Sunrise — 7:09.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments.

"Today, I have ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen."

Writes Trump, on Truth Social.

They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones. Joe Biden’s response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going.

"Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act Regarding the Invasion of The United States by Tren De Aragua."

A proclamation by President Trump.

Excerpt:

If you want to get excited about 2028, here are the names that have emerged thus far: Walz, Buttigieg, and Pritzker.

Yikes!

I'm reading "Buttigieg, Walz and Other Democrats Start the 2028 Chatter Early/Pete Buttigieg says he’s keeping his options open. Tim Walz went to Iowa. JB Pritzker’s off to New Hampshire. It’s too early to run for president, but some Democrats seem to be exploring the idea" (NYT).

Also mentioned in the article: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rahm Emanuel, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan Andy Beshear, and Gavin Newsom.

Newsom just started a podcast, and he had Steve Bannon as a guest. Frankly, I think Newsom should use Bannon as an adviser. I see things like "Gavin Newsom draws Democratic ire for hosting Steve Bannon on his podcast/‘I don’t think we should give him oxygen on any platform, ever, anywhere,’ Kentucky governor Andy Beshear says" (The Guardian). But Bannon asserts that he's a Democrat, criticizes the Democratic Party for becoming the party of the elite, and earnestly and continually argues that government should operate for the benefit of the working class.

"As the days passed, Ms. Cassell grew increasingly thirsty, later telling a friend that her tongue felt like 'a lizard'..."

"... and that her lips were constantly chapped. She knew she could survive for a while without food, but only a few days without water. There was a shallow creek near her car, but even if she opened the door and stretched out her hand, she was about three feet short of the water. So she again got creative: She took her favorite sweater and unfurled it into the water, letting the pink fabric soak up the water before pulling it back and wringing it into her mouth. Her mother later dubbed it her 'fishing pole' for liquid. Days into the ordeal, Ms. Cassell accepted that she might lose her legs, her husband said. But she refused to lose her grip on reality. 'She said she’d empty out her purse and put everything back, then empty out her purse and put everything back in, just to keep her mind going,' Mr. Cassell said. All the while, she wore her voice hoarse as she screamed at passing cars...."

From "'I Thought I Was Going to Die Here': 6 Days Trapped in a Car, Just Out of Sight/Brieonna Cassell crashed into a ditch, shattering bones and getting pinned inside. Just yards away from a road, she was determined to survive until help arrived" (NYT)(free-access link).

"This is how I put a bunch of raccoons in trench coats inside of a secret art gallery."

A great art project....

"The war has given enormous public exposure to what’s known as Russia’s 'Z community' — pro-war volunteers, military bloggers and ultranationalists..."

"... who want to see a total subjugation of Ukraine.... The 'turbopatriots'... fought on the front lines and were rewarded with an increased social status in wartime Russian society. For decades regarded by the Kremlin as a volatile source of potential opposition, these ultranationalist figures were harnessed to advance the government’s message on the necessity of the bloody, grinding war. But they have also emerged as a rare source of criticism of… Putin.... The Z community and Russia’s ultranationalists have been especially critical in recent weeks of the euphoric response in Russia to Trump’s seemingly more Moscow-friendly approach — and even more so since this week’s talk of a possible ceasefire.... 'What is our specific Russian joy here?' asked nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin on Telegram after the widespread Russian delight over last month’s Oval Office confrontation between Zelensky and President Donald Trump.... The confusion has been felt especially keenly along the front, where many Russian soldiers believe that rather than just taking on the Ukrainians, they have been fighting a war against NATO and the United States, having experienced firsthand the devastating impact of U.S.-provided weapons to Ukraine."

From "If peace comes, Putin could face the ire of his most hard-line backers/Vladimir Putin and his propagandists convinced many in Russia that there was an existential battle against the U.S. Now they have to deal with a thaw in U.S.-Russian relations" (WaPo).

"I don't know where I'm going/But I'm on my way."

I've kept a Google alert on my name for as long as there have been Google alerts, and this morning one took me to a Wisconsin Public Radio article: "New exhibit explores Wisconsin veteran contributions after military service/'Traditions: Stories of Service of Country & Community' exhibit at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum showcases how veterans gave back after returning to civilian life."

See my name?

 

That's a photo I published back in 2006, and I'm glad I put a Creative Commons license and made it easy to use without needing to ask. I don't check my email that often, and I'm happy to see the photo getting some eyeballs. I photographed things that other people made, some of it art, some of it utilitarian, so it would be especially absurd to be possessive about what part of this is mine. It makes more sense to claim the sunrise. I didn't even have the power to arrange those items. They were arrayed in a glass case.

Anyway. This morning I focused on that "poster" with the vivid line "I don't know where I'm going/But I'm on my way." It struck me as anti-war. If you don't know where you're going, stay put. First do no harm. But I learned that the seeming poster was in fact sheet music. And I think it celebrates willingness to do whatever "Uncle Sammy" has in mind. Read the sheet music and listen:

And I'll do my duty-uty night or day/I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way....

I still don't know what Paul Simon and Julio were doing down by the school yard, but there's that line I don't know where I'm going/But I'm on my way:

Of course, it's perfectly acceptable, speaking of copyright, for Paul to lift that line from the 1917 song, but who knows if he did? I see that in 1972, Paul Simon told Rolling Stone, he "never bothered to figure out what it was" that Mama saw him and Julio do down by the schoolyard, because it "didn't make any difference to me." And in 2010, he told the NYT the song was "a bit of inscrutable doggerel." So I'm sure he'd give an obscure answer to the question whether he was inspired by that war/anti-war song.

I like that he used it, if he used it. It's the folk music tradition, something Dylan does too. You patch things together, put them in a new context. It's vital and alive. A good thing.

Meanwhile, there are places on the internet that attribute to Carl Sandburg. I suspect that's one of those misattributions. And speaking of famous names... that really is Mickey Mantle.

There's never been a speech like this: Trump's epic tirade at the Justice Department.

It was pure Trump and his critics are hot to portray it as the desecration of a place where decent Presidents dare not tread. There he is, for over an hour, in front of the Department of Justice sign, trashing his predecessors for weaponizing the justice system. He's out in the open, speaking his mind. Biden — we couldn't even tell if he had a mind.

Here's an example of the anti-Trump take on the speech: "Trump calls his opponents ‘scum’ and lawbreakers in bellicose speech at Justice Department/For more than an hour, he delivered an insult-laden speech that shattered the traditional notion of DOJ independence" (Politico): "It was, even by Trump’s standards, a stunning show of disregard for decades of tradition observed by his predecessors, who worried about politicizing or appearing to exert too much control over the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency. Trump, instead, called himself the 'chief law enforcement officer in our country' and accused the DOJ’s prior leadership of doing 'everything within their power to prevent' him from becoming the president."

Key word: "appearing." 

And here's a free-access link to the NYT fact-check of the speech.

Sunrise — 7:17.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

And support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

Fake outrage, isn't it?

I'm reading, among other things, "Young Democrats’ Anger Boils Over as Schumer Retreats on Shutdown/A generational divide, seen in newer lawmakers’ impatience with bipartisanship and for colleagues who don’t understand new media, has emerged as one of the deepest rifts within the party" (NYT)(free-access link).

The Democrats have to make a show of fighting Trump, but Schumer's move was more important anti-Trumpism, and I think they all know it:

On Thursday, Mr. Schumer explained his decision to vote to keep the government open in an opinion piece in The New York Times, a version of which he read on the Senate floor.

“As bad as passing the continuing resolution would be, I believe a government shutdown is far worse,” Mr. Schumer wrote.

From the written opinion piece:

Did you go outside at 1 a.m. to watch the lunar eclipse?

We did, but not with a tripod and telephoto lens. That's just my iPhone pic. We had binoculars, so we saw a bit more than what you're seeing there. We talked about the moon — its history, its phases, whether it looked red — the "blood moon" — or fashionably brown.

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok (after thinking of the question while watching the worm moon): "How exactly did the moon come into existence and what would Earth be like now if that had not happened?" In the total eclipse, we could not arrive at a total answer, but then neither could Grok, queried just now. But it did sketch out 6 things that would be different about Earth if the event that produced the moon never happened. I could only think of No Tides. And no moonlight. 

"The civilian searchers found the graves by inserting simple metal rods into the earth and smelling their tips to detect the stench of decomposing bodies."

I'm reading "Inside a Mexican cartel ‘extermination’ camp: Ovens, shoes and teeth/A civilian search group found a gruesome site near Guadalajara, sparking outrage as authorities had raided the area months earlier but did not uncover the graves" (WaPo)(free-access link).

Mexico has grappled for years with a crisis of disappearances, with more than 110,000 people reported missing.... [A civilian search group] arrived on March 5 at an abandoned ranch outside La Estanzuela and started poking around. They dug up three underground ovens. They found hundreds and hundreds of singed bone shards — from skulls, fingers, teeth.... 

"My wife is going to hate it because nothing makes you look older than when an older guy dyes his hair."

Said George Clooney, quoted in the London Times, with a photo that shows how right he is:

I clicked on that headline because I thought it was going to be about brown clothing. Did you know the color brown is a fashion trend? See, from last October, "Chocolate Brown Is Fall’s Breakout Color Trend" (Harper's Bazaar).

But it's about brown hair. I notice George only speaks for older guys. 

AND: So you go to some play because a famous actor — famously handsome actor — is in it, but then there's just some guy on stage and he doesn't even look like him. But it's not supposed to look like him. It's supposed to look like Edward R. Murrow!

"I was open to the idea behind Gavin Newsom’s new podcast, in which the California governor has been breaking out of his political bubble..."

