A book full of humanity, humor, and tenderness

I finished the book My Friends by Fredrik Backman. On the title page translator Neil Smith is listed, so I had to do some checking. Backman is Swedish, so a translator is necessary. The story is triggered by a painting. Most people looking at it see it as a painting of the sea. But Louisa sees there is also a pier and three boys in their early teens portrayed as laughing. Louisa spent most of your childhood in the foster care system and at one point was given a postcard of the painting. That painting is up for auction and she just has to see the real thing before it is sold for millions. She does see it before being thrown out of the auction. Then she encounters the artist who, with his friend Ted, sold all they had to buy it back. The artist recognizes Louisa as a fellow artist. That night the artist dies, telling Ted to give the painting to her. She doesn’t want something that expensive. But Louisa, just turned 18 and out of the foster care system, convinces Ted to take her with him as he boards the train to return to his home. On the way he tells her about the origins of the painting. The story then switches back and forth between the summer when Ted and his friends are fourteen, about to turn fifteen, when the painting was created and Ted traveling with Louisa twenty-five years later. Beside Ted and the artist (never explicitly named until the end of the book) the friends are Joar and Ali, the one girl in the group. Yep, one of the boys in the painting is a girl. They spend as much time together as possible and most of that time is on the pier or in the sea around it. They’re together so much because their home life is bad. Joar’s father is abusive. Ted’s is dying. Ali’s father tends to not pay bills so she’s in town only a couple years before dad needs to move on to avoid creditors. And the artist’s parents think he’s strange, drawing all the time, and just want him to be normal. Joar recognizes the artist’s talent. He also recognizes the artist can’t stay in this city and develop his craft. The artist isn’t doing much after being thrown out of the class of a nasty art teacher. So Joar announces that a contest is coming up and the artist absolutely must enter it, then makes sure he does, creating this painting. In the later time Ted took care of the artist as he was dying. There is strong implication that they were a gay couple. That is reinforced on the train ride when Louisa notices Ted admiring he conductor. Though this explains some of the artist’s strangeness, that they are probably gay is barely mentioned. Though the kids are dealing with bad home lives they are great friends to each other with days that are idyllic. Being fourteen they also get into mischief, usually with funny consequences. There are moments of blessing with mothers, older brothers, and various adults. It’s a beautiful story, full of humanity, humor, and tenderness. There isn’t much plot, though a great deal of simply living. Backman is an excellent writer and Smith did a masterful job in translating – I thought of the translation process a lot while reading. I very much enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I may have to find some of his other books. Nick Romeo, in an article for Capital & Main posted on Daily Kos wrote that the most dangerous innovation of Silicon Valley is tech fascism. He discussed this with author and journalist Gil Durán, who wrote the book The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. Romeo described tech fascism...

This anti-democratic ideology is destroying laws and norms while promising a glorious future delivered by technology, and it’s now moving from the fringe belief of a few eccentric billionaires to the cultural mainstream, according to Durán.

Some of the major points Durán talked about: There is a rising cult of Silicon Valley billionaires “who believe that technology is going to make democracy obsolete in the 21st century.” It is fascism because it aligns with the MAGA cult and is funding the nasty guy through gifts and crypto.

Fascism is generally a cult of grievance and self-victimization that promises a return to greatness through the purging and persecution of enemy groups. What tech fascism adds is that instead of only promising a return to some greater period in the past, it also promises this great, glorious future that will be achieved if only we eliminate the obstacles in our way, including regulation, law, democracy and anybody who opposes this acceleration of technology.

AI is being marketed as a terrifying invention that will fundamentally disrupt our lives quickly while not giving us a choice. Yeah, a lot of it is hype, but AI isn’t harmless and is already having an effect. The AI industry is calling it an existential threat to humanity and the biggest job killer ever. Of course, there is a backlash. Another claim is AI will create super abundance. We already have that, but too much of it is sucked up by the tech billionaires. The tech bros are claiming that AI is promising the greatest economic depression (except for billionaires becoming trillionaires). That’s while AI seems less useful than its marketers say.

We are taught to revere wealthy people. If you’re wealthy, it means you’re morally better. It means you’re a superior intellect, and you’re important, and people should be in awe of you. I think that people get this idea in our country that somehow people become billionaires because they’re smart and disciplined and visionary, which is actually not the case at all. And unfortunately billionaires also buy into this myth of their own greatness.

The tech bros demand all the power to destroy everything and no one has the right to stop them. What if farmers said that? Or garbage men? His book is about, “the radicalization of Silicon Valley billionaires into the most dangerous anti-democratic force the country has ever faced.” We have to deal with the billionaire threat. But many of the big champions of the Democratic Party blast at the nasty guy, but not at billionaires. The nasty guy will be around for only a couple more years. Tech bros will be around a lot longer. There are some Democrats speaking out, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. People don’t trust billionaires. We need politicians that won’t take billionaire money and will increase the distrust. Start with the 5% wealth tax on California’s ballot. It’s great, but not nearly enough. In Wednesday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Jill Lawrence of The Bulwark listing the three new demands that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made that prompted Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, to pull out of trade talks. The quotes are quite likely from Carney:

Limits on Canada’s ability to negotiate and sign trade deals. Canada has negotiated twenty economic and security partnerships in the last year, and forthcoming deals in the next six months could double its market access. “We’re the partner of choice in many respects for countries around the world and the Americans wanted to restrict that. ... It’s a power play and becomes a question of sovereignty.” Continual efforts “until the very last minute” to restrict French language protections (like bilingual labels), Canadian culture, “and in effect our sovereignty,” even though “these issues were never on the table” and never will be. Late U.S. demands that would have been unfair to Canadian auto parts and extended favorable tariff treatment to some cars and trucks but not others. The exclusions were “a big change” with no rationale given, Carney said, and would have made Canadian vehicle production “more uneconomic over time.”

