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Wowza: Food Fight Clean-Up In Wingnut Aisle 47
In what was dubbed a "grievance Olympics," "conference of clowns" and "Wrestlemania with Podcasters," the noxious mucky-mucks of MAGA assembled for the first time since Charlie Kirk's death at an ostensibly celebratory AmericaFest that swiftly cratered into a toxic mess of orcs hating on each other. Despite the blinding glitz, savage barbs flew: Anti-Semite! Islam whore! Epstein flack! A coward! A cancer! And nonsense-vomiting. One viewer: "Holy shit, America." The Nazi kids are not all right.
Last weekend's public, ugly, inevitable fracturing of a once-lockstep right for all to see came at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference at Phoenix Convention Center. Billed as "a powerful celebration of faith, freedom, and the legacy of our founder" - though others called it "brownshirts in the desert" - it had Kirk plastered everywhere. Outside, banners urged "MAKE AMERICA CHARLIE KIRK"; inside, a huge portrait proclaimed, "WE ARE ALL CHARLIE KIRK"; nearby, weirdly, a Charlie Kirk murder re-enactment tent was set up for fans to take selfies in a spot just like where he was shot and killed. Wonkette: "Normal youth conference things!" About a third of the reported 30,000 in attendance, a "wretched hive of scum and villainy," were high school and college students who evidently have yet to find a life of non-malignant purpose.
Amidst the desperate, shrieking, best-is-yet-to-come! decor - omnipresent flashing red, white and blue, flashy pyrotechnics, gushing fountains, choking smoke bombs, glittering grifting widow in long blond locks and billowing gold and silver - the event quickly descended into a vicious gripefest where some of the world's most awful people - Carlson, Bannon, Don Jr., Megyn Kelly - furiously torched each other. Oddly, many focused their ire on a missing foil, podcaster Candace Owens, who'd been deemed too out there to even be invited for her lurid conspiracy theories about Kirk's death; she's charged it was choreographed by Israel and Turning Point bad actors, Egyptian airplanes have been following Erika Kirk for years, the public is being "gaslit," and police evidence to the contrary is "fake and gay." (LOL, sorta).
Leading off the squalid crack-up was Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro, who ripped pretty much everyone else as anti-Semitic "frauds," "grifters" and "charlatans" who have put the conservative movement "in serious danger." He called Steve Bannon "a PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein,” blasted Tucker Carlson's recent interview with "Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse" Nick Fuentes - which over 7 million people watched - as an act of cowardice and "moral imbecility," and said Candace Owens "has been vomiting all sorts of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years."
Then Owens, online because unwelcome, called Shapiro "a miserable imp," whose remarks made her "more certain" that Israel was involved with Kirk's death.
Then Bannon trashed Shapiro for being "a cancer, and that cancer spreads. It metastasizes." Mocking Shapiro for trying to take over first Breitbart, now Turning Point, he snarled, "Stop playing patty-cake. Let's get down to it."
Then Carlson ripped Shapiro for being "pompous." Listening backstage, he said he laughed at Shapiro the way you would "when your dog starts doing your taxes." He also blasted former accomplices for "fake race wars" and "attacking millions of people because they're Muslims...It's disgusting. What the hell are you doing? You should not attack people." He added that calls to "de-platform" anyone at a Charlie Kirk event were "hilarious" when debate was (allegedly) "the whole point of Charlie's life."
Then Bosch Fawstin, creator of the anti-jihad cartoon superhero PIGMAN, assailed Tucker online: "Fresh from his most recent visit to his beloved Qatar, and after Muslims murdered Jews in Australia, Islam whore @TuckerCarlson yells at Americans to stop 'attacking Americans because they’re Muslim' to a silent crowd."
Then Rev. Jordan Wells castigated Shapiro, going full Nazi Kanye: “F**K YOU Ben Shapiro and the midget horse you rode in on. Ben IS the Synagogue of Satan...Jews aren’t chosen anymore."
Then Megyn Kelly slammed Shapiro (or maybe also Owens) with, "Only cowards take to the national stage to attack their 'friends' without so much as a phone call," like when the girl who was the head of our middle-school chorus told me she was going to take all my friends away...I helped make him a star."
In a rare, startling break from the rancorous fray, the equally startlingly brown Vivek Ramaswamy then decried all the raging racism, arguing the idea of a “heritage American” is ridiculous, and immigrants who just received citizenship are as American as anyone else: "We believe in ideals." The audience, silent and dubious, largely ignored him.
