Mark Meadows In Contempt of Congress & With No Viable Executive Privilege, It’s Indictment Time
The Lincoln Project – Protect America
politicsrus – Protect Democracy HD
Rebel HQ – NDLB’s 2022 lineup is ready to send the GQP packing!
This Scene From The Titus Show Stuck with Trae Crowder Ever Since it Aired
Really American – Republicans COWER in Fear of Trump
Beau – Let’s talk about altering the Supreme Court…
Yesterday,I did the lst odds and ends of preparing for the drive.I sllao colected little advance material. Then I got to bed early. I will definitely pass greetings to Virgil today, I will drive carefully, and I will let you know I got home safe – it may not be the instant I get in the door as I’ll be eager to change clothes, but as soon as I get to the computer.
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Short Takes
Wonkette – When Will We Finally Accept That Trumpism Was Never About Economic Anxiety?
Quote – The Tea Party was a white, middle-class movement, and while not overtly violent, it was the product of racist backlash to Obama’s election. Republicans exploited the backlash, tip-toeing around the racism, for their immediate political gain. They cocked the weapon and handed it over to Trump, but we give him too much credit when we assume that if he hadn’t won in 2016, the problem would have gone away. (We can only imagine the violent backlash against Hillary Clinton.) A reported six out of every seven January 6 insurrectionists charged with crimes had no previous affiliations with extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, or the Three Percenters militia. This wasn’t a surprise to University of Chicago historian Kathleen Belew, who told Gellman: “January 6 wasn’t designed as a mass-casualty attack, but rather as a recruitment action.”
Click through for more. I’ve often thought that, had Hillary won, her Presidency would have been much like Obama’s, only with more backlash, because misgyny is deeper and stronger than racism. That doesn’t mean I don’t wish she had won – I do wish that, with all my heart. But it would not have derailed Trump**.
Crooks and Liars – Kelloggs To Permanently Replace 1400 Striking Workers
Quote – The decision follows months of bitter disagreement between the company and the union. The rejected offer would have provided cost of living adjustments in the later years of the deal and preserved the workers’ current healthcare benefits. But workers say they deserve significant raises because they routinely work more than 80 hours a week, and they kept the plants running throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Click through. I don’t knowingly cross a picket line. Thankfully, one of the comments included a link to an article of everything they own.
Mother Jones – Baristas in Buffalo Just Formed the First Starbucks Union in the United States
Quote – In a watershed moment for the recent wave of pandemic-inspired labor organizing, workers at a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, voted [December 9] to form the coffee chain’s first union in the United States. Despite months of opposition from party leadership, 19 workers at the Elmwood location in Buffalo voted in favor of unionizing in the election, conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. Only eight opposed.
Click through for story – If I had had to guess way in advance where this wou;d happen … Buffalo would not have been my first guess. But whatever. More power to them!
Food for Thought –
Glenn Kirschner – Former Minneapolis Office[r] Kim Potter on Trial for Fatal Shooting of Daunte Wright: A Trial Preview
Don Winslow – #StopTheMisinformation (It isn’t really fair to blame this on the media. They were lied o by people who should have known if anyone did. I think it was Meadows himself who was responsible for this.)
Thom Hartmann – Is The Time Limit on Democracy Running Out (“MY” Congressman recently btagged about accepting some himd of honor from Viktor Orbán. Just sayin’.)
Ring of Fire – Tom Cotton Held Up Biden Nominations Because His Feelings Were Hurt
politicsrus – Keep Your Thoughts and Prayers
Mrs Betty Bowers – Life Is Precious Unless It’s Not
Beau – Let’s talk about Texas voting rights….
Yesterday, I got a package of jewelry supplies, checked it against the invoice, and got it all put away. I got my clothes and shoes put together. I think I’m ready, and I still have today in case I think of something undone. Tomorrow I go to see Virgil. Sunset will be, at most, 3 minutes earlier than it was 2 weeks ago. Soon – before the solstice – it will start to get later each day.
