Musk calls for MAGA’s ‘contemptible fools’ to be expelled from the Republican Party

Musk calls for MAGA’s ‘contemptible fools’ to be expelled from the Republican Party

Salon reports: Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have financed an anti-immigrant, ‘America First’ presidential campaign to the tune of $250 million, but his call for more skilled foreign-born workers sparked massive backlash from President-elect Donald Trump’s far-right supporters. Musk on Wednesday asserted that there was a “dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America” and called for increased visa availability, drawing scorn from many of Trump’s followers and close allies. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a momentary pick…

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Freedom Caucus chair: House GOP needs to consider if ‘current leadership is what we need’

Freedom Caucus chair: House GOP needs to consider if ‘current leadership is what we need’

Politico reports: House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris told Fox Business on Thursday that the chamber’s Republicans need to consider if current leadership “is what we need” going into unified GOP government next year. “Before the last couple of weeks, I was in his corner, but now we should consider what’s the best path forward,” Harris (R-Md.) said of Speaker Mike Johnson. “We do need to consider whether — if we’re going to advance Mr. Trump’s agenda — whether the…

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People with extreme wealth should give it away — or be penalized

People with extreme wealth should give it away — or be penalized

Ingrid Robeyns writes: In 2024, wealth concentration rose to an all-time high. According to Forbes’ Billionaires List, not only are there more billionaires than ever—2,781—but those billionaires are also richer than ever, with an aggregate worth of $14.2 trillion. This is a trend that looks set to continue unabated. A recent report from the financial data company Altrata estimated that about 1.2 million individuals who are worth more than $5 million will pass on a collective wealth of almost $31…

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Israel storms northern Gaza’s last hospital as remaining residents forced south

Israel storms northern Gaza’s last hospital as remaining residents forced south

+972 reports: In the morning hours of Dec. 27, Israeli army forces stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital compound in Beit Lahiya, culminating a nearly week-long siege of the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza. Soldiers forcibly moved patients out of Kamal Adwan to the Indonesian Hospital further south in the city, which had itself been subjected to an evacuation order by the military several days earlier. “Surgical departments, laboratory, maintenance, and emergency units have been completely burned, and the fire…

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New leaders in Damascus call for cordial Syria ties with a resistant Israel — updated

New leaders in Damascus call for cordial Syria ties with a resistant Israel — updated

NPR reports: The newly appointed governor of Damascus has called on the United States to use its influence to push for cordial relations with Israel. In a wide-ranging interview with NPR, Governor Maher Marwan, 42, said that Syria’s new government did not want to seek conflict with Israel, which has been striking strategic military installations in Syria since the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad fell earlier this month. “We have no fear towards Israel and our problem is not…

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A debate about who controls Syria’s state and society

A debate about who controls Syria’s state and society

Ammar Abdulhamid writes: The question of alcohol regulation in Syria, recently raised by secular advocates, is far from a minor detail. It strikes at the core of the discussions about the future nature of the Syrian state. The statement by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), during a recent BBC interview that the country is dealing with more serious challenges at this stage was undermined by his own admission that legal experts drafting Syria’s future constitution were…

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How to buy a piece of a lawsuit and impoverish a country

How to buy a piece of a lawsuit and impoverish a country

Inside Climate News reports: When a foreign mining company sued Greenland in 2022, the government’s lead lawyer thought he was prepared. Paw Fruerlund had handled similar cases before, and he believed the law and facts were on his side. When he arrived at one of the first hearings, however, Fruerlund stared across the table at 12 corporate lawyers from two firms representing his opponent, an Australian company called Greenland Minerals. There were so many, they spilled across two rows of…

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U.S.-funded report, suppressed by Biden administration, says North Gaza on threshold of famine

U.S.-funded report, suppressed by Biden administration, says North Gaza on threshold of famine

A report by the U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning System Network published on December 23, says: Israel’s near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies to besieged areas of North Gaza Governorate (including Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun) has been in place for nearly 80 days. As of November 16, OCHA estimated 65,000-75,000 people remained in North Gaza Governorate, including civilians who have been unable to or prevented from evacuating. More recent satellite-derived imagery suggests thousands of people evacuated in…

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Shortage of talented engineers because American culture venerates ‘mediocrity over excellence’

Shortage of talented engineers because American culture venerates ‘mediocrity over excellence’

The Hill reports: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-chairs of President-elect Trump’s new “Department of Government Efficiency,” are defending the tech industry’s reliance on foreign-born engineers as the incoming Trump administration prepares to crack down on immigration. Musk and Ramaswamy both pointed to a lack of engineers stateside. “The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” Musk wrote in a Wednesday post on his social platform X. When another…

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These MAGA farmers could be ruined if Trump follows through with mass deportations

These MAGA farmers could be ruined if Trump follows through with mass deportations

Politico reports: California farmers could soon enjoy bumper crops thanks to President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to lift water restrictions. But who will pick them if he follows through on his deportation threats? The country’s largest agricultural constituency backed Trump in November, bucking California’s deep-blue electorate over his campaign promises to “open the faucet” and deliver more water to the state’s parched, conservative-leaning Central Valley. But now it’s reckoning with an uncomfortable contradiction: Trump also campaigned on mass deportations of undocumented…

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Wishful thinking: He knows poor people got him elected, so ‘Trump is going to do more to help us’

Wishful thinking: He knows poor people got him elected, so ‘Trump is going to do more to help us’

The Washington Post reports: Lori Mosura goes to the grocery store on a bicycle because she can’t afford to fix her Ford F-150 truck. The single mother and her 17-year-old son live in an apartment that is so small she sleeps in the dining room. They receive $1,200 each month in food stamps and Social Security benefits but still come up short. Mosura said she often must decide whether to buy milk or toilet paper. It was all that penny-pinching…

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Finland investigates Russia ‘shadow fleet’ ship after cable damage

Finland investigates Russia ‘shadow fleet’ ship after cable damage

BBC News reports: Finnish police are investigating whether a Russian ship was involved in the sabotage of an electricity cable running between Finland and Estonia. The authorities said on Thursday that they believe the anchor of the Eagle S, a tanker registered with the Cook Islands, may have damaged the Estlink 2 cable, which became disconnected on Wednesday. The vessel is thought to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet”, which is made up of ships that carry embargoed Russian oil…

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How Native Americans guarded their societies against tyranny

How Native Americans guarded their societies against tyranny

A purple and white flag representing the world’s oldest democracy, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, flies above a Mohawk flag at a Native American gathering. Giordanno Brumas/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images By Kathleen DuVal, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill When the founders of the United States designed the Constitution, they were learning from history that democracy was likely to fail – to find someone who would fool the people into giving him complete power and then end the democracy. They…

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How much does language shape thought?

How much does language shape thought?

Manvir Singh writes: Everyone can agree that language affects thought. If I told you that I have a pet badger and twenty-two canaries, you’d have new thoughts about my home life. The real question is whether a language itself has features that affect how its speakers think: Does conversing in Spanish for a month make objects seem more gendered? Does speaking English rather than Hindi make you less casteist, and maybe more capitalist? Today, questions like these tend to be…

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