Nuts for the Nutcracker Season

A collection of quotations offered with no editorial comment.

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“I threw a potato. Mum brandished a knife … would whole-family therapy save our Christmas?”

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/dec/20/whole-family-therapy-save-christmas-arguments-mental-health?utm_term=69464cfab5413539f1b25578f026c663&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email

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Evangelical preacher Franklin Graham told participants at the Pentagon ‘s “Christmas Worship Service” that the “God of love” they’re familiar with “also hates.”

Graham addressed troops and Pentagon employees Thursday at the event hosted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer Hegseth.

“You know, we think about, God is a God of love,” Graham said before reciting Bible verse John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that he whoever believeth in him shouldn’t perish, but have everlasting life.”

GRAHAM CONTINUED, “WE KNOW THAT GOD LOVES, BUT DID YOU KNOW THAT GOD ALSO HATES? DO YOU KNOW THAT GOD ALSO IS A GOD OF WAR? AND MANY PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT THAT, OR FORGET THAT.”

https://www.yahoo.com/?err=404&err_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2Ffranklin-graham-says-god-hates-1738%2F

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J. D. Vance about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer:

“He rejected the conservatism and the spirituality, the values of a small-town family. He moved into a small apartment . . .”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/vance-rebrands-maga-revenge-as-a-christian-crusade.html

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Lawyer Isaac Mills at the 1925 trial Rhinelander vs. Rhinelander:

“There isn’t a father among you who would not rather see his son in his casket than to see him wedded to a mulatto woman.” 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/magazine/rhinelander-trial-interracial-marriage.html?searchResultPosition=1

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[Alan] Dershowitz argued a different interpretation when presenting Trump with a copy of his book, entitled Could President Trump Constitutionally Serve a Third Term? – due to be published next year – in a meeting in the Oval Office.

“I said ‘it’s not clear if a president can become a third term president and it’s not clear if it’s permissible,’” Dershowitz told the Journal.

He said Trump “found it interesting as an intellectual issue” and said he planned to read the book.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/18/trump-third-term-alan-dershowitz

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When President Donald Trump visited George Washington’s Mount Vernon in 2018, he reportedly showed little interest in the estate or in the first president. But Trump did have a critique of his predecessor. “If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it,” he reportedly said. “You’ve got to put your name on stuff, or no one remembers you.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2025/12/donald-trump-naming-american-institutions/685362/

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"We’re sorry your daughter hates you, Elon," [Governor  Gavin Newsom’s] press office wrote on X, a platform that Musk owns.

The SpaceX CEO came back with a blistering response, doubling down on his refusal to call Wilson his daughter.

"I assume you’re referring to my son, Xavier, who has a tragic mental illness caused by the evil woke mind virus you push on vulnerable children.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/elon-musk-blasts-newsom-office-173114117.html

 

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[Katie]Britt [Republican senator from Alabama] tells [Katie] Miller [Stephen Miller’s wife] that her decision to run for Senate was a religious calling, and that when her son was 10 years old, he came to her and asked to speak privately. He then presented her with a list of reasons for why she needed to run. “I want people to know how much you love Jesus,” he told her. “I want them to know what a good mom you are.” Then he added: “Mom, I definitely think they need to know about your passion for small business.”

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/donald-trump-stephen-miller-wife-katie-news.html

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South Korean president Lee Jae Myung has instructed his government to consider extending public health insurance to cover hair-loss treatments, arguing that baldness has become a “matter of survival” rather than a cosmetic concern for young people.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/19/south-korean-president-urges-public-health-cover-hair-loss

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Citing things that work against the “social reinforcement” of fertility that “fertility cults” provide, [Scott Yenor, appointed as Heritage’s new director of the B Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies], said the “most pernicious of these things” are “young women who want to be known for their minds”, adding: “I’m glad that you have a good mind, but if that’s what you want to be known for, like, you’re not going to have kids.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/15/heritage-foundation-thinktank-scott-yenor

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FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has publicly distanced himself from his own conspiracy rhetoric, offering a striking walk-back of claims he made before joining the agency’s leadership. . . .

“I was paid in the past for my opinions, that’s clear, and one day I’ll be back in that space,” Bongino declared. “But that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/bongino-makes-jaw-dropping-admission-101852136.html

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During a marathon Tuesday Cabinet meeting filled with the president’s secretaries lauding him with praise, [Kristi] Noem thanked Trump for keeping hurricanes at bay.

“You made it through the hurricane season without a hurricane—you kept the hurricanes away. We appreciate that,” she said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/newsom-trolls-ice-barbie-she-215030034.html

 

Jailhouse Rock

Time on Her Hands (A Question)

What do you wear on a visit to one of the world’s most notorious prisons? If you’re Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary who visited El Salvador’s massive Terrorism Confinement Center on Wednesday, the answer was a white long-sleeve top, gray slacks and a baseball cap emblazoned with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement logo.

Oh, and a gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona that sells for about $50,000.*

Now, my feeling has always been that if you've earned your money in an honest way, you can spend it (or save it) any way you like.

In defense of Noem's purchase of her Rolex,

Tricia McLaughlin, homeland security’s assistant secretary for public affairs, wrote that Ms. Noem used the proceeds of her books “to purchase an item she could wear and one day pass down to her children.”

In case you don't know or remember Noem's Great Books of the Western World literary efforts, she relates in her tome No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward how she cold-bloodedly murdered her pet dog, Cricket. 

