The challenge in putting together this list is that some bands and artists were huge on one side of the Atlantic while being relatively unknown on the other. Many bands were very popular in the UK, but US fans hardly knew who they were. The same goes for major American bands that never received the credit they deserved in Europe. So we had to walk a fine line in deciding which bands to include. Of course, many bands were cult favorites with large followings but were not widely known on a global scale. And then there are bands like Thin The post 20 Forgotten 1970s Bands & Artists That Deserved More Credit appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Books book reviews The Sublime Ache and Freedom of Freya Marske’s Cinder House Ghost story, love story, and an incarnation that deeply knows its roots, Cinder House is a sweet fresh thing. By Maya Gittelman | Published on November 18, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share What makes a good fairytale reimagining? Something not dissimilar, perhaps, from what makes a good ghost story: a fresh twist on a familiar concept, atmosphere, and reverence for the source material. In a world saturated with done-to-death remakes and soulless cash-grab franchising, Freya Marske assures us that fresh and thoughtful reimaginings are far from dead. Ghost story, love story, and an incarnation that deeply knows its roots, Cinder House is a sweet fresh thing. A spell of a story, bewitching and inviting.  We meet Ella at the age of sixteen, at the moment of her death. Her stepmother had murdered her father shortly beforehand, and so Ella inherited his house just long enough for it to rightfully belong to her in death. At first, this is paltry consolation to being murdered. Her scheming stepmother and stepsisters order her about as they did when she was alive, only more so because not only can she not fight back, it turns out they can hurt her quite badly by messing with her house.  Because in Marske’s imagining, Ella’s ghost is inextricably tied to the house. She feels through it, aching through its floorboards and shuddering with its windowpanes. This means that her stepfamily breaking mirrors or scattering beads in her crevices hurts her with a wrongness that almost feels like being hit, somewhere deep inside the specter of her. Yet the connection also ends up being quite the gift—while technically confined to the house she haunts, some experimentation proves that if Ella carries, for example, a piece of roof tile with her, she can venture further into town. She can rediscover the places she took for granted when she was young and alive: the ballet, the night-market, the university—until midnight, when her ghosthood snaps her back to the house. Nothing, however, can save her from being dead: No one can see or hear her except the other inhabitants of her house, which is to say the awful company of her stepfamily.   As Ella navigates this undeath, she learns and grows as much as she can from within the confines of her ghosthood, the unwritten rules of her haunting. She even manages to track down and strike up correspondence with the foremost expert of Intangibility, the sorcerer Mazamire. The Cajarac scholar chooses to stay fairly anonymous themself, as attitudes toward magic in their homeland are less permissive than in Ella’s own realm, so they don’t pry too heavily into Ella’s intentions. Through Mazamire and a local charm-selling fairy Quaint who has no trouble seeing ghosts, Ella is almost able to have something like a life.  When word goes out that the crown prince is throwing a festival in search of a bride, Ella isn’t thinking about marriage—she knows she’s too dead for that. But when Quaint suggests a pricey bargain—access to some of the treasures within Ella’s house’s walls in exchange for three nights of solidity—Ella can’t say no. When else would she have the opportunity to be a body again—and while being one, to feel so much at once? It’s three nights of dancing, every unattached young woman vying for the prince, or at least some good fun.  It is that, so much life it hurts to press up against it. And when Ella steals away for a moment of peace, committed to enjoying her spell as deeply as she can, she finds more than she bargained for—the prince himself, stolen away for that same moment of peace in the night air.   Ella can’t let on that she’s a ghost, but it turns out, Prince Jule has a secret of his own: a blessing turned curse that happens to mean his own private passions align quite genuinely with Ella’s own. The connection that sparks between them is almost accidental and painfully true, which has no bearing on the preexisting political arrangements for Jule’s marriage, nor the conditions of Ella’s deadness. But through sheer will and the surprising involvement of Scholar Mazamire, Ella and Jule’s stories fold together in a swell of sublime and tender ache. Buy the Book Cinder House Freya Marske Buy Book Cinder House Freya Marske Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget While the story beats will slot neatly in place for readers who’ve only seen the 1997 Brandy classic, the 1950 animated Cinderella, or have only vaguely heard the tale1, I also found it rewarding as a childhood fan of the Perrault and Grimm variations, which is to say this love story contains blood and wound and tragedy. Each familiar beat is adapted fittingly and creatively: the stepfamily’s motivations, the deus ex machina of a fairy godmother, the glass slippers, and what it means, at its core, to be designated cinder. Ash, remnant. It fits so well into a haunting. Ghost as self plus place, a snapshot of a person when they die yet remain, without living or leaving. Suspended, quite literally in suspense. Place and ownership do have power, and Marske makes magic out of that fact in Cinder House and beyond in subtle, tangible ways that feel immediately true.  It’s a rare thing that a book’s ache leaves me satisfied—especially one as brief as a novella—but Cinder House’s ache hits just right, leaving me feeling full rather than bereft. I am perhaps the target audience here: I love cleverly textured fairytale reimaginings, comfortable queerness and bisexuality that emerges as naturally and obviously as my own did for me. I love stories that find a way to make ache into something almost as sweet as longing, and Marske executed her premise perfectly.  