Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

This fight is for everything.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Republicans in disarray!

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Cole, when it comes to calico cats, restraint is overrated.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Thursday Evening Open Thread: This Year’s Festivus Miracle

Thursday Evening Open Thread: This Year’s Festivus Miracle

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Not much of a miracle, but it’s not much of a holiday (yet). It’s all over the twitterverse: TFG did a Faux News interview with Candace Owens, and made mouth noises:

… The Vaccine is one of the greatest achievements of mankind… All three vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, J&J) are very good… The vaccines work – If you take the vaccine you are protected… People aren't dying when they take the vaccine…

If you click on the link, it’s pretty clear that neither participant in the exchange has any real interest in what the other one is saying. But it does seem like his handlers are trying to gin up a new ‘more presidential’ Trump for the big year-end media push — his hair isn’t dyed, he’s not waving his tiny hands around, and frankly it sounds to my cynical ears like like they’ve put the old man on some kind of psychotropic medication. Although that may just be the contrast with Owens, who is obviously alarmed by the failure of all her favorite Conjure Words to deter open apostasy.

(She also reminds me of the putative definition of yammer as a combination of yap and hammer; consider yourself forewarned.)

Reader Interactions

184Comments

  4. 4.

    Urza

    @dmsilev: Anything less than 10% across the nation of conservative voters isn’t enough to get through the gerrymandering or voter suppression.

  5. 5.

    Cermet

    As Churchill once said (and I paraphrase a great deal here): He’d make an alliance with the devil to defeat ‘his enemy’. If the orange stain continues to tell the stupid to get vaccinated, then I’ll take it.

  6. 6.

    Ken

    @Urza: You remind me that I was recently wondering what letter will be next. “Pi” and “Rho”, like “Nu”, have too much potential for an Abbott and Costello routine, so maybe “Sigma”.

  8. 8.

    Cermet

    @Urza: On local elections the deaths favoring right wing loonies will have no real impact – just too few; however, for the Presidential election – while irrelevant for most states – not so for Pennsylvania; the rump won that one (the first time) by the skin of his teeth. So, even if some lower turn out by Dems in 2024, the rump could be hurt badly there thanks to the stupid dying.

  10. 10.

    Ohio Mom

    I braved the video and they make an odd pair: Owens is super-hyper and Trump comes off as (gasp) thoughtful. Is he on a new psychotropic? Maybe, and/or maybe he tapered down the Adderall?

    Scares me to see the slightly improved version of Trump. It is a reminder how intentional and deliberate he can be, and therefore dangerous.

  11. 11.

    Cameron

    It was a great move by Biden to toss some credit Trump’s way – either a lot of his followers freak out and the Republican Party has a huge mess to deal with, or his followers fall in line and get vaccinated and help end the pandemic.  Win either way.

  12. 12.

    eclare

    Totally OT, but I am enjoying my evening by watching Elf, having a glass of wine, and heating up some eggplant lasagna.

    Unfortunately MAGAts will still be here tomorrow.  I need some Will Ferrell.

  21. 21.

    Steeplejack

    @John Revolta:

    I think Candace Owens was low-key freaking out because she kept trying to steer Trump onto her anti-mask agenda and he was sounding almost Fauci-esque about the vaccine. Bummer.

  23. 23.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    “I came up with a vaccine — with three vaccines — all are very, very good…”

    Fuck you, Mr. Trunmp. You did none of the work, certainly none of the long weeks. (Including some Government workers). Even the idea of funding multiple vaccine efforts Manhattan Project style was not yours. And much much worse, you then allowed Republican anti-vaxxer propaganda to build and fester until the US vaccination rate was like 10-15 points lower than it could have been, killing at least 150 thousand Americans. (Perhaps mostly Republicans of voting age, but sacrifices must be made for Power.) It would have been easy for you to work to shift the narrative any time in 2021, and you did not.
    The tangled history of mRNA vaccines – Hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough. (22 October 2021)

    But when COVID-19 struck, Moderna was quick off the mark, creating a prototype vaccine within days of the virus’s genome sequence becoming available online.

  24. 24.

    Urza

    @Ken: What do they do in other countries when Sigma or Omicron are funny?  Shouldn’t be the English speaking world determining the Latin letters to use for something scientific affecting the whole world.

  25. 25.

    trollhattan

    California is having a welcome “normal” winter with actual “average for date” snowpack north, central and south, and a lot of rain.

    Reservoirs have a LOT of (opposite of) ground to make up after being deeply overdrawn two years in a row, some to historic low levels. But as tourniquets go, we’ll take this one with glee.

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Cermet:

    If the orange stain continues to tell the stupid to get vaccinated, then I’ll take it. 

    I would prefer they all threw themselves into the Sun.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @jnfr:

    I have never seen it, nor been tempted to. And I don’t mean that in a smug way at all, it’s just that what little I know about it doesn’t speak to me. So please — and, again, I don’t mean this to sound at all hostile or defensive — tell me why you love it, and I’m prepared to broaden my horizons.

