Here's the clip of Tony Dokoupil ending tonight's broadcast by absolutely gushing over "ultimate Florida Man" Marco Rubio.

Absolutely true, and somehow not-discussed point: The US **ALREADY** has all the strategic advantages it could gain by "owning" Greenland. Through treaties and (until now) close NATO cooperation w Denmark The US has a naval base & 'space force' base there. You see USAF planes at Grndlnd airports

It's not simply that this CY guy is so openly bigoted. It's the instantly recognizable Dunning-Kruger super-confidence of the barroom-savant who's telling you how everything "really" works.

Here's something I wrote about Tim Walz before he was seen as VP prospect. After speech that got unprompted standing ovation from 20,000 scientists from around the world He is a formidable, accomplished, genuinely decent, genuinely intelligent and visionary man fallows.substack.com/p/election-c...

This is superb, from Sen. Kelly. Please watch. __ Insider note: First sentence of Kelly's presentation is uncannily powerful echo of my favorite TV ad ever. "Imported from Detroit," 15 yrs ago Serendipity? Embedded memory by Kelly people? Perfect for both. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNIQ...

Anecdata on RFKJr era: -I got Covid, w lasting effects, in 2022. Don't want to again -Have gotten vax as soon as eligible, now many times -Got latest vax >4 months ago -Am of "mature" Boomer vintage. Per even today's CDC, should now qualify for booster -Local CVS (in DC + MD) won't sked it. "Policy"

For "worst Floridian on the national scene," it's been a contest. Ron DeSantis? Matt Gaetz? Pam Bondi? Eileen Cannon? Jeb "Recount" Bush? Etc *Best* Floridian has been locked up. It's former Gov and Senator, the phenomenal Bob Graham. But now Marco Rubio making daring bid for 'worst' crown.

We are officially in 'Weekend at Bernie's" territory. Look at the photo of Trump, while Rubio is talking, at yesterday's press conference. fallows.substack.com/p/blind-into...

The most disturbing presidential press conference I have ever seen. fallows.substack.com/p/blind-into... (First 3/4ths before paywall.)

"We're going to be taking a lot of wealth out of the ground." The American president. Reporters are doing a good job here! Trump is lower than absolute-zero in sanity. Marco, Hegseth, even lower in dignity.

The reporters at this press conference/disaster are mainly asking good, tough questions.

Little Marco: "It's a country run by incompetent senile men." ___ (He's talking about Cuba, but ... )

No one has ever earned a derogatory nickname more fully than "Little Marco."

1/2 Remember that the great disruptions of past 11 1/2 months are from the WHIM OF ONE MAN: —Upheaval of world economy via tariffs —Effective dissolution of longest-standing Western alliances (NATO, North Amer partners, cultural-scientific-educ-aid institutions, US "soft power" overall.) —Now this.

This is the most extreme, irresponsible, and un-Constitutional sentence Trump has yet uttered in office. "We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition." WE'RE GOING TO RUN THE COUNTRY.

There are wars where you deal w what comes after, once there is an 'after.' Ft Sumter 1861. Pearl Harbor 1941. Ukraine 2022. Etc There are "wars of choice" where you damn well better have planned "what comes after," before you take that first step. Baghdad 2003. Now? Must tell public + Congress.

News editor of @mississippifreepress.org with a much better sense of journalism than this guy placed by Bari Weiss in the anchor chair.

Watching the odious Richard Grenell, new boss of Kennedy Center, under relentless grilling by @amnanawaz.bsky.social on PBS NewsHour Keeps referring to "the then-Kennedy Center." This guy needs to be bracketed w Stephen Miller and Russell Vought in annals of our times. Very good job by A Nawaz

Never gets old.

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No One Asked Me But™ dept: Chevy Chase doc on CNN=worth it. Some "actually interesting" parts: -At Bard College, in band w D Fagen & W Becker of Steely Dan!! (CC was drummer, also v good jazz piano) -He (insanely) quit SNL early in year 2—not pushed out etc -How *big* a movie star he used to be

Local angle: My dad, Navy doctor and then small-town heart specialist, was in famed double-blind test of aspirin's effects on heart disease, w MDs as test subjects + run by Harvard Med Sch in 1980s Found clear benefit. But now known that benefits are (a) up to age 60, and (b) w low dose Not this

1) Worthwhile details in WSJ story on Trump's obviously declining health www.wsj.com/us-news/as-s... 2) Imagine being a reporter and writing sentence below. (W/o prominent "sarcasm" marker) Pro tip: Strike "sometimes." Instead try "nearly always" "chronically" "ceaselessly" "unblinkingly" etc

Yes. There needs to be a specific campaign theme and promise to get rid of ICE. Everything about it is anti-American. (Data point, not necessarily campaign-speech point: ICE hiring bonuses have lured in large number of prison guards. www.propublica.org/article/ice-...)

