The Critics Choice Awards are on A&E tonight. Why you should watch? T.J. Miller is hosting. I love TJ -- I carpooled him to school from the second grade until high school.

TJ got arrested early Friday a.m. in LA after his Uber driver claimed he swatted him in the back of the head after they disagreed about Donald Trump. T.J. said on Twitter today he'll discuss "the elephant in the room" during tonight's show. He really didn't, but he did talk about how movies and TV can bring us together.

We are one television, one couch, one potato.

His only reference to the UnPresident-Elect:

"Trolls did well this year. Not the movie. The ones on the internet. One got elected president."

He'll be on James Corden Tuesday night with Jennifer Lawrence. His latest movie, Office Christmas Party, with Jennifer Anniston, opened Friday.

Congrats to James Corden and the Late Late Show which won best talk show.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome, TV related or not.

The cold open for Saturday Night Live mocked Trump's cabinet picks. Skip past the beginning with Trump's campaign manager and go right to Bryan Cranston (1 min. 30 sec) playing Walter White, Donald Trump's pick to lead the DEA.

It's time to Make America Cook Again.

We want to fill this nation with red, white and a whole lot of blue....

Live From NY....

We have a President-Elect whose major attributes are his ignorance, incompetence, narcissism, arrogance and immaturity, coupled with his delusional belief he is fit to be President and Commander in Chief. He is turning this country into a toxic wasteland, and he's not even President yet.

(The teenage wasteland described in the Who's 1971 song Baba O'Reilly and its predecessor Teenage Wasteland from Pete Townsend's Lighthouse, was toxic, whether it was about the tyranny of the Government in rendering its citizens powerless as laid out in Pete Townsend's never-made or understood Lifehouse opera, or about the wasteland known as Vietnam which had been littered with teenage lives in 1971, which was front and center at Woodstock, where many people did get wasted.) The video above, mostly of events in the UK with some Vietnam and sports scenes interpersed, shows anti-fascism protests, working class images and trucks warning of the danger of the "Common Market". [More...]

Congratulations to Mick Jagger on the birth of his 8th child.

I don't get why so many people are trashing him for having a child at age 73. He's got more energy than most people half his age and will probably live long enough to see his son go to college or start a band. More power to him. It's so Rock n' Roll.

Madonna is also getting a lot of criticism for her "twerking" during last night's Carpool Karaoke with James Corden. I liked it. She's 58 and enough of a philanthropist that people should just get off her case and let her do what she wants. At least she's not sucking up to Donald Trump like Leonardo di Caprio who met with Trump and the other Mrs. Trump (Ivanka) and gave him a copy of his foundation's plan for the economy and climate control -- along with a copy of his new film about it.

Time for El Chema, episode 3 (Telemundo.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

From Jesse Berney in Rolling Stone, An American Tragedy on what we know about Donald Trump:

We know he's inexperienced and ignorant enough to cause genuine harm to America's interests....We know he doesn't understand or care about the most fundamental constitutional rights...

After listing several other undesirable traits, the article says:

Add it all up, and what do you see? A child who reacts to the slightest perceived attack with vicious vitriol. A vengeful president who is willing to violate basic rights. A government run by incompetents, racists, bullies and conspiracy-mongers. It's a formula for tragedy.

The danger: [More...]

British photojournalist and ISIS hostage John Cantlie is still alive. ISIS released a new video today of him in Mosul. He asks why the coalition forces are bombing Mosul's bridges when the only people affected are residents -- the ISIS fighters, the "Mujahideen", are on fighting on the front lines outside Mosul. He shows a destroyed bridge which make it very difficult for people to get around.

He looks thin, but I don't think he looks much different than his last video in July. I am just glad he is still alive. [More...]

UnPresident Elect Donald Trump has named retired Gen. John Kelly to be Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

If you're wondering why his name is familiar, think Guantanamo:

General Kelly attracted notice while at the Southern Command for comments about the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which fell in his area of responsibility. He rejected criticism from human rights activists about the treatment of detainees, and said the program to force-feed prisoners undertaking hunger strikes was reasonable and humane. He also dismissed one argument cited by those who advocate closing the military prison at Guantánamo, saying it had not proven to be an inspiration to those taking up militant action.

In an interview about a year ago, Kelly claimed "There are no innocent men down there."

His other area of "expertise" is Latin America and he's been a henny-penny claiming ISIS will take over the drug cartel routes. [More...]

The predicted "arctic freeze" in Colorado has begun. It is really cold, and just started snowing. It's a perfect night to stay in and watch the premiere of El Chema on Telemundo. You can watch the first 20 minutes here.

The recount in Michigan is a mess. More here.

Two Colorado electors have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to be relieved of the obligation to vote for Hillary Clinton on Dec. 19. They are hoping to vote for someone else in an attempt to keep Donald Trump from being named President. The complaint is here.[More...]

Poland's Supreme Court has definitively rejected the U.S. request for extradition of Director Roman Polanski, now 83, for a crime that occurred in 1977.

Poland joins France and Switzerland as countries where Polanski can live and work, free from the shadow of extradition. France has no extradition treaty with the US and Switzerland has already rebuffed US attempts to have him extradited.

A lower court in Poland ruled in 2015 that "the time Polanski had spent in jail, under house arrest or in custody exceeded his original sentence, and that he may not get a fair trial in the US." [More...]

The news reads like a joke: Al Gore meets with Ivanka Trump (and then her father) on climate change.

Is anyone surprised Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are house-hunting in Washington?

A federal judge has ordered the vote recount in Michigan to begin immediately. As for the current vote total:

Mr. Gore’s loss to George W. Bush pales in comparison with Hillary Clinton’s. If you’re still counting, Mrs. Clinton’s popular vote lead over Mr. Trump climbed to 2,597,156 over the weekend, five times Mr. Gore’s final lead over Mr. Bush. And at 2 percentage points, Mrs. Clinton’s lead has equaled Jimmy Carter’s victory spread over Gerald Ford in 1976.

Both the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times are demanding you turn off ad blockers to read them. When you do, there are so many ads you can't find the story. The ads pop up every few seconds. Sorry, WP and LAT,not a chance will I suffer through your popups (or pay and subscribe.)

[More...]

The death toll in the Oakland Ghost Ship warehouse fire has now reached at least 36.

The Daily Mail has photos and stories about some of those who lost their lives.

A criminal investigation is underway. All of SFist's coverage is here.

Here's a profile of the master tenant and his wife. Here's some information about how heavily the event was promoted. An interesting interview with the master tenants' "nanny" about how they lived is here.

Ghost Ship's Tumblr feed has some really large and detailed photos of the interior and posters for prior parties.

The fire is believed to have begun on the first floor in the back of the structure, where residents lived, underneath where the party was being held. While the cause is not known, there is a lot of speculation it is electrical-related. According to one tenant who was sleeping and made it out alive, the fire started in a room where the occupants had just hooked up a refrigerator. Electricity frequently went on and off in the building.

More bodies are expected to be recovered.

The Philippines has endorsed the slaughter of more than 5,000 suspected drug users and traffickers by police and vigilantes in the past five months.

Philippine President Rodolfo Duterte encourages police and others (vigilantes) to kill ("neutralize") people they suspect of using or selling drugs.

President Duterte today said he recently spoke to Donald Trump on the phone, and Trump told him he supported Duterte's anti-drug policy, and that the country is going about it the right way.

In a statement Saturday, Duterte shared details of a seven-minute conversation that took place Friday. He said that during the call, Trump endorsed his campaign against drug users and dealers — a campaign that has left at least 4,500 Filipinos dead in about five months. Trump told Duterte that he was doing it the “right way,” according to Duterte’s account.

“I could sense a good rapport, an animated President-elect Trump,” he added. “And he was wishing me success in my campaign against the drug problem.”

[More...]