No Doubt That the Two Steves (Bannon and Miller) Sleep With One

The "Trumpy Bear":

The version in which the Trumpy Bear is wrapped in a Russian flag will probably be a bit pricey.

NY Times's Geopolitical Cowardice

In this article about Hungary's interference in Macedonian politics, the New York Times included a map that had a curious omission:

They didn't label one chunk of land, as indicated by the red arrow.

That is Kosovo.

Screenshot of the online version:

Feel free to speculate as to why.

Trump is Sacrificing Federal Workers to Save His Own Neck

In [Trump's] eyes, a prolonged stalemate will likely fracture voters along traditional partisan lines, and the ultimate outcome will be a debate waged largely on the president’s terms. Increasingly, they see an upside in forcing likely incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi to have to spend the first days, if not weeks, of the next Congress engaged in an argument over border wall funding rather than her preferred agenda: a mix of sweeping ethics and election reforms and congressional oversight.

I suspect that he's smoking crack on both issues. As noted before, Trump's screaming about what Tucker Carlson calls "dirty immigrants" gave the Democrats a lot more House seats than expected.

What is despicable, of course, is that Trump is wrecking part of the government solely to save his own ass. You have to know, Gentle Reader, as the rest of the Federal government comes up for funding, Trump'll shut them down, too.

Because to Trump: "L'état, c'est moi"

2018; a Dave Barry Retrospective

You can read it here or here.

2018 was worse than 2017. 2019 promises to be worse than 2018.

Signals! Whiskey! Alfa! Hotel!

Family members are sharing their side of the story after their loved one was shot and killed by a homeowner Wednesday night.

43 year-old Oliver Perez was shot by a homeowner during an attempted burglary. Perez was taken to University Medical Center with a gunshot wound, and later died.

The Perez family says Oliver Perez struggled with drug addiction and had a criminal record, but they hoped he would be able to turn his life around.

If one breaks into enough places in most parts of the country, one runs the risk of suddenly coming down with a severe case of bullet wounds. It's an occupational hazard of living the critter life.

Funny how the ones that get shot dead are always a month or so away from turning their lives around.

(H/T)

Putin to Trump: Stand By for Orders!

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in a New Year letter on Sunday that Moscow was ready for dialogue on a “wide-ranging agenda”, the Kremlin said following a series of failed attempts to hold a new summit.

Since Putin holds a loose leash on Trump, the dialogue will be more or less unidirectional.

Your Sunday Morning Big Prop Noise

B-25:

Guns and Homicide

This article argues that there is no correlation between the homicide rate and the firearms ownership rates in the US, in the various states, in the EU and around the world.

Statistics geeks can have at it.

Updated to add NOTICE:

If you're commenting to discuss the validity of this guy's statistical analysis (I'm keeping in mind the old saying about "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."), then have at it.

If you're going to springboard into other topics, I'll lock this puppy up. My bullshit tolerance is low today.

All In All, It's Just Another Brick in the Wall; Trump Ed.

New Jersey prosecutors have collected evidence that supervisors at President Trump’s Garden State golf club may have committed federal immigration crimes — and the FBI as well as special counsel Robert Mueller have played part in the inquiry, the Daily News has learned.

It wasn't just that they hired aliens who could not work in this country illegally, it's that they provided them with the forged papers so they could work.

So, (1) what did Trump know and when did he know it?

(2) Where is he going to get the workers for his golf clubs if his wall gets built?

The managers should remember the Rat Rule: The first one to talk spends the least amount of time in the joint.

Caturday

Chip the Snugglecat: