Welcome to Thursday, March 6, 2025, and National Frozen Food Day. May I recommend Trader Joe’s kimbap, which gets rave reviews. It’s “a vegan kimbap that features seasoned rice, fried tofu, and select stir-fried vegetables (burdok root — an impressive choice of ingredient — carrot, yellowed pickled radish, and spinach). It also contains other notable ingredients like seaweed (obviously— that’s what we wrap the roll in), sesame seeds, and soy sauce according to the ingredient list.” I had one the other night, dipping the slices in soy sauce with a tad of sesame oil. It was terrific, and you need only snip the corner of this puppy’s package and then microwave it:
It’s also Alamo Day (the day in 1836 when the Mexicans defeated the Texans in that structure), National Oreo Cookie Day (first sold on this day in 1912), and National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day. What every happened to Hydrox cookies? Did anybody ever do a blind taste test of Hydrox vs. Oreo?
A bunch of “Stand Up for Science” rallies and walkouts are taking place TOMORROW to protest the new administrations cuts in science funding. There are 32 in various state capitals (list here), so if you think your participation will make a difference, go make your voice heard or your placard seen.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 6 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*The courts are starting to take the mickey out of Trump’s ambitious executive orders. This time it’s the order to freeze foreign aid, and the vote to sink it was from the Supreme Court, with both Roberts and Barrett voting against Trump!
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected President Trump’s emergency request to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid as part of his efforts to slash government spending.
The court’s brief order was unsigned, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications. It said only that the trial judge, who had ordered the government to resume payments, “should clarify what obligations the government must fulfill.”
But the ruling represented one of the court’s first moves in response to the flurry of litigation filed in response to Mr. Trump’s efforts to dramatically reshape government. The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the three liberal members to form a majority.
Although the language of the order was mild, tentative and not a little confusing, its bottom line was that a bare majority of the court ruled against Mr. Trump on one of his signature projects. The president’s many programs and plans, the order suggested, will face close scrutiny from a deeply divided court.
That, in turn, is likely to give rise to major rulings testing and perhaps recalibrating the separation of powers required by the Constitution.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the four dissenting justices, said the majority had gone profoundly astray.
It looks like some of the conservative justices are going to stick to the law rather than to the GOP, which is good. I can see several other EOs that the Supremes will overturn as well, beginning with the birthright ban.
*Several Arab countries have proposed a plan to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza until the Palestinian Authority can take over. The PA part is completely insane. And Trump is not on board.
The White House has rejected an Arab plan for rebuilding the Gaza Strip, an early indication of the strength of President Trump’s commitment to positions he has staked out on contentious foreign-policy issues.
Arab governments have scrambled to come up with a plan after Trump laid out a proposal for the U.S. to take over the territory and redevelop it as an international destination after clearing out its Palestinian residents. The Arab proposal nodded to the president’s vision of a “Riviera of the Middle East,” calling for the eventual development of beachfront resorts.
But the White House shot down the proposal, saying the extent of the destruction in Gaza made keeping Palestinians in the enclave unworkable. Critics of the plan also said it failed to spell out how it would disarm Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that led the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel that left 1,200 dead and triggered the war.
The rejection makes clear that Trump won’t easily give up on an idea that has been criticized by governments around the world and surprised some of his aides and own party. It is also a sign of the challenges facing countries from Canada to Ukraine in trying to steer Trump to more palatable outcomes in disputes of their own.
“The current proposal does not address the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable and residents cannot humanely live in a territory covered in debris and unexploded ordnance,” National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said. “President Trump stands by his vision to rebuild Gaza free from Hamas. We look forward to further talks to bring peace and prosperity to the region.”
Two weeks after the war began, on October 23, 2023, I published an article titled About the Future. In it, I wrote that the war would continue for about another decade. When asked why I was so pessimistic, I said, “Pessimistic? I am realistic. It could take a lot longer.”
*If I had a choice of how I was to be executed, I may well choose the firing squad, since lethal injections seem to go wrong quite often. And the firing squad is very quick, though you might have a moment of severe pain. At any rate, five states (Idaho, Utah, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Mississippi) permit this method of execution, though only 144 people have been put to death this way in the history of the U.S. Now it’s going to be 145.
