Month: December 2025

Annie Lowrey at The Atlantic reports on the sad state of small businesses in America as a result of Trump’s tariffs. Big businesses have been able to deal with it so far, although they’re losing their cushion too. But the smaller companies are in huge trouble.

Here’s one:

Many small firms have closed down, fired workers, watched their sales fall apart, or worse. In a new survey, 71 percent of small-business owners said they expect the trade war to depress their revenue this holiday season. Only 5 percent said they were hiring and expanding their business.

The holiday season “is our Super Bowl,” Nichole MacDonald told me. “This is when we’re supposed to make all of our money.” MacDonald runs the Sash Bag, a company that manufactures and sells specialty handbags. Like many retailers, the Sash Bag generates an outsize share of its annual sales and profits leading up to Christmas. But this year, she said, she is “literally terrified.” Batches of her bags are stuck in two warehouses in India because she cannot produce the $430,000 needed to cover the import tariffs on the goods. “That product is done,” she said. “It’s sewn. It’s perfectly saleable—beautiful leather, beautiful Sash bags, sitting in India for months because I don’t have the budget to bring it here.”

In addition, she has let go some of her employees, raised prices by 10 to 15 percent, canceled special orders, and considered finding new suppliers. But “people don’t understand” how hard that is to do, MacDonald told me, when you have “your own proprietary product, not something a manufacturer has already invented or already created.”

Well, at least the oligarchs and the CEO’s are happy. That’s really all that matters.

There was a time when Republicans were the greatest advocates for small businesses which they called the engine of the American economy. The NFIB practically functioned as an arm of the party. Not anymore.

Trump doesn’t care about small businesses. They’re losers —big businesses are the winners. Maybe if they were smarter and better they’d be big too and they could “eat the tariffs” and everything would be fine.

I hope the small business owners aren’t hoping for any relief from Trump.

Happy Hollandaise everyone!

Happy Hollandaise! Thank you so much for your kind words and generous support all these years. I can’t tell you how much in means to me, especially when times are tough and there are so many choices. I will never take it for granted.

I wanted to take this moment to thank my morning wing man Tom Sullivan who has literally only taken a handful of days off over many years, once for a medical emergency and the other because he was caught in the middle of the epic hurricane Helene! He is as reliable as the sun coming up in the morning and I think that for many of us his posts are the first look at the news cycle we have with our morning coffee. His writing is passionate, incisive and empathetic and always entertaining. It is blogging at its finest.

As my pal, historian Rick Perlstein, said to me the other day, “Tom’s blogging has been en fuego.” Indeed it has. I am so lucky to have him writing for Hullabaloo and I know it.

However, that’s only part of what Tom does for our country. He is extremely active in the North Carolina Democratic Party, serving as a delegate to the convention last year and working closely with people like Anderson Clayton, the terrific chair of the state party whom he championed for the job. He does the grassroots work that makes it possible to keep that state purple and may very well give us a Democratic Senator next year with Roy Cooper.

But Tom’s contributions don’t end there. As many of you know, Tom goes out on the streets of Asheville with some other activists several times a week to hold up signs on an overpass with funny and poignant political messages, getting lots of thumbs up and middle fingers from the passing cars. He believes that it’s a way of communicating something immediate and personal to a fairly large number of people in his own community and he’s right.

Doing this isn’t without risk in these troubled times. The CPB and ICE are in North Carolina and Asheville is on the target list. But Tom and his compatriots are fighters and they’re putting their time and effort where their mouths are. This is where the real leadership is coming from.

If you are of a mind to keep this little project going for another year, I would be most grateful. It’s a labor of love but it’s also a lot of work and there’s no way I could do it without your help.

We have a big year ahead of us. The world is on fire and our country is in deep trouble. But there are millions of people like Tom out there, fighting back, and it’s an inspiration. We’ll keep trying to make sense of it all and putting it into perspective as best we can and I hope that you’ll keep reading. We’re all in this together.

