Today's Keith

And the big thing in this episode is actually his inside look at that "vast right wing conspiracy".

It was - and is - a thing.

NepoGov

Pete Hegseth brought his wife into the "one-on-one" meetings with Senators during his confirmation - in order to make it harder for the Senators and their staff to ask questions about infidelity and various abusive behaviors.

Pete Hegseth's little brother is a "top advisor" to SecDef, in spite of having no experience in anything but podcasting.

And the reason we know some of this insider shit is that Mike Waltz (Olbermann thinks) is leaking it the the Press Poodles.

And all of that comes after Trump tell us he intends to be POTUS for quite a while longer.

Today's Keith

• Who decided the mission should happen?
• Did the Signal group want to keep Trump from knowing about it?
• How did Der Spiegel get the info on Gabbard and others?
• What level of fuckup will finally be too much even for the ProFuckup Caucus in Congress?

Today's Keith

Be sure to catch the end of Worst Persons.

Olbermann illustrates firsthand what it means to make large chunks of dollars, and what can happen to people when they hit big.

💥💯

Today's Keith

Do not doubt what some Press Poodles are willing to do in order to maintain their status, and their ratings, and their ad revenues.

For people whose passions are more about just being known than they are about finding and then telling the truth about the world around them, there's nothing worse than the prospect of losing their place in the spotlight.

Today's Keith

Lincoln had to fire 3 commanding generals before he settled on US Grant.

Grant was a blood-n-guts leader, criticized - and by some, condemned - because he waded into the war and kept pushing until the other side gave up.

It was ugly and brutal, and it left some scars and festering wounds we're still a bit reluctant to tend to.

But he did it all because, unlike his predecessors, he recognized it for being the brick fight it was.

So he didn't try to pretend he could get the job done by bowing politely and asking Uncle Bob's permission to proceed.

He threw bricks.

And he kept throwing bricks until the Confederacy couldn't fight anymore and had to quit.

Today's Keith

Setting up the Double Bind with a kicker

• If you protest, then you're illegally obstructing my faithful execution of the law
• If you don't protest, then you're obviously part of my big beautiful mandate

And the aforementioned kicker:

We're setting it up so you'll be busted for illegally protesting no matter what you do or don't do.

Criticism of "the president" is prohibited

Failure to praise "the president" will be punished

Today's Keith

Democrats have to be actively, aggressively recruiting "moderate" Republicans at every level of government to switch parties.

Republicans were very good at that in the 90s - somebody needs to be looking at how they did that. 

I've been advocating for the Dems to boycott SOTU, and live stream themselves at a bar somewhere - maybe several bars - pausing the feed from the Capitol whenever somebody has a good rebuttal to whatever ugly ignorant piece of putrified garbage falls out of Trump's mouth.

Keith's idea may be better - or maybe they could do the stand-with-their-backs-to-Trump thing, and then walk out, a few at a time. That might carry some pretty strong symbolism. ie: Trump's support is dwindling, it's worsening over time, and the pace of the loss is accelerating.

Then they hit the bar(s) for a spontaneous group rebuttal.

The War Is Here Now

That scene in the Oval Office yesterday was a declaration of division.

Putin gets Europe. Xi gets the Pacific. And we get the western hemisphere.

That was fiery and staged, and it had no substance other than what had been more or less rehearsed - it was the public announcement of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939.

We are The New Axis.

And there's no reason for me right now to believe it will end any differently, except for the number of dead.

THE TYRANTS HAVE EMBRACED

Reporting Its Own Demise

Jeff Bezos has announced the death of The Washington Post in advance.

Coincidentally, my subscription runs out as of today too.

Keith explains:

Today's Keith

The road to tyranny is crowded with people telling us we're overreacting.

It's A Coup

Yell. And keep yelling until you can't yell anymore. And then yell some more.

The road to dictatorship

is crowded

with people telling us

we're overreacting

Today's Keith

Impeachment is undefeated. 14-0

What A Good Dad Does

What a good president does.

"We're gonna fix it"

by Josh Marshall

Over the past couple weeks, the thought of President Biden pardoning his son entered my head a few times. I tossed it around: good or bad idea? I could see it both ways. I still can. But I am fine with his decision. I’m glad he did it. Biden learned the right lesson: no one gives a fuck about norms. It’s unquestionably true that Hunter Biden wouldn’t be in this position if not for his dad. That’s basically the justification Biden gave. And he’s right. It may sound angry or cynical to say “no one gives a fuck.” But I mean it both in a general way and in this particular way: the reason for Biden not to do this was to allow his son to remain collateral damage of the GOP war against his presidency and to leave him in the hands of the Trump DOJ for at least the next four years all to make a point of principle about being better, different, more righteous, more norm-honoring than Donald Trump.

Truly. No one gives a fuck. If anything, that logic I just laid out sounds like one of those fastidious, hyper-process-oriented and baroque bits of reasoning that have of late left Democrats mesmerized while the real world is passing them by.

Either you know the difference or you don’t. This doesn’t shift the balance in anyone’s head.

Today's Keith

The hopeful thing:

There's some probability that Republicans are finally figuring out that their fate lies in effective and open resistance to the orange menace, and not in appeasement and excuse-making.

Today's Keith

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Today's Keith

Countdown to the purge.

Trump has started down the path to purges of the military, political prosecutions and show trials. His fascists have actually leaked plans to court-martial and even seek treason charges against army leadership and even retired generals.

NBC News reports: "“The Trump transition team is compiling a list of senior current and former U.S. military officers who were directly involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and exploring whether they could be court-martialed for their involvement, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plan.

Officials working on the transition are considering creating a commission to investigate the 2021 withdrawal… and whether the military leaders could be eligible for charges as serious as treason… “They’re taking it very seriously,” the person with knowledge of the plan said."

Today's Keith

The reason for all the horseshit cabinet picks may well be a smoke screen to cover attempts to give Trump a shot at being POTUS-For-Life.

Twenty-Second Amendment

Section 1

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

Today's Keith

Forever Dunning Kruger - every one of them is an idiot who fancies himself a genius.

Unless the GOP Normies find their balls, this can only end with bullets and cyanide capsules in the White House bunker.

Today's Keith

If this isn't Peak Daddy State, then my suspicions are validated - there's no bottom they can't get under, and no top they won't tear down to get over.

ie: Voters don't believe Trump will do the shitty things he's said he'll do because they don't believe he has the core principles he needs to make good on his promises.

So, it's his untrustworthiness that makes him trustworthy.

And don't say things like "Make it make sense", and then shrug and go back to watching your shows.

Stop that shit.

It doesn't make sense because it's not supposed to make sense.

These Prison Stocks Soar Again On Trump's Hardline Border Move

Geo Group (GEO) and CoreCivic (CXW) surged again on Monday after a huge rally last week spurred by earnings and elections. CoreCivic stock and Geo stock extended gains after President-elect Donald Trump picked immigration hardliner Tom Homan as his top border official.

Border Pick Homan A Hardline Immigration Official

Homan previously was head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump's first term. Trump said Sunday that Homan would lead the "deportation of illegal aliens" in his new administration starting Jan. 20, after vowing a mass deportation of undocumented migrants on the campaign trail.

"I've known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our borders," Trump said on the Trump Media majority-owned social media platform TruthSocial.

Geo stock and CoreCivic also surged after Trump's first U.S. presidential election win. They broke out to highs last week after his second victory, scoring one of their best weekly gains since November 2016.

Investors seemed to bet — again – that a Trump-led White House would detain more undocumented migrants in the company's facilities.

Solid earnings last week also helped the prison operators.

Shares of Geo Group and CoreCivic surged 8% and 10%, respectively, in Monday's stock market action.

CoreCivic stock scored a 29% election and earnings breakaway gap last Wednesday. It jumped above a 16.54 buy point in the biggest volume since shares began to consolidate in June, MarketSurge shows. The prison stock soared nearly 88% last week before paring the weekly gain to 69%.

Last Wednesday, Geo shares broke out in sympathy. Geo stock extended gains from the 16.47 cup-with-handle entry amid its own earnings report on Thursday. It skyrocketed almost 76% last week.

Geo Group Earnings, CoreCivic Earnings

Last week, prison and detention operators GEO Group and CoreCivic diverged on outlook after reporting strong third-quarter earnings.

CoreCivic revealed last Wednesday that it earned 19 cents per share, more than double estimates for 9 cents. The company hiked its full-year 2024 guidance for adjusted funds from operations for 2024 to $1.59-$1.65 per share — from $1.48-$1.56 — after Q3 occupancy grew from 72% to 75%. Analysts expected adjusted funds from operations of $1.49 a share, according to FactSet.

Geo Group last Thursday posted its first earnings gain after eight quarters of declines, FactSet shows. But the company missed views. Geo said it is now targeting full-year 2024 adjusted EBITDA of $470 million-$480 million, down from $485 million-$505 million previously. Analysts expect $488.2 million.

Prison Stocks Soared After 2016 Trump Win

In 2016, private prison stocks galloped ahead after Trump's first presidential election win.

Geo Group, which owns, leases and manages correctional facilities, advanced 107% in the three months after the election. Rival CoreCivic rose 149% in the same three-month period.

Many investors credited Trump's win for the initial rally in the prison stocks. Trump vowed to crack down on crime and illegal immigration, and private prisons and detention centers were seemingly one answer to overcrowding.

This was a sharp reversal from former President Barack Obama's order to phase out private prisons. In February 2017, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions turned the green light back on for private prisons.

Much has changed since then. The two main prison stocks quickly saw gains from the first Trump victory evaporate.

Both Geo stock and CoreCivic languished for much of the past year before breaking out to highs this week amid the elections and earnings.