The fifth Democratic primary debate showed that a cull is overdue
Thinning out the field of Democrats could focus minds on the way to Iowa’s caucuses
90 Day Fiancé star STEPHANIE MATTO: I’ve banned my brother from Thanksgiving because he voted Trump. I don’t care if it tears our family apart!
Stephanie Matto, 34, is a TV personality known for her appearance on the TLC reality show ’90 Day Fiancé’ in 2020. She wrote a tell-all
Wealthy West Coast suburb is living in fear as South American gang uses sinister tech to track their every move
Three homes in San Clarita Valley were burglarized, despite being located in a gated Valencia community, and locals are convicted the thieves are connected to
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis tells CNN’s Jake Tapper that Biden needs to show Democrats that he can turn his campaign around and says “he hasn’t
Shiffrin can complete century at home after taming Gurgl for 99th career win
- Shiffrin bags slalom for record-extending 99th win
- US star, 29, can earn milestone victory at Killington
Mikaela Shiffrin is taking the quest for her 100th career World Cup victory to North America.
The American ski star might even get the one win she needs for the milestone in what is like a home race for her in Killington, Vermont, which hosts a giant slalom and a slalom next weekend.
Today’s political cartoons – November 23, 2024
Saturday’s cartoons – qualifications, tax cuts, and more
I’ve joined Bluesky and it feels like a breath of fresh air – in some ways… | John Naughton
The flourishing new platform may be like Twitter once was. The problem is the limited algorithmic scope of all social media
As I write, there’s a window on my laptop screen that is providing a live view of a stampede. It’s logging the numbers of people joining the social network Bluesky . At the moment, the number of registered users is 20.5 million. By the time you read this there will be more than 30 million of them, judging by the rate that people are currently joining.
The proximate cause of it is the role that Elon Musk, owner of X (née Twitter), played in the election of Donald Trump, when a significant proportion of the platform’s 200 million-plus users realised that they’d been had – that they had, in effect, been useful idiots for Musk on his path to the centre of political power.
FEMA Chief Asked At Hearing Do You ‘Control The Weather’ Or ‘Send Hurricanes’ To Trump Areas
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) asked FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell if she or her agency “controls the weather” or “sends hurricanes” to areas based on political considerations at a hearing this week.
Fired FEMA employee Marn’i Washington was dismissed for telling workers in Florida to skip Trump houses during the Hurricane Milton recovery effort — but Washington says she was following orders , and that her instruction was a temporary “avoidance and de-escalation” measure. During Hurricane Helen, relief work was delayed because of an “armed militia” hunting FEMA workers.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee held a hearing this week on FEMA’s response to hurricanes that focused mainly on the incident.
But when Rep. Krishnamoorthi’s turn to question Administrator Criswell came around, he used part of his time to mock conspiracy theories that were spread by Republicans, including about “controlling the weather”:
REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you, Chairman, and thank you, Administrator, for your service. I want to show you a visual. Do you recognize this picture?
ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: I do not.
REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: Good. It’s an atmospheric research facility in Alaska that, believe it or not, conspiracy theorists allege is a mind-controlling weather machine. And one of the conspiracy theories out there is that somehow FEMA controls the weather. And I assume that you as the administrator do not control the weather, right?
ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: I do not control the weather.
REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: And you don’t use secret machines to control hurricanes to target certain places in the United States, right?
ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: Correct.
REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: And you and your team did not direct severe weather at North Carolina to quote unquote, “commandeer lithium mine property” in that state. Right.
ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: Why would anybody want to bring harm to the American people?
REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: And you would not direct severe weather to target anyone of a particular political party, right?
ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: Never.
REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: You’re not establishing FEMA camps to detain individuals or enact martial law, right?
ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: Correct.
REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: These are all conspiracy theories that you’ve had to deal with. I’m glad that you have addressed them in this forum.
Now, let me talk about stuff that’s true. It’s true that during Hurricanes Leon and Milton, FEMA assisted more than 35,000 households with disaster relief. Right?
ADMINISTRATOR DEANNE CRISWELL: That number sounds about correct.
Watch above via Pool.
The post FEMA Chief Asked At Hearing Do You ‘Control The Weather’ Or ‘Send Hurricanes’ To Trump Areas first appeared on Mediaite .
Bill Maher and Neil Degrasse Tyson Go Bare Knuckle On Dems Losing, Transgender Athletes: ‘Going To File You Under Part of the Problem’
Bill Maher wrapped up the latest season of Real Time with multiple tense exchanges with Neil Degrasse Tyson on Democrats losing the election and transgender athletes.
During their first heated debate on Friday, Maher said he was chalking Tyson up as “part of the problem” on the left while Tyson accused Maher of coming up with a new reason Democrats lost the election “every 20 minutes” of Real Time . The pair came to a standstill when it came to transgender athletes.
