Quick Hits

Santa arrested in Germany for not wearing a mask:

That's real.

Brandon's popularity with young voters plummeting:

Do you have omicron? The New York Times published this list of omicron symptoms so that you can check:

Scratchy or sore throat

Nasal congestion

Dry cough

Muscle pain, especially in the lower back

Headache

Fever, or flu-like symptoms

In other words, we’ve had Covid every day of our entire adult life?

A couple of weeks ago I had those symptoms and thought maybe I had omicron. I wasn't worried about it, mind you; I was sort of hoping I had it, because the symptoms were super-mild -- barely a cold -- and it would have been a super-cheap way to pick up natural immunity.

But if we're down to saying those are the symptoms of omicron, then we're just saying omicron is a cold.

BTW, I think the illness I actually had was "being run-down from getting bad sleep three nights in a row."

Or omicron. Either/or.

The corporate media reaction to omicron is not normal, it's psychotic, and it's time to stop listening to these people entirely.

What would Theater be without some nice Masks?

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot allows and encourages crime in her city, but she's hot to prosecute Political Criminals:

To put it simply, if you have been living vaccine-free, your time is up. If you wish to live life as w/the ease to do the things you love, you must be vax'd.

This health order may pose an inconvenience to the unvaccinated, and in fact it is inconvenient by design.

-- Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) December 21, 2021

Eat all the dicks, Groot.

Trump continues touting the vaccines, and won't even allow Candace Owens to dunk on Biden's poor covid record, stating that that's just because people refuse to take the vaccine.

This is being promoted as a split between Trump and Trump's natural base by the likes of coonskin-cap wearing leftwinger Frank Luntz, and, let's face it, it is.

Candace Owens tries to insinuate the COVID vaccine doesn't work by saying more people have died under Biden than under Trump.

Actually, she didn't try to insinuate that; she was just pointing out the man you voted for, Joe "I will shut down covid" Brandon has a worse covid record than the man he said should resign over his covid record.

Get the dick out of your ears and listen for two seconds.

Though I wish Trump would have just let her make her point before rushing in to claim credit for the vaccines. She would have let him get to that.

Trump points out that the people still going to the hospital and dying are almost all unvaccinated.

Based.

Oh shut up.

But I am seeing real tension between Trump and his base on the vaccine issue.

Meanwhile, Meghan McCain inserted herself into this online controversy -- of course -- and Candace Owens went savage on her.

Biden staffers are leaving partly because... the parties aren't as good as they'd hoped. And they don't get to fraternize and enjoy the frenetic, intellectual "office culture" they'd seen on The West Wing.)

Working at the White House may be a unique gig. But like many other employers, staffers there are experiencing their fair share of burnout. As with many workplaces, more people are working remotely and communication is often done virtually rather than in person, making it more difficult to create an office culture. There have been attempts to try and build camaraderie such as informal happy hours and group dinners. But they've largely not done the trick.

Some staffers say it's the result of an insular, top-heavy White House of longtime Biden aides who are distant from much of the staff -- "no new friends in Biden world,” goes the refrain. And others say it’s just poor management.

The small perks of working in the White House, like the chance to take part in holiday parties and ceremonies, have also been in short supply. For the White House's Independence Day party, most White House staff could only attend if they worked as unpaid volunteers staffing the event, per an email from White House operations sent at the time and shared with us. For the Thanksgiving turkey pardoning and the Christmas tree lighting, attendance was doled out via a lottery system, leaving out many White House aides.

They... they do know that they've forced this same policy of "work from home" social isolation on millions and millions and tens of millions of Americans, right? Who did not have any say in the policy, right?

While the staff gets excluded from White House events and parties -- supposedly due to covid restrictions -- the permanent DC insider class always gets invites.

"No one expects business as usual during the pandemic, but it's beyond demoralizing, it's insulting -- especially when you see DNC and Hill staff and other D.C. types get invited," explained a White House official who was granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to us.

The staffer went on to talk about the contrast between Biden's "brand" of "empathy and family" and how he actually operates.

Yeah, I'm as shocked as any of you.

Jen Psaki say that the White House has now fixed the supply chain crisis which had previously not been happening and/or was "good news."

Jen Psaki @PressSec

Take that Scrooge, the Grinch and all of the doubters that this could happen. Also shelves are stocked at 90% (pre-pandemic levels are 91%)

Where I am, shelves are very poorly stocked.

Jon Gabriel @exjon

White House Crisis Comms:
1) It isn't happening
2) It isn't happening
3) It isn't happening
4) We fixed that thing that wasn't happening

Karol Markowicz @karol

Jen Psaki going from "we're not the postal service" to taking credit for Christmas presents arriving on time could only happen with a compliant, friendly media.

This clown:

Trust your experts.

Trust the political class.

posted by Ace at 04:35 PM

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