Ghosts of Christmas Past Open Thread

—Ace

Lost traditions of the Christmas buying and decorating season -- Christmas savers' clubs, Christmas stamps, layaway plans, bubble lights, Humbold statues,

Christmas Market Open Thread

—Ace

Thanks to Michael the Texan for that (@Michael_Texan).

It's a shame these will all be closed within five years.

Hep Jazzy Christmas Yule Log Open Thread

—Ace

Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra sing Christmas songs.

The Morning Rant

—CBD

What a wonderful time of year!

Christmas is both a religious and a secular holiday, and for that I am thankful. Little burgs and big cities decorate their streets, people put up lovely or garish (but still fun) displays, the tone of the country is mostly more gentle than at any other time of the year, and America seems happier!

And of course there is the music! I am happily Jewish, but you Christians got the lion's share of great composers and magnificent religious music.

Below the fold is one of the glories of Christmas music, performed by one of the greats.

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

The Morning Report — 12/25/25

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. Merry Christmas! Going to try and keep it light this morning. Among the usual madness and mayhem there are some positive headlines, including the election of yet another conservative/right or at least non-Communist/Socialist, this time in Honduras. So along with Milei in Argentina, Bukele in Nicaragua, Kast in Chile we now have Asfura in Honduras.

Perhaps 2026 will be the year that the long suffering Venezuelan people will be liberated from the kleptocratic, narco-terrorist Commie/Socialist Chavista/Maduro junta and taste freedom, hopefully forever. Trump's reinvigoration of the long moribund Monroe doctrine is reshaping foreign policy in this hemisphere for sure and no doubt making our enemies and rivals further afield sit up and take notice as well.

As for our enemies right here at home, President Trump had a very special Christmas message:

President Donald Trump sent Christmas wishes to all Americans on Christmas Eve, singling out the “Radical Left Scum” as recipients.

Far be it for me to criticize the President for his language insofar as anyone who has read this column or listened to the podcast know (latest episode linked here and in the sidebar as well as at the usual outlets listed at the end of this post)... that I certainly don't mince words about my feelings for those on the Left end of the spectrum. And considering this is Christmas, though I'm not Christian, I will go so far as to reiterate my wishes for Democrat/Leftists: May the Good Lord in Heaven open their hearts and minds so that they may at long last recognize the evil that has infected them, so they can repent, seek forgiveness and preserve their souls from eternal damnation. Amen.

But that said, I give you this radioactive madness to underscore my utter detestation of them:

“How the far right stole Christmas,” authored by Rome correspondent Hannah Roberts. 
Politico Frames European Christmas Celebrations as ‘Far-Right Spectacle’

Translation: We have orgasms when Muslims slaughter Christians anytime anywhere and especially at Christmas markets! These are the same bastards who claim Jesus Christ to have been a some sort of negroid Palestinian mulatto and that every wetback who crosses the Rio Grande is akin to Mary and Joseph fleeing persecution, etc. ad nauseam. And that putting up nativity scenes in schools is a crime against humanity while transsexualism and other perversions in he schools are healthy and wholesome.

Meh, I could go on for days but as I said, it's Christmas and better to keep it light. Oh well, I failed. Apologies for micturating in your Christmas morning corn flakes. Mr. President, you are so right, the Left are SCUM.

Other than that, quite a good essay from John Stossel that somehow needs to be drummed into the hollow heads of our youth who are all hot and horny for socialism.

If you're hitting the road, safe travels, especially in the norhteast. Again, Merry Christmas and God bless you all.

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
• The areas likely to see most snow are southeastern New York and northeastern Pennsylvania. Snow, Ice, And Flooding Threaten Christmas Travel Across U.S.

• John Stossel: People criticize capitalism. As a recent Axios-Generation poll found, “College students prefer socialism to capitalism.” Why? Because they believe absurd myths: Like the claim that the Soviet Union “wasn’t real socialism.” Socialism guru Noam Chomsky tells students that.
  Bless our billionaires — the wealth they create makes us ALL richer

Christmas Day Tech News 2025

—Pixy Misa

• Merry Christmas everyone!
  
  
  
• Samsung and SK Hynix wish you a Merry Christmas too and announce they have cancelled plans to stop making DDR4 memory. (Notebook Check)
  
  DDR4 is mostly produced on older equipment than DDR5 and was not profitable - particularly with CXMT dumping DDR4 at below cost - so the plan was to refit the factories and switch them to DDR5.
  
