Trump Education Secretary's speech interrupted with ‘corrupt billionaire' audio and clown music
Linda McMahon was speaking when a robotic voice blared out throughout the venue: 'McMahon is a corrupt billionaire who knows nothing about education.'
Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who was hosting the event, jokingly accused 'a few liberal senators' of working with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to disrupt McMahon.
As she continued to speak, 'Entrance of the Gladiators,' a song commonly associated with clowns, played out of the speakers, with McMahon later stopping to chuckle.
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The Independent
14 minutes ago
- The Independent
GOP congressman who represents one of the most impoverished districts in PA recently bought a new helicopter
Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who represents one of the swing state's poorest congressional districts, has been accused of concealing the fact that he recently bought himself a personal helicopter. NOTUS reports that Bresnahan, 35, has not yet listed his 'secret' 2024 Robinson R66 chopper among his financial disclosures, with the model in question retailing for between $1 million and $1.5 million. The site was able to confirm the congressman's acquisition of the aircraft based on information garnered from Federal Aviation Administration records and commercial flight data. NOTUS adds that Bresnahan, a multimillionaire who recently sold control of his family's electrical contracting business, acquired the helicopter late last year and has already used it for dozens of flights, some of which have taken him to New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. While there is nothing illegal about representatives buying personal aircraft, 'it's incumbent on members of Congress to be transparent about these kinds of things,' said Philip Hensley-Robin, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Pennsylvania. 'We don't know if it's being used for official purposes, campaign purposes – it's a mystery.' Hannah Pope, the congressman's spokesperson, told NOTUS: 'In emergency situations such as downed power lines or washed-out roads, helicopters play a critical role in inspecting infrastructure and identifying areas in need of urgent repair. 'His goal was to work toward a commercial pilot certificate with a rotorcraft-helicopter rating and use the aircraft to provide emergency response and inspection services that help keep seniors warm, hospitals powered, and schools open.' She added, 'Since being elected to Congress, those business plans have been put on hold. No taxpayer or campaign funds were used to purchase the aircraft, and no taxpayer or campaign funds are used to store, operate, or maintain the aircraft.' The Independent has also reached out to Rep. Bresnahan for comment. The congressman represents the Keystone State's 8th District, which ranks second-to-last in median household income, $61,140 as of 2023, according to U.S. Census data. Bresnahan has previously sought to emphasize his everyman credentials, describing a childhood of plowing snow for neighbors and helping out at his parents' bowling alley and grandparents' electrical store in addition to completing his studies and participating in high school ice hockey practice. 'I will fight to protect working-class families in northeastern Pennsylvania and stand with President Trump in opposing gutting Medicaid,' he said in a statement in March. 'My position on this has not and will not change.' He nevertheless voted for Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill,' which the president signed into law on Independence Day and which threatens to cut welfare for millions of Americans, leading to angry scenes at a Scranton town hall earlier this week organized to draw attention to his 'broken vows.' Bresnahan also faced questions in July after allegedly buying shares in defense companies ahead of Trump's strikes on Iran, despite previously pushing to block lawmakers from trading in stocks.
The Guardian
27 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The NHL preached inclusion. So why has it got into bed with Donald Trump?
'Diverse representation within inclusive environments is proven to advance innovation, creativity, and decision-making – all of which are critically important to the growth of the sport and our business,' NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wrote in his introduction to the NHL's first – and only, so far – diversity and inclusion report, which it released in 2022. 'Recognizing these facts, we are working to better understand and accelerate our engagement across all layers of diversity – including nationality, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and religion – and their nuances and intersections,' Bettman continued. Last week, Bettman was named alongside NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, Florida Panthers' captain Matthew Tkachuk and various representatives of other sports as a member of Donald Trump's sports council. The council will be responsible for – among other things – playing an 'important role in restoring tradition to college athletics, including … keeping men out of women's sports.' Not what you'd call an opportunity for Bettman et al to gain a better understanding of the nuances of gender identity, by the sounds of it. This is not the first time Bettman has given mixed messages around social issues. In 2023, for example, the NHL tried to host a career fair aimed at recruiting a more diverse workforce (its inclusivity report noted that the league's employees were roughly 84% white and 93% straight). The event, attached to that year's All Star Game in Florida, quickly caught the attention of the governor's office, which accused the NHL of discrimination – against white people. The league cancelled the career fair. A few weeks later, the NHL again had the opportunity to stand for its diversity values when a handful of players refused to wear their team's Pride-themed warmup jerseys. Instead, the NHL retreated meekly, encouraging 'voices and perspectives on social and cultural issues.' That June – Pride month, no less – Bettman