  34. 34.

    Urza

    @Redshift: Ok, the Chinese either.  If our dictators are so thin skinned they can’t take some jokes from something they didn’t cause we should have them overthrown by rock hard younger men who can handle it, otherwise they’re no longer fit to be examples of toxic masculinity to the world.

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Benw:

    He’s FINALLY psrenidental! presnidentle! presidntal! 

    Thank fuck he’s no longer in the position.  Oh, and Van Jones can still fuck himself.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The Christmas movie I keep forgetting to watch is Scrooged. As a big fan of Dickens and Bill Murray, I don’t know why I keep putting it off. Maybe tomorrow night if the family gathering I am very much not looking forward to gets cancelled. (Oh please oh please oh please)

  37. 37.

    Juju

    @SiubhanDuinne: What is your favorite Christmas movie?  What speaks to you?

    “Elf” for me, and no insult intended, is like my trip to Disney World. I’ve done that once, but I don’t need to again. It was cute, but once was enough. I have a niece who doesn’t understand that attitude about “Elf”.

  41. 41.

    jnfr

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I am not a Will Farrell fan at all, but I find his character in this to be completely charming. I’m not sure I could explain it at all, but he is totally guileless in the role.

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    @Ken:

    Hmm. Let’s see… If I strip the “revision…” stuff off the URL it works.

    Behold!.

    Thanks.

    (Another great movie.)

    Mars Attacks! is another fun one.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  49. 49.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I have also never seen Die Hard but this is less an oversight than an extreme aversion to Bruce Willis going back to, probably, the second season of Moonlighting.

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Whoa! Rachel just played a series of audio clips from GA Senate candidate Herschel Walker that are just terrifying in their wrongness and incoherence. (BTW, Walker lives in TX, not GA.) He seems to think that the late John Lewis was a Senator, and is apparently convinced that Lewis had no use at all for voting rights legislation.

    I hope the electorate in this state is smart enough to reject this sad, not terribly bright, and probably brain-injured man, as someone they want to represent them. I wish Walker no ill, I just don’t want him in the US Senate.

  51. 51.

    dmsilev

    @Suzanne: I dunno, someone might have pointed out to him that every dead MAGA is one less mark he can grift ‘donations’ from. Even losing out on one $25/month sucker would probably be incentive enough for him.

  53. 53.

    raven

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    An Associated Press review of hundreds of pages of public records tied to Walker’s business ventures and his divorce, including many not previously reported, sheds new light on a turbulent personal history that could dog his Senate bid. The documents detail accusations that Walker repeatedly threatened his ex-wife’s life, exaggerated claims of financial success and alarmed business associates with unpredictable behavior.

    Walker, now 59, has at times been open about his long struggle with mental illness, writing at length in a 2008 book about being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, once known as multiple personality disorder. But it’s unclear how he would discuss these events as a candidate.

  55. 55.

    Urban Suburbanite

    Trump looks…. diminished. Yes, he’s a bit younger than Biden, but he looks like to be in a very different condition after his bout with Covid.

  57. 57.

    laura

    @SiubhanDuinne: Bob Newhart and Jimmy Cahn. My favorite movies are so old and so very sappy: A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote and starring Geraldine Fitzgerald (it clocks in at under an hour) and the pilot for the Walton’s- will Pa be able to get home through the storm in time for Christmas and carrying the presents? Just both very simple stories that gut me in that special holiday way.

  58. 58.

    eclare

    @SiubhanDuinne:   Why do I love it?  It is happy, but not saccharine.  The script is original, as far as I know.  The cast is sublime, besides Will Ferrell, there is James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Bob Newhart, Lou Grant.

    It is a sweet movie, without relying on raunchy or physical humor.  Neither of which I have an issue with, I love Bad Santa.  But I can’t watch that every night.

  61. 61.

    JoyceH

    @delk:

    That side view makes him look like he’s pinching a loaf.

    Someone once said, and now I can’t not see it, that Trump sits in every chair like he’s sitting on a toilet.

  62. 62.

    The Pale Scot

    I’ve come to see this as a missed opportunity. Just do whatever it takes to make the unvaccinated avoid hospitals and treatment with goal of reducing the idiot hordes enough to keep Congress and Oval Office. That’s heartless yada yada… I have family on that team, most of my family is on that team. Fuc ’em. They died to save democracy, that the choice. You can’t logically argue someone out of a position they didn’t argue themselves into. Two fucking years +, I’m done giving a shit

  63. 63.

    OGLiberal

    @raven: I would say that for the Trumpers these are mostly features, not bugs.  I mean, you could just swap out Herschel Walker and put in Donald Trump and it would be spot-on.

    Herschel played for Donald Trump’s vanity fake pro football team so he loves him for that and being a black friend who loves him back.

