What Politics Is

On this day:

30 BC
Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
1099
First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces led by Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.
1676
Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip’s War. ('Praying Indian' refers to an American Indian convert to Christianity.)
1914
World War I: the United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit
1944
Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
1952
The Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow.
1960
Echo 1A, NASA’s first successful communications satellite, is launched.
1976
Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War
1982
Mexico announces it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin America and the Third World.
1994
Major League Baseball players go on strike. This will force the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
2000
The Oscar-class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise. 

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The sinking of the Kursk was a MasterClass in a state's self-absorbed disdain for those it professes to represent and to care for. And, of course, an insight into its glorious leader, Putin.

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"We’ve generated the first early human eggs derived from stem cells. This is a big deal -- the potential to redefine fertility is real."

This is a post on X from a guy in a lab.

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The more fixated we are on mental health, the more sensitive we become to anything that might qualify as a symptom and the more we use clinical language to describe normal emotional experiences like grief, burnout and loneliness. This broadening of what we think counts as a disorder — known as concept creep — encourages us to pathologize ordinary life and see ourselves as mentally unhealthy.--Cowen

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Termarr Johnson, who is one of the top prospects for the Pittsburgh Pirates, suffered a serious injury.

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani blamed a “miscommunication” Tuesday after an awkward public clash between City Hall and NYPD officials over whether the department would provide security for his wife Rama Duwaji’s upcoming Middle East trip.
He's got to be the only socialist in history who doesn't know that revolutionaries take over the police first.

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In 2024, Nancy Pelosi earned more from investments than any large hedge fund in the United States.

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The Antikythera mechanism, recovered from a Roman shipwreck in 1901 turned out to be a hand-cranked bronze computer that could predict eclipses and track the irregular orbit of the Moon, and nothing of comparable mechanical complexity would appear anywhere on Earth for another 1,400 years

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Recently, the government gave $500 million to the coal industry, mostly in West Virginia. Now that's a lot of money, but that's less than the people of NYC gave to the wife of the Ex-mayor when they left office. That's consoling.

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The goofy Ms. Hong lost in the Democrat primary for Governor in Wisconsin, despite support from the GOP PACs. One wonders if she was finally recognized as an incompetent by Democrats or alienated her foolish base by compromising on her foolish positions.
And Flanagan won in Minnesota, proving voters don't care what you do or don't do in office.

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Toxoplasma gondii, a single-celled organism that can only reproduce sexually inside cats, rewires the fear circuits in rodent brains to make them attracted to cat odors rather than repelled by them.

Researchers have spent decades investigating whether this same parasite, which lives dormant in hundreds of millions of people, might subtly influence human behavior and preferences in ways we don't recognize.

That may be unconstitutional!

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What Politics Is

A very ugly podcast is being rebroadcast on a website I like. It is an interview with a trans-prostitute and her story of an encounter with Lindsey Graham. I'm sure there will be many opinions about this, especially on the very confused Left. 

I know little about Graham. I thought he was funny, and I've heard the rumors. And I don't care about his personal life — aside from the security risks it presents. But I do care about scandalmongering, especially the dead, as a political tool, and I think that it characteristically appears late and in the absence of substance or courage. And I hate the idea that this kind of attack substitutes for political debate and reduces serious, threatening government problems to personal quirks and inconsistencies.

AI, The Debt, Censorship, Suspicion of Achievement, The Iran War, Russia in Ukraine, Open Borders, Mystery Cabinet Appointments, Children's Academic Test Scores, The Electoral Success of Shallow Revolutionary Thought — and we get this.

It confirms my opinion of the perpetrators and changes my opinion of the website that rebroadcast it.

Strongman's Accomplices

On this day:

350
Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators.
1140
French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy.
1839
In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsü destroys 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War.
1932
Lou Gehrig and teammate Tony Lazzeri hit four home runs in one game, and hit for the natural cycle, respectively. These two feats are both less common than a perfect game, which has occurred twenty-one times in one hundred and twenty years.
1937
The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson.
1940
World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ends with a German victory and with Allied forces in full retreat.
1940
World War II: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.
1969
Melbourne-Evans collision: Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.
1982
The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, is shot on a London street. He survives but is permanently paralysed.
1989
The government of China sends troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.

