republic noted:
Vice President JD Vance has finally reacted to the significant Democratic victories in Tuesday’s election, downplaying the wins while also mimicking the rhetoric of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in his diagnosis of the GOP’s election night failures. ‘I think it’s idiotic to overreact to a couple of elections in blue states,’ Vance wrote in a post on X rather condescendingly.
These reactions aren’t altogether surprising. Every time Democrats have a great election cycle, Republicans scramble to downplay the results and reject the idea of changing the GOP’s direction. (See 2006, 2008, 2018, 2020, et al.)
But that doesn’t make the analyses accurate.
Vance’s reference to “a couple of elections,” for example, likely referred to Democratic victories in Virginia’s and New Jersey’s gubernatorial elections. What the Ohio Republican neglected to mention was the scope of the Democratic wins — Govs.-elect Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill cruised to double-digit wins, outpacing the polls and the party’s recent performances in the same states — coupled with downballot successes, including flipping state legislative seats.
Just as significant, though, were the party’s successes in contests outside blue states.
In Mississippi, a state Trump won easily three times, Democrats were able to break the GOP’s supermajority in the state Senate. In Pennsylvania, a state Trump won twice, Republicans invested heavily to make gains on the state Supreme Court, but voters kept the Democratic majority intact.
Even in Georgia, where Democrats haven’t won a nonfederal statewide race in almost two decades, Democratic candidates successfully — and easily — defeated two Republican members of the state’s utility board.
[…] to see this week’s results as little more than “a couple of elections in blue states” is to miss the importance of what actually happened.
Around this time three years ago, Rep. Nancy Pelosi did something unexpected: The California Democrat announced that she would remain in Congress but step down as her party’s leader in the U.S. House, passing the torch to Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
Three years later, the House speaker emerita is taking the next step: After almost four decades on Capitol Hill, Pelosi is retiring at the end of her current term.
The nation’s first woman to serve as House speaker released a video on Thursday morning to announce that she is not seeking a 21st term in 2026.
“With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” she said in a message to her constituents in San Francisco, whom she celebrated in the nearly six-minute clip.
There will be plenty of speculation about who might succeed the congresswoman in her Bay Area district, but for now, it’s worth acknowledging the career of the most accomplished House speaker in generations.
“Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi is an iconic, heroic, trailblazing, legendary and transformational leader,” Jeffries said in a statement. “She is the greatest Speaker of all time.” The New York Democrat added, “The United States is a much better nation today because Nancy Pelosi dedicated her life to serving the children, the climate, the country and the American people.”
As regular readers know, it was Pelosi, first elected in 1987, who helped pass the Recovery Act, which ended the Great Recession. It was Pelosi who ensured the Affordable Care Act became law. It was Pelosi whose record includes historic legislative victories on everything from civil rights to Wall Street reform, student loans to Covid-19 relief, climate change to infrastructure.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but lawmakers and leaders with records like Pelosi’s tend to have buildings named after them.
When the San Franciscan stepped down from her party’s leadership a few years ago, then-President Joe Biden said in a written statement, “History will note she is the most consequential Speaker of the House of Representatives in our history.”
As Pelosi’s career nears its end, there’s no reason to consider that assessment hyperbolic in the slightest.
Pelosi was wise to give up the speakership before she actually retired.
“Layoffs rise to recession-like levels through October, new report says”
“Employers have announced 1.1 million job cuts so far this year, the highest reading since the pandemic, a private firm reports.”
Layoffs accelerated in October, pushing 2025 job cuts to levels typically seen in recessions, according to newly released data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a private firm that tracks workplace reductions.
U.S. employers have announced 1.1 million layoffs so far this year — the largest reading since the pandemic recession and on par with 2008 and 2009 job cuts during the Great Recession, the firm’s figures show. The data includes a recent spate of layoffs at major companies such as UPS, Amazon and Target, and adds to growing concern about a labor market slowdown.
Employers cited cost-cutting and artificial intelligence as the top two reasons for job reductions in October.
“We’re entering new territory with these layoffs in October,” said John Challenger, CEO of the consulting firm that tracks job losses. “We haven’t seen mega-layoffs of the size that are being discussed now — 48,000 from UPS, potentially 30,000 from Amazon — since 2020 and before that, since the recession of 2009. When you see companies making cuts of this size, it does signal a real shift in direction.” […] [Graph]
Recent layoffs, the data shows, have been concentrated in technology, retail, service and warehousing jobs. Employers announced more than 153,000 job cuts last month, a 183 percent increase from the month before, marking the worst October for layoffs since 2003, the Challenger report said.
The government shutdown, now in its second month, has left policymakers, investors and economists without official data at a critical moment. The job market in recent years has been a pillar of stability, keeping the economy humming despite high inflation and uncertainty. But there are growing signs that employers are pulling back, not just by curtailing hiring, but by slashing jobs altogether.
[…] “You see a significant number of companies either announcing that they are not going to be doing much hiring, or actually doing layoffs,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said in a news conference after the decision. “We’re watching that very carefully.”
The spike in October layoffs, up 175 percent from a year ago, runs counter to recent trends, Challenger said. Although companies have typically avoided announcing job cuts at the end of the year, that seems to be changing this year as firms face new financial pressures and uncertainty from tariffs, federal funding cuts and emerging technologies. […]
Eventually, President Donald Trump will run out White House surfaces to cover in gold, and we won’t have to write about his egregious interior decorating skills anymore.
But until then, we unfortunately have to report that another area has fallen victim to the president’s Hobby Lobby version of the Midas touch.
Eagle-eyed journalists spotted yet another tacky glimmer of gold Wednesday on the white exterior wall of the Oval Office.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted a snap to X showcasing the tacky new lettering on what remains of the White House walls.
A closer look revealed golden cursive—possibly printed on paper?—to the right of the doorway that unsurprisingly reads, “The Oval Office.”
he latest gleaming addition elicited some comedic gold online. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his stellar social media team tweeted an edited version of the Oval Office snap making fun of the tacky lettering.
In place of the cursive “Oval Office” writing, the edited photo read, “Live Laugh LOSE.” The “lose” likely refers to Democrats sweeping elections across the country Tuesday night in a broad rebuke of Trump. [social media post, with image]
Another user pointed out some additional golden decor above the door that’s reminiscent of the insane amount of gold trim now covering the Oval Office’s interior.
[…] given Trump’s climbing age and deteriorating health, the sign might be a means to making sure he knows which office is his own.
