Patterico's Pontifications

1/28/2022

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 5:51 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Let’s do it!

First news item

A “crime” being committed?:

Polk County Public Schools Regional Assistant Superintendent John Hill and several of his colleagues spent Tuesday morning going to area middle and high schools to gather 16 books out of media centers after County Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative political group, complained to Superintendent Frederick Heid that the novels, graphic novels, autobiographies, and sex education books contain pornographic material harmful to children.

Heid sent an email Monday evening to middle and high school principals and media center librarians, stating that a “stakeholder group” is alleging that the books may be in violation of Florida Statute 847.012, which deals with distributing obscene or harmful materials to children.

“While it is not the role of my office to approve/evaluate instructional or resource materials at that level, I do have an obligation to review any allegation that a crime is being or has been committed,” Heid wrote in the email. “It is also my obligation to provide safeguards to protect our employees. The district will be taking the following steps to ensure that we address this issue honestly, fairly, and transparently.”

Hmm:

When discussing the fact that Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner” depicts the brutal rape of a boy by a teenaged boy, Nelson was asked if all books containing rape should be banned.

“I’m not going to go into that with you,” Nelson said. He became irritated when it was pointed out that the Bible and William Shakespeare plays contain rape, incest and adultery, and asked if he wanted the Bible or Shakespeare removed, too.

“It makes no difference to the story,” Nelson said. “You want to paint it in that light. You want to twist things.”

When asked where the line was between what was acceptable and what was not, Nelson said, “I don’t know where I can necessarily define that for you. When you know something’s wrong, you know it’s wrong. … No one has suggested banning Shakespeare. Our issues with these books are clear — Shakespeare’s not on the list.”

It’s like these people were never teenagers. Tell a high schooler NO to something, and the first thing that high schooler is going to do is go search out or try whatever elicited that NO. Also, these teenagers already have, at their fingertips, unfettered access to the entirety of the internet: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the very ugly. I’m guessing that what’s described in these books isn’t really anything new to today’s teenagers. For better or worse.

Anyway, there seems to be a trend:

Art Spiegelman’s once-controversial and now-canonical graphic memoir Maus has been removed from the McMinn County, Tennessee, school curriculum in a unanimous decision by the local Board of Education.

It was an unexpected irony for the news to hit this week, today being Holocaust Remembrance Day. Spiegelman’s Pulitzer-winning book, with its enormous cultural impact and reader-friendliness, has been a, perhaps the, primary pop vehicle of such remembrance over the past few decades. Spiegelman’s mother and father were both Auschwitz survivors, and Maus portrays him learning his parents’ Holocaust experiences and retelling them—in a riff on classic animal-comics tropes—with Jews as mice and Nazis as cats.

Oh come on, parents, get a grip:

Oh come on academia, get a grip:

The Telegraph is reporting that the “Approaches to Literature” module (is that like a course?) presented by the English department of the University of Chester is warning undergrads that the J. K. Rowling book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (published as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the U.S.), which is the first, simplest, and most child-friendly book in the entire series, may unleash “difficult conversations about gender, race, sexuality, class and identity” and encouraged students to “get in touch” should they have “any issues with the content” of the course.

A spokesman for the university declined to elaborate to the Telegraph’s reporter, but since the book in question is hardly objectionable, this appears to be an example of another passive-aggressive attack on Rowling’s reputation driven by her public profile as a so-called “*TERF.”

(*trans-exclusionary radical feminist)

Second news item

Unfortunately, more indicators:

Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine has expanded to include supplies of blood along with other medical materials that would allow it to treat casualties, in yet another key indicator of Moscow’s military readiness, three U.S. officials tell Reuters.

Current and former U.S. officials say concrete indicators — like blood supplies — are critical in determining whether Moscow would be prepared to carry out an invasion, if Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to do so.

The disclosure of the blood supplies by U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, adds another piece of context to growing U.S. warnings that Russia could be preparing for a new invasion of Ukraine as it masses more than 100,000 troops near its borders.

These warnings have included President Joe Biden’s prediction that a Russian assault was likely…

The Pentagon has previously acknowledged the deployment of “medical support” as part of Russia’s buildup. But the disclosure of blood supplies adds a level of detail that experts say is critical to determining Russian military readiness.

Ukraine president tells U.S. to calm down:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told President Joe Biden to “calm down the messaging” about the threat of a Russian invasion because it was stirring panic, CNN reported, citing an unnamed Ukrainian official.

Biden told Zelensky on Thursday that a Russian invasion could happen as soon as February, when the ground freezes over, tweeted Emily Horne, White House National Security Council spokesperson.

However, Zelensky told Biden in the call that Ukraine did not agree with the US assessment, and that it was bringing panic that could later bring economic hardship to Ukraine, CNN reported, citing a senior Ukrainian official.

Zelensky also told Biden to “calm down the messaging,” CNN reported, citing the official.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has reached out to 8 senators with a list of security and sanction requests:

“Ukraine speaks from centuries of experience. We understand Russia,” Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk wrote in the letter, which also thanks Congress for ongoing bipartisan support. “We know what will and will not deter the occupants of the Kremlin.”

Details: The four requests were approved by Zelensky’s administration, according to two sources familiar with the matter. They are:

“Expedited and higher-impact security assistance, including air defense, anti-ship and anti-armor capabilities, and flexible loans and financing mechanisms.”

“Immediate, mandatory sanctions” against the operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which the letter calls “no less an existential threat to Ukraine’s security and democracy than the Russian troops on our border.”

“A clear trigger” for sanctions based on Russia’s actions, with a lower threshold than what has been outlined in the current Democratic-sponsored legislation under consideration.

“Mandatory pre-trigger and post-trigger sanctions against all of Russia’s most significant financial institutions.”

FYI:

President Biden said Friday he plans to send a small number of U.S. forces to Eastern Europe in the “near term” amid growing fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

He said Friday he plans to send a small number of U.S. forces to Eastern Europe in the “near term” amid growing fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“I’ll be moving troops to Eastern Europe in the NATO countries in the near term,” Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrews upon returning from a trip to Pittsburgh. “Not too many.”

…Most of the troops are expected to join a NATO rapid response force in Eastern Europe.

Third news item

Getting CRT wrong:

If you were judging by much of the mainstream press coverage, you would think that CRT is just a movement to ensure that the history of slavery, racism, and Jim Crow is not neglected in America’s classrooms. But 1) large percentages of both Republicans and Democrats favor teaching those things, and 2) that’s not what CRT is.

Democrats often object that CRT is “not taught in K-12 schools,” which is evasive. It’s true that third graders are not being assigned the works of Kimberly Crenshaw or Ibram X. Kendi, but affinity groups, “anti-racism” (in the sense of rejecting the ideal of color blindness), and other CRT-adjacent ideas are making their way into classrooms. New York City has spent millions on training materials that disdain “worship of the written word,” “individualism,” and “objectivity” as aspects of “white-supremacy culture.”

As is their wont, some Republicans have made things even worse. A conservative group is suing a school district in Tennessee because its second grade curriculum included a “Civil Rights Heroes” module that included a picture book about Ruby Bridges. The parents claim that the unit violates Tennessee’s new anti-CRT law and contains material that is “Anti-American, Anti-White, and Anti-Mexican [sic].”

Fourth news item

Caught in competing Covid narratives:

The division is easy to state and readily observable in the real world. From the moment that Donald Trump said—almost exactly two years ago, on January 22, 2020—–that COVID is “one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine,” a pattern was set. Republicans minimized the threat of COVID, and Democrats did the opposite.

Not all Republicans and not all Democrats, of course, but the numbers and the patterns of behavior don’t lie. As The New York Times’ David Leonhardt wrote last year (relying on a Gallup and Franklin Templeton survey of 35,000 Americans), “both liberals and conservatives suffer from misperceptions about the pandemic—in opposite directions. ‘Republicans consistently underestimate risks, while Democrats consistently overestimate them.’”

The best available evidence demonstrates a dreadful reality: Vaccine reluctance and death rate have correlated with votes for Trump. Since the date when vaccines “widely became available,” the higher the percentage of Trump votes, the lower the vaccine uptake and the higher the death rate. As NPR reported in December: “People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.73 times the death rates of those that went for Biden. Counties with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher COVID-19 mortality rates.”

Fifth news item

Arizona’s leading candidate for governor:

Maybe not the leading candidate for long

Sixth news item

Demands to fire Ilya Shapiro for a bad tweet:

Georgetown University’s Black Law Students Association is demanding the firing of Ilya Shapiro, a director of constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, from his brand new position at the university. Shapiro was slated to start work as executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution next week, but a poorly worded tweet about President Joe Biden’s pledge to appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court has landed him in hot water.

Shapiro agrees that the tweet was not great.

“I regret my poor choice of words, which undermine my message that no one should be discriminated against for his or her gender or skin color,” Shapiro tells Reason.

On Wednesday, Shapiro tweeted the following:

Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid prog & v smart. Even has identify politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn’t fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?

Because Biden said he’s only consider[ing] black women for SCOTUS, his nominee will always have an asterisk attached. Fitting that the Court takes up affirmative action next term.

He subsequently apologized and deleted the tweeted after receiving significant criticism.

The phrasing “lesser black woman” was particularly ugly by itself, of course, but is being misconstrued by those calling for Shapiro to be fired. Members of the Georgetown community are not wrong to demand more precise wording from someone of Shapiro’s stature, but given that he has apologized, the university should accept this and move on. If Georgetown’s administration were to fire Shapiro, it would be tacitly endorsing the unfair smear that he is a racist and a sexist.

Seventh news item

A maddening madness:

A 26-year-old transgender woman who, at age 17, sexually assaulted a child will serve a two-year sentence in a juvenile facility rather than a jail for adults, a judge ruled Thursday.

The case of Hannah Tubbs, who has admitted sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in 2014 in the bathroom of a Denny’s restaurant in Palmdale, has thrown a spotlight on Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s refusal to seek the transfer of juvenile defendants to adult court. Gascón has argued that the brains of juveniles aren’t fully developed and that the proper setting to rehabilitate people who commit crimes while underage is a juvenile treatment facility.

Although Tubbs committed the sexual assault in 2014, she was not arrested and charged with the crime until January 2021, when Gascón was in office. In the interim, she had been arrested for battery, drug possession and probation violations in Idaho and Washington and convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in Kern County, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials. She was also arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a minor but wasn’t prosecuted for the alleged offense, according to court records.

In November, Tubbs admitted sexually assaulting the 10-year-old girl, an attack that law enforcement officials said stopped only when someone else walked into the bathroom. Prosecutors, however, never filed a motion seeking to transfer her case to adult court, where she could have faced a longer sentence that would be served in a prison or jail that houses adults.

“I want to be clear,” Superior Court Judge Mario Barrera said at a hearing Thursday in a Lancaster courtroom. “The filing of a transfer motion is entirely within the discretion of the district attorney.”

Gascón previously told The Times that the victim, who has moved away from California and remains in therapy, did not want to testify at a trial. He also expressed concern that as a transgender woman, Tubbs could be victimized in a jail for adults. In a youth facility, he said, she could receive treatment and therapy.

Eighth news item

Related:

Human rights activists issued a call to action against the Beijing Olympics on Friday, imploring athletes and sponsors to speak out against what they call the “genocide games.”

Speaking at an online press conference organized by the rights group Human Rights Watch, activists representing Chinese dissidents and the minority Uyghur and Tibetan populations urged international attendants to voice their opposition to China’s hosting of the Games, which begin next week.

“The 2022 Winter Olympics will be remembered as the genocide games,” said Teng Biao, a former human rights activist in China who is now a visiting professor at the University of Chicago.

“The CCP’s purpose is to exactly turn the sports arena into a stage for political legitimacy and a tool to whitewash all those atrocities,” he added, referring to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Activists have failed to achieve a full boycott of the games, but have continued to speak out.

“Your silence is their strength. This is what they want more than anything: that the world will play by China’s rules, that we will follow China’s lead, that we will look away from these atrocities and crimes for the sake of business as usual,” said Lhadon Tethong, director of the Tibet Action Institute, at the press conference Friday.

She appealed directly to athletes from the U.S., UK, France and others to speak.

“I personally believe that you should use your platform and your privilege and this historic opportunity. You have to speak out against the wave of genocide,” she said

I would certainly understand if athletes from the West decline to speak against the CCP. After all, they’ve been warned:

Yang Shu, the deputy director of international relations for the Beijing organising committee, told a press conference on Tuesday that “dedicated departments” would investigate athletes’ comments at the Games.

“Any expression that is in line with the Olympic spirit I’m sure will be protected,” Yang said.

“Any behaviour or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against the Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment.”

For shame:

So far, the corporations don’t seem ashamed at all. Google and Apple put the Chinese government’s flawed app in their app stores without disclosing the risks to users. The Warriors organization distanced itself from Palihapitiya’s comments, but neither he nor the team mentioned the Uyghurs in their subsequent statements. By both action and inaction, they are helping the Chinese government cover up its repression, mainly because it is in their financial interest, said Michael Sobolik, a fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council.

“When your bottom line depends on a genocidal regime, you become a de facto apologist for a genocide,” he said. “The only difference between Chamath, the IOC and companies like Apple is the degree of how brazen they are.”

It may seem expedient now to claim “nobody cares” about the Uyghur genocide. But the actions of the athletes, companies and international organizations at the 2022 Beijing Olympics will be remembered for generations, as they were after the Games in 1936. Each of them — and each of us — must think hard about which side of history we want to be on.

Have a great weekend.

–Dana

316 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. It’s sad in a way, but I think it’s true of every generation: “Kids today” always know far stuff about far more things than did the previous generation.

    Dana (5395f9)

  2. @1. …far more. Agree.

    A generation exposed to ‘Schindler’s List’ or ‘Band of Brothers’ likely finds southing like ‘Maus’ pretty tame in comparison. A trip to the comic book store or reviewing video game content might much more enlightening to these book hounds.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  3. As is their wont, some Republicans have made things even worse. A conservative group is suing a school district in Tennessee because its second grade curriculum included a “Civil Rights Heroes” module

    get a grip

    JF (e1156d)

  4. @3, Second grade isn’t too early to start teaching kids about important figures in our history. Why don’t you want to celebrate civil rights heroes? They’re the people (Ruby Ridges included) who helped make us a freer and fairer society?

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  5. Ruby Bridges Goes to School is a beautiful little book. With a good teacher, the extraordinary moment in history can really be relayed to children. It’s disgraceful that the book has come under fire by the usual suspects in certain parts of the country.

    Dana (5395f9)

  6. It’s like these people were never teenagers. Tell a high schooler NO to something, and the first thing that high schooler is going to do is go search out or try whatever elicited that NO.

    too bad this argument came too late for dr seuss

    JF (e1156d)

  7. @4 Why don’t you want to celebrate civil rights heroes?

    four comments in is way too early to start with your usual misrepresentations

    JF (e1156d)

  8. @5 It’s disgraceful that the book has come under fire by the usual suspects in certain parts of the country.

    oh my

    what could she possibly mean by that, he wondered?

    JF (e1156d)

  9. is age appropriateness of reading material open for discussion anymore?

    i guess not

    so, there we are

    JF (e1156d)

  10. Of course age appropriateness is open for discussion. However these are middle and high school students were talking about. Not elementary school level.

    Dana (5395f9)

  11. @10 second grade is, let me check… yep, elementary school

    JF (e1156d)

  12. Okay, JF, no need to get worked up. The first news item is discussing middle and high schoolers, as well as college students. Time123 brought up second grade and I responded by mentioning Ruby Bridges Goes to School. I would ask that any rational adult read the book and find out for themselves what book is like and whether elementary age children can handle it. I say absolutely, second graders can.

    Dana (5395f9)

  13. Chicago mother outraged after school workers cut daughter’s hair

    It happened at Speer Academy of the Noble School Network along West Grand Avenue.

    IsaMara says the sergeant told her, “You are not in grooming standard.”.

    She was asked to put her hair in a bun before drill, but her hair would not stay put.

    Sometime later, IsaMar says a coach used scissors and cut her hair.

    I count three independent counts of aggravated battery — school grounds, weapon, and physical harm.

    Noble School Network are charter schools. “Charter schools are independent public schools with the freedom to meet students’ needs.” (sic) Okay, then.

    nk (1d9030)

  14. @12 second graders cannot comprehend the subject matter

    i know that makes me a racist and i hate civil rights heroes

    i don’t think they can handle the holocaust, othello or sophocles’ plays about incest, even if reduced to picture book form with second grade prose

    so configure one’s cheap ad homs accordingly

    JF (e1156d)

  15. Ruby Bridges Goes to School, written by Ruby Bridges, was specifically written at a grade school level. It can be ordered at Amazon for $3.99 if anyone wants to actually read it before making an assessment of its appropriateness.

    Dana (5395f9)

  16. Dana’s right about this- kids today are pretty savvy. They can absorb information well and master gadgetry that completely befuddles their parents– so a book like Ruby Bridges Goes To School seems fairly a tame read- after all, the objective is to get kids reading— and Maus is pretty far down the line when you consider these kids can access graphic imagery of the Holocaust on their gadgets or see it depicted in popular films and TV programs.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  17. Good heavens, according to nk’s link, the school cut off 8” of the teen’s hair. That is no small amount. And to think she had been excited to join ROTC…

    Dana (5395f9)

  18. ‘President Biden said Friday he plans to send a small number of U.S. forces to Eastern Europe in the “near term” amid growing fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. He said Friday he plans to send a small number of U.S. forces to Eastern Europe in the “near term” amid growing fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    “I’ll be moving troops to Eastern Europe in the NATO countries in the near term,” Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrews upon returning from a trip to Pittsburgh. “Not too many.” …Most of the troops are expected to join a NATO rapid response force in Eastern Europe.’

    So sez 50 years of foreign policy experience, government issue, stupid SOB Joe.

    Where’s Congress? NATO is already well stocked w/munitions, equipment and troops. Who the hell is supposed to pay for this added expense; this ‘booster shot’ of Yankee Doodle saber-rattling???

    NATO’s Germany sent Ukraine a load of…… helmets.

    Memo to Putin:

    “Flatten Arnhem.” – Lt. General Bittrich [Maximilian Schell] ‘A Bridge Too Far’ 1977

    ___________________

    Spoke w/my neighbor this evening- a USMC Lt., based at Pendleton – he just got back from a 6 month deployment to Palau– it was meant to be 3 but extended as they were ‘war gaming’ scenarios w/China in case Taiwan is ‘liberated’ by China. Asked if he’s on any kind of alert due to the stupid SOB saber-rattling w/Ukraine. He said the Marines based on the East Coast are on their toes but it is more likely an Army show w/t NATO deployment– but if Taiwan gets threatened at all, he said he’ll definitely be alerted to be deployed toward the Far East.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  19. Here in my neck of the woods, the Mukilteo WA school district canceled To Kill A Mockingbird (more accurately, removed it from required reading).
    Their reasoning is silly, IMO. Although a work of fiction, it reflected the culture and attitudes of that era in that part of our country.
    I read it in high school and in my early 50s, and loved it both times, for different reasons.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  20. U.S. athletes in the Beijing Olympics are being warned by U.S. officials not to bring their laptops or cellphones to China and use local networks, because the Chinese will almost certainly conduct cyber surveillance and hack into them. Holland and Canada have warned their athletes of the same. I would hope someone with the State Department, or perhaps even the White House, is warning Beijing that any harassment of American athletes will be met with stern consequences. But I fear that we don’t have the stones these days to take a hard line with the ChiComms.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  21. I can’t think of any book, other than a textbook, that I would require anybody to read. And the textbooks only because I can’t think of an alternative.

    Books are nothing more than the conceit of the author, of no more worth than what enjoyment and edification the reader derives from them, and only what each individual reader derives from them.

    Which is not to say that I would have wanted some rednecks pulling Have Space Suit — Will Travel from my school’s library.

    nk (1d9030)

  22. Only 39% think biden is doing a good job which means almost half of democrats thinks he sucks! 6 out of 10 republicans say they won’t vote for a candidate who admits biden actually won in 2020. The left dislikes biden for being a weakling and moderates thinks he is to woke. If 2022 puts republicans back in control of congress the moderate democrats in swing districts will be ousted leaving the left in deep blue districts to take over the party from a bumbling old fool.

    asset (5c824c)

  23. I think it’s interesting that the district policy is that each school independently reviews books at their school to see if they are appropriate for their school is rather suddenly void if more than one school has a copy of the book (within the district’s rights, but interesting that they withdraw it as soon as it gets even a little pushback).