South Carolina on Friday is scheduled to put the first person to death by firing squad in the U.S. in 15 years. Brad Sigmon, who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001, chose it over the two other methods in South Carolina — the electric chair and lethal injection.
Since 1608, at least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by shooting in America, nearly all in Utah. Only three have occurred since 1977, when the use of capital punishment resumed after a 10-year pause. The first of those, Gary Gilmore, caused a media sensation in part because he waived his appeals and volunteered to be executed. When asked for his last words, Gilmore replied, “Let’s do it.”
Five states — Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah — authorize the use of firing squads in certain circumstances.
One of the reasons firing squads did not gain much use beyond Utah was that people viewed them as barbaric, according to Deborah Denno, a criminologist at Fordham School of Law.
The bloody reality of those killings, as well as botched hangings and electrocutions, which sometimes led people to struggle and suffer, prompted states in the early 1980s to begin turning to lethal injection, a procedure viewed — at least initially — as more humane.
But since then, lethal injection has become the most commonly botched execution method, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. States have struggled to obtain the required drugs, and some have taken another look at firing squads — an old but largely reliable method. Lawmakers in Idaho are considering a bill that would make firing squads the primary method of execution there.
Two people now on Utah’s death row have requested firing squads.
According to the AP’s diagram at the site, three volunteers from the state’s Corrections Department will fire rifles through a slot in a wall from 15 feet away from the seated prisoner, aiming at his heart. The ammunition will be .308 Caliber Winchester 110-grain TAP Urban, said to “break apart on impact. Fragments will spread out and the intent is to destroy as much of the heart as possible.” I reiterate that I am adamantly opposed to all forms of capital punishment, including this one. If they’re to be used as deterrents, though, they should be carried out in public.
*Regardless of its intent, this artwork, involving allowing three caged piglets starve to death in public, is ineffably cruel. (Piglets aren’t deliberately starved to death anyway, though some die because sows produce more piglets than they have teats.) Fortunately, somebody rescued the hapless porkers. There’s a photo of the “installation” at the NYT website (archived here).
Three piglets were stolen from an art exhibition in Copenhagen over the weekend after a provocative artist said they would be allowed to starve to death in a commentary about animal welfare in Denmark, one of the world’s largest pork exporters.
The artist, Marco Evaristti, said in an interview on Monday that his exhibition, “And Now You Care?,” was meant to “wake up the Danish society” to the mistreatment of pigs, pointing to statistics that tens of thousands of pigs die each day because of poor conditions.
“I have some kind of voice as an artist to talk about the issue,” Evaristti, 62, said. “So I will share my thoughts about what I think about the treatment of the animals in Denmark.”
The exhibition, which opened on Friday inside a former butcher’s warehouse in the Meatpacking District of Copenhagen, included three live piglets that were caged by two shopping carts on a pile of straw. Large-scale paintings of the Danish flag and slaughtered pigs hung on the walls.
The pigs, which were given water but no food, were expected to live up to five days. Evaristti said he also would not eat or drink until the exhibition came to an end.
But the pigs did not die. They disappeared.
Evaristti, who was born in Chile, said that while the exhibition space was being cleaned on Saturday morning, members of an animal rights organization came to check on the piglets. Shortly after they left, the theft occurred.
“They closed the door while the cleaning people were cleaning the toilet,” he said, adding that the door was unlocked. “After four minutes, they come out and it was no pigs.
Animal rights groups were divided over Evaristti’s latest exhibition, with some agreeing with his message but not his method and presentation. A review from a Danish newspaper slammed the exhibition as “old-fashioned avant-garde.”
Mathias Madsen, a campaign manager for Anima International Denmark, said in a statement that the organization had reported Evaristti to the police when he announced his plans to starve the piglets to death.
“This would violate multiple sections of the Danish Animal Welfare Act, and we wanted authorities prepared to intervene,” Madsen said, adding that the strong public reaction to the exhibition was a reminder that people find animal suffering unacceptable.
This is disgusting. There are better ways to call attention to cruelty to animals than to deliberately inflict cruelty on animals. I’m glad the artist was reported and the piglets freed.
