Saturday: Hili dialogue

June 24, 2023 • 6:45 am

Welcome to CaturSaturday, June 24, 2023, the day of Cat shabbos, when goyische kats are hired to turn on the lights. As a food day, it’s National Praline Day, the sweetest of sweets and best obtained in the American South.

Source and recipe

It’s also Bartender and Mixologist Day, the Great American Picnic Day, International Ragweed Day, Swim a Lap Day, Inti Raymi, a winter solstice festival and a New Year in the Andes of the Southern Hemisphere (Sacsayhuamán), and  “St John’s Day and the second day of the Midsummer celebrations (although this is not the astronomical summer solstice, see June 20) (Roman Catholic Church, Europe), and its related observances.”

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the June 24 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Big trouble for Putin: Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the the head of the mercenary Wagner group, which fought for Russia in Ukraine, has now rebelled against Putin and, according to the NYT, Wagner soldiers “had claimed control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and were threatening to march to Moscow.” On Moscow!

*According to CNN, Western experts say that the early part of the Ukrainian spring offensive is not up to snuff.

In its early phases, Ukraine’s counteroffensive is having less success and Russian forces are showing more competence than western assessments expected, two western officials and a senior US military official tell CNN.

The counteroffensive is “not meeting expectations on any front,” one of the officials said.

According to the Western assessments, Russian lines of defense have been proving well-fortified, making it difficult for Ukrainian forces to breach them. In addition, Russian forces have had success bogging down Ukrainian armor with missile attacks and mines and have been deploying air power more effectively.

Ukrainian forces are proving “vulnerable” to minefields and Russian forces “competent” in their defense, one of the Western officials said.

The officials cautioned that the counteroffensive is still in its early stages – and that the US and its allies “remain optimistic” Ukrainian forces will be able to make territorial gains over time. The US and its allies are likely to wait until at least July for a fuller assessment of the progress of the counteroffensive which was gradually launched over the last few weeks and is seen as crucial to determining who ultimately wins the war which was launched when Russia invaded last year.

I’m not happy to hear this. On the other hand, I predicted wrongly that Russia would achieve a relatively easy victory after the first invasion. I was delighted to be wrong, but I want Ukraine to come out of this war without losing a square inch of land, and it would also be nice if they got Crimea back

*Glory be, the Supreme Court, by a vote of 8-1, handed the Biden administration a victory by approving of its immigration policy. (Guess who the lone dissenter was before reading on. You get two tries.)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled for the Biden administration in an important immigration case, saying Texas and Louisiana lacked the legal standing to challenge the executive branch’s priorities on who should be deported.

At issue is a Biden administration policy that says the Department of Homeland Security should focus on arresting recent border crossers and immigrants who pose a threat to public safety, rather than the millions of other noncitizens who have lived here for years.

The policy was a departure from that of the Trump administration, which said anyone in the country illegally could be targeted for deportation.

Friday’s decision was 8-1, with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. the lone dissenter.

“The States have brought an extraordinarily unusual lawsuit,” Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote for the majority. “They want a federal court to order the Executive Branch to alter its arrest policies so as to make more arrests. Federal courts have not traditionally entertained that kind of lawsuit; indeed, the States cite no precedent for a lawsuit like this.”

Remember, those delegated to enforce federal law are members of the executive branch, and the Court is affirming the division of powers decreed by the Constitution. And. . .

Kavanaugh’s opinion, joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the court was taking no position on whether the administration’s policy “is complying with the relevant statutes.” Kavanaugh wrote that Congress or even the voters have the ability to examine “the Executive Branch’s arrest policies.”

Ultimately, however, confecting a good immigration policy will be up to Congress, the legislative branch. And they should get busy. But this degree of unanimity in the divided Court is striking. That’s because the law on this point is pretty clear.

*From Jez, who writes:

I’m no fan of Ted Cruz, but his defence of girls’ and women’s sports is strong in this encounter and the Human Rights Campaign’s president Kelley Robinson makes a fool of herself in this Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about changes to Title IX from a couple of days ago.

Later in the session Robinson was questioned by (a rather rambling) Senator John Kennedy and said that there are three sexes, including “intersex”.  Good grief!