Then whew, Don Jr. clumsily lumbered back into the mud by arguing the "real enemy" wasn't any of these creeps but "the radical left that murdered Charlie," though of course they didn't. Ever cringey, he called up his dad, shouting out to “Mr. President,” so Trump could, ever abusive, praise Charlie and menace his idiot first-born: "I hope my son’s doing a good job representing me. Otherwise, I’ll have to say ‘You’re fired, Don.' So thank you very much."
Other odd ducks popped up to offer their malevolent insights. Laura Loomer stormed she would not support any candidate "who brings Tucker Qatarlson on the campaign trail. If you aren’t willing to publicly call Islam a death cult, I can’t vote for you." Russell Brand - what happened to him? - attacked vaccines and sorta commended Fuentes and Owens: "They’re Christians like you and me. They’re broken human beings like you and me." The few merciful in the crowd applauded.
Online, also (mostly) unwelcome, Nick Fuentes lambasted the sinking, "do-nothing" Trump, his latest bonkers speech, the Epstein files, the Reiner baseness, the relentless "SCAM": "He’s not delivering. All he’s doing is talking. Everyone hates this administration. The whole thing is a bait and switch. A never-ending advertisement...The magic is gone." Also largely gone, MTG echoed him, blasting Shapiro attacking Tucker and Bondi redacting Epstein: "People are raging and walking away."
Still, into the vitriolic mayhem, dreamily, spookily smiling, with God on her side and Charlie on her shoulder, wafted the gold-festooned widow Erika Kirk, aka "Princess Griftsalot." Between the group's assets, Charlie's estate, and sympathy donations, the former Liberty U "Christo mouthpiece" and Arizona beauty queen and glossy new head of Turning Point is now worth about $100 million dollars. After Charlie's death, media reports suggested she'd bring more young women into the MAGA fold - "Conservative women see the future" - but most still voted for Kamala, evidently unmoved by Kirk's call and perfect make-up to leave careers behind and "submit" to their husbands. But MAGA remains entranced. Onstage, Shapiro burbled that "to judge the goodness of a man is to see the goodness of his wife and children," and Erika is "unsurpassed."
But, like many of us, not great with tech issues. Gliding onstage in a glam gold lamé suit amidst erupting fireworks and wild applause, her hair looped in a blonde crown of thorns, she fumbled witeFesth her iPad, couldn't turn it on and wryly announced, "You know, the enemy has thrown a lot of curve balls at us, and now one of them is my entire speech has been wiped." (Antifa Hacks 'R Us!) After lamenting its lost "stats (and) things we have going on," she decided "we're just gonna wing it," awkwardly roamed the stage, and happily declared that, speech or no, "Charlie is sitting in one of those back seats." Later, she managed to laugh off both "the greatest Freudian slip of all time" - presenting a Charlie Kirk Courage Award to a student, she praised him for "persisting with the same grift" - and the flub of Nicki Minaj calling J.D. "an assassin. Trilled Erika, "God is good!"
Kirk notably ended her appearance by proclaiming, "We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected," though God knows why anyone would choose to lift up the racist, unprincipled "mutton-loaf," "professional embarrassment" and "greatest example in our nation’s history of ignorant, unqualified and incompetent people being rewarded for their pigmentation." Speaking of: Appearing late in HateFest, JD went from dog-whistle to bullhorn by proudly boasting of a new America where, "You don't have to apologize for being white (supremacist) anymore." The rabid crowd roared, grateful to be free - Thank God almighty we are free at last - of the longtime shackles of white oppression. Online, a gazillion people reported they'd never felt the need to apologize for being white, though some conceded JD may have been asked to apologize for being an awful human being.
Because he's evidently never heard of the First Amendment or George Washington's vow of a country that "gives to bigotry no sanction,” Vance also made the outrageous claim, "The only thing that has truly served as an anchor (of) America is that we have been, and by the grace of God always will be, a Christian nation." Adding to his Christofascism, he slammed progressive Senate candidates Graham Platner in Maine and Jasmine Crockett in Texas - "We're gonna kick their ass" - declined to condemn MAGA extremists as long as they "love America" - ie: Nazis welcome - touted the regime's deportation, vaccine and anti-trans atrocities, blamed "far left" Dems for Kirk's death (again, not) and, the next day, lashed out at both Nick Fuentes and Jen Psaki for "attacking" Usha, sneering, "They can eat shit. That's my official policy as vice-president of the United States." He sounds nice.
