If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power

An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos noted that the states that have banned abortion tend to have the fewest social services for new mothers.

It is clear that from the time a Tennessee woman gets pregnant, she faces greater obstacles to a healthy pregnancy, a healthy child and a financially stable family than the average American mom.

What services exist require confusing and convoluted applications. Some people feel the process was made difficult on purpose. Mark Kreidler wrote in an article for Capital and Main posted on Kos that Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed some pretty good bills over the last few months. A new law helps speed the creation of tiny homes to get homeless people into temporary shelter. These homes are prefabs, are self-contained, and can be moved with a forklift as needs change. They cost $50K instead of the $800K for affordable housing. Other new laws provide more protection from evictions, paid leave for family needs and for acts of violence, and banning medical debt from credit reports. And a company is banned from holding mandatory “captive audience” anti-union meetings. Oliver Willis of Kos explained why Musk wants to buy Wikipedia, which says it is not for sale. The reason goes back to Stephen Colbert saying during the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner that “reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

Conservatives believe that sources of information must reflect a conservative worldview rather than objective reality, which is why Trump has gone after news outlets like ABC News and The New York Times for not repeating right-wing propaganda. Even though many of these outlets have promoted conservative narratives and buckled under right-wing criticism and legal threats, it still isn’t enough for Trump. Now Wikipedia is under fire for promoting facts instead of right-wing talking points, further proving that conservatives believe everything must bend to their will—even the encyclopedia.

In a pundit roundup for Kos from December 22 Chitown Kev quoted Renée Graham of the Boston Globe:

When Trump refuses to recognize his mistakes, he’s not just broadcasting his insecurities. With his total disregard for facts, and especially the expertise of those smarter than him, he’s positioning himself as an omnipotent arbiter of truth. If he says a hurricane will hit Alabama, it will hit Alabama. If he says massive tariffs will be the best thing ever, then the more than 20 Nobel Prize-winning economists who’ve disputed his comments are wrong. In his essential book, “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” Timothy Snyder, a Yale University professor and historian, warns, “To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle.” It’s well-documented that Trump loves spectacle as much as he despises truth. That’s why he’s threatening retribution against the media and fellow politicians — any truthteller who knocks down his lies. He doesn’t care about party or country; his intent is to unleash an infestation of misinformation that magnifies his power and replaces truth with whatever best serves his authoritarian goals.

In the comments of the pundit roundup for December 24 are a couple memes posted by exlrrp that haven’t disappeared yet. The first one: “A Christmas Carol is the heartwarming tale of how rich people must be supernaturally terrorized into sharing.” The second one is for fun. “If your gingerbread house fails, just add a dinosaur!” It shows a crumbled gingerbread house and a plastic t-rex with a piece of gingerbread in its mouth. Last Sunday I saw the 1922 silent movie Robin Hood and wrote about it a few posts back. Here are a few things about the movie from IMDb and it’s trivia page about the movie. The set included a castle, which was designed by Lloyd Wright, junior to architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It was the largest set created for a silent era film. The “banquet hall” was actually open air and was larger than the waiting area of Penn Station in New York. The budget for the sets was $248,000 (in 1922 dollars), required a million feet of lumber and 30 tons of nails. Douglas Fairbanks allowed the set to be open to the public as a charity benefit. Bleachers were set up so the public could watch filming. The costume department had to make several thousand costumes. They used 20,000 yards of fabric and the output of three tanneries to make the shoes, and had a budget of $82,000 (in 1922 dollars). Larger scenes had up to 1,200 extras. Total production costs topped $930,000. The movie was the first one to have a gala premier, which was held at Sid Grauman’s new Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The film ran there long enough that street car conductors didn’t announce the theater, instead said, “All out for Robin Hood!” Another AP article lists Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2024, then listed the rest of the top ten. At the top: Polarization – causing strong disagreement between opposing factions. The word has extended beyond politics to pop culture and elsewhere. Demure – reserved or modest. It got a big bump through a makeup influencer. Fortnight – two weeks, got a bump from a Taylor Swift song of that name. Totality – where the moon fully blocked the sun, from the April eclipse. It also means the full amount or wholeness. Resonate – to affect someone in a personal or emotional way. And AI uses it too much. Allision – when two things are moving and hit, that’s a collision. When one thing is stationary and another hits it – like a ship and that Baltimore bridge – that’s an allision. Weird – popularized by Tim Walz. Cognitive – used often with “decline” to describe Biden and that debate performance. The pair should also be applied to the nasty guy. Pander – say or do what someone demands even though it is not good, proper, or reasonable. Frequently used in political campaigns. Democracy – the word of the year in 2003 and towards the top of the list since then. Lake Superior State University has released its 2025 “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness.” I don’t have an opinion about banishing words from the Queen’s English, banishing words from American English is good enough. A few of this year’s words: Cringe – Describing someone as “cringe” now makes others cringe. Game Changer – If everything is a game changer, nothing is. Era – Yeah, Taylor Swift can use it, but a man’s “fatherhood era” is overuse. Dropped – Used and overused to describe music and movies that have been released. Sorry not sorry – Sounds like an excuse to be a jerk. Utilize – Most of the time “use” is just fine. This has long been an annoyance of mine.

"The Onion takes over Infowars" is not an Onion spoof

Mark Sumner, Daily Kos staff emeritus, wrote about why one must be very careful when reading someone’s ideas on what Democrats need to do to win the next election. A big sign is they say Harris should have said something she clearly already said or complain about a policy position that Harris definitely did not put forward.

They're engaging in convenient strawman arguments that attack non-existent Democratic campaigns. Those arguments are defined by accepting nothing but Republican talking points. And the prescriptions for how to "fix" the Democratic Party all seem to come down to the same thing: Surrender.

Then Sumner looked at a nine point plan put out by Matthew Yglesias. I saw that name and thought isn’t he highly conservative? So I didn’t read those proposals carefully and skipped over much of Sumner’s point-by-point rebuttal (yes, Yglesias is conservative) and went to the summary.

To bring Yglesias' list into plain English, here's his plan for Democrats Cut taxes for billionaires Drill, baby, drill Protesters are perverts All lives matter Trans people are perverts Experts don't know more than you. Racist, sexist, and abusive language is cool Build the wall. build the camps, deport them all The government exists to help corporations and billionaires This platform may be slightly familiar to you. It's the Republican platform. It also happens to be the platform that Yglesias and others in the why-can't-Democrats-be-more-like-Republicans? faction have been pushing for eternity. What's most astounding is that some people seem to be taking this seriously.

Some of those are media people who hold up such plans as a way for Democrats to “fix things.”

Their arguments are worse than surrender; they're collaboration. These are people who have hankered for nothing so much as the downfall of the Democratic Party and progressive values. They see this moment as an opportunity to sell disheartened Democrats on the benefits of hate, disdain, and ignorance. Anyone who buys their arguments might as well pop on that MAGA hat and unfurl a Confederate flag. And a Democratic Party that followed their advice would only be the Republican Party in a donkey suit.

This story has been getting a lot of play in the media. The version I’m working from is by Oliver Willis of Kos. Alex Jones and his Infowars website and media show was an early and the most prominent voice in conservative conspiracy theories. He made up many of his claims. He funded his operations partly through selling dietary supplements (in the US supplements are not regulated). One of his big stories a decade ago was that the Sandy Hook school shooting didn’t really happen. The families of the murdered children sued Jones. The trial took a good long time. When the verdict was handed down the families were awarded nearly a billion dollars, a judgment large enough that Jones was ordered to liquidate his assets to pay it. The Infowars name and assets were bought by ... The Onion, the site known for its satirical take on the news. This news is so weird one could accuse The Onion of making it up. But it really happened. The group Everytown for Gun Safety helped seal the deal and vowed to support the site through advertising and the Sandy Hook families heartily agree with the deal. The Onion gains a new platform and that source of hurtful information has been stopped. A pundit roundup by Greg Dworking for Kos has several reactions on how bad Matt Gaetz will be as Attorney General. I’ll let you read those (or not) and turn to the memes and cartoons posted in the comments. One posted by exlrrp is from Mehdi Hasan, which looks to be from Bluesky rather than X. Hasan wrote:

The party that is obsessed with child sex offenders, & is close to a cult that claims child sex offenders run the government, just nominated a guy once investigated for allegedly sex-trafficking a 17 year old girl to be in charge of the country’s legal system. Beyond parody.

