Welcome to Thursday, January 30, 2025; February is almost upon us. It’s National Croissant Day, and here’s a photo I took of what, at the time, was rated as Paris’s best croissant, produced at Maison d’Isabelle in the Latin Quarter. It was excellent, and cost only one Euro. I can’t remember where it was from. Now Winnie informs me that it may have gone downhill.
It’s also Yodel for your neighbors day and School day of non-violence and peace (it’s sad that we need one). Here’s a 12-year-old yodeler on one of those television talent shows.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the January 29 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Breaking: An American Airlines jet collided with a helicopter outside Washington, D.C. and plunged into the Potomac River. It was headed to Reagan National Airport from Wichita, Kansas, and it looks bad as there are no reports of survivors yet.
Many people were feared dead after a commercial jet carrying 64 people collided in midair with a U.S. Army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River on Wednesday night near Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C.
The authorities have not given an official count of casualties or bodies recovered. But some of those aboard the plane were figure skaters flying from Wichita, Kan., which had hosted the national figure skating championships this month. Russian figure skaters were also among the passengers, the Kremlin said.
“When one person dies, it’s a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die, it’s an unbearable sorrow,” Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas said at a news conference.
About 300 emergency responders were working in dangerous conditions, said John Donnelly, the chief of Washington’s fire department. He added that the Potomac’s cold and murky water was complicating divers’ search and rescue efforts. Temperatures were expected to fall below freezing in the Washington area overnight.
American Airlines said in a statement that 60 passengers and four crew members had been onboard its plane, a Bombardier CRJ700. The plane, which was being operated as Flight 5342 and had departed from Wichita, crashed into the river, Washington’s fire emergency department said. Images of the wreckage showed what appeared to be a wing and part of the fuselage sticking out of the river.
An Army official said that the helicopter, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, was flying with three crew members, whose condition he could not confirm.
This reminds me of the Air Florida crash in on January 13, 1982 when a jet taking off from National Airport (same as Reagan) crashed into the 14th Street Bridge. 78 people died (four on the bridge) and four survived the icy waters of the Potomac River
*Well, the first of the misguided EOs of the Trump administration has been rescinded. They’re not all misguided, but this one surely was! (archived here)
The White House rescinded an order on Wednesday that froze up to trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans and sparked mass confusion across the country, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter and documentation obtained by The New York Times.
The initial directive interrupted the Medicaid system that provides health care to millions of low-income Americans and sent schools, hospitals, nonprofits, research companies and law enforcement agencies scrambling to understand if they had lost their financial support from the federal government.
A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Tuesday afternoon temporarily blocked the order in response to a lawsuit filed by Democracy Forward, a liberal organization that argued that the directive violated the First Amendment and a law governing how executive orders are to be rolled out.
On Wednesday, Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director for the Office of Management and Budget, sent a notification to federal agencies notifying them that memo freezing aid had been “rescinded.”
“If you have questions about implementing the President’s executive orders, please contact your agency general counsel,” Mr. Vaeth said in the notification.
Of course all of my colleagues were distressed about their grants, and my own University sent out a memo saying that federal grant holders could continue to pay their employees but should not spend money for equipment or procedures. While that’s not as important in the cosmic scheme as getting medical care to people, it would, if kept in effect, severely impact not just science in general, but also medical research. Stopping these grants and loans was a terrible idea, and I have no inkling why Trump did it. Next to be rescinded: the equally misguided “birthright” directive.
*As I write this on Wednesday afternoon, RFK Jr. (another misguided move) is getting a licking in the Senate for his nomination as Trump’s health secretary. You can guess what they’re asking him about (he’s pushing back, too):
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday took questions from senators before a vote on whether to confirm him as President Trump’s health secretary. Kennedy, the scion of an American political dynasty, endorsed Trump last year on a theme of “Make America Healthy Again.”
Here’s what else to know:
Kennedy sidestepped questions on abortion and struggled to answer questions about Medicare and Medicaid.
He pushed back on criticism of his vaccine views, saying he supports measles and polio vaccines.
Kennedy would take over a sprawling bureaucracy if confirmed, with an annual budget that tops $1.7 trillion and a department that funds healthcare for millions of Americans.
