Category Archives: Uncategorized

I had not heard about this, as I’ve been paying attention to politics and I keep ignoring “AI”, or machine learning. NewScientist (2 May 2026, paywall) has me covered:

According to Anthropic, there’s a good reason the model [called Mythos] had been kept behind closed doors: it is – by accident rather than design – extremely good at hacking. It can allegedly discover flaws in virtually any software, if asked, that would allow the user to break in.

The company says that Mythos found thousands of high- and critical-severity vulnerabilities in operating systems and other software. Anthropic did not respond to New Scientist’s request for comment, but the company said on its website that “the fallout—for economies, public safety, and national security—could be severe.” [“Do you need to worry about Mythos, Anthropic’s computer-hacking AI?“]

But this is … reassuring, I suppose:

But there are indications that it isn’t time to panic yet. Bobby Holley at Firefox – one of those organisations being given access to Mythos – wrote in a blog post that the model helped his team find 271 vulnerabilities in the web browser, which is certainly quite a haul, but that none were so ingenious, impenetrably complex or sophisticated that a human couldn’t have dug them out.

“Just one such bug would have been red-alert in 2025, and so many at once makes you stop to wonder whether it’s even possible to keep up,” wrote Holley. “Encouragingly, we also haven’t seen any bugs that couldn’t have been found by an elite human researcher.”

No magic here, at least not yet.

Secretary Mullins may be a repeat nominee, but his strenuous efforts here are worth a repeat.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin: "President Trump literally wrote the book on the art of the deal. He's the strongest leader of your and I's time. Period."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-05-12T19:58:50.863Z

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin: “President Trump literally wrote the book on the art of the deal. He’s the strongest leader of your and I’s time. Period.”

Since 12 May President Trump traveled to China, was feted, and returned with no deal.

I shan’t predicate this nomination on a lack of deal, but rather the entire package of mistaken theories of how tariffs work, ICE surge, his bombast and self-celebration with the ornamentation of yesterdecade (“Trump class battleships?” Battleships went out with World War II, perhaps he thinks the eponymous movie was a documentary), his admiration of such dubious leaders as Putin, Duterte, and other such, inability to pass legislation or cut a deal, and failure to effectively interact with foreign leaders.

Secretary Mullin surely ought to realize Trump is among the weakest, not the strongest, of leaders.

The nearest star to Earth, which we call the Sun, is waving for attention:

HUGE FARSIDE SUNSPOT (UPDATED): One of the biggest sunspots in years is crossing the farside of the sun.

More on Spaceweather, including a stop action of sunspot clusters..

The stream heading for the exit continues, and with an age-old story …

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks resigned Thursday, becoming the latest top immigration official to leave the Trump administration in recent months.

“It’s just time,” Banks said in a Fox News interview announcing his resignation. “I feel like I got the ship back on course from the least secure, most disastrous, most chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen.” [MS NOW]

No, not self-congratulations. I don’t know if his work is that good. No, it’s this, from conservative Washington Examiner:

The national chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, was known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to engage in sex with prostitutes, according to six current and former Border Patrol employees who spoke with the Washington Examiner.

Banks “bragged” to colleagues while in his previous management role at Border Patrol about paying for sex with prostitutes while traveling in Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade. Banks’ behavior was said to have been investigated by Customs and Border Protection officials twice, including last year, but the investigation ended abruptly while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in office, leading to more questions.

A sordid oldie, an official thinking they could brag about something illegal without backlash. Nothing really special, I’m sure Democrats do this, too, but at least they’re discrete.

In a way, him caught and out of government means chances of blackmail diminish greatly, so I suppose we can be grateful for his braggodocio.

But, as I said, nothing all that special.

As we prepare to plunge into summer…

Oooops, where did this guy come from?

Precocial:

1. (adjective) (of the young of some species of birds after hatching) covered with down, having open eyes, and capable of leaving the nest within a few days of hatching
2. (noun) a precocial bird [Collins Dictionary]

That’s new to me. Noted in “Why dinosaurs lived much more complex lives than we thought (Interview with David Hone),” Michael Le Page, NewScientist (2 May 2026, paywall):

You study the flying reptiles known as pterosaurs as well as dinosaurs. Were these animals really able to hatch out of an egg and fly straight away?

[Hone: ]The idea they might be precocial, as it’s known, has been around for a while, but it’s only relatively recently, with the discovery of pterosaur embryos, that we’ve had good data that supports it.

If you look at birds inside eggs, they have well-developed feet, but they don’t have well-developed wings. Before pterosaurs have hatched, they’ve got long wings with strong bones, almost identical to the adult condition. That immediately points to the idea that they might be flying straight out of the egg.

Perhaps I won’t be working that one into casual conversation.

Reading the DJT tea leaves: A salutary behavior for would-be investors from last Friday.

Source: CoinMarketCap

A more than 7.5% drop over 24 hours in a cryptocurrency would worry me if I owned it, because currencies should only move like that when underlying conditions are changing drastically. The $TRUMP coin is nothing more than a way to demonstrate loyalty through ownership, if that’s what it is, of meaningless computer tokens. The specialization of $TRUMP is to scrape wealth from the wallets of average Joes.

A 7% drop indicates something is happening out there, and it’s not advantageous for the average investor. As $TRUMP is held by a DJT “affiliate”, it may also impact the price of shares of DJT. What’s happening there?

A 1-month chart of DJT from yahoo! finance.

A 15% drop in the valuation of a company as dubious as Trump Media & Technology Group Corp has to be concerning to a shareholder.

