Getting what you ask for before Christmas, or not

As Hanukkah continues, and Christmas approaches, perhaps this is a good time to remember that most political issues are temporary, though they may seem permanent to some people.

Starting with the "release of the Epstein Files":

Walter Kirn:

The Epstein Files are whatever you want or need them to be, I've learned.

Trump must be in there somewhere! Remove all redactions! We won't rest!

What an incredible accomplishment to make this Epstein stuff seem like the height of elite decadence.

While a thousand Caligulas party on.

Matt Taibbi & Walter Kirn talk about Jeffrey Epstein texting Stacey Plaskett questions to ask Michael Cohen during a February 2019 House hearing with the goal to sink Donald Trump. The wheels are about to completely come off the bus.

I haven't really checked into what has been found in the redacted grand jury files. Anybody seen anything interesting?

Our Legislature At Work Before the Christmas Break

Scott Jennings has a few words:

https://t.co/bkka0E4sLM

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) December 19, 2025

Weekend

The Week in Pictures: Return of the King Edition

Okay, John Hinderaker went and did it last week! He has abused his stewardship of TWiP and went full Die Hard Christmas Movie Denialist! As the Dude says in The Big Lebowski, this aggression will not stand, man! To restore proper balance in the universe, I am staging a coup d’tat, and am taking over this week’s TWiP. To mix movie references further, John has done a Denethor-level job as Steward of TWiP; time for the Return of the (TWiP) King! Actually, like the Gaza and (prospective) Ukraine ceasefires, we’re going to share power, and alternate TWiP each week. And so as the great John McClain would say on basic cable Christmas season reruns, “Yippie-ki-yay, melon-farmer!”

P.S. Good to see John back covering beauty pageants as straight news (which fits as Melania Trump’s cause as First Lady should be “Make America Straight Again!”), as it was this old practice that partly inspired TWiP in the first place way back in—eeek—2013.

Seasonal Music

Jingle Bells

Our friend Assistant Village Idiot has a number of lovely Christmas carols posted, with interesting commentary. Worth scrolling through both the first and second pages of posts. Example:

The story about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow writing the poem in both despair and hope as he heard the bells.

In 1861, two years before writing this poem, Longfellow's personal peace was shaken when his second wife of 18 years, to whom he was very devoted, was fatally burned in an accidental fire. Then in 1863, during the American Civil War, Longfellow's oldest son, Charles Appleton Longfellow, joined the Union Army without his father's blessing. Longfellow was informed by a letter dated March 14, 1863, after Charles had left. "I have tried hard to resist the temptation of going without your leave but I cannot any longer", he wrote. "I feel it to be my first duty to do what I can for my country and I would willingly lay down my life for it if it would be of any good." Charles was soon appointed as a lieutenant but, in November, he was severely wounded in the Battle of Mine Run. Charles eventually recovered, but his time as a soldier was finished.

Have a wonderful week.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, December 13, What is an "influencer" these days?

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 11:11 AM

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