On Sunday, unholy Mike Johnson declared the vituperative event "a defining moment" and an "epic battle (to) determine the future of our great republic." He also said he's going to work to put up a Charlie Kirk statue in D.C., because that's really what America needs right now. This, then, is what came of the latest, meanest fascist food fight: A promised statue of a bigot, a consensus Nazis are OK by us, the lingering fumes of many feuds among execrable humans. And the mystifying drop of Erika Kirk's "worldwide exclusive" "Debut Music Video" - though she made one in 2012 where she maybe lied a bit - "and it is straight fire!" It is also deeply, incomprehensibly bizarre, an AI, badly dubbed, make-up-slathered, insensate non-look-alike dabbing her eyes with dollar bills and a fake handkerchief, pushing a wheelbarrow of money, coyly babbling, "Where's my spotlight? Buy my book. This mascara don't run. Give me privacy or I will cry. Boss babes always lie." Say what? This timeline is killin' us.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Trump 'Taking a Sledgehammer' to One of World's Most Vital Climate Research Center, Scientists Warn
One US House Democrat pledged Tuesday night that Colorado officials will fight the Trump administration's latest attack on science "with every legal tool that we have" after top White House budget adviser Russell Vought announced a decision to break up a crucial climate research center in Boulder.
Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) called the decision to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) "a deeply dangerous" action.
"NCAR is one of the most renowned scientific facilities in the WORLD—where scientists perform cutting-edge research every day," said Neguse. "We will fight this reckless directive."
Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said the National Science Foundation (NSF), which contracts the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) to run NCAR, "will be breaking up" the center and has begun a "comprehensive review," with "vital activities such as weather research" being moved to another entity.
He added that NCAR is "one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”
But scientists pointed to the center's 65-year history of making major advances in climate research and developing systems that scientists use regularly.
NCAR developed GPS dropsondes, which are dropped from the center's aircraft into the eye of hurricanes to gather crucial data and improve forecasts, as well as severe weather warnings and analyses of the economic impacts that weather can bring, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, told USA Today, which first reported on the plan to dismantle the facility.
Neguse also called the decision to shutter NCAR "blatantly retaliatory." The breakup of the center was announced days after President Donald Trump announced his plan to pardon Tina Peters, despite uncertainty over his authority to do so. The former county clerk was convicted in Colorado court on felony charges of allowing someone to access secure voting system data—part of an effort to prove the baseless conspiracy theory pushed by Trump that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.
Trump attacked Colorado's Democratic governor, Jared Polis, over the Peters case last week, calling him "incompetent" and "pathetic."
Also on Tuesday, the administration announced it was canceling $109 million in environmental transportation grants for Colorado that were aimed at boosting investment in electric vehicles, rail improvements, and other research.
Writer Benjamin Kunkel said the dismantling of NCAR is evidently "what happens to a state whose leading officials do accept climate science... and don't accept that Trump won the 2020 election."
Polis said Tuesday that his government had not received any communication from the White House about the NCAR review and dismantling, but "if true, public safety is at risk and science is being attacked."
"Climate change is real, but the work of NCAR goes far beyond climate science," he said. "NCAR delivers data around severe weather events like fires and floods that help our country save lives and property, and prevent devastation for families.”
The White House Tuesday said it objected to UCAR's "woke direction," including its efforts to "make the sciences more welcoming, inclusive, and justice-centered" via the Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences and wind turbine research that aims to "better understand and predict the impact of weather conditions and changing climate on offshore wind production.”
The administration also said the review of NCAR will eliminate "green new scam research activities"—green energy research completed by many of the center's 830 employees.
Climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe warned that the dismantling of NCAR was an attack on "quite literally our global mothership."
"NCAR supports the scientists who fly into hurricanes, the meteorologists who develop new radar technology, the physicists who envision and code new weather models, and yes—the largest community climate model in the world," said Hayhoe. "Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet."
Hurricane specialist Michael Lowry said the center is "crucial to cutting-edge meteorology and improvements in weather forecasting."
"It's far, far bigger than a 'climate' research lab," he said. "This is self-sabotage by a wildly ignorant and malicious administration cutting off their nose to spite their face."
The president this year has also pushed massive cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where major climate and weather research takes place. The cuts have come as 2024 has been named the hottest year on record and scientists have warned that planetary heating has contributed to recent weather disasters.