I expect this is another step in the self-destruction of the Trump Organization, as its fanatic concentration on the gathering of wealth results in surprising vulnerabilities for the Trumps and their many associates, both personal and corporate. Much like Lehman Brothers, they do not concentrate on service to others at a fair price, but on running their ship through the iceberg field at maximum speed and proclaiming it proves their wisdom and veracity in doing so.

Right before the glug-glug.

“You didn’t take the umbilical cord out of the top of glopper’s head?!” Derek cried?
Betty gasped and said, “How do you know his name was Glopper?”
“No, it’s not! That’s the name of the sex ‘glop!'”
Betty whispered, “God must be here! It’s a perfect example of nominative determinism! He said his name was ‘Glop’!”
“No, glop is simply the third of our seven sexes.” Derek shrugged. “Our mating rituals have lots of drugs and handcuffs for all!”
“Shit!” Betty yelled. “You don’t have a chance with me, buster! Get out of here!”
“No, you don’t understand, Betty! Glops are at their most fecund when they’ve been skeletonized! …. Come back, Betty, come back!”

When the aliens furtively land on Earth in Teenagers From Outer Space (1959) they encounter a happy, yappy little dog before they can even use the spaceship exit. One of them takes afright, and, that’s right, zots the little fellow into a shiny, clean skelly. After all, they’re looking for a fecund little meadow in which to pasture their growing herd of their cow-equivalents, and they certainly can’t have pests harassing their meat on the hoof, or, to be more accurate, on arthropod limbs.

But, much like many human nations, their very insecurities have given birth to a self-righteous, brittle arrogance, and when another one, Derek (I kid you not), having read forbidden texts and deciding that the book’s contents must all be true because it’s forbidden – the forbidden is always right, you must see – he makes a run for it, looking for the owner of the yapper to warn them of his fellows.

But this laughable mess has some twists up its sleeve. (Aliens have sleeves?) Remember Derek? He sees a luscious human female or two, and, as the rules of fiction say he must fall in love, off Hormonal Cliff he goes. But it turns out he’s the unknowing son of the Supreme Leader, a fellow with a certain resemblance to Ming the Merciless, at least the one in Flash Gordon (1980), although it’s more a mien thing, I must admit. Squint a bit and you’ll see it.

Being Ming’s Supreme Leader’s son, he must be fetched back or an awful consequence will befall them. Thor, the psychotic dog-murderer, is dispatched on the task, and soon, bloodied but unbowed, he’s chasing all over town, threatening everyone in sight with his zappy gun. When he gets to use it the clean skeletons it produces, as my Arts Editor observed, come with the hook in the top of the skull unremoved.

I haven’t been able to find one of those in my skull, yet. My Arts Editor said she won’t look, it was too much like searching my scalp for lice. Squeamish, I’d say.

Anyways, after wiping out some of the most interesting characters and dealing with the alien, uh, cow, Derek finds a mildly clever way to stop the invading alien fleet, but at the cost of his life. The human female who was the apple of his eye then must be earnest and tragic, and nearly pulls it off.

Is this good? No.

But it is sort of halfway fun, if you can ignore the teeth marks in the scenery. There are many problems, but I did like the alien cow, the car rolling down the cliff and it’s remarkably graphic body flopping out at the end, and the lass who regards every new boy to walk into her life to be fresh meat worthy of sampling.

And that title? I suppose Derek and Thor could be teenagers. But it’s still mostly nonsensical.

PRESSURE CONTINUES TO BUILD

Those ties that bind and bind and bind:

With gas prices continuing to surge, more than 8 in 10 Americans said pain at the pump is putting a strain on their household budgets — and a strong majority blames President Trump, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

The poll also found that Trump is more unpopular than he ever has been, and he faces major declines with key groups since being sworn in for a second term. Most Americans said the economy isn’t working for them, and the war in Iran — which has directly led to those higher gas prices — continues to grow more unpopular.

Those challenges have given Democrats a distinct advantage in the midterm elections. Six months from when votes will be counted this November, Democrats lead by 10 points on the congressional ballot test. The ballot test asks which party’s candidate they would vote for if congressional elections took place today. [NPR]

CNBC reports on inflation: The consumer price index rose at a seasonally adjusted 0.6% for the month, putting the one-year pace at 3.8%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. For those of us who remember the Carter years, 3.8% annual inflation is not awful; but it’s quite upsetting for the common citizen today. Signs for future inflation hint at worse to come, if you believe Belle of the Ranch.

CNN has a reinforcing poll: … Trump’s approval rating stands at 30% on the economy, a career low.

The Trump Administration’s strategy? For long-term residents of the United States, it comes as no surprise: Lies.

As April got underway, Donald Trump delivered an address to the nation about the war with Iran and took a moment to comment on the state of the economy. The president said that Americans are currently enjoying “the strongest” economic conditions “in history” (a spectacularly wrong assertion) and that there’s “no inflation.” As the month came to an end, Peter Navarro, the White House’s top trade adviser, similarly boasted on Fox Business, “Inflation is going down.” [Maddowblog]

All of this increases the pressure most or all GOP candidates are feeling, as they take some of the blame for economic mismanagement by supporting President Trump. Will the GOP Senators and candidates competing for the Senate break ranks sooner rather than later, as this Politico article suggests? Or will their fear of being primaried hold them back until the primaries have passed? The latter seems a reasonable strategy.

… CONTACT WITH THE ENEMY

As in, No battle plan survives first contact …

In this case, the left had feared that the SAVE Act would be used to pressure Democratic voters to not vote in November.

Exactly two months ago, the president used his social media platform to promote a far-right legislative proposal that he called the Save America Act, which would make it harder for voters to register to vote, make it harder for voters to cast ballots and, for some reason, would also impose new discriminatory measures targeting transgender Americans. His March 8 missive was one of several online items related to the bill, except this one included a unique vow. [Steve Benen, Maddowblog]

To drive the point home:

“I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed,” Trump wrote.