Indeed, this is almost certainly my favorite iteration of The Prince ()—at the very least tied with Paolo Montalban, Filipino heartthrob, which is high praise indeed. The life Marske gives him, the depth and duty to him, the curse of his birth—I fell for him like Ella does. The romance of Cinder House is not exactly what you expect—I did mention the tragedy—but that only makes it richer and thoroughly more rewarding. Think Julie and the Phantoms in terms of tragedy, not Gothic sadness, which is to say grief shot through with true joy. Without too many spoilers, there’s queer polyamory here, and it develops as naturally as any love story, slotting within the confines of its circumstance. As always, Marske delivers fresh and original sex mixed with magic, and here there’s the added dimension of imagining sex through the lens of somebody who does not have access to a body in the same way most living, abled people do. It’s accessible, hot, original, and frankly freeing, which not only makes for a satisfying reading experience for the scene but also ties in thematically so well.  Through her Last Binding series I know I’m also simply a huge fan of Marske’s writing; it rarely doesn’t work for me. She turns a phrase like a key in a door you thought was part of the wall: neat yet surprising, a thought a moment ago you could’ve sworn you’ve had before, but hadn’t. If you’ve loved her work before, this will hit just right, and if you haven’t, this is an excellent place to start. [end-mark] Cinder House is published by Tordotcom Publishing.Read an excerpt. I can’t speak to the live actions with white leads, having never seen them. ︎The post The Sublime Ache and Freedom of Freya Marske’s <i>Cinder House</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Books Horror Highlights Abandoned Mines and Secret Societies: Horror Highlights for November 2025 Spooky Season doesn’t have to end with October! By Emily C. Hughes | Published on November 18, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share When you’re a year-round horror fan, the coming and going of October causes a sort of whiplash. The first day of October hits, and everyone who ignores horror for the other eleven months of the year is suddenly talking about it nonstop. Just as suddenly, Halloween is over and they’ve dropped it again in favor of Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even Edmund Fitzgerald season. I often find myself a little disoriented in early November, the calendar equivalent of the sensation you get when you step off one of those moving walkways at the airport. As much as I’d like to leave our 12 foot skeleton up year-round, the New England winters wouldn’t be kind to him, so we moved him into the barn for hibernation season. Please meet my best friend, Bone Cold Steve Austin The pumpkins have been split and left out as a buffet for for raccoons and possums. There’s woodsmoke in the air, and the trees have shed the last of their leaves. But horror doesn’t stop, and neither does publishing (as much as I wish it would pause occasionally so I can catch up). And there’s an argument to be made that November, with its steely chill, may even be a more apt month for horror reading than October. Here are six November releases I’m particularly excited about. The Great Work by Sheldon Costa (Nov 4, Quirk) It’s the late 1880s in newly-minted Washington State, and everyone’s hunting a legendary giant salamander. But Gentle Montgomery’s reason for seeking the creature is personal: his friend and mentor died in his own quest for the salamander, and Gentle suspects its blood might be able to bring him back. With his nephew, Kitt, in tow, the grief-stricken Gentle embarks on a fraught, dangerous journey across a landscape full of cults and hunters and brigands. This novel leans more toward the Weird than it does toward straight horror—think of it as a dark Western with some deliciously horrifying imagery. It’s also a strange and sensitive meditation on the staggering price of progress, and the magic we lose when there are no more frontiers left unexplored.  The Long Low Whistle by Laurel Hightower (Nov 4, Shortwave) I love extreme settings in horror: deserts, ice caps, the deep sea, outer space, and other places I will never go. Abandoned mines certainly fall under that category (when was the last time you heard about anything good happening in an abandoned mine?), and so I’m rushing to pick up Laurel Hightower’s newest novella. The day her father died, Trish heard the emergency whistle sound from the local mine. Twenty years later, she’s still seeking closure, or something like it. When a group of cryptid hunters come to town with a plan to explore the mine, Trish feels compelled to join them, especially given the video footage they have of the mine’s collapse. What follows is a claustrophobic and visceral journey into the earth, where, they quickly find, they’re not alone. Fans of The Descent or The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling will have a great time with this one. (Whistle is part of Shortwave’s wonderful Killer VHS series, standalone novellas meant to pay homage to that classic horror format, the videotape—the publisher describes them as “Goosebumps for adults.”) Bones of Our Stars, Blood of Our World by Cullen Bunn (Nov 11, Gallery) This is Bunn’s debut novel for adult readers; horror fans will likely already know his name from his work in comics (consider this a bonus plug for Harrow County, which rules). Set over the course of one week on an island off the coast of North Carolina, Bones starts out as a slasher and expands into something much darker and far more cosmic. Bunn puts in the work, creating a huge cast of characters in a lively community before unleashing an absolute bloodbath—fans of Salem’s Lot or Midnight Mass, this one’s for you. It’s gory, epic, and over-the-top in the best way. God’s Junk Drawer by Peter Clines (Nov 11, Blackstone) I’ve been a fan of Clines’ since I picked up his wildly underappreciated sci-fi horror novel The Fold years back, and I’m thrilled every time I see a new release with his name on it. In his newest, a family on a rafting trip find themselves lost in an inexplicable, impossible valley, one filled with neanderthals, dinosaurs, robots, aliens, and more. Decades later, after years of searching, the now-grown son finds a way back to the valley–but accidentally brings a small group of grad students with him. The setup is reminiscent of Sid and Marty Krofft’s 1970s cult classic TV series Land of the Lost, which is an unalloyed positive in my mind, and if you need something to scratch that Jurassic Park death-by-dino itch, look no further. I’ll Make a Spectacle of You by Beatrice Winifred Iker (Nov 18, Run For It) Iker’s atmospheric, creepy debut novel follows Zora, a grad student in Appalachian Studies at Bricksbury University, a venerable HCBU. When her studies lead her to research the history of the university, Zora finds a centuries-long trail of stories about a dangerous beast stalking the woods around campus and a secret society with murky connections to