“Any plans to dismantle NSF NCAR," UCAR president Antonio Busalacchi told the Washington Post, "would set back our nation’s ability to predict, prepare for, and respond to severe weather and other natural disasters."
'Threat to Media and Democracy': Trump Ally Larry Ellison Puts Up $40 Billion to Help Son Buy CNN Owner
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, an ally of US President Donald Trump and one of the richest men in the world, pledged on Monday to provide $40.4 billion to help finance his son's hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the owner of CNN, HBO Max, and other major media assets.
The billionaire's personal financing guarantee was announced in a press release issued by Paramount Skydance, a company headed by David Ellison, Larry Ellison's son.
"Paramount has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to acquiring WBD," David Ellison said in a statement. "Our $30 per share, fully financed all-cash offer was on December 4th, and continues to be, the superior option to maximize value for WBD shareholders."
Paramount launched its $108 billion effort to take over Warner Bros. earlier this month, days after Netflix and Warner Bros. leadership announced a proposed merger deal. Antitrust advocates have warned that either merger would be destructive for journalism, television writers, media industry competition, and consumers.
Paramount added Larry Ellison's personal funding pledge to its offer after Warner Bros. board members raised concerns about the initial proposal, pointing specifically to the absence of a concrete guarantee of the billionaire executive's backing. Larry Ellison's net worth is estimated to be around $243 billion.
"The ability to deal directly with Larry if there was an issue to close would be critical," Warner Bros. board chair Samuel Di Piazza Jr. told CNBC last week. "Otherwise closing might not happen."
News of Larry Ellison's direct intervention in Paramount's bid for Warner Bros. came amid mounting concerns over media consolidation into the hands of a few right-wing billionaires and the Trump administration's growing political influence at the nation's news networks.
Last week, TikTok’s Chinese owner signed a deal giving Larry Ellison's company and other investors an 80% stake in a newly formed US TikTok entity.
On Sunday, chaos and outrage erupted at CBS News after editor-in-chief Bari Weiss spiked a "60 Minutes" segment on El Salvador's CECOT prison shortly before it was set to air. Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent who led the segment, accused Weiss of making a "political" decision to prevent the airing of a report that would have reflected badly on the Trump administration. Paramount Skydance is the owner of CBS News.
"It's hard to ignore that this happened just as Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Bros. was slipping away," The American Prospect's David Dayen wrote late Sunday. "Time to please the king again."
Journalist and media critic Jennifer Schulze warned Monday that "Larry Ellison is a threat to journalism and democracy."
"Yesterday we saw the Ellison-owned CBS kill an important news story for being too critical of Trump," Schulze wrote. "Now Ellison is making another move to try to win control of CNN."
‘Fire Them!’ Stephen Miller Throws a Fit Over 'Revolt' of ‘60 Minutes’ Producers Against Bari Weiss
Top White House adviser Stephen Miller on Tuesday threw an angry fit at CBS News' "60 Minutes" for its leaked segment about the Trump administration sending immigrants to an El Salvadoran torture prison.
During an interview on Fox News, Miller accused "60 Minutes" of coddling people he described as violent criminals, even though records obtained by the program showed that only a fraction of the men the administration sent to El Salvador's notorious Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) were convicted of violent offenses, and nearly half had no criminal histories.
"They know that these are monsters, who got exactly what they deserved," said Miller, referring to Venezuelan men who said they were subjected to relentless torture and abuse during their imprisonment at CECOT. "Because under President Trump, we are not going to let little girls get raped, and murdered anymore."
Miller then encouraged CBS News boss Bari Weiss to purge producers and reporters who leaked details about her decision to spike their CECOT story to other media outlets.
"Every one of those producers at ’60 Minutes’ engaged in this revolt, fire them," Miller said. "Clean house, fire them!"
Miller: Every one of those producers at 60 minutes who engaged in this revolt, clean house and fire them, that's what I say. pic.twitter.com/YGXm30o2nR
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 24, 2025
Weiss' decision to pull the CECOT segment has reportedly sent morale at CBS News spiraling downward, with one insider telling Vanity Fair that the mood at the network now is "dismal," "confused,” “demoralized,” and "super fucked" over the move.
Compounding the frustration, the insider said, is the fact that the segment has already been leaked. and has been viewed widely online, including on a Canadian streaming app, rather than on CBS.
"I mean, it’s already out there, so now we just look like idiots," they said.