  But that's time-consuming and expensive and suddenly DDR4 is profitable again - very much so - so both companies plan to keep producing it at least through 2026.
  
  That won't end the drought, but it helps.
  
  
  
• In other rare positive news, Microsoft says it has no plans to rewrite its codebase in Rust, not Windows or anything else. (Windows Latest)
  
  The article that kicked off this typhoon in a tea cosy was actually talking about a research project investigating the use of AI in such tasks, not any intent to do so for anything in any fixed time frame. But it made none of that clear.

Christmas Eve Open Thread - December 24, 2025 [Nativity Adjacent Rex]

—Open Blogger

Good evening Horde. Fa la la la la.

***

Luke 2:1-20 (King James Version)

2 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David)

5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

***

***

***

Luminaria is a Christmas Eve tradition in some places. Any among the Horde put out liminaria?

***

Reminder: The Ace of Spades Blog is like Waffle House. It never closes - especially for holidays. Stop in any time and connect with whomever is posting content and hanging around the gray boxes.

If you're solo this holiday season, please check in. If you know someone that is solo, please check on them.

On behalf of the Ace Media Empire, the staff and management and contributors, Der Weihnachtsmann, The Grateful and myself, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Close it up

Christmas Eve Cafe

—Ace

Spain calls their Nativity-scene buildters Belenistas,
though this one is by an American in Santa Clara

At the conference, Benito learned that in Europe, whole cities have Nativity scene clubs that spend an entire year constructing life-sized dioramas, "For example, Madrid, Sevilla, and Barcelona: their clubs start building detailed buildings, with little exterior little lights, little pots and pans, trees and some of the dioramas have real water running as a little creek or fountain."

One of the few Americans to participate in the international conference, he laughed when he recalled how the European artisans reacted when they discovered his nationality, “A gentleman said to us, "Americans, pay close attention to this diorama because St. Joseph looks like the Hollywood actor, Charlton Heston, Mary is the likeness Ava Gardner, and the Egyptian figurine looks like Yul Brynner." But apart from this playful reference to the Hollywood film The Ten Commandments, Benito was one of equals amongst a handful of 550 international nativity makers in attendance. All were treated to the various creative ways that the nativity clubs and Spanish and Italian artists craft their dioramas to be truly sensory experiences.

Merry Christmas, friends! And garrett, too!

And of course a special thanks to the cobloggers! Give them a hand.

Tomorrow and Friday will be open threads from me, but I've got some good ones in the mix.

Cucking a chicken.

If you need a last-minute gift recommendation for your cat...

This dog wants you to know there's no shame in wearing a garish Christmas sweater.

Never challenge a cat in a pouncing contest.

On the internet, no one can tell if you're a cat.

Scuba Santa delivers toys to all the good underwater boys and girls.

Sweet drinks cabinet.

The Christmas Week In Woke

—Ace

The Bee:

Fairfax County, Virginia spends hundreds of millions of dollars to fight for its trans-in-every-bathroom-and-changing room policy.

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, the Fairfax chapter leader for Independent Women, found that Fairfax County spent $44 million on legal fees between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2025.

She revealed to the Washington Examiner that the school district paid the law firm King & Spalding $980,515.14 between August and September alone. In a FOIA request, she found Fairfax County had a contract paying $1,850 an hour for services rendered in August and November.

"Ironically, November is the same month that the district filed Rule 68 in Jane Doe's case to 'save money,'" Lundquist-Arora said.

Fairfax County Public School's newest innovation: Claiming that not only do trans boys have the right to use the girls rooms, but non-trans boys who are just gay have that right too, Bigot.

FCPS will pay Jane Doe, represented by America First Legal, nominal damages of $50 and her attorney fees. The case centered on a complaint from Jane Doe that a biological boy was allowed to use the female locker room in West Springfield High School, even though he identified as gay, not as transgender. When Jane Doe complained, she was told to use a single-use restroom.

When other female students began to complain on social media, court documents showed the boy wrote an Instagram post, saying, "My counselor and principal both said I'm allowed to go in there, I don't even look at any of you, I go in a stall. You go to a public school, not everything is catered to you."

In her latest piece for iWFeatures, Lundquist-Arora wrote, "Cultish trans fervor aside, it doesn't take a legal eagle to know that boys presenting as boys and not even claiming to be transgender are not legally permitted in girls' bathrooms and locker rooms. The male student Jane Doe encountered in the locker room identified as gay, not transgender, according to the lawsuit."

