Fri: Previous Guy's Gag Order Response Makes Me Want to Gag

I Prefer My Pizza Without the Gate

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrote the foreward for and promoted a book full of extremist conspiracy theories and homophobic slurs, reported CNN's KFILE on Friday.

"Written by Scott McKay, a local Louisiana politics blogger, the book, 'The Revivalist Manifesto,' gives credence to unfounded conspiracy theories often embraced by the far-right – including the 'Pizzagate' hoax, which falsely claimed top Democratic officials were involved in a pedophile ring, among other conspiracies," reported Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck. "The book also propagates baseless and inaccurate claims, implying that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was subjected to blackmail and connected to the disgraced underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein."

Among other things, the book also defended right-wing podcaster Joe Rogan for using the N-word, called poor voters “unsophisticated and susceptible to government dependency,” claimed President Barack Obama's race was his "chief selling point," complained that the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) used his time being tortured as a prisoner of war “as a political get-out-of-jail-free card,” and slurred Pete Buttigieg for his sexual orientation.

Nuclear Fusion is Always Just 20 Years Away.

The world's biggest experimental nuclear fusion reactor in operation was inaugurated in Japan on Friday, a technology in its infancy but billed by some as the answer to humanity's future energy needs.

Fusion differs from fission, the technique currently used in nuclear power plants, by fusing two atomic nuclei instead of splitting one.

The goal of the JT-60SA reactor is to investigate the feasibility of fusion as a safe, large-scale and carbon-free source of net energy -- with more energy generated than is put into producing it.

The six-storey-high machine, in a hangar in Naka north of Tokyo, comprises a donut-shaped "tokamak" vessel set to contain swirling plasma heated up 200 million degrees Celsius (360 million degrees Fahrenheit).

It is a joint project between the European Union and Japan, and is the forerunner for its big brother in France, the under-construction International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).

The ultimate aim of both projects is to coax hydrogen nuclei inside to fuse into one heavier element, helium, releasing energy in the form of light and heat, and mimicking the process that takes place inside the Sun.

Researchers at ITER, which is over budget, behind schedule and facing major technical problems, hope to achieve nuclear fusion technology's holy grail, net energy.

Lonesome George Needs a Replacement

Voters in New York's 3rd Congressional District will soon choose a new representative after the House voted to expel Republican Rep. George Santos on Friday by a 311-114 margin, with 105 Republicans joining 206 Democrats to eject the scandal-plagued freshman. 112 Republicans and two Democrats voted against ousting Santos, while two other Democrats voted "present."

This Long Island-based constituency, which includes northern Nassau County and a small portion of Queens, supported Joe Biden 54-45 in 2020, and Santos' infamy could drag down the eventual Republican nominee.

However, the GOP is hoping a fresh face will give them the chance to hold on in a region that has swung their way since Biden's inauguration. Republicans flipped the Nassau County executive and district attorney posts in 2021, while Bloomberg's Greg Giroux reports that Republican Lee Zeldin carried the district 56-44 last year against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. Republicans also performed well in local elections last month.

Democrats will have a chance to reverse that trend—and flip this seat—when the special election to replace Santos takes place in February. A 2021 state law gives Hochul 10 days to call a special election once a seat becomes vacant, and the contest must happen 70 to 80 days afterward. That points to an election on either Feb. 20 or 27.

However, there won't be any primaries beforehand. Rather, it will be up to local leaders in each party to pick their nominees, with Nassau holding sway since it's home to three-quarters of the 3rd's denizens, according to calculations by Daily Kos Elections. But anyone hoping to win a full two-year term in the next Congress will have to compete in the regularly scheduled primary, which is set for June 25.

Meanwhile Locals Hope Santos Clown is Not Coming Back to Town

Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) accused his now-former GOP colleague George Santos of stealing his and his mother’s personal credit card information to make illegal contributions to his campaign — the latest shocking allegation leveled against the indicted ex-New York House member who was expelled from Congress Friday.

“Late yesterday on the floor, I alluded to a personal impact of Rep. Santos’ conduct,” Miller wrote in a letter to colleagues Friday morning. “Earlier this year, I learned that the Santos campaign had charged my personal credit card — and the personal credit card of my mother — for contribution amounts that exceeded FEC limits. Neither my mother nor I approved these charges nor were aware of them. We have spent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees in the resulting follow-up.”

Biden Wants to Get the Lead Out

Most U.S. cities would have to replace lead water pipes within 10 years under strict new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency as the Biden administration moves to reduce lead in drinking water and prevent public health crises like the ones in Flint, Michigan and Washington, D.C.

Millions of people consume drinking water from lead pipes and the agency said tighter standards would improve IQ scores in children and reduce high blood pressure and heart disease in adults. It is the strongest overhaul of lead rules in more than three decades, and will cost billions of dollars. Pulling it off will require overcoming enormous practical and financial obstacles.

“These improvements ensure that in a not too distant future, there will never be another city and another child poisoned by their pipes,” said Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician and clean water advocate who raised early alarms about Flint.

The Biden administration has previously said it wants all of the nation’s roughly 9 million lead pipes to be removed, and rapidly. Lead pipes connect water mains in the street to homes and are typically the biggest source of lead in drinking water. They are most common in older, industrial parts of the country.

Why on Earth did Ron DeSantis think it was a good idea to debate Gavin Newsom?


There's nothing people love more than watching a likely catastrophe live.

Case in point: around 40,000 Texans lined up to watch two trains crash into each other in 1896 for a marketing ploy by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad that ended in death and disaster.

Similarly, on Thursday night, millions tuned into or watched highlights of an unnecessary debate between Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

No humans died on Thursday — unlike the "Crash at Crush" — but the night was still a trainwreck for DeSantis' presidential campaign from the very beginning.