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Short Takes
Wonkette – DC National Guard Commanders Aren’t Going To Let Mike Flynn’s Brother Pin This Sh*t On Them
Quote – Walker and Matthews say they begged to deploy the National Guard troops from 2:30 in the afternoon on. According to Walker, who is now the House Sergeant at Arms, the IG Report incorrectly states that Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Mayor Muriel Bowser were on that call, but they were not McCarthy has said he authorized the DCNG to deploy within the hour. But this memo tells a different story, much more like the one Walker told Congress way back in March. It recounts that Mike Flynn’s brother Gen. Charles Flynn, who served as deputy chief of staff for operations on Jan. 6, and Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, the director of Army staff, were against deploying the guard because of “optics,” and counseled Walker to have the guardsmen replace DC cops directing traffic so that only DC police would respond to the riot.
Click through for story. Good for them. I never assume that just because a person is a close family member of a criminal, that they condob=ne the crime, much less participate in it – look at the Gosar family and Mary Trump. But in this case there is evidence. Charles need a Court Martial.
The 19th – The federal government is making a new investment in women-owned small businesses
Quote – The Small Business Administration, the federal agency that supports entrepreneurs, is putting a greater focus on women business owners than ever before in the agency’s history, following two years that have decimated small businesses and brought into stark relief the barriers still facing the fastest-growing group of owners.
Click through for details. Gotta have good news sometimes or we’d all wither up and die.
CBS News – 60 Minutes speaks with ex-NSA contractor Reality Winner about leaking a document to the press
Quote – Reality Winner explained the sequence of events that led to her decision to leak a classified government document to the media, a decision that would go on to cost her four years behind bars. Winner said she was concerned that, “the truth wasn’t true anymore,” and spoke to what she says was an atmosphere of confusion and mistrust that plagued America in early 2017. “The public was being lied to,” Winner explained. She says despite having taken an oath to protect classified material, she had “pledged service to the American people” and wanted to end the perceived “confusion,” about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.
Click through. All the clips are there, but separately, so if you want to watch the whole thing, you can do so in convenient 15-minute chunks. Spoiler: There really was Russian interference in the 2016 elections, at more levels than you would think.
Food for Thought –
Glenn Kirschner – Judge Sets Bannon Trial for July; Mark Meadows on the Verge of Being the Next Contempt Referral
Don Winslow – #SubpoenasNow
Meidas Touch – Shannon Watts responds to Judge Jeanine blaming liberals for school shooting
The Lincoln Project – Last week in the Republican Party…
Really American – Nunes RESIGNS To Run Trump “Media Empire”
Brent Terhune – Fox News Christmas Tree on Fire
Beau – Let’s talk about information silos and theories…. Oh my.
Yesterday, after a week when it was hard to find videos and articles, I found so many that tomorrow’s calumns are practically done already. Well, that’s a good thing for me, since I see Virgil on Saturday, but I hope it won’t result in feeling like old news. If there’s something you don’t see today, it may already be scheduled for tomorrow.
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Short Takes
Crooks and Liars – Dana Milbank Proves Biden Coverage Is As Negative As Trump’s
Quote – Yep. Turns out, Biden’s press coverage for the past four months has been as bad as — and for a time worse than — the coverage Trump received for the same four months of 2020. Let that sink in. Joe Biden is being treated the same as Trump, whose criminal behavior was a daily occurrence in plain view.
Click through. You mau not have even realized that this is measurable. But it is.
HuffPost – Explainer: How Unusual To Charge Parents In School Shooting?
Quote – A 2019 assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security found that guns came from the home of a parent or close relative in 76% of school attacks where firearms were used. In about half, the firearms were easily accessible. But laws aimed at restricting gun access are not always enforced and vary in strength, experts say. “Our laws haven’t really adapted to the reality of school shootings, and the closest we have are these child access prevention laws,” said Kris Brown, president of the Brady gun control advocacy group
Click through for multiple examples and rationales.
