Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Welcome to CaturSaturday, January 31, 2026, and tomorrow we’ll be into February. Today is (appropriately) National Hot Chocolate Day. Here’s some excellent hot chocolate I had in Paris, served at Angelina’s, now very crowded and touristy, but also very good. The thick chocolate also comes in a small pitcher of extra libation along with a ramekin of whipped cream. My snack (foreground) includes one of their famous Mont Blanc pastries, filled with chestnut cream and covered with strings of chocolate. Try downing this after a heavy lunch! At the far side, my eating companion, the ever hungry Winnie, has chosen a raspberry pastry.
And yes, the name is a slur on Scottish people. As Wikipedia says (bolding is mine):
[3M engineer Richard] Drew’s inspiration came from watching automotive engineers try to achieve smooth paintings on two-color cars. Existing adhesives would remove underlying paint along when they were removed, requiring expensive and time-consuming touch-up work. Drew used 3M’s extensive portfolio of sandpaper adhesives to find one with just enough tackiness to stay put during the painting process, but also remove easily when complete. According to 3M company history, Drew attempted to apply adhesive to only the edges of the tape to prevent it from adhering too strongly. When that version failed in testing, a shop floor told Drew to, “go tell his Scotch bosses that they shouldn’t be so cheap with the adhesive and put it on all the way!” In those days, to say someone was being “Scotch” meant they were penny-pinching or miserly. The successful product would be named “Scotch” brand masking tape in 1925 and later evolved the product to be transparent.
It looks as if, since Jews are also stereotyped as being miserly, this product barely missed being called “Jew tape”. But in light of the national slur, it should be renamed from “Scotch tape”. Any suggestions?
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the January 31 Wikipedia page.
The Justice Department said on Friday that it will conduct a civil rights investigation into the death of Alex Pretti, a Veterans Affairs nurse whose killing by federal agents in Minneapolis resulted in a national backlash against President Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
The announcement by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche marked a major turnaround in the Trump administration’s approach to the case, which officials had initially said would be confined to a relatively narrow use-of-force inquiry by the Department of Homeland Security.
“We are looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day,” Mr. Blanche said at a news conference. “I don’t want the takeaway to be there is some massive civil rights investigation. I would describe it as a standard investigation by the F.B.I. That investigation, to the extent it needs to involve lawyers from the civil rights division, it will.”
The announcement followed growing concern, including among some of the administration’s Republican allies in Congress, about the Pretti killing and Trump officials’ handling of the case. It also followed several arrests over the past 24 hours involving a church protest that took place this month in St. Paul, Minn.
Federal agents arrested the former CNN anchor Don Lemon late Thursday in Los Angeles on charges that he violated federal law when reporting on a Jan. 18 protest in a Minneapolis church, his lawyer said. The case had been rejected last week by a magistrate judge.
The former CNN anchor Don Lemon and three other people have been arrested on charges that they violated federal law during a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., this month, lawyers and Justice Department officials said on Friday, reviving a case that was rejected last week by a magistrate judge.
The arrests of Mr. Lemon, a second journalist and two protesters came a little more than a week after three other demonstrators who took part in the action at the Cities Church on Jan. 18 were taken into custody. The prosecution is likely to face pushback from defense lawyers on First Amendment grounds, given that political protest sits at the center of the charges and that Mr. Lemon and the other journalist, Georgia Fort, have said they entered the church to cover a demonstration against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the area.
The protesters interrupted a service at the church, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor, and chanted “ICE out.” Afterward, the Justice Department drafted a criminal complaint to charge a total of eight people, including Mr. Lemon, over of the episode, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship.
Clearly a federal investigation of federal agents is the right thing to do here, and I hope it can be conducted objectively, without interference from Trump. As for the people arrested, they are probably guilty of trespassing, a minor offense, but a First Amendment defense won’t hold if the newspeople participated in disrupting the church service. You don’t need to disrupt an event to cover it. The NBC Evening News last night suggested that Lemon and another woman were there simply to cover the disruption.
*Yesterday the Justice Department releasted three million more pages of the Epstein files.
The Justice Department is releasing more than three million additional pages, videos, images and other files related to its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, a top official said Friday.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press conference that the latest round of releases, which will begin Friday, follow an extensive review by Justice Department employees to redact sensitive information about Epstein’s victims. The records include three million pages, more than 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images, Blanche said.
