By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Patient readers, I got a late start today. I’ll make it up tomorrow, I swear! –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
Brown Thrasher, Long Branch SP and Lake, Macon, Missouri, United States.
In Case You Might Miss…
- Trump transition: Gabbard, Hegseth.
- “That’s quite an act. What do you call it?”
- LA fires.
- Tintin now in the public domain.
Politics
“So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Capitol Seizure
“Vance says Jan. 6 participants who committed violence ‘obviously’ shouldn’t be pardoned” [Associated Press]. “Vance insisted in an interview on ‘Fox News Sunday’ that the pardon question is ‘very simple,’ saying those who ‘protested peacefully’ should be pardoned and ‘if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.’ He later said there was a ‘bit of a gray area’ in some cases.”
“Democrats want to slow Gabbard confirmation path” [The Hill]. “Democrats are insisting on delaying Gabbard’s confirmation hearing for director of national intelligence, saying they still don’t have the full slate of background checks, ethics disclosures and paperwork on a candidate whose overall qualifications have sparked their concern. ‘We’re going to insist on these documents before we go forward. I mean, that’s just kind of a nonnegotiable. You can’t do ‘advice and consent’ without it,’ Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said. ‘Particularly in the national security context, it’s critical that you have these documents. Maybe it’s not flashy and it’s not viral, but it happens to be how I feel.’ The pushback appears to have successfully delayed a hearing that would normally take place ahead of Trump being sworn into office Jan. 20…. ‘This is an extraordinarily important job,’ [ Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.)] continued. ‘A lot of this [is] also about protecting the independence of the intelligence community and making sure we continue to have the ability to share classified information with our allies.'” • Lol, the “independence of the intelligence community.”
“Hegseth’s views on women in combat, infidelity and more — in his own words” [Associated Press]. “If confirmed, [Hegseth] has said there will be no more ‘social justice, politically correct approaches to how we fight and conduct wars.’ Instead, he said, ‘this is about lethality, meritocracy, readiness.'” • Well… OTOH, we don’t want to turn into the IDF, now do we?
“Trump’s Cabinet disruptors soften key views as hearings loom” [Axios]. “Three of President-elect Trump’s most provocative Cabinet picks have reversed key positions ahead of next week’s confirmation hearings, softening their edges for an establishment they’ve been charged with tearing down. For as powerful as MAGA has become, the Senate’s confirmation process remains a significant obstacle — at least nominally — to injecting fringe beliefs directly into the heart of government…. Gabbard told Punchbowl News on Friday that she now supports the Section 702 surveillance program thanks to updated whistleblower and civil liberty protections…. RFK Jr. told reporters on Capitol Hill last month: ‘I’m all for the polio vaccine'” Now do MMR. More: “Hegseth, after an early clash with Army veteran Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), said he supports ‘all women serving in our military today.'” And: “Their maximalist impulses may have been tamed, but that doesn’t mean Gabbard, Kennedy and Hegseth won’t be able to radically transform their agencies in the way MAGA envisions.”
“Bessent to divest from assets on road to leading Treasury” [The Hill]. “President-elect Trump’s Treasury Secretary pick Scott Bessent has plans to divest from funds and other investments as he prepares to take over as the country’s top economic official. In an agreement released Saturday by the Office of Government Ethics ahead of Bessent’s confirmation hearing on Thursday, he outlined his plans. Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager, also shared his financial disclosures ahead of the Senate hearing later this week. Top government officials typically are required to disclose their holdings and divest from ones that could cause a conflict of interest. ‘In the event that an actual or potential conflict of interest arises during my appointment, I will consult with an agency ethics official and take the measures necessary to resolve the conflict, such as recusal from the particular matter or divestiture of an asset,’ Bessent wrote. Bessent said he will resign from his position with Key Square Group upon being confirmed by the Senate. He said he would also divest his partnership share in the company ‘as soon as practicable.’ Bessent said he would resign from his positions at other companies and foundations as well.” • Everything going very smoothly with Bessent.
* * * Nice work, Susie:
Vivek has only posted twice on X since the New Year.
Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/VOikWxjJ5Y
— AF Post (@AFpost) January 12, 2025
* * * “Trump posts wildly realistic lip-read of bromance with Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral – including brutal dig at Kamala” [Daily Mail]. “The pair laughed and chatted during Jimmy Carter’s funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington DC last week. Trump was even questioned about what was so funny following the unusual display of friendliness. The speculation left professional lip readers scrambling to decipher what remarks between two bitter rivals has sparked such joyous laughter. Trump then decided to release his own pseudo-version of events live by posting a wildly creative – and outrageously fake – lip-read video to Instagram.” • Here it is:
Obama: “I was just as appalled.” Are we sure this is a parody?
* * * “Incoming Trump Team Is Questioning National Security Council Staff Over Loyalty” [Associated Press]. • Ick, but after RussiaGate you can see why; Gal 6:7.
Lawfare
“Special counsel Jack Smith resigns from DOJ” [Politico]. • First Smith butchered his case against McAuliffe; then Smith butchered his cases against Trump. I expect we’ll be hearing from him again!
“Cannon allows for release of Smith report on Trump election interference” [The Hill]. “U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday allowed the release of the volume of special counsel Jack Smith’s report dealing with President-elect Trump’s efforts to block the peaceful transfer of power. In a five-page ruling, Cannon denied an effort by Trump and his two co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago documents case to block the release of both volumes of the report, noting that prosecutors argued the election inference report has little to do with the ongoing trial against the two men…. However, Cannon ordered a Jan. 17 hearing on whether to release the Mar-a-Lago report, something Attorney General Merrick Garland said he planned to keep sealed from the public given the ongoing prosecution into valet Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos de Oliveira. The ruling is a victory for the Justice Department, who have been pushing for the release of the report recapping the Jan. 6 investigation in two different courts.”
