December 22, 2025

OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND: Jimmy Kimmel to say ‘fascism has had a great year’ in Channel 4 Christmas message.

US chat show host Jimmy Kimmel will say 2025 has been “a really great year for fascism”, when he delivers this year’s Alternative Christmas Message on Channel 4.

The presenter’s ABC talk show was briefly taken off air in September after comments he made about the shooting of Charlie Kirk.

The host’s suspension led to a debate in the US about freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Kimmel was reinstated a week after his removal.

The full quote from his address will say: “From a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year.”

The Daily Mail is of course suitably outraged: Jimmy Kimmel’s Christmas message to British public sparks outrage: ‘He should’ve stayed fired.’

Viewers in Britain and America alike hit out at the comedian for his anticipated anti-Trump rant and expected omission of censorship issues plaguing Sir Keir Starmer‘s government.

‘He’s going to whine about free speech and fascism,’ said GB News presenter Alex Armstrong on X.

‘He won’t be referring to our govt, will he? It’ll all be Trump. [Channel Four] deeply out of touch as usual.’

Commentator Paul Thacker also pointed to the recent arrest of comedian Graham Linehan for making anti-trans jokes as evidence of the ‘double standard’ in choosing Kimmel for the alternative message.

‘The British establishment chose Jimmy Kimmel to speak out against fascism and in favor of free speech. This is the same government that only recently arrested comedian Graham Linehan,’ Thacker wrote.

Worst. Hitler. Ever: Kimmel will be broadcasting in England, of all places, railing against fascism, with absolutely no repercussions from the Trump administration afterwards. And apparently, with no clue whatsoever about England arresting people for their tweets and Whatsapp posts.

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

RESET EXPECTATIONS: CNBC anchor who blasted Trump’s ‘insane’ tariffs is now shocked by ‘very, very low’ inflation.

Liesman has been among the most vocal critics of Trump’s tariff strategy (3). Back in March, he warned bluntly: “I’m going to say this at the risk of my job. What President Trump is doing is insane,” adding that “there’s no bounds around President Trump.”

But on Thursday, as he dug deeper into the latest report, even the month-over-month figures looked encouraging.

“I have not looked at the internals — I’ll look at them now — but it suggests that the internals are good as well,” he said. “Let’s see. … Seasonally adjusted index for all items, less food and energy, rose 0.2% over the two months. So correct my math here … but 0.2 divided by two is 0.1. So therefore that’s a very, very low monthly rate.”

Liesman wasn’t alone in his reaction.

Exit quote: “I think the president will take this as good news. The investors will think that interest rates will get cut more, so it was positive news — there’s no other way to spin it.”

Posted at 11:40 am by Stephen Green

ABOUT THAT UNIVERSITY RESEARCH ‘OVERHEAD:’ Billions of federal tax dollars go to universities for scientific research every year, but did you know every buck for research comes with another chunk of funds to cover “overhead costs.” You know, overhead like “designing museum exhibits, conducting middle school lab demonstrations, or developing podcasts, in the name of having a ‘broader impact’ beyond scientific discovery.” And don’t forget DEI! Such non-research activities are used to justify expanding administrative staffs.

Open the Books’ latest report examines how this process has worked over the years at the universities of Illinois, Virginia, Michigan, North Carolina, plus Rutgers.

Posted at 11:26 am by Mark Tapscott

A LITTLE CHRISTMAS INSPIRATION: Capitol Hill staff entrepreneur’s faith kept him going building a great business when his bank account couldn’t.

Posted at 11:08 am by Mark Tapscott

THIS SEEMS NEWSWORTHY:

Posted at 10:53 am by Stephen Green

NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN: ‘Kill Switch?’ Bari Bombshell Explodes on 60 Minutes:

Did Bari Weiss give the White House a “kill switch” on honest reports from CBS News? Or did she yank the chain back on one of its most biased platforms to remind everyone that times have changed?

One can imagine which narrative the Protection Racket Media will flog.

Weiss issued a last-minute order to yank a 60 Minutes exposé on Donald Trump’s decision to partner with El Salvador on deporting criminal illegals, citing the need for more reporting and better balance. All of the usual suspects have been losing their minds ever since:

CBS News pulled a segment on Trump administration deportations of Venezuelan immigrants to an El Salvador prison from “60 Minutes,” causing staffers and media onlookers to question whether the decision was politically motivated. …

Driving the news: “60 Minutes” announced on social media around 4:30pm ET Sunday that it was dropping the segment, called “Inside CECOT,” from that evening’s broadcast lineup, but said that it would air at a later date.

  • Sharyn Alfonsi, the segment’s correspondent, alleged in an email to colleagues that she learned Saturday that new CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss had “spiked our story” after Trump officials refused to be interviewed, per multiple reports.
  • “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi wrote, per a copy of the email that journalist Liam Scott shared on X.