The “release marks the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process,” Blanche said. He added later, “I hope the work the men and women did in this department over the past two months hopefully is able to bring closure” for Epstein’s victims.
The Justice Department began the much-anticipated document dump last month, releasing thousands of pages in a scramble to comply with the Dec. 19 deadline set in the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act passed by Congress in November and signed by President Trump.
But the Justice Department missed the deadline, releasing only a fraction of the documents under review and failed to explain redactions as required by the law. Hundreds of department employees have been working to review and redact victim-identifying information from the files.
Epstein victims and others have complained that the Justice Department has been overly aggressive with redactions, withholding material that should be public, while in other cases improperly disclosing victims’ identities.
The continuing release of the Epstein files has also kept Trump’s past relationship with Epstein in the spotlight. Trump has said he cut off ties before Epstein was first arrested in 2006. Trump has complained about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the files, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
. . .Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 of sex-trafficking offenses and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Maxwell has filed a habeas petition seeking her release, claiming that new evidence undermines her conviction.
The documents being released involve unclassified materials related to Epstein and Maxwell. They could include travel records, internal government emails, witness interviews and other records related to Epstein’s death and the government’s investigations into Epstein and Maxwell.
I guess this is the end of it all, and I’m also guessing that nobody else will be indicted. But surely some of the notables involved with Epstein were guilty of statory rape or worse; the problem is proving that beyond a reasonable doubt. If you think anyone else will be indicted beyond Maxwell and the late Epstein, let us know below.
*A federal judge has ruled that Luigi Mangione, accused of killing United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson, will not face the death penalty.
Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty over charges of stalking and fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in late 2024, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed two counts in a federal indictment against Mangione, ruling that the government’s charge that Mangione stalked Thompson did not meet the legal definition of being a crime of violence, a requirement for death-penalty eligible charges.
Mangione, 27, a Baltimore native, has pleaded not guilty. He will still face charges in federal court of causing Thompson’s death while stalking him, and he faces the possibility of life in prison without parole.
Garnett said in her ruling that she was hamstrung by Supreme Court precedent that required her to find the stalking conduct at issue in Mangione’s case was not technically violent under the law. The judge noted the “apparent absurdity” in that analysis given the alleged result of Mangione stalking Thompson.
“The Defendant is charged with selecting a stranger to be killed based on his employment; carefully planning the killing including where and when the selected victim would be most vulnerable; traveling across multiple states to carry out that killing; and then gunning the victim down on a public street in Midtown Manhattan, using ahandgun equipped with a silencer,” Garnett wrote.
“No one could seriously question that this is violent criminal conduct,” the judge said.
Prosecutors have the option of appealing the decision — a move that could lead to a Supreme Court review of its own past findings. It was not immediately clear if the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan would pursue an appeal.
But I think this is the more important decision:
Garnett also ruled that jurors will be able to hear and see evidence related to the backpack Mangione was carrying when he was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after the shooting. That backpack allegedly contained a written manifesto tying him to Thompson’s killing and the alleged weapon.
The backpack contains all kinds of stuff inculpating Mangione, including a gun. I believe the defense contention was that there was no warrant to search the backpack. This will be grounds for an appeal if Mangione is convicted, which is very likely. As for the death penalty, I’m glad it was ruled out, as I don’t believe in the death penalty for anyone. Life without parole is sufficient punishment, though one could argue that there should be life with the possibility of parole in case of rehabilitation.
*As always, I’m stealing a few items from Nellie Bowles’s news-and-snark column in The Free Press, called this week, “TGIF: Wonderful, gracious, charming.”