*The BBC reports that the U.S. has decided to stop sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
Intelligence sharing paused: The US has suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine on top of a pause to military support. The move was confirmed by Trump’s national security adviser and the head of the CIA, and could have serious consequences on the battlefield.
But freeze might come to an end: Mike Waltz, the US national security adviser, says President Trump would consider restoring military aid to Ukraine if peace talks are arranged. Speaking to Fox News, Waltz said “the president will take a hard look at lifting this pause” if they can “nail down these negotiations” and put confidence-building measures on the table.
. . . . .US intelligence sharing is “more important” for Ukraine than the military aid cut-off, the Economist’s defence editor Shashank Joshi tells the BBC’s PM programme.
That’s because “they could fight for months without munition, however they will feel this immediately”, he says.
“It’s at times been absolutely fundamental for Ukraine”, Joshi says, explaining that “on day one of this conflict” Western intelligence supplied to Ukraine allowed them to anticipate and defend against a Russian assault on an airport outside of Kyiv.
Since then, US intelligence has been used for alerts on incoming ballistic missiles, as well as for information to effectively use long-range strike systems.
But Joshi says Ukraine also has some indigenous intelligence sources as well as commercial sources, adding: “I also don’t want to suggest that it’s cataclysmal and they can no longer see anything at all.”
He says for now, Ukraine still has access to Starlink – Elon Musk’s satellite internet company – but they anticipate it could be cut off soon and are actively working on replacements.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is dreaming of the Japanese cat treats that Hiroko (who made my embroidered Hili shirt) sent her.
Hili: I have a dream.A: What dream?Hili: That I’m eating such a treat that I once got from Japan.
Hili: Mam marzenie.Ja: Jakie?Hili: Że znowu jem taki przysmak jaki kiedyś dostałam z Japonii.
From Godless Mom, a welcome mat:
From Things With Faces, a grumpy chair:
From The Grammar Police:
From Masih; another Iranian man bravely defies the theocracy.
Mehdi Yarrahi, the Iranian singer, was flogged by the Islamic Republic, for singing a song called Take Off Your Scarf. But let me tell you what this regime never understands:
For every lash they strike, more women will take off their scarves. More voices will rise. And nothing… pic.twitter.com/93xa0xTLhp
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 5, 2025
Luana says this is the funniest thing she’s seen in a long time, and made her tear up:
JAJAJAAJAJAJAJAJA la voz de Mickey pic.twitter.com/Oe7Wjds4ap
— 𝒶 (@horridibujos) March 4, 2025
From cesar. When are people going to learn that hate speech is not illegal unless it’s designed to create immediate violence or is so pervasive that it creates a climate of discrimination?
During a hearing on censorship, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett falsely states that hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment.
This level of ignorance about the Constitution should disqualify you from holding office.
“The thing about the Constitution is that it has… pic.twitter.com/77IMSaJJp9
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) February 14, 2025
Simon sent this, which made me really laugh out loud–a genuine LOL:
GIVE THEM TRUNKS YOU COWARDSwww.theguardian.com/science/2025…
— Marc Dionne (@marcsdionne.bsky.social) 2025-03-04T18:05:25.420Z
From my feed; who says that Twitter is a cesspool?
This horse waited his whole life for this moment
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) March 5, 2025
From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:
A Dutch boy was sent to the gas chambers after arriving at Auschwitz. He was only seven.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-03-06T10:52:10.130Z
Two from Dr. Cobb. The first one he calls, “Australia wants to kill you,” and it’s true!
Beregama aurea, also known as The golden huntsman Spider IS one of the largest huntsman Spiders in Australia.#nature #insects #animals
— Álvaro F. (@maxwellafh.bsky.social) 2025-01-31T03:21:13.403Z
We still have the muscles to do this, though some people can’t move their ears (I’m good at it). It’s clearly a vestigial trait, for our relatives have functional ear-moving muscles (viz., cats):
‘A neural fossil’: human ears try to move when listening, scientists say
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all. -Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (6 Mar 1475-1564)
“I was an ordinary person who studied hard. There are no miracle people.”
-Richard P. Feynman
From
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
BBC, 1981 (Verified with Grok)
(I think I put that up before…?)
