December 5, 2024
"Singing Simon and Garfunkel’s 'America' to heal my brain 🧠In 2017, I sustained a brain injury caused by never treated Lyme disease."
Awful yelling in Congress today.
Secret Service chief Ronald Rowe Jr. got into a screaming match with a GOP lawmaker over 9/11 during an otherwise cordial hearing. https://t.co/SK6rnmRGdj pic.twitter.com/eKwBOkO1mN
— POLITICO (@politico) December 5, 2024
"There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!). Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role."
"Those who could face exposure include such members of Congress’ Jan. 6 Committee as Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming."
From "Biden White House Is Discussing Preemptive Pardons for Those in Trump’s Crosshairs/The nomination of Kash Patel, who has vowed to pursue Trump’s critics, as FBI director has heightened concerns within the president’s inner circle" (Politico).
Comfortable soup.
Goodbye to commenter Michael K.
Other commenters mark his passing in the comments to Tuesday night's sunrise post and in this earlier post that day.
This morning I'm seeing Neo's blog post, "RIP commenter 'Mike K'": "RIP Mike K, and all the commenters here who may have died but all we know is that they disappeared never to return."Bissage was a dearly beloved commenter on this blog who disappeared one day, when the uncooperative dear became uncooperative. I've tried to call him back: "Come back, Bissage. We're counting oranges again. Remember? 42. 42. 42..." To no avail.
I appreciate hearing the specific news that a commenter has died, like when Gahrie's brother's dropped into a comments thread: "Hello.... This is my brother gahries account, and it appears this post was close to the last thing he read/saw before he passed away Sunday morning sometime after 130am...."
I miss Gahrie and Bissage and Michael K and many others who died or drifted away and even some of those who left in a huff. They, unlike the dead, can drop back in. Why don't they? It's not for me to figure out. The blog, like life itself, can only move forward, and the day will come when we will all be left behind. So thanks to all — except the actual trolls — who walked along this way as far as they did.
"Even if [Daniel] Penny’s found innocent on all charges, his ordeal still sends a grim message to all New Yorkers remains: Don’t think about standing up to protect the innocent."
"And this is far from Bragg’s only outrage. Consider his prosecution of Jose Alba, the bodega clerk attacked in his workplace who accidentally killed in self-defense — the charges dropped only when the 'optics' got bad. Or Bragg’s two-years-belated indictment of a cop for punching an unruly perp (who wasn’t harmed) he was escorting out of an Upper West Side Apple Store. Or the charges against Scotty Enoe, a CVS worker, who stabbed a serial shoplifter to death after the homeless man pulled the knife on him. This DA sides with the perps every time — and against those who resist them. Not to mention the resources wasted on his ultimate political persecution: the ridiculous pursuit of now-President-elect Donald Trump over 2017 book-keeping entries that supposedly tampered with the 2016 election...."
Writes the NY Post Editorial Board in "Daniel Penny trial: Alvin Bragg is a menace to our society and must GO."
"You mentioned fertility and regret, and I'd like to take both of those concerns head-on."
I do want to acknowledge that there is evidence to suggest that gender-affirming care with respect to hormones can have some impacts on fertility. Critically, puberty blockers are -- are -- have no effect in and of themselves on fertility, so I don't think that concern can justify the ban on puberty blockers, which is just pressing pause on someone's endogenous puberty to give them more time to understand their identity. With respect to hormone use, there are some effects on fertility, but the court found that many individuals who are transgender remain fertile after taking these medications. They can conceive biological children.
December 4, 2024
Sunrise — 7:05.
"A no-confidence vote in the French parliament on Wednesday has triggered the collapse of the government, plunging the country into political chaos..."
From "No-confidence vote topples French government, plunges country into chaos/The support of Marine Le Pen’s far-right lawmakers was key to the motion, which made this the shortest-serving administration in the modern French republic" (WaPo).
"Four years ago, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion in the Supreme Court’s first case on transgender rights..."
From "Live Updates: Supreme Court Appears Inclined to Uphold Tennessee Law on Transgender Care/Assessing the court’s ultimate direction was complicated by the silence of one justice in the conservative majority, Neil M. Gorsuch, the author of a key case on employment discrimination. The court’s decision is expected by June" (NYT).
"The Democratic Party needs to figure out better ways to counter disinformation, including the disinformation that it is elitist."
"Currently, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. are barred from using compulsory legal processes, like subpoenas and search warrants, to go after reporters’ information..."
From "Kash Patel Has Plan to Remake the F.B.I. Into a Tool of Trump/President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the F.B.I. has called for firing the agency’s top officials, shutting down its Washington headquarters and prosecuting journalists" (NYT).