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MAGA Republicans and their billionaire backers like Elon Musk have finally honed-in on a ten-point formula that works for obtaining political and economic power. And they are never going to ditch it. Pandering conspiracy theories to high school grads rather than trying to impress college grads with knowledge of history and science is one key. Those blue-collar kids never paid much attention to social studies during their 12-year ordeal in school. Education was too boring compared to skating the internet on their phones during class. They want crazy gossip, and the more the better. Falsely blaming others for exhibiting one’s own manifest faults works extremely well too. This is called “projecting” in the parlance of psychology and “smearing” in communist political science. Doing this upsets Democrats to no end and causes them to swoon with great anxiety and lose sight of any reasonable path to success. Lying is the new truth-telling. We told the truth for 400 years on the North American continent and this people are clearly getting tired of it. No fun at all. Very slow path to power. We also covered up the flesh in public places, and men and women are so over that too. Republicans will steadfastly keep AR-15s legal for the many mentally unstable citizens of our country to purchase and utilize at their own pleasure. Those violence-minded folks provide almost nightly entertainment for law-abiding citizens looking for ever-more insane true-crime stories and reality TV. All this anti-civic entertainment in turn is necessary for preventing America from returning to serious participation in democracy on any level of government. Why participate if you are just going to get shot to bits when you step out in public? In addition, all the blood and guts make us want to lean on Republican despots, authoritarians, dictators, and tyrants for security because they are the only ones who can fix things. They create the problems for sure, but then they alone can solve the problems. Republicans will continue to elaborate the political philosophy of autocracy and monarchy. This is the idea that one human being is just so much more special than others that he must make all the laws instead of Congress making them. Furthermore, his DNA is the key to keeping stability in the nation, so it is clearly best for him to pass on the reins of government to his first-born son and establish a hereditary-style government. Making barrels of money and thus becoming an untouchable celebrity is the only cherished path to personal success for Republicans today, and even a few Democrats. Encouraging everybody to become a gold digger by investing in new kinds of currency and supporting wild new technologies is the perfect answer to the plodding, science-based small-business capitalism that built this country. That is so passe. We must also turn America into a false advertising mecca. If propaganda works in Republican politics, it surely works just as well in Republican business and banking. Marketing departments must build fantastic new fantasy worlds through advertising campaigns in order to marginalize the competition and become a monopoly in the industry. Those monopolies can then more easily use the Citizens United decision to purchase the budding new Republicans they want to see governing things on national and local levels. Religion must maintain all the doctrines that theologists and politicians cooked up during the Dark Ages to make the Roman Catholic church the ruler of all of Europe. Citizens must be charmed into swallowing them whole, never bothering to digest them, for that might cause alarm and insight. Protestant churches must also move forward toward to an authoritarian system of church government that will allow them to quickly marshal their members to support Republican candidates on the national, state, and local levels. Republicans must double-down on the idea that childless cat ladies are a problem. Those who avoid child-rearing do not understand the imperative of the aristocratic class and the monarchy to produce heirs to pass along their wealth to. Besides, child rearing in the commoner class is meritorious because it populates the underclass that must do the economic bidding of the Republican aristocracy. If DNA works in aristocracy and monarchy, it also works in race relations. White DNA is much superior to off-white or colored DNA. That’s just obvious to every MAGA cheerleader. Besides, colored folk tend toward communism, and that must be stopped.Mr Bayrou, 73, a crucial partner in Macron’s centrist alliance, has been a well-known figure in French politics for decades. His political experience is seen as key in efforts to restore stability as no single party holds a majority at the National Assembly. Mr Macron’s office said in a statement that Mr Bayrou “has been charged with forming a new government”. During the handover ceremony, Mr Bayrou said that “no one knows the difficulty of the situation better” than he does. “I’ve taken reckless risks all along my political life to raise the issue of debt and deficits in the most important elections,” he said. France is under pressure from the European Union’s executive body and financial markets to reduce its colossal debt, estimated to reach 6% of its gross domestic product this year. “I know that the risks of difficulties are much greater than the chances of success,” Mr Bayrou said, adding that he hopes to lead the country towards a “needed reconciliation”. “I think this is the only possible path to success,” he said. The new prime minister is expected to hold talks with political leaders from various parties in the coming days in order to choose new ministers. Former prime minister Michel