The War on Christmas Is (Still) Happening
The outrage farmers of the far right are vying to outdo themselves
Nowhere is hypocrisy more evident than MAGA Christians’ celebration of their God sending someone in human form to atone for the sins of humanity. Bundling up the nation’s refugees and shipping them off to nowhere is about as far from the supposed reasoning for the holiday as it gets.
For non-Christians looking at the observance from the outside, the holiday that’s celebrated is a Catholic appropriation of various rites connected to the winter solstice and the return of longer days, some of which date back to the end of the stone age.
There is a whole universe of people who do not recognize Christmas as a religious holiday, ranging from Jehovah’s Witnesses to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. Mandatory Christianity isn’t a norm in the US, but you’d hardly know that from the pious preachers of the far right.
The early Pilgrim settlers believed the holiday was bogus because it was not specifically mentioned in the Bible. Gov. William Bradford ordered the confiscation of toys as a means of reinforcing the message that December 25 was a day for work.
Christmas was not even a national holiday for most of the first century (1870) after the founding of the United States.
Near the end of the Eisenhower years, right wing groups sought to have the term “X-mas” deleted from the national vocabulary as a means of capturing the interest of people concerned about the increasing commercialization of the holiday. The “X” was supposedly symbolic of taking “Christ out of Christmas” as part of an imagined scheme to secularize the country.
From How Stuff Works:
But it turns out that "Xmas" isn't a modern convention at all. It was used commonly in 16th-century Europe, when many people began using the term "Christos," the Greek translation for Christ, to refer to Jesus. The letter chi in the Greek alphabet is symbolized by an X and translates to "ch." So along with the Greek letter rho for "r", the term Xmas was used to refer to the birth of Jesus as an informed abbreviation, not an offensive one.
Xmas was a way for Christian scholars to refer to Jesus respectfully in an ancient language -- not to disrespect his name with a harsh symbol. In fact, variations of "Xmas" date back to 1021
In the 21st century, the outrage farmers of the far right are vying to outdo themselves with tales of corporate America disrespecting Christians by using the terms “Holiday” and "Seasons.”
Religious conservative groups and media in the United States, such as the American Family Association (AFA) and Liberty Counsel, have called for boycotts of various retailers, demanding that they use the term "Christmas" in their print, TV, online, and in-store marketing and advertising.
At one point Starbucks was accused of "hating Jesus" for removing Christmas-oriented imagery from the red cups traditionally used in December. Then-candidate Donald J Trump urged people to boycott the chain, giving rise to his oft repeated (and part of his 2024 stump speech) "If I become president, we're all going to be saying 'Merry Christmas' again.”
The “War on Christmas” portrayed as a tenet of right wing theory dates back to the Obama era, when Fox News was throwing everything it could imagine at the leader of the free world in an effort to undermine trust in the president. Who can forget the “tan suit” and “dijon mustard” scandals?
This year, on November 13, Fox News host Jesse Watters complained that the War on Christmas was starting earlier each year.
Washington Post columnist Philip Bump was at the ready with actual facts, namely that this imagined conflict was mainly driven by Fox News:
Watters’ “earlier and earlier” framing is meant to trigger the response he and Fox News generally seek, a sense of encroachment on their values and beliefs. The “war on Christmas” was really a precursor to Fox’s and the broader right’s fearmongering about “wokeism.” It’s the same argument — look what they’re doing to us! — with the same methodology: Here are two anecdotes that show how we’re under attack!
I’ve picked out choices for this year’s two anecdotes.
Watters:
“Gay nutcracker. Complete with a rainbow hat, a trans flag, full price 12 dollars but right now it’s on sale for eight. Target also sells Santa ornaments. But Target’s Santa is in a wheelchair and is Black.”
Riley Gaines, the former college swimmer whose arguments against trans athletes have faded into obscurity now that it’s obvious the plan is to ban trans people everywhere, joined Watters
“I think the majority of people, parents especially, they can acknowledge that Gay Nutcracker and Black Disabled Santa has gone way too far.”
