Constructing masculinity consciously and intentionally

In an article for Between the Lines Kelli Dunham wrote about masculinity, as in assigned female at birth, but wanting to be masculine. Dunham was the youngest in a large farm family so grew up in the midst of masculinity. “It drove tractors. It fixed things. It wore work boots…” It seemed like a club but no one said whether admission was possible or where they kept the application. In 2008 the Butch Voices conferences were founded. Dunham could now discuss what it means to be masculine.

Suddenly, masculinity wasn't just something I wanted access to; it was something we could examine together. What parts had we inherited? What parts had hurt us? What did we love about it? What kind of masculine people did we actually want to be? For the first time, I was having those conversations with other masculine-identified people instead of just quietly standing near the power tools hoping gender would somehow eventually explain itself.

All these years later Dunham is in a position to mentor young trans people.

Watching young trans men construct masculinity consciously and intentionally is almost like watching a painter create a watercolor landscape. They aren't starting with a blank page exactly — the colors are already there, handed down by family, culture, every man they've ever loved or feared or wanted to become. But they get to decide which ones to use, which ones to dilute, which ones to let bleed into each other and which ones absolutely do not belong in this particular painting.

Dunham’s brother is career military and the picture of masculinity. Yet, he cares deeply for his children.

I used to think healthy masculinity meant removing the bad parts: Don't suppress emotion, don't dominate, don't confuse anger with strength. But maybe that's only half the work. Maybe we should also notice what's already there.

Such as empathy and caring. EagleOfFreedom of the Daily Kos community wrote:

Climate Change has always been an anondyne phrase that does not offend. Maybe that was a good option when things were not dire as they are now. But just look out your window, if they haven’t been blown out by high winds, to know that a non-descript “change” is not what we are experiencing. What humans are doing to the planet is Climate Disruption. And what humans are experiencing right now is a rolling, widening Climate Catastrophe. ... Climate Disruption? This is something different. It evokes what happens when a supervolcano blows and suddenly disrupts the atmosphere and thus also the climate. It evokes what happens when an asteroid or comet impacts the planet and kicks up so much debris that it disrupts the climate, creating a global catastrophe. ... So I’m not going to call it Climate Change. That’s simply not enough.

Kos of Kos wrote that the United Nations voted 164-1 to, as Kos wrote, “encourage the use of world maps that more accurately represent the relative size of nations and continents, moving away from the familiar Mercator projection.” The frequently used Mercator projection shows far northern countries, such as Greenland and Russia to be much larger than they are in comparison to African countries. Greenland is seen as about the same size as Africa when Africa is actually 14 times larger. That single no vote? It wasn’t Russia, which benefits considerably from the Mercator projection yet approved the resolution. It was the US.

“While this initiative is presented as an anodyne effort to update cartographic proportions, the United States clearly sees it cannot be separated from the much larger and more radical ideological project it belongs to—as its most vocal and committed proponents plainly and openly state,” explained the U.S. mission to the U.N.

That “radical” ideological agenda is “cognitive justice” and refers to the way knowledge is produced and presented which can privilege some perspectives over others. That includes which projection is used to create a map as that influences how we perceive different regions of the world. The resolution endorsed the Equal Earth projection because it preserves the relative size of landmasses. The size of Africa is in proper proportion to the size of Russia. About the same time the nasty guy tweeted a map of North America showing everything from Nicaragua to northern Canada plus Greenland and Cuba under an American flag. Kos wrote:

So would Greenland hold quite the same fascination for Trump if the map he grew up looking at didn’t make it appear nearly as large as Africa? Would Canada? That’s the fascinating part of this entire controversy. The African nations pushing this resolution argue that distorted maps aren’t merely cartographic curiosities—that maps shape how people perceive the importance and power of different places. And here comes Trump, essentially volunteering as Exhibit A.

Of course, map geek that I am, I had to learn more about the Equal Earth projection. A page from Sakshi Education shows Mercator and Equal Earth side by side. It also covers the vote in the UN, then gets into the differences between the two projections. It also explains why the Mercator has been in use since it was created in 1569 – it is great for maritime navigation. I add the mathematics of converting from latitude and longitude are much simpler than many other projections. Sakshi notes what the UN passed is a recommendation. It is not mandatory. A page from Equal Earth explains the projection, compares it to a few others, and gives the mathematics. One could even download a map. In the comments of Tuesday’s pundit roundup for Kos and after a tweet of another nasty thing done by the nasty guy Raelerin wrote: “I sure wish I understood why no one is willing to tell him “NO!’” RandomNonviolence replied:

Some like what he is doing, some have been bought, some are afraid. Trump is a mob boss who has no empathy for others. He is willing to do anything to get his way and now that he controls the government, he has a lot of power to give people gigantic gifts, make or destroy careers, and physically hurt people. He shows us this every day with his grifting, the detentions and deportations, his attacks on Republican politicians, etc. There has always been a lot of grift, fraud, and corruption in our society and in Washington. Trump is a master at seeing that and using it for his own benefit. Trump is completely ignorant and incompetent at being a normal human being, but he is a genius at being a sociopathic mobster.

In the comments of today’s roundup exlrrp posted a tweet from GOP Ls:

Trump is now single handedly responsible for 27.7% of the national debt. This is dramatically more than any President in American history.

Politics in the Wild added:

Huge congratulations to President Donald J. Trump for achieving his 7th bankruptcy.

With the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Friday the nasty guy said he was at the World Trade Center and that “Two firemen, big strong guys, I’m not the smallest guy in the world, they grabbed me under the arm, said, ‘Got to get out of here,’ and they literally lifted me up.” No, he was a few miles away in his own tower. But the comment was great for meme creators. Several of their images are in these comments: Being guided out by state mental hospital orderlies. Being carried out by really buff firemen and giving them longing looks. Being carried out by Jeffrey Epstein. Being carried out by Hulk Hogan. A cartoon by Nick Anderson posted on Kos shows the triumphal arch the nasty guy is planning to build.

Woman: Triumph over what? Man: Congress, the Supreme Court, the Constitution, common sense, taste...

They are neighbors, whether born in Minneapolis or Mogadishu

I finished the book American Scholar by Patrick E. Horrigan. The story is about James in 2016 reflecting back on his life when he started his PhD program in 1987, when he was known as Jimmy. That PhD dissertation starts out being about author F. O. Matthiessen and how his writing was affected by falling in love with Russel Cheney in 1924. Also at the time Jimmy is dating Gregory, though Jimmy can seem to annoy Gregory easily. In 2016 James has published a novel, also called American Scholar, a fictionalized telling of the lives and love of Matthiessen and Cheney, who were real people. He gives a public reading from the book, has dinner with friends, then stalls going home to his husband Fran. Yeah, not a lot happens. This is a low-key book. The relationship with Gregory is interesting, but to me it gets bogged down with comparisons to Matthiessen and Cheney. The relationship with Fran, of which little is said until the last chapter, sounds like it would have been much more interesting. Another annoyance is there are characters named Jimmy, Jerry, and Jay. I had to work to keep them separate. In the author notes at the end Horrigan reveals this novel is a fictional version of his own life, same sort of love when working on his PhD, same sort of long-term relationship afterward. In the chapters on life in 1987 he describes Gregory living with friends in a “farmhouse” with a courtyard on Manhattan. From the location and description I think I found it here. Turn the image towards the northeast. A brief addition to my love of the opera The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay discussed yesterday. At the bottom of the Met Opera webpage for this opera are several videos of scenes from the opera. One is for the duet “Imagine” in which Joe and Rosa sing about America being the place where the oppressed of the world can come. It’s a strong contrast to how the administration is treating those not born here. Another video is “Top of the Empire State Building” where Sam realizes he’s in love with Tracy. In the comments of Tuesday’s pundit roundup for Daily Kos is a 13 minute video by Caolan Robertson. He says at the recent Davos meeting Europe changed forever, there is no going back. He explains a bit of what Davos is – countries and big corporations come in and essentially take over the main shops for the week, rebranding them with names such as Russia House or Ukraine House. The big events that week were the official speeches by Canadian PM Mark Carney, the nasty guy (big on complaints and threats but everyone wanted to witness it), then Zelenskyy of Ukraine. In between those the Ukraine House held a breakfast session that was interrupted so that Steve Witkoff, the lead US negotiator on Ukraine, could say a few words, and those words were pro Russia, an insult to the Ukrainians whose microphone he co-opted. Robertson was the only reporter to follow Witkoff out of the room to ask about his investments in Russia. Witkoff did not respond, which is an answer. Yes, the chief US negotiator in Ukraine does better when Russia does better – a direct conflict of interest. Robertson says that too many reporters at Davos want to keep coming back to hobnob with the rich and get the free canapes and champagne, so don’t want to upset the rich with embarrassing questions. This is also a conflict of interest. Robertson was told he won’t be invited back. The way Europe was changed forever was that its leaders had to actually confront its problems. I hadn’t heard about Robertson before. Wikipedia says his name is Irish (pronounced “KAY-lan”), he’s 29, works and a journalist and influencer, and has been based in Ukraine since after the war started. He also recounts that for about 3 years starting about age 20 he was involved in far-right politics. He has said recovering from that is like leaving a cult. He’s also gay and knew that from “a very young age.” On Instagram he announced he has found love. The nasty guy’s Board of Peace was created a week ago, but I haven’t had time to write about it until now. NPR host A Martínez talked to diplomatic correspondent Michele Kelemen. The Board was supposed to be an international body overseeing the rebuilding of Gaza. But the founding document doesn’t mention Gaza at all and sounds like a substitute to the United Nations or at least its Security Council. Back when the Board was explicitly about Gaza the UN endorsed its creation. The nasty guy invited many countries to join (and didn’t invite others). Those invited include the leaders of Turkey, Qatar, Argentina, Hungary, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Russia, and Israel. Some have already accepted. Do you see the common element of those countries? All of them have an authoritarian leader. Carney of Canada has reservations about joining. He will write checks directly to Palestinians. When Macron of France declined to join the nasty guy threatened a 200% tariff on French wine. The Board has two levels of membership. A country can join for free for a three-year term. Or they can pay $1 billion for a permanent seat – with the nasty guy as chair for as long as he wants, even after he leaves the Oval Office. That was followed with Leila Fadel talking to Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and a founding member of The Elders, a group of world leaders who advocate for peace and first convened by Nelson Mandela. Robinson said:

