The 'modern' republican party.

In a clear sign that pressure is building, a handful of Republicans took to the Senate floor on Wednesday night to excoriate Mr. Tuberville for his tactics, which have held up more than 350 senior military positions. They attempted to call up scores of pending promotions for military officers one by one, insisting he quit blocking them — which he refused repeatedly to do.

“No matter whether you believe it or not, Senator Tuberville, this is doing great damage to our military,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, in one such floor speech on Wednesday night. “If this gets to be normal, God help the military, because every one of us could find some reason to object to policy.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/02/us/politics/military-abortion-tuberville-senate.html

What a screwy system the Yanks have.

In 2015, Mr. Johnson, who would announce his first run for Congress the next year, wrote that he was horrified as he watched Mr. Trump’s debate performance with his wife and children.

“What bothered me most was watching the face of my exceptional 10 yr old son, Jack, at one point when he looked over at me with a sort of confused disappointment, as the leader of all polls boasted about calling a woman a ‘fat pig.’”

In one of the most famous exchanges from that debate, Megyn Kelly, a moderator and then a Fox News host, asked Mr. Trump about his history of referring to women as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”

“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” Mr. Trump responded. He added that the country’s problem was political correctness, something he didn’t have time for.

Mr. Johnson was horrified.

“Can you imagine the noble, selfless characters of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln or Reagan carrying on like Trump did last night?” wrote Mr. Johnson, an evangelical Christian. He noted that voters needed to demand a “much higher level of virtue and decency” than what he had just witnessed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/14/us/politics/mike-johnson-donald-trump.html

No I can't, Mike. I really can't, you gutless worm.

Senator Markwayne Mullin is doubling down on his challenge against International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O'Brien, saying he'd be ready to bite the union head if the two were to settle their differences in a physical fight.

"By the way, I'm not afraid of biting. I will bite," Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter, told podcast host Kyle Thompson on Wednesday's episode of Undaunted.Life. "I'll bite 100 percent. In a fight, I'm gonna bite. I'll do anything. I'm not above it, and I don't care where I bite, by the way, it's just...gonna be a biting."

https://www.newsweek.com/markwayne-mullin-threatens-bite-sean-obrien-teamsters-fight-1843990

Anyone who says, as Haley does, that the retirement age should rise in line with increasing life expectancy is being oblivious, perhaps willfully, to the grim inequality of modern America. Until Covid struck, average life expectancy at 65, the relevant number, was indeed rising. But these gains were concentrated among Americans with relatively high incomes. Less affluent Americans — those who depend most on Social Security — have seen little increase in life expectancy and, in some cases, declines.

So anyone invoking rising life expectancy as a reason to delay Social Security benefits is, in effect, saying that aging janitors must keep working (or be cast into extreme poverty) because bankers are living longer.

How, then, should the Social Security gap be closed? The obvious answer — which happens to be favored by a majority of voters — is to raise more revenue. Remember, America collects less revenue as a percentage of G.D.P. than almost any other advanced economy.

But Haley, of course, wants to cut income taxes.

My guess is that none of this will be relevant, that Trump will be the nominee. But if he stumbles, I would beg political reporters not to focus on Haley’s personal affect, which can seem moderate, but rather on her policies. On social issues and the fate of democracy, she appears to be a pure weather vane, turning with the political winds. On fiscal and economic policy, she’s a hard-right advocate of tax cuts for the rich and benefit cuts for the working class. If calling someone a populist has any meaning these days, she’s the exact opposite.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/27/opinion/nikki-haley-social-security.html