December 21, 2025

 

The Shortest Day of the Longest Year of Our Lives 

~~~ Thanks to RAS for the inspiration. RAS's recommendation was, well, sharper. 

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Nicholas Nehamas, et al., of the New York Times: “The U.S. Coast Guard on Saturday tried to intercept an oil tanker linked to Venezuela that is now fleeing in the Caribbean Sea, according to three U.S. officials..., days after ... [Donald] Trump said he would crack down on sanctioned vessels involved in the country’s oil trade. The tanker, called the Bella 1, was en route to pick up oil in Venezuela and was not carrying cargo, according to one of the officials and ship-tracking data. The tanker has been under U.S. sanctions since last year for transporting Iranian oil, which federal authorities say is sold to finance terrorism. When U.S. forces approached the Bella 1 late on Saturday, it was not flying a valid national flag, the officials said, making it a stateless vessel liable to be boarded at sea under international law. American authorities had obtained a seizure warrant from a federal magistrate judge, which would allow them to take possession of the ship, two of the officials said.... But the ship did not submit to being boarded and continued sailing, one of the officials said. A second official referred to the situation as 'an active pursuit.'” The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gosh, this almost sounds like a legal, possibly ethical thing to do. I must be missing something. ~~~

~~~ Now, this is more Trumpy ~~~

     ~~~ Matthew Lee of the AP: “The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the U.S. diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of ... Donald Trump’s 'America First' priorities. The chiefs of mission in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their tenures would end in January, according to two State Department officials.... All of them had taken up their posts in the Biden administration but had survived an initial purge in the early months of Trump’s second term that targeted mainly political appointees.... Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president although they typically remain at their posts for three to four years. Those affected by the shake-up are not losing their foreign service jobs but will be returning to Washington for other assignments should they wish to take them, the officials said.”

Patrick Marley, et al., of the Washington Post: “Reps. Ro Khanna (D-California) and Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) said Sunday that they will seek to find Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt of Congress for not releasing more documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Bondi’s top aide, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, said in an appearance on NBC’s 'Meet the Press' that he didn’t take their threats seriously.... 'Bring it on,' he said. 'We are doing everything we’re supposed to be doing to comply with this statute.' Khanna said in an interview with The Washington Post that he and Massie were pursuing contempt findings because the measure would take effect when it got through the House and would not need to go through the Senate. He said they were likely to give Bondi a 30-day grace period and then start fining her daily until she released all the records....

“Among the records released Friday was a 119-page grand jury document that was entirely blacked out. After facing criticism, the Justice Department posted a link on X to a version of the document with minimal redactions. In the interview with The Post and in a message on X, Khanna said he saw the Justice Department’s post as a sign that it’s responding to the effort to hold Bondi in contempt.”

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Jamelle Bouie, Michelle Cottle & David French of the New York Times discuss the year that was. Bouie starts it off with an [EXPLETIVE]. Includes (1) video, (2) audio, & (3) transcript. Also, you can listen where you get your podcasts. (Also linked yesterday.)

“The Year Trump Broke the Federal Government.” Hannah Natanson & Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: As Donald Trump began his second term in office, “the United States’ 2.4 million federal employees were about to get caught up in a once-unthinkable overhaul of the nation’s sprawling bureaucracy, carried out in less than a year by one of the most polarizing presidents in American history. Missions have shifted or shattered. Entire agencies were deleted. Nearly 300,000 employees were forced out of the federal workforce. The Trump administration froze or shut off billions of dollars in scientific research, gutted or eliminated offices and programs devoted to civil rights and diversity, rewrote the federal hiring system to reward loyalty to the president, and shrank Social Security while installing Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents in hundreds of new offices across the country. More changes are coming: Trump officials are planning to cut tens of thousands of open positions from the Department of Veterans Affairs, downgrade performance ratings across the government, and replace the State Department’s traditional condemnation of torture and the persecution of minorities worldwide with scrutiny of abortion and youth gender transitioning in other countries.”

Peter Baker of the New York Times: “In his first year back in office, Mr. Trump has unabashedly adopted the trappings of royalty just as he has asserted virtually unbridled power to transform American government and society to his liking. In both pageantry and policy, Mr. Trump has established a new, more audacious version of the imperial presidency that goes far beyond even the one associated with Richard M. Nixon, for whom the term was popularized half a century ago.... The gold trim in the Oval Office, the demolition of the East Wing to be replaced by a massive ballroom, the plastering of his name and face on government buildings and now even the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the designation of his own birthday as a free-admission holiday at national parks — it all speaks to a personal aggrandizement and accumulation of power with meager resistance from Congress or the Supreme Court....

