Author Archives: Hue White

Ever hear of court stripping? I hadn’t until today, although I think, looking back, I’d heard small hints about it. Thom Hartmann suggests the Democrats may need to use it to defy SCOTUS – legally:

Democrats in Congress need to reverse that bizarre and nation-destroying decision with a new law declaring the end to this American political crime spree, and re-criminalize bribery of elected officials. 

And they need to do it in a way that defies the Court’s declaration that money is “free speech” and corporations are “persons.”

That defiance requires something called “court stripping.“

Republicans understand exactly what I’m talking about: they tried to do the same thing most recently in 2005 with the Marriage Protection Act, which passed the House of Representatives on July 22, 2004.

That law, designed to override Supreme Court protections of LGBTQ people, contained the following court stripping paragraph:

“No court created by Act of Congress shall have any jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court shall have no appellate jurisdiction, to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of, or the validity under the Constitution of, section 1738C or this section.”

In other words, Congress wrote that this law is consistent with the constitution, and that they are deciding that…and the Supreme Court, with regard to the Marriage Protection Act, has no say in the matter.

This assertion that each of the three branches should have its own opinions about a law’s constitutionality, is consistent with a view of the Supreme Court expressed at various times by both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, among numerous others of the Founders.

There is literally nothing in the Constitution that gives the Supreme Court the exclusive right to decide what the Constitution says: that is a power the Supreme Court took onto itself in 1803 in a decision, Marbury v Madison, that drove then-President Jefferson nuts. [The Hartmann Report]

It’s a weird and interesting thought that I somehow haven’t stumbled across. I think the American public is mostly accustomed to the idea that SCOTUS has the right to decide on the Constitutionality of any law; the idea that this can be shielded via simple provision seems outrageous.

But it may be true.

Which leaves the voters, more than ever, the final arbiters of a law. I’m not sure what to think of that. Give the article a read. Hartmann appears to have bulging eyes syndrome, but that doesn’t make him wrong.

Had me laughing:

There will be a very disrespectful and totally non-denominational memorial on May 10, 2022, most likely at a bowling alley in Fayetteville, NC. The family requests absolutely zero privacy or propriety, none what so ever, and in fact encourages you to spend some government money today on a 1-armed bandit, at the blackjack table or on a cheap cruise to find our inheritance. She spent it all, folks. She left me nothing but these lousy memories. Which I, and my family of 5 brothers and my sister-in-laws, nephews, friends, nieces, neighbors, ex-boyfriends, Larry King’s children, who I guess I might be one of, the total strangers who all, to a person, loved and will cherish her. Forever. Please think of the brightly-frocked, frivolous, funny and smart Jewish redhead who is about to grift you, tell you a filthy joke, and for Larry King’s sake: LAUGH. Bye, Mommy. We loved you to bits.

All of it here.

I see NFTs (non-fungible tokens, or “ownership” of, mostly, digital constructs) remain inexplicably popular:

Mediaite catches Minnesota gubernatorial candidates in the act of a very difficult dance:

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt kicked off a Republican gubernatorial debate by asking all five candidates if President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, and got a torrent of word salad in response.

Hewitt was among the moderators Wednesday night for the Minnesota Republican gubernatorial debate between candidates Dr. Scott Jensen, State Senator Paul Gazelka, State Senator Michelle Benson, Dr. Neil Shah, and Mayor Mike Murphy.

In what could become a defining characteristic of GOP debates going forward, Hewitt’s first question sent each of the candidates into what can only be described as a game of verbal Twister.

“In your opinion, did President Biden win a constitutional majority of the Electoral College? If yes, how definitive is your conclusion, and if no, could you please explain which states you think are in dispute,” Hewitt asked Jensen (apparently speaking from a part of Minnesota that has not yet been reached by the invention of the microphone).

“I don’t know. I don’t know. And I think that you have to take that attitude towards 2020,” Jensen replied, then launched into a lengthy response in which he promoted several types of voting restrictions.

