I haven't been keeping up with the circus.

Here's the upper right corner of Drudge right now, and I must have glanced at it 10 times before I realized that's not an elephant's trunk but the gray-sleeved arm of a photographer:



Yellow Journalism: CNN Spouts Off About 'Pee Tapes' 77 Times in Five Days! I guess this is what their ratings are telling them the people want, but I have turned away.

"Billionaire Matthew Mellon, 53, died suddenly in Cancun, Mexico, where he was attending a drug rehabilitation facility."

"Mellon made his fortune in cryptocurrency, turning a $2 million investment into $1 billion. He is survived by his three children, Force, Olympia and Minty."

In 2016, he told The Post, “OxyContin is like legal heroin. And it needs to be addressed,” while at a Malibu treatment center kicking a habit of $100,000 a month.

"So why is there such reluctance to have children with Down syndrome?"

Asks the bioethicist Chris Kaposy in "The Ethical Case for Having a Baby With Down Syndrome (NYT)"

One explanation shows up repeatedly when parents recount the early days after receiving their child’s diagnosis. They feel a sense of loss because they no longer dream that their child will get married, go to college or start a family of their own one day — in other words, that they will not meet the conventional expectations for the perfect middle-class life....

Perhaps the question to ask is: Why do we have children at all? Most parents would agree that it is not only so that they can replicate a conventional arc of a successful middle-class life: college, marriage, real estate, grandchildren. If those are the reasons to abort fetuses with Down syndrome, they seem disappointing — they are either self-centered or empty in their narrow-minded conventionality....

Kaposy proceeds to embrace reproductive freedom and to put the right to choose in terms of choosing one's values. His last sentence is: "If you value acceptance, empathy and unconditional love, you, too, should welcome a child with Down syndrome into your life."

That idea goes beyond the simple problem of choosing (if you're a person who believes you have a choice) to give birth to a child you know has Down syndrome. There is also the more complicated and harder to perceive problem in a question that Kaposy asks but leaves mostly unexplored, "Why do we have children at all?"

Kaposy gives that question a pat send-off: "Most parents would agree that it is not only so that they can replicate a conventional arc of a successful middle-class life: college, marriage, real estate, grandchildren." What are "most parents" thinking when they decide (if they decide at all) to devote so much of their time and work and money to the human stranger that is their future baby? Isn't it something close to the replication of a conventional arc of a successful middle-class life? If it's "not only" that, it's because they want an even better life for that child, understood mostly in terms of worldly success.

Of course, the conventional idea of a successful middle-class life involves acceptance, empathy and unconditional love flowing from the parents toward the child and the child toward the parents, going on as long as any of them are alive. That too is self-centered and conventional — a kinder, gentler self-centered conventionality.

But you may not get what you're picturing, even when you believe you have a right to abort and choose to have that child. We don't look very critically at our mental picture of the unborn child, which is much more idealized when we aren't facing news that the child has a disability.

I don't know if any of you are watching "American Idol" these days, but...

... I bet a lot of you will, like me, enjoy Maddie Poppe singing the old Melanie song, "Brand New Key":



That song was very popular in 1971. What was it about? Was it sexual innuendo or just simple girlish enthusiasm about roller skating? Roller skates used to be metal contraptions that you tightened onto your shoes with a metal key. You don't have to read Wikipedia to see the potential for sexual metaphor — the woman is excited about her "brand new pair of roller skates" and some guy's "brand new key" and thinks they should get together and "try them on" — even though she's "okay alone," he's "got something [she] needs." Melanie denies any sexual depths:

"I was fasting with a 27-day fast on water. I broke the fast and went back to my life living in New Jersey and we were going to a flea market around six in the morning. On the way back… and I had just broken the fast, from the flea market, we passed a McDonald's and the aroma hit me, and I had been a vegetarian before the fast. So we pulled into the McDonald's and I got the whole works... the burger, the shake, and the fries… and no sooner after I finished that last bite of my burger… that song was in my head. The aroma brought back memories of roller skating and learning to ride a bike and the vision of my dad holding the back fender of the tire. And me saying to my dad... 'You’re holding, you’re holding, you’re holding, right?' Then I’d look back and he wasn’t holding and I’d fall. So that whole thing came back to me and came out in this song."

