🇺🇸 "ROT IN HELL"

Plus, married since 123123!

The Flag

Good morning, and happy Thursday. A mom's video of her husband in a tutu at their daughter's dance recital hits all the right notes

Plus, for better or for worse, a wave of couples saying “I do” in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve could set a record for the city’s busiest wedding day ever That’s because 12/31/23 is known in the massive Las Vegas wedding industry as a “specialty date,” thanks to the repeating 1-2-3 1-2-3 pattern.

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Left: Want To Solve the Border Crisis? Legalize Immigration, David J. Bier, The Daily Beast

Right: NY Latest State To Entertain Dems' Reparations Fraud, David Lewis Schaefer, Association of Mature American Citizens

Right: Aiding Illegal Immigrants Instead of Vets Is Un-American, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, FOX News

Right: Voters Increasingly Ditching Dems for GOP in PA, Mary Lou Masters, The Daily Caller

QUICK CLICKS

Michigan Keeps Trump on Ballot, Fake Elector Remorseful, Eiffel Tower Strike

US: Michigan Supreme Court rejects bid to keep Trump off 2024 primary ballot (CBS News)

US: Jack Smith asks judge to bar Trump from making ‘political attacks’ in 2020 election trial (The Hill)

US: Migrant caravan heads toward U.S. southern border ahead of Blinken's trip to Mexico (NBC News)

World: The Eiffel Tower is closed while workers strike on the 100th anniversary of its founder’s death (AP)

US: Biden administration is quietly shifting Ukraine strategy to focus on negotiations (New York Post)

US: Fake Trump elector in Michigan sorry for what happened (The Hill)

World: Israel pounds central Gaza, thousands of Palestinians try to escape (Reuters)

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TRUMP

“ROT IN HELL”

Over the holiday weekend, Former President Donald Trump shared a Christmas day post on Truth Social that read, “Merry Christmas to all, including Crooked Joe Biden’s ONLY HOPE, Deranged Jack Smith, the out of control Lunatic who just hired outside attorneys, fresh from the SWAMP (unprecedented!), to help him with his poorly executed WITCH HUNT against ‘TRUMP’ and ‘MAGA.’ Included also are World Leaders, both good and bad, but none of which are as evil and ‘sick’ as the THUGS we have inside our Country who, with their Open Borders, INFLATION, Afghanistan Surrender, Green New Scam, High Taxes, No Energy Independence, Woke Military, Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Iran, All Electric Car Lunacy, and so much more, are looking to destroy our once great USA. MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

Reporting from the Left: Trump Calls Himself ‘Clairvoyant’ in Unhinged Christmas Message (Daily Beast)

Reporting from the Right: Trump unleashes scathing 'Merry Christmas' message (Blaze Media)

From The Flag: The post received significant coverage and criticism from left-leaning sources, many of which labeled the message “unhinged.” Some right-leaning sources are covering the story, but they are only objectively presenting Trump’s comments. Here’s more on how both sides are covering Trump’s latest controversial statements.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Unhinged

  • “The Commander-in-Chaos is back with Yuletide rants about his many grievances and enemies.”

  • Trump leaned toward airing his grievances in an unhinged rant instead of pushing for peace and goodwill during the Christmas holiday.

  • “The former president and leading GOP presidential candidate spent Christmas Day airing grievances on his social media platform.”

Donald Trump’s Galactically Unhinged Christmas Wishes, Tori Otten, The New Republic: “ Donald Trump gave us an angry, multiday rant about all his perceived enemies and slights on social media for Christmas. Trump’s screed, which spanned Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, highlighted the former president’s growing anger over the ways he feels he has been wronged—as well as how dangerous a second Trump presidency would be. He took aim at President Joe Biden and special counsel Jack Smith and spewed multiple falsehoods about the 2020 election for good measure. … Trump’s unfiltered social media spew is emblematic of his current presidential campaign, which is less about policy proposals or a vision of the future and more focused on his plans to get revenge on those who he feels have wronged him. Trump has already explicitly stated that his 2024 campaign is about ‘retribution.’ … As The New Republic has reported recently, the other worrying feature of Trump’s holiday season rhetoric has been his newfound love of paraphrasing Adolf Hitler. Trump has lately seemed determined to make parallels to the world’s best-known avatar of monomaniacally retributive politics a central part of his campaign persona.

