Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

No one could have predicted…

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

You are here: Home / Politics / Religion / Monday Morning Open Thread: Light A Candle

Monday Morning Open Thread: Light A Candle

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“A candle does not negotiate with darkness. It pushes back, stubbornly, flame-first.”

Last night was the first night of Hannukah, a Jewish festival celebrating hope when it seems the hardest, where a small group of Jews were able to keep the light going against seemingly insurmountable odds.

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— Asher Wilson-Goldman (@asherwilsongoldman.bsky.social) December 14, 2025 at 1:18 PM

There’s a folk tradition among my people, the Irish:

One old custom that many continue to observe is the placing of a candle in the window on Christmas Eve, a symbol to welcome strangers and to remember those who are far away from home. Now we have a permanent candle in the window of Aras an Uachtarain thanks to President Mary Robinson who famously re-adopted this custom during her term of office, to remember all of the emigrants that had left Ireland and let them know the candle in the window would always be lighting to remember them show them their way home.

(When I was in parochial school, the Irish-American nuns told us this charming custom originated during the Penal Times, when the candle was intended to show recusant priests where it would be safe to shelter. Either way, it’s a good example for today!)

More afternoon light on the first night of Hannukah! 🕎

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— Chris Bianchi (@bianchiweather.bsky.social) December 14, 2025 at 9:59 PM

Light one candle. Well, and the shamash.

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— Roberta Paikoff Holzmueller (@birdyholz.bsky.social) December 14, 2025 at 9:59 PM


(The ninth candle in a menorah is the shamash, ‘helper‘.)

From the Larchives: Happy Hannukah.

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— Lar deSouza (@lartist.bsky.social) December 14, 2025 at 12:58 PM

Reader Interactions

181Comments

  2. 2.

    Suzanne

    Good morning, and a happy Hanukkah to those who are celebrating. Endurance in the face of darkness is a wonderful thing to celebrate.

  6. 6.

    Suzanne

    Woke up to the terrible news about Rob Reiner and his wife this morning. To return to what we discussing in Medium Cool last night….. man, do so many of his movies still hold up. The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men….. just absolute bangers. I still quote those movies all the time.

  7. 7.

    Professor Bigfoot

    Happy Hannukah to all who celebrate; and to all those who celebrate those who celebrate.

  10. 10.

    Ramalama

    @Suzanne: I loved Spinal Tap and also Waiting for Guffman. Loved his other work too except Princess Bride never stuck with me. My sibs and I were just talking about this yesterday. We wondered if there was a genetic component since they too felt very meh about that one movie (Princess Bride).

  11. 11.

    Geminid

    Politico‘s Lisa Kaminsky reports that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is endorsing firefighter union chief Bob Brooks in the 7th CD primary. Shapiro will headline a fundraiser for Brooks Thursday.

    Brooks is running to unseat Rep. Ryan McKenzie, who flipped the Lehigh Valley district last year. McKenzie’s winning margin was among the lowest in the nation last year.

    Kaminsky wrote that Shapiro intends to push hard to flip three other Keystone State congressional districts next year. Shapiro is up for reelection and will be on the ballot as well.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    Mackenzie was born on August 3, 1982, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the son of Charles and Milou Mackenzie. He graduated from Parkland High School in 2000 and from New York University with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and international business in 2004. He obtained an Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School in 2010.

     

    Another typical working class hero.

  13. 13.

    Gloria DryGarden

    Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate. And blessings to all who keep a light in their proverbial window, to dispel darkness.

    What a pretty menorah, the one with the hearts. Love the light…

  16. 16.

    oldster

    Recusant priests, penal time, all nonsense.
    Everyone knows that the Irish light a candle because they are the Lost Tribe of the Israelites. How else did they get David’s harp, do you think?

  18. 18.

    prostratedragon

    @Suzanne:

    He had such range. TCM ran Guffman and Spinal Tap just tjis week in an evening of mock documentaries. Then last night I caught up with the final of Prof. Suber’s Power of Film lectures, and he opened with remarks on When Harry Met Sally. My own favorite is Stand By Me.

    Such a sad thing.

  19. 19.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ramalama: Waiting for Guffman was directed by Christopher Guest, though it was produced by Reiner’s production company. Guest took Reiner’s Spinal Tap formula and ran with it, turned it into a kind of subgenre.

  20. 20.

    Kosh III

    Good morning gang.  Woke up at 4:30 as my cpap had stopped. No electricity.  On the coldest day so far, 10f.  It came back at 6am.

    I have minor surgery today for De Quervains Tenosynovitis(look it up) in my left wrist.  Should be home by supper.

  21. 21.

    Kosh III

    @Suzanne: “Cue the usual suspects calling me names!”

    Dirty long-haired liberal pinko hippie!  (Channeling Archie Bunker in memory of “Meathead.”)

  25. 25.

    frosty

    @Suzanne: Hmmm, Shapiro and Janelle Stelson. That might get me to knock on doors again. I’ve given that up in favor of postcards which are more introvert friendly.

  26. 26.

    Ramalama

    Also Rob Reiner was so embedded into my own cultural fabric that is it a coink or something else that my siblings and I talked about a couple Rob Reiner films last night, and I just finished the wonderful book by Salman Rushdie…Knife…written after Rushdie himself got knifed, and nearly died. And how he climbed back into life, and what it meant/means to his writing. I finished the book last night. And then learn of RR and wife dying by knife by their son today.

    It’s such a close and personal act of violence. I wonder what’s to become of us, we who’ve been affected by Rob Reiner’s art, now that he’s gone?

    Or should I be buying a lottery ticket today.

  27. 27.

    Suzanne

    @frosty: Yeah, I’ve been wary of door-knocking since I had that incident with a man threatening to shoot me and Mr. Suzanne, and shooting antisemitic slurs at us. But I should probably get over it and get back out there. Lord knows we’ve only gotten more sane as a country since then!

