Dark times at MSNOW

PJ Media: "Inflation Drops 'Unexpectedly' to 2.7% for November. Media Hardest Hit." 

OMG srsly?

Hot Air: "Kamala: We Didn't Release the Epstein Files Because Our DoJ Was Soooo Independent."

She's really committed to insulting the American intelligence. 

A sign of the times

The Corner: "Oscars Ceremony to Get Dumped on YouTube"

In a different era, the Oscars were one of the premier events on broadcast television, a sort of entertainment equivalent of the Super Bowl.

Even as the shows became boring for most Americans because of insufferable political speeches, there were still enough people who cared about movies and celebrities to tune in each year.

I used to be the annoying guy at work who would poll office mates who they thought would win Best Actor.  Now I could not care less.  Not one of those people on stage have ever turned down a private flight but they insist you should use a paper straw to save the environment.

"One Battle After Another" will sweep the Oscars this year because it's the perfect reflection of Hollywood sanctimony. 

Comedy gold

Red State: "Hoo Boy: Fani Willis Has an Epic Meltdown When Grilled by GA Senate Committee About Trump Case."

These videos are a hoot, especially when Fani tries to explain how her lover worked 160 billable hours/week.

White men need not apply

Hot Air: "Hey Boomers and Gen X, if You Think DEI Has Been Bad for You, Ask a Millennial or Gen Z Guy"

The source essay for this post is long but worth it.

A conservative is a liberal...bitten by a dog?

Of course it used to be "who has been mugged" but in the case of writer David Sedaris, he's aghast at toxic tolerance on the Left: "Liberal Comedian Pens Piece Explaining Why Liberals Are Impossible to Talk To."

This story totally mirrors Ana Kasparian's "Road to Damascus" moment. 

Let's see: David Sedaris, Ana Kasparian, soon...Bill Maher.  

Read the room, Trump

The Hill: "Massie blasts Trump’s ‘disrespectful’ Reiner post: ‘I challenge anyone to defend it’."

This is Trump at his worst, endlessly nursing his malevolence against anybody who said a discouraging word about the Donald.  The political right had to endure the ugliness of the Left after Charlie Kirk's murder with the implication that we're better people.  Most are but Trump can't help himself, dragging everybody down into the gutter.

Chicago is descending into Thunderdome

Washington Post: "Chicago has lost its mind - The city’s fiscal situation is dire, and Mayor Brandon Johnson is determined to make things worse."

They've run out of funding gimmicks and the slightest hiccup leads to chaos:

Springfield recently passed a sweetener bill for police and firefighter pensions, which already had less than a quarter of the assets needed to ensure that beneficiaries get paid what they’re owed. The funding ratio will now drop to less than 18 percent. The situation is so bad that when a computer glitch delayed property tax collections earmarked for the pensions, the firefighter’s fund didn’t have enough cash to mail its checks out, forcing the city to step in with an emergency loan.

The Chicago Teachers Union is the Master Blaster of Chicago Thunderdome.  They whole government will be fighting over the scraps soon.  

Evil spreading

Quillette: "Bondi Was Not a Surprise - The massacre at Bondi Beach was shocking—but after years of denial and equivocation about antisemitism, it was inevitable."

RIP Rob Reiner

Sheesh, he didn't have to go out like this.  Fox News: "Hollywood director Rob Reiner and wife Michele found dead - LAFD said the bodies of a 78-year-old man and 68-year-old woman were found inside the home"

Spinal Tap is one of my favorite movies.  Terrible tragedy. 

A staggering display of incompetence

NY Post: "Person of interest in Brown University shooting released as investigation ‘now points in different direction’."

So they let that Benjamin Erickson kid go and it seems they have absolutely no idea what they're doing next.  There are hundreds of cameras on the Brown campus but they can't find a single one that might show the killer's face.  All we have is a single long-distance shot of a guy all in black.

Total clown show.  Imagine spending $88K to send your kid to Brown and they can't offer the protection you have on a Ring camera. 

Then there's the madness in Australia

Fox News: "Australia terror attack: 16 dead, including gunman, after father-son duo opens fire on Jewish community - At least 16 dead, including one alleged suspect, and 40 injured in mass shooting on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia." 

Looks like they globalized the intifada. 

Extra - Red State: "Death Toll Climbs in Sydney Terror Attack; Shooters Identified as Father/Son Duo."  At least one guy says the cops at Bondi Beach pulled a Uvalde. 

