NATIONAL BIRD DAY

Whether You Like To Hear Them Sing, Roasted With Lemon and Butter, or Flipped Towards That Jerk That Just Cut You Off, HOORAY FOR BIRDS!

-Today's update starts with a visual ...

-This is a draft of a cartoon from Pulitzer Prize-winner Ann Telanes, and as you can see it is designed to mock the billionaires and richie-riches who thus far have thrown $200 million into Donald Trump's wallet - er, uh, I mean, donated to Trump's inauguration 'committee' (eyeroll). While working on it on Friday, Telanes was told by the editors of the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post that they would not publish it.

-In response, Telanes resigned her position in protest - one of the highest-profile resignations from legacy media in response to the Trump win last November (sighAAAUGHsigh), and one of a slew of resignations from the paper that at the start of 2017 claimed "Democracy Dies in Darkness" (with a number of former Post reporters having been hired by The Atlantic, who thus far have not decided to bend their hips towards Trump).

-For the record, the Post claimed that they would not publish the cartoon (which Telanes released on her Substack feed) because it was "repetitive" of another story or stories it was running, a claim easily dismissed by a scan of the web site. What may be more telling of the Post is that this morning, its parent company - Amazon - announced it was going to air and co-produce a documentary about ... Melania Trump.

-Melania herself is listed as an Executive Producer of this enterprise, and just to put a point on where legacy media is apparently going, it was further announced that the movie will be 'directed' by Brett Ratner, last seen ruining the X-MEN franchise before being exiled from Hollywood in the midst of a number of sexual harassment and "Me Too" related charges. So don't expect the Melania movie to include anything about how Ghislaine Maxwell set her up with Trump or any of the serial cheating and thuggery her hubby 'allegedly' (EYEROLL) engaged in (we'll put this in past tense for now) ...

-As for her husband, he has been busy reveling in his conquering of his enemies as his inaugur- no he hasn't, he's still the same insecure petty blowhard he has always been and always will be. Of course, he or one of his minions bellowed about Judge Juan Merchan, who will be assessing a sentence next week after Trump's 34 felony convictions in connection with trying to suppress his ten minutes (if that) of sexual contact with Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, as how NONFAIR and ANTIJUSTICE it is.

-Never mind that Merchan has already announced he will not be sentencing Trump to any jail time or any deferred jail time - it appears Trump returning to the Presidency will mean Merchan will be content (or feels bound to do so) to make Trump the first person in American history to lead the country as a Convicted Felon and leave it at that (which, since the conviction is a New York state conviction, will have that going for it). For Trump, there is no such thing as leaving it at that, and thus the caterwauling of the soon-to-be-once-again First Spoiled Man-Baby.

-But that wasn't all that was knotting up Donnie's Depends. There was also the post made Friday in which he waived his wee tiny fisties and stomped his wee tiny expensive shoesies at the prospect of American flags continuing to be at half-staff through January 20. Flags are being flown at half-staff (except on Long Island, because Long Island) in the memory of Jimmy Carter, and Inauguration Day is part of the standard 30 day period of being at half mast. Trump insists this has never happened before and must be a gesture of disrespect against him - a charge that is, of course, bunkum (no less a partisan than Richard Nixon had his second inauguration amidst mourning at the death of Harry Truman, and Dick not only did not object, he insisted the flags stay flown five days beyond), and happily something Trump cannot do anything about once he takes the oath (sighAARGH!sigh) ...

-By the way, yes Trump is planning to attend Carter's service next week, as he will never avoid a camera or try to bend coverage his way.

-Speaking of Washington as we must, tomorrow is the day the 2024 election is scheduled to be certified, and last Friday one potential impediment to that was removed after extended voting time, a protest hold-out from six House MAGAts, a phone call and backroom deal-cutting by Trump on two other protest votes, combined to allow Mike Johnson to "win" a "first-ballot" vote to retain the House Speakership.

-How long Johnson holds the gavel (HEY - no jokes about the porn-monitoring app on his phone, you people!) remains to be seen, as the fracas exposed the current one-vote margin the MAGAGOP holds that Mikey gets to try to keep, as well as being pressed by both sides of the aisle - MAGAts producing a letter signed by 11 of their own essentially warning Johnson to enact the draconian cost-cutting measures they have only dreamt of, a unified Democratic caucus warning Johnson DON'T EVEN TRY to come after Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid - in the coming legislative session.

-That session, and the 119th Congress as a whole, is reportedly including what some on the Trump team is bragging about being full of "Shock and Awe!" (because that tactic worked so well for George W. Bush) as well as a ginormous single bill Johnson promised MAGA followers will be passed in the 100-day window Trump has before being a true lame duck (if he isn't one already) while on Fox this morning - funny considering just last month Congress' debt limit extension bill had to be pulled because Actual President Musk demanded a slimmer and smaller bill). But consistency is not something we should expect from the 119th. Nor perhaps may be Johnson as Speaker, as even with newer rules MAGA showed it had more than enough votes (nine is the new number) to switch him out if Johnson does not dance if told to dance.

