The GOP Manages to Function
In January, a rebellion against House Speaker Mike Johnson fizzled at the last minute, and every Republican but one voted to re-elect him. The mainstream press had been hoping for the dysfunctionality of 2023, when the House GOP booted Speaker Kevin McCarthy for no coherent reason and took three weeks to find a replacement.
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Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Fancy Farm returns to west Kentucky with barbecue, political zingers. See updates
Grab some pork and popcorn. Kentucky's annual Fancy Farm Picnic is back, with several high-profile Senate candidates ready to lob shots at their competitors before a rowdy crowd. The event has become known for its fiery political speeches, laced with zingers. And while event organizers typically limit speakers to those holding state office or running in a general election, they've extended invitations to primary candidates running in 2026. That includes Andy Barr, Daniel Cameron and Nate Morris, who've all accepted slots as candidates campaigning to take U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell's seat. Thousands of pounds of barbecue will also be served through the hot summer day. And The Courier Journal will be there to see it all. Here's are the highlights. Stay in the know: Sign up for our On Kentucky Politics newsletter Prominent Democrats join dinner, skip Fancy Farm Picnic Democrats joined the 28th annual Mike Miller Memorial Bean Dinner on Aug. 1 in Marshall County ahead of 145th Fancy Farm Picnic. The event, held at the Kentucky Dam Village Convention Center, featured prominent speakers including Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman and Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Colmon Elridge. During her speech, Coleman touted how she and the Beshear administration broke "historic tourism records in the last three years" and have created new jobs for Kentuckians. 'We created 65,000 new jobs and $35 million worth of private sector investments,' Coleman said. 'We secured raises for law enforcement, for state employees, for social workers, but ironically, the one group of people that the Republicans in the General Assembly don't think deserve a raise is our educators.' Coleman previously confirmed she would not participate in the political speaking portion of the picnic, saying she believes that time should be reserved for candidates on the ballot. She touched on her absence during her speech, saying she will not be at the event 'partly because there are so many obvious jokes, but not much worth laughing about at this moment.' '… Although I do hear of some races, like in 2027, that might bring me back to the Fancy Farm stage,' Coleman said, potentially alluding to the upcoming gubernatorial election. John 'Drew' Williams, who announced he plans to run against Republican U.S. Rep. James Comer in 2026, will be the lone Democrat speaking at Fancy Farm. When asked how it feels to be the only Democrat on stage, Williams told The Courier Journal, 'I don't mind it at all.' 'It's become a hate fest in a lot of ways, the picnic,' Williams said. 'We should treat it like a church picnic. Quips are fine. Jokes are fine. But we're getting really hateful in the way we talk about each other.' Williams added he feels 'pretty confident' about his first time speaking at Fancy Farm and is 'ready to be in front of (his) community." 'Even if there are hecklers there, all they're doing is getting me prepared to go up there and get heckled and yelled at in Congress,' Williams said. Who's speaking at Fancy Farm 2025? The speaking order for the event, with allotted times, is as follows: Fancy Farm Political Chairman Steven Elder, welcome Bishop William Medley, invocation Campbellsville University President Joseph Hopkins, national anthem Emily and Austin Lamb, "My Old Kentucky Home" Kentucky Chamber of Commerce President Ashli Watts, emcee, 5 minutes State Rep. Kim Holloway (R), 4 minutes State Sen. Jason Howell (R), 4 minutes U.S. Rep. James Comer (R), 6 minutes Congressional candidate John "Drew Williams (D), 6 minutes U.S. Senate candidate Daniel Cameron (R), 6 minutes U.S. Senate candidate Andy Barr (R), 6 minutes U.S. Senate candidate Nate Morris (R), 6 minutes Attorney General Russell Coleman (R), 5 minutes Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell (R), 5 minutes State Treasurer Mark Metcalf (R), 5 minutes U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell is listed as pending on the most recent speaker list. How to watch political speeches at Fancy Farm Political speaking will begin at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT. KET will begin live coverage of the event at 2:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. CT. Host Renee Shaw and political commentators Trey Grayson and Bob Babbage will provide pre-event analysis. Watch the coverage at Fancy Farm 2025 schedule Barbecue by the pound goes on sale bright and early at 8 a.m. But the picnic's official kickoff doesn't start until a little later. Here's the schedule for the day. 10 a.m. CT: Official picnic start time 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.: Music by Harold Daniels 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.: Meals served in parish hall 1:30 p.m.: Pioneer Award presentation at political stand 2 p.m.: Political speaking 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.: Music by Louisville Orchestra 7 - 10 p.m.: Music by Seeing Red band 10 p.m.: Raffle drawing This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Fancy Farm picnic 2025: Updates from Kentucky's annual political event Solve the daily Crossword
CNN
