December 23, 2025

Mark Berman & Julian Mark of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court said Tuesday it would not allow ... Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard in the Chicago area for now, a significant setback for his campaign to push troops into cities across the country over the objections of local and state  leaders. The president’s ability to federalize the National Guard likely only applies in “exceptional” circumstances, the court’s unsigned order said. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch dissented from the court’s unsigned order. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh filed a separate concurrence.... While temporary, the order could have far-reaching effects by repudiating Trump’s claim of virtually unchecked authority to mobilize and deploy troops.... The order could affect how lower courts rule in other cases where local and state officials have sued to block Trump’s deployments....” The AP's report is here.

Jeff Cox & Fred Imbert of CNBC: "The U.S. economy grew at a much greater-than-expected pace in the third quarter, boosted by strong consumer spending, a delayed report released Tuesday showed. U.S. gross domestic product, a sum of all goods and services produced in the sprawling U.S. economy, expanded by 4.3% in the July-September period, the Commerce Department said in its initial reading of third-quarter growth. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect a gain of 3.2%. Consumer spending expanded by 3.5% in the third quarter after rising 2.5% in the second quarter. Increases in exports and government spending also boosted growth, while a smaller dip in private fixed investment helped as well." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I find this almost unbelievable. Will wait and see what Krugman says. 

⭐“No Longer at This Address” Edward Helmore of the Guardian: “A disturbing letter that appears to have been written by Jeffrey Epstein and sent to Larry Nassar, the US Olympics gymnastics team doctor convicted of sexual abuse, is included the latest batch of Epstein-related documents released by the US government. 'As you will know by now, I have taken the “short route” home,' the letter, which appears to have been signed from Epstein to Nasser, reads. 'Good luck! We shared one thing … our love & caring for young ladies and the hope they reach their full potential.' The letter continues: 'Our president [Trump] also shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by he loved to “grab snatch”, whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system.' The letter is signed: 'Life is unfair. Yours, J. Epstein.'... 

“The existence of the letter was first reported in 2023 by the Associated Press after it was discovered in the midst of more than 4,000 pages of documents held by the Bureau of Prisons. The letter is postmarked 13 August 2019, notably three days after Epstein died in custody in what was ruled a suicide. It was found by investigators in the jail mail room weeks later after it was returned from a prison in Arizona and marked 'no longer at this address'.” ~~~

~~~ Update: CNN is now reporting on-air that DOJ claims this letter -- which DOJ itself released, of course -- is a fake. Who knows? ~~~