If you’d like to put a little something in the Christmas stocking you can hit the buttons below or, if you’re old school, you can use the address on the left. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

cheers,

digby

Happy Hollandaise everyone!

It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy

President Donald Trump declared last week that House Speaker Mike Johnson “has been a fantastic speaker,” making it clear that he considers Johnson to be one of his most important subordinates. Trump wasn’t doing Johnson any favors. With his latest approval ratings firmly in the thirties, the president is increasingly seen as more of an albatross than a benefit to the GOP. And right now, with House Republicans on the verge of a full-scale mutiny, Johnson needs all the help he can get. 

In fairness, Johnson is not the first Republican speaker to find himself in that situation. In fact, it has become something of a ritual sacrifice for the leader of the House GOP to be unceremoniously deposed by his own members. Johnson himself won the post after his predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Ca., was removed from his post after a painful series of votes in which the caucus finally settled on the virtually unknown congressman from Louisiana to lead them. 

McCarthy had a tumultuous nine-month tenure after the Republican members staged a raucous spectacle by taking an historic 15 votes to elect him to the job. Before him, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, had been pushed to take the job when the caucus forced out former Speaker John Boehner. But Ryan was so disillusioned that he ended up quitting politics altogether after just three years. Boehner abruptly quit when he lost support after deigning to compromise. His predecessor, Illinois Rep. Dennis Hastert — now a convicted sex offender — resigned due to scandal, as did Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich before him. 

Republicans eat their own. And apparently a speaker of the House is a delicacy. So it’s not surprising that Johnson would find himself on the run at this point in his term.

Republicans eat their own. And apparently a speaker of the House is a delicacy. So it’s not surprising that Johnson would find himself on the run at this point in his term.

Republicans govern in total chaos. But Johnson’s case is unique in one important respect: In the past few years, the reason GOP speakers failed was because the most extreme conservatives in the caucus would not accept any kind of compromise with Democrats in order to pass legislation. And even when the “compromise” was really a win, they refused to take yes for an answer. They wanted to dominate the opposition, to pound them into submission, and if they couldn’t have that they would rather have nothing. Boehner, Ryan and McCarthy all fell prey to that puerile intransigence. Johnson was one of those guys himself and, for the most part, he’s been able to keep his hardcore tea party types in line. His resistance is coming from a number of other directions. 

One of the biggest thorns in his side, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, has been trying to depose him almost from the beginning. Back in March, she filed a motion to vacate the chair — essentially, a no-confidence vote —  because Johnson “betrayed our conference and broke our rules” by working with Democrats to pass a bill to fund the government. The fractious right-wing did not join her in rebellion, instead opting to express support for Johnson.

Nevertheless, Greene persisted. She complained about his support for FISA reauthorization and the foreign aid bill, making demand after demand until she finally triggered a vote that resulted in the Democrats stepping in to save him with a vote of 359-43. The 10 Republicans who voted with Greene included a few of the usual right-wing suspects, but the rest were unpredictable cranks; most of the conservatives stuck with Johnson. He is, after all, one of their own. 

That quieted the restiveness among the ranks for a time, but Johnson has always had to look over his shoulder. Now, Greene has now decided to turn in her MAGA hat and will be resigning next month. True to form, she is planning to take one more shot at Johnson before she departs. According to MSNOW, she’s once again trying to round up the nine votes needed to bring up a motion to vacate the chair and oust Johnson. While most people think she won’t succeed, her complaints about Johnson are now being echoed by many in the caucus, most pointedly by some of the women who are very unhappy about his dismissive attitude toward them. 

Greene complained to CNN that Johnson has sidelined them and doesn’t take them seriously. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., took to the pages of the New York Times to rail against his leadership. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., a member of the House leadership, called Johnson a habitual liar and told the Wall Street Journal that she doesn’t think he would have the votes to survive if a vote were held. “It’s that widespread,” she said. 