[…] And before that, the president lined the halls with a presidential “Walk of Fame,” giving a middle finger to former President Joe Biden by hanging, in place of his portrait, a photo of an autopen signature.
[…] Unfortunately, Trump will certainly be remembered—but it won’t just be for all the tacky gold trim he leaves behind.
I snipped text describing Trump’s other depredations, including paving over the Rose Garden, “renovating” the bathroom near the Lincoln Bedroom with gaudy marble and gold fixtures, and tearing down the East Wing to begin construction on a ballroom.
“Our staffing in the ER is beyond dire now,” said Heather Fallon, a nurse in the emergency department at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago who had long been dreading the arrival of Sept. 30, the day the fiscal year came to an end.
That was the day she says she lost two nurses — and the facility lost nine staffers in total — whose contracts ended, putting further strain on her team, which has seen an increase in patients this year. Veteran Affairs Secretary Doug Collins had vowed to have reduced the size of the agency by 30,000 positions by that date without impacting health services for veterans.
“We are understaffed,” Fallon said. “We don’t have all of the services that we would have had on a regular basis.”
[…] “I am assigned the duties of two people. Many of my co-workers told me they are putting an average of four hours unpaid daily just to keep up with the workload.”
Both Fallon and Uzuegbunam are speaking out as members of National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the country, whose contract with the VA was terminated in early August.
[…] Collins’ decision in June to scrap a plan for massive layoffs and his promise to provide quicker services to veterans brought a sigh of relief to many and generated positive headlines.
But the upheaval caused by the Trump administration’s earlier firings of probationary employees who were then rehired months later, the closing of some VA facilities and the cancellation of medical research trials have had a major impact, say nurses who work at VA facilities, staffers at the department and veterans advocates. Morale is low, say nurses and staffers at VA facilities, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation, noting that this year the VA decided not to conduct its annual staff satisfaction survey — which has been conducted every year since 2006 — citing costs. The VA confirmed that the survey was not conducted this year.
Collins has repeatedly vowed that cutting 30,000 positions won’t directly impact health care or benefits for veterans provided by the Veterans Health Administration, the healthcare branch of the VA. The VHA, which is the country’s largest integrated healthcare system, serves 9.1 million enrolled vets each year, providing care at 1,380 health care facilities. [That’s a lie.]
Yet, between December 2024 and August 2025, the VA reported a net loss of thousands of health care positions — including 875 physicians, 2,403 registered nurses, 511 licensed practical nurses, 335 nurse assistants, 649 social workers, 287 psychologists and 906 medical support assistants, according to the department’s workforce dashboards, first highlighted by The American Prospect. The total number of those in mission-critical occupations — which “reflect the primary mission of the organization without which mission-critical work cannot be completed” — dropped by 4,214. For comparison, during the Biden administration, the number of those in mission-critical occupations increased […]
[…] some VA hospitals had increased their enforcement of a policy that limits the number of long-term therapy sessions available to veterans and to “broadly reduce the number of patients who get this long-term care — without consideration for whether this is clinically appropriate” […]
The decline in the VA’s workforce leaves it incapable of handling the increase in aging vets. “[…] even if the population demand declines a small bit, the need doesn’t decline because you have these people now who are older — in addition to their military-related service conditions, they now have health conditions connected to aging.”
[…] In some cases, that has forced some veterans seeking substance use treatment to be admitted to psychiatric facilities to get care, said a staffer at the Brooklyn center who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation. “Now when you’re trying to rehab from drugs, you don’t really need the person next to you eating his toenails,” said the staffer. “It’s not conducive to the rehab process. It’s an awful situation.”
[…] “The VA system was built with the veteran as its heart. Private sector medical care has been built on a system of profit maximization. These two systems may be at odds when it comes to veteran outcomes; their philosophies and models of care are that different,” Hunter [Dr. Kyleanne Hunter, a former Marine Corps combat helicopter pilot who now runs Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)] said. “This is born out in the evidence. Recent studies found that Community Care providers frequently administered high-cost and medically unnecessary procedures to veterans in order to maximize the money received from the government.” [Well that is certainly counter-productive.]
[…] “That’s the reason why the private sector loves the VA and the Community Care program, because there’s no effective utilization review,” said Gordon, the co-founder of the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute. “That’s unheard of in the private insurance market or even Medicare.”
[The Trump administration created a new grifting opportunity.]
Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug’s letters home from The Second Civil War
birgerjohanssonsays
NB! Music history.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the Sex Pistols’ very first gig. After a hate campaign in the Tory ‘gutter press’ they eventually became the most demonised pop band in British history.
The Trump administration is very into bragging about how much it protects and respects religion. That applies to conservative Christians most especially, of course—at least when […] Trump and his minions aren’t busy pretending to care about antisemitism.
However, the administration’s war on immigrants has really highlighted that when it comes to actual, practicing, devout Christians, Trump and company just aren’t feeling it. Can’t all of these bishops and pastors and priests yammering on about inhumane treatment of immigrants just shut up already?
The administration’s actions are so reprehensible that even the Catholic bishops who sit on Trump’s so-called religious liberty commission are criticizing officials’ refusal to give detained immigrants access to religious services.
When you’ve lost even the conservative Catholic bishops, you have really lost.
The pesky new pope is saying the administration’s treatment of immigrants is inhumane and a grave crime. How dare he say, “Someone who says I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
Of course White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt decided to push back on the pope, which is kind of a weird move for someone who purports to be such a faithful Catholic that she prays with her staff before press briefings.
According to Leavitt, there’s no inhumane treatment of immigrants under this administration, nosiree. You know who the real villain is here? Former President Joe Biden, because he let in heaps of violent undocumented immigrants, but now the administration is just “trying to enforce our nation’s laws in the most humane way possible, and we are upholding the law.”
Come. On.
Is it humane to shoot a Presbyterian pastor—in liturgical garb, no less— in the head with pepper balls? Or how about shooting multiple pepper balls at a Methodist pastor who was pretty obviously a pastor because she was wearing her clerical collar?
Or shooting yet another pastor in the face point-blank with pepper balls? So humane!
Pope Leo is not going to let up. On Tuesday, he called for the spiritual rights of migrant detainees to be respected and to allow “pastoral workers” into ICE detention centers. Why would he do that? Because of course the administration is refusing to let priests and pastors into Illinois’ Broadview ICE facility to minister to the detainees, despite Department of Homeland Security policies requiring detainees to have access to religious services.