But it’s utter tosh. To achieve what Feynman or Michelangelo did you need both an immense amount of innate ability and a large amount of hard work to cultivate that talent.
The idea that you could pick random people and turn them into Feynmans by hard work is utterly wrong. Further, this idea is cruel: to tell people who don’t have such abilities that they’re simply lazy is heartless. The truth is that innate ability is the biggest factor in such life outcomes.
Yes, it’s both nature and nurture, not one or the other. As I recall, Geddy Lee commented on this in an interview with Dan Rather; furthermore, personal experiences have led me to this conclusion.
I highly recommend Geddy’s book, even for those who are not (yet?) fans of his music.
I don’t think your view is any more, or less, accurate. How does it account for the many, many people that don’t have any high level innate abilities but that have good life outcomes? In my experience hard work and reliability very commonly beats out brilliant innate ability.
Perhaps at the very highest levels, of Einsteins and Feynmans your view is correct. If that’s all you meant, I agree.
Feynman was of course notorious for the anecdotes about himself. And I wonder how dishonest he is.
I have never been in academia, but my impression is that that physicists for instance are very conscious of their brainpower relative to others. There appears to be a kind of pecking order, “does not suffer fools gladly” is a frequently-heard phrase. So they very much care about talent, and the feigned modesty towards aw-struck public audiences is deceptive. So perhaps the real Feynman was actually quite aware that he was a top dog, and demanded that his rank be recognised. Einstein also was modest about his achievements in public, but privately thought he was one of the most important scientists ever. But the most striking example is Hawking, who could say IQ is for losers while appearing to mass audiences gushing before his genius, and never seemed to worry when he was treated as the new Einstein. His ex-wife reportedly said it was hard for him to accept that he was not god.
(An older example is Wellington, always praising Napoleon’s generalship in public (“the best in any age”). But privately he thought the man had never learned anything new, made many horrible blunders and was ultimately the worse general.)
To be fair to Einstein, though, he really WAS one of the most important scientists ever.
And Feynman didn’t write many of the books attributed to him. This is a bit long but is a good explanation of what is going on. Short answer, Ralph Leighton wrote many of the books. Oddly, Ralph Leighton’s father was a colleague of Feynman’s but Ralph Leighton never mentions him. Sounds like Ralph Leighton has a strange obsession with Feynman, and Many of Feynman’s stories may have been Feynman trying to sound tough to Leighton:
I would just like to say to everybody who commented about Richard Feynman and physicists, that you’re not even wrong.
Forgive me if you think that I speak Pauli.
“Everyone can be taught to sculpt: Michelangelo would have had to be taught how not to.”
Alan Perlis, American computer scientist and Turing Award winner (the quote continues with: “So it is with the great programmers.”)
I once heard Bluegrass guitar virtuoso Doc Watson – who was blind – comment on fans complimenting him on his playing, as if it were only a mere matter of having talent. He said words to the effect that people had no idea how hard he had to work to accomplish what he did.
Guy threatened with parking ticket for parking in the gay zone should have said he was a black lesbian trapped in a white man’s body. I had a professor in college thirty years ago who actually used to tell his classes that.
Guy should have asked for some ID.
Great idea. That was a hilarious clip.
Damn – just hit TJ’s yesterday – makin’ a note for next time.
🍱
… oh, “neural” – I thought it was “neutral”!
PCC(E) preserve us! I’m not squeamish about spiders, but if I found a golden huntsman in my bath, I’d be tempted to simply burn the house down!
Please, do not burn the spider. Huntsmen spiders are the most elegant hunters of other arthropods. Primates are not on their menus.
I used huntsmen spiders in elementary school classes to demonstrate their hunting abilities: they jump in the air and catch the cricket
Would that I could have attended such an elementary school!
I remember them from my childhood in Oz. Terrifying for sure but beautiful.
I never saw anybody kill one – they’re just so tough and cool.
🙂
D.A.
NYC
As for Ms. Crockett and others who spout nonsense, regardless of gender, race, or party, I’m never sure if they are stupid, liars, or ignorant. Regardless, such types have no business “running” the country; I’m not sure they even have any business voting.
Stupid, liars, and ignorant are not mutually exclusive.
Agreed.
If you exclude “those types” who would be left? The current administration would be annihilated.
You may be right.
My preference would be for the voting base and representatives to be composed of those who are not ignorant, who have a reasonable level of intelligence, and who do not adhere to false narratives/untruths. I would add one more: those who are able-bodied but who choose to live off the system should be disallowed a say/role (you have dogs and you have ticks – some people are givers and some are takers).
Anyway, I’m sure many disagree, so I will limit my comments to these.
Ms. Crockett stated ‘Hate Crimes’ not ‘Hate Speech’. Note there is a significant difference between those two terms. She then gave an example of a specific law that does exist. It was easy to find: 18 U.S. Code 876. Combine that with 18 U.S. Code 245, 247, 249.
Ms. Crocket is a lawyer with a long track record (2006-2019 actively). Admittedly, she did near the end use the word ‘hateful’ when a better word specific to 876 would be ‘threatening’. The threat or extortion makes it a crime. The ‘hateful’ part is what triggers 245/247/249. Ms. Crockett was literally correct. Except from my reading of 876 the penalty is ‘not more than 10 years’ rather than 5 years. So Ms. Crockett may have gotten the years wrong.
Laura Powell is the one mischaracterizing what Ms. Crockett stated. Ms. Powell is the one that summarized ‘hate speech’ when Ms. Crockett said clearly ‘hate crimes’.
Note: I am not a lawyer. Maybe one of the lawyers who frequent this web site can correct me if I got anything wrong.
I appreciate you taking the time to offer a correction. Though I doubt it will do much good.
Thanks Dragon. It was foolish or mendacious of Laura Powell not to check. As soon as Ms. Crockett mentioned the U.S. Mail I guessed she was on solid ground, as you show, because everyone should know there are things you can’t use the mail or the telephone lines for. Even if you can stand on a sidewalk and shout the same things to the clouds.
Hate crimes aren’t hate speech. They are two different things, which Ms. Powell seems to confuse. Prosecutors can seek a hate enhancement for an act that is already a crime, like an assault motivated by racial bigotry, making it a hate crime, or perhaps the illegal use of the mail to send intimidating letters based on religion or sexual orientation. Hate speech itself is illegal in the U.S. only in the senses that Jerry states in his preamble to the Powell tweet. I would have to listen to the Congresswoman’s entire speech to see if she disentangles hate speech from hate crimes. Elevating hate speech itself (almost always legal) to a hate crime just because the accused illegally sent it through the mail would be a high bar.
Hate enhancements to any crimes should be sought sparingly in my lay libertarian opinion. If you deliberately drive up onto the sidewalk to run over someone, why should it matter that the victims were visibly Muslim? Isn’t killing them bad enough? It seems as if we’re saying we’ll go easy on heinous crimes except if the victims belong to protected classes and the perpetrator doesn’t.
I agree that hate enhancements should be sought sparingly. My layman’s understanding is 245/247/249 were results of things like cross burning on someone’s lawn. Clearly a threat to the homeowner. But it was also a terrorist threat to the entire neighborhood. I mean that in this definition of terrorism: “a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.”
Blowing up one black church might get you charged with arson or if someone died, murder. During those times it was also a terrorist threat that black churches better keep quiet. Yes, that one person would still be dead. But there are more victims of the terror campaign. Any honest person knew some of those events were indeed terrorist. Those threatening a single black voter from using the polls were not intending to stop a single black voter, they were using it to threaten all the black voters in the area.
I personally think juries are the best able to determine which events are actual “hate crimes” and not just someone using a derogatory term at one single victim.
I do not agree the usual sentence for murder is ‘going easy’ on the heinous crime.
Please also note that everyone is actually a member of ‘protected classes’. The laws don’t specify which races, religions, etc. ‘count’ and which don’t. If an atheist was terrorizing prosperity gospel churches, a mega-church pastor was terrorizing atheist gatherings, a wheel chair bound person terrorizing athletic competitions, or a lesbian was terrorizing straight bars, the law applies – if the perp demonstrated their motivation.
I encountered hate crimes and speech in law school. I thought it a bad idea then and even moreso now.
If somebody shoots me and I’m dead – irrespective of their motivation – I’m mad about that!
The problem w/ hate crimes is we are forced to interrogate – and then judge – a person’s private motivations. That is very difficult – my two cents is that the question of motivation should end with the question of was the action intentional or unintentional? Is there “mens rea”? A guilty mind and criminal intent.
Otherwise getting into the weeds of their further motivations is political and speculative at best. Too important for juries and judges – THAT is the preview of the political not the legal system.
D.A., J.D.
NYC
Sorry, you’re right. My Canadian bias slipped in even though I was expressing admiration for the American First Amendment.
We actually do bend over backwards here to avoid incarcerating certain races of criminals. First we try to arrange to charge (or convict) them of manslaughter and not murder. Many of these “unsympathetic” defendants elect trial before a judge alone. They are often on a first-name basis with each other. This itself almost guarantees a short sentence. Then, for aboriginal criminals but not others, the judge must obtain what is called a Gladue report before sentencing. This will formulaically show that the person was so harmed by residential schools that his great-uncle and third cousin attended, along with general racism that permeates all of Canadian society, that he has diminished capacity for the rehabilitation effects of prison. Instead he should get house custody in a healing lodge with credit for time served on remand. Fetal alcohol syndrome also makes him irremediable by prison. So for certain races, yes, we actually do return them to the community after serious crimes. It is not uncommon for career criminals to have racked up 60 convictions by their mid-30s, and that’s with juvenile convictions expunged. To get 60 raps means you haven’t served any prison time for any of them. I’m not making this up.
And we do have preferred values of protected classes. Our laws actually do specify that some races may count and some may not, explicitly so in the Constitution and in Human Rights Codes. The criminal law doesn’t say so explicitly but sentencing guidelines are enforceable. There is a push from activist lawyers on the Left to have those guidelines also provide explicitly for more lenient sentences for black criminals, even for black on white crimes. Because racism. (And activist lawyers attract the attention of the Liberal Party and become judges.) They are doing this in the UK, too.
So in our context, hate crimes only work in one direction. It would be unthinkable for an aboriginal or black criminal to be charged with a hate enhancement for killing a white police officer in cold blood. More likely they’d get a lighter sentence, as above. But the guy who ran over the Muslims on the London (Ontario) sidewalk was. That’s why it’s hard for me to see hate enhancements as anything other than reverse racism for settling scores, even if you use them more even-handedly in the U.S.
I have never understood the legal distinction between hate crimes and non-hate crimes. If someone kills in “hot blood” that is sometimes a mitigating factor not an aggravating one (diminished capacity maybe). Is it better if a murderer is a stone-cold psychopath? Or killing a rival for financial gain? Or a generally nice person with very poor impulse control?
IANAL, obviously. Please, someone, what is the jurisprudential justification for the distinction?
I hope I am not getting too close to the ‘too many’ posts.
I provided my layman’s jurisprudential justification 23 minutes before your post. Of course, you may have been taking your time posting and have missed my post.
IANAL.
Thank you.
Along with those other “days,” this is The Day of The Dude! I don’t know about you, but I’ll be having a certain cocktail (name censored) or two in his honor. He abides!
Which part of that name is worse to the previous administration? Which part is worse for the current one? Both tricky questions…
“Sometimes, you eat the bear — and sometimes, well, the bear eats you”
-The Stranger / Narrator
(“bear” pronounced Wild West style “barrr” in the movie)
Will the US become a dictatorship within the next five years?
So far, I have repeatedly underestimated Trump. At first, he was a joke candidate. Then, he surely he didn’t actually mean what he said literally, the reporting was hysterical (I made this mistake so many times!). He would not be able to get anything done with his inexperience and ineptitude, and the thought that he would not respect election results was scaremongering.
How wrong I was. Now Trump has the network of loyal lackeys he lacked previously. The Republican party does not resist his personality cult at all, but goes along with it. With four years left in his (hopefully last) term, the future looks bleak.
No
Whatever the significant shortcomings of the Democrats, and there are a lot, the anti-Trump stance was the smart position. There are a lot of smart critics that had great criticisms of wokeness, but were still hard anti-Trump. Now we have a lunatic on ketamine that wants to see how fast he can hit the delete button. I really swear Musk was not always like this. He seemed like he had decent qualities. Gonna have to see what our allies think of us in a few months. The Democrats should get a lot of blame, but MAGA and the critics that downplayed the danger of Trump 2.0 deserve more.