Although they have been the most vocally defiant, it isn’t just the women. The New York Times’ Annie Karni reported on a number of others who have soured on Johnson’s leadership. Rep. Kevin Kiley, a California Republican facing a loss of his seat due to redistricting (precipitated by the snowball effect from Trump’s demand that Texas gerrymander five more seats for Republicans) said that “the overriding issue is the House has not been at the forefront of driving policymaking, or the agenda in Washington.” In other words, they’ve become a rubber stamp for Trump’s increasingly unpopular agenda. 

Members are still angry about Johnson’s decision to send them home for two months during the shutdown, and those in vulnerable swing districts are desperate to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, knowing that allowing them to lapse will be the kiss of death. Johnson, following his own deep hostility to any kind of government health care program, is refusing. Even Trump was briefly willing to extend them for a couple of years, but the speaker and others quickly informed him that plan was a non-starter with the right wing, which is excited by the idea that people on the hated Obamacare will lose their insurance.

Johnson’s caucus has had enough. They’re rebelling with discharge petitions to force votes against his will and tanking rule votes that would bring bills Johnson wants to see passed to the floor. Until recently, such actions were unheard of. Discharge petitions like the one that made the administration release the Epstein files were always seen as a desperate Hail Mary that never worked. Washington insiders would roll their eyes and scoff when anyone would suggest that it be tried. Not anymore. As POLITICO has reported, since Johnson took over, members have managed to defy him by “getting the required 218 signatures needed to force votes on legislation he had blocked — more than in the prior 30 years combined.”

Mike Johnson is in trouble, and as the GOP stares at the likelihood of a possible electoral bloodbath in the 2026 midterms, he may not last through the next year. While he won’t have to deal with his nemesis, Marjorie Taylor Greene, any more, the rebellion she started has become a full-fledged insurrection. In what’s become a GOP tradition, “the ousting of the speaker” is likely to come sooner rather than later. The only question is: Who in the world would want the thankless job?

Salon

Happy Hollandaise everyone!

Trump at the Kirk memorial:

Reminder:

At least 600 Americans were fired for failing to show sufficient respect after Charlie Kirk’s murder. Others were shunned or run out of town. Foreigners who wrote something irreverent on social media were denied entry into the country. People were threatened with legal action.

This is the president of the United States, the MAGA role model. What will they say?

Nothing.

Update —

He doubles down, of course:

Trump on Rob Reiner: He was a deranged person… Trump derangement syndrome. I was not a fan. I thought he was very bad for our country. pic.twitter.com/PvXJDjUnfZ

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 15, 2025

No immigrants!

The president’s pet psychopath is, as they say, a piece of work. Greg Sargent offers 4,500 words or so on Stephen Miller’s obsession not only with stopping immigration by non-whites but with ethnically reengineering the United States to fit his mental image of Western civilization.

Stephen Miller would fail the John Cena challenge.

John Cena on Patriotism: “Picture the average U.S. citizen… Chances are the person you're picturing right now looks a little different.."

51% are female. So… the average American is a woman.

54 million are Latino.

40 million senior citizens.

27 million are disabled.

18… pic.twitter.com/wMXud0R3BY

— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) July 7, 2024

Miller’s Jewish family fled Antopol, once part of czarist Russia and now Belarus, for the United States between 1903 and 1920. “Wolf Laib [Glosser], who was fleeing a life marked by anti-Jewish pogroms and forced conscription, quickly set about trying to raise more money to bring over relatives.” Miller’s people. Sargent links to an unpublished work by Miller’s grandmother, Ruth Glosser, shared with The New Republic by Miller’s relations. “A Precious Legacy” chronicles the family’s arrivals in the U.S. and their subsequent striving and thriving. Perhaps Miller ought to read it.

Sargent writes:

Yet at the time, many Americans didn’t think people like Miller’s ancestors were fit to become a part of the United States. They were targeted by a virulent strain of nativism toward those from Southern and Eastern Europe that was largely about race—it was rooted in the “scientific racism” of the day. But it also involved a somewhat different claim: that the new arrivals suffered from a “social degeneracy” or “social inadequacy”—two typical phrases at the time—which rendered them a threat to the “civilization” the United States was in the process of becoming. In this telling, as prominent sociologist Edward Alsworth Ross declared in a 1914 broadside, these new immigrants were inferior to Americans who descended from the “pioneer breed” who’d given birth to the American nation. The new arrivals, Ross said, had “submerged” that ancestral connection to the “pioneer breed,” setting the nation on a path to the “extinction that surely awaits it.”