    On a personal note, Beloved was part of my American Lit curriculum my junior year at my conservative Catholic midwestern HS in the early 90s. The topics are not emotionally easy to deal with but definitely age appropriate for a 16/17 year old.

    Romeo and Juliet which deals with murder, suicide, and forced underage marriage of minors to adults, and Lord of the flies where the entire book is about kids abusing and murdering each-other are commonly part of the 9th grade curriculum.

    @JF@12 2nd graders are absolutely able to comprehend that back in the old days schools were divided by skin color and some adults didn’t like kids with any skin color going to school together and got really mad when the government said it had to be that way and that it was really really scary for a girl to have a bunch of adults yelling at her when she went to school.

    re Ukraine/US/Russia- having a good cop and a bad cop isn’t a bad way to set up negotiations as long as they are doing it on purpose (though it would be non-productive to tell us that that is what is happening.)

    re Winter Olympics in China- I am somewhat concerned about whether or not all our athletes are going to return to us in a timely manner.

    @nk@13 It is unacceptable for them to have cut her hair against her will.

    Nic (896fdf)

  24. This is another iteration of NIMBYs::

    Navy SEALs have been forced to halt training at Washington state parks while a legal battle over their use winds its way through the court system.

    The Navy has used Washington state coastal parks for over 30 years for SEAL cold water training and other special operations exercises. Leaders say the area offers the perfect environment to simulate what the special forces may encounter on difficult operations overseas, the New York Post reported.

    However, lawyers for the Whidbey Environmental Action Network don’t seem to care about operational readiness.

    “It is difficult to find peace in the woods when armed frogmen might be lurking behind every tree,” attorneys for the group argued in a legal brief last month, as they are the driving force behind the lawsuit against the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission.

    Navy spokesman Joe Overton said the area uniquely facilitates SEAL training.

    “This area provides a unique environment of cold water, extreme tidal changes, multi-variant currents, low visibility, complex underwater terrain, climate and rigorous land terrain, which provides an advanced training environment,” Overton told Coffee or Die Magazine.

    Sadly, the Navy’s use of Washington shoreline has also come under fire from local residents who claim to be concerned about the physiological and environmental impact of SEALs training in the parks.

    “I do not care to catch a glimpse of apparently armed men skulking around and I DEFINITELY do not want to risk having my young grandchildren see such a sight,” a resident wrote to state regulators when public comments were solicited during the state’s attempt to renew its agreement with the Navy.

    Dana (5395f9)

  25. Back in 2000, after the election, Pennsylvania Republicans sued, saying that the no-fault absentee ballot system — that they had nearly unanimously passed in the legislature — was unconstitutional. Their demand was that all the mailed ballots be discarded. The PA courts dismissed the suit as too late, and also suggested that the remedy was extreme.

    BUT. Now that all that is over, the same case is brought going forward, and the GOP’s point is accepted by a 5 judge panel 3-2, based on the state constitution’s quite explicit, and narrow, list of reasons why absentee ballots may be distributed.

    The court suggested that only a constitutional amendment could change the reasons listed.

    PA Constitution, Article VII, Section 14

    § 14. Absentee voting.

    (a) The Legislature shall, by general law, provide a manner in which, and the time and place at which, qualified electors who may, on the occurrence of any election, be absent from the municipality of their residence, because their duties, occupation or business require them to be elsewhere or who, on the occurrence of any election, are unable to attend at their proper polling places because of illness or physical disability or who will not attend a polling place because of the observance of a religious holiday or who cannot vote because of election day duties, in the case of a county employee, may vote, and for the return and canvass of their votes in the election district in which they respectively reside.

    The state says they’ll appeal, but it’s not clear how. Then again two judges bought some argument.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  26. Navy SEALs have been forced to halt training at Washington state parks while a legal battle over their use winds its way through the court system.

    Probably too disturbing for the homeless camps.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  27. The problem with not nominating Keri Lake is that Trump’s mob will “suicide” the election and vote for the Democrat. Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the nation.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  28. I confess to being a TERF.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  29. @Kevin@28 *attempts to imagine Kevin as a Radical Feminist* Rofl.

    Nic (896fdf)

  30. Dana, I know you have some familiarity with the Puget Sound area. Whidbey Island is one of those places uniquely afflicted with “I got mine” disease.
    Well-to-do Seattleites come to the island, see its beauty in its present state, buy a nice waterfront bungaloo, and then want the island developmentally frozen in amber, basically opposing anything new coming down the pike, and there’s strong environmentalist component, so there’s a natural tension between NAS Whidbey and local activists. The locals who were born there just shake their heads.
    The affliction is most virulent in south and central Whidbey, but there is also a strong strain on Camano, where I know a guy who fought local environment groups for a project that already met all zoning and environmental requirements, and then some.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  31. This was written nearly eight years ago, but Timothy Snyder is an expert on Ukraine’s history, including their involvement with fascism, which has been wildly overblown by Putin ever since he invaded.
    The thing is, Stalin had murdered millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s during the Holodomor, starving most of them to death. When Hitler emerged, many of them were faced with the impossible choice of sticking with the guy who had already committed crimes of humanity against them or taking their chances with the German dictator. When the dust settled, more Ukrainians died in WWII than Russians, in absolute numbers, not proportionately.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  32. 31 – Whidbey Island back in the late 60’s – early 70’s had some local artists that made one of a kind pieces. Paintings, pottery, blown glass were incredible, but the welders were unbelievable.

    mg (8cbc69)

  33. @27 The problem with not nominating Keri Lake is that Trump’s mob will “suicide” the election and vote for the Democrat.

    i wonder where they got that idea from

    let’s ask nevertrump

    JF (e1156d)

  34. Which is not to say that I would have wanted some rednecks pulling Have Space Suit — Will Travel from my school’s library.
    nk (1d9030) — 1/28/2022 @ 9:43 pm

    Hey! I’m a “redneck,” and I loved that book! What kid wouldn’t want a spacesuit the dispensed drugs on demand – you know, for medicinal purposes?

    felipe (484255)

  35. kids today are pretty savvy. They can absorb information well and master gadgetry that completely befuddles their parents–

    ***Trigger warning (AKA “get a grip”)***

    Children have never been “savvy.” They have, however, always been information sponges and ready to be taught by example, sight, sound, imagination. Adults, on the other hand, are commonly hampered by the conceit that they know everything and resist being taught. All the evidence is on display, everyday, in comment sections across the web.

    felipe (484255)

  36. Another brilliant success for “Czar” Putin:

    Russia’s population declined by more than one million people in 2021, the statistics agency Rosstat reported Friday, a historic drop not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    Ongoing demographic woes have been exacerbated by the pandemic with Rosstat figures showing more than 660,000 had died with coronavirus since health officials recorded the first case in the country.

    The new figures continue a downward trend from the previous year when Russia’s population fell by more than half a million.

    There would have been far fewer deaths in Russia had even some of the money stolen by Putin’s kleptocratic oligarchy been put into their health care system. (Assuming of course the funds were managed by a competent leader.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  37. It seems to me that if Ruby Bridges, who was six years old when she desegregated the school, was old enough to learn that she’d be hated for her skin color, then 7-8 year old kids are old enough to learn that this is wrong.

    Victor (4959fb)

  38. **Full disclosure***

    I know, “They can absorb information..” is in the quoted comment. I guess I have a different definition of what “savvy” means. I will concede that it is ambiguous enough, a term, that it is allowed to mean precisely whatever one wants it to mean. But I stand by my rejection of the phrase ” gadgetry that completely befuddles their parents” as being ageist, anti-parent propaganda!

    In other words, “get away from my ox!”

    felipe (484255)

  39. @38 well then, let’s teach kindergarteners the holocaust and 9/11 and the ok city bombing and the arab israeli conflict cuz they had victims at that age too

    heck, pre school

    JF (e1156d)

  40. https://therightscoop.com/define-insanity-anti-defamation-league-1984d-their-definition-of-racism-and-its-ridiculous/

    1984 was a typo. That time is now. We are living it.

    The ADL is a joke of an organization and should be ashamed for their obvious racism.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  41. I heard that the people of Coffeyville suicided the Daltons when they tried to rob both of the town’s banks too.

    Da fack is that Kari Lake is a low-life white trash loser who as chair of the Arizona GOP flipped both of Arizona’s Senate seats from Republican to Democrat and the Presidential vote from Trump to Biden. If she flips the governorship now, it will only be holding the course.

    Dis ain’t the Salvation Army, Trumpcakes! We ain’t gots no vote pantry for you. And no “spare votes” neither, you whiny panhandlers. Go out there and win your own elections!

    nk (1d9030)

  42. https://www.foxnews.com/world/freedom-truckers-convoy-records-protest-vaccine-mandate-canada

    This amazing, freedom loving protest deserves more recognition.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  43. Weird. I submitted a comment (similar topic as Rob’s) and it doesn’t show up, doesn’t even say “awaiting moderation”.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  44. @42 yes, arizona should heed advice from illinois on such matters

    JF (e1156d)

  45. JF (e1156d) — 1/29/2022 @ 6:58 am

    If their parents ever talk about such things in the presence of their children, then the children have that information in their noggins and, in a sense, have been prepared for the subject to be formally presented, in the future. What subjects to which, I can only imagine, certain parents are so strongly opposed to subjecting their children’s minds, are completely within the parental rights, in my opinion, and special care should be taken in respecting those rights.

    The conflict arises not only when parents differ on which subjects are appropriate, but when educators take advantage of those differences, as cover, to advance their own social experiments.

    felipe (484255)

  46. How is the American economy doing? Quite well, considering.

    The U.S. economy grew by 5.7 percent in 2021, the fastest full-year clip since 1984, roaring back in the pandemic’s second year despite two new virus variants that rocked the country.

    The growth came in fits and starts, with a burst of government spending helping propel a fast start, even as a surge in new cases and deaths in the second half of the year created additional pressures. The economy grew at a 6.9 percent annual rate from October to December, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday, a sharp acceleration from 2.3 percent in the previous quarter.

    (Full disclosure: I think the massive Trump/Biden deficits were too large, and that we would have been better off with slower growth, and a smaller burden on future generations. But I recognize that, in our war against the virus, we do have to run large deficits, just as we did in World War II.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  47. Marcel Dirsus has a good Twitter thread on Germany’s attitude toward Russia and Ukraine, and I’m just going to cut-and-paste the whole damn thing.

    Now that there’s a spotlight on Germany’s “interesting” Russia policy, a lot of people have asked me why on earth Germany behaves the way it does. In short: Different perception of the way the world works, history, economic self-interest, public opinion, party politics.

    Some of Berlin’s behaviour has nothing to do with Russia or Ukraine specifically. One good example of this is many Germans’ inability to accept that military power matters in international politics. Seen from Lower Saxony or Bavaria, force is not just evil, it’s also useless.

    Since military force can’t solve any problems, there’s no upside to delivering arms to “conflict zones” like Ukraine where they would simply make everything worse. This thinking is not even about preserving national interests, it’s just how many Germans see the world.

    Analysts who think Germany’s behaviour is all about the deliberate pursuit of its national interest at the expense of allies miss that a lot of Germans genuinely think their position is morally superior.

    History matters. There’s an obligation in the minds of many Germans not to go too hard on Russia because Germans killed millions of Russians during WWII. That same way of thinking doesn’t extend to Ukraine even though Germans also killed millions of Ukrainians. It just doesn’t.

    When ordinary Germans consider delivering arms to Ukraine they don’t think “this is an opportunity to help Ukrainians defend themselves,” they think “we will help to kill Russians and that will make everything worse.”

    Moral superiority aside, nothing is more important to Germany than the pursuit of short-term economic interests. If you can trade freely with everyone and afford not to worry about security or other political considerations, why wouldn’t you? That’s what Germany is doing

    Germany, of course, can afford to prioritise economic interests precisely it is so secure. Ukrainians or Georgians or Estonians might get invaded but even if NATO didn’t exist, the Russians probably wouldn’t take back Berlin anytime soon.

    If you discuss the military in Germany with people, they often say: “Well, who is going to invade us?” That misses the broader point but it’s not exactly irrational either. Nobody is going to attack Germany, at least not before attacking another dozen countries.

    That brings us to public opinion. If you feel as safe as Germans and you think military force is not just evil but also useless, why would you support a more muscular foreign policy? Well, most Germans don’t. Politicians know that and that makes them reluctant to change course

    Last but not least, party politics are a significant constraint. If you get elected leader of the Greens, Social Democrats or Christian Democrats tomorrow, you don’t just have to worry about public opinion, you also have to worry about the rank and file.

    And what does the rank and file worry about? That’s right: Antagonising Russia and German “militarism.” It doesn’t even matter what party you lead, you will get angry calls if you call out Russia.

    Elite capture is a serious concern but I think analysts who point to it as the main factor influencing Germany’s policy underestimate the impact of everything else I’ve listed above.

    I’ve seen some people argue that this is all due to Germans’ DNA and genetic predisposition for aggression or wanting strong leadership. It shouldn’t really need saying but that’s obviously rubbish.

    Anyway, this is a complicated topic and Twitter is obviously not the place for nuance so everything in this thread is an oversimplification but I hope it might be useful or interesting for some of you.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  48. Quite right, JF.

    Dis ain’t the Salvation Army, Trumpcakes! We ain’t gots no vote pantry for you. And no “spare votes” neither, you whiny panhandlers. Go out there and win harvest your own elections!
    nk (1d9030) — 1/29/2022 @ 7:03 am

    Carpe electionem!

    felipe (484255)

  49. NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/29/2022 @ 7:21 am

    It sounds as though “young people” are embracing the ethos “it is better that the innocent be punished than to let the guilty escape.”

    felipe (484255)

  50. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/01/betraying-the-american-people.php

    Biden supporting an invasion of our nation. This is a real insurrection.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  51. The ADL changed their definition of racism, and the new version is itself racist. Quote:

    The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially hierarchy that privileges white people.

    Apparently, “people of color” cannot be racist (which would be a surprise if you went to China), but “white people” can be.
    I actually like the ADL because of their level-headed coverage of racially-tinged incidents, but this is ridiculous.
    In their construct, Louis Farrakhan gets a pass. He can rant about Jewish infiltration of government and media, and then recite the Protocols of Zion and engage in a little Blood Libel but, nope, that’s racist under their definition. Mr. French:

    Changing definitions is one way we stop being able to communicate. This isn’t the definition of racism. It’s a description one way racism manifests, but people of any race can be racist. The relative threat of racism can depend on the power of the racist, but not its existence.

    What was their previous definition, you ask? The one below, and it’s way better:

    “Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics. Racial separatism is the belief, most of the time based on racism, that different races should remain segregated and apart from one another.”

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  52. JF,

    Well if we are teaching pre schoolers history, which I doubt happens often, then I don’t see why the ugly parts of history are to be exempted.

    But more to my point, the idea that children are to be shielded from knowledge of the ugly parts of the world around them doesn’t really take into account that children are directly affected by racism and bigotry, and they know it. How old are children when they first get insulted for their skin color or treated differently? You think that doesn’t happen until they’re what, 10? 18? Shouldn’t children be given some inkling about the why and the history?

    Black parents speak of giving their children a talk at an early age about what to expect from racism. I don’t see why all other children shouldn’t be taught some understanding of what racism is and how it has been practiced.

    And there seems, here as elsewhere, a view among some conservatives that children are the property of their parents, and that parents have some god given right to control anything told a child until they are some advanced age, 18 maybe or perhaps later. Being a parent gives you the right to do everything you can for your child. It gives you the responsibility to ensure they are raised safely and healthy. But from the moment of birth they are independent beings. At every step of the way they will develop minds of their own, and parents should celebrate that. Not get all pissy that somebody else has interfered with their property.

    Victor (4959fb)

  53. So here I am, referencing what Timothy Snyder wrote in 2014, unaware that the WA Post put out this essay last evening.

    Last July, Vladimir Putin supplied the mythical basis for Russian war propaganda in an essay titled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” The essential idea is that Russia has the right to Ukraine because of things that happened a thousand years ago in Kyiv. At the time, the city was a trading hub of Viking slavers who were gaining dominance over local Khazars. It takes some fanciful thinking to see here a reason for Russia to invade Ukraine in the 21st century, as it seems prepared to do. The absurd particulars, though, are less important than the principle. If countries can claim other countries on the grounds of millennial myths, the modern state system ceases to exist.

    Putin’s idea is that Ukraine is a fraternal nation because of how he personally feels about the past. This is known as imperialism. It flies in the face of the basic legal principle of state sovereignty and the basic moral principle of democracy. People who speak of other nations as little brothers wish to be Big Brother. Whether Ukraine is a nation or not is a question for Ukrainians today, not for imaginary Russians in an imaginary past. In Putin’s presentation, though, the West is to blame when Ukrainians don’t answer the question the way he would like. He seems to believe that Ukrainians would share his view about “historical unity,” if only the West would get out of the way.
    […]
    When Russian leaders claim today that NATO has betrayed Russia, they tap that same mythical vein of violated innocence. On May 27, 1997, Russia signed the NATO-Russia Founding Act. It was acknowledged by all parties at the time that NATO would expand and was open to “all emerging European democracies.” Just four days later, Russia signed a treaty with Ukraine, recognizing its borders. Moscow may disapprove when former Warsaw Pact members or former Soviet republics apply to join NATO, but such desires are not a result of Western iniquity or broken promises. They are a result of Soviet and then Russian behavior. NATO membership was not popular in Ukraine until Russia invaded the country in 2014. Not surprisingly, most Ukrainians these days wish their country belonged to a powerful defensive alliance.

    Now that NATO membership has majority support in Ukraine, former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev refers to Ukrainians as “vassals.” Russian propaganda made similar moves to solidify a certain mind-set before the last invasion. In early 2014, a major Kremlin theme was the idea that Ukraine was a “failed state” that required Russians to repair it. A state that claims that another state does not really exist is behaving as an empire. Ukraine is as much a state as Russia, a basic fact that Russia itself recognized until it invaded eight years ago. Until then, there was nothing at all in Russian diplomacy to question Ukraine’s existence, borders or right to sovereignty.

    And so forth. In other words, Ukraine gets a vote and has a right to that vote, and Putin has no right to veto.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  54. politicians don’t deserve to be elected

    mg (8cbc69)

  55. As the Trump stench dissipates, the Republican Party may be gaining. That’s the argument Jack Shafer makes in this column:

    As Trump has moved out of the public eye (and the social media orbit) he has become less vital to party members. Today, reporter Byron York of the conservative Washington Examiner noted that a new poll shows that fewer Republicans are describing themselves more as Trump supporters (36 percent) than as party supporters (56 percent). This is Trump’s worst showing ever in that poll, indicating generous room for a different Republican, perhaps even a Trumpish one to displace the original. (Not everybody sees an opportunity for DeSantis. The Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last, a Never-Trumper, writes this week that the ex-president would crush DeSantis, whom he calls a “phony” who will join in the morgue all the other Republicans who have run against Trump.)

    This move away from Trump comes as the Republican Party is actually gaining followers, presumably in reaction to the Biden presidency. Mike Allen of Axios points to a new Gallup Poll that more voters now identify as or lean toward Republicans than Democrats.

    There is still much to be done before we clear the air, but we are making progress.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  56. Comrades, when you look at a person like Kari Lake, and the -erts, and the Gosars, and the MTJs, and the Gaetzes, and the DeSantises, and the Hawleys, and the Johnsons, you are looking at people who fattened Trump up and are now eating him. And next to them, you have the Ronna McDanielses, and McCarthys, and the Cruzes, and the McConnells who are shying away from his specter.

    I feel sorry for him, really. That’s all that’s left of him. A carcass and a shade.

    nk (1d9030)

  57. But from the moment of birth they are independent beings. At every step of the way they will develop minds of their own, and parents should celebrate that. Not get all pissy that somebody else has interfered with their property.

    Victor (4959fb) — 1/29/2022 @ 8:28 am

    This is a nice euphemism for, “Shut up and let the left brainwash your kids.”

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  58. Black parents speak of giving their children a talk at an early age about what to expect from racism. I don’t see why all other children shouldn’t be taught some understanding of what racism is and how it has been practiced.

    This is the bailey–“We’re just teaching them about racism! How could you object to teaching them about racism?”

    Look, Victor, if you and white leftists want to hate yourselves for the original sin of your skin color, that’s fine. Just don’t demand that every other white person share in that self-loathing.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  59. Biden is not only keeping Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy, he’s also continuing Trump’s China policy, specifically tariffs and 45’s Phase One trade deal, even though China is welshing on it.
    I’m really not sure what’s better, a Biden foreign policy or no foreign policy. If I hear Bidenites use the meaningless phrase “pivot to Asia”, then I’ll know for sure that Biden’s foreign policy braintrust is braindead.
    If Biden really wanted an Asian pivot, we’d join the TPP, lift the taxes on ourselves tariffs and sanction China’s worst cheaters, for a start.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  60. Is Trump’s ally Matt Gaetz in serious legal trouble? Apparently:

    Did Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) have a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and engage in sex trafficking?

    That question has been the crux of a federal investigation going on for at least a year now, since the New York Times first reported its existence in March. And there have been recent developments that suggest that the firebrand Republican is still in very serious legal jeopardy.

    Naturally Gaetz denies the allegations.

    Is he hoping against hope that Trump will be re-elected so Trump can pardon him? That wouldn’t surprise me.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  61. The WA State trooper tried to own Jay Inslee, quitting in protest the governor’s vaccination mandate, ended up scoring an own-goal.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  62. https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/01/29/shocking-leaked-video-shows-biden-officials-clashing-with-desperate-border-patrol-agents-n514379

    The Biden administration is supporting an invasion of our nation and violating the Constitution. They must be removed forthwith.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  63. Here’s an interesting (well, interesting to me) take on why there aren’t more taller buildings.
    In Seattle, the main limitation is zoning, because developers try to cram as much square footage as the code will allow. And there is a bit of a quirk in the code, because the height limits get the shorter the closer to the Space Needle (see photo #10).
    In Snohomish County, building heights are mainly limited by the fire code. Above 75 feet, construction costs are way higher because of the additional necessary fire suppression and the increased rents from more or higher space don’t compensate.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  64. Paul, Also, the US and the Russia guaranteed Ukraine sovereignty back in 1994 in exchange for their surrender of their nuclear arsenal.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  65. But more to my point, the idea that children are to be shielded from knowledge of the ugly parts of the world around them doesn’t really take into account that children are directly affected by racism and bigotry, and they know it.

    That is a stupid statement. The idea that children need to be shielded at all is precisely the result of taking into account that children can and are affected by the world around them.

    a view among some conservatives that children are the property of their parents,

    This is clumsy caricature, employed by liberals, that conflates parental rights with property rights; both of which are also enjoyed by liberals, but may be practiced differently. The aim of this caricature is to favor the liberal praxis by misrepresenting the other.

    and that parents have some god given right to control anything told a child until they are some advanced age, 18 maybe or perhaps later.

    This is projection. Public Education is controlled by Liberals, not Conservatives. But the point if this statement is to characterize a parent as a totalitarian.

    Being a parent gives you the right to do everything you can for your child. It gives you the responsibility to ensure they are raised safely and healthy.

    Sounds good, until “everything you can do ” is defined for you, as well as what constitutes compliance with being “raised safely and healthy“.

    But from the moment of birth they are independent beings. At every step of the way they will develop minds of their own, and parents should celebrate that.

    How limiting! A human is not a “being” until birth? Also, at birth, and for quite a while afterwards, a human being is totally dependent on others for survival – not independent, in any way – unless, by “independent,” you mean separate. But that only underscores the existence of vulnerability, doesn’t it? And while this human being is vulnerable, “at every step of the way,” nurturing, guidance and protection is required of parents so that a child’s mind and body can continue to develop, and parents should be celebrated for their success, just as parents
    celebrate their child’s success.

    Not get all pissy that somebody else has interfered with their property.

    In other words, “shut up and get out of our way, while we usurp your role as parent!”

    felipe (484255)

  66. Paul, Also, the US and the Russia guaranteed Ukraine sovereignty back in 1994 in exchange for their surrender of their nuclear arsenal.

    Not just the Budapest Memorandum, Time, the Russian Federation gave those same assurances in a 1997 treaty, which was effectively terminated a couple years ago because Putin welshed.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  67. nk (1d9030) — 1/29/2022 @ 8:41 am

    When all you have is cannibalism, everyone looks like lunch!

    Fozzy bear joke:

    Two cannibals are walking down the street:

    Cannibal one: Who was that lady I saw with you yesterday?
    Canibal two: That was no lady, that was my lunch!

    Waaka-Waaka!

    felipe (484255)

  68. Jim Miller @ 57,

    That’s a good sign, and while Trump may not have the pull any longer, I still don’t see any Republicans who aren’t Trumpers having a shot at the presidency. Certainly, the Cheneys and Romneys of the party don’t.

    Dana (5395f9)

  69. Let’s stay in school. Did you hear about the little cannibal who was expelled? He was caught buttering up the teacher.

    nk (1d9030)

  70. But from the moment of birth they are independent beings. At every step of the way they will develop minds of their own, and parents should celebrate that. Not get all pissy that somebody else has interfered with their property.

    Victor (4959fb) — 1/29/2022 @ 8:28 am

    This is a nice euphemism for, “Shut up and let the left brainwash your kids.”

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 1/29/2022 @ 8:42 am

    Black parents speak of giving their children a talk at an early age about what to expect from racism. I don’t see why all other children shouldn’t be taught some understanding of what racism is and how it has been practiced.

    This is the bailey–“We’re just teaching them about racism! How could you object to teaching them about racism?”

    Look, Victor, if you and white leftists want to hate yourselves for the original sin of your skin color, that’s fine. Just don’t demand that every other white person share in that self-loathing.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 1/29/2022 @ 8:46 am

    While children are, in a way, independent beings, actually becoming independent beings into adulthood depends on the input, guidance, love, and nurturing of responsible parents/caretakers. It doesn’t just happen. Thus, the role of the person caring for that child is extraordinarily vital in producing an actual independent thinking and functioning adult.

    With that, I don’t think teaching one’s children to love one another is dependent on hating oneself for their skin color. And that is not what Victor is saying or implying. That is what is being assumed because it’s an either/or situation to FWO. We teach our children to love one another, be respectful of one another and be kind to those around us because it is foundational to long-held beliefs by some of us. It doesn’t mean that any hating of ourselves is involved. To the contrary. That’s just propaganda and nonsense. If little Ruby Bridges and other minority children face discrimination at an early age, then I think our own children should be made aware of how to treat all children with respect and kindness, and to go the extra mile when necessary (reach out to them, ask them to play, include them). That would seem to be the natural outcome of loving one’s neighbor and following God’s directives.

    Dana (5395f9)

  71. Great links/info on Russia/Ukraine, Paul Montagu.

    Dana (5395f9)

  72. Winter Olympics in China- I am somewhat concerned about whether or not all our athletes are going to return to us in a timely manner.

    That’s OK. We can always arrest some of their tourists for taking pictures. What could go wrong?

    Kevin M (38e250)

  73. Two interesting thoughts on civility:

    “The Institute for Civility in Government defines civility as “more than just politeness, though politeness is a necessary first step. It is about disagreeing without disrespect, seeking (and finding) common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, listening past one’s preconceptions, and teaching others to do the same. Civility is the hard work of staying present even with those with whom we have deep-rooted and fierce disagreements.””

    Contrast that with “Ronald Reagan biographer Craig Shirley: “The last thing we need in American politics is more civility,” he writes in an essay titled “In Defense of Incivility.” “What we need is more focused anger. Anger begets debate and debate begets change. … Liberty is often messy and, yes, uncivil. Freedom is supposed to be disorderly.””

    But is incivility a hindrance to democracy? Do we see the “change” Shirley promises from incivility? Can we characterize what we now have as “debate” or is it something less than that? I get people’s frustration with K-12 education….the crazy fads and distractions from what I would call the core mission….is head shaking. But the problems aren’t everywhere…and not every school district is dominated by liberals trying to impose a Marxist agenda. That’s hyperbole. There’s a lot that parents, teachers, and administrators agree upon. I thinks it’s important to acknowledge that and build upon it…

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  74. This was written nearly eight years ago, but Timothy Snyder is an expert on Ukraine’s history, including their involvement with fascism, which has been wildly overblown by Putin ever since he invaded.

    If you actually read that, there are so many factual howlers (e.g. “The purpose of the Second World War, from Hitler’s point of view, was the conquest of Ukraine.” and “As you will all know, the American frontier empire was built largely by slave labour.”) that most people will realize they are being lied to before they get to the end.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  75. If you’re still missing president’s outrageous tweets, you can still get your fix on Twitter. Look no further that Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador. Here’s one nugget (yes, he’s all in on Bitcoin).

    Most people go in when the price is up, but the safest and most profitable moment to buy is when the price is down. It’s not rocket science 🤷🏻‍♂️

    So invest a piece of your McDonald’s paycheck in #Bitcoin

    Now go back to flip more burgers you lazy fvçk!

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  76. Ooops. Sorry, those quotes are from the second link, not the first. But still…

    Kevin M (38e250)

  77. Art Spiegelman Reacts to School District Banning His Book Maus: ‘The Breath of Autocracy and Fascism’
    ……..
    Spiegelman was asked to explain his reaction to the school board’s decision, saying, “I’ve moved past total bafflement to trying to be tolerant of people who may possibly not be Nazis, maybe? Because having read the transcript of the school board meeting; the problem is bigger and stupider than that.”

    “They really genuinely focused, reading this 20-minute document, they totally focused on some bad words that are in the book. Like ‘damn it I can’t believe that the word ‘damn’ would get the book jettisoned out of school on its own, but that’s where the genuine focus seemed to be,” Spiegelman argued.

    Spiegelman went on to discuss how the “nudity” cited by the school district was hardly visible in the book and was of his own mother in a bathtub having slit her wrists. The novel tells the story of Spiegelman interviewing his father about his time as a Polish Jew in the 1930s and Holocaust survivor.

    “So it [the nude drawing] is seen from overhead and you can see it’s a tiny image so would really have to want to get your sexual kicks by projecting on it, it seems like a crazy place to get them,” Spiegelman said.

    “I think they are so myopic in their focus, and they’re so afraid of what implied and having to defend the decision to teach Maus as part of the curriculum it led to this deafly, myopic response,” Spiegelman said of the school board.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  78. With that, I don’t think teaching one’s children to love one another is dependent on hating oneself for their skin color. And that is not what Victor is saying or implying.

    Again, what Victor and other leftists employ are motte-and-bailey arguments. They start off by lying that white kids and people in general have unearned “privilege” and that everything bad that ever happened in human history was committed by white people, then when that lie comes under attack, they move back to the bailey with the disingenuous “We’re just trying to teach how awful racism is! Don’t you want kids to know how awful racism is?”

    What this ultimately boils down to is the fact that the left doesn’t like seeing their agenda challenged, especially in areas like the schools where they hold the political and ideological monopoly.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  79. @42: Every so often a rump group in major party decides that it IS the entire party and pushes their candidate into the nomination while “othering” everyone else in the party. Goldwater. McGovern. Trump (who only came close each time because of the ideological bankruptcy of the other party).

    There is some danger that the Democrats will do the same in the next election. They warded off Bernie the last two times, but they may not be able to stop AOC, if not this time, in 2028.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  80. RIP Don Wilson (88). Co-founder and rhythm guitarist of The Ventures.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  81. Keri Lake, however, is the worst of the type. She parrots the Trumpist party line, but she has neither Trump’s compassion nor his charm.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  82. Since military force can’t solve any problems, there’s no upside to delivering arms to “conflict zones” like Ukraine where they would simply make everything worse. This thinking is not even about preserving national interests, it’s just how many Germans see the world.

    Dear Germans. Forced solved you.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  83. Dana (5395f9) — 1/29/2022 @ 10:44 am

    Wells aid, Dana.

    felipe (484255)

  84. I get people’s frustration with K-12 education….the crazy fads and distractions from what I would call the core mission….is head shaking. But the problems aren’t everywhere…and not every school district is dominated by liberals trying to impose a Marxist agenda. That’s hyperbole. There’s a lot that parents, teachers, and administrators agree upon. I thinks it’s important to acknowledge that and build upon it…

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 1/29/2022 @ 10:51 am

    Except, AJ, you continually argue as if you don’t want parents challenging these “crazy fads and distractions” at all, in any way whatsoever. In fact, you constantly complain that even speaking out against them and trying to stop them when they clearly are implementing these dumb ideological fads is divisive, and should be avoided at all costs.

    Irrespective of whether “there is much for us to agree on,” which is just a vague generalization in and of itself, if teachers and administrators want to thumb their nose at parents, then they’re in no position to complain when parents push back against them.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  85. republicans are the party of pup tents

    mg (8cbc69)

  86. As the Trump stench dissipates, the Republican Party may be gaining.

    I don’t see it dissipating. I see him getting the nomination and winning in a landslide, given the many own-goals that the Biden administration is engaging in.

    The secretive abetting of illegal immigration will be a prime campaign issue for Trump, and if he wins it will be with a mandate to “do something about it.”

    The collapse in Afghanistan and the coming collapse of the Ukraine will lead to a disaster to follow. Either Taiwan, which we cannot actually defend, or the Baltic states being overrun while NATO fails to act. Everything posted about the Ukraine and WW2 applies equally to Lithuania at least.

    The economic turmoil that Biden’s cash giveaways have engendered (and much of the money is still flowing out) will continue. Congress might pass some things on a bipartisan basis, but the hard Left in the Democrat party will refuse to back away from their one-fell-swoop bills. So, with only the Fed to combat fiscal insanity, we’ll have high interest rates and recession come 2024.

    And those are times where people look of action, not moderation. Trump would beat Biden by 10% or more. Maybe AOC could beat Trump, but that’s not to be hoped for.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  87. he WA State trooper tried to own Jay Inslee, quitting in protest the governor’s vaccination mandate, ended up scoring an own-goal.

    I see nothing gleeful here. Somewhere there is a vaccine-mandate supporter who will die from Covid after getting all the shots. And when the antivaxxers laugh about it, you’ll be really pissed.

    Does not help.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  88. If Biden was serious, he’d sign a mutual defense treaty with Ukraine and send it to the Senate. He won’t, of course. Ukraine will fall in a few weeks of bloody fighting. All American trip-wire troops will be hastily withdraw, leaving all their hi-tech weapons for the Russians to examine. Biden will then state that when it actually comes to NATO countries “we really mean it!” But he won’t and Putin will know that.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  89. ESPN reports Brady will retire.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  90. The Wolves Will Become Sheep
    …………
    We now have a president and an attorney general who see at least half the country as their enemies. They are focused on attacking, smearing and defaming fellow Americans with whom they disagree. More frighteningly, the attorney general has the power to direct the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Offices to frame people and put them in jail on the most trivial of charges.

    The January 6 Select Committee is in the process of potentially bankrupting scores of Americans who worked for or supported President Trump. ……..

    House Republicans owe it to the Constitution and the American people to defeat the wolves and return them to sheep status.

    This is not about revenge. ……..

    First, House Leader Kevin McCarthy and his leadership team should send a letter to every member of the Select Committee, the staff of that committee, the staff of House administration and the staff of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This letter should warn them that they must keep all emails, notes, records of all meetings and communications, so that on January 4, 2023, they can all be reviewed by the new Select Committee on Congressional Dishonesty and Abuse of Power.
    Second, Leader McCarthy and his leadership team should send a letter to the U.S. attorney general, select U.S. attorneys, the head of the FBI and such other executive branch officials engaged in persecuting Americans for their political views. This letter, too, should lay down the same marker of keeping all records and being prepared to answer for their behavior on January 4, 2023.
    Third……..Republicans should prepare a “Wolves-to-Sheep Committee” as a holding pen for vicious, dishonest smear artists such as Rep. Adam Schiff……and a handful of other destructive, dishonest members should be bundled into a new committee with no staff, no legislative jurisdiction and no honor. It would be the equivalent of the ancient Greek punishment of ostracism.
    ………
    Related:
    Newt Gingrich Says Jan. 6 Committee Members ‘Face a Real Risk of Jail’ if Republicans Win the House
    ………
    Appearing on Sunday Morning Futureswith Maria Bartiromo, Gingrich expanded on an op-ed he wrote for Newsweek earlier this week titled “The Wolves Will Become Sheep,” in which he argued that January 6 committee members will have the tables turned on them if the GOP should gain control of Congress.
    ………
    Gingrich went on to blast Garland and the Jan. 6 committee as a “lynch mob.” He warned that Republicans may look to imprison their political opponents next January — arguing that their inquiry is breaking the law by “running over peoples’ civil liberties.”

    “I think when you have a Republican Congress, this is all going to come crashing down,” Gingrich said. “And the wolves are going to find out that they’re now sheep and they’re the ones who are in fact, I think, face a real risk of jail for the kinds of laws they’re breaking.”
    ########

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  91. We teach our children to love one another, be respectful of one another and be kind to those around us because it is foundational to long-held beliefs by some of us.

    One of my enduring early memories is the Sunday School pictures of children with different skin tones and features, in stereotypical costumes, all holding hands. Add the song: “Jesus loves the little children …. Red or yellow, black or white, all are precious in his sight,” and it built an understanding of common humanity. We collected school kits to send to children on other continents, which taught me that those children were worthy of concern.

    I also got the sense that the differences made the world more interesting. When I was growing up, I didn’t often meet people of other races (aside from a couple of Native Americans off the res), but when I did, it was exciting.

    Maybe it’s easier to think “we’re all just human at the core” when there aren’t nearby ethnic subcultures where some overall differences of behavior or attitude might be discernible — but there are wide differences of behavior and attitude within any race too.

    In college (as I’ve related before), I knew someone for 1.5 years before I heard that one of her parents was black — which simply hadn’t occurred to me, though it seemed obvious once I knew it. Still, that fact didn’t distinguish her as much as her unique personality did. It was somewhat similar with a guy from Puerto Rico that I hung out with a little bit.

    I now live in a place with a lot of ethnic diversity, and many accents, and I think I can honestly say that I approach everyone as an individual, not prejudging anything on grounds of race. It’s offensive that some people insist that this is impossible — that because I have pale skin, I must necessarily harbor prejudicial attitudes against people with darker skin. The notion itself is a form of bigotry. (I have a neighbor with rather dark skin, and I’m always thinking “I wish I were as cute as she is.”)

    I think my early education, especially in church and family, did pretty well at teaching tolerance, but I think my schools glossed over much of the prejudice and cruelty in our country’s past — and I think some right-wingers are doing so today.

    OTOH, it’s pernicious when schools teach pale-skinned children that they are inherently racist and can never demonstrate otherwise, and can never really do enough to overcome white guilt — and when schools teach children of other races to view all pale-skinned children as their born oppressors, regardless of what they actually do.

    A few months ago, I saw an interesting Twitter thread that began with a black British woman’s comment that she had experienced less racism from white people than from any other group — including black people. And quite a few people of various races said that their experience was the same. In early history, Europeans showed more curiosity about the rest of the world than most other human groups did. It’s true that the interest was often condescending, and the elements of dehumanizing cruelty should not be minimized. But white people have not been uniquely prejudiced toward other groups, and on the whole they may have been less so than other groups.

    Radegunda (04c976)

  92. Ukraine will fall in a few weeks of bloody fighting.

    That’s up to Ukraine– and ‘Biden Bluster.’ His history of being wrong on foreign policy over the past half century is well known.

    It’s not like Russians haven’t ‘visited’ Ukraine before. They’ll likely ‘welcome’ the Rooskies like the Czechs did w/t obligatory resistance- but minimal self-destruction. After all, they’re not like NATO forces– or Yankee Doodle bluster from 3,000 miles away- which pack up and go home– Ukranians still have to live there day to day. NATO will saber rattle, waste more $, U.S. costs will be chareged to Uncle Sam’s credit card- as usual – supplies repleinished and the MIC will profit all around. Helluva racket.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  93. TB – 12’s caddie at Seminole is happy, happy, happy, DCSCA.

    mg (8cbc69)

  94. Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 1/29/2022 @ 11:57 am

    Now, picture the situation if Trump returns to power with a mandate in 2025.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  95. #89 If you are interested in the current poll numbers, you can find them here. The three most recent match-ups show Biden beating Trump by 2 points (YouGov), by 4 points (Echelon), and by 10 points (Marquette). FiveThirtyEight gives Marquette the highest grade of those three.

