“After the president picked a fight with the Pulitzer Prize Board, its lawyers demanded info he’d prefer to keep under wraps.”
For all of Donald Trump’s claims about “transparency,” there are a great many materials related to the president’s record that he prefers to keep hidden. The targets of one of his lawsuits wants to see some of those materials anyway in response to a fight he picked. Bloomberg Law reported:
If Donald Trump wants to sue the Pulitzer Prize Board for giving awards to journalism critical of his ties to Russia, he will have to cough up business records to prove he was harmed.
The board filed demands for documents and information Thursday in Florida state court that would force Trump to back up his defamation allegations.
“Just like any other plaintiff, the President must articulate and prove his claims with evidence,” a board spokesperson said in a statement. “The Pulitzer Board will not be cowed by the President’s attempt to intimidate journalists or undermine the First Amendment.”
It’s been a long while since we last talked about this one, so let’s take a minute to review.
Seven years ago, The New York Times and The Washington Post received Pulitzers for their respective coverage of Trump’s Russia scandal, and by any fair standard, the honors were well deserved. The president, naturally, didn’t quite see it that way.
In fact, the more he convinced himself the Russia scandal wasn’t real (despite the fact that it was, and is, entirely legitimate), the more he appeared preoccupied with the awards. [Yet another sign of dementia?] Trump even pressed the board to reverse course and strip the newspapers of the honors, since, as far as Trump was concerned, the awards were in recognition of reporting on a scandal that had been discredited.
The Pulitzer board could’ve ignored him, but in an exceedingly generous move, it took Trump’s complaints seriously and launched independent reviews of the newspapers’ reporting. Predictably, they found that the Times and the Post were right, the Russia scandal was real, the reporting deserved to be honored, and none of the reporting had been “discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.”
Unsatisfied with the board’s annoying commitment to facts he doesn’t like, Trump, three years ago this week, filed a defamation lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board for honoring newspaper articles he disapproved of.
The case has lingered in the background, but it’s now reached the discovery phase, which is notable in large part because of the nature of the board’s records request.
As part of the legal process, the board’s attorneys have said they’re entitled to Trump’s tax returns dating back to 2015 and medical records, including any possible psychological records.
“To the extent You seek damages for any physical ailment or mental or emotional injury arising from Counts I-IV of Your Complaint, all Documents (whether held by You or by third parties under Your control or who could produce them at your direction) concerning Your medical and/or psychological health from January 1, 2015, to present, including any prescription medications you have been prescribed or have taken,” the board wrote in its latest legal filing. “For the avoidance of doubt, this includes all Documents Concerning Your annual physical examination. To the extent you do not seek such damages in this action, please confirm so in writing.” […]
Usually, the Trump administration has to run all the way to the Supreme Court to be allowed to do whatever illegal thing it wants to do. But when it comes to President Donald Trump’s gilded AI-designed slop of a ballroom, the lower court just did him a solid and said, sure, keep building the monstrosity, as long as you pinky swear to submit plans later.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is chartered by Congress and charged with protecting historic structures, sued the administration last week […]
But on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, said that the Trust didn’t show it would face “great and certain” harm if Trump continued his underground construction, even though no plans have been submitted to the required federal review panels.
Leon did very sternly tell the administration that it has until the end of December to submit those plans, and the government is on “fair notice” that, if any of the construction were to prevent the court from ordering a later change, “the government should be prepared to take it down.”
Sure, that will definitely happen. Trump will absolutely obey you and remove the construction you’re letting him build right now. […]
Rest assured, Leon says that there will be a hearing in mid-January to determine whether the administration is following the requirements.
Reader, the administration will not be following the requirements.
Indeed, the Trump team is already telegraphing how it will delay this. One of the review panels to which the administration is required to submit plans functionally does not exist right now because Trump fired all of its members when he started destroying the East Wing.
The administration’s lawyer told Leon that Trump needs to appoint new members to the group, but we know full well that he will not do that in the next two weeks, so you can expect that ballroom construction will be continuing in the new year, and there will be nary a plan review. [Yep. Seems likely.]
[…] The demolition already happened, so it’s too late to sue the administration over that. And nothing has been built above ground yet, so it’s too early to sue over that.
Meanwhile, the ballroom is now going to cost $400 million—double what it was projected to cost just two months ago. […]
“EXCLUSIVE: American Academy of Pediatrics loses HHS funding after criticizing RFK Jr.”
“HHS cuts key AAP grants, citing concerns about “identity-based language” and insufficient focus on agency priorities. The organization said the cuts could harm child health.”
The Department of Health and Human Services has terminated seven grants totaling millions of dollars to the American Academy of Pediatrics, including for initiatives on reducing sudden infant deaths, improving adolescent health, preventing fetal alcohol syndrome and identifying autism early, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The abrupt loss of funds this week surprised the professional pediatrician association, which has been one of the harshest critics of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes to federal vaccine policy.
“The sudden withdrawal of these funds will directly impact and potentially harm infants, children, youth, and their families in communities across the United States,” Mark Del Monte, AAP’s chief executive and executive vice president, said in a statement to The Post. The organization is exploring options to push back, he said, including a legal challenge. […]
Three of the terminated grants had been awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; four others had been awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, another health agency.
“This vital work spanned multiple child health priorities, including reducing sudden infant death, rural access to health care, mental health, adolescent health, supporting children with birth defects, early identification of autism, and prevention of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, among other topics,” Del Monte said. […]
“Venezuela’s Navy Begins Escorting Ships as U.S. Threatens Blockade”
Venezuela’s government has ordered its Navy to escort ships carrying petroleum products from port, escalating the risk of a confrontation with the United States after President Trump ordered a “blockade” aimed at the country’s oil industry.
Several ships sailed from the country’s east coast with a naval escort between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, according to three people familiar with the matter. The vessels departed just hours after Mr. Trump said he intended to blockade sanctioned oil tankers that do business with Venezuela.
The ships — transporting urea, petroleum coke and other oil-based products — left the Port of José bound for Asian markets […]
[…] a U.S. official, said Washington was aware of escorts and was considering various courses of action, but declined to provide details.
Venezuela’s state oil company, known as PDVSA, said in a statement on Wednesday that ships connected to its operations were continuing to sail “with full security, technical support and operational guarantees in legitimate exercise of their right to free navigation.”
Mr. Trump had announced on Tuesday evening that he was imposing a “total and complete blockade” of tankers to and from Venezuela that had violated U.S. trade sanctions. Roughly 40 percent of the tankers that have transported Venezuelan crude in recent years have been placed under U.S. sanctions, according to Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com.
U.S. law enforcement officials last week seized an Asia-bound sanctioned tanker carrying nearly two million barrels of Venezuelan crude, a major escalation of Mr. Trump’s standoff with Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, whose government derives the bulk of its revenues from oil exports.
U.S. officials have said in private in recent days that additional tankers carrying Venezuelan oil may be seized, without providing additional details.
Mr. Maduro has reacted to the seizure with anger and vowed to keep the oil exports flowing at all cost, said one of the three people.
birgerjohanssonsays
CNN: “Former Swedish Prime Minister on how to end the Ukraine war”
Remember, Carl Bildt is a conservative, but he is rejecting everything Trump stands for (it does not come up in this interview but he is no enemy of immigration).
birgerjohanssonsays
Yes! The new Skepticrat has arrived, together with Noah, Heath Eli and Mike Marshall decanting absurd news.
Despite holding one of the smallest House majorities in history, Republicans muscled their health care bill through the chamber on Wednesday — a politically important win aimed at blunting Democratic attacks on affordability, but one that is largely symbolic, with the legislation likely to languish in the Senate.
The House passed the package of conservative health proposals, 216-211, with all but one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., supporting the bill. All Democrats opposed.
Notably, the bill doesn’t address the expiring Obamacare subsidies, meaning that even if the Senate were to sign off — which again, isn’t likely to happen — millions of Obamacare enrollees would still see their premiums skyrocket on Jan. 1.
Instead, the House GOP proposal incorporates a grab bag of conservative priorities, including expanded association health plans, cost-sharing reductions in the ACA marketplace and new transparency requirements for pharmacy benefit managers.
Top Republican leaders insist the bill would lower premiums for “all Americans.” But compared with the looming increases facing Obamacare enrollees, any potential savings would be marginal. And that assumes the bill somehow becomes law — a long shot given Democratic opposition and the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.
As House Republicans acted publicly on a proposal going nowhere, however, a key group of more moderate lawmakers in both chambers were working behind the scenes on a bill that could go somewhere.
While that proposal still doesn’t quite exist — and just about everyone on Capitol Hill acknowledges it won’t come in time to avert the steep increases in Obamacare premiums — there’s a chance lawmakers could deliver something early next year that would alleviate some of the rising premiums.
Members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus met with key senators in the basement of the Capitol on Wednesday, as moderate Democrats and Republicans searched for an elusive compromise on the subsidies.
The plan, according to Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. — who co-chairs the Problem Solvers Caucus — is for the House to send the Senate a three-year Obamacare extension, and then for the Senate to take up the product, make changes, and then send it back to the House.
[…] After Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., blocked several amendments to the health care bill that would have extended the subsidies in some form — an important vote for numerous vulnerable Republicans looking to distance themselves from the GOP strategy of letting the tax credits expire — four House Republicans broke from GOP leaders and signed a discharge petition to force a vote on a Democratic proposal to extend the subsidies for three years. Those four signatures were enough to clinch the 218 mark required to force the vote.
The four moderate Republicans who signed on — Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Robert Bresnahan, R-Pa., Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., and Fitzpatrick — all face difficult reelection bids in next year’s midterms and wanted a chance to vote on the subsidies.
“We did what was in the interest of my bosses back home,” Fitzpatrick told reporters.
Lawler argued the procedural step of signing the discharge petition wasn’t “an endorsement of the bill written,” explaining that he wants to see changes made to the subsidies.
“But when leadership blocks action entirely, Congress has a responsibility to act,” Lawler said.
[…] Democrats are hopeful that the combination of the discharge petition and voters paying higher premiums next month may finally shake loose a deal.
As Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., put it: ”The pressure on the Senate will be so enormous that I think the winds will change.”
But the communications director for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is already throwing cold water on the prospect.
“A clean, three-year extension of the Biden COVID bonuses was on the Senate floor last week, and it failed,” Ryan Wrasse posted on X.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, backed up that assessment, telling reporters that they “already saw that movie” when the Senate tried — and failed — to advance a three-year extension.
“We’re not going to do a straight up extension for three years without reforms,” Moreno said.
But Moreno was also somewhat bullish on the ability of lawmakers to find some sort of agreement.
“I would say we’re not in the red zone, but we’re in the field goal range,” Moreno told MS NOW on Wednesday afternoon.
What that product will look like, however, and if the House would ever stage a vote on the final proposal, is anyone’s guess.
Lawmakers in both chambers have proposed more than a dozen health care plans — some involving the subsidies, others not — leaving members back in square one as they try to figure out what product can make its way to President Donald Trump’s desk. […]
The Trump administration plans to break up Colorado’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, the largest federal climate research lab. Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, announced the plan Tuesday in a statement on X.
Rather than believing whatever Tucker Carlson says, let’s wait and see.
Right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson appeared on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s “Judging Freedom” podcast Wednesday, where he claimed that a member of Congress told him that President Donald Trump plans to announce war on Venezuela during his national address Wednesday night.
After months of ethically unscrupulous, morally abhorrent, and legally dubious bombings of Venezuelan boats, Trump has escalated pressure on the country through a series of economic embargoes that many view as acts of war. [video]
Carlson: So my sense is, I don’t know the answer. I’ve certainly been on the phone a lot about it. I have no power. I’m a podcaster, but I’m very interested. And so here’s what I know so far, which is that members of Congress were briefed yesterday that a war is coming, and it’ll be announced in the address to the nation tonight at 9 o’clock by the president. Who knows, by the way, if that will actually happen? I don’t know, and I never want to overstate what I know, which is pretty limited in general, but a member of Congress told me that this morning.
birgerjohanssonsays
Discovery Future
“New Evidence Shows Vikings Were in America Much Longer Than We Thought”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=- mG2ciX8UlY
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Follow-up to Lynna@7.
four House Republicans broke from GOP leaders and signed a discharge petition to force a vote on a Democratic proposal to extend the subsidies for three years. Those four signatures were enough to clinch the 218 mark required to force the vote.
Earlier, the House voted 204-203 in a procedural move to stop the last-minute attempt by Democrats, aided by four Republicans, to force quick votes on a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidy. Democrats loudly protested, accusing Republican leadership of gaveling an end to the vote prematurely while some members were still trying to vote.
[…]
Under the rules of the House, Democrats can insist on a vote on their three-year extension. But House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters late on Wednesday that he would not schedule that vote until the first week of January, when Congress returns from a recess that is set to begin by the end of this week.
The House floor is just exploding right now after Republicans—frantic they would lose a procedural hurdle that would force a vote on a Dem discharge petition—closed the vote early, […] Rs really are playing with the floor right now in ways that’s not usual. They’re nervous.
Trump delivered a live speech on TV, supposed to touts the trumpian economy.
Here are some excerpts from NBC’s coverage:
[…] Trump claimed that 25 million undocumented immigrants crossed into the United States under Biden.
“Our border was open, and because of this, our country was being invaded by an army of 25 million people,” he said. “Many who came from prisons, jails, mental institutions and insane asylums.”
In reality, 7.4 million immigrants crossed the border illegally under Biden, according to CBP statistics. If you include those who crossed the border at legal points of entry but without documentation, the number is 10.2 million.
Roughly 800,000 immigrants came in through legal programs set up under Biden, such as the program for people coming from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Trump incorrectly said his “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed this year includes “no tax on Social Security.”
In fact, the provision he’s referring to is a tax deduction for seniors; it has nothing to do with Social Security income, which will continue to be taxed as it has been. The IRS website provides more details.
[…] Trump again criticized Minnesota’s Somali community.
“Since I took office, 100% of all net job creation has gone to American-born citizens, 100%. In the end, government either serves the productive patriotic, hardworking American citizen, or it serves those who break the laws, cheat the system and seek power and profit at the expense of our nation,” he said.
“Look at Minnesota,” he continued, “where Somalians have taken over the economics of the state and have stolen billions and billions of dollars from Minnesota and indeed from the United States of America. And we’re going to put an end to it.”
Trump has criticized Somalis often in recent weeks. He said this month that Minnesota was “a hellhole right now. The Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain.
Trump spent much of his speech taking aim at some of his most frequent targets, including Biden, migrants and transgender people. [Same as it ever was. I snipped the details because we already know the kind of bullshit Trump spews on those subjects.]
“Already, I’ve secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of investment into the United States,” Trump said early in his speech. […]
A recent Bloomberg News fact-check found the real figure closer to $7 trillion. But there, too, many of the investments were vague pledges or part of framework trade deals that have not yet been signed. [!!] [Funny money, imaginary money that exists only in Trump’s mind.]
[…] Trump tonight announced a “warrior dividend” for members of the military.
“A warrior dividend in honor of our nation’s founding in 1776,” Trump said in his address to the nation. “We are sending every soldier $1,776. Think of that, and the checks are already on the way.”
Trump said more than 1 million service members will receive the payment. […]
Trump attributed much of his administration’s perceived success this year to his tariff policies.
“Much of this success has been accomplished by tariffs, my favorite word, tariffs, which for many decades have been used successfully by other countries against us, but not anymore,” Trump said. […]
Tariffs have started to have an impact on consumers, but not in the way Trump suggests. A report Goldman Sachs analysts published in October found that American consumers were taking on as much as 55% of their costs.
StevoRsays
Aussie PM Albo had a pressconference earlier today -saw parts of it whilst watching Adelaide Ashes cricket Test too – & has come up with, this -fromthe news articles summary bit at top :
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced sweeping reforms to clamp down on antisemitism in the wake of the deadly Bondi terror attack, while conceding his government is not perfect and could have done more before the tragedy.
As part of the response, the government will use tougher hate speech laws to target preachers who promote violence.
What’s next?
The prime minister said the government “adopts and fully supports” the antisemitism envoy’s recommendations and would continue to work through the implementation.
^Sobit of a worry that this willbe use dto silecne and furtehr harm the Palestinian and Muslim Australian communitie sand furtehr limit the rights to protest and free speeech here.
Clarity fix : ^So bit of a worry that this will be used to silence and further harm the Palestinian-Australian and Muslim Australian communities and further limit the rights to protest and free speeech here.
birgerjohanssonsays
Satellites That Scoop Air And Use It As Propellant
Not that new as “news” & forget if I’ve mentioned before but still :
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party has been listed as one of 20 established and emerging hate groups in Australia by a global extremism think tank, for its track record on anti-multiculturalism, white nationalism, and COVID-19 conspiracy theories.
In a report released on Wednesday, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) added One Nation and the Australian Christian Lobby to its registry of Australian hate groups, as part of an educational global series aimed at illustrating how local hate groups interact with others around the world.
Wendy Via, the report’s author and co-founder of GPAHE, said far-right extremist movements, like those listed in the report, inspire terrorism, mass killings, and rights-restricting policies around the world, and they’re increasingly interconnected.
RFK Jr. is paying hack antivaxx researchers to kill babies with placebo vaccines in a trial where they stupidly hope it’ll be the babies who get real vaccines that die.
RFK Jr. has awarded $1.6 million to a group in Denmark to conduct a randomized, single-blind study of the birth dose of Hepatitis B vaccine (HepB) to be conducted in Guinea-Bissau. In my opinion, this is, quite simply, completely unethical, unacceptable, and predatory.
[…]
Through decades of research, HepB vaccine at birth has already been demonstrated be safe and effective, and has in the U.S. reduced childhood HepB infection by 99% since it was implemented. It is unethical to administer a placebo to infants instead of a vaccine that is known to work. […] This is especially egregious in Guinea-Bissau, where adult prevalence of active HepB is 18.7% (In US it’s 4.3%).
Such a study would not pass any ethics board in the U.S., which is why, IMO, RFK Jr. is taking this offshore and preying on an extremely vulnerable population. He does not care how many people have to die in Guinea-Bissau, just like he did not care in Samoa and he does not care in the U.S.
A red flag for this study is that it is a single-blind study. This means that while parents of infants will not be informed if their baby is not protected against HepB, the researchers *will* know. And that knowledge results in bias, which is why double-blind trials are the gold standard.
Another red flag is this: […] RFK Jr. simply handed the money over to the Denmark team without legit review. […] To do it in Guinea Bissau is perfectly vile, and to farm it out to Denmark to avoid US ethics boards is disgraceful.
Journal Vaccine – What is actually the emerging evidence about non-specific vaccine effects in randomized trials from the Bandim Health Project? (paywalled) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264410X25012344
a series of Danish news articles scrutinized the research practices of Drs Benn and Aaby. As external experts in statistics and research methodology, we were asked to contribute independent assessments of their conclusions from their own randomized controlled trials. We were surprised to find several instances of questionable research practices, such as unpublished primary outcomes, outcome switching, reinterpretation of trials based on statistically fragile subgroup analyses, and frequent promotion of cherry-picked secondary findings as causal, even when primary outcomes yielded null results. Sample size calculations appeared to be driven by unwarranted optimism regarding effect-sizes and event rates leading to underpowered studies.
Elizabeth Jacobs: “Holy shit. I do not have confirmation that it’s Benn’s group but all signs point in that direction.”
Rando 1: “Given she has written specifically about ‘NSEs’ regarding children in precisely this country, I would be surprised if somehow there was a second vaccine-denying Dutch group interested in experimenting on children in Guinea-Bissau.”
Rando 2: “In Guinea-Bissau? The country has just had a coup d’etat. This is insane.”
Rando 3: “Stabell Benn and her husband Peter Aaby run the Bandim Health Project.”
The Bandim Health Project, which follows a population of more than 200,000 individuals in urban and rural Guinea-Bissau […] This research group has long contended that live (attenuated) vaccines have beneficial nonspecific effects (NSE) beyond the target disease(s) and that non-live vaccines have detrimental NSE, even lethal ones. Recent reporting contends that there is no robust evidence to support NSE, either beneficial or harmful, and that the Bandim Health Project has a long history of deceptive publishing. […] Gradually, I became appalled and then indignant as I dug deeper into literature. I discovered disturbing patterns of dubious methods and research standards.
I am not a researcher, and I am not an expert in vaccines. I am an MD, I hold a PhD in ophthalmology, and a diploma of journalism. I work in and teach research communication […] Quite frankly, it is a mystery to me how researchers in NSE have managed to analyze and communicate their results in ways that are incompatible with generally accepted scientific standards and practices. This has gone on for decades.
^ Rando 3: “The article is good. It just sucks that one of the two principals who run the site is an anti-vaccine nut (Mandrola) and the other, Cifu, who will mouth pro-vaccine stances, when asked, just enables it all.”
Rebecca Fielding-Miller (Epidemiologist): “This is just Tuskegee levels of malfeasance. Like the example you would put on a public health ethics 101 training and then scrap it because it’s too obvious.”
MarkH (Trauma surgeon): “Worse than Tuskegee because at least at the start of that trial there wasn’t already an effective therapy. Hits all the other marks though—single blind, on a vulnerable population, white investigators, black patients etc. Just a big ol racist boondoggle.”
Ferric Fang (Infectious disease spec): “My understanding is that when federal funds are used for a clinical trial conducted outside the US, researchers must comply with US human subjects protections, and the relevant IRB must obtain an assurance of compliance with ethical standards set by the US Office for Human Research Protections.”
Elizabeth Jacobs: “Normally that would be true. But RFK Jr. can do whatever he wants.”
Elizabeth Jacobs: “I would absolutely imagine [Denmark would be solid on medical ethics], which is why this is puzzling.”
Rando 4: “Awarding funds does not mean the study has received necessary ethical approvals. typically, preparing/submitting the IRB/PRA package is a funded task in the contract. I have had projects that failed to pass PRA clearance and the govt terminates the contract early and de-obligates remaining funds. So best case scenario RFK jr is wasting taxpayer $$ paying researchers to design a doomed study that will never make it out of ethics review.“
StevoRsays
Soem real Comet ATLAS the interstellar one news here via space dot com
The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will make its closest approach to Earth this week on Dec. 19, 2025. Here’s the latest news you need to know.
Comet 3I/ATLAS will approach within 168 million miles (270 million kilometers) of Earth when it makes its close flyby on Dec. 19.
Astronomers are calling the comet flyby an early Christmas gift for scientists. Here’s why.
Hepatitis B infection has two phases—acute and chronic. The chronic phase lasts years and results in the progressive destruction of the liver. Progression to a chronic phase is inversely proportional to age. For infants, this can be as high as 95% of cases.
In places like Guinea-Bissau, where the prevalence of HepB is high, vertical transmission from parent to child is one of the main routes of transmission.
Denying anyone a treatment that is tremendously effective at preventing this is a moral crime.
Gavin Chait (Data scientist): “Oh, it’s against a lot of laws. Think laws arising out of the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial, codified in UN statute, and in EU and US law. I’m hoping someone sues the clinical research team before this gets started.”
Rando 2: “As he cut every single medical research grant in the United States.”
Rando 3: “We can’t work with foreign collaborators, but they can send money to a foreign PI to conduct an ethically questionable study in a vulnerable population in another foreign country? This is what corruption looks like.”
Britain;
“MORE NIGEL FARAGE SCANDAL As (Supposedly) Nigel Broke Electoral Law During Clacton Campaign”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=NUd7AJmmArQ
The bloke who sang Hitler Youth songs in school and joined a far-right group as a young man is facing even more questions.
Truth Social parent company Trump Media & Technology Group announced a deal on Thursday to merge with nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies.
The surprise merger drove shares of Trump Media (DJT) 35% higher in early trading Thursday.
The companies said the all-stock transaction is valued at more than $6 billion and will create one of the first publicly traded fusion companies.
Trump Media is not a winning business on it’s own, what little value it has mostly comes from all the people that want to keep an eye on Trump’s feed. It’s diversifying by investing in a random slew of fields that happen to be hot and filled with lots of bad transactions such as crypto and AI. I expect TAE is hoping to bypass inspections, legal requirements and pesky details like environmental regulation by hooking up with Trump directly.
“That the president felt compelled to lie incessantly through his speech says volumes about how awful the year has been.”
Related video at the link.
The idea behind a year-end presidential address isn’t necessarily unreasonable. In late December, it stands to reason that White House officials would take a moment to pause and reflect and to take stock of the year that was, to give the public an assessment of their performance.
That is, in theory.
In practice, Donald Trump’s year-end prime-time address presented the American public with 18 minutes of combative presidential blame-shifting and excuse-making, packaged in the unsubtle desperation of a man who doesn’t seem to understand why so much of the public doesn’t appreciate his systemic failures and embarrassments. [True. Trump does not understand.]
But above all, the Republican president did what he always does: He lied uncontrollably. In fact, his speech was so littered with brazen falsehoods that it was rather easy to come up with a top 10 list.
#10: “Already, I’ve secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of investment into the United States.” It’d be great if that were true, but it’s not. [Embedded links for sources are available at the main link.]
#9: “Our country was being invaded by an army of 25 million people.” That total wasn’t even close to being true.
#8: “I was elected in a landslide.” No, he wasn’t.
#7: “The price of a Thanksgiving turkey was down 33% compared to the Biden last year.” Is he still peddling this nonsense? Evidently, yes, though it’s still not true.
#6: Trump said the Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed this year included, among other things, “no tax on Social Security.” That might sound nice, but that wasn’t actually a part of the far-right package.
#5: “When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country.” Trump says this all the time, but it’s demonstrably false.
#4: “I’ve … settled eight wars in 10 months.” I get the sense that he’s convinced himself that this happened, but it hasn’t, no matter how many times he repeats the line.
#3: “Gasoline is now under $2.50 a gallon into much of the country. In some states, it, by the way, just hit $1.99 a gallon.” This is a weird thing to lie about, since consumers know better, but for the record, this obviously wasn’t true.
#2: “The price of eggs is down 82% since March, and everything else is falling rapidly.” The president would very likely be more popular if this were true, but it’s not.
#1: “I negotiated directly with the drug companies and foreign nations, which were taking advantage of our country for many decades, to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400%, 500% and even 600%.” This whopper claimed the top spot for me, because on top of the absurdity of the lie, one has to layer the fact this guy still doesn’t understand how numbers work.
I could keep going. In the same speech, for example, Trump said he’d restored international respect for the United States, which is the opposite of what actually happened. Before that, the incumbent president insisted that during Joe Biden’s presidency, there was “crime at record levels, with law enforcement and words such as that just absolutely forbidden.” Both of these two claims were outrageously wrong.
Indeed, I’m honestly not sure which is the greater challenge: chronicling all of Trump’s lies from his end-of-year speech or trying to find a claim in the remarks that was true.
Either way, that the president found it necessary to lie incessantly throughout his year-end address speaks volumes about just how awful the first year of his second term has been.
KGsays
The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will make its closest approach to Earth this week on Dec. 19, 2025. space.com quoted by StevoR@22
Clearly, the aliens sent it because they want to see the Epstein files!
The “Presidential Walk of Fame” was already a tacky mess, and one report suggests it’s now “even more stunningly stupid.”
When it comes to altering the White House, it’s been a busy year for Donald Trump. The incumbent president decided, for example, to pave the Rose Garden. He has taken a borderline unhealthy interest in interior decorating, including bringing in his “gold guy” to add gold finishes to just about everything in the Oval Office.
Trump also installed a flagpole that he seemed awfully excited about, he boasted about “ripping” apart the tile in the bathroom attached to the Lincoln Bedroom, he installed a mirror and bronze lettering at the entrance to the West Wing, and he turned the Oval Office study into a depot for “TRUMP 2028” merch, as if it were a cheap gift shop at a Trump-owned property.
Then his ambitions took a more destructive turn: The president tore down the entirety of the East Wing, despite having promised not to do so, to make room for a vanity project, a giant ballroom.
But to fully appreciate just how ridiculous the overhaul has become, consider what Trump has done to the colonnade at the White House exterior on the south side of the mansion.
In September,Trump installed what was billed as a “Presidential Walk of Fame,” featuring images of American presidents. Predictably, the gaudy display was turned into an exercise in juvenile political trolling: Where there was supposed to be an image of Joe Biden, there’s a framed photograph of an autopen.
This week it got worse. NBC News reported:
The White House has installed plaques on the exterior of the building bashing President Donald Trump’s predecessors, including Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and promoting disinformation about their administrations.
The plaques were hung up below presidential portraits that have been on display on Trump’s recently added ‘Presidential Walk of Fame’ in the White House colonnade.
A related Washington Post report noted that the plaques “have all the feel of an official marker placed at a historical site, with bronze-hued trim and gold-lettered type.” But the words on the plaques “are written in the style of a Truth Social post.”
That’s not a compliment. The displays smear assorted Democrats in ways that are cheap and dishonest, while praising others based on their associations with the incumbent. (The one for Ronald Reagan reads in part, “He was a fan of President Donald J. Trump long before President Trump’s Historic run for the White House.”)
While this display was already a tacky embarrassment, a New York magazine report made the case that it’s now “even more stunningly stupid.”
The conversation about Trump’s White House renovations is important, but it’s worth expanding the conversation to include what can be described as Trump’s White House vandalism.
To add insult to injury, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News in a statement that Trump wrote the text of “many” of the plaques.
“The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each president and the legacy they left behind,” she said. “As a student of history, many were written directly by the president himself.”
For now, let’s not get sidetracked by a debate about their eloquence. Let’s also skip past Leavitt’s dangling participle and the hilarious suggestion that Trump is “a student of history.”
Let’s note that the sitting American president, at a time when he ought to be quite busy with weighty responsibilities of international import, is investing time and energy into writing trolling messages for fake plaques.
This White House is obsessed with trivialities and distractions. By all appearances, the fixation is getting worse.
The Trump White House isn’t really doing much to disguise at least one of its motivations for moving to dismantle a critical scientific research center in Boulder: It wants to free Big Lie supporter Tina Peters from prison in Colorado. [Surprise!]
Colorado officials have refused to play along with President Trump’s purported pardon of Peters for her state conviction for tampering with election machines. While a presidential pardon for state crimes isn’t a real thing, the White House wants you to know that Colorado is paying a price for that perceived defiance: “Maybe if Colorado had a governor who actually wanted to work with President Trump, his constituents would be better served,” a senior White House official told NOTUS.
If that doesn’t seem like a direct link to the Peters pardon, trust me. It’s the response the White House gave to multiple other outlets, including the NYT and WaPo, who linked Colorado’s rejection of the Peters pardon with the Trump administration’s plan to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
It doesn’t have to be either/or. OMB Director Russ Vought may simply have seized on the Peters pardon as something near and dear to Trump’s heart and used it to justify disruption and chaos that he wanted to sow anyway. [True]
[…] All of this is prompting a truly desperate response from scientific circles:
– WaPo: “The announcement drew outrage and concern from scientists and local lawmakers, who said it could imperil the country’s weather and climate forecasting, and appeared to take officials and employees by surprise.”
– Meteorologist Matt Lanza: “I cannot begin to tell you what a bad, bad, bad decision this is. Objectively so. This will absolutely cripple and devastate weather research in the U.S.” [!]
– NYT: “The center, founded in 1960, is responsible for many of the biggest scientific advances in humanity’s understanding of weather and climate. Its research aircraft and sophisticated computer models of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans are widely used in forecasting weather events and disasters around the country, and its scientists study a broad range of topics, including air pollution, ocean currents and global warming.”
The U.S. conducted its 26th lawless boat strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific, killing four people and bringing the total death total in the high seas campaign to at least 99.
The U.S. military was blindsided by President Trump’s announcement of a blockade of Venezuela, the NYT reports
Mr. Trump’s announcement of a “blockade” caught senior officials at the Pentagon and at Southern Command in Florida by surprise. On Wednesday, they scrambled to figure out the U.S. military’s role in the action, U.S. officials said.
The Trump administration is planning to dramatically ramp up efforts to strip naturalized Americans of their citizenship, according to internal guidance obtained by the NYT. The plan calls for a massive increase in the number of such cases each month, straining government capacity and heightening the risk of due process violations:
The guidance, issued on Tuesday to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices, asks that they “supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month” in the 2026 fiscal year. If the cases are successful, it would represent a massive escalation of denaturalization in the modern era, experts said. By comparison, between 2017 and this year to date, there had been just over 120 cases filed, according to the Justice Department.
It’s not at all clear that the plan is feasible, but that may not really be the point.
“The Vanity Fair photographer who disrupted Trumpworld’s polished image”
“Every line, spot, blemish and blood vessel was captured by Christopher Anderson’s lens.”
On Tuesday, Vanity Fair published a two-part story by Chris Whipple about the inner circle of President Donald Trump’s staff featuring unusually candid conversations with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. It also featured remarkably unvarnished portraits of Wiles, JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Karoline Leavitt, all photographed by Christopher Anderson.
[…] The images are really arresting. What is your response to people who say that these images are unfair? There’s been a lot of attention about Karoline Leavitt’s lips and [what appear to be] injection sites.
“I didn’t put the injection sites on her. People seem to be shocked that I didn’t use Photoshop to retouch out blemishes and her injection marks. I find it shocking that someone would expect me to retouch out those things.” […]
More at the links, including the startling closeups. The most revealing photos can be viewed at the Washington Post link.
In his speech, Trump praised his tariff policy […]
But within hours of the speech’s conclusion, Trump’s message was undermined. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its regular Consumer Price Index report on Thursday morning. The report shows that food prices in November increased 2.6% year over year—higher than in November 2024, when the pace of food inflation was 2.4%.
The BLS report details that prices for meat, poultry, fish and eggs increased even more, by 4.7% over the past year.
In 2024, Trump campaigned against high food prices under the Biden administration, and claimed he would push policies lowering costs on his first day in office. That has not happened.
In reality, Trump has increased tariffs on goods, and retailers are passing those increased costs on to consumers. Families are able to afford fewer things, and the change in spending habits is working its way through the economy.
And while the BLS report also reveals that core inflation—which excludes food and energy prices—eased slightly in November, many economists are warning that the data is troubled. For example, the report was delayed due to the Republican Party’s government shutdown, and much of the data gathering took place shortly before Black Friday, when prices were artificially lower, rather than across the entire month of November, as typically occurs.
Before the report’s release, former Federal Reserve economist Alan Detmeister said the overall report would be a “very poor reflection of reality.”
And other data agrees with that point. A Bureau of Labor Statistics report on Tuesday showed the unemployment rate is up to 4.6%, the highest it has been since September 2021, when the nation was still facing the COVID-19 pandemic. Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, said the unemployment data revealed that the U.S. was “in a hiring recession”—the opposite of the “hot” state Trump touted in his abrasive speech.
Trump’s speech also adds to swirling questions about his mental state.
When he wasn’t misconstruing Americans’ economic struggles, Trump used his bigoted anti-immigration actions to claim he was taking action to help American workers, arguing that deporting immigrants would mean “more housing and more jobs.”
In a cynical attempt to shore up his sagging approval ratings, Trump also announced a “warrior dividend” for military members, sending them $1,776 before Christmas, but this was actually a congressionally approved subsidy that was previously appropriated. [!]
Democratic leaders panned Trump’s shouting.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told MS NOW, “It was an unhinged speech that was, of course, untethered from reality and truth. You know, Donald Trump has made things worse for the American people.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, “President Trump’s speech last night showed he lives in a bubble completely disconnected from the reality everyday Americans are seeing and feeling.”
“Behind the absolutely unhinged delivery there is a simple truth: Trump’s corruption is helping his friends and family while things are getting worse for you and yours,” Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey wrote in a post on social media. “He’s failing you because he doesn’t care about you.”
Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said the speech was a “sad attempt at distraction,” adding, “Americans know the truth: costs are up, unemployment is up, and he STILL won’t release the Epstein Files.”
Trump’s speech was out of touch with growing concerns about affordability, something Trump has called a “hoax” even as polls show the economy and inflation are their top issues.
Meanwhile, day after day, congressional Republicans are choosing not to run for reelection. It is a sign that Trump’s economy is a political loser—and more yelling isn’t going to help.
The news came during the president’s national address […] The payments come in the form of a one-time basic allowance for housing (BAH) supplement. Military housing allowances, especially BAH, are nontaxable because they cover living expenses.
Eligible service members who do not otherwise receive BAH will still receive the checks
[…]
Trump’s sweeping tax and spending law […] appropriated $2.9 billion to the Pentagon to supplement the BAH entitlement. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed his department to disburse $2.6 billion total as part of the “warrior dividend,” […] The remaining $300 million will support future BAH requirements […] The president, in his speech Wednesday night, suggested revenue generated from his tariffs are also to thank
Commentary
Taking money from married soldiers and their families, who mostly can not afford the cost of living already, and spreading it thinly across all service members
The super transparent and ethical Trump administration strikes again.
The Department of Homeland Security just slid an almost $1 billion contract to Salus Worldwide Solutions, a company run by William Walters. That staggering sum is for “Project Homecoming,” the gross DHS program that ostensibly provides cash bonuses, free flights, and a “concierge service” at airports for immigrants who self-deport.
Salus has never had a federal contract before, but surely it’s incredibly qualified and equipped to manage nearly a billion dollars, right?
We’re only learning about this sleazy deal because of a lawsuit filed by CSI Aviation, which details all of the backroom shadiness that went into making sure that Walters made bank.
Walters, unsurprisingly, began greasing the wheels to make this happen even before President Donald Trump won the 2024 election. He took a belt-and-suspenders approach, giving $10,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC run by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s pals, and he also gave big bucks to the America First Policy Institute.
AFPI was basically MAGA in exile until Trump returned to power. Founded by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, AFPI has managed to stuff dozens of people into the administration, including Rob Law, a DHS undersecretary of policy.
According to the lawsuit, Law helped coordinate the competition for this giant trough of money, but the competition was basically fake as hell. CSI Aviation alleges that, first, DHS shared information with Salus to help with its bid, which triggered an investigation by DHS lawyers.
After the investigation found that Salus had essentially helped design the contract it was going to bid on, DHS decided to fix this by opening the contract up to a competitive bid. It then picked six other companies, which received the documentation necessary to bid on the contract on Friday, May 16, with a deadline of 10 AM the following Monday.
Needless to say, a weekend was not enough time to develop an actual bid for a contract this large. And by then, Salus already had the benefit of months of discussions with DHS. So surprise, surprise: Salus won.
Has Salus ever handled anything like this? Of course not. But now it has nearly a billion dollars to run a complex program that does not seem to be working very well. In October, ProPublica found that people who signed up to self-deport ended up waiting in vain for plane tickets and money that never arrived, leaving them stranded and terrified.
Of the roughly 25,000 immigrants who opted to leave, nearly half did so on their own rather than going through the administration’s “concierge service.” But giving an inexperienced company almost a billion bucks will definitely fix this.
Walters was already swimming in DHS cash, having received $140 million just a few weeks ago to purchase six Boeing 737 airplanes for deportations. But he got that deal through a different company of his, Daedalus Aviation. A real jack of all trades, this guy.
And speaking of planes, who can forget that Noem also just got a couple of sweet new jets of her own for $172 million? She told Congress that she needed $50 million for one plane, and it isn’t at all clear to anyone how she then managed to get two planes for more than triple the cost.
Noem also steered $220 million to some longtime buddies in the political advertising world, but that netted U.S. taxpayers some pretty pictures of Cosplay Barbie on a horsey, so it was definitely worth it.
DHS essentially has infinite money at this point. As the Brennan Center put it, the $170 billion allotted for border enforcement in the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” created a “deportation-industrial complex.”
Yes, all of this is designed to torment immigrants and drive them out of the country. But it’s also designed to make the worst people very, very rich—and DHS is all in.
[…] Massive banners have popped up across Washington displaying Trump’s huge face on the facade of federal buildings. According to findings by Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, the Trump administration used more than $50,000 in taxpayer money to foot the bill for this egotistical, autocratic display. […]
[…] there’s a whole lot about [Trump’s speech] last night that screams “keeping the patient comfortable,” and really, that’s the emerging story of his entire second failed presidency.
They’re putting up comforting, garish gold lettering to label rooms for [Trump], so he knows where he is, and they are repaving the Rose Garden to make him feel like he’s on his own patio at Mar-a-Lago […] They’re letting him bulldoze entire sections of the building so he can have a comforting ballroom. […]
And then news broke yesterday that, in what they’re calling Trump’s Presidential Walk of Fame, they’ve put up new plaques underneath all the different presidential portraits, to better reflect [Trump] and his various sad loser grievances. [alarming photo]
It’s of course horribly offensive. If you look at the picture above you can see that of course they’re putting up garish cheap Home Depot shit atop each portrait, haphazardly and far too much. You can tell he’s designing this himself, because […] it’s just cheap, tacky gold shit smeared everywhere […]
But before you get all offended by what the plaques say — don’t worry, you’ll have that chance in a second — please understand that this story is of the same genre as the other stories about turning the White House into a facility where Trump can hospice in place while his brain fully completes its conversion into expired pudding.
How do we know? Because of this dispatch from Mark Guiducci, the Vanity Fair global editorial director, commenting on the Susie Wiles story and photoshoot, and Christopher Anderson, the Vanity Fair photographer who did that Susie Wiles shoot, this little tidbit was also in the news yesterday: [social media post, with photos]
Go ahead, embiggen that second shot.
“Wiles’s executive assistant informed us that we would not be allowed to photograph either the ‘Presidential Walk of Fame’ or the Rose Garden, as we’d asked. ‘Those are very special to the president,’ she said. ‘They’re his spaces.’ Actually, I wanted to remind her, they’re not.”
Point to Guiducci, but that tells the real story of this so-called Presidential Walk of Fame. It’s one of the spaces in the White House that’s meant to make Trump feel comfortable […] It helps distract him, calms him, helps him nurse his grievances, helps him understand where he is.
[…] Speaking of Leavitt […]
“The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement describing the installation in the colonnade that runs from the West Wing to the residence. “As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself.”
You know how you can tell he wrote them himself? Because they feature the third-grade reading level and dementia-fied grammar and capitalizations so common in his tweets.
[…] But anyway, about those eloquently written descriptions, for example Joe Biden! Haw haw haw! It doesn’t have a picture of Joe Biden, just his autopen! Look at everything Biden’s plaque says!
Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History. Taking office as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States, Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction. His policies caused the highest Inflation ever recorded, leading the U.S. Dollar to lose more than 20% of its value in 4 years. His Green New-Scam surrendered American Energy Dominance and, by abolishing the Southern Border, Biden let 21 million people from all over the World pour into the United States, including from prisons, jails, mental institutions, and insane asylums. His Afghanistan Disaster was among the most humiliating events in American History, and resulted in the murder of 13 brave American Servicemembers, with many others gravely wounded. Seeing Biden’s devastating weakness, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Hamas terrorists launched the heinous October 7th attack on Israel.
Nicknamed both “Sleepy” and “Crooked,” Joe Biden was dominated by his Radical Left handlers. They and their allies in the Fake News Media attempted to cover up his severe mental decline, and his unprecedented use of the Autopen. Following his humiliating debate loss to President Trump in the big June 2024 debate, he was forced to withdraw from his campaign for re-election in disgrace. Biden weaponized Law Enforcement against his political opponent, while also persecuting many other innocent people. He left office issuing blanket pardons to Radical Democrat criminals and thugs, as well as members of the Biden Crime Family-But despite it all, President Trump would get Re-Elected in a Landslide, and SAVE AMERICA!
[JFC!]
Again, understand that these plaques are there to comfort Donald Trump as he appears to be suffering from absolutely crippling dementia. Also, note that they feature particular and peculiar delusions specific to Donald […] like his 1980s Batman movie belief that countries are emptying their “insane asylums” and sending those people here, because he doesn’t know what “asylum” means.
Similarly, the Obama one says, “Barack Hussein Obama was the first Black President, a community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History. As President, he passed the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act, resulting in his party losing control of both Houses of Congress, and the Election of the largest House Republican majority since 1946.”
Also, “Under Obama, the ISIS Caliphate spread across the Middle East[.]”
Also, “Obama also spied on the 2016 Presidential Campaign of Donald J. Trump, and presided over the creation of the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the worst political scandal in American History.” [JFC!]
[…] You can see some pictures here: [social media post, with photos]
The AP notes that “the introductory plaque presumes Trump’s addition will be a White House fixture once he is no longer president,” which is very funny because it does indeed presume that! Shhhhh, nobody tell Trump they’re going to rip all the gold shit down […]
But we do hope they leave these plaques up after they bury Trump on the golf course next to Ivana, or at least transport them over to Walter Reed, so that future neurologists can study Donald Trump’s big, beautiful brain.
Trump on Venezuela: “Getting land, oil rights, whatever we had — they took it away because we had a president that maybe wasn’t watching. But they’re not gonna do that. We want it back. They took our oil rights. We had a lot of oil there. They threw our companies out. And we want it back.”
Here is my recap of Trump district court nominee Justin Olson’s Senate confirmation hearing, during which Olson spent a lot more time than I’d hoped sharing his thoughts on biblical eunuchs, the evils of fornication, and whether it’s appropriate for disabled people to get married.
[Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)] asked Justin Olson if he said God “has called wives to be subject to their husbands” & “serve the good of your husband & support his calling.”
Said he was quoting a passage & they weren’t his words. Kennedy: “You said them. Do you believe them?”
Olson: “I believe every word of the Bible.” [Video clip]
Kennedy grilled an Indiana judicial nom on religious sermons he’s given on sexuality and marriage roles and he just told me he wants to have another meet to clarify some of his statement as this is a lifetime appointment.
“[…] if you suggest that someone who is developmentally impaired, mentally or physically, doesn’t have the right to marriage, that’s a bold statement.” […] it’s a “bold statement” to say that in a marriage “one partner is inferior to another.” […] When asked if he was not satisfied with the answers at the hearing, Kennedy said, “[…] I want him to explain this.”
From the recap: “In many ways, Olson is typical of the ambitious lawyers the Trump administration has been nominating […] Olson described himself as a ‘specialist’ in litigating a very particular type of Title IX case: those designed to bar transgender athletes from competing in college sports.”
Rando: “Genuine question: Is there any chance Kennedy votes against a Trump nominee? Is it even conceivable that he does anything other than harrumph, express concerns, and vote yes?”
“The board’s decision to add Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center could face legal hurdles, as the law creating the center prohibits renaming the building.”
The board of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., voted to rename it as the Trump-Kennedy Center, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X Thursday.
“I have just been informed that the highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center, some of the most successful people from all parts of the world, have just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building,” she wrote.
“Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump, and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future! The building will no doubt attain new levels of success and grandeur,” Leavitt added in her post.
[…] Efforts to rename the Kennedy Center could run into legal hurdles, experts told NBC News in July, after Republican lawmakers introduced several proposals in Congress to rename the center in honor of the president or the first lady.
The original laws that guided the creation of the Kennedy Center during the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations specifically prohibited the renaming of the building. It would take an act of Congress to change that now.
After GOP Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho earlier this year first introduced the amendment to legislation that would rename the building after first lady Melania Trump, he said that she had not been aware of his efforts prior to his public introduction of the amendment. […]
“Mr. President, my faith is not a weapon, it’s a bridge, and I invite you to Bible study,” the Georgia Democrat replied.
On Sunday morning, Sen. Raphael Warnock appeared on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” where host Kristen Welker gave the Georgia Democrat, who’s also the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, an opportunity to react to the deadly mass shooting at Brown University that had happened a day earlier.
“As I make my way to my own pulpit this morning, I’m going to say a special prayer for Brown University and for our nation,” Warnock said. “And I can tell you that as a pastor who has presided over many funerals, I don’t think that there’s any pain deeper than when nature is violently reversed and rather than children burying their parents, the parent has to bury the child. And so we pray prayers for these families.
“But we have to pray not only with our lips, but with our action. Any nation that tolerates this kind of violence year after year, decade after decade in random places, on our college and school campuses, without doing all that we can to stop it is broken and in need of moral repair.”
The senator went on to urge Americans to “dig deep” into their “common humanity” in the wake of the shootings at Brown campus and at Australia’s Bondi Beach.
Donald Trump apparently wasn’t impressed. Three days after the interview aired, the president published a message to his social media platform that began:
Raphael Warnock was on Meet the Fake Press with a one sided and very biased Kristen Welker as the Host(ess!). Warnock spent the entire show using Religion to try and divide the Country! If a Republican, in particular ME, made those statements, it would be FRONT PAGE NEWS. He ended by saying that he was going to his Church to preach now, and while I think that’s fine, I do say, ‘What ever happened to separation of Church and State?’
As part of the same online harangue, Trump went on to smear the senator and attack NBC, before concluding, “The Public airwaves, which these Networks are using at no charge, should not be allowed to get away with this any longer!”
For now, let’s put aside the obvious fact that Warnock’s on-air message wasn’t the least bit divisive. What instead stuck me as notable is that the incumbent president, after nearly five years in the White House, still doesn’t appear to understand the basics of the constitutional principle of church-state separation.
To hear Trump tell it, the fact that Warnock is both a pastor and a senator, who still delivers regular sermons, is some kind of violation of the First Amendment.
That’s ridiculous. The whole point of the separation of church and state is government neutrality on matters of faith, leaving Americans to make up their own minds and pursue their own spiritual or secular paths.
If Warnock wanted public funds or other governmental benefits for Ebenezer Baptist, that would be a problem. If he tried to use his office to force people into the pews, that obviously would be at odds with the law. If the senator was advocating on behalf of state-sponsored 10 Commandments into public classrooms, we’d be having a qualitatively different kind of conversation.
But if a senator, in his own time, chooses to speak to a congregation, that’s free speech.
This really isn’t that complicated.
If, however, Trump is looking for actual examples of officials crossing the church-state line that he’s suddenly taken an interest in, I’d refer him to the recent Christian prayer services sponsored by the Department of Labor, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Defense Department, each of which reflected an unsettling break with government neutrality on matters of faith. [!]
As for Warnock, the Georgia Democrat apparently saw Trump’s online rant and took the time to respond.
“He’s got a lot of nerve,” the senator said in a statement. “Remember, this is the same president who literally had peaceful protesters gassed and beaten so he could stand in front of a church holding a Bible up. He ought to read that Bible that he was holding up on that day. That Bible says that Jesus came to preach good news to the poor. He came to heal the sick. He never billed them for his services. He stood up for the weak, the marginalized, average, ordinary people.”
Warnock concluded, “Mr. President, my faith is not a weapon, it’s a bridge, and I invite you to Bible study. Maybe you can meet the Jesus I know. In the meantime, I’m going to keep fighting for the people.”
Seven hours into a make-or-break summit in Brussels, national leaders and senior EU officials remained locked in a series of intense separate talks as they tried to resolve their differences over how to fund Ukraine.
With EU governments talking up the risk of failure to get agreement to underwrite a €210 billion loan for Kyiv, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen insisted she would “not leave the summit without a solution.”
hat looks easier said than done. Agreeing on how to pay for the loan has been a nut that’s proved nearly impossible to crack in the run-up to the summit despite ― or perhaps because of ― almost non-stop diplomatic back-channelling since leaders failed at the first attempt at a summit two months ago.
By 6 p.m. on Thursday, some officials talked cautiously of progress. Two senior EU officials with knowledge of the deliberations told POLITICO they were now slightly more optimistic that the contours of a deal could be worked out on Thursday night ― or at least in the early hours of Friday. Others continued to play down any such breakthrough.
Leaders ripped up their plans almost immediately on Thursday morning. They decided to discuss minor items on their agenda ― including EU enlargement and the bloc’s next seven-year budget ― to allow their aides to get down to business on Ukraine throughout the day.
[…] trusted aides held discussions in small groups behind closed doors while separately technical-level envoys were tasked with redrafting the proposals.
While that was going on, the prime ministers and presidents left the main summit table to drop in and out of these smaller huddles. They took an unscheduled break after lunch to check in on progress with their teams.
For weeks, politicians have been unable to agree on which version of a financing plan they want. Belgium, in particular, has been opposed to the main plan of using Russian assets frozen in Europe. It hosts the bulk of the funds and fears it is especially exposed to legal action or reprisals from Moscow.
Despite weeks of painstaking negotiations over the assets, efforts to bring Belgium around appeared to be backfiring this week, according to officials. The country adamantly opposes using the Russian money held by Euroclear in Brussels, and has now attracted allies, including Italy, the bloc’s third-largest country.
At the summit, the Belgian delegation presented a two-page paper listing its conditions, one EU diplomat said. That latest document — which is longer than previous iterations — includes demands for “blank check” protection in case the Kremlin sues Belgium over deploying the billions of euros of frozen Russian assets held in Brussels, the diplomat said. Other EU countries have long resisted that demand.
The so-called frugal countries reject any alternative plan to the assets, such as raising a joint loan between all EU countries. That idea has for years been anathema to the northern member countries, who have been unwilling to underwrite bonds for highly indebted southern countries. Germany and its allies warn there is still no alternative to targeting the Euroclear money.
A deal is urgent because without it, Ukraine will run out of money in April and will be forced to cut spending, four years into its war with Russia.
“The decision must be made by the end of this year,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters at the summit, adding that his country would have to begin reducing the number of drones it produces if the EU money fails to materialize. […]
Former special counsel Jack Smith told a congressional committee Wednesday that his team found ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt’ that President Donald Trump engaged in a ‘criminal scheme’ to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to parts of his opening statement obtained by NBC News.
Trump also ‘repeatedly tried to obstruct justice’ to keep secret his retention of classified documents found during an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Smith told members of the House Judiciary Committee at a closed-door hearing.
Commentary:
[… Smith added that he and his team turned up “powerful evidence that showed Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in Jan. 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a bathroom and a ballroom where events and gatherings took place.” […]
Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, commenting on a House vote on a bill extending enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years:
Fitzpatrick: I can tell you, my colleagues from very, very conservative districts have quietly been coming up to me on the floor saying, “Thank you for what you’re doing. We want leadership to head in this direction.”
They feel politically they can’t do it, for whatever reason, but they’re supportive—people that you would be shocked [by]. Because anybody that represents, you know, some of these lower- to middle-income earners that fall between, you know, traditional Medicaid, Medicaid expansion, and private insurance—that’s the bucket of people we’re talking about now.
And by the way, if you don’t live in a Medicaid expansion state, it’s an even larger pool of people, but these are good people that want to make the right decision, want to buy health insurance, but are getting squeezed. And they need us to help them.
[…] Trump’s “warrior dividends” of $1,776 will use funding appropriated for military housing subsidies under the administration’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The money for the one-time checks intended for U.S. service members, which the president announced during his Wednesday night national address, will come from the $2.9 billion Congress approved this summer to supplement the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) entitlement, according to a senior administration official.
[snipped Trump’s blather]
The Department of Defense (DOD) will use about $2.6 billion of the allocated funds for the checks to eligible service members, a Pentagon official said on Thursday.
The payments will be made by Saturday, and the remaining $300 million will be used by the DOD to support “future BAH requirements,” the official said.
The “warrior dividends” will be dispatched to about 1.454 million service members, including around 1.28 million Active Component military members and 174,000 reservists.
The government’s plan to use housing funds to pay out the checks was first reported by Defense One.
[…] The use of housing funds to pay out the “warrior dividends” has produced mixed reactions on Capitol Hill.
“Your $1,776 ‘warrior checks’ aren’t Christmas bonuses—you’re just stealing money out of a fund meant to help our troops find affordable housing,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a former helicopter pilot who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday on the social platform X. “Once a conman always a conman.” […]
Trump announces an “unprecedented four-day athletic event” with “one young man and one young woman from each state and territory”.
May the odds be ever in your favor. [Video clip]
Randos:
It’s not “unprecedented” if it’s the plot of The Hunger Games.
I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale.
Was *sure* this was AI-generated satire. But it’s not, it’s really not.
It’s gonna be a golf tournament and he’ll declare himself champion at the end
If this means we get a charismatic 16yo who unites the nation and becomes a critical figure in the rebellion that overturns tyranny, you know what, I’m ok with this.
I am definitely rooting for the contestants from Puerto Rico.
the first “Patriot Games,” Trump said, […] “featuring the greatest high school athletes[“] in the fall […] “But I promise there will be no men playing in women’s sports. You’re not gonna see that. You’ll see everything but that,” he quipped.
[…]
the UFC fight will be held on Flag Day, June 14.
“EXCLUSIVE: Stephen Miller’s hard-line Mexico strategy morphed into deadly boat strikes”
“The Trump administration originally planned to go after Mexican drug cartels, but pivoted to Venezuela, according to current and former officials. A trio of legal documents and directives have subsequently authorized an unorthodox lethal campaign.”
[…] Trump’s homeland security adviser, Stephen Miller, and other senior officials were looking for a fight.
In the first months of the administration, Miller, the architect of Trump’s anti-immigration and border policies, and his team discussed starting a new war on drugs by striking cartels and alleged traffickers in Mexico, according to one current and two former U.S. officials.
[…] But as the administration surged thousands of U.S. troops to the southern border, increased U.S. surveillance flights and boosted intelligence sharing with its neighbor, Mexican military operations across the border curbed cartel action, the people said. That left Miller and his team looking for another target.
“When you hope and wait for something to develop that doesn’t, you start looking at countries south of Mexico,” said the current official, who, like nine others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
The campaign that emerged in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean is unprecedented in its use of lethal force by the U.S. military against alleged drug smuggling groups. These operations, which began Sept. 2, have evolved to embrace the Trump team’s long-running ambition to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the president has accused of overseeing “narco-terrorists” assaulting the United States.
Miller has been a driving force behind the administration’s counternarcotics campaign, pressing for results and fresh military options that could be turned into future operations, the current and former officials said. [snipped some White House blather from spokeswoman Anna Kelly.]
[…] Miller steered the drafting of a July 25 classified directive signed by the president that authorized the military to undertake lethal force against two dozen foreign criminal groups, said a former U.S. official familiar with the campaign and its evolution. The administration has labeled these groups “designated terrorist organizations,” accusing them of using drugs as a weapon to kill Americans, using a moniker that many experts say has no basis in law.
[…] [A] presidential directive provided the foundational authority for an “execute order” that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued on Aug. 5 and that subsequently has been modified. The order, details of which were previously unreported, contains permissive targeting guidelines for lethal operations, current and former officials said. […]
Together, these two documents guided a military campaign of lethal strikes against criminal organizations, grafting a wartime frame to what has been traditionally treated as a law enforcement problem. The execute order also contains targeting criteria lifted from the language of the counterterrorism campaign against al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, which some current and former officials say give the Pentagon an overly permissive license to kill.
The department will treat suspected drug smugglers “EXACTLY how we treated Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them,” Hegseth said on social media last month.
Pursuant to these orders, the Trump administration has launched strikes on at least 26 boats, killing at least 99 people in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The Pentagon has not publicly identified those killed, and it is unclear whether it has collected the intelligence to do so.
“The administration appears to have authorized a campaign against civilians and alleged criminals that is now stretching the limits of international law so that it’s now totally unrecognizable,” said Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised Special Operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign and is director of the national security law program at Georgetown Law. […]
As the summer progressed, the White House’s campaigns against narcotics and migration coalesced with a long-held desire of Secretary of State Marco Rubio to force Maduro from power. Rubio and the Justice Department in August doubled to $50 million the reward for information leading to the Venezuelan leader’s arrest, citing an indictment for corruption and drug trafficking during the first Trump administration.
Meanwhile, the White House found a willing partner in Hegseth, who had been knocked off stride by several missteps and was eager to show he could deliver on a high-priority mission.
“Pete very much wanted to keep Stephen in his good graces and also the president,” said the former official familiar with Miller’s thinking. “And that was a motivation for him — getting behind this campaign in an aggressive way.”
[…] Elements of Miller’s leading role were reported earlier by The Guardian.
[…] Initially, the order contained a geographic boundary that designated target areas in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, but it was modified about two months later to include the eastern Pacific area, one current and one former U.S. official said. It specified that at least for the initial strikes, Joint Special Operations Command would be in charge of operations, the two people said.
[…] lawyers and policy personnel raised concerns about the legality of the lethal force campaign that was taking shape. Administration officials sought to reassure them by saying that a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memo was being drafted that determined that the lethal targeting of suspected drug runners was lawful under the president’s power to ascertain that the U.S. is in a formal state of war — in this case with alleged drug traffickers.
But the opinion was not signed until Sept. 5 — three days after the first boat strike — and some career lawyers were not permitted to read the draft OLC memo before the execute order was issued […]
The OLC memo, signed by Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, asserts that alleged drug trafficking groups are a threat to the United States akin to a foreign nation attempting to invade, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona), who was allowed to read it in his capacity as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Post in an interview.
The execute order contains targeting instructions that do not require positive identification of any individual but rather “reasonable certainty” that adult males are members of, or affiliated with, a “designated terrorist organization,” or DTO, according to five current and former U.S. officials familiar with the criteria. To mitigate civilian harm, the order requires “near certainty” that no women, children or civilians are present, they said.
The administration is using the phrase “designated terrorist organizations” to refer to 24 alleged drug trafficking groups […]
The term, said Rebecca Ingber, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law and a former State Department law-of-war expert, “is entirely manufactured as a source of targeting authority with no basis in law.’’
[…] Trump has asserted, without offering proof, that the U.S. troops know who they are targeting in every case. “We know everything about them. We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live,” he told reporters this month.
[…] “I knew them all,” one of the family members told The Post in October, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “None of them had anything to do with Tren de Aragua. They were fishermen who were looking for a better life” by smuggling contraband. [“the boat was smuggling marijuana and cocaine”]
In some of the strikes, the targets who have been identified are not high-level operators or cartel bosses, lawmakers said. “It’s one thing to be a narco-terrorist and another thing to be a fisherman that’s getting paid a hundred bucks a couple times a year … to supplement his income” […]
Though the administration’s charges against Maduro have merit, its claims that Venezuela is sending massive amounts of drugs to America do not, analysts and officials have said. The main domestic drug scourge is fentanyl, a synthetic opioid produced in Mexico, not Venezuela.
Many strikes taken have been in the Pacific, the main sea lane used by traffickers from Colombia and Ecuador. Drug running in the Caribbean focuses mainly on non-U.S. markets, such as Europe. The lethal strike on Sept. 2, for instance, targeted a boat carrying cocaine ultimately bound for Suriname, officials have said.
That absence of information has prompted speculation that the larger buildup of U.S. forces in the region is a preparation for an attack on Venezuela. Miller has indicated to colleagues that a strong reaction from Caracas could provide the pretext to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants from the United States, the former official noted. [JFC]
[…] “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle,” Trump’s chief of staff, Susan Wiles, told Vanity Fair in an article published this week. “And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.”
[…] On Wednesday, Miller amplified Trump’s post, commenting: “American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.” [Yep, Miller and Trump are looking for excuses to target Venezuela.]
More at the link.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Lynna @52 quoting WaPo:
Miller has indicated to colleagues that a strong reaction from Caracas could provide the pretext to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants from the United States, the former official noted. [JFC]
He took the wrong lesson this spring from hearing “They’re not gang members, membership alone wouldn’t be a crime, gangs aren’t a country, and we’re not at war with Venezuela!”
“Tractors took over the streets of the European Quarter while EU leaders held a crunch summit.”
Farmers toppled the Christmas tree in front of the European Parliament and replaced it with a pyre of burning tires and debris, not far from where EU leaders were debating key issues for the bloc on Thursday.
While some of the tractors featured Christmas lights and cheerfully blasted video game theme songs and pop tunes through their horns, police struggled to contain rowdier outbursts at Place du Luxembourg. The European Quarter was thick with smoke as authorities resorted to tear gas to disperse demonstrators throughout the day. [video]
While only a portion of protesters turned violent, even peaceful participants had harsh words for EU leaders: “We take it for granted that food will be just produced. Farmers can’t continue to produce making a loss,” said Alice Doyle, a beef and tillage farmer from Wexford, Ireland.
The literal explosion of discontent is months in the making. In the summer, the European Commission presented its revamped agricultural budget, with a new structure and a lower guaranteed spend on farming. The Commission insists the new headline figure of almost €300 billion is a minimum spend, but farmers aren’t convinced. Farm lobbyists expected planters and ranchers from all 27 EU countries to gather in Brussels for the largest mobilization this century, coinciding with a high-stakes summit of the European Council.
In front of barriers protecting the European Parliament, piles of potatoes lay scattered after being thrown toward police officers, according to Belgian media. As Polish farmers threw deafening firecrackers at the European Parliament building, officials emailed staff advising them to stay away from windows while police were “managing the situation.”
The Commission’s push to ratify the Mercosur agreement, which beef and poultry farmers view as a threat to their businesses, added fuel to the fire as the end of the year approached. Combine that with long-standing complaints of Brussels bureaucracy, low incomes and national issues, and you get thousands of farmers on the European capitals’ streets.
“I’d like EU leaders to recognize agriculture as an essential value of Europe” said Máxime, a farmer wearing a T-shirt of the French farmers’ association FNSEA. As Place du Luxembourg filled with smoke, police blasted tear gas into the crowd before he could give his last name. […]
Investigators have identified a person of interest in the mass shooting at Brown University that killed two students and injured nine others, according to people familiar with the investigation who said they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
NBC News:
Police are looking into whether the fatal shooting this week of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, 47, in Brookline, Massachusetts, is linked to the mass shooting at Brown University on Saturday, four senior law enforcement officials tell NBC News.
U.S. inflation eased in November in what economists said likely reflected distortions caused by the government shutdown, creating an uncertain picture for the Federal Reserve as it simultaneously contends with rising unemployment.
The latest Consumer Price Index, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday, rose 2.7 percent from the same time last year.
A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked Department of Homeland Security guidance that placed new limits on members of Congress seeking to visit and inspect immigration detention facilities.
The Trump administration acknowledged in a court filing this week that a decision to cut energy grants during the government shutdown was influenced by whether the money would go to a state that tended to vote for Democrats statewide or nationally.
“Bari Weiss Will Capitalize On First Loser Town Hall By Doing MORE Loser Town Halls!”
It turns out that Bari Weiss is bad at everything. Shockingly, being an uninteresting contrarian with no nose for news, zero discernible personality, […] don’t quite equip you to be the editor-in-chief of CBS News, the network that used to be home to Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow.
Oh, and she isn’t very good on TV, which sucks, since it turns out all she really wants is to be on TV.
The hilariously lousy ratings for her “town hall” with JonBenet Scamsey or the Widow of Chucky or whatever you want to call the equally un-compelling Er*ka K*rk have apparently convinced Weiss that when you’re running a network into the ground, the only proper course of action is to keep digging. So she’s going to do more “town halls,” with equally un-compelling guests, about subjects nobody who matters cares about. They are, on the other hand, the kinds of subjects hopelessly online weirdos like Bari Weiss care about. So look forward to more ratings bonanzas!
CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is looking to make her mark on the network news division, launching a series of primetime town halls and debates alongside Weiss’ The Free Press under the banner “Things That Matter.”
CBS says that Vice President JD Vance, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have all agreed to participate in the town halls, with the debates set to address topics like “Does America Need God?” “Has Feminism Failed Women?” and “Should Gen Z Believe in the American Dream?”
CBS has lined up people like Isabel Brown and Harry Sisson to debate the American dream, Steven Pinker and Ross Douthat to debate the God question, and Liz Plank and Allie Beth Stuckey to debate the feminism question.
Allie Beth Stuckey […] who thinks the problem with Christianity in America is that it’s too Christlike.
Ross Douthat. The one with the neckbeard […]
JD Vance, also with the neckbeard […]
“We believe that the vast majority of Americans crave honest conversation and civil, passionate debate,” said Weiss in a statement.
You can tell by how all the topics are framed in explicitly right-wing terms. […]
Yeah, Bari Weiss is a real fuckup.
Ever since that […] Ellison spawn who looks […] brought Weiss in to de-woke-ify CBS News, Weiss has been fucking it all up.
She announced the “town hall” with Grifterella [Erika Kirk], and immediately CBS News staffers started blabbing about it. “How embarrassing,” said one to the Independent. “Bari’s been Editor-in-Chief for five seconds and has revealed that all she really wants is to be on TV herself.” That person added:
“It doesn’t get more toe-curling than this,” the staffer said. “David Ellison must be mortified by his $150 million investment in someone who’s so quickly revealed themselves to be the most shallow, least interesting person in TV news.”
Then the incredibly boring event came and went — after CBS News had spent days obsessively flogging it, like it was the “get” of the century — and it turns out nobody watched. […]
It brought in a whopping 1.9 million viewers, and it really shit the bed among the 25-54 demo, AKA the demo advertisers care about. But hey, maybe more people will tune in to watch Allie Beth Stuckey whine about how “There are evil spiritual principalities at work” on Halloween, GAY demon principalities, or about how “most of our problems, a huge portion of problems in society are caused by premarital and extramarital sex.”
[…] Or maybe Bari Weiss’s judgment is for shit and she’s bad at everything.
Status reports (paywall) that she was planning on a triumphant internal town hall at CBS News after her thing with what’s-her-name [Erika Kirk], something about her big plans for the future of the news network she has failed upward to be in charge of. Now she is not having that town hall. But it’s not just that the ratings themselves sucked. […]
A New York Post report on the prime time special’s performance, headlined, “Bari Weiss’ town hall with Erika Kirk saw ratings plummet as CBS News editor-in-chief debuts on-screen,” particularly struck a nerve, I’m told. It also didn’t help that the network’s sub-2 million prime time audience came after the Army-Navy football game, which drew an average of 7.3 million viewers in the hours prior.
[That is spectacularly bad.]
[…] Sorry about all this, ghosts of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite! If it makes y’all feel any better, watching these people fail is very funny. […]
“The deal will lead to the U.S. version of TikTok being owned by a majority-American group of investors.”
TikTok CEO Shou Chew on Thursday told employees of the social media app that its owner, China’s ByteDance, has signed binding agreements to create a new joint venture for the app in the United States […]
That deal means that the U.S. version of TikTok will become majority-owned by American investors, according to a memo obtained by NBC News.
The investors include American tech giant Oracle, California-based private equity fund Silver Lake and UAE investment firm MGX.
[…] As part of the deal, TikTok U.S. will also be overseen by a “new seven-member majority-American board of directors,” Chew said.
“The U.S. joint venture will be responsible for U.S. data protection, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurance,” Chew writes in his memo. “It will also have the exclusive right and authority to provide assurances that content, software, and data for American users is secure.”
[…] Under a bipartisan law passed by Congress in 2024, ByteDance was required to divest majority ownership of the U.S. version of the app, or face a ban initially set to go into effect in January of this year.
The Trump administration repeatedly delayed the implementation of that law, however, until it cound hammer out the contours of an agreement with China. Trump ordered that “the Attorney General shall not take any action on behalf of the United States to enforce the Act for 120 days.”
That latest timeline ends on January 23. In the memo Thursday, TikTok’s CEO says the agreement will close one day before the deadline.
Oracle, one of the largest investors in the joint venture, is controlled by tech billionaire Larry Ellison. His son, David, recently acquired Paramount Global with approval from the Trump administration. David Ellison is now seeking to buy Warner Bros. Discovery via a hostile bid, for more than $108 billion.
Oracle has been a darling of the AI boom, ballooning Larry Ellison’s fortune to more than $230 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires.
The White House claims the vote to rename the Kennedy Center was “unanimous.” That is false. I was muted on the call and denied the opportunity to speak or register my opposition.
Apparently the only one because Trump has packed the board but it goes to show just how contemptibly cheap this White House is.
beholdersays
The Democratic National Committee won’t release a review of its election loss in 2024, saying it would be a “distraction” from helping the party win going forward.
I want to know what’s in that review!
Oh well. Glad to hear Democrat leadership has pre-emptively given up on winning the 2028 elections, and have instead opted for the strategy of stuffing StevoR-brand ear plugs in their heads and screaming: “La la la la la la!”.
the person of interest in the Brown University shooting has been found dead. [A 48yo] Portuguese national and former student at the school. […] Authorities said they believe the shooter acted alone, but his motive is not yet known. They said it is believed that the shooter and MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro, who was shot to death on Monday, attended university together in Portugal. […] “In terms of why Brown, that is a mystery,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said.
Among the live updates below the article:
Officials released a photo of person they wanted to talk to […] that person came forward […] “That person led us to the car, which led us to the name, which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence, that matched the satchel,”
a rental vehicle seen at Brown University around the time of Saturday’s shooting was also near the Brookline home of the slain MIT professor.
Militant Agnosticsays
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will set up the conditions that resulted in the fatal collision between an airliner and a Blackhawk helicopter at the Ronald Reagan Airport earlier this year at any airport. The military will bale to conduct training exercises in crowded commercial airspace.
Captain Steeeve says this is “the fox guarding the henhouse”. Head of National Transportation Safety Board Jennifer Homendy is “hopping mad” about this idiocy – I think Captain Steeeve is too.
The US military is greater threat to aviation safety than any terrorist organization. The only thing these idiots learn from their mistakes is how to repeat them.
KGsays
Glad to hear Democrat leadership has pre-emptively given up on winning the 2028 elections – beholder@65
They obviously haven’t, but of course you’re pleased that you think they have – that’s absolutely no surprise to anyone here.
The Democratic party not making an evaluation of what went wrong 2024 is certainly on brand… once again it will be up to the grassroots activists to drag the limp corporate candidates to victory.
(Yes, I know governor Newsom is a centrist Clinton-type politician but unlike the rest of that ilk he has not been mummified)
birgerjohanssonsays
People who are alone this Xmas. Like “A” who does not even have royal titles anymore.
Turning Point USA’s flagship event, AmericaFest, devolved into a verbal food fight on Thursday evening as two right-wing titans traded salvos onstage and revealed a bitter divide in MAGA world.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro came out swinging, spending much of his half-hour speech laying into far-right influencers like Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens, describing their rhetoric as increasingly antisemitic and conspiratorial in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s shooting death in September.
In a more surprising turn, Shapiro chastised the man who would take the stage after him, Tucker Carlson, for hosting Fuentes on his podcast last month and platforming a man former Vice President Mike Pence once described as “a white nationalist, an antisemite and Holocaust denier.”
“There is a reason that Charlie Kirk despised Nick Fuentes,” Shapiro said. “He knew that Nick Fuentes is an evil troll and that building him up is an act of moral imbecility, and that is precisely what Tucker Carlson did.”
Shapiro dug further into Carlson:
“He built Nick Fuentes up, and he ought to take responsibility for that.”
Carlson wasn’t the only AmericaFest speaker caught in Shapiro’s sights. The 41-year-old co-founder of The Daily Wire also unloaded on former White House strategist Steve Bannon over his recent rhetoric surrounding Israel.
“When Steve Bannon, for example, accuses his foreign policy opponents of loyalty to a foreign country, he’s not actually making an argument based on evidence,” Shapiro said, following up with an allegation over Bannon’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
“He’s simply maligning people that he disagrees with, which is indeed par for the course from a man who was once a P.R. flack for Jeffrey Epstein,” Shapiro said, without clarifying the claim.
New photos released by House Democrats on Thursday show Bannon and Epstein sitting across from each other at a desk.
“I laughed that kind of bitter, sardonic laugh that emerges from you in like, upside-down world,” Carlson said of Shapiro’s speech. “It’s not supposed to work this way, to hear calls for de-platforming and denouncing people at a Charlie Kirk event.”
Carlson spent some of his speech defending against Shapiro’s allegations of antisemitism.
“Antisemitism is immoral. In my religion, it is immoral to hate people for how they were born. Period,” Carlson said.
He then tried to downplay the existence of the MAGA infighting that Shapiro laid bare minutes before.
“The Trump coalition, and the supposed civil war going on within that group — I don’t think it’s real,” he said. “I think it’s fake. I think it’s totally fake.”
But the drama in MAGA world appears to be ramping up. In the moments after their speeches, Owens took to X to reaffirm her baseless claims that Israel was somehow involved in Charlie Kirk’s killing. [That will add fuel to the fire. More verbal fights can be expected.]
She posted: “Every time Ben speaks I feel more certain Israel is involved.”
A Trojan horse Freedom of Information Act case in which Stephen Miller’s old group was trying to get a court to declare that the administrative functions of the judicial branch are part of the executive branch has been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden of D.C., a Trump appointee.
This case […] had the potential to provide a legal basis for the Trump White House to exercise considerable control — or at least pressure — over the judicial branch. There was never any indication that the White House had any hand in the case, but it didn’t seem like a stretch to assume it would have seized on a favorable ruling to assert more control over the Judicial Conference of the United States and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
It was always weird that a FOIA lawsuit was the vehicle for this effort. In that sense, McFadden’s ruling doesn’t tell us much about the larger constitutional interplay between the executive and judicial branches. He simply ruled that Congress had exempted itself and the courts from FOIA. The America First Legal Foundation argued that the Judicial Conference and Administrative Office weren’t part of the courts but part of the executive branch, and therefore not exempt from FOIA. McFadden ultimately ruled:
Because the Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office indeed fall outside FOIA’s reach, the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the records request. So it will grant the motion to dismiss.
When the lawsuit was originally filed earlier this year, it came at a time of unprecedented conflict between the Trump administration and the judiciary. For the first time, the White House had tried to communicate with judicial branch employees directly via mass email. The General Services Administration was unilaterally talking about closing federal buildings around the country that house federal courts and court services. Federal judges were even expressing concern that their security protection by U.S. marshals — an executive branch agency — might be revoked or made contingent.
For now, an obscure FOIA lawsuit won’t be a backdoor way for the Trump White House to bring some critical elements of the judicial branch under its control.
Wisconsin state judge Hannah Dugan was convicted on one felony count and acquitted on one misdemeanor account for interfering with the ICE arrest of an undocumented immigrant in her courthouse.
My sense is all three of these things are true:
– The jury was careful and attentive and and took its job seriously.
– There are good grounds for Dugan to appeal.
– This case would never have been prosecuted under any other administration.
No doubt some of Trump’s appeal to some people is his willingness to act — to do something — even if it’s disproportionate, results in collective punishment, and is ultimately ineffective or even counterproductive.
On that note, last night the Trump administration immediately suspended the green card lottery system that allowed the Brown University/MIT shooter to enter the country during Trump I.
Another unlawful U.S. attack on two alleged drug-smuggling boats killed five people, brings the campaign’s known death toll to 104.
Meanwhile, CNN reports that the top lawyer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff advised Chairman Gen. Dan Caine in November that military commanders should request to retire if they receive an unlawful order.
Colorado’s two Democratic senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, are holding up the Senate appropriations package until Congress agrees to fully fund the National Center for Atmospheric Research and prevent its dismantling by the Trump administration. Miffed that Colorado officials rebuffed President Trump’s symbolic pardon of Tina Peters, the OMB [Russ Vought] announced it was breaking up the world-class research center in Boulder.
Another head/desk moment courtesy of Trump’s immigration policies:
The United States has slammed its doors shut to refugees, save for Afrikaners, the white South Africans descended from Dutch colonizers who imposed apartheid on the Black majority for decades. No real mystery why President Donald Trump supports letting these folks—and only these folks—come ashore.
But how can the administration best make these racists feel welcome? […] what better way than including a Trump biography for children ages 8-12 in every welcome packet? That’s what the administration is proposing, according to Reuters.
Even better? How about an Andrew Jackson biography too? Trump loves Jackson, who was a bone-deep racist, enslaved hundreds of Black people, and oversaw the mass displacement and murder of Native Americans.
Oh, and also the “1776 Report,” the first Trump administration’s slapdash racist rejoinder to the 1619 Project. Include that one too.
Not to let racists have all the fun, the proposal also suggests including a Family Research Council report on religious freedom, highlighting the organization’s eternal quest to make sure homophobic business owners get to discriminate against same-sex couples. […]
Refugees have received U.S. history materials in the past, but according to veteran refugee workers who spoke with Reuters, those materials haven’t promoted specific presidents or views. But Fred Cooper, a Trump pick serving as a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, apparently wants to change all that […]
[…] Since this is the Trump administration, where everything is as tacky as it is awful, the biography that Cooper wants to include looks low-rent as hell. Sporting the ChatGPT-ass title of “Donald Trump Biography for Kids: An Inspirational Story of One of America’s Most Famous Presidents” and an author listed only as “EverNest Press,” it feels a lot like an attempt to juice some sales for a pal who wrote a terrible book.
[…] Meanwhile, the United States continues to try to get these most racist of racists to come to America. By and large, Afrikaners don’t want to move to America to be racist here. They want to stay in South Africa and be racist there in whites-only enclaves.
[…] [Details of USA interfering in South African deportation plans for seven Kenyan nationals.] Yes, it appears the U.S. may be interfering in the immigration authority of another country so we can fast-track the one group of immigrants Trump likes, only to then possibly shower them with tacky right-wing propaganda once they’re stateside. […]
[…] Trump’s name is being affixed to the outside of the Kennedy Center just one day after its board—which he stacked with his allies—voted to add Dear Leader’s name to the cultural center. And they’re doing it in violation of federal law.
Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey said in a post on X that if work was indeed taking place to “physically change the sign on the Kennedy Center,” then it “needs to stop as it’s illegal to change without Congress.”
Photos taken of the building on Friday clearly show Trump’s name being added.
That’s proof positive that the board’s so-called vote was basically fixed and that Trump’s lackeys planned to put his name on the building, no matter what. The vote was merely a way for them to make their illegal move appear legitimate.
Trump himself played dumb on Thursday, saying he had no idea the name change was happening but that it is a huge honor—even though he had mused about the name change earlier this month. [video]
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Department of Justice (DOJ) would not be releasing the full Epstein files on Friday as required under new legislation, instead sending over a partial batch.
Blanche told Fox News the Justice Department would release “several hundred thousand” documents on Friday, “and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.”
Blanche attributed the delay to the need to redact any names or identifying information about witnesses, but failing to turn over the full unclassified files could run afoul of the law, which gave the department 30 days to publicly share the documents.
“So today is the 30 days when I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today. And those documents will come in in all different forms, photographs and other materials associated with, with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein,” Blanche said. […]
While the bill does allow for redactions related to victims and for DOJ to withhold some information about the investigation, it does not provide a rolling deadline to turn over the documents.
Under the law, the DOJ has 15 days to turn over its rationale for any documents withheld.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said not releasing the required files in full amounts to breaking the law.
“The law Congress passed and President Trump signed was clear as can be – the Trump administration had 30 days to release ALL the Epstein files, not just some. Failing to do so is breaking the law. This just shows the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, and Pam Bondi are hellbent on hiding the truth,” Schumer said in a statement on Friday. […]
Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees, said they were “now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), one of a bipartisan duo that pushed to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, posted a screenshot of the bill on X with the language of the 30-day deadline highlighted. […]
The Trump administration will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that declared the rescission of $2.6 billion in federal funds from Harvard University was unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs issued a September ruling describing the White House crackdown on the Ivy League institution as “a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities,” according to The Associated Press.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said funds were revoked due to the school’s failure to address antisemitism on campus.
However, Burroughs said the Trump administration didn’t follow the proper federal process before revoking federal dollars.
Despite White House lawyers filing a notice of appeal, Harvard says it “remain confident in our legal position.”
“The federal district court ruled in Harvard’s favor in September, reinstating critical research funding that advances science and life-saving medical breakthroughs, strengthens national security, and enhances our nation’s competitiveness and economic priorities,” Harvard said, per the AP.
School officials have been embroiled in court battles involving the Trump administration. Earlier this year, Harvard won a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration in its lawsuit against the federal government’s attempt to block Harvard from admitting and keeping its foreign students.
The Trump administration separately threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, and has launched multiple investigations into the university. […]
“Trump Gives WARFIGHTERS ‘Warrior Bonus’ Checks Stolen From Their Military Housing $$$”
We didn’t watch Donald Trump’s weird Wednesday night rant thing where, we hear, he told Americans all about the wonderful things he’s done for us, and [complained that we are] not loving him enough for it, just because prices are high and everybody is far more stressed out than we were before he came back and started fucking things up. […]
We also saw something on Bluesky about Trump giving members of the military checks for $1,776, and it would supposedly come from all the money rolling in from the beautiful tariffs […] that’s not how taxing and spending works, at least not legally. […]
But then we came across another Bluesky message that really got our attention: Trump was making shit up again, because the funding for the “Warrior Dividend” payments wasn’t coming from his stupid tariffs, and it wasn’t a special gift for Christmas, either. Trump was talking about taking some extra funding for housing that Congress already approved in July, and handing it out as a beautiful new “bonus,” thank you for your service.
We guess the regifting of funds that military members were already expecting to get is no surprise, really. Trump has always been a master of bait and switch.
For what it’s worth, here’s Trump bragging about the “warrior dividend” in his weird ranty speech Wednesday. You don’t really have to watch it, but knowing that the funding was already included in the Big Beautiful […] for Billionaires Bill that Republicans passed in July will help you appreciate some verbal sleight of tiny hand slipped into the announcement. We like the bit at the beginning where he bobbles the number of service members he’s reading off the teleprompter. […] [Video]
TRUMP: One thousand, four hundred fifty thousand … 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special, we call, warrior dividend before Christmas. A warrior dividend. In honor of our nation’s founding in 1776, we are sending every soldier $1,776. Think of that.
And the checks are already on the way. Nobody understood that one until about 30 minutes ago.
Translation: Trump didn’t understand that until about 30 minutes before he said it.
Then it was time for the fib that had fact-checkers scrambling.
We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs, and the bill helped us along. Nobody deserves it more than our military, and I say congratulations to everybody
That line about the tariffs made it into most of the stories about the “dividend,” often with a note explaining, as Politifact did, that “typically an expenditure this large would require Congress to pass a law making the appropriation, which wouldn’t have happened if the checks are already in the mail, as he said.” The story also noted that this was yet another of the endless Festivus Miracles that Trump has claimed would be paid for by tariff revenue, such as the “$2000 checks” every American has not received, or the elimination of the income tax […]
But yes, Politifact had it right: Normally, Congress would have to approve spending like that. And of course, it did, and it had fuck-all to do with tariffs. Did you spot that throwaway mention, “the bill helped us along”? It didn’t simply “help,” it was where all the money came from. […]
As Defense One reported Thursday, a “senior administration official” confirmed that the funds would be coming from a $2.9 billion appropriation Congress passed to “supplement the Basic Allowance for Housing entitlement […]”
Honestly, the real surprise here is that Trump didn’t boast in the speech that he’d personally made certain the fake “dividend” was tax-free. The Defense Department announcement of the mentions that service members will receive the “dividend” as a “nontaxable supplement to their regular monthly housing allowance,” but also tries to maintain the fiction that it’s a special gift, with a headline boasting “Just In Time For Christmas, Nation Gifts Service Members $1,776 ‘Warrior Dividend.’”
A few paragraphs down, just before the bit about how it’s part of the basic housing allowance, the press release acknowledges the additional BAH money “came earlier this year as part of the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill,” so good on whatever Pentagon press flack slipped in some reality.
[…] In the enlisted ranks, military families often struggle to make ends meet, and frequently fall victim to scammy payday lenders. Trump made that situation worse by ending protections against such scammers this summer, with the elimination of the “Office of Servicemember Affairs” in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, yet another agency he’s trying to kill without congressional approval.
[…] it’s incredibly on-brand cynicism for Trump to take money they’d be getting anyway, slap a Christmas bow on it, and call it a “Warrior Dividend” — and to lie that it’s all coming from his stupid tariffs, not an existing appropriation.
But that’s just another Trump lie that’ll get lost in a sea of lies, and only some progressive bloggers will care about Trump’s BAH humbug.
Taking money away from the Military Housing funds is not good. Some military families live in housing infested with roaches, or in housing with leaks that cause black mold to flourish. Other military housing issues include: contaminated water supplies, faulty HVAC and structural problems.
[…] Parker Molloy notes on Bluesky that the New York Times’s David Brooks, who wrote that the Epstein Files were “overblown” and we should “move on,” is in them. Is that bad? […]
“MELISSA HORTMAN DIED IN A SHOCKING ACT OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE. THIS IS THE STORY OF HER LIFE”
“The Minnesota Speaker’s closest friends and family open up for the first time”
Let me tell you about Melissa Hortman.
[…] It is the winter of 2024. Hortman is now the speaker of the Minnesota House. She has just been instrumental in passing the Minnesota Miracle, a “holy shit” 30-point piece of legislation that protects and offers a hand up to the state’s neediest citizens. Now, she is at a retreat along with the other members of her Democratic Farmer Labor caucus. There is much to celebrate, perhaps too much. A legislator knocks back one too many of Hortman’s Patron Silver margaritas. The next morning, he is, let us say, unwell. She knocks on his hotel door and leaves him some Advil.
“You just stay here as long as you need,” says Hortman before closing the door.
[…] Let me tell you about Melissa Hortman. She arrives at caucus meetings, her blond hair still wet, and, well, always a little late. Under her arm is a policy binder and an oversize purse. […]
In the early hours of June 14, 2025, Melissa Hortman, her husband, Mark, and their dog, Gilbert, are murdered in their Brooklyn Park home. The killer is dressed as a cop and carries a death list of Minnesota Democratic lawmakers. (State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife are also shot. They both recover.)
[…] Here we are again. Hortman’s murder was preceded by two attempts on Donald Trump’s life, a botched murder plot against Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and the fire-bombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home. It is followed by the Charlie Kirk assassination three months later.
[…] These days, we doomscroll to the next atrocity, our outrage for the anonymous dead anesthetized […]
The pain only lingers when it is someone we know or someone we think we know from TV or Instagram. I can tell you that Melissa Hortman would be pissed off if her murder meant more to you than, say, the killing of a homeless vet in downtown Minneapolis. But the dead don’t get to make that call. The June massacre of 10 students by a suicidal gunman packing a Glock and a sawed-off shotgun in Graz, Austria, did not crush me. No, it was the murder of Melissa Hortman — a woman I met once — that dropped me to the carpet in my Los Angeles hotel room.
[…] this is not a story about Utah Sen. Mike Lee posting tweets after Melissa Hortman’s murder reading, “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way,” and another one quipping, “Nightmare on Waltz street.” And this is not a story about late-night Fox News Gollum Greg Gutfeld suggesting Hortman knew her killer. (She did not.) And it is definitely not about Trump professing not to know who she was two months after her death and then insisting he would have flown flags at half-staff for Hortman if only Walz wasn’t such a jerk.
None of that is important. Williams, Hortman’s best friend, tells me she doesn’t even know the name of Melissa and Mark Hortman’s killer. “It does not matter how Melissa died,” Williams says in a whisper. “All that really matters is how she lived.”
[…] It is October 2024, and I am in Minneapolis covering Walz’s vice presidential campaign. One of Walz’s calling cards is 2023’s Minnesota Miracle, a dizzying array of social safety-net legislation that he and the state legislature passed. His staffers urge me to talk with someone named Melissa Hortman, who they claim is the true architect of the policies.
I drive to a St. Paul coffee shop near the state Capitol. I am having a bad day; I have fucked up my neck and shoulder, but with the tumult of the presidential campaign, I’ve not made it to a doctor. I am in excruciating pain and even more addled than usual as I slide into a chair across from her. She senses something is amiss and gives me some grace.
“Take your time, get settled, I’m not going anywhere.”
This may seem like nothing, but I’ve been doing this a while. It is definitely something.
She then speaks frankly about Walz and how they share a belief in spending political capital, not hoarding it, and the George Floyd protests, to a degree that her press aide’s eyebrows shoot up like a surprised cartoon character. Later, I learn this is classic Hortman. […]
This story is written in the present tense. Why? Not one of the dozens of family, friends, and colleagues I interviewed can bear to refer to Hortman in the past tense. Maybe it is a coping mechanism, or maybe it is a belief that her achievements are a living, breathing thing. […]
How It Begins
A brother and sister scramble through John’s Auto Parts in Blaine, Minnesota. They open the doors of Novas and Pontiacs before they are pulverized, looking for change or other treasures. The older boy is Patrick, an incorrigible lad who sometimes arrives home with only one shoe, is allergic to most foods, and will right himself in time to graduate from MIT at the age of 20. Right behind him is his sensible sister. She is born Melissa but goes by Missy because she has a speech impediment and can’t get all the letters out. […]
This is not your regular boneyard. Early in the 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency sends Harold a notice with a heavy fine, claiming oil and tire residue has soaked into the ground and their property is going to become one of the agency’s first cleanup sites. The notice turns the Haluptzoks into accidental environmentalists. They negotiate an extension and clean up their property.
Both Linda and Harold self-identify as type A personalities, so it doesn’t stop there. He writes a book on how to run an environmentally safe junkyard. Eventually, the couple own five salvage yards and travel around the world giving speeches on how to crush cars and remain on speaking terms with Mother Earth.
Missy notices it all and has questions.
“How do you keep the oil safe? How does a business work? What is global warming?”
Her parents try explaining, but mostly they just let her watch. At 10, she is obsessed with the 1980 presidential election. She tells her mom something very important: “I am going to be the first female president.”
Melissa wants to go to Harvard. “Kids from Blaine don’t go to Harvard,” explains her counselor. She applies anyway. She doesn’t get in. She goes to Boston University. Four years later, she graduates with honors and applies to Harvard Law School. No dice. Instead, she returns home and goes to the University of Minnesota Law School. Decades later, she applies to the Harvard Kennedy School. She gets in and earns her master’s.
[…] It is the summer of 1992. Melissa is working in Sen. John Kerry’s office. She goes to the D.C. office of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program and fills out an application to mentor a kid in need. A young man watches her. He times turning in his own application to coincide with hers.
[…] Mark says no to his parents’ offer to set him up in the family’s thriving printing business. He and Melissa are engaged three months after they start dating. They marry and settle in Brooklyn Park, about 15 minutes from where she grew up. […]
Mark works in the tech world, and on the side invents a robot to make his morning oats and, years later, a weeding robot that can tell the difference between weeds and flowers. He builds his own speakers and talks about how much he loves the band Soul Coughing. Melissa rolls her eyes, dreams of policy conferences and being asleep by 8:30.
The couple have Colin and Sophie quickly, just like Harold and Linda had Missy and Patrick. Melissa works for Central Minnesota Legal Services as a housing lawyer and represents Stormy Harmon, a mother of three left homeless after her landlord refused to fix her furnace. Hortman proves the landlord has a persistent pattern of making racist threats and harassing Harmon’s children. Despite the landlord maintaining his innocence, Hortman wins Harmon the largest jury award for a single family’s race-based housing-discrimination claim in state history to date.
Enough already, that’s what Melissa Hortman would say at this point: “Why do we gotta do all this tomfoolery, this turkey dance? Why am I doing all this bullshit? Let’s just do the thing right now.”
[…] Hortman runs for state representative but loses in both 1998 and 2002. Part of it is demographics — her Brooklyn Park district is traditional suburban GOP — and part of it is Hortman’s honesty. She knocks on hundreds of doors, and when a mom says she is against something, say, gay marriage, Hortman doesn’t dance around it, she locks eyes and tells the mom gay marriage is simply about equality for everyone. In 2004, she squeezes past the incumbent by 400 votes.
The universal rule for freshmen reps is sit down, shut up, and let seniority get things done. Hortman doesn’t really abide by that. In her first term, Minnesota is bogged down in a budget deadlock. Hortman and a group of ad hoc legislators from both parties meet and brainstorm ideas that they pass on to House leaders. The ideas help break the logjam, and the budget passes.
[…] she pushes through a bill that provides tax breaks to businesses using solar energy and mandates that Minnesota utilities obtain 1.5 percent of their electricity from solar by 2020.
How proud is she? Go look up her X bio. It cites only one achievement: Author of MN’s solar standard and community solar law.
Two years later, she attends the Paris Climate Conference. She smiles as international legislators ask her in multiple languages how they can craft a similar bill. […]
She keeps moving up the ladder in the House. By 2017, Hortman is minority leader. That April, there’s a debate in the House on a bill that would increase the criminal penalties for civil protests that block roads and highways. Minnesota is 20 percent minority, but there are 16 representatives of color at the time. Many speak against the bill. Rena Moran speaks of how her great-great grandmother was a slave and how her family’s progress can be marked by their freedom to protest injustice.
Hortman listens and gets angry. Few representatives are in their seats. Many of them are in the House lounge playing poker.
“I hate to break up the 100 percent white-male card game, but I think this is an important debate,” Hortman says.
One of those hearing her remarks is Rep. Moran. “She sees us, she hears us,” thinks Moran.
Hortman’s remarks incense Minnesota House Republicans.
“Minority Leader, would you apologize to the body?”
She will not.
“I have no intention of apologizing,” says Hortman. “I am so tired of watching Rep. Susan Allen give an amazing speech, Rep. Peggy Flanagan give an amazing speech, watching Rep. Jamie Becker Finn give an amazing speech, Rep. Rena Moran give the most heartfelt, incredible speech I’ve heard on this House floor as long as I can remember, watching Rep. Ilhan Omar give an amazing speech, and looking around, to see, ‘Where are my colleagues?’ … And I’m really tired of watching women of color, in particular, being ignored. So, I’m not sorry.”
The 2018 election is just around the corner […] Hortman recruits candidates and stresses that ads and yard signs do not matter, you must go door to door. […] she personally door-knocks in every contested district. […]
On May 25, 2020, a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, kills George Floyd, a Black man, by placing him in a chokehold and slamming his knee onto his windpipe. Floyd gasps and calls for his mother before he suffocates to death.
The city erupts into fiery protests with stores burned out and police stations set afire. During the worst nights, Hortman and her deputies maintain a phone line where reps can report violence in their districts, and she routes the calls directly to the state emergency-operations center. At her urging, the governor calls a special session of the legislature to deal with police reform.
One of Hortman’s first calls is to Moran. She knows that as one of the few members of color in the House it is essential that Moran lead the efforts to pass a police-reform bill that will have the greatest impact in inner-city districts like the one Moran represents. Moran has her doubts.
“That is not what I do, I’m not even on the public-safety committee,” Moran says.
“Doesn’t matter,” Hortman says. “You’re going to do it.”
And Moran does it. In July, the House passes a police-reform law that somehow passes the Republican-controlled Senate and is signed into law by Walz. The bill prohibits chokeholds like the one that killed Floyd and creates an independent body to investigate police officers accused of sexual assault or killing a civilian. The bill also prohibits police departments from offering overly aggressive “warrior-style training.” […]
Melissa Hortman doesn’t mind when other legislators call her the caucus mom. […] She’s a mom, and she will not apologize.
That normalcy makes the fact that in 2023 Minnesota House Speaker Hortman passes the most sweeping social legislation in Minnesota history […] all the more remarkable.
Go to the state House and see it for yourself. Hortman’s greatest achievement hangs on the wall in the Minnesota State Capitol Building. “Top Bills for 2023 Session” read two poster boards, each with 15 policy goals, 30 in total. All 30 have check marks indicating “passed” and “enacted.” […]
After George Floyd’s death, protesters march outside the governor’s mansion, and they march in front of 8710 Windsor Terrace. This is one of the few things in life that freaks out the legendarily unflappable Hortman.
Colleagues tell her it will be fine; the protesters just want to be heard. Then Jan. 6 happens. Protesters try to break into the governor’s mansion. Other Minnesota legislators have protesters outside their homes, walking the streets with rifles, taking advantage of the state’s open-carry laws.
Hortman is alone. Her kids are grown and out of the house, and Mark is down in Naples, Florida, where his father has just had triple-bypass surgery. She gets a call from the Minnesota State Police that there has been a credible threat against her safety, and it would be best if she could leave the metropolitan area for a few days. So, Hortman calls Colin and the two drive 200 miles north into Minnesota’s Iron Range. They check into a lodge […]
But Hortman is still scared. She calls state Rep. Ryan Winkler, her top deputy, and tells him she’s done.
“I can’t do this. I think I need to quit. I need to walk away.”
He tries to calm her.
“Melissa, you’re going to go check into a hotel. Get away from your house. Go someplace where nobody knows where you are.”
[…] Melissa Hortman wakes up to a different world on Nov. 6, 2024. There’s the disappointment of the Harris-Walz defeat and Hortman’s hold on the speakership is tenuous. The Minnesota State House is deadlocked at 67-67. The Republicans play hardball […]
Back at the Capitol, there remains a table of remembrance to “Our Beloved Melissa” outside the House chambers. Her name is still listed alphabetically on the wall with the other representatives.
A floor above, Gov. Tim Walz looks much older than when I talked with him a year ago on the top floor of a church in Savannah, Georgia, where the windows were blacked out with campaign posters so that a sniper would not have a clear shot. Now, he sits in his office with a single aide and makes small talk about meeting Neil Young last weekend at Farm Aid. But his smile quickly fades. Walz spent the summer in torment, thinking of his conversations with Hortman and how she should be Minnesota’s next governor.
“I think she was thinking about it,” Walz says. He sighs and rubs his eyes. Melissa’s death left him grappling with whether to retire or run again.
“I know I have been deeply damaged by this,” Walz says in a quiet voice. “We all have.”
[…] On my last day in Minnesota, I drive north to Brooklyn Park and the house at 8710 Windsor Terrace. I’d avoided visiting the house for two weeks, reasoning this story was about Hortman’s life, not how it ended. But it’s time to confront the damage done.
[…] The windows have been boarded up with plywood in the front and the back to protect against vandals. The front lawn, while carefully mowed, is brown and lifeless. A grill sits on the deck facing the golf course and conjures up a lonely John Cheever short story. What once was the warmest of homes is now an overrun fortress from a meaningless war.
[…] She wouldn’t have stood there, helpless, and moony-eyed. No, she would have asked a single question.
“Are you gonna stand there and moan, or are you going to help me pull these damn weeds?
moving to deport asylum seekers to third countries like Uganda, Ghana, Eswatini, or El Salvador, and directing them to seek asylum there instead.
“All of a sudden, in every single case, the DHS attorneys all at once began filing motions to have asylum seekers sent to countries they have no connection to and often don’t even speak the language of. It was unnerving to say the least,” said one immigration attorney who has been witnessing that scene play out in Lower Manhattan since last week.
In the Bay Area, there are 50 such cases currently pending […] asking for these removals with “pretermit” motions, which essentially ask a judge to dismiss an asylum claim without a full evidentiary hearing.
[…]
“Many of these DHS attorneys are young and are clearly following marching orders,” […] During one of the hearings, the [DHS] attorney told the judge that “Central America is up for interpretation and that Mexico is a part of Central America,” […] The judge then asked the DHS attorney if they believed the U.S. or Canada was part of Central America and […] the attorney replied: I don’t know.
[…]
“Starting in late November here in the San Francisco, Concord, and Sacramento courts, we’ve seen them getting filed in a huge number of cases,” […] DHS attorneys say in open court that they have been told to file these third-country motions to Honduras and Guatemala for every Spanish speaker who entered the country after 2019. […] “Which is nuts,”
[…]
There is a caveat, though: These cooperative-agreement countries have a cap on immigrants they will take. For example, in the deal with Honduras, the U.S. can only send up to 10 deportees a month for 24 months. Each country has its own cap. […] “Certain governments, having seen what the U.S. does to countries that don’t fall in line, they’re going to say, ‘the least we can do is say that we’ll accept people, whether we actually ever accept them or not,'”
[…]
several “concerning” issues with these motions. For one, […] immigration judges do not have the right to question DHS attorneys whether these receiving countries will actually take the asylum seekers. And second, even though there is a cap on people who can be sent to a third country […] “[DHS] was making these in almost every single case […] “A third problem is that every single country that we have an ACA agreement with has an abysmal human rights record,” […]
the Trump administration is deploying this strategy en masse because “it’s a relatively easy and fast way to get rid of cases.” […] the Trump administration has abandoned simply dismissing cases and arresting immigrants at courthouses because there were a lot of community protests and flareups, garnering headlines and pushback.
[…]
Let’s say a Guatemalan person tells [a judge] they don’t want to go to Honduras because it’s not their home, and they’re afraid to go there. […] “That showing will be incredibly hard […] simply by the fact that they have never been to Honduras, and they can’t tell me I lived there for five years and I experienced a lot of discrimination or harm,”
[…]
“Once that removal order is in place, the government doesn’t necessarily have to send them to Honduras […] They could just say you have a removal order, and we’re going to detain you now. And we could send you somewhere else.”
[…]
immigrant rights lawyers and groups are trying to respond, by scrambling to provide as much free legal counsel to asylum seekers as they can, and to create template legal motions to fight the third-country removals. Many of the immigrants who show up in court are pro se, which means they are representing themselves.
I witnessed this insanity today. 7 cases I observed in a row went as follows: [Russian to Uganda, Pakistani to Uganda, Venezuelan to Ecuador, Ecuadorian to Honduras, Nepalese to Uganda, Nepalese to Uganda, Chinese to Uganda].
Even if a Venezuelan asylum seeker could prove that they face imminent danger in Ecuador, the government will just file a motion to send them to Honduras, and then Uganda, ad infinitum…
The asylum-seeking process before Trump was unfair, confusing, and evil. Obviously, his administration has been committed to making it worse since day 1. But the sheer maliciousness behind each and every step they take to doom some of the most vulnerable people in the world is disgusting.
“A Russian missile, filled with U.S. tech, rips a Ukrainian boy’s life apart”
“Despite export controls, weapons with Western components show up on Ukrainian soil nightly, killing and maiming civilians.”
At the moment Russia launched the nearly four-ton ballistic missile, an 8-year-old Ukrainian boy was running across a playground.
The missile was an Iskander 9M723, fresh off an assembly line in Votkinsk, where workers in the Russian heartland plug American technology into the bellies of guided weapons, despite sanctions and export controls, Ukrainian investigators have found.
By late 2025, Russia had launched more than 400 of the Iskander-M rockets. This one, which took flight on April 4, was the 64th of the year. The Kremlin claimed that it was targeting a meeting of military officials at a restaurant, though surveillance footage showed only civilians there.
The boy was second-grader Matviy Holovko. His hometown of Kryvyi Rih, an industrial hub where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky grew up, suffered such frequent bombardment that he’d grown used to sleeping in the hallway. […]
the Iskander was whipping toward them. Twenty-three football fields a second. Six times the speed of sound.
Every time one of these missiles lands, destroying power plants, hospitals, churches and schools, investigators search for clues in the wreckage. […] Though the weapons are manufactured in Russia, they are dependent on components from companies based in other countries, including the United States. Investigators have found parts from Intel. Parts from Analog Devices, best known for its semiconductors. Parts from Texas Instruments, famous for its graphing calculators. [Map and list showing sources of components. Most come from the USA, 27 components.]
[…] A Senate subcommittee report published last year said that efforts by American companies to trace their products into Russia’s war machine have been “abjectly lacking.” […] [I snipped details revealing the damage, the deaths, and the aftermath.]
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, known as GUR, catalogues these components in a public database. By 2024, the agency had identified around 2,800 foreign components in Russian weapons. By late 2025, that number surpassed 5,200. About 70 percent of the parts come from companies headquartered in the United States.
A year-long investigation by the subcommittee’s Democratic staff found that some companies had “done the bare minimum required by law … while trying to wash their hands of any real responsibility for their distributors’ role in Russian diversion.”
“Russian bombs, missiles and drones supported by American technologies are literally killing Ukrainians,” subcommittee Chairman Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) told executives from Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel in late 2024. “Not just Ukrainian soldiers, but civilians, women, children, in their sleep, in hospitals, in schools, purposefully, relentlessly.”
[…] Microelectronics, which trickle through unsanctioned countries such as China and Turkey, are nearly impossible to track from manufacturer to rocket missile, said one Ukrainian intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
[…] Satellite data and public records showed the expansion of the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant, where Iskanders are mass-produced. New workshops, thousands of additional workers. Production tripled from 2022 to 2025.
The plant now averages about 60 to 70 new Iskanders per month, said aviation expert and military analyst Kostiantyn Kryvolap, a former test engineer at the Antonov Design Bureau in Kyiv. The Iskander’s accuracy and ability to evade air defense remain dependent on Western components, which Russia has not managed to replace with its own parts, he said.
[…] By late 2025, the Kremlin was launching 12 times as many Iskanders as in 2023. The volume of Shahed drones increased 20 times over in the same two-year period. […]
“Leaders opted to raise common debt rather than leverage frozen Russian assets to finance the loan.”
EU taxpayers will have to pay €3 billion per year in borrowing costs as part of a plan to raise common debt to finance Ukraine’s defense against Russia, according to senior European Commission officials.
The bloc’s leaders agreed in the early hours of Friday to raise €90 billion for the next two years, backed by the EU budget, to ensure Kyiv’s war chest won’t run dry in April.
The war-ravaged country faces a budget shortfall of €71.7 billion next year and is in desperate need of funds to ensure its survival after Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to keep the conflict going on Friday.
Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia will not join the bloc’s other 24 countries in sharing the debt burden, but agreed not to obstruct Ukraine’s financing needs. […]
Many of the hallmarks of the €210 billion financing package for Ukraine will be transferred to the new plan for common debt. These include payout structures in tranches, anti-corruption safeguards, and an outline for how much money should be spent on Kyiv’s military and the country’s budgetary needs.
[…] The new plan would provide Ukraine with €45 billion next year, handing Kyiv a crucial lifeline as it enters its fifth year of fighting. The remaining funds would be disbursed in 2027.
The new plan won’t come cheap. The EU is expected to pay €3 billion annually in interest from 2028 through its seven-year budget, which is largely financed by EU governments […] Interest payments would begin in 2027, but would cost only €1 billion that year.
Ukraine will only have to repay the loan once Russia ends the war and pays war reparations. That seems unlikely, which means the EU could continuously roll over the debt or use frozen Russian assets to repay it.
That would require another political agreement among EU leaders, as Belgium is strongly opposed to using the frozen assets, most of which are held in the Brussels-based financial depository Euroclear. […]
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday lambasted NATO chief Mark Rutte for his recent warning to prepare for a large-scale war with Russia.
“What are you even talking about? I really want to ask: Listen, what are you saying about preparing to go to war with Russia? Can you even read? Read the U.S. National Security Strategy,” Putin said, at an annual event where he responds to questions from journalists and the general public.
Rutte said last week in Berlin that NATO is Russia’s next target after Ukraine and that alliance members must shift to a “wartime mindset” and “we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents and great grandparents endured.”
Putin dismissed those remarks Friday as aggressive and said that if the U.S. — NATO’s traditional backbone — does not see Russia as an “enemy or target” in its new controversial security strategy, Rutte should not point NATO toward war with Russia.
[…] “In the new strategy, Russia is not named as an enemy or a target … and the NATO secretary-general is getting ready to go to war with us. What is this? Can you even read? Why are you aiming NATO at entering in war with Russia if NATO’s main country does not see us as an enemy?” Putin blasted.
Trump’s document stops short of identifying Russia as a threat to American security. Instead, it targets traditional allies in Europe, warning that they face “civilizational erasure” in part due to migration and portraying them as obstacles to efforts aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin praised the document, asserting that it aligns with Russia’s own vision and signaling Moscow’s approval of Washington’s new direction. [!]
[…] the state of Georgia dropped its criminal case against Donald Trump — who, according to multiple prosecutors and voluminous evidence, also plotted against his government and tried to hold onto office despite the will of the voters. [I snipped a comparison to Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president.]
It was in August 2023 when Trump was first criminally indicted in Georgia, with charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the state’s results in the 2020 presidential election. The case took all kinds of twists and turns in the months that followed, but this September, the Georgia Supreme Court ultimately ended the lead prosecutor’s involvement in the case, which unraveled soon after.
This was the last remaining opportunity to hold the president accountable for his alleged 2020 election crimes (special counsel Jack Smith’s case was derailed by Trump’s reelection), and when prosecutors pulled the plug, Trump claimed vindication as if he’d been exonerated.
But that didn’t make sense: The demise of the case had less to do with its merits and more to do with the disqualification of Fani Willis, the prosecutor who brought the case, and her undisclosed relationship with Nathan Wade, whom she’d appointed as the special prosecutor.
Indeed, not only has the public seen evidence to suggest Trump did exactly what he was accused of doing, but previously undisclosed evidence continues to come out. The New York Times reported:
In a newly obtained recording of a phone call from late 2020, President Trump can be heard pressing the speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives to hold a special legislative session to overturn Mr. Trump’s election loss.
After citing false conspiracy theories of election fraud in Georgia, Mr. Trump told David Ralston, the speaker at the time, in the call on Dec. 7, 2020, that he could justify calling a special legislative session by saying it was ‘for transparency, and to uncover fraud.’
“Who’s gonna stop you for that?” the defeated president asked.
“A federal judge, possibly,” Ralston replied.
The Times’ report added that the newspaper obtained a recording of the call […] as “part of a trove of investigative documents generated” in the case.
This isn’t the only relevant phone call. As many Americans likely recall, Trump called Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021, and told the Georgian he wanted someone to “find” enough votes to flip the state’s election results, even if that meant overturning the will of the voters. The president added, while pressuring Raffensperger, “[T]here’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”
Raffensperger recorded the call and offered the public the opportunity to hear Trump explore ways to cheat, begging others to participate in his scheme and even making some subtle threats toward the state’s top elections official. I’ve long believed it was the most controversial phone call ever recorded in American history.
But roughly a month earlier, Trump also called the state House speaker and lied about the election results as part of a legally dubious lobbying campaign to overturn his defeat in Georgia.
Ralston, before his death in 2022, shared details of the conversation to special grand jurors investigating the election scandal, which in turn contributed to Trump’s indictment. It wasn’t until this week that the audio recording reached the public. [!]
We’ll never know what might’ve happened if the case had proceeded to a jury, although given the available information, the president ought to feel great relief that the prosecution was derailed for reasons that had effectively nothing to do with his conduct.
Fox Business host Stuart Varney and his colleagues are trying their darndest to turn President Donald Trump’s […] economy into a Christmas ornament. And they brought in Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to try and sell some of that delusional MAGA optimism. [video]
Chavez-DeRemer defended Trump’s economy by pointing to the recently released jobs report, which showed unemployment numbers reaching a four-year high. She explained that in her mind palace, a higher unemployment rate is a positive, suggesting it showed “more people are getting off the sideline and finally wanting to be part of the American economy and this workforce.”
But even Varney found that spin difficult to endorse, calling it “an interesting diplomatic move.”
Fox contributor Lauren Simonetti continued with more bad news, noting that the housing market has slowed considerably and consumer sentiment has dropped due to uncertainty and rising costs. But that didn’t stop Varney from spinning it himself.
“The weakness is attractive,” he said, regarding how the numbers might compel the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. “Bad news is actually good news for the market—maybe. Maybe.” [video]
Stuart: Also, the latest read on consumer sentiment, what’s that number?
Simonetti: It—surprise drop to 52.9. This is a December number. It’s the final number, so it’s pretty recent. Consumers are just worried about the price of things and long-run inflation expectations as well.
Stuart: But with rather these dull numbers, the market seems to like it, perhaps implying that we’ll get more Fed rate cuts.
Simonetti: Actually, the market went up a little bit, all the pieces of information being slightly weaker than expected.
Varney: The weakness is attractive. Bad news is actually good news for the market—maybe. Maybe.
Posted by readers of the article:
Varney is a GOP apologist at Fox Business. The state propaganda FOX machine is just stunningly mendacious. In that first video, calling a 64K job report “robust” is downright pathetic. Robust is > 200K. The monthly BLS jobs report average for Trump 2.0 is now running at 50K for Feb-Nov 2025, down from 185K in the last year for Biden (Feb 2024-Jan 2025), which was his worst year.
———————–
BWAHAHAHA! “Bad news is actually good news.”
And there you have it. The total inversion of reality so well known under tyrannical regimes.
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
Bad news is good news
Secretary of State Marco Rubio held an end-of-year press conference on Friday, where he was asked about former Senate colleagues who have voiced criticism of his performance as a key figure in the Trump administration.
Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland have publicly expressed regret over voting to confirm Rubio, citing his abandonment of any principles or sound policy positions in a craven pursuit of power.
“We live in a very different time, unfortunately,” Rubio said, before launching into a rambling statement implying that privately, these senators still really like him. “I mean, there’s also not a lot of benefit to a Democratic senator saying what a great guy Marco Rubio is in this current political environment, or anyone in the Trump administration for that matter.” [video]
Rubio wants you to overlook a tanking economy, fascistic immigration raids terrorizing American cities, and unpopular tax breaks for the wealthy that come at the expense of Americans’ health care—and believe that people still like him for his personality.
I mean, we live in a very different time, unfortunately. I engaged with senators, for example, from both parties. We saw a bunch of them the other day, all the time and obviously–but politics today is very different than it was 10 or 20 years ago. It just is. I’m not in that anymore. I’m no longer in a political office, [WTF?] but I know political offices. I served 14 years in the Senate, and politics is real, right?
I mean, there’s also not a lot of benefit to a Democratic senator saying what a great guy Marco Rubio is in this current political environment, or anyone in the Trump administration for that matter. So all I will tell you is I get up every day. We go to work, we get work done. We do cooperate and work with–they don’t always agree with everything we’re doing, but I have a lot of people in the Senate, particularly chairmen of key committees that we interact with. There’s things people can say and do in the public that, because of politics in private, that they can’t say or do in public. But I don’t know what else to comment on that.
Marco Rubio has thoroughly politicized the office of Secretary of State. Also, Rubio has not risen to Trump levels of “most people don’t like you,” but he is getting there. In the video, Rubio is smug.
birgerjohanssonsays
3I/ATLAS Closest Approach // Rock Giants // New NASA Administrator
A memo from the FBI circulated to multiple law enforcement agencies described peaceful protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement as related to terrorism, a report published by The Guardian on Friday revealed.
The FBI is led by pro-Trump sycophant Kash Patel and overseen by Attorney General Pam Bondi, an unabashed promoter of Trump who has echoed his extremist rhetoric about detractors.
The memo, published on Nov. 14, claimed there was increased “threat activity targeting government personnel or facilities related to immigration enforcement efforts.” The document also alleged that “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity” are ongoing threats to the country, and falsely described anti-ICE protests in cities like Los Angeles and Portland as examples of “political violence,” according to The Guardian.
The memo reportedly cites activities like “conducting online research” about the movement of ICE agents and using encrypted messaging as an “indicator” that someone is planning an attack on an ICE facility.
Officials reportedly complain in the document that “domestic terrorist subjects” have been involved in “reactive violent attacks which took advantage of First Amendment-protected activities nationwide.”
Rachel Levinson-Waldman, director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told The Guardian, “It is not illegal to do online research about the publicly available movements of government officers or to communicate through encrypted apps like Signal or WhatsApp.”
[…] The FBI memo’s key argument that ICE agents are under increased threat of violence is also not true. ICE has said attacks are up “1,000%” and more but a Los Angeles Times study of ICE-involved court cases showed no such increase in violence.
The Trump administration has tried to paint everyone who stands in opposition to its policies as a terrorist, i[…]
The FBI memo represents another instance of the Trump administration using the power of government to attack speech it doesn’t like.
“Russia’s Big Gamble Just Fell Apart – And It’s Bad for Putin”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=wp31HW75YqA
Putin: We have taken Kupjansk.
Zelensky: Has a photo taken of him standing in front of Kupjansk.
birgerjohanssonsays
Farron Cousins:
“Republicans Admit They’re Tired Of Toddler Trump’s Psycho Behavior”
sisters went to pick up some Taco Bell. […] Officers ignored Shirley’s questions and took her sister “forcefully” into one of the vans. They told Shirley they would let her go—but not her sister. […] “I showed them our identifications, and they didn’t pay me any attention, they went straight to my sister because she’s darker than me.”
[…]
“We [her attorneys] spent, I think, close to five hours waiting in Baltimore to speak to her, before we were told they had moved her out of state in the middle of the night […] we suspect they did this because they knew we were going to file the lawsuit.”
[…]
“The thing that’s been the most difficult so far is that, in all of our interactions with the government, they’re denying that any of her birth certificates, which are from Laurel, Maryland, her records of immunization, medical records—they’re denying the authenticity of them,” Perez said. “It is something I’ve never encountered in all my work as an attorney,” Perez said. “It’s infuriating.”
Diaz Morales’ situation is somewhat unusual. After being born in Maryland, she went to Mexico as a child but never obtained a U.S. passport. At some point, she entered the United States without documentation, fleeing what her attorneys described as an emergency, life-or-death situation […] a cartel. Reentering the country without documentation does not affect whether someone is a U.S. citizen, Diaz Morales’ attorneys noted.
[…]
“I called the hospital, and they were able to confirm she was a patient during that ‘general period […] This last part especially would be impossible to manufacture.[“]
Rando: “ICE really should have realized that no actual Mexicans would go to Taco Bell.”
birgerjohanssonsays
Ternary Computing: Theoretically Better than Binary
In the 1966 German science fiction TV series Raumpatrouille the aliens were indeed using ternary computing (You did not see it because Star Trek had started three weeks previously).
birgerjohanssonsays
“Westerly jet stream emerges as key driver of mid-latitude hydroclimatic extremes”
Warmer Arctic region makes jet stream ‘wavier’ making precipitation in the South more chaotic.
This intermediate vascular system 400 million years ago allowed plants to grow up to 20 cm – a huge leap from the millimeter-sized plants that came before them.
birgerjohanssonsays
How much does it cost to end rough sleeping? An Australian-first study may have just found out.
(Also, Finland is doing the right thing)
Haha!! [Politico] caught Lindsey Halligan trying to bury proof of her own incompetence.
Honestly, this lady should just avoid doing anything that might involve a court filing bc she has literally never gotten it right the first try.
[Article]: Prosecutors tried and failed to add 3rd felony charge against Letitia James […] Prosecutors also asked a magistrate judge to keep records of the proposed indictment sealed after grand jurors rejected all three alleged charges, but the judge declined
Not for the first time, the signature block for Self-Proclaimed U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan spelled it “Virgina.”
/s/ Lindsey Halligan
United States Attorney
Eastern District of
Virgina Florida Bar
No. 109481 2100
Jamieson Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22314
Commentary
That sig block looks so wrong—even if Virginia were spelled correctly.
“Florida” is on the wrong line. It should be next to the Bar number. Also on the wrong line is the street number. Can these people do anything right?
At least she’s so grossly incompetent she cant be effective.
The Virgina Florida Bar is my favorite lesbian nightspot.
Well, she can’t legally be the US Atty for the Eastern District of Virginia, but they never said anything about the Eastern District of *Virgina*, did they?
Given Donald Trump’s obsession with self-aggrandizement and self-glorification, it didn’t come as too big of a surprise when the president’s handpicked allies claimed they had renamed the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. But surprising or not, the absurdity got messy in a hurry.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, for example, claimed the Kennedy Center’s board, stacked with Trump loyalists, “voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center.” As is too often the case, she was apparently not telling the truth.
More importantly, Team Trump characterized the name change as a done deal, which it was not. Congress created the name for the Kennedy Center, and at no point did lawmakers delegate powers to the center’s board to rename the institution unilaterally.
The president’s operation, which has never been overly concerned with following laws, didn’t appear to care: By Thursday night, the center’s official website had been changed to include Trump’s name.
By Friday morning, crews were already hard at work. The Washington Post reported:
The Kennedy Center installed President Donald Trump’s name on its exterior Friday morning, a dramatic change to a building established by law as a ‘living memorial’ to a slain president. […]
A blue tarp was stretched across a portion of the building the next morning as a small team on scaffolding started the work. Loud drilling could be heard nearby. Inside the building, large letters spelling ‘Trump’ could be seen on the floor of the entry hall, according to a photograph obtained by The Washington Post.
It’s hard to know where to start with an initiative this ridiculous, but one of the first things that jumped out at me was the speed with which this came together. The president’s operation managed to acquire the materials, arrange the crews, secure the equipment and begin the installation work over the course of roughly half a day. [!!]
If you’re thinking the plans for this were in motion before Thursday afternoon’s announcement, you’re not alone. [Yep]
Nevertheless, by midday Friday, the crews were gone and the arts center’s façade was changed.
As things stand, the exact wording on the front wall of the center reads, “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
No, seriously, that’s what it says.
At this point, we could talk about the weird double “the.” We could also joke about the fact that this is now apparently a “memorial center” to two people, one of whom is alive. [!]
While we’re at it, we could draw attention to the fact that the fonts don’t exactly match — and given the Republican administration’s interest in type settings, this is tough to overlook — while simultaneously noting the encouraging fact that the placement of Trump’s name will make it easy to take it down in the future without disturbing the original lettering.
But as notable as these elements are, and while I appreciate the temptation to find humor in such head-spinning absurdities, I think it’s also worth describing what transpired at the Kennedy Center accurately: A group of people associated with the president just vandalized one of the nation’s premier performing arts centers.
As MS NOW’s Chris Hayes noted, it’s “interesting to consider that if you were to go and deface the Kennedy Center by removing Trump’s name, you’d be arrested and charged with a crime, but your act would be no more unlawful than what they’re doing right now.”
The president and his team have already gone to outlandish lengths to vandalize the White House. They’re now adding additional buildings to their target list. [!!]
‘Enormous asterisk’: DOJ drops Epstein files with heavy redactions and big questions. “We got a release—with an enormous asterisk, which is that they are very clearly violating the law,” says Chris Hayes on Trump DOJ’s partial release of the Epstein files. Harry Litman and Lisa Rubin join to discuss.
Video is 10:27 minutes. “A ton of redactions!” Redactions were also applied to adult men (except Bill Clinton). Redactions were applied to other politicians. This segment hosted by Chris Hayes is really good.
China is “just, just on the cusp … of actually starting to push out coal,” and fossil fuel use in the rest of the world is likely to follow. […] For decades China’s development was synonymous with coal, which produced choking air pollution and massive carbon emissions, still greater than those of all other developed nations combined. […] China’s solar power generation grew more than 20-fold over the past decade, and its solar and wind farms now have enough capacity to power the entire United States. China’s burgeoning exports of green tech are transforming the rest of the world, too.
[…]
Falling prices have propelled a surge in solar and wind energy that far outstrips the growth of any other source. [Solar and wind] can produce at full power only a few hours a day, unlike fossil and nuclear. But renewable sources together generated more electricity this year than coal. […] This year renewables helped bring the growth of greenhouse emissions to a virtual standstill in China and put a global carbon peak within reach.
[…]
looking back brings home the astonishing progress renewables have made. In 2004, it took the world a full year to install 1 gigawatt of solar power capacity. Today, twice that amount goes online each day. […] this year’s inflection points are just the beginning.
[Promo image for Bari Weiss’ “Has Feminism Failed Women?” debate]
Rando 1: Did they use a stock photo of fans watching the Beatles get off a plane?
Rando 2: Well spotted sir. [Getty photo from 1964]
Rando 3: “Ah yeah, using a stock photo of women before they could have their own credit cards to ponder if feminism has failed women.”
JMsays
@105 Lynna, OM: The documents we got are heavily redacted and only a fraction of the full documents but the people reading them in detail are turning up all kinds of interesting stuff.
Given the time schedule they had to work with I didn’t expect the DOJ to release everything in the first batch. They probably couldn’t have redacted everything even if they were not trying to obscure Trump’s involvement. This release was thousands of pages out of hundreds of thousands total, a really anemic figure. Raw story: Director of Melania Trump film exposed in Epstein files drop: report
Brett Ratner, the director of “Melania,” the new documentary about First Lady Melania Trump, was spotted in the Justice Department’s Friday release of thousands of files on Jeffrey Epstein, Vanity Fair reported late Friday.
“I wonder why the Biden DOJ refused to release the files…,” DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin posted from his personal X account, alongside one partially-redacted photo of Clinton in a pool with an unidentified woman. Another swimming pool photo Gilmartin posted shows Clinton with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime co-conspirator who was convicted of sex trafficking charges in 2021.
The pictures in the files are heavily redacted but Clinton shows up predominantly in the first batch.
“Even Republicans are starting to see Trump for what he is.”
Related video t the link, hosted by Ari Melber
Before he became the red giant pulling in the Republican Party, Donald Trump was known as a master of branding. He would tell you that he was a real estate mogul, but by 2015 he was instead a guy who allowed his name to be used on hotels (and television shows and home goods and ties) in exchange for a cut of the action. The name Trump stood for luxury — or at least a gold-plated variety of luxury.
Now the Trump name is synonymous with the Trump presidency. Which means, according to recent polling by YouGov conducted for The Economist, that the brand Trump has created is “dangerous,” “corrupt,” “racist” and “cruel.” […]
Americans were asked whether various words described the president, with those six being the ones most likely to be associated with him. As you would expect, there was a wide divergence by party: Democrats were most likely to say that “corrupt” described Trump while Republicans were most likely to say “strong.” [List]
The words that the fewest people said described Trump? “Inspiring,” “steady” and “honest.” Even among Republicans, Trump didn’t get a majority to say that he could be described as inspiring or steady.
Respondents could also say if they thought a word didn’t describe Trump — and that’s where things get interesting. Only just over half of Republicans said that “racist” didn’t describe Trump, with 50% or fewer saying that “cruel” and “corrupt” aren’t appropriate descriptors. [List]
Unsurprisingly, given the divide above, one of the words that was least likely to be deemed inappropriate for Trump was “divisive.” But there’s another descriptor near the bottom of the doesn’t-apply list that is worth calling out: “out of touch.”
Trump has had a rough year. […] His approval ratings among women, independents, older Americans and whites are near lows in YouGov polling spanning both of his terms in office. [Net approval data]
At the beginning of the year, most Republicans said they strongly approved of his performance as president, with relatively few saying they only somewhat approved. As the months passed, more Republicans began expressing more modest approval of Trump’s tenure. In the most recent YouGov poll conducted for The Economist, fewer than half of Republicans said they strongly approved of Trump’s presidency, a first for his second term. [graph showing softening approval]
There’s an obvious reason why. While Trump has been daydreaming about ballrooms and golden arches, while he’s been slathering the White House with goldish accessories and accoutrements, prices keep going up. In that same YouGov polling, Trump’s approval on crime, immigration and national security is in the 40s, though into the 80s and 90s among Republicans. On inflation and prices, however, he’s in the 30s overall and enjoying strong approval from only a third of Republicans. [graphs showing numbers on crime, immigration, national security, and inflation/prices]
[…] Other polls show similar pessimism. The Marist Poll […] Marist found that Democrats have an advantage on the economy.
[…] it’s likely that history won’t remember Trump for his inability to connect with the economic concerns of Americans. Instead, history books will likely focus more on the actions that prompted most non-Republicans to see him as corrupt, racist and dangerous.
In Colorado, students taunted their Black classmates by playing whipping sounds on their cellphones and saying they should be shot “to make us a better race.”
The only two Black students in a small district in Ohio were called the N-word by white peers starting on their first day. They got accustomed to hearing slurs like “porch monkey” and being told to go pick cotton.
And at a school in Illinois, white students included Confederate flags in their PowerPoint presentations for class assignments and shook a school bus as Black students were exiting to try to make them tumble off.
In each case, the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights arm investigated and concluded that school districts didn’t do enough to stop racial hostility toward Black students. It struck agreements with those districts to require changes and to monitor them for months, if not years. They were among roughly 50 racial harassment cases the OCR resolved in the last three years.
But that sort of accountability has ended under the second administration of President Donald Trump. Nearly a year since he took office, the department’s Office for Civil Rights has not entered into a single new resolution agreement involving racial harassment of students, a ProPublica analysis found. […]
The Education Department had been investigating nine complaints in the Lubbock-Cooper school district tied to racial discrimination, but Duggins-Clay said she and others involved in the cases haven’t heard from the department this year.
The OCR regularly resolves dozens of racial harassment cases a year and did so even during Trump’s first administration. In the last days of the Biden administration, OCR workers pushed to close out several racial harassment agreements, including one that was signed by the district the day after Trump was inaugurated. With Trump in office, the agency has shifted to resolving cases involving allegations of discrimination against white students.
[…] more than 1,000 racial harassment investigations initiated in previous administrations still are open. Most of those complaints involve harassment of Black students.
Not only has the Education Department failed to enter into any resolution agreements in those racial harassment cases, but it also has not initiated investigations of most new complaints. […]
Trump is working to shutter the Education Department, and the agency has not updated online case information typically accessible to the public since he took office.
Under Trump, OCR even stopped monitoring many districts the agency previously found had violated students’ civil rights — including some that the OCR rebuked days before Trump took office. […]
[…] A teacher told OCR she heard a kindergartener use the N-word and saw swastikas doodled on notebooks, and students admitted saying “slavery is good” and “white power.” For many, the investigator found, school was a hostile, discriminatory place. [I snipped other details.]
[…] The OCR operates under a 1979 congressional mandate to ensure equal treatment at school for students regardless of race, gender or disability. As recently as last year, it remained one of the federal government’s largest enforcers of antidiscrimination laws, with nearly 600 civil rights workers.
[…] The Trump administration started the process of laying off hundreds of Education Department workers in March — about 300 of them from the OCR — and closed seven of the 12 regional civil rights offices. […]
When President Joe Biden left office, there were about 12,000 open investigations; now there are nearly 24,000. The majority involve students with disabilities, as has been the case historically.
At the same time, even getting complaints into the investigative queue is getting harder. Attorneys still on the job at OCR describe working in what they call a “dismissal factory.” [!] Records filed in court cases show that most complaints filed by families have been dismissed without investigation.