Decades later, Japanese Americans, non-citizens and native born alike, would face the same and race-based discrimination. It landed over 100,000 of them in American concentration camps during World War II, as Rachel Maddow is now covering in her “Burn Order” podcasts. Miller is a type. Maddow finds another like him in the architect of that policy.

Now the driving force behind Donald Trump’s efforts to ethnically cleanse America of undesirable non-Europeans, Miller wants to see immigration all but stopped and pursues deportations with a fanaticism worthy of history’s darkest villains:

Miller’s obsession with sheer numbers—the amounts of various categories of immigrants who are either in the United States or trying to get here—borders on pathological. Take his handling of undocumented immigrants. Miller has repeatedly raged at Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for arrest numbers he deems too low. Since the summer, arrests have hovered at around 1,000 daily. But he’s demanding 3,000 arrests per day, a pace of about one million people per year. To that end, The New York Times reports, the administration has already shifted thousands of federal law enforcement personnel into deportations, hampering critical efforts to combat serious crimes like child and drug trafficking. What’s more, ICE itself is arresting a lot of undocumented immigrants who are not dangerous criminals, diverting resources away from arresting the latter.

Here’s the thing: Miller’s mission of boosting deportation numbers of necessity requires arresting people who are not criminals or gang members—people who have jobs and have become integrated into U.S. communities—because there’s no other way to get the removals up. But it makes us less safe. Miller plainly places more importance on reducing the totals of people here—or trying to get here—than on removing people who pose any actual danger. He appears to be actively prioritizing shifting the ethnic mix of the country over public safety.

Borders on pathological? When a crazed T.E. Lawrence calls for no prisoners in an attack on retreating Turks, he’s working out anger from a past physical/emotional injury at their hands. And Miller’s call for no immigrants? One wants a child psychologist to ask him, “Show me on the doll where the immigrant hurt you.”

I encourage you to read the entire post. Sargent covers Miller’s intellectual mentors and “pathological” drive to roll back immigration policy to the 1920s.

Sargent concludes:

On this point, we’re giving the last word to Miller’s cousin on his father’s side, Alisa Kasmer. Over the summer, Kasmer posted a scalding Facebook takedown of Miller that made big news. She refused all subsequent interview requests. But she agreed to talk to me for this piece.

“We’re Jewish—we grew up knowing how hated we were just for existing,” Kasmer told me. “Now he’s trying to take away the exact thing that his own family benefited from: that ability to create a life for themselves, to prosper, to build community, to have successful businesses—to live a rewarding life.” This—not “saving” our “dying” country, as Miller absurdly claims Trump is doing—will be Miller’s ugly legacy.  

Happy Hollandaise everyone!

2025 takes its toll

Every year about this time it seems that all the built-up bad news makes me eager for the last year to be done and gone. Underlying that is a vain, unexpressed hope that the next year will be better. It usually isn’t.

As strings of news updates rolled in Sunday morning from shootings in Providence and Sydney (the latter a terrorist attack targeting a Hanukkah celebration, I suggested that there were likely many others killed over the weekend whose deaths were not newsworthy enough for press mention. Then last night came news that police found award-winning actor/director/activist Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer dead in their Los Angeles home, victims of an apparent double homicide. The year 2025 can’t end soon enough.

More updates. More police statements. Investigations are ongoing, etc.

Movies are Dennis Hartley‘s lane, so I’ll stay out of it. The internet will be flooded anyway with remembrances of Reiner’s film legacy and cultural impact. We can all quote lines from his films. More importantly, Reiner and his wife were, by all accounts, warm, decent human beings in a business too often characterized by people who are not.

