(click on images to enlarge)
(Rob Rogers, Counterpoint)
(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)
(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)
(John Buss, @repeat1968)
(Bruce Plante, caglecartoons.com)
(Monte Wolverton, caglecartoons.com)
(Bill Day, caglecartoons.com)
(Brian McFadden, gocomics.com)
(Jeff Koterba, caglecartoons.com)
(Jason Adam Katzenstein, @j.a.k._)
Christofascist House Speaker Mike Johnson, Jan. 6 sedition leader. --
Maddow: We learn that the day before January 6th, Kevin Mccarthy's general counsel, told Mike Johnson that the effort he was organizing to get Republicans to sign on to trump's effort to over throw the election was an effort that was wildly unconstitutional pic.twitter.com/APK07myaGa
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 5, 2023
Running against the toxic Trump brand in foreign nations. --
A brand so toxic that people in other counties are running against it https://t.co/oevfit1dV4 pic.twitter.com/LvG0mE80Je
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) December 4, 2023
The Malignant Loser only hires the BEST lawyers. --
BREAKING - Trump lawyers MISS court deadline for appealing the gag order in the NY AG civil fraud trial in NYC.
— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) December 5, 2023
Trump had wanted an expedited appeal to NY’s highest court, Court of Appeals, but his lawyers did NOT get the request filed in time.
Trump’s lawyers FAIL again.
At last, the Malignant Loser's alternative to "Obamacare" is revealed! --
Trump's Healthcare Plan Revealed pic.twitter.com/wC2YZgMNXa
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) December 5, 2023
Adjustment time --
In the coming year, there will people around you who scoff at the notion of a Trump dictatorship. Who say that you're being alarmist. That everyday life will simply continue.
— Tom Watson (@tomwatson) December 4, 2023
Advice: immediately adjust your opinion of those people. Sharply downward.
Sen. John Fetterman again shows how trolling is done. --
I thought my ethically-challenged colleague @BobMenendezNJ could use some encouragement given his substantial legal problems.
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) December 4, 2023
So, I approached a seasoned expert on the matter to give ‘Bobby from Jersey’ some advice. pic.twitter.com/y8iX55EyNi
A portrait from the Malignant Loser's violent cult. Merry Bloody Christmas. --
What the… pic.twitter.com/kexQDn49QX
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) December 5, 2023
Get this man a Go Fund Me account! --
OMG, GREAT IDEA 🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/t2GHI2QR1q
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) December 4, 2023
"Mother" Pence is onboard with this clever plan. --
Handsome and respected man Micheal Pence, who is not homosexual, blithely adopts guise of homosexual whilst in the company of single men, dissuading lascivious advances of unmarried females and prostitutes. pic.twitter.com/OGsD0pWi1l
— DPRK News Service (@DPRK_News) December 5, 2023
"... You know, I learned a thing or two about urban warfare from my time fighting in Iraq and leading the campaign to defeat ISIS.
"Like Hamas, ISIS was deeply embedded in urban areas. And the international coalition against ISIS worked hard to protect civilians and create humanitarian corridors, even during the toughest battles.
"So the lesson is not that you can win in urban warfare by protecting civilians. The lesson is that you can only win in urban warfare by protecting civilians.
"You see, in this kind of a fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat.
"So I have repeatedly made clear to Israel’s leaders that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative..." -- Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, December 2, at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California. Austin's speech also covered American defense posture elsewhere, including in the Ukraine- Russian war and with China, and of the need to keep our alliances strong.
Arizona's zealous Trumpist election denier Kari "Dry" Lake is seeking the Senate seat currently occupied by kooky turncoat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, and also sought by Dem Rep. Ruben Gallego. Lake ran a scorched earth primary campaign for Arizona Governor last year against a host of Republican candidates, including some with ties to the late Sen. John McCain. She managed to alienate a solid core of his followers while spouting vicious nonsense about her opponents. When she lost the Governor's race to Dem Gov. Katie Hobbs, in Trumpian fascist fashion she refused to concede and spread conspiracies about her loss, going to court multiple times and losing with her baseless claims.
Lake's problem, aside from her radicalism and cult behavior, is that she burned many bridges to groups of long time Arizona Republicans by her nasty attacks on McCain and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who rejected the Malignant Loser's demand that he sign a false slate of electors. Those bridges won't be easy for her to rebuild despite her current charm offensive with them, according to reports:
"The outreach, made over the course of several weeks through in-person meetings and phone calls, is a welcome sign to Washington Republicans, who would like to see Lake broaden her MAGA base in the once reliably red state and help them retake the U.S. Senate in 2024. But Lake’s effort to reassure political rivals and onetime supporters in this desert state has been met with skepticism, according to interviews with half a dozen Republicans familiar with her conversations who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail the private talks.
