Category Archives: Uncategorized

Ya gotta wonder if these are accurate or on the low side:

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in May, after rising 0.6 percent in April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 4.2 percent before seasonal adjustment.

The index for energy rose 3.9 percent in May, after rising 3.8 percent in April and 10.9 percent in March. The energy index accounted for over sixty percent of the monthly all items increase. The index for shelter also increased in May, rising 0.3 percent. The food index increased 0.2 percent over the month as the food at home index rose 0.1 percent and the food away from home index increased 0.3 percent.

The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in May. Indexes that increased over the month include communication, airline fares, medical care, personal care, and recreation. Conversely, the indexes for motor vehicle insurance, household furnishings and operations, and new vehicles were among the major indexes that decreased in May.

The all items index rose 4.2 percent for the 12 months ending May, after rising 3.8 percent for the 12 months ending April. The all items less food and energy index rose 2.9 percent over the year, following a 2.8-percent increase over the 12 months ending April. The energy index increased 23.5 percent for the 12 months ending May. The food index increased 3.1 percent over the last year.

4.2% inflation will surely impact everyone who lives from paycheck to paycheck, the house-poor, in short everyone who has freely imbibed of the American teaching to buy everything in sight!

Cauchy horizon:

The Cauchy horizon is the spot where determinism breaks down, where the past no longer determines the future. Physicists, including Penrose, have argued that no observer could ever pass through the Cauchy horizon point because they would be annihilated.

As the argument goes, as an observer approaches the horizon, time slows down, since clocks tick slower in a strong gravitational field. As light, gravitational waves and anything else encountering the black hole fall inevitably toward the Cauchy horizon, an observer also falling inward would eventually see all this energy barreling in at the same time. In effect, all the energy the black hole sees over the lifetime of the universe hits the Cauchy horizon at the same time, blasting into oblivion any observer who gets that far. [“Some black holes erase your past,” Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley News]

I’ve read about black holes all my life, but Cauchy horizon? New to me. Noted in “The hidden pockets of the universe where the future can cause the past,” Leah Crane, NewScientist (30 May 2026, paywall):

You’re falling into a black hole. Somehow, you’ve managed to protect yourself from the spaghettification that’s happening to every object around you as the black hole’s powerful gravity pulls on the near end of each object more than the far end, stretching everything into noodles before shredding it to pieces. Maybe you’ve got some sort of high-tech compression suit holding you together; congratulations on your invention. As you pass the event horizon, the point of no return, all you see is blackness punctuated by streaks of light falling towards the singularity at the heart of the cosmic behemoth. Your impossible suit also protects you from those streaks, which would otherwise be ripping through your molecules at near-light speed.

And then you pass a second, lesser-known horizon, and time and space switch places. This second boundary is called the Cauchy horizon; if they exist within black holes, their insides are the strangest places in the universe.

Here’s NGC1514 – planetary nebula.

NGC1514.

ADMIN

Apologies, hand, surgery, etc.

JUST BELOW THE BLOODIED SURFACE

The Bulwark’s Lauren Egan makes the case that Democratic candidates – moderate Democrats – are making a comeback:

So much of the narrative this election cycle is that Democratic voters just want to cast out the old guard. And while operatives are busy fixating on the attention economy or debating candidates’ morality, it turns out that plain vanilla Democratic politics may actually be working.

“What Iowa, North Carolina, Alaska are telling us is that the recipe is actually pretty simple: You find candidates with long, deep relationships in those states who understand those states, and then you let them run campaigns that are focused on those states rather than trying to nationalize everything,” said Caitlin Legacki, a party strategist who is working with Schumer-backed Rep. Haley Stevens in the Michigan Senate primary.

Always fractious, Democrats have debated how best to campaign while Trump occupies the White House, having argued about it since the earliest days of his first term. But this perennial argument has taken on added significance as the Platner saga rumbles on. Disagreements that were once about campaign strategy have turned into fights over whether key issues or candidate morality even matter at all.

The contrast is remarkable. As Platner’s defenders have invested themselves in making him an avatar of a new type of populist politics, other Democrats running for Senate have been strikingly conventional. Cooper, the 68-year-old former North Carolina governor well-known in his home state, put out a no-thrills bio ad this week that was so colorless it borders on parody.

Radicals of all sorts hate to be pushed away from the sweet, corrupting taste of power, so look for the far left’s cancel culture tactics to continue as moderate Democrats begin pushing issue positions incompatible with Democratic general election victories out of the Party. This includes several issues surrounding transgenderism of the young, such as child surgeries, language imperialism^[1], and dubious, at least to the average voter, sexual teachings^{[see 1 again]}; defunding the police; identity politics; abrogation of the basic tenets of liberal democracy; and other attention-getters that are ultimately viewed negatively by voters.

If they don’t, the Democrats run the risk of becoming an irrelevancy, replaced by a more moderate Party.

Yes, that applies to the Republicans as well. Even moreso.

THE FUMBLING ABOUT CONTINUES

GOP Senate candidates are beginning to move away from the President, as they sense he’s toxic to their job prospects:

While Senate GOP leaders successfully quashed much of that dissent, the days of bitter wrangling exposed cracks in Trump’s base of support on Capitol Hill. There is now a growing chorus of Republicans — and not just the usual defectors — willing to defy him as they seek to rein in his pursuit of his agenda, ranging from projects like the White House ballroom and exacting political retribution on his enemies to his handling of the Iran war and other foreign policy issues. The trend is only expected to accelerate as the November elections approach, with contentious fights ahead like Trump’s push to confirm his controversial expected pick to lead the Department of Justice. [CNN]

So much for dominating the businessmen/jellyfish he arranged to have elected. And …

“The negotiations are at a deadlock and (US President Donald) Trump must break this deadlock,” Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN in an exclusive interview in Tehran. “The ball is in Trump’s court.”

