Emergency notice

 The national average gas price this morning was $3.33 a gallon, a penny less than this time last year, but the experts seem to think it could drop below three dollars.  So Sen. Tim Scott chose a poor time for this fund-raising scam: 

"Peter" and others who discover this in their mailboxes and click through eventually reach a letter  which reads:  "President Biden Claims Gas Prices Now Are Better Than When He Took Office.  FACT CHECK:  False.  The truth:  Since taking office gas prices have SOARED.  [And grammar has quietly died.]...Many have been FORCED to turn off the heat in their homes..."  And so on.  Then there's one of those "surveys" about whether we should drill, baby, drill or not.  Whatever your response, you wind up on the Give Moneys To Tim Scott page.  I take it back, Senator, you're not a deluded self-hater, you're a  foil-wrapped Republican filled with grifty goodness.

I predicted -- and really, you don't have to be Nostradamus -- that Baby Tuckoo would lose his solid waste over the Bouts-Griner swap and he didn't disappoint.  "Whelan is a Trump voter and he made the mistake of saying so on social media...Brittney Griner despises the United States, she's been very vocal about that."  Translation:  She supports "taking a knee" and has even said she doesn't see why the national anthem has to be played before every damn sports contest.  Either you support Trump or you hate America, right, Tucky?  But it was left to Peter Doocy to demand why Russia got "such a better deal" at today's White House press conference.  "They gave up a professional athlete.  We gave up a prolific arms dealer..."  "The professional athlete is also an American citizen," responded Karine Jean-Pierre.  Doocy didn't quote Carlson but he was probably thinking it:  "Brittney Griner is not white and she's a lesbian.  Now those facts might seem irrelevant to you...but they're not irrelevant to the White House press secretary."  Yes, Jean-Pierre is also a Black lesbian, and she signs off on all prisoner deals as point person for the Black Lesbian Deep State which controls poor, demented Joe Biden.  Can you hear the dog whistle, Carlson audience?  Well, turn up the hearing aids.

As everyone from Biden to his driver has patiently explained, Paul Whelan, the "Marine they left behind," was never on the table.  It was Bouts for Griner or nothing.  The people closest to this episode understand that.  David Whelan:  "It is clear that we do not begrudge Ms. Griner her freedom...Brittney's and Paul's cases were never really intertwined."  Cherelle Griner:  "BG and I will remain committed to the work of getting every American home including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today..."  Literally every Republican:  "How can I gin up hatred/make money from this?"  Vladimir Putin:  "Can I help?"

And one final note:  When some clown starts tearing up and humming "The Halls of Montezuma," feel free to mention that Paul Whelan was given a court martial and a bad conduct discharge from the Marines for grand larceny in Iraq.  And that he seems to have fibbed about being a college graduate and falsified his record in law enforcement like a common Herschel Walker.  And he also has Canadian, Irish and UK passports, not in itself a crime.  And that the Russians arrested him with a thumb drive which allegedly contained the names of border guards.  In short, he's no Smedley Butler.

Strikes, strikes everywhere, eh, Fawlty?  Yes, there are, and not one involves the kind of industrial dispute that once characterized the labor movement.  The Newspaper Guild staged a one-day strike against the New York Times that included highly paid columnists and badly paid temps and security guards.  Editors are still putting out a paper but the union has urged supporters not to buy it -- "and don't do the Wordle."  Well, that's asking a lot, Joe Hill, but if you think it will help...

More than 48,000 graduate students and teaching assistants walked off the job at the ten campuses of the University of California, disrupting classes near the end of the semester.  Since they do most of the actual teaching they want a living wage, which seems fair.  Tuition for out-of-state students runs about $44,000 a year. 

Airport services workers (cabin cleaners, baggage handlers, etc.) are demanding that Congress pass the Good Jobs For Good Airports Act and assure them higher wages, affordable health care, sick days and other luxuries.  They are on strike today in Chicago, Boston and Newark.  

Amazon workers all over the world struck on the day after Thanksgiving for higher pay and less medieval working conditions, but mostly for the right to organize.  I thought that had been established in the 1930s.

Yesterday Kevin Brady (R-TX), soon to be chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, shared some wisdom with CNBC:  "Both the White House and the Fed don't understand the worker crisis we're in and how that's driving higher prices persistently for a long time, as well."  Yes, prices are higher even for people in service jobs who don't share in corporate profits and they would like enough money to live on, he somehow failed to add.  Strike now, delivery people and custodians, because January will be too late.  I predict a two-year Dark Age for labor.

Corporate America, the Republicans will always have your back.  The Senate is trying to pass by unanimous consent the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, whose provisions include water bottles, stools and bathroom breaks for pregnant workers.  Who could possibly object to that and demand a roll call vote?  Why, Thom Tillis, who's afraid it will give the fed'l gubmint too much power!  Yes, the party that wants as many women to get pregnant as possible and carry the pregnancy to term isn't quite sure they really need to pee so often.  Trust me.  They do.

It wouldn't be a day ending in "Y" without a Trump derangement story.  Under pressure of an exceptionally bad week, he's been TSing about the "stolen" election again "BUT IN A DARKER WAY THAN EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE."  Even supporters were confused when he cited "the very well established Clinton Socks Case."  This turned out to refer not to the Clintons' cat but to Bill Clinton collaborating with Taylor Branch on an oral memoir and storing the tapes in his sock drawer.   Some right-wing outfit sued and the judge ruled that they were personal records, not official materials like the papers Trump stole.  The book, called The Clinton Tapes, is available from a variety of sellers.  

Yup.  And another Trump enterprise went bust, his golf course in Bali.  Couldn't get any Saudi financing for that one.  A lot of laid-off Indonesians.  They knew what they were getting into. 

 Luckily, gas is coming down.  Were I conspiracy minded I'd thank whoever decided Prince Bone Saw should slide on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.  The higher good, right?

Are the lambs screaming, Donald?