Thanksgiving Night Cafe

—Ace

The hammer-headed fruitbat, known by some
(mostly me) as "the Turkey of the Night"

These are big boys.

Real big boys.

Just a gal riding her horse like she's late to Pellanor Fields.

CAUTION! SEXUAL CONTENT WARNING! A male hedgehog tries to stick it to a female hedgehog, and that's not easy, on account of all the sticky bits. She's not making it easy for him. Her quills are all up. I know how that story goes.

A warm welcome from a cute cat.

A lynx's cub is caught in a trap, so she asks a human to help. Good thing she didn't ask the trapper.

The Great Thanksgiving Turkey Drop Open Thread

—Ace

Finally got my turkey out of the oven. It's setting now.

i know most of you ate already. How was it?

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Open Thread

—Ace

I don't know if this video will work for you. It's only a matter of time before it's taken down due to copyright.

First, a little ambiance for you when you're cooking or eating:

Getting the Turkey Open Thread

—Ace

Rush Limbaugh's Thanksgiving Day Story

—Ace

Via amuse's substack, Rush Limbaugh had written about the first Thanksgiving in one of his books and sometimes read the passage aloud before the holiday.

This, dear reader, is the real story of Thanksgiving. It wasn't just a meal shared with Native Americans--though they did indeed feast together, celebrating the bounty of their harvest. No, the true reason for giving thanks was far greater: the Pilgrims gave thanks to God for guiding them to the principles that allowed them to survive and then thrive--the principles of hard work, private property, and individual liberty. It wasn't socialism that saved them; it was capitalism. It was the power of personal responsibility and the freedom to reap the fruits of one's own labor that turned near-starvation into abundance.

Below, two clips of Limbaugh talking about this. The first clip is shorter -- about eight minutes -- and the second clip is longer -- about 33 minutes. Your choice!

The latter clip is the last time Rush addressed this before he died.

Trump Blasts Biden For Allowing In Unvetted Afghan Terrorists, Orders a Vetting of Biden's Afghans

—Ace

I don't like posting this sort of stuff on Thanksgiving, but I missed the story yesterday, as I was out for a big chunk of the late afternoon.

After this, I'll just post Thanksgiving-themed open threads.

I know JJ covered this. I'll just re-cover it.

The left had the predictable response to one of Biden's unvetted Afghan terrorists being let through the open border. You'll never see this coming -- it was Trump's fault, for posting National Guardsmen in DC.

Trump forced Biden's terrorist to shoot wo brand-new Guardsmen, you see. He provoked the terrorist by providing law and order.

[I]nstead of directing outrage toward the assailant, prominent progressive voices turned their fire on Trump -- claiming the Guardsmen were in harm's way only because the administration sent them into the city.

New Yorker writer Jane Mayer insisted the troops "never should have been deployed," claiming she had watched them "pick up trash" and suggesting their presence was merely "for political show." Progressive YouTuber Keith Edwards went further, accusing Trump of an "illegal deployment" and asserting that the Guardsmen "would be fine" were it not for the president's decision to reinforce the capital.

Others leaned into the same narrative. Liberal commentator Wajahat Ali declared the National Guard "should never have been deployed in Washington, DC," while additional activists claimed Trump would now "twist this tragedy" into justification for strengthening law-and-order measures nationwide.

The presence of the two young. fresh-from-bootcamp Guardsmen provoked the Cultural Enrichment Officer, you see. Didn't you know that. racists?

The two West Virginia National Guard members critically wounded in Wednesday's ambush near the Farragut West Metro Station have now been identified as Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom -- young soldiers who had taken their oaths less than a day before gunfire erupted on a downtown Washington sidewalk.

Wolfe, 22, was identified first after Musselman High School in Inwood released a statement confirming the alumnus was one of the soldiers struck. The school said the community was "deeply saddened" and urged residents to pray for him. Wolfe was rushed into surgery and remains in critical condition.

Trump blamed the shambling corpse Biden and his maniacal determination to import all of the criminals, rapists, and terrorists of the Third World into the US to punish us for having succeeded while the Third World failed.

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

—CBD

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary.

Every word out of the bird’s mouth was rude, obnoxious, and laced with profanity.

John tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to ‘clean up’ the bird’s vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes, the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that he’d hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John’s outstretched arms and said “I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I’m sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior.”

John was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude.

As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird spoke-up, very softly, “May I ask what the turkey did?”

[Hat Tip: MTF]

And Open Thread!

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

Turkey Girl
Camille Pissarro

And in case this isn't enough fodder for discussion, try the nude of Olivia Nuzzi.

The Morning Report — 11/27/25

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. And of course Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving to you all. The big story this morning was the gunning down of National Guardsmen in the nation's capital yesterday.

One of the two West Virginia National Guard members shot in a violent ambush on Wednesday afternoon has been identified as Andrew Wolfe, according to his former high school. “Our Applemen community is deeply saddened to learn that Musselman High School alumnus, Andrew Wolfe, was one of the National Guardsmen injured in the shooting in Washington, D.C. today,” Musselman High School in West Virginia posted on Facebook. Wolfe is currently undergoing surgery and is in critical condition after Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, allegedly opened fire on him and a female National Guard member near the Farragut West Metro Station in Northwest DC in what’s being probed as a possible terrorist attack.

The evil bastard Democrats have more innocent blood on their hands. This is yet one more act of barbarism that they and they alone are responsible for. Until my last breath, all the pain, suffering dislocation and wastage of life, money and human potential that has laid us low for over 200 years is directly the fault of Democrat Leftist policy, corruption and criminality in their ongoing and never ending lust for absolute power.

Just like the victims of the Islamikaze suicide bombers in Kabul 5 years ago these deaths are directly the fault of Joe Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants Biden and whoever auto penned his signature authorizing the US military to just drop everything and bug out of Afghanistan.

In September 2021, then U.S. Senate candidate JD Vance warned that Joe Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal and reckless refugee resettlement would “create an opportunity for terrorists.” He blasted the administration for flooding America with “thousands of unvetted people,” a failure he said put Americans at risk. As the nation’s newly sworn vice president in January 2025, Vance doubled down on the warning, telling CBS, “We know that there are cases of people who allegedly were property vetted and then were literally planning terrorist attacks in our country.” . . . The idea that these people are vetted is a lie, and we need to call out that lie. Now, if we do that of course, what they [leftists] say is “the reason you don’t want these Afghans in your community is because you are a racist.” Well, that’s not true. I don’t care about the color of their skin. Here’s what I care about — that according to Pew Research, 40 percent of people who live in Afghanistan believe that suicide bombings are an acceptable way to solve a problem. Are we allowed to say that I don’t want 100,000 people unvetted from a country where nearly half the people think suicide bombing is an OK way to solve a problem? Because I don’t want that. Shortly after being sworn in as vice president in January, Vance squared off against CBS Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan, who claimed, “These people are vetted!” Vice President Vance responded sharply, saying, “Just like the guy who planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma a few months ago?”

Of course the Democrat Left Media complex are in overdrive blaming, Guess Who?!

Critics are lambasting MS NOW correspondent Ken Dilanian for seemingly suggesting the suspect who critically injured two National Guardsmen near the White House was reacting to “controversy” surrounding uniformed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in American cities.

Dilanian, a justice and intelligence correspondent for the network, pitched his two cents on the devastating shooting while on-air Wednesday afternoon.

“[O]f course, you know, there’s so much controversy happening in the United States right now with ICE, who are also wearing uniforms and wearing masks. And so there’s, you don’t know, people walking around with uniforms in an American city. There are some Americans that might object to that. And so apparently this shooting has happened,” he said during an MS NOW breaking news report.

The shooting, which law enforcement officials said was a targeted “ambush,” critically wounded two National Guardsmen, including one who was believed to be shot in the head.

Ken Dilletantian went on to blame the Jews for all the carbon emissions over the crematoria at Auschwitz during World War 2 for being a major cause of global warming.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I am so very thankful for all of you who come here every morning, as well as your prayers and good wishes for me and the spouse during a very difficult time as we now both battle some health issues. I'm fine but she's suffering.

GOd bless and keep you all!

And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
• Victor Davis Hanson: A generation sidelined by debt, ideology, and stalled adulthood is drifting—but it won’t stay lost if society restores real opportunity, accountability, and purpose.
  Can the Lost Generation Be Found?
  
• Daniel Greenfield: The Marxist-Islamic persecution of Christians in China and Africa is a warning to all of us.
  The Marxist-Islamic World War Against Western Civilization

  NATIONAL GUARDSMEN GUNNED DOWN IN DC

• One of the two West Virginia National Guard members shot in a violent ambush on Wednesday afternoon has been identified, according to his former high school.
  One of two National Guard members shot in DC ID’d after gunman opens fire near White House
  
• In September 2021, then U.S. Senate candidate JD Vance warned that Joe Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal and reckless refugee resettlement would “create an opportunity for terrorists.” He blasted the administration for flooding America with “thousands of unvetted people,” a failure he said put Americans at risk. As the nation’s newly sworn vice president in January 2025, Vance doubled down on the warning, telling CBS, “We know that there are cases of people who allegedly were property [sic] vetted and then were literally planning terrorist attacks in our country.
  JD Vance in 2021: Biden’s Afghan Refugee Chaos ‘Creates Opportunity for Terrorists’
  
• "We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden."
  Trump Addresses Nation After National Guard Attack, Points Finger At Joe Biden
  
• The New York Times reported that the two National Guard members were shot “at the entrance to the Farragut West Metro Station.” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth described the shooting as “cowardly” and said, “[It will] only stiffen our resolve to ensure that we make Washington D.C. safe and beautiful.”
  WATCH: Three Shot, Including Two National Guardsmen, in Washington, DC
  
• Increased security measures and restricted access around the White House, as well as major government departments and Capitol Hill.
  National Guardsmen Shooter Entered Under Biden’s Special Afghan Visa Program.

Daily Tech News 27 November 2025

—Pixy Misa

• OpenAI says a dead teenager circumvented ChatGPT safety features before committing suicide. (Tech Crunch)
  
  This comes out of one of the manifold lawsuits for wrongful death levied against OpenAI by the families of, well, crazy people.
  
  And OpenAI actually seems to have a point:

  OpenAI claims that over roughly nine months of usage, ChatGPT directed Raine to seek help more than 100 times.

  Why didn't you tell him to seek help?
  
  (Produces list of dates, times, and messages.)
  
  We did.

  But according to his parents' lawsuit, Raine was able to circumvent the company's safety features to get ChatGPT to give him "technical specifications for everything from drug overdoses to drowning to carbon monoxide poisoning," helping him to plan what the chatbot called a "beautiful suicide."

  Y'know, back in the Paleozoic era there were these things called libraries.
  
  Razors pain you;
  Rivers are damp;
  Acids stain you;
  And drugs cause cramp.
  Guns aren't lawful;
  Nooses give;
  Gas smells awful;
  You might as well live.
  
  
  
• OpenAI needs to raise $207 billion by 2030 so that it can... Continue to lose money. (Financial Times) (archive site)
  
  Someone remind me why we are doing this again?

Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - November 26, 2025 [Zombie Rex]

—Open Blogger

Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety.

Welcome to the Wednesday night ONT which means another edition of overnight fun and games. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. Good will offerings of amusing puns are happily accepted. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors. No, this is not an officially recognized Food Thread. Don't be a traffic cone.

***

"Hey Willie! Time for the Wednesday night ONT. You read while I go find the cat..."

***

I know what you're thinking. Turkey, turkey, turkey. Everyone talks about Thanksgiving in terms of turkey. Turkey on the table, turkey pardons, turkeys falling from the sky, etc.

What about the cranberry? When does the small but mighty cranberry get its turn in the spotlight?

I'm glad you asked...

***

"Vaccinium macrocarpon" is the botanical name for the American cranberry.