both the beast and the school. Before long, students start to go missing, and Zora is forced to confront whether the past is really past after all. This is a slow burn, full of rich character and textured details, and the payoff is worth it. Told in dual timelines (one present day, one during Bricksbury’s founding in the 1820s), I’ll Make a Spectacle of You is a Hoodoo-laced dark academia creature feature for our time. The Villa, Once Beloved by Victor Manibo (Nov 25, Erewhon) When his grandfather dies, Adrian Sepulveda brings his girlfriend Sophie home with him to the Philippines. For Adrian, it’s a chance to see family and mourn his grandfather; for Sophie, it’s an opportunity to learn about her own distant Filipino roots. But when a landslide traps the family in their remote villa, long-simmering secrets, conflicts, and curses come to a head, many of which are tied to the Sepulvedas’ involvement with the darkest parts of Filipino history. And for Sophie, the odd woman out, the trip rapidly becomes a fight for survival. What follows is dripping with Gothic atmosphere, postcolonial trauma, bad omens, demons, and more. Manibo’s newest is perfect for readers of Isabel Cañas or Trang Thanh Tran. It never gets easier choosing just a few books to highlight from the dozens released each month—to see the full list of November’s new horror books and beyond, head over to my website.[end-mark] News and Notes Call for 2026 horror titles: I’m deep in the process of compiling my horror new releases list for 2026, and you can help! Let me know about any horror/horror-adjacent books publishing next year right over here. I’m looking for adult, YA, and middle grade books, fiction or nonfiction, publishing in English in the calendar year 2026. Go nuts! ’Tis the season to give horror: Just because Halloween’s over for another three hundred forty-odd days doesn’t mean you can’t continue to peer pressure your loved ones into reading it! Prime gift-giving season approaches, and inquiring minds need to know: what’s the horror book you can’t stop giving people? For me, it’s long been The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins—let me know yours in the comments. The post Abandoned Mines and Secret Societies: Horror Highlights for November 2025 appeared first on Reactor.

As delegates at the 2025 United Nations Climate Conference in Brazil enter their final week of negotiations, the global climate regime finds itself at a crossroads: Growing rifts between developed and developing nations are colliding with a visible decline in U.S. engagement.   At the heart of discussions are ongoing conversations about regulating greenhouse gas emissions to avert climate change. One number that has long kept these policies alive is the “social cost of carbon,” or SCC. Defined as the economic damage associated with a ton of carbon dioxide emissions across 300 years, the SCC undergirded energy regulatory policy during both the Obama and Biden administrations. But any calculation is only as reliable as its underlying assumptions. At The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, we examined both the Obama and Biden administration’s SCC estimates based on their key assumptions. What we found? Minor, reasonable adjustments led to drastically different SCC values—meaning these estimates can be easily manipulated, as both administrations had done for years. Read Heritage Foundation Analysis about the Obama Administration’s SCC Modeling Read Additional Heritage Foundation Analysis about the Obama Administration’s SCC Modeling The deregulatory actions launched by @epaleezeldin and @EPA are amongst the best in modern times. They should indeed overhaul the social cost of carbon – For years at Heritage we have advocated the danger of using these models in policy. @Heritage pic.twitter.com/p3PCi9TUIT— Kevin D. Dayaratna, Ph.D. (@kdd0211) March 14, 2025 Cutting CO? emissions is essentially an investment decision, one option among many competing uses of limited resources that could improve future well-being. To judge whether emission cuts are worthwhile, policymakers should compare their expected returns to the returns from alternative investments—a comparison made possible only through proper discounting. Using an unrealistically low discount rate artificially inflates the value of climate benefits and risks diverting resources away from higher-value investments that would leave future generations better off.   The Obama administration intentionally ignored advice from the Office of Management and Budget that required a 7% discount rate to be used in its cost/benefit analysis when determining the SCC. If this intentionally ignored discount rate had been used, the estimated social cost of carbon could decrease by 70% or more, according to Heritage estimates. Another key assumption in these calculations is the number of years of projected benefits. As noted earlier, the social cost of carbon calculations sum damages over a 300-year time horizon. When George Washington took office, he couldn’t have imagined modern GPS, smartphones, or artificial intelligence. Likewise, we have no way of predicting what society will look like even 50 years from now, let alone 300. But economists relying on these calculations make such projections to skew the cost-benefit analysis towards greater benefits. Upon re-estimating the benefits of the social cost of carbon using a 150-year time horizon, which is still too long, we found that benefits decline by as much as 20%.  Indeed, the largest purported damages due to climate change reported by these models occur even further into the future, consequently ratcheting up the SCC reported by lawmakers. A third critical assumption in these models is climate sensitivity, i.e., how much the Earth’s temperature will rise in response to carbon dioxide emissions. Most agree that some warming will occur but disagree about the extent of that warming. When different warming scenarios are adjusted to align with observation-based evidence, estimates of the social cost of carbon drop by as much as 70%. That’s just according to our study of Obama-era models. The Biden administration brought additional SCC models into the picture as an attempt to ratchet up the numbers even further. We examined those models as well, and the story was nothing but the same. Read Heritage Foundation Analysis about the Biden Administration’s SCC Modeling Read Additional Heritage Foundation Analysis about the Biden Administration’s SCC Modeling Our critical analysis of the models was also published in peer-reviewed academic and industry journals and submitted in testimony before congressional committees. Read Heritage Foundation Peer-Reviewed Research on the SCC Read Additional Heritage