The spiking of the CECOT story was further criticized by former New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan, who wrote a Tuesday column in the Guardian slamming Weiss for "her apparent willingness to use her position to protect the powerful and take care of business for the oligarchy."
Sullivan noted that Weiss reports directly to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, the son of Trump ally Larry Ellison, who recently made a hostile bid to buy Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) after Netflix announced that its own $72 billion offer to buy up the media company had been accepted.
This is relevant, Sullivan said, because Ellison will need assistance from Trump-appointed federal regulators for his bid to succeed.
"The Ellisons surely wouldn't want to antagonize anyone at this critical moment," Sullivan explained. "And notably, if Paramount prevails, they would control [WBD-owned] CNN, and could do there what they’re doing at CBS News—they could install new editorial leadership that’s more agreeable. Trump has complained bitterly for years about CNN; this matters to him."
'Dangerous and Cruel': Trump VA Quietly Bans Abortion Even for Rape and Health Risks
Defenders of reproductive rights on Tuesday responded with alarm after President Donald Trump's administration quietly imposed an abortion ban at the US Department of Veterans Affairs following a legal opinion penned by a deputy assistant attorney general.
After the 2022 Roe v. Wade reversal, the Biden administration allowed the VA to provide abortion counseling and care for service members and beneficiaries in cases of rape, incest, or if the pregnancy threatened the health of the patient. Once Trump returned to power, the department proposed a rule that would end those exceptions—though the VA would continue treating ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages, and allow abortions "when a physician certifies that the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term."
Although that rule hasn't taken effect, the US Department of Justice last week issued a memo in which Joshua Craddock of the Office of Legal Counsel concludes that the 2022 policy wasn't legally valid. The VA on Monday issued its own internal memo—obtained by the legal group Democracy Forward and reported by MS NOW—announcing immediate compliance with the DOJ's opinion, effectively implementing the proposed rule without finishing the formal process for doing so.
"DOJ's opinion states that VA is not legally authorized to provide abortions, and VA is complying with it immediately," Pete Kasperowicz, press secretary for the VA, confirmed to MS NOW, without answering further questions. "DOJ's opinion is consistent with VA's proposed rule, which continues to work its way through the regulatory process."
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement that "denying veterans essential healthcare and abortion access—even in cases of rape or serious health risk—after they have sacrificed so much for our country is callous and inhumane."
Democracy Forward represented Minority Veterans of America in submitting a comment opposing the proposed rule, and Perryman pledged that "we will continue to fight its implementation now that it has been finalized."
"This abortion ban makes it clear that the Trump administration will always choose its dangerous political agenda, even if the cost is veterans and their families' access to essential care."
Minority Veterans of America co-founder and executive director Lindsay Church also denounced the "dangerous and cruel" policy shift.
"Veterans face unique challenges that make it critical for us to be able to access abortion care, including possible exposure to toxic chemicals, waiting to start a family until after our service, and experiencing sexual assault," she said. "Abortion should not be a political issue—it is necessary, life-saving medical care, and denying this care will put veterans and their loved ones' lives in danger."
Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women's Law Center, warned that "the Trump administration is confirming what we've always known: its promise to leave abortion to the states was a lie. No one is safe from their anti-abortion crusade, not even our nation's veterans."
Goss Graves called on federal lawmakers to "pass legislation to reverse this harmful new policy and reinstate abortion access to all veterans and their loved ones who depend on the VA for care," though such a bill is unlikely to advance in the current Republican-controlled Congress.
Reproductive Freedom for All president and CEO Mini Timmaraju similarly declared that "this decision endangers the health, lives, and futures of the people who have served our country—and it proves what we've long warned: Trump and his allies won't stop until they've imposed a national abortion ban."
Nancy Northup, president and CEO at the Center for Reproductive Rights, argued that "everyone should be appalled by this heartless policy. President Trump said he would leave abortion to the states, but he continues to seize new opportunities to restrict it nationally."
This means the VA won't cover abortions EVEN in the case of rape, incest, or serious threat to the health of the patient. The DOJ memo was authored by Josh Craddock, one of the chief legal advocates for fetal personhood, i.e. imposing a nationwide abortion ban through the courts.
[image or embed]
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) December 23, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Planned Parenthood Federation of America highlighted that "this ban goes into effect as the Trump administration and its allies in Congress continue a full-scale attack on access to sexual and reproductive health: stripping veterans of essential healthcare, slashing Medicaid, and 'defunding' Planned Parenthood."