"... to talk at length with right-wing media stars such as Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. Democrats need to get better at speaking to people who don’t share their assumptions and at long-form conversations requiring improvisation and spontaneity.... Trying to leverage Kirk and Bannon’s notoriety to reach new audiences could have been an interesting experiment. Instead, it’s a protracted exercise in self-harm for both Newsom and any liberal who decides to listen to him. That’s because the governor frequently seems less interested in arguing than in finding common ground, assuming the good faith of people who have next to none. He leaves wild right-wing claims unchallenged and repeatedly concedes Republican premises. When Bannon described rebuilding his movement after what he claimed was the stolen 2020 election, Newsom’s response was, 'Well, I appreciate the notion of agency.'"

Writes Michelle Goldberg, in "What on Earth Is Gavin Newsom Doing?" (NYT).

Sunrise — 7:04, 7:10, 7:17.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments. And support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

"You pay all this money to these high-priced schools that are supposed to be of great esteem, and you can’t even go to class."

"You’re afraid to go to class because these lunatics are running around with covers on their face, screaming terrifying things. If you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would have never let you in. If you do it once you get in, we’re going to revoke it and kick you out."

Said Marco Rubio, quoted in "The Khalil case is a threat to First Amendment rights/Donald Trump wants to deport a legal resident for his views. Who else will be punished for exercising free speech?" by the Editorial Board of The Washington Post. (Free-access link).

I thought Alan Dershowitz did a good job of discussing the complexities of this case:

"The predecessor who now inspires Trump in vivid oil paint served only one term, dying shortly after he left office in 1849."

"But in four years Polk nearly doubled the territory of the U.S. On the northern border, Polk’s supporters rallied around the expansionist slogan '54°40’ or Fight,' demanding the U.S. take over the entire Pacific Northwest up to that latitude, then the southern boundary of Russian Alaska, even if it meant going to war with Britain. Instead, in 1846 Polk negotiated a treaty that established the U.S.’s northern border at the 49th parallel. In the Southwest, Polk annexed Texas and fought the Mexican-American War, which ended in Mexico ceding more than 500,000 square miles to the U.S., including all of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming, in exchange for $15 million. It was 'one of the largest land grabs in world history,' said historian Hampton Sides... 'He wanted it all, and he got it all in one term....' In terms of personality, Polk and Trump have little in common, Sides said. Despite his aggressive foreign policy, Polk 'was not this blustering, loud, bully of a person. He was morose, a kind of dark guy.' Polk was also known 'for being quite honest…He wasn’t this erratic, crazy person who was constantly throwing people off guard....'"

From "The Painting That Explains Trump’s Foreign Policy/James K. Polk expanded the U.S. more than any other president. Now his portrait hangs in the Oval Office, a signal that President Trump’s ambition to take over Canada, Greenland and other territory is more than just talk" (Wall Street Journal).

"President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said on Thursday that he was open to the idea of a 30-day cease-fire in Ukraine..."

"... but that a number of 'questions' must still be resolved. His remarks, at a news conference in Moscow, signaled he was in no hurry to go along with a truce and came as U.S. officials were in Russia to discuss the cease-fire proposal that Ukraine has already agreed to.... It was the first time that Mr. Putin had publicly addressed the cease-fire offer. He is expected to meet with President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, later today — and Mr. Putin said he may soon speak with the American president...."

NYT reports.

"Mr. Buttigieg’s decision to skip the 2026 race to succeed Senator Gary Peters, a retiring Democrat, allows him to pivot more easily to the next contest for the White House...."

"Mr. Buttigieg determined he could not run for both the Senate and the White House, according to one of the people familiar with his planning..... Mr. Buttigieg, who ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, was seen as the most prominent potential contender in next year’s marquee Senate contest.... But he also would have been vulnerable to 'carpetbagger' attacks, and was plainly aware of that risk. Mr. Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Ind., became a Michigan resident in 2022, moving to Traverse City, where he lives with his husband, Chasten, and their twin toddlers.... Term limits will preclude Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from running for a third time next year, and Mr. Buttigieg is not expected to pursue that office...."

From "Pete Buttigieg, a Possible 2028 Contender, Won’t Run for Senate in Michigan/The former transportation secretary, who moved to Michigan from Indiana in 2022, had been seen as the most prominent potential candidate in next year’s marquee contest" (NYT).

The Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates debate.

The difference between these Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel is sharply defined.

AND: Here's a new NYT article, "The Trump Loyalist Aiming to Swing Wisconsin Back to the Right/Brad Schimel, a judge who is so supportive of the president that he dressed up as him for Halloween, is hoping to flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court for conservatives":

The state’s Democratic Party is airing television ads tying Mr. Musk to Judge Schimel....

Click that link to see an ad that shows Elon Musk wielding the chain saw and giving the "Nazi" salute over and over again.

