No need to include here or even read what the fat bastard is talking about. That would ruin the magic of this bizarre, possibly incriminating statement. The reason we were checking his feed is because JoeMyGod reported Donald randomly attacked Georgia 2020 election worker Ruby Freeman again, writing “Wow! Has anyone seen the Ruby Freeman “contradictions” of her sworn testimony? Now this is ‘BIG STUFF.’ Look what was captured by Cobb County police body cameras on January 4, 2021. ‘And everything they are saying is false. Everything from the quote unquote SUITCASES OF THE BALLOT BOXES, TO THE WHY WE OPENED THEM BACK UP. EVERYTHING THEY SAID WAS FALSE.THE FBI… REACHED OUT TO ME ONLY TO CLEAR MY SOCIAL MEDIA (evidence tampering?)… COUNT WAS LOW, IT WAS REALLY LOW.’ Now it gets really bad,” and more evidence exhibits for a future defamation suit. Or just Trump being added as Rudy’s co-defendant.

We were going to put that “Truth” here but got distracted by the China one above.

Legislative mastermind Kevin McCarthy, facing an uphill challenge to being elected Speaker of the House on Tuesday, has a brilliant plan seemingly ripped from the pages of one of Robert A Caro’s books on Lyndon Johnson: Just keep the chamber voting again and again and again until the far right Republican holdouts get tired and give in to him, Politico Playbook reports.

“We’re told that McCarthy’s plan, however, is to continue voting – over and over again – in a bid to wear down his detractors until he gets the gavel,” Playbook literally writes in their daily newsletter, which also contains insipid Politico-ish tropes like “huddle,” “fat chance,” and “split-screen.”

It also contains an informative hint about on House Democrats’ “playbook” for the day: Hold out against voting to adjourn the session as long as possible to keep the threshold to 218. Any absences on their end lower the number McCarthy needs to reach. Ten Republican walkouts (or defections) would give them a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. “We hope you got a good night’s rest and packed a thermos full of coffee. It’s going to be a long day,” Playbook writes with their characteristic levity.

Donald Trump Jr. signs 7-figure podcast deal with Rumble 👇🏻 https://t.co/x8f7v85ayL

— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) January 3, 2023

A hardcore pro-Putin military blogger on Tuesday questioned the Russian defense ministry’s official death toll of the Ukrainian HIMARS missile strike on an ammunition depot in the eastern Donetsk region, a number the Kremlin put at 63 but Kyiv estimated to be about 400.

“Despite the official statement of the Ministry of Defense, the exact number of casualties is still unknown,” said Semyon “WarGonzo” Pegov, who was personally awarded the “Order of Courage” medal by Putin less than two weeks ago. “To the degree we can trust our own sources who work at the spot where this tragedy happened, they are still digging up the rubble at this moment. And unfortunately, the number of victims of this tragedy – the HIMARS strike on the quarters of both newly mobilized and the serving military, including National Guard – could be bigger,” Pegov added.

Apparently ignorant of how corrupt Republican circles take care of their own, official White House pants steamer Hope Hicks complained to Ivanka Trump’s White House Chief of Staff–and why the fuck Ivanka Trump needed a Chief of Staff as a White House staffer herself is a whole different bucket of fish–that the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress was going to hurt her post-administration job prospects.

CNN reports Hicks, whose title was Counselor to the President but was really there because (rumor has it) she had a calming and mellowing effect on the temper-tantrum-prone Donald Trump, texted Ivanka’s aide Julie Radford, “In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter.  And all of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I’m so mad and upset. We all look like domestic terrorists now.  This made us all unemployable. Like untouchable. God I’m so fucking mad.”

I understand no one cares about Grant Strinchfield.  He hit his apex as a host on Newsmax after hosting a show on the now defunct NRA-TV.  I think he now hosts a podcast, like ever washed up conservative television pundit.  His tweet, however, exemplifies the conservative bubble’s response to the tragic injury sustained by Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin:  they’re factlessly blaming the coronavirus vaccine as the cause for what they’re terming an epidemic of athletes collapsing.  (There no evidence of this.)

After recently remembering I’m still paying for this goddamned Paramount+ subscription months after the first season of the Halo series ended I decided to see what all the hype over Yellowstone was about. But why start with Yellowstone itself when I could go back to the “beginning” with the 1883 prequel series? That way I know all the history behind the 2020s-era Yellowstone family and them shooting other people to protect their geyser or whatever before I start watching that one.

1883 is okay. Kind of good even. Sam Elliot is awesome as always and still a freaking badass cowboy at 78. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are likable enough leads, even if country music sucks. The Billy Bob Thornton cameo was way more violent than the Tom Hanks cameo. Both were pretty good cameos.