Peer-Reviewed Research on the SCC Read Kevin Dayaratna’s Congressional Testimony on the SCC Yet another critical assumption is agricultural productivity. Although viewed by some as a pollutant, carbon dioxide is a fundamental component of photosynthesis and agricultural yield. As a result, under reasonable assumptions about agricultural productivity, the social cost of carbon can even go negative, meaning carbon dioxide emissions could yield net benefits such as longer growing seasons and increased agricultural productivity. Both the Obama and Biden administrations’ analyses acknowledged the possibility of benefit from carbon dioxide, but their reports conveniently omitted any detailed discussion of it. At its core, the regulatory regime built around the social cost of carbon restricts Americans’ access to affordable, reliable energy. President Donald Trump recognized this problem immediately, and on his first day in office issued the executive order, “Unleashing American Energy,” which directed federal agencies to fully tap America’s vast energy resources and charged Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin with re-examining the SCC. Several months later, Zeldin, in consultation with Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, instructed agencies to use the SCC only when their governing statute explicitly requires doing so, and to otherwise minimize or eliminate its use. Zeldin’s guidance is an important step toward restoring regulatory discipline and preventing agencies from imposing costly, unjustified climate assumptions on the economy. Nevertheless, state and foreign policymakers may still try to lean on the social cost of carbon. They shouldn’t. The SCC’s defenders use seemingly complex and sophisticated models as cover to push their preferred energy agenda—hoping no one looks closely enough to see how flimsy the underlying assumptions really are. Although the SCC is based on an interesting class of statistical models, the assumptions used to generate it can be manipulated to give lawmakers virtually any estimate of the social cost of carbon, thereby predicting essentially anything, ranging from little warming and continued prosperity to catastrophic warming and immense disaster.  Statistical models can indeed shape public policy. But their authority is predicated entirely on the assumptions on which they are based. When those assumptions are stretched, selectively chosen, or hidden, the entire structure becomes a house of cards—appearing solid until the slightest scrutiny makes it collapse. The SCC is precisely such a construction: a sophisticated mirage built on malleable inputs that can be tuned to justify almost any outcome, including inflated claims of future harm. Policymakers who rely on it aren’t relying on science; they’re relying on a model whose outputs can be engineered to block access to the affordable, reliable energy Americans depend on. In the case of the SCC, what looks like rigor is really just a carefully crafted illusion. The post The Social Cost of Carbon: Legitimate Cost-Benefit Analysis or a Statistical Mirage? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, designated the largest Muslim advocacy group in the country, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a foreign terrorist organization, authorizing a host of state actions against the group. CAIR condemned his attack as “defamatory” and “lawless,” threatening to sue in response. “The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’” Abbott said in a press release on the designation. “The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable,” he added. “Today, I designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations. These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.” Abbott’s proclamation outlines the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood, notes that Hamas began as an offshoot of the Brotherhood, and noted the FBI’s previous finding that CAIR was founded as a “front group” for “Hamas and its support network.” It notes that CAIR was an “unidentified co-conspirator” in the 2009 terrorism financing case involving the Holy Land Foundation. The proclamation lists a group of individuals “promoting terrorism-related activities,” notes that the FBI suspended formal contacts with CAIR in 2008 and that the Biden administration removed CAIR’s name from documents in 2023. The proclamation notes Texas laws that enable the attorney general to file a lawsuit against a foreign terrorist organization “to enjoin its operations” and that prevent foreign terrorist organizations from acquiring land in Texas. The proclamation concludes by stating that Abbott designates “both the Muslim Brotherhood and its successor organization CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations under Texas Penal Code [Section] 71.01(e), and thereby subject those organizations, and any persons promoting or aiding their criminal activities, to the heightened penalties authorized by Chapter 125 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code” and subjects both organizations “to Chapter 5 of the Texas Property Code, which prohibits them from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas.” Today, I designated the Muslim Brotherhood and Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.This bans them from buying or acquiring land in Texas and authorizes the Attorney General to sue to shut them down. pic.twitter.com/lSYvpkTmh3— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 18, 2025 CAIR’s Response CAIR condemned Abbott’s declaration as “defamatory” and “lawless.” “CAIR is an independent American civil rights organization that has spent 30 years protecting free speech, advancing religious freedom, and promoting justice for people here and abroad,” the group said in a statement sent to The Daily Signal Tuesday. “We have consistently condemned all forms of unjust violence, including hate crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide and terrorism. In fact, we condemn terrorism so often that ISIS once put a target on our national executive director.” “Although we are flattered by Greg Abbott’s obsession with our civil rights organization, his publicity stunt masquerading as a proclamation has no basis in fact or law,” CAIR continued. “By defaming a prominent American Muslim institution with debunked conspiracy theories and made-up quotes, Mr. Abbott has once again shown that his top priority is advancing anti-Muslim bigotry, not serving the people of Texas.” CAIR condemned Abbott as an “Israel First politician who has spent months stoking anti-Muslim hysteria to smear American Muslims critical of the Israeli government.” The group threatened a lawsuit should Abbott implement policies