"The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy."

"The Iranians are clearly negotiating skilfully or very skilfully not negotiating... a whole nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership."

Said Chancellor Friedrich Merz, quoted in "Is German troop withdrawal start of US uncoupling from Europe? After President Trump took offence at Friedrich Merz’s Iran war comments, Donald Tusk warned that infighting was a bigger threat to Nato than its external enemies" (London Times).

Not a typo for "Donald Trump." There really is a Donald Tusk in this story. He's the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk. His mild-mannered contribution to the debate is: "The greatest threat to the transatlantic community is not its external enemies, but the ongoing disintegration of our alliance."

Last paragraph of the article:

"Nearly half of U.S. presidents have invoked the Insurrection Act. Some (many) more than once."

"We’ve known about this problem for a long time. Plenty of people pointed it out in 2021 when Dems controlled WH+Congress. But nobody wants to give up power when their team has it."

Sarah Isgur explains the Insurrection Act in 4 quick points — I'm quoting #4 — after somebody on X calls attention to the time she trounced George Stephanopoulos on the topic:

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the hair and makeup team at ABC as well as my hats, sunscreen, and dermatologist. https://t.co/ws0xo8TBOB

— Sarah Isgur (@whignewtons) October 14, 2025

ADDED: Here's the full clip from "This Week," which aired last Sunday:

"The comment from the Feds is absurd. These are car-sized drones that have flown over New Jersey, New York, and military bases in Virginia."

"If the Feds know who is doing this, they should say so. If they don't know, they should say that. To say that they 'pose no threat,' but we can't tell you what they are is the height of bureaucratic arrogance."

That's the most sensible comment at the WaPo column "New Jersey needs to get a grip. But our drone defenses need work. There’s no need to panic about drones." The column — not the comment, the column — is by Max Boot.

And here's the statement from the Feds the commenter is reacting to: "We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus."

And then there's this:

Yes father, use grok to generate an image of the New Jersey drones delivering McDonalds to that fat slob Chris Christie.

Perfect, now post it on 𝕏 https://t.co/gvnetk4faA pic.twitter.com/JbRCvjRgDo

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) December 14, 2024

"We're all fat," said Trump, last night, in his big — really big — big fat rally in Wildwood, New Jersey.

New Jersey! He came to New Jersey. They capture him in the courtroom 4 days out of the week, and they seem to be hoping he'll barely be able to campaign, but there he was, expanding his scope beyond the battleground states and into one of Biden's supposedly safe states, New Jersey.

I see how the mainstream media has been covering the rally. WaPo has "Trump insults prosecutor at Jersey Shore rally filled with vulgar jabs/The presumptive Republican nominee spoke at a large rally where there were plenty of personal attacks and vulgar expressions from Trump and his supporters." Large? How large? WaPo says "thousands," but Trump was saying 80,000. 

Anyway, I watched the whole thing, and I heard the "vulgar jabs." I just wanted to quote this:

You look at the Afghanistan disaster. You look at the border. You look at the real economy, not the fake economy. Everything they touch turns to what?

The thousands cry out "Shit!" He teasingly chides:

You shouldn't use that kind of language. Look, you can't use the word "shit," okay? 

"It appears Chris Christie was just captured on a hot mic before his town hall in New Hampshire, saying of Nikki Haley: 'She’s going to get smoked...'"

"... and you and I both know it. She’s not up to this.' Christie added of Ron DeSantis: 'DeSantis called me, petrified.'... Ron DeSantis, responding to Christie’s hot mic moment, posted on social media that 'I agree with Christie that Nikki Haley is "going to get smoked."' He doesn’t mention the other part of Christie’s comment, his claim that DeSantis had called him in a 'petrified' state...."

From "Election 2024/Chris Christie Suspends His Campaign in Republican Presidential Primary/His decision, days before the Iowa caucuses, clears a wider path for Nikki Haley in the second state to vote, New Hampshire. Donald J. Trump remains the favorite" (NYT).

"One of the weird things about Christie’s mea culpa is that he apparently thinks someone who has 'the wrong policies' is as equally dangerous as someone who 'will sell the soul of this country'..."

