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Justice Amy Coney Barrett recently became the second member of the Supreme Court, joining Justice Elena Kagan, to explicitly support the adoption of a SCOTUS ethics code. It would be a “good idea” to adopt a code, she told an audience on Monday at the University of Minnesota Law School, “particularly so that we can communicate to the public exactly what it is that we are doing in a clearer way than perhaps we have been able to do so far.” That was admirable candor, not least because it must have ruffled some feathers among the likely holdouts on the court.

But then Barrett continued with an assurance that there is “unanimity among all nine justices that we should and do hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards possible.” Who was she kidding? Perhaps she had to concede something like that as a matter of politesse, but anyone who has been paying attention knows that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have not been holding themselves to the “highest ethical standards possible.” At best, they have grudgingly adhered to the bare-minimum legal requirements of their job, while flouting anything resembling the highest possible standards. Alito has even bragged of his belief that no institution can hold the justices accountable.

To most ordinary people, the sneering visage of Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, brings many words to mind: "Jackass." "Bully." "Sexual abuse apologist." "Clownshow."

But when it comes to those who have backed his run for Speaker of the House, the MAGA mind seizes upon their alleged Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

"If Jim Jordan can't get through, Jesus can't," Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont. told Fox News on Tuesday. Zinke loves comparing the former assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State to the Prince of Peace. He used the same line with Newsmax.

Similarly, Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., told reporters last week, "You could put Jesus Christ up for speaker of the House and he still wouldn’t get 217." Inevitably, this mentality led prayer chatter to fuse with the unintentionally campy cheerleading from Jordan supporters.

Housing economists are urging the Federal Reserve to hold back on raising rates, worried that elevated borrowing costs—that have gone up since the central bank began its hiking cycle in March 2022—have pushed mortgage rates too high and made homes unaffordable for many Americans.

Sales of homes dropped 2 percent in September to a little under 4 million, the lowest such level for more than a decade. The decline, which was a 15 percent plunge compared to a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), was the latest evidence that expensive mortgages are dissuading potential buyers from purchasing homes.

House Republicans’ lack of serious interest in finding bipartisan solutions to the nation’s fiscal challenges is exemplified by the House Budget Committee proposing to create a commission in a budget resolution that lays out extreme fiscal policies and that was adopted with only Republican support. The budget resolution calls for large-scale deficit reduction to be achieved by taking health care, food assistance, and other assistance from people with low incomes; slashing funding that supports a wide range of basic government functions; and making massive cuts through unspecified “government-wide savings.” The fiscal blueprint fails to identify a single revenue increase and includes a provision intended to allow for an unlimited amount of new, unpaid-for tax cuts.

Indeed, every Republican budget — congressional or presidential since 2011 — has prioritized deep cuts in government investments and program areas that are critical to people, communities, and the economy, but has refused to consider raising revenues to meet national needs. Republicans have not supported significant tax increases since the 1990 bipartisan budget agreement, while pushing through significant, unpaid-for tax cuts in 2001, 2003, and 2017.

Newly released data from the FBI shows hate crimes in 2022 reached an all-time high since the agency began tracking such incidents, up nearly 7% from 2021.

Experts who spoke with the BBC say a host of factors, including aggressive political rhetoric and social media, have contributed to this uptick in violence - and they worry a heated upcoming presidential campaign season and violence in the Middle East could worsen the trend.

The ACLU is leading the fight to end classroom censorship and protect our right to learn. We filed the first case in the country to challenge a law that censored instruction about systemic sexism and racism in Oklahoma, survived a motion to dismiss in New Hampshire, and obtained an injunction to block the State of Florida from enforcing the higher education provisions of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act.

As a former high school history teacher and a lawyer on the ACLU team litigating these challenges, the threat these laws pose to society is truly terrifying. Conservative politicians pushing these bills are advocating for nothing less than a re-whitewashing of history. If these revisionist efforts are successful, the next generation will be compelled to believe a version of history manufactured to fit the so-called patriotic views of a vocal, discriminatory minority. Students will not be taught, and may never learn, to trace the deliberate impact of historic oppression on institutions today. This will reinforce the salience of racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia as unavoidable, and prevent the next generation from achieving justice.

Efforts to silence discussions about race also invalidate the lived experiences of BIPOC students. Instruction about racism and sexism belongs in schools because it equips students to process the world around them and to live in a multicultural society.

All in all, GOP fearmongering about crime parallels the party’s inflation alarms based on selective and outdated numbers. It can be effective, unfortunately; during 2022, Gallup found that 78 percent of Americans thought crime was higher nationally than in 2021. Turns out that just wasn’t the case.

