(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

You’ve heard of the reverse Jim Cramer, but in the Kalshi Era, perhaps it’s Fox News host-turned-House Hunters: Qatar star Tucker Carlson whose intuitions shrewd bettors should short.

The first year of the second Trump administration has seen Carlson whiff on both of the two major predictions he’s offered. In March, Carlson mused that “a strike on the Iranian nuclear sites will almost certainly result in thousands of American deaths at bases throughout the Middle East, and cost the United States tens of billions of dollars.”

“A bombing campaign against Iran will set off a war, and it will be America’s war. Don’t let the propagandists lie to you,” he added for good measure.

A few months later, Chicken Little reared his head again.

“The first week of a war with Iran could easily kill thousands of Americans. It could also collapse our economy, as surging oil prices trigger unmanageable inflation. Consider the effects of $30 gasoline,” warned Carlson in June. “But the second week of the war could be even worse. Iran isn’t Iraq or Libya, or even North Korea. While it’s often described as a rogue state, Iran has powerful allies. It’s now part of a global bloc called BRICS, which represents the majority of the world’s landmass, population, economy and military power. Iran has extensive military ties with Russia. It sells the overwhelming majority of its oil exports to China. Iran isn’t alone. An attack on Iran could very easily become a world war. We’d lose.”

By the end of the month, President Donald Trump had not only disregarded Carlson’s faulty advice and crippled the Iranian nuclear program, but bestowed an apt new nickname upon him: “kooky Tucker Carlson.”

The Iranians’ retaliatory strike on the United States’ Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar — which came complete with a forewarning to the U.S. and Qatar and resulted in zero casualties — was pitiful. Still, self-professed America Firster Tucker Carlson reacted to the news not by expressing his concern for American lives, but by nearly shedding tears on behalf of the Qataris, whom he argued only host the base “to be nice.”

Wednesday night’s address from the president resulted in yet another swing-and-a-miss from the cable news flameout.

Carlson previewed Trump’s speech by declaring that “members of Congress were briefed yesterday that a war [with Venezuela] is coming and it’ll be announced in the address to the nation tonight at 9 o’clock by the president.”

“Who knows, by the way, if that will actually happen,” he added. “I don’t know, and I never want to overstate what I know, which is pretty limited in general, but a member of Congress told me that this morning.”

Well, he was right on at least one count; what Tucker Carlson knows is, indeed, limited.

Any cursory review of the headlines summarizing Trump’s speech will reveal that he did not, in fact, plunge the nation into war on Wednesday. But it gets worse for Carlson — the president did not so much as mention Venezuela.

And that congressional briefing to which he referred? That didn’t happen either, per Axios’s Marc Caputo.

Of course, Carlson is no stranger to lies and is long past feeling shame. That he was, yet again, wrong, yet again, is likely of no consequence to him. But this particular misfire betrays something much more devastating: Carlson is out of the loop.

Such a falling out probably seemed impossible last summer, when he delivered a speech and sat beside both Trump and JD Vance — the man Carlson had helped talk the nominee into picking as his running mate — at the Republican National Convention. Yet Carlson’s conspiracy theories, grumbling over Trump’s foreign policy accomplishments, and promotion of outright anti-Semitism have isolated him.

To be sure, Carlson still has friends — Vance most prominent among them — in the administration. But then again, Carlson must now be wondering why the vice president failed to save his longtime ally from the embarrassment of crying wolf. Again.

The bad news for Carlson doesn’t end there, either. On Tuesday, Trump hosted one of his nemeses, Fox’s Mark Levin, at the White House for a Hanukkah reception at which the commander-in-chief asked the longtime conservative commentator to “say a couple of words,” and he obliged by deeming Trump “the first Jewish president.” One can only imagine how that went over in Carlson’s bunker.

The hits keep coming. Another foe, The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, visited the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday to deliver a withering takedown of Carlson. That’s right, the same institution that came rushing to his defense after his chummy conversation with professional bigot Nick Fuentes this fall is now inviting his sworn enemies to excoriate him.

Perhaps none of this matters to Carlson, who can continue to print money while spreading hatred and misinformation in equal measure for the rest of his life should he choose to do so. But his abhorrent behavior has apparently destroyed his relationship with the Trump White House.  And that leaves him in the same class as Alex Jones — a clown performing tricks for an immature audience, albeit with a pedigree that renders his descent all the more degrading.

The post ‘Kooky’ Tucker Carlson’s Embarrassing Misfire Shows Trump Has Kicked Him Out of the MAGA Club first appeared on Mediaite.

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As you build your DIY toolkit, you'll quickly discover there's rarely just one version of any given tool. Of course there are Phillips head and slotted screwdrivers, but even hammers—possibly the simplest tool of all—come in a surprising range of varieties designed for different tasks.

When it comes to power tools, the differences can be more complex to suss out. Take drills: When starting out on a job, how do you know if you need a standard power drill, a hammer drill, or whatever an "impact driver" is? While you can get pretty far in your home maintenance career without knowing the difference, but there will come a point when using the right tool for the job will make your life a lot easier. If you’ve managed to get through life without knowing the difference between a drill, a hammer drill, and an impact driver, here’s the rundown you need.

Drills vs. impact drivers vs. hammer drills

Drills, impact drivers, and hammer drills are all used to drill holes and drive fasteners, but they work in different ways and are well-suited to different tasks:

• Drills are the easiest to understand, conceptually: Your trusty power drill spins the bit, delivering consistent, constant torque at a variety of speeds. When the motor encounters resistance, it disengages. That means that when your drill hits its limit, there’s not much more it can do to drive a fastener or bore a hole. A standard drill is good at both drilling and boring holes.

• Impact drivers also spin the bit and provide consistent torque—until the driver hits resistance. Then it adds a rapid, perpendicular, concussive force that temporarily increases the torque beyond what a standard drill can do. If you’ve ever hit something on the side with a hammer to loosen it, or clamped a wrench in place and hit the handle with a hammer to get a stuck bolt moving, that’s what’s going on here, but it's happening dozens of times a second. The impact driver doesn’t have a clutch and will keep working even when it hits resistance. It’s usually pretty loud, and the vibration involved can tire out your hands and arms. As a result, an impact driver isn’t great for drilling—it’s best used to drive fasteners.

• Hammer drills operate like a standard drill, but when they’re in hammer mode (which you have to select), they deliver a downward-driving force (like a hammer hitting a nail) as opposed to the impact driver’s horizontal force. Hammer drills can operate like a standard drill if you disengage the hammer function—and like a standard drill, the motor will disengage when it hits resistance. A hammer driver in hammer mode is best for boring holes in tough materials, but not driving fasteners.

How to choose between a drill, impact driver, and hammer drill

Knowing how each of these tools works makes it a little easier to decide when to use one over the other. In general, here’s when to use a drill, impact driver, or hammer drill on your project:

• Drills are precision tools that are ideal for driving small fasteners like standard screws or boring holes into softer materials, like wood or drywall. It’s an ideal general tool for most small-scale DIY projects, and when you need more control over the driving or drilling action.

• Impact drivers are best used on denser materials, like very hard woods, or with larger or longer fasteners that require a lot of power to drive home. If you’ve ever tried to drive a long screw with a drill and discovered that it becomes frozen halfway through, that's when an impact driver might be the answer.

• Hammer drills are best for drilling or fastening in very hard materials like stone, concrete, or brick—in fact, you should avoid using hammer mode on lighter materials, because it can cause damage. But because you can disengage the hammer function on most hammer drills and use them as standard drills, they can be a good multipurpose choice.

One final difference: Hammer drills and standard drills use a chuck that can accept a variety of bits, but an impact driver will only work with 1/4-inch hex-shaped bits.

