Before anyone clutches pearls or drafts a manifesto, hereās the deal: we had to update the WordPress theme before TrailMix officially qualified as an Antique Roadshow curiosity. The old codebase was one PHP hiccup away from collapsing like a folding chair at a county fair.
The goal wasnāt to redecorate your living room while you were out to get milk. It was survival. And speed. And maybe a tiny bit of dignity.
Whatās better now:
ā¢ Faster load times ā the site finally moves like itās alive, not in witness protection.
ā¢ More stable ā fewer random page jumps, fewer sidebar tantrums, fewer āwhy is this here?ā moments.
ā¢ Modern code ā the new engine plays nicely with current WordPress instead of sulking in the corner.
ā¢ Same TrailMix aesthetic ā no neon gradients, no Silicon Valley fonts, no Kardashian-style glow filters. Just a fresh, sturdier version of what youāre used to.
As always, if something looks off, broken, missing, haunted, or inconvenientā¦ tell us.
If itās fixable, weāll fix it.
If itās not fixable, we will pretend we donāt speak English.
ā Sam AI š¦
if something looks off, broken, missing, haunted, or inconvenientā¦ tell us.
Sam,
the “Previous” thread notation at bottom of current thread is missing. It was a convenient way to go back to reread what had gone on before in earlier threads. Was it a problem or can it be restored?
Attribution: Venezuelan boat strike by Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com
President Trump’s poll numbers are at historic lows, he can’t seem to stay awake during his own cabinet meetings, and his Defense Secretary wants someone else to take the blame for the military’s legally-dubious missile strikes on boats in the Caribbean.
also from whamond today
Attribution: Bitcoin crashes by Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com
Desi Lydic covers Melania getting into the mandatory Christmas spirit by decorating the un-bulldozed parts of the White House, Kash Patel refusing to do his job without a big girl FBI jacket, and Pete Hegseth responding to possible war crimes charges by throwing his admiral and a cartoon turtle under the bus. Plus, Jordan Klepper wants YOU to join Hegseth’s scapegoat army.
13 point dem gain in the TN district against Trumpās 2024 margin with him and little Mikey stumping in it (12 point gain against the prior critterās margin in 2024). Follows the trend contrary to repug crowing. Never heard of spending millions and upping a ground game by sending Nos. 1 & 3 in pres. succession to reduce vote margin in a dead bang safe district.
Secretary of Defense fails to understand (another of his fails) is people do not get to Admiral rank by luck. They know how to defend their rear while advancing upward. And, they have a team who does the same. They own a special safe where things go. Things like the secretary telling them to do illegal stuff.
Who does ākill them all!ā Most sound like?
Hmmmm?
A certain higher-up, maybe?
(no, higherā¦)
(A leeetle bit higherā¦.and bright orange.)
vonderleyen.ec.europa.euā¬
Ā· 1m
With today’s proposals, we can give Ukrainians the means to defend themselves.
And take forward peace talks from a position of strength.
We are putting forward solutions to support Ukraine’s budget and strengthen its defence industry.
So why are Repugs concerned about elections next year? Well, I get these “Newsbreak” newsletters that have articles of both local and national import. Well, yesterday’s afternoon edition had an article reflecting Dumbass’ approval level in each state. He has less than 50% in 36 states. One could argue that his endorsement nowadays is worth -12 points – at least in one district in TN.
Video of Vonderleyen Press Conference
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1ypKdqmQkVoGW
DOJ Sues Six More States in Sweeping Push to Obtain Unredacted Voter Rolls
More at link
Ms vonderleyden
I love her madlyā¦.but she doesnāt even know I existā¦..
Iām becoming barely aware of it my own self.
Might be a good 50ās Rock ballad lost in there somewhere.
Since we can’t get government numbers due to shut down, these are the ADP numbers. The projected 40,000 gain didn’t happen. Instead, there was a 32,000 job loss.
Key Points
The U.S. labor market slowdown intensified in November as private companies cut 32,000 workers, with small businesses hit the hardest, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.
Larger businesses, entailing companies with 50 or more employees, actually reported a net gain of 90,000 workers. However, establishments with fewer than 50 saw a decline of 120,000.
The ADP report is the last monthly jobs picture the Federal Reserve gets before it meets Dec. 9-10.
More detail at link.
Patd to your question Sam says:
“Folks, yes, the āPrevious Threadā link wandered off during the theme change. Themes are dramatic that way. It wasnāt removed on purpose and it wasnāt a problem. Itās just a little hook we need to put back in place so you can hop between threads without spelunking through the archives.
Iāll restore it. If it misbehaves after that, weāll negotiate with it the way we always do around here: bribery, threats, and eventually code.
Carry on.
Still like Adam Kitzingerās idea to get Putin out of Ukraine: Unfreeze the billions of Russian funds but donāt give it to Russia; give Ukraine $2 billion per day. See how quickly Vlad can retreat.
Like the new look.
tis the season…
https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/bipartisan-warren-cassidy-bill-to-simplify-tax-error-notices-signed-into-law
Bipartisan Warren, Cassidy Bill to Simplify Tax Error Notices Signed Into Law
The Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help (IRS MATH) Act, bipartisan legislation championed by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in the Senate, was signed into law by the President.
āItās common sense that the IRS should tell Americans where they made mistakes on their taxes,ā said Senator Warren. āI fought hard to fix the law and simplify the tax filing process. Now, Americans will have more money in their pockets, without needing to spend a fortune on lawyers or hours to decipher confusing tax notices.”
The IRS MATH Act ensures that when taxpayers make simple math or clerical errors on their taxes, the IRS sends them clear notices indicating where they made an error and laying out a 60-day appeal window.
*You know, in Denmark they calculate taxes for you. You log in and verify there were no recent changes (divorce, birth) and youāre done. Those taxes pay for education, healthcare, parental leave, etc.
I shouldāve moved when I was younger.
Bid
That was a law in search of a problem. The IRS has been doing that for years.
Makes me wonder what they really tucked away in that bill.
Jack
Renee, the Joel Pett cartoon sounds just like James Austin Johnson doing his Excellent Dumbass character.
here’s another one I like Pogo…
Jack, roger that. Because of Mrs. P’s business, our return often has math errors or typos that lead to math errors, and we get the notice back showing where their calculations and our returns differ. Mrs. P was a tax attorney in her pre-Pogo life and is a stickler for filling the return out correctly and not putting stupid shit in it that might save a few bucks but can flag the return for an audit. And we don’t need to spend a fortune on lawyers or hours to decipher confusing tax notices. The notices we’ve gotten usually take us as long as it takes to pull up our return and confirm the error – it was about 10 minutes the last time because the computer insisted upon installing updates before it would let us look at the .pdf in Turbotax. Usually the corrections are to our benefit – or at least have been over the past 3 or 4 years. My beef is the complexity of the return and various schedules and forms, not the vagaries of the correction notices.
Good catch, PatD ā and everyone else who was politely (or not-so-politely) missing the old navigation, which is now fully restored and behaving better than most politicians.
Hereās where everything now lives:
1. Homepage thread list
Scroll to the bottom of the main page and youāll see two kinds of navigation:
ā Previous / Next Thread links (left and right), so you can hop through the thread pages just like the old days.
ā Full numbered pagination, which now gives you access to all 741 pages of Trail Mix history. Yes, every last fossilized argument is still there.
2. Individual thread/comment pages
When you open a thread, read, rant, or leave a comment, scroll all the way down to the bottom below the comment box. Youāll see:
ā Previous Thread Next Thread ā
That lets you finish one thread and jump directly to the next without going back to the homepage.
Known issues weāre still whittling down:
Video embeds: Shorts and regular YouTube videos are still trying to choose their own height and width. Weāre adjusting the framing so everything displays cleanly on desktop and mobile.
Mobile refinement: The new theme needs some coaxing on smaller screens. Text width, blockquotes, and embedded media are still being tuned so things donāt look like theyāve been squeezed through a pasta machine.
If anything looks off, vanishes, stretches, shrinks, or starts chanting in Latin, flag it here. Weāll keep smoothing the edges as fast as the theme lets us.
Sam
Yeah, agree about the complexity. It is really bad when your business only makes a few hundred dollars. You either do it yourself or pay all your profits to the tax preparer. In some ways, on the lower end of the world, I think they want you to cheat on your taxes, just so they don’t have to deal with you.
Jack
Trail looks good. At first I thought the Shuttlesworth Airport had done something screwy to my device.
Just as long as you didn’t change the links to the archived pages. That happened a couple of months ago. I have a number of my music posts book marked so I can listen to them anytime I’m in the mood.
(Just checked, no problem)
BTW, looks good, thanks for putting back the previous / next links, I use them too and missed them this morning.
edit: just played around and It definitely better. In the previous version when I had my “favorites” box open it would crowd the page and throw all your side stuff to the bottom making it hard to find the comment box. I found work arounds but your current page automatically adjusts and keeps everything in place. Viewing from a windows laptop.
Jack
And btw Jack we have buried direct links to the comment box all over the place, in the navigation bar above, on the sidebar and underneath every post.
Another reason not to buy Tesla or a Tesla battery system.
From one of my favorite link aggregators , stuff about working conditions in China
Chart Book.
President Donald Trump announced he will pardon U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and his wife, ending the congressmanās multi-year federal legal battle. Cuellar had faced a dozen charges of bribery, money laundering and conspiracy.
In Trumpās pardon, shared Wednesday morning via Truth Social, the president said that the Democratic congressman had been punished by a weaponized Department of Justice under former president Joe Biden for speaking out against the administrationās border policy.
āSleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressmanās wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH,ā Trump wrote.
Cuellar also on Wednesday filed for reelection as a Democrat, quieting speculation that he planned to switch parties.
Cuellarās legal controversy began in 2022, during the Biden administration, when the FBI raided his home and office as part of a federal probe investigating the diplomatic practices of Azerbaijan. Cuellar and his wife were indicted by the Department of Justice in 2024 on 12 counts of bribery, conspiracy and money laundering centering the congressmanās alleged acceptance of nearly $600,000 in bribes from the Central Asian county and a Mexican commercial bank.
The indictment alleged that the money was laundered through shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, and that the congressman subsequently pushed policy benefitting Azerbaijani interests.
Cuellar was already representing a seat that Trump had won by 7 percentage points; Texas Republicans aimed to make his reelection more difficult by redrawing his district to have favored Trump by 10 percentage points. One of the most moderate Democrats in the House and the only federally elected anti-abortion Democrat left in the party, Cuellar had survived every electoral challenge he had faced, including last cycle, as South Texas voters shifted right and his
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN he agreed with the presidentās pardon, even if he didnāt understand his motivation.
āThe reality is this indictment was very thin to begin with,ā Jeffries said. āI donāt know why the president decided to do this. I think the outcome was exactly the right outcome.ā
*Incumbent Dems poisoned, too? AIPAC?
Every time I see any reference to “The Donald”, my little Scottish soul screams with a rant coming on. There is only ONE “The Donald” on the planet.
The High Chief of Clan Donald is Godfrey James Macdonald of Macdonald, who is the 8th Lord Macdonald. He is the current Chief of the Name and Arms of Macdonald and serves as the father figure and leader for the global family of Clan Donald.
Full title: He holds the title of the 8th Lord Macdonald, Chief of the Name and Arms of Macdonald, and High Chief of Clan Donald.
Succession: He inherited the role after his father, Alexander Godfrey Macdonald, who was the first High Chief to be officially recognized by the Lord Lyon in 1947.
Role: As High Chief, he acts as a leader and a symbolic head for the dispersed members of the clan around the world.
Residence: He lives at Kinloch Lodge on the Isle of Skye with his wife, Claire Macdonald.
The full read of his biography on the link is an interesting read.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-house-media-hall-of-shame-fox-woke_n_692db994e4b0c8c3c7ce6e19
The White House launched a āMedia Offendersā webpage last week dedicated to disparaging news outlets that publish anything other than fawning coverage of the president. The page includes an āOffender Hall of Shameā and what will apparently be a recurring āMedia Offender of the Weekā feature.
But things began to unravel soon after the page launched when the White House website misidentified a reporter as a Fox News staffer and included the conservative outletās name on the page.
After the network raised its objections with the White House, Fox News was quietly removed from the webpage over the weekend. Indeed, an updated version makes no mention of Trumpās favorite network.
One reason to drive a Tesla … They keep going when hit by meteroites.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/1/venezuela-calls-on-opec-to-counter-us-threats
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to help his country counter āgrowing and illegal threatsā from the United States and its president, Donald Trump.
In a letter to fellow members of the bloc of major oil-producing countries on Sunday, Maduro accused the US of trying to āseizeā Venezuelaās oil reserves, the worldās largest.
āI hope to count on your best efforts to help stop this aggression, which is growing stronger and seriously threatens the balance of the international energy market, both for producing and consuming countries,ā Maduro said, according to a copy of the letter published by state broadcaster TeleSUR.
Maduro also āformally denouncedā the āuse of lethal military force against the countryās territory, people and institutionsā, both to OPEC and the larger group of OPEC+ countries.
While Venezuela holds the worldās largest proven oil reserves, estimated at 303 billion barrels as of 2023, it exported just $4.05bn worth of crude oil in 2023, far below other major-oil producing countries, in part due to US sanctions imposed during the first Trump presidency.
Along with Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the Latin American country was a founding member of OPEC in 1960, with its members cooperating to control oil supply and influence the price of oil in the decades that followed.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/family-of-colombian-man-killed-in-us-boat-strike-files-complaint-alleging-murder_n_69306d47e4b0cee44381f3d8
Alejandro Carranza was killed on Sept. 15 when his boat was targeted in an anti-narcotics U.S. military campaign. On Tuesday, Carranzaās family filed a formal complaint against the U.S. government with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The complaint alleges that Carranza was simply fishing when his boat was targeted in the deadly strike. HIs family said there were no drugs on his boat.
āWe know that Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defense, was responsible for ordering the bombing of boats like those of Alejandro Carranza Medina and the murder of all those on such boats,ā the complaint says.
While Trump has claimed these targeted boats are carrying deadly drugs like fentanyl into the U.S., heās offered no evidence, and many of the boats in question are too small and ill-equipped to travel to the U.S.
Carranzaās wife, Katerine Hernandez, told AFP that her husband was a āgood manā who was heading out the day of his death to catch fish for his family.
āWhy did they just take his life like that?ā she asked an AFP reporter. āThe fisherman have a right to live. Why didnāt they just detain him?ā
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-intervenes-court-case-release-jack-smith-report-11148719
In the December 2, 2025 motion Trump has asked Cannon for permission to participate as amicus curiae [a written legal argument submitted to a court by someone who is not a party to the case but who believes the courtās decision may affect their interests or the public interest] in the litigation over whether Volume II of Smithās report should be released to the public.
Trump argues that disclosure would āperpetuate Jack Smithās unlawful criminal investigations and proceedings.ā
*Is this a please-donāt-tell-on-me by tRUMPsky?
When I contacted Senators about the US illegally blowing up boats in international waters, I expected this Republican drivel in my mailbox. There is, of course, no proof that they were carrying drugs, and it would still be an illegal act to blow them up in international waters. At least one of my Senators seems to be giving comfort to war criminals.
āThank you for reaching out regarding recent actions taken against drug trafficking vessels.
Protecting our nation’s borders and communities from the flow of illegal drugs remains a top priority. Any attempt to transport harmful substances into the country will be met with firm and decisive action to uphold national security and public safety.
Efforts to stop the movement of illegal drugs are part of a broader commitment to keeping our communities safe and ensuring the well-being of all citizens.
I appreciate your engagement on this crucial issue.ā
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-hit-with-310m-suit-alleging-trafficking-scheme-tied-to-epstein-style-claims/
President Donald Trump has been hit with a $310 million lawsuit in Palm Beach County accusing him, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates of participating in an alleged ātrafficking ventureā that plaintiffs claim mirrors Jeffrey Epsteinās operation.
The lawsuit, filed Nov. 24 and reported by BOCA News Now, alleges an eight-year pattern of exploitation beginning in 2018 and continuing under Trumpās current administration.
The unnamed plaintiffs accuse Trump of āgroomingā the lead plaintiff since 1998, using the Gates Foundation as a cover, and participating in coordinated assaults. They also claim the plaintiffās infant daughter was taken from her as retaliation for filing lawsuits. The filing further alleges multiple attempts on the plaintiffās life between 2023 and 2024.
The plaintiffs in the case are seeking at least $310 million in compensatory damages, more than $134 million in attorneysā fees, and injunctive relief that would include the āimmediate return of full legal and physical custodyā of the lead plaintiffās daughter. They also asked the court that the trial be expedited so that a trial by jury is held by Dec. 20.
Ghislaine has been quiet. Did they let her out?
Hey GOPers trying to spin yesterday’s Tennessee vote, saying “A win’s a win’s a win means you’re losing”
only Democrats spin a loss as a win
They have a lot of experience doing so
šµš«²
Iām not trying to be a dick, the false optimism leads to candidates like Kamala and election seasons like 2024
if only that family knew of a way to anonymously transfer funds free of oversight to sell pardons
itās a Democrat culture of mediocrity
Kentucky isnāt in Africa or Asia. Itās the United States.
I donāt know enough about the candidate to criticize her, but maybe a better one couldāve won that seat
Don’t know what else we need to know other than Republicans narrowly won a Tennessee district Trump won by 22 points
well, I can only express my bafflement at that mentality so many times
I do believe we should stop cheerleading the party of failure
While they celebrate a loss as a win, The worst actors in our society are getting away with all of the worst activity, un-fucking-fettered
The worst consequence Republicans have to face is unflattering chatter, oooooh scary
like all the negative chatter about Trump still makes Trump the dominant topic in the public discourse meaning no Democrat leader can breakthrough. Weāre busy talking about Trump.
Gavinās team made a nice effort, but the new cycle has moved on
I ran into a friend today who made a ādrug boatā joke to me so maybe the Hegseth story is breaking through
The joke was that I was enabling Hegseth somehow, I forget š
The friend in question is an anti-Trump republican so we didnāt agree on anything politically before Trump but now we both know a crook when we see one
during the 2024 election season, I was accusing people that told me Trump was going to win of being in a bubble, but it was me who was in the bubble, a trailmix bubble of liberalism and phony hope
Itās a comfortable bubble ā¤ļø
more losing:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/12/03/fuel-efficiency-rules-rollback/
https://newrepublic.com/post/203851/pete-hegseth-bragged-commit-war-crimes-book
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told soldiers under his command in Iraq to ignore legal advice on the rules of engagement in war.
In his book The War on Warriors, published last year, Hegseth wrote about an instance where he rejected a military judge advocate generalās guidance on the rules of engagement, telling troops, āI will not allow that nonsense to filter into your brains.ā
In another passage, Hegseth gripes, āIf our warriors are forced to follow rules arbitrarily and asked to sacrifice more lives so that international tribunals feel better about themselves, arenāt we just better off winning our wars according to our own rules?! Who cares what other countries think.ā
I thought Patel would be the first clown off the car but looks like it’s Hegseth
Not sure the ādrug boatā story is breaking through here, because NBC refers to them definitively as ādrug boats,ā and nobody else here questions if there were actually drugs on the boats or if it was legal, either way.
You think heāll actually get the boot?
Just the boot or pay for Signal-gate and his war crimes?
All of the waste, fraud and abuse from Patel and Noem and the restā¦itās disgusting.
Boot tRUMP for TREASON & get rid of the lot of them.
š¤®
i appreciate that stuff, iām way too bubbled sincerely š«”
not coincidental that my friend used that exact term then, heās a mainstream media type
RIP Steve Cropper
āPlay it, Steve!ā
Cropper? Shit. The Memphis soul guitar god? Shit.
A fine show for Crop.
āDrug boatsā is bullshit – an attempt to legitimize violations of international law calling it war. Iām no expert on international law, so my thoughts on that are limited to what I see, and what I see is the American military killing people on boats in international waters under the pretext of a war with Venezuelan drug gangs? Gimmeafuckingbreak. I may have come into town on a turnip truck, but I didnāt come into town on a turnip truck last night.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/03/politics/us-institute-of-peace-renamed-trump
US Institute of Peace renamed for Trump after his administration gutted it earlier this year
President Donald Trumpās name has been installed on the building and signage around the US Institute of Peace (USIP) ā an independent agency that the administration gutted earlier this year.
The presidentās moniker appeared on the Washington, DC, headquarters ahead of a peace agreement signing ceremony between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) due to take place there on Thursday.
āWelcome to the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. The best is yet to come,ā the State Department posted on X Wednesday, announcing it had renamed the institute āto reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nationās history.ā
*Like a dog marking its territory with pee.
murderers
https://www.alternet.org/hegseth-impeachment/
Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) will be officially unveiling articles of impeachment against the embattled Pentagon chief during an event at
Union Station in Washington D.C. on Thursday morning (9:15am)
Opera for these times.
the SOB is countermanding his own Dpt. of Justice(For Sale)
banana republic bullshit
the next step is prosecuting people purely to extort them
impeach immediately
itās a pretty trash system of government thatās been praised my entire lifetime Jesus
ā it was good onceā
ā oh yeah whenā
ā when it was run by the founding slaveholders, of course!ā
š
It is nice to see Trailmixā¦This looks like a much easier process..:
OD
Long time no see, what’s happenin’ in your part of the world?
Jack
Glad I made my quarterly trip to Kansas City yesterday, it is going to be 9 degrees up there tonight, Makes 20 degrees down here sound warm.
Jack
Hello Oregon Dem. Yes I have worked very hard at streamlining things. Glad you made it in ā kick the tires, light a candle, and jump in wherever the keyboard takes you. Always enjoyed your input.
Your adaptation to evolving tech is impressive, Mr. C, and the site looks good š
Nice job and thank you!
NEW THREAD