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Friday, December 30, 2022

Weekend!

 Have an excellent holiday weekend and Happy New Year! See you bright and early Monday morning.


Returns

 AP News: View the released Trump tax returns

Barbara Walters Dies

 Washington Post: Barbara Walters, TV’s tireless pursuer of the newsmaker ‘get,’ dies at 93 - Wielding a bemused and intimate style, she became one of television’s premier interrogators of the newsworthy By Laurence I. Barrett

Glenn Kirschner - Trump And Kushner's Criminal Responsibility For Avoidable COVID Deaths - New Evidence In J6 Transcripts

Nicolle Wallace - Michael Cohen Reacts To Trump's Tax Returns - 'Donald's Time Has Come'

Super Dave's First Stunt

Fraud

 NY Times: Trump Tax Returns Undermine His Image as a Successful Entrepreneur - The release of former President Donald J. Trump’s private tax documents by the House Ways and Means Committee shows heavy losses from his own ventures as he continued to cash in on inherited assets. By Jim Tankersley, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner

Fiore

 MSNBC: Nevada’s newest (and least qualified) judge is an alarming teachable moment - Soon-to-be-Judge Michele Fiore appears not always to be a fan of a little thing called the rule of law. By Jessica Levinson

Fiore, who just lost her bid to become Nevada’s treasurer, has never practiced law. Indeed, it’s rare to serve as a judge when one has not even attended law school.

Meadows

 Politico: North Carolina AG won't press charges against Meadows over voter registration - In 2020, the then-White House chief of staff registered to vote in the state using the address of a mobile home he did not own or live in at the time, according to reporting from The New Yorker. By Kelly Garrity

CNN - Hear What Tax Expert Believes Trump Wanted To Keep Secret In His Taxes

PBS NewsHour - What Did We Learn From Trump's Tax Returns?

Who

 Seen on Post.

Donald Trump had a bank account in China…when he was the President of the United States. Who’s the communist?

BBC News - Has The War In Ukraine Changed Russia?

Reuters - U.S. House Committee Releases Trump Tax Returns

Morning Joe - Women Were On The Front Lines Of Fight For Freedom, Democracy In 2022

'Cult Of Personality'

Brooke C drums to the salient Living Colour track.

Epstein

 NPR: Epstein's sex trafficking was aided by JPMorgan, a U.S. Virgin Islands lawsuit says By Scott Neuman

Pardons

 Washington Post: Biden grants full pardons to six people who served their sentences By Eugene Scott and Toluse Olorunnipa  

Beverly Ann Ibn-Tamas, 80, of Columbus, Ohio, was convicted of murder in the second degree while armed for killing her husband. The then-33-year-old was pregnant and testified that her husband physically and verbally abused her moments before she shot him. During her trial, the court refused to allow expert testimony regarding battered woman syndrome, a psychological condition and pattern of behavior that may develop in victims of domestic violence...

Debacle

 NY Times: How the Speaker’s Election Could Devolve Into Chaos - Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader, has pledged to take his fight for the speakership to the House floor. It could turn into a debacle not seen in the chamber for a century. By Catie Edmondson

Funny

 Yahoo News: Trump warns sharing his tax returns will ‘lead to horrible things for so many people’ By Nicole Lyn Pesce

Tax

 Washington Post: What we’ve learned from Trump’s tax returns By Julie Zauzmer Weil and  Eugene Scott  

3. Trump has bank accounts in several foreign countries and earned money in many nations while he was president.

No One Is Surprised


 

Reuters - The Year In Numbers - Rising Prices, Endless Elon

Morning Joe - Fmr. Trump Aide Tried To Stop Trump's 'Injecting Bleach' Briefing, Jan. 6 Transcripts Show

The Mary Trump Show - Jennifer Rubin

Morning Joe - 'This Is Just Incredible' - New Revelations From Deposition Transcripts Release

Read

 Axios: READ: Trump's tax returns released by House Democrats By Herb Scribner

Scandal

 Washington Post: A tiny paper broke the George Santos scandal, but no one paid attention By Sarah Ellison

The North Shore Leader wrote in September, when few others were covering Santos, about his “inexplicable rise” in reported net worth — from essentially nothing in 2020 to as much as $11 million two years later.

Taxes

 NY Times: Key Takeaways From Trump’s Tax Returns - Thousands of pages of tax documents contain details that have not previously been revealed. Here’s a running list of insights. By Jim Tankersley

“Trump acted as though he had something to hide, a pattern consistent with the recent conviction of his family business for criminal tax fraud,” Representative Don Beyer, Democrat of Virginia and a Ways and Means Committee member, said in a news release.

