Rules are Rules, Everyone!

That Time of the Year

One Republic - Dear Santa

Drama for Christmas

A Modern Nativity

A Darth Holiday from the Death Star

Merry (Naughty) Christmas!

 

Jimmy Fallon & Meghan Trainor - Wrap Me Up

Pentatonix - Please Santa Please

Cher - DJ Play a Christmas Song

Sorry to Interrupt the Holiday With a Dose of Dangerous Rhetoric - But It's Important

R U Gonna Be Naughty or Nice This Season?

Keeping It Real at Christmas

Merry Maga Christmas

Holiday Mishap

 

Unfortunate Christmas Display

Don't Let the Door Hit Your Ass on the Way Out, Kevin!

The House of Representatives said farewell this week to ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who resigned his seat instead of serving out his term as he had promised. It was an exercise in outrageous bullshit, with everyone pretending that McCarthy had accomplished anything beyond the bare minimum of keeping the government’s doors open.

In a speech on the floor,  GOP's Patrick McHenry said that McCarthy had been:  "A great leader for House Republicans, this institution, for America;" "a great Speaker;" "a legislative craftsman to make this place work;" "a legislative equivalent of an elite power athlete;" and  "a political mastermind."

“Political mastermind” is definitely the real howler of that incredulous list. McCarthy's 118th Congress passed only 10 laws during its first year-- compared with Nancy Pelosi's 117th Congress, which passed 81 laws in its first year.  McCarthy's House was only able to pass a mere 63 additional pieces of legislation-- Pelosi (probably the nation's greatest speaker, ever) passed 389 other pieces of legislation in her first year.  

McCarthy also tried to give himself gave his own political eulogy, keeping up the absurd theme of “McCarthy the statesman.”  But then he spoiled the "statesman" effect by resorting to nasty partisan sniping that we’ve come to expect from him-- with digs at both former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden.

But his rewriting of his own history was the most remarkable part of the farewell address. “If you come across that question of whether you should do what is right out of fear of losing your job, do it anyways,” he said yes, he said “anyways” in his final formal address). But what came next was the really embarrassing bit: “Because it is the right thing to do and this is what the nation requires.”  Right-- the history books will surely remember McCarthy for always doing the right thing (nah, I don't think so).

The fact is that McCarthy’s real legacy will be the chaos of his selection as speaker (all 15 votes of it), the chaos and ineffectiveness of his short tenure, and the final embarrassment of how it ended-- with McCarthy as the only speaker in the history of the United States to be ousted.

McCarthy will also be remembered for being the guy who spoke the truth about Donald Trump well before he reached the White House.  In a private meeting with House leadership in 2016, McCarthy infamously said,  “There's two people I think Putin pays: [GOP Representative Dana] Rohrabacher and Trump. … swear to God.” 

 

Samara Joy - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Books on Slavery Too Offensive for White People Visiting Former Slave Plantation

The Texas Historical Commission has removed around two dozen race-related books from the gift shops of two former slave plantations because one person complained, according to Texas Monthly.  Michelle Haas, a white amateur historian, began emailing a commission board member after visiting the Varner-Hogg plantation last year.

Titles reportedly removed included: “Remembering the Days of Sorrow,” a book of slave narratives; “Invisible Man,” the Ralph Ellison novel on the Black experience; “Stamped from the Beginning,” a history of racist ideas by Ibram X. Kendi; and “Roots,” the Alex Haley novel famously adapted for television in the 1970s.

The Texas Historical Commission is a state agency overseeing the preservation of certain historical sites across the state. As such, they were required to respond to an open records request from the Texas Monthly asking for emails relating to the gift shop situation.  As revealed in the emails,  Haas thought the Varner-Hogg plantation presented too much information about the enslaved Black people who worked the sugarcane fields and not enough about the white people who lived in the main house. She later reportedly emailed David Gravelle, a commission’s board member, a list of titles she did not like that were available at another nearby historical site, the Levi Jordan plantation.

Haas is the author of a book of her own, titled “200 Years a Fraud,” which takes the text of the “12 Years a Slave” memoir and points out what she considers historical inaccuracies in the primary author’s account of his own life.  Board member Gravelle took up Haas’ complaints with the board, claiming he feared the Republican-controlled state legislature would be upset if lawmakers found out about the titles on offer.

 

Mystery of Japan's Dead Fish - Maybe It's Fukushima Water

Thousands of tons of dead fish have washed up on a beach in northern Japan and nobody knows why.  The haul – mostly sardines and some mackerel – washed ashore in Hakodate on the northernmost main island of Hokkaido.  It created a sliver blanket stretching half a mile along the coastline.

Locals said they have never seen anything like it. Officials posted a warning online urging people not to consume the fish after some bagged them up to eat or sell. Takashi Fujioka, a Hakodate Fisheries Research Institute researcher, said he has heard of similar phenomena before, but it was his first time to see it.

"One possible cause is that the school of fish was chased by a larger fish, became exhausted, and was washed up by the waves," he suggested.  "Another possible cause is that the school of fish entered cold waters during their migration and were then washed ashore. But details are uncertain."

The decomposing fish could lower oxygen levels in the water and affect the marine environment, Fujioka said.   "We don’t know for sure under what circumstances these fish were washed up, so I do not recommend eating them," he added.