Iran has reportedly demanded the release of $12 billion in frozen funds as soon as an interim agreement is signed with the US, and another $12 billion at a later stage.

US officials are concerned that any unfreezing of funds at this stage could remove a key leverage point over the regime. Trump has demanded that any agreement appear far stronger than the nuclear deal struck in 2015, and to avoid anything that could be construed as handing over “pallets of cash,” a phrase he has invoked to criticize then-President Barack Obama’s decision to give Tehran financial compensation. [CNN]

I expect the Iranians will dig in their heels until Trump rolls over for them, because that’s what he does. GOP Senate candidates will have to work the tightrope of infuriated independent voters and infuriated MAGA voters if they hope to win, and that’ll be a trick.

CURVE BALLS GALORE

Last week was a slider, I think.

• All eyes are on Maine as their primary approaches, and now that upstart oyster farmer kGraham Platner (D) nearly has the Democratic Senate nomination in his grasp, will it slip away? This is not encouraging for Platner fans:
  

  Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner denied some of the new wave of allegations during an interview Thursday with MS NOW’s Chris Hayes, his first national interview following a New York Times report detailing his past relationships.

  The interview came hours after the Times report detailed accounts from several women who had been romantically involved with Platner. The report, based on interviews with more than two dozen people, including six former romantic partners, described sharply different experiences with the Democrat.

  “There are some allegations in this piece that I just want to be kind of unequivocal about, are simply not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was, these are the statements of someone who’s politically motivated,” Platner said to Hayes. [MS NOW]

  Senator Hassan (D-NH) is alarmed:

  Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) on Graham Platner amid latest allegations: “Reports of threatening behavior and antisemitism like the ones made against Graham Platner are serious and deserve scrutiny. It’s also critical to acknowledge how difficult this is for the women who’ve come forward. Character matters now more than ever, and any high-profile campaign including Mr. Platner’s involves the close examination of a candidate’s history, statements and behavior, as well as the candidate’s reaction to the pressure that such examination entails. Ultimately the people of Maine will decide who has the character and judgment to best represent them.”

  Progressives may howl over the press reports – “traitors” might be the word du jour – but warts and all is apropos for reportage here. As noted in an earlier post, Platner’s primary competition, Governor Mills (D), hasn’t actually withdrawn from the ballot, and she could still be chosen as nominee, either by voters or by default. The last poll result I’ve seen for the Democratic primary was from the University of New Hampshire and gave Platner a 76% – 10% lead over Gov Mills, and that’s no typo. That’d be a heckuva comeback for Mills, and should scare the bejeesus out of Senator Collins (R).

  Finally, highly respected UMass-Lowell has Platner up 48%-43% over incumbent Senator Collins, but this poll may have been conducted prior to these allegations.

• The Citadel Poll suggests Senator Graham’s (R) lead in the South Carolina is only ten points, 46% – 36%, over businessman Mark Lynch (R), who does not seem to have any experience in electoral politics. If accurate, that’s a surprise, but The Citadel Poll is unfamiliar to me. A quick glance at Lynch’s website reveals a cookie-cutter far-right platform.
• Any problem with passing that on verbaThe same poll gives inexperienced Annie Andrews (D), MD, a 45% share of the potential Democratic primary votes, followed by Undecided at 36% and Brandon Brown (D) at 14%. Her On The Issues summation right/above seems based on little data, so I’m not inclined to ask the question, Do South Carolinians really want to vote for someone so far left?
• Maybe he just shouldn’t talk to anyone in Texas. The headline says it all:
  

  Ken Paxton’s Impeachment Defense Lawyer Endorses James Talarico

• Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has scored an endorsement from the UAW in the race for the open Michigan Senate seat.
• Ya know, I would have guessed any Senate campaign spending records would have been set in Texas. What do I know?
  

  South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has morphed from one of President Donald Trump’s fiercest Republican critics into one of his closest allies, is spending money like he’s in political trouble.

  Graham has spent an astounding $27 million on his reelection campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings, and that’s even before his primary next week. His five GOP opponents — none of whom has a high statewide profile ― combined have spent less than a fifth of that. [HuffPost]

  Senator Graham seems safe enough in South Carolina, at least to me. Him in trouble would indicate either MAGA out of control, or moderate Republicans having had enough of him.

• I have no idea who Colorado Community Research might be, although this Wikipedia page references them as aligned with the Democratic Party, so get out your salt shakers:
  

  [Former Gov and current Democratic Senator] Hickenlooper leading Gonzales 38–30 among likely voters

  Colorado Community Research polling reveals a highly fluid race with a surprisingly uncommitted electorate ahead of the June 30 primary.

  A new statewide survey of likely Democratic primary voters reveals a surprising dynamic: despite John Hickenlooper’s status as a known political quantity, a massive swath of the Colorado electorate remains undecided.

  

  On The Issues: Mark Baisley (R-CO).