[…] This month, the OCR ordered employees affected by the disputed layoffs back to work. In an email to those staff members on leave, the department said it still planned to fire them but now wants them to start working through its backlog. [!]
[I snipped details of cases in Texas and in Kentucky.]
[…] The OCR’s work has slowed, but racial harassment of Black students at school hasn’t, said Talbert W. Swan II, president of the Greater Springfield NAACP in Massachusetts. Only last year in his community, white students in the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District held a mock “slave auction” on Snapchat, bidding for the sale of Black students.
[…] “When you’re talking about 13-year-olds holding a slave auction, it lets you know that these racist attitudes are not dying,” said Swan, who also is senior pastor of the Spring Of Hope Church Of God In Christ. “They’re being reproduced over and over again from generation to generation.”
Civil Rights Enforcement Abandoned
[I snipped details of a case in North Carolina]
Records show that no one from the OCR has responded to the Carteret County district since February, including to its request to dismiss the agreement and postpone any remaining reform efforts.
Cases of the flu continue to mount, with health officials recently recording the first pediatric flu-related deaths of the season, but some states are seeing much higher activity than others.
According to data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the hospitalization rate nationwide jumped by 14.3%, with over 9,900 people admitted with the flu.
“Colorado, Louisiana and New York are [states] that are experiencing really fast increases in influenza,” Dr. Andrew Pekosz, an infectious disease specialist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said Tuesday during a public health media briefing.
New Jersey, Rhode Island and Louisiana are also experiencing “very high” levels of flu activity according to the latest data, for the week ending Dec. 13. The CDC also found high activity in New Mexico, Idaho, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Washington D.C., Connecticut, Maryland and Massachusetts. [Map]
[…] Pekosz says the data shows that the “super flu” strain, or subclade K, is spreading everywhere that influenza is. Lab tests found that 89.8% of 216 influenza A viruses collected since Sept. 28 were positive for the subclade K, according to the CDC.
This strain of influenza A, which historically causes the most deaths in older people, is not included in the vaccine this year, making some experts worried it could contribute to an especially bad flu season.
[…] The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get an annual vaccination, and public health experts say it’s not too late. About 42% of U.S. adults and 41% of children have gotten flu shots this season, according to CDC data.
The shots may not prevent all symptoms but they can prevent many infections from becoming severe. That appears to be true for this year’s shot, according to a preliminary U.K. analysis.
“ICE Supervisor Thrown In His Own Jail After (Allegedly) Strangling His Girlfriend”
Content note: Domestic Violence
It’s been almost a full year of Donald Trump’s second term, and it still doesn’t seem as though he or any of the MAGA faithful have really settled on a narrative about the horrific ICE raids that have given so many of our nation’s great cities that “B-movie dystopia” feel. […] But at the same time, whenever someone comes out with a “Wait a minute! I was promised that they were just going after the ‘worst of the worst,’ […] [social media post]
Or a “they’re going after my wife instead!” [social media post with video]
Or “they’re going after meeeee!” until it suddenly becomes “We never promised you that and also anyone who is undocumented here is technically a criminal anyway! Even though technically that would usually be a civil matter, not a criminal one!”
While it’s been more than clear that they’re not exclusively going after the “worst of the worst” when it comes to deporting immigrants, that’s definitely what they’re looking for when hiring ICE agents. After all, what kind of person can actually go around kidnapping people on the regular?
I will tell you what kind.
The kind who ends up in the very same jail he sent immigrants to after being arrested on charges of domestic violence.
Last week, Cincinnati ICE supervisor Samuel Saxon, 47, an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations official, was tossed into Hamilton County Jail and is being held on a $400,000 bond — or, rather, he was. Now he’s reportedly in DHS custody at Butler County Jail, widely regarded as “the most notorious ICE prison in Ohio” … with, we can assume, a whole lot of people he kidnapped.
Why did this happen to such a lovely human being?
Because, according to one witness cited in the police report, Saxon held his girlfriend — whom he had started dating when she was 18 and he was in his 40s — in a chokehold in the hallway of their building. Police, who had been called 22 other times [!] to their apartment for domestic violence-related reasons in the last year and a half, said they saw bruises on her neck. Previously, she had a broken nose in 2018 and a broken pelvis in April of this year, and has repeatedly declined to prosecute Saxon. The only reason he was arrested was because a witness saw him do it this time.
He’s also facing federal charges of lying to investigators about the domestic violence incident, and, if convicted on that one could serve up to five years in prison.
Saxon has been with the department for two decades, back when the agency had strict background checks. Now, the standards are far lower, and they’ll pretty much take anyone. Many of today’s recruits are facing pending criminal charges, have failed drug tests, and the DHS does not seem to give a damn about that. Probably because they are actively looking for the kind of sadistic, conscience-free monsters (or those who are high enough to not realize they’re behaving like sadistic, conscience-free monsters) who would not be averse to raiding schools or tearing parents away from their crying children.
[…] I am not scared of immigrants. I do not get anxious around people who speak a different language, or who have a different background than I do. I am, however, pretty darn scared of men like Samuel Saxon, who prey on teenage girls, choke them and break their bones. I am scared of men like that having the power to peel practically anyone off the street and send them to a detention center. I am scared of those who cheer and proudly say “This is what I voted for!” when they see videos of agents doing that. I’m scared that those same people are currently [complaining] that empathy is “toxic.”
I am not saying that all Republicans beat women, or even that all ICE agents do. […] I am merely pointing out that there is a reason that this man is the kind of person who signs up to join ICE in the first place, and it’s not just because they want to make new friends and earn a few bucks.
The United States Coast Guard is seizing a sanctioned vessel off the Venezuelan coast, two U.S. officials confirm to NBC News.
The operation is in progress. It was first reported by Reuters.
The Coast Guard is taking the lead, both officials said. The U.S. military is supporting with helicopters that are dropping off Coast Guard personnel and observing overhead, one of the officials said.
This comes after the U.S. interdicted a large, sanctioned oil tanker known as the Skipper off the coast of Venezuela last week.
After that operation, the Trump administration sanctioned six more ships believed to be carrying Venezuelan oil.
“Israeli officials believe Iran is expanding its ballistic missile program. They are preparing to make the case during an upcoming meeting with Trump that it poses a new threat.”
Israeli officials have grown increasingly concerned that Iran is expanding production of its ballistic missile program, […] and are preparing to brief President Donald Trump about options for attacking it again, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans and four former U.S. officials briefed on the plans.
Israeli officials also are concerned that Iran is reconstituting nuclear enrichment sites the U.S. bombed in June, the sources said. But, they added, the officials view Iran’s efforts to rebuild facilities where they produce the ballistic missiles and to repair its crippled air defense systems as more immediate concerns.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to meet later this month in Florida at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. […]
The Israeli leader is expected to present Trump with options for the U.S. to join or assist in any new military operations, the sources said.
Asked Thursday about a Dec. 29 meeting with Netanyahu, Trump told reporters, “We haven’t set it up formally, but he’d like to see me.” Israeli officials have announced a Dec. 29 meeting. […]
Israel’s plans to brief Trump on — and give him the option to join — possible additional military strikes in Iran come as the president is considering military strikes in Venezuela […]
In an address to the nation on Wednesday, Trump said told Americans he’s “destroyed the Iran nuclear threat and ended the war in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years, peace to the Middle East.”
The Israeli concerns about Iran come as Tehran has expressed interest in resuming diplomatic talks with the U.S. aimed at curtailing its nuclear deal, which could potentially complicate Israel’s approaching Trump about new strikes.
The funding of Iranian proxies in the region also is top of mind for the Israelis […]
[…] The strikes the U.S. conducted in June against Iran, known as Operation Midnight Hammer, included more than 100 aircraft, a submarine and seven B-2 bombers. Trump has said they “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites, though some early assessments indicated the damage may not have been as extensive as the president has said.
Israeli forces at the same time struck several of Iran’s ballistic missile sites.
Israeli military strikes in April and October 2024 also damaged all of Iran’s S-300 air defense systems, the most advanced system the country operates, clearing the way for manned flights into Iranian airspace months later by dramatically reducing the threat to pilots.
Unlike strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program, direct U.S. military involvement was needed to significantly damage Iran’s nuclear sites as that required American-made 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs.
[…] The fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is also expected to feature prominently in the talks between Netanyahu and Trump, amid concerns both sides are failing to take action to carry out the next phase of the deal.
[…] Trump could be less enthusiastic about new military action in Iran if there continues to be friction between U.S. and Israeli officials over Netanyahu’s approach to the ceasefire […]
Left unchecked, Iran’s production of ballistic missiles could increase to as many as 3,000 per month […]
[…] “There is no real question after the last conflict that we can gain aerial superiority and can do far more damage to Iran than Iran can do to Israel,” the official said. “But the threat of the missiles is very real, and we weren’t able to prevent them all last time.”
A large volume of ballistic missiles would help Iran better defend its nuclear enrichment sites […] Tehran would then fast track reconstituting its nuclear program […]
“Ukraine and Russia have not negotiated face to face since July, but U.S.-backed shuttle diplomacy to end the war has intensified in recent weeks.”
The United States has offered a potential new format for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia with American and possibly European envoys participating, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
Kyiv will decide on the format once it is clear whether bilateral discussions with U.S. negotiators that resumed on Friday are positive, Zelenskyy said, adding he planned to take up the matter with Ukraine’s delegation chief Rustem Umerov.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, he did not go into specifics as to what kind of format President Donald Trump’s administration had proposed.
“The U.S. said they would have a separate meeting with representatives of Russia. And they proposed the following format, as far as I understand: Ukraine, America, Russia, and, since there are representatives of Europe there, probably Europe as well,” Zelenskyy said.
U.S. negotiators were set to meet Russian officials in Florida on Saturday.
Ukraine and Russia have not negotiated face to face since July, but U.S.-backed shuttle diplomacy to end the almost four-year-old war in Ukraine has intensified in recent weeks.
Ukrainian and European representatives held a round of discussions with American counterparts in the United States on Friday and agreed to resume contacts soon, Umerov said.
“Four ICE detainee deaths in four days spark alarm as arrests grow”
“At least 30 detainees have died in 2025, prompting concerns about deteriorating conditions at facilities even as the agency has received an infusion of cash from Congress.”
Four people in immigration detention have died over a four-day period this month, increasing concern among advocates and some members of Congress over detention conditions.
One death took place Dec. 12, another two took place on Dec. 14 and the fourth on Dec. 15, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement news releases.
[…] The recent deaths bring total detainee deaths to 30 in 2025, the highest number since 2004, when 32 people died in ICE custody. This year’s total includes two detainees who were killed after a shooting at a Dallas ICE facility. At least two others died this year, according to ICE, but not in immigration detention.
Nearly 66,000 people are in detention, according to ICE data, a record high, and the Trump administration is seeking to spend $45 billion to expand immigration detention after receiving an infusion of cash from Congress.
The rise in detention deaths also coincides with more limited oversight measures. The Trump administration said in March that it would close two watchdog agencies that oversaw detention centers and investigated detainee complaints. DHS later reversed course, but lawyers for immigrants and nonprofit advocacy groups assert that deteriorating conditions at some locations are festering unchecked.
[…] Lawsuits have alleged that detainees are being held in overcrowded conditions, sometimes without beds, showers, adequate medical support or quality food.
“Slain M.I.T. Professor Was a ‘Brilliant Scientist’ and a Beloved Colleague”
“Nuno Loureiro, 47, was killed by an old classmate who was on the run from a shooting at Brown University, the authorities said.”
Growing up in Portugal […] Nuno Loureiro wanted to be a scientist.
And that he became, making startling discoveries in the world of physics while he was still in his 20s, achieving tenure by 40, and going on to lead a major research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
[…] Dr. Loureiro, 47, was fatally shot at his home in Brookline, Mass., this week, in a case that initially led to an outpouring of grief — and then shock, when the authorities announced that he had been killed by the suspect on the run from the shooting at Brown University two days earlier.
The suspect, identified as Claudio Neves Valente, walked into a study session at Brown University, in Providence R.I., on Dec. 13 and opened fire, killing two people and wounding nine others.
Two days later, the authorities said, he appeared in […] Brookline, where Dr. Loureiro lived with his family.
The authorities initially said the two cases did not appear to have a link, but in a dramatic turn on Thursday, they announced that Mr. Neves Valente was responsible for both shootings and that they had found him dead in a storage facility in New Hampshire. […]
Deepening the mystery, the suspect and professor were both native Portuguese, around the same age and had both studied physics at Instituto Superior Técnico from 1995 to 2000.
But it was unclear how well the two knew each other then, how their paths may have crossed or whether they had been in touch in the decades since. Close friends of Dr. Loureiro said they had not heard of Mr. Neves Valente until the authorities announced his name as the suspect.
The developments have shaken the tight-knit world of nuclear science and physics, where Dr. Loureiro was seen as both a beloved figure and star.
Dr. Loureiro made his name as a 20-something, with a major breakthrough in understanding how the sun releases explosions of energy, a phenomenon seen in solar flares.
“It is rare that a Ph.D. thesis reorients an entire field of study, but it’s fair to say that Nuno’s work on magnetic reconnection did just that,” said Ellen Zweibel, a professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
After earning his Ph.D. at Imperial College London in 2005, Dr. Loureiro conducted research at Princeton University and worked in the United Kingdom and Portugal, before heading to M.I.T. in 2016.
He was most recently leading the M.I.T. Plasma Science and Fusion Center. At the start of this year, he was one of nearly 400 people to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers […] Dennis Whyte, a former director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, described him as a “brilliant scientist” and a “brilliant person.”
Steven Cowley, the director of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and a longtime friend and colleague of Dr. Loureiro, said that his friend had managed to solve a “50-year mystery” while still in his 20s […]
“He would raise an eyebrow and look at you, and there would be a sense of irony,” said Dr. Cowley. “He had an eye for the absurd, and absolutely no pomposity. […]”
Far from the stereotypical scientist holed up in his lab with little to say to the outside world, Dr. Loureiro was known for being warm, down to earth […] He liked soccer and could often be found on the field with his daughter and children in his neighborhood.
[…] Colleagues described him as a cherished mentor to students, known for making complicated theories come to life.
[…] Dr. Loureiro is survived by his wife, daughters, mother and a brother.
“He was completely devoted to his daughters,” said Dr. Cowley, who said that he saw his friend as recently as this month at a meeting in Washington. It was family, not physics, that they talked about first.
“This is the most tragic thing that I have ever known,” Dr. Cowley said. “For his wife and three daughters, it is devastating. You can’t imagine a person more unlikely to be hated by anybody.”
To spell this out clearly, the reason RAM has quadrupled in price is that a huge quantity of RAM that hasn’t been produced yet has been bought with money that doesn’t exist to populate GPUs that also haven’t been produced to go in datacenters that haven’t been built powered by infrastructure that may never exist to meet a demand that doesn’t exist at all to make profit margins that mathematically can’t exist while economists talk about this thing they call the “rational markets hypothesis”.
It is easy to misunderstand what contemporary finance is and does. […] the assets of British banks ‘mostly consist of claims on other banks. Their liabilities are mainly obligations to other financial institutions. Lending to firms and individuals engaged in the production of goods and services—which most people would imagine was the principal business of a bank—amounts to about 3 per cent of that total.
Lending money where it’s needed is what the modern form of finance, for the most part, does not do. What modern finance does, for the most part, is gamble. It speculates on the movements of prices and makes bets on their direction. [*snipped example of stacking bets on bets*]
Notice that the final transaction is the only one in which a real exchange takes place. You grew the mangoes and the customer bought them. […] In between the time when they were your mangoes and the time when they became the customer’s mangoes, there were nine transactions. All of them amounted to a zero-sum activity. Some people made money and some lost it, and all of that cancelled out. No value was created in the process.
That’s finance. The total value of all the economic activity in the world is estimated at $105 trillion. That’s the mangoes. The value of the financial derivatives which arise from this activity—that’s the subsequent trading—is $667 trillion. That makes it the biggest business in the world. And in terms of the things it produces, that business is useless. It does nothing and adds no value. It is just one speculator betting against another and for every winner, on every single transaction, there is an exactly equivalent loser.
[…]
the classic three ways of making a fortune still apply: inherit it, marry it, or steal it. But for an ordinary citizen who wants to become rich through working at a salaried job, finance is by an enormous margin the most likely path. And yet […] finance is useless. I mean that in a strong sense: this activity produces nothing and creates no benefit for society
[…] This, historically, is a unique state of affairs. Until now, most riches have been based on real assets of land or trade […] What does it mean about us that we reward so generously this work which does so little? […] There was a brief moment during the pandemic when the question of valuable and worthwhile work was thrown into focus by the fact that the worst-paid jobs turned out to be the ones on which we all relied: retail staff, transport workers, delivery workers. We’ve done an excellent job of forgetting about that. […] Because gambling has no meaning, people who have made money through gambling have to find meaning outside the central thing they have done with their lives. Hence the importance of ‘philanthropy’ for the financial billionaire class.
[…]
the all-time number one champion of pure finance was Jim Simons, who died in May. Simons founded and ran Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund whose Medallion fund, over a period of thirty years, averaged an annualised return of 66 per cent (before fees). That’s a hard number to understand: if you put in $10,000 and left it to compound at 66 per cent for thirty years, you would end up with $2.35 trillion. You would start out with enough money to buy a mediocre second-hand car, and end with enough money to buy Italy (current GDP $2.25 trillion). The only reason that wasn’t possible with Medallion was because the fund paid out its winnings every year, to cap its size—otherwise, it would grow too big to keep its tactics and technology secret. Oh, and the only people allowed to participate in Medallion were employees and former employees […] no investor, speculator, gambler or magician has ever come anywhere near the financial performance of Simons and his fund.
[…]
Simons had a real gift for code-breaking […] reaching the peaks of pure mathematical research […] embarking on his fourth career, hoping to revolutionise the centuries-old world of investing. […] Simons’s fund, was based on his hunch that he could find a new way of making money in the markets. […] Simons didn’t care about the fundamentals [scrutinizing each business as Warren Buffett would]. He had no interest in the true value of a share or bond or commodity. […] he wanted to find a way of working out where they were going right now, today, and he wanted to get in and out and make his money. He planned to make not one or two big bets, but tens of thousands of small bets, and to come out ahead 51 per cent of the time. That’s all he needed: not to be right, just to be right most of the time.
[…]
A coin flipped energetically and caught in mid-air is 2 per cent more likely to land on the side that was facing upwards the last time. The principles at work appear to be aerodynamic […] some of the richest people on the planet earned their fortunes on the basis of the same odds you get by tossing a coin.
[…]
One of the two men who took over as co-CEOs when he retired, Robert Mercer, has been a lifelong supporter of libertarian causes. […] a person whose brilliance in his specialist field is balanced by the idiocy of his […] politics. Mercer anointed Steve Bannon as his political mentor.
[…]
I’m not sure if this counts as an irony. Perhaps it is too gloomy for that. But the fact is that the main impact on the world of Jim Simons, both a deeply brilliant man and a good person, was to make enough money for his Renaissance colleague to get Donald Trump elected president. That’s all just a consequence of what modern finance is
Sky Captain, quoting a London Review of Books article @119:
Lending to firms and individuals engaged in the production of goods and services—which most people would imagine was the principal business of a bank—amounts to about 3 per cent of that total.
Wow. I never would have guessed that the total is that low. 3 percent!
What modern finance does, for the most part, is gamble.
Hence the need for regulation.
Some people made money and some lost it, and all of that cancelled out. No value was created in the process.
At least 16 files disappeared from the Justice Department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a photograph showing President Donald Trump — less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public.
I don’t know how they thought they could do this without people noticing. The first thing a bunch of news organizations, public interest groups and some individuals did is grab all of the files and save them separately from the DOJ copy.
It is possible at least some of these are necessary, files that didn’t get complete redaction or have some other problem. There is no point in removing them without explaining why though because removing them without explanation just draws attention. Given how incompetent this administration is it is possible some are accidents also. Which would be massively embarrassing to the DOJ but remotely possible.
“A memorial to John F. Kennedy and his respect for the freedom of the arts has been renamed for a man with authoritarian instincts. By David Remnick
On October 26, 1963, just four weeks before he was assassinated, John F. Kennedy travelled to Amherst College to honor an American poet. Robert Frost, who had recited “The Gift Outright” at Kennedy’s Inauguration, had died earlier in the year, at the age of eighty-eight. Now the college was dedicating a library in his name. Kennedy arrived at Amherst by helicopter and, before an audience of students and scholars, paid tribute to the role of the independent artist in society and to Frost himself—“one of the granite figures of our time in America.”
“When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations,” Kennedy said. “When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.”
The rhetoric and rhythms of the speech, which was drafted by the historian and Kennedy confidant Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., are high-flown, very much of their era. […] Schlesinger recalled the early days of the Administration in which “Washington seemed engaged in a collective effort to make itself brighter, gayer, more intellectual. […] Kennedy’s language at the podium at Amherst would be unimaginable in the mouth of any modern political orator—say, Barack Obama—not because Obama is incapable of Kennedy’s complexity but, rather, because he knows that he would be talking past his audience as much as he was talking to them. [True]
But alongside the flagrant élitism of the Kennedy style was an earnest effort in his Administration to highlight the value of the arts. The Kennedys invited Pablo Casals to the White House, where he played Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Couperin in the East Room. The American Ballet Theatre performed “Billy the Kid.” The Paul Winter Sextet played “Saudade da Bahia.” André Malraux came to dinner. It was at a reception of forty-nine Nobel laureates that Kennedy famously remarked, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
Since the Eisenhower era, there had been a bipartisan effort to build a national cultural center in Washington, D.C. After Kennedy was killed, L.B.J. renamed the center as a living memorial to J.F.K. When it opened, in September, 1971, Leonard Bernstein premièred his “Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers,” and Judith Jamison, of the Alvin Ailey company, performed.
As of this week, thanks to the egocentric exertions of the current President and his obedient underlings and friends, the place has been renamed the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The center’s board, now loaded with loyalists such as Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham, of Fox News, made the grave decision at the Palm Beach manse of the casino magnate Steve Wynn, whose wife, Andrea, sits on the board. When Trump, who had been hinting broadly for the tribute online for months, heard the news, he feigned gratitude and shock. “I was surprised by it,” he said, fibbing effortlessly. The board insisted that the vote had been unanimous, but one Democrat who has yet to be booted from their midst, the Ohio congresswoman Joyce Beatty, said that she had called into the meeting but had been put on mute. “Everything was cut off,” she told Shawn McCreesh of the Times, “and then they immediately said, ‘Well, it’s unanimous. Everybody is for it.’ ” Various members of the Kennedy family (though not the Secretary of Health and Human Services) expressed their chagrin. Maria Shriver, J.F.K.’s niece, called the move “beyond comprehension.” […]
First came the cruelty of Trump’s remarks about the horrific murder of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner. Then came the chaotic disclosures of his chief of staff, Susie Wiles […] Her indiscretions came amid some heavy-lidded meetings in the White House (Wake up, Mr. President!) and Trump’s rant on the economy, in which he furiously assured citizens that things were just great: […] Trump’s fulmination had about it the whiff of desperation. […]
Trump’s appropriation of naming rights to the Kennedy Center is hardly his worst sin. (It was arguably not even his worst sin of the week.) But it is offensive all the same. This President simply cannot tolerate the degree of freedom and independence that art and artists require. He cannot tolerate the questioning of Kaitlan Collins. Seth Meyers makes him crazy. Why would he value the audacity of the rebellious playwright or the fearless satirist?
There is no need to harbor romantic illusions about John Kennedy. He was a politician, not an artist. […] But Kennedy nonetheless deserves to be the sole name on the façade of the performing-arts center; he recognized the value of artistic liberty in a way that no one with Trump’s authoritarian reflexes ever can. “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him,” Kennedy said at Amherst College.
We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. [!!] In free society, art is not a weapon, and it does not belong to the sphere of polemics and ideology. [In a] democratic society the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. And the nation which disdains the mission of art invites the fate of Robert Frost’s hired man, the fate of having “nothing to look backward to with pride, and nothing to look forward to with hope.” ♦
Bobby Nuñez, 33, was arrested and charged with theft of government property […] Video showed the government SUV with emergency lights activated being towed down the street […] The video also showed an agent running after the tow truck […] Nuñez was laughing as he used his cellphone to record what was happening. […] “A jury found Mr. Nuñez not guilty.[“]
[…] The pain of gun violence crosses political, cultural, and geographic divides — but no group has suffered as much as Black people, such as Harris. [Leon Harris, 35 … Robbers shot him in the back nearly two decades ago, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. The bullet remains lodged in his spine.] They were nearly 14 times as likely to die by gun homicide than white people in 2021, researchers said, citing federal data. Black men and boys are 6% of the population but more than half of homicide victims.
[…] Guns remain one of few consumer products the federal government does not regulate for health and safety.
“The politics of guns in the U.S. are so out of whack with proper priorities that should focus on health and safety and most fundamental rights to live,” said attorney Jon Lowy, founder of Global Action on Gun Violence […]
KFF Health News undertook an examination of gun violence during the pandemic, a period when firearm deaths reached an all-time high. […]
The examination found that while public officials imposed restrictions intended to prevent COVID’s spread, politicians and regulators helped fuel gun sales — and another public health crisis. [!]
As state and local governments shut down schools, advised residents to stay home, and closed gyms, theaters, malls, and other businesses to stop COVID’s spread, President Donald Trump kept gun stores open, deeming them essential businesses critical to the functioning of society. [!]
[…] During the pandemic, the federal government gave firearm businesses and groups more than $150 million in financial assistance through the Paycheck Protection Program, even as some businesses reported brisk sales, according to an analysis from Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group.
[…] About 1 in 5 American households bought a gun during the first two years of the pandemic, including millions of first-time buyers […]
“Guns aren’t going away unless we get to the root of people’s fears,” [Harris] said.
Surveys show most Americans who own a gun feel it makes them safer. But public health data suggests that owning a gun doubles the risk of homicide and triples chances of suicide in a home. [!]
“There’s no evidence that guns provide an increase in protection,” said Kelly Drane, research director for the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “We have been told a fundamental lie.” [!]
[I snipped the story of Jacquez Anlage’s death at age 20, and his mother’s response.]
During the pandemic, gun marketers told Americans they needed firearms to defend themselves against criminals, protesters, unreliable cops, and racial and political unrest […]
In a since-deleted June 18, 2020, Instagram post from Lone Wolf Arms, an Idaho-based manufacturer, a protester is depicted being confronted by police officers in riot gear between the words “Defund Police? Defend Yourself,” the petition shows. The caption says, “10% to 25% off demo guns and complete pistols.”
Impact Arms, an online gun seller, posted a picture on Instagram on Aug. 3, 2020, showing a person putting a rifle in a backpack, the document says. “The world is pretty crazy right now,” the caption reads. “Not a bad idea to pack something more efficient than a handgun.”
The National Rifle Association in 2020 posted on YouTube a four-minute video of a Black woman holding a rifle and telling viewers they need a gun in the pandemic. “You might be stockpiling up on food right now to get through this current crisis,” she said, “but if you aren’t preparing to defend your property when everything goes wrong, you’re really just stockpiling for somebody else.”
The messaging worked. Background checks for firearm sales soared 60% from 2019 to 2020, the year the federal government declared a public health emergency.
[…] Weapons sold at the beginning of the pandemic were more likely to wind up at crime scenes within a year than in any previous period [citing ATF data]
[…] The firearm industry has marketed “to white supremacist and extremist organizations for years, playing on fears of government repression against gun owners and fomenting racial tensions,” the House investigation said. “The increase in racially motivated violence has also led to rising rates of gun ownership among Black Americans, allowing the industry to profit from both white supremacists and their targets.”
In 2024, then-President Joe Biden’s Department of the Interior provided a $215,000 grant to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a leading firearm industry trade group, to help companies market guns to Black Americans. [Yikes]
The Federal Trade Commission is responsible for protecting consumers from deceptive and unfair business practices and has the power to take enforcement action. It issued warnings to companies that made unsubstantiated claims their products could prevent or treat COVID, for instance.
But when families of gun violence victims, lawmakers, and advocacy groups asked the FTC in 2022, during Biden’s term, to investigate how firearms were marketed to children, people of color, and groups that espouse white supremacy, officials did not announce any public action. […]
In 2015, the National Shooting Sports Foundation gathered supporters at a conference in Savannah, Georgia, and urged the firearm industry to diversify its customer base […] The slides described Black shooters as “expressive and confident socially, in a crowd” and “less likely to be married and to be a college grad.” They said Hispanic shooters were “much more trusting of advertising and celebrities.” [!]
[…] Gun manufacturers were harshly criticized in the Oversight Committee’s 2022 investigation for marketing products to people of color, as gun violence remains a leading cause of death for young Black and Latino men.
At the same time, some companies also promoted assault rifles to white supremacist groups who believe a race war is imminent, the investigation found. One company sold an AK-47-style rifle called the “Big Igloo Aloha,” a reference to an anti-government movement, it said.
[…] The police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the shooting death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin helped spark early interest from doctors, lawyers, and others in joining the group, he said. But interest took off during the pandemic, he said, even among Democrats who had resisted the idea of owning a gun.
[…] During the pandemic, gun violence took its greatest toll on racially segregated neighborhoods in places such as Philadelphia, where roughly 1 in 4 residents live in poverty.
A city report says a one-year period in the pandemic saw more than 2,300 shootings, or about six a day. Many of the cases haven’t been solved by police.
City officials cited the boom in gun sales in the report: Fewer than 400,000 sales took place in Pennsylvania in 2000, but in 2020 it was more than 1 million. [!]
Gun sales have dropped since the pandemic ended, but the harm they’ve caused persists.
[…] the nation has forgotten the suffering Philadelphia and other cities endured during the pandemic.
“We suffer from the disease of American amnesia,” he said.
Harris was on his way home from a job at Burlington Coat Factory nearly two decades ago when robbers followed him from a bus stop and demanded money. He said he had none and was shot.
Harris had spent his early life fixing cars with his grandfather, when he wasn’t at school or attending church. He remembers lying in a hospital bed, overcome with a sense of helplessness.
“I had to learn to feed myself again,” he said. “I was like a baby. I had to learn to sit up so I could use a wheelchair. […]”
Harris endured years of rehabilitation and counseling for PTSD. As someone in a wheelchair, he said, he sometimes fears for his safety — and a gun may be one of the few ways to protect himself and his family.
“I’m mulling it over,” Harris said. “I’m afraid of my trauma hurting someone else. That’s the only reason I haven’t gotten one yet.”
[…] Deep cuts to state budgets and at the Environmental Protection Agency are preventing regulators from fully protecting the public from pollution, according to a report released today by the Environmental Integrity Project.
The financial crisis at these agencies is occurring amid the expansion of the fossil fuel, plastics and petrochemical industries, said EIP Executive Director Jen Duggan.
[…] President Trump’s budget proposal would decimate 2026 spending at the EPA by 55 percent, or $4.2 billion [!] […] House Republicans are recommending cutting it by a quarter, while the Senate Appropriations Committee voted for a reduction of just 5 percent.
[…] Over the last 15 years, the agency’s budget has been slashed by 40 percent, Duggan said, and its workforce by 18 percent. Since Trump began his second term, more than 3,000 EPA workers have retired or have been terminated as part of the administration’s gutting of the agency.
The upshot of these cuts is that states have to pick up the slack, which is central to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s vision for the agency. In March, on the day he announced “the biggest deregulatory action in history,” Zeldin said he intended to “give power back to the states.”
However, the Trump administration has proposed eliminating most EPA grants to the states[
!!], undercutting their agencies’ ability to wield that power.
[I snipped details about cuts in Texas]
[…] “Ultimately it means communities don’t get relief from the environmental harms those polluters are causing,” […]
States with the deepest budget cuts to environmental agencies from 2010–2024, according to the report, are:
Mississippi—71 percent
South Dakota—61 percent
Alabama—49 percent
Texas—33 percent
Montana—32 percent
[…] North Carolina had the largest staffing cuts at environmental agencies from 2010 to 2024, according to the report, though the same caveat related to the 2015 restructuring applies.
States with the next largest staffing cuts, 2010-2024, are:
Question: Are there any additional House Republicans that have announced their resignations this week? I am not just referring to those who have announced they will not run again.
“Hello! I, Vladimir Putin, Command The Russian People: Get To F*cking!”
“Gotta get that birthrate up.”
Season’s greetings, odious Western fucksticks of Wonkette! It is I, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, here to make the Christmas speaking at you! Ah, Christmas. Which you celebrate on wrong date. Also, you do not make twelve-course feast to honor Apostles. And you do not spend all night in church. There is perhaps one hour giving thanks to God, and 20 hours opening decadent number of expensive gifts and stuffing faces with ham. Then the googling of how to order gym membership or Wegovy or amphetamines.
But Vlad loves holiday for different reason: It is time for his end-of-year press conference! Is wonderful day when reporters line up for hours to ask good, patriotic questions to which I give strong, patriotic answers. Questions such as “Mr. President, please tell us how your leadership this year made Russia greatest country in world,” and “President Putin, please accept gift of Rolls Royce Ghost and humblest apologies from publisher who you have threatened with confinement in Siberian prison colony.”
Funny story: Oligarch publisher gave Vlad Rolls Royce Ghost last year, and heated seats did not work! So he went to Siberian prison colony anyway. Let this be lesson for everyone: If giving glorious president Rolls Royce Ghost, check seat heaters first.
So many interesting questions this year! Reporter from Siberia ask if comet 3I/ATLAS is actually UFO piloted by intergalactic aliens. Is true! Siberians very touchy about asteroids crashing into planet after what happened last time. Plus, they have pickled their brains on loneliness. Also on traditional Siberian cocktail of bathtub vodka and industrial degreasing cleaner.
Now, 3I/ATLAS is no danger to Earth. But Vladimir tell this reporter: Go back to Siberia and tell people that 3I/ATLAS can be kept away from planet only if Siberian peoples stand on heads, naked, outside at midnight, all at same time, while howling like grey wolf caught in bear trap.
Ha, ha! Is just little joke Vladimir likes to play on Russian rubes, like you Americans did with your Southerners and integration.
One reporter inquired about low Russian birthrates and what can be done. Of course Vlad chuckled because — I will say this to you, Wonkette, because you will understand — the solution is more fucking. So much fucking. Russian men must fuck like horny bear at all times. Like bear, fucking and eating humpback salmon should be all strong Russian men think about.
But Vlad cannot say this, because Vlad is gentleman and there are mothers present. So he says, tovarich, do not worry, birthrate situation not as dire as some may say. Also that once we finish war — excuse, special military operation in Ukraine — we will have 44 million new Russians all at once! Certainly many of them do the fucking as much as Russian men. Birthrate will increase exponentially then. Even more if Vlad can convince Elon Musk to relocate from America.
Of course, when will special military operation end is main question Russian people ask. Answer is what it always has been: when Ukrainian Nazis are overthrown, their heads placed on pikes lining roads into Kyiv as warning, their flaccid Ukrainian penises rendered useless, their women shipped off to glorious Russian brothels, their children left orphaned and keening in grief, their fields reaped and then salted, their lands divided among local Russian warlords, their pets eaten.
But again, Vladimir cannot say this. Western media would have much angry time! European leaders would make the press releases denouncing Vlad. Would be sooooo annoying.
You know who would not care? Great friend of Russia Donald Trump! He is much too busy with his other projects like tearing down White House and putting name on every building in Washington and writing funny plaques. Sleepy Joe Biden is autopen! Ha, ha! You will tell Donald that Vlad said it was very funny, da?
In truth, Vlad is worried about Donald. The falling asleep in meetings! In front of cameras, even. Cameras! Donald loves those more than he loves own children. And the constant cognitive tests and the weird-looking hands. His health is of great concern to Vlad! Mostly because if he dies, JD Vance becomes president, and that guy is such a dick.
Anyway! S Rozhdestvom to all of Wonkette! Vlad wishes you great joy opening all your new Rollerblades and Labubus and guns on Christmas morning! Remember, no matter how materially happy you may be, you are still capitalist swine that Mother Russia will one day squash like particularly annoying ant!
More than a tenth of the current Congress has now indicated they will not return to their seats after the 2026 midterms, driven by redistricting, retirements and lawmakers running for different offices.
According to NPR’s congressional retirement tracker, as of Dec. 20, 2025, there are 55 current representatives and senators who are retiring or running for a different office — 11 senators and 44 House members. [List]
[…]
the atomic ensemble time scale at our Boulder campus has failed due to a prolonged utility power outage. One impact is that the Boulder Internet Time Services no longer have an accurate time reference. At time of writing the Boulder servers are still available due a standby power generator, but I will attempt to disable them to avoid disseminating incorrect time. […] No time to repair estimate is available until we regain staff access and power.
[…]
Due to prolonged high wind gusts there have been a combination of utility power line damage and preemptive utility shutdowns (in the interest of wildfire prevention) in the Boulder, CO area. NIST’s campus lost utility power Wednesday […] Facility operators anticipated needing to shutdown the heat-exchange infrastructure providing air cooling to many parts of the building, including some internal networking closets […] with the result that our group lacks much of the monitoring and control capabilities we ordinarily have. Also, the site has been closed to all but emergency personnel Thursday and Friday, and at time of writing remains closed.
[…]
we now have strong evidence one of the crucial generators has failed. […] Another campus building houses additional clocks backed up by a different power generator; if these survive it will allow us to re-align the primary time scale when site stability returns without making use of external clocks or reference signals.
Commentary
On the xkcd Dependency comic this isn’t the bottom layer. It’s several miles below it.
Things will be perfectly fine so long as the other backup generator and clocks in a different buiding of NIST Boulder stay online.
The global time standards are set by a network of several hundred clocks at nearly a hundred sites. Specifically so that any one site going offline will not mess things up too much.
There have been rolling power outages here because we’re at sub-10% humidity, it’s 60 plus degrees in mid-December, there are hurricane force winds, and the Marshall fire was 2021. But Trump wants to close NCAR because of climate alarmism.
Climate change broke time?
“Clocks broke, can’t estimate repair time.”
Now 2025 will never end.
The blockchain needs accurate timestamps to work…
I would just like to note that Time itself did not collapse under Joe Biden.
Say what you will about Biden, but at least the clocks ran on time.
It’s weird that part of maintaining the atomic clocks requires the President to be able to draw one.
There was a near collision between an airliner and a US Airforce tanker in the Caribbean. Fortunately the crew of the airliner saw the military plane and stopped climbing. The military plane had its’ transponder turned off so it was invisible to air traffic control. There is no justification for doing this in the Caribbean.
An aircraft the is on a collision course is inconspicuous because it appears to be motionless in the windscreen/canopy. Fortunately the Jet Blue pilots were observant and avoided a collision.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: Militant Agnostic @135:
That Captain Steeeve video supersedes NYT by stepping through pilot chatter. One thing NYT added was the implication that it’d been a frequent occurrence in the region lately.
birgerjohanssonsays
A long but eloquent explanation of how USA got here, from the time of the Johnson administration to today.
crossposted earlier from PZ’s IT article:
It is the Winter Solstice. We celebrate that the Winter Solstice as the deepest point of winter, in the knowledge that the world will awaken to spring in a while. At this time we enjoy the evergreens as signs that life still endures.
However, other than a handful of decent caring people who try, there is nothing in the grinding destructive machinery of human society that we can celebrate. Those whose lives are obsessed only with acquisition of obscene amounts of money and power are the most destructive force in this deteriorating world they have created.
This Winter Solstice, the community that is my organization, takes some comfort in, and shares with you, consideration of the fundamentals of modern secular humanism which include these tenets:
Secular Humanism is ethical.
Secular Humanism is rational.
Secular Humanism supports democracy and human rights.
Secular Humanism insists that personal liberty must be combined with social responsibility.
Secular Humanism is a response to the widespread demand for an alternative to dogmatic religion.
Secular Humanism values artistic creativity and imagination and recognizes the transforming power of art.
Secular Humanism is a way of living aiming at the maximum possible fulfillment through the cultivation of ethical and creative living and offers an ethical and rational means of addressing the challenges of our times.
It is our hope that someday, in some unforeseen way, society will awaken from, and reject, this murderous debauchery and reverse the DEATH SPIRAL in which we are currently mired.
“Buying airline tickets for holiday travel is already stressful enough. Airlines relying on AI models to set ticket prices will likely make things even worse.”
[…] finding reasonably priced airline tickets can feel like a game of chance — and not a fun one. That’s because for decades, airlines have become experts in dynamic pricing, changing ticket prices frequently based on when you buy, what seat you get and when you travel. An analysis from the travel website Upgraded Points, for example, showed that holiday flights cost an average $100 more than a typical week.
But a recent announcement from a major airline that it’s in the “test phase” of “leveraging AI-enhancing pricing solutions” has the potential to make this incredibly opaque and frustrating pricing system a lot worse. Delta CEO Ed Bastian revealed during a quarterly earnings call in July that Delta was already using artificial intelligence to help with pricing for 3% of flights and planned for it to expand to 20% by the end of the year.
The response was swift. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called it “the worst thing I have heard from the already awful airline industry.” Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Mark Warner of Virginia demanded more information in a letter to Delta, and Sen. Gallego warned that he wouldn’t let Delta “get away with” personalized AI pricing. Delta’s response, in an Aug. 7 written statement, was that it is using AI in its “dynamic pricing model” and said: “There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized prices based on personal data.” [social media post]
Similarly, in September, at a hearing before a Senate subcommittee on antitrust and consumer protection, a representative from Airlines for America, or A4A, the lobbying group for major airlines including Delta, American, United and Southwest, told Sen. Blumenthal that its member airlines do not use “personal information to target a price toward a person.” However, when Sen. Hawley asked if A4A would support a ban on using AI to set individualized seat prices, the industry’s response was disturbing. The representative answered no because “AI can be used in many, many different ways.”
The lobbying group’s refusal to support such a ban suggests that the industry wants the option of using AI for personalized pricing in the future, and it raises questions about its future intentions.
There are legitimate concerns that by collecting vast amounts of data from customers and making inferences from personal characteristics, airlines could charge each person a unique price — thereby maximizing its profits on the backs of those who need to travel. [social media post]
Here’s a scenario: You live in New York, and the funeral for your beloved great-aunt who lived in Phoenix is in a week. Because you went online to send lilies to a Phoenix funeral home, an airline could know that you absolutely need to get to Arizona soon. Or perhaps the airline sees that you’re using the newest iPhone or are searching for tickets from a wealthy part of town and therefore figures you can pay more for a flight. Maybe you celebrate a particular religious holiday and are looking to travel to spend it with your in-laws. Why not raise prices on you then, too? Policymakers and consumers should be worried about the possibility of AI-based personalized pricing — from airlines and from other companies, too.
Already, the airlines’ so-called privacy policies tell us they collect information on mouse movements on our computers and what websites we’ve come from. They build profiles based on household income range, employment and education history, social media account information and even genetic or biometric information. With the increased commercial sale of Americans’ personal information through data brokers, it’s easy to see how data can be abused to target prices to consumers.
Even if airlines don’t end up adopting personalized pricing, AI-enhanced dynamic pricing is dystopian in its own right. Bloomberg recently reported that a company called Fetcherr that Delta uses has outlined how it could help airlines use AI to create far more dynamic — that’s a code word for higher — fares, thereby increasing revenues.
[…] The solution to this problem is simple: Ban personalized and AI-based dynamic pricing for airlines. Airlines should not be able to charge people different prices for the same seat simply because of who they are or what their data suggests about them. Although airlines have said they are not currently and are not planning to engage in personalized pricing, their refusal to support such a ban is a strong indicator that they could go down this road in the future — and that makes it all the more important to address the problem now, before it’s too late.
On July 18, a mild, overcast night in Nairobi, Kenya, a team of President Donald Trump’s top foreign aid advisers ducked into a meeting room at the Tribe Hotel, their luxury accommodations in the city’s diplomatic quarter, for a private dinner.
The visitors from Washington included Marcus Thornton, a former Border Patrol agent known for a series of public lawsuits against the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate; Kenneth Jackson, a former oil executive who had done a stint in government under the first Trump administration; and Laken Rapier, who’d previously managed communications for the city of Fort Worth, Texas. This year, all had been appointed to leadership roles in the U.S. Agency for International Development, the premier government humanitarian agency in the world.
Five months earlier, some of the visiting aides had celebrated USAID’s destruction over cake and speeches in Washington. With that job done, they’d embarked on a world tour of half a dozen cities, including the Kenyan capital. They were granted special permission to fly business class “to help ensure maximum rest and comfort,” according to an internal memo. Thornton alone received authorization to expense more than $35,000 in taxpayer money for the trip. The plan was to conduct exit interviews with USAID’s top experts, who were being forced out of the agency amid the administration’s stated commitment to austerity.
When the U.S. embassy in Nairobi learned of the visit, officials there arranged the dinner with a goal in mind. It would be their last opportunity to explain, face-to-face, the catastrophic impact of Trump’s drastic cuts to foreign aid.
A top concern: the administration’s failure to fund the World Food Program’s operation in Kenya, where about 720,000 refugees, among the most vulnerable people on earth, relied on the organization to survive. After providing $112 million in 2024, the U.S. abruptly cut off money in January without warning, leaving the program with no time to find adequate support or import the food needed for the rest of the year.
For months afterward, U.S. government and humanitarian officials warned Washington that the cutoff had led to increasingly dire circumstances. They begged Trump’s political advisers, including Thornton, to renew WFP’s grant and give the money it needed to avert disaster. The embassy in Nairobi sent at least eight cables to the office of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, explaining the situation on the ground and projecting mass hunger, violence and regional instability.
Those warnings went unheeded. Rubio, facing pressure from lawmakers and humanitarian groups, nevertheless publicly asserted that the agency’s mass cuts had spared food programs — even as the administration failed to fund WFP in Kenya behind the scenes. “If it’s providing food or medicine or anything that is saving lives and is immediate and urgent, you’re not included in the freeze,” Rubio told reporters on Feb. 4. “I don’t know how much more clear we can be than that.”
By the spring, WFP still had not received funding, ran low on supplies and would be forced to stop feeding many of Kenya’s refugees. In Kakuma, the third-largest camp in the world, WFP cut rations to their lowest in history, trapping most of the 308,000 people in the camp with almost nothing to eat. [map]
They began to starve, and many — mostly children — died because their malnourished bodies couldn’t fight off infections, ProPublica found while reporting in the camp. Mothers had to choose which of their kids to feed. Young men took to the streets in protests, some of which devolved into violent riots. Pregnant women with life-threatening anemia were so desperate for calories that they ate mud. Out of options and mortally afraid, refugees began fleeing the camp by foot and in overcramped cars, threatening a new migration crisis on the continent. They said they’d rather risk being shot or dying on the perilous route than slowly starving in Kakuma.
To press the urgency of the situation in East Africa at dinner, the embassy officials enlisted Dragica Pajevic, a WFP veteran of more than two decades. Pajevic arrived at the Tribe Hotel early. She brought props. The bag slung over her shoulder held a collection of Tupperware containers with different amounts of dry rice, lentils and oil.
As they ate, she placed each container on the table. The largest represented 2,100 daily calories, what humanitarians like her consider the minimum daily intake for an adult. The next container showed 840 calories. That is what a fifth of refugees in Kakuma were set to receive come August. Another third would get just over 400 calories. Then she showed an empty container. The rest — almost half of the people in Kakuma — would get nothing at all.
Pajevic ended her presentation by relaying a truism that she said a government official in Liberia had once told her: The only difference between life and death during a famine is WFP and the U.S. government, its largest donor.
“The one who’s not hungry cannot understand the beastly pain of hunger,” Pajevic said, “and what a person is willing to do just to tame that beastly pain.”
The response was muted, according to other people familiar with the dinner. Jackson, then USAID’s deputy administrator for management and resources, said the decision to renew WFP’s grant was now with the State Department, and gave no indication he would appeal on the organization’s behalf. Thornton, a foreign service officer who ascended to a leadership post under Trump, did not speak. Instead, he spent much of the meal looking at his cellphone.
The dinner plates were cleared and the visitors headed to the airport. “They just took zero responsibility for this,” one of the attendees said, “and zero responsibility for what’s going to happen.”
The details of this episode are drawn from accounts by six people familiar with the trip, as well as internal government records. Most people in this article spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. This year, ProPublica, The New Yorker and other outlets have documented violence and hunger due to the aid cuts in Kenya’s camps. But the scale of suffering throughout Kakuma — and the string of decisions by American officials that contributed to it — have not been previously reported.
The camp had seen similar spikes in pediatric malnutrition in recent years, but they were tied to natural causes, such as malaria outbreaks, extreme drought or COVID-19, according to staff of the International Rescue Committee, a U.S.-based nonprofit that operates Kakuma’s only hospital.
This was something different: an American-made hunger crisis. So far this year, community health workers have referred almost 12,000 malnourished children for immediate medical attention.
“What has come with Trump, I’ve never experienced anything like it,” said one aid worker who has been in Kakuma for decades. “It’s huge and brutal and traumatizing.”
In response to a detailed list of questions, a senior State Department official insisted that no one had died as a result of foreign aid cuts. [Lies] The official also said that the U.S. still gives WFP hundreds of millions a year and the administration is shifting to investments that will better serve both the U.S. and key allies like Kenya over time. “We just signed a landmark health agreement with Kenya,” the official said, pointing to recent endorsements by government officials there. “That’s going to transform their ability to build their domestic capacity, to take care of their populations, to improve the quality of health care in Kenya.”
The day of the dinner, 370 miles from the Tribe Hotel, Mary Sunday sat on a vinyl bed in the pediatric malnutrition ward of Kakuma’s hospital, cradling her 7-month-old baby, Santina. [I snipped most of the details of this incredibly touching and tragic story. See the link for the full description.]
when Santina was 6 months old, WFP cut the camp’s food rations. Families like theirs were allotted just a small amount of rice and lentils — 630 daily calories per person — which they were expected to make last until August. Sunday and Lotunya stretched it as long as they could, eating one small meal per day. But the food ran out before the end of June. Sunday stopped producing enough breastmilk to feed Santina, and their chubby baby began to waste away. By the time they arrived at the hospital, Santina weighed only 11 pounds. Staff noted in her charts that she was severely malnourished, her eyes sunken.
[…] Worldwide, this year is the first in decades that early childhood deaths will increase, the Gates Foundation recently reported. Researchers said a key factor is the cuts to foreign aid.
In the hospital’s courtyard, another mother, 20-year-old Nyangoap Riek, leaned against a tree with her two children at her feet and said she was considering an extreme solution. “The thing I think about is committing suicide,” she told ProPublica, “because I heard the U.N. takes care of the kids when the parents are gone.”
Kakuma has been a sanctuary in East Africa since the United Nations and Kenyan government began accepting refugees there in 1992. People have come fleeing deadly violence in some two dozen countries […] Covering an area about half the size of Manhattan, Kakuma is a loose constellation of mud and thatch neighborhoods and corrugated metal slums, like a macabre oasis in a desert, stitched together by rutted motorcycle trails.
Its sheer scale has drawn political figures, Olympic gold medalists and Hollywood celebrities on humanitarian visits. Movies have been made, including a documentary about the “Lost Boys of Sudan,” a group of unaccompanied minors escaping war and conflict. Angelina Jolie opened a school there.
[…] In the past, USAID gave WFP’s global operations billions every year, including the funds to feed refugees at camps in Kenya. The aid is one end of a bargain to bring stability to the region. Countries like Kenya take in refugees from a host of other countries fleeing violence, famine or natural disasters. In exchange, the U.S., along with other wealthy nations vested in saving lives, help foot the bill for essential services. Without food, experts say, refugees would likely spill out of Kenya into other countries. Conflicts may last longer, claim more lives and create new refugees.
[…] When the Trump administration froze thousands of USAID programs during a putative review of the agency’s operations in January, Rubio insisted food programs would be spared. [Rubio lied.]
[…] [WFP leaders] had received no notice ahead of the cuts and no communication about whether the Trump administration would ever renew their grant. “There was zero plan, except causing pain,” said one U.N. official. “And that is not forgivable.”
[…] In August, food rations were cut to historic lows. Almost half the Kakuma camp got nothing at all. [illustration]
But this year, WFP’s leaders were forced to stretch their remaining supplies from last year. They made the drastic decision to cut rations to their lowest in Kakuma’s history. They also reduced distributions to once every other month instead of monthly.
In August, the handouts would become even more austere, as WFP rushed to prioritize families based on need. They determined only half the population would receive food. […]
Across the world in Washington, the fate of places like Kakuma was in the hands of a select few political appointees, including Thornton, who was named the agency’s deputy chief of staff on March 18. Thornton first worked beneath Peter Marocco, Rubio’s head of foreign assistance, and later under Jeremy Lewin, initially an Elon Musk hire.[…]
As pleas poured in from government officials in Washington and abroad to restart aid operations in Africa, including WFP in Kenya, the appointees often failed to act […]
On March 18, USAID’s political leadership invited career government aid officials from the agency’s major bureaus to pitch the handful of programs they thought were most critical. It was the only time the agency’s Africa bureau had an opportunity to make a full-throated case for its development programs across the continent. They had just 45 minutes to do it.
In the room was Thornton, a member of the Ben Franklin Fellowship, an organization that champions “the primacy of American sovereignty.” [I snipped other smug nonsense from Thornton.]
As part of the meeting, Brian Frantz, acting head of USAID’s Africa bureau and a diplomat with nearly 25 years of experience, pitched Kenya as an important trade and national security partner. At one point when discussing another country, Frantz mentioned the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, using the acronym TDA. Thornton perked up, according to two attendees. Then he asked: Was TDA a reference to the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua? [JFC]
The USAID officials were stunned. “That was the one thing Thornton said in that meeting,” one of the attendees recalled. “There was just zero interest in the subject matter.”
In a blistering memo circulated around the agency before he was laid off in late summer, Frantz upbraided political leaders. He detailed how they had prevented lifesaving programs from coming back online by refusing to pay for services already rendered and restricting access to USAID’s payment systems. He said they had frequently changed the process for how to appeal program terminations, burying their subordinates in paperwork for months. […]
Months before the last-ditch appeal at the Tribe dinner, embassy staff in Nairobi had also tried unsuccessfully to get funding restored to WFP. In March, Marc Dillard, the acting U.S. ambassador, went to Kakuma for a tour of the hospital where Sunday and Santina would later check in.
After seeing the stakes firsthand, Dillard signed a series of cables to Washington documenting the chaos and death in Kakuma and other camps caused by the sudden funding cuts to WFP. On May 6, the embassy wrote that declining food assistance had “already contributed to several deaths and could result in escalating instability in Kenya.
[I snipped details recounting how a group of teenagers and young men set fire to WFP’s tents.] Ordinarily considered among the most peaceful refugee camps in Africa, Kakuma went into lockdown. Aid workers hid inside their compounds.
Sexual assault, violent protests and other crimes would only increase without aid, Kenyan government officials warned the embassy, according to another cable. They predicted the cuts could destabilize one of America’s closest allies in Africa, “undermining Kenyan willingness to host thousands of refugees, many of whom would likely otherwise join the illegal migration flows bound for Europe and the United States.”
At a roadside staging area, some of those fleeing Kakuma hired smugglers to take them the 70 miles to the South Sudan border — the same country where they had escaped violence. As many as two dozen women, children and babies contorted inside cars with their belongings piled on the roof. “It’s hunger that chased us,” one woman said through the cracked window of a car about to depart. “It’s hunger that’s making us leave.”
In mid-May, USAID’s humanitarian assistance bureau in Washington delivered a memo again requesting the political appointees approve funding for WFP Kenya. “Without this additional assistance,” the appeal stated, “the WFP-provided food rations will reduce from normal levels of 60% to 20%, putting nearly 1 million people at risk of starvation and death and likely triggering additional insecurity within the refugee camps.”
Records show seven advisers in the chain of command signed off on more funding for WFP in Kenya. When the request got to Thornton, who by then had been promoted to USAID’s chief of staff, he did not. No money went through at that time. “Thornton became a real road block,” a former USAID official said.
[…] n late September, the State Department signed an extension to WFP’s Kenya operation. This year, the U.S. gave $66 million, which is 40% less than it received last year and, critically, the funds arrived nine months into the year.
WFP has told refugees it plans to provide food through at least March. Even then, most families are set to receive between one-fifth and three-fifths of the recommended minimum daily calories.
Sunday, Lotunya and Grace would each get the equivalent of 420 calories a day.
Wonderful music videos and commentary at the link. I especially recommend “Solstice Saga Celebration,” however there are also lots of shorter videos you may enjoy,.
I should note that some of the music highlighted in the link provided in comment 144 is religious in nature, or it has roots in religion.
That doesn’t really bother me. I have developed a habit of ignoring the religious aspects of those performances and focusing instead on the skill of the musicians. Works for me.
Bekki Holzkamm has been trying to hire a lab technician at a hospital in rural North Dakota since late summer.
Not one U.S. citizen has applied.
West River Health Services in Hettinger, a town of about 1,000 residents in the southwestern part of the state, has four options, and none is good.
The hospital could fork over $100,000 for the Trump administration’s new H-1B visa fee and hire one of the more than 30 applicants from the Philippines or Nigeria. The fee is the equivalent of what some rural hospitals would pay two lab techs in a year, said Holzkamm, who is West River’s lab manager.
West River could ask the Department of Homeland Security to waive the fee. But it’s unclear how long the waiver process would take and if the government would grant one. The hospital could continue trying to recruit someone inside the U.S. for the job. Or, Holzkamm said, it could leave the position unfilled, adding to the workload of the current “skeleton crew.”
The U.S. health care system depends on foreign-born professionals to fill its ranks of doctors, nurses, technicians, and other health providers, particularly in chronically understaffed facilities in rural America.
But a new presidential proclamation aimed at the tech industry’s use of H-1B visas is making it harder for West River and other rural providers to hire those staffers.
“The health care industry wasn’t even considered. They’re going to be collateral damage, and to such an extreme degree that it was clearly not thought about at all,” said Eram Alam, a Harvard associate professor whose new book examines the history of foreign doctors in the U.S.
[…] The new $100,000 fee — part of a September proclamation by President Donald Trump — applies to workers living outside the U.S. but not those who were already in the U.S. on a visa.
[…] Sixteen percent of registered nurses, 14% of physician assistants, and 14% of nurse practitioners and midwives who work in U.S. hospitals are immigrants, according to a 2023 government survey. Nearly a quarter of physicians in the U.S. went to medical school outside the U.S. or Canada, according to 2024 licensing data.
The American Hospital Association, two national rural health organizations, and more than 50 medical societies have asked the administration to give the health care industry exemptions from the new fee. The new cost will disproportionally harm rural communities that already struggle to afford and recruit enough providers, the groups argue.
“A blanket exception for healthcare providers is the simplest path forward,” the National Rural Health Association and National Association of Rural Health Clinics wrote in a joint letter.
The proclamation allows fee exemptions for individuals, workers at specific companies, and those in entire industries when “in the national interest.” New guidance says the fee will be waived only in an “extraordinarily rare circumstance.” That includes showing that there is “no American worker” available for the position and that requiring a company to spend $100,000 would “significantly undermine” U.S. interests.
[…] This decades-long dependency stems from population booms, medical schools’ historical exclusion of nonwhite men, and the “much, much cheaper” cost of importing providers trained abroad than expanding health education in the U.S.
Internationally trained doctors tend to work in rural and urban areas that are poor and underserved, according to a survey and research review.
Nearly 1,000 H-1B providers were employed in rural areas this year […]
Kornele said West River won’t be able to afford a $100,000 fee so it’s doubling down on local recruiting and retention.
But Holzkamm said she hasn’t been successful in finding lab techs from North Dakota colleges, even those who intern at the hospital. She said West River can’t compete with the salaries offered in bigger cities.
“It’s a bad cycle right now. We’re in a lot of trouble,” she said. […]
“Latest Conservative defection brings Liberals within one seat of majority government.”
Nobody expects the weirdos at the Conservative Party of Canada to know how to throw a good party, but their latest end-of-season shindig went so badly it might end up tipping the balance of power in Ottawa.
Michael Ma, a rookie member of Parliament for the Ontario riding of Markham-Unionville, announced he was jumping ship from the Tories within one day of attending his first office Christmas party with them, although it seems unlikely hard eggnog or mistletoe misadventure were involved.
Ma made the surprise announcement at the Liberals’ own seasonal holiday gathering the following night that he’s become the first of potentially more MPs […]
Mark Carney’s Liberals now have 171 seats in the House of Commons — just one shy of the 172 needed for a majority government — which means they’ll now only need two opposition members to no-show (or at least one to vote with them) to pass laws or survive confidence votes.
Tory leader Pierre Poilievre […] went as far as to suggest Ma didn’t just betray voters but even somehow dined and dashed […] [photo]
“He was literally dancing with our MPs, and the next day he made a deal with Mr. Carney, so it’s very strange and he needs to answer questions,” Peewee complained in French to the host. “He should pay his bill, but the fact that he didn’t pay his bill will surely make him a good Liberal.”
[…] raises the possibility minions had to pay to attend their own office Christmas party, which was held in a private Toronto residence and doubled as a fundraiser. Some might call this fiscal conservatism, but even my low-paying gig driving a water taxi offers complimentary finger food and a drink ticket, while Rebecca always sends a little something extra in December.
The man is also being accused of failing as a Secret Santa, according to JD Vance’s bestie Jamil Jivani […]
“When Michael Ma crossed the floor, I wondered maybe I didn’t get a gift because he decided not to give one,” said Jivani. “Maybe he decided to give it to a Liberal instead.”
His new seat on the Liberal side of the aisle is of course the real gift, although the rando businessman isn’t expected to get a plum cabinet position in exchange […] it was only three weeks ago he called them “Team Feudalism” and claimed “the Liberals do not believe in a productive economy that works for hard-working Canadians.”
A petition calling for his resignation already has more than 37,000 signatures, some of them possibly even from constituents rather than just bots or angry Albertans. It’s worth noting Markham-Unionville, a suburban riding north of Toronto that’s home to a vast number of Chinese immigrants, is considered a swing riding that regularly gets swapped back and forth between the two main parties while the NDP and Green candidates are distant also-rans. Widespread outrage over their MP casting in with Carney instead of the smarmy sore loser who couldn’t even win his own frickin seat in the last election seems unlikely. There’s just not the same interest in owning the libs […] as there is other parts of Canada.
Kurt Holman, the MP for London-Fanshawe, had this final gift to add: [social media post]
I gave him an Amazon Fire Stick just hours before he crossed the floor. Now I want my gift back, just like the people of Markham-Unionville want their votes back!
It’s a bold choice of gift for a Canadian politician to brag aboot since we’re all meant to be boycotting certain American products thanks to MAGA skullfuckery, and lining Jeff Bezos’s pockets in particular is no longer considered a good look. But at least the devices come with the option for CBC Gem, the free and surprisingly robust Canadian streaming service provided by our national public broadcaster that Conservatives never shut up about wanting to defund.
Scientists staked out [a German cave]. The team documented 30 attempts and 13 kills … grabbing bats midflight or shortly after they landed … impressive given that the rodents hunt at night, when they are effectively blind; the rats may rely on their whiskers to detect changes in air currents caused by the bats’ flapping wings. […] makes rats […] a possible transmitter of bat-borne pathogens
Ethan White (Env data sci): “I remember being amazed watching snakes do this at the mouth of Carlsbad Caverns when I was in high school.”
This weekend, Bowen Yang did most of the singing at his own departure, leading a bittersweet cover of “Please Come Home for Christmas” in his final “S.N.L.” sketch after seven and a half seasons on the show.
Yang, who became an “S.N.L.” writer in 2018 and a cast member in 2019, revealed earlier on Saturday that he would be leaving the show. In a post on Instagram, he wrote that his “S.N.L.” tenure occurred “at a time when many things in the world started to seem futile, but working at 30 rock taught me the value in showing up anyway when people make it worthwhile.”
Yang’s true goodbye occurred at the end of the broadcast, in a sketch where he played an attendant dispensing eggnog to travelers in his final shift at a Delta lounge in Kennedy Airport.
It was pretty obvious what Yang was really talking about when he said in the sketch that he would “miss everything about this place — the way it smells, the celebrities who would come through.”
A character played by Grande congratulated Yang on “all the eggnog you’ve made over the years — some of it was great, some of it was rotten.”
“And a lot of it got cut,” Yang replied. Still, as he said about eggnog: “It’s not for everyone, but the people who like it are my kind of people.”
And, yes, Cher joined in the sketch at its conclusion to tell Yang: “Well, everyone thought you were a little bit too gay. But you know what? You’re perfect for me.” […]
The U.S. Coast Guard “is in active pursuit” of a sanctioned vessel in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter tell NBC News.
“The United States Coast Guard is in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion. It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order,” one of the officials say.
If caught this will be the third vessel intercepted by the U.S. in the Caribbean. On Saturday, the Pentagon interdicted a second tanker which the White House said carried sanctioned oil on board.
Earlier this month an initial, sanctioned boat known as the Skipper was seized off the coast of Venezuela.
Earlier Saturday, two U.S. officials told NBC News that the Coast Guard was in the middle of an ongoing operation off the Venezuelan coast. The operation was first reported by Reuters.
Tensions have been flaring between the U.S. and Venezuela, with the Trump administration conducting strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific.
President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of war with Venezuela earlier this week.
this [Bari Weiss feminism debate] is *so* much worse than it seems. […] Because it’s not just Bari Weiss’ CBS asking this question—in the last few months, I’ve been approached by half a dozen different shows looking to ‘debate’ the same topic.
I even got a request from NPR-distributed “Open to Debate” to see if I’d weigh in on “Has Feminism Hurt Women?” NPR!
I also declined Diary of a CEO’s invitation to have a “balanced and insightful discussion” about whether feminism “delivered on its promise of liberation for women.” They ended up titling it, “Has modern feminism betrayed the very women it promised to empower?”
Why decline all these chances to defend feminism? Because to participate would be accepting the premise that our rights and humanity are up for debate in the first place. Once you’ve conceded that it’s reasonable to ask whether women’s equality was a mistake, you’ve already lost.
None of this is “good faith political debate,” and it’s not a coincidence that all these outlets are suddenly interested in the same “discussion” at the same time. Treating women’s humanity like a thought exercise makes it that much easier to legislate away.
I mean jfc CNN just *sat down and interviewed* a group of Christian nationalist leaders who want to repeal women’s right to vote!
[…]
That’s why conservatives are pouring millions intro trad-wife bullshit and birth control disinformation. They need young women to believe the erosion of their rights is a good thing, actually!
