Cue the army of volunteers prepared to scour for minutiae:  The House Ways and Means Committee voted to release six years’ worth of Donald Trump’s tax returns, allowing every armchair pundit (like us) to dissect the info, the New York Times reports.

In a post-meeting press gaggle, committee chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) noted that the reason the Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation wanted the taxes was to determine if the presidential audit system was operating functionally.  The committee found that no such audit, a standard practice for every president’s tax returns, had been undertaken in 2017, 2018 or 2019.

“Once [committee] staff [reviewed IRS operations], they quickly concluded that in fact, the audit [of Trump’s taxes] did not occur,” Neal stated.  “There were no audits in a timely manner, and that goes I think for 2017, 2018 and 2019.” 

Stefan Passantino, who as the top ethics lawyer served in the most useless position in Trump’s White House, was the attorney representing former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson to suggest she claim to not remember details when questioned by investigators, specifically relating to things concerning Donald Trump, sources told CNN.

Passantino’s law firm, Elections LLC, was paid by Trump’s Save America PAC for Hutchinson’s representation, something that gave Hutchinson concern that the advice her counsel was providing was not in her best interests.  During multiple public hearings, members of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress noted that such arrangements call into question who the lawyer is working for and provides a strong opportunity for Trump to influence witnesses.

Two arrested at NYC councilman's apartment in 'gays against groomers' protest over Drag Queen Story Hour https://t.co/on5dJGI8MR

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 20, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make a previously unannounced trip to Washington, DC on Wednesday when he will meet with President Joe Biden and Congressional leaders as Republicans in Congress vow to cut funding for the Ukrainian military, the Associated Press reports.

The importance of Washington’s support is evidenced by Zelenskyy choosing the United States for his first known trip outside Ukraine since the Russians invaded in February.  Outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi notified members to be on hand for Wednesday evening’s session, indicating Zelenskyy will address at least the House and perhaps a rare joint session.  National Zero will stream the speech live.

Officials in Northern California’s Humboldt County on Tuesday said two people were killed and another 11 suffered injuries in a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck the region overnight, according to a press release from the Humboldt Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services. “Power remains off for over 70,000 customers in the county. Pacific Gas and Electric Company is actively working to restore power with no estimated time of restoration,” the statement also said.

The quake was centered about 9.3 miles off the California’s remote “Lost Coast” region, striking at a depth of 11 miles. The area is among the more seismically active in the Golden State as it’s north of where the San Andreas fault ends and where the Cascadia subduction zone begins. At 7.3-magnitude, the 1980 Eureka earthquake is tied with the 1992 Landers earthquake in the southern portion of the state as the strongest ever recorded by modern seismography, though the 1906 San Francisco earthquake is believed to have been the most powerful in California history.

After listing off a string of conspiracy theories popular with conservatives–like the FBI “knew [the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop was] true” and that the “FBI deliberately interfered in not one, but two separate Presidential elections” without mentioning how he stoked a violent mob that attacked Congress–expert on how to flee Senator Josh Hawley (Q-Mo.) says that although he proudly did not watch one minute of the January 6th Select Committee hearings, he learned from them that the FBI needs to be held accountable for the conspiracy theories Hawley believes.

“There’s gotta be repercussions for that, or we’re not gonna have a democracy,” the insurrectionist-adjacent politician asserts before continuing.  “Somebody should go to jail for it and, ah, we’re gonna have to have clearly a, a conversation about the future of the FBI and what it’s doing in our democracy, ah, because that kinda power, the kinda power that they have is immense and if they’re gonna use it in this way, um, I have to say our Constitutional order is not secure and I’m very concerned about it.”

Outgoing House Ways and Means ranking GOP member Congressman Kevin Brady seems to think saying that if the committee makes Trump’s tax returns public then it could create a precedent where those of Supreme Court justices could eventually be released too was some kind of warning and not like accidentally giving Democrats a great idea on how to fuck with Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Amy Coney Barrett when they eventually get the gavel again.

The entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the fifth most populous state, has yet to certify the results of its statewide elections for governor, US Senator, and lieutenant governor because one single liberal on one county’s three member Board of Elections is bizarrely sympathetic to the MAGA shitbrains’ demands for a recount, joining with the one Republican on the Allegheny County board to delay certification, thereby holding up the entire state’s certification due to state law requiring each individual county to be certified for the state result to be valid, Vox reports.

“I think that the way to stop the election denier narrative is to show them why there is no cause for concern… That’s the way to end these conspiracy theories,” self described progressive Dem Allegheny County Councilperson At Large Bethany Hallam told Vox about why she sided with MAGA colleague Sam DeMarco on blocking the certification, as if giving these morons more room to spew their bullshit is going to get them to learn to accept it when they lose elections.

