Sunrise — 7:04, 7:17, 7:20, 7:24.

What's that thing in the ice? See "Man rescued after ATV breaks through ice on Lake Mendota." The man was rescued yesterday, but the ATV was still out there this morning, partly submerged in the ice.

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The death of “Democracy Dies in Darkness."

I'm reading "The Washington Post’s New Mission: Reach ‘All of America’ /This week, The Post began trying out a new mission statement: 'Riveting Storytelling for All of America'" (NYT):

After Donald J. Trump entered the White House in 2017, The Washington Post adopted a slogan that underscored the newspaper’s traditional role as a government watchdog: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” This week, as Mr. Trump prepares to re-enter the White House, the newspaper debuted a mission statement that evokes a more expansive view of The Post’s journalism, without death or darkness: “Riveting Storytelling for All of America.”

The new slogan is terrible. The old slogan was also terrible, but at least it was ridiculous. "Riveting Storytelling for All of America" is just really dumb — a dumb slogan expressing the opinion that America is dumb, but what are you going to do? 

It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul's State of the State Address: pic.twitter.com/nFsb7Fowu0

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 17, 2025

"Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.’s obituary will be stalked by the counterfactual: What if he hadn’t made the selfish decision to run for reelection?"

"What if he had passed the torch a year or even six months earlier?... The way that events unfolded—his catastrophic debate performance, the stark clarity with which the nation came to understand his geriatric state–-beggars belief. Why didn’t Democrats stage an intervention earlier? Why didn’t his aides stop him from running?"

Writes Franklin Foer in The Atlantic, in "How Biden Destroyed His Legacy/The president’s accomplishments are considerable, but on his signature issue of preserving democracy, he failed spectacularly."

Let me answer those questions (as I'm sure you can answer them): Democrats wanted 4 more years of a mentally deficient presidential figurehead for their power. They just desperately changed their plan when we the people got too good of a sudden, scary glimpse at what they'd been up to.

But Foer says: "A cabal intent on preserving its own power would never have blundered in such tragically self-defeating fashion." And: "Democrats ignored a cascade of warning signs...." Is Foer writing to give them cover?

What do you think? Why didn’t Democrats stage an intervention earlier? 

So, what's your answer?

Cabal

Bumblers

 

pollcode.com free polls

ADDED: I keep rereading this sentence: "A cabal intent on preserving its own power would never have blundered in such tragically self-defeating fashion." It gets funnier every time. 

"I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution."

From "Statement from President Joe Biden on the Equal Rights Amendment."

What does that mean? Did he do anything or is he just sharing his thoughts?

From the NYT: "Trump Transition Live Updates: Equal Rights Amendment Has Passed, Biden Says, but He Does Not Force Certification": "President Biden... said he would not press a legal fight by ordering the government to finalize the process by officially publishing it."

The conspicuous doing of nothing.

Supreme Court upholds the TikTok ban.

Opinion here.

Per curiam. Sotomayor concurs, but let's read the Gorsuch opinion, concurring:

To what extent does Trump's new official portrait look like his mugshot?

 Surely, the resemblance is intentional... but so are the differences:

The similarities include the framing of the picture. Notice how the side of the collar and lapel line up under the ear (the famous ear!) and how much of the top of the head is showing, with the chin down. There's a lack of symmetry in the eyes, and a distinctive arced wrinkle over his left eye.

But the mugshot face has garish color and harsh light and shade and a deep frown line on the left side of the mouth. The official portrait lighting puts the shadow where it is flattering and where it reveals the individuality and humanity of the face. By comparison, mugshot Trump seems cartoonish. It's almost as if the light were adjusted to create the look of a Hitler mustache. 

In both pictures Trump's right eye seems more active. It's more narrowly pinched than his left eye. It's the eye that's looking right into you. The portrait eye is gentler, wiser, and it influences my interpretation of the mugshot eye. Mugshot Trump is angry. And, oh!, those mugshot eyebrows. They overhang the eyes ominously. He's saying he will fight, fight, fight. Portrait Trump is more complex.

What do you see in him? Whatever it is, it includes his intent to make you think about the mugshot and all that it represents. His adversaries threw everything they could at him, and he fought back and triumphed. But he's not smiling. He's not the Trump in the 2017 portrait:

But who is he? Who is he, now that he's Trump 47?

"Our position on this has been clear: TikTok should continue to operate under American ownership."

"Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement." 

Said "a White House official," quoted in "Biden administration will leave it to Trump to implement TikTok ban/The ban goes into effect on Sunday unless the Supreme Court intervenes" (ABC News).

What's not clear, of course, is the position if there is no "American ownership." It is clear that at long last the Biden administration will be going. It did seem as though Biden might want to horn in on the role of TikTok savior, but no. It will leave this one to Trump (or the Supreme Court).

Speaking of the last moments, Bob Dylan joined TikTok a couple days ago, just in time to make fun of needing to go:

Sunrise and moonset — 7:13 and 7:30.

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Goodbye to David Lynch.

"David Lynch, Maker of Florid and Unnerving Films, Dies at 78 A visionary, his films included 'Eraserhead,' 'Blue Velvet' and 'Mulholland Drive,' which was considered his masterwork" (NYT)(free-access link).

Made by a man with a longtime devotion to the technique of “transcendental meditation,” Mr. Lynch’s films were characterized by their dreamlike imagery and punctilious sound design, as well as Manichaean narratives that pit an exaggerated, even saccharine innocence against depraved evil. Mr. Lynch’s style has often been termed surreal, and indeed, with his troubling juxtapositions, outlandish non sequiturs, and eroticized derangement of the commonplace, the Lynchian has evident affinities to classic surrealism. Mr. Lynch’s surrealism, however, was more intuitive than programmatic. If classic surrealists celebrated irrationality and sought to liberate the fantastic in the everyday, Mr. Lynch employed the ordinary as a shield to ward off the irrational....

ADDED: If you go to Criterion Channel right now, the first thing you see is: 

What should we watch?

 

"I hate politics... I love policy and impact. I hate politics. And unfortunately, the two are not separable... [It's a] very dark, negative business.... There is a darkness to that world that I don’t really want to welcome into mine"

Said Ivanka Trump, quoted in "Ivanka Trump has blunt 3-word response when asked why she won’t return to White House" (NY Post).

Reminds me of young Donald Trump:

"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday said he would appoint Ashley Moody, his state’s attorney general, to replace Marco Rubio in the Senate."

WaPo reports.

As state attorney general, Moody has aligned closely with DeSantis. Her office recently sued to keep an abortion rights amendment off the Florida ballot in November, and she also defended the state’s use of taxpayer dollars to advertise against the measure. The amendment, which DeSantis also opposed, was defeated. Moody also supported DeSantis’s controversial moves to use state funds to fly undocumented immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard and California to make a political point about immigration. In 2020, Moody backed a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to block the election results after President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump....

"Hegseth is in no danger of rising to the level of mediocrity, but next to some of his Democratic questioners, he looked like Carl von Clausewitz."

