A Festivus Firehose of Fabrications
"I got a lotta problems with you people, and now you're going to hear about it!"
Thanks to the father of one of the Seinfeld series writers, Americans can now celebrate Festivus without fear of religious extremists yelling at us on social media. Freedom never felt so good.
Here’s the backstory, via Wikipedia:
Festivus (/ˈfɛstɪvəs/) is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. Originally created by author Daniel O'Keefe, Festivus entered popular culture after it was made the focus of the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Strike", which O'Keefe's son, Dan O'Keefe, co-wrote.
The non-commercial holiday's celebration, as depicted on Seinfeld, occurs on December 23 and includes a Festivus dinner, an unadorned aluminum Festivus pole, practices such as the "Airing of Grievances" and "Feats of Strength", and the labeling of easily explainable events as "Festivus miracles." The episode refers to it as "a Festivus for the rest of us".
So, I’ve got a couple of beefs with the “just saying” reportage in the mass media is based on fact challenged talking points burped up by various political consultants.
Granted, my choices have a distinct bias against the nattering nabobs of negativism and contrarians hosted on the pages of New York Times op-eds, the framing of virtually everything published at Politico, and uttered by NBC analyst Chuck Todd. Deal with it.
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Little Timmy will be getting toys for Christmas after all.
https://twitter.com/MGwin46/status/1473672376600735751?s=20
The looming consumer catastrophe predicted by Politico "White House scrambles to address looming Christmas crisis" in early October (and repeated in many other places) was a no-show.
Via Steve Benen at MSNBC:
Photographs of unstocked shelves are more dramatic than images of full shopping carts.
But the fact remains that the consumer catastrophe we were warned about didn't happen. It's hard to blame White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain for taking a little victory lap this morning, tweeting, "Merry Christmas to all, and to this over-hyped narrative, a Good Night."
There were and are supply chain issues, but the underlying causes are vastly different from the implied incompetence of the Biden administration. Late stage capitalism’s “just in time” concept of manufacturing goods, the degradation of national infrastructure, and often cruel labor practices all point to ongoing systemic problems.
The fact that the consumer holiday season is happening at all is because Washington did the right thing. The threat of big fines spurred round-the-clock port operations. Americans heeded the advice to shop early, buying in person rather than relying on mail delivery, which in turn has eased holiday congestion for both the U.S. Postal Service and its competitors.
As some Debbie downers will note, we’re not out of the woods yet. A shortage of aluminum means Fluffy may be eating Brand X cat food, and difficulties making enough beer cans might mean savvy consumers will switch to the more enlightened practice of getting growlers refilled at their local brewer. Repercussions of whatever passed for trade policies of the last administration means other nations have moved the US down on their priorities lists.
And I’m still waiting for the Bosch dishwasher we paid for last spring. So I do have some First World skin in this game.
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Consider this: The current administration has the best first year economic indicators of any president over the last 4 decades…but the worst first year economic poll ratings of any president over that same period.
Only explanation? A mainstream media dedicated to pushing false narratives.
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Negroes are not massing, eager to take what’s yours, outside your gated community.
Republicans have rolled back the clock to the good old days when the American dream was a nightmare for a substantial part of the population.
Is there anything more ignorant than the campaign to cancel CRT, aka critical race theory?
First off, most of these “organically organized” batches of Klansters with sweatpants wouldn’t know what CRT was if it bit them on the ass. All they know is #BlackLivesMatter scared the crap out of them and Something.Must.Be Done.
Secondly, how can any honest reporter not see that these proto-segregationist squawkers are the same faces demanding an end to sex ed, yoga, and mandatory masking? Do I really need to print up rogues galleries? (I’m speaking at you, UT reporters!)
The reality is that millions of Americans have used some of their newfound personal time to educate themselves about racism and its toxic consequences in institutions all around us. Books on the subject topped the best seller lists for weeks on end, and no backdoor purchases by Ted Cruz were needed.
Forbes reported the Texas senator Ted Cruz used $153,000 in campaign funds to buy his own book. He also spent $5,000 on Facebook ads promoting One Vote Away—using campaign funds for personal use, which, back in the days when such things mattered, candidates were not supposed to do.
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Festivus miracles!
Be careful what you wish for. Ohio Congressman Jim (Gym) Jordan really, really wanted to be on the select committee investigating January 6th.
After all, his disruptive actions during impeachment hearings were perceived by the GOP leadership as being effective in changing the subject whenever that was called for. But mean ol’ Nancy Pelosi said ‘nah,’ and the sedition supporting members walked away, only to be replaced by humans of the Republican persuasion capable of critical thinking.
Now, the Jimster’s dream is coming true. He’s been asked to testify about his communications with the Former Guy and his War Room at the Willard Hotel.
I guess he’s no longer enthused. Rep Eric Swallwell went on MSNBC to say Jordan was “moonwalking” away from testifying.
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The sordid saga of the disappearing first responders. Remember when we were going to lose 1000 first responders in San Diego because they wouldn't get vaccinated by Dec 1st?
The knuckleheads at KUSI News could hardly contain their glee, as they gave the latest generation of scammy citizens unlimited airtime. As we all should know by now, these anti vaxxers among us are nothing more than loud and obnoxious. And a lot fewer in numbers than they’d like us to believe.
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Corporate Media has finally realized that the worker rebellion is real…
…or maybe not.
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Happy Holidays, regardless of what flavor you like. I’ll be back next week.
Hey folks! There’s a change coming to Words & Deeds in 2022. I’ll be moving from WordPress to Substack, which hopefully will mean just a few changes in formatting. Stay tuned for exciting details.
Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com