February 3, 2023
Late Morning Update:
President Biden speaks about the January jobs report:
Edward Wong & Chris Buckley of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Friday postponed a trip to Beijing after a Chinese high-altitude balloon, described as a 'intelligence-gathering' airship by the Pentagon and a stray civilian device by China, was detected floating over the United States this week.The postponement was confirmed by State Department officials, citing the balloon.... On Friday morning Mr. Blinken told China's top foreign policy official, Wang Yi, that the balloon's course was a violation of sovereignty and 'unacceptable,' according to a State Department official. There is no new date for Mr. Blinken's trip to Beijing, the official added. Beijing had sought to defuse tensions with Washington on Friday over the balloon, expressing its regret over the incident, and saying the balloon was for civilian research and had 'deviated far from its planned course.'"
Michael Rothfeld, et al., of the New York Times: "When Charles McGonigal, a former counterintelligence chief with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was accused of using his position to benefit an associate's business in Eastern Europe, it represented a startling turn for a high-ranking official who had been entrusted with access to some of the most sensitive secrets held by the American intelligence community. But it also set off a scramble within the bureau to assess the potential damage and determine whether any counterintelligence or law enforcement operations were compromised..., with the F.B.I.'s director, Christopher A. Wray, treating the case as a top priority." The article outlines some of McGonigal's (alleged!) skullduggery.
"A Little Black Woman Scares Me." Maya King of the New York Times: "... Bobbi Wilson, 9, took it upon herself to spend hours of her summer aiming to obliterate the invasive spotted lanternflies that were ravaging her northern New Jersey community.... She went out to the streets of her neighborhood in Caldwell, N.J., armed with a container with a mix of dish soap and water -- a recipe to disarm the bugs that she found on TikTok, and enhanced by adding apple cider vinegar.... [A few months into her project,] a neighbor complained about a 'little Black woman, walking and spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees.... I don't know what the hell she's doing. Scares me though.'... The police questioned Bobbi and her mother in an episode that reflects the larger dialogue on racial profiling and the treatment of Black children.... [The upshot:] Yale University ... held a ceremony on Jan. 20 that recognized Bobbi's efforts to eradicate the lanternflies. Her insects will be added to the Peabody Museum's collection.... Princeton, the American Museum of Natural History and a host of other universities and state and local officials have recognized Bobbi for her lanternfly solution."
U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "An intruder wielding a crossbow who scaled a fence at Windsor Castle and threatened to kill Queen Elizabeth II on Christmas Day in 2021 pleaded guilty on Friday to treason, the first person to be convicted of such a charge in Britain in more than four decades.... In the Christmas Day incident, the intruder, Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, of Southampton, was confronted by the police at a gate that led to the queen's private quarters in the castle. Asked what he was doing there, he twice responded, 'I am here to kill the queen.'... The Metropolitan Police said that two officers spotted Mr. Chail, clad in black and wearing a metal mask, on the castle grounds at 8:10 on Christmas morning. One of the officers drew a Taser as they approached him. The officers discovered that Mr. Chail was carrying a crossbow, loaded with a bolt with the safety catch off."
~~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere Over Montana. Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The United States has detected what it says is a Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northwestern United States, the Pentagon said on Thursday, a discovery that comes days before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken's visit to Beijing. President Biden has chosen, for now, not to shoot down the balloon after a recommendation from Pentagon officials that doing so would risk debris hitting people on the ground, according to a senior defense official.... The decision to publicize the discovery appears to put China on notice ahead of Mr. Blinken's Beijing visit -- the first by an American secretary of state in six years -- during which he is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping." An NBC News story is here.
Marie: Oh, Merrick Garland listens to The Department of Justice is in contact with former Vice President Mike Pence's lawyers about scheduling a potential search of his home in Indiana, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News." (Also linked yesterday.)
Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: Belize "has taken in a former terrorist turned U.S. government informant whose tale of torture by the C.I.A. moved a military jury at Guantánamo Bay to urge the Pentagon to grant him leniency. U.S. forces released Majid Shoukat Khan, 42, to the custody of the authorities in Belize after a two-hour flight from the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. It was the first resettlement of a detainee since President Barack Obama's administration and culminated months of secret diplomacy.... From 2003 to 2006, he was held incommunicado in secret C.I.A. prisons overseas and kept in dungeonlike conditions that included beatings, nudity, brutal forced feedings, waterboarding and other physical and sexual abuse." The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "It's completely unclear what, if anything, [House Republicans] want in exchange for not blowing up the economy. At this point they're blackmailers without a cause.... As far as I can tell, no influential players within the party are advocating anything that might make a significant dent in the budget deficit, let alone achieve the balanced budget Kevin McCarthy promised as part of the deal that made him speaker.... It's dangerous when a political party is willing to burn things down unless it gets its way; it's even more dangerous when that party just wants to watch things burn." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Krugman notes that he can't find any big-ticket "woke" items Republicans can hang their outrage on. But they're quite capable of making up such outrages if they don't exist. Last night Chris Hayes ran a clip of a committee hearing in which Miss Margie interrogated a witness about the $5.1 billion the feds had given to an Illinois elementary school to teach critical race theory to the kiddies. Needless to say, that claim was a figment of Miss Margie's conspiracy-addled imagination.
Nicholas Wu & Olivia Beavers of Politico: "After a flip-flop-filled struggle, the House GOP's whip operation passed its first major test: booting progressive Ilhan Omar from a prized committee spot. Republican leaders worked for more than a week to secure the votes to pass the resolution, which cited the Minnesota Democrat's past comments about Israel. A few GOP members had suggested they would oppose Omar's ouster due to bigger concerns -- namely, a desire to not go tit-for-tat with Democrats by using forcible committee removal against the opposing party -- but in the end, Republicans were almost wholly united, with Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) voting present." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "Mr. McCarthy's decision to force the removal of Ms. Omar ... demonstrated his determination to ingratiate himself with the hard-right Republican base, which has made the Somali-born Ms. Omar a target for some of its most vicious attacks.... During an unusually raw debate on the House floor on Thursday, prominent Democrats, including many Jewish members, stood alongside Ms. Omar's closest friends in Congress to defend her in passionate and at times emotional speeches. They accused Republicans of hypocrisy, xenophobia and racism for targeting her while saying nothing about antisemitic remarks by members of their own party, some of whom have associated with Holocaust deniers.... Mr. McCarthy and the members of his leadership team were nowhere to be seen during the floor debate, during which the number of Democrats speaking on behalf of Ms. Omar outnumbered Republicans two to one." ~~~
~~~ Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on the House floor shortly before the vote against Rep. Omar:
Revenge of the Turtle. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has pulled Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who tried to oust him as the Senate's top Republican in a bruising leadership race, off the powerful Commerce Committee. McConnell also removed Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who supported Scott's bid to replace McConnell as leader, from the Commerce panel, which has broad jurisdiction over a swath of federal agencies. The GOP leader insisted last year that he didn't take the attempt to end his leadership reign personally, but the latest move sends a clear message to conservatives that challenging McConnell's leadership carries a cost." (Also linked yesterday.)
Tierney Sneed of CNN: "A federal law that prohibits people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, a conservative-leaning appeals court ruled Thursday. The ruling is the latest significant decision dismantling a gun restriction in the wake of the Supreme Court's expansion of Second Amendment rights last year in the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen decision. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals said that the federal law targeting those believed to pose a domestic violence threat could not stand under the Bruen test, which requires that gun laws have a historical analogy to the firearm regulations in place at the time of the Constitution's framing." ~~~
~~~ Marie: According to the Googles, "Research commonly indicates that roughly 90 percent of domestic violence is caused by men within heterosexual relationships." So this is a federal appeals court -- not just one crazy judge -- saying it's okay for these men to possess handy means of blowing away their female partners. According to the Second Amendment. Right. If you can read the approval of uxoricide into the Second Amendment (written at a time when wives were chattel), I'll get you a date with Lauren Boebert.
Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Manhattan prosecutors this week warned that they might file new fraud charges against Allen H. Weisselberg, a longtime top executive at Donald J. Trump's real estate business -- increasing pressure on Mr. Weisselberg to cooperate in a broader investigation into the former president, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Mr. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's former chief financial officer, is already serving a five-month sentence in the Rikers Island jail complex after pleading guilty to unrelated tax fraud charges. While he testified against the company at its trial on the same charges last year, he has for years refused to turn on Mr. Trump directly. But as the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, jump-starts his office's effort to indict Mr. Trump, his prosecutors are using the prospect of additional charges to exert leverage over Mr. Weisselberg...."
Scott Bauer of the AP: "A newly released audio recording [made November 5, 2020,] offers a behind-the-scenes look at how ... Donald Trump's campaign team in a pivotal battleground state [Wisconsin] knew they had been outflanked by Democrats in the 2020 presidential election. But even as they acknowledged defeat, they pivoted to allegations of widespread fraud that were ultimately debunked -- repeatedly -- by elections officials and the courts.... 'Here's the deal: Comms is going to continue to fan the flame and get the word out about Democrats trying to steal this election. We'll do whatever they need. Just be on standby if there's any stunts we need to pull,' [Andrew Iverson, Trump's Wisconsin campaign chief, is heard saying].... At one point on the recording, Iverson is heard praising the GOP's efforts while admitting the margin of Trump's defeat in the state." MB: This is a state campaign manager encouraging staffers to participate in a conspiracy to defraud the public and announcing that is exactly what the national campaign plans to do. Note to Jack Smith: You might want to get a copy of that tape.
Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: "One day after the College Board unveiled revisions to its debut African American studies class, debate intensified Thursday within academia and beyond over the decision to drop from the course plan various lessons and authors disliked by conservative politicians. The organization eliminated some items that appeared on a draft of the plan that circulated a year ago: lessons on Black Lives Matter and on reparations for the harms of slavery and racial discrimination, as well as suggested readings from left-leaning notables.... The College Board and several professors who worked on the Advanced Placement course said it was all strictly a matter of pedagogy, not politics. Others saw darker motives."
Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "It is becoming a MAGA article of faith that the nation's story must be told without causing any White people discomfort -- and without any acknowledgment that our country's past has shaped its present. This attempted act of erasure cannot be allowed to succeed. There is much in America's history that should cause discomfort.... Black history is our collective history as Americans. It must be told -- in full." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. Drew Harwell & Joseph Menn of the Washington Post: "Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government said Thursday that it will shut down a prominent research center that studied online misinformation next year, marking the latest turning point for the study of social media's impact on American society and politics. Since 2019, the Technology and Social Change Project has published research into the spread of coronavirus hoaxes and the online incitement techniques that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. It will wind down due to a school policy that requires a faculty member lead such an undertaking, Nancy Gibbs, the director of the Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center..., said in an internal email shared with The Washington Post. The project's director, Joan Donovan, one of the country's most widely cited experts on digital 'media manipulation,' is not a faculty member and therefore could not continue to lead the project, Gibbs said.... Harvard's move came as a shock to Donovan's supporters, including Craig Newmark, the philanthropist founder of Craigslist, who said he was trying to learn why her project was being shut down after he had donated $5 million to it." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Uh, Nancy, here's a radical, totally novel idea that could solve your fake problem: make Donovan a professor. You could even give her an endowed chair with a chunk of Craig's donation.
A horror movie starring Tucker Carlson, with other Fox hosts in supporting roles, & special Fox guest cameos. Thanks to RAS for the link:
~~~ When Even a Dick Has Seen This Movie Before. And Gave It a Thumbs-Down. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Tucker Carlson's "reflexive opposition to the elites in power, and his willingness to move individuals into and out of that group as it becomes useful, has led [him] to some unusual positions.... He has explicitly rationalized the Russian invasion of Ukraine on multiple occasions, making his commentary a regular feature of state-run programming in Russia.... During an event Wednesday at the Atlantic Council about the war in Ukraine, [former U.K. Conservative PM Boris] Johnson called out Carlson specifically for both his position on the invasion -- and for his grip on the American right. 'I've been amazed and horrified by how many people are frightened of a guy called Tucker Carlson.... Some bad ideas are getting into -- starting to infect some of the thinking around the world about what Putin stands for, what he believes in. It's a disaster. He stands for war, aggression, systematic murder, rape and destruction....' Carlson, of course, seized upon the comments in his show later that night.... He said that he'd invited Johnson on the program only to learn, a few hours beforehand, that Johnson was going to pass.... Carlson, understandably, framed this as being a function of timidity, instead of a function of dismissiveness."