“Redacted Russiagate docs show the feds are STILL lying about Trump and their putsch attempt” [New York Post]. “The feds are still lying and obfuscating about the Russiagate conspiracy against Donald Trump: Witness the recent release, years late and heavily redacted, of a document about the origin of the FBI probe. This comes to light thanks only to the dogged efforts of the folks at RealClearInvestigations. The biggest thing the Bureau is still hiding: The ‘articulable factual basis’ on which its 2017 probe of Trump’s alleged role as a Russian intelligence asset was legitimated.” Then follows an excellent timeline. Conclusion: “[Y]ou don’t have to be Picasso (or Vassily Kandinsky) to connect the dots about what the FBI is still hiding and why. No one can know for sure until the Bureau tells the truth, but it’s beyond likely that the redacted ‘articulable factual basis’ of the 2017 probe is both non-factual and non-actionable.” • Yup.
2024 Post Mortem
Not complicated:
Note that everybody who masterminded the Kamala 2024 campaign retains hegemony (though we shall see with the DNC election).
“Exclusive: DNC taps Harris’ viral wizards for new social media push” [Axios]. “The Democratic National Committee is tapping veterans of the wildly popular @KamalaHQ social media team for a new rapid response push ahead of Donald Trump’s return to office, Axios learned. The push is the latest sign of the party’s efforts to rebrand and bring in new audiences after a disappointing 2024 cycle. The new rapid response @FactPostNews initiative will try to combat online misinformation and respond to Trump administration actions by pushing out memes, videos and graphics. The account will be run by many of the same people who led the @KamalaHQ social media account during the 2024 campaign. @FactPostNews will start on X, Threads, and Bluesky and will eventually expand to TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
‘The Republican disinformation machine is powerful, but we believe a stronger weapon is giving people the facts about how Trump and his administration are screwing over the American people,’ DNC chief mobilization officer Shelby Cole said in a statement. Between the lines: The account will also take a branding cue from social media accounts that have huge, loyal followings, such as PopCrave and PopBase.” • See, Cole used language like “screwing over.” That proves they’re authentic.
“We’re DNC Members. Here’s What We Need From the Next Party Chair” [David Atkins and Michael Kapp, Washington Monthly]. “As the party tries to stem its losses among non-white and non-college voters, fixing the DNC’s culture and structure must be at the top of the list of priorities.” • Conceptualizing the Democrats problems as “losses among non-white and non-college voters” erases the concept of the working class entirely. Perhaps that’s the problem?
“Have the past 10 years of Democratic politics been a disaster?” (interview) [Matthew Yglesias, Vox]. Interviewer Eric Levitz. Throwing a flag on the Betteridge’s Law violation here; how does losing to Donald Trump twice count as anything but a disaster? Anyhow, trying to find a raisin in this bowl of mush: “The big picture thing is: Starting in the 2016 campaign and continuing afterwards, Democrats talked a lot about the idea of Donald Trump as an outlier threat to the country — but in practice, they treated his flaws as an opportunity to be more boldly and aggressively progressive across a whole bunch of fronts.” • Like Medicare for All, to take but one example. Or normalizing genocide. How come Biden never gets credit for that?
* * * “Election math looks like it’s just going to get easier for the GOP” [The Hill]. “It’s going to get tougher and tougher for Democrats to win the Electoral College and the White House if present trends hold, new projections from the U.S. Census Bureau suggest. Democratic strongholds like California and New York appear likely to lose population and multiple electoral votes, while GOP-leaning states like Texas and Florida are likely to pick up votes. That would lead to a shift in 2030. Those changes could help expand the map for the GOP, unless Democrats can figure out ways to win Texas, Florida or some other states they lost to President-elect Trump.” And: “Taken altogether, if the estimated new map was in place for 2024, Trump would have won 10 additional electoral votes, while Vice President Harris would’ve won 10 fewer.” • So the solution is better messaging. Alrighty then.
Realignment and Legitimacy
“A time for truth and reconciliation” [Peter Thiel, Financial Times]. “In 2016, President Barack Obama told his staff that Donald Trump’s election victory was “not the apocalypse”. By any definition, he was correct. But understood in the original sense of the Greek word apokálypsis, meaning ‘unveiling’, Obama could not give the same reassurance in 2025. Trump’s return to the White House augurs the apokálypsis of the ancien regime‘s secrets. The new administration’s revelations need not justify vengeance — reconstruction can go hand in hand with reconciliation. But for reconciliation to take place, there must first be truth.” After a summary of JFK, Epstein, Fauci, debanking cryptoids (one of these is not like the others): “South Africa confronted its apartheid history with a formal commission, but answering the questions above with piecemeal declassifications would befit both Trump’s chaotic style and our internet world, which processes and propagates short packets of information. The first Trump administration shied away from declassifications because it still believed in the rightwing deep state of an Oliver Stone movie. This belief has faded.” And: “Our ancien regime, like the aristocracy of pre-revolutionary France, thought the party would never end. 2016 shook their historicist faith in the arc of the moral universe but by 2020 they hoped to write Trump off as an aberration. In retrospect, 2020 was the aberration, the rearguard action of a struggling regime and its struldbrugg ruler. There will be no reactionary restoration of the pre-internet past.” • Good shot with “struldbrugg.” Commentary:
I haven’t read up on Thiel. But from what I have read, I find myself in agreement with Loomer. Which is a little unnerving, to say the least.
Syndemics
“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).
Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!
Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (wastewater); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).
Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).
Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tips to helpful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, KF, KidDoc, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, thump, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).