Riley Gaines, the first person questioned by Cruz, is a championship competitive swimmer who has been vociferous (and attacked) for questioning the presence of transgender women in women’s sports. She’s very brave and very eloquent. (Lea Thomas is a transgender man who competes against biological women in college swimming.)

Cruz is pretty hard on Robinson, but she waffles furiously, unwilling to admit that transwomen have big biological advantages in sports when competing against biological women.  And remember that the Biden advantage is also blind to that palpable difference.

Yes, it’s the odious Republican Ted Cruz, and his agenda isn’t mine, but on the issue of who competes in women’s sports, I have to agree with him.

Here’s more testimony from both Gaines (first tweet), and Robinson (second tweet):

*Physicists tell us that the phenomenon of superconductivity, the vanishing of electrical resistance, requires extremely low temperatures, and so isn’t practical for most electrical devices. Now that’s not so certaom, as scientists appear to be getting data that superconductivity could occur at room temperature!  There’s just one small problem: pressure.

A magical material that could effortlessly conduct electricity at room temperatures would likely transform civilization, reclaiming energy otherwise lost to electrical resistance and opening possibilities for novel technologies.

Yet a claim of such a room-temperature superconductor published in March in the prestigious journal Nature, drew doubts, even suspicion by some that the results had been fabricated.

But now, a group of researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago reports that it has verified a critical measurement: the apparent vanishing of electrical resistance.

This result does not prove that the material is a room-temperature superconductor, but it may motivate other scientists to take a closer look.

Ranga P. Dias, a professor of mechanical engineering and physics at the University of Rochester in New York and a key figure in the original research, had reported that the material appeared to be a superconductor at temperatures as warm as 70 degrees Fahrenheit — much warmer than other superconductors — when squeezed at a pressure of 145,000 pounds per square inch, or about 10 times what is exerted at the bottom of the ocean’s deepest trenches.

The high pressure means the material is unlikely to find practical use, but if the discovery is true, it could point the way to other superconductors that truly work in everyday conditions.

Dias’s original observation has been doubted because it hasn’t been replicated (and the new “confirmation,” by a very credible scientist, hasn’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet) and because Dias is seen as “controversial”. BUT:

The new measurements, revealed in a preprint paper posted this month, come from a team led by Russell J. Hemley, a professor of physics and chemistry at the University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. Hemley declined to comment because the paper had not yet been accepted by a scientific journal.

Nonetheless, he is well regarded in the field, and his report could lead to a more positive reconsideration of Dr. Dias’s superconducting claim.

“It may convince some people,” said James J. Hamlin, a professor of physics at the University of Florida who has been a persistent critic of Dr. Dias’s research. “It makes me think there might be something to it.” We’re just going to have to wait until the papers and then the data come in, and we’ll have to see about any practical applications. Still, it’s a surprise.

*Once again Nellie Bowles published her weekly TGIF news summary, the best summary around. This week’s is called “TGIF: Plumbing the depths,” and it’s a great collection of snark and news. Nellie, don’t ever stop writing the TGIFs.

As usual,  I’ll steal three items.

→ Tragedy off the coast of Greece: In reality, this is the biggest news of the week. A migrant ship carrying an estimated 750 people, including children, sank as it tried to reach Italy. Hundreds of people are still missing. Apparently, the captain fled on a small craft before it sank. It’s a surreal kind of nightmare because there are photos and there were witnesses. From Reuters: “Greek officials said people on the crowded decks repeatedly turned down attempted assistance from a Greek coast guard boat shadowing it, saying they wanted to reach Italy.” I don’t know if I believe the Greeks, who have new leaders and have taken a harder line against accepting migrants. This tragedy should be getting so much more attention and rage than it is right now. But to give it rage is to reckon with what these people are fleeing in Pakistan, Syria, and Afghanistan: failing economies, yes, but also Islamic extremism. Anyway, it’s just haunting.

→ Harry and Meghan lose their Spotify deal: After Harry and Meghan scored a $20 million Spotify deal, I was expecting a slew of strange, mournful podcasts about life as rich, beautiful, and powerful #brave #trauma #survivors. But my mistake—and Spotify’s—was in thinking they would make podcasts. Harry and Meghan had no interest in podcasts. They just needed some indulgences to keep the chickens in the coop fluffed. It would have been so little work: they’d have producers who schedule the guests, read the books, script the questions, and cut the tape. They ended up releasing twelve episodes (and a Christmas special). But even in those, Meghan apparently wouldn’t always do the interviews. She’d have producers do the interview, then splice in her voice asking the questions later. Bill Simmons, Spotify’s head of podcast innovation and monetization, put it bluntly this week, calling them “fucking grifters.” America was built by clever Brits who were on the outs. Personally, I’ve never liked them more.