-What we can expect, though, is a Congress that looks like MAGA wants it to look. That means a Congress in which every single House Chair is being filled by a white male, and a Congress that is the oldest in the history of Congresses from the standpoint of age. That was highlighted when 81-year-old Virginia Foxx (R-NNAAAWWWOOOO, NC) fell while climbing a staircase last Friday and had to be treated for a bleeding wound. But also a Congress that, on the MAGA side, has proven to be very difficult to control even with - or perhaps because of? - the presence of this President.

-Congress is scheduled to reconvene tomorrow - January 6 - to verify the results of the 2024 election. One possible issue: an impending snowstorm that is expected to dump 12 inches of snow on DC as well as settling in throughout the South and Northeast in the next 24-36 hours. Don't get your hopes up, the Electoral College will meet. But you can nod to the symbolism.

-On to updates on the two vehicular incidents that started 2025 on extremely disturbing notes. In New Orleans, THIS JUST IN: the driver of the pickup that plowed through Bourbon Street and killed 15 (a Texas-born Army veteran despite the lies being told by Team Trump and MAGA that the terrorist came across the Mexican border) (HE DID NOT) used Virtual Reality goggles - the stories insisted on mentioning they were made by Meta - to help plot the path he ultimately took.

-That we know the detail of what kind of VR was used in New Orleans stands in stark but sadly unsurprising contrast to the legacy media narrative being told of the man who parked a Tesla Cybertruck in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas as it blew up injuring seven. There, the tale is being told of a 37-year-old Special Forces veteran who was "distrubed" - and it is true there appears to be a severe case of PTSD on the man, who it was revealed actually shot himself before the truck he drove exploded.

-But what is NOT being told is that the Cybertruck renter in Las Vegas also had photos in social media of him wearing head-to-toe Trump gear, his admiration for MAGA, and a twisted manifesto in which he ranted about the need for men to assert themselves and not be so 'woke,' and that somehow blowing up a vehicle produced by Elon Musk and parked in front of a Trump property would spur others to try to wage a campaign to ... eliminate Democrats ... It's all confusing, and it must be said there is a little question about how much being assigned to have been written by this man was actually written by him (I am not identifying either because why?), but the motives and statements of the man are, to put it kindly, very difficult to reconcile by anyone with actual sanity.

-We will wrap today's update - the weather is likely to be a story this week since when something happens to New York it happens everywhere, as well as some battlefield developments in Ukraine (SLAVA UKRAINI!) and what Biden is doing as his Presidency winds down that will be covered in this first real week of the New Year - so finish reading today's Substack, put away the last of your holiday decorations, settle in for the last full weekend of NFL football, and stay warm and limber if you have to shovel!

-BUT FIRST ...

-NEWS ON THIS DATE: In 1914, Henry Ford nearly doubled the wages of his workers - from $2.40/day to $5.00/day - and cut their working hours. In 1920, the New York Yankees purchased the contract of Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox. In 1933, construction on the Golden Gate Bridge began. In 1972, the Space Shuttle program began.

-DEBUTS ON THIS DATE: The first female American Governor (WY's Nellie Taylor Ross, 1925), WAITING FOR GODOT (1953), the Prague Spring (1968), GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, NJ (1973), THE WIZ (1975), the first rap song to hit the Top 40 (The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delinght," 1980).

-HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Constanze Mozart, King C. Gillette, Jeanne Dixon, George Reeves, Jane Wyman, Friedrich Durrenmatt, Sam Phillips, Lou Carnesecca, Walter Mondale, Ali Bhutto, Robert Duvall, Umberto Eco, Phil Ramone, Hayao Miyazaki, Diane Keaton, Mercury Morris, Ted Lange, Iris DeMent, Marilyn Manson, Bradley Cooper, January Jones, Kristin Cavallari, and Suki Waterhouse.

-REST IN PEACE/REST IN POWER: Ernest Shackleton, Calvin Coolidge, Ameila Earhart (appx.), George Washington Carver, Robers Hornsby, Charles Mingus, Pete Maravich, Tip O'Neill, Sonny Bono, Jean Kerr, Tug McGraw, Don Carter, Elizabeth Swados, Pierre Boulez, and Jerry Van Dyke.

-FEED THE WORMS: Evil Pittsburgh Steeler Coach Chuck Noll, Me, Too perpetrator Charlie Rose, Evil Cincinnati Bengal Coach Sam Wyche, Phony Moderate Conservative Gov. Mike DeWine (Turning-into-MS OH), and CIA Director George Tenet entered Earth on this date. Catherine de Medici bought it on this date.

-THIS WEEK IN THE CULTURE: The Number One Nonfiction Book in America today ... in 2025, CHER, THE MEMOIR, PART ONE by Cher ... in 2015, UNBROKEN by Laura Hillenbrand ... in 2005, AMERICA: THE BOOK by Jon Steward and The Daily Show writers ... in 1995, CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE by Pope John Paul II ... in 1985, IACOCCA: A BIOGRAPHY by Lee Iacocca with William Novak ... and in 1975, ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL by James Herriot.

-YOUR MUSIC TODAY: Happy Birthday to Blondie guitarist Chris Stein!