Each of the three sounds like a good reason to pull out of the talks. In the comments exlrrp posted a meme of a Dolly Parton quote from the Larry King Now show in 2016:

If you’re gay, you’re gay. If you’re straight, you’re straight. And you should be allowed to be how you are and who you are.

Thanks, Dolly. Another meme posted by exlrrp:

Remember when Trump collected $12 billion dollars, started WWIII, & then we never heard from the Board of Peace again? One of Trump’s biggest scams and nobody ever talks about it.

In the comments of today’s roundup exlrrp posted a meme about the broken trade talks with Canada that prompted the nasty guy to order Lake Ontario be renamed Lake America. The meme has the text:

Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, announced today that the United States of America will be renamed South Canada, the 14th Province.

Another meme posted by exlrrp show a house labeled Quality of Life and rooms labeled Affordable Housing, Healthcare, Good Jobs, Lower Prices, Safe Communities, and Education all going up in flames. In front of the house the nasty guy is telling a man in a MAGA hat, “Oh look, a trans person!” Anil Dash has a couple tweets on Meta’s settlement over the harm its products might do to children and teens:

So Meta will always choose to pay, rather than to fight, because then it doesn't have to change. The initial investigation by the FTC into Facebook's abuse of its users was *SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO*, and that one also ended in a settlement. After which, they... went back to abuse their users. Meta is a creep who will _never_ take no for an answer, and never stop trying to ignore their lack of consent. Every media & regulatory organization in the world seems determined to ignore this reality; I genuinely don't understand why. Today's settlement is so that Meta can keep violating consent.

David Michigan added that the $17 billion in payments will be spread out over ten years. This becomes barely more than a rounding error to the company. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos has something to say about Meta’s settlement:

No admission of algorithmic skullduggery. No apologies. No nothing. Just some chump change distributed to a bunch of states that will probably toss it into their general fund to shore up their coffers a bit. But, hey, Zucky Boy promises—cross his heart and all!—that he’ll “make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm [to kids] from its platforms—and will do it within months.” And here’s my promise: I’ll let you know when media outlets start publishing stories “within months” about how Facebook and Instagram’s “transformations” are riddled with holes, if they’ve been done at all.

Bill also remembered an event from, 2002, which was 24 years ago. Bush II invited Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan to his Crawford ranch. In on the meeting was Adel Al-Jubeir, a foreign policy adviser to the Saudi kingdom.

“If the objective is to dismantle the weapons of mass destruction program, we could probably do that without going to war,” Al-Jubeir said. “Why not use that option? Why do people want to risk the lives of tens of thousands of American men and women in uniform for an objective that can be achieved through negotiations?”

Bill added:

Oh, let’s see: to get our hands on cheap oil, to feed the military-industrial complex, to scare Americans into re-electing the macho Republicans, to bully the world, to get revenge on Saddam for “tryin’ to kill muh daddy,” and to act out G.I. Joe fantasies aboard an aircraft carrier under a “Mission Accomplished” banner. Other than that, I got nothin’.

Make resistance the safer bet

I finished the book Whistle-Stop Politics; Campaign Trains and the Reporters Who Covered Them by Edward Segal. The book is small scenes of when a politician climbs onto a train to take his message to the small towns across the country. Segal was the press secretary for an Oklahoman Congressman in 1984 and thought to use a campaign train to introduce his candidate to more of the state. He wanted to find a book or other resource about campaign trains and came up empty. So he started collecting stories, then did serious research, and 40 years later produced this book. Overall, it’s a lightweight book. He covers the campaigns from the late 1800s to Biden’s train in 2020, though the first train campaign was in 1836. Th coverage isn’t of the type of saying in 1896 this candidate was on the rails for this number of days, covered so many miles, gave this number of speeches, had these incidents along the way, and the trip had this consequence for the candidate or the future of campaign trains. Instead, the book is organized by topic. These campaigns had this type of incident. These had that type of incident. Each incident is described in a few paragraphs, up to a page or two. Campaigns can appear under several topics, but there isn’t a complete campaign narrative. Some of the topics: A description of the campaign train (the candidate’s car was always the last one and out its back door was the campaign platform). Who was on it (candidate, staff, reporters, regular train staff). Whether the candidate gave the same speech at every stop or how he pulled in local details. What local politicians were introduced. How the logistics of the trip were set up. What the Secret Service did to make the route safe. What happened when a doctor was needed. How the candidate dealt with hecklers or protesters. How the press managed enroute (no showers, no laundry, no direct communication while on the train). As to the last topic, occasionally the train stopped and everyone stayed at a hotel. Sometimes they stopped only during the day, so the hotel would get a request for six rooms and 150 towels. Segal also described some campaign imitators. In 1940 Gracie Allen of the comedy team Burns and Allen did a train tour as the candidate for the Surprise Party. Winnie the Pooh did one in 1972 with advisors Tigger and Eeyore. Mickey Mouse did one in 1978 to celebrate his 50th birthday. The top candidates that logged the most miles on a train were Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, far more than any of the others. There is a description of the rail car built for Roosevelt to keep him comfortable and safe. The reason for campaigning by train was simple: There was a train depots downtown in practically every small city. Everyone knew where it was. The airport, if there was one, was a ways outside of town and few people knew about it. A train allowed the candidate get close to the people. I enjoyed the book, but glad it was just over 200 pages (plus 778 endnotes to list the sources that I could skip) and I could finish it in just a few days. As I said, these were short amusing stories without a comprehensive narrative. Oliver Willis of Daily Kos reported on Monday the nasty guy’s invasion of Chicago has begun. It’s over the objection of Gov. JB Pritzker and the city’s mayor. The justification for sending in the troops is, of course, lies. Also on Monday Lisa Needham of Kos reported on the state of the invasion of Portland. U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut ruled on Saturday that the nasty guy could not federalize the Oregon National Guard to protect federal agents in Portland. On Sunday the judge ruled that the nasty guy could not use California’s national guard protect federal agents in Portland. That ruling was at the request of both California and Oregon because neither wanted one state to invade the other. While she was at it the judge ruled the nasty guy couldn’t use the national guard from any other state either, even if Texas was offering. The case was appealed and I’m still behind in my reading. A week ago Needham reported that the nasty guy has a new effort to get colleges and universities to bend to his will. He came up with a ten point plan titled “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” Schools that agree to it will get preferential access to federal funds. Needham wrote about the points in the plan. Here’s some of them.

So a vibrant marketplace of ideas, but one where schools put their thumb on the scale for conservatives, who basically can’t compete in the marketplace of ideas in higher education. ...And, of course, there are demands that there be no race-or sex-based preferences in hiring and that transgender women be barred from women’s locker rooms and sports.

And they need to hire an independent auditor to ensure compliance.

So all that schools need to do to get “multiple positive benefits,” including “substantial and meaningful federal grants,” is to totally alter their curriculum, departments, admissions, hiring, and sports teams to conform to whatever racist, transphobic, or xenophobic thought that skitters across Trump’s gray matter at any given time. Just some minor tweaks, really.

Nine schools have received the “invitation.” One, the University of Texas at Austin, appears all in. On Monday Dalbert of the Kos community reported that Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has a response. Refuse the nasty guy’s offer a school could lose federal funding. But if a state school accepts the nasty guy’s offer they lose state funding, including grants to California students.

People cave to bullies when there’s no cost to giving in. Newsom’s changing that dynamic. The article urges other blue-state governors to follow suit: cut off state resources to institutions and officials who comply with Trump’s demands. Make resistance the safer bet.

Alix Breeden of Kos wrote that a few top level comedians have gotten themselves into a mess. The royal family of Saudi Arabia funded the Riyadh Comedy Festival. The royal money means they paid big bucks to the comedians, like $375K and upwards. They are working hard to burnish their image. With this royal family we know there is a catch – the entertainers signed contracts specifying they would say nothing bad about the country, the royals, the legal system, or the religion. But giving up free speech for a paycheck, especially a big one, means they are losing credibility in America, especially after Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off the air because of free speech. Fellow comedians are saying their hypocrisy is showing. In the comments of Monday’s pundit roundup for Kos paulpro posted a cartoon by Angel Boligan showing the nasty guy beating furiously at a huge drum set while the two speakers are aimed at earth. John Sipher posted a cartoon by Kal showing a big beefy American army man ready to fight foreign foes while a small Pete Hegseth tugs at his ankle and points to a cat named “Wokeness” and saying “You’re under attack!” In Tuesday’s roundup Chitown Kev quoted Paul Krugman writing for his Substack on why the nasty guy’s second term seems to have gotten so extreme so fast.

One reason things have gotten so extreme, so fast may be that Trump, Miller and company are in a race against time. Foreign autocrats like Orban or Vladimir Putin could afford to chip away gradually at the foundations of democracy because they were, at least initially, quite popular. Trump — although he won’t admit it — has very low approval, and the public opposes him on every major issue. Yet he and his minions control much of the machinery of government, and are trying to use it to intimidate — you might say terrorize — their opponents before public anger catches up with them.

In the comments exlrrp posted a meme showing, I think, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Whoever it is the text is fun. It says, “She’s going through the normal 5 stages of grief: pyrotechnics, merch, podcasting, grifting, and acceptance.” In the comments of Wednesday’s roundup is a cartoon posted by LJ Slater and created by Smit. It shows ICE agents standing around and one says, “I gotta leave early today, guys. We deported my kid’s babysitter.” A comment posted by paulpro shows a calm Chicago scene and two ICE agents are talking:

First: You see any Chicago Antifa rioters yet? Second: No, but there was a dress sale at the Water Tower my wife would kill for.

LJ Slater posted a cartoon by David Cohen. It shows a peace prize on the floor and the nasty guy reaching for it. To the side one guy tells another. “It’s an old bar trick. I glued it to the floor. Let’s see how long it takes him to get it.” In the comments of today’s roundup Fiona Webster posted a cartoon by Jesse Duquette showing a policeman cuffing a young black child (I’ve seen mentions that this is a thing). The policeman says, “Stop crying. America’s great now.” Webster also posted a cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz that has a caption, “Meanwhile, at the border... The president ordered that the border wall be painted black because it makes the wall hotter when migrants climb it. Also, it’s lunchtime.” The image shows the bottom of three beams of the wall bent up and being used as a grill attended by a Mexican man. Beside him is a sign, “Hot border tacos.” While checking one set of stats for this blog – the excitement of setting big viewing records in September – I forgot to keep track of other stats. I’ve passed mentioning the nasty guy in 700 posts, this one is 701. There are only two topics with more posts. One is “GOP” which is now at 1114 posts. The other is “Gay Marriage” and “Marriage Equality” (I switched tags) at 711.

It’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom

I’ve heard lots of news stories about the nasty guy’s trip to the Saudi Arabia and nearby rich countries. One story described about how the locals softened him up – they put a great deal of pageantry into their greeting ceremonies. The nasty guy loves pomp directed at him. Makes him feel important. Michel Martin and Aya Batrawy of NPR discussed the nasty guy’s time in Saudi Arabia. I worked from the transcript. It’s all about getting deals done. If the Saudis deliver on weapons purchases and investments in the US the nasty guy will help with their security. Add to that Eric Nasty was in the region less than two weeks ago to start new projects – a branded hotel in one country, a golf course in another. There’s also money flowing into the family crypto business. All this sounds like a great deal of money for the nasty guy plus some money for the US. The news story version of this piece also mentions the contingent of big business leaders who went with him, leaders of Tesla and SpaceX, Planatir, OpenAI, Nvidia, Google, Coca-Cola, Boeing, weapons companies, and asset management companies. Some of the deals are listed, all together Saudi Arabia would invest at least $600 billion in the US over four years. This version has photos of some of the greeting ceremonies. They did one better than the red carpet. This one is lilac. The big story out of that trip is the offer of a jumbo jet to the nasty guy, a gift from the ruling family of Qatar. It is described as a flying palace, costing about $400 million. An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos fills in the many details. The plane could be used as Air Force One through the remainder of his term, then would be turned over to the foundation that would build his presidential library, meaning he would use it as a personal plane. Yeah, there is a great deal of pushback from Democrats and some Republicans. This gift violates the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution barring accepting gifts from a foreign state without Congressional approval. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said:

Nothing says “America First” like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar. It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.

There are two existing jets used as Air Force One. Both are more than 30 years old. Two replacements are on the way, but the deal was structured so that Boeing is taking a loss of billions of dollars. They won’t be delivered until 2027-2028. The two existing jets are heavily modified to be protection and command center in the air during nuclear war. That’s why the replacements are delayed. The Qatari gift plane won’t have any of that and presidential security must assume it is bugged. I’ve heard that to be allowed for use by the nasty guy it must be completely disassembled and inspected. The free gift isn’t so free. Kathleen Clark of the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis is an expert on government ethics. She accused the nasty guy of exploiting governmental power, not to push policy, but for personal wealth. She said this gift is the “logical, inevitable, unfortunate consequence of Congress and the Supreme Court refusing to enforce” the Emoluments Clause. The NPR news article above includes this quote from the nasty guy:

I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, “No, we don't want a free, very expensive airplane.”

Translation: I would be stupid to refuse this bright shiny bribe. Oliver Willis of Kos titled a post “Trump is very proud of himself for selling access to the White House.” He begins it with: “President Donald Trump is openly using the White House to accept personal bribes, providing access and influence over his presidency.” The two recent examples Willis used are (1) the offer of a private dinner at the White House to the winner of an auction of his cryptocurrency and (2) this offer of a jet. In the comments of Tuesday’s pundit roundup on Kos is a meme posted by exlrrp and showing a headline from The Onion: “Man Can’t Believe He Has To Download Stupid App Just To Bribe President.” There are also many cartoons about the plane gift. One by Dave Granlund showing Clarence Thomas envious because all he got was a $270,000 RV. In Wednesday’s roundup Greg Dworkin quoted Paul Waldman, who quoted an ABC discussion of a memo from AG Pam Bondi:

Both the White House and DOJ concluded that because the gift is not conditioned on any official act, it does not constitute bribery, the sources said. Bondi's legal analysis also says it does not run afoul of the Constitution's prohibition on foreign gifts because the plane is not being given to an individual, but rather to the United States Air Force and, eventually, to the presidential library foundation, the sources said.

How much sarcasm can I pour into a response of, “Sure”? From Brian Stelter in the Reliable Sources newsletter.

Some of Trump's staunchest supporters are among the loudest critics of his plan to accept a jet from Qatar for use as Air Force One. I don't think I've seen this much MAGA media pushback since Trump retook power.

From Judd Legum of Popular Information:

Qatar is not acting out of altruism. It wants policy concessions from the U.S. government to bolster its economic and national security interests. Trump is brazenly exploiting those needs to line his pockets.

In the comments are many more cartoons about the plane. In today’s roundup Dworkin started with a quote from The Atlantic:

Even in Washington, a capital now numbed to scandals that were once unthinkable, the idea of accepting the jet is jaw-dropping. Trump’s second administration is yet again displaying a disregard for norms and for traditional legal and political guardrails around elected office—this time at a truly gargantuan scale. Trump’s team has said it believes that the gift would be legal because it would be donated to the Department of Defense (and then to the presidential library). But federal law prohibits government workers from accepting a gift larger than $20 at any one time from any person. Retired General Stanley McChrystal, who once commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan, told us that he couldn’t “accept a lunch at the Capital Grille.” Former federal employees shared similar reactions on social media.

Dworkin included a tweet from San Stein, which included a link to an article on The Bulwark. The title and subtitle of the article are:

Trump Wants His Corruption to Be Public Intimidation and extortion depends on the targets knowing what price they may pay.

From Mother Jones, talking first about Kash Patel, head of the FBI, and about Qatari influence:

Patel is just one of several top Trump administration aides who have had financial ties to this Arab monarchy. Susan Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, worked for a lobbying firm that represented Qatar. Attorney General Pam Bondi lobbied for the Qataris. Mike Huckabee, now US Ambassador to Israel, was paid $50,000 to visit Qatar in 2018. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, also has pocketed money from Qatar. In 2023, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund bought the Park Lane Hotel from Witkoff’s company in a $623 million deal. The Trump Organization itself recently struck a deal to develop a luxury golf resort in Qatar. And now Qatar is considering handing as a gift to Trump a jumbo airliner worth about $400 million for Trump to use as Air Force One.

David Beard tweeted the results of a poll done by the conservative New York Post with the question “Should Trump take a $400 million jet from Qatar?” It showed 78.5% of respondents chose “No, don’t trust Qatar.” Paul Waldman of The Cross Section talked about how Democrats should talk to the country. In addition of explaining how bad the big budget bill in Congress is they should add a simple message, “Republicans Hate You.” Down in the comments exlrrp posted a few memes prompted by a new book out saying Joe Biden was in greater mental decline than people knew. A lot of Democrats are calling the book a cheap shot. One of the memes posted here says:

I don’t want to read about a former President’s mental decline because a journalist got a book deal. I want to read a report about the current President’s mental decline by a journalist brave enough to speak out now!

exlrrp added, “I'd rather have Biden as he was than Trump as he is.”

A law trapped in amber

Last September Anna Liz Nichols of Michigan Advance wrote about “gay panic” as a defense used by those who committed violence against an LGBTQ person. It was in the news then because the Michigan House began hearings on banning its use. Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, who is bisexual, is leading the effort. Pohutsky said this defense is based on LGBTQ people being considered inherently less human. Research out of St. Edward’s University found that 104 cases across 35 states attempted to use a “gay panic” defense between 1970 to 2020. Yeah, that’s only about two cases a year (which is still too many). Michigan had four cases and ranked sixth among the states. Examples of gay panic are an 18 year old getting bludgeoned to death when her attacker realized she had male anatomy. A 15 year old boy wore a dress and heels to class and the next day was shot in front of other students. That the “panic” happened the next day is one of the absurd parts of its use. Back in 2013 the American Bar Association asked federal, state, and local governments to ban the use of the “gay panic” defense. Even so the majority of states still allow its use. That article was posted before the House voted to approve the ban. Yesterday, Jon King of Michigan Advance reported that it did pass the House, though King didn’t say how long ago. It passed with a vote of 56-53 along party lines. King wrote about it because it has now passed the Senate, 24-14, and included four Republicans joining all the Democrats. The bill now must return to the House for one more vote, then on to Gov. Whitmer for her expected signature. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported that Moody’s Analytics analyzed the economic plans of both Biden and the nasty guy. It tempered its forecasts with “and can implement his plans.” Then it went on to say under Biden inflation would drop below 2% and the economy would continue steady growth. Under the nasty guy and because of his plans for mass deportation there would be a sharp increase in inflation and interest rates, followed by depressed growth and a recession next year. That would happen because mass deportation would choke a labor market that’s already tight. Disrupting immigrant lives would be especially hard on agriculture, leading to food shortages and high food prices. One reason for this analysis is Florida is already trying it. Republicans limited immigrant workers on farms that are now unable to get the help they need. Sumner concluded:

This is just one more area where it seems like the choice should be blindingly obvious. And that’s before even considering the other effects, like the damage done by tearing apart immigrant families and destroying environmental progress.

Sumner also reported on current campaign fundraising in May. Biden did quite well, pulling in $60 million. The nasty guy pulled in $141 million, $53 million on just one day after his conviction. The nasty guy’s haul didn’t come entirely from the little people enamored with him. One check of $50 million came from Tim Mellon, whose wealth is in banking and was begun three generations back. Mellon also donated another $25 million to the nasty guy and $25 million to RFK Jr. That means he may be the first person in history to donate $100 million in one election cycle. There was also a $10 million check from Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein. Their money comes from beer and also began three generations back. That means neither one of these families has experience with why people are poor, so their comments about the poor are rather stupid. Yet, their donations to the nasty guy are a pretty big bribe for him to trash the already shaky social safety net. Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos has yet another post on all the Ten Commandments the nasty guy has violated, even though he say how much he loves them. In the comments of a pundit roundup by Greg Dworkin for Kos are a few good cartoons and memes. Phil Hands has Ten Commandments by the nasty guy for Christians who support him. A few of them:

1. Thou shalt have no other politicians before me. 4. Remember my Supreme Court nominees and keep them holy. 7. Thou shalt not admit adultery.

Rambler797 posted a tweet by Thomas Horrocks with a quote by Kurt Vonnegut that essentially asks why the commandments of Moses and not the Beatitudes of Jesus? These are the verses that include “Blessed are the merciful,” and “Blessed are the peacemakers.” exlrrp posted a meme showing when it gets really hot in New York City, as it is now, the Statue of Liberty drops the robe and stands there in her bikini. And way down in the comments is a tweet by Jane of the North showing a woman holding a protest sign that says, “‘He who hath not a uterus should shut the fucketh up.’ ~Fallopians 13:13” For my non Christian readers, the Bible doesn’t have that book but it does have a book with the name “Philippians.” Now back to one of the pundits. Dworkin quoted CNN writing about the Supreme Court upholding the ban on domestic abusers having guns.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative who has been raising concerns about the Supreme Court’s approach on history in recent cases, penned a brief concurrence criticizing how some lower courts were looking for near-identical historical gun laws when examining modern regulations. “Imposing a test that demands overly specific analogues has serious problems,” Barrett wrote. “It forces 21st-century regulations to follow late-18th-century policy choices, giving us ‘a law trapped in amber.’”

Dworkin added:

Amy Coney Barrett is clearly the sharpest of the court’s conservatives. I would not be surprised to see her as Chief Justice some day. That’s an observation, not an endorsement.

Enough of that guy. Let’s talk about his opponent. Sumner wrote that one of Biden’s greatest achievements is one no one knows about. I’ll try to summarize. Back in 2020 as the economy was heading into recession and the highest unemployment rate in 90 years the nasty guy went to Saudi Arabia and demanded they cut production to keep oil prices up. When Biden took office prices rose sharply as renewed demand outpaced supply. In 2022, as Russia began to be sanctioned, Biden went to Saudi Arabia to ask them to keep the oil flowing. They refused. The US is both the world’s largest oil producer and has the largest reserves. And Biden was able to manipulate the reserves. He released oil to counteract the price surge from Russia’s war, then bought back reserves and made a profit for the US treasury. And for US oil companies. Who look to be supporting the nasty guy. Back at the start of the month Dartagnan of the Kos community reported that Biden’s 200th and 201st nominees for the federal judiciary had been confirmed. That’s a lot of nominees (though there are still seats to fill). It also means Biden has nominated and gotten confirmed more black women to Courts of Appeal than all prior presidents combined. While the nasty guy’s appointments were 65% white men, Biden’s appointments have been just 13% white men. This article doesn’t say the number of LGBTQ people appointed, also much larger than before. Biden said, “Judges matter.” They can uphold basic rights or roll them back. Over the last four years (and longer than that) we can see judges are not totally objective and unbiased. The difference between judges appointed by Democrats and Republicans have been stark. Alito, Thomas, and district judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by Republicans, routinely make the news. The headlines are about denying rights and often are abrupt departure from law or precedent. But judges should not be making news. They should be upholding laws and the Constitution. And the ones appointed by Democrats don’t seek or attain notoriety. Dartagnan then reviewed how much judges and justices have strayed from that job into having the only goal of upholding Republican goals and domination.

So it’s important that Americans appreciate what Biden has done. He has nominated judges not simply to correspond to the racial demographics in this country, and not simply to give more deference and representation to women, though he’s done both of these things. More importantly, he is appointing jurists whose vocation is to simply apply the law fairly, not in the service of some radical dogma they feel they must adhere to. Put simply, Biden is appointing judges who are doing their jobs. And that’s a very, very good thing.

The best way to hurt Russia is to boost renewable energy production

Trying to catch up on my Ukraine Updates: NPR host Leila Fadel spoke to Mariana Budjeryn who is Ukrainian and a nuclear expert at Harvard’s Belfer Center. This was after Russian forces took control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the decommissioned Chernobyl plant, and were advancing on another. Some of what they talked about: About 50% of Ukraine’s energy mix is from nuclear power. Controlling the power is one way to control the country. Power plants are not designed to withstand war. They are designed to withstand previous plant accidents. A nuclear event is a worldwide event. Budjeryn said:

Putin cannot be seen as losing to Ukraine. That would be a terrible thing for him - to be seen as losing to someone like Ukrainians whom he looks like, by all indications, looks like he despises. In that case - and I swear I would not even contemplate something like that eight days ago, but now it does not sound so inconceivable. In that case, I wonder if he might resort to use of a tactical - of a small nuclear weapon to shock Ukraine on Ukrainian territory somewhere - and the target would be secondary - to shock Ukraine into surrender.

These days “small” is what took out Hiroshima, a city size bomb. Another possible use is to explode the bomb well above the city. That would leave it standing, but the electromagnetic pulse would knock out everything electric and electronic. I had commented about two maps of how far Russia had penetrated into Ukraine. One shows occupied areas, the other shows only the roads Russia controls. Kos of Daily Kos wrote a Tuesday morning post that shows both maps. He then explained both are incomplete. The one showing the occupying areas shows the Ukrainian army has been pushed back, but Russia isn’t really occupying the area behind the front. The one showing the occupied roads shows how exposed the Russian supply lines are and how vulnerable those lines are to Ukrainian raids. The territorial defense forces are very much still operational. But they can’t be resupplied. In a post from mid morning on Tuesday Mark Sumner of Kos discussed a bleak prediction by Christopher Chivvis of The Guardian. Putin is “unlikely to settle for anything less than the complete subjugation of the Ukrainian government,” as Chivvis put it, and install a puppet over an obliterated Ukraine. The puppet signs a document making Ukraine a Russian province. If, at that time, NATO keeps supplying the Ukraine fighters that will likely escalate into a war between NATO and Russia. That escalation leads eventually to the nuclear threshold. That means Russia begins to use tactical nukes while holding the threat of full on nuclear war against anyone who strikes back. Sumner wrote that the analysis that Chivvis laid out doesn’t consider Russia under sanctions serious enough to impact Russia’s ability to sustain combat. At noon Tuesday Rebekah Sager of Kos discussed how extensive Putin’s propaganda war is. That includes how much that propaganda machine loves Fox News. In a post from early Tuesday afternoon Mark Sumner of Kos discussed a twitter thread from Mike Jason, a retired Army Colonel and current historian. That thread was about the cost of this war to the US. First, the cost is worth it – the world is trying to choke off an aggressive fascist state without starting WWIII. Sanctions and high gas prices are better than a shooting war between NATO and Russia. This isn’t a time to be smug about your Tesla. We’re in this together. If we’re not careful we’ll also pay through widening divisions in the US. Speaking of divisions... Tuesday morning Biden announced a ban on importing oil from Russia. Laura Clawson of Kos reported:

“Republicans and Democrats alike” understand that cutting off Russian energy imports will have a financial cost, Biden noted, and “Republicans and Democrats alike have been clear that we must do this.” What every political observer knows, though, is that Republican calls to ban Russian energy imports will not stop those very same Republicans from attacking Biden over high gas prices. Low-level common decency would suggest that if you demand a specific course of action from a political opponent, you don’t then attack them for the foreseeable consequences of doing what you demanded. That’s not how Republicans operate, to say the least. ... Really the question is whether you think cutting off Russian energy imports is the right thing to do in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. If it is the right thing to do, then the outcome of doing it shouldn’t be used for partisan advantage. And the fact that Republicans are going to use it that way despite claiming to think it’s the right thing to do is one more thing that should totally discredit them and their claims about how things are going in the U.S. economy and politics.

This is only the latest step in the Republicans trying to use the war in Ukraine to push on behalf of the US oil industry. From a post last week, Nathan Rott of NPR reported much of the rhetoric around oil production is misleading. Regulations have already been loosened, there are thousands of drilling leases that haven’t been used yet, and Biden has been approving lots of drilling permits. All of what Republicans want will take months to make a difference in gas prices. And the best way to hurt Russia is to boost renewable energy production. Also from last week Clawson reported that Republicans are using the war to slow down the fight against climate change. Clawson concluded:

The way out of that is not to drill promiscuously right now, right up until every well runs dry and we’re left with no Plan B for energy in addition to the increasingly devastating effects of climate change. The way out is to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels right now, and build up our renewable energy infrastructure. But Republicans aren’t worried, because all they care about is political power, and they’re absolutely ready to try to turn the coming climate crisis—once it can no longer be ignored—into some new angle to seize more power.

Today Clawson reported that some news outlets are using headlines exposing the Republican strategy to blame Biden for high gas prices – while the actual stories are more about how this strategy will affect Democrats. There is very little about the Republican hypocrisy. With many countries avoiding Russian oil and gas prices way up there why aren’t other countries – like Saudi Arabia – pumping more oil? There are restrictions on oil from Iran and Venezuela because of what their governments have done. But the Saudis? Ken Klippenstein tweeted a link to his article in the Intercept, saying:

Saudi Arabia is working with Russia to drive up gas prices, worsening the Ukraine crisis. The partnership dates back to 2015 when MBS opted to meet with Putin after Obama declined to meet with him, sources tell me.

Meteor Blades of Kos explained more. Biden asked Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Sayed al Nahyan to increase production. But they’re unhappy with Biden’s policies. They want Biden to help them meddle in Yemen’s civil war, they want legal immunity for MBS from US lawsuits, including over the killing of Jaman Khashoggi, and they want help in a nuclear program to balance Iran’s program. Since Biden labeled Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state, they’re not likely to get what they want. And not likely to pump more oil. In an update late yesterday afternoon Sumner said this war is changing things. We won’t go back to the way things were. The attack and carnage won’t be forgotten in maybe even a decade. Two changes in the way we think are: If Puten uses tactical nukes on the battlefield the rest of the world will consider their use. But the scale of the sanctions on Russia may show there is no longer a benefit to a war of conquest. In a post from early Tuesday afternoon Hunter of Kos reported that McDonald’s has closed its locations in Russia, at least temporarily. That was announced hours after a Washington Post article complained that McDonald’s hadn’t done so yet. Shortly after that Starbucks and Coca-Cola announced they were pulling out. Hunter quoted a tweet by Bill Browder about a list, prepared by Yale, of companies that have pulled out of Russia – and a list of companies still doing business there. Hunter concluded:

The fight to push Russia out of Ukraine is one of authoritarianism versus democracy, and any corporate entity that can't be bothered to take a stand is not one that American consumers should be supporting in any capacity, either now or after the war ends. This is basic stuff, Our Betters. There's a limit to how much amorality and raw cronyism your pandemic-exhausted, insurrection-watching customers can stomach.

In an update from this morning Kos said again that Putin has no options left. He quoted a post he had written a week before the invasion about how this backed Putin into a corner. Kos mentioned a couple other things: There has been a mysterious lack of Russian cyberattacks against Ukraine or any other country. And Putin has said he won’t be calling up reservists. Since his propaganda machine has been declaring how well this is all going it is hard to say great! ... but we need a few hundred thousand more troops. Also, Putin is a known liar. Kos wrote:

There is no “off ramp” possible that would allow Putin to save face. Capitulation likely means death (or a trip to The Hague to face war crimes trial). He can’t stop now. He can only keep going, sowing death and destruction for a prize that is beyond his grasp. It’s been several weeks since I wrote that headline, and Putin is still backed into a corner. As to how much the world will have to pay? Ukraine’s price is unthinkable, and the economic consequences are just starting—for Russia, and for the rest of the world. And we can’t even guarantee that this won’t spread into a wider conflagration.

