January 11, 2025
8 views of the sunrise — 7:04 - 7:36.
"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..."
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.
"[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."
Absurd prank.
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.
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.
January 10, 2025
Sunrise with new snow — 7:13, 7:23.
"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."
"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."
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."
... who did look oddly nervous on Joe Rogan...NEW – Mel Gibson's Malibu Mansion Burned Down While He Was Filming Joe Rogan's Podcast
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 10, 2025
"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
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...."
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."
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.
January 9, 2025
The lakeshore at noon.
"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...."
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.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 9, 2025
Sick! pic.twitter.com/0jXW4OPfkq
Gavin Newsom literally lies to a woman about the fires, and we can literally see that it is a lie.
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.
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:
PLUS: There is nothing to be sad about here and there is no need to forbid humor.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
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.
"So I’m like, Okay, what do we take? I have a curio cabinet of memories, and I just emptied all of that into a laundry basket.... I took all the ashes — my dad, my mom, my dogs, my best friend Ed."
Said Marika Erdley, who had to evacuate, quoted in "Watching Your House Burn on a Ring Camera" (New York Magazine).
"But is Zuckerberg’s claim that 'fact-checkers have just been too politically biased' correct?"
In my view, it’s at least pointing in the right direction, in line with my Indigo Blob theory about how the lines between nonpartisan institutions and partisan actors have become blurred. In the B.T. days — Before Trump — journalists who were appointed (or who appointed themselves) as fact-checkers tended to be experienced generalists with a scrupulous reputation for nonpartisanship — a sharp contrast to edgier and less experienced journalists in the Trump era who would later claim to own the disinformation beat. Perhaps because demand for fact-checking was coming overwhelmingly from the left... the journalists who selected into the subfield tended to be especially left of center....
"The iconic Sunset Boulevard has been left as a mishmash of charred buildings and devastation by the Palisades fire."
From "LA fires live: five dead in California as satellite captures destruction/Flames tear through homes and buildings in the Pacific Palisades and surrounding counties — as Sunset Boulevard is destroyed" (London Times).
"You know in Los Angeles, you can't get proper amounts of water... In order to protect a tiny little fish, the water up north gets routed into the Pacific Ocean."
Donald Trump was mocked for sounding the alarm on the California water/fire crisis during his interview with Joe Rogan.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 8, 2025
Turns out, he was right.
Trump spent nearly 7 minutes ranting about the issue, blasting Newsom for doing nothing to fix the problem.
Trump specifically… pic.twitter.com/zSls82byPo
Has Zuckerberg gone MAGA? NYT tech columnist Kevin Roose has 2 theories — either he's hollow or this is for real.
Theory #1: Zuck is a grasping semi-human:
... Meta — a shape-shifting company that has thrown itself at every major tech trend of the last decade... has a fundamental hollowness at its core. It is not quite sure what it is.... But in the meantime, it will adopt whatever values Mr. Zuckerberg thinks it needs to survive
I’ve spent a lot of time studying the right-wing conversion narratives of disaffected liberals, and Mr. Zuckerberg’s recent arc fills the bill surprisingly well: A wealthy 40-year-old man with a sullied public reputation starts listening to Joe Rogan and develops an interest in mixed martial arts and other hypermasculine hobbies, grows annoyed by the woke left and angry at the mainstream media, rebrands himself as a bad boy, and adopts the label of a “classical liberal” while quietly supporting most of the tenets of MAGA conservatism....
The boldface headings are mine. I'd like to think that was obvious, but I know some readers don't even realize that indented material is quotation.
Now, let me take your pulse:
January 8, 2025
Sunrise — 7:10 to 7:24.
Biden tried to make it clear to Trump that there was no need for him "go back and try to settle scores."
PAGE: Some of your supporters have encouraged you to issue preemptive pardons to people like Liz Cheney and Anthony Fauci, who Trump has threatened to target. Will you do that?
BIDEN: ... I was very straightforward with Trump when he got elected.... I tried to make it clear that there was no need, and it was counterintuitive for his interest to go back and try to settle scores.
PAGE: And did he give you an answer on what he was going to do?
BIDEN: Well, he didn't. But he didn't say, "No, I'm going to..." You know. He didn't reinforce it. He just basically listened....
So Biden failed to extract anything from Trump, and Trump was poker faced.
"I am very sorry. I didn’t mean to. But I really don’t know. I don’t know what happened, but I’m very sorry for that woman."
“Sometimes when I drink and erase the memory and I don’t know,” he told investigators. “When I wake up, I’m already in the house, already sleeping. I wake up when I’m already at home. Or there are times when I wake up and I’m already at the train station.”...
As his interrogation wound down later that day, investigators at the 60th Precinct station house in Brooklyn showed him the grisly video of Ms. Kawam’s death. They asked him: Did he recognize the man setting her on fire?
“Oh, damn,” Mr. Zapeta-Calil replied. “That’s me.”
Zapeta-Calil was in the country illegally and housed in a shelter. He'd been deported in 2018.
"If the Supreme Court grants a stay of Mr. Trump’s sentencing, it might effectively scuttle the proceeding for good."