I don’t like them at all. They are grifters, and big-time, entitled ones. By the way, read the article cited below:

→ Rainbow nukes: According to Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (they are the ones that do that cute Doomsday Clock) “queering” (no, I won’t explain this one) nuclear weapons will “strengthen security and reshape disarmament.” Also, “nuclear weapons discourse is gendered” and “nuclear facilities still have a reputation for being unwelcoming toward queer people.” Still? In 2023. Man. Read the room, nuclear facilities.

It is physically impossible to get through this article unless you went to a Seven Sisters college so I will direct you to the comments, and one concerned citizen who writes, “Please, keep the much-needed focus on the now-immediate threats of international nuclear warfare. Not on ideological warfare.”

To that I say: speak for yourself, white man!

*Okay, call me a braggart, but I can’t help but put up this shout-out to Luana and me from Andrew Sullivan in his latest Weekly Dish piece, ‘Gay rights and the limits of liberalism.” (The material is NOT sensitive!”)

The quote in context:

When majorities supported gay couples getting married, they did not thereby support having their daughters forced to shower next to biological males in locker rooms, or compete with them in competitive sports; they did not support teaching kindergartners that their bodies have nothing to do with whether they are boys or girls; they did not support using unapproved drugs on troubled children to arrest their puberty, and sterilize them for life; and they did not support schools transitioning their children into the opposite gender without their knowledge.

They didn’t support these things because they have absolutely nothing to do with gay rights. And they didn’t support them because trying to abolish sex differences in society — differences that are among the most well-established facts of human existence — is insane. Sure, many Americans were and are open to helping transgender kids be accepted, to treating trans adults with sympathy and dignity — all the polls show that — but using the experience of this minuscule minority of humans as the default reality for all of us — and teaching that as fact to children — is not an example of inclusion. It is an example of a well-meant untruth, imposed by fiat. Of course we’ve seen a reaction.

And most who were persuaded to support gay equality did not believe that supporting gay rights meant endorsing anti-scientific piffle that sex is a “spectrum.” In a brilliant essay this week, Jerry Coyne and Luana Maroja lay out the damage done by this illiberal movement to the core integrity of the scientific process, and it’s getting worse and worse: “Unless scientists finally find the courage to speak up against the toxic effects of ideology on their field, in a few decades science will be very different from what it is now. Indeed, it’s doubtful that we’d recognize it as science at all.”

It’s a good piece: Sullivan in fine form, and i don’t say that because of the encomiums, but because he goes after all the “piffle” that gender activists think should be tacked onto accepting gay rights. Here’s the point of his piece:

In the gay rights movement, we examined every single possible argument that could be used against us, and answered them. We debated anyone anywhere. And, in the broader context, we left you, gays and straights, alone. Nothing in your life had to change to accept gay equality.

Compare that with the transqueer movement. They will never leave you alone, they will police the words you use, they will deny you access to any same-sex space, they will force your daughter to compete against males, they will tell your child they may be the opposite sex inside and keep it from you, and they will use blackmail — and a farrago of falsehood — to put your kid on a lifetime of medication. They refuse to debate opponents; they cancel and demonize even the most liberal of people (see JK Rowling); they censor words or destroy their meaning and defend violence. In all of this, they are as hostile to a free society as the worst fanatics on the far right.

And what the theocons and the transqueers want you to believe is that you have to pick a side between them. But you don’t. You can reject both — as a quiet majority of gays and straights already do. The fundamentalists on both sides are intent on undoing the liberal settlement on gay and trans rights we just won after great struggle; and they are symptoms of the rapid decay of liberal democracy under Trump and the woke. They need to be called out and stopped.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Szaron have a chinwag:

Hili: Did you read the news today?
Szaron: No, was there anything interesting?
Hili: Nothing about mice.
In Polish:
Hili: Czytałeś dziś wiadomości?
Szaron: Nie, a było coś ciekawego?
Hili: Nic na temat myszy.