Sunrise – 6:55, 7:13, 7:18.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

"By overhauling massive rules on the endangerment finding, the social cost of carbon and similar issues, we are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion..."

"... and ushering in America’s Golden Age. These actions will roll back trillions of dollars in regulatory costs and hidden taxes. As a result, the cost of living for American families will decrease, and essentials such as buying a car, heating your home and operating a business will become more affordable. Our actions will also reignite American manufacturing, spreading economic benefits to communities. The EPA will continue to protect human health and the environment while unleashing America’s full potential. That means reconsidering the regulations that have restricted every sector of the economy, such as the illegal Clean Power Plan 2.0, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, and Particulate Matter 2.5 levels. Under President Trump guidance, the EPA also has ended the electric-vehicle mandate that threatened to destroy America’s auto industry and made cars cost more...."

Writes Lee Zeldin in "EPA Ends the ‘Green New Deal’/We’re keeping people and the environment safe while overhauling rules that stifled our full potential" (Wall Street Journal).

"To me, 'he looks homeless' is loaded with classism. But it's true that Bernie looks like he doesn't care—and that's what makes his outfits great."

"The irony is that the more you chase this quality, the more affected you can look. And certainly, not everyone who 'doesn't care' looks great (Fetterman comes to mind). This is why style writers are so obsessed with this quality. To me, if you constantly chase the idea of middle class respectability, you can end up looking a bit stiff an uninspired. But if you open your mind to wider expressions of style, you'll not only enjoy what you see around you, but you'll be more stylish as a result."

Writes Derek Guy, at X, after writing this Politico article — "Congress Is Falling Apart /But These 5 Guys Look Good Doing It" — which caused Meghan McCain's husband (Ben Domenech) to say that he once saw Bernie Sanders and mistook him for a homeless man.

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: "Tell me about the idea, expressed by fashion writers, that looking like you don't care how you look is actually a great look to pursue."

"More than 300 years after the death of Aurangzeb, whose full name was Abul Muzaffar Muhi-ud-Din Mohammad Aurangzeb..."

"... allies of India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, have demanded his grave be removed. For Modi and his allies, the legacy of the Mughals, who ruled India for some six centuries, is a byword for the subjugation of Hindus by a foreign occupier. Udayanraje Bhosale, MP for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra, the state where Aurangzeb is buried, urged the authorities to 'send a bulldozer and raze his grave … he was a thief and looter'....For many Hindus, Aurangzeb was cruelty incarnate. Under his reign, from 1658 to 1707, Hindus were raped, butchered and forcibly converted by the Muslim dynasty. Aurangzeb was a devout Muslim and chose an austere lifestyle, unlike other Mughals.... Aurangzeb... specifically instructed that it should be plain and unmarked, unlike the monumental tombs of Akbar, Humayun and Jahangir, as well as the Taj Mahal — commissioned by Aurangzeb’s father, Shah Jahan, to house the resting place of his wife Mumtaz Mahal...."

From "Modi’s nationalists demand destruction of ‘thief’ emperor’s tomb/An MP from the ruling BJP party called for bulldozers to be sent to the grave of Aurangzeb, a move seen as part of the erasure of Islam from Indian history" (London Times).

"I was minding my own business, gardening, when it struck up from behind and boofed me on the head.... I’ve decided to wear a hat today because I don’t want it to happen again."

Said Paul Boys, 64, quoted in "In pursuit of the hawk divebombing tall men in Hertfordshire/A Harris’s hawk is terrorising the village of Flamstead, where about 20 people have been attacked in the past fortnight" (London Times).

The hawk was minding his own business too, but its business is boofing tall men.

"Boof," the noun, has been around since 1825. It's "A blow that makes a sound like a rapid, brief movement of air" (OED).

I like the village name, Flamstead, which just means "place of the Flemings." There's an annual Flamstead Scarecrow Festival....

"Steak 'n' Shake... we're very grateful to them for RFKing the fries. They turned me into a verb."

"There's a sense that Denmark doesn't respect Greenland and that there's this long legacy of racism, exploitation, treating Greenlanders as second class citizens."

"And Greenlanders come from a different culture. They're part of this wider Inuit community that lives in the Arctic Circle in Alaska and Canada and parts of Russia. They have their own language, their own traditions, their own history of how they survive in this very hostile environment. And I met a number of people who said that they were mistreated, they were made fun of, that they were called racial slurs. I also heard a lot about the colonial legacy and things that Denmark had done when Greenland was a colony. They destroyed local traditions. They outlawed some of the religious practices that Greenlanders had been doing for centuries. And there was this scandal in the 1960s and 70s where Danish doctors were inserting IUD birth control devices into Greenlandic girls as young as, like, 12 in an attempt to keep the population down. And they did this to thousands of girls without them really understanding what was being done to them. And this was kept secret until just a few years ago. And when this scandal broke and the news spread that all these women in Greenland had been subject to this, it caused a lot of anger towards Denmark, all these things together. That's what brings us to this moment where just about everybody now wants independence."