    However, as I have said before, I think, this far out, that the betting markets are better predictors. So here’s the latest odds on Trump winning the presidency in 2024 from Election Betting Odds: 28.5 percent. (Note: That’s as I write. They update them every minute.)

    By the way, you do not have to go to Britain to place bets; the University Iowa runs an election market for research. (I assume, sometime after our mid-terms, they’ll open the 2024 presidential market, as usual.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  96. Picture Trump’s chances with inflation at 10%, mortgage rates at 15%, and the US budget with $3 trillion in interest costs, Taiwan gone, Ukraine gone and NATO teetering after failing in the Baltic states.

    “Never underestimate Joe’s ability to F things up.”

    Kevin M (38e250)

  97. “Liberty is often messy and, yes, uncivil. Freedom is supposed to be disorderly.”

    I’m old enough to remember when conservatives spoke of “ordered liberty” and said that a constitution of liberty could not be sustained without a population capable of moral self-discipline.

    Anger begets debate and debate begets change.

    What kind of debate occurs between people who not only are angry but believe that civility toward people who disagree with them is an obstacle to doing the right things?

    If you’re encouraged to be uncivil toward people who disagree, doesn’t that imply that they are not as free to hold their views as you are to hold yours? (It isn’t as if the political right is always coming down on the side of freedom and the left always on the side of tyranny.)

    Do we see the “change” Shirley promises from incivility? Can we characterize what we now have as “debate” or is it something less than that?

    Shirley’s way thinking promotes a lot of performative outrage and pushes people into extreme positions where crushing “the enemy” — i.e. the other half of the country — is the goal, not finding ways that we can all live together peaceably. In his way of thinking, any effort to find common ground is a form of treachery.

    In that way of thinking, even trying to establish facts — i.e. Was the 2020 election really stolen? What were the actions that led up to 1/6 and that transpired on the day? — becomes a form of treachery against one’s own side. Shirley’s thinking aligns with Gingrich’s ugly take on the 1/6 Committee. Newt doesn’t want facts to be found, because the facts emerging in this case, and the ones that have long been starkly evident from the video record, are incriminating to his side. The picture being revealed is that his side took a “by any means necessary” approach to electoral politics, using the unproved claim of a “rigged election” as a pretext.

    A decent political party would have said “We’ll put up a more widely appealing candidate next time and try harder to persuade voters to choose our side.” But too many of today’s “conservatives” view the other side as an illegitimate force in American politics.

    Radegunda (04c976)

  98. “Built largely” may be a bit much, Kevin, but the slave trade had an economic impact on the entire country, not just the south.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  99. I see nothing gleeful here.

    You’re mistaking my emotions about this, Kevin. Irritation and anger at his general stupidity is closer to the mark.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  100. At this point, it is almost certain that Trump will get the nomination if he asks for it. Maybe he’ll refuse it 3 times first, out of modesty, but I think he wants it.

    If it is true that Biden is aiding and abetting illegal immigration, in defiance of the law, a GOP Congress will impeach him for it. There’s prosecutorial discretion, but that would be plain malfeasance. He won’t be convicted, of course, but he will be badly damaged, as will his party.

    Those election odds you link to think that the GOP take both Houses in 2022 (near certainty) and will win in 2024 (but in a tossup). But they also think that Buttigieg will be the best Democrat nominee, which is amazing considering his incredibly bad job as transportation secretary.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  101. FWO: “Except, AJ, you continually argue as if you don’t want parents challenging these “crazy fads and distractions” at all”

    First, I believe most education matters are local matters. The exceptions are Title IX matters that I thought DeVos did a good job with, federal student aid (which I think should be merit based…and not extended to be a general right to free college), and the Dept of Education which if the Right can’t agree to try to dissolve it when they’re in power, then it should be limited in dictating details of education standards. Most everything else is then a local matter for you to discuss with teachers, principals, and boards. Again, that does not mean that either side should be able to threaten, bully, or shutdown the other…there should be civility…and there should be lines respected no matter the debate outcome. Hopefully too discussions are fact-based rather than rumor-based or hyperbole.

    Parents should always have input, but also understand that a few parents shouldn’t hold everyone hostage to their demands 9teh same with rogue teachers)….it’s sort of why we have boards and principals,,,with the former accountable to voters. What I object to….is using something like CRT to simply make our politics even more toxic…with few actual solutions.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  102. “Built largely” may be a bit much, Kevin, but the slave trade had an economic impact on the entire country, not just the south.

    The slave trade had almost no effect west of Missouri or Louisiana. Kansas was a bloodbath, but never a slave state. The real effect on the West was in the argument about whether new territories or states would be slave or free, and that argument, more than anything else, caused the Civil War. It wasn’t that anyone wanted to bring slaves to Arizona or New Mexico, but that South would be outnumbered and be unable to resist abolition.

    So, the “frontier” was not built by slavery. Not even the early frontier. When they tried that, the slaves disappeared into the Cherokee and such. Slavery, ironically, required the rule of law.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  103. Kevin, was there not interstate trade between slave and non-slave states?

    Breaking news: Brady is retiring.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  104. Radegunda,

    Unbelievably, the Indian Citizenship Act was passed just four years before my mom was born. While she is fairly light-skinned, she doesn’t remember having been the direct object of racism. However, I am olive skinned with dark hair, and have had all manner of slurs made about my appearance. None more so than from the Hispanic community, who have either doubted and or been irritated that I don’t speak Spanish or understand what they’re saying. It’s even X been ugly at times. Point being, everyone of every background has the potential to be racist but I think it’s learned behavior. What attitudes you grow up with and how you see your parents treat others is the biggest shaper of future attitudes toward others. Interestingly, mom and dad were living in South Carolina in the mid-50s and she was in line at the market and a Black man in front of her insisted she go before him. She kept saying no, it’s no problem. He was very insistent despite her reassurances that she would wait. It dawned on her that other people in line were watching. Other White people… She had never encountered that before and when she realized what was happening, she thanked him and went ahead of him. In private, I’m sure there wouldn’t have been an issue between them but in a social situation in the South during the 1950s, they both assumed their expected roles. She for his sake, he for the sake of himself and those watching.

    Dana (5395f9)

  105. ‘If Biden was serious…’

    ROFLMAO- he’d focus on the slo/mo invasion across America’s southern border, not the impending borders of Ukraine.

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  106. The US is more enlightened than Europe. Northern Spain sounds nice to this PNW native.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  107. Kevin, was there not interstate trade between slave and non-slave states?

    Weak. Very weak argument.

    Most of the South’s cotton was sold to England, and then clothes were imported. All food was local. Transportation sucked. Most trade was intrastate still. The idea of national brands was just starting out and was VERY controversial and only involved hard goods. That table factory in Chicago was putting artisans out of work in Indiana, after all. It wasn’t until the railroads really got going and the Republicans became dominant that interstate trade was much of a thing. And still all food was local well into the 20th century.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  108. Point being, everyone of every background has the potential to be racist but I think it’s learned behavior. What attitudes you grow up with and how you see your parents treat others is the biggest shaper of future attitudes toward others.

    This was a major part of the “Generation Gap” of the 1960s, as most white adults born before the WW2 had been steeped in racism and thought nothing much about it. It was the way things were. But their kids were exposed to all kinds of things that indicated that it was NOT all right, and those influences overcame their parents’ attitudes and teaching.

    Many of my black friends are surprised to hear this, that the white community was torn apart generation-wise, over the subject of civil rights. It’s why Dr King succeeded — most whites born in the 50s and early 60s had nothing invested in segregation and were fairly easy to convince.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  109. An alternate response to Putin invading Ukraine:

    The US intervenes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. Assuming that Biden’s folks would pick the right side.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  110. What attitudes you grow up with and how you see your parents treat others is the biggest shaper of future attitudes toward others.

    I never hard a racist word from my parents, ever. Another story I’ve told before: My father as a young man spent a couple of years working in Seattle, where many his costumers were black. When he want back to work in Everett again, one of his coworkers was rude to one of about three black customers who shopped there, and my dad afterword said to the coworker, “Why can’t you treat him right?” The guy apologized, said he was from the South, and apparently took the lesson to heart.

    A girl in my school was Native American, and I don’t recall specifically what meanness may have been shown to her, but there probably was some, and looking back, I’ve wished I had had the maturity to make an extra effort to be friendly. But I was just a kid.

    When an older cousin married a man from Japan, I heard that her parents were a little disappointed at first, but mostly I remember him being welcomed by the extended family. Before long, I was babysitting mixed-race cousins, so the whole race thing seemed not very important.

    I have relatives in Chicago who adopted a black girl (who at age 9 is already as tall as I am), and they’ve said that she has experienced some rudeness from time to time. And it genuinely perplexes me. Just treat people right, for God’s sake!

    Radegunda (04c976)

  111. The US is more enlightened than Europe.

    Interesting map, especially the pools and bands of color amid other colors. Would it have to do with topography? As in “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive”:

    Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning
    And the sun goes down about three in the day ….

    Radegunda (04c976)

  112. Northern Spain sounds nice to this PNW native

    You do get nice long days in summer. I was under the impression that it balanced out with the shorter winter days across the year, but apparently not.

    Radegunda (04c976)

  113. AP: Despite reports, Tom Brady hasn’t made up mind
    Despite reports that he is retiring, Tom Brady has told the Tampa Bay Buccaneers he hasn’t made up his mind, two people familiar with the details told The Associated Press.

    ESPN first reported Brady’s retirement on Saturday, citing unidentified sources. Brady’s company posted a tweet indicating he’s retiring, and reaction came from around the world congratulating Brady on his career. But the tweet was later deleted, and Brady’s agent, Don Yee, said the 44-year-old quarterback would be the only person to accurately express his future.

    Brady called Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht to say he has not made a decision, according to two people who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the conversations.
    ……..
    …….. Yee released this statement: “I understand the advance speculation about Tom’s future. Without getting into the accuracy or inaccuracy of what’s being reported, Tom will be the only person to express his plans with complete accuracy. He knows the realities of the football business and planning calendar as well as anybody, so that should be soon.”
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  114. Jim Miller on your economic growth numbers post.
    Looking under the numbers:

    Utilities, Mining, Manufacturing, Construction, Agriculture. All Down

    Biggest driver to the growth numbers (4.9%) was Auto Dealer Inventories. Gross Private Domestic Investment was up 32% and the majority of that was Auto Dealer purchasing

    GNP up marginally
    Consumer prices up 7% in December (yikes)
    Consumer activity was up 3.3%

    steveg (e81d76)

  115. Devin Nunes: Trump’s new social media site will be a family-friendly “safe place” with content moderation
    Will Trump be allowed on it?

    Seriously, though, does Devin Nunes have any idea of what sort of clientele a Trump-branded version of Twitter is going to attract? There’ll be some normies, sure. And if by “family-friendly” he means filtering out porn, that should be easy enough to do……..

    But most people attracted to partisan alternatives to mainstream social media platforms are there to indulge their ideological id. You don’t sign up for GETTR, for instance, because you want to debate the virtues of lower marginal tax rates with like-minded small-government conservatives. You sign up because you want to say the stuff you’ll get banned for saying on Facebook.

    …….[W]ill Groypers be free to speak their minds? Can users call for “Second Amendment solutions” for some of their least favorite Democrats?

    How about vaccine misinformation? …….[G]iven the appeal of “TRUTH Social” to MAGA populists, my guess is that it’ll be wall-to-wall anti-vax in short order. In fact, Nunes seems to be counting on it:

    ……“We’re not going to censor anybody because they have a different opinion about, for example, a COVID vaccine,” Nunes said. “That is what the open internet is all about—it should be for the free flow of debate and ideas all over the globe, so that people can learn from one another and debate with one another.”…

    “We want people to have a good experience on the platform, and they are not going to have a good experience if there is illegal activity on the platform, so that is the real necessity for this [content moderation],” Nunes said.

    There’s not going to be any “political debate” on the site, just like there isn’t anything approaching real debate on Twitter. What there will be is an overwhelmingly righty audience chronically irritated by a small number of active left-wing trolls, which will itself force Nunes to make some hard content decisions. ………
    ……….
    The reason his comments are getting attention today is, of course, because content moderation on tech sites has been a bugaboo for MAGA over the past five years. Aren’t Trump, Nunes, and the rest of the base opposed to Section 230, the law that shields tech platforms from liability for user comments? Populists want that protection stripped, believing that it encourages companies to engage in ideological censorship with impunity. Platforms should be unmoderated, full free-speech zones. Fox Business asked Nunes about that, and what do you know: He’s okay with Section 230. For now…….

    ………. If Section 230 gets nuked and platforms become liable for what their users say, a site that caters partly to ideological radicals will be at dire risk of ending up on the hook in a lawsuit for libel posted by one of its loose-cannon members. Trump himself strayed close to the line of defamation at times in his tweets as president, like when he insinuated that Joe Scarborough may have murdered one of his congressional interns.

    In fact, if Section 230 were repealed, TRUTH Social might end up as a leading example of what supporters of the law have warned about all along. Platforms will censor more content once they’re responsible for their users’ thoughts, not less. …..
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  116. I support Kanter on his drive to end the abuse of Uyghurs at the hands of the Chinese.
    Even if the Uyghurs are a rebellious pain in China’s butt, that is no reason to enslave them, outlaw their language and culture.

    Uyghurs are Turkmen and their religion is Islam, yet for some reason Turkey’s Erdogan has moved to a conciliatory stance with China on the subject. Erdogan is suspected of deporting Uyghurs back to China, and/or deporting Uyghurs to third party countries who have extradition arrangements with China.
    There are significant numbers of seperatist Turkmen groups who have been labled, correctly in my view, terrorists.

    The Uyghurs draw maps that call Xinjiang province ‘Uyghur East Turkestan’ and they also draw in a giant Tibet on that map just to poke another fork in Xi’s eye.

    So I’m with Kanter on stopping forced labor, stopping genocide, stopping the destruction of their language and culture, but I’m also confident no one is fixing the Turkmen seperatist problem in this century

    steveg (e81d76)

  117. Poll: Trump leads 2024 Republican field with DeSantis in distant second

    Former President Trump dominates the field of potential contenders for the 2024 Republican presidential nod, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is an early favorite for the nomination in the event that Trump doesn’t run again, according to a new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll shared exclusively with The Hill.

    In a hypothetical eight-person GOP presidential primary, Trump holds a clear edge, garnering 57 percent support among Republican voters. DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence are nearly deadlocked at 12 percent and 11 percent, respectively. No other would-be candidate tested in the poll registers double-digit support.

    Should Trump forgo another campaign for the White House, however, DeSantis would supplant him as the frontrunner. The Florida governor scores 30 percent support in a field that doesn’t include Trump, while Pence takes second place at 24 percent.

    Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) gets 14 percent support in such a scenario, according to the survey.

    The poll underscores the continued hold that Trump has over Republican voters as he weighs a 2024 comeback bid. …….
    ………
    In a hypothetical head-to-head matchup against President Biden, Trump leads 46 percent to 40 percent, according to the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll. He has an even wider lead over Vice President Harris, carrying 49 percent support to her 39 percent.

    DeSantis, meanwhile, polls near even against Harris. In a hypothetical matchup, the Florida governor notches 40 percent support to Harris’s 39 percent. Another 21 percent are either undecided or unsure of how they would vote in such a scenario.

    While Biden has indicated that he plans to run for a second term in the White House in 2024, he doesn’t have the kind of broad support among Democrats that Trump carries among Republicans.……..
    ……..
    Harvard/Harris poll toplines and cross tabs.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  118. #117 steveg – Sure. But what impressed me is that these mixed gains happened in spite of the damage done early in the year by alpha, and later in the year by the delta and omicron variants. From my original link, an example:

    Omicron began to rip through the labor market at the end of 2021, with December registering record-high levels of sick leave, according to Liz Wilke, principal economist at Gusto, a payroll and benefits provider. But the wave is ebbing. The share of employees taking sick time remains elevated but has fallen by almost a third over the past two weeks.

    Our economy is like a horse running in a race — while getting weights added, again and again.

    (It’s my hope that COVID will be doing less damage to the economy this year than it did last — and there are experts who are predicting that improvement.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  119. Republicans are starting out the presidential elections with 2 strikes against them.
    Unless they can drum up someone worse than those 2, you people have no chance.

    mg (8cbc69)

  120. An Arizona bill would empower state legislators to reject election results
    ………
    The bill’s lead sponsor, GOP Rep. John Fillmore, told CNN in a telephone interview that he’s trying to “ensure the integrity of the voting process.”

    Under his proposal, lawmakers would meet to either “accept or reject election results” following primary and general elections. If legislators reject the results, any qualified voter “may file an action in the Superior Court to request that a new election be held,” according to the bill.

    Fillmore said lawmakers should possess authority as “representatives of the people” to review the vote count. But, he said, “if there’s a problem, we’re not overturning anything. We’re just trying to put the skids on it and say, ‘This has to be adjudicated.’”
    ……..
    The bill also would eliminate the state’s widely used early voting-by-mail program and prohibit officials from requiring voters to wear masks at polling places.

    Fifteen other lawmakers have cosponsored Fillmore’s bill, including state Rep. Mark Finchem, a Republican running for secretary of state. Former President Donald Trump has endorsed his bid to become Arizona’s election chief.
    ……..
    “We need to get back to 1958-style of voting,” Fillmore said during a House committee meeting Wednesday — as he argued that voters should cast paper ballots, in person, on Election Day.
    ………
    In the interview with CNN, Fillmore said that by calling it a “1958 bill” he was describing the procedures he prefers, not an era. “In person, no electronics, on paper, count the ballots that day,” he added, ticking off his preferred voting rules.
    ……….
    Requiring literacy tests and poll taxes for voting were procedures in force in 1958.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  121. worse than Trump/2024

    mg (8cbc69)

  122. An alternate response to Putin invading Ukraine:

    Biden selects a new U.S. Secretary of State, a new ambassador to Russia and a new ambassador to Ukraine– they will be a women… and black.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  123. I support Kanter on his drive to end the abuse of Uyghurs…….

    As long as he doesn’t take a knee or protest at a game.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  124. “The last thing we need in American politics is more civility,”

    Does Mr. Shirley think we need more death threats against election officials and ordinary election workers? Those threats have been coming from his side — the supposed defenders of “freedom.”

    Would he be singing the same tune if it were Democrats threatening election workers, and storming the Capitol to intimidate legislators, and fantasizing about civil war, after their guy lost an election and then whipped up his supporters into a rage? Or is it just another cynical effort to pretty up a lot of awful behavior by his own ideological allies?

    Radegunda (04c976)

  125. DeSantis, meanwhile, polls near even against Harris

    DeSantis is an unknown to most voters, especially outside the GOP, or the South. Harris is known mostly by her image, most have never heard her speak. Once she spoke at the Dem debates, she turned everyone off. If she can’t get Democrat votes, I suspect she’ll have a problem with the center or right.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  126. An Arizona bill would empower state legislators to reject election results

    This is such a terrible idea. Good thing it will never pass.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  127. Biden selects a new U.S. Secretary of State, a new ambassador to Russia and a new ambassador to Ukraine– they will be a women… and black.

    I think he’ll just ban exporting vodka, borscht and furs to Russia.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  128. Dana – Here’s a man who followed your advice to treat others right. He, and our nation, prospered because of his efforts.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  129. Robinhood Meme-Stock Negligence Suit Is Rejected by Judge
    ……..
    A federal judge rejected a lawsuit filed by investors who lost money when the brokerage blocked the ability to purchase shares of GameStop Corp. , AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and other hot stocks on Jan. 28, 2021. The suit accused Robinhood of negligence and breaching various duties to its customers.
    ……..
    The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company had sought to dismiss the suit, arguing that the investors had signed a customer agreement that gave Robinhood broad latitude to restrict trading in securities without prior notice.