Stay safe out there!
Airborne Transmission
Almost five years after Newton, but good anyhow:
Boston has installed CO, CO2 and particulate matter sensors in 4436 classrooms to monitor indoor air quality in real time. Measurements are freely available at https://t.co/qTf81QAqOA. A tremendous effort in transparency. Other similar initiatives: https://t.co/JA1RvPaXQ1 pic.twitter.com/2iOEV0wCHu
— LET'S AIR (@nousaerons) January 13, 2025
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC December 30 | Last week[2] CDC (until next week): |
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| Variants [3] CDC December 21 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC January 4 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data January 10: | National [6] CDC Janurary 9, 2005: |
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| Positivity | |
| National[7] Walgreens January 13: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic January 4: |
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| Travelers Data | |
| ★ Positivity[9] CDC December 23: | ★ Variants[10] CDC December 23 |
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| Deaths | |
| ★ Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC January 4: | ★ Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC January 4: |
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LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new today; all others are not updated.
2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.”
NOTES
[1] (CDC) Seeing more red and more orange, but nothing new at major hubs.
[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.
[4] (ED) A little uptick.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Definitely jumped.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.
[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.
[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward trend since, well, Thanksgiving.
[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Leveling out.
[10] (Travelers: Variants). Positivity is new, but variants have not yet been released.
[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.
[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.
Stats Watch
There are no official statistics of interest today.
Manufacturing: “AerCap CEO warns tariffs could delay Boeing cash recovery” [Reuters]. “AerCap, the world’s largest aircraft leasing company, said on Monday that potential new trade tariffs floated by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump could hit supply chains and hinder planemaker Boeing’s (BA.N), opens new tab efforts to restore much-needed cash… ‘We’ll have to wait and see … what’s in the detail. A lot of parts that are supplied to Boeing, Airbus, and Embraer aircraft are common,” [AerCap CEO Aengus Kelly] told Reuters on the sidelines of the Airline Economics conference. ‘What would you do with an engine that’s partly made in France? Are you going to put a tariff of 20% on that engine? Is that counterproductive?’ Kelly added.”
Manufacturing: “Boeing Stock Would Benefit from a Breakup, Specialist Says” [Barron’s]. ‘”It’s time for Boeing ‘s management to wake up and start creating value,’ says Jim Osman…. Boeing shareholders are long-suffering. Through Friday trading, shares were down almost 50% over the past five years while the S&P 500 was up almost 80%. The reasons for the underperformance have been well documented: catastrophic design decisions, a pandemic, management turnover, questionable capital allocation, and poor production quality.
Osman is campaigning for a full breakup. He wants to see Boeing split into its three main divisions: commercial aerospace, defense, and services.”
Manufacturing: “Troubled Boeing Offers To Assist Nigerian Airlines Secure Aircraft Insurance” [Sahara Reporters]. “Boeing International Corporation has expressed its willingness to support Nigerian airlines in securing sufficient aircraft insurance coverage. This assistance will be facilitated through partnerships with financially stable lessors and global financiers. Moore Ibekwe, Boeing’s Sales Director for the Africa Region Commercial Airlines, made this announcement in Dublin, Ireland, at the inaugural meeting of the ‘Boeing Lessor Forum’, which takes place from January 12 to 15.” • At least the sales department is in there punching.
Tech: Elon’s mercurial pesonality:
Please post a bit more positive, beautiful or informative content on this platform pic.twitter.com/J7JkxdfrAR
— David Leavitt 🎲🎮🧙♂️🌈 (@David_Leavitt) January 12, 2025
Something going on here. Perhaps we should invoke the Twenty Fifth Amendment?
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 25 Extreme Fear (previous close: 26 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 37 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 13 at 1:33:14 PM ET.
Rapture Index: Closes up one on Wild Weather. “The fires in California are the result of very wild weather” [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 181. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • “Wild Weather” (#38) as opposed to Climate (#43).
“Trump’s team is discussing a trip to survey the L.A. wildfire devastation” [NBC]. “President-elect Donald Trump’s team is engaged in conversations about his visiting Los Angeles to view the wildfire damage, two sources familiar with the discussions said. Trump, who has repeatedly criticized local and state officials for their response to the fire, has been invited out by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Rep Judy Chu, also a Democrat, said Sunday on CBS News she intended to invite both Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., as well. Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt declined to comment on the trip discussions. It’s unclear whether Trump would go before or after his Jan. 20 inauguration…. On ‘Fox News Sunday’ this weekend, Vice President-elect JD Vance said he knew Trump ‘wants to visit California,’ but offered no further details.”• It’s a trap!
“Narrow Roads, Deep Canyons: L.A. Firefighters Confront Nature’s Perfect Firetrap” [Wall Street Journal]. “It is here, among the cliffs and crevices of Topanga Canyon, that crews face a real dogfight in some of the most complex firefighting topography in the world. Firefighters’ biggest mission is to protect the property and lives of the roughly 10,000 residents, many whose homes cling to steep terrain off winding, tree-lined streets so narrow that two vehicles can’t pass in places. While small in population, Topanga looms large in Angeleno lore as a getaway for Hollywood stars in the 1920s, and home in the 1960s to rockers Neil Young, Jim Morrison and Linda Ronstadt, along with serial killer Charles Manson and his family. Wedged in the Santa Monica Mountains, the canyon has seen numerous blazes over the years—although none as menacing in the 57 years that Armida Madrid has lived here.” • Worth a read for the local color.
