Author Archives: Hue White

Churches often have cool architecture. Consider this one near Stiege in Germany –and who is saving it:

Ask Hans Powalla if he is a believer and the immediate response is a firm “no”.

Yet he and other villagers in and around the German town of Stiege have embarked on the Herculean task of saving a picturesque church by moving it from the middle of a forest into the centre of town.

Former electrician Powalla, 74, said they were driven by the “unique architecture of the building” and the “meaning that it gives to the region” in the Harz mountains.

The object in question is a stave church, or wooden church, complete with dragon ornaments on the roof, built in the Nordic style in 1905. [Channel News Asia]

Follow the link to see the actual church (the pic is copyrighted). It’s neat.

And it’s cool that it’s being saved, regardless of the religious affiliations of those who are rescuing it. At one time, it might have been burned down, possibly with great joy, by competitors.

At least in Germany, they seem to have gotten beyond that.

And you have to like a church with carved dragon head ornamentation.

I do believe this judge is outside of his jurisdiction on this matter:

… on Oct. 2, [Ohio juvenile court Judge Timothy Grendell] made an order that legal experts call unheard of, and medical experts say could cause harm. The judge banned two parents, who were wrangling over custody of their young boys, from having the “children undergo COVID-19 testing” without his approval, according to the court record.

A doctor subsequently ordered a coronavirus test for one of the boys before admitting him to a children’s hospital for severe breathing problems. When Grendell found out, he threatened to find the mother in contempt of court, a move that could lead to her being thrown in jail. [Scene]

Perhaps medical professionals should have veto power over judges’ orders involving medical issue?

I don’t make this suggestion entirely in jest. This is the sort of order that could easily get someone killed, if followed. Of course, the details of such a veto power would matter, and I certainly wouldn’t want an acupuncturist, say, having that sort of power.

The balance of the article basically says Grendell is a nutcase who shouldn’t be on the bench. A former Republican Ohio state legislator, he seems to have deeply ingested the witches’ brew of what passes for conservatism these days that convinces him he has competency in any field he likes, and that is a real problem in the Court system, because it really is hard to remove a judge – and that’s as it should be. Playing political games with the judiciary is a quick way to discredit the judiciary and induce more social unrest.

But when they don’t understand that they don’t have competent opinions on important matters, then, well, they’re basically incompetent boobs.

But if we can’t quickly remove them, a medical veto power might at least rein them in a bit.

Our younger cat, Peeper, was fascinated with this sloppily edited video on the habits of brush turkeys.

Petting parties:

To some social observers, petting parties of the 1920s were a natural, post-First World War outgrowth of a repressed society. To others, the out-in-the-open hug-and-kissfests were blinking neon signposts on the Road to Perdition.

“Petting parties varied quite a lot,” says Paula S. Fass, professor emerita of history at the University of California, Berkeley and author of The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s. “But certainly there were parties where young people did quite a lot of erotic exploration — kissing and fondling. These parties always stopped before intercourse. In that sense they had imposed limitations created by the group presence. They were not orgies and they were not promiscuous — one set of partners only.”

Petting parties, Fass explains, “allowed young people to experiment in a self-limiting way by creating peer regulation that both encouraged experimentation and created clear limits.” [Linton Woods, NPR]

New one on me. I guess I don’t get out much.

Lek:

1. a small area in which birds of certain species, notably the black grouse, gather for sexual display and courtship
2. the act or practice of so gathering [Collins English Dictionary]

Noted in the book The Bird Way, by Jennifer Ackerman. Almost done with it.

I haven’t been paying attention to the cryptocurrencies lately, so this CNN/Business article from a few days ago caught me by surprise:

Bitcoin has blown past the $20,000 mark and continues to hit record highs as investors flock to the cryptocurrency during the coronavirus pandemic.

After topping the symbolic benchmark Wednesday, bitcoin continued to surge. Prices topped $23,000 Thursday morning.

Bitcoin (XBT) has been on a tear this year, having tripled in value. It and other cryptocurrencies have been attractive to investors as the US dollar has weakened.

