'This isn’t what Walt and Roy would have wanted'

'Weapons for the politicized left'

'Manipulation through livestream commands'

'Continues to get worse in every dimension'

Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett filed to run for U.S. Senate on Monday, shaking up the crowded race to unseat Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Crockett, a left-wing firebrand who is one of President Donald Trump’s loudest critics in Congress, is expected to announce her candidacy in an event touted as a “special announcement” later […]

News Pluribus Pluribus Episode 6 Had a Vince Gilligan Cameo You Probably Missed The moment is the first time Gilligan has appeared on-screen in one of his shows By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on December 8, 2025 Credit: Apple TV Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Apple TV Warning! This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of Pluribus, “HDP.” One of the big reveals in the sixth episode of Pluribus comes when Carol discovers that the hive mind is, among other things, eating human-derived protein (aka, human bodies smashed up into a slurry then put into milk cartons). Later on in “HDP,” the individual formerly called John Cena explains to Carol, the necessity behind it—they don’t like doing it, but if they don’t, they’ll starve because they can’t even pick apples from a tree for food, since that hurts the tree. Brief aside: Does it, though? Doesn’t the apple tree want animals to eat the apples, so their seeds spread and create more apple trees? Shouldn’t the hive mind see that and eagerly pick and eat the apples, since that would make the tree happy? But I digress… Carol discovers the hive is eating people by investigating a warehouse-sized freezer, where various body parts are wrapped in plastic for future slurry consumption. We get a glimpse of some of these body parts, specifically a decapitated head with its mouth open in (what Carol likely presumes) horror. That head is none other than show creator Vince Gilligan’s. In a conversation with Carol herself, Rhea Seehorn, he explained how the moment came to be. “I had never done the Hitchcockian cameo until episode six of Pluribus, where my severed frozen head appears on the show,” he said. Gilligan described the process of making that head “wonderfully noninvasive.” Special effects expert Joe Ulibarri simply captured his head using a LiDAR scanner to capture Gilligan’s likeness and then 3D printed it. Gilligan also got a smaller bust of the image for his own enjoyment. Fun! See if you can catch other Easter eggs when new episodes of Pluribus premiere on Apple TV on Fridays. In the meantime, check out Seehorn’s interview with Gilligan about his frozen head cameo below. [end-mark] The post <i>Pluribus</i> Episode 6 Had a Vince Gilligan Cameo You Probably Missed appeared first on Reactor.