He needs 51 votes to be confirmed by the Senate, where Republicans currently hold 53 seats. If Kennedy loses three Republicans, Vice President JD Vance can break the tie.
A bit more from the links:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushed back on questioning from Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) about his vaccine views. “I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages” for people to get those vaccines, Kennedy said.
But Wyden wasn’t buying it, saying Kennedy had been clear in the past that he viewed measles as not a threat. Kennedy has questioned whether the MMR vaccine, which inoculates against measles and two other diseases, causes autism.
And Bernie went after him big time (go see the picture):
Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., used a heated exchange between Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and the HHS nominee over their baby onesies emblazoned with antivaccination slogans (“No Vax. No Problem.”) to promote their controversial clothing. “Thanks for the plug @BernieSanders.”
“Get Your CHD Baby Onesies Here!” the group said on social media shortly after Sanders’s comments. Kennedy said he isn’t opposed to vaccines and that he previously resigned from the group’s board.
Fluoride:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has blamed fluoride in drinking water for ailments from arthritis to bone cancer to thyroid damage. “I was called a conspiracy theorist because I said fluoride lowered IQ,” Kennedy said during his hearing with senators Wednesday, invoking a recent controversial JAMA Pediatrics review examining the link. He said before the election that if re-elected, President Trump would direct municipalities to stop adding fluoride to water systems.
Most experts say that the amount of fluoride in water is not sufficient to harm children, and there are of course proven salubrious effects on dental health.
And get a load of this—where RFK Jr. had to go to get data supporting his “theories,” which are his:
Citing a paper published in 2014 in the Polish Archives of Internal Medicine, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed pharmaceutical drugs are the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in the U.S.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accidents were the third-leading cause of death in 2022 and Covid-19 was the fourth-leading cause.
*More from the Washington Post (the grilling has ended):
Under questioning by Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Georgia), Kennedy denied comparing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to Nazi death camps. NBC News obtained footage of Kennedy’s appearance at a 2013 conference, reporting that he claimed that the CDC harmed children in a way that he likened to death camps in reference to autism and the debunked claims that vaccines cause autism.
After Warnock read a partial transcript of his remarks, Kennedy said he was “comparing the injury rate to our children to other atrocities.”
A kerfuffle!
Asked by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) whether he agrees with President Donald Trump’s past remarks calling climate change a “hoax,” Kennedy said he and Trump agreed to disagree on the issue. “I believe climate change is existential. My job is to make Americans healthy again,” Kennedy said.
The exchanged prompted a rebuke from Advancing American Freedom, the organization founded by former vice president Mike Pence, who opposes Kennedy over his past support of abortion rights. “What other issues do radical RFK Jr. and President Trump disagree on?” the organization posted on X, part of its campaign to sway Republican senators.
And fake news about fluoride:
Kennedy said he was called a conspiracy theorist for saying fluoride (the mineral added to drinking water to improve oral health) lowers IQ, but a recent literature review published in JAMA, the influential medical journal, confirmed the association. That’s true, but missing context: The conclusion is based on elevated levels of fluoride mostly outside the United States and did not apply to the recommended concentration of fluoride in American drinking water. Kennedy has said the Trump administration would advise water districts to remove fluoride.
Finally,
A Washington Post investigation found that the nonprofit Kennedy founded was one of four that rose to prominence during the coronavirus pandemic by capitalizing on the spread of medical misinformation. That group received $23.5 million in contributions, grants and other revenue in 2022, enabling it to pay Kennedy more than $510,000 in 2022, double his2019 salary, tax records show.
I do not want this man to be confirmed. He is befuddled, wrong, and harmful.
*The Associated Press reports about a new paper in Nature showing that many species are losing genetic diversity, which, they all say, makes the species more liable to extinction because they don’t have mutant gene forms to deal with climate or environmental change.
Two-thirds of animal and plant populations are declining in genetic diversity, which makes it harder to adapt to environmental changes, according to research published Wednesday.
Long before a species goes extinct, the population becomes smaller and more fragmented, shrinking the number of potential mates and therefore genetic mixing. This leaves a species more vulnerable to future threats such as disease.
