Random Post-Christmas Noodling

Back from a well-deserved few days off (I did deserve it, right?) and catching up on things.

So, raise your hand if you've got battle scars from the war on Christmas.  Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

Honestly, I can see people maybe having battle scars from Christmas, especially in blended families where the dinner table conversation can turn ugly like a Christmas sweater, but not so much from the war on Christmas.  Which is why it's probably a good thing the president ended that battle, before anyone got seriously hurt.

Do we know yet which of His Generals was responsible for this Operation Santa Buster?

And at what point did Merry Christmas become OUR cherished and beautiful phrase? Who is the 'our' he's talking about? Americans? White people? Evangelicals? Is it possible he truly doesn't know that Christmas is not an American holiday, or does he simply not care?

Speaking of Christmas, I was able to have my life-size cutout Donald Trump join one of our family Christmas gatherings.  One of our younger family members -- an 11-year-old -- came around the corner and only saw the back of the cut out, and asked me who it was. I turned it towards him and got a "oh, him!" and a monster eye roll, and then it was back to some Merry Christmasing. Cracked me up.

What else has been going on? Well, it seems someone thought a package of horse manure would make a nice Christmas present for Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

It was one of those gag cards you can buy in a drugstore. "Merry Catsmess!" read the caption. And in a personal touch, as if for emphasis, Robby Strong had enclosed a box of horse manure. "To Stevie," he wrote on the envelope, meaning Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, for whose doorstep the manure was bound.

"We're returning the 'gift' of the Christmas tax bill. It's bulls---." Strong wrote on the card. "Warmest Wishes, The American People." 

Strong, who at least at the time he delivered the manure in the general neighborhood of Mnuchin worked as a psychologist for LA County, believed his actions were necessary.

In the long run, if we don't do stuff like this, what are we going to have left? What I did, I would like to compare to what Jesus did when he went into the temple and overturned the tables of the money-changers, who were exploiting the people financially in the name of religion. I feel like that's what the GOP has done to the American people.

"If we don't do stuff like this, what are we going to have left?"

We'd have Mike Huckabee, maybe?  We'll have him for a while longer, anyway - although, after he compared Donald Trump to Winston Churchill, not sure how much longer. Reaction was swift after this tweet:

Several referenced Trump's bone spurs (real or imagined). Others called out Churchill's intellect, his service, and that he unified his country - three things which have rarely been said about Trump by anyone other than Trump. Others were sharply critical of Huckabee's comedic skills. It's a fun read, if you have a few minutes. 

The last one I was going to highlight was Orrin Hatch being named Utahn of the Year by the Salt Lake Tribune. Similar to Time Magazine's Man, Woman, Person, thing, movement, word, or hashtag of the Year, the honorific can be given for the best of reasons, or the worst of them. 

According to the paper's editorial board,

The selection of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch as the 2017 Utahn of the Year has little to do with the fact that, after 42 years, he is the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history, that he has been a senator from Utah longer than three-fifths of the state's population has been alive. It has everything to do with recognizing:

• Hatch's part in the dramatic dismantling of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.

• His role as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in passing a major overhaul of the nation's tax code.

• His utter lack of integrity that raises from his unquenchable thirst for power.  

But, instead of talking about that, I'd rather point you to this guitar composition by Frank Zappa titled Orrin Hatch on Skis -- I kid you not.

I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.  Happy holidays!