“It’s not a surprise to us that Bitcoin has hit $20K but it is a very symbolic threshold to reach at the end of what has been a historic year for bitcoin,” said Michael Sonnenshein, managing director of Grayscale Investments. “These are just the early days, and we think there’s a lot more runway to go.”

With the Federal Reserve expected to leave interest rates near zero for several more years, bitcoin may continue to win new fans.

Later on, the article says that gold bugs, i.e., the investors preoccupied with gold as an investing option, are finding something to love in cryptocurrencies – or at least so the investment pundits would like to think so.

I try to be suspicious of pronouncements like that as possibly self-serving.

But here’s my real question: in a crisis such as the one we’re experiencing right now, where we should, by all rights, be busting our normal Federal budget to keep people and businesses upright, which comes down to borrowing from future generations to keep the world afloat for them, how would this work with a cryptocurrency? One of the features of cryptocurrency is regulation of the currency supply, which is implemented via the action of mining. This was meant to banish runaway inflation, but sometimes – at a time like this – it may make sense to risk runaway inflation, as the alternative of soup kitchens roaming the cities, and hungry mobs armed with pitchforks, is even worse.

With standard currencies, it’s not difficult to ramp up the printing presses and pump more money into the economy. Indeed, the last time we did that, under the terminology of quantitative easing, no substantial inflation was experienced, despite widespread expectations of same among those who were paying attention. Why?

The money, by and large, never entered the economy.

At the time, the Federal Reserve had determined that the banks had become unacceptably vulnerable to shocks to the economy, and they raised the requirements for bank reserves. Then the Fed bought shares in those banks, presumably from their treasuries (bank shares owned by the banks themselves), and the banks funneled that money into their reserves. (The Fed later sold those shares, and at a profit, or at least so I’ve heard.)

I recount this story^[1] not to suggest that the link between printing money beyond replacement plus GDP growth and inflation does not exist – the inflation experienced by the Wiemar Republic in its frantic attempts to pay its war reparations to France, as well as various African debacles over the decades, dispute the proposition – but to point out that it doesn’t necessarily exist.

So, if my understanding of cryptocurrency is correct, and that mining cannot be accelerated, as that would violate a foundational precept of cryptocurrency, then, really, of what central use is it? Indeed, is its inflation in price reflective of the fact that US dollars are being printed at a faster pace than normal, while mining doesn’t really go any faster?

Or is it just a convenience? Even worse, has this well-meaning social experiment become nothing more than an investment ghost, useful for shearing the investment sheep of their wool?

¹ As I understand it. I am a software engineer, not an economist!

From Wood v Raffensperger, et al, a Trumpian lawsuit in Georgia, comes this doozy:

VERIFICATION

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1746, I declare and verify under plenty of perjury that the facts contained in the foregoing Verified Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief are true and correct.

Plenty of what? Is that a recipe ingredient?

Or just an admission?

Or are we all just members of a reality show, rather than inhabitants of a computer simulation, as I’ve been assuming?

In the category of Unexpected dialog, I think Santa should have said, “Oh, hey, brother. How’s Dad doing?”

Immortal zombie elves are plaguing Santa.

That’s how A Christmas Horror Story (2015) kicks off, and from there it’s all downhill.

In some ways, this collection of four stories, set in Bailey Downs, are anti-stories. Intertwined and tenuously connected, they chronicle the sad plague afflicting, for no particular reason, the elves of Santa; the savage infliction of the birth of Christ on three teenaged journalists; a dysfunctional family paying a Christmas visit upon ancient Aunt Etta and her butler, Gerhart; the rum-based Christmas ramblings of an ancient radio DJ; and of a changeling, exchanged for a little boy, of a family stealing a tree from the lot of a man who rides herd on a collection of trolls^[1]. None of these end well, although some feature a special guest appearance from Krampus, the ancient Christmas spirit accustomed to making meals out of evil people.