I don't call it the Board of Peace. I call it the board of the power of one person. It is totally bizarre. And countries should not support it at all. It is not a peacemaking organization.

Her complaints: The nasty guy controls all. He’s the chairman and chooses his successor. He invites countries and bullies those that refuse. Only rich countries can be permanent members. He is the only one who can create, modify, or dissolve subsidiary bodies. It’s an outrageous way to replace the UM Security Council. It’s only purpose is to empower the nasty guy. Countries should not join. Carney was right when at Davos he described a rupture of the international system. The nasty guy is largely responsible for that. But a rupture isn’t the end of a rules-based order, which now must be reaffirmed and supported by other countries. Yes, there are problems with the UN Security Council. It is based on world power as of 1945 and the world has changed a lot since then. The UN can be reformed and should be. It needs to engage and protect the smaller countries and the multipolar power of today. Maybe the veto should be eliminated.

It's hard to see [the Board of Peace] getting legitimacy when the power is the power of President Trump alone. That is not legitimacy for any global order. And we see that he - you know, he loses interest after a while. I think he's lost interest in Gaza.

In a pundit roundup for Kos for Thursday a week ago Chitown Kev quoted Iker Seisdedos of El País in English who reported invitations went to 60 countries. The world has about 200 countries.

A dozen capitals, in a list that grows by the hour, have already announced their participation. These include countries ranging from Albania to Israel — despite the latter’s discomfort with the participation of Egypt and Qatar — and Morocco, Argentina, and Hungary. Some are long-standing allies of the United States. Others depend too heavily on U.S. support to defy Washington. The rest have leaders close to Trump. While the motivations of its initial partners seem clear, the merits required for an invitation beyond Washington’s discretion, its final composition, and the extent of its mission beyond its primary objective — advancing the peace plan imposed by the United States on Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war — are less so. Its founding document doesn’t even mention the Gaza Strip. It is also a mystery which of its members will be willing to pay the $1 billion that a permanent seat will cost. Washington maintains that this money will be used for the reconstruction of Gaza, although its plans have not yet been made public.

We’ve seen the nasty guy’s plans for Gaza and the Pandemic Prince recently touted them again to turn Gaza into a resort. So we know what he means by “reconstruction” – he means without Palestinians. And are there any procedures and watchdogs to keep those billions from falling into the nasty guy’s own pockets? In the comments Michael Harriot tweeted:

BlackCheck: Trump says Civil Rights Act led to whites being “very badly treated.” Did the Civil Rights Act oppress the people who are overrepresented in homeownership, legislatures, the judicial branch, wealth, income, school funding, college admission, executive leadership & white tears distribution?

There is a link to Harriot’s Contraband Camp for a full explanation. A tweet from Rep. Thomas Massie discussing oil from seized Venezuelan ships.

Selling stolen oil and putting billions of dollars in a bank in Qatar to be spent without Congressional approval is not Constitutional. Only Congress can appropriate money. The President can’t legally create a second Treasury overseas for his own piggy bank. Wake up Congress.

A tweet from The Atlantic with a link to the full article (behind a paywall). After the tweet is the article heading and subheading.

The Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals aligning with ICE are "prying Christianity further and further away from the ethic and teachings of Jesus," @Peter_Wehner argues. MAGA Jesus is Not the Real Jesus. Trump is causing incalculable damage to the Christian faith, yet most evangelicals will never break with him.

The reason is simple. They’ve redefined Christianity to be about power and not about the love Jesus taught. In today’s pundit roundup Kov quoted Adam Serwer of The Atlantic:

If the Minnesota resistance has an overarching ideology, you could call it “neighborism”—a commitment to protecting the people around you, no matter who they are or where they came from. The contrast with the philosophy guiding the Trump administration couldn’t be more extreme. Vice President Vance has said that “it is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say, ‘I want to live next to people who I have something in common with. I don’t want to live next to four families of strangers.’” Minnesotans are insisting that their neighbors are their neighbors whether they were born in Minneapolis or Mogadishu. That is, arguably, a deeply Christian philosophy, one apparently loathed by some of the most powerful Christians in America.

Paul Krugman, writing for his own Substack:

We’re fortunate that Trump is too impatient, too addicted to violence, to pursue the salami tactics Viktor Orban used in Hungary — slicing the institutions of democracy away gradually and insidiously until there was nothing left. Trump, instead, is trying to speedrun the process, shocking and aweing the nation into submission. The siege of Minneapolis was clearly meant as a show of force that would intimidate not just undocumented immigrants, but blue states as a whole and opponents in general. It was entirely predictable that innocent people would be dragged from their cars, beaten, pepper-sprayed in the eyes, and killed... However, MAGA has clearly been shocked by the way the people of Minnesota responded. Rather than rolling over in submission, ordinary citizens quickly organized highly effective resistance. Although they haven’t stopped ICE’s reign of terror, they have thrown a lot of sand in its gears.

Jennifer Rubin of The Contrarian Substack discussing the ICE murder in Minneapolis:

The notion that only some victims are truly deserving, or can be relatable to many Americans, is the unsettling but undeniable conclusion after years of ignoring Black victims of police abuse or of disregarding the cruel, violent deportation of Hispanics. Enumerable studies have provided evidence that a victim’s race significantly affects the level of coverage and public reaction to the tragedy...Even white killers receive more public sympathy than do non-white killers. Then along comes Alex Pretti: white, a VA ICU nurse, a young man of unassailable character — and a responsible gun owner to boot! His unprovoked death and his baseless smearing jarred a great many people not previously disturbed by violence against Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, or women. For seemingly the first time, many Americans could not look away and say, “Well, that would never happen to me.”

In the comments Fiona Webster posted a cartoon by Dr. MacLeod. It shows a clergyman kneeling and praying while approached by police with handcuffs. The caption says:

My administration will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians. -- Donald Trump, Feb 2025

Will Stancil tweeted a photo of a Minnesota protest and the crowd is huge. The photo is from the New York Times. Joni Askola tweeted:

American tech billionaires are making a calculated bet on fascism. They believe they can control a dictator in exchange for deregulation and total market dominance. They don’t care about your right or the constitution. They only care about securing their own power.

They’re also wrong in their bet: They can’t control a dictator. He will do things they don’t like. Their praise of him must be constantly renewed and one misstep and he’ll turn on them.

The posturing, the belittling, the proud lack of empathy

My Sunday movie was The History of Sound. I saw it in an actual movie theater and for the third time in my life I was the only person in the audience. This is the story of Lionel. He was was born about the turn of the 20th century in rural Kentucky, where he grew up. His father taught him a lot of folk songs. A music teacher recognized his talent and arranged for him to attend the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. One evening in a tavern her hears the guy at the piano singing one of the songs he learned from his father. This is David and they strike up a friendship and fall in bed together. Lionel goes back to Kentucky. Soon David sends a letter proposing the two of them hike through rural Maine stopping along the way to record the songs the locals sing. They even tote around an Edison recording machine, the one with the wax cylinders. When they get back to Boston David is called up for duty in the Great War. Lionel is spared because he wears glasses. After the war David says he is staying at the college where he teaches and suggests Lionel is such a good singer he could get a job anywhere in the world. He does, but that doesn’t satisfy. Much of the music for the film is the folk songs they record, listen to, and sing. This is a rich part of American musical history. The movie also has some background music. Paul Mescal, the actor who played Lionel looked a bit older than the college student he was playing. Josh O’Connor who played David looked older than that. We were well into the movie before I figured out David wasn’t a fellow student, but a college instructor. I also learned from IMDb that neither lead actor is American – O’Connor is English and Mescal is Irish. Strange for such an American story. I’m not sure if this is a gay love story. There is certainly gay sex, but there is hetero sex too. And Lionel isn’t sure what to make of their relationship. I very much enjoyed this movie. D’Anne Witkowski, in her Creep of the Week column for Between the Lines, wrote about how conservatives talk about Charlie Kirk’s civility – and demanding liberals be civil in return – because Kirk was able to broadcast their beliefs in a “civil” manner. But those beliefs are still vile. I had written Kirk was known for inviting debate, though his “debates” were set up to show liberals in a bad light, to show Kirk winning. In another post I wrote that maybe he wasn’t so bad, that he genuinely wanted to hear another person’s opinion. Witkowski said I was right the first time.

But to claim that Kirk was some kind of paragon of free speech devoted to the free exchange of ideas is simply false. Sure, he invited debate. He was, in fact, under a tent that said "debate me” when he was killed. But he did not invite a dialog. He did not listen. Not in a meaningful way. He did not seek to understand where other people were coming from. Debate, for Kirk, was a game of one-upsmanship. He was exceptionally good at interjecting and interrupting to dominate any and all exchanges. It was, in fact, the very thing he was doing when he was killed. He was interrupting the person “debating” him to control the narrative. It was something that a lot of people liked about Kirk. He was very alpha in his approach to “debate.” It’s something that a lot of people like about Trump, too. The posturing, the belittling, the proud lack of empathy with an emphasis on cruelty. It’s a type of masculinity that is, sadly, highly valued in American culture. It’s often called “toxic” masculinity. I, personally, find it abhorrent. In a culture where toxic masculinity rules — and in this moment, it absolutely does — there’s a winner-take-all attitude toward the things we all need to participate in that whole “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” thing. Under toxic masculinity rule, there is no need to take care of the most vulnerable among us. Because they are getting exactly what they deserve. Which is nothing.

Two things can be true. Kirk said vile things. He didn’t deserve to be murdered. Oliver Willis of Daily Kos discussed Kirk’s memorial service on Sunday (so we didn’t have to watch it – and I didn’t). To sum it up: The grieving widow and the nasty guy turned Kirk’s hate from a memorial service into a campaign rally. It included a lot of whitewashing Kirk’s record and vowing vengeance on the left. AKALib of the Kos community gathered together reviews of the nasty guy’s speech at the United Nations general assembly. It was an international embarrassment, but very much true to form for this guy.

Trump’s nearly 56-minute address (it was scheduled for 15 minutes) to the United Nations General Assembly was both appalling and disgusting in how he turned it into his hate-filled campaign-like speech targeted to satisfy members of his cult.

A post by lamina566 of the Kos community talked about questions liars ask to manipulate people and derail a discussion. The author took college classes in Logic and Stoicism and recently watched a video on “The Stoic Habit.” These five questions are pulled from the video. This post includes a lot of discussion on how the questioner is trying to flip the discussion and a way to respond to the question. I’ll summarize. 1. Why are you being so sensitive? Response: I’m not sensitive, I’m observant. Does that make you uncomfortable? 2. You trust me, right? Trust is earned. If you’re asking you know you don’t have it. Response: Are you asking me to ignore my judgment? 3. Are you accusing me of something? Response: Maintain eye contact for several seconds, then “Should I be?” 4. Would I ever lie to you? That isn’t a question, it’s theater, meant to demand trust. Response: “Would I know if you did?” 5. Can’t we just move on? It’s a way to escape accountability. Response: “I’ll move on when I understand what happened.” The liar’s purpose is to exhaust you until you’re too tired to keep searching for the truth. Alex Samuels of Kos explored the idea of moving to Canada or some other country to get away from the horrors of the nasty guy, MAGA, and their destruction of democracy. Yeah, web searches for moving to Canada spiked after the 2024 election. Those searching were presumably Democrats, though there were reports of Republicans expecting to do the same if Harris had won. A new survey by the Pew Research Center suggests moving to another country might not fix what one is running from. They surveyed adults across 25 countries. In 20 of them majorities of adults say their nation’s political system needs significant change. In 7 of them about 80% of adults said the same. In all but a few countries “sizable portions of the population are pessimistic about whether reform is even possible.” Democracy forces compromise, but if the democracy isn’t functioning well, getting something accomplished can be hard. One reason why compromise may be difficult in some countries is because voting systems are winner-take-all. When I lived in Germany decades ago colleagues explained to me that so many seats are allocated directly to candidates (who are members of a party) and other seats are allocated to parties. Voters vote for both the candidate and the party. Then the party seats are allocated according to the percentages each party got in the vote. The candidate part might be winner-take-all. The party part isn’t. I will not guarantee I heard or remembered all that accurately. Samuels wrote:

While it’s tempting to blame “the other party” or fantasize about starting fresh in a new country, dissatisfaction with politics is widespread worldwide. The U.S. stands out for its particularly low trust in elected officials and extreme polarization—but the desire to escape isn’t uniquely American. Pew’s data suggests that leaving may not give you the political reprieve you’re expecting.

This post and the survey doesn’t consider whether another country’s politics is to the left or right of the US. I had reported a while back that Canada’s is far to the left of ours. And that may be enough for a refuge. In today’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a tweet from Magdi Jacobs:

Just a reminder: any & every issue that possibly divides Democrats is regularly used against us on social media by foreign, especially Russian, interference campaigns. The "source" of the issue could be organically American or not. Either way it will be amplified by bots/trolls.

In the comments are a lot of cartoons and memes about the recent big press conference in which Robert Kennedy Jr. and the nasty guy blamed Tylenol for the rise in autism. Of course, they provided no scientific evidence and the medical community says there is none. Frank Amari posted a cartoon by Dennis Goris. It shows a bullet and a Tylenol tablet. The caption says, “Only one of these this has been proven to harm children. The other will come with a warning label.” There are also many memes about the nasty guy’s speech at the UN. One meme is from Joe Walsh, who tweeted: “Every single word he says here is a lie. Every single word.” Alas, the gathered world leaders had to witness the speech. A meme posted by paulpro (author not identified) shows a young woman talking to a young man:

I see, so if I don’t have sex with you I’m a prude bitch, if I use the pill I’m a slut, if I get pregnant I’m an idiot and if I choose abortion I’m Satan. Yay.

A cartoon posted by paulpro and created by Sophie Labelle of Assigned Male shows a reporter stopping a man on the street, “Sir! In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, do you think the left is incapable of respectful debates?” The man responds with many ways in which Kirk did not engage in respectful debates. I took a look at Labelle’s Bluesky account and saw this cartoon: “The government won’t tell you that they are fascist, but they will tell you that anti-fascists are their enemies.” Another of Labelle’s cartoons talked about Horst Wessel. He was a skilled public speaker for the Nazi party and wrote the song that became the Nazi anthem. He died in 1930 during a forcible attempt to evict him for unpaid rent. And...

Goebbels, the Nazi chief propagandist, had been looking for someone to turn into a Christian martyr for the party and drum up enrollment. He turned Wessel’s funeral into a major propaganda event full of speeches antagonizing leftists. Thinking about him today for no particular reason.