"Hegseth’s core populist conviction — repeated ad nauseam — is that the grunts on the ground know what they are doing and the pencil-necked geeks in air-conditioned offices just write nonsense regulations that get in the way. The man wasted years at Princeton and Harvard when he could have learned everything he knows by watching that Colonel Jessup speech at the end of 'A Few Good Men.'... In a healthy democracy people revere great learning on substantive issues; they understand the world is too complex to be captured in bite-size slogans; but they also appreciate the wisdom that comes from concrete experience and know that most hard calls have to be made in light of the deeply held values that have made America what it is...."

Writes David Brooks, in "We Deserve Pete Hegseth" (NYT).

Here's Colonel Jessup:

 

And here's  Carl von Clausewitz:

Here's Wikipedia's list of Clausewitz's ideas:

"You know, in his farewell address, President Eisenhower spoke of the dangers of the military-industrial complex...."

"Six days — six decades later, I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power."

Said President Joe Biden, in his farewell address last night. 

There's a big difference between "military-industrial complex" and "tech-industrial complex." Eisenhower's phrase warns about the government and not merely private business. Biden's phrase only warns about private business. The "abuse of power" Biden identifies takes place outside of government, and he looks to government as a victim of abuse by private actors — citizens, speaking — and, potentially, as a cure — government, regulating speech.

The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.

What about all the lies you told for power and for profit?! 

We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.

What about your abuse of power squeezing the "social platforms" to follow the narrative that served your interests?

MEANWHILE: On the NYT home page, we see Trump swooping in as the savior of TikTok:

The World Monuments Fund "warns that more than 90 important sites on the moon could be harmed."

"In particular, some researchers are worried about Tranquillity Base, the Apollo 11 landing site where the astronaut Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the moon’s surface.... Beyond the lunar orbiters and rangers scattered across the moon’s surface that express scientific achievements, there are also artifacts of human culture. Apollo 11 astronauts left a golden olive branch to symbolize peace, while a SpaceX rocket lifted a lander that carried 125 miniature sculptures by the artist Jeff Koons to the moon’s surface last year." 

From "World Monuments Fund Puts Moon on List of At-Risk Sites/The organization said that more than 90 important sites on the moon could risk destruction if space tourism is left unregulated" (NYT).

If you follow the link about Koons, you'll see that his sculptures were small steel spheres — "moons" — each named after a famous Earthling, e.g., Ada Lovelace, Plato, and Billie Holiday. I guess they must all have some connection to the moon. Plato, for example, I learned from Grok, wrote that "the moon, along with the sun and the planets, are part of the visible gods, designed to move in a circular orbit, which reflects the eternal and perfect nature of the cosmos."

I asked Grok "What would Plato think about travel to the moon, particularly travel that leaves behind a small steel ball with his name inscribed on it?" The answer, to put it briefly, was that he would have mixed feelings. Really? I didn't think of Plato as a mixed feelings kind of guy.

Icy lakeshore — afternoon.

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"WE HAVE A DEAL FOR THE HOSTAGES IN THE MIDDLE EAST. THEY WILL BE RELEASED SHORTLY. THANK YOU!"

Writes Trump, just now, at Truth Social.

ADDED: Here's what the NYT is saying now: "Negotiators from Israel and Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire in Gaza, though the start date is unclear, according to a senior official from one of the mediating countries and two senior Israeli officials.... There are also still technical details that need to be worked out. Two other officials said there was last-minute wrangling over the Egypt-Gaza border, which is currently controlled by Israeli forces.... President-elect Donald J. Trump also announced that a hostage deal had been reached, writing on social media that 'THEY WILL BE RELEASED SHORTLY.' Mr. Trump had threatened severe consequences unless Israel and Hamas reached an agreement before his Jan. 20 inauguration, which some officials credited with helping the negotiations to advance. If implemented, the cease-fire would allow for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israel, after more than a year of devastating war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed much of the enclave. Neither Israel nor Hamas has publicly endorsed the agreement, but the Palestinian group said on Tuesday that the negotiations had entered their 'final stages'...."

AND: Another Truth Social post from Trump: "This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies. I am thrilled American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones. With this deal in place, my National Security team, through the efforts of Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven. We will continue promoting PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH throughout the region, as we build upon the momentum of this ceasefire to further expand the Historic Abraham Accords. This is only the beginning of great things to come for America, and indeed, the World! We have achieved so much without even being in the White House. Just imagine all of the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House, and my Administration is fully confirmed, so they can secure more Victories for the United States!"

"Americans are too ornery to fall for TikTok propaganda/Banning TikTok may be legally sound but not really necessary."

Writes Megan McArdle (at WaPo)(free-access link).

I am wary of Chinese control over such an influential app and, potentially, its user data. But the internet is spying on us all the time, and I presume the Chinese already get a hold of a lot of that data. As for the Chinese influence over what we see... the Chinese government will surely slip some subtler nudges in among the makeup tutorials and cat videos.... But if you think that kind of gentle sculpting is so effective, you need to explain why the more overt efforts of countless establishment institutions, including our major social media companies, failed to get the American public to mask up, lock down and repudiate Donald Trump. I suspect the Chinese propagandists will simply discover what Americans already know: We’re too ornery to be controlled by anyone, including an algorithm.

We are affected by speech, and speech is important because it affects us, but the way it affects us is infinitely complicated. It's cute to use the word "ornery," but it doesn't express what we really are, and it's deceptive to refer to "control," because even if we can't be "controlled," we are open and vulnerable to complex influence. I'm "ornery" enough to resist this assurance that speech doesn't matter. I defend freedom of speech because speech does matter. 

And it troubles me to see "makeup tutorials and cat videos." People who talk like that are revealing that they don't use TikTok. They don't know what it is. I could show you thousands of things that are not transitory fluff, but just as an example, let me show you this man:

The Supreme Court will be issuing opinions this morning, at 10 EST, and perhaps we will hear about TikTok very soon.

 I'm watching the live blogging at SCOTUSblog.

Get your fresh opinions here (on the Court's website).

UPDATE: "So we are NOT getting TikTok today. We will keep you posted (on BlueSky and on the blog's calendar) if we hear anything about a new opinion day or anything else that might shed light on when we might get an opinion."

MEANWHILE: From the London Times: "As the Supreme Court decides whether to ban TikTok in the US from next week, users have already begun flocking to another Chinese-owned app, known in English as RedNote. Xiaohongshu, which directly translates in Chinese as 'little red book,' has surged in popularity in recent days and on Tuesday it was the most downloaded free app from the US App Store. One of China’s most popular social media platforms, with 300 million users, RedNote offers similar short-form video content as TikTok — from beauty tutorials to restaurant reviews — and also serves as an online marketplace... Americans on RedNote have been drawn to the hashtag 'TikTokrefugee,' which had attracted more than 100 million views and 2.5 million discussion threads by Tuesday. In a video message posted on the app, the user Heather Roberts said: 'Our government is out of their minds if they think we’re going to stand for this TikTok ban … We’re just going to a new Chinese app, and here we are.'"

"[Jack Smith] may be right about obtaining a conviction before a D.C. jury and a highly motivated judge against Trump. However..."