Most cite her refusal to acknowledge her electoral loss — even up to today — as well as the relentless demonization of members of her own party, including former Arizona governor Doug Ducey and the late U.S. senator John McCain (R-Ariz.)."
Lake has contacted her former primary rival, top GOP donors and past supporters, party officials and activists, and even a former senator as she tries to persuade them to coalesce around her. But Lake’s appeals for support have so far contained no actual apologies — and some Republicans say they are not likely to forgive her any time soon, complicating her path to victory in a state home to many moderate Republicans and independents whose support is key to winning. And as she continues to pursue a so-far unsuccessful legal battle to overturn her 2022 loss to Gov. Katie Hobbs (D), national Republicans fear she may continue pursing the same type of conspiracies and election denialism that harmed her previous campaign." (our emphasis)
There were reports last summer that Lake had virtually moved into the Malignant Loser's Merde O'Lardo estate, apparently trying to boost herself as his 2024 ticket mate. Lake belongs to the same delusional and demagogic Trumpist cohort as House of Representatives bomb throwers Marjorie Traitor Greene, Lauren "Bobo" Boebert and Matt Gaetz. As is theirs, her main goal is to always please the cult leader, the Malignant Loser; everything else is secondary, even at the cost of an election, past and future.
(photo: Lake, here seen auditioning for Trump wife #4 / Mario Tama, Getty Images)
Jimmy Kimmel talks about the Malignant Loser's odd misspellings, his many contradictions, his electoral delusions (including WWJD), and his bizarre "signature female weightlifter routine." He closes with a farewell to "Child of the MAGA Universe" ex- Rep. George Santos.
When they tell you who they are the first time (and the second, third, fourth, etc.), believe them:
Two months after a prominent conservative activist and fundraiser was caught hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes, leaders of the Republican Party of Texas have voted against barring the party from associating with known Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers.
In a 32-29 vote on Saturday, members of the Texas GOP’s executive committee stripped a pro-Israel resolution of a clause that would have included the ban. In a separate move that stunned some members, roughly half of the board also tried to prevent a record of their vote from being kept.
In rejecting the proposed ban, the executive committee's majority delivered a serious blow to a faction of members that has called for the party to confront its ties to groups that have recently employed or associated with outspoken white supremacists and extremists.
In October, The Texas Tribune published photos of Fuentes, an avowed admirer of Adolf Hitler who has called for a “holy war” against Jews, entering and leaving the offices of Pale Horse Strategies, a consulting firm for far-right candidates and movements.
Pale Horse Strategies is owned by Jonathan Stickland, a former state representative and at the time the leader of a political action committee, Defend Texas Liberty, that two West Texas oil billionaires have used to fund right-wing movements, candidates and politicians in the state — including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Texas GOP, was also seen entering the Pale Horse offices while Fuentes was inside for nearly 7 hours. He denied participating, however, saying he was visiting with someone else at the time and didn’t know Fuentes was there...
There's much more of the background and intra- party jousting at the link. All we need to know is that anyone associating with a fascist, white nationalist, anti-Semitic scumbag like Fuentes should be known by the company they keep. The Republican Party of Texas is now upfront as an anti-Semitic, Christofascist organization. Period.
(Photo: Fuentes, hatless, with fellow incels on November 14, 2020, getting ready to speak at a "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, DC / Leah Mills, Reuters)
The Malignant Loser's farcical projection --
With attempts to portray Biden as anti-democracy, Trump is engaging in a classic disinformation tactic: accuse the accuser to neutralize the issue. Look at the facts, not the labels. https://t.co/yyXyonbMXH
— Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) December 4, 2023
... and his encouragement of Black voter suppression --
Disgraced former President Trump telling Iowa supporters they should go to heavily-populated urban areas like Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta and intimidate voters of color.
— Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) December 4, 2023
This is disgusting. pic.twitter.com/umGNgbQger
The 100% political Biden impeachment, sponsored by the 100% political Clinton impeachment ratfucker --
Newt Gingrich said the quiet part loud about impeachment on Fox & Friends this morning: "If you're a Republican, do you really want to guarantee a primary opponent by voting against it?" pic.twitter.com/9UagUyc8gE
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 4, 2023
🚨 Don't mistake Christian nationalists for normal people --
Political pundit James Carville lived in Louisiana for decades & knows Mike Johnson & other Christian Nationalists of his ilk. Pay close attention, these ppl are extremely dangerous. They want a Handmaid’s Tale lifestyle ON STEROIDS. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/nahO3NMjPP
— Beep🇺🇦🇮🇱🇺🇸 (@fiercefreckled) November 18, 2023
Don't mistake Jonathan Turdley for a legal scholar --
Jonathan Turley is Mike Lindell with tenure. https://t.co/IVQvjSz1fH
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) December 3, 2023
Don't buy Bibi's proposal --
Netanyahu is shopping around a proposal to US Congressional leaders to “thin out” Gaza’s population and expel the surviving residents into neighboring countries. https://t.co/DXrXfYgXk0
— The Nation (@thenation) December 4, 2023
He's not very Swift-ie --
Hell yes. I’m in. pic.twitter.com/59BSxIsCpR
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) December 4, 2023
If you want Satanic, though ... --
Oy vey. From Kim’s photo shoot for Impact Wealth magazine. pic.twitter.com/2kXrDIOtNf
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 4, 2023
It's so crazy, it just might work --
Georgia could still make the college football playoffs if Mike Pence has the courage to do the right thing.
— Leah Litman (@LeahLitman) December 3, 2023
The Malignant Loser has always been envious of and hateful toward former President Obama. From his days of promoting the odious birther claims against Obama, to his relentless campaign to terminate Obama's signature domestic policy achievement, the Affordable Care Act or "Obamacare", the Malignant Loser has a vengeful attitude toward his predecessor. Some have even suggested that Obama's ridicule of the Malignant Loser at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner prompted him to run for President in 2016. His innate racism has been on display going back decades when he was a self-promoting real estate hustler in New York City, as evidenced in the Central Park Five injustice, and his company's redlining of minority renters in New York City during the 1970s.
Dean Obeidallah has an opinion piece on CNN.com that explores the reasons behind the Malignant Loser's insistent attempts to destroy his predecessor's achievement, which he tried and failed to do in his four miserable years in the Oval Office:
"First, he believes going after the signature achievement of President Obama plays well with his base. The ACA has the support of nearly 60% of Americans, so it might seem an unlikely target of political attack — except for the fact that Obama was extremely unpopular with the GOP base. [snip]
Second, Trump has long appeared obsessed with attacking — and if at all possible undoing — Obama’s legacy.
When Obama left office in January 2017, a CNN poll showed him with a 60% approval rating, landing him near the top of the list of presidential approval ratings upon leaving office. In contrast, Trump left office with a 34% approval rating — the lowest of his term. Those numbers must stick in the craw of a braggadocious man who has always seemed obsessed with being the biggest and the best. [snip]
But there’s another, deeply unsettling possible motive: A racial component may be at play in Trump’s attacks on the legacy of the first Black president.
Some pundits have long expressed the view that Trump often appears to be driven by racism and that a similar motivation may be part of the thinking of his MAGA followers. Trump understands his base better than any of us and — as a master of political divisiveness — he surely knows that attacking Obama will please his supporters." (our emphasis)
Obeidallah's column is well worth reading, and looks at the Malignant Loser's history of racism and demagoguery in a fuller context. The fact that he doesn't have an alternative replacement for Obama's Affordable Care Act is the clearest sign that he never had anything, and, once again, this is all about his petty grievances and bigotry at the expense of millions of Americans needing affordable health care.
(click to enlarge)
We endured several days of high praise for Henry Kissinger after his death last week (NBC's sycophantic Andrea Mitchell was among the worst). Left out or glossed over in most accounts were his engineering and guidance of numerous international acts that resulted in the deaths of countless people unable to defend themselves from his immoral "realpolitik" mindset.
Please consider supporting Tom's work by going here.
Today [December 2], the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule that will sharply reduce methane and other harmful air pollutants from the oil and natural gas industry, including from hundreds of thousands of existing sources nationwide, promote the use of cutting-edge methane detection technologies, and deliver significant economic and public health benefits. The final action was announced by Administrator Michael S. Regan and President Biden’s National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi at COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), advancing President Biden’s historic climate agenda and day one commitment to restore the United States’ global leadership on climate change.Oil and natural gas operations are the nation’s largest industrial source of methane, a climate “super pollutant” that is many times more potent than carbon dioxide and is responsible for approximately one third of the warming from greenhouse gases occurring today. Sharp cuts in methane emissions are among the most critical actions the United States can take in the short term to slow the rate of climate change.