→ I thought we trusted the science? The New York Timeshas a big takedown of researchers who got a bunch of data that The New York Times doesn’t think they should have been able to get. Basically, it’s data on brain development that the government collected. Researchers (some of whom got the numbers through deception) have used this data and other test score data to purportedly show how it is that Asians consistently score hugely above anyone else, then white people, then black people. White supremacists like to make a big thing of all this. But that’s always funny to me because the IQ and race data doesn’t in any way show that white people are superior. But the NYT isn’t engaging in the actual data. The whole story is about how bad it is that the data is being shared at all. It must be secret forever! Forbidden knowledge! But the White House has committed to open-sourcing all federally funded health research, so expect more illicit findings like how your Korean classmate will absolutely humiliate you on the SAT, if you didn’t already know that. We shouldn’t cordon off health data. We shouldn’t be scared. I don’t want monstrous podcasters to be the only ones talking about controversial research. I don’t feel morally lesser because I know that Asians tend to score higher than whites. It’s vaguely interesting but also boring and doesn’t change my life in any way. What does it mean? Anything? What am I making for dinner? The same chicken?
→ Government-regulated products become more expensive over time: There’s an update on one of the great charts of all time (GCOAT). I guess this is what Trump wants to do with housing stock?
→ Israel does it all: What can’t Jews and Israelis do these days? A prominent American leftist says Israel makes the ICE software and calls us United States of ICE-REAL. Meanwhile, online right-wingers say Jews are behind mass migration, and one influential internet Nazi even says Jews made Alex Pretti’s gun misfire. The gun was Jewish. But on its dad’s side, so it doesn’t really count. In South America, a series of devastating summer wildfires are being blamed on. . . Israelis? And in Spain, a bunch of trains have derailed on the nation’s overtaxed infrastructure, and who is being blamed but—say it with me now—Israelis! Did you know that the bullets found in Iranian children during the protests were, according to the Iranian government. . . Israeli bullets. Just noticing. Israeli comedians are being asked to make public statements disavowing Israel before they can do comedy now. The Fine Arts Theatre Beverly Hills posted (since deleted): “We gave Hochman through the event promoter the opportunity to refute the allegations and to release a press release and post on his social media that he did not support the genocide, rape, starvation, and torture of Palestinian civilians. He declined to do so. He is now banned from our facility.” Totally normal. What did he expect? To get hired to perform in a theater and not have to disavow his government and parrot blood libels against his people? Does he not know what time it is?
*The new movie “Melania” opened yesterday. It’s about the First Lady, of course—and produced by her in part—but has universally been deemed a stinker by those who have seen it (and many who have not). Depicting the 20 days before Trump’s inauguration last year, the documentary is apparently a hagiography, and of course says nothing bad about Trump. You will find no place on the Internet that says this movie is good, but The Decider summarizes some of the raspberries:
First Lady Melania Trump‘s documentaryMelania is facing a cold reception during its opening weekend.
Melania, which hails from Amazon MGM Studios, is being review bombed on Letterboxd where users are dubbing it “fascist propaganda” and taking brutal shots against the First Lady. The documentary currently has 1.2-star rating on the platform. (It’s worth noting that Letterboxd does not verify whether their users have actually seen the movie in question or not, so some of these reviews may be purely speculative in nature and could/should be taken w/a grain of salt.)
“If they showed this on a plane, people would still walk out,” one reviewer wrote.
One review referred to Adolf Hitler’s wife, writing, “10/10 Eva Braun would be so proud.”
Another reviewer took shots at Melania director Brett Ratner, who was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women in 2017 and was recently spotted in the Epstein files. “Sex pest Brett Ratner resurrected by the state so he can make propaganda fluff about the dictator’s wife,” they wrote.
One critic admitted they “didn’t watch this” but “I imagine it’s similar to giving yourself a lobotomy.”
These reviews are still more colorful than what President Donald Trump has had to say about the doc. Just days before the movie landed in theaters, Donald urged his social media followers to buy tickets by simply calling it a “MUST WATCH.”
Amazon shelled out a whopping $40 million for the rights to the movie, with an additional $35 million on top for marketing. For now, Melania is expected to make around $5 million in its opening weekend.
The trades have yet to weigh in on the movie’s quality. But The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Karl Quinn wrote the “beautifully shot documentary” only offers revelations and insights into Trump that are “as thin on the ground as the hairs are on her husband’s head,” noting, “Melania is all about those perfect teeth, that great hair, that catwalk-friendly silhouette. But it’s impossible not to feel that the real purpose of this portrait is not insight, but rather distraction from the awfulness and corruption of her husband’s regime.”
The documentary is expected to stream on Prime Video after its theatrical release.
