Sunrise — 5:30, 5:32.

Did Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi die in a helicopter crash?

I'm seeing reports like this, from AP: "A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a 'hard landing' on Sunday, Iranian state media reported, without elaborating. Some began urging the public to pray for Raisi and the others on board as rescue crews sped through a misty, rural forest where his helicopter was believed to be."

At Al Jazeera: "Adverse weather conditions, including heavy fog, are hampering rescue efforts and the helicopter is still missing." And: "The conservative politician was a 'heavyweight' in Iranian politics, according to Mahjoob Zweiri, a professor at Qatar University." Was.

And there's this in The Jerusalem Post: "Social media goes rampant with rumors of Iranian President’s helicopter going missing/While apologists of the regime expressed hope for Raisi’s well-being, others implied that the regime itself was behind an assassination attempt, and many others expressed joy at the unconfirmed news."

"The Trump campaign believes it can capitalize on — or foment — a backlash to the leftward march of the Twin Cities and still-fresh memories..."

"... of the unrest after the killing of George Floyd. 'Very sad what’s happened to your state,' Mr. Trump told a newscaster on the conservative website Alpha News on Thursday, attacking Minneapolis’s progressive Representative Ilhan Omar as a 'hater,' promising 'mass deportations' and vowing 'to bring back the law enforcement the way it was' before Mr. Floyd’s murder. 'Your state is out of control, and it’s this radical left philosophy that cannot be left to continue.' Recent polling has Mr. Biden clinging to a narrow lead in Minnesota, inside some polls’ margins of error. His tenuous position has been exacerbated by the war in Gaza. A protest campaign for 'uncommitted' in the Democratic presidential primary in March drew 19 percent.... Even Democrats in the state have their worries.... [Representative Dean Phillips, a Democrat who represents the affluent, educated suburbs west of Minneapolis that for years had voted Republican] said, 'I confess to have spoken to more people, and some remarkable people, who say they will vote for Trump. Many will, and many more than will admit it.'"

I'm reading "Trump Visits Minnesota, Hoping Its Political Divide Will Put It in Play/The Trump campaign says it can broaden the electoral battlefield with a play for Minnesota, but the state has disappointed Republicans for decades" (NYT).

Hoping to put it in play? Clearly, it is in play, and Trump is forcing Biden to defend. Meanwhile, Biden must win all of the battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — just to edge out Trump in the electoral college. Trump has so many more ways to win.

The NYT has 3 articles this morning about Biden cultivating the black vote.

1."In Atlanta, Biden Warms Up His Pitch to Black Voters/The president, who is trailing key states in recent polling, tried to cast the election as a struggle for democracy itself."

President Biden... asked Black voters at two campaign events in Atlanta to see the election as a choice between protecting democracy and letting it backslide.... Mr. Biden laid out his argument to a powerful slice of the electorate that has been drifting away from him during a campaign reception on Saturday afternoon: “We cannot let this man become president. We have to win this race, not for me but for America.”

2. "Live Updates: Biden to Speak at Morehouse Graduation/The visit to the historically Black college in Georgia gives President Biden an opportunity to speak to students in a battleground state as he works to shore up support among young voters." Oh! I took to long getting to this link. It's the speech, playing live, now.

This speech so far has been mostly about Biden’s upbringing — one of a law student, public defender and single father — rather than promoting the economic achievements of the Biden administration. The White House has been focused on promoting such policy achievements to galvanize a crucial constituency of Black voters frustrated with the Biden White House....“Instead of forcing you to prove you’re 10 times better, we’re breaking down doors so you can have 100 times more opportunities,” Biden says.

3. "In His Beloved Philadelphia, Biden Faces Wariness From Black Voters/Even in the president’s favorite political stomping ground, his standing has slipped with Democrats who will be vital to a repeat victory, interviews with nearly two dozen Black voters showed."

In interviews with nearly two dozen voters in predominantly Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia this week, as well as with elected officials and strategists, signs of softness in Mr. Biden’s standing were palpable. Just eight voters said they were committed to voting for Mr. Biden, while many others were debating staying home, or, in a few cases, supporting former President Donald J. Trump. They cited concerns about immigration, the cost of living and their sense that Mr. Biden was more focused on crises abroad than on fixing problems in their neighborhoods....