Zorhan Mamdani appointed the new chief of the NY Fire Department.

Can you guess which boxes she fills?

Probably as many as she can.

If you guessed the new fire chief would be yet another fat lesbian linebacker like the incompetents that couldn't control the Palisades fires," congratulations -- homophobes.

Yes, that Uncle Buck looking motherfucker is a woman named Lilian.

Ron DeSantis corrects a propagandist who asks about "undocumented immigrants."

Guys did you know Jesus was an illegal alien? Apparently his parents traveled from one town to another in the same country and this made the family illegal aliens. Like whenever you leave your home town, you're an illegal alien too.

This is the real Reason for the Season.

The Patriot Oasis @ThePatriotOasis

BREAKING: FedEx wins multibillion-dollar federal delivery contract, uses funds to HIRE foreign workers through the H-1B visa program.

CEO Rajesh "Raj" Subramaniam, who was born in India, is facing backlash for firing Americans to hire foreigners.

Publicly available immigration data shows a SUBSTANTIAL increase in FedEx’s hiring of foreign workers through the H-1B visa program.

Some of the listed salaries for these positions being filled by non-Americans range from about $100,000 to $115,000.

Democrat candidate for mayor and alcoholic Karen gives cop grief as the cop attempts to get her to take a field sobriety test. Unfortunately, she was not afforded the opportunity to Ride the Lightning. She did not receive a dose of Zeus Juice.

The real lesson of Bondi Beach...? The Australian government hasn't done enough to combat "Islamophobia."

I agree with the first two thirds of "combat Islamophobia, to be honest. That's the compromise I'm offering.

Lefties react to Judge Dugan's conviction: The Nazis purged and arrested judges, too, you know. No, that's not a joke. That's what this guy, a "political theorist," said.

Charlottesville, VA Disables Citywide Crime Cameras to Help Illegal Alien Criminals Evade the Law

—Ace

David Frum, quoting CBS19:

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- The City of Charlottesville will not move forward with the Flock Safety license plate reader system following the conclusion of a yearlong pilot program, despite reported success in helping police solve crimes.

City Council decided during its meeting on Monday, citing concerns largely outside the city's control.

"I just think that the concerns are much bigger than us," Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis said.

Over the 12-month pilot period, the Charlottesville Police Department gathered feedback from community members on the use of the Flock camera system.

"Most of the feedback we got was very positive from folks in the community. That being said, there were some concerns," Kochis said.

Among the primary concerns were how data collected by Flock could potentially be accessed or used beyond the city's control, including fears it could be obtained by federal agencies for unintended purposes, such as tracking undocumented immigrants.

"The big concerns continue to come up from mostly policymakers that, you know, are they the federal government or the administration in D.C. could get access to it," Kochis said.

Despite those concerns, Kochis said the system proved effective during the pilot program.

"It's helped us solve our homicide in the city. It has helped us recover a missing child. It has helped us recover missing people. It does help us recover stolen cars in time frames that actually have meaning," he said.

But fuck American citizens, the only ones who matter are foreign criminals.

The Games We Used to Play Open Thread

—Ace

So I did this post as an open thread for Christmas, but then didn't like the reduction of the holiday to its commercialized aspect.

But I think it's okay if I post it on Christmas Eve, maybe?

"For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself." -- A Christmas Carol

Does that cover me?

Board games of the 70s, including the one where you have to escape from the sinking Titanic. I have it cued up to that one but feel free to check out the others.

Stay Alive -- the survival game. I never understood the appeal of this one.

Mousetrap. I tried to make the trap work -- I didn't bother playing, just assembling the trap -- and I was disappointed. I don't remember making the Rube Goldberg contraption actually work.

The classic -- ? -- Connect Four commercial.

Bermuda Triangle game commercial. A how-to-play for Bermuda Triangle.

Merlin commercial one. Merlin commercial Two. This song continues as an earworm in my head.

Simon in the 70s, with Vincent Price as the pitchman. Simon in the 80s and the 90s. You can tell it's the 90s because now Simon is RADICAL!

Stop Thief!, after the end of a Norelco commercial.

And of course: Mattel's handheld electronic games, including football.