    “No doubt, plaintiffs were gravely disappointed when Robinhood suspended purchases of the meme stocks and their holdings declined in value,” Judge Altonaga wrote. “But the law does not afford relief to every unfulfilled expectation.”
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  130. Spotify Lost More Than $2 Billion in Market Value After Neil Young Pulled His Music Over Joe Rogan’s Podcast
    ……..
    Shares of Spotify fell 6% from Jan. 26-28. Over the same time period, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 1.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.1%. For the sake of comparison, Netflix’s stock recovered a bit, up 4.9% over the last three days, after getting hammered following its Jan. 20 earnings report.
    ……..
    To be sure, Spotify’s stock price was already on the slide — having plummeted 25% year-to-date as of Jan. 25, the day before Young’s catalog was pulled off Spotify. Investors have been rattled by signals that Spotify’s growth may be slowing, particularly after Netflix’s warning of a significant cooldown in first quarter subscriber net adds (which precipitated a 24% drop in its share price).

    Also, it’s worth noting is that Spotify’s stock rebounded slightly Friday, closing up 1% to $172.98/share, amid a broader market upturn. However, that came before Joni Mitchell announced that she, too, would be removing her music from Spotify. ……
    ………
    For Spotify investors, the concern is that the artist exodus could snowball in the coming days and drive a material number of customer cancellations. Hashtags #CancelSpotify, #DeleteSpotify and #ByeSpotify were trending on social media in the wake of Young’s ultimatum and Spotify’s decision to remove his music.…….
    ………
    Young on Friday doubled down on his anti-Spotify stance, slamming the streamer’s audio quality as “shi**y, degraded and neutered” and announcing a partnership with Amazon giving new customers to Amazon Music Unlimited four months free of the premium streamer.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  131. @130. ROFLMAO- Bingo! That’s him!

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  132. @131. “HOLY MACKEREL, something fishy there,” exclaims Irish Catholic Biden. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  133. AP: Despite reports, Tom Brady hasn’t made up mind
    Despite reports that he is retiring, Tom Brady has told the Tampa Bay Buccaneers he hasn’t made up his mind, two people familiar with the details told The Associated Press.

    A fumble?

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  134. Texas Trump Rally on Newsmax. Looks packed w/people.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  135. Enjoy!

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  136. ‘I will die free’: Unvaccinated Burke County (NC) man denied kidney transplant by hospital
    ……..
    (Chad) Carswell said he has received all kinds of tests and scans from Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem in hopes of getting a kidney transplant. Instead, Carswell learned that he and anyone who wanted to donate a kidney would be required to be vaccinated before the surgery.

    Carswell said he won’t get the vaccine and he is willing to die over it.
    ……..
    ““…….. I was born free. I will die free. I’m not changing my mind,” Carswell said. “I’ve had conversations with my family and everybody who is close to me and they know where I stand and there will not be a situation that occurs where I’ll change my mind on this topic.”

    He said doctors and nurses at the hospital spoke with him about getting the vaccine, but he believes it is a choice and he doesn’t believe someone should be forced to get one.

    ……….[T]he hospital said the policy is in place to provide protection for the patient, because transplant patients are at high risk for severe illness if they don’t have pre-existing immunity.

    “Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s policy follows the current standard of care in the United States, which is to vaccinate all patients on waiting lists or being evaluated for transplant,” the hospital said.

    “We understand that some patients may not wish to be vaccinated,” the statement continued. “In this case, patients can opt to be evaluated at another transplant center.”
    ……….
    Sad .

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  137. Pat McCrory compared his not getting a job at Duke University to 1960s segregation
    Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said last year that not receiving an offer to teach at Duke University upon leaving the governorship was “blacklisting” and comparable to the refusal to serve Black Americans at lunch counters in the 1960s during segregation.
    ………
    “The head of the policy school called me up and said, ‘Governor, we’ve got some problems. We’ve got some alumni and big donors that don’t want you to come back to Duke to be a part of this public policy school,'” said McCrory in January 2021, referring to a job at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

    “You know what I said to him, I said, ‘If I come back to the, if I come back to the campus, will you serve me at the lunch counter?’ And I meant it.”

    “Speaking about the ultimate blacklisting was the African American students from North Carolina A&T University who wanted to eat at the counter at Woolworths, the lunch counter. And they refused them. They were blacklisted because of the color of their skin,” added McCrory. “Other people are now being blacklisted because of our politics. And it’s both wrong. It’s both deplorable. And we’ve got to speak out against it.”
    ………..
    “I was blacklisted by Duke University, I was — every former governor of North Carolina was invited to work in the Public Policy School of Duke University, the Terry Sanford Public Policy School — former governor,” McCrory said. “And so I went and talked to them and they said, ‘We’d love to have you help us out.’ And it wasn’t for money or anything. And within an hour of believing there were protests and signatures by both students and faculty signed up saying, ‘We don’t want Pat McCrory back on the Duke University campus anymore.'”
    ………..
    A spokesperson for Duke University told CNN that it was inaccurate of McCrory to say that “every former governor of North Carolina was invited to work in the Public Policy School of Duke University” and declined to comment further.
    ………
    McCrory is running in a competitive (US Senate) primary, which includes Rep. Ted Budd, who was endorsed by Trump last year.…….
    …………..
    Nikole Sheri Hannah-Jones not available for comment.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  138. I never should’ve relied on that sketchy rag, the Wall Street Journal, when I made my breaking news comment about Brady. Fie on me.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  139. Carville going against his typical “victory at any cost” old self here (by pimping for Gallego), but why?

    https://www.businessinsider.com/carville-sinema-gallego-2024-arizona-democratic-senate-primary-strong-challenger-2022-1

    urbanleftbehind (22515e)

  140. Marquette Law School Poll-1/27/22
    ……..
    In a head-to-head matchup, DeSantis is supported by 33%, while Biden is supported by 41%. A substantial 18% say they would support someone else, and 8% say they would not vote. In a Trump versus Biden rematch, Trump receives 33% to Biden’s 43%, with 16% preferring someone else and 6% saying they would not vote.

    While the election is substantially into the future, these results show that while Trump remains popular among Republican voters, another GOP candidate performs at least as well against Biden. There are similar patterns of support for both Republicans by party identification, as shown in Tables 1 and 2. In both pairings against Biden, there are significant percentages of all partisan categories saying they prefer someone else, not in the pairing, or wouldn’t vote. This is especially pronounced among independents.
    ……….
    A majority of Republicans, 63%, would like to see Trump run for president in 2024, whereas 37% do not want him to run. Among independents who lean Republican, 51% would like Trump to run and 49% would prefer he not run. Very few Democrats wish him to run. Among all adults in the survey, 29% would like Trump to seek the presidency again, while 71% do not want him to attempt a return to office. The full results by party are in Table 3.
    ……….
    DeSantis is much less well known than Trump. For DeSantis, 44% of all respondents say they haven’t heard enough to have an opinion, while 22% have a favorable view and 34% have an unfavorable opinion. For Trump, only 1% lack an opinion, whereas 32% hold a favorable view and 67% view him unfavorably.
    ………
    Favorability toward DeSantis, Trump, and Pence differs dramatically by party, as shown in Tables 4, 5, and 6.
    ………
    Republicans remain doubtful of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Among Republicans and independents who lean Republican combined, 27% are very or somewhat confident that the votes were accurately cast and counted, while 73% are not too confident or not at all confident in the accuracy of the election vote totals. The divide is sharply partisan, as shown in Table 7……..
    ……….
    Favorability toward Pence is not linked to election confidence, unlike Trump. Table 9 shows Pence favorability by confidence in the election among Republicans and those who lean Republican.
    ……….
    As with Trump but unlike the case with Pence, favorability to DeSantis is strongly associated with confidence in the election……
    ………..
    Biden’s approval has fallen substantially among independents and Democrats, while it has fluctuated below 20% among Republicans. …….
    ………
    Biden’s approval has also fallen steadily among Black respondents, from 88% in July to 57% in January.…….
    ………..
    Tables at link.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  141. In that corner of academia’s hierarchy, alphabet higher then BIPOC…but in 2022 I am rooting for the McCrorys in their interparty races.

    urbanleftbehind (22515e)

  142. When the secret of sinecure in academia is “Know what to kiss and when!”, it does not take many generations to turn the tribe into a blancmange of puckered lips twitching at every raised hand not to mention other bodily parts.

    nk (1d9030)

  143. He said doctors and nurses at the hospital spoke with him about getting the vaccine, but he believes it is a choice and he doesn’t believe someone should be forced to get one.

    Fine, and no one should be force to donate a kidney to someone who obviously won’t do the self-care. I think I should change my donor card to read “but any recipient must be vaccinated against Covid” — who I donate to is my choice.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  144. Memo to Joe:

    Seems a lot of Texas office holders and pols managed to avoid “scheduling conflicts” to be at the Trump rally outside Houston. How come pols avoid you? Oh. Right. They got the word from the head of your church in Rome— and the Duchess of Cornwall.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  145. Prosecutors explained the plot of ‘Game of Thrones’ to argue that a rioter quoting Cersei Lannister was proof of criminal intent
    ……….
    Two days after the insurrection, Jeremiah Caplinger, 25, posted an image of a soldier from the American Revolution with the caption: “As said by Cersi Lannister ‘I choose violence,'” according to (a sentencing memorandum).

    In a footnote, the prosecutors explained the plot of the episode in which the quote appears, saying: “Cersei Lannister is a fictional character in the HBO television series ‘Game of Thrones.’ After being confronted by a group of politically-empowered religious zealots, who warn her that if she does not yield to them ‘there will be violence’, Cersei Lannister responds, ‘I choose violence.'”
    ………
    “In stating, ‘I choose violence’, Cersei Lannister embraced — and then carried out — mass murder to achieve her political ends,” the document adds. “In the context of Caplinger posting this just two days after January 6, Caplinger’s adoption of this quote is alarming and provides insight into his mental state and intent in storming the Capitol.”

    Prosecutors said that Caplinger brought body armor with him on January 6, scaled a wall on Capitol grounds, and entered office suites. Other social media posts, cited in the document, show he had little remorse.

    Caplinger in November pleaded guilty to one count of stepping on, climbing, removing, or injuring property on Capitol grounds. He faces up to six months in prison, the court filing said.
    ……….
    “I think it was a great stupid thing when it came to breaking and destroying things, sure … But I will not sit here and allow people to constantly demonize, patronize, criticize and try to ostracize Trump supporters for doing what they believe in,” he told MLive.
    …………

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  146. @143. ESPN broke it earlier- see up thread. Brady has ‘more on the ball’ than the Biden WH does when it comes to the etiquette of announcing ‘retirements.’

    … and Breyer smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  147. Is Liz Cheney in primary trouble?
    ……..There are quite a few headlines making the rounds today touting a landslide victory for Hageman in a straw poll, besting Cheney by a wide margin, with some observers suggesting that the congresswoman could be in danger of losing her seat. But when you look a bit deeper into the details of this straw poll, things might not be quite as dismal for Cheney as some are making it sound.
    ………
    ………[T]his wasn’t any sort of sweeping poll of Wyoming voters done by one of the established polling outfits. It was a straw poll, similar to the straw poll done at CPAC every year, and it was taken at the annual meeting of the Wyoming Republican State Central Committee. Only 65 people took part in the poll and they were all part of the same very pro-Trump committee that voted to no longer recognize Cheney as a member of the party in November. (And even that wasn’t a runaway loss for Cheney as the motion only passed by two votes.)

    Trump’s choice of endorsing Hageman was kind of curious, to begin with, really. She’s now running as a complete Trump loyalist and cheerleader, but back in 2016, she was working behind the scenes to stop Donald Trump’s primary victory in Wyoming. She also called him “racist and xenophobic” at that time. But apparently, all has been forgotten and forgiven now.
    ……….
    This race is likely to have less to do with Cheney herself than the contrast between the respect that Dick Cheney’s family has traditionally been shown in Wyoming and the popularity of Donald Trump in the state. ……..
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  148. ESPN broke it earlier- see up thread. Brady has ‘more on the ball’ than the Biden WH does when it comes to the etiquette of announcing ‘retirements.’

    See post 116. It’s been denied.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  149. @153. Somebody’s pushing– or he’ll only jump when there’s a crowd below. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  150. Mike Giardi
    @MikeGiardi
    Checked in with Tom Brady Sr. who tells me, and I quote, “This story Mike is total conjecture. Tommy has not made a final decision one way or the other and anybody else that says that he has is absolutely wrong.” #TomBrady #Buccaneers
    1:51 PM · Jan 29, 2022·TweetDeck

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  151. Is Liz Cheney in primary trouble?

    Does a POTUS poop himself for the Pope?
    Does a POTUS break wind for a Duchess?
    Does a Russian Bear poop in the Belarus woods?
    Does Chicken Kiev get served in the Kremlin?

    Da!

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  152. All I know about Game of Thrones is second-hand. Cersei is the one in the brother-sister relationship? Cause that would figure.

    nk (1d9030)

  153. Trump came closest yet at Houston rally to announcing another run.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  154. Trump’s choice of endorsing Hageman was kind of curious, to begin with, really. She’s now running as a complete Trump loyalist and cheerleader, but back in 2016, she was working behind the scenes to stop Donald Trump’s primary victory in Wyoming.

    ROFLMAOPIP. A certain senator from Texas was all up in Trump’s face against him at every turn, back in the day as well– now he’s just far up his butt– when he’s not wintering in Cancun. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  155. OT: I used to think that most people weren’t stupid. Then I went onto NextDoor.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  156. Art Spiegelman Reacts to School District Banning His Book Maus: ‘The Breath of Autocracy and Fascism’

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 1/29/2022 @ 11:00 am

    Here’s a good thread on what’s wrong with banning books like Maus, and what they’re typically replaced with.

    lurker (59504c)

  157. TB -12’s Seminole caddie would be the one to talk to.

    mg (8cbc69)

  158. Being a rugged individualist I notice most on this site disapprove of people like me who have different views on political hacks and the motives they shove down up our bottoms. If you highly educated people could give me a list of who you think would be a most wonderful president.
    I need a laugh after this blizzard. Thanks so very much.

    mg (8cbc69)

  159. There is nothings close to eternal life as a temporary gubmint program.
    Masks forever.

    mg (8cbc69)

  160. I have a laugh for all of you – My new neighbors from Cantafordya needed help starting a fire in their wood stove. A cardboard box and a 7′ log was what they used!! Super nice people, just full of cantafordyaness.

    mg (8cbc69)

  161. My new neighbors from Cantafordya needed help starting a fire in their wood stove.

    These new-fangled modern conveniences stump me, too, sometimes, mg.

    nk (1d9030)

  162. ESPN first reported Brady’s retirement on Saturday, citing unidentified sources

    Who are these people who constantly leak false stories about all kinds of matters?

    Or what procedures do reporters use?

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  163. The disclosure of the blood supplies by U.S. officials,

    And blood supply doesn’t keep.

    The question is: Is this what it is:

    Oh, the grand old Duke of York,
    He had ten thousand men;
    He marched them up to the top of the hill,
    And he marched them down again.

    And when they were up, they were up,
    And when they were down, they were down,
    And when they were only halfway up,
    They were neither up nor down.

    What;s the story behind it?

    https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/grand-old-duke-of-york-nursery-rhyme-lyrics-history-origins/

    ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’ is one of the oldest known English nursery rhymes, thought to date back to the 1600s. It’s not certain who wrote the words or accompanying music heard today, but it was published in Arthur Rackham’s 1913 Mother Goose collection of nursery rhymes.

    There is also a version surviving from 1642, which is called ‘Old Tarlton’s song’, with the lyrics: “The King of France with forty thousand men, Came up a hill and so came downe againe.”

    This version is attributed to the Elizabethan era stage clown Richard Tarlton.

    It’s been said to be Richard II or someone during the Napoleonic wars, but the best fit, is James III (although it maypreviously have been used if a king of France)

    A third theory centres around King James II, who was formerly known as the Duke of York. In 1688 he marched troops to Salisbury Plain to resist the invasion of William of Orange, but he had to retreat when his men started to defect.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  164. An Arizona bill would empower state legislators to reject election results

    According to the Wall Street Journal, Arizona is the state where such efforts have gone furthest, but it is;t anywhere near close to passing.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-election-subversion-myth-joe-biden-state-legislatures-11642199302

    Liberal legal and political groups are combing through state legislative dockets for evidence of GOP plans for election subversion….The first state is Arizona, where such efforts are most significant but still never passed a committee in either legislative chamber. A February 2021 bill backed by seven Republicans in the state’s House of Representatives would allow the Legislature to “reject or confirm the preliminary results” of the state’s election in a special session.

    According to the Legiscan tracker, it died in committee. Another Arizona bill with similar effect and a single sponsor also died in committee.

    A bill proposed in May 2021—also sponsored by a lone Arizona state Representative—would allow the Legislature to revoke a candidate’s certificate of election “by majority vote at any time before the presidential inauguration.” It died in committee.

    There was also a bill in Missouri with only one sponsor, and one in Nevada, Nevad, sponsored by five Republicans in a Democratic controlled legislature in March, which died in April, “which would have called a statewide referendum to implement something like the first Arizona proposal…that is, to make the state Legislature the body that certifies election outcomes.”

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  165. If you highly educated people could give me a list of who you think would be a most wonderful president.

    Mitch Daniels, and he’s younger than both Trump and Biden.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  166. Paul, I would love to lure Daniels from Purdue….he was a great governor…and is an all around smart guy with creative conservative/libertarian ideas. Unfortunately, probably too smart to venture into today’s political minefield…where today’s capital emphasizes being the biggest jacka$$ and…dramatizing over matters that Daniels probably would agree are not matters for government.

    The GOP is obviously in a period of transition and turbulence. We had a pretty decent slate of governors to choose from for President in 2016. If Kasich, Christie or Bush were too moderate, there was Perry or Walker to consider. Similar to charisma-lacking Daniels, there was also Bobby Jindal who might have had more intellectual heft than the others and a decent record in Louisiana. Huckabee and Pataki had executive experience but one had exceeded his political expiration date and the other simply had no base to get a campaign off the ground. Certainly no one was perfect…but they were vetted…had records….and most importantly weren’t nuts…or wingin’ it.

    One’s impression of the current slate of governors probably depends on one’s take on how Covid should have been handled. DeSantis and Abbott have paid dues to the anti-vaxx side which tends to dominate their administrative consideration. Scott, Baker, Hogan, and Sununu all have high approval ratings….but are likely too moderate for the current GOP gestalt. Then there’s Kemp….who’s caught in the tsunami of Trumpism….which might sink his future appeal. There’s Justice, Ivey, and Noem but none seem to be well positioned for higher office at this point. Haley seems to be an OK alternative in these days where perfect is the enemy of good enough. Anyone struggling to find alternatives to Trump….isn’t really trying

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  167. Mitch Daniels may have a tough time with women .His letter as President of Purdue raised some eyebrows.

    mg (8cbc69)

  168. Kremlin TV Worries Tucker Carlson’s Pro-Putin Bias Has Gone Too Far
    ………
    During the episode of his Monday show, Carlson pondered: “Why is it disloyal to side with Russia but loyal to side with Ukraine?” Three years earlier, Carlson admitted that he is rooting for Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. He said, in part: “Why do I care… what is going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia? And I’m serious. Why do I care? Why shouldn’t I root for Russia, which I am?”

    Facing criticism, Carlson walked back his comments and claimed he was “joking.” In 2022, he is unabashedly pushing the talking points favored by the Kremlin and no longer making excuses. Carlson is going so far to support the Russian propaganda narrative that prominent personalities on the Kremlin-funded state television are concerned about his future in the United States. Last Sunday, one of Russia’s most-watched television networks Channel One played the clip from Carlson’s show, where he argued that Russia’s anger at NATO’s alleged involvement in Ukraine was well-justified. Reporter Ivan Blagoy then noted the Fox News host “is predictably being accused of playing along with Moscow.”

    ……….[The host of Rossiya-1 network’s] 60 Minutes, Evgeny Popov, fawned over Carlson by describing him as one of the “voices of truth and reason” and complained that the host of the most-watched show in all of cable news with millions of viewers is being “silenced and marginalized.” In 2020, Popov demonstrated his affinity for Carlson by introducing him as “practically our co-host.”