  64. 64.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Juju:

    @SiubhanDuinne: What is your favorite Christmas movie? What speaks to you?

    Top of the list for sure is The Lion in Winter. One of my favourite movies ever, forget the “Christmas” genre.

    I guess A Christmas Carol (Sim), Miracle on 34th Street (original), and It’s a Wonderful Life* would go on the list. Maybe, in a pinch, Love, Actually**, but I can go years without giving it a thought.

    FTR, I was forced to watch A Christmas Story about 15 years ago and hated it. HA.TED. That should give you a idea of my preferences, and lack thereof.

    *Autocorrect wanted to turn It’s a Wonderful Life into It’s a Winderful Lufe.

    **Similarly, Love, Actually became Live, Actially.

  68. 68.

    Geminid

    I’ve seen trump pull off this imitation of a calm rational person before. I don’t know if it is induced by medication, like Ms. Laurie suggests. I just know he’s never been able to sustain it. Trump will most likely be snarling the next time we see him, especially if it’s at a rally.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    Yeah, Rachel alluded to that article or one very similar to it. I’m sorry as hell for his mental illness and I hope he’s getting whatever therapy and/or medication he requires to deal with it. But he absolutely should not be in an elected position of influence or power.

  71. 71.

    Another Scott

    @raven: Probably too many blows to the head.

    Relatedly, … WH.gov:

    THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. As we enter this Christmas and New Year, the bill I’m about to sign into law truly represents the spirit of the season, in my view — a season of hope and light, goodness and grace, and the power of unity in everyday Americans doing extraordinary things.

    That’s Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act — that’s what we’re going to talk about today. ALS, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, attacks the nervous system and weakens the muscles, making it hard to lift up a spoon to eat or to take a step to walk. It leads to paralysis and ultimately leads to death within an average of two to five years of diagnosis.

    Since Lou Gehrig, the Hall of Famer from New York Yankees, announced his retirement from baseball in 1939 because of the disease, no cure has been found. Treatments are still limited, and the outcomes are still the same. That’s 82 years with hundreds of thousands of lives lost.

    […]

    There’s no proof, of course, but Gehrig was knocked out several times by getting hit in the head by a pitch…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  76. 76.

    Chetan Murthy

    @SiubhanDuinne: I appreciate that you can be generous to him.  For myself, we don’t teach our soldiers to miss enemy soldiers who exhibit signs of mental dysfunction.  They’re all enemy soldiers, and in that spirit, I can’t wish him anything but the worst.

  80. 80.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SiubhanDuinne: heh, we are in complete agreement on Lion and the Sims’ Christmas Carol, polar opposites on Love, Actually and A Christmas Story (which I haven’t seen in years but at one point had almost memorized)

    You’ll shot your eye out, kid!

  82. 82.

    Ken

    @Juju: What is your favorite Christmas movie?

    We’re No Angels. Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Joan Bennett, Leo G. Carroll, and Basil Rathbone.

  85. 85.

    Suzanne

    @SiubhanDuinne: I remember one time SuzMom was trying to get me to watch some horrible movie with her, and she was really offended that I refused. She loves terrible movies, and she just loooooves to talk about them with me, which I have found barely tolerable for decades. Anyway, she was pretty hurt when I told her I wouldn’t watch it, and she asked, “Why?!” in this very hurt tone of voice. I said, “It’s heartwarming. I hate heartwarming.”

    She reminds me of that from time to time.

  87. 87.

    Geminid

    @OGLiberal: The trumpers will like Herschel Walker for sure. The question is, are there enough of them in Georgia for Walker to beat Warnock? And can Walker keep his shit together for ten months of campaigning? I think the only way Walker will win that seat is if Republicans steal it for him..

  89. 89.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @trollhattan: Isn’t it great?!!  Here in inland Mendocino County, we’re up to about 25″ to date.  And after the first “Atmospheric River” which was warm, the current series of storms are cold (like winter storms should be) and adding to the Sierra snowpack.  It’s all good.

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, …

    NATIONWIDE SETTLEMENT: Amazon has agreed to email past and current warehouse workers ~more than 1 million people who worked during the pandemic~ about their right to organize on Amazon property.

    The historic NLRB settlement was signed yesterday. pic.twitter.com/Yu1EckvwX0

    — Lauren Kaori Gurley (@LaurenKGurley) December 23, 2021

    It’s very nice to have an administration that is willing to enforce labor laws.

    This could mark an important turning point in a long road.

    (via LOLGOP)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  97. 97.

    Kent

    So Covid is finally striking closer to my MAGA family.  We’ve had several severely sick but no deaths until now.

    I have an aunt and uncle and whole extended family who live in rural northern Michigan.  Not the UP, but the northern rural part of the the lower peninsula about 3/4 of the way up on Lake Huron.  So rural sugar beet growing country.  Of course they are all completely MAGA.