The Trump support is a black stain on Elon Musk’s life. And I also hate how he and Trump completely discredit free speech, something that is very important to me.
Musk’s crime: using AI to figure out how tax dollars are actually being spent. Unforgivable.
I didn’t say crime. Oligarchy may be looming pretty large, but we’ll see. With comments like this though, “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security… There are FAR more ‘eligible’ social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA. This might be the biggest fraud in history.”, he might need better AI. Or when DOGE saved 8 billion, but they added three zeros and it was actually 8 million. Or cancel biomedical research and call it waste. It’s almost like he isn’t doing what you’re saying and is actually just lying.
@John. Indeed. I am still waiting for a single piece of evidence from Musk and his techbros. They struct words from IRS documents which noted statements like ‘inclusion of a check’, or ‘equity’ (Financial equity is the value of an asset or business after subtracting any debts or liabilities) as part of DEI. Stupidest AI of all time.
But Musk definitely is going after agencies that hold any of his companies in check for fraud, waste, safety violations, or unfair labor practices.
“It’s almost like he isn’t doing what you’re saying and is actually just lying.” Almost. Almost.
I almost totally agree politically John. Forget the ketamine though. I’ve taken a lot and know a lot about the brain chem and medicine involved – I’m a decades long psychonaut and have written in my column about it.
Don’t look to “he’s an outa control druggie” idea for explanations at all.
Musk used to be a Democrat like me. I hated woke as well but what “transed” (heheh)…. what changed me into hating the Dems was exactly what changed him: by subterfuge and lies TRA’s and teachers “transed” a close family member.
Must has a long list of predictable bitches in which (it does seem) the Biden admin persecuted his businesses. I make no comment on that though he has some fairly convincing evidence for his claims.
But if one’s son or close relative’s future adult lives were destroyed by the trans cult… well that’ll motivate a person.
Not ketamine. Ketamine is great.
D.A.
NYC
Lol, I’ll take your word for it. This is out of the blue, but I think you recommended Stephen Kotkin’s biography on Stalin. I’m really enjoying volume 1. Complex biography.
Read slowly! Last fall, Kotkin said he is still several years from completing volume 3.
No. But the current situation is disconcerting with both the House and the Senate having Republican majorities and almost all Rs being lockstep behind Trump.
That could change in 2026. Trump is generating a huge amount of (deserved) hostility and voter turnout in 2026 will likely be high.
AIUI, a well-known European dictatorship was democratically and enthusiastically welcomed by the mainstream populace. The great dictator was not a preternaturally evil opportunistic genius, but rather channelled the nation’s resentment and anger of the time; he was the lightning rod, not the lightning.
This supports a pessimistic conclusion.
A different time, Barbara, you’re not taking that into account. History indeed rhymes b/c humans don’t change but it doesn’t repeat itself at all.
D.A.
NYC
I haven’t had a chance to read the opinion in the USAID case, but I have to say that I am disgusted by how quickly conservatives have turned on Justice Barrett and on the Court itself. I saw a post on twitter this morning suggesting that the finances of the Court members be audited. It was only a few months ago that they were defending Thomas from this sort of intimidation from Democrats.
You sure everything is in order when an audit of finances is considered as intimidation?
It absolutely is intimidation is when the call for audit is motivated by political animus and not by actual evidence that raises red flags in the minds of the auditors, the IRS presumably, whose job it is to investigate impartially. Their credibility rests on the supposition that they do investigate impartially.
Being audited is an expensive, stressful process even if you “know” the auditors won’t find anything. If you know that the audit was ginned up by your enemies you know the auditors will find something. The tax authorities interpret the tax laws by convention. You can’t rely on professional tax advise absolutely.
I guess I’ll disagree. My department was on the receiving end of such an audit, but as our head of department had integrity, she had no issue to take full responsibility for the miniscule discrepancies that were found. In fact, she was commended that the largest discrepancies found were below .5% on a seven figure budget.
Of course, when everyone is cutting corners and dipping their beak, it’s a different story. As a German, it hurts my soul when clean books are considered an impossibility. Yes, auditors hell-bent on finding something will always find something. But the reality of the situation is that not everything they find does damage.
Yes, Leslie. The punishment is often in the process itself.
D.A.
NYC
+1 There is no excuse for politically motivated audits.
In fact, one reason Musk is no longer a Democrat is that Biden sicced various agencies on him.
“This is disgusting. There are better ways to call attention to cruelty to animals than to deliberately inflict cruelty on animals. I’m glad the artist was reported and the piglets freed.”
+1. Agreed.
+1
F’ed up “artists”.
Absolutely. What a sick attempt at “art.”
I’ve had that Apathetic (Apothic) Red. It’s not one of my favorites, as it tastes a bit like maple syrup.
We’ll see what happens with the Arab proposal for Gaza. The good news is that Trump’s proposal got the attention of the Arab leaders. Bringing the Palestinian Authority into the picture seems to make no sense on its face, but I have read that there are a few Israeli leaders who may be willing to talk about it. In any case, it seems to me that a solution of some sort, with an Arab coalition ruling Gaza and overseeing its rebuilding, would be a good thing—but only if Hamas is out of the picture. In this case, Captain Chaos (President Trump) may have shaken some things loose.
As a Canadian it (Apothic) red is one of my go-to wines. Shame, while Trump is in charge I will forgo that pleasure.
In 1974, the GOP Congress voted to give President Nixon the line item veto. The Supreme Court quickly over ruled this because the Constitution of the U.S. gives control of budgets to the Congress alone. Trump cannot cut budgets on his own authority. Nor can he grant that power to unelected bureaucrats like Elongated Muskrat. Nor can he eliminate departments arbitrarily, such as Department Of Education. President Carted created that but only after the Senate and House voted to create that department at his suggestion.. Only Congress can vote to eliminate departments like DOE. Muskrat has recently been claiming the courts cannot overrule Trump. Muskrat does not understand the Constitutional principle of three coequal branches of government. Some hard lessons are about to be learned.
I’d like to add that there are many more Stand Up for Science rallies than just the 32 at state capitals and DC. There are 16 just in California. Most of these additional rallies are universities. They can be found here:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1n_-kC7wh8MnS7KUzUA8A8ExJUW-ullk&femb=1&ll=36.832876433683204%2C-115.88252438188354&z=6
There are also quite a few rallies in France, and just a few in Switzerland, Austria, and Canada.
I love the horse joining the bicycle race. I hope it was OK after that much galloping on blacktop.
I sent the ‘winning horse’ video to my sister, who sent me this in response. But do listen to the narrator — and never mind about men in women’s sports?!!
That is great!!!
https://x.com/Evolutionistrue/status/1897635066270134747 ✨🐱✨
https://x.com/tabilabo_news/status/783502098340151296 🇯🇵🗞
https://x.com/tabilabo_news/status/784000265217343490 🇯🇵🗞
https://tabi-labo.com/277609/nekoshirts
Professor Jerry Coyne and “Hili the Cat” appear in this article!! 🇺🇸🇵🇱🐱
https://wagahaido.com/shopping/22194 🇯🇵📚
https://wagahaido.com/shopping/23055 🇯🇵📚
Here is a book by Hiroko Kubota. 🇯🇵📚
https://note.com/hirokoembroidery/n/ne17e584c305d 🇯🇵🪡
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8t6Grvyfye/ 🇯🇵🪡
Here is Hiroko Kubota’s blog and Instagram. 🇯🇵🐱✨
https://x.com/Evolutionistrue/status/1897635066270134747 🇯🇵🍣
Conveyor belt sushi 🍣
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conveyor_belt_sushi
https://youtu.be/LDZpQdK9rko
In Japan, there is a restaurant where the sushi rotates like a merry-go-round. 🇯🇵🎠🍣
https://x.com/Evolutionistrue/status/1897635066270134747 ✨🐱✨
https://bsky.app/profile/theguardian.com/post/3lgzahfcq772y 👂
https://youtu.be/kdGkdofosg0
Professor Jerry Coyne can move his ears like a cat. These are “vestigial organs.” 🐱👂✨