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US/World News
HooCares? - Quick Headlines
US briefs:
Last Sunday night, President Trump issued pardons to 77 people accused of helping him try to steal the 2020 election, including New York sewer rat Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and whackadoodle attorney Sidney Powell. This was announced by DOJ pardon czar Ed Martin, himself a January 6th planner.
And speaking of pardons for J6’ers, one of the 1500+ insurrectionists Trump pardoned on day one in January now faces charges of sexual assault and kidnapping in Utah. Only the best people.
On Monday, the Supreme Court denied an attempt to overturn the landmark 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The judges rejected the latest appeal by Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses based on her religious beliefs. Many were worried - given this court’s recent predilection to overturn precedent and the right’s extreme Christian nationalist turn - that Obergefell was in danger, but it appears safe for now.
Also Monday, the Trump administration claimed in a court filing that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will run out of money by early 2026 and the mechanism to continue funding the organization is itself unlawful. This is the most direct attempt yet to shut down the consumer watchdog, which has recovered over $21B for consumers who have been ripped off by lenders, but has drawn the ire of conservatives since its inception.
In another court filing, the administration is taking aim at the hearing-impaired community, appealing a federal judge’s order requiring the White House to provide sign language interpreters at press briefings.
Also, this week, we learned that ethics watchdogs at Fannie Mae - the government-backed mortgage financing provider - were removed from their jobs as they investigated whether administration officials had improperly accessed mortgage information of political opponents, according to the Wall Street Journal.
International headlines:
China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, according to a piece in the Guardian. A rapid increase in wind and solar power capacity mean emissions have remained flat even though power demand is up.
Staying in Asia, a Monday car explosion in Delhi which killed at least eight people, and a Tuesday suicide bombing outside Islamabad have India and Pakistan on the brink of conflict for the second time this year.
And in Palestine, Israeli settlers launched a series of arson attacks on a warehouse, a Bedouin village and olive groves, continuing a spate of violence in the occupied territory that the UN said last month is the highest in at least 20 years. IDF soldiers dispersed settlers and made a handful of arrests, in a rare display of accountability, though it should be noted that 94% of investigations into offenses committed by Israelis against Palestinians are concluded without charges.
US/World Intersection:
Early in the week, Republicans on the House Rules Committee voted no on an amendment to reopen the government that would have used money Trump committed to propping up the Argentinian economy to instead extend Affordable Care Act subsidies here at home. Senate Democrats had been holding out for an extension of these subsidies, resulting in the longest ever government shutdown. We’ll discuss the end of the shutdown here shortly.
On Friday, the White House announced an executive order exempting certain food imports - coffee, tea, oranges, tomatoes, tropical fruits, and cocoa - from reciprocal tariffs. In a case of the arsonist playing firefighter, the administration touted the effort to bring down grocery prices despite their trade policy being responsible for much of the inflation.
And finally in this week’s briefs, the British Broadcasting Corporation issued a public apology to President Trump over a misleading edit in a documentary about January 6th. Though the edit, which made it seem as thought Trump explicitly called for violence on that day, constitutes a breach of journalistic ethics, the fact remains Trump did intend for violence on that day while maintaining plausible deniability. As such, the BBC rejected a demand to pay the president $1B in damages.
Road to War: Venezuela
A row with the Brits over a documentary edit is one thing, but this week we also learned that the UK suspends some intelligence sharing with US over concerns regarding the legality of American strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. The United Kingdom believes, rightly so, that these attacks are illegal under international law, and doesn’t want to find their people in the Hague over the matter.
Meanwhile, Trump says he’s “sort of” made up his mind on Venezuela after military and other senior staff gathered at the White House for at least three days of planning this week. It was reported that self-proclaimed Secretary of War Drinky Pete Hegseth and other defense officials presented the president with options for potential operations in Venezuela in the coming days, including strikes on land.
Along these lines, the U.S. reopened a Puerto Rican naval base that has been shuttered for more than 20 years. Naval Station Roosevelt Roads had been closed since 2004, but has become home to at least 10 F-35 jets over the last couple months.
Finally, on the Venezuelan front, a report this week by Human Rights Watch and Cristosal says more than 250 Venezuelan men sent by the Trump regime to El Salvador endured systematic torture, abuse, and sexual assault during their detention at the sprawling CECOT concentration camp. The men were freed in July in a deal with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro that included the release of 10 Americans.
Shutdown
The record-breaking government shutdown is over. On Monday, the Senate passed a bill to reopen the government as seven Democrats and one Angus King - an independent who caucuses with the Democrats - reached an agreement with Republicans to break the stalemate. The legislation includes a “minibus” of three one-year appropriations bills, including a full funding of SNAP benefits through next September, and keeps the government open through January 30, when we might have to do this all over again. The eight Senators facilitating this deal were the aforementioned King of Maine, fellow New Englanders Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Catherine Cortez-Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, John Frankenstein - er, Fetterman - of Pennsylvania, Limp Dick Durbin of Illinois, and the leader of this rat pack - Tim Kaine of Virginia
Now, if you couldn’t tell from my tone, I’m skeptical of this agreement, but some Democrats say they scored some real wins in the deal, particularly for federal workers, who have been under broad attack by regime hatchet man Russell Vought. The deal included the reinstatement of federal employees who had been laid off during the shutdown and includes language barring future mass firings for the duration of the (very short) agreement. What is not included is a compromise on health care. Democrats did not win an extension of ACA subsidies, but did secure a pinky-swear promise by Senate Republicans to hold a vote on it by the middle of December - but House Speaker Mike ‘Tiny’ Johnson has made no such similar pledge.
Now, Dee shared a Democratic defense of the deal on Facebook, and I’ll quote from it here:
Some folks are already melting down and accusing the Dems of caving because they say they get nothing out of a deal that includes
“Everyone knows the vote will fail, so they get nothing!!! Dems caved again!”
But wait - let’s do a deeper dive. You will see that getting that agreement is a brilliant strategic move, even if the vote fails.
Consider:
1. The ACA enhanced subsidies are set to automatically sunset in December if no Congressional action is taken to extend them. If there is no deal before then, they just go away on their own.
2. There was no way in hell the Republicans were going to agree to extend the subsidies, no matter how firmly the Democrats held their ground.
3. If the Democrats insisted on keeping the government closed in order to protect the subsidies, at the end of December, the subsidies would have gone away, the Dems would have gotten nothing, and people would have suffered an extended shutdown without getting anything in return.
And this would have happened without the Republicans having to do anything and bearing no responsibility for the subsidies’ disappearance.
4. When the subsidies disappeared in December, people who are affected would have blamed the Democrats, not the Republicans.
5. By exacting an agreement from Thune for a vote to extend the subsidies, the Democrats are now forcing the Republicans to AFFIRMATIVELY end the subsidies rather than just letting them die a natural death. Every Republican will have to go on record, while every Democrat can be on record voting “YES.”
6. While it is possible that every Republican will vote no, it is possible that the Dems could peel off enough Republicans to vote to extend the subsidies. It would only take a couple and if they put the pressure on over the next few weeks, that could actually happen.
7. If the Democrats can get enough Republicans votes to save the subsidies, that will be a huge win.
8. If the Republicans stand firm and vote no, THEY will own the expiration of the subsidies, not the Democrats.
The bottom line is that the subsidies were going to end in December, no matter what the Dems did. But now, if this deal goes through, if they do end, it will be because the Republicans voted not to extend them, not because they quietly went away. And if they can get enough Republicans on board - which is more possible than it was even just a week ago - they will save the subsidies
The vote will ensure that either the subsidies are extended or the Republicans’ fingerprints are all over the expiration - neither of which could happen without holding a vote
Of the eight who caved, NONE are up for election in 2026 and seven of them are the top Democratic recipients of campaign contributions from the airline industry, according to The Lever. Air carriers were losing upward of $100 million a day in staffing-related delays and cancellations, and since 2019, $842,500 went to seven of the eight lawmakers who flipped their vote to reopen the government without securing extended ACA subsidies. “$218,000 alone went to Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who counted airlines as one of her top industry donors last election cycle… right behind health care and insurance.” However, despite the shutdown coming to an end, flight disruptions could linger for some time.
Besides the big airlines, another group who scored a win in ending the shutdown are a group of senators whose phone records had been obtained by special counsel Jack Smith during his investigation of Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. A provision slipped into the agreement allows the eight Republican senators to sue the government if the records had been subpoenaed without their knowledge. Now, Speaker Little Johnson says the House will vote next week to remove this language, which even House Republicans call “self-serving” and “self-dealing, but we’ll see what comes of it.
Epstein
Now, as big a story as the end of the government shutdown was, it was immediately overshadowed this week by a flood of new information about the late disgraced pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Wednesday, the newest member of Congress, Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva, was sworn into office, ending seven weeks of limbo after her special election victory. Her first official order of business was to sign a discharge petition, making her the 218th and final vote needed to force a floor vote compelling Trump’s DOJ to release everything they have on Epstein.
