Outgoing Republican Governor Doug Ducey is using nearly $100 million in state taxpayer money to build a border wall made of stacked shipping containers running through a national forest, filling in gaps in the signature folly of the Trump administration, The Guardian reports.

Using $95 million of state taxpayer money, Ducey started dumping shipping containers, stacked two tall, through the Coronado National Forest, with wide gaps in the impromptu, non-engineered, non-designed stacks; basically, Ducey ordered contractors to take old, rusting shipping containers and line them up through a national forest that’s 40 miles from the Mexican border.

Ducey is simultaneously playing to conservative bellyaching about the overreach of the federal government and the federal government somehow simultaneously not doing too much on the border.  Ducey claims the area of the Coronado where he dumped the containers is state property illegally seized by the federal government.

QAnon asshole Marjorie Taylor Greene on Saturday told a young Republican event in Manhattan that the MAGA terrorists would’ve been victorious in the January 6th, 2021 insurrection if she and fellow white nationalist Steve Bannon had been in charge of them, the New York Post reports.

“I want to tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would’ve been armed,” said the racist conspiracy freak, who added “you can pick up a butt plug or a dildo at Target nowadays“ which we guess is her way of not very subtly letting her friends know what to get her for Christmas.

Watch live as the Orion spacecraft returns to Earth for the completion of Artemis I mission, which flung the Orion to an orbit around the Moon and back, testing a new system capable to carrying humans.  The Orion spacecraft is scheduled to splashdown about 50 miles off the coast of California at 9:39 a.m. PT.

Republicans in Congress aren’t really on the same page with how much interference they want to run for their Holy Orange God Emperor as he faces ever-increasing legal peril while endangering the party’s chances of retaking the White House and the Senate in 2024, the Washington Post reports.

“I don’t see an interruption of an ongoing investigation into Trump, that’s going to play itself out one way or the other. But I think DOJ and FBI need to be asked questions about what they told Facebook, Twitter and other media outlets about the Hunter Biden story,” said usually loyal douchebag Senator Lindsey Graham in an interview. Incoming House Oversight chair James Comer was similarly meh on going all MAGA on the DOJ, saying such probes “will not be a priority.”

One House Republican staffer said whatever does happen will be mostly just the same Hillary-Hunter whataboutism the party’s been at for years. “It’s an easy crutch for them to grasp and they’re grasping it because they can’t actually defend what [Trump is] potentially going to be indicted for. They lean on this as opposed to defending him on the facts, which they can’t do,” the staffer said under the condition of anonymity because how the hell else would they be so honest about it.

“When the investigators give you an answer you don’t like, investigate the investigators. The members get invested, and then the base gets invested and even if things turn out to be really stupid things they are investigating, they’ll get a lot of Fox News out of it,” said another GOP staffer.

More than 1.1 million acres of fir trees in the Pacific Northwest died in 2022 due to drought and other factors attributable to climate change, a new survey by federal, state and local officials found, NBC News reports.

Using aerial survey laser mapping technology, the study swept over more than 69 million acres of land in Oregon and Washington, finding a little less than 2% of the forest land filled with dead or dying fir trees, the primary evergreen in the region.  Scientists have dubbed the situation “Firmageddon.”

Drought, in some cases followed by heavy rains, can devastate forests.  Trees that do not succumb to drought can fall prey to myriad other problems like mold, bark beetles, disease and other maladies.  In heavy rains following droughts, stands of trees can be destroyed in landslides, and dry trees make excellent fuel for the numerous forest fires that have impacted the area.

A Sunday NBC News story surveying Republicans’ failures to make gains with Latino voters in the Southwest includes a pretty funny anecdote underscoring the low-energy effort on the ground.

A reporter made five visits to a “community outreach center” in a Latino neighborhood in Las Vegas, all at different times of the day, each time finding the place locked and empty. Finally on the sixth visit, the reporter found a single staffer there with a puppy who promptly “had an accident on the floor,” and that the staffer “appeared startled by a visitor.” The staffer then told the reporter to visit another “community outreach” location, at which another staffer gave the reporter a party official’s phone number. The official did not return a call requesting comment.

“I think the engagement that we’re seeing with Hispanic and Asian voters in Clark County is going to be a difference maker,” the story then quotes RNC Chairwoman Ronna Not-Romney McDaniel as saying before the midterm elections, plainly to emphasize how yet again she was full of shit.

American and Scottish officials on Sunday announced the arrest of the Libyan terrorist accused of building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in December 1988, killing all 259 on board plus another 11 on the ground in and around the town of Lockerbie, the AP reports.

“The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told that the suspect Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi is in US custody,” Scotland’s Crown Prosecutor said in a statement.

I affirm your pronouns Elon.

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) December 11, 2022

A British teenage girl with an aggressive type of leukemia that experts claimed was “incurable” is now cancer free after receiving a first-of-its-kind treatment in which her DNA was modified to have her body create its own therapy, the BBC reports.

Doctors at National Health Service’s Great Ormond Street Hospital treated the 13-year-old girl with a new technology called “base editing” that allows them to literally alter specific sections of DNA to change the function of cells.  The patient suffered from T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a form of cancer that turns the body’s normally beneficial T-cells against the body.

Using donated T-cells, doctors used base editing, a technology developed just six years ago, to produce T-cells that would attack the patient’s cancerous T-cells.  Bases are what comprise genetic code.  There are four bases–adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T)–that are infinitely combined to produce our individual genetic codes. 

Officials in Oregon and western Washington are reviewing information they have on six attacks on utility substations since mid-November, fearing that they were initial attempts to try to disrupt power to an extent similar to a recent terrorist attack in North Carolina, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.