[…]
You know what makes us happy? Bank accounts. Voting rights. The ability to leave a bad marriage and not have a miscarriage kill us.
Here’s a good rule of thumb: Critical reporting on bigotry shouldn’t leave bigots delighted. […] They’re carefully creating a world where flat-earthers are just as credible as scientists, where women’s humanity is just another political talking point, and—most importantly to those in the radical minority—where ‘both sides’ are not only equally credible, but equally representative of America. […] They’re not trying to change minds; they’re trying to trick Americans into believing that their deeply unpopular policies actually have the country evenly divided.
What better way to hide the fact that you’re passing laws voters don’t really want? Take abortion rights: 81% of Americans don’t want the government involved in abortion at all, but Republicans have successfully cemented the lie that voters are split
Rando: “Trans rights ‘debate’ was just the start […] as we all warned.”
Waymo service has been suspended in San Francisco after a widespread power outage left many robotaxis paralyzed, causing major traffic disruptions across the city. Videos taken across the city showed the robotaxis stalled out or blocking intersections, compounding gridlock. The power outages have also shut down stoplights, adding to the traffic chaos.
[…]
Waymo did not provide an explanation as to why its vehicles were impacted by the blackout. It’s possible that the disruptions to traffic signals and traffic data the robotaxis normally receive wirelessly triggered safety protocol that led them to stop.
Around a third of the city remains without power after a fire at [a] Pacific Gas and Electric substation
This is your city on driverless cars. [Video clips]
Commentary
It’s really quite astonishing that the San Francisco Waymo cars don’t have a failsafe mode in which they safely park themselves
Were these cars ticketed and towed to an impound yard? If I abandoned my car in the middle of a street, that is what would happen to me.
To their credit, earlier in the day on big thoroughfares […] & on some of the smaller streets, the Waymo cars managed the 4-way stops at the dark traffic lights way better than the humans. Humans lost their minds! But when cell service went out or got overwhelmed… they became hazards. Some pulled to the curb & then went out of service. Others […] just stopped at the intersection, blocking two westbound lanes.
When the cell towers dropped, I don’t think the human operators could remotely connect to the cars.
Shoutout to Muni operators keeping their buses and the city moving […] and as for the invisibilized support crew that babysits Waymos to maintain the fiction of “autonomous” driving, I empathize with you today and you deserve a union.
[Dec 21] Our local underground system, Muni, is still not operating properly. Eastbound services are completely out. Westbound services are running however they’re not picking up passengers!
Rando:
once upon a time I naively (read: idiotically) thought that self-driving cars would be great for folks who cannot drive due to disability, but after going to Japan, I realized that investing more into public transit networks and paratransit programs would be much better. Granted, electric trains and wire-powered electric buses are also vulnerable to blackouts—that’s why I mostly see non-wired buses in SF these days.
But even then, at least in a blackout, the transit agency can enact contingency measures that are set in stone—what’s the contingency measure for a ton of SDCs that suddenly have no internet connection that either have passengers with no driving qualifications or experience or no passengers at all?
@150 Lynna, OM posted: DEVELOPING: U.S. Coast Guard ‘in active pursuit’ of third vessel off the Venezuelan coast
I reply: The last thing I want is for the chicken hawks running this country to have an excuse to start a ‘hot’ war. Maduro is probably almost as corrupt as the magat-in-chief and his war mongers here, but where are the venezuelan navy ships that are supposed to be escorting and protecting the venezuelan tankers? I’ve not found any info on that from searching the main-slime media.
@155 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain Hey, I think I now know why they are named that. Because they cause Waymo trouble! I love how people were putting orange traffic cones on the hoods of those causing them to stop dead.
Also, I read an article a couple of days ago about how the muskrat robotaxis had 12 times more accidents than human piloted vehicles.
I’m not a Luddite. But, technology is just a tool. And, poorly designed technology, especially when poorly used, is a serious danger.
Mad Max mode is starkly different from other FSD settings like “Sloth” and “Chill.” Teslas using it will roll through stop signs and blast past other vehicles on the road. One driver posted a YouTube video showing his […] hitting 82 mph while whizzing by a 65 mph speed limit sign. […] “should just immediately write you a ticket when you turn it on.”
Tesla made Mad Max mode available briefly in 2018 and then reintroduced it in October. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration quickly announced a safety investigation
[…]
Waymo’s robotaxis (which, unlike ADAS such as Tesla FSD, do not require anyone in the front seat) have been spotted in San Francisco blocking bike lanes and edging into crosswalks where children are walking. […] a Waymo senior director of product management confirmed that the company has programmed its cars to be more aggressive.
[…]
Without liability for traffic law violations, companies may program their vehicles to take more risks.
A 50-minute summary of notable anime of the year, including “2025’s BEST Anime”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=447mQ4PR9wo
.
If even half of these are worth watching, who the hell needs the usual mediocre TV series and mediocre Hollywood films?
Fortunately most of these are not available in Sweden or I would ruin myself watching it all.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Followup to on that Hepatitis B vaccine study @21.
Epidemiologist Elizabeth Jacobs deleted her thread premised on a placebo trial, after some speculation of less awful protocols.
A CDC advisory board whose members were handpicked by Kennedy recently voted to withdraw the agency’s recommendation that all U.S. children immediately get an initial dose of the vaccine after birth, and CDC accepted its guidelines earlier this week. In cases where the mother tests negative for the virus, parents and doctors are now advised by CDC to come to their own decision about the shot. Children who don’t receive the birth dose should get vaccinated at no less than 2 months old, the agency says.
[…]
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, which contains noninfectious bits of virus, within 24 hours of birth […] As of last year, about 115 countries include a universal birth dose in their national immunization programs. Several countries with high health care coverage and low risk of hepatitis B exposure, as in parts of Europe, reserve birth doses only for children of infected mothers or those whose status is unknown.
[…]
the work will be led by global health researcher Christine Stabell Benn […] Guinea-Bissau plans to implement universal hepatitis B vaccination at birth in a couple of years. The SDU study will take advantage of a “unique window of opportunity” before that happens, according to a blog post from the project, by giving some of the 14,000 enrolled infants their first dose at birth. The rest would act as a control group and receive usual care—presumably entailing immunization at about 6 weeks of age, the country’s current policy, though neither the CDC notice nor the SDU researchers’ blog post says so explicitly. According to that post, the study received ethical approval from Guinea-Bissau’s National Ethics Committee last month.
The proposed study briefly caused an uproar on social media yesterday, after some researchers surmised, incorrectly, that children in the control arm of the study would be deprived of vaccines […] Regardless, elements of the study are problematic […] The grant notice at least suggests the group plans to study many different, vaguely defined variables […] “Fundamentally, if you test many, many, many, many hypotheses with the data set by chance alone you may find something” that doesn’t reflect a real effect of the vaccine
Instead of providing funding for birth doses for as many children as possible in a country with a high HepB prevalence RFK Jr. has instead chosen to exploit this vulnerable country and fund a study for which there is no scientific basis.
The researchers don’t even mention wanting to compare HepB infection rates between the group getting vaccinated and the group for which the vaccine is delayed.
He appears to have bypassed legitimate scientific review to provide funding to a very controversial group. And there is this huge question: why are the researchers not doing this study in Denmark, a country that we all now know does not itself recommend a birth dose of HepB vaccine, while G-B does?
It’s even worse than that. Sure, he could have given funding to provide the birth dose. Instead, this is what he did: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has launched programs in many countries to fund the birth dose; Guinea-Bissau qualified & will roll out the birth dose. RFK Jr *ended* US funding to Gavi.
Elizabeth Jacobs: “while WHO recommends the birth dose and G-B plans to implement it in 2027, it is not the current practice there. The researchers spin this as ‘well at least SOME of the infants will now get the birth dose’. It’s exploitation.”
Elizabeth Jacobs: “Contrary to the claims of the research team, this study is unlikely to provide information that is generalizable to more developed countries, including the U.S. and Denmark.”
The Trump administration plans to shift the federal government away from directly recommending most vaccines for children and suggest they receive fewer shots to more closely align with Denmark’s immunization model […] It was not immediately clear which shots would no longer be recommended. […] Denmark does not recommend vaccinating children for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV [the leading cause of infant hospitalizations in the US]) and chicken pox, among other common pathogens.
Public health experts say […] what works in Denmark’s small, universal health care system does not easily translate to the far larger and more diverse U.S. population with uneven access to quality care.
Unlike Denmark, the U.S. is planning […] shared clinical decision-making […] people should consult a doctor […] This type of recommendation is usually made when there is real uncertainty […] it creates the false impression that experts are divided
[…]
In practice, vaccination is often already done in consultation with doctors […] [But] it takes the government out of the business of providing powerful endorsements and can confuse doctors. A 2016 survey found that most pediatricians and family doctors did not know private insurers are required to cover vaccines recommended under this [SCDM] model.
[…]
In the case of adults seeking covid vaccines, the shift has had little practical impact at major pharmacy chains such as CVS where the shots are still routinely administered without prescriptions.
[…]
Denmark also does not recommend vaccinating against hepatitis B for all infants, as well as hepatitis A and rotavirus for any infants and children.
[…]
Denmark has universal prenatal care and strong social services. […] virtually every pregnant woman in Denmark receives consistent medical attention and testing for serious diseases that can be passed to their babies throughout their pregnancy, including hepatitis B. About 1 in 4 pregnant patients in the U.S. deliver babies without adequate prenatal care
RFK Jr. is going to end CDC recommendations for most childhood vaccines.
It will take a few years before the deaths and disabilities ramp up to a level that even the most vile Republican cannot tolerate. RFK Jr. will be long gone and unaccountable, as our babies die from preventable illness.
Elizabeth Jacobs: “It’s naive to think this will be their last step. The next project could well be pulling FDA approvals for vaccines they don’t like.”
Elizabeth Jacobs: “He is being sued and the public health advocacy group I helped launch has filed an amicus brief.”
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Elizabeth Jacobs: “it was also a specific goal of Project 2025 (page 254).”
Rando: “It all comes down to whining about masks. Fucking crybabies.”
empowers the Illinois Department of Public Health to offer transparent, science-based vaccine guidelines through its expert Immunization Advisory Committee (IAC) [“]With this new law, we will be able to respond swiftly to any dangerous or anti-science actions at the federal level[“]
“It was odd it was to see the president brag about firing thousands of Americans a few days before Christmas.”
Related video at the link.
For those hoping to see improvements in the U.S. economy, the latest jobs report offered a new round of discouraging news: The unemployment rate reached a four-year high, and job growth has slowed to levels unseen since the Great Recession. Given recent political history, it stood to reason that Donald Trump would blame everyone but himself for his failures.
But in an unexpected turn, the president actually did take responsibility for rising unemployment — though he did so in the clumsiest way possible.
On Friday morning, Trump published an item to his social media platform that read, “The only reason our Unemployment ticked up to 4.5% is because we are reducing the Government Workforce by numbers that have never been seen before. … I wish the Fake News would report the 4.5% correctly.”
And I wish the president could describe reality correctly. In this case, he misstated the unemployment rate (it’s 4.6%, not 4.5%), and the rate increase is not solely the result of losses in public-sector employment.
Nevertheless, the Republican apparently liked the talking point, because he repeated it later at a White House event on Friday afternoon. [social media post with video]
On Friday evening, he kept going, again misstating the jobless rate at an event in North Carolina, before again saying that he played a direct role in making unemployment worse.
“I’m letting go of tremendous numbers of government workers,” Trump said. “In fact, we reduced the federal workforce by 270,000 jobs. That is not to be mean, that is to get them off — and they are getting jobs in the private sector.”
At this point, one could note how odd it is to see a sitting president brag about firing hundreds of thousands of Americans a few days before Christmas. One could also highlight the fact that these job losses will likely have real-world consequences for the Americans whom these employees served.
But I was especially interested in that last part: “[T]hey are getting jobs in the private sector.”
No, they’re not. [graph]
To help contextualize matters, I put together a new chart showing private-sector job growth by year since the Great Recession — excluding 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the job market — with data by way of the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The red columns show the years in which Trump was in the White House, while the blue columns reflect Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s terms.
If private-sector job growth were soaring, the White House might be able to argue that the administration’s calculus was part of a coherent economic strategy, in which workers shifted from one sector to another. To be sure, this wouldn’t be a great argument — government employees are doing work that needs to be done that isn’t done by private businesses — but it would at least be worth some discussion.
But job growth in the private sector can charitably be described as anemic in 2025, and it’s been especially awful since April, after the president announced his “Liberation Day” trade tariffs.
In fact, despite Trump’s boasts about the many workers getting hired by American businesses, private-sector job growth has slowed to levels unseen since the Great Recession (excluding 2020, when the pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy).
These are details worth keeping in mind as the president inadvertently takes responsibility for the rising unemployment rate.
Sky Captain @153, this text you quoted is so true:
Once you’ve conceded that it’s reasonable to ask whether women’s equality was a mistake, you’ve already lost.
In other news:
During the recent government shutdown, the Trump administration started cutting energy grants to states, but the only states that were affected were ones that Donald Trump lost in last year’s elections. Last week, federal lawyers conceded in a court filing that this was not a coincidence.
On the contrary, two months after officials in blue states accused the White House of “mafioso tactics,” administration officials were unexpectedly candid in acknowledging that they did precisely what they were accused of doing. “[C]onsideration of partisan politics is constitutionally permissible, including because it can serve as a proxy for legitimate policy considerations,” they argued.
The broader question, however, is just how frequently the Republican president and his team are applying this approach.
Take federal disaster aid, for example.
After Illinois suffered extensive damage from two major storms over the summer, for example, state officials sought federal disaster aid. After the White House said no, Politico reported, “Trump’s denials are the first time any president since at least 2007 — including Trump to this point — has refused to help residents recover from such extensive damage to their homes, federal records show.” [!]
It wasn’t just Illinois (a state Trump lost by 11 points). Maryland (a state Trump lost by 29 points) and Vermont (a state Trump lost by 31 points) found their appeals for federal relief funds denied, too.
Colorado (a state Trump lost by 11 points) has found itself in the same club. The Associated Press reported:
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis accused President Donald Trump of playing ‘political games’ Sunday after the Trump administration denied disaster declaration requests following wildfires and flooding in the state earlier this year.
Polis’ office said he received late Saturday two denial letters from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The letters follow requests for major disaster declarations following wildfires and mudslides in August and what Polis had described as ‘historic flooding’ across southwest Colorado in October.
[…] one day before the administration rejected Colorado’s aid request, the president published an item to his social media platform that read, “I have just informed Senator Roger Marshall that I have approved $5.7 Million Dollars for the wonderful State of Kansas in order to recover from severe storms, tornados, and flooding. These are tough and smart Patriots who love our Country, and will rebuild stronger than ever before!”
Everything about the message was overtly political, including Trump referencing Marshall by name but not Kansas’ governor or Republican Sen. Jerry Moran. The difference: Marshall is currently running for re-election and will be on the ballot in 11 months.
Around the same time, Trump also wrote online, “I just spoke with Governor Greg Gianforte, of the Great State of Montana, and informed him that I will be approving an Emergency Declaration for Montana for severe storms they experienced this month. I LOVE MONTANA!”
But whether he loves the state or not should be irrelevant. These decisions are supposed to be made on the merits, not the president’s personal affinity for a state based on its electoral history.
[…] Trump published an item to his social media platform two months ago, announcing that he’d personally approved $2.5 million in disaster aid for Missouri, while emphasizing the number of times he’d won Missouri’s electoral votes — as if there were some connection between his political support in the state and his eagerness to provide aid.
[…] Just one minute later, Trump published a follow-up item, touting his approval of $15 million for Nebraska. The minute after that, he added a third missive, announcing $25 million for Alaska — “which I won BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024,” he wrote.
It would be easier to see this as a coincidence if the Republican administration had been evenhanded in dealing with red and blue states, but given the obvious fact that it has not, it makes these latest decisions even more difficult to defend.
“Trump seems to see Democratic-led states — and the people in them — less as constituents to which he has a set of larger obligations and more as enemies to be pacified and defeated,” The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie recently argued. “For Trump, there is no whole people of the United States. There are only his people and his states.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has spent the year struggling with a lack of credibility. In fact, it’s been lost on no one that he probably shouldn’t even have his leadership post at the Justice Department, given that the Republican lawyer’s only relevant experience is having served as one of Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorneys. [embedded links to sources are available at the main link]
[…] On Sunday the president’s former lawyer struggled with questions about the department removing photos from its online collection of newly released Epstein documents, including one showing Trump with unidentified women. Blanche’s answers about moving Maxwell, a convicted sex offender, to a minimum-security prison weren’t much better.
But one exchange stood out to me. The New York Times reported:
Kristen Welker, the moderator on ‘Meet the Press,’ raised the criminal cases filed against the former F.B.I. director James Comey and New York’s attorney general, Letitia James — charges that were dismissed last month when a judge found that the prosecutor who brought them had been unlawfully put in that job by the Trump administration.
That appointment was made, and those criminal charges were filed, after Mr. Trump forced out his own prosecutor in Virginia, Erik S. Siebert, who had concluded that the evidence did not support charges against either Mr. Comey or Ms. James.
Asked whether the Justice Department was taking directions from the president about whom to prosecute, Blanche was incredulous. “No, of course we’re not,” he said. [blatant lie, see details below]
The deputy attorney general quickly added, as part of an apparent effort to set the record straight, “Mr. Siebert wasn’t fired because he refused to bring cases. He resigned.” [social media post and video]
There’s overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
NBC News reported over the summer, for example, that the White House was leaning heavily on Siebert, at the time the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, for brazenly corrupt reasons: Team Trump wanted him to go after Comey and James, not because they’d done anything wrong but because the president saw them as political foes. […]
But Trump didn’t stop there. When Siebert’s office made clear that there simply wasn’t enough evidence to justify such indictments, Trump forced the prosecutor — whom the president had nominated just four months earlier — out of his job, taking the scandal to a new level. [!]
Condemning the former police officer who’d worked his way up through the ranks at the office for the past 15 years, Trump said that he considered the respected prosecutor “a Woke RINO [Republican in name only], who was never going to do his job,” despite the fact he was a Trump nominee.
After the president declared, “I want him out,” Siebert stepped down. Trump soon after wrote online, “He didn’t quit, I fired him!” [!!!]
MS NOW’s Ken Dilanian explained soon after, “the United States is confronting something we have never seen before: a president essentially ordering his DOJ to charge someone with a crime, regardless of whether the people whose job it is to evaluate the case think there is insufficient evidence.”
Put another way, some presidents get rid of officials for being corrupt; this president forced out Siebert for not being corrupt.
Three months later, the Trump-appointed deputy attorney general appeared on “Meet the Press,” pretended the president had nothing to do with the Justice Department’s prosecutorial decisions and, despite extensive evidence, including Trump’s own public comments, told a national television audience that an ousted prosecutor wasn’t actually fired, even though anyone who remembers the events that unfolded in September knows better.
Blanche began Sunday with dwindling credibility. He ended the day with none.
“The vice president’s rhetoric was absurd, but just as notable was the sentiment behind the rhetoric.”
Related video at the link.
JD Vance covered quite a bit of ground during his remarks at Turning Point USA’s “AmericaFest” event, including an unsettling moment in which the vice president boasted, “In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.” [!]
It was the kind of comment one might expect to hear from a fringe activist at a white nationalist gathering, not a national elected official who’s one heartbeat from the American presidency.
But as my MS NOW colleague Erum Salam noted, that wasn’t the only quote of note:
The vice president also said that ‘the only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God we always will be, a Christian nation’ — a remark met with raucous applause.
Indeed, Vance received an exceedingly warm welcome from the far-right crowd, but his “Christian nation” comment appeared to be the rhetoric the audience liked the most. [JFC and FFS. See video at the link]
The obvious problem with the Ohio Republican’s assertion, which is popular within the Republican Party’s theocratic wing, is that the claim is offensive, ahistorical nonsense.
The United States is based on a secular Constitution — the nation’s actual “anchor” — which in turn created a secular government. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 that our First Amendment built “a wall of separation between church and state.” In 1797, John Adams agreed: “The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”
Americans unsure what to believe have a straightforward choice: They can listen to Vance, or they can read the Constitution and honor the declarations of actual Founding Fathers. This doesn’t seem like an especially tough call.
[…] Those who espouse the idea that the United States is a “Christian nation” appear eager to tell those of minority faiths (as well as those who’ve chosen no religious path), “You’ll be tolerated, but you’re still The Other, relegated to second-class status.”
That a sentiment, rooted in the idea that those who think as Vance does are entitled to dominance over those who do not, is at odds with our most basic principles. Our incumbent vice president delivered the rhetoric anyway, with apparent pride.
For good measure, the Ohio Republican went on to insist that those on the left are “drones who take their orders from George Soros,” referring to the progressive philanthropist and financier whose name is often used in antisemitic attacks.
It’s no secret that Vance is positioning himself as Donald Trump’s heir apparent and the incoming leader of the so-called MAGA “movement.” We continue to learn how, exactly, the vice president intends to claim that mantle.
In an unprecedented last-minute intervention, rookie CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss spiked a “60 Minutes” segment on the experiences of Alien Enemies Act detainees at CECOT in El Salvador.
The announcement that the Inside CECOT segment would not run came only hours before airtime Sunday: [social media post]
The segment had already been widely promoted by CBS News, including in a since-deleted press release … [social media post ]
… and in a promotional teaser: [social media post with video]
In a blistering email to her colleagues, 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi pinned the blame on Weiss for spiking her CECOT segment: [social media post]
The official line from CBS News is that the segment “needed additional reporting.” Among the issues Weiss raised with the segment: She reportedly objected to the segment’s use of the word “migrants” to describe the Venezuelan nationals deported to CECOT because they were in the U.S. illegally, the NYT reported.
But more alarmingly, Weiss bent over backwards to give the Trump White House another bite at the apple to respond to the segment even though the administration had already declined to comment to “60 Minutes,” according to the NYT:
One of Ms. Weiss’s suggestions was to include a fresh interview with Stephen Miller [!], a White House deputy chief of staff and the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown, or a similarly high-ranking Trump administration official, two of the people said. Ms. Weiss provided contact information for Mr. Miller to the “60 Minutes” staff.
It was this new Weiss-imposed hurdle that especially infuriated Alfonsi. “If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient,” Alfonsi wrote in her email. [True. And Alfonsi is brave to put that in writing. A “kill switch” is exactly what Bari Weiss wanted to give the Trump administration.]
The Trump administration had an extraordinary and corrupt level of involvement with the recent $8 billion sale of CBS’ parent company Paramount. To get past the Trump-controlled FCC, the purchaser Skydance agreed to appoint an ombudsman, review the network’s content, and pare back DEI initiatives. The ombudsman ended up being a conservative think tanker with longtime Republican Party ties.
Weiss, widely seen as being tasked with shifting CBS News toward a more administration friendly posture, is in the midst of a major overhaul of the news division.
The Constitution of the Roberts Court is not color-blind. It is a Constitution that permits discrimination on the basis of race, but forbids alleviating discrimination on the basis of race. And over the next year, the Court will face more cases that could further erode both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments
[…]
The Thirteenth abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime, but America needed to do more to prevent the resurgence of the slave-owning South’s caste-based society. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments enshrined […] principles of universal male suffrage, nondiscrimination, and nonracial (birthright) citizenship. Although imperfect—the vote for women was not included—they were a crucial first step
[…]
After the Reconstruction period following the Civil War, the Supreme Court essentially voided the meaning of these amendments. […] helped pave the way for Jim Crow, showering most of the rights reserved for the emancipated on corporations […] The amendments were resurrected during the civil-rights movement, but they are now under assault for a second time […] an attempt to turn the guarantees of the Civil War amendments back into what James Madison called “parchment barriers,” their meaning perverted to ensure the protection of the strong instead of the weak.
Since 2007, when Roberts struck down a school-integration program while stating that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” the right-wing majority has followed the philosophy that there’s no discrimination if you pretend it isn’t happening.
[…]
the administration announced that it would not be investigating discrimination on the basis of “disparate impact,” in which discrimination can be proved through effect rather than intent […] here’s one example: The Trump administration ended a requirement that the state of Alabama provide Black residents with proper sanitation, calling it “illegal DEI.” Not flooding Black neighborhoods with raw sewage, according to the Trump administration, is racist.
[…]
A future administration could reverse those policies. But Trump’s attack on birthright citizenship is different. […] That the birthright-citizenship clause applies to everyone has been a subject of near-total legal consensus until Trump. There is no “originalist” case against birthright citizenship, but there is a partisan one. […] Some legal experts are skeptical that even this Court will allow Trump to nullify birthright citizenship by fiat. But the larger project of restoring the Antebellum Constitution will continue.
Before these amendments, the Antebellum Constitution contemplated the rights and freedom of white men, but no one else. It did not guarantee equal protection under the law. It did not protect the right to vote. It did not outlaw discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, or ethnicity. What it did was protect the right of some men to own other men as property, by definition an affront to the idea that “all men are created equal.”
[…]
Systems of domination rarely spread their blessings widely. The Redemption-era revocation of Black freedoms didn’t result in prosperity for white people writ large, but a Gilded Age in which the upper classes gained unfathomable wealth and economic crises left millions destitute. The nation may have held on to white supremacy, but it also got low wages, a threadbare welfare state, and a society dominated by the rich. Everyone else was too divided by race and class to challenge them.
CBS News suddenly shelved a “60 Minutes” segment featuring the accounts of Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Now one of its own correspondents fears the program is being “dismantled,” and some employees are threatening to quit. [!]
The correspondent who reported the story, Sharyn Alfonsi, said in an internal memo that “the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship.” [True]
According to Alfonsi and two CBS sources who spoke with CNN on condition of anonymity, the story had been fully fact-checked and legally vetted by the time the network publicized it on Friday afternoon. [!]
One of the main issues Weiss raised was the lack of a response from the Trump administration to the reporting.
According to Alfonsi, “we requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department.”
But the administration did not engage […]
Alfonsi argued in her memo that the administration’s strategic silence cannot be allowed to become a “veto” of a critical story. [Good point]
“Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story,” she wrote. […]
Earlier in the day, CBS News said of the decision to hold the segment, “We determined it needed additional reporting.”
But Alfonsi disputed that in her memo. “Our story was screened five times [five time!] and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” she wrote. “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now—after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”
“60 Minutes” segments are commonly screened several times before air, but five screenings is an unusually high number, the CBS sources said.
[…] In another recent turn of events, President Trump has been blasting the newsmagazine on Truth Social […]
[I snipped past history of Trump criticizing CBS and its parent company.]
David Ellison took control of Paramount, lavished praise on “60 Minutes,” and said he wanted to strengthen CBS News. Then he acquired Weiss’s startup, The Free Press, for $150 million, and installed her as editor-in-chief. [Bait and switch on Ellison’s part.]
Now in charge of both operations, Weiss has faced media industry skepticism about her lack of experience with TV management and traditional reporting.
At the end of October, Weiss traveled to Mar-a-Lago when CBS journalist Norah O’Donnell taped a “60 Minutes” sit-down with President Trump.
The president praised Weiss during the interview, though not by name […]
Earlier that same month, Trump also said of the Ellisons, “they’re friends of mine. Big — they’re big supporters of mine, and they’ll do the right thing.” [eyebrows raised[
[…] On Dec. 8, Trump posted a screed against “60 Minutes” for interviewing Marjorie Taylor Greene, and claimed that since Paramount changed hands, the program “has actually gotten WORSE!” He repeated that opinion on Dec. 16, adding, “If they are friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!”
The timing of his most recent complaint, on Friday night, coincided with the behind-the-scenes drama at “60 Minutes.” [Not surprised.]
[…] By then, CBS was already promoting the upcoming story, titled “INSIDE CECOT.”
Friday afternoon’s press release said “correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi speaks with some of the now released deportees, who describe the brutal and torturous conditions they endured inside CECOT.”
Alfonsi said in her memo, of those interviewees, “These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.”
[…] The New York Times reported that Weiss gave “60 Minutes” staffers personal contact information for White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, suggesting that he should be sought out for comment on the report. Miller is the racist architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, and it is notable that he is apparently close enough with Weiss for contact information to be exchanged.
The scandalous development comes after Paramount, CBS’ parent company, personally paid President Donald Trump a $16 million settlement for a lawsuit that most media/legal experts said was frivolous. After the payoff, CBS also announced it would cancel “The Late Show” hosted by longtime critic Stephen Colbert. The Trump administration then approved Paramount’s merger with media production company Skydance. [video]
[…] Weiss is a conservative activist who runs the right-wing site The Free Press and was installed to oversee CBS News as the network’s coverage shifts to the right. Recently Weiss aired a “town hall” with Erika Kirk, head of racist conservative pressure group Turning Point USA and widow of bigoted activist Charlie Kirk. The program was a ratings flop but CBS continues to bend to the right.
Mainstream media institutions have shifted to the right over the last year, from CBS News to previously revered outlets like the Washington Post. MAGA media means a less-informed public […]
Sky Captain @174, this text you quoted is a damning, and accurate summary:
The Constitution of the Roberts Court is not color-blind. It is a Constitution that permits discrimination on the basis of race, but forbids alleviating discrimination on the basis of race. And over the next year, the Court will face more cases that could further erode both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
I think this also bears repeating:
[…] an attempt to turn the guarantees of the Civil War amendments back into what James Madison called “parchment barriers,” their meaning perverted to ensure the protection of the strong instead of the weak.
And this:
[…] the right-wing majority has followed the philosophy that there’s no discrimination if you pretend it isn’t happening.
Donald Trump has sparked a fresh row with Denmark after appointing a special envoy to Greenland, the vast Arctic island he has said he would like to annex.
Trump announced on Sunday that Jeff Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, would become the US’s special envoy to Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Gov Landry said in a post on X it was an honour to serve in a “volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the US”.
The move has angered Copenhagen, which said it would will call the US ambassador for “an explanation”. Greenland’s prime minister said the island must “decide our own future” and its “territorial integrity must be respected”.
[…] Greenland, home to about 57,000 people, has had extensive self-government since 1979, though defence and foreign policy remain in Danish hands. While most Greenlanders favour eventual independence from Denmark, opinion polls show overwhelming opposition to becoming part of the US. [map]
Denmark’s Foreign Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, described the appointment of Landry as “deeply upsetting” and warned Washington to respect Danish sovereignty.
He told Danish broadcaster TV2: “As long as we have a kingdom consisting of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, we cannot accept actions that undermine our territorial integrity.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said […]: “The appointment of a special envoy does not change anything for us. We decide our own future. Greenland belongs to Greenlanders, and territorial integrity must be respected.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X that the EU stands in “full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland”.
Writing on social media, the US president said Landry understood how “essential Greenland is to our national security” and would advance US interests.
[…] Envoys are informal appointments and unlike official diplomats, do not have to be approved by the host country.
What this appointment shows is that Trump’s ambition to control Greenland remains undimmed.
[…] Landry has previously voiced his opinion on Greenland, writing on his personal X account in January: “President Donald J. Trump is absolutely right! We need to ensure that Greenland joins the United States. GREAT for them, GREAT for us! Let’s get it done!”
Landry is a military veteran and former police officer who was a US Congressman and Louisiana’s attorney general before being elected governor in 2023. He said his new role would not affect his duties as governor.
The dispute over his appointment comes as strategic competition in the Arctic grows, with melting ice opening new shipping routes and increasing access to valuable mineral resources.
Greenland is located in the Arctic between North America and Europe, which also makes it central to US and Nato security planning.
The US has maintained a base in Greenland since World War Two, after invading to establish military and radio stations across the territory after the Nazis occupied Denmark during the conflict.
Vice-President JD Vance visited the base in March as he asked Greenland’s people to “cut a deal with the US”.
The US reopened a consulate in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, in 2020 – during Trump’s first term – after closing it in 1953. A number of European countries, as well as Canada, have honorary general consulates in Greenland.
Senate Democrats are raising the threat of another government shutdown in late January as tensions with President Trump escalate over a series of recent maneuvers by the White House that Democrats say need a forceful response from Capitol Hill.
Senate Democrats walked away from a potential deal to fund a broad swath of the federal government, including the departments of Defense, Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services, which make up roughly two-thirds of the discretionary budget, before Congress adjourned for the Christmas recess.
Democrats cited Trump’s threat to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., a leading government-funded center for atmospheric and climate research, as the reason they couldn’t advance a five-bill spending package before Christmas.
Had the legislation passed the Senate this past week, it would have given Congress a good chance of funding up to 85 percent to 90 percent of the federal government through September of next year and taken the threat of another shutdown off the table. [I don’t like that framing. Democrats are fighting, and the fight is worthwhile.]
[…] Senators left Washington for a two-week Christmas recess without even reaching an agreement on voting on amendments to the funding package when they return in January, which means that Senate consideration of the legislation could be delayed until late in the week of Jan. 5 or later.
A second Democratic senator who requested anonymity to discuss party strategy said the White House seems to be goading Democratic senators to trigger another shutdown.
The lawmaker said White House budget director Russell Vought’s announcement on social media Tuesday that the administration would move to dismantle the atmospheric and climate research center — which provides data critical to assessing climate change — was a serious affront to Democrats, and the timing of it destroyed any chances of passing the funding package before Christmas.
“If you’re trying to get something done you don’t throw a stick of dynamite into the process. The president’s people shouldn’t have thrown a stick of dynamite into the process. […]
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said that Trump’s threat to shut down the national atmospheric research center had undermined Democrats’ trust that the administration won’t make other attempts to cancel federal funding appropriated by Congress. [So true]
[…] The other bombshell that came from the White House Thursday was a decision to rename Washington’s premier preforming arts center to the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts — another unilateral move without any consultation with Congress.
Democrats say there are an array of other issues they want addressed before agreeing to fund the government beyond January.
These include assurances that Trump will not plunge into a war with Venezuela and that his administration will release all unclassified documents related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) on Friday accused the Justice Department of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Congress passed overwhelmingly last month.
Democrats are also still pressing for an extension of enhanced health insurance premium subsidies that will expire at the end of the year, resulting in more than 20 million Americans seeing substantially higher health care costs next year. […]
Thune told reporters before leaving town for Christmas that Congress may default to considering a yearlong continuing resolution next month to avoid a shutdown in February. But that would set the stage for the House attempting to jam Senate Democrats again with a partisan stop-gap funding measure — something that happened in March and again in September of this year.
Ukraine said it was battling an attempted Russian breakthrough in the Sumy region on Sunday and that Moscow had forcibly removed 50 people from a border village.
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets accused Russian forces of abducting around 50 mostly elderly Ukrainian civilians into Russian territory. The forcible relocation of civilians is considered a war crime and a crime against humanity.
Russia has made moves in Sumy over the last couple of days but they seem more symbolic then opening a new front of the war. Russia has moved the front forward slightly in some uninhabited areas of Sumy, has grabbed some civilians from villages close to the front and made a few bombardment attacks. It has not made any deep strikes or gathered the forces to occupy a bunch of territory. This seems more about stretching Ukrainian defenses, propaganda points and giving Russia some things they can trade back to Ukraine in peace negotiations.
[…] More than a dozen Jeffrey Epstein survivors bashed the Justice Department for its handling of the release of files related to the deceased sex offender, calling for congressional oversight as they accused the department of failing to comply with the law.
“This law, enacted by a nearly unanimous vote in the House and unanimously in the Senate, and signed by the President, was clear. It afforded no permission for delayed disclosure,” the 18 survivors wrote in an open letter.
The Justice Department on Friday released just a fraction of the files, despite being required by law to release all unclassified documents related to Epstein by Dec. 19. Though permitted to make redactions to protect victims’ identities as well as materials that might be used in future criminal cases, the survivors said the Justice Department failed to redact all names and photos while being overzealous in shielding other materials.
“Instead, the public received a fraction of the files, and what we received was riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation,” they wrote.
“At the same time, numerous victim identities were left unredacted, causing real and immediate harm. No financial documents were released. Grand jury minutes, though approved by a federal judge for release, were fully blacked out – not the scattered redactions that might be expected to protect victim names, but 119 full pages blacked out,” the letter continued. “We are told that there are hundreds of thousands of pages of documents still unreleased. These are clear-cut violations of an unambiguous law.”
The administration inserted a photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross into the Epstein files and falsely implied it showed them with victims.
In reality, it’s a publicly available fundraiser photo featuring Jackson and Ross’s own children.
[…] Trump’s handlers demanded that his FIFA Peace Prize be at least as big as the World Cup, in a plotline too undignified for “Toddlers & Tiaras.” (The Sunday Times )
He sure is losing it! “Trump talks about neuroses, selecting chairs and his wife’s underwear drawer in latest affordability speech.” (CNN ) […]
A spokesperson for Bill Clinton on Monday called on the Department of Justice to release any documents related to the former president in its ongoing release of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The rare statement from Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña comes as the Trump administration has attempted to make him the GOP’s new boogeyman in a monthslong saga related to the files that has plagued the White House, sparking sharp rebukes from allies and MAGA firebrands.
Clinton taking the gamble that the files contain nothing really embarrassing to him. So he is asking for release of everything related to him. If that contains nothing of interest or the DOJ resists releasing it then it looks bad for Trump and the DOJ. If those files do contain something interesting or ugly then the Republicans can turn the conversation to Bill Clinton for a while.
Clinton may have lucked out in that he popped into national position so quickly that he only got to know Epstein after becoming president. So every time he was around Epstein there was a security detail also.
In an interview on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday, Hassett predicted that the justices will rule in the White House’s favor.
“And I also think that if they didn’t find with us, that it’s going to be pretty unlikely that they’re going to call for widespread refunds, because it would be an administrative problem to get those refunds out to there,” he added, explaining that whoever made the actual tariff payment would be in line to get a refund.
What he is probably really saying is that the administration plans to stall on refund payments. If you want a refund go to court and line up behind every other company asking for a refund because there is only one court that handles tariff refunds.
each new battleship will cost at least $5 billion. […] procure the first hull in 2030
Commentary
You cannot convince me this is not satire.
There’s a reason we decommissioned all the battleships. They were rendered obsolete during WW2 by aircraft carriers. Drones and missiles make them doubly obsolete. This is madness. Expensive, futile madness.
Reagan recommissioned world war 2 battleships because republicans love big useless toys. More proof Trump is living 40 years in the past.
It’s an old-fashioned word like “groceries,” but I just made it up. “Battleship.”
In retrospect, I shouldn’t be surprised that he wants to build the Bismarck.
It’ll make the F-35 look positively frugal, and wait until he hears we don’t name battleships after presidents, then he’ll be really pissed.
The navy just axed the Constellation class project in favor of coast guard cutters painted gray, lol. They’re not getting a new battleship class.
extremely dumb. And dumb in ways that will offend all sides of the carrier-drone-missile-wars. […] the idea is a 30k ton displacement (that is *three times* the size of an Arleigh Burke or Ticonderoga) surface combatant that somehow in all that metal has no space for Aegis or VLS cells.
Just guns I guess. Like building a WW2 battleship with no guns, only lots of rams. […] Like, I can’t stress that enough: the VLS system is like, 90% of an Arleigh Burke’s firepower.
[…]
The advantage of VLS—vertical missile launch tubes, essentially—is that you can fit a *lot more* of them and also cycle them a lot faster than on-deck missile racks. […] Modern surface combatants aren’t going to end up getting into gun range of an enemy often—missiles are too lethal—so they attack with missiles and defend against missiles with anti-missile-missiles, so offense and defense is ‘how many missiles do you have?’ VLS is how you get the most missile.
[…]
flat grids of vertical launch panels—doesn’t look cool, I guess (it lacks obvious penis-analogues in its silhouette) so we gotta do stupid.
Former special counsel Jack Smith invested time and effort into advocating for the public to see his testimony last week before the House Judiciary Committee, but to no avail: The panel’s far-right chair, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, rejected calls for transparency, preferring secrecy to sunlight.
The prosecutor isn’t letting this go. Politico reported:
After appearing in a closed-door deposition with the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week, Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led the criminal cases against President Donald Trump, still wants the chance to defend his work in a public hearing — and defend himself against continued Republican attacks.
Attorneys for Smith are pressing for their client to be allowed to testify in an open forum in a new letter to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, obtained first by POLITICO.
The former special counsel appeared before the Jordan-led committee for more than eight hours last week, and while the public hasn’t seen or heard a word of what transpired behind closed doors (Smith’s efforts notwithstanding), the Q&A was recorded and transcribed.
The prosecutor’s lawyers are now requesting that the public be allowed to see that hearing, while simultaneously asking for a separate hearing on the same subject that Americans can watch live.
In theory, this sounds like what Jordan and other Republicans are supposed to want. GOP lawmakers have been eager, if not desperate, to generate interest in their investigation, their expansive conspiracy theories about the criminal investigations into Trump, and their interest in Smith in particular, whom the party has gone out of its way to smear in ugly terms.
An opportunity to show Republicans pressing the former special counsel for answers seems like the sort of thing Jordan and the GOP should jump on.
[…] The New York Times reported earlier this month that House Republicans were “reluctant to give [Smith] a prime public platform out of concern that he could embarrass Trump by making a compelling case for the indictments over the president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election and his retention of classified documents.”
That is, the point of the GOP hearing was to try to trip up the former special counsel, not to offer him a legitimate opportunity to present evidence and tell inconvenient truths that the party prefers to keep from the public.
After the committee heard directly from Smith and saw him testify as to the seriousness of the evidence he’d compiled against the president, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, joked that Jordan “made an excellent decision in not allowing Jack Smith to testify publicly, because had he done so, it would have been absolutely devastating to the president and all the president’s men involved in the insurrectionary activities of Jan. 6.”
The former special counsel and his attorneys can keep asking, but at this point, it’s likely that Jordan and his Republican colleagues will never allow Americans to see Smith to testify. I wouldn’t be too surprised if some in the party are regretting having asked the prosecutor to answer their questions in the first place.
“[Trump] hasn’t given up on getting a massive check to pay him for the investigations into his alleged felonies.”
Even those who’ve come to expect routine corruption from Donald Trump were taken aback when The New York Times reported in October that the president “is demanding that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him.”
Two months later, this is apparently still onTrump’s mind — though the financial target is now vastly higher. [social media post, with video]
“We have all the evidence,” Trump told an audience in North Carolina, “and we have to do something about it. We have to do something about it. It’s illegal and disgusting.
“You know, I brought a lawsuit, and I’m winning the lawsuit. There’s only one problem: I’m the one who has to settle it. In other words, I am suing, and I’m the one that’s supposed to settle it.”
“There’s never been a case like this. Donald Trump sues the United States of America. Donald Trump becomes president. And now Donald Trump has to settle the suit. I hereby give myself $1 billion.”
At that point, the president started debating with himself about whether he’d keep the money or donate it to charity, before concluding that it’s “a strange position to be in” because he feels the need to “negotiate with myself.”
To briefly recap, Trump confirmed in late October that he believes he’s entitled to a payoff from the government, declaring that Justice Department officials “owe me a lot of money.” While claiming he was “damaged very greatly” by the investigations into his many alleged felonies, Trump added that it would ultimately be up to him to approve a payout to himself.
[…] Two months later, his “I hereby give myself $1 billion” appeared to be an attempt at humor — though with Trump, it’s hard to know for sure — but it’s nevertheless the case that the president still expects a massive check and still sees himself the final arbiter on whether he receives the money or not.
The head-spinning circumstances remain utterly bizarre:
– The Justice Department investigated a suspected criminal.
– The suspected criminal was then elected president, enabling him to take control of the Justice Department.
– The suspected criminal now expects the Justice Department to stuff “a lot” of taxpayer money into his pockets because of a conspiracy-minded, self-pitying sense of entitlement.
On the left, an Epstein document the DOJ released in 2024, with Trump’s name and others. It’s still up on the DOJ website. On the right, the same document as DOJ redacted it in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The Trump administration has recalled more than two dozen career diplomats from ambassador positions and other senior posts around the world as it works to enforce adherence with […] Trump’s “America First” agenda, current and former U.S. officials said.
The directive has infuriated State Department personnel who say it will leave key embassies without critical leadership and may effectively end the careers of many ambassadors who will have only 90 days to find new jobs in the department […]
“To remove these senior diplomats without cause or justification sends a dangerous message,” the American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents U.S. diplomats, said in a statement. “It tells our public servants that loyalty to country is no longer enough — that experience and oath to the Constitution take a back seat to political loyalty.”
A senior State Department official said “This is a standard process in any administration.”
[…] Beginning last week, a targeted group of ambassadors in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe received phone calls from Washington directing them to vacate their posts by mid-January, said officials, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel decisions. The communication offered no explanation for the recall and included at least two dozen career diplomats who had served under both Republican and Democratic presidents […] All of the recalled ambassadors received their latest promotion under President Joe Biden.
Career diplomats serve at the pleasure of the president, but they are usually allowed to complete their assignments of three to four years regardless of a change in the presidency. That differs from politically appointed diplomats, such as donors or friends of presidents, who are usually recalled immediately when a new president takes power.
The Trump administration’s recall will have diplomats uprooting their lives much faster than many had expected. And when these ambassadors finish their assignments, they have 90 days to get a new position or they must retire. [!]
[…] AFSA President John Dinkelman rejected the Trump administration’s claim that this is business as usual, saying “this is far from a standard process.”
“It is highly unusual to recall career ambassadors nearly a year into an administration,” he said. “These are nonpartisan professionals who serve presidents of both parties.”
The recalls were first reported by Politico. They are the latest flash point between the department’s political leadership and the thousands of career officials who are increasingly fearful for their job security since Secretary of State Marco Rubio fired more than 1,300 employees in his downsizing plan over the summer and his earlier authorization of the dismantlement of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
[…] career Foreign Service officers have served the country admirably without political bias and maintain critical experience in foreign languages, cultures and running embassies in high-stress environments […]
JMsays
@190 Lynna, OM:
Simple minded authoritarian incompetence. Middle level managers are given orders and expected to blindly follow them, those that question the orders are punished. If an order turns out to be bad or stupid they may still be punished for following it but it’s safer then questioning an order.
The grocery delivery service announced Monday that it is ending its item price-testing program following an investigative report that found customers were being charged different prices for the same products, even when the items were ordered at the same time. As users have become more aware of encroaching surveillance pricing, public reaction against Instacart has been swift and attracted the attention of regulators.
The backlash was sparked by a report earlier this month from Consumer Reports, Groundwork Collaborative, and More Perfect Union. The investigation found that Instacart charged some customers nearly 25% more than others for the same products bought at the same stores. Those price differences were allegedly tied to the company’s Eversight pricing tool, which Instacart describes as an “AI-powered pricing and promotions platform.”
Charging different customers different prices at the same store is part of the point of most real time pricing but they got caught too early in the game, the differences were too large and the AI part probably made some decisions Instacart didn’t want to become public. At this point Instacard isn’t answering questions about how their AI makes decisions.
This sort of thing will get rolled out eventually unless it gets banned. What will happen is this sort of thing will start with fixed caps on how wide the prices can vary in the same store, with those caps relaxed over time as people get used to these systems.
While I appreciate all the important info provide by everyone here on other vital subjects. I am concerned about how little information we are getting about this apparent game of tapdancing cat and dodging mouse. I don’t support maduro and I loath tRUMP. If ANYONE makes a false move this could become a ‘hot’ war. I searched, today, at 1445 hrs scarizona time, for ‘venezuela navy now protecting tankers’ and ‘venezuela navy now escorting tankers’
I found few articles that supported it actually being done or of any actual encounters between the us and venezuela navy and they are days old.
https://maritime-executive.com/article/venezuela-dispatches-its-navy-to-escort-tankers-past-u-s-blockade
Venezuela Dispatches its Navy to Escort Tankers Past U.S. “Blockade”
Published Dec 17, 2025 9:18 PM
dictator Nicolas Maduro has ordered his navy to provide departing vessels with a warship escort. According to the New York Times, these escort operations have already occurred on several departures for tankers bound for Asia; they raise the risk of a possible military-to-military encounter with the U.S. Navy, which has built up a massive presence in the Caribbean.
The White House is considering its response to the Venezuelan escorts, one source told the Times. Any attempt at an armed interdiction – as the U.S. Coast Guard carried out aboard the tanker Skipper last week – could now spark an exchange of fire, rather than a peaceful surrender.
A naval blockade is an act of war under international law, but the U.S. has not declared war on Venezuela, nor has it announced an all-encompassing naval cordon. The blockade is only partial: merchant ships and tankers continue to trade to and from Venezuela, including at least one newly-arrived tanker that fits the “blockade” definition, according to TankerTrackers.com.
EXCERPTS FROM: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/world/americas/us-in-pursuit-of-third-oil-tanker-in-caribbean
US in ‘pursuit’ of third oil tanker in Caribbean, says official
News outlets identified the ship involved as the Bella 1, an oil tanker under US sanctions since 2024 because of alleged ties to Iran and Hezbollah
Published: Mon 22 Dec 2025, 1:56 PM By: AFP
News outlets identified the ship involved as the Bella 1, an oil tanker under US sanctions since 2024 because of alleged ties to Iran and Hezbollah.
According to the specialized site TankerTrackers, the ship was en route to Venezuela but not carrying cargo.
US forces approached the vessel late Saturday, but the ship did not submit to being boarded and continued sailing, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed officials.
Earlier on Saturday, the US Coast Guard seized the Centuries, which according to TankerTrackers is a Chinese-owned and Panama-flagged tanker.
It said that ship was loaded with 1.8 million barrels of crude oil at a Venezuelan port earlier this month before being escorted out of the Latin American country’s exclusive economic zone on December 18.
An AFP review found that the Centuries did not appear on the US Treasury Department’s list of sanctioned companies and individuals.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez on Sunday posted a statement to social media about oil giant Chevron sending a tanker from Caracas to the United States carrying Venezuelan oil — without mentioning either vessel interdicted by Washington.
“A ship of the American company Chevron has set sail from our country carrying Venezuelan oil bound for the United States, in strict adherence to regulations and in fulfillment of the commitments undertaken by our oil industry,” Rodriguez said on Telegram.
Chevron renewed its license this year to extract crude oil from Venezuela, accounting for roughly 10 percent of the country’s production.
“Venezuela has always been, and will continue to be, respectful of national and international legality,” Rodriguez continued.
birgerjohanssonsays
Here is a sad story for us who recall his music.
“Chris Rea, rock and blues singer-songwriter, dies aged 74 ”
@164 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain posted an article: WaPo – U.S. plans to stop recommending most childhood vaccines, defer to doctors
We found a parody image of rfkjr on the web and put it in a folder for our organization to view. I hesitate to promote these, but rfkjr disgusts and angers me and that parody seems appropriate.
WARNING, THE IMAGES WE FOUND ARE DISTURBING: http://theartsinarizona.org/foundelsewhere/
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
The WSJ article @187 was updated (my re-archive attempt failed).
“New class of warship to be named after President Trump”.
They will be “Trump-class” battleships.
@187 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain posted: Trump to announce navy will buy new class of large warship, which the president calls ‘battleships’, will be a ‘Golden Fleet’
each new battleship will cost at least $5 billion
I reply, what is troubling about this is the insanity has been normalized too much. $5 billion could do so much actual good if it helped the half of our nation living paycheck-to-paycheck. The billionaires are obscene.
JM @192, learn the difference between “then” and “than.” That mistake is starting to bother me simply because it show up so often. I know, kind of petty.
More: Use then for time, sequence, or consequence (like “after that,” “next,” or “in that case”), and use than for comparisons (like “more than,” “less than,” “different from”). A simple trick is to remember then has an ‘e’ like event, and than has an ‘a’ like compare; use ‘than’ when comparing things.
“For Fallen Syrian Dictator Assad and Family, an Exile of Luxury and Impunity”
“Bashar al-Assad’s long, brutal reign ended swiftly, but he and his close circle have had a soft landing in Russia.”
[…] For more than five decades, the Assad family name has been synonymous with brutal autocracy. Now, the Assads are fugitives living in Moscow.
Both the deposed president and his brother Maher, one of the regime’s most powerful military leaders, have betrayed little about how they spend their days in the country that propped them up when they were in power and took them in when they fell.
But from witnesses and family friends, and digital clues left on hard-to-track social media accounts, reporters for The New York Times have uncovered glimpses into a life of luxury and impunity.
Details of the Assad family’s lives emerged from a Times investigation into the whereabouts of 55 of the regime’s highest-ranking officials. The people who spoke to The Times — including family friends, relatives and former officials — insisted on anonymity out of concern for their safety.
The Assads’ luxurious exile began from the first moments they fled to Moscow via private jets and car convoys, according to a relative, two family friends and two ex-military officers from the Fourth Division, which Maher al-Assad led. All of them have spoken to, stayed with or met members of the Assad family.
Under the close guard of Russian security services, they first stayed in opulent apartments run by the Four Seasons, which can cost up to $13,000 per week.
From there, the deposed president and his family moved to a two-story penthouse in Federation Tower, the same skyscraper where the restaurant Sixty is located. Later, Mr. al-Assad was moved to a villa in the secluded suburb of Rublyovka, west of Moscow, according to a former Syrian official in touch with the family, another acquaintance and a regional diplomat told by Russian officials.
The enclave is popular with the Russian elite and boasts a “luxury village” shopping complex. The Russian security services continue to guard Mr. al-Assad and oversee his movements, the former officials and regional diplomat said, and have ordered the family not to make public statements.
[…] While in power, Maher and the forces he led were accused of shooting unarmed protesters, enforcing “surrender or starve” sieges and running a regional drug trafficking operation estimated to have made them billions of dollars.
Judging by the activities of the Assad daughters, the family has retained significant wealth.
In November, the ousted dictator invited friends and Russian officials to a villa in the suburbs for an opulent party celebrating his daughter Zein’s 22nd birthday, according to a relative, a former regime officer and a family friend whose children or close friends attended the party.
Ms. al-Assad’s cousin and Maher’s daughter, Sham al-Assad, also appeared to celebrate her 22nd birthday with an extravaganza, held over two nights in mid-September at a gold-tiled French restaurant called Bagatelle in Dubai and then on a private yacht. [photos at the link]
[…] The party continued the next day on a yacht emblazoned with the name “Stealth Yacht” in lights, with a DJ and flashing strobe lights, according to the posts.
A social media account for a Dubai-based private rental yacht by that name also featured photos from the party. The boat is equipped with smoke machines, multiple bars and a hot tub, and costs several thousand dollars for several hours, plus thousands more for DJs, bartenders and performers, according to marketing materials.
Both daughters have been living in the United Arab Emirates as well as partying there.
According to two family friends and two former military officers who remain in contact with Maher al-Assad or his entourage, the elder Assads struck a special agreement with Emirati officials that allows their children to stay in the country.
[…] In exile, Mr. al-Assad and his brother are said to have taken different approaches to how they treat those who once served them.
Maher al-Assad has been relatively generous with his closest officers, according to two former commanders and a family friend in touch with him. He sends money to help old allies find apartments or start small businesses in their new lives, they said.
But Bashar al-Assad’s personal assistant was left stranded in Moscow by his former boss, according to two of the man’s friends and a fellow aide who said they had spoken with the assistant.
The assistant, whose duties had included carrying the president’s bags and opening doors for him, was among the very few people Mr. al-Assad took on his furtive flight to Moscow in December 2024.
The assistant was ordered to join so suddenly, the friends and the fellow aide said, that he was unable to grab his passport or pack money and clothes.
The assistant accompanied Mr. al-Assad to the luxury apartments at the Four Seasons, where he was told to share a separate suite with two other Assad aides. The next morning, a hotel staffer handed them an eye-watering bill, the friends and the fellow aide said.
Panicking, the three aides tried repeatedly to call Mr. al-Assad. The deposed president never answered.
Russian officials eventually intervened, offering to transfer the aides to a Soviet-era military site with other lower-ranking regime officers. The penniless personal assistant arranged instead to return to Syria.
He now lives quietly with his family in a mountain village, hoping to avoid notice, the three people in touch with him said. He declined to speak with The Times when approached by an intermediary.
A year on, the assistant is struggling, and sometimes accepts money from another former regime official to make ends meet. The Assads, the fellow aide said, never offered anything.
“Bashar lives his life fully, like nothing happened,” the former colleague said. “He humiliated us when he was here, and he screwed us when he left.”
The Trump administration on Monday said it would pause leases for five wind farms under construction off the East Coast, essentially gutting the country’s nascent offshore wind industry in a sharp escalation of President Trump’s crusade against the renewable energy source.
Wall Street Journal, reporting that states are ignoring Trump’s executive order:
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday signed into law a new bill aimed at regulating artificial intelligence companies and requiring them to write, publish and follow safety plans.
whheydtsays
Re: Lynna, OM @ #203….
That phenomenon was received wisdom on usenet decades ago.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: Lynna @200: I hadn’t noticed, but searching JM’s past posts, yeah. That has been a frequent occurrence, indicating misunderstanding rather than fluke.
StevoRsays
Happening now or soon – live coverage FWIW Bondi terrorist attack aftermath
Anthony Albanese is holding a press conference in Canberra, after meeting with the National Security Committee this morning.
The prime minister has faced pressure from the opposition and parts of the Jewish community to call a royal commission into the Bondi terror attack.
A 70-year-old man who spent six nights camped 20 metres above a forest floor protesting the prescribed burning of giant red tingle trees in WA’s south has succeeded in halting an “imminent” burn.
About 500 hectares of tingle forest at Mount Clare, in the Walpole-Nornalup National Park, 400 kilometres south of Perth, was due to be burnt by the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions (DBCA).
The protest was sparked after the DBCA began preliminary ground works at the Mount Clare block in October.
As part of a community protest action, Paul Jack spent six days living on a platform suspended in the canopy of a giant red tingle tree.
networks like CBS sometimes deliver taped programming to affiliates like Global TV ahead of time. That appears to be what happened in this case: The Friday version of the “60 Minutes” episode is what streamed to Canadian viewers.
“The U.S. Navy will lead the design, along with me, because I’m a very aesthetic person,” Trump said.
Trump has previously complained about how US navy ships looked. I can imagine his ship design ideas, multi-gun turrets, long sections of walkways and railing, fancy paint job, lots of flags, lots of stuff to get in the way of the important parts.
The new platform will be a more than 35,000-ton warship and draft 24 to 30 feet, according to Navy data reviewed by USNI News. That’s more than double the size of the 15,000-ton Zumwalt class of destroyers, which is the largest surface combatant currently in the fleet.
Basically looks to be a Wikipedia: Arleigh Burke scaled up. The navy is looking for something to carry their new hypersonic missiles.
whheydtsays
Re: JM @ #211…
That’s actually smaller than the late-WW2 battleships. The Iowa class were 45,000 tons. I don’t know the tonnage–off hand–of the two Japanese battleships–the Yamato and Musashi–that carried 18.1″ main guns, but the third ship–the Shinano–was converted to an aircraft carrier while under construction and came in at 60,000 tons, so there other two were probably pretty close to that.
“Trump-class” Golden Fleet AI-controlled battleships will be the largest “in the history of the world ever built” with hypersonic weapons, the most-sophisticated lasers and Cruise nuclear missiles and “ultimately there’ll be 20 to 25 of these,” announces the president.
Asked about having enough workers to build all these battleships, President Trump replies: “We’re going to have a lot of robots helping us.”
[Illustration: USS Defiant]
Commentary
I like how it’s firing wildly at nothing. and there’s a presumably friendly ship sinking off the bow. If it’s not friendly then they really fucked up letting it get so close.
Seems like they’re aiming for their own helicopter as well.
Isn’t the Defiant the ST:TOS ship where everyone went insane and murdered each other
They put a stylized portrait of him post-shooting on the back.
“Trump class” is an oxymoron.
In order to fully honor his legacy, […] it should be called Defendant.
None of these people understand how naming a class of ships works, or how ships work, or how shipbuilding works, or what a battleship is. But I salute the enterprising Navy bean-counter who got a commitment to build 20 Litoral Combat Ships by calling them “Trump class battleships”.
[…]
For everyone asking why it looks like a cybertruck, it doesn’t. Ships have been using those flat, angled surfaces since the first Arleigh Burke was built in 1988. They scatter radar away from the dish that sent it, making the ship slightly harder to detect.
NeolithicSheep: “The class is named after the first ship of that design commissioned, so if the first one is these is USS DEFIANT then uh, that’s the Defiant class.”
NeolithicSheep:
Rando: It’s got a helicopter deck but it doesn’t have a little house for the helicopter to live in? The helicopter will get wet and cold.
The giant trump portrait is on the doors and will split in half when they slide open, the rectangles are where the doors slide onto.
JMsays
@212 whheydt:
Yes, it’s debatable if they really qualify as battleships. If it actually clocks in at the given weight it will in the same range as the biggest US cruisers.
The navy may have presented them to Trump as battleships to get his approval or he may have latched on to them himself and dubbed them battleships. Getting a whole class of important ships named after himself is exactly the sort of thing that Trump likes. Only if they have the most impressive name though.
StevoRsays
@212. whheydt :
I don’t know the tonnage–off hand–of the two Japanese battleships–the Yamato and Musashi–that carried 18.1″ main guns, but the third ship–the Shinano–was converted to an aircraft carrier while under construction and came in at 60,000 tons, so there other two were probably pretty close to that.
Yup. Nearly 72, 000 tonnes on checking & arguably the most impressive battleships ever built – yet almost instantly obsolete already because of submarines & planes which then sunk them. Now, ofc, we have robot drones too :
Displacing nearly 72,000 long tons (73,000 t) at full load, the completed battleships were the heaviest ever constructed. The class carried the largest naval artillery ever fitted to a warship, nine 460 mm (18.1 in) naval guns, each capable of firing 1,460 kg (3,220 lb) shells over 42 km (26 mi).
Because of the threat of U.S. submarines and aircraft carriers, Yamato and Musashi spent the majority of their careers in naval bases at Brunei, Truk, and Kure—deploying on several occasions in response to U.S. raids on Japanese bases.
All three ships were sunk by the U.S. Navy; Musashi by air strikes while participating in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, Shinano after being torpedoed by the submarine USS Archerfish while under way from Yokosuka to Kure for fitting out in November 1944, and Yamato by air strikes while en route from Japan to Okinawa as part of Operation Ten-Go in April 1945.
Of course, in 2199 one of them, the wrecked Yamato would later be resurrected into the most advanced space battleship ever with a literally floating continent destroying superweapon and warp speed capabilities enabling it to fly to the large Magellanic Cloud and back in just one year whilst fighting off superior Gamilon forces as shown here – Star Blazers Season 1 Opening and Closing Credits (2 mins 33 secs) plus in non-manga / anime fashion 351 – Space Battleship Yamato (2010 Live Action Movie) – Sample Scene – Yamato Launch Sequence (1min & 5seconds length.) Loved that old cartooon so much as a kid.
Probly more realistic & useful than the Trump plans too.
Biden transmuted the capital sentences of nearly all the men on federal death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole. […] on double jeopardy grounds, slightly out of the Trump administration’s reach. But not entirely. In the January order, titled “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety,” Trump announced that his attorney general would “evaluate whether these offenders can be charged with state capital crimes and recommend appropriate action to state and local authorities.” […] [He still can’t kill most of them, so he’s moving the rest to an excessively brutal supermax prison, against guidelines.]
Even after Trump directed states to seek to execute these men, […] there was a general perception that renewed capital cases for men already in federal prison for life were illogical and so unlikely. […] capital cases cost a massive amount of money for the local government involved […] “It doesn’t make sense on any other level except from a sort of political performative perspective,”
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
My previous article on this was one-sided, lacking the defense argument.
Lawyers for Nunez argued that federal agents were blocking the building’s driveway, and noted that Nunez had only moved the vehicle one block away. The SUV was reportedly returned to agents within 13 minutes. […] there was no evidence to suggest that the ruling was so-called “jury nullification.”
birgerjohanssonsays
A happy winter story.
“Man Rescues Moose Trapped in a Tree in Small Swedish Town”
The Justice Department released a new trove of Jeffrey Epstein documents on Tuesday, Dec. 23, including a detailed report on Epstein’s death in jail and an email saying President Donald Trump flew on Epstein’s jet “many more times” than previously reported.
The latest batch of material included dozens of video clips and other documents with many redactions. The Justice Department said on social media that documents include “untrue and sensationalist claims” against Trump before the 2020 election.
Second batch released already, which is surprising. It’s possible that this batch was just being double checked and nearly ready as the first batch went out. More likely it was already ready and somebody at the DOJ pushed the release up because the first batch went over so badly.
Trump told reporters that he thought it was “terrible” pictures of people were being released in the Epstein files without any accusations of wrongdoing, but that congressional Democrats and some Republicans forced the release of the files.
“There are lot of people that are angry about all of the pictures of other people,” Trump told reporters Dec. 22. “I think it’s terrible.”
There is a shred of truth to this. There will be people that turn up once or twice in the files just because they were near Epstein at a party they both attended and such. The news organizations are aware of this and will ignore them but some will get hit in social media and political smears.
Trump is more angry that his name will turn up a lot, far more then can be accident. No matter what else is true or turns up in the files he was a friend with Epstein and on record as having talked about women.
‘Don’t feed the pig’: For all of his unpopularity, corruption may bring Trump’s downfall. Rachel Maddow shares a look at how outrage over government corruption in Bulgaria prompted massive protests and eventually the resignation of the prime minister and his government. And in the United States, for all of Donald Trump’s unpopular policies being protested across the country, the self-dealing and corruption that has become his administration’s hallmark may ultimately be what leads to Trump’s downfall.
‘Sloppy at best’: Epstein survivors angry at what redactions show are Trump DOJ’s real priorities. Julie K. Brown, investigative reporter for the Miami Herald who first exposed the scandal of how the Jeffrey Epstein case was handed, talks with Rachel Maddow about feedback she is receiving from survivors of Epstein’s abuse about finding their own names in released documents despite heavy redactions that appear to make a greater priority of protecting the identities and information of people involved with Epstein than to protect his victims as the law requires.
For those hoping to see improvement in the U.S. economy, last week’s jobs report offered a new round of discouraging news: The unemployment rate reached a four-year high, and job growth has slowed to levels unseen since the Great Recession.
This week, however, the news was far more heartening, although the data came with some fine print. The New York Times reported:
The U.S. economy grew at a vigorous pace through the end of September, despite the uncertainty created by tariffs and widespread concerns about affordability among households.
Economic growth rose at a 4.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday, an acceleration from the previous quarter.
By any fair measure, 4.3% quarterly GDP growth is a very encouraging figure, which exceeded expectations and should quiet predictions of a recession, at least for now. What’s more, this was the strongest quarterly growth since the summer of 2023, when the nation saw 4.7% quarterly GDP growth (and when Donald Trump told the public that the economy was terrible).