 

 

 

Happy Holidays from NASA

  

NASA is celebrating the holiday season with photographs of the remnants of a supernova star captured by the James Webb space Telescope.  The star, named Cassiopeia A (Cas A), shines brightly from roughly 11,000 light-years from Earth, making it look like a decoration better suited for a Christmas tree than in the atmosphere.  The images show the inner shell of the star's dust, looking like campfire smoke and giving off bright orange and red hues, but it's the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) that shows the remnants of Cas A reflecting the holiday spirit.

 

Iran Still Trying to Suppress the Truth

The family of Mahsa Amini have been banned from flying to France to collect a top human rights prize in her honor.  Amini's parents and brother were stopped from boarding their flight and had their passports confiscated, according to reports. They were traveling to Strasbourg to be presented with the EU's Sakharov Prize - which has been awarded posthumously to Amini.   The family was banned from leaving despite having valid visas.   Speaking to reporters, the family's lawyer, Chirinne Ardakani, said Ms Amini's mother, father and brother had been "prohibited from boarding the flight that was to take them to France for the presentation of the Sakharov Prize".

Mahsa Amini's death last year sparked protests across Iran unlike any the country had seen before.  She died in the hospital in Tehran on September 16, 2022, three days after she was detained by morality police in the capital for allegedly violating Iran's strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf.  Witnesses said the 22-year-old Kurd was beaten while in custody, but authorities  tried to deny she was mistreated and claimed that "sudden heart failure" was the cause of her death.

The family's lawyer said the Iranian authorities "have never been so mobilized to prevent the families of the victims from speaking to the international community".   In September, on the anniversary of his daughter's death, Amini's father Amjad was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and warned against marking the anniversary of his daughter's death, according to human rights groups. Thousands of people around the world did mark the anniversary, taking to the streets in mass protests.  Amini's father was later released.

In October, the European Union announced it was posthumously awarding its top rights prize to Ms Amini and the global "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement that her death triggered.  The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, called on Iran to "retract the decision" to ban the family from traveling.   "Their place next Tuesday is at the European Parliament in Strasbourg to receive the Sakharov Prize, with the brave women of Iran," she said on social media. "The truth cannot be silenced."

 

Disillusioned and Uninformed In Louisiana

Bawcomville, LA threw a red-neck Christmas parade last weekend-- with redneck-themed floats and marchers throwing toilet paper, toothbrushes, ramen noodles, beads, and candy at spectators along Smith Street in a small community in West Monroe, Louisiana.

“We have Leroy the Redneck Reindeer,” local resident Bryan Baker said, pointing to the stuffed deer head with a red nose on his float. “You can’t get any more redneck than that.” 

But behind the jokes was a more serious reality. The parade route went past people living in an RV and a tent, abandoned stores, a pawn shop, and a couple Dollar Generals. More than 30% of Bawcomville residents live below the poverty line, and the surrounding Ouachita Parish was deemed a persistent poverty county in a 2022 report by the Congressional Research Service. A 2015 documentary called “The Other Side,” which follows a man addicted to meth, was filmed in Bawcomville. The area is well-known locally as a poor community in need of better housing, and West Monroe residents told reporters that the economic strife they see every day affects how they plan to vote next year.

Debi Mayo and Rachel Holmes were doing outreach at the parade for Bawcomville Hope, a non-profit that gives food and hot meals to the needy.  “People don’t realize this is kind of like a Third World country,” Holmes said. There were many homeless people in the area, living in abandoned mobile homes, she explained. “And in the woods,” Mayo added. “Makeshift tents.” They said homelessness was harder to see there than in the streets of the big cities. “It’s a terrible situation we’re in. Even people with jobs are suffering because of the high price of the economy,” Mayo said.    As for the 2024 presidential election, Mayo said, “We hope Trump gets back in there. Maybe he can straighten it out … Because it wasn’t in this turmoil when he left. All this has managed to happen in the last three years.” 

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has been touting “Bidenomics,” with unemployment at a historic low, low-income paychecks bigger, and falling inflation– but public opinion polls show that a majority of people still think the economy is bad.

Some commentary has suggested this is not rational. “Disproportionate doom seems to be a new American affliction,” a Financial Times columnist wrote in December.  Toni Boler, a parade spectator, told CNN:  “Just look at our pocketbooks … What little people may have been able to save from the stimuluses we got – all that is gone. People are living off credit now, if they even have that.” She said her property taxes, property insurance, and utility bills had gotten more expensive. “I don’t know how these families that come to this redneck parade – this community – even can buy groceries.” 

Shane Wooten, a local real estate agent, said he’d bought hundreds of packets of ramen noodles to toss from a La-Z-Boy he’d propped on a motorized scooter to ride in the parade, a reference to a joke that rednecks snacked on dry noodles as they were cheaper than chips.  “It’s just not your typical Christmas parade. It’s something to laugh about,” Wooten said, dressed as the Grinch as the parade got ready in an elementary school parking lot.

A line of monster trucks was capped off by a monster VW bus with weed-smoking icons cut into the rims. Floats included one with with a man sitting on a toilet, signs reading “kiss ur cuzin” and “crack is wak,” boughs of empty beer cans, a nativity scene, a tractor, a trash truck, and many, many pickups. 

In the crowd, Boler said she works with the Louisiana Department of Health, and that her job involved getting people “with serious mental illness a way to get out of the nursing homes. But we really kind of hit a roadblock because there’s no place for people with mental illnesses to go … There’s no housing for people.”  She added, “I think there’s a lot of the population that gets lost – that the administration is worried more about things they don’t need to be worried about, instead of what’s really going on with people that are out here trying to work.” 