. . and a photo of Baby Kulka:

********************

From Bruce; the original audio book from Mark Parisi’s “Off the Mark“:

From Blue, a creationist myth:

And from somewhere on the Internet (I can’t recall):

A tweet from Masih showing another courageous Iranian woman. Sound on: there’s (forbidden) music:

Early cat pottery from Gravelinspector:

From Malcolm. I didn’t even know these things existed!

From Simon, who must be talking about Tr*mp:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, another young boy gassed upon arrival:

Tweets from Dr. Cobb, who is sad because his 16.5-year-old cat Ollie is pretty sick.  The first one shows a bull-goose loony:

Okay, this can’t be true.

I wonder what else could be made out of the continents?

30 thoughts on “Saturday: Hili dialogue”

    1. Thanks, Hempenstein – very interesting and more detailed than the reporting I’ve seen here in the UK.

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      1. Glad you like. I have been following this channel almost exclusively. He posts daily without fail, around midnight Eastern, so probably perfect for you each morning, with about 5min of relevant footage, maps made to correspond to his reporting, etc, in contrast to all the others that use stock footage of tanks, planes and artillery. Also, every so often he goes into some detail about how he combs both pro and con Ukraine sites to get the most accurate assessment of what’s actually going on.

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          1. Half of “Hemp” ‘s #1 reply is a link to youtube – presumably the channel to which he refers. Hover on it, or just Ctrl-Click. You’ll get an option to subscribe to the channel “owner’s” content.

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  2. On this day:
    109 – Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Rome.

    1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.

    1497 – John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.

    1540 – English King Henry VIII commands his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, to leave the court. [Apparently, she was no oil painting… or at least not like the one shown to Henry before the marriage.]

    1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England is founded in London, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England). [They now allow women to join the lodge – but only if they were born male…]

    1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon’s Grande Armée crosses the Neman river beginning the invasion of Russia.

    1880 – First performance of O Canada at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français. The song would later become the national anthem of Canada.

    1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million-dollar contract.

    1943 – US military police attempt to arrest a black soldier in Bamber Bridge, England, sparking the Battle of Bamber Bridge mutiny that leaves one dead and seven wounded. [Those trying to import US “antiracism” into the UK would do well to remember this incident and the events around it.]

    1947 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.

    1948 – Cold War: Start of the Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.

    1949 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, starring William Boyd, is aired on NBC.

    1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed, formally segregating races.

    1957 – In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.

    1973 – The UpStairs Lounge arson attack takes place at a gay bar located on the second floor of the three-story building at 141 Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, US. Thirty-two people die as a result of fire or smoke inhalation.

    1981 – The Humber Bridge opens to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It remained the world’s longest bridge span for 17 years.

    1982 – “The Jakarta Incident”: British Airways Flight 009 flies into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines. [It ended better than you’d imagine.]

    2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history.

    2004 – In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.

    2010 – At Wimbledon, John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France, in the longest match in professional tennis history.

    2010 – Julia Gillard assumes office as the first female Prime Minister of Australia.

    2013 – Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of abusing his power and engaging in sex with an underage prostitute, and is sentenced to seven years in prison.

    2022 – In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Constitution does not assign the authority to regulate abortions to the federal government, thereby returning such authority to the individual states. This overturns the prior decisions in Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).

    Births:
    1842 – Ambrose Bierce, American short story writer, essayist, and journalist (d. 1914).

    1850 – Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, Irish field marshal and politician, Governor-General of Sudan (d. 1916).

    1854 – Eleanor Norcross, American painter (d. 1923).

    1893 – Roy O. Disney, American businessman, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (d. 1971).

    1904 – Phil Harris, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1995).

    1915 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and author (d. 2001).

    1917 – Joan Clarke, English cryptanalyst and numismatist (d. 1996).

    1942 – Arthur Brown, English rock singer-songwriter.

    1944 – Jeff Beck, English guitarist and songwriter (d. 2023).

    1945 – Colin Blunstone, English singer-songwriter.

    1947 – Clarissa Dickson Wright, English chef, author, and television personality (d. 2014).

    1947 – Mick Fleetwood, English-American drummer.

