Unsightly Mental Blemishes

The consequences of the McGirt decision, which places the responsibility for much legal proceedings against Indians in Oklahoma under tribal authority, is evidently becoming a bit concerning for Oklahomans:

A year after losing the legal fight over the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s reservation, the state of Oklahoma urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to overrule the McGirt decision and return criminal jurisdiction over Native Americans in eastern Oklahoma to state prosecutors and judges.

“Simply put, the fundamental sovereignty of an American State is at stake,” Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor told the high court in a brief filed Friday. [The Oklahoman]

Which is an interesting observation for a state-wide phenomenon, actually. This raises a red flag for me:

“The Supreme Court clearly did not intend for the decision to be read more broadly than the McGirt facts, but the Biden administration has distorted that ruling,” O’Connor said.

Which may or may not be true – but in a highly conservative state, issuing that sort of remark suggests this may be a political attack, rather than an honest legal observation. And the tribes may be thinking the same thing:

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., said O’Connor and Gov. Kevin Stitt were trying to undermine cooperation among tribes, the state and federal prosecutors in the wake of the McGirt decision.

“With today’s filing in Bosse v. Oklahoma, they have made clear this was never about protecting victims or stopping crime, but simply advancing an anti-Indian political agenda,” Hoskin said. “The governor has never attempted to cooperate with the tribes to protect all Oklahomans. It is perfectly clear that it has always been his intent to destroy Oklahoma’s reservations and the sovereignty of Oklahoma tribes, no matter what the cost might be.”

Ascertaining exactly what’s going on may require twenty years and the services of a disinterested historian, to be honest, because there’s a lot of emotion on both sides of the issue. I remain convinced this was a decision of immense importance, and it was decided properly. But will it be reversed? Time will tell.

This is a new one on me in the climate change arena:

Human-caused warming has led to an “almost complete loss of stability” in the system that drives Atlantic Ocean currents, a new study has found — raising the worrying prospect that this critical aquatic “conveyor belt” could be close to collapse.

In recent years, scientists have warned about a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which transports warm, salty water from the tropics to northern Europe and then sends colder water back south along the ocean floor. Researchers who study ancient climate change have also uncovered evidence that the AMOC can turn off abruptly, causing wild temperature swings and other dramatic shifts in global weather systems. …

If the circulation shuts down, it could bring extreme cold to Europe and parts of North America, raise sea levels along the U.S. East Coast and disrupt seasonal monsoons that provide water to much of the world. [WaPo]

I hope they have it wrong. It’s a tough question to answer properly.

But we may all end up buying parkas if those currents do stop.

Charlie Warzel @ Galaxy Brain discussing how to communicate with the unvaccinated:

(I also want to note that I, too, get uncomfortable reading long profiles, complete with professional portraits of proud vaccine refusers. It feels like another attempt to show empathy toward a group of people who, sometimes gleefully, show a lack of disregard for others.)

A lack of disregard for others – if only!

From a suit filed in the Circuit Court of Pulaski County, Arkansas, in response to legislation passed by the Arkansas Legislature and signed by Governor Hutchinson banning the use of mask mandates in the face of the Covid Delta Variant’s rapid spread:

3. Given that Arkansas public schools will begin classes in approximately two weeks, Plaintiffs cannot afford to wait any longer to see if the executive and legislative branches of government will fulfill their duty to protect the people of Arkansas and the health and welfare of children who attend public schools. Knowing that many more children will get infected with COVID and that more will likely die if the ban on mask mandates is not lifted, Plaintiffs respectfully turn to the Arkansas judiciary for protection from an irrational act of legislative madness that threatens K-12 public school children with irreparable harm.

Bold mine. This is one way to reprimand elected officials in the absence of a convenient election to kick their crazed bums out of positions of responsibility.

I hope the newspapers of Arkansas take that quote and plaster it all over their front pages, because this bit of legislation, popular in certain states, is nutso, and as Governor Hutchinson (R-AR) noted [somewhere], such top-down directives go against Republican governmental tenets of local governance stays local.