~~~ Update 2: The Guardian article linked above has now been modified to indicate the DOJ says the letter is a fake. The Guardian links to the FBI's "proofs" -- outlined in an X post -- that the letter isn't real. ~~~

~~~ David Enrich of the New York Times: “In a 2020 email released on Monday by the Justice Department, a federal prosecutor informed colleagues that ... [Donald] Trump’s name appeared on the flight logs for Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet 'many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware).' The email, written in January 2020 by an unidentified federal prosecutor in Manhattan, noted that Mr. Trump was listed as a passenger on Mr. Epstein’s jet at least eight times from 1993 to 1996, including a few instances in which other passengers apparently included young women. The prosecutor wrote the message for 'situational awareness' and 'didn’t want any of this to be a surprise down the road.'...”

Cheyenne Haslett of Politico: “... Donald Trump expressed sympathy Monday for powerful and influential people caught up in convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit, including former President Bill Clinton, telling reporters that he doesn’t 'like the pictures of other people being shown.' His remarks, which came during a press conference to announce new battleships for the Navy, were the first since the Department of Justice began releasing a slew of documents related to Epstein last week.... 'I don’t like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown. I don’t like the pictures of other people being shown. I think it’s a terrible thing,' Trump said.... 'A lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein, but they’re in a picture with him because he was at a party, and you ruin a reputation of somebody, so a lot of people are very angry that this continues,'  Trump said.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wouldn't it be great if he had as much empathy for poor working people who can't afford a nice Christmas dinner or middle-class working people who have to forego their families' health insurance this year and just hope for the best? Instead it's, oh gosh, let's not upset the rich people.

Benjamin Starrow & Kelsey Tamborrino of Politico: Donald Trump's “decision to pause construction of five offshore wind projects capable of powering nearly 2.7 million homes along the East Coast marked an escalation of a yearlong effort to shut down the industry, jolting the political debate surrounding rising electricity prices. In New England, the regional grid operator warned the stoppage could send power prices soaring and threaten the reliability of its six-state electric system. In Virginia, the utility building the country’s largest coastal wind project said the pause hinders its ability to keep up with rising electricity consumption from data centers. And on Capitol Hill, the order threatened to stymie a long-debated bipartisan energy permitting bill winding its way through Congress.... 'President Trump has been clear: wind energy is the scam of the century,' said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, repeating a favorite administration talking point.”

NPR: "A federal judge on Monday said the U.S. government denied due process to the Venezuelan men it deported to a prison in El Salvador in March after ... [Donald] Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act.... 'On the merits, the Court concludes that this class was denied their due-process rights and will thus require the Government to facilitate their ability to obtain such hearing. Our law requires no less,' [D.C. District Court Chief Judge James] Boasberg wrote in his opinion." Linked below: related stories re: a "60 Minutes" segment on the El Salvador prison.

Mother Pence's Holiday Recipe: Poached Heritage White Meat on Toast. Alex Nguyen of Mother Jones: “Former Vice President Mike Pence poached over a dozen senior officials from the Heritage Foundation to join his own conservative think tank in the latest sign that all is not well in right-wing politics. The Heritage Foundation is arguably the most prominent conservative think tank in America. Pence, meanwhile, started his competing think tank, Advancing American Freedom, to promote 'exactly what the Trump-Pence Administration did every day.' Many prominent Republicans framed this to the Wall Street Journal as a return to conservative fundamentals, blocking out 'what they see online.' As my colleague Anna Merlan recently reported, MAGA is eating itself alive. Pence’s move came after the Heritage Foundation’s leader, Kevin Roberts, defended Tucker Carlson for hosting white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes on his show, according to the Journal.”

Life Is Unfair. (Not as Epstein Meant It.) Adeel Hassan of the New York Times: “Ben Sasse, a Republican former senator from Nebraska and a former president of the University of Florida, announced on Tuesday that he had received a diagnosis of terminal Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. 'Since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase,' Mr. Sasse, 53, wrote in a long message on X. 'Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.' Mr. Sasse, who has degrees from Harvard, St. John’s College and Yale, was a U.S. senator from Nebraska from 2015 to 2023. Mr. Sasse was appointed president of the University of Florida in November 2022. Mr. Sasse stepped down last year as Florida’s president, citing the health of his wife, Melissa, who had an aneurysm and a series of strokes in 2007, and had just been diagnosed with epilepsy. In the Senate, Mr. Sasse was reliably conservative but also a critic of ... [Donald] Trump.”

Canada. Amanda Coletta of the Washington Post: “From [Mark Carney's] earliest days as prime minister, a raft of official government publications ... are full of words rendered in British, not Canadian, English. Most prominent has been his predilection for the British 'ise' and 'yse'  endings over the Canadian (and American) 'ize' and 'yze.'... The plethora of -ises and -yses in the budget was the catalyst for a letter from a group of editors and linguists to Carney this month. They noted that governments here 'consistently' used Canadian spellings 'from the 1970s to 2025' and urged him to continue the practice as 'a matter of our national history, identity and pride.' The prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment.”

Marie: I have done some updates to stories I liked this morning. You can find them easily by doing a search for "updated". 

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Marie: It is starting to snow in these parts, so this morning may be the last time I can get out to grocery-shop before Christmas -- which would leave me with pretty thin gruel for the holiday. So I'm going out in this cold (22 degrees), cruel frosty morning. I should be back late this morning, probably to add a buncha links then.   

Dan Lamothe & Tara Copp of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Monday said he will oversee the development of a new class of Navy battleship — named after himself. The move was cast in part as an effort to give the nation’s stagnant shipbuilding industry a shot in the arm, but also will upend the Navy’s ship-naming norms and thrust presidential politics firmly into the program from its genesis. The announcement follows a flurry of recent actions by Trump to rebrand existing institutions to include his name, including the U.S. Institute of Peace and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.... A logo unveiled for the new ship class depicts Trump in the moments after a July 2024 assassination attempt, fist held high.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Congress should just forbid this. They could pass a law as by unanimous consent in both Houses as soon as they deign to come back to Washington, covering any future and past naming of any damned thing Trump thinks he can slap his or a family member's name on. This branding binge of Trump's is pathological. ~~~

     ~~~ AND Bobby Lee has some news for the would-be christener of the Trump armada: "If Doofus thinks ships like the USS Iowa are just cranked out like an auto assembly line he's in for a surprise. The Iowa was laid down pre WW2, in June 1940 and launched in August 1942. Construction was speeded up due to the war, Sea trials were accelerated as well, but the ship was not commissioned until February 1943." ~~~ 

