Sunrise — 7:18, 7:24.

"Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians."

Said Justin Trudeau, quoted in "Canada Live Updates: Trudeau Is Stepping Down as Party Leader and Prime Minister/Justin Trudeau, who has led the country for nearly a decade, is giving up leadership of the Liberal party. He said he would remain in both roles until his replacement has been chosen through a party election" (NYT).

Listen to the Dalai Lama giggle at the idea of open immigration.

An Indlan reporter is given the opportunity to interview the Dalai Lama about a number of things, but chooses to focus on lmmlgratlon to The West and asks...

Reporter: People from Afghanistan or Africa who want to stay in Europe, shouldn't they be allowed to?

Lama: No, Europe… pic.twitter.com/sNE0nVAlHr

— Dane (@UltraDane) January 5, 2025

People from Afghanistan or Africa who want to stay in Europe, shouldn't they be allowed to? No, Europe will become like Afghanistan or Africa... he he he he he. Like my parents came to The UK from India, that's ok too isn't it? England is small island, 90% become lndian he he he he he he....

The interview is from 2019.

It's funny because the Dalai Lama is world-famous as an icon of compassion, and the idea he's openly experiencing as too silly to deserve anything more than giggling is an idea that we in blue America have been made to feel that we must embrace with great seriousness or we will become social pariahs because of our complete lack of compassion.

I hope you met your 3-drink minimum at breakfast this morning.

How to assemble and consume breakfast:

"'There is, technically, no snail darter,' said Thomas Near, curator of ichthyology at the Yale Peabody Museum."

"Dr. Near, also a professor who leads a fish biology lab at Yale, and his colleagues report in the journal Current Biology that the snail darter, Percina tanasi, is neither a distinct species nor a subspecies. Rather, it is an eastern population of Percina uranidea, known also as the stargazing darter, which is not considered endangered. Dr. Near contends that early researchers 'squinted their eyes a bit' when describing the fish, because it represented a way to fight the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plan to build the Tellico Dam on the Little Tennessee River, about 20 miles southwest of Knoxville. 'I feel it was the first and probably the most famous example of what I would call the "conservation species concept," where people are going to decide a species should be distinct because it will have a downstream conservation implication,' Dr. Near said."

From "This Tiny Fish’s Mistaken Identity Halted a Dam’s Construction/Scientists say the snail darter, whose endangered species status delayed the building of a dam in Tennessee in the 1970s, is a genetic match of a different fish" (NYT).

When else have scientists "squinted their eyes a bit" to see a way to achieve a result they desired? When have they not? Who can ever feel secure that we know whether the "snail darter" is something specific or just another stargazer?

Is Donald Trump today the same guy that Clay Aiken knew in 2012?

Clay Aiken, the erstwhile "American Idol" and "Apprentice" contestant, is impressively articulate and diplomatic expounding on Trump's personality (on the Zach Sang Show):

 

"I do believe that the reason that he was unwilling to accept the results in 2020 are not really because he wanted to continue to be President but simply because he does not want to lose. He does not like to lose. He does not like it. He refuses to accept it. That's why he doesn't apologize for anything. He thinks it's weak...."

Nikki Glaser's Golden Globes monologue.

Great? Good? Okay?

At the End-of-Darkmonth Café...

 ... rejoice in the return of the light.

This is the evening of the last day of the darkest monthlong stretch of the year. You might notice that night is falling more slowly. It's almost 5 here, and it's not fully dark yet.

Tomorrow is a day some of us call the anniversary of one of the worst days in American history and some of us — with a longer time frame — call Epiphany.

However you view the Eve of January 6th, you may take this post as a place to talk about whatever it is you're thinking about.

"Leader Schumer, what do you say to Americans who feel as though you and other top Democrats misled them about President Biden's mental acuity?"

Chuck Schumer is confronted on NBC for covering up Biden's mental health decline.

Never forget: The Democratic Party knew that Biden wasn't competent enough to be president and hid the truth from Americans for four years.

Democrats do not care about Americans. It's that simple. pic.twitter.com/4sJbzMPi4C

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) January 5, 2025

"No. Look, we didn't. And let's – let’s look – let’s look at President Biden. He's had an amazing record. The legislation we passed, one of the most significant groups of legislation since the New Deal – since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, putting in 235 judges, a record. And he's a patriot. He's a great guy. And when he stepped down, he did it on his own because he thought it was better not only for the Democratic Party, for America. We should all salute him. We should all salute him."

The question was "What do you say to Americans who feel as though" we were lied to. The question was framed to exclude an assertion about what you supposedly really did. But you gave that kind of response anyway — the nonresponsive response. Why'd you do that? It wasn't believable. It was a bald-faced lie about a bald-faced lie. It didn't even address us, the people — people with feelings about what you did. You just went off on a screwy rant that ended with a demand that we salute Joe Biden.

Salute the President? And they say Trump supporters seem like fascists.

