Despite objections from Congressional Republicans, the US Army will remove a monument to Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetary next week, another move in its continuing effort to rid honors for secessionists from its ranks, the Washington Post reports.

According to the cemetery’s website, the Confederate Monument, in Section 16, was erected in 1914 in an area designated for Confederate veterans who were reinterred there after President William McKinley called a “Peace Jubilee” in the days after the end of the Spanish-American War.  (The website’s description of the monument has an explanation for those of you wondering  about why Arlington, placed on the site of Lee’s former plantation in an act of spite against the Confederate general, has a monument to Confederates.)

The memorial’s removal comes as the Army scrubs the names of Confederate leaders from its posts and bans displays of the Confederate flags within its ranks.  Last week, more than 40 Republican members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin telling him, the first Black man to hold that post, “Who do you think you are?” that he did not have the authority to remove the memorial from the cemetery managed by the Pentagon.  Human-sloth hybrid Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a bill in the House protects from removal any memorial or statue to a Confederate on federal land.

Tom Lockyer, the captain of the Luton Town soccer team in the English Premier League, collapsed on the field during play with what the team later reported was cardiac arrest, the second time this year he passed out during a game, CNN reports.

Lockyer was responsive as medical crews from his team and opposition Bournemouth treated him on the field and took him off in a stretcher.  A post by the team said Lockyer was transferred to a local hospital where he was in stable condition.  In May, Lockyer passed out on the field during the season-ending promotion victory over Coventry City with what the team later identified as atrial fibrillation; Lockyer had surgery to treat the condition and was cleared to return to the field.

Again, we might as well just run this instead of having to slap together a bunch of clips of the fat bastard saying shit like he’s not going to let the banking industry “take advantage of you any longer,” or again declaring an imaginary victory in the already imaginary “War on Christmas.”

The Republican California Assemblyman designated by former GOP Congressman and failed Speaker Kevin McCarthy is not eligible to appear on the ballot for the office by California’s Secretary of State because he’s already registered for reelection for his current office, KFSN ABC-30 in Fresno reports.

McCarthy ordained Bakersfield Assemblyman Vince Fong as his chosen successor for his seat representing California’s 20th Congressional district, but because Fong applied to run for reelection to his Assembly seat prior to the December 8th deadline, he is barred from his name appearing another time on the ballot according to state law.  California law also prohibits a candidate from removing their name from the ballot after the deadline, meaning Fong cannot negate his reelection bid to run for McCarthy’s seat.

As he repeatedly did in the months he led the House, McCarthy caused the chaos himself.   By childishly announcing his retirement from Congress on December 6th, just two days before the normal candidate filing deadline in the state, McCarthy screwed all established Republicans in the state who had eyes for reelection or for a new office run and had already registered their campaigns for their desired office with the state Secretary of State office.  Fong says he will challenge the office’s decision in court, because Republicans believe they are exempt from laws they don’t like.

An Israeli Defense Forces official on Saturday admitted to CNN that the three male hostages mistakenly killed Gaza this week were shirtless and waving a white flag when some fucking idiot soldiers pulled the trigger on them, which was supposedly “against [their] rules of engagement.”

“The three men came out of a building ‘tens of meters from our soldiers’ position,’ the official said. At least one of the soldiers ‘feels threatened and opens fire. Two are killed immediately. One is wounded and runs back inside. The soldiers hear a cry for help in Hebrew and the brigade commander issues a ceasefire order, but there is another burst of fire,'” the official said at a briefing.

Sounds more like seeing shirtless guys waving a white flag and then immediately shooting them is actual IDF standard operating procedure and these poor fuckers were probably too excited to remember that after they had miraculously escaped from more than two weeks of abusive captivity.

The Lake County, Florida State Attorney’s office on Thursday announced they will seek the death penalty under the Sunshine State’s new enhanced capital punishment laws in the case of registered Republican voter Joe Giampa, indicted this week on six counts of sexual battery upon a person under 12 years old and three counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child after he was found to be in possession of a video of himself in the act with a young girl, Fox 35 Orlando reports.

“The decision to pursue the highest penalty reflects the gravity of the charges and the State Attorney’s Office’s dedication to holding criminals accountable for their actions. The State Attorney’s Office acknowledges the sensitivity of this matter and the impact it has on the community. Our commitment to ensuring justice and protecting the vulnerable remains unwavering,” the office said in a statement. Giampa’s case is believed to be the first in modern history in which Florida prosecutors will try to execute a defendant convicted of anything other than murder after heels-wearing Governor Ron DeSantis, whom Giampa in all likelihood voted for in 2018 and 2022, in May signed a bill allowing the death penalty to be imposed for some sexual crimes against children.

The bar for getting a jury to sign off on it is now lower too as DeSantis in April signed a law lowering the unanimous death penalty requirement to an 8-4 majority in response to 2018 Parkland high school massacre MAGA terrorist Nikolas Cruz being spared the gurney by one or two holdouts.

