Greg Mitchell has authored more than a dozen books (see most of them here) and directed four recent PBS films, including the current “The Atomic Bowl.” Long ago he was the longtime Senior Editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Subscribing to this newsletter is still FREE—so if you want to help fund, maybe purchase one of those books, thanks. Or recommend this Substack to a friend!
Jimmy Kimmel last night taped late enough to comment on Trump’s deranged, demented, primetime address, as well as his revolting unveiling of new descriptions of Obama and Biden under the photos in the White House corridor of presidents.
Stephen taped a little earlier:
Tom Nichols, former Republican, at The Atlantic:
This was not a holiday address from the leader of a great democracy to its citizens. This was a desperate tin-pot leader yelling into a microphone while cornered in his palace redoubt. The president has been unraveling for weeks, and his speech tonight, like Trump himself, was unworthy of America and its people.
Steve Brodner commented:
Meanwhile, from the Wall St. Journal:
Trump privately spoke with his former impeachment attorney Alan Dershowitz about potentially being president for a THIRD term. Dershowitz presented Trump a draft of his upcoming book called “Could President Trump Constitutionally Serve a Third Term?” They discussed Dershowitz’s conclusion on a potential Trump third term.
But it was nice to see that Nielsen ratings just released found that Bari Weiss’s heavily promoted CBS sitdown with Erika Kirk last weekend was indeed a flop.
M. Gessen, our favorite columnist at the NY Times, has an amazing column about a new film, “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” exploring the death of one girl in Gaza, that we have highlighted before but is still having trouble gaining U.S. distribution (wonder why?). Here once again is the trailer:
I suppose I will post one or two more versions of this new holiday standard in the run-up to December 25, so we ought to start with the original, from the Pogues with Kirsty MacColl, “Fairytale of New York.”
From Tunes to Toons
Luckovich:
Telnaes:
Matson:
Wuerker:
Wuerker again:
Photo Finish
From my camera to you: “In the Early Morning Fog, Sonoma Coast, California.”
Played the Stephen Colbert clip and in the side panel on YouTube was a
Keith Olbermann piece: entitled: TRUMP IS DROWNING-12.18 2025
Countdown with Keith Olberman
Highlight of my day was watching Keith Olbermann on MSNBC
That is where I first saw Rachel Maddow
Two of my favorite political folk
Just finished the body of the column...
the Voice of Hind Rajab and it is powerful, children, women, men and all innocents are the
victims of savage unrelentless warfare
Fairytale of New York brought on a bout of nostalgia