~~~ Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “Representative Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio, sued ... [Donald] Trump on Monday, seeking to force the removal of his name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Beatty’s lawsuit names as defendants Mr. Trump and the loyalists he appointed to the center’s board. The suit contends that the board’s vote to change the name last week was illegal because an act of Congress is required to rename the building. Ms. Beatty is represented by Norman Eisen, a White House ethics counsel in the Obama administration, along with Nathaniel Zelinsky, his co-counsel of the Washington Litigation Group.... Ms. Beatty is an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board; by law, a handful of members of Congress from both parties sit on the board. She had called into the meeting last week at which the name change was voted on, but could not object because she had been muted.”

What this whole thing is with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has. Like, for instance, today we’re building the biggest ships in the world, the most powerful ships in the world, and they’re asking me questions about Jeffrey Epstein. I thought that was finished. -- Donald Trump, in response to a reporter's question Monday ~~~ 

~~~ Oops! Now You See It, Now You Don't. The Magic Tricks of a Bent DOJ. Matt Viser & Aaron Schaffer of the Washington Post: “Three days after releasing a large tranche of Jeffrey Epstein documents that contained few mentions of ... Donald Trump, the Justice Department on Monday disclosed thousands more files that included wide-ranging references to the president. The documents show that a subpoena was sent to Mar-a-Lago in 2021 for records that pertained to the government’s case against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice in sex trafficking. They include notes from an assistant U.S. attorney in New York about the number of times Trump flew on Epstein’s plane, including one flight that included just Trump, Epstein and a 20-year-old woman, according to the notes. The newly released documents also include several tips that were collected by the FBI about Trump’s involvement with Epstein and parties at their properties in the early 2000s.... Also included in this batch of files are a large number of documents related to objections filed by Epstein’s victims in 2008 after Alex Acosta, the U.S. attorney in Miami, reached an agreement not to prosecute Epstein on federal charges.... 

“The documents were available for several hours Monday afternoon and evening on the Justice Department website but appear to have been taken down around 8 p.m. The Washington Post downloaded the full set of files while they were accessible.” Emphasis added. Update: Here's Politico's story. ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post story has been updated: “The department reposted the files on its website shortly before midnight Monday night. It was not immediately clear whether officials had done any further redactions of the documents before posting.... In a statement Tuesday morning, the Justice Department said: 'Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump' that it characterized as 'unfounded and false.'... 'Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims.'”

Marie: Yesterday Ari Melber & Andrew Weismann were discussing how the DOJ was breaking the law by failing to release the files in their possession by last Friday, the deadline the law required. Melber noted (and he had a chart!) that the DOJ produced only 3900 files over the weekend out of what is estimated to be about 100,000 files. Weismann often says he doesn't do math on live teevee, and there's a reason; I think he made an arithmetic mistake yesterday. But he was on the right track. Here is the math problem for the DOJ: Todd Blanche, the Lyingest Lawyer on Teevee, has repeatedly claimed that he has "200 lawyers" working on vetting the files for release. That means for a whole month -- 31 days -- he had this huge beehive of diligent attorneys working their little hearts out to get these files out to the public in compliance with the law. Got that? 200 lawyers for 31 days. So if each lawyer got through one measly file a day, the team would have vetted and prepped 6,200 files for release by the end of the month. One file a day. And of course the DOJ has had not a mere 31 days, but almost a year to vet and prep these files -- because during the campaign, Donald J. Trump, the reputed POTUS*, said he would release the files if only you would vote for him. 

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “The Trump administration sued Washington, D.C., on Monday in an effort to loosen the city’s strict gun laws, the latest move in its effort to reimagine public safety in the nation’s capital, where it has deployed thousands of National Guard and other federal forces. Washington has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, and the suit by the Justice Department’s civil rights division challenged two provisions: heavy restrictions aimed at popular rifles like the AR-15 and the lengthy registration process in which the city’s police department must approve all firearms on a case-by-case basis.In the lawsuit, the Justice Department wrote that city laws governing which guns are legal are 'based on little more than cosmetics, appearance, or the ability to attach accessories,' and fail 'to take into account whether the prohibited weapon is “in common use today,’” quoting a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2008 declaring that a ban on Washington residents owning handguns was unconstitutional.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Right. Since AR-15s are "in common use today" by your average mass murderer, they definitely should be made legal in the nation's capital. Besides, I'm thinking they might come in handy in the 2028 insurrection.

Maxine Joselow & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Monday said it would pause leases for five wind farms under construction off the East Coast, essentially gutting the country’s nascent offshore wind industry in a sharp escalation of ... [Donald] Trump's crusade against the renewable energy source. The decision injected uncertainty into $25 billion worth of projects that were collectively expected to power more than 2.5 million homes and businesses across the Eastern United States, according to Turn Forward, an offshore wind advocacy group. The five wind farms were projected together to create about 10,000 jobs. The move left intact just two operational wind farms in U.S. coastal waters — one small project off Rhode Island that has been complete since 2016 and a larger project off New York that has been fully operational since 2023.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There's a good reason for this: Trump is a stupid, crazy old man and the people who work for him are as corrupt as he is. 

Deportation Porn. Joyce Lee & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: “Across thousands of internal ICE messages reviewed by The Washington Post..., celebration [of arrests] has become commonplace. The messages show how the team has worked closely with the White House, which has urged them to produce videos for social media of immigrant arrests and confrontations to portray its push for mass deportation as critical to protecting the American way of life.... For years, [one] ICE team had run like a routine government communications shop, dispensing public service announcements and press releases few Americans would see. But during ... Donald Trump’s second term, ICE’s public affairs arm has rapidly transformed into an influencer-style media machine, churning out flashy videos of tactical operations and immigration raids.

“The internal communications reviewed by The Post show how the ICE team has coordinated with the White House, working to satisfy Trump aides’ demands to 'flood the airwaves,' as one official urged in the messages, with brash content showing immigrants being chased, grabbed and detained. They also show federal officials mocking immigrants in crass terms and discussing video edits that might help legitimize the administration’s aggressive stance. The team also knowingly used copyright-protected music without permission from the rights holders....”

Noy Thrupkaew, et al., of the Guardian: “More than 100 organizations that support victims of human trafficking have lost funding since October, leaving thousands of survivors at risk, a Guardian investigation has found. Anti-trafficking advocates say the US Department of Justice’s failure to spend nearly $90m appropriated by Congress is impeding law-enforcement investigations and exposing survivors to homelessness and the risk of deportation, jail time or re-exploitation. This is the latest in a series of Guardian investigative reports, which in September revealed that the Trump administration had rolled back efforts to combat human trafficking across the federal government. That retreat has far-reaching implications....” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is what journalism is for. Somebody should explain it to CBS "News" editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. Because that preening Trumpette has no effing idea.

Speaking of Bari Weiss, there's this. And her spiking of a vetted, ready-to-air "60 Minutes" story about the Trumpies sending undocumented men to a torture prison in El Salvador is not by any way, shape or form coincidental. ~~~