Barnier resigned last week following a no-confidence vote prompted by budget disputes in the National Assembly, leaving France without a functioning government. Mr Macron in an address to the nation vowed to remain in office until his term ends in 2027. Mr Macron’s centrist alliance does not have a majority in parliament and Mr Bayrou’s Cabinet will need to rely on moderate lawmakers from the left and the right to be able to stay in power. Some conservatives are expected to be part of the new government. Mr Macron’s strategy aims at preventing far-right leader Marine Le Pen from holding “make or break” power over the government. Ms Le Pen helped oust Mr Barnier by joining her National Rally party’s forces to the left to pass the no-confidence motion last week. Mr Bayrou’s appointment is also in line with Mr Macron’s efforts to build a non-aggression pact with the Socialists so that they commit not to vote against the government in any future confidence motion. Mr Bayrou leads the centrist Democratic Movement, known as MoDem, which he founded in 2007. In 2017, he supported Mr Macron’s first presidential bid and became a weighty partner in the French president’s centrist alliance. At the time, he was appointed justice minister, but he quickly resigned from the government amid an investigation into the MoDem’s alleged embezzlement of European Parliament funds. Mr Bayrou this year was cleared in the case by a Paris court, which found eight other party officials guilty and sentenced the party to pay a fine. Mr Bayrou became well known to the French public when he was education minister from 1993 to 1997 in a conservative government. He was three times a candidate for president: in 2002, 2007 and 2012.fc188 bet m home 。

Winning the 2024 election didn’t just return Donald Trump to power. It also allowed him to dodge multiple criminal cases . And while his unofficial vice president , Elon Musk, didn’t need a Trump win to stay out of jail—at least under any existing charges—the victory likely freed Musk and his companies from regulatory oversight. That’s an exceedingly lucky break for Musk, currently being scrutinized by multiple government agencies for everything from his inflated claims about self-driving Tesla cars to his SpaceX rocket launches polluting wetlands to his purchase of social media platform X—just to name a few. To be perfectly fair, Trump’s victory means a far friendlier atmosphere for all greedy billionaires who hate regulations, not just Musk personally. But Musk is the one sitting next to Trump at Thanksgiving and the one who threw roughly $260 million at Trump’s campaign while fawning over him on X and in person. So which pesky investigations and regulations is Musk probably free of now that his bestie is headed to the White House? For starters, perhaps he’ll get out from under the alphabet soup of agencies looking into Tesla’s so-called full self-driving system, or FSD. Musk has promised a vision of a completely autonomous hands-free Tesla since 2013 . It’s not a vision that has ever come true. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has twice required Tesla to recall FSD because of the system’s bad habit of ignoring traffic laws, including being programmed to run stop signs at slow speeds. In October, the agency opened another inquiry after the company reported four crashes, one of which killed a pedestrian, when FSD was used in low-visibility conditions like fog. The issue isn’t just that FSD is unsafe. It’s also that Tesla hoovered up cash by selling a product that basically doesn’t exist. Tesla owners filed a class-action lawsuit in 2022 alleging the company defrauded them by charging $15,000 for an FSD package that didn’t result in a Tesla being able to drive itself successfully. Tesla’s defense? Full self-driving is merely an aspirational goal, so a failure to provide it isn’t a deliberate fraud—just bad luck. Perhaps that’s the same excuse Tesla would have trotted out in response to the Department of Justice’s criminal investigation into whether the company committed wire fraud by deceiving consumers about FSD’s capabilities and securities fraud by deceiving investors. Trump named former reality show star and former Congressman Sean Duffy to head the Department of Transportation, of which NHTSA is a part, and tapped one of his impeachment defense attorneys, Pam Bondi, to head the DOJ after Matt Gaetz’s nomination flamed out. There’s no reason to think either of these people will grow a spine and continue investigating “ first buddy ” Elon Musk or Tesla. Trump’s election also probably gives SpaceX breathing room. Musk’s private space company, which receives literal billions in government money, hasn’t been terribly interested in following government rules. In September, the Environmental Protection Agency fined SpaceX $148,378 for dumping industrial wastewater and pollutants into wetlands near its Texas launch site. The company paid that fine, albeit with some whining about how it was “disappointing” to pay when it disagreed with the allegations, but it’s planning on challenging the recent $633,000 fine from the Federal Aviation Administration. The regulatory agency proposed the fine after two launches in 2023 where the company allegedly didn’t get FAA approval for launch procedure changes and didn’t follow license requirements. This isn’t SpaceX’s first run-in with the FAA. The aerospace company paid a $175,000 fine in October 2023 over not submitting required safety data to the agency before a 2022 launch of Starlink satellites. After an April 2023 launch where one of the company’s rockets blew up shortly after takeoff, sending debris over South Texas, the FAA required the agency to make dozens of changes before another launch. Like the