“A surprisingly trend was that we saw genetic diversity declining even among” many species that aren’t considered at risk, said co-author Catherine Grueber, a conservation biologist at the University of Sydney.
Researchers examined data for 628 species studied between 1985 and 2019. The greatest losses in genetic variation were seen in birds and mammals.
Findings were published in the journal Nature.
“When a species has different genetic solutions, it’s better able to deal with changes,” said David Nogués-Bravo at the University of Copenhagen, who was not involved in the study.
If a new disease spreads through a population or climate change alters summer rainfall, some individuals will fare better than others, in part because of their genes. Higher genetic diversity also means there’s a greater chance of a species’ survival.
It’s not as bad as it sounds. From the paper (my bolding)
After sensitivity testing (Methods and Supplementary Information 1.4 and 1.5), our reduced meta-analysis dataset comprised 871 published records, providing 3,983 Hedges’ g* effect sizes for modelling, encompassing 622 species from 36 classes across 16 phyla. Meta-analysis over this entire dataset revealed a small, but statistically significant loss of genetic diversity over time (Hedges’ g* posterior mean = −0.11; 95% HPD credible interval −0.15, −0.07) (Fig. 2a and Supplementary Information 1.4 and 1.5). No publication bias was detected (Supplementary Information 1.5). In a few cases, extreme genetic diversity change was observed, which had detectable influence on the results; therefore, such cases were removed so that our model outputs represented the general trends present across 99% of our dataset (extreme genetic diversity changes are narrated at Supplementary Information 1.4).
However, I think the threat is exaggerated for three reasons. First, the reduction, as you can see above from the paper extract, is quite small. Second, even a small number of individuals can harbor substantial heritability (the ability of selection to move a trait); this would be a problem only if response depended on pretty rare alleles. More important, habitat loss and fragmentation is a far greater threat to extinction than is lack of genetic variation. This is why I’ve left a substantial amount in my will for organizations to buy up land to help conservation.
*And from the AP’s usually entertaining “oddities” section we hear that the last of 43 rhesus macaques that escaped from a South Carolina breeding facility have been recovered. I’m amazed that theyu got them all, but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (my staple lunch) got them back.
Authorities in South Carolina said Friday the last four of 43 escaped monkeys have been recaptured after two months living in the woods, weathering a rare snowstorm and being temped back into captivity by peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
The rhesus macaque monkeys, all females, made a break for it after police say an employee did not fully lock their enclosure at Alpha Genesis, a facility that breeds them for medical research — known to locals as “the monkey farm.”
The recaptured monkeys appeared to be in good health, Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard said in a statement relayed by Yemassee Police in a social media post, without further details.
While they were on the loose, the area saw its first snow in seven years, accumulating up to 3 inches (8 centimeters).
The rhesus macaques made a break for it on Nov. 6, and mostly hung around near the facility. They’re about the size of a cat, weighing roughly 7 pounds (3 kilograms).
It appears a worker unintentionally left the gates unlocked when the monkeys escaped, Westergaard said in November. Workers were supposed to lock and latch one gate before opening another, but all three gates and latches were left unsecure.
Sadly,the monkeys are being bred for medical research, and you know what that means for them. I almost wish that had taken it on the lam to where they couldn’t be recaptured. Or at least rewarded by being put in some monkey conservation facility. After all, they wanted FREEEEEEEEEDOM!!!!
Here’s a video about the breakout:
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn,
Hili: Can you let me into the basement?A: What for?Hili: So I can get out of it after a moment.
Hili: Czy możesz mnie wpuścić do piwnicy?Ja: Po co?Hili: Żebym mogła z niej za chwilę wyjść.
*******************
Here’s a photo of the English shorthair Mishka, staffed by Anna and Jay. Isn’t he a beaut?
From Meanwhile in Canada:
From Things with Faces; a happy face seen in dishwater:
Masih isn’t tweeting much but here’s more news about Iran, and, as usual, it’s not good news.
No joke: this Thursday, the Islamic Regime in Iran will become Chair of the U.N. Human Rights Council Social Forum.
Say NO to the U.N. legitimizing a regime that beats, blinds, tortures and rapes women for demanding their rights.
Sign the petition now: https://t.co/Q4HTtbCbgT pic.twitter.com/D8BxYtg6db
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) October 30, 2023
Two posts from Simon, who clearly does NOT like RFK Jr., either:
There are quite a few irresponsible conspiracy theories about JFK and who took his life.There are quite a few irresponsible conspiracy theories about RFK and who took his life.There are many, many irresponsible conspiracy theories by RFK Jr. that will take thousands of lives.
I’m not really sure what this one means, though, except that RFK Jr. looks bad. But he’s not fat!
RFK JR. looks like someone exhumed his father and stuck a helium tank up his ass for 30 seconds.
From Malcolm. Poor woman! I hope the kitties helped.
They are healing her ❤️🩹 pic.twitter.com/yoAGk3KJd0
— No Cats No Life (@NoCatsNoLife_m) October 18, 2024
This shows that d*gs have a sense of fairness:
How dare you! 😂 🤣 pic.twitter.com/QcLAKaXU2o
— The Figen (@TheFigen_) January 28, 2025
From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:
Gassed to death upon arrival, this Slovak woman was fifty years old.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-01-30T11:40:29.107Z
Two posts from Dr. Cobb. I’m getting this book immediately!
Face it, we ALL need to know MOAR about the HORNY SPONGES! #spongeThursday!
— Chris Mah (@echinoblog.bsky.social) 2025-01-07T19:43:52.129Z
And follow the instructions (go here). You will see what Hull means!
It's important that you look through the gallery for this listing until you get to the top floor bathroom. Important.www.cbmaritimerealty.com/listing/2024…
— David Hull 胡大衛 (@hushuo.bsky.social) 2024-11-12T01:30:52.122Z
Seven more hostages (including five Thai nationals) have been released and are safely in Israel. However, Netanyahu has suspended the release of the Palestinian prisoners until there is reassurance that there will be no recurrence of the disgraceful scenes in Gaza when the hostages were dragged through a baying mob.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cr53e7e7yg3t
No survivors were rescued from the Potomac after the air accident and it is now officially a recovery and not a rescue mission.
Brendan O’Neill has written about the mob that greeted the hostages in Gaza today: https://archive.is/gH0HH
Disgusting! 😡
And yet there will be students at Columbia U and elsewhere who will spew all manner of whatabouteries.
Even if fluoride made IQ increase, I’d vote “no” to putting it in public water supply.
Why is that Bryan?
I could ask the same question to the “yes” voter.
The difference is the “yes” vote is for only one outcome that ignores or assumes the best :
• source / origin
• grade
• fraction of additive that specifically builds tooth enamel per volume water consumed per household – i.e. the volume swished around teeth but not showered, flushed, washed – or taken up into cells/blood that doesn’t deliver to teeth.
• cost in dollars relative to using a fluoride mouthwash or fluoride drops that are likely covered by insurance. E.g. <$5 / 18 oz bottle of fluoride mouthwash.
• common modern household practices such as varieties of filtration that may or may not remove fluoride
• for fluoride to make it all the way to teeth, it cannot be filtered away from additives such as commonly used corrosion inhibitors – so, corrosion inhibitor is now potentially in the mix.
This choice can be seen to be resolved on a town-by-town basis – some yes some no. And they deal with it somehow.
Fluoride in public water is an idea whose time has come and gone.
So those are interesting points, but town by town decisions will get politically rancorous while there are other municipal problems that would be meanwhile set aside. It’s like throwing a bag of angry badgers into a city council meeting, yelling “decide what to do about this!” and locking the door.
Appreciate that.
In my case, I only learned after the fact if my town ever had fluoride, if it even occurred to me – and if it mattered to me then I “deal with it” (as they say).
The mayor of the little town I grew up in in Nova Scotia believed, apparently seriously according to my parents, that water fluoridation was a Communist plot, a not uncommon view. This would have been right around the time that Dr. Strangelove came out — the novel it was adapted from was published in 1958. When I first saw the movie as a university student I thought, “My God, Sterling Hayden and our mayor must have been riffing off of each other!”
Those were the days when, according to the toothpaste commercials, “Just one cavity!” was a great visit to the dentist.
Tucson is one of of 6 major cities in US that doesn’t add fluoride to its water. The naturally occurring amount of fluoride is below the recommended level to prevent cavities. Why don’t they add it? I think because we’re a bunch of hillbillies. Some nearby cities do add it. No rankling between municipalities.
My olde dentist used to say I had “well mouth”. When I grew up, we drank water from a well, not from a public source. As a consequence, my siblings and I all got cavities. I am paying for that well water now. There is no question in the minds of those who work in the field; fluoridated water helps reduce the frequency of dental caries and that, in turn, improves life-long dental health.
But the devil is in the details, as you point out. Since most toothpastes today contain fluoride, it’s not clear to me why we need it in our water. I think it was a good, solid public health idea that proved valuable, but there are now less risky ways to achieve the same goals.
And I allow (see how objective I am?) that we do have controlled experiments of sorts where there are towns that don’t fluoridate their water. Presumably they get some of the stuff from toothpaste and other sources. So how do they fair in terms of dental problems?
Apparently it is a net positive. See for example here: https://adanews.ada.org/ada-news/2024/june/a-tale-of-two-cities-both-successful-in-keeping-water-fluoridation/
Hmm. This raises the issue of somehow sharing/selling patient data, from a likely private dental practice.
That certainly is an issue – of another sort.
The optimal concentration of fluoride in the water supply has been thoroughly studied and is well understood (see, for instance, this review). Communities measure the amount of natural fluoride in their water supplies and adjust the concentration accordingly.
The benefits to dental health of this level of fluoride are incontrovertible while reported risks are anecdotal or based on poorly controlled studies. Some (e.g., bone cancer) have failed to reproduce when better-designed studies have been conducted.
I don’t really have a horse in the race for Kennedy’s confirmation, but when Sanders and Warren go on the warpath, I tend to get sympathetic to their target. Here is an interesting piece on RealClear: “Why Does the NYT Continue To Print Front Page Lies About RFK Jr.?“.
So I read that, and all I see are minor quibbles over wording, and deflections.
Sorry don’t agree. I spend more time on right leaning sites than left (NYT has scare quotes around “woke” and “gender ideology” — that means The Times doesn’t think woke and gender ideology even exist. Infuriating!)
But RFK Jr seems the worst candidate Trump has proposed, except for Gaetz who dropped out.
I think I’ve left this link before, from Dr Paul Offit. RFK Jr requested an interview saying he had some questions about vaccines. Offit thought the interview went fine.
He was stunned when RFK Jr published an article in Rolling Stone, full of lies. Offit got death threats based on the article.
Rolling Stone retracted the article after he contacted them. He writes about here:
https://pauloffit.substack.com/p/my-conversation-with-robert-f-kennedy
There is a good 8-minute you tube early analysis with radar and atc comms from juan brown available this morning. He is an airline pilot who regularly puts these analyses on you tube and is generally one of my trusted sources. See url
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouDAnO8eMf8
Of course we need to wait for a final analysis, but from this and I looked at raw flightaware data earlier this morning, it looks like the airliner was established on what’s known as a stabilized approach at 400 ft altitude when the collision happened.
Amazing video and breakdown of events so far. Hope that the Trump admin has someone in place who is as good at evaluating the situation. (We don’t need T’s grandstanding and guesses.)
Full report from NTSB investigation takes awhile: the 1982 Air Florida crash into the icy Potomac that Jerry recalled above was reported out in eight months; the Sully water landing in the Hudson was 14 months. I think a year is a good ballpark estimate. Also I do not know how forthcoming all parties will be in this administration….it appears that trump has already blamed the civilian airliner I hear.
(sigh). DJT, the new version of ‘Honest Abe: Assign Blame Emediately (not a typo, trumpspeak). Certainly not his helicopter, as he controls all that now…
On listening to a radio report in NZ and in Trump’s interview, DEI and the Biden Govt are to blame.
That is to say, they hired traffic controllers of low IQ performance not on merit.
How to boot these aviation personal in the gut while their down. What a leader!
I see Mark R has also commented on this.
Thanks for link. Brown is good.
I read that the Reagan Airport has possibly too much traffic for location:
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/plane-crash-dc-reagan-airport/card/d-c-airspace-crowding-is-problem-known-to-lawmakers-TpFS4K4MtMJ1DKfWhlyv
Not “possibly” but “definitely”. When I lived nearby in the 1980s there was serious talk of closing down that airport totally due to excessive traffic, the difficulty of approach and departure routes, and the risk of such accidents. There one reason only that it has not been done: Congresspeople of all parties find it convenient.
They should convert Andrews to commercial (it’s conveniently right off the Beltway) and move the military operations elsewhere.
“There is one reason…”
Thanks for the information.
The problem is that the military apparently uses civilian planes as exercise tools.
The reference to inflating RFK Jr. with helium probably refers to his squeaky voice.
I’m so saddened by the tragedy at Washington’s National Airport (I refuse to acknowledge Reagan). I figured it was only a matter of time before we had a collision like that.
The yodeler, oh my god! What a cutie. Now that makes me very happy.
The air collision right now looks to be due to helicopter pilot error. But could this be also attributed to under-staffing of air traffic controllers? I keep reading about this problem.
That house gallery is worth the tour! That upstairs loo would be the one I’d always use if I owned that house.
Nope:
This NYT headline, just in!
Trump, Without Citing Evidence, Blames D.E.I. and Democrats for Plane Crash
The FAA has said that the Air Traffic Controllers room at Reagan was understaffed last night. POTUS was briefed on this, he said. No mention of this that I noticed in POTUS’s remarks.
My question about the mummy-case loo is why put a toilet in a shower? (Or maybe why put a shower above a toilet?) Maybe a bidet for shitheads?
Re. Kennedy Jr (JrK), everything else aside, there’s the story about him and the dead bear cub. I gather this was some time ago, but it shows a lack of ability to think ahead. You don’t gather up a roadkill bear and then later realize that you have to ditch it because can’t have a bear carcass in the back of your van if you’re going to fly off somewhere at the end of the day, and further there’s the judgment issue of putting it in Central Park along with an old bicycle to make it look like that was the cause of death.
I went to McCormick (R-PA)’s website to leave a message to vote no, but first I have to pick from a menu of subjects, naturally none of which are remotely connected to votes. How about I send you a message and YOU decide what the subject is?
My oldest son related that he’d come across the dead bear while returning home from doing some falconry. (!)
He would be a terrible appointment. But I sweartogod if he could be in a reality show tv series, I’d watch it.
That bathroom is ridiculous!
And, as I mentioned yesterday, Trump paints with a very broad brush and the rest of the government then has to come in and fill in all the fine strokes. In the case of his now rescinded order to freeze all federal grants and loans, the poor folks at OMB simply couldn’t cope, and the President had to rescind the order. Did he learn anything from this debacle of his own making? Answer below.
No.
No. He didn’t fire enough people. /s
The same RFK who cheated on his last wife dozens of times, drove her to suicide and then blamed her at her own funeral? That charmer?
So as well as being on the wrong side of pretty much every single issue he touches he’s a scoundrel on a personal level.
Ask the dozens (about 80 I’ve read, could be a bit less) of dead Samoan children (measles) after his anti-vax efforts there. Oh. Wait.
After Oprah Winfrey, platformer of every woo anti-vaxer she can plant in front of a camera, RFK is probably the most dangerous American alive.
D.A.
NYC
And let’s not forget: these hearings are really job interviews. Why should we hire these people to these posts? Would you hire this person if they came in to your place of work to fill this job? Of course not.
Don’t treat these hearings like “well, you can’t prove he/she’s” a drunk, philanderer, possessor of poor judgment, etc. ergo, they must be approved.
I expect Elizabeth Warren to get to the 82 dead Am Samoan children. It’s in her 34-pg shot across his bow in the first six pgs.
And yet he seriously could get the job.
This is a fine example of why the interview process should NOT be handled by grandstanding politicians.
Yes Mark. A few years ago I read a persuasive article about how things were better in, like, the 80s? – before more open CSPAN or network transparency in gvt.
The gravamen of the argument was what you say – no blowhard grandstanding AND… interestingly .. the argument was that in private politicians can make deals across the aisle leading to more co-operation and less polarization.
I wasn’t 100% convinced but it got me thinking.
That said…. RFK for even local ratcatcher would be terrible. Or any position of public trust for that dastardly dangerously evil conman. The worst American.
D.A.
NYC
Agree. He’s a terrible candidate. Yet he has a huge following amongst the “MAHA Moms.” The Free Press had an article about them, full of enthusiastic comments, with a few skeptics.
They also published a couple of reader letters from doctors who were unimpressed with TFP’s unscientific outlook. According to the commenters they are “Big Pharma shills.”
I don’t think that yodelling is a young girl’s voice. You can hear her own immature voice cut back in at ~1:36, where all she does is shriek at the end.
The parody mapmaker seems to be unaware that Lake Michigan is entirely an American lake. The rest are more or less equally divided between Canada and the United States and governed by an international joint commission, which also covers the Canadian portions of the St. Lawrence River and the Seaway through Montreal. (Besides, isn’t “Lake Ontario” good enough for them?) This would be trivial carping except that one of the recurring leftist Canadian nationalist fever dreams is that the Americans are after our fresh water to irrigate the dry southwest. When they think of “our” fresh water they think first of “our” Great Lakes, which aren’t.
Governor Whitmer of Michigan wants to close Enbridge’s Line 5 Pipeline that runs under the Straits of Mackinac, entirely in American waters as it takes a shortcut from Alberta to southern Ontario. This unfriendly act would cause us to run out of gas, literally, (and jet fuel.) It seems unwise to try to score points among the leftist converted by implying, even in good fun, that Canada could rename Gov. Whitmer’s own Lake….especially since Michigan leftists were pushing her to close Line 5.
Canadian jingoists have also been talking about “cutting off our oil” (and electricity, for good measure) to the U.S. to retaliate should American tariffs be imposed. What they need to realize is that if we ordered the oil and gas industry to immolate itself like that, the U.S. would surely close the Line 5 pipe as a cost-free (to them) escalation. (Aboriginals in Wisconsin want it closed, too.) Alberta suppliers and Ontario customers would be crippled and no Americans would be affected, aside from a couple of refineries in Michigan and Ohio that, unlike Ontario, are connected to American pipes also. And Gov. Whitmer would deliver on a campaign promise.
Leslie I’m not sure you dear friends north of the border can be trusted with naming anything anymore. I often seem to see various Canadian names “indigenized” into something harsh and/or unpronounceable.
Nunavut… or lately Dunbas Square (?) in Toronto is it?
(hat tip Jon Kay).
Something to ponder my friend,
D.A.
NYC/Florida
Musk is suggesting more re-naming. At least we can pronounce it!
(I suspect he might have been trolling.)
Our hotel in Paris last summer was right around the corner from Maison d’Isabelle. I was getting croissants there daily. They were fantastic, but I had no idea that they had been rated the best in Paris.
Here is a forgotten bit of history:
President-elect Barack Obama is strongly considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a Cabinet post, Democratic officials told Politico.
https://www.politico.com/story/2008/11/obama-considers-stars-for-cabinet-015320
“Singer and actress Marianne Faithfull dies at 78”: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8k931j423o
Here’s her song The Stars Line Up:
I wonder if the Canadians renamed Perry’s Monument on South Bass Island in Lake Erie?
Perry’s Monument commemorates the Battle of Lake Erie, the battle during the War of 1812 when the Americans kicked Canadian butt
Ha. That would be like renaming Trafalgar Square after a French admiral. The entire War of 1812 was a conflict between the regular forces of the United States and Great Britain over issues not directly related to the backwoods territory known loosely as Canada. Canada, such as it was then and it wasn’t much, played little role in the fighting except as hastily raised militia and fencibles in the cross-border skirmishes. Commander Perry’s brig-and-sloop victory over the Royal Navy, plus the associated land victory at nearby Moraviantown on the Thames River, were the most decisive battles of the War. They should dispel any notion that “Canada” “beat” the United States. Even though the War is described as a stalemate — no territory changed hands — the American success on Lake Erie and the Thames ended any British dreams of holding Detroit or helping the Indians meddle in American expansion into the Upper Midwest.
(The burning of Washington was a hit and run by the Royal Navy and Marines. Nothing to do with Canada.)