When a group of faith leaders made a Eucharistic procession to the Broadview facility to try to offer communion to detainees, federal officials refused them entry. Well, sort of. The ICE and CBP thugs somehow weren’t tough enough to turn away the clergy themselves, instead forcing the Illinois State Police to act as a go-between.
The Rev. Larry Dowling of the Archdiocese of Chicago pulled no punches about this.
“No one had the courage to speak directly to us. […]” Dowling said. “No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.” [I definitely don’t like it when “Evil” and its supposed opposite, “Christ,” are used as reasons to act.]
[…] Dowling is basically saying that they are both evil and chickenshit for not coming out to talk to the faith leaders directly.
The Trump administration also refused to allow pastors and priests to deliver communion to detainees on All Saints Day, even though they followed DHS’ new rule of asking pretty please a week in advance.
The administration’s protection of religion has always been a fig leaf, just a way to impose a particularly bleak version of Christian nationalism on the country. [True] But Trump’s immigration crackdown has highlighted that he and his stooges loathe the values of the people they pretend to protect and uphold.
Maybe Leavitt and her staff could pray on that one day.
“American consumers know that gas prices haven’t ‘plummeted.’ So why is the president trying to fool them into believing otherwise?”
As Donald Trump gradually comes to terms with Americans’ concerns about affordability, the president routinely claims that he’s lowered energy costs. That’s demonstrably untrue: Over the course of the year, energy costs have gone up, not down.
But Trump hasn’t talked about energy prices merely in a general sense, he’s also focused specifically on the costs American consumers face at gas stations. [video]
“Gasoline prices have plummeted to the lowest in two decades,” Trump said at a speech on the economy Wednesday in Miami, adding that the public will “soon” see gas that costs $2 per gallon.
The latter claim (which the president makes all the time) is actually an improvement over an earlier iteration of a similar pitch: For months, Trump claimed that gas costs had already fallen below $2 per gallon in states that he never identified.
When that lie proved unsustainable, even for him, it evolved into assurances about future progress.
But the related claim about gas prices plummeting to their lowest level in 20 years is still wrong. Indeed, national averages are higher now than they were at this point a year ago.
To be sure, “Trump says untrue thing” isn’t exactly an unusual revelation, but what strikes me as notable about this specific fiction is how neatly it dovetails with Trump’s lies about grocery prices.
American consumers go to gas stations all the time, and they know that prices haven’t “plummeted.” Trump can’t simply wave his hand and Jedi mind-trick the public into believing otherwise. People know better, not because the White House’s critics have made a persuasive pitch, or because news organizations have successfully set the record straight, but rather, because of their own life experiences at the pump.
His claims, in other words, aren’t just lies; they’re self-defeating lies.
[…] to tell consumers not to believe their own lying eyes about their own wallets is a recipe for failure.
This might be a dementia-related problem. Trump has falsehoods stuck in his head and he plays them on a loop. He is saying what he wishes were true, not what is actually true.
“After Democrats scored election victories, the president started talking about ‘affordability.’ […] his assessment is rooted in nonsense.”
Related video at the link.
Donald Trump spent years publishing assorted messages to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, but he literally never wrote a tweet that included the word “affordability.”
On his own platform, however, the president has taken a sudden interest in the term.
On Tuesday morning, as Election Day 2025 got underway, he wrote online, “If affordability is you [sic] issue, VOTE REPUBLICAN! Energy costs, as and [sic] example, are plummeting.” (In reality, energy costs are climbing, not sinking.)
The day after Democratic election victories, Trump assured the public, “Affordability is our goal.” That was followed by a related online rant: “2025 Thanksgiving dinner under Trump is 25% lower than 2024 Thanksgiving dinner under Biden, according to Walmart. My cost [sic] are lower than the Democrats on everything, especially oil and gas! So the Democrats [sic] ‘affordability’ issue is DEAD! STOP LYING!!!” [Trump should take his own advice and stop lying.]
Whether the president understands this or not, Walmart lowered the cost of its Thanksgiving dinner by reducing the number of items included in the package and replacing brand-name products with value products. It was not, in other words, the result of the White House’s awesomeness.
As for the idea that the underlying issue is “dead,” the president seems to know better. Consider his exchange with Bret Baier during the Republican’s Fox News interview Wednesday night. [social media post, with video]
Assessing the broader political and economic landscape, Trump said he’s succeeded in bringing energy costs “way down.” (That’s the opposite of the truth.) He added that the cost of groceries is also “way down.” (That, too, was a lie.) As part of the harangue, the president insisted that inflation rates during Joe Biden’s term were “the highest … in the history of our country.” (That’s ridiculous.)
But perhaps the most striking part of the interview was Trump saying, “You know, they have this new word called ‘affordability’ and [Republicans] don’t talk about it enough. The Democrats did.”
For now, let’s not dwell on the fact that “affordability” is not a “new word.” Instead, let’s consider the merit of the president’s analysis.
By Trump’s reasoning, GOP officials and candidates have struggled because they haven’t talked about the cost-of-living challenges facing American consumers. That might make him feel better, but the underlying issue isn’t rhetorical, it’s practical.
Republicans can use “this new word” [affordability] all the time and it won’t change the fact the party, with total control over federal policymaking, has failed spectacularly to address one of the key issues that elevated them to power in the first place.
Democrats scored election victories, not by mentioning “affordability,” but by shining a light on the GOP’s substantive failures on the issue and offering an alternative.
Lots of infighting and circular firing squads at the Heritage Foundation:
The Groyper Takeover of the GOP
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts’ initial defense of Tucker Carlson’s interview with the raging antisemite Nick Fuentes has now ignited an open revolt at the venerable right-wing think tank, the WaPo reports.
While Roberts has backed away some from his initial full-throated defense of Carlson, his apology didn’t keep a staff meeting at Heritage on Wednesday from turning into a shitshow. Some of the highlights from the WaPo:
– “Legal fellow Amy Swearer during the meeting called Roberts’s handling of the controversy ‘a master class in cowardice that ran cover for the most unhinged dregs of the far right’ and described a loss of confidence in his leadership.” [!]
– “Asked later in the meeting about his use of the term ‘globalists’ — a common dog whistle for a conspiratorial view of world ‘Jewry’ — Roberts said he didn’t mean to imply criticism of anyone of any particular faith.”
– When Roberts’ speechwriter complained that countering the accusations of antisemitism might mean he would be required to attend a Shabbat dinner and violate his own faith, another Heritage executive shot back, “I’m deeply sorry that you could not see that as a generous offer but rather a personal attack on you.”