Vaccinium macrocarpon, commonly called American cranberry, is native to bogs, swamps, and wet shorelines in parts of northern and eastern North America. It is a low-growing vine or trailing shrub (to 6" tall and spreading) with small, glossy leaves. Small, nodding flowers with white to pink, recurved petals bloom from late spring into early summer. The flowers are followed by plump, red to dark purple, ovoid to round, 0.5" diameter fruits. The leaves of this plant are a larval food source for the bog copper butterfly, the flowers are visited by bees, and the fruits are eaten by birds and occasionally small mammals.

The genus name Vaccinium comes from an ancient Latin name apparently derived from a prehistoric Mediterranean language. Its origin and meaning are generally considered to be lost to time.

The specific epithet macrocarpon means large-fruited, in reference to the relatively large size of the fruit of this species.

The common name cranberry derives from the Germanic kraan, meaning "crane" and bere, meaning "berry," possibly in reference to the appearance of the flowers.

Source: Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO

***

Commercial cranberry cultivation reportedly started in the United States in 1816. Captain Henry Hall found a cranberry vine thriving in some sand on Cape Cod (Dennis, Massachusetts). He became the first person to successfully cultivate cranberries.

He noticed that the wild cranberries in his bogs grew better when sand blew over them. Captain Hall began transplanting cranberry vines and spreading sand on them. Others quickly copied his technique.

The idea of growing and selling cranberries commercially caught on. Local landowners converted their swamps, wetlands, peat swamps and wet meadows into cranberry bogs.

By 1885, Plymouth County had 1,347 acres under cultivation. Barnstable County had 2,408 acres. By 1900, the number of acres tripled, making Cape Cod a household name for cranberries.

What came next? Naturally, cranberries in a can.

In 1912, a lawyer named Marcus Urann bought a cranberry bog. Based at a facility in Hanson, Massachusetts, he sought ways to extend the short selling season of the berries. Canning them made cranberries a year-round product. He and two others eventually formed a cranberry cooperative.

Cranberry Juice Cocktail was introduced in 1933 and the jellied cranberry sauce became available nationwide in 1941. Yes, the technical term for the tube of jiggling cranberry in a can is "sauce."

The cranberry cooperative group added members from Wisconsin, Oregon, and Washington, and became the National Cranberry Association in 1946. In 1957, it became Ocean Spray after acquiring the name and logo from a fish company in Washington. You might have heard of it. It remains a cooperative, with over 700 farmers.

An exemption for agricultural cooperatives in the Capper-Volstead Act of 1922 gave "associations" making agricultural products limited exemptions from anti-trust laws.

[Source: assorted nuggets from across the interweb]

***

Cran facts:

Americans consume 5,062,500 gallons of jellied cranberry sauce. It takes four million pounds of cranberries - 200 berries in each can.

Only about five percent of America's total cranberry crop is sold as fresh fruit. The rest go into juice, jelly, sauce, and dried fruit (craisins).

The five states known for growing cranberries are: Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington. Wisconsin alone accounts for over 50%.

It takes approximately 4,400 cranberries to produce one gallon of cranberry juice.

Cranberry vines are evergreen perennials that can live for over 100 years and produce fruit for up to 65 years in commercial cultivation.

***

Do cranberries grow in water? No! Bogs are flooded just before the harvest. The vines are gently jiggled. The berries are released and float to the surface where they are scooped up. They can be dry picked (think of a process that runs a comb through the vines), but about 90 percent of cranberries are picked using wet harvesting techniques.

Four little air pockets inside each berry allows them to float.

More knowledge here:

***

Thinking of becoming a cranberry farmer? This is good story telling and a very well made film.

***

The Pittsburgh police scanner keeps giving. Thank you people of Pittsburgh!

Tracked to the FBI building? Hmmm...

Friendship seems...unfriendly.

Which one of you was this?

***

***

For the big ONT finish. What else could it be?

***

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. If you came to the ONT to find cheat codes to Hunt the Wumpus, you are welcome to look through our old Compute! magazines. They're over in the corner and bundled with twine. Are you lurking ?? Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Close it up

Red Sprites at Night Cafe

—Ace

Red sprites over Western Australia by JJ Rao

It's like night and day.

Someone made a nice little hang-out for this squirrel.

When you're such a mensch that you'll even splash through a flood to save a raccoon.

Piebald (?) horse has riz.

Bro's ears are so big he can hear the future. (This is probably AI.)

Dog is made of speed atoms.

It takes this raven a little doing, but eventually she works the problem.

The white ghost elephant has two trunks.

Dude is just "wrassling his wombat," if you catch my drift.

Baby whale is a real scamp.

Mama tortoise is proud of her baby.

Rolling up to an animal shelter and telling them "I'll take whatever poor creature's been here the longest."

When your fighting cocks start their own dog-fighting ring. "I learned it from you, dad!"

This story starts off sad and anger-making, but it ends well.

The Wednesday In Woke

—Ace

The Bee:

Almost 30 people were shot in Chicago this past weekend.

Three people are dead, and 26 more were injured in shootings in the Democrat-run Windy City this weekend. Yet state and local authorities are much more concerned about ICE arresting illegal aliens than about the sky-high crime rate.

CBS Chicago posted the most recent tally as of Monday morning, which was 29 shooting victims this weekend, three of them fatal. The victims ranged in age from a very young 13 to 65. The youngest fatality was a 14-year-old, and the number of deaths could go higher, as multiple individuals were reported in a serious or critical condition by the time they reached hospitals.

The biggest shooting appears to have been the one that made headlines from the popular Loop area of Chicago following Christmas season festivities, which left more than half a dozen teenagers injured.

The Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in Chicago ended in tragedy after seven 13-to-17-year-olds were shot. Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has been wasting time, resources, and effort on protecting illegal aliens, admitted that there is a threat this holiday season of attempted "teen takeovers." ABC7 staff heard the shots from the State Street studio. Obviously, large crowds are expected in downtown Chicago this holiday season, making the potential impact of shootings much greater.

