Category Archives: Uncategorized

Remember the impact of the 9/11/2021 attacks on the approval ratings of the Administration in 2001?

Source: Gallup

Yeah, that was the jump from 51% to 90%. So what about Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, which, if you’ve been exploring holes in the ground in the backyard and hadn’t heard, was viciously attacked recently by opponent and terrorist organization Hamas? Is Israel a mini-USA?

Apparently not.

A poll shows public support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies collapsing in the wake of Hamas’s deadly assault on southern Israel, with voters shifting to Benny Gantz’s National Unity party in the wake of his decision to join the government and form a wartime cabinet.

The survey, published by Maariv, gives the centrist National Unity 41 seats, up from the 12 it currently holds. Likud meanwhile drops to just 19 seats, well below the 32 it currently has. The poll gives hardline parties Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism five and four seats respectively. The two garnered 14 seats together in the last election. Ultra-Orthodox parties are also seen losing a modicum of support.

The results show how much the Hamas massacre, which saw the terror group rampage through southern Israel, killing at least 1,300 and taking some 150 hostages, has punctured people’s faith in the country’s leadership and their claims of being the only ones who could secure the country. Leaders often receive a boost in support thanks to the rally around the flag effect, but the enormity of the slaughter and the depth of the intelligence and security failure have instead led to an implosion for Netanyahu and Co. [The Times of Israel]

Because of Netanyahu’s desperation to remain in power, partially due to criminal proceedings against him, he’s been willing to sign up right wing extremist parties by making promises, such as excusing certain religious groups from mandatory military service. This has led to reports of resentment among the Israelielectorate.

I expect we’ll be hearing reports of change in the government and overall society over the next few years. Netanyahu will, I’m guessing, retire from politics, possibly after one more abortive run for office, and then he’ll be allocating his time to his legal affairs.

And Israeli society, which had been barreling right, will ask itself if a more centrist approach to governance is wiser.

Noteworthy?

Asked GOP Rep. Austin Scott about how the GOP leadership crisis makes them look. “It makes us look like a bunch of idiots,” he told me

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 13, 2023

Long time readers know I’ve been predicting the Republican Party’s mad dash to the right for years. Extremists, regardless of ideology, share a few characteristics, among them arrogance, a belief that their opinions certainly can’t be wrong.

This failure to recognize the difficulties of discerning truth and understanding the lessons to be derived from events makes for a very short hop to … idiocy.

My congratulations to Rep Scott for his successful discernment of a truth that he may not be entirely proud of.

Following the removal of Rep McCarthy (R-CA) as Speaker, the Republicans are exhibiting A-level accomplishments in being incompetent to work as a Party. Instead, as I and many other pundits have predicted, they’re exhibiting the nauseating characteristics of a small spoiled child: not taking direction, not willing to compromise, playing the “ME ME ME” game, denying reality, denying knowledge of reality, and generally being pathological personalities.

No doubt there was some hopes for progress when Rep Scalise (R-LA) won the GOP nomination to be Speaker, but it can be plausibly argued he only won enough votes to win, but not to dominate. Putting an exclamation point on the matter is that Scalise, the nominal winner of the vote, dropped out of the race this evening.

The swift downfall of Scalise’s speakership nomination came just a day after the GOP conference voted for him over Rep. Jim Jordan, 113-99. The withdrawal was as shocking as it was predictable, after a band of Republicans almost immediately blocked his path and said there was no way they would vote for Scalise as speaker. The move deepens the House GOP leadership crisis, with still no indication there is any viable candidate who could secure the 217 votes needed to win the gavel.

Scalise’s primary competition was Rep Jordan (R-OH), who has proven incompetent as a committee chairman and accused of covering up the sexual predatory behaviors of Richard Strauss, a team physician at Ohio State University, an accusation made by OSU wrestlers. Just to keep things light, his supporter Rep Nancy Mace (R-SC), herself a rape survivor, claims she’s never heard of these well-publicized claims.

Like I said, child-like behaviors.

Whether it’s Scalise, Jordan, or my favorite, Rep Emmer (R-MN), it doesn’t really matter. The Party lost its way back in the 1990s under Rep Gingrich’s leadership, and has never found its way back. This seems to be a terminal condition now, though, and only unreasoning loathing of alternatives is keeping them as a credible power.

And that’s leaking away.

Tricoteuses:

Tricoteuse (French pronunciation: [tʁikɔtøz]) is French for a knitting woman. The term is most often used in its historical sense as a nickname for the women in the French Revolution who sat in the gallery supporting the left-wing politicians in the National Convention, attended the meetings in the Jacobin club, the hearings of the Revolutionary Tribunal and sat beside the guillotine during public executions, supposedly continuing to knit. The performances of the Tricoteuses were particularly intense during the Reign of Terror. [Wikipedia]

French? Hell, yeah. A substantial fraction of English words are French extracts. Noted in “A Culture Primed For Indecency,” Andrew Sullivan, The Weekly Dish (paywall):

And indecent gawkers. “It’s good to make fun of people who support criminals when they get murdered by criminals,” commented one on Twitter. “Ryan Carson took the phrase ‘bleeding heart liberal’ way too literally,” said another. (Carson’s actual heart was pierced by the murder weapon.) Other virtual tricoteuses went after the traumatized bystander: “Ryan Carson’s girlfriend is the Douche of the Week. 1. Showed almost no concern as her guy was murdered. 2. Expressed zero concern as he lay on the ground dying. Didn’t even bend down. 3. Refused to give police the murderer’s description. Soulless Marxist.” Another: “WHAT??? Ryan Carson’s girlfriend … started a GoFundMe page to make money off his death. I would tell her to eat trash but that’s cannibalism.” Or this: “She didn’t react when he was stabbed but she sure didn’t hesitate to raise $50k on go fund me. Makes you wonder.”

Culture will coarsen until some incident, linkable to that coarsening, occurs and shocks a large majority of folks into shame. Others, who value their social prestige more than an intellectual honesty, will remain coarse, using various weak excuses for their utterances and sometimes, even, actions. But this coarsening serves to give those being coarse a reason to feel superior not only to the victim, but the victim’s associates and ideological comrades.

In 2019, Andy Beshear (D-KY) became Governor Beshear after upsetting incumbent Governor Matt Bevin (R-KY) in a squeaker, 49.2% to 48.8%. Trading on a famous political name and widespread dismay at Governor Bevin’s performance, more of which can be found at the reader’s discretion, Beshear had moved up from the state’s Attorney General position, which he had won in 2015 in another close election.

Beshear is running for re-election now, and common conservative wisdom might have it that the Kentucky governor’s seat would be a prime candidate to be flipped. With Kentucky running this election in November of 2023, just four weeks away, how close will this race be?

Emerson College Polling, a highly rated pollster by FiveThirtyEight, seems to think it won’t be close.

A new Emerson College Polling survey of Kentucky voters finds incumbent Democratic Governor Andy Beshear with 49% support in the upcoming November gubernatorial election, while a third of voters (33%) plan to support Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron. Five percent plan to vote for someone else, while 13% are undecided.

Emerson College is not infallible, and there’s still room for Cameron to make a comeback, yes, but it’s a steep hill to climb. Republicans have to be concerned, because, at least using the On The Issues summation, Cameron isn’t the worst conservative in the world. However, the key may be his apparently unapologetic support for anti-abortion laws. While such a position may hearten conservatives, the fact of the matter is that telling women their lives are optional is not a positive approach to politics, no matter how zealously one believes abortion is evil.

If a Democratic governor looks unbeatable in Republican stronghold Kentucky, that’s a big red flag for conservatives. But while some of them may realize those flags are red, those who are in charge, who are most zealous, may also be color-blind when it comes to the flags that are waving.

Democrats had better hope the Republican Party Civil War being waged between the moderates and the far-right extremists does not cease, because it promises to make 2024 a year to remember.

For both Parties.