ADDED: Here's the transcript. In case you are questioning whether Schumer said "We should all salute him" twice. 

"The two candidates who have emerged as front-runners... are both middle-aged white men from the upper Midwest and chair of their state parties whose politics are well within the Democratic mainstream...."

"[Ken] Martin, 51, is campaigning on a platform of returning power and resources to state parties, while his supporters are attacking [Ben] Wikler, 43, as a tool of major donors and Democratic consultants in Washington. Mr. Wikler’s supporters include a host of D.N.C. officials who have been perturbed at Mr. Martin for creating a group of state party chairs that has competed within the national committee for influence. They say that the Wisconsinite, who turned his state party into a fund-raising juggernaut, is the more dynamic figure who managed to turn state elections... into national causes.... Some Democrats see the D.N.C. contenders’ arguments about relationships with donors and their regular promises of more money for state parties as papering over a broader discussion of why Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election."

"As Democrats Reel, Two Front-Runners Emerge in a Leadership Battle/The race to lead the Democratic National Committee centers on the favorites, Ken Martin and Ben Wikler, but the party’s infighting over them looks nothing like a broad reckoning with its 2024 defeats" (NYT)(free-access link).

Well, Kamala Harris had plenty of money, so she lost for reasons other than money. And yet, if it's pretty obvious why she lost — and isn't it? — then raking in the money may still be more important than any elaborate soul-searching about the dismal loss last November. In any case, what evidence is there that Martin is better than Wikler at figuring out why the Dems lost? Personally, I knew Ben Wikler when he was a teenager, and I think he can do anything. I mean, I knew Ben Wikler when he was a white teenager, and now he's a middle-aged white man, and I tend to think he can do the best that anyone can to revive the Democratic Party.

Tomorrow is January 6th, and we're seeing efforts to frame the occasion.

I'm seeing this at Politico: "Donald Trump’s quiet Jan. 6/Monday’s certification of Trump’s victory will be the antithesis of the carnage at the Capitol four years ago." Oh! The first part of the headline changed while I was in the middle of writing this post. It's now "Donald Trump is about to get the Jan. 6 that he denied Joe Biden." Excerpt:

It’s the utter antithesis of the carnage unleashed four years ago, under clear blue skies, by thousands of Trump supporters, goaded by lies about a stolen election. Hundreds of them bludgeoned police officers guarding the Capitol as the mob fought to stop Congress from counting the electoral votes that would make Joe Biden president.

I asked Grok if that last sentence was factually correct and it said that the "essence" is "supported by substantial evidence" but "the precise quantification of 'hundreds' as attackers specifically 'bludgeoning' officers might be an oversimplification or exaggeration of the exact actions...."

Over at The New York Times, there's: "'A Day of Love’: How Trump Inverted the Violent History of Jan. 6/The president-elect and his allies have spent four years reinventing the Capitol attack — spreading conspiracy theories and weaving a tale of martyrdom to their ultimate political gain." Excerpt:

"Glaser... was still questioning the point of view of a few jokes. She was still going back and forth about the sexual jokes..."

"... counting the number of references to her being horny, feeling there were too many, but now thinking she’s good at them, so it’s the right number. And the 'Wicked' jokes were still fluid. Glaser was adding to things to obsess over. 'Do we have too many jokes about pedophiles?' she wondered. This wasn’t exactly the panic attack she had predicted. But Glaser said she had performed the jokes at clubs so often (91 times before the ceremony) that she could no longer tell if they were funny. How could she? She knew every surprise coming. She likened her relationship with her material to a marriage where she’s not gaga anymore. The jokes have been reliable, sure, but a political one that always kills recently bombed. That rattled her. 'Maybe it bums people out,' she said, sounding confused...."

From "Nikki Glaser Wants to Kill as Host of the Globes. Is She Overthinking It?/ To refine her monologue for Sunday’s show, she relied on two writers’ rooms and 91 test runs. Then came the fickle audiences and a crisis of confidence" (NYT).

Should a standup comedian reveal the inner workings like this? It can't make anything funnier for us, the audience. Eh, but who watches the Golden Globes? I used to, but now, I don't even know how to watch them. And I don't think I've even gone to the movies all year (other than to see that one documentary).

The political joke that always kills recently bombed — hmm. Wonder who that was about?

Do we have too many jokes about pedophiles? Are we suppose to experience that question as funny?

ADDED: I have one other post with the tag "Nikki Glaser," and it may shed some light on what sort of joke she might make about sex criminals. From March 28, 2022:

"The Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck that a man used to kill at least 14 people Wednesday on Bourbon Street and the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel on the same day..."

"... were both rented through the [Turo] car-sharing platform, which allows owners to list their vehicles to drivers.... Turo touts the unique nature of its vehicles as opposed to traditional rental car fleets; the value of its pricing; and the option for a 'personalized experience' that allows users to coordinate with local hosts and skip a 'cold, impersonal' rental car counter...."

From "What is Turo? Car rental app was used in New Orleans, Vegas incidents/The peer-to-peer car-sharing company said it is 'devastated' and working with law enforcement" (WaPo).

Insurance detail: "Customers get liability insurance when they book on Turo, which covers property damage or physical harm to another person if the driver is responsible...." 

Both men chose a truck, but I hadn't noticed until now that the New Orleans terrorist, like the Las Vegas terrorist/"terrorist," chose an electric truck. That isn't an odd choice for someone seeking to cause maximum damage. The electric truck is much heavier. A gas F-150 weighs 4,021 to 5,540 pounds. An F-150 Lightning weighs between 6,015 to 6,893 pounds. That's an extra ton.

(I wondered whether gasoline, like the battery, adds much weight. The weight of the gasoline in a full tank of an F-150 is 139.68 pounds or 218.63 pounds, depending on whether you have the 23 gallon tank or the 36.)

An electric vehicle may have been chosen because of the potential for fire — not that the EV is more likely to catch fire, but the fire is more difficult to extinguish:

IN THE COMMENTS: Two additional features of the electric truck: 1. It is quieter, giving less warning to the victims to clear out of its way, and 2. It accelerates faster, especially from 0. Thanks to Breezy and Narayanan for immediately raising these points.

At the Saturday Night Café...

 ... you can talk about whatever you like.

Again today, I have no sunrise picture. I'm nearly over my cold. I'm fine. (Don't worry.) But another day of babying myself seemed like a good idea, especially considering that the cloud cover was 0% and the "feels like" temperature was -4°. It's predicted to be just as cold tomorrow at sunrise, but the second factor, the cloud cover, suggests a photogenic sunrise: 81%. We'll see what I do.

"Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force. My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon..."

"... and had already scheduled another column — this one a satire — for publication. The only bias was against repetition."

Said David Shipley, The Washington Post opinions editor, quoted in "Washington Post Cartoonist Quits After Jeff Bezos Cartoon Is Killed/The cartoon, by Ann Telnaes, depicted the owner of The Post, Jeff Bezos, and other billionaires genuflecting toward a statue of President-elect Donald Trump" (NYT).

Here's the cartoon:

Vote:

What do you think — was it too edgy for them or simply too boring?

WaPo censored the anti-Bezos message

I believe Shipley — it was rejected as redundant of 2 recent columns

Not every cartoon is selected for publication and this one is just obvious and not good enough

Who can know the mind of WaPo?

 

pollcode.com free polls

Goal achieved... on the last day of the year beginning on the first Sunday in January...

... as displayed in the Blogger sidebar...

... I hit 3,000 posts for the 17th year in a row. 

There were also more than 3,000 if you count the year from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024, but those numbers in the sidebar are what I've been looking at all these years. It's only this year that — after 20+ years — I noticed the numbers are aggregated by week, weeks that begin on Sunday, and years are simply 52 weeks. 

And, in that light, the last day of "2024" is today, Saturday January 4th.

"A dramatic political realignment of the two major parties on foreign and economic policy has Republicans leading the charge on a variety of issue stances that Sanders-style progressives and labor unions continue to support..."

"... even as corporatist Democratic voters abandon them. These include Mr. Trump’s skepticism of free trade and open borders—which may help account for the 10% of Democratic voters who told Monmouth University pollsters last month that they’re optimistic about a second Trump term."

Writes the political cartoonist Ted Rall, in "Optimism About Trump on the Left/His opposition to war and skepticism about corporations and markets make him appealing to some progressives" (Wall Street Journal).

Liz Cheney looks so uncomfortable receiving this medal from President Biden.

I like the way he gives it to her, then pulls it away, and she lets him and waits for him to get around to handing it back. What is she thinking? Who can know? Perhaps: Is this instead of a pardon or are you coming through with that pardon too?

I presume that everyone can see that a pardon for Liz Cheney — whom Trump said "should go to jail" — would benefit Trump. It must be hard to decide whether (over)protecting Cheney is important enough to be worth forgoing depriving Trump of that benefit.

"Like other countries in the world, we must work to remove the obstacles to cooperation — which we can describe as the shackles of the colonial era — and move on..."

"Our cooperation with other countries, and our trade relations, cannot continue to take place solely through Denmark. Work has already begun on creating the framework for Greenland as an independent state. It is necessary to take major steps … The upcoming new election period must, together with the citizens, create these new steps.”

Said Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede, quoted in "Greenland’s leader wants independence from Denmark as Trump hovers over Arctic island/'It is now time to take the next step for our country,' Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede says in hinting at 2025 referendum" (Politico).

Under a 2009 agreement with Denmark, Greenland can declare independence only after a successful referendum — which Egede appeared to hint at holding in tandem with the island’s upcoming parliamentary election in April.... Trump’s imperialist musings attracted a sharp rebuke from Egede, who declared that Greenland is “not for sale.”...

To say Greenland is "not for sale" is to say the U.S. can't buy Greenland from Denmark. But Greenland can free itself from Denmark and make its own deal with the United States. 