Wonkette – Fox News Presents Holiday Classic ‘How The Black Lives Matter Stole Christmas’
Quote – Because we know how to look things up for ourselves, we were able to go to the Black Lives Matter website and learn about the Black Christmas campaign, just to see how full of shit Hegseth is. It’s so innocuous, if you’re not a mouthbreathing white racist. It has sections for #BuildBlack and #BuyBlack and #BankBlack, and it indeed encourages people to spend their money with Black-owned businesses and banks, instead of propping up white supremacist systems.
Click through. A news clip about the tree will be in today’s Video Thread.
Food for Thought –
(Nashville has extra room now after rmoving the caricature og Nathan Bedford Forrest.)
Glenn Kirschner – House Postpones Flynn & Luna Testimony; Flynn Should be Returned to Active Duty and Court-Martialed (I’ll bet Miles Taylor could tell us what a “body man”s duties were – and I’ll bet it had something to do with adult diapers.)
The Lincoln Project – Pearl Harbor Rememberance Day
CNN – Meadows SPOOKED, Subpoena Coming Next? (If he thought he could “make a deal,” he has no idea who the committe members are.)
RepresentUs – This Is What Corporate Welfare Looks Like
politicsrus – Democracy Is Hard Earned
Six13 a capella – West Side Chanukah Story (I really do think Lenny must be smiling down. BTW you can close it when they start talking – pitching – at the end.)
Beau – Let’s talk about a letter from Texas…..
Yesterday still pretty calm. I did “bite the bullet” and glued and crimped end caps on 20 strands of very light, very slick, and very thin (about 3/16″) jewelry ribbon for pendants Because they were so slick, I had to glue them in place and let them dry before crimping, or they would have slipped right out. Since I didn’t graduate from Hogwarts, I couldn’t temporarily make me smaller, or them larger, so they’d be easier to handle. But I certainly wished I could. I did get it done, though.
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Short Takes
Politizoom – Thomas Massie Comes Clean About the Republican Party. We Owe Him
Quote – There was an amusing little dust up on MSNBC [a few] night[s ago]. Bulwark editor Charlie Sykes was asked to comment on Thomas Massie’s egregiously tone deaf Christmas card photo of la famille armed for bear, in light of four children being murdered at school last week in Michigan. Sykes called the display a “dick pic” which caused the host to flutter and respond, “Sorry, everybody, I’m not sure we can say that, Charlie!” This was family hour, after all. But Sykes is spot on in his assertion that, “He’s basically trying to show off. He’s trying to trigger to get the reaction.”
Click through if you like. The analogy is exactly on target.
Stuff That Needs To Be Said – Yes World, It’s That Bad Here in America—and Worse
Quote – But here on the ground this malignant sickness has a face, one that is far too familiar – So yes, it’s the staggering cruelty of those holding the power here—but just as much it’s the people we know and live alongside who are so gladly empowering them.
Click through for the full description. See if it doesn’t resonate with you. It certainly does with me. I may just put the link in my email signature in lieu of Rocky Mountain Mike.
The New Yorker – Should We Believe the Stories of Men Mistaken for Gods?
Quote – Who can make a god is as fascinating a question as who can kill one, and Anna Della Subin tries to answer both in her new book, “Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine” (Macmillan). Setting Cook alongside the likes of Haile Selassie, Hernán Cortés, Prince Philip, General Douglas MacArthur, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and even President Donald Trump, she considers why some men are made into gods, by whom, and—the most interesting of the mysteries about Cook and all of his putatively divine kin—to what ends.
Click through for more, including anecdotes. Without reading the book, I’m pretty sure the correct answer is “No.” Or maybe “Hell, no.” (And reading through did not change my mind.)
Food for Thought (OK, I know it’s silly) –