The Onion - Flesh-Eating Bacteria Struggle To Chew Through Leathery Florida Residents

 The Onion: Flesh-Eating Bacteria Struggle To Chew Through Leathery Florida Residents

Frontiers

 Axios: New election frontiers shake up 2024 map By Mike Allen and Josh Kraushaar

Tax Release

 Washington Post: House panel releases Trump tax returns in another setback for former president By Marianna Sotomayor,  Jonathan O'Connell and  Michael Kranish  

Degree


 

What Could Go Wrong

 Unbelievable, and not in a good way.

 MIT Technology Review: A startup says it’s begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate - Make Sunsets is already attempting to earn revenue for geoengineering, a move likely to provoke widespread criticism. By James Temple

Billy On The Street - Christmas With Will Ferrell!

George


 

Have An Excellent Friday

artwork by Yellena James 





 

BBC News - Myanmar’s Former Leader Aung San Suu Kyi Jailed For A Further Seven Years

Reuters - Life-Changing Medical Innovations Of 2022

MSNBC - MAGAworld Rocked By Jan. 6 Testimony Bomb - Top Advisors Knew Of Plan To March On Capitol

Nicolle Wallace - Threat Of Mass Resignations Upended Trump's Coup Plans

Glenn Kirschner - Will McCarthy And Congressional Republicans Abuse The American Voters By Standing By Liar George Santos?

Review

 The Bulwark: 2022: A Consequential Year in Review - The good, the bad, and the absurd By Charlie Sykes

Quolls

 Guardian UK: Release of 10 quolls boosts ‘insurance’ population of endangered marsupial - The animals were released into Aussie Ark’s 400-hectare Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary By The Australian Associated Press

Count On It

 Guardian UK: Republicans could cause US to default on its debt, top Democrat warns - John Yarmuth, outgoing House budget committee chair, sounds alarm about GOP going into ‘blow-it-up mode’ on Capitol Hill By Chris Stein in Washington

Santos

 Washington Post: Opinion - In George Santos, the GOP gets the representative-elect it deserves By Eugene Robinson

Putin

 Washington Post: Putin, unaccustomed to losing, is increasingly isolated as war falters - A new gulf is emerging between the president and much of the country’s elite By Catherine Belton

More than 300 days of brutal war against Ukraine have blown up decades of Russia’s carefully cultivated economic relations with the West, turning the country into a pariah...

2022

 NY Times: Vaccines, Inflation, Abortion: 2022 in Charts By Steven Rattner -  Graphics by Taylor Maggiacomo - Mr. Rattner served as counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration. Taylor Maggiacomo is a graphic editor for The Times.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, access to abortion almost immediately began to erode as anti-abortion “trigger laws” went into effect and Republican-controlled state legislatures passed greater restrictions.

Politics

 NY Times: The 2022 High School Yearbook of American Politics By Michelle Cottle

Biggest Loser

Donald Trump

His legal troubles are piling up. He backed a bunch of losers in the midterms. That upstart DeSantis is eating into his presidential polling numbers.

The Market On Friday

 Good morning. At 7:30 a.m. ET DOW futures are -108, S&P futures are -18, and NASDAQ futures are -72.75. The market is poised to open significantly lower.

CNN: Tesla shares are down 70% for the year as Morgan Stanley cuts price target By Jordan Valinsky and Chris Isidore

Taste

oxygeusia - noun, an acute sense of taste

Oxygeusia is the shortest word with all six vowels. The opposite is hypogeusia (a diminished sense of taste), which also has all six vowels, but is one-letter longer. A complete lack of taste is ageusia. Example: People who like to cover everything around them in fake gold show their ageusia

Thursday, December 29, 2022

Pele - Top 10 Impossible Goals Ever

'I Feel Love'

Blue Man Group

'You Should Be Dancing'

Drums by Brooke C - she's terrfic!

William S Burroughs - 'The Junky's Christmas'

 "The Junky's Christmas is a story by William S. Burroughs. It appears in the 1989 collection Interzone and on the 1993 album Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales. It was also made into a 1993 short claymation film directed by Nick Donkin and Melodie McDaniel. The film was produced by Francis Ford Coppola and was released by Koch Vision on DVD in North America on Nov. 21, 2006. Burroughs narrates the film and appears in live-action footage at the beginning and end of the film."

Older

"The problem is, we look for someone to grow old together, while the secret is to find someone to stay a child with." - Charles Bukowski

Washington Post - The Wildest Political Moments Of 2022

BBC News - What's It Like To Start The Menopause In Your 20s?