Nomenclators:

One once-common variant of the substitution cipher is the nomenclator. Named after the public official who announced the titles of visiting dignitaries, this cipher uses a small code sheet containing letter, syllable and word substitution tables, sometimes homophonic, that typically converted symbols into numbers. Originally the code portion was restricted to the names of important people, hence the name of the cipher; in later years, it covered many common words and place names as well. The symbols for whole words (codewords in modern parlance) and letters (cipher in modern parlance) were not distinguished in the ciphertext. The Rossignols‘ Great Cipher used by Louis XIV of France was one. [Wikipedia]

Not quite a match for my example, though, which is in “How scientists are cracking historical codes to reveal lost secrets,” Joshua Howgego, NewScientist (23 September 2023, paywall):

But unless your cipher is very basic, it won’t stop there. Many historical ciphers also contain elements called nomenclators, symbols that represent syllables, whole common words or names. These can be extremely hard to crack unless you have some sense of what the letter is about or who wrote it and can make an educated guess about what the nomenclators mean. Sometimes, these symbols can even be “nulls” – characters that have no meaning and should be discounted – just to throw adversaries off the scent.

Perhaps an example of language changing over time? In any case, a fascinating intro article on the automation of encryption breaking. No mention of everyone’s favorite encrypted, or so at least some speculate, manuscript, the Voynich Manuscript.

The GOP, especially in the House, is approaching a decision point. I don’t know if they are conscious of it, but it’s coming. Greg Sargent of WaPo’s description of the GOP caucus in the House, nominally of a majority party, is illustrative:

I’ve been reading about this research for a decade or two, and I’m glad to see it’s coming to fruition, as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) must be a horrific condition. The title, from NewScientist (23 September 2023, paywall), says it all: MDMA therapy for PTSD expected to get US approval after latest trial.

The latest study involved 104 people in the US and Israel diagnosed with moderate to severe PTSD, of whom 27 per cent identified as Hispanic or Latino and 7 per cent identified as another ethnicity or race other than white. This group is more representative of people with PTSD in the US, so the results can give more confidence that the treatment will work in a wider population, says Mitchell.

In the study, the participants all received three therapy sessions spaced a month apart. Half the group received a dose of MDMA with their therapy sessions, while the other half received a placebo pill.

Following these three therapy sessions, the researchers found that 71.2 per cent of the MDMA group no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, compared with 47.6 per cent of the placebo group.

Illegal drugs are drugs for which we just haven’t found a use, yet.

Valedictory:

relating to saying goodbye, especially formally [Cambridge Dictionary]

I would have thought I’d know valedictory at this point, but no. Interesting. Noted in “McCarthy became the latest victim of Trump’s extreme GOP revolution,” Stephen Collinson, CNN/Politics:

“I don’t regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance,” McCarthy said, putting a brave face on his humiliation in a valedictory news conference that capped a speakership that had always seemed to be on a short-term lease.

Left scratching like the rest of us.

With the exit of Representative and now-former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from center-stage, and his vow not to seek the seat again – possibly a lie – who will be stuck with Excedrin headache #9 next?

That’ll depend on the strength of the allegiance of the ordinary House GOP member. If it’s strong enough, the Freedom Caucus which deposed McCarthy, with it must be said the overwhelming support of the House Democrats, can nominate and run one of its own. Indeed, Ringleader Gaetz may wish to consider being the Speaker himself, as that might permit the squelching of an Ethics Committee investigation that endangers his position.

But if that allegiance isn’t strong enough, then either moderate GOP members of the House will need to make common cause with the Democrats, thereby enraging the Freedom Caucus again, or the House will have to limp along, accomplishing virtually nothing, until early January of … 2025. Unless the debt ceiling crisis scheduled for roughly forty days from now really scrambles the power dynamic.

My money’s on nearly a year and a half of being crippled.

Will the entire Freedom Caucus be primaried for the next election? Or will the ordinary citizens of those districts be pleased that their Representatives have crippled the Federal government, thereby endangering national security?

While watching Stephen Colbert’s interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Tyson’s commentary on the Mexican aliens presented to their legislative branch, and upon hearing that a locked box containing, allegedly, another alien was presented to the American Congress, my Arts Editor commented:

Ah! It’s Heisenberg’s Alien!

From a couple of days ago:

Tyromancy:

Tyromancy is the ancient practice of fortune-telling through the observation of cheese, and its renaissance is being conjured here in Chicago by local “kitchen witch” Jennifer Billock. [“Reading Between The Rinds: Local Woman Can Read Your Fortune Using Cheese,” Linze Rice, Block Club Chicago]

Ya gotta be kidding.

