David Waldman and Greg Dworkin have returned, and already it feels like there's more sunshine today.

There! The DOJ released less than a percent of the Epstein files. Happy now? Apparently, dumping 500 pages with black lines over previously accessible documents and removing photos that even they had released previously fails to meet the spirit of the Epstein Files Transparency Act… Ok, the law of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, along with several other laws. It does fulfill the spirit of screwing as many as possible while keeping your buddies' backs, however.

You couldn't catch the latest 60 Minutes episode because Bari Weiss caught and killed it first. CBS says the story wasn't ready, but it did take a while for Bari Weiss to get her story together as well.

Trump is removing dozens of career diplomats from overseas posts, because what would they know? Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry will be special envoy to Greenland, because Jeff is a noted expert on agreeing with Trump. Landry will remain Governor as Louisiana's constitution does not explicitly prohibit "side hustles".

Nobody told ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee to not to talk with Jonathan Pollard, who was convicted of selling American secrets for Israeli gold, who now hates Donald K. Trump for selling America for Saudi gold.

The getting is good for Cynthia Lummis and Elise Stefanik, so they're gone, while Mike Johnson might not be aware that he's already been quiet fired. The Federal Reserve pre-fired 11 of its 12 regional bank presidents before Trump could. How does Lindsey Halligan keep not doing it?

The Friday chaos is already underway! Somehow, despite the "surprise" nature of the "unanimous vote" by a handpicked board for the "name change," they're already installing new signage at the Kennedy Center.

If you ordered a Trump Mobile T1 phone for Christmas, you're dumb! And SOL, as they say!

Speaking of Trump phones, there's a newly-released tape of yet another racketeering phone call Trump made to Georgia Republicans, to try to overturn the 2020 election. And speaking of that, Jack Smith sat for a deposition before Gym Jordan and the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. And he told them all that yes, there was a mountain of evidence to convict Trump. On everything. Thankfully, no Republicans accused him of politicizing the investigation, because Democrats bought 100% protection from that charge, by agreeing—once again—that all serious investigative and prosecutorial power must at all times be ceded to Republicans.

But I digress!

The U.S. continues to blow up more boats in the… uh… warm-ish, equatorial region. You know, wherever. Does it really matter what country they're from? Or whether anything alleged is true? I guess not, because it isn't! But couldn't Stephen Miller's evil plan to destroy Venezuela just end up driving more migration from Venezuela? Yes! But would Miller necessarily be sad about that? Not if it makes things look more like the fake "invasion" he keeps screaming about.

Anyway, Happy Epstein Files Release Day, at long last! By which we mean Happy Epstein Files Not Getting Released Day! All the more reason to spend the weekend reading the NYT account of Epstein and Trump's "intense and complicated" relationship. And barfing!

And if you're in DC, you'll still have plenty of other reasons to barf, like the continued presence of a federalized National Guard contingent. Why? Because you're too lazy to have become a state, of course!

We're finally saying "Happy Hanukkah" again! David Waldman and Greg Dworkin bring glad tidings and pertinent information.

Is it better when Donald K. Trump goes on primetime to say nothing? If so, Trump delivered last night. It was tough to come up with takeaways or see any points Trump made, even with PowerPoint, but even harder to paint anything he said as factual, truthful, or remotely not deranged. Trump blamed everyone but him and was furious that all credit did not go to him, so expect this speech periodically through the rest of his term. The one piece of actual news is the promise of Merry Christmas checks to armed service members, in other words, the "basic allowance for housing" that hubristic underhanded moron is BS-ing unassuming GIs, by calling it a "warrior dividend".

If Trump wasn't so bad at corruption he could have retired by now.

Susie Wiles hasn't lasted this long by going around pointing out everyone's moral, legal or rational shortcomings, you know.

Democrats are, of course, frustrated by their lack of control in the House, but it could be worse. They could be Mike Johnson.

In other acronym news, Congress wants to know why the Space Force needs a SOCOM, or "special operations component command".

David Waldman addressed the nation today. If you were unable to catch it live, you can replay with the link provided above.

Click click click… Greenland… Canada… The TACO wheel o' war might be coming to rest on Venezuela as US battleships cross the Andes to surround Trump's oil, land other assets. Join Master of Ceremonies Donald K. Trump tonight as he countdowns the number of corpses he has to feed into this Epstein thing.

Trump's National Security Strategy is none of those things. It's not even Trump's, as what's in it for him?

Greg Dworkin hauls in some polls from the awful place. That doesn't make them awful, of course, only suspect. Democrats are gigantically overperforming at this moment. That could change if the economy improves, and there is no way that is going to happen, and even MAGA knows it.

