By a vote of 218 to 215, Republican Mike Johnson beat Democrat Hakim Jeffries for House Speaker. There was some drama as it took a phone call from Donald Trump to get two Republicans to change their vote. (One person voted "other").

I tuned in to hear the end of Jeffries' speech on You Tube.

He gave a flattering welcome to Johnson. Johnson then spoke and was gracious back to Jeffries. . Here's how Johnson described their agenda: [More...]

Starting the New Year off with an inspirational article in the Guardian about Mexico City's mayor, Clara Brugada, and her successful strategy of building spaces called "Utopias" in the poorest and most outskirt neighborhoods in the city.

Not only have the Utopias helped the poor, they have reduced crime, including murder.

At Bloomberg Citylab, a conference on urban innovation in October, she told hundreds of fellow city leaders: “One of the great objectives we have is that the peripheries of Mexico City are no longer synonymous with inequality and abandonment but that the peripheries are the new city centres.”

Mayor Brugada used the Utopia built in Iztapalapa, which is Mexico City's poorest and most populated neighborhood, and her home town, as an example in the presentation. [More...]

Happy New Year to all! It is going to be a rough ride as long as Donald Trump has a desk in the oval office. But he doesn't affect everything.

My interests have moved well beyond Donald Trump. In 2025, I'll be focusing more on news and cultural topics I find interesting or curious from outside the U.S. [More...]

I'm sorry I am so late with this new open thread. I had to get a few stitches in my eyebrow (don't ask!). Anyway, I haven't seen the news other than a headline Joe Biden granted 1,500 pardons. I not only support them, whoever they are, I support Hunter Biden's pardon.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I have them. I'm sure any rational person does, when considering the possibility, however slight, that Donald Trump, the most unfit person to run for President ever might win. Trump keeps escalating his hate-filled attacks and doom and gloom characterizations of our nation. He is now Mr. Negativity.

Make sure to vote. Your vote counts. Never believe that your vote is so small it wouldn't change a thing. It can and it will.

We get the Government we elect. Don't let Donald Trump bring the nation down, down, and down, until it's run into the ground. Get up and vote. The dry cleaners, bank and grocery store can wait until tomorrow. America can't.

My Prediction: The polls are all wrong and Kamala wins by a large margin in all but a few of the most hard-wired, radical-right states with the most under-informed and bitter voters.

I'll be back tonight to cover the madness.

Reggaeton music artist Nicky Jam has rescinded his endorsement of Donald Trump as a result of the racist and degrading comments delivered by a comedian who performed at a recent Trump campaign event, particularly those targeting Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans.

Nicky Jam was one of the only Reggaeton artists to support Trump. He got a lot of heat from other musicians about it. He attended a Trump rally in Las Vegas in September, where Trump, having no idea who he was, introduced him as a female telling the audience "She's hot." Today, in rescinding his endorsement in this Instagram video in Spanish he said: (rough translation)

"The reason why I supported Donald Trump was because I thought it was the best thing for the economy in the United States, where many Latinos live ... I thought it was the best move. Never in my life did I think that a month later a comedian was going to come to criticize my country and talk bad about my country and therefore, I renounce any support to Donald Trump and That’s why I’m renouncing my support for Donald Trump and stepping away from any political conversation. Puerto Rico deserves respect.” he said.

Puerto Ricans can't vote in the U.S. Presidential election, but they have a lot of weight with relatives and friends who can vote. Nicky Jam has 43 million followers on Instagram. In 3 hours, the post had more than 85,000 likes.

Also today, Arnold Schwarzenegger broke with Republicans and said he's voting for Kamala Harris. [More...]

The Washington Post has killed a planned editorial endorsement of Kamala Harris for President. Why? Because Post owner Jeff Bezos(who founded Amazon to become one of the world's richest persons) opposed it.

An endorsement of Harris had been drafted by Post editorial page staffers but had yet to be published, according to two people who were briefed on the sequence of events and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The decision to no longer publish presidential endorsements was made by The Post’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to the same two people.

[More...]

Please don't forget to vote. In addition to voting for President, there are votes for members of Congress, state officials, including legislators and judges, and local ordinances. All are important. Colorado's ballot was the longest I can remember. If I wasn't sure about a particular issue, I read the booklet the state sent with the pros and cons, and if I still wasn't sure, or I didn't care, I skipped that question. But on the big stuff, I voted.

Good luck Kamala, Good luck Diana DeGette, and good luck to Denver County Court Judge Kelly Cherry. You all deserve much more than votes. You have invested years of your lives to trying to make all of our lives better. You have given your hearts and souls to provide us with the best governance you can.

We get the government we elect. You snooze, you lose. As I say about Donald Trump every year: "It's time to scrape his sh*t right off our shoes". (Sweet Virginia, below) [more...]

This is suspect Ryan Routh, who was arrested yesterday after allegedly planning to kill Donald Trump at his International Golf Course in Palm Beach. The photo is taken from Routh's Linked In account.

Routh didn't shoot anything. He fled when police arrived. When the Secret Service opened fire on him and missed, he ran out of the bushes and into a Black Nissan, leaving his "AR 15 style" rifle in the bushes along with his Go-Pro camera. A bystander just happened to be in the area and took a photo of his car driving off that showed his license plate number. The cops called into their real-time crime center which used a license plate reader to capture his license plate as it on Interstate 95. Routh was stopped and taken into custody.

From the news conference at 5:10 pm (MT): The FBI in Miami is the lead investigating agency. The state prosecutor is preparing an arrest warrant and will ask he be detained without bond. Then the state will decide whether to charge him and with what crime. And it could be that they turn the whole thing over to the feds. [More...]

What you can expect from Donald Trump tonight: More of what we always get from him: Provocation, Prevarication, Pontification.

He will provoke Kamala Harris with insults and mischaracterizations about her character, her experience and her job performance to distract her and get her to move away from discussing her position on issues. Every minute she spends addressing Trump is a minute she didn't get to spend answering the question and explaining her policy positions and planned agenda as President.

In answering questions, Trump will assert his most outlandish lies to date, about his record, elections, Democrats, Harris, and anything else his diminutive, fizzled-out brain can think of. Even Pinocchio wouldn't be able to keep up with him. Even the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz will know Trump is lying out of desperation, lack of preparedness and egotistical belief he is a better gauge of what will sell to the American public than his advisors. [More...]

Special Counsel Jack Smith has filed a new Indictment against Donald Trump in the January 6 case in the District of Columbia. (available here).

The charges are the same. But to comply with the recent Supreme Court decision saying his presidential acts were immune, the government changed the roles of those involved, and the wording and facts are different. The Indictment doesn't refer to acts while he was in the oval office, and instead uses his acts while he was just a candidate.

While prosecutors did not drop the four initial charges from the new indictment, they added more language that describes Trump as a "candidate," and not president, while describing others as "acting in their private capacity" and not "government officials."

[More...]

Kamala Harris will accept the nomination tonight. She'll be her own best champion. I'm already on board.

Update: Kamala Harris nailed it. She took on unity, the border, the Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, respect for our military, Nato, Iran, individual freedom, the housing shortage and everything else in the kitchen sink. She called out Trump (no need to rehash that). Her delivery was impeccable: passionate, measured, joyous with a "but don't cross me" undertone.

A transcript of her speech is here.[More...]