William Thompson owns a convenience store in the area. Working there, he’d seen a lot of people struggle with meth and fentanyl. “I blame Biden for that, too,” he said without explanation. Biden has lowered the cost of prescription drugs and passed laws that have made healthcare more affordable.  On the other hand, Trump gave tax breaks to billionaires who have only gotten wealthier off the backs of sick and disadvantaged people.  But Thompson apparently doesn't understand any of that.  Given the chance, he will be voting for Trump in 2024, he said, “because he’s the only president in my knowledge who’s given back to the people and helps the people.”  

 

Happy Holiday to Our Jewish Friends

Johnny Mathis & Kristin Chenoweth - Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Half-eaten Body Found in Tiger Cage After Zoo Staff Spot Victim's Shoe in Cat's Mouth

 A zoo in Pakistan has been shut down after a man was mauled to death by tigers in an attack discovered during routine cleaning, officials said.   The body was found on Wednesday  morning in Bahawalpur's Sherbagh Zoo in the eastern province of Punjab after staff spotted one of the three tigers with a shoe in its mouth.  "The zoo is closed right now as we determine how the man got in," Ali Usman Bukhari, a senior officer of the province's wildlife department, which operates the zoo, told reporters.

The condition of the body suggests the attack happened late Tuesday night.  "The autopsy report has not been released, however evidence gathered from the enclosure points towards him being alive when he was attacked by the tigers," Bukhari said. "The tigers did not go out of the den to attack the man, he  jumped into their enclosure," he said.  "If we find a security lapse, we will address it. If need be, we will hire private  security guards."  The victim has not been identified and  no family member has come forward to claim the body.

Speaking to media outside the zoo after the body was discovered, senior local government official Zaheer Anwar said all staff had been accounted for.  "Our assessment so far is that this appears to be a lunatic, because a sensible person would not jump into the den," he said.  "You can see the den is secured. There are stairs behind the den, maybe he jumped from there." The three tigers present in the den when the body was discovered have been restricted to a smaller space while evidence is collected.

The zoo was built in 1942 by the ruling royal  family of the former princely state of Bahawalpur and costs  adults 50 rupees (18 cents) to enter.  Pakistan's zoos are generally in a poor condition and frequently accused of  disregarding animal welfare.

GOP Speaker Admits to Being a Criminal

Lawrence O'Donnell started his show last night by quoting a federal statute:  "Whoever, knowing that an offense  again the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment is an accessory after the fact."

He went on to basically call House Speaker Mike Johnson a criminal, saying, "The Republican Speaker of the House is now actively trying to prevent arrests for the federal crime of attacking the capitol on January 6.  The federal crime of accessory after the fact requires knowledge that a crime has been committed against the U.S. and that a person with that knowledge then assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment."

"Now keep those words in mind, when you listen to what Mike Johnson said he is doing to the thousands of hours of security video that were recorded at the Capitol on January 6th before he makes all that video publicly available.   

Mike Johnson (in a clip from yesterday's press conference): "We have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don't want them to be retaliated against-- and to be charged by the DOJ."

O'Connell continued:  "That is the first time in history that a Speaker of the House has said that he doesn't want people who committed federal crimes to be charged by the Department of Justice.   That is an admission of accessory after the fact. An accessory after the fact is trying to prevent the apprehension of criminals-- trying to prevent the punishment of criminals. Mike Johnson says-- with that goofy smile-- like he's a cultist in the middle of a cult, all of whom believe that we don't want the Justice Department to charge people after they commit federal crimes on videotape.  And there's more."

Mike Johnson (in another clip from yesterday's press conference): "It's a slow process to get it done-- we're working steadily on it.  We've hired additional personnel to do that."  

O'Connell raged on: "So the same Republican Speaker of the House that blocked funding for Israel by attaching cuts to the IRS workforce to that bill, has hired additional federal workers whose title should be "Accessories After the Fact."  Mike Johnson, who wants to fire IRS workers who investigate federal tax crimes, has hired new federal workers to cover up crimes.   Mike Johnson is the most pro-crime Speaker in the House of Representatives.  In fact, he's the only one who has publicly admitted to participating in (and leading) a cover up of federal crimes."

"The Speaker seems to think that he's not technically guilty of being an accessory after the fact because the Justice Department already has all of this video without any blurred faces of the Trump-crazed criminals attacking the Capitol but the truth is-- throughout the history of American law enforcement, citizens have been identifying criminals for law enforcement that the officials could not identify themselves . . . Hundreds of the Trump-crazed criminals have been arrested only because they were identified by citizens who saw photographs of them or saw video of them and knew who they were-- or figured out who they were-- and alerted the FBI.  Mike Johnson wants to prevent all of that.  Mike Johnson wants to stop every one of those arrests that can still be made because an alert citizen makes a call to the FBI.  He wants to stop hundreds of arrests that could be made."

Summing up, O'Connell said, "Mike Johnson has no legal authority to blur the faces of the criminals in that video.  That video does not belong to Mike Johnson.  That video does not belong to the Republican Party.  That video was created by and paid for by the U.S. Congress-- a branch of the U.S. government, which means that it is owned by the federal government, whose authority comes entirely from us, the voters.  We all own that video-- we paid for it.  Mike Johnson is tampering with the people's video recorded in the people's house. This could never have happened before Donald Trump criminalized Congressional Republicans-- some of whom participated in Trump's criminal plot before January 6th."

