NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Biden advisors used insecure pseudonymous email accounts to brief him on sensitive foreign policy.

New email records released by the National Archives show then-Vice President Joe Biden was briefed about sensitive foreign policy matters by then-advisor Antony Blinken on his private email account, including details about a failed North Korean missile launch.

Joe Biden, now president, first faced scrutiny about potential private accounts after emails contained on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop showed the then-vice president in the Obama administration was using an email address with a pseudonym to communicate about business and official matters with his son, other family members, and senior staff.

One new email, part of several batches released by the National Archives pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit shows that in the hours following a North Korean missile launch in April 2012, Blinken—who was then Biden’s national security advisor—sent a message to the vice president’s private email account “” with details about the sensitive national security matter.

Google — at the very least — was reading Biden’s emails.

FROM HER ROLE AS EDITH WILSON? Jill Biden Announces She’s Retiring — and the Punchline Writes Itself.

HISTORY: German Archaeological Find Sheds Light on Christianity’s Spread Into Europe. “Incredibly, the text represents the oldest known evidence of Christianity north of the Alps, dating back to between 230 and 270 AD, scientists say.”

EXCLUSIVE: Stephen Moore Describes How Trump Can Save the American Economy in His Latest Book.

FAR OUT: No tripping outside: Denver proposes local psilocybin rules.

Cities can make certain decisions about the psilocybin industry, but they can’t outlaw it completely, according to the new state law.

“We can enact an ordinance, regulations, governing time, place and manner about the operation of natural medicine licenses. But where we are limited with our authority is that we cannot prohibit the establishment or operation of natural medicine licenses. We can’t prohibit the transportation of natural medicine through Denver by licensed persons,” Soisson said.

Erica Rogers, also of the excise and licensing department, said the city wanted to be careful with how it enforced the psilocybin laws.

“We acknowledge that the impacts of criminal enforcement of drug laws has historically had negative impacts on marginalized and specific communities, and so we want to be intentional about how we address risks related to natural medicine in our community,” she said.

The proposal is expected to go to the Denver City Council for approval by February, and license applications will be accepted soon after.

Once again, the Denver-Boulder Axis forces its insanity on the sane parts of the state.

CONSIDERING STEPHANOPOULOS’S UNINTERRUPTED CAREER AS A DEMOCRAT PARTY HACK, THAT’S THE WAY TO BET: The Secrets of ABC News: Did They Pay $15 Million to Hide Something Even Worse?

LAST WEEK: Canada says it will respond robustly if US imposes tariffs. “In the event that the United States were to impose unjustified tariffs on Canada, of course we would respond, and the Canadian response would necessarily be robust. I am confident that it would be effective,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Friday.

This week: Canada announces new border funding after Trump tariff threat.

Freeland — “Justin Trudeau’s chief lieutenant throughout his tenure as Canada’s prime minister” — resigned yesterday, “citing differences over how to confront President-elect Donald Trump,” and, to be fair, that new border funding might eventually prove to be “robust” and “effective.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Very Respectfully, ‘White Privilege’ Is a Steaming Load of Crap.

THIS IS THE DEEP STATE:

The Biden Admin paid Reuters over $300 million in government contracts. 11 different Biden government agencies targeted Elon's businesses. All 11 agencies paid millions to Reuters. Reuters then won the Pulitzer Prize for "their work on Elon Musk and misconduct at his businesses" pic.twitter.com/3IGGtuHv7L

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) December 17, 2024

The DOGE boys have their work cut out for them.

LET THE CARDS FALL WHERE THEY MAY: FBI to Investigate Liz Cheney Over J6 Witness Tampering?

IT’S A MILESTONE FOR ARGENTINA, TOO: Argentina’s economy exits recession in milestone for Javier Milei.

GDP expanded 3.9 per cent from July to September in seasonal-adjusted terms compared with the previous quarter, marking Argentina’s first quarter of growth since it entered recession in late 2023, the country’s statistics agency said on Monday.

Compared with the same period in 2023, GDP for the third quarter fell 2.1 per cent.

The rebound comes as Milei marks one year in office, during which time he has unleashed brutal spending cuts and a fierce deregulation drive.

The programme has brought down the country’s triple-digit annual inflation and made the libertarian one of the most prominent leaders of the global right, winning glowing endorsements from the likes of US President-elect Donald Trump and one of his closest advisers, billionaire Elon Musk.

