Some county GOP officials said the president’s pardon could complicate their plans to unseat the Laredo Democrat in South Texas’ battleground 28th Congressional District.
Records obtained by The Texas Tribune show how universities are using the technology to reshape curriculum under political pressure, raising concerns about academic freedom.
A progressive group pushed through a measure to bar Whitmire from receiving the party’s endorsement. It came nearly eight months after he attended a fundraiser for a Republican congressman.
SPRINGFIELD, MA—Facing intense backlash and scrutiny from critics who say the reference book publisher had failed to take all words into consideration, Merriam-Webster was accused of bias Monday after officially selecting ‘dictionary’ as its 2025 word of the year. “Merriam-Webster clearly has a pro-dictionary bias that’s preventing it from considering all words equally,” lexicographer Alison Nielsen wrote in a widely shared social media post that lambasted the Merriam-Webster editorial team, claiming its members had allowed a “personal affinity for looking up words” to cloud their judgment. “I was willing to overlook it last year when their word of the year was ‘definition,’ but I can’t allow myself to turn a blind eye to this. The Merriam-Webster editorial board is stuck in its own media bubble. They need to look around and read a thesaurus once in a while.” At press time, reports confirmed Merriam-Webster appeared to have doubled down by changing the 2025 word of the year to “dictionaries.”
LOS ANGELES—Emphasizing her ability to meet the film industry’s evolving needs, actress Gal Gadot reportedly assured a casting agent Monday that she was more than capable of playing AI roles. “I’ve been told for years I bring a certain lifelessness to my characters,” said Gadot, who emphasized that she had been honing her ability to deliver an uncanny performance complete with stilted speech, unnatural arm movements, and a total lack of chemistry with other co-stars for her entire career. “Honestly, when I heard that studios were starting to cast AI actors, I immediately thought, ‘Gal, it’s your time to shine.’ I genuinely believe no one in this town is better equipped to play a role designed for a non-sentient digital entity than I am, and if you want proof, check out Death On The Nile, Snow White, or Wonder Woman 1984. I was awful in not just one, but all of those movies.” Gadot added that she was also open to AI voice work, noting that her natural cadence already resembled that of text-to-speech software.
With the holiday season getting longer every year, Americans nationwide are searching for methods to ensure the focal point of their decor remains healthy and vibrant through Dec. 25 and beyond. Here are tips on how to keep your Christmas tree fresh.
Choose A Genetically Pure Tree Of Noble Heritage: Often the reason a Christmas tree sheds its needles when brought home is because it’s been tainted by foreign pollen from contemptible stock.
Replicate Its Natural Environment: Add a razor wire fence, 600 gallons of asphalt concrete, and a chain-smoking Russian man to your living room, and your Christmas tree will feel at home in no time.
Forgo Buying Your Children Presents: Fewer presents under the tree will allow it more growing room.
Play The Song Of The Forest On Your Pan Flute: The mystical melody of merriment and glee is sure to perk your Christmas tree right up as it sways to your folk instrument’s hypnotic tune.
Cut Down Adjacent Trees In Your House: Overcrowding can deprive smaller Christmas trees of sunlight, so thin out all existing growth in your home within 8 feet of your tree’s base.
Appoint A Shadow Christmas Tree: In its unofficial parliamentary role, it can scrutinize the work of the acting Christmas tree and keep it on its toes.
Let It Roam Around In The Woods For At Least 30 Minutes A Day: Allowing your tree to get outdoors will keep its mind sharp and its trunk strong.
Perform Sap Infusions From Younger Trees: Regular infusions of sap from a more youthful spruce can reverse your tree’s biological age to that of a seedling.
Don’t Cut It Down In The First Place: You took an ax to its trunk, and now you’re confused as to why it’s not perfectly healthy?
Make It Someone Else’s Responsibility: Let the housekeeper know that if a single pine needle turns brown, she can find employment at a different chalet.
I’m not sure who maintains the “where are they now” file these days. It used to be a jam packed (ram-packed) ledger but now, just a cloud of scuttlebutt and who knows.
The mainstream media just failed a basic civics test so badly that you’d think their brains have been pickled by the kinds of folks who spend all their time on X (oh, wait…). Headlines across major outlets are breathlessly reporting that Donald Trump “blocked states from passing AI laws” with an executive order. Except, that’s not how any of this works, and anyone who stayed awake during middle school social studies should know better.