  28. 28.

    lowtechcyclist

    @p.a.:

    Happy Hannukah! I don’t see the Cha… form used any more.

    I saw it with the ‘Ch’ today in a couple of places.  The reason why is that Hebrew has two consonants that are frequently transliterated with an ‘h’, and one has a more guttural sound than the other, and that one is often transliterated with a ‘ch,’ and that’s the first consonant in ‘(c)hanukah.’

    Now what I don’t understand is why the ‘k’ is sometimes doubled, and sometimes not.

  29. 29.

    zhena gogolia

    @prostratedragon: Waiting for Guffman is Christopher Guest. I don’t think Reiner had anything to do with it. ETA: I stand corrected by BJ experts, that he was a producer or something. But he didn’t direct it or act in it. It’s a masterpiece, as is Spinal Tap.

    So sad about Rob Reiner and his wife.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    Via Reddit

    Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who is running for U.S. Senatein Texas, responds to Speaker Mike Johnson’s “delight”: “I must say, they act as if they’re scared. The fact that I am a different candidate unlike anyone who’s ever run in Texas, because doing the same thing over is the definition of insanity.”

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The first of those I ever saw — and by far my fave, though I enjoy them all — was Best In Show. Every time I watch it, I laugh myself sick.

  36. 36.

    Geminid

    An African political leader wants the young’uns off his lawn. From Ankara-based Clash Report:

    Ugandan President Yowari Musaveni:

    You Gen Z what have you done so far? When I was 26 we started the FRONASA movement to liberate this country.

    But for you Gen Z, all I hear is “vibe, vibe.” What is your vibe doing for the country?

    Mr. Musaveni has a podcast.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    Happy Hannukah!

    Our holiday cookie bake included rugelach this year. I’d never made it before, but turned out tasty — the filling was chocolate, walnuts and cinnamon. I’d share a pic, but the mobile site has been glitchy lately, for me at least.

    The rugelach wasn’t that pretty anyway, so the missing pic is no great loss.

  39. 39.

    Dr. Fungus

    @Ramalama: I’ve warmed to Princess Bride over the years but was disappointed when it first came out, thinking it wasn’t as good as the book.

  42. 42.

    Geminid

    @Baud: It sounds like President Musaveni is more-or-less daring Gen Z to try regime change in Uganda

    Ed. Or maybe his message is more statesman-like: “Ask not what your country can do for your vibe. Ask what your vibe can do for your country.”

  43. 43.

    narya

    The first time I saw Spinal Tap I nearly fell out of my seat laughing at the “Stonehenge” bit; feet, inches, all the same thing, right? And I remember thinking, gee, that’s his first movie, I wonder if he can keep it up or if that was a fluke? Not a fluke; an amazing, generous, funny talent. Also, I saw someone on Bluesky note that Mel Brooks now has to bury not just Carl Reiner but Reiner’s son; just not fair.

  44. 44.

    JML

    Sean Fennessey at The Ringer had this amazing take about Reiner quite a while back: “He the only great director who has no discernible style whatsoever.” He basically was saying the only way you know it’s a Rob Reiner movie is that it’s probably pretty good. Thought that was fascinating.

    I tend to think of Reiner’s movies having a lot of heart and warmth, but this is also the dude who did Misery! And that movie is terrifying!

    He just knew how to do it. And much like his father he mostly moved away from acting…but would dip back in and every time he did you were pretty dang happy to see him on screen.

  46. 46.

    Soprano2

    I’ve always liked “Stand by Me”. It was a quiet little movie with a big impact. Such a tragic loss. He was a giant in the field.

    Light a candle for Chiefs fans, they’re in mourning today too. What a sucky year the Chiefs have had. What’s strange is that it’s basically the same team that won two Super Bowls! Maybe that’s the problem, other teams have adjusted to them.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    We need a holiday of light.  Rough 2 days previous, not to mention the whole year.

    I saw Chanukah used as spelling for the Bondi Beach shootings.   And Hanukkah.

    Glad to hear the hero, Mr. Ahmed Al Ahmed, who disarmed one shooter, is recovering from his wounds.

  49. 49.

    BritinChicago

    The release of the ‘person on interest’ in the terrible Brown University murders deserves to be celebrated. Of course it’s important that law enforcement finds the guilty and puts them on trial, but it’s even more important that they do not persecute the innocent, that they quickly acknowledge their mistakes and release people when the evidence against them does not stand up. Hence the importance of due process (and not killing people because some high official says they’re ‘bad guys’)….

  51. 51.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Kosh III: Sending all the luck.

    I got a “battery powered generator” for exactly that occurrence; I cannot sleep without my CPAP at all, lying down.

  52. 52.

    Deputinize America

    @Dr. Fungus:

    CONFESSION:

    I thought Princess Bride was uneven. I hated all the “kid forward” bits – the name Buttercup, the giant rats, the Billy Kristol part.

    Then again, it’s probably all part of the book, and I never did enjoy “kid-adult” mashup stories.

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    FWIW, Germany arrested a group of men who were planning to attack a small local Christmas market in southern Bavaria town of Dingolfing.  (Which has a major BMW plant.)  Plans to drive a car through the market were in early stages.

    Per Euronews:

    The five suspects are a 56-year-old Egyptian, three Moroccans aged 30, 28 and 22, and a 37-year-old Syrian. Four of them are now in custody after appearing before a magistrate on Saturday and one was placed in preventive detention.

    The Egyptian suspect, described as an Islamic preacher, allegedly called for an attack during gatherings at a mosque in the Dingolfing-Landau area.

    Authorities said he urged followers to use a vehicle to kill or injure as many people as possible at a Christmas market during the festive season. Under criminal law, this is currently classified as attempted murder.