  That does seem a bit surprising. As it happens, Senator Hickenlooper and Gonzales, a Colorado State Senator, are the only two surviving entrants in the Democratic primary. The Republican primary is down to one, a Colorado State Senator named Mark Baisley. The primary is 30 June.

• Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) is emphasizing corruption in the Republican Party in his campaign, such as this lovely campaign ad. It’s worth remembering that most candidates are lawyers, who can sometimes seem disconnected from the electorate. Senator Ossoff comes from a journalism background in which he helped create documentaries, among other projects, which means he remains connected to the electorate, and can communicate effectively with voters. Having seen that campaign ad, I won’t be surprised if he wins in a rout, given the apparent corruption of President Trump and likely opponent Rep Collins (R).
• Today’s Senate primary elections are in Maine and South Carolina, both Republican seats.

¹Andrew Sullivan doesn’t use the phrase, but cites Gov Hochul (D-NY): ”“gestating parent” and “non-gestating parent.””, to which I can only say, really, Guv’nr? Sorry, Andrew’s site is behind a paywall.

The President is often – always, perhaps – influenced by visuals, and Director of Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte, now appointed acting national intelligence director while having no applicable experience, certainly has a certain intensity which may impress those who think, well, central casting matters in government hiring. But let’s have Rep Himes (D-CT) have a say:

That’s – that’s not the way this works, right? The president needs to sober up and realize that this appointment is arguably, in the – in the – you know, you know, basket of awful appointments he has made, this is probably the worst and most dangerous.

Ouch, but it’s worrisome when a man who campaigned for the President’s attention through accusations of mortgage fraud against political adversaries of the President. We want competent, knowledgeable administrators in positions like DNI, not power-hungry hitmen who specialize in … their looks.

The Democats are refusing to back renewal of the controversial FISA program while Pulte is acting DNI. This will cause a stir and a half.

Slime down the cleavage. Must be a violation of the Geneva Convention.

The Slime People (1963) starts off well enough, as Tom, who’s been out of touch, is flying his small plane into an airport in 1950s or 1960s Los Angeles. Once down, he discovers, to his surprise, mostly empty buildings and bodies, with a couple of bands of survivors to keep things interesting.

Oh. And hunchy aliens with, uh,  spears.

Tom runs into Professor Galbraith and his two daughters, and the story nosedives into the ground right there. My Arts Editor insists the daughters, who are ’bout marryin’ age, are wenches, a term I’ve not heard in decades. They are certainly a waste of screen and time, racing about with kissy faces and messing up their interactions with the aliens. It’s ruination.

Which is too bad. Tom is fun; a Marine survivor of an attack on the aliens provides some lovely misguided get up and go; and the aliens are mildly silly, too. The actors play it straight, and there’s a plot in there, too.

But, overall, this is a slimy experience. Especially for the cast, some of whom were shorted on their pay.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker does what the press should have done from the start of Trump’s runs for the White House – confront all the lies:

Trump appeared to become agitated when Welker asked him about the $1.8 billion fund he has sought to pay people claiming they were victims of politicized prosecutions. The Justice Department agreed to set up the fund to settle the president’s lawsuit against the IRS, but officials backed off amid court challenges and pushback from Republican senators.

The president said on “Meet the Press” that he still wanted to establish the fund.

“If it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve,” he said. “If they get it approved, that’s great. If they don’t get it approved, I’d be disappointed.”

Welker pressed Trump specifically on whether the 172 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 attack would be eligible for money. Trump declined to rule it out, arguing that FBI agents invited the rioters inside the Capitol and that people pleaded guilty only because they were afraid of harsher sentences.

Welker pointed out that there is no evidence of FBI agents ushering rioters inside the Capitol. The Justice Department’s inspector general found that four FBI informants entered the building, but not at officials’ direction, and no on-duty agents were on the Capitol grounds that day until some responded to help subdue the riot.

“The people were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization,” Trump said. “Many of those people should be compensated.” [WaPo]

And then he went on to his favorite myths: rigged elections, mail-in ballots, etc, and she held firm.

Then he cut off the interview.

The title of this video:

He Captions a Border Force Ship, She Runs the Circus at Home! | Love It Or List It Australia

Shoulda been Captains. Provokes odd visuals in my head.

Our weather forecast seems solidly summer-like, so I declare we’re in summer. So does my mass of weeds – and me with a hand in a cast.

So enjoy this, instead.

Orange Azalea.

Bee with Grass and Indigo.

Perennial Poppy bloom.

Irises on a bed of dead leaves.

My condolences to DJT investors, because it continues to have problems since the last report two weeks ago, when it was at $7.94.

That looks better, right? But look at the chart movement in this one month chart. It jumps all the way to $9.40 before crashing back down, and it may not be done yet. Indeed, it almost looks like an attempted market manipulation.

Along with that is $TRUMP, the President’s memecoin, or grifting coin. Here’s a 24 hour chart from last Friday.

That implied loss of confidence may presage the future of DJT. And while Bitcoin did not fall as far on Friday, today it’s just a smidge over $60,000/coin, while a week ago it was just short of $74,000/coin. Remember DJT’s “treasury” of cryptocurrency? It’s gotta be a bit deflated.

In the end, I do hope my reader avoided these two financial instruments.

Prom went poorly this year, dear?

The Wicked of Oz (2026) is an odd collage of tropes: contemporary swipes such as smartphones, The Wizard of Oz and its many offspring, Night of the Living Dead franchise, and a pack of young men who seem deprived of any common sense. It’s weird, and the script would have benefited from one or two more drafts, if only to eliminate some plot holes that bothered me. The climactic battle was particularly ridiculous.