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"[classics] teaches you 'to read difficult things. ... In a global environment of fact-dodging, misreporting, conspiracy theories, fake news, and outright lies, skills in reading difficult things are those that the world most needs."--Mary Beard

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Bass secured a spot on the November ballot and Pratt was running in second place as of early Wednesday morning, ahead of progressive city councilwoman Nithya Raman. These are the best candidates for mayor in LA's drifting hulk.
The electoral talent search for Maine senator seems to settle between a 120-year-old career politician and a Nazi.

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Apparently, accusations of being a Nazi are true unless you have Nazi tattoos.

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Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist congressional candidate endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, deleted a previous Twitter account that included thousands of posts and reposts expressing support for abolishing police, prisons and borders, as well as seizing private property and nationalizing major industries and calling into question Israel’s right to exist.

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The metaphor of “running different software” that fathers sometimes use turns out to be a reasonable approximation of what the neuroimaging shows in new fathers.

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Tom Steyer, running for California governor, spent over $200 million of his own money on the race. Is that reasonable?

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Strongman's Accomplices

The American president has threatened military action against Denmark, a NATO ally, if it doesn’t surrender Greenland to the United States. He moved to punish a US senator — a retired Navy captain and combat veteran — for reminding service members they must not obey illegal orders. He posted a grotesquely cruel message on social media, jeering the deaths of director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele. He sent his press secretary to warn CBS News that unless it broadcast a presidential interview in its entirety and unedited, "we’ll sue your ass off.” He deposed Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, then announced that the United States was now “in charge” of that country, and “we’re going to be taking oil.” He summoned Justice Department attorneys to berate them for not moving fast enough to prosecute his critics and opponents. And when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis shot and killed Renee Good, an unarmed American citizen, the White House instantly pronounced her a “domestic terrorist” and refused to open an investigation into the shooting.

This is not normal political combat. It isn’t just more of the partisan roughness that Mr. Dooley had in mind when he remarked that “politics ain’t beanbag.” This is unabashed White House thuggishness, a vengeful aggressiveness that makes no effort to disguise itself by pretending to care about constitutional norms or democratic values. And all of it is cheered by tens of millions of Americans who cannot seem to get enough of President Trump’s cascade of gratuitous cruelty, insults, and threats.

When the president was asked in a recent interview whether he recognizes any check on his powers, he didn’t bother with euphemisms. “Yeah, there is one thing,” he said. “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

For anyone who takes the American constitutional system seriously, that statement is genuinely terrifying. Not because Trump is wrong but because — let’s face it — he’s right.

The British statesman William Gladstone praised the US Constitution as “the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.” For more than two centuries, the self-correcting durability of the constitutional framework the Framers devised has rightly been regarded as a masterpiece of statesmanship.

But now the checks and balances on which that system depends are failing. Built into the constitutional architecture was an assumption of public virtue. It was not designed to contain a president who would openly declare himself restrained only by his own (nonexistent) morality and whose outrages would be endorsed by a major political party.

…..

The Trump phenomenon isn’t an aberration our constitutional machinery can correct. It is the failure the Founders anticipated when they warned of what happens after virtue collapses and applause replaces judgment. The Constitution still exists on paper. What is disappearing is the public will to enforce its meaning. A republic does not fall when a strongman declares himself unchecked. It falls when millions hear him say it — and approve.--from Jacoby

Jacoby's pretty rough on Trump because he's implying this dangerous phase of our republic is somehow limited to him, or characterized by him. Rather, the country has struggled with its ideals since its inception.  It is the basis of the Civil War, the battles between amoral political parties, the essence of those politicians who claim they plan on "fundamentally transforming the United States of America." These people are not ignoring America's principles; they don't like them.

Politicians eager to seize the wealth of citizens or gerrymander a state are not redirecting the nation; they are changing its nature. Politicians who would pack the court are trying to bypass the very checks and balances that have allowed the country to succeed. Trump is philosophy-free, but he is no aberration. You don't fight repeated, pointless wars, allow erosion of fundamental American rights, and amass $38 trillion in debt without true incompetence and a deep disregard for the citizenry. Trump is a problem, but he is only the current iteration of a long line of them. And, as the results of incompetence, greed, ambition, and cynicism circle the landing strip,  there will be more to come.

 

Gerrymander Redux

On this day:

1529
The Treaty of Saragossa divides the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal along a line 297.5 leagues or 17° east of the Moluccas.
1836
Texas Revolution: A day after the Battle of San Jacinto, forces under Texas General Sam Houston capture Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1889
At high noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Run of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.
1898
Spanish-American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the USS Nashville captures a Spanish merchant ship.
1915
The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres.
2000
In a pre-dawn raid, federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González from his relatives’ home in Miami, Florida.