Reuters - Cries For Help As Water Pipes Fail In Jackson

Morning Joe - Federal Judge Says Trump May Have Signaled To Supporters 'To Do Something More' Than Protest

Unclaimed

 NPR: Unclaimed luggage piles up at airports following Southwest cancellations By Giulia Heyward

Green

 Washington Post: 3 ways to tap billions in new money to go green — starting next month In 2023, you can electrify your home — and your car — with the help of the U.S. government. Here’s how. By Shannon Osaka

Heat pumps — the best choice for decarbonizing at home
Tax credit available on Jan. 1: 30 percent of the cost, up to $2,000
Income limit: None

Electric vehicles — top choice for cutting car emissions
Tax credit available on Jan. 1: Up to $7,500 depending on the make and model of the car Income limit: <$150,000 for single filers; <$300,000 for joint filers

Rooftop solar — the best choice for generating clean energy
Tax credit available now: 30 percent of the cost of installation, no cap
Income limit: None

Pelé Dies

 NY Times: Pelé, the Global Face of Soccer, Dies at 82 Pelé, who was declared a national treasure in his native Brazil, achieved worldwide celebrity and helped popularize the sport in the United States. By Lawrie Mifflin

Reuters - 2022 Set To Be UK's Warmest Year Yet

MSNBC - Moskowitz - George Santos' Lies Are 'Just The Lowest Form Of Humanity'

SNL - 'Prince Auditions'

The Onion - Self-Loving Tesla Forgives Itself For Running Over Child

 The Onion: Self-Loving Tesla Forgives Itself For Running Over Child

Next

 Washington Post: What’s next for the economy? 10 charts that show where things stand. Economists remain divided on whether a recession is imminent By Abha Bhattarai


 

Right

 Axios: Israel swears in most right-wing government in its history By Barak Ravid

Crack Pot Idea

 NY Times: The Next House Speaker Should Come From Outside the House By William S. Cohen and Alton Frye - Mr. Cohen, a former secretary of defense, served in both the House and the Senate as a Republican. Mr. Frye, a former congressional staff director, is the presidential senior fellow emeritus at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Likely

 


Uziyah Garcia

 Pictures of the year from the NY Times

"Ten days after the Buffalo shooting, 19 children and two teachers were shot to death at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. A bullet ripped through a fourth-grade math notebook belonging to one of the victims, 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia."



Lost


 

Resolution


 

Yup


 

Upstate NY Weather

 I just checked the weather forecast for Upstate NY. The prediction has 66F degrees next Wednesday. That's pretty unusual for these parts in January as January is easily the coldest month with February a close rival.



'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee'

Jerry Seinfeld And Michael Richards

Have An Excellent Thursday

artwork by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye





 

BBC News - 120 Russian Missiles Target Ukrainian Cities In Fresh Strikes

Reuters - Israeli Archaeologists Excavate Ancient Cave

MSNBC - Rep. Colin Allred - Trump Presidency 'Was A Stress Test For Our System'

MSNBC - Sisters In Law Co-Hosts On DOJ’s ‘Strategic’ Jan. 6 Investigation

MSNBC - Christian Nationalism Conspicuously Absent From January 6 Report

Posts

 The Bulwark: Donald Trump’s Dispatches From the Bunker - His posts on Truth Social in the last few days show him ranting and raging—and lying about the Jan. 6th Committee. By Bill Lueders

"Our Country is SICK inside, very much like a person dying of Cancer. The Crooked FBI, the so-called Department of “Justice,” and “Intelligence,” all parts of the Democrat Party and System, is the Cancer. These Weaponized Thugs and Tyrants must be dealt with, or our once great and beautiful Country will die!!!"

Plastic

 Guardian UK: New US lawsuit targets ‘forever chemicals’ in plastic food containers - Suit alleges Inhance failed to follow EPA rules involving dangerous PFAS chemicals and asks a judge to halt production By Tom Perkins

Kansas

 Guardian UK: A dying cancer patient used cannabis to ease pain. His hospital called the police - ‘You’d think they would have shown compassion’: patient’s son decries Kansas police who issued citation as father suffered By Lois Beckett

While the police department later dropped the citation, which would have required the cancer patient to appear in court, reports of the incident fueled debate over the continued criminalization of cannabis in Kansas, one of the three US states that has not legalized the product in any context.

Women And Heart Disease

 Washington Post: Heart health, women and the limits of exercise - Heart disease remains the No. 1 killer of American women -- and the risk extends to women like my friend Anne, who by all appearances was in great shape By Gretchen Reynolds

But one afternoon this month, Anne rode her bike, climbed off, and complained of nausea and fatigue. Her right arm ached. Blaming indigestion, she took Tums. They didn’t help. She vomited. Her husband suggested urgent care. She declined.