It’s not surprising, of course, but you hope for better from the local crop of politicos. But, no, being a leader sometimes means being alone, and the herd, in the Republican case, is far more important to these candidates than getting the issue right.

Getting it right means either presenting convincing evidence of electoral malfeasance, or accepting the result unambiguously and with a good attitude. Muttering darkly about unsupported conspiracies or Divine promises or some other garbage is so thoroughly unconvincing that it should – but won’t – terminally damage their reputations with every independent voter in Minnesota.

Paul Fidalgo at The Morning Heresy, a freethinkers roundup site, has a plaint to utter concerning, well, what the competition is forcing him to do:

Bob Smietana at Religion News Service reports that Christian finance guru and COVID-denier David Ramsey is being sued—again!—for religious discrimination. The complaint says that Ramsey calls people who want to avoid getting or spreading COVID a “wuss” and anyone who disagrees with him on this point is a “moron.” In a novel twist, the plaintiff, Brad Amos, is suing on the basis of his own religious beliefs, with faith in science being a core tenet of said beliefs. I don’t claim to know how sincere Amos is about his belief being “religious,” but either way, it’s sad that in order to defend our right to stay alive and abide by facts, more and more it seems we have to act like those are religious convictions.

Here’s the thing: regardless of Fidalgo’s theatrical concerns, it’s not wrong to think of science as simply another approach to living. While a lot of different things can be said about religion, and for that matter very systems of philosophy, right at their foundation is their function as a way to understand, and react to, reality. Reality is a collection of events, some causally connected, some not, with many imperceptibilities (false negatives) and illusions (false positives) generated by our limited perceptual apparatus. How we interpret this collection is defined by our major belief system, which can be a member of the religious category, or scientific rationalism, or quite the number of less easily categorizable systems.

Nor is simultaneous use of several such systems excluded.

Scientific rationalists believe the direct study of what we hope is reality, and rigorous exclusion of claims that are unsupported by objective evidence, or violate the derived rules of reality, leads to an approach to life that results in continued survival and prosperity.

The religious, in following their theologies, hope for the same, in the main, if a point may be stretched in allowing the pleasing of supernatural creatures will also result in survival and prosperity.

In the end, like any system of logic, the foundations are always unprovable assumptions. That’s just how sufficiently powerful logical systems work. The fact that medicine and technology, building blocks of survival and prosperity, are primarily the result of scientific rationalism, does suggest that scientific rationalism has a better grip on how to reach the common goal.

But it’s important to recognize that all of these systems for comprehending reality are in the same category. Calling them belief systems or reality-comprehension systems is more accurate than religious views, as the latter refers to a sub-category, but in the end we can only hope that the evidence so observed supports our predilection in belief systems.

Fidalgo may need to get out the face paint.

Jennifer Rubin thinks former President Trump’s standing with the GOP membership should be sliding, in the face of the news coming out of the House Select Committee:

… one would think that sentient Republicans would understand what is coming and start inching away from Trump. It won’t be one witness they have to smear or write off, but rather a mound of evidence including documents.

Here’s the problem: for the base, it’s all Fake News. Their leader is under attack and he cries out about persecution and, hey, Send me some money to defend myself while you’re at it! Most of the base will even survive a hypothetical arrest. He’s their people.

What may hurt Trump are revelations from his tax returns showing he’s not nearly as rich as claimed. He’s a third-rater with lots of money, that’s what makes him great. If he’s lying about the money, then his attraction suddenly lessens.

And among elected officials, it’s becoming painfully clear that at both State and Federal levels, names such as Stefanik, Boebert, Gaetz, McCarthy, Gosar, Greene, Risch, Gohmert, Nunes, Cawthorn, and many, many others are, at best, third raters; some are far worse. They know that Trump provides the environment in which they can win, but if someone else takes over the GOP, they may find their ass is out.

Trump, and his predecessors, constructed a party based on loyalty and discipline: you vote for Republican nominees or you’re a bad Republican, soon to be followed by an ex-Republican. Saying something bad about a leader can lead to calamitous consequences, too, although that’s not guaranteed, if you’re reading the currents properly and that leader is outbound: think Ryan, or even McConnell today.

