THE SENESCENT WHO TRUST THE MASS MEDIA AND DON’T CHECK ANYTHING ARE THE DEMOCRATS MOST RELIABLE BLOCK:  You Asked for a Rebuttal, Dad.

Even while the party preens itself as being the party of the future. Lying to people too senile to seek other sources: the new Mass Media specialty.

ARE THEY FOR REAL, NOW? ‘Menstrual Equity For All Act’ to end ‘period poverty’ brought back before Congress.

At the risk of grossing out most of the readers, where and when I grew up we didn’t purchase “menstrual products.” We did what your grandmother did, and used cloth, which we washed. You’d think the oh, so ecologically friendly left would prefer that right? But no, they feel a need to put their hands into our wallets to buy pads and tampoons for other people. And don’t give me “Were so strapped they couldn’t afford–” I have never heard of this in the US, and trust me, I’ve been strapped at time. This is one of the most ridiculous excuses to point a gun at my head* I’ve ever seen.

*When you levy a tax you’re extorting money by force. While some taxes might be unavoidable they should pass a sniff test of “is this reason enough to point a gun at someone’s head?”

TO BE FAIR, WE WEREN’T ASLEEP. WE HAVE JOBS AND FAMILIES AND MOST OF US ARE WORKING OVERTIME TO PAY THE TAX-HUNGRY STATE:  Is the Sleeping Conservative Dragon Finally Waking Up?

But with the anger I’ve seen stalking this land, I hope we don’t decide to focus like lasers on what’s going on.  I mean, I do. It’s a mental condition. But let’s hope our fellow citizens don’t all, en masse, become as aware as I am of what’s been going on.  Americans have no brakes when it comes to war. And this would be war. Civil war, the worst of all wars. Be careful what you wish for.

OPEN THREAD: Especially for you.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Spain signs Artemis Accords. I’m super happy that the bipartisan push for space resource extraction, which has now spanned 4 administrations, is continuing.

THAT SCIENTOLOGY SHOW: Jury convicts actor and Scientologist Danny Masterson of two rape counts, hangs on third.

Masterson was accused of raping three women in 2001 and 2003. At the time of the alleged crimes, he was one of the biggest stars on TV, playing Steven Hyde in That ‘70s Show from 1998 to 2006. He later played Jameson “Rooster” Bennett on the Netflix series “The Ranch.”

The first jury deadlocked in favor of acquittal on each of the three forcible rape counts on Nov. 28.

Prosecutors revamped their case for the second trial, reordering the witnesses and trying to address discrepancies the last jury identifies between police reports and witness testimony.

The changes had mixed results: The last jury most favored guilty for the charge involving Masterson’s former girlfriend of six years, voting 7-5 in favor of acquittal while voting 10-2 to acquit for alleged victim Jennifer B. and 8-4 to acquit for alleged victim N.T. But this jury convicted on both Jennifer and N.T.’s counts and hung 8-4 in favor of guilty for Masterson’s former girlfriend.

Scientology has always been prominent in the case because Masterson is second-generation Scientologist, and his alleged victims were members when they say he raped them. Each has since left Scientology, and they testified that the Church influenced their decision not to report Masterson to police sooner.

Read the whole thing.

Flashback: Hollywood Is a Sex-Grooming Gang.

A CULTURE-WAR RECKONING FOR CORPORATE AMERICA:

A headline in New York magazine laments, “Bud Light, Target, and a New Era of Corporate Caution.”

A new era of corporate caution? Don’t threaten me with a good time.

Imagine a beer company that just wanted to make good beer and sell it to you. Imagine if that company wanted to sell beer to everyone but didn’t feel that its job was to make you more accepting of transgender individuals, any more than it felt its job was to warn you about the national debt or teach you the value of standardized testing in public schools or warn you about North Korea’s intercontinental-missile program. Imagine a beer company that liked its existing customer base and didn’t feel a need to reeducate those customers and get them to give up their “fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor.”