2024 Presidential Election. This Is What Passes for a Moderate Republican. Stephen Neukam of the Hill: "Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a moderate Republican who has long been a critic of former President Trump, said he would support Trump if he is the GOP nominee for president in 2024. Hogan, who is mulling a White House bid of his own, has said he does not think Trump will be the party's nominee in 2024. But in an interview with conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, Hogan reluctantly conceded that he would support whomever the GOP's choice for president is in 2024." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ BUT. Michael Bender of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump refused to say he would support the next Republican presidential nominee if it was not him, exposing a potential quagmire along the party's path toward reclaiming the White House in 2024 and showcasing, once again, the former president's transactional spin on political loyalty. In a radio interview on Thursday, the conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt asked Mr. Trump if he would support 'whoever' wins the party's nomination next year. Mr. Trump announced his third presidential campaign in November and faces a number of potential Republican challengers. 'It would depend,' Mr. Trump said, adding, 'It would have to depend on who the nominee was.'"
Way Beyond the Beltway
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Friday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Friday is here: "European Union leaders are in the Ukrainian capital for a summit that they cast as an act of solidarity and a message to Moscow. Air raid sirens were heard in Kyiv early Friday ahead of the meeting, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described as proof that the E.U. 'stands by Ukraine as firmly as ever.' Still, the delegation of E.U. officials is unlikely to offer Kyiv solid promises to meet Ukrainian requests to join the 27-nation bloc.... A center for the prosecution of the crime of aggression in Ukraine will be established in The Hague, von der Leyen also said.... Ukraine's prosecutor general is pressing criminal charges against the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, whose private military forces are fighting alongside the Russian army."
Hungary. Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "David Pressman, a gay human rights lawyer, knew he was in for a rough time even before he arrived in Hungary with his husband and two children to take up a new job in September as the United States' ambassador to Europe's self-declared citadel of traditional Christian values and friend of the Kremlin.... The ambassador, whose predecessor, appointed by Donald J. Trump, delighted his hosts by praising Viktor Orban, Hungary's illiberal prime minister, has been savaged since his arrival -- along with the Biden administration -- by government-friendly media as a menace to Hungary, its people and their values.... More alarming than the personal attacks, Mr. Pressman said in a recent interview in Budapest, are what he sees as a broader assault on the United States in Hungarian media -- most of which is either directly controlled by the governing Fidesz party or through its business allies -- and a constant 'repurposing of Kremlin propaganda.'" (Also linked yesterday.)~~~
~~~ Marie: I haven't realized quite how bad life in Hungary is now. And this puts a different light on the sexual assault case brought by an unnamed man against CPAC founder Matt Schlapp, who according to Politico, has "developed a cozy relationship with Orbán." Speaking of TuKKKer, he too is a big fan of Orban's.
Marie: Our deepest condolences to contributor unwashed.
News Ledes
CNBC: “The employment picture started off 2023 on a stunningly strong note, with nonfarm payrolls posting their strongest gain since July 2022. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 517,000 for January, above the Dow Jones estimate of 187,000 and December's gain of 260,000. The unemployment rate fell to 3.4% versus the estimate for 3.6%. That is the lowest jobless level since May 1969.... Markets slumped following the report, with futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average down about 200 points." A Washington Post report is here.
