Jonathan Pie on what is happening in the UK

I have not been following events there lately but according to Pie, 14 years of conservative rule has resulted in the drastic reduction of nearly all public services and the degradation of life for ordinary people in favor of giving tax cuts to millionaires and big business.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak seems determined to stay the course even though the government lost two by-elections to Labour on February 15th, where the seats had been held by Conservatives, and is heading into a general election within the year with low approval ratings.

But then another by-election on February 29th saw George Galloway, formerly of the Labour Party but now head of the Workers Party, win a seat that had been held by Labour, with a vote share of 40%.. The race for that election was messy, to put it mildly, with the Labour Party withdrawing support for its own candidate, resulting in him coming in 4th, getting just around 8% of the vote. An independent candidate came second to Galloway with 21%, and the Conservative candidate came third with 12%. Given the peculiar nature of this race, it is hard to say what the result implies for the coming general election.

Film review: The Lost King (2023)

I do not share the admiration that some people have for British royalty, instead seeing them as a long line of greedy and murderous individuals who connived their way to the throne and sucked wealth from the people. But I am a sucker for mysteries and the story of Richard III has many unresolved puzzles and so I watched this film that is based on the true story of one woman’s quest to find out the truth about the man who died in 1485 at the young age of 32. He has long been portrayed as exceedingly malevolent, scheming, vicious, and murderous, whose personality was twisted by the rejection he felt due to his physical deformity of being a hunchback and who usurped the throne after the death of his brother the king and imprisoned his two nephews in the Tower of London and later had them murdered because he saw them as potential rivals to the throne.

But later scholarship suggests that he may not have been nearly as evil as has been traditionally portrayed and also that his physical deformity may have been not as severe and that the evidence is scant that he murdered his nephews. These revisionists argue that the ‘official’ story was put out by his successors in order to discredit him and build support for their own rule.
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John Oliver on the lack of ethics in the US Supreme Court

After examining the blatant violations of ethical norms by justices Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, Oliver comes up with an idea to coax Thomas to leave the court by appealing to the one thing that seems to drive him: the desire to live like a very wealthy person who likes to drive around in a massive motor home. In public, Thomas talks about how he is battling the elites on behalf of ordinary people while in reality he loves to be the beneficiary of lavish vacations and gift from billionaires while ruling in ways that harm ordinary people. A really sleazy hypocrite.

Oliver offers him a contract where Thomas will be paid $1 million per year for the rest of his life and also get possession of a top-of-the-line motor home costing $2.5 million (that includes a bedroom with a king-size bed, 1 ½ bathrooms, and a full-size refrigerator) if he leaves the court. The offer is time limited in that Thomas has just 30 days from the date of the show (February 18th) to sign the contract. Oliver says that the money will come from him personally and that he has checked with lawyers and that, amazingly, making such an offer is legal.

I do not think that there is any chance that Thomas will accept the offer. Even though he loves to live the high life and would have no scruples about accepting it, like any person without a strong sense of ethics, he may suspect that others are like him and that the offer is not genuine and that if he makes moves towards accepting it, Oliver will unmask him, even though I think Oliver’s offer is genuine.

How US conservatives learned to stop worrying and love Russia

What I find astonishing is how opinions in the US towards Russia among self-styled conservatives has shifted dramatically over the recent past. During the Cold War, and even for some years after, it used to be that right-wingers were vehemently anti-Russia in their attitudes, since it was the largest component of the Soviet Union and thus emblematic of godless Communism. It was seen as directly opposite to the capitalist Christian values that they espoused, and demonization of Russia was rampant. It was the left and liberals who tried to tamp down this feeling, seeing it as dangerously inflammatory in a nuclear age when a military conflict between the two nations had to be avoided.