Trump and his legal team contended that the order was an unconstitutional effort to silence the constitutionally protected speech of a candidate for office. What’s more, they insisted, Smith and his team had not presented “one shred of evidence to demonstrate…let alone enough to establish” any “clear and present danger” to the orderly administration of justice in the pending January 6 proceedings. Chutkan again wasn’t buying it: “In what kind of case do you think it would be appropriate for a criminal defendant to call the prosecutor a thug and stay on the streets?” she asked Lauro. “‘Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?’ comes to mind.”

As for the claims of shutting down Trump’s First Amendment rights, Chutkan reiterated that Trump was receiving the same treatment anyone in his position would: “Mr. Trump is a criminal defendant. He is facing four felony charges. He is under the supervision of the criminal justice system and he must follow his conditions of release. He does not have the right to say and do exactly what he pleases.”

All 10 of the largest U.S. meat and dairy companies have lobbied against environmental and climate policies, resisting climate regulations, including rules on greenhouse gases and emissions reporting. This is according to a study by New York University, which examined the political influence of the 10 largest meat and dairy companies in the United States.

...Yet it seems safe to say that the world no longer trusts U.S. promises, and perhaps no longer fears U.S. threats, the way it used to. The problem, however, isn’t Biden; it’s the party that reflexively attacks him for anything that goes wrong.

Right now America is a superpower without a fully functioning government. Specifically, the House of Representatives has no speaker, so it can’t pass legislation, including bills funding the government and providing aid to U.S. allies. The House is paralyzed because Republican extremists, who have refused to acknowledge Biden’s legitimacy and promoted chaos rather than participating in governance, have turned these tactics on their own party. At this point it’s hard to see how anyone can become speaker without Democratic votes — but even less extreme Republicans refuse to reach across the aisle.

And even if Republicans do somehow manage to elect a speaker, it seems all too likely that whoever gets the job will have to promise the hard right that he will betray Ukraine.

Given this political reality, how much can any nation trust U.S. assurances of support? How can we expect foreign enemies of democracy to fear America when they know that there are powerful forces here that share their disdain?

Rep. Jim Jordan, the firebrand conservative from Ohio, appeared closer to becoming the next speaker of the House on Monday after mounting an aggressive pressure campaign over the weekend to gain the support of the 55 Republican holdouts skeptical of his ability to lead the chamber.

If he takes the gavel, it would be a remarkable ascent for the House Judiciary Committee chairman who built his political identity as a founding member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus and an attack dog for President Donald Trump who was once referred to as a “legislative terrorist.” He was a key ally in Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and defied a subpoena during the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

But there are still members adamant in their opposition to Jordan, including Rep. Carlos A. Giménez (R-Fla.), who has repeatedly said he only will back former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Members of the center-right Republican Governance Group estimate that there are as as many as six hard nos against Jordan and potentially even more. Jordan could only lose four votes on the floor.

...To handle massive payout events like [Hurricane] Andrew, insurance companies sell policies across different markets—historically, a hurricane wasn’t hitting Florida in the same month a wildfire wiped out a town in California. They themselves also pay for insurance, a financial instrument called reinsurance that helps distribute risk across geographic regions. Reinsurance availability remains a major driver of what insurance you can buy—and how much it costs.

But as climate change intensifies extreme weather and claims pile up, this system has been thrown into disarray. Insured losses from natural disasters in the US now routinely approach $100 billion a year, compared to $4.6 billion in 2000. As a result, the average homeowner has seen their premiums spike 21 percent since 2015. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the states most likely to have disasters—like Texas and Florida—have some of the most expensive insurance rates. That means ever more people are forgoing coverage, leaving them vulnerable and driving prices even higher as the number of people paying premiums and sharing risk shrinks.

This vicious cycle also increases reinsurers’ rates. Reinsurers globally raised prices for property insurers by 37 percent in 2023, contributing to insurance companies pulling back from risky states like California and Florida. “As events are getting bigger and more costly, that has raised the prices of reinsurance in those areas,” said Carolyn Kousky, the associate vice president for economics and policy at the Environmental Defense Fund, who studies insurance. “It’s called the hardening of the market.”

In a worst-case scenario, this all leads to a massive stranded asset problem: Premiums get so high that property values plummet, families’ investments dissipate, and banks are stuck holding what’s left.

More simply, the global process for handling life’s risks is breaking down, leaving those who can least afford it unprotected.