EPA’s final rule leverages the latest cost-effective, innovative technologies and proven solutions to prevent an estimated 58 million tons of methane emissions from 2024 to 2038, the equivalent of 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide – nearly as much as all the carbon dioxide emitted by the power sector in 2021. In 2030 alone, the expected reductions are equivalent to 130 million metric tons of carbon dioxide – more than the annual emissions from 28 million gasoline cars. The rule would achieve a nearly 80 percent reduction below the future methane emissions expected without the rule. These reductions are greater than what was projected for the 2022 and 2021 proposals, thanks to changes that strengthen provisions to limit wasteful, polluting flaring of natural gas and analytical updates that better capture the impacts of this rulemaking. [snip]
“bp welcomes the finalization of a federal methane rule for new, modified and - for the first time - existing sources,” said Orlando Alvarez, Chairman and President, bp America. “A well-designed rule will help drive material methane emission reductions this decade and beyond. We appreciate the collaborative way EPA, NGOs and industry worked together on this rulemaking. In the spirit of COP28, input from a broad range of stakeholders makes for more durable and effective policies. We congratulate the Administration on this important milestone and look forward to working together on the next phases of implementation.”
Now, if they could just cap the toxic emissions coming from the Malignant Loser's blow hole.
Muslim community leaders from several swing states pledged to withdraw support for U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday at a conference in suburban Detroit, citing his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Democrats in Michigan have warned the White House that Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war could cost him enough support within the Arab American community to sway the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
Leaders from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania gathered behind a lectern that read “Abandon Biden, ceasefire now” in Dearborn, Michigan, the city with the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States. [snip]
“We are not powerless as American Muslims. We are powerful. We don’t only have the money, but we have the actual votes. And we will use that vote to save this nation from itself,” Hussein said at the conference.
The Muslim community leaders’ condemnation of Biden does not indicate support for former President Donald Trump, the clear front-runner in the Republican primary, Hussein clarified.
“We don’t have two options. We have many options. And we’re going to exercise that,” he said.
(Eyeroll) yes, a vote for a Jill Stein or a "No Labels" grifter will certainly be excellent, viable options -- if you want to see a true White nationalist Islamophobe back in the White House. What a calm, rational, well- thought- out plan, destined to make life worse for everyone!
The pain of a promising season cut short last month by a gruesome injury was compounded for quarterback Jordan Travis, who said Sunday that he wished “my leg broke earlier in the season so y’all could see this team is much more than the quarterback,” and even felt compelled to apologize after learning his undefeated, ACC champion Florida State team had been passed over for one of the four College Football Playoff berths. [snip]
“I am disgusted and infuriated with the committee’s decision today to have what was earned on the field taken away because a small group of people decided they knew better than the results of the games,” Norvell said in a statement. “What is the point of playing games? Do you tell players it is okay to quit if someone goes down? Do you not play a senior on Senior Day for fear of injury? Where is the motivation to schedule challenging nonconference games? We are not only an undefeated P5 conference champion, but we also played two P5 nonconference games away from home and won both of them. I don’t understand how we are supposed to think this is an acceptable way to evaluate a team.
“I’m hurting for our players who have displayed a tremendous amount of resilience and response this season. What happened today goes against everything that is true and right in college football. A team that overcame tremendous adversity and found a way to win doing whatever it took on the field was cheated today. It’s a sad day for college football. [snip]
Florida State Athletic director Michael Alford echoed that, saying the decision gave in “to a narrative” that is “destructive, far reaching, and permanent not just for Florida State, but college football as a whole.”
“The argument of whether a team is the ‘most deserving or best’ is a false equivalence,” he continued. “It renders the season up to yesterday irrelevant and significantly damages the legitimacy of the College Football Playoff,” Alford said in a statement. “The 2023 Florida State Seminoles are the epitome of a total TEAM. To eliminate them from a chance to compete for a national championship is an unwarranted injustice that shows complete disregard and disrespect for their performance and accomplishments. It is unforgivable.”
Sorry SEC. Michigan. Washington. Florida State. Texas. That was how it should have been. And this --
Florida State scheduled an SEC powerhouse. They won a power five conference. They won all their games, overcoming adversity along the way. This isn’t figure skating, judges should never have been a part of it. #FSU #CFP
— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) December 3, 2023
(click on image to enlarge)
The galaxy cluster is located in the constellation Eridanus, but the question of its distance from Earth is a more complicated one. Abell 3192 was originally documented in the 1989 update of the Abell catalogue, a catalogue of galaxy clusters that was first published in 1958. At that time, Abell 3192 was thought to comprise a single cluster of galaxies, concentrated at a single distance. However, further research revealed something surprising: the cluster’s mass seemed to be densest at two distinct points rather than one.