The New York Times offers statements from colleagues and longtime friends:

Kathy Bates, who starred in Mr. Reiner’s “Misery,” based on the Stephen King thriller, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter that she was “absolutely devastated” after the director and his wife, Michele, were found dead at their home in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Ms. Bates described him as “brilliant and kind, a man who made films of every genre to challenge himself as an artist.”

“He also fought courageously for his political beliefs,” she said, adding: “He changed the course of my life.”

Jamie Lee Curtis issued a statement obtained by Deadline on behalf of herself and her husband, Christopher Guest. Mr. Guest starred in “Spinal Tap,” a heavy metal mockumetary that was one of several films directed by Mr. Reiner that became iconic movies of the 1980s and 1990s.

“Christopher and I are numb and sad and shocked about the violent, tragic deaths of our dear friends Rob and Michele Singer Reiner,” Ms. Curtis said. “Our only focus and care right now is for their children and immediate families and we will offer all support possible to help them,” she added.

“There will be plenty of time later to discuss the creative lives we shared and the great political and social impact they both had on the entertainment industry, early childhood development, the fight for gay marriage and their global care for a world in crisis,” Ms. Curtis’s statement continued.

I’m told Reiner attended the DNC winter meeting in Los Angeles last week. Of course, he did.

The Times adds:

In addition to being a Hollywood hitmaker, Mr. Reiner, a Democrat, was an outspoken supporter of political causes. In 1998, he spearheaded a ballot initiative in California to increase taxes on tobacco to pay for early childhood programs.

In 2005, he joined forces with labor unions to challenge some of the policies of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican. In 2006, voters rejected an initiative he led that, if successful, would have raised income taxes on top earners to pay for half-day preschool for all 4 year olds in California. Later, he backed a legal campaign to persuade the Supreme Court to establish same-sex marriage as a constitutional right.

The stature of Mr. Reiner and his wife among the biggest names in the Democratic Party was evident in the tributes released after their death.

“Together, he and his wife lived lives defined by purpose,” former President Barack Obama said on social media. “They will be remembered for the values they championed and the countless people they inspired.”

May it be said of us.

A friend held a potluck and film viewing last night to celebrate the work of the late Robert Redford, an actor known for his climate activism. He died on September 16.

Seventeen days to 2026.

Happy Hollandaise everyone!

 

No, not that one…

But he does compare him to Putin:

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler in a speech Saturday evening, warning that the Kremlin leader’s ambitions won’t stop with Ukraine.

“Just as the Sudetenland was not enough in 1938, Putin will not stop,” Merz said, referring to a part of Czechoslovakia that the Allies ceded to the Nazi leader with an agreement. Hitler continued his expansion into Europe after that.

“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop there,” Merz said, referring to Putin. “This is a Russian aggressive war against Ukraine — and against Europe.”

He’s not wrong.

The Pax Americana is over. Europe is arming up. Japan is talking about it too. In fact, everyone is. You can’t blame them. But whenever the world does that it doesn’t end well.

Happy Hollandaise everyone!

No his mind isn’t mush, Why do you ask?

Trump as he rambles on and on about snakes: “Look how quiet everybody is” pic.twitter.com/7zHthQx8BE

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 14, 2025

Sharp as a tack.

Trump gets distracted by a woman in the crowd he says looks like Ivanka and has her turn for the cameras pic.twitter.com/MZFrsTVTNH

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 14, 2025

If he actually builds this thing we should tear that motherfucker down the minute we get the chance…

Trump touts the “triumphal arch” he says he’s building in DC pic.twitter.com/ifNeVqEh84

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 14, 2025

“Things” happen. Pity.

Trump on the shooting at Brown University: “Things can happen” pic.twitter.com/HOBmgTuD85

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 14, 2025

Here we go again. He will never stop talking about it. And sadly tens of millions of people believe it too.

