Dear Everybody:
The big news today was that Trump has apparently given up on winning the Nobel Peace Prize and is now trying to start wars all over the place:
--The US apparently struck inside Venezuela last week, causing a major explosion at a dock facility.
--CNN reported that the CIA conducted a drone strike on a port facility on the Venezuelan coast earlier this month to target a dock that "the US government believed was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and move them onto boats."
--The attack was supposed to be secret, but Trump couldn’t keep his mouth shut. When asked by a reporter if the US military was behind the explosion, Trump said, "Well, it doesn’t matter. But there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs. So we hit all the boats and now we hit the area. It’s an implementation area, that’s where they implement. And that is no longer around."
--Bombing a country is an act of war and a huge escalation of the hostilities with Venezuela. (And Trump’s statements about Tren de Aragua before this have been notoriously false.)
--Trump met with Netanyahu yesterday and threatened to force half of Gaza’s population to leave. (Presumably so he can build his resorts.)
--He also threatened to conduct another bombing campaign against Iran’s nuclear facilities if rumors of the country rebuilding its nuclear capacity are true. (This is after he declared unilaterally that he and Bibi "took out Iran" and unilaterally destroyed the facilities and Iran would NEVER be able to rebuild.
--Trump: "Don’t forget, we made the plan possible by taking out Iran. And speaking of Iran, I hope they’re not trying to build up again because if they are, we’re going to have no choice but to very quickly eradicate that buildup."
--And as far as China goes, here’s what Trump said: Reporter: "China is doing naval exercises to encircle Taiwan." Trump: "I have a great relationship with President Xi and I don’t believe he’s gonna be doing it." Reporter: "Does it worry you?" Trump: "No. Nothing worries me."
His peace efforts with Ukraine went nowhere, as well:
--Rick Wilson: "Trump may have intended for Zelenskyy’s Mar-a-lago visit to be a year-end demonstration of success in his peacemaking effort. Instead, fittingly, it caps a year of failure and embarrassment."
--Zelenskyy: "I don’t trust Putin and he doesn’t want success for Ukraine."
--Max Boot: "Don’t be fooled. Trump came into office promising to end the war in 24 hours. Nearly a year later, that ambitious objective is no closer to being achieved. How do I know? Because the fighting continues unabated." Boot said Putin has shown no willingness to compromise and he refuses to meet with Zelensky. "Conflict will only end once Putin is persuaded he can’t win militarily. Until that point is reached, peace negotiations aren’t going anywhere."
--Oil prices went up after Trump’s Ukraine-Russia peace talks failed.
In other Ukraine news:
--Putin claimed (without evidence) that right before the meeting in Florida Ukraine attacked one of his residences. Zelenskyy said the story was a complete fabrication.
--Trump: "I learned about it this morning from President Putin this morning. I was very angry about it." When a reporter suggested that it might not actually have taken place, Trump said, "I mean, you’re saying maybe the attack didn’t take place? That’s possible, too, I guess. But President Putin told me this morning it did." (And of course he believes Putin over Zelenskyy and his own intelligence officers.)
--FM Sybiha: "Russia still hasn’t provided any evidence of the alleged ‘attack’ on Putin’s residence because it simply didn’t happen."
--Fortune Magazine reported that a Russian official is warning of a banking crisis, as Russia’s banks are under stress amid non-payments, and that there’s also a debt crisis. He warned that the sovereign wealth fund that Putin was using to fund the war is running out, and that Putin’s plan to hike taxes is only going to make things worse.
In other, under the radar but very dangerous, news:
--On December 24, 2025, the US Post Office changed the postmark rules, announcing that the official postmark date will be the date of the first automated processing operation at a United States Post Office facility rather than the date an item is dropped off, a lobby/retail facility accepted date, or the stamped date. That date could potentially be days after the mail was dropped off--not the actual drop-off date.