The government shutdown is in the process of being averted:

• Congress has passed a stopgap funding measure within hours of its deadline to prevent a federal government shutdown. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for approval, and the White House has indicated he will sign it.
• The Senate approved the measure Saturday evening after the House abruptly reversed course earlier in the day and passed a bipartisan bill. The bill needed support from two-thirds of House members to pass under an expedited process.
• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s job could now be on the line. Hardline conservatives threatened to oust him if he relied on Democratic votes to avert a shutdown.
• The stopgap bill will keep the government open through November 17 and includes natural disaster aid but not additional funding for Ukraine, due to objections from some conservatives. The Biden administration has warned this would have serious consequences for the war.

Only 45 days of funding, which seems a trifle absurd. As an engineer, though, I’m inclined to fix problems as permanently as possible.

This isn’t it.

I’ve gotta wonder about the unannounced tradeoffs. Did the Democrats agree to support McCarthy’s ego by voting to keep him in the Speaker’s chair if a member of the Freedom Caucus tries to vote him out? Did McCarthy promise to try to expel anyone as I’ve suggested?

And what about the Ukraine support? Will Biden sign? My reader will probably know by the time they read this, but I could see Biden rejecting the legislation on those grounds, because the Putin’s War is one of the most important events of the decade, a chance to kick a national adversary in the shin and remind them that democracies will be successful governing models.

But 45 days suggests preparation time of some sort. Are the Democrats betting the Republicans can commit suicide in that period? The Republicans believe they can inflict some damage on the Democrats, despite a record of shocking futility in this Congress so far?

Stay tuned.

And … Erick Erickson is pissed, but he still doesn’t get it. It’s not just a few bad apples in a barrel. It’s a toxic culturing medium that leads to an empty leadership corp, which is then taken over by vile opportunists like McCarthy, Gaetz, Boebert, Greene, Gosar, Perry, and etc, all incompetent fourth-raters. The Republican Party, for so long as it clings to Gingrich’s Dictums of extremism, blind loyalty, and refusing to work with Democrats on a regular basis, will continue to be the party of the fourth-raters. Such is the fruits of a toxic team culture.

Add in the arrogance that both parties possess and it’s a recipe for disaster.

DPGA:

[Fei Wang at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and his colleagues] called the building blocks of their computer DNA-based programmable gate arrays (DPGA), and each DPGA could be designed to implement over 100 billion distinct circuits by adding different short molecules into its tube.

In one experiment, they connected three DPGAs, comprising about 500 DNA strands, to make a circuit that solves quadratic equations, and in another, they made a circuit for taking square roots. They input numbers by adding molecules of a specific shape that then participated in chemical reactions with molecules that made up the circuit, analogous to an electron moving through wires. [“DNA-based computer can run 100 billion different programs,” Karmela Padavic-Callaghan, NewScientist (23 September 2023, no paywall)]

For those not in the know, there are things called FPGAs: Field Programmable Gate Arrays. They permit mimicking CPUs, creating custom solutions at the hardware level, and other gimcrackery. Sadly, I’ve never worked with them, and don’t know much more than that. I believe a roboticist of my acquaintance works with them, but I’ve not discussed it at great length with her.

And programming with DNA seems trippy.

Part of the Trump phenomenon revolves around his charisma – alleged charisma, I say, but then I thought Bill Clinton, widely regarded as being a highly charismatic politician, quite creepy – and one of the sources of that charisma is his alleged, once again, wealth, and the business acumen that led to that alleged wealth.

So Wednesday’s ruling in the civil fraud case filed by NY AG Letitia James that Trump has committed fraud in his estimation of values for his properties and how it varied depending on the interested party has understandably put Trump allies in a tizzy, in a fix. They derive their power from an alliance with a man who has great influence over a large portion of the American electorate.

