There is nothing normal or acceptable about the ongoing inability of the Republican Party to select a Speaker of the House. For days, the leading candidate has been the bomb thrower from Ohio, Jim Jordan, who over many years in Congress has not even been able to craft one piece of legislation or make any other positive contribution to public policy.
That’s largely because as a founder of the so-called Freedom Caucus, the right-wing extremist faction of the GOP, his goal is disruption and chaos, not legislation and governance.
As part of his bully campaign to win the Speaker position, he has marshaled his conservative allies to generate pressure on his ~20 colleagues who (so far) have not been willing to vote for him.
That campaign includes death threats, reminiscent of course of the tactics used by his mentor, Donald Trump.
When some warn that Trump represents an authoritarian ideology that would undermine our democracy, it is this sort of thing we are talking about. Death threats against political opponents have no place in a democracy, where free and fair elections determine who holds power.
Jim Jordan is not fit to be Speaker of the House any more than Trump is fit to be President. It is a measure of the degree of the crisis we face that they continue to pollute our public spaces when they belong, at best, in the dustbin of history. And in Trump’s case, in jail.
HEADLINES:
Ahead of Her Georgia Trial, Sidney Powell Seeks Distance From Trump (NYT)
Trump's frustration builds at New York civil fraud trial as lawyer asks witness if he lied (CBS)
The Fulton County question that should keep Trump up at night (MSNBC)
Speaker saga sparks revolution among mainstream Republicans (The Hill)
Jordan won’t seek a third vote, backs plan to empower interim speaker (WP)
Biden makes the case for wartime aid to Israel and Ukraine in primetime address (CNN)
Shortly after a Gaza hospital was hit, disinformation spread across social media (NPR)
In Tel Aviv, Biden’s Embrace of Israel Came With a Gentle Warning (NYT)
Gaza hospital tragedy escalates war risk, no matter who’s to blame (Japan Times)
Debate over the Israel-Gaza war has raised tensions – and the stakes – on college campuses (CNN)
With Putin by His Side, Xi Outlines His Vision of a New World Order (NYT)
Egypt and other Arab countries are unwilling to take in Palestinian refugees from Gaza (AP)
Israel is vowing to wipe out Hamas in a relentless onslaught on the Gaza Strip but has no obvious endgame in sight, with no clear plan for how to govern the ravaged Palestinian enclave even if it triumphs on the battlefield. (Reuters)
Journalists killed in the Israel-Gaza war: A look at six lives lost (WP)
A new study points to a key window of opportunity to save Greenland's ice sheet (NPR)
Water usage on the Colorado River is way down as the West begins planning for a future with less (CNN)
How would we know whether there is life on Earth? This bold experiment found out (Nature)
The Hypocrisy at the Heart of the Insurance Industry (Atlantic)
Microsoft's new AI assistant can go to meetings for you (BBC)
As Google pushes deeper into AI, publishers see fresh challenges (Reuters)
Researchers Say Guardrails Built Around A.I. Systems Are Not So Sturdy (NYT)
Invisible AI watermarks won’t stop bad actors. But they are a ‘really big deal’ for good ones (Venture Beat)
Fears of employee displacement as Amazon brings robots into warehouses (Guardian)
AI is learning from stolen intellectual property. It needs to stop. (WP)
Woman Takes Short Half-Hour Break From Being Feminist To Enjoy TV Show (The Onion)
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