America, Hold My Hairball: Today’s Chaos Roundup
Department of War Crimes
U.S. Grabs Venezuelan Tanker — Tensions Go Full Cold War Remix
In a dramatic escalation of already shaky U.S.–Venezuela relations, American forces seized the oil tanker Skipper off the Venezuelan coast on 10 December 2025 — a ship long under U.S. sanctions for allegedly ferrying Venezuelan and Iranian crude. The operation, carried out by the Coast Guard with Navy support and federal warrants, featured helicopters fast-roping onto the vessel as part of what the Trump administration called an enforcement action against sanctioned oil networks. Venezuela’s government blasted the move as “international piracy” and theft of its natural resources, while President Nicolás Maduro and allies denounced U.S. aggression. The seizure comes amid the largest U.S. naval buildup in the Caribbean in decades and follows months of military strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats, pushing tensions toward a new peak. Critics in Washington, including some Republicans and Democrats, warn the situation could be inching the two nations closer to conflict without clear legal authority or congressional approval, and global oil prices have already shown volatility in response. Hegseth has turned the Navy into Pirates.
Congress and Senate
U.S. House Passes Huge Defense Bill
The House approved a $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2026, including troop pay raises, weapons procurement changes, and oversight tweaks — but also deep cuts to climate and DEI funding. It now goes to the Senate.
NDAA 2026: Bigger Budget, Bigger Buzzwords, Same Old Beltway Drama
n Mostly This Week Is About the National Defense Authorization Act, GovTrack breaks down the massive annual military spending bill (NDAA) Congress just passed for 2026. This year’s version funds a huge expansion of defense spending, authorizes pay raises for troops, and rolls out updated strategies for China, the Middle East, and emerging tech threats — all wrapped in bipartisan rhetoric about “national security.” But beneath the shiny statements are ongoing fights over how the U.S. funds wars abroad, conditions aid, and handles oversight of military programs ranging from weapons procurement to cybersecurity. GovTrack explains what’s new, what’s unchanged, and what parts of the Act affect oversight, troop welfare, and geopolitical strategy without requiring readers to slog through thousands of pages of legislative text. It’s Congress’s annual attempt to say “we’re tough on defense” while juggling pork, politics, and pressure from both parties.
Collapsing Economy
The Fed Just Turned the Money Hose Back On — Quietly, Of Course
The Federal Reserve has quietly restarted large-scale Treasury bill purchases — roughly $40 billion a month — to pump liquidity back into the financial system. It’s not literal “money printing,” but it behaves the same way: the Fed creates new digital dollars and hands them to banks to stabilize short-term markets. These moves usually signal that something behind the scenes is tightening or wobbling, long before the public ever hears about it. While Wall Street gets a fresh cushion, ordinary Americans aren’t notified, even though this shift influences mortgage rates, inflation pressures, and market volatility. It’s financial triage through the side door, and once again, the biggest beneficiaries are the banks, not the people.
Antichrist Mini Me
Barron Trump’s Zoom BFF: Welcome to the Manosphere, Buddy
Barron Trump Is Secretly Devoted to Twisted Woman-Haters reveals a bombshell about President Trump’s 19-year-old son: he’s been engaging privately with Andrew Tate, a controversial figure from the online manosphere known for extreme anti-women rhetoric and facing serious criminal charges overseas. According to reporting, Barron had a Zoom chat with Tate in 2024 while getting fitted for a suit, during which they allegedly shared skepticism about the legal cases against Tate and his brother — charges both men deny but which involve allegations of trafficking and sexual violence. Barron has also been linked with efforts to help his father appeal to young male audiences through influencer outreach. The article highlights the awkward contrast between Barron’s reported admiration for problematic internet personalities and First Lady Melania Trump’s public advocacy for online safety and protections for women. Like father like son.
America’s Gestapo
Judge Says ‘Enough’ — Kilmar Abrego Garcia Walks Out of ICE Custody
A federal judge in Maryland has ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention while he fights criminal charges and his legal battle over deportation continues. Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the Trump administration lacked lawful authority to detain him after he was wrongly deported to El Salvador earlier this year — an action the government admitted was a procedural error. Since being returned to the U.S., Abrego Garcia has faced human smuggling charges in Tennessee, which he denies and his legal team says are politically motivated. The release order blocks efforts to deport him again without a valid removal order and underscores growing judicial pushback to aggressive immigration enforcement under the current administration.
Trump Tells The Hague: Change the Rules or Else
The Biden-era quiet feud with the International Criminal Court has turned into a full-blown Trump pressure campaign — with the U.S. threatening fresh sanctions on the ICC in The Hague unless it agrees not to ever investigate or prosecute former President Trump and his top officials. The White House is reportedly pushing the court to amend its founding treaty (the Rome Statute) to carve out immunity for U.S. leaders, alongside demands to drop probes into actions by both Israeli leaders and U.S. troops in Afghanistan. If the ICC refuses, Washington may expand sanctions beyond individual officials to punish the court itself, escalating a long-running U.S. assault on the global war-crimes tribunal that critics say undermines international justice and the rule of law.
Border Patrol & ICE: Now with Extra Desert Road Trips and No Warrant Logic!
In AM Dispatch: ICE and Border Patrol Agents Continue… Migrant Insider reports on troubling behavior by immigration enforcement agents — including allegations that ICE officers transported non-Mexican asylum seekers to the desert near Santa Teresa, NM and essentially instructed them to cross into Mexico without proper legal process. The piece references broader patterns of aggressive operations and human rights concerns that have drawn attention from civil rights groups like the ACLU, which has documented claims of abuse, sexual violence, and neglect at detention centers such as Fort Bliss in Texas. Although the full post is behind a paywall, the summary paints a picture of enforcement tactics that critics say sidestep legal norms and raise serious due-process questions in how U.S. immigration authorities handle vulnerable migrants.
Cheeto Von Schitzenpantz
Trump’s Newest Assault: Media Under Fire, CNN in the Crosshairs
In Important: Trump Launches Major Attack on Media, Aaron Parnas reports that the Trump administration has escalated its long-running conflict with the press into a full-blown offensive. After years of insults and lawsuits, the White House is now institutionalizing attacks on journalists and news outlets through an official government platform that publicly targets reporters and labels outlets as biased. Even more troubling, Trump is encouraging wealthy allies to pursue a takeover of CNN’s parent company in order to reshape coverage from the inside — a tactic critics say mirrors authoritarian media control strategies seen in Hungary, Serbia, and Russia. Parnas argues this coordinated campaign weakens independent reporting, chills dissent, and signals a structural shift in how the administration handles scrutiny.
Trump’s Hague Ultimatum: Change the Rules or Get Sanctioned
The Trump administration has stepped up its long-running hostility toward the International Criminal Court in The Hague, threatening new sanctions on the court itself unless it agrees to amend its founding treaty — the Rome Statute — to ensure it never investigates or prosecutes former President Trump or other U.S. officials. Washington is also pushing for the ICC to drop probes into alleged war crimes by Israeli leaders during the Gaza conflict and formally end the Afghanistan investigation. This pressure campaign goes beyond visa bans and individual sanctions on ICC staff, and could target the court institutionally — a move that critics warn would seriously undermine global justice and international law. It’s the same old tactic: demand immunity for U.S. power, and if the world court doesn’t play along, punish it for trying. The ICC told him to fuck all the way off”
GOP Buckles Up for Trump’s Downhill Rodeo — Hope You Packed Snacks
In GOP Insider Rick Wilson Warns of Trump’s Downhill Course: ‘Republicans Better Buckle Up’, veteran Republican strategist and long-time Trump critic Rick Wilson argues that Donald Trump’s political fortunes are sliding fast and that the GOP should be bracing for impact rather than celebrating headlines. Wilson, writing on his Substack, calls out a recent Pennsylvania campaign stop meant to soothe concerns about affordability as a flop that instead recycled personal grievances and divisive rhetoric — especially attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar — while doing little to address voters’ real problems. He warns this kind of performance may energize the MAGA base but alienates suburban voters and could spell trouble for Republicans running in competitive districts. Wilson doesn’t pull punches, describing Trump as a leader whose personal brand now outweighs effective policy messaging — and telling Republicans that the next stretch of political terrain isn’t going to be smooth.
Trump’s ‘Radical’ Security Plan: 19th-Century Playbook Meets 21st-Century Chaos
In Trump’s Radical National Security Strategy: Every American Needs to Know It, The Siren Network’s Joel Rubin lays out why the new National Security Strategy unleashed by President Trump is being called radical — not in the “fresh ideas” sense but in how sharply it departs from the U.S.’s decades-old foreign policy consensus. The strategy pivots away from post–Cold War alliance-building and great-power competition, instead reviving old-school spheres of influence thinking and unilateral action. Rather than leaning on NATO, global coalitions, and shared democratic values, the plan doubles down on America-First doctrine: beefed-up U.S. control over the Western Hemisphere, reduced reliance on traditional allies, and a unilateral posture on migration, trade, and regional security. Critics warn this could isolate the U.S., weaken long-standing partnerships, and blur the line between national security and political nationalism — making for a world where old imperial templates are recycled into modern militarism.
Trump’s Pardons Backfire: The Bribe Didn’t Buy Loyalty (Shocker!)
In Trump Melts Down After His Own Corruption Backfires, Adam Mockler points out one of the most stunning political tantrums of late 2025: Donald Trump’s very public rage on Truth Social after a presidential pardon didn’t deliver the political payoff he expected. After doling out a blistering number of pardons — far more than his predecessor — Trump allegedly viewed them as political currency, expecting favors and loyalty in return. The tipping point? A pardon intended to flip a House seat that didn’t flip, leaving Trump seething and his own party scrambling. Mockler frames this as not just political incompetence but a rare admission in plain sight of quid pro quo-style thinking, where presidential power becomes a marketplace for personal gain. It’s a read that blends scandal, chaos, and the spectacle of a former president furious that his own corruption didn’t pay off.
Epstein Trump Pedo”files”
8 days until the release of the Epstein Files
“Epstein Docs: The Never-Ending House of Horrors (Now with More Bureaucracy!)”
WIRED’s Complete Guide to the Jeffrey Epstein Document Dumps breaks down the chaotic stew of legal filings, subpoenas, and leak dumps that have come out as lawmakers, courts, and agencies push every last piece of paper about Epstein’s crimes into the public eye. What started as a trickle of investigative files has turned into a sloppy stream of DOJ subpoenas, Oversight Committee releases, bank subpoenas, Treasury inquiries, and grand jury unsealing motions — none of which are easy to sort through. As of late 2025, lawmakers even passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act to jam even more records into the daylight by mid-December. Still, huge gaps remain: financial documents, suspicious activity reports, and big banking records are often missing or pending review. It’s a bureaucratic dumpster fire that tells you how much we still don’t know about what Epstein did — and who might be tangled up in the mess.
Special Announcement
EpsteinWiki is live(ish) and officially on the hunt for brave beta testers with a high bullshit detector and a low tolerance for powerful creeps. We’re building a crowdsourced investigation hub to dig through the Epstein files, connect the dots, and chase the truth the government keeps burying. If you’re a detail nerd, amateur sleuth, researcher, survivor ally, or just very, very motivated to help map this network, I want you in the first wave.
Interested in testing the site, breaking things, and telling me what sucks before launch? Email me at resistancekitty@gmail.com with “EpsteinWiki Beta” in the subject line and a quick note about how you’d like to help.
What We Are Watching Today
- Senate to Vote on Competing Health Care Bills Live
- Homeland Security Secy. Noem Testifies Before Congress Live
- Senate Rules Cmte. Debates Resolution Restricting Senator Pay During Gov’t Shutdown Live
- White House Daily Briefing
- Pres. Trump Speaks at the Congressional Ball
CALL TO ACTION: Claws Out, People. Let’s Move.
1. Flood Congress with calls about the ICC sanctions threat.
Tell your reps: The U.S. cannot bully The Hague into giving Trump immunity. Democracy doesn’t come with a “get-out-of-war-crimes-free” card.
2. Share one verified article today.
Pick any one of the blurbs we covered. Post it, boost it, and fight the firehose of disinfo with actual facts.
(Yes, one share does matter. Stop rolling your eyes.)
3. Support local journalism.
Authoritarian movements die in the light. Trump’s attack on media only works if independent reporters starve. Pick one outlet and subscribe. Even five bucks helps.
4. Prep for weekend actions.
Check your local protest calendars, mutual-aid groups, and town hall schedules. Democracy isn’t saved on the couch — unless you’re writing angry emails from it, which, honestly, also counts.
5. Talk to one person offline.
Yes, offline. Your cousin, your coworker, your neighbor — anyone who doesn’t know how bad today’s headlines actually are. Start small. Start human. Start now.
6. Read Today’s Resistance Survival Guide: #169 How to Track Aggressive Government Moves Without Getting Overwhelmed
7. Volunteer to help solve the Epstein Cold Case via EpsteinWiki.com
Featured Petitions
- Tell State AGs: Sue Big Oil For Driving Up Insurance Rates
- Block Trump’s AI safety ban!
- Fire RFK Jr. NOW!
- Tell Congress: Protect voting rights. Pass the Redistricting Reform Act!
Featured Letters
Final Rallying Call
Look, kittens — the news is chaotic, the fascists are loud, and the institutions meant to protect us are basically held together with duct tape and caffeine. But here’s the truth they don’t want you to remember: we’re still here, we’re still fighting, and we are damn hard to silence. Every phone call you make, every link you share, every protest you show up for puts another crack in their brittle little power structure.
So sharpen your claws, straighten your whiskers, and step back into the fray. Authoritarians thrive on apathy — not on us. We’re the ones who show up, speak out, and refuse to play dead no matter how loud the bullies get.
Today, we fight smart. Tonight, we rest.
Tomorrow, we rise again. #Revolution2025