While the president was understandably quick to celebrate the latest data, there are some additional elements to the news that ought to keep the enthusiastic response in check.
For one thing, the strong growth in the third quarter (spanning July through September) clearly did not translate into job growth.
For another, The Associated Press reported that the latest update from The Conference Board showed that consumer confidence fell in December to its lowest level since the White House’s tariffs were rolled out in April.
Just as notable are some of the details in the GDP report itself. The Times’ report added, for example, “Disposable personal income, after taxes and adjusted for inflation, was flat, a sign of nagging inflation still eating into purchasing power. … Lower-income families are wrestling with slowing wage growth and rising costs of various household goods, like beef, coffee and furniture.”
This dynamic is fueling concerns about what’s known as a “K-shaped” economy, in which those at the top fare well and keep spending, while those with less struggle more.
In his latest Substack essay, economist Paul Krugman explained, “Trump may be largely, though indirectly, responsible for the K-shaped economy. His tariff and other policies have created uncertainty that has paralyzed hiring. The fact that workers are finding jobs hard to get, in turn, has hurt the employment and wages of disadvantaged groups, including ethnic minorities and low-wage workers in general.”
It’s something to keep in mind as the president tries to pat himself on the back
In the constitutional clash over President Trump’s unprecedented peacetime invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has ruled that the Venezuelan nationals shipped off to El Salvador’s CECOT facility can challenge their designations as alien enemies even though they’ve been released to their home country and are no longer in custody.
In an accompanying order, Boasberg gave the Trump administration until Jan. 5 to come up with a proposed plan to “facilitate the return” of the former AEA detainees to the United States or to provide them with presumably remote hearings that give them the due process they were denied when they were summarily deported in March without notice or a chance to challenge their designations as alien enemies.
While Boasberg also certified the former detainees case as a class action lawsuit, the real meat of his decision was a reversal of his own prior decision in the case over the summer. In light of the many significant new facts that have emerged, Boasberg reversed course and concluded that the detainees were in the constructive custody of the United States while they were being held at CECOT in El Salvador.
Boasberg had previously denied them habeas relief because of a lack of constructive custody, but found a separate legal avenue in equity that entitled them to pursue their denial of due process claims. This time, Boasberg found both avenues available to them. Of the two, the habeas path is probably the stronger option and is more readily defensible on appeal.
What changed Boasberg’s mind were the numerous revelations that have occurred since he first confronted the issue, among them: “statements by El Salvadoran officials, whistleblower statements by Government officials, public statements by top U.S. officials, and even clear evidence of a U.S.-Venezuelan prisoner swap.”
“All in all, the undisputed factual record indicates that the United States and El Salvador have behaved as principal and agent in the detention and subsequent release of Plaintiffs,” Boasberg ruled, pointing to “three takeaways” from the new evidence:
– “El Salvador acted at the behest of the United States”;
– “it was indifferent to Plaintiffs’ detention outside of honoring its arrangement with the United States”; and
– “the United States retained the ability to control their release from CECOT”
Boasberg zeroed in on the revelations by former DOJ lawyer turned whistleblower Erez Reuveni, including the notorious comment attributed to Emil Bove, who is now an appeals court judge: “According to his disclosure, the Principal Assistant Deputy Attorney General stated in a meeting that if courts attempted to stop the removals, DOJ would need to consider telling the courts, “Fuck you” and ignore any court order.”
It is, I believe, the first time Bove’s comment has made it into a judicial ruling, and Boasberg didn’t pull punches by redacting the curse word. Then again, Boasberg happened to be the first judge to get the administration’s “Fuck you” when it defied his orders and let the AEA deportation flights continue despite his orders to stop them and turn the planes around.
For the Immigration and Customs Enforcement public affairs team, the nighttime operation across metro Houston in October was a gold mine.
An ICE video producer shadowed agents as they pulled over and handcuffed more than 120 suspected undocumented immigrants, then sent the footage to a private team chatroom. [Excerpts from chatroom posts, and videos, are available at the link.]
Across thousands of internal ICE messages reviewed by The Washington Post, this kind of celebration has become commonplace. The messages show how the team has worked closely with the White House, which has urged them to produce videos for social media of immigrant arrests and confrontations to portray its push for mass deportation as critical to protecting the American way of life.
Before officials could post the Houston video, they had to figure out how to frame it. Officials did not know if all the arrestees had criminal records, they wrote in the chats, undermining a slogan the team had worked to promote on social media: that ICE targeted the “Worst of the Worst.” [chatroom post]
After some discussion, the team decided on a compromise. [chatroom post]
Instead of arguing they’d snared hardened criminals, officials wrote a caption saying the arrests showed the dangers of “illegal aliens … behind the wheel.”
Then, to maximize the video’s chances of going viral, they needed a soundtrack. [chatroom posts]
They settled on a rap song by Nbhd Nick, which his label would later tell The Post was used without permission, that starts, “Oh, you thought this was a game, huh?”
The video was posted to ICE’s social media channels, where it has been viewed more than 1 million times in total. [video]
For years, this ICE team had run like a routine government communications shop, dispensing public service announcements and news releases few Americans would see. But during President Donald Trump’s second term, ICE’s public affairs arm has rapidly transformed into an influencer-style media machine, churning out flashy videos of tactical operations and immigration raids.
The internal communications reviewed by The Post show how the ICE team has coordinated with the White House, working to satisfy Trump aides’ demands to “flood the airwaves,” as one official urged in the messages, with brash content showing immigrants being chased, grabbed and detained.
They also show federal officials mocking immigrants in crass terms and discussing video edits that might help legitimize the administration’s aggressive stance. The team also knowingly used copyright-protected music without permission from the rights holders, among other techniques designed to boost their online attention.
[…] “We were supposed to present the facts, not hype things up. But this veers into propaganda, into creating fear,” said Lapan, a retired Marine Corps colonel. “We didn’t have this meme-ification of various serious operations, these things that are life or death. … It’s not a joking matter. But that’s the way they’re treating it now.”
[…] Emily Covington, ICE’s assistant director for public affairs, frequently requested “good arrest videos” and asked the team to devote its energy to capturing “high profile arrests,” […]
The team began working like a professional influencer operation, creating a “social media check list” of caught-on-camera arrests, sharing metrics with senior officials, using paid social media tracking tools and cataloguing all of their Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads and X posts, ranked by impressions and engagement rate. […]
A week after Covington’s message, in late May, the team got its first viral video. The clip showed ICE agents leaping out of an SUV and confronting men on the curb of a home improvement store in Baltimore. The men were shoved face down onto the street and handcuffed while an agent said, “Calle la boca” — in Spanish, “shut your mouth.” In an X post, ICE called the video “action-packed.” [chatroom post]
But the real celebration came shortly after, when the White House reposted the video on its Instagram and X accounts, labeling it an “EPIC Takedown.” [chatroom post]
[…] As the media operation ramped up, DHS posted several videos containing clear errors around their operations, using misleading footage that showed scenes recorded thousands of miles away from where the video described […]
Officials worked to find ways to describe many of the people arrested as the “Worst of the Worst,” a slogan DHS and ICE began using in January to argue that their agents hunted only the most dangerous criminals. When one official asked in the chat what producers should say in their videos when arrestees had no criminal history, another responded that they should work to find something else “newsworthy” to highlight, like an “egregious immigration history.”
[…] “If the truth of the operation does not match the narrative of the ‘worst of the worst,’ it’s going to be killed,” the official said.
[…] At least five DHS and ICE videos have been taken down from X in recent months following complaints from representatives of the comedian Theo Von, the band MGMT, and rappers Jay-Z, Joey Valence, and Chamillionaire. Other companies and creators have complained that their intellectual property was used without permission, including the Pokémon Co., whose cartoon style was mimicked for a DHS video captioned “Gotta Catch ’Em All.” […]
The US military conducted a strike against a “low-profile vessel” allegedly trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday, killing one person, according to US Southern Command.
“On Dec. 22, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters,” SOUTHCOM wrote on X. […]
At least 105 people have now been killed in strikes on suspected drug boats as part of a campaign, dubbed Operation Southern Spear, that the Trump administration has said is aimed at curtailing narcotics trafficking. The US military most recently struck two alleged drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean last week, killing 5 people. […]
Under a 60-day deadline from an appeals court to decide already whether to release Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon waited 49 days to finally rule … and then ordered the report kept secret for another two months.
In her ruling, Cannon said her order keeping the Justice Department from distributing the report would expire Feb. 24. She gave no explanation for that particular date.
Cannon ostentatiously extended an invitation for President Trump and his former co-defendants in the case to appeal her decision and try to keep the report buried for even longer: “Nothing in this Order prohibits any former or current party to this action from moving for leave to intervene, if warranted, and/or from timely seeking appropriate relief before that deadline.”
At the same time, Cannon issued a separate ruling that refused to allow the outside groups who had forced the issue with the appeals court — resulting in its November order for her to rule within 60 days on their motions, which had been pending since February — to intervene in the case.
“I wanted to let you know that the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware),” the prosecutor, whose name was redacted, wrote in the email. [Many embedded links to sources are available at the main link.]
The email went on to say that Trump took at least eight flights on the plane between 1993 and 1996, with the prosecutor saying, “On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses” in the case against now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
The documents also reveal that the DOJ subpoenaed records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in 2021 as part of their investigation of Maxwell. It’s just the latest shady piece of evidence tying Trump to Epstein and Maxwell […]
In another disturbing document, Epstein allegedly sent convicted pedophile Larry Nassar a handwritten note in which he referenced Trump’s taste for underage girls.
“Our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by he loved to ‘grab snatch,’ whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system,” Epstein allegedly wrote to Nassar. [screen grab at the link]
Because of how damning some of the documents are, the Department of Justice—which Trump has weaponized to become his personal legal team and revenge squad—released a statement defending Trump.
“Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the DOJ wrote in a post on X. “Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims.”
The statement is a terrible look for the DOJ, which is supposed to be an independent law enforcement agency and not the president’s personal defense team.
What’s more, Trump was the only person who appears in the files whom the DOJ defended.
Not only that, but the DOJ actually weaponized the document drops against former President Bill Clinton, including their dubious decision to redact an image of Clinton that makes him look like he is with Epstein victims. In fact, the photo has been in the public record for decades and the people whose images were blacked out are just the children of pop icons Diana Ross and Michael Jackson—not Epstein victims. […]
“Let’s Watch ’60 Minutes’ Segment On Salvador Torture Camp That Bari Weiss Didn’t Want Us To See”
“Can’t say it would have been improved by Stephen Miller lying about it.”
On Sunday, CBS News Commissar Bari Weiss spiked a 60 Minutes segment on the torture inflicted on the 252 Venezuelan immigrants the Trump sent to El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison without due process. But as it happened, the Canadian network Global TV had already received and scheduled the full 60 Minutes episode to run on its website and app. Well, oops, Weiss apparently forgot to send a kill notice to Global TV (or didn’t even know how CBS content is distributed normally).
Before Global TV substituted the program with an episode that had been shorn of its 13-minute “A” block, numerous nerds had already downloaded the segment and posted it to the interwebs on platforms like YouTube, Reddit, and TikTok. CBS News responded by furiously playing Takedown Notice Whack-a-Mole, but the video is out there on the Internet Archive and elsewhere. Hooray for the digital Streisand Effect!
Under fair use and commentary, here’s the segment, hosted by reporter Sharyn Alfonsi, that was supposed to run in the US Sunday, until Weiss decided it needed to be improved by adding in lies from administration sources. (As you’ll see, it already notes that nobody from the government would agree to comment.) Please watch all 13 minutes if you can stand it, if only because so much effort has already gone into keeping you from seeing it. [video]
As many people have also pointed out, we live in a weird Soviet-Lite version of the United States of America now, where in order to see a bootleg news report killed by a wannabe State TV network, we have to rely on broadcasters in other countries. […]
It’s solid reporting, featuring interviews with two of the Venezuelan immigrants shipped off to CECOT without so much as a court hearing. One, Luis Munoz Pinto, now living in Colombia, told Alfonsi how he’d used the CBP One app to make an appointment so he could cross the border and request asylum in 2024. Yes, that does mean he was not an ILLEGAL [!], or at least not until he got to his interview with ICE, where he was immediately imprisoned because he had tattoos.
“They just looked at me and told me I was a danger to society,” [!] he said. “I never even had a traffic ticket.” He explained that he didn’t belong to any gang, but the agent simply replied, “But you are Venezuelan,” and that meant he had to be in Tren de Aragua. Bonus points to Alfonsi for noting that criminologists who study gangs agree that TdA members typically don’t get tattoos, unlike El Salvador’s MS-13.
On arrival at CECOT, Munoz Pinto says, the director of the prison told them, “Welcome to hell. I’ll make sure you never leave.” And it was hell, as Munoz Pinto recalled: “The torture was never-ending. Interminable. There was blood everywhere, screams, people crying, people who couldn’t take it and were urinating or vomiting on themselves.”
A second former detainee at CECOT, William Losada Sanchez, told about “the island,” an isolation cell where prisoners were sent to be punished for minor offenses, including the “offense” of falling down while being forced to kneel in a stress position for hours at a time.
“The island is a little room where there’s no light, no ventilation, nothing. It’s a cell for punishment where you can’t see your hand in front of your face,” Losada Sanchez said. “After they locked us in, they came to beat us every half hour and they pounded on the door with their sticks to traumatize us.”
[…] The segment also features Juan Pappier, a deputy director of Human Rights Watch, who contributed to a November report that found a pattern of “systematic torture” at CECOT. That report’s review of available ICE records found that nearly half of the immigrants the US sent to CECOT had no criminal records in the US or Venezuela. [!]
Weiss thought pointing that out was terribly biased, and that the segment should have emphasized that slightly over half did have criminal records — though there again, as Alfonsi notes, ICE’s records indicate that a lot of those “crimes” were related to their immigration status. ICE’s records identified only eight who had been convicted of violent crimes [!], about three percent of those sent away to be tortured daily for the rest of their lives.
After she killed the piece, Weiss apparently offered staff at 60 Minutes Stephen Miller’s contact info so he could provide the proper administration lies about the Venezuelans sent to CECOT. We’re not sure how that would have differed from the segment’s clip of Karolyn Leavitt insisting the detainees were “heinous monsters, rapists, murderers, kidnappers, sexual assaulters, predators who have no right to be in this country, and they must be held accountable.” [!!}
[…] the Venezuelans sent to CECOT actually did see the light of day again after the story blew up in the administration’s face, part of the larger reaction against Trump’s ethnic cleansing agenda. To make the story go away, Trump arranged to have the men sent to CECOT repatriated to Venezuela, in exchange for 10 American citizens. Heck, 60 Minutes didn’t even mention that one of the Americans was an actual factual convicted triple-murderer who was subsequently released in Florida, and who is now Crom only knows where.
Maybe some other network will cover that story, merry Christmas.
[…] Perhaps the saddest part of all of this is that anyone actually thinks Greenland would want to join the United States to begin with. The people of Greenland have free-at-the-point-of-use universal health care, free higher education, five weeks of paid leave a year, parental leave, subsidized child care, subsidized in-home care for the elderly, and all of the other things that civilized nations have. They have a ban on all handguns and semi/fully automatic weapons, which is probably why they haven’t had a major mass shooting since 1990.
In what world would they want to give that up […]
It’s also fairly bananas that anyone would send Jeff Landry, who literally wanted to withhold funds from New Orleans and other cities to repair their decaying water infrastructure unless they agreed to prosecute women who had abortions. Abortion is legal in Greenland and I highly doubt the people living there want to do business with someone who would pull something like that. Not to mention the fact that Louisiana was, just recently, rated the worst-off state in the nation by US News and World Report.
Frankly, Lousiana would probably be better off now if they’d stuck with the French. At least they’d have health care.
“Heritage Foundation Smashing Up Over Difficult ‘To Be Or Not To Be Nazis’ Question”
“Guess which way they are leaning!”
At one point in the 2024 election season, Kevin Roberts, the[…] dean of intellectual soup kitchen the Heritage Foundation, claimed that the country was in the midst of a second American Revolution, one which would “remain bloodless if the Left allows it to be.” In other words, the head of the rancid dumpster from which tumbled the garbage that was Project 2025 was telling us, you damn leftists better sit your asses down and shut up while the conservatives overrun the country. Otherwise, they might have to water the tree of liberty with liberal blood.
So it is ironic that one year into Donald Trump’s second term in office, Heritage is becoming one of the Right’s most notable casualties of this alleged revolution […]
The problems that have led Heritage to this point broke into the open two months ago. That was when […] Tucker Carlson welcomed notorious antisemite Nick Fuentes to his podcast. The two had a very wholesome chat about how Fuentes isn’t an antisemite. Why, he loves The Jews! He’s just asking questions about why they control all the media and pretend the Holocaust wasn’t a mass hallucination […]
Carlson was roundly condemned for platforming Fuentes. […] Roberts was being pressured to denounce Carlson and distance the think tank from him. He refused, in a smarmy video denouncing anyone who wanted to cancel this great friend of Heritage and distract the Right from its important work of turning the entire Left into ground beef.
Then, actual surprise! The Heritage staff and some of its outside backers rebelled. All of them seemed to have been caught by surprise to find out that there were neo-Nazis and white supremacists in their political coalition [!]
[…] A handful of employees resigned from Heritage, or were fired for insubordination. Then over the weekend, the trickle suddenly became a flood. The Wall Street Journal reported that about 15 staffers resigned at once, wiping out most of Heritage’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
We’re just going to let that sit right there for a sec, so we can all admire it together.
Most of the employees who resigned are moving over to another think tank, Advancing American Freedom, which was founded by Mike Pence. There they hope to reconstitute the Meese center, rebranding it the Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law.
[…] Additionally, a couple of legal scholars cut ties with Heritage. One, Josh Blackman, posted his resignation letter on Reason, and it is to the point […]
Heritage came to a crashing halt after your infamous video. Your initial remarks were indefensible. Your apology was underwhelming. And the lack of any meaningful followup over the past three months has been telling. For reasons only you know, you aligned the Heritage Foundation with the rising tide of antisemitism on the right.
The reason — no pun intended — is that antisemitism has always been a problem on the Right, it has just been somewhat overshadowed in recent decades by all the racism. [True]
Heritage announced that what remains of its own Meese Institute would be run by Cully Stimson and Hans von Spakovsky. But then later on Monday, Heritage announced that both of those two men had also resigned. [LOL]
Imagine how terrible you have to be to drive a couple of nimrods like Stimson and von Spakovsky away. Stimson is a loon who once had to resign from the Pentagon after he threatened law firms that represented Guantanamo Bay prisoners pro bono. Von Spakovsky is an election fraud truther who pops up every few years to remind everyone that he is terrified of Black people voting.
The Heritage Foundation has been around for 52 years. […]
This whole blow-up seems to be an extension of the civil war around MAGA and the larger conservative movement, a war that is breaking out as people on the Right start looking ahead past the reign of Donald Trump. The thinking, as expressed by longtime donor Art Pope, seems to be that with the personalist nature of Trump’s rule ending, Republicans need to start talking about principles again. Stop laughing, he’s serious:
“President Trump’s term is coming to an end,” he said. “The Republican Party is not going to see really a primary among candidates but a primary on principles and fundamental policies.”
[…] what’s interesting here is that this is all coming in Year One of Trump’s second term. A couple of years ago, the idea of looking past Trump would have been unthinkable for these people. They would have been too terrified of mean tweets. Even six months ago, this topic would have been verboten […]
But now, with the president so clearly mentally diminished that even Republicans have noticed, with Trump spending most of his presidency redecorating the White House to look like Catherine the Great’s bathroom, the GOP can almost openly contemplate life after the sentient sweet potato the party has been following like whipped puppies for a decade.
We suppose this is as close to good news as we could reasonably hope for at this stage, that the Republican Party isn’t acting like it thinks the reich will continue for a thousand years. So, yay?
New York Times: Borrowers in Default on Student Loans Could Have Wages Garnished Starting in January
The Trump administration will begin to garnish the pay of student loan borrowers in January, the Department of Education said Tuesday, stepping up a repayment enforcement effort that began this year.
Beginning the week of Jan. 7, roughly 1,000 borrowers who are in default will receive notices informing them of their status, according to an email from the department. The number of notices will increase on a monthly basis.
The collection activities are “conducted only after student and parent borrowers have been provided sufficient notice and opportunity to repay their loans,” according to the email, which was unsigned.
The email did not contain any details about the nature of the garnishment, such as how much would be deducted from wages, but according to the government’s student aid website, up to 15 percent of an employee’s pay after other deductions can be garnished for defaulted borrowers. A borrower should be sent a notice of the government’s intent 30 days before the seizure begins, according to the website, studentaid.gov.
The Trump administration ended a five-year reprieve on student loan repayments in May this year, with forced collections on federal student loans in default — which meant tax refunds and other federal payments could be withheld and applied toward debt payments.
That move signaled the end of pandemic-era relief that began with pauses on payments in March 2020.
After several extensions by the Biden administration, payments resumed in October 2023, but borrowers weren’t penalized for defaulting until last year. About five million borrowers are in default, and millions more are expected to be close to missing payments.
[…]. Being in collections and in default can damage credit scores.
[…] The first day after a missed payment, a loan becomes delinquent. After a certain amount of time in delinquency the loan is considered in default — the kind of loan determines the time period. If someone defaults on a federal student loan, the entire balance becomes due immediately. Then the loan holder can begin collections, including on wages.
But there are options to reorganize the defaulted loans, including consolidation or rehabilitation, which requires making a certain number of consecutive payments determined by the loan holder.
New York Times: How Did DOGE Disrupt So Much While Saving So Little?
“The group’s biggest claims were largely incorrect, a New York Times analysis found. And its many smaller cuts added up to few savings.”
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency said it made more than 29,000 cuts to the federal government — slashing billion-dollar contracts, canceling thousands of grants and pushing out civil servants.
But the group did not do what Mr. Musk said it would: reduce federal spending by $1 trillion before October. On DOGE’s watch, federal spending did not go down at all. It went up.
How is that possible?
One big reason, according to a New York Times analysis: Many of the largest savings that DOGE claimed turned out to be wrong. And while the group did make thousands of smaller cuts, jolting foreign aid recipients, American small businesses and local service providers, those amounted to little in the scale of the federal budget.
In DOGE’s published list of canceled contracts and grants, for instance, the 13 largest were all incorrect. [Graph]
At the top were two Defense Department contracts, one for information technology, one for aircraft maintenance. Mr. Musk’s group listed them as “terminations,” and said their demise had saved taxpayers $7.9 billion. That was not true. The contracts are still alive and well, and those savings were an accounting mirage.
Together, those two false entries were bigger than 25,000 of DOGE’s other claims combined.
Of the 40 biggest claims on DOGE’s list, The Times found only 12 that appeared accurate — reflecting real reductions in what the government had committed to spend.
The Times’s analysis helps answer a basic question about DOGE, which was hard to judge in the group’s chaotic heyday, when it had enormous power to cut federal spending and force out government employees who stood in the way. At the time, in the early months of 2025, DOGE listed real cuts alongside fake ones, and made it hard to tell the difference.
That raised the question of whether DOGE, at its heart, was an exercise in budget cutting or in deception. […]
The DOGE effort led to some actual cuts that closed offices, canceled programs and deprived people of food, medicine and other aid.
For people depending on those funds, the effects were sudden and devastating.
DOGE initially terminated nearly every contract and grant at the U.S.A.I.D. and sought to lay off most staff members, as Mr. Musk put the agency “through the wood chipper.” Some aid programs were later revived. But thousands were canceled.
For Plan International USA, the cancellation ended work on 13 grants, including one that provided food aid in Ethiopia and an education program in Nepal to keep girls in middle school to avoid early, forced marriages. Its abrupt termination was listed on the wall as saving $11.7 million.
[…] The sheer volume of all these cuts contributed to the sense that DOGE was taking a fine-toothed comb to the government, no waste too small. But in reality, DOGE needed the appearance of the big billion-dollar items because a vast majority of these claims added up to so little, at least in dollars.
[…] government workers came to understand DOGE’s process and fed the group nearly finished contracts with high ceiling values, rather than contracts that would significantly reduce spending.
Many of DOGE’s initial broad cuts and layoffs were later put on hold or reversed by litigation [facts never updated online\ That litigation also cost the government money.
[…] The DOGE wall [online presentation] shows that it canceled more than 1,000 I.M.L.S. grants to local museums, libraries and history centers. States and the American Library Association sued, and courts required the grants to be reinstated. The Baltimore museum later received most of its funds. And on Dec. 3, I.M.L.S. announced it was reinstating all grants. But those grants still appear as cuts on the DOGE website, collectively “saving” the government about $134 million. […]
In still other cases, DOGE claimed credit for canceling projects it never touched. […]
In his almost 45 years as a federal judge, John Coughenour has seen it all, including high-profile criminal trials that put his own safety at risk.
But this year, the 84-year-old senior district judge did something he hadn’t considered for a long time: He retrieved a gun he had stored at the federal courthouse in Seattle years ago and brought it back to his home in case he needed it to defend himself.
Coughenour is one of dozens of federal judges who have found themselves at the center of a political maelstrom as they have ruled against President Donald Trump or spoken up in defense of the judiciary. With Trump administration officials vilifying judges who rule against the government, a wave of violent threats and harassment has often followed.
On Jan 23, just three days after Trump took office, Coughenour blocked an executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship, calling the proposal “blatantly unconstitutional.” He was the first of several judges to rule against the administration on the issue, which is now before the Supreme Court.
[…] Within days, Coughenour was “swatted,” which is when someone calls police with a false claim about a purportedly serious ongoing situation, sometimes with dangerous consequences when armed police arrive. In this instance, an anonymous person told the local sheriff’s department that the judge was barricaded into his house and had murdered his wife.
Then, another caller told law enforcement there was a bomb in Coughenour’s mailbox.
In both instances, local law enforcement went to his house and swiftly realized there was no genuine threat.
[…] Other judges have been targets of anonymous pizza deliveries that judges see as a form of intimidation. The U.S. Marshals Service, which has the job of protecting judges, suspects some of the deliveries could be tied to foreign actors, three sources told NBC News. […]
One judge moved house. Another had to freeze her credit cards after a security breach.
Other judges have taken actions to adapt to the changing landscape by upgrading home security systems, changing the route they drive to work and ensuring family members limit personal information they post online […]
Coughenour pointed to the Trump administration’s harsh criticism of judges […] “The things they say and descriptions they use — I blame them for stirring this stuff up,” Coughenour said. […]
Ron Zayas, a cybersecurity expert who contracts with federal courts, said in an interview that his own company’s investigation also found signs of foreign intervention, adding that it had the hallmarks of Russia-allied activity. The investigation found that while the initial wave of pizza deliveries may have started organically, it was quickly seized upon by foreign actors.
“The groups that were having the conversations, and in the rooms where we saw the conversations, they tend to be related to the Russian government, or were known to be affiliated and be sympathetic to Russian causes,” he added, referring to, for example, the online forums where the conversations take place. “It’s just a way to destabilize.” […]
“Alternative for Germany’s opponents accuse the party of attempting to disclose sensitive information on arms supply routes and drone defenses.”
Far-right German politician Ringo Mühlmann has taken a noteworthy interest in exposing information his political opponents say could be of great interest to Russian intelligence.
Using the rights afforded to him as a lawmaker for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the parliament of the eastern German state of Thuringia — where the AfD is the strongest party — Mühlmann has repeatedly asked the regional government to disclose intricate details on subjects such as local drone defenses and Western arms transports to Ukraine.
“What information does the state government have about the extent of military transit transports through Thuringia since 2022 […]
One day in June, Mühlmann — who denies he is doing Russia’s bidding — filed eight inquiries related to drones and the drone defense capabilities of the region’s police, who are responsible for detecting and fending off drones deemed a spy threat. […]
Such questions from AfD lawmakers on the state and federal parliaments have led German centrists to accuse the far-right party’s lawmakers of using their seats to try to expose sensitive information that Moscow could use in its war on Ukraine and to help carry out its so-called “hybrid war” against Europe.
“One cannot help but get the impression that the AfD is working through a list of tasks assigned to it by the Kremlin with its inquiries,” Thuringian Interior Minister Georg Maier, a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), told German newspaper Handelsblatt.
“What struck me was an incredible interest in critical infrastructure and the security authorities here in Thuringia, especially how they deal with hybrid threats,” Maier subsequently told POLITICO. “Suddenly, geopolitical issues are playing a role in their questions, while we in the Thuringian state parliament are not responsible for foreign policy or defense policy.”
AfD leaders frequently take positions favorable to the Kremlin, favoring a renewal of economic ties and gas imports and a cease of weapons aid for Ukraine. Their political opponents, however, have frequently accused them of acting not from conviction alone — but at the behest of Moscow. Greens lawmaker Irene Mihalic, for instance, last month called the party Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “trojan horse” in Germany.
[…] Marc Henrichmann, a conservative lawmaker and the chairman of a special committee in Germany’s Bundestag that oversees the country’s intelligence services, said that while the government is not obliged to divulge classified or highly sensitive information in its answers to parliamentary questions, Russian intelligence services can still piece together valuable insights from the sheer volume and variety of AfD inquiries.
“[…] when you look at these individual inquiries side by side, you get a picture, for example, of travel routes, aid supplies, and military goods to or in the direction of Ukraine.”
[…] With regard to the flood of inquiries related to national security, the question of what is driving the AfD is largely irrelevant, said Jakub Wondreys, a researcher at the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies at the Technical University Dresden who studies the AfD’s Russia policy.
“It’s not impossible that they’re acting on behalf of Kremlin. It’s also possible that they are acting on behalf of themselves, because, of course, they are pro-Kremlin. But the end result is pretty much the same. These questions are a potential threat to national security.”
beholdersays
@215 StevoR
Loved that old cartooon so much as a kid.
Uchu Senkan Yamato was pretty great.
Probly more realistic & useful than the Trump plans too.
Not quite. Unfortunately we found the wreck of the Yamato in the 1980s. It’s in pretty bad condition — it broke into two pieces, and too much has corroded away in seawater. Not enough of the ship is left for a convincing episode 1.
StevoRsays
Aussie ABC summary here of the infighting that’s happening at last and too late to stop worst of the worst already in power from making things worse :
While Trump is still enjoying strong approval ratings among Republicans, a growing number of issues are fuelling conflict among his MAGA followers.
The divisions were on full display over the weekend. Leading conservatives attacked one another at AmericaFest, the annual convention run by the late Charlie Kirk’s organisation, Turning Point USA.
“Say what you want about AmFest, but it’s definitely not boring,” Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, said at the event. “Feels like a Thanksgiving dinner where your family’s hashing out the family business.”
Here are six of the issues causing bitter fights in the American right.
FWIW the 6 issues discussed there are support for israel’s genocide (I), the role of rising nazi & inspirer of Kirk’s murderer Nick Fuentes (II), Health insurance (III), H1 b skilled worker visas (IV), Kirk assassination Conspiracism (V), and the Cost of living horrorshow (VI) with bonus VIIth) issue of aid to Ukraine mentioned in there too in the first category but really I’d count as separate..
StevoRsays
The NSW government has passed its controversial package of law changes in reaction to the Bondi terror attack.
The laws passed the upper house 18 votes to eight after a marathon debate which stretched into the early hours of Christmas Eve. The legislation now goes back to the lower house to be rubberstamped.
… (Snip)..
Protest laws set for constitutional challenge
(Sub heading-ed.)
The government has given police the power to enact a blanket refusal of all public assemblies for up to three months after a terrorist incident.
The police commissioner has the discretion to turn that power on and they can extend it in two-week increments.
Premier Chris Minns argued that was necessary to preserve police resources and ensure calm in the wake of the tragedy.
But it has been met with opposition from advocacy groups, including the Palestine Action Group, Jews Against the Occupation and the Blak Caucus, a First Nations group, which are preparing a challenge on constitutional grounds.
“It unnecessarily infringes on the implied freedom of communication, which is essentially the freedom of speech which we have in this country,” lawyer Nick Hanna said on Tuesday.
There is some uncertainty about whether the laws will only prohibit marching protests or will cover static gatherings as well.
Mr Minns said static rallies would not be covered, but police could shut them down if they were regarded as a “breach of the peace”.
New Simon Clark here – The misinformation situation is worse than you think which lasts under 20 mins and is predictably horrible and disturbing but ever more so as always and a pretty informative summary of climate info wars. Oh and Agnotology seems to be the word of the day dominating the Trump regimes zeitgeist..
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has cancelled the visa of a British national charged with three counts of displaying Nazi symbols.Police said they seized several weapons from the man’s Caboolture home, including swords with swastikas on them.
In the wake of the Bondi terror attack, Mr Burke has vowed to strengthen his ministerial powers to deport visa holders who espouse hate.
By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents.
[…]
Very funny to see Alito complain about the court skipping full briefing and oral arguments for a quick shadow docket decision when he has signed onto innumerable orders that pull the exact same tricks and rebuked colleagues who complain
Wow. Genuinely shocked, and a hugely consequential decision. […] Marty Lederman’s amicus brief appears to have made a MAJOR impact. […] The law Trump used to federalize the National Guard requires him to be “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.” The Court today agrees […] that “regular forces” means the U.S. military, which used to be called “the regulars.” […] he invoked a law which had strict prerequisites, which the Supreme Court ruled were not met.
Beyond the issue of what “regular forces” means, the majority finds at this stage that the President does not have inherent authority to deploy the military to protect ICE property, therefore allowing him to “execute” the laws with the military. […]
Kavanaugh concurs on the “regular forces,” but thinks the majority probably got the second issue wrong. Alito joined by Thomas, dissents, saying they think the “regular forces” argument was waived and majority gets everything else wrong. Gorsuch dissents, saying it’s too early to weigh in at all.
Rando 1: “too early to weigh in dissent was particularly rich after this year of our lord 2025 in shadow docket decisions.”
Rando 2: “My read of this is that it should shut down basically all deployments of the national guard (except possibly in DC)?”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “Agreed.”
It interprets “regular forces” to mean military, which you would think would be saying “he gets to send the regular military in first” which is awful, but then it says that if you can’t send the military because of law then you can’t send the NG in either.
Scott Shapiro (Law prof): “You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to the Supreme Court.”
Every opinion makes good points about a president’s legal authority to call up the Nat’l Guard and the procedural concerns of resolving it on the shadow docket. But they all ignore what the district judges knew these cases are really about: Trump’s bad faith invasion of our cities based on lies. In other words, every opinion on both sides of the ledger in this order gives Trump the presumption of regularity he does not deserve.
[…]
That presumption btw was prob the price the Dem appointees had to pay so to secure Roberts and Barrett’s votes. The reason Marty Lederman’s brief was so effective is because it gave Roberts and Barrett (and Kav) a way to vote against Trump without calling him a fucking liar, which is what the lower courts based their decisions on.
Mike Sacks: “Kavanaugh spends a footnote pretty much saying STOP CALLING THEM KAVANAUGH STOPS.”
Lee Kovarsky (Law prof): “I think it’s pretty clear that the Kavanaugh Stop thing has gotten to him.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “Oh yeah, that footnote is entirely unnecessary”
Rando 3: Stop making fun of me when I decided to make up law that literally no one asked for.
“DoJ’s Christmas Epstein Drop is BAD for the President” [and Prince Andrew]
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=QSvKbCAxWrM
Also, we see DJT lied about never flying with Epstein’s jet.
We see Pam Bondi and Kash Patel lying about there being no trafficking. One client [it is absolutely Prince Andrew] asked about getting a new “inappropriate friend”.
birgerjohanssonsays
Together with the things in my preceding comments, these news items are great Xmas presents to USA.
.
“Democrats Score SURPRISE WIN in Deep Red Kansas”
😀
birgerjohanssonsays
Yes, I forgot about the link in the excitement. Sorry. Scold me all you want, it will not ruin my mood.
🎉🍷🍾
birgerjohanssonsays
Former Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
.
I do not wish cancer on anybody -and Ben Sasse is to my knowledge not implicated in something nastier than the usual GOP politics – but this could aid the independent challenger, wossname, for Nebraska’s senate seat.
.
Maybe Nebraska is one of those states where the governor just appoints a senator to fill in the gap. If not, the independent challenger has an early shot at the senate before the midterms.
I don’t understand any rhyme or reason to the organization or provenance of the various tranches of Epstein Files, but they clearly contain tons of raw investigative materials of dubious reliability/value
[…]
for example Data Set 7 contains *unlabeled files* comprising hundreds of pages of 2019 Alex Acosta deposition transcripts stemming from a DOJ investigation of Acosta’s role in Epstein’s 2007 prosecution deferral. It would have been smart and helpful and, IMO, not a whole lot extra effort (lol) to place the Acosta deposition transcripts in a folder with a matter number or something like a docket. Instead, the transcripts are chucked (and are published out of order!) in like a bunch of mixed crap in a shoebox.
[…]
Jesus. The Palm Beach Police really sought arrest warrants against underage Epstein victims for coming forward and cooperating, and (purported) admitting to crimes, and it caused the victims to become uncooperative with the federal investigation.
The least shocking thing in the Epstein files that wont get enough attention. Police regularly arrest and charge victims to coerce them into participating, often jailing them in conditions that are worse. […] many law enforcement agencies rely on the ideas that girls have a form of stockholm syndrome and thus NEED to be arrested to be saved.
[Article] Here, cops broke into a pregnant woman’s house, threatened to take away her kid, and then tried to kidnap said kid only to then arrest the mother all because they wanted her to testify they way they wanted.
Rando 2: “Also one of the key flaws of the ‘Nordic model’ of prostitution criminalization—it sounds like a good idea to only criminalize the clients, but it always leads to intimidation/persecution towards the workers from both them and law enforcement.”
Jessica Pishko: “Can’t arrest the client without testimony!”
Rando 3: “Ironic considering the cause of the original ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ was partially the realization of the hostages that the cops didn’t care about them and were cavalier about them dying.”
birgerjohanssonsays
Mike Pence steals essential members of the Heritage Foundation to his own foundation.
Yes, that was a ig loss for the Trump administration. Summary from MS NOW:
Over dissent from Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court declined to let the Trump administration immediately deploy the National Guard in Chicago, in the latest high court test of Donald Trump’s sweeping claims of authority in his second term.
The U.S. moved a large number of special-operations aircraft and multiple cargo planes filled with troops and equipment into the Caribbean area this week, giving the U.S. additional options for possible military action in the region, according to U.S. officials and open source flight-tracking data.
“ICE documents reveal plan to hold 80,000 immigrants in warehouses”
“The Trump administration aims to build seven large-scale holding centers to speed up deportations, internal ICE documents show.”
The Trump administration is seeking contractors to help it overhaul the United States’ immigrant detention system in a plan that includes renovating industrial warehouses to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees at a time, according to a draft solicitation reviewed by The Washington Post.
Rather than shuttling detainees around the country to wherever detention space is available, as happens now, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement aims to speed up deportations by establishing a deliberate feeder system, the document says. Newly arrested detainees would be booked into processing sites for a few weeks before being funneled into one of seven large-scale warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people each, where they would be staged for deportation.
The large warehouses would be located close to major logistics hubs in Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia and Missouri. Sixteen smaller warehouses would hold up to 1,500 people each.
The draft solicitation is not final and is subject to changes. ICE plans to share it with private detention companies this week to gauge interest and refine the plan, according to an internal email reviewed by The Post. A formal request for bids could follow soon after that. […]
The full scope of the project, the locations of the facilities and other details contained in the solicitation have not been previously disclosed or reported.
[…] Armed with $45 billion Congress set aside for locking up immigrants, the Trump administration this year revived dormant prisons, repurposed sections of military bases and partnered with Republican governors to build immigrant tent encampments in remote regions.
[…] “We need to get better at treating this like a business,” ICE acting director Todd M. Lyons said at a border security conference in April, according to the Arizona Mirror. The administration’s goal, he said, was to deport immigrants as efficiently as Amazon moves packages: “Like Prime, but with human beings.” [map and list of locations]
Commercial real estate experts say concentrating detainees in warehouses would create its own logistical problems. Such structures are designed for storage and shipping, not human habitation. They tend to be poorly ventilated and lack precise temperature controls — and, because they are typically located far from residential areas, they may not have access to the plumbing and sanitation systems needed to support thousands of full-time residents.
[…] ICE plans to heavily modify the structures […]
Staffing facilities of this size is likely to be a challenge, said Jason Houser, a former ICE chief of staff under President Joe Biden. Prospective workers will need medical or other specialized training and will have to pass federal security clearances, he said.
This problem is already bearing out in other new facilities. In September, the government’s own inspectors found that the Fort Bliss site employed less than two-thirds of the security personnel it had agreed to in its contract. […]
“Thanks to Donald Trump, 2025 was a good year … for white-collar criminals”
When Islamic State needed to move and disguise its money, it turned, US prosecutors said in 2023, to the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange: Binance. So too did al-Qaida, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which used the platform to help bankroll its operations in the years leading up to the 7 October attack in Israel. Binance was not accused of directly financing these groups, but prosecutors found that it knowingly allowed its exchange to function as a conduit – enabling extremist organisations to shift funds, evade scrutiny and frustrate investigations.
At the centre of it all was Binance’s founder and chief executive, Changpeng Zhao. By 2024, the self-styled “king” of crypto had fallen from grace, pleading guilty to money laundering charges and entering prison, while Binance agreed to pay a record $4.3bn penalty for its role in facilitating terrorist financing. […]
But in late October, Donald Trump announced that he was pardoning Zhao. […]
The victims of bombings, shootings and mass casualty attacks are, all too often, also the victims of bankers, executives and financiers who made that violence possible.
Zhao’s pardon sent a clear signal about who stands to gain most from a Trump presidency. As those concerned with environmental collapse, economic instability and the spread of authoritarianism find themselves increasingly sidelined, white-collar criminals – Zhao among them, and Trump himself – are enjoying a political moment unlike any they have known before.
For this coterie of fraudsters and tax evaders, the past year has been a cresting wave of successes: the abandonment of seeming slam-dunk prosecutions, presidential pardons for even the most egregious crimes, and a steady hollowing out of the agencies tasked with holding them to account. […]
But why would the Trump administration choose to set aside consequences from criminals whose actions threaten the stability of the broader American economy?
Trump’s preferred tool for aiding white-collar criminals is simple: the pardon. […] Trump has wielded it promiscuously […]
Take Trump’s supposed focus on combating narco-traffickers. Trump has been explicit about wanting to control the influx of narcotics and fentanyl into the US from South America – and is close to waging war on Venezuela despite the fact that it is not among the primary direct traffickers of cocaine to the US. At the same time, Trump has pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former Honduran president.
[…] In 2024, Hernández was convicted by a US jury of an extraordinary catalogue of crimes, including conspiring to import roughly 400 tonnes of cocaine into the United States. As the US attorney general said at the time, Hernández stood “at the centre of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world”, entwining his finances with the cartels and transforming Honduras into a key transit hub for narcotics bound for American streets and, in the process, one of the most dangerous countries on Earth.
[…] Trump announced in early December that Hernandez was “treated very harshly and unfairly” and would walk free. Hernandez spent months lobbying Trump acolytes and conservative media personalities, pitching himself as a pro-Trump “ally on migration and security” and casting himself as a victim of political revenge by the Biden administration that he said had also been used to target Trump. The play worked. And it would not be the last time.
One by one, white-collar criminals have marched to the White House, bleating their fealty to Trump – and watching their prison sentences evaporate as a result.
[I snipped many examples, including examples of Trump pardoning bad actors guilty of both financial and political (bribery and extortion) charges]
Public Citizen, the nonprofit consumer rights group, has been keeping a record of the enforcement actions – that is, either prosecutions or investigations – against corporate defendants that have now been paused or scuttled outright, all as a direct result of Trump’s decisions. Out of 480 corporations targeted in previous enforcement actions, the Trump administration has already thwarted approximately one third of them. As Public Citizen summarized, “President Trump talks tough on crime, but his administration is gutting enforcement against corporate lawbreakers.” [I snipped specific examples]
[…] Unregistered brokers trading unregulated securities. Pharmaceutical price-fixing conspiracies. Corporations operating factories that presented “imminent and substantial endangerment to public health”. Case after case evaporated – often following political donations or business arrangements benefiting Trump, his family or his allies.
No sector better encapsulates this dynamic than cryptocurrency. Major crypto players like Crypto.com and Coinbase saw investigations quietly shelved. Binance and Zhao […] Binance had begun helping Trump’s personal crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, craft its own stablecoin – a coin that a separate firm controlled by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later used to bankroll a $2bn investment back into Binance. […]
All of it generated potentially tens of millions of dollars for the Trumps […]
Why is it that the Trump administration wants to help people who risk the destabilization of the American economy writ large? Part of it is grievance. It’s no secret that Trump has viewed himself as a victim […]
Part of it is about amassing further power – beating back democratic forces in places like Honduras […]
Part of it is ideological, part of a broader suite of Republican-led policy decisions to dismantle the so-called “administrative state”. Any notion of independence at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has effectively collapsed. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is starved of authority and funding, with the Trump administration openly questioning its legality. The Environmental Protection Bureau has a name that is now effectively an oxymoron, with the administration rolling back everything from limits on pollution to obliterating restrictions on things like formaldehyde. And the Department of Justice has become the personal plaything for Trump […]
And these are only the topline developments. The US’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – which previously prevented American corporations from bribing crooked foreign officials, entrenching dictatorships around the world – is being effectively neutered. The new shell company registry – which would have ended the US’s role as the greatest home for dirty money around the world – is now, for all intents and purposes, dead. Autocrats and oligarchs, narco-traffickers and arms dealers, anyone relying on criminal proceeds to finance their malign activities – they’re all now realizing that they can rely on the US to act as their wallet, and to help them make the world safe for dictatorship once more.
[…] If these same dynamics – rolling back regulations, foregoing investigations, allowing corporate fraud to flourish – led to everything from ecological devastation to the Great Recession over the past few decades, there’s every reason to think it will happen again.
[…] The end point is not merely corruption, but entrenchment: a political order in which crime is rewarded, enforcement is optional and loyalty is currency. This dynamic not only rewards crime but incentivizes it. […]
it will be something that puts paid to the idea that this kind of corruption or white-collar criminality was ever a “victimless” crime – because, by that point, all of us will be victims as well.
Melania Trump’s self-titled documentary is getting the celebrity-presidential treatment, it seems.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Melania,” a film helmed by exiled Hollywood director Brett Ratner that chronicles the first lady’s preparation to return to the White House alongside her husband, will get a red carpet premiere at Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—or, rather, the newly named Trump-Kennedy Center.
[…] When Amazon MGM Studios purchased the rights to the documentary in January 2025, critics were quick to call the deal a $40 million bribe from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has spent the past year trying to worm his way back into President Donald Trump’s good graces.
As for Melania, looking busy in front of a camera is great publicity for the serially absent first lady.
Ratner is positioning himself for a big move off of Hollywood’s blacklist. During the height of the “Me Too” movement, the “Rush Hour” director faced multiple accusations of sexual assault from various actresses. He has denied all of the claims.
Six women came forward in 2017, including actress Olivia Munn, accusing him of doing things like masturbating in front of them or forcing oral sex.
The disgraced director appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files released on Friday. Ratner is seen smiling ear to ear in an undated photo with Jean-Luc Brunel, the late French modeling agent and longtime Epstein associate.
Brunel died by suicide in a Paris jail cell in 2022 while facing charges for supplying minors to accused sex trafficker Epstein and for allegedly raping a minor. […]
Donald Trump has gone as far to use his sway on billionaire Larry Ellison’s Paramount Skydance—who will soon take over the U.S. buyout of TikTok—to get Ratner a movie deal for a “Rush Hour 4.”
As for the upcoming premiere, it remains to be seen if Trump’s name will still be plastered on the Kennedy Center when the film is released on Jan. 30, 2026.
After all, the administration is already facing a lawsuit from House Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Kennedy Center board member who said the vote to rename the center was not unanimous and dissenters were silenced.
But, hey, a “documentary” soon to stream on Amazon Prime is one hell of a Christmas present for Ratner and the attention-loving Trump family.
NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—At a tense all-hands meeting on Wednesday, editor-in-chief Bari Weiss announced that, going forward, CBS News will institute a zero-tolerance policy towards news.
“Someone tried to slip some news into this past Sunday’s episode of ‘60 Minutes,’” a visibly angry Weiss told the gathering. “Fortunately, I was able to catch it in time.”
She reminded the newsroom that “as journalists, we all answer to a higher master: David Ellison.”
Next Sunday, CBS will air the first Weiss-edited episode of “60 Minutes,” now called “4 Minutes.”
Trump had just awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for Charlie Kirk in October […] As a string ensemble played in the background, Donald Trump Jr. walked up with lobbyist Ches McDowell […] One of his clients was seeking a pardon. […] Changpeng Zhao, founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance. That afternoon, the president agreed [and] formally signed the pardon for Zhao a week later
[…]
For Binance, it was the culmination of a nearly yearlong effort to pursue clemency for its founder. It had paid lobbyists around $800,000 to lobby for a pardon, U.S. policy changes and other matters, according to federal records. It also approached other lobbyists about a pardon, offering success fees of as much as $5 million if they could help secure one
[…]
This month alone, Trump pardoned a former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been convicted of conspiring with cartels to ship 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S.; a Texas Democrat, Henry Cuellar, charged with taking nearly $600,000 in foreign bribes; and a sports executive, Tim Leiweke, who had been indicted by Trump’s own Justice Department.
[…]
Trump pardoned Hernández so quickly that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and other senior officials had no advance notice […] Trump had asked aides for months if Cuellar would flip to the Republican Party if he pardoned him […] He hasn’t switched parties. Trump’s pardon for Leiweke came after former Rep. Trey Gowdy raised the case with him at Mar-a-Lago after a round of golf
[…]
In the first year of his first term, Trump granted a single pardon and commuted one sentence. He waited until his final day in office to issue around 140 additional acts of clemency. This term, he pardoned more than 1,500 people on his first day alone, and has since granted clemency to a further 87 people and companies. The new approach […] has spawned a pardon-shopping industry where lobbyists say their going rate is $1 million. Pardon-seekers have offered some lobbyists close to the president success fees of as much as $6 million […] Binance paid McDowell $450,000 in the third quarter, during which he was registered to lobby for only 10 days. He said he wasn’t paid a success fee.
[…]
Administration officials and lobbyists describe two playbooks that have emerged. There is the official track, which involves pardon czar Alice Johnson, Justice Department pardon attorney Ed Martin and the White House Counsel’s Office. Applicants usually go through one of the three, and ultimately White House counsel Dave Warrington reviews the application and makes a recommendation to Trump. The two men meet every few weeks to discuss pardons, administration officials said.
The second track is riskier but can be much faster. If an applicant can find Trump at Mar-a-Lago or a White House event and ask for a pardon directly, Trump is often inclined
Trump’s White House has taken the astonishing step of commandeering the Department of Justice’s X account, Axios reported Wednesday, a day after the latest tranche of Jeffrey Epstein files […] It’s unclear when the White House first took over the account, but a post […] announcing the latest Epstein files’ release on Tuesday was quick to absolve the president of any wrongdoing.
these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump […] unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized
Among the documents was a handwritten letter […] By late Tuesday afternoon, however, the DOJ said it had concluded the letter was fake:
FAKE. The fake letter […] This fake letter […] just because a document is released by the [DoJ] does not make the allegations or claims within the document factual.
members of the public upload the license plate, along with additional pictures and information […] reviewed by moderators. […] Under each license plate, there is a folder that contains all of the reported sightings
[…] Stopice.net also houses both a federal immigration alert network and a list of rapid response groups. The nationwide mobile alert system has over half a million subscribers according to the website. It contains a live map that has real-time alerts of confirmed federal immigration agent activity and sighted federal immigration agents. [There’s a hamburger menu in the upper right.]
birgerjohanssonsays
British comedian Alexei Sayle has an urgent Christmas message.
i hate clickbait.
this: ‘British comedian Alexei Sayle has an urgent Christmas message.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BSoWWyDNV/‘
I do NOT WANT TO CLICK FACEBOOK.
find that message elsewhere
Bot [elided]
—
But here it is. I did the work necessary to avoid Zuck, but alas, now it’s Alphabet.
Still.
[Neb-rak-sa] Yes, this is a real tweet… and it’s been up for five days so far
[…]
The policy is going into effect starting May 1st, 2026 […] is what it is, so it behooves me to provide as much information about how it’s being implemented as I can to help as many people as possible keep their coverage
Dear Lynna, tomorrow is a day when most people wind down and share with loved ones, I hope you will have an enjoyable and rejuvenating time.
And, I thank you for all your substantial effort to keep us informed.
OOPS, it’s already tomorrow on this site, but not here in Scarizona!
KGsays
Economic growth rose at a 4.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported , Tuesday, an acceleration from the previous quarter. – LynnaOM@223 quoting talkingpointsmemo
Apart from the caveats cited@223, one has to wonder whether any figures put out by any part of the administration can be trusted. I haven’t seen this point raised elsewhere, so maybe there’s good reason to trust the Commerce Department.
KGsays
“The U.S. Navy will lead the design, along with me, because I’m a very aesthetic person,” Trump said. – news.usni.org quoted by JM@211
And of course all the gold will increase the weight – two birds with one stone!
@273. shermanj : Tiomezones so annoyingand too far apart! Bring back Pangea ..
Oh wait, on second thoughts maybe don’t..
The formation of a supercontinent on Earth could wipe out humans and any other mammals that are still around in 250m years, according to a study.
The mass extinction would be caused primarily by heat stress as a result of greater volcanic activity that would put twice as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as current levels, an older sun that would emit more radiation and the extent of inland deserts in the tropics.
The supercontinent Pangea Ultima is expected to take shape when all the current continents merge together in the distant future. The paper, which was published on Monday in Nature Geoscience, is the first attempt to model how extreme the climate might become from that geological rearrangement.
Using a UK Met Office climate model and the University of Bristol supercomputer, the simulation also provided tectonic clues to past extinction events and data that could be of use to astronomers looking for other habitable planets.
Sky Captain @265, thank you. This excerpt is memorable:
The second track is riskier but can be much faster. If an applicant can find Trump at Mar-a-Lago or a White House event and ask for a pardon directly, Trump is often inclined.
‘Of course’: Hayes reacts to Bari Weiss turmoil over yanked ‘60 minutes’ segment.
Chris Hayes is joined by Asawin Suebsaeng and John Ganz to discuss the backlash after CBS News chief Bari Weiss pulled a “60 Minutes” report on the mega-prison where the Trump administration has deported migrants.
New Epstein email reveals feds tried to contact ’10 co-conspirators’. According to a newly released email, federal agents were attempting to contact 10 possible Epstein “co-conspirators” the day after his 2019 sex-trafficking arrest.
I will be taking the afternoon off. I’m celebrating the holidays by visiting my relatives who are hosting an event that includes a lot of food. Sounds good to me.
I’m sure that regular readers will fill in for my absence.
Throughout 2025, the Trump administration has, time after time, simply refused to spend funds that Congress appropriated. […]
Piping up occasionally to affirm to those who were paying attention that they had not entirely lost their minds was a relatively small watchdog agency housed within the legislative branch: The Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The Trump Department of Transportation suspending Biden-era grants for electric vehicle charging infrastructure was illegal, it said. The administration also acted illegally when it withheld funds for Head Start, the Government Accountability Office said, and when it withheld funds for FEMA. GAO concluded it was illegal for the Trump administration to withhold NIH grants; so was their decision to freeze the federal cash allocated for the Institute of Museum and Library Services to support libraries, archives and museums throughout the country. […]
We may soon get a very different GAO.
Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who heads the agency, is set to complete his 15-year term on Dec. 29, and has said he will retire. Dodaro’s retirement comes following more than five decades of service […]
Congress will establish a bipartisan panel to recommend a replacement to the president. […] Trump will then nominate a candidate subject to Senate confirmation.
But experts worry that the ostensibly bipartisan process will not be enough to force Trump to appoint someone who will live up to the agency’s nonpartisan mission [Yeah, Trump appointing an obedient lackey seems highly likely.]
[…] “GAO investigations are extremely important,” Georgetown Law professor David Super told TPM. […]
“Since Trump has gotten rid of the inspectors general, we don’t have that independent site,” Super continued. “So having an independent GAO looking at things is extremely important. And, certainly, Congress would have a harder time doing its job without GAO.”
Since Trump took office in January, GAO has issued several decisions finding impoundment violations by the Trump administration. Whoever succeeds Dodaro will take on the ongoing probes around the same issues.
[…] The Trump White House’ Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and conservative lawmakers have been publicly challenging GAO’s objectivity, actively trying to undermine it as the agency tries to do its job. [True.]
[…] Under the leadership of Russell Vought, OMB has refused to cooperate in GAO investigations, stonewalling the agency’s requests for information and calling them “voluminous, burdensome, and inappropriately invasive.”
[…] The White House even pushed a constitutionally backwards rescissions package through Congress in July. The maneuver saw the White House strongarm Senate Republicans into accepting Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] funding cuts to various agencies and programs, funding that many of the same lawmakers had previously voted to approve but that the administration had lawlessly frozen.
[…] Despite issuing several opinions concluding the administration illegally withheld money, the agency under Dodaro has not taken action to sue the Trump administration for the violations it identified — despite some bipartisan support from congressional lawmakers.
“People are already suing in many cases,” Dodaro said to explain away his decision, referring to individual lawsuits from groups who have not been receiving the funds Congress appropriated for them and their programs.
[…] It would be a different story if the GAO had been using “its power under the Impoundment Control Act to sue over impoundments” or “quickly identifying impoundments and calling them out in a way that was proving useful in litigation,” Super added; but they have “kept a very low profile on these issues.”
But others like Linden say GAO’s decision to stay away from legal action is likely centered around the fact that the current level of lawlessness is so unprecedented.
GAO suing the administration “has never been a thing before because in the past if GAO had said you’re impounding then that would have been enough to get an administration to change its behavior,” Linden told TPM. “That’s clearly not enough now.”
[…] “The Trump administration has effectively already undermined the authority of the GAO, even with the current head, who is very good and very credible … how do you constrain or put limits on an administration that is ignoring the current limits?”
“That’s the problem with authoritarianism,” Linden continued. “It’s why we should all be upset about things like impoundments. This is why this stuff matters. Because either the law applies to the executive branch, or it doesn’t.”
“A million more Epstein documents have been found, the Justice Dept. says.”
The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it had discovered over a million more documents potentially related to the investigation of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — increasing the amount previously known and lengthening the time it will take to release the material. [Smells like another stalling tactic.]
To date, the department has released about 130,000 pages of information, some of it redacted, to comply with a law passed by Congress requiring the disclosure of most of the material about Mr. Epstein. Under the law, the administration may withhold records that identify victims or information that would “jeopardize an active federal investigation.”
The law gave the Justice Department a deadline of last Friday to release the files, and a batch of about 100,000 pages was released that day. But over the weekend, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said that about a million pages of information were being reviewed, and that the full release would take a few more weeks.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department said the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, which oversaw the investigations into Mr. Epstein and his longtime confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, had informed the department “that they have uncovered over a million more documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.”
[…] Since late November, the department has assigned nearly 200 lawyers from the national security division to review the documents and remove any information about victims, or anything that would compromise continuing investigations or national security.
Earlier this week, department officials sent out an emergency request for reinforcements, asking for lawyers to volunteer over the holiday break to join the effort, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal workings of the department. It is unclear how many lawyers volunteered.
[…] The department’s release of material related to Mr. Epstein has not gone smoothly. After the initial release last week, some photographs were removed from the online collection because of what the department described as concerns they might contain information about victims.
[…] A subsequent release Monday of some 30,000 pages also got off to a rough start, as the pages were available for a few hours, then taken down, then put back online.
Yes, the release and the excuses are all a mess. Incompetence and malfeasance on display. See Chris Hayes’ segment highlighted in comment 278.
Photos, descriptions and commentary available at the link.
Examples include:
– a Bling Clutch, studded with Swarovski crystals that spell out Trump’s name
– the $65 DJT Driver Cover, which goes on your golf clubs, apparently? Keep your bag out in the garage so this thing can’t attack you in your sleep.
– God Bless The USA Bible, one version is $99.99
– Trump guitars
– Trump sneakers
– First Lady sneakers
…. and many more
The official Trump store is supposed to be for the nonpresidential things in Trump’s “brand,” but you will be unsurprised to learn that there is still a ton of Dear Leader merch. Also, in case you were wondering, the tagline for the site is: “Infuse the elegance of Trump in your next event,” which actually makes it sound like Trump, the person, could somehow be distilled and pumped into your holiday party—a genuinely horrifying thought.
@283 Lynna, OM: This argument about spending is one of the basic goals of Project 2025. They want to transfer control of the budget from Congress to the president. Not by changing the Constitution but by giving the president the ability to make his own decisions about how money should be spent, letting him effectively alter or ignore the budget passed by Congress.
This depends on the president being suitably conservative. If we end up with a Democratic president and a Republican congress after the next presidential election they will reverse course fast.
KGsays
A heads-up for anyone owning a dog they believe has epilepsy: it may be something else. I took our dog to the vet yesterday, because she’d had what I took to be an epileptic fit only 11 days after the previous one – she’s had these episodes for 5 years, with 2-4 months between them, so I was concerned about two so close together. I saw a vet I had not seen before. He examined the dog, asked if she was normally subdued or lethargic after a fit – she isn’t, 15 minutes after the episode ends she’s as hyper as usual – and wasn’t when he examined her a few hours after the episode. He asked if I had any videos of her fits, which I hadn’t – we’re usually rushing to shove diazepam up her rear end (it seems to help), and had never been asked to video her. Then he got me to describe her fits in as much detail as possible – which no vet I’d seen previously about them had done. Then he said he thought it might be, not epilepsy, but canine epileptoid cramping syndrome (CECS): after a grand mal seizure the brain usually takes a day or so to return to normal, while CECS affects the muscles rather than the brain, and my description of the episodes themselves fitted (no pun intended) CECS better. Coming home, I found videos of dogs having CECS episodes – all very similar to what our dog suffers. Videos of dogs supposedly having epileptic fits were varied – some resembled our dog’s episodes (in which she can hardly move at all), but most showed the dog thrashing and jerking about. So I’m pretty sure our dog has CECS, and those “epilepsy” videos resembling her fits had been mistakenly attributed and were, in fact, showing CECS, which is rarer, and much less known. It’s also non-life-threatening, unlike epilepsy, and may be treatable with dietary changes. Diazepam is helpful during an episode in either case, but if long-term treatment is needed, the drug of choice is different.
Thank you to Lynna for organizing, and thank you to everyone who contributes to this thread. I hope you have a happy holiday and we all get what we need in the new year.
“A Christmas Eve Roundup” https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/a-christmas-eve-roundup
“Trump is far more likely to turn our collective attention to the U.S. military’s actions in Venezuela, where he is still operating without any restraints from the GOP-Congress. The days of him threatening to call in the federalized National Guard to assist ICE and CBP, by contrast, now appear to be drawing to a close.”
Rob Grigjanissays
StevoR @280: I call bullshit. Bagpipe music was suppressed after the Jacobite uprising (although there were clans who fought for the Brits), but it’s odd the piece you linked to isn’t even named. And it sounds rather banal.
This is what it took to shame Kristi Noem into letting an Irish green card holder, who bounced $80 in 2 checks 10 years ago, free after 5 months in detention:
– A veteran, Trump-voting spouse
– 9 US descendants
– Letter signed by 18 Senators
– 30 character witnesses
Rando: “… and being White.”
Elissa Taub (Immigration attorney): “This is why immigration lawyers are exhausted. This is one case. Add an onslaught of daily policy changes and attacks on legal immigration… We are working hard but it’s a struggle some days.”
the key insight of the campaign, was that coal power, historically dirty but cheap, was no longer cheap. […] making the case that less coal would mean lower electricity bills. […] getting utility executives to admit under oath that coal was gouging their ratepayers. […] The war on coal’s successes had enabled President Barack Obama to pledge U.S. emissions cuts of 28% from 2005 levels by 2025
[…]
The short summary is that [Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign] is still winning, and America is continuing to reduce its reliance on the black stuff. But Trump and the artificial-intelligence boom are complicating the war on coal’s endgame.
The overall trajectory has been remarkable. Coal now generates about one-seventh of U.S. electricity, down from one-half in 2010; solar and wind, little more than rounding errors when the campaign began [in 2002], currently produce more power than coal and employ far more American workers. Utilities have retired or committed to retire 390 coal plants, leaving less than a third of the original fleet in operation. U.S. carbon dioxide emissions are down by about 20% from 2005 levels—not quite Obama’s goal, but not too shabby—largely because emissions from electricity generation are down by about 40%. Beyond Coal has helped shutter all but one of the 25 plants it initially declared the most dangerous to local communities, and says the retirements have prevented over 1 million asthma attacks and 60,000 premature deaths. California and New England just went coal-free.
There is already a USS Defiant in commission with the United States Navy. That is a… tug boat.
[…]
There is no design. The president has authorized it. I’m not sure what that means. Congress is the one who has to authorize funding. […] Nothing’s been put before congress. […] Then a name will be assigned […] Next, they will assign a yard. In the speech, the president does talk about bringing back a number of shipyards including the Philidelphia Navy Yard. The Navy doesn’t own most of the Navy Yard, and much of it has been redeveloped, so it’s unclear what that will look like. […] You would expect it to be under design and construction for more than a decade. […] we are trying to build much smaller ships, and we are not able to complete them.
[…]
interesting that they want to do this callback to battleships, and then they’re not using any of the [naming] conventions that make you think of battleships.
[…]
Nuclear weapons on a surface ship is something that by international treaty the US Navy has not done since the 90s. The Navy says that they will be capable of holding nuclear missiles but doesn’t say that they’re actually gonna put them on […] The ship’s missile battery will be 128 vertical launch cells—which is barely more than an Arleigh Burke destroyer—plus an extra 12 cells for a new type
[…]
Literally every single class of surface warships since the Arleigh Burkes in the early 1990s have gotten the axe […] so I’m not gonna get my hopes up […] that they’re gonna get these ships laid down in the next couple of years.
birgerjohanssonsays
The ‘battleship’ looks like a enlarged Zumwalt. It is supposed to have three weapons systems that do not exist yet.
And there are so many eggs put into a single basket that each unit will just be a big target.
birgerjohanssonsays
Xmas ruminations from Santa, his reindeer and Godzilla.