At least five members of Heritage’s antisemitism task force have resigned in protest [!], including lawyer Ian Speir, who emailed the WaPo:
When Kevin Roberts repeatedly defended Tucker Carlson after his kid-glove treatment of Nick Fuentes, I lost faith that Heritage is the right institution to lead this important fight. We cannot let this malevolent evil make further inroads into our politics and civil discourse. It will literally destroy us.”
At one level, it’s entertaining to watch conservatives squirm over the Groyperism of their party — although they’ve been very slow in responding to what has been obvious for years.
“The distance between Fuentes and the mainstream Republican Party isn’t really that large,” [True] Richard Hanania told the NYT, whose description of him is itself instructive: “a conservative writer who once posted under a pseudonym in white supremacist forums. (He has since denounced his past writings.)”
Back at Heritage, Roberts threw his own chief of staff under the bus for writing the speech that got Roberts in so much hot water [Oh sure, blame somebody else.]:
On Monday, Roberts reassigned his chief of staff, Ryan Neuhaus, to a lower-ranking role. By Tuesday, Neuhaus was no longer employed by Heritage. On Wednesday, Roberts called him a “good man” who “made a mistake,” and said he was largely responsible for drafting Roberts’s controversial remarks.
The kicker was this line: “Two people close to Neuhaus said he views his departure as an attempt to appease Jewish Republicans.”
“Obviously some of these conditions are, in my word, disgusting. To have to sleep on the floor next to an overflowed toilet, that’s obviously unconstitutional.”–U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman of Chicago, who ordered the federal government to provide bedding, hygiene supplies, daily showers, clean toilets and three meals a day at the ICE facility Broadview
Many of the largest airports across the country will see a noticeable reduction in flight offerings starting Friday, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implements new steps to maintain air safety amid the ongoing government shutdown.
The preliminary list of 40 airports operating at reduced capacity, obtained by The Hill’s sister network NewsNation, is subject to change. The FAA is expected to announce the full list sometime later Thursday. […]
Here’s the full preliminary list of affected airports.
Anchorage International (ANC)
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL)
Boston Logan International (BOS)
Baltimore/Washington International (BWI)
Charlotte Douglas International (CLT)
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG)
Dallas Love (DAL)
Reagan Washington National (DCA)
Denver International (DEN)
Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW)
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW)
Newark Liberty International (EWR)
Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International (FLL)
Honolulu International (HNL)
Houston Hobby (HOU)
Washington Dulles International (IAD)
George Bush Houston Intercontinental (IAH)
Indianapolis International (IND)
New York John F. Kennedy International (JFK)
Las Vegas Harry Reid International (LAS)
Los Angeles International (LAX)
New York LaGuardia (LGA)
Orlando International (MCO)
Chicago Midway (MDW)
Memphis International (MEM)
Miami International (MIA)
Minneapolis/St. Paul International (MSP)
Oakland International (OAK)
Ontario International (ONT)
Chicago O’Hare International (ORD)
Portland International (PDX)
Philadelphia International (PHL)
Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX)
San Diego International (SAN)
Louisville International (SDF)
Seattle/Tacoma International (SEA)
San Francisco International (SFO)
Salt Lake City International (SLC)
Teterboro (TEB)
Tampa International (TPA)
[…] On Sunday, Commander-in-Chief Donald John Trump went on 60 Minutes to grump and groan that he doesn’t think DHS agents have gone far enough when they tackle young mothers, gas people in residential neighborhoods, and smash car windows. He plans to deport ALL the immigrants, and then maybe he will let the nannies and landscapers back in. Because that’s apparently the only jobs he [can] imagine that immigrants have, other than trophy wife and paid Soros voter, obviously. [video]
Meanwhile, Bovino [Border Patrol Commander / diminutive Nazi cosplayer Gregory Kent Bovino] keeps getting busted lying about stuff! […] There was the protestor who had his charges dismissed after Bovino was caught on film lying about the guy causing a debilitating injury to his testicles.
And then the plaintiffs in this case also found evidence that Bovino was lying about the incident in Little Village in which he personally chucked a teargas canister at a crowd of high-school-age protestors. Bovino had claimed under oath that he responded in fear after he got hit on the head with a rock. But what do you know, footage showed that was a lie, there was no rock, because of course there wasn’t.
Which takes us to Wednesday, and Judge Ellis considering extending the temporary restraining order to the November 19 […]
Judge Ellis heard from witnesses, and plaintiffs’ lawyers played parts of Bovino’s deposition from last week. First up was Father Brendan Curran, who described “federal agents launching projectiles from the corner of the roof at the people who were not armed and not violent in any way.”
Also heard from was Presbyterian pastor David Black, who was shot in the face with pepperballs twice by laughing ICE […]
And Judge Ellis heard from Emily Steelhammer, executive director of the Chicago Newspaper Guild, who said “at least 15” guild members reported they had been “hit with rubber bullets, pepper balls, different projectiles, they have experienced the effects of chemical weapons.”
There was 12th Ward Alderperson Julia Ramirez, who described watching non-violent, unarmed protestors in her ward get menaced by DHS goons with their armored tank-like vehicle, then fired on with pepper balls with no warning or order to disperse, in what she said seemed like an attempt to rile the crowd with chaos. [inciting violence]
And Jo-Elle Munchak, a citizen on a coffee run who filmed ICE agents kidnapping landscapers and shouted, “It’s almost like they’re stormtroopers or something! […] Smile nice, boys, for the Hague!” and then got a gun to her head.
Youth organizer Leslie Cortez also described an immigration agent pointing a gun at her head on October 1 after she began recording them detaining day laborers in a Home Depot parking lot.
“I could see inside the barrel. It was a traumatizing experience because I never had a weapon drew at me […] it made me really reconsider if this was something safe to do, even though I wasn’t doing anything to obstruct.”
And there was Juan Munoz, an Oak Park Township trustee, who said Bovino personally attacked him, slapping his phone out of his hand and detaining him with no explanation or charges, after ICE descended chaotically and without warning on peaceful protestors at the Broadview ICE facility. Munoz had also previously told the local paper that Bovino had paraded him before Kristi Noem like some kind of a prize pig.
And then they played parts of Bovino’s deposition, including lawyers playing a video for him of himself telling agents “everybody fucking gets it if they touch you” and “this is OUR fucking city.”
Bovino was asked, “the instruction that you gave your officers was that they had full rein to arrest anyone who so much as touched them?”
He replied, “no.” […]
And has Bovino seen any circumstances where he thought DHS used too much force?
“I’ve not seen our men, or women, deploy force against protesters.”
