Coffee Talk with Tiff

December 4, 2025 1:29 pm EST Tiff Coffee Talk with Tiff 0
Coffee. Photo by Jonathan Thursfield.

It’s Thursday…

President Shitshow’s public schedule for…

12/04/2025:

The presidential schedule today is basically a parade of visiting leaders shuttling through the Oval Office like it’s international drop-in day. Lots of handshakes, lots of flags, lots of smiling for official photographers while everyone pretends this is normal and not a diplomatic rush hour.

And tonight he’s off to the National Christmas Tree Lighting. Hopefully he handles this one better than the Thanksgiving turkey pardons, which were… let’s call them “memorable” and leave it at that. The tree deserves a fighting chance.

Previously on Planet Earth

The FBI has finally made an arrest of the suspected pipe bomb planter tied to the devices left outside the DNC and RNC on the eve of Jan. 6, 2021, according to sources familiar with the matter. Brian Cole of Virginia 30, has been identified as the suspected pipe bomb planter.

Federal authorities made their first arrest Thursday in connection with two pipe bombs that were planted outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on the eve of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Four law enforcement sources told CBS News the suspect is 30-year-old Brian Cole of Woodbridge, Virginia. He is expected to be charged in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, according to an FBI source.

The arrest marks a major step forward in a case that has vexed the FBI for nearly five years. The pipe bombs were placed outside DNC and RNC headquarters on the evening of Jan. 5, federal investigators have said.

CBS News. 12/04/2025.

In case you missed you it.

Right wing “media” assholes falsely accused “A federal security officer linked to a thwarted Jan. 6 pipe bomb attack“…

The federal security officer, a woman, cleared her name by providing an alibi: video of her playing with her puppies at the time the devices were placed, sources told CBS News. The FBI has now ruled her out as a suspect in the 2021 plot, according to three sources — but only after her name circulated on social platforms and a conservative news site.

[snip]

Multiple sources said that a unit overseen by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard drafted a memo identifying the woman and describing allegations that she had placed the explosive devices outside Democratic and Republican party offices. The memo was written after ODNI was made aware of allegations from an outside source, an ODNI spokesperson said.

[snip]

The Nov. 8 Blaze News article claimed that it had pinpointed the woman after a review of video evidence and “gait analysis” software matched her walking pattern to the gait of a person shown in surveillance footage, who authorities suspect planted bombs outside the party offices on Jan. 5, 2021.

Blaze News said its work had been “confirmed by several intelligence sources.”

Several sources told CBS News that the classified draft memo, which was on ODNI letterhead, was written by Paul McNamara, who is in charge of Gabbard’s Director’s Initiatives Group, which is tasked with providing “transparency and accountability” and executing President Trump’s intelligence-related executive orders. McNamara could not be reached for comment.

CBS News. 11/25/2025.

I don’t usually nudge readers to go read the full piece; I try to give you the distilled version. But this one deserves the three minutes. The DNI got a tip and was supposedly “looking into it,” according to the woman involved. Someone inside that office then leaked the unfinished memo with her personal info splashed all over it. That half-baked document was immediately pimp-shipped across right-wing media, with The Blaze leading the charge.


#SignalGate

The DOD Inspector General has released its findings on Defense Secretary Pete Hegshit and assorted Pentagon geniuses using Signal to chat about military strikes. The whole thing came to light because Mike Walz accidentally invited a reporter into the group. Truly the finest operational security money can buy.

Show more =’s images below…

Hegshit responded to yesterday’s reporting on the IG report (it wasn’t released until this morning):

Really? Case closed, nothing to see here…

The IG report PDF (84 pg’s.) can be found here.

Speaking of Hegshit…

Following reporting that Hegshit committed war crimes the Admiral they decided to shove under the war crime bus met today with a bipartisan group of law makers.

Show more =’s Full quote from Himes: “Let me just say this: Adm. Bradley and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff did the right thing. And Adm. Bradley defended the decisions taken, and Adm. Bradley has a storied career and he has my respect and he should have the respect of all of us. But what I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things that I’ve seen in my time in public service. You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States.”

There is some debate over what he means by “did the right thing”…


Flash News

WSJ (gift link 12/04/2025):

Work permits issued to immigrants who have applied for asylum or a range of other humanitarian programs will now be valid for 18 months rather than five years, under a new policy announced Thursday by the Trump administration.

By forcing immigrants to renew their work permits more often, the government will have more opportunities to re-vet them, said Joe Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency which handles most legal immigration applications.

Edlow framed the change, which reverses a Biden-era policy, as the latest action by the administration to crack down on legal immigration in response to the shooting last week in Washington, D.C., of two National Guard members. Federal officials allege the shooting was carried out by an Afghan national.

WSJ (gift link 12/04/2025).

Bring Back those 70’s station wagons!!!

Just my opinion but having grown up in the 80’s having cars be lighter and getting better gas mileage was a thing the consumer wanted. Sure, they wanted muscle cars too. But in mass production they consumer shifted to more economically friendly cars. And we can also still buy cars from the 70’s if we want; they are called classic cars now usually with modern engines and range from a few thousands dollars without a motor to hundreds of thousands of dollars…

Like I said, modern car companies aren’t going back to mass produce cars nobody is asking for…

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday that Democrats will offer a clean three-year extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits for a vote next week, when the issue that was at the center of the shutdown fight comes center stage.

“This is the bill, a clean three-year extension of ACA tax credits, that Democrats will bring to the floor of the Senate for a vote next Thursday, and every single Democrat will support it,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday morning. 

The announcement comes after a group of Senate Democrats last month secured a vote to address the expiring tax credits as part of the deal to reopen the government. Millions of Americans are due to see their health insurance premiums skyrocket in the new year without action from Congress.

Democrats had the opportunity to present the legislation of their choice. Some moderates sought a compromise position that would stand a chance at earning the 60 votes needed to advance. Schumer’s decision to seek a clean extension means the bill is highly unlikely to pick up support from Republicans, although the move so will force GOP members to take a politically uncomfortable vote. Republicans rejected Schumer’s offer of a clean extension toward the end of the government shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters of the possibility Wednesday that the approach “suggests they’re not really interested in fixing it.” Senate Republicans have not yet determined whether they will offer up their own health care measure alongside the Democratic bill. 

CBS News 12/04/2025.

Cringe from the White House…

The full image:

I still will not understand why grown people what a president to be their “daddy”.

Like that’s just fucking weird.

This is an open thread

About the opinions in this article…

Any opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this website or of the other authors/contributors who write for it.

About Tiff 3403 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.