Books book reviews Horizons Beyond Grief: Psychopomp and Circumstance by Eden Royce Jenny Hamilton reviews Eden Royce’s “beautiful, spooky, and deeply heartfelt” novella. By Jenny Hamilton | Published on December 8, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share In a magical version of America’s Reconstruction era, Phaedra St. Market is white-knuckling her way through the cotillions and marriage proposals her parents see as the only path to a safe and prosperous future. Phee wants to control her own life, perhaps working with her father at his distillery, or even hiring on with one of the funeral directors in New Charleston. Upon receiving word that her aunt Cleo has died, Phee insists that she will pomp for her beloved aunt, giving her the homegoing she deserves. Aunt Cleo left the family home in disgrace after Phee’s grandmother’s funeral, and Phee now deeply regrets not making more of an effort to spend time with Cleo while she was alive. In death, at least, she can extend the loving care and familial support that Aunt Cleo lacked in the final decade of her life. If Phee does the job well, maybe a local funeral home will take notice of her. Though Phee’s mother is hotly opposed to the idea—Phee has never planned a homegoing before! Cleo wronged the family and can never be forgiven!—Phee sets off alone for Horizon, the city Aunt Cleo founded and made her home. Psychopomp and Circumstance wears its speculative elements so lightly that it’s only when I reached the book’s end that I fully understood how much of a fantasy novel it is. Magic is woven through every part of Phee’s world—the carriages are drawn across water by hippocampi, the food can carry spells, and unearthly creatures abound in Horizon. Royce has created a rich world that’s full of possibility for future books, if she so chooses, but those elements all exist in service of the emotional story Royce wants to tell. When we first meet Phee, she’s been standing on the neutral ground of her own life for several years, neither progressing toward her desired independence nor acceding to her mother’s vision for her life (marriage; polite society; uplifting her people through prosperity). Her aunt’s death provides the catalyst for her to get off the sidelines and into the game. Her initial agreement to arrange Cleo’s funeral arises purely from a place of care for her aunt, and from the recognition that it’s the only thing she can do now in service of this relationship. This moment, Phee’s impulsive act of love, sets up the book’s two most prominent and, to my mind, loveliest themes: the discrepancy between intention and action, and the question of what we owe to each other, living and dead. In all the years since Aunt Cleo was cast out from Phee’s family, Phee never went to Horizon to visit her, a decision she deeply regrets now that Cleo has died. As a reader, I felt really defensive of Phee for this. She was only a child, and then a very young adult, and she was and remains dependent on the approval of the same people who sent Cleo away in the first place. But Royce’s point is that my excuses, or anyone’s excuses, cease to matter in the face of death. Phee’s opportunity to have a relationship with Cleo is gone now, and forever, and no excuses, however justified, are going to change that. The intention matters less, and the fact of Phee’s inaction more. It’s a theme that reverberates throughout the book. At Cleo’s funeral, Phee speaks to a family member who wronged Cleo in life, and wishes now that they had acted differently. But they were never willing, at the risk of losing face, to repair the breach while Cleo was alive, and they remain unwilling to take any action to atone for it now. Whatever they think about how they behaved, it’s ultimately their action—rather, the lack of action—that carries the most weight. Buy the Book Psychopomp & Circumstance Eden Royce Buy Book Psychopomp & Circumstance Eden Royce Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Similarly, Phee has grown up with the weight of familial expectations on her shoulders. “This was her duty as a daughter of the Reconstruction. Find a suitable husband, have children, and raise them to carry on the family name and its legacy of enriching the city with wealth and knowledge.” As we learn, though, it’s really Cleo—the disgraced aunt, the thrown-away family member—who has done the work of caring for her people in the aftermath of Reconstruction. Her town of Horizon is a resting place and a waystation for both supernatural creatures and Black Americans in need of respite in the aftermath of slavery. Her legacy is care, and it’s that legacy that Phee enters into when she volunteers to manage Cleo’s homegoing. As she spends more time in Horizon, Phee comes to realize that it’s only the appearance that matters to her mother. One of the most moving scenes in the book occurs when Phee spends the morning with a funeral director her mother called “odd” and refused to patronize. Yet Phee sees a man of exceptional kindness, a man who feels deeply the weight of his responsibility to the living and the dead alike. Though Royce isn’t heavy-handed, the gulf between Phee’s mother—who refused reconciliation with her sister even after death—and the man she scorns as “odd” feels particularly wide. Here again, thoughts and intention can only carry us so far. It’s our actions that show our true character. Although they’re absent for most of the book, Phee’s parents are a presence deeply felt in their differences from Aunt Cleo; their choices make them strong foils for the life Cleo built for herself in Horizon. Where Phee was raised to care about appearance and reputation, Cleo showed tenderness to the vulnerable, strange, and outcast. Where Phee’s mother uses coercive control to get Phee to do what she wants, Cleo remained a steady, welcoming presence on the periphery of Phee’s life: steadfast in expressing her love for Phee, but never pushing Phee to go beyond what she was comfortable with. Royce ably navigates the contradictions of caring deeply about family while recognizing people’s flaws and pursuing a life that aligns first and foremost with your own core values. Though I’ve barely mentioned Aunt Cleo’s house (so much to think about in this slim novella!), Psychopomp and Circumstance is, at its core, a haunted house story. As so often in such stories, Phee is haunted by lost possibilities that look like ghosts. After a lifetime of being told what adulthood will look like for her, Phee grasps at the chance to take on the responsibility of planning a funeral—an act for adults, an act that closes off childhood. But her true coming-of-age is her burgeoning understanding of what it means to be accountable to family, to community, and to the dead. This is a beautiful, spooky, and deeply heartfelt read. I can’t wait to see what Royce does next.[end-mark] Psychopomp & Circumstance is available from Tordotcom Publishing.Read an excerpt. The post Horizons Beyond Grief: <i>Psychopomp and Circumstance</i> by Eden Royce appeared first on Reactor.

Alina Habba resigned Monday as the acting U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey. This comes after an appeals court ruling disqualified her from serving in the position. “While I was focused on delivering real results, judges in my state took advantage of a flawed blue slip tradition and became weapons for the politicized left,” Habba wrote in a statement. “For months, these judges stopped conducting trials and entering sentences, leaving violent criminals on the streets.” Habba, a former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, said her compliance with the ruling should not be viewed as surrender. “This decision will not weaken the Justice Department, and it will not weaken me,” she said. Habba will continue to work in the Justice Department as a senior adviser to the attorney general. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she accepted Habba’s resignation after the “flawed Third Circuit decision.” The DOJ hopes to overturn the decision, Bondi said. “The Justice Department will seek further review of this decision, and we are confident it will be reversed,” she said. “Alina intends to return to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the district of New Jersey if this occurs.” The post BREAKING: Top Trump Attorney Alina Habba Resigns appeared first on The Daily Signal.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Democrat Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said Sunday city police would not cooperate with a federal immigration enforcement operation launched in the wake of a growing fraud scandal in Minnesota. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is surging into the Minneapolis area to target illegal immigrants from Somalia after revelations into at least $1 billion in fraud, some of which reportedly went to the radical Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Frey claimed during the interview that ICE had launched a “chaotic operation” and that local authorities would not assist. WATCH: “Our police officers will not coordinate with ICE or any federal agency around immigration law enforcement work,” Frey said. “Now, we do work with federal agents around important criminal activity, narcotics, gun violence. We arrest perpetrators of violent crime, but we will not work with federal agents around immigration law enforcement. Why? Because we’ve seen the unconstitutionality of it, we’ve seen the chaotic nature that it creates, we know that it breaks apart families that make Minneapolis better, and we want nothing to do with it.” State employees accused Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota of engaging in “systemic” retaliation against whistleblowers who warned of the fraud schemes Sunday as the Justice Department is prosecuting multiple federal cases. Walz admitted during a Nov. 30 appearance on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the state “attracts criminals,” but demanded that Somali residents not be demonized. Trump announced he would end “Temporary Protected Status” for Somalis in Minneapolis in response to the allegations, and also said that the influx of refugees had “destroyed our country.” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara apologized at a Nov. 20 press conference after he earlier discussed crime by “groups of East African kids” during a Nov. 11 interview with local outlet WCCO. Democrat City Councilman Jamal Osman of Minneapolis was carjacked Nov. 10, days after winning reelection on a platform that included “restorative justice” and “violence prevention programs.” Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Minneapolis’ Democrat Mayor Says City Will Resist Trump Response to Somali Scammer Scandal appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The next generation of air dominance will be arriving soon, as the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase of the Next Generation Air Dominance program was awarded to Boeing in an announcement on March 21, 2025, by President Donald Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and former U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Allvin.  The new aircraft being developed has been officially designated the F-47, and it is expected to replace the F-22A Raptor. The choice of the name F-47 pays homage to the World War II P-47 Thunderbolt.  NGAD seeks to construct a sixth-generation air superiority fighter, the first in the world, that has unmatched capabilities and can support the integration of future technologies, which is a cornerstone of the F-47. Boeing has been awarded a $20 billion contract for the fighter, which will cover the development and construction of prototype aircraft, and the possibility of limited initial production.  This new fighter jet’s propulsion systems will be developed by the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion program, and currently GE Aerospace’s XA102 and Pratt & Whitney’s XA103 are in competition. Both designs draw from the same program, the Adaptive Engine Transition Program and they both seek to deliver increased thrust, better fuel efficiency, and improved thermal management systems.  Allvin has explained that the F-47 will have a smaller radar signature and require less maintenance and logistical support compared to fifth-generation fighter jets, saying the F-47 “will be simpler to operate and deploy than the F-22A, with a higher level of mission readiness and reduced reliance on large support infrastructure.” Additionally, the F-47’s range is expected to exceed 1,000 nautical miles, making it capable of flying deep into enemy territory without needing as much aerial refueling support as other fighters, significantly expanding the U.S. Air Force’s operational capabilities  In Boeing’s preliminary graphics, all that is visible is the nose of the F-47, which includes canard foreplanes, implying potential trade-offs to increased maneuverability. Despite there being no confirmation, there is speculation that the F-47 will possess a tailless delta or lambda-wing layout with two engines that will use under-fuselage or under-wing intakes.  The F-47 is expected to not only be positioned for traditional air dominance, but to also integrate unmanned systems, electronic warfare assets, and space-based sensors that will allow it to operate in contested environments augmented by complementary autonomous platforms. These unmanned systems are projected to include the capability of the pilot to control and coordinate attacks from Collaborative Combat Aircraft drones from the aircraft.  Hegseth has emphasized the superiority of the F-47, saying, “We’re not just building another fighter jet—we’re shaping the future of warfare and sending a clear message to our adversaries. This platform will be the most advanced, lethal, and adaptable fighter ever created. It is being designed to outmaneuver and outmatch every known aircraft. The new F-47 will surpass any opponent daring to challenge our brave pilots.”  Due to national security concerns, no cost has been confirmed, but Allvin has stated the F-47 will be less expensive than the F-22A, and the U.S. Air Force expects to buy at least 185 aircraft. However, some estimates claim each unit may cost hundreds of millions, and others claim the cost could reach $300 million per aircraft, making the F-47 potentially more expensive than the F-22. There is also potential for a reduced-capability version of the F-47 that might be offered to some allied nations.  Although there is no specific operational date for the F-47, Allvin has revealed that production has begun, and the initial flight is projected for 2028. He revealed that Boeing’s teams quickly began production after their contract was announced in March.  As production continues, no one knows exactly what the F-47 will look like or be capable of, however, Trump, Hegseth, and Allvin are confident that the F-47 will be the most capable and superior aircraft in the world. As the initial flight comes closer, additional information is expected to be released regarding the F-47’s capabilities and design.  The post The F-47: Next Generation Air Dominance appeared first on The Daily Signal.