The ship’s missile battery will be 128 vertical launch cells—which is barely more than an Arleigh Burke destroyer—plus an extra 12 cells for a new type
It’s the 12 new type cells that matter. They are designed for the new hypersonic missile, which has been tested by the Army and Navy but not deployed anywhere yet.
It’s apparently too big for the launch cell to be mounted on an Arleigh Burke sized ship. Though I suspect that if this ship gets canceled the Navy will come up with something that works from an Arleigh Burke.
birgerjohanssonsays
This is quite the Christmas present from science.
“Alzheimer’s disease can be reversed in animal models to achieve full neurological recovery”
“According to preliminary Nielsen data, ‘The Kennedy Center Honors’ on CBS drew its smallest audience ever on the night of December 23, 2025, averaging an estimated 2.65 million viewers,” Programming Insider reported on Wednesday. “To put that in perspective: the 2024 broadcast averaged 4.1 million.”
2.6 million puts it in the range of the better daily shows and is anemic for a popular special event. Particularly because you know some of those people tuned in to see how badly Trump could mess it up.
birgerjohanssonsays
I noticed that the Kivik mustery, Scania , has existed since 1888 when three Swedish towns burned down. The mustery is really a cover for a dimensional portal created by the energy of three fire sacrifices to the Old Gods. As a side effect, a nasty Austrian painter was born the same year. I could base a series of urban fantasy novels on this.
A lot of mini humans are swarming about, indicating humans are back from their Christmastime journeys. My symbiont ambush predators have celebrated the holiday by purring and pushing items off tables.
.
Elusive wild cat feared extinct rediscovered in Thailand
“[…] Trump has accused the Islamist militant group of killing ‘primarily innocent Christians,’ and said the attacks were ‘powerful and deadly.’ ”
The United States launched airstrikes on Islamic State targets in northwestern Nigeria on Thursday, President Donald Trump announced in a social media post, fulfilling threats he had made in recent weeks to use military force against groups he accused of killing Christians in the region.
“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Christmas Day. Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the strikes in a statement.
Islamic State affiliates have been active in northwestern Nigeria, carrying out attacks that have killed both Christians and Muslims. The groups have targeted villages, security forces and civilians across the region, contributing to a broader security crisis in Nigeria that includes kidnappings and other forms of violence.
U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, said in a statement that the strikes were conducted in Sokoto State “in coordination with Nigerian authorities.” The military’s initial assessment concluded that “multiple” Islamic State fighters were killed in the strikes, though it did not provide a specific number.
AFRICOM is “working with Nigerian and regional partners to increase counterterrorism cooperation efforts related to on-going violence and threats against innocent lives,” said Gen. Dagvin Anderson, head of the command. “Our goal is to protect Americans and to disrupt violent extremist organizations wherever they are.”
The strikes follow weeks of rhetoric from Trump about violence against Christians in Nigeria. In November, he threatened strikes on the nation, suggested U.S. forces would enter Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” and labeled Nigeria a “country of particular concern.”
“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” Trump wrote Thursday.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that additional strikes could follow. “The President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end,” Hegseth posted on X, later adding that he was “[g]rateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation.”
The strikes marked the second time in a week that Trump authorized military action against Islamic State militants. Last week, American forces launched dozens of airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria in response to the killing of two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter in an ambush.
birgerjohanssonsays
An example of what you could accomplish with centrifugal-flow jet engines.
birger @309, LOL. Yeah, following news about Trump and his minions does occasionally cause a feeling of helplessness, depression or anger. However, most of the time I am an observer. Trump is not going to be here forever. While he is here, it is a good thing to hold him and his minions to account — even in my small way.
I am more or less in the same camp as Rachel Maddow. She advises standing up to Trump and not letting all the shitty things he does pass by without notice.
I do realize that people have very different levels of tolerance when it comes to the news and to Trump in particular. Also, some people have a lot of resources when it comes to fighting back, others do not. We do what can.
“Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said his hand was forced, given the uncertain outcome of a Mississippi case that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide next summer.” [That’s just an excuse for legislating yet another restriction on voting in Ohio.]
The number of states that will accept late-arriving mail-in ballots during next year’s critical midterm elections continues to dwindle, as Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine “reluctantly” signed new restrictions into law Friday, citing the uncertainty of pending litigation to ban the counting of such ballots in his state.
[…] Trump has also moved to eliminate the practice nationally.
[…] despite having reservations, DeWine on Friday signed legislation eliminating Ohio’s four-day grace period for absentee ballots and making other voting changes.
[…] DeWine, though, said his hand was forced, given the uncertain outcome of a Mississippi case that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide next summer. Justices have taken up the state’s appeal after a panel of three judges nominated by Trump on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2024 that its law allowing ballots that arrive shortly after Election Day to be counted violated federal law.
[…] a ruling would create one set of rules for state candidates and a different set of rules for federal candidates, the governor said. Ohio lawmakers would lack time to square the two in time for November ballots to be prepared, causing confusion for voters.
With his signature, the number of states accepting mailed ballots received after Election Day as long as the ballots are postmarked on or before that date has fallen to 14, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Many states, including Ohio, continue to make exceptions for late-arriving ballots for certain eligible voters, such as overseas residents and U.S. service members and their families.
[…] “The bill puts thousands of voters at risk of having their ballots not counted simply because of mail issues, and it could cancel registrations for many, including women who might have changed their last names or newly naturalized citizens,” [So true!] Democratic state Rep. Christine Cockley said in a statement. “Our efforts should be on making it easier for people to participate in our democracy, not harder.” [Correct]
Republicans continue to amend Ohio’s election law despite post-election audits that show the state’s results are routinely tallied to near perfection, including after the 2020 election whose results Trump continues to dispute. [!]
The Election Transparency Initiative [misnomer, it is another way to restrict voting and voter’s rights], a conservative election reform partnership, thanked DeWine for signing the bill. […]
birgerjohanssonsays
Pig organ transplants could one day be superior to human ones, says expert
Comedian and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel gave a stark warning to the world about the rise of fascism and tyranny in the United States in a Christmas message broadcast to the United Kingdom.
Kimmel was asked by broadcaster Channel 4 to provide an “alternative” address to accompany the official message aired by King Charles each year. [Video. 3:59 minutes.]
“From a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year. Tyranny is booming over here,” Kimmel said. He noted that Trump “would like to shut me up because I don’t adore him in the way he likes to be adored.”
“Here in the United States right now, we are both figuratively and literally tearing down the structures of our democracy — from the free press to science to medicine to judicial independence to the actual White House itself,” he added. “I want you to know we’re not all like him, we’re not all like that.”
Kimmel ended his speech by asking viewers not to give up on America, noting, “we’re going through a bit of a wobble right now, but we’ll come around.”
Kimmel was chosen for the broadcast because in September the Trump administration, via the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), directly targeted him for removal from the air after the comedian commented on the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel has been a longtime critic of Trump and has used his show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to mock Trump for years.
After the program was taken offline, with the assistance of conservative ABC affiliate owners Sinclair and Nexstar, public outcry against the decision led to Kimmel’s triumphant return.
Unlike his predecessors in both parties, Trump has been unable to maintain calmness and maturity when mocked by comedians—a standard part of being a major public figure like the president.
Just before the Christmas holiday, Trump fumed that he was being made fun of by one of Kimmel’s competitors, “Late Night” host Stephen Colbert—and called for the broadcast licenses of networks airing comedians who don’t like him to be pulled.
Trump highlighted his vindictiveness in a Christmas evening post where he warned that Democrats and other detractors should “enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas.”
Over the last year, allies of Trump have exerted their control over major media outlets to bend coverage in Trump’s favor. For instance, Trump inaugural donor and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has overseen an exodus of voices critical of the right in the paper’s editorial pages and has been praised by Trump for pushing the paper in a pro-MAGA direction. Simultaneously, Trump allies like billionaire Larry Ellison have taken over Paramount, which owns CBS, and paid off millions to Trump for a frivolous lawsuit.
There has been considerable blowback as well, most recently at CBS News, where conservative editor-in-chief Bari Weiss spiked a “60 Minutes” report exposing the Trump administration’s affiliation with abusive policies at El Salvador’s CECOT prison. Instead of squashing an unfavorable story, CBS has come under withering criticism for days on end.
Kimmel was the perfect spokesperson to continue arguing for First Amendment speech under Trump—targeted for regime censorship, he received public support and was restored, and now continues to mock Trump with the contempt the American president has earned.
As millions of Americans were celebrating Christmas, Donald Trump was launching new military strikes, excitedly announcing that he bombed alleged ISIS terrorists in Nigeria to avenge a non-existent Christian genocide.
“Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper,” Trump wrote in an unhinged Truth Social post. “May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”
Of course, while there is undoubtedly terroristic violence in Nigeria, there is no evidence that it is a Christian genocide, as Trump claimed.
“Portraying Nigeria’s security challenges as a targeted campaign against a single religious group is a gross misrepresentation of reality,” the Nigerian government wrote in a post on X back in September. “Terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology—Muslims, Christians, and those of no faith alike.”
What’s more, even if there was a Christian genocide to avenge, Trump would need to go to Congress to get authorization for the strikes—which he did not do. [!]
“There’s no authority for strikes on terrorists in Nigeria or anywhere on earth. The 2001 [Authorization for Use of Military Force] is only for the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks,” former Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican who left the party in protest of Trump, wrote in a post on X. “The War Powers Resolution doesn’t grant any authority beyond the Constitution. Offensive military actions need congressional approval. The Framers of the Constitution divided war powers to protect the American people from war-eager executives. Whether the United States should engage in conflicts across the globe is a decision for the people’s representatives in Congress, not the president.”
[…] ust last week, Trump launched airstrikes against alleged ISIS targets in Syria. And let’s not forget his attack on Iran earlier in the year.
And, of course, Trump has been carrying out illegal military actions in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific without congressional approval, some of which likely constitute war crimes.
[…] Trump’s bloodlust is completely counter to his campaign promise that he would not launch new wars if elected president.
It’s also a joke given that he has deemed himself the “peace president” as he campaigns endlessly for a Nobel Peace Prize.
But GOP lawmakers, who have neutered themselves of their constitutionally granted powers to let their Dear Leader do whatever he wants, don’t care.
In fact, many of them were cheering Trump’s latest military strikes.
“Thank you @POTUS for standing up against Christian persecution. The PEACE President!!” Rep. Ralph Norman, the South Carolina Republican who is groveling for Trump’s endorsement in his bid for governor of the Palmetto State, wrote in a post onX.
Rep. Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican running for Senate in the Peach State, even posted an image of a military plane with a Santa hat along with the text “Merry Christmas, Nigerian terrorists.” […]
[…] Trump threatened to take action following months of allegations by campaigners and politicians in Washington that Islamist militants were systematically targeting Christians in the west African country.
But the BBC has found that some of the data being relied on to come to this conclusion are difficult to verify.
In September, popular television host and comedian Bill Maher upped the ante describing what was happening as a “genocide”.
Referring to the Boko Haram group, he said “they have killed over 100,000 since 2009, they’ve burned 18,000 churches”.
Similar figures have also been gaining traction on social media.
The government in Abuja has pushed back on these claims describing them as “a gross misrepresentation of reality”.
It did not deny that there was deadly violence in the country. But officials said that “terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology – Muslims, Christians and those of no faith alike”.
Other groups monitoring political violence in Nigeria say the number of Christians who have been killed is far lower, and say most victims of the jihadist groups are Muslims. […]
Prominent Texas Senator Ted Cruz has been campaigning on the issue for some time and, highlighting similar figures to Maher on 7 October, he wrote on X that “since 2009, over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria have been massacred, and over 18,000 churches and 2,000 Christian schools have been destroyed”.
[…] What about those killed in 2025?
Looking at deaths this year alone, InterSociety concluded that between January and August just over 7,000 Christians were killed. This is another figure that has been widely shared on social media, including by Republican Congressman Riley M Moore, who has been a leading voice on this issue in the House of Representatives. [Not a trustworthy source.]
InterSociety includes a list of 70 media reports as some of the sources to its findings on the attacks against Christians in 2025. But in about half of these cases, the original news stories did not mention the religious identity of the victims.
For example, InterSociety quoted an Al Jazeera report of an attack in north-eastern Nigeria, saying that according to the news organisation “not less than 40 farmers mainly Christians were abducted by Boko Haram in Damboa part of Borno State”.
But Al Jazeera’s report didn’t mention that the victims were “mainly Christians”, as quoted by InterSociety.
[…] Adding the number of death referenced in these reports cited by InterSociety does not result in the stated total of 7,000. [!]
The BBC added up the number of deaths from the 70 reports and found that the total was around 3,000 deaths. Some of the attacks also appear to be reported more than once. [!]
[…]
As the clock struck midnight on Christmas morning at one Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, at least one someone was stirring.
Starting in the early hours of December 25 and ending in the evening, President Donald Trump posted over 100 times on Truth Social.
Hours before Trump sat alongside first lady Melania Trump to answer the calls of children dialing into the North American Aerospace Defense Command, during which he told kids from Oklahoma that “we’re not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa,” the president shared posts attacking Rep. Nancy Pelosi, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and former President Joe Biden, amongst several others.
At 12:01, Trump began the spree by sharing an over-eight-minute video by someone explaining “The DEMOCRAT FRAUD PYRAMID.”
Throughout the day, concluding around 7 o’clock, the president repeated many times that the 2020 election was stolen. [JFC] He also shared a post that praised White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s handling of the “fake news,” another of someone who called Democrats a “criminal organization,” and one where Trump said, of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), “Throw her out of the U.S., Now!”
[…] Trump shared a video of White House border czar Tom Homan at a press conference, discussing the administration’s mass deportation campaign. Less than one minute later, there’s another Trump post of a user called “RWB_American” on X quoting the video and writing about “the success ICE is having at nabbing illegals that need to be departed.”
The official Christmas presidential message from the White House, though, had a different tone.
“The First Lady and I send our warmest wishes to all Americans as we share in the joy of Christmas Day and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” it began. The message contained religious messages about “the gift of God’s only begotten Son” and Trump’s vow to always remain one Nation under God. […]
President Trump ended his posting spree with a Merry Christmas message to constituents. It read, in part, “Merry Christmas to all, including the many Sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein, gave him bundles of money, went to his Island, attended his parties, and thought he was the greatest guy on earth, only to “drop him like a dog” when things got too HOT.”
Then, as a somewhat ominous sign off, Trump wrote: “Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas!” [WTF?]
“Hundreds of residents signed up for FEMA buyouts after Helene. Not one has been approved.”
“Some of the homeowners seeking help are still paying mortgages on homes that are no longer livable.”
A dusting of December snow had turned the mountains around her white, but Elizabeth Clark barely had time to notice.
It had been 438 days since Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters wrecked her home’s foundation, inundated the first floor, destroyed the septic system and swallowed their belongings. Her mortgage company agreed to pause her payments for a year, but now seemed to be losing patience over the $270,000 she still owed on a house no longer safe to live in.
[…] In November 2024, Clark was among the first storm victims in her county to apply for a voluntary program funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that would enable the government to buy out her property.
After the storm, Clark and her husband, Calvin, spent weeks living in a hotel, before renting a home from friends for eight months. Finally, they moved nearly an hour away to a small house in Waynesville, North Carolina, that they had been leasing to tenants. It feels cramped with their three school-aged children, and each day brings hours on the road to return to the community where their kids go to school, play sports and visit grandparents. The loss of renters has been another financial hit.
Meanwhile, more than 13 months after applying for a buyout, Clark has heard almost nothing […].
More than 800 storm victims around Helene-battered western North Carolina have applied under FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. State officials vetted applications and began sending them up the chain to FEMA as far back as February. As of Dec. 15, they had sent nearly 600 buyout requests to Washington, with more likely to follow.
So far, they say, not a single approval has come through. [!]
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein has called the paralysis “absolutely unacceptable,” and has pushed for answers. Earlier this month, he wrote to FEMA’s acting administrator, detailing the startling number of applications that “remain without a final decision.”
[…] palpable frustration in western North Carolina — especially given promises by President Donald Trump during a visit early this year, where he vowed to “slash through every bureaucratic barrier” and insisted that “every single inch of every property will be fully rebuilt, greater and more beautiful than it was before.” [lies and bluster from Trump]
[…] “There’s so little information,” Clark said. “Nobody really has any answers. We are just sitting here, waiting […] hope is dwindling’”
Rob Moore, who has long studied flooding risks and disaster policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said buyouts under FEMA’s hazard mitigation program have been an important tool for decades.
When it works as intended, voluntary buyouts allow homeowners to receive the pre-disaster value for their homes so that they can relocate and start over. The program can help communities reduce overall flood risk and better prepare for future calamities, as part of the deal is that properties acquired by the government are turned into open space. [good program, good results]
[…] Those acquisitions have taken place in 49 states and several U.S. territories, the report said. […] the program played a critical role in the wake of disasters, and is likely to become only more vital as rising seas and escalating flood risks displace more Americans.
But one issue has been a constant: Buyouts are complex, and almost never happen quickly. […]
The 2019 study found that it takes a median of about five years between a flooding disaster and the completion of a FEMA-funded buyout project. FEMA has said almost 80 percent of acquisitions are approved in less than two years, and 93 percent are approved in under three years.
[…] Moore thinks something deeper than the normal lag times could be at play in North Carolina, where many county and state officials moved quickly to open up applications for homeowners interested in potential buyouts.
[…] Leaders in Buncombe County […] were among the local officials who tried to speed up the process in hopes of getting help to qualified residents sooner. The county began taking applications for buyouts in January, barely three months after the storm.
[…] For their part, North Carolina officials insist they are doing all they can.
The state has overseen hundreds of millions of dollars in hazard mitigation across multiple disasters beginning with Hurricane Floyd in 1999, and prides itself on ensuring that each hazard mitigation application “meets or exceeds federal guidelines,” said Justin Graney, a spokesperson for N.C. Emergency Management. […]
Don Campbell, chief of staff to North Carolina’s emergency manager, recently told members of a state task force on Helene recovery that overall, officials had been given little guidance from FEMA on why no buyouts had been approved since Helene.
“We understand that many of those applications are sitting on the desk of the secretary of homeland security, [! That’s Kristi Noem’s desk!]” Campbell said, adding that state and local officials are acutely aware of the real-world implications for homeowners struggling to hang on in the meantime.
[…] Unlike some other FEMA programs that are reimbursement-based, buyouts require an up-front approval from the agency, Calabria said.
[…] Elizabeth Clark is wrestling with what to do when the next mortgage payment comes due. “At this point, we have decided we are not going to pay a dime on a house we can’t even live in,” at least until she has clarity about whether FEMA is likely to approve a buyout, she said. […]
[…] Sokoto State, which was hit by more than 12 Tomahawk missiles Thursday night, is populated overwhelmingly by Muslims, who bear the brunt of terrorist attacks there, according to analysts and groups that monitor conflict. Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto said recently that the area does “not have a problem with persecution” of Christians.
And analysts are divided over the existence of ties between insurgent groups in Sokoto and the Islamic State.
[…] Even as the Nigerian authorities have disputed Mr. Trump’s claims about a Christian “genocide,” they have chosen to respond to his threats by cooperating with his administration. Nigeria has taken the opportunity to use U.S. firepower against insurgents that have plagued rural communities in the country’s northwest.
The Nigerian government made it clear on Friday that it was on board with the airstrikes, which came after a phone call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mr. Tuggar “around bilateral issues and military cooperation,” according to Mr. Abdulkadir.
Mr. Tuggar relayed the conversation to Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who approved the strikes, Mr. Abdulkadir said. He added that Nigeria had provided American forces with intelligence for the airstrikes.
The strikes were “meant to deter further operations of bandits in that area,” he said. “Air power is something that they can’t fight against.”
Mr. Abdulkadir said there were ongoing conversations with the U.S. authorities about possible further military action.
What the strikes immediately achieved is not clear, though reports emerged on Friday morning that one of the areas that was hit was the outskirts of Jabo, a town in Sokoto that analysts said was not known to harbor any terrorist or bandit groups.
[…] Nigeria is a deeply religious nation home to hundreds of millions of Muslims and Christians, and Sokoto State is home to the sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual leader of Nigeria’s Muslim population.
Last month, Mr. Trump threatened to strike Nigeria or send troops there if the government did not “move fast” to stop what he has called a “genocide” against Christians in the country.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is racked by widespread, complex violence against Muslims and Christians alike, and the Nigerian government has rejected Mr. Trump’s characterization. But it also sent a delegation to Washington, D.C., to speak with American officials about security cooperation.
Vincent Foucher, a research fellow with the National Center for Scientific Research in France, said that the strikes would be likely to resonate with some American Christians and political allies of Mr. Trump who have amplified the narrative that Christians in Nigeria are being singled out for persecution.
[…] some in Nigeria were puzzled by the choice to strike Sokoto State.
Analysts say that the terrorist group in Nigeria with the best documented links to the Islamic State is in northeastern Nigeria, on the other side of the country from Sokoto State. That group, Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP, splintered off from Boko Haram, another jihadist group.
“If the bomb had been dropped in Sambisa Forest, nobody would be surprised,” said Kabir Adamu, a security analyst, referring to an area of northeastern Nigeria that was taken over by Boko Haram and later by ISWAP. “Because everybody kind of knows that’s one of the strongholds of the target group.”
Terrorist groups operating in the Sahel, an enormous region across north-central Africa, have been moving down into Nigeria’s northern border area and to neighboring coastal countries like Benin and Togo, but that is a recent phenomenon, analysts say.
The groups have been operating mainly in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, turning the Sahel into a global terrorism hot spot responsible for over half of all terrorism-related deaths last year, according to the United Nations. Analysts say their encroachment farther south reflects an ambition to recruit and secure new logistical hubs, not to persecute Christians, as the Trump administration has claimed.
I really dislike and disapprove of Trump trying to turn the fluid and complicated conflicts in Nigeria into a religious war.
JMsays
CNN: Karoline Leavitt announces she is pregnant with her second child
No word yet when she will step back from being press secretary or when/if she will be back. Theoretically should could work through this but it would be madness. There is a lot of behinds the scenes work that goes with this job keeping pace with events and preparing official news about events, and the schedule is brutal and outside any control
birgerjohanssonsays
JM@ 319
I hope there are no epigenetic or mutagenic effects of having a growing embryo in that madhouse. You could get a “Ghostbusters 2” situation with Vigo the Carpathian inhabiting the kid.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Russia Just Revealed How Bad Things Really Are”
This is an Ukrainan source, but even if we are skeptic I think Russians attacking on horseback is a sign of things going badly for Putin. And the Russian Navy has yet to invent submarine nets, a defensive feature from WWI.
How many senators are needed for impeachment? Many Republicans loathe DJT but they are yellow like uranium sludge.
If they see Trump becoming toothless and his base too split for a successful primary challenge, maybe they can be coaxed into distancing themselves from him.
whheydtsays
Re: birgerjohansson @ #322….
No Senators are required for impeachment, and–indeed–no Senator gets to vote on impeachment. Impeachment is done by the House of Representatives and it requires a majority vote (218 in they are all present). To CONVICT on an impeachment requires a 2/3 vote of the Senate, or 67 Senators voting to do so.
birgerjohanssonsays
Whheydt @ 323
Thank you!
So we need to find 17 Republican senators who are not total wankers, and have realised DJT has upset his base too much to get the senators primaried.
Assuming half the MAGA people take Epstein seriously it will be hard but not impossible, at least after the midterms.
“Nigeria has been plagued by sectarian violence, but that violence hasn’t primarily targeted Christians — and certainly not at historically unprecedented levels.”
The United States military bombed Nigeria on Christmas, reportedly targeting ISIS militants. President Donald Trump claimed the U.S. struck terrorists “who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries.” [Exaggeration so extreme that is amounts to a lie.]
Nigeria has been plagued by sectarian violence, but that violence hasn’t primarily targeted Christians — and certainly not at historically unprecedented levels. America’s logic here isn’t clear, but the strikes appear driven more by Trump putting on a show for his evangelical base than trying to reduce violence in Nigeria or even advance U.S. national interests. [And that show is being staged with taxpayer’s money.]
It’s the first time the U.S. has ever fired missiles into Nigeria, but it’s one of several countries the Trump administration has bombed this year. In 2025, U.S. forces launched more than a thousand strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, more than a hundred in Somalia mostly targeting al-Shabab, dozens against ISIS in Syria, 29 and counting against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, plus some strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program. All of those efforts killed people and damaged things, but none appear to have achieved anything lasting. [!]
Those other strikes are different, though, because they took place in areas hostile to the U.S. Nigeria is a U.S. counterterrorism partner. The Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement acknowledging the U.S. attacks and the ongoing Nigerian-American security partnership, but nothing in the statement indicates Nigeria asked the U.S. to strike. And in contrast to the U.S. emphasis on Christians, the Nigerian foreign ministry’s statement denounces “terrorist violence in any form whether directed at Christians, Muslims, or other communities.”
Either way, it’s not clear what prompted the timing of the strikes. The U.S. campaign in Yemen came after the Houthis fired at shipping in the Red Sea, and the strikes in Syria followed an ISIS-linked attack in the country that killed three Americans, but there hasn’t been a recent attack on Americans or U.S. interests in Nigeria. There have been attacks on Christians in Nigeria this year, including a massacre that killed more than 100, but that was in June, and ISIS wasn’t responsible.
And Christians are hardly the only ones facing violence there. An attack on a mosque in August killed at least 50 people. A suspected suicide bombing on another mosque killed at least five people this week. As Nigerian politician and human rights activist Shehu Sani put it, “The narrative that the evil terrorists only target one faith remains absolutely false and misleading.” [!]
Nevertheless, violence against Christians in Nigeria is a fixation among Republicans, especially right-wing evangelicals who inaccurately claim a “Christian genocide” is happening there. In September, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced a bill “against persecution of Nigerian Christians.” In November, Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., introduced a different resolution “condemning the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.”
[…] This professed concern for persecuted Christians looks absurd in the context of the Trump administration’s policies. For example, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently announced the end of Temporary Protected Status for nearly 4,000 people from Myanmar, many of them persecuted Christians. [!] Starting in January 2026, the U.S. government will deport them back to a country run by a military junta that has been bombing churches and treats Christians as one of its domestic enemies. […]
bombing on Christmas did give Donald Trump a chance to tell his base that he’s standing up for Christianity, even as he and many of his Christian supporters, in direct contrast to Jesus’ teachings, openly champion violence, money and cruelty to strangers.
The Biden admin used to take flak for doing tit-for-tat symbolic strikes against empty Iranian proxy facilities in Syria. Seems like this admin may be doing a bit of that with ISIS in Nigeria and Syria.
Ladan Salihu (Nigeria Daily Post): The US strike in Jabo […] wasn’t a precision strike. […] Missiles landed in a plain field 300 metres from a local hospital.
Ladan Salihu: In 2025 Jabo did not record a single case of terror or ISWAP activity. Not even farmer/herder clash. […] Villagers reported fragments of the missiles near a huge crater. No fatality nor casualty. Was it an attack to grab a headline ot to send an inexplicable message? […] Thank God the missiles did not hit the hospital or homes.
Reuters reporting it was over a dozen Tomahawks.
Rando: “Separately, Reuters has reported that US Tomahawks average about $1.3 million each.”
Charlie Thomas (Military historian): “Holy crap. That’s a lot of money for a lot of holes in some farmer’s fields.”
Wesley Morgan: “I’m sure Nicki Minaj will explain it all”
Rando 2: “So Nicki Minaj is Foreign Policy Advisor now? What am I even saying, of course she is.”
[….] the separation of church and state actually protects both religious liberty and protects us from being compelled by the government to finance someone else’s religion.
[…] Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted an image of an American flag waving in the snow with the adorning message, “Merry Christmas to all. Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May His light bring peace, hope, and joy to you and your families.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted an image of a nativity scene with the text, “The joyous message of Christmas is the hope of Eternal Life through Christ.”
Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying the posts are “one more example of the Christian Nationalist rhetoric the Trump administration has disseminated since Day One in office,” adding, “People of all religions and none should not have to sift through proselytizing messages to access government information… It’s divisive and un-American.”
[…] The Department of Homeland Security, for example, posted two videos to X with “Christ is Born!” as the text. But DHS posted another one that was far more menacing than Christ-like.
With the message “Merry Christmas, America. We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior,” this post featured a 85-second video with hundreds of smash cuts of “American family” Christmas imagery, snippets of Charlie Brown and Bruce Willis in “Die Hard,” and of course, Trump iconography.
Presented in a style similar to the notorious torture scene from “A Clockwork Orange,” the video appears to mostly celebrate American consumerism and Trump. It’s not even clear if the “Savior” referred to in the post is supposed to be Christ or Trump, but it’s about as un-reverential to Jesus Christ and Christian teachings of forgiveness, charity and generosity to the poor as a Christmas message could get.
Therein lies a major MAGA conundrum. Do they want a Christian theocracy? Or is the “Savior” already walking among us at Mar-a-Lago?
Regardless, there’s a way to wish your fellow Americans a joyous and blessed holiday without it coming off as a threat. […]
[…] Trump on Friday cast himself as the ultimate arbiter of any peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, in an exclusive conversation with POLITICO.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet with Trump in Florida on Sunday and told reporters he’s bringing with him a new 20-point plan for peace. The framework includes a proposed demilitarized zone and the meeting is expected to focus on U.S. security guarantees.
But in an interview, Trump appeared lukewarm to Zelenskyy’s latest overture and in no rush to endorse the Ukrainian president’s proposal.
“He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” Trump said. “So we’ll see what he’s got.”
The president’s comments underscore the degree to which Ukraine’s fate rests on convincing Trump that it is conceding enough to satisfy a president who, at times, has appeared inclined to lean toward Russia if it means an end to the war. Russia has moved very little from its maximalist position and has not reacted to the latest proposal. The U.S., meanwhile, has pushed Zelenskyy to move off his original demands and Trump has often seemed to lose patience […]
“I think it’s going to go good with him. I think it’s going to go good with [Vladimir] Putin,” Trump said, adding that he expects to speak with the Russian leader “soon, as much as I want.”
Trump’s comments came the day after Zelenskyy spoke with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. Zelenskyy called that a “good conversation.”
They also come the day after the United States launched airstrikes against ISIS in Nigeria […]
Trump told POLITICO that the strike was originally to take place on Wednesday but the president ordered it delayed one day – for symbolic reasons.
“They were going to do it earlier,” Trump said. “And I said, ‘nope, let’s give a Christmas present.’ … They didn’t think that was coming, but we hit them hard. Every camp got decimated.”
Trump also confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would visit him this weekend.
“I have Zelenskyy and I have Bibi coming. They’re all coming. They all come,” Trump said. “They respect our country again.”
Netanyahu, according to a report from NBC, will brief Trump on the growing threat from Iran.
Zelenskyy’s meeting, in addition to security guarantees, will focus on management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and territorial control of Donbas, the eastern territories claimed by Moscow
.
Zelenskyy’s plan, which Ukrainian officials have described as an attempt to show flexibility without conceding territory, has received little public reaction from Washington.
Zelenskyy’s offer of a demilitarized zone came with a key condition: Russia would have to withdraw its forces from a corresponding stretch of land in Donetsk.
Russia has given no indication that it is willing to accept anything short of full control over the region, underscoring the gulf that remains between the two sides.
But Trump noted that Russia’s economy is under severe strain. “Their economy is in tough shape, very tough shape,” he said.
Nigeria has significant strike capabilities themselves. Their Air Force is robust, and they have a solid up to date drone fleet. There is nothing we can bring to bear *from the Gulf of Guinea* that would have more effect than what they’ve been doing for the last fifteen years.
[…]
I’m sort of grading on the Africa curve, honestly, where that is a pretty robust Air Force for internal security and the like, but yeah in absolute terms it isn’t comparable to Euro or American services!
[…]
sort of a monkey’s paw moment for me—the DoD finally cares enough to commit precious assets to the Sahel conflicts […] but it’s this DoD which doesn’t really care about the strategic outcome, just the content.
Michael Shurkin (Ex-CIA): “This is correct. There’s nothing an occasional US intervention can do that would make any difference. The Nigerian military is no joke.”
Pierce R. Butlersays
The previous episode of this thread mentioned that the Trumpistas have dumped the Biden-approved new coins for the Semiquintennial next year, but it took me until tonight to go look at the new designs.
Not only have the numismatic commemorations of Abolition, Women’s Suffrage, and Civil Rights gone into the memory hole, their replacements have a harsh, grim esthetic that would warm the cockles of Stephen Miller’s heart if he had one. Click the link above and scroll down to the 2nd set of images shown, then zoom in: have you ever seen a portrait of George Washington that looks so mean?
The only relief comes from the half-dollar showing the head of the Statue of Liberty (minus the torch-holding arm that would appear in a realistic depiction from that angle): one spike of her tiara forms a perfect Pinocchio-nose.
a resident […] heard a loud blast and saw flames as a projectile flew overhead […] it came crashing down, exploding on impact […] Trump’s explanation has left Kagara and his fellow villagers scratching their heads […] “In Jabo, we see Christians as our brothers. We don’t have religious conflicts, so we weren’t expecting this,” he said.
[…]
Nigeria’s Information Ministry later said that the government, in collaboration with the US, had “successfully conducted precision strike operations” targeting ISIS hideouts in the forests of Tangaza district in Sokoto. However, it also noted that […] debris from expended munitions fell in Jabo,” and another area in north-central Kwara state—though it stressed there had been no civilian casualties.
[…]
Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told CNN Friday that he had spoken with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio prior to the strike and that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu had given the “go ahead.” However, Tuggar also said that this operation was not a religious issue
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
* 307, 314, 318, 325, 326, and 329.
birgerjohanssonsays
I must ask the computer-literate among the readers if this is true or a bogus news item. Is this incompetence really possible? If it is, it is the funniest thing to happen in 2025
“Norway’s 500km Strike Plan Has Putin Worried” (Himars + PRSM reaches crucial Rissian assets on the Kola Peninsula)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=96KAr240wAY
birgerjohanssonsays
Recommended.
“Fox News is VERY upset with politicians who make unrealistic promises” (short)
‘Conman as commander in chief’: Jasmine Crockett on Trump’s economy “People are signaling that they are not happy with anything that is going on, whether it’s the tariffs or the other policies that are making it more difficult for our economy to sustain itself.” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) sits down with Chris Hayes to discuss the public’s perception of Trump’s economy a year into his second term.
‘Failure!’: Trump and Musk’s DOGE DISASTER of 2025. “I’m hard pressed to think of something that was as much of a failure in every direction as DOGE.” Chris Hayes sits down with Morgan State University Professor Jason Johnson and Rolling Stone Politics Reporter Nikki McCann Ramirez to discuss the effects of Trump and Elon Musk’s “disastrous” DOGE project.
U.S. measles cases surge to highest level in 30 years. This year’s spikes in measles cases could cause the U.S. to lose its “elimination status” by next year after the CDC reports nearly 2,000 cases and 50 outbreaks nationwide. Dr. Peter Hotez discusses on “All In.”
Moscow launched one of its heaviest air assaults on Kyiv in recent weeks overnight, just as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to travel to the United States for high-stakes talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on a revised peace proposal.
The Russian barrage, involving nearly 500 drones and around 40 missiles, including Kinzhal hypersonic weapons, according to Ukrainian authorities, triggered air-raid sirens across the capital and left parts of Kyiv without electricity and heating amid freezing temperatures.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said at least one civilian was killed and more than 20 others were injured, with multiple residential buildings damaged and rescue teams searching for people trapped under rubble.
The attack reverberated across Europe’s eastern flank.
Poland scrambled fighter jets and placed its air defense systems on heightened alert as a precautionary measure, citing Russian long-range aviation activity targeting Ukraine. Poland’s Operational Command said on X that military aviation operations were launched to protect Polish airspace, adding later that no violations had been detected and the alert was subsequently lifted.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the strikes by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces underscored the gap between diplomatic efforts and Moscow’s actions on the groundM/b>. “Contrary to President Trump’s expectations and despite the readiness to make compromises by Zelenskyy, Russia attacked again Kyiv’s residential districts,” Tusk wrote on X on Saturday.
[…] The overnight air strikes came as Zelenskyy makes his way to North America, a trip that will include a stop in Canada on Saturday before he travels on to Florida for talks with Trump on Sunday. Zelenskyy told reporters that he and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “plan to speak online with European leaders, go over all the issues, provide updates, and exchange the details of the documents I will be discussing with the U.S. president.”
Zelenskyy said the overnight attacks on Ukraine demonstrated why strong security guarantees are “our most important consideration” in discussing peace proposals. Territorial control of the Donbas region and management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are also important issues to be determined in the peace talks, he told journalists.
“Russian representatives engage in lengthy talks, but in reality, Kinzhals and ‘shaheds’ speak for them,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. “This is the true attitude of Putin and his inner circle. They do not want to end the war and seek to use every opportunity to cause Ukraine even greater suffering.” […]
“He thinks naked white supremacy will make him president. He’s almost certainly wrong.”
The battle for the future of the Republican Party is underway — or at least the battle to determine who will lead it in 2028. As vice president, JD Vance has the inside track, but he knows the field will not clear for him. So he is working hard to articulate a vision, to define himself and the country he wishes to lead. That vision, articulated in a series of speeches and interviews over the last year and a half, is one of naked white supremacy and ethnonationalism.
The good news is that Vance is a terrible messenger for this hateful ideology, and his chances of taking it to the Oval Office are extremely slim. The bad news is that there is clearly a sizable market for it within the Republican Party.
Speaking Sunday at the annual Turning Point USA conference known as “AmericaFest,” Vance had a message for the assembled herrenvolk: White pride is back, baby! [Video]
“I refuse to apologize for being white” has long been a mantra of segregationists and Klansmen, an outgrowth of the fear that any sort of equality for racial minorities — legal, economic, educational — by definition meant putting whites in a subservient position, forced to hang their heads and apologize. Equality is perceived to be a reversal of the racial hierarchy: If we’re not in a state of privilege, free to abuse our lessers, then it can only mean we are being abused.
So who exactly has been demanding that JD Vance apologize for being white? Has that ever happened to him, a single time? Of course not. But this is a key element of Trumpism, of which Vance would like to be the heir: You have been humiliated, it says, but I will let you stand tall again. You, white people — and especially white men — have been hounded and oppressed, but those days are finally over.
[…] This belief that whites are the only oppressed people is being expressed daily in administration policy and communication, from the remaking of the refugee program to serve only white South Africans to the social media filled with Aryan imagery [embedded inks to this and other sources are available at the main link] to the administration-wide push to find injustices committed against whites: [social media post, with video]
[…] Vance no doubt understands that he won’t be able to clear the field […] So he has been articulating a new vision for America, one that seeks to upend everything we thought we knew about Americanness. In particular, it rejects the conception of America as an idea and “American” as a status potentially open to anyone. Instead, Vance argues for a traditional blood-and-soil conception of national identity, familiar to ethnonationalist movements around the world.
[…] Vance has been blaming every societal problem on immigrants, from high housing costs to limited health care access to antisemitism.
[…] Commenting on the recent controversies around neo-Nazi right-wing influencer Nick Fuentes and the larger question of whether the GOP should be concerned that its ranks are overflowing with people just like him, Vance told a podcast, “If you believe racism is bad, Fuentes should occupy one second of your focus, and the people with actual political power who worked so hard to discriminate against white men should occupy many hours of it.”
That’s his recent innovation: While others on the right have been talking more and more about “heritage Americans,” […] Vance just comes out and says the word “white.”
That nasty little speech to Turning Point was full of dog-whistles and bullhorns. He brought up a candidate “for mayor Mogadishu — wait, I mean Minneapolis. Little Freudian slip there.” The audience cheered and laughed, of course — har har! For the record, people of Somali descent make up about 4% of the population of Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located […] you won’t catch him complaining about, for instance, the German presence in the Texas Hill Country.
Vance wasn’t done after the Mogadishu crack. He said about Rep. Jasmine Crockett, “She wants to be a senator, though her street girl persona is about as real as her nails.” Street girl? Hmm, what could that mean?
He went on to say that “The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God we always will be, a Christian nation.” (Cue frenzied screaming and extended standing ovation.) He did throw non-Christians a bone, however: “I’m not saying you have to be a Christian to be an American. I’m saying something simpler and truer: Christianity is America’s creed.” In other words: We real Americans will let you stay here, but only if you pay fealty to OUR religion.
I have noted often that when they searched for a leader for their party in 2016, Republicans decided that they would rally behind literally the worst human being in America, the walking collection of character flaws known as Donald Trump. Dishonest, ignorant, cruel, petty, narcissistic, bigoted, a tax cheat and a con man and a sexual abuser — how could they have done worse? But in some ways, JD Vance is worse, for one reason. Trump was born this way; Vance decided to become a monster. After going through a series of personal reinventions and name changes, he settled on the most repulsive version of himself, believing that it would bring him the power he has long sought.
[…] Vance is […] just a personally unappealing figure. It’s a testament to his smarts, his opportunism, and his burning ambition that he has gotten this far. But you can’t become president when people instinctively recoil from you. And if anything, his increasing focus on whiteness will make him even more repellent.
Here’s the headline to an article in the Arkansas Advocate:
China is investing billions in Latin America, potentially sidelining US farmers for decades to come
Chinese state-backed money is remaking the hemisphere’s ports — from Santos to Chancay — reshaping grain routes to Asia and squeezing U.S. farmers as tariffs deepen the split with Washington.
The article goes on to list all the upgrades the Chinese are making to ports in Brazil and Peru. The upgrades to both ports’ infrastructure will facilitate making them a hub for the export of minerals like lithium, copper, and agricultural products such as SOYBEANS TO CHINA. In other words, the Chinese plan on shifting their agricultural imports from the U.S. to South America.
[…] How are American farmers taking this grand news? As always, the few who do comment for these types of articles try to put up a stoic face:
As China establishes new trade routes across Latin America, every new port or shipping lane makes a future recovery for U.S. farmers more challenging.
Despite the tensions, Hemmes still views China as an essential market.
“I don’t think our relationship with China has been damaged,” the Iowa soybean farmer said. “China is a low-cost buyer and will need soybeans from the U.S. for a long time. But we will never be their number one source.”
The quote is from April Hemmes, and Iowan farmer. She does admit that the U.S. though is not a “reliable partner” because of politics. Also, she doesn’t believe the Chinese will buy the 12 million metric tons of soybeans they promised by January of 2026. [!] She just doesn’t think it’s possible to do that now. The number of metric tons ordered by China from the U.S. has not yet been confirmed, but it’s definitely not 12 million metric tons as of yet.
Oh, and my favorite Trump loving soybean farmer Caleb Ragland says:
“U.S. soybean farmers are standing at a trade and financial precipice,” Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association, wrote in a statement.
Ragland has been pounding that same damn dumb drumbeat this entire year. He still believes in his heart that Trump is going to save the day. Somehow.
But as this article points out, the “deal” that Trump made with the Chinese means that soybean farmers are going to be selling LESS over the length of Trump’s second term. [!]
It’s a very good article in my opinion because it compares how the Chinese are going to expand those port facilities compared to capacity of current American ports. It ain’t pretty. And it focuses on secondary impacts to the economy, such as how dock workers are not going to have jobs because of the trade war. And agriculture analysts admit these latest moves by the Chinese mean a PERMANENT SHIFT away from American farmers to South America instead. [!, “permanent”]
@333 birgerjohansson: The bit about some of the files not being redacted correctly is true. I doubt the connection to Doge is true. There are a number of tools that could be used for the redactions. With this administration it’s possible but would require a remarkable multi-step chain of incompetence. I’m still leaning towards some low level DOJ and FBI personal intentionally doing it wrong.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: birgerjohansson @333: Regarding redaction, there was at least one document that had its redaction performed poorly several years ago included in the release. It’s a straightforward mistake for inexperienced users. Elaborated in my comment under PZ’s post.
Betty Bowers (Comedian): DOJ’s embarrassing snafu with disappearing redactions was the fault of Elon Musk. Musk cancelled government subscriptions to Adobe
I am begging folks not to rely on screenshots but rather to seek out and read the underlying article. This one is poorly sourced. Be suspicious.
Pierce R. Butlersays
Lynna @ # 341, quoting Paul Waldman: … when they searched for a leader for their party in 2016, Republicans decided that they would rally behind literally the worst human being in America, the walking collection of character flaws known as Donald Trump…. you can’t become president when people instinctively recoil from you.
How on earth can Waldman miss the blatant contradictions in his own analysis?
Rob Grigjanissays
Pierce @345: There’s no contradiction. The disaster of a human being called Trump resonates with the sizeable minority of Americans who are similarly disastrous. Vance, despicable though he is, simply doesn’t have the right flavour of despicability.
birgerjohanssonsays
Ohio Shocker: Republicans Are Panicking Behind the Scenes
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pIlOBjmjLIc
While Ramaswamy is an opportunist, he is a smarter opportunist than J D Vance.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Donald Trump’s Doctor QUITS After Health Records LIE Scandal | Jimmy Kimmel”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=dasmABrMjBo
As Jimmy Kimmel has a record of being right this should be big news.
KGsays
birgerjohansson@333
It’s Jack Cocchiarella – so the chances of it being bogus are well over 90%. I find these constant YouTube titles with “collapse”, “panic”, “SHOCK” etc. from him, MeidasTouch, Brian Tyler Cohen, etc. as irritating as those from their MAGAT counterparts, and have stopped watching them. Similarly those from pro-Ukraine sources claiming Putin is about to be overthrown, the Russian army to collapse, etc.
StevoRsays
New research reveals that jet structures in the sun-facing “anti-tail” of this comet, estimated in some observations to stretch up to 620,000 miles (1 million kilometers), were wobbling every 7 hours and 45 minutes as 3I/ATLAS approached the sun. Of course, comets are famous for their tails and haloes, comprised of gas and dust that is blown from their nucleus as radiation from the sun heats them. However, these tails generally face away from the sun and the influx of solar radiation. A rare anti-tail is a cometary tail that points toward the sun, rather than away from it.
..(Snip) …
.. However, this is the first time that such an “outgassing” has been observed from an interstellar comet.
One of my personal fave topics discussed on space dot com here for a 2025 summary :
This year, the number of NASA-tracked confirmed worlds discovered beyond our solar system surpassed 6,000, and several thousand more await confirmation.
The milestone, reached just three decades after the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the first planet orbiting a sunlike star in 1995, is largely the result of the planet-hunting power of NASA’s Kepler space telescope and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
As the year comes to a close, here’s a look back at some of the most intriguing, puzzling and rule-breaking exoplanets astronomers studied in 2025. These worlds illustrate both how far exoplanet science has come and how much there still is to learn.
One of Anton Petrov’s latest on one particularly astounding exoplanet recently found or at least recently studied here – Impossible Lemon Shaped Carbon Planet Shouldn’t Exist (just under 15 mins long) specifically PSR J2322−2650 b. Orbiting a pulsar.
StevoRsays
Hoping PZ is okay, been a while now since his last blog post here. Anyone know please?
‘He is scared’: Trump posts 150 times on Christmas Day in ‘unhinged rage-baiting spree’.
On Christmas Day, President Trump posted more than 150 times on the Truth Social platform, in posts ranging from 2020 election conspiracy theories to false claims about Somali immigrants. Trump put particular focus on the release of the Epstein files, posting: “The Dems are the ones who worked with Epstein, not the Republicans. Release all of their names, embarrass them, and get back to helping our Country!”
“The suspect was partially nude when the kidnapped girl’s father found her, authorities said.”
The father of a teenage girl who deputies say was kidnapped on Christmas Day found her using his phone’s parental controls, according to authorities in Texas.
A 15-year-old girl was reported kidnapped from the Houston suburb of Porter on Thursday after her parents said she took her dog out for a walk but did not return, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Authorities said the girl’s father tracked her phone using parental controls, which led him to a secluded, partially wooded area in Harris County, roughly two miles from Porter.
Her father located her and her dog inside a maroon-colored pickup truck with a partially nude 23-year-old man, the sheriff’s office said. The father helped his daughter escape from the truck and contacted law enforcement, the sheriff’s office added.
[…] Giovanni Rosales Espinoza, was taken into custody without incident and charged with aggravated kidnapping and indecency with a child, the sheriff’s office said, alleging he threatened the girl with a knife and abducted her off the street. He remains in the Montgomery County Jail at this time with no bond, according to authorities. […]
“ ‘People will die because of this,’ he said, implying that Mamdani’s pick was a DEI hire.”
Elon Musk took to his social media site on Friday to decry New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s pick to lead the city’s fire department, claiming that she couldn’t do the job. The commissioner-to-be, Lillian Bonsignore, is a FDNY veteran who led the department’s emergency medical services during the Covid-19 pandemic. She will be the second woman to hold the position and the first openly gay person to lead the department.
That was enough for Musk to weigh in. “People will die because of this,” he wrote, adding, “Proven experience matters when lives are at stake.”
As Gothamist reported, before her retirement in 2022, Bonsignore was both the highest-ranking uniformed woman in FDNY history and the first woman to achieve a four-star rank. At the press conference announcing her appointment, Mamdani praised Bonsignore, saying that “her record speaks for itself,” before detailing her career in the city that spanned from before 9/11 through the worst of the pandemic.
“I know the job,” Bonsignore said this week. “I know what the firefighters need, and I can translate that to this administration that is willing to listen. I know what EMS needs. I have been EMS for 30-plus years.”
Musk is the richest person on the planet and a rabid opponent of diversity, equity, and inclusion measures, or DEI. He appeared to be claiming that the new head of the FDNY was a diversity hire. He’s written: “Time for DEI to DIE,” “DEI has caused people to DIE,” “DEI is a Civil Rights Act violation,” “DEI kills art,” “DEI puts the lives of your loved ones at risk,” and “DEI is just another word for racism,” amongst his other previous observations about these efforts. [social media post, with video]
This isn’t the first time Musk, who is not a resident of New York, has weighed in on Mamdani or his campaign.
A day before the mayoral election in November, Musk endorsed Mamdani’s leading opponent in the race, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo had resigned in disgrace after the state’s attorney general reported that he had sexually harassed nearly a dozen women. (A later DOJ investigation put that number at 13.) In Musk’s endorsement post, he called the soon-to-be-mayor-elect “Mumdumi.”
Then, on the morning of Election Day, Musk shared a false claim that because Mamdani was listed under both the “Democratic” and “Working Families” party lines on the NYC ballot, the election was a “scam!” [social media post, with image] But in New York, candidates can appear more than once on a ballot if they are nominated by multiple political parties. […]
Despite his recent interest in the FDNY’s leadership, Musk’s work during his time with the federal government imperiled some of NYC’s firefighters. His DOGE team threatened cancer research funding for firefighters who responded to the World Trade Center attacks and were exposed to toxins.
Back in February, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, tried to cancel a $257,000 contract for 9/11-related cancer research. At the time, according to CBS News, “FDNY confirmed researchers working on the career firefighter health study received notice of the CDC contract termination.” Days later, after public backlash, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention restored the contract. […]
[…] Trump on Sunday will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Palm Beach, Fla., as talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war advance.
Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin just hours before the meeting. He described the call as “good” and “very productive” in a social media post.
Zelensky’s 20-point peace plan, which offers some concessions to Moscow, will be the topic of discussion during his huddle with Trump. It proposes to have Russian forces withdraw from several Ukrainian regions and creates an $800 billion fund for post-war recovery efforts.
Sunday’s meeting will mark the fifth time Zelensky has traveled to meet Trump in the U.S. The duo is slated to meet at 1 p.m. EST at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump is spending the holidays.
“These are some of the most active diplomatic days of the year right now, and a lot can be decided before the New Year,” Zelensky wrote on social media early Sunday morning.
Over the weekend, Russia intensified its drone and missile attacks on Kyiv, killing at least one person and injuring many others.
Zelensky, in his Sunday social media post, said he plans to discuss security guarantees, air defense missiles and Russia sanctions with Trump.
[…] Volodymr Zelensky spoke with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of the Ukrainian president’s Sunday meeting with President Trump.
“We discussed preparations for the meeting with President Trump, as well as all our contacts with European partners,” Zelensky wrote on social media. “I informed him on the situation on the frontline and on the consequences of Russian strikes.”
[…] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with state-run media that Europe has been the main obstacle for peace amid its war in Ukraine since President Trump returned to office earlier this year.
In an interview with TASS published Sunday, the foreign minister praised Trump and sought to blame the Europeans for slow progress on peace talks to end the war with Ukraine. […]
TOAMASINA, Madagascar — The centerpiece of the aid project was a toilet known as the Minimal Value Product: the MVP1.
It did the things any adequate toilet should do, like contain waste, limit odors and prevent flies. When it became available last year in this crowded port city, those capabilities made the American-sponsored toilet nothing less than an instant phenomenon.
Hundreds of MVP1s sold in the first few months. […]
Encouraged by the early results, the international aid organizations leading the project planned to expand to other cities and rollout other toilet models. It seemed a real chance to spur a sanitation revolution in the world’s fifth-poorest country.
In many parts of the world, people flush without a thought. But nearly half of humanity doesn’t yet have that luxury, leaving them exposed to life-threatening diseases and compounding social and economic problems.
For more than a decade, 193 nations agreed that should change. They set targets — the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals — that provided a blueprint of progress for humankind and included a call for universal access to adequate sanitation by 2030. Nations pursued those goals unevenly, but with unanimous support, up until the precise point that 489 MVP1s were sold in Toamasina, Madagascar.
That’s when the Trump administration halted the work of the U.S. Agency for International Development, taking a series of steps in January and February to terminate funding for projects across the world. {1}
In March, the United States also became the first nation to break ranks and reject the Sustainable Development Goals, calling them contrary to the “interests of Americans.” [!]
[…] In Madagascar, what had started as a four-and-a-half-year, $10-million USAID project involving six NGOs — with expertise in sanitation, waste treatment, marketing and finance — was inherited by a 29-year-old local who tried to hold a few of the pieces together.
“The reason to keep going?” said Valisca Ravololonihanta. “This is something that people need.”
She had entered the toilet business in desperation after her father’s death: Needing to support younger siblings, she’d applied for his vacated job and rose to become a regional manager within a toilet-producing network called Diotontolo.
She could see and smell the needs across her city, a sprawl of unplanned neighborhoods built on sand near the Indian Ocean. Toilets were rudimentary outhouses, typically shared by several households. Most areas in Toamasina had no sewer pipes, so using the toilet meant squatting over a pit, often lined with scrap tires, or an oil drum, and covered with wooden planks.
Even the better version offered by Ravololonihanta’s company before the sanitation project, with a concrete tank and ceramic lid, still could leave foul odors and waste exposed to disease-carrying flies. During storms, floodwaters would force the contents of the city’s toilet pits upward, gushing across yards and into homes.
She could see and smell the needs across her city, a sprawl of unplanned neighborhoods built on sand near the Indian Ocean. Toilets were rudimentary outhouses, typically shared by several households. Most areas in Toamasina had no sewer pipes, so using the toilet meant squatting over a pit, often lined with scrap tires, or an oil drum, and covered with wooden planks.
Even the better version offered by Ravololonihanta’s company before the sanitation project, with a concrete tank and ceramic lid, still could leave foul odors and waste exposed to disease-carrying flies. During storms, floodwaters would force the contents of the city’s toilet pits upward, gushing across yards and into homes.
[…] Ten years earlier, countries gathered at the United Nations headquarters in New York to endorse a vast agenda. With President Barack Obama invoking the possibility of “ending extreme poverty in our world,” they agreed on 17 overarching goals with 169 specific targets on topics including road deaths, malnutrition, clean energy and, yes, sanitation.
Experts emphasized the giant health leaps known to flow almost automatically from installing sewer pipes in the ground and good toilets in homes. Cholera and typhoid are brought in check. Child mortality plummets. Rivers and streams stop functioning as vectors of disease.
Cities such as London and New York made these gains in the 1800s — an advancement in urban life akin to the automobile or the lightbulb. Now it was a matter of delivering that same progress to another roughly 4 billion people. […]
“Jim Beam Halts Production, as Whiskey Market Struggles”
“The bourbon giant is closing its flagship distilling operation for all of 2026.”
Jim Beam, the country’s largest maker of bourbon, has announced a one-year pause in production at its flagship facility in Clermont, Ky., a stunning move that underlines the immense challenges facing the American whiskey industry after more than two decades of rapid growth.
The decision by the brand, owned by the Japanese conglomerate Suntory Holdings, is the latest in a series of production cuts, layoffs and financial crises across the wine, beer and spirits sector, which has seen sales drop by about 5 percent over the past year.
The situation will likely get worse as 2025 draws to a close: At the end of October MGP Ingredients, which distills whiskey on contract for other brands, reported a 19 percent drop in sales for the third quarter.
[I snipped details of other pauses in production and layoffs of employees.]
In a statement, Jim Beam said that the pause would begin on Jan. 1 and last the entire year. The facility produces about a third of the company’s annual output of approximately 26.5 million gallons.
It also said it would continue production at its two other distilleries in Kentucky and would keep its bottling facility and visitor center open at the Clermont site. It did not say whether the workers at the distillery would be furloughed or moved to other facilities. […]
The sudden, steep decline in bourbon sales comes after more than 20 years of expansion in American whiskey, which regularly reached 5 percent in annual growth. It went from about $1.4 billion in sales in 2004 to about $5.2 billion in 2024, according to data from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a trade group.
American whiskey proved especially popular during the pandemic. Consumers stuck at home with spare cash and time fueled an explosion in collecting and buying bottles through auctions and online via informal (and often illegal) markets.
In response, distilleries boosted production, putting aside millions of barrels to age, announcing multimillion-dollar expansions and flooding the market with new products. Today there are an estimated 16.1 million barrels of whiskey aging across Kentucky. A standard barrel holds 53 gallons, though a significant amount is lost to evaporation during aging. […]
Analysts also cite recent economic challenges related to President Trump’s tariffs. A backlash from Canadian consumers and provinces, which control alcohol sales, has virtually stopped the sale of American whiskey in what was once among the industry’s biggest export markets. [True]
[…] At the same time, the president’s unpredictable approach to tariff policy has made it difficult to expand into new markets, especially South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, three regions that major American whiskey distillers had once hoped to turn into reliable destinations for millions of bottles a year.
Consumer behavior has also changed rapidly in recent years as the first members of Gen Z reach drinking age.
Polls show that not only are young consumers drinking less, but they are trading up as well, choosing high-proof, more expensive bottles to drink sparingly. That is a big problem for Jim Beam, which relies heavily on its inexpensive, lower-proof White Label brand for sales.
[…] even as Jim Beam and Jack Daniel’s pull back, companies like Sazerac, which makes luxury whiskeys like George T. Stagg and Pappy Van Winkle, continue to grow. In October, Sazerac announced a $1 billion expansion, primarily at its Buffalo Trace distillery in Frankfort, Ky.
Mr. Minnick added that in many ways, this was a story that Kentucky distillers have heard before.
By the mid-1960s, bourbon production was at a similar record high, fueled by the prolific alcohol consumption of the “Mad Men” era. But as baby boomers reached adulthood, they turned away from whiskey in favor of vodka and rum, or away from alcohol altogether.
The result was a decades-long stretch of oversupply and cratering demand, resulting in the closure of dozens of distilleries across the country. […]
Pierce R. Butlersays
Rob Grigjanis @ # 346: Vance… doesn’t have the right flavour of despicability.
Having such different senses of ethic/esthetics, I question whether you, or I, or Waldman, can possibly judge how MAGAts see that.
“Stephen Miller Cites Children of Immigrants as a Problem”
“As it seeks to end birthright citizenship, the Trump administration is arguing that immigrants bring problems that extend for generations. The data shows otherwise.” [!]
When Stephen Miller, one of President Trump’s top advisers, makes the case for the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, he is focused not only on the actions of those who came to the United States from another country.
Increasingly, he blames their children as well.
Mr. Miller’s belief that seven decades of immigration has produced millions of people who take more than they give — an assertion that has been refuted by years of economic data [!] — is at the heart of the Trump administration’s campaign to restrict immigration and deport immigrants already in the country.
But he is now stressing an argument that immigrants bring problems to the United States that extend through generations.
“With a lot of these immigrant groups, not only is the first generation unsuccessful. Again, Somalia is a clear example here,” Mr. Miller said on Fox News this month, adding, “You see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate.”
The attack line comes as the administration is calling for the Supreme Court to uphold Mr. Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, the long-held principle that children born on American soil are automatically citizens. [Sigh. head/desk]
[…] there is no legal basis to revoke U.S. citizenship from U.S.-born children and grandchildren of immigrants. Mr. Miller’s statements signal an even more aggressive effort to remake the country by shedding the recent arrivals and their offspring.
[…] Experts questioned the underlying argument made by Mr. Miller.
“Just as we saw with immigrants who arrived around the turn of the 20th century, the children of immigrants who have arrived to the United States since the 1960s consistently learn fluent English, obtain more education than their immigrant parents and achieve higher earnings, showing strong patterns of integration,” said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute. “Study after study has demonstrated the upward mobility of children of immigrants.”
[…] The Trump administration has made sweeping changes to limit legal immigration, including halting the naturalization process for people from countries that the White House put under a travel ban this year, predominantly in Africa and the Middle East.
“Stephen is correct to point out that aliens who come to our country en masse and refuse to assimilate to American society only recreate the same conditions that are destroying the nations they fled from,” said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman. “We cannot allow their problems to become America’s problems.”
Mr. Miller’s uncle has spoken publicly about how his mother’s side of the family emigrated to the United States from Belarus in the early 1900s.
The Supreme Court announced this month that it would hear a landmark dispute over the constitutionality of Mr. Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship.
Mr. Trump on his first day back in office signed an executive order declaring that children born to undocumented immigrants and to some temporary foreign residents would no longer be granted citizenship automatically. The executive order, which was paused by the courts, could throw into doubt the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of babies born each year.
But as the case makes its way to the Supreme Court, the rhetoric from the administration has heated up. Mr. Miller and Mr. Trump have targeted Minnesota’s Somali community as they make their case to crack down on illegal and legal immigration.
They have seized on an investigation into fraud that took place in pockets of the Somali diaspora in the state, using it to denounce the entire community, which Mr. Trump has called “garbage.”
[…] “he [Miller] views immigration solely through the lens of cultural threat.”
Stephen Miller is not just racist, he is ignorant.
Trump’s word salad, bluster and meaningless pronouncements:
President Trump said Sunday that Russia’s war in Ukraine could continue “for a long time” if the sides do not reach a peace agreement in the near future.
“We’re in final stages of talking and we’re going to see. Otherwise, it’s going to go on for a long time,” Trump told reporters alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Earlier Sunday, Zelensky said on the social platform X that Russia has launched over 2,100 attack drones, roughly 800 guided aerial bombs and over 90 missiles at Ukraine this week. [!]
Despite that, Trump said Sunday that Putin is interested in reaching a peace deal. [A lie that Putin probably asked Trump to repeat.] The two will speak after Trump’s meeting with Zelensky concludes, after speaking via phone before the summit this morning. [!!!]
“It’ll either end, or it’s going to go on for a long time and millions of additional people are going to be killed, millions. And nobody wants that,” Trump added.
Link
Note that Trump is back to lying about Putin being interested in a peace deal.
Trump takes his marching orders from Putin, as usual.
[…] 1. Groyper. Followers of the archconservative, openly racist and antisemitic, recreationally combative commentator Nick Fuentes take their name — or did they give it? — from a sourish, homely, froglike cartoon figure that they treat as their avatar. They’ve been around since the 2010s, but 2025 was the year that Mr. Fuentes, previously a sideshow, entered the MAGA mainstream. The death of Charlie Kirk, who led a competing swath of followers, was one reason; another was a long and respectful interview by Tucker Carlson that divided conservatives. Along the way, “groyper” moved from the dark corners of the internet to widespread recognition.
2. No Kings. When President Trump took to social media and declared “Long Live the King,” and the White House upped the ante with an image of Mr. Trump wearing a crown, organizers on the left offered a devastatingly simple response: No. No King Trump, no King Anyone Else, no kings. And they punctuated that response with a series of huge, cross-national protest marches, the very existence of which proved that they were right. […]
3. 6-7. You know I had to mention this one, right? “6-7,” the thing kids insist on articulating — with a knowing giggle — every time the two digits appear in that order, has been a subject of ongoing confusion by adults. For kids, that’s half the fun. Eventually those adults started consoling one another with the explanation that the expression has no meaning at all. That’s wrong, a mistake based on the false belief that all language serves to communicate facts. Language — starting with plain old “please” and “hello” — also serves social functions. Did “6-7” emerge from a line in a rap song that refers to the height of a basketball player? It’s almost irrelevant. For Gen Alpha folks, the phrase is a form of group identification: You have to be a teen or tween to get it. This is the function that slang has always served. “6-7” is unusual only in that — unlike “cool” or “lit,” say — it did not emerge out of a word or expression already in circulation. […]
4. It’s the phones. The year 2025 wasn’t the first time anyone lamented the influence of ubiquitous cellphones on our kids and our culture, but it was the year that this three-word declaration became the go-to formulation. Today it’s less a sentence one composes word by word than a set expression, a short, handy reference to a larger argument, advanced by, among others, the psychologists Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge, that smartphones are transforming children’s lives and brains for the worse.
5. The price of eggs. This humble home economics phrase became a stand-in for inflation but also for more than that — its rise and fall, the effect on consumers’ lives, the way that effect is influencing our nation’s politics and the discourse that has arisen to explain that influence. It’s what linguists call metonymy. Why eggs? Their price did jump substantially, but like so much of what happens to language, there is an element of chance. Lately the Democrats’ focus on this concept, which they feel plays to their advantage, has been so focused that it has squeezed the four words down to just one: “affordability.” There’s no perfect measure for how often the word was used, but digital search tools indicate that significantly more news articles included it this year than last.
6. Giving. Don’t groan. I know that the expression — as in “That song is giving Taylor Swift” or “That dress is giving old lady”— has been around for a while, originating in Black gay and ballroom culture, along with “slay” and “serve.” But 2025 was the year that “giving” became what linguists refer to as entrenched, meaning it’s no longer a dash of wit, color or attitude; it’s just normal, everyday speech. A sign that this is happening is when members of Gen Alpha casually use the term with an adult (such as me) and it starts to feel as though it should be in the dictionary rather than just on lists of savory slang.
7. He and she. I’ve been saying for a while that the gender-neutral “they/them” was going to become even more widespread. As a linguist who studies the ways language changes, I noted the rise in people resisting the gender binary and got caught up in — and perhaps even biased toward — what I processed as a pronominal revolution. […] Binary genders are on the rise again, and therefore so are the pronouns most closely associated with them. By the way, I also thought “corona” would crowd out “Covid” as the general term for the virus, because it’s more melodious and lends itself better to wordplay. Really, predictions are always a risk, regardless of what you know and what feels right.