"... he would not have been able to sustain any conviction — and this [new] report makes that abundantly clear. Smith repeats the same conclusory evidence, such as citing how Trump said 'fight' ten times in his January 6th speech. He minimized the immunity decision by removing some evidence but kept largely the original indictment. However, the treatment of the obstruction claims was the most telling and indicative of Smith, who has repeatedly lost cases due to overextending constitutional and statutory authority. The Supreme Court’s decision in Fischer v. United States rejecting the use of obstruction of legal proceedings against January 6th defendants will potentially impact hundreds of cases.... One of those cases that will be impacted is the pending prosecution of former president Donald Trump who is facing four charges, including two obstruction counts. It was not clear if Special Counsel Jack Smith would yield to the decision or possibly take the dubious path laid out by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in her concurrence...."

Writes Jonathan Turley, in "Jacksonian Obstruction: Smith Explains How He Was Planning to Circumvent the Decision in Fischer."

"People who flock to fantasy conventions and signings make up an 'inherently vulnerable community'...."

"... They 'wrap themselves around a beloved text so it becomes their self-identity'.... They want to share their souls with the creators of these works. 'And if you have morality around it, you say "no."'... [I]n my conversations with Gaiman’s old friends, collaborators, and peers, nearly all of them told me that they never imagined that Gaiman’s affairs could have been anything but enthusiastically consensual. As one prominent editor in the field puts it, 'The one thing I hear again and again, largely from women, is "He was always nice to me. He was always a gentleman."' The writer Kelly Link, who met Gaiman at a reading in 1997, recalls finding him charmingly goofy. 'He was hapless in a way that was kind of exasperating,' she says, 'but also made him seem very harmless.' Someone who had a sexual relationship with Gaiman in the aughts recalls him flipping through questions fans wrote on cards at a Q&A session. Once, a fan asked if she could be his 'sex slave': 'He read it aloud and said, "Well, no." He’d be very demure.' But there were some who saw another side of the author....."

From "There Is No Safe Word/How the best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman hid the darkest parts of himself for decades" (New York Magazine).

That's a long article, and you are probably blocked by the paywall.  Here's Gaiman's answer (on his website). Here's the NYT article about it, "Neil Gaiman Responds to Explosive Report of Sexual Assault/'I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone,' said the best-selling author in response to allegations in New York magazine":

Cement.

I'm slogging through the NYT material about these last days of the Biden presidency. The word "cement" keeps appearing:

1. "Biden Races to Cement His Legacy Through a Series of Actions" — "In the final days of his term, President Biden has issued a series of policy decisions intended to cement his agenda and, in some cases, make it harder for President-elect Donald J. Trump to put in place his own. The 11th-hour decisions, many of them executive actions, include measures on environmental justice, prison reform, immigration and foreign relations. Some are intended to preserve Mr. Biden’s legacy, while others are last-ditch efforts to expand his approach. Many are likely to be undone after Mr. Trump takes office next week. The actions have gotten the attention of Mr. Trump, who said on social media earlier this month that Mr. Biden was 'doing everything possible' to make the transition process 'as difficult as possible.' 'Fear not, these "orders" will be terminated shortly,' Mr. Trump added."

2. "Biden to Deliver Farewell Address, Capping a 5-Decade Political Career/The president has sought to portray his administration as transformative, but his speech on Wednesday night comes amid a backdrop in which he is not leaving on his own terms" — "The White House would not disclose what Mr. Biden plans to say in his speech, set for 8 p.m. Eastern. But in his final months he has been seeking to cement a legacy as a transformative president that stabilized domestic politics while bolstering America’s leadership abroad, one who ushered the nation out of a pandemic, made historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy, and worked to strengthen democratic institutions both nationally and globally."

If you were really transformative, you would have a legacy because the people saw what you did and lived through your era and were genuinely changed. You wouldn't need to cement anything. You wouldn't need to set up obstacles to try to slow down your successor.

Now, here's an appearance of cement in something from last week about Jimmy Carter: "A Legacy From Carter That Democrats Would Prefer to Escape/For decades, Republicans have reveled in invoking Jimmy Carter’s name to deride Democrats as weak — mockery that has influenced the way Democrats present themselves to voters":

Sunrise. It was 7:05, and the "feels like" temperature was 12 below.

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Pete Hegseth wore "an Old Glory print pocket square" and "star-spangled socks and a flag belt buckle. His only jewelry was a wedding ring..."

"... a lapel pin representing the crest of the 187th Infantry Regiment, and a Killed in Action bracelet worn in honor of a soldier, Jorge M. Oliveira, who lost his life in Afghanistan — a series of accessories that served as a form of value signaling. His hair was gelled back without a strand out of place. During the occasional interruptions from the crowd, his jaw was heroically clenched. Hidden were almost all of his tattoos: a large Jerusalem Cross, a 'Join or Die' snake, and an American flag with a stripe replaced by an AR-15.... Just a hint of ink reaching from his right forearm to his wrist peeked out from a carefully buttoned shirtsleeve. (It seemed to be the tail end of his 'We the People' script.) Left behind was the stars ‘n’ stripes cowboy hat. Unseen was the Uncle Sam jacket linings that Mr. Hegseth [has] occasionally flashed.... Certainly he did not look like the hard-drinking, adulterous, budget-mismanaging person that critics of his nomination had described. He looked clean-cut, not politically correct but patriotically correct.... Amid all the theatrics and speechifying by the many committee members and Mr. Hegseth himself, his uniform offered an argument of its own...."

Writes the NYT fashion critic Vanessa Friedman, in "Pete Hegseth Dresses for Defense/The nominee for Secretary of Defense wore his patriotism on his sleeve during his confirmation hearing — and his belt, his socks, and his pocket square."

I like the topic of politics and fashion. And this is fine. Good to see it aimed at a man, as it should be maybe half the time (or a bit less, men's clothing lacking much variation). I like the reference to the "theatrics and speechifying" by committee members, but it should specify Democrats on the committee. Good lord, they were rude! I rarely watch Senate hearings because I can't tolerate the nastiness. But for some reason I sat in front of the TV for over an hour. I'll just offer Tim Kaine as one example of the undignified badgering:

I guess that yelling and pointing and smirking would have paid off if Hegseth had snapped and responded in kind. But he didn't. And why would he? He knows he only needs to put up with this, even as Kaine knows he needs to make something happen.

ADDED: Instapundit mocks the NYT for printing "Unseen was the... jacket linings." 

"Not everybody loved blemish patches. Already in 1649, a bill had been put before the increasingly Puritan Parliament calling for the banning of... Wearing Black Patches..."

"... although it was never passed. Meanwhile, an increasing number of tracts railed against the vanity displayed by those sporting beauty patches — 'Those Curles so extravagant, those Patches so abominable, unless it be to Cut the Throat of Chastity,' as noted by the 1683 book England’s Vanity or The Voice of God. The same sentiment is conveyed by an inscription on the Allegorical Portrait of Two Ladies itself, whose full meaning is still the subject of debate: 'I black with white bespott: yu white wth blacke this Evill: proceeds from thy proud hart: then take her: Devill.'"

From "Pimple patches — the 17th century beauty craze resurrected by Gen-Z/Louisa McKenzie traces the surprising history of the jaunty spot stickers loved by Gen-Z and 17th century women, who used them as a tool for seduction as well as concealment" (London Times).