NHTSA, the FAA is part of the Transportation Department. Sean Duffy’s past as an airline industry lobbyist doesn’t inspire confidence that he’ll take a hard line against SpaceX. And as far as whether the EPA will continue to pose any problems for Musk? Under Trump, that agency will be run by former GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, whose primary qualification seems to be hating EPA regulations . He’s voted against replacing lead water pipes and cleaning up brownfields and sees his mission at the EPA as pursuing “energy dominance.” Again, not exactly someone who will bring the hammer down on Musk or his companies. Musk is also in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the possibility he delayed disclosing his acquisition of Twitter stock in 2022. Investors must disclose when they accumulate 5% of a publicly traded company, a requirement that ostensible super-genius Musk says he misunderstood somehow. Under President Joe Biden, current SEC chair Gary Gensler has aggressively pursued enforcement efforts, a trend in no way expected to continue under whoever Trump picks. Lightning round! Musk tried hard to violate a consent order with the Federal Trade Commission by giving “Twitter Files” writers improper access to user data, but he was thwarted by Twitter employees who actually followed the order. He’s faced numerous unfair labor practices claims and been investigated multiple times by the National Labor Relations Board, so he’s suing to have the board declared unconstitutional . He lost out on $885 million in government subsidies after the Federal Communications Commission found that Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, couldn’t meet the speed metrics for the government’s rural broadband program. Luckily for the multibillionaire, the incoming head of the FCC is a pal of Musk’s who thinks it is “ regulatory harassment ” to require Starlink to meet program requirements. Musk will also have the advantage of helming a newly invented entity, the cringily titled Department of Government Efficiency (aka DOGE—ugh), that can put his rivals under a microscope. DOGE’s co-head, fellow tech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, has already said he’ll examine a government loan to Rivian, a competing electric vehicle manufacturer, calling the loan “a political shot across the bow at Elon Musk and Tesla.” Though DOGE is not an actual department—you need Congress to create one of those—and cannot slash spending directly, Musk could still suggest to Trump that government funding of fiber optic cables in rural areas be gutted . This would leave satellite services like Starlink as the only option for some rural consumers—an option either those consumers or the government would then have to pay for. Until Trump was elected in 2016, it was impossible to imagine giving billionaires like Musk so much opportunity to use the levers of government to openly and directly benefit themselves. Now that Trump has won a second term in office, Musk is just one of many oligarchs looking forward to an extremely lucrative four years. It’s lucky for them—but terrible for the rest of us.Massive Chinese espionage scheme hit 9th telecom firm, US says

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO CHICAGO (AP) — As Donald Trump’s Cabinet begins to take shape, those on both sides of the abortion debate are watching closely for clues about how his picks might affect reproductive rights policy in the president-elect’s second term . Trump’s cabinet picks offer a preview of how his administration could handle abortion after he repeatedly flip-flopped on the issue on the campaign trail. He attempted to distance himself from anti-abortion allies by deferring to states on abortion policy, even while boasting about nominating three Supreme Court justices who helped strike down the constitutional protections for abortion that had stood for half a century. In an NBC News interview that aired Sunday, Trump said he doesn’t plan to restrict medication abortion but also seemed to leave the door open, saying “things change.” “Things do change, but I don’t think it’s going to change at all,” he said. The early lineup of his new administration , including nominations to lead health agencies, the Justice Department and event the Department of Veterans Affairs, has garnered mixed — but generally positive — reactions from anti-abortion groups. Abortion law experts said Trump’s decision to include fewer candidates with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement could indicate that abortion will not be a priority for Trump’s administration. “It almost seems to suggest that President Trump might be focusing his administration in other directions,” said Greer Donley, an associate law professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Karen Stone, vice president of public policy at Planned Parenthood Action Fund , said while many of the nominees have “extensive records against reproductive health care,” some do not. She cautioned against making assumptions based on Trump’s initial cabinet selections. Still, many abortion rights groups are wary, in part because many of the nominees hold strong anti-abortion views even if they do not have direct ties to anti-abortion activists. They’re concerned that an administration filled with top-level officials who are personally opposed to abortion could take steps to restrict access to the procedure and funding. After Trump’s ambiguity about abortion during his campaign, “there’s still a lot we don’t know about what policy is going to look like,” said Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law. That approach may be revealed as the staffs within key departments are announced. Trump announced he would nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department, which anti-abortion forces have long targeted as central to curtailing abortion rights nationwide. Yet Kennedy shifted on the issue during his own presidential campaign. In campaign videos, Kennedy said he supports abortion access until viability , which doctors say is sometime after 21 weeks, although there is no defined timeframe. But he also said “every abortion is a tragedy” and argued for a national ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a stance he quickly walked back. The head of Health and Human Services oversees Title X funding for a host of family planning services and has sweeping authority over agencies that directly affect abortion access, including the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The role is especially vital amid legal battles over a federal law known as EMTALA, which President Joe Biden’s administration has argued requires emergency abortion access nationwide, and FDA approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Mini Timmaraju, president of the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All, called Kennedy an “unfit, unqualified extremist who cannot be trusted to protect the health, safety and reproductive freedom of American families.” His potential nomination also has caused waves in the anti-abortion movement. Former Vice President Mike Pence , a staunch abortion opponent, urged the Senate to reject Kennedy’s nomination. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the group had its own concerns about Kennedy. “There’s no question that we need a pro-life HHS secretary,” she said. Fox News correspondent Marty Makary is Trump’s pick to lead the FDA, which plays a critical role in access to medication abortion and contraception. Abortion rights groups have accused him of sharing misinformation about abortion on air. Russell Vought , a staunch anti-abortion conservative, has been nominated for director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought was a key architect of Project 2025 , a right-wing blueprint for running the federal government. Among other actions to limit reproductive rights, it calls for eliminating access to medication abortion nationwide, cutting Medicaid funding for abortion and restricting access to contraceptive care, especially long-acting reversible contraceptives such as IUD’s. Despite distancing himself from the conservative manifesto on the campaign trail, Trump is stocking his administration with people who played central roles in developing Project 2025. Trump acknowledged that drafters of the report would be part of his incoming administration during the Sunday interview with NBC News, saying “Many of those things I happen to agree with.” “These cabinet appointments all confirm that Project 2025 was in fact the blueprint all along, and the alarm we saw about it was warranted,” said Amy Williams Navarro, director of government relations for Reproductive Freedom for All. Dr. Mehmet Oz , Trump’s choice to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is a former television talk show host who has been accused of hawking dubious medical treatments and products. He voiced contradictory abortion views during his failed Senate run in 2022. Oz has described himself as “strongly pro-life, praised the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade , claimed “life starts at conception” and referred to abortion as “murder.” But he also has echoed Trump’s states-rights approach, arguing the federal government should not be involved in abortion decisions. “I want women, doctors, local political leaders, letting the democracy that’s always allowed our nation to thrive to put the best ideas forward so states can decide for themselves,” he said during a Senate debate two years ago. An array of reproductive rights groups opposed his Senate run. As CMS administrator, Oz would be in a key position to determine Medicaid coverage for family planning services and investigate potential EMTALA violations. Related Articles National Politics | In promising to shake up Washington, Trump is in a class of his own National Politics | Election Day has long passed. In some states, legislatures are working to undermine the results National Politics | Trump attorney Alina Habba, a Lehigh University grad, to serve as counselor to the president National Politics | Trump isn’t back in office but he’s already pushing his agenda and negotiating with world leaders National Politics | With Trump on the way, advocates look to states to pick up medical debt fight As Florida’s attorney general, Pam Bondi defended abortion restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period. Now she’s Trump’s choice for attorney general . Her nomination is being celebrated by abortion opponents but denounced by abortion rights groups concerned she may revive the Comstock Act , an anti-vice law passed by Congress in 1873 that, among other things, bans mailing of medication or instruments used in abortion. An anti-abortion and anti-vaccine former Florida congressman, David Weldon, has been chosen to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which collects and monitors abortion data across the country. Former Republican congressman Doug Collins is Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs amid a political battle over abortion access and funding for troops and veterans. Collins voted consistently to restrict funding and access to abortion and celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade. “This is a team that the pro-life movement can work with,” said Kristin Hawkins, president of the national anti-abortion organization Students for Life.‘Extremely ironic': Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO slaying played video game killer, friend recalls