Infuriating waste of a press conference

The authorities at Brown just wrapped up a press conference that revealed almost no new information, other than the shooter is in his twenties.  What was the point?  Why are we not allowed to know anything about the identity of the alleged shooter? 

Update: Benjamin Erickson

The person of interest authorities took into custody in connection with the shooting at Brown University is Benjamin Erickson, a 24-year-old originally from Wisconsin, two people briefed on the investigation told The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity.

He drove 17 hours to Brown?  What.

The absolute balls on this guy

Daily Mail: "Bondi Beach terror attack: Video shows hero creeping up behind the gunman and disarming him."

Damn, that guy is an bona fide hero.  Did it with his own two hands.  Video at link.

I always tell my kids: carry a knife.

Transactional President learns his worth

PJ Media: "Joe Biden Is Getting a Brutal Lesson on How Irrelevant He Is."

Maybe Hunter can help fund Joe's library by selling some paintings. 

Brown University shooting

Breaking: a person of interest is in custody. 

They just concluded a press conference where the Brown people said virtually nothing.  The person in custody is a man.  That's all they said. 

You can't possibly believe this

PJ Media: "Tim Walz Is So Toast Over Minnesota’s Medicaid Fraud Scandal."

I'll believe it when I see it, brother.  Matt Margolis ridicules Walz's press conference but - let's face it - he hit the critical talking points for any Democrat: race and Trump.  Know why that midwit Elizabeth Warren keeps getting re-elected in Massachusetts?  She just spits out words containing "fight" and "Trump" and Bay Staters ignore her empty record. 

It's OK: I've been reliably told they can't get benefits

This data is mind blowing

“Non-citizens Social Security numbers issued during the Biden Administration

2021: 270,425
2022: 590,193
2023: 964,163
2024: 2,095,247

- The Biden administration gave more non-citizens Social Security cards in 4 years than live in the state of Iowa
-… pic.twitter.com/dAgdNnqGGU

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) December 12, 2025

Experts are smart. S-M-R-T.

Matt Taibbi: "Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's Blunt Call for Government By "Independent" Experts - Independent from what? Dumb voters, of course. On this week's potentially transformative Supreme Court case, and the revival of Woodrow Wilson's vision"

Trump v. Slaughter concerns more than the fate of the Federal Trade Commission. It’s about competing visions for the future of Western democracy, both implicitly recognizing the same problem: the world, and governments the size of America’s, may have become too technical and complex to be managed in the old way. The Trump Administration's argument, also articulated in this case, calls for enhanced presidential power to take on “headless” bureaucracies, seen as the source of problems. The flip side argued by Brown Jackson (and increasingly by former allies in Europe) calls for more “independent” agencies, who need independence from what they see as the real problem: ignorant voters.

This (inevitably) circles back to questions of free speech and online censorship.  The Left loves to say that of course they want free speech but with "guardrails" and "limits" to protect the people.  It's for their own good!  Who shall determine these guardrails and limits?  The "experts."

William F. Buckley had it right: "I am obliged to confess I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University." 

Bring it on, Spartacus

PJ Media: "Dems Would Last Maybe 5 Minutes in the Civil War They Think They Want."

Democrats are tough guys when speaking unchallenged or doing an interview on MS-NOW (pretty much the same thing.)  The most illustrative example of what happens when a Democrat is directly confronted can be found in Hakeem Jeffries' hallway argument with Republican Congressman Mike Lawler.  Jeffries fell back on small insults instead of defending the Democrats shutting down the government.  When he was later confronted by CNBC host Melissa Quick, he had a meltdown.

This was an aberration for the media which usually treats the Left with kid gloves.  Wanna go toe-to-toe?  Let's do it, tough guy.

Living it up in the PR

NY Post: "AOC splurged nearly $50K on pricey hotel stays, dining and renting Puerto Rico concert venue where Bad Bunny performed."

Remember when AOC was too poor to help her suffering grandmother in Puerto Rico so conservative Matt Walsh raised $100,000?  And then they turned down the gift?  I 'member. 

Sorcery!

Ace: "In Astounding Coincidence the "Experts" Cannot Explain, US Oil Production Hits Record Highs as Gasoline Prices, Inexpicably, Fall to Lowest Levels Since the Chinese Engineered Bioweapon."

Caleb Hammer: super-extreme MAGA

I had to share this video exploring the Left's reaction to financial vlogger Caleb Hammer.  His main schtick is to sit down with very irresponsible people and go over their insane finances.  Since the majority of these people are both broke and woke, he's being accused of being a right-winger.  Of course.