Just for Xeets and Giggles (11.25.23)

Welcome to Xeets and Giggles, holiday edition!

Joe Biden turned 81 this week, which is only three years older than Trump, but please let’s make a huge deal out of his age. I’m looking at you, media.

Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson declared he would be releasing all of the footage of the January 6 attack at the Capitol, and the denialists were salivating at the prospect of lots of video of people not attacking police officers, breaking doors and windows, and rampaging through Congress.

They drew some apt comparisons.

They are also hoping it will validate long debunked conspiracy theories that it was actually FBI agents and Antifa who attacked Congress.

The Kennedys, both past and present, are still making political waves. RFK, Jr. is somehow still a thing, but the NYT Pitchbot was pitch perfect.

The DeSantis stans even tried to trade on the Kennedy name, but were quickly laughed out of the room.

Nikki Haley’s campaign continues to pick up steam as big donors find themselves desperate to give their money to anyone who isn’t going to embarrass them.

Quick pledge break!

As reports came out that Thanksgiving dinners were actually less expensive than they were last year, the Fox folks were busy with their counterfacting. Jason Chaffetz claimed on the network that a turkey cost him $90 and promptly blamed Joe Biden. My favorite response:

Thanksgiving advice abounded.

This one was from Wonder Woman herself, and it’s just hilarious. That countdown…

Politics and Thanksgiving aren’t supposed to mix, but this is also me:

The parody Liam Nissan account resurrected an old meme but nailed the moment.

“THE BREAST. IS YET. TO COME!”

News hit this week that former Trump senior advisor Jason Miller now also stands accused of sexual assault from another former Trump aide. The Liam Nissan account was on a bit of a… roll.

Bowling Green Massacre, anyone?

Twitler was out with a rambling post on Thanksgiving that really captured his warped brain well. Best take on that mess was this:

Blah; blah; blah;

Speaking of bad men, Elon Musk had a pretty bad week.

Musk managed to alienate even more advertisers by amplifying a dangerous antisemitic post, then threatened to sue the media watchdog companies that had claimed ads were appearing next to fascist and neo-Nazi posts. His X platform is expected to lose $75 million in advertising from that one post. Huh.

And he decided that maybe news articles really ought to have headers and not just pictures on them after all! Brilliant!!

Elsewhere in the tech world, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman was fired by the board of the non-profit that governs the company. (Disclaimer: I know Sam Altman socially.) Then his co-founder also quit, and Microsoft offered them jobs to run a new AI program there.

But opposition to Altman’s sacking grew quickly. Hundreds of OpenAI employees threatened to resign, including the Chief Scientist who had originally voted for Altman’s ouster.

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest investor, saw a huge opportunity.

It actually looked for a time like Microsoft was going to wind up hiring basically all the humans who make OpenAI happen.

Then there was frantic talk of re-hiring Altman, but those talks broke down.

But reality then set in for the board. They might not have any company left if they didn’t relent. So Altman was brought back as CEO, and many of the board members who had fired him resigned.

This clip though…

Yes, that is Psy.

(Side story: I was in a nightclub in Buenos Aires, and Gangnam Style came on. It was at the height of that viral phenomenon. As I was the only Asian in the building, everyone turned to me, crossed their hands, and bounced them up and down at me Psy style, expecting me to do the same. I did not oblige.)

Today’s animal themes are cats and ocean wildlife.

Cats first. This one must think he is a god. Oh wait, that’s every cat. Watch the clip here.

This cat definitely understands the proper role of humans. Clip here.

This clip of penguins is analogous to my attempts to find a suitable husband. (Yes, I did find one, for a time…)

Let me preface this by saying that the only thing injured here was his ego:

(I love that original poster’s handle.)

Also from Science Girl… I really did not know they grew this big. Wow. Clip here.

Among humans, this video resurfaced on my feed and is going viral again. I love this so much.

At the holidays, many people choose to play board games with family. And now I can’t get this out of my thoughts.

Today’s Dad Joke is inspired by my trip to a farm last night out in rural NC.

Have a great rest of your holiday weekend!

Jay

I’ve got a special running! It gives 20 percent off a regular subscription. Bonus: You’ll stop getting passive aggressive messages at the top of your email reminding you that you’re still a free subscriber! Lol. Offer good through this weekend.