Congress
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Overtalk: Suspended turn-taking during Noem’s (other) congressional hearing
Here’s how conversation works, approximately: one person speaks and when they are done the other responds, and so on, back and forth. If you’re talking to someone, one reason to wait your turn is so that you can attend to what they are saying to you, in order to respond. It’s hard to do that… Continue reading
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No Way Out?: Kristi’s Noem’s Self-destruction
On March 5, 2026, President Donald Trump ousted Kristi Noem from her position as Secretary of Homeland Security, allegedly outraged by her testimony in a congressional hearing two days earlier. Specifically, she implicated him in a hugely expensive ad campaign that was simultaneously self-promoting—in one ad, Noem was featured glamorously riding horseback past Mount Rushmore—and… Continue reading
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Bondi’s Train Wreck of Thought
The Perils of Unscripted Speechifying On February 11, 2026, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi testified before the House Judiciary Committee for more than four hours. The full video is above. A main focus was the Epstein files. A little over fifty minutes in, Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) asked Bondi how many of Epstein’s co-conspirators her… Continue reading
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University presidents under fire
On December 9, 2023, the presidents of MIT, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania testified in front of Congress about charges of anti-Semitism on their campuses. The grilling went on for more than five hours. The most dramatic (and re-played) moments came at the end, when they were questioned by New York Representative Elise Stefanik,… Continue reading
Sermo Interruptus 