Over 100 Minnesota Mayors Declare That Tim Walz Has Bankrupted the State With Unchecked Fraud and Rampant Spending;
Tim Walz Blames "White Supremacy"

—Ace

The article says 98 mayors signed up to this letter, but now more than 100 have signed it.

Fox News @FoxNews

CITIES REVOLT: A group of 98 Minnesota mayors warned Gov. Tim Walz and state lawmakers that fiscal mismanagement, fraud and unchecked spending are straining city budgets and forcing higher property taxes.

In a letter, the mayors cited the loss of an $18 billion surplus, a projected multibillion-dollar deficit and unfunded state mandates they say are cutting services and pushing costs onto residents and businesses.

Apparently an organization exposed a sudden surge in the school lunch program, suspecting phantom students and, yes, fraud. So then their offices were firebombed.

Coincidence? We'll see but I doubt it.

By 6-3 Vote, Supreme Court Lets Stand Ruling That Trump Cannot Send the National Guard to Illinois to Protect Federal Agents and Offices

—Ace

See, the South wasn't allowed to stage a violent insurrection against the federal government, but the leftwing states of the North are.

Per the Supreme Court, violent anarchists can continue attacking federal agents and ICE offices with the sanction of the state and city governments, and Trump isn't allowed to use the National Guard to protect them.

Note the Guard wouldn't be used to make arrests or anything. He just wanted them to protect federal personnel and assets under attack by leftist street militias operating with the implicit sanction of Pritzker and Brandon Johnson.

And the Supreme Court said: No, you cannot protect federal employees from paramilitary assaults.

We'll keep that in mind next time Trantifa tries to kill judges.

Note that Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett sided with the far left wing. As usual.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked President Trump from federalizing and deploying Illinois National Guard troops to Chicago, dealing a setback to the administration's effort to bolster security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers operating amid violent unrest in the sanctuary city. In a 6--3 decision, the Court declined to lift a lower-court order that had stopped Trump from sending roughly 300 Guardsmen to assist ICE as agents faced repeated attacks near an enforcement facility outside the city. The dispute traces back to October, when Trump moved to federalize the Guard after rioters descended on an ICE site in Broadview, Illinois, chanting "Kill ICE!" and "Shoot ICE!" and confronting officers. A Biden-appointed federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit refused to pause--prompting the administration to seek emergency relief from the high court.

In its unsigned order, the Court said the government failed, at this early stage, to identify clear statutory authority allowing the military to "execute the laws" in Illinois.

The Supreme Court claimed that using the Guard to protect the physical safety of ICE officers executing the law was not part of "executing the law" in itself. This is an absurdly strained and lawless twisting of words to get the outcome that Roberts and Coney-Barrett wanted.

Again, we'll see what happens when these people threaten to kill them. I say, well, yo know what, we're not allowed to send in the National Guard to execute the law so I guess you'll just have to stock up on ammunition.

The majority emphasized that the administration had not invoked an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act and instead relied on claims of inherent constitutional authority to protect federal personnel and property--an argument the Court found insufficient on the present record. The application for a stay was denied, leaving the lower-court block in place. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the order, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed a concurring opinion. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

Alito's dissent cut sharply against the majority, warning that the Court was standing in the way of basic protection for federal officers under threat. "Whatever one may think about the current administration's enforcement of the immigration laws or the way ICE has conducted its operations, the protection of federal officers from potentially lethal attacks should not be thwarted," he wrote.

Kavanaugh concurred with the ruling. He allows that Trump may send in the military itself -- not the state National Guard, but the actual Army and Marines -- if he invokes the Insurrection Act.

But don't think that this fixes the problem. He's just one vote. Even if Trump does this and Kavanaugh blesses it, it would still be 5-4 against protecting federal agents from attacks by Antifa, with Roberts and Coney Barrett joining their leftwing allies again.

Clandestine
@WarClandestine
Holy shit I think it’s actually happening.

I am reading through the Supreme Court ruling in Trump vs. Illinois, and they ruled that Trump needs to invoke the Insurrection Act in order to send the troops into Chicago.

Kavanaugh in his dissent even says that this ruling "could cause the President to use the US military more than the National Guard".

The Supreme Court just admitted that Trump has the authority to invoke the Insurrection Act to bypass Posse Comitatus and send the troops to Chicago, and any other city he wants.

Trump tried to exhaust every legal avenue possible before resulting to the Insurrection Act, but the Dems resisted and refused to cooperate.

Sounds to me like Trump just got the green light. INVOKE THE INSURRECTION ACT!

Trump Begins Sanctioning EU Officials For Attempting to Impose Communist/Sharia-Compliant Censorship on Americans

—Ace

The EU believes it can sanction everyone in the world -- but may not be sanctioned themselves.

Their beliefs are gay and retarded.

Lenka White @white_lenka

17h

🇺🇸 🇪🇺 US sanctions Europe for censoring Americans.

EU's @ThierryBreton, behind the Digital Services Act, is sanctioned for threatening @elonmusk before his interview with President Trump.

"Before the interview, Breton ominously reminded Musk of @X
's legal obligations and ongoing "formal proceedings" for alleged noncompliance with "illegal content" and "disinformation" requirements under the DSA," Under Secretary of State Sarah Rogers wrote.

Others on the sanctions list:

-Imran Ahmed, Center for Countering Digital Hate

-Clare Melford, Global Disinformation Index

-Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, HateAid

-Josephine Ballon, HateAid

Announcing the sanctions, Marco Rubio said:

Are we gonna live in a world where some American puts up a social media posts and then gets to some airport somewhere and is arrested? Um, we're also concerned about the impact that some of their policies are having on our social media platforms. As you recently saw, you know, X. Is facing this massive multimillion dollar fine that they're gonna have to pay, I guess, if they want to continue to operate. But I think more importantly, I think it, it, it, it touches on the broader question that was asked a little bit earlier. We all talk about how these alliances, in many cases, our alliances with our European partners are built on our, on our common principles are common values as much as anything else. These aren't just a geopolitical arrangement. It is an alliance with like-minded countries with whom we share values and principles. And one of those values and principles, we hope is freedom and the freedom of expression, and we're concerned that that is eroding.

I think we fought a war to vindicate the proposition that we should be free to make our own laws, instead of having laws imposed upon us without our consent by foreign tyrants. Yes, that rings a bell.

Chuck Ross wrote about this Censorship Mafia in November.

Of course, it's all a George Soros-funded operation against the American citizenry.

The left-wing philanthropy funded by George Soros, Open Society Foundations (OSF), bankrolls a British nonprofit that works to censor conservative news websites and social media companies, including through a plot to "kill" Elon Musk's X by pressuring advertisers and investors to boycott the company.

OSF gave $250,000 last year to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) for "general support," according to the Soros charity's grant database. The CCDH, under the guise of stopping "the spread of online hate and disinformation," has pressured social media companies' investors and advertisers to censor supposed "disinformation" or other content it deems to be offensive.

The organization, founded by former Labour Party operative Imran Ahmed in 2018, has also pressured tech companies to pull advertisements from the conservative websites the Federalist and the Daily Wire over allegedly racist content.

The grant, which has not been reported, could resurrect a longstanding battle that Musk has waged with both the CCDH and Soros. Musk has accused Soros of "crimes against humanity" and funding groups involved in violent protests across the country this year. And he has called the CCDH a "criminal organization" and said he was "going after" the group's donors over its efforts to harm X's finances.

Last year, the CCDH quietly organized a campaign to "kill Musk's Twitter" by pressuring advertisers to cut ties with the company, according to memos published by Racket News. The CCDH, which the watchdog group Capital Research Center calls a "UK-based censorship advocacy group," met with 16 congressional offices to discuss Musk's lawsuit against the organization, and held "policy engagement" meetings with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.). The nonprofit also lobbied American policymakers toward the creation of an "independent digital regulator," according to Racket News.

Trump Reaches the 50% Approval Mark in One Poll

—Ace

It is very rare for modern presidents to ever have majority support. Even Obama, who the media told me was a transformational figure that everyone loved (Except Racists (TM)) spent his entire presidency at 43-45% approval.

Insider Advantage says that Trump's at 50%.

President Trump is sitting at an even 50 percent approval rating nationally, placing him nine points above water nearly a year into his second term, according to a new survey from InsiderAdvantage. The poll, conducted Saturday among 800 likely voters, found 50 percent approve of Trump's job performance, while 41 percent disapprove and 9 percent remain undecided -- a solid net-positive showing at a stage when many modern presidents have already slipped underwater.

The numbers show familiar but politically important divides. Trump continues to post strong margins with men, nearly six in ten of whom approve of his performance, compared to just over a third who disapprove. Women remain more skeptical, with approval and disapproval nearly evenly split but tilted slightly negative. Age breakdowns, however, may raise alarms for Democrats heading toward the 2026 midterms. Trump runs even among voters under 40 and posts clear net-positive approval among voters 40 and older, including a +5 margin with seniors -- a bloc that often turns out heavily in midterm elections.

Among voters aged 18 to 39, Trump's approval and disapproval are deadlocked, while voters between 40 and 64 give him a comfortable edge.

Gen X represent.

...

The InsiderAdvantage results are more favorable to Trump than the broader national picture reflected in RealClearPolling, which currently shows the president below water overall. Still, a net-positive approval rating at this point in a presidency is a rare commodity in modern politics[.]

A YouGov poll has Trump at a mere 39% with "adults" and 42% with actually registered voters. Gotta figure "adults" includes a lot of illegals.

Does this matter? Eh, probably not. I continue to think Trump wins or loses based on how the economy looks by July 2026. If it's not more in the Ace range than the garret range, Trump loses Congress and spends his last two years dodging subpoenas. If it looks good, he keeps Congress and locks in Trumpism as the dominant alternative to AOC/Mamdani communism.

I know you guys don't like poll posts but can I reply that days before a holiday are very slow news days and I have had a case of Senioritis since before Thanksgiving?

Also: I had another post ready to go, but it's a Bad News post, and I didn't want to use a Bad News post to say:

Merry Christmas! Okay It's not Christmas yet. Merry Christmas Eve!

What are your plans? I'm mostly going to be nestling.

"I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to every-body! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!"

Whoop and Hallo to thee!

(Looking it up: Laocoön was a Trojan seer punished by the gods. He was attacked by great serpents. I don't know what Dickens means but my guess is that, by hiking up his stockings high, he resembles Laocoön being devoured, one leg at a time, by serpents. The stockings being likened to snakes. If it's not that, I'm stumped.)

Wednesday Morning Rant Christmas Greeting

—Joe Mannix

Merry Christmas, Horde! As they all do, this year has had its ups and downs but this is not the time to dwell on them. As I work on my preparations for tonight's meal and tomorrow's gatherings, I hope all of you are able to celebrate the holiday joyously!

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas! Please enjoy a Christmas open thread and some Christmas music as you hopefully juggle your preparations, spend time with family, enjoy a feast and praise G-d as we wind down the year. The HQ is a unique place and I am, as always, grateful to be a part of it. For those of you dropping in today, once again, Merry Christmas. For anyone checking in later, I hope you had a wonderful and joyous holiday!

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

The Morning Report — 12/24/25

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. It's Christmas EVE and here's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas. I'll try to keep it as brief as I can today. First we have reports of some kind of gas explosion at a nursing home just outside of Philadelphia in Bucks County. There are two confirmed fatalities as well as numerous injuries from the explosion and subsequent partial collapse of the structure that has left many elderly residents trapped. And with another major cold front set to sock in the northeast, the timing is perfect. Prayers for all those affected, and for those involved in rescue, recovery and emergency services.

On to a couple of major stories — first up is the Supreme Court yet again riding roughshod over the will of the American people and declaring "screw your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

The Supreme Court refused to issue a stay requested by President Donald Trump after lower courts blocked him from sending the National Guard to Illinois.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued the restraining orders.

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not join the majority’s explanation. .. Alito, with Thomas, in his dissent, slammed the Court for “unnecessarily” and “unwisely” departing from standard practice.

It is high time that President Trump drove a stake through the heart of the undead vampire that is Marbury v. Madison. Deploy the damned Guard and do what the Left have always done and instead of seeking redress in the courts, let the Democrat insurrectionist treasonous traitors waste their time with that and for once just do what needs to be done and declare "Catch Me If You Can" while axing the question "How many divisions do you have?!" And that would put the issue of that video of Mark Kelly, Abigail Spamburger et al sowing mutiny in the ranks front and center in a very glaring spotlight.

Do the safety and security of America's citizenry take precedence over respecting a completely corrupt justice system that in its behavior represents as much of an existential threat to America's citizenry as that of gang bangers, illegal aliens and drug dealers, if not more of a threat in that the lack of faith and trust in the rule of law results in total societal collapse and subsequent chaos followed shortly thereafter by tyranny. And that tyranny will be a combination hardcore Marxist/Maoist variety with more than a soupçon of Islamic influence.

Of course the latter will ultimately gain the upper hand when their useful idiot hosts/cohorts are no longer of use to them.

Speaking of which:

Minnesota Dem Tearfully Apologizes To Somalians After They Were Busted Stealing Billions — Organizer Asad Aliwed put together the event Dec. 12 at the Irshad Islamic Center in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Eden Prairie Local News reported. Democratic state Sens. Ann Johnson Stewart and Steve Cwodzinski tearfully shared their apology and offered support to a mosque full of Somalians on Friday. They were accompanied by Eden Prairie Mayor Ron Case, who ran in a nonpartisan election.

Just take a gander across the pond and perhaps through a glass and darkly at our future if we do not get a handle on all of the aforementioned and soon.

Describing British society as “low trust, highly fractured, and highly politically factionalized,” Betz warned that “civil conflict” is “increasingly inevitable.”  Then Betz directly accused U.K. authorities of hiding the true intentions behind their overhaul of domestic security forces: “What they’re concerned about is domestic conflict ... but that’s completely politically toxic for them to say so publicly, hence the convenience of saying, ‘We need to develop ... a citizen’s militia for the protection of critical infrastructure.’  To say that we’re doing this against the potential of Russian attack ... is convenient as a pretext.” . . . Fast-forward to this week, and Lane has written another piece that sharply articulates the disconnect between the government officials preparing Britain for war and the ordinary Britons who will be expected to do the fighting.  With talk of military conscription filling the airwaves and a glut of hyperventilating government officials assuring citizens that war with Russia has already begun, Lane notes “the reality that many young Britons feel the government has actively sabotaged their interests and are wondering why they ought to risk their lives for such a state.”   . . . Lane highlights the argument from another op-ed in The Times in which that author correctly observes that “defending one’s homeland is a question of societal mass mobilization ... in the sense of a shared belief in the nation and the culture that is at stake, an awareness that it is at risk and a commitment to defend it.  Without a united population it is difficult to make the trade-offs necessary to transform Britain and its European allies into thoroughly indigestible military targets for our enemies.”  

It is as if corporate news institutions are finally awakening to this reality: When you actively destroy national unity, shared history, tradition, and cultural heritage by importing foreigners on an industrial scale, you also destroy national identity.  Young British lads have no interest in fighting and dying for “multiculturalism.”  British parents have no interest in sacrificing their children for “diversity.”  No sane country is interested in sacrificing everything in order to preserve costly “climate change” regulations and safeguard the criminalization of so-called “hate speech.”  No patriot charges up a hill to raise an Antifa or LGBT flag in defense of censorship, government bullying, demographic replacement, and mass surveillance.

Apologies for hitting you with these stories of woe, especially on Christmas eve and at the close of Chanukah, the festival of light and a celebration of the victory over both literal and figurative darkness. Let's remember the meaning of both of these holidays and resolve to continue to live our lives fully and with hope for a better future and a renewed determination to do what we must to make it a reality.

God bless each and every one of you and let me wish you and yours a very MERRY and BLESSED CHRISTMAS.

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
• Police have declared a "mass casualty incident" and have asked people to "avoid the area."
  Gas Explosion Leaves People Trapped Inside Pennsylvania Nursing Home

  
  

• We have intersectionality to thank for the widespread rot in higher education, as it works to “dismantle the persistent colonial structures and Eurocentric biases” of academia. Worse, intersectionality has become the ideology of terror — the next logical step for a worldview that pits people against each other based on group identity.
  Toxic ideas fueling far-left terrorists came straight from our college campuses
  
• Statistics from media, academia, and law suggest meritocracy has given way to ideology—reshaping institutions, sidelining men, and raising hard questions about the West’s long-term viability. (this right alongside Islam - jjs)
  Feminism, Anti-racism, and the Unraveling of Western Civilization

Daily Tech News 24 December 2025

—Pixy Misa

• Do not send to know for whom the memory shortage tolls. (WCCFTech)
  
  Today it's Apple, whose cost for the memory in the iPhone 17 has jumped from $29 to $70.
  
  But doesn't Apple have long-term agreements to lock in costs?
  
  Yes. Yes they do. Some of those agreements are expiring in January.
  
  Others expired this month.
  
  
  
• Former Samsung executives and employees have been hit with criminal charges for leaking trade secrets on memory production to Chinese memory manufacturer CXMT. (WCCFTech)
  
  Cool. I mean, tut tut, don't do that again.