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In 25 days, Donald Trump will be your president again

Christmas is over. I hope you had a merry one and a Happy Hanukah. I get that Orthodox and other Christian religions celebrate on another day, but in America we chose December 25 as our Christmas and made it secular as well as religious.

Back to work we go.

First up, CBS reported, “Matt Gaetz ethics report says his drug use and sex with a minor violated state laws.”

Nice libelous way of spinning a story as if the allegations of drug use and sex with a minor are a fact. Good luck in court to the Network of 60 Minutes—you know, the show whose ex-senior executive dismissed bloggers as “a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas.”

That was in 2004, the year a blogger brought Dan Rather down over a forged letter he said came from a deceased Texas Air National Guard officer dissing President Bush as a lieutenant.

Gaetzgate may have that beat.

The National Pulse reported:

A Florida businessman who is a key figure in the sex and drug allegations against former Congressman Matt Gaetz has called the House Ethics Committee’s biased investigation report “reckless,” demanding the retraction of multiple “demonstrably false statements,” The National Pulse can reveal.

Lawyers representing Christopher Dorworth note that former Congressman Gaetz is not even under the Committee’s jurisdiction before explaining in a letter sent just hours after the committee’s report was leaked to the corporate media that it contains at least three falsehoods.

The first involves an allegation that Gaetz invited people to Dorworth’s home on July 15, 2017. Dorworth states that Gaetz did not invite anyone to his home and that the Committee’s evidence that he did is “a gate log that doesn’t include Gaetz’s name on it” and references to “an affidavit and deposition transcripts that say nothing about Gaetz inviting anyone to [Dorworth’s] home.”

As I said, good luck in court.

Next up is a Politico story on what focus groups are saying. It is not what a certain party’s leaders are saying:

Democrats conducting post-mortems on their sweeping losses in 2024 are finding more reason for alarm. And the problem isn’t just Kamala Harris or Joe Biden.

In a trio of focus groups, even voters who previously backed Democrats cast the party as weak and overly focused on diversity and elites, according to research by the progressive group Navigator Research.

When asked to compare the Democratic Party to an animal, one participant compared the party to an ostrich because “they’ve got their heads in the sand and are absolutely committed to their own ideas, even when they’re failing.” Another likened them to koalas, who “are complacent and lazy about getting policy wins that we really need.” Democrats, another said, are “not a friend of the working class anymore.”

Complacent and lazy perfectly describe the Republican Party from Gingrich until Trump. In retrospect, McCain and Romney wanted to lose because their opponent was black. Few things are as racist as white guilt.

Democrats have joined them because they believe after Obama’s election that presidential races are won by tokens. Hillary was supposed to be the first white woman president. Kamala was supposed to be the first Indian and first black woman.

Qualifications no longer matter because elected officials prefer to let the bureaucracy run itself. Governor LePetomane from Blazing Saddles is their role model. Sadly, none of the presidential chiefs of staff look anything like his secretary.

Next up is a Los Angeles Times story, “ ‘Politics is bad for business.’ Why Disney's Bob Iger is trying to avoid hot buttons.”

DeSantis broke Disney.

The story said, “The Magic Kingdom dropped its pomp greeting to fans for its nightly fireworks display. ‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls’ became a gender-neutral salutation to ‘dreamers of all ages.’ Pixar’s animated movie, Lightyear, included a brief kiss between two women characters; and Disney's animated film, Strange World, featured the company's first biracial queer teen hero.”

Correction: Disney broke Disney.

Next up is the overlooked Christmas song, We Need a Little Christmas, from the 1966 musical, Mame. Maybe that is because the song is really about the Stock Market Crash of 1929, in which the title character lost her fortune. Rather than sitting around and feeling sorry for herself, she decided to start Christmas in October.

Haul out the holly
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again
Fill up the stocking
I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now

For we need a little Christmas, right this very minute
Candles in the window, carols at the spinet
Yes, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute
Hasn’t snowed a single flurry, but Santa dear we’re in a hurry

The song captures the spirit of Christmas better than most Christmas songs in that Jesus came here to help you when you need Him most. Plus the spinet/minute rhyme is inspired.

Next up is an Axios story, “Dems warm to conservative media after rough 2024.”

The story said, “Even progressives are beginning to embrace the idea of expanding Democrats’ media reach: ‘My view is, as much engagement as possible is good,’ Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told Axios.”

Once again, Democrats embrace the notion that the problem is the messenger, not the message. Republicans did that until Trump came along.

Next up is Christmas dinner, which BBC said will cost half a pound less this year.

My complaint—and I always have a complaint with the BBC—is what was in their version of a British dinner. Turkey, not roast beef or goose? No cranberry sauce? No figgy pudding?

Oh, bring us some figgy pudding
Oh, bring us some figgy pudding
Oh, bring us some figgy pudding
And bring it right here

Well at least the BBC Christmas dinner isn’t halal.

For now.

Next up is office space, the surplus—not the movie.

In April, Emily Wishingrad wrote, “While the effects of the pandemic on private sector office usage have become increasingly clear, the future of the federal footprint is still largely up in the air. The fate of these millions of square feet of offices is an unanswered question worth billions of taxpayer dollars.

“Federal government agencies are using just 12% of the space in their headquarters buildings on average, a report last month from the Public Buildings Reform Board found, the latest in a growing body of evidence that the federal government is sitting on a mountain of unused office space.”

So why are we building the FBI its own Pentagon? Bah humbug.

Musk and Ramaswamy ought to shut the project down—or better yet, convert it into a maximum security prison for cops and other civil servants gone bad. Chicago politicians would have their own wing.

Next up is a Politico story, “Biden vetoes bill that would have created dozens of new federal judge slots.

“The president didn’t want to hand Trump a chance to appoint more judges.”

His pardons and commutations of sentences for 1,500 unrepentant criminals and corrupt Democrat politicians have some people saying FJB is going scorched Earth as his term ends.

I disagree. He has been destroying the nation since Day One.

Next up is a column by Kirsten Fleming of the New York Post, “Why did no one help her? Fatal subway burning exposes New York City’s sad disconnect to humanity.”

Answer: Alvin Bragg.

The trial of Daniel Penny was a warning to any person who tries to get in the way of crime, especially on the subway. Manhattanites elected him to turn the city into a shithole again. Trump and Rudy saved the city once. The elites became furious and eventually ran them out of town.

No one will save the city now. Leave. Looking back risks turning into a pillar of salt.

Next up is the AFP report, “Bethlehem marks somber Christmas under shadow of war.”

As it has been every year of my life.

Finally, today is Boxing Day, when Britons give to the poor in the spirit of Good King Wenceslas. He was actually a duke of Bohemia in the 10th century. He is now a saint.

Boxing Day celebrates the Feast of Stephen, but Wenceslas got the hymn, which was based on a 14th century Finnish song Eastertime Is Come.

Confused? Lori Dooner explains it all.

Yesterday’s poll did not show up in email but did show up online. I will rerun it in addition to today’s poll. If you voted yesterday, you can vote again today.