    Just got the Facebook notice that my first cousin’s wife just lost her father due to Covid.  I know it was Covid because my mother told me.  But there are 200 comments and condolences on the Facebook notice of his passing and not one single mention of Covid anywhere in her post or anywhere in the comments.  Even though EVERYONE knows damn well he died of Covid and was an unvaccinated old white Republican Trumper.

    Over 200 comments of thoughts and prayers and condolences.  Like he died of cancer or a heart attack or something, rather than committing Covid suicide.

    Sigh…..

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @Another Scott: The Teamsters have decided to make a determined effort to organize Amazon workers. They intend to start in Canada and work south.

    The Teamsters may have what it takes. UPS is prospering with Teamsters drivers, and Amazon drivers know that the UPS drivers are prospering too.

  100. 100.

    Original Lee

    @SiubhanDuinne: I like Elf once a year. I don’t normally like Will Farrell, but in this movie, he plays guileless without going over the top. The premise and plot are well done, and there are some great one-liners. Bob Newhart is excellent, as well.

    The Lion in Winter is one of my favorite Christmas movies. The original We’re No Angels with Humphrey Bogart is another. The original Grinch, The Thin Man, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and A Christmas to Remember round out my list of annual must-sees.

  106. 106.

    Monala

    Latest Republican outrage on Twitter: a group of singing nurses performed Christmas carols at the White House. link

    Tucker Carlson, Newsmax, Townhall, etc. and their followers are all over Twitter criticizing this. A couple of criticisms have some validity: 1) it’s cringe (yeah, kinda); and not everyone is masked.

    The other criticisms are less on point through totally ridiculous: 1) “why are they singing at the White House if hospitals are supposedly overwhelmed?” Like nurses never get time off. 2) “even if they get time off, why are they using it like this rather than resting at home?” IDK, because they enjoy it and can use their free time however they wish? 3) “it’s pro-vax propaganda.” Nothing about vaccines is mentioned or even hinted at. 4) “it’s cult-like worship of Joe Biden.” President Biden doesn’t appear to be present, although Jill Biden is there. 5) “It’s Communist propaganda.” They’re singing Christmas carols. 6) “the group is discriminatory because there are no white men in it.” ??!!! The group is made up of 18 nurses from a NY medical center with 19,000 nurses. Maybe these members are friends, or are the ones who wanted to join.

  108. 108.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kent:

    But there are 200 comments and condolences on the Facebook notice of his passing and not one single mention of Covid anywhere in her post or anywhere in the comments.  Even though EVERYONE knows damn well he died of Covid and was an unvaccinated old white Republican Trumper.

    Over 200 comments of thoughts and prayers and condolences.  Like he died of cancer or a heart attack or something, rather than committing Covid suicide.

    God, that’s pretty sick. My aunt, uncle, and cousin aren’t MAGA (aunt is nominally a Dem, I guess), but they all got COVID and still haven’t gotten vaccinated, even though the 70 y/o diabetic uncle had to hospitalized for a month w/ it.

    My aunt claims her doctor told her she’d have immunity for a year, which is of course bullshit, but it just boggles my mind that she’s still trying to avoid vaccination despite all that’s happened

  109. 109.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I’m not really sure I even much like Love, Actually. I find chunks of it boring and other chunks distasteful. But it has a raft of some of my fave British actors in it, and I’m always intrigued by the way 16 or however many different plot lines intersect. So I do watch every few years.

    You’ll never budge me on A Christmas Story.

  114. 114.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Another Scott:

    @Geminid:

    Wow, this seems like a pretty big deal if Amazon can be successfully unionized. I’d think they’d have good chances of unionizing in rust belt areas with warehouses and delivery centers

  117. 117.

    Suzanne

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    If you don’t mind my asking, why do you hate uplifting things?

     

    Because most of them are simplistic, manipulative, and lack artistic rigor. Genuine moments of life-affirming joy are wonderful. Shitty middlebrow “you had me at hello” representations are detestable.

  118. 118.

    Geminid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Personally, I think Bezos and the other Amazon owners would be better off in the long run if their workforce was unionised. At least so long as their competitors were in the same boat. A thriving working class would make for a more prosperous middle class, and everyone would have more money to buy stuff from Amazon.

  119. 119.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Suzanne:

    Because most of them are simplistic, manipulative, and lack artistic rigor.

    Like (the last scene of) Saving Private Ryan, and Forrest Gump.  Unlke The Good Place, that really *works* for it.

  122. 122.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Suzanne:

    If you don’t mind my asking, why do you hate uplifting things?

    Because most of them are simplistic, manipulative, and lack artistic rigor. Genuine moments of life-affirming joy are wonderful. Shitty middlebrow “you had me at hello” representations are detestable.

    I agree with every word of this. Based on your comment, I think you would not hate It’s a Wonderful Life. But I’m not going to push you, because I would be very cross if someone tried that with me on A Christmas Story.

  123. 123.

    Ken

    @mrmoshpotato: Will this mean the end of Bezos cocking himself into almost-space?

