Monthly Archives: December 2021

It seemed an obvious rejoinder:

If states can shield their laws from review by federal courts, then CA will use that authority to help protect lives.

We will work to create the ability for private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in CA. pic.twitter.com/YPBJ00vN6z

— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) December 12, 2021

The obvious problem: the 2nd amendment exists, but there’s no amendment assigned explicitly to abortion. I think the 9th amendment obviously applies, but still.

There’ll be plenty of outrage over this.

Have a good day at work, dear. Remember, don’t use your fountain pen!

Jack Deebs, master cartoonist and criminal doing his time, discovers that he’s more than just a cartoonist in Cool World (1992), he finds that he can build a bridge to his imaginary realm that he calls Cool World – and it’s reaching out to grab him. Some of its inhabitants, for all of their cartoonish ways and sometimes wacky powers, resent the limitations placed on them, primarily that, physically, they can’t really feel anything.

But Deebs can fix all that by letting them get into the real world.

Frank Harris is standing in the way, though. Deebs is not the first human to find himself transported to this crazed world, where the craze may come from conditions rather than the drawing. Harris, years before, was involved in a horrific accident and, in self-defense, sought refuge in Cool World. Now he’s a private dick, tracking down cartoon criminals, and holding off the amours of his cartoon love. Sex between human and cartoon is forbidden, you see – why, we’re not sure.

And at the center of the vortex is Holli Would, Deebs’ dream cartoon woman, whose own dream is to escape the hell of Cool World for the real world, where she can do and scheme and feel, all without the constraints of whoever it was that really created Cool World. Crossing the bridge that is Deebs, her seduction of Deebs effects her escape, meaning that now Harris must decide if his duty calls him back to the world he escape all those years ago.

And, if so, if he can even find Would.

This hybrid animated / live action presentation has its charms, but the plot creaks. The problem with fantasy is that a fantasy without rules, or with poorly formulated rules, tends to feel like a series of rabbits pulled out of a hat, each one grungier than the last, and that’s how this feels. How did Harris really get to Cool World? It’s unconvincing, as is Deebs’ transport. Why would any man be attracted to these cartoon ladies? None appeal at an emotional or intellectual level, and physically they’re too outlandish.

Add in that the cartoon sequences are infested with distractions, the acting is less than stellar, and the point of the plot is not truly compelling, and it becomes an unmemorable addition to this hybrid genre.

Slattern:

• a dirty, untidy woman
• a woman who has many sexual partners, for pleasure or payment [Cambridge Dictionary]

Noted in this 9 Chickweed Lane comic: Sally the Space Slattern.

In case you’re looking for a good summary of current information on the Omicron variant of Covid-19, you may wish to consider consulting Zvi Mowshowitz on Don’t Worry About the Vase. I particularly thought this graph to be quite striking:

This is a graph of the amount of Covid found in the wastewater in Boston. If you have links to similar other measurements taken regularly, share them in the comments.

That spike on the right has two of the three highest single-day measurements, and they were the last two days of data reported. This can’t represent Delta cases alone unless it’s a data error, because the rise is too rapid given what we know about conditions. If it’s Omicron and the measurements are what they superficially look like, it means Omicron is already primary in Boston, and there’s a huge spike in infections already, that hasn’t been matched with a surge in hospitalizations or positive tests.

There are other outlier measurements on the graph, so probably these are outlier measurements. But if they hold up over the next few days, then what would that mean?

If they hold up and there isn’t a wave of new hospitalizations quickly, then this is the best of all possible worlds. Omicron would be spreading like wildfire, but be much milder than previous waves. We’d be able to get through it quickly, and have no realistic way to prevent it, so all we could do would be to shield the vulnerable to the extent we could, use what treatments we have that we can get to be legal, and come out the other side.

If they hold up and then the hospitalizations follow then things are quite bad, it’s hitting us now and we’re in a crisis situation. There will be pressure to do very foolish things to try and stop something that will be utterly impossible to stop, and Paxlovid will arrive too late to make much difference.