Yes, yes, I know: a tenet of immense flexibility when a local governmental unit doesn’t toe the Republican line.

Meanwhile, a special session may be called by the Governor to amend the legislation. It’d be lovely to have the time to research the most obstreperous legislators for shared attributes: religious zealots, conspiracy nuts, what?

Rain!

Nature tried it a few weeks ago and here’s some more pics.

Employers have been bitching about the lack of workers lately, especially in the hospitality industry, and while I suspect a lot of it is simply workers sensibly saying I want something more meaningful and interesting, I have to wonder if part of the problem of the missing workers is … that they’re dead.

Governor and potential 2024 Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis (R-FL) may be harvesting the bitter fruit of tragedy. The tragedy is the jump in Covid cases that may be traceable to his policies, and here’s the harvest:

DeSantis is now underwater with 49% of voters; only 44% approve of his job performance.

The latest surge of COVID-19 might be catching up with Gov. Ron DeSantis.

A new poll from St. Pete Polls finds the Governor’s approval rating has sagged considerably, with more Floridians now saying they do not approve of the job DeSantis is doing than those who say they approve.

The poll, which was conducted Monday and Tuesday among 3,952 likely Florida voters through an automated phone polling system, also found DeSantis falling behind one Democratic rival for the 2022 gubernatorial election, trailing Democratic U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist. DeSantis has a slight lead on Democratic Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried in the poll.

The poll also shows Floridians are not in agreement with DeSantis when it comes to his opposition to mask mandates for school children. [Scott Powers, Florida Politics]

But here’s the funny thing: Will Republicans care?

After all, it’s all fake news, as DeSantis would have his base believe:

Despite a record number of COVID-19 patients at hospitals across the state and dire warnings from the Florida Hospital Association, Gov. Ron DeSantis dismissed capacity concerns as news media “hysteria” and insisted “our hospitals are open for business.” His comments came Tuesday as people hospitalized with the coronavirus in Florida rose to an all-time high of 11,515, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. [The Orlando Sentinel, via MaddowBlog]

But this Mayo Clinic set of maps suggests differently. They suggest Florida is leading the nation in Covid infections; this can be taken as a proxy for irresponsibility.

DeSantis may be running for reelection next year as well, and the polling data suggests Floridians are not entirely happy with a leadership team that prioritizes ignorant freedom over health and safety.

But does this apparent failure to perform really matter? If DeSantis wins the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 2024, I shall be unsurprised, because competency and experience is hardly a priority with the Republican base, at least not in the past. It’s all single issue ideology and, at least in some parts of country, the sanctification of the candidate by Trump, which is how DeSantis managed to get elected in 2018.

Will unforced errors such as these not change their minds? There’s some evidence that unnecessary deaths are bringing home to Republican voters the importance of competency and a link to reality, but I think this is only a small infringement on Republican territory.

Most Republicans inclined to respect reality are ex-Republicans now.

If DeSantis can’t make his lies stick, his future will depend on how devoted Republican voters are to single issue ideology, which I find a bit terrifying.

Remember Jake Ellzey (R-TX) defeating Susan Wright (R-TX) in a special election for the House of Representatives last week? Wright had the Trump endorsement, and Ellzey won easily. Now consider the primary for a special election last night in Ohio:

In the 15th Congressional District, a safely Republican seat around Columbus, energy industry lobbyist Mike Carey prevailed over a crowded field, boosted by former president Donald Trump’s endorsement. …

Trump’s endorsement of Carey, a personal friend of the former president’s adviser Corey Lewandowski, did not clear the field. Stivers endorsed and put campaign resources behind state Rep. Jeff LaRe, who emphasized his experience as a police officer, and Ohio Right to Life backed state Sen. Bob Peterson, who argued that his rivals aren’t as trustworthy on abortion. [WaPo]

This suggests the obvious: the search for bellwethers, when it comes to American politics, is a bit foolish. Politics is local, even for national figures such as Sanders, Biden, and Trump.