You can buy these cute stars at Amazon (commission earned).

And here's the Allegorical Portrait of Two Ladies ("a 17th-century painting by an unknown artist"):

"Some film people, including a few studio executives who have lost everything, have been pushing for a quick return to business as usual..."

"... including resuming red carpet premieres and campaigns for the Oscars. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday extended the nominee voting period until the end of this week; the ceremony will take place on March 2 as planned. But others questioned a 'show must go on' approach. 'We have to ask ourselves: How do we as a business respond to real catastrophe?' [Terry Press, a veteran movie marketer and a past president of CBS Films]. 'Thoughts and prayers and, by the way, my gown is by Gucci?... The decision to be made is whether we protect the image or whether we set an example that mirrors the best storytelling by demonstrating empathy, leadership, compassion and heroism.'"

From "Hollywood’s Filmmaking Continues Despite L.A. Wildfires/Because of costs, few movies are shot locally, leaving the industry in a surreal spot: reeling from personal loss with much of the business untouched" (NYT).

"Deranged Jack Smith was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his 'boss,' Crooked Joe Biden, so he ends up writing yet another 'Report'..."

"... based on information that the Unselect Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs ILLEGALLY DESTROYED AND DELETED, because it showed how totally innocent I was, and how completely guilty Nancy Pelosi, and others, were. Jack is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide. THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!

Writes Donald Trump at Truth Social. And then: "To show you how desperate Deranged Jack Smith is, he released his Fake findings at 1:00 A.M. in the morning. Did he say that the Unselect Committee illegally destroyed and deleted all of the evidence."

Here's the corresponding story in the NYT:

"Are Hollywood film crews getting good footage of fires for use in later movies?"

I asked Grok.

Answer:

There is evidence suggesting that Hollywood film crews might be capturing footage of current fires for potential use in future movies. Several posts on X have indicated that filmmakers are taking advantage of the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles for this purpose. Users on the platform have expressed concern or cynicism about the ethics of filming such disasters, suggesting that some crews are indeed out capturing footage of the fires, especially given the proximity to iconic locations like the Hollywood sign.... There's no direct confirmation from official sources or news articles within the web results provided that Hollywood is currently exploiting these specific fires for footage, although the idea aligns with past practices in film where real-life events have been used for authenticity or stock footage.

Will Elon Musk buy TikTok?

I'm seeing "China Weighs Sale of TikTok US to Musk as a Possible Option/ByteDance’s preferred strategy is to fight ban, people say Trump has said he would like to delay ban to seek resolution" (Bloomberg).The Supreme Court has not (yet) upheld the ban, but, we're told, "Senior Chinese officials had already begun to debate contingency plans for TikTok as part of an expansive discussion on how to work with Donald Trump’s administration, one of which involves Musk, said the people, asking not to be identified revealing confidential discussions.... Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun declined to comment on the story during a regular press briefing Tuesday, referring reporters to Beijing’s previous statements on the matter. The country’s government had earlier denounced US attempts to ban TikTok and force a sale, calling them 'economic bullying' and 'plundering.'"

If I agree with China that it's economic bullying and plundering, is it because of all the TikTok I've looked at — all that supposed manipulation? But the U.S. government has been attempting to manipulate me into thinking it's protecting me from manipulation by a foreign adversary. My position is that I will hear all the manipulations and make up my own mind. (Yes, my position is the traditional — bedrock — theory of free speech. I shouldn't have to say that. It should be engraved on your heart.)

If you dare, you may expose yourself to this insidious manipulation:

Speaking of social media, today is the 21st anniversary of the first day of this blog.

And yes, it continues to be true that I have blogged on every single day of those 21 years.

And not just to keep up the record! I've loved it continuously from Day 1. It's been a pleasure. Thanks to everyone who's been reading, even if it hasn't been for the entire 21 years. You're here today, and that's the most bloggy thing.

This announcement of the founding of The Contrarian would be fantastic if it were a comedy sketch.

But these people are for real...

POV: You died and went to hell pic.twitter.com/N6C5J1jSvr

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 14, 2025

... and that's funny too.

You know, when you've made your mark in writing, as a columnist, you need to get some serious, unbiased advice about whether your material transfers well to audio and video. Jennifer Rubin is behaving on camera in such a ridiculously stilted, fakely enthusiastic manner that I have to assume she had no honest, competent adviser to help her build a social media brand.

And who's the guy? He seems like a character played by Phil Hartman on SNL years ago. He tells us he's Norm Eisen, and I look him up in Wikipedia and see he's "an American attorney, author, and former diplomat.... He was co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment and trial of President Donald Trump in 2020." He wrote a book called "Overcoming Trumpery: How to Restore Ethics, the Rule of Law, and Democracy." Why's he coming at us like a parody of a 1970s game-show host? Oh! Wait! This is fascinating:

Ice fishing returns to Lake Mendota.

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Glenn Greenwald waves a cranky goodbye to Jennifer Rubin.

Given Jen Rubin finally quit the WashPost -- to start a blog called "The Contrarian" with @NormEisen, Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution, totally known for contrarianism -- here's my absolute favorite TV clip from the Queen of Partisan Dreck:👑pic.twitter.com/s4QtI1mHnd

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 13, 2025

"These cryptic smears are nevertheless meaningless, nor do I know how they got there.... Mess, not mystery."

From "The Illustrated Envelopes of Edward Gorey" (Paris Review/no pay wall).

A nice selection of Gorey drawings — on envelopes — from what will be a book, out in February, "From Ted to Tom: The Illustrated Envelopes of Edward Gorey" (commission earned).

Have you ever drawn on envelopes? I have... enclosing fan letters when I was a teenager... long ago.

"Many of the Badger Trust’s supporters are amateur badger enthusiasts, who belong to local badger groups scattered around the U.K."

"There are about sixty such groups, and they are 'very protective of badgers in their local area,' Hambly said. 'They tend to be people in areas who, for whatever reason, started to watch badgers at night.' A badger might amble into someone’s back yard, for instance, or be spotted walking alongside a country round. Some groups, like the Lancashire Badger Group, have hundreds of members, while others have just a few diehards. The Badger Trust also operates a helpline for distressed badgers. 'People ring up and say, "There’s a hurt badger, can someone come and help it?" Or, "A badger’s been knocked down," or, "A badger’s destroying my garden."' Actual contact with humans, however, is rare. Many badger-lovers have never even seen a live badger. (They love them from afar.) You might glimpse one cutting through a field only because it is following an ancient route; badgers will use the same pathways for hundreds of years. 'They’re quite mysterious,' Hambly said."

From "Britain’s Badger Wars/The animals are being killed in droves. Are they pests or political pawns?" (The New Yorker).

"Our ethical judgments, he suggests, are governed not by a complex of modules but by one overriding emotion."

"Untold generations of cowering have written fear into our genes, rendering us hypersensitive to threats of harm. 'If you want to know what someone sees as wrong, your best bet is to figure out what they see as harmful,' [writes Kurt Gray, the director of the Deepest Beliefs Lab]. At another point: 'All people share a harm-based moral mind.' At still another: 'Harm is the master key of morality.'..."

