Category Archives: Uncategorized

Professor Richardson mentions the apparent intent of the right to impose a narrow theocracy on the United States:

The use of the government to impose evangelical beliefs on the country, even at the expense of lives, also appears to be an administration goal. Yesterday, the administration announced it is ending the Biden administration’s 2022 guidance to hospital emergency rooms that accept Medicare—which is virtually all of them—requiring that under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act they must perform an abortion in an emergency if the procedure is necessary to prevent a patient’s organ failure or severe hemorrhaging. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act requires emergency rooms to stabilize patients.

Skipping over the obvious objections where militant Christianity tends to exterminate its rivals in various ghastly ways^[1], I think it’s more than word trickery to notice that just a few word substitutions results in the arbitrary and relatively-undiscussed ideology of transgenderism being the imposed ideas, rather than those of evangelical Christianity – all without implying obviously wrong assumptions or assertions. While advocates for either side may object to this description being applied to their beloved ideology, particularly when it comes to proof, neither has a convincing case.

Keep in mind Professor Turchin’s observation^[2] that the first generation, following the expungement of an existential enemy, to find itself at loggerheads with itself over one or more pointless ideologies that inspires adherents and serves as a cloak for those who seek power, does not know the horror of internecine strife; it’s the next generation, bruised, bleeding, and battered, that cedes to the assertion that Compromise is a good thing, and engages in negotiations rather than war. But with the power of our weapons nearing that of the power of Gods of whatever mythos you prefer, will America survive that first generation’s war?

All this leads to the observation that the Evangelical right and the Radical Left, the latter defined by ‘open borders’ and blind support, sans convincing evidence, for transgenderism and sexual or gender fluidity, may be considered more primitive segments of American society, disdaining those who suggest doubt and compromise are attributes of true adults.

Pick your position wisely, and if a new political party becomes available that you find attractive, then pick them. While the ethicists will argue that it’s an inferior ethic to do so, when both sides advocate fascism, it’s better to walk away from them.

¹ For those who prefer more specificity, the usual approach is to burn their rivals at the stake. However, in this age of automatic weapons, each side may prefer indiscriminate, if unsatisfying, slaughter.

² Ages of Discord, Peter Turchin (2016). Almost certainly found in Chapter I, as that’s the extent of my reading, so far, of this book. I also recommend his Secular Cycles and War and Peace and War, both of which are less an exposure to technical aspects of his theory.

What’s the trigger?

The Labor Department on Wednesday yanked Biden-era guidance that strongly discouraged employers against offering cryptocurrency in workers’ 401(k) plan options.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the policy was an attempt by the previous administration “to put their thumb on the scale” against cryptocurrency investments.

“We’re rolling back this overreach and making it clear that investment decisions should be made by fiduciaries, not DC bureaucrats,” she said in a statement. [Politico]

That statement doesn’t bother me that much, actually. But then the evil side whispered in my ear:

What’s to stop the Trumpie’s from reversing that statement, to encourage 401(k) investors to buy crypto as an investment?

Sure, we can go full evil – change encourage to require!

Yeah, think about that – a requirement that each 401(k) account invest .5% of its funds in $TRUMP.

It makes my skin crawl, but I suppose that would ensure Trump’s place on the right hand of God. Cthulhu. Whatever it happens to be.

Mechanochemistry:

Mechanochemistry refers to the coupling of chemical reactions with mechanical forces. [“Mechanochemistry: Fundamental Principles and Applications,” Wiley Advanced]

Noted in “How an ancient alchemy technique is transforming modern chemistry,” Hayley Bennett, NewScientist (24 May 2025, paywall):

Chemistry creates many of the wonders of modern life, from the medicines that heal us to the screens with which we communicate. When researchers want to make these things from scratch, they often start by assuming they must dissolve their materials. But mechanochemistry, the burgeoning field [Tomislav Friščić of the University of Birmingham, UK] is fascinated by, shows this isn’t always necessary. “Mechanochemistry gives you the intellectual freedom to think: ‘Let me just try this reaction by grinding it’,” says Friščić. “And, in many cases, it works.”

Bonus!

As well as creating new chemicals, mechanochemistry can be destructive – in a good way. At Utrecht University in the Netherlands, Ina Vollmer’s lab has been meticulous in trying to work out what happens when plastic waste is broken down in a ball mill. Vollmer came to mechanochemistry looking for a greener way to take spent plastics like polyethylene and polypropylene and turn them back into their chemical building blocks. “We were really thinking about it for circularity and recycling, to make these polymers again,” she says.