26 minutes ago
- CNN
The Trump administration takes a very Orwellian turn
Back in March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeted at the Smithsonian Institution that began as follows: 'Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.' Despite the high-minded rhetoric, many worried the order was instead a thinly veiled effort to rewrite history more to Trump's liking. The order, for example, cited a desire to remove 'improper ideology' – an ominous phrase, if there ever was one – from properties like the Smithsonian. Those concerns were certainly bolstered this week. We learned that some historical information that recently vanished from the Smithsonian just so happens to have been objective history that Trump really dislikes: a reference to his two impeachments. The Smithsonian said that a board containing the information was removed from the National Museum of American History last month after a review of the museum's 'legacy content.' The board had been placed in front of an existing impeachment exhibit in September 2021. Just to drive this home: The exhibit itself is about 'Limits of Presidential Power.' And suddenly examples of the biggest efforts by Congress to limit Trump's were gone. It wasn't immediately clear that the board was removed pursuant to Trump's executive order. The Washington Post, which broke the news, reported that a source said the content review came after pressure from the White House to remove an art museum director. In other words, we don't know all the details of precisely how this went down – including whether the removal was specifically requested, or whether museum officials decided it might be a good way to placate Trump amid pressure. The Smithsonian says an updated version of the exhibit will ultimately mention all impeachment efforts, including Trump's. But it's all pretty Orwellian. And it's not the only example. Trump has always been rather blatant about his efforts to rewrite history with self-serving falsehoods and rather shameless in applying pressure on the people who would serve as impartial referees of the current narrative. But this week has taken things to another level. On Friday, Trump fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This came just hours after that agency delivered Trump some very bad news: the worst non-Covid three-month jobs numbers since 2010. Some Trump allies have attempted to put a good face on this, arguing that Dr. Erika McEntarfer's removal was warranted because large revisions in the job numbers betrayed shoddy work. But as he did with the firing of then-FBI Director James B. Comey eight years ago, Trump quickly undermined all that. He told Newsmax that 'we fired her because we didn't believe the numbers today.' To the extent Trump did lay out an actual evidence-based case for firing McEntarfer, that evidence was conspiratorial and wrong, as CNN's Daniel Dale documented Friday. And even some Republican senators acknowledged this might be precisely as draconian and self-serving as it looked. Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, for one, called it 'kind of impetuous' to fire the BLS head before finding out whether the new numbers were actually wrong. 'It's not the statistician's fault if the numbers are accurate and that they're not what the president had hoped for,' said Lummis, who is not often a Trump critic. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina added that if Trump 'just did it because they didn't like the numbers, they ought to grow up.' Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska both worried that Trump's move would make it so people can't trust the data the administration is putting out. And that's the real problem here. It's not so much that Trump appears to be firing someone as retaliation; it's the message it sends to everyone else in a similar position. The message is that you might want that data and those conclusions to be to Trump's liking, or else. It's a recipe for getting plenty of unreliable data and conclusions. And even to the extent that information is solid, it will seed suspicions about the books having been cooked – both among regular Americans and, crucially, among those making key decisions that impact the economy. What happens if the next jobs report is great? Will the markets believe it? We've certainly seen plenty of rather blunt Trump efforts to control such narratives and rewrite history before. A sampling: He engaged in a yearslong effort to make Jan. 6 defendants who attacked the Capitol in his name out to be sympathetic patriots, even calling them 'hostages,' before pardoning them. His administration's efforts to weed out diversity, equity and inclusion from the government often ensnared things that merely celebrated Black people and women. He and his administration have at times taken rather dim views of the free speech rights of those who disagree with them, including talking about mere protests – i.e. not necessarily violence – as being 'illegal.' A loyalist US attorney at one point threatened to pursue people who criticized then-Trump ally Elon Musk even for non-criminal behavior. Trump has repeatedly suggested criticism of judges he likes should be illegal, despite regularly attacking judges he doesn't like. His term began with the portraits of military leaders who clashed with him being removed from the Pentagon. It also began with a massive purge of independent inspectors general charged with holding the administration to account. All of it reinforces the idea that Trump is trying to consolidate power by pursuing rather heavy-handed and blatant tactics. But if there's a week that really drove home how blunt these efforts can be, it might be this one.
