Franken is a trap and it's lose-lose for us.

A couple of different ways this might all go down.

1) There's an investigation and Franken is found to be a serial creep. Seems unlikely, but it's out there. We lose a Democratic lion in the Senate who has been a very strong and loud voice standing up against GOP appointees and policies. I'm sure we'd all like to think that this would allow us to bring down other big name molesters (like Trump himself), but we all know that the right wingers do not hold their people to the same standards that we do ours.

2) The women are discredited and the allegations are found to be entirely spurious. This allows the GOP to paint the accusers of people like Trump and Moore as spurious as well, even though a) the accusations are nowhere near the same severity and b) they are well documented and not anonymous. And the media will report it as a "These ladies over here have been debunked, what does that mean for Trump and Moore's accusers?" This has the add-on effect of pushing real accusations of molestation and assault back underground just as women were starting to make some headway exposing well-known (within their industries) molesters like Harvey Weinstein, Louis CK, Andy Signore, and Brett Ratner.

3) Something in the middle. Franken is determined to be a slight creep. He apologizes, issues a statement, everyone moves on. The right uses this as a way to shield their much bigger, more dangerous, and horrific creeps with a "Well, you kept yours in power! Why shouldn't Moore be in the Senate if you're not going to deal with Franken?" and they get to bash us over the head with it in the next election cycle.

The good news: There is a hint that people are starting to get a bit fed up with the lies, obfuscation, moralizing, and moral relativism of the right. That is where the real change is going to come from. Bubbling up from the ground as voters decide that they've had enough of being obviously lied to in order to enrich the already mega-wealthy.

Ginger Molasses Cookies recipe

So, our video this week is a really delicious cookie recipe that has recently been repopularized by a big coffee chain *cough*starbucks*cough*. But it really is a delicious cookie, and if you bake them differently, you can sort of customize how they come out. My husband used to serve this in his restaurant in the winter months. If you cook them until they're just soft (as we did in this video), they will be crisp on the outside and still soft inside. You can, however, bake them just a few minutes longer (3 or 4), and they'll come out crunchy instead of chewy.

The crystalized/candied ginger is entirely optional in this recipe, but it is a really fantastic addition. They add a real bright gingery kick to the final flavour of the cookies. Also, this is a great recipe to make a large batch of, roll into balls, roll in sugar, then pop them into a great big ziplock bag in the freezer and whenever you want some cookies, just get out 4 or 5 and have fresh hot cookies whenever you want!

(NOT SATIRE) Trump Fans Are Owning Libs by Losing All Their Friends

Full article here on VICE: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb3aqd/trump-fans-are-owning-libs-by-losing-all-their-friends

World Party: Ship of Fools

This song from 1987 (30 years ago!!) sums up my feelings on Trump's presidency pretty astutely.

A perfect Twitter summary of the GOP today (wrt. Roy Moore)

Some News: President Trumps Successful Year of Rebranding The Swamp

Governor of Alabama says she thinks Roy Moore is guilty, and also shes going to vote for him

According to one estimate, wealthy couples in NYC need $190 million to keep their heads above water

From Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-to-be-rich-2017-11

It's 100% OKAY to have complicated feelings about the Franken accusations

Let's be honest, there's a LOT to unpack in the Al Franken accusations, and lots of people are picking sides as though they know exactly what happened, but we've got to be honest with ourselves, we don't know. So, let's do a little bit of unpacking, and see what it is we're really looking at:

1) The photo itself. Set up for a bit or goofy joke while she was asleep, it doesn't really matter. It's a pretty tasteless joke of the type that women have been told to just put up with for a long long time. Al Franken himself admits that the joke and picture were tasteless. We may not want to admit it, but it's part of a pattern in our culture that objectifies women. Whether or not Franken was actually touching her in that photo, he was making grabby hands at her breasts. I've also heard the justification that she's wearing a flak jacket and armor between her breasts and the potential grope, and that justification can just please go away.

2) Initial reactions. There was a knee-jerk reaction among liberals, progressives, and Democrats that came down two ways: One was that "Dammit, Al, you were supposed to be one of the good guys, I'm so disappointed." and the other was "This is 100% fake, this woman is lying to smear a Democrat to distract from the gross tax reform bill and the AL race." That's fine, we had no useful information at the time. But initial reactions should calm down as our blood cools. We're getting more and more information coming out, and things look far more complicated than they did in those first moments.

