J.D. Vance Is Now Pushing False Conspiracy Theories About “Quarantine Camps”
Plus, why 'The Ice Harvest' is a Christmas movie you should see.
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TIM MILLER: The mask is off. So to speak.
Weekend Triad from JVL: You're Going to Miss the Movies When They're Gone
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New from me. J.D. Vance is amplifying batshit crazy conspiracy theories from the editor of American Greatness, which apparently originated on 4Chan or a QAnon reddit clone? There is no bottom.
Google “America’s New Quarantine Centers” and you get three results. One is a tweet from an anti-vaxx Trump-loving Twitter rando. (Or bot. Who can say.) The second is from the shitposting board 4Chan. The third is from the site GreatAwakening.win, which is the QAnon version of Reddit.
So maybe this “screenshot” from WhiteHouse.gov isn’t on the level?
There’s another clue baked in. In an attempt to give this bs the veneer of authenticity, shot has a “STG-INT” label in the top left corner, to suggest that it’s been leaked from an internal staging website, and a “Login.gov” logo on the right. Below “STG-INT” the shot reveals the name of the person whose account it supposedly came from. The supposed person’s name is “Tim Woods.” Which, while a common name, also happens to be the name of the secretary of Homeland Security in seasons 7 and 8 in the hit T.V. show 24.
And in case you thought that maybe this was all a big coincidence, I asked the White House about America’s New Quarantine Centers and the supposed WhiteHouse.gov screenshot. Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates wrote back: “That’s a complete lie.”
Democrats are furious with Manchin, but they still need him to pass a voting rights bill. Plus, while Biden readies for his big Covid speech, the man who brought us "lock her up" sounds nervous about the Jan. 6 committee. Mona Charen joins guest host Sarah Longwell on today's episode.
DANIEL GULLOTTA writes about when Christmas really was under attack, but the Puritans.
What took so long? As strange as it might sound, the original “war on Christmas” was among Christians.
Because of Protestantism’s emphasis on biblical authority, some groups, like the Puritans, found the scriptural justification for Christmas lacking. While Jesus’ birth is referenced repeatedly and narrativized twice (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 2:1-7), December 25 is never referenced. The question of Christmas’s origins also became disputed, with Protestant theologians arguing that the celebratory date and many of its customs were pagan in origin, which seemed to lend credence to the Protestant belief that Catholic practices had corrupted Christianity. Through his own exegetical calculations, Robert Skinner’s Christs Birth Misse-timed (1649) argued that earlier Christians had miscalculated the date, further demonstrating that “all error cometh from Rome.”
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
In praise of graciousness. New from our pal Matt Labash.
A Ted Lasso Christmas. If, like me, you’ve been missing the show, they have some Christmas content to fill the void.
Your Jim Swift Gift Guide: A telescoping back scratcher. Bear with me (YSWIDT?), it was 2016 and my parents hosted a bunch of colleagues of mine for the GOP convention. Somebody left a note in the bathroom next to the back scratcher, unsigned. “What the heck is this thing?” They’re quite good, and they’re useful if you have kids: Toy stuck under the couch? Back scratcher. Kid drops toy in car that’s out of reach? Back scratcher. A perfect stocking stuffer.
A good pasta recipe for the holidays. With Silicon Valley star Jimmy Yang.
The comedy monster. Jim Gaffigan’s new special drops just in time for the holidays.
Ohio dropped the ball… Despite getting numerous warnings about a fake high school.
Weed and water. An epic California county face-off.
Shocked… To read that Trump and the GOP pressured the NIH director on Fauci and unproven treatments.
The long legacy of a company town. Meet Badin, North Carolina.
That’s it for me. We’ll see you tomorrow. Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.