Trump augurs divisive year in angry Christmas rant, Stephen Collinson, CNN: “Most global political, spiritual and national leaders mark Christmas with a plea for peace, or by stressing the virtues of family and unity. That’s not Donald Trump’s style. The ex-president unleashed an online torrent of fury and bitterness, largely over his legal plights, spanning Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, previewing the discord and personal obsessions he will inflict on the nation in a pivotal election year in 2024. … Just three weeks before voting starts in the Republican nominating race, the front-runner also underscored the extraordinary extent to which false claims about electoral fraud three years ago are still the anchor of his political project. And his tirades, at a time when Americans who celebrate Christmas gathered with loved ones and sought a moment of peace, hint at a furious state of mind and extreme denialism. These are likely to raise new concerns about his temperament and suitability to serve again as commander-in-chief and are a dark omen as to what another Trump term could bring.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: Trump unleashes unhinged Christmas tirade on Truth Social, Clarissa-Jan Lim, MSNBC

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Objective Coverage

  • Trump’s comments appear to feed into the narrative that he is innocent of any crimes and is being unjustly targeted.

  • Trump’s Christmas Day posts spanned a wide range of areas including criticism of his enemies and commentary on international relations.

  • Trump currently sits comfortably as the leading Republican candidate and took the opportunity to discredit his political enemies.

Trump sends angry Christmas message aimed at Biden and Jack Smith, Emily Jacobs, Washington Examiner: “Former President Donald Trump offered up a fiery Christmas message to his detractors and political opponents. Trump wrote in a series of all-caps posts on his Truth Social platform that he was the victim of ‘election interference,’ accusing President Joe Biden and special counsel Jack Smith of ‘coming after him.’ … Trump faces four federal counts in a 2020 election case brought by Smith. The charges include conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights, according to the 45-page indictment. Those charges largely hinge on the allegation that Trump was aware that his words and actions related to overturning the 2020 election were based on falsities. … Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the hush money and documents matters and vowed to fight both sets of charges. He has also maintained his innocence in the state and federal investigations regarding his handling of his 2020 election loss.”

Trump rips into rivals in Christmas rants: ‘May they rot in hell’, Victor Morton, Washington Times: “Donald Trump seemed Monday to get Christmas mixed up with Festivus. In a series of posts on his Truth Social website, the former president aired a litany of grievances and even wished hell on some people. But he ended the posts with ‘Merry Christmas.’ In one post on Christmas Day, he wrote in screaming all-capital letters that ‘2024 will go down as the year of the great and fully coordinated illegal election interference by Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt president in the history of the United States, the DOJ, FBI, A.G.’s, & D.A.’s throughout the country.’ After more predicting a ‘big and glorious victory,’ he ended the message with ‘Merry Christmas to alll!!!’ … He then went in a very different theological direction, offering greetings to world leaders ‘none of which are as evil and ‘sick’ as the THUGS we have inside our Country who, with their Open Borders, INFLATION, Afghanistan Surrender, Green New Scam, High Taxes, No Energy Independence, Woke Military, Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Iran, All Electric Car Lunacy, and so much more, are looking to destroy our once great USA.’

One more opinion piece from the Right: Trump shares Christmas message for opponents on Truth Social: 'May they rot in hell' Jamie Joseph, FOX News

FLAG THIS

Politics of Revenge

On Tuesday, Trump took to Truth Social to share a word cloud poll that featured the words "revenge" and "dictatorship" to describe him. The poll, commissioned by Daily Mail, illustrated the words voters most associate with Trump’s plans for a second term (Reuters).

Do you believe Trump would use a second term to exact revenge on his critics and political enemies?

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POWERED BY TALKSPACE

Your mental health is priceless, and with Talkspace, you can support it without breaking the bank. Talkspace works with most major insurers. In fact, most insured members pay only a low copay, typically less than $30 per session. With live chat, video, and audio sessions, you can easily fit mental wellness into your daily routine, no matter what’s on your calendar. You can also message your therapist any time, and they’ll usually reply within a day to offer support or guidance.

Start your journey to better mental health with Talkspace today. Use promo code SPACE80 for $80 off your first session.

WATERCOOLER

Test Tube Baby, Mom Lies, Flights to Nowhere

On This Day in 1981: The first American "test-tube baby," a child born as a result of in-vitro fertilization, is born in Norfolk, Virginia. Considered a miracle at the time, births like that of Elizabeth Jordan Carr are now common.

Today I learned that during the COVID-19 pandemic, several airlines offered "flights to nowhere," where the airplane would start and land at the same airport.

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