Alexis McGill Johnson, the group's president and CEO, said that "this abortion ban makes it clear that the Trump administration will always choose its dangerous political agenda, even if the cost is veterans and their families' access to essential care."
Earlier this year, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Ranking Member Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) led over 230 of their colleagues in submitting a public comment against the Trump administration's proposed rule. Takano and other members of the House panel also spoke out on Tuesday.
"As a country, we made a solemn promise to honor veterans' service and ensure they receive the healthcare they have earned. Veterans should be able to trust that promise and know they can walk into a VA medical center and receive the care they need," said Takano. "Instead of trusting veterans to make the healthcare decisions that are best for them, VA is allowing political opinion to supplant its duty to veterans."
"Instead of allowing veterans to discuss all their healthcare options openly and honestly with their providers, VA has decided that the government should be in charge of making healthcare decisions, even in matters of life and death," he continued. "And instead of fulfilling its duty to provide needed healthcare to veterans, VA has refused to acknowledge the unique and complex healthcare needs of veterans who are more likely to have complex health conditions that can increase the risks associated with pregnancy. Veterans fought for our rights. Now it's our responsibility to fight for theirs."
Israeli Defense Minister Tries to Walk Back Vow to 'Never Leave Gaza,' Build Settlements
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz "said the silent part out loud" on Tuesday, then promptly tried to walk back his comments that his country would not only never leave the Gaza Strip, but also reestablish settlements in the decimated exclave.
Israel evacuated Jewish settlements in Gaza two decades ago, but some officials have pushed for ethnically cleansing the strip of Palestinians and recolonizing it, particularly since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack and the devastating Israeli assault that followed.
The Times of Israel on Tuesday translated Katz's remarks—made during an event about expanding Beit El, a Jewish settlement in the illegally occupied West Bank—from Hebrew to English:
"With God's help, when the time comes, also in northern Gaza, we will establish Nahal pioneer groups in place of the settlements that were evacuated," he said. "We'll do it in the right way, at the appropriate time."
Katz was referring to the Nahal military unit that, in part, lets youths combine pioneering activities with military service. In the past, many of the outposts established by the unit went on to evolve into full-fledged settlements.
"We are deep inside Gaza, and we will never leave Gaza—there will be no such thing," Katz said. "We are here to defend and to prevent what happened from happening again."
The so-called peace plan for Gaza that US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced at the White House in late September notably states that "Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza," and "the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will withdraw based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarization."
Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff who launched a new political party a few months ago, responded to Katz on social media, writing in Hebrew, "While the government votes with one hand in favor of the Trump plan, it sells myths with the other hand about isolated settlement nuclei in the strip."
"Instead of strengthening security and bringing about an enlistment law that will bolster the IDF, the government, driven by narrow political considerations, continues to scatter irresponsible and empty declarations that only harm Israel's standing in the world," he added.
The White House was also critical of Katz's comments, with an unnamed official saying that "the more Israel provokes, the less the Arab countries want to work with them."
"The United States remains fully committed to President Trump's 20-point peace plan, which was agreed to by all parties and endorsed by the international community," the official continued. "The plan envisions a phased approach to security, governance, and reconstruction in Gaza. We expect all parties to adhere to the commitments they made under the 20-point plan."
Later Tuesday, Katz's office said that "the minister of defense's remarks regarding the integration of Nahal units in the northern Gaza Strip were made solely in a security context. The government has no intention of establishing settlements in the Gaza Strip. The minister of defense emphasized the central principle of border defense in every arena: The IDF is the first and last line of defense for Israel's citizens, and the state of Israel relies for its protection solely on it and on the security forces."
Katz became defense minister in November 2024, just weeks before the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for his fired predecessor, Yoav Gallat, and Netanyahu over Israel's assault on and blockade of Gaza. When Katz took on the new role after serving as foreign minister, Palestine defenders accused the prime minister of swapping one "genocidal lunatic" for another.
Israel faces an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. As of Tuesday, local officials put the death toll since October 2023 at 70,942, with another 171,195 Palestinians wounded, though global experts warn the true tallies are likely far higher.
At least 406 of those confirmed deaths have occurred since Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire that took effect October 10. In a Monday letter demanding action from the White House, dozens of Democratic US lawmakers noted Israel's "continued bombardment against civilians, destruction of property, and insufficient delivery of humanitarian aid."