Trump says “truckloads” of evidence is about to come out proving the 2020 election was stolen pic.twitter.com/d7l6OxNBbG

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 14, 2025

Trump suggests he actually won California last year but it was “rigged” pic.twitter.com/SrsbNHzyQK

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 14, 2025

And by the way…

Trump: “You’re gonna see results in 6 months to a year” pic.twitter.com/f05KwCkxa1

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 14, 2025

I guess Day One was just a rough guesstimate…

The crowd seemed to love it. They laughed and cheered and had a good time. I suspect that he could get up there, drop his pants and start singing “My Sharona” and they just start singing along. He literally can do no wrong with these people.

Speaking of network takeovers, this analysis from Mediaite about the attempt to take over CNN is worth reading.

Imagine if Hunter Biden were helping assemble billions in Saudi and Qatari financing so a progressive media owner could take over Fox News while quietly assuring the White House that he planned to replace hosts and reshape the network’s direction. The national reaction would be immediate. Congressional hearings, emergency ethics panels, a weeklong media frenzy.

Now consider what is actually happening. The developing Paramount–Skydance effort to acquire Warner Bros Discovery involves outreach to sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE. Reuters reported that Jared Kushner helped connect David Ellison’s team with those funds as they explored financing options for a potential hostile bid. These investments are not confirmed or finalized, and Axios has reported that the foreign investors “have agreed to forgo any governance rights – including board representation – associated with their non-voting equity investments.”

Even still, the implications are serious. When foreign state wealth approaches an acquisition that includes a major American news institution, the public deserves visibility. When the president’s son-in-law is involved in those introductions, the stakes are far higher.

The point isn’t that these situations are identical. It’s that our outrage is bizarrely asynchronous and selective when the structural threat is constant. The Wall Street Journal reported that Ellison told President Donald Trump he planned sweeping changes at CNN if his takeover succeeded. This is not rumor. It is sourced reporting and has not been disputed by the principals. If accurate, it reflects something the country is unprepared to confront. A potential buyer of a news organization offered political value to a sitting president in the middle of a high-stakes media consolidation effort. And yet? Crickets from most major news outlets.

This is not a narrow corruption story. It is much worse — evidence of a structural weakness in the American democratic system that has only recently been exposed, and shockingly ignored. The United States has few meaningful guardrails preventing political families, foreign sovereign wealth, and corporate acquirers from converging inside a transaction that reshapes national news. That is media capture in the modern sense. It rarely looks like censorship. It looks like a phone call before a regulatory decision. A meeting that never happens because someone signals it shouldn’t. A tonal shift in coverage that feels organic but reflects the results of pressure nobody documented and nobody needed to. Influence that is subtle, diffuse, and consequential.

Many will argue that the American media has always had politically motivated owners — the Hearsts, the Sulzbergers, the Murdochs. But ideological owners are not the core issue. The qualitative change comes when political families with direct stakes in government decisions, foreign governments with geopolitical interests, and corporate bidders seeking regulatory favor operate inside the same deal structure. That is not media partisanship. It is the integration of political power and global capital into a democracy’s information architecture.

This is emerging as one of the central problems we face with this newly empowered authoritarian oligarchy. I am not sure what anyone can do about it. I would guess there are lots of ideas circulating and I’ll try to keep up with it as well as I can. But this is bad, very bad.

And it’s not like social media is going to come to our rescue. Facebook, X and tik tok are now in right wing hands and I’m not at all confident that the Google platforms aren’t going to fully join that crowd.

Still, the internet isn’t going anywhere and there will continue to be ways to disseminate real information. However, with the government now saying they are going to be monitoring it for dissent against “the American way of life” such as traditional values and Christianity I’m not sure how that’s going to work out either.

Maybe this will all blow over. These oligarchs all believe they should run the world and I don’t get the feeling that their ideology is particularly well-thought out beyond their own sense of superiority and distrust of democracy. If you read someone be like Curtis Yarvin, one of their gurus, it’s just a mishmash of weird ideas that sound interesting to nerd types. So maybe they’re capable of evolving? That’s a pretty slim hope but who knows?