based on the proclamation. “We have successfully sued Greg Abbott three different times for shredding the First Amendment for the benefit of the Israeli government, and we are ready to do so again if he attempts to turn this publicity stunt into actual policy,” the statement concluded. “Unlike Mr. Abbott, who unleashed violence against Texas students protesting the Gaza genocide to satisfy his AIPAC donors, our civil rights organization answers to the American people, relies on support from the American people, and stands up for American values,” CAIR declared. CAIR has long disputed claims of the kind Abbott cited. The organization updates a web page dedicated to dispelling “rumors” and “conspiracy theories.” “CAIR is not ‘the Wahhabi lobby,’ a “front-group for Hamas,’ a ‘fund-raising arm for Hezbollah,’ ‘part of a wider conspiracy overseen by the Muslim Brotherhood’ or any of the other false and misleading associations our detractors seek to smear us with,” the organization notes. “That we stand accused of being both a ‘fundraising arm of Hezbollah’ and the ‘Wahhabi lobby’ is a significant point in demonstrating that our detractors are hurling slander not fact. Hezbollah and the Wahhabi movement represent diametrically opposed ideologies.” CAIR admits that it was included on a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation case, but notes that there were more than 300 other organizations on the list. “There is no legal implication to being labeled an unindicted co-conspirator, since it does not require the Justice Department to prove anything in a court of law,” the organization notes. “Regardless, the issue of our inclusion on the list was settled in CAIR’s favor.” The judge in the case stated, “This case is not about CAIR.” The Biden administration distanced itself from CAIR after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel. The Biden White House had previously included CAIR in its initiative to combat antisemitism. “Gov. Abbott took a bold stance for truth and justice,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told The Daily Signal. “CAIR is a hate group, created by the Muslim Brotherhood to support antisemitic terrorism under the guise of promoting Islam.” The Daily Signal also reached out to Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office did not immediately respond. The post BREAKING: Texas Governor Designates Largest Muslim Activist Group a Foreign Terrorist Organization appeared first on The Daily Signal.

At a Republican leadership press conference on Tuesday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., said he would vote in favor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. “I’m going to vote to move this forward,” Johnson said, speculating that in the end the tally for the legislation could be unanimous. Spearheaded by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., the legislation to release the files on the notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, would force the attorney general to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Offices,” with some exceptions such as national security concerns and the privacy of victims. Johnson’s support comes after President Donald Trump publicly backed the legislation in a social media post this past Sunday. “We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party,” the president said on Truth Social. For his part, the speaker highlighted the selective interest in Epstein by House Democrats given that the Biden administration could have released the documents in question related to the disgraced financier but chose not to. “The Democrats had every one of the Epstein files in their possession for the four long years of the Biden administration. The Biden Department of Justice had the files the entire time, and not a single one of the people who were so loud and animated right now, they never said anything about it for all those four years. None of them held press conferences. None of them demanded the release of the documents,” Johnson said Tuesday. Johnson echoed the president’s point that the controversy around the Epstein files was a political ploy by the Democrats. “The truth is simple and straightforward and obvious for anyone who’s willing to look at it objectively. Clearly, this is a political exercise for Democrats and a few others, sadly. And it is as deceitful and dishonest as their pointless stunt to shut down the government,” the speaker argued. The Epstein files vote was triggered after four GOP House members broke ranks to vote with the Democrats to force a floor vote on the bill. Johnson emphasized that there was a Democrat strategy to let the Epstein coverage consume the news while Republican accomplishments were left to wither into obscurity. “[Democrats] weaponized the justice system over the last several years to go after him, and this is the earliest attempt, and they don’t have a platform or a principle to defend on the Democratic Party side,” the speaker continued. Johnson went on to outline his concerns about the Epstein Files Transparency Act as currently written, saying it did not follow national security declassification norms and did not provide adequate protection for the victims of Epstein’s crimes. Johnson noted that the House Oversight Committee had already released thousands of Epstein documents. He also expressed concern that innocent people would be caught up in guilt by association in the Epstein documents, and that some of the sensitive information released could jeopardize future federal investigations by revealing confidential informants. Nevertheless, the speaker indicated he would be voting on the legislation today and added that he hoped the Senate would address the concerns he raised. “Democrats are trying to use the Epstein matter as a political weapon to distract from their own party’s failure,” Johnson concluded. The post Johnson Says He Will Vote to Release Epstein Files appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Department of Veterans Affairs has permanently housed the largest number of homeless veterans since 2019. The VA housed 51,936 veterans experiencing homelessness in fiscal year 2025, the agency announced in a news release first provided to The Daily Signal. This represents the largest number since fiscal year 2019 and 4,011 more veterans than the department housed in the last fiscal year of President Joe Biden’s tenure. “This is life-changing and in many cases life-saving work,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said. “We are proud of the progress VA is making to get veterans off the streets and are redoubling our efforts to continue this momentum moving forward.” This represents the department’s best performance since it began tracking the number of individual veterans permanently housed, rather than the number of permanent housing placements, ensuring a more accurate count. The Biden administration began using a less clear methodology in 2022. Screenshot The VA launched its Getting Veterans Off the Street initiative in May, ordering every VA health care system across the country to host dedicated outreach surge events to locate unsheltered veterans and offer them immediate access to housing programs, health care, behavioral health services, and VA benefits. The initiative helped move 25,065 veterans to interim or permanent housing, the agency reported. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in May establishing a National Center for Warrior Independence for Homeless Veterans at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. The center will provide housing and support for up to 6,000 homeless veterans from across the nation by 2028. In addition to providing medical care, the VA helps veterans find permanent housing, often with subsidies to make the housing more affordable. In some cases, the VA helps veterans end their homelessness by reuniting them with family and friends. Veterans experiencing homelessness or facing the risk of homelessness can contact the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-4AID-VET (877-424-3838) or they can visit va.gov/homeless. Trump launched VA reforms in his first administration, responding to an Obama-era scandal of long wait times for health care at VA clinics. The second Trump administration is also on track to recoup $10.8 million in bonus payments to top-level executives the VA improperly made under the Biden administration. The post EXCLUSIVE: VA Houses Largest Number of Homeless Veterans Since 2019 appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Your skin is in for a treat! Come learn how to make your own nourishing DIY whipped body butter with our easy step-by-step recipe. You only need 4 all-natural ingredients to create a creamy, fluffy whipped body butter that melts into your skin to soothe, soften and moisturize. It’s also wonderful for homemade gifts! I’ve also included a couple optional ingredients to help make your body butter not greasy, along with frequently asked questions and pro tips for the best results possible. You can also choose to not whip the body butter and simply leave it more firm like a balm instead. What is Whipped Body Butter? Body butter is a rich, water-free moisturizer made of natural butters and oils like shea butter, cocoa butter, and coconut oil. When whipped, it becomes luxuriously light and fluffy – resembling frosting that looks good enough to eat! It’s semi-solid in a container but readily melts and spreads when it comes in contact with warm skin. Benefits for Skin Whipped body butter provides deep, long-lasting hydration that is perfect for rough patches or trouble spots like heels, elbows, hands and cuticles. It also protects the natural skin barrier and improves skin texture by softening skin, reducing inflammation, and enhancing elasticity. Body butter can help soothe skin irritation including eczema, scars, stretch marks, rashes, or other concerns. Shea Butter deeply nourishes and hydrates the skin, restoring softness and smoothness while reducing inflammation. Rich in vitamins and antioxidants, it supports skin’s natural barrier and elasticity while promoting a healthy, radiant glow. Cocoa Butter creates a protective layer that locks in moisture, leaving skin silky and supple. Its naturally soothing properties help reduce dryness and promote a youthful, even-toned appearance. Coconut Oil is pure gold for skin health! When comparing dozens of different plant-based oils, this study found that coconut oil was the ONLY one that checked ALL the boxes for anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, anti-bacterial, anti-cancer, and antioxidant properties along with wound healing and skin barrier repair benefits. The other liquid oil you choose to use in this body butter recipe (e.g. jojoba or sweet almond oil) will offer additional skincare benefits too. Please visit our guide on the 11 best carrier oils for skin to learn more about the pros, cons, and benefits of each – including their comedogenic rating! RELATED: Love DIY skincare? Don’t miss our homemade lip balm recipe, DIY bath salts, or guides on how to make lavender salve and calendula salve. Supplies Needed Double boiler (or create a DIY double-boiler by nesting a smaller pot inside a slightly larger pot) Measuring cups Stand mixer or hand mixer for whipping Final storage container(s) of choice, such a glass jars with lids or glass flip-top containers. For gifts, we like to use 4-ounce amber jars or pretty cobalt blue ones. Optional: plastic bag or piping bag to help fill jars Ingredients This recipe makes about 3 to 4 cups of body butter after whipping (2 cups not whipped). I prefer to use organic ingredients to make it as healing as possible! 1/2 cup shea butter (4 oz) 1/2 cup cocoa butter (4 oz) – if using cocoa butter wafers like us, simply pack the 1/2 cup as full as possible or use just over a half cup to make up for the extra air space between the wafers. 1/2 cup coconut oil (4 oz) – the kind that is solid at room temperature 1/2 cup liquid oil choice (4 oz) such as organic jojoba oil (my favorite), sweet almond oil or olive oil. Jojoba and argan oil are the lightest options to help make body butter non-greasy. To make it extra-therapeutic, you can also use herbal oils like homemade lavender oil, calendula infused oil, DIY rosehip oil or similar. Optional ingredients (add during whipping) 3 to 4 teaspoons of arrowroot powder, which will help make your body butter less greasy up to 40 drops essential oils such as lavender, chamomile, sweet orange, peppermint, or other scent of choice. We typically leave ours plain – the cocoa butter smells amazing on its own! Substitution notes: You can also make body butter using half shea and half mango butter (or shea butter alone), but shea and mango butter are much softer than cocoa butter. Therefore, I recommend reducing the amount of oil in this recipe by 2 to 3 Tbsp if you aren’t using cocoa butter. How to Make Body Butter Not Greasy Truth be told, body butter is always going to feel a little more oily than lotion since it doesn’t contain water. However, we’ve experimented with many whipped body butter recipes and have learned several tips to make them as smooth, absorbent, and non-greasy as possible. In general, whipped body butter is going to feel less greasy or heavy compared to non-whipped versions, so we’re off to a good start! Add 1 to 2 tsp of arrowroot powder (aka tapioca starch) per 8 ounces of body butter ingredients, which helps