    Last Wednesday, Russia’s English-language state media outlet RT published an op-ed by Irish commentator Graham Dockery, who marveled: “Once considered a sewer pipe of neoconservative jingoism, Fox News is now anti-war—or at least its top-rated host is… The picture is clear: When it comes to Ukraine, pundits and commentators from the establishment left to the neocon right only disagree on how quickly and strongly the U.S. should wade in to stop a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. Only Carlson, considered far-right by American liberals, is in complete opposition to U.S. involvement.” RT’s writer complained “the sole anti-war voice on prime-time cable happens to belong to a man whom liberals believe is a “white supremacist,” thus undermining his considerable influence.
    ……….
    That same day, opposing U.S. intervention against Russia’s aggression, Carlson prodded his audiences by claiming: “You are currently funding a proxy battle in Ukraine against the nuclear-armed Russian military and that could very well erupt into a hot war that includes you, the United States.” The tactic of terrorizing American audiences with the possibility of nuclear war, in order to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine, has been repeatedly discussed by experts on Russian state television.…….
    ………..
    Predictably, Carlson’s portrayal of Ukraine as a small, corrupt, insignificant nation that is of no consequence to the U.S. is in perfect alignment with the way Russia’s beleaguered neighbor is being smeared on Kremlin-funded state television, in order to humiliate the fledgling democracy and dissuade it from resisting Russian aggression. This Tuesday, 60 Minutes broadcast a string of translated clips from Carlson’s shows on Fox News. Host Popov added: “Indeed, I can imagine a cattle rancher in Montana. What does he care about Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty? The same goes for at least 320 million Americans. The rest might actually be able to find Ukraine on a map.” Popov dismissed the entire population of the United States as being uneducated or indifferent to the fate of Ukraine—or both.
    ……….
    ……….Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu asserted that “Russia can’t afford to lose the information war” against the West. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have a major media personality broadcasting propaganda that benefits Moscow directly to millions of Americans.

    Russian independent television channel Dozhd, also known as TV Rain, noted Carlson’s bizarre fealty to the Kremlin. On Tuesday, host Ekaterina Kotrikadze pointed out: “Tucker Carlson is one of the brightest personalities of the American conservative television channel Fox News. Sometimes it seems that he attends advanced training courses at the Russian Foreign Ministry.”
    ##########

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  169. This is even less reason to reelect Trump.

    Jan 29 (Reuters) – U.S. former President Donald Trump said on Saturday if he were to run for president and win in 2024, he would pardon people charged with criminal offenses in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 assault by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  170. Excerpt from Daniels’ open letter:

    “Assuming one agrees that this is a problem [the gap in men attending college], Purdue is playing a part in addressing it. Our historic average of about 57% men in the undergraduate population has held remarkably steady, even as many other schools saw that share drop to the low 40’s or even lower. There is no intention behind this against the trend position, and no mystery about the reasons. Young men and women select into various disciplines at very different rates, and the STEM subjects which are relatively predominant at Purdue tend to attract men.

    We have, and will extend, a host of programs to recruit more women into these disciplines. As one example, our 26% female share of engineering students is one of the nation’s highest. (I have sometimes observed that no one ever writes to express concern that we need more men in our 87% female veterinary medicine college, or our 89% female nursing department, or our 64% female college of pharmacy.) Purdue cannot solve this looming national problem, but sending out thousands of exceptional young engineers, computer scientists, and other technology experts who happen to be men is a contribution few other institutions are making.”

    It’s a sign of the times that these statements are at all problematic….especially after reading the second paragraph….where there is no intent to diminish women’s interest in STEM. But it’s cr*p like this that will keep good people from wanting to go on the national stage…..

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  171. My new neighbors from Cantafordya needed help starting a fire in their wood stove.

    How could people from a state where they might need very little heating in the winter not know how to use a wood stove? The incompetence!

    Radegunda (04c976)

  172. This is even less reason to reelect Trump.

    He also promised massive protests if he faces any legal repercussions for his actions.
    That’s an example of Trump as a law unto himself — as someone who should never be subject to accountability — and a call for more sedition.

    Oh, and he says “our country and our elections are corrupt.” And this is someone who, we are told, loves America more purely and deeply than all his critics and competitors. It’s utter garbage.

    Radegunda (04c976)

  173. It’s a sign of the times that these statements are at all problematic….especially after reading the second paragraph

    As a woman, I see nothing the least bit offensive in the statement.
    “87% female veterinary medicine college” is a surprising statistic, and it is indeed interesting that no one seems to be complaining about that imbalance.

    Radegunda (04c976)

  174. If you highly educated people could give me a list of who you think would be a most wonderful president.

    Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (not the TV version).

    Kevin M (38e250)

  175. ESPN first reported Brady’s retirement on Saturday, citing unidentified sources

    Gisele.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  176. where they might need very little heating in the winter

    Only if they’re from SoCal. If they’re from SF, they probably need heating in the summer.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  177. Jan 29 (Reuters) – U.S. former President Donald Trump said on Saturday if he were to run for president and win in 2024, he would pardon people charged with criminal offenses in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 assault by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

    Why does this surprise anyone? The fact that Trump didn’t issue a blanket pardon before leaving office has proven a wedge issue among his supporters. If he had, he might have been convicted in the Senate, so he didn’t, but that he would if re-elected had gone without saying.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  178. My new neighbors from Cantafordya needed help starting a fire in their wood stove. A cardboard box and a 7′ log was what they used!! Super nice people, just full of cantafordyaness.

    Lest you think all Californians are inexperienced in this: I lived in a cabin in the middle of the wilderness in California and easily mastered starting fires in the woodstove out of necessity. But unless you live in specific areas of the state, there is no reason to know how to do that. I also had to learn how to drive on black ice without going over the edge of the mountain, shoe through snow without breaking my ankle, etc. Unless we have to do things, there isn’t really a need to know how to do those things. If I’m ever in that position again, I would gladly help inexperienced neighbors. Learning new things is really great.

    Dana (5395f9)

  179. We have, and will extend, a host of programs to recruit more women into these disciplines. As one example, our 26% female share of engineering students is one of the nation’s highest

    Some undergraduate STEM programs, like Harvey Mudd (49%), MIT (47%) and CalTech (44%) do better.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  180. My new neighbors from Cantafordya needed help starting a fire in their wood stove. A cardboard box and a 7′ log was what they used!! Super nice people, just full of cantafordyaness.

    Have you ever seen someone from Montana trying to drive the 405 in the late afternoon?

    Kevin M (38e250)

  181. Jan 29 (Reuters) – U.S. former President Donald Trump said on Saturday if he were to run for president and win in 2024, he would pardon people charged with criminal offenses in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 assault by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

    Eh, sounds like Trump is rallying his troops, and picking up those who may have lost faith in him because he didn’t pardon them when he had the chance. Sly, yet effective political move by a man who is desperate to regain his prominence in American politics. Promise them the moon, and then when the time comes to deliver, act as if you never made the promise in the first place. (Think: Mexico will pay for the wall, etc.) Unfortunately, the same old scenario might work. It depends on how many Republican voters are ready to be scammed again.

    Dana (5395f9)

  182. Jan 29 (Reuters) – U.S. former President Donald Trump said on Saturday if he were to run for president and win in 2024, he would pardon people charged with criminal offenses in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 assault by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

    This is really dangerous rhetoric because it likely/possibly signals that Trumpers (not necessarily involved with Jan. 6) charged with future criminal offenses would be let off the hook if they committed that crime on Trump the president’s behalf.

    Dana (5395f9)

  183. 179, make sure you say book version only… a certain actor in the 1st of the film installments has had recent troubles handling firearms, the 2nd is an environut and the 3rd is a Latina fetishist

    urbanleftbehind (22515e)

  184. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/01/29/nova-scotia-moves-quickly-using-emergency-declaration-to-ban-truck-convoys-and-highway-cheering-10000-fine-for-cheering-on-roadway/

    Apparently, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia is taking proactive steps {link} to ensure their leftist government officials are not subjected to any protests similar to what’s happening in Ottawa or other regions.

    Using their pre-existing state of emergency, the “Province today, January 28, issued a directive under the Emergency Management Act prohibiting protesters from blockading Highway 104 near the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick border.”

    According to the provincial government, “fines for a summary conviction under the new directive will range from $3,000 to $10,000 for individuals and between $20,000 and $100,000 for a corporation.” Additionally, “outdoor gatherings of more than 20 people are prohibited under a Health Protection Act order.”

    At the same time tens-of-thousands of Canadians are rallying for freedom in the nation’s capital city, Nova Scotia says citizens will obey the government or be arrested, fined and punished by provincial authorities for their noncompliance. Talk about a totally tone-deaf governing authority.

    Can’t have people getting uppity and thinking they’re free.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  185. Have you ever seen someone from Montana trying to drive the 405 in the late afternoon?

    Kevin M (38e250) — 1/30/2022 @ 10:17 am

    Have you ever seen someone from California try to drive the Valley Highway in Denver during a snowstorm?

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  186. Kevin: “Some undergraduate STEM programs, like Harvey Mudd (49%), MIT (47%) and CalTech (44%) do better.”

    Kind of an unfair comparison….those schools you mentioned are all private with engineering program acceptance rates of 13%, 6.7%, and 7%…meaning, they can be rather selective in shaping their student bodies. Also, all three have tuition costs above $50k compared to Purdue in-state at $10k (which is extraordinary and something Daniels has worked hard to control) and out-of-state under $30k. It would be interesting to see if there is a difference between acceptance rates for men and women at Mudd, MIT, and Tech….cuz that’s different than suggesting more women are applying to those programs….

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  187. Here’s a good thread on what’s wrong with banning books like Maus, and what they’re typically replaced with.

    lurker (59504c) — 1/30/2022 @ 12:57 am

    BTW, Maus wasn’t banned–it was simply removed from the “required reading” list. Eighth-graders are still free to check it out from the school library any time they want.

    The story about it being “banned,” much like the BS stories about “banned books on race,” was typical fake news by left-liberal media neurotics, designed to slam conservatives.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  188. “BTW, Maus wasn’t banned–it was simply removed from the “required reading” list. Eighth-graders are still free to check it out from the school library any time they want.

    The story about it being “banned,” much like the BS stories about “banned books on race,” was typical fake news by left-liberal media neurotics, designed to slam conservatives.”

    Incorrect.

    The task that students do at the end of this module, after they spend a couple months talking about the
    Holocaust, studying this project that they do that shows they understand what went on, they will write
    their own narrative and pretend that they have interviewed a holocaust upstander. They are going to
    create graphic novel panels to visually represent a section of their narrative and they will present that to
    their peers. You have all these standards that we saw earlier are addressed through this project.
    Last part, how do we get there? Well, here’s out text. So, our anchor text is Maus, and we have all
    these supplemental things that we look at throughout this module that build to that anchor text. We
    look at interviews from Holocaust survivors, news articles from BBC, Los Angeles Times, Guardian,
    survivor stories, and excerpts from other books. There is even a section where we go to the Jewish
    Virtual Library and look at some selections from that. All of these go to build that background
    knowledge, it’s grade level appropriate for our students. For example, we wouldn’t bring in the Diary of
    Anne Frank book at this point because that is written at a roughly fourth, fifth grade level. Beyond what
    we do in the module, beyond just addressing the standards and teaching that, there is one more piece
    to this curriculum that we forget about, that we kind of brush over but it’s really important. There is an
    opportunity in this curriculum for us to teach habits of character

    and

    Jonathan Pierce- I believe I heard Ms. Knight say a moment ago that there’s not a book that can replace
    this one.
    Steven Brady- Not without redoing this whole module.

    https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/1818370/Called_Meeting_Minutes_1-10-22.pdf

    Davethulhu (17e89a)

  189. R.I.P. Howard Hesseman bka Dr. Johnny Fever.
    Guiding those Kitties to victory on WKRP?

    urbanleftbehind (22515e)

  190. RIP Howard Hesseman (81).

    Good night, Dr. Johnny Fever.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  191. men and women at Mudd, MIT, and Tech….cuz that’s different than suggesting more women are applying to those programs….

    I picked those because they are the first tier as far as engineering salaries are concerned (and Mudd is actually slightly higher than the other two). They all get those tuitions because the degree opens doors.

    I can’t speak for all of them, but I know that Mudd has made a thing about being open to women in STEM (the outgoing President is one of the founders of the movement). Thus, they get a LOT of applications from women.

    But this WaPo article discusses the issue you raise. All three schools have a higher female admission rate (about double) than male. But they attribute that to the quality of the female applicants — women seeking STEM degrees are more selective in where they apply.

    “Our applicant pool is very deep with excellent men and women applicants,” MIT’s dean of admissions, Stu Schmill, told The Post. “The data don’t show that it is easier to be admitted as a woman applicant — that would only be true if our male and female applicant pools were equivalent. But the women who apply are a more self-selecting group.

    “Therefore, while the number of women applicants is smaller, the quality is extremely high. This is why we are able to enroll a very gender-balanced class, with all students meeting the same high academic and personal standards, and why women do just as well if not better once here at MIT.”

    Some selective colleges (Stanford, Harvard) show do difference, others favor men (Vassar(!), SWarthmore, Pomona, Brown). All say that it is more the way the applicant pool splits, not favoritism on the part of the college. The real clue would be in graduation rates, something that shows the effects of affirmative action vs merit.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  192. *do difference NO difference

    Kevin M (38e250)

  193. Note that when I went to Mudd, the balance was 97% to 3%.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  194. Trump calls for ‘the biggest protest we have ever had’ in DC and other cities if prosecutors investigating him ‘do anything illegal’
    ……….
    “If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had in Washington DC, in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt,” Trump told the crowd in Conroe, Texas on Saturday night.
    ………..
    “In reality, they’re not after me, they’re after you, and I just happen to be the person in the way,” Trump told his supporters at the rally.
    ……….
    “For years, they’ve been going after my company, many years, using every trick in the book in an attempt to literally, if they can, put me in jail. They want to put me in jail,” Trump said at the rally on Saturday.

    The former president repeatedly called the prosecutors “racist,” said they were “mentally sick,” and accused them of “prosecutorial misconduct at the highest level.”

    “They’re going after me without any protection of my rights by the Supreme Court or most other courts,” Trump said.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  195. Hessemann was also in the cult film Billy Jack, plus Soap and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  196. BTW, Maus wasn’t banned–it was simply removed from the “required reading” list.

    And well it should have been. Nobody should be required to read it, except possibly in an elective course in some kind of communications curriculum in college.

    I followed the Twitter thread at lurker’s 161. The conversation was about the way Maus presented the Holocaust as compared to the way The Boy In The Striped Pajamas did, and the intelligentsia agreed that Maus was der richtige Weg. Well, Fick dich, meine alten Kameraden! You’ve crossed the line from education to indoctrination.

    Just leave the books there and let whomever wants to read them if they want to, or not read them if they don’t want to.

    I’ve never read Maus, nor am I particularly inclined to now either. I did read This Way For The Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski. In a college history course.

    nk (1d9030)

  197. You know, if Trump dies before 2024, there’s going to be a hell of a scrum.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  198. nk,

    I’ve read Maus, or enough of it to have an opinion, and I have to say that 1) you aren’t missing anything, and 2) Game of Thrones is pretty good, except for the lame ending.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  199. Davethulhu (17e89a) — 1/30/2022 @ 11:25 am

    Nothing you cited actually said it was banned or that it can’t be checked out in the library, and confirms that it was merely removed from the curriculum.

    As to this assertion–“Jonathan Pierce- I believe I heard Ms. Knight say a moment ago that there’s not a book that can replace
    this one.
    Steven Brady- Not without redoing this whole module.”–well, these are supposedly educated people who LOVE crowing about their credentials over the slack-jawed conservatives with no Pee Aysh Deeees to their credit. If the removal of one comic book about the Holocaust ends up forcing them to redo their entire curriculum, perhaps they should expand their literary horizons a bit more.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  200. Trump Shouts Out Jason Ravnsborg, the (South Dakota) State AG Who Ran Over and Killed a Man
    ………
    “South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg,” the former president said (at the 40:23 mark in the C-SPAN video), even pronouncing his name—“Rounds-berg”—correctly. “Thank you for being here. Appreciate it.”

    The crowd cheered for the Republican state AG, likely a welcome sound. Ravnsborg has been under fire in his home state for a year and a half, with Gov. Kristi Noem, a Trump favorite, calling on him to resign or for the state legislature to impeach him.

    “They like you in Texas,” Trump told Ravnsborg.
    …….
    The South Dakota attorney general could use the Trump feedback. Since he ran over and killed Joe Boever on Sept. 12, 2020, he has been the subject of widespread criticism in South Dakota.

    Impeachment hearings—the first in state history—were launched in 2021, then put on hold while he dealt with three criminal charges for the fatal crash. But Ravnsborg was able to negotiate a plea deal, paying $500 fines for a pair of misdemeanors while a third count was dropped. He also paid more than $3,000 in court costs.
    …….
    Two weeks ago, a special investigative committee of the South Dakota House of Representatives resumed impeachment hearings, hearing from a pair of North Dakota lawmen who investigated the fatal crash (the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation had to step aside in case, since it reports to Ravnsborg).

    The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents said they believe Ravnsborg lied about not knowing what he struck when he killed Boever. Furthermore, they said, the attorney general not only saw Boever when his face went through the windshield of the car, but he walked past his pale, lifeless body on the side of the road following the crash.

    “He walked by a flashlight that’s on,” special agent Arnie Rummel said. “There’s a body that’s laying within two feet of the roadway and obviously deceased and he’s all white, there isn’t any blood being pumped in him, and the fact white is reflective, I believe that he’d have to see him.”
    ……….
    Ravnsborg’s appearance at a Trump rally, and being mentioned by the former president, could boost his chances to remain in office. Trump overwhelmingly carried South Dakota in both 2016 and 2020, as the state last voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in 1964.

    The state Republican Party, which is deeply conservative and strongly pro-Trump, will select its AG nominee at the state convention this summer.
    ###########

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  201. Maus is fine as a literary learning piece. It does have a couple of advantages, in that it’s very explicitly visual, so it may work more and seem less intimidating for people who aren’t strong readers or who are readers who don’t visualize text easily. It is also very good for presenting symbolism. I can’t say from personal experience how it works for people who didn’t know much about the holocaust before they read it because I was 11 the first time I visited a historical concentration camp and I didn’t read Maus until I was in college.

    Nic (896fdf)

  202. “Nothing you cited actually said it was banned or that it can’t be checked out in the library, and confirms that it was merely removed from the curriculum.”

    It was more than just a “required reading list”.

    “If the removal of one comic book about the Holocaust ends up forcing them to redo their entire curriculum, perhaps they should expand their literary horizons a bit more.”

    This is just ignorant.

    “slack-jawed conservatives”

    Don’t sign your posts.

    Davethulhu (17e89a)

  203. It was more than just a “required reading list”.

    Doesn’t mean it was “banned.”

    This is just ignorant.

    Yes, basing your entire curriculum around one comic book is quite ignorant.

    Don’t sign your posts.

    Davethulhu (17e89a) — 1/30/2022 @ 12:27 pm

    LOL, I suspect my educational credentials far outweigh yours. Cope and seethe some more, commie.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  204. Only if they’re from SoCal. If they’re from SF, they probably need heating in the summer.

    Around the bay, and on parts of the Central Coast, a good set of sweaters could get you through most of the year in reasonable comfort indoors without turning on a heater. And you wouldn’t need AC; just keep a fan on hand. But drive half an hour and it might be a much different story.

    Radegunda (e99c47)

  205. “Doesn’t mean it was “banned.””

    I never said it was. I said it wasn’t just “required reading list.”

    “LOL, I suspect my educational credentials far outweigh yours. Cope and seethe some more, commie.”

    Projection. Lol indeed.

    Davethulhu (17e89a)

  206. They’re supposed to write their own graphic novel, based on the facts in and in the style of Maus?

    (utilizing several other sources, but not the traditional small diary of Anne Frank (which combines parts of her real contemporary diary and part of the novelization she was preparing for possible publication in 1944 – not all parts of either manuscript survived) because the material is too simple

    What an impossible thing for 8th graders to do well!