• I smiled when I saw the initial damages.  I chuckled at the amount awarded for emotion distress.  And I downright guffawed at the punitive damages.  But Rudy was nonplussed because he knows you can’t squeeze blood from a stone.  (You can, however, get hair dye from a Giuliani.)
• The Kate Cox plight in Texas has me furious beyond words. A court of supposed legal experts are making medical decisions.  We have found the Death Panels the Republicans of 2008 feared.  
• Yes, I want Trump to be convicted for his crimes and punished.  But I can’t help but want Trump to have a better legal team, one that is more-than-just-competent to handling the legal challenge with sound competent arguments.  As horrid as Trump is, these cases are historic.  They need to be handled with a seriousness and solemnity Trump himself is incapable of, but Trump’s lawyers must recognize.
• God bless Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.  They did their civic duties as poll workers.  They stood up to threats and lies.  They honor the Constitution more than those who put them in the crosshairs of the MAGA horde, claiming to be the real patriots.  This country owes them a debt more than Giuliani is ordered to pay.  Their names should be in history books.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume CLI”

A Georgia middle school teacher was charged with making terroristic threats and cruelty to children in the third degree after saying he would behead a student who said an Israeli flag he hung in his classroom is offensive, NBC News reports.

Fifty-one-year-old Benjamin Reese, a seventh grade teacher at Warner Robins Middle School in Houston County, was charged after he made the threat in front of 18 students who heard him say he would “cut her head off” to the student as he followed the student into the hall, shouting.  Other teachers said Reese was yelling loud enough to be heard in other classrooms.  One educator told officials he heard Reese tell the girl that she was antisemitic and he was going to slit her throat in the classroom before dragging outside where he would behead her.

Of the five early GOP campaign states, Donald Trump only tops the average lead of Party frontrunners from previous elections in two of them, a sign that Trump’s hold on the GOP primary might not be as certain as some polls show, but not a signal his likelihood of winning the states is less.  It’s an interesting study from the Washington Post (gift link), showing Trump beating the trend since 1980 in Nevada and Iowa, where he’s spent many nights at rallies while trailing the historical leaders average in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan, where he’s ten points behind the curve.

Is this disastrous for Trump?  No, it just shows he’s trailing an average now, but could make up the ground in the weeks before voters go to polls and the field winnows down.  And his levels of support now are enough to traditionally win these states’ Party primaries.  What the data show, though, is Trump solidifying his base early, making it difficult for challengers Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis have harder roads to the nomination unless they can unseat some of Trump’s early, most faithful supporters.

Sporting a new The Rachel-esque hairstyle straight out of 1994, Fox hostess and Bierfrau at Berchtesgaden Laura Ingraham knows what’s really important to American voters this election season:  a hockey mascot twerking during a White House appearance… in April.  Conservatives are not serious people.

More than a dozen ancient Cambodian artifacts and relics looted during the Cambodian civil war in the 1960s-’70s and purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art via a questionable art trader will be returned to the Cambodian government, the WNBC NBC-4 New York reports.

Obtained through art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was later charged for his involvement in an art smuggling scheme but died before trial, the sixteen pieces were returned in two lots–one of 13 and a later one of three–as the Met combed through records and discovered more stolen items in its collection.

The return is in no small part due to an increase in media attention to the plight of stolen cultural antiquities from Cambodia and other countries highlighted by a wide variety of journalists, from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, to the Washington Post, to the Discovery Channel’s Josh Gates, who highlighted archeological finds in the region during recent seasons of his shows.

After being awarded $149 million in damages, including $75 million in punitive damages, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss addressed the media when they exited the courtroom, promising that this lawsuit was just the beginning of regaining their reputations after Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani defamed them and hoping that the turmoil they endured will not be tolerated by other targets of MAGA stochastic terrorism.

Despite the fact that he refused to mount a defense in the trial and stipulated to all the facts made by Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss leading to a summary judgment in their favor, new pauper Rudy Giuliani claims he’s going to appeal not just the amount awarded, but the overall verdict of the lawsuit.

A federal jury in DC on Friday awarded nearly $149 million in defamation damages to mother-daughter former Georgia election worker duo Ruby Freeman and Shae Moss in their lawsuit against alcoholic shitbrain Rudy Giuliani over his false accusations the two of being part of a vast conspiracy to rig the 2020 election against fat former President Trump, CBS’s Scott MacFarlane reports.

The judgment is incredible for Moss and Freeman, who were seeking around $45 million in total damages from Giuliani for the pair. The breakdown:  Freeman won $16,171,000 for compensatory damages, while Moss was awarded $16,998,000.  Each will receive $20 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and the jury awarded $75 million in punitive damages.