From "Trump’s Bid for Greenland," yesterday's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast. Audio and transcript here, at Podscribe.

And here's today's news from Greenland, as reported in the NYT: "In Trump’s Shadow, Greenland Votes for a New Government/President Trump has expressed a desire to 'get' Greenland, but the party that won Tuesday’s election is in no rush to change the status quo":

"We got stuff coming that’s going to frost some people’s cookies."

Says Chad Kassem, referring to upcoming record reissues, quoted in "The Wizard of Vinyl Is in Kansas/Chad Kassem is on a mission — saving listeners 'from bad sound' — at the rural factory where he pores over LPs from some of music’s most important artists" (NYT)(free-access link, because this is a great article (by Ben Sisario)).

Kassem, we hear, considers "the post-World War II years the apex of sonic fidelity. To illustrate his point, Kassem played an Analogue Productions version of a 1950 recording by Duke Ellington. Although it had been recorded in mono, the sound emanating from Kassem’s speakers was powerfully real, down to the woody texture of the saxophone reeds on 'Mood Indigo.' Kassem, practically shouting over the music, leaned down inches from my face. 'You play me a record from the last 20 years,' he exhorted, with some expletives, 'that sounds this good.''

I don't know if I'd order new old records. Many people do, but I'm averse to acquiring new possessions. But I'm motivated to play the LPs I already own, many of which were my father's and from the 1950s. 

Sunrise — 7:08, 7:14, 7:23.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

"Can you do me a favor? Can you stop scattering your dearly departed’s ashes all over my favorite golf course?"

"I want to play Pebble Beach, not your grandpa. For that matter, stop dumping your meemaw’s sandy 'cremains' on Disneyland rides. Last year, somebody on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance pulled the stunt, forcing the ride’s shutdown for cleaning. What are parents in the next car supposed to tell the kids when a cloud of human ash hits them in the face? Luke, that is not your father...."

From "Please. Stop. Spreading. Human. Ash. In. Public. With a huge rise in cremation rates, a sentimental ritual is turning into a gritty scourge" (WaPo)(free-access link, because it's full of amusing/horrible details).

Can we also stop saying "cremains"? I see the author put the term in scare quotes and the word "ash" is in the headline. I object to "cremains." The word, according to the OED, only dates back to 1950, and it seems to have been concocted like the name of a snack food. For example, Funyuns = fun + onions. Wouldn't it be more respectful to say "ashes"? Or do we think that "ashes" suggests the soft silky material left after a wood fire and thus has a whiff of false advertising?

"The New York Times: where Trump simultaneously bakes, builds, and blacksmiths the GOP with ingredients from three different metaphor aisles."

Notes John, at Facebook, displaying this:

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: "The NYT has a headline with 3 metaphors: 'Trump, with more honey than vinegar, cements an iron grip on Republicans.' Give me 3 rewrites of the headline: 1. Sticking with honey and vinegar, 2. Adhering to cement, and 3. Clinging tightly to gripping."

Here's the NYT article.

Recent robot antics.

See "$16K Chinese Robot Goes Full Kung Fu on a Human, Does a 720-Degree Spinning Kick" (autoevolution).

"Less than a week before the 2024 presidential election... [u]sing the now-disgraced and shuttered 538 as its unimpeachable source..."

"... the [New York] Times scoffed at a number of the latest polls that showed Trump leading. A 'torrent of polls began arriving just a few weeks ago, one after the other, most showing a victory for Donald J. Trump,' wrote the Times. These polls 'stood out amid the hundreds of others indicating a dead heat in the presidential election.'... [T]he Times accused those pollsters — 37 in all — of being 'focused on lifting Republican enthusiasm before the election' and 'cementing the idea that the only way Mr. Trump can lose to Vice President Kamala Harris is if the election is rigged.'... 'Unlike its competitors, RealClearPolitics does not filter out low-quality polls' and also 'does not weight its averages.' Which is just another way of saying that, unlike 538 (which got the election wrong and has lost so much money and credibility it just closed in disgrace), RCP does not put its thumb on the scale. It lists the polls and offers the averages, and that’s it...."

From "Far-Left NY Times Owes RealClearPolitics Apology After 538 Shutdown" (Breitbart).

"You are a traitor"/"Traitor? Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do."

That's Elon Musk and Mark Kelly, quoted in "Elon Musk calls Sen. Mark Kelly a 'traitor' over his social media posts in support of Ukraine/Kelly, a former Navy combat pilot, responded to the tech billionaire’s remark by saying 'he’s not a serious guy' and should 'go back to building rockets'" (NBC News).

Musk's accusation was a reaction to this:

   

And this, tweeted by Kelly: "Donald Trump is trying to weaken Ukraine’s hand and we are owed an explanation. If Putin gains ground he won’t agree to a ceasefire and will eventually threaten a NATO ally and this puts American troops and the American people at risk."

