...

House Republicans came together to pass their domestic policy megabill early Thursday, after weeks of internal conflict and last-minute intervention from President Donald Trump.

The 215-214 vote is a major victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, who largely kept his conference together after days of around-the-clock negotiations with holdouts. ... The bill includes a fresh round of tax cuts sought by Trump, as well as hundreds of billions of dollars in new funding for the military and border security.

...

This is arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday morning. “Great job by Speaker Mike Johnson, and the House Leadership, and thank you to every Republican who voted YES on this Historic Bill! Now, it’s time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”

Democrats have their own names for the measure, including “the GOP tax scam” and “one big, ugly bill.” Minority party leaders are deriding the bill by pointing to nonpartisan forecasts that it would increase the federal deficit by trillions of dollars and cause more than 10 million people to lose health care coverage, while shifting resources away from the lowest-income households and to the wealthiest.

In a lengthy closing speech ahead of the final vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Republicans of bankrolling tax cuts for the rich with cuts to safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP food assistance.

“And people will die. That’s not hype. That’s not hyperbole. That’s not a hypothetical,” Jeffries said, before a heated exchange about “decorum” with the Republican presiding over the floor.

My own 'editorializing'/additional context beyond this point:

EDIT: Link to the bill itself on congress.gov:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/all-info

Estimates are that 11 million will lose Medicaid coverage, 13 million will lose SNAP benefits, between $3.3 trillion and $3.8 trillion ... to nearly $6 trillion increase to the national debt... many, many other programs are directly cut back, and the existing 'PayGo' laws will force other cutbacks in things like Medicare from the overwhelming deficits this creates... if this passes the Senate, which seems likely, though some modifications also seem likely.

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61420

https://www.crfb.org/blogs/breaking-down-one-big-beautiful-bill

Possibly also worth noting:

The House version writes into law the formal removal of the 'de minimis' import exception rule, so that means basically every US based, import reliant dropshipper no longer has a workable business model... thats now formally in the law, not just a flurry of Executive Orders.

Also, EV credits are over.

The manager’s amendment came late Wednesday night, and changed a previous ban on “gender transition procedures for minors.” Notably, gender transition procedures is defined to include hormone therapy

What was initially a restriction targeting gender-affirming care for minors now extends to transgender people of all ages.

Investigation into Destroyer Launch Accident Intensified

Pyongyang, May 23 (KCNA) -- An investigation group of the destroyer launch accident got down to a full-scale investigation into the serious accident occurred at the Chongjin Shipyard.

The accident investigation group included a public prosecutors organ and relevant experts.

Detailed underwater and internal inspection of the warship confirmed that, unlike the initial announcement, there were no holes made at the warship's bottom, the hull starboard was scratched and a certain amount of seawater flowed into the stern section through the rescue channel.

Experts estimated that it will take two or three days to keep the balance of the warship by pumping up the seawater from the flooded chamber and making the bow leave the slipway and 10-odd days to restore the warship's side.

The accident investigation group reported the relevant investigation content to the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea on May 22.

The Party Central Military Commission gave the following stand and instructions to the investigation group:

The extent of damage to the warship is not serious and the result of the flooding process immediately after the accident is only information necessary to take practical rehabilitation measures. The above-said data have no connection with the cause of the accident and the identification of its responsibility.

It is necessary to make clear the cause of the accident.

The Party Central Military Commission instructed the investigation group to investigate and expose the cause of the accident which should never occur and could not be tolerated and those responsible for it.

No matter how good the state of the warship is, the fact that the accident is an unpardonable criminal act remains unchanged, and those responsible for it can never evade their responsibility for the crime.

Regarding this accident as a serous matter is not because of the damage to the warship or economic loss. The aim of doing so is to deal a telling blow to incautiousness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricist attitude prevailing in any field and to sound an alarm bell.

On the basis of the investigation data of the accident investigation group, the law-enforcement organ started to follow the procedure for first restraining and investigating those who are clearly responsible for the accident.

Hong Kil Ho, manager of the Chongjin Shipyard, was summoned to the law-enforcement organ on May 22. -0-
www.kcna.kp (2025.05.23.)

http://kcna.kp/en/article/q/a6981124e6d4bac2a1824e9ec3468c3c.kcmsf

https://archive.is/FjiEB (kcna)

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-korea-intensifies-probe-into-accident-during-recent-launch-warship-kcna-2025-05-22/

https://archive.is/aCUsv (reuters)

previous post https://hexbear.net/post/4992851

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said so-called chemical castration would be used in 20 prisons in two regions and that she was considering making it mandatory.

Lol. Lmao, even.

You're much better off selling the fucking thing at that point instead of continuing to put the lives of you and your passengers at risk in a death trap.

There's an enormous media and social media push at the moment to lionize the two Israeli embassy 'diplomats' killed. Everything from tearjerking stories about how he'd just proposed to the more prominent and seemingly constructed narrative that he was at this event trying to 'help' the situation in Gaza and 'talk about how to get aid to Palestinians'.

That's a fucking lie. He was exactly the sort of fucking ghoul you'd expect. And we can tell this in part because they haven't scrubbed his Twitter or all of his articles yet (although Google results state that a number of results for him have been removed under the EU 'right to be forgotten' law, so no doubt it's underway).

First of all, he was a German-Israeli citizen who volunteered who seems to have volunteered for the IDF.

Secondly, according to people he'd worked with and studied under, he was a Christian Zionist with a rabid love for the Israeli political project in particular.

His views were as you'd expect. A vile, smug, hasbara operative who spent both his personal and professional time spreading genocide apologia, barefaced Israeli lies, conspiracy theories about the UN, attacked & vilified aid organisations before & after Israel killed their workers, and rejected international law when the ICC & ICJ didn't tow the line.

Right up to the final hours before he was killed, he was retweeting statements denying starvation Gaza and calling it 'blood libel'.

Was he fuck working on aid solutions. He was an ideological Zionist fascist and a genocidal freak who had fun helping to perpetuate it. He should be remembered as such.

Last Thursday in White Castle, Louisiana, the Nottoway Plantation House, considered the largest antebellum mansion in the South, was engulfed in flames and burned down, destroying most of the historic structure...

Remember, this is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.

https://archive.ph/G7OrP