Republicans unravel! Gops make or break moment on Obamacare has them going for broke. Trump staff posed for Vanity Fair cameras one inch from their noses and figured that this was just going to be a puff piece. Suzie Wiles is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being DC has ever known this week.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful… but you can't prove that because the National Center for Atmospheric Research is being disposed of. Somewhere Tina Peters is smiling.

David Waldman takes us another day further from last weekend. Hopefully that's a good thing.

Donald K. Trump might have a score to settle with Chief of Staff Susie "Trump" Wiles, following her first of two Vanity Fair interviews, in which she reveals that Daddy's a mean drunk and it's best to just stay out of the way when he and JD go on a bender.

Donald is long past being drunk with power. He's far more than 12 steps away from walking back his Rob Reiner comments. Fox News and Evangelicals are tired of being his enablers.

Is Susie Wiles... Antifa? It turns out that quite a few Americans are Antifa founder's girlfriends.

The S.E.C. was tough on crypto, but then again, so was Trump. Well, Trump's position on that has evolved over time. Want a visa? Just tap the "Grease Palm Here" button.

David Waldman, Greg Dworkin and all of us at Kagro in the Morning World Headquarters wish all of you a Happy Hanukkah. Please. Even as this one feels like it needs a bit more light than usual.

We begin today under the national and international clouds of mass shootings. At Brown University, multiple people were shot, two have died, and Kash Patel screwed up another investigation. Then, at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach near Sydney, a father and son gunmen killed at least 15 people before a good guy with a gun took some bullets and saved some lives. Australians will tighten gun laws. Bibi Netanyahu hopes to kill more Palestinians. Zohran Mamdani shows the world what to say.

And then Rob Reiner and his wife were murdered, probably by their own kid. This is devastating for a number of reasons, especially because Rob Reiner would be the guy with a perfect thing to say on a day like today.

It is in times like these we must all remember that Donald K. Trump is the world's most despicable person alive, some say of all time. Donald is losing, becoming weaker, and will continue to lose, which means that everything will become much, much worse. Trump might be gone in the next thirty, forty years or so, therefore every rat in the sack is set on chewing each other's eyes out ASAP. Someday in the next thirty, forty years, Trump's administrative stays will run out.

María Corina Machado is the kind of Nobel Prize winner that Trump would pick, if he ever got tired of picking himself. Machado might get her pick from friendly or not so friendly fire.

David Waldman takes another whack at the chaos before the weekend.

Indiana rejected the Gop plan to rig their 6-4 voting Gop state into a 9-0 seat state, returning it to a more modest 7-2 rigging. This makes Donald K. Trump look like an old, weak, flaccid, has-been. SAD! Donald shook his tiny fist at Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray. Indiana's lieutenant governor says Trump threatened the entire state's funding, while Indiana's governor remains loyally henching for Trump.

There is a simple, legal way Trump could steal the midterms, but David assures us that they'd have to be really brazen to attempt that… Chris Murphy explains how Trump is preparing to abandon Ukraine in exchange for Russian money for his billionaire friends. Trump is asserting executive privilege to thwart his Jan. 6 lawsuit.

Trump and paperwork, man! Trump purports to have pardoned Tina Peters but did he really? This time it doesn't matter because he can't, or perhaps it doesn't matter because he will anyway after he copters in Sly Stallone to bust her out.

The DOJ failed to indict Letitia James… again… and again, and probably soon, again. The DOJ also pressured lawyers to "find" evidence that UCLA had illegally tolerated antisemitism.

Abrego Garcia has been released from prison, and one day later remains free, at least at this moment, as hundreds of people in and out of government labor to take him out. Now they say the scrivener must have preferred not to add that final order of removal, as often happens, you know. The scrivener must have also slipped up on exactly where to put Lindsey Halligan.

Critics of Elon Musk's Twitter could be in trouble, but who isn't a critic of Elon Musk's Twitter? Border patrol will first need to review 5 years of your aunt's cat pictures before she'll be allowed in to visit.

Meanwhile, friend of Trump, hater of women Andrew Tate had several doors opened for him.

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin count down the days... to any holiday you choose, as long as it improves upon today.

Ahrrr! There be pirates! And they be us! Donald K. Trump notes that it was a really big boat, and that it had some oil for him. Venezuela notes that this traditionally is the final step before the ground invasion. And just when Gops had solved the previous war crimes hiccup too.

Next stop, Columbia. Don't worry, thanks to the Pentagon, Don Jr. can take the price hit.