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“The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy.”--Elbridge Gerry

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John Mearsheimer is a political scientist at the University of Chicago. He has a body of work encompassing international affairs, particularly Israel's relationship with its neighbors and America. One book, Why Leaders Lie (Oxford University Press, 2011), analyzes lying in international politics. His two main findings are that leaders actually do not lie very much to other countries and that democratic leaders are actually more likely than autocrats to lie to their own people.

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Elián González was rescued from America by the American government.

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The Blue Origin explosion last weekend was significant for the Artemis program. The New Glenn rocket was designed to launch Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander, one of two options the space agency is tapping to deliver astronauts to the lunar surface as part of its Artemis program. The other company NASA is contracting is SpaceX, whose Starship rocket also has yet to successfully deliver functional payloads into space and has repeatedly exploded during launch attempts.

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China has built a massive $1.2 trillion trade surplus and dominates key future-facing industries such as electric vehicles, solar panels, shipbuilding, and robotics. Yet its share of the global economy has slipped, from a peak of about 18.5% in 2021 to roughly 16.5% by the end of 2025, according to data from the International Monetary Fund, said a WSJ report.

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Government works on its own script, works around the law, and, when caught, forgives itself.

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Gerrymander Redux

Gerrymandering restructures voting districts for partisan purposes. The new gerrymandering of Virginia will take a state that voted for Trump in the last election and has a breakdown in the House of Representatives of 6 to 5 in favor of Democrats and change it to 10 to 1, Democrats. This will essentially disenfranchise rural voters.

In democracies, voters choose political leaders; in gerrymandering the leaders choose the voters.

           Subverting Democracy in the Name of Democracy

Voting is but a part of democracy. The Russians have a national vote, too.

The good Mr. Gerry, for whom this disgraceful process is named, was no hack. Born into a wealthy merchant family, Gerry vocally opposed British colonial policy in the 1760s and played an active role in organizing the resistance during the early stages of the American Revolutionary War. Elected to the Second Continental Congress, Gerry signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He was one of three men who attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787 but refused to sign the Constitution because it initially did not include a Bill of Rights. After its ratification, he was elected to the first United States Congress, where he actively participated in drafting and passing the Bill of Rights, advocating for individual and state liberties. Gerry was at first opposed to the idea of political parties(wiki). He was the Governor of Massachusetts and was elected Vice President under Madison in 1812. He died in office.

Nor was this practice new. Manipulating voting districts to secure political power existed even before the nation. In 18th-century England, political operatives created “rotten boroughs” with only a few eligible voters, making it easy for politicians to buy votes and win seats. 

After English colonists founded the United States, gerrymandering “began almost immediately,” says Thomas Hunter, a political science professor at the University of West Georgia.

Gerrymandering is a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise certain voters and distort elections. Its intent is to benefit the political class and to spite the voter. Amazingly, it is illegal to do this based on race, but only on race. What honest citizen would want this? And why?

It can only be that the disenfranchised voter is thought to deserve to be.

Voting is a contest of beliefs. One votes to express a belief, with the many beliefs available, you will vote for the superior one. But inherent to the democracy is the belief that you will accept the result of the vote, that the majority may not see your way as the best.

The Americans have a structural advantage; they have a Constitution that limits the power of the state, carefully considered guidelines that channel votes within a confining framework. The American vote is a nuance within that structure.

With gerrymandering, like voting fraud, a thief attempts to distort the system for his own benefit. He always disguises the motive as a need to defeat an evil opponent or philosophy--the 'no effort is too much' argument--but the objective is to benefit the politician and his organization. The voting box is no longer a contest, it is a command.

So, gerrymandering, voter fraud, and court manipulation are all means to subvert the letter and the spirit of America's founding documents for the betterment of a political few. Any abuse is allowed to advance the kingdom of the righteous. And the righteous thief.

And in modern America, it is brandished proudly.

Election Lessons

 

On this day:

1865
American Civil War: CSS Shenandoah is the last Confederate combat unit to surrender after circumnavigating the globe on a cruise on which it sank or captured 37 vessels.
1865
American Civil War: CSS Shenandoah is the last Confederate combat unit to surrender after circumnavigating the globe on a cruise on which it sank or captured 37 vessels.

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Excellence is a habit, not an act..--Aristotle

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16% of Americans are on food stamps. How is that possible?

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When socialists fail, they always blame a domestic enemy.

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No Kings report: Is a senator or representative who has been in office for a generation sort of a member of the House of Lords?

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Election Lessons

There will be a lot of talk about the election. Great truths will be gleaned from Supreme Court elections in Pennsylvania, a political outlier getting one million votes in a city of eight million, the third defeat for a gubernatorial candidate. But democracies have meaningful voting. Some thoughts:

--Any number of Americans voting for Mamdani is significant. Intelligence and experience have never been crucial in candidates but some baseline is assumed. That generality is now gone. It is not, however, a criticism of Mamdani. There has always been a 'make-work' element in government, but usually not at this level. Those days are long gone. Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia are all electing people who could not run a toll booth. Government can be shielded from incompetence in government for only so long, especially if the society is rich. But a society under any stress needs some element of competence. That does not seem to be a priority anymore.

--The goal of democracies is to have the government reflect the very nature of its people, not their desires. The Americans created the first lasting democracy based upon basic, agreed-upon principles that protected free people to express and improve their lives. Militant philosophies and beliefs that do not tolerate dissent are incompatible with the nation's philosophy. This is a problem with collectivism because it assumes disparities are the undeserved consequences of a conflict inherent to the culture. Often, that conflict is resolved with righteous violence. It is crucial to understand that this cleansing violence is, in many redistributionist philosophies, an inevitable part of the 'economic change.'

--The Democrat party has no actual political beliefs other than political success. This does not discourage voters from voting for them. Citizens discouraged with the status quo vote for the people and party that has been in power over them for years, in some cases, decades. 

--The education system's problems are beginning to show. The peculiar voting patterns of what used to be called the educated class should be a worry to all thoughtful people. But maybe not if that poor education benefits you.

---The Left's basic belief is that hatred of others and demands of self-gratification motivate all social and political interactions and contaminate all governing concepts. This demands faith-based equality that requires force and overrides law, punishment of criminals, and gender sensibilities. It trumps philosophy, logic, science, history, and, therefore, thought and judgment.

The New Bowdlerism

“To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community.” --Disney

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Trigger Alert! "Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."—Coach John Wooden, UCLA Head Basketball Coach of 10 national championships

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“Today’s CEOs are the last generation to lead exclusively human workforces.” --Benioff

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“It is easier to start a war than to end it.”--Gabriel García Márquez

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The New Bowdlerism

The author who invented Western man in drama is under attack for being too Western. Prim investigators at Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust have been hard at work. Already, several tortured words have confessed.

The process of "decolonizing" Shakespeare’s work reportedly includes researching "the continued impact of colonialism" on world history and how "Shakespeare's work has played a part in this." The effort, which roughly means distancing work from Western perspectives, reportedly began after concerns were raised that the celebration of Shakespeare enables "White supremacy."

The trust has also warned that some items in its collections and archives relating to the iconic 16th century playwright may contain "language or depictions that are racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise harmful."

Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust reportedly worked on a research project with the University of Birmingham's Dr. Helen Hopkins. It concluded that praise of Shakespeare as a "universal" genius "benefits the ideology of White European supremacy." Their research concluded further that "colonial inculcation" spread European ideas about art and used Shakespeare as a symbol of "British cultural superiority" and "Anglo-cultural supremacy."

Celebrating Shakespeare’s work, the research argued, was part of a "White Anglo-centric, Eurocentric, and increasingly ‘West-centric’ worldviews that continue to do harm in the world today."

One of the solutions proposed by the project is for the trust to "present Shakespeare not as the ‘greatest,’ but as ‘part of a community of equal and different writers and artists from around the world.’"

The Telegraph also reported that the trust has worked to make Shakespeare’s legacy more international by organizing events like "celebrating Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, and a Romeo and Juliet-inspired Bollywood dance workshop."

Censorship always has a presumed beneficiary--children and mothers, young girls, uneducated pagans--generally some subset felt by the Chief Arbitrators as incapable of making their own judgments and coming to their own conclusions. But the modern bluenose is breaking new ground. He is not trying to sanitize the world, he wants to attack what he feels is the threat to world stability: Quality.

Quality as a destabilizing force in the world is a chilling vision of man. 

