The United States announced today it was increasing the reward for information on the whereabouts of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi to $25 million from $10 million. The same amount is being offered for al Qaida leader al-Zawahiri.

The reward is part of the Rewards for Justice Program, administered by the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

ISIS has had a surge this week by retaking Palmyra and a Syrian army base near Mosul (Tiyas or T4). Today ISIS claims it has surrounded the largest military base east of Homs, called The Altifor Airbase, from the north, east and south. It released a statement saying it used an ATGM to hit a 57mm cannon north of #Tiyas/#T4. It is also attacking near Deir Ezzor. The US conducted 10 airstrikes in Palmyra yesterday.

Is a former Army brat now an American leader of the Islamic State? See this article in the Atlantic.

In Aleppo, the Iranian Shia militias blocked the evacuation today. In Idlib the past few days, the crowds have been cheering ISIS and protesting the rebels.

Excepting Aleppo, which is a human tragedy of epic proportion, worst of all, in a month, Donald Trump will be commander in chief.

There is no chance the Electoral College will show a conscience and some gumption and reject Donald Trump. Hillary now has almost a 3 million vote lead but that ship has sailed.

Rather than spend time discussing what electors could do, since they won't, I'd rather talk about something each of us can do: This holiday season and thereafter, we can reward retailers who don't sell Donald Trump or Ivanka Trump products. We can refuse to buy from those that sell them. Via GrabYourWallet, just say no to: [More...]

UnPresident-Elect Donald Trump today tweeted out his thanks to Financial Times for naming him person of the year. The article blasted him:

A bigger concern may be a lack of knowledge about the world beyond his business empire. There is always the suspicion that Mr. Trump’s opinions come from the last person he spoke to. “What Trump doesn’t know could fill an ocean — he has literally never read a book, including the U.S. Constitution,” says a longstanding associate. “What Trump does know fills up Trump Tower.”

A Vanity Fair writer blasted Trump Grill as the worst restaurant in America, detailing her horrid meal. Her opinion:

[I]t was slop: as soon as I got home, I brushed my teeth twice and curled up in bed until the nausea passed.

Trump of course blasted Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter in response and the magazine's ranking. [More...]

I'm out tonight, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Beltran-Leyva cartel took another big hit Friday with the arrest of "Mochomito" -- Alfredito Beltran-Guzman, son of Alfredo Beltran-Leyva, who is in custody in Washington, D.C. awaiting the imposition of sentence -- in Zapopan, Jalisco. He was reportedly arrested at a barber shop.

The Government alleges "El Mochomito" was behind the attacks on El Chapo's mother's house in June, and the kidnapping of El Chapo's sons at a restaurant in Puerta Vallarta in August. El Chapo is his uncle.

According the the Government's press release, he moved operations from Culiacan in Sinaloa to Guadalajara, where through intelligence work of the Drug Enforcement Division of the Federal Police, they determined where he was and arrested him and four others with no shots being fired. The statement was jointly issued by the Federal Police, the Ministry of the Navy, the Secretariat of National Defense, the Center for Investigation and National Security,and the Attorney General.[More...]

The Critics Choice Awards are on A&E tonight. Why you should watch? T.J. Miller is hosting. I love TJ -- I carpooled him to school from the second grade until high school.

TJ got arrested early Friday a.m. in LA after his Uber driver claimed he swatted him in the back of the head after they disagreed about Donald Trump. T.J. said on Twitter today he'll discuss "the elephant in the room" during tonight's show. He really didn't, but he did talk about how movies and TV can bring us together.

We are one television, one couch, one potato.

His only reference to the UnPresident-Elect:

"Trolls did well this year. Not the movie. The ones on the internet. One got elected president."

He'll be on James Corden Tuesday night with Jennifer Lawrence. His latest movie, Office Christmas Party, with Jennifer Anniston, opened Friday.

Congrats to James Corden and the Late Late Show which won best talk show.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome, TV related or not.

The cold open for Saturday Night Live mocked Trump's cabinet picks. Skip past the beginning with Trump's campaign manager and go right to Bryan Cranston (1 min. 30 sec) playing Walter White, Donald Trump's pick to lead the DEA.

It's time to Make America Cook Again.

We want to fill this nation with red, white and a whole lot of blue....

Live From NY....

We have a President-Elect whose major attributes are his ignorance, incompetence, narcissism, arrogance and immaturity, coupled with his delusional belief he is fit to be President and Commander in Chief. He is turning this country into a toxic wasteland, and he's not even President yet.

(The teenage wasteland described in the Who's 1971 song Baba O'Reilly and its predecessor Teenage Wasteland from Pete Townsend's Lighthouse, was toxic, whether it was about the tyranny of the Government in rendering its citizens powerless as laid out in Pete Townsend's never-made or understood Lifehouse opera, or about the wasteland known as Vietnam which had been littered with teenage lives in 1971, which was front and center at Woodstock, where many people did get wasted.) The video above, mostly of events in the UK with some Vietnam and sports scenes interpersed, shows anti-fascism protests, working class images and trucks warning of the danger of the "Common Market". [More...]

Congratulations to Mick Jagger on the birth of his 8th child.

I don't get why so many people are trashing him for having a child at age 73. He's got more energy than most people half his age and will probably live long enough to see his son go to college or start a band. More power to him. It's so Rock n' Roll.

Madonna is also getting a lot of criticism for her "twerking" during last night's Carpool Karaoke with James Corden. I liked it. She's 58 and enough of a philanthropist that people should just get off her case and let her do what she wants. At least she's not sucking up to Donald Trump like Leonardo di Caprio who met with Trump and the other Mrs. Trump (Ivanka) and gave him a copy of his foundation's plan for the economy and climate control -- along with a copy of his new film about it.

Time for El Chema, episode 3 (Telemundo.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

From Jesse Berney in Rolling Stone, An American Tragedy on what we know about Donald Trump:

We know he's inexperienced and ignorant enough to cause genuine harm to America's interests....We know he doesn't understand or care about the most fundamental constitutional rights...

After listing several other undesirable traits, the article says:

Add it all up, and what do you see? A child who reacts to the slightest perceived attack with vicious vitriol. A vengeful president who is willing to violate basic rights. A government run by incompetents, racists, bullies and conspiracy-mongers. It's a formula for tragedy.

The danger: [More...]

British photojournalist and ISIS hostage John Cantlie is still alive. ISIS released a new video today of him in Mosul. He asks why the coalition forces are bombing Mosul's bridges when the only people affected are residents -- the ISIS fighters, the "Mujahideen", are on fighting on the front lines outside Mosul. He shows a destroyed bridge which make it very difficult for people to get around.

He looks thin, but I don't think he looks much different than his last video in July. I am just glad he is still alive. [More...]

UnPresident Elect Donald Trump has named retired Gen. John Kelly to be Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

If you're wondering why his name is familiar, think Guantanamo:

General Kelly attracted notice while at the Southern Command for comments about the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which fell in his area of responsibility. He rejected criticism from human rights activists about the treatment of detainees, and said the program to force-feed prisoners undertaking hunger strikes was reasonable and humane. He also dismissed one argument cited by those who advocate closing the military prison at Guantánamo, saying it had not proven to be an inspiration to those taking up militant action.

In an interview about a year ago, Kelly claimed "There are no innocent men down there."

His other area of "expertise" is Latin America and he's been a henny-penny claiming ISIS will take over the drug cartel routes. [More...]