Has Festivus Gotten Too Commercial? Tabs, Thurs., Dec. 19, 2024

Morning news roundup! Things to read! Cat Pictures!

Tabs gif by Martini Glambassador!

Oh, guess Elon Musk wants to have a government shutdown until Donald Trump is sworn in, so maybe that’ll happen, who even knows what’s real anymore? Trump, who is like Musk a private citizen until January 20, when they both will ascend to the co-presidency, is also against funding the government. This doesn’t sound like anything covered in Schoolhouse Rock, really. Congress has to pass a funding bill and Joe Biden has to sign it before 11:59:59 Friday night or the government shuts down. (ABC News)

Excuse me, what the actual fuck? Los Angeles Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Brian Williams is under investigation by the FBI for having made a bomb threat against City Hall sometime earlier this year, and while he hasn’t been arrested, he was placed on administrative leave right after FBI agents searched his home Tuesday. Was he trying to get out of a final exam or something? (KABC-TV)

The 15-year-old girl who committed Monday’s school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin, killing a teacher and a classmate and wounding six people before shooting herself, appears to have been obsessed with the Columbine school shooting and may have hung out with Nazis on Discord (the Columbine obsession is backed up by her online activity, the Nazi adjacency appears likely but not certain). She was not, despite all the raving of the usual rightwing idiots, transgender. Two of the students she wounded remain in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. (Shatter Zone)

Things just keep getting stupider at the Los Angeles Times under Trumpy owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who has told the editorial board to “take a break from writing about” Donald Trump, and not because it’s too fucking depressing. According to Oliver Darcy’s “Status” newsletter (paywalled, sad!), Soon-Shiong also blocked an editorial calling Trump’s cabinet picks “not normal,” which is just a basic fact. A memo signed by worried members of the opinion section says that he’s also demanded that any editorial critical of Trump be paired with an adjacent opinion piece. Soon-Shiong also ordered the board to send him “the text of every editorial and the name of its writer” before it’s published, not that he is a control freak or anything. (New York Post / Status)

If you want to feel old, so is “The Simpsons,” which turns 35 this month. Here’s an NPR story (words and audio both!) Eric Deggans did when the show hit 30, which we believe was about a dozen years ago. (Northwest Public Broadcasting)

Oh, well of course: We knew that Republicans plan to do a bill to extend the 2017 tax cuts. Turns out the bill may also eliminate income-driven student loan repayment plans that forgive a borrower’s balance after they’ve made 20 years of payments, although it appears to preserve the popular Public Service Loan Forgiveness plan. As a replacement, low-income borrowers would be able to make lower payments based on their income, but without the hope of ever having the loan forgiven, and with interest piling up forever so they could keep paying the rest of their lives. (Forbes)

Very good interview by Greg Sargent of TPM’s Josh Marshall (audio here, transcript here), in which Marshall calls for an immediate, massive fundraising effort to protect people targeted for retribution by Trump. (New Republic)

This is just a very very good headline: “The Bad Guys Don’t Really Care What Kind of Leftist You Are.” (Teen Vogue)

Disney and city officials in Anaheim, California, came up with an agreement that let Disney get away with doing serious wage theft from workers at Disneyland (The Happiest Place On Earth, you know), resulting in the theme park failing to pay the city’s minimum wage for years. Disney finally agreed this week to settle a $233 million class action suit brought by workers, and will pay out more than $100 million it ripped off from the workers. (Popular Information)

Nice Time Follow-Up: Remember when those plucky teens sued the State of Montana over climate change, and WON? The kids said the state’s friendliness to coal mining failed to follow Montana’s constitution, which guarantees “a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.” Wednesday, the Montana Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s 2023 decision on appeal, finding that hell yes the constitution really does protect the environment, and held in a 6-1 decision that a “clean and healthful environment” includes a stable climate system, “which is clearly within the object and true principles of the Framers inclusion of the right.” Damn right! Go, climate kids! (Kentucky Lantern)

If you’ve been wondering what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been up to lately, it appears to involve a cozy fire and his family’s very comfortable cat. Readers replied with a bunch of their own comfy pet photos, as is just and proper. (Bluesky)

I tried to suggest to Thornton that he would look cute sitting in a box on the bed, but he eschews such manufactured tomfoolery, preferring spontaneous, natural tomfoolery every time.

Yes, he likes the cat tree. Sometimes sleeps in the little house. The extravagant clawing of the rope-covered post was accomplished by its previous tenant before the structure came into our possession.

Have you a good Thursday, whatever counts as “good” these days!

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