But, as we all know, a picture Donald J. Trump is the very emblem of the Inconstancy Movement^[2], and The New Republic reports the SAVE Act is stuck in Senate. President Trump continues to sign bills, abating the pressure on the Senate to pass what the President thinks is one of his most important tools for winning in November.

The point is that the Senate is not entirely submissive to the will of President Trump. This can be seen both negatively and positively, of course; when the Senate GOP caucus continues to make ideologically-driven decisions that repulse most voters and appear to be based on misperceptions of reality, independents will recoil, while the Senate GOP caucus rebuffing the President may improve their standing.

But Trump’s control cracking isn’t good news for the far-right extremist squad.

AND THE LEFT HAS GASTRIC PRESSURES AS WELL

Former Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (D) is demonstrating how the Democrats are feeling their own internal pressure:

Endorsements are piling up in the race for Connecticut’s 1st Congressional District as [77 year old] U.S. Rep. John Larson and his three Democratic challengers seek to piece together critical support ahead of Monday’s nominating convention.

That scramble kicked off Thursday morning as former Hartford mayor Luke Bronin announced the endorsement he secured from Pete Buttigieg, the former U.S. secretary of Transportation and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. [Hartford Courant]

With a fracture across age, this could be a threat to wise leadership in both houses of the Federal Legislature, because wisdom is not a randomly distributed attribute of individuals, but a hoped-for result of years of learning and living; naturally, the oldsters have more opportunity to develop it than youngsters.

Balancing that is an oldster’s growing investment in the status quo, in having put so much time, energy, and wealth into a given system that it seems foolish to abandon it when it might be time to do exactly that.

Piling on, as this metaphor dissolves under the weight of reality, is the partially imaginary bond between the young voters and the young challengers, or, in some cases, young incumbents. Such enthusiasm can generate blindness to economic observations. For instance, now-Mayor Mamdani of New York City promised during his campaign to implement rent control. The price of rent control is that it makes the market for apartments far less attractive and thus discourages apartment construction, which then contributes to the reputation of such districts as being unlivable.

Will old voters vote for young candidates, especially if they are spouting what appears to be foolish proposals? How about the reverse? That’s the potential problem for Democrats.

THEN THERE’S THE POLLSTERS

This has been the week of dubious pollsters, it seems. I’ll be citing a few, especially for primary polling, but it’s at my discretion.

IN THE CENTER CIRCLE: AND THEN THE PRANCING PONIES CAME OUT RIDING ALIENS FROM MARS!

Wait for it, wait for it … ooops, the aliens canceled. Here’s a pointer to previous news, instead.

• 

  On The Issues: Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), “Hard-Core Conservative.”

  The Tuesday, 12 May primary in West Virginia yielded nominees incumbent Senator Shelley Moore Capito for the Republicans and Rachel Fetty Anderson for the Democrats.

  Capito’s performance seemed less than stellar, gaining only 66.5% of a small primary vote. This may suggest some dissatisfaction among Republican voters. While not as far-right as some of her colleagues, she is not a moderate, according to her On The Issues summation. In second place was Tom Willis (R), with what appears to be an identical summation.

  I may have said Capito was less than stellar, but then what adjective to apply to her general election challenger, lawyer Rachel Anderson? She only made it to 33% of the Democratic primary vote, and in terms of pure votes, Capito bested Anderson by more than double. Anderson apparently has no elective experience and is really going for the golden apple on her first try at election, which may explain her barely acceptable showing in the primary.

  Show me a respectable poll suggesting Capito is in trouble and I’ll pay attention, otherwise this appears to be Capito in a walk.

• 

  On The Issues: Senator Ricketts (R).

  Tuesday also saw the 2026 primary elections in Nebraska, which may be the most interesting of 2026. Incumbent Senator Ricketts (R) won with 80% of the primary vote, losing some 20 points to challengers.

  The competitors in the Democratic primary were Cindy Burbank and William Forbes, neither with legislative experience. Burbank won with 90% of the Democratic primary vote. Forbes, an anti-abortion pastor, was considered a Republican plant by many Democrats. Why would the Republicans plant one of their own in a Democratic primary, beyond the usual squirmy machinations?

  Because they accused Burbank of being a proxy for Dan Osborn (I-NE)! Osborn, if my reader might recall, ran in 2024 for the other Nebraska Senate seat, losing to Senator Fischer (R) by a 6+ point margin, which was not as close as hoped for by many independents and Democrats. Now he’s back, in an atmosphere more favorable to independents and Democrats, and Burbank’s victory is expected to be followed by her dropping out of the race and endorsing Osborn.

  Perhaps irrelevantly, the Democrats had more voters participating than Republicans. I agree that it’s not a good predictor for future performance, especially with Burbank allegedly dropping out, but it remains interesting. It could mean Nebraska Republicans have tired of Senator Ricketts and his far-right ideology, see the above and to the right summation of his political ideology. I still expect Ricketts to win again in November, but a good poll might change my mind.

  So is the latest Tavern Research poll that good poll? Beats me. I have no idea if Tavern Research would rank at the top or the bottom of FiveThirtyEight^[1] rankings, if FiveThirtyEight were still around. But here’s Tavern Research’s assessment, for what it’s worth:

  In Tavern’s latest Nebraska survey, Pete Ricketts beats every Democrat we tested. He loses to Dan Osborn.

  Against Osborn, Ricketts trails 42-47, with 12% undecided. Against Cindy Burbank, he wins 48-39. Against William J. Forbes, he wins 50-34. Against a generic Democrat — the cleanest test of the partisan baseline — he wins 49-42. Four ballots, same incumbent, same week. One of them looks competitive. Three of them don’t.

