COMMUNISM SUCKS: She’d Never Seen That Much Food Before: A Hard Reality From a Farmers Market “I can’t explain to you what it feels like to come to a market and see such a variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, everything… Here you can buy whatever you need. People come here and buy what they’ll need for the whole week. The truth is, I don’t understand why my country, Cuba, goes through so much, when everywhere else in the world people have the right and can buy the basic necessities they need to live.”

ROGER KIMBALL: The Pence Mirage: Why the Right Isn’t Leaving Trump: The Heritage Foundation “mutiny” isn’t a conservative realignment so much as the latest anti-Trump mirage, with Mike Pence cast as a moral standard-bearer no one is following.

Related: Pence’s Paradox: Civility Over Conviction.

THE NUMBERS ARE A BIT OFF, BUT STILL IMPRESSIVE:

$2 trillion per year, so about a fourth of the annual budget, is going straight to Leftists. https://t.co/t3GhF4Qq9H pic.twitter.com/7AKrnm5nAS

— Fugitive Caesar (@ThomBrady5) December 28, 2025

The gravy train must be derailed.

NOT THE BABYLON BEE, PART DEUX: A new view of two critical days that set the stage for the devastating Palisades fire.

An hour after midnight Jan. 1, as a small brush fire blazed across Topanga State Park, a California State Parks employee texted the Los Angeles Fire Department’s heavy equipment supervisor to find out if they were sending in bulldozers.

“Heck no that area is full of endangered plants,” Capt. Richard Diede replied at 9:52 a.m, five hours after LAFD declared the fire contained.

“I would be a real idiot to ever put a dozer in that area,” he wrote. “I’m so trained.”

That’s the perfect epitaph for the Pacific Palisades.

Modern blue-state governing policy is often, quite literally, at Monty Python-skit levels. https://t.co/FcpQYaOsWD

— Wilfred Reilly (@wil_da_beast630) December 29, 2025

HOLIDAY DEAL: Electric Cordless Snow Shovel. #CommissionEarned

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Even after near-record returns, California state retirement fund still $166B short.

After The Center Square’s investigation found CalPERS lost 71% of its $468 million investment in a clean energy and technology private equity fund, Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, a government finance expert and former San Diego city councilman, requested an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the matter; DeMaio’s office reportedly is in ongoing discussions with the Department of Justice, which has confirmed receipt of the request but has previously declined comment to The Center Square on the matter.

In an interview with The Center Square,, DeMaio renewed his calls for greater transparency, more effective management and possible reform of the state’s pension system.

First, regarding CalPERS’ $282 million commitment to HongShan, a Chinese venture capital firm investigated for human rights abuses, DeMaio cautioned against future state investment in China, citing close cooperation between the Chinese Communist Party and corporations – more formally known as the nation’s military-civil fusion strategy.

“Why is CalPERS investing in the Chinese Communist Party? Let’s be very clear, this is not like it’s a private economy that they run there: the Chinese Communist Party is knee deep in almost every single investment that happens, every operation,” DeMaio said.

CalPERS’ investment in HongShan has posted a $7.7 million loss, as of the most recent filings reflecting March 31, 2025.

“High risk management with very little return — and every day that passes that there’s no return, taxpayers are responsible for the assumed rate of return every year, and it compounds,” continued DeMaio.

Does anyone really believe that Sacramento will ever make good on a 12-digit shortfall?

Certainly not while the sheep can flee before they get fleeced: A Wealth Tax Floated in California Has Billionaires Thinking of Leaving.

IT’S A REAL PUZZLE:

Somalilanders got genocided and responded by building a functioning society instead of doing suicide bombings.

This is a very confusing concept to Palestine, which wasn't genocided, didn't built anything, and performed many suicide bombings. https://t.co/az5VYeNUkE

— Max 📟 (@MaxNordau) December 27, 2025

THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I HAD FORESEEN: 74 suicide warnings and 243 mentions of hanging: What ChatGPT said to a suicidal teen.

NOT THE BABYLON BEE, PART ONE: Dispatches from the Somali Pirates, “Quality Learing Center” Division. Misspelled learning center, no children inside: Emmer presses Walz over Minnesota daycare tied to $4M. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer demands answers after viral video shows Quality ‘Learing’ Center with no activity:

Quality Learing Center in Minneapolis has stolen $4M from taxpayers over the last 2 years, of course a white liberal woman is standing outside screaming something.

Americans have overall lost their balls.

Thieves should be treated a certain way. pic.twitter.com/6W1UglZbgZ

— Libs Of Chicago (@Libs_OfChicago) December 28, 2025

Related:

The libs will never lear https://t.co/WEm5ZGdrAU

— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) December 29, 2025

CULTURE MATTERS:

It is striking how many people fixate on fraud enforcement while missing the forest for the trees. When you engage in mass migration from low-trust societies into high-trust ones, you inevitably produce corruption and industrial-scale abuse of public systems. You cannot have…

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) December 28, 2025

HEADLINES FROM 1979: Islamic Republic of Iran Says It’s In a ‘Total War’ Not Just with Israel Alone.