Treading the boards on a perfect set.

Well, I don’t know about you guys but I am completely buying this with no further questions. https://t.co/Y92gosc4vZ

— Dave Smith (@ComicDaveSmith) January 3, 2025

"Elon Musk has announced an upcoming algorithm update for X, formerly known as Twitter, intended to promote more informative and entertaining content while reducing 'negativity"

"This change aims to enhance user experience by focusing on 'unregretted user-seconds,' where engagement is meaningful rather than just extensive. The update follows public discussions about how content visibility impacts free speech and platform dynamics, with some users and commentators expressing concerns over potential censorship or the stifling of diverse viewpoints."

That's what I'm reading at X in what is billed as "a summary of posts on X and may evolve over time. Grok can make mistakes, verify its outputs."

If you go to that link at a different time, will you see a different summary? Maybe! But trust me. What you see there is what I just copied, and you can see the time stamp on this post.

I can see I need to learn the term "unregretted user-seconds"! How does the machine know about regret?! Of course, I ask the machine for help. Oh! The answer is so different from my guess! I thought "user-seconds" might be the number of times users seconded a post — expressed agreement with it — by liking it or retweeting it. And I thought these reactions could be counted as "unregretted" if they were not subsequently deleted. But I see that "seconds" refers to the unit of time:

Transcending conspiracy theory: "We should instead be figuring out what they’re trying to distract us from with all this conspiracy catnip."

From Bret Weinstein, at X:

These attacks are connected to each other through Fort Bragg, and to the NJ drones, which are connected to gravity manipulation, which connects it all to UAPs for the alien inclined. And it’s all happening between the election and inauguration. It’s clearly designed to be irresistible to “conspiracy theorists.” The smart money is on the Deep State and its partners preparing to vacate their offices and switch modes. They want us chasing our tails, and we are obliging them. We should instead be figuring out what they’re trying to distract us from with all this conspiracy catnip.

At the Friday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want. 

Still no sunrise photo. Again: Sorry. I'm still taking care of this cold. 

There is one more day in what the Blogger sidebar regards as 2024, and the post count is up to 2994. Only 6 posts needed to hit 3,000. That will make it 17 years in a row that I've had at least 3,000 posts. The posts are counted by weeks, beginning on Sunday, so the year doesn't begin with January 1. For 2024, the sidebar count began on January 7, the first Sunday in January. The posts from the first 6 days of the actual year were added to the total for 2023. So this is all on the up and up.

Why is it so hard to be adult? With things like this, we should act as if nothing happened. We all know that.

"We will fart hard--- fight hard for the freedom to vote" -Hakeem Jeffriespic.twitter.com/Yl3011Iflv

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 3, 2025

"Congratulations to Speaker Mike Johnson for receiving an unprecedented Vote of Confidence in Congress."

"Mike will be a Great Speaker, and our Country will be the beneficiary. The People of America have waited four years for Common Sense, Strength, and Leadership. They’ll get it now, and America will be greater than ever before!"

Writes Trump on Truth Social.

Did you get caught up in the anxiety about whether Mike would get the votes? I'm so resistant to that kind of thing at this point. 

I'm reading that J.D. Vance's reaction to Kamala Harris's swearing in of new Senators today has gone viral.

I don't understand why. It's an interesting situation, the defeated presidential candidate performing this role, but it is her duty as the current President of the Senate (i.e. Vice President), and J.D. Vance looks happy, but it's not as though he's taunting her. He's there, along with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, former U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Cincinnati, to support the new Senator from Ohio, Bernie Moreno:

Some news media are calling attention to this other awkwardness: "Kamala Harris Heads to Capitol to Swear-In Senators Who Won’t Even Say Her Name Right" (Time), "Kamala Harris will give oath of office to GOP senators who couldn’t get her name right" (Independent).

It seems to me that this was a formal, required ritual, and everyone went through the motions with dignity and collegiality. 

"The judge, Juan M. Merchan, indicated that he favored a so-called unconditional discharge of Mr. Trump’s sentence..."

"... a rare and lenient alternative to jail or probation. He set a sentencing date of Jan. 10, and ordered Mr. Trump to appear either in person or virtually. An unconditional discharge would cement Mr. Trump’s status as a felon just weeks before his inauguration.... Unlike a conditional discharge, which allows defendants to walk free if they meet certain requirements, such as maintaining employment or paying restitution, an unconditional discharge would come without strings attached...."

From "Judge Upholds Trump’s Conviction but Signals No Jail Time/The New York judge who oversaw President-elect Donald J. Trump’s hush-money trial scheduled his sentencing for Jan. 10. Mr. Trump is expected to appeal his conviction" (NYT).

"Unconditional discharge" sounds super-light, which makes use of the verb "cement" — with all its connotations of heaviness — feel like taunting.

What other "status" is "cemented"? It's demented.

The warmth of Senator Kennedy.

