NATIONAL MAKE CUT-OUT SNOWFLAKE DAY UPDATES
Because Sadly, For Most of Us That's As Close To Snow As Most Of Us Will Get This Holiday Season
-Hope you had a lovely, restful, loving, and funny holiday so far! Another year-end reminder that if you like what I’m doing, feel free to leave a tip in the form of a paid subscription! (I’m figuring out something else as a tip jar, but the subscription thingie works, too!)
-Know who didn't have a lovely, restful, loving and funny (as in funny ha-ha) holiday so far? Of course you know - Ex-President Trump XCI didn't! Besides showing up for a 'family' photo and multiple Mar-a-Lago appearances without current 'wife' Melania anywhere to be found, the man who exudes a lot of noxiousness (#TrumpSmells) went to social media for a series of bellows that were rather out there even for Trump.
-How out there? Not so much the all caps (we're used to that), not so much the continuous regurgitation of lies about having the 2020 Presidential election stolen from him (Biden beat him soundly), not that Biden continues in Trump's mind to somehow be both drool-drippingly infirm and drool-drippingly cunning in using all levels of the government to attack Mr. Orange Innocence, not the personal attack on MI Rep. Debbie Dingell for commenting on Trump's rage-gasm, not even reposting a word cloud of Trump's speeches over the past month where the words REVENGE and DICTATORSHIP were the dominant words in said cloud, but that in railing against Biden and supposed right hand Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, Trump ended the screechiest tantrum with the well-known holiday greeting "MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
-There is a little bit of breaking Trump legal news this morning! Back to MI, where that state's Supreme Court refused to hear a motion to keep Trump off that state's primary ballot specifically because of Trump's involvement in the January 6, 2021 insurrection - a ruling that could force the federal SCOTUS to rule on CO using the same charge to keep him off the ballot (with state courts in conflict, SCOTUS often is the tiebreaker of sorts), and leaving open the possibility of returning to ban Trump from the general election.
-Also this morning, while the January 9, 2024 hearing on Trump's plea to be able to commit crimes forever because as President everything you do is Presidential and therefore immune from law (paraphrase) is being plotted, Smith has filed a motion in the DC insurrection trial that Team Trump be disallowed from arguing that Trump is being personally targeted by Biden for prosecution (because unlike Trump, that just isn't a thing in the Biden Administration). Expect more BO and ketchup in south Florida!
-In 2024 election news, it appears the campaign of obnoxious loudmouth Vivek Ramaswamy may be over, as his campaign has cancelled TV and media ad buys in both IA and NH with no appearances scheduled either. Word is he will endorse Trump and hope for a spot in his Cabinet should Trump somehow get back in office in 2025 (GLARES AT EVERYONE READING THIS SUBSTACK). Meanwhile, there are also calls for obnoxious loudmouth Chris Christie to drop out of the race in order for the not-quite-as-obnoxious not-quite-as-loudmouth Nikki Haley can continue what appears to be a surge in that state against ultimate loudmouth Trump. No word on whether Christie will drop out, though he undoubtedly will not endorse Trump. (And who cares about obnoxious cretin Ron DeSantis anymore? The guy has spent more money on private jet flights than he has any other single expenditure in his "campaign.")
-In Ukraine, while the country sweats over whether the UltraMAGA House will allow a new influx of needed funding for their battle against Russia will pass in January, they nonetheless scored another military victory over the weekend by successfully attacking Russian ships in Crimea, severely damaging or sinking (depending on the report) one of Russia's largest extant warships. Not bad for a country that does not have a Navy.
-SLAVA UKRAINI!
-And in sportsball news, last night the Detroit Pistons broke the record for the longest single-season losing streak in NBA history, as New Jersey held off a late rally for a 118-112 loss that marked Detroit's 27th loss in a row. The Philadelphia 76ers lost 28 NBA games in a row, but that streak spanned the end of the 2015 and start of the 2016 season, so technically Detroit can still hit that low with games against Boston, Toronto and Houston on the horizon.
-If you're now wondering, the longest recorded professional losing streak in sports history belongs to the then-Chicago Cardinals of the NFL, who lost 29 NFL games that started in Week 6 of the 1942 season and ended in Week 4 of the 1945 season. And the longest recorded losing streak in all sports belongs to Northwestern University, who lost 34 NCAA football games between 1979 and 1982. (This is not counting the ever-evolving losing streak of the Washington Generals, the hapless foes of the Harlem Globetrotters.) How far DEE-TROIT BASKET-BALLL have fallen from the days of Chuck Daly and Isaiah Thomas and that punk-ass bee-yotch Bill Laimbeer ...
-On this date in 1831, Charles Darwin boarded the HMS Beagle and began work on what would become his theory of evolution. On this date in 1941, the first rationing of World War II began in the United States - of automobile tires. And on this date in 1968. Apollo 8 returned to Earth after orbiting the moon and taking photos of Earth from a distance for the first time.
-Notable premieres: PETER PAN (1904 stage play), SHOW BOAT (1927), Radio City Music Hall (1932), THE HOWDY DOODY SHOW (1947), SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN (1967).
-Happy Birthday to Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Arch Ward, Marlene Dietrich, Oscar Levant, William Master, John Amos, Cokie Roberts, Mick Jones, Terry Bozzio, David Knopfler, Karla Bonoff, Tovah Feldshuh, Bill Self, Mark Few, Bill Goldberg, Chyna, Sarah Vowell, Carson Palmer, Cole Hamels, Hayley Williams, Timothee Chalamet, and Nick Chubb.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Stephen F. Austin, Gustave Eiffel, Amy Vanderbilt, Hoagy Carmichael, Hal Ashby, George Roy Hill, Alan Bates, Ivan Calderon, Benazir Bhutto, Norman Schwarzkopf, Meadowlark Lemon, Haskell Wexler, Carrie Fisher, Jack Sheldon, and Don Imus.
-Actor and accused rapist Gerard Depardieu was born on this date. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.