Kos included the report that IAEA officials have lost contact with the monitoring equipment at the decommissioned Chernobyl reactor. Ukraine authorities say the power has been cut and emergency generators are running with a limited supply of fuel. I wonder if this is the tactical nuke Russia might be considering. In a pundit roundup for Kos, Georgia Logothetis quoted Jonathan Chait of the New York Magazine. Chait’s article was about the relationship between Putin and the nasty guy. The latter had absorbed the former’s idea that Ukraine was corrupt and undeserving of sovereignty. Soon the ideas spouted by one were also spouted by the other. Chait included:

The element of Russian propaganda here is not the claim that corruption exists in Ukraine, which is true, but the premise that this somehow destroys its claim to sovereignty or justifies subjugation to its far more corrupt neighbor.

In today’s late morning update Sumner started by scolding those who think Russia will eventually win. Saying that while sending weapons to Ukraine is just horribly wrong. Sumner also mentioned: The strike of the Mariupol maternity hospital. The siege of Mariupol, which is a war crime happening now. A member of the EU Parliament who said one should watch which way the refugees are going – and they’re going to the EU, not Russia. Belorusian soldiers have shown up – to fight with Ukrainians. On to something else. Clawson reported in the great trucker convoy that made it to Washington and circled the capital beltway for a couple laps. They intended to drive at 40 mph and be a huge pain to regular traffic. But even normal Sunday beltway traffic the convoy couldn’t stay together and had little effect. Clawson wrote:

That said, nobody really knows what to expect from this unpredictable, nonsensical pack of assholes. They say they’re protesting until their demands are met, but they don't really have coherent demands. They say they’ve come to the nation’s capital, in some cases from across the country, to protest public health restrictions that were dropping well before they set out. Some of them are talking about high gas prices, while spending hundreds of dollars in gas to try to disrupt other people’s lives. Some flew Confederate battle flags, because of course they damn well did. There’s really no point here beyond the far right asserting its media-given right to attention. Bear in mind if and when you see descriptions of the people involved in this as somehow representing the working class that these are people who can take weeks and spend thousands of dollars on something that doesn’t even have a real set of demands.

David Neiwert added some details. He also added that the whole thing is another right-wing moneymaking scam. People donated to help the convoy, a claim that $1.5 million was raised. But into whose pocket did that money go? Did the truckers, the actual members of the convoy, see any of it? I had mentioned a bunch of countries had agreed to develop a treaty to end plastics pollution. April Siese of Kos has a bit more here. Joan McCarter of Kos discussed the confirmation process of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Schumer has announced he wants a confirmation vote on April 11, just before the Easter recess. But Republicans are working on all sorts of delay tactics, using a variety of reasons, so that it doesn’t appear that the real reason is racism. They want a thorough review of her record, which is sterling. They wonder why the rush to confirm, forgetting their rush to get Amy Coney Barrett confirmed. They want Jackson to have a chance to sit down with every senator, which would also take a chunk of time.

An imaginary conversation with your great-grandchildren

Chris Hayes, a news host on MSNBC, tweeted:

The reason that the House Democrats' efforts have failed to galvanize the public is because the Speaker of the House very clearly does not WANT the public galvanized on impeachment. End of story.

Adam Jentleson, former Deputy Chief of Staff for Senator Harry Reid, responded:

Pelosi repeats the adage about how “you can’t do anything without public opinion” as if it’s wisdom. But when you choose not to lead, that adage just means don’t do anything until the way is already cleared for you.

Can’t do anything without public opinion? Strange thing for her to say …

That never stopped Moscow Mitch, who pushes things through the Senate with 75% and more of the country against what he’s doing.

As Hayes points out Pelosi is doing a great deal to change public opinion away from impeachment.

She’s not the change we voted for. Time to go.



Jen Sorensen draws comics for Daily Kos. A couple days ago her comic proposes some honest questions for the next debate of Democratic presidential candidates. A couple of them:

Grilling you on immigration feeds into the right’s manufactured narrative that there’s a crisis. Instead, please have an imaginary conversation with your great-grandchildren as they are consumed by flames in a climate apocalypse.

So how does it feel to be the last thing standing between all of us and authoritarianism? You won’t let that happen, right?

Today, NPR had a segment discussing various people who say that the Houthis of Yemen couldn’t have blown up that Saudi oil refinery and so it must have been Iran. I’ll let you go find that one. Of more interest (to me) is a thread tweeted by Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut who, in 11 tweets, explains the ongoing war in Yemen. I added a few comments.

Houthis are a Muslim minority who follow a variation of the Muslim faith (similar to Catholics and Presbyterians of the Christian faith). Saudi Arabia formed as a country in 1932 and ever since then have been trying to meddle in Yemen’s affairs to get the Houthis to change to the version of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia. Houthis didn’t like that idea and defended themselves, becoming the most battle tested army in Yemen. They did this with help from Iran (which also practices a variation of Islam different from much of the Middle East). Atrocities have been committed by both sides. Concludes Murphy:

Bottom line: the Saudis sowed the seeds of this mess. … Houthis/Iranians have blood on their hands too, but the U.S. should not be a part of this disaster.