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- Elon Musk is a goddamn Aesop fable about overvaluing self. He just doesn’t know it yet.
- Unpopular opinion: Biden is using Twitter far more effectively than Trump. Trump used social media to inflame people’s fears and biases; Biden’s using it in a low-key manner to tout his administration’s accomplishments without boasting. Trump’s continued use of social media led to burnout and to his overwhelming unpopularity. It worked in 2016, but people quickly tired of the eternal outrage he emits.
- Would love to see a bit of performance art from Democrats during the next House session: Demand that every House floor session and committee meeting begin with the member re-taking their oaths of office AND a hand-on-the-Bible oath to tell the truth under penalty of perjury. While Democrats would also object, let the Republicans raise hell about it so they look like they’re scared to be required to be honest.
- Had TFG been the current president, the meeting with Zelenskyy would never have happened. Trump would have been too scared to piss off Putin. Biden embodies not just American leadership and support, but the support of the entire Western world for Ukraine in its fight to save democracy against the Kremlin.
- I chopped an onion a bit when Zelenskyy choked up after glancing off to his left and seeing the Ukrainian diaspora members in the gallery. The national pride is strong, and so is the support. Slava Ukraini.
- Having been through divorce myself, I don’t relish Marge’s split from her husband. I will, however, cheer when she removes “Greene” from her name and destroys her “MTG” brand she’s promoted the last three years. (Note for future reference that “relish” and “mock” are two different words.)
- A lot doesn’t make sense about the Hunter Biden laptop story, but here are some things never addressed: why didn’t blind Wilmington, Delaware computer repair shop owner JPMI ever return the repaired laptops to Hunter Biden? He says he took down contact information and got payment; why did he never try to return the property? Did he ever reach out to return the computers, and if not, why not? Why didn’t Biden go back to pick up the computers? And why did Hunter Biden, who lived in Washington, DC at the time the computers were dropped off, take three laptop computers to an obscure computer repair shop at the back of a strip mall in Delaware? Some things don’t add up.
- Disingenuous isn’t the word. Neither is hypocritical. They both fit, but neither accurately encompasses the blatant callousness and cynicism Fox hosts have with propagating hateful, harmful information that they know is untrue, solely to placate their audience. Motherfuckers works, but it’s inappropriate at the family dinner table.
- There is divergence in the media about how to spell Zelenskyy’s last name as there was Muammar Gaddafi Quaddafi Khaddafi. Gaddafi had as many as 120 permutations, far fewer than Zelenskyy.
- I opt for the “Zelenskyy” spelling because I saw a baseball he autographed and underneath, he wrote in block Latin alphabet letters his name using that spelling. I figure the man knows how to spell his own name.
- The last two weeks of the year are always shitshows on live media. Regular hosts are on vacation. Guests are (literally) phoning it in from holiday vacation spots. Radio shows are running best-ofs or have guest hosts. Props to Stephanie Ruhle, Lawrence O’Donnell and Alex Wagner for working this week. Thanks for informing and entertaining.
- Kudos to the House Select Committee for referring Donald Trump for a criminal referral. It’s a historic move, a bipartisan show of support for our Constitution. But yes, it was also a political statement: our political Parties cannot fall under the thumb of wannabe dictators. It took guts to make that statement.
- My understanding of a 5th Amendment claim is that you can only invoke the 5th when you’re in genuine fear of prosecution if you answer the question honestly. How answering the question “How old are you?” is apparently a criminal issue with at least two members of the Trump cabal–Roger Stone and Charlie Kirk–is questionable. Begs the question if there’s been a prosecution for falsely claiming 5th Amendment privileges.
- The upcoming release of Trump’s taxes will demonstrate how effective the crowd-sourcing of the internet can be. Innumerable people will analyze it and bring out details. It will take about two days to filter out the wheat from the chaff, and there will be lots and lots of wheat.
- A longtime Christmas mystery for me. I’m the youngest of many children, and our family stockings hung over our fireplace were each stenciled with the name of a family member: Mom, Dad, SibX, SibX+1, SibX+2 … SibX+n, and then mine, personalized with the last name of our family. (Even Gramma, whose visits were not particularly fondly anticipated within the familial unit, had her own Christmas stocking in our house, and if she skipped her Christmas visit that year and came for Easter, that stocking had better be full of Christmas candy or there was hell to pay.) It was like if all the Bradys got stockings–Dad, Mom, Greg, Marcia, Peter, Jan, Bobby and even Alice and Sam the Butcher had their names–but Cindy’s just had “Brady.” Thing is: the set of stockings were purchased years before I was born, when my mother didn’t know of an upcoming kid, so why’d she get an extra one just to bear the family name? Odd.
- If you want to go for tangential Christmas movies–that happen around the holiday but aren’t centered on the holiday–Gremlins is more of a meritorious Christmas movie than Die Hard. Underrated: Joyeux Noel, a fictionalized account of the World War I Christmas Truce. But tops is Trading Places: “Lookin’ good, Billy Ray!” “Feelin’ good, Louis!”
- Whatever holiday you celebrate, wherever you’re celebrating it, may you and yours have a safe, happy and healthy holiday season, Zeroes.