Writes Elizabeth Kolbert, in "Does One Emotion Rule All Our Ethical Judgments? When prehistoric predators abounded, the ability to perceive harm helped our ancestors survive. Some researchers wonder whether it fuels our greatest fights today" (The New Yorker).

"On Friday, the staff often hears Michaels say, 'We have nothing.' He’ll be staring tensely at the index cards on his bulletin board, which lay out each tentative segment."

"Employees a quarter of his age are amazed that, after fifty years, he can still seem scared. If things look particularly bleak, he’ll ask writers if they’ve been saving any good material for an upcoming host, telling them, 'Sometimes you have to burn the furniture.' On Saturday afternoon, in Studio 8H, there’s a run-through of the sketches. The show is often considerably too long at this point, so more sketches might be cut... Sometimes the guest host nixes a sketch. In 2015, Donald Trump was to play a tree standing next to the Giving Tree, the Shel Silverstein character who gives and gives of herself until she’s reduced to a stump. The sketch ended with the Trump tree calling the Giving Tree a sucker. Trump refused to do the piece, not because it portrayed him as heartless but because he worried that the tree costume made him look fat."

From "Lorne Michaels Is the Real Star of 'Saturday Night Live'/He’s ruled with absolute power for five decades, forever adding to his list of oracular pronouncements—about producing TV, making comedy, and living the good life" (The New Yorker).

"[I was] at the top of the mountain, and gradually it worked its way down. And then I looked up and life came back. I truly believe in looking up."

"You’re always in a better mood if you’re looking up. It’s one of those things you notice, walking around London, or it doesn’t matter where. They’re all looking down. There’s nothing down there."

Said Ringo Starr, quoted in "Ringo Starr: ‘I only want to be in a band. You can’t play Yesterday just on drums’/In a rare interview, the Beatle says Liverpool was always the capital of country music and reveals the lesson he learnt from Elton John’s mum" (London Times).

Don’t let anyone tell you that Starr is jumping on the country bandwagon....  he sang lead vocals on the Beatles’ version of Buck Owens’s Act Naturally on the Help! album nearly 60 years ago...“There was no plan to make a country record,” says Starr....

Governor Newsom's seesawing shoulders inject horror into the phrase "some ideas around some land use concerns... around speculators coming in."

NO FU*KING WAY.

"I was just talking to Josh Green, the governor down in Hawaii, who had some ideas around some land use concerns he has around speculators coming in, buying up properties.

So we're already working with our legal teams to to move those things forward and we'll… pic.twitter.com/ed1Msb8O0v

— HustleBitch (@HustleBitch_) January 13, 2025

Discussed at X, here.

How do you read that body language (and facial expression)? I'm seeing knowledge that speculators have already outrun him and cannot be stopped. What do you think?

That shoulder action seems to say: Everyone has always found me so cute, so I'll try being extra cute. It's all I've got.

ADDED: If Newsom had controlled his body language, I would have been inclined to think that he was getting ahead of the problem and that talking to the Governor of Hawaii — who dealt with the aftermath of the Maui fires — made a lot of sense.

Sunrise — 7:21.

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I wasn't going to post this, but Donald Trump posted it. Whether that means the lip-reading is accurate, I don't know, but here it is:

Trump just shared this on Instagram pic.twitter.com/9pL2t2shYg

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 12, 2025

"People who have insight."

 I'm trying to read "Inside Elon Musk’s Plan for DOGE to Slash Government Costs/Mr. Musk has turned to Silicon Valley to help recruit executives who will take up unofficial positions across the federal government" — in the NYT — but I was put off by the sources: "This story is based on interviews with roughly a dozen people who have insight into DOGE’s operations." 

What kind of distinction is that? We've all got insight.

Let's see:

Many of the executives involved are expecting to do six-month voluntary stints inside the federal government before returning to their high-paying jobs. Mr. Musk has said they will not be paid — a nonstarter for some originally interested tech executives — and have been asked by him to work 80-hour weeks....

So I guess some of the "originally interested" offered the "insight" that it's a special sort of person who wants to work that hard and for no pay.

"I think it's very simple. Look, if you protested peacefully on January 6th, and you've had Merrick Garland's Department of Justice treat you like a gang member..."

"... you should be pardoned. If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn't be pardoned. And there's a little bit of a gray area there. We're very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law, and there are a lot of people, we think, in the wake of January 6th, who were prosecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that."

Said JD Vance.

On X, there are quite a few people objecting to this line-drawing and saying that every January 6th protester should be pardoned. 

"I talked to Meta’s Black AI character. Here’s what she told me. Is this the new era of digital blackface?"

Writes Karen Attiah in The Washington Post... and this is well worth a free-access link.

Attiah asks the AI character, "How do you celebrate your African American heritage?" This nonexistent person — billed as "a Proud Black queer momma” — answers:

Through music, food and tradition! My family loves cooking soul food for holidays like Juneteenth and Kwanzaa — my mom’s fried chicken and collard greens are famous! [...] How about your heritage? Any special traditions?

Annoyed at AI's posing as a real person — which seems like blackface — Attiah conducts an interrogation:

"We are ready to talk. Cooperation is about dialogue. Cooperation means that you will work towards solutions.”"

Said Múte Egede, the prime minister of Greenland, quoted in "Greenland leaders ready to talk with Trump after prez-elect expressed interest to make territory part of America" (NY Post).

At a press conference Friday in Denmark, which exercises nominal sovereignty over Greenland, Egede said he accepted that Greenland was “a place that the Americans see as part of their world” and that while he has not spoken with Trump, he was open to “discussions about what unites us.”... 

“We have a desire for independence, a desire to be the master of our own house … This is something everyone should respect,” he said. “Greenland is for the Greenlandic people. We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic.”

"I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day. He will not have a blue pass to the White House..."

"... he will not have full access to the White House, he will be like any other person. He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down. Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it; I’m not prepared to tolerate it anymore.... This thing of the H-1B visas, it’s about the entire immigration system is gamed by the tech overlords, they use it to their advantage, the people are furious.... Peter Thiel, David Sachs, Elon Musk, are all white South Africans. He should go back to South Africa. Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans, we have them making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States? We have been fighting this fight for ten years.... We are going to expose the entire corruption of the American system, of how money controls everything...."

Says Steve Bannon, quoted in "'I Will Do Anything' to Keep Elon Musk out of the White House" (Breitbart).

"As the former presidents, first ladies, and vice presidents sat together at the National Cathedral on Thursday..."

"'Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe that God put me on one of these rows,' Pence remarked. Media coverage scrutinized the small interactions among them, noting Pence’s handshakes with the Trumps and former Second Lady Karen Pence’s refusal to acknowledge either. 'He greeted me when he came down the aisle. I stood up, extended my hand. He shook my hand. I said, "Congratulations, Mr. President," and he said, "Thanks, Mike,"' Pence said. 'You’d have to ask my wife about her posture, but we’ve been married 44 years, and she loves her husband, and her husband respects her deeply.' The very public reunion was far from the only thing on his mind at the funeral. Before joining the Reagan Revolution and becoming a Republican, Pence had voted for Carter and was 'greatly heartened that there was a born-again Christian serving in the White House,'... Backstage at an event in 2015, Pence said he got to thank the 39th president for his service and commended how Carter 'spoke plainly about his faith in Jesus Christ' in office...."