But these special elections and primaries do permit the plotting of maps. So far, we know the Texas District 6 appears to be waning in its support of the former President, while the Ohio 15th district appears to still be strong for him.

There was also a Democratic primary, in the same article:

Shontel Brown, a Democratic county councilor, dealt a devastating blow to the party’s liberal wing Tuesday night, prevailing over Nina Turner, a former co-chair for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, in the Ohio primary for a safe Democratic seat.

Perhaps devastating in the Ohio 11th District. Nationwide?

Show me more results.

Mark Sumner provides the latest chart on American energy generation:

He explains that the fall of the high pollution fuel King Coal has been absolutely epic. To my mind, it’s unfortunate that much of coal’s replacement energy has been natural gas, which also emits CO₂, but it’s at least a start. I’d have preferred to have seen nuclear take up the slack while renewables continue to improve.

Vangelis is still around, inspired by the Juno probe.

  take on the music here.

Steve Benen remarks on the problems of funding for future pandemic crises being cut from the various bills by the Senate, ending with:

The politics are admittedly tricky: it’s tough to lobby in support of funding for a future crisis that doesn’t yet exist, especially given the pressures to address pressing problems that many are addressing right now. But the future will thank the present if lawmakers do the right thing.

Uh, no.

If you’re a naive idealist about these things – a category I probably fall into – then you and I just have to point at defense spending in response. That is the quintessential funding for future crises, whether it’s prevention or addressing same.

If you’re more of the jaded, cynical type that believes defense spending is simply a matter of lobbying and corruption, then first defense spending must still be justified.

I think I’ll stick with being a naive idealist.

Contumelious:

: insolently abusive and humiliating [Merriam-Webster]

Noted in “BLASPHEMY, LASCIVIOUS ACTS: STATE PUSHES TO REPEAL OLD LAWS,” 1420 WBSM [New Bedford]:

[Rep. Jay Livingstone’s] legislation would also lift a section of state law punishing anyone who “blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world.”

I wonder if this guy understands the situation:

Amid recent surging coronavirus cases in Florida, a top Republican National Committee official in the state has spread anti-vaccine rhetoric and misinformation, comparing the Biden administration’s vaccine efforts to Nazi-era “brown shirts,” and twice calling the vaccines “the mark of the beast,” comparable to a “false god.”

A review by CNN’s KFile found that Peter Feaman, a lawyer and RNC committeeman from Florida made the comments on his blog the “The Backhoe Chronicles,” which he publishes regularly in a private group on MeWe. The social media platform bills itself as the “anti-Facebook” app.

“The Biden brown shirts are beginning to show up at private homes questioning vaccine papers,” Feaman wrote on July 20, incorrectly implying government officials would be showing up at people’s homes to question their vaccination status, comparing them to the Nazi Party paramilitary wing.

…

In May, Feaman called Covid-19 vaccines a “mark of the beast” — a reference to a symbol from the biblical Book of Revelations showing allegiance to Satan — and called Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer “diabolical” for encouraging vaccines. “Diabolical Michigan Governor Whiter wants her citizens to get the Mark of the Beast to participate in society,” Feaman wrote. [CNN/Politics]

This guy Feaman is preaching a behavior that will lead to sickness and death to those who hear and obey.

Other Republican doctrines have the potential to heavily arm these same people, as well as their potentially very angry relatives.

He could end up dead for his irrational preaching.

And that’s what it is. If we’re to trust our fellow citizens, who are scientists and study this sort of thing all their adult lives, it appears to be safe and effective to be vaccinated, at least so far. Feaman preaches distrust and disrespect.

If you’re a believer, remember this: the Divine, whatever it is, brought into being reality. Scientists study that reality, and are in that regard far more holy than mere pastors and prophets and lawyers like this guy – because they have implemented and try to improve verification procedures for those studies.