TikTok video:

"But Livelsberger, who was an active member of the Army’s elite Special Forces, was known to be a 'Rambo-type patriot' and staunch Trump supporter..."

"... and law enforcement officers are investigating if he had purposefully picked a Cybertruck to limit civilian casualties, rather than for political reasons, the sources said. If he had used a normal vehicle, the explosion would have likely taken out the glass doors of the building and possibly the lobby — potentially killing innocent bystanders. The Cybertruck’s impenetrable steel design contained the explosion, while still giving off large flames...."

From "Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger’s wife broke up with him days before explosion outside Trump hotel in Las Vegas: sources" (NY Post).

UPDATE: Notes left by Livelsberger on his phone: "This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives."

Quoted by the NY Post, here. There's also this, from an FBI Special Agent: “Although this incident is more public and more sensational than usual, it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who was struggling with PTSD and other issues."

"On certain days — mainly when I feel broke — I wish I had it all back. Although it was money I never expected to have, $19,000 is an awful lot of money."

"It’s impossible for me not to wonder if I might be happier now had I saved it and continued to live with my body as it was. Like most people who pursue cosmetic surgery, I believed I’d made a decision for and by myself. But what if no one had ever commented on my breasts, or the prior lack thereof? What if I hadn’t seen 50 million TikTok videos of young women with flat chests in baggy T-shirts? What if my doctor had told me that I might be depressed for a month and my scars might look much worse than the pictures in his portfolio? Would I still have done it? Less often, and less practically, I worry, too, that by giving up breast tissue, I’ve sacrificed some future, as-yet-discovered version of myself: What if one day I want to dress like Sydney Sweeney but no longer have the rack for it? Never mind that I’m a homebody writer and almost 40. Never mind that I stopped showing any cleavage 15 years ago. I’m more than capable of feeling regret for not doing things I never wanted to do in the first place; I do it all the time."

Writes Katie Heaney, in "My Breast Reduction From Hell/After my divorce, I wanted to make a change. Then the complications started" (New York Magazine).

"It is my solemn responsibility as President to ensure that, now and long into the future, America has a strong domestically owned and operated steel industry..."

"... that can continue to power our national sources of strength at home and abroad; and it is a fulfillment of that responsibility to block foreign ownership of this vital American company. U.S. Steel will remain a proud American company – one that’s American-owned, American-operated, by American union steelworkers – the best in the world."

From a "Statement" attributed to President Biden.

"Maybe God doesn't speak to us because we would (in our weakness) find Him boring."

That's the 4th prompt I gave to Grok just now. The first 3 were:

1. Summarize this article

I gave a link to the NYT article "Can God Speak to Us Through A.I.? Modern religious leaders are experimenting with A.I. just as earlier generations examined radio, television and the internet." 

2. Give me a one sentence answer to the question posed in the headline

3. So the article is incredibly boring compared to the headline

That reminds me. Soren Kierkegaard wrote: "Boredom is the root of all evil — the despairing refusal to be oneself." Blogged here in 2006.

Maybe you're one of those people who cue up "The Bible in a Year" podcast and listen to "Day 1: In the Beginning" on New Year's Day. If so, you've just listened to the story of creation and the interpretation that God "wasn't lonely":

"Who planted pipe bombs outside offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees in Washington on the eve of the attack on the Capitol?"

"Hoping to generate new tips from the public, the FBI is releasing more information about its pipe bomb investigation, including an estimate that the unidentified suspect is about 5 feet 7 inches tall. The bureau also is posting previously unreleased video of the suspect placing one of the bombs.... The FBI has assessed over 600 tips, reviewed about 39,000 video files and conducted more than 1,000 interviews over the past four years.... Surveillance video captured the suspect placing the pipe bombs near the committees’ offices between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021..... The FBI also is releasing closeup images of the type of Nike sneakers worn by the suspect. Fewer than 25,000 pairs of the same shoe were sold between August 2018 and January 2021, according to the FBI."

From "FBI releases new video of a suspect planting a pipe bomb near DNC offices on eve of the Capitol riot" (AP).

ADDED: Why is the FBI releasing this now? I assume it's part of a defense against the incoming Trump Administration, a way to claim they're been working on this all along. Ridiculous news about the person's height and the shoes they wore 4 years ago!

I see (elsewhere) that the shoes are Nike Air Max Speed Turfs with a yellow logo. If someone wore Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes 4 years ago, what shoes would they be wearing today? 

At the Thursday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

***

No sunrise picture today. Sorry. I'm nursing a cold and did not go out, either today or yesterday. I almost never get a cold, but I've got one now.

As long as we're talking about Grover Cleveland...

 ... I want to state my belief that the most beautiful First Lady was Frances Cleveland (and what a strange romance!).

Noticed while watching this survey of First Ladies:

"The great thing about 'Dont Look Back' is he is an asshole in that movie and there’s no effort to hide it."

"It’s endlessly delightful to me, even as I can acknowledge that I would have probably hated being around this guy if I were in that hotel room when he is screaming about who threw the glass."