3) Believing women. So, in the last few months we've seen a lot of women coming forward with allegations of sexual assault that they've been sitting on for years and years. Why? Because we don't believe women. Because when women typically bring forward these sorts of allegations against powerful men who have abused that power, those women are the ones who are put on trial. Their past is examined, their sexual history, their wardrobe, their friends, their drinking habits. Their lives are torn and ripped apart to try and justify the assault on them. Our culture blames the victim in these crimes a LOT. And now there have been some high-profile cases where we've started to actually listen and believe, so women are starting to feel free to come forward with their stories of harassment, assault, abuse, and rape.

4) The timing. In the context of that last one, the timing seems suspect for a couple of reasons. Of course as progressives and liberals we want to believe women, but at the same time we're hesitant to believe accusations against our heroes. Franken has done amazing work for the Democratic party in the Senate, and we want him to stay one of the good guys. I've got news for you, lots of people who we thought were good guys were creeps (I was a big fan of Louis CK and Andy Signore, for instance). But then there's the timing of these allegations against the work Franken's doing in the Senate re: Sessions and Trump's appointments. And the distraction this provides against Moore and the GOP tax bill currently going through Congress and the Senate.

5) Right-wing operative? We are torn between wanting to believe women and wanting to disbelieve right-wing people who are friends with liars Hannity and Stone. So, this muddies the water a lot, obviously. With the timing, the lack of context on the photo, the he-said-she-said, the length of time, and the association with Hannity and Stone, it's easy for us to just say we're not happy to accept her accusations at face value. Here is where I would say it's time for that investigation that Franken called for into himself, and let the facts come to light. We don't have enough data. And if she's an operative trying to smear someone, we'll find that out. If it turns out that Franken acted inappropriately towards her and she happens to be a right winger, then that's a whole other kettle of fish. But we can't presume to know, yet. We don't have all of the information, yet. It's okay to be skeptical and it's okay to be disappointed. It's not okay to attack the accuser or the accused at this point. We don't know enough.

6) Other stuff happening right now. The news media must have raised a great cheer when this went down. I'm certain they've been hoping for a left-wing sex scandal with slightly salacious details that they can report on comfortably for everyone's prurient enjoyment instead of the truly heinous and frankly disgusting coverage of Roy Moore's past. To be clear: I'm not comparing Moore to Franken in any way. The only people who are seriously doing that are right wingers, to my experience. Franken acted inappropriately and creepy and (if guilty) at worst needs to offer an apology and make amends. Roy Moore deserves jail time. There is no moral equivalence between the two.

7) Holding ourselves to the same standards. So, we have to call out our creeps just as we call out the Republican creeps, but we know they won't call out their own creeps. So where does that leave us? Here's that moral high ground again. In some regards, this is win-win for us, because we can now say, "Here is an accusation against one of ours, and we are taking it seriously, it's time to take these things seriously, now about those dozens of accusations against that orange fellow in the oval office?" Franken is being proactive and requesting an investigation into his own behaviour. Great! That gives the left leverage to start investigating Trump's behaviour in relation to all of the many accusations against him (some of which he has admitted to!!!). But on the other side of this, in some ways this is lose-lose for us. If it turns out that this woman is an operative that is bringing forth these accusations now to smear Franken, and that is revealed, it may serve to make it more difficult to believe other (more credible!) accusations against people like Trump and Moore.

So, please, everyone, it's fine to have complicated feelings about all of this. There's a LOT going on, and it's not as simple as it may seem on the face of it. I would also just like to add, the whole sexual harassment thing is not a left/right problem, it's not a Democrat/Republican problem, it's a men problem.

Double Roasted Herbed Potato recipe

Another great warm, hearty, and easy holiday side dish. Delicious and dead simple, the trick to the texture is all about the low roasting temperature on the first run, then getting the colour on them in the second, hotter run!

This is another vegetarian/vegan recipe so long as you use olive oil or vegetable oil, and keep it to herbs and spices on the potatoes, and add no butter or anything like that. Of course you can customize the flavour profile of the herbs to your heart's content. Thyme, rosemary, parsley, tarragon, and oregano all work very well. Basil and mint make for nice additions, but be careful, they're strong flavours! We like to let the potato flavour come through.

Also, thanks to everyone here who's been watching our videos and sharing links with friends. We're almost at 250 subscribers!! Exciting for our little project, and we've almost been going for a whole year, now! Thanks to all of you!