In the short term anyway, this is a big threat. I hope that Warners has the spine to fight off this hostile bid from Ellison and Kushner.

Happy Hollandaise everyone!

Erika Kirk telling parents don’t let their children go down rabbit holes or they’ll become as@ss*ns.

Crazy. pic.twitter.com/jFRX8bjsLP

— WhitesQWall (@QWorldOrderQ) December 13, 2025

Trump enabler Bari Weiss, the new head of CBS News, has apparently decided that she’s the new Oprah and she held a “Town hall” with Erika Kirk last night that was one of the most unwatchable programs of many a year. I guess she sees herself as the person who will bring far right politics to mainstream news? If so, she needs to find a more interesting way to do it.

Kirk is making a career for herself as a professional widow and she has a very odd affect. I’m not sure what’s wrong with her but something’s off. She’s like a bad sop opera actress. I’m not sure she’s really got what it takes to be the cross-over personality that Weiss apparently thinks she is.

The hype on social media is overwhelming, with Weiss at the center of it all. I guess she thinks she too is a television star?

What was going through Erika Kirk’s head when she forgave her husband’s alleged murderer? What does she make of the wild conspiracy theories surrounding his death? Can she help mend a divided America, plagued by political violence?

Just days after the posthumous release of her… pic.twitter.com/USvVwnDO7l

— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 11, 2025

What would Erika Kirk say to Candace Owens, as she pushes conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk's assassination?

"Stop. That's it. That's all I have to say. Stop."

Just days after the posthumous release of her husband's last book, "Stop, in the Name of God: Why Honoring the… pic.twitter.com/rg6gInjBeL

— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 11, 2025

In her attempts to make Erika Kirk some sort of idol to MAGA Christians, Bari Weiss pretends she was literally incapable of understanding what "forgiveness" means until Erika explained it to her. Then she explains forgiveness for the audience.

This is the head of CBS News. pic.twitter.com/zaGPhuawFB

— TrumpFile.org (@TrumpFile) December 14, 2025

I dunno:

During a Saturday-night town hall led by Bari Weiss, the recently named editor in chief of CBS News, most of Madison Avenue sought an off-ramp.

The program featured an in-depth interview with Erika Kirk, the CEO of the conservative advocacy organization Turning Point USA and the widow of Charlie Kirk, the group’s former leader. He was assassinated during one of the organization’s events at Utah Valley University, throwing a harsh spotlight on the political and cultural divides present in the U.S.

The event marked a new offering from CBS News. The organization does not typically host town halls or debates on trending issues or with newsmakers. And the choice of Weiss as moderator also raised eyebrows, because in most modern TV-news organizations, senior editorial executives remain off camera, rather than appearing in front of it.

More may be on the way. During the program, Weiss told viewers that “CBS is going to have many more conversations like this in the weeks and months ahead, so stay tuned. More town halls. More debates. More talking about the things that matter.” That would suggest CBS is planning to devote more hours to the programs.

The news special aired at 8 p.m. on Saturday, one of the least-watched hours in broadcast TV. And that may have contributed to a relative dearth of top advertisers appearing to support the show. During the hour, commercial breaks were largely filled with spots from direct-response advertisers, including the dietary supplement SuperBeets; the home-repair service HomeServe.com; and CarFax, a supplier of auto ownership data. Viewers of of the telecast on WCBS, CBS’ flagship station in New York, even saw a commercial for Chia Pet, the terra-cotta figure that sprouts plant life after a few weeks.

Direct-response advertisers typically pay lower prices in exchange for allowing TV networks to put their commercials on air when convenience allows. A flurry of the ads appearing in one program usually offers a signal that the network could not line up more mainstream support for the content it chose to air.

I suspect money isn’t really the agenda here. The new owner David Ellison and Weiss have different plans for their news division. And it isn’t about delivering news.

The show itself was astonishingly bad. Both women are insufferable but they do seem to love themselves and each other so that’s nice. Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite are doing somersaults in their graves.

Happy Hollandaise everyone!