MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Two Cheers for Capitalism (And Another for Black Friday).

If we’re being totally honest, part of the thrill of Christmas is the pure material joy of all the stuff.

I just don’t mean the presents, either. I’m talking about the decorations, the lights, the sparkly tinsel, the gift wrap, the food, the drink… Oh my, the food and the drink. I can’t get enough of the Christmas music, either, especially the totally commercial, secular stuff written mostly in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50 by America’s greatest songwriters. The most famous of them all, “The Christmas Song,” was co-written by Mel Tormé — a Jew. If all that doesn’t warm your heart, then you sir are worse than Hitler.

Christmas, as any good Grinch knows, doesn’t come from a store, and none of the ribbons and tags and packages, boxes, and bags are actually necessary to the Christmas spirit. In fact, it’s all a rather recent innovation for a 2,000-year-old holiday, because for most of human history, humans were too poor to hope to do much more than somehow survive the long winter.

But then a marvelous thing happened: Capitalism.

This one is for PJMedia’s VIP members, and come to think of it, a membership might make a lovely Christmas or Chanuka gift. And that VODKAPUNDIT promo code is still good for a nice little discount, if you’d really like to celebrate all the capitalism.

TYLER O’NEIL: The Lie That Destroyed Papa John’s Pizza.

SIR ROBIN BRAVELY TURNED AND FLED: IndieWire: Cancel ‘Transphobic’ Gervais from Globes Gig. “The far left film site, perhaps fearing contrarian views, shuts down its comments section for the woke op-ed.”

Christian Toto, so click on over.

SHOCK: Chick-fil-A Has Been Bankrolling the SPLC This Whole Time.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: New Hampshire to Liz Warren: Meh.

Maybe it’s because I don’t want Washington usurping whatever remains of the private healthcare industry. Maybe I just don’t think we should tax innovators — and by extension, their innovations — out of existence. Or perhaps I just have a thing against getting lectured about how evil money is by somebody who used to get paid mid-six figures for parttime work hectoring college kids. It could also just be her voice.

Whatever the case, I’m just swooning over the latest Emerson poll showing Elizabeth Warren (D-Other People’s Money) tied for a distant third-place with New Hampshire primary voters.

So much more at the link.

BY FAILING TO TOE THE PARTY LINE, COMRADES: How Hong Kong’s greatest tycoon went from friend of China to punching bag.

WELL, YES: ‘Medicare-for-all’ is still Dems’ goal – don’t be fooled by candidates’ dodges.

FIRE THE WESTERN CANON: Notre Dame University Protest – Too Many White Male Authors in Curriculum.

HMM: Trump Advisor Stephen Miller Smeared Over Leaked Emails. But Where Are the Emails?

ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: TikTok Blocks Teen Who Posted About China’s Detention Camps. “The app faced renewed questions about whether it censors material after it removed an American’s video about Muslims in China.”

Previously:

Concerns about major tech companies’ connections to China have grown in the past year. Short video app TikTok, which has been download over 1 billion times, in particular has been scrutinized for allegedly censoring content that could anger the Chinese government. In September, The Guardian reported on internal TikTok documents instructing the moderators to censor politically fraught topics including Tiananmen Square and an independent Tibet. The company said that these guidelines were no longer in use, and that the Chinese government has no control over them, because the app does not operate in China.

Uh-huh.

IT’S COMPLICATED: They Voted Democratic. Now They Support Trump. “Two-thirds of battleground state voters who chose Trump in 2016 but selected Democrats in the midterms say they will return to the president next year.”

If the GOP Congress hadn’t been so feckless, they might have done much better in 2018.

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Cows wearing VR headsets might produce better milk.

WHEN A REPUBLICAN HAS THEM, YES: Are Thought Crimes Impeachable?

DR. BARACK FRANKENSTEIN: Obama Reportedly Said He Will Intervene to Stop Bernie Sanders From Getting the Nomination.

Obama did more than any one other person to embolden and enable his party’s most radical wing, and now he’s decided he doesn’t like the monster he’s created.

AND I THOUGHT MY MID-50S RESTING HEARTRATE WAS PRETTY GOOD: A Blue Whale Had His Heartbeat Taken for the First Time Ever — And Scientists Are Shocked. “The world’s largest creatures can survive on just two heartbeats per minute.”

OUCH: Obama Chides Biden over Failure to Connect to Iowa Voters: ‘You Know Who Really Doesn’t Have It? Joe Biden.’

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Sexist Dems Are Souring On Fauxcahontas.

With Warren moving to the bottom of the top tier and Harris having exited it permanently, the top is heavy with Y chromosomes.

Whiter than white Y chromosomes.

The Democrats constantly revel in their diversity and appeal to youth. Their flying monkeys in the media never let us forget about it. They have a chance in this election to make all of that mean something but it’s not playing out that way. It really never was going to. I’ve been having fun dragging them about this since earlier in the year.

They’ve reached a point of intersectionality cross-cancelation, from which only a straight white male can emerge.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Tesla Wants to Replace Windshield Wipers With Lasers.

“DISEASES OF DESPAIR”: This “distinctly American” trend is causing life expectancy to plummet.

WELL, YES: CNN analyst: Impeachment polling is a ‘warning sign’ for Democrats.

“I do think that this polling, is sort of a warning sign for them. I mean, if they’re not able to move public sentiment at all with those five hearings with … a dozen State Department or [National Security Council] officials coming forward and testifying against the president,” Bade told CNN. “I mean, that’s a problem for them. I mean, this should be a high point for them in terms of making the case to the voters.”

CNN’s John King reported on polling that showed 40 percent of Americans believed Democrats were abusing their constitutional powers.

Polling has shown that both independents and Democrats have started to lose interest in impeachment.

The Nixon and Clinton impeachments both began with an actual high crime or misdemeanor (a low-level break-in followed by a high-level coverup, lying under oath and obstruction of justice) which the appropriate congressional committees looked into to determine if the offenses were impeachable. The Trump impeachment began with congress looking around, hoping to find a crime — and coming up with bupkiss.

If the public isn’t interested, that’s why.

UGH: Grisly Footage Reveals What Iran’s Regime Did to Protesters When the Internet Was Shut Down.

Leaks like these but on a much larger scale might be the last thing stopping Beijing from going Full Tiananmen on Hong Kong.

HEINLEIN’S CRAZY YEARS (CONT’D): Trump Under Fire for Using Male Pronouns to Describe Conan the Hero Dog.

THANKSGIVING PREP: The VodkaWife™ uses her own personal variation on Alton Brown’s deservedly famous turkey brine:

1 cup kosher salt
½ cup light brown sugar
½ gallon vegetable stock
½ gallon low-sodium chicken stock
1 tablespoon (or more!) black peppercorns
1-½ teaspoons allspice berries
3 tablespoons (ish) fresh chopped ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

The turkey and the brine go in a heavy-grade trash bag which goes into one of those big Home Depot barrels which goes in the garage for at least 24 hours.

It isn’t quite leg-of-lamb delicious, but if you’re doing turkey it’s hard to do better than this.

Also: Forget adding butter when you’re mashing the potatoes, and use duck fat instead.

HULK OUT: Mark Ruffalo Says Bernie Sanders Would ‘Beat Trump’s A—,’ ‘No Doubt About It.’

THE LANGUAGE POLICE NEVER POLICE THE LEFT: ‘Enlightened’ Democrat Marianne Williamson Calls President Trump an ‘Infection.’