CABINET NOMINEES. Biden announces his first cabinet nominees. The president-elect announced: Antony Blinken for Secretary of State; Alejandro Mayorkas for Secretary of Homeland Security;Avril Haines for Director of National Intelligence;Linda Thomas-Greenfield for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Jake Sullivan as National Security Advisor; John Kerry as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.
ELON MUSK. Tesla CEO becomes world's second-richest person. “The only person ahead of Musk now is Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, who took the top spot from [Bill] Gates (who is now third) in 2017 and has stayed there since.”
COVID TREE. Melania Trump greets the White House Christmas tree for the last time, as Trump plans indoor receptions amid pandemic. FLASHBACK: “Who gives a f**k about the Christmas stuff?“
COMCAST/XFINITY. Data caps to screw over millions in 2021: “As The Verge reports, customers not on an unlimited plan who exceed 1.2 TB of data in a month will have to pay $10 for every 50 GB of data they go over, topping out at $100. To put that into context, streaming HD video over uses about 3 GB per hour. Cloud gaming over something like Stadia uses about 10 GB of data every hour at 1080p. So if you're not watching your data usage carefully, you could end up with a higher than normal monthly bill. The change affects Xfintiy customers in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as parts of North Carolina and Ohio.”
SEA OF JAPAN. Russian warship threatened to ram U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain: “Moscow said that the Admiral Vinogradov, a Russian destroyer, had verbally warned the U.S. ship and threatened to ram it in order to force it to leave the a rea. The U.S ship had immediately returned to neutral waters after being warned off, the defence ministry said in a statement.”
CHECKMATE. The Queen's Gambit set a big record at Netflix.
TRANSPHOBIC. Queer Eye‘s Jonathan Van Ness calls out John Cleese: “Instead of worrying about American democracy worry about the transphobia gripping the UK. Worry about the staggering inequality your country faces & keep LGBTQ issues out of your chapped ass lip having mouth unless you due to some miracle become an ally.”
ROBERT O'BRIEN. Trump national security adviser mulling 2024 run: “It's a possibility that GOP strategists dismissed as an illogical long shot at best. But several of O'Brien's friends insisted that maybe, just maybe, O'Brien could click with the American people.”
TRUMP 2024. 54 percent of Republicans say they'd vote for him: “The Morning Consult-Politico Poll released Tuesday found that 12 percent of GOP voters said they would choose Vice President Mike Pence in the 2024 primary instead, while 8 percent said they would vote for the president's son, Donald Trump Jr. “
MASK MANDATES. They boost the economy, according to a new study: “The study, by researchers at the school's Marriner S. Eccles Institute for Economics and Quantitative Analysis, also indicates that low case counts and mask mandates significantly raised consumer confidence, upping the amount people spend and the number of places these shoppers visit.”
5 DAYS. England to cut quarantine periods for travelers. “The change to the quarantine rules, which was announced Tuesday and takes effect on Dec. 15, has been long-awaited by the travel industry, one of the worst-hit sectors during the pandemic.”
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE. Dianne Feinstein to step down as lead member. Dick Durbin to seek position.
TRAILER OF THE DAY. folklore: the long pond studio sessions.
TUESDAY TEMPTATIONS. Doctor Topher.