Write Harvest Prude and Kate Shellnutt, in "Mike Pence Shares the First Thing He Said to Trump in Four Years" (Christianity Today).

There is always a dog story on the home page of The NYT and The Washington Post.

Watch. You'll see. And it's some of the most inane material.

For example, today, at The NYT, there's "Do Our Dogs Have Something to Tell the World?" and at The Washington Post, there's "This love letter to dogs praises them as 'creatures of commitment.'"

Obviously, they know there are readers who click for every dog. I am not one of those readers, and I won't even click through to get links. Every day, the story is the same: Dogs continue to be dogs.

And, no, there is no equal treatment for cats. A search for "cat" on the WaPo home page came up with nothing, and on the NYT home page, it got "Biden Awards Medal of Freedom to Pope Francis/President Biden, a Catholic, awarded the medal with distinction to the pontiff, to whom he has turned for personal guidance" and "Hams in the Belfry: How a Cash-Poor French Cathedral Fixed Its Organ/A dispute over a project to cure hams in a bell tower underscored the difficulties that churches in France face trying to pay for restorations."

If Althouse were to make a free-access link to one of those articles, which one would you want?

Do Our Dogs Have Something to Tell the World?

This love letter to dogs praises them as "creatures of commitment."

Biden Awards Medal of Freedom to Pope Francis

Hams in the Belfry: How a Cash-Poor French Cathedral Fixed Its Organ

 

pollcode.com free polls

"The fires are still raging in L.A. The incompetent pols have no idea how to put them out. Thousands of magnificent houses are gone..."

"... and many more will soon be lost. There is death all over the place. This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our Country. They just can’t put out the fires. What’s wrong with them?"

Trump wrote on Truth Social 3 hours ago (that is to say, in the middle of the night).

And, here, the NYT got a guy to write a whole article about it in the middle of the night: "Trump Calls Officials Handling Los Angeles Wildfires ‘Incompetent’/Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles County authorities have invited President-elect Donald J. Trump to tour the devastation, but he has not publicly responded."

Published at 4:37 a.m. Ah, but I clicked on the reporter's name — Mike Ives — and I see he's "based in Seoul." It was 6:37 p.m. — Korea Standard Time. A normal work day. The NYT didn't roust some reporter in the middle of the night to make an article out of the most recent Trump truthing.

"Mr. Trump’s comments indicated that the fires, and officials’ response to them, will likely occupy a prominent place on his domestic political agenda when he takes office on Jan. 20. He has renewed a longstanding feud with California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, who in turn has accused Mr. Trump of politicizing the fires."

Is it wrong to "politicize" the fires? Isn't fire fighting one of the top services we demand from government? I can see saying, don't distract us with recriminations while we're right in the middle of an epic struggle against fire, but that only means, don't politicize yet. But are they fighting the fire right now or are they helpless? And if they are helpless, are we supposed to refrain from asking why are they helpless?

ADDED: I wondered if there are earlier examples of anyone ever saying "There is death all over the place." I only found one thing, at Internet Public Library, from what looks like a sample answer to a predicable high-school essay test question: "Similarities Between Death Of A Salesman And Hamlet": "In Hamlet there is death all over the place...."

"Here's the way I look at January 6th. Truly. Have you ever been at a party that's gotten out of hand?"

Says Tim Dillon, on the new episode of his podcast:

"That's kinda what happened.... It was a high school party.... It wasn't a civil war.... The kids from the other high school came. And they're a little wild. And things got a little out of hand. And then the really popular quarterback may or may not have egged it on without knowing.... He was like, we're having the best time of our lives tonight. We gotta go out there and have the most fun. No one can tell us how much fun we can have.... He's quarterback. And he was like, we're tonight's our night to make a mark and have the most fun we've ever had. And, and, and this is what happened.... We're all kind of having fun, And it's getting a little wild. It's getting wild. It's getting a little wild. Well, we've all been at those parties where we regret the next day. Everybody looks around and goes, that, that was really nuts.... I can't believe that happened.... It's a regrettable day. Yeah. It's a regrettable day...."

8 views of the sunrise — 7:04 - 7:36.

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"A large reservoir in Pacific Palisades that is part of the Los Angeles water supply system was out of commission when a ferocious wildfire destroyed thousands of homes and other structures nearby..."

"... the Los Angeles Times found," in "State to probe why Pacific Palisades reservoir was offline, empty when firestorm exploded" (L.A. Times).

Officials said that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed since about February for repairs to its cover, leaving a 117-million-gallon water storage complex empty in the heart of the Palisades for nearly a year. The revelation comes amid growing questions about why firefighters ran out of water while battling the blaze, which ignited Tuesday during catastrophically high winds.... 

It's shocking that a man in this mental condition is President of the United States.

I'm reading "Biden Calls Meta’s Ending of Fact-Checking Program ‘Shameful’/Responding to a question from a reporter, the president said he believed Americans 'want to tell the truth'" in the NYT.

You can see from the headline that the NYT is forefronting something he said that seems like something its readers will agree with. I think it's wrong and deceptive — shameful, really. He doesn't seem to understand the "community notes" approach to dealing with misinformation or the bias problem with the fact-checkers. 

But if you keep reading this article about yesterday's press conference, it gets worse and worse.

"[T]here would be clear advantages: to participate in the great drama rather than watching from across the border, to shape the imperium rather than negotiating a position in its shadow."

"If I were a young Canadian, especially one outside the Laurentian heartland, I think I would feel this vision’s pull. And yes, even if I were a young left-leaning anti-Trump Canadian — because what better way to serve those causes than to actually pull Washington leftward, to add your votes to the coalition that just failed to defeat Trump? That’s the reason that it would be somewhat strange for American conservatives to actually welcome Canadian accession at this time — because it would immediately destroy the Republican Party’s political advantage."

Writes Ross Douthat, in "O Canada, Come Join Us" (NYT).

Absurd prank.

I'm reading "State Department Defies Congress, Revives Infamous Censorship Office in Absurd Prank" by Matt Taibbi.

Miracle in the hellish landscape.

A miracle has happened. We managed to get to our property and our home, that we were told is gone forever, is still standing. In this hellish landscape “standing” is relative, but smoke and other damage is not like the utter destruction around us. The view from our deck area: pic.twitter.com/JZU2kTJC52

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 10, 2025

Mark Zuckerberg talks to Joe Rogan about his dissatisfaction with the "neutered" corporate world.

 

The clip I'm extracting is part of a long discussion of what jujitsu has done for Zuckerberg. He says:

I do think a lot of our society has become very, like, I don't know, I, I don't even know the right word for it, but it's, like, it's kinda, like, neutered or, like, emasculated and.. there's, like, a whole energy in [jujitsu] that I, I think it's, it is very healthy in the right balance. I mean, I think part of the reason, I mean, every one of the things that I enjoy about it is I feel like I can just like express myself.... It's like when you're running a company, people typically don't want to see you being like this ruthless person who's like, just like, I'm just gonna like crush the people I'm competing with.... I think in some ways when people see me competing in the sport, they're like, oh no, that's the real Mark.... It's like, that's the real one.... I think a lot of the corporate world is, is like pretty culturally neutered. And... I grew up, I have three sisters, no brothers, I have three daughters, no sons. So I'm like surrounded by girls and women like my, my whole life....

