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“But for a man who’s running for the most powerful position in the world to use pseudo-racist rhetoric, that’s one of the reasons I can’t vote for that guy because, man, um… He just rubs me the wrong way and people can vote for whoever they want to, but I just do not like it at all,” one-time Republican–he was once considered a GOP candidate for Governor of Alabama but left the Party when it, as he put it, “lost [its] mind” way back in 2006(!)–Charles Barkley says on his new evening show with Gayle King.  And normally we would urge a new talk show host to be more assertive in their opinions, but Barkley is typically a very vocal advocate of his views, and it’s clear by his tone and demeanor that he’s holding back his anger.

“To be clear, in the event that the Court does not dismiss this politically motivated election interference mission by the Special Counsel’s Office and the Biden Administration—and the defendants will submit multiple compelling bases for doing so in connection with, inter alia, pretrial motions due on February 22, 2024—President Trump does not dispute that a questionnaire may be appropriate to facilitate jury selection in connection with a trial where the defendants will exonerate themselves. But that is manifestly not what this motion is about. Apparently believing that the case is governed by baseball rules, the Office has taken another swing at maintaining a trial date that was set based on the Office’s misrepresentations regarding the timing and nature of discovery. The Court rejected the Office’s first attempt. … In this motion, based on its claimed ‘experience and research’ and ignoring the Court’s prior use of the phrase ‘all other pre-trial deadlines,’ the Office arrogantly purports to educate the Court about the logistics of jury selection in Your Honor’s District as a pretext for rushing toward an unjust trial. This motion is every bit as much a whiff, and therefore strike two.”

And with that, Donald Trump’s lawyers attempt to express their undying outrage at the temerity of Jack Smith’s office to urge the Court to continue with jury selection.  Curiously, in a motion, arguing how deadlines don’t need to be met, Trump’s lawyers cite a date they expect to meet for pretrial motions.  Y’know, like they know they’re going to lose the motion.

Four whistleblowers will be able to question Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and three senior aides under oath about abuse of office allegations after a judge ordered the quartet to sit for depositions, the Texas Tribune reports.

Paxton is accused of firing the four whistleblowers for contacting the FBI in 2020 because they believed Paxton was using his office to benefit a friend and donor.  Paxton came to a $3.3 million settlement with the four whistleblowers in February, but the Texas state legislature balked at having taxpayers fund the hush-money settlement to silence witnesses of alleged crimes.

Because they had a previous agreement–even though it was rejected by the legislature–Paxton argued that he and his aides should not have to be deposed because the case was settled.  But given Paxton did not authority to negotiate the payment, the plaintiffs argued, the settlement was void.  The court sided with the plaintiffs.  “They lost badly,” one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers told reporters after the hearing. “I don’t put anything past Ken Paxton. There’s no limit to the amount of taxpayer money he will spend to hide from accountability, so I’m sure they’ll try some kind of appeal.”

Yeah she’s going full Tucker/Bartiromo “just asking questions” to freak the hell out of the morons in her audience. There’s a tone of apprehension in her voice like she knows that the conspiracy shit is fake but that the civil unrest she’s plainly actually worried about is a real possibility. Might be smart to get out ahead of it so she can say “Look what you Democrats made those violent hicks do!”

Yekaterina Duntsova, an anti-war advocate who was once a popular television newscaster, has announced her candidacy to challenge Russian President Vladimir Putin in the next election, Reuters reports after saying in an interview last month, “Any sane person taking this step would be afraid, but fear must not win.”

Duntsova now must get 300,000 signatures on petitions by January 30th to appear on the ballot in the election scheduled for March 15th-17th.  Because he’s affiliated with a major political party, Putin only has to order 100,000 Russians to sign their names.  Duntsova steps up as Putin’s former major opposition figure as his last challenger, Alexey Navalny, appears to be missing after failing to show for a court date.

DC Judge Beryl Howell on Wednesday greenlit Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shae Moss to start garnishing alcoholic shitbrain Rudy Giuliani’s bank accounts to collect whatever they can of the nearly $149 million defamation judgment owed, Politico’s Kyle Cheney reports.

There’s something so goddamned aggravating about this shit Trump was saying to his ball-sucking cultists on Tuesday about the stock market going up because investors think he’s going to win the 2024 election. It was a switch from badmouthing it over the weekend, when he was saying it was just “making rich people richer.” He’ll probably even keep going with this “they think I’m going to win” argument to downplay already extremely solid numbers across so many different metrics continue to surge as expected next year when the Fed starts cutting interest rates again.

Trump, who claimed the stock market would ‘collapse’ if President Biden won, now tries to take credit for the stock market being higher than it’s ever been under President Biden pic.twitter.com/7v8JB5QTHj

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) December 20, 2023

Bad faith bullshit as it is, that’s not what makes it so aggravating. The real problem is he fucking stole our joke from the October 6th National Zero “we’ll resume our regular coverage after this” satire piece titled “US employers add 336,000 jobs after seeing Trump lead in polls,” in which we wrote the job growth came “in anticipation of the greatest economy president ever being sworn into office again in 15 months. They also increased wages by 4.2 percent over 3.7 percent inflation just to give your wallet a sweet happy memory of what it was like. Your wallet misses Trump.”

A new WMUR/St Anselm College survey of likely presidential voters in New Hampshire finds disgraced former President Trump leading former South Carolina Governor Nimrata “Nikki” Haley 44 percent to 30 percent, a gain of 15 points for Haley since St Anselm’s September poll and very close to the Sunday CBS News poll finding of Trump 44 – Haley 29. It’s still a long shot and Haley definitely needs Chris Christie (12 percent) to drop out and endorse her ASAP. Then she’s going to need at least half of Gov Pudding Fingers’ (6 percent) support to go to her after he gets crushed in Iowa, as expected. And then take as much of the tiny 3 percent remaining undecided as she can.

That’s the good news for Trump. The bad news is Joe Biden’s 49 to 39 percent general election lead in the Granite State, consistent with Emerson’s Biden +5 in November (after you add a few points because Emerson are fucking MAGA sandbaggers pretending to be mainstream) and CNN’s Biden +12 finding in September, consistent with his +7 win in 2020. Again,it’s not that New Hampshire is seriously in play in 2024 (even though Trump only lost it by under 3,000 votes in 2016), it’s that voters there see Trump every day on TV and they’re already fucking sick of him.

Josh Hawley, the Republican Missouri Senator from Virginia whose most famous action in his political career is fleeing from a mob he had just encouraged on January 6th, decided he wanted to fuck with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell because two former McConnell staffers have been nominated for posts in the Biden Administration as part of the GOP Senate’s deal with the administration to push through backlogged nominations, Politico reports.

Hawley lists dozens of questions for the two nominees–Andrew Ferguson for the Federal Trade Commission and Todd Inman to the National Transportation Safety Board–in a letter sent to McConnell’s office, which is a pure performance art move given that neither of the nominees has worked in McConnell’s office since at least February 2022.  McConnell has been working with Democrats to govern, not stomp his feet and hold his breath until his face turns blue as Hawley would prefer.  As part of the agreement to fill vacant positions by the end of the calendar year, the Biden Administration agreed to appoint some Republican nominees to fill positions on bipartisan panels.

“As you are aware, I am currently withholding my consent for these nominees to be confirmed without a floor vote—as is any senator’s right to do—until I and others can evaluate satisfactory responses to these important policy questions,” writes Hawley in the letter sent to McConnell’s office even though Hawley has reportedly left Washington at the end of last week, before the end of the Senate session so he could get an early start on his holiday.  Of course, given that Hawley lives in Virginia, he could easily commute into the Capitol for a vote, if needed.

Here’s a guy bitching about all the shit that Trump brought upon himself over the years, the Mueller Investigation, the two impeachments, the four indictments totaling 91 felony counts, and the Colorado Supreme Court disqualifying him as “escalation” in the Democratic plot to get and then keep the fat bastard out of the White House. This guy did not mention his own involvement in a lot of that shit, specifically running interference for Trump in the first impeachment which was a failed attempt to knock Joe Biden out of the 2020 campaign for the White House, then being part of the coup attempt aimed at preventing Joe Biden from taking over the White House after he had won a free and fair election. On top of that, he’s one of the leaders of an attempt to impeach Joe Biden on a complete bullshit pretext in order to prevent him from retaking the White House in 2024.

None of the above facts are in dispute. Jordan himself has said words to the effect himself many times over the years. Still he’s such a pussy he can’t even come close to grappling with them.

Claiming that there is “no compelling reason for the extraordinary haste” with which Special Counsel Jack Smith wants to proceed with the unprecedented prosecution of a former President and leading Party candidate for nomination in an election less than 11 months away, Donald Trump’s lawyers argue that the Supreme Court should just wait in line to hear the nationally-critical case in a new filing about his DC federal prosecution for undermining the 2020 election.

