It’s virtually Christmas and information producers throughout the business are checked out of their jobs, so that they used up no matter pre-taped segments that they had for this weekend’s Sunday reveals. That signifies that the media missed greater than normal this week, as each members of Congress and section producers alike decamped Washington for the comforting leisure of house.
Most networks devoted their time to repeating the identical drained narratives about our authorities’s most up-to-date shutdown scare. In keeping with insiders, Donald Trump isn’t glad after the primary massive take a look at of his management expertise went down the bathroom after Congress did not go his most well-liked debt deal. Much less mentioned was how Republicans caved to billionaire Elon Musk, defending his company pursuits in China even because the Home GOP hung working class individuals out to dry.
However massive information tales don’t cease popping up simply because the information media isn’t there to cowl them. Take into account these three particularly newsworthy moments you positively missed when you had been glued to the tv over the weekend. Let’s dive in.
The Lacking Member of Congress
Congress has made a nasty behavior of defending its growing old and ailing members, even when which means actively deceiving the American individuals as to their whereabouts. Suppose I’m exaggerating? This week, a reporter for the Dallas Specific got down to discover GOP Rep. Kay Granger, who, regardless of being the Home Appropriations Committee Chair, hasn’t forged a vote since July. And discover her they did: at “a native reminiscence care and assisted dwelling house she now calls house.
Granger’s Capitol Hill workplace telephone is forwarded on to voicemail, whereas her Texas district workplace seems to have been shuttered for weeks. In keeping with a Dallas Morning Information interview with Granger’s son, Brandon, the longtime public servant has “been having some dementia issues” however is within the “independent living” part of a posh that features a reminiscence care facility. e. Granger and her workers have continued to attract paychecks regardless of this absence. one of many nationwide Sunday reveals thought the story was worthy of headline protection.
Now even some Republicans are saying sufficient is sufficient. Texas GOP govt committeeman Rolando Garcia slammed Granger’s deception as a “sad and humiliating way to end her political career,” including that Granger was “already in visible decline when she ran for re-election in 2022.”
Granger’s staff insists she’s going to stay in workplace. Yikes.
Trump’s Dopey Diplomats
By now Donald Trump’s Cupboard of Horrors is outdated information for the TV networks, they usually’ve largely moved on from earlier main scandals involving Protection Secretary nominee Pete Hegeseth and Director of Nationwide Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard. However abroad newspapers, together with London’s The Guardian are writing with rising fear that Trump’s roster of dimwitted diplomats would possibly quickly put European and world safety in danger. That … appears fairly seemingly, truly.
Whether or not it’sfake sheriff and failed Senate candidate Herschel Walker as Ambassador to the Bahamas, or convicted fraudster Charles Kushner as French envoy, or former Trump household hanger-on Kimberly Guilfoyle as America’s lady in Greece, it’s exhausting to think about Trump nominating a much less certified and extra scatterbrained set of international emissaries. A number of the most high-profile picks additionally know completely nothing in regards to the international locations they’ll be working in—particularly NATO Ambassador nominee Matt Whitaker, who has no expertise with army diplomacy, NATO, or Europe. Tremendous!
Regardless of what the MAGA base thinks, ambassadorships aren’t simply plush gigs handed out to mates. Some ambassadorships will play key roles in deciding the way forward for the Center East, together with the vital Turkish ambassadorship that Trump has supplied to marketing campaign donor and alleged international agent for the United Arab Emirates Tom Barrack.
It’s no shock that many profession international service officers are actually debating retiring fairly than reply to this lengthy checklist of uneducated, uninterested nominees. That may go away America uncovered overseas at a time of rising world unrest—precisely the scenario that Russia, China, and different geopolitical adversaries need.
Lina Khan vs. Junk Charges
Federal Commerce Fee Chair Lina Khan has been considered one of Washington’s best-kept secrets and techniques, and this week, she racked up one more win for customers taken benefit of by the lodge and stay occasion industries. On Thursday, the FTC finalized a rule requiring these companies to reveal hidden “junk fees” upfront, a part of Khan’s effort to enhance transparency within the notoriously shady lodge reserving and live performance ticket buying world. Shockingly, even among the FTC’s Republican commissioners stsupported the proposal.
Shoppers collectively waste over 50 million hours yearly making an attempt to search out the precise value of lodge rooms and live performance tickets that business leaders like Ticketmaster do their finest to bury beneath charges that usually aren’t seen till the ultimate step in a web based buy.
Shoppers can thank music’s most profitable lady for the FTC’s … swift motion. The debacle round buying tickets for Taylor Swift’s recently-concluded Eras Tour lit a hearth beneath the federal authorities, leading to not simply the brand new FTC rule, but in addition a bipartisan Home invoice to advertise extra transparency in how live performance tickets, airline fares, and lodge rooms are offered.
Subsequent, Congress says they’ll construct on the FTC’s new rule by tackling value collusion and doable antitrust violations by the nation’s largest leisure distributors and hospitality corporations. However good luck reaching something when the nation’s subsequent president owns a sequence of overpriced accommodations and leisure venues.
Attain out!
Hold the dialog going all week by sharing tales you suppose the media missed with me at @themaxburns on Bluesky! And keep in mind: For those who’re tuned to cable information, you aren’t even getting half of the story.
Till subsequent week, hold your eyes peeled and keep inquisitive, mates—and Glad Holidays!
