Christmas Eve Open Thread [12.24.14]

Best toon of the year, apologies to our own Rob Tornoe.

“The U.S. economy posted its strongest growth in more than a decade during the third quarter, supported by robust consumer spending and business investment,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.0% in the third quarter… That was up from the second quarter’s growth rate of 4.6% and the strongest pace since the third quarter of 2003.”

No single Republican anywhere in this country has uttered a single word about the mountain of good economic news recently. That silence speaks volumes.

Al Hunt: “To oversimplify, there are two distinct candidate types: the mainstream conservatives and the movement conservatives. There really are no moderates.”

“Establishment conservatives are the favorites of Wall Street, big business and traditional Republicans. Movement candidates are embraced by the Tea Party, social and cultural conservatives, and the populist right.”

The Mainstream types are Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Mitt Romney, Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, and Bobby Jindal. The Movement (Tea Party) types are Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum. And the freak that is trying to be in both groups and in his own libertarian group is Rand Paul. With so many candidates dividing the vote, Rand Paul might sneak in.

A new CNN/ORC poll finds President Obama’s approval rating has jumped to a 20-month high at 48%.

“The approval jump follows a late-quarter jolt in Obama’s governing agenda, which gained momentum after unilateral actions on immigration and relations with Cuba. Separate surveys have showed those moves popular among the American people. It all amounts to some welcome good news for Obama, whose unpopularity — despite consistently improving economic conditions — led to widespread losses for his party in November’s midterm elections.”

An 18-month congressional investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s “mistreatment” of conservative political groups seeking tax exemptions has failed to show coordination between agency officials and political operatives in the White House. So another quasi-scandal goes up in smoke. Nice try though, Republicans.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar:

The way to honor those who defend our liberties with their lives — as did my father and grandfather — is not to curtail liberty, but to exercise it fully in pursuit of a just and peaceful society.

According to Ecclesiastes, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose.” For me, today, that means a time to seek justice and a time to mourn the dead.

And a time to shut the hell up.

The recent brutal murder of two Brooklyn police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, is a national tragedy that should inspire nationwide mourning. Both my grandfather and father were police officers, so I appreciate what a difficult and dangerous profession law enforcement is. We need to value and celebrate the many officers dedicated to protecting the public and nourishing our justice system. It’s a job most of us don’t have the courage to do.

At the same time, however, we need to understand that their deaths are in no way related to the massive protests against systemic abuses of the justice system as symbolized by the recent deaths—also national tragedies—of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, and Michael Brown. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the suicidal killer, wasn’t an impassioned activist expressing political frustration, he was a troubled man who had shot his girlfriend earlier that same day. He even Instagrammed warnings of his violent intentions. None of this is the behavior of a sane man or rational activist. The protests are no more to blame for his actions than The Catcher in the Rye was for the murder of John Lennon or the movie Taxi Driver for the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. Crazy has its own twisted logic and it is in no way related to the rational cause-and-effect world the rest of us attempt to create.

Those who are trying to connect the murders of the officers with the thousands of articulate and peaceful protestors across America are being deliberately misleading in a cynical and selfish effort to turn public sentiment against the protestors.