Ageism

 Washington Post: Opinion - Ageism is one form of bigotry that never seems to get old By Gary Abernathy

...when I arrived in my mid-60s. I sometimes notice younger people in social settings looking past me or through me, as though I’m almost invisible.

Santos - The Ideal GOP Candidate

 NY Times: George Santos Faces Federal and Local Investigations, and Public Dismay - Prosecutors said on Wednesday that they would examine Mr. Santos, who has admitted lying about his work and educational history during his campaign. By Michael Gold, Ed Shanahan, Brittany Kriegstein and Rebecca Davis O’Brien

She added: “No one is above the law, and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”

Nightmare

 NY Times: Russia-Ukraine War - Cities Around Ukraine Rocked as Russia Launches New Wave of Strikes

The Market On Thursday

Good morning. At 7:35 a.m. ET DOW futures are +80, S&P futures are +16, and NASDAQ futures are +62. The market is poised to open moderately higher.

CNN:  Twitter down: Thousands of global users struggle to login but Elon Musk says it ‘works for me’ By Diksha Madhok

 

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Birds Of A Feather

 


Difference

 What's the difference between a Ukrainian and a Republican?

A Ukrainian defends their capital.

Here It Comes

USA Today: Trump tax returns: Public scheduled to get first look Friday - A U.S. House committee is planning to release six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns Friday, a spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY. By Donovan Slack

At Least Someone Is Optimistic


 

Glenn Kirschner - The Many Crimes Of Mark Meadows Make Him The Prime Candidate For Prosecutors To Flip Against Trump

MSNBC - New Jan. 6 Bomb Rocks Trump White House - Burning Docs In Fireplace

'I'm Not In Love'

10 CC

Jupiter

NASA - “Swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter’s northern hemisphere.”


 

Burner

 Trump was apparently using burner phones to contact states about his fake electors scheme.

"Former Michigan state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey says he was given a heads up by the state house speaker that Trump might call him and that it would show up on his phone as "Spam risk Egypt.""



MSNBC - 'Do You Have No Shame?' - Santos Questioned On Record In Fox News Interview

SNL - 'Star Trek V - The Restaurant Enterprise'

Morning Joe - Jan. 6 Committee Releases More Interview Transcripts

Morning Joe - The Most Shocking Results Of The Midterm Elections

David E. Price

 Washington Post: Opinion - Congress is losing a wise institutional patriot By E.J. Dionne Jr.

F.B.I.

 NY Times: Republicans Step Up Attacks on F.B.I. as It Investigates Trump - Historically, the F.B.I.’s critics have come from the left. But the bureau’s array of inquiries into former President Donald J. Trump has turned the tables. By Adam Goldman and Alan Feuer

Tests

 Axios: US to require negative COVID-19 test for air travelers from China By Herb Scribner

Fuzzy

 The Salt Lake Tribune: Let us hear no more about how the U.S. is a Christian country, George Pyle writes - We don’t seem to care very much about ‘the least of these’

Vague because Gov. Greg Abbott is among many Americans who have a fuzzy knowledge of the religion they claim to follow.

We hear more and more from Republicans in the Donald Trump camp who come right out and call for the United States to be an officially Christian nation.

Morning Joe - Republican Leadership Remains Silent On Rep.-Elect George Santos

Morning Joe - Jonah Goldberg - Trump Takes Over For Nixon As Saddest Figure In Post-Presidential Politics

No Comment

 Washington Post: Opinion - Joy of childbirth turned into trauma — because of a poppy seed bagel By Leana S. Wen

Upon questioning, she reported eating two “everything” bagels that contained poppy seeds. These aren’t opioids and wouldn’t cause NAS, but they can mimic morphine and codeine to trigger positive urine tests.

Heaping Pile

 NY Times: How the House of Trump Was Built By Carlos Lozada

“His aversion to hearing bad news led to people tiptoeing around him or trying to avoid telling him certain things,” she writes, a dangerous trait when your job involves managing all manner of emergencies.

The Onion - Things All Cats Do That Prove They Are Psychopaths

 The Onion: Things All Cats Do That Prove They Are Psychopaths

Croft

 Axios: Second ringleader in Whitmer kidnapping plot sentenced, gets more than 19 years in prison By Jacob Knutson

Truth


 

Indeed

“Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst.” ― C.S. Lewis

Have An Excellent Wednesday

 artwork by Judy Appleby





 

BBC News - Australia's Love Affair With The Mullet

 Party in the back and all business up front returns.

