The naughty and the nice.

 Tis the season of holiday cheer,  and your friendly neighborhood field negro is checking his list to find out who has been naughty and who has been nice. 

Let's start with the nice.  I have a few candidates who should be on Santa's good side. 

1. Anthony Fauci: This poor guy has been branded as a pariah by the anti-science right-wingnuts from day one of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, to his credit, he did not let it deter him from fighting the good fight against the misinformation and ignorance that came from the right during what was a terrible time in our country.  Thousands of dead Americans and the poor man still had to defend himself against the onslaught of negativity and disinformation on a daily basis. 

2. Wes Moore: Becoming the first black governor of the state of Maryland was a historic achievement. Having yawdie roots and showing that he has the political chops to take his political career even further puts him in Santa's nice bag.   

3. Bennie Thompson: His job was to oversee the January 6th Commission, and he and his committee delivered the goods. Some folks will  cry that it (the committee) was too partisan, but the right had their chance to have folks added to the committee and they played games. Thompson's committee was thorough and effective. Their criminal referrals to the DOJ now puts the ball in Merrick Garland's court.  

4. The voters of Georgia: I know it was too close for comfort, but stopping Herschel Walker from becoming a United States Senator was nice.  

5. Jalen Hurts: Showing the NFL world that hard work pays off, and doing it while you are the quarterback of my birds, gets you on Santa's good side for sure. 

6. Volodymyr Zelenski: The American right hates this guy more than they do Putin. Why? Because he is everything that their de facto leader, donald trump, is not. Brave, courageous, and willing to fight side by side with his fellow countrymen.  One of their biggest beefs with him is that he wore a military sweater to address congress.  Does this faux outrage seem familiar? Think Obama's tan suit. 

7. LeBron James: Glad you didn't just "shut up and dribble" bro. 

8. The ten CNN heroes of 2022: No explanation needed. Just go to the link.   

9. Cassidy Hutchinson: Having the courage to stare down evil and corruption is nice. Being brave enough to speak to the country about it puts you in Santa's good graces.  

10. The Capitol police: These men and women defended the Capitol against that marauding group of insurrectionist on January 6th. The MAGA lunatics literally tried to seize power from the government after a legitimate and fair election. The scary thing is that they almost succeeded.   

And now the naughty. No toys for you.

1. Tucker Carlson: Night after night he spews nothing but hateful and vile rhetoric meant to divide and drive up the ratings on his popular television show. The fact that he is on a major television network tells you all you need to know about where we are as a country. 

2. Marjorie Taylor Greene: This racist and anti- Semite has been sent back to Washington by her constituents. She is now more powerful than ever, due to the right's slim majority in congress. That should scare every American with a brain. The phrase you are a product of your environment certainly holds true when it comes to Marjorie.    

3. Kari Lake:  She just lost a free and fair election, and yet she continues to push the lie that it was stolen from her. Sound familiar ?    

4. Jerry Jones: Maybe he was only fifteen when he was seen in a photo that put him on the wrong side of an ugly chapter in America's history, but he has done nothing over the years to show us that he did not co-sign with the behavior of his peers back then.   

5. Candace Owens/Kanye West: These two go together like eggnog and Christmas for their coonery and ignorance. 

6.  Matt Gaetz: This Florida man has managed to stay one step ahead of being charged as a pedophile, and yet he still maintains a high profile while doing one obnoxious and borderline treasonous thing after another.  He has definitely been naughty.  

7.  Van Jones: Van has to realize by now that the bothsideism game is getting old.     

8. Urban Terrorists: These clueless wannabe gangsters who contribute to the destruction of their communities have all been naughty this year.  Five hundred murders in my city of Philadelphia this year is not cool.  

9. Elon Musk: Long ago, before I realized what kind of man Musk is, I considered purchasing a Tesla. I wouldn't take one now if you gave it to me.  

10. Kyrsten Sinema: She went to Washington for one purpose: To make money. Sadly, it has been working for her. She switched parties not long ago because she knew she would not make it out of a democratic primary. Hopefully the people of Arizona will wise up and end her craven selfish reign as a politician.   

11. The Supreme Court majority: No explanation needed. 

That's it folks. Enjoy the rest of your holiday. Oh, and your gifts as well, because all of you FN readers have been nice. :) 

Name this movie

 

 

Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times/Pool/Getty Images)

 

Jerry's ugly world.

 

My wife, bless her Cajun heart, is from Louisiana. Unfortunately, though,  she doesn't like Mardi Gras. This is because as a young child she had a horrible experience while visiting New Orleans to witness a Mardi Grass parade. People are shaped by their life experiences, and it doesn't matter how old you are. If you are old enough to remember, it can effect on how you view the world and things around you. 

If you have been following the Jerry Jones story, you know where I am going with this.

I am going to put my cards on the table and state up front that it's easy for me to dislike Jerry Jones. He is, after all, the owner of the team that I hate most of all the professional sports teams in the world: the Dallas calfboys. But this isn't about his ownership and his handling of the team. It's about who he is as a human being, and what he has done with his life since being a fourteen year old teenager with a front row seat to one of the most ugly chapters in America's history. An event that was certainly part of the zeitgeist of the time.  

I have heard all the excuses. He was only a young teenager. It was over sixty five five years ago. Look how many black people he employees. His team has a black quarterback, and on and on. People (black and white) will continue to make excuses for Jerry Jones, because he is a billionaire with influence.  But take the time to read the Washington Post article that featured the picture, and you will see that Jerry is a man who was shaped by his upbringing, and not in a good way. 

LeBron James called out the American press yesterday for ignoring the story, and I am glad that he did. Maybe it will get us talking about it again. And maybe someone will try to ask Jerry Jones, once again, what he was thinking when he was witnessing that ugly scene in Arkansas. His canned answer about just being "curios" isn't going to cut it. He had a chance to speak about how horrible of a time that was and how ugly and and abhorrent racism is, but he chose not to. This is the guy who told his players that they better not kneel with Colin Kaepernick. And he is the same guy who has never, in his thirty three years as owner, hired a black head coach, and who has had only two (count em, two) offensive or defensive coordinators who were black. since he owned the team. 

I would like to thank LeBron for putting this story back into the limelight. It will die down again soon, but at least, for now, we can take another look at Jerry's World and see the ugliness that's lurking right below the surface. 

Go Eagles!!