How will her children in the future feel about putting on their wrist a watch that comes with blood on the hand? 

 *

Three More Questions

(1) Why does Donald Trump like the song “YMCA"?

Answer: He’s attempting to learn the alphabet.

(2) Who is blame for the so-called Signalgate screw-up?

Answer: Nancy Pelosi.

(3) How much did it cost the American taxpayer to fly Usha Vance to Greenland to not see a dogsled race?

Answer: Your guess is as good as mine.

*

 

A Parable for the Trump Years

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he said to himself, “What’s in it for me?”

And he continued on his way.

*

I suppose that it should come as no surprise that Donald Trump granted pardons to the three co-founders of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, 

who had pleaded guilty in 2022 for failing to implement a Bank Secrecy Act-compliant anti-money laundering program. . . .

Prosecutors had accused BitMEX and founders Delo, Hayes and Reed of willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act between 2015 and 2020 by failing to adopt anti-money-laundering and "know your customer" programs, Reuters reported in January.

Also pardoned this week by Trump was Trevor Milton, the founder of bankrupt electric and hydrogen-powered truckmaker Nikola, who had been convicted of fraud.”**

And that’s not all.

Last week,  

Mr. Trump applied the choppy marker strokes of his signature to a full and unconditional pardon for Mr. [Devon] Archer, wiping away his conviction in a scheme to defraud investors and a Native American tribal entity of tens of millions of dollars. . . .

It freed him from having to serve any part of his prison sentence of one year and one day, and from having to pay nearly $60 million in forfeitures and restitution.***

But as the Times points out, “For the defrauded tribal entity — as well as the prosecutors who brought the case — it was a blow.”

As mentioned above, these pardons should be no surprise—a convicted felon pardoning felonious fraudsters.

It should also come as no surprise that

Mr. Archer has told associates that he is interested in serving in Mr. Trump’s administration or for his political operation at some point.

After all, birds of a feather fly together.

*

The French do these things much better. Today’s headline:

French far-right leader Le Pen barred from politics in embezzlement verdict

***

Update (Next Day)--The Sleaze Knows No End:

Headline:

Trump commutes sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson

just before prison surrender

Watson was due to begin serving a 116-month prison term for a multi-million-dollar scheme****

*  https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/style/kristi-noem-venezuela-prison-rolex-watch.html

** https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-pardoned-bitmex-co-founders-203835230.html

*** https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/us/politics/journey-from-biden-loyalist-to-full-maga-ends-in-a-trump-pardon.html?searchResultPosition=3

**** https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/28/trump-commutes-sentences-of-ozy-media-founder-carlos-watson-and-company.html

 

Learning Experiences

Two Kids

This is about Cedar the goat (kid #1)

 and an unnamed nine-year-old girl out in California (kid #2).

Last spring, the nine-year-old decided to raise a goat and then put it up for auction at a county fair. But as things turned out, the girl bonded with the animal and, regarding it as a pet, no longer wanted to part with the goat. The girl’s family tried to back out of the agreement to auction Cedar, but the auction went ahead anyway. The family then took the goat and absconded with it, eventually placing the animal with a farm that leases out goats for vegetation control. 

The family offered to cover all expenses, and the buyer of the goat at the auction (let’s say something nice about a Republican state senator) agreed to the new plan, letting Cedar live. But they did not reckon with the hardasses of the Shasta District Fair. No way! they exclaimed. The child must be taught a lesson:

“Making an exception for you will only teach (our) youth that they do not have to abide by the rules that are set up for all participants.”

And in order to enforce their rules, the Fair authorities got the Sheriff’s Office to send two deputies 500 miles to seize the animal. Taxpayers money wasted, anybody?

Henrik Ibsen demonstrated in his plays that the claims of the Ideal (abstractions, rules, laws) can be antithetical to life. In this case, the life that was lost was that of Cedar the goat, who probably ended up as someone’s picnic dinner.

And what was the lesson learned by the young girl? Probably, that the world of adult authority is rotten, without love or compassion.

(Story at https://www.sanluisobispo.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article273909885.html#storylink=cpy)

One Kid

Having tipped my hat above to a Republican politician, I must, unfortunately, return to the cesspool of the GOP.

Kristi Noem is the governor of South Dakota. Perhaps her most noteworthy action (or stunt) as head of that state was to send “up to 50” South Dakota National Guard troops to Texas to “help secure our border.” As if that handful could do the trick!

Last week, Noem moseyed on over to a National Rifle Association event (otherwise known as the gathering of the goofballs) and proceeded to outdo all the other quacks. She joyfully announced that her grandchild Addie had a shotgun and a rifle. The child, it should be noted, is almost two-years-old. Noem put it this way:

"Now Addie, who you know, soon will need them, I want to reassure you, she already has a shotgun and she already has a rifle, and she's got a little pony named Sparkles too. So the girl is set up.” 

Well, what is she set up for?

The Second Amendment to the Constitution (which the gun nuts keep under their pillows at night) begins (this is the part that is conveniently ignored by the nuts):

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State . . .

That’s what she is being set up for: she is going to take her weaponry and endeavor to protect the security of our country in the same way that the two score and ten South Dakota guardsmen were going to protect the southern border. 

I am left with just one question:  

When Addie is on guard duty aboard Sparkles, who will change her diaper?

(Story at https://www.businessinsider.com/republican-governor-2-year-old-granddaughter-already-several-guns-2023-40)