The Hollywood Reporter: “This is a film that fawns so lavishly over its subject that you feel downright unpatriotic not gushing over it … The expensive propaganda doc is glossily shot and lushly scored, although for some reason Ratner keeps inserting segments shot on what looks like Super 8 film, as if to infuse the Trumps with some of that Kennedy-era aura. Before the film ends with onscreen graphics listing Melania’s achievements as first lady in such laudatory fashion that North Korea would blush, she’s shown posing for her official portrait. Doing her best to look both sexy and authoritative, she seems most in her element.”
The Atlantic called the film “a disgrace,” saying, “Ratner seems desperate to find action, but there is none. The pace is stultifying … Mostly, Ratner captures his subject walking from liminal place to liminal place in five-inch heels, the camera trailing her like a lap dog … Melania the movie isn’t a documentary; it’s a protection racket. It’s a reminder that the richest people in the world are investing in entertainment brands not because they care about art but because the public does, and because all of these vanity projects and capitulations are a way to consolidate their own power and fortune.”
You can bet that everyone in the Administration will have to watch this movie, but it’s still going to bomb. Even if it were bad, political division alone will guarantee a number of terrible reviews. It is, odious, though, to compare Melania to Eva Braun, for that’s a comparison of Trump to Hitler. Here’s the trailer. If ANY reader sees the flick, please weigh in!
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s touched by a picture of a kitten on a tin. So is Andrzej:
Hili: That little kitten really moved me.
Me: I know, sentimental pictures get to more than just you.
In Polish:
Hili: Rozczulił mnie ten mały kotek.
Ja: Ja wiem, ckliwe obrazki rozczulają nie tylko ciebie.
Masih chews out Piers Morgan for apparently having platformed some Iranians in the past. I’ve never heard Masih use the f-bomb before, both in her tweet and on the show. She’s quite passionate!
Stop giving a platform to these Fucking Killers @piersmorgan! You don’t debate #IranMassacre, you stop it.
I explained why, and to his credit, he respected the demand of millions of Iranians.
From Luana; I don’t know why anybody would touch up a photo of Alex Pretti. Can it be possible that this is an ideological Photoshopping? There are community notes, but none of them take issue with the fact that the photo was altered.
Grok: Did MSNBC really photoshop a picture of Alex Pretti?
Answer:
Yes, MSNBC (now rebranded as MS NOW in some contexts) did broadcast an altered image of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026. The image was digitally… https://t.co/MVSUNaXOIz
A trick sent in by reader Bryan. At the end the guy says “. . . . you know its impossible to tie a know without leaving go of the ends of the string the way I just did.”
One from my feed. I would love to see this church:
Borgund Stave Church in Norway was built sometime between 1180 and 1250 AD.
It is part of a group of medieval wooden churches found almost exclusively in Scandinavia, built without using a single nail.pic.twitter.com/r3mqZeuQOZ
Two from Dr. Cobb, Professor Emeritus. First, the lovely larva of a marine snail:
The most beautiful #snail ever to exist! Many #marine snails go through an early life stage called #veliger, wherein they drift along with the #plankton before settling onto the sea floor as an adult. We call this, #sparkles #blackwater #blackwaterdiving #mollusk #gug
She may look like an ordinary housecat, but Dia is anything but domestic. She’s a Geoffroy’s cat, a wild carnivore native to South America. Dia now lives behind the scenes in Village Hall, where she rotates through the habitat with Jonas the fishing cat.
A BIRTHDAY THOUGHT:
Laughter is much more important than applause. Applause is almost a duty. Laughter is a reward”. – Carol Channing, Actor, Comedian, Singer, Dancer (Jan 31, 1927 – 2019)
At risk of permanent exile from the site, I will sing the praises of the lowly Brussels! Baked or steamed, never boiled. Olive oil, salt and pepper. Enjoy!
I call BS on the inflation chart. TVs are recorded as having dropped by over 98% in nominal terms.
So the average TV in the year 2000 cost 50x the amount of the average TV today. Given that a TV costs at least 50 bucks on average (likely a lot more), that would put the price of the average TV in 2000 at 2500 USD. I would put money on that not being true.
Unless they looked at the same TV… but I’m pretty sure they don’t look at bread from the year 2000 for food or at year 2000 medicine for health services.
I think there are ways to doctor the trends. But one can note that the products that are claimed to have dropped considerably in price include some that would be mass-produced in China.
Yes.. the trends probably hold true – but not the number. If you include monetary inflation, the price of TVs has dropped by two orders of magnitude.
A quick google research shows, that current median TV price is between 400 and 500 USD. That would mean the price in the year 2000 needed to be between 20k and 25k USD.
My issue is: what else is wrong with this graph?
Hedonic Quality Adjustment (The Hidden Factor)
This is the most significant statistical reason. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) doesn’t just measure the price tag on the shelf; it measures the price per “unit of value.”
• In 2000, a $500 TV was likely a bulky 27-inch CRT (tube) model with standard definition.
• Today, a $500 TV is likely a 55-inch 4K Smart LED TV.
• Because the new TV is objectively “better” (more pixels, larger screen, lighter weight, internet connectivity), the Bureau of Labor Statistics determines that you are getting much more product for your money. Therefore, the “price” of the television utility has dropped 98%, even if the dollar amount you pay at the register hasn’t dropped by exactly that much (though nominal prices have fallen drastically too).
As someone married to a journalist, I hold the “freedom of the press” idea very dear. Having said that, I have no sympathy for Don Lemon whatsoever here. He’s long made his personal left-wing views known in his coverage. There’s also video of him showing up at that church with coffee and donuts for the people who planned on disrupting the service, and participating in their planning outside. Inside he appeared to bully the pastor with questions. He clearly went in there with the protestors as one of them, and can’t pull the “journalist” card now.
“Miser Tape” probably wouldn’t get past the marketing department.
Among the recently-released Epstein files are FD-1023 forms, which the FBI uses to document raw, unverified intelligence from confidential human sources. The forms contain notes, not proof.
Here’s one FD-1023 someone on the internet – I don’t remember who – pointed out. I found it interesting reading, and don’t doubt that it will, along with other elements of the files, keep the controversies going for years to come.
Reference: ‘The Scotch’ by John Kenneth Galbraith, a history/memoir of Scottish immigrants to Ontario, Canada, who were apparently his forebears. They themselves accused the cheapskate of being ‘Scotch.’ My own grandmother, born in Liverpool in the 1880s, used ‘You’re Scotch’ freely, for penny-pinching.
Canadian of Scotch descent, my grandfather and father were very proud of being frugal and having Scotch taped named after the best people in the world.
In Aberdeen resides that famous uncle who is no true Scotsman because he puts sugar on his porridge.
Cheap people who are genuinely cheap generally don’t view “you’re cheap” as an insult because they think most people are a bunch of wasteful spendthrifts. They, on the other hand, are frugal and canny, as they ought to be.
Brussels sprouts are not as bitter as I remember, I think due to selective breeding. I’ve come across various recipes for baking them in casserole type concoctions, and they do look yummy.
The Southern District of NY got a judge to unseal two batches of files from years-old Ghislaine Maxwell adjudicated cases because the information enclosed in these files (depositions, flight logs, eye witness accounts, etc) was deemed “in the public interest”. This happened just a few days ago, and the files are being released already.
These files place Trump at Epstein’s properties and Epstein at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for parties at the exact same time frame that sexual abuse was supposedly taking place. This is in direct contradistinction to Trump’s previous story line.
And here is the kicker: When the announcement of the release of this latest tranche of evidence broke, Trump made a couple of posts on Truth Social calling it a “witch hunt” and that he had barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago years before. Those posts were deleted within hours. The implications of that have legal relevance.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Trump does not enjoy any immunity whatsoever wrt this scandal. The SDNY is not known for playing softball.
We will NEVER be free of the Epstein case. Let’s say they go through those 3 million pages and find nothing new. Neither Clinton nor the Orange Toddler are implicated (pick your fav). You think it will end there? Not a chance. It’s long past the time where we could hope for a resolution. Too many are too vested in the outcome they desire to ever let it go.
An architecture fan I also like that black Norwegian nail-less church above.
Here’s an interesting 11 min video about these churches, and this one, I saw awhile ago. Very cool.
Scotch Tape? Obviously it should be renamed Trump Tape. I’ll take a roll of the Trump Gold please. (For some reason Trump Transparent isn’t on the shelf.)