  As an independent, like myself, might expect:

  The driving factor to this is independents. Against Osborn, independents break 62-20 for the challenger. Against Burbank, they break 48-29. Against Forbes, 47-30. Against a generic Democrat, 54-28. Osborn isn’t picking up a few more independents than a Democrat would. He’s running 14 points stronger with them than the generic Democratic baseline, and roughly doubling Forbes’s margin with the same voters.

  All above bolds are original. I await further surveys, from better-known pollsters, with anticipation.

• The Texas primary run-off competitors, Senator Cornyn (R) and AG Paxton (R), continue to watch President Trump prance about, endorsement held high, as the latter continues to look for clues as to who of the former will be winning the run-off. Sure, that’s precisely backwards, but the state of Trump’s ego is such that endorsing the loser will grate horribly on his emotional well-being. Or perhaps by the time this is published he’ll have very definitely made a decision, and is just waiting for the right time to release the news.But there’s more: Senator Cornyn is taking advantage of his position:
  

  U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) today introduced the I-47 Future Interstate Act to designate US-287, which is the second-longest three-digit highway in the U.S. and runs from Port Arthur, Texas, to Choteau, Montana, as the future Interstate 47, otherwise known as Trump Interstate:

  “Texas is Trump Country, and this bill cements that legacy by designating nearly 1,800 miles of open-road from Texas’ Gulf Coast to the edge of the U.S.-Canadian border as I-47 to forever be remembered as Trump Interstate,” said Sen. Cornyn. “By upgrading one of our nation’s longest highways to a future interstate, this legislation will increase economic growth and improve safety, all while honoring the most consequential president of our lifetime.”

  For those readers unaware of the requirement that President Trump have his ego stroked at all times, this is a Stroke ’em if you got ’em maneuver. How will Cornyn’s challenger, the notorious AG Paxton (R-TX), clear this bar?

• I’ve mentioned Harper Polling only once before, as an apparently right-leaning pollster. That makes them interesting because, in their latest poll for the Senate seat available in North Carolina, they give former Governor Cooper (D) a 50% – 39% lead over former RNC Chairman Whatley (R). When your own pollsters are leaning against you, that’s a signal of troubled waters.
• In Alabama, Remington Research, with a mixed record, gives Rep and Trump-endorsee Moore (R) a 23%-20%-16% lead over Jared Hudson and state AG Marshall, respectively, in the Republican primary. However, they all trail the Undecideds category, at 36%, and so this race is very much up in the air. The primary election is next week; Judson and Marshall had best hurry if they have any clever tactics waiting in the wings.

  This is Alabama, so this statement should not, but does, surprise me: According to the poll, President Trump’s favorability among Alabama GOP primary voters sits at 84%, with just 11% unfavorable.The Democratic primary is not covered.

• While Wyoming is not considered a contested seat, presumed Republican nominee Representative Hageman (R) really blundered this week:
  

  Rep. Harriet Hageman has been among the most vocal of the SPLC’s critics and has steadfastly used the indictment to gaslight the nation about the organization. This was on full display during an interview she did recently with Winston Marshall, a former member of the band Mumford & Sons who now runs his own right-wing podcast.

  “The Aryan Nation, the Nazis, and the KKK are not far-right organizations,” Hageman told Marshall. “Those are far-left organizations, and they always have been. The KKK was created and started by the Democrats in the United States to prevent blacks from being able to participate in the political arena, if you will. So, I’m going to say they’ve never been associated with the right, they’ve always been associated with the left.” [Right Wing Watch]

  Voters greatly dislike being gaslit by politicians, and in a competitive contest I’d say she had just nailed herself in her own coffin.

  But not in Wyoming. More here.

• And in Iowa the Republican and Democratic primaries now consist of former Iowa State Senate member Jim Carlin and current US House Representative Ashley Hinson, endorsed by President Trump, for the Republicans, and Iowa State Senate members Josh Turek, who has been endorsed by VoteVets, and Zach Wahls; all other candidates have dropped out.

  The Iowa primary is scheduled for 2 June.

There are Senate primaries today in Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Oregon, so we’ll lop this Update off here. Maybe we can grill it. [EDIT: A big misread on my part. Of the listed States, only Louisiana had a primary last Saturday. The rest are on 19 May.]

¹ For readers new to the Web, FiveThirtyEight is a reference to a statistical analysis website founded by Nate Silver, concentrating on sports and politics. It included a section in which it ranked, based on results, the various political pollsters; it’s its last iteration used a 0 – 3 scale, if memory serves, in which The New York Times / Siena College was consistently at the top of the ratings. Disney bought FiveThirtyEight, and Silver left in 2023. Eventually, FiveThirtyEight was closed down.

² An entirely fictional organization, I can assure the concerned reader.

Radioligand:

A radioligand is a microscopic particle which consists of a therapeutic radioactive isotope and the cell-targeting compound — the ligand. The ligand is the target binding site; it may be on the surface of the targeted cancer cell for therapeutic purposes. [Wikipedia]

I’ve heard of ligands being used to convey various poisons to cancer, as a form of chemotherapy, but this one is new. Noted in “We need more radioactive drugs. Can we make them from nuclear waste?” Mark Peplow, NewScientist (25 April 2026; paywall):

The more recent buzz around radioactivity in medicine centres on something called radioligand therapy. This addresses the well-known problem with radiotherapy: it can damage healthy cells as well as tumours. The idea is to tether a radioactive atom to a molecule called a ligand that seeks out and binds to cancer cells. In this way, the drugs deliver a precise strike with fewer side effects.

So much better than the alternative. Enjoy!