“Mr. Trump takes it upon himself to reinterpret a constitutional amendment and to eviscerate agencies and departments created by Congress. He dictates to private institutions how to run their affairs. He sends troops into American streets and wages an unauthorized war against nonmilitary boats in the Caribbean. He openly uses law enforcement for what his own chief of staff calls 'score settling' against his enemies, he dispenses pardons to favored allies and he equates criticism to sedition punishable by death.... 'LONG LIVE THE KING!' he wrote about himself on social media.”

     ~~~ Marie: Funny, but not, IMO, as clever as the Instagram video akaWendy found yesterday. (See the top of yesterday's page.)  

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: “Transcripts and other records from closed-door proceedings in the Epstein case, as well as that of his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, were made public in the past day as part of the Department of Justice’s release of material from its investigations of the pair. The documents added little to what has already been known.The long-awaited transcripts, running about 270 pages, show that the grand juries, working in federal courthouses in Manhattan and White Plains, N.Y..., heard testimony only from members of law enforcement — an F.B.I. special agent in Mr. Epstein’s case, and in Ms. Maxwell’s case, the same agent and a New York police detective who was a member of the F.B.I.’s child exploitation and human trafficking task force.... Grand jury records are normally secret, but judges in New York agreed to unseal them after Congress passed a law in November ordering the release of the so-called Epstein files.” Politico's story is here.

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: “More than a dozen photos — including one featuring ... [Donald] Trump — were removed without explanation from the large collection of files connected to the investigations of Jeffrey Epstein that the Justice Department released on Friday.... Democrats on the House Oversight Committee immediately seized on the missing photo of Mr. Trump, reposting it on social media and asking Attorney General Pam Bondi if it was true that the image had been removed.” ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Sisak & David Caruso of the AP: “The episode deepened concerns that had already emerged from the Justice Department’s much-anticipated document release. The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched materials, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As far as I can tell from the reporting, one photo the DOJ did not remove is a proven fake "Epstein files photo." It depicts Bill Clinton with Michael Jackson, Diana Ross & three children. The children's faces are blocked out, suggesting they are innocent victims of abuse. As Meidas Touch reported on BlueSky, the photo is not from the Epstein files but is "a publicly available fundraiser photo featuring Jackson and Ross’s own children." On the original, the children's faces are not blacked out. How the hell did this photo get in the tranche of "Epstein file photos"? Thanks to RAS for the link. 