But mix in some competent acting, some good cinematic music, the use of tomatoes in place of shotgun shells, and it was actually surprisingly good. The actors play it straight, and it works. I’m not going out on a rotting limb and recommending a viewing, but sometimes I go into a movie wondering if I’ll last until the end, and, instead, I enjoy myself, if not entirely, at least in part. An example of previous movies of this type includes Predators (2010). And, to some extent, this movie, The Wicked of Oz, falls into the same category.

Kudos to what felt like a student-made film.

Accelerate, sir?

Source: YouGov

Just think of it as the percentage of citizens who do not live in Trump’s magic land of dementia-magnificence. It’s growing, and growing fast.

(My apologies for typos.)

Back in the 2007-2008 timeframe, I recall feeling we were coming to a crescendo of madness. I had discrete reasons for doing so, ranging over several years, which I’ll try to list here, although some have faded from memory:

• The Pets.com fiasco, with that ridiculous Super Bowl commercial;
• The financial irresponsibility of Congress in the sessions of 2001-2006 (107th – 109th) as they plunged America into debt;
• The revocation of the Glass-Steagall Act and the consequent concentration of great wealth and great foolishness;
• The dot-com-bubble, and its popping;
• The pretextual Iraq War perpetrated by a GOP administration that promptly engaged in Abu Ghraib torture sessions and lied about it;
• Republicans stating that Geo. Bush was God’s pick to be President;
• The financial excesses of Countrywide Financial and other such institutions.

The world seemed to be coming apart at its metaphorical seams.

At the end of all that, and more, what happened? The Great Recession. A lot of wealth disappeared as speculators lost their shirts and America lost its honor.

How are things today?

• The laboriously negotiated JCPOA canceled by a jealous GOP;
• Russia invades Ukraine without provocation;
• War drone development;
• America bombs Iran without provocation;
• COVID-19 reminded us that a plague could reduce us horifically, while nitwits run around screaming conspiracy theories;
• The American political system is populated by parties that have forgotten how America works;
• America’s President is suffering from dementia and his own Party won’t admit to it;
• Ditto the previous President;
• Back to the current President, he, his staff, and his entire Cabinet appear to be grifters and liars;
• Republicans earnestly state that Donald J. Trump is God’s pick to be President – once again, God hates the United States;
• Market capitalizations in excess of $1 trillion observed;
• LLM AI systems of dubious worth has the corporate world galloping about in terror like wildebeests surrounded by lions;
• A $500 million bill for a month’s worth of use of the Claude LLM AI is rumored;
• Cryptocurrency threatens to destabilize societies and destroy trust, and are losing value rapidly;
• And the world is backing away from the dollar as the international currency.

Once again, it seems like madness is running loose. What’s to follow?

I have a bad feeling about this. I wonder how human network experts evaluate this.

What fun!

ADMIN

Due to hand surgery, my commentary will be abbrev’d.

Trump As A Top

President Donald Trump may not be moving forward with his $1.8 billion lawsuit settlement fund, but Democrats are determined to force GOP lawmakers to answer for the issue anyway — repeatedly.

Even after sources indicated Monday that the Trump administration was abandoning its plans on the “anti-weaponization” fund, Democratic leaders were quick to indicate that they would still force votes to block the fund.

“If Trump and Republicans are truly abandoning this corrupt scheme, they should have zero problem banning it in law,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday. “This week, Senate Democrats will push legislation to ban this slush fund and ensure no president can ever do this again. Trump’s word is nowhere near enough.” [MS NOW]

Voters should find that interesting.

CLUE: MUSTARD

Keep an eye on all the arenas, apparently.

The Koch-aligned GOP super PAC Americans for Prosperity Action is putting $6.3 million into battleground Senate ads just a few weeks after warning the Republican Senate majority is “at risk.”

The ads — shared first with POLITICO — are focused heavily on gas prices and affordability, something the group has warned Democrats will take advantage of in November if Republicans don’t present solutions for voters.

The ad buys show that the group is worried about defending Republicans in some very red states. They’re advertising in Montana, which has barely been on the radar for most campaign analysts, as well as Iowa and Ohio, states that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024. The group is also running ads in Michigan, New Hampshire and North Carolina. [Politico]

I’ve noted Montana might be in play. I await adverts in … Idaho.

NEWS

• The 2 June Iowa primaries have yielded Trump-endorsee U. S. Rep Hinson (R) and Iowa House Rep Josh Turek (D). Thomas Laehn (L) is also on the ballot, which may be a problem for Hinson as libertarians often attract conservative votes. Notably, Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Randy Feenstra lost the Republican nomination by less than a point. Long-time readers may remember Feenstra for successfully primarying Rep Steve King (R) in 2024, although given their On The Issues summations, that was shark-on-shark action. MS NOW is trying to make something of Feenstra losing, but I’m doubtful. We already know a Trump endorsement is a burden.

  Anyways, Republican Hinson shouldn’t try to coast on Trump’s endorsement.

  Finally, Turek and the Democrats outpolled Hinson and the Republicans, respectively. That may be irrelevant, but it may speak to enthusiasm, which can be a key ingredient in races.

