Entertainment Overnight -- Holiday Edition

 Happy holidays everyone. 

Merry Christmas if you celebrate it.

"Twas a Month Before Christmas--- 2020 Pandemic Edition

T'was a month before Christmas,

And all through the town,

People wore masks,

That covered their frown.

The frown had begun

Way back in the Spring,

When a global pandemic

Changed everything.

They called it corona,

But unlike the beer,

It didn’t bring good times,

It didn’t bring cheer.

Contagious and deadly,

This virus spread fast,

Like a wildfire that starts

When fueled by gas.

Airplanes were grounded,

Travel was banned.

Borders were closed

Across air, sea and land.

As the world entered lockdown

To flatten the curve,

The economy halted,

And folks lost their verve.

From March to July

We rode the first wave,

People stayed home,

They tried to behave.

When summer emerged

The lockdown was lifted.

But away from caution,

Many folks drifted.

Now it’s November

And cases are spiking,

Wave two has arrived,

Much to our disliking.

Frontline workers,

Doctors and nurses,

Try to save people,

From riding in hearses.

This virus is awful,

This COVID-19.

There isn’t a cure.

There is no vaccine.

It’s true that this year

Has had sadness a plenty,

We’ll never forget

The year 2020.

And just ‘round the corner -

The holiday season,

But why be merry?

Is there even one reason?

To decorate the house

And put up the tree,

When no one will see it,

No one but me.

But outside my window

The snow gently falls,

And I think to myself,

Let’s deck the halls!

So, I gather the ribbon,

The garland and bows,

As I play those old carols,

My happiness grows.

Christmas is not cancelled

And neither is hope.

If we lean on each other,

I know we can cope.

--Anonymous

Happy holidays, everyone.

God help us all.

"'Twas the Eve of Impeachment..."

With kudos and many, many heartfelt thanks to Frank Bruni at our own New York Times.

’Twas the Eve of Impeachment

Finding verse in this curse.

’Twas the eve of impeachment, when all through the House

No Republicans wavered, each last one a louse.

The articles were drafted by Democrats with care

In hopes that a conscience would soon bloom there.

We pundits were tossing all steamed in our beds,

While Trump’s certain acquittal danced in our heads.

And I in frustration, feeling all solemn,

Wished I could capture my woe in a column,

When out on the web there arose such a clatter,

I signed in to Twitter to see what was the matter.

And there I beheld him, the master of lies,

Weaving fresh falsehoods, to no one’s surprise.

He savaged the Bidens, he smeared Adam Schiff,

And cycled through villains in a furious jiff,

Not to mention distractions, like the teeth of the Speaker.

Could a “leader” be cruder, could his morals be weaker?

So now he’s a dentist, in his all-knowing ways?

I prayed for deliverance one of these days.

When what to my cynical eyes did appear

But a raft of excuses pulled by mangy reindeer,

With a weasel-eyed driver, so meek and so zany,

I knew in a moment he must be Mulvaney.

More shameless than con men, the sycophants came,

And Trump gloated, so bloated, and called them by name:

“Now, Rudy! Now, Jared! Now, Lindsey and Mitch!

Please fly this democracy into a ditch!

It is how you will save me. It is how I prevail.

Or else I will join poor Paul in the jail.

That’s the toll of a presidency ended too soon,

So you must sing along to my favorite tune:

‘It’s a witch hunt! A hoax!’ Those are lyrics for me.

That’s the verse, that’s the chorus, for eternity.”

He was dressed in a necktie, from his jowls to his soles.

He had tanned beyond tanning. Imagine the moles.

His hair, how it swirled! His legs, how they splayed!

On such fishy foundations was his confidence laid.

And we couldn’t stop looking — not his fans, not his foes.

That was what he was after: the show of all shows.

Its plot strained belief. Its appeal tested reason.

Still it was soaring toward a second season.

The economy roared. The Democrats whimpered.

Vladimir chortled. Emmanuel simpered.

In the bag that Trump carried, he had goodies galore:

Lower taxes, the Dow, right-wing judges and more.

They weren’t for the many, they favored the few,

But that was obscured by the smoke that he blew.

All was fog, all was mist, all was boast, all was fiction,

As he hid his true airs with bad diet and diction.

He could do as he wanted and never know fear,

For an elf — and a savior! — named Barr hovered near.

And then there was Tucker and of course Hannity

To put an extra-fine gloss on insanity.

What great luck to discover a country so riven

You could smash it and rule it if suitably driven.