Imagine an everything store like Target that wanted everyone to shop there, but that had the good sense to realize that partnering with a brand that had “Satanist-inspired merchandise” was not the way to win over shoppers in a country that is still roughly two-thirds Christian. (Also note that almost every faith has a devil figure, so there’s no reason to think non-Christian religious customers are big fans of Satanic branding, either.) You want to put rainbows and “PRIDE” on your merchandise, go right ahead. It’s a free country. But if you partner up with a “Satan Respects Pronouns”* designer, don’t be shocked when lots of people choose to shop elsewhere.

Entering into the culture war has become the Kobayashi Maru for Bud and Target. They’ve alienated conservatives badly, and now that their brands are politicized, they’re alienating the left by trying to get some distance between themselves and their mistakes. Naturally though, the media sees no enemies to the left: Media Hot on Threats Against Target, Until Alleged LGBT Bomb Threat.

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Trump is the last of the Cuomosexuals.

Well, a week into the DeSantis campaign, now we know: Trump thinks DeSantis sucked on Covid, and so did Florida! Instead of sounding a note of ownership of the state’s successes — that such freedom was only possible under a White House that respected gubernatorial power to make such decisions — Trump has decided DeSantis’s local control was very, very bad, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Has he hired whistleblower lunatic Rebekah Jones yet?

The best part of this approach is Trump’s decision to laud the disgraced Andrew Cuomo’s handling of Covid in New York, which led to immeasurable excess deaths. Ever the antithesis of hip, Trump has become the last of the Cuomosexuals, in thrall to the former governor’s every capable-sounding word and his hand sanitizer that was definitely not a convoluted grift.

The exiled Cuomo hailed the praise from the former president: “Donald Trump tells the truth, finally,” he tweeted. Trump’s campaign later sent out an email blast containing “evidence” of the Florida governor’s “Lying Record on Covid.” The mailer criticizes DeSantis for praising vaccines and, gasp, being pictured wearing a mask… both things for which President Trump’s administration advocated.

If DeSantis “shut down the State and even its beaches,” that would be news to this escapee from Bergman’s The Seventh Seal:

But even if DeSantis did lock down, wouldn’t that be following Trump’s orders at the time? In April of 2020, Trump gave an enormous public and private bollocking to Gov. Brian Kemp, for reopening Georgia.

UPDATE: Trump’s Campaign Attacks DeSantis For Supporting Trump’s Nominee in 2017.

HMM: Fentanyl can be weaponized, but preparation could minimize the damage. “The widely-available drug fentanyl, already the number one killer of Americans under 50, could be weaponized and used for terroristic mass poisoning, according to health experts at Rutgers and other institutions. ‘Before fentanyl, the only viable mass poisons were rare and difficult-to-access agents such as cyanide or nerve agents,’ said Lewis Nelson, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and senior author of the new Frontiers in Public Health paper. ‘Fentanyl can be just as deadly if properly disseminated, and it’s ubiquitous. A motivated person could readily obtain enough to potentially poison hundreds of people—which, uncut, would fit easily onto a teaspoon.'”

Don’t forget to add Narcan to your trouble kit.

READER BOOK RECOMMENDATION: Valentine Thomas, lawyer-turned-spearfisherwoman and chef, has a cookbook out called Good Catch. I haven’t cooked any of the recipes yet but they look good, and the book is beautiful.

SEEMS USEFUL: Pediatricians say 24-hour ER pharmacies could improve care for kids. “When parents rush their kids to an emergency room in the dead of night for an asthma attack or high fever, they are often discharged with a prescription. The problem is, there may be nowhere to fill it promptly. Now, a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is calling attention to the issue, and highlighting one potential solution: 24-hour ER pharmacies.”

RAVING AND DROOLING: Roger Waters’ Performances and Anti-Semitism. “A celebrity influencer who believes Jews rule the world, Israelis are subhuman, and supports every effort to eradicate the Jewish state.”