Side note, Via Wonkette:
We checked the Wonkette archives and wow, this year is the 10th anniversary of Megyn Kelly kicking off the annual Fox tradition of assuring terrified Aryan children that Santa is really a white guy who will bring you a bike instead of stealing it
Nobody outside the Wingnut Grievance Bubble, the closed feedback loop of nutty conspiracies, and harebrained notions, even cares about a “War on Christmas” unless they are addicted to Fox News. I think the real purpose of this induced insanity is to immunize its soldiers against the atrocities they’ll witness should Trump or similar autocrat come into power.
Also: ‘One Million Moms' Is Boycotting Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, calling it a trans extravaganza.
“Why?” you may ask…
Apparently there are trans and nonbinary performers in the casts of Broadway shows 'Shucked' '& Juliet', who are included among the 6,500 performers in the parade.
Anti-LGBTQ+ organization One Million Moms (an offshoot of the conservative Christian fundamentalist group, the American Family Association) have also started a petition to boycott Macy's.
Members are being urged to "say no" to this year's "non-binary and transgender extravaganza" on display at the annual Thanksgiving pageant because it "will potentially expose tens of millions of viewers at home to the liberal LGBTQ agenda."
I’m sure that the 3 million people who show up to watch the Macy’s Extravaganza won’t mind a little extra space in the miles long sardine can that is the spectators space along the parade route. The 44 million people who are sane enough to stay home and watch the parade on TV will likely remain blissfully ignorant of the very serious thing of the Million (actually it’s a little over 100,000) Moms.
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Zooming Thru Monday’s News Clips
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You shouldn’t be driving over 100 mph—and your car shouldn’t let you Via Fast Company
Jennifer Homendy, chair of NTSB, has lost patience with the standard set of options. “If we’re serious about addressing 43,000 fatalities on our roads last year, 11,000 [of them] due to speeding, then we have to be serious about the solutions,” she told me. (According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, 12,330 people died in the U.S. in speed-related crashes in 2021, the most recent year with available data.)
NTSB’s proposed solution: Adopting Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA), a modern and techier version of the speed governors that Cincinnati considered a century ago. Rather than preventing a vehicle from ever exceeding a given threshold, ISA uses geolocation to automatically reflect the legal limit on a given street or highway. “Passive” ISAs issue audible or haptic alerts to drivers who exceed the top programmed speed, hopefully compelling them to slow down. “Active” ISAs intervene in the car’s mechanics, often by requiring the driver to apply extra force on the accelerator. ISAs can be set to kick in a few miles above the posted speed limit, giving drivers the ability to go faster when, for instance, passing a vehicle in the slow lane.
In the EU—where residents are several times less likely to die in a crash than in the U.S.—regulators are requiring that ISA be installed on new cars as of next year. But no similar effort is afoot in the United States (the federal government did propose requiring them on heavy trucks, a move that has faced stiff opposition from some truckers).
Below-Market Workforce Housing Unveiled in Heart of Downtown Santa Barbara Via Santa Barbara Independent
The Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara unveiled a first-of-its-kind project Friday with 14 below-market studio apartments in the center of downtown at the former Sur La Table location on State Street. The adaptive reuse conversion — or rebuild from commercial retail to workforce homes — is one that many are hoping will serve as a blueprint for a new way to tackle the city’s growing housing crisis.
The project was made possible by the collaboration of the Housing Authority, city staff, and property owner Jason Yardi — director of the philanthropic organization the Yardi Foundation — who purchased the property in 2021 and took the leap of faith in trying to prove that affordable housing can, and should, be developed in existing commercial buildings.
When Yardi first bought the property, he thought about converting the upstairs spaces into two luxury penthouse apartments, but after learning that the city would support a high-density workforce housing option, he enlisted the help of consultant Ben Romo, who worked with the city and Housing Authority to get the project off the ground.
Have California Charter Schools Stopped Growing? Via Thomas Ultican
Corruption, instability and segregation are endemic to charter schools, developing a reputation for avoiding special education students and English language learners. Researchers and organizations, like the Network for Public Education (NPE), have made sure these issues stay in front of the public.
Law enforcement has taken down many charter scofflaws, especially in the cyber charter arena. The largest charter school theft occurred in California when A3 Charter School conspirators fraudulently collected $400 million from the state, misappropriated more than $200 million, and according to the Voice of San Diego, outright stole $80 million. This led to a few years of corrupt charter school stories in the media.
For a decade, NPE has been updating “Another Day Another Charter School Scandal.” This searchable site catalogs charter school thefts, school closures, profiteering and more.