[…] And then Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Kristopher Hewson opined that tear gas was not dangerous, and does not harm people. Which is simply false, it can cause long-term lung and eye damage and miscarriages and even kill people, and cause harm even by seeping into nearby homes where residents have their windows closed. And here they are, the dumbest bunch of people alive, untrained to deploy it and throwing canisters around toddlers.
[…] Hewson blamed the chaos in Little Village on the protesters, who were making Latin Kings gang signs, holding shields they probably planned to use as weapons, and had the audacity to kick tear gas canisters away from themselves. Also one of their trucks got blocked by a box truck. Therefore he had to spray the passenger of that box truck in the face, you see. And then somebody set off fireworks, he claimed, and chaos broke out.
[…] Meanwhile, ICE brutalities in Chicago have continued […]
Make no mistake, among Trump, Miller, Noem, and Corey Lewandowski and down to Bovino, there is no bottom to the depths of depravity DHS will go to. There have been five incidents of ICE shooting unarmed people with bullets so far, and you know they’d love for there to be more, and have been training sniper rifles on protestors in rapt anticipation.
But it seems this judge is trying her very best to hold them accountable, so there is that.
“A pivot away from Kyiv would be a ‘Christmas gift’ to Putin, outgoing government said in response to the comments.”
Czechia — one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies — is considering cutting the flow of much-needed arms and ammunition to Kyiv’s forces when its new government takes control in the coming weeks, according to a key leader of the incoming coalition.
Filip Turek, the president of the right-wing populist Motorists party that this week signed an agreement to help form a national government, said that his country will “maintain NATO commitments and adherence to international law.”
However, he went on, “it will prioritize diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine and mitigate risks of conflict in Europe, shifting from military aid funded by the national budget to humanitarian support and focusing on Czech security needs.”
The Motorists party was founded in 2022, and clinched six seats in parliament during last month’s nationwide election, making it a pivotal kingmaker in efforts by prime minister-designate Andrej Babiš and his populist ANO faction to form a government. Turek is under consideration to take on the role of foreign minister in the new administration.
Babiš has previously publicly cast doubt on the future of a major program led by the current Czech government to provide tens of thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine, but has avoided publicly committing to a position since the election.
Responding to the comments, first reported in POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook, outgoing Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said, “the limitation of Czech military aid to Ukraine is news that will surely bring great joy to Russian soldiers on the front line. Let’s consider it a Christmas gift from Babiš to Vladimir Putin.” […]
The former racing car driver, who until last month served as a member of the European Parliament and campaigned on an anti-Green Deal platform, branded eco-conscious policies “unsustainable,” calling for a reversal of the 2035 ban on the sale of cars with combustion engines and for emissions trading systems to be dropped altogether.
[…] Babiš will have to present his proposed list of ministers to Czech President Petr Pavel in the coming days before a vote of confidence in the new government can be held.
Alex Bruesewitz, an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, told leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD — a party labeled extremist by German authorities — that he sees them as “bold visionaries” shaping the country’s future.
Speaking to a room packed with AfD parliamentarians and supporters in Berlin on Wednesday night, Bruesewitz declared that MAGA conservatives and members of Germany’s rising far right are united in a common fight along with other nationalist forces around the world against “Marxists” and “globalists” that he framed as “a spiritual war for the soul of our nations.”
[…] It’s something of a turnabout for AfD politicians, who have historically exhibited a strong anti-American streak, viewing the U.S. as having infringed on Germany’s sovereignty in the postwar era and seeking instead to build closer relations with Russia. But since Trump’s return to the White House, AfD leaders have made a concerted effort to get close to MAGA Republicans.
Beatrix von Storch, an AfD politician who has been at the forefont of the party’s efforts to build connections with MAGA Republicans, said Bruesewitz’s visit was about “reaching out to be closer to our American friends.”
Bruesewitz echoed that message during his talk on “the global battle for truth,” as the event was dubbed.
“We are in this together,” he said. “The globalists fear united patriots more than anything.”
The AfD is now the strongest opposition party in the German parliament, and in many recent polls has surpassed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ruling conservatives. The party’s growing popularity comes despite the fact that earlier this year, Germany’s federal domestic intelligence agency, which is tasked with monitoring groups deemed to be antidemocratic, declared the AfD to be an extremist organization.
This designation fueled debate among mainstream German politicians about whether the party ought to be banned under provisions of the German Constitution designed to prevent a repeat of the Nazi rise to power. Centrist parties in Germany have so far refused to form national coalitions with the AfD, maintaining a so-called firewall around the far right that has been in place since shortly after World War II. […]
When Germany’s domestic intelligence agency declared the AfD to be extremist, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the move “tyranny in disguise.” During the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, U.S. Vice President JD Vance urged mainstream politicians in Europe to protect free speech rights of anti-immigration parties and to knock down the “firewalls” that shut out far-right parties from government.
[…] Not all aspects of Bruesewitz’s message were met with equal enthusiasm. His defense of Trump’s tariffs, which have hit Germany’s export-oriented industries particularly hard, did not win applause.
Bruesewitz also repeatedly invoked passages from the Bible and called on Germans to embrace a distinctly American brand of Christian nationalism that, while embraced by some AfD politicians, is largely alien to Germans, who are broadly less pious.
[…] “The forces arrayed against us aren’t just ideological opponents, they’re manifestations of evil, seeking to extinguish the light of faith, family and freedom,” Bruesewitz said. “This spiritual battle isn’t confined to the United States. Oh, no. Germany and America may be separated by thousands of miles of ocean, but we face the same exact enemies, the same threats, the same insidious forces trying to tear us down.”
If the president convinces Republicans to scrap the filibuster, what would he want to pass? Legislation specifically targeting elections
After having ignored the issue for much of the year, Donald Trump has became fixated on ending legislative filibusters in the Senate. It’s not immediately obvious, however, why this has become such an obsession for the president.
After all, the Republican can already advance his top congressional priorities — specifically, tax cuts for the wealthy and far-right judges — through the Senate with majority rule, and there’s little the Democratic minority can do to stop them.
What’s more, the president has repeatedly and publicly said that he doesn’t really have much a legislative agenda anymore, since so many of the White House’s goals were already included in the domestic policy megabill that GOP lawmakers approved over the summer (the inaptly named One Big Beautiful Bill). Trump made this point explicitly last week, declaring: “We don’t need anything more from Congress.”
So why bother with scrapping the filibuster? Why is this suddenly at the top of his priority list?
As it turns out, Trump has hinted at his motivation.
The morning after a dominant Democratic performance in the 2025 elections, the president told Senate Republicans that if they agreed to put an end to legislative filibusters, the change would make it “impossible to beat” Republicans in upcoming elections. “If we do what I’m saying,” he added, Democrats will “most likely never obtain power.”
[Yep. There’s Trump’s motivation. He wants to rig elections.]
He made a related pitch hours later on Fox News, telling Bret Baier that getting rid of the filibuster would allow Republicans to approve unnamed “good things” that would make it difficult to beat the GOP in the near future. [video]
[…] on election night [Trump] published an item to his social media platform that read, “REPUBLICANS, TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER! GET BACK TO PASSING LEGISLATION AND VOTER REFORM!”
Minutes later, he wrote a follow-up post, adding that GOP policymakers could “pass voter reform,” impose voter ID requirements and ban mail-in balloting if only Senate Republicans agreed to “terminate” the filibuster. [!]
In other words, confronted with Democratic victories, Trump’s thoughts turned to something specific: imposing new restrictions on Americans, and limiting their access to their own democracy. [!]
[…] consider the related data points from recent weeks:
– At the White House’s behest, Republicans in some states are engaging in brazen gerrymandering, using mid-decade redistricting to win congressional races before they happen.
– The Justice Department is fighting to acquire voter registration lists and election data in several states for reasons that still haven’t been explained.
– The Republican administration has chosen election deniers to serve in key federal election roles, leading The New York Times to note that conspiracy theorists “who worked to destabilize and discredit election results after 2020” will now have “the power to potentially interfere with future contests.”
– Trump’s DOJ also deployed federal election observers to monitor elections in California and New Jersey.
– The president is lobbying for the total elimination of early voting.
It’s against this backdrop that Trump also wants Senate Republicans to kill the chamber’s filibuster rule, clearing the way for something he called “voter reform” — and a political dynamic in which Democrats will “most likely never obtain power.”
In isolation, each of these stories matters, but taken together, we’re talking about what appears to be a multifaceted campaign against elections, launched by a president whose contempt for the democratic process is unsubtle.
During Thursday’s GOP-lead shutdown press conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson offered up a cornucopia of copium following the GOP’s Election Day drubbing.
“There’s only three, conversely, there’s only three House Republicans sitting in districts that Kamala Harris won,” Johnson said, before touting GOP efforts to rig next year’s midterm elections. “After redistricting, we think we’ll need a few more seats, a handful, maybe 6 to 8. We’re in very good position to make history and grow this majority.” [video]
Johnson then claimed the GOP has a “real record to run on,” primarily built on President Donald Trump’s assertions that things are better, despite all evidence suggesting otherwise.
“And Democrats want to talk about affordability? We love that subject,” he added. “We love it. Look at the facts. I brought some this morning. It’s the Republicans who are working every day to make life more affordable for working families. And it’s not a talking point for us—we are delivering.” [head/desk, what a load of bull pucky.]
The FBI fired at least six agents who worked with Special Counsel Jack Smith, only to quickly restore employment Monday for some of them who are pursuing a high-priority public corruption investigation for DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
But between two to four of the fired agents who were told to come back to work Tuesday were then terminated and walked out of the building a second time later that day, said three people familiar with the situation. [Chaos and confusion]
[…] The latest moves prompted strong criticism Tuesday against Director Kash Patel from an advocacy organization representing 90% of active agents.
“The actions yesterday—in which FBI Special Agents were terminated and then reinstated shortly after, and then only to be fired again today—highlight the chaos that occurs when long-standing policies and processes are ignored,” the FBI Agents Association said in a statement. “Director Patel has disregarded the law and launched a campaign of erratic and arbitrary retribution.” [True]
[…] The initial two agents fired Oct 31, who like the others had been involved in Smith’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, were never reinstated. The firings, which continued into this week, respond to outcry from Republicans on Capitol Hill over Sen. Chuck Grassley‘s (R-Iowa) disclosure of 197 subpoenas Smith’s team issued in its operation dubbed “Arctic Frost.”
“Arctic Frost was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus,” Grassley said at a press conference Oct. 29.
But the FBI Agents Association, which has become increasingly vocal of late in criticizing Patel’s leadership, defended agents for performing tasks that were assigned to them. [!]
[…] The firings of line agents comes directly after Patel’s outrage over public attention about his personal travel to visit his girlfriend led him to force out a highly-ranked official who ran the bureau’s critical incident response group.
“Popular AR-15 ammunition made at an Army-owned facility was far more likely than any other to turn up in a government database tracking evidence from gun crimes, new data shows.”
In the weeks before a gunman wielding an AR-15 style rifle killed 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022, he purchased 2,115 rounds of ammunition. Every one of them was made at a U.S. Army-owned facility just outside Kansas City, Mo.
Later that year, another shooter walked into a St. Louis high school equipped with over 400 rounds from the same plant. He killed a student and a teacher in an attack with bullets designed for use on the battlefield.
The use of ammunition manufactured at the facility, the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, was not unusual: Its products have become a common denominator in crimes involving 5.56-millimeter and .223-caliber rounds, the most widely used cartridges for AR-15-style weapons, according to new data that provides a rare window into Lake City’s role in the ecosystem for the popular firearms.
The data, reported here for the first time, is from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and was obtained by The New York Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists through public records requests.
From 2017 to 2024, law enforcement agencies conducting criminal investigations reported spent Lake City casings to the A.T.F. at more than twice the rate of any other manufacturer of 5.56 and .223 cartridges, the records show. The finding is based on information submitted to the A.T.F. by more than 7,400 law enforcement agencies on crimes ranging from burglary to homicide. It provides the most comprehensive accounting to date of Lake City ammunition’s use in crimes.
Commonly available for sale online and at stores across the nation, the AR-15 — known by its admirers as “America’s rifle” — offers civilians firepower similar to that of an American infantry soldier and has featured prominently in some of the country’s most infamous mass shootings.
[…] in a letter to members of Congress on Jan. 15, senior Army officials acknowledged that they did not “vet or approve commercial sales of ammunition” made at Lake City and had not conducted any investigation or analysis of its use in violent crime.
[…] Senator Elizabeth Warren described the findings as “horrifying,” saying in a statement that “our government shouldn’t be subsidizing gun violence.” In 2024, Ms. Warren and a group of other Democratic members of Congress introduced a bill that would, among other things, prohibit Department of Defense contractors from selling “military-grade assault weapons and ammunition to civilians,” but it never made it to the floor for a vote. [!]