• Michigan candidates have been winnowed down, through voluntary dropouts, to former Rep Mike Rogers (R) and Abdul El-Sayed, Mallory McMorrow, and Rep Haley Stevens, for the Democrats. Unknown pollster TIPP gives all three Democrats small leads over Rogers, with Stevens at 48% – 41% as best, and Stevens leading for the primary. That’s not congruent with other pollsters.
• Alaska has a conundrum: Sullivan.
  

  In Alaska this election season, the biggest supporters of Dan Sullivan could be the biggest antagonists of Dan Sullivan.The field of contenders challenging Senator Dan S. Sullivan, a Republican who is up for re-election, has grown in recent days with a rather befuddling addition: Dan J. Sullivan, a former educator of no known relation, has entered the race. …[NYT]

  Republicans may have a point:

  The campaign arm of Senate Republicans, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, suggested that Dan J. Sullivan was a plant by Democrats intended to confuse voters and siphon support from Senator Sullivan, a former Marine who worked in the State Department under President George W. Bush.

  Democrats vigorously assert a State overpopulation of persons named Dan Sullivan. Sad.

• The 2 June Montana primaries have yielded winners US Attorney Kurt Alme (R) and inexperienced Alani Bankhead (D). Joining them is former UMontana President Seth Bodnar (I), considered a contender by some. He may split the left and independent vote, giving the election to Alme, or he may win. Bodnar’s On The Issues summation is to the right, but appears to be based on very little data.

  Democratic primary voting doubled that of Republican primary voting, which may explain the concern of the Koch network, see way above.

• The 2 June New Jersey primaries have yielded nominees incumbent Senator Cory Booker (D), unchallenged, and Justin Murphy (R), who attracted only 33% of the Republican primary voters. That’s not a confidence builder.
• The 2 June New Mexico primaries have yielded nominees incumbent Senator Ben Ray Luján, with 85.7% of the Democratic vote, and Larry E. Marker (Write-in), with 100.0% of the Republican primary vote. The raw vote totals? 112,399 and 4,579, respectively. A lesson in appropriate measures.
• In what must be a bit of a shock for Ohio Republicans, highly respected Fox News Poll is giving former Senator Sherrod Brown (D) a relatively huge 53% – 45% lead over appointed incumbent Senator Husted (R) in Ohio. Brown has an even larger lead in the favorability ratings, 53-41. Maybe the paltry primary turnout observation at my earlier Ohio link is inaccurate?
• The 2 June South Dakota primary yielded incumbent Senator Mike Rounds (R) as the Republican nominee; Julian Beaudion (D) and Brian Bengs (I) had already qualified. While Senator Rounds only recorded  76.9% of the ballots in the primary, I don’t see him as being seriously challenged in November.
• In Alabama, reactions to The Alabama Poll are more interesting than the poll results:
  

  A new poll has upset some Republican candidates heading into the final two weeks before the June 16 runoff. …In the U.S. Senate runoff, the poll listed former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson as the projected winner over U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise), 48.7% to 39.2%, with 12.1% undecided — a significant departure from other polls.

  The poll claims Hudson leads across most of the map and most demographics. …

  “This is yet another bogus suppression poll, similar to the one published before the primary that also claimed Jay was trailing by double digits,” a release from [AG candidate] Mitchell’s campaign stated. “Alabama voters proved that wrong. Despite being outspent 2-to-1 in the weeks leading up to the primary, Jay finished only six points away from first place. Since then, he’s been endorsed by third-place candidate Pamela Casey, who carried 25% of the vote and commands a powerful grassroots following. Simple math and common sense make it clear—Jay Mitchell’s going to win.”

  Sure, I’m not quoting a frustrated Senate candidate, instead a State AG candidate, but this is a hint of what happens to a Party following the Gingrichian diktat of win at all costs. It bleeds into intra-Party contests, causing fratricide & general chaos, rather than the smooth transfer of power.

  And I see Jared Hudson is coming under attack:

  At the Marshall County Republican meeting this past Tuesday evening, held at Wentzell’s Oyster House Restaurant in Guntersville, Alabama, I asked Senate candidate Jared Hudson a simple question: Why had he gone on the record opposing President Donald Trump’s position on the filibuster?

  The answer was revealing—not because of what Hudson said, but because of what he avoided saying.

  Rather than standing with Trump on one of the president’s most important legislative priorities, Hudson spent his entire response explaining why Trump is wrong on the issue. He opened by acknowledging that “the president makes an unbelievably great case as the executive branch on why we should nuke the filibuster.” But instead of supporting Trump’s position, he immediately pivoted, saying, “With that being said, the only conservative tool we have is to make sure that we end the silent filibuster.”

  For Republican voters, that should raise an important question. If Trump is trying to advance a conservative agenda through the Senate, why would a Republican Senate candidate oppose one of the tools needed to make that happen? [Angela McClure, AL Politics]

  Suggesting Hudson incompatibility with Trump is going to discourage Republican primary voters.

Next primary day is 9 June.

Hodiernal tense:

A hodiernal tense (abbreviated hod) is a grammatical tense for the current day. (Hodie or hodierno die is Latin for ‘today’.)

Hodiernal tenses refer to events of today (in an absolute tense system) or of the day under consideration (in a relative tense system).

Hodiernal past tense refers to events of earlier today (or earlier than the reference point of the day under consideration), while hodiernal future tense refers to events of later today (or later than the reference point of the day under consideration). A post-hodiernal tense is a future tense for events that will occur after today or the day under consideration, while pre-hodiernal is a past tense for events that occurred before today or the day under consideration. [Wikipedia]

Yeah, specificity like that, nope in English. Referenced in the video Fantastic Features We Don’t Have In The English Language, by Tom Scott.