    Too much hate and radicalization in the world, and it just plays into the hands of authoritarians.  And do not want to see peaceful Muslims and other vulnerable communities scapegoated.

  57. 57.

    narya

    @Professor Bigfoot: Thought of you last night–we watched the F1 movie (I already have Apple TV, so didn’t have to pay extra) and . . . hooboy, are we glad we didn’t spend any money to see this in the theater. And now that F1 will be on Apple next year, all those new viewers they’re hoping to get with this movie will be disappointed by the high-speed parades instead of the gritty comeback stories. It was fun seeing the driver/team cameos, but we were rolling our eyes w/in the first 10 minutes.

  60. 60.

    Geminid

    @narya: I wouldn’t watch the F1 movie if I dial up John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix (1966) instead. The cars are somewhat dated, but the perfomances by James Garner, Yves Montand, Toshiro Mifune, Eva Marie Saint and others have held up well.

  62. 62.

    prostratedragon

    @frosty: ​ Right you are. Did you know they’re cousins? First, I think. Their fathers or perhaps grands somehow chose different spellings.

  64. 64.

    Soprano2

    @prostratedragon: Yep, Mahomes’ luck certainly ran out. He’ll probably be out for a year. That might be part of it, they’re all 4 years older than they were when they won the first Super Bowl. They like to think they’re the same as they were four years ago, but football is punishing on the body.

  66. 66.

    Lyrebird

    @Baud: Thanks Baud!

    And thank you Anne Laurie, you shine a light of truth and HOPE even as you detail the darkness all year round.  I would try to come up with an Anne-Laurie-suited blessing, but maybe avoiding Murphy’s notice is best?

     

    Anyhow, THANK YOU once again.

  67. 67.

    geg6

    @Suzanne:

    Same.  I think he’s great and am very happy with him as my governor.  If we can only get get him a trifecta!  Fucking PA Senate ruins everything.

  69. 69.

    piratedan

    when we go back to some of the ills of our society, how men see and interact with women, his film The Sure Thing comes to mind (John Cusack, Daphne Zuniga) in that it shows us how men should act, when faced with that choice of how to live/behave.  Seriously underrated in how some men never grow up to see women as people instead of things and the movie uses that “conflict” as its lead character arc.  It could be used as a primer for women to separate the wheat from chaff.  Good storytelling, pretty good acting and handled deftly.

  72. 72.

    geg6

    @piratedan:

    Yes!  Not as popular or quite as great as almost all his other films (and let me just say that North is his worst),  but a really good film.

  73. 73.

    Spanky

    Windy.com tells me it’s warmer in Anchorage, AK than in Washington DC, and you have to go south to the Gulf (of MEXICO) Coast to find above-freezing temps

    ETA, it’s a balmy 28F in Reykjavik.

  75. 75.

    Lyrebird

    @Professor Bigfoot: ​
      Celebrating YOU here Prof B!

    and thankful for the great music links from evrybody.

    and yes, Baud, those fake battery-op tea light candles have definitely upped our family’s adherence to the part about making a light shine for all to see! I wonder at times whether I should put a sign in our front window, “don’t worry, theyre fake”, but I think the regular flicker gives it away anyhow.

  76. 76.

    sab

    @Kosh III: Yikes. I might have that. My left has been hurting lately for no particular reason that I could think of.  I think I’ll call by doctor and have it looked at.

  77. 77.

    Spanky

    @Lyrebird:  I put a (120v) candelabra in each public-facing window, lighted for the first time yesterday. I’ve been doing that for years, but the cords are a pain. I bought a couple of these to try out, and they’re pretty good. Light’s bright enough, and the flicker is random, though I’d prefer it to be a little less flickery. We might just make a changeover next year, at the expense of a 20-pack of AAs each season.

  78. 78.

    Elizabelle

    Very sad about Rob and Michele Reiner, and the Bondi Beach victims too.

    Next year, with some distance, they will be part of the festival of lights, and their lives remembered then. And remembered for the love and joy they brought, and the good they accomplished.

  79. 79.

    frosty

    @Geminid: F1 cars in 1966 may be dated but they were beautiful. Jim Clark’s Lotus Powered By Ford is the best of them all IMHO.

    The modern ones are all angles and ugly.

  83. 83.

    Spanky

    @Soprano2: Especially since I keep them up until the Sunday that Daylight Saving starts. About 90 days, and the candelabra blurb says the batteries last 20-30 days.

  84. 84.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @geg6: I really like The Sure Thing too. Saw it when I was in high school but the premise of a cross country trip for a no strings attached liaison seems a little dated in this day and age (tying back to last night’s Medium Cool). But Cusack and Zuniga are great and charming and Tim Robbins has a hilarious cameo. The cross country road trip works brilliantly and the Christmas Eve scene in the bar is super funny with Cowboy guy and Mr. “Do you think I lack self discipline?” So while the premise of the road trip is a little shaky everything else is so well executed you don’t really notice.

  85. 85.

    tobie

    It was a very sad first night of Hanukkah. I had friends in lockdown at Brown on Saturday. Then the devastating news came of 15 Jews killed in Sydney Sunday morning and to top it all off we learned late last night that Rob Reiner and his wife had been killed. It’s a lot to take. Too many guns, too much hate, too many lonely people addicted to social media. This winter is cold in so many ways.

  86. 86.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @frosty: I agree— the F1 cars of the late 60s early 70s were the best looking.

    They were also deadly.