He masculinized himself through martial arts — or so he says to Joe Rogan. Later, they will discuss hunting... with bows and arrows. Zuck exults in his discovery of masculinity: 

So I think, I don't know, there's, there's something, the the, the kind of masculine energy I think is, is good....

Masculinity is good. There. He's said it. But he must hedge: 

And obviously, You know, society has plenty of that, but, but I think corporate culture was really like trying to get away from it. And I do think that there's just something, it's like, I don't know, the, these, all these forms of energy are good. And I think having a culture that like celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits that are really positive.

That goes on my list of things he may have discussed with Trump. Absurdly, this song played in my head:

Back to Zuck:

And that's, that has been, that has been a kind of a positive experience for me. Just like having a thing that I can just like do with my guy friends and... it's just like, we just like beat each other a bit. I dunno. It's, it's good....

Fight Club! 

And then, no surprise, Zuckerberg must acknowledge the women who have called for a reshaping corporate culture. He switches into a neutered version of himself and says what every non-jujitsu fiber of his being knows he must say:

It's, I like, I do think that I, if you're a a woman going into a company, it probably feels like it's too masculine. And it's like there isn't enough of the kind of the energy that that, that you may naturally have. And it probably feels like there are all these things that are set up that are biased against you. And that's not good either, because you want, you want women to be able to succeed and and, like, have companies that can unlock all the value from having great people no matter, you know, what their background or gender, you know.

Having mouthed the article of faith — women have a rightful place in corporations and corporations work better when they give women what is owed — Zuckerberg critiques the excesses of feminism:

But, but I think these things can all always go a little far. And I think it's one thing to say we want to be kind of like welcoming and make a good environment for everyone. And I think it's another to basically say that masculinity is bad. And I, I just think we kind of swung culturally to that part of the, the kind of the spectrum where, you know, it's all like, okay, masculinity is toxic. We have to like get rid of it completely. It's, like, no, like it's, both of these things are good, right? It's like you want, like, feminine energy, you want masculine energy. Like I, I think that that's like you're gonna have parts of society that have more of one or the other. I think that that's all good. But, but I do think the corporate culture sort of had swung towards being this somewhat more neutered thing. And I didn't really feel that until I got involved in martial arts, which I think is still a more, much more masculine culture....

Is Zuckerberg truly masculine? He longs for masculinity, but it's a longing that seems to arise from a feeling that there is too much femininity and that femininity is enervating. There's something strange — something Californian — about all this discussion of "energy" and something sad about feeling "surrounded by girls and women like my whole life" and seeking a cure in a fight club. Zuckerberg does have a father — and he seems like a fine man who was entirely present in the family. Maybe Zuckerberg is doing a performance for Joe Rogan (and for Trump). But all that jujitsu training sounds like a lot of work. I'll assume for now that his search for masculinity is sincere. And quite aside from his physique and his psyche, his thoughts on gender energy in the corporate world matter. Some of us might think the workplace should be gender neutral — just treat everyone as an individual! — but he seems to have some woo-woo ideas about the balance of masculine and feminine energy. 

Sunrise with new snow — 7:13, 7:23.

Mine were the first footprints:

Snow on the lake:

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"Two's a Crowd" — a New Yorker cover by Barry Blitt.

Nicely conceived and drawn.

The expressions are great — especially that one eye of Trump's.

"It felt like such an invasion — such a bizarre, rape of some kind. Nothing pointed toward this need to be tighter or smaller or firmer or younger, especially there."

Said Brooke Shields, quoted in "Brooke Shields Received a Vaginal Rejuvenation Without Consent" (NY Magazine).

The revelation comes on the occasion of a new memoir — called "Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman." Shields is 59 years old, and the surgery happened when she was in her 40s and sought labia reduction surgery. We're told that afterwards the surgeon told her he "threw in a little bonus." Shields chose not to sue at the time and is choosing to work through what she calls "shame" by writing about it.

"Yes, they spent 4 years in the governor's mansion and 4 years at the White House, but the other 92 years, they spent at home in Plains, Georgia."

"And one of the best ways to demonstrate that they're regular folks is to take them by that home. First of all, it looks like they might have built it themselves. Second of all, my grandfather was likely to show up at the door in some 70s short shorts and crocs. And then you'd walk in the house and it was like thousands of other grandparents' house all across the South. Fishing trophies on the walls. The refrigerator, of course, was papered with pictures of grandchildren and then great grandchildren. Their main phone, of course, had a cord and was stuck to the wall in the kitchen like a museum piece. And demonstrating their Depression Era roots, they had a little rack next to the sink where they would hang Ziploc bags to dry...."

The Trump sentencing is in progress, with Trump participating remotely.

Here's a free-access link to the NYT live-blog of the sentencing.

Trump is alternating staring at the camera and glancing down as [the prosecutor Josh] Steinglass... says that the American public has the right to a presidency unencumbered by the continuing demands of any alternative sentence. But, Steinglass says, it’s important that Trump’s status as a felon be formalized, to pay due respect to the jury’s verdict....

Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer... blasts the very legitimacy of the case. He says that it was “started for what amounted to a third time” after Trump announced his intention to run for re-election, repeating Trump’s frequent accusations of election interference....

Trump begins speaking. “This has been a very terrible experience. I think it’s been a tremendous setback” for New York and its court system, he says.... Trump says that people in the country got to see the case “first-hand” and then he won [the election].... Trump again complains about the gag order that he’s been under. “I assume I’m still under a gag order,” Trump says. Then he adds, “But the fact is, I’m totally innocent.”...

“I was treated very, very unfairly, and I thank you very much,” Trump concludes.

UPDATE: "Justice Merchan, as expected, sentences Trump to an unconditional discharge. He wishes Trump 'Godspeed' as he prepares to assume his second term in office. The judge leaves the bench."

Live argument in the TikTok case is about to begin.

You can stream it here.

LII has a good, easy-to-read summary of the arguments here. 

ADDED: The NYT live blogged it, here, wherethe headline is now: "Supreme Court Seems Poised to Uphold Law That Could Shut Down TikTok" (free access link). From the conclusion:

Even as several justices expressed concerns that the law was in tension with the First Amendment, a majority appeared satisfied that it was aimed at TikTok’s ownership rather than its speech.

The government offered two rationales for the law: combating covert disinformation from China and barring it from harvesting private information from Americans. The court was divided over whether the first justification was sufficient to justify it. But several justices seemed troubled by the possibility that China could use data culled from the app for espionage or blackmail....

Arguing on behalf of the government: Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the solicitor general, countered that the act does not violate the First Amendment. “All of the same speech that’s happening on TikTok could happen post-divestiture,” she said, adding, “All the act is doing is trying to surgically remove the ability of foreign adversary nation to get our data and to be able to exercise control over the platform.” ...

"I was doing the Rogan podcast and I was kind of ill at ease while we were talking because I knew my neighborhood was on fire."

"So I thought, I wonder if my place is still there. When I got home, sure enough, it wasn't there ... The vehicles were gone, everything. It was completely toasted. I've never seen such a complete burn. It's like someone did it on purpose to really destroy every aspect of it."

Said Mel Gibson...

NEW – Mel Gibson's Malibu Mansion Burned Down While He Was Filming Joe Rogan's Podcast

"I was doing the Rogan podcast and I was kind of ill at ease while we were talking because I knew my neighborhood was on fire. So I thought, I wonder if my place is still there. When I got… pic.twitter.com/TvknivxywB

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 10, 2025

... who did look oddly nervous on Joe Rogan...

Reflecting on his losses — in that first clip — he said it was all his "stuff — remember George Carlin, talking about his stuff?"

Mel: "I've been relieved of the burden of my stuff."

"The Supreme Court’s rejection... of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s request to be spared from being sentenced... was just a few lines long, and it made modest and practical points...."

Writes Adam Liptak, in "A Rebuke to Trump Provides a Telling Portrait of a Divided Supreme Court/Two Republican appointees, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Barrett, joined the court’s three liberals in ordering the president-elect to face sentencing on Friday" (NYT).

If the votes of the three liberal justices were predictable, those of the two conservative members of the court who voted with them on Thursday — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Amy Coney Barrett — were more surprising.

The chief justice was the author of not only the immunity decision but also of majority opinions in two other victories for Mr. Trump last term, one casting doubt on some of the federal charges against him and the other allowing him to seek another term despite
a constitutional provision barring insurrectionists from holding office.

His vote on Thursday was of a piece with the old Chief Justice Roberts.... 

Mr. Trump, for his part, has been a longtime critic of the chief justice. After the Affordable Care Act ruling, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter that “I guess @JusticeRoberts wanted to be a part of Georgetown society more than anyone knew,” citing a fake handle. During his first presidential campaign, Mr. Trump called the chief justice “an absolute disaster.”...

“I’m not happy with the Supreme Court,” he said on Jan. 6, 2021, during his speech near the White House. “They love to rule against me.”...

And Trump loves to win. He fights for every win — fight, fight, fight — even when the arguments are weak. But he's better off losing some of the time. It shows that the Supreme Court acts independently of him and undercuts those who'd like to say the Court is in his pocket. So this is one of his losses. He can handle losses. He's quite good at doing that. It leveraged his re-election.

"Toys are a scam."

It's a great headline: "Toys are a scam. Kids keep asking for them. We keep buying them. And no one is playing with them" (WaPo).

But to say "toys are a scam" is to blame the manufacturers and sellers of toys. They're out to trick parents into buying things that are not needed and might be actively bad. But this puts the blame/"blame" with the parents:

Suzanne Gaskins, a cultural developmental psychologist, says it’s only in the past 50 years that we’ve started accumulating piles of toys. As she compared families in America with those in other societies, a couple of observations stood out. One is that our kids are less engaged in the adult world — regularly helping prepare food, say, or care for a household — and more focused on the kid-centric universe we’ve constructed to “maximize their development.” 

“The first goal for American parents is to let their kids be happy,” Gaskins says. “And not just happy in a contented sense, but happy in an active, almost hysterically happy sense.” 

For Mayan parents, by contrast, the “primary goal is that the kid is even-keeled — not particularly happy, not particularly sad.” 

Hysterically happy — that's something that can only persist for a moment, perhaps on Christmas morning. But one must revert to feeling normal. The keel will even. Imagine if your kids stayed Christmas-happy for months — gaga over new toys for days on end. You wouldn't think, great, they are maximizing their development.

The lakeshore at noon.

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"At former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral... Melania Trump... opted... for... an extra-wide, pilgrim-esque collar printed with images of a Renaissance sculpture of a kissing couple...."

"Melania doesn’t usually bake big ideas into her fashion choices...  The one time Melania tried to send a message with her outfit — you know, when she wore that 'I Really Don’t Care, Do U?' jacket to visit a migrant children’s shelter — it backfired. In her 2024 memoir, she wrote that her jacket’s message was intended as a kiss-off to the media, not the migrant children.... Was this funeral ensemble a not-so-subtle statement about the importance of love and unity in a divided nation? Given her stilted body language as her husband giggled with Barack Obama, probably not. (No one gives off an air of 'I’d rather be anywhere else' like Melania.)..."

From "What’s Up With Melania’s Collar?" (New York Magazine).

What does it mean? Obviously, it's an expression of a desire for love. But NY Magazine doesn't want to give her that — not to credit her with desiring love for the world and certainly not to fulfill any desire she might have to receive love. She will get no love from New York Magazine, where she will always be seen as icy, even if she is wearing a photograph of kissing lovers around her neck. 

Held together with nothing but clothespins and hairspray.

David Muir, the supposed moderator of my father‘s presidential debate, who instead chose to be a participant, is so vain that as people in Los Angeles are losing everything, he used clothes pins to make his fake fireman’s jacket more form fitting.
Sick! pic.twitter.com/0jXW4OPfkq

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 9, 2025

Gavin Newsom literally lies to a woman about the fires, and we can literally see that it is a lie.

WOMAN: "Governor!... I live here! That was my daughter's school! Please, tell me what you're going to do!"

NEWSOM: "I'm literally talking to the President to specifically answer the question of what we can do...."

WOMAN: "Can I hear? Can I hear your call? Because I don't believe it."

NEWSOM (showing her his phone): "Um, I'm sorry. There's literally — I've tried 5 times. I'm walking around to make the call."

WOW. This woman literally ran up to Gavin Newsom on the street and demanded answers on his disastrous wildfires response — and she was NOT taking no for an answer. Good for her. pic.twitter.com/GNjUATtKXt

— Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) January 9, 2025

The funeral for President Jimmy Carter.

The NYT is live-blogging the service at the National Cathedral, here. Excerpts:

It is unusual for five living presidents to be together in one place. Before 1991, there was only one other period in United States history, around 1861, when more than five presidents were even alive at the same time....

President-elect Trump has been talking almost nonstop to former President Barack Obama since the two sat down next to each other a few minutes ago. The conversation seems to be mostly one sided, with Obama listening and responding with shorter answers.

Joe and Jill Biden have arrived and taken their seats in the front row next to the vice president and Doug Emhoff.

While the cathedral is largely full, the congressional section has a lot of empty seats.

ADDED: There are 5 living Presidents and the oldest is the current President!

AND: We've all been trying to frame this joke:

Former President Barack Obama casually and amiably chats with Adolf Hitler as the latter is set to assume power in 11 days, end American democracy, and impose a white nationalist dictatorship. https://t.co/4tbj46yVk8

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 9, 2025

PLUS: There is nothing to be sad about here and there is no need to forbid humor.

ALSO: The only missing spouse of a President is Michelle Obama. Fortunately, Town & Country has the explanation: 

According to journalist Jeff Zeleny, speaking on CNN, she had scheduling conflicts. "I'm told by her advisors that she has scheduling conflicts," Zeleney said on the network's broadcast of the funeral. "She's still in Hawaii," he added.

She was scheduled to be in Hawaii! The last time I saw "scheduling conflicts" used as an excuse, it was Kamala Harris explaining why she wasn't going to do the Joe Rogan podcast.