    1961 – Curt Smith, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer.

    “My granny says that dying is like going to sleep,” Mort added, a shade hopefully. I WOULDN’T KNOW. I HAVE DONE NEITHER.
    1519 – Lucrezia Borgia, Italian wife of Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara (b. 1480).

    1909 – Sarah Orne Jewett, American novelist, short story writer, and poet (b. 1849).

    1987 – Jackie Gleason, American actor, comedian, and producer (b. 1916).

    2000 – Vera Atkins, British intelligence officer (b. 1908).

    2000 – David Tomlinson, English actor and comedian (b. 1917).

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  3. [A. sullivan]:

    “And what the theocons and the transqueers want you to believe is that you have to pick a side between them. But you don’t. You can reject both …”

    Precisely – Sullivan is exquisitely perceptive on this point. The formula of queering is to subvert the descriptively normative, and subversion doesn’t work if one can perceive the game being played.

    In practice, however, free speech grants anyone to hold forth as they wish, even if [A. Sullivan]:”they are as hostile to a free society as the worst fanatics on the far right.”

    I’d give examples but refrain, as the rainbow guard will see to it my life is not the same ever again.

    BTW queering needs to be read about – there’s lots of titles, including “queering elementary education” and “educators queering academia”.

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  6. Just as we are seeing the downfall of Trump, we may be seeing the beginning of the end for Putin. It is only fitting that both of these Facist will be departing your screens sooner than we think. If Putin should go sooner than we might believe then Trump will follow. I think this is Rebellion in Russia moving fast.

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    1. I would be happy if you were right, but so far there is no sign of any nation-wide rebellion in Russia. Only (the disgusting criminal) Prigozhin and his mercenary band are on the move. They took one city without fighting because of sheer surprise, but nobody seems to rise up on their side and they are going to be squished if this remains this way.

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    2. For Putin to fall it will take the national guard to turn against him and join the rebels.
      Otherwise I’m afraid Putin will annihilate them.
      Song

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  8. Definitely big. Two whistleblowers have come forward to denounce Administration interference in the investigation and prosecution of Hunter Biden. Sweetheart deal, indeed. This was followed by Attorney General Garland announcing that attacking the integrity of the DOJ is an attack on democracy.

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    1. The article you cite is from the Federalist Society and goes way overboard by stating that “The Democrat regime interfered in the election, plain and simple. Local officials did so by unlawfully changing rules at the last minute. Big Tech did so by hiding damaging information on their preferred candidates and censoring conservatives. Billionaire activists did so by pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into government offices in the blue areas of swing states to run get-out-the-vote operations. The media did it by lying to voters, day in and day out.” This is pure nuts.

      Nevertheless, the Hunter Biden incident is disturbing, exacerbated by the testimony of the two IRS Criminal Investigation agents, whose testimony has just been released to the public and sheds new light on the affair.. I looked at the testimony (most of it mind numbing bureaucratic detail). They worked on the task force that was investigating Hunter Biden’s taxes. I have no doubt that their testimony is sincere. The essence of their complaint is that the Department of Justice, particularly David Weiss, Trump appointed U.S. Attorney in Delaware, obstructed the IRS’ recommendation that Hunter be charged with tax violations well beyond the ultimate two count misdemeanors. Their testimony is, of course, from their frustrated perspective. They do not have any knowledge of the inner workings of the DOJ in this matter. All they know is that they were roadblocked at every turn. In particular, the question arises as to why the Trump appointed U.S. attorney seemed to be their nemesis. It seems to me that Merrick Garland needs to conduct a thorough investigation of what happened here, with the findings made public. The most important question to be answered is this: why was Hunter charged with minor tax violations when the IRS concluded that the violations were much greater and almost any other person would be criminally indicted for them?