Reuters - Tesla Shares See Worst Day In Eight Months

MSNBC - Questionable Math Builds Anticipation For Release Of Trump Taxes Friday

MSNBC - WH Aide Testified That Trump Wanted Blanket Pardon For Everyone Involved In Jan. 6

MSNBC - Surprising Subplots Emerge In New Batch Of January 6 Committee Transcripts

Ranting Liar

 The Bulwark: Donald Trump’s Dispatches From the Bunker - His posts on Truth Social in the last few days show him ranting and raging—and lying about the Jan. 6th Committee. By Bill Lueders

(Trump wrote on Truth Social) Our Country is SICK inside, very much like a person dying of Cancer. The Crooked FBI, the so-called Department of “Justice,” and “Intelligence,” all parts of the Democrat Party and System, is the Cancer. These Weaponized Thugs and Tyrants must be dealt with, or our once great and beautiful Country will die!!!

Jaguars

 Guardian UK: The mission to return jaguars to the US: ‘We aren’t right without them’ - The big cats once roamed North America but have been pushed near to extinction. Could they make a comeback? By Erin McCormick

Frost

 Guardian UK: First Gen Z congressman Maxwell Frost says he’s part of the ‘mass shooting generation’ By Andrew Lawrence in Atlanta

Dry

 Washington Post: The benefits of ‘Dry January’ last longer than a month, studies show - People who abstained from alcohol for a month started drinking less the rest of the year and showed striking improvements in their health. By Anahad O’Connor

War

 Washington Post: ‘Nothing left to destroy:’ Russia is fighting for land already in ruins By Jeff Stein and  Ievgeniia Sivorka  

Covid

 NY Times: As Covid-19 Continues to Spread, So Does Misinformation About It - Doctors are exasperated by the persistence of false and misleading claims about the virus. By Tiffany Hsu

The company (Twitter) recently gutted the teams responsible for keeping dangerous or inaccurate material in check on the platform, stopped enforcing its Covid misinformation policy and began basing some content moderation decisions on public polls...

Drones

 NY Times: U.S. Scrambles to Stop Iran From Providing Drones for Russia - As the war in Ukraine grinds on, some officials have become convinced that Iran and Russia are building a new alliance of convenience. By David E. Sanger, Julian E. Barnes and Eric Schmitt

The Biden administration has launched a broad effort to halt Iran’s ability to produce and deliver drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, an endeavor that has echoes of its yearslong program to cut off Tehran’s access to nuclear technology.

The Market On Wednesday

 Good morning. At 7:30 a.m. ET DOW futures are +97, S&P futures are +10, and NASDAQ futures are +21. The market is poised to open moderately higher. For several weeks pre-market futures have been positive yet the market has opened in the red, not a great period for stocks.

CNN: Wall Street’s dirty secret: It’s terrible at forecasting stocks By Nicole Goodkind

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

File

 Yahoo News: Mike Pence did not file to run for president, adviser says

Cheat

 DC Report: Trump’s Brazen Tax Cheating Revealed By David Cay Johnston

Convergence

Washington Post: Buffalo’s no stranger to snow. Why was the storm so deadly? By Brianna Sacks and  Emily Wax-Thibodeaux  

...due to a collision of a historic blizzard, bad timing, a dearth of emergency management resources, and the immense difficulty of trying to force residents who are largely desensitized to severe weather to abandon much-needed jobs, as well as their holiday plans...

Glenn Kirschner - Arizona Republican Kari Lake - An Election Denier - Loses First At The Ballot Box And Then In Court

No Comment

 Trump is selling a $2 bill for $19.95. You can't make this stuff up.

Amazon: President Donald Trump 2020 Genuine $2 Bill and Coin Set - 45th President Brand: FCM $19.95


 

Morning Joe - Abbott Sends Three Busloads Of Immigrants To VP's Official Residence On Christmas Eve

Reuters - Peru Protest Deaths Keep Anger Burning

MSNBC - Man Sentenced To 16 Years For Plotting To Kidnap Gov. Whitmer

The Mary Trump Show - Clairvoyant Donald Trump

Wonderful

 NPR: 50 wonderful things from 2022 By Linda Holmes

Crime

 Washington Post: Opinion - Is crime going up, down or sideways? Don’t ask the FBI. By the Editorial Board

A trustworthy set of statistics is a foundational tool with which to begin figuring out just how big of a problem crime, police use of force and related issues are in the United States — and how to tackle them.

Rural America

 NY Times: A Policy Renaissance Is Needed for Rural America to Thrive By Tony Pipa - Mr. Pipa is a senior fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution.

That leaves most rural communities starved for investment. Very few can get the type and level of resources necessary to reinvent their economy or unleash the full potential of their human, intellectual and natural capital as they face rapid change.

