Dear Everybody:
The big story today (and my favorite) is that Alina Habba has surrendered and stepped down:
--Habba resigned as US Attorney for New Jersey today after a panel of federal judges ruled last week that she was serving in the position unlawfully.
--Habba’s statement: "As a result of the Third Circuit’s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love (ha!) I have decided to step down. But do not make compliance for surrender. This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me." She blasted the judges and New Jersey’s senators, who blocked her permanent appointment, and generally behaved just as graciously as you would expect she would.
--She concluded her statement with, "Make no mistake, you can take the girl out of NJ, but you cannot take NJ out of the girl." (Ooh, burn.)
--Habba will not be replaced by a single US Attorney, but instead by three prosecutors who were already in the office and who will now divide her duties among them, which may cause further problems. A panel of judges was supposed to choose the Attorney.
--While she was there, she managed to do a lot of damage. She arrested Newark’s mayor for trying to gain legal access to an ICE facility (charges later dismissed) and has charged Dem Rep Monica McIver for the same thing. The mayor is suing, and McIver is challenging her charges for selective and malicious prosecution. Dozens of seasoned prosecutors refused to serve under her and quit, and tons of proceedings have either been postponed and challenged.
--Habba also assigned herself a security team of federal marshals which cost taxpayers $2.3 million dollars, including more than $560,000 in travel costs.
--That doesn’t mean she’s gone completely away, though--nobody in the Trump administration ever goes away. She will become a senior adviser to AG Pam Bondi and will oversee US Attorneys around the country (who are no doubt delighted as she is even less qualified for that job than she was for her previous one.)
--Anna Bower: "Habba out."
--Ron Filipkowski: "Habba out as fake attorney."
--Trump: "I’m telling you I put up great people, top people, highest education, the best lawyers to be US Attorney." (Habba was the attorney for her husband’s parking garage before being tapped by Trump.)
In the boat strikes scandal that just won’t go away:
--Trump said just a couple of days ago that he was willing to release the boat strike video, but today when a reporter asked him about saying that, he said, "I didn’t say that. This is ABC fake news. Whatever Hegseth decides is okay with me. Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious reporter. Actually, a terrible reporter." (Note: The reporter was female--and black.)
--Dem Rep Adam Smith: "It seems pretty clear that they don’t want to release this video because they don’t want people to see it because it’s very difficult to justify."
--They just keep coming up with more and more stories and more and more rationales for why they had to blow the guys up: they needed to clear the wreckage so it wasn’t a danger to navigation, the guys might have had a radio and been radioing for help, they might have been trying to right the boat, they might have been trying to recover the cocaine, fog of war...
--Dem Rep Jim Himes: "What we've had are a series of shifting explanations...When you watch the video, you realize they don’t have a radio. They are barely hanging on and not slipping beneath the waves."
--Tom Cotton, asked about whether the guys might have been trying to surrender: "I don’t think it matters all that much what they were trying to do." (Oh, yeah, actually it does, as anybody who’s ever seen a war movie knows.)
--Cotton was also asked by The Bulwark: "The Pentagon’s Law of War Manual says, ‘Orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal. Given that, how was that follow-up strike on the two survivors legal?" Tom Cotton: "They were not incapacitated...They were sitting or standing on a capsized boat. They weren’t floating helplessly in the water." (Note: Nothing was said in the manual about them needing to be ‘incapacitated.’ And if they’d been floating in the water for that hour before they were blown up, they’d probably have drowned. Or been attacked by sharks.)
--Hegseth’s resorting to religion when asked about the boat strikes: "Washington, the founder of the War Department, appealed to God. Ronald Reagan did the same, appealing to heaven. We do the same today with Jesus Christ as our guide. May he grant us the wisdom to see what is right." (Note: I don’t recall Jesus blowing helpless shipwrecked people out of the water.)
--Seth Abramson: "Killing everyone on a target list becomes an illegal No Quarter Order if the targets try to surrender or are neutralized."
--US Times’ David Charter says Trump treats Hegseth "a bit like a long-lost son," and that Hegseth is therefore "bulletproof."
--When it comes to the complicating issue that Trump just pardoned a drug dealer responsible for bringing more drugs to the US than any boats could ever do, the Republicans all sound like Sergeant Schultz: "I know nothing:"
--GOP Senator Erick Schmitt: "I’m not familiar with the facts or circumstances."
--GOP Senator Tom Cotton: "I haven’t spoken to the President about that pardon, I’d have to know more about the circumstances."
