Best wishes to everyone celebrating Christmas. This year, we are celebrating in North Carolina for the first time. My four children and Luna drove down with us two days ago.
As many on the blog know, we have always gone to Chicago for Christmas. However, the illness of a loved one in Durham led us to change our plans at the last minute. The four kids came through like champions. We rented a house in Durham near my inlaws.
Due to my Catholic and my wife’s Jewish traditions, we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah today — a double header! With the holidays falling on the same day this year, it will be latkes and log cakes for the Turleys.
I was lamenting when we arrived that we could not have a tree due to the last minute change. Then, yesterday, a tree suddenly appeared on the porch. Two of the kids were able to find one lot still open and literally bought the last tree. It was not exactly the Rockefeller Center tree, but it was a real, honest-to-God Christmas tree. We were able to find a few lights, a dozen ornaments, and a cinder block to use as a stand. The kids made a paper angel for the top of the tree. It is a bit of a Charlie Brown tree, but we love it. We are here with each other and I have never been more proud of my family.
Last night, I made our traditional Cioppino soup — a tradition started by my late father, Jack Turley. It is a spicy mix of mussels, shrimp, sea bass, clams, crab meat, and other ingredients. I have previously written how I grew up hating the soup but the tradition fell to me when my father became ill. I am now as addicted to the soup as my father was. When I make the soup each year, it continues an indelible connection to my Dad and best friend.
Santa did come this morning despite our sudden change in plans. Tonight we will be having our usual beef, gravy, Yorkshire pudding, and fresh grounded horseradish sauce. We also have a Turley Zinfandel to enjoy with dinner. We also have a great Bûche de Noël (or yule log cake) and other delights for dessert.
The Turley family wishes everyone a happy and safe holiday. I will be toasting our blog family tonight and giving thanks for the wonderful community we have created at this site.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Turley
Jonathan, thank you very much for sharing your tremendous knowledge of the law and explanation of the policy consequences as well as assisting your fellow Americans to understand the significance of the many legal decisions that affect our life. I truly appreciate and trust your interpretations of law and your political thoughts as well. Thanks again for being there for us and helping us read between the lines. Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy Hanukkah as well. Hoping your trip to North Carolina turns out with a very positive result. Best, Howard
A wonderful Christmas message! Thank you, Jonathan, for that and this great blog of yours!
Jonathan: Joe Biden and DJT had very different Christmas messages. As he has done for the last four years Biden told Americans “we’re here on this Earth to care for one another” and urged Americans to set aside “all the noise and everything that divides us”.
DJT had a very different Christmas message. He condemned Biden’s pardons for death row inmates–telling them to “go to hell”. DJT repeated his claim to make Canada the 51st state and “their taxes would be cut by more than 60%”. DJT also repeated the false claim that Chinese soldiers are operating the Panama Canal. DJT wasn’t finished: “Merry Christmas to the Radical Left Lunatics, who are constantly trying to obstruct our Court System and our Elections. They know that their only chance of survival is getting pardons from a man who has absolutely no idea what he is doing”.
Now you would think that on one day in the year DJT could find it in his heart to say something kind and generous. Nope. He is full of hate and vengeance–even on Christmas day.
Thank you for sharing your Blessed event with the millions that share your blog with you. You show what can be done when necessary.
G-d bless you & the rest of the Turley family. Merry Christmas & Happy blessed Hanukkah to you & yours as well!
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah to the Turley family, and best wishes for your loved one’s recovery. Your kids getting the last tree in the lot, and making a paper angel, may well become one of your fondest Christmas memories.
Best wishes to you and your lovely family, Professor Turley! May your ill loved one get well soon.
Merry Christmas to all! 🎄
God bless you and Merry Christmas!
Zubin Mehta conducts in 1994 the L.A. Philharmonic, while Luciano Pavarotti performs Schubert’s “Ave Maria”.
Merry Christmas
How do you do that and get your Youtube video to display like that?
A simple copy and paste. Or in youTube’s case; share button, copy link. And then paste it where you want it to display. 😉
Estovir,
Beautiful! Thank you my friend!!
Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and a healthy and happy 2025 to all.
Jonathan- Would you be willing to share your recipe for Cioppino soup with your subscribers? It doesn’t sound really appealing to me, but if you got over that feeling, I am willing to give it a shot! You can of course put in all of the legal disclaimers, etc. to protect yourself. 🙂
Hope your Christmas was as merry as it started out, and Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas to all of you.
