White House Defends Year-old Stimulus (ap)

The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, who was originally hailed as a savior by MAGA when he replaced ousted Kevin McCarthy, is being raked over the coals by the same people for trying to pass a CR before the government shuts down. Bannon originally loved the Bible-thumping Christian nationalist, but now he is calling Johnson a Democrat holding that Bible. BANNON: Hell.

Sen Ron Johnson, anti-vaxxer and snake oil salesman, went on Newsmax and couldn't control his gushing over the damage that he and RFK, Jr. want to do to this country: We need to find out what is causing this explosion in chronic illness in autism. That's something the American people certainly agree with and while they're doing that, they're also demonstrating to America how you heal and unify a very divided nation.

At least a dozen senators are pushing to see the FBI’s background check on Pete Hegseth, a sign that the former Fox News host still faces hurdles in the Senate. Via Politico: “It would be helpful, given the allegations that have been lodged against Mr. Hegseth, to be able to see the FBI background check,” Sen.

On Fox Business (yeah), Rep. Dan Meuser whined about the amount of disaster relief funds included in the funding bill. This is crazy: we've seen the devastation natural disasters have brought throughout the country. But clueless MAGA Republicans are willfully ignorant as to how government works, unless they are voting themselves a pay raise. First, this jackass says the funds are necessary, then in the same breath, asks if it is necessary.

With Putin's order that the Kursk region of Russia must be taken back by Russian forces, at any cost, by Christmas, the Ukrainians have injected some dark humor into the situation just in time for the holidays. To that end, they've also enlisted the help of 12,000 North Korean soldiers whose main ability seems to be following any order, no matter how ludicrous.

The White House has spent weeks pressing Congress to pass $100 billion in disaster relief to refill depleted resources and help communities plowed down by the deadly hurricanes Helene and Milton and other storms. That money was one of the biggest parts of the funding agreement between Republicans and Democrats that fell apart Wednesday after a barrage of social media messages from Elon Musk disparaging the deal and an insistence by President-elect Donald Trump that the negotiations reopen the fraught debate over eliminating the national debt limit.