The bill followed a 2023 investigation into Lake City by The Times that revealed the scale of its ammunition production for civilians and tied the ammunition to a dozen mass shootings, as well as other crimes across the nation.
The new data goes much further, showing how the sheer volume of Lake City’s production has flooded the market and made its ammunition a presence in far more criminal investigations than previously known.
Lake City, built during World War II to supply the U.S. military, is operated by a private contractor with Army oversight. It is the largest manufacturer of rifle ammunition for the U.S. armed forces and has produced rounds for sale to American allies and domestic law enforcement agencies. But the facility has also pumped billions of its rounds into U.S. retail markets, where they have been sold by the nation’s largest ammunition companies under a variety of brand names.
For more than a decade, the Army has encouraged the contractors who run Lake City to use excess capacity at the plant — which is required to maintain manufacturing capacity of over 1.6 billion rounds a year — to make cartridges for the commercial market. The arrangement is meant to provide an affordable solution to a longstanding problem: how to keep ammunition production lines active and ready for war in periods of low military demand.
A vast majority of the cartridges have undoubtedly gone to ordinary gun owners, such as target shooters and hunters. But the rounds are also readily available to criminals, who can buy them cheaply and in bulk from gun shops, big-box retailers and websites, offered in packages ranging from 20-round boxes to 1,000-round cases. […]
Lake City makes various types of ammunition, including cartridges that can be fired from AK-47s and from .50 caliber rifles — guns large enough to destroy a car’s engine block or to down a small plane. But the plant’s bread and butter are the 5.56 and .223 rounds — the kinds most often used in AR-15-style firearms. […]
The new data from the A.T.F. suggests that Lake City’s massive production has far exceeded that of any other manufacturer of 5.56 and .223 rounds, helping to make ammunition for AR-15-style guns cheaper and more accessible for both ordinary gun owners and criminals.
[…] While the data provides insight into the pervasiveness of ammunition made at Lake City, the real scale of its criminal use is probably far greater than the numbers suggest, both in the quantity of cartridges found during each investigation and in the number of crimes committed with them.
The information entered into the NIBIN system is used to link spent casings to the guns that fired them, helping law enforcement officers determine whether a particular firearm was used in multiple crimes. For that reason, examiners typically only submit one spent casing to the system for each gun connected to a crime. In 2024, for example, law enforcement agencies submitted nearly 5,500 Lake City casings to the A.T.F. But for every casing submitted, investigators may have collected tens or even hundreds more. […]
Today is the 90th anniversary of the first flight of the Hawker Hurricane prototype. The aircraft outnumbered the Spitfire two to one as the Battle of Britain began.
.
50 years since the very first gig by a band called “Sex Pistols”.
Re: birgerjohansson @ #38…
Plus… About 80% of the German aircraft losses during the Battle of Britain were to Hurricanes. Generally, speaking, the faster Spitfires arrived first and got in dog fights with the Bf-109 fighter escort cover. Then the slower Hurricanes arrived and went after the–now unprotected–bombers.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@Lynna #26:
members of Heritage’s antisemitism task force have resigned in protest [!]
Gosh, someone at Heritage had principles? No, of course not.
Posted on 2024-12-09:
Heritage Foundation Plan To Fight Antisemitism Has Hilariously Ironic Problem
If your plan to fight antisemitism is itself antisemitic, you might have lost the plot.
[…]
you’ll never guess who this plan to combat antisemitism blames for all the antisemitism in the first place! […]
The Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther, a conservative plan to counter antisemitism, sees the problem as one in which a handful of “masterminds” including Jews like George Soros and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker are seeking to “dismantle Western democracies, values and culture,”
Let us get this straight: the plan to fight antisemitism relies on a claim that wealthy, shadowy Jews are manipulating the public in order to game public opinion and destroy America from within?
This [announcement] sounds really innocuous, but Teen Vogue just axed their whole politics desk—everybody working on it has been laid off. This is devastating: it was a publication with a lot of reach and it was consistent in how it spoke out against this administration.
Teen Vogue will focus its content on career development, cultural leadership and other issues that matter most to young people
[…] From the former editor of the Politics desk and the […] other former editor of the Politics desk. I worked with both of them. [Screenshots]
[…] after today, there will be no politics staffers […]
Sky Captain @41, thanks for that additional information.
Sky Captain @42, Teen Vogue was a good source. Now that Vogue has stripped Teen Vogue of their entire politics team, I expect that we will see a very restricted view of “issues that matter most to young people.” WTF? That is so condescending.
In other news, The Washington Post reports:
The Philippines declared a national state of emergency Thursday, after a deadly typhoon swept through vulnerable low-lying communities in the country’s center, flooding streets and prompting an urgent search and rescue effort. By Thursday afternoon, officials said Typhoon Kalmaegi had killed at least 114 people in the Philippines, where it was also known as Typhoon Tino.
StevoRsays
Depending on your skies cloudiness & darkness status might be worth looking up about now..
The northern lights and southern lights could receive a considerable boost again tonight as Earth braces for impact from a powerful coronal mass ejection (CME) hurled from the sun during yesterday’s M7.4 solar flare.
The speedy CME is forecast to arrive late tonight or early Friday (Nov. 7) morning (UTC) and could trigger strong (G3) geomagnetic storm conditions, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. This follows a surprise round of auroras overnight when a glancing CME arrival combined with lingering effects from a high-speed solar wind stream, and pushed geomagnetic activity to G3 levels, sparking auroras across the northern U.S., Canada and Europe.
NOAA and the U.K. Met Office both have G3 storm watches in effect for Nov. 6 and Nov. 7.
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/trump-flees-to-argentina
For the convenience of readers, here are a few links back to the previous set of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/10/01/infinite-thread-xxxvii/comment-page-3/#comment-2282987
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that it will reduce air traffic by 10% across 40 ‘high-volume’ markets beginning Friday morning to maintain safety during the ongoing government shutdown.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/10/01/infinite-thread-xxxvii/comment-page-3/#comment-2282964
“Trump’s tariffs are finally scrutinized — and they don’t hold up”
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/10/01/infinite-thread-xxxvii/comment-page-3/#comment-2282960
Why it matters that Trump thinks Americans need to show ID to buy groceries
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/10/01/infinite-thread-xxxvii/comment-page-3/#comment-2282944
Neal Katyal is far more well-informed than the conservative justices on the Supreme Court.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/10/01/infinite-thread-xxxvii/comment-page-3/#comment-2282941
Trump’s HHS orders state Medicaid programs to help find undocumented immigrants
Cartoon: Ass kicking
https://www.msnbc.com/all
‘Dummymandering’: Blue wave threatens MAGA redistricting scheme
Video is 8:32 minutes
‘Emperor has no clothes’: Chris Hayes reacts to ‘electoral drubbing’ for Trump, GOP
Video is 14:08 minute
Just beautuful scenery and animal footage here –
Southern Lingnan series: Chinese Pangolin Five and half mins long.