I’ve watched 60 Minutes and CBS News’ practical application of “standards and practices” for decades. This is not the flex that Alfonsi thinks it is. Twenty-one years ago, CBS News and 60 Minutes II ran a prime-time hit piece on George W. Bush based on fabricated documents in an attempt to influence a presidential election. “Rathergate” only cost CBS some embarrassment and retractions, and perhaps a momentary blip in sponsor support. Almost exactly twenty years later, they botched a re-edit of their softball interview with Kamala Harris so badly that the manipulation was once again easily exposed by critics and commentators. That escapade cost Paramount $16 million to settle in a lawsuit Trump filed, who most definitely preferred direct action more than Bush did at the time.

Alfonsi’s past performance is helping her case, either:

Brian Stelter has thoughts:

I can remember when 60 Minutes suffered the ultimate blow to its credibility, a moment that has never once bothered Stelter:

Posted at 10:45 am by Ed Driscoll

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: MSU Denver rejects Standard American English as ‘white supremacy.’

The Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU) Writing Center has officially rejected the use of Standard American English (SAE) as part of the program, calling it a “social construct that privileges white communities” as explained on the university’s webpage devoted to “linguistic white supremacy.”

But what the university claims is an effort towards “anti-racism” could well instead run afoul of President Trump’s executive order aimed at discriminatory practices rooted in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives on college campuses.

MSU is situated on the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver, which also includes the University of Colorado at Denver (CU Denver) and Community College of Denver (CCD). The public university boasts a student population of over 17,000, including both undergraduate and graduate level coursework.

The MSU Writing Center says SAE, which has been taught in schools since the 1800s, promotes white supremacy in claiming there is a “correct” and “standard” way to write and speak American English.

So another good way to keep minority kids from advancing is to lock them into linguistic ghettos.

Posted at 10:38 am by Stephen Green

CHANGE: Fairfax County Public Schools Forfeits Case Challenging Its Transgender Policies.

Fairfax County’s public school district’s leaders capitulated in court after a student challenged their pro-transgender policies in court, offering hope that the era of so-called “transgender rights” at the expense of everything else is coming to a close.

Last month, Fairfax County Public Schools, represented by Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, extended a Rule 68 Offer of Judgment to a former student, identified as “Jane Doe,” over its bathrooms and pronouns policies. Virginia’s largest public school district granted the plaintiff $50 and attorney’s fees associated with the case.

Jane Doe, represented by America First Legal, filed the lawsuit asserting that the district violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments, Title IX, and the Virginia Constitution by prioritizing “gender identity” over biological sex and religious conscience. The plaintiff had encountered a boy in the girls’ bathroom while at school, which school policy permits. The district’s code of conduct stipulates bathroom and locker room use is based on “gender identity” rather than biological sex. It also mandates preferred pronoun usage.

In response to the district’s decision not to fight the case, Jane Doe’s mother told IW Features, “My sincere thanks goes to my daughter’s legal team at America First Legal, who were the only adults during this whole ordeal to listen to my pleas for help to keep my daughter safe while she was at school.”

It’s nice to see a little sanity prevail during the Crazy Years.

Posted at 9:36 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Nicki Minaj Has a MAGA Moment, Dem False Narratives Hardest Hit. “Now let’s contrast Bret Stephens’ effete snobbery and lack of mental wellness with the thoughtful words of the best selling female rapper of all time. Nicki Minaj appeared with Erika Kirk at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest this past weekend. I think she surprised a lot of people.”

Posted at 9:05 am by Stephen Green

CONSEQUENCES:

Posted at 8:49 am by Stephen Green

CHUTZPAH: North Korea Urges Curbing Japan’s Nuclear Ambitions.

North Korea said Japan’s ambition for possession of ‍nuclear weapons should ‍be “thoroughly curbed,” state media KCNA reported on Sunday.

Japan ⁠is showing the intention to possess nuclear weapons explicitly by saying ​it needs to review the three non-nuclear principles, KCNA said citing ‍a commentary of North Korea’s foreign-policy official.

Japan ⁠began making such comments actively as soon as the United States approved a request from South ⁠Korea for ​building a nuclear ⁠submarine, the media said.

Telling Beijing we’d greenlight Japanese nukes might have caused Beijing to lean hard enough on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program. But that was 20-plus years ago — and an opportunity squandered.

Posted at 8:34 am by Stephen Green

PLAINTIFFS’ LAWYERS IN NEED OF FERRARIS AND GULFSTREAMS TAKE NOTE of this emailed advice from GWU law professor John Banzhaf:

Yes, White Men Should Sue, Especially in D.C.

It Has a Unique Statute and a Target-Rich Environment

WASHINGTON. D.C. (December 22, 2025) – Both the head of the EEOC and Vice President JD Vance have just made public pleas strongly urging white men to sue if they believe they may have been illegally discriminated against because of their race and sex.

But although both suggested proceeding “under federal civil rights laws,” white men should also consider filing a complaint under D.C.’s Human Rights Act which provides powerful legal advantages in a target-rich environment, suggests public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who has won over 100 cases of illegal discrimination against women, Blacks, and Jews under the unique statute.

The D.C. statute make it easier to prove that discrimination has occurred because it has an “effect or consequence” provision (§ 2–1402.68) which provides that “Any practice which has the effect or consequence of violating any of the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed to be an unlawful discriminatory practice.” [emphasis added]

With this powerful tool at their disposal, it isn’t necessary for any white man who wasn’t hired or promoted to show why or how the discriminatory effect or consequence occurred, nor whether it was deliberate or even known to the employer.

All such a white man has to do, under this provision, is to show that the white men were hired, or are currently employed, at a rate lower than would be expected. The burden then shifts to the employer to defend the practice with a legally valid defense.

The statute also makes it very difficult to defend any practice once it has been shown that it had, intended or not, a discriminatory effect or consequence.

To defend any practice which had a discriminatory effect or consequence, the employer has the extremely difficult burden of showing that it would be impossible to remain in business without such discrimination. The argument that the practice saved lots of money, and/or was favored by customers, other employees, and anyone else is not a valid legal defense.

Thus § 2–1401.03 expressly provides that any practice which has a discriminatory effect or consequence can be justified only by proving business necessity.

Under this chapter, a “business necessity” exception is applicable only in each individual case where it can be proved by a respondent that, without such exception, such business cannot be conducted.” [emphasis added]

The activist law professor has frequently been able to short circuit proffered defenses offered under the statute simply by finding only one similar business – e.g. a dry cleaner, hair cutter, bar, etc. – which conducted business without resorting to such discrimination.

The same section of the statute also makes it clear that most common arguments offered in support of discrimination are invalid, and cannot be offered in its defense.

It expressly provides: “a ‘business necessity’ exception cannot be justified by the facts of increased cost to business, business efficiency, the comparative characteristics of one group as opposed to another, the stereotyped characterization of one group as opposed to another, and the preferences of co-workers, employers, customers or any other person.” [emphasis added]

If the employer cannot meet this difficult if not virtually impossible burden of proving a valid legal defense of the practice, it can then be ordered to hire, reinstate, or upgrade the person complaining, as well as pay damages to compensate him for any losses, pay reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, and even pay a civil penalty “in an amount not to exceed $10,000.”

Professor Banzhaf, who has been called a “King of Class Action Lawsuits,” recommends that white men proceed through a class action if the practice may have impacted more than one white man.

In such situations, when potentially faced with huge and potentially crippling damages and virtually no valid legal defense, defendants may have no choice but to settle, says Banzhaf, who has been called “a Driving Force Behind the Lawsuits That Have Cost Tobacco Companies Billions of Dollars,” and “The Law Professor Who Masterminded Litigation Against the Tobacco Industry.”

Finally, Banzhaf suggests that the District of Columbia is likely to be a target-rich environment because so many employers – e.g. universities, national associations, offices of major national organizations, etc. – publicly announced and implemented so-called DEI programs which the federal government has determined discriminated against white men in favoring other groups.

Indeed, Vance has described DEI as “a deliberate program of discrimination primarily against white men.”

For those who might try to argue that affirmative action plans – which might include DEI and other similar programs or practices – are lawful and therefore provide a valid legal defense to discrimination against white men, the statute is clear; under § 2–1402.53, affirmative action plans constitute an “unlawful discriminatory practice” unless and until they have been approved by the D.C. Office of Human Rights.

It’s raining soup. Go get a bucket. Lots of deep corporate pockets in all sorts of industries — and open admissions of discrimination — out there.

Posted at 8:32 am by Glenn Reynolds

JOEL KOTKIN: America’s great migration: The young and ambitious are fleeing the stagnant coastal states for the booming heartland.

Travel across America and the differences between regions can seem almost like those between nation states. The elite classes – and their chattering-class interlocutors – remain concentrated in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, places that retain much of the world’s ultra-rich. Yet the supremacy of these cities is being undermined by their growing failure to offer working- and middle-class citizens, particularly the young, the prospect of a better life.

Over the past decade, economic and demographic momentum has accelerated towards Texas, Arizona, the Carolinas and Florida – places once dismissed as economically and culturally backward. None of America’s major growth hubs is now located in the north-east or California. The rising cities of today include Dallas-Fort Worth, Raleigh, Houston, Austin, Phoenix, Nashville and Salt Lake City.

Just don’t bring the Blue politics with you.

Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA:

That ought to disqualify Newsom for higher office, but of course, Dems don’t play that way.

Posted at 7:47 am by Stephen Green