Some look at “child sex offenders” and think drag queens. They don’t run the government, though we would be in a better place if they did. Others look at that phrase and see Jeffrey Epstein’s clients. Many of them do run the government. Another one posted by exlrrp shows Putin toasting with a glass of champagne and says, “Thank you Republicans! I couldn’t have screwed your nation without you!” David Hayward, the naked pastor, posted a cartoon with a standard format: “How it started” shows people gathered around Jesus as he teaches. “How it’s going” shows people outside a church bowing to an American flag. Collins Dictionary has released its word of the year with several other worthy mentions. The top word is brat, a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude. It was created by Charli XCX and made famous when it was applied to Harris. Some of the other top words this year: Brainrot: an inability to think clearly caused by excessive consumption of low-quality online content. Looksmaxxing: attempting to maximize the attractiveness of one’s physical appearance. Rawdogging: the act of undertaking an activity without preparation, support, or equipment. Romantasy: a literary genre that combines romantic fiction with fantasy. Supermajority: (it is a word of the year only now?) Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted late night commentary. A sample:

“Since the election, internet searches for ‘how to move abroad’ are up by more than one-thousand percent. … Additionally, U.S. searches for ‘move to Canada’ increased by 1,270 percent, making this a perfect time to debut my new reality show: Who Wants to Marry a Mountie?” —Stephen Colbert

They support Israel – only if their ultrarich donors can cheat on taxes

I’ve written about the media mentioning Biden’s age every chance they get, including in headlines, and doing so much more often than they mention the nasty guy’s age, though he’s only three years younger – and showing his age more. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported that the nasty guy has gotten incoherent enough that the other Republican candidates for president have noticed. The age insults the nasty guy has been slinging at Biden the other candidates are now slinging at him. And polls show the attacks hurt the nasty guy more than they do Biden. An Associated Press article posted to Kos reports that a case in Colorado that challenges the nasty guy’s right to be on the ballot has begun. This is the first case dealing with him being ineligible because he has violated the Constitution’s “insurrection” clause. Another in Minnesota is about to start. More such cases have been filed in other states. No matter the outcome it will go to the state or federal Supreme Court. The article describes the history and legal reasoning behind these cases. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported that Republicans in the House want to pass aid to Israel so badly – they’ve decided the money has to be offset with cuts somewhere else. Yes, that’s a false choice. Also, that somewhere else is the enhanced funding given to the IRS to track down rich tax cheats. And chopping this money – letting the rich go on cheating – actually increases the deficit.

So here we are, according to Republicans: Either billionaires get to cheat on their taxes and we can aid Israel ... or not. ... But the lunacy of House Republicans tying Israel aid to cuts at the IRS so America's top 1% can get out of paying their fair share is so on brand. Sure, they support Israel, but only if their ultrarich friends and donors don’t have to pay their taxes.

Monte Wolverton tweeted a cartoon almost a week ago and before the House attached cuts to the IRS to aid to Israel. But the words have been true for years, likely decades. The cartoon shows an elephant saying, “The people should be free from big government ... so they can serve big corporations!” Dartagnan of the Kos community wrote about a poll done by the Public Religion Research Institute. One of many questions they’ve asked several times over the last two years is about “Americans’ tolerance for violence as a means of resolving their political differences.” Dartagnan quoted the poll report:

Nearly a quarter of Americans (23%) agree that ‘because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,’ according to the survey. ... Currently one-third of Republicans support violence as a means to save the country, compared with 22% of independents and 13% of Democrats, the survey found. More specifically, Republicans who have favorable views of Donald Trump were found to be "nearly three times as likely as Republicans who have unfavorable views of Trump" to support political violence. ... Support for political violence jumps to even higher levels among Americans who believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump (46%); Americans who hold a favourable view of Trump (41%); Americans who believe in the so-called “replacement theory” (41%); Americans who affirm the core tenet of white Christian nationalism, that God intended America to be a new promised land for European Christians (39%).

