Trump loses grip on reality in desperate prime-time spectacle

Top Stories for December 18:

Trump’s desperate prime-time address underwhelms and confuses viewers
America’s nincompoop-in-chief tried his hand at Jedi mind tricks last night with a baffling and meandering prime-time presidential address, desperately trying to assure hundreds of millions of Americans that the ongoing economic strain they are definitely experiencing is, in fact, not real. To hear Donald tell it, everything everywhere is truly awesome under his incredible leadership! The president rattled off lie after lie after lie at an impressive clip, taking his “flood the zone” messaging “strategy” to new heights, forcing network fact-checkers into overdrive. Plenty of pundits and public figures weighed in, perhaps none more biting than California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who tweeted: “Many are saying that was a better speech than the Gettysburg Address.” Ouch.

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VIDEO OF THE DAY: Republicans defy Mike Johnson as he loses control of his caucus
Four vulnerable House Republicans openly defied Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday, signing onto a petition to force a floor vote on a Democratic bill to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire on Jan. 1, 2026. Should those subsidies expire, healthcare costs for more than 22 million Americans will skyrocket. The ball, unfortunately, is still somewhat in Johnson’s court — it’s not clear if he will allow the vote to take place before the new year — but the stunning defection by four members of his own caucus guarantees that every Republican member in the House (and Senate) will soon have to go on the record either voting for or against protecting healthcare access for tens of millions of vulnerable Americans. We can’t wait to see how the party of FaMiLy VaLuEs™ handles this one. Your move, Mike.

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Falsely arrested civil rights leader takes her fight for justice to Congress
Shonique Williams knows firsthand how much injustice faces people in America’s criminal justice system — she was falsely convicted and forced to spend two years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. She became a civil rights leader and a community organizer and is now taking her fight to Congress to push back against Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s extremism. Thanks to Governor Gavin Newsom’s new maps, she has the perfect opportunity to add a blue seat and take back Congress from the GOP. Will you chip in to help jump-start her campaign?

US strike on alleged drug boat in Pacific kills four, as Trump accuses Venezuela of taking “our oil”
Secretary of War Crimes Pete Hegseth announced yet another lethal strike against an alleged drug-running boat in the eastern Pacific, killing four people. The latest attack brings the death toll to at least 99 since the US began its extrajudicial murder campaign in September, striking boats it suspects of transporting drugs. Hegseth’s announcement came on the same day House Republicans rejected a pair of Democratic-backed resolutions which would have forced the Trump regime to seek authorization from Congress before continuing further attacks against cartels that it deems to be terrorist organizations or launching an attack on Venezuela itself. The MAGA cult leader himself gave away the game yesterday when asked about the just-announced US blockade on Venezuelan oil tankers, telling reporters, “You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back.” And there it is. Venezuela is home to the largest proven oil reserves in the world, estimated at some 300 billion barrels. Donald simply wants to know: how DID our oil end up under their lands in the first place? And how quickly can we get it back?

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Laura Ingraham shades former Fox News colleague Dan Bongino for quitting FBI to get back to “his lucrative media life”
Former podcast bro and rabid, right-wing conspiracy theorist Dan Bongino lasted all of nine months on the job as the deputy director of the FBI before throwing in the towel, announcing his imminent resignation in the new year. “I think he wants to go back to his show,” Donald Trump said when asked by reporters about Bongino’s upcoming departure. It didn’t take long for the teevee talkers to chime in, with former colleague and Fox bloviator Laura Ingraham getting her digs in last night: “And the first big departure from the administration was announced late today. After only nine months on the job, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is stepping aside. Now, this is not surprising. He loved his lucrative media life, and he wants to get back to it.” You can really feel the love between these two, can’t ya?