Narcissists

 Politico: Opinion - 2022 Is the Year We All Finally Got Tired of Narcissists - Narcissists had their moment in the sun. But in 2022, some of them got their comeuppance and some of them got worse: our disinterest. By Joanna Weiss

It’s hard to count any narcissist out; it’s not in their nature to give up the stage, even in exile, sometimes from jail. When they want attention, they get creative.

It’s the public that has to decide whether to bite.

Seinfeld - 'NBC Guy's Daughter Molly - The Cleavage Stare'

PBS NewsHour - Increasing Number Of People In United Kingdom Go Hungry Because Of Price Spikes

This clip is two weeks old, it remains relevant.

Morning Joe - 'This Is About Putting Russia In The Dark' - Ukraine Aims For February Peace Talks With Russia

Morning Joe - Gov. Tim Walz - 'This Is A Critical Time In Our Nation's History'

Newspapers

 Washington Post: Opinion - Newspapers are disappearing where democracy needs them most By Nancy Gibbs

Travel

 NY Times: Thousands of Canceled Flights Upend Travel Plans Across U.S. - Most of the disruption was on Southwest Airlines, which had called off more than 60 percent of its flights by Tuesday morning. By Derrick Bryson Taylor and Daniel Victor

The Onion - Existential Horror At Wealthy Elite Selling Off Humanity’s Future Successfully Sublimated Into Yelling At Cashier

 The Onion: Existential Horror At Wealthy Elite Selling Off Humanity’s Future Successfully Sublimated Into Yelling At Cashier

Gap

 Axios: New data: GOP's gap with independent voters By Mike Allen and Josh Kraushaar

Fox

 MSN: Whitmer kidnap plot leader Adam Fox spared life sentence, gets 16 years Story By Tresa Baldas

Of Course

 Fascinating trend in American politics - the bigger the lies and the fake-ier credentials you concoct, the better your chances are of winning.


 

Abbot

 America.substack: The Sociopathy of Greg Abbott By Steven Beschloss

Accept

"If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you." - T. S. Eliot

Have An Excellent Tuesday

artwork by David Esterly, carved out of limewood. 

"Limewood is a popular wood when it comes to woodcarving and woodworking projects. Limewood is the same as basswood. They only differ because of their origin."






‪'Consolação‬"'

Rosinha de Valença‬, 1966

BBC News - What's Behind The UK's Christmas Love Affair With Pantomime

Reuters - Nepal's Ex-Guerrilla Chief Sworn In As Prime Minister

Morning Joe - 'I Said I Was Jew-ish' - Rep.-Elect Santos Admits To Lying About His Background

Glenn Kirschner - Trump's Tax Returns And The Corruption At The Top Of The IRS During The Trump Years

Abbott

 The Bulwark: Greg Abbott: Scrooge. Our immigration problem calls for generosity, not cruelty. By Mona Charen

Reindeer

 Guardian UK: Svalbard reindeer thrive as they shift diet towards ‘popsicle-like’ grasses -Increased plant growth due to warmer climate appears to be prompting change in eating habits Reindeer graze on Spitsbergen island in Svalbard in May By Linda Geddes - Science correspondent

We Shall See

 It would be unrealistic to think that Trump is finished.

 Guardian UK: As Trump’s star wanes, rivals signal presidential nomination campaigns - Republicans vying for the party’s nomination have taken the ex-president’s midterm losses as a sign for them to step up By Edward Helmore

War

 Washington Post: Ukraine live briefing: Kyiv aims for February peace talks; front-line situation is ‘acute,’ Zelensky says By Kelsey Ables and  Leo Sands

The Kremlin has repeatedly said that Ukraine must face new “realities” — recognizing Russian territorial gains and control of Crimea, which was illegally annexed in 2014 — before a peace plan can be enacted.

Tanks

 Washington Post: Captured Russian tanks and equipment are coveted trophies — and a headache - Ukrainian forces have seized hundreds of tanks and other military vehicles, but many are languishing as they wait for repairs and spare parts By Samantha Schmidt,  Isabelle Khurshudyan and  Serhii Korolchuk  

The BMP-3, armed with a 100mm machine gun and a 30mm cannon, was one of the few of its kind that the Ukrainian military had seized from the Russians since the start of the invasion. But about a month ago, after weeks of being operated by Ukrainian soldiers, its engine compartment and fueling system began to fail.

Remembering

 NY Times: Notable Deaths of 2022 - Remembering Queen Elizabeth II, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Sidney Poitier, Bill Russell, Loretta Lynn, Jiang Zemin, Madeleine Albright, Jean-Luc Godard, Shinzo Abe, Régine, Meat Loaf, Ivana Trump, Vin Scully and many others who died in 2022.