Dartagnan added:

What that tells us is that roughly half of the really “enthusiastic” Trump voters approve of violence to achieve whatever it is they believe in.

There are also sections of the report that correlate approval of violence with QAnon conspiracy beliefs and Fox New viewing. Leading up to the 2020 election a gang of men (a militia of men?) plotted to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. The plan was prevented. Nine of the men were convicted or accepted plea deals. Another five were acquitted. The trial of three of those acquitted, two of them twins, was just a couple months ago. Now we get to the strange part. Hunter of Kos reported Rachelle Smit, a member of the Michigan House and a Republican, gave the twins a legislative tribute celebrating their “courage” for “keeping alive our cherished liberties” and that “The People of Michigan owe a debt of gratitude” to the pair. When the Detroit News asked Smit didn’t clarify what she meant by all that. Wrote Hunter:

As you can imagine, Whitmer's office is blasting Smit for honoring men connected to the plot to kidnap the governor, since it self-evidently appears that Smit is celebrating that kidnapping plot and signaling to would-be future domestic terrorists that they can count on the state Republican Party to have their backs. Smit isn't doing anything to dissuade people from thinking that. She's had every opportunity to pipe up to explain herself—and she hasn't. Nor could we find any of her fellow Republicans distancing themselves from this bizarre "tribute."

One of the (likely many) reasons why the Unite the Right rally of 2017 was held in Charlottesville, VA was the prominent statue of Confederate general (thus American traitor) Robert E. Lee. Dartagnan reported the statue was removed in 2021. It had been erected in 1924, well after Lee surrendered and in the midst of the Jim Crow era. And now the statue has been (or is being – there’s about five tons of metal) melted down. The foundry doing the work is black owned and is somewhere in the South. Reports are carefully not mentioning the city or even the state because lots of people would be quick to intimidate and harass the workers and owner. The Swords into Plowshares organization is a part of this work. Sometime in the future the metal will be transformed into a public art work, an expression of “democratic values and inclusive aspirations,” to be displayed in Charlottesville. Merriam-Webster reported they have added 690 words or new definitions to their dictionary this year. It’s a sign of a healthy language. Their post lists some of those words. I don’t see myself using many of them (especially those used in gaming, sports, or food). Even so, here are a few of my favorites: ngl – not gonna lie bingo card – a list of possible or likely scenarios, as in: Didn’t have that on my bingo card. smishing – the text version of phishing rewild – to return to a more natural state, to restore an ecosystem rage quit – to quit something in anger doomscroll – excessive online scrolling through news or other content that makes one feel sad or angry chef’s kiss – a gesture of satisfaction or approval kiss-and-cry – the area next to a skating rink where figure skaters wait for their scores (in front of cameras). Commentators have been using this term for several Winter Olympics and it’s just been added to the dictionary now?

Believing they should behave like jerks

My second cataract surgery was yesterday. It went smoothly. However, once the anesthesia on the eye wore off it was quite painful, more than with the other eye. I went to bed early and slept for close to 11 hours. Part of that was the general sedation I had been given, part of that was I hadn’t slept well the night before. So now I’m seeing the world without glasses – and confirming I still need glasses. New lenses might be available tomorrow, certainly by Monday. My Sunday movie was Corsage (the French word for corset even though this is a German language film). This is a completely fictional (thanks IMDB) story of Empress Elizabeth of Austria when she has passed her 40th birthday in 1877 and considered “old.” She is tired of the constraints of being the wife of the Emperor (the corset is a symbol too) and through the course of the story she does something about it, though until the last scene I didn’t guess her solution. Because she is expected to have a small waist (and there are lots of comments in the press speculating whether she’s gained weight) during most of the meals seen in the film what we see on her plate is a small amount of food that she mostly ignores. Her son, about age 20, and her daughter, a preteen, both chide her for actions unbecoming of an Empress. There are a lot of constraints for her to rebel against. The completely fictional part means, according to IMDB, that the real Elizabeth was nothing like the woman presented here and didn’t do these things. The film was nominates for lots of film festival awards and won a few of them. Yeah, it’s highly regarded. I enjoyed it, though at times it seems rather slow paced. Last week Michigan had temps that topped 80F, 20 degrees warmer than average. Monday, just two days later, temps were in the 40s, 15 degrees cooler than average, and we had snow flurries. Meteor Blades, in his Earth Matters column for Daily Kos wrote about the EPA proposing new emissions standards for cars. These standards will essentially require automakers to switch to EVs faster – though not all that much faster than previous laws and their own plans prompted them to do and not fast enough as our climate requires. These standards are now in the phase of getting public comment, which lasts 60 days. Then various groups (though not so much car companies) will sue. Blades also discussed an article by Amy Westervelt at the substack Drilled that explained Big Oil is now facing two dozen climate liability lawsuits by various cities, counties, and states. They are trying to shift these cases out of state courts and into federal courts. Blades wrote:

So, why are the fossil fuel companies so desperate to see these cases in front of the Supreme Court? A few reasons: first, they have successfully argued before that the Clean Air Act preempts any state action on greenhouse gas emissions. Second, they believe they have a better shot at this pro-industry bench siding with them than any left-leaning state court judges. Third, they'd like to put an end to the barrage of lawsuits they've been facing over the past five years. But fourth, and this is where I've seen almost no one connect the dots: they want to further expand corporate free speech. In almost all of the climate liability cases, the fossil fuel plaintiffs, once they get past arguing jurisdiction, are making a free speech argument that goes roughly: Anything we've ever said about climate change was said with the intention of influencing policy; that makes it political speech (or in legalese "petitioning speech"), which is protected by the First Amendment.

Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted Jonah Goldberg of The Dispatch discussing the behavior of young Republicans

Everywhere I look these days, I see young conservatives believing they should behave like jerks or like the body parts they cover with those red ties. Because they have no frame of reference, no meaningful political experience or memory of politics prior to this shabby era, they think being shabby is normal and smart.

In another roundup Dworkin quoted several commentators remarking how much the abortion issue has put Republicans into a corner, which Democrats are now working hard to exploit. At the top of this post is a picture of a person protesting the expulsion of Justin Pearson and Justin Jones from the Tennessee Legislature. The sign he’s holding says, “No Justins No Peace.” SemDem of the Kos community discussed why the Tennessee legislature was so eager to expel Justins Jones and Pearson. The expulsion was shocking and didn’t make sense to the rest of the country. But state residents saw this coming and knew it wasn’t about decorum:

The GOP lawmakers were tired of constantly being called out on the House floor by these two Black men and saw an opportunity to get rid of them. Thankfully, their plan backfired spectacularly.

SemDem included the transcript of a recent exchange as an example:

John Ragan (R): “My belief is in God. I settle other things with facts and data. The fact of the matter is, sir, this bill is not racist. It is not unconstitutional. Justin Jones (D): “You keep bringing up God. but God says in Isaiah 10: ‘Woe to those who pass unjust laws that hurt the poor and robbed them of their rights. And so stop using God to justify your bigotry. Stop using God to justify hatred and racism.” [Speaker] Cameron Sexton (R): “You are out of order!”

Jon Stewart hosted Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks at the War Horse Symposium, a journalism and public policy forum held in Chicago, to talk about the nation’s defense budget. Hicks did a lot of dodging and weaving, trying very hard to not directly answer Stewart’s questions. They talked about the inability of the Defense Department of being audited. It took a while for patient Stewart to get to his main point:

When I see a State Department get a certain amount of money and a military budget be ten times that. And I see a struggle within government to get people, like, more basic services. And then that department that got that, I mean, we got out of 20 years of war and the Pentagon got a $50 billion raise. Like that's shocking to me. Now, I may not understand exactly the ins and outs, and the incredible magic of an audit, but I'm a human being who lives on the Earth and can't figure out how $850 billion to a department means that the rank and file still have to be on food stamps. Like, to me, that's f---ing corruption.