Says Ian Grant, quoted in "What Do Dylanologists Think of ‘A Complete Unknown’? The writer Lucy Sante and the podcast host Ian Grant, both Bob Dylan experts, dissect the director James Mangold’s biopic starring Timothée Chalamet" (NYT).

And Lucy Sante responds that in the film "all about him hunching his shoulders and ignoring everybody to the left and to the right. That kind of works.... [but] you don’t get Dylan’s wit. The kind of conversation he was capable of having... you don’t get much of the sense of that mind."

Here's the "Dont Look Back" scene with the interrogation about the glass (and I'm just noticing for the first time that the movie title doesn't have an apostrophe):

"Now, people like Eby control their narrative and can use social media platforms to show the personal, day-to-day minutiae of living with a terminal illness."

"Eby’s first post to hit one million views on TikTok was a series of messages she received from men on a dating app, after telling them she used a cane. (A sampling: '“If I bring my light saber, we can do battles,' 'You’ll fall for me before we even get dinner,' 'Order another cane because girl u got me trippin.') Much like Eby, many successful influencers with terminal illnesses are female and young, or young for their disease. Their relative youth only punctuates the loss when they’re gone. In May, Madison Baloy, who shared her life with Stage IV cancer with almost half a million followers across TikTok and Instagram, died at age 26. In October, Rachel Yaffe, a 27-year-old creator with liver cancer, passed away. Days later, Bella Bradford said goodbye to her followers in a video she had recorded before dying of a rare soft-tissue cancer. 'Remember that you live every day, but you only die once,' she told them. She was 24...."

From "When Your Terminal Illness Makes You a TikTok Star/After being diagnosed with A.L.S. in 2022, Brooke Eby could have turned inward. Instead, she opened up — and found a fan base online" (NYT)(free-access link).

I don't like the use of the word "star" in that headline. The point here should be that there is real human communication on TikTok, and the platform does not deserve to be scoffed as and dismissed as though it's just a lot of kids being silly or striving toward some perverse notion of fame. Why not throw it all away in the name of abstract "national security"? It's just a bunch of dummies and narcissists.

Bedbugs on airplanes.

I'm reading "Passengers Say Turkish Airlines Flights Have Unwelcome Guests: Bedbugs/Passengers on several of the carrier’s flights said the biting pests were on seats, blankets and in overhead bins and that the airline did not take action" (NYT).

This is not a bad right-wing comedy sketch. This is a scene in the movie "Emilia Pérez," which was honored with 10 Golden Globe nominations.

You can read what the "Top Critics" are saying about it here (on Rotten Tomatoes). For example: "It seems to revel in its contradictions, mixing crassness with tenderness, pastiche with originality, silliness with sincerity. It’s emotionally manipulative. It’s visually over-the-top. It’s a mess, in other words -- a spectacular, operatic one."

Not all critics like it. For example, at Vox, there's "Emilia Pérez is a regressive movie that thinks it’s woke. It will probably win an Oscar. Could a movie musical about a trans Mexican drug lord be this awards season’s Crash?" That is, among those who like wokeness, there's some question whether it is properly woke.

ADDED: Here's the trailer for "Emilia Pérez":

The power of X community notes.

Link.

Link to original Musk post.

"The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken."

Tweeted Elon Musk, showing this video of the aftermath of the explosion:

🚨 #BREAKING: Las Vegas Police release new video of the exploded Cybertruck outside of the Trump Hotel, showing explosive ordinances in the back

Police credited the lack of damage to the Trump Hotel to the strength of the Cybertruck, as it remained mostly intact.

“The explosion… pic.twitter.com/lajQZX2pOI

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 2, 2025

The bombs bursting in the Cybertruck gave proof through the night that our Trump Hotel glass doors were still there. 

"We are implementing what we describe as a paradigm shift in Swedish migration policy.... This is not because we don’t like these people..."

"... or because we don’t understand that many of them might face a very difficult situation... but because of the fact that we will never be able to manage the enormous task of integration in the right way if you continue to have such a high influx of immigrants every year. It’s impossible.... What happened during the refugee crisis was that all these very nice words, all this open-heart policy, met a very tough reality.... This turned out to be much more difficult than many people had anticipated. I believe many Swedes knew this already from the beginning but... the questions regarding this were portrayed as being very small-minded."

 

Said Johan Forssell, 45, who has headed Sweden's migration department since September, quoted in "Why ‘open-hearted’ Sweden brought in a wholesale crackdown on asylum/After the 2015 refugee crisis, years of liberal migration policies met the tough reality of gangs, riots and failed integration" (London Times).

"The next big project is to require foreigners to take language and integration tests when applying for citizenship. Most European countries introduced similar requirements many years ago, but Sweden’s exceptionalism on this front was once a source of pride. 'I think it’s stupid. Most people in Sweden also think it’s stupid,' Forssell said. 'I have talked to many people coming here from other nations, applying for citizenship, and they find this very odd. How are you going to be a Swedish citizen if you don’t know anything about Sweden or you can’t speak Swedish?'"