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  207. I never said it was.

    And I said it wasn’t banned to begin with. Which is correct.

    I said it wasn’t just “required reading list.”

    The students weren’t required to read it?

    Projection. Lol indeed.

    Davethulhu (17e89a) — 1/30/2022 @ 12:43 pm

    You’re the one whining about it being removed from the curriculum. Talk about projection. LOL indeed.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  208. The Equal Rights amendment may be part of the U.S. Constitution after all because maybe the deadline for ratification was never valid.

    Joe Biden says he wants Congress to decide..

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  209. Otto Frank thought she was merely changing the names. But the same dream (although not exactly) appears twice in the classic edition of the book, and he didn’t notice because it is under two different dates, a month or so apart, once from the diary and once from the novelization.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  210. R.I.P. Howard Hesseman, 81

    The Doctor is out.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  211. “The students weren’t required to read it?”

    You’d think that an educational expert like yourself would know the difference between “required reading list” and “anchor text”.

    Davethulhu (17e89a)

  212. The newest version of Omicron is:

    1) Even more contagious than original Omicron (I would guess it survives longer in droplets and aerosols, I would guess because the it is even more positively charged.)

    2) Not more serious, at least to vaccinated people who have immunity only to the spike protein, and most of the mutations are somewhere else

    3) Now at 5% of all infections (Omicron is supposed to be at 99%)

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  213. You’d think that an educational expert like yourself would know the difference between “required reading list” and “anchor text”.

    Davethulhu (17e89a) — 1/30/2022 @ 12:58 pm

    Don’t worry, they can still check it out at the library, and there are plenty of other books that can be used to teach 8th-graders about the Holocaust.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  214. Articvle about long Covid (also called post-acute sequelae of Covid-19, or PASC)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/25/health/long-covid-risk-factors.html

    Itseems to be linked to the degree of infection (viral load a person starts with) and auto-immunity.

    As well as Epstein Barr virus. (which mostpeople have been exposed to)

    And possibly, diabetes, but this may just be one cause of reduced immunity)

    One recommendation: give anti virals early.

    It’s a little difficult to figure out.

    From another source: Also difficult to figure out: Why an increased level of vaccination seems to increase the prevalence of Omicron (and earlier Delta) in the community. (because Omicron is too dfferent from what os being vaccinated against? Cause and effect reversed – there is more vaccination where there is more worry about the disease?)

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  215. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf3mgmEdfwg

    “Thanks for that on the spot report, Les…”

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  216. ““Thanks for that on the spot report, Les…””

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djp82kDSc4I

    Davethulhu (17e89a)

  217. The US COVID news continues to be grim. The 7-day average for deaths is 2410, so it as if we were having a Pearl Harbor attack, or a 9/11 attack, every two days.

    The 7-day averages for both cases and hospitalizations are down, over the previous week — but are still higher than they were at any point during previous waves. Example: The 7-day average for new cases is 535,779, more than twice as high as it was last January.

    So it is nearly certain that the US death toll will continue to be high for the next few weeks. We are doing some things better, but we were slow to, for instance, distribute tests and masks on the scale needed. (I picked some N95 masks this morning at the local drug store, and would urge all of you to look for some, too. Assuming, that is, that you care about your fellow Americans.)

    I understand, and to some extent share, the reluctance of so many to face these facts. But we need to “screw up our courage to the sticking point” and face the unpleasant reality.

    And, I believe, that there is some reason for optimism, not in the next week or two, but in the next month or two. (Though I must warn you that I thought that, wrongly, twice before.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  218. @Sammy@211 8th grade teachers have a pretty good idea of what the capabilities of 8th grade students are. My guess is that the assignment is appropriately scaled. 😛

    Nic (896fdf)

  219. “Czar” Putin blundered?

    Last week, I [Fareed Zakaria] outlined Russia’s interests and strengths in this crisis. It is vital to understand its weaknesses as well. “When Putin took Crimea in 2014, he lost Ukraine,” as Owen Matthews writes in a thought-provoking essay. After it declared independence in 1991, Ukraine was divided between an unabashedly pro-Russia segment of its population and a more nationalistic one. But by annexing Crimea and plunging eastern Ukraine into open conflict, Matthews writes, Putin has energized Ukrainian nationalism and fed a growing anti-Russia sentiment. And the math does not help. Putin took millions of pro-Russia Ukrainians in Crimea and Donbas out of the country’s political calculus. (Those in Donbas don’t vote in Ukrainian elections because the area is too unstable.) As a result, a Ukrainian politician estimated to me that the pro-Russia seats in Ukraine’s parliament have shrunk from a plurality to barely 15 percent of the total.

    This FiveThirtyEight article summarizes the polling data showing that, so far, Putin’s aggressions have pushed Ukrainians away from Russia, and toward NATO.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  220. I’ve never read Maus, nor am I particularly inclined to now either. I did read This Way For The Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski. In a college history course.
    nk (1d9030) — 1/30/2022 @ 11:52 am

    I’ve read Maus many times because I owned an original copy (not a re-print). It was fairly worn when I loaned it out to a friend who never returned it. It was only then, when trying to replace it, that I found what an impact it had made as a graphic book as opposed to, say, Primo Levi’s Is this a man? Original copies were highly prized, and reprints abundant.

    I’ve read many books on the subject, and my view of Maus is that it is one of the most accessible accounts that may serve as an introduction to the horror. Any deficiencies, whether factual, moral, or artistic, lay with the Author. But I tend to moderate my criticism of anyone whose work is directly informed by a survivor’s account.

    felipe (484255)

  221. If the removal of one comic book about the Holocaust ends up forcing them to redo their entire curriculum, perhaps they should expand their literary horizons a bit more.
    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 1/30/2022 @ 12:02 pm

    I agree, up to a point, with this. It may be that there is, in their parochial approach, no other interesting (graphic novel) way to introduce the subject to this particular audience. I must opine that I find it wondrous, if inevitable, that Maus exists.

    felipe (484255)

  222. They are from Los Angeles, Radegunda. Very nice and a helluva lot smarter than dopey old me. A extremely successful couple – forensic accountant and a attorney. The attorney I forgive! No excuse for someone that knows that 2+2=4!

    mg (8cbc69)

  223. Spotify Responds to Complaints About Covid Misinformation
    The chief executive of Spotify responded on Sunday to growing complaints from musicians and listeners over the role of Joe Rogan, the streaming service’s star podcaster, in spreading what has been widely criticized as misinformation about the coronavirus. Last week, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell — two musical icons whose cultural influence is far greater than their streaming numbers — removed their music from Spotify to protest the platform’s support of Rogan.

    “We know we have a critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users,” the CEO, Daniel Ek, who is also one of Spotify’s founders, wrote in a public letter. “In that role, it is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them.”
    ………
    Ek said that Spotify would add a “content advisory” notice to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about the coronavirus, directing listeners to a “Covid-19 hub” with facts and information. That hub includes links to health authorities like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as podcasts from news sources like the BBC, CNN and ABC News.

    Ek also wrote that for the first time, the service is publishing its platform rules, which address dangerous, deceptive, sensitive and illegal content. Among them are rules barring “content that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health,” including denial of the existence of Covid-19 or that “promoting or suggesting that vaccines approved by local health authorities are designed to cause death.”

    On Wednesday, when Spotify began removing Young’s music, the company said that it has “removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid since the start of the pandemic.” Rogan’s episode with Dr. Malone remains available on Spotify.
    ########
    Spotify will never cancel Rogan, the contract penalties in their new $100M agreement would be too high.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  224. Nic (896fdf) — 1/30/2022 @ 12:23 pm

    Thank you for that thoughtful comment. You make very good points.

    Speaking only for myself, my first introduction to the Holocaust was in private Catholic High-school, when my Freshman class had a visit from a Priest who was a concentration camp survivor. His personal account was, no doubt, carefully tailored to us, but was brutal in honesty, and unforgettable. Many of us openly wept at hearing at how the unspeakable came about; its costs to him, and the deep despair all around him. My parents were only grateful, when I told them with passion about meeting Father P and the reaction of my classmates. Not to make light of this, but they might have been relieved in the way that a caricature of parents would be relieved at not having to explain the “birds and the bees.”

    When my generation passes away, soon, there will be no one left, of living memory; but we will have their own testimony in films of them speaking, letters they penned, and books they, themselves, wrote.

    felipe (484255)

  225. Dana,
    Was just ribbing. Sorry for lumping all of you as one. Can you still burn wood in California? In a wood stove? And I know plenty of Californians who know a helluva lot more about the extreme outdoors than me. Dana, they are great people, we are very lucky to have them as neighbors. They love my BBQ.

    mg (8cbc69)

  226. I am sure I already, maybe many times, recounted this episode. I’ll prolly repeat it.

    felipe (484255)

  227. R.I.P. Howard Hesseman, forever Dr. Johnny Fever

    Icy (6abb50)

  228. Sammy wrote (emphasis mine):

    What an impossible thing for 8th graders to do well!
    Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 1/30/2022 @ 12:46 pm

    That’s very true, but not the point. I lament that such an assignment may be good for encouraging artists, but may contribute to the dumbing down of potential historians, and furthering the erosion of the written word. in other words, Kids!

    felipe (484255)

  229. Bah! I italicized!

    felipe (484255)

  230. @Felipe@231

    Thank you!

    It sounds like you had a pretty good introduction to a really difficult topic. I think it’s a difficult balance for parents as to when and how much kids should be told about difficult subjects, especially topics the parents may not know much about themselves or who find it very difficult to talk about them, especially when the kids are from about the ages of 10-15.

    It’s funny when you think about the things your own generation experienced that the next didn’t. Mine will be the last gen that really remembers the Cold War. The Gen Y crew will be the last who remember the pre-9/11 world and then 9/11. My mother’s last Aunt passed away recently, leaving her generation of the family as the oldest for the first time (nevermind that they are mostly in their 60s and 70s now) and she says it feels strange.

    Nic (896fdf)

  231. mg,

    No need to apologize. I didn’t take it personally. When I lived in the woods, everyone that I knew used a woodstove for heat. This was some 7 or 8 years ago so I can’t speak to today. I know that fire risk is off the charts now, so it’s likely rules have significantly tightened up.

    I’m glad you were there to help your newby neighbors.

    Dana (5395f9)

  232. Bengals 27 OT
    Chiefs 24

    Mahomes choked in the 4th quarter.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  233. @234-
    Also one of first non-stereotypical gay characters on television-The Bob Newhart Show 1976.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  234. Todau would be one hell of a WKRP episode

    urbanleftbehind (22515e)

  235. I’m totally jazzed about the Bengals.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  236. No excuse for someone that knows that 2+2=4!

    Does knowing math tell you the proper way to light a fire in a wood stove?

    Radegunda (e99c47)

  237. 8th grade teachers have a pretty good idea of what the capabilities of 8th grade students are. My guess is that the assignment is appropriately scaled.

    I think this is generally true. However, I don’t think concerns of parents who know their kids better than most should be written off either. And that’s the beef a lot of parents have these days. It boils down to district management and curriculum specialists believing that they alone know what’s best for other people’s kids. Teachers and administrators dismissing parent concerns only serves to confirm (to parents) that their suspicions are valid. But despite this, there are avenues available to parents to be pro-active in text book and library selections: Volunteer for textbook committees, library book selection processes, the PTA, and any parent advisory boards. Also, develop a relationship with the principal, not as a critic per se, but as a support. This will go miles when issues of disagreement arise. However, while parents need to take steps to take an active role – rather than attacking district personnel at school board meetings – school/district staff must stop dismissing out of hand the concerns parents bring to them. Parents shouldn’t be viewed as the enemy any more than teachers/staff should.

    There has been a horrible breakdown of communication that’s rooted in political partisanship (on both sides). The same people that now view public school teachers and administrators as the enemy also seem to view the government as their enemy. I have no idea how that will get rectified, or if it even can. All I know is if I had kids in school today and the district required them to read something that I found unacceptable, I’d respectfully speak up. And I would expect to be respectfully heard and my points considered. That doesn’t mean that the reading material would be pulled but it could mean that a mutually agreed upon alternative could be found.

    Dana (5395f9)

  238. The 7 Races That Will Likely Decide Control Of The Senate
    ………
    ……… Democrats may actually have a better chance of retaining control of the Senate than they do the House, as the president’s party isn’t as susceptible to a midterm penalty in the Senate as it is in the House. That’s in part because only about one-third of the Senate is up each cycle, and the competitiveness of the seats up for election can vary a lot. To this point, Democrats could actually stand to benefit in 2022 because they don’t have to defend any seats in states former President Trump carried in 2020, while Republicans must protect two seats where Biden won — Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

    However, thanks to how the electoral environment is shaping up and the low threshold Republicans need to surpass in order to regain a Senate majority, things are still looking pretty good for the GOP. In total, there are 34 seats up this November, but based on the median race rating from election handicappers at Inside Elections, Sabato’s Crystal Ball and The Cook Political Report, there are just nine seats at this point that aren’t classified as safe for one party. And it’s the seven seats in this category (Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and New Hampshire) that are currently marked as toss-ups or leaning toward one party that will likely decide the fate of the Senate in 2022.
    ……….
    ……… (P)erhaps Florida and Ohio, and possibly Missouri, might get competitive, although Republicans currently have the upper hand in all three. …….
    ………
    Missouri and Ohio are likely to remain in Republican hands, but they along with Alabama will have primary battles that could help shape the future of the GOP, while the race for an open Senate seat in deep blue Vermont could elect the first woman to ever represent the Green Mountain State in Congress. But that said, the battle for Senate control will likely rest on Sun Belt states like Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, as well as Frost Belt states like New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
    #############

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  239. @Dana@244 My experience with parents is that there is a wide variety in parent/kid relationship awareness. Some parents know their kids very very well and some parents seem to hardly know their kids at all. Some parents treat their 13 yr old like they are 5, some treat their 13 year old like they are 23. Some parents think their child is an angel from God when they… aren’t. Some parents think their child is a devil child when really they are just doing age-appropriate boundary pushing but are genuinely a well intentioned kid.

    I would also advise parents who are concerned and who have the time to either (in elementary school) volunteer to help in the classroom, or (later) attend a day or two of class with their student. My current principal at my current site hates when parents attend the presentation by the jr. high to the elementary school students. I don’t understand why at all.

    Also, most districts in CA at least have some kind of policy regarding removing students from a particular unit in a class or in how to change teachers. Generally speaking it isn’t necessary for them to call (or come in) and scream at the school staff or make threats in order to make it happen, they can just call and ask what the process is.

    However, I do want to say that a lot of my interactions with parents involve them calling furious about something. I get screamed at a lot about things I don’t know much about and/or have zero control over. And sometimes about things that aren’t happening in our district at all, and sometimes about a discipline issue that we have their student actually doing on video. And at some point it does become difficult to take each and every concern equally seriously (though I make a strong effort to do so), especially if that specific parent called me last week to scream about how the campus monitor is a fat effing b!tch for stopping their kid from throwing a third carton of milk at another student because the campus monitor is lying, even though we have about 50 witnesses AND ITS ON VIDEO. (no, no, of course this did not happen at all. definitely not last week.) but now they are mad about their kid’s science grade the teacher must hate their student. No, your student was suspended for 3 days and hasn’t turned in any of their missing work and needs to make up a test, especially since they failed the first test of the semester and didn’t retake it. (sorry for the rant, last week was a little long :P)

    Nic (896fdf)

  240. Donald Trump should not lead the country again, says the Republican leader of the National Governors Association

    “I do not believe Trump is the one to lead our party and our country again, as president,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told Insider on the sidelines of the NGA Winter Meeting in Washington, DC.

    Insider asked Hutchinson whether he wants Trump to run following a video that recently surfaced in which Trump declares on the golf course that he is “the 45th and the 47th” president.

    Asked who should lead instead, Hutchinson said “that’s what the election is all about.”
    ……….
    Several Republican governors at the conference either said they were focusing on their state or the next election when asked about Trump’s statement and whether they support him running.
    ………
    Earlier, he told reporters, “I don’t believe the election was stolen. I respect the results.”
    ……..
    I’m sure his successor will have a different opinion.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  241. BTW, Maus wasn’t banned–it was simply removed from the “required reading” list. Eighth-graders are still free to check it out from the school library any time they want.

    The story about it being “banned,” much like the BS stories about “banned books on race,” was typical fake news by left-liberal media neurotics, designed to slam conservatives.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 1/30/2022 @ 11:00 am

    I lazily repeated “ban” from the Mediaite headline linked in Rip’s comment, so mea culpa. The thread I linked made no claim as to banning. If you read it, you know it wasn’t even exclusively about Maus. It simple used the recent incident as a jumping off point to illustrate what’s lost when first person historical narratives like Maus are replaced, whether due to banning or otherwise, with sanitized third person historical fiction.

    lurker (59504c)

  242. ‘Maus’ Sales Surge After Tennessee School District Bans The Holocaust Graphic Novel
    Titles from Maus – a Pulitzer Prize-winning series about the Holocaust – made up nearly half of Amazon’s 10 best-selling comics and graphic novels Friday after one of the books was controversially banned by a Tennessee school district.

    More than 42 years after the first graphic novel was released, a collection of the complete Maus titles is the top-selling graphic novel on Amazon, and it’s ranked 16th on the platform’s list of best-selling books from all genres.
    ………
    Maus won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992, and remains the only graphic novel to have ever won the prestigious award.
    ########

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  243. I followed the Twitter thread at lurker’s 161. The conversation was about the way Maus presented the Holocaust as compared to the way The Boy In The Striped Pajamas did, and the intelligentsia agreed that Maus was der richtige Weg. Well, Fick dich, meine alten Kameraden! You’ve crossed the line from education to indoctrination.

    Just leave the books there and let whomever wants to read them if they want to, or not read them if they don’t want to.

    I’ve never read Maus, nor am I particularly inclined to now either. I did read This Way For The Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski. In a college history course.

    nk (1d9030) — 1/30/2022 @ 11:52 am

    I don’t follow. Is your complaint about this book in particular? This book and books of similar nature, in which case what’s the objectionable feature? To any required reading specified by a school board, or also to those assigned by individual teachers?

    lurker (59504c)

  244. It simpl[y] used the recent incident as a jumping off point to illustrate what’s lost when first person historical narratives like Maus are replaced, whether due to banning or otherwise, with sanitized third person historical fiction.
    lurker (59504c) — 1/30/2022 @ 5:10 pm

    Excellent point.

    felipe (484255)

  245. @248 et al.-

    I don’t change the original article headlines.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  246. #246 nic and Dana – St. Augustine had some advice for all those quarreling over schools (and other subjects): “Hear the other side.”

    (In some situations, you can get clarity if you ask the other person to listen while you describe what their position is, and correct you where you are wrong. Then you ask them to do the same for your position.)

    Possibly, just possibly, this Ben Sasse book might help.

    In Them, bestselling author and U.S. senator Ben Sasse argues that our crisis isn’t really about politics. It’s that we’re so lonely we can’t see straight—and it bubbles out as anger. Local communities are collapsing. Across the nation, little leagues are disappearing, Rotary clubs are dwindling, and in all likelihood, we don’t know the neighbor two doors down. Work isn’t what we’d hoped: less certainty, few lifelong coworkers, shallow purpose. Stable families and enduring friendships—life’s fundamental pillars—are in statistical freefall.

    I haven’t read the book yet, haven’t even bought it, but it looks promising — and Sasse is a man I respect.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  247. Excellent point.

    felipe (484255) — 1/30/2022 @ 5:17 pm

    I wish I could take credit, but that belongs to Gwen Katz, the author of the thread I linked.

    lurker (59504c)

  248. @252: I wasn’t criticizing, just explaining how I got there.

    lurker (59504c)

  249. lurker @250.

    To any required reading specified by a school board, or also to those assigned by individual teachers?

    That. Exactly that. The commenters on that thread were unabashed in their reasoning for promoting this particular book. Because it was the more effective at promoting a particular point of view. That should not be forced on anybody of any age.

    nk (1d9030)

  250. And, yes, as mostly a genre reader, I prefer first person narratives, too.

    nk (1d9030)

  251. “Ben Sasse argues that our crisis isn’t really about politics. It’s that we’re so lonely we can’t see straight—and it bubbles out as anger.”

    I tend to agree with this. The speed of information flow and feeling obliged to continuously react to it…I think….is wearing a lot of people out. Mix in how social media companies, Talk Radio, and 24/7 news opinion exploits it…even knowing that it has a bad effect….and are we really surprised that we’re bunkering down as a people? Everything is breaking news, a crisis, and merits hand-wringing outrage,….some people jump on the hamster wheel and their day is spent fueling that anger. It’s doubly tough during a pandemic, but people need to rediscover their neighbors…give a helping hand….take time to actually listen to people with a different opinion…..and limit computer time where there is too much bad faith, anonymity, and license to be an a$$. It’s one thing to be informed about news and events, it’s another to be so consumed that it costs you relationships because everything is blown out of proportion. Life is short….make the most out of it.

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  252. AJ_Liberty – Your mention of the hamster wheel reminds me of this cheerful bit of research I read about some years ago. Some scientists in the Netherlands (I think) started wondering whether hamsters, or mice, or rats, or whatever, liked those wheels in their cages, or whether they just ran on them because they were bored out of their little skulls. So the scientists set up wheels in wild areas with cameras that came on when motion was detected, and seeded the wheels with a little food as bait.

    Turns out that a number of wild animals liked the wheels. One mouse, for instance, went for a minutes-long run, left the wheel, then changed its mind and went back for another run.

    The research may not be worth a Nobel Prize, but it cheers me up, just thinking about it.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  253. nk,

    Eliminating required readings might reduce viewpoint bias, but I have a hard time envisioning how it works as a practical matter without slowing the teaching to a crawl. How does a teacher complete required course material when every student can choose a different source book for every subject? Does it mean no assigned textbooks too? I mean I could maybe see it for private schools with tiny classes, but a public school with 30 kids per class and thus potentially 30 books per subject? How does a teacher consume all the material, much less assimilate and organize it into a coherent lesson plan?

    lurker (59504c)

  254. Rams 20
    49ers 17

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  255. 235 & 235 felipe (484255) — 1/30/2022 @ 2:24 pm

    When my generation passes away, soon, there will be no one left, of living memory; but we will have their own testimony in films of them speaking, letters they penned, and books they, themselves, wrote.

    There were many books published with personal accounts, but most of them are out of circulation. Someone should collect them and make them available (online maybe or print on demand) You can build up a picture from combining numerous accounts. They were also in newspapers (what you’d call feature articles) and magazines.

    What an impossible thing for 8th graders to do well!
    Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 1/30/2022 @ 12:46 pm

    That’s very true, but not the point. I lament that such an assignment may be good for encouraging artists, but may contribute to the dumbing down of potential historians, and furthering the erosion of the written word. in other words, Kids!

    felipe (484255) — 1/30/2022 @ 2:46 pm

    If the idea is encourage artists, or graphic novels, it may be a good idea to use Maus as a sample, but they should pick some other topic to write about themselves – if you want, it could be bad experiences they know about. Much less bad.

    To use this to teach someone how to be a historian only encourages low quality and this matter is entitled to more respect.

    This is a stupid assignment. It can only get people to be comfortable with low quality and bad understandings. What is it with teachers that they dream up of such things?

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  256. The commission was supposed to present a single map to the legislature that state lawmakers could adopt or reject. But, beset with its own partisan infighting, the commission did not come up with a unified map, instead submitting two maps, one drawn by the Democrats on the panel and another drawn by the Republicans. The commission’s drama effectively allowed state lawmakers to dismiss its work and create their own map.

    No, the veto proof state legislature rejected both of the maps.

    The commission was then supposed to give it another try, but broke up with the Dems on it blaming the Republicans.

    When the constitutional amendment was passed in 2014, the Republicans controlled the state Senate and had for 40 years, through the miracle of gerrymandering. But the coalition between some Democrats and the Republicans was broken up, and the result was a veto proof majority in the State Senate, and, among other things, rising crime. Not immediately in 2019 – it takes awhile for exponential growth to take off.

    If Eric Adams and Joe Biden don’t try to unseat some state legislators, efforts to reduce crime in New York State will likely be futile, because the law has been rigged in so many ways so as to promote crime (probably to benefit drug dealers, I would say, because their customers need to keep on stealing while staying out of jail and they themselves need to stay out of jail) although the governor has some power. She could appoint special prosecutors and fund them.

    They’ll probably try half measures. It won’t work.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  257. 260. lurker (59504c) — 1/30/2022 @ 6:36 pm

    How does a teacher consume all the material,

    Just read ten books a day.

    much less assimilate and organize it into a coherent lesson plan?

    Like a required book review – the student cites from a book.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  258. …Ben Sasse argues that our crisis isn’t really about politics. It’s that we’re so lonely we can’t see straight—and it bubbles out as anger. Local communities are collapsing. Across the nation, little leagues are disappearing, Rotary clubs are dwindling, and in all likelihood, we don’t know the neighbor two doors down. Work isn’t what we’d hoped: less certainty, few lifelong coworkers, shallow purpose. Stable families and enduring friendships—life’s fundamental pillars—are in statistical freefall.

    Good grief: don’t know if the news has reached Nebraska yet, Ben, but Mayberry, North Carolina was a fictional town created on a Hollywood backlot– and the 1950’s ended on January 1, 1960.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  259. Memo to young Ben Sasse:

    Try reading Vance Packard’s book[s]:

    ‘A Nation of Strangers.’

    His ‘Hidden Persuaders’ was/is a must read for folks in the ad biz, too.

    He’s decades ahead of you, kid.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  260. @237. It’s funny when you think about the things your own generation experienced that the next didn’t. Mine will be the last gen that really remembers the Cold War. The Gen Y crew will be the last who remember the pre-9/11 world and then 9/11. My mother’s last Aunt passed away recently, leaving her generation of the family as the oldest for the first time (nevermind that they are mostly in their 60s and 70s now) and she says it feels strange.

    There’s something to this. As noted on another thread a while back, my late grandmother was vehemently opposed to owning anything stamped ‘Made In Japan’ – which by the 1960s, 70s and into the 80s, became increasingly inconvenient especially when it came time to replace her TV set– and rather odd. The reason- WW2, of course, and she carried that angst to her grave. The younger generation never understood why she chose to carry that burden. Yet her mother was of the Johnstown Flood era– and her father, had been a barber in Pgh., w/a heavy German accent and had his shop ransacked by raging Anglo-Irish mobs during WW1 because of his ancestry– and accent– yet as an adult, she had friends and neighbors from that era who’d participated in those turbulent times.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  261. Fine, and no one should be force to donate a kidney to someone who obviously won’t do the self-care. I think I should change my donor card to read “but any recipient must be vaccinated against Covid” — who I donate to is my choice.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 1/29/2022 @ 5:32 pm

    No one is being forced to donate a kidney either way.

    Instead, Carswell learned that he and anyone who wanted to donate a kidney would be required to be vaccinated before the surgery.

    Or are you thinking that if he gets a vaccine someone can be forced to “donate” one?

    frosty (f27e97)

  262. Joe Rogan Apologizes, Spotify Publishes Content Policy in Response to Neil Young Outcry
    Joe Rogan, responding to Neil Young’s objections to his podcast and host Spotify, said his show has grown “out of control” and pledged to be more balanced and informed about controversial topics and guests.

    In a late Sunday evening 10-minute Instagram video post, Mr. Rogan said, “If I pissed you off, I’m sorry,” referring to growing backlash against him and Spotify Technology SA stemming from the folk rocker’s accusations that they spread false information about Covid-19 vaccines through the popular podcast.

    “It’s a strange responsibility to have this many viewers and listeners,” said Mr. Rogan. “It’s nothing that I’ve prepared for. I’m going to do my best to balance things out.”

    Mr. Rogan said he will have more guests on the show that present different opinions from contrarian ones right after he hosts controversial guests. He thanked Spotify for their support and said he’s a huge Neil Young fan.
    ……….
    Trumpworld will not be amused.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  263. “Never apologize, mister, it’s a sign of weakness.”

    -Captain Nathan Brittles (John Wayne) in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949).

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  264. Is this kidney story a real thing? Or is it 1% fact and 99% “rewrite”? Is there a qualified donor? Is there a kidney that matches? Is there a transplant surgeon and an OR team just waiting for this guy to get vaccinated? Or is it that he looked to get on the list for a transplant, and of the 100 or so boxes he had to check, one was that he needed his vaccinations? Here’s a hint:

    Carswell, a double amputee who has undergone several major heart surgeries, said that local businesses ran fundraisers for his operation and more than 100 people had offered to donate a kidney.https://nypost.com/2022/01/30/unvaccinated-north-carolina-man-denied-kidney-transplant/

    ‘ow you say merde de vache* in your language?

    * (I know it’s connerie, just making it easy for those from Rio Linda.)

    nk (1d9030)

  265. @265 two books, “Maus” and “To Kill a Mockingbird”, get removed from school curriculum

    neither got banned

    if you google “Maus banned”, you get tons of hits from major outlets — bbc, wapo, Politico, guardian, nyt, CNBC — all breathlessly implying from the headline an actual ban or stating it outright

    if you google “To Kill a Mockingbird banned”, well good luck. NYPost and that’s about it.

    the media’s crusade against “misinformation” in a nutshell

    JF (e1156d)

  266. The 7-day averages for both cases and hospitalizations are down, over the previous week — but are still higher than they were at any point during previous waves. Example: The 7-day average for new cases is 535,779, more than twice as high as it was last January.

    So it is nearly certain that the US death toll will continue to be high for the next few weeks.

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 1/30/2022 @ 1:30 pm

    Given the prevalence of omicron, it’s going to continue to remain high as long as people dying with covid are counted as covid deaths. At some point people will start asking questions about

    7-day averages for both cases and hospitalizations are down

    and

    nearly certain that the US death toll will continue to be high

    Not only are hospitalizations down but the ventilator use is also down.

    frosty (f27e97)

  267. Is this kidney story a real thing?

    nk (1d9030) — 1/31/2022 @ 6:23 am

    You’re asking questions that have little to do with the intent of the article. This is just a variant of the regular covid death pr0n. It doesn’t really need to be a real thing any more than real pr0n needs to be about reality.

    frosty (f27e97)

  268. I think I should change my donor card to read “but any recipient must be vaccinated against Covid” — who I donate to is my choice.

    Not generally. Usually, if you’re donating organs, you’re dead, and you don’t have a say in the matter. (The exception to this would be a living donation, where I’d agree that you have to right to select the recipient.)

    But take it a step further: can you say that you don’t want to donate to an African-American or an Asian? If “who I donate to is my choice”, why couldn’t you? Or is the whole “who I donate to is my choice” statement false?

    Voice in the Desert (d79de8)

  269. Trump says he wanted Pence to overturn the 2020 election and falsely claims it was vice president’s ‘right’

    Former President Donald Trump in a statement Sunday said he wanted then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 presidential election, repeating the false claim that Pence had the power to do so and slamming recent bipartisan efforts to reform the Electoral Count Act.

    Trump falsely claimed that a bipartisan group of lawmakers working to reform the Electoral Count Act proves his claim that Pence had the power, according to the ECA, to overturn the 2020 election. Though the Act is vague, it is clear the role of the vice president is ceremonial and does not include the power to overturn the result of a presidential election.

    “Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!” Trump wrote.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  270. “he could have overturned the Election!”

    Watching for Trumpers to say:
    “He didn’t really mean “overturn.” That’s just an inelegant way of saying “halt the process until the results could audited and the fraud exposed.”

    And:
    “Heck yeah, he could and should have done whatever it takes to defeat the leftist scourge!”

    Radegunda (e99c47)

  271. * apologies for careless punctuation.

    Radegunda (e99c47)

  272. I just hope that someone tries to convince Trump that he’d have more of an influence in politics, if he doesn’t run again.

    Because, if he does run, one of two things happens:
    1) He gets elected, but it’s a repeat of his first term as the media, the courts and the bureaucratic state works double-time against him. Rendering him impotent and damaging his family’s brand.

    2) He loses again, which would definitely irreparably damage his family’s brand.

    If he doesn’t run, at least he’s on the peripheral, attending his rallies to stoke his ego and will have waning influence to the GOP party. But, at least his brand (ie, Trump property, former President, etc) remains solid.

    I don’t have any hope in this. It appears to me that he’s running again.

    whembly (ce5f56)

  273. Ah, the poor old guy. His Great Unwashed is still deep in Trump Worship, but his family, his handlers, and the GOP pezzonovantes who are dressing him up, making him up, and putting him out there to draw money and votes are committing elder abuse.

    nk (1d9030)

  274. I just hope that someone tries to convince Trump that he’d have more of an influence in politics, if he doesn’t run again.

    Trump isn’t interested in influence, he is interested in power.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  275. This lesson idea dfor using Maus oesn’t maker any sense. There are other wsays the book could be
    studied.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  276. 140.

    Instead, Carswell learned that he and anyone who wanted to donate a kidney would be required to be vaccinated before the surgery.

    He can’t be vaccinated after surgery because of the immunosuppressant drugs he will need to take for the rest of his life. There’s that factor.

    And also that they don’t want to waste a kidney.

    They can get pretty dictatorial – and use age and family as a criterion.

    But then maybe if they notice a racial imbalance maybe they would remove one of the restrictions.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  277. The number of hospitalizations for Covid trails infections by about one week, and deaths by about another two weeks (total 3 weeks)

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  278. nk (1d9030) — 1/31/2022 @ 6:23 am

    Is this kidney story a real thing? Or is it 1% fact and 99% “rewrite”? Is there a qualified donor? Is there a kidney that matches?

    Not yet, or maybe at all. This man was just taken off one list.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  279. It’s like the time I found out that I would have to be vaccinated for malaria if I wanted the Odette role in Swan Lake on the Bolshoi Ballet’s Africa tour, Sammy, and I absolutely refused to consider it.

    nk (1d9030)

  280. Thousands of Congolese missed out on the ballet of a lifetime

    steveg (e81d76)

  281. But take it a step further: can you say that you don’t want to donate to an African-American or an Asian?

    You are obviously clueless about the extent of non-discrimination law.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  282. This is a stupid assignment. It can only get people to be comfortable with low quality and bad understandings. What is it with teachers that they dream up of such things?

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 1/30/2022 @ 8:04 pm

    I completely agree, Sammy.

    felipe at a different terminal (084d77)

  283. You are obviously clueless about the extent of non-discrimination law.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 1/31/2022 @ 12:27 pm

    Ouch. That was a terrible question dodge. It would have been better to just ignore it.

    frosty (f27e97)

  284. Carswell shouldn’t be condemned. He is a hero for standing up for his beliefs even at the cost of his life.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  285. If pre-vaccination is a condition of getting a kidney, why not a vaccination to some other diseases like one that’s being advertised on television?

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  286. Sammy, think Vision Zero. No runs, no hits, no errors. The same argument could be used for any condition that can be mitigated by modern chemistry/medicine and taken to its logiccal extreme, you’d need eventually need to be inoculated or protected from 1000’s of known conflicts and no one would ever qualifiy for a transplant.
    I do not think we are there yet, but the nannies will sure try

    steveg (e81d76)

  287. https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2022/01/31/hispanic-kids-in-california-struggled-with-crt-inspired-ethnic-studies-brainwashing-n445385

    But we were assured that CRY wasn’t a thing and certainly not being forced upon children in high school, in California no less.

    Someone’s got some explaining to do.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  288. I’d say Jell-O, mg. What do you think?

    nk (1d9030)

  289. Am also like some comrade to tell me what part of Tulsi Gabbard is not identity politics.

    nk (1d9030)

  290. @298

    If pre-vaccination is a condition of getting a kidney, why not a vaccination to some other diseases like one that’s being advertised on television?

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 1/31/2022 @ 4:35 pm

    Dunno about the other diseases… but, I do know that you need to be up to date for the regular flu/pneumonia vaccine.

    whembly (ce5f56)

  291. Am also like some comrade to tell me what part of Tulsi Gabbard is not identity politics.

    nk (1d9030) — 2/1/2022 @ 5:29 am

    that’s a clapback better reserved for the extremes of the political spectrum be it Stacey Abrams/ Squadristas or the “gets Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, and Muslim clergy mixed up” MTG and “Skipper Palin” Lauren Boebert.

    urbanleftbehind (44fea6)

  292. Tom Brady officially retires.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  293. There was talk he’d stretch it out until mid February when he qualified for some roster bonus.

    I would have honored the third and final year of this contract in exchange for some workload management, but football is the one sport that suffers no farewell tours, either your all in physical ly or you get put out.

    urbanleftbehind (44fea6)

  294. pudding,nk.

    mg (8cbc69)

  295. The effcuency ratio is not the best measure

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  296. from mg’s article: “Yet he [Pence] had my analysis of the Constitution passed on to him by Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, which would have had him properly pass the election back to six contested states for their Legislatures to review. This was bolstered by an opinion letter from a past Inspector General of the Department of Defense (who happened to quote my AT piece). Yet Pence stabbed the President in the back [my italics emphasis] without so much as a “by your leave.””

    You see, Pence had Ted Noel’s analysis (maybe better than the pillow guy but how much?) and he wasn’t persuaded. Shocker. It’s a little more than concerning that a phone call to Dan Quayle is what stood between us and a one-way trip to electoral anarchy. As long as we have these whack-a-doodles anywhere near the front of the train, we’re the party of cranks…with the appropriate level of marginalization. Just because you found it on the internet, doesn’t make it reliable or well reasoned. If this is the alternative of the swamp, do we call it the dump?

    AJ_Liberty (a8d121)

  297. Ms. Applebaum gets Putin pretty well. The final paragraphs.

    Putin is preparing to invade Ukraine again—or pretending he will invade Ukraine again—for the same reason. He wants to destabilize Ukraine, frighten Ukraine. He wants Ukrainian democracy to fail. He wants the Ukrainian economy to collapse. He wants foreign investors to flee. He wants his neighbors—in Belarus, Kazakhstan, even Poland and Hungary—to doubt whether democracy will ever be viable, in the longer term, in their countries too. Farther abroad, he wants to put so much strain on Western and democratic institutions, especially the European Union and NATO, that they break up. He wants to keep dictators in power wherever he can, in Syria, Venezuela, and Iran. He wants to undermine America, to shrink American influence, to remove the power of the democracy rhetoric that so many people in his part of the world still associate with America. He wants America itself to fail.

    These are big goals, and they might not be achievable. But Putin’s beloved Soviet Union also had big, unachievable goals. Lenin, Stalin, and their successors wanted to create an international revolution, to subjugate the entire world to the Soviet dictatorship of the proletariat. Ultimately, they failed—but they did a lot of damage while trying. Putin will also fail, but he too can do a lot of damage while trying. And not only in Ukraine.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  298. @313:

    Trumpworld is not amused by the article:

    Lets all pretend that the massive organized voter fraud didn’t happen and the final vote tally was actually all legit and “the will of the people!”.

    And folks wonder just what it is that drives “conservatives” to drop trousers and bend over the bench for a pat on the head and a candy bar as a reward after it’s all done.
    ……..
    ……..(T)he guy is full of crap. His premise is basically that Donald Trump wasn’t perfect as president and he made mistakes thus we need to throw him under the bus to find someone who can be perfect.

    Its classic BS, almost to the level Ann Coulter is now. I dismiss this crap out of hand. One thing the author didn’t seem to factor in was the lessons learned by Trump and how he will likely apply them in his next term. I am sick and tired of the doom sayers whom are supposedly on our side, they’re not, they’re doing the communist democrats bidding because the propaganda/information war is working on them, they’re just to stupid to understand that fact. Afterall that is exactly the effect the propagandists design their propaganda to effect, for people to throw up their hands in defeat like so many her at FR do constantly. This is just more of that same kind of propaganda, anything to keep Trump from another term.
    …….

    Trump put Pence in charge of the Covid response team. Pence was directing the team including Fauci and Birk. He was on the podium with them every time until summer 2020. Remember 2 weeks to stop the spread? It was Pence who said the to the American people. Pence was involved in a number of things that went sour for Trump.
    …….
    …….My biggest concern is about Trump’s age. He is healthy and coherent now, but people at his age can go into sudden decline quickly.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.2245 secs.