Eustress:

It suggests that some stress might be beneficial. This idea actually dates back to the 1970s, when endocrinologist Hans Selye introduced the term “eustress” – or “good” stress, which leads to healthy, positive outcomes. While eustress and its opposite distress activate the same core physiological pathways, Selye argued that “eustress causes much less damage”. [“Why the right kind of stress is crucial for your health and happiness,” Helen Thomson, NewScientist (25 April 2026; paywall)]

This should not be surprising, at least for long-time readers:

Last week’s fact-free diatribe from Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., about the KKK supposedly being a leftist organization is a prime example. As I recently wrote, Republicans have used the Justice Department’s dubious indictment of the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center to falsely portray racist extremism, which the SPLC tracks and investigates, as either nonexistent or a liberal contrivance. This tactic mirrors rhetoric deployed by conservatives who sought to deny the threat of the KKK during its rise, or even its mere existence.[Ja’han Jones, MS-NOW]

The Republican Party has become populated by people who lean further and further right, and they do realize that organizations such as the ultra-conservative KKK, defender and devotee of the status quo of black servitude, have an undesirable reputation that will repel the critical independent voters.

What to do?

Blame the Democrats, and further left, for the invention of these classic ultra-conservative organizations.

Of course, when the Republican Party members sympathetic to these causes are caught mouthing the sentiments, they run the risk of being accused of being, well, Democrats. Sad for them.

But personally the day cannot be far off when the prosperity churches accuse Democrats and the left of using the Southern Baptist Convention as proxies for their devious plans.

Ahem.

President Trump was known for keeping his employees stirred up during his time in the private sector, with a few exceptions, so I suppose it’s not entirely surprising that another chunk is falling off the airplane administration in that he’s losing, or getting rid of, his Food and Drugs Administration Commissioner:

Marty Makary resigned as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, stepping aside amid a swirl of reports that his tenure was coming to an end over internal policy disagreements. …

CBS News and other outlets had reported in recent days that President Trump had signed off on a plan to fire him. Makary didn’t appear Monday in the Oval Office alongside the president and other top public health officials for an event on maternal health.

The thing about firing and reassigning and all that crap is that along with new responsibilities comes training and/or learning on the job, which takes time and money, both of which can be in short supply, especially given Trump’s tendency to spend on ego-gratification.

And then there’s this appalling little report from MS NOW:

A little more than an hour later, Trump posted what appears to be Makary’s resignation text to the president on his Truth Social account.

“It’s been the honor of a lifetime to serve as your FDA Commissioner,” the note said. “I am forever grateful.”

Ugh. Either the guy has no balls or it’s all a hoax.

Peurile:

ADJECTIVE

1. of or relating to a child or to childhood.
   Synonyms:
   juvenile, youthful
2. childishly foolish; immature or trivial.
   a puerile piece of writing. [Dictionary.com]

Yes, I did know the meaning; however, it’s an unusual word, and younger readers might be unfamiliar with it. Noted in “Trump’s U.N. ambassador says Iran ‘ceasefire’ is whatever Trump says it is,” Ja’han Jones, MS NOW:

Trump’s characterization of the so-called ceasefire with Iran is a prime example. Despite his suggestion Monday that it is “on life support,” it doesn’t seem to exist in the first place except in the president’s mind. Start with the fact that Trump has resisted calling the Iran war a “war” for what appear to be procedural reasons. The United States and Iran exchanged fire on Thursday, which apparently didn’t count. And similarly, Trump called U.S. strikes on Iran on Friday a “love tap,” suggesting he’s both hopelessly puerile for a man in his 80s and wary of the repercussions that may come with admitting the ceasefire has not ceased any of the firing.

The alleged assassination attempt on President Trump’s life at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner seems to be growing legs, and not the good sort of legs:

Source: WaPo

The breakdown:

To lighten your day.

Spudger:

A spudger (also known as a spludger or non-marring nylon black stick tool) is a tool used to separate pressure-fit plastic components without causing damage during separation. It has a wide flat-head screwdriver-like end that extends as a wedge, for easy insertion into narrow slots. [Wikipedia]

Man, how did I get to be mumblety-mumblety years old without ever hearing about spudgers!?! Oh, yeah, I’m a software guy. Noted in “Nintendo Wii DVD Drive Replacement,” David Hodson, IFIXIT:

Use a metal spudger to remove the white plastic screw covers stuck to the lower case near the front of the Wii.

And, yes, for the record I failed to repair the Wii, it flashes and dies when hitting the On button, and managed to screw the wrong screws into one place, they won’t come out, so I can’t try to fix whatever mistake it was I made.

Rep Tom Emmer (R-MN) has had a rough time with President Trump, especially when it comes to the race for Speaker of the House. Emmer was the official nominee of the Republicans for the position for a couple of hours, and then Trump brought the hammer down and, before Emmer even ascended to the chair, he was booted out.

Rather than taking revenge, he appears to be striving for our much-sought after nomination:

Emmer: "Donald Trump has never been stronger. He's become more than Donald Trump. He is an icon of the ages. When he speaks, people listen."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-05-06T13:55:00.159Z

Emmer: “Donald Trump has never been stronger. He’s become more than Donald Trump. He is an icon of the ages. When he speaks, people listen.”

An icon of the ages? Crazy. Perhaps known as the worst President of the United States, but that’s really a statement for historians fifty years from now.

Or is he setting Trump up for a revenge shot, metaphorical of course, heard ’round the world? I dunno about that. I remember when he was running for Minnesota governor and was uttering balderdash about restaurant servers making plenty of money. He’s not too bright.

Carceral:

“pertaining to prisons or a prison,” 1570s, from Latin carceralis, from carcer “prison, jail; starting place in a race course, enclosed space,” from Proto-Italic *kar-kr(o)-, which is of uncertain origin (see incarceration). [etymonline]

Hmmmmm. Proto-Italic? Haven’t run across that one before. Noted in “My politically homeless views,” Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring:

What’s worse, this cruelty is somewhat arbitrary because part of the badness of being in prison is that you’re subject to the capricious will of the guards and (even worse) of your fellow inmates. This overall results in a bad situation where de facto punishment is being meted out to offenders in part by the state but also in part by other incarcerated people in a way that empowers prison gangs and undermines the purposes of the carceral system.

NAKED POLITICS AND ITS REPULSIVE FIELD

Many Americans have an innate sense of fairness, and are often repulsed when politicians attempt to manipulate the system in a manner that might be considered improper. When I saw this in WaPo,

Supreme Court clears path for Louisiana to redraw map in redistricting fight

with this content

… I had to wonder how many moderate Republicans and independents will, in reaction to naked Republican power-hoarding, withdraw their support from extremist candidates and either not participate, or protest-vote for independents or even Democrats. This may stir up non-participating voters as well, as neighbors and family add this element to their attempts to bring those non-participants out to vote.

Backfire? Maybe, maybe not. It’s a difficult consequence to predict, and perhaps obviated by the gerrymandering that stirs it up.

You! You Don’t Have The Defiance!

Some Democrats are dissatisfied with Senator Schumer’s (D-NY) party leadership, according to this MS NOW report:

Schumer first recruited [former Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown] to run for the Senate two decades ago, and the former senator remains the party’s strongest prospect in a state where Democrats have long struggled. His nomination reflects Schumer’s calculated strategy of backing candidates with proven crossover appeal, such as former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.

But that cautious formula has sparked blowback from progressives who argue that Schumer has misread the political moment.

Schumer “has an idea of what voters want that’s stuck in 1996,” Amanda Litman, co-founder of the progressive group Run For Something, told NOTUS, adding that he is “deeply removed from the anger that people feel.”

It’s an aphorism that the power-hungry blow up things in order to get the attention that’ll let them scale the heights, and accusing your party leadership of being ineffective is certainly one way to boom things.

But is it justified? Senator Schumer, in alliance with Speaker Pelosi (D-CA), beat the crap out of President Trump in his first term; since then, Speaker Pelosi resigned as Speaker, and has announced her retirement from the House at the end of this term. Part of her power came from being Speaker, so if the Democrats can continue a well-documented rally of special elections into the November general election, Schumer should be able to ally himself with presumed Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Such an alliance, as natural as it sounds, can be unusual, as Senators often see themselves as apart from their brethren in the House. Some Founding Fathers even based the governmental structure they developed on that prediction.

But Schumer may have limitations:

The limits of Schumer’s approach were on display last week in Maine. Gov. Janet Mills, whom Schumer recruited to challenge Sen. Susan Collins, dropped out of the primary after failing to keep pace with the fundraising of populist newcomer Graham Platner. It was a stinging defeat for the Democratic establishment, which had hoped Mills’ executive experience would neutralize Platner’s grassroots momentum.

The question is whether this is an unbreachable wall, or a mistake suggesting a problem in his judgment that can be corrected. The latter is one of the features of being an adult.

On the other side of the equation are the progressives yammering for power, as embodied by Litman, from the above quote. Long-time readers are well-aware that I view the strategy of transgender advocates to advance their cause to be profoundly flawed, contributing to the Republican victory of 2024, and creating a group of independents who view the Democrats and the left with deep, if not always perceptive, skepticism. Since then, it’s not been clear to me that progressives recognized and corrected their mistake; nor do Democrats, although Governor Newsom (D-CA) and Rep Moulton (D-MA) have made noises that at least indicate some awareness of this sinkhole of a blunder.

Add to that a progressive inclination towards being a purist, much like the far-right, and I have doubts about the judgment of progressives. I could be wrong, sure, but that’s how I’m reading this today.

Following in their Footsteps

The sand is about a foot deep and conceals many creatures that want to nip at your heels. Run.

• This is not a good look for a Senate candidate:
  

  Republican U.S. Senate candidate Royce White is subject to a no-contact order after a Minnesota judge ruled there was credible evidence of threats of harm toward his ex-wife and one of two children they have together.

  In court filings, White is accused of making numerous threats and being both physically and verbally abusive toward his former partner and their teenaged son. He refutes the allegations and is appealing judicial findings in the case, telling MPR News on Thursday the order is a “substantial miscarriage of justice” and “excessively punitive.” [MPR News]

  It being Minnesota, Mr. White (R), no relation, had little chance of beating either Lt Governor Flanagan (D) or Rep Craig (D), who I perceive to be the leading Democratic candidates, assuming he’d won his primary – and that’s no sure thing. Now his chances are even less. Primaries are Aug 11. Minnesota GOP Chairman Alex Plechash might be well-advised to focus on the gubernatorial race, which features Minnesota House Speaker Lisa DeMuth (R) and may be winnable due to Governor Walz’s (D) ill-handling of the fraud in food assistance, and ignore the Senate race, which lacks distinguished names on the GOP side.

  There’s also a bad look for MPR News here. Refutes is emphatically not the right word, since no evidence is offered, nor court order cited; denies, or a synonym, is the appropriate word. Hire back your copy-editors, management, they make you look smart!

• Kansas may, or may not, suddenly have a race on its hands. Entering into a Democratic primary mostly made up of inexperienced names of no familiarity, with the exceptions of state Senator Patrick Schmidt (D) and city council (Wellington) member Michael Soetaert (D), comes the Rev. Adam Hamilton:
  

  The pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the U.S. launched a campaign Thursday for the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas, upending the race in a normally Republican state as the GOP’s small majority seems less secure than it was a year ago.