The debate began with discussion on Laura Helmuth, the chief editor of Scientific American magazine, announcing her resignation after multiple deleted social media posts where she referred to Trump supporters as the “meanest, dumbest, most bigoted” people. She clarified later her statements were a result of “shock and confusion” from the election.
Maher not only took issue with Helmuth’s leadership position at the magazine, but also knocked the magazine itself for its coverage of transgender athletes, referencing an article pointing to gender “biases” as partly behind why women cannot compete against men in a number of sports.
Check out the first exchange below:
BILL MAHER: “It sure didn’t sound scientific. It didn’t sound like the person I would want to be running Scientific American. It was a rant on [BlueSky]. I could read it to you. It’s really ugly. You know, ‘I apologize to younger voters that my Gen-X is so full of fucking fascists.’ Okay. I’m not for canceling people on either side, but here’s what I think is the scandal. This is in Scientific American less than a year ago, ‘inequity between male and female athletes as a result, not of inherent biological differences between the sexes, but of biases in how they are treated in sports.’ That’s nuts. And it sure ain’t scientific. And it’s in Scientific American. And that’s why the Democrats lost the election. It’s true.”
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: “Bill, every 20 minutes on your platform, you come up with another reason why the Democrats lost. You already have the answer. They lost the election. So anything you say about why they didn’t —”
MAHER: “First of all, you don’t watch this show so you don’t know — It’s okay, but you talk as if you do and you fucking don’t. That’s okay, just don’t bullshit me. That’s the one thing people can never do on this show is bullshit me. And that’s fine, but I don’t say that. I have very good reasons. But engage with the idea here. What I’m asking is Scientific American is saying basically that the reason why an NBA, WNBA a team can’t beat the Lakers is because of societal bias.”
TYSON: “What you’re saying is not Scientific American saying that, an editor for Scientific American says that who no longer has the job so don’t indict a 170 year old magazine because somebody goes —”
MAHER: “This is Scientific American and they are printing something that’s —”
TYSON: “Someone enters the cesspool and social media and then participates in that exchange, so let’s talk about science!”
MAHER: “Why can’t you just say this is not scientific and Scientific American should do better?!”
TYSON: “Well, does she still have her job?”
MAHER: “Not because of this! I said the scandal was her [posts].”
TYSON: “I think this was a year ago.”
MAHER: “I think a year ago, women still couldn’t beat men in basketball or any other sport and it wasn’t because of society. You don’t see a problem here?”
TYSON: “Long distance swimming, women might actually have the advantage. Look into that.”
MAHER: “Maybe long distance swimming, okay.”
TYSON: “I’ve looked into it.”
MAHER: “Well, I’m going to file you under ‘part of the problem.’”
During the show’s Overtime segment, Maher circled back to his criticism of Tyson after the astrophysicist was arguing that people are mostly incapable of thinking “statistically,” tying this argument to criticism and skepticism towards some vaccines. When Tyson brought up vaccines, he jokingly told Maher, “I don’t want to poke the bear here.”
Check out round two below:
MAHER: “The bear believes in vaccines, but just being skeptical of all medical interventions as everyone should.”
TYSON: “Except — wait, wait, wait — except 99 out of 100 medical interventions, you’re not saying I need a second opinion. If you have tuberculosis, you don’t need a second opinion. If you have pollyps in your colon, you don’t need a second opinion.”
MAHER: “It’s not close to 99%!”
TYSON: “It’s easily 99%! If you break a femur, you don’t get a second opinion!”
MAHER: “I agree, but that’s not most things that happen to people. Lots of things that happen to people — and I’m thrilled you don’t ever have this happen in your life and I hope you never do, but trust me, most people at a certain point in their life will need a second opinion.”
TYSON: “A second opinion, yes, but that’s after you’ve been through 99 other — I’m trying to put credit back to doctors where our life extectancy is three times what it was 150 years ago. And everyone before 150 years ago ate organic! And half of them died before they were 35. Science matters!”
MAHER: “Of course it does.”
TYSON: “Sometimes you don’t sound that way. That’s what worries me!”
MAHER: “Actually, you’re the guy who doesn’t understand why the WNBA team can’t beat the Lakers so I don’t know, you’re supposed to be the scientist and you couldn’t even admit that! And as far as medicine goes, I could talk to you about this all day, but again, we do have a party to get to. This is not your field, you’re not a doctor.”
TYSON: “I’m a scientist! Excuse me —”
MAHER: “That’s not a doctor! That’s not a doctor! When I have a goiter on Uranus, I’ll call you.”
Watch above via HBO .
The post Bill Maher and Neil Degrasse Tyson Go Bare Knuckle On Dems Losing, Transgender Athletes: ‘Going To File You Under Part of the Problem’ first appeared on Mediaite .
Jim VandeHei: Why clear-eyed journalism matters
Axios CEO Jim VandeHei inspired and energized a National Press Club gala with a passionate, ad-libbed defense of free and fearless reporting, warning that “everything