"Before, it was too much, there was honking of horns without reason. Now, it’s better for everybody."

Said Syed Ali, 49, who works at a halal food cart in midtown Manhattan, quoted in "Honking Complaints Plunge 69% Inside Congestion Pricing Zone/In the first two months of the Manhattan vehicle tolls that Trump wants to nix, gripes over blasting horns sunk when compared to 2024" (The City).

"In 2023, California saw a net loss of 268,000 residents in New York, 179,000....they're going to... Texas, Florida, Arizona...."

"You cannot be the party of working families when the places you govern are places working families cannot afford to live. You are not the party of working families when the places you govern are places working families cannot afford to live. In the American political system, to lose people is to lose power. If these trends hold, the 2030 census will shift the Electoral College sharply to the right. The states that Kamala Harris won in 2024 — they'll lose about 11 House seats and Electoral College votes. The states of Trump won would gain them. So in that Electoral College, a Democrat could win every single state Harris won in 2024 and also win Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and still lose the presidency."

Says Ezra Klein, in "There Is a Liberal Answer to Elon Musk," the new episode of his NYT podcast, audio and transcript at Podscribe.

The quoted part is from the beginning, where Klein effectively stirs up fears of future disaster for Democrats. The answer to the question asked in the episode title is: "If liberals don't make government work, zealots like Elon Musk are going to come in and burn it down." And: "If liberals do not want Americans to turn to the false promises of strong men, they need to offer them the fruits of effective government in the long run."

Yeah, just do that.

CORRECTION: I misread the headline as a question — Is There a Liberal Answer to Elon Musk? I hallucinated the humility that plainly belongs there!

Sunrise — 7:07, 7:20, 7:22.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

"Back by popular demand, for the first time in 20 years, the Emmy nominated ORIGINAL APPRENTICE STARRING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP is back!!"

"Watch Season 1 of The Apprentice, now streaming on Prime Video. New seasons every Monday! #TheApprentice"

Writes Donald Trump, on Truth Social.

It's free — here.

"You might think such a scene — lines of strangers ogling an exposed female body lying in the middle of the street — would feel unsettling or prurient...."

"Instead, the atmosphere felt mildly jovial, as people exchanged amused glances, shrugged, and snapped photos. Nothing untoward was happening here, because Balloon Kim seemed protected from any personal transgression. Naturally, being 60 feet long helped.... But Balloon Kim seemed impervious to transgression [because] Balloon Kim did not so much depict a person as it did a commodity, an abandoned outer shell.... By covering her famous face, Balloon Kim refused to return the onlookers’ gaze. She depicted no personal expression, and blocked even the depiction of any access to her interiority. This structure was not a portrait or a sculpture of Ms. Kardashian, but rather a very faithful recreation of the workings of Ms. Kardashian’s empire, which is built on the meticulously crafted project she has made of her body — a collection of highly public, highly exposed curves and spheres, sculpted and polished to perfection, displayed according to Ms. Kardashian’s diktats, and offered up as a series of ideals to be aspired to and emulated via the purchase of products."

Writes Rhonda Garelick, in "About That Giant Kim Kardashian in Times Square/The seamless, poreless, sanitized effigy of a capitalist titan was a startling piece of marketing for Skims" (NYT).

1. That last sentence — "This structure was not... " — is a doozy. Have I ever written "doozy" on this blog? Yes! And I've written it in the context of a long sentence that needed diagramming. So now, here's another item for the annals of Things I Asked Grok: "Diagram this sentence...."

2. "Interiority" — You might remember just last month I was asking "What kind of people use the word 'interiority'?" Encountering the word in a NYT article (about Dylan Mulvaney), I searched my blog archive and extracted the history of the word "interiority" on this blog. There were 5 earlier appearances, all of them in quotes, never used by me. One day I'll use it!

3. This post gets my "big and small" tag — which is, regular readers may know, my favorite tag. I  am amused by absurd and radical size variations. 

4. The NYT writer is doing something I've seen a lot of over the years — crediting a woman for doing something other than what you might think she's doing: selling her sexuality. 

"In his book 'The Paradox of Choice,' psychologist Barry Schwartz popularized the idea that too many choices produce paralysis and then often discontent."

"Here, instead of choice, we had constraint. And in constraint I discovered a new kind of freedom.... It was one of the last times I fully got into a book, in this case Norman Mailer’s 1,056-page masterwork 'The Executioner’s Song,' so immersed that I forgot there was a pandemic in the first place. I mostly ignored dating apps, which are as awful as they are necessary because everyone else is on them. But now, for a moment, there was no real shame in being alone. For the first time, I didn’t feel guilty about feeling lonely.... I thought more deeply about my life, and how I wanted to live. But I also did things I always said I wanted to do but — short of a natural disaster — knew I never would. Like watch the films of the Swedish existentialist director Ingmar Bergman.... Yes, it was a bit masochistic, but watching 12 of his films in rapid succession ended up being an unusual highlight of an unusual year. I also live-tweeted the experience, perhaps as a way to make a solitary adventure less so...."