The attacks against facilities of Portland General Electric, the Bonneville Power Administration, Cowlitz County Public Utility District and Puget Sound Energy involved firearms shooting to knock out key equipment at the sites which would disable the equipment and cause a similar blackout to the one that hit Moore County, North Carolina, leaving at least 40,000 households without power for up to four days.

The attacks in the Northwest hit in the weeks prior to the North Carolina attacks, but it’s unknown if there’s a direct connection between the two or if the two were coincidental and planned using the same playbook.  Western Washington and Oregon are frequently the targets of attacks from white nationalist and separatist extremist groups based in neighboring Idaho.

People need to start being held accountable.

— Kyle Rittenhouse (@ThisIsKyleR) December 10, 2022

Huge “Twitter Files” bombshell something reveal Part 3 explosive whatever Elon Musk edgelord former MSM journalist now Substacker something Bari Weiss huge whatever so huge bombshell. Mega reveal bias something inside Twitter before Musk free speech whatever bought it to show libs who’s boss whatever overpaid for it losing money fast lol. Libs still owned whatever something.

Former FBI lawyer James Baker something who gives a fuck whatever Hunter Biden’s cock huge reveal something fanboys misunderstanding of First Amendment at the most basic level whatever Matt Taibbi circlejerk. New part 3 about Trump ban so explosive something this is like Watergate times a million divided by 9/11 whatever the corruption went all the way to the top down to the bottom and then back again. Elon Musk champion something of free speech whatever Tesla stock continues dropping while something he’s jerking around with this stupid bullshit whatever.

Libs going to be sorry for messing with Trump something exposed they cheated and they got caught whatever Jim Jordan says Americans are fed up with woke something not letting them see Hunter Biden’s cock on Twitter whatever huge red wave coming in 2024 something, just watch libs.

Are progressives demonizing incoming Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's right-wing coalition? https://t.co/LgmHugop7Q

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 10, 2022

Morocco defeated the heavily favored Portuguese squad in the 2022 World Cup tournament by a 1-0 score Saturday, completing a sweep of the Iberian peninsula in one week following its Tuesday upset victory over the hosts of the Spanish Inquisition.  Morocco will face the winner of England vs. France match, set for 2 p.m. ET Saturday.

The total national turnout in the 2022 US House elections reached 107.5 million, with a 2.8% lead in the popular vote for Republicans, according to the Cook Political Report’s tracker. The total may increase as Cook gathers more data, but damn that is freaking brutal for Republicans considering a 2.8% edge net gains only 9 seats. Compare that to 2010, when a 6.8% popular vote win saw them taking 63 seats. They really ought to fire whoever was in charge of gerrymandering this round of Congressional redistricting. That guy clearly fucked up.

• How bad is it for Trump? Lawyers so morally bankrupt they would work for Donald Trump wouldn’t attest his statements to federal officials were true.  They knew he lied, and have practically told a court so.
• Kyrsten Sinema moving to become an independent proves one thing:  she’s secured someone to finance her 2024 run.  Supposition:  Peter Thiel has a new lapdog.
• If the NY Times can spend a million for a game, they can afford to give their editorial staff better wages.  NatZero stands with the Guild.
• Liberals:  “Don’t mock Ted Cruz’s daughter.”  Conservatives:  “Underwear and a hammer is a Paul Pelosi Halloween costume.”  Liberals win humanity.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume IC”

Always the victim, Junior takes to his gold-plated logo to whine about how he’s sure he was shadow-banned by Twitter because he’s “been at this a long time” and he knows what will go viral, much like his social diseases.  He claims he gave Charlie Kirk his Twitter account to run on Election Day 2016–which seems… odd–and he saw things that should go viral that didn’t because, he claims, it was on his account.

Yeah, he could’ve been shadow-banned, or maybe he just doesn’t know as much about his stated area of expertise as he claims.  Which seems to be a problem, particularly with Trump men.

The last of the famed British Dambusters, a daring World War II squadron that specialized in low-altitude attacks to knock out German power and water infrastructure has died December 7th in Bristol, the Washington Post reports.

George “Johnny” Johnson was a “bomb-aimer” or bombardier for 617 Squadron, a specialty attack squadron that participated in the May 17, 1943 attack on the Sorpe Dam, flying 60 feet above the water to release 8,500-pound cylindrical bombs that skimmed the surface of the water, hitting the dam and falling to the bottom before exploding.  Of the 19 Lancaster bombers that took part in the raid, only eleven returned.

Although the Sorpe Dam survived the attack due to its earthen works design, two other dams attacked in the same operation were destroyed.  Johnson’s bomb was credited as the only hit on the dam in that phase of the operation, and it caused enough damage that water punched a whole through the dam, flooding munitions factories downriver.

Top Florida GOP donor and DeSantis ally Kent Stermon was found dead in his car in Jacksonville on Thursday, weeks after the local sheriff’s office opened a criminal investigation into Stermon over allegations of sexual misconduct, First Coast News reports. Stermon had hosted a fundraiser for terrible Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker in late October.

“Mr. Stermon was the subject of an active investigation by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, which began a few weeks prior to his death. This investigation remains ongoing at this time and will continue until its completion. As with all active investigations, there is limited information available to release at this time. However, as soon as this investigation has been completed, all applicable information will be available for release to the public,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline in the United States is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-800-273-8255 or 988. Please call or text if you need to talk to someone.

Former Republican Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has escaped criminal charges for his role in poisoning the water supply of city of Flint for putting unqualified city overseers in place in a political power display, ABC News reports.

Snyder faced two misdemeanor counts of willful neglect of duty for failing to prevent the lead contamination of the water supply in Flint, as well as failing to notify the residents of the city of the contamination.

The state supreme court set the stage for dismissal of charges against Snyder and eight others, to date, when it ruled that a rarely-used one-person grand jury system provided for in state law was improperly used to indict the defendants.