Another One

Krampus is coming. This newsletter is more likely to be delayed, absent, or incomplete for the remainder of the month. (Traditionally, Krampus comes at the beginning of December, but let’s be real, we are living in an all-Krampus-all-the-time world right now. For evidence: the inevitable “Trump Scandal Year In Review” article  has arrived and it is long.)

Centrism is dead
More from Ed Burmila: Republicans fire up the base by giving them what they want. Their base wanted racism, false piety, and tax cuts, and goddamnit they’re getting that. Democrats, if they’re going to succeed beyond 2018, need to listen to their base and start giving them what THEY want: healthcare, progressive taxation, immigration, civil rights enforcement, and so on. At the very least, when you’re Doug Jones and you win an election on a wave of enthusiasm for keeping sexually abusive creeps out of office, don’t try and downplay the allegations against a sexually abusive creep.

Meanwhile in bad news: Alabama sheriffs, New Jersey medical examiners, California rehabilitation centers, water quality in the DC offices of the EPA.

Culturing culture
The Awl has a recurring Monday bit with kind of ominous trance music and it’s pretty good for when you’re in the mood for ominous trance music and a really bleak caption. 

Before consuming a cultural product, you can now check Rotten Apples to see if there’s a sex predator involved. (See also the service provided by Does The Dog Die? which allows you to avoid movies including any number of unpleasant things, including animal suffering, clowns, and seizure-inducing strobe effects).

Did your elementary school gym class ever contain square dancing? Is your state’s official dance square dancing? It’s probably because Henry Ford was an incredibly virulent racist and antisemite. I’m not kidding. He hated black people and jazz so much that he spent vast sums of money funding country music and square dances to promote white music. 

Cultivating joy
Cat being a jerk.
Boop.