Such chemical recycling is already possible, but it requires temperatures of around 300°C (570°F), meaning plastics are usually melted and reshaped instead. However, Vollmer’s team recently succeeded at doing it at room temperature using an ingenious milling system in which the catalysts driving the reactions are stuck to the balls themselves. They can throw in pellets of plastic – from old garden chairs and toys, for example – and get out hydrocarbon gases like propene. According to Vollmer, the team is now building a bigger ball mill and founding a start-up to commercialise the process. It is a stunning example of what mechanochemistry can do, says Friščić.

What my reader may or may not have seen:

I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.

This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.

Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.

Rumors swirl that he’s on illegal drugs, but I’m not sure that’s the reason, nor that he’s in earnest.

Rather, his workhorse company, Tesla, is facing a drop in demand as liberals and independents are repelled by his antics. So, what does he do?

Disassociate himself.

Although this fine fellow wasn’t all that well lit. I don’t know if his blooms survived last night’s windstorm, either.

Oh, not this old game again! It’s worse than Hey, Pull My Finger Off!

Invitation to a Murder (2023) is somewhat like an Agatha Christie-authored mystery, as six people receive invitations to the house of one of the richest men in the world in the 1920s. They meet on a train to the location du jour, but the focus is on Miranda Green, a florist whose eye for detail is almost unreal. But even she can’t see the connecting feature on these six.

Before long we have our first corpse, and then a second – and my Arts Editor is shaking her head, proclaiming this to be an assemblage of worn-out tropes. But then, a member of the staff dies.

And then we find out … well, that would be telling.

In the end, it has some interesting twists, and Miss Green is not a fading flower, nor a woman with the agenda that an unmarried woman of the age might have had. No nonsense and virtually seeing around corners, she’s rather fun.

But it does feel a bit labored, and the red herrings are really better when they’re not just thrown into a garbage can once deployed.

But it was some fun while it lasted. Good effort. Vivid characters next time. If there is one.

For younger readers, we occasionally talk about rocks in the pockets [of a swimmer], meaning, well, the swimmer is in imminent danger of drowning because of the rock impediments.

Let’s call that my PSA of the day.

That dank old analogy came to mind while reading this WaPo article concerning the report put out by the incompetents currently running the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services – that is, President Trump and RFK, Jr.:

The brave Athenian hoplite time traveler took one look at this video and ran screaming down the hill…

Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) seems to be in that group:

Appearing at a town hall on Friday, Ernst was pressed on cuts to Medicaid – the health care program for low-income Americans – in House Republicans’ budget plan. One audience member shouted that “people will die.”

The usual politician thing would have been to take issue with that premise – or to, as other Republicans have strained to do, cast the Medicaid cuts as merely cutting waste and abuse. (That’s not the full story, of course; the Congressional Budget Office recently projected that House Republicans’ changes to Medicaid, including work requirements for some recipients, would leave 7.6 million Americans uninsured by 2034.)

But Ernst decided to go in a different direction.

“Well, we all are going to die,” said Ernst, who’s facing reelection in 2026.

When hostile portions of the crowd balked at the response, she said: “For heaven’s sakes, folks.” [CNN/Politics]

Too bad the Democrats continue to stagger along in autocrat dress.

And it’s quite exhilarating.

I think, at this point, Defense Secretary Hegseth is accepted by government observers to be profoundly incompetent to his job. He may have been great as a Fox News host, but anything else?

So this report from Steve Benen (because I don’t have NYTimes access) isn’t surprising:

Among those joining [AG] Bondi for the inaugural meeting of the [anti-Christian bias task] group was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who, it turns out, held a related event one month later. The New York Times reported:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led a Christian prayer service in the Pentagon’s auditorium on Wednesday morning, during working hours, in which President Trump was praised as a divinely appointed leader. The event, billed as the “Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer & Worship Service,” was standing room only and ran for about 30 minutes, with Brooks Potteiger, the pastor of Mr. Hegseth’s church in Tennessee, as the main speaker.

Bold mine, added in case my reader is skimming.

When it comes to being incompetent, it’s vital to legitimize your occupancy of your important and prestigious position, and what better way than to have your boss be divinely appointed?

The light generated by that appointment, or at least the propaganda megaphones, will reflect on their incompetent minions, such as Hegseth, Noem, Luttnick, and so many others, and distract casual observers from the basic shortcomings of these minions by enticing them into casting about for any hints of divine favor for these incompetent.

Never mind how these chronic incompetents subtract all that divine glory stuff from the divine. You can’t tell because, well, God doesn’t make appearances.

So this anti-Constitutional meeting isn’t really about spreading Christianity so much as excusing Mr Hegseth’s vast and profound incompetency. He can impress himself by how much God favors him. Why, God said so during his last appearance.

Didn’t he?

Things will get better!

I took that on a cloudy day. It’d have been better in full sunlight.

Friary:

a building in which friars live [Cambridge Dictionary]

While clear from context, I thought it best to get the exact definition in case there was nuance, which there was not. At least, to the extent we can be exact when there are several distinct sources. Noted in “A new pope confronts his church’s abuse scandal amid praise and scrutiny,” Karin Brulliard, Samantha Schmidt, Jonathan Edwards and Jonathan O’Connell, WaPo:

Although I neither follow nor go out of my way to read Mark Sumner at Daily Kos, when I have read his stuff I’ve generally thought what he writes is rather good. That makes this bit of fury and arrogance all the more disappointing.

In case my reader has yet to run across a reference to TACO, here ya go:

Trump lashed out at a reporter on May 28 who asked for his response to financial analysts embracing a new term called “TACO trade.” The acronym stands for “Trump always chickens out” ‒ a jab at the president’s propensity to impose or threaten steep tariffs on imports, only to later back off. [USA Today]

He seems a trifle touchy.

Jan-Werner Müller in The Guardian notes of the amateur circus that is the Trump Administration:

The background noise to the official letters has been a steady stream of social media posts from the president, throwing invective at Harvard instead of conducting the serious government business of maligning Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift. The founder of a university whose attendees received a $25m settlement has accused the US’s oldest university of “scamming the public”, constituting a “threat to democracy”, and exposing innocent young Americans to “crazed lunatics” (as opposed to non-crazed lunatics). It is a well-known pattern in authoritarian regimes that underlings try to please the leader by anticipating his wishes and imitating his style. Official letters, posts, and press statements from DHS and the Department of Education not only fail to provide evidence and violate procedural safeguards; they not only make up ad hoc demands that have no basis in law; they also contain the signature capital letters, spelling mistakes, and kindergarten-level invective familiar from the president’s rhetoric. It is governance driven by a desire to please Fox viewers, online Maga mobs, and the Avenger-in-Chief.

In what might be called the anti-apotheosis of the Republican Party’s embrace of the Gingrichian principles that Democrats cannot be permitted victories, that only policy stands are important, that it’s loyalty over competency.

That last one may be the most obvious in view of Mr. Müller’s observations. Are any of President Trump’s appointees quietly competent individuals? Noem and habeas corpus, Kennedy and anything to do with health, Hegseth and his arrogant belief that he knows better than anyone else, that clown Luttnick and his grandma not caring about Social Security, even Treasury’s Bessent doesn’t seem as bright as word had him.

And Rubio seems to have become an idiot.

The Republicans have scurried right over to where I predicted: Mass incompetency, as the fringe rode in on their broken tricycles. And they don’t even seem to know it; they arrogantly believe they’re as good, or better, than their predecessors, Democrat or Republican, over the last fifty years. Meanwhile, they open their yaps and prove otherwise everyday.

The question du jour is to ask: what’s next? Will the Democrats do they same thing? Will the Republican Party meltdown in the elections of 2025 (a couple of gubernatorial elections), 2026 (Congressional), or 2028 in the Presidential?

Just what sort of clown could think they’ll succeed Trump? The mind boggles.

On a day where the NASDAQ is up nearly 2.5%, the price of DJT, the stock of the company of Donald J. Trump … fell:

This five day chart clearly shows shares of DJT dropped 10% today, in contrast with the indices. What went wrong? Bad news?

How about this?

Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) is doubling down on cryptocurrency, unveiling plans Tuesday to create what it claims will be one of the largest bitcoin treasuries held by any public company.

The initiative is backed by a $2.5 billion private funding round, with commitments from roughly 50 institutional investors, according to a company press release. The deal includes $1.5 billion in Trump Media common stock and $1 billion in convertible senior secured notes, set to close on or around May 29.

Once finalized, the move will place bitcoin directly on Trump Media’s balance sheet, alongside existing cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaling $759 million as of the end of Q1 2025.

That’s dated today. It sounds like good news.

Or are the rumors concerning Walmart steaks being served at his dinner party for big-time investors in $TRUMP, the President’s vehicle of corruption cryptocurrency, true?

Donald Trump’s exclusive dinner party for investors in his $TRUMP meme coin turned into a spectacle of disappointment, with critics slamming it as an “orgy of corruption” and guests complaining about the food and lack of access to the US president.

Held Thursday evening at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, the high-profile event gathered 220 crypto investors who collectively poured in $148 million for a chance to meet Trump and dine in style. Instead, many left underwhelmed—by both the meal and the man.

Social media personality and prankster Nicholas Pinto, who says he invested $360,000 in the memecoin, attended the event and told WIRED and Fortune that it was “the worst food” he’s ever had at a Trump property. “The only good thing was the bread and butter,” Pinto added, calling the steak “trash” and likening it to something bought at Walmart. [The Economic Times, via MSN]

Tacky but irrelevant, you mutter? Try adding in his performance in speechifying:

The president began both speeches by sticking to a script but then veered off course. At West Point on Saturday, his speech went on for over an hour. He attacked diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and said: “The job of the U.S. Armed Forces is not to host drag shows to transform foreign cultures, or to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun,” he said. “The military’s job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America, anywhere, anytime, and any place.” (In fact, the mission of the Department of Defense is “to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.”)

Trump veered off into immigration and a chat about golf, then repeated a story about William Levitt, a real estate developer whose post–World War II housing developments became synonymous with suburbia, that he had told at a 2017 Boy Scout jamboree. On Saturday, Trump talked about Levitt becoming “very rich, a very rich man, and then he decided to sell. And he sold his company, and he had nothing to do. He ended up getting a divorce, found a new wife. Could you say a trophy wife? I guess we can say a trophy wife. It didn’t work out too well, but it doesn’t—that doesn’t work out too well, I must tell you. A lot of trophy wives. It doesn’t work out. But it made him happy for a little while, at least, but he found a new wife. He sold his little boat, and he got a big yacht, he had one of the biggest yachts anywhere in the world. He moved for a time to Monte Carlo, and he led the good life, and time went by, and he got bored and 15 years later, the company that he sold to called him, and they said, ‘The housing business is not for us.’ You have to understand when Bill Levitt was hot. When he had momentum, he’d go to the job sites every night, he’d pick up every loose nail, he’d pick up every scrap of wood, if there was a bolt or a screw laying on the ground, he’d pick it up, and he’d use it the next day and putting together a house.” [“May 26, 2025,” Professor Richardson, Letters From An American]

Somewhere else – I regret that I cannot find the link – I read that whitehouse.gov is no longer publishing an index to his speeches. Or maybe his speeches at all.

His probable dementia is affecting his most effective communications device – his performance art.

The cryptocurrency folks, the earnest ones, must have been appalled, even terrified, to find themselves in the presence of a leading conman, although how the dementia plays in his harder to say; the rest were, no doubt, trying to figure out how to work the crowd, regardless.

But these rumors and/or facts appear to have reached the market, and the thought that Trump Media and Technology Group Corp is buying $2.5 billion worth of bitcoin may be a bit unnerving for larger investors, when the company is under the influence of someone with dementia. Add in the chance that President Putin’s not happy with President Trump and may be manipulating the market to let the price drop ….

Well. All speculation on my part, I’ll freely admit. Someone make some popcorn for me, eh? I’d feel faint if I owned any DJT, not because it fell, but because it’s completely unpredictable.

I gotta love this report from Steve Benen’s campaign roundup (I’d take it right from the Wall Street Journal, but I lack a subscription):

The lovely orange azalea has now entered into bloom, which will last maybe a week.

I’ve not been paying much attention to the outside world this weekend, as it’s a tiring and dispiriting situation, despite my optimism that, soon enough, even his outer-ring supporters will realize he’s only working for himself, and not them.

But this weekend, peering through cataracts and typing hampered by recovery from shoulder surgery and triggerfinger in both hands, I’ve been taking care of myself.

Jacquard machine:

The Jacquard machine (French: [ʒakaʁ]) is a device fitted to a loom that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocade, damask and matelassé. The resulting ensemble of the loom and Jacquard machine is then called a Jacquard loom. The machine was patented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804, based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728), and Jacques Vaucanson (1740). The machine was controlled by a “chain of cards”; a number of punched cards laced together into a continuous sequence. Multiple rows of holes were punched on each card, with one complete card corresponding to one row of the design.