Writes Shadi Hamid, in "Missing the solitude of covid," one essay in a WaPo collection of 5 essays looking back on the lockdown — free access link.

1. "And in constraint I discovered a new kind of freedom" — reminds me of the line in The Book of Common Prayer, "whose service is perfect freedom." The "who" is, of course, God. The service is chosen. The lockdown was imposed from the outside and it wasn't anything like God. But it's interesting to contemplate the difference... and to ask Grok to sketch out an "Ingmar Bergman" screenplay on the subject. 

2. "The Paradox of Choice" — yay! Glad to see that come up again. I've got a tag for it. I made that unusually specific tag because I could see this is what "they" have in store for us: a world without choice and with an induced and cultivated belief that the constriction of choice is the key to happiness. We practiced within the lockdown and "they" got to see how well we did.

3. "The Executioner’s Song" — I wrote a law review article about it long ago: "Standing, In Fluffy Slippers." That was back in 1991 when I believed I could find a new way to write within the genre of law review articles. Mailer's book is about Gary Gilmore, who, condemned to death, chose the firing squad. How's that for a "Paradox of Choice"? Oddly enough, just last Thursday a man was executed — in South Carolina — by firing squad. Could have picked lethal injection. Picked firing squad.

4. I like that the essay writer, locked down, eschewed dating apps but embraced live-tweeting. He didn't want to feel so all alone. 

"Is the Democrat message pure Jacobin hatred for anything pro-American and anything that could be considered pro-President Donald Trump?"

"They’re feral creatures now, lonely, isolated, frightened without leadership, desperate for relevance, without any cogent message, terrified at what’s to become of them."

Writes John Kass, at his own website, in "Democrats Locked in Their Own Hell."

I'm also seeing "Why Democrats Are Losing My Generation/Hint: It’s not because they didn’t go on Joe Rogan" by Joshua A. Cohen (at The Nation): "[P]ut yourself in the perspective of a voter my age; e.g., someone born in the early 2000s. When we grew up, the Democratic Party was defined by a charismatic leader who oversaw a growing economy and ended his term with strong approval ratings. When we came of age, we came to know a Republican Party defined by an unpopular, flailing Trump whose weak leadership defined the most traumatic period of our lives (the pandemic). We had never known a popular Republican president or an unpopular Democratic one. But when Biden’s administration burst into flames...."

And here's Victor Davis Hanson, in "Trump’s Democratic 'Allies'/Democrats’ obsessive Trump hatred blinds them to their own unpopularity, making his counter-revolution seem inevitable—and even normal" (American Greatness):

"Russian special forces have hiked through nine miles of gas pipeline to ambush Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region..."

"... as Moscow claims it retook three new settlements from Kyiv on Sunday. The Kremlin fighters allegedly spent days hiding inside a gas pipeline connecting Russia to Europe before emerging late Saturday to attack Ukrainian soldiers stationed near the border city of Sudzha, according to Russian bloggers on Telegram.... Sudzha, which had about 5,000 residents before the war began, remains one of the key cities Ukraine managed to take during its surprise counter-invasion last year in Kursk, with the conquered cities constituting a major bargaining chip against the Russian invaders...."

The NY Post reports.

ADDED: For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: "What are some movies or books where a military attack is made after marching through a pipeline?" And then, noting this NY Post report, "Do you think that really happened?

"Prince Robert also shared that his son asked him a final question: 'Papa, are you proud of me?'"

"Prince Frederik had struggled to speak for 'several days' before he died, according to Robert, 'so the clarity of these words was as surprising as the weight of the moment was profound. The answer was very easy, and he had heard it oh so many times, but at this time, he needed reassurance that he had contributed all that he possibly could in his short and beautiful existence and that he could now finally move on,' Robert explained. 'Frederik knows that he is my Superhero....'"

From "Luxembourg’s Prince Frederik dead at 22 from rare genetic disease: 'He is my superhero'" (NY Post). The disease is POLG Mitochondrial disease.

Sunrise — 7:02, 7:13.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.

While I was taking the second photograph a sandhill crane flew just over my head. It was especially nice, because I was just watching a movie that had a lot of birds in it — "The Boy and the Heron."

"Ambitious Democrats Have a New Game Plan: Yak It Up About Sports/Prominent leaders are flocking to sports radio shows and podcasts, an early sign of how the party is trying to reach apolitical young men...."

A NYT article that begins:

“I hate the Packers,” Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said of his state’s rival football team from Wisconsin....

He's trying to show his aptitude for national politics by insulting the people of a swing state. Genius! The "coach" has a "game plan."

“The Sixers suck right now,” declared Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, lamenting the decline of Philadelphia’s basketball team.