--You really need to watch Saturday Night Live’s Cold Open, which was all about Hegseth and "Operation Kill Everybody." It was dead on. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWG5YJPuGFo
In Kennedy Center news:
--Trump held the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony not in the Kennedy Center, but in the Oval Office, giving awards to his favorites: Sylvester Stallone, the band Kiss, Michael Crawford (who played the Phantom of the Opera) and George Strait.
--MuellerSheWrote: "Kennedy Center honors given out at the White House? Did they cancel and move it to the Oval because ticket sales were non-existent?"
--Trump, who used to churlishly skip the ceremony, was the emcee, and he bragged about not preparing for the event. "I didn’t prepare much. I have a good memory, so I can remember things."
--He said of the recipients: "I know so many of you are persistent. Many of you are miserably horrible people. You never give up. Sometimes I wish you’d give up, but you don’t."
--BadLindaRobot: "Donald Trump’s cartoonish FIFA award was soon followed by his Kennedy Center Honors. These recipients have absolutely...nothing to be proud of ever again. Just more cartoonish theater by a monster in a tux who’s rui ning the Center’s once stellar reputation."
--1peacock: "Any artist who accepts a medal from (Trump) is disgusting."
--Governor Newsom: "TERRIFIC NIGHT ACCEPTING THE FIRST-EVER KENNEDY CENTER PEACE PRIZE!!! AUDIENCE WAS AMAZING (CHAIRS NOT GREAT, LIGHTING DISASTER) TRUMP AND JANITOR RIC GRENELL LET THE WHOLE PLACE GO TO HELL!! I TOLD THEM AS TRUMP DOZED OFF: RENAME IT THE NEWSOM CENTER!! ONLY I CAN FIX IT!!! CROWD WENT WILD--PEOPLE FAINTING, CRYING, SPEAKING IN TONGUES!!! EVEN RFK, JR. WAS SO MOVED AND INSPIRED BY ME THAT HE GRABBED TWEEZERS AND TRIED TO TAKE OUT THE BRAIN WORM! A HISTORIC NIGHT FOR AMERICA. YOU’RE WELCOME!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!--GCN"
--The event Trump DID hold at the Kennedy Center, the FIFA draw, at which he was awarded a special Peace Prize made up by his friend the head of FIFA continues to get mercilessly dragged. The award, which mimics the World Cup prize, a globe upheld by many hands, was said by many to look like the World Cup trophy being dragged down to hell.
--exlrrp: "At no point during the five-year span that Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired on the BBC, from October 1969 to December 1974, could the greatest comedic minds of the time come up with a skit more grotesquely absurd than Trump placing a fake peace-prize medal over his own head."
--Susanne Resists: "There is something so shameful, disgraceful when he put the medal on. Like he crowned himself King, without the crown."
--The photos of Trump grabbing the medal out of the box: https://x.com/TouchlineX/status/1996996043788222713 and placing it over his own head: https://x.com/What_s_Up_You/status/1997235914423386323
have gone viral. Neither makes Trump look good or even sane.
--The FIFA Board has launched an official investigation into the Peace Prize, saying it was done without the Board’s knowledge or consent and is in violation of their rules.
In other Kennedy Center news:
--Sales for THE NUTCRACKER, usually the production that gets theater companies out of the red and pays for the entire year, are down 33%.
--The Center is now doing a whole bunch of right-wing Christian events, including a red-carpet premiere for a Christian Broadcasting Network documentary.
--The Center created a prayer wall for guests attending the old movie, "KING OF KINGS." (I thought prayer walls were something Jews had and then only in Jerusalem (the Wailing Wall.) I have NEVER heard of a Christian church having a prayer wall.
--The Center also hosted a prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk.
--Kennedy Center Board meetings now mirror Trump cabinet meetings, as members go around the room to talk about how great and visionary the President is and how he has so much class and taste.
Trump pardoned a Democrat, Henry Cuellar, but it didn’t work out like he thought it would:
--Cuellar had been convicted along with his wife in 2024 for bribery, conspiracy, and money laundering, in particular for taking $600,000 from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank in exchange for influencing US policy and advocating for their interests.