It was subsequently shown that the original Abell cluster actually comprised two independent galaxy clusters — a foreground group around 2.3 billion light-years from Earth, and a further group at the greater distance of about 5.4 billion light-years from our planet. The more distant galaxy cluster, included in the Massive Cluster Survey as MCS J0358.8-2955, is central in this image. The two galaxy groups are thought to have masses equivalent to around 30 trillion and 120 trillion times the mass of the Sun, respectively. Both of the two largest galaxies at the centre of this image are part of MCS J0358.8-2955; the smaller galaxies you see here, however, are a mixture of the two groups within Abell 3192.
[Image Description: A cluster of galaxies, concentrated around what appear to be two large elliptical galaxies. The rest of the black background is covered in smaller galaxies of all shapes and sizes. In the top left and bottom right, beside the two large galaxies, some galaxies appear notably distorted into curves by gravity.]
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Smith, H. Ebeling, D. Coe
(click on images to enlarge)
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
(Matt Davies, Newsday)
(Kevin Kallaugher, Counterpoint)
(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)
(Michael de Adder, Globe and Mail, Canada)
(Patrick Chappatte, The Boston Globe)
(Martin Wolterink, @mwcartoons, Netherlands)
(Lars Kenseth, @larskenseth)
"...[T]he former president depends on congressional Republicans. He always has, and I think this impeachment inquiry is being demanded, being sought, in part to muddy the waters, to make the accusations through Congress, through impeachment about President Biden. And so I think there is a lot of pressure on Speaker Johnson. But frankly, I think Speaker Johnson is happy to go along. He is part of the cohort that has been very eager to get this going...
"...But, look, this still is very much more like the 1990s, right, than the last impeachment we went through. That was when Republicans went to impeach a former President Clinton, in the Monica Lewinsky story. Here, though, we don't even know what the accusations are. There's no evidence of anything at this point. And this is quite a contrast with Speaker Pelosi, in 2019, really didn't want to move forward with impeachment. Here they are moving forward fast without anything there. So that tells you the politics of the impeachment is much more important now than the actual substance behind what they are pursuing..." (our emphasis) -- Princeton professor Julian Zelizer, on CNN this morning, accurately describing the on-going coup being planned by Christofascists in the House, led by January 6 coup plotter Speaker Mike Johnson. It's not clear that Johnson has the votes at this time to actually pass an impeachment resolution, should it emerge from the fever swamps of a Republican- controlled committee. But, the point is as Zelizer notes -- to muddy the waters for easily manipulated, credulous voters and media. There is evidence, though, that many voters will see right through the gambit as retaliation for the Malignant Loser's deserved two impeachments. They'll hopefully be reminded of the chaos, extremism, and incompetence of Republicans in the House not doing the people's business while they engage in transparent revenge politics. Zelizer's comparison to the Clinton impeachment, and how that likely caused Republicans to lose seats in the House in the 1998 off- year election when they should have picked some up, should (but won't) be a caution to Johnson, et al.
Last night's Saturday Night Live cold open send off of lying fabulist felon George Santos is an instant classic. Leading off with Sarah Sherman as "Wolf Blitzer," the stage is turned over to the brilliant Bowen Yang as the former Representative / "Congress Queen" / "Evil Forrest Gump" to tell his saga using his lyrical version of "Candle In The Wind." Perfect.
"Joy and sorrow in this world pass into each other, mingling their forms and their murmurs in the twilight of life as mysterious as an overshadowed ocean, while the dazzling brightness of supreme hopes lies far off, fascinating and still, on the distant edge of the horizon." -- renowned Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad (12/3/1857 - 8/3/1924), from “A Personal Record: Some Reminiscences”, 2005, Cosimo, Inc. Author of such classic works as "Heart of Darkness," "Lord Jim," "Nostromo," and "Under Western Eyes," Conrad has more novels (4) on Modern Library's "100 Best Novels of the 20th Century" than any other author. His writing style influenced many subsequent authors, including William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, and Joan Didion. Conrad's work was so respected that F. Scott Fitzgerald once complained in a letter to H.L. Mencken that he was left off of a list of Conrad imitators.
(photo: Bettman Archives, via Getty Images)
