Comment on Midday Open Thread: Things We Don't Want To Talk About

Chris Wright, the fracking company CEO who Trump has nominated to lead the Department of Energy and who had previously claimed “there is no climate crisis,” admitted that climate change is a “real issue” during his confirmation hearings on Wednesday. Wright, who runs Liberty Energy and is worth $171 million, was tapped in mid-November by Trump, who heralded him as someone who would help lead his administration’s efforts to cut regulations and remove government subsidies for renewable energy.

After 15 months of unceasing destruction in Gaza following the October 7th attack on Isreal and the death of tens of thousands of Palestinians, Israel and Hamas have seemed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire deal. President-elect Donald Trump confirmed the ceasefire on Truth Social: “WE HAVE A DEAL.” US officials told the Associated Press mid-day Tuesday that the ceasefire would be implemented in the coming days.

The president-elect—who pushed for an invasion of Mexico during his first term—has spent the month leading up to next week’s inauguration posting about inviting Canada to join the United States, refusing to rule out using military force to coerce Denmark into selling (or giving away) Greenland, and pledging to take back the Panama Canal Zone—which the United States gave back as part of a 1979 treaty.

There are holes in Tennessee Republican Congressman Andy Ogles’ personal story. Some have been relatively harmless fabrications. Ogles claimed to be a scholar of German, Japanese, and Russian and he has repeatedly described himself as an economist. In fact, Ogles took one only one community college course in Elementary Japanese (receiving a B) and one in economics (receiving a C).

The Hegseth confirmation hearing left Dems with egg on their faces.

Californians need to get rid of their bad government. But will they?