Holidays, Busing Immigrants, Cruel Christmas Cheer, Melting Trump

  • News Corpse reviews the 10th Elon Twitter dump that attempts to prove a pre-Elon government conspiracy to censor Twitter, and finds a connect-the-dots puzzle where there are no connections.
     
  • Cato’s Julian Sanchez probably has the best take on Elon Musk’s decreasing relevance:


  • John Scalzi at Whatever looks at 2022 and sees a gift. We are no longer socially required to idealize the holders of great wealth.
     
    Key paragraph:
    Bankman-Fried is screwed; he’ll be spending a long time at the prison camp at Otisville or something similar. Musk will probably be fine financially, since, even if he’s no longer the World’s Richest Man™, he has more than enough margin to get by. But the idea that anyone who is not actively licking his boots still considers him a genius, or, indeed, even competent, is laughable. As for Zuckerberg, well, bless his heart, both he and Meta seem determined to ride the concept of Sunk Cost Fallacy all the way down to MySpaceLand.
     
  • The Propaganda Professor argues against directly rebutting Twitter falsehoods.
     
  • PZ Myers explains why he has no trouble, none at all, choosing between Twitter and Mastodon.
     
  • Dave Columbo answers Tucker with Woke Tucker:
    @davecolumbo A Tucker you can trust #woketucker #democrats #democrat #democratsoftiktok #ukraine #ukraine🇺🇦 #zelensky #politics #news #fyp #fy ♬ Manke, honobo, everyday, funny, loop – arachang

  • Losing Republican candidate for Governor of Arizona, Kari Lake, keeps demanding, and suing, and losing, and appealing, and denying her loss. Now her lawyers are reduced to arguing about temporarily off-line printers.


    Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson is somewhat less patient with persistent, pointless, and, as it turns out, actionable election denial.

  • Andy Borowitz reports as Kari Lake flips out at the 7‑Eleven after buying her losing lottery ticket.
     
    Key passage:
    The former anchorwoman accused the Cash Craze machine of being rigged against her and “riddled with fraud.”
     
  • driftglass sees weird former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard humiliate comically untruthful new Republican George Santos on television, and recognizes a tactic used by Cary Grant in a 1959 spy thriller.
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors explains the reasons Republican leadership will not demand George Santos resign.
     
    Best ironic line in this informative piece:
    You really cannot make up this stuff.
     
  • Frances Langum has a good guy award for Maya Guerra Gamble, the extraordinarily patient judge in the Alex Jones/Sandy Hook trial.
     
  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged recounts the entertaining downfall of an openly misogynistic self-help toxic masculinist who tries to troll very young climate activist Greta Thunberg, is reduced to a feeble mew (How dare you!?), tries to roar back, accidentally doxes himself, and gets arrested by Romanian authorities.
     
    Relevant phrase on his arrest for rape and human trafficking:
    because sometimes people who espouse horrific points of view on the internet are, actually, horrible people.
     
  • A lot of vitriol aimed at Meghan and Harry gets posted on social media. My question, posted multiple times to multiple angry people has not yet been answered.


    To at least some, venom is not enough.
    Tommy Christopher reveals Breitbart style creative editing to transform a small bit of self-deprecating storytelling video by Meghan into vicious mockery of a recently departed Queen.
     
    When the truth on its own just won’t do, some folks have an irresistable need to help it out.
     

  • In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson notes this week’s 160th anniversary of what remains the largest group execution in US history, 38 Indigenous fighters in 1862.
     
    It is a fascinating, horrific, account. A Northern population was increasingly coming to terms with Black equality, but still comfortable with the extermination of Native Americans by war or starvation. Failing that, many were satisfied with the prospective execution of massive numbers. President Lincoln had a problem with that.
     
  • Infidel753 is more than a little ticked off at railway workers being screwed over.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit points to an unlikely alliance between recurring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US Christian right.
     
    She explains why this will not prove to be an ideal strategy.
     
    Key passage:
    That is not going to sit well with most American Jews. “You are not Jewish enough for our taste, but send us money and pressure your congressmen to support us” does not seem to be a winning tactic.
     
  • Green Eagle watches the World Cup and is irritated by anti-Israeli propaganda.
     
  • At The Moderate Voice Robert Levine looks at the state of Brexit, and concludes that it has been really bad policy enacted for really bad reasons with really bad results.
     
    Key passage:
    This economic disaster is the result of British nationalism which railed against EU rules and foreign immigrants. With low birth rates and population decreases, immigrants are necessary in all developed nations to bolster their economies. This is a warning to nationalists worldwide including the United States.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz has a message for Christians. Not everything that proclaims itself as Christian is, in fact, Christian:

  • Scotties Playtime listens to actor Kirk Cameron boast about impossible crowds at his Christian presentation at a public library. He doesn’t mind lying in service to the Lord. Scottie suggests this pattern is not unusual for Christian activists.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce ponders a relatively liberal pastor in Schenectady, New York who preaches that atheists, along with skeptics, secularists, agnostics, and unbelievers, are responsible for the increasing level of unbelief in the United States.
     
    Key passage:
    Why does this bother Kennedy so much? If Christianity is a superior worldview, why are people rejecting it, especially younger adults? Are atheists using myths, coercion, and fanciful claims to win over people to their cause?
     
    Second key:
    Regardless of his motivation, he might want to consider how atheists could be his ally. Both Kennedy and atheists think Evangelicalism is causing material harm to our culture. Why not join together around a common cause?
     
  • Worth a run through: Vagabond Scholar posts his annual best blog posts as chosen by those who post blogs.
     
  • YellowDog Granny starts a swear jar and has a few other thoughts.
     

– Podcasts –
 

3 thoughts on “Holidays, Busing Immigrants, Cruel Christmas Cheer, Melting Trump”

  1. Happy New Years, Burr, et al.

    I really appreciate your gathering of blogs and other interesting stuff from the Internet every week, Burr. It makes my weekends just a little brighter and the blog just a little busier.

    I really liked the videos of the teachers. The one of the students choosing their greeting is just as charming as it can be.

    Huzzah!
    Jack

  2. wishing you & yours a great year ahead!!! the teachers were the best – had to watch them several times, smiling all the while

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