It’s fascinating that simple sampling of harbor water yields results that the experts feel are trustworthy – or anything at all. I mean, chemicals, yeah, sure – pharmaceuticals appear at sometimes alarming levels in wastewater.

But viruses can survive in wastewater?

I suppose this just shows me to be a naive software engineer.

Backyard shots. We can come back to this next July and moan how we’d rather be shoveling snow than enduring outrageous heat.

And, in case you take offense at the very thought that heat can be bad in Minnesota, here’s an old pic.

I rather like the contrast myself.

The red shirts had a few bad hours in this one.

Enhanced (2019) is a muddled tale of a small collection of humans, enhanced to superpower status against their will as children, who are now being hunted by a government responsible for that enhancement.

And being hunted by something else.

Unfortunately, unlike, say, the TV show Heroes (2006-2010), not much imagination is on display here. The enhanced humans are faster and stronger, but little else. They mostly want to be left alone; there’s little ambition or mental problems, not to even think about moral questions, brought on by the fact that they at least appear to be superior to everyone else.

Then add in the ultimate hunter who consumes their souls, and by now, We Don’t Care.

In other words, this is mostly about the fact that dropping a dumpster on lead character Anna not only doesn’t squish her, it barely even phases her. And while it’s pleasant that we needn’t view her mutilated innards, beyond that it’s just a relief that we’re making progress towards the end of this story.

In other words, this movie is not worth hunting down.

I think a little more adherence to honesty would benefit the GOP. For example, here’s Senator Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) little trick to raise temperatures:

The Democratic tax and spending package to expand the social safety net and combat climate change would increase federal deficits by $3 trillion over 10 years if most programs were made permanent, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday.

Republicans seized on the new cost estimate to argue that the Democrats’ reconciliation measure is unaffordable and would only accelerate rising inflation.

“I am urging the Democratic party to stop the madness,” said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Senate Budget Committee’s ranking Republican, who requested the cost estimate from the nonpartisan budget agency along with his House counterpart, Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo. [RollCall]

The bold part, which is mine, is the important part.

But, in essence, Graham’s histrionics serves as an announcement of a new budget proposal, and I suggest the Democrats refer to it as the Graham Budget Proposal.

In honor of His Deceitfulness.

Former Senator David Perdue (R-GA) seems to be quite the weak man, doesn’t he? Consider this little history of him moving from not wanting to run for Governor of Georgia to, well, running:

Republican David Perdue traveled to Donald Trump’s Florida golf club, Mar-a-Lago, in February with his mind made up: He did not want to run for Georgia governor against his longtime friend, incumbent Brian Kemp, he told associates.

But Trump, still fuming that Kemp had certified Joe Biden’s victory in the state last year, had other ideas. The former president played two rounds of golf that day with Perdue, part of a relentless campaign to persuade the former U.S. senator to jump in the race, according to two people familiar with his efforts who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. …

Perdue ultimately relented, announcing Monday that he would challenge Kemp for the Republican gubernatorial nomination because, he said, he does not believe the incumbent can win against presumed Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams. His decision guarantees a bitter intraparty fight and keeps at center stage Trump’s false claims that the 2020 vote was stolen — two factors that many Republicans say will make it harder for them to win in the fall. [WaPo]

This is perturbing for both parties, as the Democrats scent blood in the water, and the Republicans are anticipating a bit of a bleed out. Here’s a fuming Erick Erickson, who fears he’s watching his imminent Victory For Republicans celebration go up in smoke:

This divides the Georgia Republicans and gives Abrams clear sailing. It hurts Kemp’s fundraising and helps Abrams’ fundraising. Perdue’s entire campaign will be about Trump’s grievance over 2020 and his sales pitch will be that Kemp should have called a special election to overturn the lawful results of Georgia’s election — which, had Kemp done, would have still not stopped Biden in the Electoral College.

David Perdue is a fine man. I really do like him. But he hates the grind of campaigning and it showed this last time. He’s not good on a debate stage and it showed last time. He’s been beaten by one of the least accomplished Democrats and wants to run against the Abrams machine. Instead of being his own man, he’ll just be a tool through which Trump nurses a grudge.