--The post-office says "Time sensitive mail should be mailed several days before the deadline. People can also go inside their local post office and ask for a hand-stamped ‘manual postmark’ on the date, or use certified mail."
--Brookings: "It disrupts an evidentiary tool that has long been woven into election law, tax administration, court procedure, and many other regulatory frameworks.
--If this isn’t an open invitation to election-rigging, I don’t know what is. Many states accept ballots that are postmarked by Election Day whether or not they are received by the Elections Office that day or not.
--It also has major repercussions to things like filing your taxes and filing any other official business, including Social Security forms, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission forms, licensing agencies, insurance statutes, and court documents.
--The Post Office announced this at a time clearly intended to slip under the radar, and people are only just finding out about it. Stay tuned...
In Epstein news:
--Marjorie Taylor Greene did an interview in which she talked about why she had broken with Trump over Epstein. She said she urged Trump to invite some of Epstein’s female victims to the Oval Office, but he angrily informed her they had done nothing to merit the honor.
--She also said that when she threatened to expose the men who abused Epstein’s victims, Trump called to scream at her, "My friends will get hurt!"
--Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board: "The Epstein saga is a microcosm of Trump’s modus operandi. Lie, steal, cheat. Deny, deflect, delay, and degrade. Blame, complain, pressure, and sue. Line pockets whenever possible. Always over-promise and under-deliver."
--The Atlantic: "Trump really wanted to stop hearing about Epstein. He snapped at aides who tried to bring up Epstein when storylines about the disgraced pedophile financier began to percolate during the late summer, and he grew furious at some MAGA supporters who wouldn’t let the matter go...he never understood why the matter--and questions about Epstein’s prison death, which was ruled a suicide--was so meaningful to some of his supporters...every time his administration has tried to make the Epstein matter go away, it’s only inadvertently turned up the spotlight."
--Dem Rep Jamie Raskin: "Donald Trump and the DOJ are breaking federal law by continuing to cover up for Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring. We’re fighting for justice for survivors, accountability for abusers, and safety for the public."
In Trump Tries to destroy Washington, DC news:
--More artists have canceled their shows at the Kennedy Center over Trump’s adding his name to the facility, including two dance groups and folk singer Kristy Lee. The Kennedy Center Honors show garnered the smallest audience ever.
--One of the dance groups, Doug Varone and Dancers, said in a statement, "We can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution."
--The Kennedy Center had to cancel the New Year’s Eve performance because the artists had pulled out.
--Alt National Park Service: "Thank you to all the performers who are canceling their events at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts."
--But now it turns out that just adding his name wasn’t enough. Trump posted a clip to his Truth Social account Wednesday that suggested the Kennedy name be removed entirely from the Kennedy Center. The clip, from Newsmax host Greg Kelly, complained that Kennedy had been "elevated to obscene levels." He claimed that Trump has the "moral authority" to add his name to the building, "But there’s one small thing I don’t like about this--The Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts. Get rid of the Kennedy name."
--Trump is now trying to tear down 13 more government buildings before the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the DC Preservation League can stop him. DHS’s Kristi Noem has filed an emergency declaration insisting the buildings are a terrorist threat and have to be torn down immediately.
--Trump keeps changing the dimensions of his ballroom: "It’s bigger than I told you. It’s, you know--after realizing we’re gonna do the inauguration in that building, it’s got bulletproof glass, it’s got all drone, they call it drone-free roof. It’s dronesssss--won’t touch it. It’s a big beautiful safe building."
--The Volatile Mermaid: "Friendly reminder that Trump only cares about himself, so he would only care about bulletproof glass if he thought the next inauguration will be for him..."
--Trump’s preoccupations (with the ballroom and the arch he plans to build and the new class of battleships) have only reinforced the perception that he’s lost touch..."
In Trump’s Battleships news:
--Military observers are saying Trump’s proposed "golden fleet" of new battleships is nothing but vaporware. Congress has not authorized the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026, and anyway it does NOT include any language authorizing any new Trump-class battleships."