Republicans in revolt. Mike Johnson is finding himself afflicted with chronic painful discharge petitions. A lot of that burning sensation he's feeling is Marjorie Taylor Green. The Senate is set to vote on dueling health care proposals in order to protect their phony baloney jobs. That's a lot of harrumphs. Donald gets off on their fighting. Gops that don't gerrymander might see some not so friendly fire, as Trump is placing targets on each one of them personally.

In comparison, the Democratic party is doing fine, flipping a bunch of Gop seats, and planning to flip a bunch more. Trump is doing an A +++++ job on creating the tariff-based misery that's delivering voters to the polls.

In an early Christmas gift exchange, Trump's FIFA award has been followed by some nice pardons.

A federal judge has ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration detention, while hundreds in the DOJ work to regift him to a yet to be announced recipient before Christmas.

Greg Dworkin told you Monday that there'd be elections Tuesday. David Waldman told you Tuesday that Greg would tell you about those elections on Wednesday. It's Wednesday, and I don't need to tell you what the topic is, do I?

Democrat Eileen Higgins beat Trump pick Emilio González in the runoff for Miami mayor, the first Dem win in 30 years, while Rolando Escalona ended the Carollo dynasty with nearly 60% of the vote. The Democratic party ponders whether to clone Higgins or Mamdani this year... But that's not all! Georgia Democrats flipped a Republican state House seat that Gops dummymandered. Thanks Donald! Sadly, most of this is happening because of the economy. Even more sadly, most of this is not happening because of the war crimes, rampant corruption, collapse of democracy, etc.

Donald K. Trump kicked off his "affordability hoax" hoax tour, which could be over quick if someone doesn't start handing him some peace prizes. Trump might let the woman who won the Nobel lead his upcoming bombing runs.

The Trump doctrine is to pardon and reward those who Biden dislikes and love him and blow up the rest. So simple a lackey can handle that while he naps. Political union with Russia, to own the globalists! ™ is more than a slogan, it is official US policy, with Russia leading the way.

Meanwhile, Tennessee Gop Andy Ogles declares civil war on liberal judges.

David Waldman bridges the gap between pre- and post-election analysis days to devote today's KITM to the consequences of bad voting decisions.

The Trump Supreme Court is set to overturn the 20th century, and probably a chunk of the 19th. We were pre-wrong on whether Trump could do no wrong, and soon we'll be pre-wrong thinking that he can't eliminate those who won't do wrong for him.

Paramount, with Saudis', Qataris' and Emiratis' money, wants to buy Warner Bros Discovery and CNN and Time Warner and etc... So does Netflix. Of course, now, the president picks the winner... so who will he be choosing? In case you care to place a bet, SIL Jared Kushner has taken time off from his measuring the drapes in Gaza to pop out of Mohammed bin Salman's bisht pocket on behalf of Paramount. Even if Jared loses, he can sue daddy, so it's win-win all around.

Trump is giving corporate farmers $12 billion in taxpayer money, but actual rural residents will have to go to the big city for a doctor.

Nobody does anything for free, at least in Trump world, and it never matters what you did to get in jail, it's what you do when you get out that concerns Donald. Trump does not owe Marjorie Taylor Greene nor CBS. Today, as always, they owe him.

David Waldman is back to the KITM World Headquarters Microphone after a weekend of less doofus behavior by Donald K. Trump. Of course, all things being relative. Greg Dworkin is here to offer his pre-election foresight ahead of his post-election hindsight this Wednesday.

Republicans in rupture! If Republicans want to learn things the hard way, why turn them down? A tsunami is building, and not the scary kind that shows up in Japan, but the kind that has Gops stacking sandbags.

Miami hasn't had a Democratic mayor in almost 30 years, but that is looking to change. It might be a change in the US political "mood", or it could be that Gop voters are tired of seeing friends and family being shipped out of town.

Latino Trump voters are having some sense pounded into them by ICE agents. Zohran Mamdanimentum might carry some NYC immigrants out of danger, but elsewhere immigrants are being plucked out of line by the nation to which they were just about to pledge allegiance. Trump hopes to ship half of Europe down to El Salvador soon.

Trump can't sell Americans on his "affordability is a hoax" hoax, probably because people aren't dumb, and they'd have to be pretty dumb to not notice their health care and homes disappearing. Donald will slip farmers $12 billion in taxpayer money to look the other way. Even Steven KG Bannon can see the Trump reserve of stupid people becoming depleted.

Trump's own mortgages match his description of mortgage fraud. That's just him being smart.

Tom Cotton envies those that can hang out on their boat in the middle of a beautiful Caribbean night, just looking up at the stars and drones, not a care in the world except for funding/fighting their narcoterrorist overthrow of the United States. That's the life!