Earlier that day, her House Democratic colleagues released three previously unseen Epstein emails referencing Trump, including a 2011 message with co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell referring to the now-president as “the dog that hasn’t barked” and alleging Trump had spent “hours” at Epstein’s house with one of the victims. Furthermore, correspondences between Epstein and journalist Michael Wolff suggest Trump “knew about the girls” and had a far deeper relationship with the convicted sex trafficker than he has publicly acknowledged.
The next day, the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee released a trove of more than 23,000 Epstein-related documents, showing the depth of the disgraced financier’s ties across a broad spectrum of US and international elites including Larry Summers, Noam Chomsky, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Steve Bannon, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Prince Andrew, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, former Obama White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, and Russian diplomats.
All of this is happening at the same time Epstein’s partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, is eyeing a pardon or commutation from President Trump, a whistleblower tells House Democrats. House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said in a news release that the minimum-security prison camp’s warden is even personally helping the daughter of infamous triple-dipping UK/Soviet/Israeil spy Robert Maxwell with her application for clemency. In addition to concierge service from the warden, Ghislaine is also reportedly receiving custom-delivered meals, private access to visitors, unmonitored communication, after-hours access to the gym, and A PUPPY!
So of course, in response Trump has directed his DOJ to investigate the travesty. HA! No! They’ve been ordered to look into Epstein’s relationship with his political enemies - including Clinton, Summers, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
And in the week’s most heinous act of Trump apologia, former Fox host and current SiriusXM star Megyn Kelly laid ground for the “it’s not so bad” defense, NORMALIZING PEDOPHILIA by suggesting, of couse sexual abuse of prepubescent children is wrong, but Epstien - and maybe his friends’ - predilection for 14 and 15-year old girls is somehow okay. The 2026 Republican platform: “If there’s grass on the field, play ball.” CANCEL THEM ALL!
MAGA Civil War
Finally, it’s not just Epstein driving a wedge between Trump and the MAGA base. Recently, longtime mainstream conservative pundit Tucker Carlson lobbed two hours worth of softballs at Nick Fuentes - “a figure who has praised Hitler, denied the Holocaust and branded American Jews as disloyal,” throwing a major rift with the MAGA coalition into open view. The open antisemitism from Fuentes drew condemnation from the ultrazionist wing of the right, with figures like Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee condemning the interview - and Carlson for conducting it. On the other hand, powerful figures from the “Civilizational Populist” wing of the party - like JD Vance BFF and head of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts - urged others on the right not to “cancel” those with fringe views.
Hatred and racism are splitting the coalition on other fronts as well, with Trump telling Fox’s Laura Ingraham this week that Americans don’t have “certain talents,” necessitating the use of H1-B visas by US firms to hire skilled foreign-born workers. And while I hate to utter the words “Trump is right” under any circumstances, in this case it’s true. Of course, that threw the “get ALL the foreigners OUT” faction of MAGA into a tizzy, with nativists like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jack Posobiec, and Benny Johnson decrying the betrayal, arguing all those computer science and engineering jobs should be reserved for their “poorly educated” voters.
And that wasn’t the only controversy to arise from that interview. “juxtaposing a photo of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose New Deal helped lay the groundwork for the 30-year mortgage, and a photo of himself with text reading ‘50 year mortgage.’” Again, MAGA commentators like Laura Loomer, Mike Cernovich, Chris Rufo and - once again, MTG - blasted the idea (and again, you hate to give credit to the worst people in the world, but they’re right here) as a giveaway to banks, a debt trap for borrowers, and a reason to fire Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte.
Well, apparently, Marjorie Taylor Greene crossed the orange man one too many times, becauseTrump on Friday issued scathing post on Truth Social, withdrawing his support for the Georgia congresswoman, calling her “wacky” and “a ranting lunatic.” Marge has broken with the president on several occasions lately - on ACA subsidies, foreign policy, and most visibly on the release of the Epstein files.
Indiana News
Around the Corn
Some state legislators want to slash the state’s roster of more than 250 boards and commissions. According to the indispensable Indiana Capital Chronicle, “leaders of the General Assembly’s Government Reform Task Force are planning to sponsor a bill in the upcoming session with the goal of eliminating or consolidating an undetermined number of those entities.”
Another area of government Hoosier Republicans have been looking to slash is the role of township trustee, and that case may have bolstered this week when a former Columbus township trustee pleaded guilty to 17 felony counts in connection with using more than $1M in public money for personal expenses. Ben Jackson faces up to 64-and-a-half years in prison.
In the Circle City, a recent report suggested a downtown Indianapolis casino could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars above any existing site. Despite this, Fort Wayne appears to be the favorite to secure a license from the state’s gaming commission as both Central Indiana residents AND existing nearby gambling establishments push back on the idea of an Indy casino.
Staying in Indianapolis, the new Local Education Alliance (ILEA) - a state-mandated entity created to force collaboration between IPS and the city’s charter schools, is considering a new A-F style ratings system.
Heading west on I-70, the Braun Administration this week approved a merger between two Vigo County medical providers - Union Hospital and Terre Haute Regional Hospital. Indiana has some of the highest hospital prices in the country and, despite assurances the state will monitor pricing, access, and quality benchmarks, this consolidation certainly will not help.
Another sector of the economy where prices keep increasing exponentially is higher education, and again, the state can’t keep up. This week, the state Commission for Higher education voted to keep Frank O’Bannon scholarship awards flat for the 2026-27 academic year.
News from another state commission, where nine finalists were named for Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission openings. Governor Mike Braun will appoint three to the board, though he faces no deadline to do so.
Finally, in our state-level briefs: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was in Fort Wayne this week, addressing area military contractors as part of Senator Jim Banks’ Northeast Indiana Defense Summit.
Missed these two last week
Last Thursday, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita sued Indianapolis Public Schools, accusing the state’s largest public school district of “thwarting” federal immigration enforcement. State law blocks local government entities, including school districts, from limiting cooperation or interfering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies. The lawsuit seeks an injunction preventing IPS from enforcing its policies.
This week: Black clergy came together to decry the suit, calling it “political theater” and questioning the AG’s use of tax dollars. Five IPS commissioners and several top administrators, including Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, also attended and joined the faith leaders in prayer.
IU lecturer removed from class during intellectual diversity investigation
A lecturer in the Indiana University School of Social Work has been removed from teaching one of her classes — “Diversity, Human Rights, and Social Justice” — while the university investigates a complaint by a student against material she presented.
Jessica Adams, a lecturer who joined the school last year, said a student submitted the complaint to the office of U.S. Senator Jim Banks over a graphic she used in her class. Adams said Banks’ office then contacted her dean.
The material in question was the “pyramid of white supremacy” developed by the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence in Boulder, Colo. It lists forms of overt and covert white supremacy, from not challenging racist jokes at the bottom of the pyramid to lynching at the top. The phrase “Make America Great Again” is included as “covert white supremacy.”
This week: picked up by the New York Times
Redistricting
State GOP leaders led the state on a roller coaster crash this week, the redistricting push drummed up by the Trump administration now a smoking pile of rubble. The week began with the author of the state’s current maps, State Senator Eric Koch of Bedford, coming out in favor of the unprecedented mid-cycle redistricting. On Monday, Fair Maps Indiana, a deceptively-named front group announced a six-figure ad buy targeting undeclared Senate Republicans. Well, hope they can get their money back (wait, no I don’t) because by the end of the week State Senate President Pro Tempore Rod Bray issued a statement “announcing there are not enough votes to move that idea forward, and the Senate will not reconvene in December.” This marks the first time any red state outright rejected Trump’s command to wring more seats out of their congressional maps through gerrymandering.
Braun, completely squeezed of any juice he may have once had, begged Senators to reconsider, saying “our state senators need to do the right thing and show up for “fair” maps (scare quotes added by me). MAGA quislings like Tanner Bouchie and Andrew Ireland whined online, while Fort Wayne area State Senator Liz Brown implied the entire state is composed of cowards. No ma’am, just you.
Then just this morning, President Trump issued the following post criticizing Hoosier GOP leadership:
Autism-related news
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration announced Wednesday that MDwise would no longer be among the managed care health plan options for the Healthy Indiana Plan and Hoosier Healthwise programs as of Jan. 1, leaving some 300,000 people less than two months to change their health insurance company.
Despite objections from GOP Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, language inserted into the agreement to reopen the federal government closes a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill that allowed the proliferation of hemp-derived THC products like Delta-8, even in states like Indiana where cannabis remains illegal. The new regulations won’t take effect until November 2026, leaving lawmakers one year to figure out a solution or risk nuking a growing industry worth billions of dollars. And for the autism community, if this is left unresolved, many people could be left without access to a treatment that has shown to help manage certain ASD symptoms.
Finally this week, a working group Governor Braun directed FSSA to create in a February executive order this week returned their report. They issued about 20 recommendations, including potential usage limits, changes to reimbursement rates, and new rules around accreditation. Just over 300 ABA providers across the state serve at least 8000 Hoosiers using Medicaid, which has seen expenditures on behavioral therapy jump from about $21M in 2016 to $611M in 2023 before dropping to $445M last year.