    I think he’s got enough money that the interest is enough for him to launch himself into space a couple of times a year.

  124. 124.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Suzanne:

    Fair enough.

    This actually reminds me of something I’ve been thinking about for awhile. This may seem random at first, but bear with me, it’s relevant.

    There’s an Aha! song, “The Sun Always Shines on TV”:

    Paul Waaktaar, a-ha’s guitarrist and writer of this song is quoted in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh as saying:

    “The Sun Always Shines On TV” was written on one of those down days, Me and Mags (Furuholmen, keyboards) were in a hotel watching English television on a rainy day and the guy announcing the programme says, ‘It’s a rainy day but, as always, the sun always shines on TV.’ The song is about the power of television and the way that television presents life.

    Couple this with a lot of old television shows I’ve watched over the years, I’ve noticed that they were often very black and white morally, episodic, and the virtuous protagonist pretty much always won out in the end, with the plot being nearly wrapped up in with a 30-min to 1 hour running time.

    I’m thinking of shows like Matlock, Mannix, Bonanza, etc.

    I’m curious as to when this style of storytelling fell out of fashion. We live in the modern era of series-long storylines, multilayered characters, moral ambiguity, and far episodes per season. IOW, when did television shows and movies stop being as idealized as they once were on the past

    Let me guess, it had something to do with Vietnam, Watergate, and some kind of loss of innocence?

  129. 129.

    sdhays

    @Kristine: I thought he was really good in The Sixth Sense and Twelve Monkeys. I’m not sure if I’ve even seen him in anything else. I’ve never seen Moonlighting or the Die Hard movies.

  131. 131.

    Kent

    @Geminid:@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Personally, I think Bezos and the other Amazon owners would be better off in the long run if their workforce was unionised. At least so long as their competitors were in the same boat. A thriving working class would make for a more prosperous middle class, and everyone would have more money to buy stuff from Amazon.

    Costco has a partially unionized workplace.  Depending on the state, Costco employees are represented by the Teamsters.  The company negotiates with them without difficulty and remains a profitable and flexible workplace with happy productive workers for the most part.

    Anyone who has ever dealt with Costco employees and say…Wal-Mart employees knows that the difference between the two is night and day in every way.  Costco has no problem competing against Wal-Mart.  Costco stock price is up about 3x higher than Wal-Mart over the past 5 years, and about 10x higher over the past 20 years.

    Having some unionized employees would probably make Amazon a better company in the long run.  Same thing with Starbucks.

  132. 132.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kent:

    I’m not represented by Teamsters, but by the UFCW, and I got say they kinda suck. Y’know how at Costco employees are paid $15/hr? Where I work to start out at is $11/hr. And this was the new contract that was negotiated just this year too, so I imagine the union had to had plenty of leverage given the labor shortage

    And you don’t get major medical insurance unless you average over 30 hrs/wk for a given measurement period (ACA Employer Mandate). It’s nice that the premiums are 100% paid for by the company but god $11/hr is just too low even if it’s an improvement

  133. 133.

    burnspbesq

    There is a certain kind of Republican—we could all come up with a list—for whom fealty to Trump is as essential to their existence as oxygen. If he were to die, they would tie him to a horse like El Cid and run him for President in 2024. And he might very well win. Which is why it’s so important that his role in the events of 1/6 be uncovered, and Congress use that information to enact legislation establishing a process by which he can be disqualified under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. That, to me, is the endgame, even more than finding him guilty of a crime and letting him die in prison.

  134. 134.

    JWR

    @Ohio Mom:

    and Trump comes off as (gasp) thoughtful.

    Thoughtful? You sure about that? ;)

    Call me jaded, but aside from the comparison with Owens, who always looks and sounds like a crazy lady, he may have seemed a wee bit saner, but IMHO, his words belie such a conclusion. New TFG same as the old TFG.

  135. 135.

    jonas

    @Monala: It should be pointed out, into their eyes with rusty, hot pokers if necessary, that 1. small holiday gatherings with others who are fully vaxxed and boosted are, per Dr. Fauci and the CDC, low risk and not a problem and 2. they can go a kindly fuck themselves. Can you imagine if George and Laura Bush had invited some military personnel to the White House to sing during Christmas ca. 2003-4 or something and some left-wing commentators had been all “Oh! How can they spare these troops when so many are dying every day in Iraq? Shouldn’t they all be fighting terrorists or something?” They would have completely lost their shit. Talk about your war on Christmas.

  136. 136.

    Kent

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Costco starting salary is $11/hour where you live? So these are all lies then?

    Costco raised its minimum starting wages to $17 an hour this week. The move comes less than a year after the company raised wages to $16 an hour, its first pay increase since 2019 when the starting rate was $15/hour.

    According to the October 19 memo from Craig Jelinek, president and CEO of Costco, emailed to TODAY Food, starting salaries increased across job titles in the retailer’s stores.