You could summon the Russians, you could bully Ukraine,

Just as long as you made “It’s fake news!” your refrain.

I cringed as I watched him and cried for us all,

Our values, our futures hijacked by his gall.

A last bid to preserve them was cause to impeach

But his party’s corruption put him beyond reach.

So then why all his thrashing? His howls of dejection?

It was just a performance for the next election.

It brought more donations. It rallied the base.

You could see, if you looked, a clear smirk on his face.

If you listened, you heard it: a lilt in his voice.

In drama like this, he would always rejoice.

So as history scarred him, he could nonetheless yell,

“Merry TrumpMas to all! I’m the king of this hell.”

Notes On the Southern Wall and This Government Shutdown

Yes, let's make two notes, two points about this Southern border wall Mr. Trump wants and his Federal Government shutdown.

First, there's this.

There Is No Crisis At The Border - And DHS Stats Prove It

Proof.

Southwest Border Apprehensions and Individuals “Inadmissible” at Ports of Entry Compared by Fiscal Year

October-May FY 2018	October-May FY 2017	October-May FY 2016	October-May FY 2015	October-May FY 2014	October-May FY 2013
340,030	306,793	362,020	284,020	380,116	329,428

Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The report reflected reality: Border Patrol apprehensions along the Southwest border plummeted by approximately 80%, from a high of over 1.6 million in FY 2000, to around 300,000 in FY 2017. (Apprehensions are considered a proxy for illegal entry, so the fewer apprehensions, the less illegal entry.)
Ironically, the government’s own data show that illegal entry by family units is actually down in FY 2018...

And then, on this, the Christmas, holidays, Federal Government shutdown, there is this.

Let's never forget.

Entertainment Overnight: Happiest of Holidays

Local boy, Anthony Glise, makes good, very good.


From an hour North from Kansas City, in St. Joseph, my home town, coincidentally.

Happy Holidays.

Merry Christmas

These are a few of my favorite things



Happy holidays

Entertainment Overnight -- What Child?

A Little Holiday Perspective

A bit of human history for y'all.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Entertainment Overnight -- The Carol

Happy Holidays, Nawlinz Style

Happy holidays, everyone.

Entertainment Overnight -- Christmas

Entertainment Overnight -- Christmas

Entertainment Overnight -- Holy Night

Entertainment Overnight -- Libera

Entertainment Overnight -- Christmas

Entertainment Overnight -- On Christmas

Someday at Christmas men won't be boys

Playing with bombs like kids play with toys

One warm December our hearts will see

A world where men are free

Someday at Christmas there'll be no wars

When we have learned what Christmas is for

When we have found what life's really worth

There'll be peace on earth

A Letter To Santa From Trump's America (guest post)

I saw this yesterday and thought it very true and pretty darned complete.

A letter to Santa from Trump's America

Dear Santa,

We've been naughty. We elected a woman-degrading, racist-appeasing, megalomaniac to be President of the United States. There are many reasons this happened some understandable, some vile. I wouldn't blame you for removing the United States from your Christmas Eve flight plan altogether this year, but just in case you decide we are worthy of a few gifts I'm sending you a Christmas list because there are a few things we really need:

• the wisdom to rediscover those truths that once seemed self-evident but have proven not to be: that we are all equal and deserving of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;
• the courage to stand up for people who are mistreated because of their race, religion, gender, sexual-orientation, or country of origin;
• the confidence to stand up for ourselves when others wrong us;
• the foresight to nurture the foundations of our children's futures: education, the environment, and empathy;
• the strength to speak out against tyranny;
• the insight to discern fact from fiction;
• the self-awareness to admit what we do not know;
• the curiosity to never stop learning;
• the passion to make art or support those who do;
• the freedom to speak and write what is on our minds, including the freedom to rebut the statements of others no matter how powerful they may be;
• the humility to admit when we are wrong;
• safety in our homes and neighborhoods;
• protection from mass surveillance and other forms of oppression;
• food and shelter for those in need;
• health and longevity (particularly for Ruth Bader-Ginsburg);
• peace in our communities and around the world;

And if you are feeling really generous, a couple of tickets to Hamilton.

Sincerely,

An American who still believes

Entertainment Overnight -- Holiday Version

Happy holidays, everyone.



Hoping you have a great week.

Entertainment Overnight -- Your Wednesday Forecast, Kansas City

I laughed, I cried.

Entertainment Overnight -- Holiday Edition