"Love you always brother! You inspired me every day, now you get to be with me in every moment. I got this family, T, don’t worry."

Wrote Jack Bech, to his brother Martin “Tiger” Bech, 27, who played football for Princeton and died in the Bourbon Street massacre.

Quoted in "Who are the 15 victims of the New Orleans attack?/The dead have not been named by the authorities but some families, schools and businesses have confirmed that their friends and loved ones are among the victims" (London Times).

"The intellectual property issue is another story we’ll get into, but this is basically the mob storming the castle saying, 'We’re here too, bitch, deal with it.'"

"You guys flaunted it and made it seem like we never get to be part of this, and now we get to be part of this fair and square."

Said Bethenny Frankel — a "Real Housewives" star — quoted in "Hermès tight-lipped on Wirkin bag, Walmart’s dupe of the Birkin/Walmart’s copy of the vastly more expensive and exclusive Birkin handbag has been praised on social media for breaking through the snobbery of high fashion" (London Times).

Hermès does not sell the Birkin online and until recently maintained a months-long waiting list, helping to protect its exclusivity. Hermès stores are only allowed to buy a select number of the bags bi-annually and the style of bags being delivered is rarely known before they arrive.... Hermès is yet to publicly comment on the Wirkin. Legal experts say the Birkin bag’s logo, its shape and design, are registered trademarks and therefore have legal protection....

At the New Year's Café...

 ... you can talk about whatever you like.

"I do not work with AI at this time directly other than to produce options. Here’s this table: could I see this table in a wood? And then..."

"... could I see this shape in, you know, a marble? I’d like to see it in reflected steel. Only in that scenario. I’ve been using AI as a tool, not as an agent. Now, people speak very much about AI at this moment, being an agent in that it has its own, you know, thoughts, its own ability to create, and I’m sure that at some point that I will be moving in that direction in some manner, but I’m very embedded at this moment in biology."

Said Jeff Koons, quoted in this Guardian article with a headline that doesn't square with that quote: "Jeff Koons on why he has drawn a red line on AI in art: ‘I don’t want to be lazy’/World’s most expensive artist, who is exhibiting at the Alhambra in Granada, sees his work as embedded in biology."

ADDED: I read the headline to mean that he said he would not use AI in his art, but obviously he's not against using it. One might try to defend the headline by saying that he has drawn a red line — one that distinguishes some uses from others. But even if you can see that distinction — don't use it "directly other than to produce options" — he's only observing the distinction "at this time," and he's "sure that at some point that I will be moving in that direction in some manner."

I'm not criticizing Koons. I'm criticizing The Guardian.

"Cybertruck that exploded and truck in New Orleans attack rented on same app."

 ABC reports.

Investigators do not know what caused the blast, such as whether something was wrong with the vehicle or whether something external prompted it. Determining what was behind the explosion is the key focus of the probe.

An official briefed on the probe told ABC News that the Tesla Cybertruck had a load of fireworks-style mortars onboard. Investigators were urgently working to determine a motive and whether the driver intended to set off an explosion and why....

[Elon] Musk later posted on X: "We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself." 

It's not known if Musk's claim has been independently verified....

"Authorities say Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, from Houston, had an ISIS flag strapped to the rented Ford F-150 Lightning EV truck he used to carry out an act of premeditated terror on New Year’s Day...."

"In a YouTube video he posted in 2020 for his real estate business, a clean-cut Jabbar described himself as a reliable, trustworthy native Texan who spent 10 years in the military, which taught him 'the meaning of great service.' But when he carried out the terror attack — one of the deadliest since 9/11 — Jabbar lived in a squalid trailer park on the outskirts of Houston that is home to mostly Muslim immigrants.... Jabbar traveled to Egypt for 10 days last year, officials told the Post...."

From "Inside terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s squalid home where sheep and goats roam his yard — after his financial ruin" (NY Post).

From the Washington Post, there's this: "FBI says driver may not have acted alone in New Orleans attack that killed 15": "During a news briefing Wednesday afternoon, Alethea Duncan, an FBI assistant special agent in charge, said investigators 'do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible.' Authorities did not elaborate... The FBI said investigators found an Islamic State flag in the vehicle used in the attack, along with additional weapons and a possible improvised explosive device. Other potential IEDs were located elsewhere in the city’s French Quarter...."

I note the discrepancy about the placement of the ISIS flag. Was it "strapped to the rear" or "in the vehicle"? 

I was wrong about hitting 3,000 blog posts in 2024.

On December 27th, I wrote "Unless I write 70 more posts in the next 4 days... this will be the first year since 2007 when I have less than 3,000 blog posts." 