~~~ Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times: “Paramount said on Monday that Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount’s chief executive, David Ellison, is personally guaranteeing the roughly $40.4 billion in equity that the company is offering as part of its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.... Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery advised shareholders to reject Paramount’s offer. One of the main concerns Warner Bros. Discovery mentioned in its recommendation was the lack of a personal guarantee from the Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. According to the terms of that offer, a revocable trust in Mr. Ellison’s name would back the bid, and the board worried that it would have limited recourse if it fell apart. 

“Paramount said on Monday that the deal would now include a personal guarantee from Mr. Ellison, putting one of the richest men in the world on the hook if the deal fell apart. He is expected to get financial contributions from other partners for the deal, including roughly $24 billion from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds.... The Ellisons’ acquisition of Paramount, which owns CBS News, dragged on for months as it grappled with a lawsuit brought by Mr. Trump over the editing of an interview on the CBS News program '60 Minutes.' The deal closed shortly after Paramount agreed to settle the suit for $16 million.” A Fortune story, republished by Yahoo! Finance, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is the way the oligarchy works. And you know what? Everything actually is going very smoothly. Folks have learnt how to toe the line. Good work, Bari baby girl. ~~~

~~~ Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: “CBS News remained roiled on Monday by fallout from the decision by its new editor in chief, Bari Weiss, to abruptly postpone a segment of Sunday’s episode of '60 Minutes' that was critical of the Trump administration. Amid a swirl of questions within her newsroom, Ms. Weiss was adamant that the segment, which featured the stories of Venezuelan men deported by the United States to a prison in El Salvador, was flawed and required more reporting.... The show’s staff and correspondents convened for a somber Monday afternoon meeting, where the correspondent Scott Pelley ... asked why [Ms. Weiss] had weighed in at the last minute after not attending five screenings of the segment as it was being completed. 'It’s not a part-time job,' Mr. Pelley said.... 'She needs to take her job a little bit more seriously.'... Ms. Weiss reports directly to David Ellison, the head of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, who is making a multibillion-dollar hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, the outcome of which Mr. Trump has said he’ll be 'involved in.'” ~~~

