Confusion

 According to Psychology Today "cognitive dissonance" describes the state of discomfort that results from holding two or more contradictory modes of thought.  F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."  Of course, he drank.  I just think of it as being muddled up.

It worries me that the clearest thinking about war crimes in the Caribbean is coming from Rand Paul.  "Our military code is pretty clear that when people are wounded or left in a shipwreck, left in the debris of a shipwreck, that they're considered to be out of combat and are not to be killed...I think if the public sees images of people clinging to boat debris...the public will get interested enough in this to stop this."  He's optimistic about the chance of getting Americans to pay attention, much less demand that their country stop murdering people in our name, but the real question is, where are the Democrats on this?  

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) saw video of the "kill 'em all" attack and pronounced it "deeply, deeply troubling," which is the kind of reaction I would expect from Susan Collins just before she votes to confirm some Trumpian shitweasel.  Alleged leader Hakeem Jeffries was busy thanking Trump for selling a pardon to "beloved" bribe taker Henry Cuellar, mostly to spite the Biden DoJ.  Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) announced a bill to make it a federal crime to steal packages off doorsteps.  A bipartisan group of five is asking the Bondi Department about the Epstein files.  A larger bipartisan group is backing Ocasio-Cortez on a discharge petition to force a vote to ban members of Congress from stock trading.  There's a lot of shit going on -- who has time to worry about a few (dozen) violations of international law?

Dear Leader himself is in a quandary.  He hates non-white people, as he made abundantly clear at Tuesday's monthly salad toss, but he loves money as long as he can get it without effort or skill.  So he brought in the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to his newly named President Donald John Trump US Institute of Trump Peace and had them sign an economic deal for exploiting rare earth.  "Everybody's going to make a lot of money," he chuckled, meaning the Rwandan and DRC elites and certainly not the ordinary people who had better not try emigrating here.  Money and peace -- are you watching, Norwegians?

It took Small Mike Johnson seven weeks to swear in Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) because he had absent-mindedly sent all the members home and there was a shutdown and he mislaid all of his Bibles and she deserved all the pomp and pageantry of a proper -- look, she had to be kept from signing on to Massie's bill, OK?  It took Small Mike less than 48 hours to swear in Matt Van Epps (MAGA-TN).  I understand he offered to meet Van Epps at the airport.  Today he looks smaller than ever.  Not all Christians are hypocrites, but Christians are better at it than anyone else.  Practice, practice!

The Daily Mail (UK), where some of the best reporting on us originates, has the answer to the question we've been asking:  What happens when you give $30 billion to a puppy-killing fuckwit and her underlings to fill the ranks of a relatively small agency intended to track down people who overstay their visas or marry Americans without completing all the paperwork?  And advertise it as an opportunity to earn good money bullying, brutalizing and occasionally killing people Trump hates?  You get what Noem has, people who are barely literate, have pending criminal charges, can't pass drug tests, are covered in Nazi tattoos or in one case weigh over 400 pounds.  Since July 584 have flunked out of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, but 558 graduated.  Look on the bright side -- they probably can't write a report that anyone can read.

Attention unwoke musicians:  Be advised that if you sign a contract to play the Kennedy Center you may have to wait months to get paid.  The staffer in charge of payment was fired in October and has not been replaced, so booking agents and performers are hearing a lot of "the check is in the mail."  There is literally nothing Trumpanzees can't fuck up.

Gabby Deutch of Jewish Insider was invited to a Hanukkah reception at the vice-presidential residence.   Looking more closely she noticed...see if you can spot it.

The small print says "Celebrating 50 years of Christmas at the vice president's residence."  Now that's cognitive dissonance.  (I assume Doug Emhoff's mezuzah is no longer displayed beside the door.)  These are the people who would scream at someone who said "Happy holidays" to avoid this kind of faux pas and go on Fox to accuse them of hating Christianity and western civilization.  

FIFA is legendary for corruption -- how do you think Qatar landed the last tournament? -- so it's fascinating to read that stadiums selected for the matches cannot be named for corporate sponsors, which would give them exposure they haven't paid FIFA for.  This covers fourteen out of the sixteen venues next year and there's already rage in Texas.  AT&T Stadium, home of the Cowboys (when I think of the Cowboys I think of calling plans) will be called Dallas Stadium for the duration, angering many residents of Arlington where it's actually located.  "It's NOT IN Dallas, it's not even in Dallas County!!!  KISS MY GRITS," wrote one Arlingtonian who watched a lot of TV in the 1970s.  Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, will be known as Boston Stadium.  Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara will become San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, while MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford will be called New York New Jersey Stadium, and thousands of footie lovers from Bucharest and Buenos Aires will be hopelessly lost.  Uber and Lyft drivers, have pity.