Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) vetoed funding for the state legislature on Friday, carrying out the threat he made last month after Democrats staged a walk-out to block legislation. Democrats in the Texas House walked off the floor of the House chamber last month, breaking quorum and stopping Republicans from passing election reforms, as well as a bail reform legislation that Abbott in particular wanted, according to The Texas Tribune. After the walk-out, Abbott vowed to defund the legislative branch for “abandon[ing] their responsibilities.” “Texans don’t run from a legislative fight, and they don’t walk away from unfinished business,” Abbott said in a…

When asked in interviews about how we managed to work together over so many years, Alexander Cockburn liked to say:  “Jeffrey and I live on the same coast, separated only by different weather systems.” And it’s true, though perhaps less true than it was 20 or even 15 years ago. It’s also true that Alexander and I spent an inordinate amount of time talking about the weather: was the Mattole on the rise, was there snow in the passes, was the Pacific too warm to harvest mussels, were the Siskiyous burning again? Cockburn, notoriously, remained a climate change apostate to…

Wednesday morning, new evidence emerged that China is expanding its nuclear arsenal. Specifically, researchers at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies have identified the construction of about 119 new silos, most likely for China’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile, known as the DF-41. Previously, only 16 silos at a different site had been identified. The news is likely to fuel the narrative that China is expanding its nuclear capabilities dramatically. But worst-case assumptions have usually been wrong when it comes to China’s nuclear weapons program. There are good reasons to suppose that they’ll also be off-the-mark in this case. Here’s why you shouldn’t panic — especially since the U.S.…

Up until the WallStreetBets crowd short squeezed Melvin Capital for a $7 billion loss, Robinhood had it made. But losing billions is stressful. And when your product blows up your customer the clucking that follows comes hot and heavy. One of the sweetest displays in the world, we’ve been told, is the bursts of digital confetti that shower down Robinhood’s investment app to celebrate the purchase of stocks, options, and cryptocurrencies.  These digital confetti bursts – in addition to spinning prices and scratch off rewards – are great entertainment. So, too, is watching the price of bitcoin quoted in neon pink.  It…

The issue of critical race theory is raising a more fundamental question about our nation: education. Education is about more than teaching children to read and write. It is about transmitting values, transmitting a worldview, that will define how our youth think and how they will live. Per the Department of Education, in 2020, 56.4 million children were enrolled in K-12 education. Of these, 50.7 million were in public schools, and 5.7 million were in private schools. So, government plays a substantial role in the education of our children. Per the Department of Education, "Each educational institution that receives federal…