Israel Becomes First Nation to Recognize Somaliland—But Still Rejects Palestine
One foreign policy analyst said that Israel views Somaliland as a "strategic location as a launch pad for strikes on Yemen and potentially a place to forcibly 'relocate' Palestinians to."
Israel became the first nation to recognize Somaliland as a sovereign state on Friday, a move that was met with criticism from international observers who questioned its continued unwillingness to recognize a Palestinian state.
Somaliland, a breakaway region in the north of Somalia that is home to more than 6 million people, declared independence in 1991, but until now, no United Nations member states have recognized its claim.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described his government's recognition of the territory as being “in the spirit of the Abraham Accords,” a deal brokered by US President Donald Trump for Israel to normalize relations with some of its Arab neighbors, which has itself been accused of disregarding the issue of Palestinian sovereignty.
Speaking over a video call with Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, the president of Somaliland, Netanyahu said he was signing "Israel's official recognition of Somaliland and its right of self-determination," calling the friendship between the two nations "seminal and historic."
In a statement, Abdullahi said Israel's recognition "represents a milestone in Somaliland's long-standing pursuit of international legitimacy, reaffirming its historical, legal, and moral entitlement to statehood."
However, a report from the Guardian suggested that Israel's recognition of Somaliland has less to do with the self-determination of its people than with Israel's military interests. It cited a November report from a prominent Israeli think tank, which argued that Somaliland could be used as a base of military operations against Yemen's Houthis.
Somaliland, located in the horn of Africa just south of the Arabian Peninsula, already hosts an air base that the United Arab Emirates has used to conduct operations against the Yemeni militant group, which—until a "ceasefire" agreement was reached in October—launched regular attacks on Israel and its vessels in the Red Sea in what it said was an effort to pressure it to stop its genocidal military campaign in Gaza.
Egypt and Turkey condemned Israel's agreement with Somaliland, saying, "This initiative by Israel, which aligns with its expansionist policy and its efforts to do everything to prevent the recognition of a Palestinian state, constitutes overt interference in Somalia’s domestic affairs.”
Foreign ministers for the two nations joined those of Somalia and neighboring Djibouti on a call following the development, where they called for the continued unity of Somalia as an institution and condemned Israel's efforts "to displace the Palestinian people from their land."
Adil Haque, a professor at Rutgers Law School, pointed out on social media that, in August, Netanyahu met with Somaliland's leadership "offering recognition in exchange for helping Israel to illegally deport Palestinians from Gaza."
Somaliland was one of many nations reportedly approached by Israel to warehouse Palestinians exiled from the strip permanently—others included Indonesia, Uganda, South Sudan, and Libya.
Following reports at the time that Somalia was also in consideration, its president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, responded that "the idea of removing Palestine from their own land and putting them into another, other people’s land—I don’t see that that’s a solution at all."
A senior Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity with Israel's Channel 12 reportedly agreed that Netanyahu's recognition of Somaliland undermines his repeated assertions that there will never be a Palestinian state. As the Times of Israel summarized: "The official... points out that while Israel is the first country to grant recognition to Somaliland, the rest of the world considers the breakaway region an integral part of Somalia."
Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a fellow at the Palestinian Policy Network and a producer at AJ+, said: "To state the obvious, Israel wouldn’t recognize anyone unless there was something in it for them. Israel doesn’t give a shit about Somaliland apart from its strategic location as a launch pad for strikes on Yemen and potentially a place to forcibly 'relocate' Palestinians to."
'Horrible Racist' Stephen Miller Slammed for Using Classic TV Christmas Special to Bash Immigrants
"Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra would hate Stephen Miller and his politics," said one critic in response to Miller.
Top Trump White House aide Stephen Miller on Friday elicited disgust after he said that a beloved Christmas television special reminded him of his own personal animus toward immigrants.
Miller, often seen as the architect of President Donald Trump's mass deportation policy, revealed in a post on X that he and his children had just watched "Christmas with The Martins and The Sinatras," a one-off 1967 TV holiday special that featured singers Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.
Miller then quickly pivoted from that to once again bash immigrants who come to the US.
"Imagine watching that," Miller wrote, "and thinking America needed infinity migrants from the third world."
As Rolling Stone politics reporter Nikki McCann Ramírez pointed out in response, both Martin and Sinatra both had parents who were first-generation Italian immigrants.
"Dean Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti and gave himself a stage name because of braindead xenophobes like Stephen," McCann Ramírez observed. "Sinatra was also a child of Italian immigrants. Imagine watching them and thinking immigrants didn’t build the culture you fetishize today."
A similar point was made by civil rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill in a post on Bluesky.
"Imagine watching Sinatra, son of Dolly and Antonini born in Genoa and Sicily, respectively," she wrote, "and Martin, son of Gaetano and Angela, born in Montesilvano, Italy and Ohio respectively... and crusading against the value of children of immigrants to the US."
Journalist and author Jeff Yang added some historical context to Miller's remarks by noting that Italian immigrants in the early and middle decades of the 20th century faced many of the same stereotypes that Miller and his political allies ascribe to immigrants from Latin America.
"A reminder," Yang wrote, while also posting old cartoons that featured racist depictions of Italians, "that Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra’s parents emigrated here during a period when Italians were considered to be a genetically inferior and criminal-minded underclass that Stephen Miller’s racist predecessors said should be excluded from America."
Yang added that Frank Sinatra's mother "ran an underground free abortion clinic, chained herself to a fence to fight for women’s suffrage, and was an extremely influential organizer for the Democratic Party."
Princeton University historian Kevin Kruse promoted Yang's thread that demonstrated Miller's apparent ignorance of Dean and Sinatra's family histories, and said it showed the Trump adviser is "a horrible racist in the sense that he is actually not that good at being racist."
Tim Wise, a senior fellow at the African American Policy Forum, managed to find an upside to Miller's holiday-themed anti-immigrant rant.
"The one silver lining in all this sickness is that one day your children will despise you as much as most of America already does," he commented.
Film producer Franklin Leonard was even more succinct in his response to Miller.
"Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra would hate Stephen Miller and his politics," he wrote.
Bezos-Owned Newspaper Bashes Medicare for All in Christmas Day Editorial
The Washington Post editorial predictably ignores research showing that a single-payer system would save hundreds of billions of dollars—and tens of thousands of lives—each year.
An editorial published on Christmas by the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post inveighed against supporters of Medicare for All in the United States, pointing to the struggles of Britain's chronically underfunded National Health Service as a "cautionary tale" while ignoring research showing that a single-payer system would save the US hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives each year.
The editorial, headlined "Socialized medicine can’t survive the winter," laments the "religious-like devotion to the NHS" in the United Kingdom even as "hospital corridors overflow and routine procedures get canceled due to a catastrophic event commonly known as 'winter.'"
The Post editorial board, led by opinion editor Adam O'Neal, waves away expert analyses showing that the UK government is underinvesting in its healthcare system relative to other countries in Europe, resulting in the kinds of problems the Thursday editorial attributed to the supposedly inherent flaws of single-payer systems.
"This is the dark reality of single-payer and a cautionary tale for the third of Americans who mistakenly believe Medicare for All is a good idea," the editorial declared ominously.
The editorial understates Medicare for All's popularity among US voters. A recent Data for Progress survey found that even after hearing common opposing arguments, 58% of voters strongly or somewhat support improving Medicare and expanding it to cover everyone in the US.
A separate poll conducted by GQR Research found that 54% of voters nationally, and 56% in battleground districts, support Medicare for All. US Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the co-leader of the Medicare for All Act in the House, is reportedly planning to present those findings to colleagues next month as she pushes Democrats to rally behind her legislation ahead of the critical midterm elections.
Welcome to the newest co-sponsors of my Medicare for All bill in the House!
Medicare for All is not only good policy — as premiums skyrocket for millions of Americans — it is incredibly popular. Let’s keep building momentum for universal health care and get this passed! pic.twitter.com/k5sg7hEkYR
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) December 25, 2025
The renewed push for Medicare for All comes as the corporate-dominated healthcare status quo hits Americans with massive premium hikes stemming from congressional Republicans' refusal to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Predictably, the Post's editorial board—which Bezos has instructed to write "every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets"—neglected to mention the myriad horrors of the United States' for-profit system in its diatribe against Medicare for All.
The editorial also ignores research showing potentially massive benefits from a transition to Medicare for All, which would virtually eliminate private insurance while providing comprehensive coverage to everyone in the US for free at the point of service.
One study published in The Lancet estimated that a Medicare for All system would save more than 68,000 lives and over $450 billion in healthcare expenditures annually.
An analysis by Yale researchers calculated that "if the US had had a single-payer universal healthcare system in 2020"—which marked the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic—"nearly 212,000 American lives would have been saved that year" and "the country would have saved $105 billion in Covid-19 hospitalization expenses alone."