Open Thread - Meanwhile, At Trump Tower...

“President Biden is considering commuting the sentences of most, if not all, of the 40 men on the federal government’s death row, a move that would frustrate President-elect Donald Trump’s ability to resume the rapid pace of executions that marked his first term,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Stephen Moffat was excellent as a show-runner for the Dr. Who franchise and he returns to pen the latest Christmas Day special. IO9 Returning Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies might have pioneered modern Doctor Who holiday specials—Christmassy monsters, high spectacle, an occasional amount of Kylie Minogue—but it’s arguable that it was his successor, Steven Moffat, that really nailed the balancing act of what a good Doctor Who Christmas story should be. Have a Merry Holiday and a Happy Christmas - and open thread away. read more

Rep. Victoria Spartz said she is refusing to do her duty as a House Republican and instead wants to join forces with the fake group known as Doge. Instead of caucusing with Republicans she wants to play in the sandbox with Elon and Vivek. Edith Olmsted at TNR reports,"Representative Victoria Spartz’s move could threaten the Republicans’ House majority." The Indiana Republican went on CNN and began spewing gibberish to Pamela Brown on Tuesday. SPARTZ: And I mean, there are a lot of different frustrations. People have to decide. And we'll decide as a conference.

Sen. Ron Johnson was speaking at a Heritage Foundation event about one of his favorite subjects - junk science and quack medicine. RoJo was ranting about how everything involving COVID was corrupt and that Big Pharma was quashing reports that supported hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin in order to get quick approval for their evil vaccine that kept millions of people alive, when he said this doozy (emphasis mine): The fact that they sabotage early treatment, I mean, truthfully, I was working with Novartis.

The Denver District Attorney’s Office will not file criminal charges related to the inadvertent release of some voting system passwords by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, prosecutors announced Friday. In a statement, District Attorney Beth McCann said the release of the passwords, which were posted on the secretary of state’s website for several months starting in June, was not “an effort to influence the outcome of an election.” Instead, she wrote, the passwords release was an error that didn’t constitute a violation of law. A law firm hired by Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office previously determined that the passwords’ release was inadvertent, though the review found that the office violated information security policies. The passwords were included in a hidden tab on a larger spreadsheet by a staffer who left Griswold’s office in May 2023, the firm’s review found.

By MELISSA GOLDIN President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk played a key role this week in killing a bipartisan funding proposal that would have prevented a government shutdown, railing against the plan in a torrent of more than 100 X posts that included multiple false claims. Related Articles National Politics | The Latest: House approves new government funding bill National Politics | House rejects Trump-backed plan on government shutdown, leaving next steps uncertain National Politics | House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release Matt Gaetz ethics report, source says National Politics | Some in seafood industry see Trump as fishermen’s friend, but tariffs could make for pricier fish National Politics | Mexico suggests it would impose its own tariffs to retaliate against any Trump tariffs The X owner, an unelected figure, not only used his outsize influence on the platform to help sway Congress, he did so without regard for the facts and gave a preview of the role he could play in government over the next four years. “Trump has got himself a handful with Musk,” John Mark Hansen, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, said in an email.