ICYMI: SOMALI PIRATES UPDATE:

Prosecute @GovTimWalz https://t.co/oSQprdo292

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 27, 2025

I’m sure Walz himself would agree!

Fortunately for his job security, the DFL-MSM doesn’t care:

After 3 straight days of ground breaking reporting by Nick, a 22 yr old YouTuber, in what is the now the biggest story in the country, today’s state’s newspapers have ZERO mention of it. This is a key part of the how the corruption works here-it gets total safety from the MN… https://t.co/Y0FoY1Km7X pic.twitter.com/4Br8BvzoQI

— Jim in MN (@HuskersMN) December 27, 2025

Minnesota’s largest paper just released its Year in Review.

Not a single mention of the fraud consuming our state. This is how the fraud was able to balloon into what it is today. pic.twitter.com/YW1VLsMQzZ

— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) December 27, 2025

Neither does Jake Tapper, who is far more interested in tone policing Minnesota voters than reporting on Minnesota corruption:

Very Serious Journalist Jake Tapper takes time to post his Very Serious Concerns about 𝕏 posts showing people yelling stuff at Tim Walz

Meanwhile, zero posts from Jake about the viral posts all over 𝕏 reporting on the fraud in Tim Walz’ state. pic.twitter.com/HZylMy33bX

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) December 27, 2025

Err, sorry. Tone policing Minnesota Republican voters. At CNN, “Civility feels like it misses the mark” when Democrats are protesting:

Here’s what a CNN anchor said about protestors outside Supreme Court Justices’ homes in 2022:

"A conversation about ‘civility’ feels like it misses the mark."

The Justices have security and people are angry, so what’s the big deal? https://t.co/Xp8d9biorq pic.twitter.com/06AQmo6rIr

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) December 28, 2025

So why the crickets from the national DNC-MSM, when there’s a slam-dunk 60 Minutes-style story in Minnesota, only needing a cameraman, an interviewer, a rental car, and some door knocking?

One kid with an iPhone vs thousands of corporate uninterested paid journalists. Incredible. https://t.co/J9gnsTNxby

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) December 28, 2025

Michael Moore became a millionaire off shit like this.

The question everyone should be asking is why does no journalist who works for NBC ABC CNN Washington Post or New York Times want to be famous like that?

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) December 28, 2025

We all know why:

ON SUNDAYS I RUN A PROMO POST FOR (MOSTLY) INDIE AUTHORS:  Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

There’s also a fun vignette challenge.

THE LEFT SEEKS THE ‘ARTIST’ AS THE HERO:   Kenneth Clark’s majestic Civilisation series – Part 5, ‘The hero as the artist’.

THERE WAS A MORE THAN 30% DROP IN VIEWERSHIP FROM LAST YEAR’S CHRISTMAS PROGRAMMES:  The BBC’s Christmas collapse is nothing short of catastrophic.

The rather amazing thing is that Beebs still has viewers.

I WONDER HOW MUCH JEFF BEZOS PROFITS OFF OF CHRISTMAS PURCHASES?  Of Course, the Trump White House Issuing This Statement Triggered a Meltdown in Liberal America.

Of course, indie authors don’t have much choice. Or any publishers, really. But I’m slowly working on going wide. We need alternatives!

UN OUT OF THE US. US OUT OF THE UN:  Somalia Set to Lead UN Security Council in January.

A SMART AND GREAT LADY:  And God… Called Woman Back to Him: RIP BB.

You know this, because all the Eurocrats are foaming at the mouth and calling her a right winger.

MY HUNCH IS THAT HE’S RIGHT:  Understanding the Great Enrichment: how mass prosperity replaced mass poverty. Britain became the first country to do learning-by-experiment at scale.

AKA THE ZIMBABWE PLAN:  USDA Challenges California Over Potential Implementation of Race-Based Farmland Redistribution Plan.

IT’S A VALID CONTENTION:  The idea of abolition – ie the moral belief that all slavery is wrong everywhere, rather than simply not wanting to be enslaved oneself – likely could only have arising in a northern european protestant culture. Only here is labour considered noble and dignified, everywhere else it is seen as demeaning. Thus in other societies the slave is seen as lesser because of the fact of their slavery.

And for the x-iled.

I DON’T THINK THEY UNDERSTAND, ACTUALLY:  It may seem petty to deny entry to EUrocrats, but it’s all they will understand.

LOL:  The US Department of War does “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.

OH, COME ON. WE NEED THIS STUDY:  Probably Just a Joke.

INTERESTING:  Am I really Northern Italian? I tested it with a reference panel. A reproducible workflow using AADR.