This guy just wants to retain his position of power and prestige, and he sees science as a threat because it has a claim on Truth that rivals and exceeds his.

I fear he may be endangering himself with his thirst for this power.

On the climate change front is this potentially disturbing news:

Scientists have long been worried about what many call “the methane bomb” — the potentially catastrophic release of methane from thawing wetlands in Siberia’s permafrost.

But now a study by three geologists says that a heat wave in 2020 has revealed a surge in methane emissions “potentially in much higher amounts” from a different source: thawing rock formations in the Arctic permafrost.

The difference is that thawing wetlands releases “microbial” methane from the decay of soil and organic matter, while thawing limestone — or carbonate rock — releases hydrocarbons and gas hydrates from reservoirs both below and within the permafrost, making it “much more dangerous” than past studies have suggested. [WaPo]

All tentative and contingent – but methane is more potent than CO₂, as I understand it.

I’ll be interested to hear if this decision is appealed to SCOTUS by the losing entity, a church:

The 11th Circuit on Wednesday struck down a Florida evangelical Christian ministry’s claim that it was discriminated against and defamed after the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled it a hate group, causing Amazon to deny its application to fundraise through the online retailing giant’s charitable website.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court upheld an Alabama federal judge’s September 2019 decision to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Fort Lauderdale-based Coral Ridge Ministries Media (also known as D. James Kennedy Ministries) against Amazon, the AmazonSmile Foundation and the SPLC.

In a 15-page opinion, the panel found that Coral Ridge’s defamation claim against the Alabama-based SPLC fails because it did not show that the organization “acted with actual malice” when it listed the ministry on its “hate map” as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.

“Coral Ridge did not sufficiently plead facts that give rise to a reasonable inference that SPLC ‘actually entertained serious doubts as to the veracity’ of its hate group definition and that definition’s application to Coral Ridge, or that SPLC was ‘highly aware’ that the definition and its application was ‘probably false’,” U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Wilson, a Bill Clinton appointee, wrote on behalf of the panel. [Courthouse News Service]

That the SPLC (Southern Policy Law Center) is not a governmental entity is beyond dispute.

That it used standard criteria to find Coral Ridge belonged in its hate group listing appears to be a finding of the court. The use of a criteria approach, as I understand it, provides protection in the form of appeal to standardized processes, rather than just foaming at the mouth. While the First Amendment can be limited, this approach permits what it’s doing.

And is Coral Ridge Ministries Media a hate group? Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist sure thinks so, and advocating murder based on sexual orientation sure seems like a reason to be on the list to me.

But here’s the thing: SCOTUS, with the addition of Associate Justices Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett to the court, has definitely taken to favoring religious organizations, even when it’s clearly a mistake. Will this case make it to them for examination? Keep in mind the 11th Circuit Court was composed of three judges, and it wasn’t a monoculture:

Wilson was joined on the panel by U.S. Circuit Judge Britt Grant, a Donald Trump appointee, and Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Gerald Tjoflat, a Gerald Ford appointee.

The legal issues seem clear and with little nuance – and Coral Ridge is hardly an honorable institution. In my mind, it’d be a tragedy just to have this heard by SCOTUS. Keep an eye out.

For my far-right readers, HuffPost has a report that titillates:

Kilonova:

Even before such evidence emerged, back in 1974, David Schramm and James Lattimer at the University of Texas at Austin proposed that a different cosmic smash-up might be the source of gold instead. If what we need to make heavy elements is a lot of neutrons, then perhaps their origins involve neutron stars? These are incredibly dense balls of matter – mostly neutrons, as the name suggests – left behind after certain kinds of supernovae. Neutron stars often form in pairs, then spin around each other until eventually smashing together in a cataclysmic explosion called a kilonova. The tide of neutrons that results, reckoned Schramm and Lattimer, could be enough to kick-start the r-process. [“How is gold made? The mysterious cosmic origins of heavy elements,” Sapphire Lally, NewScientist (24 July 2021, paywall)]

Which is just the only Ohio newspaper that I can think of. Jennifer Rubin in WaPo has a series of recommendations for news media and how they cover politics accurately, and I must admit her mention of Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) fascinated me:

Sixth, it is incumbent on the media to describe the demeanor of Republicans more vividly. Anyone who does not watch congressional hearings would not know that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) screams virtually nonstop and speaks at a frenetic pace. It is critical to provide an exacting description of Jordan. Put differently, reporters should stop making MAGA leaders more reasonable than they are.

