There's a key factor limiting the power of a potential Democratic surge next year: the number of seats that are realistically competitive.
The government has launched an independent review of foreign financial interference in UK politics, after the jailing of a former Reform MEP for taking Russian bribes.
A tool for tracking over three billion WhatsApp and Signal users has been publicly released. read more
US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Friday said that he was moving to file a bipartisan bill to repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. read more
FDA plans possible black box warning for COVID-19 shots amid rare heart risk reports; studies say the virus carries a higher threat. read more
Speaker Refuses Moderates' Pleas to Vote on Health Subsidies
finance.yahoo.com
... Speaker Mike Johnson will block a push by moderate House Republicans for a vote on renewing expiring Obamacare subsidies, quashing a last-ditch effort to head off a spike in insurance premiums for more than 20 million Americans. ...
A band of swing-district moderates had pushed for a vote this week on adding an extension of the expiring subsidies to Republican health care legislation that the House plans to vote on Wednesday.
That would be the last opportunity for renewing the subsidies this year, with lawmakers planning to leave Friday for a holiday break that will extend into the new year. ...
@#16 ... Calling something a National Security threat has legal implications. ...
Like this...?
Trump administration says White House ballroom construction is matter of national security
www.theguardian.com
... Donald Trump's administration argued Monday in a court filing that the president's White House ballroom construction project must continue for reasons of national security. ...
Related ...
Schumer blasts Rubio, Hegseth over transparency on Venezuela strikes
www.newsnationnow.com
... Cabinet secretaries Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth faced lawmakers in two separate briefings Tuesday about deadly U.S. strikes off the coast of Venezuela.
Both top Trump advisers remained tight-lipped about Tuesday's Senate briefing as they headed toward the House, instead praising the Trump administration's "Operation Southern Spear" campaign to reporters.
"This has been a highly successful mission that's ongoing and continued, and we're pleased to be here today to update Congress on how that's developing and how that's moving forward," Rubio said. Hegseth said he "echoed that" sentiment.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has called for transparency around the strikes, blasted the closed-door meeting's results to reporters.
"I reiterated my demands of Secretary Hegseth in front of all 100 Senators, that he allow every senator to see the unedited version ... He refused. The administration came to this briefing empty-handed," Schumer said. ...
Update ...
Hegseth: Pentagon won't release full video of Sept. 2 boat strikes
thehill.com
... Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the Pentagon will not release the full, unedited video of the U.S. military's September strike on an alleged drug boat, which killed 11 "narco-terrorists," including two survivors in a follow-up strike.
"In keeping with long-standing Department of War policy ... Department of Defense policy, of course, we're not going to release a top secret full unedited video of that to the general public," Hegseth told reporters after briefing senators on the U.S. military's ongoing, lethal strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. ...
Democrats have been calling on the Trump administration to release full footage from the strikes. President Trump initially expressed support for the clip to be shown to the public but has since deferred to the Defense secretary to make that call.
Senators were not shown the video during the Tuesday closed-door briefing.
"It is hard to square the widespread routine prompt posting of detailed videos of every strike with a concern that posting a portion of the video of the first strike would violate a variety of classification concerns," Sen. Chris ----- (D-Del.), who attended the briefing, told reporters on Capitol Hill. ...
EU Tightens Sanctions on Belarus After US Moves Woo Minsk
www.bloomberg.com
... The European Union expanded sanctions against Belarus, just days after the US said it would lift restrictions on exports of potash from the country, underscoring diverging approaches to the close ally of Russia.
"If the Belarus regime doesn't change its behavior, we might be both at different speeds and at different directions with the US," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said Monday in Brussels. ...
@#88
Donald Trump's Response to Rob Reiner's Death Sparks MAGA Backlash
www.newsweek.com
... Many Truth Social and X users were left aghast.
"I love you but this is seriously distasteful," wrote one supporter on Truth Social.
"I'm struggling to believe this is real or that the greatest President the US will ever have actually wrote these words, much less tapped send," one X user commented. ...
@#4 ... okay... and then what? ...
That's an excellent question.
What happens when satellite debris starts crashing on to houses?
NASA says it expected space station garbage to burn up. The debris smashed into a Florida home instead (2024)
www.cnn.com
That's a part of the "then what."
A likely occurrence?
I hope not.
But, then, Hurricane Katrina was also not a likely occurrence.
So, at this point I have to ask, are you a betting person?
If so, what odds are you comfortable with?
:)
Yeah, the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 seems to continue to affect the ability of the Government to govern.
Speaking of Project 2025, and it's success ...
Musk calls Doge only somewhat successful' and says he would not do it again
www.theguardian.com
... Elon Musk has said the aggressive federal job-cutting program he headed early in Donald Trump's second term, known as the "department of government efficiency" (Doge), was only "a little bit successful" and he would not lead the project again.
Musk said he wouldn't want to repeat the exercise, talking on the podcast hosted by Katie Miller, a rightwing personality with a rising profile who was a Doge adviser and who is married to Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's hardline anti-immigration deputy chief of staff.
Asked whether Doge had achieved what he'd hoped, Musk said: "We were a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful." ...
@#17 ... 100 years old and still sings and dances ...
Comedy icon Dick van ---- celebrates turning 100: "I still try to dance"
www.cbsnews.com
OK, Dick Van Dγke is a fav actor of mine. Since the days of the Dick Van Dγke show, back in the day.
I applaud him for that.
But this recent stuff that pops up on the search engines seems to be just Hollywood phlegm.
So sad for such a great person.
@#10 ... One thing I've learned over the decades is that Repubicans can always sink lower ... there is really no bottom. ...
Yup.
Some people are so poor all they have is money (2021)
www.lifeafterthedailygrind.com
... Some people are so poor all they have is money is a quote attributed to Patrick Meagher as well as Bob Marley.
It's always difficult to know who the original author of a quote was, and probably doesn't matter.
It's certainly the kind of thing Marley would have said. The below transcript is from an interview where his views on money are made clear.
Interviewer: are you a rich man?
Marley: what do you mean, rich?
Interviewer: you have a lot of possessions?
Marley: a lot of money in the bank? - possessions make you rich?
Marley: I don't know that type of richness, my richness is life
Coco Chanel made a similar remark when she said "There are people who have money and there are people who are rich".
I see Marley's (assuming it was him) quote of "Some people are so poor all they have is money" as an inverted, more concise version of Chanel's.
It probably doesn't need explaining, however, this quote relies on poor being viewed holistically and not simply in the context of money. It's an observation of people who have nothing but money, those that only care and think about their bank balance.
Marilyn Monroe
"I'm generally miserable"
Marilyn Monroe
Going from Marley to Monroe: despite her wealth and fame, Marilyn Monroe let it be known in a rare interview that on the whole, she felt miserable. ...
Looks like Pres Trump is going to deliver an address from the White House tomorrow (Wednesday) night.
He seems to want to talk about his historic accomplishments as the first year of his term winds down ...