According to the Associated Press, Giuliani sat emotionless as the judgment was announced, likely because he knows he’s broke and he can’t get any more bankrupt, financially or morally.  But the good news:  punitive damages cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

The 26-year-old mother of the then-six-year-old boy who shot his teacher at a Newport News, Virginia elementary school was sentenced to two years in prison, four times the six-month sentence prosecutors and the defense team had agreed to in the plea deal, ABC News reports.

In the plea agreement, Deja Taylor admitted she owned the gun and stored it in such a way that her son could access it, saying she kept the loaded gun in her purse on top of a dresser in her bedroom.  She pleaded guilty to one count of felony neglect of a child, and she will serve her state sentence after she’s done serving her federal sentence for the “Hunter Biden Combo”:  a 21-month sentence on separate federal convictions related to owning the gun while using drugs and lying about her marijuana use during a background check for the purchase of the weapon.

Just ten minutes after the 98-page draft opinion of the Dobbs case written by Justice Samuel Alito overturning a patient’s right to access reproductive healthcare was circulated to the nine Supreme Court justices for their review, Trump-appointed Neil Gorsuch sent his colleagues on the bench an email that he had signed off on the decision, the New York Times reports (gift link).

Typically, justices take days or weeks to review a draft opinion and offer notes, ask questions and suggest changes.  Gorsuch did none of that on any paragraph or page of the document; he approved it after seemingly reading more than 10 pages per minute, a rate rivaling the best Evelyn Wood graduate.

The cavalier attitude with which Gorsuch handled the precedent-breaking case demonstrates how determined the conservative bloc of the Court was to overturn Roe and for the first time in US history, rescind a right the Court had previously affirmed.

“Centrist” scam operation No Labels’ plan to help get Trump elected again by splitting the independent vote may be in serious jeopardy as incompetence and indecision under Nancy Jacobson and her douchebag former Bill Clinton pollster husband Mark Penn’s leadership have caused the effort to put together some bullshit 2024 presidential ticket to repeatedly miss key internal deadlines and forced a “rethinking” of their strategy, according to The Dispatch.

For starters, Chief Strategist Ryan Clancy told them back in early September that they were finalizing the nominee selection process and have it public by the next month. “We really wanted to prioritize this selection aspect of this,” Clancy said. It’s now December 15th and – surprise! – they don’t have shit. Clancy had also told them they would start vetting possible candidates late summer/early fall. That timeframe came and went only for Clancy to admit to donors that he may’ve gotten ahead of himself in September. Any guesses on where he’s at on that in mid-December?

“I think the organization has had some stumbles,” a source said “They haven’t been quite ready for prime time. It’s moving too fast – too quickly – and they weren’t prepared. Rather than waiting till they have all their ducks lined up, they go out and say things like: ‘We’re going to have this process.’ And, there’s lots of disagreement about the process. Well, maybe we shouldn’t do that. They really should just be focused on gaining access to the ballot and figuring out the messaging.”

A binder full of highly classified info on Russian election interference tactics – one considered so sensitive that lawmakers could only view it at CIA headquarters – was last seen at the Trump White House and went missing during the final days of Donald’s maladministration, CNN reports.

You already know where this is going: Trump and his minions were trying to declassify it at the last minute as to “exonerate” him for colluding with Russia and Mark Meadows had his hands on it.

“I write today to express my serious concerns about, and request an ethics investigation of, DC US District Judge Beryl Howell for her highly inappropriate political speech she gave last month, at which she suggested reelecting President Trump will lead to fascism in America. As outlined in detail below, Judge Howell’s partisan speech is obviously highly inappropriate election interference by a federal judge that undermines the public’s trust in our courts. Moreover, the public display of the cozy personal relationships between Judge Howell and her partisan friends who appear before her undermines public trust in judicial independence, in violation of Canon 2B.1.”

“Judge Howell, after becoming the chief judge of the DC District Court in 2016 before stepping down on March 17, 2023, supervised the DC grand jury and other legal proceedings against President Donald J Trump, his top aides, and his supporters on January 6th. This included Judge Howell’s supervision of the discredited Mueller probe that substantially interfered with the Trump presidency, along with then-Chief Judge Howell’s supervision of Biden Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations that resulted in two unprecedented and highly controversial indictments of a former President of the United States and the leading presidential candidate for 2024,” writes malevolent razorback Elise Stefanik in a complaint to DC Circuit Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan.

She doesn’t mention Rudy, but the timing that this is coming on the day when the jury in his trial, which is overseen by Howell, could end up dinging him for $43 million or more for defaming two innocent Black women simply for working in the 2020 election is less than ideal.

Disgraced former President Trump and his minions are planning a “day one” surge of domestic military deployments to close the southern border and to help build immigrant detention camps as part of his exciting plans for a full blown 21st century fascist police state, Rolling Stone reports

“I have heard anywhere between 100,000 to 300,000 from President Trump, Stephen Miller, and others on what may be required to get the job done right. There are differences of opinion on how many you would actually need, and everyone has their own ideas,” a source told Rolling Stone.