THE SHOW NOTES: Redistricting, BLM, Michigan, Machado, Indiana, Epstein, & MTG

Dec 12, 2025

Welcome! A director for Black Lives Matter has been indicted for spending $3.5 millions in donations on trips, houses, cars, and high-end shopping.

👀 MUST READ: María Corina Machado was stranded for more than three hours in the Caribbean aboard a small wooden fishing boat after her GPS was swept overboard in rough seas. Here’s how she escaped Venezuela and the role a special operator played in coordinating the extraction. - WSJ (free) & CBS (video)

‼️ DETAILS: Fired Michigan coach Sherrone Moore was ‘suicidal’ after cops were called to his executive assistant’s apartment - NY Post

🚨 BREAKING: New photos from Epstein’s personal collection show Trump, Clinton and much more - PBS

⛔️ DISTURBING: 40% of Stanford undergrads receive disability accommodations—but it’s become a college-wide phenomenon as Gen Z try to succeed in the current climate - Fortune

🔥 NEW: Stanford Medicine study shows why mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis - Stanford

👂 The Show Notes is my blueprint for radio but is only for subscribers. You can subscribe and listen here.

📺 MUST WATCH: The Right Question And The Wrong Answer

“If the economy is as strong as President Trump says it is, why is the President telling parents two weeks before Christmas that kids only need two dolls?”

Death By A Thousand Cuts

The Trump Administration keeps talking about how they have deregulated to help businesses. It’s true. They have. But what is not being talked about is the devastating and byzantine regulatory structure Howard Lutnick has imposed on small businesses through the Commerce Department. It actually is killing small businesses, which, in the first part of the hired saw an increase of 250,000 jobs created and in the last half of the year shed those same 250,000 jobs.

Why? The compliance and regulatory environment related to tariffs is too costly. In fact, the compliance regime is arguable more costly than the tariffs themselves. This is a regulatory burden imposed by the Trump Administration. “[T]he legal regime for US tariffs has gone from relatively simple and straightforward to one featuring several overlapping laws, regulations, and measures. As of this week, in fact, a whopping 17 different US tariff measures and seven different legal regimes now apply to significant commercial volumes of imports into the United States—up from just three in 2017.”

That is from Scott Lincicome in this must-read piece about how the regulatory and compliance regime related to the tariffs are directly driving up costs and harming mom and pop shops across the country — putting main street at even more of a disadvantage to Wall Street, which has the money to cover compliance costs.

🚨 MUST READ: See how Minnesota fraudsters spent millions intended for hungry kids

Luxury cars, private villas and overseas wire transfers: CBS News obtained dozens of files and photos that reveal how Minnesota fraudsters blew through hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars as part of one of the biggest COVID-era fraud schemes.

The files document a spending spree in which defendants, many of Somali descent, took taxpayer money meant to feed hungry children and used it to buy cars, property and jewelry. Videos show them popping champagne at an opulent Maldives resort. In a text message, one defendant boasts: “You are gonna be the richest 25 year old InshaAllah [God willing].”

Full story at CBS.

Indiana

The Indiana State Senate has rejected a proposed 9-0 congressional map that would eliminate the only two remaining Democratic seats from the Hoosier state.

Details: The proposed map failed in a 31-19 vote despite Republicans holding a 40-10 advantage in the state’s upper chamber. Nine Republicans sided with Democrats to kill the bill, citing the unusual nature of mid-cycle redistricting. This Indiana state Sen. Michael Bohacek on why he voted against it.

Contrast: Indiana Gov. Mike Braun vowed to help Trump primary te State Senators who voted against the redistricting measure after Trump posted a lengthy, yet durranged, post on Truth Social.

🚨 Read my full take, including the hypocritical response from the Heritage Foundation, here.

MS: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s farewell gift to Mike Johnson: a longshot plot to oust him

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene may be resigning from Congress next month, but she’s weighing one last act of defiance: a longshot bid to topple Speaker Mike Johnson.

In recent days, the controversial Georgia Republican has been working behind the scenes to gauge whether there’s support for a motion to vacate the chair, three sources familiar with her efforts who spoke on the condition of anonymity told MS NOW.

Under the House rules adopted at the beginning of this year, nine Republicans are needed to trigger such a vote — and Greene is trying to figure out who might be willing to sign on.

Full story at MS.

NYT: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class.

In American high schools, the age of the book may be fading.

Many teenagers are assigned few full books to read from beginning to end — often just one or two per year, according to researchers and thousands of responses to an informal reader survey by The New York Times.

Twelfth-grade reading scores are at historic lows, and college professors, even at elite schools, are increasingly reporting difficulties in getting students to engage with lengthy or complex texts.

Full story at NYT (free)

NYT: U.S. Issues New Sanctions Targeting Maduro’s Family and the Oil Sector

The United States on Thursday issued new sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector and on members of President Nicolás Maduro’s family, while taking steps to keep tens of millions of dollars’ worth of oil from a large tanker that U.S. forces seized off the country’s coast.

Venezuela’s economy depends on oil and has been hurt by U.S. sanctions, leading Mr. Maduro’s government to smuggle and sell crude through a web of tankers and middlemen. The new sanctions target three nephews of the wife of Mr. Maduro and six shipping companies.

Full story at NYT (free).

Tweets that caught my eye:

Market snapshot:

David Cherry

Dec 12

Are we really surprised about BLM money being blown? Oprah Winfrey years ago said blacks in Chicago couldn’t get ahead because they didn’t have money. So, she bought a Chicago family a house and $10K a month to live. She stopped it a year later because all the family did was trash the house to hell with parties, etc and spent the money on cars and drugs.

1 reply