That last bit shows a sign outside the arena where Kirk’s funeral was held. In Sunday’s pundit roundup Chitown Kev quoted Michael Bader of Salon:

We are experiencing extreme moral injury, every single day. So what do I mean by moral injury? That can happen when a soldier is ordered to torture, abuse or kill an enemy combatant or, worse yet, to harm civilians. Or when a drone operator learns, after an attack, that his drone killed several children. Or when a nurse administers a painful treatment to a terminally ill patient, knowing it is not likely to change the patient’s ultimate fate in any way. Or when, during the COVID pandemic, medical professionals were forced to make impossible choices due to resource shortages — to decide who got ventilators, to ration out protective equipment or to work in conditions they knew were unsafe for their patients or themselves. Those situations, and others like them, are classic examples of moral injury. The individual afflicted feels guilt, shame and anger, but ultimately, and perhaps more important, feels — and is — objectively helpless to do anything about it. The nurse or the soldier in most such situations is not experiencing direct physical harm. The harm is psychic and moral, reflecting a conflict between deeply held ethical beliefs and behaviors that violate these beliefs, particularly behaviors over which one has little or no control. [...] I believe that under Donald Trump, millions upon millions of people are enduring daily moral injuries that are extremely harmful to psychological well-being.

In the comments paulpro posted a cartoon (author not identified) showing Charlie Kirk arriving at the gates of Heaven and, surprise!, he’s welcomed by a black woman. Scott Horton posted a cartoon by Matt Wuerker showing a dam on a river labeled “Journalism” showing some big cracks as the lake behind it is the dumping grounds for sludge coming from pipes labeled, “Propaganda, Conspiracy Theories, Fake News,” and more. No longer available is a tweet of two men dropping off a plastic spine at ABC, the company that let Jimmy Kimmel go.

A concentration camp with heat, mosquitoes, and alligators

Rachel Treisman of NPR reported on Alligator Alcatraz – a new detention facility in the Florida Everglades on the site of an abandoned airport. The site was assembled quickly and the nasty guy visited it today to mark its “completion.” That it is on the grounds of an old airport is important because deportation flights can take off from there. The site could be created quickly because no buildings were constructed. Instead it is made up of tents and FEMA trailers. It will have 5,000 beds. Proponents say it has the best security – no civilization nearby and lots of alligators and pythons beyond the perimeter. Trying to leave would be deadly. Protests to the site also developed quickly. Protests are from conservationists who want to protect the Everglades and Indigenous groups who protest the use of their ancestral lands. There are also protests from immigration advocates worried about the lack of oversight and detainees being held in tents during high Florida heat and humidity with lots of mosquitoes and a big chance of hurricanes. I heard about Alligator Alcatraz this morning as a voice of a government official described it on NPR. I didn’t get the name and it must have been during a news report, thus not part of NPR’s stories that get transcripts. So I went looking for it. Meleah Lyden of WUSF wrote about what is known about the site. Officials declare the site to be temporary, so temporary they’re not building a sewer system. But “temporary” isn’t defined. That means there are no environmental safeguards and the waste runoff could pollute the Everglades. Between the sun, humidity, mosquitoes, and living in tents life there will be cruel. The money to create the site is coming from FEMA, meaning it will have less money when disaster strikes. Lyden wrote about requirements of other new detention centers, such as for food and laundry, but the Department of Homeland Security could issue waivers. That doesn’t sound good. I found out there is such a site as Know Your Meme, which explains memes that appear on the internet. It looks like their page for Alligator Alcatraz was updated between when I saw it this morning and when I am doing my evening writing. In addition to explaining what Alligator Alcatraz is all about there are images that people have created, such as alligators and pythons in guard uniforms. The page includes a tweet from Alt National Park Service (which I take to be someone other than the official NPS):

Starting the first week of July, when South Florida’s heat index regularly hits 100F, they plan to detain up to 5,000 people in tents. No A/C. No real shelter. Just suffocating heat, choking humidity, and swarms of mosquitoes. The location? A remote airstrip deep in the Everglades, surrounded by marshes, alligators, and invasive pythons. Florida officials are calling it a “detainment camp.” They say it’s fine because “We are swamp creatures,” and even brag that nature will “do us some favors.” This isn’t policy. It’s cruelty plain and simple. And it’s happening on U.S. soil.

We are swamp creatures? Can’t say I’ve visited a swamp recently. Dr. KevinYoung added:

You all understand that this is a Concentration Camp, right? RIGHT?!

I also saw cartoons such as one posted here. But I didn’t find the quote I had heard and I can’t reproduce it from memory. What I remember and thought about afterward was how the speaker described the place, each feature reinforcing how bad the place would be for anyone sent there. For me that translated into the speaker saying how important they were because they had the power to send the worst people to this horrible place. Alas, knowing the way the nasty guy and his minions operate many of the people who will be sent here are actually quite nice people. In Monday’s pundit roundup for Daily Kos Greg Dworkin included a tweet by Neil Stone. The tweet includes a chart of the reported cases of measles in the US since 1921. The number fluctuated widely with over 800,000 cases in about 1940 and about 150,000 later that decade. The measles vaccine came out in 1963. Within four years the cases fell below 100,000 where they have stayed since, with most years at or close to zero. Stone added:

Yes I can see why people like RFK Jr are sceptical about vaccines and asking questions I mean it's really hard to tell if they work or not A real head scratcher

In the comments exlrrp posted a meme:

Now hiring ICE agents! Aggressive? Disregard for due process? Enjoy targeting people of color? Then congratulations – you’re everything we’re looking for. ICE wants you! (No morals? No problem!)

Laugh About It cartoons posted one by Crampton. A woman is speaking to rabbits hiding under the furniture:

Yeah, it could be World War III. But it might be just some dudes bombing people to make their weenies feel something.

Kos of Kos wrote about Hungary’s authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán:

Orbán shares MAGA’s worldview down to the bone: a politics rooted in white nationalism, xenophobia, bigotry toward LGBTQ+ people, fearmongering about immigrants, and open contempt for liberal democratic institutions. He’s taken a sledgehammer to press freedom, and rewritten Hungary’s Constitution multiple times to attempt to entrench permanent one-party rule. Who needs a think tank like the Heritage Foundation when MAGA can just follow the Orbán blueprint? ... Orbán took what was once one of Europe’s rising post-Soviet democracies and ran it into the ground. Today, Hungary is the poorest country in the European Union, while the nation continues to suffer some of the highest inflation rates in the bloc. Ironically, Trump’s tariffs are compounding the country’s ills. Furthermore, Hungary is hemorrhaging young people. Its economy is increasingly dependent on authoritarian allies, like China and Russia. It’s isolated from its neighbors, distrusted by democratic partners, and rapidly becoming a cautionary tale for the rest of Europe.

The opposition party Tisza holds a 15% lead in polling for next year’s Parliament elections, though no date has been set. Authoritarianism produces poverty, political isolation, and moral rot. In America the nasty guy doesn’t care about how is working-class base is faring economically and MAGA fans ignore that Orbán has crashed Hungary’s economy. It’s enough they hate the right people. At the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations an Associated Press article posted on Kos discussed the current state of the institution. The UN was founded on June 26, 1945. This was after Germany had surrendered, but before Japan did. There were 50 charter members with 193 members now. The first words of the Charter were “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” There has not been a WWIII, and we can thank the UN for that, but there has been war. Right now there is war in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Congo, Haiti, Myanmar, Israel-Iran, and smaller skirmishes around the world. Diplomats at the UN are anxious because the nasty guy wants to review all the UN agencies. He’s also said the US will cut is contribution and other countries will as well, so the UN is facing 20% job cuts. The UN still sends out peacekeeping missions and small states don’t worry about larger neighbors occupying them. There is wide praise for UN agencies, especially those dealing with hunger, refugees, and children. There is also praise for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog, and the International Telecommunications Union, which allocates global radio spectrum and satellite orbits, among other things. And it remains an essential place for diplomats from around the world to meet, even if there is no results. Things not going well are: The gridlock in the Security Council’s permanent members of Russia, China, Britain, France, and the US. And a lot of the global issues, like climate change, aren’t getting addressed.

Ian Bremmer, who heads the Eurasia Group, a political risk and consulting firm, said the Trump administration’s attempts to undermine the United Nations — which the United States conceived in 1945 — will make China more important. With Trump exiting from the World Health Organization, the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA and cutting humanitarian funding, he said, China will become “the most influential and the most deep-pocketed” in those agencies. Bremmer, who calls himself a close adviser to Guterres, insisted the United Nations remains relevant — “with no caveats.” “It’s a relatively poorly resourced organization. It has no military capabilities. It has no autonomous foreign policy,” Bremmer said. “But its legitimacy and its credibility in speaking for 8 billion people on this little planet of ours is unique."