A separate incident that same night claimed the life of the 14-year-old boy. At the same time, an 18-year-old man was seriously injured, and it is not clear if he will survive. Ironically, Mayor Johnson, who loves to bash law enforcement, promised after that shooting, "we will have a strong police presence. We'll have stronger control over how traffic flows."

Yes but no arrests. One mustn't ever arrest the criminals. You can put police on the streets to discourage them from shooting people right in front of the cops, but if they aren't discouraged and do shoot people -- no arrests.

And if they are arrested: Put them back on the street in three hours.

In Italy, a sixty-year-old woman was raped by a migrant in a park while waling her dog.

But that's not the telling fact. The telling fact is that migrants already gang-raped a woman in this same park, earlier this year.

PARK OF HORRORS Female dog-walker, 60, 'sexually assaulted by migrant' in SAME park where teen 'was gang raped in front of her partner'

The dog-walker was raped with such force she suffered serious injuries after the assault

Culture, enriched.

A WOMAN in her 60s was raped by a migrant while walking her dog in the same park a gang of expats brutally attacked and gang raped a teen, forcing her boyfriend to watch.

The quiet Tor Tre park in Rome has become the centre of shocking catalogue of sexual violence, with police now probing a string of assaults stretching back months.

The first attack came in the early hours of the morning in August, when a 60-year-old woman was attacked around 6am.

She was dragged into the park near the Via degli Olmi entrance and raped with such force she suffered two broken ribs.

Despite her injuries, she managed to reach the Casilino hospital emergency room, where doctors confirmed clear signs of violent assault.

Detectives later traced the culprit -- a 26-year-old Gambian construction worker captured on local CCTV.

He admitted being under the influence of drugs at the time.

The same man was also linked to another rape just days later, when a 44-year-old woman was attacked at a bus stop.

He is now locked up in Regina Coeli prison.

But the nightmare in Tor Tre Teste didn't end there.

On October 25, just weeks after the dog-walker attack, up to five migrants targeted a young Italian couple parked quietly in a corner of the same park.

The pair -- both naked -- had stopped their car on what should have been a calm evening in the eastern suburbs of Rome.

But within minutes a gang surrounded the vehicle, savaging the car in a crazed outburst before smashing the windows.

Once the glass shattered, one attacker forced open the door and yanked the 24-year-old man out into the darkness.

His 18-year-old fiancée was dragged out seconds later as she desperately tried to cover herself with whatever clothing she could grab.

The man told police he was pinned back by two migrants as the others hauled his fiancée away from the car.

He begged, screamed and threatened the gang -- but was helpless as they allegedly raped the terrified teen metres from the vehicle.

His desperate cries went unheard.

After the assault, the attackers grabbed the couple's belongings and fled into the night.

The traumatised pair immediately reported the attack.

Rome's Flying Squad launched a major investigation, quickly identifying suspects as the hunt widened across Italy.

Two Moroccan men were arrested in the capital within days.

A third suspect was tracked down in Venice and detained just recently.

The leader of the transgender murder cult, the "Zizians," appeared in court and turned it into an anti-trans-"genocide" freakshow.

Note that this is a man -- as much a man as garret, or, actually, 45% more of a man, now that I think of it -- but of course the media is going to refer to him as "her."

I can't be bothered correcting them.

The alleged leader of a cultlike group linked to several killings made her first appearance in federal court Monday, denouncing the government and its case against her as a "genocide" against transgender people.

Ziz LaSota, who was originally charged under what her attorney referred to as her deadname, gave meandering answers at her initial appearance and arraignment in U.S. District Court in downtown Baltimore related to a Western Maryland gun arrest, which ended what had been a cross-country search.

She refused to stand when the judge entered the courtroom, or when entering her plea of not guilty.

"Your government is currently going around scooping up brown people and disappearing them," the 33-year-old LaSota said when asked by U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas R. Miller if she understood the charges she faces. "I'm transgender, and the intentions of this regime towards transgender people are very clear: genocide."

...

The Zizians have been tied to the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent near the Canadian border in January and five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California, though the exact role of LaSota, who faked her death in 2022, is unclear and she has not been charged in those deaths. She's been seen at crime scenes, questioned by authorities and, in one instance, arrested on charges of obstructing police in Pennsylvania.

The Associated Press has reported that the Zizians are a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists, most of them in their 20s and 30s, who met online, shared anarchist beliefs and became increasingly violent. Their online writings span topics from radical veganism to gender identity to artificial intelligence.

LaSota, the apparent leader and a former computer programmer, believes that the two hemispheres of the human brain can operate separately from one another, with one side holding different beliefs and existing as a different gender than the other, The Associated Press reported.

Alleged Zizian member Teresa Youngblut is charged with the murder of border agent David Maland in Vermont, and federal authorities have said they will seek the death penalty.

...

As the judge asked basic questions such as whether she had read the indictment and understood the maximum possible penalties, LaSota chided the "mock proceedings" and said Miller was a "participant in an organized crime ring" led by the "states united in slavery."

Miller struggled to get LaSota to answer basic questions.

Please state your name for the record, the court clerk said.

"Justice," she replied.

What is your age?

"Timeless."

What year were you born?

"I have been born many times."

This story is about a man whose green card was revoked because he'd been convicted—not accused, but *convicted*—of murder, armed robbery, and forcible theft with a deadly weapon. https://t.co/goz0lcLGNo

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 25, 2025

Joy Behar put ABC "News" show The View on the hook for another billion-dollar lawsuit by Trump by asserting, WITHOUT EVIDENCE, that Trump is a pedophile.

ABC News might soon find itself staring down another expensive defamation lawsuit from President Trump, and honestly, it wouldn't come as a shock. On a recent episode of The View, Joy Behar confidently claimed that it was "obvious" Trump was a pedophile connected with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, implicating him in Epstein's crimes. This wild accusation came without a shred of evidence tying Trump to Epstein's criminal activities. In fact, Trump is arguably one of the few prominent figures who did the right thing and severed ties with Epstein years ago, unlike many Democrats who have since been ensnared in the fallout.

...

But, according to Jay Behar, it's Trump's guilt that's self-evident. "But isn't it obvious he was -- that Trump was involved with Epstein?! I mean--" she said, as Sunny Hostin immediately backed her up with, "He's mentioned over a thousand times."

Behar escalated from there. "There are more pictures with Epstein than pictures of Kim Kardashian of herself!" she declared, thrilled with her own exaggeration.

Believe it or not, Behar continued to push the narrative: "How many more things do we have to see before people believe that he was involved with Epstein?!"

Jake Tapper's ever-ready WITHOUT EVIDENCE chyron was unavailable for comment by the deadline for this post's publication.

Candace Owens and Joy Reid are now spinning similar conspiracy theories.

Her husband was murdered 75 days ago and these women are making up a scandalous sexual rumor to defame her and saying she can’t wear certain kinds of pants bc she’s a widow. Puritan ministers with injectables. https://t.co/A9chpoQ59Y

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) November 25, 2025

World's Strongest Woman is, of course, a man.

But that man has been stripped of his title.

His new title is "Fat Pussy Cheater."

World’s Strongest Woman winner stripped of title after organizers discovered she was born a man https://t.co/JsqSD9sjfM pic.twitter.com/96RI7GJDqq

— New York Post (@nypost) November 25, 2025

The controversial winner of the World's Strongest Woman competition was stripped of her title Tuesday after organizers claimed the hulking American never told them she was born a man.

Jammie Booker was disqualified just days after she destroyed the competition at the Official Strongman Games World Championship in Arlington, Texas over the weekend.

Organizers said Booker, from Philadelphia, violated the contest's rules, which clearly stipulate that athletes must compete in the category that aligns with their biological sex at birth.

"It appears that an athlete who is biologically male and who now identifies as female competed in the Women's Open category," organizers said in a social media statement announcing the decision.

"Official Strongman officials were unaware of this fact ahead of the competition and we have been urgently investigating since being informed."
Explore More

"Had we been aware, or had this been declared at any point before or during the competition, this athlete would not have been permitted to compete in the Woman's Open category," they added.

The move comes after the runner-up, UK lifter Andrea Thompson, was filmed storming off the podium as she raged about the "bulls--t" decision to award the title to Booker.

Thompson is now the winner, which many online supporters had called her all along.

UNREAL. Marc Jacques, the father of prominent trans athlete Maelle Jacques who invaded girls’ sports, was arrested a SECOND TIME for possession of child p*rnpgraphy.

Marc was originally convicted of distributing child p*rn in 2024 and sentenced to 60 months in prison. However,… pic.twitter.com/mkxxhgVKWn

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 25, 2025

The Bee, again:

Close it up

Editors Confront New Problem: AI Slop "Written" by Scam "Journalists"

—Ace

I guess as a threshold question, we have to ask: Is AI slop any worse than the leftwing human slop that "journalists" spit out? After all, they just "write" their articles straight from DNC press releases.

But I can relate. As I keep posting in the Cafes: "This had better not be AI." It's an annoying thing to constantly have to be on guard that you're being scammed. Even though it's no big deal if I post AI slop in the Cafe -- could anything be lower stakes? -- there's just a personal aversion to being tricked.

And so I imagine that leftwing editors are annoyed at having to double-check if the articles submitted to them by freelance "journalists" are "real" articles -- put together with the normal amounts of human, or superhuman, bias and narrow-minded PMC provincialism -- or just fake biased articles shit out of Google's biased AI.

An editor at The Local became suspicious of one of his "journalists."

A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.

After putting out an open call to "journalists" for story pitches about the privatization of Canadian healthcare, he got one he liked.

The writer, Victoria Goldiee, introduced herself as having written for The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, and Maisonneuve--Canadian outlets that publish the same kind of feature writing we do.

...

When I googled her, I saw that Victoria had written stories for a set of publications that collectively painted the picture of an ambitious young freelancer on the rise--short pieces in prestigious outlets like The Cut and The Guardian, lifestyle features in titles like Architectural Digest and Dwell, and in-depth reporting in non-profit and industry publications like Outrider and the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland. Her headshot was of a youthful Black woman. She was, according to her author bio, "a writer with a keen focus on sharing the untold stories of underrepresented communities in the media."

At the next editorial story meeting, we decided to take a shot on Victoria and assign the story. Then I began looking more closely at her work.

There were some red flags. The first question I had was whether she was actually in Toronto when so many of her bylines were in New York magazines and British newspapers. And how had she managed to do so many interviews already? Doing so much reporting without the guarantee of pay felt like a big gamble.

When I googled "Victoria Goldiee" with the names of the Canadian publications she said she'd written for, there were no results. We reached out to Danielle Martin, one of the doctors Victoria claimed she'd interviewed. Martin said she'd never heard of her.

I emailed Victoria back: "​​Are those quotes from your own interviews? And do you mind sending along some clippings, perhaps from your Walrus or Maisonneuve stories?"

She sent a lengthy reply the next day. "The quotes I included in the pitch are from original interviews I've conducted over the past few weeks," she insisted. "In terms of previous work, I write a regular newsletter for The Walrus, which gives a good sense of my ability to balance accessibility with depth while speaking to a broad audience." She attached a link to The Walrus's "Lab Insider" newsletter that did not have her byline.

"I can 100% confirm that they do not write the Lab Insider newsletter," wrote Tracie Jones from The Walrus when I emailed. "How odd to say they do!"

Victoria's stilted email, and a closer read of the original pitch, revealed what should have been clear from the start: with its rote phrasing ("This story matters because of... It is timely because of... It fits your readership because of..."), it had all the hallmarks of an AI-generated piece of writing.

This had better not be AI.

I was embarrassed. I had been naively operating with a pre-ChatGPT mindset, still assuming a pitch's ideas and prose were actually connected to the person who sent it. Worse, the reason the pitch had been appealing to me to begin with was likely because a large language model somewhere was remixing my own prompt asking for stories where "health and money collide," flattering me by sending me back what I wanted to hear.

But if Victoria's pitch appeared to be an AI-generated fabrication, and if she was making up interviews and bylines, what to make of her long list of publications?