Coolio, 59 - “Gangsta’s Paradise” rapper

Pharoah Sanders, 81 - Force of nature with a saxophone

Uh Oh

 NY Times: ‘Tragic Battle’: On the Front Lines of China’s Covid Crisis - Medical staff are outnumbered and working sick as the nation’s health care system buckles under the strain of a spiraling crisis. By Isabelle Qian and David Pierson

Even as Covid cases rise, health workers on the front lines are also battling rampant infections within their own ranks. So many have tested positive for the virus in some hospitals that the remaining few say they are forced to do the job of five or more co-workers.

The Market On Tuesday

 Good morning. At 7:25 a.m. ET DOW futures are +206, S&P futures are +22.25, and NASDAQ futures are +39.5. The market is poised to open significantly higher.

CNN: China to scrap quarantine for inbound travelers in major step toward reopening By Yong Xiong, Xiaofei Xu and Nectar Gan

Monday, December 26, 2022

Never Happen

 Washington Times: Rep. Jamie Raskin seeks to ditch Electoral College in favor of national popular vote By Kerry Picket

Of Course


 

PBS NewsHour - Tamara Keith And Leigh Ann Caldwell On Candidates Seeking A White House Run In 2024

Color

 Smithsonian Magazine: This British Zoologist Wants to Reinvent Color - Andrew Parker has produced some of the brightest hues in the world. So, what’s his secret? By Tomas Weber

Buffalo

 I just took a screen shot of the weather forecast for Buffalo NY, where at the moment it's a snow disaster. Looks like the warming trend will take away at least a good part of the snow.



Sanctions

 NBC News: Katie Hobbs seeks sanctions against Kari Lake after Arizona judge dismisses election challenge lawsuit - "Enough really is enough," Maricopa County said in its motion, which Hobbs signed on to, after an Arizona judge denied Lake’s bid to reverse her defeat in the governor's race. By Summer Concepcion

Democratic Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs and Maricopa County filed for sanctions Monday against Republican Kari Lake, less than 48 hours after a judge ruled against Lake's efforts to have herself declared the winner of Arizona's governor race.

Pence

 US News: Mike Pence to Run for U.S. President in 2024 By Reuters

MSNBC - Inside The January 6 Committee

BBC News - Deadly Winter Storm Elliot Continues To Grip North America

MSNBC - 'Blizzard Of The Century' - At Least 55 Dead In Brutal Winter Storm

Morning Joe - The Economist Looks Ahead To 2023

Morning Joe - Why 2022 Was A Major Legislative Year For The Democrats

Summit

NPR:  A top Ukraine official hopes for a peace summit with Russia by the end of February By The Associated Press

Duo

 Washington Post: Opinion - Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney are the Jan. 6 committee’s unusual dynamic duo By Eugene Robinson

Thompson painted the big picture — the threat to our democracy...Cheney zeroed in on the man responsible, the man who summoned the insurrectionists, fired them up, sent them off... Donald Trump.

Inflation

 NY Times: Is the Inflation Storm Letting Up? By Paul Krugman

More broadly, recent reports on the inflation measures the Federal Reserve traditionally uses to guide its interest rate policy have been really, really good.

Reuters - South Korea Fires At Intruding North Korean Drones

Face The Nation - Raskin Says Jan. 6 Report Reveals 'Real Villainy' But Also 'Real Heroism'

Morning Joe - Who Received The Most Political Attention In 2022?

Morning Joe - Takeaways From The Jan. 6 Committee's 18-Month Probe

Out

 Washington Post: Opinion - In Afghanistan, the lights go out for women By the Editorial Board

Anger

NY Times: How Anger Affects the Body Lost your cool? Your heart, brain and gut are taking notice. By Gina Cherelus

So if you’re already living with conditions that affect the cardiovascular system such as high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms or high cholesterol, moments of extreme anger may leave you more vulnerable to a sudden heart attack.

When you’re filled with rage, Dr. Wittstein offered as an example, blood pressure can increase, blood vessels can constrict, inflammatory cells are released by the immune system. All of this can lead to the rupturing of plaque inside the coronary artery.

The Onion - Man Peels Price Tag Off Gift For Dog

 The Onion: Man Peels Price Tag Off Gift For Dog

Action

 Axios: Churches spring into action after migrants left outside Harris' home By Mike Allen

Plead

Yahoo News: Trump's legal team better be able to get him to plead insanity at trial, a Harvard law professor says By Cheryl Teh

Life

 Yahoo News: Rep. Raskin: Trump could spend ‘the remaining days of his misanthropic life behind bars’ - A leading member of the Jan. 6 select committee, Raskin said it was important that "not just foot soldiers" be punished for the attack. By Michael Isikoff

Eunoia

eunoia - pronounced 'yoo-NOY-uh' 

noun:
1. A feeling of goodwill.
2. A state of good mental health.