Stephen Miller: Watched the Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas with my kids. Imagine watching that and thinking America needed infinity more migrants from the third world.
Imagine watching Sinatra, son of Dolly & Antonini born in Genoa & Sicily, respectively, and Martin, son of Gaetano & Angela, born in Montesilvano, Italy & Ohio respectively, (Angela to parents born in Monasterolo, Italy), and crusading against the value of children of immigrants to the U.S.
Commentary
Miller knew what he was saying, “third world” = not white. What he probably doesn’t know is Sinatra refused to play segregated venues and financially supported MLK. Why? Because he’d been the subject of anti-Italian racism and knew the feeling of bigotry and hatred.
notoriously involved in organized crime
Imagine: Stephen Miller having kids.
Everyone is (rightfully) focused on the hateful white supremacy but I’m also focused on how Miller is ostentatiously informing us that his Jewish family is watching a Christian Christmas special. Putting the Christian into Judeo-Christian, I guess.
My dad came from Italy, but I’m an American. But should I hate your father because he came from Ireland or France or Russia? Wouldn’t I be a first-class fathead? […] Don’t let anybody make suckers outta you.
Uninterested in a competitive Republican primary in 2028, Turning Point USA plans to deploy representatives across Iowa’s 99 counties in the coming months to build the campaign infrastructure it believes could deliver Vance, a Midwesterner from nearby Ohio, a decisive victory, potentially short-circuiting a fractious GOP race, insiders said.
This ultimately comes from the LA Times and is a puff piece for Vance and Turning Point USA. Those two groups have become close since Kirk’s death but it’s inflating the power of either to think they can line up the primary. This is more hoping that if they move early they can keep the number of people running small.
“He knows he can’t run again,” Susie Wiles, the president’s White House chief of staff, told Vanity Fair in a recent profile of her. “It’s pretty unequivocal.”
Trump, who will be 82 when he is slated to leave office, has told Wiles he understands a third term isn’t possible “a couple times,” she added.
If this is true it’s more Trump realizing he doesn’t have the energy or mental capacity to do it any more. Trump is not concerned with consistency. There is no telling what he will do then.
StevoRsays
@ ^ JM : Could it be that at some level Trump knows he’s very sick and won’t be around for too much longer – or is that just wishful thinking?
StevoRsays
The best kind of Christmas present is one that keeps on giving.
Launched four years ago today, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has done exactly that, according to NASA planetary scientist Stefanie Milam.
… (snip)…
Photo albums on the JWST website are filled with otherworldly images of gas clouds, stars, galaxies and planets.
And each year the team marks the science anniversary in July with a special image, usually with an animal theme, including another of Milam’s favourites: The Penguin and The Egg. “It looks like a penguin sitting next to an egg, but it is two merging galaxies called ARP 142.”
… (snip)…
Behind the beautiful images, the JWST has been kicking science goals, performing much better than anyone anticipated, despite the occasional ding to its golden mirror caused by micro-meteorites and ice.
Further into his social media post that discussed the strikes carried out on Thursday, Mr Trump suggested there could be more US-led attacks to come.
“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” he wrote.
… (snip)..
..US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also posted about the strikes on social media, saying there would be “more to come …
(Snip)
…analysts say military operations targeting the gangs are not usually sustained and the militants easily move on motorcycles to new locations through vast forests that connect several states in the north.
They also often use hostages — including schoolchildren — as cover, making air strikes difficult.
“
^ Ibid Important to note on the situation in Nigeria
(Experts -ed)..argue it’s inaccurate to frame the situation as one targeting only Christians, who are predominant in the south, while Muslims make the majority in the north.
A statement by Minister of Information and National Orientation Mohammed Idris in September said portrayals of the security crisis as a campaign against a single religious group was “a gross misrepresentation of reality”.
“Nigeria’s security challenge is not a war of religion,” he said.
“Terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology — Muslims, Christians, and those of no faith alike.”
Gimba Kakanda, a senior special assistant to the Nigerian president on research and analytics has said descriptions of the crisis as a religious war “betray ignorance of the country’s internal dynamics”.
He wrote in October that both Muslim and Christian communities have alleged genocides during the decades of security conflict in Nigeria.
“In reality, Nigeria’s conflicts are multi-faceted, driven by ethnic rivalries, land disputes and criminality, with religion often secondary,” he wrote.
Same source as above.
birgerjohanssonsays
The Anime examples range from insane parodies to dark fantasy.
NekoDecoPop;
“Best LGBTQ Anime Dubs – Part 3”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=UVDVkK40W_w
I am not familiar with the subcultures but they certainly have a lot of imagination.
birgerjohanssonsays
Jaco informs Bulma that Frieza has been resurrected #dragonball
Bulma is cool. I never had a friend whose mom builds time machines.
birgerjohanssonsays
StevoR@ 352
Thank you. I considered posting a link, but was distracted.
.
About the dualism of the human mind: Birgitte Bardot was comitted to animal rights while being a xenophobe.
birgerjohanssonsays
A poll of beliefs held by Republican voters made by the conservative Manhattan Institute
“The most DISASTROUS poll I’ve EVER SEEN”
Moon landing was hoax (30%), Holocaust denial…
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pv3gAaPyGbI
They cannot be reformed. Tow the party out to the Marianas Trench and dump it.
JMsays
@370 StevoR: It is certainly possible but I don’t think it’s likely to take Trump out of office. Not because it’s unlikely he is sick but rather because it would be much easier to keep something like that under wraps if he is likely to survive past his term. It would be easy for him to be secretly diagnosed with the medicare care available to him but if he was only expected to survive a year there would be pressure to prepare Vance, prepare the public, prepare the White House for him being ill, adjust his schedule, etc.
Me @ 377
At the 1.50 mark you find the exact numbers.
It is actually worse than what I stated.
This is a demographic that is racist and utterly ignorant.
Imagine watching Sinatra, son of Dolly & Antonini born in Genoa & Sicily, respectively, and Martin, son of Gaetano & Angela, born in Montesilvano, Italy & Ohio respectively, (Angela to parents born in Monasterolo, Italy), and crusading against the value of children of immigrants to the U.S.
“At least 12 people, including a 2-week-old infant, have died since Dec. 13 from hypothermia or weather-related collapses of war-damaged homes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.”
Winter rain lashed the Gaza Strip over the weekend, flooding camps with ankle-deep puddles as Palestinians displaced by two years of war attempted to stay dry in tents frayed by months of use.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled for an expected meeting on Monday with President Donald Trump in Florida about the second phase of the ceasefire. The first phase that took effect on Oct. 10 was meant to bring a surge in humanitarian aid for Gaza, including shelter. [Including shelter! Not in evidence during the winter rains.]
[…] In the southern city of Khan Younis, blankets were soaked and clay ovens meant for cooking were swamped. Children wearing flip-flops waded through puddles. Some people used shovels or tin cans to remove water from tents. Others clawed at the ground to pry collapsed shelters from the mud.
“Puddles formed, and there was a bad smell,” said Majdoleen Tarabein, displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza. “The tent flew away. We don’t know what to do or where to go.”
She and family members tried to wring muddy blankets dry by hand.
“When we woke up in the morning, we found that the water had entered the tent,” said Eman Abu Riziq, also displaced in Khan Younis. “These are the mattresses. They are all completely soaked.”
She said her family is still reeling from her husband’s death less than two weeks ago.
“[…] We are exhausted. We just want mattresses and covers,” said Fatima Abu Omar as she tried to prop up a collapsing shelter.
At least 12 people, including a 2-week-old infant, have died since Dec. 13 from hypothermia or weather-related collapses of war-damaged homes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government.
Emergency workers have warned people not to stay in damaged buildings, because they could collapse. But with much of the territory in rubble, there are few places to escape the rain. In July, the United Nations estimated that almost 80% of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged.
Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began, 414 people have been killed and 1,142 wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The overall Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 71,266. The ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.
[…] Humanitarian deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, according to aid organizations and an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli military’s figures.
The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid said in the past week that 4,200 trucks with aid entered Gaza, plus eight garbage trucks to assist with sanitation, as well as tents and winter clothing. It declined to elaborate on the number of tents. Aid groups have said the need far outstrips the number that have entered. [Same story is repeating. Not enough aid.]
Since the ceasefire began, around 72,000 tents and 403,000 tarps have entered, according to Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the top U.N. group overseeing aid in Gaza, wrote on social media. “There is nothing inevitable about this. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required.” [!]
[…] Israel has said it refuses to move to the next phase while the remains of the final hostage are still in Gaza. Hamas has said the destruction in Gaza has hampered efforts to find remains.
Challenges in the next phase include the deployment of an international stabilization force, a technocratic governing body for Gaza, the disarmament of the Hamas militant group and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory. […]
Adam Smith always assumed his “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” would be read alongside his “The Wealth of Nations”.
He did not believe the things the conservative pundits attribute to him.
He was against pretty much all of the things we see in late-stage capitalism.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17DS1z5KRe/
birgerjohanssonsays
Magnetic control of lithium enables a safe, explosion-free ‘dream battery’
“Either the commerce secretary is confused about rudimentary economic details, or he’s doing an excellent imitation of someone who’s alarmingly ignorant.”
One of the early signs of trouble came in late September, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, touting gross domestic product data that had just been released, declared via social media that Joe Biden’s economy “could never reach 3%” growth.
That didn’t make any sense. On a quarterly basis, the economy under Biden topped 3% several times. (It also topped 4%, 5% and, in early 2021, 6% growth.) On an annual basis, Lutnick was also completely wrong: GDP growth for all of 2021 was 6.2% — the strongest in nearly four decades.
Given that the Department of Commerce, which Lutnick ostensibly leads, is responsible for compiling and releasing GDP data, the secretary’s apparent confusion was difficult to defend.
Last week, he made matters considerably worse. [social media post with video]
After preliminary data showed the economy grew at a 4.3% annual rate in the third quarter (July through September), Lutnick appeared on Fox News and boasted: “What that means is that Americans overall — all of us — are going to earn 4.3% more money. We’re making a raise.” [Yep, that is an alarming thing to say.]
But that wasn’t even close to being true. Indeed, the secretary’s on-air comments reflected ignorance about what the numbers themselves mean: Wages and economic growth are both important metrics, but they routinely rise and fall separately and independently. This isn’t complicated: 4.3% GDP growth does not mean a 4.3% “raise” for American workers. [!]
The broader question is whether the head of the Commerce Department is genuinely confused about this, or whether he’s pretending to be genuinely confused about this.
If it’s the former, how did Lutnick manage to get this job? (For that matter, how did he run an investment bank?) If it’s the latter, why would he deliberately choose to appear ignorant about basic information his own department released to the public?
This is, incidentally, the same commerce secretary who recently struggled to understand how percentages work while trying to defend Donald Trump’s absurd claims about 700% price drops, which followed an infamous exchange in which Lutnick said food companies can avoid tariffs on bananas by producing bananas in the United States — seemingly unaware of the fact that this isn’t possible.
And did I mention the time when Lutnick suggested that only criminals would complain about missing a Social Security check? Because he did that, too.
Back in April, The Wall Street Journal reported that Lutnick’s rhetorical record was proving to be so “challenging” to the White House that officials asked him to start saying less. He might need a reminder.
“It’s impressive how little the GOP managed to get done legislatively despite controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress.”
Related video at the link. Video is 3:39 minutes.
This was supposed to be a banner year for Republicans. For the second time in a decade, the GOP holds total sway over Washington, controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House. But as 2025 ends, the majority party has little to show for its meager efforts at legislating. In fact, the data shows that Congress is getting worse and worse at its main job: passing laws.
[…] Trump spent this year barreling forward in myriad directions, enthusiastically stretching executive power to previously untested boundaries as he implements his agenda. Little of the president’s energy was spent working with Congress, however, to try to turn his policies into law. […]
Despite Republican majorities in the House and Senate, only 61 bills passed both chambers this year, according to Congress.gov. Of those, 22 were disapproval resolutions overturning Biden administration rules and regulations. Two others were bills renaming federal buildings: a post office in Oklahoma and a New Jersey outpatient clinic run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
In fact, as The Washington Post’s Paul Kane recently noted, the House “set a 21st-century record for fewest votes cast (362) in the first session of a two-year Congress.” Johnson frequently recessed the House early when faced with revolts from his caucus and opted to keep the chamber closed even before the 43-day long federal shutdown began. Meanwhile, the Senate has been spending most of its time in session this year on confirming Trump’s nominees rather than producing legislation.
[…] The decline in output becomes even more pronounced when contrasted to the last time Republicans held both houses of Congress and the White House in the pre-Trump era – which would be in 2003 under President George W. Bush. In the first year of the 108th Congress, Republican lawmakers sent 198 bills to Bush’s desk to become law. Granted, 45 of those bills named federal buildings — but the remaining 153 still vastly outnumber the output from the more recent Congresses.
Part of the problem is a structural breakdown of the legislative process and lawmaking calendar, as Patrick McHenry, a former Republican House member from North Carolina, recently summed up to NPR:
‘The work stacks up in summer and then we leave the month before the budget is supposed to be done,’ he said. ‘The rules of the Senate dictate you have to have 60 votes to do anything on policy, so everything for the majority party when they have the White House comes resting on the third piece, which is the budget process, to get everything you could possibly get done in the budget reconciliation process.’
McHenry said most of the agenda ‘hinges upon one big piece of legislation,’ which means if a measure isn’t included in that bill, it’s hard to get it through at all.
[…] One tactic that’s been used in the House an unusual amount this year, the discharge petition, is an option for rank-and-file members to get around the speaker’s tight grasp on the legislative agenda. But procedural workarounds, while useful at times, aren’t a sustainable antidote to the lack of agency many legislators are feeling. Without work to do in Washington, many lawmakers have felt little incentive to stay in office. Already, a record number have announced plans to exit ahead of next year’s midterms.
[…] if the GOP were to lose the House next November, the odds of bills reaching Trump’s desk dwindle even further. Which points up another sad truth: For lawmakers deciding whether to stay or go, this largely wasted year could actually be a high point of productivity.
The United States on Monday announced a $2 billion pledge for U.N. humanitarian aid as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to slash U.S. foreign assistance and warns United Nations agencies to “adapt, shrink or die” in a time of new financial realities.
The money is a small fraction of what the U.S. has contributed in the past […]
The pledge creates an umbrella fund from which money will be doled out to individual agencies and priorities, a key part of U.S. demands for drastic changes across the world body that have alarmed many humanitarian workers and led to severe reductions in programs and services. [!]
The $2 billion is only a sliver of traditional U.S. humanitarian funding for U.N.-backed programs, which has run as high as $17 billion annually in recent years, according to U.N. data. U.S. officials say only $8-$10 billion of that has been in voluntary contributions. The United States also pays billions in annual dues related to its U.N. membership.
Critics say the Western aid cutbacks have been shortsighted, driven millions toward hunger, displacement or disease, and harmed U.S. soft power around the world. [All true.[
The move caps a crisis year for many U.N. organizations like its refugee, migration and food aid agencies. The Trump administration has already cut billions in U.S. foreign aid, prompting them to slash spending, aid projects and thousands of jobs. Other traditional Western donors have reduced outlays, too.
The announced U.S. pledge for aid programs of the United Nations — the world’s top provider of humanitarian assistance and biggest recipient of U.S. humanitarian aid money — takes shape in a preliminary deal with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, run by Tom Fletcher, a former British diplomat and government official.
Even as the U.S. pulls back its aid, needs have ballooned across the world: Famine has been recorded this year in parts of conflict-ridden Sudan and Gaza, and floods, drought and natural disasters that many scientists attribute to climate change have taken many lives or driven thousands from their homes.
[…] the idea is that Fletcher’s office — which last year set in motion a “humanitarian reset” to improve efficiency, accountability and effectiveness of money spent — will become a funnel for U.S. and other aid money that can be then redirected to those agencies, rather than scattered U.S. contributions to a variety of individual appeals for aid.
The United States wants to see “more consolidated leadership authority” in U.N. aid delivery systems […]
Under the plan, Fletcher and his coordination office “are going to control the spigot” on how money is distributed to agencies, the official said.
“This humanitarian reset at the United Nations should deliver more aid with fewer tax dollars — providing more focused, results-driven assistance aligned with U.S foreign policy,” said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz. [Oh, that sounds bad. Waltz is spouting trumpian double-speak. Also, since when has the Trump administration increased efficiency when it comes to distributing aid? They have consistently done the opposite.]
[…] “The agreement requires the U.N. to consolidate humanitarian functions to reduce bureaucratic overhead, unnecessary duplication, and ideological creep,” the State Department said in a statement. “Individual U.N. agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die.” [So say arrogant assholes who failed at reaching those very goals at the State Department of the USA]
[I snipped more State Department blather.]
[…] Fletcher praised the deal, saying in a statement, “At a moment of immense global strain, the United States is demonstrating that it is a humanitarian superpower, offering hope to people who have lost everything.” [More meaningless blather, not based on facts. More spewing of double-speak in order to please Trump.]
The ‘comic’ linked below seems to explain a lot. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry or walk into the disintegrator beam.
(read the text below the comic, it is prescient) https://www.dailykos.com/blogs/Tom%20Tomorrow/
birgerjohanssonsays
Shermanj @ 397
Since Stephen Miller lost his hair he looks rather like an Italian gentleman that was active a century ago. Is this an analogy of… Vigo the Carpathian? The baddie returning in a new body.
reply to @399 birgerjohansson: WOW, my memory of vigo the carpathian is from the ghost busters movie. I wish we could get rid of faScist miller like that! But, his self-contradictory, monstrous malice is no laughing matter and is a diseased appendage to tRUMP.
The pièce de résistance came when the American president declared, in apparent seriousness, “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed.”
Shortly after his presidential inaugural, Donald Trump insisted that Russia’s Vladimir Putin “wants to have peace now.” In the days, weeks and months that followed, as Putin intensified his war in Ukraine, Trump refused to back off his increasingly ridiculous assertion, repeatedly telling the public and the world that the Russian leader was serious about ending the bloodshed, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
In fact, the ugly pattern became so obvious — the American president would vouch for Putin’s interest in peace, which would be immediately followed by another deadly missile strike in Ukraine — that Trump started telling uncomfortable jokes about this over the summer.
Unfortunately, as 2025 comes to an end, very little has changed.
On Saturday, one day before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles and drones, killing at least one person and wounding 27. The Associated Press reported, “Explosions boomed across Kyiv as the attack began in early morning and continued for hours.”
A day later, Trump, standing alongside Zelenskyy once again, said he believes Putin is serious about peace. [social media post, with video]
When a reporter reminded the Republican president about Russia’s latest deadly attacks in Ukraine, suggesting that they’re evidence that Putin isn’t serious about peace, Trump replied: “Ukraine has made some very strong attacks also.” [FFS!]
That’s true, although there’s an obvious qualitative difference that the American president really ought to understand: Ukrainians have struck back against an invading force that’s trying to take their country, while Russia launches attacks as part of an effort to take a neighboring country by force. Trump sees an equivalence between the two. That’s absurd.
As Sunday’s gathering progressed, the Republican — who had a lengthy one-on-one phone meeting with Putin before the meeting with Zelenskyy, and who said he’d talk to Putin again after the Ukrainian president left — kept going down the same rhetorical path, telling reporters that Russia wants to end the war.
What Trump neglected to mention is that Russia started the war and could end it at any time. [social media post, with video]
But the pièce de résistance came when Trump declared, in apparent seriousness, “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed.”
By this reasoning, Putin’s ongoing war should apparently be seen as a demented form of tough love.
This doesn’t have to be complicated. If Trump is right, and Russia wants Ukraine to “succeed,” it could stop killing Ukrainians and end the conflict. But therein lies the point: Putin doesn’t want Ukraine to succeed; he wants Ukraine to be Russia. Putin doesn’t want peace; he wants Ukraine.
The more Trump vouches for the Russian leader, the louder the questions about whether the American president is blind to reality, in Putin’s pocket or both. [!]
Trump is just a gullible doofus with the mind of young child. He wants Daddy Putin to love him. I also think Putin has some other leverage over Trump, leverage about which we are unaware.
Trump’s statements follow a pattern. He softens his criticism of others and/or praises world leaders depending on to whom he last spoke. This pattern has grown more pronounced over time. Another sign of advancing dementia?
On the other hand, Trump often reverts quickly to his favorite stock phrases (opinions) that he has repeated many times in the past, such as the canard that Putin wants peace, that Putin is sincere, that Putin is strong, and so forth.
The statement that Putin wants Ukraine to succeed is new, which means it is likely that Putin fed him that line during their recent phone conversation. Trump also said, “I saw a different Putin.” Trump is a gullible doofus.
“The Ukrainian leader is pushing for more extensive guarantees from Washington.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the current draft peace framework includes 15 years of security guarantees from the U.S., with Kyiv pushing for that to be extended for up to 50 years.
At a meeting in Florida on Sunday, Zelenskyy said U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed strong security guarantees for Kyiv, with both leaders expressing optimism that they were on the precipice of a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.
“Yesterday we confirmed this with [Trump], that we will have strong security guarantees from the United States. Indeed, now it is not forever. In the documents it is for 15 years with the possibility of extending these security guarantees,” Zelenskyy told reporters via WhatsApp chat on Monday.
“I raised this issue with the President. I told him that we are already at war, and it has been for almost 15 years. Therefore, I really wanted the guarantees to be longer. I told him that we would really like to consider the possibility of 30, 40, 50 years,” Zelenskyy added.
The exact shape of the security guarantees remains unclear, though the U.S. has indicated it would mirror NATO’s Article 5 protections. Zelenskyy said he believes they would be credible if backed by the U.S. and supported by European allies.
“I believe that the presence of international troops is a real security guarantee, it is a strengthening of the security guarantees that our partners are already offering us,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Zelenskyy also said that the current 20-point plan needs to be supported by a referendum in Ukraine, but that would require 60 days of ceasefire — something Russia “does not want to give us.” On Saturday, Russia launched one of its heaviest attacks in recent weeks on Kyiv.
But an impasse remains over several issues, including the fate of Donbas, which Zelenskyy has proposed be turned into a demilitarized free economic zone, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has pushed to claim the entire region.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday reiterated that Ukraine “must leave Donbas to stop the hostilities,” but declined to comment on whether Kyiv would also be expected to withdraw from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Peskov added that Moscow agreed with Trump’s assessment that negotiations to end the war are in their final stage, and said that Putin will hold another call with Trump “very soon.”
Zelenskyy said he wants to host a meeting between U.S., Ukrainian and European officials in Kyiv in the coming days. The Ukrainian leader also confirmed that a meeting of Ukraine’s European allies will take place in Paris for early January, adding that a meeting with Russia is possible if the U.S. and Europe agree on a peace framework.
[…] Trump said he was “very angry” about Russian claims that Ukraine tried to attack one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences in northern Russia, while speaking to reporters after greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida Monday afternoon.
Ukraine has denied Russian accusations that it attempted a drone attack on Putin’s residential complex in Roshchino, Novgorod region, accusing Moscow of trying to undermine peace talks.
Trump appeared to side with the Kremlin’s version of events Monday, saying he had been informed of the attack by Putin during a phone call earlier in the day. [!!] […]
An investigative reporter who covered Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes has called out the Department of Justice after discovering her flight details from the day he was arrested appear in the Epstein files.
Journalist Julie K. Brown has been credited with reactivating the investigation into Epstein’s abuse of young women when the Miami Herald published her interviews with victims in November 2018, headlined “Perversion of Justice.”
This should be investigated itself. There are not a lot of legitimate reasons the FBI might have been following her movement. Making sure she was not on hand when Epstein was arrested would be a big no-no.
“Ukraine-Russia War Still Going Despite Hallucinations Running Through Trump’s Demented Brain”
Imagine a nation, a major world power, where people are being persecuted, erased, snatched off the street and dumped in faraway countries to which they have no connection, because the nation is run by bigoted nationalists who are led by a dementia-addled ball of shrieking, hot rage. Where open corruption flourishes at the highest levels of a government stocked soup to nuts with some of the most feral, vicious, incompetent dipwads that nation has ever produced. [Good summary of the current state of affairs.]
And yet you are stuck pretending those are the good guys, because the bad guys have spent almost four years bombing your nation to smithereens while displacing and murdering hundreds of thousands of your citizens, and you need the dipwads’ help to get them to stop.
Such is the plight of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian president came to Florida this weekend, to Donald Trump’s bargain-basement Xanadu that he thinks is on par with the greatest buildings ever created by Western civilization, to present a 20-point peace plan for ending Russia’s invasion of his country. This was a counter to the 28-point plan that the US floated a few weeks ago that read as if it had been dictated by Vladimir Putin himself. Which it probably was.
Remember back in August, when Trump flew to Alaska to meet Putin, going so far as to have a red carpet rolled out when Putin deplaned so that his fancy-soled shoes would not have to suffer the indignity of touching an airport tarmac? The two leaders met on that carpet and shook hands while grinning broadly, Trump because there is nothing he admires more than a ruthless dictator he can suck up to, Putin because Donald Trump is such a sucker.
There was none of that for Zelenskyy. There was not a single American official waiting on the tarmac to greet him [!], just Ukraine’s ambassador and some other personnel. Trump could not be bothered, even though the Miami airport is slightly closer to Mar-a-Lago than Alaska. This struck us as quite the diplomatic snub, one that sent a message that very clearly told the Ukrainians who America finds important and worth listening to here.
Trump couldn’t even be bothered to send JD Vance to greet Zelenskyy, even though meaningless appearances is pretty much a vice president’s entire job description. On the other hand, Zelenskyy was probably relieved Vance wasn’t there to lecture him again about his ingratitude.
So then it was on to Mar-a-Lago, where the Ukrainian contingent found itself sitting across a negotiating table from dollar-store Nosferatu Stephen Miller and luckiest dipshit alive Jared Kushner, which must have inspired all sorts of confidence in how things were going to go. [social media post, with photo]
[…] The outcome was predictable. Russia continues to demand Ukraine give up 20 percent of its land, even parts that Russia has not conquered. Ukraine still will not give up its own territory. But Zelenskyy countered, as part of his 20-point plan, with a suggestion of a demilitarized zone between the two nations’ armies, possibly patrolled by peacekeeping troops.
Trump nixed that eminently reasonable idea, presumably because it doesn’t help Putin accomplish his goal of total conquest. [!]
Ukraine also wants strong security guarantees from the United States in case Russia decides it would like to take another crack at invading. Zelenskyy suggested a 50-year pact. Trump said maybe he’d go for 15 years. Our guess is Russia will land on zero years, since this would postpone Putin’s vision of being able to string Trump along until Ukraine’s army collapses.
Nonetheless, Trump claimed the two sides were “maybe very close” to a deal, which is what he says every time anyone asks him about the state of negotiations. This was after Putin spent two hours before the meeting snowballing Trump like he always does: [social media post, with video]
No one thinks Putin wants to see Ukraine “succeed,” unless you mean “succeed in capitulating totally to Russia and agreeing to become a vassal state or even a province of the larger nation, thus erasing its borders and national identity, because Vladimir Putin read some tract Peter the Great wrote when he was in the throes of food poisoning from bad lynx meat in 1722.”
Trump also said he thinks Putin is serious about peace this time — insert cliché about Lucy, Charlie Brown, and the football here — despite the fact that not 24 hours earlier, Putin told reporters while wearing a military uniform (which he rarely does), “If the Kyiv authorities do not want to end the matter peacefully, we will resolve all the tasks facing us in the course of the special military operation using armed force.” Russia has also stepped up its attacks in Ukraine in recent days, lobbing missiles at civilian targets in Kyiv.
Trump and Zelenskyy’s press conference is here if you can suppress your breakfast long enough: [video]
To sum up the state of the Ukraine-Russia war: this weekend the president of the United States facilitated yet another round of Kabuki negotiation theater that let him claim, again, that a peace deal is in reach, and also that it wouldn’t be necessary if Sleepy Joe Biden hadn’t RIGGED and STOLEN the 2020 election.
On the other hand, Trump does not seem to have said or done anything that will make the situation worse. With him, that counts as a triumph. Maybe FIFA will give him another peace prize.
Lynna, OM @ 405
In regard to DJT I am reminded of a Stephen King novel – later filmed – where an alien parasite grew in the intestine and egressed through the rectum.
I think the term “shitweasel” was used by the protagonist to describe it.
Top diplomats from Thailand and Cambodia kicked off two days of talks in China on Sunday as Beijing seeks to strengthen its role in mediating the two countries’ border dispute, a day after they signed a new ceasefire. The ceasefire agreement calls for a halt to weeks of fighting along their contested border that has killed more than 100 people and displaced over half a million in both countries.
China launched major military exercises in the waters and airspace around Taiwan Monday in what it called a ‘stern warning’ against outside interference in Chinese affairs, as tensions grow with the U.S. and Japan over the security of the island. The drills follow the Trump administration’s mid-December approval of one of the largest packages of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday told reporters after their meeting at Mar-a-Lago in Florida they had a productive discussion. Mr. Trump said reconstruction in Gaza would begin ‘soon’ and declined to rule out future Israeli or American attacks on Iran.
NBC News:
Trump says he and Netanyahu talked about Hamas disarmament. Hamas will be given a ‘very short period of time to disarm,’ Trump said. He added that there will be ‘hell to pay’ if they don’t disarm, arguing it’s a necessary component of peace in the region.
Where is the discussion about providing more aid to Palestinians still Gaza? See comment 382.
A federal judge in California dismissed an indictment against a Los Angeles TikTok creator who was shot by an ICE agent during an arrest attempt earlier this year, citing a violation of the man’s constitutional rights by the federal government.
ICE is on the losing side in a lot of court cases.
Portions of some files released from the Justice Department’s investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, were not properly redacted digitally, with some censored information easily revealed by copying and pasting blacked-out text into a separate file.
There were a lot reports about the evident incompetence of the Justice Department that was revealed in this case. It is good to see so much confirmation that it is true. Some people speculated that releasing the improperly redacted files was the result an insider deliberately doing so. I lean towards the “incompetence” explanation.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is buying millions of dollars’ worth of new surveillance tools at the same time President Donald Trump has scaled back protections for use of civilian data — a combination that could lead to a vast expansion of domestic surveillance that goes far beyond immigrants.
On Dec. 18, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation had fallen to an annual rate of 2.7% in November, down from 3% in September and well below the 3.1% consensus of economists. And on Tuesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that real gross domestic product had shot up by a surprising 4.3% annual rate in the third quarter of 2025, which ended Sept. 30.
[…]
Many [economists] see them as artifacts of the long government shutdown, which halted the collection of data that go into those reports, severely distorting the results. Furthermore, they expect the flaws in those reports to persist well into 2026, undermining their usefulness as true economic indicators.
[…]
The government shutdown, which lasted 43 days from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, was the most important cause of gaps in the collected data for the consumer price index calculation. […] cutbacks at the BLS had already reduced the staff assigned to sampling prices by 25%. That prompted the agency to substitute “imputed” numbers for hard data. […] A sampling scheduled for mid-October had to be canceled, so figures dating from August were used instead—concealing any price increases in subsequent months. […] A major problem concerns housing costs, which account for about one-third of the data inputs for the CPI. Because the BLS was unable to collect rental data for October, it implied that the monthly change in rents was 0% in October— further skewing the reported CPI lower. Experts say it will take at least six months to use newly collected data to provide a reliable estimate of housing inflation.
[…]
Inflation data also are incorporated into GDP estimates—the lower the inflation rate, […] the better the GDP looks.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Adam Isacson (WOLA):
the first known U.S. “land strike” in Venezuela.
Another big shout-out to the 212 Republicans and 1 Democrat in the House who voted against stopping Trump from attacking Venezuela without congressional authorization. (Roll call 346)
a random account on Sunday. “Trump says this December 26 in an interview with John Catsimatidis that the US destroyed a drug trafficking plant in Venezuela on Christmas Eve: ‘They have a big plant. A building from where the boats leave. Two nights ago we hit them hard.'” […] the extreme right-wing local radio station 77 WABC […] Trump gave [them] a call on Friday
[…]
Trump claimed without evidence that drug traffic from Venezuela is down more than 97% thanks to his efforts and that “everytime I knock out a boat we save 25,000 American lives.” But most shocking of all was this admission: “I don’t know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or big facility where the ships come from: Two nights ago we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard.”
[…]
I hadn’t seen or heard anything about a US land strike in Venezuela. […] Even WABC radio’s write up of Trump’s Friday guest spot didn’t mention his claims about a strike. It wasn’t until I listened to that portion of the call myself that I was able to confirm he actually said it.
[…]
The New York Times on Sunday night was seemingly the first mainstream outlet to report […] their story said. “Military officials said they had no information to share, and the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment. The White House declined to comment.”
CNN reported exclusively at 8:30pm ET on Monday that “The CIA carried out a drone strike earlier this month on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela” citing “sources familiar with the matter.” The report does not specify the exact date of the strike. […] By Monday morning, reports from NBC News, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, Reuters and other corporate outlets rolled in—but none with any confirmed information
Trump doubled and tripled down Monday afternoon […] during an appearance outside Mar-a-lago alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of all people. When a reporter asked for more information about the alleged strike and if it was carried out by the US military, Trump replied “Well, it doesn’t matter. But there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs. We hit all the boats and now we hit… the implementation area. […] that is no longer around.”
When pressed again about which US entity carried out the alleged strike—military? CIA?—he replied, “Well, I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was, but I don’t want to say who it was. It was along the shore.”
[…]
While CNN’s reporting Monday night about a CIA drone strike in Venezuela seems like the most likely explanation for Trump’s comment, another possible explanation was floated earlier, saying that Trump either saw or heard that people online were spreading a rumor without any evidence that a fire at a Venezuelan raw chemical material facility was the result of a possible strike by the US. How the president could see an online rumor about his own country and take it at face value is something beyond my comprehension
[…]
Notably, the Venezuelan government has been radio silent […] He is equal parts reckless and stupid, and it’s hard to know which is at play at any given time—if not both. When it comes to the Venezuela facility strike story, either Trump revealed a covert operation, got confused or amplified an internet lie. Regardless, we need to know which one it was.
Brian Finucane (JustSecurity):
An attack in violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter and the Take Care Clause of the Constitution. Seemingly conducted as covert action and then casually disclosed by POTUS while calling into a radio show.
Brian Finucane:
WH: POTUS wasn’t supposed to talk about it.
DoD: We don’t own this.
VZ: Not in our interest to highlight drug trafficking activity in our country or US attack lest we’re forced to respond to it in some way.
Nicholas Grossman (Intl relations prof):
The US is at war with Venezuela.
No Congressional authorization, no public debate, no clearly stated goal, no casus belli, and a gradual ramp up rather than big opening, so many haven’t noticed (or deny it). But this attack removes the ambiguity.
David Kaye (UN special rapporteur): “It’s a war of aggression. no other way to describe it as a matter of law.”
Nicholas Grossman: “The US wasn’t attacked by Venezuela, someone based in Venezuela, or anyone else. There’s no self-defense argument, and the US didn’t even try for UNSC authorization.”
birgerjohanssonsays
Who is the idiot Democrat who agrees USA should go into war?
birgerjohanssonsays
Rando:
“I hope Trump repeals Obamacare because my insurance alteady comes from the Affordable Care Act!”
StevoRsays
Great little vimeo clip here on a critically endangered Vietnamese snail (Bertia cambojiensis) 5 minutes long :
Chester Zoo : A Snail’s Tale. (Vioetnamese Giant Magnolia Snail.)
StevoRsays
Huh. It does exist but can’t seem to find it there without that long link which seems not towork here.. Frustrating. Apologies. Is a good clip if folks can find it!
On this species :
A six-and-a-half-centimetre snail is one of the rarest animals at the park.
The Giant Magnolia Snail had been thought to have been extinct before living specimens were found in southern Vietnam in 2012.Classified as critically endangered, there are thought to be as few as 300 of the left coiling snail in the world with eight at Longleat and just 56 in European zoos and Safari Parks.
There’s a video there too but not as longand informative and good as the Chester Zoo Snail Tale one above.
StevoRsays
Signal boost from an actual Nigerian – & blogger here :
Dear Nigerian Christians, Donald Trump is not your friend.
Donald Trump doesn’t give a hoot about you.
Donald Trump doesn’t care about Black Christians in his own country or in the countries he supports ongoing wars. So why would he care about someone from a country he holds in disdain?
Donald Trump does not care about Black people, least of all Black Africans.
Not so long ago, Donald Trump called your beloved country Nigeria, a shithole. Just a few weeks ago, he banned US visas for Nigerians, Christians and Muslims alike.
Ask yourselves this: if Nigeria were burning, even if that fire had been started by him, do you truly believe he would open America’s doors to you?
Do you imagine that you rank the same to Donald Trump as white South Africans, for whom he has enthusiastically opened U.S. gates, despite no credible evidence of persecution?
Do not be fooled, he does not give a damn about your Black African Christian ass….
On the other hand, Trump does not seem to have said or done anything that will make the situation worse. With him, that counts as a triumph. Maybe FIFA will give him another peace prize. Lynna, OM quoting wonkette@405
wonkette clearly wrote before Trump accepted Putin’s ludicrous lie that one of his mansions had been attacked.
PBS Newshour had a pretty bleak interview on Gaza’s future with some experts earlier today :
As work continues on finalizing a peace deal in Gaza, Nick Schifrin discussed the latest with two News Hour regulars, David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Hussein Ibish of the Arab Gulf States Institute.
..(snip)..
David Makovsky:
No, I think they give this until March. They will say we gave this a half-a-year for the second Gaza, the red zone Gaza. We’re fine with the green zone Gaza. We will do whatever Trump wants. We will do whatever you want.
But on the Hamas Gaza, if they don’t disarm by March, when the weather starts getting better, Israel’s going to start going in there in slices militarily.
…(snip)..
Hussein Ibish:
This solution is not nonstarter. It’s not going to happen. The answer is no to your question. The answer is, no, that’s not going to work.
And neither is the status quo. So I’m afraid a return to war is very likely.
If only we had the strength of the Hell-Plant of Death Valley.
Not that scientists at Michigan State University (or actually anyone but me) ever call them that. But as Research Foundation Professor Seung Yon “Sue” Rhee and Research Specialist Karine Prado report in their Current Biology paper “Photosynthetic acclimation is a key contributor to exponential growth of a desert plant in Death Valley summer,” Tidestromia oblongifolia is one hell of a survivor.
Unlike most plants inside or outside California’s hottest desert, where temperatures can blast-furnace up to 49 °C (120 °F), T. oblongifolia actually grows more quickly during Death Valley summers by altering its own photosynthesis to make it more heat-resistant.
While that super-power won’t make T. oblongifolia a tool for terraforming the planet Mercury, the increasing damage of climate chaos demands humanity find any means available to secure its food supply. Unlocking T. oblongifolia’s secrets may provide a blueprint for genetic modification of crops in the world’s hottest (and getting hotter) countries, which did the least to cause climate chaos in the first place.
So, how did Rhee and Prado crack the secrets of T. oblongifolia?
NB. Wikipedia has this listed as Tidestromia suffruticosa a.k.a. Shrubby Honeysweet.
StevoRsays
A lot more different expert perspectives given here :
For an agency shooting for the moon and onward to Mars, NASA in 2025 has been on a roller coaster ride of proposed budget cuts, personnel layoffs, and potential elimination of science missions.
A key question: Have these various traumas changed NASA dramatically, and potentially permanently?
Battle lines are being drawn and now Congress has to spin up their views as to the space agency’s overall stability and, indeed, its future. As for what’s ahead, it’s all sausage making — political style. The outcome for NASA is literally a to-be-determined matter of time and space.
…(snip)..
(Director of government relations for the Planetary Society Jack – ed) ..Kiraly sees the events of 2025 as a profound shock to NASA and the space community.
“The agency will begin the new year with a civil servant workforce smaller than what it had at the dawn of human spaceflight in 1961. Nearly 4,000 scientists, engineers and space professionals have left the agency through pressured resignation and layoffs amid rapid reorganizations and funding uncertainty,” said Kiraly.
That action represents a loss of specialized expertise and institutional knowledge that will take years to rebuild,
There is no evidence the two men alleged to have carried out the Bondi terror attack were operating as part of a broader terrorist cell, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) boss has said.
In providing an update on the AFP’s counter-terrorism operation launched in wake of the December 14 tragedy, Commissioner Krissy Barrett said Naveed Akram, 24 and his father Sajid — who was shot dead by police at the scene — were alleged to have operated alone.
She said there was no evidence the pair were directed by others to carry out the antisemitic attack, which left 15 people dead.
“Lone wolves” radicalised but sceretive and no connections with others.
StevoRsays
Unfortunately, many women and girls know all too well what it means to be victims of verbal harassment. They are familiar with its emotional and psychological impact. What about men? What would they feel if they were in the place of harassed women?
A group of researchers from the University of Bologna, the University of Messina and the CNR-ISTC (Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies) has used virtual reality to allow a sample of young men to embody a female avatar subjected to verbal harassment.
The research group has published the results of their study in Scientific Reports.
“We used immersive virtual reality technologies to give participants a direct experience of catcalling in an everyday context,” explains Chiara Lucifora, researcher at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Bologna and first author of the study. “The results show that undergoing this experience elicits strong feelings of anger and disgust, closely linked to moral disapproval.”
The study involved 36 young men with an average age of 23, who were immersed in a virtual reality scenario in which they embodied a young woman. In the first scene, the female avatar was in her bedroom, standing in front of a mirror and getting ready to go to a party. In the second scene, she arrived at a subway station, where several male characters interacted with her.
In half of the cases, the interactions consisted of simple requests, such as “Excuse me, what time is it?” or “Do you know when the subway arrives?” In the other half of the sample, the male characters addressed the woman with harassing remarks, such as “Hey, where are you going all alone?” or “Why don’t you give me a nice smile?”
“The agency will begin the new year with a civil servant workforce smaller than what it had at the dawn of human spaceflight in 1961. Nearly 4,000 scientists, engineers and space professionals have left the agency through pressured resignation and layoffs amid rapid reorganizations and funding uncertainty,” said Kiraly.
Yikes. That is such bad news.
@431:
“Lone wolves” radicalised but sceretive and no connections with others.
I think it is a mistake to call them “lone wolves.” If they were radicalized online, they are not alone.
StevoRsays
For five years, the group from Mexico’s National Autonomous University has climbed the volcano (Popocatépetl,“one of the world’s most active and whose eruption could affect millions of people” -ed) with kilos of equipment, risked data loss due to bad weather or a volcanic explosion and used artificial intelligence to analyze the seismic data. Now, the team has created the first three-dimensional image of the 17,883-foot (5,452-meter) volcano’s interior, which tells them where the magma accumulates and will help them better understand its activity, and, eventually, help authorities better react to eruptions.
It started with an off-hand comment. Late last week, the day after Christmas, Donald Trump appeared on a conservative radio show, and WABC’s John Catsimatidis brought up the administration’s policy of deadly strikes against civilian boats in international waters. The president initially responded with familiar talking points, claiming, “Every time I knock out a boat, we save 25,000 American lives.”
Moments after peddling this outrageously wrong claim, Trump added a surprising boast. “We just knocked out — I don’t know if you read or you saw — [Venezuelans] have a big plant or big facility where they send the, you know, where the ships come from,” he declared. “Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So, we hit them very hard.”
If true, this was a dramatic escalation: Trump has spent weeks talking about his intentions to strike targets inside Venezuela — on land, not just in the water — but there was no indication that any such operations had begun. The president’s on-air comments, however, suggested the U.S. policy had reached an aggressive new level.
It was far from clear, however, what had actually happened. The White House wouldn’t comment on Trump’s claim. The Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency also refused to shed light on the matter.
We were left with limited options: Either the American president boasted about a strike on a foreign target that didn’t happen, or he disclosed a strike that his administration preferred not to talk about.
While The New York Times and CNN reported that it was the CIA that struck a port facility in Venezuela last week — reporting that has not been independently verified by MS NOW — Trump personally confirmed much of what happened during a brief Q&A with reporters at Mar-a-Lago, though he did so in the clumsiest way possible.
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump claimed. “They load the boats up with drugs. So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. It’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement, and that is no longer around.”
Asked whether the U.S. military was responsible for the operation, Trump said, “It doesn’t matter.”
Pushed for greater clarification about whether the CIA was responsible, he added, “Well, I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was, but I don’t want to say who it was.”
The obvious significance of this relates to U.S. foreign policy and the possibility of an escalating offensive in South America, but there’s another dimension to this that’s also worth appreciating: There’s usually quite a bit of secrecy surrounding operations like these, though Trump appears to have disclosed the developments anyway by just blurting them out. [True. Blurter in Chief.]
Indeed, this keeps happening. In October, the Times also reported that the president had “secretly authorized” the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela, and just hours after the article reached the public, Trump confirmed the whole story.
NBC News reported at the time, “The CIA’s operations abroad are usually shrouded in secrecy, but President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had authorized it to take unspecified action in Venezuela, an extraordinary and unprecedented acknowledgment from a commander in chief.”
Two months later, these extraordinary and unprecedented acknowledgments are still happening.
Trump has a scandalous record of blurting out sensitive national security secrets for no apparent reason. The fact that he keeps adding to the list is extraordinary.
Pulitzer Board demands Trump tax returns, medical records as part of his defamation suit
“After the president picked a fight with the Pulitzer Prize Board, its lawyers demanded info he’d prefer to keep under wraps.”
This will be one to watch.
Oh no!
Court rules Trump can keep building his big dumb ballroom
Cartoon: No soul
Link back to previous set of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/10/01/infinite-thread-xxxvii/comment-page-6/#comment-2287027
Washington Post link
“EXCLUSIVE: American Academy of Pediatrics loses HHS funding after criticizing RFK Jr.”
“HHS cuts key AAP grants, citing concerns about “identity-based language” and insufficient focus on agency priorities. The organization said the cuts could harm child health.”
New York Times link
“Venezuela’s Navy Begins Escorting Ships as U.S. Threatens Blockade”
CNN: “Former Swedish Prime Minister on how to end the Ukraine war”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cgYAQZlrPK8
Remember, Carl Bildt is a conservative, but he is rejecting everything Trump stands for (it does not come up in this interview but he is no enemy of immigration).
Yes! The new Skepticrat has arrived, together with Noah, Heath Eli and Mike Marshall decanting absurd news.
“Skepticrat 261 Butter Emails Side Down Edition”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8VmlRQ1xeBA
Link
See also comment 483 in the previous set of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread.
NBC News:
Trump to declare war on Venezuela tonight, says Tucker Carlson
Rather than believing whatever Tucker Carlson says, let’s wait and see.
Discovery Future
“New Evidence Shows Vikings Were in America Much Longer Than We Thought”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=- mG2ciX8UlY
Follow-up to Lynna@7.
Reuters
Marianna Sotomayor (WaPo):
Sky Captain @11, JFC, what a lot of fuckery on the part of Republicans.
Thanks for the updated information.
Trump delivered a live speech on TV, supposed to touts the trumpian economy.
Here are some excerpts from NBC’s coverage:
Aussie PM Albo had a pressconference earlier today -saw parts of it whilst watching Adelaide Ashes cricket Test too – & has come up with, this -fromthe news articles summary bit at top :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-18/albanese-announces-tougher-hate-speech-laws-after-bondi-terror/106157020
See also amidst continuing aftermath coverage from the Bondi terrorist attack here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-18/bondi-beach-shooting-terrorist-attack-live-blog-dec-18/106155938
Note the anti-Semitism envoy( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jillian_Segal ) is a rather problematic individual with extremely pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian views.
^Sobit of a worry that this willbe use dto silecne and furtehr harm the Palestinian and Muslim Australian communitie sand furtehr limit the rights to protest and free speeech here.
God Awful Movies!
GAM 536 Hanukkah on Rye
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=UOT1CInUXrg
Clarity fix : ^So bit of a worry that this will be used to silence and further harm the Palestinian-Australian and Muslim Australian communities and further limit the rights to protest and free speeech here.
Satellites That Scoop Air And Use It As Propellant
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Lz4O6AzLofQ
Anton Petrov
“Bizarre Connection Between Milankovitch Cycles, Mars and Volcanoes”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=1ShYlcDSXTQ
Not that new as “news” & forget if I’ve mentioned before but still :
Source : https://www.vice.com/en/article/pauline-hansons-one-nation-has-been-declared-a-hate-group/
RFK Jr. is paying hack antivaxx researchers to kill babies with placebo vaccines in a trial where they stupidly hope it’ll be the babies who get real vaccines that die.
Elizabeth Jacobs (Epidemiologist):
Gavin Yamey (Global health prof):
Journal Vaccine – What is actually the emerging evidence about non-specific vaccine effects in randomized trials from the Bandim Health Project? (paywalled)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264410X25012344Elizabeth Jacobs: “Holy shit. I do not have confirmation that it’s Benn’s group but all signs point in that direction.”
Rando 1: “Given she has written specifically about ‘NSEs’ regarding children in precisely this country, I would be surprised if somehow there was a second vaccine-denying Dutch group interested in experimenting on children in Guinea-Bissau.”
Rando 2: “In Guinea-Bissau? The country has just had a coup d’etat. This is insane.”
Rando 3: “Stabell Benn and her husband Peter Aaby run the Bandim Health Project.”
Charlotte Strøm, at Sensible Medicine:
^ Rando 3: “The article is good. It just sucks that one of the two principals who run the site is an anti-vaccine nut (Mandrola) and the other, Cifu, who will mouth pro-vaccine stances, when asked, just enables it all.”
Rebecca Fielding-Miller (Epidemiologist): “This is just Tuskegee levels of malfeasance. Like the example you would put on a public health ethics 101 training and then scrap it because it’s too obvious.”
MarkH (Trauma surgeon): “Worse than Tuskegee because at least at the start of that trial there wasn’t already an effective therapy. Hits all the other marks though—single blind, on a vulnerable population, white investigators, black patients etc. Just a big ol racist boondoggle.”
Ferric Fang (Infectious disease spec): “My understanding is that when federal funds are used for a clinical trial conducted outside the US, researchers must comply with US human subjects protections, and the relevant IRB must obtain an assurance of compliance with ethical standards set by the US Office for Human Research Protections.”
Elizabeth Jacobs: “Normally that would be true. But RFK Jr. can do whatever he wants.”
Elizabeth Jacobs: “I would absolutely imagine [Denmark would be solid on medical ethics], which is why this is puzzling.”
Rando 4: “Awarding funds does not mean the study has received necessary ethical approvals. typically, preparing/submitting the IRB/PRA package is a funded task in the contract. I have had projects that failed to pass PRA clearance and the govt terminates the contract early and de-obligates remaining funds. So best case scenario RFK jr is wasting taxpayer $$ paying researchers to design a doomed study that will never make it out of ethics review.“
Soem real Comet ATLAS the interstellar one news here via space dot com
Source : https://www.space.com/news/live/interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-closest-to-earth-flyby-week-dec-17-2025
Sentences there are hypertext links or at least contain them.
More commentary on 21.
Rando 1 (Microbiologist):
Gavin Chait (Data scientist): “Oh, it’s against a lot of laws. Think laws arising out of the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial, codified in UN statute, and in EU and US law. I’m hoping someone sues the clinical research team before this gets started.”
Rando 2: “As he cut every single medical research grant in the United States.”
Rando 3: “We can’t work with foreign collaborators, but they can send money to a foreign PI to conduct an ethically questionable study in a vulnerable population in another foreign country? This is what corruption looks like.”
Some good news from Britain
.https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Giwg9jAdP/
The Guardian refers to DJT;s TV address as the “Bah! Humbug!” address.
Reddington from The Blackist negotiating.
“There’s Nothing More Depressing Than A Failed Communist State”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/e_siNMt_a0I
Seth Meyers:
“Trump Chief of Staff Susie Wiles Stuns Washington with Explosive Vanity Fair Comments”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=7bAk40DKntk
Britain;
“MORE NIGEL FARAGE SCANDAL As (Supposedly) Nigel Broke Electoral Law During Clacton Campaign”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=NUd7AJmmArQ
The bloke who sang Hitler Youth songs in school and joined a far-right group as a young man is facing even more questions.
CNN: Trump’s social media business is merging with a nuclear fusion company
Trump Media is not a winning business on it’s own, what little value it has mostly comes from all the people that want to keep an eye on Trump’s feed. It’s diversifying by investing in a random slew of fields that happen to be hot and filled with lots of bad transactions such as crypto and AI. I expect TAE is hoping to bypass inspections, legal requirements and pesky details like environmental regulation by hooking up with Trump directly.
The top 10 most brazen lies from Trump’s year-end prime-time address
“That the president felt compelled to lie incessantly through his speech says volumes about how awful the year has been.”
Related video at the link.
Clearly, the aliens sent it because they want to see the Epstein files!
Sky Captain @21, that scheme is worse than anything I thought RFK Jr. could or would do. Let’s hope that concerned people all over the planet protest.
Trump’s latest White House ‘renovations’ take a turn toward vandalism
The “Presidential Walk of Fame” was already a tacky mess, and one report suggests it’s now “even more stunningly stupid.”
Followup to comment 8.
The Destruction: NCAR Edition
Same link as in comment 34.
Same link as in comment 34.
Washington Post link
“The Vanity Fair photographer who disrupted Trumpworld’s polished image”
“Every line, spot, blemish and blood vessel was captured by Christopher Anderson’s lens.”
More at the links, including the startling closeups. The most revealing photos can be viewed at the Washington Post link.
Followup to comment 30.
Link
Video at the link.
The Hill – What to know about Trump’s $1,776 ‘warrior dividend’ to service members
Commentary
Homeland Security helps Trump donor make bank on deportation scheme
Link
Yes, even more banners than we’ve seen before. Photo at the link.
The report covers other evidence of Trump’s vanity, including national park passes, Trump’s “Gold card,” and a new $1 coin.
Followup to comments 30, 38 and 39.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/white-house-dementia-care-unit-lets
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3ma7kr5oa5d2c
Video at the link.
Jay Willis (Balls & Strikes)
Patrick McNeil (Civil/human rights advocate):
Courtney Bublé (Law360):
From the recap: “In many ways, Olson is typical of the ambitious lawyers the Trump administration has been nominating […] Olson described himself as a ‘specialist’ in litigating a very particular type of Title IX case: those designed to bar transgender athletes from competing in college sports.”
Rando: “Genuine question: Is there any chance Kennedy votes against a Trump nominee? Is it even conceivable that he does anything other than harrumph, express concerns, and vote yes?”
Trump’s hand-picked Kennedy Center board votes to rename it as the ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’
“The board’s decision to add Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center could face legal hurdles, as the law creating the center prohibits renaming the building.”
Trump flubs what ‘separation of church and state’ means in targeting Raphael Warnock
“Mr. President, my faith is not a weapon, it’s a bridge, and I invite you to Bible study,” the Georgia Democrat replied.
Link
NBC News:
Commentary:
Link
Jim Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, refused to let Jack Smith testify in a public hearing.
Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, commenting on a House vote on a bill extending enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years:
Trump’s ‘warrior dividends’ will use funding for military housing subsidies
Southpaw
Randos:
Trump is kicking off America’s monthslong birthday bash celebrating the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding
/Full 3-min video at the link.
Washington Post link
“EXCLUSIVE: Stephen Miller’s hard-line Mexico strategy morphed into deadly boat strikes”
“The Trump administration originally planned to go after Mexican drug cartels, but pivoted to Venezuela, according to current and former officials. A trio of legal documents and directives have subsequently authorized an unorthodox lethal campaign.”
More at the link.
Lynna @52 quoting WaPo:
He took the wrong lesson this spring from hearing “They’re not gang members, membership alone wouldn’t be a crime, gangs aren’t a country, and we’re not at war with Venezuela!”
Sky Captain @53, agreed.
In other news: A toppled Christmas tree, tear gas and projectile potatoes: Farmers vent rage at Brussels
“Tractors took over the streets of the European Quarter while EU leaders held a crunch summit.”
Hossenfelder alert
“China Makes Breakthrough With Thorium Nuclear Reactor. Where is the West?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=mzJyox9A5Fk
MS NOW:
NBC News:
New York Times:
Roll Call:
Good news, even if temporary.
Washington Post:
FFS
Cartoon: Enabler-in-chief
An ‘origami’ airless wheel to explore lunar caves
.https://phys.org/news/2025-12-origami-airless-wheel-explore-lunar.html
Watch how this shape-shifting wheel tackles uneven surfaces
.https://techxplore.com/news/2024-08-shifting-wheel-tackles-uneven-surfaces.html
https://www.wonkette.com/p/bari-weiss-will-capitalize-on-first
“Bari Weiss Will Capitalize On First Loser Town Hall By Doing MORE Loser Town Halls!”
TikTok owner ByteDance signs binding deal to create new U.S. joint venture
“The deal will lead to the U.S. version of TikTok being owned by a majority-American group of investors.”
This is a developing story.
@45 Lynna, OM
Bluesky: Rep. Joyce Beatty
Apparently the only one because Trump has packed the board but it goes to show just how contemptibly cheap this White House is.
I want to know what’s in that review!
Oh well. Glad to hear Democrat leadership has pre-emptively given up on winning the 2028 elections, and have instead opted for the strategy of stuffing StevoR-brand ear plugs in their heads and screaming: “La la la la la la!”.
Follow-up to Lynna @56.
NBC – Suspect in Brown, MIT professor shootings found dead in NH
Among the live updates below the article:
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will set up the conditions that resulted in the fatal collision between an airliner and a Blackhawk helicopter at the Ronald Reagan Airport earlier this year at any airport. The military will bale to conduct training exercises in crowded commercial airspace.
One Year After the DCA Crash, the NTSB Warns We’re Rolling Safety Back
Captain Steeeve says this is “the fox guarding the henhouse”. Head of National Transportation Safety Board Jennifer Homendy is “hopping mad” about this idiocy – I think Captain Steeeve is too.
The US military is greater threat to aviation safety than any terrorist organization. The only thing these idiots learn from their mistakes is how to repeat them.
They obviously haven’t, but of course you’re pleased that you think they have – that’s absolutely no surprise to anyone here.
Some good news about the speech, and about DJT
.https://youtube.com/shorts/7Xo6N5Id2hg
The Democratic party not making an evaluation of what went wrong 2024 is certainly on brand… once again it will be up to the grassroots activists to drag the limp corporate candidates to victory.
(Yes, I know governor Newsom is a centrist Clinton-type politician but unlike the rest of that ilk he has not been mummified)
People who are alone this Xmas. Like “A” who does not even have royal titles anymore.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BLqDx3Z2T/
Right-wing titans clash onstage at AmericaFest, revealing bitter divide in MAGA world
Potential Disaster Averted as Bid to Undermine Judicial Branch Fails
Same link as in comment 73.
Same link as in comment 73.
Same link as in comment 73.
Followup to comments 8 and 34
Another head/desk moment courtesy of Trump’s immigration policies:
Link
Goody bags full of racist propaganda.
Cartoon: Christmas gifts
Kennedy Center already defiled with Trump’s name
More at the link.
Blanche says DOJ won’t release full Epstein files by Friday deadline
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-gives-warfighters-warrior-bonus
“Trump Gives WARFIGHTERS ‘Warrior Bonus’ Checks Stolen From Their Military Housing $$$”
Taking money away from the Military Housing funds is not good. Some military families live in housing infested with roaches, or in housing with leaks that cause black mold to flourish. Other military housing issues include: contaminated water supplies, faulty HVAC and structural problems.
https://www.pogo.org/fact-sheets/fact-sheet-how-housing-conditions-are-failing-military-families
https://www.wonkette.com/p/mamas-dont-let-your-babies-go-to
ROLLING STONE link
“MELISSA HORTMAN DIED IN A SHOCKING ACT OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE. THIS IS THE STORY OF HER LIFE”
“The Minnesota Speaker’s closest friends and family open up for the first time”
Much more at the link.
The Trump admin wants to send NYC’s asylum seekers to Uganda and Beyond
Trump has a new deportation strategy
Rando:
Washington Post link
“A Russian missile, filled with U.S. tech, rips a Ukrainian boy’s life apart”
“Despite export controls, weapons with Western components show up on Ukrainian soil nightly, killing and maiming civilians.”
Much more at the link, including photos.
EU to pay €3B a year in interest for Ukraine loan
“Leaders opted to raise common debt rather than leverage frozen Russian assets to finance the loan.”
Putin taunts NATO’s Rutte: You know the US doesn’t see Russia as an enemy
Link
Related video at the link.
Fox’s spin reaches tornado levels over Trump’s economy
Posted by readers of the article:
Marco Rubio swears he’s very cool and totally popular
Marco Rubio has thoroughly politicized the office of Secretary of State. Also, Rubio has not risen to Trump levels of “most people don’t like you,” but he is getting there. In the video, Rubio is smug.
3I/ATLAS Closest Approach // Rock Giants // New NASA Administrator
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=_P7MmL67vzc
Yikes.
Link
Cartoon: Killing Tiny Tim
Debunking Russian propaganda.
“Russia’s Big Gamble Just Fell Apart – And It’s Bad for Putin”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=wp31HW75YqA
Putin: We have taken Kupjansk.
Zelensky: Has a photo taken of him standing in front of Kupjansk.
Farron Cousins:
“Republicans Admit They’re Tired Of Toddler Trump’s Psycho Behavior”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=AEW3QheHRxE
HuffPo – ICE says U.S. Citizen’s birth certificate is fake after arresting her
Rando: “ICE really should have realized that no actual Mexicans would go to Taco Bell.”
Ternary Computing: Theoretically Better than Binary
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=sWKyrAXxzGA
In the 1966 German science fiction TV series Raumpatrouille the aliens were indeed using ternary computing (You did not see it because Star Trek had started three weeks previously).
“Westerly jet stream emerges as key driver of mid-latitude hydroclimatic extremes”
Warmer Arctic region makes jet stream ‘wavier’ making precipitation in the South more chaotic.
.https://phys.org/news/2025-12-westerly-jet-stream-emerges-key.html
A 400-million-year-old fossil is revealing how plants grew into giants
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-million-year-fossil-revealing-grew.html
This intermediate vascular system 400 million years ago allowed plants to grow up to 20 cm – a huge leap from the millimeter-sized plants that came before them.
How much does it cost to end rough sleeping? An Australian-first study may have just found out.
(Also, Finland is doing the right thing)
.https://phys.org/news/2025-12-rough-australian.html
Marcy Wheeler (EmptyWheel):
A couple days later.
Ryan Reilly (NBC):
Commentary
birger @96, that’s great! That was a perfect move by Zelensky.
Sky Captain @103, amazing. It boggles the mind.
In other news, It’s worth describing what transpired at the Kennedy Center accurately: A group of people vandalized one of the nation’s premier performing arts centers.
https://www.ms.now/all
or
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/enormous-asterisk-doj-drops-epstein-files-with-heavy-redactions-and-big-questions-2477578307688
Video is 10:27 minutes. “A ton of redactions!” Redactions were also applied to adult men (except Bill Clinton). Redactions were applied to other politicians. This segment hosted by Chris Hayes is really good.
Science – The seemingly unstoppable growth of renewable energy is Science’s 2025 Breakthrough of the Year
Re: Lynna @62.
Marisa Kabas:
Rando 3: “Ah yeah, using a stock photo of women before they could have their own credit cards to ponder if feminism has failed women.”
@105 Lynna, OM: The documents we got are heavily redacted and only a fraction of the full documents but the people reading them in detail are turning up all kinds of interesting stuff.
Given the time schedule they had to work with I didn’t expect the DOJ to release everything in the first batch. They probably couldn’t have redacted everything even if they were not trying to obscure Trump’s involvement. This release was thousands of pages out of hundreds of thousands total, a really anemic figure.
Raw story: Director of Melania Trump film exposed in Epstein files drop: report
Ratner was a successful directory, having done the popular RushHour series. Sexual misconduct allegations derailed his career. Then Trump lobbied to get his job back and he is set to do RushHour 4 now.
Raw Story: ‘In-your-face cover up’: Trump photo discovered in Epstein files pulled from DOJ website
One of the few photos that shows Trump has been pulled from the packet released Friday.
The Guardian: FBI notes detail grim demands Epstein made for procurement of underage girls
Epstein checked the IDs of some of the girls he had sex with to make sure they were underage. He didn’t want older girls that looked young, they had to be under 18.
Politico: Epstein files put Bill Clinton under scrutiny – and the White House wants him there
The pictures in the files are heavily redacted but Clinton shows up predominantly in the first batch.
[…] some of the very fine words Americans use to describe Trump
“Even Republicans are starting to see Trump for what he is.”
Related video t the link, hosted by Ari Melber
Link
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/ice-supervisor-thrown-in-his-own
“ICE Supervisor Thrown In His Own Jail After (Allegedly) Strangling His Girlfriend”
Did Putin Just Wire Trump a Billion? (& No One Noticed!)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=02K28kGhpB8
Link
Exclusive: Netanyahu plans to brief Trump on possible new Iran strikes
“Israeli officials believe Iran is expanding its ballistic missile program. They are preparing to make the case during an upcoming meeting with Trump that it poses a new threat.”
U.S. offers new talks format including Russia and Ukraine, Zelenskyy says
“Ukraine and Russia have not negotiated face to face since July, but U.S.-backed shuttle diplomacy to end the war has intensified in recent weeks.”
Washington Post link
“Four ICE detainee deaths in four days spark alarm as arrests grow”
“At least 30 detainees have died in 2025, prompting concerns about deteriorating conditions at facilities even as the agency has received an infusion of cash from Congress.”
New York Times link
“Slain M.I.T. Professor Was a ‘Brilliant Scientist’ and a Beloved Colleague”
“Nuno Loureiro, 47, was killed by an old classmate who was on the run from a shooting at Brown University, the authorities said.”
Another installment of my series on the history of money.
Rando:
For every winner a loser
Sky Captain, quoting a London Review of Books article @119:
Wow. I never would have guessed that the total is that low. 3 percent!
Hence the need for regulation.
A depressing state of affairs.
@108 JM: Even more files have been removed.
AP News: At least 16 files have disappeared from the DOJ webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein
I don’t know how they thought they could do this without people noticing. The first thing a bunch of news organizations, public interest groups and some individuals did is grab all of the files and save them separately from the DOJ copy.
It is possible at least some of these are necessary, files that didn’t get complete redaction or have some other problem. There is no point in removing them without explaining why though because removing them without explanation just draws attention. Given how incompetent this administration is it is possible some are accidents also. Which would be massively embarrassing to the DOJ but remotely possible.
