Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike – what tab is it? …
“The motive is not yet known.” (!?!) https://t.co/ua9QZIoOdg
— Dan Senor (@dansenor) December 17, 2025
Ed: NARRATOR: Everyone knows what the motive is when “the motive is not yet known.” This is an idiotic phrase that media outlets use when the motive is embarrassing to their preferred narratives.
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Mazelit Airaksinen: A visibly Jewish man was stabbed in the chest in Crown Heights NYC yesterday in what the New York Police Department is investigating as a hate crime against Jews.
The 35-year-old victim — whose name is not yet available — was walking down the infamous Kingston Avenue near Lincoln Place at about 5:00p.m. on the third day of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah when he was randomly accosted by a Black male.
The victim told police the deranged man walked up to him, started wielding his knife, and that he made antisemitic statements to his face. The perpetrator allegedly said “F*** these Jews,” and said it would “be alright if the Holocaust happened today.”
While we don’t know much more about what was said during the skirmish, we do know two things: that the victim was unarmed, and that the man who perpetrated this incident stabbed the Jewish man multiple times.
Ed: Wanna bet that the motive will be reported as “not yet known” in the media? If it’s reported at all?
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Mr. Wade billed 160 hours a week? There are 168 hours in a week.
— John Scott (@johnnybiztalk) December 17, 2025
Ed: I mainly put this one in here to annoy Duane, because I’m gonna find a way to include this in this week’s episode of our Week In Review podcast. But honestly, 160 hours in ONE WEEK? This was a grift, nothing more, a way to launder taxpayer money to her own benefit. Neither Willis nor Wade should be allowed to practice law after this, although I can easily predict that Fulton County voters will return her to office if she avoids getting disbarred. (via Twitchy)
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Jerusalem Post: In the coming weeks, unless a security development occurs in southern Lebanon that meets the demands of Israel and the United States, the region may enter another round of fighting – one that could severely shake the stability of the Lebanese regime and plunge the country into a bloody civil war. Such a development would push the US away from involvement in Lebanon, restore Iran’s position as the dominant power in the country, and affect the stability of the Syrian regime as well.
Israel’s hardline policy, backed by the United States, to dismantle Hezbollah’s military capabilities by the end of 2025 – according to the timetable set last August by the Lebanese government itself – is reflected both in near-daily airstrikes, including the targeted killing of Hezbollah’s chief of staff, Haytham Ali Tabatabai (to which Hezbollah has yet to respond), and in intense diplomatic pressure led by US envoys Morgan Ortagus and Tom Barrack, working closely with Saudi Prince Yazid bin Farhan and France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian. …
Against the backdrop of the recent war and the severe political crisis that had plagued the country for years beforehand, Lebanon has reached the edge of the abyss: accelerated emigration of strong socioeconomic groups, primarily Christians; a significant demographic shift threatening the 1943 National Pact – whose founding idea envisioned Lebanon as a state for all its sects, each enjoying near-complete autonomy; and an almost total economic dependence on external aid, which will not be provided unless Hezbollah disarms.
Ed: Both Hezbollah and Hamas refuse to comply with the ceasefires they signed. Neither will disarm willingly despite promising to do so. There will not be peace when “peace” agreements are ignored.
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It can now be said! https://t.co/IMBRuwSKD6
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) December 16, 2025
Ed: The genre lives! Next, CNN will promise to scrutinize Mike Johnson’s finances in atonement for missing this story over the last 20 years or more. Everyone involved will give each other Pulitzers and Nobels and whatever other mutual-admiration attaboys they can create. Speaking of awards, though …
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The Wrap: After hosting the Oscars for more than 50 years, ABC has lost one of the most prestigious events in the broadcasting year. In 2029, the Academy Awards trade their broadcast deal for a new streaming iteration on YouTube, an industry-shifting deal that runs through 2033.
The decision marks a decisive blow to the broadcast television business, far beyond the lost revenue to the network, which was $127 million for this year’s ceremony.
It also underscores the continued migration of high-profile live events — once seen as the last bastion of prime linear TV content — to streaming. The Oscars are the most prestigious event on the entertainment industry calendar, and the top entertainment live event when measured by viewership despite yearly declines. Beyond the lost ratings and revenue, it’s an equally significant symbolic blow to ABC and other legacy networks.
“Network television has been the home of the Oscars for 70 years,” a former Disney executive told TheWrap. “Apart from sports, this is the day network TV finally, truly, really died. We don’t have to wait till 2029 for the coroner’s report.”
Ed: No, this is the day that the awards-show genre “finally, truly, really died.” It died from the same illness that is killing late-night television: the curation of audiences so narrowly to the Left that the viewership can no longer support the cost structures. YouTube picked it up because YouTube is a self-curating platform, but their interest in this won’t last past 2033. It’s a prestige project, plus a way that Alphabet/Google can tweak Disney/ABC, but the viewership will only get smaller as the awards shows get pettier.
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Candace Owens’s large fanbase was very angry with her yesterday and deeply frustrated.
In all the years I’ve been following her and tracking her fanbase, I’ve never seen anything like it.
These are the top comments on her episode yesterday where she discussed — in a word salad… pic.twitter.com/bkMWabLYX0
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) December 17, 2025
These are the top comments on her episode yesterday where she discussed — in a word salad offering little to nothing — her 4.5 hour meeting with Erika Kirk.
An analysis I did of the comments (tens of thousands of them) showed 74% of them were NEGATIVE.
A stunning number.
The dominant emotional currents of the comments, ranked in order:
1. Betrayal and Disillusionment
2. Suspicion, Paranoia and Conspiracy Thinking
3. Anger and Hostility
4. Confusion and Cognitive Dissonance
Ed: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
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The Hollywood Reporter: If David Zaslav steers Warner Bros. Discovery to a successful deal close, it will net the company’s shareholders a notable profit — especially if a bidding war escalates and drives Paramount’s hostile $30 per share offer even higher, or if Netflix needs to raise its offer. …
Zaslav will receive $30 million in “Golden Parachute” compensation along with $537 million in equity for a total of $567 million in a transaction-associated pay, per the Wednesday filing. Zaslav has led Warners since it formally merged with Discovery in 2022 following a $43 billion spinoff from then-owner AT&T.
Gunnar Wiedenfels, Zaslav’s longtime lieutenant, current CFO and soon-to-be CEO of spinoff firm Discovery Global (which would house CNN, TNT and more cable channels), will receive $5 million in cash and $138 million in equity. Chief revenue officer Bruce Campbell stands to net $17.6 million in cash and $120 million in equity while streaming chief JB Perrette will gain $17.1 million in cash and $150 million in equity. International chief Gerhard Zeiler will see $11.3 million in cash and $83.9 million in equity.
Ed: Think about what these terms mean. They brought this team into WBD to dismantle it. Their deal set the incentives for a demolition of the company, and it won’t matter who ends up buying the company, either. You’d think that the board would have disincentivized this policy and expected the management team to help the company succeed.
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In mathematics, the inverse to the timesitby operator is the gazinta
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 17, 2025
Ed: You know how long it took me to memorize my timesitby tables and learn gazintas? Also, though … you don’t really need to know them to tip these days. Even the paper receipts in most places have tips calculated for 18%, 20%, and 22%, so you can either put a check mark or a circle around your choice. I’m not sure that that says about America, but I’m pretty sure it ain’t good.
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WSJ: Dan Bongino said Wednesday that he is stepping down as deputy director at the FBI, after a nine-month tenure in which he clashed with both Justice Department leadership and the bureau’s workforce.
Ed: Dan’s move to the FBI always seemed curious to me anyway. It clearly began to wear on everyone early on. It also doesn’t help when you give up a lucrative, self-made career to work under someone else in a job that is as restrictive as law enforcement can be. Give Dan credit for going back into public service to serve his country again, though it’s a shame it didn’t work out for him.
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🚨 BREAKING: President Trump says FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino likely wants to go back to his show
“Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show.”
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 17, 2025
Ed: I suspect that Dan believes – with justification – that he can do more as the head of his own media empire than he can as the Number Two in the FBI.
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I remember when I was in college and fighting the free speech battles of that time at Dartmouth, Norman Podhoretz boldly added his voice to those defending our rights to speak and publish. I will never forget his moral clarity and courage in doing so. RIP. 🪦 https://t.co/YcPw1LeGrS
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@HarmeetKDhillon) December 17, 2025
Ed: RIP to Norman Podhoretz – a giant in conservative thought, and a great American.
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