(WARNING:  Video has content some may find disturbing.) The Monday Night Football game has been suspended after Damar Hamlin, a player for the Buffalo Bills, collapsed on the field after standing up after making a tackle.  The 24-year-old Hamlin slapped hands with fellow players before collapsing backwards.  Medical teams used CPR and applied oxygen before an ambulance was driven onto the field to take the player to the hospital.  Hamlin’s condition is unknown.

UPDATE (10:59 p.m. ET):  MSNBC News read a statement, reportedly through a tweet, from Hamlin’s marketing representative and a reported “best friend” of Hamlin, who reports that Hamlin is in critical condition. Hamlin’s vital signs are stable, but the medical team is keeping him sedated and unconscious to assess his condition.

UPDATE (11:43 p.m. ET):  ESPN reports that Cincinnati Medical Center, a Level I Trauma Center where Hamlin is being treated, does not anticipate giving any update on Hamlin’s condition until tomorrow morning.  While still listed in critical condition, this is a potential sign that the medical team feels the patient has gained some stability in vital signs and condition.

Republican Georgia Congresswoman and woman who believes Herschel Walker could have rode her to the Senate–what?  She said the Walker campaign underutilized her at rallies–Marjorie Taylor Greene appears to be auditioning to be presumptive Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s “muscle” in the Republican caucus.  She’s trying to bully people who aren’t supporting McCarthy’s bid, putting up a roadblock to inevitability.

Via CNN’s Manu Raju and Morgan Rimmer, Marge is fed up to here with her fellow agents of chaos now that she wants to be an accepted member of the House for the first time.  “If my friends in the Freedom Caucus, Matt Gaetz and others, will not take the win when they have it, they’re proving to the country that they don’t care about doing the right thing for America. They’re proving ..they’re just destructionist,” Marge reportedly said, adding, “That’s not what we need to do as a party. That’s why Republicans fail and I’m really tired of it.”

Rep. @KevinOMcCarthy has an open invite to join me on my livestream and/or my @77WABCradio show to share why he should be trusted by conservatives to do the right thing once he has the gavel. #AmericasMayorLive 🇺🇲 https://t.co/nOTFlN3oMd

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 3, 2023

Just throwing this out there that maybe Kevin McCarthy is busy working the phones and trying to wrangle in more support for his possibly doomed Speakership bid and doesn’t really have time to recite canned lines to a drunken shitbrain who will probably fall asleep in the middle of it anyway.

In his craven effort to secure the Speakership of the House, Republican California Congressman Kevin McCarthy has promised to essentially incapacitate the Office of Congressional Ethics by a series of restrictions and cuts put forth for the rules for the upcoming Congress, Time reports.

Republicans have always hated ethics in general, but their effort to remove all ethics violations on members of Congress came after a session when Republicans consistently came under fire for questionable behavior, only to pretend that transporting minors across state lines to have sex with them, like Florida’s Matt Gaetz is continuing to be investigated for, is perfectly acceptable, as is taking more than $20,000 from your campaign fund to pay past due business accounts for your failing restaurant like Lauren Boebert (Q-Colo.) allegedly did.

The office would also have significant impact on people like likely self-reported brain surgeon, Arctic explorer and Roman Catholic saint, Jew-ish Republican Congressman-elect George Santos, whose lies and embellishments about his career, education, sexual identity and religion have raised calls for Congress to refuse to seat him.

Like I said all along!
Moderates will work with Democrats if the ‘Never Kevin Caucus’ just continue to be destructionists refusing to take the W when they should. https://t.co/wuasNpXTwt

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) January 2, 2023

Cutthroat (literally) Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene desires a committee chair–any committee chair, even an important subcommittee like the fictitious Appropriations Subcommittee on Optimal Sewage Flow through Residential Subdivisions in Gated Developments where GOP Donors Live.  See, having completed one term where she was sidelined after threatening the lives of some of her colleagues, Marge is looking to settle some scores, and to do so, she’ll firmly attach her lips to the backside of fearful-but-still-likely future Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy gives her a prime assignment.  And if that means cuddling up with Democrats–for whose extermination she has called–she’ll do it!

Prosecutors in Brazil on Monday told the New York Times that now that they’ve been informed of douchebag Republican Congressman-elect George Santos’ whereabouts they’re reopening the previously inactive 2008 check fraud case against him. The next step is to request the US Department of Justice inform Santos of the still-pending charges, which they’ll probably jot down on a Post-It note to stick with their own likely upcoming grand jury subpoena to the “Jew-ish” guy.

California rings in 2023 with new laws on abortion, transgender youth, and illegal immigrant police https://t.co/uLA2ctkzJu

— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 2, 2023

“The Markles are pretty much universally despised at this point, and the release of Harry’s book will only drive their approvals further into the mire. King Charles is going to have to cut Harry and his Lady Macbeth loose for the sake of the family and of the monarchy itself. If he doesn’t, the entire world will consider him weak (which he very well might be, given his squishy Left politics). If he fails to do that, William certainly will once he becomes king”

– The current top comment on the PJ Media article “Prince Harry Wants to Have It Both Ways When It Comes to the Royal Family and the Media,” posted Monday. We guess the only real reason for this is Meghan Markle’s skin color, but goddamn is this shit freaking stupid.

The proposed rules package from the House Republican caucus – if they can ever get a Speaker elected and get it adopted – stipulates that all the records from the January 6th Select Committee – currently bound for the National Archives – are to be sent back to the House for some reason.

“Any committee designated by the Speaker pursuant to section 7(b)(1) of House Resolution 503, One Hundred Seventeenth Congress, is directed to transfer any records obtained pursuant to such designation to the Committee on House Administration, not later than January 17, 2023. (2) The Archivist is directed to transfer any noncurrent records of a committee designated by the Speaker pursuant to section 7(b)(1) of House Resolution 503, One Hundred Seventeenth Congress, and related to the select committee established pursuant to such resolution which have been archived pursuant to rule VII to the Committee on House Administration not later than January 17, 2023,” says the rules proposal on page 39, which we’re going to go ahead and guess does not mean they’re going to simply release what little material the Committee did not already.

More likely it’ll be some selective reading of some document about security that PROVES Nancy Pelosi turned down Trump’s offer of 10,000 troops to protect the Capitol or something and no we won’t be able to see that document in context ever because some bullshit reason.

WHY do Members have trust issues with @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy? Every major budget bill that passed under his leadership of the last GOP-controlled House was passed with more D than R support, for starters. https://t.co/mgbpOU2Q9t

— Rep. Scott Perry (@RepScottPerry) January 2, 2023

Kevin McCarthy’s life has been difficult for these last few years. He stood small next to actually effective leaders Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Mitch McConnell. Three legislative titans and a wet paper bag continually soaked with piss by Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene. At least he had 2023 to look forward to, with polls and forecasts pointing to a solid double-digit working majority for the House GOP. Sure, McCarthy would’ve been as weak as his predecessors John Boehner and Paul Ryan, both of whom quit in disgust after failing to control the criminals and mental patients in the caucus, but for him it would’ve been better than no gavel at all. Then came election night, and it became quickly apparent that the slim GOP House majority, which wasn’t even called until a week afterward, would be a hellish nightmare for the coward.

It’s hard not to be entertained by the serious peril Kevin McCarthy faces right now in his quest to become Speaker, so fraught with uncertainty. He deserves to lose and be laughed out of Congress for his abject prostration to the Orange God Emperor after the January 6th insurrection.

Winning Republican Georgia state House candidate Danny Rampey, who last month was arrested on charges of burglary and elder abuse after he was caught stealing prescription meds from residents at the senior living complex he managed in his day job, has stepped aside rather than being sworn in and facing immediate suspension from the chamber, WSB TV reports.

Which is more than we can say about similarly disgraced Congressman-elect George Santos and the US House GOP, who do not at this point plan any sanction against Santos, and whose leader Kevin McCarthy has been completely silent about shit like Santos pawning his 18 year old ex-boyfriend’s phone and other MAGA-ish behavior because McCarthy needs Santos’ vote to become speaker.

For those who responded skeptically to the Kremlin’s figure of 63 dead in the Monday missile strike on a Russian military ammunition depot in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, here’s probably what’s closer to an accurate number: Kyiv now says as many as 400 are dead in the attack in which four out of six HIMARS rockets fired found their target, according to Sky News.

The Ukrainians cheekily said it was “a result of ‘careless handling of heating devices'” which sent the disputed number of Russian soldiers to kingdom come. We would have to believe that if the Russians were forced to admit that some troops were killed, a fairly high double-digit number no less, while the Ukrainians put it at 400, then it was probably a pretty bad day for Putin’s army.

Former Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs was sworn into the governor’s office on Monday, the first Democrat since Janet Napolitano left office in 2009, ABC 15’s Garrett Archer reports on the end result of a stunning failure by the Republican Party to install an MAGA fascists in position to block the certification of a Dem Presidential win in a crucial swing state. Fellow Dems Adrian Fontes and Kris Mayes were sworn into the Secretary of State and Attorney General’s offices just prior, both also having vanquished their election denier Republican opponents in the 2022 midterms.