But how times have changed. Nowadays the right-wing is not only not hostile to Russia, they seem to be positively supportive and enamored of its president Vladimir Putin. We even had serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) make the astonishing statement that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO country that did not meet its NATO obligations, though it was clear that he did not understand the nature of those obligations, speaking as if it consisted of dues to be paid (like the membership in his golf clubs) rather than what it really is, a commitment by each nation to spend a specific proportion of their GDP on their own defense forces.
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When conservatives let their guard down

The annual meeting of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) was held last week. It used to be the gathering where conservatives would have discussions about how to advance their policy goals in public life. These used to concern economics, foreign policy, and major social issues. But in the age when it seems like every conservative seeks to please serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT), wonky panel discussions on weighty matters have given way to feeding red meat to the attendees on whatever things that SSAT chooses to rant about. Add to this, the multiple sexual assault allegations made against the CPAC chair Matt Schlapp that led to a $9 million lawsuit against him has cast a cloud over the organization.

Carlton Huffman, a Republican staffer on Herschel Walker’s US senate campaign, initially accused Schlapp of sexually assaulting him last year. Huffman had been assigned to drive Schlapp to campaign events in the Atlanta area and alleged Schlapp fondled him without his consent during a car ride in October 2022.

According to new reporting, based on court documents obtained by The Washington Post, Schlapp was also accused of sexual misconduct twice before – first in 2017 and then in early 2022. The updated court filing alleges the incidents were reported to staffers of the American Conservative Union, which hosts the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, but “no action was taken against Schlapp,” according to The Post.

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The death of Alexei Navalny shows how unchecked power leads to reckless actions

It is a cliche that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and we have seen that play out repeatedly in the political sphere where leaders who arrogate to themselves increasing amounts of power at the expense of counterbalancing democratic institutions become more and more reckless and abusive.

We see this in the case of Russian leader Vladimir Putin who over the years has increasingly undermined Russian democracy and consolidated power in his own hands. Whatever historical reasons he might have given for thinking that Ukraine was actually part of Russia, his invasion of that country was reckless and has not gone well, resulting in a large number of deaths and injuries and destruction, with no end in sight. Although reliable numbers are hard to obtain, it is quite possible that there are a substantial number of Russians who support the invasion, since the move symbolizes the creation of a greater Russia and nationalists tend to favor actions that seem to enhance the power and reach of their country.

The repeated sudden deaths of people who oppose Putin have also become so common that official denials of lack of complicity are highly disingenuous. But the death in captivity on February 16th of dissident Alexei Navalny could well be a bridge too far. Here was a young and healthy man, a vocal critic of Putin, who dies suddenly with no official word on the cause of death or even an autopsy, as far as I know. While the authorities initially refused to hand over the body to his mother, they finally conceded and a funeral was held. I do not know why the family did not arrange for an independent autopsy before the burial.

The recklessness of Putin can be seen by comparing the Navalny case with that of Nelson Mandela. Mandela was a prisoner of the apartheid regime on South Africa for decades. I read that the South African government was fearful that if Mandela died in captivity, that would create a major uproar locally and internationally and so they made every effort to make sure that he was not in danger even as they refused to release him. But Navalny seemed to have received no similar consideration. Whether his death will galvanize opposition to Putin’s stranglehold on power remains to be seen.

Haley exposes Trump’s weakness

Nikki Haley lost to serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) in the South Carolina primary by a margin of 60-40%. Some observers had expected that although she had vowed before the election to stay in the race whatever the outcome, that was jus bravado to keep her supporters motivated to still come out and vote for her. But after her loss, Haley gave a speech where she vowed to continue, promising to make big ad buys in Michigan that voted on February 27 (where she lost again by a margin of 68-27%) and in the many Super Tuesday states that vote on March 5th. Oddly enough, the more she loses, the more she seems to be enjoying being in the race and needling SSAT, which must be greatly infuriating him.

