Bad Bunny, who is finishing up a two month residency in Puerto Rico where he sold out 30 shows, is about to embark on a world tour of Latin America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. He excluded concerts in the U.S. on the tour, as he explains, because of ICE raids. He explains inin a recent interview: [More...]

Our last open thread is full. Here's a new one, all topics welcome.

What I'm following: Marco Rubio in Mexico, and his comments at a press conference after announcing yet another "task force" will be formed to fight drug traffickers. This one will include Mexican and American officials. Rubio calls it an "implementation force" -- a force that will act to fulfill Donald Trump's plan to murder suspected gang members who are believed to be involved with importing drugs or chemicals to the U.S.

Trump and Mario think it's legal to order the U.S. military to blow up a boat in international waters because intelligence sources said there were gang members and drugs aboard, headed to the U.S. Mario says: [More...]

Everything about Donald Trump this week has been an "ick".

The media is all over his health issues. The Irish Star has been unrelenting.

• The ick spots on his hands may be from IV needles. Since they have now been seen on both hands, clearly the bruises are not from handshaking.
• Another ick: His swollen hand and ankles (edema)
• Ick: His orange makeup observed on his shirt collar as he was filmed on TV
• Ick: His thinning hair and gaunt-looking face (they could signal disease or maybe he's just taking a GLP-1 drug like Ozempic). Here is his face in 2019.

[More...]

Time fo a new open thread. The floor is yours, you pick the topics. All topic welcome.

In other news this week:

DOJ fired prosecutor Maureen Comey. Anyone know why? Was it because of her father, because of something she did in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, or something she did in the Sean Combs trial?

Donald Trump has been diagnosed with venous insufficiency.

Ten reasons Emil Bove should not be a federal judge. But let's not blame his actions as a defense lawyer, which he was for all of five minutes. There's enough in his actions while a federal prosecutor to shut him out.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

A new open thread is long overdue. I'm about to start a long conference call for work, but I'll be back over the weekend.

Donald Trump in the Middle East: It's like he won the jackpot of the highest paying slot machine in Vegas. With the Saudis backing Jared to the tune of a few billion; Jared's lavish construction project of luxury homes on an Albanian island (with the route to the permits and endorsement by the Albanian prime minister (or President, whichever he is) probably paved over by Richard Grennell, a current or former partner in Jared's Affinity Partners, who is now one of Trump's special envoys in the Middle East; Tiffany's billionaire Lebanese father-in-law who went all out for Trump in Michigan; Israel apparently not telling Trump he and Jared won't be the ones to get the contract to rebuild Gaza, turning it into the Riviera of the Middle East; Eric traveling to the Middle East to announce a new office tower being built there that will bear Trump's name (for an undisclosed sum) -- Trump will be a much wealthier person when he leaves office than when he came in. Even if he ends up leaving like Nixon in disgrace, he will just say he couldn't care less, he'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

He will also be leaving us without a work force to do necessary jobs Americans think are beneath them because of his absurd deportation priorities.

Democracy? Been there, done that, he'll say. Time to let the oligarchs and billionaires running the largest corporations in the world take over.

That's how I see the state of our union. Time for my call. I'll add some source links when I return.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Our last open thread is just about full.

Today's latest: Chief Judge James Boasberg has issued a lengthy order keeping his ban on Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport people.

In a 37-page order, the judge, James E. Boasberg, said the order should remain in place so that the Venezuelan immigrants could have the opportunity to challenge accusations that they belong to the gang, Tren de Aragua, before the Trump administration can fly them out of the country under the wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act.

[More...]

NBC and Peacock tonight are airing a three-hour special Saturday Night Live Show for its 50th birthday. It starts at 8:00 pm ET and 5:00 pm PT. "Its stars are calling the "greatest reunion show" in TV history." The "red carpet" starts at 7 pm ET.

There will be a slew of SNL "alums".Paul McCartney is the musical guest, and Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter and others will perform.

If you missed the “Ladies and Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music" show, it was pretty awesome. Here is a list of the musical guests it featured. It is still streaming on Peacock.

Long live SNL, with special thanks to Lorne Michaels.

This is an open thread for all things related to TV, movies, streaming and the like. (I just put up another open thread for politics).

Happy New Year to all! It is going to be a rough ride as long as Donald Trump has a desk in the oval office. But he doesn't affect everything.

My interests have moved well beyond Donald Trump. In 2025, I'll be focusing more on news and cultural topics I find interesting or curious from outside the U.S. [More...]

I'm sorry I am so late with this new open thread. I had to get a few stitches in my eyebrow (don't ask!). Anyway, I haven't seen the news other than a headline Joe Biden granted 1,500 pardons. I not only support them, whoever they are, I support Hunter Biden's pardon.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Please don't forget to vote. In addition to voting for President, there are votes for members of Congress, state officials, including legislators and judges, and local ordinances. All are important. Colorado's ballot was the longest I can remember. If I wasn't sure about a particular issue, I read the booklet the state sent with the pros and cons, and if I still wasn't sure, or I didn't care, I skipped that question. But on the big stuff, I voted.

Good luck Kamala, Good luck Diana DeGette, and good luck to Denver County Court Judge Kelly Cherry. You all deserve much more than votes. You have invested years of your lives to trying to make all of our lives better. You have given your hearts and souls to provide us with the best governance you can.

We get the government we elect. You snooze, you lose. As I say about Donald Trump every year: "It's time to scrape his sh*t right off our shoes". (Sweet Virginia, below) [more...]

Our last open thread is full. Here's a new one. All topics welcome.

I've mostly been following the arrests of El Mayo (Ismael Zambada-Garcia) and El Chapo's Son #3, Joaquin Guzman-Lopez. So far it seems the competing versions of how the pair came to end up in U.S. custody have some truthful details and some inconsistent or implausible details. Too many cooks spoil the broth. (Or, in this case, it's too many unidentified sous-chefs, most of whom are unnamed agents of non-identified government agencies and unnamed current or former cartel members, talking to their favorite journalists). The U.S. Government does not seem inclined at this point to deconstruct the mess for us.

Also of interest: The killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. [More...]