    “Effective October 25, 2021, we will adjust the starting hourly wages for new employees in the U.S. to $17.00/hour for Service Assistants, $18.00/hour for Service Clerks and $18.50/hour for Meat Cutters,” read the memo. “Current U.S. employees making less than these rates will be moved up to these rates on their scales, and their goal hours will be reset. Please contact your GM or Payroll Clerk with any questions.”
    . . . .

    According to Business Insider, Costco has a good reputation with workers who receive paid vacation and in many cases, healthcare. The average tenure of a Costco employee is about nine years and more than half of employees earn over $25/hour.

    Source:  https://www.today.com/food/costco-raised-its-minimum-wage-17-hour-t236337

  137. 137.

    Mary G

    @Suzanne: Come sit by me; I can’t make it through even a few minutes of the schmaltz and despite the fact that Jimmy Stewart is one of my favorite actors.

  138. 138.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kent:

    I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I was talking about my own union being poop compared to the one that represents Costco workers because they have better wages. My company isn’t Costco and my union isn’t the Teamsters

    I kinda wish there was a Costco near me and not 50 miles away

  139. 139.

    jonas

    @Kent: ​
      To be fair, Costco and Walmart aren’t competing for the same customer base, though they may compete for employees in the same region. Costco definitely pays better and it shows in their workers’ attitudes. Not that Walmart workers are all lazy and dumb, of course, but from what I’ve seen on the few occasions I happen to be in there, they’re clearly focused mostly on counting the minutes until they clock out. Same with Target workers. At least in our local outlet, they all have this “please, just shoot me now” look about them. The half-empty shelves, messy clothing racks, and filthy floors tell the rest of the story.

  140. 140.

    Kent

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): My mistake.  I thought you were talking about Costco.

    My point is that the fact that they are unionized hasn’t stopped them from crushing Wal-Mart in terms of profitability.  Their stock price is up 10x more than Wal-Mart over the past 20 years.  They must be doing something right.

    So I agree.  Unions wouldn’t be the death of Amazon.  They might well make it a better and more profitable company

    Around here our other big regional grocery chains are Fred Meyer and QFC (which are both owned by Kroger) and Safeway (which is owned by some private equity firm).  All of them are unionized and all of them are more pleasant places to shop with better employees than Wal-Mart.  The fact that employees are generally more helpful and competent definitely helps.

  142. 142.

    Brachiator

    @Kent:

    Very sad to hear of this loss.

    Throughout the pandemic, I tried to do everything I could to encourage friends and family to stay safe. And fortunately no one in my immediate family has died from Covid, although a few became ill from the virus. Almost everyone was okay with masks, vaccines, etc.

    And in a way, I felt that the Balloon Juice community was part of my larger extended family and I wanted everyone in it to be safe.

  143. 143.

    Peale

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): IDK. Its hard to blame Watergate for that. I think tastes started to shift in the 1980s with Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere. It really comes with the decline of night time soap operas like Dynasty or Dallas. Or setting those soap operas down amongst the mortals. Soaps were schlocky, but they weren’t episodic, either. There wasn’t a great “reset” each week. And their popularity showed that you could put people engaging in “immoral” behavior on TV and audiences would flock to it.

  145. 145.

    Kayla Rudbek

    And my Christmas knitting is all finished! The blanket is soft and warm, but I am aching from my elbows down to my fingers because it was 100% polyester on 12 mm needles, English-style knitting (which is a lot less ergonomic) because Continental-style wouldn’t work with that thick of yarn and needles. So I am going to see if I can return the extra yarn that I bought…

  146. 146.

    Brachiator

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Couple this with a lot of old television shows I’ve watched over the years, I’ve noticed that they were often very black and white morally, episodic, and the virtuous protagonist pretty much always won out in the end, with the plot being nearly wrapped up in with a 30-min to 1 hour running time.

    Jeez, you need to learn more about the history of television. Yeah, a lot of simplicity and sentimentally. And almost from the beginning, television was condemned by cultural pundits as a “vast wasteland.” But also from the beginning, a good deal of television was daring and provocative.

    There is some good stuff online. If you have some time, check out this episode of a TV show called Route 66, about two guys driving across America, finding themselves and the country. This episode features Robert Duvall in one of his earliest television appearances.

    If you can, watch the episode soon. It might soon go away.

  148. 148.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kayla Rudbek:

    And my Christmas knitting is all finished! The blanket is soft and warm, but I am aching from my elbows down to my fingers 

    I suggest a good night’s sleep under that blanket. :)

  150. 150.

    JWR

    @Brachiator: Route 66. Now that was a good show. Co-starring a young, pre Adam-12 Martin Milner. It also featured a lot of good guest actors throughout its run.

  153. 153.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @mrmoshpotato: I have been sitting under it for a while now :). It’s a birthday/Christmas present for my mother-in-law so I do have to give it to her this weekend (she picked the colors so that will help me to give it away, as the color scheme is for her house, not mine).