The influence of Donald J. Trump:

Ahead of polls closing Tuesday night, [Rep Randy] Feenstra campaign spokesman Billy Fuerst claimed in a message that “Randy Feenstra earned President Trump’s complete and total endorsement to be the next Governor of Iowa because President Trump knows that Randy is the only proven conservative who can defeat Extreme Liberal Rob Sand and keep Iowa red.”

Focus on Randy is the only proven conservative. Feenstra, or at least Fuerst, has ingested the Great Saviour meme, poor guy.

And, yes, Feenstra lost the primary, if only by .8 of a point. At least he conceded rather than running around screaming about cheating.

Even the chick on the screen takes it in the neck!

The Being (1981) is a sci-fi atomic power horror story of uncertain virtue. With sketchy nods to  conspiracy theory elements concerning suppression of information because of public panic, atomic energy frightful danger, the audience is subjected to the usual elements of such movies: people being dragged away shrieking, people being killed, naked people being killed, naked people in cars being killed, cars being treated as if built through papier-mâché techniques, and, well, let’s be clear.

This doesn’t come across a B-list movie. More like C-list.

But there are elements that stand out. I enjoyed the make-up and special effects, particularly that of the monsters or mutated humans, as it seemed effective for the era, pleasantly repulsive.

The climatic fight scene is nicely balanced, really, as the each side is getting hurt. It clears the bar for such fights. Too bad about Mr. Biggles.

The contrast between the occasional soporific radio show, featuring a good ol’ boy in Idaho, and the horror of what’s going on is almost effective in terms of contrast.

And the bereft mother, Marge, who is out of her mind with fear concerning her missing child, was well done and disturbing, as it suggests that a small town will just ignore such a person, rather than turn out to help search for the kid. It’s not necessarily congruent with reality, then or now, but it’s an unexpected element of horror.

But don’t mistake what I wrote above to indicate it’s worth hunting down and ingesting, because it’s not. Young adults having sex in cars and being killed for it is a quaint reminder of a bygone era where extra-marital sex didn’t just get you a frowning, but your life ripped out of your chest, but for today’s younger audience, unless they’re retro, they’ll just puzzled. Why have cars? Why have sex in cars?

And the dream scene, so odd, was extraneous.

Yeah, don’t bother.

“No, thank you. Gold leaf gets stuck between my teeth.”

The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King (Norwegian; 2017) is a story, naively presented, in the Win a Princess! genre of stories. Princess Kristin has not married by her 18th birthday, finding all aspirants unsatisfactory, and Prince Frederik rather repellent. She automatically now becomes the fiancee of the Mountain King, or would be if she stays home. She, however, flees the castle and her supine father.

Meanwhile, Aspen has been left to take care of the simple family home, in the midst of the forest, by father and brothers, the latter pair named Per and Pål. Aspen loses the house through his characteristic carelessness. Facing disaster, Aspen, Per, and Pål are dispatched to find Princess Kristin and kill the Mountain King, thereby making their fortunes and saving the farm.

Adventures ensue.

Unfortunately, and this problem is endemic with fairy tales, all the characters are one dimensional, existing to thrust their stereotype into the story and not have any independent thoughts. In good stories, characters have depth revealed over time, ideally that explain mysterious early characteristics or plot points.

Not here.

The special effects are fun, and while the story may be a bit stilted, the characters carry it through. But questions remain: Why would the Mountain King marry a woman apparently unable to bear a baby of his? Why doesn’t the Mountain King speak? Who thrust this curse upon the royal family, anyways?

Isn’t being covered in moss itchy?

So, yeah, this is a bit squirmy, if an interesting glimpse of Norwegian fairy tales. It’s probably not worth your time unless the reader has a special interest in actor or genre, because it almost feels like a student-made movie.

This morning I underwent scheduled surgery on my right hand, and do not anticipate further blogging today, and possibly not tomorrow.

Since I’m not a news outlet, I’m not overly bothered by this.

Immappancy:

If you’ve come across the concepts of illiteracy and innumeracy, then computer graphic enthusiast Kai Krause, who developed the innovative infographic The True Size of Africa, feels the term immappancy should be used to describe those with ‘insufficient geographical knowledge.’ [“The True Size of Africa“, Toni Pyke, DevelopmentEducation.ie]

Immappancy has not yet entered the lexicon maintained by dictionaries, and thus this relatively informal definition. Insofar as the referenced Kai Krause goes, he was recently critiqued for using improper country representations, which he apparently admits, as well as dubious reasoning, in “Map Wars: Mercator, Peters, and Cartographic Controversies,” Benjamin Radford, Skeptical Inquirer (Volume 50, No. 3; paywall):

Ultimately, [Kenneth Field, principal lecturer in geographic information systems at Kingston University,] wrote, “I don’t take issue with the idea of exposing the problem of spatial illiteracy, or immappancy as Krause has defined it, but he is profoundly guilty of similar levels of immappancy by creating a completely inaccurate depiction. He is demonstrating his own immappancy” … .

Despite the viral and vociferous nature of Krause’s map, it is in fact wrong in significant ways. But I got the impression many elided the errors and deceptions because it was issued in service of a noble cause: social justice. The Krause map, however factually flawed, helps decolonize education and mitigate Eurocentric structural racism.