Reuters link
“Tesla board to shareholders: Pay Musk or else”
LOL
Mexican President Sheinbaum presses charges against man who groped her on street
The EU heads to the COP30 climate summit with watered-down goals and dwindling green consensus.
Here is an anridote to depression.
A comfy basket.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/r/16wf8tRBz4/
Late Night with Seth Meyers
“Trump Blames Shutdown for Huge Democratic Wins; Zohran Mamdani’s Historic NYC Victory: A Closer Look”
(the loud noise is me purring like a cat)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=sZcJNlxnHBI
Jimmy Kimmel
“Trump’s Very Bad Election Night as Democrats Win, Republicans Cry Fraud & Longest Shutdown Ever ”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=g18MTRquc_A
Stephen Colbert
A Mayor Victory
“Dems Sweep! | Mamdani: New York Will Be The Light | Sherrill, Spanberger Declares Victory ”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=fno04Z2k6Ok
Re @ 12
Trump could not get a decent nickname for Newsom. He could have gone for Nasty Newsom, Neggy Newsom or Nihilist Newsom, N is the easiest letter of all to find slurs that go with it.
Also, it is time to put pressure on the more amorphous Democrats in DC to live up to the new higher expectations, or get primaried.
It is no longer enough to be slightly less bad as the others.
Vblogger reacts: “Female Gooners Must Be Stopped!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=eP6rQ2hRdOU
And Iced by The Minotaur is a real book! At least True Blood had an interesting plot.
JD Vance’s analysis of the 2025 elections has one obvious flaw
“To understand this week’s results as nothing more than “a couple of elections in blue states” is to miss the importance of what actually happened.”
Following a legendary run, Nancy Pelosi to retire from Congress at the end of her term
Pelosi was wise to give up the speakership before she actually retired.
Washington Post link
“Layoffs rise to recession-like levels through October, new report says”
“Employers have announced 1.1 million job cuts so far this year, the highest reading since the pandemic, a private firm reports.”
OMG, the photos that accompany this report! So much tawdry, garish and trashy decor surrounding Trump in his degraded version of the White House.
Trump’s tacky Oval Office decor is oozing outside
I snipped text describing Trump’s other depredations, including paving over the Rose Garden, “renovating” the bathroom near the Lincoln Bedroom with gaudy marble and gold fixtures, and tearing down the East Wing to begin construction on a ballroom.
Despite vow to protect health care for veterans, VA losing doctors and nurses
This is now a dire situation.
Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug’s letters home from The Second Civil War
NB! Music history.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the Sex Pistols’ very first gig. After a hate campaign in the Tory ‘gutter press’ they eventually became the most demonised pop band in British history.
‘Religious freedom’ is just another Trump con job
With false claims about gas prices, Trump adds to his list of self-defeating lies
“American consumers know that gas prices haven’t ‘plummeted.’ So why is the president trying to fool them into believing otherwise?”
This might be a dementia-related problem. Trump has falsehoods stuck in his head and he plays them on a loop. He is saying what he wishes were true, not what is actually true.
Oh FFS.
Trump makes an overdue discovery: ‘They have this new word called ‘affordability’’
“After Democrats scored election victories, the president started talking about ‘affordability.’ […] his assessment is rooted in nonsense.”
Related video at the link.
Lots of infighting and circular firing squads at the Heritage Foundation:
Link
Quote of the Day
“Obviously some of these conditions are, in my word, disgusting. To have to sleep on the floor next to an overflowed toilet, that’s obviously unconstitutional.”–U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman of Chicago, who ordered the federal government to provide bedding, hygiene supplies, daily showers, clean toilets and three meals a day at the ICE facility Broadview
Here are the 40 airports on FAA’s preliminary list for cuts, reductions amid shutdown
https://www.wonkette.com/p/border-patrol-chief-gregory-bovino
Czechia to slash military aid to Ukraine, says likely next FM
“A pivot away from Kyiv would be a ‘Christmas gift’ to Putin, outgoing government said in response to the comments.”
Link
Trump ties his anti-filibuster crusade to a plan to pass ‘voter reform’
If the president convinces Republicans to scrap the filibuster, what would he want to pass? Legislation specifically targeting elections
House speaker says GOP is excited to rig midterms
Bloomberg Law link
New York Times link
“Popular AR-15 ammunition made at an Army-owned facility was far more likely than any other to turn up in a government database tracking evidence from gun crimes, new data shows.”
Mallen Baker
“Was THIS The Week Trump Became A Lame Duck President?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=wPVo-tqUV1A
Federal Judge Orders Trump Administration To Fully Fund SNAP Benefits In November
.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/snap-benefits-november-trump_n_690d0f23e4b0799004d41165
Two anniversaries in a day.
Today is the 90th anniversary of the first flight of the Hawker Hurricane prototype. The aircraft outnumbered the Spitfire two to one as the Battle of Britain began.
.
50 years since the very first gig by a band called “Sex Pistols”.
Scathing Atheist 662
Roast of the Town Edition
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=vZJFSFJ7kdA
Re: birgerjohansson @ #38…
Plus… About 80% of the German aircraft losses during the Battle of Britain were to Hurricanes. Generally, speaking, the faster Spitfires arrived first and got in dog fights with the Bf-109 fighter escort cover. Then the slower Hurricanes arrived and went after the–now unprotected–bombers.
@Lynna #26:
Gosh, someone at Heritage had principles? No, of course not.
Posted on 2024-12-09:
Heritage Foundation Plan To Fight Antisemitism Has Hilariously Ironic Problem
Rando:
Sky Captain @41, thanks for that additional information.
Sky Captain @42, Teen Vogue was a good source. Now that Vogue has stripped Teen Vogue of their entire politics team, I expect that we will see a very restricted view of “issues that matter most to young people.” WTF? That is so condescending.
In other news, The Washington Post reports:
Depending on your skies cloudiness & darkness status might be worth looking up about now..
Source : https://www.space.com/stargazing/auroras/northern-lights-may-be-visible-in-22-us-states-nov-6-7-2025