Having special deals for residents/citizens and soaking international tourists is a common practice, but most places have easy definitive ways to prove you are, in fact, a resident/citizen and the US has no such method that people are used to. WASHINGTON — The National Park Service said Tuesday it is going to start charging the millions of international tourists who visit U.S. parks each year an extra $100 to enter some of the most popular sites, while leaving them out of fee-free days that will be reserved for American residents. Also that's a not a minor fee increase. About half of Americans have valid passports, according to the internet.

Wacky Wednesday.

get happy

Sure Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro has said "hallucinations" and a nervous breakdown led to an attempt to tamper with his electronic ankle tag. Ah well. Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ordered to start serving his 27-year sentence in a 12 sq metre bedroom in a police base in the capital, Brasília, after his conviction for plotting a coup.

Busy with some things

The replacements will inevitably be worse, but at least we can laugh. President Trump is considering removing Kash Patel as FBI director in the coming months, as he and his top aides have grown increasingly frustrated by the unflattering headlines Patel has recently generated, according to three people with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity in order to speak freely.

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So you do too. Excuse Me While I Felch A floozy newsie named Nuzzi got all boozy and told RFK Twosie he could suck something oozy from where she goes number twosie. The mere thought makes me woozy. by Maureen Dowd— NY Times Pitchbot (@nytpitchbot.bsky.social) November 24, 2025 at 4:36 PM

Was he aware of what revealing everyone's location would reveal or was he too stupid to know this? Did he really believe all the libs were botnets and all the Nazis were Real Americans? Couldn't he actually know the answer to that? Was he in that much denial? And if he did know, why is he doing it?

I don't know what's "funnier" - the idea that Alan Dershowitz represents the majority of Americans or the the idea that before Bari Weiss came along, Dershwitz wasn't on TV daily and on the front page of the NYT regularly. Bari Weiss says she wants to use her new perch at CBS News to “redraw the lines of what falls in the 40 yards of acceptable debate” in American political and cultural life. She says the aim is to sideline voices like Hasan Piker, Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, and elevate… pic.twitter.com/hfbM4gOwcN— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) November 25, 2025 And Piker, Hasan, and Carlson didn't have daily (any) CBS spots before she showed up, either. Total online brain poisoning, in addition to other issues.11

Tricky Tuesday.

Get happy

 (MSNOW guy):

I am really enjoying the Harvard Crimson continuin to stick it to Larry Summers. Remember that this was Larry's last tweet (as of now). I found this article by a former Harvard Crimson President very disturbing. The moral bankruptcy that led the Crimson to endorse BDS some time ago, without subsequent withdrawal, appears to have spread to the news pages. (I have shared Stoll's article to several at the Crimson…— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) November 10, 2025

I am sure they will try some other nonsense. A federal judge dismissed the indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday. The judge found that the appointment of interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan in Alexandria, Virginia, was invalid. I know none of this is funny, but Comey being indicted and then having the case dimissed every few months would be kind of funny. That asshole deserves it a bit!

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Just a little something to make you smile. Here’s one particularly exercised senior House Republican: “This entire White House team has treated ALL members like garbage. ALL. And Mike Johnson has let it happen because he wanted it to happen. That is the sentiment of nearly all — appropriators, authorizers, hawks, doves, rank and file. The arrogance of this White House team is off putting to members who are run roughshod and threatened. They don’t even allow little wins like announcing small grants or even responding from agencies. Not even the high profile, the regular rank and file random members are more upset than ever. Members know they are going into the minority after the midterms. “More explosive early resignations are coming. It’s a tinder box. Morale has never been lower. Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel and they will lose the majority before this term is out.” There aren't that many cushy barely-show jobs if your party is about to be in the minority. Better jump quickly!

Can't quite place the tune, though. Wall Street is straining to absorb a flood of new bonds from tech companies funding their artificial intelligence investments, adding to the recent pressure in markets. .. Companies were able to complete their sales. But some had to pay unexpectedly high interest rates. Prices of bonds from the companies have also been sliding—a sign that investors were caught off guard by the sheer quantity of bonds entering the market and of growing concern about the worsening credit metrics of the businesses. Stock investors, already nervous about the sky-high valuations of AI businesses, have taken note of the weakness in the bond market. Meanwhile, the cost of insuring those bonds using credit-default swaps also has climbed, with negative sentiments from different groups of investors feeding into each other.  

I haven't actually seen (I do not see everything, I admit, but I have searched!) any mainstream journalist publicly raise an eyebrow, or ask for more clarification, about Lizza's accusation that Nuzzi was had "catch-and-kill operations." Looking back, the aughts were amazingly a golden age of media criticism and self-reflection by journalists compared to now. Much of that criticism was stupid and the self-reflection used a funhouse mirror at Matt Drudge's house, but at least it existed. Now there is barely any public conversation about it from the players.

Momentous Monday.

Get happy.

Somewhat interestingly, I've found CNN's homepage to be a hotbed of sedition (normal coverage of an abnormal presidency). I guess Trump doesn't read, so they can get away with it.

I am waiting for some other journalist (Ben Smith, this is a job for you!) to assert that doing catch-and-kill for your sources is just a normal part of elite journalism and you fools, you imbeciles, just don't understand how things work.

Sunday funday

Enjoy