  The Rev. Adam Hamilton enters the race as a potentially formidable candidate, though it appears likely that at least a few of the eight other, lesser-known Democrats who previously launched campaigns would remain in the Aug. 4 primary. The winner will face incumbent Republican Roger Marshall, who aligned himself closely with President Donald Trump in his first run for the Senate in 2020. [AP]

  Rev Hamilton has no experience with electoral office, but he does have this:

  Hamilton, 61, has a national following among mainline Protestants, and he’s built his Church of the Resurrection over the past 35 years in the Kansas City area with about 22,000 members — giving him a base from which to tap volunteers and donors.

  Unless he has a poor local reputation, I expect he’ll win the primary. If he can also win the support of Kansas Democrats, he’ll have a shot against Senator Marshall (R), who will bear the burden of being an avid Trump supporter. Kansas has had a Democratic governor for a while, and that may give an added boost to the Democrats, assuming Gov Kelly (D) doesn’t commit an unforced error. The combination of a Democratic governor (her On The Issues summation is unavailable, but captions as Moderate Liberal) and a cleric who seems unlikely to be a lefty extremist may play very well against Senator Marshall (R), rated as a Hard-Core Conservative, if Kansas voters disapprove of the circus playing out in our Nation’s capital.

  Looking at FiftyPlusOne, I see a poll by Tavern Research, an unfamiliar pollster, so their result showing Rev Hamilton leading Senator Marshall is untrustworthy at present. It does suggest Rev Hamilton at least has a chance.

• Speaking of Senator Schumer’s party leadership – it’s up in the intro section, I’ll wait while you look – it seems a candidate for the to-be-open Michigan Senate seat thinks Schumer’s endorsement is a disastrous burden to bear:
  

  … Michigan Senate hopeful Mallory McMorrow pivoted to social media to remind voters of her defiance, noting she was “the only candidate in this race” who said she would not support Schumer as Democratic leader. The Michigan state senator is currently locked in a brutal three-way primary against former health official Abdul El-Sayed and the Schumer-backed Rep. Haley Stevens. [MS NOW]

  I have to wonder how many voters pay attention to party leaders, although I suppose President Trump is a larger than life leader for a lot of voters. The problem for politicians, and folks in many others walks of life, is that their circle includes many that are just like them. Soon enough, something that is significant to them and their group, but insignificant to others, leaks out because they forget they’re not necessarily talking to their group. Social media being what it is, and the fact that it’s quoted, suggests this wasn’t a private communication, but of a public character. So this announcement may have little impact.

  In other news, former Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) has endorsed Rep Stevens.

  Recall that Emerson College, on the last report, had Stevens down by 9 points. Will this continue? The Michigan primary is 4 Aug.

• In Kentucky, Rep Andy Barr (R-KY) has received President Trump’s endorsement, and receiver of Elon Musk’s largess, Nate Morris, has dropped out of the Republican primary. The name Musk is not magical. Will Trump’s name be a drag on Barr? Maybe not in Kentucky.

  Primaries are 19 May. Barr should win his primary. In the Democratic primary, Charles Booker was last reported to have a lead, but polls are scarce.

• Emerson College has a poll out showing Massachusetts Senator Markey (D) has a 37% – 32% lead over Rep Moulton (D). It appears progressives’ allergy to Moulton doesn’t apply to all likely Democratic primary voters, and I’m surprised Senator Markey’s in trouble, as incumbents are rarely in trouble, and Senator Markey is not, to best of my knowledge, plagued by crippling scandals. In the last report I noted University of New Hampshire Polling gave Markey a comfortable lead, which was 46% – 33%. Has the passage of less than a month changed voter preferences that much? Or has one of these highly respected pollsters made a mistake?
• Last Tuesday the winners of their primaries in Ohio were former Senator Sherrod Brown (D) and incumbent Senator Jon Husted (R). The latter, unopposed, gathered nearly twice as many votes as did the former. Democrats were bored with the contest? Sherrod took nearly 90% of the ballots, so there’s little question that he’s the selection. But can he win after this paltry primary turnout?
• In Georgia two polls by dubious or unknown pollsters agree that Rep Collins (R) leads by around 10 points in the Republican primary, but Undecided is still a larger percentage of the likely primary voters.
• A University of Houston poll is giving AG Paxton (R) a 48% – 45% lead over incumbent Senator Cornyn (R) in the Texas Republican primary run-off. Such a tight race must be giving President Trump the night sweats, as he has yet to bestow an endorsement. Democratic nominee James Talarico probably feels he can beat either one the Republicans.
• In Virginia Public Sentiment Institute suggests that Senator Warner (D) will easily defeat any of the Republicans registered in the primary. Problem is, I have no idea who Public Sentiment Institute might be.
• Finally, this message from Lauren Egan of The Bulwark sounds quite unlikely:
  

  THE MERE SUGGESTION that Democrats could win the Mississippi Senate race this cycle can produce dismissive eyerolls. (Trust me, I’ve seen it often enough from my editor.)

  But as I’ve been talking with party officials and operatives over the past few months, no race is as regularly mentioned, or elicits as much excitement, as this one. They argue that circumstances are converging to flip a state that Donald Trump won by a 23-point margin: There is a charismatic Democrat [Scott Colom] at the top of the ticket, the state’s large black population is being mobilized, and there is a generationally weak Republican incumbent. As longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, who lives part-time along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, put it to me: “It would take a unique set of circumstances, but we just might be operating under a unique set of circumstances.”

  Uh huh. My last known relative living in Mississippi died almost a decade ago, and I’ve not visited since I was a kid, so I’m not really qualified to judge the atmosphere down there. Show me a respectable poll. And keep that mad humidity OFF of me.