An investigation solidified the pattern: Publications this person said she had written for said they had published no pieces by her, and people she quoted in interviews said they'd never spoken to her.

"The quotation did not come from me and, to the best of my recollection, I have never met or spoken to Victoria Goldiee," Elaine Sutherland, professor emerita at the University of Stirling, wrote me. What was even more unsettling, though, was that the sentiments in the soundbite reflected her real beliefs. "The quotation attributed to me is the sort of thing I might say," she wrote.

A month after that article, a Victoria Goldiee story in the design publication Dwell--"How to Turn Your Home's Neglected Corners Into Design Gold"--featured a series of quotes purported to be from a wide array of international designers and architects, from Japan to England to California. A cursory read raised questions that probably should have been asked by editors to begin with. Namely, had a freelancer writing an affiliate-link-laden article about putting credenzas in your living room's corners actually interviewed 10 of the world's top designers and architects?

The designers he contacted had no memory of ever having been contacted by this person.

The stories had the characteristic weirdness of articles written by a large language model--invented anecdotes from regular people who didn't appear to exist accompanied by expert commentary from public figures who do, with some biographical details mangled, who are made to voice "quotes" that sound, broadly, like something they might say.

Eventually he gets her to take his phone call, and finds that she's making up more details as she speaks to him. For example, when asked where she lives in Toronto, she answers "Bloor," which is one of the first streets you would see if you googled "what are some streets in Toronto."

I don't think I've ever spoken to someone who I suspected was lying to me with each and every response. I also don't know if I've interviewed anyone I so desperately wanted to hear the truth from.

I had so many questions. Was the person on the phone even the same person whose writing was online? Where did she actually live--if not "Bloor," was it the States? The U.K.? Or, as suggested by some of her writing, Nigeria?

Yeah it's probably Nigeria, one of the hubs of the bustling America First internet community.

...

Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves. If Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair and the other late 20th century fakers were looking for the prestige and power that came with journalism in that moment, then this generation's internet scammers are scavenging in the wreckage of a degraded media environment. They're taking advantage of an ecosystem uniquely susceptible to fraud--where publications with prestigious names publish rickety journalism under their brands, where fact-checkers have been axed and editors are overworked, where technology has made falsifying pitches and entire articles trivially easy, and where decades of devaluing journalism as simply more "content" have blurred the lines so much it can be difficult to remember where they were to begin with.

...

My favourite "Victoria Goldiee" story is a piece she published in The Guardian just last month. It's a first-person essay without quotes, and thus difficult to fact-check.

Steven Glass discovered that it was easy to fool the fact-check system: Just quote "people" who are entirely made-up. Fake people do not call into magazines demanding a retraction, after all.

Jayson Blair attributed fake but non-controversial quotes to people he never spoke to. Like, if he was supposedly in New Orleans covering a hurricane -- but in fact never left his NYC apartment -- he'd make up a quote for someone he saw named in someone else's article, but make up a "new quote" for him, like, "The hurricane was bad, but the clean up might even be more stressful."

Something completely empty and anodyne that no one would bother calling up an editor asking for a retraction, because it's just such a nothingburger.

One of the people Blair made up quotes for was later asked why he hadn't called the paper to say he'd never said that.

His answer was illuminating, and true: Because, the man said, I just sort of figured that's what you in the media do all the time.

Democrats' Karen Prime and AWFL Emeritus for Life Aftyn Behn Is Getting Crazier and Angrier By the Moment

—Ace

The hits keep coming with the Democrats' candidate for the Nashville district, Aftyn Behn.

Democratic Tennessee congressional candidate Aftyn Behn sobbed and screamed at the top of her lungs as security removed her from Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's office in resurfaced footage from April 2019.

Behn and other women with the activist group, Enough is Enough-Tennessee, staged a sit-in inside the state capitol and demanded to speak to Lee about calling for the resignation of the then-Republican state Rep. David Byrd, who was accused of sexual misconduct at the time. The women, including Behn, tried to rush into the governor's office when the doors were open on April 17, 2019, prompting security to remove her from the premises.

Footage posted by NewsChannel 5 Nashville shows security dragging Behn out of the office as she screamed at the top of her lungs. She then sat on her knees and sobbed on the floor.

DOJ Employee Charged With Terrorism For Doxxing Fellow Federal Agents

—Ace

She doxxed them in the midst of a raid, at the point of maximum danger.

A staffer for the U.S. Department of Justice is facing state-level terrorism charges in South Texas after authorities say she exposed the identity of a federal agent during an immigration-related raid, triggering what investigators called a credible threat against the agent's life.

Cameron County officials arrested Karen Olvera De Leon, an employee with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas in Brownsville, following a criminal indictment alleging she posted the agent's personal information in the middle of an active law-enforcement operation. She has been charged with one count of terrorism and one count of tampering with physical evidence.

District Attorney Luis Saenz said the case began on June 9, when federal agents executed a raid in Brownsville and bystanders began livestreaming the operation. As the video spread across social media, viewers flooded the comment section. Investigators say one user issued what they deemed a death threat toward the federal agent shown on screen. Moments later, another commenter publicly revealed the agent's identity.

So there's very little doubt that she understood what she was doing might lead to the agent's murder.

According to Saenz, authorities traced the doxxing back to Olvera De Leon, a DOJ employee tasked with supporting federal prosecutions.

...

Just weeks after the Brownsville doxxing incident, a gunman in tactical gear opened fire at a U.S. Border Patrol building near McAllen International Airport. Police and Border Patrol agents engaged the shooter and ultimately killed him, but not before a McAllen officer was wounded.

She looks like a real Sad Sack unwanted AWFL, except Hispanic.

She'll be trading in her Trader Joe's Box Wine for Prison Toilet Wine.

These women are filthy and disgusting. They support murder, and they crow righteously about their support of murder.

Speaking of seditious federal employees: Judge Boasberg.

Calls for the impeachment of James E. Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, have intensified throughout this year.

What began as a partisan reaction to a single ruling has morphed into a broader debate about judicial ethics, political influence and the role of federal courts. The question now is whether Chief Justice John Roberts will act.