But far too many owe their positions to Trump, and if they reject him, the base may reject those officials and wannabes. And, as politicos, they’re basically people who’ve learned the anti-abortion jig and the gun rights waltz and have no real applicable qualifications.

We’ll not be seeing a flood of betrayals of Trump as Rubin might expect. A few officials, yes, will feel their consciences prick, or foresee disaster if Trump’s not prosecuted nor barred from office, and either testify or at least officially reject him. But most will simply quiver their third-rate asses in their elective seats and quietly hope they can retain their prestigious position at the next election. Not based on any great skills, but because they’ve clung to Trump’s knees and learned a couple of dances that the base has been trained to acclaim.

Bedight:

(archaic) To equip or bedeck. [Wiktionary]

Noted in the “Victorian Mincemeat With Actual Meat” episode of Tasting History with Max Miller:

Yeah, he does chew the scenery a bit in this one.

Nothing lifts the spirits quite like the throaty and raucous laugh of one’s mate at the idea of Max Miller clutching his pearls:

Oh, go ahead – watch the whole thing. You know you want to.

Just declare the entire system corrupt:

As abolitionists, we approach situations of injustice with love and align ourselves with our community. Because we got us. So let’s be clear: we love everybody in our community. It’s not about a trial or a verdict decided in a white supremacist charade, it’s about how we treat our community when corrupt systems are working to devalue their lives. In an abolitionist society, this trial would not be taking place, and our communities would not have to fight and suffer to prove our worth. Instead, we find ourselves, once again, being forced to put our lives and our value in the hands of judges and juries operating in a system that is designed to oppress us, while continuing to face a corrupt and violent police department, which has proven time and again to have no respect for our lives.

In our commitment to abolition, we can never believe police, especially the Chicago Police Department (CPD) over Jussie Smollett, a Black man who has been courageously present, visible, and vocal in the struggle for Black freedom. While policing at-large is an irredeemable institution, CPD is notorious for its long and deep history of corruption, racism, and brutality. From the murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, to the Burge tortures, to the murder of Laquan McDonald and subsequent cover-up, to the hundreds of others killed by Chicago police over the years and the thousands who survived abuse, Chicago police consistently demonstrate that they are among the worst of the worst. Police lie and Chicago police lie especially. – Dr. Melina Abdullah, Director of BLM Grassroots

And would this same statement have been issued if Mr. Smollett’s trial had not shown indications of ending in his conviction? That’s the key question, isn’t it – can the cryer apply the intellectual consistency of thrusting away a victory because of a distrust, a certainty that the system is corrupt?

I don’t know if Abdullah would have had the courage to disown a victory. But, if not, then Abdullah would be guilty of a painful hypocrisy, the dishonesty of desiring a system wherein it’s Tails you lose, heads I win.

And, if Abdullah was intellectually honest, then they are left with the problematic statement, In an abolitionist society, this trial would not be taking place … I say it’s problematic because it accepts, without question nor punishment for dishonesty, the statement of Mr. Smollett to the police, that he was assaulted by white supremacists. The assumption of the steadfastness of his claim and character, without investigation and testing, flies in the face of the entire history of humanity.

Without offering an alternative system of justice that has some odor of plausibility, the “abolitionists,” of police departments, I presume, seems less like weak tea and more like warm, bacteria-laden water. The defund the police movement, in the face of a tragic crime wave, did not do well in the latest elections, nor in public polls; it suggests that the very people who might be thought to benefit from the removal of police forces have little confidence in such an approach.

Police forces are, ideally, part of the broader search for truth about incidents which are thought to be injurious to justice and society. We all like to think that knowing what happened is simple, but we all should know that such is only rarely true.

So, for me, that statement isn’t so much a remark upon justice, but a bit of calculated propaganda, designed to retain position of those already emplaced on the ladder of power, and not an attempt to advance the cause of justice.

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?