I’ve enjoyed the results of cartography for most of my life, and innovative approaches can be positively fascinating. If you’ve not heard of Tufte’s Napoleon’s March To Moscow, well, you should go take a look. Such examples of innovation are widely available on the Web; fusions of geography as modified by population and some other attribute, such as political leanings, often clarify reality. Krause’s approach is interesting and thought provoking. For example, is a purely physical measurement of size appropriate, or, in view of the current uneven distribution of deserts, should we measure by carrying capacity, or other rarely used comparative measure?

But if you’ve seen Krause’s original work, you should be aware of the accompanying inflammatory rhetoric. Given its assumptions, mistakes, and implicit tenets, such as identitarianism, it didn’t feel so much innovative as a case of virtue signaling. Yes, it may have been unconscious, but given the critiques I’ve seen, I’m not sure I’d be looking to Krause for wisdom.

Maybe this marks the nadir of the LLM AI “incident,” and now we start throwing it out. Welcome Jill Bearup, folks…

A sophisticated joke? I’m guessing No, this is just folks who haven’t given the issue a thought.

Zugzwang:

In Chess, Zugzwang is a position in which for the player who’s move it is, any move they make would make the position worse. The player that has to move would be better off not making a move at all. But of course in the game of Chess, there is not option to pass or skip your turn to move. You are forced to move a piece. [The Chess Journal]

In research I noted there are similar definitions on a more generic basis. Noted in “As Ukraine’s fortunes improve, it’s zugzwang time for Putin,” George F. Will, WaPo:

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING PARTY?

So is Chris Hayes right?

Just look at Starr County, Texas, which sits on the U.S. border with Mexico and has the highest proportion of Hispanic residents compared to any county, according to the 2020 Census.

Starr County famously flipped to Trump in the last election after more than a century of voting Democratic. He won it by 15 points, and it was widely seen as evidence of the president’s strength with Hispanic voters.

If you looked just at the percentages of last night’s Senate runoff in Starr County, you would say Trump is still dominating. His candidate beat Cornyn there by nearly 50 points.

But what’s that percentage based on? How many Republicans actually voted in that runoff? The answer: virtually none.

Only 90 votes were cast out of more than 36,000 registered voters in the county, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office. In that same county, in a single Democratic primary for a local judge back in March, more than 13,000 Democrats turned out to vote.

That’s why Democrats are suddenly a lot more optimistic about flipping that Texas Senate seat — and possibly the Senate itself.

My bold. Hayes may be speaking to my confirmation bias, but I do think he has a data-based point – Texas Republicans are at least not excited by the Party’s candidates, although it’s important to note comparing a primary runoff with a primary is comparing Granny Smith to Haralson. Apples.

Both parties are in trouble.

It’s also important to keep in mind that the composition of the electorate in terms of age for a given State is important, as well as whether folks are still enthused to vote based on Boomer issues, or if they’re willing to step back and re-evaluate.

We may see the Republicans collapse in many locales this November, followed by the Democrats, assuming the latter continue to exhibit behaviors contradictory to liberal democracy.

THE ANCHOR WEARS AN UGLY TIE

President Trump remains a potent weapon against the, er, Republicans. According to the Wall Street Journal,

• The more-than-respectable University of New Hampshire’s The Pine Tree State Poll gives political novice Graham Platner (D) a 9 point lead over incumbent Senator Collins (R) in Maine. Is the youth of Maine rising up to expel the boomers from their political dominance?
  

  When asked for the most important reason they support their preferred candidate in this race, likely Democratic primary voters most often say it is because of their preferred candidate’s understanding or empathy (18%), 15% say their candidate has the best chance of winning the general election, 10% mention their policies, 9% say their candidate represents change, 7% each say their candidate is a fighter or is strong or cite their politics or ideology, and 6% each cite their authenticity or honesty or their character. Forty-two percent of Mills supporters say they support her because of her past experience, while half of Costello supporters (50%) say they support him because he is preferable to alternatives.

  Mr. Platner has 21% in the empathy column, which makes him #1. But is empathy the best metric for measuring a candidate for the Senate? It’s a question worth considering.

  Yet, it’s not even clear that Mr Platner will be the Democratic nominee to go up against Senator Collins. As MS NOW notes, Governor Mills (D) may have publicly withdrawn from the race due to finance problems, but her name has not been removed from the Maine ballot as of this writing.

  More importantly, Platner may have problems adhering to traditional morality, which is hardly a new problem for politicians, but still may serve to alienate supporters in the primary, as well as the general, elections.

  A top Democrat on Sunday expressed “concerns” about Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner in the wake of reports that he exchanged sexually explicit texts with multiple women, which his wife said she flagged to his campaign.

  Asked about the controversy on ABC News, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said, “Yeah I have concerns. That guy has questions to answer and that’s what campaigns are for.”

  The oyster farmer and Marnie Corps veteran’s wife, Amy Gertner, informed a senior campaign aide last summer that he had exchanged sexual messages with several women, according to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. [MS NOW]

  If you prefer brevity, Erick Erickson just calls him a Communist.

  The same University of New Hampshire poll as above gives Platner a 66 point lead over Mills, and that’s no typo. It seems unlikely that Gov Mills, unfunded and quite elderly, will overcome that sort of lead.

  The primary word here is seems.

  The Maine primary election is 9 June.