The most amazing part of the Jeffrey Epstein case is how much paper it has generated. How many “files” are there, anyway? How many trees are being sacrificed? The entire Amazon Rainforest is being denuded! (Yes, I know that the files are mostly digital files.)
I find the price change graph very interesting. Putting aside the stuff about government involvement being associated with higher costs, it looks like the trends are more about the workings of the economies of scale. Look how cheap TVs have gotten—millions upon millions of identical units manufactured using a single, highly optimized process. Health care services, in contrast, are provided uniquely for each person. Even childcare and nursery school services are (supposedly) tailored to each student uniquely. It’s hard to imagine the cost pattern being much different so long as we demand that services be tailored uniquely to each consumer.
But of course(!) MSNOW doctored Pretti’s picture. Why would anyone expect otherwise?
I have zero interest in the Melania movie and won’t watch it. But the reviews mentioned above are clearly by people who loathe Trump and think that the subject’s marriage to Trump means she’s at best a fool and that any movie about her must be terrible. Can’t they watch the movie and critique it as a…movie/biopic? If it’s poorly done for this kind of release, then by all means rip into it. But the biopic isn’t 1 out of 10 because of Trump/Hitler/Stalin/Satan.
A BIRTHDAY THOUGHT:
Laughter is much more important than applause. Applause is almost a duty. Laughter is a reward”. – Carol Channing, Actor, Comedian, Singer, Dancer (Jan 31, 1927 – 2019)
At risk of permanent exile from the site, I will sing the praises of the lowly Brussels! Baked or steamed, never boiled. Olive oil, salt and pepper. Enjoy!
You are not banned, but are officially branded as A Person With an Asbestos Palate.
I cannot see Melania without thinking her feet must be killing her.
I call BS on the inflation chart. TVs are recorded as having dropped by over 98% in nominal terms.
So the average TV in the year 2000 cost 50x the amount of the average TV today. Given that a TV costs at least 50 bucks on average (likely a lot more), that would put the price of the average TV in 2000 at 2500 USD. I would put money on that not being true.
Unless they looked at the same TV… but I’m pretty sure they don’t look at bread from the year 2000 for food or at year 2000 medicine for health services.
I think there are ways to doctor the trends. But one can note that the products that are claimed to have dropped considerably in price include some that would be mass-produced in China.
Yes.. the trends probably hold true – but not the number. If you include monetary inflation, the price of TVs has dropped by two orders of magnitude.
A quick google research shows, that current median TV price is between 400 and 500 USD. That would mean the price in the year 2000 needed to be between 20k and 25k USD.
My issue is: what else is wrong with this graph?
Here is Gemini’s explanation:
Hedonic Quality Adjustment (The Hidden Factor)
This is the most significant statistical reason. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) doesn’t just measure the price tag on the shelf; it measures the price per “unit of value.”
• In 2000, a $500 TV was likely a bulky 27-inch CRT (tube) model with standard definition.
• Today, a $500 TV is likely a 55-inch 4K Smart LED TV.
• Because the new TV is objectively “better” (more pixels, larger screen, lighter weight, internet connectivity), the Bureau of Labor Statistics determines that you are getting much more product for your money. Therefore, the “price” of the television utility has dropped 98%, even if the dollar amount you pay at the register hasn’t dropped by exactly that much (though nominal prices have fallen drastically too).
As someone married to a journalist, I hold the “freedom of the press” idea very dear. Having said that, I have no sympathy for Don Lemon whatsoever here. He’s long made his personal left-wing views known in his coverage. There’s also video of him showing up at that church with coffee and donuts for the people who planned on disrupting the service, and participating in their planning outside. Inside he appeared to bully the pastor with questions. He clearly went in there with the protestors as one of them, and can’t pull the “journalist” card now.
“Miser Tape” probably wouldn’t get past the marketing department.
Among the recently-released Epstein files are FD-1023 forms, which the FBI uses to document raw, unverified intelligence from confidential human sources. The forms contain notes, not proof.
Here’s one FD-1023 someone on the internet – I don’t remember who – pointed out. I found it interesting reading, and don’t doubt that it will, along with other elements of the files, keep the controversies going for years to come.
https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00090314.pdf
Reference: ‘The Scotch’ by John Kenneth Galbraith, a history/memoir of Scottish immigrants to Ontario, Canada, who were apparently his forebears. They themselves accused the cheapskate of being ‘Scotch.’ My own grandmother, born in Liverpool in the 1880s, used ‘You’re Scotch’ freely, for penny-pinching.
