In an interview transcript obtained by the New York Times, one of the 16 Michigan Republicans to be charged with signing false Electoral College votes and the only so far to reach a cooperation agreement with Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office, told prosecutors he felt “betrayed” by the others who had talked him into filling in at the last minute for a would-be elector who dropped out.

“I can’t overemphasize how once I read the information in the J6 transcripts how upset I was that the legitimate process had not been followed,” James Renner said in the interview. “I felt that I had been walked into a situation that I shouldn’t have ever been involved in. I was accepting the individuals that were in authority [knew] what they were talking about.” Renner said he began looking into the January 6th Select Committee transcripts after he and the other 15 had been sued earlier this year. “It was only then that I realized that, hold it, there is an official state authorized process for this… I had never been an elector, I had never discussed it with anybody. I was used to a much more informal process at the county level. And so that’s when I became suspicious of what had gone on,” he said, adding that he later realized “what happened was not legitimate.”

Renner, a 77 year-old retired state trooper, is so far the only fake Michigan elector to have had the charges dropped against him for cooperating with prosecutors. The Times’s reporting mentions that at a recent pretrial hearing that a former Michigan GOP official had drafted language to specify that the electors were signing only on a contingent basis – the qualifier that their counterparts in Pennsylvania and New Mexico added and as such have almost certainly saved their own asses – but that official had been sidelined by a COVID infection that day.

A new AP-NORC survey finds that just 20 percent of Republican voters have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence, 22 percent have a “moderate amount,” and 58 percent have “only a little or none at all” confidence that the Democratic Party’s 2024 primary votes will be counted correctly.

This is in contrast with 46 percent of Democratic voters having “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence, 24 percent having a “moderate mount,” and 29 percent having “only a little or none at all” confidence that the Republican Party’s 2024 primary votes will be counted correctly.

All of this makes for a neat quantification of the “DeAn pHiLL1pS iS GeTTiNg sCReWeD By tEh B1deN cR1mE fAm1Ly!!!11!!” bullshit already getting fired up in MAGA world. To be fair though, it’s not like Republican voters are that much more confident in their own party’s primary process, as just 37 percent say they have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence in it, and 31 percent say a “moderate” amount, leaving nearly a third thinking the GOP’s 2024 race is rigged. Meanwhile 72 percent of Dem voters have high confidence, 19 percent a moderate amount, and only 8 percent have low or no confidence that votes will be counted accurately in the 2024 Dem primary.

Without printing or linking to the crosstabs of the general election findings the AP writes “About one-quarter of Republicans say they have at least ‘quite a bit’ of confidence that the votes in the 2024 presidential election will be counted accurately, significantly lower than Democrats.”

Rejecting a claim from the ghost of Project Veritas that its actions were covered under the First Amendment protection for journalists, a judge said investigating federal officers will get back nearly 1,000 documents regarding the theft and distribution of a diary that belonged to the daughter of President Joe Biden seized from the group in an FBI raid in November 2021, the Associated Press reports.

Project Veritas paid $20,000 each to Florida People and convicted criminals Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander to deliver the book, Ashley Biden’s tax information and other items stolen from the Florida home to O’Keefe’s offices in New York.  The pair later pleaded guilty to various charges regarding the theft and transportation of the stolen items across state lines. The order means federal investigators will get more than 900 documents from Project Veritas about the theft, acquisition and distribution of the diary for possible charges regarding the theft of the items and their transportation to New York.

The campaign for Republican presidential candidate and man who assures you your life insurance policy rate will not go up Vivek Ramaswamy has eliminated all spending on television ads in New Hampshire one month before the state’s influential early primary on January 23rd, NBC News reports.

After spending more than $200,000 in the state in the first week in December, the Ramaswamy campaign ran just $6,000 in ads last week across all media, and it reportedly has no media booked in the coming weeks.  Of course, Vivek’s campaign wants you to know that this is exactly the kind of news the Leftist Media would report because it’s trying to squelch the voice of the people who know the vaccine had trackable nanorobotics that control your mind and time-traveling aliens crashed their spacecraft into the Pentagon so the Men in Black destroyed the World Trade Center to cover up the fact that they already know the next election is rigged against Trump.  Or something like that.

Step on this – while you’re barefoot – libs! And holy fuck fat former President Trump just posted this to his Truth Social feed because nothing from your childhood can remain innocent and uncorrupted any more. We might’ve skipped this (legitimately well-made) clip it if not for the accurate portrayal of the ethnic and sartorial homogeneity of the crowd at a Trump rally. Which leads us to at least consider the possibility that this was a troll job by some smart-ass liberal to that very end, tricking the fat bastard with the crisp animation and bronze (not orange) skin tone into sharing a depiction of his “Silent Majority” as soulless plastic automatons that move only at his command.

Later Trump posted a rant about Michigan Dem Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, writing that he “gave, as President, her long serving husband [former 25-term Congressman John Dingell], the absolute highest US honors for his funeral, a really big deal, she called me, crying almost uncontrollably, to say that she couldn’t believe I was willing to do that for a Democrat. She thanked me profusely. Two months later, she was back on the trail ranting and raving about ‘TRUMP.'”

Trump left out that later that year he had told his fans that John Dingell was burning in hell.

“The 2020 election. It was stolen. This is the mother of all bombshell polls released yesterday by Rasmussen along with the Heartland Institute. And the thing that needs to be said right off the bat is when it comes to Rasmussen reports, they are the most or one of the most credible, most respected, legitimate, accurate polling firms in the entire country. So if it comes from Rasmussen, it’s rock solid. They teamed up with the Heartland Institute, another group that is also very respectable, extremely credible,” said Boston-area MAGA radio host Jeff Kuhner earlier this month in reaction to a “rock solid” finding from a Rasmussen survey where circa 20 percent of all respondents who voted by mail in 2020 supposedly said they “claim they took advantage of election laws that loosened up because of the coronavirus crisis to commit fraud, including filling out ballots for others.”

Kuhner’s reaction is just one of dozens of hot takes from right wing influencers and media personalties listed on the Heartland Institute’s website in the days after the Washington Examiner first printed an article about the poll, which also found “Nineteen percent of those who cast mail-in votes say a friend or family member filled out their ballot, in part or in full” and “Seventeen percent of mail-in voters said they cast a ballot in a state where they were no longer permanent residents.”

How will Joe Biden recover from this… y’know, after a surprisingly strong 5.2% economic growth in the third quarter, ongoing job creation, and now consumer spending during the holiday season increased by 3.1% over last year, according to data from Mastercard (which is not Visa) as reported by Reuters.  The number came in less than the 3.7% forecast likely due to increased credit card interest rates, and far lower than the 7.3% increase seen in 2022, as retailers discounted merchandise deeply rid themselves of excess stock from the pandemic.  The number, though, is closer to pre-pandemic increases which typically ran between 2.5-4%.

Ukrainian military officials claim to have sunk the Russian “large landing ship” Novocherkassk that was moored at the eastern Crimean port of Feodosia, the second successful attack on that ship since the Russian invasion, the Washington Post reports.

The Novocherkassk is the fourth “large landing ship”–a Russian navy designation–to be damaged by the Ukrainians during the war.  A video posted on Telegram showed a ship explosion at a Ukrainian port that was matched by an independent investigation firm as matching the place and time of the alleged attack.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday tossed Republican former Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry’s 2022 conviction on charges of lying to the FBI on improper venue grounds, ordering that any new trial for the jerkoff must be held in either DC or Nebraska.

My home was “swatted” on Christmas. Someone hoped police might accidentally kill me and my family.

Today local “news” doxxed us by publishing a photo of my home, why? To make it easier to target my family?

You put my family’s lives at risk. Shame on you https://t.co/3nKMK8Yty7 https://t.co/GBTy1SOoPE

— Rep. Brandon Williams (@RepWilliams) December 26, 2023

Upstate New York MAGA Congressman Brandon Williams got swatted on Christmas Day, and now he’s extra pissed that Syracuse.com included a pic of his house in the article. Now of course they probably shouldn’t have done that, but we’re kind of having trouble finding an example of Williams being similarly outspoken about other certain incidents like, just for example, Paul Pelosi getting his head bashed in by that QAnon freak in 2022. Or when Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and former Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman, among others, were harassed at their homes after the 2020 election. Or turning down money raised by Hitler fan Carl Palladino who, according to the DCCC, has called the Uvalde and Buffalo massacres “false flags,” suggested Attorney General Merrick Garland “probably should be executed,” among other hateful shit.

Williams does not seem bothered by that stuff. But when it’s former staffers threatening to out his daughter’s OnlyFans account or some lib troll calling a SWAT team he’s going to take a stand.

Republican former West Virginia state Delegate Derrick Evans – whose career in elected office lasted all of 39 days until he resigned from the state legislature after being arrested for entering the US Capitol during the January 6th, 2021 MAGA insurrection and is now running for Congress after pleading guilty and serving 90 days in the clink – tweeted and deleted a pic of action figures of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr Anthony Fauci, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hanging from nooses on Monday, the Tennessee Holler reports.

“I’ve been very clear that I do NOT support violence. Have a Merry Christmas ya filthy animals,” the convicted misdemeanant MAGA rioter tweeted after hastily deleting the pic depicting the kitschy toys you can find in bookstores and gift shops in places like west Brooklyn and other bougie liberal enclaves being hanged while an action figure of former President Trump raises its tiny plastic fist in victory. He then posted “Not my tree. Not my ornaments. Not in good taste. NOT a call for violence. I shouldn’t have used a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus for anything political (good taste or poor taste). Let’s go celebrate this time with our families in love and peace.” Evans later continued posting political tweets, first with “I hope everyone spends a few minutes this Christmas to remember the American families who have been displaced by illegals. Our southern border is literally being invaded,” and then a pic of wrapping paper of Biden wearing a Santa hat but saying “Happy Easter.”

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is being considered by the British Royal Family for an elite ignominy accoladed to – among other villains – bloody dictators like Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, communist Romania’s Nicolae Ceauşescu, and fascist Italy’s Benito Mussolini: being stripped of the honorary knighthood title of “Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire,” which he was granted in 2002 in the months after the 9/11 attacks, the Daily Beast reports.