New York Post
27 minutes ago
- New York Post
Party poopers: Less than 10% of American friendships cross political lines
Only a tiny portion of friendships in the US are between a Democrat and a Republican, an eye-opening new study found. Researchers at Wellesley College looked at 971 adult friend pairs and found that most Americans are not willing to agree to disagree. The study, published July 5 in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, analyzed two separate friend samples, one in-person and one online. Advertisement 5 Researchers found that in real-life samples from New York and Boston, only 3% of friendships paired a Democrat and a Republican, a sign of deepening political silos. Jacob Lund – One study surveyed 537 friend pairs in deep-blue cities like New York and Boston, plus three liberal campuses — Wellesley, Amherst and Babson — and found just 3% of friendships crossed party lines. Nearly half of participants were Democrats. Only 7% were Republicans. Advertisement The second group, 434 friend pairs surveyed online, was more politically balanced — and the number of cross-party friendships more than doubled. With 42% Democrats and 31% Republicans, 8% of friendships spanned the aisle, hinting conservatives may be more willing to mix than their liberal peers. Even when friendships did cross the aisle, they scored lower on trust, emotional support and mutual understanding, the study found. 5 The study surveyed more than 970 friend pairs and found that almost all shared similar views on hot-button issues like abortion, gun control and immigration. fizkes – But there was one silver lining: the rare few who crossed party lines regarded the other side with less hostility. Advertisement 'Part of what is destroying our social fabric is that we have set an expectation that to be a good Democrat or Republican, you have to unconditionally hate the other party,' said Sean Westwood, a political scientist at Dartmouth College. 'There is evidence that this social pressure to hate makes the state of partisan conflict seem worse than it actually is.' That pressure only grows, he added, when people don't have personal ties to someone on the other side. 'If you don't know a Republican or Democrat, it is easier to assume that they are unpatriotic, evil or immoral,' Westwood told The Post. 'Without a personal connection you can get lost in the nonsense coming from social media, cable news and Washington DC.' 5 Even when friendships crossed political lines, participants rated them as less close and less satisfying compared to ideologically aligned relationships. lesslemon – Advertisement Only about a quarter of friend pairs said they disagreed on major issues like abortion, immigration or gun rights, suggesting most people befriend those who already see eye to eye. And when politics entered the chat, things got even rockier — a quarter of those who disagreed said the conversation damaged the friendship. Some simply obliterate the friendship entirely, a 2024 study found One in five adults have cut off a close relative over politics, and half said the break happened in 2024 leading up to the election, a 2024 survey from The Harris Poll found. 5 Despite the tension, those with politically opposite friends showed more tolerance toward outgroups, suggesting some benefits to bipartisan bonds. be free – Among those still in contact, a third said they felt uncomfortable at a family gathering because of someone's political views, and just as many feared future events could turn ugly. 'It is rewarding to be around people who validate your views of the world and of the moral order, and from mildly stressful to absolutely intolerable to be around people who disagree with beliefs and values that are important to us,' Dr. Peter Ditto, a psychology professor at UC Irvine, told The Post. And it's a vicious cycle. Advertisement 'The more people hear about polarization, hostility and how few Democrats and Republicans are friends, the more they become convinced that they should also keep quiet,' said University of Michigan political communications professor Yanna Krupnikov. 5 In a more balanced national sample, 8% of 434 friend pairs crossed party lines — slightly higher than the 3% found in liberal strongholds. – Ditto warned that as politics becomes more central to people's identities, it's taking a toll on their personal lives. 'I worry as I see more and more evidence that politics is getting personal … that the corrosive political polarization in contemporary U.S. politics is seeping into people's everyday lives in ways that impact their well-being,' he said.
