THE EV BUBBLE CONTINUES TO DEFLATE: Ford’s electric hopes unravel as it pulls the plug on battery-powered F-150 after $19.5bn loss.
December 15, 2025
HEY, SOMEBODY’S BUCKING TO BE A MEMBER OF THE DC COUNCIL OR CONGRESS:
57 YEARS AGO TODAY: The story of Philadelphia Eagles fans throwing snowballs at Santa Claus.
The Eagles, only six years removed from an NFL championship, started 0-8 in 1968 under coach Joe Kuharich and seem poised to finish with the worst record in the league and earn the No. 1 draft pick in the draft. That meant a chance at selecting USC running back O. J. Simpson.
Only once the Eagles won two straight games — hadn’t anyone heard of Tankadelphia? — essentially surrendering the top spot to Buffalo, disillusioned fans were fed up headed into the finale. And when the Eagles needed a pinch-hit Santa to fill in for the real-deal halftime act either stranded elsewhere in a snowstorm or simply no-showing because of one, they plucked a fan out of the stands who happened to dress as Saint Nick to toss candy canes into the crowd.
As instructed, 20-year-old Frank Olivo ran downfield past a row of elf-costumed “Eaglettes” and the team’s 50-person brass band playing “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Only fans turned on him in his disheveled outfit, angry over another lost Eagles season, and cold, tired and feeling a bit churlish, they booed and chucked snowballs at the woeful Santa impostor.
“Certainly,” said Eagles fan Ray Didinger, sitting at the Snowball Game in Row 24, “no one was trying to hurt Santa Claus.”
Yet, here they are, 55 years later, still atop the naughty list for sports fans everywhere.
The Eagles themselves sure don’t hate Christmas — they sing all the holiday classics instead. Led by Lane Johnson, Jason Kelce and Jordan Mailata, the Eagles have released Christmas albums in consecutive seasons.
The snowball story, though, stuck to Philly, so when the Eagles host the New York Giants on Monday, the incident surely will be recycled on the TV broadcast, or on local news, or on national sports highlights — Hey! The city that hates Santa played on Christmas!
“It’s never going to go away,” said Didinger, a journalist who went on to cover the Eagles for 53 years. “Just don’t let it bother you anymore. If you don’t think the Philadelphia fans are like that, and I don’t, then just sort of say, ‘oh well.’ It’s not me. It’s not the way I approach things.”
The legend of Eagles fans booing Santa Claus certainly the bar extremely high for rowdiness at Philadelphia sporting events: Eagles Fans Behaving Badly: The Decade-by-Decade History.
And then there was the broadcaster behaving badly at an Eagles game:
To be fair, you almost would have had to be drunk to watch the 1970 Philadelphia Eagles. https://t.co/J2gZ8xnE1H
— Dave Morrison (@sddsports) November 24, 2023
SHARKS GOTTA SWIM, BATS GOTTA FLY…: Soros Foundations Funding Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex Lawfare on Americans’ Gun Rights.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:
To Halt Violence Against Jews, Australia Bans Hanukkah https://t.co/l3aysfa2Ay pic.twitter.com/Rxw2U4LCpV
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) December 14, 2025
EXPOSING ‘A STORY OF FRAUD AND BETRAYAL’ IN ACADEMIA. There’s a new book out about the famous “signing first” paper that claimed promising to be honest ahead of time made people more honest in follow-up data gathering. Turns out the data on honesty was faked, which, cosmically, seems like pushing it.
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON: Everything Is Going to Hell — Cheer Up!
READER FAVORITE: Apple AirPods Pro 2 Wireless Earbuds, Active Noise Cancellation. #CommissionEarned
ANDY WILMAN: From Top Gear’s Beginning to The Grand Tour’s Finale.
Earlier, from me: Mr. Wilman’s Motoring Adventure: A Quarter Century Behind the Wheel of Top Gear and The Grand Tour.
CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN: More than 9,500 commercial truckers taken off U.S. roads nationwide. “More than 9,500 commercial truckers have been taken off of U.S. roads for failing English-language proficiency checks, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.”
BECAUSE OF COURSE: Ignoring Islamic Threat, Aussie PM Vows Tougher Gun Laws After Bondi Beach. “Those poor, overworked gun laws — never accomplishing what sensible government and responsible citizens are supposed to do, and always called upon to do even more.”
HERE COMES DOGE II: Trump administration launches new cross-government recruitment effort to put Silicon Valle technologist/AI stars in key positions to help solve feds’ biggest, most complex digital problems.
TREAT THE SHOULDER PAIN: Shoulder-Heating-Pad-Heated-Wrap. #CommissionEarned
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China plans 2026 debut of new rocket for crewed lunar and LEO missions
The Long March 10 and Long March 10A are being developed as part of China’s next-generation human spaceflight plans. The former, a three-stage rocket featuring a triple-core first stage with 5.0-meter-diameter cores, is designed to launch a new crew spacecraft (Mengzhou) and a separate lunar lander into translunar orbit as part of plans to land Chinese astronauts on the moon before 2030.
The latter, the 10A, is a two-stage, single-stick variant for low Earth orbit (LEO) launches, designed to send a LEO variant of Mengzhou to the Tiangong space station. LEO Mengzhou is designed to be partially reusable and can carry more astronauts to Tiangong.
China’s human spaceflight agency, CMSEO, hinted in October at a planned first flight of the Long March 10 and the Mengzhou spacecraft in 2026, with a logo design competition for the Mengzhou-1 crew spacecraft mission.
CALT’s statement does not make clear if the debut flight will be crewed or uncrewed, nor did it explicitly state the mission will be an integrated launch of the Long March 10A and Mengzhou spacecraft.
When’s that next Starship flight test, Elon?
SAD:
One of the unspoken reasons for the decline in marriage and births: young men of marriage age had their careers derailed in favor of diversity hires.
DEI is economic genocide. https://t.co/0CKmbiP7Ju
— Peachy Keenan (@KeenanPeachy) December 15, 2025
KEEP YOUR COOL: New window insulation blocks heat, but not your view.
NORM MACDONALD, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Australian PM warns about “right-wing extremist groups” after Muslim father and son shot up Hanukkah event.
Nope, not satire.
The Prime Minister of Australia says the true threat is “right-wing extremist groups” after the Islamic terrorist attack yesterday.
Actually absurd.
pic.twitter.com/NvID9xieTJ— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 15, 2025
Evergreen:
I’VE HAD MY DOUBTS ABOUT THEM: Man shocks doctors with extreme blood pressure, stroke from energy drinks: His blood pressure was 254/150. Readings of 180/120 are considered an emergency. “Four weeks into his recovery, he was on five different drugs to try to bring down his blood pressure. At that point, doctors pushed for more lifestyle information from the man, who finally revealed that he had a habit of drinking an average of eight high-potency energy drinks every day.”
No. Just no.
YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: This is Why You Should Never Trust a CNN (Or Any Mainstream Media) ‘Expert’ Analyst…About Anything.
CNN’s Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller:
What we’re told from law enforcement sources now is that the seized two firearms from this 24-year-old suspect [in the Brown University shooting]. One of those firearms, we are told, was equipped with a laser sight device.
This has significance because number one, that’s a fairly sophisticated device for a handgun where when you aim it, a red dot goes where you want to target, and if you fire at that point, the bullet goes where the dot is. It’s the kind of thing used mostly by professionals, tactical people, military people.
Are they now?
A BILLION-DOLLAR LOSS IS STILL CHEAPER THAN STAYING IN NEWSOM’S CALIFORNIA, I GUESS:
🚨 WOW! Devastating loss for Gavin Newsom as Valero suffers $1 BILLION dollar loss so they can flee California by 2026.
They’re sick of the mandates and regulations. That’s how bad it’s gotten.
America — pay attention. He wants the White House. pic.twitter.com/rvnPvmWd97
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 14, 2025
UPDATE (From Ed): “Tim Waltz got caught. Gavin Newsom got a presidential campaign.”