Trump’s ridiculous presidential plaque for Ronald Reagan must be seen to be believed
Just in time for Christmas, our vainglorious nincompoop-in-chief unveiled a series of ridiculous plaques in his ridiculous hallway of presidential portraits ostensibly summarizing the tenures of his predecessors. Written in Donald’s signature, 6th-grade-reading-level “tone,” the summaries are every bit as petty, sophomoric, and self-centered as you’d expect from a man who obviously needed a lot more hugs from daddy growing up. Sure, the Joe Biden and Barack Obama plaques are getting plenty of attention, but for our money, Ronald Reagan’s really takes the crazy cake: “Ronald Reagan won the Cold War, and transformed American politics and the Conservative Movement. He was a fan of President Donald J. Trump long before President Trump’s Historic run for the White House. Likewise, President Trump was a fan of his!” You can really feel the coping, can’t you? And not for nothing, the claim is pure fiction. As The Washington Post noted, Trump reached out to the Reagan White House with invitations at least six times back in the 1980s, and each time was ignored or rejected. You cannot make this shit up. Oh, wait, apparently you can!

Trump threatens NBC’s broadcast license over Sen. Raphael Warnock interview
Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this past Sunday — as nearly all movers and shakers in DC do at one point or another in their career — and said some things with which Donald Trump clearly did not agree. The president responded yesterday, as all sensible leaders of flourishing democracies do, with a robust defense of his own policies and an acknowledgement that our nation’s capital is home to myriad political opinions, and that the sharing of those many differences in public spaces is part of what makes America such a durable republic. Just kidding. He stomped around like a mad king and threatened — again — to revoke NBC’s broadcasting license, whining that the network should be forced to “pay significant amounts of money” for airing an interview that was “one sided and very biased.” The president himself appeared on the same episode, mind you, but his interview was clearly not one sided or very biased, okay? And weird how Donald’s hackles weren’t raised over Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s appearance on “Meet the Press” this past weekend, or Republican Sen. Tom Cotton’s the week before, or Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem’s the week before that, or Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s the week before that, or Republican Sen. John Barrasso the week bef… oh, never mind. You get the point.

Trump plans huge handout for Big Oil and puts our coastline in serious danger
Protect Our Coast Coalition: At a time when our climate change studies are desperately begging us to stop fossil fuel pollution before it’s too late, Donald Trump just unveiled a huge new handout to Big Oil, proposing a new National Offshore Drilling Plan that would open up huge swathes of ocean in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and California to industrial defilement. American taxpayers spent $1 TRILLION last year cleaning up from climate-related natural disasters, but Trump is happy to pass those costs on to us while his cronies get rich — and he’s putting our coastal communities and their livelihoods under threat from destructive oil spills. Click here to make your voice heard and tell the Trump team we want NO more offshore oil drilling!

CDC officials urge US flu vaccination after record child deaths last year
Ya know, in times like these, it sure would be helpful if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was speaking with a clear and unified voice, and not sending contradictory, scattershot messages at the behest of a worm-addled, human rock tumbler with no scientific expertise or training. Alas, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is still somehow in charge of our nation’s largest health agencies, and the CDC seems to be at war with itself over what life-saving guidance it should and should not give on any given day. With influenza cases on the rise — and after the US saw record child deaths from the flu last year — CDC officials are now urging doctors to vaccinate their patients and provide flu antivirals as a concerning mutation of the virus circulates across the country. This message comes, of course, amid dramatic cuts to staff and programs at various US health agencies and the proliferation of unscientific rumors about vaccines from Kennedy himself, who has repeatedly made false claims about the ineffectiveness of flu vaccines and overseen limitations on other life-saving, routine vaccines. Folks, don’t mess around with the flu. Please encourage your loved ones to tune Bobby Jr. out and heed the advice of folks like Timothy Uyeki, an actual expert and the chief medical officer of the influenza division at the CDC: “Influenza activity is increasing in the US. The time to get vaccinated for this season is now.” Evergreen reminder: children, pregnant people, immune-compromised people, and the elderly are among those at highest risk of illness and death. Flu vaccines protect against severe complications like pneumonia, cardiac complications, neurological issues, and encephalopathy, or brain dysfunction.

Arctic warms at more than twice global rate in hottest year on record
The latest climate report on record warming in the Arctic is obviously no cause for alarm, and we should clearly continue doing next to nothing about the catastrophic tipping point we are barreling toward. Instead, let us follow Donald Trump’s fearless lead and continue rolling back transformational renewable energy initiatives and shredding long-established environmental protections. It’s not like Earth is our only habitable planet, right?