But I didn't understand that the post count in the side bar is week by week, so the year doesn't begin on January 1st and continue thought December 31st. It begins on the first Sunday of the year, and in 2024, the first Sunday was January 7th. That means the first 6 days of 2024 were added to the count for 2023, and it means the count for 2025 will not begin until January 5th. With the count now at 2968, I have 4 days to write 32 posts. I'm sorry I started to pay attention to this, but nothing I can do about that now. I'd like to continue in my usual intuitive, intrinsically rewarding style and let the numbers fall wherever they do. I just wanted to note that in the world of blog post counting, it's still 2024.

Feel free of accusing me of padding... until Sunday.

"My kids don't want to go to the movies. They think the screen's too big. It freaks them out."

"The biggest screen that they want watch is the screen that we have at home or their phone. I took them to see a movie. They were like freaked out. It's too big, the screen."

"The idea that [Lloyd] Austin would even attempt to fob off a catastrophe like this with mumblings about his surprise amid ineffectual efforts to avert it is absurd."

Says the Editorial Board of the New York Post, in "Plea deal for KSM & other 9/11 terrorists is a final Biden ‘Screw you!’ to America."

"The question swirling around all the new believers was: Were they true believers? Or was their conversion mostly or entirely utilitarian..."

"... driven by a desire to push back against the forces of technology and secularism and wokeness and an increasingly militant Islam? Did they actually believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God and that he had died for our sins and was resurrected? Or did they think that was a nice story that we should tell ourselves because it encouraged people to treat each other better—because it was a kind of cultural bulwark? And did it really matter in the end? Andrew Sullivan, the writer and podcaster, suggested this might not be easy to answer. 'The feeling'—of believing—'will vary,' Sullivan, a Catholic, told me. 'Sometimes, there’s no feeling. Sometimes, you’re overwhelmed. The point really is to escape feeling as such—our emotions are not what prove anything. The genius of ritual is that it allows us not to articulate our feelings... It allows us to express our faith through an act.'"

From "How Intellectuals Found God/Almost 150 years after Nietzsche said ‘God is dead,’ some of our most important thinkers are getting religion. Peter Savodnik meets the new theists" (Free Press).

"Welp. I'm cooked.... I was just bit on the leg by a diamondback.... Let's get some pictures of it first."

NEW: Florida man accepts his fate after being bitten by a diamondback rattlesnake, says he is "cooked" but at least it will make a good meme.

Gotta respect his commitment to the meme game.

Social media influencer David Humphlett told the snake "good game" (gg) before he was… pic.twitter.com/Vmwh4ve3RT

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 31, 2024

We're told that this young man, a "social media influencer" named David Humphlett, made it to the hospital, but not before swinging his camera around and complimenting the snake: "Let's get some pictures of it first. We're already screwed anyways. Cool snake! Big diamondback!"

They're saving him at the hospital. He received 88 vials of antivenin. You may think he's an idiot, but is he? Hearing his words called to mind Seneca's "How to Die" (commission earned) which I happen to be in the middle of reading:

There’s no life that’s not short. If you examine the nature of things, even the life of Nestor is short, or that of Sattia, who ordered inscribed on her tombstone that she had lived ninety-nine years. You see in her someone glorying in a long old age. But who could have endured her, if she had filled out a full century? Just as with storytelling, so with life: it’s important how well it is done, not how long. It doesn’t matter at what point you call a halt. Stop wherever you like; only put a good closer on it. Farewell.

 We're already screwed anyways. We're cooked. This is it. This is death. It came by snake. And you have the presence of mind to proclaim: Cool snake.

The men of CNN charmingly circle the drain.

Anderson Cooper struggles to consume a shot:

They’re letting Anderson Cooper drink on TV again for New Year’s Eve.

CNN is getting desperate for ratings.

pic.twitter.com/hbZNY8ODUt

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) January 1, 2025

And Diplo — who's somebody, but I don't need to know who — calmly asserts that he's on LSD:

Diplo trips on LSD while appearing on CNN’s New Year’s Eve special.

pic.twitter.com/V9iauqF86B

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 1, 2025

How are men these days supposed to enact the meaning of New Year's Eve? It's traditionally about drinking a lot of alcohol, but they don't want to do that, so they put on a little show of finding it hard to drink just one shot, and then they talk to a guy who calmly and humorously says he's on LSD and he's "not even lying." This stuff has gone viral, so credit to CNN. Do what you must. It's not the news.

Meanwhile, CNN brings out a representative of the opposite sex: Whitney Cummings woodenly delivers some jokes that have — predictably — gone viral because they mock Democrats: 

NEW: Anderson Cooper stands completely speechless after Whitney Cummings says Dems couldn’t hold a primary because they were too busy holding up a dead body.

“It was amazing that the Pro-Choice Party didn't give their voters one…”pic.twitter.com/EtxIcMKRXZ

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 1, 2025

Here we are in 2025 — the quarter century mark.

It's a nice solid milestone. 25 has a substantiality that exceeds that of 22, 23, and 24. It's more "famous," no? It's the atomic number of manganese.