As long as the dollars are spent on them and no one else

To all you IT people and people just doing coding – back in my day we called in programming and I had the job title of programmer – do you know about COBOL? Unless you work in particular industries, have been doing coding for a long time, or are working on antique systems, you probably don’t. Which means you probably don’t know its idiosyncrasies. Such as how it stores dates. Thankfully, my need to use it was quite brief. COBOL is a computer programming (or coding) language, as are C++, python, java, and such. I’ve been out of the industry for a good many years so I don’t know the modern languages. So I looked up top programming languages for 2025 and found a list on Geeks for Geeks. Beyond what I mentioned above it listed C#, PHP, Ruby, Swift, SQL, Kotlin, and several more. I’ve heard of C# and SQL though used neither. I hadn’t heard of the others. lobachevsky of the Daily Kos community wrote:

Elon Musk claimed that his team found 150-year-old people collecting Social Security! He implied there were dead people being sent benefits, with checks cashed by someone else. But no—the people getting paid are very much alive. They are collecting their own benefits. They’re not committing fraud. They’re just not 150 years old, of course.

What’s going on is that on May 20, 1875 the International Bureau of Weight and Measures was established. Though computers, and COBOL, are nowhere near that old the creators of COBOL chose representing dates as the number of days since that date. That was ... let me see now ... almost 150 years ago. If the Social Security system doesn’t know a birth date it has as blank or zero. Elsewhere in the COBOL program it would know to say a birth date of 1875 should be interpreted as no birth date. But a person reading just the database would not know that. Which is a big reason why sending DOGE employees barely in their 20s, if that, rampaging through a computer system is a really bad idea. I guess they didn’t notice every one of those 150 year old people were born on the same date. Walter Einenkel of Kos reports that Musk is or will soon have the Internal Revenue Service in his sights. The primary goal is to lay off all those newly hired agents, the ones with the job to make sure the rich don’t cheat on their taxes. Yeah, the people from whom the IRS collected more than $1 billion last year. DOGE in the IRS means the boys have access to the tax info of every tax payer in America. That by itself is scary. It also means the richest guy in the world has the power to fire the people who collect his taxes. How that affects the speed of your tax refund is not known. File your taxes anyway. The deadline is still April 15. You don’t want to give them a reason to come after you. Oliver Willis of Kos reported that during a time of international turmoil – a tenuous cease fire in Gaza with the nasty guy talking about ethnic cleansing, the nasty guy and Putin discussing Ukraine’s fate without Ukraine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth angering NATO allies, and the usual daily arguing and fighting at various places around the world – the US does not have an ambassador to the United Nations. One would think that would be necessary so at least the nasty guy and his minions could speak with a unified voice. There is a nominee for the job, Rep. Elise Stefanik. But her confirmation is on hold. That’s because the Republican House majority is so slim that her vote might be critical – for such things as approving the $880 billion cut to Medicare to ease in the vote for tax cuts for billionaires due later this year.

The state of paralysis once again shows that Republicans have prioritized the well-being of the wealthiest above everything else, even America’s role on the world stage.

Kos of Kos discussed the research funding given out by the National Institutes of Health to universities. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama said she would work with Health Secretary Robert Kennedy to make sure the Alabama University system would be exempted. She must think the University of Michigan, the University of California system, or the universities of all the other states are not also doing top level research.

It’s so weird that the biggest moocher states like West Virginia, Louisiana, and Alabama suddenly love socialism—as long as the dollars are spent on them and no one else. And Alabama, the eighth-biggest moocher state in the country which gobbles up twice as much in federal funds as it pays in taxes, really needs to learn a lesson. Trump’s draconian cuts (instigated by his co-President Elon Musk and his shady DOGE cabal) won’t hurt blue states as much as they will decimate red states. If Republican legislators and voters alike want those federal dollars, maybe vote for the party that believes in sharing the wealth and uplifting everyone? Which brings us back to the difference between us and them: We are capable of empathy, even when something doesn’t affect us directly. Republicans only care when it does. Meanwhile, the University of Alabama will need to pinch pennies. Maybe they can start with football coach Kalen DeBoer’s $10 million annual salary, which will add up to over $80 million through 2031.

That should make your blood run cold

In my previous post I told the story of my little red car showing its age (17 years) and refusing to start. The saga continues. I went car shopping on Thursday. A friend took me to a dealer that had an old Honda Insight at a nice low price. I took it for a test drive and immediately saw a deal breaker. Part of the rear window slopes with the roof. Part is vertical. That means there is a bar across the middle of my rearward view. Why anyone – both car designers and government regulators – thought this was acceptable is a mystery. I am leaving behind a car in which I thought the back window was too small. I wasn’t going to buy one with another rearview obstruction. So I said no thanks. I realized the other dealership of interest was less than two miles away. I hadn’t done my daily walking yet so I asked the salesman if it was possible to walk from here to there – if there was a sidewalk the whole way, especially when one major road went under another. He said that wasn’t a problem (I saw later it was), but safety could be – I was in Detroit. So he offered to drive me to the other dealership – in the car I had just declined. I asked him about the bar through the rear view. Yeah, he had to tilt his head up and down to see around it, but he thought he could get used to it. I felt I shouldn't need to get used to it. The second dealer had a Prius I had seen online. I took it for a test drive and decided this would work well. So I bought it. I’ll describe the color as boring black. The paperwork took about two hours. I’ll have to take it back to get the tire sensor replaced. And sometime soon they’ll send the instruction manual. And this car needs one. The big task on Friday was to send the little red car on its way. For that I needed the title. For several years the title sat on one of my cabinets. Then I realized I should put it somewhere safe. Now several years later it wasn’t in the places I thought were safe. After a few hours searching I found it and thought why is it here? There’s nothing safe about this spot. Looking over the title I saw that it had a lien showing. When I bought it I was given a discount if I financed it rather than paying cash – even if I financed for just one month, which I did. The title did not show the lien had been cleared. In what was not my finest hour, I got on the phone and called the loan company. I ended up talking to three different people because when I got disconnected or had to hang up to call somewhere else, I was given a different agent when I called back. The big question was how to get a release letter to me and do so quickly. One guy said we can fax it to you, or to someplace like FedEx or UPS. The next guy said we can only fax it to a DMV office. So I called the Michigan Secretary of State central office to get the fax of a local SoS office. I was told it may not go through on the first try, so I should call the central office and they’ll check with the local office to see if it came through. I wasn’t allowed to call the local office because if they gave out their number they’d spend all day on the phone rather than dealing with customers in their office. After I called the loan company the third time I realized the original release letter would be in the same place I found the title – and it was. The things I do to myself sometimes. A release letter will still come through the mail in two weeks. I didn’t call back a fourth time to cancel that request because the answer bot demands an account number or SSN and because it was a brief loan from 17 years ago it had neither. I called the guy handling the pickup for the car donation company and set a time. I drove the new car to the old one. I transferred the plate and cleaned out the old one. Then I waited a while. The tow truck came and loaded the old car. I said my goodbyes (it had been a part of my life for 17 years), then reached in and pulled out the garage door opener. The car is being taken to a place where it can be sold (likely a scrap yard will buy it) and proceeds given to a charity. The public days of the Detroit Auto Show has been going on for a week and ends tomorrow. I had planned to go on Thursday to see when I might be able to buy an all electric car. I’m sure what I want is still a couple years away. Now that I have a Prius I’m confident will last me a few years the need to find out the electric car schedule is no longer urgent. The Auto Show should be back as an annual event. The nasty guy and his legal difficulties have been in the news a lot this past week. On Wednesday Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported Letitia James, Attorney General for New York, filed a $250 million civil lawsuit against the nasty guy and his adult children, alleging numerous acts of fraud in the way he valued his real estate holdings. When he needed a loan the claimed value went up (which could act as more collateral for a larger loan) sometimes up to ten times the actual value of the property. When he needed to pay taxes the claimed value went down. This wasn’t a little oopsie. This was intentional and ongoing. Alas, there is no jail time for a civil lawsuit, though James has asked for criminal charges to be brought. I’ve written before that The nasty guy asked for a special master to review the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago, his for profit estate, to see if some of them were really his and should be returned. The nasty guy got as special master one of the people he requested. Also on Wednesday Mark Sumner of Kos reported the nasty guy’s legal team went before the special master Judge Raymond Dearie. It didn’t go well. The legal team tried to cast doubt on whether documents were classified while refusing to show evidence they had been declassified, a “Schrödinger’s cat” position. They wanted to keep the status undetermined. They said future prosecution was “proof” the nasty guy would be endangered by telling the truth. Dearie was quick: show the evidence or shut up. They shut up. In a second post Sumner explained a bit more:

Specifically, Trump’s legal team is refusing to talk about whether, or how, Trump actually tried to declassify any of the documents by claiming it would harm their “defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment.” In other words, they’re saying that if they reveal that Trump didn’t declassify any documents, that could subject him to legal action for stealing and holding highly classified information. Which he did. And if Trump claims he did declassify documents, then he’ll have to prove that in court, and also be subject to possible charges over failure to follow the law regarding declassification. Plus, there’s the whole perjury issue—and the issue of Trump obstructing an investigation—that comes with lying about the whole thing.

