THANKS, OBAMA: Waiting Longer for an Ambulance When Seconds Count? Blame Obamacare.

THAT MEANS IT’S WORKING: Obamacare Causes New York’s Largest Hospital Network to Leave Insurance Market.

THE MEDIA ARE UNHAPPY WITH THIS BECAUSE IT’S TAKING MONEY OUT OF THEIR POCKETS: Trump administration plans on making 90 percent cut to Obamacare ad budget.

OUCH: Utah Will Fork Over $10 Million to Cover Obamacare Insurer’s Debt.

PARTY OF THE WORKING MAN: Majority of Households Paying Obamacare Penalty Are Low and Middle-Income.

WAPO HEADLINE: Trump to sign order to eliminate ACA insurance rules, undermine marketplaces.

Imagine the mental summersaults one must jump through to believe that allowing people to buy the kind insurance they need from the insurer they prefer “undermines” marketplaces.

So here’s the headline: “Nearly 40 percent of tanning salons ignore state laws governing teen use.”

But read way, way down into the story and you get this: “This was a telephone survey, and not a single business contacted actually allowed a teenager to use UV tanning services without parental consent or violated any law.”

Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie Asks Dan Rather Why People Think Media ‘Make Up Stories.’

Apparently NBC’s own Brian Williams and Al Sharpton were unavailable this morning.

NYT reporter calls for Twitter to censor images of Biden inappropriately touching women, children.

DRAIN THE SWAMP: IRS Rehires 213 Employees Ousted for Falsifying Documents, Avoiding Taxes, Other Offenses.

The IRS Scandal, Day 1563: Judge Orders IRS To Disclose Names Of Employees Who Targeted Conservative Groups And To Prove That It Has Stopped The Practice.

AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE: IRS awards multimillion-dollar no-bid fraud-prevention contract to Equifax

CHANGE: Treasury Rolls Back Eight Tax Regulations.

THEY SHOULD BE GETTING SOME SCALPS, TOO, BUT NO SUCH LUCK SO FAR: Tea Party groups to get “substantial” payout over IRS scandal, lawyer says.

OOPS: Influential Think Tank Retracts Claim That GOP Tax Bill Would Raise Taxes on Working Class.

Is it a Crime to Support Government Aggression?

SO IF YOU’RE FEELING BAD ABOUT YOUR DAY, THIS SHOULD CHEER YOU UP: A “Terrified” Paul Krugman Wakes Each Morning in a “State of Existential Dread.” 

PAUL KRUGMAN ON ELECTION NIGHT: “If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.”

CNBC 11/2: Dow closes at record high in wild session after release of tax reform bill, Powell nomination.

THE REAL MINIMUM WAGE IS ALWAYS ZERO: Robots to help stock shelves at 50 Walmart stores.

Brickbat: Buyer's Market

WHICH IS WEIRD, BECAUSE ALL I HEAR FROM THE POLITICAL PRESS IS THAT EVERYTHING IS AWFUL: U.S. Consumer Confidence Just Hit Its Highest Level in Almost 17 Years.

15.  Elf.  Why ‘Elf’ is a Terrible Christmas Movie

16.  Christmas in Connecticut

17.  The Bishop's Wife .... the original

18.  The Nightmare Before Christmas.  I cringe.  But I watch

19.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966 ONLY)

20.  Black Christmas (expect this one to drop)

The final countdown:  Charlie Brown, A Christmas Story (why?  WHY?) Miracle on 34th Street (original) and It's a Wonderful Life.

After MUCH discussion I've come up with MY definition of a Chrsitmas Movie, 2017 edition.  MUST have at least ONE of the following three elements:

1.  Have Chrsitmas in the TITLE.   (subject to amendmendment when someone shows mea counterexample)

2.  A Retelling of A Christmas Carol OR The Nativity story (which gets Connecticut into the cut, again)

3.   Involve Santa as a primary or strong seconday character.

NO MORE DIE HARD!

That fact that your family used to watch the movie at Christmas time does NOT make it a Christmas movie.  If you watched Twelve Angry Men or Debbie Does Dallas, would THEY be Christmas movies??

Shannon Watts tries to stomp NRA after Tenn. church shooting, steps on BIG rake instead.

REMINDER: There Have Been More Attempted Mass Shootings by Bernie Sanders Campaign Volunteers Than There Have Been by Members of the NRA.

IT’S A TARGET-RICH ENVIRONMENT: 15 Of The Most Unhinged Responses To The Texas Church Massacre Yet.

USA Today Wants to “Rap” With You Kids About the AR-15. “You’ll know the part when you see it.”

More at Twitchy, which rounds up loads of Photoshop parodies. The “Elmo Scope” seems particularly dangerous.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Michigan Senate OKs concealed pistol carry in schools, churches, day care centers. The vote wasn’t even close.

Started reading this blog a few months ago.  A LOT of long posts.  A LOT of heavy deep thought.  But well worth the visit.  Suggest you add it to your reading list. 

Were There Dark Ages?

WHAT WAS THIS APE DOING IN EUROPE OVER NINE MILLION YEARS BEFORE HIS FAMILY LEFT AFRICA?  Probably standing on the corner, minding his own business, but all the same… 9.7 million-year-old teeth could ‘rewrite’ human history.

THEN: A Trump Meltdown For The Ages:

It was a display that will renew questions about the suitability of Trump’s temperament for the presidency, and at a time of increasing tensions around the world that will exacerbate fears he will be unable to control his emotions at a time of crisis as commander-in-chief. . . .

“This week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?”

NOW: George Washington’s Church Says Plaque Honoring The First President Must Come Down.

related:  AS SOME PEOPLE WERE WARNING: Why the slope from toppling Confederate monuments to shunning the Founders is so slippery.

 BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Tim Kaine Is Wrong about America and Slavery.

1951 with Alistair Sim.  My sister's favorite. Several story lines from the novel are included that most versions omit - including Nancy working with the por.  It's a very powerful telling, especially the revealing of ignorance and want but seems to me to be trying too hard.

1988.  Scrooged.  Bill Murray.  Gets a tad better each year.  And includes Nancy working with the poor!