Should that swirl down the drain, so will the value of that influence. And Judge Engeron’s analysis of Trump’s business behavior is brutal, concluding with …

“Defendants’ conduct in repeating these frivolous arguments is egregious,” Engoron wrote. “The defenses Donald Trump attempts to articulate in his sworn deposition are wholly without basis in law or fact. [WaPo]

In other words, whatever success Donald J. Trump has achieved may be attributed to cheating. That’s dangerous to those allies.

So how is the right reacting?

First, Speaker McCarthy and his Freedom Caucus, nominal opponents, are creating quite the distracting uproar, and we can expect the government to go into shutdown in favor of a third-rate Republican clown show in the next day or two, despite the spring-time agreement of McCarthy & Biden. Oh, now I see McCarthy might be replaced, just to up the noise level. See, it’s easier to be pointlessly destructive than to come to a respectable, responsible compromise.

Second, Mark Levin seeks to throw doubt on the legal failures of Trump in the time-honored tradition of, uh, being intellectually lazy.

Isn’t it amazing to you that he never wins a case? Is it because he’s just wrong all the time? Is it because he’s been ripping off people by hundreds of millions or billions? He’s been roaming the country, raping and molesting women? Is it because he sold national security documents to the enemy and exposed our national security? Is it because he led an insurrection – is guilty of sedition on January 6th that, in fact, he organized a gang-style criminal enterprise in Georgia during the election?

I mean, ladies and gentlemen, they’re destroying his business tonight. They’re destroying everything he built in New York. They’re destroying his life. They’re trying to put him in prison for the rest of his life. I don’t even think Stalin would go through all this nonsense to take out one of his opponents. I’ll be right back. [Media Matters for America, includes video source of this partial transcript]

No, Mark, it’s because he’s a pathological narcissist. His behaviors all point to it, and the persistent incompetence that is traditionally seen accompanying this diagnosis explains why he continually loses.

And, third, right wing radio host and blogger Erick Erickson is still working on his long-term project of somehow morally equating President Biden with Trump. In this particularly breathless post, after hinting the judge is either corrupt or incompetent to his job, Erickson also suggests…

• “… the Biden Administration has been infiltrated by the Iranians and it turns out the Obama Administration was too.” A Chief of Staff for a DoD higher-up is implicated, and this is so important that Erickson is forced to twice tell the reader this is a real big deal. Twice!
• “A Chinese Communist wired Hunter Biden $250,000.00 to Joe Biden’s home at a time Hunter Biden was not living there.” Uh huh.
• And some questions about Obama-era security protocols.

Hey, maybe these are all true. So where’s the arrests, the trials, the reports from respectable news outlets? Maybe they’re coming. But the behavior of Erickson and the right has taught me to wait a few days and look for independent reporting before I get too excited.

Here’s the thing. Let’s stipulate those in the listing, not the judge, is true. How does this differ from Trump, then?

Intentionality. If, indeed, there were security protocol problems in the Obama-era, or Iranians have infiltrated our government, then I and every other liberal and independent should be happy to see these problems detected and procedures improved.

But Trump? Judge Engeron seems to believe that Trump deliberately committed fraud for Trump’s personal gain, much to the damage of the parties depending on accurate estimations of Trump’s properties. A personality who disregards personal honor, honesty, and all those other important attributes which Christ, Moses, etc presumably emphasized should not be trusted with positions of high responsibility.

And that’s one of the lessons of that ruling.

Given how much pain devolves on Trump’s allies if that ruling sticks, we’re seeing attempts here to discredit and distract from the ruling by said allies. Will they succeed? The road will be long, as there are three other cases to follow as well as the fallout from his loss to E. Jean Carroll.

And this may explain an unexpected decision by Trump in the Georgia election subversion case:

Former President Donald Trump will not attempt to move the criminal charges brought against him by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to federal court, his lawyers revealed in a court filing Thursday.

The move comes as a surprise, as Trump was largely expected to try to move the Georgia case as part of a bid to invoke immunity protections for federal officials. Under federal law, criminal cases can be removed to federal court if the alleged behavior relates to their government duties. [CNN/Politics]

Trump may be going to ground now in order to avoid damaging publicity, although I should think it’s too little, too late. Time will tell.

This:

Trump announces he will not choose anyone currently running for President as his running mate. pic.twitter.com/EvXW8kTg6U

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 28, 2023

Evidently, everyone missed the announcement. Vladimir Putin will be Trump’s running mate, as will Trump be in Russia’s next Presidential election.

And, if they lose either one, Trump will be blamed and chased by Putin, armed with a radioactive knife.

Speaker McCarthy (R-CA) is in so deep he’s breathing through a tube, and may need help from the Democrats to survive. What would that cost? The House Minority Whip supplied some of the answer:

In a podcast interview with POLITICO, Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts was asked what it would take for Democrats to bail out the top Republican as he faces the ongoing threat of a “motion to vacate” vote from Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.

“Listen, we’ve been here waiting to have Kevin McCarthy ask for our help in governing responsibly,” said Clark. “I haven’t gotten that call.”

But when pressed further, Clark began to list some of the things that Democrats would be interested in seeing from McCarthy.

“We want to get disaster aid out, we want to continue our support for Ukraine, and we want them to end this sham of an impeachment inquiry,” said Clark. “If Kevin McCarthy chooses to… get back to work for the American people, to do the right thing, we’re going to be there to, you know, meet and compromise with him.” [Business Insider]

I’d like to think tossing out the sham impeachment inquiry is a throw-away item, because otherwise it can be interpreted as a coverup, and, quite honestly, looking like idiots does little for Republican unearned dreams of power.

If you pay attention to politics, and particularly the behaviors of Rep Jordan (R-OH) and a few other Republican House Committee chairpeople in connection with the various charges directed at the former President, his cronies, and his minions, this will ring true with the indictment of Senator Menendez (D-NJ) yesterday:

So a Democratic Senator is indicted on serious charges, and no Democrats attacking the Justice Department, no Democrats attacking the prosecutors, no Democrats calling for an investigation of the prosecution, and no Democrats calling to defund the Justice Department.

Weird, huh?

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 22, 2023

So a Democratic Senator is indicted on serious charges, and no Democrats attacking the Justice Department, no Democrats attacking the prosecutors, no Democrats calling for an investigation of the prosecution, and no Democrats calling to defund the Justice Department.

Weird, huh?

And that’s how it’s supposed to work. The difference in behavior reflects the internal culture of the parties, and while the Democrats have problems, as noted by polls of independents, the Republicans are a good ten steps behind them.

I don’t expected the Senator to resign, at least not until he’s convicted, and maybe not even then. At this stage, it’s difficult to use behavior to accurately guess whether he’s falsely accused or has permitted himself to be corrupted, as I can see both types of person stubbornly sticking around.

Joe Walsh is not the musician, but former Rep Joe Walsh (R-IL), who served a single term as a far-right extremist, 2011-2013, and subsequently apologized for his poor behavior during that term, particularly towards President Obama.

Not to continue a theme or anything.

Smart toilets could leak your medical data, warn security experts
– NewScientist (12 September 2023)

So do plumbers, I hear.

Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News:

“Fucking chaos” … “a total shit show”

Two texts I’ve gotten from inside the House Republican leadership in the last few minutes.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) September 21, 2023

It occasionally crosses my mind that a sagacious Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) might try to bring his caucus to heel by expelling the leading troublemakers, such as Rep Gaetz (R-FL), not from the caucus, but from the House of Representatives.

And then maybe boot them out of the Republican Party, if he can manage it. Probably not, but I’m no expert on Republican Party rules.

It’s true that McCarthy’s operating on a knife’s edge, but he could try to strike a deal with the Democrats that allows him to retain his treasured Speaker’s position, while implementing a discipline that will smart more than a little for the people making trouble.

If he follows up with a remark about the House being for adults only, he might take the edge of the rest of the Freedom Caucus by slowly, inevitably booting them out.

I haven’t been actually expecting this, as the procedures seem both slow and would result in a warning to the targets. Still, McCarthy might make a go of it because otherwise he may end up with a reputation as the worst Speaker ever.

Even beating the execrable and incompetent Rep Newt Gingrich (R-GA) of nearly thirty years ago.