"... who he has called a 'dictator,' and who he said last week would 'burn America to the ground.'... The other weird thing is that you might come away from the clip thinking that the former governor realized the error of his ways shortly after 2016, or at least just after Trump became president—when, in fact, he was still supporting the guy in 2020 and did debate prep for the campaign that, as of a year later, he was saying he didn’t regret."

Writes Bess Levin, in "Chris Christie Apologizes for Previously Backing Trump, Who He Now Believes Will 'Burn America to the Ground'" (Vanity Fair).

She's talking about this new ad from Christie, which seems like a last-ditch effort by Christie to save himself:

New: Christie up w/ a new NH digital ad about his “mistake” endorsing Trump in 2016

"I did it because he was winning, and I did it because I thought I could make him a better candidate and a better president. I was wrong. I made a mistake." pic.twitter.com/gTPjW61LZP

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) January 4, 2024

When is it Chris Christie's turn?

I'm reading "Christie pushes back on calls for him to drop out..." (CNN).

It must be very frustrating for the poor man. He saw all the hopes and dreams of anti-Trumpsters poured into Ron DeSantis, a product that just wouldn't move. Then all the money flowed to Nikki Haley, and here she is living up to Trump's epithet for her.

And they're telling Christie to drop out? Isn't he the only one left? When is it his turn? The anti-Trumpsters need someone. He's been trying for so long to be that person. 

Here he is world, here's Chris! [I'm envisioning a parody of "Rose's Turn."]

"I do not believe Donald Trump should be prevented from being president of the United States by any court. I think it’s bad for the country."

Said Chris Christie, whose campaign for the nomination is based on despising Trump.

Quoted in "Disqualifying Trump may be legally sound but fraught for democracy, scholars say/Experts say there’s a strong basis for the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to bar Trump from the ballot, but the larger political context makes the question one of the thorniest in recent memory" (WaPo).

I'm not going to touch the bait "Experts say." You don't need to point it out. I see it.

I've already said what I want to say, but because I hear my own opinion in Christie's, I'm going to reprint what I wrote on January 26, 2021, when Democrats were impeaching the former President and defending it on the ground that a conviction would provide a basis for disqualifying him from running again. Of course, the Senate did not convict Trump, and today's disqualification effort would make a lot more sense if it had. 

At the time, I wrote:

[I]t's extremely important to remember that there is a "fundamental principle of our representative democracy . . . 'that the people should choose whom they please to govern them.'" 

I'm quoting the Supreme Court case rejecting term limits for members of Congress, which was quoting a case about Congress's power to exclude someone the people have elected. 

The internal quote — "the people should choose whom they please to govern them" — comes from Alexander Hamilton, arguing in favor of ratifying the Constitution: 

After all, sir, we must submit to this idea, that the true principle of a republic is, that the people should choose whom they please to govern them. Representation is imperfect in proportion as the current of popular favor is checked. This great source of free government, popular election, should be perfectly pure, and the most unbounded liberty allowed.

I think the presumption should always be against a constitutional interpretation that would restrict the power of the people to choose whom they please. 

The Senate would need to strain the other way to disqualify Private Citizen Trump from running for office again, and that betrays a lack of respect for the people, for the "fundamental principle of our representative democracy." 

Enough fretting that the people can't be trusted evaluating Trump as one of our options. Let the members of Congress get on with proving that they deserved the trust we the people put in them.

And, now, let the various candidates for President prove we ought to trust them and not Trump.

The people should choose whom they please to govern them.

After Megyn Kelly told Chris Christie nobody likes him, Ramaswamy had to rephrase it, more cruelly, with fat shaming.

NEW: The Republican debate has been an absolute beatdown on Chris Christie.

Christie had to sit through 30 seconds of the brutal truth from Megyn Kelly after she reminds him how unliked he is compared to Donald Trump.

Then he got bodied by Vivek Ramaswamy who told him to leave… pic.twitter.com/pTt3omzjub

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 7, 2023

If you want to watch the entire debate: here.

"And when you have the President of United States sleeping with a member of the teachers union, there is no chance that you could take the stranglehold away from the teachers union every day. "

Said Chris Christie, in last night's GOP debate.

Later, from Mike Pence: "I’ve been sleeping with a teacher for 38 years."

(From the transcript, at The Pavlovic Today.)

Chris Christie on Vivek Ramaswamy: "To me, he looks like the guy you wanted to stuff in the locker in the 11th grade."

"All this is gonna continue to weigh him down. He's been pretty skillful to this point, but I do think the weight will eventually get to him."

Said one of Chris Christie's advisers, speaking about Donald Trump and quoted in "Trump's indictments: Polling shows half of Americans want him to suspend his campaign, and more takeaways/Despite what he claims, he isn't getting a continued bounce in support" (ABC News).

Suspend his campaign. Remember when John McCain suspended his campaign? Why are the pollsters saying "suspend"? It's not like Trump can take a few months to tie up his various legal proceedings and then move on. Those cases will take years and will never really be resolved. Voters who support Trump have their own ideas about the subject matter of the cases and are not going to change their mind if a jury somewhere agrees with the prosecutor's interpretation. There's nothing to wait for. 

Speaking of wait... weight: Maybe commenters will find material for humor in "continue to weigh him down... the weight will eventually get to him," given that Christie has always been fat and that Trump has experienced scrutiny recently because his booking record listed him as weighing only 215 pounds.

The NYT headline is "Ramaswamy Seizes Spotlight as DeSantis Hangs Back." And: "It was the Ramaswamy show."

The subheadline for the article offered "7 Debate Takeaways,"It was the Ramaswamy show" — in boldface — was the first takeaway.

[Ramaswamy echoed the Barack Obama line] “Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name?” 

That skinny guy quickly became a punching bag for rivals, led by former Vice President Mike Pence, who invoked his experience to say that it wasn’t time for a “rookie” who needed “on-the-job training.” 

Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey recalled the Obama line, quipping, “I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same type of amateur.” 

But Mr. Ramaswamy smiled his way through the night... He stirred controversy to soak up screen time, and lobbed some of the evening’s most strikingly personal slights.... The Harvard-educated Mr. Ramaswamy came off at times as slick — Mr. Christie dismissed him as “a guy who sounds like ChatGPT” — but he was the one everyone else was talking about, a victory in itself.

That was the most interesting line of the night: "a guy who sounds like ChatGPT." In other words, you give him a prompt and he comes out with many perfectly coherent and substantive sentences. That's an insult that should backfire. It was, essentially, You're superhumanly smart and communicative.

"They’re experiencing a brutal wake-up call that the party is not interested in hearing critiques of Trump."

"The Trump challengers’ candidacies have been astonishingly poor and learned nothing from 2016. When the leading candidate gets indicted and all of his opponents besides Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson just echo his fake persecution complex talking points, it’s going to be hard to beat him."

Said Tim Miller, "who was communications director for Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign," quoted in "Never Trumpers get ‘brutal wake-up call’ as Republican candidates flounder/With the first caucuses six months away, the former president’s campaign is still going strong despite his various legal problems" (The Guardian).

What did Tim Miller learn from 2016? Doesn't seem like much. What does he think the other candidates are supposed to do about the indictments?

Trump’s opponents within the party are running out of time and ideas. Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman, said: “They were all hoping that Trump’s legal troubles would kick him to the side of the road but every indictment or potential indictment just strengthens him among the base, eats up all the oxygen in the room and makes him the likely nominee. They’re probably as frustrated as can be."... 

Things screamed by Chris Christie's niece as she was dragged off a Spirit Airlines flight.

I'm reading "Chris Christie’s niece shouted ‘Do you know who I am?’ during violent plane meltdown" (NY Post).

The niece, Shannon Epstein, had confronted some other passengers, presumably because they looked Hispanic, and asked them if they were smuggling cocaine.

I just want to note some things she's accused of yelling:

"Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie received huge applause at an annual meeting of Republican governors Tuesday morning after blaming former President Trump for GOP failures in the last three elections...."

"The chorus of Republican office-holders calling for the GOP to move on from Trump is growing louder, driving the party to the brink of civil war just as the former president prepares to announce his 2024 comeback bid.... Christie, a former Trump ally who is now considering his own 2024 presidential campaign, said voters 'rejected crazy' in the 2022 midterms and that Republicans lost because of bad candidates. But he didn't just harp on last week's disappointing results: Republicans lost in 2018, 2020 and 2022, Christie said, with Trump the one constant who has weighed the party down across all three election cycles...."

Axios reports.

Chris Christie says "sure" he's considering running for President in 2024.

That's at the very beginning of this clip: 

 

They go on to talk about whether the U.S. would be better off with "a royal family of America," a concept that causes Chris Wallace to gasp "Oh, my God." Who would be the royal family? Maher says the Kardashians.

"BPP. That should be the name of the channel. Big Potential Problems."

I say out loud, overhearing CNN heads yammering after the President's doctor gave his little press briefing. There must be problems. They commentators are urgently, fervently trying to scare up some Orange-Man-Bad news. I hear the phrase "big potential problems" and start writing this post. Before I can get to the end, I hear "potentially disturbing revelations." The word "potential" appears over and over. They're so hot to come up with some stories, just brainstorming in front of the cameras. We're laughing.

UPDATE: Now they've reported that Chris Christie — who was involved in Trump's debate prep — has tested positive.

Also on CNN, Dr. Sanjay Gupta nails the serious anti-Trump theme: "It could have been avoided with basic public health measures." Yes, why wasn't Trump scrupulously protected? I presume he chose not to accept the protection, and that protecting the President from disease is not like protecting him from other kinds of physical threats, where security experts overrule the President's preference.

"Supreme Court unanimously reverses 'Bridgegate' convictions."

Fox News reports:

The court recognized that the lane closures, known commonly as "Bridgegate," were done as political payback against the mayor of Fort Lee, N.J. for not supporting the reelection campaign of then-Governor Chris Christie. The problem, the court pointed out, is that this is not a violation of the statutes under which the defendants were charged.

"The question presented is whether the defendants committed property fraud. The evidence the jury heard no doubt shows wrongdoing—deception, corruption, abuse of power," Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the court's unanimous opinion. "But the federal fraud statutes at issue do not criminalize all such conduct."

ADDED: Here's the opinion — Kelly v. United States.

AND: An excerpt from the opinion:

Federal prosecutors may not use property fraud statutes to “set[ ] standards of disclosure and good government for local and state officials.”... Much of governance involves (as it did here) regulatory choice. If U. S. Attorneys could prosecute as property fraud every lie a state or local official tells in making such a decision, the result would be... “a sweeping expansion of federal criminal jurisdiction.”... In effect, the Federal Government could use the criminal law to enforce (its view of ) integrity in broad swaths of state and local policymaking. The property fraud statutes do not countenance that outcome. They do not “proscribe[] schemes to defraud citizens of their intangible rights to honest and impartial government.”... They bar only schemes for obtaining property....

[N]ot every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime. Because the scheme here did not aim to obtain money or property, Baroni and Kelly could not have violated the federal-program fraud or wire fraud laws....

ALSO: Professor Tribe reacts on Twitter: "Congress: let’s amend those statutes!"

That is, he wants the federal prosecutors to be able — in Kagan's words — to "use the criminal law to enforce (its view of ) integrity in broad swaths of state and local policymaking."

"I think the press has been in a death spiral that the president participates in, which hurts both of them."

"I think that the questions are often combative and gotcha. His responses, I think at times, are beneath what he should be doing... He should be there for 10 or 15 minutes off the top to deliver the big headlines, answer a few questions, and then leave the rest of it to Vice President Pence and to the folks on his team — the experts on his team.... I don't think it helps the president, in the long run, to be in hand-to-hand combat with any member of the media, and I think also the media has some measure of responsibility as well for some of the things that they do — so, unfortunately, I think they're both hurting the situation here."

Said Chris Christie on "The View" today.

I noticed that because the name Chris Christie was trending on Twitter.