After first claiming that the Special Counsel doesn’t have standing to request the Supreme Court expedite hearing the case–a simply laughable claim–and then claiming the Supreme Court can’t take the case before the lower courts rule, Trump attorneys amazingly claims, “the Special Counsel identifies no compelling reason for the extraordinary haste he proposes. Instead, he vaguely asserts that the “public interest” favors resolution on a dramatically accelerated timetable, to ensure that President Trump may be brought to trial in the next few months.”

A new Quinnipiac University survey finds President Joe Biden leading disgraced former President Trump 47 to 46 percent among registered voters in a 2024 matchup, with Trump losing slightly more support to anti-vax freak Robert F Kennedy Jr in a three-way at Biden 38 – Trump 36 – RFK Jr 22.

A near majority at 48 percent say the economy will improve next year while 39 percent think it will sink. That’s a pretty important finding. Biden’s approval and favorability ratings are identical and still suck at 38 percent to 58 percent disapprove/unfavorable to Trump’s 41 percent favorable/54 percent unfavorable. Not as important Biden still outperforms Trump in the head-to-head.

More than half – 53 percent of voters say they’re “concerned” about the shit Trump says that makes him sound like Hitler, though probably at least some of those are only concerned because they’re fans who wish he would shut the fuck up and not risk his reelection chances with it.

An Arizona judge ruled Wednesday that losing Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate and current GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake can face defamation charges brought by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who asserts Lake wrongly claimed rigged various elections, the Arizona Republic reports.

Lake, who says she’s the Rightful Governor of Arizona despite various court judgments demonstrating her tenuous grasp on reality, repeatedly targeted Richer in statements and social media posts, claiming he was a partisan hack installed to help cover up a massive election fraud plot to deprive her and Donald Trump of their rightful victories.  After multiple recounts and audits, no irregularities in the Maricopa County vote counts were found.

The Rightful Governor of Arizona posted online, without evidence, that Richer is has “Soros-backed attorneys representing him” adding the predictable conspiracy:  “This is about taking away our First Amendment rights and interfering in the US Senate race.”

The vile hag’s protestations came right after Fox News ran a clip of President Biden being asked by reporters if he thought fat former President Trump is an “insurrectionist,” telling them “I think it’s certainly self-evident… He certainly supported insurrection, no question about it, none, zero. He seems to be doubling down on everything,” to which less desiccated anchor Harris Faulkner questioned Biden’s mental “acuity” for being honest about the situation with her viewers. Then Faulkner falsely claimed Trump hasn’t been charged for anything related to January 6th.

Anyway back to crazy Kellyanne and her stupid rant: If all Democrats think every day is still January 6th, 2021 then it’s only fair for us to come back with all MAGA Republicans think every day is still November 3rd, 2020. What the fuck else are we supposed to think when this month Trump posted some bullshit Rasmussen poll supposedly finding that 20 percent of respondents somehow cheated on their mail-in ballots in the 2020 election (which will do wonders for Ronna Not-Romney’s stupid “bank your vote” campaign), just this morning the stupid Gateway Pundit reports “Smoke and Mirrors: New Evidence Suggests That NO Audit was Performed by Election Machine Testing Company as Claimed by Georgia Secretary of State,” and that batshit “Sinaloa Cartel rigged the election” conspiracy theory surfaced again in Arizona… So who’s not getting over it here?

Conference Board press release: “The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® increased in December to 110.7 (1985=100), up from a downwardly revised 101.0 in November. The Present Situation Index – based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions – rose to 148.5 (1985=100) from 136.5 last month. The Expectations Index – based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions – leapt to 85.6 (1985=100) in December, up from its downwardly revised reading of 77.4 in November. This sharp increase brings expectations back to the levels of optimism last seen in July of this year. ‘December’s increase in consumer confidence reflected more positive ratings of current business conditions and job availability, as well as less pessimistic views of business, labor market, and personal income prospects over the next six months,’ said Dana Peterson, Chief Economist at The Conference Board.”

“‘While December’s renewed optimism was seen across all ages and household income levels, the gains were largest among householders aged 35-54 and households with income levels of $125,000 and above. December’s write-in responses revealed the top issue affecting consumers remains rising prices in general, while politics, interest rates, and global conflicts all saw downticks as top concerns. Consumers’ perceived likelihood of a US recession over the next 12 months abated in December to the lowest level seen this year – though 2/3rds still perceive a downturn is possible.'”

