Finance Minister Tables Budget, Thursday

You don't need a masters degree in public health to have seen this mess coming. Via Arstechnica: Flu season is ramping up across the US, but Louisiana—the state that has reportedly barred its health department from promoting flu shots, as well as COVID-19 and mpox vaccines—is leading the country with an early and strong surge. Louisiana's flu activity has reached the "Very High" category set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the latest data.

El Cheato's transition team is laying the groundwork for the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization on the first day of his second term, according to a health law expert familiar with the discussions. Of course he is, he's an idiot! Via Reuters: "I have it on good authority that he plans to withdraw, probably on Day One or very early in his administration," said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. [] Trump has argued that the agency failed to hold China accountable for the early spread of COVID-19.

We all grouse about how Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, etc are in Trump's back pocket but legacy media like CNN are, at times, just as bad. Source: Raw Story Multiple critics called out CNN this week for purportedly normalizing President-elect Donald Trump's idea of "buying" Greenland, invading Panama and possibly even Canada. According to New York Times reporters, Trump has long been obsessed with buying Greenland, thinking that the Denmark-owned island is like the large shop "on the corner." While Trump's team is aiming for $2 trillion in cuts to the federal government, he wants to spring huge cash on either buying Greenland or annexing it the way Russia did with Crimea. It comes only a few weeks after Trump told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Canada should simply become a new "state" of the U.

Seasonally appropriate music from Robert Earl Keen. "Merry Christmas from the Family." 3 Quarks Daily: Understanding Santa and A Wish for the New Year. Left Jabs: Don’t Let the New York Times Do Your Thinking. Stumbling and Mumbling: Repairing the public sphere. Attention space nerds! The fastest human-made object ever made flies closer to the Sun than we've ever been. Round Up by driftglass of the Professional Left Podcast and Science Fiction University Send tips to mbru (AT) crooksandliars (DOT) com read more

by Jesse Coburn and Andy Kroll ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. As Donald Trump’s nominee to run the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner may soon oversee the nation’s efforts to build affordable apartments, protect poor tenants and aid the homeless.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Squid Game When a second season of Squid Game was greenlit following the massive success of the first, it was unclear whether the story warranted an extension. Writer-director Hwang Dong-yuk, previously best known for feature film work like 2017 period war epic The Fortress, had not planned on continuing it.