    We could expect to lose one driver a season back then; and we haven’t had an on-track F1 death since 2017 even though we’ve seen some pretty wicked crashes, so *there’s that, too.*

    (I remember Roman Grosjean’s fiery crash in 2020- had me screaming “HOLY FUCK!” in my living room- but he survived and went on to race IndyCar)

  87. 87.

    rikyrah

    Aaron Rupar
    @atrupar
    Rand Paul: “My plan is this — let people on the Obamacare market, which is about 4% of America, a small number of people, let them buy their insurance through Costco, Sam’s Club, Amazon … ”
    x.com/atrupar/status/2000226810781487570?s=20

     

    scary lawyerguy
    @scarylawyerguy
    When you’re a fundamentally unserious political party with no policy agenda other than tax cuts but the media treats your ideas like “just go into Costco and buy your health insurance there” legitimately, the permission structure to float these ideas as legitimate is quite high!
    x.com/scarylawyerguy/status/2000236814150582422?s=20

  88. 88.

    RevRick

    @Geminid: @Baud: MacKenzie is my Representative (sigh). There’s a crowded Democratic primary field seeking to run against him and this move by Gov. Shapiro along with other local state officials seems to be an attempt to narrow it down quickly. I will, of course, support the Democratic nominee.
    Today, I will be delivering a petition to MacKenzie’s local office, as well as to Sen. McCormick’s, signed by members of St. John’s UCC, Allentown urging them to support the Senate Appropriations Committee version of funding for the EPA. The Trump administration wants to essentially kill the agency with a 55% cut, while the House version guts it with a 25% cut. The Senate version only cuts it by 5%.
    Many of us here are old enough to remember how dirty the US was back in the 60s and 70s.

  89. 89.

    Elizabelle

    @tobie:  Hugs.  It has been an awful two to three days.

    At least the Jet Blue pilot flying back from Curacao saw the ignoramus US military fuel tanker in its path, operating without a transponder (because, wartime.  In the Felon’s head).  That could have been really bad.

  91. 91.

    narya

    @Professor Bigfoot: Yeah, I cannot recommend it at all, really. A bunch of people (Hamilton, Alonso, Toto Wolff, Max, etc.) are exec producers and/or make a cameo appearance, and identifying them is mildly entertaining, but SO MUCH of the story and trappings are just not possible that it makes it hard to watch (and I’m no F1 expert; I’ve watched for about 20 years.). Plus, it’s 2.5 hours long; there are races shorter than that. I mean, the fact that it took Hulkenberg until this year to get a podium (Hobbes apparently said he was a better driver than the cars/rides he was able to get) tells you everything you need to know. Also, w/in the first few minutes of the movie, Pitt’s character gets into the other driver’s seat for a run around the track. As noted above, I suspect Apple made this in anticipation of having the races next year, to drum up viewership, but most races are just high-speed parades that . . . aren’t that exciting.

  92. 92.

    RevRick

    @rikyrah: The thing is that that tiny 4% was all it took to start toppling the housing, and then financial markets in 2008. It’s Pareto’s Law taken to the next iteration.

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    Gene Trevino
    @GenoVeno73
    I quote from The New York Times article:
    “The decision on Maryland’s appeal [FEMA relief was denied] was made on the same day that Mr. Trump approved aid for disasters in Alaska, Nebraska and North Dakota — all states that supported him last year — while denying requests from Vermont and Illinois, states that, like Maryland, voted for his opponent.”

    Krasnov
    @realDonaldTrump
    is punishing States that didn’t support him. So, he’s NOT the “president” of the United States — he’s only “president” of RED States.

    x.com/GenoVeno73/status/1999949510932615477?s=20

    Dem Saints
    @LDS_Dems
    In a normal world, finding out the President is only sending disaster relief to states that supported him would launch congressional investigations and impeachment.

    Under Trump, this level of corruption barely garners headlines and will be covered up by a fresh evil tomorrow.
    x.com/LDS_Dems/status/2000275788147425733?s=20

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    TrumpFile.org
    @TrumpFile
    In her attempts to make Erika Kirk some sort of idol to MAGA Christians, Bari Weiss pretends she was literally incapable of understanding what “forgiveness” means until Erika explained it to her. Then she explains forgiveness for the audience.

    This is the head of CBS News.
    x.com/TrumpFile/status/2000104770053267749?s=20

    Sandi Bachom 📹
    @sandibachom
    What I think is going on here is they’re trying to salvage TPUSA as a movement and it’s not happening. This is what Russian television looks like. Well done CBS. Hard to believe this was Cronkite’s network.
    x.com/sandibachom/status/2000423122072440853?s=20

  97. 97.

    tobie

    @Elizabelle:

    At least the Jet Blue pilot flying back from Curacao saw the ignoramus US military fuel tanker in its path

    I read that story. It’s appalling. Apparently the Air Force doesn’t feel like it has to use transponders to keep the airways safe for civilian aircraft. Just a-holes all around in the Trump admin.

  98. 98.

    jonas

    @satby: In a lot of rural areas, keeping taxes low is code for “ain’t none of my hard-earned money is going to those lazy [insert ethnic/racial slur here] down in the city…”

    But of course it’s the economy of the big city that is in reality keeping them afloat. Upstate NY would be fucking Somalia without NYC’s revenue funnelled through the state government.

  99. 99.

    narya

    @Professor Bigfoot: OMG, yes. Amused that he adopted a phoenix as deco on his car, and basically said, I should no longer have to do the car-exit test. I was AT Pocono for both Wickens’ and Wilson’s crashes, too.

  103. 103.

    Deputinize America

    @frosty:

    Dammit – I should have known better in my moment of hesitance before posting.

    I know what my brain did, now (Bill Kristol/Billy Crystal).

  104. 104.

    RevRick

    The thing about Hanukkah, as most Jewish people will admit, is that it’s a minor holiday that was not on the same level as Yom Kippur, Passover, Purim, Shavuot, or even Simchat Torah. And the story behind Hanukkah is not an unambiguous delight, because it’s set during the Maccabean wars, when hardline, fundamentalist Jews fought against the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire and Hellenistic Jews.

  106. 106.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @frosty: Those guys were the definition of “brass balls” back then— that they would literally take their lives in their hands and push to the limit— I’ve said more than once that we’re lucky Sir Jackie is still with us; and that we had Niki Lauda as long as we did. 🙏🏾

  107. 107.

    Matt McIrvin

    TIL, on Reddit: The Wilhelm scream (movie sound clip overused to the point that it became an industry in-joke) was screamed by the same guy who sang “Purple People Eater.” Just thought you needed to know that.

  109. 109.

    oldgold

    I just read Trump’s post concerning Rob Reiner’s tragic death.

    Is there an atom of decency in this orange degenerate?

  112. 112.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2:Light a candle for Chiefs fans, they’re in mourning today too.

    I feel seen, LOL.  thanks!

    What a sucky year the Chiefs have had. What’s strange is that it’s basically the same team that won two Super Bowls! Maybe that’s the problem, other teams have adjusted to them.

    yes – on both offense and defense

    it is very hard to stay on top in today’s NFL; 5 Super Bowls in 6 years is nothing to sneeze at

    here’s hoping they cut some of the higher-paid, lower-producing players and make a change at OC

    Looking at who remains in or near the playoffs, I will be rooting for Pittsburgh (JUST the defense, though – eff Aaron Rodgers) and Philly.  I like most of the other NFC teams well enough, too.

  113. 113.

    Jackie

    House members don’t think Congress is fun, anymore:

    “The House will likely depart Washington for the holidays this week without addressing a number of high-stakes issues. Instead, Congress is ending the year with a lot of infighting and a nearly unprecedented number of lawmakers heading for the exits,” NOTUS reports.

    “While there are always retirements each term, members have decided to call it quits rather than seek another term in a body that has had more drama than actual success passing legislation. More House Republicans are leaving Capitol Hill so far than Democrats.”

    Click on the link for the  members list of Congress members leaving (thus far)  – either retiring or running for other offices:

    Roll Call has the casualty list for the 119th Congress.

  114. 114.

    Deputinize America

    @tobie:

    I’m convinced that the evangelicalism that started permeating the Air Force using the Colorado Springs location of USAFA as a vector in the late 70s is a big part of the culture of nonaccountability.

  118. 118.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: Marcotte at Salon has a piece on the MAGA trainwreck in the wake of Kirk’s murder. According to her, Kirk’s death set off a mad scramble among MAGA influencers looking to pick up Kirk’s audience, and all sorts of conspiracy theories have arisen that set the various factions against each other.

    Allegedly, MAGA influencer Candace Owens insinuated that Erika Kirk was somehow involved in her husband’s murder. Owens depicts her as a predatory grifter who entrapped poor Charlie, stealing him away from someone he supposedly loved.

    Marcotte says all the bad blood and competing conspiracy theories made it difficult for Repubs to pin the murder on trans people and make political hay from it.

    Weiss wasn’t the only oligarch-friendly media figure to platform Mrs. Kirk. She appeared at a NYT event recently too. I don’t have any insight into what’s going on in the wingnut-o-sphere, but I suspect the hard-right oligarchs who benefited from Kirk’s grift center believed his death would have far more cultural impact than it actually did.

  119. 119.

    Jeffro

    @oldgold: here’s hoping the news anchors are ready to pull it up on-screen as each and every GOP official pretends they have no idea what the orange scumbag said

    “no idea”

    “oh really?  ok, here it is, let me read it to you”

    “um er um that’s ok”

    “no, I think I’m going to read it to you and then ask you what you think, SIR”

  121. 121.

    Suzanne

    @Betty Cracker:

    but I suspect the hard-right oligarchs who benefited from Kirk’s grift center believed his death would have far more cultural impact than it actually did. 

    Very much this. From what I have read and observed, it was thought that Kirk was much more widely beloved/known than he really was. Same phenomenon I have observed other places, in which one gets one’s sense of reality warped by algorithms. It has become really easy to confuse the niche and the widespread.

  122. 122.

    Betty Cracker

    @oldgold: The answer to your rhetorical question is, of course, NO. Here’s what the degenerate gasbag posted:

    (1/3) A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding,

    (2/3) 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

    (3/3) Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!

    What the fucking FUCK?

  123. 123.

    Geminid

    @satby: I ran into this Fortune article about rural America this morning. The title is

         Rural America is deeply misunderstood. We’re not depopulating, and we’re not the reason 2024 swung to Trump.

    The authors, Tim Slack and Shannon M. Monnat begin:

       Roughly 1 in 5 Americans live in rural areas– places the federal government defines based on small populations and low housing density.

    Yet many understand rural areas through stereotypes. Media and political conversations often use words or terms such as “fading,” “white,” “farming,” “traditional,” and “politically uniform” to describe rural communities. In reality, these communities are much more varied….

    We are rural demographers at Louisiana State University and Syracuse University who study the causes and consequences of well-being in rural America. Here we outline six myths about rural America– a few among many– highlighted in our our recent book Rural America: Context, Composition and Complexities.

    This is a good article and not too long. This link might work:

    https://fortune.com/12/11/rural-america-6-myths-deeply-misunderstood-race-population-health/

    Welp, I left off the final”/”. I’ll try to put a good link in a reply to this comment.

  124. 124.

    Jackie

    @oldgold:

    just read Trump’s post concerning Rob Reiner’s tragic death.

    Is there an atom of decency in this orange degenerate?

    I just read it, too. Since his broken filter can’t prevent him from keeping his thoughts bottled inside, at least he spewed out his true thoughts rather than platitudes we KNOW would be false. I hope he has some vague realization his words will be repeated at HIM by millions when he kicks the bucket.

  125. 125.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    @Betty Cracker:

    yup…they sure didn’t get much ‘mileage’ out of ol’ Charlie’s passing, did they?  too bad, so sad!

    I’m highly encouraged to see MAGA infighting like this, though: it bodes very well for the future

  126. 126.

    zhena gogolia

    @Betty Cracker: My local wingnut-whisperer says a client told her that Charlie Kirk is still alive, and the woman posing as Erica is not really her. Just compare her nose when she won some pageant to the nose of this imposter, or something like that.

  129. 129.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    we’re not the reason 2024 swung to Trump

     

    True, in the sense that rural America has been with Trump since 2016 and has been getting increasingly Republican since at least 2000, and especially after 2008.

  131. 131.

    BritinChicago

    @Professor Bigfoot: Thanks for the endorsement and adding the emphasis. Although I (of course) want the real murderer brought to justice as asap, I was happy to see that the relevant branch (or branches?) of law enforcement could admit a mistake and let the mistakenly arrested person go quickly, without even sending him to El Salvador to be tortured first. Perhaps an example for other branches?

    Edited to correct a typo

  134. 134.

    Jackie

    @JML:

    I presume the Orange Asshole’s comments were devoid of humanity?

    Let’s just say he spoke honestly – for once.

  136. 136.

    Lyrebird

    @Spanky: ​
      Oh, thanks for the tip! Those look nice,and I would rather deal with AA batteries than the little button ones, even though my kids are old enough now not to be at a high risk. Maybe we’ll get some and see how rechargeables do. Would be very nice not to have to do the turning on and off every night.

  137. 137.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Thanks. I think I’ll have some more coffee anyway.

    Ed. I ran into this article on Dave Weigel’s twitter feed. Weigel can be a jerk at times, but I’ve found he’s a decent aggregator of political reporting.

  138. 138.

    UncleEbeneezer

    A short guide to understanding how Jews view security

    I’m not sure whether non-Jewish people entirely understand the high levels of security that so many Jewish communities operate with as a matter of course. Perhaps one reason for that lack of understanding is that we don’t speak about it a great deal. It’s just there – a part of life. Many synagogues have this sort of set up – which is why the terror attack on Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester didn’t cost more lives. Synagogues around the country have been trained by the Community Security Trust for exactly this sort of attack. As many people said in October, it was not seen as a case of if such an attack would happen, but when.

    Another example, if I may.

    Many Jewish events – in the UK and elsewhere – are organised as follows. You sign up, but aren’t told where the event will take place until 24 hours before. The reason is simple, but simultaneously horrifying. It is to provide as little time as possible for would-be terrorists to scope out the venue and plan an attack.

  139. 139.

    Jackie

    @Betty Cracker: If FFOTUS had said nothing, he would have been condemned. If he had spoken of how tragic it was, and offered thoughts and prayers to those affected and grieving – he would have been scorned and vilified for bald faced lying.

    I had hoped he’d say nothing. But, honestly, I expected nothing less from him – and frankly I don’t GAF about his thoughts, and I doubt Reiner’s family does either.

  140. 140.

    Kristine

    @Kosh III: Oh, best wishes for a quick recovery.

    I have tendonitis in both thumbs (idk if it’s DeQ) caused by mouse use—it started in my right thumb, so I switched to mousing with my left, and hey it developed there too. I’ve had it for decades. I exchanged touchpads for mice ages ago, but activities like pulling weeds aggravate it as well. Rest/braces have helped.

  141. 141.

    Ohio Mom

    @RevRick: Yes, as a liberal, secular Jew, celebrating fundamentalists winning over my fellow liberal Jews (okay, that’s anachronistic but you get my point) is hard to embrace. Repulsive even. And don’t get me started on miracles, don’t believe in ‘em.

    But fortunately, as with all religious observances that have stood the test of time, there are multiple levels of meaning and metaphor to focus on instead.

    It’s of course a solstice holiday, and who in this hemisphere doesn’t need reminding that the sun and warmth will return? I always enjoy the aesthetics of sympathetic magic (come on, in the depths of winter, erecting a green tree filled with what is metaphorically fruit and symbols of plenty, what is that except sympathetic magic?).

    It can also be seen as a story about perseverance and grit. Imagine finally getting to return to your beloved holy space and it’s desecrated and a mess. You roll up your sleeves and get to work.

    Again, a universal message, because that’s something all of us find ourselves doing over and over throughout our lives, repairing some mess we didn’t ask for but came to us anyway. Hopefully, that will be what we as a country will be doing in the near future, cleaning up after Trump/Vought/Miller et al.

  142. 142.

    Soprano2

    @Betty Cracker: That’s evidence of living inside a bubble, because Kirk was an extremely online thing. I doubt one in ten people knew who he was before he was killed, but they all think he’s extremely popular because they all know who he is.

  143. 143.

    Soprano2

    @Jeffro: I wish they would do that ALL THE TIME. I’m tired of these people who obviously know what FFOTUS is saying lying and saying they don’t because they don’t want to respond.

  144. 144.

    Miss Bianca

    @JML: I don’t know that you would say, “no discernable style”, that sounds almost like an insult…but then, I think about how something very similar was said about one of my all-time favorite directors, Michael Curtiz (“the best director you never heard of”, according to one documentary about him), who directed Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and…White Christmas (?!) among over 150 others!

    The people in that documentary kind of put it like that: “you didn’t think about the director with a Curtiz movie, you just thought about the movie.”

  146. 146.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker: OMG. I keep thinking I have some grasp on just how miserably self-obsessed this malignant fucker is, and then being slapped in the face with the realization that no, I just cannot fathom it – maybe because it is, literally, unfathomable to a normal human being (or even an actor!).

  147. 147.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker:  OMG.

    And that is going to hurt Trump.  The Reiners were beloved and admired.  Michele was a noted photographer — who photographed Trump for the cover of The Art of the Deal, but maybe Felon does not remember that.

    Rob Reiner’s work in film will last for decades.  He is one of the classics.

    Those tweets are from someone mentally unbalanced and extremely cruel.  You cannot explain them away, although Karoline LiarTwat may try.

    Trump has ugly loser stink all over himself this morning, especially.  Awful pathetic little man.

  148. 148.

    Jackie

    @Soprano2: Even FFOTUS’s most devoted disciples  are appalled at his words.

    This one, in particular, made me LOL:

    MAGAHarleyChick offered, “Please stop President Trump. You’re my president and I will vote for you always but this is not a good idea or a very smart comment. I don’t know who’s advising you but they are not very smart.”

    My emphasis.

  150. 150.

    Ohio Mom

    @Geminid: Okay, so 25% of people living in rural areas are non-white. How many of them vote and wield any political power as a group? Okay, Native Americans and organized farm workers do.

    Of the rest of that 25%, some of them aren’t citizens (that is, farm and slaughterhouse workers), some of them are incarcerated — building prisons in rural areas is a proven technique for pushing up population numbers for various purposes.

    Leaving me with the impression that most rural areas are just as Red as I thought they were five minutes  ago.

  151. 151.

    Jackie

    Rob and  Michelle’s son, Nick Reiner, has been taken into custody on an unknown felony charge per CNN.

  152. 152.

    beckya57

    Bluesky has had some great threads with pictures of people’s menorahs.  My favorites were the T-rex and the kraken!

  153. 153.

    Elizabelle

    NY Times on the Jet Blue near miss with a US military refueling tanker which was operating without its transponder on.  This is a tragedy waiting to happen, and a private jet just encountered the same issue.

    I hope the Dutch are reading the US the riot act on this.  It’s awful at anytime, but especially just before the Christmas holidays.  It’s economic damage and physical threat to Curacao and the Dutch, too.

    GIFT LINK:

    U.S. Military Plane and JetBlue Flight Nearly Collided Over Caribbean, Radio Traffic Shows

    The Air Force refueling tanker was flying without its location transponder activated and could not be detected by air traffic control.

     

    The pilot of a JetBlue flight reported on Friday that he narrowly avoided colliding with a U.S. military aircraft over the Caribbean after an Air Force refueling tanker passed in front of the commercial plane without broadcasting its position, according to air traffic control radio communications.
    “They don’t have their transponder turned on, it’s outrageous,” the JetBlue pilot told an air traffic controller, after identifying the type of plane he had encountered. “We almost had a midair collision up here.”
    The radio transmissions detail the experience of JetBlue Flight 1112, bound for New York after leaving Curaçao, a small island in the southern Caribbean about 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela. Twenty minutes after takeoff, the aircraft suddenly leveled off midclimb, according to flight tracking data. On the radio, the JetBlue pilot said he was forced to stop the plane’s ascent to its cruising altitude to avoid a collision with the tanker.

    It’s unclear whether the pilot saw the military aircraft with his own eyes or if he was alerted by a sensor on the aircraft. He told the air traffic controller in Curaçao that the tanker was only two or three miles away — less than 20 seconds flying time at its speed.
    The air traffic controller said he couldn’t see the tanker on his radar screen either, but suggested the unknown military aircraft was part of a trend. “They’ve been outrageous with the unidentified aircraft within our airspace,” the controller told the pilot.
    Just a day later, on Saturday night, air traffic controllers in Curaçao told at least three other pilots, including those for American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, to be aware of unidentified aircraft in their vicinity, an apparent reference to other planes flying without their transponders on.

    Lot more detail in the article.  And we have a lot of military aircraft and vessels in the area.

  154. 154.

    rikyrah

    @tobie:

    I read that story. It’s appalling. Apparently the Air Force doesn’t feel like it has to use transponders to keep the airways safe for civilian aircraft. Just a-holes all around in the Trump admin.

     

    why didn’t we hear about these things happening during the Biden Administration?

  156. 156.

    rikyrah

    @jonas:

    @satby: In a lot of rural areas, keeping taxes low is code for “ain’t none of my hard-earned money is going to those lazy [insert ethnic/racial slur here] down in the city…”

     

    All the while, they are the moocher and leeches being subsidized by the evil Blue areas.

     

    One of my favorite graphs of Illinois is the breakdown of funding.

    Cook County -CHICAGO, gets 95 cents for every dollar they contribute to the State

    Collar Counties – Get 80 cents for every dollar they contribute to the state.

    Once you  get out of Cook and the Collar Counties, every other region gets MORE than a dollar back.

    Once we get down to the Mississippi part of the State, in the South, those counties get up to $2.38 for every dollar they put in.

    $2.38

    AND are the loudest muthaphuckas about wanting to get rid of Chicago.

    Mooches and leeches.

    WE PAY FOR THEIR PHUCKING LIVES.

  157. 157.

    Jackie

    @Betty Cracker: A welcome and needed contrast from the Vile FFOTUS’s words:

    Former US president Barack Obama shared a joint message on X with his wife Michelle, writing: ‘Michelle and I are heartbroken by the tragic passing of Rob Reiner and his beloved wife, Michele.
    ‘Rob’s achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen. But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people – and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action.
    ‘Together, he and his wife lived lives defined by purpose. They will be remembered for the values they championed and the countless people they inspired. We send our deepest condolences to all who loved them.’

  158. 158.

    tobie

    @rikyrah: Absofrigginlutely! It’s one of my biggest pet peeves. Rural areas receive more in state and federal aid than they pay in taxes. And given the number of people in rural areas who are self-employed as independent contractors, they often write off much of their income as business expenses or don’t report it if it’s under $10K. Maybe it’s necessary to turn a blind eye to all this given the limited employment prospects in rural communities. But it would be nice if there were some acknowledgment of the direction of the flow of aid.

  159. 159.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @zhena gogolia: Saw him at a couple of Grand Prix this year— wearing tartan and a tam o’shanter.

