- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) certainly doing some…creative semantics!

As disgraced former president Donald Trump’s indictments mount, so too does the frothing bloodlust of his supporters.
 

• In the immediate aftermath of the Fulton County indictment, Trump promised to hold a press conference on Monday to “refute” the allegations listed in the charging document. Now, it looks like that press conference may not happen because for once, the big guy might actually be listening to his legal advisers. According to sources close to the matter, Trump’s revolving door of a legal team told him that making that kind of public statement, doubling down on lies about voter fraud will further complicate his labyrinthine legal troubles, and advised him to cancel it.
   

• Still, it’s easy to imagine Trump ignoring their advice once again. He’s used one playbook his whole career: Attack, attack, attack, knowing his hoards of devotees will follow suit. In fact, users on far-right message boards have begun targeting the grand jurors in Fulton County. Following the release of the indictment, QAnon message boards began lighting up, as MAGA loyalists doxxed the grand jurors by posting their photos and addresses, and threatening them with violence. Users reportedly also tried to determine the ethnicity and religious backgrounds of the jurors, for totally not-scary reasons we’re sure. Even in this high-profile, politically-charged case, in which one defendant’s supporters are certifiable psychos, the jurors' names were made public, which doesn’t seem ideal!
   

• Speaking of violent, certifiable psychos, a 43-year-old Texas woman named Abigail Jo Shry was arrested on Wednesday after investigators traced a voicemail in which she used a racial slur then threatened to kill Judge Tanya Chutkan, the who will oversee the federal case against Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. When confronted by officers, Shry also threatened to kill Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and all Wahsington Democrats and members of the LGBTQ community more broadly. Wow, busy lady!

Moving on now from Trump’s avowed sycophants, to his frenemies. 
 

• Perhaps no craven Republican has done a better job articulating how big of a fucking idiot Trump is being than his former attorney general, Bill Barr. In a Thursday interview on Fox News, Barr said that White House lawyers warned Trump repeatedly that espousing the Big Lie and trying to overturn the 2020 election would result in him spending “the rest of his life tangling with the criminal justice process. That’s exactly what happened.” 
   

• Fox host Neil Cavuto pushed back against Barr in typical Fox News fashion, suggesting that Trump only tried to shake the democratic process like a Magic 8 Ball when it didn’t give him the result he wanted because he “truly believed he was robbed.” (Lol.) Barr replied flatly, “Even if he believed that, that doesn’t mean you can use illegal means to rectify it. If you think the bank is unfairly keeping your money there’s many things you can do to get it back. You can’t rob the bank.” But Barr made sure to remind us he’s still a GOP scumbag like the rest of them when he concluded the interview by saying that in spite of the litany of crimes he had just said he believes Trump committed, not only does he believe Trump shouldn’t go to jail, he would still consider voting for him. Perfect political party! No notes!

Another great day in the extremely healthy MAGA Republican Party! Who knows what horrors tomorrow will bring!

Los Angeles! Cancel your plans next Thursday and thank us later. Ruined’s host Halle Kiefer will be introducing The Babadook at Friend Of The Fest! It’s this Thursday, at Los Feliz 3 at 10pm. Tickets are on sale now and selling fast so get yours here. 

Russia struck a billion-dollar deal with Iran in which the Kremlin aimed to build 6,000 drones domestically by summer 2025, or enough to reverse the Russian military’s continued shortage of “unmanned aerial vehicles.” Western officials had successfully revealed the existence of the facility tasked with pumping out drones round-the-clock and the nature of Moscow’s partnership with Tehran, but the Washington Post uncovered new documents further detailing the plan to expand Russia’s drone program. The documents indicate that despite production delays and a process that is heavily reliant on foreign-produced electronic components, Russia has made steady progress towards its goal of manufacturing a variant of the Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drone capable of traveling over 1,000 miles. Russia’s advanced industrial techniques and skilled engineers are creating improvements to the drone itself, including making it capable of swarm attacks—coordinated strikes on a particular target from multiple UAVs. The documents were leaked by an individual who works at the Russian drone production facility but who opposes Putin’s war in Ukraine, and hoped that exposing the details of the effort would lead to more sanctions to expedite the conflict’s resolution. The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed reports that it is receiving Iranian assistance for its drones program.

Disgraced former president Donald Trump has asked the Washington, DC, district court to delay his federal January 6 trial until April 2026. Lol, sure.

A right-wing federal appeals court said it would restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone on Wednesday after opining that the federal government did not follow the proper regulatory process in 2016 when it was made more available. 

President Biden committed the federal government to supporting recovery efforts in Maui on Thursday, as the island grieves the destruction of the coastal town of Lahaina. The death toll from fires on the island has climbed to 111 people.

The West African bloc ECOWAS announced its preparedness to stage military intervention in Niger should diplomatic efforts to reverse the coup there fail. 

At least two brands have said they will suspend advertising on X (Twitter) after Twitter ran their ads (among others) on an account promoting fascism. Just another day on Elon Musk’s Twitter!

Three people in the New York City area have died in recent weeks, and a fourth person is in critical condition, after contracting infections from a flesh-eating bacteria that can be caused by eating raw oysters or swimming in saltwater.

House Republicans have introduced a bill to repeal the Washington, DC, Home Rule Act.  

The World Chess Federation has banned transgender women from competing in women’s events, because I guess they think people born as men are inherently smarter than those born as women?? Why are chess tournaments gendered at all? …Hello? Is anyone there?

Prolonged financial stagnation and a deepening housing crisis have left China on the brink of economic instability. So why haven’t the country’s leaders rushed to save the world’s second largest economy? Last week, President Biden called China “a ticking time bomb” due to the state of its finances, but Presiden Xi Jinping hasn’t offered much of a response. Some believe that Xi’s focus on militarization and national security is at odds with efforts to bolster the economy, scaring off potential investment. But decision making among Chinese authorities is notoriously opaque. The deputy director of China research at Gavekal Dragonomics said, “The core problem this year is that the leadership has given vague, high-level instructions for officials to balance economic development against national security,” which has created a kind of “policy paralysis even if that comes at a substantial cost.” Economists have floated possible solutions such as government-funded spending vouchers to jumpstart financial recovery, with the caveat that unlike previous economic downturns, there will be no quick fix for China.

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that he and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have agreed to a temporary spending bill to fund the government to yet again avoid a government shutdown because Republicans are irresponsible menaces who keep trying to grind the government to a halt. 

A new Gallup poll shows that saying hello to your neighbors is linked to increased overall wellbeing, so say hi! Unless your neighbor is Ted Cruz.