Good evening.
Service dogs being trained to sit through a play! There are actors on the stage performing a musical for a theatre full of dogs. pic.twitter.com/fAKSKzytWQ
— Des (@desdelboy) November 24, 2022
- John Scalzi at Whatever has a suggestion for those discouraged at the prospective collapse of social media. We should all start or reactivate our own blog sites.
In my case, returning after missing most of November is simplified.
Our battle hardened, highly decorated, combat veteran faces challenges I cannot begin to imagine.
Our young Marine, not yet recovered, is nonetheless in recovery.
And so I return to blogging.
- Dave Columbo and Laura High lead their adventure in news with a wonderful takedown of Elon Musk
@davecolumbo @laurahigh5 is back for #newsoclock! #news #breaking #trump #democrats #democrat #democratsoftiktok #politics #political #politicaltiktok #fy #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #elonmusk #musk ♬ original sound – Dave Columbo - With the decision to reinstate Twitter accounts of pretty much every banned person who is not actually a criminal, reactions are coming in. According to Andy Borowitz Elon Musk is receiving praise from grateful Americans thirsting for content from Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Key passage:
“Now that Marjorie Taylor Greene is back on Twitter, Elon’s going to be laughing all the way to the bank,” a resident of Phoenix said
- At The Onion, MIT has begun a new program to prepare students for the occasional real world requirement of appeasing the whims of a capricious Tech CEO.
Key passage:
The program itself will be a high-pressure, stressful environment that mimics the reality of working under a tech CEO who is unable to control their own emotions, puts employees under constant threat of being fired, and often does fire them, only to ask them to return to work a week later when everything starts breaking down.
- In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson traces the unlikely birth and violent history of our national day of Thanksgiving.
- Max’s Dad remembers 59 years ago and the horrible trauma my generation shared with the nation.
I have memories as well.
- We celebrate, as we should, the Army veteran who took down the shooter at a nightclub in Colorado, and the drag queen who helped him subdue the culprit. Their bravery saved lives.
Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger devotes a piece remembering through photos the loss of 5 innocent victims of hate, five who simply wanted to have an evening of fun.
- Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged tells us about an internet site that targets for violence LGBTQ groups, individuals, their friends, and their allies.
Key passage:
I don’t doubt there is a certain RW element who wants not just queer people, but their allies, dead. And they need to stop acting so afflicted when we point it out.
- At Scotties Playtime a prominent Republican reacts to the shooting, noting that, because she sees no evidence that they were Christians, the murder victims are now in hell. Hell she says, that they deserve.
My reaction to unrelated messages may apply here as well:The temptation may come with any religion: lapsing from a search for spiritual truth to an embrace of tribalism.
In our case, a sort of Christianity without those pesky "teachings" from that bothersome Jesus character.
Us v them is more fun
— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) November 7, 2022
- North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz seems impatient at the contradiction as Republicans lament the hatred they themselves helped to create.
- Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit explains why data analysis developed by the Department of Homeland Security could help predict incidents of domestic terrorism. She then tells us why this essential anti-terrorism tool has not, and likely never will be, used to protect our communities.
- Disaffected and it Feels So Good perceives a political pattern: while public figures use their microphones to cheerlead, the right generally, and Republicans specifically, have declared a war of physical violence on the American people.
- Libertarians, like most ideologues, live in a binary world. There are true believers (good) and there are enemies (evil). There are no gradations.
For members of that tribe, there exist only freedom lovers who oppose all governmental interference, and thinly disguised Stalinists who want to put the world into a gigantic re-education camp.
The overwhelming scientific consensus that climate scorch is real, that it is dangerous, and that it is caused by human activity, heavily implies a need for regulation.
So libertarians have no alternative but to reject the entire idea.
Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara has a Thanksgiving message. He lists his personal heroes in the fight against “dangerous gross exaggerations about climate change”.
A key passage:
Battling against the demonizers who label them “deniers” of climate or science, these important thinkers have begun to turn the tide against the anti-human catastrophists.
I can empathize with resentment at labeling. I resent the demonizers who label me “bald” or “elderly” or “round about the middle”.
- Professor PZ Myers, like Michael A. LaFerrara, is not a climate scientist. But, being a scientist himself, he knows several and studies their work. So what he says about the danger to humanity is factual and fact packed.
- CalicoJack in The Psy of Life joins Republicans in their reaction to the stunning election results.
- Iron Knee at Political Irony lists some of this month’s losses for anti-abortion candidates and referenda. He speculates that Republicans may modify their no-exceptions stance: Abortion must be opposed except when prohibition will endanger the life or health of the next Republican campaign.
- As returns were coming in last week, Green Eagle had a thought that holds up pretty well this week. Maybe things went worse for Republicans than will be generally recognized for a while.
- Or maybe not.
Although the great red wave turned into a tepid ripple, The Propaganda Professor reminds us that it was not all good news. In fact, the bad news is a portend of possible devastation that poses several direct dangers to the core principles of democracy.
- Hackwhackers has a pretty good idea how Republicans will handle their new slim majority.
- A prophet tells us that God wants the election overturned. In fact, God is actually speaking through her.
Julian Sanchez of Cato Institute seems skeptical:I have to assume she’s an atheist or she’d be, you know, nervous about this kind of ventriloquism, which is slightly embarrassing. I promise most of us are more ethical than this. https://t.co/tSD0Icexzg
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) November 17, 2022
- This will be delightful.