The initial push for impeachment came in March, after Judge Boasberg issued an order temporarily blocking the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport purported members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

President Trump responded sharply on social media, calling Boasberg a "Radical Left Lunatic," and posting on X that the judge "should be IMPEACHED!!!"

That same day, Texas GOP Rep. Brandon Gill and five co-sponsors introduced articles of impeachment alleging Boasberg used "his judicial position to advance political gain" and obstructed "the President's constitutional prerogatives." The proposal drew some division within the Republican Party. Sen. John Kennedy, R.-La., called the proposal "idiotic," and Sen. John Cornyn, R.-Texas said, "You don't impeach judges who make decisions you disagree with."

Of course John Cornyn said that. Let's definitely send him back to the Senate, Texas.

The uproar also prompted a rare public statement from Chief Justice John Roberts: "For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."

...

Impeachment pressure intensified after Just the News reported that months before his Alien Enemies Act ruling, Boasberg traveled to Idaho to attend a privately-funded Rodel Institute legal conference. The conference's sponsors and speakers had publicly criticized Trump on immigration and January 6, and one of the conference sessions was titled "Role of Judges in a Democracy."

Critics argued that Boasberg's attendance created at least the appearance of bias. Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said on the John Solomon Reports podcast that Boasberg's attendance at the Rodel Institute conference was "a creation of, obviously, a conflict of interest, at least in appearance" and that "when you have cases like this, you have to be absolutely above reproach."

...

Additional reporting revealed that Boasberg had spoken out about his belief that the Trump administration might disregard federal court rulings and provoke a constitutional crisis during a meeting of the Judicial Conference of the United States.

DOJ files misconduct complaint against Boasberg

...

The Department of Justice subsequently filed a misconduct complaint with the D.C. Circuit's Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, alleging that Boasberg violated Canons 1, 2(A), and 3(A)(6) of the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges. These canons require federal judges to "uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary," "act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary," and to avoid "mak[ing] public comments on the merits of a matter pending or impending in any court."

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the complaint publicly, saying that Boasberg's comments "undermined the integrity of the judiciary." DOJ urged Judge Srinivasan to refer the matter to a special investigative committee to determine whether Boasberg's conduct constituted "conduct prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts."

And then it turned out, surprise surprise, that this leftwing reliable Rubber Stamp had been "randomly" assigned as the judge in the Arctic Frost fishing expedition, and, get this, the leftwing reliable Rubber Stamp reliably rubber stamped all the subpoenas to spy on Congressmen, and quite illegally ordered the subjects of the subpoenas to keep them secret from the Republican congressmen targeted.

But John Cornyn supports this illegal spying on his fellow Republican Senators. (Cornyn wasn't surveilled, of course!)

Impeachment efforts gained traction again late last month after Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released a set of subpoenas issued during former Special Counsel Jack Smith's election-related investigation into Trump. The investigation, known internally at the FBI as "Arctic Frost," involved 197 subpoenas seeking records on roughly 430 Republican individuals and entities, according to committee documents.

The news brought Boasberg back into the spotlight as he signed the subpoenas and nondisclosure orders.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., called on Boasberg to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding this role in the once-secret surveillance of Republican senators. "An Obama-appointed activist judge, James Boasberg, ordered [Verizon] not to tell me about Jack Smith's subpoena for my phone records, falsely claiming I might destroy so-called evidence," Blackburn posted on X. "He must answer before the Senate Judiciary Committee for this blatant abuse of power."

Rod Blagojevich: Obama Hadn't Even Joined the Senate Yet, and Michelle Obama Was Already on the Phones Demanding Democrats Arrange a Political Patronage Job for Her

—Ace

I shan't believe this.

I simply shannot.

Remember when Michelle Obama was claiming to be Oppressed because, allegedly, she "couldn't work for two years" during the political campaign?

Well, the moment Obama's Senate campaign was over, she decided it was time to Cash In.

Blagojevich painted Obama as a calculating, self-serving politician who wasn't quite the ethical paragon he portrayed himself to be. "He's one of the more selfish people in politics on a one-on-one level," Blagojevich said, "and he's not pure like the driven snow in the sense of his ethics or morality." The former governor described Obama as "kind of cold and impersonal, but okay," and admitted he was initially happy to be helpful to the rising political star.

But the real bombshells came when Blagojevich discussed Michelle Obama's corrupt job hunt. According to Blagojevich, as soon as Barack Obama won his Senate race in 2004, Michelle felt entitled to get a high-paying patronage position somewhere. "I was asked to make a phone call on behalf of Michelle Obama 'cause as soon as he won the Senate race, she wanted a job either at Northwestern University or the University of Chicago Hospitals for two to $300,000 a year, the wife of the new senator," Blagojevich revealed.

"Northwestern was willing to pay $200,000 to hire her. This is the wife of the new U.S. senator," and obviously the position would bode well for any institution due to the potential for more federal money, he explained. Blagojevich noted that Michelle Obama ultimately got a better offer. "They got a better offer at the University of Chicago, which is in Hyde Park, where they're from, $300,000, and she ended up working there," he said. Blagojevich made the requested phone call, though he downplayed his role. "She didn't get it 'cause of me, but it didn't hurt to have the governor call."

He also discusses the Tony Resko real estate scam. The Obamas could not afford the mansion they wanted (as soon as Obama was elected to the Senate) with the extensive property they wanted. So the Obamas bought the mansion on one lot and had Tony Rezko buy the adjoining, not-built-upon lot "for himself" -- but he never did anything with it. He bought it so he could keep it in his name for the Obamas.

The mansion they bought with "their own money" was $7.5 million so you can imagine this adjoining lot was worth around a million itself.

What particularly galled Blagojevich was how Obama treated Rezko once the real estate developer became a political liability. "Rezko was really helpful, really helpful to Obama," he emphasized, explaining that when investigations heated up involving fundraising with Rezko as part of it, "Obama just ran from him, did nothing to help him, and pretends like he never knew him."