The media are portraying South Carolina as a big win for SSAT but I don’t see it that way. Sure winning by 20% points is pretty convincing in a normal race but not when you consider that as the former president, SSAT is like an incumbent with all the advantages that it brings. Furthermore, pretty much every member of the state Republican establishment, including its elected representatives, endorsed SSAT. Senator Tim Scott was particularly obsequious in his support for SSAT despite Haley having initially appointed him to that position. The only factor going for Haley was that she had once been the governor of that state, which would undoubtedly have helped her by giving her a lot of name recognition and familiarity with voters.
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Nikki Haley is not a moderate

Today is the day of the South Carolina Republican primary where Nikki Haley is expected to lose handily to serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT).

The Daily Show‘s Desi Lydic says that the media is describing Haley as a moderate when she is as extreme, and on some issues even more so, than SSAT. She even boasts of the fact that she is so conservative.

So. why is the media so quick to label her a moderate? Lydic says that nowadays to acquire the label of moderate in the Republican party is to merely acknowledge the obvious, that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Of course, that does not make you a moderate. It only means that you are not delusional.

Trump’s vice-presidential shortlist

It has long been standard practice for presidential candidates to provide teasers about who they might pick to be their running mates. This gives them the chance to pander to various constituencies by suggesting that the final choice might represent them, while also encouraging those who think they have a shot at it to stay loyal and support them.

Serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) has followed that pattern. He has said that there are at least six people on his list: Sen. Tim Scott, Rep. Byron Donalds, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Gov. Kristi Noem, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ron DeSantis. There are two Black men (Scott, Donalds), two women (Gabbard, Noem), two Asians (Ramaswamy, Gabbard), one white man (DeSantis), and one white woman (Noem). There is no Hispanic person, surprisingly, considering how large that voting bloc is, unless one of them also has that heritage that I am not aware of.
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The Raelian cult

In 1974, a 28-year old Frenchman Claude Vorilhon said that while on a hike by himself in a remote area, an alien spaceship landed near him and an extraterrestrial being emerged from it and conversed with him. The aliens were like us physically but much more advanced technologically and were called the Elohim. On another occasion, they took him to their home planet which he said was idyllic and that he was able to mingle with other prophets like Jesus, Moses, Buddha, and Muhammad. He said that the Elohim were wonderful people and had mastered DNA technology and used that to create all the living things on Earth. They appointed Vorilhon as their ambassador on Earth and gave him the name Rael. They told him to prepare the people on Earth for when they would return and reveal themselves to everyone.

I wrote about this weird story in my book The Great Paradox of Science (p.191-193).

Raelians argue that Darwin’s theory of evolution and descent with modification (using the mechanism of random mutation and natural selection) is wrong because life on Earth is too complex to have evolved that way and must have been designed. This same argument is also advanced by theists but for Raelians their designer is not a god. Instead it is a race of extraterrestrials. According to Raelians, on a distant planet there live a highly advanced alien community called the Elohim that long ago had reached an advanced stage of scientific and technical knowledge and developed powerful biological engineering techniques that enabled them to make living cells and to tinker and modify them. They were naturally fearful about letting loose these experimental organisms into their own environment because of the harm they could do, so they looked for a planet that they could use as a laboratory to field test their genetic engineering, to create a home for all their creations so that they could safely see what worked and what didn’t. They chose Earth to use as their vast laboratory. They took the then lifeless planet and set about building life on it. Starting with simple cells, they proceeded to create seeds, grasses and other vegetation and progressed to plankton, small fish, then larger fish, then dinosaurs, sea and land creatures, herbivores and carnivores before they tackled the big project, creating beings like themselves. Thus came homo sapiens. This, according to Raelians, is how the Earth became populated with all the life forms we see around us.

Most people, if they had heard of the Raelian mythology at all, did not take this fanciful scenario seriously but treated it as good, clean, fun.

But not everyone laughed. Vorilhon was able to get quite a bit of media attention for this fanciful tale and and while some interlocutors expressed skepticism, enough viewers were attracted by this bizarre story to join up with Vorilhon and set up a commune, calling themselves Raelians. The cult bought a large piece of land that they called Eden that had a large house with a swimming pool.
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