The Overdue GOP Reckoning
The Overdue GOP Reckoning
Plus: Don't Trust the Gaza Health Ministry
Recently in The Bulwark:
CHARLIE SYKES: A Coup on His Resume
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TIM MILLER: The House Republicans’ Reckoning Was Long Overdue.
TOM EMMER’S FOUR-HOUR RUN as the Republican nominee for speaker of the House yesterday (3/200ths of a Scaramucci, for those counting at home) will be remembered, if it is remembered at all, as one of the final gasps in the long overdue reckoning that has been coming for leaders of a bygone Republican party.
For about a decade and a half now the governing wing of the party has attempted every strategy imaginable to delay handing congressional leadership power to the group of lawmakers who better represent the desires of today’s GOP voters—the erstwhile renegades the late John McCain dubbed “wacko birds.” That group has grown from only a handful of troublemakers to a significant bloc of Congress that’s bolstered by an additional group of “closet normals” who dress in wacko bird costumes for the retweets.
WILL SALETAN: Don’t Trust the Gaza Health Ministry
ON THE EVENING OF OCTOBER 17, Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced that an Israeli airstrike had killed at least 500 people at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. News organizations broadcast the report, Muslims across the region erupted in outrage, Arab governments denounced Israel, and President Joe Biden had to abandon a planned meeting with Arab leaders.
Within hours, the story began to fall apart. Within two days, it was discredited. Multiple lines of evidence, including videos, photos, and satellite images, showed that the damage had been caused not by an Israeli airstrike, but by a botched rocket launch from Gaza.
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KIMBERLY WEHLE: States Launch Massive Lawsuit Against Facebook and Instagram.
ON TUESDAY, OVER HALF of the states’ attorneys general (including Letitia James of New York, whose fraud case against former President Donald Trump and his businesses is now in its fourth week of trial) sued the social media giant Meta in federal court in California, claiming that its Instagram and Facebook platforms are deliberately addictive and harmful and that they “exploit and manipulate” children. The 233-page civil complaint is a monster of a filing, citing violations of the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and its implementing regulations, which prohibit “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” regarding the collection, use, or sharing of data relating to children under the age of 13. COPPA also requires online platforms to obtain prior verifiable parental consent before they collect or use their kids’ data.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
JAMES A. RHODES APPALACHIAN HIGHWAY, OHIO… Greetings from the “highway to nowhere” albeit one with excellent food options. As noted yesterday, the Overtimes today and tomorrow will be shorter than normal. And remember: No TNB tomorrow!
Remembering Staff. Sgt. Matt Maupin… Near where I’m staying for this family funeral, the hotel offers stickers that say “MY NAME IS MATT MAUPIN. PLEASE REMEMBER MY FACE.” Matt, who grew up Batavia, was captured in Iraq in April of 2004. He was captured, ultimately found dead nearly four years later.
While I was in the air.. The House finally elected a speaker, Mega Maga Mike Johnson, as Drudge calls him. As the boss observes: Probably a bad choice for Speaker!
Is it time for the GOP to break up? At The Hill, Max Burns argues yes.
Chalk up another W for Phil Williams… Mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson went down in flames. (If you haven’t followed…)
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