Clinton Geary III, 41, an entrepreneur and organizer who works to end community violence in Philadelphia, said he would support Mr. Trump in November, his first time casting a ballot. He saw Mr. Biden as more focused on wars abroad than low-income communities domestically. “How are you going to help go to war and you can’t help feed people?” he said. He also said he was worried about the country’s influx of migrants, a theme echoed by several voters, including anti-Trump ones.

That reminds me. Over at TikTok, I keep seeing things like this:

@johnou81

♬ original sound - john

It's true that Trump is doing a rally in the Bronx. The NYT reported that a couple days ago, here: "Trump Plans a Campaign Event in the Deep Blue Bronx/The former president, who has sought to make some political appearances around New York as he stands criminal trial, is set to speak at an event next Thursday at Crotona Park."

The former president told donors at a Manhattan fund-raiser this week that he was planning something in the South Bronx, making a joke that he might get hurt in the neighborhood.

“We’re going to have a tremendous rally. You may never see me again,” he said, prompting laughter, according to an attendee who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private event. “That could be a tricky one.”

May garden.

"Renting can be a better financial decision; owning can be a better financial decision. Too often, we simply buy because our parents told us to, and their parents told them to."

Said Ramit Sethi, author of "I Will Teach You to Be Rich," quoted in "Renting Forever and Trying to Create a Strong Financial Future/Either by choice or because they are priced out of the market, many people plan to never stop renting. Building wealth without home equity requires a different mind-set" (NYT).

Though he’s a millionaire, Mr. Sethi has rented for the last 20 years in cities like San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. When he lived in Manhattan, he calculated that it would have cost him 2.2 times more per month to own than to rent. He emphasizes that your calculations have to include the phantom costs of mortgage interest, taxes and maintenance, which is often estimated at 1 to 3 percent of a home’s value. So he rented and focused on investing.... 

"RFK Jr. is radical left. He reminds me of this fly that's driving me crazy up here. This fly is brutal. I don't like flies!"

"But RFK Jr. calls you a terrorist group. You know he calls you a terrorist group."

Said Trump at the NRA convention — video.

Brutal????!!!!

Now I know that Trump knows the "insect politics" speech from "The Fly":

"Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects... don't have politics. They're very... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect. I'd like to become the first... insect politician. You see, I'd like to, but... I'm afraid, uh... I'm saying... I'm saying I - I'm an insect who dreamed he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake... I'm saying... I'll hurt you if you stay."

Have you ever heard of insect politics? Trump has! 

"Coppola has been unable to find a studio buyer for the movie and it’s clear why: 'Megalopolis' is likely to confuse and divide mainstream audiences."

"No two actors in this movie are on the same page about how to perform it, and the result is a mishmash of acting styles and big, misbegotten choices that had some journalists at the festival giggling in disbelief. The dialogue is either bluntly declarative or totally impenetrable, and Coppola often interrupts the action with shots of featured extras so prolonged that you can tell with certainty that you’re looking at one of the filmmaker’s relatives."

From "Francis Ford Coppola’s 'Megalopolis': What to Know After its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, we can answer your many questions, though some details still puzzle us" (NYT).

ADDED: From "Megalopolis Is a Work of Absolute Madness" (NY Magazine):

There is nothing in Megalopolis that feels like something out of a “normal” movie. It has its own logic and cadence and vernacular. The characters speak in archaic phrases and words, mixing shards of Shakespeare, Ovid, and at one point straight-up Latin. Some characters speak in rhyme, others just in high-minded prose that feels like maybe it should be in verse. At one point, Adam Driver does the entire “To be or not to be” soliloquy from Hamlet. Why? I’m not exactly sure. But it sure sounds good....

Watch out for mainstream disaffection based on the fact that this movie contains traces of Ayn Rand:

Sunrise — 5:33.

"And now, 35 years after Mr. Kirk’s skeletal remains were found, a search for how he ended up dead in a chimney can begin."

The NYT covers a Madison, Wisconsin story, in "35 Years Later, the Remains Known as ‘Chimney Doe’ Have a Name and a Face/A skeleton found in the chimney of a Wisconsin music store in 1989 has been identified, relaunching a police investigation that had been dormant for decades" (free access link).

The skeleton — a 5'7" male with a broken pelvis— wore "a faded, paisley dress and pointed heels." After 35 years, searching DNA databases led to Ronnie Joe Kirk. The police have brought in the Trans Doe Task Force, which works on "cold cases involving L.G.B.T.Q. victims and victims of suspected gender-based violence."