“LA’s rich & famous hiring $2,000-an-hour private firefighters to protect million-dollar homes & businesses” [The U.S. Sun]. “One wealthy source said: ‘This week’s events have shown you can’t trust the city to protect your property.’ The source added: ‘I have the money, so why not?’ Private firefighters are not uncommon in LA with Kim Kardashian using private crews to save her home in Hidden Hills California in the 2013 wildfires.” • And all these lovely people will seek places to live that are “unspoiled.”
“Editorial: From the city that used fire as a catalyst for reinvention, good wishes for Los Angeles” [Chicago Tribune]. “Here in Chicago, historians see a fire in which one-third of people in this city lost their homes and at least 300 died as a unique catalyst for growth and reinvention, although it it is often forgotten that the city got a lot of help from people outside its borders. Within little more than year, a visitor to Chicago could not see many visible signs of the prior destruction, and the roaring city had gained a fierce and lasting reputation for resilience and new opportunity. Once the fires are out and losses mourned, LA will have a similar chance to look hard at the changing environment in which it lives, improve its services with the benefit of bitter experience and build back better. For now, though, we stand with its people through the painful slog of recovery.”
“The psychological toll of California’s catastrophic fires” [Axios]. “People exposed to California’s deadliest wildfire, the 2018 Camp Fire, showed greater chronic symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression, according to research published in 2023. ‘These findings dovetail with significant psychological impacts noted after extreme climate events,’ researchers wrote. ‘Warming temperatures have been further linked to greater suicide rates.’ Another study from last year found that wildfires are associated with increased emergency room visits for anxiety disorders in the western U.S. Sometimes pragmatism comes before grief during a disaster like the urban wildfires, Katzman said. People might first prioritize figuring out what a return to work or school will could like, before processing the loss…. ‘Solastalgia’ has been used to describe the chronic distress of seeing negative environmental change in one’s home environment.” • Word of the day: “Solastalgia.”
Rather like Occupy Sandy:
If you’re seeing all the air filters and respirators being handed out for free in LA, remember these resources are only available because covid activists have remained steadfast in advocating for clean air and mask use since 2020.
— inky labyrinth 📚🍉 (@InkyLabyrinth) January 11, 2025
Gallery
New bird:
Monet, The Magpie pic.twitter.com/gH0oIzUPAK
— Impressions (@impression_ists) January 13, 2025
Old bird (I apologize for X’s miserable cropping algorithm):
Pieter Bruegel The Elder
The Hunters in the Snow (detail) 1565 pic.twitter.com/2ama6QstDU— Marysia (@marysia_cc) January 12, 2025
“Celebrating the Timeless Allure of Tintin’s Aesthetics” [College Towns]. “The Adventures of Tintin officially entered the public domain in 2025. We now all own the alluring aesthetics of this timeless classic…. The panels and pages within Tintin are filled with an ephemeral old world that doesn’t really exist anymore (if it ever did). Hergé creates a sense of scaled urbanism as well as the naturalistic world in fantastical yet real places. The color palettes and details give it a mood and atmosphere that has universal appeal. Dark-drawn outlines allow the colors to pop off the page, called “European ‘ligne claire’ style,” according to cartoonist Barry Deutsch. These stills are from comic panels, but they are also works of art with aesthetics immediately recognizable. They give a range of emotions: a new adventure begins in the bustle of a big city, the immensity of a mountain range, the calmness of home.” • Reminds me a bit of Richard Scarry, who I saw recommend recently for his book on fire-fighting equipment. And as with Babar the Elephant, I’m sure there’s a colonial interpretation to be had. But for now:
Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From TH:
TH writes: “This is an Aloe Tree growing along Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, California. (Taken from a sidewalk well above it.)” I am a big fan of depth of field and this image shows why.
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I lived in a converted garage apartment in Topanga back in the day for a few years, cheek by jowl next to Trippet state park where I would hike all the time, my favorite viewpoint being Parker Mesa, with a encompassing view from Palos Verdes Peninsula to the Channel Islands, magnificent!
I lived in the converted motel on Old Canyon rd across from the recording studio. A creek ran behind it and on the other side was the Santa Monica Forest. This was in 91-92. I met my wife in Topanga. I’ll probably never live anywhere as beautiful.
> “Exclusive: DNC taps Harris’ viral wizards for new social media push”
Because the Brat rubbish and the “I’m a man who fixes carburettors and respects women” video were so effective.
They’ll do anything except offer actual policies. ‘Pathetic’ would be too kind.
Viral Lizards is more like it.
They’re trying to pre-emptively fill any potential media-space and brainwidth space to prevent another movement/party from being able to fill it.
Another party like, perhaps, the New Deal Party, if someone started one.
It’s a remix of the best and brightest from your favorite election sound track 2024 ! Run tell all your friends and be sure to turn up and tune in! Bruce Springsteen has promised us time on his podcast too.
*musical efforts will cost more so no complaints if, for example a Beyonce or a Taylor Swift are underrepresented….real musicians allegedly cost us a lot of money and we can’t pay up again…\sarc
If I weren’t so absolutely convinced that they were a legitimate political outfit working to ensure that average working people were protected from the worst abuses of capitalism, I’d say it was all a money laundering operation.
Not that I’m bitter.
> Because the Brat rubbish
Fetterman’s social media team was brilliant and carried him through a stroke but they’re never heard from, I suppose because Fetterman is Fetterman.
Just Stop Oil activists at it again-this time they desecrated Darwin’s grave at Westminster Abbey. When people see them doing this, why doesn’t anyone step in and try to stop it? They just stand around and watch.
What did Darwin ever do to them?
I wonder if they are a false-flag organization secretly founded, funded and deployed by the oil industry.
Every time they wet themselves this way in public, the worse they smell and the ever fewer decent people want to be near the smell.
Almost like that’s the secret plan.