“Anyone who tries to overturn a legitimate election result I think should not be worthy of an honor and a knighthood under the British honors system,” former MP Tom Brake told the Beast.

NYC pro-Palestinian protesters attempt to put damper on Christmas while clashing with police: reports https://t.co/7Iad8MPJQj

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 26, 2023

The FBI is investigating threats being made to against the seven justices of the Colorado Supreme Court after they ruled in a 4-3 judgment that former president and affirmed insurrectionist Donald Trump cannot appear on the 2024 presidential ballot in the state, CNN reports.  Denver police have reportedly responded to at least one hoax call to a justice’s home.

“The FBI is aware of the situation and working with local law enforcement,” a Bureau official said on Monday. “We will vigorously pursue investigations of any threat or use of violence committed by someone who uses extremist views to justify their actions regardless of motivation.”  An independent agency found online threats against all seven justices rose after four of the Court ruled Trump’s actions relating to blocking the certification of the 2020 election violated the 14th Amendment’s Section 3.

Saying the war in Gaza is “not close to being over,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a Christmas Day trip to Gaza to tell members of his Party that he would intensify operations in the besieged region, the BBC reports.

The war has caused tens of thousands of refugees, ousted from their homes in the Holy Land this holiday season.  Faced by a crowd of family members of the 132 hostages believed still held by Hamas, Netanyahu announced, “We will not be able to release all the abductees without military pressure … we will not stop fighting.”

I was just swatted.

This is like the 8th time.

On Christmas with my family here.

My local police are the GREATEST and shouldn’t have to deal with this.

I appreciate them so much and my family and I are in joyous spirits celebrating the birth of our savior Jesus Christ!

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) December 25, 2023

For, like, the eighth time, Republican Georgia Congresswoman and imperious elf delighted to find coal in her stocking Christmas morning, lib! Marjorie Taylor Greene took to social media to whine this morning about her achieved position as the most reviled Congresswoman.  (How many times did she have to back space” “‘… celebrating the birth of our lord and savior Dona–‘ Dagnabbit, I did it again.”)

Former President Trump delivered a message of hope to Americans on Christmas morning, looking forward to the challenges coming in the new year as he gears up for a historic comeback campaign.

The post was the latest of several coming on the holiday weekend, as on Saturday the 45th president also wrote a series of special Christmas Eve messages such as “WHY DID THE UNSELECT JANUARY 6th COMMITTEE OF POLITICAL HACKS & THUGS ILLEGALLY DELETE & DESTROY ALL OF THE EVIDENCE THEY USED TO WRITE THEIR FAKE REPORT. WHY DO THEY NOT SHOW THAT I USED THE WORDS ‘PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY’ IN MY SPEECH? THEY ACTUALLY PRETENDED THAT THESE WORDS WERE NEVER UTTERED. CROOKED POLITICS!!!” and “Almost everybody agrees, even most of the crazed Radical Left Lunatics, that the Colorado decision is political delusion, and that I am, separately, fully entitled to PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY, without which Crooked Joe Biden, whose Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith, is merely serving his bosses wishes, would be prosecuted for destroying our Country, including his incompetently handled withdrawal from Afghanistan and, also, allowing millions of people to ILLEGALLY INVADE our Country and destroy the very fabric of what the United States stands for, and is all about. Should Crooked Joe be prosecuted for these, and other of his acts of stupidity? …And why isn’t the Unselect January 6th Committee being prosecuted by Deranged Jack Smith for destroying and deleting all of their evidence and ‘work’ product? Is it because Crazy Nancy Pelosi was implicated in a cover up?”

After supporters were unable to find him for nearly three weeks, dissident Russian political leader Alexei Navalny, who has survived a polonium poisoning attempt, has been located at a former Soviet gulag facility 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Reuters reports.

The 47-year-old opposition leader was moved from a prison about 145 east of Moscow to the K-3 penal colony in Kharp, about 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow, a “special regime” camp where Putin’s most dangerous opponents and most dangerous prisoners.  Navalny was originally sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison on trumped up financial fraud charges; in 2022, he had another nine year sentence added to his sentence for the same case, and in August 2023, a Russian court sentenced him to an additional 19 years on “extremism” charges.

Conditions at the camp, known as “Polar Wolf,” are crowded beyond the two-square-meters of living space per prisoner mandated by Russian law.  Temperatures at the camp will reach -28 degrees Celsius in winter.

With the understanding that we know what’s really happening here–we reviewed it in RtF two days ago–we question the rationalization of using federal funds to feed the commercializa– Oh, c’mon… it’s Christmas Eve.  NORAD is tracking Santa as he makes his magical journey around the globe, and the NORAD Santa Tracker Site has some cool new features that actually allow you to learn a little about the places Santa’s going and where he’s been.

Ya never know what nosy family will find:  Family members visiting a relative in San Diego for the holidays found a body, believed to be that of a woman, stuffed into a freezer, the Sacramento Bee reports.  The family found the corpse stuffed into a chest freezer and immediately called police on Friday.  Police are investigating the case as a homicide, but don’t know the cause or timing of the death.