    So LAST I HEARD he was still with us— I imagine if possible we’ll see him at Silverstone next year. I doubt he’d want to do a lot of heavy travel now.

  160. 160.

    Soprano2

    @Jackie: Yep, I’m sure MAGA’s love a lot of Reiner’s movies even if they don’t agree with him politically. My husband says there isn’t anything wrong with FFOTUS that a fist to the face couldn’t fix. LOL

  161. 161.

    Elizabelle

    @Soprano2:  I think it will take death.  Death is the only state that will improve Trump.  May it arrive soon.

    And those nasty comments about the Reiners’ deaths are not going to play well. At all.

    Tell us you have no class without telling us you have no class.

    What an empty imbecile.

  162. 162.

    Castor Canadensis

    @tobie: Also sort of a good way to die if you’re a military pilot, especially in a plane that doesn’t have it’s own sear,ch radar.

  164. 164.

    Castor Canadensis

    @UncleEbeneezer: My best friend is Jewish, and it was very obvious the synagogue was protecting themselves against terrorists, by having a security-guarded single entrance, and lots of crash-doored exits.
    It’s pretty horrid to have to worry about terrorist attcks in Toronto (Canada) when going to one of his kid’s bat mitzva.

  166. 166.

    JML

    @Miss Bianca: I think it was really more a matter of so many of the directors you know best have tricks or techniques they like to go to and use, or a visual style that is easily identifiable (like Scorsese with the fast cuts and rock & roll needle drops, or JJ Abrams lens flare, etc) and that simply wasn’t who Reiner was. If anything the signature style of Rob Reiner was having great taste in projects for a really long time, which is awesome all by itself.

    I think about how many times Stephen King projects were butchered or just didn’t work, and then he does Stand By Me and Misery. Wildly different and he crushes them both. Does a great job with young actors in Stand By Me, but also nails it with deep casts of deeply experienced actors who were often overqualified for their parts (like The American President)

    I like how Reiner could explore dark parts of humanity without becoming consumed by it. He never had any trouble finding warmth or positivity and making it interesting and compelling. He was able to let or help people be really funny while still telling a story.

    What a career. Tremendous legacy.

  168. 168.

    Elizabelle

    @Nancy:  Thank you.  I had missed that first link, and it is very worth reading.

    JPost:

    If there is a Jewish Nobel for saving Jews, Ahmed al-Ahmed just won it – [Opinion Piece]

    Ahmed al-Ahmed belongs in that moral family tree of the “Righteous Among the Nations.”

    Including this.  The whole essay is excellent.

    The Bondi Beach attack will be exploited by extremists who want to turn it into fuel for collective blame, collective suspicion, and collective hate. That road leads nowhere good. Jews know what it means to be judged not as individuals but as a category, a problem, a target.

    Ahmed’s story is the antidote to that poison.

    “There are those in every religion who spread light, and there are those in every religion who spread darkness and hate,” I wrote to myself after reading the accounts of what happened. That is not a slogan. It is a reality check. The murderer on Bondi Beach chose darkness. Ahmed chose light.

    Hanukkah’s message is not triumphalism. It is resolve. The miracle was not only that the oil lasted. The miracle was that Jews insisted on lighting the menorah anyway, in a world that had grown comfortable telling them to dim their presence. That is why Hanukkah is so emotionally charged in a year when Jews around the world are being told, explicitly or implicitly, to celebrate quietly, to hide symbols, to make themselves smaller for their own safety.

    No. The answer to darkness is not disappearance. It is light.

  171. 171.

    Paul in KY

    @Soprano2: It’s because they are evil scumbags who won’t take on any kind of protected target/armed people, They are too cowardly for that. Just would be murderers who use the conflict as their excuse to inflict horror.

  176. 176.

    satby

    @Baud: @Geminid: Thanks guys. A lot of what these researchers identify as myths aren’t at all to people who live in rural or rural adjacent areas. I see the article I linked to as an expansion on the one Geminid did, at least in identifying the many frustrations of living in a rural area.

  178. 178.

    Interesting Name Goes Here

    @narya: I have to disagree with you on F1: The Movie.  It was Days of Thunder for open-wheelers, yet somehow smarter than that movie.  If you went in expecting a strict adherence to realism befitting of a documentary, it was going to disappoint you thoroughly.  But if you just went in expecting a fun ride, it’s a blast.  Those two-and-a-half hours flew by very quick for me, and I appreciated the attempts at authenticity that some of the more accurate movies in this genre didn’t (or couldn’t) have.  Also, the story, while standard-issue, is refreshingly low-stakes for a blockbuster action film.  The final sequence at Abu Dhabi is probably one of my favorite sequences of the year.

  179. 179.

    Geminid v

     

     

    @Ohio Mom: This is largely a regional matter. There are plenty of Black people living in rural.areas from Delaware through Georgia to Louisiana, and they vote. And there are plenty of Hispanic people living in rural areas in the Rio Grand Valley of Texas, and New Mexico and Califiornia as well. Plus, Native Americans are the most rural of all demographic groups and their voter participation is on the rise.

  180. 180.

    Geminid

    @Ohio Mom: There are plenty of Black people living in rural areas from Delaware though Georgia to Louisiana, and this has been pointed out here a lot. And the rural parts of Texas’s Rio Grand Valley have plenty of Hispanic voters, as is the case in New Mexico.

    And while it’s true that a lot of the Hispanic people living in agricultural areas in California and the Pacific Northwest* cannot vote, plenty of them can, in particular those born in the US to immigrants.

    *I discovered that the population of the 5th CD in central Washington state is 38 percent Hispanic.

  181. 181.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Deputinize America: yes, I don’t remember the military being as aggressively religious when I was younger (although my dad would always grumble about the Southern Baptist officers and how so many of the army bases were in the South). I have met one of the chaplains at work and the man sets my teeth on edge every time I hear him.

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