The Cults That Took Over Colleges are Aiming for Government

The Daily Kos has shone a light on a place where pregnancy is a crime. Not some future dystopian fiction, but rather what happens at Pensacola Christian College. Students who have attended school there say they are encouraged to turn in their peers, whether for a violation of one of their extensive rules, or more serious “crimes” like suspected homosexual activity or becoming pregnant. Lillith was seen throwing up in a garbage can, so informants reported her to Student Life. She was called to the dean's office on a Sunday to take a pregnancy test.

What happens at PCC is not unique among Christian colleges. Most fundamentalist colleges require far-reaching control over their student body (both physically and emotionally). Yet these kinds of schools have problematic curriculums as well. That’s why most remain unaccredited, which is a big problem if you want to transfer credits to a better school. Regionally accredited schools have rigorous educational standards and are widely accepted, but it also means you can’t teach nonsense like Earth creationism, flood geology, or archeology that pretends dinosaurs were ridden by humans.

A former student, Samantha Field, was sexually assaulted at PCC. She reached out to the school’s Student Life Office, as she was told to do, but said she was told she was the one who needed to repent for it. “I stammered, ‘He—he hurt me.’ She continued as I sat there in disbelief, ‘It’s important, though, that you face what you are responsible for. If you don’t repent, then your relationship with God is broken and can’t be mended. You need God’s grace and forgiveness—and you need to forgive your ex as well.’”

The Pensacola News Journal requested information on the college’s policy and procedures on sexual assault victims but was denied. Because PCC does not participate in federal student aid programs, it is not required to contribute to the U.S. Department of Education’s national database of alleged criminal offenses reported to local law enforcement agencies. 

Bob Jones University, according to a multi-year investigation, shamed sexual assault victims for decades and urged them not to go to the police. A teenager was allegedly forced to confess her "sin" of being raped before a school trustee's congregation.

At Visible Music College, a fundamentalist college in Memphis, Tennessee, a student rape victim was banned from campus. Becca Andrews was raped multiple times at Moody Bible Institute, one of the country’s most prestigious evangelical colleges, but the school wound up investigating her instead of her attacker and simply failed her at every turn.

Christian schools are profoundly influenced by a phenomenon known as "purity culture." Within evangelical educational settings, lessons on sexuality and gender roles begin at a young age, instilling a set of beliefs that place a strong emphasis on sexual and emotional purity, particularly concerning female virginity, prior to marriage. These teachings frequently convey the idea that women are expected to be subservient to men, mirroring the way Christians are called to serve God. It is in this environment that the onus is placed entirely on the women to prevent their own rapes, because men can’t be expected to control their own sexual desires.

Liberty University’s former vice president of communication was appalled at how active a role his school was taking in politics, in violation of their tax-free status. He secretly recorded the new president, Jerry Prevo. Prevo took over after the Falwell scandal.  Prevo said he wanted Liberty to become a more effective political player with the goal of helping to influence elections, Politico reported. “Are they getting people elected? Which is one of our main goals.” Prevo holds the Christian nationalist worldview that claims the U.S. is a Christian nation and everyone should be forced to adhere to laws rooted in the right-wing evangelical interpretation of Christianity.

Ironically, the parents who send their children to these Christian colleges are doing so because they feel they will be kept safe and learn good values. Unfortunately, the opposite can be true. The most frightening belief that can take root is that there are people worth destroying. The world has witnessed too many times what happens when cultish extremism embeds itself. With a combination of propaganda and the systematic erosion of empathy, “normal” people who consider themselves religious become monsters. 

 

King Charles and Kate Revealed as Royal Racists

 In early 2021, Prince Harry and Meghan sat down for a blockbuster interview with Oprah Winfrey.  The two provided viewers with an insight into what life was like for them inside the royal family. The couple spoke about a range of issues, from racism and lack of mental health support to feeling “let down” by the royal family.  

In the interview, Meghan revealed that in the months leading up to the birth of their son, there were conversations within the palace not only about whether Archie would be given a royal title and security but also about “how dark” his “skin might be when he is born.” She said the concerns were relayed to her through Harry but declined to share who made the comments, adding: “I think that would be very damaging to them.”  Oprah later revealed that Harry had told her that the royal who made the comments was not the Queen or Prince Philip.

Well now, thanks to a translation error in the Dutch translation of a book by Omid Scobie, we now know the identities of the culprits:  King Charles and Kate Middleton.   The publishers of the book began pulling the book from the shelves in a desperate attempt to keep the news under wraps-- but the cat was already out of the bag,, so to speak.  For days, many British news outlets had avoided reporting on the blockbuster revelations due to fears over legal action from the royal family.  But after much speculation and public pressure (and following multiple British newspapers and broadcasters identifying the pair as the royal racists), the BBC named the King and the Princess of Wales as the members of the Royal family at the center of the racism accusations.  

 

Holiday Huckster

 

Sashay Away, George!

In honor of of George Santo's brief (but storied) stint in Congress, I thought I would review his greatest hits:

Election Cash: Santos spent campaign contributions  on personal purchases at Hermes, Sephora, and OnlyFans.

ID Theft: Santos stole donors’ identities and made charges on their credit cards.

 

Holocaust Hoax: Santos said in a campaign video that his “grandparents survived the Holocaust.” Several months later, speaking with the Jewish News Syndicate, he said, “I’m very proud of my grandparents’ story,” which he claimed included “fleeing Hitler.”  That was all bullshit--  genealogy records indicate that his grandparents were born in Brazil.

 

Niece was kidnapped, as retribution by Chinese communists:  In an interview with The New York Times that was published in October 2023, Santos said that his young niece had been kidnapped from a playground in Queens, in what he implied may have been retaliation for his public comments about the Chinese Communist Party.  A complete fabrication.

Mom was a 9/11 victim: Santos’s campaign website claimed that his mother “was in her office in the South Tower on September 11,” adding that she “passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer.” On July 12, 2021, he wrote on Twitter: “9/11 claimed my mothers life.”  NBC reported that  “public employment records show only one employer for Santos’ mother--- Imports by Rose, a company based in Queens that shuttered in 1994.” There’s also the awkward matter of documents indicating she was in Brazil on the day of the attacks.  Oops!

Assassination attempt:  In December 2022, Santos told a Brazilian podcast: “We have already suffered an attempt on my life, an assassination attempt, a threatening letter, having to have the police, a police escort standing in front of our house.” He also claimed to have been mugged, in broad daylight, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street.  Yeah, right.

 

Volleyball star:  One of the first lies Santos got caught in was claiming he had graduated from Baruch College with degrees in economics and finance in 2010, a college he did not even attend.  Even more hilarious is the that Santos told multiple people that he was the “star” of the Baruch volleyball team.  He double down on that fanciful tale years later, saying:  That he attended Baruch on a volleyball scholarship; that his team "slayed” the Yale squad; that he could have played basketball but went with volleyball because “it was easier”; and that he “sacrificed both…knees” and “got very nice knee replacements…from playing volleyball” because “that’s how serious I took the game”  Lies upon lies-- according to the New York Post, the Baruch men’s volleyball team “never played Yale during the period Santos claimed to have attended school there.”

 

That Ponzi scheme:  Santos’s employment history (which  did not actually see him working at Goldman Sachs or Citigroup) included time at a financial firm called Harbor City, which the SEC accused of running a Ponzi scheme and was later shut down.

Brazil Bandit: In 2008, Santos was charged with fraud by Brazilian prosecutors for stealing the checkbook of a man his mother was working for and then spending nearly $700 using a stolen checkbook and a fake name. In an interview after many of his lies came to light, Santos insisted: “I am not a criminal here—not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world.” Prosecutors in Brazil have said they plan to re-charge him with fraud.

 

Roommate Robber:  Ex-roommates of Santos (who knew him as Anthony Devolder, a name he was going by as recently as 2019) have said he stole numerous items from them, including a Burberry scarf that he then wore to a “Stop the Steal” rally.

 

Mugged for his Rent:  Santos gave a sworn statement! that he was mugged while attempting to deliver a check for back rent owed to his Queens landlord. Shockingly, there is no record of this happening.

 

A homeless vet and his dying dog: In 2016, Santos (then going by Devolder) connected with a homeless veteran whose service dog had developed a life-threatening tumor and needed surgery that cost $3,000.  Santos/Devolder set up a GoFundMe for the dog and, appealing to donors, wrote: “Dear all, When a veteran reaches out to ask for help, how can you say no?”  After the funds were raised, Santos “disappeared” with the money and the dog died in January 2017. This has got to be the absolute worst.

Exploiting the Pulse shooting:  Santos claimed that he’d “lost four employees” in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.  Not surprisingly, this is not actually true.

 

The Kevin McCarthy impersonator: In January 2022, the Post reported that a staffer working for Santos’s election bid would call rich donors and pretend to be Kevin McCarthy’s chief of staff to raise money. 

 

Modeling Career:  In an interview with Curbed, one of Santo's former roommates said he was regularly fed a deluge of lies-- including that Santos (who went by Devolder at the time) was a model who was set to appear in Vogue. Now Georgie boy is walking the runway of shame!

Jason & Travis Kelce - A Fairytale of Philadelphia

Death of a War Criminal

Henry Kissinger has died at his home in Connecticut-- the notorious war criminal was 100.

Yale University historian Greg Grandin, author of the biography Kissinger’s Shadow, estimates that Kissinger’s actions from 1969 through 1976 (a period of eight brief years when Kissinger  was National security adviser and secretary of state) resulted in the deaths of between three and four million people. That includes “crimes of commission,” he explained, as in Cambodia and Chile, and omission, like greenlighting Indonesia’s bloodshed in East Timor; Pakistan’s bloodshed in Bangladesh; and the inauguration of an American tradition of using and then abandoning the Kurds.

“The Cubans say there is no evil that lasts a hundred years, and Kissinger is making a run to prove them wrong,” Grandin told Rolling Stone not long before Kissinger died. “There is no doubt he’ll be hailed as a geopolitical grand strategist, even though he bungled most crises, leading to escalation. He’ll get credit for opening China, but that was De Gaulle’s original idea and initiative.  He’ll be praised for detente, and that was a success, but he undermined his own legacy by aligning with the neocons. And of course, he’ll get off scot free from Watergate, even though his obsession with Daniel Ellsberg really drove the crime.”

Anthony Bourdain eloquently condemned Kissinger  when he wrote:

Rich Idiot on Display

With his social media site bleeding cash and advertisers bolting after he amplified antisemitism and a report emerged that claimed ads were placed on the site alongside pro-Nazi content, Elon Musk on Tuesday revisited the conspiracy theory well and fished out ... Pizzagate.

“Does seem at least a little suspicious,” Musk wrote in a social media post-- alongside a meme about the widely discredited 2016-era conspiracy.  In a six-panel image featuring characters from “The Office,” the meme said “Pizzagate is real-- They trafficked children.”  

The widely debunked conspiracy, peddled by far-right personalities like Alex Jones in the final days of the 2016 election, claimed a child sex trafficking ring was operating out of the basement of a D.C.-area pizza shop frequented by high-profile politicians including Hillary Clinton.  Absolutely no evidence supports the claim ― the building doesn’t even have a basement ― though that didn’t stop fringe elements from violently descending upon the establishment.

In December 2016, a 28-year-old man, egged on by YouTube videos about theory, fired an assault rifle inside the restaurant and threatened employees, believing he was “standing up against a corrupt system that kidnaps, tortures and rapes babies.”   He later pleaded guilty to federal charges and acknowledged his “intel” wasn’t “100 percent.”   In a different incident, another man attempted to set fire to the building.

The post is Musk’s second Pizzagate-related missive in a little over a week. Last week, he amplified a message attempting to tie Media Matters to the owner of the pizza restaurant.  Musk is currently suing the media watchdog after it published a report about major brands’ ads appearing alongside posts promoting Nazism.

It’s unclear when (or how) Musk might get his advertisers to come back, but his ongoing flirtation with conspiracy theories and bigots on his platform don’t appear to be helping matters.

 

UK PM Rishi Sunak Digs Himself a Diplomatic Hole

Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unwittingly got himself embroiled in a deepening row with a NATO ally after unexpectedly cancelling a meeting the Greek Prime Minister.  Sunak's government believed it had assurances that Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis would not speak publicly about the Parthenon Sculptures (i.e., the Elgin Marbles) while on his UK visit.  But they were wrong.

On Sunday, Greece's leader said in an interview with the BBC that having some of the treasures in London and others in Athens was like cutting the Mona Lisa in half.   When asked by Laura Kuenssberg during the interview, the Greek PM had called for the sculptures to be returned.  He said they were "essentially stolen" and called for a partnership with the British Museum so people could "appreciate" the works "in their original setting".

In a childish reaction, Sunak's office scrapped the PM's meeting with Mitsotakis at the last minute.  British political observers have described the row as "pathetic".  The Greek government confirmed that there had been no assurances given to the UK over Mitsotakis talking about the sculptures while he was in the UK.

The sculptures are a collection of ancient Greek treasures from the Parthenon in Athens which were stolen by British diplomat Lord Elgin in the early 19th Century. They have been in the British Museum since 1832, aside from a stint in Aldwych Tube station during World War Two to prevent damage and one marble being loaned to a Russian museum in 2014.

A Greek minister branded the row a "bad day" for British-Greek relations.  Adonis Georgiadis told the BBC that Sunak's decision was a "mistake" adding, "What [the Greek PM] mentioned in his interview is not just his own opinion, it is the single one opinion of 11 million Greek people."

Professor Irene Stamatoudi, a former member of the advisory committee for the Greek Minister of Culture, said the row "makes Rishi Sunak look no better than Lord Elgin,"  adding that it was "not possible" for the Greek PM not to respond to questions about the Parthenon Sculptures.

Mitsotakis told reporters he was "deeply disappointed by the abrupt cancellation" of the talks.  Sources with knowledge of the mood in the Greek government have suggested Mitsotakis was both "baffled" and "annoyed".  Greek government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said that "Britain's attitude shows no respect for the prime minister and our country."

There is an ongoing wider debate around the place of museums and their collections in a post-colonial world, with Sunak seemingly positioning himself decisively on one side of that argument.   Lord Vaizey, who chairs the advisory board of the Parthenon Project dedicated to returning the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece, said it was "odd" for Sunak  to cancel the meeting. The ex-culture minister said: "It is tied up to a certain extent in the traditional culture wars, where anyone who dares to say that British history wasn't perfect is somehow unpatriotic.   The trouble with that is that, from what I can gather, every opinion poll that surveys the British public says that they do think that the sculptures should be returned."

A Labor Party spokesman told the BBC: "To pick a fight with a NATO ally for the sake of a headline shows just how weak Rishi Sunak is."

 

Thai Groom Kills Wife, In-Laws at Wedding

Thai para-athlete and former soldier shot his bride and three others before killing himself on his wedding day. Groom Chaturong Suksuk, 29 and Kanchana Pachunthuek, 44, were married on Saturday in north-east Thailand.   According to reports, he left the wedding party abruptly and returned with a gun, shooting his wife, her 62-year-old mother and 38-year-old sister.  Stray bullets hit two guests, who were taken to hospital. One of them died.

Police said Chaturong "was quite intoxicated at the time", but his motive remains unclear. He had bought the gun and ammunition legally last year, they added.  Thai media, citing what guests at the party told the police, said the couple had an argument during the party. It also reported that Chaturong had felt insecure about the age gap between him and Kanchana.

Chaturong and Kanchana had lived together for three years before they married, according to Thai media. Chaturong had clinched a silver medal in swimming at the Asean Para Games in Indonesia last year. He was also believed to be on the list of athletes competing in the World Abilitysport Games in Thailand next month.  He had lost his right leg while on duty with the paramilitary light infantry force, which patrols Thailand's borders.