THE provocative story of a young man sentenced to death by hanging for stealing a fowl should trigger a revolution in Nigeria’s criminal justice system. Segun Olowookere was just 17 in 2010 when police arrested him on charges of stealing a chicken and eggs from a relative’s house in Ikirun, Osun State. In court, the story assumed a dangerous dimension. He was charged with armed robbery, reportedly armed with a wooden gun and a machete. An alleged accomplice, Sunday Morakinyo, was also arrested. They were detained and tortured and moved from one police facility to another, Olowookere alleged. His father said the police asked him for N30,000 for his bail but he could only raise N20,000, which was rejected. While he was sourcing the outstanding N10,000, the teenager was moved to another police formation and then to court. The judge, Jide Falola, sentenced him to death by hanging after three witnesses testified against him. On this count, the judge was right: in Nigeria, armed robbery carries a death sentence. Olowookere has spent 10 years on the death row. Before his sentence, he had spent four years in police detention. In prison, he pursued his dream of becoming a medical doctor. He was accepted to train informally under the medical professionals in the prison system, hoping to enrol at a university if he got out. A podcast about him drew Governor Ademola Adeleke’s attention to his ordeal. On Thursday, the governor pardoned the duo along with 51 others. The prerogative of mercy is absent in many cases. A former attorney-general in the state insinuated that Adeleke was trying to free Olowookere by “underhand means.” But Olowookere denied robbing his uncle. Although the facts before the judge were that he robbed with a weapon, there was a hint that he was arraigned because his poor family could not meet the bail conditions. Courts should be presented with all the facts in a case to reach accurate, just decisions. Related News Account for N135bn budget surplus, ex-Osun IPAC boss tells Adeleke Osun gov pardons man sentenced to death for stealing fowl Falana seeks amnesty for accomplice of freed Osun fowl thief He was 17 at the time of the alleged crime. “The gravity of a death sentence for such an offence raises significant ethical questions, particularly when considering the young age at which Segun was convicted and the minimal value of the items involved,” said Lamina Omotoyosi of the World Institute for Peace. As of September 2024, there were 3,590 inmates on the death row in Nigeria. Out of that number, 3,517 were males and 73 were females. Those awaiting trial were 57,750. One thing the death row inmates have in common is poverty, says Amnesty International. “From their first contact with the police, through the trial process, to seeking pardon, those with the fewest resources are at a serious disadvantage... In Nigeria, the criminal justice system is deeply flawed.” That was why Olowookere spent 14 years between police detention cells and the death row dungeon. The World Justice Project’s Global Rule of Law Index, released in late October 2023, ranked Nigeria 100th on civil justice out of 142 countries and 86th on criminal justice. This is woeful. About 111 countries have abolished the death penalty except in extreme cases such as war, but Nigeria still practices it. Crime does not pay, and armed robbery is punishable by death. The major problem with Nigeria’s justice system is that politically exposed persons manipulate it and escape justice. In Nigeria, the more you steal, the better the chances of escaping retribution. Recklessly, the erstwhile President Muhammadu Buhari pardoned two former governors convicted of theft in 2022. So, powerful crooks flaunt their loot obscenely. The Osun chicken thief case is an opportunity for Nigeria to review and repeal obsolete laws that seem to tie judges’ hands and sentence the helpless to misery and death.By Hayley Miller President Donald Trump on Friday urged the Supreme Court to pause a law that could ban TikTok nationwide on Jan. 19 if its Chinese owner doesn’t sell the popular social media app to an American company. In a 25-page amicus brief filed with the court, Trump asked the justices to stay the Jan. 19 deadline — which is one day before Inauguration Day — so his administration could “pursue a negotiated resolution” that would “obviate the need” for the justices to rule on the case. “President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government — concerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged,” the brief stated. TikTok and its parent company, China-based ByteDance, appealed to the Supreme Court last week after lower courts rejected its challenge to the law. The justices agreed to hear the challenge and set oral arguments in the case for Jan. 10. The law at the center of the case — called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act — stems from bipartisan concerns that the Chinese government could access data about American users. TikTok argues the law violates free speech rights under the First Amendment rights for its roughly 170 million American users. In his brief on Friday, Trump said he takes “no position on the merits of the dispute.” Instead, he suggested he intends to personally negotiate a resolution that focus on “preserving the First Amendment rights of tens of millions of Americans, while also addressing the government’s national security concerns.” This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Hayley Miller is the senior blog editor for MSNBC. Previously, she was a senior reporter on HuffPost's breaking news team. Before she was a reporter, she was a senior editor on HuffPost's blog team.