absorb some of the oil to create a drier, silkier finish. I listed this as an optional ingredient in our recipe, but highly recommend using it! Shea and cocoa butter are most commonly used for homemade body butter, but you could also experiment using mango butter – which is known to be even more soft, light, and non-greasy. The type of carrier oil you use will impact the texture too. For instance, lightweight “dry” oils like jojoba, grapeseed, or argan oil will feel less greasy compared to heavier oils like olive oil or avocado oil. While healing, castor oil is especially heavy and sticky. Consider adding stearic acid in addition to arrowroot powder. Stearic acid is a natural, non-toxic fatty acid that helps thicken, stabilize, and add a luxurious silkiness or “slip” to body butter, reducing greasy or sticky feelings. I’d only recommend this for serious body butter makers (just because it’s an extra thing to buy), but some of the best whipped body butter we’ve made included stearic acid! Around 3-6% stearic acid is a good starting point for body butter (about 1 to 1.5 Tbsp for this recipe) – added in the melting phase with the oils and butters. Instructions 1) Melt Combine the shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil and other liquid oil of choice in a double boiler. (Do not add the optional arrowroot powder or essential oils yet!) Add enough water to the lower pot so that it’s touching the bottom of the upper pot. Heat the ingredients on the stovetop (uncovered) over medium heat until everything is fully melted and combined. If you don’t want to whip your body butter, you can mix in the arrowroot powder and essential oils at this time (after melting, once it’s removed from the heat) and then pour the melted ingredients into final storage containers of choice. Otherwise, continue to the cooling and whipping phase. 2) Partially Cool Once melted, remove the mixture from the heat and allow it to cool until it’s semi-firm but not hard to the touch. The surface should be solidified, but still soft enough that you can easily press your finger into it. This can take a few hours in the refrigerator or about half an hour in the freezer, but be sure to set a timer! Depending on your schedule, you can also simply let it sit out to cool overnight (not in the fridge) and whip the next day. However, rapid cooling can help prevent the shea butter from getting grainy. Expert Tips The ideal consistency for whipping body butter is solid but soft, which will allow you to whip air into it so it becomes light and fluffy. It can be difficult to whip if it’s too cold or hard, so if you accidentally leave it in the fridge or freezer too long, allow it to warm up at room temperature until it’s a bit softer before whipping. On the other hand, if it’s still partially melted or very soft, it may not hold air and fluff up well either. 3) Whip the Body Butter Once the mixture has cooled to semi-firm, transfer it to a stand mixer (or mixing bowl to use a hand mixer) and add the optional arrowroot powder and essential oils at this time. Now whip the body butter using a stand mixer or hand beater for approximately 5 minutes. Start at a low speed just to incorporate the powder, and then move to a high speed. Stop to stir the sides once or twice while whipping. The mixture will quickly turn from yellow to white and double in size as you whip it to introduce air. 4) Package and Enjoy Finally, transfer the finished whipped body butter into storage containers of choice, such as glass jars with a tight-fitting lid. You can either gently spoon and press the body butter into the containers, or transfer it to a piping bag (or ziplock bag) to squeeze it into the containers. I only find this necessary when I want to make a pretty swirl pattern, though it can also help reduce empty air space in the jar if done carefully. Add a cute label and/or piece of ribbon or twine to the lid to share these as the perfect handmade gift. Now enjoy! Whipped body butter may feel just a tad oily when first applied, but will absorb within minutes to leave your skin feeling soft, smooth, and supple – not greasy. Storage and Shelf Life Store homemade body butter in cool, dry location that isn’t prone to temperature swings. If your home is warm, you may want to store it in the refrigerator (especially during the summer) so it doesn’t melt. Whipped body butter should stay good for up to a year or possibly longer. Good sanitation practices (e.g. using clean, dry tools) as well as the type of raw ingredients you used in the recipe will influence the shelf life. For instance, jojoba oil has a shelf life of up to 5 years while olive oil and sweet almond oil are only good for up to a year after opening. Refrigeration will also help extend the shelf life. Any introduction of water will make it spoil faster. Frequently Asked Questions Why won’t my body butter whip? Altering the ratios of butter and oil in this recipe (or using different ingredients) could cause issues whipping the body butter, making it either too heavy or too thin to hold air and structure as it’s beaten. If the mixture is too cold (such as after rapid cooling in the fridge) or too warm (semi-melted) it may also not whip well. The ideal texture should be solid but soft. Why is my body butter melting? Body butter is designed to readily melt into skin as it’s applied, but is also prone to melting if it’s stored in too-warm of a location. The natural melting point of shea butter is 89-100F, and even lower when mixed with oils. Cocoa butter has a slightly higher melting point of 93-101F. Therefore, store your body butter in a cool location or even in the refrigerator. You can also try reducing the amount of oil in the recipe. How to make body butter more firm? To make whipped body butter more firm (and potentially melt less easily) you can experiment with adding more butter (or less oil) or a small amount of beeswax (2 Tbsp for this recipe) which has a much higher melting point. However, firmer body butters may not whip as easily. Storing body butter in the fridge will also make it feel firmer. How to make body butter less greasy? In addition to whipping it, adding arrowroot powder (tapioca starch), stearic acid, lightweight carrier oils, and/or mango butter are a few ways to make body butter less greasy. See a more detailed explanation and troubleshooting tips in the related section at the start of this article. Why is my body butter grainy? Shea butter and coconut oil can naturally turn gritty or grainy when exposed to temperature swings, especially if it melts and re-hardens several times (such as being left in a hot car or during shipping). The initial heating/cooling involved in making body doesn’t usually cause this though, especially