>>>I wonder if they are a false-flag organization secretly founded, funded and deployed by the oil industry.
This has been a common tactic of the United States since the Cold War.
Frankly, I think all those protesters are doing is pissing people off when attacking works of art or in this case a grave. They’re not serious. Call me when the attack the headquarters of Exxon, or whatever oil or gas company, or one of the big banks that fund all of them. Even better, the home of the Chairmen or women of said companies.
And to Petal’s question above, yes, why do people stand by? I really don’t like advocating violence but jeez, crack a few heads and maybe they’ll choose better targets going forward.
‘When people see them doing this, why doesn’t anyone step in and try to stop it?’
In New York a few weeks ago a guy set a woman on fire in the subways and as she burned people were just filming her on their mobiles. There was a NYPD cop there but he walked by her twice without doing anything, not even to stop the guy that set her on fire fanning her flames with his jacket. Sick.
Really, no attempt to even put out the flames with a coat? This is vile. And I don’t think that I would want to film something like this unless it was to record the perpetrator for the police.
Ah, yes, Just Stop Oil: the outfit funded in part by the Getty Oil heiress. AstroTurf instead of grassroots.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11335639/Heiress-billionaire-Getty-oil-dynasty-donates-1M-Just-Stop-OIL.html
That outfit is the Antifa of climate activism. What better way to discredit all the climate and environmental concerns? / ;)
And there’s this 2016 report from Forbes about the “embrace” of the environment movement by Big Oil and Coal from the start to block nuclear energy.
Are Fossil Fuel Interests Bankrolling The Anti-Nuclear Energy Movement?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2016/07/13/are-fossil-fuel-interests-bankrolling-the-anti-nuclear-energy-movement/
My buddy who grew up in PP and lives in Tucson is here with us, and just showed me a video on Facebook of 4 or 5 panicked hikers above PP running off-trail above Skull Rock in Temescal Canyon, as the wildfire was in its early stages, the flames maybe being 100-200 feet wide.
None of them say anything to implicate themselves in the video, no ‘oh shit our bad’ or anything like that.
The video is on the FB group Pacific Palisades-Remember When, under the name Bee Rich.
Its only garnered 40 views so far.
I think I saw that video–probably on a different account. 2 of the guys (the last ones down the hill) looked a little too happy/nervous to me whereas the video narrators seemed genuinely concerned and surprised. I’m wondering if a tossed cigarette or a joint might be to blame?
That video made it into the mainstream, and one of them was actually interviewed; I think I put that in a recent Links, though the interview wasn’t headlined. I don’t think they did it.
There was a longer video in the comments, and the fellow who shot the video is an avid hiker, and I too think they didn’t do it, but must have blundered onto it.
My buddy say there are lots of perfect spots for somebody to live rough there…
RE: Gabbard. What’s the hold up? Since it is well known she is a Russian asset why not just show the proof and deny her the job right now and skip the charade? They do have the proof, right?
Hilarious that the one the Democrats are so fearful of is the former Democrat. “Hell hath no fury” and all….
I hope Gabbard and the Trump team are patient enough to wait the Democrats out and figure out how to make the Democrats look worse and worse and worse on this particular appointment nomination.
If the Senate ends up voting ” no “, is there any legal reason why Trump can’t appoint Gabbard to be “Acting” DNI Chairman? And indicate that Gabbard is the only DNI Chair there will be for the next 4 years, whether “Acting” or “formal”? And if Gabbard has the taste for it, the TrumpAdmin could keep re-sending her nomination to the House and Senate over and over and over again, and see which side ends up looking worse.
No hold up now. She just had to change her views.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-senator-reveals-one-condition-that-will-get-tulsi-gabbard-confirmed/
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tulsi-gabbard-changes-tune-controversial-intelligence-tool-following-gop-lobbying
Yep. From Due Dissidence guys, utube, ~20+ minutes. Sadly, no surprise. WEF, etc.
Tulsi FLIP FLOPS on SURVEILLANCE To SECURE Confirmation Votes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99x5TbOTKuI
If she gets confirmed, would it be illegal or “a firing offense” for her to flop flip again to her prior views?
Of course, if she gets confirmed, and she’s a political operator, she won’t flop flip again to her prior views on that.
What about the other things?
I’ve always liked her, but have already been disappointed given the above. Like usual, once you start liking someone you find out who they really are. Or, the system changes them.
Of possible interest and amusement to some of you, Hillary Clinton discussed the importance of controlling the means of production.
https://x.com/ChathamHouse/status/1390284424806289410
Her concern is duly noted. I’m sure she and Bubba gave back all the money years ago.
Oh my (and Hillary looks very bad).
” Hillary looks very bad).” You say that like it is a bad thing? She has been evil since day one.
So here’s the thing, you’re going to hear “whocuddaknown”, but WE KNEW. Back when I had a clearance and worked for the DOE all the way in the late 70’s, the DOE warned the DOD that outsourcing our high tech manufacturing was essentially a “Game Over” event.
Heck, remember when we used to worry about the “Balance of Trade”? That was not classified, but it certainly followed the same line of reasoning so if we hear the “whocuddaknowed” or some other BS, just blow them out of the water. We knew, and the elites just decided that wrecking America to increase the wealth of a few was worth it. So, for heavens sake, when are we going to get rid of these elites that WRECKED America. Looking at all those older Presidents at Carter’s funeral was like looking at the murderer’s row of America wreckers.
These people know how to wreck countries, and wreck empires that they “inherited”, but have never demonstrated any capability to actually mange something like a New Deal. Let’s hope Trump does because those other fools kept digging the hole when they should have stopped long ago.
What I don’t understand is if it’s so unfair and OP that they are not a free market economy, why do we not utilize some of those methods that apparently work so well. Damn was she heated. Also the bit about low-cost clothing not coming back for “obvious reasons” felt oddly racist/classist? Something like US industry should only have refined high-tech products, not low-class products like clothing that the poors can keep making for us.
saw this today,
Americans can thank Bill Clinton and his greedy public service for this…
China’s Trade Surplus Reaches a Record of Nearly $1 Trillion
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/business/china-trade-surplus.html?
This is Hillary trying to get ahead of the Trump parade against China. Bit of a gall here as it was her husband which set the conditions for American production to be packed up and sent to China. I suspect that what she really means with this talk is that she wants in on the grift for the coming subsidies for American companies to be based in the US.
Monet
What a wonderful painting with all its lively white and pastel strokes. I had no idea that Magpies are so large.
I think it’s come up before, but magpies are my favorite bird, even though I realize they can be jerks, especially to other birds. They’re like crows, only more independent with more swagger and a custom paint job. There’s something graceful about how they fly too, almost like they’re sweeping the air with a broom.
+ 100
My mother’s cat did something to annoy the local magpies, and it seems like they never forgive nor forget. The cat has given them a wide berth ever since.
With Tintin the racism isn’t subtle. If you read Tintin in Russia, in Congo or in America, there are tons of stereotypes. I would say that Hergé pretty straightforwardly used the racist stereotypes of his era, often as a punchline.
On the other hand, in The Blue Lotus Hergé depicted Chinese as humans and Japanese and Europeans as oppressors, thanks to friendship with the Chinese sculptor Zhang Chongren, then studying in Europe. People aren’t one dimensional. And the illustrations are very crisp and has a lot of soul.
It’s worth having the entire series on your shelf. I learned French and Italian reading them and the 1980s bandes dessinées / fumetti
Those three Tintins are the ones most clearly full of racial stereotypes. I don’t recall the others being that way. I read them all when I was 10+ years old and loved them, especially Captain Haddock. My parents did warn me about the stereotypes. In fact I’m bringing The Crab with the Golden Claws and King Ottokar’s Sceptre, both in Spanish, to give away to children in Cuba next week. In the Crab, etc, Captain Haddock, fighting off some bad guys in the desert takes a swig of liquid from a canteen and spits it out horrified to find it was disgusting water and not whisky!
Right, I believe I’ve read that Hergé changed his ways and views after Zheng and Blue Lotus and later atoned for his racism from the earlier books? He was also accused of Nazi (Vichy?) collaboration after WWII, so maybe that was also a factor.
If the plate included here is representative, Tintin is bourgeois to its very bones.
Here’s an interesting health-related post and thread called : ” Why don’t the Japanese suffer from obesity?”
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1i09be8/eli5_why_dont_the_japanese_suffer_from_obesity/
>private firefighters
I see that we are invoking the spirit of Crassus…
Will it end the same way?
Many NC readers likely know, but as a reminder, many of the firefighters are current prisoners in Cali jails and are being paid $5 per day.
Also, great podcast via Garland Nixon with an LA activist regarding some not spoken about details on the fire situation. It’s from Friday. My favorite new information is that Gov. Newscum has been negotiating with LA area communities to change the zoning of residential areas to R-3, allowing apartments to be built, not individual houses. Perhaps a quinky dink that there will now be lots of fresh land for “housing”, rental housing that is, “swimmin’ pools, movie stars”.
Inmate innate one
Your inferno is ready
Thanks for playing through
The LA/OC metro area desperately needs tons of higher-density housing, and I’ve seen first-hand people in neighborhoods of detached single-family homes fight like hell against efforts to rezone, supposedly to preserve the “character” of their neighborhoods.
This item claims to offer a way to read a website which demands you create an account to keep reading . . . without having to create an account. Worth trying in cases where google or somebody demands you create an account?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Animemes/comments/1i0dq03/reveal_your_ancient_knowledge/
Solastalgia has a Wikipedia entry, and is the title of a music video by a picturesquely-named grindcore band which was founded back in the 20th century:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZJJKAV2BpI
RE: Everything going very smoothly with Bessent.
I wonder if the MAGAs will flip out when they discover that he’s a Soros acolyte?
> I wonder if the MAGAs will flip out when they discover that he’s a Soros acolyte?
A gay Soros acolyte. Here’s a factoid:
I have added a boatload of orts and scraps. Things have really started popping in the Beltway!
I learned a lot about the role of asset managers (e.g. Blackrock) from this ~ 90 min interview with geographer Brett Christophers. His demolition of Starmer is particularly delightful.
Christophers has a new book out on asset managers, and you can get some of the flavour from his response to a set discussions/reviews of the book: “Seeing like an asset manager” (open access). I haven’t read the book yet, but it’s on my good intentions list for 2025.
I see Theil likes greek.
cf. Matthew 7:15-18
On Network state, it is kind of amusing in a way, that the only people today that can countenance exiting the national state are tech billionaires. A few thousand years ago, anyone could say f-it and just leave. There were places to go. No, there’s nowhere to go that isn’t in some nation state’s boundaries. So only the richest can leave individually, and now there’s such wealth accrued to a few, they’re considering seceding entirely entire cities. Fun. Not sure I’d like their idea of civil society or public goods, or lack thereof.
It’s a honey trap for libertarians. It never ends well.
Or an intelligence test.
I don’t know enough about statistics, but taking the YE attendance data for Massachusetts for 2024 (the 2024 school year, I think) from state data, and looking at the average attendance rate for Newton and not-Newton districts, the average of attendance rates is:
Average Attendance Rate for Newton: 94.43%
Average Attendance Rate for Other Districts: 92.96%
This is only one year of data, and doesn’t take into account socioeconomic factors that play into school attendance, so it might be completely meaningless. It is also for only a since period of time, not the past 5 years. This might not even be a valid way of looking at this information to make a comparison. I certainly don’t know if this is statistical significant. I think last time it had the number of students per school, but that’s missing here.
The Excel sheet is basically this data set: https://profiles.doe.mass.edu/statereport/attendance.aspx
Also, looks like Massachusetts Education-to-Career Research and Data Hub has a report on attendance:
Reducing chronic absenteeism in our schools
But doesn’t breakout anything but particular district, so who knows if Newton has fared better for the past 5 years now or not. Would really be interesting to know.
We haven’t normalized:
They have the data, such as it is, for every year from 2022, with an interactive graph. So.
Newton for “low income” students, 681% in 2022 to 630% in 2024. (This is 6 times baseline? I don’t know, it isn’t clear where this comes from.)
For not-Newton for “low income”, this comes up as ~82,000% to ~61000%, kind of nonsensical.
So I can only conclude that the person or people responsible for this data report never bothered to confirm that they configured the visualization correctly. Oops. So basically, you can’t “filter” the data, it blows up to nowhere -ville.
Claims to have reversed the attendance gap with pre-Pandemic:
It would be nice to have real data on whether improving the ventilation helped in Newton.
Dementia Cases in the U.S. Will Surge in the Coming Decades, Researchers Say
Guess what they don’t discuss at all; I can give you a hint, but you don’t need it.
Guess what we don’t recommend people do?
Yes, avoiding COVID is not on the list.
Silent on COVID, as you’d expect.
Study is paywalled, as you expect, but I couldn’t necessarily evaluate it independently regardless.
We know there’s a risk: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Dementia Risk: Potential Pathways to Cognitive Decline (from 2021, even!)
So the NY Times didn’t bother to run with this study: Association between COVID-19 infection and new-onset dementia in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Because, why warn people, particularly given how horrific the human and financial and social costs of dementia are, as established in that very same NY Times article.
This year is gonna be lit, man.
Also, from the article:
…which doesn’t take into account the plunge in life expectancy in the US that started in 2020 (at least other sources are honest about the cause). On a charitable reading, the NYT author may be assuming the “rebound” in the 2022 numbers will continue — which seems kinda optimistic at this point —, though we’re still looking at two decades of increasing life expectancy numbers in the US that were wiped out with the arrival of the SARS-2 epidemic.
Regarding dementia, I believe CA recently posted a link to an article about a treatment for the onset of dementia being explored in China, that involves some kind of surgery on lymph nodes in the neck. I haven’t been following this issue, but it seems potentially big if true. This would jibe with another article mentioned recently here, about how the body circulates cerebrospinal fluid through the brain at night, which is a kind of routine maintenance to clear out unwanted stuff, and that dementia may be caused by a dysfunction of this system.
It’s kind of fascinating to think that some treatments might become available, though I would expect it to happen in East Asia first, while the neoliberal West would possibly resist them as it is far more profitable to steer people into poor health and then extract money from them (meanwhile acting all concerned about how serious the problem is, ” ’tis a mystery”), kind of like those ambulance chasing law firms that specialize in conservatorships and selling off a family estate to pay for all the legal fees, the astronomically expensive elder care, etc. etc.
“Special counsel Jack Smith resigns from DOJ” [Politico]. • First Smith butchered his case against McAuliffe; then Smith butchered his cases against Trump. I expect we’ll be hearing from him again!
Put a picture of Jack Smith next to Zelenski and Jolani. It’s the same person. Have they ever been seen in the same place together? Other than rumors in a Clinton foundation bunker….
At the very least, that look is now a requirement for the blob’s henchmen
Public health reflections among the advanced economies of the G7:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1p7yP
January 15, 2018
Life Expectancy at Birth for United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and United Kingdom, 2017-2022
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1p7yR
January 30, 2018
Infant Mortality Rate for United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and United Kingdom, 2017-2022
https://english.news.cn/20250111/ceea267f71a1433cb39a575206a7c98f/c.html
January 11, 2025
Researchers reveal link between physical activity and longevity, aging
BEIJING — Chinese researchers have recently uncovered the links between physical activity, sedentary behavior, and their impacts on longevity and age acceleration, supporting the advice to “sit less and move more” for healthy longevity.
Researchers from Sun Yat-sen University selected 20,924 Chinese participants aged 50 or above from the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study and gathered data on their physical activity and sedentary behavior through questionnaires.
Upon analyzing the relationships between physical activity and longevity, they discovered that moderate physical activity, compared to low levels, is associated with a higher likelihood of longevity, with a 56 percent increased chance.
Specifically, the frequency, duration and intensity of moderate physical activity are positively correlated with the probability of longevity. In contrast, vigorous physical activity does not yield the same benefits and, in some cases, shows an inverse relationship.
When examining the connection between physical activity and accelerated aging, the researchers found that a higher frequency of moderate physical activity is linked to a reduced risk of accelerated aging by more than five years. Conversely, a longer duration of vigorous physical activity is associated with an increased risk of accelerated aging by more than five years.
In summary, physical activity shows protective effects on longevity and age acceleration, with the effects being partly mediated through lipids. On the other hand, sedentary behavior has a negative impact on age acceleration.
The researchers published the findings * in the journal GeroScience.
* https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39230773/
The license plate number on the yellow car in Hergé’s drawing could be a nod to Chacornac, the French astronomer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1622_Chacornac
Hergé was interested in astronomy and apparently lived at Uccle, the site of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. https://www.tintin.com/en/news/4358/the-royal-observatory-of-belgium#
‘OTOH, we don’t want to turn into the IDF, now do we?’
The big tell will be the claim that the US military is the most moral in the world.
“Bessent to divest from assets on road to leading Treasury”
Market top anyone?
Chinese California Dreaming
https://x.com/CarlZha/status/1878920755997704305
Oubliette.
A very pretty one,
where the sunsets last for 3 hours,
and the low winter sun makes the part of mason mountain to my east
glow orangy yellow..
shadow of the western arm of that mountain to my west,
slowly creeping upwards.
And I sit by my fire
looking at the orangy light in the Big Oak
and all the other trees.
Birds are done, sheep are long done.
No sound but for the distant highway,
and the ringing in my ears.
Planets come out first,
well, and that big fat moon…
gradually the brighter stars…but the light lingers long,
out here.
A very pretty oubliette.
And I threw an old pallet onto my little fire
and now its a hissing and popping hillbilly rage.
And I think about how I totally misread the situation…
and how I didnt know
for all those months
that you were trying to kill yourself
by passing out below the high tide line
and allowing yourself to be washed into the Gulf.
And how could I know
since you never spoke?
But for in four word crypticisms.
An ink cloud.
Four words to my fifty
or five hundred.
I offered a refuge…
a Redoubt.
Imladris in the Texas Hill Country.
Dead end dirt road that nobody comes down, lest
I hear them.
And know them, or not.
That could have been yours
whenever you needed it.
No strings,
no questions.
Welcome home.
But that afternoon…all of us drunk…
and you draping yourself upon me…
touching me
no woman has touched me in that way
since Tam died.
So what was I supposed to think..
out here in this
very pretty
oubliette?
I went with it
of course.
But always with you in the drivers seat.
Married and all…
and I couldnt be sure.
What were your intentions?
What was happening in your mind?
So,
now that its ended
with denial that it ever even happened…
what am I to do with my lonesome self?
But continue to talk to you in my head?
Just like I do with the little jelly jar of ashes I still have
datenights with.
I speak only with birds and frogs,
a dog and myriad cats…
and I speak to ghosts.
Sometimes I am loneliest when I am with others. I try not to cry because it upsets the dog. The loss is awful, but it does get better.
Remarkable both for content and format. Oubliette is a perfect name for a poem that requires a headfirst dive through successive comments, each indent with a deeper reveal.
This is kind of haunting, but not without beauty.
https://x.com/longcovidlabs/status/1878926457595994317?s=46
Some notes on Tintin entering the public domain. There are a couple of caveats with that:
1. Only the earliest version of Tintin enters the public domain (from “Tintin in the Land of The Soviets”). The character looked pretty different from what most people are familiar with (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintin_in_the_Land_of_the_Soviets)
2. Apparently he has not entered the public domain in Europe, where the life of author plus 70 years rule applied to works going that far back.
Those two caveats are mentioned in this article: https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/1/24330191/popeye-tintin-head-2025-public-domain
I understand that Tintin’s “owners” have been extremely protective of the IP in the past. I get the impression that they are worse than Disney in this regard, so it would not surprise me if they will continue to be very defensive of it in any way they possibly can.
Still, I’m excited that this is starting to happen. I’m a big fan of Tintin’s comic books and would love to see more “remixes” come out.
I was pleased to see Richard Scarry mentioned in the Tintin section. I loved his stuff when I was growing up, and it was nice to see that Americans had also heard of him.
Of course it turns out he actually was an American – I honestly had no idea!
Here’s a plant picture perhaps worthy of plantidote-status. It is titled ” the branches of this tree look like hexagonal carbon chains”. And they do. Here is the link.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1i0tr4k/the_branches_of_this_tree_look_like_hexagonal/
In the comments, someone confidently proclaims it to be a Corkia cotoneaster, of which they offer a picture. Whereas I myself suspect it to be a Poncirus somethingorother, of which I offer a bunch of images here.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrFaa6c1oVnvQIAjrtXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3BpdnM-?p=poncirus+dragon+tree+image&fr2=piv-web&fr=sfp
re: Russia SHATTERS ASML’s EUV Monopoly Dominance
Can’t judge these matters – is this game changing for real?
12 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIJx1ea56wY&t=153s
“Is Russia breaking ASML’s monopoly on Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology? For years, ASML has been the sole supplier of EUV machines to the world’s top chipmakers, but Russia’s recent advancements in EUV technology could shatter this dominance. In this video, we explore Russia’s EUV ambitions and what it means for the global semiconductor industry. Will Russia’s entry into the EUV market disrupt the supply chain and change the game for chipmakers? Let’s dive in and find out.”
Does anyone but me think that Biden announcing another round of likely to be stopped student loan mitigations is a last middle finger, Lucy with the football move to many of the people who voted for him? It really does remind me of all those times he pulled something in the campaign that made Harris look bad. He and his circle really are obviously angry but impotent against those that maneuvered him out and keep punching who they can.
I was thinking today that Obama’s fecklessness and toadying probably do make his presidency worse than Biden’s. If every criminal we knew about then had been prosecuted rather than ignored and enriched, wouldn’t we be better off today? There were of course the bankers that were made whole rather than prosecuted, and the torturers and the bureaucrats that lied us into a criminal invasion we had to look forward not back about. There were Biden, Clinton, at least a couple of military commanders who should have been court martialed for war crimes and/or insubordination. hell even Thiel should have lost a couple of court cases. And think of the mergers that should have been nixed. All that on top of the atrocity that is ACA… I realize that our government had already been hollowed out and he probably would have been assasinated so it is likely a pipe dream, but it truly believe it was the biggest lost opportunity for a course change of my lifetime. Instead they doubled down.