Was the Louisiana Purchase bonkers?
Then, as if that wasn’t enough, Fetterman took a flamethrower to the Democratic Party’s “freak-outs” over Trump’s interest in Greenland. Comparing it to historic deals like the Louisiana Purchase and the acquisition of Alaska, Fetterman dismissed the hysteria.
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) January 8, 2025
“If anyone thinks… pic.twitter.com/B6I6fK1HZw
"This shows how Mark Zuckerberg is feeling that society is more accepting of those libertarian and right-leaning viewpoints that he’s always had. This is an evolved return to his political origins."
Mr. Zuckerberg has long been a pragmatist who has gone where the political winds have blown. He has flip-flopped on how much political content should be shown to Facebook and Instagram users, previously saying social networks should be about fun, relatable content from family and friends but then on Tuesday saying Meta would show more personalized political content....
Mr. Zuckerberg was never comfortable with the involvement of outside fact-checkers, academics or researchers in his company, one of the executives said. He now sees many of the steps taken after the 2016 election as a mistake... two executives said.... Those who have known Mr. Zuckerberg for decades describe him as a natural libertarian, who enjoyed reading books extolling free expression and the free market system after he dropped out of Harvard to start Facebook in 2004....
I'd like to think that the idea of freedom of speech won out in the marketplace of ideas, but I can understand how the speech controllers gravitate toward the idea that Zuckerberg was always a right-winger and he's just regressing after faking aspirations to higher values.
Respect for the recently deceased Jimmy Carter outweighed by unquenchable need to disparage Trump.
“Nobody wants to talk about the Panama Canal now,” he said. “It’s inappropriate, I guess, because it’s a bad part of the Carter legacy.”
The president-elect offered some measured praise for the 39th president, calling him “a good man” and “a very fine person.” Not to let his point be forgotten, however, Trump reminded again that “giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a very big mistake.”...
Is that hammering? To speak of hammering before the body is in the ground creates a violent mental image. I find that disrespectful.
Counting blessings, running short.
We were blessed to have LA fire and police depts doing their jobs so well. We are safe and out. There are several elementary schools in our neighborhood and there was an enormous community effort to evacuate the children safely. Can not speak more highly of the LA fire and LAPD. pic.twitter.com/bdsSJmvQel
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 7, 2025
13 minutes ago:
Priorities stated in her bio below.
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 8, 2025
Refilling the water reservoirs would have been a welcome priority, too, but I guess she had too much on her plate promoting diversity. pic.twitter.com/7GXgBR3RO2
January 7, 2025
10 views of the sunrise — from 6:54 to 7:35.
"The government has assured tourists that Afghanistan is safe, scenic, welcoming — and a bargain to boot."
Taliban officials said they relied on tourists, especially bloggers and YouTubers, to extol the virtues of visiting Afghanistan... A small percentage of foreign visitors are women, tourism officials said... They are not required to wear burqas or cover their faces.... Male tourists, too, are expected to dress modestly, but they do not face the same intense scrutiny as women....
[When] Allen Ruppel, 63, a retired insurance company executive from Wisconsin... told his wife where he was going, he said, she joked that “I can’t stop you, but I might get an Afghan hound to replace you.” Mr. Ruppel, who wore a blue shalwar kameez, said he was surprised by how warmly he had been received by Afghans and by how safe the country seemed. He said he would encourage his friends to “open your minds and take a fresh look at Afghanistan.”
There's a photo captioned: "A Chinese visitor from a tour group in front of the remains of the 1,600-year-old Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 in Bamiyan." Imagine posing in the empty niche of a colossus and posting on Instagram. I met a traveler from an antique land....
Judge Merchan and Judge Cannon respond to Trump requests.
Cannon says yes: "Cannon temporarily blocks report on Trump classified-documents probe/Two Trump employees charged alongside him in the classified documents case separately asked Judge Aileen Cannon to block the release" (WaPo).
"He saw his reputation tarnished when he pleaded guilty to a morals charge involving a minor."
"Anyone with money can live abroad. It’s a sort of an extended holiday. The true test of an expatriate is holding down a job, learning a language, paying taxes..."
Writes Paul Theroux, in "The Hard Reality American Expats Quickly Learn" (NYT). And that's a free-access link, which I'm giving you because I love Theroux's book "The Mosquito Coast," and the book is connected to the topic under discussion, as he explains. Also there's a great Mark Twain quote and a pretty decent JFK quote. So, please read the whole thing.
"It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression... We're going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes, similar to X."
"The Pentagon carried out the secret operation in the early hours of Monday..."
January 6, 2025
"Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians."
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...
— Dane (@UltraDane) January 5, 2025
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
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....
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.
"'There is, technically, no snail darter,' said Thomas Near, curator of ichthyology at the Yale Peabody Museum."
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).
Is Donald Trump today the same guy that Clay Aiken knew in 2012?
January 5, 2025
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?"
"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."Chuck Schumer is confronted on NBC for covering up Biden's mental health decline.
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) January 5, 2025
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
"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...."
"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).
Tomorrow is January 6th, and we're seeing efforts to frame the occasion.
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..."
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).
"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..."
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).