"I think he’s praying. But if he is sleeping, you know, he certainly looks pretty while he sleeps."

Said Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, reacting to Congressman Robert Garcia, who'd had some reason to point out that Trump seems to be sleeping some of the time at his criminal trial, reported at Mediaite.

This exchange took place at the same House Oversight Committee meeting where Marjorie Taylor Greene sneered at Jasmine Crockett's false eyelashes and Crockett shot back with a butch-phobic remark about MTG's body.

The most outré quotes come from the Oversight Committee.

Consider "D.C.’s 'first activist hotel,' the Eaton, which features a 'Radical Library' in its lobby and has hosted protest song performances in its rooftop bar."

"And the city’s feminist-inflected Hotel Zena, where you will encounter a huge portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg made of tampons."

I'm reading "The world’s coolest hotels want to tell you a story/The latest design-driven hotels aim to immerse guests in a story or social movement, or transport them to another time" (WaPo).

That link on "feminist-inflected" goes to a 2020 Architectural Digest article about the hotel, where it says, "The larger-than-life homage to Justice Ginsburg has been constructed using 20,000 hand-painted tampons, arranged on a pegboard to create a pointillist portrait (complete with the justice’s signature lace collar and her 'Notorious' moniker). A 20-foot-long curving wall in the hotel’s restaurant evokes a glittering gown, adorned with 12,000 protest buttons from decades of feminist marches and events.... And a hanging installation of painted folding chairs honors Chisholm’s famous advice: 'If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.'"

I looked at Hotel Zena's website. It costs about $400 a night to stay there. I was sad to see that some of the rooms had a "king" bed. That's so wrong. I want to be drenched in activism when battling insomnia at the feminist hotel. They need to curate every detail or it's insufficiently immersive. Also what's with bringing your own folding chair? I thought we were kicking the fucking door down?

Sunrise — 5:36, 5:44, 5:45.

"If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blond, bad-built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?"

Said Representative Jasmine Crockett, during a meeting of the House Oversight Committee, referring to Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had just said to her "I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading."

I've seen the video, and now I'm reading the NYT article, "The Ugly Effect of Physical Insults/A recent congressional meeting devolved into a back-and-forth that reflects a changing norm in politics — one that rarely makes anybody look good."

I don't approve of the unprofessionalism, but if we're just comparing insults and taking into account that Crockett didn't start it, I want to say "bleach blond, bad-built butch body" is impressive — with 6 B's in a row and the unforgettable "butch body." And can we analyze the extent to which "bad-built butch body" violates the norms of progressive speech. It's not just body shaming, it's expressing contempt for a woman's failure to have a body in the stereotypical female form. That's transphobic (in the broad sense).

Lawrence O'Donnell does an excellent professional job of clearly and concisely presenting what happened to Michael Cohen yesterday.

TikTok so it's after the jump:

"Bimbo feminism is the celebration of woman as a dumb, hot object. Woman as an absolute idiot."

"To hell with girlbosses and equality in the boardroom. New feminism—bimboism—is about celebrating the vacant, sexual woman, the dumb woman, the hole. Being smart is capitalism. 'No more Instagrams about rising and grinding,' an opinion writer at The New York Times told us one day in describing the trend. 'No more The Wing. No more straining to be smarter than the boys. Bimboism offers an opposing and, to some, refreshing premise: Value me, look at me, not because I’m smart and diligent but for the fact that I’m not. It’s anticapitalist, even antiwork.'...The first wave [of feminism] was the suffragettes from the late 1800s who fought for a woman’s right to be seen as an autonomous individual and to vote. By the 1960s and ’70s, the second wave was about equal rights for women at work and the little things, like being able to own credit cards and decide when you have your own children. The 1990s saw a third wave focused on sexual liberation and expanding the conversation beyond wealthy white women.... And now, in the 2020s, there’s the fourth wave. The fourth turning. The trans revolution and the bimbo feminist.""

Writes Nellie Bowles, in "Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches From the Wrong Side of History" (commission earned).

That opinion writer at The New York Times was Sophie Haigney. Here's her piece "Meet the Self-Described ‘Bimbos’ of TikTok." And here's where I blogged it back in 2022. When I ran across "bimbo feminism" listening to Bowles book this morning, I felt like that's something new, I ought to blog that. But now I see, not only did I blog the article Bowles was talking about, I had the same feeling I was seeing it for the first time: