Greetings! Welcome to 2026. I guess Trump can say goodbye to his Nobel Peace Prize after invading Venezuela. And that FIFA Peace Prize he was awarded with last month has gone from a bad joke to a dark belly laugh....The pundit class across the political spectrum offered strong pro and con opinions regarding the Trump regime’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicholás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.  There was a surprising split between the editorial boards of the Washington Post, which supported the regime change operation, and the NY Times, which condemned it.  The conservative Washington Examiner called it “an act of war.” Even Sue Kientz of the Astrology News Service (a  Righting subscriber), reported that astrologers observed a celestial buildup last month and “sensed some critical event to be imminent”...Staffers from the embattled Heritage Foundation are jumping ship for Advancing American Freedom, another right-wing think tank founded by Mike Pence, according to the National Review. The Washington Free Beacon calls the Heritage Foundation mass exodus  a “reorganization of the conservative movement.” Worth noting: The Advancing American Freedom board of directors is all men....Actress Claire Foy (“The Crown”) is no longer a vocal Trump critic, per Hollywood in Toto...If you want a deep understanding of why a free press is essential for democracy, I recommend the documentary Cover-Up. It’s a riveting Netflix film about legendary investigative journo Seymour Hersh, famous for groundbreaking reporting on the Vietnam War My Lai massacre and horrific abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq War...If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard

Greetings! A Bari-um enema:  “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who had her segment on Venezuelan immigrants incarcerated in a notorious El Salvador prison at least temporarily killed, has taken aim at  by CBS News’s editor in chief Bari Weiss. In a memo to colleagues, Alfonsi called Weiss's 11^th-hour decision to yank her report  “political.”  In standing up to right-wing forces putting the squeeze on mainstream media, Alfonsi gets my vote as ballsiest journo of the year.  Does Weiss can the “60 Minutes” correspondent for going public? Stay tuned....The joke’s on conservatives.  A new study by the right-wing Media Research Council found that 92% of the humor  on late-night comedy shows were about conservatives...In an early morning Truth Social post,  Trump took aim at the NY Times for no apparent reason with this alarming rant: “Their Radical Left, Unhinged Behavior...must be dealt with and stopped. THEY ARE A TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.” Before I read that post, I was going to write that his Truth Social musings had been toned down over the last 36 hours. The right-leaning Free Press suggests that The Donald and his MAGA-minions may be posting their “way to ruin” in a piece  entitled “Why can’t the Trump administration log off?”...Housekeeping notes: TheRighting is taking a holiday break and will resume publication Monday, January 5. Happy holidays to all. And don’t forget to wear your seat belts as we enter 2026.  Year two of Trump 2.0 promises to be another white-knuckle ride. Hope our  democracy doesn’t end up as road kill. Thanks for joining me on the journey!....If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard