Felons of a Feather, Flock Together

President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he wants real estate developer Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France.
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The elder Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations.

Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation.

Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said.

The French should be absolutely thrilled that the new American ambassador is going to be a real scumbag and a nepo-criminal like Jared's dad. When you drill down to the core of the matter, the only difference between Kushner and Trump is that Kushner went to prison.

Honey (ie, bee food)

If you use honey, you should buy it from local producers. If you buy commercial honey, there's a good chance that what you think is honey has been adulterated with sugar syrup.

Caturday

Priss has taken over a planter.

Planter catyitis?

Because It's Friday

Brits seem to be the leaders in steam.

Obstructing These Down, Here

Happy Thanksgiving

The merchants are crying because this year, Thanksgiving is as late as it can be, which cuts down on the Traditional Orgy of Consumerism. But enough of that, on to the regular post for this day:

On a number of radio stations back in the day, playing the entire song was a Thanksgiving tradition. Some of them were commercial stations-- almost nineteen minutes of no commercials. And some of them played it twice, at noon and 3 PM.

The judge was really blind, he had a Seeing-Eye dog. He played himself in the movie (as did Officer Obie).

I hope that if you're in America, you and yours have a good Thanksgiving. Try not to punch out your racist uncle or your commie nephew.

And please, enjoy the day without resorting to rampant consumerism.

Or burning down your hostess's house.

And you can maintain peace at the table by dividing up the attendees.

(Yes, this is almost a complete repeat from earlier years. So sue me.)

A Righteous Man

Robert Emmett Fletcher Jr. When Japanese-American farmers were interned in concentration camps, thanks to the racism of FDR and a shitload of other people, Fletcher stepped in to run the farms of some local growers so that their farms would not be lost. He used the money made from the farms to pay the taxes and mortgages; keeping half of the net for his own costs and saving the other half for the families.

A lot of other properties owned by Japanese-Americans (all of them American citizens) were lost because taxes weren't paid or those who had agreed to run them either outright stole them or took everything.

Bob Fletcher was truly one of the righteous among men.

If You Are Pregnant and in Texas, You Are Gambling With Your Life

Because if you have a miscarriage, the doctors in Texas will cheerfully let you bleed out instead of treating you using best practices. It keeps happening.

The women who bleed out and die during miscarriages are a blood sacrifice to the Christian Taliban's Cult of the Fetus. Those who call themselves "pro-life" are bathing in the blood of dead women.

Echoes of the Past

First, read this. I can't embed it.

Done?

Sure, Homan's mass roundup will be legal. So, what? Rounding up Jews and stuffing them into boxcars was legal, once. Hiding Jews was illegal and subject to harsh penalties (like being dragged out back and shot.)

Legal is one question. Moral and humane are different questions. American history provides lots of examples, for those of a mind to enquire.

Nominating These Down, Here

Watch for the Upcoming Run on Consumer Goods

President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that he will issue executive orders imposing new tariffs on all imported goods from China, Mexico and Canada, the nation’s three largest trading partners, upon returning to the White House.

Once people realize that prices on almost everything will be going up, the rush to get shit while the getting's good will be on. If that happens, look for sales on stuff to go away.

And if anyone you know is a Trump voter or didn't vote and they complain about it, tell them "Toyota" if they're old or that now they're finding out if they're young.

Heh.

Gotta love that the judge in Rudy Giuliani's libel case in a pretrial hearing on his failure to pay his damages denied his request to postpone the trial so Rudy can go to the TOFF's inauguration as an item on Rudy's social calendar.

Rudy's also about one outburst away from spending the night in jail for contempt.

Osprey, Again

An Osprey being used to ferry White House staff and government officials from an event in New York on Monday was grounded due to a safety concern, with one witness reporting flames under the right engine.

The staff and officials were removed from the aircraft, part of the Marine Corps HMX-1 presidential helicopter fleet, and transferred to a second Osprey to continue their trip accompanying President Joe Biden at a “Friendsgiving” event with members of the U.S. Coast Guard in Staten Island.

Personally, I'd take almost any other mode of transporation over flying in an Osprey.

Guess You Can't Be Illegal If You're White, Eh?

A singer with a Swedish disco band who performed at this year’s Eurovision has told of the “dehumanising” and “distressing” consequences of Brexit after her British husband’s application to remain in Sweden was rejected.

Tess Merkel Solomons, a singer with the band Alcazar, said it felt as if her husband, Kenny Solomons, an actor and entrepreneur, was being “punished” because he was a British citizen in Sweden after Brexit.

Their ordeal began three years ago when Solomons, who had been living in the country since 2012, learned from one of his British employees that he should have applied to remain in Sweden by the end of 2021. He quickly applied but was this rejected in August this year on the grounds that he was late.

File this under "You; sucks to be". Britain leaving the EU meant pretty clearly that, as the kids say, time's up, rules change. British subjects elsewhere in the EU were going to fall into the same category as any other foreigner as a result of Brexit and the lack of personal notice cuts no ice.

Bird Flu: Coming Soon to a Dairy Case Near You

Since Brainworm Bobby and his team are going to gut food inspections, stand by for a lot of this:

After bird flu was detected in a retail sample of raw milk produced and packaged by Raw Farm, LLC, the California Department of Public Health warned consumers on Sunday to avoid consuming any from the same lot.

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. The warning signs were there.

More than half of cats around the first Texas dairy farm to test positive for bird flu this spring died after drinking raw milk from the infected cows, scientists reported this week, offering a window into a toll the virus has taken during its unprecedented spread through the cattle industry.
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Cats at the Texas farm had been fed raw milk from cows that turned out to be infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI H5N1. A day after the farm first started noticing cows were getting sick, the cats started getting sick too. By the end, more than half of the cats had died.

Pasturised milk was one of the greatest advancements in food safety, but idiots like Bobby Brainworm and the rest of the "natural food" crowd have told themselves otherwise.

If you buy into his garbage pseudo-science and someone in your family becomes seriously ill or dies, look to the dictionary if you seek sympathy. You'll find it listed between shit and syphilis.

Shorter Bobby Brainworm: "Got High Blood Pressure or Cholesterol? Eat Some Magic Mushrooms."

With our nation's health soon to be in the hands of a brain-damaged crackpot, we are going to be in for a rough ride.

Horse-paste was not effective against COVID. Hundreds of thousands of people died during the pandemic because they were believers in the sort of pseudo-scientific claptrap that Bobby Brainworm was pushing.

Almost 6,000 cases of measles happened in American Samoa, with dozens of deaths, because Bobby Brainworm, among others, pushed people to stop vaccinating their kids. That's what he wants to bring to this country.

But hey, people voted for infectious diseases to make a comeback. Maybe weed will help them with the grief of losing a child to a preventable illness.

Remember, When Republicans Claim Trump Won in a Landslide, They Are Lying

Updated popular vote is Trump 49.86%, Harris 48.26%.

Hardly a landslide, that. He stll won, but if that's a mandate, I'm Cindy Crawford.

No, the only mandate that Felon^34 has is his bromance with Elon Musk.

.32 Renaissance

Now there is a LCR in .32 Magnum.

There are people who like revolvers but don't like the recoil of airweight .38 snubs. Many opt for .22s. The .32 is well worth a look, given the superior teliability of centerfire rounds.

MAGA Family Values

MAGA politician convicted of sexually assaulting his daughter.

When he gets out of prison, there may be a job waiting for him in either the Trump Organization or the Heritage Foundation.

Oklahoma Public Schools: Bibles, not Competence

While Oklahoma fights to put Bibles in all of its classrooms, it's worth noting that almost every quality assessment ranking that one can find puts Oklahoma public schools at or near the bottom. They are worse than the states that traditionally had the worst schools in the country: Alabama and Mississippi.

One has to wonder why the state school administrators are engaging in culture wars instead of doing the hard work of ensuring that their charges receive a quality education.

But we know the answer to that. Engaging in culture wars impresses the mouthbreathing anacephanic MAGAs. Giving their kids a quality education might mean teaching them to think and evaluate on their own, rather than accept the intellectual bilge being shoveled out by their parents and pastors. And we simply can't have that, can we.

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

A Caproni replica:

The stupid music stops when the action begins.

You Can't Get Anything at Alice's Restaurant

Alice Brock, who owned the restaurant (among others) has passed away. She was 83.

Coming Soon to a Discount Gun Bin Near You

Smith & Wesson's new Model 20. It costs over $300 more than a new Model 27 while offering less (fixed sights vs. adjustable sights). If you wanted rugged sights, you could put a rough duty sight in a Model 27 and still not go over the price difference.

Or you can get a new Python. Or a used S&W Heavy Duty. Both are less expensive. Or you can pay more for a new gun with that stupid internal lock that nobody with a quarter of a functioning brain uses.

Caturday

Not exactly pole-dancing.

Jews and Muslims Are Not Welcome in Texas

Texas’ education board voted Friday to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools under optional new curriculum that could test boundaries between religion and public classrooms in the U.S.

The material adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, passed in a 8-7 final vote over criticism that the lessons would proselytize to young learners and alienate students of faiths other than Christianity.

"Alienate", hell. This sends a clear message that non-Christians are not welcome to live in Texas and raise families. The Christian Taliban is seeking to emulate Iran and other theocratic shitholes. Texas and Oklahoma are their testing grounds.

The Nation is a Magazine of Ass-Clowns. Prove Me Wrong.

So, while the magazine itself is callling for resistance to the Trump agenda and saying that we can't back down, one of their more prominent jackholes is calling for Ukraine to, in essence, surrender to Russia. Because, in his view, it is better to be a living slave than a dead patriot.

Biden has acted with excessive timidity, in my view. Russia has been free to pummel every square meter of Ukrainian territory, while the Ukrainians have been restricted in their ability to pummel Russia. That was, to my mind, fundamentally unconscionable.

But that is still not an excuse to advocate for what is essentially surrendering one country to a Russian tyrant whilst advocating resistance to an American one. Should push come to shove, count on the Nation to advocate for taking the supine position. Because they'd rather live in chains.

Because It's Friday

Doubleheading.

Bondi’s Been in Trump’s Tank For Years

Pam Bondi took what would seem to be a quid pro quo "campaign contribution" from Felon^34 almost a dozen years ago.

So she is a better pick than Gaetz only in the sense that there is no indication that she has sexually preyed on minors.

Gaetz Goes

Matt Gaetz withdrew Thursday as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general amid continued fallout over a federal sex trafficking investigation that cast doubt on his ability to be confirmed as the nation’s chief federal law enforcement officer.

Now we'll see who the backup jerkwad is.

Truth

Driving These Down, Here

Trump's Cabinet

Since the two main qualifications are to have lots of TV experience and have a history of being a sexual predator/abuser/pest, one has to wonder what cabinet post will be offered to Bill Cosby.

I wish I could say that Trump's pics surprise me. But they don't. He's learned his lesson from the first time around; he's choosing sychophants over pickayune things such competence and ability. Or loyalty to the country, in the case of someone who may be a Russian/Hindu asset.

And he's pretty much rented the government to Elon Musk. Musk can't be president, so he's rented one. That's better from his perspective, for he didn't have to run for anything, just write whopping large enough checks to permit to him buy a political party.

But none of this surprises me. Unlike eight years ago, everyone knows, or should have known, who Trump is. If prices go up from tariffs, if veterans have trouble finding health care because he's shuttered the VA, if your mail delivery is completely screwed up (or it costs five bucks to send a letter), if homlessness and poverty skyrocket, if infectious diseases come roaring back, then that's all stuff that was easily foreseeable.

If you know a person who voted for Trump or who didn't vote, don't be shy in telling them that they asked for this and they got it.

We're Not Going to Make It, Are We

Costco voluntarily recalled 79,200 pounds of two types of its store-brand butter over the past month because their labels may not have said the products contain milk.

The membership club recalled 46,800 pounds of the Kirkland Signature Unsalted Sweet Cream Butter and 32,400 pounds of Kirkland Signature Salted Sweet Cream Butter.

The 46,800 pounds of recalled butter were distributed to Costco locations throughout Texas.
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The packages of butter list "cream" among their contents, but may be missing the "Contains Milk" statement on their ingredients labels, according to the FDA.

Really? People need to be told that butter is made from milk?

This seems to be a month of idiocy.

MAGA Mike and MAGA Mace's Bathroom Ban

It's somewhat fitting that MAGA Mike announced his Bathroom Ban on the Transgender Day of Remembrance. I guess he has everything well under contral that he can devote his time to making it more difficult for one incoming Representative to take a pee.

I used to say that that I would not vote for a Republican unless I personally knew them. Well, scratch that. I'm a yellow dog Democrat.

You Have Enough Fucking Clothes.

Don't buy more. Remember the old maxim: Use it up, wear it out. Make it do or do without.

One tip from Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy is that if you want to buy something online, put it in your shopping cart and then leave it there for a month. If you still want it a month later, buy it.

The world is drowning in waste, a numerous stories about how recucling doesn't happen and how e-waste is dumped on fourth-world nations will tell you. Or how there is so much plastic in the ocean, the fish, the air and in us.

Most petrochemicals were developed within the lifetimes of people still living. And it has taken an amazingly short period of time for humans to pollute the globe with them.

We need to do better. But I have every confidence that we will not. A classic beginning bio experiment is to put a layr of nutrient-rich agar in a petrie dish, put in a drop of bacteria-laden water and incubate it. Bacterial colonies will grow and grow until they consume the nutriets and/or die fromt heir own waste. We are no different, we're just doing it with the fucking planet.

Which may be why Widdle Elon wants to go to Mars.

Fuck With Nancy Mace

Democrats should get some big, heavily muscled, hairy, tattooed trans men to go into the women's bathrooms in the House. After all, they were born female, so Nancy Mace should de cool with it, amirite?

Social Safety Net Cuts Coming so Musk and Other Billionaires Can Get Tax Cuts-- Toljaso

President-elect Donald Trump’s economic advisers and congressional Republicans have begun preliminary discussions about making significant changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other federal safety net programs to offset the enormous cost of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts next year.

Seventy million people, from kids to seniors, receive help from food stamps, Medicaid and other government programs. The people who had you food and coffee through the service windows at the fast food joints rely on those programs. So do the workers at a lot of retail establishments, including the Blue and Yellow Box of Evil.

If you, your relatives or your friends are using SNAP or Medicaid (often under some state-program name), then stand by for heavy rolls. And if you voted for Trump or you couldn't be bothered to vote, then enjoy lying in the bed that you made.

Toljaso, we did.

Nancy Mace, Professional Backshooter

Remember, she betrays her friends in a nanosecond.

This was her in 2021:

Now she's a MAGA-fueled bigot.

Another Day, Another Stupid Pick by the Senile Old Fuckwad

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday tapped Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former television talk show host and heart surgeon, to head the agency that oversees health insurance programs for millions of older, poor and disabled Americans.

Dr. Oz's talents included running a TV show where he pushed all sorts of medical quackery. And he carpetbagged himself over to Pennsylvania to run for senate and got beat by a guy who was having a stroke.

But there is a near-constant: The Doddering Old Fat Felon seems to like to surround himself with people whose one real talent is appearing on television. Sort of like himself, in that regard.

When Mark Burnett dies, may he burn in Hell, forever. For without his stupid show, Cadet Bone Spurs would have spiraled into backruptcy and prison ages ago.

Nancy Mace is a Disgusting Lump of Sentient Slime

A House Republican is pushing to ban transgender women from women’s restrooms at the US Capitol, two weeks after history was made with the election of America’s first out transgender person to Congress.

South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace on Monday introduced a resolution to amend the rules of the US House of Representatives less than two months before Democratic Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, a Delaware state senator, is sworn-in in January.

It takes a really hateful person to try to use even a bit of the power of government to go after one person in order to gain praise from the Christian Taliban.

But that's where the MAGA party lives, these days.

ETA:

Something, Something, Something. All Y’All Know The Drill.