Ukrainian Peace Bracket

Putin and Trump negotiating a Ukrainian peace deal with both Ukraine and Europe excluded, and not even pretending otherwise, gave me a possibly not so bright idea:  the next round of negotiations could be something like semi-finals.

Europe
--------|
        |________________
Ukraine |                |
--------|                |
                         |________________
 Putin                   |
--------|                |
        |________________|
 Trump  |
--------|

NIH Funding and Me

As I’ve written before, I’m currently participating in a study of prophylactic radiation treatments to keep small cell lung cancer out of the brain.  IIRC, the current standard practice is based on a study from the 1970s where n was small.  I got randomized into the group that gets everything except the radiation itself; and once in a while I get a test of my cognitive abilities—probably something like the test that Trump misremembered, but more interesting.

I asked the research coordinator who’s working with me about whether the study might be in any danger; and she said that, although they’ve heard some rumors, it didn’t seem like the study that I’m in will have its funding cut.  That’s good news for me personally since I feel fortunate to be able to do my tiny bit to help improve human knowledge.

She kindly sent me a link to the study details (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04155034?term=s1827&rank=1 if anyone is interested).  I didn’t understand most of it 😕; but I didn’t spot any of the keywords that might flag the study as too “woke” for the folks who want to keep the rest of us asleep.  (I had thought that the cognitive assessment might be controlled by things like socioeconomic status or educational attainment, but I didn’t see anything about controls at all.  Maybe that’s in a different paper.)

I guess that the particular study that I’m in is OK; but we still need to do whatever we can to mitigate the likely gutting, not only of HHS under the anti-vaxxer, but also of science generally, and even education itself.

Unless I missed something, every Trump nominee that got a vote in the Senate, without exception, no matter how wackaloon, has been confirmed.  Hegseth, Gabbard, Kennedy…seriously?  I see no limit to the power of Trump and the Muskrats to dictate whatever.  Our only hope seems to be the midterms next year…if we still have meaningful elections then.

I wish I were young and able enough to do something besides preach to the choir here on FtB.

Will the Democrats Return to Working for the Workers?

Ken Martin has been elected as the chair of the Democratic National Committee.  In his acceptance speech, he used “billionaires” several times, always in a perjorative sense.  Can we hope that the Democrats will no longer be content with enjoying the view out of the Overton window, but rather try to get the working-class vote back?  We’ll see…

Has Trump Overreached?

I heard “out of the corner of my ear” on today’s Today show that Trump had fired several departments’ inspector generals.  I Googled for it; and it turns out to be true:  he did indeed fire 17 IGs overnight, presumably to replace them with the usual yes-men.  I won’t bother including any links since several stories from outlets like Reuters all the way to Bezos’ Washington Post showed up right at the top.

It turns out that there’s a 2020 law that says that the president must give Congress 30 days notice before such a firing; and several congresscritters (including Republicans like Grassley) have already opposed the move.  We’ll see whether there are enough principled Republicans for the Congress to say, “no, you can’t do that”.

Discrimination, Inequity and Exclusion (DIE)

One down, 1460 to go.

I’m not sure that the pardons and sentence commutations are the big story, although that’s what the media are covering, including some mild comments by a handful of Republicans.  Getting less media attention is the executive order putting all federal DEI workers on paid leave and effectively shutting down all government DEI activity.  I have every expectation that we’ll soon see many more departures from basic human decency.

If the numbers I’ve seen on the WWW are true (I haven’t verified them myself), Trump squeeked by with a margin of just 1.5% of the popular vote; and it seems obvious to me that he couldn’t have achieved anywhere near that without the roughly 80% of Christian fundies voting for their god’s chosen one.  All the other guesses, e.g., refusing to vote for a woman, white working class men being abandoned by the Democrats, although probably true, strike me as small potatoes by comparison.

I’m coming to the conclusion that the real problem we have is a faux religion that’s just an excuse to be prideful, hateful, self-satisfied DIEhards.  I wish I could be more understanding; but I’m finding myself simply disgusted.

I Watched Biden’s Farewell Address

He didn’t spend all his time bragging on himself as Trump would have done.  He mentioned some of the good things that have happened during his administration, but that wasn’t the main part of the speech.

About ten minutes in, he started to go after the wannabe oligarchs and even briefly likened them to the late 19th century robber barons.  He warned about the rising influence of social media and its spreading of misinformation; and he warned about what he called the “tech-industrial complex” as an analogy to Eisenhower’s “military-industrial complex’.  This part was encouraging.

The next important election in the U.S., one in which you and I don’t get to vote, will happen on Saturday, Feb. 1, when the Democratic National Committee will elect their next chair.  We’ll find out then whether the Democrats will want to be a real opposition party and go after the 21st century robber barons, or if it’ll just be more of the same.  (I’m rooting for Ben Wikler who made the Wisconsin Democratic Party actually effective and who has Chuck Schumer’s endorsement at least.)

Grandma’s Ring

[This post began its life as a comment on one of PZ’s posts, but I couldn’t figure out how to insert an image.]

My late mother inherited my maternal grandmother’s engagement/wedding ring; and now it’s mine.

grandma's ring

Grandpa was a poor farmer in Higbee, Missouri when they married over a century ago, and the ring is probably not worth a lot of money, but I think it’s pretty and old-fashioned.  It should probably stay in the family.