A DREADED WORD

There’s a word, lethal to majority political parties, that’ll cause their balloons to deflate with a hideous racket. It’s being noised about by a traditional American corporation:

Whirlpool has a word for what’s happening to its business. Two, actually, and both of them are “recession.”

On the company’s first-quarter earnings call Wednesday, CEO Marc Bitzer and North America president Juan Carlos Puente both reached for the same term to describe what the war in Iran has done to U.S. appliance demand. Industry shipments fell 7.4% in the first quarter, with March alone plunging 10%. “This level of industry decline is similar to what we have observed during the global financial crisis and even higher than during other recessionary periods,” Bitzer told analysts.

Puente, describing the segment’s results, said the North America business experienced “recession-level industry contractions, with discretionary demand down approximately 15%.” [Fortune via yahoo!finance]

This adds to the pressure on Republican politicians, on the ballot or not. This is especially so because, unlike many recessions that are difficult to trace, or are due to legislative actions best blamed on a small group of legislators, this one is due to the actions of the American President and his legislative allies who, being unprepared amateurs who thought the job of President and/or legislator will be easy, instead are discovering governance, unlike being critics as many were beforehand, is bloody hard.

Will the American electorate give them the benefit of the doubt and not punish the Republicans?

I doubt it. The current crop of critics, regardless of political position or lack thereof, has not failed to make its critiques of President Trump’s actions heard, whether it’s to call tariffs a domestic tax, predict mass layoffs of Federal workers will lead to government inefficiency, bombing Iran will run counter to the goals of the President, or any of a host of other actions. The Republicans have repeatedly backed him, too, and that makes them …

CULPABLE.

Yes, the Democrats do have a collection of problems. Much like the Republicans, they seem to have lost their guidebook to how democracies work, anointing Kamala Harris in, admittedly, a bad circumstance, lying vociferously concerning President Biden’s mental health (again, kudos to former Rep Dean Phillips (D-MN) for trying to get the word out), and using vicious bullying tactics when advocating for the transgender, rather than following American tradition by starting a debate on the subject.

But the Democrats also have a lot of competency when it comes to American governance, even if some of their policies are questionable. This makes them a logical, if distasteful, choice, and I think many Americans will make that choice.

I just recalled that I promised to give the name of the shop that built my new computer, who I managed to sweet talk into installing Fedora rather than Windows – your mileage may vary, it’s not an advertised service – and that name is … Computer Repair & Services, located in Stillwater, MN, and other locations in Wisconsin. While I can’t speak to longevity, so far Fedora’s run well, with just one hang involving BOINC, and they installed various packages for me.

My only complaint is that running public computing is problematic because doing so activates a loud fan, and I don’t have this box hiding in a server room, it’s sitting on a shelf next to me. I’ve been working with them on this question.

Relevantly, this mail came in a few minutes ago, from which I will clip:

We’re reaching out today to let you know that we’ll have a price increase on June 1st.

Our prices will increase 10-13% on products and services, and there will be a 3% credit card fee on every transaction moving forward. You might notice a difference the next time you do business with us, so we wanted to share the exact reasons why:

The expansion of AI data centers has spiked hardware and component costs by roughly 15% in many cases.Additionally, RAM prices have more than doubled, and computer prices have risen by 30% since 2025.

If you’re looking for a computer beyond standard configurations, or soon will be, and are price-sensitive, you might wish to reach out sooner rather than later.

I’ve noticed there’s not much news on Ukraine these days, what with our provincial concerns taking priority, and I’ve been neglecting my primary source of Ukraine news due to a burned out computer, work, surgeries, and Spring popping.

But not former Representative, column writer, and MS NOW television host Joe Scarborough (R-FL, but now an independent, I believe), he’s keeping up.

And in perhaps the most surreal twist of this still-unfolding historical drama, it was Zelenskyy on social media yesterday who assured the frightened Russian defense minister that Kyiv would not attack Moscow during its annual World War II victory parades held today and tomorrow in the Russian capital.

Zelenskyy does, in fact, have many cards left to play against Putin.

And recently, through true grit and technological superiority, Ukrainians have drawn an inside straight while Trump is left dealing with a strait of another kind — one keeping U.S. troops in Iran far longer than the commander in chief anticipated.

Putin and Trump thought they would easily prevail in quick wars against overmatched opponents. What they didn’t count on was a technological revolution in asymmetric warfare that has radically shifted power dynamics on the global stage — and left Putin’s dream of military success on the ash heap of history.

It’s all about evolutionary pressures, baby. Place a species or a society under harsh, existential pressure, and it’s evolve to survive that pressure, or die. Too much pressure and it dies; too little, and it survives with no changes. But in a specific range, enough change can occur, and the speed at which species can change sometimes surprises evolutionary biologists; societies can often change even faster.

The United States is not under existential threat from Iran, and so the speed and clarity of evolutionary change doesn’t happen. Oh, it changes – lessons of static technology leading to disaster abound throughout history. Society, in its military and other sectors, can change. But the power structures of an unthreatened society tend to freeze societies in their successful forms, right up until they’re not successful anymore, and sometimes beyond.

Iran sees itself under existential threat, or more properly its government does, and it’s burdened with a self-perception of being a Great Power, and has been so burdened for centuries. Therefore, it’s been on the lookout for military advances which may not have been adopted, yet, by the United States.

And the Ukraine is also under existential threat of a very immediate sort, and, having been part of the Soviet Union, does not want to be part of Russia, as that result in disaster for the Ukrainian people. But Russia? Well, they seem to be driving themselves towards an existential crisis; such are the results of arrogant leaders, like President Putin.