Yeah, at least insult your own team. 

The hot takes are flowing as a parade of ambitious Democrats talk sports, trying to accentuate their salt-of-the-earth credentials and forge stronger bonds with voters.

Count the metaphors:

"He’s still not a populist nationalist, he’s a globalist. He and I have a chasm that is probably insurmountable."

Said Steve Bannon, quoted in "The Populist vs. the Billionaire: Bannon, Musk and the Battle Within MAGA/President Trump has made clear he wants to keep both men and their allies within his movement, but the tensions are growing" (NYT).

Mr. Bannon vigorously disagrees with Mr. Musk’s support for H-1B visas, which allow high-skilled individuals to work in America. Mr. Bannon has also warned that billionaires like Mr. Musk and other tech executives — many of whom supported Democrats before backing Mr. Trump — will abandon the MAGA movement.

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: "Is this a mixed metaphor: 'He and I have a chasm that is probably insurmountable'?" And: "I think a good writer would see the concrete images behind these words and keep things coordinated. I believe George Orwell — 'Politics and the English Language' — supports my position."

But Bannon wasn't writing. He was speaking. 

"If you cannot get married and start a family within three quarters, the company will terminate your labor contract...."

"Not responding to the call of the country, not marrying and having children, is disloyal."

Said the memo to unmarried employees of Shandong Shuntian Chemical Group, quoted in "Chinese Company to Single Workers: Get Married or Get Out/As China’s government worries about the falling birthrate, some private employers have ordered workers to do their part, or else" (NYT). 

The notice from the chemical company, which began circulating online last month, was directed at unmarried employees between the ages of 28 and 58, including divorced workers. As online ridicule grew, the company quickly backtracked. Reached by phone, a woman at its headquarters said the notice had been retracted, and that the local government had ordered the company to undergo “rectification.”...

Years ago, when the Chinese authorities wanted to limit births, they resorted to coercive measures like forced abortions and sterilizations. (The city where the chemical company is based, Linyi, was particularly notorious for such tactics.) Now that Beijing is trying to do the opposite, it is taking a softer approach, perhaps to avoid setting off large-scale resistance.

"Liberal French women dress up as Nazis to protest against the so called ‘Fascist Epidemic’ during Women’s Day."

Weird photo, but since I don't want to suddenly thrust naked breasts in your face, I'll send you over to X to see it: here.

"All my life, I’ve loved a good quit. Leaving something broken always felt like freedom. Recently, I noticed I’d gained a lot of company..."

"... people online sharing testimonies of going 'no contact' with relatives. The diction was always the same: I went no contact; I had to go no contact. I understood the appeal of the phrase — the sense of control; the determination to cast oneself as the subject of a bad situation; the surety of the women sitting in their cars, their faces filling our TikTok screens, pronouncing with youthful confidence, 'I don’t fucking care if it’s your mom, your dad, your sister, your brother, your grandma, or your grandpa: If they’re toxic, then you have got to get rid of them.' It sounded so prudent, so clean, with its echoes of antiseptic pandemic DoorDash deliveries. It felt, as Eamon Dolan describes... in his forthcoming book... 'liberating and joyful,' like 'I could stand up straight at last,' like coming off 'house arrest.' Heroic, decisive. Such a great plot...."

Writes Elizabeth Weil in "What Do I Owe My Sister? Online, going 'no contact' with family members is often seen as liberating, empowering. If only I felt that way" (NY Magazine).

ADDED: For the annals of Things I Asked Grok: "There seems to be a current trend for people going 'no contact.' What's the source of the recent trend and how is it going? Any pushback?"

"Most men live lives of quiet desperation," said Joe Rogan.

On the new episode of Duncan Trussell's podcast — audio and transcript here.

The guys were not talking about Henry David Thoreau. They were talking about men struggling to live with women. Here's the context (which begins at 00:57:11):

ROGAN: I had a buddy of mine who was an actor and he got this part, I think it was in a movie. It was good, you know, good little, small part. He was real excited and his girlfriend started crying and she said, when is something gonna happen for me?... That was her response....

TRUSSELL: Jesus, dude. That's so dark.

ROGAN: I think about that guy sometimes. 'cause I was, I was on a, a show with him, one day, just bit part on a show. And I was like, this guy's gonna be a movie star.... But I remember him telling me, he's like, she started crying, man.... She was crying saying, when is it gonna happen to me? So [he says] I don't know what to do. And I was like Captain Fucking Jettison — I'm Captain Fucking Pull the Parachutes — that's me.... So I was like, dude, you gotta bail out.... You gotta bail now. This one, you can't fix that girl....

TRUSSELL: That's so fucked up.

ROGAN: But she's pretty hot.... 

TRUSSELL: Dude, I wouldn't have bailed.

ROGAN: She had the heavies... she had natural heavies.

TRUSSELL: Natural heavies. It's worth it!