The nasty guy has an out – Judge Aileen Cannon, who babied the case all the way and who agreed to the nasty guy’s claims and added a few outrageous conditions of her own, has reserved the right to dismiss the special master if he displeases her. An appeal of Judge Cannon’s ruling is before the 11th Circuit Court. And, as Sumner reported, in a filing for that court the nasty guy made some incredible claims. He, as president, has interest in his own records, no matter the classification. And if he wrote on the documents they are privileged information. Also, the DOJ hasn’t proven the documents are classified. They’re ridiculous claims. See the Presidential Records Act. Also, he’s no longer president. And that last claim should be that the nasty guy hasn’t proven they’re not classified. On Thursday Sumner reported a three judge panel of the 11th Circuit ruled the DOJ and the FBI provided all the legal points and evidence to support their position. And the nasty guy’s team offered only speculation and unsupported claims. The court also had a few things to say to Judge Cannon – such as the reasons she gave for the need of a special master are not in the law. As for the nasty guy the court said he hasn’t shown a need for the classified documents or shown a need to know the contents. Even if he did that doesn’t explain why he should have them. An appeal of an 11th Circuit Court decision goes to the Supremes. What happens there will be a mystery for now. In a late afternoon Thursday post Sumner reported on the latest from Judge Dearie. The nasty guy claimed the classified documents were an FBI plant. Dearie said here’s the list of things the FBI took from Mar-a-Lago. Tell me which are FBI plants. Tell me if the FBI left documents off the list. You can lie all you want to Fox News. But you can’t in my court. Since so many of the nasty guy’s cronies have been subpoenaed Mr. Newberger, who calls himself a political satirist, tweeted a photo of the nasty guy and several cronies at a golf course with the caption: “Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Subpoena.” Turning to Russia, Mark Hertling, a retired soldier, tweeted:

Putin's announced mobilization of 300,000 "reservists" was jaw-dropping to me this morning, but not for the reason some might suspect. Why? Because I know how Russian soldiers are trained, in basic training & in their units.

He then reviewed the extensive training American soldiers get. Then discussed how little training Russian troops, especially conscripts and draftees, get before being tossed into the war. And they don’t get much training once they’re at the front.

The issue is the Russian army is poorly led & poorly trained. That starts in basic training, and doesn't get better during the RU soldier's time in uniform. Mobilizing 300k "reservists" (after failing with depleted conventional forces, rag-tag militias recruiting prisoners & using paramilitaries like the Wagner group) will be extremely difficult. And placing "newbies" on a front line that has been mauled, has low morale & who don't want to be portends more RU disaster. Jaw-dropping. A new sign of RU weakness.

Sumner reviewed Biden’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly, which was about calling out Russia for violations of human rights and of international law. Some of Sumner’s excerpts of Biden’s speech:

This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state, plain and simple, and Ukraine’s right to exist as a people. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe, that should make your blood run cold. ... To be very blunt, let us speak plainly: A permanent member of the United Nations Security Council invaded its neighbor, attempted to erase a sovereign state from the map. Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenets of the United Nations Charter—none more important than the clear prohibition against countries taking the territory of their neighbor by force. ... If nations can pursue their imperial ambitions without consequence, then we put at risk everything this very institution stands for. Everything. Every victory won in the battlefield belongs to the courageous Ukrainian soldiers, but this past year, the world was tested as well. We did not hesitate. We chose liberty. We chose sovereignty. We stood with Ukraine. ... A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.

Sumner then discussed how that mobilization of 300K men is going. Charles Jay of the Kos community reported that Alla Pugacheva, a Russian pop music icon, has spoken against the war. She started her career in the 1960s and her Instagram account has 3.5 million followers. Her post with the announcement got 800K likes and 110K comments. For her to declare her opposition is a really big deal. Sumner reviewed the history of the war – what Russia intended and how it went so badly for them. Then Sumner discussed this call for mobilization.

Putin had resisted calling for mobilization, because he knew exactly what that meant. It meant that while Russians were perfectly willing to make happy noises about how Putin used his army of contract soldiers that the average Russian sees as a pathetic pile of misfits constantly bullied by Russia’s criminal-based upper class, they would not make happy sounds if they had to actually put an inch of skin in the game. Back in May, a poll showed that poor Russians—those most likely to have relatives in the military—were, unsurprisingly, the ones most likely to be against the invasion of Ukraine. A majority of Russians who had trouble putting food on the table were either hesitant about continuing the war or straight-up wanted to withdraw from Ukraine. At the other end of the scale, wealthy Russians were hugely in favor of watching poor people get slaughtered for sport.

Then Sumner said there is nothing partial about this mobilization. It looks like a million – not 300,00 – are facing conscription. Whole university classes are being hauled away, even though students were supposedly exempt. And, of course, a greater percent of the conscripts come from ethnic minorities, a form of ethnic cleansing.

Vladimir Putin crashed the Russian army on the rocks of Ukraine. What’s left if it is a wreck tottering on the edge of total destruction. The situation is so bad that Putin has turned to what is legitimately a last-ditch effort to patch the holes and try to keep things afloat long enough to … to … And that’s the real kicker. Putin will hold his mock elections. He will proclaim parts of Ukraine to be parts of Russia. But he will never get to keep them. Still, maybe he will get a little ethnic cleansing done and call that victory. Maybe it’s time for another poll on just how much Russians love this war.

Leaving behind bodies and piles of rubble where no one can live

For a few days now the news has mentioned a 40 mile Russian convoy supposedly heading to Kyiv, Ukraine but halted about 20 miles from the city. News reports the next day said the convoy is still halted. The next day too. These reports said little about why the convoy was just sitting there. So I did an online search. I found stories on CNN and Yahoo! News which I think came from Business Insider. Both included aerial photos of the convoy and short explanations. Both articles say the convoy has stalled because of “staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown, and congestion.” But that just brings up more questions. What sort of resistance? Traffic congestion of what kind? Perhaps Ukrainian trucks or tanks blocking the way? Business Insider also mentioned hunger, no fuel, and low morale as additional problems. I had lunch with my friend and debate partner (no debating today) who reads different websites than I do. He said the hunger was because the Russian generals (or Putin) thought Kyiv would crumble quickly so provided the convoy with only three days of food. Some bits from the Ukraine Updates on Daily Kos: Mark Sumner’s report from mid morning yesterday included: Military bases are great for spreading disease, including COVID. How many Russian soldiers are fighting while having COVID symptoms or are dealing with long COVID, which includes brain fog?

As has been seen in Kharkiv and in suburbs around Kyiv, Russian forces in Mariupol are resorting to the same tactics used in Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria — the purposeful destruction of civilian areas to crush resistance and create mass causalities. And the voices speaking from inside the maelstrom are heartbreaking.

Sumner included a video tweeted by Jackie Singh of a Ukrainian family (or maybe town) creating crates of Molotov cocktails. In an early afternoon post Sumner wrote that Russia is planning an extensive disinformation campaign. That includes a video of president Zelenskyy giving a surrender statement – except it is a deep fake. The video is constructed on computer with generated images of Zelenskyy and manipulations of recordings of his voice. No need of the actual human. In a post from late yesterday afternoon Kos of Kos discussed the vote in the UN General Assembly on a resolution to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kos wrote:

Prior to the invasion, Russia demanded to negotiate directly with the United States. Why? Because it couldn’t fathom that Europe could have its own ideas and interests in play. In Russia’s eyes, European nations are just vassals of the United States, with Washington moving the chess pieces based on its whims.