Canadian of Scotch descent, my grandfather and father were very proud of being frugal and having Scotch taped named after the best people in the world.
In Scotland, we say that mean people must be from Aberdeen.
Don’t know what the Aberdonians say…
In Aberdeen resides that famous uncle who is no true Scotsman because he puts sugar on his porridge.
Cheap people who are genuinely cheap generally don’t view “you’re cheap” as an insult because they think most people are a bunch of wasteful spendthrifts. They, on the other hand, are frugal and canny, as they ought to be.
Brussels sprouts are not as bitter as I remember, I think due to selective breeding. I’ve come across various recipes for baking them in casserole type concoctions, and they do look yummy.
Especially good when brushed with a rhubarb glaze.
🙂
Re Epstein file dump:
“I guess this is the end of it all…”
I’m not so sure – this may just be the beginning.
The Southern District of NY got a judge to unseal two batches of files from years-old Ghislaine Maxwell adjudicated cases because the information enclosed in these files (depositions, flight logs, eye witness accounts, etc) was deemed “in the public interest”. This happened just a few days ago, and the files are being released already.
These files place Trump at Epstein’s properties and Epstein at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for parties at the exact same time frame that sexual abuse was supposedly taking place. This is in direct contradistinction to Trump’s previous story line.
And here is the kicker: When the announcement of the release of this latest tranche of evidence broke, Trump made a couple of posts on Truth Social calling it a “witch hunt” and that he had barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago years before. Those posts were deleted within hours. The implications of that have legal relevance.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Trump does not enjoy any immunity whatsoever wrt this scandal. The SDNY is not known for playing softball.
We will NEVER be free of the Epstein case. Let’s say they go through those 3 million pages and find nothing new. Neither Clinton nor the Orange Toddler are implicated (pick your fav). You think it will end there? Not a chance. It’s long past the time where we could hope for a resolution. Too many are too vested in the outcome they desire to ever let it go.
An architecture fan I also like that black Norwegian nail-less church above.
Here’s an interesting 11 min video about these churches, and this one, I saw awhile ago. Very cool.
D.A.
NYC
There is one in Karpacz, Poland, that was moved there from Norway in the 19th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vang_Stave_Church
I saw it once, it’s impressive.
Scotch Tape? Obviously it should be renamed Trump Tape. I’ll take a roll of the Trump Gold please. (For some reason Trump Transparent isn’t on the shelf.)
The most amazing part of the Jeffrey Epstein case is how much paper it has generated. How many “files” are there, anyway? How many trees are being sacrificed? The entire Amazon Rainforest is being denuded! (Yes, I know that the files are mostly digital files.)
I find the price change graph very interesting. Putting aside the stuff about government involvement being associated with higher costs, it looks like the trends are more about the workings of the economies of scale. Look how cheap TVs have gotten—millions upon millions of identical units manufactured using a single, highly optimized process. Health care services, in contrast, are provided uniquely for each person. Even childcare and nursery school services are (supposedly) tailored to each student uniquely. It’s hard to imagine the cost pattern being much different so long as we demand that services be tailored uniquely to each consumer.
But of course(!) MSNOW doctored Pretti’s picture. Why would anyone expect otherwise?
Just for fun I asked Co-Pilot how many Epstein files there are in total, and here is the answer I got:
“The total number of pages in the Epstein files is over 6 million, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.”
How did all of those files fit on Pam Bondi’s desk?
I have zero interest in the Melania movie and won’t watch it. But the reviews mentioned above are clearly by people who loathe Trump and think that the subject’s marriage to Trump means she’s at best a fool and that any movie about her must be terrible. Can’t they watch the movie and critique it as a…movie/biopic? If it’s poorly done for this kind of release, then by all means rip into it. But the biopic isn’t 1 out of 10 because of Trump/Hitler/Stalin/Satan.
There’s a meme going around with the Movie poster showing Melania sitting, wearing her very high heels, caption: Make Fuck, Get Green Card.
I have to say it made me laugh.