  154. 154.

    Fair Economist

    @Suzanne: “It’s a Wonderful Life” is not mostly an uplifting film. It’s a story of a man forced to give up most of his dreams and ambitions because of family catastrophes and world events, who is faced with ruin partly because of his own helpful nature, and, on the verge of suicide, is offered a view of what his town would be if he hadn’t been born. This turns out to be grimly awful, with all his friends and family much worse off (often dead) than in the already rather depressing circumstances they’re already in. Facing that, he decides he’s willing to live a ruined life to spare everybody else he knows but then in the very last scene he’s saved by a rather implausible plot twist.

    It’s uplifting only if you can forget most of the film and remember only the ending. There’s an uplifting message, sure, but it sure gets delivered with twist

    The real message of It’s A Wonderful Life, which only became popular because somebody forgot to renew the copyright back when copyright law was not quite as nuts as it is today, is that today’s hyper-extended copyrights really impair cultural development.

  155. 155.

    Fair Economist

    Oh, the real message of It’s A Wonderful Life, which only became popular because somebody forgot to renew the copyright back when copyright law was not quite as nuts as it is today, is that today’s hyper-extended copyrights really impair cultural development.

  156. 156.

    Ruckus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    A lot had to do with it not being in any way realistic. Life has a lot of shades and none of those shades is a fault for being assholes, nor are any of those shades free from the possibility of it. A lot of early films and TV were like that GOOD – BAD!!!! With nothing inbetween and the good guys always won. Not in any way realistic. If your life was pretty much crap it was nice to see the bad guys get it. Look at our politics as an example. We, as a country, hired TFG to be president. And look how that turned out… That’s realism. If often sucks.

  157. 157.

    Ruckus

    @jonas:

    The Targets that I’ve shopped at had pretty decent employees. Friendly and helpful is what I see. I know that sometimes store management can be a real issue in better employee/customer issues. I’ve been in a Walmart twice in my life and did not enjoy the experiences.

  158. 158.

    Juju

    @SiubhanDuinne: I never cared for “Love Actually “ and I dated a man who had to watch it at least twice a Christmas season.
    I used to watch “A Christmas Story” once or twice a during the Christmas season, but that was out of affection for my dad, who would have been around the same age as Ralphie and grew up in a neighborhood much like Ralphie’s, though in Illinois and not Indiana. We would watch it together and I’ve seen photographs of my dad dressed similarly and the house he grew up in could have passed for Ralphie’s house.  I like the original “Miracle on 34th St.” too.

  159. 159.

    CaseyL

    Christmas isn’t a big thing for me, and I guess that’s why I like Christmas movies with a heavy helping of snark.  So among my faves is “The Ref” (1994) a darkish comedy about a thief who breaks into an upscale townhouse in NYC on Christmas Eve, and  finds himself stuck there with an incredibly dysfunctional family.

    Unbelievably good cast: Dennis Leary, Kevin Spacey, Judy Davis, Glynnis Johns, Christine Baranski, and on and on.

  161. 161.

    artem1s

    @Fair Economist:

    who is faced with ruin partly because of his own helpful nature, and, on the verge of suicide, is offered a view of what his town would be if he hadn’t been born.

    There is another layer to IAWL that isn’t discussed as often. The moral dilemma for George Bailey is he had a chance to be one of the country club set and avoid all the problems of the little people that Potter despises. Potter offers him a hand up the latter early in his career. When he turns Potter down, mostly out of hubris, Potter says something very telling. He cannot fathom why Bailey would throw away a chance to be with his intellectual and social equals instead of hanging out with all those ‘garlic eaters’. That Capra included this exchange in this film tells me a lot about what he thought the story was about.  The Baileys could be on their way up the social ladder. Not so much the taxi driver, green grocer, bar tender, and well, whatever Violet Biggs was. George’s rage on discovering his uncle’s mistake isn’t just about fear of going to jail and losing everything. It’s a white, privileged man’s rage against a world where he shouldn’t have to be burdened with taking care of all these lesser people. “Why do we have to have all these kids?” he moans to his wife. Things are always just a little harder than he thinks they should be. And success isn’t measured the way he was told it would be. In any case I’ve always found the underlying class story of the first and second generation immigrants a lot more fascinating than the Angels’ wings, Judeo-Christian morality tale.

  162. 162.

    Fair Economist

    @Brachiator:
    Sorry, FYWP glitched out and refused to post my edit, so I posted it as a separate comment which FYWP didn’t post either, and then FYWP put both in, after the edit timeout had passed. Computers, gotta love ’em.

  163. 163.

    Fair Economist

    @artem1s: Yeah, IAWL has lots of multiple meanings. It’s pretty deep for a melodrama, which is probably why it flopped on release. I’m curious how most people who like it view it today – do they catch the ambiguities and complexities, or do they just see it as the holiday pap Capra obviously didn’t intend.