New York Times: "About a dozen daily cold temperature records across the [U.S. Northeast] are likely to be broken over the next several days, primarily on Saturday morning, forecasters said. Winds gusting to 30 to 40 miles per hour, combined with air temperatures well below freezing, will make conditions extremely dangerous. Forecasters with the Weather Prediction Center said some areas in northern New England could experience wind chills (the temperature the body feels when blustery winds remove necessary body heat) in the minus-50s." ~~~
~~~ New York Times Update: "Temperatures across the Northeast plummeted and wind speeds crept upward on Friday, as the region prepared for some of the coldest wind chills in decades. If there was a bit of cold comfort for residents who had to be outside in the harsh conditions, it was this: At least they weren't atop Mount Washington, in New Hampshire, the region's highest peak, where the temperature was already minus 37 degrees Fahrenheit as of Friday afternoon and expected to drop to minus 46. High winds of 98 miles per hour were making the temperature feel like minus 94." ~~~
~~~ Marie: At 11:30 pm Friday, with temps still falling, it's minus 15 on the thermometer at my house (according to the Weather Channel), with a rise to a balmy minus 9 degrees not expected until mid-morning tomorrow.
New York Times: "At least 10 people have died as a result of a winter storm that swept through the Southern Plains and the Southeast this week, causing widespread power outages in Texas along with a slew of accidents on icy roads."
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Reader Comments (21)
Speaking of the GOP finding issues to whip up the base even when none exist: There's nothing official here since the legislature isn't in session yet, but it looks as if governor DeSantis is going to remove the state sales tax on gas stoves only. He's been in South Florida ranting on
Wonder if we'll ever have a rational discussion of Free Speech.
I'm still waiting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/opinion/free-speech-stanford.html
My comment:
"Easily lost in this discussion is that it is really about not one but two things, or better perhaps two subsets of the same thing: Free Speech AND its limitations.
The first is the matter of how "free" speech should be. As a society we have already determined that not all speech is protected speech. See O. W. Holmes' opinion about shouting fire in a crowded theater, a sensible recognition that when speech causes harm it can be proscribed.
So the only real, and very difficult. question is how harmful speech can be to stay within those fuzzy borders.
Those of us who grew up with the advice about "sticks and stone..." might have one set of feelings. School teachers who have had to admonish their charges for using racist language might have another. Particularly galling to me were those who deliberately insulted others and then excused their ill-behavior by saying they were just joking...a too common combination of mean and cowardly.
Sure, the language police can and do cross the border from sense to nonsense just as the Stanford list apparently does (tho' I wonder if some of the entries might have been included as sly jokes by some of the Stanford smarties) and as a result should be rightly dismissed as Ms. Paul does here, but...
How much deliberately insulting language should we allow? Are there no limits? Should there be none? Is all nastiness OK?
That's the critical social question dismissive columns--even the funny ones-- like this one avoid."
When I got to the end of today's readings I saw Marie's condolence message to unwashed and had to go back to yesterday's comments to understand the message. I thank unwashed for letting us know about his loss and I send my condolences as well.
This sounds like the ultimate invasion of privacy:
https://newrepublic.com/post/170192/florida-panel-student-athletes-
give-schools-menstrual-history
I assume it's to separate the boys from the girls without having to
physically check. Sounds like a job for the family doctor, not the
school administration.
@Bobby Lee: Looks like you were interrupted by an emergency before you finished your comment about the latest stupid brought to us by Gov. Ron. Hope it wasn't a gas leak.
It doesn't appear DeSantolini has done much governing since he was re-elected. Looks like all of his efforts have been in the realm of owning the woke. Which I call campaigning, not governing. He is such a nasty little fascist. I heard a clip of him speechifying the other day. Like those HGTV women with the obnoxious voices, he sounds a little like the TV character Urkel.
Please allow me to add my condolences to Unwashed and his family. While the deranged in power go about making life more bitter and dangerous, the real world continues on apace. It’s a reminder of what matters most to us.
I was sorry to hear about your wife’s passing. Sounds like she did her best to make this a better world.
@Forrest Morris: Yeah, I heard about that on the TV this morning. How does that song go? "Freedom's just another word for releasing the details of your menstrual cycle to the public." Catchy.
I had sent in a lengthy comment on the latest outrage concerning traitor support for gun violence. It seems to have vanished…
The short version:
The 5th Circuit decision to allow dangerous and deranged domestic abusers to stockpile firearms just in case the wife doesn’t have dinner ready on time, or accidentally changes channels during the big game,—because domestic abusers 250 years were allowed to shoot and kill their spouses or girlfriends—is in perfect keeping with the hypocrisy of the so-called right to life party.