I think the Plain-Dealer should put a guy with a web cam at a hearing which includes Jordan and record him. If he’s really the nutter Rubin suggests, don’t report it – show it. Feed it directly to the Plain-Dealer website. Let the readers watch him being a flying nutcase.

It won’t get him kicked out of his seat in 2022, but it might persuade a few more voters to stop giving him a free ride. And any complaints he registers on the matter will come off as whining, which is never appealing, except to other whiners.

Deadnaming:

Deadnaming is the use of the birth or other former name (i.e., a name that is “dead”) of a transgender or non-binary person without the person’s consent. Deadnaming may be accidental or used to intentionally dismiss, deny or reject a person’s gender identity. [Wikipedia]

Noted in the petition “Allow trans SCAD students to have preferred names on student IDs,” Change.org:

As the new school year begins many trans students will be attending school on various levels. College is the place where these students can finally feel open and present as their true selves. Preferred names are one way that these students take control of their situation. SCAD forces students to have students IDs with trans students dead names on them rather than giving the option to put their preferred name on their IDs. This not only emotionally harms these students but puts them at risk and opens up doors for misgendering and deadnaming. This petition is a call for action to give students the option to put their preferred name on their ID.

I’ve written that our defense budget is bloated based on expenditure comparisons to other countries. Last year, in Defense One Frederico Bartels published a rebuttal that establishes the point that using currency conversion rates is something of an irrelevancy:

If you account for differences in reporting structure, purchasing power, and labor costs, you find that China’s 2017 defense budget provided 87 percent of the purchasing power of American’s 2017 defense budget.

This runs counter to the conventional wisdom that the United States spends more on its military than the next 12 countries combined or that China lags annual U.S. military spending by close to $400 billion. Those misleading comparisons are based on simply converting Beijing’s reported defense budget from yuan to dollars by applying a market exchange rate. That produces a distorted picture. We must take into consideration several key factors to arrive at an accurate understanding of just how much Beijing is investing in its military.

And then, of course, is the problem that Communists and truth are not often bedmates:

One key factor—and perhaps the main one that makes accurate comparison so challenging—is how Beijing accounts for its military research and development. Put simply, it doesn’t include it in any of its reports on military expenditures.

And then there’s the problem of comparing fundamentally differing items, qualitatively speaking, and how money fits into the gig:

Further complicating accurate comparisons are the unique characteristics of China’s party-run military, such as military-civil fusion, usage of state-owned enterprise, theft of intellectual property, and the embedding of party organizations in private companies. Some of these elements, even if known, are simply unquantifiable. Thus if we seek to compare the resources Beijing dedicates to defense with what other countries are doing, our only recourse it so remove all military R&D from the calculations.

This sort of thing forces me to re-examine my position on our defense budget. Perhaps, most importantly, it’s a reminder that asking amateurs – or even less-than-amateurs – for their opinions is a fool’s errand.

What? Not seasoned him, yet?

Eat Locals (2017) echos a theme often associated with vampires throughout its structure, but, sadly, doesn’t quite have the follow-through to make it all work. That theme is Things are not what they appear to be: The Count is not nobility, but a monster is its most usual instance.

The nobility of the vampires in England, eight in number, are assembling for their semi-centennial meeting at a farmhouse in the English countryside, from the ancient Lord to the knitting grandmother to those of a lustier mien. One has brought a guest, a human. Why? He’s not dinner, it turns out, but a nominee to take the place of a vampire lord who has been exceeding his hunting quota.