New Yorker link
“Trump Dishonors the Kennedy Center”
“A memorial to John F. Kennedy and his respect for the freedom of the arts has been renamed for a man with authoritarian instincts. By David Remnick
NBC – Man accused of towing ICE SUV during LA immigration op found not guilty
Link
More at the link.
Cartoon: Latest GOP health care package
A new report describes deep environmental cuts, state by state
More at the link.
Question: Are there any additional House Republicans that have announced their resignations this week? I am not just referring to those who have announced they will not run again.
BEST 2024 POLLSTER: Democrats LEAD +16 Nationally
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=svKHlZXSMzo
Good times ahead.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/hello-i-vladimir-putin-command-the
“Hello! I, Vladimir Putin, Command The Russian People: Get To F*cking!”
“Gotta get that birthrate up.”
More than 10% of Congress won’t return to their seats after 2026
More at the link.
Jeff Sherman (NIST):
Commentary
Let’s Talk Elections (senate)
“Republicans Are Making a TERRIBLE Mistake in North Carolina”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=E40CUIZpP8Q
Let’s Talk Elections
“Trump Is TORCHING a Swing State [Minnesota] With THIS Endorsement”
The ‘My Pillow’ guy as governor?
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=UhlH1F8g_8c
Bent Aristocrats
“The duke of Marlborogh fails to show up yesterday”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=JMsaZ4X0zV8
Strangulation? This should have been Trump’s DOJ pick.
Further to my comment @67
There was a near collision between an airliner and a US Airforce tanker in the Caribbean. Fortunately the crew of the airliner saw the military plane and stopped climbing. The military plane had its’ transponder turned off so it was invisible to air traffic control. There is no justification for doing this in the Caribbean.
An aircraft the is on a collision course is inconspicuous because it appears to be motionless in the windscreen/canopy. Fortunately the Jet Blue pilots were observant and avoided a collision.
Re: Militant Agnostic @135:
That Captain Steeeve video supersedes NYT by stepping through pilot chatter. One thing NYT added was the implication that it’d been a frequent occurrence in the region lately.
A long but eloquent explanation of how USA got here, from the time of the Johnson administration to today.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DUqD4yHFa/
Happy winter solstice, everybody.
crossposted earlier from PZ’s IT article:
It is the Winter Solstice. We celebrate that the Winter Solstice as the deepest point of winter, in the knowledge that the world will awaken to spring in a while. At this time we enjoy the evergreens as signs that life still endures.
However, other than a handful of decent caring people who try, there is nothing in the grinding destructive machinery of human society that we can celebrate. Those whose lives are obsessed only with acquisition of obscene amounts of money and power are the most destructive force in this deteriorating world they have created.
This Winter Solstice, the community that is my organization, takes some comfort in, and shares with you, consideration of the fundamentals of modern secular humanism which include these tenets:Secular Humanism is ethical.
Secular Humanism is rational.
Secular Humanism supports democracy and human rights.
Secular Humanism insists that personal liberty must be combined with social responsibility.
Secular Humanism is a response to the widespread demand for an alternative to dogmatic religion.
Secular Humanism values artistic creativity and imagination and recognizes the transforming power of art.
Secular Humanism is a way of living aiming at the maximum possible fulfillment through the cultivation of ethical and creative living and offers an ethical and rational means of addressing the challenges of our times.
It is our hope that someday, in some unforeseen way, society will awaken from, and reject, this murderous debauchery and reverse the DEATH SPIRAL in which we are currently mired.
This year’s depressing holiday plane-ticket search is brought to you by AI
“Buying airline tickets for holiday travel is already stressful enough. Airlines relying on AI models to set ticket prices will likely make things even worse.”
Here is a Youtube post to cheer you up.
Stanzi describes “alpha” males.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1FaDmFt8TW/
Inside the Trump administration’s man-made hunger crisis, by ProPublica
Cartoon: Your land is our land
Tunes for winter solstice and December
Wonderful music videos and commentary at the link. I especially recommend “Solstice Saga Celebration,” however there are also lots of shorter videos you may enjoy,.
I should note that some of the music highlighted in the link provided in comment 144 is religious in nature, or it has roots in religion.
That doesn’t really bother me. I have developed a habit of ignoring the religious aspects of those performances and focusing instead on the skill of the musicians. Works for me.
Happy Winter Solstice to everyone.
Rural health providers could be collateral damage from $100K Trump visa fee
More at the link.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/christmas-comes-early-for-mark-carney
“Christmas Comes Early For Mark Carney”
“Latest Conservative defection brings Liberals within one seat of majority government.”
Science – Rats filmed snatching bats from air for first time
Ethan White (Env data sci): “I remember being amazed watching snakes do this at the mouth of Carlsbad Caverns when I was in high school.”
New York Times link
The SNL cold open video is also available at that link.
The YouTube link for the Bowen Yang segment.
YouTube link to the cold open.
DEVELOPING: U.S. Coast Guard ‘in active pursuit’ of third vessel off the Venezuelan coast
Jessica Valenti (Abortion Every Day):
Abortion Every Day – Enough of ‘Just Asking Questions’
Rando: “Trans rights ‘debate’ was just the start […] as we all warned.”
TerryTalksMovies on Youtube has a Xmas livestream right now.
.https://youtube.com/live/JLwYJFUdYlk
Happy Birthday Jane Fonda, 88 years today!
Independent Nebraska senate candidate Dan Osborn has a good chance in the previously red state.
“Trump Gets Rude Awakening as he Loses Voters…in NEBRASKA?!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=KqXXqbN95Uk
Waymo suspends service amid widespread blackout-related disruption (Dec 20)
Taras Grescoe (Advocate against cars):
Commentary
Rando:
@150 Lynna, OM posted: DEVELOPING: U.S. Coast Guard ‘in active pursuit’ of third vessel off the Venezuelan coast
I reply: The last thing I want is for the chicken hawks running this country to have an excuse to start a ‘hot’ war. Maduro is probably almost as corrupt as the magat-in-chief and his war mongers here, but where are the venezuelan navy ships that are supposed to be escorting and protecting the venezuelan tankers? I’ve not found any info on that from searching the main-slime media.
@155 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain Hey, I think I now know why they are named that. Because they cause Waymo trouble! I love how people were putting orange traffic cones on the hoods of those causing them to stop dead.
Also, I read an article a couple of days ago about how the muskrat robotaxis had 12 times more accidents than human piloted vehicles.
I’m not a Luddite. But, technology is just a tool. And, poorly designed technology, especially when poorly used, is a serious danger.
FastCompany – Tesla’s ‘Mad Max mode’ points to a big problem for self-driving cars
New Archaeology Discoveries – November 2025
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=JmR1vQhRkBk
A 50-minute summary of notable anime of the year, including “2025’s BEST Anime”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=447mQ4PR9wo
.
If even half of these are worth watching, who the hell needs the usual mediocre TV series and mediocre Hollywood films?
Fortunately most of these are not available in Sweden or I would ruin myself watching it all.
Followup to on that Hepatitis B vaccine study @21.
Epidemiologist Elizabeth Jacobs deleted her thread premised on a placebo trial, after some speculation of less awful protocols.
Science – CDC funds controversial hepatitis B vaccine trial in African newborns
Elizabeth Jacobs:
Gavin Yarney (Global health prof):
Elizabeth Jacobs: “while WHO recommends the birth dose and G-B plans to implement it in 2027, it is not the current practice there. The researchers spin this as ‘well at least SOME of the infants will now get the birth dose’. It’s exploitation.”
Elizabeth Jacobs: “Contrary to the claims of the research team, this study is unlikely to provide information that is generalizable to more developed countries, including the U.S. and Denmark.”
WaPo – U.S. plans to stop recommending most childhood vaccines, defer to doctors
Elizabeth Jacobs (Epidemiologist):
Elizabeth Jacobs: “It’s naive to think this will be their last step. The next project could well be pulling FDA approvals for vaccines they don’t like.”
Elizabeth Jacobs: “He is being sued and the public health advocacy group I helped launch has filed an amicus brief.”
Elizabeth Jacobs: “it was also a specific goal of Project 2025 (page 254).”
Rando: “It all comes down to whining about masks. Fucking crybabies.”
Gov. Pritzker signs landmark bill to protect and expand vaccine access for Illinoisans
“A Psychiatrist Explains Why Trump Is Likely The Most Infantile President In History”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=-Yo3em6nDJ4
…so, he has yet to reach the maturity and wisdom of king Joffrey?
We have to go to Biris Johnson or Liz Truss to see similar levels of musjudgements and incompetence.
“U.S. Tries to Corner Canada, Europe Switches Sides Overnight | Trade Shockwave”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=imEdj3jx2DQ
Trump clumsily takes responsibility for rising unemployment as jobs lag
“It was odd it was to see the president brag about firing thousands of Americans a few days before Christmas.”
Related video at the link.
Sky Captain @153, this text you quoted is so true:
In other news:
Link
Facing an intensifying scandal, Todd Blanche [Deputy Attorney General] began Sunday with dwindling credibility. He ended the day with none.
Why JD Vance’s ‘Christian nation’ claim is more than just ahistorical nonsense
“The vice president’s rhetoric was absurd, but just as notable was the sentiment behind the rhetoric.”
Related video at the link.
Oh dear. WTF does Bari Weiss think she is doing?
Very bad news.
Link
Atlantic – The Return of the Antebellum Constitution
Followup to comment 173.
Link
Followup to comments 173 and 175.
Link
Sky Captain @174, this text you quoted is a damning, and accurate summary:
I think this also bears repeating:
And this:
New Trump envoy says he will serve to make Greenland part of US (BBC link)
Democrats renew government shutdown threat as tensions flare with Trump
The Independent: Russia attempts to break through Sumy frontline and abducts 50 civilians from border villages
Russia has made moves in Sumy over the last couple of days but they seem more symbolic then opening a new front of the war. Russia has moved the front forward slightly in some uninhabited areas of Sumy, has grabbed some civilians from villages close to the front and made a few bombardment attacks. It has not made any deep strikes or gathered the forces to occupy a bunch of territory. This seems more about stretching Ukrainian defenses, propaganda points and giving Russia some things they can trade back to Ukraine in peace negotiations.
Epstein survivors rip Justice Department over file release
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xjc7mkotpenvhh6ffewkdpyn/post/3mag7myutmc2d
Photos at the link.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/jaw-on-the-floor-tabs-mon-dec-22
Holiday music from David Byrne: YouTube link
“Fat Man” – David Byrne – St. Ann’s – January 8 2014
Politico: Bill Clinton spox calls on DOJ to release Epstein files referencing the former president
Clinton taking the gamble that the files contain nothing really embarrassing to him. So he is asking for release of everything related to him. If that contains nothing of interest or the DOJ resists releasing it then it looks bad for Trump and the DOJ. If those files do contain something interesting or ugly then the Republicans can turn the conversation to Bill Clinton for a while.
Clinton may have lucked out in that he popped into national position so quickly that he only got to know Epstein after becoming president. So every time he was around Epstein there was a security detail also.
Yahoo: Even if the Supreme Court rules Trump’s global tariffs are illegal, refunds are unlikely because that would be ‘very complicated,’ Hassett says
What he is probably really saying is that the administration plans to stall on refund payments. If you want a refund go to court and line up behind every other company asking for a refund because there is only one court that handles tariff refunds.
WSJ – Trump to announce navy will buy new class of large warship, which the president calls ‘battleships’, will be a ‘Golden Fleet’
Commentary
Bret Devereaux (Military historian):
Jack Smith isn’t done pressing Jim Jordan for the transparency the GOP doesn’t want
Related video at the link.
Trump still eyeing Justice Department payoff: ‘I hereby give myself $1 billion’
“[Trump] hasn’t given up on getting a massive check to pay him for the investigations into his alleged felonies.”
Images at the link.
https://x.com/SollenbergerRC/status/2002766333466091660
Images also available here.
Trump administration abruptly recalls scores of career ambassadors (Washington Post link)
@190 Lynna, OM:
Simple minded authoritarian incompetence. Middle level managers are given orders and expected to blindly follow them, those that question the orders are punished. If an order turns out to be bad or stupid they may still be punished for following it but it’s safer then questioning an order.
Gizmodo: Instacart Says It Is Pulling the Plug on Its AI-Powered Price Tests
Charging different customers different prices at the same store is part of the point of most real time pricing but they got caught too early in the game, the differences were too large and the AI part probably made some decisions Instacart didn’t want to become public. At this point Instacard isn’t answering questions about how their AI makes decisions.
This sort of thing will get rolled out eventually unless it gets banned. What will happen is this sort of thing will start with fixed caps on how wide the prices can vary in the same store, with those caps relaxed over time as people get used to these systems.
While I appreciate all the important info provide by everyone here on other vital subjects. I am concerned about how little information we are getting about this apparent game of tapdancing cat and dodging mouse. I don’t support maduro and I loath tRUMP. If ANYONE makes a false move this could become a ‘hot’ war. I searched, today, at 1445 hrs scarizona time, for ‘venezuela navy now protecting tankers’ and ‘venezuela navy now escorting tankers’
I found few articles that supported it actually being done or of any actual encounters between the us and venezuela navy and they are days old.
https://maritime-executive.com/article/venezuela-dispatches-its-navy-to-escort-tankers-past-u-s-blockade
Venezuela Dispatches its Navy to Escort Tankers Past U.S. “Blockade”
Published Dec 17, 2025 9:18 PM
dictator Nicolas Maduro has ordered his navy to provide departing vessels with a warship escort. According to the New York Times, these escort operations have already occurred on several departures for tankers bound for Asia; they raise the risk of a possible military-to-military encounter with the U.S. Navy, which has built up a massive presence in the Caribbean.
The White House is considering its response to the Venezuelan escorts, one source told the Times. Any attempt at an armed interdiction – as the U.S. Coast Guard carried out aboard the tanker Skipper last week – could now spark an exchange of fire, rather than a peaceful surrender.
A naval blockade is an act of war under international law, but the U.S. has not declared war on Venezuela, nor has it announced an all-encompassing naval cordon. The blockade is only partial: merchant ships and tankers continue to trade to and from Venezuela, including at least one newly-arrived tanker that fits the “blockade” definition, according to TankerTrackers.com.
EXCERPTS FROM: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/world/americas/us-in-pursuit-of-third-oil-tanker-in-caribbean
US in ‘pursuit’ of third oil tanker in Caribbean, says official
News outlets identified the ship involved as the Bella 1, an oil tanker under US sanctions since 2024 because of alleged ties to Iran and Hezbollah
Published: Mon 22 Dec 2025, 1:56 PM By: AFP
News outlets identified the ship involved as the Bella 1, an oil tanker under US sanctions since 2024 because of alleged ties to Iran and Hezbollah.
According to the specialized site TankerTrackers, the ship was en route to Venezuela but not carrying cargo.
US forces approached the vessel late Saturday, but the ship did not submit to being boarded and continued sailing, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed officials.
Earlier on Saturday, the US Coast Guard seized the Centuries, which according to TankerTrackers is a Chinese-owned and Panama-flagged tanker.
It said that ship was loaded with 1.8 million barrels of crude oil at a Venezuelan port earlier this month before being escorted out of the Latin American country’s exclusive economic zone on December 18.
An AFP review found that the Centuries did not appear on the US Treasury Department’s list of sanctioned companies and individuals.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez on Sunday posted a statement to social media about oil giant Chevron sending a tanker from Caracas to the United States carrying Venezuelan oil — without mentioning either vessel interdicted by Washington.
“A ship of the American company Chevron has set sail from our country carrying Venezuelan oil bound for the United States, in strict adherence to regulations and in fulfillment of the commitments undertaken by our oil industry,” Rodriguez said on Telegram.
Chevron renewed its license this year to extract crude oil from Venezuela, accounting for roughly 10 percent of the country’s production.
“Venezuela has always been, and will continue to be, respectful of national and international legality,” Rodriguez continued.
Here is a sad story for us who recall his music.
“Chris Rea, rock and blues singer-songwriter, dies aged 74 ”
.https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/dec/22/chris-rea-rock-and-blues-singer-songwriter-dies-aged-74
@164 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain posted an article: WaPo – U.S. plans to stop recommending most childhood vaccines, defer to doctors
We found a parody image of rfkjr on the web and put it in a folder for our organization to view. I hesitate to promote these, but rfkjr disgusts and angers me and that parody seems appropriate.
WARNING, THE IMAGES WE FOUND ARE DISTURBING:
http://theartsinarizona.org/foundelsewhere/
The WSJ article @187 was updated (my re-archive attempt failed).
“New class of warship to be named after President Trump”.
They will be “Trump-class” battleships.
A note to Lynna, OM, if you consider the image is ‘not appropriate’, you are welcome to delete my comment @196.
@187 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain posted: Trump to announce navy will buy new class of large warship, which the president calls ‘battleships’, will be a ‘Golden Fleet’
each new battleship will cost at least $5 billion
I reply, what is troubling about this is the insanity has been normalized too much. $5 billion could do so much actual good if it helped the half of our nation living paycheck-to-paycheck. The billionaires are obscene.
JM @192, learn the difference between “then” and “than.” That mistake is starting to bother me simply because it show up so often. I know, kind of petty.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/when-to-use-then-and-than#
More: Use then for time, sequence, or consequence (like “after that,” “next,” or “in that case”), and use than for comparisons (like “more than,” “less than,” “different from”). A simple trick is to remember then has an ‘e’ like event, and than has an ‘a’ like compare; use ‘than’ when comparing things.
Followup to comment 200.
Correct usage: “[…] it’s safer than questioning an order.”
New York Times link
“For Fallen Syrian Dictator Assad and Family, an Exile of Luxury and Impunity”
“Bashar al-Assad’s long, brutal reign ended swiftly, but he and his close circle have had a soft landing in Russia.”
In comment 200, of course I made a mistake. “Show” should be “shows.”
It’s like a universal law. If you attempt to correct someone’s grammar, you will make a grammatical mistake! LOL
New York Times:
Wall Street Journal, reporting that states are ignoring Trump’s executive order:
Re: Lynna, OM @ #203….
That phenomenon was received wisdom on usenet decades ago.
Re: Lynna @200: I hadn’t noticed, but searching JM’s past posts, yeah. That has been a frequent occurrence, indicating misunderstanding rather than fluke.
Happening now or soon – live coverage FWIW Bondi terrorist attack aftermath
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-23/albanese-press-conference-after-national-security-meeting/106173660
A rare good news story here I think! :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-23/treetop-protester-wins-red-tingle-trees-fight/106171960
CNN – ’60 Minutes’ story shelved by Bari Weiss streamed in Canada—and instantly spread across the web
Allison Gill mirrored a filmed-TV copy.
InternetArchive has a high quality version
Copies on YouTube have been taken down.
Trump Unveils New Battleship Class; Proposed USS Defiant Will Be Largest U.S. Surface Combatant Since WWII
Trump has previously complained about how US navy ships looked. I can imagine his ship design ideas, multi-gun turrets, long sections of walkways and railing, fancy paint job, lots of flags, lots of stuff to get in the way of the important parts.
Basically looks to be a Wikipedia: Arleigh Burke scaled up. The navy is looking for something to carry their new hypersonic missiles.
Re: JM @ #211…
That’s actually smaller than the late-WW2 battleships. The Iowa class were 45,000 tons. I don’t know the tonnage–off hand–of the two Japanese battleships–the Yamato and Musashi–that carried 18.1″ main guns, but the third ship–the Shinano–was converted to an aircraft carrier while under construction and came in at 60,000 tons, so there other two were probably pretty close to that.
Steve Herman (Journalist):
Commentary
NeolithicSheep (Navy veteran):
NeolithicSheep: “The class is named after the first ship of that design commissioned, so if the first one is these is USS DEFIANT then uh, that’s the Defiant class.”
NeolithicSheep:
@212 whheydt:
Yes, it’s debatable if they really qualify as battleships. If it actually clocks in at the given weight it will in the same range as the biggest US cruisers.
The navy may have presented them to Trump as battleships to get his approval or he may have latched on to them himself and dubbed them battleships. Getting a whole class of important ships named after himself is exactly the sort of thing that Trump likes. Only if they have the most impressive name though.
@212. whheydt :
Yup. Nearly 72, 000 tonnes on checking & arguably the most impressive battleships ever built – yet almost instantly obsolete already because of submarines & planes which then sunk them. Now, ofc, we have robot drones too :
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato-class_battleship
Of course, in 2199 one of them, the wrecked Yamato would later be resurrected into the most advanced space battleship ever with a literally floating continent destroying superweapon and warp speed capabilities enabling it to fly to the large Magellanic Cloud and back in just one year whilst fighting off superior Gamilon forces as shown here – Star Blazers Season 1 Opening and Closing Credits (2 mins 33 secs) plus in non-manga / anime fashion
351 – Space Battleship Yamato (2010 Live Action Movie) – Sample Scene – Yamato Launch Sequence (1min & 5seconds length.) Loved that old cartooon so much as a kid.
Probly more realistic & useful than the Trump plans too.
The New Republic – Biden moved these men off death row. Trump wants them back on.
My previous article on this was one-sided, lacking the defense argument.
Stephen Miller loses it as jury acquits man who towed ICE agent’s car
A happy winter story.
“Man Rescues Moose Trapped in a Tree in Small Swedish Town”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=lVZGym173Mc
Robotic system synthesizes hundreds of metal complexes to find potential new antibiotic
.https://phys.org/news/2025-12-robotic-hundreds-metal-complexes-potential.html
Canadians leak 60 minutes feature about Trump that was Censored.
“I am proud to call myself a Canadian and I am not even from Canada”
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CF21TgVF1/
USA Today: Latest Epstein file release includes report on financier’s death: Live updates
Second batch released already, which is surprising. It’s possible that this batch was just being double checked and nearly ready as the first batch went out. More likely it was already ready and somebody at the DOJ pushed the release up because the first batch went over so badly.
There is a shred of truth to this. There will be people that turn up once or twice in the files just because they were near Epstein at a party they both attended and such. The news organizations are aware of this and will ignore them but some will get hit in social media and political smears.
Trump is more angry that his name will turn up a lot, far more then can be accident. No matter what else is true or turns up in the files he was a friend with Epstein and on record as having talked about women.
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/don-t-feed-the-pig-for-all-of-his-unpopularity-corruption-may-bring-trump-s-downfall-2478126147964
Video is 11:54 minutes
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/sloppy-at-best-epstein-survivors-angry-at-what-redactions-show-are-trump-doj-s-real-priorities-2478133315554
Video is 5:12 minutes
Link
Related video at the link.
Major court ruling:
Link
Washington Post link
EXCLUSIVE: ‘It’s a war’
“Inside ICE’s media machine”
Much more at the link.
Link
Cannon Buries MAL Report For 2 More Months
Link
THIS is why we should not cut funding for science. Ironically, DJT might have had use for this if the research had been in a more advanced stage.
“Modified tau thwarts aggregation in neurodegenerative disease—while retaining its biological function”
.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-tau-thwarts-aggregation-neurodegenerative-disease.html
I had intended to avoid writing more about DJT but I felt I need to forward this.
“Trump named in biggest epstein file release yet”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=DQ6Tz68DkwQ
https://www.wonkette.com/p/lets-watch-60-minutes-segment-on
“Let’s Watch ’60 Minutes’ Segment On Salvador Torture Camp That Bari Weiss Didn’t Want Us To See”
“Can’t say it would have been improved by Stephen Miller lying about it.”
Followup to comment 178.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/how-embarrassing-that-anyone-thinks
https://www.wonkette.com/p/heritage-foundation-smashing-up-over
“Heritage Foundation Smashing Up Over Difficult ‘To Be Or Not To Be Nazis’ Question”
“Guess which way they are leaning!”
New York Times: Borrowers in Default on Student Loans Could Have Wages Garnished Starting in January
New York Times: How Did DOGE Disrupt So Much While Saving So Little?
“The group’s biggest claims were largely incorrect, a New York Times analysis found. And its many smaller cuts added up to few savings.”
Link
More at the link.
Judges who ruled against Trump say harassment and threats have changed their lives
More at the link.
Germany’s far-right AfD accused of gathering information for the Kremlin
“Alternative for Germany’s opponents accuse the party of attempting to disclose sensitive information on arms supply routes and drone defenses.”
@215 StevoR
Uchu Senkan Yamato was pretty great.
Not quite. Unfortunately we found the wreck of the Yamato in the 1980s. It’s in pretty bad condition — it broke into two pieces, and too much has corroded away in seawater. Not enough of the ship is left for a convincing episode 1.
Aussie ABC summary here of the infighting that’s happening at last and too late to stop worst of the worst already in power from making things worse :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-23/issues-dividing-donald-trump-maga-republicans/106156312
FWIW the 6 issues discussed there are support for israel’s genocide (I), the role of rising nazi & inspirer of Kirk’s murderer Nick Fuentes (II), Health insurance (III), H1 b skilled worker visas (IV), Kirk assassination Conspiracism (V), and the Cost of living horrorshow (VI) with bonus VIIth) issue of aid to Ukraine mentioned in there too in the first category but really I’d count as separate..
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-24/changes-to-nsw-gun-protest-laws-pass-after-bondi-terror-attack/106175636
Latest Owen Jones video as of 5 hours ago here – Israel PLOTS WAR While World Looks Away lasting almost twenty minutes long.
New Simon Clark here – The misinformation situation is worse than you think which lasts under 20 mins and is predictably horrible and disturbing but ever more so as always and a pretty informative summary of climate info wars. Oh and Agnotology seems to be the word of the day dominating the Trump regimes zeitgeist..
@ ^ In case there was any doubt see wikipage too : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-24/british-national-visa-cancelled-for-displaying-nazi-symbol/106176308
Mark Stern (Slate):
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):
Rando 1: “too early to weigh in dissent was particularly rich after this year of our lord 2025 in shadow docket decisions.”
Rando 2: “My read of this is that it should shut down basically all deployments of the national guard (except possibly in DC)?”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “Agreed.”
Kel McClanahan (National Security Counselors):
Scott Shapiro (Law prof): “You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to the Supreme Court.”
Mike Sacks (Congressional candidate):
Mike Sacks: “Kavanaugh spends a footnote pretty much saying STOP CALLING THEM KAVANAUGH STOPS.”
Lee Kovarsky (Law prof): “I think it’s pretty clear that the Kavanaugh Stop thing has gotten to him.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “Oh yeah, that footnote is entirely unnecessary”
Rando 3: Stop making fun of me when I decided to make up law that literally no one asked for.
A short rant by LazerPig about the …’ship’…Trump wants to build for the Navy.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pqPDghQp__c
AAAAAARGHH! The humanity!
Trump-class battleship – Wikipedia
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump-class_battleship
.
A class of ship Billy Mitchell made irrelevant in the 1920s…
David Pakman:
‘BOMBSHELL EPSTEIN LETTER: TRUMP “LOVES” YOUNG GIRLS’
.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=6F3KyCFAOzY
“DoJ’s Christmas Epstein Drop is BAD for the President” [and Prince Andrew]
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=QSvKbCAxWrM
Also, we see DJT lied about never flying with Epstein’s jet.
We see Pam Bondi and Kash Patel lying about there being no trafficking. One client [it is absolutely Prince Andrew] asked about getting a new “inappropriate friend”.
Together with the things in my preceding comments, these news items are great Xmas presents to USA.
.
“Democrats Score SURPRISE WIN in Deep Red Kansas”
😀
Yes, I forgot about the link in the excitement. Sorry. Scold me all you want, it will not ruin my mood.
🎉🍷🍾
Former Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
.
I do not wish cancer on anybody -and Ben Sasse is to my knowledge not implicated in something nastier than the usual GOP politics – but this could aid the independent challenger, wossname, for Nebraska’s senate seat.
.
Maybe Nebraska is one of those states where the governor just appoints a senator to fill in the gap. If not, the independent challenger has an early shot at the senate before the midterms.
From ‘History About Everything’
USS Compensation – Trump’s New ‘Battleship’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=RV6oRJocyTM
Also USS Don’t Look At The Epstein Files
Eh What
When they initially released the last batch of Epstein files
You could read the redactions by just copying and pasting into Word
This may have been deliberate incompetence.
Re: Militant Agnostic @253:
See my comment below PZ’s post.
Rando (Patent lawyer):
Jessica Pishko (Journalist, Lawyer):
Rando 2: “Also one of the key flaws of the ‘Nordic model’ of prostitution criminalization—it sounds like a good idea to only criminalize the clients, but it always leads to intimidation/persecution towards the workers from both them and law enforcement.”
Jessica Pishko: “Can’t arrest the client without testimony!”
Rando 3: “Ironic considering the cause of the original ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ was partially the realization of the hostages that the cops didn’t care about them and were cavalier about them dying.”
Mike Pence steals essential members of the Heritage Foundation to his own foundation.
Matsimus (British Milblogger) “Test Driving the CV90 Armadillo – It Left Me Speechless” [vehicle used in Ukraine]
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=IG5ZTJJU06o
Follow up to Sky Captain @244.
Yes, that was a ig loss for the Trump administration. Summary from MS NOW:
Wall Street Journal:
Washington Post link
“ICE documents reveal plan to hold 80,000 immigrants in warehouses”
“The Trump administration aims to build seven large-scale holding centers to speed up deportations, internal ICE documents show.”
The Guardian link
“Thanks to Donald Trump, 2025 was a good year … for white-collar criminals”
Wall Street Journal: Inside the New Fast Track to a Presidential Pardon
“Lobbyists close to Trump say their going rate to advocate for a pardon is $1 million”
I do not have access to this paywalled article.
Trump-defiled Kennedy Center will premiere cringy ‘Melania’ documentary
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/bari-weiss-declares-cbs-will-have
Excerpt and readable link for @262.
WSJ – Inside the New Fast Track to a Presidential Pardon
Mediaite
The first national website dedicated to documenting ICE license plates
British comedian Alexei Sayle has an urgent Christmas message.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BSoWWyDNV/
Trump participates in NORAD Christmas Eve calls.
Acyn (MeidasTouch):
Rando: “Kudos to whoever on his staff thought this was a good idea for him to do on camera while all the Epstein stuff is still front and center.”
Entire C-SPAN footage (at 5:53).
FWIW, I asked the bot:
Bot [elided]
—
But here it is. I did the work necessary to avoid Zuck, but alas, now it’s Alphabet.
Still.
US gov touts Nebraska being first to launch Big Ugly Bill Medicaid work reporting requirements by misspelling the name of the state.
Dear Lynna, tomorrow is a day when most people wind down and share with loved ones, I hope you will have an enjoyable and rejuvenating time.
And, I thank you for all your substantial effort to keep us informed.
OOPS, it’s already tomorrow on this site, but not here in Scarizona!
Apart from the caveats cited@223, one has to wonder whether any figures put out by any part of the administration can be trusted. I haven’t seen this point raised elsewhere, so maybe there’s good reason to trust the Commerce Department.
And of course all the gold will increase the weight – two birds with one stone!
Final Colbert Xmas animated cartoon here – Colbert’s Canceled Christmas: The Last Noel – almost ten mins long.
@273. shermanj : Tiomezones so annoyingand too far apart! Bring back Pangea ..
Oh wait, on second thoughts maybe don’t..
Source : https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/25/supercontinent-could-make-earth-uninhabitable-in-250m-years-study-predicts
Still.. Yeah timezones. FN annoying.
Sky Captain @265, thank you. This excerpt is memorable:
So corrupt.
More corruption: https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/of-course-hayes-reacts-to-bari-weiss-turmoil-over-yanked-60-minutes-segment-2478305859621
Video is 6:30 minutes
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/new-epstein-email-reveals-feds-tried-to-contact-10-co-conspirators-2478298179691
Video is 6:29 minutes
Truth sung Warumpi Band – Black Fella White Fella (1987) – 3 mins 30 secs approx.
Music that makes my bones vibrate The Forbidden Bagpipe Hymn the Clans Once Marched To bagpipes & drums & beaut clip. (Almost dozen mins.) Audio awe..
I will be taking the afternoon off. I’m celebrating the holidays by visiting my relatives who are hosting an event that includes a lot of food. Sounds good to me.
I’m sure that regular readers will fill in for my absence.
Also bone vibrating music Ulysses 31 Ultimate Medley – nearly 10 mins.
One Agency Has Been Calling Out Trump’s Illegal Impoundment. That May Soon Change.
New York Times link
“A million more Epstein documents have been found, the Justice Dept. says.”
Yes, the release and the excuses are all a mess. Incompetence and malfeasance on display. See Chris Hayes’ segment highlighted in comment 278.
All the best gifts for the worst people, courtesy of the Trump family
Photos, descriptions and commentary available at the link.
Examples include:
– a Bling Clutch, studded with Swarovski crystals that spell out Trump’s name
– the $65 DJT Driver Cover, which goes on your golf clubs, apparently? Keep your bag out in the garage so this thing can’t attack you in your sleep.
– God Bless The USA Bible, one version is $99.99
– Trump guitars
– Trump sneakers
– First Lady sneakers
…. and many more
Cartoon: A GOP Christmas story
@283 Lynna, OM: This argument about spending is one of the basic goals of Project 2025. They want to transfer control of the budget from Congress to the president. Not by changing the Constitution but by giving the president the ability to make his own decisions about how money should be spent, letting him effectively alter or ignore the budget passed by Congress.
This depends on the president being suitably conservative. If we end up with a Democratic president and a Republican congress after the next presidential election they will reverse course fast.
A heads-up for anyone owning a dog they believe has epilepsy: it may be something else. I took our dog to the vet yesterday, because she’d had what I took to be an epileptic fit only 11 days after the previous one – she’s had these episodes for 5 years, with 2-4 months between them, so I was concerned about two so close together. I saw a vet I had not seen before. He examined the dog, asked if she was normally subdued or lethargic after a fit – she isn’t, 15 minutes after the episode ends she’s as hyper as usual – and wasn’t when he examined her a few hours after the episode. He asked if I had any videos of her fits, which I hadn’t – we’re usually rushing to shove diazepam up her rear end (it seems to help), and had never been asked to video her. Then he got me to describe her fits in as much detail as possible – which no vet I’d seen previously about them had done. Then he said he thought it might be, not epilepsy, but canine epileptoid cramping syndrome (CECS): after a grand mal seizure the brain usually takes a day or so to return to normal, while CECS affects the muscles rather than the brain, and my description of the episodes themselves fitted (no pun intended) CECS better. Coming home, I found videos of dogs having CECS episodes – all very similar to what our dog suffers. Videos of dogs supposedly having epileptic fits were varied – some resembled our dog’s episodes (in which she can hardly move at all), but most showed the dog thrashing and jerking about. So I’m pretty sure our dog has CECS, and those “epilepsy” videos resembling her fits had been mistakenly attributed and were, in fact, showing CECS, which is rarer, and much less known. It’s also non-life-threatening, unlike epilepsy, and may be treatable with dietary changes. Diazepam is helpful during an episode in either case, but if long-term treatment is needed, the drug of choice is different.
Here are two links, one naughty and one nice, I wanted to share
https://mockpaperscissors.com/2025/12/24/midday-palate-cleanser-2652/
https://digbysblog.net/2025/12/25/on-a-sleighride-2/
as mock paper scissors says, “sharing is caring”
Thank you to Lynna for organizing, and thank you to everyone who contributes to this thread. I hope you have a happy holiday and we all get what we need in the new year.
A Daily Kos good news roundup.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/25/2360003/-GNR-Thursday-12-Good-Pips-Happy-Holidays-from-the-Good-News-Roundup-Team
KG @288: Thanks, good to know.
Lynna: As always, thanks for your work, and enjoy your time off!
“A Christmas Eve Roundup”
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/a-christmas-eve-roundup
“Trump is far more likely to turn our collective attention to the U.S. military’s actions in Venezuela, where he is still operating without any restraints from the GOP-Congress. The days of him threatening to call in the federalized National Guard to assist ICE and CBP, by contrast, now appear to be drawing to a close.”
StevoR @280: I call bullshit. Bagpipe music was suppressed after the Jacobite uprising (although there were clans who fought for the Brits), but it’s odd the piece you linked to isn’t even named. And it sounds rather banal.
Here’s some real Ceòl Mòr for you.
Re: KG @274:
Catherine Rampell (MS NOW):
Commentary
ICE releases grandma with green card after 5 months in time for Christmas
Marcy Wheeler (EmptyWheel):
Rando: “… and being White.”
Elissa Taub (Immigration attorney): “This is why immigration lawyers are exhausted. This is one case. Add an onslaught of daily policy changes and attacks on legal immigration… We are working hard but it’s a struggle some days.”
Can the war on coal still be won?
[Video] Battleship New Jersey Museum (14:57):
The ‘battleship’ looks like a enlarged Zumwalt. It is supposed to have three weapons systems that do not exist yet.
And there are so many eggs put into a single basket that each unit will just be a big target.
Xmas ruminations from Santa, his reindeer and Godzilla.
“What annoys you about your job?”
.https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1F6Md7iR8a/
@299 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain
It’s the 12 new type cells that matter. They are designed for the new hypersonic missile, which has been tested by the Army and Navy but not deployed anywhere yet.
It’s apparently too big for the launch cell to be mounted on an Arleigh Burke sized ship. Though I suspect that if this ship gets canceled the Navy will come up with something that works from an Arleigh Burke.
This is quite the Christmas present from science.
“Alzheimer’s disease can be reversed in animal models to achieve full neurological recovery”
.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-alzheimer-disease-reversed-animal-full.html
Rawstory: ‘Smallest audience ever’: Kennedy Center Honors tank on CBS after Trump takes over
2.6 million puts it in the range of the better daily shows and is anemic for a popular special event. Particularly because you know some of those people tuned in to see how badly Trump could mess it up.
I noticed that the Kivik mustery, Scania , has existed since 1888 when three Swedish towns burned down. The mustery is really a cover for a dimensional portal created by the energy of three fire sacrifices to the Old Gods. As a side effect, a nasty Austrian painter was born the same year. I could base a series of urban fantasy novels on this.
A lot of mini humans are swarming about, indicating humans are back from their Christmastime journeys. My symbiont ambush predators have celebrated the holiday by purring and pushing items off tables.
.
Elusive wild cat feared extinct rediscovered in Thailand
.https://phys.org/news/2025-12-elusive-wild-cat-extinct-rediscovered.html
Brony, Rob, shemanj and others, thanks for the kind words.
I echo the sentiments for happy holidays to all.
It is not happy holidays where Trump is bombing people.
U.S. launches deadly strikes against ISIS in Nigeria
“[…] Trump has accused the Islamist militant group of killing ‘primarily innocent Christians,’ and said the attacks were ‘powerful and deadly.’ ”
An example of what you could accomplish with centrifugal-flow jet engines.
The Flying Barrel: SAAB’s J.29 Tunnan
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=lRNztMWnvlw
Thank you Lynna for risking a stroke by following all the news about Trump and his minions.
birger @309, LOL. Yeah, following news about Trump and his minions does occasionally cause a feeling of helplessness, depression or anger. However, most of the time I am an observer. Trump is not going to be here forever. While he is here, it is a good thing to hold him and his minions to account — even in my small way.
I am more or less in the same camp as Rachel Maddow. She advises standing up to Trump and not letting all the shitty things he does pass by without notice.
I do realize that people have very different levels of tolerance when it comes to the news and to Trump in particular. Also, some people have a lot of resources when it comes to fighting back, others do not. We do what can.
And sometimes, we even see some good new.
Ohio governor ‘reluctantly’ signs bill eliminating grace period for late ballots
“Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said his hand was forced, given the uncertain outcome of a Mississippi case that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide next summer.” [That’s just an excuse for legislating yet another restriction on voting in Ohio.]
Pig organ transplants could one day be superior to human ones, says expert
.https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/dec/26/pig-organ-transplants-could-one-day-be-superior-to-human-ones-says-expert
.
What happened next: The We Do Not Care Club – how a funny, furious feminist movement began | Menopause .https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/dec/26/what-happened-next-the-we-do-not-care-club-how-a-funny-furious-feminist-movement-began
‘Tyranny is booming’: Jimmy Kimmel takes Trump warning global
Followup to comment 307.
President ‘peace prize’ spends Christmas bombing more people
See also: Are Christians being persecuted in Nigeria as Trump claims?
More at the link.
Another Daily Kos good news roundup.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/12/26/2359536/-GNR-for-Friday-December-26-2025-Happy-Boxing-Day
Trump Spent Christmas Posting Over 100 Times on Truth Social
Washington Post link
“Hundreds of residents signed up for FEMA buyouts after Helene. Not one has been approved.”
“Some of the homeowners seeking help are still paying mortgages on homes that are no longer livable.”
Followup to comments 307 and 314.
New York Times link
I really dislike and disapprove of Trump trying to turn the fluid and complicated conflicts in Nigeria into a religious war.
CNN: Karoline Leavitt announces she is pregnant with her second child
No word yet when she will step back from being press secretary or when/if she will be back. Theoretically should could work through this but it would be madness. There is a lot of behinds the scenes work that goes with this job keeping pace with events and preparing official news about events, and the schedule is brutal and outside any control
JM@ 319
I hope there are no epigenetic or mutagenic effects of having a growing embryo in that madhouse. You could get a “Ghostbusters 2” situation with Vigo the Carpathian inhabiting the kid.
“Russia Just Revealed How Bad Things Really Are”
This is an Ukrainan source, but even if we are skeptic I think Russians attacking on horseback is a sign of things going badly for Putin. And the Russian Navy has yet to invent submarine nets, a defensive feature from WWI.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2vieg-5Eg4Y
(Crossposted with Mano Singham)
How many senators are needed for impeachment? Many Republicans loathe DJT but they are yellow like uranium sludge.
If they see Trump becoming toothless and his base too split for a successful primary challenge, maybe they can be coaxed into distancing themselves from him.
Re: birgerjohansson @ #322….
No Senators are required for impeachment, and–indeed–no Senator gets to vote on impeachment. Impeachment is done by the House of Representatives and it requires a majority vote (218 in they are all present). To CONVICT on an impeachment requires a 2/3 vote of the Senate, or 67 Senators voting to do so.
Whheydt @ 323
Thank you!
So we need to find 17 Republican senators who are not total wankers, and have realised DJT has upset his base too much to get the senators primaried.
Assuming half the MAGA people take Epstein seriously it will be hard but not impossible, at least after the midterms.
Followup to comments 307, 314 and 318.
Related video hosted by Katy Tur is available at the link.
Trump sending bombs into Nigeria was a Christmas show for his evangelical base
“Nigeria has been plagued by sectarian violence, but that violence hasn’t primarily targeted Christians — and certainly not at historically unprecedented levels.”
Regarding the strike on Nigeria.
Wesley Morgan (Journalist):
Rando: “Separately, Reuters has reported that US Tomahawks average about $1.3 million each.”
Charlie Thomas (Military historian): “Holy crap. That’s a lot of money for a lot of holes in some farmer’s fields.”
Wesley Morgan: “I’m sure Nicki Minaj will explain it all”
Rando 2: “So Nicki Minaj is Foreign Policy Advisor now? What am I even saying, of course she is.”
Link
Link
Charlie Thomas (Military historian):
Michael Shurkin (Ex-CIA): “This is correct. There’s nothing an occasional US intervention can do that would make any difference. The Nigerian military is no joke.”
The previous episode of this thread mentioned that the Trumpistas have dumped the Biden-approved new coins for the Semiquintennial next year, but it took me until tonight to go look at the new designs.
Not only have the numismatic commemorations of Abolition, Women’s Suffrage, and Civil Rights gone into the memory hole, their replacements have a harsh, grim esthetic that would warm the cockles of Stephen Miller’s heart if he had one. Click the link above and scroll down to the 2nd set of images shown, then zoom in: have you ever seen a portrait of George Washington that looks so mean?
The only relief comes from the half-dollar showing the head of the Statue of Liberty (minus the torch-holding arm that would appear in a realistic depiction from that angle): one spike of her tiara forms a perfect Pinocchio-nose.
Follow-up to 307, 314, 318, 326, and 329.
CNN – Fear and confusion in Nigerian village hit in US strike
* 307, 314, 318, 325, 326, and 329.
I must ask the computer-literate among the readers if this is true or a bogus news item. Is this incompetence really possible? If it is, it is the funniest thing to happen in 2025
“HOLY SH*T! Elon LEAKS Epstein Files … Trump COLLAPSES!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=xSniHVByeJw
Private Eye News 2025 (short)
President Trump announces details of his new Ukraine peace plan.
.https://youtube.com/shorts/3yXsNbL3Qos
“Norway’s 500km Strike Plan Has Putin Worried” (Himars + PRSM reaches crucial Rissian assets on the Kola Peninsula)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=96KAr240wAY
Recommended.
“Fox News is VERY upset with politicians who make unrealistic promises” (short)
.https://youtube.com/shorts/oCWm4sOKIeM
When corruption is encouraged.
“The security disaster Putin can’t control”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTb-LdhYHI8
Maine – that hashish-smugglung hotspot.
.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/childhood-shame-rural-affluent-parenting_n_691df527e4b06f2a60cb09d5
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/conman-as-commander-in-chief-jasmine-crockett-on-trump-s-economy-2478599235561
Video is 11:19 minutes, hosted by Chris Hayes
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/failure-trump-and-musk-s-doge-disaster-of-2025-2478594115599
Video is 7:28 minutes.
https://www.ms.now/ms-now/watch/u-s-measles-cases-surge-to-highest-level-in-30-years-2478590531509
Followup to comment 328.
Russia hammers Kyiv as Zelenskyy heads to US for Trump talks
Why JD Vance Can’t Ride Whiteness to the White House, by Paul Waldman.
“He thinks naked white supremacy will make him president. He’s almost certainly wrong.”
Link
@333 birgerjohansson: The bit about some of the files not being redacted correctly is true. I doubt the connection to Doge is true. There are a number of tools that could be used for the redactions. With this administration it’s possible but would require a remarkable multi-step chain of incompetence. I’m still leaning towards some low level DOJ and FBI personal intentionally doing it wrong.
Re: birgerjohansson @333: Regarding redaction, there was at least one document that had its redaction performed poorly several years ago included in the release. It’s a straightforward mistake for inexperienced users. Elaborated in my comment under PZ’s post.
Regarding Musk/DOGE.
Eric Columbus (Obama DHS/DoJ):
Lynna @ # 341, quoting Paul Waldman: … when they searched for a leader for their party in 2016, Republicans decided that they would rally behind literally the worst human being in America, the walking collection of character flaws known as Donald Trump…. you can’t become president when people instinctively recoil from you.
How on earth can Waldman miss the blatant contradictions in his own analysis?
Pierce @345: There’s no contradiction. The disaster of a human being called Trump resonates with the sizeable minority of Americans who are similarly disastrous. Vance, despicable though he is, simply doesn’t have the right flavour of despicability.
Ohio Shocker: Republicans Are Panicking Behind the Scenes
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pIlOBjmjLIc
While Ramaswamy is an opportunist, he is a smarter opportunist than J D Vance.
“Donald Trump’s Doctor QUITS After Health Records LIE Scandal | Jimmy Kimmel”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=dasmABrMjBo
As Jimmy Kimmel has a record of being right this should be big news.
birgerjohansson@333
It’s Jack Cocchiarella – so the chances of it being bogus are well over 90%. I find these constant YouTube titles with “collapse”, “panic”, “SHOCK” etc. from him, MeidasTouch, Brian Tyler Cohen, etc. as irritating as those from their MAGAT counterparts, and have stopped watching them. Similarly those from pro-Ukraine sources claiming Putin is about to be overthrown, the Russian army to collapse, etc.
Source : https://www.space.com/astronomy/comets/interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-reveals-weird-wobbling-jets-in-rare-sun-facing-tail
One of my personal fave topics discussed on space dot com here for a 2025 summary :
Source : https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/the-most-exciting-exoplanet-discoveries-of-2025
One of Anton Petrov’s latest on one particularly astounding exoplanet recently found or at least recently studied here – Impossible Lemon Shaped Carbon Planet Shouldn’t Exist (just under 15 mins long) specifically PSR J2322−2650 b. Orbiting a pulsar.
Hoping PZ is okay, been a while now since his last blog post here. Anyone know please?
Birgitte Bardot 1934-2025
RIP
https://www.ms.now/the-weekend/watch/he-is-scared-trump-posts-150-times-on-christmas-day-in-unhinged-rage-baiting-spree-2478651971632
Video is 9:27 minutes
Father tracks kidnapped daughter using phone’s parental controls, authorities say
“The suspect was partially nude when the kidnapped girl’s father found her, authorities said.”
Best cartoons of the worst people: Pam Bondi edition
Elon Musk: The FDNY Veteran Who Worked 9/11 and Covid Isn’t Qualified to Lead the Department
“ ‘People will die because of this,’ he said, implying that Mamdani’s pick was a DEI hire.”
Trump says he had ‘good’ call with Putin ahead of Zelensky meeting in Florida
Related video at the link.
Washington Post link
Much more at the link.
New York Times link
“Jim Beam Halts Production, as Whiskey Market Struggles”
“The bourbon giant is closing its flagship distilling operation for all of 2026.”
Rob Grigjanis @ # 346: Vance… doesn’t have the right flavour of despicability.
Having such different senses of ethic/esthetics, I question whether you, or I, or Waldman, can possibly judge how MAGAts see that.
New York Times link
“Stephen Miller Cites Children of Immigrants as a Problem”
“As it seeks to end birthright citizenship, the Trump administration is arguing that immigrants bring problems that extend for generations. The data shows otherwise.” [!]
Stephen Miller is not just racist, he is ignorant.
RIP Barbara Walker, “one of knitting’s great minds” who also published books on skepticism, atheism, and feminism. https://www.reddit.com/r/knitting/comments/1pxfyag/we_lost_a_great_knitter/
Cartoon: Are you happy now?
Trump’s word salad, bluster and meaningless pronouncements:
Link
Note that Trump is back to lying about Putin being interested in a peace deal.
Trump takes his marching orders from Putin, as usual.
Word and phrases from 2025:
New York Times link
Re: Lynna @363:
Another example.
Sherrilyn Ifill (Civil rights lawyer):
Commentary
[Video] Frank Sinatra – The house I live in (5:00 to 6:48)
Yahoo News: GOP coalescing behind Vance as Trump privately dismisses third-term run
This ultimately comes from the LA Times and is a puff piece for Vance and Turning Point USA. Those two groups have become close since Kirk’s death but it’s inflating the power of either to think they can line up the primary. This is more hoping that if they move early they can keep the number of people running small.
If this is true it’s more Trump realizing he doesn’t have the energy or mental capacity to do it any more. Trump is not concerned with consistency. There is no telling what he will do then.
@ ^ JM : Could it be that at some level Trump knows he’s very sick and won’t be around for too much longer – or is that just wishful thinking?
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-12-25/james-webb-space-telescope-four-year-anniversary-christmas-day/106090726
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-28/trump-us-air-strikes-is-militants-nigeria/106181242
^ Ibid Important to note on the situation in Nigeria
Same source as above.
The Anime examples range from insane parodies to dark fantasy.
NekoDecoPop;
“Best LGBTQ Anime Dubs – Part 3”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=UVDVkK40W_w
I am not familiar with the subcultures but they certainly have a lot of imagination.
Jaco informs Bulma that Frieza has been resurrected #dragonball
.https://youtube.com/shorts/0XSTDpE2MMI
Bulma is cool. I never had a friend whose mom builds time machines.
StevoR@ 352
Thank you. I considered posting a link, but was distracted.
.
About the dualism of the human mind: Birgitte Bardot was comitted to animal rights while being a xenophobe.
A poll of beliefs held by Republican voters made by the conservative Manhattan Institute
“The most DISASTROUS poll I’ve EVER SEEN”
Moon landing was hoax (30%), Holocaust denial…
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pv3gAaPyGbI
They cannot be reformed. Tow the party out to the Marianas Trench and dump it.
@370 StevoR: It is certainly possible but I don’t think it’s likely to take Trump out of office. Not because it’s unlikely he is sick but rather because it would be much easier to keep something like that under wraps if he is likely to survive past his term. It would be easy for him to be secretly diagnosed with the medicare care available to him but if he was only expected to survive a year there would be pressure to prepare Vance, prepare the public, prepare the White House for him being ill, adjust his schedule, etc.
Trump gets spanked by Rachel Maddow (short)
.https://youtube.com/shorts/nUHDX2sQCOo
.
Terry Talks Movies
“A Great 1970s Sleazy Action Movie Double Feature!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Gb2GsYImWyM
Me @ 377
At the 1.50 mark you find the exact numbers.
It is actually worse than what I stated.
This is a demographic that is racist and utterly ignorant.
Sky Captain @368, quoting Sherrilyn Ifill:
Sherrilyn Ifill is brilliant.
This from Frank Sinatra bears repeating:
Winter rain floods Gaza camps as Netanyahu heads for U.S. meeting
“At least 12 people, including a 2-week-old infant, have died since Dec. 13 from hypothermia or weather-related collapses of war-damaged homes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.”
American Abroad; Hendo In Norway:
“Things that Shocked Me about Norwegian Elections”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=TN5Qm8PLxsI
Me @ 379
Erratum: the part about Rachel Maddow must be made-up news. There is no way the White House would have let her in as part of the press pool.
“The 2028 Presidential Election Based on Trump’s Approval Rating”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=u_KTwOpMLGI
Adam Smith always assumed his “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” would be read alongside his “The Wealth of Nations”.
He did not believe the things the conservative pundits attribute to him.
He was against pretty much all of the things we see in late-stage capitalism.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17DS1z5KRe/
Magnetic control of lithium enables a safe, explosion-free ‘dream battery’
.https://techxplore.com/news/2025-12-magnetic-lithium-enables-safe-explosion.html
.
Redesigned carbon molecules boost battery safety, durability and power
.https://techxplore.com/news/2025-12-redesigned-carbon-molecules-boost-battery.html
With the death of Birgitte Bardot, only three people mentioned in Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” are still alive.
“Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is Dying — And Ukraine Has No Navy!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=SCeQiCWWAfY
.
“Finland’s Patria 6×6 APC Review: The Armored Vehicle NATO Can’t Ignore”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=iPZ1IS4p0oY
Is Keir Starmer Corrupting the Labour Party?
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=O-P1hvPqymY
Machine learning identifies statin and phenothiazine combo for neuroblastoma (a childhood cancer) treatment
.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-machine-statin-phenothiazine-combo-neuroblastoma.html
NB!
Today is the 135th anniversary of the massacre at Wounded Knee.
Why it matters that Howard Lutnick is flunking the basics on economic growth
“Either the commerce secretary is confused about rudimentary economic details, or he’s doing an excellent imitation of someone who’s alarmingly ignorant.”
Congress has gotten bad at being Congress
“It’s impressive how little the GOP managed to get done legislatively despite controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress.”
Related video at the link. Video is 3:39 minutes.
This was supposed to be a banner year for Republicans. For the second time in a decade, the GOP holds total sway over Washington, controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House. But as 2025 ends, the majority party has little to show for its meager efforts at legislating. In fact, the data shows that Congress is getting worse and worse at its main job: passing laws.
[…] Trump spent this year barreling forward in myriad directions, enthusiastically stretching executive power to previously untested boundaries as he implements his agenda. Little of the president’s energy was spent working with Congress, however, to try to turn his policies into law. […]
Despite Republican majorities in the House and Senate, only 61 bills passed both chambers this year, according to Congress.gov. Of those, 22 were disapproval resolutions overturning Biden administration rules and regulations. Two others were bills renaming federal buildings: a post office in Oklahoma and a New Jersey outpatient clinic run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
In fact, as The Washington Post’s Paul Kane recently noted, the House “set a 21st-century record for fewest votes cast (362) in the first session of a two-year Congress.” Johnson frequently recessed the House early when faced with revolts from his caucus and opted to keep the chamber closed even before the 43-day long federal shutdown began. Meanwhile, the Senate has been spending most of its time in session this year on confirming Trump’s nominees rather than producing legislation.
[…] The decline in output becomes even more pronounced when contrasted to the last time Republicans held both houses of Congress and the White House in the pre-Trump era – which would be in 2003 under President George W. Bush. In the first year of the 108th Congress, Republican lawmakers sent 198 bills to Bush’s desk to become law. Granted, 45 of those bills named federal buildings — but the remaining 153 still vastly outnumber the output from the more recent Congresses.
Part of the problem is a structural breakdown of the legislative process and lawmaking calendar, as Patrick McHenry, a former Republican House member from North Carolina, recently summed up to NPR:
[…] One tactic that’s been used in the House an unusual amount this year, the discharge petition, is an option for rank-and-file members to get around the speaker’s tight grasp on the legislative agenda. But procedural workarounds, while useful at times, aren’t a sustainable antidote to the lack of agency many legislators are feeling. Without work to do in Washington, many lawmakers have felt little incentive to stay in office. Already, a record number have announced plans to exit ahead of next year’s midterms.
[…] if the GOP were to lose the House next November, the odds of bills reaching Trump’s desk dwindle even further. Which points up another sad truth: For lawmakers deciding whether to stay or go, this largely wasted year could actually be a high point of productivity.
So much for the civilized human society!
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/12/american-pirates-and-the-coming-militarization-of-commercial-shipping.html
https://www.newsweek.com/pirates-drug-cartels-mexico-mike-lee-privateers-2037768
‘Pirates’ Could Be Deployed to Fight Cartels – Newsweek
Feb 28, 2025 Private United States citizens could be deployed as “pirates” to tackle Mexican drug cartels under proposals put forward by Republicans.
‘Adapt, shrink, or die’: Trump administration slashes funding for UN humanitarian aid
Stephen Miller is a lying, fascist monster! Here’s just one of hundreds of examples (many have been posted here already):
https://digbysblog.net/2025/12/28/well-miss-them-when-theyre-gone/
The ‘comic’ linked below seems to explain a lot. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry or walk into the disintegrator beam.
(read the text below the comic, it is prescient)
https://www.dailykos.com/blogs/Tom%20Tomorrow/
Shermanj @ 397
Since Stephen Miller lost his hair he looks rather like an Italian gentleman that was active a century ago. Is this an analogy of… Vigo the Carpathian? The baddie returning in a new body.
reply to @399 birgerjohansson: WOW, my memory of vigo the carpathian is from the ghost busters movie. I wish we could get rid of faScist miller like that! But, his self-contradictory, monstrous malice is no laughing matter and is a diseased appendage to tRUMP.
Trump ends the year the way he started it: Vouching for Putin’s interest in ‘peace’
The pièce de résistance came when the American president declared, in apparent seriousness, “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed.”
Trump is just a gullible doofus with the mind of young child. He wants Daddy Putin to love him. I also think Putin has some other leverage over Trump, leverage about which we are unaware.
Trump’s statements follow a pattern. He softens his criticism of others and/or praises world leaders depending on to whom he last spoke. This pattern has grown more pronounced over time. Another sign of advancing dementia?
On the other hand, Trump often reverts quickly to his favorite stock phrases (opinions) that he has repeated many times in the past, such as the canard that Putin wants peace, that Putin is sincere, that Putin is strong, and so forth.
The statement that Putin wants Ukraine to succeed is new, which means it is likely that Putin fed him that line during their recent phone conversation. Trump also said, “I saw a different Putin.” Trump is a gullible doofus.
US offered Ukraine 15 years of security guarantees, Zelenskyy says
“The Ukrainian leader is pushing for more extensive guarantees from Washington.”
Oh FFS.
Link</>
Yahoo News: Trump’s DOJ Busted Tracking Epstein Reporter on Day He Was Arrested
This should be investigated itself. There are not a lot of legitimate reasons the FBI might have been following her movement. Making sure she was not on hand when Epstein was arrested would be a big no-no.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/ukraine-russia-war-still-going-despite
“Ukraine-Russia War Still Going Despite Hallucinations Running Through Trump’s Demented Brain”
Tom the Dancing Bug:
A busy day in Washington DC
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15VhMBukQXw/
Lynna, OM @ 405
In regard to DJT I am reminded of a Stephen King novel – later filmed – where an alien parasite grew in the intestine and egressed through the rectum.
I think the term “shitweasel” was used by the protagonist to describe it.
Farron Cousins:
“Bitter Trump Voters Say He’s Using Them As Political Pawns”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Vw7kT6fTNTA
Stand by for the LazerPig Christmas Message!
‘So, can we talk about Trump’s new “battleship”?’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cJ2-h_0H_08
A look back at ‘South Park’ taking the piss out of Trump in 2025
Lots of videos and video snippets are available at the link.
Associated Press:
Wall Street Journal:
New York Times:
NBC News:
Where is the discussion about providing more aid to Palestinians still Gaza? See comment 382.
MS NOW:
ICE is on the losing side in a lot of court cases.
NewYork Times:
There were a lot reports about the evident incompetence of the Justice Department that was revealed in this case. It is good to see so much confirmation that it is true. Some people speculated that releasing the improperly redacted files was the result an insider deliberately doing so. I lean towards the “incompetence” explanation.
Politico:
Latest government inflation, GDP figures are worthless, and will be for months
Adam Isacson (WOLA):
The Handbasket – Trump says US bombed alleged drug facility in Venezuela. No one knows if it’s true.
Brian Finucane (JustSecurity):
Brian Finucane:
Nicholas Grossman (Intl relations prof):
David Kaye (UN special rapporteur): “It’s a war of aggression. no other way to describe it as a matter of law.”
Nicholas Grossman: “The US wasn’t attacked by Venezuela, someone based in Venezuela, or anyone else. There’s no self-defense argument, and the US didn’t even try for UNSC authorization.”
Who is the idiot Democrat who agrees USA should go into war?
Rando:
“I hope Trump repeals Obamacare because my insurance alteady comes from the Affordable Care Act!”
Great little vimeo clip here on a critically endangered Vietnamese snail (Bertia cambojiensis) 5 minutes long :
fc423d8ef0?turnstile=0.jgU8d3NYStxPtdlMPW7Z8OCGc9d98-B3F0EXAEGAXFngTgu0md8JiFYOADkxEqbrqI82VBWylYfn8NpFVb_dVlL_14Cb_lPLSxW-DdTFF0O5xTOOANwpnagYGEBGwHOs-W5lu_iXJcr1XohpQBWcWUQbS6tCMPMsqyWF28e51CthxTj4wEu_ulowZqaI38tww-kOd7x2oB9aORgZp6kAbEW-WJVdnFBmsWsmn5I9YkkCU1GtVwaRjPwQY9sXVJUiQ27EfdaR0Lo-OegnRNHnLVP3W-LWJVpS72ro7d0PU3ex7caQsV7jQ6q-rSnOouLErA48KydzxULWyIxQMmrRDuQuBKSfbjeuD39BzyRPJ6kmyIDvHffBG19BFPuHHWsWFywHuHgsjHQ_S22OQGT-p2zwXcwy6l0cLuaqDSk2g6JK-NB3ryOLnZvvuQX7Z06tKwlVCeUaNuMZQvPHt7SPKnFD7TPCgeNY–6go0jkLuIOqLT5siq5la0FO8CjHb0zjg1ADvOh9nI5kVQ-MuEiJQiJaqm0GwsKrEd-xSJfQczlwbkE8Zjl8_alQERoTY0oeSQ3dbyV6JP-sbXlbM8GAGXgzsDlKBykmN2r_Gln0v0AkXI92zNYKs1merZpYIYcgJZImx00FEZrwCmaceWYa7c6f9AhC6AvTN8ftjq7rAAkmWx_X4x–IydYb7xKddAU_5DZ71JdvCBzzr_Ui7tkoDuIekWLIqWnWdKznBE3LBJsOhjrS9fyRBGIGtEFDeaPaUwBfz1o6hh0Rcx-N8MLD_aYS3UwsevAsvMDr3wknB32byt7I5sQj_Ywh3-35iGB32CelU8G04qcUgkHHqEBryog_oDdmmX9JluoWyzsykeJn2Rtcb76-DCq-Dpmn1nT3bTkssPvcLyIlr8xDGdpyogbomedN2Bykxg8FHhJoK4aG8ehT8xEMM-vrm1oFlP.h9yu-ThizjP4yswq7aLMDw.039b63f670175fffd085cc0dd19d9651c445c367134d40efaf83406090fc0fad
Chester Zoo : A Snail’s Tale. (Vioetnamese Giant Magnolia Snail.)
Huh. It does exist but can’t seem to find it there without that long link which seems not towork here.. Frustrating. Apologies. Is a good clip if folks can find it!
On this species :
Source : https://www.longleat.co.uk/latest-news/a-rare-specimen
There’s a video there too but not as longand informative and good as the Chester Zoo Snail Tale one above.
Signal boost from an actual Nigerian – & blogger here :
Source : https://freethoughtblogs.com/yemmynisting/2025/12/28/dear-nigerian-christians-donald-trump-is-not-your-friend/
wonkette clearly wrote before Trump accepted Putin’s ludicrous lie that one of his mansions had been attacked.
@420-421 : Aha! Here tis!
https://www.chesterzoo.org/learning-resources/video-conservation-at-the-zoo-giant-vietnamese-magnolia-snails
Maybe Putin couldn’t be bothered to put in an appearance and a body-double was substituted?
From 7 days ago and can’t recasllif Iév already posted this before here but don’t think I have? Anyhow Destroying Knowledge”: Michael Mann on Trump’s Dismantling of Key Climate Center in Colorado (approx 8 mins long) by Democracy Now.
@ ^ Recall if I’ve..
PBS Newshour had a pretty bleak interview on Gaza’s future with some experts earlier today :
Source : https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/mideast-experts-analyze-chances-of-gaza-peace-proposal-advancing
Source : https://newatlas.com/environment/tidestromia-oblongifolia-plant-death-valley/
NB. Wikipedia has this listed as Tidestromia suffruticosa a.k.a. Shrubby Honeysweet.
A lot more different expert perspectives given here :
Source : https://www.space.com/space-exploration/how-nasa-changed-in-2025-possibly-forever
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-30/bondi-attack-gunmen-operated-alone-afp/106186662
“Lone wolves” radicalised but sceretive and no connections with others.
Source : https://phys.org/news/2025-12-men-embodying-women-vr-strong.html#goog_rewarded
KG @423, true!
StevoR @430 quoting text from Space.com:
Yikes. That is such bad news.
@431:
I think it is a mistake to call them “lone wolves.” If they were radicalized online, they are not alone.
Source : https://phys.org/news/2025-12-mexico-popocatpetl-volcano-scientists-3d.html
Did the president boast about a foreign strike that didn’t happen, or did he disclose a strike he wasn’t supposed to talk about? Now we know the answer.