“…Simply put, it is because the Vice President did have a choice,” the fat bastard continued in another post, and then at least two more going on and on about how John Eastman was right and so on and so forth, which would seem to indicate that he does in fact care that Congress is updating an obsolete law from the 19th century – and doing so with the unambiguous intent of closing the loopholes he and his minions tried to exploit after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Never mind that it would mean that if it somehow doesn’t pass and if Donald were to win then Kamala Harris could toss his electoral votes on January 6th, 2025. Trump and his minions seem to skip over that very obvious flaw in their vast maze of bullshit arguments against ECA reform. But probably the biggest reason he cares, maybe even bigger than it being a “Fuck you” directed right at him, is that it removes a means of control over Republicans in Congress. Once this passes they’re off the hook with having to object to the election in 2025 should he lose to Biden. It’s one less knife Trump can potentially hold to their throats going forward. He definitely cares about that.

It’s not a diplomatic coup like inviting Taliban leaders to celebrate the anniversary of the September 11th attacks while visiting the President of the United States at Camp David or elevating a tinpot dictator of an impoverished Asian nation to the level of a world power, but the Biden Administration continues to rack up diplomatic victories.  This one:  the release of two Americans who had been held by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reports.

“The United States welcomes the release of two U.S. nationals from detention in Afghanistan,” said a senior administration official. “We continue to provide all appropriate assistance. We are glad these U.S. nationals will reunite with their families soon. Out of respect for the privacy of these individuals and their families, we are not going to confirm names.”

Incoming House Dem leader Hakeem Jeffries on Tuesday announced he’s picked six-term Washington Congresswoman Suzan DelBene to lead the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, citing her “frontline” experience. DelBene lost a close race for Washington’s 1st District in 2010, but came back and flipped the seat in 2012 and has served since.

“This November, House Democrats achieved unprecedented midterm success for the party in power, falling just a few seats short of retaining the majority. As we temporarily relinquish the gavels, the dangerous dysfunction of the Extreme MAGA Republicans is already on display. In the new Congress, House Democrats will look for common ground whenever possible and continue to fight for lower costs, better-paying jobs and safer communities. On the nongovernmental side, our top priority will be to take back the House,” said Jeffries in his announcement.

With Russian troop morale mired in the mud and cold of the battlefield, Ukrainian military leaders are taking this opportunity to urge the Russian soldiers to surrender, even to the Ukrainian drones that are hovering over the battlefield, the New York Times reports.

Various outlets have reported Russian soldiers at the front surviving in poor conditions with supply chains cut or stretched, little support from leadership and diminishing prospects for salvaging any type of victory in eastern Ukraine.  As Ukrainian forces recapture territory, Russian conscripts are often sent to the front with little training, few supplies and only rudimentary instruction on how to use weapons.  Trainees are told to have their families ship them tampons to use to close battlefield wounds, and some Russians are relying on Wikipedia to learn how to operate weapons systems.

Inspired by a November incident where a Russian soldier dropped his rifle and surrendered to a drone above him, Ukrainians have set up phone lines, social media channels and Telegram chat rooms for Russians to announce their intent to surrender.  Ukraine has posted a video telling Russians how to surrender to a drone, including how to make their intention known and how to follow a drone to a Ukrainian soldier to give up.

Vicki Baggett, a high school English teacher from Escambia County, Florida has sent a spreadsheet of 149 books she wants banned from school libraries because of various things she finds objectionable about them, from “race-baiting” to acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ people, Popular Information reports.

Her list of books includes a number of titles that do not have obviously objectionable material.  When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball, a children’s book that details the battle three-time gold medal winner in 1960 Olympics overcame to become a world-class athlete, including recovering from childhood polio and overcoming racism in the Deep South in the 1950s.  Baggett claims the book is bjectionable due to “race baiting” because it documents racial prejudice in the Jim Crow South, something that happened regularly.

Baggett also objects to What Girls Are Made Of, a 2017 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Finalist written for students in tenth grade or over that discusses a girl’s maturity into womanhood and her questions regarding sex, responsibility, and her anxiety about adulthood.

A single anonymous source tells celebrity news site RadarOnline.com that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner may be on the outs and – naturally – it’s largely the Orange God Emperor’s fault. “It’s all falling apart. They’re always fighting and can barely contain their growing animosity for each other even when they appear in public,” said the source, who probably isn’t “John Barron” or “David Dennison” because those “insiders” are unlikely to use a big word like “animosity.”

“It’s a toxic situation right now. Jared recognized Donald had become radioactive, and he pushed Ivanka to abandon her father for the sake of their own reputations and the future of their children. But Jared knew if Ivanka continued to stand by her dad, all of his big business connections would go out the window,” said the source, who explained that Ivanka has been isolated from the rest of her family after ducking out of Donald’s 2024 campaign, and blames Jared for pulling her away.

Of course take it with plenty of grains of salt because of the sourcing but it doesn’t actually sound all that far-fetched. The two really have been trying to weasel away from the MAGA Reich and that they at least publicly identify as Orthodox Jews certainly doesn’t jibe well with the Kanye-Fuentes shitshow. The source also said the trouble kicked up a few notches when both Jared and Ivanka testified to the Capitol riot committee, that Donald was furious with Ivanka when she told the Committee she agreed with Bill Barr that the orange bastard lost the 2020 election, adding that Eric and Don Jr “considered her testimony a betrayal.” Donald himself wrote “Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results. She had long since checked out,” when the testimony first became public, which wasn’t really a defense. So it’s certainly plausible and entertaining for libs who enjoy learning that the people they hate are suffering a miserable marriage.