Putin, as tyrant, is a supremacist, a person at the top of the social hierarchy. He looks at everything through the supremacist viewpoint. That includes believing the leader of his largest foe is just as supremacist. That was certainly true of the nasty guy, but isn’t of Biden. Putin the supremacist sees the lands and people around him are (or supposed be) a part of his sphere of influence. He is higher than any of their national leaders. Their land and people are his to do as he wishes. While America projects power it is used to build coalitions and honor treaties (though there are exceptions – see Iraq). That’s outside a supremacist’s understanding. Back to that resolution. 141 countries voted to condemn Russia, 35 abstained, and 5 (including Russia) voted no. Those other four – Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, and Syria – all have horrible human rights records. Russia counts several countries in Central Asia and Central and South America as part of a Collective Security Treaty Organization. What unites the CSTO countries in the West is a hatred for the US. And all of these countries abstained, as did China, India, and Iran. Those voting against Russian included Cuba. The whole world order is being rearranged. In a late evening update Hunter of Kos wrote:

As Ukrainians huddle in subway stations and food in the country becomes more scarce, the Russian economy remains largely shuttered as world sanctions enforce unprecedented monetary isolation of the nation. Today saw the first reported seizure of a Russian oligarch-owned megayacht as nations look to seize the assets of Vladimir Putin's top kleptocratic allies. Today also saw confirmation that hundreds of the promised anti-tank and anti-air weapons pledged to Ukraine have already arrived inside the country. It is now increasingly clear that Russia cannot meet its original goal of swiftly subduing Ukraine. It can, however, commit atrocities against the country's civilian population as Putin-backed retribution for Russia's military humiliation.

In this morning’s update Kos included a photo of burned apartment buildings and wrote:

Apartment buildings in the suburbs of Kyiv. By now, the world should be well past the idea that Russia is doing anything less than what it did in Chechnya, Georgia, or Syria — the systematic reduction of civilian centers, leaving behind bodies and piles of rubble where no one can live. The U.N. is warning that the number of refugees from Ukraine will soon number in the millions, and it’s not hard to see why. Ukraine has a population greater than that of California, and Russia is purposely turning it into a slag heap. This is the kind of strategy armies adopt that aren’t capable of winning battles against opposing military units.

Sumner noted the Ukrainian Air Force attacked that 40 mile convoy. No damage report yet. Sumner also mentioned another propaganda tactic Russia is apparently using. Some of their soldiers are being forced to sign papers saying they were “dismissed retroactively” – meaning Russian soldiers were never in Ukraine. The invaders, according to the claim, were private citizens. In a post that got lost in my browser tabs, Joan McCarter of Kos discussed some of the protests within Russia early in the invasion. In addition to the thousands of people who have been jailed for protesting there are 150 senior officials from across the cities and provinces who have stated their opposition to the war. They were elected by the people and the people did not give Putin a mandate to invade. Government officials openly criticizing Putin is quite remarkable in Russia. The invasion reactivated the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers. They were formed in the last years of the Soviet Union to protest the conscription of their sons into the abusive Soviet military. And they’re back protesting sons being coerced into the military. That leads to a question: How effective will a military be if its personnel are performing under duress? The NPR program Marketplace ended today with host Kai Ryssdal talking about a report from a Ukrainian official. If a citizen comes into possession of a Russian tank we will see it as a service done for the motherland and no tax needs to be paid. In a post from last Monday Charles Jay of Kos wrote that many Russians won’t see Zelenskyy as the enemy because he kept them laughing for years. Jay includes a few videos of his career in entertainment. He was much better at the Ukraine version of Dancing With The Stars than several prominent American conservatives. Jay includes the first episode of A Servant of the People in which Zelenskyy plays a high school history teacher who rants against government corruption and uses that to run for president. After that show concluded Zelenskyy formed a political party named Servant of the People and ran for president. And is turning out to be an excellent wartime leader. Time for something completely different. RockyMtnHigh of the Kos community wrote that on March 1, 1872 President Ulysses S. Grant signed the law that established Yellowstone as the first National Park. It is now 150 years old. This post includes a bit of history of how Yellowstone became a park (though part of the history might be good storytelling rather than fact).

The national park idea is quintessentially American, our gift to the world. Since Yellowstone’s establishment, 62 other lands of varied shapes, sizes and resources have followed it in becoming National Parks within the United States – and hundreds of others worldwide. On this anniversary, it is worth celebrating the uniquely beautiful lands, waters and wildlife of Yellowstone and commemorating those whose foresight protected it for us and for the generations yet to come.

RockyMtnHigh has visited Yellowstone many times, so in a separate post included many pictures of the park. I’ve been to Yellowstone on two trips. The first was in 1968 with my parents, siblings, and a couple cousins. I’m sure we hit all the major sites. My one enduring memory was with all of us driving through the park in the family van. I was in the front passenger seat. We spotting a young bear by the side of the road. Cars ahead of us would stop beside the bear and it would look in at the passengers hoping for a treat. My dad pulled up to the bear and it stood on its hind legs and looked in at me. I looked back. Young lad that I was thought this was really cool. After a few moments the bear dropped down and Dad drove on. Mom said, “Is your window open?” It was. The second trip was in 1999. I decided for my vacation from the corporate world I would visit the Tetons, Yellowstone, and then work my way up to Glacier National Park. Mom was quite concerned because I was going by myself and intended to sleep in a tent (though there were several nights where I rented a cabin or a motel room). This was June and many nights were cold (I did Glacier last to make sure the road through the park was cleared of snow). I had a wonderful time. I did some hiking in each park (though probably no more than an hour from my car) and saw the major sites and a few minor ones. Though lunch was PB&J I went to a park restaurant for supper. Perhaps I should go back – and visit several other parks in the west – while I still can.

Where no one has so much power that they can dominate others

Brother came for a visit of just over 48 hours. I very much enjoy his visits, even when brief. Brother likes to do home improvement projects. I showed him that my bedroom extends outward so that a strip a couple feet wide doesn’t have basement under it. Brother commented the insulation between the floor joists didn’t look like enough. So we bought a roll of thick insulation batting. In pulling out the old stuff Brother found some of it had been chewed and had lots of leaf litter. Yup, a few holes in the concrete and gaps between facing boards. So we bought caulk and he used that and some quick dry mortar which I happened to have. Alas, the temperature was too cold for applying the caulk and he still felt a draft. The new bats are in place. The next time he visits he’ll redo the caulk. Yeah, I accumulated a bunch of browser tabs while Brother was here. Alas, many may have to wait while I summarize the latest on Ukraine – and some of that story has been in browser tabs too. On Tuesday Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported that Putin declared two eastern provinces to be “independent” and he could take them over. Sumner included a video of the Kenya ambassador to the UN Security Council explains what Putin’s aggression means. I didn’t watch it, though mention it to show how much the whole world is watching Putin and knows what he is. Also on Tuesday Sumner explained what was going on that day. Then he noted, building on comments by opposition leader Alexei Navaldy, that the invasion of Afghanistan in 1980 led to the collapse of the USSR. Will Putin’s invasion of Ukraine lead to the collapse of support for Putin? Sumner then noted that some American news companies appear to be taking Putin’s side. An editorial on the Wall Street Journal said Putin “outfoxed” western leaders. And the New York Times repeated Putin’s claims that Ukraine has always been an integral part of Russia. To that last point the US Embassy in Kyiv tweeted pictures of important churches that were built before 1108 – when Moscow was still undeveloped woods. Later on Tuesday Sumner wrote that Russia can’t afford war. Russia may have the 11th largest economy, but that is with a GDP of $1.6 trillion, compared to the US at $19.5 trillion and China at $12.2 trillion. Per capita that is $11,566 for Russia and $53,366 for the US. Like any tyrant Putin fears his populace. If he really thought he was popular and represented a majority he would hold free elections. Russia’s economy is heavily dependent of fossil fuels. And that money doesn’t go into growing and diversifying the economy. Russian’s are pessimistic of their future because of that lack of growth. An army in barracks doesn’t cost very much. An army in the field is horrendously expensive with supply lines to feed, arm, and shelter troops. There is also the cost to maintain vehicles and aircraft. Putin has bragged he has a stockpile of financial reserves. But with strong sanctions the reserves will eventually be used up. On Wednesday evening Sumner posted that Russia has invaded Ukraine. Not just from the eastern provinces it claimed on Tuesday, but from the north and south as well. This post was updated through the early morning hours with videos of various parts of the attack and of tweets from world leaders and news sources. There is also mention of the Moscow stock exchange suspending trading because it dropped so fast and the ruble also dropping by quite a bit. This Thursday morning Sumner posted again, and again with lots of videos. Sumner noted: Putin claimed he was invading to engage in “denazification” of Ukraine – which many Ukrainian parents and grandparents did in WWII. That lie is vile because Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish. Finland is asking to join NATO. Yes, the Ukrainian military is sustaining damage – but so is the Russian military. There was a battle in the Chernobyl exclusion zone and Russia captured the old power plant. The melted reactor core there is well covered and unlikely to be disturbed. Ukrainians are lining up to enlist in the defense forces. Protesters gathered across Russia. The protest in St. Petersburg was large. In an early afternoon post Sumner liveblogged Biden’s speech. This war is not going to end in days. In an afternoon post Sumner included more videos and: The list of the latest sanctions. The Moscow stock market had dropped 33%, erasing $200 billion in wealth. The Ukrainian defense forces are having some success, such as keeping control of the Hostomel Airport. Aysha Qamar of Kos reported on the anti-war protests in Russia, both in person and on social media. Some protests have been quite large. The protesters know this is risky and many are arrested. If the Russian police know about them they may be arrested as soon as they leave home. Protesters may not be arrested for protesting, instead for violating COVID restrictions. Laura Clawson of Kos wrote about arrests of protesters. Chitown Kev, in a pundit roundup for Kos included a series of tweets from Hayes Brown of MSNBC. The UN Security Council has been meeting to discuss the invasion. Russia is one of five countries with permanent membership on the UNSC with veto power over any UNSC resolution. Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN, challenged Russia’s seat. The UN Charter says the permanent members are China (Taiwan), Britain, France, USA, and USSR. Not Russia. And the USSR seat was not properly turned over to Russia. The process in which China replaced Taiwan wasn’t quite proper, even though it went through the General Assembly. Russia replacing the USSR didn’t even get a General Assembly vote. Kev says this is a gutsy move by Ukraine. If it comes to a vote China is likely to veto it. Brandi Buchman of Kos hopes Europe is ready to receive Ukraine’s refugees who are already clogging roads heading west. Crossings into Poland and Hungary are ready to receive refugees, though just three crossings are likely to not be enough. All but Britain appear ready to welcome Ukrainians. Even some American lawmakers are trying to show their welcome. Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos pondered the question of why didn’t Putin invade Ukraine during the reign of the nasty guy? The effort might have been so much easier at a time when the nasty guy was working to wreck NATO. Instead, the invasion is happening after Biden worked to unite NATO. The reason is that Putin was expecting the nasty guy to win again (and had provided help to make it happen). In a second term, with the nasty guy unlocking all the doors from the inside, a takeover of Ukraine would have been even easier, followed by Putin’s pick of other Eastern European countries. Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, claimed that Putin didn’t invade during the nasty guy years because the nasty guy was too unpredictable. Steve Schmidt, an ex-Republican strategist, rebukes Lowry’s claim. The nasty guy is very predictable – ready to sell out America for nothing but flattery. In a post from yesterday Sumner lists some of the things Republicans are saying in support of Putin. And that the whole thing is Biden’s fault. Sumner wrote:

When they’re not spreading the news that Putin is strong, Biden is weak, and that the United States has no interest in promoting democracy, defending nations against aggressors, or upholding our word to allies, Republicans have taken some time out to make it clear that Ukraine totally deserves it. That “corrupt” that Kirk tossed into his statement was no coincidence. It’s how Republicans are describing Ukraine in statement after statement. ... It’s not that Republicans don’t want a war. It’s that they’re already waging one—against democracy in the United States.

They just don’t want the Ukraine war to distract from their own war. Janne Korhonen of Finland tweeted a thread on Tuesday explaining the war from Finland’s point of view. Finland had been a part of the Russian Empire until 1917. From the speech Putin gave on Monday Korhonen says Putin’s goal it to recreate that Russian Empire. Putin doesn’t really fear NATO. What he fears is the Russian people decide to get rid of him. And democracies show that an alternative is possible. That’s why Putin and his formidable propaganda machine have been trying to undermine the European Union and supports the far right in Europe and America. A divided or corrupt West would benefit Putin. Yielding to Putin means a country isn’t really democratic. The people will choose candidates acceptable to Putin. And Putin gains power. That could mean the end of democracy in Finland. So many in Finland are now asking to join NATO. In another thread Korhonen wrote:

I would very much like that every human had the same or better opportunities I've had. But that requires a fair and just sharing of resources. Which necessitates a fair sharing of power, and limits to the powers of individuals. That is, radical democracy. ... The goal should be a society where no one has so much power that they can dominate others, nor so little they can be dominated.

After all that grim news we need a smile, such as this 10 second video of father and son.

Judicial emergency

The United Nations Human Rights Council has independent experts for various issues. One has now been added for LGBT affairs. This person will keep the international spotlight on LGBT issues and see that these issues are integrated into what public officials and diplomats do.

The resolution creating this post has a few amendments, proposed by Pakistan. One adds respect for local values, "religious sensitivities," or domestic politics. Another condemns "coercive measures" in an attempt to change national values through such things as reducing international aid.

Even with this watering down, it is good to have someone manning that spotlight.



On the one-month anniversary of the Orlando attack the GOP members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have scheduled a hearing on a First Amendment Defense Act. Yup, they've invited several conservative witnesses to testify for the need for a Religious Freedom Act (by another name). At the very least they're tone deaf.

The National Organization for Marriage (theirs, not yours) is lamenting their recent rally was a bust and they're out of money. Even so the GOP still does their bidding.



Sen. Mitch McConnell, the guy who is saving the empty seat on the Supremes for Trump to fill, isn't able to answer the question, "Is Donald Trump qualified to be President?" There's a red flag on that play.

Meanwhile the Senate Judiciary Committee has essentially shut down the confirmation of any judge that Obama has nominated. That includes 12 vacancies just in Texas, where the workload has been designated a judicial emergency. Senators Cruz and Cornyn have publicly supported Obama's 5 nominations for Texas courts, but are now blocking the process.



Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the military's ban on transgender service members has ended. It will take a while to implement the various pieces of the policy. Immediately, transgender service members will not be discharged. Then comes training for doctors in transgender care. Then comes working out how to allow service members to transition while in the military. All that should happen within a year.



Minutes before Mississippi's religious freedom law was to go into effect, US District Judge Carlton Reeves struck it down. This was the worst of the religious freedom laws to be enacted, granting broad permission for discrimination, including against unmarried straight people. Reeves wrote:

The State has put its thumb on the scale to favor some religious beliefs over others. Showing such favor tells ‘nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and . . . adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.

Therefore the law violated the Equal Protection Clause.



Headline of the day (from a few days ago): "House Republicans Spent Millions Of Dollars On Benghazi Committee To Exonerate Clinton."

Dad, may I have your kidney?

The United Nations Human Rights Comission has approved a resolution opposing anti-gay violence and discrimination. It passed by a vote of 25-14.

There was some doubt South Africa would support it, though they eventually voted yes. South Africa was the first country to put protections for sexual minorities in its constitution, but lately it seems to be turning away from full inclusion. The South African Ambassador noted he felt squeezed between protecting rights and a desire to preserve relationships with homophobic African countries.

A commenter breaks down the vote of the 39 countries in the commission. In the nay column are Africa (except South Africa), all Islamic majority countries, and Russia. In the yea column are North and South America, Europe, and Asia (except for Indonesia, which has an Islamic majority).

Another commenter said we should thank Christians because all the countries that voted for this resolution are Christian majority. That got a storm brewing. Several responded by saying these countries approved the resolution not because they are mostly Christian, but because they are mostly secular.



The organization Freedom to Marry has launched a nationwide ad campaign highlighting the states that still don't have marriage equality and saying "It's Time," America is ready. The ad shows an interesting map of the states without equality but no outlines of the states who already have it.



The International Olympic Committee has said it will add a non-discrimination clause to the contract it signs with host cities. The hosts must uphold Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter, which states, "Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement." Some commenters are pleased. Others say it won't prevent a repeat of the mess around the Sochi games because Principle 6 doesn't explicitly mention sexual orientation and gender identity.



A few days ago NPR did a feature on Sister Theresa Forcades, a Catholic nun in Spain. She has become an outspoken darling of progressives in that country. What caught my attention was her comments on abortion. Her first issue: decision-making in the Catholic Church is linked to ordination and ordination is linked to gender.

When she spoke of supporting abortion rights she got a swift reprimand from the Vatican. In her response she posed a philosophical question:

So let's imagine you have a father and the father has a compatible kidney, and you have a child, an innocent child, who needs the kidney. Is the church ready to force the father to give the kidney, to save the child's life? That the right to life of the child takes precedence over the right to self-determination to his own body, of the father?

To that question the Vatican did not reply.



A little bit of fun: Cirque du Soleil created a film showing how quadcopters might be used in dance (and might be used in an upcoming live show).