Merriam Webster, the dictionary company, asked people whose first language is not English to share a word in their language that has no equivalent in English. They shared their favorites and out of those here are mine: Verschlimmbessern, a German word for making something worse by trying to make it better. Kabalsalat, German for cable salad, the mess of tangled cables under your computer desk. Qti maz, an Armenian word for “nose hair” and also someone concerned with details that don’t matter. Fargen, a Yiddish word that means to support someone in a warm and loving and non-judgmental way. Apapachar, a Mexican Spanish word for “hug with the soul,” to cuddle, support, console, to throw all your love to someone when they need it most. The list also includes a video of an ASL sign that means something like “authentic,” “open up,” “unmask,” and “share my raw feelings.” Amazing Maps tweeted a map of the US with every county colored according to life expectancy. The data came from GHDX with the darkest red an expectancy of 66.8 years up through cream to a darkest blue at 86.8. Much of the Northeast and central Midwest is cream to blue. The West is a bit mixed (though I suspect the darkest reds highlight Native territory). And most of the South – east Texas and southern Oklahoma to Georgia and the Gulf to eastern Kentucky – is quite red. Several months ago while pondering what to do while visiting Sister and Niece for a holiday I contemplated printing out maps of Europe and Asia and seeing how many countries we could name. They agreed to this diversion. Map data with coordinates in latitude and longitude are easy to find online. The map of Europe was fairly easy to print using Mercator projection (I’m not sure that’s accurate, what I did was convert latitude and longitude to x and y and scale it so Spain didn’t look squished). But when I did that to the map of Asia Russia looked huge! So I looked up other projections. The one that looked like it might correct the size of Russia also had mathematics that looked too complicated to program in a hurry. During that holiday we named the US states and the countries of Europe and that was enough. Tomas Pueyo tweeted a thread about map distortions. The standard Mercator projection makes the countries away from the equator seem larger than they are, places like Russia, which does look huge, but also the US and Europe, want that because it shows they are more important than they actually are. That also means the countries around the equator – most of Africa and South America are smaller in comparison and are seen as less significant. So Pueyo starts with a map where all the countries are scaled by their true size. Russia and Canada do look considerably smaller. He then shows various other things: A human face distorted as it would be in a map (cool hair and chin!). The east-west length of Russia is shorter than Morocco to the Horn of Africa. Papua New Guinea is as long as the distance from London to Moscow. How the projected sizes of Greenland and Mexico would change if they traded places on the map. The Mediterranean Sea is about the same east-west size as Australia. The land area of all the continents would fit inside the Pacific Ocean. How the world map would look if it was centered on Antarctica. And what the world would look like if mapped by fish. Kos of Kos discusses what Pueyo’s thread says about Russia. Standard maps greatly exaggerate Russia’s size.

Americans don’t take pride in our country’s size, but in its accomplishments. Russia has few of those to point to, hence the obsession with land, and hunger for more of it. ... Yes, Russia is big, but it’s no longer the globe-dominating behemoth we’ve been conditioned to expect. But when a country bases its self worth on the amount of land that it holds, it certainly has all the wrong incentives when dealing with its neighbors.

The US can work with allies towards common goals, but it can’t dictate terms. Russia doesn’t understand that. So the Belarus partnership with Russia is only a step towards full integration. And we know what Russia is doing in Ukraine. Kos went on to discuss the latest pronouncements from Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the mercenary Wagner Group that has been trying to take Bakhmut for eight months. Prigozhin wants to call a cease fire so that Russia can consolidate the territory it already holds. Of course, in his call he belittles Ukrainians and talks big about Russians. Strangely, Prigozhin isn’t taking his own advice and still attacking Bakhmut. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that Russia appears to be gaining in Bakhmut – only because it seems Ukraine is withdrawing. Is Ukraine withdrawing because they see holding the town is hopeless or are they repositioning troops for the big offensive? If Russia’s victory there strengthen its resolve to fight off the coming offense? Those questions don’t come packaged with answers. Sumner also reported that a few US analysts are feeling gloomy about Ukraine ultimately being able to expel Russia. They give lots of reasons. They call for plans for what the US should do if that happens. They call for those plans to include doing about the same thing Prigozhin is calling for – freezing Russian gains and somewhere within Ukraine creating a DMZ. Sumner responded to all that by saying look at all Ukraine has accomplished in the last year. And as for that coming offensive let’s see what Ukraine can accomplish. And if Ukraine can’t drive Russia out in a few months...