In case you missed it: The world's most miserable do-nothing millionaire Michelle Obama says black people can't swim because white people force them (like slaves) to straighten their hair all day long.

The former first lady, in a live podcast, recently said: "Let me explain something to white people. Our hair comes out of our head naturally in a curly pattern. So, when we're straightening it to follow your beauty standards, we are trapped by the straightness.

"That's why so many of us can't swim, and we run away from the water. People won't go to the gym because we're trying to keep our hair straight for y'all. It is exhausting, and it is so expensive, and it takes up so much time!"

Who knew that black women straighten their hair to conform to the expectations of whites? Even worse, who knew this oppressive white standard of beauty, according to Obama, has the real-world effect of preventing black kids from learning to swim?

Black people's hair is the new cotton field, pass it on.

Incredible: A Jury Voted Unanimously to Convict Yet Another Somali Fraudster, Calling His Guilt "Obvious."
Then the Leftwing Judge Set Aside Their Verdict and Set the Somali Free, Based On Her "Feelings."

—Ace

The Somalis scammed the government's welfare programs again. The Somalis here ripped off the American citizens for $7.2 million, running a scam organization that supposedly delivered health care to poor people out of his mailbox, and spending that money on luxury goods and sports cars.

The prosecutors proved that 94% of the money they stole from the government went into their own pockets.

Jurors found him guilty, unanimously.

Then the "progressive" judge stepped in an invalidated the verdict, saying that in her personal opinion, the prosecutors had not disproven other possibilities besides fraud, like, I guess, the possibility that they accidentally stole this money and intended to deliver it to the poor at some future date. (Were they planning on returning their luxury goods and cars? How much did they expect to get back for used luxury goods?)

@amuse @amuse

SUICIDAL EMPATHY: A Minnesota Democrat judge just overturned a unanimous jury verdict in a $7.2M Medicaid fraud case, freeing Islamic defendant Abdi Fatah Yusuf. Jurors say the evidence was overwhelming.

Despite a swift unanimous verdict, Judge Sarah S. West, a former public defender, acquitted Abdi Fatah Yusuf on all charges after jurors found he and his wife ran a fake home-health business out of a mailbox and stole $7.2M in Medicaid funds. Jurors say they are stunned because the evidence of fraud, overbilling and luxury spending was "obvious." Community pressure and political considerations are now being blamed for the decision. Yusuf walks free while taxpayers eat the loss.

Abdi will get to keep his new wardrobe from Coach, Canada Goose, Michael Kors, Third Degree Heat, Nike, and Nordstrom and his [new top-end sportscar,] a Porsche 911.

h/t @WallStreetApes

Suicidal empathy? Or personal enrichment?

This is outrageous -- and considering the *fact* that Somalia is the world's most corrupt country, we have to investigate this judge's finances and the finances of her friends and family for a payoff.

This is -- or was -- the nation's "biggest Medicaid fraud case."

The prosecutors are appealing the judge's corrupt negation of the law.

Axios: Your Turkey Has a Carbon Footprint and You Are Destroying the Environment by Celebrating Thanksgiving

—Ace

Of course, of course.

You probably won't ponder your carbon footprint when you sit down to devour that Thanksgiving turkey -- but some food and climate activists say you should.

Why it matters: With climate change fading in importance on some U.S. lawmakers' priority lists, activists say even small steps from the public are needed.

The big picture: The beloved bird is considered more environmentally friendly than beef. But turkey still produces, in production and post-production, the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming -- even more than chicken, according to the Environmental Working Group.

"Raising and processing a four-ounce turkey serving is the equivalent of nearly three miles' worth of tailpipe emissions," said Iris Myers, the group's senior communications manager.

A four ounce turkey?

Axios is a professionally edited media publication.

...

In 2016, Carnegie Mellon researchers calculated the state-by-state footprint of a typical feast, including roast turkey stuffed with sausage and apples, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie.

They found that meals prepared in Washington state and Vermont emitted the lowest amounts of carbon dioxide. Hydropower and wind provide about two-thirds of Washington's energy. while renewables provide almost all of Vermont's.

States that rely more on coal, such as Wyoming, West Virginia and Kentucky, had the highest Turkey Day emissions, the researchers found.

This is important research that I have been compelled to fund.

By the numbers: Thrown-away food is a big contributor to climate change. A new analysis by the anti-food waste group ReFED estimates that 320 million pounds of food will get tossed out this Thanksgiving.

That's the equivalent of more than 800,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or about the same as driving 190,000 gasoline-powered vehicles for a year, ReFED said.

Of those emissions, 4,800 metric tons of methane -- a potent greenhouse gas -- come from sending that food to landfills.

The bottom line: "Try not to buy more bird than you and your family will eat," Myers said.

Wellllll... generally I would say of course no one should buy and cook more food than they expect to eat, but Thanksgiving is an exception, because, of course, no one knows how many relatives and guests will show up. People make "too much food" because they don't want neighbors to show up without anything to offer them.

But most people will wind up eating most of that over the course of the week.

Thank you for ruining literally everything, Sanctimonious Sociopaths Satanic-Religious Fanatics.

Speaking of your carbon footprint: It is now cheaper to expand your carbon footprint than it's been since, well, Trump's first term.

Gas prices -- and food prices, and rent prices -- are at their lowest levels since covid shutdowns and Biden's printing of trillions of fake dollars.

Wednesday Morning Non-Rant

—Joe Mannix

Thanksgiving gives us an opportunity to reflect on the good in our lives. The day to day can be dull or even pretty lousy and there will always be particularly bad days and personal disasters. In bad years, many days be will be of this type. Thanksgiving is an opportunity to take a step back and consider our blessings, even when we might otherwise forget that we have them.

Blessings are manifold, despite the tribulations. Thanksgiving is a holiday rooted in tribulation, from the informal celebrations of often hard-pressed colonists in early New England to its relatively recent form first proclaimed during the depths of war in 1863. It wasn't formalized in law until just before WWII, but by then it was a formality (though it did, of course, provide much cause for disagreement in the particulars).