cancelled the Pride jerseys altogether, calling the furor around them 'a distraction' from the intended message. One wonders what he will call his own foray directly into the culture wars or, for that matter, how the NHL may characterize this particular moment of self-expression from the commissioner. It's likely that Bettman's participation in Trump's sports council will fall into the 'voices and perspectives on social and cultural issues' category the league talked about during the Pride jerseys fiasco. But seeing as Trump seems fixated on getting trans women out of college sports – even though there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes in college sports, according to the president of the NCAA – this feels like a very specific kind of perspective on a cultural issue, doesn't it? What's so aggravating about repeated allowances for anti-LGBTQ+ perspectives from the NHL under the guise of simply letting all opinions flourish equally, is how it pretends that these views are all morally equivalent when they're not. Sure, the players who refused to wear a Pride-themed jersey can't be forced to wear them, but it's not like it was simply a fashion choice. Fundamentally, those players made that decision based on a worldview that refuses to accept LGBTQ+ people, including their fellow hockey players, as being equal to them and everyone else. It's not the jerseys that were the problem – but they did a great job highlighting it. Earlier this spring, Harrison Browne, the first transgender player in professional hockey, wrote that while in the NCAA, he was offered the option to have his own locker room and change his pronouns on the roster. 'Looking back, I realize how important it is for trans and non-binary student athletes to have those options, whether or not they take them,' Browne wrote in The Walrus. 'These choices provide a baseline of institutional acceptance and acknowledgment for gender-diverse athletes at all levels.' On Monday, Browne told the Guardian via email that 'to see [Bettman, Gretzky, and Tkachuk] get behind an administration that is targeting marginalized communities, especially trans people in sports, is deeply disturbing and a huge step backwards in making hockey a more inclusive sport.' And going backwards really isn't Bettman's thing, or it never used to be. When he accepted his job as commissioner in 1992, he told a room full of reporters that 'the way a league performs well is by making its product as attractive as it can to the greatest number of fans.' He believed in growth, in other words – even up until 2022. What he risks now is stagnation, regression even. On that same day in 1992, Bettman said that he wanted to make hockey, a sport that at the time was seen as violent and retrograde, more 'user-friendly.' And he acknowledged that to do it, he'd need to push some of the older owners into the future. 'It may be that we are going to head in new, progressive directions that will make sense to every one immediately,' Bettman said. 'For some, it may take a little more time.' Maybe the diversity and inclusion stuff doesn't totally make sense to Bettman in 2025 – other North American sports have decided that they don't have the stomach to fight the culture wars under Trump either, and NFL commission Roger Goodell is also on the White House sports council. But Bettman should give the league's diversity policies time to grow, rather than deliberately reversing course, hurting hockey's players and fans, and ultimately jeopardising the future success of the sport for everyone. If that's too much to ask, at the very least, if he's invited to join a club created by a hostile and retrograde president, he should by now have the smarts to just say no.
Glasgow Times
33 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Energy bill discounts of £250 a year included in new plans
Families living near new pylons would get a £125 discount on their energy bills every six months for a decade under Government plans to get electricity infrastructure built. New transmission cables and pylons are needed across the country to upgrade ageing electricity networks, connect up new wind and solar farms, nuclear power plants and large scale battery storage, and reinforce the grid to cope with the planned rise in electric heat pumps and car charging in homes. The Government says around twice as much new transmission network infrastructure will be needed by 2030 as has been built in the past decade. But building new pylons and cables through the British countryside has faced a backlash, with homeowners and campaigners concerned about the visual impact and disruption to local areas and beauty spots. (Image: John Kelly) The Government hopes cash benefits to local people will reduce opposition and planning delays to the infrastructure needed to deliver the clean energy plans. Households within 500 metres (a third of a mile) of new or upgraded electricity transmission infrastructure could receive a discount of up to £250 via their electricity bill every year for 10 years, totalling £2,500. The discounts, which would be assigned to the home, and applied to the occupant, could be provided in instalments of £125 every six months. Recommended Reading: Minister for energy consumers Miatta Fahnbulleh said: 'As we build the infrastructure we need to deliver homegrown, affordable energy, communities must be given a stake. 'That is why we are teaming up with communities hosting new pylons to ensure they receive direct, tangible benefits. 'We are on the side of those who want Britain to get back to what it does best: building for the future, driving innovation and putting communities first.' Shadow energy minister Andrew Bowie said it was 'right that communities get some payback for pylons – with this scheme following initiatives started by the last Conservative government'. But he added that the public should 'be in no doubt' that more communities would see pylons built nearby 'as a consequence of Labour's net zero by 2050 zealotry'. Mr Bowie said the Government was now having to 'scramble to try and build the infrastructure needed to support their mad green projects' and urged more investment in nuclear power rather than solar.