Argentina’s sovereign bonds climbed on Monday, with the premium over US Treasuries that investors demand to hold its debt falling 4.4 per cent to 677 basis points, down from more than 2,000 when Milei took office.

Weird how leaders of the “global left” aren’t giving glowing endorsement to a program that’s working wonders for the people of Argentina.

CHANGE MORE OF THE SAME: AOC Hit With Major Snub in Her Bid for Leadership. “Connolly was supported by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — a true sign of her continued influence over the caucus despite no longer being in leadership. According to some reports, Pelosi was actively trying to sabotage AOC.”

SENTENCING SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN CARRIED OUT SWIFTLY:

BREAKING:

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov has been killed by a remotely detonated bomb placed near the entrance of a building in Moscow

Kirillov was the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defense Forces (NBC)

Ukraine charged him with chemical war crimes 24h ago. pic.twitter.com/ZlxiBxABJu

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) December 17, 2024

More:

Kirillov was responsible for providing Russian forces with the chemical agents the use against entrenched Ukrainian positions.

Ukraine claims that Russia has used chemical agents 4800 times since the war started.

Since 2022, more than 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been hospitalized with chemical poisoning, and 3 have died.

Full details here.

PAINFUL: Fortune’s Fool: Ketanji Jackson Makes Embarrassing Broadway Debut. “A Supreme Court justice by any other name still acts horribly. If there were a Tony Award for worst Broadway performance, Supreme Court justice and all-around joke, Ketanji Brown Jackson would be taking home a trophy. Yes, the ultimate DEI hire took to the stage in a one-time appearance Saturday in the Broadway musical ‘&Juliet.'”

The worst part might not have been Jackson demeaning herself and the court, but that an amateurish production like “&Juliet” is considered Broadway-worthy.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (BEIJING EDITION): China’s November retail sales miss expectations as real estate slump deepens.

The world’s second-largest economy has been contending with pressure from multiple fronts this year. Consumer and business confidence has been hit by a prolonged property downturn, local government debt risks and high unemployment.

“The stimulus effect has been short-lived,” My Bui, economist at investment management firm AMP said in an email. While the “recent fragile but upward momentum in Chinese economic data will translate into a real GDP growth rate of 5% this year,” they are unlikely to turn around weak consumption sentiment due to falling home prices, Bui added.

November industrial production rose by 5.4% from a year ago, above the expectations of 5.3% growth among economists polled by Reuters, accelerating from a climb of 5.3% in the prior month.

That industrial production increase is partly due to China trying to export its overcapacity issue. The flood of cheap exports is annoying everybody, including allies.

“FLAHERTY IS THIS CLOSE TO GETTING IT”: Kamala Harris Deputy Campaign Manager Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud.

FIRST, YOU NEVER BEND THE KNEE: Hegseth Nomination Battle Shows Republicans An Easy Way To Stop Losing And Start Defeating The Swamp.

Washington Post congressional reporter Marianna Sotomayor agreed with the assessment and said there had been a “significant shift” on the previously embattled nominee. She credited the grassroots Republican attacks on weak Republicans as particularly helpful to Hegseth’s case.

“And I think the reason why is because the moment that Trump came out and said that he is behind his pick, we did see a number of Trump allies kind of green lighting to the MAGA base, all right, start calling senators who are a little bit worried on Hegseth. Start — start to threaten, actually, a number of senators, including Sen. Joni Ernst, that she could get primaried. This is something that Elon Musk has also said publicly that he will use his super PACs to not just find candidates to go against any senator who may vote against a nominee, but also fund those campaigns.”

The Federalist’s Shawn Fleetwood broke the news that Ernst was waging an “aggressive” campaign against Hegseth’s nomination in the hope she might be appointed defense secretary. Her past support for pushing transgender ideology on the military was also highlighted. The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson explained the stakes of the nomination battle in his piece, “Pete Hegseth’s Nomination Is A Hill Trump Should Die On.”

Associated Press executive editor Julie Pace also agreed that Republican voters had apparently figured out how to remind senators that they mattered at least as much as their beltway friends.

“I think Marianna has it right, there was this sort of pivot point where you could see, particularly, I think, when the pressure campaign against Ernst really started to mount, that I think that took over and became the dominant focus of a lot of these senators as opposed to some of the allegations and some of the questions around Hegseth,” Pace said.

Democrat strategist Donna Brazile said controllers had unleashed “MAGA” on senators who were “waffling” on the nominees.

Second, you get ’em skeered and keep the skeer on ’em.

What Brazile is moaning about is Republicans finally working as hard as Democrats to support their nominees.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump 47 Reckoning Is Hitting the Dems From All Sides Now. “One of the many false narratives that is being destroyed now is the notion that the Trump-supporting MAGA crowd was the fringe of the GOP. It was being perpetuated the Democrats’ flying monkeys in the mainstream media, and the Never Trump crowd. It was never true at any point in this election cycle.”

SAVING THE PLANET, ONE DEVASTATED ACRE OF LAND AT A TIME:

This is not sustainable environmentalism. This is net zero corporate land grabbing. The vast majority of mass-scale solar panels plastered on prime farmland will reduce farmland acres & risk being destroyed by bad weather, damaging the soil or end up in landfills after 25 years. pic.twitter.com/qwFssGQ0c7

— James Melville 🚜 (@JamesMelville) December 16, 2024

Things used to grow there.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (TEHRAN EDITION): Iran Extends School Closures In Tehran Amid Fuel Shortages.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has been advocating for reduced fuel consumption, apologised to the nation on Monday for the shortages and promised they would be resolved by next year.

State television said, citing a government statement, that “due to persistent cold weather, schools, universities and government offices in Tehran and its surroundings will be closed tomorrow (Tuesday)”.

A gas-powered plant in western Lorestan province was partially closed on Monday because of “increased consumption of gas among household consumers”, according to IRNA state news agency.

It followed a move on Sunday by the northern province of Golestan to close plants and ration electricity, according to local media.

People have also been hit with power cuts across the country, including in Tehran.

Pezeshkian doesn’t even have the “transition to green energy” as an excuse.

IN 2017 THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED: World’s Shortest Boycott Ends as D.C.-Area Anti-Trump Waitress Fired for Discrimination.

WHO IS THIS WE, KEMOSABE? Political Violence Happens Because We Let It.

The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month appears to be what it looked like: a political attack. In this case, one motivated by hatred of the American insurance system. In a leaked manifesto, the alleged killer, Luigi Mangione, blames the insurer’s corruption and greed, and claims to be the first to face it with “brutal honesty.”

If true—and a grand jury in New York will soon decide—that makes the murder another in a string of ideologically motivated violent attacks over the past few years, including:

Assassination attempts—two against Donald Trump as well as the shootings of Rep. Steve Scalise and (further back) Rep. Gabby Giffords;

Political riots, from the BLM violence of summer 2020 to the riot in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to the pro-Hamas riots of last fall;

Intimidating protests against Supreme Court justices, or individual attacks like the assault on Paul Pelosi;

A wave of bomb threats as well as the pipe bombs mailed to prominent Democrats in 2018, reflecting domestic terror hitting its highest level in decades.

None of this is new. The late 1960s and early 1970s were wracked by political violence.

To be more exact, political violence occurs because those responsible for stopping it choose not to, presumably because they believe they benefit from it.

PROFESSIONAL COURTESY: Biden Granted Clemency to a Bunch of Democrat Criminals.

WHO’S THE PRESIDENT, ANYWAY?

SHOCKING UNDERCOVER VIDEO: ‘Joe Biden is Dead;’ National Security Council Advisor Inside the White House Details Biden "Can't Say a Sentence."

Henry Appel, a former spy who currently works at the Intelligence Programs Directorate for the NSC, reveals: 'We’re concerned about… pic.twitter.com/jLjifP0jm1

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) December 16, 2024

Not exactly shocking after what we saw at the Trump-Biden debate but still deeply disturbing.

Exit Question: What’s this talker doing anywhere near national security?

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

Clarence The Angel Takes Gavin Newsom To Florida To Show Him What California Would Look Like If He'd Never Been Born https://t.co/8rZmdcYSLl pic.twitter.com/G0OzZxt0uu

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) December 16, 2024

I’m old enough to remember when the California Dream was the American Dream but better — because it was in California.

But like a lot of people, it’s departed for places like Florida and Texas.