While mass shootings are rare, gun ownership is common in Thailand.  Last month, three people were killed in a shooting in a luxury mall in Bangkok. And last October, a former policeman killed 37 children in a gun and knife attack at a nursery in north-east Thailand. 

 

Divas Doing it Right

Keeping it Real on Black Friday

Thirty Seconds to Mars - Seasons

Happy Thanksgiving to all Hungry Monsters

Tennesse Blazing a Trail to Bigotry

Locals of a Tennessee city are using a recently passed ordinance basically prohibiting homosexuality in public as a loophole to ban library books they consider gay.

Rural town Murfreesboro in June passed an ordinance banning "indecent behavior," which includes "indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct." The rule seems overtly targeted at the gay community, as journalist Erin Reed first reported the mention of Section 21-72 in the ordinance, which states that sexual conduct includes homosexuality, essentially banning all forms of public affection for gay couples besides talking

Citizens found violating the new rule will be barred from hosting public events or selling goods and services at them for two years. Those who are caught breaking the ordinance "in the presence of minors" will be barred for five years. Naturally, an ACLU-supported challenge to the restriction has been set into motion, but city officials have gone ahead and ratified the measure.

Last week, the Rutherford County steering committee met to discuss banning all books that may violate the new ordinance, which resulted in public backlash. “When have the people who ban books ever been the good guys?” local activist Keri Lambert exclaimed at the meeting last week.

Four books that possess LGBTQ themes have been removed under the new rule. These include, "Flamer, Let's Talk About It", Queerfully and Wonderfully Made", and "This Book is Gay." 

The new regulations regarding books has worried library director Rita Shacklett who in August voiced concerns about children having access to books they need for class. According to her, many books considered classics in high school English, like "To Kill a Mockingbird," is now considered an adult book, according to The New Republic.

The county steering committee hasn't taken aim at books like "A Song of Ice and Fire series," which depicts multiple instances of heterosexual sexual conduct. Murfreesboro's new ordinance is a small piece of a larger effort to target LGBTQ rights in Tennessee, which was the first state to attempt a ban on drag shows. That law was overturned in court. 

 

Bleachers - Modern Girl

A Tale of Botox, Boots, Blush and Smut

Today, the House Ethics Committee released a report so damning that Santos immediately announced he will not, in fact, run again, claiming the decision is because “my family deserves better than to be under the gun from the press all the time” rather than because, say, the report detailed “substantial evidence” of “uncharged unlawful and unethical conduct” on top of the 23 federal criminal charges Santos already faces.

According to the report Santos blatantly stole from his campaign. He deceived donors into providing what they thought were contributions to his campaign but were in fact payments for his personal benefit. He reported fictitious loans to his political committees to induce donors and party committees to make further contributions to his campaign—and then diverted more campaign money to himself as purported “repayments” of those fictitious loans.

Santos was also using an LLC he had created to collect money that contributors were told was for independent expenditures supporting his campaign—but the money was then transferred to his personal bank account.  On October 21, 2022, RedStone’s bank account received a $25,000 wire from an account affiliated with Contributor 2. From there, $25,000 was transferred from RedStone’s account to Representative Santos’ personal checking account. On October 26, 2022, RedStone’s bank account received a $25,000 wire from an account affiliated with Contributor 1. On the same date, the $25,000 was transferred from RedStone to a different personal checking account owned by Representative Santos. After the $50,000 from RedStone was deposited into Representative Santos’ personal accounts, the funds were used to, among other things: pay down personal credit card bills and other debt; make a $4,127.80 purchase at Hermes; and for smaller purchases at Only Fans; Sephora; and for meals and for parking.

Those are much bigger thefts than simply using campaign funds to live well day to day—which Santos also did. Over the course of two days in July 2022, he spent $2,281.52 in campaign funds in Atlantic City, although his campaign calendar did not list any events. Earlier in the same month, he spent $3,332.81 on an AirBnB in the Hamptons. In December 2021, he told staff he was in Las Vegas for his honeymoon—but put hotel and taxi charges on a campaign credit card.

During the 2020 campaign, a $1,500 purchase on the campaign debit card was made at Mirza Aesthetics; this expense was not reported to the FEC and was noted as “Botox” in expense spreadsheets produced to the ISC by Ms. Marks. Similarly, the $1,400 charge at Virtual Skin Spa was a campaign debit card purchase that was also described as “Botox” in the spreadsheets produced by Ms. Marks. The ISC also identified an unreported PayPal payment of $1,029.30 to an esthetician associated with a spa in Rhinebeck, New York.

Santos has already survived one expulsion vote, in part thanks to Democrats who opposed expelling him before the ethics report was released. But another expulsion attempt is likely coming.  

 

Faithful to the Very End

A 14-year-old Jack Russell terrier named Finney stayed near her owner's body for two months after the pair went missing while hiking in the Rocky Mountains of southern Colorado.  71-year-old Rich Moore was found dead by a hunter the day before Halloween. He was last seen heading into Colorado's San Juan mountains alongside Finney on August 19.  When Moore's body was found, Finney was still alive and waiting nearby.   It remains unclear how Finney managed to survive for so long.

The day after the discovery, a search and rescue team flew to the site to recover Moore's body.  Finney received treatment at a veterinary hospital, then was reunited with Moore's family.  Archuleta County Coroner Brad Hunt said that Moore died of hypothermia. "Basically, he got up into the area hiking and looked as though he had gotten disoriented," Hunt added.