I added a quote from a gun safety group that indicated that it’s not just significant others who are endangered here: domestic violence can and does spread rapidly once the second amendment hero gets going. Kids, neighbors, strangers, cops, anyone in the line of fire can be shot as well.
So congrats. Of the three judges named on the decision, two are appointees of Mr. Rape and Domestic Violence himself, Fat Donald. The other is a Reagan appointee. Didn’t St. Ronnie have a little experience with gun violence? But never mind.
Then there’s this:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/assault-weapon-pin-republicans-b2274813.html?amp
Traitors in Congress have traded in their must-wear flag pins, denoting their phony patriotism, for ASSAULT RIFLE PINS!!!!
The funny thing is, those flag pins are the phoniest thing going. The assault rifle pins denote very real commitment to spreading gun violence across the entire country.
(Okay, it wasn’t that short…a lot to cover these days.)
Looks to me we are in for a mighty fun fest in the House going foreword. I figured it would be bad but holy cow! right off the bat we get the batshit crazies like the Greene gal who doesn't know millions from billions, and Bo-boo who advocates for more guns in this country. We do have on the other side female rage at the hypocrisy of the republicans and I rejoiced at their passion. However––-it all seems as though we are living in a strange universe where the smell of fascism lurks around the corner. The governor of the sunshine state has taken out that shine on America's history and demanded a glossy story so that young minds are not clouded by the truth. This maneuver is dangerous and destructive –––it's what dictators do before they start eliminating those that don't fit in their scheme of things.
Ken: I never liked the sticks and stones thing because I knew early on that words hurt a hell of a lot more than those sticks and stones.
I nominate Matt Gaetz to do that Florida girl check thing. He's had
lots of experience, so I've read. But guilty until proven innocent (the
R motto).
Maybe this would help Matt with his newly assigned tracking job...
https://flo.health
A crossword taught it to me this AM.
I also had to go back to yesterday's comments to find out about Unwashed's loss. I add my voice to say that we here ARE honored to have been notified. Like most of you, I also learned to do email with a new job that included same on it, and a fellow employee was amazed I had no idea about any of it. I began wafting around the NYT letters section also, and enjoyed Marie and Kate so much that I finally remembered the name of Marie's column when she and I started skipping the NYT. I love the intelligence and warmth of the commenters here. I am so sorry for your monumental loss, Unwashed. I wish you strength and fabulous memories as you go forward.
unwashed, I'm also very sorry for your loss,
When things don’t add up…
French philosopher Simone Weil, one of the most original thinkers of the 20th century, and someone who lived by the philosophy she developed, offered many intriguing thoughts that easily apply to our current situation, especially dealing with the ideologues, the demagogues, and the stupid-as-logs.
Yesterday, thumbing through one of her notebooks, I ran across a thought experiment I had forgotten about. Weil develops an idea about a mathematician, someone who spends every day working out difficult mathematical problems, something he’s very good at. You see, this mathematician seeks the truth. But there’s a catch. He has to turn his answers in to the authorities and if the answer for any particular day is an even number, they have him beaten.
After many beatings, he may decide, in the interest of self preservation, to change his answers, in other words to deny the truth and give them the only answers they’ll accept.
This is the world of the DeSantolinis, the Trumps, the Jordans, the Greenes, and the BoBos. DeSantolini threatens Disney with a beating for giving an answer he doesn’t like, a true answer, mind you. There’s a beating. And they knuckle under. The College Board might give him an answer he doesn’t like, a true answer. Fearful of a beating, they change their answer.
This is the world of the fascists. The haters of truth. Those who warp reality, twist minds, threaten violence in order to get their way.
Weil’s original answer for the mathematician who prizes truth is to run away. Just depart, in order to maintain personal morality. (This answer would become a bit more complicated as her thinking progressed.)
But there’s another answer.
Fight back.
Disney didn’t. The College Board said “Yes, massah” and steppinfetched it. At this point, no doubt, like all demagogues, DeSantolini believes his power is all consuming, that he just has to threaten a beating and his targets will change their true answer to whatever he wants.
Disappointing isn’t close to the right word. Will anyone stand up to these bullies on the right?
Finally.
In today's NYT, David Wallis-Wells writes about the recent issue of excess deaths. He connects this to the Covid epidemic. However, published studies of excess deaths have emerged from Australia, the UK and Europe. In these studies, deaths due to Covid have been subtracted from all excess deaths. The excess deaths are from all illnesses, are in proportion to the usual expected mortalities from these illnesses. What is not emphasized in the opinion piece is that the most dramatic increase in excess deaths is in the younger populations (say, 0-14), and lower in the older population (>75). Overall, the most dramatic increases were in the 25-64 populations.
Noncovid related excess deaths.
This is telling us something about, perhaps, a wider phenomenon than "only" another episode of a plague.
Wasn't much left off although I don't know where the ending went. I had typed he was ranting on about government over reach. I resisted a snide comment that Big Oil must make bigger campaign contributions than the electric companies.
All this was covered in the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times.
Just another case of "they're coming to take them away" to jerk the collective tail of the GOP base.
Marie,
I see where wind chill in New Hampshire could get down to -50 tonight.
Thought of that line from an old Joni Mitchell song:
“I'll ply the fire with kindling and pull the blankets to my chin
I'll lock the vagrant winter out and I'll bolt my wandering in…”
So stock up on the kindling and don’t go wandering off.
Now that I think of it, the coldest place I’ve ever been was up in New Hampshire. I went to a party once in Franconia Notch. The temperature (not the wind chill) was -45. It was a great party, a bunch of artists and musicians mixed in with MIT scientists. There was a giant fireplace and the room got hot with everyone dancing. Just for fun, after working up a good sweat on the dance floor, we’d stand in front of an open door. T-shirts and hair froze instantly. MIT humor, I guess.
Anyway, light the fire, and do some dancing. But keep the door closed.
People are (not) saying…
I read last night that My Kevin has been spouting a whopper about how Democrats in the House are all coming up to him, shaking his hand and saying what a great job he’s doing, and how he’s running things much better than that Nancy Pelosi pain in the neck.
In just two weeks, he’s doing a better job than Pelosi, a real speaker, one who will go down as one of the best, most effective, and most productive speakers ever. One who didn’t require 15 votes to make it by inches.
But after a few days, My Kevin is better. By far.
Of course none of these supposed My Kevin fans were named. This is McCarthy’s personal version of the old prefix Fatty used to employ to set up yet another self-serving lie: “people are saying”.
He’s also saying that these unnamed Democrats are impressed at how bipartisan he is. He sez “Unlike Pelosi we [the royal we] don’t keep the other party off our committees!”
This as he’s booting Democrats off committees right and left.
They don’t even try to hide the lying anymore.
Fabulous jobs report!
Hmmmm…how can Fox attribute this improvement to Trump? How can they find some way to attack Biden for…something?
And how can My Kevin take full credit for it? Oh…maybe this was DeSantolini’s doing! Fascists can do anything.
So hard being in charge!
and as DeSantis unveils a record state budget, please notice that he doesn't mention how much of that money comes from federal largesse,
So we’ve all heard about this Chinese “weather balloon” spotted recently over Montana.
Guess who was inciting Montanans to go out in the backyard and shoot it down, cuz Joe Biden be too weak to do this?
Trump idiot spawn, Junior. I know you were wondering which idiot, right?
First, the thing is floating at 60,000 ft. That’s over 11 miles. Unless those Montana gun knobbers have a rocket launcher, ain’t no one gonna hit a moving object 11 miles above them with a rifle.
Second, if they could hit it, the object is large enough and loaded with enough gear to kill someone on the ground, but we all know no Trump cares about threats to human life as long as they get to scream about shooting something, or someone.
Same as it ever was.
(Just imagine if this asshole’s name was Smith, and he had to get a real job. He’d be too stupid for McDonald’s drive through. Maybe mopping up aisle three spillage at the Piggly Wiggly.)