Lustration:

Lustration is the removal of public officials and judges who are associated with a tainted political regime. It has been used as a tool of transitional justice in newly independent and postconflict countries. Lustrating begins with vetting—a review of conduct and competency. Individuals associated with the discredited government, and credibly accused of corruption or human rights violations, are dismissed. Officials appointed on the basis of political connections may be removed or reassigned to lower-level positions. Lustration also can be implemented indirectly, as with lowering the mandatory retirement age for judges. [Judiciaries Worldwide]

Noted in “Change will come to Russia — abruptly and unexpectedly,” Vladimir Kara-Murza (currently imprisoned), WaPo:

Aaron Blake of WaPo comments on a not-unexpected result akin to those of previous run-ups to elections:

New Hampshire on Tuesday became the latest state in which Democrats over-performed in a special election — a trend that has held very steady ever since Roe was overturned last summer.

Democrat Hal Rafter won by 12 points in a state House district that went narrowly for Donald Trump in 2020. The 12-point improvement on the 2020 margin is in line with Democrats’ encouraging continued over-performances in special elections this year; Daily Kos Elections and FiveThirtyEight data on more than two dozen special elections show the party running an average of 7.6 points better than their 2020 margins — margins from a 2020 election that, it bears noting, were already good for Democrats — and double digits better than the normal partisan fundamentals.

New Hampshire wasn’t even the only state in which Democrats lodged a crucial win and an overperformance in a special election Tuesday. They also took back the majority in the Pennsylvania Capitol by defeating a Trump-aligned candidate. That result was expected in a blue-leaning district, but Democrats again beat the fundamentals by around double digits.

To illustrate the depths of Trumpian madness involved, here’s Rafter’s opponnent:

He said supporters of abortion rights desire “blood sacrifices to their god, Molech.” He also had a long history of anti-LGBTQ+ comments.

What it comes to is this: Tell a woman that if her pregnancy should turn deadly, she’ll simply be discarded by society, and you will alienate more than half of them. Substantially more than half of them.

It doesn’t matter how deeply religious you may be, because being deeply religious doesn’t guarantee you’re right, it only impresses the gullible.

But here’s the part Democrats shouldn’t ignore: Without Trump, without the crazed MAGA-heads running for office, winning nomination, and then bursting into fire, the Democrats would actually be in a substantial minority.

They really need to ask themselves if they’ve got a repulsive screwup of their own that’s alienating voters.

The YouTuber who runs TheCanvasArtHistory recently did a video on the illustration of execution aftermaths by forgotten artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, and I was particularly struck by Gérôme’s work The Execution of Marshall Ney. As TheCanvasArtHistory notes, Ney was one of the famed marshalls of Napoleon Bonaparte’s regime; Bonaparte, himself famed for his bravery, called Ney the bravest man in Europe. Here’s the work:

Source: Wikipedia

It’s the history that matters. Ney, a deeply respected figure, was executed by the restored Bourbon monarchy following a trial in the Chamber of Peers, itself a symbol and instrumentality of French Monarchism.

It’s worth emphasizing for the idle reader that absolute monarchies are easily viewed as autocracies in saucy dresses.

Again, from the YouTuber, we see the execution squad walking away. They are French soldiers, symbolic of the power of the French Monarchy, for monarchies depend on the power of the military to stay in power. They have used their primal power to stamp out Ney.

But, now for myself, Ney himself, huddled pathetically in the mud, is more than an anonymous victim, is more than some contemptible criminal receiving a comeuppance. A Marshall in the French Army, known for his bravery, and for having switched his loyalty from Bonaparte to the Bourbons when the former was initially imprisoned, and then back to Bonaparte when he returned to power. There is an implied, absolute criticism of the Bourbon Monarchy

And when the Bourbons had the opportunity, they liquidated him, without mercy, even without legitimacy.

The message of The Execution of Marshall Ney, at least to me, is consonant with an ongoing theme of this blog. It is that the monarchy, the autocrat, brings with him or her a society of chaos and arbitrariness. It does not matter how good or how bad one may be, the final blow is entirely at the discretion of someone whose merit for their position is not their positive attributes, but their negative attributes: mendacity, bullshitting, violence.

For the reader who thinks monarchies and autocrats are good as leaders, think of beloved family members being killed for no good reason, and then try to tell me again that Putin, Bolsaro, and, yes, Trump are good national leaders.