Both the Jacquard process and the necessary loom attachment are named after their inventor. This mechanism is probably one of the most important weaving innovations, as Jacquard shedding made possible the automatic production of unlimited varieties of complex pattern weaving. The term “Jacquard” is not specific or limited to any particular loom, but rather refers to the added control mechanism that automates the patterning. The process can also be used for patterned knitwear and machine-knitted textiles such as jerseys. [Wikipedia]

Noted in this reader-provided article, “Gaurav Gupta Channeled a Message of Healing for Spring 2025 Couture,” Alex Wynne, WWD:

In one look, a specially created jacquard with a Sanskrit chant woven into the cloth was used to create a dramatic sculptural collar in gold on black, with the text repeated on the model’s face.

This is related to the fashion show I linked to for a Video of the Day, and I think I recall the referenced work. My thanks to the readers who contributed to the VOTD thread.

Ah, ladies, you’re charming but … two-dimensional.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) is a version of the tale known to most Americans as Aladdin and the Lamp. but wherein Aladdin is a supporting character.

Prince Achmed is tricked into mounting a mechanical flying horse provided by the Evil Sorcerer. Upon proof that it does fly, Caliph offers anything in his kingdom for the horse; the Evil Sorcerer selects Princess Dinarsade.

The horse then conveys Achmed away on an uncontrollable and wondrous voyage to Wak-Wak, an island ruled by the beautiful Pari Banu. The Prince, entranced, presses himself upon her until she finally relents.

Meanwhile, the father of Prince Achmed, the Caliph, places the Sorcerer in chains, but these are nothing to an Evil Sorcerer, and, escaping, he takes Dinarsade away in pursuit of Achmed.

Achmed, and this all gets confusing in retrospect, loses Pari Banu to the Sorcerer and is trapped. While the Sorcerer takes Pari to China and sells her to the Emperor, the Sorcerer’s arch-enemy, the Witch, frees Achmed; Achmed rescues Aladdin from a monster, and it turns out Aladdin, who has a magical lamp, is secretly married to Princess Dinarsade.

Then it’s just a matter of taking care of the Evil Sorcerer and getting home.

It all sounds a bit silly, but it’s actually rather fascinating because this is allegedly, and subject to future cinematic discoveries, the earliest surviving animated film, and the fifth (another source claims third) animated film ever made. It was constructed using the silhouette animation technique, resulting in a shadow effect in which living things are portrayed in black, while background and buildings are in various shades of the dominant color.

The effect captures the eye, and the efforts of the artists involved, these being the director Lotte Reiniger, and animators Walter Ruttmann, Berthold Bartosch, Carl Koch, and others, are sometimes amazing; they had my Arts Editor exclaiming with delight. This alone makes it worth tracking down a print for viewing.

Speaking of prints, the principals of this film are German, and, it being quite an old movie, it’s a silent movie. The expository intertitles are in German.

We viewed a German-only version of The Adventures of Prince Achmed first, and found it a bit mystifying, as neither of us are fluent, or even knowledgeable, in German. Then we viewed a version with English captions, and it really brought the story to light for us, as if an extra light source had been added to the film.

Metaphorically, that’s exactly what happened.

This seems to be the English print we viewed. Enjoy!

Not that I am a fan of the spoken poem that leads this off, or of all the pieces displayed. But it was certainly different from the normal fashion show.

I see Spring as the season of light; Summer is the season of glare and oppressive heat.

Have a safe and pleasant Memorial Day.

Back in January I mentioned, and haphazardly analyzed, the Trump memecoin, a species of cryptocurrency:

But the big news of late was just-now-President Trump has his own cryptocurrency, called $TRUMP, which may cause illness in those aware that President Trump allegedly grew up in a prosperity theology church. Maybe he figures inadvertent chanting of “$TRUMP” will bring him more money?

And so what’s been happening? WaPo has the analysis from a couple of weeks ago:

At least 67,000 new or small-time crypto investors like Davis have bet on Trump’s meme coin, pouring $15 million into the volatile venture endorsed by Trump and benefiting his personal wealth, a Washington Post analysis found.

But virtually all of them bought near the coin’s peak, just before the inauguration, and 80 percent of them have seen the value of their holdings nosedive, The Post’s analysis shows. One buyer who spent $10,000 has already lost, on paper, more than $8,000.

The President and his team?

The losses point to the risks for Trump supporters and crypto speculators eager to bet on the loosely regulated venture of the self-described “first crypto president.” But they also draw a stark contrast with the president’s team, which has made millions in trading fees from transactions for the meme coin, even when its value goes down.

Welcome to the con, folks. People with money to the right, people without will please leave through the door with the attached automated boot.