Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Happy First Day or whatever. I’m a bit hungover from partying with the neighbors. We were making merry at the new and improved side-yard bar, and some sumbitch wandered over with schnapps. (Oh right, that was my husband. We’re too old for this nonsense!)
I was reviewing the college bowl game action on tap for today and became aware that Jerry Falwell’s diploma mill has a D1 football team that is playing on New Year’s Day. What the hell? Anyhoo, Go Ducks!
Open thread!
(Image by Nikita Titov)
Dr. Luba sent me the image above with the following explanation/description:
In Ukraine, in modern times, every home has a “yalynka” for the holidays. We would call them Christmas trees, but in Ukraine, during Stalin’s reign, New Year’s trees were encouraged, and NYD became a major holiday, with gift giving, feasting, etc.
So this seemed apropos
Very apropos, which is why we are starting with it tonight. Thank you Dr. Luba!
https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1741579734088335869
https://twitter.com/neivanmade/status/1741483509217140884
Instead of the results of the year, only the obvious truth. Let’s wake up the world!
#neivanmade
#nazva
https://twitter.com/HiatusGames/status/1741481966275334366
https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1741531883068903661
Here is President Zelenskyy’s New Year address. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 676: Ukraine Has Entered 2024 Bloodied But UnbowedPost + Comments (26)
The good news: the year is ending. The bad news: I’m told there’ll be another.
— Nein. (@NeinQuarterly) December 30, 2023
Don't do any of this #NewYearsEve pic.twitter.com/5vqIW63faB
— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) December 29, 2023
AP PHOTOS: In Romania, hundreds dance in bear skins for festive ‘dancing bear festival’ https://t.co/61iTKvf1oW
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 30, 2023
On the other hand, a ‘Dancing Bears for the New Year Festival’ sounds kinda fun… [worth clicking for the photos!]
Sunday Morning Open Thread: New Year’s EvePost + Comments (176)
Usually this is the domain of right-wing whingers. But here’s a podcast ‘Marxist’ guy with 31,000 twitter followers:
Can’t imagine why people think this isn’t a great economy. Lunch for three at McDonald’s: $44!!
— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) December 29, 2023
lmao it was a rest stop McDonalds. You can easily drop $45 for 3 people there. It's a convenience stop (so you don't have to go out of your way 5 minutes for normal priced food). Everyone knows it's a ripoff. Kind of an important detail to leave out there by the peckerhead guy. https://t.co/OFS5rCWB7r pic.twitter.com/XIRpP8WmxN
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) December 30, 2023
Wow Doug McDonald's must have an excellent brand with very good marketing and deliver on whatever they're promising to get sophisticated customers like you to patronize their restaurant time after time, even at these higher prices https://t.co/vhkgBcFUKC
— The okayest poster there is (@ok_post_guy) December 29, 2023
Hello, I’d like to report a murder. Where? In the Washington Post.
What? Oh, who did it? It was Alexandra Petri.
Gift Link ⬇️
Was it good or bad that a mob descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, yelling “Hang Mike Pence” and trying to prevent certification of the presidential election?
(laughs) Don’t go easy on me! I think the Capitol is certainly, in the hearts of Americans, a place, and capitalism itself is so important. What do you think?
Do the villains in “Star Wars” seem like they’re based on Nazis?
(laughs) Wow, all right! Coming in with a real challenge! So, obviously, freedom is the most important thing. And we keep coming back to that question of, what can the government tell you to do or not do? I think it comes down to capitalism, of course, is good, and we need to do things to make sure that unaccountable bureaucrats aren’t wielding excess power. And stars are wonderful. But most important of all, what role does government play? Are we compensating the contractors who build our Death Stars?
Can you say something bad about the villains in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” who were clearly Nazis?
Well, I think the villains were basically, you know, any time the free market doesn’t operate to produce maximum freedom.
If we have an election and Donald Trump does not win, does it still count?
Listen, I know about counting! I was an accountant. We need to have capitalism.
Is the climate changing because of human activity?
Freedom is foundational!
Why was the Republican Party founded?
Reasons, of course, and I think government overreach. Also capitalism.
You’re not afraid to say that it was an abolitionist party?
Are you afraid to say that?
What is “The Sound of Music” about?
I think the subject of “The Sound of Music” is basically, well, so many wonderful things — faith, of course, and the free market, and the waving of flags and, of course, capitalism. And certainly that’s the real question, right?
I truly think this Haley debacle is worse than Dukakis riding around in the tank. Except there were visuals for that one. All we’ve got here is the little spin-around on stage.
Open thread.
Holy Fuck, Alexandra Petri Has Outdone HerselfPost + Comments (92)
(Image by NEIVANMADE)
Let’s start with Belgorod, Russia:
https://twitter.com/krides/status/1741166306609525122
What seems to happen is a whole lot of missiles and/or missile parts came down on Belgorod:
https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1741078720188752042
It appears that Russian air defense hit whatever was fired at/over Belgorod, but the debris fell on Belgorod.
Russia bombarded Kharkiv again today:
https://twitter.com/maria_avdv/status/1741151103150940392
https://twitter.com/maria_avdv/status/1741155225560400360
More on both of these after the jump, as well as revised butcher’s bill for Russia’s massive bombardment of Ukraine.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
Mousebumples just sent me an article that surprised me. These days even with a good article, I read a bit, think this is really good!, leave the article open in a tab so I can come back to it, and figure I will read it later when I have more time.
Not this time.
His Shock Win Flipped a Pennsylvania County. Now He Vows to Raise Hell over Its Lethal Jail. (Bolts)
It’s a David and Goliath story, and David won the race. But an unlikely David, at that! At least to look at him. In other ways, he’s David through and through. And he’ll be inaugurated on Jan 2. Justin Douglas, a pastor and an activist, had never thought about running. He had almost no money, and a simple message. He pounded it home, and won.
He’s instantly recognizable as almost anything but a successful politician: he’s got gauge earrings, 42 tattoos, and dresses in jeans, band tees, and Nike sneakers.
By any standard measure, his campaign seemed doomed from the start: He had no paid staff or office. His team of volunteers, a few friends of his with zero combined campaign experience, met in the corner of a Starbucks in Hershey. He ran without institutional backing or money; while his opponents combined to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, Douglas reports spending only about $12,000.
Prisoners are dying in the county prison, at an alarming rate. The prison holds about 1,000 people at a time, and most of the people there have not been convicted – either they can’t make bail or they have violated probation or parole. 120 days is the average stay. And some of them end up with a de facto death sentence without even being convicted of anything.
In addition, local journalists have found that the county has often misreported its jail deaths—in some cases, covering up its own responsibility.
In one such instance, Dauphin County reported the death of Herbert Tilghman as a “medical event,” which, PennLive found, obscured the fact that prison staff failed to take Tilghman’s stomach pains seriously, providing minimal treatment and even accusing him of faking illness shortly before he died.
In a separate case, the county initially said Ishmail Thompson died in a “medical episode,” failing to note that officers had placed Thompson in a restraint chair, and a hood over his head, then pepper-sprayed him soon before he fell unconscious and, ultimately, comatose.
A bit of the backstory.
There are many paths to elected office, Justin Douglas quips, “but fired pastor is not one.”
A year ago, he says, he could not have named the three men who serve on the county commission of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, his home since 2015. This powerful body, with control of a $222 million budget and a county government workforce of 1,700, meets Wednesdays in downtown Harrisburg, in a building that Douglas had never entered.
Still, he got a call in February from Run for Something, an organization that recruits progressive candidates for local elections, to see if he’d be interested in running for a seat on the county commission. The last time the office was on the ballot, in 2019, Douglas did not vote. He’d just been fired from his job as pastor at a local church for appearing in a promotional video welcoming LGBTQ+ people to join the congregation. He, his wife, and their three kids were forced out of the home, which was owned by the church. All this time later, Douglas, 39, is still working three jobs to make up for what happened: he’s a pastor at a new church and a fitness instructor, and last year he drove more than 2,000 miles for Uber.
His stand at the church fit with what he describes as his longtime activist streak. A mainstay in various corners of Dauphin County where matters of social equity and justice are concerned, Douglas grew active in recent years in protest of conditions in the local jail, an aging and oppressive facility where people die at an alarming rate. The county commission has vast power over that jail, a significant factor, Douglas says, in his decision to take Run for Something up on its proposal. He still felt like an imposter when he decided in March to enter the race.
Open thread.
You Just Never Know – One Person Making a DifferencePost + Comments (38)