if it’s rapidly cooled. Enjoy! This is one of my favorite things to put on my skin during the winter. In fact, we considered selling body butter in our shop alongside our organic calendula body lotion, healing salves, and lip balms… but it was going to be too tricky to ship, so I decided to share the recipe with you here instead. I hope you love this whipped body butter recipe as much a we do! Please leave a review once you give it a try. You may also like: Easy Lip Balm Recipe (How to Make Homemade Lip Balm) How to Make Medicinal Herb Infused Oil: Two Ways How to Make Salve or Balms 101: Simple Flexible Recipe DIY Bath Salt Recipe (How to Make Soothing Bath Salts) Print DIY Whipped Body Butter: Easy, Natural, Non-Greasy An easy DIY whipped body butter recipe that is creamy, fluffy, all-natural, and non greasy. It will melt right into your skin to soothe, soften and moisturize dry or irritated skin. Keyword diy whipped body butter, homemade body butter, whipped body butter recipe Cook Time 20 minutes minutesCooling Time 1 hour hour Servings 3.5 cups EquipmentDouble boiler (or create a DIY double-boiler by nesting a smaller pot inside a slightly larger pot)Measuring cupsStand mixer or hand mixer for whippingFinal storage container(s) of choice, such a glass jars with lids or glass flip-top containers. For gifts, we like to use 4-ounce amber jars or pretty cobalt blue ones.Optional: plastic bag or piping bag to help fill jars IngredientsBase Ingredients (melt together)1/2 cup shea butter (4 oz)1/2 cup cocoa butter (4 oz) *see substitution notes below1/2 cup coconut oil (4 oz) solid at room temperature1/2 cup liquid carrier oil (4 oz) such as jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, olive oil, or other oil choice. Lightweight "dry" oils like jojoba, argan, or grapeseed will make body butter less greasyOptional (add later during whipping)1-2 tsp arrowroot powder or tapioca starch – to make body butter less greasy20-40 drops essential oils of choice, such as lavender, chamomile, sweet orange or peppermint InstructionsCombine the shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil and other liquid oil of choice in a double boiler. (Do not add the optional arrowroot powder or essential oils yet!) Add enough water to the lower pot so that it’s touching the bottom of the upper pot. Heat the ingredients on the stovetop (uncovered) over medium heat until everything is fully melted and combined.Remove the mixture from the heat and allow it to cool until it’s semi-firm but not hard to the touch. The surface should be solidified, but still soft enough that you can easily press your finger into it. (You can speed this up in the refrigerator or freezer, but be careful not to over-chill until it's totally hard.) Once the mixture has cooled to semi-firm, transfer it to a stand mixer (or mixing bowl to use a hand mixer) and add the optional arrowroot powder and essential oils at this time. Now whip the body butter using a stand mixer or hand beater on high for approximately 5 minutes (starting on low speed just to incorporate the powder). Stop to stir the sides once or twice while whipping. The mixture will quickly turn from yellow to white and double in size as you whip it to introduce air. Transfer the finished whipped body butter into storage containers of choice, such as glass jars with a tight-fitting lid.You can either gently spoon and press the body butter into the containers, or transfer it to a piping bag (or ziplock bag) to squeeze it into the containers. Store homemade body butter in cool, dry location that isn’t prone to temperature swings – where it should stay good for up to a year or longer. If your home is warm, you may want to store it in the refrigerator so it doesn’t melt, which will also extend the shelf life. **You can also choose to NOT whip this recipe and leave it more firm like a balm – see notes and tips below. Notes*Substitution notes: You can also make body butter using half shea and half mango butter (or shea butter alone), but shea and mango butter are much softer than cocoa butter. Therefore, I recommend reducing the amount of oil in this recipe by 2 to 3 Tbsp if you aren’t using cocoa butter. **If you do NOT want to whip the body butter, add the optional arrowroot powder and essential oils to the mixture once it’s melted, but after it’s removed from the heat. Then simply pour into storage containers of choice and cool.  Yield will be about 2 cups. The post DIY Whipped Body Butter Recipe: Easy, Natural, Non-Greasy appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

Gov. Abbott Designates CAIR a Foreign Terrorist Organization

Since Republican-run states are far more affordable than those led by Democrats, the GOP should never have lost the messaging battle on the issue in the recent elections in New York, New Jersey and Virginia, host Mark Levin explained on his show Life, Liberty & Levin on Saturday night.  “It’s amazing to me that blue states governors and mayors are able to talk about affordability” and “that Republicans are failing on this front,” Levin said, noting that costs are lower in virtually every Republican state. While elections are about much more than affordability, Levin said he found it unbelievable that Democrats campaigned on the issue and that “Republicans are failing on this front.”  “If the battle is over affordability, you should be cleaning their clocks,” Levin said in a message to Republicans.  Levin then compared the cost of living in the three states and California, where Governor Gavin Newsom is the leading Democrat Presidential hopeful for 2028, to that in comparable Republican-run states in six product categories: Groceries Transportation Childcare Restaurants Housing Clothing Citing data from mylifeelsewhere.com, Levin showed how Republican states are more affordable overall and in practically every category.  New York Costs:  16.5% higher than in Florida  17.9% higher than in Texas 19.4% higher than in Tennessee 25.7% higher than in Ohio New Jersey Costs: 24.8% higher than in Florida 26.3% higher than in Texas 28.1% higher than in Tennessee 35.1% higher than in Ohio Virginia Costs: 13.9% higher than in Florida 15.9% higher than in Texas 16.2% higher than in Tennessee 23.3% higher than in Ohio California Costs: 21.8% higher than in Florida 24.5% higher than in Texas 24.5% higher than in Tennessee 34.0% higher than in Ohio “We have to learn how to speak and make the case,” Levin said, noting that “state by state by state” Republicans should be campaigning on the affordability issue." My opening statement on last night’s Life, Liberty & Levinhttps://t.co/rh8L9GBjBo — Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) November 16, 2025 MRC's Jack Skilton contributed to this story.