     ~~~ Update: Heather Cox Richardson also mentions this photo in the "letter" linked below. Both she and the Meidas Touch people (who are super-partisan) assert that DOJ inserted the Clinton/Jackson/Ross photo into the Epstein material. I'm not ready to go that far. The DOJ made no attempt to identify the photos it released. It seems possible that this particular photo was among those in Epstein's estate and got there is some legitimate way. For instance; I have a photo of the Obama family; it's not one I snapped while I was visiting them, but one that came with a fundraising letter. It will end up in my "estate." So could the Clinton/Jackson/Ross fundraising photo have landed in the Epstein estate in the same way? I think so. Until I find out otherwise. ~~~

~~~ For a good recitation of what the Department of Justice was required by law to release on Friday, see Heather Cox Richardson for this and more. 

Nicholas Nehamas, et al., of the New York Times: “The U.S. Coast Guard stopped and boarded a Panamanian-flagged tanker carrying Venezuelan oil early Saturday, according to a U.S. official and two people inside Venezuela’s oil industry.... The boarding represents the United States’ second action this month against a tanker carrying Venezuelan crude oil to Asia, escalating ... [Donald] Trump’s pressure campaign against the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.... The vessel boarded on Saturday, called the Centuries, is not on a list of entities under U.S. sanctions that is publicly maintained by the Treasury Department.  The people inside Venezuela’s oil industry said the cargo belongs to an established China-based oil trader with a history of taking Venezuelan crude oil to Chinese refineries....

“Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said in a post on X Saturday afternoon that the Coast Guard had 'apprehended' a tanker that had been docked in Venezuela.... 'The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,' she wrote. 'We will find you, and we will stop you.' Ms. Noem also posted a video that appeared to show U.S. forces rappelling from a helicopter onto the ship’s deck. It was unclear how long the United States intended to detain the Centuries. The U.S. official who confirmed the boarding of the ship said that American authorities did not have a seizure warrant to take possession of it, as they did when they seized another tanker earlier this month that was carrying Venezuelan oil.” ~~~

     ~~~ Konstanin Toropin & Aamer Madhani of the AP: “The action was a 'consented boarding,' with the tanker stopping voluntarily and allowing U.S. forces to board it, according to a U.S. official.... White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly claimed in an online post Saturday that the Centuries was a ... 'falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to traffic stolen oil' and that the oil it was carrying was sanctioned. However, Dr. Salvatore Mercogliano, a maritime historian and merchant shipping expert at Campbell University, said that according to several shipping industry databases, the Centuries appeared to be operating legally. 'Everything indicates that she is a properly registered vessel,' Mercogliano said, though he did note that it’s almost certain that the Centuries took on a load of sanctioned oil.”

Marianne LeVine & Douglas MacMillan of the Washington Post: “Four people in immigration detention have died over a four-day period this month, increasing concern among advocates and some members of Congress over detention conditions.... 'Four detainee deaths in one week is a red-hot crisis,' said Eunice Cho of ... the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project. '... this represents a clear deterioration of medical care and the worsening conditions in ICE detention.' The recent deaths bring total detainee deaths to 30 in 2025, the highest number since 2004, when 32 people died in ICE custody. This year’s total includes two detainees who were killed after a shooting at a Dallas ICE facility. At least two others died this year, according to ICE, but not in immigration detention.”

Emmanuel Felton of the Washington Post: “In a preview of the Trump administration’s approach to celebrating the country’s 250th birthday, Treasury Department officials announced earlier this month that the agency would ignore the [U.S. Citizens Coinage Advisory C]ommittee’s recommendation and produce quarters that are far less diverse and more traditional [than those the committee recommended]. Instead of addressing the country’s racial history, the five coins will feature images of former presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Abraham Lincoln, as well as a Pilgrim couple.”

Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration escalated pressure on the Smithsonian this week, threatening to withhold federal funds if it does not submit extensive documentation for a sweeping content review.... Donald Trump earlier this year set out to purge what he called 'improper ideology' from the nation’s most prestigious museum system, efforts that are expected to intensify as his administration tries to shape the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations next year. In a staff email obtained by The Washington Post, sent Friday evening after the funding threat, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III said the Smithsonian had sent information to the White House in September and intended to submit more that day. He asserted that 'all content, programming, and curatorial decisions are made by the Smithsonian.'” Thanks to Ken W. for the lead.

Tim Rohn of Politico: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came within hours of publicly promoting Denmark’s childhood vaccine schedule as an option for American parents — before legal and political concerns got in the way. A senior HHS official told Politico that a press conference set for Friday was canceled at the last minute after the HHS Office of the General Counsel said it would invite a lawsuit the administration could lose.... HHS canceled the event Thursday evening, hours after announcing it.”

AmericaFest? How about GripeFest. Richard Fausset & Ken Bensinger of the New York Times: “Since 2021, Turning Point USA’s annual gathering, AmericaFest, has featured a star-studded roster of conservative influencers and politicians who have been virtually unified in their focus on a common foe, one that Charlie Kirk, the group’s co-founder, called the 'woke' left. But this weekend in Phoenix, speakers at AmericaFest have scarcely mentioned ... [their] liberal foils. Instead, some of the most prominent right-wing leaders in the country have been criticizing members of their own movement, accusing them of being 'frauds,' 'pompous' and a 'cancer.' Driving the enmity have been some of the most explosive and unresolved issues confronting the MAGA movement: resurgent antisemitism, the prevalence of conspiracy theories and the rise of the concept of 'heritage Americans.'...  Notably..., there have also been questions about what kinds of ideas might be grounds for cancellation within conservatism itself.” 

Sarah Ellison & Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: “As the right wrestles with what it should stand for and against in the coming years, [Tucker] Carlson is a divisive and influential figure with an audience — on social media, among MAGA commentators and inside the White House.... As a growing number of MAGA activists clash with Trump and each other, clouding the future of the movement, Carlson has become a more central figure this year, viewed as consequential by detractors and supporters alike.... Carlson is trying to push the party away from foreign intervention and divorce it from Israel....”

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New York Gubernatorial Race. He Just Wasn't That Into You, Elise. Ben Johansen of Politico: “... Donald Trump endorsed Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman in the New York gubernatorial race, a day after Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) ended her bid. 'Bruce is MAGA all the way, and has been with me from the very beginning,' Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Saturday.... [Gov. Kathy] Hochul [D] still holds a double-digit lead over Blakeman in a potential head-to-head matchup, according to a Siena Poll of New York released earlier this week.”