Readers: To keep you as current as possible as we hit the lame duck and continue through the new Congress, the Daily Jolt will come to you beginning on Monday 1 hour earlier, 9:30 a.m. PT/12:30 p.m. ET.
He’d be a sacrificial lamb. Still, Howard Lutnick certainly deserves to go. “A growing number of lawmakers are criticizing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over the administration’s refusal to add dozens of Chinese companies to a key US trade blacklist, and over whether the government was properly overseeing Nvidia’s exports to China,” Reuters reported. “Criticism of Lutnick’s actions predates Thursday’s resignation of Nvidia’s Jensen Huang. … But the charge that Lutnick has not done enough to restrict AI chip shipments to China has bubbled up as the fallout of Huang’s actions grows.” It’s about time Donald Trump fired one of the men.
Horrifying, infuriating. “The Israeli military struck a hospital in southern Gaza, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, according to local health authorities, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas militants,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “The strike came without an evacuation warning, according to the military.” And the agony continues: “Humanitarian conditions in Gaza, including a lack of healthcare and shelter for those living there, remain dire. They have worsened amid winter storms that have flooded the enclave, despite warnings from humanitarian officials.”
MAGA’s right-wing culture war on schools came back to bite Republicans in Texas. “Voters were upset about a number of issues, including a voucher program, signed into law by Greg Abbott, the governor, that sent $1B of public money to private schools. They were concerned about new social studies standards that critics say promote Islamophobia and minimize the impact of slavery,” The Guardian reported. “They had seen students detained by immigration authorities, and Abbott threaten to strip district funding if students protested against ICE. And they were angry about a curriculum incorporating Bible verses that felt ‘forced down the throats’ of schools.”
What a difference the gavel makes. “The top Democrat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee is launching an investigation into Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., alleging he lied to Congress during his 2025 confirmation hearing,” CNN reported. “Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden also issued sweeping requests for the health secretary to provide all documents related to his presidential campaign, his confirmation process and any communications between federal health officials and Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group Kennedy chaired until December 2024.”
This would mean Iran has zero restrictions on its nuke or missile programs and keeps the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump says he is giving up on an Iran deal. He’s “pulling JD Vance out of his role in Iran negotiations, he announced Thursday, a move that comes after the vice president blamed last week’s crushing GOP midterm losses on the protracted war,” Politico reported. “Vance will instead focus his attention on combating purported corruption and crime in Democratic-run cities and states.” (In other words, more weaponization of government against Trump enemies.) Iran has been a complete strategic defeat for the United States.
Democrats are in array. “Half of progressives and moderates now say the party is ‘somewhat’ or ‘much more’ unified since the election, according to the latest survey, conducted last weekend by PF Global,” Politico reported. “And everyone agrees on what the Democratic-led Congress needs to do first, above anything else: bring down the cost of living.”
Another woman, another woman governor in a red state. “Democrat Cindy Holscher has been elected Kansas’ next governor, fending off Republican Ty Masterson to keep the office in her party’s hands and extend a massive wave of Democratic victories across the country,” the Associated Press reported. “Democrats had already secured a majority of governorships in the U.S. for the first time in two decades.”
The grifting is endemic. “Next to all of the take-Americans-for-nitwits scams perpetrated by the Trump administration, the news that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been using taxpayer-funded military jets to fly to college-football games doesn’t amount to that much. Still, as evidence of degraded ethics and an emperor-like feed-me-another-grape sensibility, it holds its own,” Sally Jenkins wrote. “Rubio has defended his flights by saying that the events are important to his family—his son is a senior running back for the Gators. But he’s really Saturday joy-riding to big-ticket events, and the message he’s sending is This administration doesn’t serve you. You serve it.”
They’re all so filthy. What a catastrophe Trump and his minions have been.
I hope they are able to prove that Kennedy lied about his affiliation with the antivaxer group.