Round Them Up

AP News: US: Jan. 6 participant arrested after California standoff By Stefanie Dazio

AP News: Renowned painter’s son convicted in Jan. 6 attack on Capitol By Steve LeBlanc 

Masks

 NY Times: The Last Holdouts - It can be tough being a committed mask wearer when others have long since moved on. By Amy Harmon

Have An Excellent Monday

 

artwork by Elizabeth Morisette - 'Upcycle' is converting waste material into greater functionality.
 




 

BBC News - Ukrainian Teenager Played Piano To Drown Out Russian Bombs

BBC News - Rare Fossils In India Reveal Secrets Of The Planet

Reuters - China Hospitals Overwhelmed By COVID Surge

Morning Joe - Weekend Winter Storm Leaves 46 Dead Across The Country

'MSNBC - 'It’s Going To Take Two To Tango’ - Congressman-Elect Glenn Ivey On His First Term Priorities

Ali Velshi - 8 Years Ago, Ukraine Only Had A 'Military On Paper' - Now It’s Beating Back A Superpower

Fake

 The Bulwark: What the Jan. 6th Report Says About the Fake Electors Scheme - “Freaking Trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the senate President.” By Philip Rotner

Chestnuts

 Guardian UK: ‘When in doubt, plant a nut tree’: the push to seed America with chestnuts By Emily Cataneo

Boosts

 Guardian UK: January 6 panel’s body of work boosts DoJ case against Trump, experts say - Former prosecutors say richly detailed report from Capitol attack committee ‘amounts to a detailed prosecution memo’ By Peter Stone in Washington

Moves

 Washington Post: Republicans making moves toward entering 2024 primary against Trump - Their actions reflect a growing sense in the GOP that the former president is far from an inevitable nominee By Hannah Knowles

A crowded field could play to Trump’s advantage, as it did in 2016 when the rest of the party did not unite around a single alternative as Trump won key early contests with a plurality of the vote.

2022 In Review

 Washington Post: Dave Barry’s 2022 Year in Review By Dave Barry

February 2022 - Ukraine is a nation that, through poor planning, is located right next to Russia. This is unfortunate because Russian President Vladimir Putin, a man who relaxes by putting kittens into a food processor, has long wanted to establish closer ties with Ukraine, in the same sense that a grizzly bear wants to establish closer ties with a salmon.

Buffalo

 NY Times: In Buffalo, Even the Rescuers Needed Rescuing - Two days after a raging blizzard struck, residents remained trapped in cars and in homes without heat. The death toll in the region rose to 17. By Sarah Maslin Nir and Michael D. Regan

For 11 long, dark hours over Christmas Eve, Mr. Santiago and his family sat in their minivan after getting stuck in a snowbank at Alabama and Fulton Streets in Buffalo.

Offense

 NY Times: Democrats, Feeling New Strength, Plan to Go on Offense on Voting Rights After retaining most of the governor’s offices they hold and capturing the legislatures in Michigan and Minnesota, Democrats are putting forward a long list of proposals to expand voting access. By Reid J. Epstein

Republicans will maintain unified control next year over state governments in Texas, Ohio, Florida and Georgia. In Texas and Ohio, along with other places, Republicans are weighing additional restrictions on voting when they convene in the new year.

Wall Street Is Closed On Monday

 Wall Street is closed today, Monday December 26th.

CNN: How personal injury lawyers took over your TV By Nathaniel Meyersohn

MAGA Mischief

 Reuters: Thousands lose power after three substations targeted in Washington state, sheriff says

Engels

 South China Morning Post: Ukraine war: explosions reported at Engels airbase deep in Russia - Blasts reported at Russia’s Engels airbase for the second time this month - The airbase is at least 600km from the nearest Ukrainian-held territory

Read This


 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott Is An Ass

 NPR: Busloads of migrants dropped off at Kamala Harris's home on Christmas Eve By Giulia Heyward

Buffalo

 Washington Post: 12 confirmed dead from blizzard in Buffalo as nation starts to dig out - Frigid cold and snow conditions began to ease across the United States on Sunday, but death toll in Buffalo is expected to grow By Daniel Gilbert

MSNBC - Jan. 6th Committee's Final Report Influence On The GOP

Glenn Kirschner - J6 Committee Recommends Trump Be Banned From Office - The 14th Amendment To The Constitution Agrees

'I Had Almost Nothing To Do With January 6th'


 

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas friends.



Friday, December 23, 2022

Weekend!

 Have an excellent holiday weekend and see you bright and early Monday morning.