On Jack Smith deposition, now released: 100% obvious why GOP refused to allow this as open testimony, aired live. It's damning. Testimony from John Dean or Alex ("wiretaps") Butterfield in Watergate days would have 1/10th the impact if just in print. What Smith says is far more incriminating.

In Aug I argued that 2025 had become overall "worse" (for world and US) than 1968 fallows.substack.com/p/which-side... (Yes, of course, impossible to compare, etc etc) But 2025 is *ending* w Trump, while still dangerously destructive, visibly weakening on all fronts. 1968 ended w Nixon winning.

Yin and yang of consumer-level AI, Dec 31 2025: —Get very sophisticated explanation of aviation-tech detail I thought I understood, but didn't —Ask for filmmaker ID for tech video I'm watching. Confident-sounding (and completely hallucinated) response below But points for use of "actually."

1/n Powerful and gut-wrenching photo-essay presentation in @washingtonpost.com by Jonathan Edwards. Investigative/explanatory journalism at a very high level. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int... If you haven't lived in DC, you may not appreciate how much this is a city of **trees**.

some personal news

"Guy in a diner" story, Dec 2025 edition. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/u... Somehow I've missed the profiles of people in Nashville / Austin / Houston / Kansas City MO / Charlotte / etc who have been gerrymandered out of "fair" representation.

Boycotting Constitution Hall because the DAR won’t let Marian Anderson sing has costs. It may end opera. Is that worth it? By Megan McArdle, 1939

It's today's counterpart to the classic emails of yore. "I am the former Finance Minister of Kazakhstan. I seek your help in transferring $500 million from my Swiss Bank Account, half of which I will promptly wire to you. Please just provide me your account number and log-in data...."

I agree with this. Trumpago delenda est. www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-rena...

Agree. This is a bad video (from the generally strong WSJ news team) that takes McMahon/Trump/Fuentes "Oh, we care so much about antisemitism, let's fight Harvard" BS at face value. The paper and this reporter are generally better than this.

I'd always been pro-Aaron Rodgers, just because he was a UC Berkeley guy. And then: Hero of citizen-owned Green Bay Packers! Now: Hah hah hah.

It is so cool that Aaron Rodgers became a super huge actual loser after he turned to the dark side. Ever since he wigged out about that Covid vaccine, made himself a martyr, and chose up sides with RFK Jr., he just can't stop losing and letting people down. Great lesson for the kids, thanks man.

Context: @brian-goldstone.bsky.social is author of a powerful 2025 book about the human face of "homelessness": 'There is no place for us.' Hampton Inn (and others) should change their policy. Everyone should read Brian's book.

1/2 -More-interesting-than-usual story on Trump's extortion demands on Harvard. (Remember when this was all about the MAGA/Fuentes team's heartfelt concern about antisemitism?) -Headline badly mismatches contents of the story. As the reporting makes clear, the "escalation" is all on MAGA side.

If you don't know about the NORAD SantaTracker, you should. www.noradsanta.org/en/map Merry Christmas Eve.

Unexpected view out the window at Dulles just now. (This United livery is new to me. The lettering on the engine is about Sustainable Aviation Fuels — SAF.)

Agree. Sharyn Alfonsi is standing up. People need to stand up with her and for her.

Good story on how karma caught up w Stefanik. Part of her legacy: her bear-baiting harassment of univ presidents, back when Team MAGA (including her) still pretended that #1 motive to slash higher ed funding was MAGA's deep concern about antisemitism [Cf: N Fuentes] www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/u...

Worth watching 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' in any of its versions, as a reminder of what CBS has been. Or 'The Insider,' about 60 Minutes in particular. This is really, really bad.

Enjoyed doing this podcast with .... John Kasich! johnkasich.substack.com/p/the-challe... (Republican, former 2-term Ohio Gov, multi-term Congressman, 2016 prez candidate.)

Something I didn't foresee in 2025, or ever. Seeing Rep. Thomas Massie (!!!) sound more reality-based, and unhindered by "both-sides-ism," than the current anchor of a CBS news show. This is genuinely pathetic by Brennan.

What American institutions are standing up and "meeting the moment"? Sleeping giants awake: US foundations. Podcast with head of MacArthur Foundation, John Palfrey. fallows.substack.com/p/this-is-th...

Presidents who attended Kennedy Ctr events since its opening in 1971 and did not dream of putting their names on it Nixon Ford Carter Reagan Bush I Clinton Bush II Obama Biden Very different people. None of them this vulgar. Would have made more sense for DJT to put his name on the Supreme Court.

This is flat-out illegal. Congress determines the name of the Kennedy Center. Demolition of the East Wing is irreversible. This can and must be fixed. www.cnbc.com/2025/12/19/t...

Exactly. If people want to understand why secretly recording professor’s lectures is generally problematic (despite who was recorded in this instance, and why) they might want to consult the faculty at Texas A&M. www.cnn.com/2025/11/22/u...