Turley wishes the “wonderful community” happiness–I hate to be the one to say”bah, humbug” here, but Turley has chosen to become nothing but a purchased mouthpiece for MAGA media, using his credentials to sell Trump and Republicans and to attack Democrats and mainstream media. He spins the facts and shovels chum to the MAGA disciples–just like yesterday’s piece in which he included, for no reason other than to stoke racism– photos of two accused shoplifters who happen to be black–and the usual MAGA venom came out, which is why he did it. There was no justifiable reason for posting their photos—none–other than to reaffirm the racism of MAGA–something Turley has decided is worthy of his participation. Turley ignores truly important legal-themed stories, like the utter unfitness of Gaetz and Hegseth to serve in any governmental position; another example–Tulsi Gabbard–seriously conflicted and a danger to our national security. How about Elon Musk going around threatening members of Congress with getting “primaried”–Trump has handed over power he cheated to get, even before he takes office–to someone who gave him hundreds of millions of dollars. Turley has even attacked the integrity of judges, which is something attorneys are not supposed to do. I guess as long as the Murdoch cash keeps coming, we can expect more of the same, but Turley, please don’t try to sell yourself as anything other than the purchased mouthpiece you have chosen to become–there’s no “peace” or “happiness” behind you or the MAGA slop you serve up–just money–and, for that reason, you don’t deserve the usual respect accorded someone in academia.
Such bile – still, I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas
Batshit crazy but at least you’re consistent. Hopefully, this will be the year you get some help.
Everything I wrote is true. Reinforcing racial hatred because you are well paid to do so is the antithesis of Christmas message of “peace and love”. Reinforcing disinformation and outright lies because you are being well paid to do so is the antithesis of “peace and love”. Using your credentials to help mislead gullible people who believe the lies of a convicted criminal, adjudicated fraudster, adjudicated sexual assaulter, thief of charitable contributions, thief of classified documents, is wrong, and counter to the message of Christmas. MAGA media that pays Turley was started by and is owned by billionaries who saw an opportunity to purchase a presidency in exchange for receiving massive tax breaks and rolling back of regulations–it was an investment. So, they shovel out the daily drivel of MAGAs are superior, liberals are communists and Marxists, January 6th was started by the FBI to make Trump look bad, he didn’t lie about losing in 2020, Trump didn’t steal classified documents, the Bidens are a crime family, Trump is a victim of “lawfare”, and will immediately bring on a sharp drop in the price of groceries. Turley chooses to sell himself to deliver these messages that are lies, and he knows it. That’s un-Christian.
Gigi
nothing you ever right is true.
According to the FBI 26.6 % of shoplifting is by blacks. If you have security camera video of a shoplifting incident there is a 1 in 4 chance those doing it are black.
That is double the rate for whits.
It could be worse – blacks commit approximately 50% of the murders in the US.
I know this is hard for you – but it is not racist to show reality as it is.
If you recall, the piece was about making stealing a felony in California—not the racial makeup of who commits crimes. Turley made it about race by posting photos of the alleged perpetrators— which was not only totally unnecessary for making the point, but was calculated to pander to the racism that is part of the MAGA movement Turley has chosen to support. Feeding into racism is WRONG and anti Christian, which is why Turley’s “peace on earth” Christmas message is so much hogwash.
And you can accuse me of lying all you want to, but you know better. You saw the vicious racist comments Turley evoked.
“If you recall, the piece was about making stealing a felony in California”
Correct.
“Turley made it about race by posting photos of the alleged perpetrators”
Only in left wig nut world must we curate the photos of criminals committing crimes so that we never show a race that the left prefers not be associated with crime,
Even though that race has a crime rate between 2 and 4 times that of any other race.
Turley did not make it about race YOU did.
“which was not only totally unnecessary for making the point”
What was NOT necescary is going to an enormous amount of trouble to make sure that the photo of a person shoplifting was NOT offensive to YOU.
Because there are 10,000 things that would have offended you.
You would have been offended if the shoplifter was female, or hispanic, or Trans or disabled, or pretty much anything except a straight white male.
” but was calculated to pander to the racism”
No YOU are the one pandering to racism.
I know this is hard for you but people – even BLACKS voted for Trump.
And more important too, People – even and especially blacks want safe streets, and to not have their property stolen,
nor to have stores shoplifted so that they decided to move away.
YOU are the one hung up on Race.
Republicans have DOUBLED their support in nearly all minorities. While that still leaves them below 50% in most minorities, it is absolute proof that Republicans are dramatically improving their appeal to minorities.
THAT is part of the MAGA movement – the COMMON SHARED values of people of all races.
The desire for government that is not all about the elites. You rant about Trump and Billionaires.
But the FACT is that it is Democrats, the left, that has the support of by far the most Billionaires.
It is democrats, the left that has the support of by FAR the most big businesses.
It is really odd because 2 decades ago we were told that Demographics is destiny and that the approaching minority majority country would assure democrats a hold on power forever.
So what is happening – Democrats are making HUGE gains with the uber rich white elites, and Republicans are making gains with minorities.
Regardless you are ignorant of reality.
It is and always has been BIG BUSINESS that wants regulations. Anything that burdens small and medium competitors.
But as with most every issue – you put together these nonsensical naratives.
You are still shilling the Russia Russia Russia nonsense, when the TINIEST bit of logic would tell you that Clinton was Better for Russia than Trump.
On issue after issue you have no common sense adn zero familiarity with actual data that backs up that common sense.
You beleive that your politically biased guesses as to how the world works are rules of nature, not nonsense that has nothing to do with the real world.
“you can accuse me of lying all you want to”
I do not “accuse you of lying. You are a LIAR, that is a FACT, not an opinion.
It has been established repeatedly.
Anyone can be wrong.
People who continue to make false claims long long after they have been proven wrong are LIARS.
I do not call you a liar because you get things wrong.
I do not call you a liar because when proven wrong you do not issue a correction.
You are a liar because after your claims have been falsified over and over and over again,
You continue to repeat them forever. That is LYING.
“You saw the vicious racist comments Turley evoked.”
No I did not. I see very little racism on this site.
Though I see lots of accusations of racism from the likes of you.
Facts that you do not like are not racist.
Regardless, you are spraying another left wing fallacy.
Should some poster ACTUALLY say something blatantly racist here,
Turley posting a picture of a black person caught shoplifting is NOT a moral failure on Turley’s part that Caused that racism.
People – like you who post ACTUALLY racist things – such as YOU are doing,
Are responsible for their own remarks.
This is really really important.
People who voted for Trump – or Harris were not duped or hoodwinked.
They consciously made a choice that they are responsible for.
Turley is not responsible if someone responds to a post of his with something you think is racist.
You are not responsible if some F2M trans teen with testosterone fueled roid rage shoots up a school.
Though the person who dosed them up on Testosterone might share some culpability.
Each of us is responsible for what we DO.
Not what someone else says.
Christmas and christianity are NOT about government.
Christ did not ask “when I was hungry did you lobby your congressment to feed me”
He asked if YOU fed those who are hungry.
There is no moral merit in lobbying govenrment to steal from others to help your prefered groups – who may or may not need help.
If you wish to Rant about what is and is not Christian – then do the Christian thing YOURSELF.
If you are not at home hugging your family and your pets.
Then the christian thing for you to do is to be out at a shelter feeding the homeless.
You rant about peace – Trump reduced wars and conflict throughout the world – especially those involving the US.
Biden ewither deliberately or through weakness and incompetence left us with a less peaceful and violent world.
Trump negotiated the first peace deal in the Mideast since Carter, and the largest ever, and it has held even through the recent mess.
Biden has not even managed a cease fire in the violence under his watch – not in Ukraine, not in Israel.
You talk about oligarchy – while Biden is pumping hundreds of Billions into the coffers of the Military industrial complex and assuring we will have to spend more for a long time to come. All the Billions that we abandoned in Afghanistan or sent to Ukraine or israel – that will have to be replaced.
Not a dime of that would have to have been spent but for the botched withdraw, and bad policies towards Ukrainem Russia, Iran, Energy.
Beyond our normal military spending Biden has locked the US into an additional 500B-$1T in military spending, because what we sent elsewhere will have to be replacedm and the replacements will cost much more.
Botching foreign affairs and national security to lay the foundations for war and instability accross the world is not “Peace and Love” either.
Billionaires actually FAILED to purchase a presidency – atleast 2.5B was spent on the Biden/Harris campaign. Trump got far less money and far less from Billionaires.
It is estimated that regulations enacted in the past 4 years are costing the economy $1T. Adjusting for inflation – has there been ANY economic growth in the past 4 years ?
No we do not need more regulations.
I am all for tax breaks – for anyone. Though mostly I and a majority of peoplw want LESS govenrment – LESS spending.
Do we want roll backs of regulations on investment ? ABSOLUTELY – that should be a no brainer. You actually want LESS ivestment ? Or worse still you want government deciding how we should invest ?
Is MAGA superior ? The economy, foreign policy, national security, and the border all performed better under Trump – seems like MAGA is superior.
If you wish to claim your values are superior – then they must succeed in practice – they did not.
People are angry with your policies – because you FAILED, so YES policies, Ideology, Platforms that performed better than yours are objectively superior.
We live in reality – you are entitled to your own opinions, you are not entitled to your own facts.
Your values, policies, platform have FAILED – they are INFERIOR to those that performed better.
They are INFERIOR to what preceded them.
Yes People do get to insult you by saying your ideas are stupid failures, when the reality is your ideas are stupid failures.
” liberals are communists and Marxists”
Turley is a liberal, he is neither a communist or a marxist.
Current post modern progressivism is marxist. CRT is marxist, BLM is Marxist, Queer Theory is Marxist.
These are NOT my assessmnents – they are the FACTS – often the openly expressed views of those part of these ideologies.
Marxism is the the collective over the individual, and it is acheiving the truimph of the collective through, class, race, or identity warfare.
It is the ideology of division – dividing us into different groups of privilege or oprression and then pitting us against each other.
That is what you seek to do all the time.
Your the one who introduced race into the shoplifting issue.
Are you claiming that Beckers Nobel prize winning work on crime and incentives is racist ?
More importantly – Are you claiming it is WRONG ?
“the Bidens are a crime family,”
You do know that just recently we have found that AT THE WH Joe met MORE with Hunters Influence peddlers than members of his own cabinet, and that there are now photos of Biden meeting with The Chinese buying his services While he was president.
John Say,
Awesome. Well done.
It is Christmas, we should get atleast 1 day a year off from this race baiting, TDS leftist bullschiff.
While there are many things that are different from 2020 to 2024 – ONE of the many things that is the same is that people in both cases voted for peace, quiet, normallacy.
People expected that electing Biden would result in 4 years of debating whether he was plagarizing his speeches.
Not a return to global chaos.
They elected Trump in 2024 because they can ignore the rhetorical chaos, the Global Chaos is scaring the schiff out of people.
I got married in 1983. My wife and I decided before we married we were not having kids. We just could not see bringing children into a world where every day the possibility of nuclear annihilation was on the table even if remotely. In 1995 we decided that the future was brighter and we adopted a boy and a girl. I did not expect to EVER return to the stress and strain of the Cuban Missle Crisis. I did not talk to my kids about the prospects of global nuclear war growing up – as that was a really remote possibility.
Yet here we are and My sone and Dughter are experiencing the same fears I went through 60 years ago.
Sorry, I can live with rhetorical chaos – and 78m voters agreed.
While I think all the idiotic lawfare garbage that Gigi spouts all the time is stupid and reflects on her bad character and corruption,
even so there are voters that think Trump is a crook insurrectionist and a rapist – and they voted for him anyway.
I have tried to explain to Gigi and Dennis and George that not only did 78M people vote for Trump, but 20M registered voters and almost 100M voting age adults did not care enough about the garbage she says about Trump to vote. They did not vote for “the felon” but they did not vote against him either. At the very least that means they think Harris/Biden were atleast as bad a choices.
The left wing nuts here can rant that Trump will NOT do X or Y or Z – none of us can know for certain what the future brings.
What is true is that people BELEIVE that Trump will put an end to all the REAL chaos – even if the rhetorical chaos will continue
They could be wrong, but they were not “duped”
The left wing nuts are “not happy” – we get that – I do not think they are capable of happiness.
But much of the country is happy and hopefull that we are moving towards a brighter future.
Some just want an end to endless pointless wars, andothers have much higher hopes.
But what matters is most of us are hopeful.
We do not need idiot liars ranting that promises about a future that has not come are magically provably lies
We are all capable of deciding for ourselves and most of us think the future is bright.
And we want to celebrate christmas without the endless TDS
I do believe you have it all wrong. Just saying.
Wishing others well takes so little effort, unless you’re battling leftist mental-disorders. Given that, I’m sure that most of the people you endlessly rage about, “hope and wish” for your desperately-needed recovery. May 2025 be the year that “the lights come on” and you find access to the appropriate care …….. reach out and say goodbye to your hate-filled hysteria. Honestly, Merry Christmas
gigi
Chill out.
Its Christmas.
Hug your kids, your dog, your cat, you spouse, whoever matters to you.
Let go of the TDS for a day.
The world is not going to end.
Much of the country is happy that Trump was elected – he approval rate is 56% – the highest he has ever had.
Even people that did not vote for Trump – like Se. Fetterman are looking forward to working with him to “Make America Great Again”.
Today most of us are “Simply having a wonderful christmas time”.
If you can;’t find something to be happy about,
can you at the very least not piss over other peoples happiness and desire to left go of the TDS for ONE day ?
The posters here that you hate can certainly respond with the growing body of evidence and news regarding the corruption and failure of Democrats, Harris and Biden.
There is plenty to combat your delusional view of the world.
But it is Chritmas. Let go. Have some Egg Nog.
The right track/wrong track number is still underwater – but it has improved by 5 pts. since the election.
Americans are more hopeful than they have been in 4 years.
With respect to your rants – the message of the election – that is growing post election is that people either do not beleive what you say or they do not care.
People want 4 years of quiet competent government. They do NOT want to have to be hanging on every word of the news each night. They do not want to be affraid that if they are not paying careful attention that something nuts will happen while they are focused on their own lives.
They do not want government that is trying to fix every problem of the world – they KNOW that government always makes it worse not better.
They want the things in Agenda 47 because ALL the changes in Agenda 47 are UNDOING the failed woke nonsense of the past 4 years.
While People do NOT want to listen to the often disruptive things that Trump constantly says – the good news is THEY DONT HAVE TO.
I have listened to analysts who have said that Trump is effective on foreign policy because he is unpredictable. But that is NOT true.
Trump’s ACTUAL foreign policy has been very predictable and CALM. Avoid wars. End conflicts we are in, seek peace through strength.
The same is true domestically – cut taxes, cut regulations, try to cut spending. Let the free market do its thing on its won.
But again nothing actually disruptive.
That is what people want. That is why Trump was elected. Most americans want to ignore the rhetorical conflicts between left and right.
Most americans would be very happy if Government did far less, and if congressmen stayed at home, and regulators in the executive quit trying to change the world.
Just peace and quiet.
Your still ranting about Hegsoth and Gaetz – while the attacks on them have fizzled. After the Gaetz report leaked many are asking why he resigned ?
Nowhere is the Gaetz report is a claim of abuse of power. There is no insider trading, there is no meetings which chinese business men. There is no influence peddling,
There is no sexual assault, there is no rape, there is no sexual harassment. If you take the report as true there is just “sex, drugs and rock and roll” involving a young straight single congressmen. There is no anal sex on security cameras in house chambers. Just a bunch of spin over consensual conduct that harmed no one, and did not involve the abuse of position or power. No blow jobs in the oval office, no trips to lolita island. No groping the breasts of unconscious reporters. No sniffing childrens hair or showering with daughters.
And this is what you have to disrupt christmas over ?
If hegsoth and Gaetz are as you claim the worst of Trump’s appointments – GO AWAY.
John Say,
Well said and thank you.
You were born to be the one to say Bah, Humbug.
Gigi – I don’t know if you are a machine or a person. If you are a machine, please put yourself in sleep mode, at least for a couple of days. If you are a person, please put youself in sleep mode, at least for a couple of days.
Get over yourself. Good G-d Gigi! Does EVERYTHING have to be politics, 24/7. even the holidays??! Yeesh!!
Golly, Gigi-
We all certainly hope you get more than just a lump of coal in your stocking. That would certainly demonstrate that Santa has goodwill toward even those with even the most vilest of hearts during this cheery Holiday Season. Good wishes!
“. . . Turley has chosen to become . . .”
Even on Christmas.
Such is the Left’s spiritual sewer.
Merry Christmas, and a happy and healthy new year to you and the Turley family.
Keep Luna away from the chocolate this year, please.
Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Thank you for your extensive reviews of happenings in the world.
Merry Christmas from Sawmills, NC.
Merry Christmas, Professor and all. 😊😊😊
Merry Christmas to you and your family, and may God bless you in the new year!
God bless us Everyone!