• Setting the stage, Rep Mike Collins and retired football coach Derek Dooley are in the Republican primary run-off scheduled for 16 June. This is for the Georgia Senate seat.Is Rep Collins (R) Erick Erickson’s pick to go against incumbent Senator Ossoff (D)? No.
  

  Mike Collins, should Georgia voters choose him to challenge Jon Ossoff, is not going to win the general election because Mike Collins’s policy is to hire white nationalist adjacent staff and insane lose canons who people are legitimately scared of. The horror stories from people about Brandon Phillips continue to pile up. One person tells me he legitimately fears for his family because of the guy, and Mike Collins never did anything about the guy, despite knowing Phillips is trouble.

  Erickson must be beside himself with frustration, since he reportedly lives in Georgia and is close up and personal with the political scene.

  Incidentally, I shan’t call that a hit-piece, because I am not in a position to judge, and while I have relatives in Georgia, they’re not political. Call it a message of concern, perhaps. But Dooley? Surely Senator Tuberville (R-AL, er R-FL, maybe R-somewhere else?) is a cautionary tale about putting sports-associated folks with no experience in politics & governing into the Senate or any other position of high responsibility. And before my kind reader reminds me of former pro wrestler Governor Ventura (I-MN), for whom I voted, ol’ Jesse had carefully picked up applicable experience by being elected mayor of Brooklyn Park prior to his gubernatorial campaign. He had a reasonable plan and worked the plan.

  Back to Erickson, he did badmouth Democratic candidates in other States, but that’s par for the course. I think it’s significant, though, when someone condemns their own people.

  But unknown pollster, at least for me, JMC Analytics is giving Collins a 16 point lead over Dooley in the primary runoff, 55%-39%.

• JMC Analytics also presents a poll on the Republican primary in Iowa and awards a 61%-22% lead to Trump-endorsed Rep Hinson (R) over state Senator Jim Carlin (R).
• In Texas, the pollster Texas Public Opinion Research gives James Talarico (D) a 3 point lead of 47% – 44% over AG Ken Paxton (R). It also gives Talarico a net favorability rating of +7, while Paxton is at -19, and incumbent Senator Cornyn (R) should be dismayed by a horrifying -31 points.Paxton also has his first campaign ad out, where he touts his accomplishments as a humanitarian and … just kidding. Sorry if you squirted Wild Turkey out your nose. Here’s Shefali Luthra’s report on the matter in TPM:
  

  Republicans are focusing on one question in one of November’s top races: Is the Democrat a real man?

  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who clinched the GOP’s nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday night, released a new ad Wednesday —his first of the general election — accusing his opponent, state Sen. James Talarico, of being too “low-T for Texas.” “Low-T” is a reference to testosterone levels and often used as an insult by influencers in the so-called manosphere, who say low testosterone makes someone weaker. …

  “It isn’t new to the ethos of America — the masculine as everything — but it is much more politically forward now thanks to Trump than it used to be,” said Monika McDermott, a political scientist at Fordham University who studies masculinity in politics. “Now it’s the game plan of most Republicans to try to play on having the more masculine party and being able to claim that liberals and progressives are weak and feminine and not masculine enough for America.”

  Sounds pathetic to me, but perhaps Texans respond to such nonsense. I suppose the Democrats can be expected to do no better, highlighting Paxton’s lack of a moral sense. Or maybe they won’t. Democrats are often criticized for not being combative enough. But the Houston Chronicle just issued an endorsement of Talarico on that theme, which I cannot read directly because I use an ad-blocker and refuse to learn how to turn it off. I’ll use the lefty Daily Kos to dig out a quote:

  Paxton voters know their guy reeks of moral rot. That he somehow earned millions while in public office. That his office delivered sweetheart deals in cases of child sexual abuse.

  Paxton’s dismal ethics are only surpassed by his rank incompetence. His office has a track record of fumbling on sex-trafficking cases. And while other Republicans join the bipartisan movement to tackle unaffordable health care, Paxton works to fire “woke doctors.”

  Looking over the rest of the endorsement, they’re not playing nice. The Republicans of Texas are apparently a disappointment to the Chronicle. But are newspaper endorsements still important?

• Minnesota Lt Governor Peggy Flanagan (D) won the DFL (Democratic–Farmer–Labor) Party endorsement from the DFL convention by acclamation over the 30-31 May weekend, but this is not the same as winning the primary election. Her DFL rival, Rep Angie Craig (D), announced that she was skipping the convention and would participate in the primary election regardless of the convention result. Flanagan also received the endorsement of the Senator she desires to replace, Tina Smith (D).
• Also in Minnesota, for their Senate candidate to replace the aforementioned Tina Smith, the Republican Party endorsed someone unfamiliar to me, former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze. He does not appear to have electoral experience. I will repeat myself: Party endorsement is not a synonym for winning a primary election. Michelle Tafoya (R) is reportedly planning to oppose Schwarze in the primary election.The Minnesota primary election is 11 August.
• Finally, for the pro-active reader, if Senator Klobuchar (D-MN) wins her gubernatorial race this season, she’ll have to resign her seat in the Senate, and then appoint a replacement. This was back a month or three, but Governor Walz (D-MN) has already stated, “I would rather eat glass than [serve in the Senate].” So that’s one Minnesotan disqualifying himself from the position.

And back to the grind for me. Tomorrow is primary day for a few states. Results will follow.