  164. 164.

    sab

    My first husband was Jewish and that made Christmas wonderful for me. Totally uncommercialized. I went to Christmas Eve service. He expected a nice Christmas dinner instead of the usual Chinese restaurant. Took a few years to negotiate a tiny lit tree. But none of the shopping frenzy, frustration and greed. And remembering that Jesus was Jewish.

  165. 165.

    Morzer

    Nothing on God’s good earth could persuade me to watch Mrs. Putin being interviewed by Ann Coulter in blackface.

     

    Well, if there was an interlude involving the evisceration and spit-roasting of JarJar Manchin…

  166. 166.

    Chris T.

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Ginger was clearly loved.

    When I lost my heart kitty (almost 13 years ago now), I fostered a batch of kittens with their mom, intending to maybe adopt mom after the kittens got fixed. But then I got attached to the kittens. ? I worry about them a bit since they’re 13-ish now, but so far they’re all healthy (healthier than the one I lost back then, she had chronic kidney issues).

    Anyway, fostering can be helpful sometimes. Just don’t get quite so attached…?

  167. 167.

    Tony Jay

    Christmas can’t be Christmas for me without a showing of Arthur Christmas, which is just about perfect and always gives me dusty-eye.

    Love, Actually does have its charms, but its representation of a fictional Britain where almost everyone who matters lives in huge houses and speaks like they went to Eton is a bit on the nose these days, especially the hot Tory PM called “Dave”. Yeah, no, actually.

    I may be in a tiny minority (even on this side of the Atlantic) but I don’t really find Elf that funny. It’s like Big – The Christmas Remix meets an SNL Holiday Special.

    And, of course, there’s got to be some extended Harry Potter action.

  168. 168.

    NotMax

    @Tony Jay

    For several moments was confoozled as to why anyone would want to watch a spoiled lush for Christmas.

    Then it dawned on me you were talking about the animated aardvark.

    ;)

  169. 169.

    evodevo

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yeah…when I first noticed it was with All in the Family and then Hill St. Blues (as an answer to the simplistic cop shows littering TV up to then).  Lots more to think about, rather than tying up all the plotlines neatly by the closing credits…

  170. 170.

    Geminid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The Vietnam war did coincide with the decline of the western on TV. Westerns were pretty numerous in 1960, but by 1970 they were almost gone, and detective shows were taking their place. I’m not sure if there was a connection with the war; culturally, the ethos of the 60’s was out with the old, in wth the new. Many of the detectives were “hip.” The war may have energized this trend. It certainly cast a different light on fighting “Indians.”

    One of TV’s best western writers was Gene Roddenberry of Have Gun, Will Travel. Roddenberry went on to produce Star Trek at the turn of the decade.

    Steve McQueen began the 60s on TV as the laconic Bounty Hunter. He became a movie star as Yul Bryner’s segundo in The Magnificent Seven. McQueen finished the decade challenging the San Francisco establishment as the detective Bullit (1969).

  171. 171.

    Kalakal

    @schrodingers_cat: What a lovely photo.

    She was a beautiful cat. I hope with time that  whenever you think of her it will be with joy for all the times you had together and not of the pain you feel now.

  175. 175.

    Uncle Cosmo

    I haven’t done Xmas flicks – not even IAWL – that I can remember since seeing the b&w Christmas Carol on a b&w TV as a kid.

    With one exception: Joyeux Noël (”Merry Christmas”). I don’t consider it the greatest of films…but I treasure my copy, as it centers on something near and dear to my heart: the Christmas truce of 1914. The last moment in history IMHO when the common decency of human beings sharing a common peril prevailed, for an all-too-brief while, over the criminal “one-death-a-tragedy-a-million-deaths-a-statistic” attitude shared by the ruling classes of the allegedly most civilized nations on the planet.

    Even the thought of that brings a tear to my eyes. What might have been… :^(

  181. 181.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @Fair Economist: ​

    I’m curious how most people who like it view it today – do they catch the ambiguities and complexities, or do they just see it as the holiday pap Capra obviously didn’t intend.

    Hmm. I just always assumed that the holiday pap was intended and the ambiguities/complexities of IAWL were ironic and accidental.

    Could be I’m underestimating Capra, but he was never exactly a subtle director.

  183. 183.

    debbie

    @artem1s:

    George’s rage on discovering his uncle’s mistake isn’t just about fear of going to jail and losing everything. It’s a white, privileged man’s rage against a world where he shouldn’t have to be burdened with taking care of all these lesser people. “Why do we have to have all these kids?” he moans to his wife.

    You had me until this sentence. I disagree. I haven’t seen anything during the million times I’ve watched the movie that indicated George felt any sort of white privilege. He had dreams that he never realized and was sidetracked time after time by his sense of decency and genuine desire to help other people.

    George didn’t think he amounted to anything because he was using the wrong yardsticks to measure his success and his life’s work.

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