Which one you should buy

DeWalt Max XR Hammer DRill

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$244.00 at Amazon

$279.00 Save $35.00

Since a hammer drill can also be used as a standard drill, it’s the best option if you’re not sure which tool you should get or you want to avoid buying an additional tool for a future project—it gives you both standard drill capabilities and the added power of the hammer action. You can hold off on picking up an impact driver until you tackle a project that actually calls for one.

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr (R) testified Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee, alongside two of his fellow commissioners, Anna Gomez (D) and Olivia Trusty (R). Democrats on the committee took the opportunity to grill Carr over his handling of the Jimmy Kimmel fiasco several months ago, during which critics accused Carr of pressuring ABC to punish the late-night comic for comments that angered MAGA.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) used his time to call for Carr’s resignation and deem him the “chairman of the Federal Censorship Commission.”

Markey began his questioning, “Thank you. Chairman Carr, you are not reinvigorating the public interest standard. You are weaponizing the public interest standard. That is what the Carr FCC is doing every single day. Behind me are your past tweets declaring your commitment to the First Amendment.” The Massachusetts Democrat added:

You even defended political satire, saying in 2022 it challenges those in power and that’s why people in influential positions have always targeted it for censorship. That’s why your threats against ABC and Disney over Jimmy Kimmel’s political monologue were so outrageous. And here’s what you said in September of 2025, as the chairman of the FCC: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct or take action frankly on Kimmel or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC.” Now, that statement was roundly condemned across the political spectrum. Chairman Cruz called it “dangerous as hell.” Chairman Carr, do you regret making that statement, yes or no?

Carr replied, “Senator Markey, thank you for the question. My job is to enforce the law as passed by Congress. That includes a public interest standard. And broadcast TV is fundamentally different than any of the other media. We have a new…”

Markey cut in, “Do you regret making that statement?”

“My job has been to enforce the law,” Carr hit back as Markey pushed:

So you don’t regret making that statement. Well, that’s a refusal to take accountability for your language, for your use, your abuse of power. You will not say that you made a mistake. For example, in your response to my oversight letter in September on the Kimmel incident, you repeatedly stated that the media companies made their own decisions in preempting and suspending Kimmel. You seem to think that your words, the most powerful communications regulator in America, especially your threats, don’t matter. So just to be clear, your position is that your mafia threats had nothing to do with Nexstar and Sinclair and Disney’s decisions to preempt and suspend. Is that your position? Is your point that you had nothing to do with the suspension of Kimmel?

Carr replied, “Senator, if you look at the evidence, the express statements by every single company involved, from Nexstar to Sinclair to Disney, as recently as last week, is that they made these business decisions on their own. The record is clear on this.”

Markey doubled down, “You’re refusing to take accountability for your own words. You intimidate the companies. They do what you want.” He continued:

And then you say, “Well, it was up to them.” You’re the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Actually, you’re now the chairman of the Federal Censorship Commission. And these broadcasters, they feel that censorship. You have broad authority over the media industry, especially broadcasters. Your words and actions matter. Now I’m going to give you another chance to take accountability for your actions.

The two tussled for several more minutes, with Markey finally concluding, “All right, so I’ll just finish, Madam Chair. He is turning the Federal Communications Commission into the Federal Censorship Commission. It’s a betrayal of the FCC’s mission. You should resign, Mr. Chairman. You are creating a chilling effect.”

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

The post ‘You Intimidate’: Dem Senator Rages at Brendan Carr, Calls Him the Chair of the ‘Federal Censorship Commission’ first appeared on Mediaite.

Another PayPal phishing scam is circulating, this time with email notifications about recurring or automatic payments. The messages originate from a legitimate PayPal address, allowing them to evade some security filters and leave recipients worried that their accounts have been compromised—perhaps just enough to ignore the obvious red flags and call or email scammers back.

I personally have been targeted by this scam with at least five separate emails, though all have gone straight to my spam folder. Here's how scammers are exploiting PayPal settings to land in your inbox.

How the PayPal scam works

If you're targeted by this campaign, you may receive an email with the subject line "Your automatic payment status has changed" or "Recurring Payment Reactivated." The layout imitates a real PayPal notification and includes a message about a high-dollar payment being "successfully processed" along with a customer service email and phone number to contact PayPal support.

The email is full of red flags: It is addressed to a random name (or, in one of the messages I received, "Hello Update Invoice"), has poor spelling and wonky formatting, and simply doesn't make sense. You can easily spot oddities like bold text and Unicode characters, which BleepingComputer notes is a trick used to bypass spam filters and keyword detection.

Credit: Emily Long

Where the trick lies is in the sender field, as the email comes from service[at]paypal[dot]com, a legitimate PayPal address, and paypal.com is in the signed-by field. As Malwarebytes Labs describes, this is likely an abuse of PayPal's subscription billing feature. If a merchant pauses a customer subscription, the user will receive an automatic email from PayPal notifying them that their payment is no longer active. Scammers are likely setting up fake subscriber accounts using Google Workspace mailing lists, so automatic emails being generated are sent to everyone on those lists. If you look at the "To:" field, you'll see that the message isn't actually addressed to your email.

Exploiting these types of loopholes to make phishing emails seem legit is a common tactic, and I've covered several similar PayPal phishing campaigns already this year. According to a statement provided to BleepingComputer, PayPal is working on mitigating this specific flaw.

Ignore PayPal payment notifications

If one of these PayPal messages lands in your inbox, don't engage with it. Scammers frequently use emails, texts, and calls about account security and financial transactions to scare you into action, and the impersonation of trusted institutions is often pretty convincing.

If you are concerned about activity on your PayPal account, go directly to the app or website and log in to view alerts and check transactions. Do not use contact information or click any links in the original notification, as this increases the chances of compromising your information or downloading malware to your device.

Screenshot

Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday responded to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles calling him a “conspiracy theorist” in an explosive new Vanity Fair story.

The political world was rocked by Wiles’s explosive tell-all with the outlet. In it, she referred to Office of Budget and Management Director Russell Vought as a “right-wing absolute zealot,” claimed that President Donald Trump had “an alcoholic’s personality,” and even denied Trump’s previous claims that former President Bill Clinton visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.

Wiles also called Vance’s support for Trump “sort of political,” and added that the vice president had been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade.”

Hours after the story went live, Vance was at an event in Pennsylvania to speak about the economy. When it was opened up to questions, Vance was asked for his thoughts on Wiles’s characterization of him. The vice president said:

I haven’t looked at the article. I, of course, have heard about it. But, conspiracy theorist — sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true. And, by the way, Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time.

For example, I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it was stupid to mask 3-year-olds at the height of the Covid pandemic, that we should actually let them develop some language skills. You know, I believed in this crazy conspiracy theory that the media and the government were covering up the fact that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job. And I believed in the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was trying to throw his political opponents in jail rather than win an argument against his political opponents.

So, at least on some of these conspiracy theories, it turns out that a conspiracy theory is just something that was true six months before the media admitted it, and that’s my understanding.

Although Vance downplayed the article, he later suggested the White House will make themselves less accessible to mainstream media outlets because of it.

“And the last thing I’ll say is if any of us have learned a lesson from that Vanity Fair article,” Vance continued, “I hope that the lesson is we should be giving fewer interviews mainstream media outlets.”

He also reaffirmed his support for Wiles, stating that he had never seen her be disloyal to the president.

—

The post JD Vance Fires Back — Says He Hopes Trump Admin Has Learned ‘Lesson’ After Susie Wiles Called Him a ‘Conspiracy Theorist’ in Vanity Fair first appeared on Mediaite.

New Year's Eve is my favorite holiday. I love a designated time to look forward and to reflect back, ideally while getting tipsy with friends. The turn of a new year is also a time when I’m grateful for my habit of writing down every little thing—and I don’t just mean getting my thoughts and feelings down in a journal. I’m talking about tracking every book read, every mile run, and every beer crushed (approximately). So if you’re interested in documenting your life—and you should be!—I highly recommend using a wonderfully detailed spreadsheet.

I’m not talking about bullet journaling (which can be cool, but which I find too artistically daunting). I simply create a Google sheet full of different color-coded tabs so that I can track any number of ways to measure a year. From the most thorough travel plans to your fitness journey, if you have a goal, that goal needs a spreadsheet tab.

It’s a fun, slightly nerdy technique that helps me visualize my life in a way that traditional journaling can’t. Here’s why I think this year, you should start your own spreadsheet to track all the little things in your life.

How to turn anything into a trackable achievement

The spreadsheet journal is perfect for us freaks who like to combine sentimentalism with statistics. Whatever metrics you choose to jot down, you can frame them around a sense of accomplishment. Your smart watch can track how many steps you’ve taken. A spreadsheet journal, however, is where you can appreciate how many steps you’ve achieved. From there, you can have fun with the numbers, converting those steps into miles or finding patterns over time or in whatever suits your nerdy brain.

Go wild. Create different tabs dedicated to different areas of your life, so you can appreciate how much you have going on. I’ll throw around some ideas below, but at the end of the day, this technique is really about recognizing the value in every little number that defines your life. It sounds counterintuitive, but please, don’t get too caught up in the details.

The core philosophy: track everything, judge nothing

The foundation of my system comes down to three main principles:

Radical honesty without shame. Every entry is data, not a judgment. Missed a week of workouts? Log it. The spreadsheet reveals patterns—maybe you always skip exercise when work gets stressful—which lets you plan around obstacles instead of feeling guilty about them.

Micro-goals over macro-dreams. Break each resolution into the smallest possible action. "Write a book" becomes "write 250 words daily." These micro-goals are easy to track, hard to rationalize away, and create momentum through small wins.

Weekly reviews, monthly adjustments. You'll spend 10 minutes every Sunday reviewing your data and 30 minutes at month's end analyzing trends and tweaking your approach. This prevents the "check back in December" trap where you discover too late that nothing worked.

How to create your own tracking spreadsheet

First things first: Choose your spreadsheet software. I opt for the ease of Google Sheets, but I understand you might have some privacy concerns there. Or maybe you’re simply a master at Excel. The main takeaway is to create one master file with as many different tabs as you see fit. Include tabs tracking your health/fitness goals, books/movies/TV you’ve consumed, your finances/budgeting, and whatever else is significant to you:

• Hours slept

• Miles walked

• Concerts attended

• Movies watched

• Books started

• Books finished

• Date nights

• Places traveled

• Gifts given

• Thank-you notes sent

• Time spent in traffic

• Playlists created

Make sure you include a column for adding notes to your entries—some personal commentary to spice up the statistics.

Use this template to help get started

I've created a barebones template you can download here. It has some starter tabs to get started: a resolution dashboard, daily habit tracker, and weekly review template. Following these templates, you could add a monthly deep dive, or even more detailed activity logs.

Resolution dashboard

The resolution dashboard is your command center, providing an at-a-glance view of all goals. My sample columns include:

• Resolution Name: Be specific. Your goal may be to "get healthy," but somewhere you need to write down a specific action item, like "complete 150 workouts this year."

• Category: Physical, Professional, Financial, Personal, Social, Creative.

• Target Metric: The number you're chasing (150 workouts, 24 books, $10,000 saved).

• Current Progress: Updated weekly with your actual numbers.

• Completion %: A simple formula dividing current by target, if applicable.

• Weekly Average Needed: Calculates how much you need to do weekly to hit your annual goal.

• Status: On Track (green), At Risk (yellow), Behind (red)—use conditional formatting.

For example, if your resolution is "Read 24 books this year" and you're in week 15 with 8 books completed, your completion percentage is 33%, you're reading 0.53 books per week, and you need 0.43 books weekly to finish on time. The status would show green because you're ahead of pace.

Daily habit tracker

This is where consistency lives. For 2026, I start my timeline on Jan. 5, since it's the first Monday of the new year. In a grid with dates across the top, I have daily habits going down the left side. Each habit gets a row where you mark completion with an X, checkmark, or the actual number achieved.

Daily habits should be small and specific: "10 minutes meditation," "2 liters of water," "no phone before 9am," "practice Spanish for 15 minutes," "write 250 words." Don't track more than 5-7 habits here—this is about sustainable daily practices, not overwhelming yourself.

Use color coding: green for completed, red for missed, yellow for partial completion. At the end of each row, you could create columns for weekly streaks, longest streak this year, and completion percentage. These metrics gamify the process and make patterns visible. If you notice you always miss meditation on Wednesdays, you can investigate why and adjust.

Weekly review template

Every Sunday, spend 10 minutes completing this structured reflection:

Wins This Week: List 3-5 specific accomplishments, no matter how small. "Worked out Monday and Thursday" counts. "Saved $50 by cooking instead of ordering out" counts. This section fights the negativity bias that makes us forget progress.

Challenges Faced: What obstacles came up? "Too tired after work for gym" or "Got distracted by social media during writing time." Be honest and specific.

Pattern Recognition: After a few weeks, you'll notice trends. "I always skip workouts when I have early meetings—need to switch to evening gym sessions." These insights are gold.

Adjustments for Next Week: Based on challenges and patterns, what will you change? Maybe you'll prep gym clothes the night before, or set a social media blocker during writing hours.

Energy and Motivation Level (1-10): Track your overall state. If you notice motivation plummeting, you can proactively adjust expectations or seek support before completely derailing.

Beyond these three main tabs, I've also included even simpler activity trackers with the drop-down menus and color-coding I personally use to track my travel, books read, and running.

How to maximize your spreadsheet

You can dedicate a column in each tab for jotting down miscellaneous notes, but for the sake of tidiness, make sure not to overfill your boxes with text. It also helps to stay consistent with your formatting—e.g. bolding the header of each metric. I color code at whim. For instance, as a stand-up comedian, I keep track of all my shows with a specific color to mark how I felt about them: Shades of green mean the show went well, and shades of red mean the show...did not go well. In times where it looks like everything in my life is red, it’s nice to be able to shift my gaze to all the green, too. Perspective!

I recommend getting started with just one sheet: a weekly habit tracker for 3-4 habits you genuinely want to build. Commit to tracking honestly for four weeks without judgment. At the end of the month, review your completion rates and patterns. This low-stakes beginning helps you learn the rhythm without overwhelming yourself.

At the end of the year, you’ll be able to use all that data to visualize both the big and the little things in your life over the 12 months prior. At a glance, you’ll be able to pat yourself on the back for how successfully you cut back on caffeine, or upped your time outdoors, or improved your books-started to books-completed ratio. Ultimately, my own spreadsheet is about appreciating all the little things in my life, even if I do so in one of the nerdiest ways imaginable.

President Donald Trump listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) both condemned President Donald Trump for his Monday morning post on the murder of legendary Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife.

Trump posted to his Truth Social and appeared to blame the grizzly murder on his anti-Trump politics. Trump wrote Reiner was killed “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before.”

Condemnation for Trump’s words came fast and wide from across the political spectrum, including some of his critics in his own party. Massie shared the message and wrote, “Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered. I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid? I challenge anyone to defend it.”

Greene replied, “Rob Reiner and his wife were tragically killed at the hands of their own son, who reportedly had drug addiction and other issues, and their remaining children are left in serious mourning and heartbreak.”

“This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies,” she continued, adding:

Many families deal with a family member with drug addiction and mental health issues. It’s incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy especially when it ends in murder.

Greene is set to retire from Congress next month, citing death threats and harassment she faced following Trump calling her a “traitor” as one of the reasons she’s leaving politics.

Conservative radio host Erick Erickson also shared Trump’s post and added, “A Trump-supporting relative last night told me he was getting tired of the President and wished he’d just disappear a bit. This is the sort of stuff that exhausts people who like the man.”

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The post Two House Republicans Rip Trump’s ‘Disrespectful’ Rob Reiner Post first appeared on Mediaite.