Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and now moi, JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
While you are reading this, sitting safe in your beds, living rooms, or evening commutes, please consider the folks who may not HAVE beds or living rooms to come home to tomorrow. Hurricane Ian is an ongoing major catastrophe as I write this, and the first thing we’ll talk about is what you can do to help alleviate the suffering in the aftermath
Mr. DeSantis, a Republican widely seen as holding White House ambitions, is one of his party’s foremost political provocateurs, often appearing on national television to rail against an administration in Washington he denounces as overbearing. As recently as February, Mr. DeSantis dismissed Mr. Biden as someone who “hates Florida,” saying baselessly that he “stiffs” storm victims of relief for political reasons.
But now, as Hurricane Ian threatens to inflict significant damage across Florida, Mr. DeSantis must rely on assistance from the same federal government whose public health guidance he has ridiculed during the pandemic. Beyond that, he must work with the very president he has castigated and may soon run to replace.
“We all need to work together, regardless of party lines,” Mr. DeSantis said on Fox News on Tuesday night, adding that he was “thankful” for the Biden administration’s assistance. “The administration wants to help,” he said. “They realize this is a really significant storm.”
Mr. Biden, in contrast to Mr. DeSantis, has for decades sold himself as an across-the-aisle deal maker.
I generally try to avoid doomism, but the point must be made:
The Gulf was full of warm, warm, crazy warm water. As it came across from Cuba, Hurricane Ian picked up all that energy and internalized it. That’s what climate change does.
The unfortunately necessary reminder: Covid is NOT OVER.
Reasons to be optimistic? Because science doesn’t care about who believes what. Science just works.
Joe Manchin finally threw in the towel last night on his epically bad dirty pipeline side deal:
“Because American families should not be subject to a Republican-manufactured government shutdown, Sen. Manchin has requested, and I have agreed, to move forward and pass the recently filed continuing resolution legislation without the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022,” he said. “Sen. Manchin, myself, and others will continue to have conversations about the best way to ensure responsible permitting reform is passed before the end of the year.”
According to Hauter, Schumer and other Democratic leaders “would be wise to heed the large and growing chorus of voices demanding an end to the fossil fuel era, and put Manchin’s permitting plan down for good.”
One more bright note… my nightmare endgame for Manchin was this: After the January runoff that will probably be necessary to hold Warnock’s seat in Georgia, we’re still at a 50-50 Senate — and that’s when Manchin makes his big move and crosses the aisle, making Mitch McConnell the majority leader.
Yeah, that’s never going to happen now, not after Mitch blew up Manchin’s GOP-friendly oil deregulation deal basically out of nothing but spite and sour grapes. (Note: I’m not totally convinced Sinema won’t pull some similar shit. Yeah, I know, she used to be a progressive, but now she appears to be the sole member of the Sinema for Sinema party. With no chance of re-election, she could count on a multi-million dollar payday via lucrative right-wing think tank sinecures and/or speaking engagements)
And in England, the new Conservative Prime Minister, Liz Truss, is totally destroying everything. She’s like Godzilla and Tokyo.
I covered my first financial crisis 25 years ago, in 1997, and I have never before seen one so entirely avoidable as this is. It began with the Tory leadership election in the summer, when Liz Truss promised tax cuts of £30bn in order to win the keys to No 10. It picked up last Friday, as Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled his “plan for growth”, which turned out to be a further £15bn of handouts – and mainly to people who didn’t need them.
It wasn’t just bad economics, it was bad faith. And when it bombed in the next day’s papers, the chancellor promised yet more tax cuts. This was on top of the emergency support on energy bills, costing £60bn for just this winter. The difference being that the energy package was essential and temporary, while these permanent tax cuts were supposed to buy voters and influence party donors.
What was intended as mere bribery has turned out to be a gigantic financial bomb. The pound dived so far that it won a new name: shitcoin. (One wag mused on Reddit: “Apparently britbongs use it to purchase crumpets and tea, but other than that doesn’t have any usage.”) Lending rates in the markets soared, so Halifax and other big mortgage firms had to pull some of their products. The Bank of England essentially lost control over interest rates, while pension funds and other investors began scrabbling around for cash. Finally, today, the Bank started buying government bonds in a bid to quell panic.
"Kwasi Kwarteng's first budget prioritized slashing taxes on the big banks over fixing crumbling hospitals. There was a deafening silence from government on how it intends to deal with dangerous ambulance wait times or lack of local NHS dentists, let alone buildings at risk of collapse," Cooper told the newspaper. "This is a disaster waiting to happen and Conservative ministers just don't seem to care."
The tax plan—which caused the pound to fall to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar in nearly four decades and ultimately led to emergency action by the Bank of England to calm the markets—has been criticized across the British political spectrum and around the world, including by the credit agency Moody's.
Even Tory members of Parliament are voicing concerns. BBC reports:
Few Conservative MPs are commenting publicly about Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's handling of the economic turmoil sparked by his mini-budget—but they are not mincing their words in off-the-record conversations.
Inept, humiliating, naive, and reckless are just some of the words that have cropped up.
Meanwhile in Iran, a storm of a different type is sweeping the nation.
This may be surprising to some, but women do not want a bunch of men telling them how to live and sometimes killing them over disagreements about lifestyle choices. (Do you hear that, “Party of Freedom”?)
The story of the women’s uprising is well covered elsewhere (although not as well as one might hope), but I’m going to focus on the beauty.
And also the solidarity. Because knowing we are not alone… that’s half the battle right there.
Now, I know, what is REALLY keeping you up nights?
Obviously, it’s the question… “How can Ryan Reynolds top his last outing as Deadpool? Seriously, where can he take it next?”
Well, today he teased us with the good news:
Now, I know what you’re thinking… wait a minute, I thought Wolverine was kinda, you know, dead? Didn’t Hugh Jackman say he was done with the character, retired, out the door, down the hall?
Well, they explain that, too:
And because you could probably use a little beauty about now:
What do you think?
Should Wolverine stay dead? Should Manchin’s dirty deal stay dead? I know there should be a rule of threes here, but I ain’t got one — toss me a lifeline in the comments.