Week of Annual Gratitude Attitude
Thanksgiving, Criminal Incentives, Collapsing Prosecutions, Lawful Now Illegal, Swastikas, DC National Guard Murdered, Venezuela Escalate, Ukraine Undercut, Unwise Wealth

She traces the first dim beginning as a brief celebration of peace, interrupting otherwise unceasing violence by Pilgrims against Native Americans, to a brief hope for peace between free and slave states, and finally to the first official national declaration as victories came against the slaveholding south.

The same analysis is now available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast.

So…
The Onion carries the news as the White House touts the affordability of hay‑based Thanksgiving dishes:

Key overview:
It’s tempting to view gratitude only through the filter of what’s pleasant, as if only comfort and ease are worth appreciating.

Key timidity:
Joe Biden came to power and appointed an attorney general who shelved or slow walked investigations of the outgoing criminal regime. The main legacy of Merrick Garlandism isn’t failure to mete out justice for past crimes; its that he created incentives for future ones.

Key trap:
Each crime makes MAGA more vulnerable and, thus, willing to take greater risks to avoid accountability, increasing their legal exposure cyclically.

With one meme, plus one movie quote, and headlines from 3 news sources…

My personal favorite (from Slate)
It Turns Out Lindsey Halligan Was a Fake Prosecutor All Along

…driftglass, like so many of us, really shouldn’t lapse into schadenfreude, but… just! can’t! help! himself!

Come ON, Burr. It’s not polite to gloat! ^tee hee

Tommy Christopher brings us a segment of a CNN round table during which a Trump apologist (Terry Schilling) twists, turns, and blender‑dices himself to avoid answering a simple question:

Key Unanswerable:
ABBY PHILLIP: Do you actually believe that Democrats putting out a video saying, follow the law, is sedition?

Key corrective:
ABBY PHILLIP: Guess what? Hold on a second. In this country, you do get to undermine the President of the United States.

Yeah, Potentially.

After a hell of a lot of What the HELL is this, the bold decision died in Whimperville and was quietly reversed.

Swastikas and nooses are hate symbols after all.

At The Moderate Voice Associate Editor Kathy Gill goes beyond What the HELL, explaining just why both represent hate, violence, and evil: as in Nazi Germany and the KKK in the US.

Key comment (Senator Lindsey Graham — SC):
I’m in the ‘Hitler sucks’ wing of the Republican Party.

As in: Why do ICE officials feel immune from official consequences?
Because they are, in fact, immune.
Officially immune.

As is often the case, Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson has what should be the last word.

That argument is correct as far as it goes. Many of those arguments were never presented in court.

The reason is simple. You can make false statements at a public microphone without consequence. Freedom of speech.

Making false statements in court, lying deliberately, can involve actual penalties. So charges of widespread fraud made before microphones on the parking lots of landscaping businesses often don’t get presented in a courtroom.

Recently, that demarcation seems to have weakened. Senior Border Patrol official Greg Bovino serves as just one example of a widespread change in the Trump administration.

The Associated Press may be excessively generous with this headline: Court transcripts show Border Patrol official Greg Bovino dodging questions about use of force

In fact, according to a judicial decision, he lied outright.

He testified that he did not violate a court order against using tear gas or physical force unless facing actual threats of imminent bodily harm.

First, he denied throwing a tear gas canister into a crowd. A video showed him doing just that. He insisted he hadn’t lied, because he was asked about throwing a canister. He had thrown two canisters, not a canister.

He denied using force against an older man during a protest. Video showed him tackling the man. But, he explained to the court, he wasn’t lying. The man wasn’t really older. Besides, the physical contact was not an actual use of force.

He testified that a protest was violent, he and his troops were threatened, so he was justified throwing canisters (plural, doncha see) of tear gas. He knew because he had been hit by a rock before the canisters.

Well, he said when video did not support even that, th rock had hit him later after he threw the …you know… canisters. Okay, so the rock had just landed near him later on, so it wasn’t captured on camera.

And so it went.

Decades ago, news of some horrible crime would spark family prayers: please don’t let the culprits be the wrong race. Would our children be held guilty of sharing the same skin color as that of a perpetrator?

Today, immigrants brace for unwelcomed news.

News Corpse carries the story as Trump officials place blame for the shootings that targeted two members of the National Guard, leaving one dead and another in critical condition.

Not only are immigrants as a group responsible, but President Biden is at fault.

The narrative of blame is somewhat disrupted as it turns out the shooter was given asylum by the Trump administration. Apparently, they had little ethical choice, the immigrant having risked his life to help the US in Afghanistan.
Still, we can blame them damn Immigrants, right?

My response to one similar bit of reasoning:

Referencing this:

One example:
Fox “News” dispatched a fearless “reporter” to the scene who boldly stood on the front lines of the protest and breathlessly reported that there were unimaginable scenes of mayhem unfolding right behind her.

Meanwhile, behind her, viewers glimpsed …well… the professor helpfully posts a screenshot:

And it gets much worse, much wilder, and much funnier. Click to find out how.

So the Epstein scandal, last week’s files of which no one must speak suddenly transforms to Boy howdy, Democrats must surely be scared of those revelations now.
Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani goes from dangerous communist to Man of the People who, like Trump, makes Democrats look petty and ignorant.
With the friendly visit of the murderous Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, who ordered the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi a few years ago, the grisly murder is actually kind of humorous, if you look at it the right way. Hilarious, in fact.

As always, high prices and a teetering economy are both evil Democratic propaganda, because prosperity is just around the corner.

More detailed information is presented by Juliet in an almost hour long entertaining podcast.

This time, Michael sees the recent meeting between NYC Mayor‑elect Mamdani and mr Trump as one more step toward dictatorship:

This is how totalitarian Socialism comes to America.

Beginning with NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani finding secret magic words of faint praise. It’s enough for implacable foe Trump to fall madly in love, spoiling Republican plans to brand all Democrats of communism and socialism and wanting to seize all private property plus your kids’ toothbrushes.
Including Epstein release that is not quite a release, prosecuting Senators for saying that breaking the law is unlawful, and losing bogus cases against political enemies because of prosecutorial goofiness.
Ending with Hegseth ordering what turns out to be the accidental invasion of Mexico, because he can’t read a map.

Journalist Arturo Dominguez sees a better explanation regarding one Latin American country: a clumsy cover story leading to a contrived justification for war against Venezuela for its oil.

But he does a pretty good job of summarizing what Trump sees as the compromise that will end the conflict over Ukraine land:

On the Ukraine side, give Putin everything he wants. The US envoy helpfully assists the Russians by letting them write out Putin’s wish list as the US compromise proposal.

Trump, his own self, spells out what Putin must give up: Putin will promise not to take any more than he wants.

Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit asks how that explanation makes it any better, and offers a helpful suggestion on a better plan.

Separately, she agrees, as should we, with an expert assessment:

PZ Myers brings us, from an authoritative US government source, official TrumpFolk disrespect for the Nursing profession.

From WKYT in Kentucky:
Nursing has been excluded as a “professional degree” by the Trump administration as the Department of Education prepares to make massive cuts to providing student loans.

Professor Myers notices something weird about the fields of study the Trump administration does regard as professional.

Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group actually make it occasionally hilarious as they take questions from listeners.

If you are more into reading than listening, you may prefer a complete PDF favored transcript.