Christmas Eve 2018

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Hello, friends. As I prepare for a lovely five-hour drive, I give you these simple thoughts about The Season.

PCR has some cogent thoughts on Christmas and the importance of Christianity – even, maybe especially to, non-Christians.

What’s he mean with the Tower of Babel comments? Well, just as Kevin Hart demonstrated a few weeks ago, now Lebron James and some ATL rapper offer us a glimpse into the Trotskyite pecking order: the unthinking force meets the perpetually offended object.

Peace on Earth?

Whatever Happened to the Hot Israeli Sea Salt Selling Girls at the Mall? – From TPC

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Little did I know this column would run early. It did, so here goes:

Whatever Happened to the Hot Israeli Sea Salt Selling Girls at the Mall?

This is the final C.F. Floyd National Affairs column for 2018. Boy, time flies when you’re agitating and stuff! 2018 review? No time. 2019 preview? Wait till next week. No, I got today’s idea when I read Bess’s stellar bit about hating Christmas shopping, the children’s survival notwithstanding. Such was my enjoyment that mine was the first comment:

 

“I miss the cute, little Mossad-ettes peddling sea salt in the malls. The rest, they can keep.”

 

Thank you, Bess, for planting a fantastic seed in the untoward garden of my mind. Here goes: Remember the Dead Sea salt girls at the mall? I do and fondly.

 

It was December 2006. Determined to waste as much money as possible buying the affections of loved ones, I strolled the crowded promenade of North Point Mall in Alpharetta. I had Baby Girl, the Old Man, a few friends, the nieces, and the dorks well covered. I needed something (else) for the Wife and something for those other womanly relations. Not being the most domestically-minded man, you can imagine my consternation.

 

It was, I recall, getting late. My ever-befuddled thoughts turned to ale and cigars. The pace and volume of the throng began to wear upon my fragile nerves. I needed answers, options and I needed them fast.

 

Then, She hailed me over. …

READ THE REST AT TPC

Calling the Plunge Protection Team

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About this time, during the early days of the last recession, the fraudsters-in-charge told us the economy and the banks had never been stronger. Then the bottom fell out. You might recall.

They would likely repeat the lies but for the machinations of an orange-haired bragger from their own town.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary called top U.S. bankers on Sunday amid an ongoing rout on Wall Street and made plans to convene a group of officials known as the “Plunge Protection Team.”

The Treasury said in a statement that Mnuchin talked with the chief executives of Bank of America (BAC.N), Citi (C.N), Goldman Sachs (GS.N), JP Morgan Chase (JPM.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Wells Fargo (WFC.N).

“The CEOs confirmed that they have ample liquidity available for lending,” the Treasury said.

Mnuchin “also confirmed that they have not experienced any clearance or margin issues and that the markets continue to function properly,” the Treasury said.

By the time they notice these things or admit them, it’s already too late. At least they’re on record this time.

UPDATE: If you want to really overanalyze this on a Christmas Eve, then look at Option 3.

Who’s Got the Water Bucket? Wicked Witches Wrise in Wmerica

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Christianity declines, to our peril. In its place, THIS?

Witchcraft is thriving in the US, with an estimated 1.5 million Americans now identifying as witches – more than the total number of Presbyterians. As Christianity declines across the country, paganism has swung to the mainstream, with witchcraft paraphernalia for sale on every high street and practises normalised across popular culture. In the past two years, it has also become darkly politicised.

Think yoga, if you need an example of normalization.

Dakota Bracciale, a 29-year-old transgender/queer witch and co-owner of Catland Books and witch shop in Brooklyn, is pleased with the outcome of the ritual hex placed on US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in October. The curse, carried out from Catland Books, was well attended by witches, atheists ad humanists – and was followed around the country on social media.

Transgender queer witch … a curse all it’s own…

Millennials, says Bracciale, are looking for spiritualism outside traditional religion. “The hex centres on the notion that we live in a universe of chaos, entropy, destruction, death, decay with a final ending of oblivion – scientists are telling us. So the witch does everything for themselves – there is no other help in this universe of decay and chaos. If you don’t get in the driver’s seat things will just get worse,” the witch said.

Y’s can’t run a stick-shift but they’re in the driver’s seat.

In a wide-ranging discussion with the Telegraph, Bracciale, who described the interview questions as “sensationalist”, talked about political hexes and witchcraft in general.

Bracciale is “absolutely” willing to cause physical harm through a hex – “no issue with that”. And while Bracciale would have been just as pleased with the new Supreme Court Justice’s death, resignation or physical disfigurement, the main goal of the Kavanaugh hex, and the three hexes on President Donald Trump from Catland Books this summer, was to “let them be exposed for who they are – especially as impotent men”. The curse began with a recitation of the Biblical scripture Psalm 109: 8: “let his days be few, let another take his office.”

Outside traditional religion until they blaspheme it. “Absolutely” willing to let the mental illness flow.

Not going to post it, here, but do look at the queer’s picture. How about “LGBTQPC&W?” For diversity’s sake, they have to include the pedos, cannies, and witches, right? Laugh or cry, this is the new Amerika. Now, seriously, who has some water handy?

Happy Sunday.

 

Book Update

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Today I’ve been hard at it, editing the forthcoming TPC Column Compendium for 2018. I so enjoy this process. MBM has agreed to give me a fitting Forward. Now, I have to think about adding expanded features and maybe an exclusive bit or two.

Here is (again) the working cover:

Screenshot 2018-11-25 at 3.19.48 PM

Expect this sometime next month at Amazon, B&N, here, and a few other venues. She’ll be around 150 pages and perhaps offered in print for $11.99-ish (less for Kindle). There will be a few pictures.

Ready the credit cards…

Keep it Closed

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On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me … a shutdown in D.C.

A partial federal shutdown took hold early Saturday after Democrats refused to meet President Donald Trump’s demands for $5 billion to start erecting his cherished Mexican border wall, a chaotic postscript for Republicans in the waning days of their two-year reign controlling government.

Vice President Mike Pence, Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney left the Capitol late Friday after hours of bargaining with congressional leaders produced no apparent compromise. “We don’t have a deal. We’re still talking,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told reporters.

Late Friday, Mulvaney sent agency heads a memorandum telling them to “execute plans for an orderly shutdown.” He wrote that administration officials were “hopeful that this lapse in appropriations will be of short duration” — an expectation that was widely shared.

With negotiations expected to continue, the House and Senate both scheduled rare Saturday sessions. House members were told they’d get 24 hours’ notice before a vote.

The gridlock blocks money for nine of 15 Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, State and Justice.

Now, close the rest and keep it closed in perpetuity.

Clearing the Drafts – Progress

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So far I’ve taken out what about half of the stock we had in inventory. Many, I just deleted. Most of what’s left are either notes for something else, works in progress which need full attention, and a few that need further consideration. Accomplishment.

UPDATE: I’ve scheduled a few more to post this weekend.

FP UPDATE: I kind of have the links for the rest of 2018 scheduled. And, I have a Happy 2019 post readied for January. That … may be either the end (or near the end) of FP. Not sure. It’s been fun and profitable but all good things…

TPC UPDATE: We’ve only just begun.