--Trump pardoned them, and now Cuellar says he’s running as a Democrat in the midterms in Texas. Republicans are mad because with Cuellar out of the picture, they had a chance of picking up a seat, but Trump is apoplectic
--Trump: "Can you imagine??? The Democrats, under the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, who always use extreme force and jail-time to destroy their political opponent, wanted to put Congressman Henry Cuellar, and his wife, Imelda, in PRISON for 15 years, which I predicted these Radical Left Lunatics would do--and they never stopped wanting to fulfill this evil quest! The Dems mercilessly went after Henry with everything they had! They were looking to destroy him, his lovely wife, his two young daughters, and anyone close to them...The Dems were vicious, and all because Henry strongly wanted, correctly, BORDER SECURITY! He was against illegals pouring into our Country, totally unchecked and unvetted. The Congressman didn’t want gang members, drug dealers, violent prisoners, people from mental institutions, and yes, even murderers in the good ol’ USA. It was all very unfair what they were doing to him and his family, so much that his daughters wrote me a beautiful letter about their parents (Just posted on TRUTH!) After reading it I decided, in the interest of justice, and based on the daughter’s loving request, that I would give Henry and Imelda a Full and Complete Pardon. I never spoke to the Congressman, his wife, or his daughters, but felt very good about fighting for a family that was tormented by very sick and deranged people--They were treated sooo BADLY! I signed the papers and said to people in the Oval Office that I did a very good, perhaps life saving thing. God was very happy with me that day! THEN IT HAPPENED!!!! Only a short time after signing the Pardon, Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that he will be ‘running’ for Congress again, in the Great State of Texas (a State where I received the highest number of votes ever recorded!) as a Democrat, continuing to work with the same Radical Left Scum that just weeks before wanted him to spend the rest of their lives in Prison--And probably still do! Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters will not like. OH, WELL, NEXT TIME NO MORE MR. NICE GUY! PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP."
--Meidas Touch: "Trump admits he was trying to use his pardon power to buy Republicans a House seat."
--Vicki M: "He is mad because his bribery attempt failed."
--Aaron Fritscher: "Trump publicly complaining tht he pardoned someone because he expected a quid pro quo is like calling the police because you got cheated in a drug deal."
--Uncomfortable: "If Cuellar wanted to quietly run as a D but repay Trump’s favor once in office, Trump just put a bright spotlight on the deal. Now he’s forcing Cuellar to disavow a quid-pro-quo, and Cuellar will have to prove his independence from Trump."
In resistance news:
--Colorado has refused the DOJ’s reequest for statewide voter data, saying, "The DOJ can take a hike. It does not have a legal right to the information. Colorado will not help Donald Trump undermine our elections and hurt the American people."
--ICE protesters stopped a large-scale ICE operation in New York City by blocking the entrance to a Chinatown garage the ICE agents were using as a staging area and preventing them from leaving.
In historical news:
--Today’s the day Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin and Hobbes first appeared in newspapers in 1985. The strip, about a precocious (and naughty) six-year-old and his imaginary tiger, is possibly the best comic strip ever (even counting Doonesbury) and is still endlessly quoted and posted online, even though it hasn’t run since 1995. It’s especially famous for its invention of calvinball, a game in which Calvin gets to make up all the rules and then change them whenever he feels like. (Remind you of anybody?)
In other news:
--Trump’s Labor department announced today that they will not publish October’s PPI inflation report. (That means it’s really bad, and they’re continuing their "head in the sand" approach.
--Ever the grifter, Trump-Epstein` is selling Trump vodka again.
--Tucker Carlson announced that he’s buying a house in Qatar. (To flee to when the whole Trump thing falls apart?)
In good news:
--A US Appeals Court ruled that the Trump administration can’t expand rapid deportations.
--A court official dismissed the DOJ’s misconduct complaint against a federal judge in DC. They had accused the judge of "hostile and egregious" misconduct during hearings for a lawsuit challenging Trump’s ban on transgender troops serving in the military.
--A federal appeals court upheld a penalty of nearly $1 million dollars against Trump and Attorney Alina Habba, concluding they had committed "sanctionable conduct" by filing a frivolous lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and James Comey.
In Christmas news:
--The words to the Christmas carol, "Silent Night," were written by a young Catholic priest at a Catholic church in Austria in 1818. The organ had been damaged by flooding in the church, and he needed something for the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. He went to Franz Gruber, a nearby organist and schoolmaster, and asked him to compose a tune that could be played on the guitar. Neither man had any idea it would become one of the most famous (and one of the most beautiful) carols in the world--or that it would be declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. It’s been recorded more than 137,000 times and sung by countless choirs.
Best comment of the day, from Angela Davis: "I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept."
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis