BOOM! US Economy Grows By Big 4.3% In Third Quarter

—Ace

4.3% is the annualized growth rate. What "annualized" means is "if we took this quarter's actual growth rate and multiplied it by four to find the growth we could expect over an entire year, if it continued."

The actual growth rate for the quarter is then something like 1.08%, but don't worry about that, because we always talk about the annualized growth rate. There is no mathematical manipulation going on to make the number seem bigger than it is. This is how we always measure it.

Just to know how to evaluate GDP growth, here's a quick but Expert primer, because I'm an Expert in literally anything I talk about:

Less than 0% (negative "growth"): the economy shrank. Recessionary.

0%: No growth, and pretty recessionary, because the population always grows. Zero growth thus means that everyone lost a little.

1%: Weak, barely perceptible growth. Either a poor economy or maybe even one about to fall into recession.

2%: Growth, and not really a sign of a recession, but sluggish and unimpressive growth that no one will brag about. Also nothing to panic about. Very meh. To put it terms you can understand, if we were using the Hustler boner meter to rate the economy rather than pornography, it rates one erect penis and one droopy one (out of a possible four erect penises, obviously). It's the "garrett" of economies, then. At this level, the economy is a vaguely unwelcome presence that won't shut up about its bike but you just shrug and just think about the blissful oblivion of death.

3%: Solid growth. No one can dispute the economy is growing. No one would dispute that this is a good solid economy. People's moods will naturally be a little elevated during a period of this level of growth. Think "Jack Straw smoking a bone while steering his yacht with his bare foot and listening to a 15 minute double drum solo." I know that sounds like the Holocaust, but I mean, think about this from Jack Straw's perspective. He likes 15 minute double drum solos because he was raised wrong and don't know no better.

4%: Very high growth. Starting to get into actual "BOOM" territory, if sustained, if it's not just a one-quarter wonder. Think: Me riding down the street on my Vespa, carrying my J. Crew messenger bag, looking at the world with optimism and cheer and thinking of all the vertical surfaces I can stick shelves on.

5%: Outstanding growth. This level is rarely seen and means the economy is running on all 12 cylinders. (Yes, 12 cylinders, it's now a sportscar.) Sustained 5% growth means Golden Times. Think "Sydney Sweeney wearing a low-cut top with beads of golden honey sweat trickling down between her breasts as she washes and details your Camaro." (Artist's conception.)

Clinton had some of this during the internet bubble and the deficit actually fell (despite his best efforts to increase it) because tax takings were so large and welfare spending fell.

This level of extraordinary growth can't be sustained forever, maybe just a year or two. This is about the best level of growth you can realistically hope for.

You occasionally see 6% or 7% quarters -- or even higher -- but usually only in like Latin American countries when they recover from one of their frequent recessions/depressions, or China up to about ten years ago. When it happens in America, it's a one-quarter wonder. I think GWB had one 7.2% quarter but I think that was like six months after the economic apocalypse of 9/11 -- so a one-quarter wonder, with the American economy rebounding back from a deep shock-recession, like Latin American countries do with their always-volatile economies.

Apart from some weird one-off circumstances, like recovering from 9/11, advanced, stable economies almost never grow in a sustained way at these levels.

So, the 4.3% growth is very high and not too far away from "It's Morning in America again."

And it's not even a one-quarter wonder -- the last quarter showed strong 3.8% growth. It looks like it's real and building.

Is the economic turn we desperately need for 2026 and 2028, too, finally here?

Let's hope. It looks good at the moment.

Ed Morrissey:

The US economy grew 4.3% in real gross domestic product in Q3 (annualized), the best quarter of growth in the past two years. It exceeds the 3.8% growth in Q2 that had largely been seen as driven by rebalancing of the trade deficit. It's the first BEA analysis of overall economic activity since September, thanks to the Schumer Shutdown:

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 4.3 percent in the third quarter of 2025 (July, August, and September), according to the initial estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 3.8 percent.

Due to the recent government shutdown, this initial report for the third quarter of 2025 replaces the release of the advance estimate originally scheduled for October 30 and the second estimate originally scheduled for November 26.

The increase in real GDP in the third quarter reflected increases in consumer spending, exports, and government spending that were partly offset by a decrease in investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.

Just to clarify: "real GDP" already accounts for inflation. This is growth above the rate of inflation, annualized for comparative purposes. The last six months of economic activity has shown a combined growth of 4.0% or a bit better, which is a fantastic momentum by anyone's reckoning.

Previous growth was explained away by experts by claiming that the apparent growth was mostly due to technical factors due to Trump's tariffs. (Imports reduce GDP, so reducing them "increases" GDP, at least on paper.)

But Ed Morrissey explains that the new numbers appear to be unaffected by changes in tariff policy. See his post for that. It's dangerously close to math and you know that we do not do that here.

He also notes that the WSJ breaks out my favorite leftwing buzzword: "Unexpectedly."

The U.S. economy grew at an unexpectedly robust pace in the third quarter, powered by strong consumer spending.

Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced across the economy, rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted 4.3% annual rate for the July through September quarter, the Commerce Department said Tuesday in a shutdown-delayed report.

It was the highest growth rate in two years, and reflected robust spending by consumers on services like healthcare as well as spending on recreational vehicles. Growth picked up from 3.8% in the previous quarter, and beat the 3.2% forecast among economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

There is a chance this number will be revised down after a time. "Big numbers" are often revised back to be closer to the mean (that is, back to a more moderate level, whether up or down).

But even if it's revised down a touch, it's still a big number.

And it could also be revised up, of course. The leftwing bureaucrats in the BEA always seem to produce bigger initial numbers for Democrats and worse numbers for Republicans than time eventually reveals to be the accurate numbers.

The Morning Rant-CBDless Edition

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Mr. CBD is on a remote scouting mission. Something about Bourbon, snails, maple syrup and unsalted butter.

Lately life has been happening here in the Frozen Tundra and current events and politics has taken a back seat. I know there are multiple problems around the world including here in the Good Old USA.

For the first time in my *life* the USA has a president who is not a politician. Of course that would be Donald J. Trump. The nearest example of a president who was not a full-time, life-time politician was Ronald Reagan.

This country is poised to become a bigger and better light on the shining hill. However, the GOP Stupid Party and the new "Pundits" are in the process of soiling their beds and stepping on some type of appendage.

The first two years of Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0 could have been terrific legislative sessions. Just imagine every Trump Executive Order becoming codified law? True, those laws could have been reversed with a Democrat Communist administration. But, it would have been work and would have slowed down their stupidity.

Yes the Stupid Party and Paul Ryan had how many years to draft a better health insurance plan? It was easy to piss and moan about it. But, they had no intention of repealing it let alone come up with something better.

Now 14 years after that Affordable Health Care Act Obamacare Bullshit is still forefront in the Washington DC fight between the Commies and the Estupidos. In the long run the Commies will win.

We know the Commies claim they love and cherish democracy. We know it's a lie. But the likes of John Thune and Gary Johnson would rather let the Commies walk over them when it comes to the silent filibuster and judicial blue slip shenanigans to name just a few.

Johnson should be leading impeachments against the sitting federal magistrates and judges who have been playing whack a mole with Trump's agenda. Granted, the senate will not convict them. But Judas Fvcking Priest, fight. Expose the leftist judges.

And that is why you have President Trump.

Now, we got rid of the "pundits" such as Bill Kristol, Rick "PenisHead" Wilson, Charlie Sykes with the 2015 Trump run - 2016 Trump election.

But, nature hates a vacuum and now we have Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro to name just a few who have replaced the Never-Trumpers. I'm not sure what we should call this group, perhaps NutCases^TM But whatever it is called, I want to be part of the Never-NutCases.

Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes can go and have their Third Reich love fest without me and the Conservative movement.

Candace, no one. And I mean no one cares about the genitalia of a French woman. And the ONLY person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk has been arrested.

Ben Shapiro, I support Israel. I always have and always will. But, the USA interests come first and should always come first. We are $38 trillion in debt. We need to put America First not Israel First.

I live in a high gas sales tax state. So many of you may have seen lower prices. But, I'm enjoying the $2.67 gallon gas. I've seen the grocery prices coming down. It looks like prescription drug prices are going to come down significantly.

Mike Johnson, John Thune, govern! You have 9-10 months to make significant inroads to restore common sense. Mike Johnson, John Thune, (I won't ask MTG or Mitch McConnell for example) Are you ready and willing to run with the MAGA platform or is your new leadership, same as the old leadership?

And lastly to the Nut-Cases, shut your mouths. Take your fingers away from your key boards. And take some time to read and comprehend President Reagan's 11th Commandment. Take your problems behind closed doors.

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

Ernesta
Cecilia Beaux

The Morning Report — 12/23/25

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. It's Christmas eve EVE, and so with that in mind I'm going to try to keep the editorials through the end of the week a bit shorter if at all possible, breaking and/or critical news items deserving of further exploration notwithstanding.

And away we go. I don't claim to be an expert on defense issues, but this move on the part of President Trump just makes no sense to me.

President Donald J. Trump has revealed plans for the U.S. Navy to develop a new line of “Trump-class” battleships, starting with the construction of two vessels. The America First leader shared the news from his Mar-a-Lago resort, where he is vacationing over the holidays, joined by War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan. Trump described the vessels as components of a new “Golden Fleet,” with ambitions to produce up to 25 such battleships. He stated that these would be the “largest we’ve ever built.”“They will have 100 times the force, the power, and there’s never been anything like these ships,” Trump said. “We envision that these two ships will be the first of a whole new class of battleships that will be produced in the years to come.”The lead vessel in the class will bear the name USS Defiant. This development follows shortly after the Navy abandoned efforts to develop a different, smaller warship due to escalating expenses and extended timelines.

Hey, I ain't no Alfred Thayer Mahan but in the immortal words of Isoroku Yamamoto via Toshiro Mifune "R-U-F-K-M?! don't bogart the wasabi, Nagumo!"

Will dressing up like Teddy Roosevelt and running up a White House stairway as if it were San Juan Hill (watch Arsenic & Old Lace), while deploying a great white, er Golden, fleet really deter Xi and the Chi-Coms? Will it help get out the vote 11 months from now? Maybe in Newport News or Pascagoula (assuming they still build ships there?).

Meanwhile in the all American town of Lawrence, Massachusetts:

Mayor Brian DePena appeared in court on Friday, where he required a translator to participate in proceedings at a Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission proceeding on Friday.

The hearing concerned former Lawrence Police Chief William Castro, a political ally of DePena, who was stripped of his policing credentials following an improper police chase. Castro was accused of driving the wrong way down a city street during the chase and filing a false police report, claiming he was responding to an armed bank robbery when he had actually been responding to someone attempting to cash a bad check . . . DePena testified on Castro’s behalf during the commission proceeding, but it was the mayor’s request to use a translator that drew significant attention. . . DePena is a native of the Dominican Republic and immigrated to New York in the early 1980s before settling in Lawrence in 1989. Over 80 percent of the city’s population is now Hispanic, according to the US Census.  

The mayor of an American town cannot even speak English. Forget illegal immigration, this fool is a Legal Immigrant. both my parents' families (my father's side escaping the pogroms of Ukraine at the turn of he last century and my mother's side barely surviving the death camps of the Nazis,) came here to embrace and become fully American. Initially they barely spoke English but quickly learned enough to find work and support families while instilling the ideals and culture of this ountry on their children.

That an illiterate unassimilated foreigner was elected to public office by an equally alien electorate in our country is among if not its greatest failings in its history.

Wow, it looks as if the 2020 election was indeed stolen. I'm sure you're all shocked!!! I know I am.

And Mike Pence and George Conway can go pump each other.

And more "Walzing Muh shill dough" this time up in Maine. Funny how these desert dwellers all wind up living here in states that can get about as cold as the Arctic Circle.

But best not talk about it because that can be very unhealthy.

And speaking of health, Bernie Sanders is cancer, so all he's doing here is protecting his own. But you young people go out and pimp socialism as the last best hope for humanity:

Ebenezer Scrooge has nothing on Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is thwarting cancer treatment for kids in a possibly futile attempt to get Congress to pass his priorities.

Last week, the Vermont socialist was the sole vote opposed to fast-tracking legislation that will make it easier for kids with cancer to access treatments and clinical trials and incentivize companies to develop pediatric therapies.

His complaint: the Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act, named for a teen cancer patient who died while advocating for its passage, is a pared-down version of a previous package that included other health-care measures as well, including funding for community health centers.

Without those add-ons, he’s withholding support of a bill that was teed up to pass easily — and that even he otherwise supported.
Yet without his vote, it didn’t win unanimous backing, so it’ll now have to make its way through a much more arduous procedural process when Congress reconvenes next year. . .Pray it doesn’t cost the lives of any kids who could’ve benefited. But make no mistake: This is super-villain behavior, as more rational lawmakers pointed out.

Right-wing Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also supports funding community health centers, fumed: “To say that you’re not going to give a chance for children to have a cure for cancer if you don’t get what you want” is “selfish” and “tragic.” Amen to that.

Up yours NY Post for describing Bill Cassidy as "Right Wing," which by doing that is essentially saying Nazi/fascist/racist etc, ad nauseum One day, if Bernie and Mamdani take over, you can do like they do in England when you have a toothache. Make like Moe howard did to Curly, and tie one end of a string to your rotten tooth and the other to a doorknob.

Dentists refuse to provide free dental care creating a major dentist shortage.

Just wait until we have "Free" healthcare here and free housing, education and food like every other "civilized nation" such as Cuba does as I have seen posted too many times by a bevy of scumbag leftists on Twitter and elsewhere. Yeah, life is such a paradise in Havana and Pyongyang but you insist on staying here in evil and illegitimate America.

Have a great day!

And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
• Glenn H. Reynolds: Because the DEI fad didn’t just wreck American lives. It went a long way toward wrecking America.
  DEI hollowed out a generation — and sapped America’s promise

Daily Tech News 23 December 2025

—Pixy Misa

• NIST's time servers stopped providing an accurate reference time after a power failure. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Sounds serious, if you rely on an accurate reference time.
  
  
  
• Their facility in Boulder Colorado lost power for several days, and their backup generators ran out of fuel. (Jeff Geerling)
  
  Due to this, their NTP service drifted out of sync by five microseconds.

Monday Overnight Open Thread (12/22/25)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Quote I

"Unfortunately, it sounds like this is what that bear has potentially found under the homeowner's house in the crawlspace. It's unfortunate. We want to see the bears in the woods, not in people's homes." Cort Klopping, with CDFW.

Quote II

“We support LGBTQ rights fully. This has nothing to do with identity. Providing powerful hormones to a person in a psychiatric crisis without proper psychiatric safeguards is not affirming care. It is reckless. In this case, it acted as an accelerant, intensifying instability, impairing judgment, and compounding risk.”Dustin Bailey

*****

The real reason for the season.....

*****

Lately you Morons have been an unhappy lot. Too much fun! Too much seriousness! Not enough of this...... Moar of that..... Less of this........

Here's hoping that the Horde Herd is happy tonight...............

*****

The ONT Musical Interlude & The Fabulous's Fruit Cake Emporium

&&&&&

*****

It's bad enough to be called a Masshole. Insult to injury, Masshole Genius Award Winners!

A Rescue Report from New Hampshire Tees Off on Two Lost Hikers
A recent report published by the state’s Fish and Game Department pulls no punches in its assessment of two hikers who got stuck on a mountain and required lifesaving

The report of the mission passes more than a little judgment on the two hikers at the center of the ordeal. Here are a few highlights

They lost their composure and would not listen to any advice being given to them.
The two were ill-equipped for a hike of this magnitude and had departed for a nearly 9-mile loop at 1:00 p.m.
They lacked appropriate clothing for a hike in the weather conditions they encountered and were navigating with a phone when they lost the trail.
Chris McKee, a conservation officer with the Fish and Game Department, shared a few more details about the hikers in a story with New Hampshire Public Radio. McKee said the two were wearing work boots, not hiking boots, and lacked the gear you might take on a night hike in winter, such as crampons, snowshoes, or functional lights.

“These individuals just didn’t have the proper gear or experience to be out there hiking in this,” he said.

*****

Even Santa Claus gets it! And a Mystery Click?

*****

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Repurposed Christmas Trees.

Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire & AceCorp, LLC. The Fabulous, yours truly & our K9s wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas.

Close it up

Monday Cafe

—Ace

Ruined abbey (no further details given)

Time to make the biscuits.

Video of the actual inner workings of the blog.

Surprise entrant into a Russian beauty contest.

"Let's roll down the beach and **** them all!" (Old joke, usually about an old bull and a young bull.)

ICYMI: Waiting for your slower friend to arrive for dinner.

Shadowpouncing.

Couch potatoes.

Christmas pics.

Brown Custodian: I Warned Security About the Sketch Guy "Casing" the School Who Would Ultimately Shoot It Up

—Ace

Is this something? I don't know. There are often dropped balls in cases like this. I don't know if this is just a normal dropped ball or an ideologically-dictated dropped ball.

I think it might the latter. After all, apparently Brown knew all about the homeless man illegally squatting in the basement of the building where the killer struck. (Yes, I know that homeless man turned out to be one of the few heroes in this story, but obviously Brown didn't know that when they chose to allow him to live in their basement.)

In yet another case of "authorities" dropping the ball, someone saw something, someone said something, and the "authorities" did nothing.

A Brown University custodian just dropped a bombshell by claiming he flagged the man who murdered two students to the authorities multiple times before the deadly shooting occurred.

Derek Lisi has worked at Brown University in Rhode Island for 15 years, and if he is telling the truth, the horrible and tragic shooting that cost the lives of two young students and injured multiple others could have been avoided. Lisi said in comments that The Boston Globe published that he saw a man walking through the hallways, looking into classrooms, and trying to avoid being seen by suddenly darting into a bathroom -- all weeks before the shooting. Lisi saw the suspicious man at least 10 times and notified the campus security at least twice, but it appears that nobody took the behavior seriously.

...

"I knew there was something off with him," Lisi recalled of the man whom he saw casing the university building and whom he later recognized in photos of the accused shooter. "He'd been casing that place for weeks."

Brown seems to believe that fake Social Justice "safety" is more important than the actual physical safety of the deluded marks paying $100,000 per year to be miseducated there.

They had already been questioned about their failure to warn the campus about the shooter, and then, later, told everyone that there was no further danger, despite having no idea if there was a continuing threat or not.

Brown University is facing questions over its security policies after its emergency sirens never sounded in response to Saturday's shooting, while taking nearly 20 minutes to send an alert out to students. The scrutiny comes after campus cops passed no-confidence votes against their police chief and questioned the school's emergency response capabilities.

Rodney Chatman, the university's director of public safety and emergency management, blamed the lack of sirens on the hectic nature of the crisis. He said police became aware of the incident when an officer saw students fleeing the scene.

...

From there, Brown issued and retracted a series of alerts. It sent one at 4:51 saying a suspect was in custody, then another 20 minutes later walking back that claim. A 5:27 alert warned that there was another shooting, but a 6:10 message said that was actually "unfounded."

As you know, 34 "human rights" organizations, which I assume are all funded by George Soros, sent a letter demanding that Brown disable its security cameras so that criminal leftist agitators, some in the employ of foreign governments or terrorist organizations, couldn't be photographed committing their crimes.

As originally reported in August 2025, a group of far-left human rights advocates sent a letter to 150 U.S. colleges and universities asking them to disable the CCTV systems to protect "free expression and academic freedom across the country," because "the Trump administration has launched an aggressive campaign against US academic institutions."

The motive for the request to disable CCTV systems as stated: "Right now these tools are facilitating the identification and punishment of student protesters, undermining activists' right to anonymity----a right the Supreme Court has affirmed as vital to free expression and political participation."

The letter from 'Fight For The Future' (August 2025) came after an earlier campaign by the same group seeking to stop the use of facial recognition cameras on college campuses.

The Brown University President and school officials have been giving ridiculous answers to questions about the 800 cameras on the campus and the fact that no current footage exists of the shooter walking around inside the campus or inside the buildings therein.

Brown refuses to say if they disabled the cameras or not. I think we all know this is an admission.

Surprise: The "Reporter" Who Leaked and Whined That Her Hit-Piece Got Held Up Turns Out to Have a History of Batty Leftwing Propaganda Pieces

—Ace

Chuck Ross for the Free Beacon:

'60 Minutes' Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, Who Cried Foul Over Delayed Immigration Piece, Was Behind 'Intentionally False' Hit Piece on Ron DeSantis That Even Democrats Said Was Wrong
Alfonsi's immigration piece needed additional reporting, Editor in Chief Bari Weiss told CBS staff

A 60 Minutes correspondent is up in arms after CBS management delayed a story decrying the deportation of illegal aliens from the United States to a maximum security prison in El Salvador, accusing CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss of caving to political pressure and betraying sacred journalistic principles. The correspondent, Sharyn Alfonsi, was behind an embarrassing 2021 flub at 60 Minutes in which she falsely reported that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) gave preferential treatment to a campaign donor to distribute coronavirus vaccines.

...

In her leaked email to her colleagues, Alfonsi accused CBS News and Weiss of engaging in "corporate censorship" and of "betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism." Reporters at CBS News are threatening to quit over the Weiss decision, CNN's Brian Stelter reported (it's unlikely that anyone will actually quit due to the fast-shrinking job market for television reporters).

LOL.

...

There's precedent warranting additional legwork on Alfonsi's segments. Alfonsi was the lead correspondent on a debunked story in 2021 that DeSantis gave preferential treatment to the supermarket chain Publix to distribute coronavirus vaccines because the company donated $100,000 to DeSantis's campaign.

"How is that not pay-to-play?" Alfonsi asked DeSantis when she confronted him after one of the governor's press conferences.

Several Florida officials, including Democrats, blasted the 60 Minutes report, saying that DeSantis's office was not involved in awarding contracts to Publix.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D., Fla.), who oversaw Florida's emergency management division in 2021 and is known for tangling with the GOP, said that the division recommended Publix for the contract because other pharmacies were not equipped to distribute vaccines.

"No one from the Governor's office suggested Publix. It's just absolute malarkey," he said.

Then-Palm Beach County mayor Dave Kerner (D.) called the story "intentionally false." Publix said the story was "absolutely false and offensive." And DeSantis said the story provides an example of "why nobody trusts corporate media."

"They are a disaster in what they are doing," the governor said. "They knew what they were doing was a lie."

Poynter, a media watchdog group funded largely by liberal charities, called the report a "sloppy moment" that "misses the mark." The Publix donations to DeSantis's campaign were "neither illegal nor unusual," according to Poynter.

CBS did not correct or apologize for the segment, only issuing a narrow statement defending why it edited down DeSantis's comments to Alfonsi and pointing out that DeSantis declined 60 Minutes' offer for a full sit-down interview.

...

Alfonsi never weighed in on her faulty DeSantis report beyond the narrow statement issued by CBS. 60 Minutes rarely apologizes for or corrects its reporting unless confronted with widespread public opprobrium and overwhelming evidence that its reporting was false.

In more propaganda news: NPR is warning its reporters from continuing to cite a "law professor" named Carl Tobias, who is apparently on dozens and dozens of reporters' cell phones as someone willing to give them whatever quote they need to sell the main political point they're trying to make.

Apparently he's almost always cited as "an expert," and an expert in many different fields. Whatever you need an "expert" to comment on, Carl Tobias is your one-stop shop.

Is This Something?

—Ace

The first trailer for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, due in theaters next July.

Matt Damon looks too stupid to be Shrewd Odysseus, and Nolan is doing the Industry Standard race-swapping, but... I do like most Nolan movies, and hope this is good.

Communist Cuba "On Edge of Collapse" Due to Trump's Oil Embargo of Cuba's Key Ally Venezuela

—Ace

Late last week, Trump seized a second Venezuelan tanker.

Now he's tracking a third tanker from the "dark fleet."

The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing a sanctioned oil tanker near Venezuela as President Donald Trump intensifies his pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro with a sweeping blockade targeting illicit oil shipments.

"The United States Coast Guard is in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela's illegal sanctions evasion," a U.S. official said in a statement to Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson. "It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order."

Reuters reported that another official noted the tanker was operating under sanctions and that it had not been boarded thus far. The official also said interceptions could be taken by flying or sailing near vessels of concern.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the officials did not provide the name of the vessel or where it was operating while being pursued.

The pursuit comes days after Trump announced a "total and complete blockade" of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

..

A second tanker was seized by U.S. forces on Saturday, again, off the coast of Venezuela.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on X that the U.S. Coast Guard, with assistance from the Department of War, apprehended the oil tanker during the early morning hours. The ship had last been docked in Venezuela.

This may result in Maduro's downfall.

It might also result in the downfall of the Castroist regime in Cuba. Venezuela has been sending its communist ally Cuba shipments of very subsidized oil for decades, and now those shipments are less than one-third of what they had been.

Cubans are going hungry, suffering from spreading disease and sleeping outdoors with no electricity to power fans through the sweltering nights. A quarter of the population has fled during the island's most prolonged economic crisis.
And it's about to get worse.

The U.S. is ratcheting up pressure on Havana's key benefactor, Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro's regime, which has kept the Communist-ruled nation afloat with cheap oil. Now Venezuelan oil exports are at risk thanks to a partial blockade targeting sanctioned tankers--the kind that carry about 70% of the country's crude.

One tanker that the U.S. has already seized was en route with almost two million barrels of Venezuelan oil.

The blockade adds to a U.S. pressure campaign on Maduro that also includes a major military buildup in the Caribbean, airstrikes on boats allegedly connected to Venezuelan drug trafficking and threats of bombing the country itself.

Were Venezuela's oil shipments to stop, or sharply decline, the Cubans know it would be devastating.

"It would be the collapse of the Cuban economy, no question about it," said Jorge Piñón, a Cuban exile who tracks the island's energy ties to Venezuela at the University of Texas at Austin.

Venezuela has been vital for Cuba's economy since 1999, when then-President Hugo Chávez described the two countries as bound together "in a sea of happiness." Cuba deployed sports trainers, doctors and counterintelligence agents to Venezuela, the latter to root out traitors who might overthrow Chávez.

Venezuela responded with 100,000 barrels of oil shipped to Cuba daily.

The heavily subsidized oil shipments have fallen to 30,000 barrels a day. Agents from Cuba's vaunted intelligence service remain in Venezuela, where they have worked to purge disloyal military officers and government officials, helping ensure Maduro remains ensconced in power.

Cuba's deep reliance on Venezuela means Cuba's Communist government is doing all it can to prevent Maduro--who trained in Cuba as a young man--from being forced from office in his greatest challenge after nearly 13 years in office. That means ensuring he is always surrounded by security and loyal aides, with no one carrying cellphones or other electronic devices.

"They are taking very good care of Nicolás Maduro and his immediate successors," said Thomas A. Shannon Jr., a former high-ranking U.S. diplomat who engaged frequently with the Venezuelan regime. "The Cubans are not going to go quietly into the dark night."

Is this good or bad? I'll reserve judgement until Tucker Carlson explains to me how communists are really just Friends We Haven't Met Yet.

Epstein Files Reveal Bill Clinton Cavorting With Very Young Women on Pedo Island; Democrat Flacks and Leftwing Media -- But I Repeat Myself-- Claim Trump Is "Curating" the Photos to Make Slick Willy Look Bad

—Ace

Plus a rousing chorus of "But Trump!!!"

Donald Trump's Department of Justice on Friday released more than 300,000 pages of photos and evidence connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The vast trove includes images showing the disgraced financier and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell socializing with high-profile figures, including former president Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson.

One photograph appears to show Clinton in a swimming pool alongside Maxwell and several unidentified, partially clothed women.