Look at this:
That’s the New York Times, CNN, CNBC, NBC, and the Guardian all confidently telling their readers that Trump can magically override state sovereignty with a memo. These aren’t fringe blogs—these are supposedly serious news organizations with actual editors who apparently skipped the day they taught how the federal government works. They have failed the most simple journalistic test of “don’t print lies in the newspaper.”
Executive orders aren’t laws. They’re memos. Fancy, official memos that tell federal employees how to do their jobs, but memos nonetheless. You want to change what states can and can’t do? You need this little thing called “Congress” to pass this other little thing called “legislation.” Trump can’t just declare state laws invalid any more than he can declare himself emperor of Mars.
Even the text of the actual executive order admits all this:
My Administrationmust act with the Congressto ensure that there is a minimally burdensome national standard — not 50 discordant State ones. The resulting framework must forbid State laws that conflict with the policy set forth in this order. That framework should also ensure that children are protected, censorship is prevented, copyrights are respected, and communities are safeguarded. A carefully crafted national framework can ensure that the United States wins the AI race, as we must.
Right there in black and white: “must act with the Congress.” Apparently, someone in the White House briefly remembered how government works, even if the president and the entire mainstream media have forgotten.
And look, I actually do mostly agree that we’d be much better off with a single federal solution here, rather than a bunch of piecemeal (and perhaps conflicting) rules from every state. But, that’s why you actually have to work with Congress, and if there’s anything this Congress has shown over the past 11 months, it’s that it is inherently unable to do anything particularly competently.
Only a few news orgs managed to call out the problems with this executive order. Barron’s rightly noted that there would be “court battles” over the law:
NPR, however, came out and pointed out that this overall executive order probably isn’t legal:
NPR’s right. The order contradicts itself so blatantly it’s almost impressive. First paragraph: “we need Congress.” Rest of the document: “never mind, we’ll just do whatever we want.”
Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall establish an AI Litigation Task Force (Task Force) whose sole responsibility shall be to challenge State AI laws inconsistent with the policy set forth in section 2 of this order, including on grounds that such laws unconstitutionally regulate interstate commerce, are preempted by existing Federal regulations, or are otherwise unlawful in the Attorney General’s judgment, including, if appropriate, those laws identified pursuant to section 4 of this order.
You can’t just say that because a law goes against the intent of this executive order that the DOJ can challenge it. That’s not how that works. At all.
But here’s where this gets kinda funny (in a stupid way): that “interstate commerce” language could backfire spectacularly. Almost all state laws trying to regulate the internet—from child safety laws to age verification to the various attempts at content moderation laws—might run afoul of the dormant commerce clause by attempting to regulate interstate commerce if what the admin here claims is true (it’s not really true, but if the Supreme Court buys it…). Courts had been hesitant to use this nuclear option because it would essentially wipe out the entire patchwork of state internet regulation that’s been building for years, and a few decades of work in other areas that hasn’t really been challenged. Also, because they’ve mostly been able to invalidate those laws using the simple and straightforward First Amendment.
If Trump’s DOJ starts aggressively pursuing dormant commerce clause challenges to keep his Silicon Valley donors happy, they might accidentally create precedent that invalidates every state’s attempts to regulate social media, require age verification, or mandate content filtering. Every red state law targeting “Big Tech censorship,” every blue state law pretending to protect kids online—all of it could get swept away by Trump’s own legal strategy.
Wouldn’t that be something? In some ways, it would be hilarious, since I think almost all of these state laws are awful and a mess and waste everyone’s time… but it would certainly put a dent in a ton of efforts by Republicans and Democrats alike. All to keep the AI bros happy.
There’s also some extortion in here:
Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Commerce, through the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, shall issue a Policy Notice specifying the conditions under which States may be eligible for remaining funding under the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program that was saved through my Administration’s “Benefit of the Bargain” reforms, consistent with 47 U.S.C. 1702(e)-(f). That Policy Notice must provide that States with onerous AI laws identified pursuant to section 4 of this order are ineligible for non-deployment funds, to the maximum extent allowed by Federal law. The Policy Notice must also describe how a fragmented State regulatory landscape for AI threatens to undermine BEAD-funded deployments, the growth of AI applications reliant on high-speed networks, and BEAD’s mission of delivering universal, high-speed connectivity.