“A Manhattan federal court today unsealed terrorism charges against Samuel Salman El Reda, 58, a dual Colombian-Lebanese citizen and member of Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), in connection with El Reda’s alleged role leading decades of terrorist activity on behalf of Hezbollah and the IJO. El Reda is charged with, among other offenses, conspiring to provide and providing material support to Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization. El Reda is based in Lebanon and remains at large,” says a Wednesday press release from the Justice Department.

“‘Nearly three decades ago, long-time Hezbollah terrorist operative Samuel Salman El Reda allegedly helped plan and execute the heinous attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that murdered 85 innocent people and injured countless others,’ said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.”

Disgraced former President Trump’s legal team are freaking the fuck out in court filings in two separate federal court jurisdictions this week. Emphasis on federal because shit is obviously also going haywire for him at the state level. In fact we were working on this story Tuesday when the news of the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling forced an immediate detour into that shitshow.

Now for those other shitshows: First off in New York City the Daily Beast reports that Donald’s defense team in next month’s damages-only defamation trial brought by writer EJ Carroll are desperately trying to block expert witness Ashlee Humphreys, a Northwestern University professor who specializes in analyzing social media trends. That may not sound like it means much until you learn Humphreys testified to the jury in a DC federal court last week for former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shae Moss in their damages-only defamation case against alcoholic shitbrain Rudy Giuliani. Specifically about her calculations on how much the two should be awarded, which was $32 million. Then the jury added another $116 million on top of that. Humphreys has already crunched the numbers and found that Trump should owe $21 million to Carroll, which is going to be the jury’s floor to add likely tens of millions more. “This court should simply exclude Dr Humphreys’ testimony altogether,” one of the fat bastard’s lawyers wrote in a filing.

Meanwhile in the DC criminal case, Trump’s lawyers accused Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith of “improperly and unlawfully” attempting “to advance this case by serving thousands of pages of additional discovery, as well as a purported ‘Draft Exhibit List.’ These actions, the prosecution admits, are calculated to ‘help ensure that [a potential] trial proceeds promptly if and when the mandate returns.’ Such maneuvers are exactly what the Stay Order forbids, and impose a significant and prohibited burden on President Trump… as stated in President Trump’s letter response, neither he nor counsel will review the prosecution’s unlawful productions until and unless the Court lifts the stay order,” as if it wasn’t already clear that they really don’t want this trial to happen. So much so that they don’t even want the evidence in hand when they’re going to need it.

Jesus dork Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s team have as of Wednesday published on Rumble just 162 hours, or 0.4 percent, of the estimated relevant 44,000 hours of security footage from the Capitol captured by surveillance cameras on January 6th, 2021, CBS News reports. More than half of that, 90 hours or so, were already released to former top Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson by Johnson’s failed predecessor Kevin McCarthy. For some reason that particular batch of footage does not have the faces of the rioters blurred out as Johnson had claimed was so important to keep them from getting prosecuted, even though his office later tried to walk it back by saying that “faces are to be blurred from public viewing room footage to prevent all forms of retaliation against private citizens from any non-governmental actors,” and admitting that was stupid because “The Department of Justice already has access to raw footage from January 6, 2021.”

In an interview publisher last week, NBC News’s Ryan Reilly, author of Sedition Hunters, gave lefty Substacker Brian Beutler a good explainer of why the blurring was even more pointless. “Honestly, from the sleuths’ perspective, it is not an insurmountable challenge… The Capitol cameras aren’t the highest of quality, and the footage that has been the most effective in terms of identifying suspects through facial recognition is the rioters’ own footage, professionally shot video, and body-worn camera footage. The Capitol CCTV footage is certainly useful for placing events on a timeline and for figuring out which bodies/suspects entered the building, but if Speaker Johnson thinks he’s preventing many people from being IDed by blurring footage, he’s kidding himself.”

The MAGA assholes were, as we had anticipated, far more triggered by the blurring. “Don’t be fooled! Speaker Johnson’s proposal to blur faces helps the DOJ, FBI informants, and rogue Capitol Hill police hide their identities more than it will help defense lawyers and innocent men and women unjust jailed for their participation in a political political protest,” tweeted influencer Carol Swain.