But, more importantly, none of these stories really has a moral for us. They function more as cups dipped into the swirling stream of Chaos that surrounds us, their reflections unwilling to fashion their madness into moralism for us, emphasizing that random darkness can afflict even those undeserving of it. That even those who are virtually venerated by their fellows die terrible, undeserved deaths.

“You were going to give me away as a gift, I heard you talking!” screamed Sparkly, just before he collapsed from glitterlung. Or so my Arts Editor assures me was said.

These are not noir stories, for noir stories depend on the bad behavior of their characters to lead to their sad, if well-deserved endings. These are nihilistic stories, told by spirits that do not believe in morality and its alleged consequences, but instead in a random Universe that multiplies the deserved desserts of their exemplars by a thousand, before tossing them into the hidden shoals of humanity’s wasteland, there to bewilder the explorers of history who stumble upon their monuments and corpses, and terrify those with the least grain of guilt.

My Arts Editor and I like to spend part of Christmas watching some movie or other that we’ve never heard of, hoping to enjoy it. Memorably, in this vein we’ve seen Rare Exports (2010) and Anna and the Apocalypse (2018). A Christmas Horror Story will be thrown on the Unmemorable pile, I fear. The bilge I’ve made up for this review may or may not be accurate, but the movie is certainly neither inspirational, fascinating, nor amusing.

It’s just nihilism. Have fun, philosophy majors of a certain turn of temperament. And those of you who are William Shatner completists, for there he is, taking a competent turn as the radio DJ.

Maybe we’ll find something better in the next week.

¹ I have to wonder if the collective noun for trolls is bridge.

I see Minnesota State Senator Jerry Relph has died:

Relph, 76, had been diagnosed with Covid-19 after discovering he was exposed at the State Capitol and had been admitted to an emergency room for his symptoms, CNN affiliate WCCO reported. [CNN]

Jerry Relph.
Source: Ballotpedia.

Local readers may remember the local Republicans have been quite cavalier concerning Covid-19, including a kerfuffle in which they failed to notify State House Democrats of Covid-19 infections.

And now that’s cost them one of their own.

This isn’t the time for schadenfreude; my heart goes out to his family. But it’s worth wondering about the repercussions.

First, his seat in the Minnesota Senate is no longer occupied, meaning it no longer has a vote. As the MN Legislature is currently in its seventh special session, this may be important. The current balance is tilted towards the Republicans, 35-30-2; I do not know if the two Independent caucus with the Republicans or the Democrats. Assume that they caucus with the latter: with Relph’s death, the balance is 34-32.

Minnesota Senate Chamber.

Three more serious infections in the incautious Republican caucus and the Democrats might hold, however temporarily, a 32-31 majority. I wonder if that would let them control the Senate as well as the House.

Second, while Relph’s death on its own has little symbolic capacity, if several more Republican leaders sicken and even die, that will endanger an important ideological tenet for the Minnesota GOP: that Covid-19 isn’t all that dangerous, and, even more importantly, the common sense of the individual is to be trusted on all matters great and small.

For the attentive independent thinker, that would be evidence to the fallacy of those two positions; even for the faithful Republican voter, it’ll have to be a jolt, an injection of niggling doubts.

I have no ill wishes for the Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature, even if they sometimes seem to deeply misunderstand the nature of American humanity. But keep a weather eye out to the future if the Republican leadership, through their own foolish behaviors, begin to fall prey to Covid-19. Simply noting that their behavior, despite multiple warnings from public health experts, led to their illnesses and at least one death, may be enough to shift some voters away from the Republicans to the Democrats.

And the Republicans don’t have much of a margin in the Senate as it is. Special elections could become very costly for them. Democratic tacticians may consider suggesting that Republican foolishness on this matter may also extend to other issues, making the Democrats more attractive choices. For non-single issue voters, it might tip the balance.

Right at the moment I’m incredibly frustrated with myself. A couple of days ago, a local news station broadcast an interview with MN State Senator Paul Gazelka, a Republican, concerning a collection of frustrated restauranteurs who desperately want to reopen their businesses for inside dining, and cannot because of the emergency policies of Governor Walz (R-MN). He was on the side of these business owners, who may be facing extinction if they can’t get help. I cannot find that damn interview.

So you’ll have to trust me. Or find a link for me.

The part of the interview with Gazelka which really came into focus for me this morning is this: At some point, he says he trusts the common sense of Minnesotans to follow health guidelines.

Meanwhile, the news station has been consistently showing scenes of packed bars, etc, full of unmasked people, shoulder to shoulder.

And the Minnesota Covid-19 situation? From MDH:

Gazelka may wish it would go well, but it isn’t.

Here’s the problem: humans, individually, are not equipped to measure and understand the problems of public health. Add into that non-existent leadership at the critical Federal level, and religious delusions on the part of certain sects, and it’s a really combustible situation.

I’m sure Gazelka means well. I’m not going to doubt his sincerity. But his proclamations of common-sense, which are line with the general GOP tenet that experts suck, are simply wrong.

Those charts above and at the MDH web site, as well as other State web sites around the country, are a measure of the common sense of the average American when it comes to Covid-19.

And it sucks.

And, BTW, that non-existent Federal leadership? Just blame that on Senator McConnell (R-KY) and his fellow GOPers. The House Democrats had a bill ready in May, and McConnell wouldn’t even bring it up for debate.

Gazelka should be screaming at McConnell, not Walz. Walz does not have the resources of McConnell.

Someone in this scene will end up dead. Maybe for squealing!

The Power Of The Whistler (1945) is a slick anxiety thriller, set in the superfluous narrative framework of someone called The Whistler (also encountered in The Whistler (1944), where it’s equally useless). A man stalking through a busy city nearly gets himself run down by a car, and ends up with a bloodied skull – and damaged memory. When he stumbles into a restaurant and sits down at the bar, young Jean is playing at fortune-telling with the cards, and sees in them a prediction of his death. She takes him under her wing. What’s his name?

John March, he decides, after admitting he doesn’t remember who he is.

Jean, charmed already, takes up the mystery, working off of the clues in his pockets. But it’s her sister, engaged to be married, who stumbles across the fact that the prescription is for poison.

As March’s time marches towards its end, he gradually remembers more and more, and begins his own march, by foot and by train, towards those who tortured him – and Jean comes along for the ride. An adventure, another step into romance – and so much more.

In some ways, it’s too bad about the pitch-fork. It doesn’t really work into the metaphors otherwise present in this story.

If you can ignore the gaping plot hole in this story, this is quite enjoyable, and that gap is disclosed near the end. The acting is more than adequate, the plot was far better than we were expecting, the tension, while dated, is still appropriate, and the comeuppance is apropos. This is far better than its predecessor, the illogical The Whistler, while using the same lead actor.

If you like post-World War II mysteries and thrillers, this may be right up your alley.

That the Trump Administration used the unethical tool of baseless fear in his reelection campaign is as well-known as it is despicable. But it appears the Democrats aren’t entirely above its use, either. This is from a promotional e-mail:

I need you to know: Everything just changed in the race for the Senate. >>

— The ONLY way we win the Senate is flipping BOTH runoff seats.
— But McConnell just dumped $50 MILLION to sabotage our chances.
— So Joe Biden just held a MASSIVE rally in Georgia to close the gap.

I can’t overstate the importance. This is our last shot in a generation to flip the Senate — but we have to take on McConnell’s war chest to do it. Can I count on you to rush $10 to flip Georgia blue and finally win the Senate? I will personally 3X-match your generous gift >>

Did you catch it? This is our last shot in a generation to flip the Senate … except it’s not.

The Democrats get another shot in two years.

And the two years after that.

Etc.

But if you’re a Democrat, I’m sure your pulse increased and your mouse strayed towards the donation buttons, which appear later in the mail. Whoever wrote that said something terribly scary, and that’ll chase rational thought right out of your head.

So I’d rate this as an unethical email, and I’m disappointed in the Democrats.

And now, because my Arts Editor liked this performance, here’s Leslie Odom, Jr.:

https://youtu.be/weImyhyu_vE

From Jann Bellamy on Science-Based Medicine:

One media outlet in New York has already reported on recorded calls offering people a chance to avoid long lines and receive an early dose of the Pfizer vaccine for $79.99. The Better Business Bureau announced it is investigating vaccine distribution swindles offering consumers an earlier dose of the vaccine as well. Sometimes these calls come from a familiar caller ID name because “most consumers don’t realize that caller ID can be changed by a simple computer program”. (I added that last bit because, until I read it, I was one of those consumers.)

Check Point, a cybersecurity firm, found a number of vaccine “vendors” on dark web marketplaces exploiting the news of vaccine approval. For example, one vendor advertised the authorized Pfizer vaccine for $250 in Bitcoin, shipping from the U.S., the U.K., or Spain. Engaging in a dialogue with some vendors, researchers found another offering an unbranded COVID-19 vaccine for 0.01 Bitcoin (about $300), claiming that 14 doses were required.

It may be hard to believe, but yes these people exist. Think of them as mini-Trumps, out to make a buck regardless of how badly people get hurt.

Be careful out there, people.

As I read about more and more Trump Administration inadequacies, failures, and malevolencies – which may be colored by the writers, I’ll grant – I’m starting to get a vision of a future in which former President Trump will be wildly critiquing the Biden Administration, as well as any other Democratic Administrations which follow, from his perch as a former President.

I’m going to suggest these be called the Nazgûl critiques, for the cursed Kings who accepted the gifts of Sauron in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings. Oh, look, here’s one now!

He’s riding his trusted steed, the GOP, nicknamed Marks. As you can see, his advice should be disregarded, even not heard, for the Nazgûl were motivated by, and punished for, their greed, not for their wisdom.

For all that we have a vaccine and are administering it, here’s the raw reality of our situation, via Kevin Drum:

This is no time to get cocky or careless. Stay safe, folks.

Governor Reeves (R-MI) has chosen to follow Governor Stitt (R-OK) when it comes to the pandemic, and Hemant Mehta has a partial transcript of the announcement:

… we have more trials that will bring us together, and we must come together. Regardless of our backgrounds, regardless of our geography, regardless of our political views, we must come together. As we close out this year, I felt the need to go to God in prayer for our state. Ever since the beginning of this pandemic, we’ve tried to hold opportunities for our fellow Mississippians to pray. To pray together so we can be together. We know that there is power in prayer. In fact, it is what God commands us to do… Today I will sign a proclamation to declare a Day of Prayer, Humility, and Fasting on this upcoming Sunday, December the 20.

As we’ve done throughout the history of this country, we will go to the Lord and ask for His protective hand over us as we conclude the year 2020 and as we enter the year 2021. [Friendly Atheist]

Mehta is fairly angry, but I see this as an opportunity to run an experiment in the wild, as they say. That is, we can measure natural behaviors.

Let’s divide the population of Mississippi into groups:

1. Those who choose to follow Reeve’s lead and pray for help in lieu of taking any vaccinations.
2. Those who choose to follow Reeve’s lead and pray for help but take a vaccination.
3. Those who choose not to indulge in prayer but also do not take a vaccination.
4. Those who choose not to indulge in prayer and take a vaccination.

The hypothesis behind the experiment can be stated in a couple of different ways, so let’s look at them.

• God’s protection will be extended to the prayerful. If this hypothesis is substantiated, populations [1] and [2] should be the best protected and have roughly equal levels of protection. We may have some variance in that the weakly faithful may be less well protected than the strongly faithful, although one must admit that the existence of such a phenomenon would reflect poorly on God’s character. Still, those best protected make take advantage of those less well protected to accuse them of being apostates, and then burn them at the stake, which would reflect poorly on the strongly faithful’s character as well. Populations [3] and [4] should suffer the most sickness and death.
• God doesn’t exist, or doesn’t care about Mississippi. In this case, the two populations accepting vaccinations, [2] and [4], should fare the best, with little difference between them, while [1] and [3], not having accepted the vaccinations, should see woe and disillusionment in their future.
• God exists, but Science is more powerful. In this case, [2], being both prayerful and having accepted a vaccination, should do best, followed by [4] and then [1]. [3] would be shit out of luck, having a lack of faith in all the Gods of the Universe.

The results of this experiment should be illuminating to the disinterested scientists running it, and infuriating to, well, whoever ends up the losers. I look forward to Gov. Reeves’ reaction to this idea!

This morning I wrote concerning Erick Erickson whining about the mainstream media’s misrepresentation of the facts of the vaccine for the coronavirus. He really shouldn’t neglect White House mistakes – wishful thinking, really – when it comes to the pandemic. Steve Benen has a helpful memory restorative:

We’ve revisited the Indiana Republican’s pitch from time to time, but at the half-year mark, it’s striking to see just how much conditions in the United States have deteriorated since Pence took his premature victory lap.

“While talk of an increase in cases dominates cable news coverage, more than half of states are actually seeing cases decline or remain stable.”

Most states are seeing increases coronavirus cases.

“Cases have stabilized over the past two weeks, with the daily average case rate across the U.S. dropping to 20,000 — down from 30,000 in April and 25,000 in May.”

Over the last week, we’ve seen totals of over 200,000 cases per day — roughly 10 times the figure Pence bragged about six months ago today.

And more and more. Erickson can be as angry as he likes, but his White House has been worse – Trump claiming the virus would magically disappear has been a highlight of their helpless, deer-in-the-headlights response.

Science will try to make it disappear, now that magic has failed.

My Arts Editor spent hours this morning screaming with laughter at this. Note this may be a short term link, depending how Google wants to play it.

Erick Erickson just can’t help seeing everything through his prism of politics and mainstream media hatred, can he? From his post, “Some Self-Reflection, Please“:

On CNN in May, Bill Nye announced it’d be at least two years before there was a vaccine for COVID-19. He was not alone on that network with similar pronouncements.

On MSNBC, around the same time, Dr. Irwin Redlener said it would be “impossible” to get a safe vaccine by the end of the year. Tim O’Brien at Bloomberg, in August, claimed people within the Trump Administration denied a vaccine would come this year. He said it was, “Amazingly irresponsible for Trump to be touting this in the midst of this crisis.”

Also in August, NBC News ran this fact check claiming, “Experts say the development, testing, and production of a COVID-19 vaccine for the public is still months away, and it would take a medical miracle for one to be available this year, much less before Election Day.” It was heavily recirculated.

In October, NPR ran a “fact check” stating, “None of the large trials have been completed. Top health officials say a vaccine likely won’t be widely available until mid-2021.”

Yet …

Now the very same media that said it was impossible is giving live coverage to people getting the vaccine they said was impossible and also ridiculing those who are skeptical of a vaccine coming so fast. Pay no attention to the doctor on MSNBC who said if one came this year it would be unsafe to take.

Where is the self-reflection from the media?

They got it wrong.

No. Erickson needs to read what he himself just wrote: The doctor.

The doctor.

The expert.

Not the media.

All the media can do, unless they have a journalist with other areas of expertise – not unknown, of course – is report the expert opinion of the experts, after suitable cross-referencing and fact checks (like, Are they an expert or is it just Dr. Scott Atlas?). And the experts form their expertise based on their experience in R&D and studying history. They can make predictions, based on that knowledge, but it’ll necessarily be biased by that historical knowledge.

Blaming the journalists for not getting it right is rather like trusting anti-vaxxers to get it right, if I can cross my wires slightly. Oh, here’s a better one: It’s blaming the messenger for the message.

Pile on top of that the fact we’re two weeks short of the New Year, which means all of the end of the year predictions were two weeks off over an 10-11 month period, and I find Erickson’s message hard to take seriously. Then he piles this on:

When President Trump moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem, commentators from CNN to MSNBC to the New York Times expressed concern that it would start a war. Instead, Israel now has diplomatic relations with the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Sudan, and more — but not just diplomatic relations. They have trade relations and business relations now too. Only six months ago, textbooks in those countries were still tearing out pages that referred to Israel.

It’s the mark of the partisan amateur to judge foreign affairs accomplishments such as these within months – or days! – of their announcements. Morocco, as I’ve not mentioned, has infuriated elements of the GOP Senate for the apparent quid pro quo of recognizing a Moroccan land grab as legitimate. I’ve expressed concerns about the UAE deal here. The Sudan deal? That they became a secular nation prior to the deal makes the entire achievement less than it seems.

We may have bribed the nations in question to normalize relations, and in some cases they may go back on their word the next time Israel outrages them. (Notice I very carefully phrased that remark on purpose.) How will that hypothetical play into Erickson’s punditry if it does, indeed, materialize? This may be a case in which the “partisan media” has a better understanding of the subject than does Trump, Kushner, and Pompeo, themselves amateurs in a party that embraces amateurism and disdains expertise.

But, for Erickson, all he can see is a media that dislikes an ideology that has given rise to people that Erickson himself doesn’t like.

Self-reflection much?

Take it away, Randy!

I’ve mentioned before the savage, if ridiculous, nature of GOP primaries – that is, the attacks that GOPers find they must launch on each other just in order to survive a primary. Well, in a different context, here’s another:

President Trump @realDonaldTrump is a genuinely good man. He does not really like to fire people. I bet he dislikes putting people in jail, especially “Republicans.”

He gave @BrianKempGA & @GaSecofState every chance to get it right. They refused. They will soon be going to jail. pic.twitter.com/7PMBLc8L2N

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) December 15, 2020

I understand Wood claims to be non-partisan, which is an ill-fitting statement with the above. Provocateur some? Approves of chronic liars?

I think it’s shameful on the one hand, and self-destructive on the other – but a small piece of me is also deeply amused. Internecine warfare, indeed. Thank you, Professor Turchin.

Ever wonder about martial law and the United States? Here’s the Brennan Center For Justice:

… martial law — a term that generally refers to the displacement of civilian authorities by the military — can be and has been employed in the United States. Indeed, federal and state officials have declared martial law at least 68 times over the course of U.S. history. Yet the concept has never been well understood. The Constitution does not mention martial law, and no act of Congress defines it. The Supreme Court has addressed it on only a handful of occasions, and the Court’s reasoning in these decisions is inconsistent and vague. The precedents are also old: the most recent one … was decided almost 75 years ago.

I had no idea that we’re nearly to seventy, but then we’re not a young, upstart country any longer.

This report aims to clear up the confusion that surrounds martial law. To do so, it draws on recent legal scholarship, the few rules that can be gleaned from Supreme Court precedent, and general principles of constitutional law. It concludes that under current law, the president lacks any authority to declare martial law. Congress might be able to authorize a presidential declaration of martial law, but this has not been conclusively decided. State officials do have the power to declare martial law, but their actions under the declaration must abide by the U.S. Constitution and are subject to review in federal court.

It sounds as if the legal niceties are nicely balanced, at least theoretically. I note this due to the occasional call for President Trump to impose martial law in order to make it easier for him to steal the election.

I suspect an actual attempt would end with President Trump sitting in a jail cell. The military doesn’t have much of a sense of humor.

But Georgia remains on many minds, now doesn’t it?

States’ use of martial law continued well into the 20th century, reaching a peak in the 1930s — a decade that also saw an increase in the flagrant abuse of this power by governors. In 1933, for example, Georgia Governor Eugene Talmadge declared martial law “in and around” the headquarters building of the state Highway Board as part of a scheme to force out some of the board’s commissioners, whom he had no legal power to remove. This “coup de highway department” was ultimately successful. Remarkably, Talmadge’s successor, Governor Eurith Rivers, tried to do the same thing in 1939, but his attempt failed.

Georgia governors appear to have a long and blotchy history.

And that “Latin writer” would be, of course, Martial, a poet of Rome, who I actually read in translation once. I don’t remember a word. But he was mentioned today in Max Miller’s Tasting History segment on globi.