Except he’s not willing to accept the honor, which is a woeful choice, for the existence of vampires must remain a secret, especially in this era of cameras, computers, and what-not. A leave-taking is not acceptable, except feet first, as the old saying goes.

Except that isn’t working, either. Is there something special about this gibbering fool of a hormone driven chap, or is he just damn lucky?

Meanwhile, that secret I mentioned? It turns out a special Catholic military unit is in on the secret, and they’re out to eliminate the vampire group. Rival ambitions or something, I’m sure. But what’s up with the group leader, and, for that matter, his superior, direct from the Pope, driven by hate and … dude, why’s there a scratch on your neck?

And your eyes are glowing…

From the overlord who doesn’t actually eat humans, to their farmhouse hosts, everyone seems to have a secret. However, it just doesn’t quite come together. I laughed a number of times, yet, at the end, it all felt a bit empty. It was fun, but missing something. Oh, are those angels?

Perhaps a finale on the theme, how we all have our secrets, vampire or human, and sometimes we’re the worse for it. That might have helped. Or not.

In January of 2018 I noted reports of China implementing a facial recognition system as a surveillance system in support of social credit. Now, it’s changing a bit:

Now, China is putting its freewheeling facial recognition industry on notice. Citing Guo’s case, China’s top court announced this week that consumers’ privacy must be protected from unwarranted face tracking.

“The public is increasingly worried about the abuse of facial recognition technology,” Yang Wanming, vice president of the Supreme People’s Court, said in a news conference on Wednesday. “The calls for strengthening protection of facial information are increasing.” [WaPo]

The trick here is to realize this is a change to the how, not the what:

That’s not too suggestive, is it?

Tower of Evil (1972) features T&A, slaughter of the promiscuous, and is a run of the mill example of the horror fare of the 1970s.

In other words, it’s quite exploitative.

Is it worth summarizing? The parents of a young woman accused of killing three of her companions during a visit to Snape Island, a barren bit of Scottish – I’m guessing – rock, are trying to clear her of the crimes. They hire a private investigator to this end, who teams up with a group who wants to search the island for archaeological remains. Between flashbacks, current character friction, and a lusty seaman, we get plenty of sex and distrust.

If you were permanently stuck down in some Scottish island cavern, you’d be giving everyone the finger as well. While you shivered. From the cold. Ba’al is a tropical denizen, after all. He felt cold and lonely, lording it over that God-forsaken rock and some maniacs. That’s merely an imaginative epithet, of course, the “God–forsaken” bit, Ba’al being a God and all that. Or at least a demon, which is, oh, God-like in its way – abrupt tempers, cruelty to strangers, not too nice to worshipful followers sometimes, disrespectful of rival supernatural divinities, it’s really just a matter of semantics. But, still, one must strongly believe that mere epithets don’t define reality, as I’d really hate to have Ba’al disappear in a puff of existential logic, because that would positively ruin this picture and therefore this Ph. D. thesis on 1970s horror movies.

Add in a couple of deranged inhabitants who are under the influence of a standard issue idol of Ba’al, the ancient and cruel God of Canaan – it’s not entirely clear if their relative has been bringing them groceries or if they’re eating kelp when they’re not brooding over dead Mama – and it turns into a rough ride for the group.

For the curious who have actually read this far, and I must say shame on you, the tower, besides an overt symbol of the real purpose of the movie – selling sex – is a lighthouse, long inactive.

Failing to build empathy for the victims or motivations for the nutters, we only watched out of morbid curiosity. But if you want to watch it – perhaps for your thesis on horror flicks of the seventies – here it is.

Oh, and, yes, this is the movie review to which this whale was referring.

Which sort of goes with an upcoming movie review.

Photographer Eric J. Smith captured a whale sneaking up on oblivious whale watchers. pic.twitter.com/0w7X8hGVuS

— All Things Interesting (@mrstrangefact) July 30, 2021