What Ukraine deserves then is … more months. Months in which any suggestion that a solution less than full defeat of the Russian military is at all acceptable, must come from Ukraine. It is way too early to talk about handing over more of Ukraine to Putin and giving him the weakened, divided Ukraine he wanted a year ago. If the West slackens in supplying Ukraine, or pressures the government in Kyiv to look for a peace plan that they don’t want, we won’t just be failing the people who have done yeoman’s work in making the whole world a better place, we’ll be extending a lifeline to Putin, and to the whole concept of war for territorial gain.

Prigozhin said he is making his call so that there can be lasting peace. The problem with that statement is this is Russia we’re talking about. Give Putin any gains at all and in a few years he’ll be back for more. The gains and cease-fire in 2014, which gave him control of Dobass and Crimea, only prompted him to try for the rest in 2022. The world does not want to fight this war again in 2030. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted late night commentary. Here’s one:

President Biden has officially declared the covid national emergency to be over. I learned a lot during the pandemic. I learned that people who are most resistant to the government telling them what to do also happen to be the people who most need the government to tell them what to do, and they're ironically the same people who are most supportive of the government telling other people what to do. There were some positives. People helped each other. We found out who in our community cares about others. And maybe most importantly, we have enough toilet paper to last the rest of our lives. —Jimmy Kimmel

Artist David Hayward tweeted a cartoon of Jesus taking a selfie as he kisses a rainbow colored sheep. Hayward added:

This is a reminder to my LGBTQ+ friends: You deserve to be loved loudly.

He doesn’t have a clue what the word diversity means

There is a lot of pundits discussing a case before the Supreme Court. They heard oral arguments in the case, which is about race being used as a factor to decide who gets to be admitted to Harvard or the University of North Carolina. Pundits are saying the case will give the conservative majority a way to say race cannot be used (all that blather about society should be “colorblind”). The ruling, expected sometime before July, could also affect hiring in private business and military recruitment and promotion. Lauren Sue of Daily Kos discussed some of the oral arguments. There is Clarence Thomas declaring he doesn’t have a clue what the word diversity means. Sue responded:

In this conversation of racial diversity at universities, the term is hardly ambiguous, and this implication that “diversity” isn’t definitive enough to have real benefits simply demonstrates how out of touch Thomas continues to be.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recused herself from the case because she is a Harvard grad. Even so she posed a hypothetical. What if one applicant’s essay said his family has been in North Carolina since before the Civil War and he will be the fifth generation to attend UNC. What if a second applicant’s essay said her family has also been in North Carolina since before the Civil War – as slaves – and she is the first generation to hopefully attend UNC. The first person’s essay would be allowed. Would the second’s person’s story not be allowed? Why is that not a violation of Equal Protection? Justice Elena Kagan also spoke and she summarized her view as, “White men get the thumb on the scale, but people who have been kicked in the teeth by our society for centuries do not?” Which is exactly what conservatives want. Laura Clawson of Kos briefly discussed the case. It is in the first block of comments that I learned about another advantage many white people have in college admission. This comes with the acronym ALDC, which is Athletes, Legacies, Dean’s list, and Children. Athletes because we in America (and quite puzzling to Brits) seem to value a school based on its reputation in sports, usually football and basketball. It is athletics that draw the donor bucks. Legacies are the children of alumni. An extra donation by mum and dad won’t be turned down, but that’s something children of minorities would not be able to afford. Dean’s list refers to those of interest to the Dean. I’m not sure, though I suspect that means they made the Dean’s list in high school. Children mean children of the university employees (especially professors). Again, that’s likely not something a minority can use. This is important because the ADLC students are about a quarter of the students (about 40% of white students) and they tend to not be as academically strong. Though if one gets in, one might meet the children of Jeff Bezos – which may, or may not, make a difference a decade from now. Philip Bump of the Washington Post tweeted a link to an article that discussed a dramatic increase in the discussion of crime on Fox News. Such discussion also increased on CNN and MSNBC. Bump wrote:

Beginning in late September Fox began talking about crime more than the baseline set in the first six months of 2022. It's climbed since. There's literally no obvious reason except politics. And that gas prices suddenly weren't as useful to talk about. So you're telling me, what, that in late September there was an uptick in crime and it has been climbing since? Is that what happened?

Several cartoons that I got from Kos pundit roundups: Adam Zyglis of the Buffalo News tweeted a cartoon of an elephant shouting “Crime is surging!!” along with images of Steve Bannon in jail, the nasty guy under investigation, and Paul Pelosi in the hospital. Michael Martin tweeted a cartoon of two TV screens. In the first a Fox News host says, “Crime is out of control under Biden.” In the second Anderson Cooper of CNN says, “Nine of the ten states with the highest crime rates are under G.O.P. control.” Ann Telnaes of WaPo tweeted a cartoon of a woman in a doctor’s office. Instead of a doctor there is a local political leader who says, “I’m not a doctor but I play one in your life.” Clay Bennett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press tweeted a cartoon of The Elephant in the Room – a woman in a medical gown walks into a room marked “OB/GYN” and sees an elephant instead of a doctor. Bennett also tweeted one of a man in a “Trump Won” sweatshirt with a MAGA cap and beside him is a boy with a cape and mask saying “I like playing make-believe too!” Phil Hands of the Wisconsin State Journal tweeted a cartoon of a chess set where one of the pieces is a school child being moved about by an elephant with the sign behind saying, “Pawns in the Culture Wars.” queer wizard tweeted:

Everytime I hit a paywall on some respected journalism site and then simply don't read the article rather than subscrining, I think about how Fox, Breitbart, The Daily Mail, et al. never ever ever paywall their content. I think about this constantly. The truth is expensive, the lies are all free.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported a new poll from Public Religion Research Institute. Eleveld discussed two statements from the poll (the article doesn’t say whether there were other statements) and participants were asked whether they agree. The first statement is “Things in this country are going in the wrong direction.” Of all Americans 74% agree, as do 93% of Republicans, 76% of Independents, and 53% of Democrats. I also agree with that statement – I think we’re in grave danger of losing democracy to Republicans. Of course, that’s not what Republicans think of as the wrong direction. Their thinking is revealed in the second statement, “Since the 1950s American culture and way of life has mostly changed for the worse.” Of all Americans 49% agree, as do 66% of Republicans, 50% of Independents, 30% of Democrats – and 71% for white evangelicals. Let’s see, LGBTQ rights came in the 2000s and 2010s. No, I don’t want to go back to the 1950s, though I consider 2015 (when marriage equality was declared) was a good year for the country and things have changed for the worse since then. Natalie Jackson, research director at PRRI, tweeted, “This 1950s question has been a key predictor of support for Trump/Republicans over the years.” Eleveld wrote:

It appears that some two-thirds of that discontent isn't about charting a new or different path forward for the country. Rather, it's at least partially driven by a desire to turn back the clock to a different era—one in which women were still effectively confined to the home, abortion was banned, a Catholic and a person of color had yet to be elected president, segregation was still rampant, landmark civil rights and voting rights laws hadn't been enacted yet, and LGBTQ Americans still lived in fear of losing their friends, family, and livelihoods if anyone uncovered their secret. As veteran journalist John Harwood noted, "Two-thirds of Republicans believe America's culture and way of life were better in the 1950s—a concise explanation for this political moment."

Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweeted a cartoon of villagers with torches and pitchforks and facing them in Frankenstein’s monster saying, “OK, OK, I’ll get vaccinated!” Nilo Tabrizy tweeted:

From my friend in Tehran: These days, young women without Hijab put these notes on our hands secretly in the streets as we walk without Hijab. The note reads “thanks for making the city more beautiful with your hair. Women, Life, Freedom.”

Merriam-Webster announced they added 370 new words to their online dictionary (do they still produce a print version?). Some of the words added are dumbphone (a retronym needed now that we have smartphones), supply chain, greenwash, virtue signaling, mud season, terraform (they’re just adding this one now? It’s been in use in science fiction for decades), adorkable, the abbreviation FWIW, shrinkflation (reduce the size rather than raise the price), subvariant, false negative, pumpkin spice (about time!), and plant-based.