Her explanation makes it even more childlike (and therefore not sexual). Melanie says:

I thought it was cute; a kind of old thirties tune. I guess a key and a lock have always been Freudian symbols, and pretty obvious ones at that. There was no deep serious expression behind the song, but people read things into it. They made up incredible stories as to what the lyrics said and what the song meant. In some places, it was even banned from the radio. My idea about songs is that once you write them, you have very little say in their life afterward. It's a lot like having a baby. You conceive a song, deliver it, and then give it as good a start as you can. After that, it's on its own. People will take it any way they want to take it.

Some people mainly know this song from the movie "Boogie Nights" (which had a character, Rollergirl), and it was sung on "The Voice" in 2016 (but I never watch that show, so it was new to me as a present-day singing competition song).

We saw that big snowstorm coming, threw stuff in the car, and drove to Texas.

Did you notice we were gone? We're back in Wisconsin now, after a week of warmth while the north had its weirdly cold April interlude.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments. I have many more Texas pictures to show you, but it will have to wait. We're weary from the 2-day drive back home.

A new WaPo poll "finds that the gap between support for Democratic vs. Republican House candidates dropped by more than half since the beginning of the year."

"At the same time, there has been a slight increase in President Trump’s approval rating, although it remains low. Measures of partisan enthusiasm paint a more mixed picture of the electorate in comparison to signs of Democratic intensity displayed in many recent special elections.... The Post-ABC poll finds that 40 percent approve of the president, up slightly from 36 percent in January to his highest level of support since last April.... The survey shows the GOP making a more pronounced shift among white voters, who now prefer Republicans by a 14-point margin over Democrats, up from five points in January. Republicans lead by 60 percent to 31 percent among white voters without college degrees, slightly larger than an 18-point GOP advantage three months ago."

Link.

Why is a 29-point gap considered only "slightly larger" than an 18-point gap? And in 3 months? Seems like a huge leap. Am I misreading that? Have I forgotten the meaning of "slightly"?

Reading the Comey interview transcript, I get a "Cat Person" vibe.

From the transcript, here's Comey describing his conflicted, confusing feelings about that encounter on the evening of January 27, 2017:

JAMES COMEY: ... and so I said, "Sir, whatever you-- whatever you like." And he said, "Well, why don't we make it 6:30?" And I said, "Sure." And then I called Patrice, broke our date, and-- as luck had it, I had-- an encounter with Clapper, who had left the government but we were giving him a recognition as honorary F.B.I. agent. And I told him about this invitation and he told-- comforted me by saying, "Yeah, I've heard lots of other people are getting calls to come for dinner." 

He comforted me...

And so then in my head I was-- "Okay, so it's a group thing. He must be having a group thing tonight, a group thing tomorrow night. That's fine." And so I went over there expecting-- a crowd of people.

And so then in my head I was... I feel as though I'm reading a #MeToo story told by a young woman. Why didn't he say "I thought..." like a plain-spoken adult? It's like the inside of his head is an environment with moods and wisps of cognition. He's invited into a private space, he has his trepidations, but other people will be there, and he's hoping he won't be alone with the man.

Are you finding Comey compelling?

We're watching the Stephanopoulos interview. Are you?

ADDED: The TV interview is still in progress, but you can read the whole transcript here.

"Hip-hop has a misogyny problem and Drake’s new bounce-infused ode to women is not going to fix it."

Writes Shannon Lee in WaPo:

Rap stars are notorious for releasing music that belies their claim of being feminist or pro-women. In March, rapper and producer Pharrell Williams presented an award during the iHeartRadio Music Awards wearing a jacket that read “Women’s Rights” in honor of Women’s History Month and then performed "Lemon" on a stage full of women covered in glitter and twerking in their underwear.

There are larger implications. Hip-hop has not had its #MeToo moment, but allegations made by and against some of its biggest players suggest its time is coming...

I'm adding the tags for this post, and the first one I think of is "hypocrisy" — hip-hopcrisy. But I do think it's important to see art as different from a political statement, especially when the political statement relates to sexuality. Art should be complex and not propaganda, and sexuality should and will survive independently from the various political messages that have something to do with sex. If you're going to attack the male hip-hop artists for their use of sexy women in their performance, you'd better also attack the female artists for their use of sexy women — especially if your theme is hypocrisy. Don't be a hypocrisy hypocrite. That's the worst kind.

Here's that Drake video:



Side question: What is bounce music?

Bounce music is an energetic style of New Orleans hip hop music which is said to have originated as early as the late 1980s.... Bounce is characterized by call-and-response-style party and Mardi Gras Indian chants and dance call-outs that are frequently hypersexual.... The sound of bounce has primarily been shaped by the recycling and imitation of the "Drag Rap" sample.... Typical of bounce music is the "shouting out" of or acknowledgment of geographical areas, neighborhoods and housing projects, particularly of the New Orleans area....

About the teenage boys playing in the snow behind the Weather Channel reporter Justin Michaels last night....

Did anyone other than Meade notice that one of them yelled "Grab her by her pussy"?

ADDED: You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

IN THE COMMENTS: Earnest Prole said:

Might it have actually been “fuck her right in the pussy”?

If so, it's a viral meme that has nothing to do with Trump's Access Hollywood remarks.

More here.

Meade says:

I guess I had a case of Trumpbrain. New Media Meade regrets the error.

SO: I guess the boys really weren't out there thinking about Trump. They were just thinking about pussy. You can do that independently of Trump. Pussy is not a Trump-owned brand. It's more that pussy owns Trump than that Trump owns pussy. Which explains the banality of the original Access Hollywood story. But if Trump can get you to think of him when you think of pussy, he's got quite a brand.

The NYT explains Diamond and Silk to its readers as “a modern-day minstrel show” aimed at “white conservatives"...

The NYT gets some strong quotes from critics:

Bree Newsome, an artist and activist, described them in an interview as “a modern-day minstrel show” aimed at “white conservatives who want to believe Trump can’t be racist or they themselves can’t be racist because there are these two black women named Diamond and Silk who are constantly rooting for Trump.”

Ms. Newsome said their performances relied on “stereotypical images of black women” that would not be celebrated on conservative media if they were not Trump supporters.

Keith Boykin, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a former White House aide to President Bill Clinton, offered a similar critique.

“If these two women, the way they speak, the way they talk and act and behave, were saying anything that was contradictory to Trump, the Trump supporters who defend them would be the first to attack them,” Mr. Boykin said.

Mr. Boykin said their conservative fans, who are often quick to note their race and gender, “only want to listen to the people who reaffirm their narrow, limited vision of what blackness is all about and how black people should perceive white people and specifically how they should perceive Donald Trump.”

The Times ends with this, which I believe is intended to make the point that Newsome is right and Diamond and Silk are indeed a “a modern-day minstrel show” aimed at “white conservatives":

“I turn on my television one night and I see these two on television,” [Trump] told the crowd. “I say they are the greatest, what is it?”

Mr. Trump then asked them to “do a little routine.” The sisters took the microphone and obliged.

“The silent majority has spoken, baby!” Diamond told the crowd. “Build that wall, Donald J. Trump!”

Trump has 4 tweets on Comey.

I never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies. His “memos” are self serving and FAKE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

Comey throws AG Lynch “under the bus!” Why can’t we all find out what happened on the tarmac in the back of the plane with Wild Bill and Lynch? Was she promised a Supreme Court seat, or AG, in order to lay off Hillary. No golf and grandkids talk (give us all a break)!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

The big questions in Comey’s badly reviewed book aren’t answered like, how come he gave up Classified Information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail), why did the DNC refuse to give Server to the FBI (why didn’t they TAKE it), why the phony memos, McCabe’s $700,000 & more?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

Unbelievably, James Comey states that Polls, where Crooked Hillary was leading, were a factor in the handling (stupidly) of the Clinton Email probe. In other words, he was making decisions based on the fact that he thought she was going to win, and he wanted a job. Slimeball!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

1. "Wild Bill" — is that a new nickname? I don't remember seeing that one before.

2. I see he's now spelling "slimeball" as one word. I assume he did not read my post commenting on his 2-word spelling the other day: "I'm utterly certain the correct spelling is 'slimeball,' although forevermore I will pause before writing 'slimeball' and think of Trump and feel that it would be an allusion to Trump to write 'slime ball.'"

3. "...  Comey... how come he..." How Comey. How Comey of Comey, how come he...?

4. I love the rhetorical technique — so Twitter — of inserting a second, more cynical voice in paretheses: "how come he gave up Classified Information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail)...." Trump keeps it simple but also trusts the reader to understand the extreme compression. We get that "(jail)" is a second, more devilish Trump, heckling. It's like he's his own Silk.

5. These tweets are well-timed to force the Sunday shows to take notice and to make it hard for them to keep up (especially since so much of the time that would have been devoted to Comey had to be reapportioned to the Syria story).

Trump doubles down on "Mission Accomplished!"

The Syrian raid was so perfectly carried out, with such precision, that the only way the Fake News Media could demean was by my use of the term “Mission Accomplished.” I knew they would seize on this but felt it is such a great Military term, it should be brought back. Use often!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

I said it yesterday:

Trump is completely aware of how Bush was punched around for using that phrase in a celebration of a specific mission that in fact was accomplished, and he would like the naysayers to come after him the way they came after Bush, and when they do, he'll show us all how to handle that kind of anti-military negativity.

"Please don’t give them those eyebrows that look like black electrical tape or they won’t get job."

From a NY Post article on bad "microblading" (microblading is permanently tattooed eyebrow makeup):

“A lot of people are walking around with eyebrows that are theatrical or cartoonish,’’ says NYC-based makeup and brow designer Paulo Siqueira, who prefers more traditional techniques. “Many model agencies are forbidding their girls from getting microblading because the process can go so wrong. They send me new faces and the bookers say, ‘Please don’t give them those eyebrows that look like black electrical tape or they won’t get jobs.'"

Dark, thick eyebrows have been popular in recent years, and they sure look good...



... but there's always the danger that they may go out of style and — years from now, when maybe you won't care — seem outdated.

"There are, in fact, almost two trillion ways to lace a shoe with six pairs of eyelets."

"The most common lacing method, termed criss-cross lacing, is also one of the strongest and most efficient, but is not so well suited to certain dress shoes, such as Oxfords, because the central shoelace crossovers prevent the sides of the shoe from coming together in the middle. For such shoes, methods such as straight lacing are better suited. Many shoe lacing methods have been developed with specific functional benefits, such as being faster or easier to tighten or loosen, binding more tightly, being more comfortable, using up more lace or less lace, adjusting fit, preventing slippage, and suiting specific types of shoes. One such method, patented in 2003 as 'Double helix shoe lacing process,' runs in a double helix pattern and results in less friction and faster and easier tightening and loosening.... One of the most popular decorative methods, checkerboard lacing, is very difficult to tighten or loosen without destroying the pattern. Shoes with checkerboard lacing are generally treated as 'slip-ons.'"

From the Wikipedia article "Shoelaces."


"An Oxford shoe with straight lacing" — cc ASuitableWardrobe.

Straight-laced should not be confused with "straitlaced," which means tightly laced and originally referred not to the laces of shoes but bodices. The figurative use means "Excessively rigid or scrupulous in matters of conduct; narrow or over-precise in one's rules of practice or moral judgement; prudish" (OED).

"The Court... rules that, because transgender people have long been subjected to systemic oppression and forced to live in silence, they are a protected class."

"Therefore, any attempt to exclude them from military service will be looked at with the highest level of care, and will be subject to the Court’s ‘strict scrutiny.’ This means that before Defendants can implement the Ban, they must show that it was sincerely motivated by compelling interests, rather than by prejudice or stereotype, and that it is narrowly tailored to achieve those interests."

From "Judge: Transgender People A Protected Class, And The Military Can’t Enact Trump Ban" (HuffPo).