 

Keystone

Private equity funds—which pool money from a few exclusive investors to purchase privately held companies with “little to no public reporting”—may not be a good fit for the relative safety that workers expect from 401(k) plans that typically invest in public companies whose performance is routinely reported and measured.--Hopkins study

OR

“We are seeing institutions worldwide blend public and private markets, and in many cases, it’s been a great investment,” said Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock at a summit on retirement that the company sponsored last week. More than half of the $11.6 trillion in assets under management at BlackRock are in retirement products.

Fink and other proponents say a key reason for including private assets in the $12.5 trillion workplace retirement plan market is the need for greater portfolio diversification.

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A stabbing rampage has occurred in Amsterdam, leaving five victims wounded at the famed Dam Square, including two Americans.

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Musk and some of his outriders were interviewed by Baier yesterday and said some remarkable things about the government. It is a mistake not to have him explain what they are doing. One little nugget: when HHS gives research grant money, only 65% goes to the scientist. The rest goes to the university.

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Keystone

Keystone XL is a 2,000-mile tar sands pipeline that would stretch from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

The pipeline is designed for one thing—to send oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf coast, and from there to overseas markets.

Its owner is TransCanada, a Canadian oil company.

The original petition for permit was denied on January 18, 2012 due to environmental concerns. Specifically, the original pipeline route would have passed through an environmentally sensitive area of Nebraska known as the Sand Hills region. This area has highly porous soil and shallow groundwater. The Ogallala aquifer is also in this region and the pipeline would have posed a potential threat to the drinking water. A revised permit was resubmitted in May 2012 which contained an alternate route. It was denied.

The Keystone Pipeline already exists. In fact, the Keystone Mainline is 1,353 miles of 30" pipe which extends from Hardisty, Alberta to refineries in Wood River and Peoria, Illinois. This segment has been in service since June 2010. The Cushing Extension is 298 miles of 36" pipe which runs from Steele City, Nebraska to crude oil terminals and tank farms in Cushing, Oklahoma. This portion has been flowing since February 2011.

The Keystone XL Pipeline consists of two parts. The first is the Gulf Coast Project. This portion would transport oil over 435 miles through 36" pipe running from Cushing, Oklahoma to Port Arthur, Texas. The second segment, called the Keystone XL, would run 1,179 miles from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska.

Although the argument against the pipeline centers on environmental concerns, the real reason may have to do with the disdain for fossil fuels felt by environmental groups and others. Keystone XL is a relatively small issue compared to the entirety of the existing U.S. pipeline system. Hence, opponents of this project have taken a well-anticipated route, claiming that it will harm the environment. The question is, if the thousands of miles of existing pipeline has been in use and the environment seems to be unaffected, why should Keystone XL suddenly be the project that ruins the planet?

The project’s corporate backer—the Canadian energy infrastructure company TC Energy—officially abandoned the project in June 2021 following President Joe Biden’s denial of a key permit on his first day in office.

The latest twist is President Donald Trump’s 2025 rescission of Biden’s executive order that revoked the pipeline’s permit—despite a lack of interest from the would-be developer.

And another question. Since this is a Canadian project in which the U.S. contributes only access and convenience, and since it is a sizable project with some military implications to an embattled Europe, and since it is obviously arbitrary--why weren't the Canadians filled with wild-eyed indignation as they have been with the equally obnoxious tariffs?

Barr's Vision for Democracy

 

In an interview Friday, the BBC called the White House 'cowardly.'

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Barr's Vision for Democracy

The Trump candidacy--indeed his entire public nature--has suffered from the intense criticism he has received from his prior cabinet members who not only hate his policies but hold him personally in low regard.

Kelly, his longest serving Chief of Staff: "A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.There is nothing more that can be said,.God help us.”

Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs: "It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against."

Mark Esper, Trump's former secretary of defense, “I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”

And, most damaging, Trump’s well-regarded former attorney general, Bill Barr, “He is a consummate narcissist. And he constantly engages in reckless conduct. … He will always put his own interests, and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests. Our country can’t, you know, can’t be a therapy session for you know, a troubled man like this.”

But there has been a shocking change. Barr has changed his mind and will vote for Trump. Why? Because, while Trump is playing 'Russian Roulette,' Biden's pathway is certainly 'suicidal,' and, with Trump, at least society has a chance.

The great and successful democracy has been reduced to the position where a personality disorder playing Russian Roulette is America's best chance.

Not the greatest compliment but...