News Corpse reports as Herschel Walker challenges Joy Reid to a debate. An-n-n-n-nd guess what happens next!
- I have never really believed in Karma, except perhaps in some extended form over multiple lives. My experience has been that bad people often do bad things in bad ways and never come to regret it. What goes around does not always come around. It sometimes comes out in the wash whitewashed.
I do recall exceptions. One pundit watched Nixon go from King-of-the-Hill to buried in his own avalanche in spectacular fashion and wondered at the proof that God is really at work among us.
Exception-and-rule rule, I remember thinking.
The Palmer Report applies Karma to a stunningly bad week in TrumpLand.
It’s a time for mixed metaphors as the goose of a turkey gets cooked.
I dunno. We’ll see.
- In Nan’s Notebook, Nan is happy that 14,904 people have signed a petition sponsored by a Christian organization protesting a prospective second Trump presidency.
Don’t know if she actually intended this implied criticism to include all of us:
FINALLY! A group of believers that have seen through the Great Façade!
Intended or not, we may deserve it.
- Frances Langum considers a hyper-dumb question by Fox host Jesse Watters and discerns more evidence that the suits at Fox are dumping Trump and dumping on Trump.
- A Trump advisor is in despair:
Hard to imagine a MAGA final, this is it, rock bottom.
Each one seems to have a cellar.However:
Dining with a white nationalist is apparently still a negative in TrumpWorld.https://t.co/wn0YfOp3Zt— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) November 26, 2022
The first explanation from Trump enthusiasts is that Donald’s dinner with Kanye did not include white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Then mr Trump explains that Kanye brought in a couple of friends. Trump had no idea who they were, had never heard of them, had no conversation with them, and then after eating wordlessly they left.
tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has other sources who were there. Apparently, Kanye and everyone else confirm the dinner was more eventful.
Included is this:Trump, Kanye, Nick Fuentes — No longer a disaster waiting to happen. Now just a disaster. https://t.co/klhUAbIL58
— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 25, 2022
And this insight from tengrain:
And when you’ve lost Byron York, there’s not much left in the bottom of the barrel.
- Infidel753 cites evidence that reports of rapes in Ukraine by out of control Russian troops are largely inaccurate. The troops are not out of control. Those sexual abuses are encouraged, often ordered, by Russian military leadership.
He suggests that such practices parallel those inflicted by other authoritarian regimes, such as Iran, and are frequently used to enforce religious taboos.
He does not exclude Christians.
- When advised that the Vatican might not be happy with Soviet attacks on Catholics, Stalin is said to have laughed. How many divisions does the Pope have?
As the Human Rights office of the United Nations announces an investigation into Iran’s brutal reaction to popular protests, the casual observer, which is to say me, might be tempted to respond derisively. It seems like a Susan Collins level of sputtered concern.
What possible difference can an investigation make when it merely targets already obvious brutality? Even worse, what actual significance when conducted by those with no power to enforce? How many divisions do investigators have?
At The Moderate Voice Brij Khindaria explains the significance.
Not every authoritarian regime is assured of remaining in power indefinitely. An official UN finding could increase the stakes for those who might not only lose power, but could then be hauled into an international court.
- YellowDog Granny posits a reasonable speculation of how God created Dog.
- In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce is instructed by my Brother-In-Christ that he would once more become a Bible believing Christian if only he would interpret the Good Book with greater maturity.
Bruce is graced with a gentle, thoughtful humor. But his friendly jibes infuriate my fellow Christian, who leaves in an angry cloud of pure huff.
People of faith often share the affliction of arrogance. I wince when I see my own replicated so blatantly.
We need not give up our faith to accept the wisdom offered by others. Bruce is frequently a worthy source.
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson has useful holiday advice:
If you're completing your Christmas decorations this weekend, I would like to remind you that there are no penguins at the North Pole.
— James Wigderson (@jwigderson) November 24, 2022
On the other hand, the elves and the Coca-cola consuming polar bears are the real deal.
— James Wigderson (@jwigderson) November 24, 2022
- Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo rip apart Justice, Supreme Court leaker, and frequent guest speaker at gatherings of right-wing ideologues, Samuel Alito:
- Tommy Christopher covers, in hilarious detail, the WeddingGate scandal. Reporters for national media outlets vent their rage on camera at not being invited to the ceremony.
Included is a wonderful debate about whether a private wedding is truly private if pictures of the couple are allowed before the event begins.
Key passage:
Is there a power in the universe that wants to argue with a bride on her wedding day?
- In Happiness Between Tails da-AL’s husband Khashayar has a terrific recipe for a sweet potato frittata. Directions in the podcast are not that hard to follow, but she puts it in print as well.
- Ant Farmer’s Almanac comes up with a topical definition of the word Fascismo.
- M. Bouffant at Web of Evil lists seven things he wishes would go away forever. The 7th strikes me as a bit extreme, but it is endorsed by Elvis, so there is that.
- Clickbait satirist Reductress provides useful advice on how to answer the little girl you babysit that, no, you are without a boyfriend, but that it is way cool.
- SilverAppleQueen has cats who like to watch snow.
– Podcasts –
Good to see you back, and good to see the news is good. Keeping you all lifted.