Odds and Ends — 17 December 2025

It’s official: House Speaker Mike Johnson says he won’t call a vote to extend enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, effectively guaranteeing they will expire at the end of this month.
That means higher insurance premiums will go into effect for millions of Americans who get coverage through Obamacare next year.

https://twitter.com/TaraCopp/status/2001016939447976199

———— Not Fit for Office ————

A Sign of Something Deeply Wrong

Yes, we must talk about what President Trump posted on Truth Social about the brutal murders of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, and how Trump doubled down when asked about it Monday afternoon.
We must talk about it because a lot of Americans are embarrassed by the president, and for the president, and a whole lot of Americans would prefer to avert their eyes and pretend it didn’t happen.
But it did happen. We must talk about it because there are some Americans still so blinded by partisan animus and cult-like loyalty that their first instinct will be to defend the president’s remarks.

https://twitter.com/OurShallowState/status/2000940176626082230

Trump’s Inferno of Hate Is Intensifying

When a man with the president’s personality feels besieged and abandoned, he becomes more desperate and more dangerous.

https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/2000941358622892485
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2000725378919170074

———— Susie Weils ————

https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/2000906689441140815

Susie Wiles, JD Vance, and the “Junkyard Dogs”: The White House Chief of Staff on Trump’s Second Term (Part 1 of 2)

Susie Wiles Talks Epstein Files, Pete Hegseth’s War Tactics, Retribution, and More (Part 2 of 2)

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2000982495257616633

The Real Revelation in the Susie Wiles Interviews

In a normal presidency, the interviews that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles gave to Vanity Fair would trigger her resignation, maybe even the president’s impeachment. She admitted that President Donald Trump employs prosecutorial power for ‘score settling,’ called Budget Director Russell Vought ‘a right-wing absolute zealot,’ described Vice President J. D. Vance as ‘a conspiracy theorist for a decade,’ and attributed Elon Musk’s erratic style in gutting federal agencies to his ‘avowed ketamine’ use.
Yet no one on the right is calling for anyone to resign, or even for a congressional investigation into these allegations. That is not because Wiles—who is credited with largely masterminding Trump’s victorious presidential campaign—lacks credibility, nor is it because she has denied these comments (she has accused the magazine of taking her words out of context, which is what people say when they know they were recorded). It is simply because these quotes, while dire, are also unsurprising. Wiles did not say anything that Republicans didn’t already know. Her error lay in the breach between what Trump’s supporters understand and what they are permitted to say.

https://twitter.com/SarahLongwell25/status/2000993659672781191

https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2000991079487664356

https://twitter.com/davetroy/status/2000995453241073748