After getting widely lambasted for putting an order in for tens of thousands of gas-powered vehicles, the US Postal Service is reversing course and ordering more than 60,000 electric vehicles to phase out many internal combustion engines in their fleet, the Washington Post reports.

Originally announced in February 2021 to be a purchase of 150,000 gas powered vehicles from Wisconsin-based defense contractor Oshkosh Corp. to be part of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle initiative, the new directive orders 60,000 vehicles from Oshkosh, with 45,000 of them to be electric and 15,000 internal combustion powered.  Another 46,000 vehicles will be purchased from traditional vehicle manufacturers as “commercial off-the-shelf” models, of which 21,000 will be electric.  By 2028, the USPS plans for two-thirds of its vehicle purchases to be electric powered, with the infrastructure in place to manage the new fleet.

The current fleet of 30-year-old gas-powered delivery trucks achieves an average of 8.2 miles per gallon, partially because of the start-stop nature of the driving.  The vehicles also lack standard modern conveniences and safety features like air conditioning, crash zones and airbags.  Gas powered vehicles cannot be completely phased out of the purchase due to the ongoing need for long-haul trucks to handle some shipments and deliveries.

Incoming House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer thinks the Hunterghazi-Twitter “scandal” is a dealbreaker with funding the FBI, specifically its plan to exit the decaying J Edgar Hoover Building in DC and move to a new site somewhere in suburban Maryland. The move has been delayed for years as Trump held it up due to his hatred of the FBI as well as the chance the site could’ve been redeveloped into a hotel that would compete with his (now former) shithole nearby.

Irrespective of Trump and Republicans’ corrupt reasons for blocking the move, the FBI should stay in Washington. Sure, build a large satellite office and use it as a temporary headquarters for however long it takes, but the Hoover building should be rebuilt and FBI leadership move back in when it’s ready for them. We’re in a day and age of rampant political corruption in DC and it would be foolish to put more distance between the cops and the robbers (and domestic terrorist targets).

Leaders in the Republican Party are saying not a whole lot publicly over the criminal referrals issued by the House January 6th Committee against fat former President Trump on Monday, a decided contrast with the immediate aftermath of the August FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, the AP reports.

Besides Moscow Mitch telling reporters “The entire nation knows who is responsible” for the January 6th insurrection, and Mike Pence saying he would “hope” that federal prosecutors “would not bring charges against the former president,” which weren’t really defenses, at all, there was largely silence from the GOP, including Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, even after calling for Merrick Garland to resign after the August FBI raid. The only really forceful pushback noted in the AP’s article comes from hardcore MAGA scumbag Elise Stefanik, who called the Committee investigation “unconstitutional and illegitimate,” as if that’s anything new from her usual canned line about it.

Wells Fargo on Tuesday agreed to pay a $3.7 billion fine to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for being Wells Fargo, CNBC reports “Wells Fargo’s rinse-repeat cycle of violating the law has harmed millions of American families. The CFPB is ordering Wells Fargo to refund billions of dollars to consumers across the country. This is an important initial step for accountability and long-term reform of this repeat offender,” said CFPB Chief Rohit Chopra in a statement.

Thirteen Republican House members and members-elect signed a letter to GOP Senators calling on them to block the omnibus spending bill Republican leadership negotiated with Democrats to keep the government operating, threatening Senators who vote to pass the bill.

The letter, posted by Phillip Wegmann of RealClearNews, is signed by such political performance artists as Matt Gaetz (FL), Andy Biggs (AZ), Scott Perry (PA) and Chip Roy (TX), joined by incoming members including Ana Paulina Luna (FL).  In the letter, the members say they will block any legislation passed by the Senate that was sponsored by a Republican who votes to pass the omnibus bill.  Basically, they just want to watch the world burn so they can assert power they do not yet have.

“We are obliged to inform you that if any omnibus passes in the remaining days of this Congress, we will oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority of those senators who vote for this bill – including the Republican leader,” the childish House Republicans assert, saying they “will otherwise do everything in our power to thwart even the smallest legislative and policy effort of these senators.”

In the November midterm elections, Democrats celebrated taking back the Pennsylvania state house for the first time in 12 years with the slimmest one-seat majority, but even then, the majority wasn’t real, and the majority quickly disappeared.  Well, depending who you ask.

The final tally of the 2022 midterms showed Democrats won 102 seats in the 203-seat lower chamber of the state legislature.  But one of the Democratic incumbents reelected on Election Night had actually died a month before the election.  Another member of the chamber was elected to Congress, and a third Democrat was elected Lt. Governor as Josh Shapiro’s running mate.

So while Democrats technically hold the majority of seats, they don’t have the majority of legislatures in the chamber, and Republicans are attempting to jump on that gap and exploit it:  Republican Valerie Gaydos announced a bid to be the state house speaker, which would allow Republicans to set the rules for the upcoming session, handcuffing Democrats.  The problem:  Democratic Leader Joanna McClinton has already been sworn in to the position, much to the consternation of Republicans.