~~~ Prem Thakkar, et al., of Zeteo: "Bari Weiss Praised El Salvador’s Dictator Before Spiking '60 Minutes' Story on His Torture Prison." The column is firewalled, but there's enough of it to make its main point. ~~~ 

~~~ Surprise! Yashar Ali of the Reset: "It turns out that the network delivered the segment to Canada’s Global TV app (it has since been pulled). As I understand it, this is only part of the overall story, but this 13-minute-long video — sent to me by a source —is what exists." MB: A big "Screw You" to Weiss, Ellison & Trump.

Wouldn't you know it? Some Democrat is trying to jam a cog in the well-oiled machine: ~~~

~~~ Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times: “Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut wants to know who is funding ... [Donald] Trump’s White House ballroom project, how much it is going to cost and what it is going to look like. Mr. Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a raft of letters on Monday seeking information from people who were reportedly invited to a White House dinner for donors to the ballroom project. He also sent a letter requesting design plans and cost estimates from an architect who was hired recently to oversee the project after Mr. Trump had clashed with the original designer over the size and scope of the ballroom on a short timeline. As the cost and scale of the project have expanded, so too have concerns about preserving a historically significant building and potential conflicts of interest related to Mr. Trump’s ability to use the levers of government to help the people and corporations who are financing the project.”

Adam Liptak of the New York Times presents a case of the dog that did not bark that just might foil Donald Trump's hopes of denying birthright citizenship to children born in the U.S. to non-citizens. The link is a gift link.(Also linked yesterday.)  

Francesca Regalado of the New York Times: “The Justice Department sued the governor and attorney general of Illinois on Monday in an effort to strike down a new state law that limits federal immigration enforcement. The law, signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in early December, prevents immigration officers from making arrests outside courthouses and makes it easier for Illinois residents to sue immigration agents if they believe their rights have been violated. The measure was passed by the Democratic majority in the state legislature in October.”

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, sought on Monday to prevent the Justice Department from steering a sprawling investigation into political adversaries of ... [Donald] Trump to a judge in Florida who issued rulings favorable to Mr. Trump during his classified documents case. The request, addressed to Chief Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, was extraordinary. It would be highly unusual for a chief judge to block a colleague from overseeing an investigation. But a lawyer for Mr. Brennan argued that under the circumstances, she had the authority and a duty to do so. In a 16-page letter, the lawyer, Kenneth L. Wainstein, asserted that the Justice Department, in what he portrayed as a violation of prosecutorial ethics, appeared to be planning to 'manipulate grand jury and case assignment procedures' to put the investigation into Mr. Trump’s perceived foes under Judge Aileen M. Cannon.”

Clay Risen of the New York Times: “Jim Beam, the country’s largest maker of bourbon, has announced a one-year pause in production at its flagship facility in Clermont, Ky., a stunning move that underlines the immense challenges facing the American whiskey industry after more than two decades of rapid growth. The decision by the brand, owned by the Japanese conglomerate Suntory Holdings, is the latest in a series of production cuts, layoffs and financial crises across the wine, beer and spirits sector, which has seen sales drop by about 5 percent over the past year.... It was likely, industry experts say, that a correction was in order as retailers and consumers, flush with inventory, slowed down their purchases and the market returned to normal after the pandemic buying spree. Analysts also cite recent economic challenges related to ... [Donald] Trump’s tariffs.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

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Ukraine/Russia. Constant Méheut of the New York Times: “Russia unleashed an overnight barrage of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine on Tuesday, hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that the latest American-backed proposals for a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow looked 'quite solid,' even as he hinted at obstacles ahead in the talks. 'There are certain things we are not prepared to accept,' Mr. Zelensky wrote on social media late on Monday about the peace proposals. 'And there are things — of that I am sure — that the Russians are not prepared to accept either.'... The Kremlin has shown a willingness to continue the war unabated. Overnight on Monday into Tuesday, just hours after Mr. Zelensky’s comments, Russia bombed Ukraine’s energy sector and civilian buildings with over 650 drones and dozens of missiles, according to Ukrainian authorities.”