We’ve talked about BEAD a lot here. That’s the Biden-era program that poured billions of dollars into broadband investment, which took way too long because Trump’s first FCC had fucked up the allocation process of earlier broadband grants. The Biden admin didn’t want a repeat of that, and thus tasked NTIA with figuring out a better allocation system, which took so long that Trump is back in office.
And rather than figure out the best way to allocate those funds, he’s holding them for ransom, and states that comply with his policy wishes might get it, and those that don’t won’t. It’s hellishly corrupt, but that’s what you get these days.
The other potentially interesting tidbit that is going to create a huge mess is Section 7:
Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission shall, in consultation with the Special Advisor for AI and Crypto, issue a policy statement on the application of the Federal Trade Commission Act’s prohibition on unfair and deceptive acts or practices under 15 U.S.C. 45 to AI models. That policy statement must explain the circumstances under which State laws that require alterations to the truthful outputs of AI models are preempted by the Federal Trade Commission Act’s prohibition on engaging in deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce.
This seems like an improper use of the FTC’s power to deal with unfair and deceptive practices, but the Trump administration abusing and twisting laws to get what it wants is kind of standard operating procedure these days.
The real story here isn’t that Trump signed some groundbreaking AI policy—it’s that the entire mainstream media apparatus completely failed to understand the most basic principles of American government. Executive orders aren’t magic spells that override federalism. They’re memos.
That said, the potential for this legal strategy to completely backfire is darkly amusing. If Trump’s DOJ successfully argues that state AI laws violate the dormant commerce clause, they’ll have handed every future administration—and every tech company—a nuclear weapon against state internet regulation. Every privacy law, every age verification requirement, every attempt by states to regulate online platforms could get vaporized by precedent that Trump’s own lawyers established.
It wouldn’t surprise me if one of the tech bro folks in and around the administration got that dropped into this executive order without much of the administration realizing it.
In brief: We’re interrupting your weekend because our confidence is increasing that a front arriving on Sunday morning will bring sharply colder temperatures on Sunday night into Monday morning. It now appears likely that much of the region will fall near to freezing, or a few degrees below.
The vast majority of the Houston region has yet to experience a freeze this season—the lowest temperature so far at Bush Intercontinental Airport has been 37 degrees—but that could change on Monday morning. For several days now it has been clear that a short-lived, but impactful front will push into Houston on Sunday. Now that we are closer to the front, however, we are beginning to get high-resolution data that continues to trend colder. It is clear that much of Houston, even within the urban core of the city, could see a light freeze for a couple of hours on Monday morning.
HRRR model temperature forecast for 7 am CT on Monday. Please note that actual temperatures will likely vary by a degree or three. (Weather Bell)
This is not the kind of freeze that is likely to knock power offline, or freeze pipes. We just are not going to get that cold, for that long. But this will be the first freeze of the season for much of the greater Houston metro area, and that means care should be taken for sensitive plants, and of course you should think about your pets.
We still don’t have great confidence of where the freeze line will fall, but I am reasonably confident that a majority of Montgomery and Chambers counties will freeze early on Monday morning. And I now think there is probably about a 50 percent chance that the majority of Harris County experiences a freeze. Chances are less likely for Galveston, Brazoria, and Fort Bend counties, but basically we’re not ruling anything out except for a place like, say, Galveston Island.
We will warm up into the low 50s on Monday, and Monday night should be at least a few degrees warmer. So the cold won’t last too long. And then we’re going to be quite a bit warmer for the run-up to Christmas morning.
MAR-A-LAGO, FL – Sources report President Donald J. Trump was seen questioning his own motivations behind a series of shocking recent moves in Venezuela, along with a close confidant who was later revealed to be an inanimate coatrack. “Look, I don’t know which of these vultures around me I can trust, but I’m having trouble […]
The Trump administration is arguing that requiring real-time American Sign Language interpretation of events like White House press briefings “would severely intrude on the President’s prerogative to control the image he presents to the public," part of a lawsuit seeking to require the White House to provide the services.
OTTAWA – In a stunning move, progressive conservative MP Michael Ma crossed the floor Thursday to the progressive conservative Liberal Party, just a few weeks after similar minded progressive conservative Conservative MP Chris d’Entremont did the same. “It just made sense,” Ma said when asked about the decision at a presser. “Carney is cutting government […]
OTTAWA – Local voter Martin Kofman finds it appalling that the Liberals have clearly hatched a plan to obtain the majority government voters denied them by luring Conservative MPs to cross the floor, and would be way more mad about it if it wasn’t so fun to image Poilievre’s face reacting to the news. “The […]
It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are four updates from past letter-writers.