      For the Republicans, the Hunter Biden tax saga is of no importance except that it represents a portal to infer that Joe Biden was somehow intertangled with Hunter’s unsavory business dealings. They argue that Joe had to know what Hunter was doing and that he and the Biden family profited from these activities. They reject Joe’s statement that he had no idea what Hunter was engaged in. They point to a WhatsApp message from Hunter in which he threatened a Chinese businessman and stated that Joe was sitting next to him. If Hunter was not making up the bit about Joe being present then Joe has a lot of explaining to do. It is conceivable that Hunter made this up since the message is from July 2017 when Joe held no public office. In any case, Joe needs to come clean and soon. His son may sink his chances for re-election in 2024. Better still would be for Joe to drop out of his bid for re-nomination and allow another Democrat to take his place.

      https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/white-house-hammered-hunter-biden-text-message-chinese-associate

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  9. Re the Senate Judiciary Hearing on Title IX:

    Liberal Argument #1: “Look, when conservative Republican creeps like Cruz, Hawley, and Kennedy are all attacking the Democrats’ position on LGBTQ+ Rights, doesn’t that tell you the Democrats’ position here is CORRECT?”

    Liberal Argument #2: “Look, when conservative Republican creeps like Cruz, Hawley, and Kennedy are all attacking the Democrats position on LGBTQ+ Rights — and ffs sounding like the smartest person in the room — doesn’t that tell you the Democrats’ position here is INSANE?”

    It’s surprising how many intelligent people think the first argument is a clincher without even considering the possibility that the second argument might also be an option.

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    1. You wrote [emphasis added]:
      “Liberal Argument #2: … and ffs sounding like the smartest person in the room”

      What are you trying to say? ffs = are?

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      2. Ffs = “for f*ck’s sake”

        I could paraphrase as “for crying out loud if you’re arguing with Josh Hawley and to the Disinterested Reasonable Observer he looks like ‘the one making sense’ in the exchange then you really, really need to rethink your position.”

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  10. Lots of good stuff here. Thank you Ted Cruz (never thought I’d write those words). Thank you Andrew Sullivan. And thank you Jerry Coyne and Luana Maroja for your insightful article.

    It’ll be interesting to see what happens in Russia. With the Ukrainian counteroffensive not meeting expectations, maybe Ukraine and the west has paid off the Wagner Group so that they are now working for the other side (for Ukraine). After all, they are mercenaries. Now, I don’t really believe that, but I do expect that Putin will blame the west for this turn of events. While pundits seem to be applauding the chaos in Russia, I’m concerned that Putin will blame the west and use it as an excuse to escalate the conflict.

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  11. Okay, I tortured myself and read the “Queering” nukes piece. It reads like a template put together by a Smith College undergrad. Substitute for “nuclear operations and policy” the terms “special forces,” “submarine operations,” “airpower operations,” “pastry preparation,” or anything else your little heart desires, and queerness will make it so very much better—and noble and righteous and brilliant and good.

    I’ll jump on and expand a bit Jon’s recurring plea for “sociological analysis”: What is it about highly-educated society in the Anglophone countries that make it prone to the most idiotic ideas one can conjure? And why do so many in that same highly-educated group prance and preen like over-agitated preteens ready to pee their panties as “Queering Beatles” and “Doing DEI” appear on stage? Why do so many of them think and speak so drearily alike while laboring under the pretense of being original and critical thinkers? How did we arrive at the mix of authoritarianism and cowardice that characterize so many of our institutions? And, finally, why is life today in educated society so much like a middle-school lunchroom?

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    1. Nellie was right, though. Ya gotta read the comments.
      I think the people who regularly read the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists must be pretty smart people.

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  12. Glory be, the Supreme Court, by a vote of 8-1, handed the Biden administration a victory by approving of its immigration policy. (Guess who the lone dissenter was before reading on. You get two tries.)

    It’s not so surprising that Samuel Alito would be the lone dissenter in United States v. Texas.

    Clarence Thomas boasts the High Court’s most idiosyncratic judicial philosophy; Samuel Alito, its most doctrinaire. Except for longtime Thomas-watchers (and even sometimes for them) there’s no telling what doctrinal rock Thomas might come out from under. Look on SCOTUS’s far right, on the other hand, and one is sure to encounter Alito’s smug, humorless visage. A justice of a similarly ultraconservative bent, the late Nino Scalia, would sometimes surprise with a pro-civil liberties opinion; Alito never does.

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  13. “Stew Peters’ Rothschilds conspiracy theory: The OceanGate sub was purposely sunk to hide ‘that it wasn’t an iceberg that sank the Titanic.'”

    Iceberg, Goldberg, Rothberg — you’re never gonna fool Stew Peters about who was responsible for sinking the Titanic.

    Reply

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