This holiday season, writes John Pavlovitz, "it’s a Herculean task to let our hearts be light." Daily, we confront the afflictions of an impossibly dark time - the cruelties wrought by a vile assemblage of hacks, liars, racists, and sadists who delight in Christmas-decked thugs menacing brown people with, "YOU'RE GOING HO HO HOME." Instead, we celebrate the judges, artists, pastors, organizers, brave pols, and regular people, aka "Radical Left Scum," refusing to bow to fascism. Go towards the light, and fuck these people.

We started this on Boxing Day - a British holiday described as the day when either gifts were given to servants and the poor or when mythical, hung-over, Scottish haggis fight it out in boxing matches, either which we'll take - feeling grateful to be more or less still standing after almost a year of brute insanity enacted by "some of the worst human beings on Planet Earth." Alas, they're still here, led by "the small, bitter man" and hateful worst of the worst who spent his sour "Christmas" trashing we the scum, hailing the end of "transgender for everyone," and ripping "the many sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein" like he did. In a 100-plus-post frenzy, he then attacked Somali immigrants, urged Ilhan Omar to be deported, and urged his opponents to be jailed, called Stephen Colbert a “dead man walking” who CBS should "put to sleep," and warned, "Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas." One response: "Sorry, Jesus, I know it's your birthday, but Jesus fucking Christ."

Ditto to everything else, he and his underlings - underthings? - are up to, which over at the "unbiased" News Nation were unfathomably praised by one gushing fan as best summarized with the blessed return of "dignity." Which in the real world means, having ensured millions of Americans' health insurance will soar after refusing to extend ACA benefits that cost a fraction of their tax breaks to the rich, Trump continues his rampage on rational governance. He's slashed funding for climate research, victims of human trafficking, wind energy projects - in that case, after the "Department of War" declared them a made-up national security threat. After plastering his obscene name on the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace (JFC), he's now emulating a 1950s TV show by putting it on a new, faster, yuger "Trump-class" battleship - "Our adversaries will know...American victory at sea is inevitable," one prominent admiral calls, "exactly what we don’t need.”

His flunkies are equally, grotesquely feckless. Cringey, hollow, "cynical shapeshifter" JD, who not long ago called Trump "cultural heroin" - just this once, rightly - has been cosplaying as a paunchy Navy Seal, pretending to "train" with them and posting pictures that were swiftly, savagely mocked for their performative bullshit. "Cool," said one. "When you’re done cosplaying, can you and your boss do something about housing and grocery prices?" Also, "Holy propaganda," "GI Jello," and, "You should just keep running, and I don't mean for office." The FBI's Inept Keystone Kash, after a famous jacket fiasco, flubbing two high-profile shootings and using a $60 million government jet to visit his girlfriend, just bought a custom fleet of armored BMWs so he can stay safe from the AK-47s the DOJ now wants legal in D.C., because what could go wrong? But not to worry: FBI officials say the cool new rides will save taxpayers money, because "more efficient cost structures."

Meanwhile, the GOP is infested with fascists. Rabid Goebbels Miller raves Dems equal not just communism but "the worst kind, which is DEI communism...LITERALLY a recipe for national death: "We're going to import massive numbers of illiterate refugees, and give all your wealth to them." One comment: "Some people will commit human rights violations rather than go to therapy." Hitler/Stalin fan Nick Fuentes has evidently picked up Charlie Kirk's tiki torch and attacked both J.D. for his Indian wife and son Vivek - "I'm not a racist or something but do we really believe a guy like that is gonna support white identity?" - and Vivek Ramaswamy: "It is time for you to go home..This anchor baby cannot become governor of Ohio." And after ending reunification programs for thousands of relatives of brown migrants awaiting green cards, union-busting racist ghoul Kristi Noem brags it's "amazing" 2.5 million people have left our country"; she has apparently never heard of a brain drain, state terror or MAGA being translated into, "Making America God Awful."

Finally, continuing his famous goodwill toward (white) men, the Peace President (sic) chose Christmas Day to approve military strikes against alleged Islamic State targets - "ISIS terrorist scum" - in Nigeria, charging innocent Christians are being killed. As usual, experts say the situation is far more complex, and news reports say the strikes hit either empty fields, or a peaceful village that has “no known history" of terrorist groups there. That didn't stop Pete Drunktank from braying, "The (Pentagon) is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight. Merry Christmas!" MAGA fans were gleeful at "the killing of these barbarians," calling it "an amazing Christmas present!" "I can't think of a better way to celebrate Christmas," wrote Laura Loomer. "You’ve got to love it! Death to all Islamic terrorists!" At home, their bellicose spirit spread to Indiana state senator Chris Garten, who posted AI pics of himself beating the shit out of Santa Claus - because bureaucrats? - and then ripped critics who didn't see the hilarity of it: "Some of you clowns are just insufferable." Pot/kettle redux.

Indiana GOP thug Chris Garten beats up Santa Claus because ...bureaucratsImage from Chris Garten X account

The worst atrocities remain those committed at home by ICE and other federal agents: "The nightmare is happening here." The abuses are boundless. Due process and the rule of law routinely shredded. Innocent workers, parents, citizens, elderly, children, community leaders profiled, terrorized, dragged from cars, torn from families, tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, beaten, slammed to the ground, cuffed, detained, held incommunicado, shipped to foreign concentration camps, and killed for fleeing in fear from mobs of masked, anonymous, bestial stormtroopers who see only their brown skin and feel free to do whatever the fuck they want to them. Of the tens of thousands abused, held, deported to date, the vast majority have no criminal convictions or even charges. They are roofers, landscapers, restaurant workers, teachers, kids with cancer, mothers and babies, decades-long, tax-paying residents, green-card-holders, and relatives of U.S. military, the wrong color caught in a gruesome historic moment.

Orchestrating these horrors is loathsome, soulless, cosplaying ICE Barbie, whose cruelties and transgressions moved not-a-fan Dem Rep. Bennie Thompson to practically beg her in a recent House hearing, "Do a real service to the country and just resign." "You have systematically dismantled the Department of Homeland Security," he said. "and you are making America less safe." Among other ills, he charged her with putting her own interests first, violating multiple laws, and

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