The primary still favors Brian Kemp. Kemp does not have the GOP locked down. He does have problems and his team needs to recognize those problems. But Kemp does have a legislative session to try to get more done on which to run while Perdue will either have to undermine the agenda as Abrams wants or sit by and watch Kemp build accomplishments.

Abrams is the only winner in this move and it makes Abrams more likely to win even as the headwinds blow against the left. It is unfortunate. But the Mara Lago echo chamber rivals the voices in Jen Rubin’s head.

Erickson’s based in Georgia, so he probably knows what he’s talking about. But notice that he accuses Perdue of not being his own man, of, by implication, being weak. Perdue will be the fire hose through which Trump shrieks his accusations and lies. Or here’s Steve Benen highlighting Perdue’s weakness:

Specifically on the issue on whether he would’ve certified his own state’s election results, Perdue said yesterday, “Not with the information that was available at the time and not with the information that has come out now. They had plenty of time to investigate this. And I wouldn’t have signed it until those things had been investigated, and that’s all we were asking for.”

Right off the bat, let’s note for emphasis that there was nothing wrong with Georgia’s election results. There was no evidence of systemic fraud, no evidence of irregularities, and literally no reason to question the validity of the state’s ballot count and recount. President Joe Biden won the state, fair and square.

This may turn out to be more important than it seems. Let me sketch this out.

Perdue is overtly grabbing the position that Trump is right, an election was stolen right from under the noses of the Republican officials in charge. This latter part impugns the reputation of Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R-GA), who, not so incidentally, is also a target of the former President, so they must eventually respond.

And they only have one reasonable response: There was no electoral fraud.

This is when Kemp can get into real trouble, and I’m sure he knows it. He’s faced with a fork in the road. On the left is playing to the preconceptions of a Georgia Republican Party convinced that it’s being separated from its rightful inheritance, resentful and even fearful of a future “full of socialists and communists”. As Perdue is trying to occupy that position already, and will have the assistance, incompetent as it may be, of the former President, it’s a tough row to hoe.

And that right fork? It may lead him to trying to talk some sense into the Republican Party. Here’s hypothetical Kemp:

• There was no electoral fraud;
• Biden won fair and square;
• If I had helped Raffensperger to “find” those 11,780 votes, that wouldn’t make me a hero, it would have made me a criminal.
• Does this party want to win by being criminals?

That’s really a key question. It brings up issues that lay at the heart of American politics and power: fairness, the limits of power, conceptions of what the other party is doing, even. The question of limits, debated by these two candidates, could lead to a lot of soul searching in the Georgia Republican Party.

Heck, it might upset a former President if the arguments go against him.

By no means count either candidate out in the primary – but if this is a particularly squalid and bitter primary, as the WaPo article suggests:

“This will be the ugliest, nastiest race this state has ever seen,” said one Georgia Republican who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the fraught nature of the race. “It is hyper-personal on both sides. Friendships, very long friendships, will be ruined and never recovered over this.”

Then some Georgia Republicans may choose to sit out the general election, out of resentfulness, and, as Erickson clearly fears, Abrams may win herself a governorship.

From time to time a Republican official will make reference to the size of the GOP tent, but I think those claims are becoming less and less accurate. After all, former President Donald Trump really has no civilized tolerance for rivals, or their supporters, as this NBC News report makes clear:

A new super PAC ad attacking former North Carolina Republican governor and Senate hopeful Pat McCrory criticizes the Republican for backing Mitt Romney — in 2012, when Romney was the party’s presidential nominee.

Seeking to draw a contrast between how McCrory spoke about Romney and about Trump, a new Club for Growth Action ad airs audio of McCrory calling Romney “a man of incredible courage” followed by him saying that “Donald Trump is destroying democracy.”

McCrory’s praise of Romney came in August of 2012, per the disclaimer on the bottom of the ad, when Romney was the GOP presidential nominee (who had been endorsed by Donald Trump months earlier). And the North Carolina Republican’s comments about Trump came in the aftermath of the 2020 election as he criticized Trump’s unfounded claims the election was stolen, comments McCrory’s opponents have used to argue he isn’t the right fit for Republican voters in a party dominated by Trump.

Superficially, this makes some tactical sense. By associating McCrory with Romney, The Club for Growth makes it clear to the Trumpist base that McCrory is not the Trump-endorsed candidate (that would be Rep Ted Budd (R-NC)) in this race.

But this is not an isolated tactic:

It’s not the first time that a GOP group has tried to use a candidate’s support for the party’s 2012 nominee against them. Last cycle, a GOP group attacked future Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty for working as Romney’s national finance chair in 2012, the Club for Growth evoked Romney’s image in an attack on future Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, and the Club also attacked a GOP House candidate in Florida for donating to Romney’s presidential bid.

Yeah, this tactic is not working – yet. But by attempting to drive wedges between the Trumpist base and Romney-associated politicos, especially those with lots of experience such as McCrory, the Club for Growth is doing Trump’s bidding, and by so doing they are sending a signal to all non-Trumpists that their welcome in the GOP is not assured.

And the Trumpist base, while sizable enough to be worthy of a financial harvest, is neither huge nor even stable. That is, Trump’s moral standing is neither bolstered by heading a church, nor is it stabilized by his own behaviors, and if his tax records are released and show he’s not the genius he claims to be, his base could shrink rapidly.

And with other factions expelled from the “Big Tent,” it could become quite the small tent indeed. This may be the necessary next step in the Reformation of the Republican Party, as the party tears itself apart because of the utterly immature impulses of the man-child at the titular head of the party, and those who are expelled begin building a new party.

We shall see.

Depuration:

depuration of the harvested bivalves in an approved depuration center (depuration is the reduction of microorganisms to a level acceptable for human consumption by the process of holding live bivalve mollusks for a period of time under approved, controlled conditions in natural or artificial seawater suitable for the process, which may be treated or untreated); [ScienceDirect]

Noted in “An inside look at oysters – and how to enjoy them safely,” Sam Wong, NewScientist (20 November 2021):

As filter-feeders, oysters can pick up pathogens lurking in the water. To reduce this risk, they are usually kept in clean water for 42 hours after harvesting in the UK, a process called depuration.

Sadly, this isn’t completely effective – particularly with respect to norovirus, one of the most common causes of gastroenteritis. A 2017 report found that between 100 and 1000 copies of the norovirus genome may remain in each gram of oyster tissue after depuration. Just 10 copies are thought to constitute an infectious dose.

In a post asserting that the just-argued case which threatens to throw out the Roe v. Wade decision will not affect upcoming elections, which I otherwise am inclined to agree with, Erick Erickson falls for the old dollars buy votes line:

All one needs to know is the name Ed Stezler. He is a State Representative and authored the fetal heartbeat law in Georgia. His district had trended Democrat. Stacey Abrams won it in 2018 and he barely hung. In 2020, after the Georgia legislature passed Ed’s bill, he became the most highly targeted state house Republican in America. Democrats from across the nation poured money into beating Ed. They made their entire campaign about abortion. They targeted voters. They sent door knockers. They had phone banks. They had celebrities. They outspent Ed Setzler and the Republicans.

Biden beat Trump in his district. The Democrats picked up both Senate seats in his district. Ed won with 50.5% of the vote. Making the race against him about abortion failed.

The assumption is that increasing campaign spending will buy votes. It’s as simple as that. And it’s false.

In a district with a substantial portion of single issue voters and highly partisan voters, the number of dollars is going to have a steeper marginal rate drop-off than in other districts. That is, votes that aren’t normally voted, or are changeable, are hard to come by.

Dollars improve messaging, occasionally spark debates that can change minds (think: the gay marriage debates) and can get voters to the polls, although the latter is supposedly vote-indifferent – that is, a ride cannot be conditionalized on who one votes for.

But it’s like giving dollars to a known practicing pedophile. It doesn’t matter how much money is given, that pedophile will not win the seat for which they vie.

While I do think overturning Roe v Wade will be a big fizzle for the Democrats, unless they can persuade that it’s a big deal for the independent, a bigger deal that the rot at the heart of the Democrats, I am not convinced by Erickson’s argument.

In case you’re a fan of Rep Devin Nunes (R=CA), the guy who sued Twitter for being mean to him using a cow mask, I have some bad news.

NEW: Rep Devin Nunes is retiring. I'm told he “got a job offer that he can’t refuse” — CEO of a new Trump media org.

— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) December 6, 2021

MediaIte helpfully notes:

California is in the process of redrawing its congressional districts after the Golden State lost a seat after the 2020 U.S. Census. As Nunes’ hometown paper the Fresno Bee noted, the congressman would face an uphill battle in a general election unless he were to decide to run in a district that isn’t the one he currently represents.

Dave Wasserman of Cook Political Report explained that if the current proposed map is adopted, Nunes’ 22nd congressional district would become an area that voted for Joe Biden by nine points, as opposed to having voted for Trump by five in the last election.

It’s still worth noting that one of the former President’s strongest allies is leaving Congress when Trump needs his allies the most – at least in his mind. The only reason Trump won’t metaphorically try to burn him to the ground is that Nunes is coming to work for Trump.

Which will almost certainly turn out to be the same thing.

I have no doubt, Nunes will try to keep a profile with the public, but Trump will subsume him or, failing that, fire him. And one of the more entertaining personalities will disappear.

Which is fine with me.

The dark side of Pluto, as illuminated by Sun’s tepid light reflecting off of Pluto’s moon Charon, and photographed by New Horizons in 2015:

Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Southwest Research Institute/NOIRLab via NewScientist

Edward Tabash is the Center For Inquiry’s (think: freethinkers) Board Chair, and he thinks sex robots should be totally OK, as he states in a LoC to the Los Angeles Times:

To the editor: As both a constitutional and criminal defense lawyer for people charged with prostitution-related offenses, I applaud Professor Rob Brooks’ support for future purchasers of artificially intelligent sex robots. He properly criticizes the religious right and the anti-porn left for their opposition to these soon-to-be mechanized intimate companions.

Brooks refers to society’s “typical censoriousness about sex.” All ideological extremes want to prohibit people from living differently from that belief system’s dictates. If our neighbors are not objectively harming us, we have no right to forcibly restrict their personal choices in order to compel obedience to what is ultimately our own subjective code of conduct.

If someone chooses to privately interact with a robot that provides sexual gratification, any ideology underlying an attempt to deprive anyone of the legal right to seek such pleasure is a totalitarian threat to our freedoms.

I think the unspoken assumption is that freedom, to the extent that it doesn’t physically or financially damage anyone else, is a good thing, and, yes, it’s hard to argue against it.

But the first thing that came to mind was to wonder what the Amish would have to say if sex robots were to be proposed for introduction into Amish society. I don’t means this jocularly; it’s a serious question. The Amish, from what I’ve read, will debate the introduction of new technology into their society, and often reject it. What concerns would they raise as they wrestled with this proposal?

Would they see this as detrimental to the cohesiveness of society? Or a comfort to men and women lacking partners?

I’ve been meaning to post about this and kept being forgetful. From gCaptain:

The first new U.S.-flagged Great Lakes freighter to be built in nearly 40 years was launched [October 28] at the Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding shipyard in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

The Interlake Steamship Company vessel, M/V Mark W. Barker, is self-unloading bulk carrier that will transport raw materials such as salt, iron ore, and stone to support manufacturing throughout the Great Lakes region.

The new River-class vessel is believed to be the first ship for U.S. Great Lakes service built on the Great Lakes since 1983. Delivery is planned for Spring 2022.

The first in 40 years? What’s triggered this? Just a worn out fleet? Or is shipping increasing on the Great Lakes?

It’d be a pity if happened to that company of – oooooh, too late:

The five Syrians pulled from their homes by secret police on the same night last year were not insurgents, spies or suspected of being disloyal to the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad.

Instead, they were targets in a desperate new phase of Assad’s battle to survive: the hunt for cash.

All five were executives at Syria’s second-largest cellphone company, MTN Syria, according to individuals familiar with the episode. Their arrests were part of a ruthless campaign by the president to seize MTN’s assets, along with almost every other meaningful source of revenue in Syria’s shattered economy. [WaPo]

Not only personal endangerment, but corporate as well:

MTN was ultimately brought to its knees four months ago after protracted pressure in which those arrests were followed by demands for multimillion-dollar payments, threats to revoke the company’s operating license and a dubious court ruling that put an Assad loyalist in charge of the company.

Every company that funds Republican candidates who think that any Democratic victory is questionable should read that and think about the ignominy that would go with such a failure.

It was about here that I recalled I don’t actually like musicals much.

If you know the name Jerome Kern, but haven’t seen Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), you may want to see it. A “fictionalized biopic,” it follows the life of theater composer Jerome Kern, as he bounces from unknown, to his first success and, concurrently, the love of his life, endures the loss of a producer in the sinking of the S. S. Lusitania, and endures other incidents, fictional and not, all to the accompaniment of the many theater songs he composed over the decades.

It’s softly lit, references conflict, loss, and setbacks, but without making them the center of the film. As a tribute film, this makes sense; the decision to fictionalize it makes less. The result is a collection of sweetly sentimental songs which may require an injection or two of insulin, and a question in the back of the mind: what was true and what was not?

But it was still enjoyable.

Poor Paul Harsanyi. Apparently, he drew the short straw at National Review and was stuck condemning skepticism about God … as a self-proclaimed atheist. It all comes to a head in this broken kaleidoscope of, well, fear:

It is also the case that we need more people in the pews to save the Republic. Mostly because God-fearing Americans tend to be more serious about other vital institutions. Maybe it’s because they believe in something bigger than themselves — or even the CDC, if one can imagine such a thing. Inalienable rights make sense to the person of faith in the same way a pliable set of guidelines that perpetually bend to accommodate the vagaries of contemporary life does not. Putting man above God as the final arbiter of “rights” is a haughty and perilous enterprise, as we witnessed in virtually every tragedy of the 20th century. There is far too much of that going on.

As an atheist, he should be well aware that the last verified appearance of a divinity appears to be … never. As such, ideas pertaining to governance coming from the religious sector must be considered contaminated with notions about a creature about which no one knows much, including that pesky question concerning actual existence. Such ideas, not necessarily grounded in reality, well, one can still make the argument that there’s merit in how long they’ve survived, i.e., refinement via social evolution, but most religions with which I’ve had some reason to look have little use for democracy, particularly those unconscious of the word hubris.

But Harsanyi wants to hand religions, which he’s admitted have engaged in century-long wars over fine points of theology – and they weren’t formalities – a Get Out Of Jail Free card, while condemning humanity for its efforts at governance.

But governance is humanity’s responsibility.

If Harsanyi is going to cling to atheism as a position on the divine, then he must be willing to admit that it’s up to humanity to find a way to govern that brings stability to society; furthermore, since he’s already demanding that his view on the divine be respected for truthfulness, and by stating it, yes, he’s demanded that respect, then he should also demand that truthfulness be part of governing. I’m not asking that he present a plan, because governance is hard and, as overpopulation increases, it’ll get worse. But understanding that respect for reality and truth, rather than relying on religious ideas of governance based on a titular, and, depending on your divinity selection, chronically angry and murderous divinity, should lead to a better governance model. It’ll at least increase the odds.

Just making assertions such as

And, obviously, if you’re willing to throw away a few thousand years of history, what’s a mere 200-odd years of constitutional law?

may sound clever and convincing, but my response is Y’all mean like Trump, his high powered allies, and the January 6th insurrectionists? SCOTUS and abortion? The intellectual progenitors to the current crop of Republicans, the 1861 traitors, who relied so heavily on Biblical text for justifying their defense of slavery?

He’s written easy, throw-away lines without much thought, and that makes him look uncaring. He may have been trying to be clever, but it doesn’t work. A direct acknowledgment that theocracies, and belief in the unlimited power of a divinity that fails to even communicate with us, has not gone over well is a critical first step in questioning how to turn out good American citizens.

Oh, dammit. Someone call up Lenin, we need a seventh for poker. What, what do you mean He’s dead, too? Why doesn’t anyone ever tell me these things?

Speaking of stories involving the USSR (yes, right here), The Death Of Stalin (2017) is a surpriser. Advertised as a farce, this story about the end of Josef Stalin’s reign as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, which were ended by his lingering death from what appears to be a cerebral hemmorhage, features the circus which was precipitated by his illness and death. From those who were arrested the night prior and were being tortured, and now are being shot by no less a personage than Minister of Internal Affairs (think: the secret security forces known as the NKVD) Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s privileged childrens’ problematic fates, the immediate execution of all of Stalin’s servants, including the execution of the executioners, and the clownish internal political maneuverings that center around Stalin’s funeral, it does seem farcical.

But the farce is not the story so much as the suspicion that all this, within the parameters of a dramatization of a real life incident, may have really happened, and necessarily happened. That is, when society uses the measures of ruthlessness, toadying, and a personality with a substantial sociopathic, or even psychopathic, component, as the metrics to measure worth as a government official – and Stalin, Malenkov, Kruschev, and Beria certainly qualified in either or both of the latter two categories – while discounting competency, humanity, and intelligence, then a farcical element to the government may be inevitable. The ministers working directly with Stalin at the time of his death are well aware that their colleagues are similarly ruthless, yet unintelligent, which all acts like a positive feedback loop, which are never pleasant. The Soviet people, too, have their own part to play, for if they choose to ouster the successor, these ministers know that oustering is usually feet first, out a window, and usually the landing is on one’s head. Do they even want to win Stalin’s place?

The storytellers wisely added another element from real life: the appearance of General Zhukov, awarded Hero of the Soviet Union (four times), who makes an appearance at the funeral, a bottle in one hand, a gun hidden in his uniform, and, as if wearing a cloak, a decisiveness unseen among the ministers, whose plots to take power suffer from uncertainty. Zhukov, being a good Soviet, cannot, as an active Army commander, take direct power himself, but he understands the currents of power, and is more than pleased to help bring Beria to his knees, from which he’ll never arise; in a frenzy, his plans come to naught from a bullet to the brain.

Perhaps my oddest experience in this great cock-up was the sudden feeling that Trump ally Roger Stone, a self-proclaimed Nixon groupy (I’ll skip the less palatable terms), would have fit right into this group: plotting, incompetent, arrogant, and absolutely wrong about everything.

Beautiful cinematography, well acted, well plotted, and just plain fun in that way horrific, barbaric regimes that signal their own demise can only be, with that edge of inevitability that makes one uneasy about their own governments, this is Recommended.

Or just some investors harvesting the crop? CNN/Business has the report:

Bitcoin prices plummeted overnight to a low of about $43,000.

As of 10:30 am EST Saturday, the cryptocurrency had dropped more than 13% in the previous 24 hours, from $56,294 to $48,309 — a loss of almost $8,000.

That’s a stark contrast from its all-time high of just last month, when Bitcoin reached almost $69,000 on November 9.

It’s a slight rebound from a plunge of more than 17% earlier in the day.

Ether, the second most popular cyrptocurrency, fell almost 10%.

Sure, maybe it’s just part of the roller-coaster that is cryptocurrencies. But I thought this was interesting:

Data from another platform, Coinglass, showed that nearly $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies had been liquidated over the past 24 hours, with the bulk being on digital exchange Bitfinex.

Bitfinex? Here’s Wikipedia’s entry on Bitfinex:

Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange owned and operated by iFinex Inc registered in the British Virgin Islands. Their customers’ money has been stolen or lost in several incidents, and they have been unable to secure normal banking relationships.

Research suggests that price manipulation of bitcoin on Bitfinex accounted for about half of the price increase of bitcoin in late 2017.

Someone made their profit goal and is getting out? Could be. This is the sort of thing that keeps me completely out of this sort of market, that and the fact that the purpose of cryptocurrency seems to be, well, separating investors from their money.

Or does Wasilla, Alaska, the home of former Alaskan governor and candidate for VP of the United States, the truly odd Sarah Palin (R-AK), breed them odd?

Rep. Christopher Kurka, a Republican from Wasilla, will run for Alaska governor in 2022, he announced Monday.

Kurka, a former director of Alaska Right to Life, was elected to the state House in 2020 and is in his freshman term within the Legislature. In office, he has been a staunch far-right conservative who opposes abortion rights and measures aimed at combating COVID-19, calling them “extreme evil.” [Anchorage Daily News]

He’s comparing the lockdown to Nazi death camps, basically. While hospitals attempt to hold on due to overcrowding, this limp-brained, self-important twerp thinks he’s going to run for governor.

What is it about Wasilla, anyways?

Remember Cannibal CMEs? Well, Dr. Phillips of Spaceweather has some more:

A SUDDEN DROP IN ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION: Last month, a “Cannibal CME” hit Earth, sparking a strong G3-class geomagnetic storm and auroras as far south as California and New Mexico. You might think such a storm would boost radiation in Earth’s atmosphere. Think again. High-altitude balloons hurriedly launched by Earth to Sky Calculus during the storm on Nov. 3rd and 4th found just the opposite. Radiation in the stratosphere plummeted:

More at the link above. Heliophysics is fun!

Or someone will hoot,

There’s gold in them thar hills!

Let’s go to the tape!

The social media posts started in May: photos and videos of smiling people, mostly women, drinking Mason jars of black liquid, slathering black paste on their faces and feet, or dipping babies and dogs in tubs of the black water. They tagged the posts #BOO and linked to a website that sold a product called Black Oxygen Organics.

Black Oxygen Organics, or “BOO” for short, is difficult to classify. It was marketed as fulvic acid, a compound derived from decayed plants, that was dug up from an Ontario peat bog. The website of the Canadian company that sold it billed it as “the end product and smallest particle of the decomposition of ancient, organic matter.”

Put more simply, the product is dirt — four-and-a-half ounces of it, sealed in a sleek black plastic baggie and sold for $110 plus shipping. Visitors to the Black Oxygen Organics website, recently taken offline, were greeted with a pair of white hands cradling cups of dirt like an offering. “A gift from the Ground,” it reads. “Drink it. Wear it. Bathe in it.”  [NBC News]

And the benefits appear to be limitless. At least, for those collecting the money.

Steve Benen summarizes more cracks in the face of the rotting GOP iceberg:

But by most measures, this week’s feud between two first-year GOP members — Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene and South Carolina’s Nancy Mace — is qualitatively different.

The dispute stems from Rep. Lauren Boebert and her bigoted rhetoric directed at a Democratic colleague. Mace denounced the Coloradan’s anti-Muslim smear, and Greene denounced Mace for having criticized Boebert.

The dispute took an unfortunate turn yesterday, as Greene described Mace as “the trash of the GOP Conference,” adding a personal attack related to abortion, while the South Carolinian responded with a tweet that used emojis to call Greene a “bats— clown.” The right-wing Georgian took her concerns to Donald Trump, as if he were the grown-up.

This is what you see when fourth and fifth raters are beholden to someone besides themselves for their power – they’re cavorting in corruption in order to get the attention of their master.

Literally.

The difference between ambition restrained and ambition unrestrained, and the weakness of the latter system, is that the former encourages competency and honor, while the latter encourages skills and character traits unrelated, even detrimental to, the honorable execution of their duties.

Look for accusations of each other being insufficiently loyal to the former President to spill forth soon enough. Remember former Representative Roby (R-AL)? She was as conservative as could be – and that was not good enough to immunize her from being primaried by other conservatives shouting about her lack of loyalty when she found the former President’s “pussy” comments repugnant. Well, this is worse. None of them would be in office without their loyalty to Trump, and that leaves them with a dubious – very dubious – moral and intellectual foundation.

And Benen’s concerned about Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) being unable to keep his party members in line? He’s a never-ran. He has no chance of being an effective leader. Not because of personal failings, of which he appears to have a few, but because of the composition of the elected officials from his Party.

Let’s hope the Democrats manage not to follow them down the tubes. I remain concerned about a rot at the heart of the Democrats, but perhaps they can scrape that out. Pelosi, Schumer, and Biden have a lot of experience. Let’s hope they can figure it out.