Clinton broke his silence on Friday to turn the tables on Trump, releasing a statement that declared: 'The White House hasn't been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they'll try and hide forever.'

Uh-huh. Should he have released them this morning instead, Slick?

Isn't he on some kind of Congress-imposed deadline?

Britain's disgraced former royal, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, also appears in the material, along with his former wife, Sarah Ferguson. References to Trump are limited in the documents, and he has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the case.

Meanwhile, a recent NY Times hit piece failed to connect Trump to Epstein's crimes.

Byron York @ByronYork

4h

The New York Times makes another big effort to connect Trump to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. Fails again. "The Times interviewed more than 30 former Epstein employees, victims of his abuse and others who crossed paths with the two men over the years. The Times also obtained new documents that illuminate their relationship and scoured court documents and other public records...An examination of their history by The New York Times has found no evidence implicating Mr. Trump in Mr. Epstein's abuse and trafficking of minors."

AGAIN: Violent Deranged Homeless Man, Set Free By Leftwing Judges Over and Over Again, Randomly Slashes and Permanently Blinds a 75 Year Old Woman

—Ace

Below the fold, a cop says that this homeless criminal is "notorious" for randomly attacking people.

Yet he was allowed to roam the streets, menacing and attacking citizens.

Oh and they said "he usually just punches people" I guess that is okay...

Posted by: steevy

Tuck's News @tucksnews

HORROR: 75-Year-Old Seattle Woman Loses Her Eye After 'Serial Assaulter' Known to Cops Hits Her Face at Full Force with Wooden Board with Screw (VIDEO)

Meanwhile, in the Democrat hellhole of Seattle...

A 75-year-old woman lost her eye after she was brutally attacked by a serial assaulter who has a history of punching and stabbing people.

42-year-old Fale Vaigalepa Pea hit Jeanette Marken in the face with a wooden club with a screw through the end of the plank as she was standing on a street corner in downtown Seattle after picking up a food order earlier this month.

Surveillance footage shows Pea approached Marken and swung the wooden club with full force at her face.

Bystanders rushed to Marken after she hit the ground. She was rushed to a nearby hospital and treated for her facial injuries.

Family members told KOMO News that Marken lost eyesight in the damaged eye.

Kevin Kijewski @KevinKijewski

This shocking Seattle video exposes the failure of soft-on-crime policies under Democrat prosecutors like King County's Leesa Manion, a recipient of George Soros funding. Repeat offender Fale Vaigalepa Pea - arrested eight times in 2025 alone for assaults, drugs, indecent exposure, and more - brutally attacked a 75-year-old woman with a spiked board, leaving her permanently blind in one eye and requiring facial reconstruction.

George Soros has backed over 100 similar prosecutors nationwide to socially reengineer our communities, including potential Michigan Democrat Attorney General nominees Karen McDonald and Eli Savit. We also can't ignore the mental health crisis fueling this violence - too many cycle through arrests without treatment, endangering innocent people.

As Michigan's next Attorney General, we'll fully prosecute violent offenders, support law enforcement, and pursue real solutions to protect families and address the mental health crisis endangering our communities. It's time to make Michigan safe, normal, and red again in 2026.

Update: I had to go to the UK to get a media story about this.

An elderly woman was savagely attacked in broad daylight by a man wielding a wooden board with nails in it.

Jeanette Marken, 75, was left permanently blinded in her right eye after being hit in the face with the makeshift weapon in Seattle, allegedly at the hands of repeat offender Fale Vaigalepa Pea, 42.

Family members told KOMO that a screw sticking out of the board gouged out Marken's eye, and after several surgeries she was told she will not recover her eyesight in the eye.

Marken's son Andrius Dyrikis told the outlet that the random attack has left the family stunned, saying: 'To take a wood club with nails and hit her at full force in the face? I don't understand it.'

...

Police said Pea was 'notorious' for attacking random victims on Third Avenue in Seattle.

The bodycam footage showed a paramedic question the officer after he recognized Pea, asking: 'Who is this guy?'

'He's a regular. He usually punches,' the officer responds.

'I guess today he decided to escalate from his usual.'

According to KOMO, Pea's string of offenses dates back to 2011, when he stabbed two people at a party.

One of the victims in that attack was stabbed eight times, yet despite a jury finding Pea guilty of the savage attack, he received a sentence of just 18-months community custody.

Pea continued racking up criminal offenses over the years, including one in 2020, four in 2023, and one in 2024.

This year, the King County jail reported that Pea has been booked into custody a staggering eight times, for offenses including assault, indecent exposure, drug offenses, and property destruction.

However, KOMO reported Seattle Municipal Court and King County Superior Court records show none of his arrests this year resulted in charges - until the alleged attack on Marken.

Pea is now charged with assault in the first degree, and will remain in custody until he has a competency hearing later this month.

Prosecutors cited Pea's lengthy rap sheet in a charging document for the assault on Marken, saying that his 'egregious actions in this case, as well as his prior assaultive criminal history, demonstrate that he is a substantial danger to the community and is likely to commit a violent offense.'

Dyrikis said he felt let down by the justice system for allowing the repeat offender to roam freely on the streets despite his history.

'He's a usual? A usual what? Attacking people? Civilians? What the hell is wrong with your system?' he questioned.

'I want someone to at least say to my mom, 'Hey, we're working on this, we're fixing it... I want them to say, 'we notice, hey, we're working on it.''

Oh and he's also a transgender. Whether he's a "real" transgender (I use that term with reservations) or just another thug who has a Courtroom Gender Epiphany, I don't know.

Bari Weiss Halts "60 Minutes" Hit Piece on Trump Over Sending Criminal Illegals to El Salvador, Saying Further Reporting and Context is Required; The Left Freaks Out

—Ace

It's the same kind of entitlement that the hard-left progressives and communists infesting the federal bureaucracy have: It doesn't matter who the president is, it doesn't matter what his policies are, it doesn't matter if America voted for those policies -- they're the ones in charge. They own the place. Leftists are appointed by Nature to rule over all other men.

And the staffers, employees, and underlings at CBS "news" don't care that their leftwing agitprop business model has failed so badly that their corporations are being sold out from under them at a deep discount. Bari Weiss's position as Editor in Chief doesn't matter -- they are entitled to run the show.

CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss defended her decision to pull a controversial "60 Minutes" segment on an El Salvador prison, telling staff Monday the piece "wasn't ready" and needed more reporting -- pushing back on accusations that the last-minute move was politically motivated.

Weiss addressed the backlash during a network-wide editorial call, saying she held the segment because "we simply need to do more," according to a recording reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.

"I held a '60 Minutes' story and I held that story because it wasn't ready," Weiss told CBS News staffers on Monday. When reached by The Post, CBS News confirmed the accuracy of the Journal's reporting.

Weiss said the story "has already been reported on by places like the [New York] Times, the public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment in this prison. So to run a story on this subject, two months later, we simply need to do more."

She said the only newsroom she wants to run is one where editors can have "contentious disagreements" while assuming "the best intent" of colleagues -- an implicit criticism of "60 Minutes" correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi.

"The only newsroom that I'm interested in running is one where we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters and do so with respect and crucially where we assume the best intent of our colleagues," Weiss said on the editorial call on Monday.

Alfonsi blasted the decision in a Sunday email to top correspondents, writing that she learned just a day earlier that Weiss had "spiked our story" and arguing the move was political, not editorial.

That's a laugh. Every story 60 Minutes runs -- or chooses not to run -- is political. They did no stories on Biden's mental decline, for example, nor any negative stories on Obama, Biden, or Hillary Clinton.

But they choose to run hit-piece after hit-piece on Trump.

These are choices, and they're animated by political animus. But they insist that they have access to an Objective Holy Standard of Newsworthiness that you wouldn't understand -- and neither would professional journalist Bari Weiss.

Your facts are opinions, their opinions are facts.

Just like your speech is violence, and their violence is speech.

...

"Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices," Alfonsi wrote, according to the Times.

As someone at Hot Air pointed out, the RatherGate forgeries passed your attorneys, too.

All it takes to avoid a defamation suit when making allegations about a public figure is no provable malice.

Note that CBS "news" staffers take the position that a story doesn't have to be true and accurate to run. It merely has to not be provably defamatory.

By the way, 60 Minutes has already done this story. And they'll do it a dozen times more unless they're told they are supposed to be "journalists," not DNC staffers.

...

Weiss rejected Alfonsi's characterization during the morning call on Monday, saying the prison conditions had already been reported by the Times and others and that airing a similar story months later required additional reporting, including making "every effort" to get key principals on the record and on camera.

"To me, our viewers come first, not a listing schedule or anything else," Weiss said on Monday.

"That is my North Star and I hope it's the North Star of every person in this newsroom."

It's not. They're political actors with a political agenda.

THE MORNING RANT: As Warner Bros Discovery circles the drain, CEO David Zaslav extracts generational wealth for himself

—Buck Throckmorton

A subject that I frequently re-visit is corporations that are mismanaged into financial and operational crises while leadership lavishly rewards itself.

While I have kept an eye on the headlines regarding the takeover bids for Warner Bros Discovery, I hadn’t bothered to read much deeper, because the entertainment / media industry is a bit of a mystery to me, and because it is controlled by my political adversaries. But perhaps in part for those same reasons, I have become friends with the pseudonymous “George MF Washington,” who is a closeted conservative working with the movers and shakers in Hollywood. Mr. GMF Washington kindly suggested to me that I add David Zaslav’s personally rewarding destruction of Warner Bros Discovery (“WBD”) to my “bad business tally.” Mr. Washington wrote:

To add to your bad business tally… WB’s David Zaslav did such a bad job his distressed studio is about to functionally disappear… there will be hundreds if not thousands of layoffs, many from the very divisions that created the value Netflix now wants to own. And despite this abysmal record, Zaslav is going to walk away from this deal with the reward of generational wealth for his failure.

It doesn’t take much digging to see what a mess Zaslav has made, and how obscenely he has rewarded himself despite (or because of ?) the destruction he has wrought.

Some quick background - David Zaslav was a successful executive at NBC before taking the helm at Discovery Communications. Meanwhile, AT&T had bought Time Warner Media in 2018. By 2022, AT&T decided to unload that same entity, which it had renamed Warner Media.

Mr. Zaslav and Discovery took on about $40 billion in debt to buy Warner Media, plus it assumed Warner’s existing debt, leaving the post-acquisition company (named Warner Bros Discovery) choking on about $50 billion in debt. The cost of digesting the merger, along with a variety of operational reasons, caused WBD to start losing money, which was really inconvenient since it needed to service all that debt.

Over the following three years, Warner Bros Discovery lost over $21 billion.

These tremendous losses necessitated severe austerity measures, including several rounds of layoffs putting thousands of employees out of work. Those laid off employees weren’t actors. They were everyday people behind the scenes in sales, accounting, production, etc.

The actual owners of the company, its stockholders, also took a financial drumming thanks to Zaslav’s stewardship of the company. A decade ago, Discovery stock was trading at about $40 per share, and it hit $50 per share shortly before the Warner Brothers acquisition. But as WBD bled red ink and focused on cost cutting, its top line revenue started decreasing too. Losses combined with negative revenue growth are a toxic combination to investors, resulting in the stock price dropping about 80% to less than $10 per share.

Despite the rolling financial catastrophe at Warner Bros Discovery, Mr. Zaslav continued to be richly compensated. Over the past three full years, his total compensation exceeded $140 million. In 2024 alone, a year that WBD suffered an $11 billion loss on declining revenue, Mr. Zaslav was rewarded with total compensation of $52 million.

Despite WBD’s persistent losses and its doubtful ability to service its debt, it houses a valuable film library, and it still owns some desirable properties such as HBO and Warner Bros Studios. Netflix and Paramount are both making bids to purchase WBD at about $30 per share, which doesn’t recoup all the money investors have lost, but it is much better for stockholders than the bankruptcy that seems imminent if WBD remains independent.

Unfortunately for WBD’s employees, its acquisition will result in thousands more jobs being eliminated by the acquiring entity.

But where does that leave Mr. Zaslav and his executive team? Don’t worry, they’ll be fine.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, upon the sale of Warner Bros Discovery, Mr. Zaslav will receive $30 million in cash plus another $537 million in equity, for a total golden parachute of $567 million. Several of Zaslav’s top lieutenants will also receive golden parachutes worth in excess of $100 million. That is impressive compensation for destroying a company. Think of how much they’d be worth if they were running a profitable company with revenue growth.

I am a free market capitalist. I don’t write these types of articles because I’m seeking government action to regulate away the behavior of people such as Zaslav. Just the opposite. To keep the socialists at bay, there is an obligation for us free marketeers to police those who are accessing levers of power to extract wealth rather than create wealth. If corporate boards don’t start putting some controls on parasitic executive behavior, people will start voting for politicians who will.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

Saint Anthony the Abbot in the Wilderness
Osservanza Master

This is wild! If you had told me that this work was from the Magic Realism school and was painted in the 1930s, I would have bought it!

The Morning Report — 12/22/25

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. Let's start off with a couple of positive items that surprisingly come from a judiciary that over the years, and especially during and as a direct result of the dawning of the Donald Trump era has devolved into a direct threat to the very foundations of American government and the stability and security of our society.

The Milwaukee County judge on trial for helping a violent illegal immigrant elude federal law enforcement authorities has been convicted on one of the two charges against her. 

A jury late Thursday found Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of felony obstruction but determined there wasn’t enough evidence to convict her on a misdemeanor charge of concealing an individual from arrest. Her attorney told reporters that Dugan will appeal the conviction, a verdict that should serve as a wake-up call to judges who disregard laws they don’t like in the furtherance of judicial activism.

Well of course she'll appeal, since despite my seeing this as a positive sign, given the nature of who occupies far too many a judge's seat in far too many an American courtroom, she might have a shot at winning an appeal. And yet she lost in a Wisconsin court which as we all know, thanks to Madison and Milwaukee is not the conservative bastion that it seemingly ought to be, especially in the eyes of a NYC transplant like me. But be that as it may, here's hoping this criminal is disbarred, disrobed and never gets within 1000 miles of a judges bench except as a defendant, and ultimately serves a lengthy stretch in a federal lockup.

And, speaking of Wisconsin, this decision came down from that state's highest court, that, given its current far-leftist majority is a pleasant surprise:

Earlier this year, on June 5, 2025, the Supreme Court rendered a major victory for religious freedom in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission.  In a unanimous judgment authored by Justice Sotomayor, the Court reversed an earlier order in favor of Wisconsin.  The justices reasoned that Wisconsin violated Catholic Charities’ First Amendment rights in denying it a tax exemption because it thought the services provided were not primarily religious insofar as its employees “‘do not proselytize or serve only Catholics’ in the course of performing charitable work.”

On remand, Wisconsin officials ignored the Supreme Court, again denying Catholic Charities’ request for an exemption.  However, on December 15, 2025, in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission, on appeal, the state’s high court summarily ruled that Catholic Charities is entitled to the requested exemption from unemployment taxation.  As such, this column reviews Catholic Charities’ judicial history before reflecting on its impact on religious freedom. . .

. . . On December 15, 2025, in Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission, Wisconsin’s highest court summarily ruled that “[i]n light of the Supreme Court’s holding that this court ‘impose[d] a denominational preference’ that does not survive strict scrutiny…we determine that Catholic Charities [and its sub-entities are] eligible for the religious purposes exemption to [state] unemployment taxation. . .

. . . Catholic Charities is noteworthy because members of the Supreme Court, including separationists Justice Sotomayor, author of its unanimous opinion, with fellow separationist Justice Jackson penning a separate concurrence, put aside their ideological differences in rectifying Wisconsin’s having trammeled Catholic Charities’ First Amendment rights. . . In sum, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court finally applied precedent properly in protecting Catholic Charities’ religious freedom rights.  In so doing, Wisconsin’s judges acknowledged that because secular jurists lack the authority, and expertise, to interpret what qualifies as being at the heart of the Catholic Church’s or any other church’s mission, they must defer to the judgments of religious leaders who define their missions.

So smacking down a rogue justice who interfered with federal law enforcement and actually aided and abetted a cviolent criminal evade apprehension and a decision that upholds religious liberty, we are given a couple of things to keep hope alive.

And yet elsewhere in the world as lurker extraordinaire Prof. Victor Davis Hanson notes it is indeed open season on Jews. For sure the ongoing 1,500-year bloody war of genocide waged by Islam is a war on Jews. But there is also a rhetorical war being waged against The Jews which sadly has its roots in racial/religious bigotry that predates the founding of this nation and even way before Islam.

Just a few years ago, it used to be that anti-Semitism was mostly on the left and repugnantly identifiable and condemnable by most. . . The right used to be a unified corrective to left-wing anti-Semitism. It still polls nearly 70 percent in favor of Israel. For a while longer, it is far more likely to condemn anti-Semitic violence than the left. But recently, its own base, in varying degrees, has come full circle and joined the left in its distaste for Israel and Jews in general. . . One hallmark of the new right-wing furor against Jews and Israel is the strange symbiosis they employ. Formerly edgy podcasters become vicarious hosts of virulent anti-Semites. The partnerships are a way of not directly owning up to their toxicity but just “putting it out there.” . . .Candace Owens initially championed Kanye West (“I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up, I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE."). Then she graduated to expressing her own old anti-Semitic tropes: “There is just a very small ring of specific people who are using the fact that they are Jewish to shield themselves from any criticism. … All Americans should want answers because this appears to be something that is quite sinister.”

Tucker Carlson hosted critics of the U.S. effort against Hitler in World War II and Israel-behind-it conspiracists before escalating to inviting Nick Fuentes on in a mostly friendly manner—which might be attributed to his interview format, except he has attacked fellow conservatives far more than has odious Fuentes.

I have no idea how Carlson and Owens were brought up or arrived at their beliefs about "Jews" or "The Jews?" I assume that both have either inherited/absorbed the beliefs of their parents and families which have been passed on for generations. It's not the world's oldest hatred for no reason. Or, even worse, maybe they engage in this merely for personal gain.

It's a very short walk from Charlie Kirk and 9/11, to the Deicide trope and even believing that Jews use the blood of Christian children to make Passover matzohs.

And that's that, my friends.

Have a great day!

And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
• Victor Davis Hanson: As leaders equivocate and extremists unite left and right, open season on Jews spreads across the West—unchecked, unnamed, and certain to grow deadlier.
  Slouching Toward Open Season on Jews

Daily Tech News 22 December 2025

—Pixy Misa

• How Pepsi saved the Roomba, and how Lina Khan murdered it. (Tech Crunch)
  
  I hadn't heard the Pepsi story before:

  The press drove this huge initial demand - 70,000 robots. So next year we're going to do four times that. We made 300,000 robots. We even made a television commercial, but we were a bunch of geek engineers, so it totally failed. After Cyber Monday we were sitting with 250,000 robots in our warehouse like, "Oh my God, the world's going to end."
  
  Then something good happened. The guy running our website said, "Why did sales quadruple yesterday?" We hadn't done anything. What had happened was Pepsi had started running a TV ad with Dave Chappelle. He walks into this beautiful home, picks up a potato chip, and a Roomba comes out. He's like, "A vacuum cleaner!" He throws down the potato chip, the vacuum eats it, then chases him. His pants are ripped off. He stands up in boxers. A beautiful woman appears, and he says, "Your vacuum cleaner ate my pants." We sold 250,000 robots in two weeks and realized we knew nothing about marketing.

  And now for Lina Khan's FTC, the AntiPepsi:

  The amount of money and time spent was indescribable. I would not be surprised if over 100,000 documents were created and delivered. iRobot invested a significant part of our discretionary earnings against fulfilling the requirements that went along with doing the transaction. Amazon was forced to invest many, many, many times that. There was a whole team, both internal and external employees and lawyers and economists working to try to, in as many different ways as possible - because it seemed like our message was falling on deaf ears - demonstrate that this acquisition was not going to create a monopolistic situation.

  It was never going to create a monopoly. The FTC didn't care. It wanted scalps.

  There was daily activity for 18 months associated with this. Perhaps most telling, when I was testifying as part of being deposed, I had a chance to walk the halls of the FTC. The examiners on their office doors had printouts of deals blocked, like trophies.

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - December 21, 2025 [Doof]

—Open Blogger

The Winter Solstice is upon us

Howdy Hordelings! Today is the day with the shortest amount of daylight. Tomorrow starts a cycle of increasing daylight each day. It'll be June 21 before you know it!

Today also begins Christmas week. How are your plans coming along? Working this week, or burning leave? What else is on your mind? Step on in, pretend to check out the content, then share your words of wisom in the gray boxes.

***

The 21st Day of the 12th Month

Warmest wishes to my friends who celebrate!

Click for greatness

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Wanna be like Bill Gates?
Step 1 - buy a 119-meter hydrogen hybrid megayacht for $650 million or thereabouts
Step 2 - spend $435K on one tank of fuel

Canadian hockey player Patrick Dovigi spent $435,000 on one tank of fuel to move Bill Gates’ former superyacht

Canadian billionaire and former National Hockey League (NHL) goaltender, Patrick Dovigi, has officially put Bill Gates’ once-hyped superyacht through its paces.

The 119-meter hydrogen hybrid megayacht, named Breakthrough, recently sailed from Europe to Miami after a massive refuelling stop in Gibraltar.

It was the longest trip that the Canadian hockey player had taken on the yacht, and the fuel he needed to take the trip came with an eye-watering price tag.

That single fuel bill reportedly came in at a staggering $435,000.

Video segment at the link. Go ahead and check it out - you'll totally feel like Bill Gates and the guy who bought his big ass boat are everyday folks like you and me.

***

You go four hour! Why you go four hour?

Engineer Sues Former Employer After Being Fired for Taking Extremely Long Bathroom Breaks

The man, surnamed Li, had been working as an engineer for a company in Jiangsu Province for over a decade when he was let go because of his frequent and long bathroom visits during work hours. The case was recently reported by the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions after the engineer took his former employer to court over his termination.

In its defense, the unnamed company submitted surveillance footage showing Li taking14 extremely long bathroom breaks, the longest of which lasted four hours, in a 30-day period between April and May 2024. Its lawyers also presented evidence that management had contacted Li via chat app when noticing his disappearance, but received no replies, mentioning that his position required him to always be available during work hours.

Check out the story at the link to see how everything came out.

-----

In case you are unfamiliar with the "four hour" bit I was paraphrasing above

John Pinette - Some foods shouldn’t be all you can eat (1995) pic.twitter.com/GckJWuFNZg

— History Defined (@historydefined) December 6, 2025

John Pinette was a very funny guy. Check out some more of his stuff when you have time.

***

Retro Corner

Recently on a morning thread, my buddy Sponge made reference to this commercial

It inspired me to dive into some more classic commercials from a bygone era.

One that jumped to mind was this one that I recall was shown during A Charlie Brown Christmas when I was a kid.

Do you remember the Whistle Pop?

Peter Paul candy also reminded us that sometimes you feel like a nut

Peter Paul was acquired by Hershey in 1988. If you're interested, here is a detailed history of the company

-----

On the subject of vintage TV and videos, particularly at Christmastime.

Oh my gosh !! I remember most of these toys! I loved my Chrissy doll the most of all of them! Do you have a favorite? 🤩 pic.twitter.com/SBYOcaqPhR

— Kathleen Winchell ❤️🤍💙🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@KathleenWinche3) December 16, 2025

Christmas shopping at the mall in the 1980s

The world you grew up in no longer exists pic.twitter.com/IYfOBJT5cf

— Cigarette Nostalgia (@CigsMake) December 16, 2025

-----

Plenty more videos like this out there, but here is a 42 minute video of 1980s vintage commercials

What other vintage commercials do you still vividly remember?

***

'Ette Couture (Courtesy of Piper)

It's that time of the week - when we turn the ONT over to our good friend Piper for a bit. Here's this week's fashion pr0n.

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When Fashion Meets My Over-the-Top Christmas Tree

Usually we’re swooning over the latest runway triumphs, the perfect pumps or a statement coat on Melania that left us all breathless. But this week, with the holidays twinkling brighter than a diamond tiara, my fashion obsession has spilled over into something unexpected: Christmas trees. Christmas trees, you ask? Why yes, because down here in the South, we simply don’t do subtle when it comes to our evergreens. We go big, lush, gloriously layered, and unapologetically extra. Plus, couture can make anything better, even a pine tree. So when I spotted what Burberry, Ladurée, and the like have done to hotel lobby trees this season, I knew these sensory masterpieces demanded a spotlight. Let’s step into the magic…

Burberry at Claridge's

One of the most talked-about collaborations this year is Burberry's partnership with London's Claridge's hotel. Chief Creative Officer Daniel Lee designed a 16-foot traditional tree in the lobby, adorned with around 600 hand tied bows crafted from surplus Burberry fabrics, a nod to Victorian symbols of unity. Hanging bells and chess-piece ornaments inspired by Burberry's Equestrian Knight Design add a playful, heritage twist, tying into the label's signature checks and motifs. The overall vibe? Effortless British elegance meets cozy maximalism.

Ladurée at The St. Regis

For a dose of decadent Parisian indulgence, French patisserie Ladurée teamed up with The St. Regis hotels in New York and Washington, D.C. The 12-foot trees shimmer with sumptuous velvet bows, oversized macarons, dried florals, and colorful baubles, topped by a grand peacock-blue bow. It’s a feast for the senses, aligning with fashion's ongoing love for food-inspired motifs (think Moschino's playful collections). This collab’s vibe is glittery, gold-toned whimsy.

David Laport at Riggs

Dutch couture darling David Laport dazzles at Riggs Washington D.C. with "Golden Origins"—an 18-foot celestial masterpiece of hand-sculpted gold pleats nodding to the hotel's banking heritage. It’s vibe is bold, architectural, and sensorially explosive.

Urs Fischer at The Connaught

Spheres filled with AI-generated human faces glow via LED lights on this outdoor marvel. Symbolizing global togetherness, a take that blends tech with fashion's boundary-pushing narratives (think Balenciaga's digital innovations). This vibe is ethereal avant-garde.

John Derian x The Green Vase at The Dewberry

In Charleston at my beloved Dewberry, John Derian joins forces with Livia Cetti of The Green Vase for a celebration of pure American style and artistry. The central tree stands tall in a miniature mossy forest of smaller evergreens and faux bois, while paper garlands bloom with delicate dewberry flowers, paperwhites, and amaryllis, handcrafted petals so lifelike you can almost feel their velvety softness and catch a faint, fresh floral whisper. The vibe is layered, collected elegance with a whimsical decoupage charm. Utterly divine.

My own tree? It’s a full-on spectacle: floor-to-ceiling Fraser fir dripping in layers of ribbon, chinoiserie ornaments, velvet bows, polished metals and just enough sparkle for an aesthetic of nostalgic elegance. Tell me about your tree and if you went with a fancy vibe, traditional aesthetic, or something completely different!

------

Thanks, Piper!

***

DJ Doof - Guess The Theme

Thursday's theme was a bit challenging. Tonight's is super easy. Difficulty level 1 out of 5

You're not on that list, are you??

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Tonight's ONT brought to you by conspiracy theories from a long time ago in a galaxy far far away

***

Tonight's ONT was produced in advance by Doof Enterprises, LLC. Year-end donations are still being accepted. While not legally tax deductible, you could certainly give it a try!

Your feedback may or may not be very important to Doof Enterprises. Follow Mr. Doof on X @doof2112 or do the email thing – doof2112 at proton dot me. All I want for Christmas are some Rush deep cuts!

Close it up

Gun Thread: Pre-Christmas Edition!

—Weasel

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the Pre-Christmas edition?! That must mean Christmas is drawing near. Four days, in fact. Is all of your shopping done? If I don't have a chance to say it later, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?