curated news excerpts & citations
Mary Geddry: Now I Have a Statute. Ho Ho Ho.
Christmas Eve with Trump, the courts, and an army of people who actually know what they are doing
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On Christmas Eve, just before midnight, the president of the United States was on Truth Social threatening to revoke the broadcast licenses of major television networks because their coverage and late-night programming were “almost 100% negative” toward him. He singled out the networks by name, obsessed over ratings, complained about salaries, and escalated into personal attacks, declaring Stephen Colbert a “dead man walking” who should be “put to sleep,” language that is grotesque even when generously interpreted as metaphor.
His Christmas Eve message to the nation was not peace, unity, or goodwill. It was a public fantasy about using state power to punish broadcasters for being insufficiently deferential. If taken seriously, it would amount to a Soviet-style assault on press freedom. The most charitable interpretation is not that he intends to follow through, but that a deeply unwell man with nuclear-era authority spent Christmas Eve hate-scrolling cable television and rage-posting into the void because he cannot log off. That is the best spin available.
Because no dystopian holiday special is complete without tonal whiplash, this same man then spent part of Christmas Eve taking calls from children via NORAD’s Santa tracker. In theory, this is supposed to be harmless whimsy. In practice, it played like performance art about impulse control. Trump narrated the process out loud, drifted into campaign bragging, …
(Mary Geddry more…)
NY Times: Kennedy Center’s Christmas Eve Jazz Show Canceled After Trump Name Added to Building
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Closer to the Edge: Inherent Contempt
Let’s clear up a collective hallucination before it hardens into received wisdom: inherent contempt is not a fine with a fancier name. It is not a polite invoice Congress sends when it feels ignored. It is Congress reaching back into the Constitution’s original toolkit and pulling out the one instrument designed for people who treat subpoenas like spam email. And yes, if written that way, inherent contempt can include physical custody of the contemnor. Including, in theory, Pam Bondi.
(Closer to the Edge more…)
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NY Times: Judge Blocks Detention of British Researcher Who Scrutinizes Online Hate
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Imran Ahmed, the founder and chief executive of a nonprofit organization that works to stop the spread of online hate and disinformation, was among five Europeans barred by the State Department from the United States on Tuesday.
…Lawyers for Mr. Ahmed, who now lives in the United States and is a legal permanent resident, said they were concerned that the actions by the State Department pose an immediate threat to his status in the country.
They filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, asking a judge to intervene because they said Mr. Ahmed faced “the immediate prospect of unconstitutional arrest, punitive detention and expulsion for exercising his basic First Amendment rights.”
(NY Times more…)
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Reuters: In first Christmas sermon, Pope Leo decries conditions for Palestinians in Gaza
VATICAN CITY, Dec 25 (Reuters) – Pope Leo decried conditions for Palestinians in Gaza in his Christmas sermon on Thursday, in an unusually direct appeal during what is normally a solemn, spiritual service on the day Christians across the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Leo, the first U.S. pope, said the story of Jesus being born in a stable showed that God had “pitched his fragile tent” among the people of the world.
“How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold?” he asked.
(Reuters more…)NY Times: On Christmas, Pope Leo Tells World’s Leaders to Talk Rather Than Make War
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NY Times: Trump Says ‘Housing First’ Failed the Homeless. Here’s What the Evidence Says.
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Extensive research shows that Housing First places large shares of its clients in housing. It also appears to have played a major role in cutting homelessness among veterans, which has fallen by more than half.
(NY Times more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – December 25, 2025
The modern version of Santa Claus arrived in the United States in 1863, when he stopped at an army camp of Union soldiers in the January 3 issue of Harper’s Weekly. Cartoonist Thomas Nast drew Santa wearing striped pants and a jacket emblazoned with stars as he sat in a sleigh under a giant American flag.
…Nast’s 1863 Santa told a specific story about America in that terrible moment.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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