Thurs Blogcast: Spending bloat dies; Market meltdown; Saving Abigail

Thurs breaking news: Georga DA disqualified

Fani Willis disqualified from Trump's Georgia election interference case

Fani Willis can no longer be involved in the Fulton County, GA prosecution of Trump and his associates for various claims of "election interference." However, the court did not dismiss the indictments. The next step, then is whether another prosecutor can be found who wants to pursue the case...because the assistant DAs in Fulton County who work for Willis are also disqualified (not for their own bad behavior but because the only authority they wield is hers and now she has none.)

The court ruling: TrumpGAAppealsOpn121924 | DocumentCloud

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Just One Thing: The spending cave-in is dead

And the political implications are enormous

Well, here’s something you don’t see every day: A Republican cave-in was torpedoed by a few rebellious House members, but really by Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Democrats jammed at least tens of billions of dollars of spending into a ridiculous spending bill of over 1500 pages that nobody will have a chance to skim, much less read, before being forced to vote on it. Speaker of the House Mike Johnston went on conservative TV networks to defend it as the best that could be done given that it couldn’t pass with only Republican support in the House and a Republican bill wouldn’t pass the Senate. But Trump, Vance, and Musk put so much pressure on Speaker Johnson that he killed the bill and might actually make Republican House members do what they ran on doing.

By the way, it was 1500 pages with an insane amount of spending JUST TO COVER 3 MONTHS OF GOV'T SPENDING. This has to stop. At the risk of sounding trite, for the sake of our children this really has to stop.

Couldn't agree more: Year-End Spending Bill: 'Clean' CR Should Be Way to Go for House | National Review

Scalise confirms spending deal is ‘dead’ after mass GOP revolt

But Trump's other post is very confusing. It sounds as if he WANTS all the Dem spending to pass, just that he wants it now rather than when he's president. I sorta doubt that the former is what he really means, though he wants the debt limit fight now. I don't think he'll get his way, and how weird would it be to see Republicans cheering to raise the debt limit and Dems not going along? The world has turned upside down.

Senator Rand Paul doesn't get to vote on who serves as Speaker of the House but it's safe to say that his viewpoint here is shared by some House Republicans and given the minuscule GOP majority in the House, especially at the beginning of the next Congress, Mike Johnson's position as Speaker looks tenuous following his crazy spending deal with Dems.

Today's Guests

Kurt Cambier of Centennial Capital Partners joins the show to discuss yesterday's massive market sell-off following the Federal Reserve signaling a slowdown in the pace of interest-rate cuts.

Centennial Capital Partners

Dow plummets 1,100 points after Fed scales back plans for interest rate cuts

Dow Jones Plummets 1100 Points After Fed Suggests Fewer Rate Cuts In 2025

A good quote from a speech by Governor Waller on the economic outlook - Federal Reserve Board

I feel like an MMA fighter who keeps getting inflation in a choke hold, waiting for it to tap out yet it keeps slipping out of my grasp at the last minute. But let me assure you that submission is inevitable—inflation isn't getting out of the octagon.”

I think the first half of the quote is more important than the second half.

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George Braucher is the newly elected DA of the newly created 23rd Judicial District. We'll talk about what criminals in the district should expect once George takes office next month. We'll also talk about how Laura Ingraham (or her producers putting words in her mouth) misled viewers about Brauchler.

Creation of the 23rd Judicial District - Douglas County

DA-elect to take tough-on-crime approach in new 23rd Judicial District

Due to the lack of resources for people like herself – someone with a family member in the military – Kristin Anderson-Cronin created an online toolkit called MySTART for military families. The toolkit focuses on addressing challenges that may arise, as well as the knowledge of resources that may be available before, during, and after military service.  

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Liz Hirsh Naftali’s 3-yr-old niece, Abigail, was kidnapped by Hamas (after they murdered her parents in front of her). She was eventually released after Liz became an activist for Abigail and other hostages. Liz's book about the ordeal is: Saving Abigail: The True Story of the Abduction and Rescue of a Three-Year-Old Hostage: Naftali, Liz Hirsh*

And she continues to work today to champion the release of remaining hostages and to support their families.

Liz Hirsh Naftali — The Z3 Project

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases such as if you buy a book through the links on my blog.

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Other Stuff

Oh, this oughta be juicy: House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release Gaetz ethics report: Source | AP News

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Fascinating intersection of art and physics. I probably won't talk about this on the show other than a quick mention. It's a bonus just for blog readers and I've used a "gift link" so you can read it without needing a Washington Post subscription: The hidden physics in Van Gogh’s turbulent ‘Starry Night’ skies, explained - Washington Post

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Chasing the green new dream is incredibly expensive: Electric grid that can take a surge of EVs, heat pumps will cost $5B

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This has been going on for four years, not just the last year, and the government kept it hidden from the public. This must never happen again, regardless of partisan considerations. How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Charge - WSJ

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From 8 days to 8 months: Return delayed until at least late March for NASA's 2 stuck astronauts | AP News

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This doesn't mean that intelligence agencies were stupid or even necessarily wrong but rather that Bibi enacted a plan that overcame most of the risks. Much of that was probably made possible by the truly remarkable amount of intelligence that Israel clearly had about the locations of key Hezbollah weapons caches and locations of key leadership.

US intel wrongly envisioned catastrophic outcome if IDF escalated against Hezbollah | The Times of Israel

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Teen drug and alcohol use fell (as expected) during the isolation period of COVID. Now that kids are back together, that substance use has...continued to fall. Monitoring the Future Study Annual Report

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Axios: Don't blame inflation for the price of new cars

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An insane and terrible story. Sure, there's some justice now but it can't make up for what happened. I have to say I'm surprised that I hadn't heard about this trial until today. It was THE news in France and you can imagine that a similar American case would have been at the top of every American newscast: Gisèle Pelicot: Ex-husband and 50 others found guilty in France mass rape trial | AP News

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For the first time in I-don't-know-how-long, liquor stores will be allowed to be open on Christmas Day. How insane that it took until this year for that prohibition to change. Will liquor stores be open on Christmas Day in Colorado? | FOX31 Denver

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You're bad if you're defrauding people. Really bad if you're defrauding people in the name of charity. Straight to hell for defrauding people while harming animals (or people, of course): Douglas County Canine Rescue relinquishes license after lengthy investigation

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Offered without comment: Tired of long organ waitlists, these patients are hopeful for a pig organ transplant | AP News

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Another bonus for blog readers: It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a superweapon: How drones are reshaping modern warfare | All Israel News

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In the political weeds but interesting: Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz says she won't join GOP Conference, voices support for DOGE

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There's a bunch in here that I won't say on the radio even though it's not actually illegal to do so: Doctors reveal what happens to the human body when you don't have sex or masturbate for months | Daily Mail Online

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Today's Videos

Some Sports Emmy-winning reporting by KOA's Nick Ferguson


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