On Wednesday, writing for The Bulwark, conservative columnist and Weekly Standard alum Jim Swift mocked the right-wing media's newest attempt to cover the "forever war on Christmas" — a yearly tradition at Fox News.
This year's controversy? The shortage of seasonal Santa actors — which GOP strategists are trying to claim is somehow tied to the Biden administration's policies.
"On Fox News yesterday, Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer were joined by guest Mitch Allen, the founder of a company called HireSanta.com, best known for having been featured on Shark Tank," wrote Swift. "Allen, who was dressed in green like an elf, told the Fox hosts about the dreaded problem of Saint Nick Scarcity. Demand is, according to his figures, up 121 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels." As Swift noted, the RNC clipped the segment on Twitter and linked it to the Biden administration.
The irony, noted Swift, is that it is likely COVID that exacerbated the Santa shortage — which Republicans are continuing to make worse with their opposition to vaccine mandates.
"Why the Santa shortage? Two options seem relatively likely," wrote Swift. "(1) Statistically speaking, COVID has almost certainly reduced the pool of available seasonal Santas. I mean, we’re talking about older men with comorbidities here. And (2), the remaining potential Santa employment base might be a little leery of a part-time hourly gig that involves potentially hundreds of unvaccinated kids hopping on and off the jolly old lap."
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During an appearance on MSNBC early Saturday morning, attorney Lanny Davis, who is representing former Donald Trump "fixer" Michael Cohen, targeted House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) for attempting to run interference for the former president.
Speaking with host Katie Phang, Davis claimed Jordan's so-called "weaponization" hearings should be looking into the actions of Trump's Department of Justice.
"This is probably the ultimate hypocrisy and that is to have Congressman Jordan, of all people, talking about the weaponization of the Justice Department when he was silent when Trump's Justice Department, according to the U.S. attorney that he appointed, Jeffrey Berman, was intervening in Michael Cohen's case in order to erase the record of Donald Trump being accused by his own prosecutors of directing Michael Cohen to pay the hush money," he told the MSNBC host.
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Trump's Manhattan judge is already wise to his legal team's courtroom shenanigans
"So, Congressman Jordan and the weaponization people forget that when Michael Cohen was released during Covid he was ordered back to prison because he wouldn't agree not to write a book and when the Justice Department prosecutors filed papers that were false, saying they have nothing to do with the book, a federal judge rejected what they said and released Michael."
Directing his next comments at Jordan he added, "If that isn't grounds for an investigation about false representations by federal prosecutors under the influence of Donald Trump -- that is a example, a factual example found by a federal judge, of the weaponization of the Justice Department --I don't know what is."
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According to attorneys who have appeared in Judge Juan Merchan's Manhattan courtroom, the jurist is fair, patient, listens well and is, as one colleague called him, "Bright, kind of chill."
That should be good news for Donald Trump who will be appearing before Merchan next week when he is brought up on the reported thirty charges contained in a sealed indictment being handled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Unfortunately for the former president, Merchan has already overseen another case involving Trump and has witnessed first-hand how the former president's lawyers have conducted themselves and so he is well aware of the stunts they might try to pull.
According to the Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery, Merchan was the judge who ruled in the Trump Organization tax fraud case that resulted in a $1.6 million judgment, as well as sending CFO Allen Weisselberg to jail, and the normally even-keeled judge was highly critical of Trump's legal team's conduct in the courtroom.
As Pagliery wrote, "Trump’s [previous] legal tactics absolutely set him off," adding, "While presiding over the tax fraud trial of two Trump Organization companies in December, Merchan repeatedly lost his patience as Trump’s corporate lawyers broke the rules—leading witnesses, reading parts of transcripts jurors weren’t allowed to hear, and trying to distract the jury by duping them into thinking the case was about Trump the man, not his companies."
RELATED: Ivanka is 'flailing' as Trump indictment slams family
"At one point during the trial, he repeatedly dragged Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. attorneys into a quiet sidebar to privately admonish them for making baseless objections to interrupt prosecutors—only to have them defy him minutes later, forcing the judge to send the jury out of the room," sternly telling them, 'It’s your responsibility to make sure… this doesn’t happen again,'" Pagliery wrote.
With the recent history in mind, and with Trump lashing out at the judge already on social media, the report suggests Trump's lawyers will likely be on a short leash in a trail that will have the country's undivided attention.
You can read more here.
Colette Maze has been playing piano for more than a century, and is still drawing thousands of fans on social media.
Born in June 1914, before the outbreak of World War I and when one of her favorite composers, Claude Debussy, was still alive, the French pianist practices four hours a day and is about to release her seventh album, "108 Years of Piano".
From her apartment overlooking the Seine river in Paris, Maze moves cautiously between the three pianos in her living room, but retains a youthful enthusiasm.
"Me? I'm young," she says with a smile.
"Age is not something I'm interested in. There are people who are forever young, amazed by everything, and then there are people who don't care about anything and never loved anything, even their man -- can you imagine?" she adds.
Maze was a piano teacher for much of her life, and it was only after turning 100 that she started building a significant fanbase -- through her Facebook page.
Many are inspired by her continuing good health and refusal to give up the traditional French pleasures of wine, cheese and chocolate.
"She gives people strength -- that's why she has such crazy success," said her son, journalist Fabrice Maze, adding with pride that she is one of the few people over 100 releasing albums.
She still remembers the sound of "Big Bertha", the huge cannon used by the German army during World War I, but most of her memories revolve around her instrument.
"When I was little, I suffered from asthma and my mother would play violin with my piano teacher -- it would calm me," she says.
"Piano is my life, my friend. I need to feel it and hear it," she adds, before offering a rendition of Debussy's "Reflections in the Water".
Maze began playing at five, and despite reluctance from her parents, she won a place at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris with teachers including the renowned Alfred Cortot.
Cortot was known for a method of relaxing all the muscles of the body -- which Maze credits with sparing her from arthritis.
The other secret to her youth? "I did a lot of dancing," she says. "I need to feel my muscles, my abdominals, my thighs, my arms. All that must be alive."
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