--military.com: "Trump announced a new class of battleships despite a century of evidence proving the large warships are obsolete."
--Simon Unoball: "Yeah Building ships that would be huge missile/drone targets and sunk within minutes of large-scale warfare breaking out, is just not gonna happen."
And through it all, Trump’s increasing deterioration remains a constant:
--Screen grabs today taken by Aaron Rupar show a hole on the back of Trump’s left hand and additional discoloration and larger bandages on both of his hands.
--Trump: "Unemployment tucked up."
--Trump: "I could reduce unemployment to 20%, 10%, or practically zero by just hiring people into the federal government even though those jobs are not necessary."
--Trump: "TrumpRX.gov, TrumpRX.gov. And I didn’t name it that. Somebody named it that...I’m honored to have the name."
--Trump: "That’s the number one blood thinner. I don’t want to know about that. I take an aspirin."
--Trump: "Why is it we only take people from shithole countries, right? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few?"
--Trump, on the mass shooting at Brown University: "Things can happen."
--Trump: "WTF is going on in Liechtenstein?"
--On Trump’s arch, which he persists in calling an "arc": "It will be like the one in Paris. To be honest, it will blow it away, and Vince came in and his eyes were teeming...I mean, he couldn’t believe how beautiful it was...there is nothing that can compete with this. We’re going to top the one in Paris by a lot."
--Trump introduced the golfer Bryan Dechambeau as "the current US Open Champion." (The current US Open Champion is J.J. Spawn.)
--Trump asked the General Counsel: "Boy, are we winning cases or losing? I think we’re winning because here we are, right?" (Note: They have lost over 95 per cent of all the cases since the beginning of his term.)
--Trump was over 70 minutes late to another event. (There’s speculation that that lateness is due to his staff frantically trying to get him into decent shape to be seen in public.)
--Ray: "It should be sad watching a man’s brain publicly and anxiously turn to mush. A bitter tragedy watching a whole personality and intellect succumbing to entropy. Something to be mourned as a loss. Imagine the sort of person you’d have to be for it to be anything else."
--Morgan Mussell: "Another pro is that more people are FINALLY noticing and commenting on Trump’s dementia."
In Not Everybody’s a Jerk news:
--Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce surprised Arrowhead Stadium (where Kelce’s team, the Kansas City Chiefs, play) employees with cash bonuses for Christmas. Each employee got $600. Taylor Swift also gifted her road crew on her Eras Tour with bonuses on every leg of the tour and whenever profits exceeded expectations.
--In New York City, a group of Santa’s elves took over the 4 Train on the subway and turned it into the Polar Express, giving out toys to kids all the way from the Bronx to Brooklyn.
In resistance news:
--Chicago is sponsoring a contest to name their newest snowplow, and nearly everybody is voting for the name: "Abolish ICE."
--Portland students walked out of school to protest ICE.
--The TV show SOUTH PARK is devoting its entire season to destroying Trump through satire, going straight for Trump’s throat with its stories about ICE, Kristi Noem, and now Epstein.
In other news:
--Trump announced he is thinking very seriously about approving the sale of F-35s to Turkey. (What could possibly go wrong?)
--A firm tied to Kristi Noem secretly got money from a $220 million dollar DHS ad campaign.
--Governor Newsom: "Seems like fraud, waste, and abuse to us."
--FBI agents are reporting that Kash Patel demands a heads up for all noteworthy arrests so he can be on the news.
In good news:
--A federal judge blocked the deportation of a British man who was targeted by Trump. The man, who is the founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, was accused of censorship by the administration.
--Less than 48 hours after the deadly attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in Australia, Australian authorities announced proposals for sweeping new gun laws. (Oh, if only the US would...)
--A new statue honoring Barbara Rose Johns, a Black teenager who fought segregation, was unveiled in the US Capitol.
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis