Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

This blog will pay for itself.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

You are here: Home / Politics / Media / War on Christmas Heats Up

War on Christmas Heats Up

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Apparently this really happened overnight — someone torched the tree at America’s most destructive propaganda outlet:

I’ll make none of the obvious remarks as I don’t want to end up on the sedition network’s “smirking liberal reactions” roundup segment.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

99Comments

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I hope it wasn’t arson, and if it was, I hope nobody on our team was responsible. Even though it’s Fox’s tree, it’s still a dangerous blaze.

  5. 5.

    Nina

    Personally my prime suspect is fire code violations and cheap substandard wiring, because Fox believes in Freedumb!

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I’ll make none of the obvious remarks

    We’ll fill in for you, Betty, mind you it won’t be with your unique style.

  13. 13.

    Betty Cracker

    It was arson, according to a local NBC affiliate:

    Videos posted by witnesses to the Citizen App show thick clouds of black smoke coming from the tree after police say someone allegedly lit the tree located on West 48th Street and 6th Avenue on fire. A News 4 employee witnessed NYPD officers apprehending a suspect near the tree after midnight.

    A police department spokesperson confirmed a 49-year-old man was in custody but investigators couldn’t confirm an incendiary device was used. A light was removed from the suspect, though it’s also unclear whether it was used.

    Police say the man acted alone and the incident didn’t appear to be premeditated or politically motivated. Charges against him are pending.

  14. 14.

    lowtechcyclist

    The network that regards the killer of two innocent people as a hero really can’t complain too much about someone killing a frickin’ tree.

    If it should turn out that this was a deliberate act, that is, rather than a problem with the wiring.

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    NY Post: “The holiday display was set ablaze shortly after midnight and the flames quickly spread up the tree in Fox Square outside the 6th Avenue building that houses Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.”

    Tree decorated with red, white and blue ornaments, and obnoxious signage around proclaiming an “All American Christmas.”

    Shall we tell them?

  23. 23.

    raven

    Our neighbors had a house fire Sunday morning. They are both writers and lost most of their work and archives. Everyone is safe but they have a long way to go to recover.

  29. 29.

    sab

    My mother died in 2012. One of our biggest fights in the last few years was whether or not to continue to use her mother’s Christmas lights on the tree. Those things had to date back to the 1940s.

  30. 30.

    matt the somewhat reasonable

    @sab: I replaced the vintage knob and tube wiring in my old house a few years back. Made it a little easier to sleep at night.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    @sab: Wow, amazing that the 1940s lights still worked, but I guess that’s because I’m used to cheap, mass-produced crap that breaks every three years.

    My husband’s grandfather owned a dive bar in Buffalo, New York in the 1940s-50s, and we have a lighted sign that once adorned the street window. The cord looks sketchy, but it still works. We only use it when someone is present to make sure it doesn’t catch on fire!

  35. 35.

    Chris

    Maybe God was pissed off enough at having fascists claim him for their own that he set their celebration of his big day on fire as a “I don’t want anything to do with you people” sign.  Same way he burned the swastika off of that box holding the Ark of the Covenant.

    (Given the nature of Christmas and Yuletide, “God” in this case may mean Jesus or Odin).

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: A buddy of mine gave us a 1940/50s desktop fan as a housewarming gift. A real finger eater, it moves air like nobody’s business. We still use it.

  39. 39.

    Van Buren

    Mrs. Van Buren, in a rare moment of insanity, bought a tree skirt impregnated with glitter. The dogs decided it made a nice blanket. My house has been glitter bombed, and the pups look fabulous!

  41. 41.

    brendancalling

    Pffffft. “False flag!” That tree is clearly a crisis actor-tree. Check out any of the footage of California or Oregon wildfires. That tree is in every. single. one.

    And if it wasn’t a crisis actor-tree, it might still be alive if it complied.
    /Fox

  44. 44.

    raven

    @John S.: I had a stackable washer/dryer that had mechanical controls and I was able to fix it three times. The digital. . .fuggettabouit.

  45. 45.

    raven

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Nope, lots and lots of paper. She showed me the pictures of her space this morning and almost everything is gone. Did you know them in Iowa City? O

    Ooops, you were in Ames.

  47. 47.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @raven: I didn’t know many people in Iowa City because I worked in Ames, but once again, OMG

    I think I’ve said before that I was at the University of Michigan when the old wooden shed that housed the economics dept burned down. Those faculty lost everything from teaching notes to books to their current project. This was pre-computers too.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @John S.: @raven:

    We’ve got a really good appliance repairman, been using him ever since we moved out here. Fixed both our washer and dryer several times.

    When the microwave went on the fritz? He just shook his head and told me to replace it. Which sucked because it was a built-in and I had to rework the trim all around it.

  51. 51.

    raven

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: When I worked for the “System” here in Georgia we had a case at a small school where their course management system and the tape backup failed right at the end of the term. We took a team of about 30 people down there and spent two weeks helping faculty rebuild their courses. Some had everything backed up and some had nothing.

  53. 53.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for reminding me, mine need a bulb! In renovation news, the painters should be done today and then the floors. They put in the granite countertop yesterday so it’s really shaping up.

  54. 54.

    JMG

    In the basement I still have Christmas lights handed down to me by my father. I don’t dare use them inside or out because they get hot enough for baking. I also inherited lead-based tinsel, which Dad would lovingly remove from the tree each January and pack away, strand by deadly strand.

  55. 55.

    Butch

    For what it’s worth, from an ABC New York affiliate:

    Heavy flames then spread to smaller decorated trees in the display. A 49-year-old man spotted by building security climbing the tree was quickly taken into custody.

    The suspect is identified as 49-year-old Craig Tamanaha, who is homeless, with a last known address in Brooklyn. He is charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, arson, criminal nuisance, endangering others, criminal trespass, criminal tampering and disorderly conduct.

  56. 56.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    If Christmas hadn’t overrun Thanksgiving in a sneak attack and threatened Halloween, there wouldn’t have been any need for a counterattack.

  59. 59.

    mrmoshpotato

    @lowtechcyclist:

    The network that regards the killer of two innocent people as a hero really can’t complain too much about someone killing a frickin’ tree. 

    Oh?  You just watch the shitstains whine all the way to Christmas.

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker:

    Police say the man acted alone and the incident didn’t appear to be premeditated or politically motivated. Charges against him are pending.

    I guess that means it was some white male right-wing conservative, right?

  61. 61.

    Soprano2

    @Betty Cracker: I got tired of having to replace strings of lights every year, so about 10 or so years ago I splurged on two strings that cost $5 but had a money-back guarantee that they would last at least five years. I’m still using them, and they still work great!  Plus, I took all the bulbs out of the bad strings and used them as replacement bulbs, so I haven’t bought any replacement bulbs until this year, when they finally ran out.

  63. 63.

    prostratedragon

    @raven:  Condolences to your neighbors, and hope they can figure out a way to recover eventually.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  I thought of that first, having arrived there some time later, but while many members of the department were still there — and still somewhat traumatized when anything near the subject came up.  Invariably thankful that no one was injured or killed. I think also of Ralph Ellison, who lost most of his work in a fire.

  64. 64.

    germy

    They’re trying to nip VP Harris in the bud:

    It's been really something watching people go from "Check out Marie Antoinette over here with her $300 pan" to "I can't believe this luddite uses the headphones that came with her phone instead of shelling out $200 for wireless ones" in like a week.

    — Gateau du Boeuf (@Kmolyneaux) December 8, 2021

  65. 65.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Here’s a few.

    One issue we’re having, they did foam insulation on the walls and floors and some leaked onto the exterior. I guess if they had cleaned it with acetone at the time but they didn’t. We don’t have any of the original paint so we’re worried we are going to have to paint the entire exterior.

  67. 67.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Betty Cracker:

    A light was removed from the suspect, though it’s also unclear whether it was used.

    Ah, but WHERE was it removed from? Maybe it’s all a big misunderstanding, a mistake made by a Trump follower who was trying to follow his leader’s advice on using rectal lighting to kill Covid and, well, there was sure as shit a lot of lights on that tree…

  69. 69.

    waysel

    @raven: You’re aware of the computer color matching some paint stores have available nowadays? Sherwin Williams has done it quite well for me.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Looking good.

    We don’t have any of the original paint so we’re worried we are going to have to paint the entire exterior.

    Ooopps. That sucks. Any way you could get creative with it?

  71. 71.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: We’ve got an ancient Vornadofan stand model that weighs at least 40 pounds and has absolutely zero safety features, but damn, that thing could probably keep a hurricane at bay with the sheer force of its mighty wind!

  75. 75.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yep! So dangerous though! I’m glad it’s on a high stand where children and dogs can’t get at it. And it’s so damn heavy they can’t turn it over either.

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    WRT Fox News:  I think we should call it Phony News.  Not Fake News.  They’ve appropriated that insult.

    Phony sums up a staff of highly paid vaccinated personalities lying to their viewers during a deadly pandemic.

    Thought about that since burned tree is in front of “News Corporation” HQ.

  80. 80.

    Honus

    @germy: as someone pointed out on another thread, every one of those guns in Massie’s Xmas card tweet cost more than the Le Creuset Harris bought.

  83. 83.

    Jeffery

    It was a setup by FOX. They probably paid the guy to do it. Now they can cry christian persecution.

  84. 84.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    Is it possible the tree somehow got an idea of where it was, and the fire was suicide?

  87. 87.

    MattF

    I went to a flea market years ago and saw a ‘40s dollhouse that had been ‘electrified.’ Just astonishing, what was considered acceptable electrical wiring for a child’s toy, back in those days.

  89. 89.

    Rattlemullet

    May be they will replace it with an aluminum festivus pole. More fitting to those at fox air their grievances on a daily basis.

  93. 93.

    Chris Johnson

    @WaterGirl: It could very easily be some MAGA dude who thinks Fox is liberal now. Those are the ones groomed for terror acts, and they’re real mad at ‘RINOs’.

  94. 94.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffery: It was a setup by FOX. They probably paid the guy to do it. Now they can cry christian persecution.

    Well, about time they were persecuted by Christians!

  95. 95.

    lowtechcyclist

    @MattF:

    I went to a flea market years ago and saw a ‘40s dollhouse that had been ‘electrified.’ Just astonishing, what was considered acceptable electrical wiring for a child’s toy, back in those days.

    I have a feeling my mid-1960s chemistry set wouldn’t pass muster nowadays either…

  96. 96.

    Ruckus

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Neither would any of the inventory of mine or of the high school chemistry class I took about then. Looking back, I’m amazed that they could sell that stuff. But then I remember that we used white lead and oil as a tapping fluid – that’s making threads in holes, white lead was banned from sale, it’s only slightly toxic, lead poisoning currently killing somewhere around 550,000 people in the world every year, even as it’s use has been cut dramatically 50 yrs ago in the US.

  97. 97.

    sab

    @MattF: My mother had an electrified dollshouse. When I got it as a child they had removed the plug, but it still had little ceiling lights

    ETA My grandmother had a little propane stove/ oven that they occassionally had to rush into the backyard in case it was about to blow up.

  98. 98.

    Suzanne

    @Honus:

    as someone pointed out on another thread, every one of those guns in Massie’s Xmas card tweet cost more than the Le Creuset Harris bought. 

    I’ve run into this mindset before. So many gun owners see their arsenals as necessities and not luxuries. I remember a former friend complaining about how she never had money to travel or buy new clothes, and I suggested that she sell some of the firepower she owns (or just stop buying more), and you would have thought I suggested chopping off an arm.

  99. 99.

    lurkypants

    @Nina: possibly there was a fire hazard/bad wiring.  I recognize those nutcracker/soldiers from when I worked at Rock Center 20 years ago (I was two doors down, in the building that put giant ornaments in the fountain out front, kitty-corner from Radio City). And who knows how old they were then?

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