We had a Very Ballsy coworker bring it up in a staff meeting, demanding to know whether they preferred we infect all the people, children, and families we worked with every day in order to avoid being shamed for our own illness. (Yes, this was a preschool/daycare.) She also pointedly asked why *management* who called out sick or were otherwise not present were not included on the list.
They did the very performative “oh, we had no idea you felt that way, that’s not how we meant it AT ALL” and then got rid of the list. But I did overhear them grumbling in the office later that “it worked, though.” They wanted staff to be mad at each other for being over our child:teacher ratios, instead of complaining to management.
I’ve since changed careers, and while I’m still hourly, nobody shames me for taking a sick day anymore.
I took your advice to heart and started changing how I spoke about the ratings. My team doesn’t love the idea of forced ranking, but understands why there’s some limits. Handling the discussions at the start of the ratings period helped with the introduction, since it wasn’t tied to any negative feedback, and all in all it went well. In the meantime, my manager retired, and my team was assigned to a different supervisor, Lainey, with direction to grow our focus. My team is super excited because Lainey is setting up a lot of opportunities that are interesting to them and may even lead to promotions down the road. The excitement definitely helps drive motivation within the team. Finally, as I started writing this update, word came down that our ratings system was being adjusted and the new system will have a wider range of ratings, so there’s a good deal more nuance I can apply to my scoring.
I’m still frustrated that I can’t formally reward all of the passion and expertise that my seasoned crew brings to their work, but I’m happy that I was able to navigate them to a new understanding without destroying the trust we’ve built together over the years. Thank you for the assist in how to give my team the transparency they deserve.
A big thank you to Alison and all of the commenters for all of the advice. Looking back to when I wrote in, there was a lot of other stuff/drama that was feeding into my problem. All of the faculty in my department have very big feelings, and my supervisor and department were not on good terms with one another. My problem became another part of that. After a lot of back and forth between several offices, our business office was able to find a solution that theoretically will work. I say theoretically because we’ll try it out for the first time next semester. But, I’m optimistic it will work and I won’t have to handle any cash besides my own. I’m calling this a win.
This experience has also shown me how much I let myself get mired down in office drama. I’m working on trying to pull back from all of that right now. I also think it’s time to start looking for new opportunities.
WASHINGTON—Searching in vain for a meaningful way to retaliate after Indiana lawmakers rejected his Republican gerrymandering push, a visibly frustrated President Donald Trump was reportedly struggling Friday to find any infrastructure left in the state that could still be destroyed. “I’m looking all over, and there’s just no way we can make this any worse,” Trump said as his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, showed him live satellite footage of the Rust Belt state, revealing mile after mile of pulverized highway, gnarled railroad tracks, algae-infested reservoirs, and abandoned main streets. “What is withholding funds even going to do here, Sean? How can you make dirt worse? I want to do something where people can really see a difference, but there’s no before-and-after here. These bridges already seem like they’ve been bombed, so anything I’d do would just be a lateral move. And look at Gary—is there even an intact window we could smash with a brick?” At press time, sources reported that Trump was exploring whether he could retroactively take credit for the state’s damage.
Sixty years ago, A Charlie Brown Christmas made its debut on CBS. Today, as part of CBS’s new initiative to modernize content, CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss updates this Christmas classic.
- - -
Charlie Brown and Linus lean on a brick wall. Snowflakes fall around them.
CHARLIE BROWN: I think there must be something wrong with me. I just don’t understand Christmas, I guess. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel.
LINUS: Charlie Brown, you are the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. Maybe Lucy is right. Maybe it is because of woke.
- - -
Charlie Brown sits in front of Lucy’s psychiatric booth.
CHARLIE BROWN: I feel depressed. I know I should be happy, but I’m not.
LUCY: It’s because of mainstream media cowardice. In an age of lies, telling the truth is a huge risk. I think we’d better pinpoint your fears. Are you afraid of being silenced because of your “privilege”? How ’bout for the crime of listening to a diversity of opinions? Are you afraid of getting canceled for freethinking? Or for fighting a culture war between people who think the Confederate flag is a beautiful symbol of resistance, and those who hate America?
CHARLIE BROWN: There’s a culture war?
LUCY: There is if you open your eyes to the truth.
CHARLIE BROWN: Actually, Lucy, my trouble is Christmas. Instead of feeling happy, I feel sort of let down.
LUCY: You need involvement. How would you like to be the director of our Christmas play?
CHARLIE BROWN: Me? I don’t know anything about directing a Christmas play.
LUCY: Don’t worry, I’ll help… Incidentally, I know how you feel, getting depressed and all that. It happens to me every year. I never get what I really want.
CHARLIE BROWN: What is it you want?
LUCY: Acceptance to the only school where you can think without fear of censorship or retribution: the University of Austin.
- - -
Charlie Brown and Lucy enter the school auditorium.
LUCY: All right, I’m here to assign roles. Frieda, you’re playing Dominique Francon.
FRIEDA: Does Dominique Francon have naturally curly hair?
LUCY: Pig Pen, you’re Ellsworth Toohey. Shermy, you’re Gail Wynand. And Linus, get rid of that stupid blanket! How’s Howard Roark going to own the libs while holding a stupid blanket?
CHARLIE BROWN: Lucy, what is this play we’re putting on?
LUCY: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.
CHARLIE BROWN: That’s a Christmas play?
LUCY: Charlie Brown. In this age of mob thinking, it is our duty to resist the crowd.
The children begin dancing to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
CHARLIE BROWN: Good grief…
LUCY: Let’s face it, Charlie Brown. We all know that censorship has ruined Christmas. That’s why we have to support the academic renegades on the intellectual dark web and their righteous fight against the suppression of free speech.
CHARLIE BROWN: Well, I don’t know anything about that, but I think what our Christmas play needs is the proper Christmas mood. We need a Christmas tree.
LUCY (claps with excitement): Hey, a tree! That’s it! Way to free-think, Charlie Brown! Get the biggest, bravest, most truth-seeking tree you can find. Paint it red, white, and blue!
- - -
Charlie Brown and Linus enter a tree lot. They walk to a small green pine tree on a simple wooden stand.
CHARLIE BROWN: This one seems to need a home.
LINUS: I don’t know, remember what Lucy said? It doesn’t seem to fit the modern vision.
CHARLIE BROWN: I don’t care! We’ll decorate it, and it will be just right. Besides, I think it needs me.
- - -
Charlie Brown returns to the school auditorium with his tree.
VIOLET: Boy, are you stupid, Charlie Brown. You were supposed to get a truth-seeking tree. Can’t you tell a truth-seeking tree from a manipulative, antifa mind-trap?
PATTI: You’re hopeless, Charlie Brown.
LUCY: Charlie Brown, you’ve been duped by the elite consensus and its woke worldview. You think this tree needs help? That’s exactly what it WANTS you to think!
The children and Snoopy laugh, then exit.
CHARLIE BROWN: I guess you’re right, Linus; I shouldn’t have picked this little tree. I guess this tree represents something other than Christmas now. I don’t understand anything anymore. Isn’t there anyone who understands what Christmas is all about?
LINUS: I can tell you what it’s all about.
Linus goes to the center stage. A spotlight shines on him.
LINUS: "Above all, starting today, we need to uproot, root and branch, the ideology that has supplanted truth at the core of American higher education. And that ideology goes by the name “DEI.” Some call it wokeness, or anti-racism, or progressivism, or safetyism, or critical social justice, or identity marxism. Whatever term you use, what is clear is that this worldview has gained power via a conceptual instrument called DEI." DEI arrogates power and undermines America. It demonizes hard work, merit, family, and the dignity of the individual.
Linus picks up his blanket, walks back to Charlie Brown.
LINUS: That’s a direct quote, Charlie Brown. That’s what it’s all about.
CHARLIE BROWN: What does that have to do with Christmas?
LINUS: “It,” Charlie Brown. “It” includes Christmas and freedom and everything Americans hold dear. You’ve got to understand, Charlie Brown. DEI ruins everything.
- - -
Charlie Brown picks up his tree. He walks outside and stares at the sky.
CHARLIE BROWN: Linus is right. I can’t let DEI ruin my Christmas.
The children watch as Charlie Brown throws his little tree into a dumpster.
LUCY: Charlie Brown is a blockhead. But he did take a stand against conformity by rejecting that dishonest, cowardly little tree.
LINUS: I hate that woke little tree.
The children circle the dumpster. Snoopy flies by, chasing the Red Baron. He shoots the tree. The dumpster lights on fire.
EVERYONE: Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!
Together, as they watch the dumpster fire burn, they hum, “Proud to Be an American.”
