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While some conservatives still believe that the mainstream media, such as CNN, are irrationally against President Trump, I think his actions of late – as if his impeachment and failed but near conviction wasn’t enough – have proven that their reporting has been accurate and fair.

So here’s CNN/Politics‘ Stephen Collinson today:

Joe Biden will be president in 30 days. Until then, the question is how much damage can be done by a vengeful, delusional soon-to-be ex-President swilling conspiracy theories, whose wild anti-democratic instincts are being encouraged by fringe political opportunists.

Donald Trump will retain the awesome powers of the presidency until noon on January 20, and there’s never been a time when he has been subject to as few restraining influences or has had a bigger incentive to cause disruption.

The President is spending day after day in his White House bunker, entertaining crackpot theories about imposing martial law, seizing voting machines and staging an intervention in Congress on January 6 to steal the election from Biden.

Surrounded by the last dead-end loyalists, Trump is flinging lies and political venom like King Lear in a crumbling Twitter kingdom, alarming some staffers about what he will do next.

If you have any doubts, Professor Richardson provides this bit, although I looked at her endnotes and I’m not sure where this information about his empty schedule comes from:

As he descends into the fever swamps, Trump has largely given up any pretense of governing. His public schedule remains empty, and his private meetings appear to focus on how he can stay in office. Today we learned that Russian hackers broke into the email system used by the leadership of the Treasury Department, but the cyberattack from Russia has gone unaddressed except to the extent the president tried to blame the attack on China (although he has made no move to retaliate against China for the attack). He has made little attempt to shepherd any sort of an economic relief bill through Congress. And, most crucially, he is silent about the epidemic that is killing us. As of this evening, more than 18 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus, and at least 319,000 have died.

So here’s the thing: how to corral this President into flying right and at least not deliberately damaging anything more?

I believe this falls on the President-elect and Corporate America.

First, Biden should make arrangements with Corporate America, meaning a quiet conference call with various major entities which may interact with The Trump Organization. Then Biden should call Trump, unofficially, and say,

Hey, Jack! Fly right or The Trump Organization will be strangled into dust.

And then the titans of Corporate America should start calling Trump. The message?

We won’t use your hotels.
We won’t golf on your golf courses.
We won’t buy from you.
We won’t sell to you.
We’ll pressure your allies in the same way, until they agree.
You will be sanctioned.
And this goes for all your children as well.
Forever.
Enough of damaging the United States.

Corporate America depends on a healthy United States to operate, to profit, to let the CEOs pretend they’re great people. It’s time for them to contribute to the country in which they operate, to keep it politically safe.

Because no sane business wants to operate in TrumpLandia.

Hemant Mehta on Friendly Atheist is puzzled by megachurch Christmas displays:

Here’s what some megachurches are doing to celebrate Christmas. Far from a simple Nativity play, these are Broadway-style performances that, I think, are meant to bring you closer to Jesus.

I haven’t figured out the connection yet, but maybe you can fill me in.

How much money is wasted on these performances… and for what real purpose? Does any of that scream “birth of Christ” to you? Does any of that make you want to join these churches? I have to imagine it does or else they wouldn’t be doing it, but then I have to question the type of people suckered in by these spectacles who think they’re somehow more devout as a result of watching the show.

The answer to real purpose is maintenance of the epistemic bubble. This is the fulfillment of a bonding need of a group of people. By providing it, the church reduces the risk of exposure to influences which may dilute both offerings and allegiance.

This is how you build loyalty to irrationality. It’s a small step, but it’s the building of that bubble of a society, within the larger American society, that emphasizes homogeneity while reducing tolerance.

If they didn’t provide it, members would seek it elsewhere – and their information stream would be less controlled by the church.

Either that, or all of these megachurch pastors are drama queens – and that is entirely possible. After all, megachurch.

But it bears repeating.

Currently, President Trump is Commander-in-Chief of Armed Services that are sworn to the Constitution, not to him.

As a member of the military, as informal as that might be, he is subject to military discipline.

If he thinks he can stomp his feet and try to pull off a military coup, he may find himself sitting in prison, facing a military tribunal – and then, possibly, a firing squad. Engineering a coup would qualify for treason or sedition, punishable by death.

This should be made blindingly clear to him by his legal advisors. Trump’s best option, if he has no appetite for the alleged avalanche of legal actions awaiting him on January 21, is to get the hell out of Dodge on or before January 20.

Today, outgoing AG Barr announced there will be no special counsel investigating Hunter Biden or the election:

Attorney General William Barr on Monday rejected several of President Donald Trump’s inflammatory and unfounded statements regarding the presidential election, saying at a news conference that he doesn’t plan to appoint a special counsel to investigate President-elect Joe Biden’s son Hunter or the election.

“If I thought a special counsel at this stage was a right tool and was appropriate, I would name one, but I haven’t and I’m not going to,” Barr said in response to a question on the presidential election. He said that widespread fraud wasn’t found in this election.

Barr also roundly rejected suggestions from the President’s supporters in recent days who’ve called for the US government to seize voting machines. …

On the Hunter Biden financial investigation — which the Biden transition acknowledged recently and Barr had kept quiet during the election season — the attorney general gave a similar answer that there is no need for him to take special steps to protect the investigation.

“To the extent there’s an investigation, I think it’s being handled responsibly and professionally currently within the department, and to this point, I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel, and I have no plan to do so before I leave,” Barr said when asked about Hunter Biden. Federal prosecutors and IRS investigations are conducting the probe, and Hunter Biden has not been charged with any crime. [CNN/Politics]

The Democrats – and anyone who cares for truth and its proper representation, including Robert Mueller – were outraged at Barr’s characterization of the Mueller Report as essentially exonerating Trump and his election campaign. The investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election resulted in multiple indictments, convictions, and identification of multiples cases of obstruction of justice, which could not be further pursued by Counsel Mueller. Barr’s assertion was preposterous.

Barr also interfered outrageously in ongoing investigations and prosecutions, leading to two unprecedented petitions from former DoJ employees requesting his resignation.

But since September 2020 onwards, he’s been a disappointment to Trump and the right, as he failed to find any mud to smear on the Biden family, any evidence of really anything at all. In some ways, it’s as if Barr had realized that the Evil of the Democrats might actually be the Evil of the Republicans.

But this announcement is a bit more important than it sounds, because it confuses the message Trump and the far-right would like to push on receptive voters in 2022 and beyond. It’s important to have a straight-forward message when it comes to politics: The Bidens are corrupt and The election was stolen. It keeps the base all stirred up and in training.

It’s harder to push those messages when AG Bill Barr, a man who had the potential to be the “greatest” AG ever, according to Trump, drops a brick on those messages.

We should still look for those messages being used as weapons by the right, but the Democrats should be ready to use Barr’s own words against them. Even if the Deputy AG initiates special counsel proceedings at Trump’s direction – and I expect that to happen, as Deputy AG Jeffery Rosen has a record of being led around by the nose – it’s not important. The investigations will lead nowhere, even as they’re seized upon as proof that … well … something happened!

Yeah. Trump bullied Rosen into initiating unjustified investigations for political purposes. That’s what happened.

Vatican critic Novus Ordo Watch (Novus Ordo translates to New Order, and is generally thought to refer to the most recent promulgation of the Catholic Mass by Pope Paul VI, in 1969 – and, if you’re wondering, the blog is subtitled Unmasking the Modernist Vatican II Church – oh, the horrors!) seems to be having a conniption over the Vatican’s … nativity scenes:

In case you thought 2020 couldn’t get any worse, it just did: The Vatican has unveiled its Nativity Scene in St. Peter’s Square.

Although this year we’re not confronted with a homo-erotic Frankie Horror Picture Show or an unconventional Nativity display made of sand, what Bergoglio’s sect came up with this time around is a fitting end to an annus horribilis, a truly horrific year.

Here’s one:

Unlike most American nativity scenes around here in Minnesota, which tend to be in the realist, if not authentic, tradition, this seems to be an abstraction, an interesting commentary on the dual natures of those involved in the nativity – both human and divine, or at least mythical, as it were. Unlike the American tradition, which suggests that humanity and Christ (and attendees) are alike, the Vatican nativity scene suggests a difference, an incomprehensibility concerning the Divine, that perhaps humanity will have to face for an eternity.

Which is quite appropriate.

And then there’s the scene which has led to some people to ask if Darth Vader has invaded Catholic orders:

I love the camel, who seems entirely disenchanted. And Darth as a wise man? Wise guy might be more appropriate. The Art Newspaper engages in a bit of snark:

But the 2020 offering has received mixed reviews, as the tableau, which the Catholic Herald is calling an “embarrassing sci-fi creche”, features an astronaut as one of the three wise men, with another that can only be described as a Darth Vader-doppelganger holding a shield. While it would appear that Darth Vader was not, in fact, at Jesus’s birth, it’s important to remember that the Gospels were written long after Christ’s death and such facts could easily have slipped through the cracks.

Ahem. The figure in question reminds me more of a Teutonic Knight of the Middle Ages, but rumor has it they were not invited to the Nativity, either.

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.