Moore was attempting to summit the 12,500-foot Blackhead Peak, located about 20 miles outside his home in Pagosa Springs.  He was reported missing after he failed to return home later that evening. Authorities spent about 2,000 hours searching for him but were unsuccessful.  Taos Search and Rescue (TSAR), a volunteer group that helps locate people missing in remote areas, said in a Facebook post it too had conducted a search with a sniffer dog between the summit and the area where Moore's car was parked.

TSAR member Delinda Vanne-Brightyn added that the area was so steep that she had to be taken in via helicopter.  Moore's body was found in a drainage basin about 2.5 miles east of the mountaintop.  "So sad, and yet so beautiful that the little Jack Russell stayed with him for all these weeks," one user wrote on the TSAR Facebook post. "Sometimes tragedies remind us of the bond between man and his best friend."

"There is no love like the unconditional love of dogs," another added. "Such faithfulness."  Officials haven't announced Moore's cause of death but do not suspect foul play, the Denver Gazette reported.

 

Shocking Death of LGBTQ Activist Judge in Mexico

Mexico's first openly non-binary member of the judiciary and prominent LGBTQ+ activist Jesús Ociel Baena has been found dead, after receiving death threats because of Baena's gender identity, authorities said.  The body of the magistrate was discovered in the central city of Aguascalientes, in the home Baena shared with a partner.

Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez said it was unclear if it was a homicide or some kind of accident.  According to a statement from the state attorney-general's Office, there was no sign that a third person had entered the house. Authorities said that a sharp object had been found and that preliminary findings suggested the incident could have been a personal matter.  Many murder investigations in Mexico have a history of being quickly minimized by authorities as crimes of passion.

The LGBTQ+ rights group Letra S has urged local authorities to investigate the deaths thoroughly and without prejudice.  Alejandro Brito, the group's director, said that Baena had received "many hate messages, and even threats of violence and death."   Brito added that Baena had been "breaking through the invisible barriers that closed in the nonbinary community".

The 38-year-old became a magistrate for the Aguascalientes state electoral court in October 2022 and was thought to be the first non-binary person in Latin America to take up a judicial position.  In June, Baena was among the first group of people to be issued gender-neutral passports.  "I am a non-binary person, I am not interested in seeing myself as a woman or a man," Baena wrote on social media the same month.  "This is an identity, it is mine and for me, for no one else."  Baena would regularly publish photos and videos dressed in skirts, heels and toting a rainbow fan in court offices while advocating for LGBTQ+ issues.

A vigil was held for Baena by other LGBTQ+ activists in the capital, Mexico City.  "We are heirs to a struggle that Ociel inherited from us," one person said.  "We must not let Ociel's death pass in vain and we must carry on the legacy Ociel left us."   The former chief justice of Mexico's Supreme Court, Arturo Zaldivar, wrote on social media that he deeply regretted the magistrate's death. "We lost a strong voice for equality and the rights of LGBTI+ people," he said. 

 

Toxic Haze in Dehli After Diwali Festival

Residents of India's capital, Delhi, woke up to smoky skies as air quality dropped after the festival of Diwali.  People in the city had set off fire crackes late into Sunday night despite a ban on fireworks due to high pollution levels. Delhi has been battling toxic air for weeks, with the government announcing an early winter break for schools in an effort to protect children.  The city has high pollution through the year due to factors including vehicular emissions and dust.

But the problem becomes worse in winter as farmers in neighboring states burn crop stubble. Low wind speeds also trap pollutants - such as those produced by firecrackers - in the lower atmosphere, making it hard to breathe.

On Monday afternoon, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi was 445, with some places recording readings above 520. The AQI measures the level of PM 2.5 particulates in the air-- particulates that can clog lungs and cause a host of diseases.  Levels between 101 and 200 are considered moderate, while those between 201 and 300 are poor. Between 301 and 400 is categorised as "very poor" and a figure higher than 400 is considered "severe".

India's Supreme Court has banned the use of firecrackers during Diwali, only allowing "green crackers" or those with reduced emissions. The Delhi government has also banned firecrackers during Diwali for the past few years, but there is little enforcement of the rule.

The ban on fireworks took on political tones when Hindu nationalist argued that the Supreme Court ban was an attempt to target Hindu festivals.  Delhi's environment minister Gopal Rai alleged that leaders from Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  had "incited" people to light firecrackers.  "The bursting of firecrackers has increased pollution levels in Delhi. Not many people have burst firecrackers but it was done in some places in a targeted manner," said Mr Rai, who is from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).  Virendra Sachdeva, the BJP's Delhi president, told local media that it wasn't right to blame people celebrating the festival for the rise in pollution levels. He said that instead, the AAP was to blame for not having a concrete plan to deal with the issue.

 In the meantime, the residents of Dehli suffer from the airborne pollutants.  The World Health Organization's guidelines say that exposure to PM 2.5 particulates over a 24-hour-period should be limited to 15 micro grams per cubic meter - but Delhi's AQI in some parts has been 30 times higher than the recommended level.  Lung specialists say breathing the capital's toxic air is akin to smoking 25-30 cigarettes a day. Prolonged exposure to high levels of pollution can cause discomfort and breathing difficulties for people. It can also trigger skin and eye irritation and cause severe neurological, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchitis, lung capacity loss, emphysema, cancer, and increased mortality rates.